උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඩීල් කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා කළ ප්‍රකාශයක් පිළිබඳව හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පාලිත රංගේබණ්ඩාර මහතා අද ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වූවා.

ඒ, සිරිකොත එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදීයි.

මේ අතර, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ශාන්ත අබේසේකර මහතා ඇතුළු පිරිසක් සමගි ජන බලවේගයට සහය පළකිරීම සඳහා අද එක්වුණා.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ උපනායක රවි කරුණානායක මහතාගේ සහය සමගි ජන බලවේගයට ලබාගැනීම සම්බන්ධ සාකච්ඡාවක් අද බත්තරමුල්ලේ පිහිටි ඔහුගේ නිවසේදී පැවැත්වුණේ, රාජිත සේනාරත්න, සුජීව සේනසිංහ යන මහත්වරුන් ඇතුළු පිරිසකගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

අද ‘‘හාඩ්ටෝක් විශේෂාංගය තුළින් සෘජුවම ප්‍රශ්න කෙරෙන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ලක්ෂ්මන් කිරිඇල්ල මහතාගෙන්.

Dr D.Chandraratna

Countless are the pieces written lamenting the madness at Diyawanna Oya in the past so many years. Editorials, opinion pages and features in this daily alone demanded a proactive approach to stem the declining standards of our Parliament.  There is no denying that if unchecked constitutional democracy becomes unworkable because the system rests on honour, dignity and morality as much as on rules and legalities. It has been noted even in western countries that declining standards have the tendency to promote authoritarian streaks in parliamentary regimes. Belying the democratic principle that every person has the right and the capacity to govern himself, this unencumbered right to choose the representatives is snatched by a plenitude of forces that have access to wealth and power. Where taxation systems and legal scrutiny are weak the criminal elements rush in, and Sri Lanka is the archetypal example on that count.

When standards have slipped, the sands of morality shifted the electors settle for less a fresh cycle of corruption becomes the new normal. Over the past decades it has become too hard to call the dishonorable out and instead of punishing them we have rewarded them with luxuries out of the public purse. The politicians we elect are not what they claim to be prior to election. Socrates may have said that ‘the greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be, what we pretended to be’, yet what we have are people in power not becoming what they pretend to be. The legislators of scant honour have forced their way and become successful through public life. The car park at Diyawanna Oya is a mirror to the world how the parliamentarians have taken the art of dishonorable activity to a nakedly new level, not seen in any other parliament in the world.

Sri Lankan politicians have become masters in buying their way to the Parliament except for a few men/women of honour. In 2020 we are asked to elect a different cohort of deputies, instead of the current lot who are described by our readers in colorful language.   In the last two days in this paper alone our so called ‘honorabilis’ have been called crooks, ruffians, antisocial, black monied, bond scammers, drug dealers, rejects, who inhabit a place called Diyawanna Oya, breeding as “mosquitoes” like in the marshes of Bellanwila. Dr Amaratunga wrote, (24/2) ‘(T)hey have squandered the country’s wealth, robbed its banks, made it almost a subject nation, brought it down to its knees and finally sold its assets’. Even those who shouted aloud-reestablishing democracy brought in political rejects through the National List, retrieved from the dustbin of politics, and appointed them Ministers. One can truthfully say that even the Parliamentary debates stank to high heaven in the past few weeks thanks to Ranjan Ramanayake’ antics. We Sri Lankans must be mad to spend so much of national wealth to hear such inanities and bring shame on those persons who decorated our Parliament in the past and set decent standards not second to the mother of Parliaments. The illustrious persons of the past who were universally accepted as luminaries are remembered fondly with gratitude.

Can we ever succeed in this parliamentary system in the future? My guess is that it can be changed but only gradually. Draining the swamp has to be in stages. For a start the current leaders cannot obviously avoid nominating the existing lot who helped to bring about the change. To reject some of the unsuitable to retire is not that easy without losing their vote banks. No sensible leader at the moment will knowingly commit hara-kiri. Secondly, the election law has to be tightened as to control election expenses but in doing so there are other hurdles to overcome. While you may ban the environmentally polluting stuff there must be ways of educating the public who do not access the print media as in the past.  If the election material is not advertised in the papers and the electronic media it will be unfair to those who run this essential public service on shoe string budgets. The electronic media has to be used however expensive it may be. The current system of electing deputies to the Parliament is therefore heavily skewed in favor of the monied rich and the temptation to make up the losses while in office is abundantly obvious. Understandably the parliament becomes a training ground to learn the art of robbing just as much Welikada is the school of criminal arts and psychedelic drugs.

The first step towards a possible change is the right implementation of the provisions pertaining to the National List.  If the National list is not abused in the manner of the previous President we can be a bit hopeful. I am dismayed by the EC chief’s illogical comment confusing the much-needed change to rid of the defeated entering through the back door, which seems to receive support from all parties. This provision as intended in our constitution can strengthen intelligence and professionalism required of parliamentarians and improve both legislative and executive efficiency and honesty. They will add substance to debates, improve policy discussion and contribute to national advancement. Also, the future may be brighter if the electoral law can be changed to reduce the number of parliamentarians both at the center and the periphery. We need to enact legal provision to prevent crossovers, which destabilizes democratic governance and party discipline.

Our life has been an exhausting long wait.

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM  Wellington , New Zealand

The year under review literally began with a bang, a big bang that leftover three hundred dead and many more wounded. Yes, it was the Easter Day 2019 bombings. At a Sri Lankan gathering in Lower Hutt that evening a fellow Sri Lankan, a Sinhalese Buddhist if you would permit me, opined to me rather guiltily, don’t know whether an extremist Buddhist organization was behind this”. I immediately dismissed this as being unlikely considering the scale of the bombings, four almost simultaneous attacks at four different sites and suggested that it had to be from an organization with international backing. This was well before anything was known about the attackers.

However, in a very short while it dawned on me that if this suggestion was made to the NZ media it would go viral and if and when proved wrong, we would be playing catch up for a long time.

I was determined therefore to have first access to NZ media and considered it my obligation by USLA to do so. Knowing the way NZ media works, that very night I drafted a letter to the TV stations and News Papers and Radio outlets expressing NZ ‘s Sri Lankan community’s shock and horror at the event and expressed the hope that, if well managed, it would be a one-off event like the Christchurch Bombing” of just a month ago. I made my self available for any interviews to express these.

The following morning I followed up with calls to these agencies stating the same and managed to secure interviews with TV1 & TV3 six a clock main news that day, leaving no room for any mischievous speculations. President Palitha de Silva, I believe also fronted up before several radio stations. The rest is history.

I am pleased to submit that this illustrates the need for a vigilant USLA, to project the truth about significant events in Sri Lankan & so protect SL and USLA membership from unfounded allegations that ultimately reflects on ourselves.

The rest of the year has been less demanding.

This year also saw a change in administration in SL with the installation of a new administration whose thinking is more in keeping with USLA’s, over its lifetime. However, this itself brings about more challenges from the powerful might of the Tiger Diaspora with its abundant war chest ever conniving to use it on journalists to generate well-manicured information & events appearing to be fair and objective but deep down highly partisan, & inimical and detrimental to Sri Lanka’s interests. This is also encouraged by Sri Lanka’s political opposition and it’s diaspora, mindful more of the political gain for themselves and not it’s a detriment to Sri Lanka.

Such an event happened in December 2019 a few weeks after the installation of the new President. I refer to the apparent abduction of an employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, immediately presented to the media and public as a return to the White Van” era. This concern was raised to me by even a USLA a stalwart the next day. Thankfully, this time the government of the day went to great lengths to expose the event as a shameful staging to discredit SL. This finding appears to have gained international credence, sparing the need for efforts from USLA.

Another event worth noting that may generate work for USLA, in the coming year was the withdrawal in March ’20, from the sponsorship of the infamous UNHCR resolution that censured Sri Lanka’s Ranaviru without any basis, essentially for the crime of rescuing SL from three decades of Tiger Terror. Much as it has been a cause for all patriotic Sri Lankans to be thankful for, it would be an even greater anathema to others. As we speak, no doubt, the Tiger Diaspora’s ill-gotten war chest must be working overtime to generate rumor and allegations, with no basis, but presented cleverly couched in a veneer of objective analysis, to tarnish this achievement and with it Sri Lanka.

Time will tell.

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM 9.3.20 Wellington , New Zealand

nethnews

කොරෝනා වෛරසය වැලදී ඇති බවට තහවුරුවූ කන්දකාඩු නිරෝධායන මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ සිටි පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා ඉතාලියේ සිටියදීම පෙනඩෝල් වැනි ඖෂධ පානය කොට මෙරටට පැමිණ ඇති බව සෞඛ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්ෂක ජනරාල් වෛද්‍ය අනිල් ජාසිංහ ප්‍රකාශ කරයි.

” මෙම පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා මිලානෝ නුවර සිට ගුවන් ගතවෙන්න ඉඩ ලැබී නැති නිසා එතැන සිට වාහනයකින් සැතපුම් 800ක් ගොස් එහි සිට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණ තිබෙනවා.

ඔවුන් ඉතාලියේ සිටියදීම උණ ගතියෙන් පෙලීම නිසා පෙනඩෝල් වැනි ප්‍රති ජීවක ඖෂධ පානය කරලා ඇගේ උණ ගතිය් යටපත් කර ගෙන තිබෙනවා. ඒ ගුවන් තොටුපලේදී සිදුකරන පරීක්ෂාවෙන් බේරෙන්න.

මොවුන් ලංකාවට පැමිණියාට පස්සේ රජයේ නිරෝධායන වැඩසටහනට යන්න බැහැ කියලා කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපලේදී විරෝධය පලකරලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී මේ පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා එම ස්ථානයේ සිටි අනෙක් පුද්ගලයින් සමග ලංවෙලා ඉදලා තියෙනවා.

නමුත් මෙම පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා ඔවුන්ගේ රෝගී තත්ත්වය කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපලේදීවත් හෙළි කරලා නැහැ.

පසුව එම පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා තවත් 16 දෙනෙක් සමග බස් රථයකින් කන්දකාඩු නිරෝධායන මධ්‍යස්ථානයට රැගෙන ගොස් තිබෙනවා.

මෙම පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා කොරෝනා රෝගීන් බවට තහවුරු වීමත් සමග ඔවුන් සමග සිටි අනෙක් පුද්ගලයින් 16 දෙනා යුධ හමුදාවේ සහයෙන් මේ වන විට හඳුනාගෙන ඔවුන්ව වෙනම රඳවා තිබෙනවා.

ඔවුන් නිරෝධායනයට ලක් නොවී නිවෙස් වලට ගියා නම් ඇතිවෙන තත්ත්වය මිට වඩා වෙනස් වෙන්න තිබ්බා” වෛද්‍ය අනිල් ජාසිංහ පැවසීය.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

The daily increase has dropped to single digit, the Chinese government said.

Beijing, March 15 (newsin.sia): According to the National Health Commission of China, on 11 March, Wuhan reported only 8 new confirmed cases, which means that the daily increase has dropped to single digit, the Chinese government said.

In other places of Hubei, no new confirmed cases were reported throughout the past week. Outside Hubei, 7 new confirmed cases were reported, of which 6 were imported.

As of 12 March, no new indigenous cases had been reported for at least 14 consecutive days in 21 provinces, and no such cases had been seen in 6 other provinces for over a week. China is seeing a steady, positive trend and has made key gains in its epidemic control.

These figures show that, all things considered, the peak of the current outbreak has passed in China. The number of new cases keeps declining, and the intensity of the outbreak is now at a very low level.

(The picture at the top shows people in a housing complex during lockdown)

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

*  Why Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 should be amended
*  Merits of our 1946 Parliamentary Elections Order in Council

March 14, 2020, 6:55 pm

Parliament has now been dissolved and an election is now on even though the election campaign has not begun in earnest due to the Covid-19 threat. In China, where the Covid-19 epidemic originated, the first fatality from the virus was reported in mid January and the epidemic had run its course before mid-March. Medical teams from China are now being flown into Italy to assist in controlling the spread of the virus and China is no longer considered a danger zone. Even the world crude oil prices saw a sharp increase because of the Chinese recovery. Given the short duration of the epidemic it may be the case that Sri Lanka will be able to bring the spread of the virus under control in time to be able to hold the parliamentary election as scheduled on April 25.

Be that as it may, at this present moment we are within the period that nominations are accepted by the Elections Commission. Nominations close on the Thursday (Mar. 19). Three days before parliament was dissolved, a media report that caught this writer’s attention stated that Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya had said that displaying posters and cut-outs during the election campaign has been banned and legal action will be taken against those who do so. According to that news report which was published in a daily English language newspaper (not The Island), the Chairman of the Elections Commission had told the media that the candidates should organize door to door visits to canvass for votes. The present Parliamentary election is being held under the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981. Under this law, the following activities are prohibited between the time the nominations period ends and the poll is held.

Declaring elections & prohibiting the campaign

Section 69 (Restriction on processions) From the time nominations open and until one week lapses after the election result is declared, nobody can conduct or take part in processions to promote any candidate. During this period, non-political processions of a religious or social nature may take place, but even at such processions, it is illegal to promote a candidate. Those violating this law are liable to not just a fine but a prison sentence of up to one month as well.

Section 74 (Display of handbills & posters) From the commencement of the nomination period until the end of the poll, no handbill, placard, poster, drawing, notice, photograph, symbol, sign, flag or banner of a candidate can be displayed on or across any public road. The same cannot be displayed in any premises whether public or private either. However candidates may display banners and posters on the vehicle used by the candidate. Posters and banners may be displayed in public or private premises only on the day that an election meeting is to be held in those premises. In addition to the fine and one month prison term for violating this law, a specific provision in Section 74(3) says that the fine and prison term or both can be imposed on anyone even attempting to commit the offense described in this section. The police are also authorized to use such force as may be reasonably necessary to prevent the violation of this ban and they are expressly given the authority to seize any handbill, placard, poster, notice, drawing, symbol, photograph of a candidate, sign, flag or banner used in such contravention.

Section 75 (Restrictions on house to house canvassing) From the day the nominations close until the day after the poll, candidates and the members of their immediate families are prohibited from going house to house canvassing for votes. They are also forbidden from distributing handbills and election propaganda material from house to house. What sense can anyone make of these laws which seek to ban candidates from engaging in activities that are most visibly associated with elections? An election is all about candidates marketing themselves by putting up posters and cut outs of themselves, distributing hand bills, going from house to house canvassing for votes and holding processions in support of his candidacy. By doing what he is supposed to do, a candidate becomes a violator of election laws. Very often, a candidate does not know whether he is going to stand for election until the day nominations close. In most political parties (or the two main parties at least) finalizing the nominations list is a difficult process which occurs only in the final 48 hours before nominations close. So it is really after nominations close that the election campaign begins in earnest. This is also exactly the period in which the law seeks to place restrictions on candidates from promoting themselves.

Mercifully, the Sri Lankan elections law does not seek to stifle public meetings, that other great sign of an election. Section 70 of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 stipulates that public meetings have to stop only 48 hours before the date of the poll. But even with regard to these meetings, posters announcing such events can be displayed only at the venue that such meetings are to be held, and that too only on the day of the meeting itself. How can anyone expect to pull crowds for an election meeting that is not announced beforehand? If someone puts up posters announcing the meeting a few days early, that too will be an election law violation. If we go by the letter of the law, the only way to advertise such public meetings within the law would be to fit loudspeakers onto a vehicle and send it around to announce the meeting in the surrounding villages! That practice has not been expressly banned. But these vehicles that go around to announce a public meeting should not display any posters of the candidate they are promoting lest it violates the election law!

