BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The concept of a separate state is a confusing term to Sinhala and Tamil people in Sri Lanka and it is more complex and baffled term to Muslims too in the country.  The term separate state defines dictionaries and encyclopedia on the internet using the arguments had between Hindu and Muslim leaders before originated a separate country Pakistan.  The question is whether the concept separate state is applied or could be applied to Sri Lanka in relation to Tamil aspirations as it was applied to create Pakistan during the colonial era. I think the answer is impossible as Sri Lanka has no environment that was existed in India during the colonial era and there is no wish of Sinhala, or, Tamil or Muslim people in Sri Lanka.

Sinhala people have a question what is the meaning of Tamil aspirations in relation to the delegation of power to provinces? Does the idea of Tamil aspirations have a relationship to the term used to divide India and Pakistan during the colonial era? During the era of LTTE war, Norway and so-called Wester Peacemakers suggested indirectly a two-state solution to Sri Lanka using an example of Scandinavia as one country and two states of Norway and Sweden and the USA suggested Quami Nasiriya to Israel and Palatine. The Tamil aspiration does not mean by India for Sri Lanka as it would be a clear threat to the security of India and the international community to respect the stand of India to maintain a secure world without wars.

The concept of a separate state is not a simple idea that can be easily understood and the practical operations of separate states in the globe indicate that it is not an agreeable concept to all communities living in Sri Lanka relating to Tamil aspirations in Sri Lanka.  This is a complicated question, and ordinary Sinhala and Tamil people have no interest in talking about the Tamil aspiration as they have the struggle to make an economically affordable life in the modern electronic era.

When Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India, Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister of India mentioned the Tamil aspirations and I am sure that Mr. Modi did not mean a separate state as Tamil aspiration, but it meant the delegation of power to provinces as stated in the 13^th amendment of the constitution.  The conditions spelled out in the 13th amendments have already implemented in the country except for limited areas such as police power, land management, and other areas.  Tamil people living in Sri Lanka have no big deal about the devolution of power, but some who are living overseas use this issue as a big deal.

I read newspaper articles written by Sri Lankan experts’ views on Tamil aspirations and some experts mentioned that the constitution of Sri Lanka limits the authority to distribute power to provinces under the unitary format and to go beyond the 13^th amendment it needs constitutional change with the approval of people through a referendum and such an approval may not possible in the current political environment.

The concept of a separate state cannot be applied in Sri Lanka in a democratic framework and Prabakaran attempted by a bloodletting war with full knowledge that separate state for Tamils would not be possible in Sri Lanka as more than 80% of Sri Lankans believe the idea of Mahatma Gandhi on a separate state that “I find no parallel in history for a body converts and their dependents claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.”  However, some Tamil politicians are stuck with the idea of Mohamed Ali Jinnah and attempt to demand the pound of meat.

India clearly understands that a separate state in Sri Lanka for Tamils will be a threat to security not only for India but also for the Asian region.  In history, Sri Lanka had Ruhuna, Pihiti, and Maya, but they were not fully powered federal states and the Western invaders abolish such federal states as they strongly believed that such strong states will be a threat to the unity and the unitary system of Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lanka can delegate more power to provincial governments on a district basis with the authority of the central government to cancel the authority when district administration abuses the power.

Whatever changes made in Sri Lanka; the government needs more than a two-thirds majority in the parliament to expand the delegation of power.  In terms of the 13^th amendment the delegation of power is based on provincial basis and if the delegation of power would be based on district level more power beyond the 13^th amendment including police and land power could be granted to district councils and Neither Sinhala people nor Muslim people will object to such a delegation of power within a unitary form of state.

For the change of constitution needs more than three years as people needs to debate various aspects of power delegation and potential impacts on such a delegation. Most of the population is Sinhala and a large volume of Muslim community also disagree with power sharing which may create problems to them.

The priority of the government should be economic development as many people beyond the communal differences have economic predicaments and constitutional and power delegation are secondary matters to them. While economic development tasks are efficiently going on the constitutional matter could be considered and if the government gives the priority to constitutional and power delegation, there wouldn’t be a change and it might be achieved zero sum like yahapalana regime.

By Garvin Karunaratne,

It is hoped that our President’s attention is brought to the fact that our country was the only country in the world to  have a system by which the prices of veg and fruit was unofficially controlled. That was the Marketing Department(MD) at work, buying and selling vegetables and fruit, competing with private traders, keeping a low margin of around fifteen percent to cover up cost of transport and wastage in handling.

It would behove of our President to immediately order the Army to buy vegetables from the Producer Fairs, keep a margin of fifteen percent to cover cost of petrol and wastage and sell in the Cities. Traders keep at least a total of one hundred percent  at the buying place, at the wholesale dealer in Colombo and at the retailer’s place.

The Army was entrusted with this task in the days of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa in about 1998 and then the city was full of army lorries selling vegetables. I have seen them perform this yeoman service.

The Dambulla Economic Centre and economic Centers at many places- is not the answer, because as detailed in the Daily Mirror of 24/2 Take Immediate steps to control Veg prices: Pres. to Officials” because vegetables brought to Dambulla from the areas of vegetable cultivation are distributed back (for sale) to the original areas… these centers are controlled by large scale traders  with vested interests.” Once it was reported that the officer entrusted with the Dambulla Economic Center was severely assaulted.

It is traders that rule. When I once went to Dambulla and walked around, it was only traders. My incessant visits to producer Fairs  for over six years enables me to sniff producers from a fair distance. It will be a difficult task to find a Producer Fair in entire Sri Lanka not visited by me.

In 1955 when I joined the MD as an Assistant Commissioner we did work from small shanty type of  sheds- we called them Packing Sheds. They were all buildings built with timber, a cement floor and a corrugated cladding to keep off the rain and in a corner was housed the Assistant Commissioner working in the air and dust of onions and condiments. There were no DPJ Towers or Setsiripayas for us.  These were shed put up overnight to house the British Army when the Japanaese declared war.

In the MD,our work commenced at 4 AM in the mornings on at least four days a week, visiting Producer fairs and ensuring that we bought produce competing with the traders.

I include parts of my earlier writings, edited to avoid repetition in support.

(From:High Prices for Vegetables: Is there a remedy? Posted on January 19th, 2020 0

Once in the pre IMF days, in the days before Sri Lanka started playing poodle to the IMF Sri Lanka did have a method by which it controlled inflation.

That was the Marketing Department at work. There was a  scheme where the Marketing Department purchased vegetables at the producer fairs, brought the produce overnight to the cities and sold the produce keeping a very low margin of fifteen percent to cover up cost of transport and wastage. This Scheme which had been developed by Sri Lankan administrators and politicians was abolished on instructions from the IMF in 1978 when the Jayawardena Government caved in to the IMF. Since then it is the private sector traders that rule trade.

If only the Marketing Department  activities are restored, we can not only control inflation, but we can also reduce imports and also find employment for our people.

It is time that our new Government makes an initiative to re establish the Marketing Department activities- its vegetable and fruit marketing scheme and the Canning Factory. That will be a real achievement.

Inflation- Rising Prices is a major concern today. Sri Lanka had built up the infrastructure to control inflation. What we are seeing today-unbridled inflation, has been caused because we  did away with the infrastructure we had.

For the marketing of essential commodities, in my own words:

The Department for the Development  of Agricultural Marketing”¦ ensured that prices of all essential commodities were indirectly controlled and the traders were compelled to offer fair prices to the producers and the retail shop keepers were compelled to sell at fair prices to consumers.  This is a system that I have never seen elsewhere in the world’ ¦The motto of the Department was to pay the highest possible price to the producer and sell at the lowest possible price  to the consumer.( From: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka,”¦ (Godages: 2006)

 I was involved with the entire System because I was appointed Assistant Commissioner for the Development of Agricultural Marketing in 1955, and worked in the Ratnapura, Hambantota, Anuradhapura  Districts as well as was in charge of the Tripoli Market, the Headquarters of the Vegetable Marketing Scheme for a year in 1957.

