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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).
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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 8th 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
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
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
* 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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
I am writing to you from Bergamo, Italy, at the heart of the coronavirus crisis. The news media in the US has not captured the severity of what is happening here. I am writing this post because of each of you, today, not the government, not the school district, not the mayor, each individual citizen has the chance, today to take actions that will deter the Italian situation from becoming your own country’s reality. The only way to stop this virus is to limit contagion. And the only way to limit contagion is for millions of people to change their behavior today.
If you are in Europe or the US you are weeks away from where we are today in Italy.
I can hear you now. It’s just a type of flu. It only affects old people with preconditions”
There are 2 reasons why Coronavirus has brought Italy to its knees. First, it is a flu, is devastating when people get really sick they need weeks of ICU – and, second, because of how fast and effectively it spreads. There is a 2 week incubation period and many who have it never show symptoms.
When Prime Minister Conte announced last night that the entire country, 60 million people, would go on lockdown, the line that struck me most was there is no more time.” Because to be clear, this national lockdown is a hail mary. What he means is that if the numbers of contagion do not start to go down, the system, Italy, will collapse.
Why? Today the ICUs in Lombardy are at capacity – more than capacity. They have begun to put ICU units in the hallways. If the numbers do not go down, the growth rate of contagion tells us that there will be thousands of people who in a matter of a week? two weeks? who will need care. What will happen when there are 100, or 1000 people who need the hospital and only a few ICU places left?
On Monday a doctor wrote in the paper that they have begun to have to decide who lives and who dies when the patients show up in the emergency room, like what is done in war. This will only get worse.
There are a finite number of Drs, nurses, medical staff and they are getting the virus. They have also been working non-stop, non-stop for days and days. What happens when the Drs, nurses and medical staff are simply not able to care for the patients when they are not there?
And finally for those who say that this is just something that happens to old people, starting yesterday the hospitals are reporting that younger and younger patients – 40, 45, 18, are coming in for treatment.
You have a chance to make a difference and stop the spread in your country. Push for the entire office to work at home today, cancel birthday parties, and other gatherings, stay home as much as you can. If you have a fever, any fever, stay home. Push for school closures, now. Anything you can do to stop the spread because it is spreading in your communities – there is a two week incubation period – and if you do these things now you can buy your medical system time.
And for those who say it is not possible to close the schools and do all these other things, locking down Italy was beyond anyone’s imagination a week ago.
Soon you will not have a choice, so do what you can now.
The US embassy Colombo is repeatedly saying $480m is a gift & not a loan from the US to the People of Sri Lanka but then insists on signing an agreement & having it passed in Parliament, affording US troops, personnel & contractors immunity and complete waiver of all forms of taxes & levies while section 5.4 has a Late Payment Interest!. MCC also requires Sri Lanka to bear project costs if MCC agreement projects are not complete. Though the MCC agreement is 5 years the economic corridor that was shown by MCC at Temple Trees envisages an electric railway line cutting across 7 districts & connecting Colombo Port with Trinco Port extending 200m & covering 1.2million acres which the railways can lease for 99 + 99 years. Has Sri Lanka factored the costs GoSL is likely to incur against the $480m ‘gift’ the US is trying to shove upon us by force? How much of this ‘gift’ returns to US in form of salaries/equipment etc purchased from them while questioning the direct & indirect costs the GoSL will have to bear in particular from waiving all forms of taxes & levies for 5 years? Thankfully the Gunaruwan Committee has factored these risks in recommending not to go ahead with the MCC in their supplementary report
Of the $480m – MCC is allocating $350 million for the transport project & $67million for the land project.
We are being presented the notion that the GoSL has sought the MCC presence, if so why should US Govt via its Colombo mission say $480m is a gift from the US to Sri Lanka & why would Sri Lanka’s parliament need to pass it?
There are plenty of foreign projects operating as BOI ventures and these are given tax holidays and other incentives as well.
MCC claims the Bim Saviya title registration will continue. The Bim Saviya tragically removes judicial role to adjudicate land frauds etc. Who will adjudicate land grievances when title registrations are given & land is acquired for MCC project. A new role granted to Commissioner of Title & an Assurance Fund for compensation is created by Bim Saviya.
The Commissioner of Lands says 50% of land deeds in Sri Lanka are frauds.
If this 50% frauds are entered into the electronic land registry, the judiciary cannot adjudicate because of Act 21 of 1998 Torrens Law (Bim Saviya). Who will hear the grievance of the original owner and will the owner be able to legally win back his/her property or will he/she have to make do with a compensation?