Elections Commission in violation of the law

Readers will note that according to the media report mentioned earlier, the Chairman of the Elections Commission has said that posters and cutouts will be banned but he had encouraged house to house canvassing. According to the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981, even house to house canvassing is prohibited. It appears that Sections 69, 74 and 75 of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 were meant to be flouted. The fifty-somethings of today would remember the first parliamentary election held under the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 which was held in April 1989. There were more posters and cutouts at that election than any previous election that we could remember. There would have been more meetings, more processions and more house to house canvassing as well at that election than at any previous election if not for the JVP terror which was in full swing at that time.

At the second parliamentary election under the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 which was held in 1994, all political parties were in competition with one another to flout Sections 69, 74 and 75 of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981. Everything that the political parties could not do in 1989 due to the JVP terror, they did with gay abandon in 1994. So there were posters, cutouts, banners, processions, house to house canvassing – the works. People were largely oblivious to the restrictions in Sections 69, 74 and 75 of the elections law at the parliamentary elections of 2000 and 2001 as well. According to a discussion on this topic that this writer had with JVP Parliamentarian Vijitha Herath some years ago, it was only after the so called independent elections commission was instituted under the 17th Amendment that the Elections Commission sought to implement what had up to that time been dead provisions in the law. What parliamentarian Herath told the present writer was as follows:

“No political party can conduct an election campaign according to the provisions of the present law. You can’t canvass for votes, distribute handbills or even wear a T-shirt or cap promoting a candidate. If any political party adheres to the letter of these laws they will not be able to do an election campaign. So the laws have to be amended. In most cases, it is only after handing in nominations that the candidates will be known with certainty. We have got over some of these problems with an understanding reached between the Elections Commissioner and the political parties on the non-implementation of some of these laws. For example, people are not arrested for violating election laws when they go out canvassing after nomination day.

“At the parliamentary election in 2004 when the independent commissions were in operation, there were instances when members of our party were arrested for offenses like canvassing and wearing T-shirts with the bell symbol. The independent commission tried to implement the law to the letter. At that point, all the political parties got together and told the Elections Commissioner that if the law is implemented to the letter in this manner no political party will be able to carry out an election campaign so a general agreement was reached that canvassing will be allowed though it is an offense according to the law. Every time an election comes around the political parties start discussing the election laws but after the election ends everybody forgets about it. This issue comes into focus again only when the next election comes around.

“Posters and cut outs were not included when that agreement was reached with the Elections Commissioner to ignore some sections of the elections law. The agreement applied only to matters like canvassing, distributing handbills and the like. The law on posters remains as it is in the elections law. In actual fact even this should change and people should be allowed to put up posters. All political parties and the Elections Commissioner himself agrees that the putting up of posters should be allowed. But the reason why posters and cut outs were not included in that understanding was because of the conflicts that may arise when so many parties and candidates compete for space to put up posters. There was the possibility of violence with one party accusing the other of having ‘covered’ their posters and so on. So after much discussion, it was decided to allow canvassing, the distribution of handbills the display of symbols and the like, but to leave the law banning posters as it is.”

What is often meant by ‘violation of election laws’ is not outright violence, intimidation, bribery and the like but the displaying of posters, cut outs, holding processions and the like. TV channels often show elections authorities and the police cutting down banners and removing posters put up by candidates saying they violate elections laws. Many people would have silently wondered how putting up an election poster and cut outs violate election laws when there is an election on. When they are unable to figure out why, they may be telling themselves that if there is a prohibition on such things in the election laws, then there must be a good reason for it and basically forgetting about this incongruity until the next election comes around.

Another look at our 1946 elections law
According to Article 126 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, in India, election campaign processions, the distribution and broadcasting of propaganda material etc. are prohibited only in the 48 hours preceding the closing of the poll. This means in effect that such activities have to stop only the day before the day of the poll. (Note that in Sri Lanka as well as India election meetings have to cease 48 hours before polling begins. The difference is that in India, political processions, the distribution of propaganda material and all that also can continue up to that point.) As for canvassing for votes, Article 130 of the Representation of the People Act seems to suggest that in Indian elections, canvassing for votes is possible until the last moment even on polling day provided that such activities do not take place within 100 meters of the polling booth. In Sri Lanka however, according to Article 68 of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 canvassing for votes on polling day is absolutely prohibited regardless of how far away from the polling booth it takes place.

In India, advertisements in the electronic and print media to promote candidates are prohibited in the final 48 hours before the poll along with everything else but in Sri Lanka, since there is no express ban in the elections law on advertising in the electronic and print media, we see ads appearing promoting candidates right up to the day of the election. In Sri Lanka, a candidate at an election can be charged under criminal law and even given a jail sentence for campaigning at an election in ways that in India are perfectly legal, above board and acceptable. If we go by the letter of the election laws in this country, virtually every politician who has contested an election is an offender who should be in jail for violating election laws! In India election candidates have been given the fullest freedom to carry out election propaganda work except during the last 48 hours before the poll is scheduled to end. Having given their candidates this freedom, the violation of the reasonable restrictions imposed during the last 48 hours carries (in comparison to SL law) a comparatively heavy penalty of up to two years in jail and a fine.

Sri Lanka has been having parliamentary elections long before the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 was introduced. Our first parliamentary election of 1947 and all parliamentary elections up to the election of 1977 had been held under the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Order in Council, 1946 which did not have the above mentioned restrictions that we see in the 1981 Act. There were no restrictions on processions to promote candidates, or on the distribution or display of handbills, placards, posters, drawings, notices, photographs, symbols, signs, flags or banners of a candidate, nor were candidates and the members of their immediate families prohibited from going house to house canvassing or distributing handbills and election propaganda material from house to house. The only restrictions that we see in Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Order in Council, 1946 in relation to such matters is that activities like canvassing for votes, persuading any elector not to vote for any particular candidate, persuading any elector not to vote at the election or distributing or exhibiting any handbill, placard, poster or any symbol allotted to a candidate was prohibited within a distance of fifty yards of the entrance of that polling station. The penalty for violating this prohibition was a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding one month or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Furthermore, the use of any megaphone or loudspeaker or other apparatus for amplifying or reproducing the human voice, within or at the entrance of a polling station or in any public or private place in the neighbourhood thereof on the date on which a poll is taken at any polling station or shouting or otherwise acting in a disorderly manner within or at the entrance of a polling station or in any public or private place in the neighbourhood thereof, so as to cause annoyance to any person visiting the polling station for the poll or so as to interfere with the work of the officers and other persons on duty at the polling station was also a punishable offense. This offense also carried a penalty of  a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding one month or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Furthermore, under the 1946 elections law, every person who, not being a candidate or an election agent, prints, publishes, distributes or posts up, or causes to be printed, published, distributed or posted up, any advertisement, handbill, placard or poster which refers to any election and which does not bear upon its face the names and addresses of its printer and publisher, shall be guilty of an offense and shall on conviction by a District Court be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees. Provided, however, that a person shall not be guilty of an offense under the preceding provisions of this section, in relation to any advertisement, handbill, placard or poster, if he satisfies the District Court that the omission of the aforesaid names and addresses, or any such name or address, as the case may be, arose from inadvertence or from some other reasonable cause of a like nature and did not arise from any want of good faith.

Furthermore, a candidate, or an election agent, who prints, publishes, distributes or posts up or causes to be printed, published, distributed or posted up any advertisement, handbill, placard or poster which refers to any election and which does not bear upon its face the names and addresses of its printer and publisher shall be guilty of an illegal practice. Every person who commits an illegal practice shall on conviction by a District Court be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees and shall by conviction become incapable for a period of three years from the date of his conviction of being registered as an elector or of voting at any election under this Order or of being elected or appointed as a Senator or Member of Parliament, and if at that date he has been elected or appointed as a Senator or Member of Parliament, his election or appointment shall be vacated from the date of such conviction.

Thus we see that the provisions in the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Order in Council, 1946 was much more in accordance with commonsense and practical considerations than the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981. It can be seen that the former is in alignment with the more rational election laws that we see in India as well. There are lessons for the present that we can derive from the Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Order in Council, 1946.

Courtesy The Guardian (UK)

What the statistics from the outbreak so far can tell us about infection and mortality rates

The startling spread of the coronavirus across the globe is causing understandable alarm. But though it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions about how many deaths may occur, the statistics do point to general trends that can get lost in the drama.

At present, one thing that does seem clear is that the vast majority of people who get the disease will survive.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the mortality rate from Covid-19 is about 3.4%. That is higher than seasonal flu and is cause for concern – but even if it is correct, more than 96% of people who become infected with the coronavirus will recover.

Any death is, of course, devastating for the families involved. But it is also worth noting the WHO estimate is based on confirmed infections and deaths, meaning it does not take into account mild cases that may not be diagnosed – cases that would lower the mortality rate.

Indeed experts say that, in reality, the mortality rate is likely to be nearer to 1% or less. In other words, more than 99% of those who become infected are expected to survive

And not everyone will become infected. According to the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty, the worst-case scenario is that about 80% of the UK population becomes infected. But that does not necessarily mean there will be 500,000 deaths – as would be expected from a 1% mortality rate.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-many-will-die-of-coronavirus-in-the-uk-a-closer-look-at-the-numbers?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR2OFHtrnaMIOyr3zFnTmBNvO6WZjjB6BH46d6MunbtCLM_1rbLkQzArnGg

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Any Sri Lankan arriving in Colombo from any European country during the travel ban period, must either undergo the quarantine process or fly back to the country from where they departed, Airport and Aviation Services Vice Chairman Rajeewasiri Sooriyaarachchi told the Daily Mirror.

He said the reasons that compelled them to impose a travel ban were the reluctance shown by the returnees to go to quarantine centres and the lack of space at quarantine centres.

There are about 3,000 persons who are being quarantined at the two centres in Batticaloa,” he said.

According to what we have been observing, the returnees from Coronavirus affected countries are hesitant to go to quarantine centres,” he added.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) yesterday imposed a two-week travel ban on passengers arriving from France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and Austria in the wake of the coronovirus outbreak,.

It will take effect from tomorrow till March 29, 2020. (Sheain Fernandopulle)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

In view of the present circumstances of the rapid spread of COVID-19 globally, and in order to limit the spread of the virus among Sri Lankans who visit the Sri Lanka Missions overseas, the Ministry of Foreign Relations has decided to limit the provision of consular services in 11 Sri Lanka Missions overseas commencing 16 March until further notice.

These countries include Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden and Austria, the Ministry of Foreign Relations said.

This decision has been taken in view of the strict restrictive procedures of travel bans and lockdown measures taken by the respective authorities of the countries concerned and also the recent travel ban imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka on all travel originating from these countries.

Accordingly, from 16 March 2020 onwards and until further notice, these Missions have arranged to restrict services related only to the issuance of temporary/emergency travel documents, issuance and certification of documents relevant to deaths of Sri Lankans and any other emergency consular service, which is deemed necessary, on a case by case basis. This will be done based on prior appointments obtained from the Missions.

In order to secure early appointments and to obtain the restricted consular services and related information, emergency contact numbers have been provided by the Sri Lanka Missions to visitors.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

On learning that one of the family members of an officer of the Foreign Ministry is diagnosed with COVID -19, the Ministry, upon seeking necessary medical advice, has taken a series of precautionary measures to avoid and minimize the risk of transmission of the virus and the officer concerned has been self-quarantined since Friday.
The foreign ministry said that as an initial step, those staff who have come in direct contact with the officer concerned, during one working day earlier this week in Colombo, and others in an European capital where the person was working 2 weeks ago, have been advised to ‘self-quarantine’. Further action has been taken to disinfect the relevant areas of the Ministry. 
The Ministry will continue to monitor and assess the situation for future course of action to ensure the safety of its staff and its visitors, the statement added.

Courtesy Adaderana

Two more Coronavirus positive cases have been identified in Sri Lanka, says the Director General of Health Services.

Dr. Anil Jasinghe stated that these two patients bring the total number of Coronavirus cases in the country to ten (10).

One of them is a 56-year-old woman had returned from Italy on March 07.

The other is a 17-year-old girl, who is identified as a relative of a patient who was previously confirmed to be infected with the virus.

The first Sri Lankan coronavirus (COVID-19) patient in the country was identified on Tuesday (10). This 52-year-old tour guide who had worked with a group of Italians is receiving treatment at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH).

On Thursday (12), it was reported that a second individual, who had stayed with the first Sri Lankan patient diagnosed with the virus, was tested positive for coronavirus.

Later, three more cases reported yesterday (13), bringing the total number to five. One of them is a 41-year-old Sri Lankan male who had arrived from Germany. He was admitted to the IDH Hospital. 

The other two patients are from the group of people who had been quarantined at the facility in Kandakadu.

One of them is a 37-year-old who had arrived from Italy and was placed under quarantine at Kandakadu upon arriving in the country. He is currently being treated at the Polonnaruwa Hospital. The other is a 43-year-old male who had also arrived from Italy. He is being treated at IDH.

Earlier today, Dr. Jasinghe announced another confirmed case of coronavirus in the country. 

One is a 44-year-old from the quarantine facility at Kandakadu and he is currently receiving treatment at the District General Hospital in Polonnaruwa, according to Dr. Jasinghe. The other patient, aged 43, is from Nattandiya and he was not identified at a quarantine facility, Dr. Jasinghe had said. He is reportedly receiving treatment at the Provincial General Hospital in Kurunegala.

The 42-year-old eighth patient was identified at the quarantine centre in Kandakadu and is currently receiving treatment at Polonnaruwa Hospital. These three patients had returned from Italy.

Courtesy Adaderana

All zoological gardens, botanical gardens, and national parks, which are under the purview of the Departments of National Zoological Gardens, Botanical Gardens, Wildlife Conservation, and Forest Conservation, are to be closed for two weeks.

The Department of Government Information announced that this measure will be in effect from tomorrow (15).

Accordingly, National Zoological Garden, Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Pinnawala Zoo, Ridiyagama Safari Park, all botanical gardens and national parks under the Wildlife Department’s purview will be off-limits for the public for the time being.

This decision was taken as a precautionary measure taking into consideration the prevailing threats risks and fears over the wide-spreading coronavirus (Covid-19).

Courtesy Adaderana

Archbishop of Colombo Diocese, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has requested all churches to refrain from conducting Sunday and other Masses till the end of March.

Cardinal Ranjith stated this addressing a special media briefing at the Catholic Archbishop’s House this evening (14).

Courtesy Adaderana

Permission will not be granted for mass gatherings for two weeks due to the risks of coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country, says the Minister of Health Pavithra Wanniarachchi.

She made this announcement during a special media briefing at the Department of Government Information today (14).

Minister Wanniarachchi stated that this decision was taken as a precautionary measure since the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Sri Lanka has now risen to a total of seven.

She requested the public to avoid places where a large number of people gather and to postpone private events.

Any individuals, who arrive in the island from any country other than the ones on which a travel ban imposed yesterday, are urged to self-quarantine at their respective residences, she further stated.

Thus far, the confirmed cases of coronavirus in Sri Lanka were identified as individuals who arrived from foreign countries, the health minister noted.

Courtesy Adaderana

Europe is now the epicentre” of the global coronavirus pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization says.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to use aggressive measures, community mobilisation and social distancing to save lives.

Do not just let this fire burn,” he said.

His comments came as several European countries reported steep rises in infections and deaths. Italy has recorded its highest daily toll yet.