 This System involved a Network of Retail Shops(Fair Price Shops) in every major city and a Vegetable  and Fruit Marketing Scheme involving purchasing, selling and processing   vegetables and fruits, a Scheme  that covered the entire island.

The entire island was covered by Assistant Commissioners in the Provinces and Marketing Officers posted in producer areas, who had to report the availability of produce, prices at the Fairs, and guide producers to plant varieties in demand.

The Marketing Department established Vegetable and Fruit Packing Sheds(actually purchasing units) in all producing areas. The name given was packing sheds and they were in many places in temporary buildings mostly made with timber. Even some Assistant Commissioners had their offices in these temporary buildings in 1955.

The entire Vegetable Marketing Scheme was administered from Tripoli Market, based in the largest hangar in the Colombo Goodshed.  One part of the Scheme was to purchase vegetables and fruits from producers who brought their produce to our Vegetable Packing Sheds. They were paid immediate cash. The Department was equipped with lorries that were sent to the chief  Producer Fairs in the producer areas. Thus there were mobile purchasing uints at all major fairs like Embilipitiya, Colombage Ara,  Bandarawela, Welimada, Kekirawa to mention just a few. These Purchasing Units comprised Marketing Officers and a staff of purchasing officers and labourers. The produce brought in was weighed and accepted from producers and they were paid cash immediately. The Assistant Commissioners of the Districts were required to visit all major fairs to ensure that the purchases were made regularly. When I worked in the Districts on most days my day commenced at four to get to the Fairs by six in the morning. Vegetables were purchased and packed and dispatched to Triploi by evening either by wagons(by trains) or by special lorry.

At Tripoli Market, the Assistant Commissioner  had a Marketing Officer at the Colombo Wholesale Market. His task was to report the prices at which the wholesale traders sold the produce to the retail traders and to report on the availability of produce. In the Districts, the Assistant Commissioners and the Marketing Officers had to report the prices at which private traders purchased vegetables and fruit.  Generally there was a wide gap between the prices at which the traders purchased goods and the prices at which the Wholesale Traders sold to the retail traders in Colombo. Based on these prices, the Assistant Commissioner at Tripoli Market decided the purchasing prices at which goods were to be purchased at the Fairs. This price was always above the prices offered by the traders who bought goods at the Fairs. This helped the producers and the traders at the Fairs too had to offer a similar price because otherwise they will be out of business.

On a daily basis Tripoli Market received around twenty wagon loads of vegetables and a similar number of lorries bringing in produce. These were checked and had to be in our Retail shops by ten in the morning.  Tripoli Market was a hive of activity from early morning.  Then the Railways ran a very efficient service and brought in produce in time.  For instance curd from Ridiyagama Farm in Hambantota was sent by lorry to Matara and came by night mail train to Tripoli. This was an item in high demand. The retail price we fixed for Ridiyagama Curd effectively controlled the prices of curd in private shops in Colombo.

The Assistant Commissioner at Triploi Market kept a very low margin to cover up cost of transport and handling and fixed a low price for sales to the consumers through the network of Shops. Generally the Marketing Department kept a margin of around 10 to 15% above the purchase price while the private trader at the Fair  kept a margin to 40 to 50% and the Whoelsale Traders too kept around 40% and further the retail trader too kept around 40%.  Thus while the private trader generally kept a margin of 100% or 120% over the purchasing price at the Fair, the Marketing Department kept a margin of 10% to 15%.  

The working of the Marketing Department  meant that the private traders at the Fairs and the Wholesale Traders as well as the Retail Traders in the cities had to be satisfied with a low margin.

The Marketing Department in the Fifties was headed by BLW Fernando, a Chartered Accountant and he would not allow any Assistant Commissioner to keep a higher margin than 15%. That was a rule to be followed. Every month all Assistant Commissioners had to attend a Conference where the Profit and Loss calculations were closely studied and the Commissioner would chastise all Assistant Commissioners that  had a profit of over 10% or incurred a loss.  We were expected to cover up, not to incur a loss or  to get a large profit.

This was the key method by which the prices of vegetables and fruits were kept in check. The Scheme has thus a dual aim- of offering the producer a fair price as well as offering the consumer a low price.  At times it was like walking on a rope but we got used to walk on it.

The Retail Shops had to be well stocked and full of goods otherwise the wrath of the Commissioner had to be faced.

A few years ago on one of my visits I found tomatoes being sold at forty rupees a kilo by a producer on the Mahiyangana Road, when the retail price in Colombo was around rupees eighty to one hundred, a margin of over hundred percent. This could not happen while the Marketing Department was at work. The Assistant Commissioners  were eternally traveling as they had to visit Fairs, inspect purchasing at the Fairs and the Vegetable Purchasing Depots, contact producers and offer advice on items on demand. Generally our traveling allowances exceeded our salaries.

Tripoli Marker had cold rooms where the excess produce could be stored.

This Vegetable Marketing & Fruit Marketingh Scheme  was very successful in ensuring that consumers in cities obtained vegetables and fruits at cheap rates. The Cost of Living was effectively kept in check.

 The Canning Factory

Local producers got a boost with the establishment of the Canning Factory in 1955. At that time Sri Lanka imported fruit juice and fruit from Australia and the task of the Canning factory was to produce fruit juice, jam and jellies. The Vegetable Purchasing Centers sent goods to the Canning Factory. At the initial stages in canning fruit juice many problems were faced and it took over a year to surmount them and get down to production for all Sri Lanka’s requirements. The Marketing Department offered  floor prices for pineapples, red pumpkin and ash pumpkin and producers benefited immensely. Floor prices meant that the Department will purchase everything offered at that price. Pineapple was tinned and even an export trade was built up. Assistant Commissioner Oswald Tilekeratne spread his wings abroad very often. Red Pumpkin was turned into Golden Melon Jam and Ash Pumpkin was turned into Silver Melon jam. The Factory activity made Sri Lanka self sufficient in fruit juice, jam and many other processed food within a few years.

The Marketing Department was called upon to attend to many tasks.

Once Sri Lanka was not self sufficient in eggs. The Marketing Department offered a floor price for eggs and Triploi Market collected eggs from the Negombo-Nattandiya area till Sri Lanka was self sufficient in egg production. Once Self sufficiency was  reached the scheme was disbanded.

With the abolition of the Marketing Department, and the privatization of the canning factory all this achievement was lost. That was the way in which the IMF crippled the development of the Third World and created a situation where we had to import our requirements from the Developed Countries.

Once the tomatoes producers at Hanguranketa made pandals of tomatoes in order to highlight their plight of not being able to sell their tomatoes. This could not have happened while the Marketing Department was functioning. To start with the Assistant Commissioner of the area would be held responsible. If that happened when I was in charge of The Tripoli Market I would have sent a few lorries and the entire stock of tomatoes would have been purchased within a few hours and it would have been turned into Tomatoe Sauce and Juice at the Factory. The MD had a fleet of over a hundred lorries. Today Spain produces tomatoe sauce, tomatoe juice, tomato paste and sun dried tomatoes for most countries in Europe. With a Tomatoe belt in Hanguranketa we cannot produce tomato sauce even for our requirements. Our climate had enabled a variety of crops. There is a mango belt from Anuradhapura to Matale. Even today if action is taken to pluck mangoes and process it, we can be self sufficient in all fruit juice within six months. The Chena cultivators will find sales for their Red Pumpkin,Ash Pumpkin and Melon. There is an Avacado belt from Peradeniya to Gampola and avacado juice can easily be made. The country will benefit by avoiding the millions spent on imports.