Contract for cadastral mapping to US company – Trimble Navigation at a cost of $154million. Is this money from the MCC gift” of $480m? If not, isn’t this a case of taking $480m from one hand & paying $154m to the other hand of the same party?
E-Land Registry also given to a US company – how much have we paid for this contract and is this too part of the $480m?
MCC Economic Corridor from Colombo Port to Trinco Port with an electric railway line that will cover some 1.2million acres calculated as 10miles (5miles left of railway line and 5miles right of railway line) into 200miles from Colombo to Trinco.
With privatization of State land & provision for foreigners to buy land and foreign investors to land and set up shop across the economic corridor there are also chances that any issues arising will end up with these transnational companies taking the GoSL to a foreign tribunal.
MCC Pre-condition outlined in the power point presentation made by MCC requires the GoSL to privatize all State land and place them under the State Land Bank and have that electronically accessible globally as well. All this fits into the end endeavor to make lands available to the foreign private sector for investments.
Procurement as per US guidelines – how compatible is that with Sri Lanka’s?
MCC will not have to pay any levies or taxes throughout the 5 year of MCC Compact.
MCC Section 2.6 (a) – GOSL is committing to providing ‘all funds & other resources’ and to take all other actions necessary to carry out the Government’s responsibilities when the grant is supposed to cover entire project?
US claims to be giving us a ‘gift’ but we have to give immunity to US troops, US personnel & US contractors – in other words even if any of these categories regularly runs over Sri Lankans and kills them, the Americans are given immunity. In all probability Americans get immunity even if they kill a fellow foreigner on Sri Lankan soil too.
MCC personnel in Sri Lanka for 5 years – their salaries, their accommodation, their perks, their maintenance, their health insurance etc, consultants – who is paying for this?
One of the most disturbing clauses in this ‘gift’ agreement is in Page12 Section 3.9 Intellectual Property: The Government grants to MCC a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, assignable right and license to practice or have practiced on its behalf (including the right to produce, reproduce, publish, repurpose, use, store, modify or make available) any portion or portions of Intellectual Property as MCC sees fit in any medium, now known or hereafter developed, for any purpose whatsoever”
MCC is only committing to digitalize only 10 of the 45 land registries – what about the 35 land registries – who is going to digitalize that and bear the cost for it?
There is another allegation that the Transport Project has been ‘stolen’ from the KOICA (Korean Aid to Sri Lanka) and all plans were with RDA and Koreans had done all ground work and drawn up plan to do the project with a concessionary loan. How far is this allegation true? Who knows & who will answer?
With the chances of transnational companies taking Sri Lankan Government to international tribunals for various issues – If Sri Lanka is ordered to compensate a foreign company – how will GoSL do so? There is an increasing trend of foreign companies taking sovereign governments to international courts & winning cases!
Another cost that GOSL must weigh is the likely displacement of some 4million people if foreign companies begin to take over the 200m economic corridor and demands they leave area. Where with GoSL relocate this 4million people. How will GoSL find them jobs? What is the cost for this?
How much of this $480m goes back to the US for their personnel/their equipment etc? (Cadastral mapping by US firm $154m / E-land registry to US company excludes cost of maintenance & changes to be paid in $$$)
How much expense is GoSL likely to incur throughout the 5years MCC is in operation?
How much will GoSL lose across 5 years by waiving all taxes/levies/duties which GoSL may have to pay?
Is this $480m worth it by creating a precedence against other foreign projects?
More importantly, when the country & people begin to face the heat as a result of land issues, displacement, lack of jobs etc is the GoSL up to facing the people?
Without properly presenting the people with the costs & legal clearance to assure Sri Lankan citizens that our constitution, our sovereignty & people’s human rights are not compromised GoSL cannot sign MCC
Shenali D Waduge
WHO declared COVID19 a pandemic. A pandemic is a global epidemic. Apart from a very few countries including Burma, nowhere is safe from the infection. Within 2 days SL recorded at least two patients. The health system is wholly inadequate to face this challenge. Infrastructure within hospitals is insufficient and the government does not have the funds to sustain a sustained campaign to attend to the infected.
Further, if widespread it will devastate poor families as their sole breadwinner will be put out of daily-wage work for a considerable time.
Even big business will come to a grinding halt if the spread is not contained.
These are the real dangers of the pandemic, not death rate which is low.
Government of SL must immediately close the airports to contain the situation. Many countries have taken drastic measures. The amount of foreign currency earnings lost is minute in comparison to the economic disaster that awaits. Sri Lanka has a natural sea barrier to save itself from epidemics. It is time to close all man-made entry points into the island for a month. China’s situation is now easing as the epidemic there is on the wane. The initial phase is the most dangerous and that is why the airport must be closed ASAP.