There were 250 deaths recorded over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1,266, with 17,660 infections overall.

Spain, the worst-affected European country after Italy, reported a 50% jump in fatalities to 120 on Friday. Infections increased to 4,231.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says a state of alert will come into effect there on Saturday for two weeks.

Controls are also being introduced at an increasing number of borders in Europe, in response to rapid spread of the virus.

More than 132,500 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in 123 countries around the world, according to the WHO.

The total number of deaths has reached about 5,000 – a figure Dr Tedros described as a tragic milestone”.

Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China,” he said.

More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.”

As well as the increases in Spain and Italy, France has now confirmed 2,876 cases and 79 deaths, up from a total of 61 deaths on Thursday.

Germany has seen 3,062 cases and five deaths. There have been 798 confirmed infections in the UK and 11 deaths.

Announcing the state of alert in Spain, Mr Sanchez said the government would mobilise all the resources of state to better protect the health of all of its citizens”.

It will be able to limit movement, order evacuations, prohibit access to certain places and intervene in industry for up to 15 days.

Victory depends on every single one of us,” Mr Sanchez said. Heroism is also about washing your hands and staying at home.”

All but essential travel” to parts of Spain should be avoided, says the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Italy has imposed a nationwide lockdown.

Meanwhile, at least 10 other countries in Europe are enforcing border closures, including:

•Denmark: Closes borders to foreign visitors from Saturday
•Czech Republic: Bans all foreigners from entering the country, except those with residence permits. Bans most of its own nationals from leaving
•Slovakia: Closes borders to all foreigners except those with a residence permit.
•Austria: Closes three land border crossings with Italy to all foreigners, except those with a medical certificate issued within four days. No restriction on Austrian nationals
•Ukraine: Closes border crossings to foreigners (except diplomats) for two weeks
•Hungary: Closes land borders with Austria and Slovenia
•Poland: From Sunday will close borders to foreign visitors
•Belgium, France, Switzerland and parts of Germany are among the latest countries to close schools.

There are also widespread curbs on large gatherings and measures to close theatres, restaurants and bars.

Germany’s Bundesliga, the only one of the big five European football leagues still being played, is to suspend games in the top two divisions from Tuesday.

Paris’s Louvre – the largest art museum in the world – announced it would close from Friday, as will the Eiffel Tower.

US President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency, which allows the federal government to access up to $50bn (£40bn) in funds.

As the president spoke, the three main US indexes jumped more than 9%.

Later on Friday, President Trump said he did not need to self-isolate, despite meeting at least one person who had the coronavirus.

His travel ban on 26 European countries, which was met with anger and confusion this week, will go into effect at midnight EDT (0400 GMT).

Pakistan is shutting all of its land borders and limiting international flights for 15 days, its foreign minister says.

In Canada, MPs have voted to suspend parliament and health officials have advised against non-essential foreign travel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began a 14-day self-isolation period on Friday after his wife tested positive.

Also on Friday, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was admitted to hospital after testing positive. He recently travelled to Washington and met President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka

Meanwhile, Iran announced another 85 deaths, the country’s highest toll in a 24-hour period, bringing the number of dead there to 514. The true figure is feared to be much higher.

The first cases were recorded in East Africa, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan, which has had the region’s first death.

Source: BBC
-Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called on the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to fight the coronavirus threat jointly.

This came minutes after India evacuated 44 citizens who from the Iranian city of Qom after the cancellation of flights due to coronavirus outbreak in that country.

I would like to propose that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fight coronavirus. We could discuss, via video conferencing, ways to keep our citizens healthy. Together, we can set an example to the world and contribute to a healthier planet,” said Mr. Modi in a social media message.

The call comes amid detection of coronavirus cases after the population of the SAARC member-states. India has been coordinating bilaterally with countries like Italy and Iran for evacuation but this is the first time that the Indian leadership has called for a joint action by SAARC, which has been stuck because of India-Pakistan hostilities.

On Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed about requests for medical items from Iran, Italy, Bangladesh, and Maldives.

Thursday also saw External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar assuring Parliament that limited number of commercial flights would be allowed to fly back the Indians stranded in Qom, Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Mr. Jaishankar on Friday announced the arrival of the latest batch of evacuees in Mumbai in an Iran Air flight. Second batch of 44 Indian pilgrims has arrived today from Iran. Our efforts to bring back the others continue,” he said.

The first batch consisting of 58 nationals was brought back in a C-17 military transport aircrft on Tuesday.

Source: The Hindu

Courtesy Adaderana

All movie theatres under the purview of National Film Corporation have been requested to suspend screening of movies until further notice, says the Cultural Affairs Ministry.

This decision was taken under directives of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, taking into consideration the prevailing health concerns due to the threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

Five cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Sri Lanka as of yesterday (13) while several others were admitted to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) on suspicion of being infected with the virus.

ආචාර්ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර

13. 3. 2020.

(මෙම ලිපිය එම විෂය පිළිබඳවම, 2018.7.6. දින ලංකාවෙබ් පුවත් අඩවිය වෙත මා විසින් ලියන ලද ලිපියක වර්තමාන තත්වයට සරිලන පරිදි යාවත්කාලීන කරන ලද පිටපතක් බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න)

ගරු ලකිසුරු ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමනි,

 මේ රටට හා  ජාතියට මහා වියශනයක් හා ජාතික ආර්ථිකයට සුදු අළියෙක් වූ  ඉන්දියාව විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් අප හිසමත පටවනලද පළාත්සභා ශාපය සහ ඊට පදනම වූ  1987 ජුලි 29 ජේ.ආර් / රජීව් ගිවිසුමේ මූලික අරමුන වූයේ මේ රටේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිය මුළුමනින්ම නැති කර දමා මේ රටතුල ඉන්දීය දෙමල ආධිපත්තිය තහවුරු කිරීම සදහා අවස්ය ඉස්ථිර පදනම දැමීමයි. ඉහතින් දැක්වූ උපාය දෙක තම දිර්ඝකාලිනවූ අරමුණ ඉටුකරගැනීම සදහා ඉන්දියාව විසින් අටවන ලද මර උගුල් දෙකකි.  ඉන් පළමුවැන්න 1987 ජූලි 29 දින අත්සන් කරනලද රජිව්/ජේ ආර් ගිවිසුඅමය.දෙවැන්න 13 වන සන්සෝධනය යටතේ ඇති පලාත් සභා ක්රමයයි.

රජිව්/ජේ ආර් ගිවිසුමේ අඩන්ගු මූලික කොන්දේසි 5 වූයේ

1 මේ රටේ පිලිගත් ඉතිහාසය මුලුමනින්ම ප්රතික්ශේප කරමින් උතුරු සහ නැගෙනහිර පලාත් දෙක ලන්කාවේ දෙමල ජනයාගේ අයිතිහාසික පාරම්පරික නිජබිම වශයෙන් පිලිගැනීම.

2උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පලාත් දෙක ඒකාබධ කිරීම සහ අනාගතයේදි මධයම, ඌව සහ සබරගමුව යන දෙමලුන් බහුලව සිටින පලාත් තුනද ඈදාගනීමේ බලාපොරුත්තුවෙන් පලාත් කීපයක් ඒකාබධ කිර්රිමට අව්සර දිමේ වගන්තිය 13 වන විවස්ථා සන්සෝදනයට එකතු කිරිම.

3ශ්රි ලන්කා ආණ්දුකරම විවස්ථාවෙ 18 වන වගන්තිය උල්ලන්ඝනය කොට දෙමල භාශාවද මේ රටේ රාජ්ය භාශාවක් කිරීම

4 සමස්ථ ලෝකයේම කිසියයම්ම රටක පුරවැසිකම දීමේ පිළිගත් සියලුම සම්ප්රදායන් සහ නීති රීති උල්ලන්ගනය කරමින් වතුකරයේ සියළු දෙමළ ජනයාට සහ රටපුරා සිටින සියළුම කල්ලතෝනින්ට මේ රටේ පුරවැසිකම දීම

5 සුද්දා විසින් මේ සින්හල රට බෙදා පාලනය කිරීමට සහ ජනවර්ග අනුව බෙදා  කැබෙළිවලට කදා දමීමේ ම දිගුවක් වශයෙන් රාම යුගයේ සිටම තිබුණ මේ රට අල්ලාගැනිමේ සිහිනය සබෑකරගැනීම සදහා ඉඩම්, නීති හා සියලු පාලන බලතල සහිත පලාත් සභා ක්රමය ඇතිකිරීමෙන් අවසානයේදි මේ රට ඉන්ද්යාවේම කොටසක් කරගැනීමය.

1987 සිට මේ දක්වාම මේ රට පාලනය කොටඇත්තේ මේ ටිකවත් තේරුම්ගැනීමට තරම් මොලයක් නැති පිරිසක් විසිනි.  එවැනි පාලකයින් රජ කරන රටක් සව්භාග්ය කරා ගෙන යන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න ඔබතුමාට දැනටමත් අවබෝධ වී ඇතයි අපි සිතමු. 

එසේ නොවී එතෙක් මෙතෙක් මේ රටේ පහලවූ විශිස්ඨතම රාජ්ය පාලකයා ඔබතුමා වනු දැක්ම මුලුමහත් ජාතියේම අපේක්ශාවයි.

ඔබතුමා ජනාධිපති මැතිවරනයේදී දෙමළ ජනයාගේ සහ මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ගේ චන්දය ලබා ගැනිම සදහා කොතරම් සුළුජන හිතවාදී ප්රකාශ කලේදැයි  මතක ඇතැයි  අපි සිතමු. (වතුකරයේ තරුනන්යන්ට රැකියා, වතුකරයේ නගර හා පසැල් සන්වර්ධනය කිරීම ආදී)

නමුත් ඔවුන් සියල්ල ඔබට විරුද්ධව යු.ඇන්.පි යටම චන්දය දෙමින් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පමණක් නොව සමස්ත වතුකරයම ඔබට එරෙහි වූ සැටිත් අපි දුටුවෙමු. ඒ බව චන්දයෙන් පසු ඔබ තුමාවිසින්ම කරනලද ප්රකාශ වලින්ද අපි දුටුවෙමු.  මේ වියශන්යන්ට හේතුවන කරුණු බොහෝ ඇත. ඒ අතර වැද්ගත්ම හේතුව නම් මේ රටේ දේසපාලකයින් රටේ සැබෑ අයිතිකරුවන් වන සින්හලයින් නොසලකා හරිමින් (විසේශයෙන්ම වසර 500 පුරා පරසතුරන්ගෙන් මේ රට රැකගත්) උඩරට සින්හලයින්) දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් චන්ද මිරින්ගු වන්දනාවේ යාමය.  දෙවැන්න ඉන්දියාව ප්‍රධාන කොට සන්විධාන වී සිටින ඊනියා ජාත්යන්ත්‍ර බලවේග සහ ඒවාට නිසියාකාරව නිසි කලට ලක් රජය නිවරැදි පිළියම් නිසිකළට  නොයෙදීමය්. එබැවින් මේ රටත් ජාතියත් මුලුමනින්ම විනාශකොට දැමීමට පෙර මේ රටත් ජාතියත් මුලුමනින්ම විනාශකොට දැමීමට පෙර දැන්වත් වහාම ඉහතින් දැක්වූ මර උගුල් දෙක පළමුව අහෝසි කරන මෙන් දේශප්රේමී ජනනායකුවූ ඔබතුමාගෙන් මුලුමහත් ජාතියම ඉතා ගවුරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

 මහින්ද රාජපක්ශ අගමැතිවරයා 2010 මැතිවරණයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 2/3 බලය තිබිලත් මේ මර උගුල් දෙක අහෝසි නොකෙරීම සහ   තව වසර දෙකක් තිබියදී 2015 අපගේ උපදෙස් පිළිනොපැද මැතිවරණයකට යාමෙන් සිදුකරගත් මෝඩකම වැනි දේ නොකෙරීමට ඔබතුමාද  වග බලාගනු ඇතැයි සමස්ථ ජාතියම දෑස් දල්වා බලාගෙන සිටී.

ඔබතුමන් ලබා ඇති අයිතිහාසික හා පෙර නොවූ විරූ විජයග්රහණය (ඔබ අවම වශයෙන් 65 ලක්සයකින් පටන්ගෙන 70 ලක්සයකට කිට්ටු චන්ද ගානක් ලබාගන්නා බවට 2019 නොවැම්බර් 14 වන දින මගේ විද්යුත් තැපෑලෙන් මවිසින් පුරෝකථනය කළ පරිදි), ඒ  ගැන නැවතත් සුබ පැතුම් එක්කරමින්,  මේ කෙටි කාලය තුළ ඔබ දැනටමත් ගෙන ඇති සියලු දේශප්රේමී හා ධෛර්ය සම්පන්න පියවරයන් අගය කරන අතරම ඔබ මේ රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස තේරී පත් වූ දිනයේ මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේදී ජාතිය අමතා කළ කෙටි හා ගෞරවනීය කථාව සහ රුවන්වැළිසෑයේ සෙවණැල්ල යටතේ සිට (වසර 14 ක් තිස්සේ මම ආශාවෙන් බලා සිටි පරිදී), ජනාධිපති ධුරයේ දිවුරුම් දීමේ උත්සවයේදී ජාතිය අමතා ඔබ කළ අයිතිහාසික දේශනය වැනි  දේශනයක් වෙනත් කිසිම දිනක මේ රටේ රාජ්ය නායකයකු විසින් සිදුකොට නැති බවද මෙහිලා සන්දහන් කරමි. මේ අභිමානවත් ජාතියේ ඉතිහාසයේ හැරවුම් ඉලක්කයක් සනිටුහන් කරමින් අපගේ පුරාණ සිංහල රජවරුන් විසින් අනුගමනය කරන ලද පැරණි සම්ප්රදායකට ඔබතුමන් විසින් නව පණක් නැවත ලබා දී ඇත.

එපමණක්ද නොව, 1956 න් පසු මේ රටේ අමාත්යවරුන් (15) දෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් කුඩාම අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලය පිහිටුවීම, ඉන්දීය සන්චාරයේදී හමුවූ සියලු ඉන්දීය දේශපාලනග්නයින් සහ ඔබ වෙත පැමිණි ඉන්දීය පුවත්පත්  වාර්තා කරුවන් හසුරුවා ඇති විශිෂ්ට ආකාරය දැන් ඉතිහාස ගතවි ඇති අතර ඔබ ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත්වූ දා සිට ඔබ ගත් තවත් බොහෝ බුද්ධිමත් හා නිර්භීත තීරණ මුලුමහත් ජාතියම ඉතා ඉහලින් අගය කරයි.

 එම නිසා එම මගම යමින් 1987 ජේ.ආර් / රජීව් ගිවිසුම සහ පළාත් සභා බිහි කළ විනාශකාරී 13 වන ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයද අහෝසි කොට දුටුගැමුනු රජ තුමාගෙන් පසු මේ රට බේරාගත් විසිස්ඨතම ජන නායකයා වසයෙන් ඉතිහාසගතවන ලෙසත් මුලුමහත් ජාතියම ඔබෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටි. එසේ නොකළහොත් මෙම සුවිශේෂී කුඩා දූපත් ජාතිය වසර කිහිපයකින් මෙම ග්රහලෝකයෙන් සදහටම අතුරුදහන් වීම නියත බව, භූමිපුත්රයින් වූ සිංහලයන් වන අපි ඉදුරාම ප්රකාශ කරමු. මේ තුලින් සින්හල, ද්රවිඩ හා මුස්ලිම් ජනවාර්ගික කණ්ඩායම් අතර ඇති වන, අසමගිය, බෙදීම් හා ගැටුම් හේතුවෙන් මේ රට විනාශ කොට දැමීම සඳහා ඉන්දියාව විසින් ලක්පොලවේ රෝපණය කරන ලද පළාත් සභා නමින් හැඳින්වෙන මනාසේ සැලසුම් කරන ලද මේ ඉන්දියානු දේශපාලන පරමාණු බෝම්බය විසින් අනාගත්යේදී නිසැකවම විනාශවි යනබව ඒකාන්තය. එසේම වසර 2500 ක් පැරණි මෙම ප්රවුඪ සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ඨාචාරද ඒ සමගම සදහටම විනාශ වී යනු ඒකාන්තය.