Following the liberalization free market economics of the IMF we  created a market for tomatoe sauce from the USA, and fruit juice from as far as Canada and Oregan in the USA.  Our producers have stopped producing large quantities for fear of being unable to sell and we have unemployment and our farmers have low incomes. The Colombo Supermarkets are full of Heinz Tomatoes sauce from the USA and fruit juice and jam from Australia.Even vinegar from the USA! The IMF did its work right to cripple development in our countries and for us to buy goods from the Developed Countries.  That was the Structural Adjustment Programme in action. (For more details: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development: Kindle & Godages) It is sad that we have   deaf, dumb and blind  economists who even fail to come to grips with how we were duped by the IMF.

I hope the Army will be enlisted for this task of marketing development. In President Trump’s USA the Army is widely used for irrigation, power station construction, even maintaining levees that keep the sea from flooding New Orleans. In my wide travel in the USA, clocking over 50,000 miles in my Roadtrek motorhome, crossing America thrice I have seen the Army at work doing non military duties on a regular basis. It is we fools that do not enlist the Army for development tasks. If at all we touch the army we call them to the barracks in a short while.

Let the Army experience of Van Sales, this time end with the establishing of a proper Marketing Department with a Cannery. The total cost of establishing a Cannery can be easily recouped in the very first year by the savings of foreign exchange we use today to import fruit juice and fruit preparations   Later on the Army venture can be handed over to a SLAS Department and the Army moved to another task- perhaps the reconstruction of our irrigation tanks.

Let me live in hope.

Garvin Karunaratne,

25/2/2020

For a full detail of MD activities, please read: Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka”, Godages, 2010

For details of how Sri Lanka was taken for a ride by the IMF, please read: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages :2017) and

How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages:2006)

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ

අද 2020/02/25 දින මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ජාවට සහභාගි වු නියෝජිතයින්
(පෙරවරු 10.30)

• වාරිමාර්ග හා ග්‍රාමීය සංවර්ධන රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා.
• සංවර්ධන බැංකු හා ණය යෝජනා රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ශෙහාන් සේමසිංහ මහතා.
• ශී්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අධ්‍යාපන සේවා සංගමයේ සභාපති වසන්තා හ`දපාන්ගොඩ මහත්මිය.

වාරිමාර්ග හා ග්‍රාමීය සංවර්ධන රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය මහින්ද යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා
අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ලකුණේ අර්බුදය මැතිවරණයට පෙර විසදා ගත නොහැකිව සිටින බවයි අපි දකින්නේ. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තුළ අර්බුද විසදාගන්න බැරිව, බලයට පත්වෙලා රටේ ගැටලූ වලට මුහුණදෙන්නේ කොහොමද කියන එක අද රටේ ජනතාවට ගැටලූවක් වෙලා තියෙනවා.
ජිනිවා යෝජනාව දේශද්‍රෝහි යෝජනාවක් ලෙසයි දකින්නේ. ශී්‍ර ලංකාව ස්වාධීන රටක් විදිහට මෙම යෝජනාවෙන් ඉවත් වීමයි සිදු කළ යුතු වන්නේ.
අද වෙන කොට රටේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය පහළම තැනකට ඇද වැටිලා තියෙන්නේ. ඒ පසුගිය රජයේ අනුවණ කි්‍රයාකාරකම් නිසායි. වී ගබඩාවල තිබු සහල් අඩු මිලකට සත්ත්ව ආහාර ලෙස ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට විකිණීමයි. එවැනි අනුවණ කි්‍රයා හේතුවෙන් මතුව ඇති ගැටලූවට විසදුම් සෙවිය යුතුයි. කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නගා සිටුවිය යුතුයි. අප කළ යුත්තේ කඩා වැටුන මේ රටේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නගා සිටුවීමයි. එයයි මේ රජයේ සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම වන බව මහින්ද යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා කියා සිටියා. සංවර්ධන බැංකු හා ණය යෝජනා රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ශෙහාන් සේමසිංහ මහතා වත්මන් රජය බලයට පත් වෙලා දින 100 ක් වෙනවා. මේ වෙද්දී මේ රටේ ජනතාව බලාපොරෝත්තු වු ආකල්පමය වෙනස ඇති කරලයි තිඛෙන්නේ. විශේෂ අවධානයක් යොමු කළ යුතු කරුණක් තමයි මේ රටේ නිතිය කි්‍රයාත්මක වන ප්‍රබල ආයතන වලට පසුගිය රජයේ දේශපාලන අතපෙවීම් සිදු කිරීම. ඒ තුළින් රටේ නිතී ආයතන වලට විවිධ බලපෑම් එල්ල වීම නිසා විවිධ සිද්ධීන් යටපත් වුනා. නමුත් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමා ප්‍රමුඛ රජය බලයට පත් වීමත් සමග අද නිතී ආයතන වලට ස්වාධීනව කටයුතු සිදු කිරීමට අවස්ථාව උදා වී තිඛෙනවා.
කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය නගා සිටුවීමට ගොවියාටත්, පාරිභෝගිකයාටත් සාධාරණයක් වන අයුරින් කටයුතු කිරීමට ගෝඨාභය රජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමා ප්‍රමුඛ රජය සැලසුම් සකස් කරමින් තිඛෙනවා. ඒවාගේම අඩු අදායම්ලාභී පවුල්වලට නිවාස ලබා දීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම යටතේ ඉතා පුඵල් ලෙස කි්‍රයාත්මකයි. නව රජය බලයට පත් වී බදු සහන විශාල වශයෙන් රටේ ජනතාවට ලබා දීමට කටයුතු කළා. වැට් බදු, ජාතිය ගොඩනැගීමේ බදු හා ආදායම් බදු පෙන්වා දිය හැකියි. මේ සියල්ල ජන වරමට ගරු කිරීමක් වශයෙන් ගත් කි්‍රයාමාර්ග බව කිව යුතුයි. වතුකම්කරුවන්ගේ දෛනික වැටුප ඉහළ දැමීම, උපාධිධාරී රැකියා විරහිත පිරිසට රජයේ රැකියා මෙන්ම 100000 ක් සදහා රැකියා ලබා දීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙල මේ රජයේ විසින් කි්‍රයාත්මක කළ එක් අංගයක් ලෙසයි අපි දකින්නේ. නමුත් පසුගිය රජය විසින් මහබැංකු මුදල් මංකොල්ලය මිස වෙන කිසිවක් රටේ ජනතාවට වෙනුවෙන් සිදු නොකළ බව පැහැදිලියි. ජනතාව මුලා කරමින් රට පහළම තැනකට පත් කිරීමයි පෙර පැවති යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව සිදු කළෙA. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය රටට ද්‍රෝහි වු පක්ෂයක් විදිහට ජනතාවට හදුන්වා දෙන්න පුඵවන්. පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයට වගකිව යුතු පිරිස නිතීයට හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරලා දඩුවම් ලබා දෙන බවට මේ රජය සහතික වෙනවා.

ශී්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අධ්‍යාපන සේවා සංගමයේ සභාපති වසන්තා හදපාන්ගොඩ මහත්මිය අද මේ රජය බලයට පත් වෙලා දින 100 ක් පිරීම බොහෝම අභිමානයෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරන්න කැමතියි. භෝඨාභය රජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම තුළින් රටේ විශාල වෙනසක් ඇති වෙලා තිඛෙනවා. නමුත් අද වන විට අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ගුරු සේවයේ විශාල ගැටලූවක් මතුව තිඛෙනවා වැටුප් විෂමතාව සම්බන්ධව. කියන්න කණගාටුයි ගුරු සේවයට ලැඛෙන වැටුප පොලිස් කොස්තාපල්වරයෙකු ලබා ගන්නා වැටුපකට වඩා අඩු මට්ටමකයි පවතින්නේ . මෙය පසුගිය රජය විසින් විවිධ චක්‍රලේඛත් නිකුත් කිරමින් වැටුප් කප්පාදු කිරිමක් සිදු කළා. ගුරු සේවය කියන්නේ ඉතා ඉහළම සේවයක් බව අප දන්නවා නමුත් පසුගිය රජය මේ ගැටලූවට කිසිදු පිළියමක් සිදු කළේ නැහැ. වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඇතුඵ බලධාරීන් එකට එක්ව මේ ගැටලූව සමතයකට පත් කරන බව ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියා. එළඹෙන මංගල අයවැයෙන් අධ්‍යාපනයට මෙන්ම ගරු සේවයට ඇති වු මේ ගැටලූව නිරාකරණයට අවශ්‍ය මුල්‍යමය ප්‍රතිපාදන වෙන් කරන බව එතුමන්ලා ප්‍රකාශ කරනු ලැබුවා.