The event, Hiru Govi Sangraamaya -Thun Helayei Ranketh Udhaanaya” may be visited at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Own9TRzKUYw). A part of the title means Hiru farmer’s battle”. But what does Uddaana” mean? In Sanskrit, Uddaana implies the act of binding, fastening together”, while it also denotes the entry of the sun into a zodiacal sign. In Sinhalese Uddaana Kaavya”, refers to lyric poetry, while in Buddhist literature Udaana” refers to a type of joy”. Perhaps the organizers used words that they thought may imply re-invigoration while ignoring the usage in Sinhala and in mother languages.
A writer who greatly admired the event says that it is to encourage the younger generation to take up to traditional paddy cultivation”, and become a net exporter of higher quality organic rice”. The U-tube rendition claims that in the old days our vegetables, rice, and our own nishpaadhana” covered all our needs. One speaker becomes orgasmic about the smell of mud. The speakers preach an inward-looking, retrograde pastoral philosophy with no scientific or intellectual content.
This inward-looking approach wants the young villager to be satisfied with what the village can produce (its own nispaadhana”). However, the villager is expected to produce organic rice” for the elites who also need their French wines, German-made BMWs, American made Apple I-pads and Italian marble for their homes! The back-to-the traditional life” is only an exhortation for the poor, while the Elites have a very different set of aspirations with a hidden two-tier model of society that I have exposed before (https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/moving-from-conventional-farming-to-organic-farming-jumping-from-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire/).
There is not one word said about the actual problems of the farmer!
Why should the youth take up to farming when farmers commit suicide in droves? The lack of means of marketing, lack of pre-market storage, the need to constantly improve seeds, fight new pathogens, reduce erosion, retain soil fertility, need for more land and water, climate change, etc., are never mentioned. Why grow more paddy if 30-50% of the produce rots?
A one-sided tale is evoked (or made up) using nostalgic memories of a previous era. The tamasha is a deja vu” with the same type of politicians that plague the farmers in attendance. Surveying the historical aspect by a few well-known scholars like Dr. J. B. Disanayake is welcome. But the stark reality that transcends history to defeat the farmer MUST also be faced.
Farming families toiled from the crack of dawn to the end of the day to produce food for his masters, monks and themselves. In the night, farmers sat in the vaadiya” to oust pests, pigs and elephants. They had no time for education or leisure. Today too, the farmer toils for the loan sharks and the powerful politicians who control the market and finally commit suicide.
The marvelous hydraulic civilization that began in the Mahatheetha (Mannar) rice bowl of King Bhatiya, abandoned it for Anuradhapura, and then again for Poron-nuwara (Polonnaruwa). The irrigation tank was both the strength and the Achilles heel of those civilizations when faced with invaders. Besides invaders, the loss of N, P, K from the soil forced the farming regions to move.
The food situation in ancient times was precarious, in spite of occasional exports of rice. Many nations, e.g., Egypt, Lanka and Panjab claimed themselves to be the granary of the east”. However, historians like Professor Siriweera and others have discussed the actual precarious food situation that prevailed ( http://dh-web.org/place.names/posts/small-irrigation-tanks.pdf).
One admirer of the event described traditional paddy farming” as follows:
The only period that the paddy land is left fallow is for about a month following the harvesting. During that month the cut stumps of the paddy bushes are first allowed to dry and then flooded over weeks prior to the intended muddying using water buffaloes. This practice accelerates the decay of the Ipanella thereby creating its own natural compost containing N, P, K and other micronutrients within the liyadde”. The traditional farmer then prepares the wet soil ready for the spread of paddy seedlings using mamoties and wooden hoes as shown in that video… Then he hands spreads Geri katu pohora (powdered/crushed Cattle bones), mixed with crushed gendagam (Sulphur). By then the next seedling period of either the Yala or the Maha season is commenced.”.
Neither bone meal (Geri Katu”) nor Sulphur was used by the ancient farmers in Sri Lanka where cattle were not killed. Past edicts and stone inscriptions testify to the protection given, not only to cows but to other animals as well. With the need to feed Indian workers, the British restored tanks and rice cultivation. Ferguson’s directory, available from the 1830s, and archived records of imports show how 19th-century European agriculture based on bone-meal fertilizers, and pest control based on sulphur and arsenic were introduced to Sri Lanka. So, the attempt to revert to traditional farming” proposed by these Ran-keth speakers is nothing but reverting to 19th century British practices.