ජාතිය ඉදිරියේ ඇති මේ මහා විනාශයෙන් මේ රටත් ජාතියත් බේරාගැනිමට ඔබට හැකි බව අපි දනිමු. එබැවින් මේ අවස්ථාවෙදි එසේ නොකළොත් ඔබද 1948 සිට මේ දක්වා මේ රට අගාධයට ගෙන ගිය දුගන්ද හමන දේශපාලක පරම්පරාවේ ගොඩටම වැටෙනු නියතය.

පලාත්සභා හූනියම

තවද මනාසේ සැලසුම් කරනලද මෙම ඉන්දියානු පලාත්සභා  කුමන්ත්රණයේ අවසාන ප්රතිඵලය ලෙස පහත දැක්වෙන ව්යසනයන් මම හඳුනා ගනිමි.

1 දේශීය පාලන ක්රමයේ  වැදගත් අන්ගයක් වූ  දිසා  (දිස්ත්රික්) පරිපාලන වියුහය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් බිඳ වැටීම

2 ජාතියක් වශයෙන් එහි ඒකීය භාවයට, ස්වෛරීභාවය හා භෞමික අඛණ්ඪතාවයට තර්ජනයක් වී රටේ ඉඩම්, ජලය සහ සම්පත් කෙරෙහි ආධිපත්ය වෙනුවෙන් සදාකාලිකව සටන් වදින ශ්රී ලංකා රාජ්ය විවිධ ජනවාර්ගික හා ආගමික ඒකක ගණනාවකට සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම කැදී බිදී විනාශවී යාම

3 රටේ පාලනය අස්ථාවරවීම සහ බිඳවැටීම හේතුවෙන් මුළු රට පුරාම අරාජිකත්වයක් ඇති වීම

4 වියදම් කරන ලද මුදල් සඳහා කිසිදු ප්රතිලාභයක් නොමැතිව මහජන අරමුදල් විශාල වශයෙන් නාස්ති වී රට අන්ත දුගී භාවයට පත්වීම සහ

5ඈත ඉතිහාසයේ මුලු ලෝකයේම යසඉසුරෙන් සපිරි ප්රමුඛ රාජ්යක් වශයෙන්ද 1948 වනවිටත් ආසියවේ දෙවන සමුර්ධිමතම් රට වසයෙන්ද තිබුණු මේ රට මුලු ලෝකයේම දිලිනිදු රටක් බවට පත්වීම.දැනටමත් අපි ආසියාවේ දෙවනි වන්නේ ඇෆ්ගනිස්ථානයට පමණි

පළාත් සභා සඳහා පළමු මැතිවරණය 1988 අප්රියෙල් 28 වන දින සිදු වූ දා සිට මහජන මුදල් එම ආයතනවල නඩත්තුව සඳහා වියදම් කර හෝ නාස්ති කර ඇත්තේ මේලෙස ය.

ශ්රී ලංකා පළාත් සභා වියදම්

(1996 – 2017 | වාර්ෂික | රුපියල් | මුදල් අමාත්යාංශය(මූලාස්රය්)

 ශ්රී ලංකාවේ පළාත් සභා වියදම් දත්ත 2017 දෙසැම්බර් මාසයේදී රුපියල් මිලියන 286,031.000 ක් ලෙස වාර්තා විය. මෙය 2016 දෙසැම්බර් මාසය සඳහා පෙර පැවති 276,147.000 රුපියල් මිලියන සංඛ්යාවට වඩා වැඩි වීමක් වාර්තා කරයි. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ පළාත් සභා: වියදම් දත්ත වාර්ෂිකව යාවත්කාලීන වන අතර සාමාන්යයෙන් රුපියල් මිලියන 103,769.000 නිරීක්ෂණ 22 ක් සමඟ 1996 දෙසැම්බර් සිට 2017 දක්වා. දත්ත 2017 දී සර්වකාලීන ඉහළම අගය වන රුපියල් දශලක්ශ 286,031.000 කරා ළඟා විය.එබැවින් වසරකට 104 ක බැගින් පසුගිය වසර 31 තුළ ජාතික ධනය කොපමණ ප්රමාණයක් විනාශවී ඇත්දැයි සිතිය හැකිය, එය දළ වශයෙන් මිලියන 3224 ක් හෝ බිලියන 3.2 ක් වේ. මොනතරම් දැවැන්ත නාස්තියක්ද, මහජන මුදල් ඉතා කණගාටුදායක හා සමාව දිය නොහැකි ලෙස භාවිතා කිරීමකි. ”

මෙහි ඇති අනෙක් විසේෂම ලක්සනය නම් මින් 90% ක් ම  වැයකොට ඇත්තේ දේශපාලකයින්ගේ සහ රජයේ සේවකයින්ගේ වැටුප් හා වේතන, ගොඩනැගිලි, වාහන, තරුපහේ හෝටල් වල පැවත්වෙන සුඛෝපභෝගී උත්සව, නිරර්තක විදේශීය විනෝද චාරිකා සහ සංවර්ධනයට කිසිදුසම්බන්ධයක් නැති ක්රියාකාරකම් සඳහා වැයකොට තිබිමයි. මෙම විෂය භාර අමාත්යාංශයේ ලේකම් වරයා වරෙක මට පැවසූයේ, පලාත්සභාවලට වාර්ශිකව වෙන්කෙරෙන ප්රතිපාදන වලින්  10% ක් පමණක් ප්රාග්ධන වැඩ සඳහා වැය කරන බවත්, ඉතිරි 90% පුනරාවර්තන කටයුතු සඳහා වැය වන බවත්ය. ඒ අනුව සන්වර්ධන කටයුතු කෙරෙහි කිසිම සේවාවක් පලාත්සභා වලින් සිදු නොවෙන බව ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලිය.මේ සියලු මහජන අරමුදල් නාස්ති වීමත් සමඟ 1987 සිට මේ දක්වා පලාත්සභා වලින් මේ රටට ලබා දී ඇති ප්රතිලාභ මොනවාදැයි මේ රටේ ජනතාව ප්රශ්නයයි. රටට අහිමි වී ඇති දැවැන්ත මූල්ය කන්දරාවට අමතරව දේශපාලන, පරිපාලන හා ආයතනික අවුල්, විඅවුල් සහ ව්යාකූලතා සහ පටු දේසපාලන අවශ්යතා ඉටුකරගැනිම සදහා  අනවස්ය අන්දමින් රාජ්ය ආයතන වැඩි කිරීම නිසා පසුගිය වසර 33 තුළ

පලාත්සභා හූනියම

 33 තුළ මේ පලාත් සභා රටට ලබා දී ඇති ප්රතිලාභ මොනවාදදැයි පලාත් සභා ඕනෑ යයි කියා මොරදෙන දේශපාලකයින්ගෙන් සහ බක පන්ඩිතයින්ගෙන්, චන්ද උනෙන් නොපෙලෙන රට, ජාතිය ගැන අවන්කවම හිතන ඔබ තුමාවත් වහාම ඇසිය යුතුය? පලාත්සභා උන්ඩුක පුච්චය නිසා නිලධාරීන්, කාර්යාල සහ රාජ්ය  වියදම් ඉහල්යාම නිසා මේ රටේ රජාජ්ය ආයතන  හා නිලධාරින් සන්ඛ්යාව  1 සිට 15 අනුපාතය දක්වා   ඉහළ ගොස් තිබේ. අතීතයේදී මෙරට ඉහළ කාර්යක්ෂමතාවයකින් යුතුව තිබුණු දිස්ත්රික් පරිපාලනය මුළුමනින්ම අද බිඳ වැටීමට ද පලාත්සභා හේතු වී තිබේ. මේ අනුව පළාත් සභා ක්රමයෙන් මේ රටේ දිස්ත්රික් පරිපාලනය අද මුලුමනින්ම බිද වැටි ඇත. මා පුදුම වනුයේ මේ සම්බන්ධව දිසාපතිවරුන් අතුලු කිසිවකු මේ ගැන වචනයක්වත් කතා නොකෙරීමයි.

පලාත් සභා පමණක් නොව සමස්ථ පලාත් ක්රමයම මේ රටට ආගන්තුක මහා විනාශයකි.

1833 දී සුද්දන් විසින් මේ රට පලාත් වලට බෙදන ලද්දේ ඔවුන්ගේ පරිපාලනය පහසුකර ගැනීමට සහ මේ රට ජනවර්ග අනුව බෙදා පාලනය කිරීම සන්දහාය. 1833 දී පලාත් 5න් ආරම්භ වු එය 1897 වනවිට පලාත් 9 දක්වා වදි වී ඇත්තේ මේ අන්දමටය.

1833 දී බ්රතාන්යයින්  විසින් මුලු දිවයිනම උ, ද. නැ, බ සහ ම යන පළාත් 5 කට බෙදා ඇත

1845 වයම්බ (6) (කුරුණෑගල සහ පුත්තලම්),

1873 උ මැ(7).

1886  දී ඌව (8) සහ

1897 අන්තිම සබරගමුව (9)

සුද්දා පලමුව පලත් අනුව රට පාලනය කලද පසු කලක ඒවා දිසා වලට බෙදා  දිසාපතිවරුන් මගින් පාලනය කළේය.එහෙත් එහි විසේශ ලක්සනය වූයේ ඒ සියල්ල එක ආණ්දුකාරයෙක් විසින් කොලම්බිම් පාලනය වීමයි. අද ආණ්ඩුකාරයින් 9 දෙනකු විසින් පාලනය කෙරෙනුයේද ඒ රටමය.

මේ නිසා මම මේ රටේ පළාත් සභා තිබිය යුත්තේ ඇයිද යන ප්රශ්නය මතු කරමි. එය අද මුළු ජාතියම අහන ඉතා වැදගත් ප්රස්නයකි. එවා අවස්යයයි කියන්නේ දේශපාලකයින් පමණි. පළාත් සභා ඉල්ලා සිටියේ කවුද? එය මේ රටේ ජනතාව හෝ දේශපාලනයින්ගේ ඉල්ලීමක්ද? මේ රටේ කිසිවෙකු එය ඉල්ලා සිටියේ නැත. එය යෝජනා කළේ ඉන්දියාවයි. තමිල්නාඩු ඡන්ද කොට්ාශයේ දේශපාලකයින් සනසා තම බලය තහවුරු කර ගැනීම සඳහා ඔවුන් ලන්කාවේ පලාත්සභා ඇතිකරන ලදී. එය ස්රී ලන්කා රජයේ ප්රධානියා ලෙස වයෝවුර්ධ හා දුර්වල ජනාධිපතිවරයකු සිටි අවස්ථවකදි කල් යල් බලා ඉන්දියාව විසින් ක්රියාත්මක කරනලදී. මට තවමත් මතකයි ඉන්දියාව ඔවුන්ගේ ජෙට් යානා සමඟ අපේ ගුවන් අවකාශය ආක්රමණය කර උතුරට ගුවනින් පරිප්පු දැමූ ආකාරය? සහ ඔවුන්ගේ තානාපති ඩික්සිත් වෝඩ් පෙදෙසේ නිවසේදී මේ රටේ රාජ්ය නායක ජේ.ආර් ඉදිරිපිට හැසිරුණේ කෙසේද? කකුලක් පිට කකුලක් දාගෙන ලන්කාවේ රාජ්ය නායකයා ඉදිරියේ ඔහු හැසිරුනේ ඉන්දියානු ‘රජුගේ යුධ පණිවිඩය ගෙන ආ ලන්කාව භාර ඉන්දීය  යුවරජා මෙනි.

අදාල ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් කිරීම ප්රතික්ෂේප කළහොත් ඉන්දියාව මේ රට අනිවාර්යෙන්ම ආක්රම්ණය කරන බවට පැහැදිලිව ඔහු අන්ග චලනයෙන් පැහැදිලිව ප්රදර්ශනය කළේය.

උතුරු හා නැගෙනහිර සහ මධ්යම ශ්රී ලංකාව (මධ්යම, සබරගමුව සහ ඌව පළාත) ඇතුළු රටෙන් අඩකට ආසන්න ප්රමාණයක් අයිති කර ගැනීමට සහ පාලනය කිරීමට දෙමළ ජනතාවට පූර්ණ බලය ලබා දෙමින් ජනවාර්ගික

ජනවාර්ගික පදනමක් මත මෙම රට බෙදීමට හා අස්ථාවර කිරීමට මෙම ගිවිසුම උපාය මාර්ගිකව සැලසුම් කර තිබිණ. ඉන්දියාව මෙම පළාත් තුන පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් කර නැතත් මෙය අන් කිසිවක් නොව යටත් විජිත බ්රිතාන්යයන් විසින් 1833 දී ආරම්භ කරන ලද එකම බෙදීමේ සහ පාලන ප්රතිපත්තියේම දිගුවක් මෙන්ම වෙනත් අරමුනකින් පළාත් නිර්මාණය කිරීමක් පමණි. 1987 ජූලි 29 වන දින රජීව් / ජේආර් ගිවිසුම මගින් ඉන්දියාව විසින් මෙරට සිදුකරන ලද පහත සඳහන් බලපෑම් විශ්ලේෂණය කරන විට මෙම ඉන්දියානු කුමන්ත්රණය ඉතාමත් හොන්දින් පැහැදිලි වේ.

[1] දිවයිනේ භූමි ප්රමාණයෙන් 1/3 කින් සමන්විත උතුරු හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත් දෙමළ ජනතාවගේ සාම්ප්රදායික අයිතිහාසික නිජ භූමිය” ලෙස ප්රකාශයට පත්කිරීම මෙ රටේ ඉතිහාසය මුලුමනින්ම විකුර්ති කිරීමකි. ලිකිත ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිම අවස්ථාවක මෙම පළාත් දෙක සාම්ප්රදායික දෙමළ ප්රදේශයක් වශයෙන් තිබී නැත ක්රි.පූ. 543 සිට මේ මුළු දිවයිනම සිංහල ජනයාගේ සාම්ප්රදායික නිජබිම වූ අතර එය ලන්කාවේ සිටින ඉන්දියානු මානසික දෙමළ දේශපාලනග්න්යින් හා ඉන්දියානු දේශපාලනඅග්නයින් හැර අනෙකුත් සියලුම ඉතිහාසඅග්නයින් විසින් පිළිගත් අයිතිහාසික සත්යයකි.