චාර්ල්ස් පෙරේරා විසින් 

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩිව්  ගුණසේකර මහත්මයා එදා කෝප් කමිටුවේ  සභාපතිවශයෙන් පාරලිමේන්තුවට කෝප් කමිටු  වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කල දවසේ, ජනාධිපති මයිත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන පාරලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවාහැරියා. ඒ එම වාරතාවෙන් රනිල්ට සහ ඔහුගේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ සගයින්ට 2015 පෙබරවාරි මාසයේ 27 වනදා හා ඊට පසුවත් කල මහාබැන්කු මන්කොල්ලයෙන් ගැලවීමට ඉඩක්  නොතිබුන නිසා. 

ඊට පසුව සිරිසේන- රනිල් යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව පිහිටෙව්වට පස්සේ ඔවුන් ඩිව්  ගුණසේකර වාර්තාව පැත්තකට දාලා රනිල්ට පක්ෂපාති ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ සුනිල්  හන්ඳුනෙත්ති ඔවුන්ගේ අලුත් පාරලිමේන්තුවේ කොප් කොමිටුවේ සභාපතිකරලා අලුත් වාර්තාවක් සැපයීමට නිර්දේශ දී  තිබෙන බවක් පෙනෙනවා. සුනිල් හන්ඳුනේත්තිගේ වාර්තවා කෝප් කමිටුවේ හිටපු එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු  පාදසටහන් දමලා මහ විහිළුවක් බවට පත්කලා. කොහොම උනත් එම වාර්තාව යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව අරගෙන නීතිපතිවරයාට භාර දී නීතිපති වරයාගෙන් ලබාගත් රපොර්තුව පිළිනොගෙන  ඒ සඳහා වෝහාරික විගනන වාර්තාවක් ලබා ගැනීමේ මගඩියක් ආරම්භ කළා.

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුනේ  හඳුන්නෙත්ති කෝප් වාර්තාවේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට ගැලවිය නොහැකි බරපතල චෝදනා තිබෙන බැවින් එම චෝදනා බල හීනකිරීමටත් එයින් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණට දේශපාලන වාසියක් ලබාගැනීම සඳහාත්   වෝහාරික විගණනයකින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ස ආණ්ඩුවත් බැංකු මංකොල්ලයට හිරකරන්න ක්‍රියා පිළිවෙලක් සකස් කළා. ඒ සඳහා හඳුනෙත්ති කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් කළා 2015 ට පෙරත් බැංකු බිල්පත්-බැඳුම්කර  විකිනීමෙදී අක්‍රමිකතා සිදුවී තිබෙන බැවින් ඒවත් සමග වෝහාරික විගණනයක් කල යුතු බව . එයින් මුන්කලේ බැංකු මන්කොල්ලයටත් වඩා ලොකු හොරකමක්. ඒ බැංකු මංකොල්ලයේ සැබෑ හොරුන් බේරාගැනීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක්.  

ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම 2015ට පෙර බිල් පත්-බැඳුම්කර  විකුණුවේ අක්‍රමිකතා සිදු නොවන කෙලින් විකිණීමේ  පිළිවෙලකට . ඒ කාලයේදීත් බිල් පත් විකිණීමෙන් පාඩු ලැබුවා නමුත් ඒ පාඩුවලින්  වාසි ලැබුවේ ආණ්ඩුවේ බැංකු හා අර්ථ සාදක අරමුදල . පුද්ගල අංශයට ගියේ සීයකට හතරක් පමණ සුලු ප්‍රමානයක්. 2015 දී බිල් පත් වෙන්දෙසි ක්‍රමයකටවිකිණීම  සඳහා තීරණයක් අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් ගත්තේ බැංකු මංකොල්ලයට සුදානම් වෙමින් විය හැකියි.

මොවුන්   එකියන්නේ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුනයි  රනිල් ගේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ සගයෝයි ඉන්දියානු විගණන සමාගම් දෙකින් ඉල්ලා ඇත්තේ විගණනය 2001 සිට 2004 රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ අගමැති කාලය අත හැර 2005 සිට 2014 කාලයත්  2015 න් පසු කාලයත් වෝහාරිකව විගණනය කරන්න. ඒ විතරක් නොවෙයි මුන් ඒ සමාගමෙන් ඉල්ලාසිටියේ ලාභ අත්හැර පාඩු පමණක් විගනනය කරන්න. ඒක තමා කෝපෙ සභාපතියි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහයි  ලංකා මහබැන්කුවයි එකතුවෙලා කර තිබෙන කුමන්ත්‍රණය. වෝහාරික විගණනයක් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ලාභ පාඩු හැමෙකක්ම සොයන්න ඕනේ. එකයි වෝහාරික විගණනයකින් බලාපොරොත්තු වන්නේ. මේක නොකළේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ හා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය බේරාගෙන මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ තුමාගේ ආණ්ඩුවටත් අභියෝගයක් එල්ල කරන්න.  ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම වෝහාරික විගණනයක අවශ්‍ය තාවයක් තිබුනේ නෑ . විගනාධිපති තුමාගේ වාර්තාව හොඳටම ඇති. මේ බව මහබැංකුවේ අවුරුදු 36ක් සේවය කර ලංකා මහා බැංකුවේ නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්ෂක ( ගවනර්වරයා ) වශයෙන් විශ්‍රාම ගිය W.A.Wijevardhana මහත්මයා හා බැන්කු පිලිබඳහොඳ දැනුමක්තියෙන රුසිරපාල තෙන්නකොන් මහත්මයාත්  මාධ්‍ය ට සැපයු ලිපිකීපයකම සවිස්තරව දක්වන්නේ .

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ සුනිල්  හන්ඳුනේත්තිට උවමනාව තිබුනේ මෙයින් ඔවුන්ට දේශපාලන වාසියක් ලබාගැනීම සඳහා  රනිල්ලා-රාජපක්සලා ඔක්කොම එක කැඳ හැලියකට දමන්න. මේ සඳහා මොවුන් ඉන්දියානු විගණන සමාගමට රුපියල් මිලියන 275 ක් ගෙවා තියෙනවා. මෙපණ මුදලක් ගෙවන්ට ඇත්තේ  ඒ වෝහාරික විගණනය රනිල්ට උවමනා විධ්යට කරගන්න වියහැකියි.

මේ වෝහාරික විගනනයෙන් සිදුවී ඇත්තේ 2015  පෙබරවාරි 27වනදා සිදුකල මහා බැංකු මංකොල්ලයේ බරපතල කම සැහැල්ලු කිරීමක්,  එකවිධියකට යටපත් කිරීමක් මිස වෙන විශේෂ දෙයක් නොවේ. මේකයි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ කයිරාටික වැඩපිළිවෙල. ජනතාව මේ ගැන කල්පනාකර ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ තාමත් රනිල්ගේ අතකොලුවක් බව තේරුම් ගෙන  ඔවුන්ට චන්දය දීමෙන් වැලකීසිටින්න. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ රටට ආදරයක් නෑ ඔවුන්ට ඕනේ මොනවිධියෙන් හරි පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආසන වැඩි සංක්‍යාවක් ලබාගන්න.

අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක, විජිත හේරත්,  සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති, නලින්ද ජයතිස්ස   ආදී කතාවෙන් මිනිස්සු මුලාකරන්න දස්ස ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ  මනුස්සකමක් මුහුනෙන්වත් පෙන්නුම්කරන්න නොහැකි කටකාරයෝ දැන් කරන්න හදන්නේ  එක්සත් ජාතිකපක්ෂය ජනතා අප්‍රසාදයට පත්කරලා, ඒ එක්කම රාජපක්සලා හා පොදුජන පෙරමුනත් අප්‍රසාදයට පමුනුවලා  ජනතාවට පෙන්නුම්කරන්න හදන්නේ උන් විතරයි මේ රට පාලනය කරන්න පුළුවන් දක්ෂතම දේශපාලන කාන්ඩායාම කියල. 

අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය දෙකඩ වී  තියෙනවා දකින ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ එයින් සතුටුවන අතර,  කිසියම් හෝ හේතුවක් නිසා ඔවුන්ට රනිල් ආරක්ෂා කරගන්න උවමනාවක් තියෙනවා.  ඒ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස එක්සත් ජාතික පාක්ෂිකයන්ගෙන් වෙන්කරලා ලබන චන්දයෙදී ඔහුගේ පක්ෂය  පරාජය කරන්න වෙන්න පුලුවන්. කොච්චර කෑ ගැහුවත් අනුරකුමාර දිසානායක ඇතුළු ජනතාවිමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ   නායකත්වය ඒ තරම් බුද්ධිමත් නොවේ. ඔවුන් පිලිබඳ මහජන විශ්වාශය තව තවත් බිඳ යමින් පවතී. 

මේක හොඳට පෙනෙනවා දැන් ඔවුන් මේ ගෙනියන වෝහාරික විගණන වාර්තාව සම්බන්ධ කුමන්ත්‍රයෙන්. ඒක කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් බව පෙනෙන්නේ කෙසේද ? ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණට උවමනා රටේ බලවත් දේශපාලන පක්ෂ දෙකක් වශයෙන් සැලකෙන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයයි,  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුනයි දෙකම ජනතාවගේ අප්‍රස්සාදයට පමුණුවා ඒ දේශපාලන පක්ෂ දෙකට අහිමිවන ජනප්ප්‍රසාදය ජනතාවිමුක්ති පෙරමුනට ලබාගත හැකියයි ඔවුන් ඇතිකරගෙන තිබෙන මෝඩ බලාපොරොත්තුව. 

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ මිනිස්සු මුලාකරනවා . මොවුන්ගෙන යන දේශපාලන වැඩපිළිවෙල ගඟට ගස්කපන්න වගේ . කවම දාකවත් මොවුන්ට  රටේ දැනට පිළිගත් දේශපාලන පක්ෂ දෙකෙන් තොරව තනිව ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවන්ට බෑ . ඒ බව ඔවුන්ගේ තියෙන අධික මාන්නය නිසා පෙනෙන්නේ නෑ .

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, Feb.25 – Sri Lanka’s former Army Commander and now Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Daya Ratnayake has criticized the former UNF government for failing to protect the image of the Sri Lanka military in the international arena within the past 5 years which led to Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva and his family from being banned to enter the US.

Ratnayake also questioned the timing of the ban, stating that some people were trying to create instability in the country just before an election, the Daily Mirror reports.

The government is taking a very strong stand, face to face with the US government over this matter. That is what a responsible government must do. This is a result of the inefficiency of the past government. These are things we have to expect now. There is an election in this country. Some people do not want stability in this country,” Ratnayake told the Daily Mirror.

He further said Shavendra Silva was one of the most senior officers who led the final phase of operations in the war against the LTTE and had been an outstanding officer. Therefore, he said it was unjust for countries to make allegations of war crimes on senior officers and the military who had helped free the country from terrorism.

I am happy that the government has taken such a strong stand in defending Shavendra Silva,” Ratnayake said. In reality, the Sri Lankan military carried out the world’s most intense and best humanitarian operation in the last days of the war. We carried out the best strategies to end the war against terrorism which is being accepted by the world. Therefore allegations of the military being involved in war crimes are baseless and false,” he added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said Shavendra Silva was designated making him ineligible for entry into the US due to his involvement in extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s Civil War.

In an earlier statement, Pompeo had said that allegations of gross human rights violations against Shavendra Silva had been documented by the United Nations and other organisations.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has already summoned the US Ambassador in Colombo over the matter and expressed its strongest objections against the move.

By Hemantha Randunu Courtesy The Island

The Peliyagoda Crimes Division arrested six suspects including two persons who made controversial statements regarding ‘white vans’ at a press conference organised by former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne. They were arrested for robbing an Ayurveda centre in Gampaha and making off with Rs. 4.6 million.

The police also recovered firearms used by the suspects in the robbery.

The two suspects had received 700,000 each from the robbed money, police said.

According to investigators 10 persons arrived at an Ayurveda centre at Keselbaddara in Gampaha on the pretext of seeking treatment and pulled out firearms from their bags and robbed the centre and persons working there. They held the owner of the place at gunpoint and robbed Rs. 2.1 million in cash and gold jewelry worth Rs 2.5 million.

The police investigated the robbery on the instructions of Senior DIG Western Range Deshabandu Thennakoon and Western Province (North) DIG Waruna Jayasunadara and arrested the six persons.

Police teams are tracing whereabouts of four others involved in the robbery, a senior police officer said.

The two ‘white van’ suspects were on bail at the time of the robbery.

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

The first meeting of the executive council of ‘Sri Lanka Nidahas Podujana Sandhanaya’, chaired by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was held at the Temple Trees this afternoon (25).

The meeting was attended by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former President Maithripala Sirisena and the architect of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Basil Rajapaksa.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Sri Lanka People’s Party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Communist Party of Sri Lanka, National Freedom Front, Democratic Left Front and Desha Vimukthi Janatha Pakshaya had taken part in this meeting as political parties representing the alliance.

The executive council has approved the proposal to incorporate 5 new political parties into the alliance, which already consists of nine other parties. Accordingly, Eelam People’s Democratic Party, Ceylon Workers’ Congress, National Congress, Tamil Mahajana Vimukthi Sanvidhanaya and United People’s Party will represent Sri Lanka Nidahas Podujana Sandhanaya in the future.

The council also approved the proposals to appoint Minister Dinesh Gunawardena as a deputy chairman of the alliance and Minister Wimal Weerawansa as its national organizer.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

මහබැංකු බැඳුම්කර වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ පුද්ගලයින්ට නිසි දඩුවම් ලබාදිය යුතු බව රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ලක්ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන පවසනවා.

කොළඹ අද කැඳවා තිබූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඉදිරි මහ මැතිවරණය ඉලක්ක කර ගනිමින් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සෙසු පක්ෂ සමඟ එළඹ ඇති එකඟතා රටට හෙළිදරව් කරන්නැයි රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය ශෙහාන් සේමසිංහ මහතා පවසනවා.

කොළඹ අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පසුගිය යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව දේශපාලන පළිගැනීමක් මත, ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීම පිළිබඳ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ උපාය මාර්ග පිළිබඳ පශ්චාත් උපාධියක් හදාරමින් සිටියදී තමන්ව මෙරටට ගෙන්වා නොගත්තේ නම් පාස්කු ඉරිදා ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාර මාලාව වළක්වාගැනීමට හැකියාව තිබූ බව රියර් අද්මිරාල් ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතා පවසනවා.

ඒ, දේශපාලන පළිගැනීම්වලට ලක්වූවන් පිළිබඳ සෙවීමේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ අද සාක්ෂි ලබාදෙමින්.