The ancient civilizations were in the dry zone. The dense forest of the wet zone, impenetrable without steel tools remained intact. The ancient dry zone farmer did not use composting or geri-katu”. Instead, he moved his farm from one Hena ( Chena”) to another, letting the parana-kumbura” and parana-hena” fallow for a period and burn the growth to yield some minerals. Today there is no land for such slash-and-burn methods.
No one should believe that the ipanel” (stumps of paddy bushes) provide the needed micro-nutrients to the soil to any extent. Also, too much recycling of ipanel”, straw and husk via composting is bad as plants accumulate metal toxins during growth. The straw may contain some 200 times more cadmium, arsenic or lead than found naturally in the soil. Putting it back to the soil should be done with caution.
The 19th-century practice of using sulphur, arsenic or red lead as pesticides is dangerous to human and environmental health. Organic-food activists militated against glyphosate (used in extreme dilution for a few days of the year by paddy farmers) but what about the sulphur of the traditionalist? Although not significantly present in the soil, water, or blood of farmers affected by kidney disease (See WHO study, 2014) the herbicide was banned! Activists like Venerable Ratana, Ms. Senanayake, and others championed for a so-called Toxin-free nation”. Ms. Senanayake is allegedly engaged in marketing organic rice via Hela saviya” or Hela suvaya”. Their agents attempted to sell their rice in Ontario, after claiming that Lankan rice contains arsenic, cadmium and such toxins unlike their own produce. Chemical analysis of the standard Lankan rice does NOT show higher levels of cadmium or arsenic when compared with other rice. Standard Lankan rice has a high amount of zinc. Zinc mitigates any bad effects, if any, from the traces of cadmium found in the rice. Sri Lankan rice is quite safe to eat, contrary to the propaganda of the organic-rice” bandwagon.
The need of the hour is not increasing the land under paddy, but returning the land back to forests, or to natural wetlands. The populations of pollinating insects, wild bees, etc. have dwindled drastically – a global phenomenon caused by human encroachment of wilderness. The farmed area can be REDUCED and yet the paddy harvest can be increased by saving the 30-40% destroyed by weevils etc., and by using modern technology, no-till agriculture etc (i.e, no mud, no erosion, less labor, and less water). The ultimate is to beyond the methods of the green revolution (see .https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/02/26/beyond-the-green-revolution-how-humanity-needs-cutting-edge-technology-to-save-itself).
In rural homes, the grain is stored in the Duma”, a shelf above the wood-burning kitchen fire. Dum” (smoke) keeps the grain relatively safe from humidity, weevils, insects, etc. The kitchen smoke pervades the interior. Additionally, a smoke pan (Dum Kabala”) is used against mosquitoes. Rice husk (Dahaiyya”) is often used for this purpose. The resulting heightened levels of nitric oxides, sulphurous fumes, acrolein like substances, sub-micron particulate dust, are often a thousand times higher than those gazetted in August 2008 (for PM10 and PM2.5). The rice husk may contain 200 times the cadmium present naturally in the soil. When it is burnt, such metal toxins are released into the air. Toxins are efficiently absorbed by the lungs, unlike from the gut. These rural homes have more particulate dust and noxious chemicals than busy Colombo streets (see Samarakkody et al. 2007, and Lankathilka et al. 2000). Allergies, asthmas (peenasa” and aeduma”) and weakened immune systems are the result.
The danger of air pollution is ignored by our politicians who invest in coal, LNG and other fossil fuels. Those who envisage the setting up of vast smokestacks (Dum madu) to store paddy are in the same league as those who believe in Dandu Monedra Flying machines” of yore.
The urban intellectuals want the youth to go back to the traditional villager with its tank and temple to produce the organic food for them, but the villager wants to escape manual labour and move to a city! The tank-temple-village model” is inapplicable to a 22 million population given the need to stop further habitat encroachment.
The speakers at the Hiru event make no mention of the yeoman contribution of Lankan scientists who created new, high-yielding, fast-growing hybrids from traditional seeds. They averted famines in Lanka with its post-WWII demographic bulge. Ranketh Udaanaya, if successful, may produce a miserable 1-1.5 metric tonnes of organic” rice per hectare for the elite, and hunger for the masses.
[The author was instrumental in initiating university courses in food science and in introducing course units on environmental studies during his tenure as a professor of chemistry, and President of the Vidyodaya campus -i.e., Sri Jayawardena Pura university -in the mid-1970s.]
Colombo, March 12 (newsin.asia): The following recommendations made by the Presidential Task Force were approved during the meeting held on 11.03.2020.