පළමුවෙන්ම, මෙම ගිවිසුම යටතේ ලක්ෂ 5 ක් වැනි සුළු ප්රමාණයක දෙමළ ජනයාට රටේ මුලු භූමි ප්රමාණයෙන් 1/3 ක් ලැබෙන අතර ඒ තුල කිසිම සිංහල හෝ මුස්ලිම් මිනිසෙකුට පදිංචි වීමට ඉඩ නොදෙන අතර ද්රවිඩයන්ට දිවයිනේ ඕනෑම ප්රදේසයක පදින්චි වීමේ වරම ලැබෙයි. මේ අනුව සින්හලයින්ගේ රටෙන් 1/3 ක්, වෙරළ තීරයෙන් 2/3 ක් සහ සමුද්ර කලාපයෙන් 3/5 කට ආසන්න ප්රමාණයක් සහ ත්රිකුණාමලය වරාය (ආසියාවේ හොඳම ස්වාභාවික වරාය සහ ලෝකයේ දෙවන හොඳම ස්වාභාවික වරායා ලබා ගැනීමේ අයිතිය 5% කට අඩු දෙමළුන්ට ලැබේ. මෙම ගිවිසුම මගින් තම මව්බිමේ  අයිතිය භූමිපුත්රයන් වන සින්හලයින්ට අහිමි කරන ලද අතර, ඔවුන්ගේ මුතුන් මිත්තන් වසර 2500 ක් තිස්සේ ඉන්දියානු හා යුරෝපීය යන සියලු විදේශීය ආක්රමණ වලින් ආරක්ෂා කොටගත් ඉතිහාසයේ ආරම්භයේ සිටම වසර දහස් ගණනාවක් ඔවුන්ගේ ආදරණීය මව්බිම ලෙස භුක්ති වින්ද තම මව්බිමේ අයිතිය අහිමිවී ඇත.

දෙවනුව මෙම ගිවිසුම ඉන්දියාව විසින් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද්දේ සින්හල ජාතියේ අවසන් කටයුතු කඩිනම් කිරීමට බව මින් මනාව පැහැදිළිවෙයි.

තෙවනුව මේ මහා කුමන්තරණයේ අවසානය අනාගතයේදී දිවයින ඉන්දියාවට ඈදා ගනීමේ කෞටිල්ය අර්ථ ශාස්ත්ර න්යායේ කූතඨ ප්රාප්තිය වනු ඇත.

සිව්වනුව ශ්රි ලන්කා ජනරජයේ ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්වස්ථාවේ 18 වන වගන්තිය අහෝසි කරමින් දෙමළ ද රාජ්ය භාෂාවක් කොට ඇත. ඉන්දියාවේ ද්රවිඩයන් මිලියන 70 කට ආසන්න සංඛ්යාවක් සිටියද ඉන්දියාවේ පවා දෙමළ භාෂාව රාජ්ය භාෂාවක් ලෙස පිළිගන්නේ නැත. න්දියාවෙ කුහක කම මින්ම මනාව පැහැදිළි වෙයි.

පස්වනුව ශ්රී ලංකාවට මධ්යම, සබරගමව සහ ඌව පළාත්වල ඉන්දියානු සම්භවයක් ඇති සියලුම වතු ද්රවිඩයන්ට සහ රටේ වෙනත් ප්රදේශවල වෙසෙන සියළුම දෙමළුන්ට පුරවැසිකම දීමෙන් කිසියම් රටක් ජාත්යන්තරව පිළිගත් සියලු සම්මතයන් සහ අපේම නීති නොසලකා හැර තිබේ.

මේ අනුව ඕනෑම රටක විදේශිකයන්ට පුරවැසිභාවය ලබා දීමේදී පිළිපැදියයුතු කොන්දේශි සියල්ල මේ ගිවිසුමෙන් අමුඅමුවේ උල්ලන්ගනය කොට ඇත.

පස්වනුව උතුරු හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත් ඒකාබද්ධ කොට එක් දෙමළ පළාතක් පිහිටුවිය යුතු අතර අනාගතයේ දී පළාත් වෙනත් පලාතක් හෝ ඊට වැඩි ගණනක්සමග දෙකක් හෝ වැඩි ගණනක් සමග ඒකාබද්ධ කිරීමටද ප්රතිපාදන ඇත.

මේ අනුව, තවදුරටත් මේ  ගිවිසුම මගින් මේ රටේ ස්වාධීනත්වය, ස්වෛරීභාවය, ඒකීය භාවය, නිදහස සහ 1987 ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව ද විනාඩි කිහිපයක් ඇතුළත එක් මිනිසෙකු විසින් විසින් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විනාශ කරන ලදී..

විපක්ෂය විසින් සංවිධානය කරනලද දිවයින පුරා පැවති විරෝධතා සහ ඔහුගේම අමාත්යවරුන්ගේ විරෝධයන්ද  නොසලකා ජුනිඅස් රිචඩ් ජයවර්ධන, මේ රට කිසිදු ලැජ්ජාවක් නැතිව ඉන්දියානු  උප මහාද්වීපයේ උරුමයක් බවට පත් කළේය. මෙය ජේ.ආර්ගේ පැවැත්ම සඳහා සිදුකරනලද රට හා ජාතිය පාවා දීමකි. මේ වූ කලී රාජ්ය සභා  කාලයේදි 1944 දී පමණ ඔහුවිසින් මේ රට ඉන්දියාවේ ප්රාන්තයක් විය යුතු යයි වරෙක කරනලද ප්රකාශ සිහිනයේ සැබෑ වීමක් දැයි මට සිතේ

එබැවින් මෙම ගිවිසුම අහෝසි කිරීමට පියවර ගන්නා අතරම, ඉහත කොන්දේසි 4 හැකි ඉක්මනින් අවලන්ගු හරන ලෙස මම ඔබ තුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

ජේ.ආර්ගේ හිසත තුවක්කුව එල්ලකොට ගිවිසුම පිළිගැනීමට බල කෙරුණු අතර ඉන්දියාව මෙම බරපතල කොන්දේසි මගින් 1987 ශ්‍රී ලන්කා ව්යවස්ථාව හුදු කඩදාසි කැබැල්ලක් බවට පත්කොට ඇත. මෙම ගිවිසුම දිවයින පුරා හදිසි අවස්ථාව පනවා අත්සන් කරන ලද අතර, ඔහුගේ සියලුම මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වීමේ ලිපි ලබාගෙන තරු පහේ හෝටලයකට කොටු කිරීමෙන් පසු නියමිත වේලාවට ඔවුන් පර්ලිමේන්තුවට කැන්දවාගෙන ගොස් පනතට චන්දය ලබාගෙන ඇත.

මෙම ගිවිසුම ක්රියාත්මක කිරීමෙන් අනිවාර්යෙන්ම සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිය නුදුරේදීම මෙම මිහිතළෙන් ඉන්දියාව විසින් අතුගා දමනු ඇත. එම ඉරණමෙන් ඔවුන් බේරාගන්ත හැක්කේ එම ගිවිසුම සහ 13 වන විවස්තා සසෝධනය වහාම අහෝසි කිරීමෙන් පමණි..

මෙම භයානක හා විනාශකාරී පසුබිම තුළ මෙම ගිවිසුමට හා විනාශකාරී පළාත් සභාවලට එරෙහිව එකාවන්ව නැගී සිටින මෙන් සියලු දේශප්රේමී ජනතාවගෙන් මා ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ මේ 13 වන විවස්ථා සන්සෝධනය සහ ජ්‍ර /රජිව් එගිවිසුම අහෝසි කිරීම සන්දහා ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ දෑත් ශක්තිමත් කරන ලෙසය. මෙම කුඩා රට වර්ගවාදි වශයෙන් කුදා කැබෙළි 9 ට බෙදීම නතර කළහැක්කේ එසේ කිරීමෙන් පමණි. පසුගිය වසර 33 කක කාලය තුළම මේ රටේ ජනතාව සෑම රජයකටම උද්ඝෝෂනය කරමින් ඉල්ලා සිටියේ මෙයයි. එහෙත් ඛේදජනක ලෙස, රට ගැන හෝ ජනතාවගේ අනාගතය ගැන කිසිදු තැකීමක් නොකරන අපේ ආත්මාර්ථකාමී හා භයානක  බලලෝභී රෝගයෙන් පෙළෙන දේශපාලනග්නයුන්ගේ බිහිරි කන්වලට ඒ ශෝක ගීතය කිසිදිනක ඇසී නැත. සිරිමාවෝ මැතිනිය යටතේ තිබුණු ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය මුල සිටම එයට විරෝධය දැක්වුවද පසුව ගිවිසුමේ ඇති මෙම වගන්තිවල යටින් පවතින  අන්තරායන් නොදැන එම පක්ශයද එය සිප වැලඳ ගත්තේය. එහි අනුප්‍රප්තිකයා වන පොදු ජන පෙරමින්නද අද ඒ මන්ගම යනබව පෙනේ.

වහාම මෙම ගිවිසුම අහෝසි කොට රට හා ජාතිය මරණයෙන් බේරා ගනිමු.

මේ ජාතික ශාපය හා ව්යසනය වහාම අහෝසි කරනවා වෙනුවට පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණ ගැන මේ දේශ පාලුවන් කතා කරන්නේ ඇයි? මෙය තීරණාත්මක දේශපාලන තීරණයක් වන අතර, මේ රට සහ එහි ජනතාවට ආදරය කරන ඔබ වැනි දේශප්රේමී රාජ්ය තාන්ත්රිකයෙකු මේ රටත් ජාතියත් බේරා ගැනීම සඳහා මෙකී ගිවිසුම අහෝසිකිරීමට වහාම පියවර ගත යුතුව තිබේ.එසේ නොකලහොත්, 1987 සිට මේ දක්වා මේ ප්‍රස්නයේදී ගොල්ලුවන්, බිහිරන් සහ අන්ධයින් මෙන් ක්‍රියා කල සෙසු සියළු දෙසන්පාලකයින්ටම විරුද්ධව නැගෙන චෝදනව හා සාපය ඔබතුමාටද එල්ලවනු ඇත. ඉන් මිදී මේ රතේ දේශපාලන මදගූරුවෙන් උදට අවිත් පිපී දසත සුවන්ද හමන සුදු නෙළුමක් බවට පත්වීමට ඔබතුමන්ත වාසනාව ලැබේවයි මම ඉතසිතින් ප්‍රර්තනා කරමි. නෙලුම් පොහොත්තුවෙන් ජ්නාධිපති පද්වි ප්‍රාප්ත ඔබතුමන්ට ඒ සන්දහා අවැසි ශක්තිය හා ධහෙර්‍රය ලැබීනු ඒ කාන්තය. Jර්‍/ර්‍අජිව්  ගිවිසුම අහෝසි වූ පසු, ඒ යටතේ පිහිටුවා ඇති 13 වන  විවස්ථා සන්සෝධනය සහ පලාත් සභ හූනියම්ද  ස්වයංක්රීයව අහෝසි වනු ඇත.

2009 දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 2/3 ක බහුතරය ඇතුළුව සියලු බලය තිබිලත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ස ජනාධිපතිවරයා  මේ හූනියම කැපුවේ නැත. ඔහු එදා එසේ කළා නම් කිසිවෙකුටත් එයට විරුද්ද්ධ නොවනු ඒකාන්තය.. නමුත් දයිවයේ සරදමක මහත මෙන්ම අවාසනාවට ඔහු එය කළේ නැත. එදා එසේ කලේනම් අදත් ඔහු මේ රතේ ජනධිපතිය.

මහ මැතිවරණය අවසන් වූ වහාම පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වන බවට ඔහු නැවතත් මාධ්යයට පොරොන්දු වූ බව පුවත්පත් මගින් දුතුවෙමි. ජේ ආර්/රජිව් ගිවිසුම සහ 13 විව්ස්තා සන්සෝධනය අහෝසිකොට රටත් ජාතියත් සම්බුද්ධ් අසාශන්යත් 21 වන් සියවසේදී බේරාගත් සින්හල ජාතියේ වීරයෙක් වීමට උදාවි ඇති තවත් ස්වර්නමය අව්සථාවක්  යලිත් මගහර 2010  හා 2019 දී කළ මෝදකම්   නවතත් කිරීමට දැයි මට සිතේ. එතුමා එසේ කලහොත් මේ රතේ සියලුදෙනම එය අනුමත කලත් මා නම් එය කිසිසේථ්ම අනුමත කරන්නේ නැත.කෙසේ වුවද පලමුව 2/3 ලබාගෙන පසුව එය අහෝසි කිරීමට ඔහු එසේ කීවාදැයි මම නොදනිමි. එය ඔහුගේ සැලැස්ම නම්, එල්ටීටීඊයට එරෙහි ලබාගත් ඔහුගේ ජයග්රහණයටත් වදා මුළු ජාතියම ඔහුට ජාතියේ උසස්ම ප්‍රනාමය පුදනු ඇත. 2010 මැතිවරණයෙන් පසු ඔහු කළ එම වැරැද්දම  නැවතත් නොකරනු ඇතැයි මුලු ජාතියම බලාපොරොත්තු වෙයි.

ඵලථ්සභා අහෝසිවීමෙන් පසු ඊනියා ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන් 9 දෙනා, මහඇමතිවරු 9 , පළාත් අමාත්යවරුන් 45  සහ ජාතියේ ලේ උරාබොන පරපෝෂිත දේශපාලන  නදය සහ සියලු අතිරික්ත නිලධාරීන් ද  අදුවිමෙන් මේ රටේ මිනිසුන්ගේ හිස මත පැතවී තිබුණු  මහා මේරු පර්වථයක් ඉවත්වනු ඇත.  එවිටැ විදේශ ආධාර නොලැබුනත් මේ රටැ ගොදගත හැකයි මම සිතමි.

ඵලාත්සභා විසින් රට මත පටවා තිබුණු බර අඩු වීමෙන් ගැබකින් නිදහස්වූ මවකට දැනෙන පහසුව රටවැසින්යන්ට දැනෙනු ඇත. ඉන්පසු මේ සෑම පින්පදිකාරයෙකුම අවම වශයෙන් එක මඉයොක්කා පන්දුරක්වත් හිටවනු ඇති අතර එය අවම වශයෙන් වල්ඌරෙකුට හෝ යම් සේවාවක් කරනු ඇත. දැනට මෙම සභාවල සේවය කරන වෘත්තීය රාජ්ය සේවකයින්ට විශ්රාම යන තෙක් රාජ්ය සේවයේ සුදුසු ස්ථානවල නවාතැන් ගත හැකි බැවින් පලාත්සභා වැසීමෙන් ඔවුන්ට කිසිදු ගැටළුවක් ඇති නොවණු ඇත. එබැවින් මේවා අහෝසි කිරීම ගැන ඔවුන් බියවිය යුතු නැත.

ඵලාත් සභා අහෝසි කිරීම සඳහා මා තර්ක කිරීමට තවත් හේතුවක් නම්, මේ රටේ පාලනය නැවත යතාතත්වය්ට පත්කල නොහැකි වන පරිදි දිස්ත්රික් පරිපාලනය අද මුලුමනින්ම විනාශවී තිබීමය. තවද ඒ තුලින් උතුරු නැගෙනහිර ෆෙඩරල් රාජ්යක් ඉල්ලීම,ඇතිකිරීම ස්වයං නිර්ණය, මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ගේ ස්වයං පාලනය සහ දෙමළ ජනයාගේ ඊලාම් සිහින වැනි සියලු බෙදීම්වාදී දේශපාලන සිහිනද අවසන් කෙරෙනු ඇත. එසේම දැනට පළාත් සභා නමින් හැඳින්වෙන මෙම වඳුරු කූඩු සහ ඌරු කොතු නඩත්තු කිරීම සඳහා දැනට වාර්ශිකව වියදම් කරන රුපියල් බිලියන ගණනක් ද ඉතිරි කර ගත හැකි අතර, පසුගිය වසර 33 ක කාලය තුළ රටට බරක් වී තිබුනු ජාතියේ ගෙල වටා බැන්දි උරචක්‍රමාලයක් ද අහෝසිවිමෙන් ජනතාවට අසීමිත පාහ්සුවක් වණු ඇත. අවසාන වශයෙන් එය අනාගතයේදී සිදුවිය හැකි   ඉන්දියානු හෝ අරාබි ආක්රමණ සහ කුමන්ත්රණ වලින්ද අපව නිදහස් කරනු ඇත. එසේම මේ රට ජනවාර්ගික පදනමක් මත බෙදීමට කුමන්ත්රණය කිරීමෙන් හා මෙම රට ඉන්දියානුකරණය කිරීමේ සිහිනයකින් හෝ එය අරාබි රටකට පරිවර්තනය කිරීමේ හිස්බුල්ලා, රිෂාර්ද්බෞර්දීන් සහ හකීම්ලාගේ සිහින මාලිගද ඉන් පසු දවල් සිහින පමනක් වනු ඇත.