කොළඹදී තරුණයන් 11 දෙනෙකු පැහැර ගැනීමට අදාළව සිදුකරන විමර්ශනවල සැකකරුවෙක් ලෙස නම්කර ඇති රියර් අද්මිරාල් ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතා පසුගිය යහපාලන ආණ්ඩු සමයේ තමන්ට සිදු වූ දේශපාලන පළිගැනීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුකළ පැමිණිල්ලකට අනුව සාක්ෂි විමසීමට ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවට කැඳවා තිබුණා

සාක්ෂි ලබාදීම ආරම්භ කරමින් ඔහු පැවසුවේ ලොව පුරා ඉස්ලාමීය අන්තවාදයේ නැගී ඒමත් සමඟ ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීම පිළිබඳව ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ උපාය මාර්ග පිළිබඳ පශ්චාත් උපාධියක් හැදෑරීමට 2014 වසරේ සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේදී ඇමරිකාව ලොව රටවල්වලින් එක් නියෝජිතයෙකුට බැගින් අවස්ථාව ලබාදී තිබූ බවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් එම අවස්ථාව හිමි වූයේ තමන්ට බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මාස කිහිපයකින් පසු සිදු වූ ආණ්ඩු පෙරළියත් සමඟ තමන්ව යළි මෙරටට කැඳවීමට පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කළ බව ඔහු එහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නා.

ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයේ තීරණයක් අනුව හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ උපදෙස් මත තමන්ව එලෙස කැඳවා තිබූ බවත් අදාළ කටඋත්තරය ලබාගැනීමෙන් පසු නැවත පාඨමාලාව හැදෑරීම සඳහා ඇමරිකාව බලා පිටත්ව යාමට හැකියාව ඇති බවත් එවක හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයා තමන්ට දැනුම් දුන් බව ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතා කොමිසම හමුවේ පැවසුවා.

තමන්ට ලැබුණු කැඳවීමට අනුව දින 14 ක අධ්‍යයන නිවාඩුවක් මත 2015 පෙබරවාරි 16 වැනිදා තමන් යළි මෙරටට පැමිණි බව ඔහු පැවසුවා.

හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති වයිස් අද්මිරාල් ජයන්ත පෙරේරා මහතා හමු වූ තමන්ට 2015 පෙබරවාරි 19 වැනිදා අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සමූහ මංකොල්ල විමර්ශන අංශයේ ස්ථානාධිපති නිශාන්ත සිල්වාට ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබාදෙන ලෙස උපදෙස් ලැබුණු බව ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතා සඳහන් කළා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයාගේ සහය නාවික නිලධාරියා ලෙස සිටි කොමදෝරු සුදර්ශන නැමැත්තා අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට නොයන ලෙස එදින පෙරවරුවේ තමන්ට දැනුම් දුන් බව දසනායක මහතා කොමිසම හමුවේ සඳහන් කළා.

නමුත් එදින නිශාන්ත සිල්වා විසින් කොටුව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට කරුණු වාර්තා කර තමන්ට විරුද්ධව විදෙස් ගමන් තහනමක් ලබාගෙන තිබූ බව ඔහු මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළා.

මෙය සිතාමතා අධිකරණය නොමඟ යවමින් තමන්ට විරුද්ධව ලබාගත් විදෙස් ගමන් තහනමක් බව ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නා.

මෙහිදී සාක්ෂිකරු වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි නීතිඥවරයා ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතාගෙන් විමසුවේ යහපාලන රජයේ ප්‍රබල ඇමතිවරයෙක් තමන් විදෙස්ගතවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් යම් කිසි සොයා බැලීමක් සිදුකර තිබුණේද යන්නයි.

සාක්ෂිකරු එහිදී සඳහන් කළේ එවකට විදේශ අමාත්‍යවරයාව සිටි මංගල සමරවීර මහතා තමන් විදෙස්ගත වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයාගෙන් විශේෂ වාර්තාවක් කැඳවා තිබූ බවයි

වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දක්වමින් ඔහු සඳහන් කළේ ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ උපායමාර්ග පිළිබඳ පශ්චාත් උපාධිය සඳහා අවස්ථාව ලැබුණු එකම පුද්ගලයා තමන් වූ අතර එය සම්පූර්ණ කිරීමට තමන්ට අවස්ථාව ලබා නොදෙමින් පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කිරීම හරහා පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය වළක්වා ගැනීම සඳහා තමන් විශේෂ වගකීමකින් යුතුව ශ්‍රි ලංකාව තුළ කටයුතු කිරීමේ අවස්ථාව අහිමි වූ බවයි.

කොමිසම හමුවේ වැඩිදුරටත් සාක්ෂි ලබාදෙමින් ඩී.කේ.පී. දසනායක මහතා පැවසුවේ පෙර සඳහන් කළ චෝදනාව මත තමන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් බවත් වසර 5 ක් ගත වී තිබුණද නිශාන්ත සිල්වා කිසිදු බී වාර්තාවක් මගින් මෙම නඩුවට අදාළව තමන් සම්බන්ධ කිසිම කරුණක් අධිකරණයට වාර්තා කර නොතිබූ බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පසුගිය රජය සමයේ හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා විසින් පත් කරනු ලැබූ ඖෂධ නියාමන අධිකාරියේ සභාපතිවරයා සම්බන්ධයෙන් පූජ්‍ය පාහියන්ගල ආනන්ද සාගර හිමියන් අද අනාවරණයක් සිදු කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ගම්පහ කෙහෙල්බද්දර (2020/02/07) සිදුවූ ලක්ෂ 44ක කොල්ලයකට අදාලව, පා. ම. රාජිත සමඟ සුදු වෑන් මාධ්‍ය හමුවට පෙනී සිටි සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනා ඇතුළු 10ක්, ටී. 56 ගිනි අවියක් සමඟ අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබෙනවා.

CHANDRE DHARMWARDANA  Canada

Sri Lanka – or shall we say the then foreign minister of Sri Lanka working closely with a number of NGOs and civil activists – co-sponsored a resolution in 2015 along with 11 other countries. These included the United States, Britain, Australia and Germany, and called for an investigation into alleged “serious human rights violations” against both government forces and the Liberation Tamil Tigers for Eelam (LTTE), which led to the separatist war that ended in May 2009, when the LTTE leadership was annihilated.

Strangely enough, the proxies of the LTTE, namely the TNA leaders, have been entirely left off the hook. The atrocities committed by the LTTE against Tamil civilians and children were well known to the TNA leadership as they were the content of an address made by Mr. V. Ananadasangaree in his capacity as the leader of the ITAK at its annual convention. But the TNA regarded such atrocities as necessary to achieve Eelam, and fully endorsed the LTTE strategy of holding civilians as hostages, for use as a human shield and in attempting to trigger a human catastrophe to force foreign intervention. In fact, the TNA took the convenient position that the civilians were there voluntarily as a human shield, although the TNA members themselves preferred to live in Colombo!

Although this “co-sponsoring” of the resolution against Sri Lanka was carried out by the then foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera, neither the Cabinet, nor the National Executive Council (NEC) which was responsible for running the caretaker government from January to August 2015, had given approval to it. It was foisted upon a hapless Sri Lanka, just as another cabal of the same government (or, equivalently the NEC) was in the process of robbing the Central Bank, and paid no heed to the Foreign Minister. He found it convenient to hitch his foreign policy to that of Samantha Power. It should be remembered that the person most responsible for getting President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya in the name of “human rights”, while not forgetting Libya’s oil resources, is none other than Samantha Power. Today, Libya is a destroyed land of many militia, and millions are in refugee camps. The UNHRC has no eyes for such atrocities.

With the end of the Yahapalanaya government, the new Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Ravinatha Aryasinha, is reported to have met Human Rights Council President Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger in Geneva and informed her that Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has decided to withdraw from the resolution. This time, it seems to be a Cabinet decision and not the personal mission of an individual miinster.

An individual minster may accept the ideas of certain NGOs and “civil society” activists regarding the best approach to ethnic reconciliation after three decades of separatist terror as well as state terror. However, irrespective of whether such policies are the correct ones for achieving reconciliation, or not, a minster has NO right to take the law entirely into his or her hands. The executive president as formulated by JRJ’s constitution would have had the power to do so, but certainly not the then minister Mangala Samaraweera.