Request the public to refrain from undertaking overseas visits unless for essential purposes.
Temporary suspension of pilgrimages overseas.
Temporary suspension of issuing on arrival visas.
Increase the space available for quarantining,
Appeal to hotel owners for voluntary assistance by allowing the Government to use their hotels as quarantine centres, if the necessity arises.
Facilitate Army training centres to be used for this purpose.
Improve facilities at hospitals in urban areas.
Introduce a mandatory requirement for producing the certificate of quarantine, for Sri Lankans who have arrived from abroad, when they travel back to their countries of employment.
England were on Thursday night considering calling off their tour of Sri Lanka before an anticipated 3,000 supporters head to Galle for the first Test.
Hopes were fading that England could continue with a trip that is scheduled to feature two Tests — the first of which starts on Thursday. On Thursday night the ECB were waiting for guidance from the government but it was becoming increasingly likely that the team would be heading home.
England have already taken steps to be vigilant on this tour, from banning handshakes and having a two-metre ‘exclusion zone’ with media to then saying there would be no autographs or selfies with supporters.
+14
England have been considering calling off the tour of Sri Lanka before fans start to travel
On Thursday, Sri Lanka, which has remained largely untouched by the virus, stopped issuing visas to tourists and closed all schools for at least a month.
England had been hopeful of carrying on the tour before a rapid change of mood on Thursday. The biggest fear in Sri Lanka is that infected England supporters could accelerate the spread of the virus in a country where there have been just three reported cases.
The ECB were on Thursday night considering their options, including the possibility of playing the series behind closed doors, as India have decided to do for their one-day series against South Africa.
With England supporters set to travel this weekend to Galle for the first Test, an ECB spokesman said: ‘We are in regular contact with the Sri Lankan and British High Commission in addition to Sri Lanka Cricket around the Test matches.
England have taken measures already, including a two-metre exclusion zone with media
Zak Crawley made 105 in England’s final warm-up game ahead of Thursday’s first Test
‘At this stage the series is planned to continue but we want to stress that this is a highly evolving situation and circumstances are changing rapidly, sometimes several times a day.
‘We urge fans who are considering travelling to consult with the current British and Sri Lankan government advice and to continue to do this up until the point of travel and for the duration of the trip.’
If the series is called off, attempts will be made to rearrange it before June 2021 when the World Test Championship finishes, as these two Tests count towards it. Meanwhile Zak Crawley, 22, did his cause no harm with a classy century on Thursday.
It says everything for his rapid rise that his ton was only his fourth in first-class cricket. The Kent man looks better every time he goes to the crease for England and against a strong Sri Lanka Cricket President’s XI made 105 top-quality runs, impressing with his driving and use of his feet against the spinners.
England batted throughout the first day of their final warm-up game at the P Sara Oval with Crawley making 105 and captain Joe Root an unbeaten 90 in their 354 for three.
Crawley has now made 43, 91 and a century in his three innings here and on Thursday earned the approval of one of England’s best batsmen in subcontinental conditions, assistant coach Graham Thorpe.
‘We had heard good stuff about him,’ said Thorpe of a batsman who was handed his chance when Rory Burns was injured playing football in Cape Town.
‘This is my first winter around him but I’ve been impressed. Zak has good character, he’s easy to talk to about the game and wants to just keep progressing. The more he plays the more he’s learning and the hungrier he’s getting.’ This was a solid day’s practice for an England side who, with the exception of the rested Stuart Broad, are expected to make up the team for the first Test.
Crawley has now made 43, 91 and a century in his three innings in Sri Lanka
Crawley and Dom Sibley gave England another good start with an opening stand of 103, before Root and Ollie Pope, promoted to five above Ben Stokes, carried on where the Kent man left off with an unbroken stand of 175 for the fourth wicket. It left England on 354 for three at the close.
Only Joe Denly was a concern. He never looked comfortable and once more got himself in before getting out, this time for 26.
Back at home, Nottinghamshire have dropped Northamptonshire as pre-season opponents over health concerns. Northants are going to Singapore on Monday for a 12-day warm-weather training break, which prompted Nottinghamshire to scrap the fixture to avoid unnecessary risk to their own players and staff.
Joe Denly was a concern after he once more got himself in before getting out, this time for 26
Notts will now host Lancashire — one of several counties to have pulled out of overseas trips in recent days — with the match starting on March 30.
Somerset pulled out last night of their pre-season trip to Abu Dhabi, where they were due to play Worcestershire and Essex. The West Midlands club’s decision to abort their tour had left Somerset with just a two-day game against Essex on their schedule.