පසුගිය වසර 33 ක කාලයක් තුළ අපරාධ, දූෂණ සහ නාස්තිය ඉහවහා ගොස් ඇති මේ රටේ යහපත් දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතිය මුළුමනින්ම විනාශ කර දමා ඇති මෙම වඳුරු කූඩු සහ සොරුන්ගේ තිප්පොලවල් අහෝසි කරන ලෙස නව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගන් එකම හන්දින් මෙම ඉල්ලීම කරන ලෙස මම සියලු දේශප්රේමී ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. බෙදුම්වාදී ප්රවනතා සහ ජනවාර්ගික උද්ඝෝෂණඅ වලින් අනාගතයේදී හෝ තොරවූ රතක් එවිට අපට ලැබෙනු ඇත.

ජේ.ආර් යටතේ මෙම මරෞගුල අටවාගත් කිසිදු දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් පමනක් නොව 1987 දී ඊට එරෙහිව සිටි අය පවා මේ මර උගුල අහෝසි කිරීම ඉල්ලා නොසිටින බව මම හොඳින්ම දනිමි. මන්දයත් ඔවුන් සිය

දේශපාලන පැවැත්ම සඳහා සෑම මැතිවරණයකදීම මෙම පලාත් සභා සාමාජිකයන් ඡන්දය එකතු කර ගැනීම සන්දහා යොදා ගන්නා බැවිනි. ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්, මහඇමතිවරුන්, ඇමතිවරුන්, මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්, නිලධාරීන් බහුතරය ඔවුන්ට චන්ද්ය දුන් මිනිසුන් ගේ හෝ රටේ හෝ ජාතියේ  උන්නතිය උදෙසා නොයොදා මහජන මුදල් සාපරාධී ලෙස නාස්ති කරන ආකාරය දකින විට සාමාන්ය ජනතාවට මෙම පලාත්සභා මහා හිසරදයකි. තම නිලතල වල බලතල සහ ඉන් ලැබෙන වරප්‍රසාද භුක්ති විඳීමට අමතරව, බොහෝවිට අනුන් හදූ ගොදනැගිලි හා පාලම් වැනි දේවල් විවෘත කිරීම්, මංගල උත්සව, අවමංගල්ය, පාසල් උත්සව, ක්රීඩා උත්සව, විවිධාකාරී රැස්වීම්, පන්සල් උත්සව සහ වෙනත් සමාජ හා පෞද්ගලික සම්භාෂ්න වලට සහභාගී වීම, මහජන මුදලින් විනෝද චාරිකා සඳහා ලොව පුරා සැරිසැරීම සහ රට පුරා නායක්යින් පසුපස දිවීම, ඔවුන්ගේ පැවැත්ම සන්දහා පක්ෂපාතිත්වය පෙන්වීමට ඔවුන්ගේ දේශපාලන ස්වාමිවරුන්ත දර දිය ඇදීම, මහජන මුදල් හා දේපල අයථා ලෙස පරිහරණය කිරීම සහ  ඔවුන්ගේ දේශපාලන නායකයින් සඳහා ඡන්ද සහ අරමුදල් රැස් කිරීම සහ මැයි දින රැලි සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිතින ඔවුන්ගේ ස්වාමිවරුන්ගේ ප්රචාරක රැස්වීම් වැනි රැස්වීම් සඳහා ජනතාව දක්කාගෙන යාම, එමඟින් මුළු රටම විනාශ වෙද්දී ඒ සියළු බර අහිංසක සහ අසරණ ජනතාව මත පැටවීම මොවුන්ගෙන් සිදුවන එකම රාජකාරිය වේ. එබැවින් මම මෙම පරපෝෂිත ජීවීන්ගෙන් අසන වැදගත්ම ප්‍රස්නය නම් ඔවුන්ගේ වැටුප් හා අයථා ලෙස උපයාගත් වරප්රසාද ලබාදෙන ජනතාවට හෝ රටට ඔවුන් සිදුකරන සේවය කුමක්ද යන්නයි.

1987 දී 13 වන විවස්ථා සන්සෝධනයට විරුද්ධ වූ බහුතරයක් වන කණ්ඩායමක් ලෙස වර්තමාන ශ්‍රි ලන්ක පොදුජන පක්ෂයට හෝ අවම වශයෙන් දැන්වත් මෙම ඛේදජනක ජාතික ශාපය අහෝසි කිරීම සඳහා උද්ගෝෂනය්ය කළ නොහැක්කේ ඇයි? ජනතාව මෙම ක්රමයට වෛර කරන අතර එය අහෝසි නොකරන සියළුම දෙශපකතින්ටද ශාප කරති.

පසුගිය වසර දෙකහමාරකට ආසන්න කාලයක් තිස්සේ මෙම පරපෝෂිත හා නාස්තිකාර ආයතන නොමැතිව රතේ  පරිප්පාලනය මැනවින් ක්රියාත්මක වී ඇති අතර, චන්දය සන්දහා පලාත්සභා කිසිසේත්ම අවස්ය නැති බව සැකයෙන් තොරව ඔප්පු වී ඇති හෙයින් මේ නාස්තිකාර ආයතන තවදුරතත් පවත්වාගෙන යාමේ කිසිදු අවස්යතාවක් නොමැති බැවින් ඒවා තබා ගැනීම කිසිසේත්ම සාධාරණීකරණය කළ නොහැකිය. වෘත්තීය පරිපාලකයින්ගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ශක්තිමත් දිස්ත්රික් පරිපාලනය අතීතයේ දීද  ස්වදේශික පරිපාලන ක්රමය වූ බැවින් එම ක්‍රමය ප්රතිසංවිධානය කිරීමෙන් වඩා හොඳ පාලනයක් සහතික කරනගත හැක. වසර 133 ක් තිස්සේ රට ඉතා කාර්යක්ෂමව හා කාර්යක්ෂමව පවත්වාගෙන යාම සඳහා බ්රිතාන්යයන් පවා මෙම ක්රමයේ මූලික අංගයන් අනුගමනය කළ බැවින් එම ක්‍රමයේ සාර්තකත්වය මැනවින් ඔප්පුවී ඇත..

පළාත් සභා දැනටමත් අක්රිය වී ඇත. ශ්රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියට ඒවා අහෝසි කළ හැකි නම්, මද්යම රජයට බෙරු ඇයි.  ළබන මැතිවරනයීඉ  මේ හූනියම් දෙක අහෝසිකිරීමට පොරොන්දුවන කන්දායමට ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී එහි ඡන්ද පදනම නොසිතූ ලෙස ඉහළ යනු ඇත. වසර 33 ක මෙම ශාපය හා ව්යසනයෙන් මිදීම සඳහා අගය කිරීම හා කෘතගුන සැලකීමේ සලකුණක් ලෙස පලාත්සභා අහෝසිකරන පක්ශය වතා ජනතාව අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම  පෙළ ගැසෙනු ඇත. තවද, 2015 මැතිවරණයේදී සහ ඊට පසුව තමාට ද්රෝහි වූ සියලු දෙනාම   දේශපාලන වනසන්දය්ට ස්ථිරවම යැවීමට මහිද රාජපක්ශට මෙය ස්වර්ණමය අවස්ථාව කරගත හැක. මෙම සෙනසුරු ශාපය යටතේ පසුගිය වසර 33 ක කාලය තුළ දුක් විඳින කෘතගුන පූර්වක ජනතා කිසිවිටෙකත් නොසිතූ අයුරින් ඔවුන් වටා පොදි බදිණු ඇත. මේ වන විටත් මේ රටට විශාල දේශපාලන හා ආර්ථික හානියක් සිදු කර ඇති මෙම විනාශකාරී ඉන්දියානු උගුලෙන් මේ රට මුදා ගනු ලබන රාජ්ය නායකයා  කිසි දිනෙක නොමැරෙන සදාකාලික ජාතික වීරයකු වනු ඒකාන්තය.පළාත් සභා ශාපය සහ එහි පෙකණි වැල වූ, රජීව් / ජේආර් ගිවිසුම අහෝසි කිරීම  2009 දී එල්ටීටීඊයෙන් රට නිදහස් කිරීමටතත් වදා අයිතිහාසික වැදගත්කමක් ඇති ඊටත් වඩා විශාල ජයග්රහණයක් විය හැකි බවත් මට සහතික විය හැකිය. එය රාජපක්ෂ පුරාවෘත්තයේ තවත් අයිතිහාසික සන්ධිස්ථානයක් ලෙස ඉතිහාසයේ අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම සටැහන්වනු නොඅනුමානය.

                     ජේආර් / රජීව් ගිවිසුම අහෝසි කිරීමට ඉන්දියාවට විරුද්ධවීමටෑද කිසිදු අයිතිවාසිකමක් නැත. මන්දයත්, ඉන්දියාව විසින් මුල් අවධියේදීම ඒකපාර්ශවිකව ගිවිසුම බිඳ දමා තිබූ හෙයිනි. එමනිසා රටවල් දෙකක් අතර අත්සන් කරන ලද ජාත්යන්තර ගිවිසුමක් ලෙස එය කිසිදු නෛතික වලංගු භාවයක්ද  නැත.අවසාන වශයෙන් මම යෝජනා කරන්නේ මෙම  කරුණු  දෙක අහෝසි කිරීම සහ 19 වැනි සන්සෝධනයද අවලංගු කිරීම, පවතින ඖල් සහගත මැතිවරණ ක්රමය සංශෝධනය කිරීම, දිස්ත්රික් නියෝජිත ක්රමය ඉවත් කොට පැරැණි ආසන ක්‍රමායට ආපසු යාම වැනි වැදගත් කාරණා අහෝසි කිරිම මැතිවරණ පොරොන්දුව් වශයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කොට මැතිවරණයට යාමෙන් එළඹෙන මැතිවරණයේදී ජනතාවගෙන් 2/3 ජනවරමක් ලබා ගැනීමට පහසු වන බව  මගේ අදහසය. තවද මැතිවරනයේදී පරාජිතයින් සහ ජනතාව සමන්ග කිසිදු සම්බන්ධය නෙති පක්ස නායකයින්ගේ හිතවතුන් සහ හොරුන් හා තක්කදීන් විසිනවයකින්ගෙන් පුරවන, ජාතික ලැයිස්තුවද අහෝසිකොට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්රීවරුන්ගේ සංඛ්යාවද අර්ථවත් මට්ටමකට අඩු කිරීමද (150 කට පමණ) මන්ත්‍රීධූරාපේක්ශකයින් සන්දහා අවම අධ්යාපනය සුදුසුකමක්,, අවම වත්කම්අක් නියම කිරීම සහ අදාල ඡන්ද කොට්ාශය තුළ වසර 5කවත් ඉස්තිර පදිංචියයක් තිබීම වැනි සුදුසුකම් අනිවාර්ය කිරීමෙන් රටට හා ජාතියට සේවයක් කළහැකි  ජනතා සෙවකයින් පත්කර ගත හකිවනු ඇත.එසේ කිරීමෙන් පමනක් පවතින ජරාජීර්ණ, දූශිත දේශපාලනය අවසන් කොට යළිත්.සාධාරණ පාලනයඅක් මේ රතේ ස්ථාපිත කරගත හකිවනු ඇත.

 අවසාන වසයෙන්, දේශපාලකයින් විසින් දේශ පාලකයින්සදහාම  වසර 72ක් තිස්සේ පවත්වාගෙන ආ දේශපාලකයින්ගේම  ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රමය වෙනස්කොත, මේ රතෙ අනන්යතාව අරක්ශා කෙරෙන දේශීයත්වය මත ගොඩ නැගුන නව විවස්ථාව්ක් නිර්මාණය කොට නියම ජනතාහිතවාදි නව දේශපාලන සන්කෘතියක් මේ රටේ අතිකිරීමට ඔබතුමාට හැකිනම් වසර සිය ගානක් තිස්සේ උපදින්නට දගන්ලන තොටගමුවෙ  ශ්‍රී හිමියන්ගේ දියසේන කුමාරයා යාන්තම් උපන්නා යයි අපට සනසුමක් ලබා මිය යා හැක.

Stanley Gunaratne 

Does India owe Sri Lanka an apology and REPARATIONS for our nation’s suffering? Absolutely yes.

So when our so called leaders (everyone in Parliament) pander to India, when they dress like the Indian leader, when they say India is their brother (from the President who won the war no less as well as his deputies), it is a cause for major concern. With leaders who call India our brother, we need no enemies! It is also deeply INSULTING to friends like China to say that we offered things to India first. Furthermore, anyone who would go to India for infrastructure instead of the Japanese, Germans, Chinese, Singaporeans or indeed our own local engineers, needs their head examined!

India CREATED the Tiger terrorist organisation in the 70s that wreaked havoc on the island of Ceylon/Sri Lanka which resulted in the deaths, maiming and destruction of thousands upon thousands of innocent citizens (Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays etc) and foreign tourists in Sri Lanka. It resulted in the loss of commerce, economic development and the right to life and security for 20 million people for decades.

One of the oft repeated nonsensical claims is that it is Sri Lanka’s fault (or then Ceylon) that India created the terrorists. This is a ridiculous argument. Our country has a right to trade, form relationships with and train with any nation on Earth – be that the Chinese, the Americans, the Africans, the Europeans, whoever we damn well please. We were never part of India (itself a nation created by the British and NOT a historical nation), are not now and never will be. Most Sri Lankans would sooner jump into the sea than be called Indians. And blaming the victim (Sri Lanka) for being terrorised is equivalent to Stockholm syndrome.

When Sri Lanka attempted to eliminate the terrorists in the 1980s, India interfered, despite significant Western and Eastern condemnation (including the Western press), resulting in the survival of the Indian created Tigers (even if India had to run with its tail between its legs from their own monster). India also pressured Sri Lanka not to join ASEAN, to buy Indian equipment (which it had no right to stop Sri Lanka buying other nation’s equipment) with arrogant statements. It also forced Sri Lanka to adopt divisive constitutional clauses WITHOUT the consent of the Sri Lankan people.

It also forced the loathsome Indo Lanka Accord” on Sri Lanka in 1987 which exists to this day. It is no different to the Nazi imposed Anschluss” on Austria prior to World War II. Again this was done without the consent of the Sri Lankan people. No truly independent nation, nor a nation with self respect, nor a a patriotic leader, would abide by this illegal agreement.

India has continuously demanded Sri Lanka follow India’s foreign policy, despite New Delhi having no right to do so, since Sri Lanka is meant to be a sovereign nation and is free to do what it wishes without consulting India in any way. This has included before, during and after the war – trying to prevent Sri Lanka from engaging with the defence forces, governments or private companies of nations in China, the West, ASEAN, Far East etc.