When a minster acts in extreme excess of his powers, and does so without even obtaining the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers (or the NEC at the time) he may have done so, well knowing that what he is doing is NOT likely to be approved by his own government. That is, the rights and powers of the parliament itself have been breached.

Now it is up to the Attorney General, in consultation with the Speaker, to frame suitable charges and bring such individuals before the courts, so that they are given a chance to plead guilty or clear their name sullied by a crime perhaps tantamount to treason, in having undermined the sovereignty of the nation. Alternatively, some member of “the civil society”, or a member of the armed forces as a grieved party, may file a fundamental rights petition.

CHANDRE DHARMWARDANA
Canada

සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

ඉකුත් සතියේ අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මගින් සිදු කළ විශේෂ විමර්ශනයකින් පසු රටම හෙල්ලෙන තරමේ පුවතක් මාධ්‍ය මගින් වාර්තා කර තිබිණි. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ කොළඹ පිහිටි නිවසක් පරීක්‍ෂා කළ අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එහි තිබී සතොස ආයතනයට අදාළව සිදු කළ කෝටි ගණනක් වටිනා අයථා ගනුදෙනු 67ක ලිපිගොනු සහ ඉඩම් ඔප්පු විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් සොයා ගැනීම එම පුවත විය.

මෙතෙක් කලක් මේ රටේ මිනිස්සු සිතාගෙන සිටියේ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් යනු විල්පත්තුවේ වනස්පතීන් කුට්ටිකර භූමිය කට්ටිවලට බෙදා මිනිසුන් නැති නිවාස ව්‍යාපෘති කරවමින් මුස්ලිම් ජාතිය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින උග‍්‍ර ජාතිවාදී ආගම්වාදී පට්ට චරිතයක් ලෙසින් වූහ.

එහෙත් පොලිසිය සිදු කළ මේ වැටලීමත් සම`ග සිදුවූයේ මෙතෙක් රිෂාඞ් ස`ගවාගෙන සිටි සියල්ල එළියට එන අතරේ හැඳ සිටි කලිසම ඔලූවෙන් ගැලවී උඩු සුළෙ`ග් ගසාගෙන යෑමක් විය.

දශක දෙකකට ආසන්න රිෂාඞ්ගේ දේශපාලනය තුළ එහෙට මෙහෙට පනිමින් කවුරුන් රට කළත් ඒ ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ යාවජීව ඇමැතිවරයකු වූ රිසාඞ් හැදාමත් පෙනී සිටියේ තමන් මෙරට මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව නියෝජනය කරන සර්වබලධාරී දේශපාලනඥයා ලෙසිනි.

එහෙත් දැන් එය අමු ව්‍යාජයක් බව රට සහ සමාජය ඉදිරියේ තහවුරු වන කාලය එළැඹෙමින් ඇත. මෙය මීට බොහෝ කලකට ඉහත සිදුවිය යුතුව තිබුණකි. සුළු ජාතික ඡන්ද මත යැපුණු දකුණේ දේශපාලනයේ තිබූ නපුංශක බව ඉදිරියේ හැමදාමත් රිෂාඞ්ලා පොරවල් වී සිටීම නිසා සියල්ල වූයේ දිනෙන් දින යටපත් වෙමිනි.

සැබැවින්ම මේ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් යනු කවරෙක්ද? ඔහු මෙරට දේශපාලනයේ මුස්ලිම් ජාතික කඳවුරේ ප‍්‍රබල නියෝජිතයකු ලෙස පෙරට පැමිණියේ කෙසේද?

වේලූපිල්ලේ ප‍්‍රභාකරන් ඇතුළු එල්ටීටීඊ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් ඉකුත් 1990 වසරේදී උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පළාත්හි විසූ සියලූ මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයන් එම පළාත්වලින් පන්නා දැමීමට තීරණය කරනු ලැබීය. මේ අනුව එකල සුළු ව්‍යාපාරයක් කරගෙන මන්නාරමේ ජීවත්වූ රිෂාඞ්ගේ පියා බදියුදීන්ටද සිය දරු පවුල සමගින් මන්නාරමෙන් පිටවීමට සිදුවිය.

1972 වසරේ උපන් රිෂාඞ් මේ කාලයේ හොඳ යෞවනයකු වූ අතර අවසානයේ සිය පියා සහ මව ඇතුළු සහෝදරයන් සම`ග මන්නාරමේ සිට අනාථයන් ලෙස පැමිණි ඔවුන් පුත්තලම ප‍්‍රදේශයේ වූ හිස් භූමියක පදිංචි විය.

රිෂාඞ් පවුල පිළිබඳ හොඳින් කරුණු දන්නා මොහොමඞ් ඛාන් පවසන්නේ එකල මහා ධනස්කන්ධයක් රිෂාඞ්ලා සතු නොවූ බවකි. පුත්තලමට පැමිණීමෙන් පසුව අධ්‍යාපන කටයුතු සඳහා කොළඹට පැමිණ මරදාන සහිරා විදුහලට ඇතුළත් වූ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් උසස් පෙළ දක්වා අධ්‍යාපනය හදාරා පුහුණු පාඨමාලාවක් සඳහා ජර්මන් කාර්මික විදුහලට ඇතුළත් වූ බවද මෙහොමඞ් ඛාන් සඳහන් කළේය.

මේ මොහොමඞ් ඛාන් යනු ඉකුත් 2015 වසරේදී රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ට එරෙහිව අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ විමර්ශන කොමිසමට පැමිණිලි කළ එකම පුද්ගලයා ද වේ.

මේ අන්දමට කොළඹට පැමිණ අධ්‍යාපන කටයුතුවල නිරත වූ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් හාපුරා කියා සිය දේශපාලන ගමන අරඹන්නේ මෙරට දේශපාලනයේ ජේ්‍යෂ්ඨ චරිතයක්වූ ඒ. එච්. එම්. ෆවුසි මහතා සමගිනි. ඒ අනුව 2000 මැතිවරණයේදී වන්නි දිස්ති‍්‍රත්කයට තරග වැදුණු රිෂාඞ් එහිදී පරාජයට පත්විය.

පසුව 2001 වසරේදී පැවති මැතිවරණයට යළි ඉදිරිපත් වූ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් එය ජයගෙන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට තේරීපත් විය. අනතුරුව ඉකුත් 2004 වසරේ පැවති මැතිවරණයෙන්ද ජයගත් රිෂාඞ් පළමු දේශපාලන ගේම ලෙස රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා කපාගෙන ගොස් චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක රජය සමයේදී ඇමැති ධුරයක් ලබා ගැනීමටද සමත් විය. එහිදී එතෙක් තරග කළ මුස්ලිම් කොන්ග‍්‍රසයෙන් ඉවත් වන්නටද හේ කටයුතු කළේය.

අනතුරුව මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා සම`ග එක්වූ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් එතැන් පටන් තමන්ගේම කියා තනි පක්‍ෂයක් ගොඩන`ගාගෙන කුප‍්‍රකට වූ සිය විජයග‍්‍රාහී දේශපාලන ගමන ඇරඹීය. මොහොමඞ් ඛාන් මහතා පවසන ආකාරයට රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් සිය දේශපාලන ගමනේදී පළමු පාවාදීම සිදු කරනුයේ ඉකුත් 2002 වසරේදී බලයට පැමිණි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂ රජය සමයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කථානායකවරයා තෝරා ගැනීමේ අවස්ථාවේදීය.