The Indian Premier League, which is scheduled to start on March 29, is likely to go ahead with matches behind closed doors.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa requested the heads of research organizations to find ways and means to uplift a small country such as Sri Lanka with a comparatively small population and an economy.
Since the current global economy is based on knowledge, ours should be developed centered around our workforce that can be easily trained, President observed.
President Rajapaksa made these observations during a meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat today (13) with Chairmen and Director Board members of state- sector research entities.
This is the fourth of the series of meetings organized to enlighten heads of government institutes on ‘Saubagyaye Dekma’ Policy Statement, stated president’s Media Division.
Heads of Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, National Science Foundation, Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies and Institute of Post-Harvest Technology were among the participants.
There is a visible breakdown in our political culture. The people of this country elected a person who was not a politician as their President with the hope of rectifying this. This is the challenge before me. The State sector has an enormous responsibility in fulfilling the aspirations of the people. If the public institutes function in an efficient manner we will not have any issue in carrying out our duties”, President Rajapaksa said.
The President emphasized that conducting comprehensive researches is crucial for economic development and said that his main objective is to ensure a higher standard of living for the lower segment of the society. He also said that the program to recruit 100,000 unskilled persons from the underprivileged families were designed to achieve this objective.
‘We are an agricultural country. But our farmers have always been poor. Second and third generations choose the agricultural field if it is the only option for survival. Modern technology should be introduced to this field to attract the new generation. India has successfully achieved results by doing so. Researchers should introduce new technologies to agriculture in order to free the underprivileged people from poverty’, President Rajapaksa emphasized.
Explaining the role and responsibilities of the research institutes, the President said it is imperative for researchers to identify accurately what our people need. Researches need to be done to introduce new techniques to the agricultural sector as well as to the fisheries sector. Even though we have many problems with the use of chemical fertilizers, we still haven’t been able to shift to use organic fertilizer. When considering the fisheries sector, researches can be used to identify areas where fish are abundant. President pointed out that the results of researches should be socialized as a product.
Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Ministry Secretaries and other senior officials were also present at the meeting.
Commander of Army Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, issuing a special statement, urges the public not to panic over misleading rumors regarding the coronavirus.
It has been observed that the public is currently attempting to buy large quantities of food and other goods from supermarkets and shops, said the Army Commander.
However, as shops only stock items needed for a day or two, buying large amounts of goods in one day might lead to shops running out of goods, he pointed out.
This might lead to a fear among the public that there is a shortage of goods, although this is not the case, Lieutenant General Silva added.
Stating that this behavior indicates panic among the citizens, Silva says that the President had requested him to brief the public on this matter.
Further speaking, the Army Chief points out that there must have been some misinformation that the public will be quarantined into their homes.
However, the government has not arrived at such a decision as of yet, he added.
If such a decision is taken, the public will be warned beforehand, assured Silva.
සමඟි ජන බලවේගය පාර්ශ්වය සහ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ පාර්ශ්වය අදත් වෙන් වෙන්ව ප්රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡා පවත්වමින් පවතින අර්බුදය පිළිබඳ අදහස් පළ කළා.
All schools including Private and International Catholic schools under the Archbishop in the country would be closed from tomorrow to April 20 as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in the country, the Education Ministry said.
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.
This write-up is posted in Lankaweb with a view to further clarify the article that I posted in Lankaweb on 10 March 2020, titled ‘Distortion of Our History’.
I reproduce from the Grade 6 and 10 textbooks where the history
is wrong or questionable (the Sinhala texts below):
Please note that the italicized texts are my own comments.
Currently, there are 5 history textbooks used by students. They are distributed free of charge by the government to all Sri Lankan schools (Grades 6 -10).
Chapter 4.1 of the Grade 6 book – is all about commencement of the Sri Lanka’s human settlement:
Heading – ශ්රී ලංකාව ජනාවාස වීම (page 30)
In the introduction it states(page 30),
ඕනෑම රටකට පැමිණ පළමුවෙන් මෙහි පදිංචි වීම හඳුන්වන්නේ ඒ රට ජනාවාස වීම යනුවෙනි. දුපතක් වූ අපේ රටට මුලින්ම මිනිසුන් පැමිණියේ මීට අවුරුදු එක්ලක්ෂ විසිපන්දහසකට පමණ ඉහත කාලයකදීය. ඔවුන් එසේ පැමිණ තිබෙන්නේ දුරු රටක සිටය (means not India). ඔවුහු අපේ ආදිතම මුතුන් මිත්තෝය (so, Vijaya is out). දිගු කාලයක් තිස්සේ මේ රටේ ජීවත් වෙමින් ඔවුන් මේ රට දියුණු කල ආකාරය (note, මේ රට දියුණු කල ආකාරය; so, existence of an organized political/administrative system?) පිළිබඳව මෙම පාඩමේ දී ඔබට ඉගෙන ගැනීමට අවස්tථාවක් ලැබෙනු ඇත (the first universally recognized advanced, human settlement is Indus Valley (current day Pakistan), followed by Mesopotamia (current day Egypt), they existed only about 5000 years ago).