Sri Lanka (also known then as Ceylon) was labelled in many old geography and economics textbooks as an Asian Tiger Economy similar to South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong. Whilst the other nations developed at lightning pace, Sri Lanka had to contend with India’s menace. The loss of development over 30–40 years means that Ceylon/Sri Lanka is now still a third world nation and hasn’t matched the pace of the other nations it was grouped with prior to India’s creation and interventions.

This would suggest that Sri Lanka should be an economy closer to Singapore and South Korea – a first world nation in a third world region. No amount of money can compensate the numerous families islandwide who have lost loved ones to Tiger terrorist suicide attacks, but never forget India is responsible for all of it.

If any other nation created a terrorist group, they would rightly be condemned.

India has interfered with Sri Lanka’s development even after the war ended, saying that Sri Lanka shouldn’t buy trains from Japan, China or Europe. It tries to constantly label other countries’ technology, or money as inferior to India’s products (despite anyone with a brain knowing that is not the case), labelling borrowings from China as ‘debt traps’ – yet somehow Indian credit (i.e. LOANS) is deemed acceptable – and influencing, funding and manipulating the political class here (which is a blatant interference in another country’s internal affairs). India constantly parrots a false argument about ethnic areas of the country onto Sri Lanka, promoting the illegal 13th amendment – an independent nation that is NOT part of India, nor is suitable for the Indian system of government – and blatant interference in our affairs.

So YES. India should be grovelling at the Sri Lankan people’s feet begging for forgiveness. And compensation for loss of life, loss of investment opportunities, loss of development and the constant harassment would well be in Sri Lanka’s rights at international fora. Probably to the tune of $1 TRILLION (USD) if one takes into account the equivalent economic GDP and GDP/capita development of the South East Asian nations and Far East. Ceylon/Sri Lanka was ahead of these nations in 1948 and developing. It lost momentum when India created the Tigers. India has blood on its hands and owes Sri Lanka compensation and should stay out of Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to engage with all nations and foreign companies.

As far as our politicians go, it is DISGUSTING to see Mahinda doing deals with Sirisena. It is deeply disappointing (but perhaps not surprising) to see the President Gota endorsing the fat Indian bootlicking buffoons of the SLPP, a party no different to the others in Parliament. 

Who will stand up to India? In the old days our leaders did not pander to India, whose security and interests are no concern of ours, nor are we obligated to prioritise them over other countries. Notably people like Sir John told Nehru where to stick his diktats and get lost. DS stated that Indians could not demand rights and impose themselves where they have no right to do so. The Naval Rating in 1987 taught the Indian PM a lesson (an American journalist asked him why he thought the Sri Lankan hit him to which there was no reply!). We are a sovereign nation. It is NONSENSICAL to say we are “non aligned” if we don’t have an independent foreign policy from India. Control over our ports like Trincomalee (including the tank farm left by the British) by India is completely contrary to independence.

We were far more independent in the 1948-57 period (with the Anglo Ceylon Defence Treaty intact) dealing with ALL nations than we are now. Look around Ceylon today and you see nothing but Indian death trap trains, Indian smoke belching death trap lorry buses. Indian this, Indian that. Yet curiously the same politicians who force all this junk on the people, choose to be driven around in super luxury Western limousines, paid for by the tax payer. And the nation bleeds money on buying all this Indian trash (all on loans and providing no economic benefit with a 9 hour trip to cross the country in severe discomfort) and parasitic councils full of thugs, traitors and crackpots.

Has ANY politician demanded compensation from India?

Has ANY politician condemned the Indo Lanka Accord and sought a mandate to abolish that and the 13A?

Has ANY government called for India to be condemned at international fora – it is the Indians who should be tried for crimes not our armed forces. But sending fat fools like Samarasinghe to defend the nation (who like Mahinda and the modern day UNP argues that we should sing our anthem in multiple languages) is like sending the Indians themselves to represent us. 

Has ANY government promised to settle Sinhalese in the North of our country (first stopped by Bandaranaike the Indian bootlicker)?

I weep for our country because no one stands up to the true enemy of our country. INDIA. 

If the President GR is truly a patriot, then he should not endorse ANY of the parties in Parliament, including his brother. And he will institute a plan to stop purchasing Indian junk. 

I sincerely hope people will vote out Indian bootlickers at this election, and if no decent candidates are on the ballot paper, then the Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays of this nation should ALL spoil their votes. Revolutions have happened in places like France, the 13 colonies that formed the United States, for far less than the ills that befall our nation!

Heaven help our blessed paradise isle.

Chanaka Bandarage

This Part is prepared basically to respond to comments made by readers in the two earlier articles about this topic.

Within our country, we can say anything.  We can glorify ourselves and of course, everyone will be happy. But, the facts asserted must be 100% true. Also, the rest of the world must accept them.

What we must bear in mind is that the world at large has not yet accepted our recent findings – eg, Sri Lanka had an advanced civilization before others. According to the current school history textbooks (2015 edition), it began 125,000 years ago

It is universally accepted that Mohenjodaro and Mesopotamia were the world’s foremost advanced human settlements. They existed about 5,000 – 5,500 years ago.

Naming the so-called pre-Vijaya civilization as ‘Homo-sapiens Civilization’ in school history books is bizarre. Homo sapiens is the name coined by Linnaeus in 1758, they are the species to which all modern human beings belong. The homo-sapiens is not a distinct Sri Lankan identity. To discard well-known Vijaya in lieu of the unknown homo-sapiens is cruel.

Currently, we say many new things but the rest of the world has been silent and uninterested.

Currently, the whole world acknowledges that China invented cast the iron some 3,500 years ago; but these books say our homo-sapiens made iron more than 4,500 years ago.  At least we should discuss with Chinese archeologists/universities etc, convince them, and ask them to certify that we did this before them.  That is just one way of obtaining credibility, and there are many ways.

Paranavitana et al always operated that way. They held high worldwide credibility.

That is why the world regards Sigiriya as the world’s 8^th wonder. That is why Wikipedia states that King Dutu Gamunu built Ruwanweli Maha Seya.

One of the editors of these history books (hereinafter the editor) had stated elsewhere (in YouTube videos) that we grew rice paddy 49,000 years ago and that Barley and Oates may have been grown in Horton Plains (at the moment the whole world believes that rice paddy cultivation was first started in China about 13,500 years ago and Barley was first harvested in Israel about 10,000 years ago). He also states that lions had roamed in ancient Sri Lanka.

Archeologists/Anthropologists/Historians of the world must acknowledge and accept these new findings. Afterward, they will alter their books, amend records and other documents. Then only world-famous websites such as Wikipedia, Google, BBC, Yahoo, Oxford Dictionary, various encyclopedias, history books, etc would include them in their records. 

The editor has implied in the videos that Kuweni’s clan may have had a Tamil lineage, Buddhism may have existed in Sri Lanka prior to the arrival of Ven Mihindu, Vijaya seems a myth, Sinhalese do not possess Vijaya’s genes, and that Mahavansa is dubious.  What he has stated is contrary to the history that we have learned and accepted from time immemorial.  That author has made many grave pronouncements; to the best of my knowledge, none of them have been internationally acknowledged/accepted.

It is important that our Archeologists/Anthropologists/Historians publish their new findings in international journals/magazines etc.  And, that international institutes, universities, museums, etc accept these recent, marvelous findings as true and authentic.

Re Ravana – some Hindus in India believe in Ramayanaya but we in Sri Lanka (including Tamils) have always accepted it as a myth. Tamil separatists in order to carve out their separate state – Tamil Eelam, invented the lie that Ravana existed in Sri Lanka and that he was a Tamil King (to establish that Tamils were here before the Sinhalese).  We then ‘got in the bandwagon’ to rebut their claim and tried saying that Ravana was indeed a Sinhala King. Basically we got caught in the Tamil separatist trick. We do not know how to get out of the mess now.

In the recent past, the battle between the Tamil separatists and us regarding Ravana ‘ownership’ has intensified. It has become somewhat a ‘dog fight’. The dispute has become so bad that separatists now claim that Sigiriya was built by Ravana and not King Kashyapa. They have even gone to the extent of saying that Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka during the time of King Devanam Piyatissam (a Tamil!). The separatists receive a lot of international support and millions of funding– from groups vested in the splitting of our country. The Sinhalese have nil international support. We are confined to 7/9 provinces of the country (only 2/3 of the landmass) and even in the lush midlands, we seem to have ‘lost power’ as ‘Malayanadu’ concept seems to gain momentum.

What we should have done was to disregard the Tamil separatist lie and stuck to our Great Chronicle, the Mahavansa. Mahavansa does not say anything about Ravana. 

As outlined before, since recently there exists a discourse in this country that we have had an elaborate pre-Vijaya civilization and that Vijaya and Mahavansa are unimportant and irrelevant.

The current history textbooks have adopted this position (basically, this is an underlying theme of the Grades 6 and 10 books). They stipulate that even if Vijaya existed, he only continued with the lavish homo –sapiens civilization. And, that Vijaya did not begin civilization in this country though Mahavansa proclaims so. This is a major deviation from our established history.

And, this is a serious situation. 

This is not just a question about our history, but about our identity as well – the Sinhala Buddhists.  We are confined to this island and ‘we have nowhere else to go’. The writer believes that the current Sinhala Buddhist population in the country must be around 60% and that in 50 years’ time it would drop to around 40% (Sinhalese, the ‘dying’ race).  We continue to ferociously fight on party political lines, in the meantime the separatist conjugate and become stronger.

The school textbooks clearly state that the ethnicity of the homo-sapiens is not an issue. The editor had previously articulated this in his YouTube videos.  This is clearly an attack on the claim we are making that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country (even His Eminence the Cardinal has accepted this and also the Muslims).

Why cannot the school history textbooks boldly say that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country?  

Why cannot the school history textbooks boldly say, unequivocally, that the Sinhala race started from Vijaya, the Prince of northern India?

Why are we scared to reveal the truth to our present-day younger generation – they are the future of this country.

The books must try to promote patriotism among children, nothing of that sort has been done in them.

Re Kuweni – it is possible that she and her clan were living in thatched houses and Mahavansa records that when she first met Vijaya she was knitting cotton. But, the claim that when Vijaya arrived, Sri Lanka was a highly organized advanced society or developing into one that needs to be substantiated more with evidence and elaborately.

The comments made by Aloy that we had supplied the biggest ships to the Emperor of China and that we possessed Astro navigation technology; again, for credibility purposes, we must obtain international archeological/anthropological recognition for them. If true, the Chinese could issue certification in that regard. Thereafter, we must ‘market’ these findings internationally (in various ways) so that the rest of the world would accept our history and give it prominence.

It is extremely important that we continuously write and publicize about our new archeological discoveries/findings in the international scene.

As to how I see them, the textbooks have been carefully prepared to discredit Vijaya’s arrival and the Great Chronicle Mahavansa. Effectively, they could be described as an attack on our Sinhala Buddhist heritage.

The textbooks do not sufficiently emphasize on our (including Tamil) ways of life, the advanced Sinhalese (and Tamil) values, customs and cultures, the strong nexus between Sinhala village/ Buddhist temple, the unique hydraulic irrigation system and how and why the homo sapiens became Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim, etc.

 I am very concerned about the dilemma that our history students may face when they travel overseas (eg for higher studies), say to the US, UK, Australia, China, Japan, India, etc. Our students would be asked to substantiate their claims as at the moment they are not even regionally recognized. I am concerned about our history students possibly becoming ‘out of place’ and/or even becoming ‘lost’ among their colleagues as most of what we currently say is limited to our country alone.

The issue at hand is that our ‘new history’ claims directly challenge/are in conflict with the existing world history.  We suddenly say that we were the pioneers in many fields, but has repeatedly stated herein we have not done our basic groundwork of obtaining the necessary international sanctions/acknowledgments for them.

The writer is an international lawyer.

srilankasupportgroup@bigpond.com

Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/12 

Chen Xu, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, speaks during the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition “Home: Glimpse of People from Various Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang” in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 2. More than 100 pictures and videos presenting a beautiful, open, and richly-endowed Xinjiang were on display Monday here inside the Palais Des Nations during the 43rd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council. The exhibition has three divisions with respective themes of peace and stability, cultural prosperity, and religious harmony. Photo: Xinhua

The 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued by the US Department of State on Wednesday, is like a veil that conceals the US’ own human rights wrongdoings. The report listed some so-called human rights violations and lambasted the Xinjiang policy of the Chinese government. 

At the press conference on the report, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo singled out China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba as among the worst violators. By using clichés, this senior US official behaved like a political scoundrel and smeared China by calling China’s treatment of Muslims “stain of the century.” 

Like previous reports, this one ignores China’s progress in its human rights and the improvement of the level of human rights among all ethnicities in Xinjiang. Based on a fixated anti-China mentality, US politicians cared nothing about China’s human rights and were ignorant of China’s development. Anyway, they don’t have to know what is taking place in China. They have viewed China as a strategic competitor and an ideological rival. What they need is an all-around containment of China.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has spread worldwide and has been declared by the WHO as a pandemic. The outbreak concerns life and survival. The most urgent task right now is how to enhance the ability to fight the pandemic through multilateral cooperation, but the US State Department spares no time criticizing other countries’ human rights. This explains why the US government has been widely criticized for its slow response to the outbreak.

Today’s US politics is trapped in the fierce political battle between the Republican and Democratic parties, and is kidnapped by far-right ideology, conservatism and nationalism. The US’ China policy is being exploited by some ideological extremists, becoming the victim of the ongoing fights in its political arena. After the outbreak of the current epidemic, China had once again been turned into a scapegoat of US domestic problems. Against this backdrop, the human rights report has lost its significance over human rights issue, but has become a bullet toward the US’ strategic competitor.  

There is no universal path of human rights development, not to mention the so-called perfect human rights. Every country has the right to find its own way of improving its human rights. The development of human rights worldwide should not be dominated by the US.

The US is in no position to judge other countries’ human rights, and only ordinary people in each country have a say. The most important part about human rights is whether people are living in a peaceful, stable society and whether they are entitled to the basic rights of pursuing a happy life. Yet, such human rights can hardly be found in a country where people resort to guns for protecting themselves, where people have to check their own bank account to see if they can afford the treatment if being infected by the novel coronavirus. One can never wake up a person pretending to be asleep.

The newly issued report is filled with diplomatic and political antagonism. It violates the concept of human rights advocated by the UN Human Rights Council. Its only value is to remind people that it is time to pay some attention to the human rights situation in the US.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the government and the people, China’s economic development and human rights conditions are embracing their best period in history. Chinese people have the final say and the international community is the witness. The best option to improve China’s human rights is to bring the current governance advantages into full play regardless of the interference from a conceited and lying Pompeo and his followers.

Courtesy: Global Times

By Shiran Illanperuma Xinhua

The island nation is facing the temporary loss of markets in the US and Europe, says Atchuthan Srirangan of First Capital Holdings

COLOMBO, March 13 (Xinhua) — The Sri Lankan economy may experience external shocks due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with tourism, garment manufacturing, and tea exports to be the hardest hit, a local expert said here Friday.

Atchuthan Srirangan, Assistant Manager – Research for Investments at investment management company First Capital Holdings, said that the Colombo Stock Exchange this week had dropped at a similar pace as foreign markets, partially fueled by fears caused by COVID-19.

These external shocks are reflected in the Sri Lankan market. We have been seeing foreign sell-offs the whole year in companies related to tourism, garments, and banks,” Srirangan said.

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector and garment exports would face challenges due to their reliance on western markets, and reduction of demand in Europe and North America, Srirangan said.

Travel restrictions have put the tourism sector’s earnings on a downward trend, therefore the stock price of some major companies may see a drop,” Srirangan said.

The bright side for the tourism sector is that the off-season begins this month, so the worse damage should be behind us,” he added.

Sri Lanka’s tea exports may also face challenges due to the reduction of global oil prices which may reduce the foreign currency earning of major Sri Lankan tea importers in the Middle East, Srirangan said.

On a positive note, Srirangan assessed that China is on track to make a full economic recovery, providing space for other countries to follow suit.

Countries such as China and Singapore took swift action which may have had short-term economic impacts but allowed swift recovery,” Srirangan said.

Sri Lanka’s decision to temporarily close schools and quarantine visitors coming from COVID-19 affected countries will hopefully have a positive effect,” he added.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

For two weeks, no visas for people coming from Europe

Colombo, March 14 (newsin.asia) The Sri Lankan government has decided to study how China has been able to control the COVID-19 epidemic. This is one of the several decisions taken on by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at a meeting of top officials here on Friday to discuss measures to check the spread of the deadly virus.

At present, China has successfully controlled the spread of COVID-19. China had given high priority to manage the social behaviours in a way that contributed to the effective control of the disease. Officials were advised to study the methods extensively that China has practised in this regard, a Presidential press release said.

The President Gotabaya instructed officials to suspend issuing visa to people from European countries for 2 weeks. It has also been decided to quarantine every Sri Lankan arriving from Europe for 14 days.

It has been decided to restrict public gathering and functions to the maximum possible extent.

The President stressed the importance of using electronic, print and social media to educate people about the disease but not to create a state of social confusion

It has also been decided to disinfect buses and trains used for public transportation from Saturday. The security forces will provide assistance in this regard.

President said to establish the task Force at a permanent location and take decisions following gathering of information. Steps have also been taken with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO) to expedite the diagnosis process, President observed

The progress of the investigations launched to identify people who were in contact with the two COVID – 19 patients who are currently undergoing medical treatments at Infectious Diseases Hospital and their quarantine process were discussed in detail. President issued directives to inquire about the places they visited and people they associated with and guide them for quarantine process.

It has been decided to restrict public gathering and functions to the maximum possible extent.

President said to establish the task Force at a permanent location and take decisions following gathering of information. Steps have also been taken with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO) to expedite the diagnosis process, President observed.

President Rajapaksa said that the WHO agreed to extend its cooperation towards the continuation of measures already taken by Sri Lanka to thwart further spreading of the disease.

During the meeting, the attention was drawn to regulate the distribution process of face masks in a manner that it could be purchased from anywhere. The President also advised the officials to facilitate the purchase of face masks at a controlled price. It was noted at the discussion that the firms, which can make 150,000 face masks daily, have been identified.

By Tasha Wibawa Courtesy ABC News

PHOTO: The Australian Therapeutic Goods Association does not approve products to be sold as “skin lightening”. (Supplied: Krisantha Weerasuriya)

A “skin lightening” product advertised as made in Australia, which is being sold in South Asian countries including Sri Lanka and Myanmar, has been slammed by experts and labelled “unethical”.

Key points:

• The packaging of the product is advertised in Myanmar and Sri Lanka as “skin lightening”
• Listed medicines in Australia cannot be sold for “skin whitening/lightening”
• The Department of Health does not consider the use of glutathione for skin lightening purposes

The product, called Facia Premium, has “Made in Australia” on its label and an “AUST L” number which corresponds to a listing in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG).

Under therapeutic goods laws, Australian companies are not allowed to sell or export a listed medicine making the claim of “skin lightening”.

“During the listing process for new listed medicines, sponsors can only choose from a list of permissible indications … This list does not contain any indications referring to ‘skin lightening’ or ‘skin whitening’,” a spokesperson from the Department of Health said.

PHOTO: The ABC understands the products are being sold in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. (Supplied: Krisantha Weerasuriya)

The listing in the ARTG says the capsules are a health and beauty supplement, which can be sold as a product that “maintain[s]/support[s] skin health” among many other potential benefits.

However, the product for sale in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and on eBay is being sold as a “skin lightening formula”.

The packaging shows a Caucasian womanand an Australian flag with the words “Made in Australia”.

An advertisement of the product on the Facia Sri Lanka Facebook page from 2018 also shows the same packaging alongside “best skin lightening solution” underneath an Australian flag logo which reads “a quality product from Australia”.

YOUTUBE: Facia Premium Skin Lightening Formula advertisement translates to, “be fair, with no fear”.

Australian company Zifam Pinnacle Pty Ltd, which markets Facia in Australia, and Contract Manufacturing & Packaging Services Pty Ltd (CMPS), which manufactures Facia products, are both featured on the packaging of the Facia Premium capsules for sale in Asia.

A representative of Zifam in Australia told the ABC the items were packaged in Australia and sent overseas.

The ABC sent a series of questions to both companies, Zifam and CMPS, but has not yet received a response.

‘Made in Australia’ respected overseas

PHOTO: Facia Premium is being sold in Myanmar. (Facebook)

Ken Harvey, associate professor at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, told the ABC the product was “unethical” and “misleading”.

Items made in Australia, particularly supplements or pharmaceuticals, are respected overseas as they are often perceived to be “high quality” products, he said.

PHOTO: The Facia Premium sachet sold in Sri Lanka says “Australian owned and Australian made”. (Supplied)

“It’s exporting a white Australia policy [that] pushes a racist idea that beauty is equated with white skin, fuels intolerance of dark skinned people, causes social harm and wastes consumers’ money,” Dr Harvey said.

The product suggests it uses a “glutathione complex”, which is a controversial antioxidant found in plants, animals and fungi with skin-lightening claims.

Dr Harvey said there was “limited scientific evidence” to support the claims made about glutathione.

“There have been a very small number of studies on glutathione on a small numbers of patients, not well conducted and not replicated … we don’t regard that as conclusive evidence,” he said.

PHOTO: The TGA does not consider the use of glutathione for skin lightening purposes. (Facebook)

A Health Department spokesperson said, “the TGA has not considered the use of glutathione for skin lightening/whitening purposes. There has been no application for this indication to be considered for inclusion as a permissible indication.”

Dr Harvey and Sri Lankan public health expert Krisantha Weerasuriya filed an official complaint to the TGA in February, listing four products by the same distributor, Zifam Pinnacle.

PHOTO: The back of a Facia Premium sachet saying “made in Australia”. (Supplied)

“These products rely on widely held prejudices. They are very popular in Sri Lanka due to false marketing,” Dr Weerasuriya, a professor emeritus from the University of Colombo and former WHO CEO in Sri Lanka, told the ABC.

“This promotion brings Australia’s reputation into disrepute. These products … must be removed.”

Pharmaceutical companies are only able to promote the benefits of listed medicines from a list of pre-approved “indications”, and while not tested by the TGA prior to going to market, sponsors must hold information to substantiate all of their product’s claims.

There are approximately 12,000 medicines listed on the ARTG at any one time and more than 1,000 are newly listed each year.

In 2017–18, the TGA conducted 243 post-marketing compliance reviews, of which 53 per cent were found to have had a compliance breach.

‘Everyone will try anything’

PHOTO: Experts say skin whitening products are a part of everyday life for many women in Asia. (Flikr: Adam Jones)

For some who do not know any better, the trust in the “Made in Australia” label is a big selling point.

“Tell me where I can get [the product] so I can buy it,” Jeannie Cruse, a Sri Lankan Australian told the ABC.

“I’ve tried everything [but] I do more natural stuff.”

While Ms Cruse said more Sri Lankans should embrace their “beautiful dark skin”, she also said she felt a “fair face looks more clear, neat and is better looking”.

“So that’s why Sri Lanka is probably a good market because everyone will try anything,” she said.

Samanthi Gunawardana, senior lecturer of gender and development at Monash University, told the ABC there was great value placed on fairness in South Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka, although people won’t necessarily say it out loud.

PHOTO: Jeannie Cruse says more Sri Lankans should embrace their “beautiful dark skin”. (Supplied: Jeannie Cruse)

“Skin whitening products and services are ubiquitous in Sri Lanka as in a lot of parts of Asia,” she said.

“It’s a part of everyday life particularly for women. There is a cultural norm that being fair is seen to be more beautiful.

“Your price value is essentially attributed to your skin colour.”

Dr Gunawardana said the prejudice and discrimination based on skin colour, particularly in Sri Lanka, has “complex” colonial and racist undertones.

“The basis is around the complexity regarding gender, the norms around payments for women … the history of colonialism and how war and conflict can impact the way we see things, like skin colour,” she said.

However, there was a strong pushback, particularly from younger women in the country.

“Many women have started movements, for example that brown skin is youthful, very similar to black is beautiful. So trying to reframe that argument … that unless you have fair skin you’re not seen as a valuable person in more ways than one,” Dr Gunawardana said.

Courtesy Island

* Visas to Europeans suspended
* Lankans coming from Europe to be quarantined
* Universities closed until further notice
* England cricket tour called off

March 13, 2020, 10:12 pm

Sri Lanka, yesterday, (13), informed airlines to immediately stop bringing in passengers from Italy, South Korea and Iran until further notice.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) made the request on behalf of the government as it struggled to cope with several hundred Sri Lankans quarantined at the Batticaloa Campus and Kandakadu rehabilitation centre in the East.

In addition, the government suspended the issuance of visas to Europeans for a period of two weeks, a spokesperson for the Presidential Secretariat said. The official also said that those Sri Lankans returning from Europe too should undergo 14-day quarantine at stipulated locations. Instructions in that regard were issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a meeting at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.

At the meeting chaired by the President, it was also decided to restrict large gatherings of people as well as events as much as possible.

The government also announced the closure of Universities for a period of two weeks with immediate effect.

It also declared the countrywide closure of pre-schools until further notice as a precautionary measure.

Following consultations, the England cricket team’s Sri Lanka tour was also called off.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment said that approval wouldn’t be granted to Sri Lankans leaving for overseas employment until further notice.

Skills Development, Employment and Labour Relations Ministry spokesman Sarath Kalugamage yesterday told The Island that on the instructions of Minister Dinesh Gunawardena Vocational Training Authority (VTA), Ceylon-German Technical Training Institute (CGTTI), National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) and Department of Technical Education and Training (DTET) had been closed also for a period of two weeks.

Power and Energy Ministry announced that instructions were issued yesterday regarding foreign travel by officers of the Power and Energy and Transport Ministries. The ministry said that foreign travel wouldn’t be allowed unless essential (SF)

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Army says that it has enabled two more new Quarantine Centres operational at Kahagolla and the Diyatalawa Army Base Hospital starting from yesterday (12).

Issuing a statement, the Army stated that Sri Lankan expatriates and a few South Korean nationals have been accommodated at the improvised Kahagolla Quarantine Centre and the newly-built Diyatalawa Army Base Hospital Quarantine Centres.

These quarantine centres were set up under the directives of Commander of the army, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.

An eight-member medical team has already completed basic quarantine procedures on them after examining each and every inmate as of last evening (12), the Army said.

A special medical team, headed by Colonel (Dr) Shaveen Semage, Deputy Director, Preventive Medicine & Mental Health Services of the Army who is also the overall in charge of the quarantine process, at Punani, Kandakadu, Kahagolla and Diyatalawa, would closely coordinate the entire operation and advise accordingly.

Troops of the Security Force Headquarters – Central, commanded by Major General Laksiri Waduge are assisting the emergency project through their coordination and provision of other facilities, the statement read further.

Courtesy Adaderana

Director-General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe confirms that three more patients who had contracted the Coronavirus (COVID-19) have been identified in Sri Lanka.

One of these patients is a 41-year-old Sri Lankan male who had arrived from Germany. He has been admitted to the IDH Hospital. 

The other two patients are from the group of people who had been quarantined at the facility in Kandakadu.

One of them is a 37-year-old who had arrived from Italy and was placed under quarantine at Kandakadu upon arriving in the country. He is currently being treated at the Polonnaruwa Hospital. 

The other is a 43-year-old male who had also arrived from Italy. He is being treated at IDH.

This brings the total number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in Sri Lanka to five, the Government Information Department said. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Several firm decisions have been taken under the guidance of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to combat COVID -19 in the country, the President’s Media Division said. 

Measures initiated by the Government since January have been instrumental in preventing the disease coming into the country. Sri Lanka is in the forefront among the few countries that established a task force to tackle this global health threat,” it said.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed officials to take every necessary action to develop and maintain this positive trend and to safeguard the well-being of the people in the country during a meeting on preventing the spread of COVID – 19 held at the Presidential Secretariat today (13).

President explaining the current global situation said the virus is rapidly invading many countries in Europe. The situation is rather serious in some countries such as France and Italy. Considering this development, President instructed officials to suspend issuing visa to people from European countries for 2 weeks.

It has also been decided to quarantine every Sri Lankan arriving from Europe for 14 days.

The progress of the investigations launched to identify people who were in contact with the two COVID – 19 patients who are currently undergoing medical treatments at IDH and their quarantine process were discussed in details. President issued directives to inquire about the places they visited and people they associated with and guide them for quarantine process.

It has been decided to restrict public gathering and functions to the maximum possible extent.

President said to establish the task Force at a permanent location and take decisions following gathering of information. Steps have also been taken with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO) to expedite the diagnosis process, President observed.

President Rajapaksa said that the WHO agreed to extend its cooperation towards the continuation of measures already taken by Sri Lanka to thwart further spreading of the disease.

During the meeting, the attention was drawn to regulate the distribution process of face masks in a manner that it could be purchased from anywhere. The President also advised the officials to facilitate the purchase of face masks at a controlled price. It was noted at the discussion that the firms, which can make 150,000 face masks daily, have been identified.

It has also been decided to disinfect buses and trains used for public transportation from tomorrow, (14). The security forces will provide assistance in this regard.

At present, China has successfully controlled the spread of COVID-19. China had given high priority to manage the social behaviours in a way that contributed to the effective control of the disease. Officials were advised to study the methods extensively that China has practised in this regard.

President Rajapaksa pointed out that the current situation should be used as an opportunity to experiment the possibility of continuing services provided by state institutions as well as conducting school and university studies resorting to internet.

The President stressed the importance of using electronic, print and social media to educate people about the disease but not to create a state of social confusion.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Western Province Governor, Dr. Seetha Arambepola, Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Secretary Ministry of Health Mrs. Bhadrani Jayawardena, Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe and state officials attended in the meeting.

Courtesy Adaderana

A second person in Sri Lanka has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of presumptive coronavirus cases in the country to two.

The Government Information Department stated that another individual who had reportedly stayed with the first Sri Lankan patient diagnosed with the virus, who is currently admitted at IDH Hospital, has also now tested positive for coronavirus.

Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe states that it has been confirmed that this 44-year-old man had tested positive for coronavirus and that he too is currently receiving treatment at the IDH Hospital in Angoda. 

He said that the patient had been admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) last evening (11) and that today he was identified as a COVID-19 patient. 

Dr. Jasinghe stated that both he and the previously identified coronavirus patient had shared a room at a hotel in Dambulla at one point and also that they are both employed as tour guides.

He added that the Epidemiology Unit has already commenced investigating into the places visited by the new patient and the people he had met and came into contact with.

Dr. Jasinghe stated that this patient is therefore the second coronavirus patient in Sri Lanka.

He said that the Ministry of Health is gradually implementing every necessary step with regard to controlling the spread of coronavirus in the country and therefore it is unlikely that there will be any effect on the day-to-day lives of the general public.