Summary of this Chapter (in page 32)
Chapter 4.2 heading- Vijaya is mentioned in the Grade 6 book as follows (page 33):
විජය රජුගේ පැමිණීම සහ ජනාවාස ව්යාප්තිය (note ව්යාප්තිය – so, not the commencement of settlement by Vijaya, but the expansion of the already existing homo sapien settlement by him – this is very significant. This is contrary to what was enunciated in Mahavansa/Paranavitana.
Summary of this chapter (page 35):
(In Archeology, over thousands of years hunter-gatherer societies evolve into agrarian societies (this is Neolithic demographic transition). A society cannot be both hunter-gatherers and agrarian at the same time. Next stage is the Industrial society. It has always been accepted that Kuweni and her clan were hunter-gatherers).
Chapter 2 of the grade 10 book – Heading – ශ්රී ලංකාව ජනාවාස වීම (page 10)
In the introduction it states (page 10),
ශ්රී ලංකාව මිනිස් වාසයක් බවට පත් වුයේ මීට අවුරුදු එක් ලක්ෂ විසිපන්දහසකට පමණ ඉහත කාල වකවානුවක දීය. ඉන්දියානු සාගරය හරහා මෙහි පැමිණි නුතන මානවයා (නුතන මානවයා that we know of is Balangoda Manawakaya – he existed about 30000 years ago), නමින් හැඳින්වෙන හෝමෝසපියන්වරු එසේ මෙරටට සංක්රමණය වුහ. එතැන් පටන් ඔවුහු මෙරට විවිධ ප්රදේශවලට පැතිර යමින් ඒ ඒ පළාතවල තිබෙන පරිසර ස්වරුපවලට හැඩ ගැසුනහ (this is not what Mahavansa/Paranavithana say). සැලකිය යුතු තරමේ දීර්ඝ කාලයක් ඔවුන් මේ රටේ ජීවත් වීම නිසා කාලානුරූපව ඔවුන්ගේ සංස්කෘතිය ද සකස් විය (සංස්කෘතිය – means, a distinct culture?). සංස්කෘතියේ සිදුවූ එම වෙනස් කම් පදනම් කොට ගෙන ශ්රී ලංකාවේ මනුෂ්ය පැවැත්මේ ඉතිහාසය අවධි තුනකට බෙදා තිබේ.
Summary of this Chapter (page 29) –
Chapter 3 of the Grade 10 book (page 31) – Heading – ශ්රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන බලය විකාශනය වීම
In the introduction it states (page 31),
විජය කුමරු මෙහි පැමිණීමට පෙර මෙරට ජනාවාස පැවති බව පුරාවිද්යාත්මක සාක්ෂිවලින් තහවරු වී තිබේ. ක්රිස්තු පූර්ව 2400 තරම් ඈත කාලයක සිට මෙරට කෘෂිකාර්මික සමාජයක් දියුණු වෙමින් පැවතී බව බෙරගල, හල්දුම්මුල්ල ආදී ප්රදේශවලින් සොයා ගෙන තිබෙන පැරණි සොහොන් බිම් වලින් තහවරු වී ඇත (how could cemeteries provide evidence about the existence of a developing agricultural society? Furthermore, for credibility purposes, international sanctioning is needed for these fresh findings – acceptance by internationally acclaimed archeologists/anthropologists, published articles in world renowned archeology/history journals etc are helpful to make the final determination – this is how Paranavitana et al operated). එවැනි සමාජයකට අවුල් වියවුලින් තොරව පැවතීමට නම් ඒ සමාජය පාලනය් වීමට කිසියම් ක්රමයක් තිබිය යුතුය. එහෙයින් මෙරට සමාජයේ දේශපාලන බලය දියුණු වීමේ ඉතිහාසය විජය කුමරුන්ගේ පැමිණීමට පෙර වකවානුවට අයත්ය (so there was an established political system prior to Vijaya’s arrival. This is also assisting LTTE, Wigenswaran – because they then blatantly claim that those people were Tamils).
Chapter 4 of the grade 10 book (page 44) – Heading – ශ්රී ලංකාවේ පැරණි සමාජය
In page 56 it states that බුදු දහම මෙරට මුල්බැසගත් අවධියේ අනුරාධපුර නගරය සහ ඒ අවට බ්රාහ්මණ ජන කණ්ඩායම් වාසය කල බවට සාක්ෂි ලැබී තිබේ. ඔවුහු හින්දු භක්තිකයෝය…. වෙළඳාම සඳහා ශ්රී ලංකාවට පැමිණි දෙමල ජාතික වෙළෙන්දන් ගැන මෙරට පැරණිතම සෙල් ලිපිවල සඳහන්ය. ….ක්රිස්තු වර්ෂයෙන් හත්වන සියවස වන විට මෙරට ප්රධාන වරායන් ආශ්රිතව සැලකිය යුතු තරමේ දෙමල ප්රජාවක් වාසය කළහ. (these seem to be new findings; thus prior to submitting them in the student books, comprehensive discourse about them ought to have taken place among the country’s intellect – including the clergy. .
In point 7 summaries (page 61), it states;
බුදු දහම හැරුණු විට කාලයෙන් කාලයට වෙනත් ආගමික අදහස් ද මෙරට සමාජය තුල පැතිරී ගියේය. ශ්රී ලංකාව දුපතක් වීමත් ඉතා ඈත කාලයක සිට ඉන්දියානු සාගරයේ වෙළඳ කටයුතුවලට සක්රීය ලෙස සහභාගී වීමත් යන කරුණු පදනම කොට ගෙන වෙනත් ආගමික අදහස් මෙරට ව්යාප්ත විය (if other Indian religions arrived in Sri Lanka, what are they? This is also assisting LTTE, Wigenswaran – because they claim that that religion is Hinduism. The history that we have learned is that upon King Devanampiyatissa became a Buddhist, the whole country became Buddhist (100%). Basically this was the case until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505).
_________
Today, do we have 60% Buddhists in the country? – doubtful.
In another 50 years …..40%?
Finally, these textbooks were published in 2015. I have been told that the history stipulated in the earlier versions was much different. Those textbooks had positively and comprehensively dealt with the arrival of Vijaya/Ven Mahinda/Ven Sangamitta to Sri Lanka, recognized Mahavansa as an authentic, primary source of history, constantly emphasized that Sri Lanka was built on a Sinhala, Buddhist foundation. I believe the earlier books did not mention about homo-sapiens and that they ran an elaborate civilization in Sri Lanka. I have also been told that the focus of the earlier books had been that for the student to bear in mind that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala, Buddhist country. It is obvious (also enunciated herein) that these new books significantly deviate from those positions.
Dear friends and students,
In the past few weeks, I have been talking with many people who are concerned, anxious and even afraid of the spread of the coronavirus around the world. There is no doubt that this is a serious situation and we all need to listen to the advice of experts and follow their guidelines carefully. I would like to share with you some thoughts that I have been sharing with my close friends and students who are experiencing more than a normal level of anxiety.
Self- awareness
You need to pay close attention to your level of anxiety, attitude, and feelings. The way you overcome darkness is by spreading light. Feeling miserable about darkness will change nothing and do nothing to bring light. This is a moment we all need to make an effort to radiate love and light. Whenever the disturbing thoughts make your mind heavy, you have the power to influence, change or replace negative thoughts by intentionally guiding your mind to positive, peaceful and wholesome thoughts. Your feelings are influenced by your thoughts. So this is a good time to practice the power of being aware of and consciously choosing your thoughts.
Empower those who are in distress
When you are peaceful, thoughtful and compassionate your words can empower those who are afraid, lost or unhappy. See how you can become a positive influence and comfort to those who are in distress due to many real concerns about the effect of coronavirus by becoming a more compassionate person. When a positive response flows from you as you become aware of the pain and suffering of others, we Buddhists call that compassion. Compassion is the perfect light to remove the darkness of pain produced by sadness and worry.
Don’t allow polarized views to pollute your mind.
I would kindly remind you to be thoughtful as you listen to the news or watch TV. In a serious moment like this news organizations have an obligation to present the facts in a way so they do not disturb the peace of mind of individuals and do not spread fear. Sadly, that’s not always the case. Use common sense wisdom and your own fair-minded, unbiased judgment so that you can stay informed but undisturbed and positively motivated. It is absolutely necessary that you have the courage to say no and turn off the TV. Don’t allow others to instill fear, hopelessness or anger in your mind. Your peace of mind is a great gift you can now offer to the world.
May you be well, happy and peaceful.
With light and love,
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