එහිදී මුස්ලිම් කොන්ග‍්‍රසයේ දේශපාලනය අමතක කළ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් කථානායකවරයා පත්කර ගැනීම සඳහා එජාපය සහ ශී‍්‍රලනිපය අතර පැවති තරගයේදී ශී‍්‍රලනිපයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වූ විජමු ලොකුබණ්ඩාර මහතා කථානායකවරයා ලෙස පත්කර ගැනීමට චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මියට සහාය ලබා දෙමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ආ පළමු අවස්ථාවේදීම සිය ඡන්දය ප‍්‍රකාශ කරනු ලැබීය.

පසුව මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ රජය සමයේ නැවත පදිංචිකිරීමේ ඇමැති ධුරයට පත්වූ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් මේ රටේ සමස්ත මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ කනෙන් රිංගා යමින් සිය ප‍්‍රකෝටිපතියකු වීමේ ගමන අරඹන්නේ එතැන් සිටිය.

එකී නැවත පදිංචි කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ සිය පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන් වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් මන්නාරම සහ පුත්තලම ප‍්‍රදේශයේ ඉඩම් අක්කර 3000 ක් බෙදාහදා ගෙන ඇති රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් එහිදී රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනක් රජයේ මුදල් වැයකර කළ ඉදිකිරීමක් කර මෙගා කන්ට‍්‍රක්ෂන් නමින් පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන් සම`ග එක්ව ආයතනයක් පවා පිහිටුවාගෙන රාජ්‍ය මුදල් අවභාවිත කළ බව මොහොමඞ් ඛාන් මහතා පවසන්නේය.

රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනින් වන මෙකී ගසා කෑම් පිළිබඳ ඉකුත් 2015 වසරේදී තමන් අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ විමර්ශන කොමිසම වෙත සියලූ තොරතුරු සම`ග පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් කළද මේ දක්වා ඒ පිළිබඳ විමර්ශනයක් සිදු නොකෙරුණු බවද ඛාන් මහතා කීය.

මෙසේ රජයේ මුදල් ගසාකන අතරේ සිය ඇමැති ධුරයට මුවා වී අරාබි රටවල ධන කුවේරයන් සහ රාජ්‍ය බලධාරීන් මුණගැසී ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව නගාසිටුවන්නට යැයි සඳහන් කරමින් රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනින් ආධාර ලබා ගැනීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතියක් රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් දියත් කර තිබුණු බවද මොහොමඞ් ඛාන් මහතා කරන තවත් චෝදනාවකි.

දේශපාලනයට මුවා වී අත් කුරානයත් හිතේ සාතනුත් තබාගෙන කටයුතු කර තිබෙන රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ ගසාකෑමේ භූමිකාව පිළිබඳ හෙළිවන කරුණු මෙසේ වෙද්දී පසුගිය කාලයේ ඔහුට එල්ල වූ තවත් චෝදනාවක් වූයේ පාස්කු ප‍්‍රහාරය එල්ල කර රටම හැ`ඩවූ සහරාන් හෂීම්ලා ම`ග කියා දුන් ගෝඞ් ෆාදර් කෙනකු ලෙස හේ කටයුතු කළ බවයි.

මේ රටේ දේශපාලනයේ තිබූ ජරා ජීර්ණ බව නිසා පසුගිය කාලයේ ඒ පිළිබඳ කිසිදු විමර්ශනයක් කිරීමට කිසිවකුත්ම නොමැති විය. දේශපාලන අතපෙවීම් හමුවේ පොලිසිය සිටියේ රිෂාඞ්ලා බදාගෙන උම්මා දෙන තැනකය.

පසුගිය කාලයේ තමන්ට අයත්ව තිබූ මන්නාරම ප‍්‍රදේශයේ ඉඩමක් රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ සොහොයුරා වන රිෆ්ඛාන් බදියුදීන් විසින් බලහත්කාරයෙන් අල්ලාගෙන ව්‍යාජ ඔප්පුවක් සකසා විකුණා ඇතැයි කියමින් එක්තරා මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයකු අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබිණි.

එය නඩු නිමිත්තක් ලෙස අධිකරණය දක්වා ගෙන යෑමට අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කටයුතු කර තිබුණද රිෆ්ඛාන් බදියුදීන් අත්අඩංගු–වට ගැනීමක් නම් සිදු නොවීය. රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් සතුව තිබු දේශපාලන බලය එතරම් ප‍්‍රබල තැනක විය.

අවසානයේ රිෂාඞ්ගේ සොහොයුරු රිෆ්ඛාන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලැබුවේද ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ රජය බලයට ඒමෙන් පසුවය. හේ දැන් රක්‍ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගතව සිටින්නේය.

මෙසේ අද විවිධ අන්දමින් දූෂිත චෝදනා එල්ල වන රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් සිය දේශපාලන බලය යොදාගෙන පසුගිය කාලයේ විල්පත්තු වන රක්‍ෂිතයට සිදුකළ විනාශයම ඔහුව මේ දැන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන නඩු පැවරිය යුතු අන්දමේ අපරාධයක් බව එකී විල්පත්තු වනාන්තර සීමාවට යන ඔනෑම අයකුට පැහැදිලි වන කරුණකි.

එහෙත් මේ රටේ ස්වභාවධර්මයට ඒසා විනාශයක් කළ රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් තවමත් නිදැල්ලේය. එසේ නිදැල්ලේ සිටින රිෂාඞ් මේ දිනවල සිය සමාජ ජාලා කි‍්‍රයාකාරීන් සහ අනෙකුත් පාර්ශ්ව ඒකරාශී කරගෙන අපූරු ප‍්‍රචාරක වැඩපිළිවෙළක්ද ආරම්භ කර ඇත.

එකී ප‍්‍රචාරක වැඩපිළිවෙළේ කි‍්‍රයාදාමය වී තිබෙන්නේ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නිර්මාතෘ බැසිල් රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා තමන් සම`ග සිටින බැවින් මීළ`ග මැතිවරණයෙන් පසු ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ රජයේත් ඇමැතිවරයකු ලෙස තමන් කටයුතු කරන බව සඳහන් කිරීමය.

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව ඒ කෙරෙහි වහා අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුව ඇත. මන්ද එකී ප‍්‍රචාරය තුළින් ආණ්ඩුවේ ජනපි‍්‍රයත්වයට බරපතළ හානියක් සිදුවීමේ අවදානමක් පවතින නිසාය.

මේ අතරේ ඉකුත් සතියේ ඇමැති විමල් වීරවංශ මහතාද රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් පිළිබඳ ඉතා වැදගත් හෙළිදරව්වක් කරනු ලැබුවාය. විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා කියා සිටියේ පසුගිය දින 52 ආණ්ඩුව සමයේ හදිසියේම රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ගේ නමින් ඇමරිකාවේ පවත්වාගෙන යන ගිණුමකට ඩොලර් ලක්‍ෂයක මුදලක් බැරවී තිබෙන බවය.

එකී හෙළිදරව්ව මේ වන විට අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙත පැමිණිල්ලක් ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමටද ඇමැති විමල් වීරවංශ නායකත්වය දරණ ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණ කටයුතු කර ඇත. එහෙයින් මේවා පිළිබඳ කඩිනම් විමර්ශනයක් ආරම්භ වියයුතු ඇත.

අනාවරණය වන කරුණු අනුව නම් මේ රටේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ ඡන්ද ටික පෙන්වා රජයෙන් රජයට බලයට පැමිණි රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන් සියල්ල සුළුවෙන් නොව සවානේ දමාගෙන අනුභව කර තිබෙන බව හොඳින්ම පැහැදිලි වන කරුණක් බවට අද පත්ව ඇත.

රිෂාඞ් මේ අන්දමින් ගසාකමින් එක්රැස් කර ඇති මේ සුවිශාල ධනස්කන්ධය මොන මොන අතට බෙදී ගියේද? මේ බිම තුළ ඉස්ලාම් රාජ්‍යයක් බිහිකිරීමේ අන්තවාදයක් දැඩිමතධාරී කි‍්‍රයාත්මක මේ මොහොතේ රිෂාඞ්ලා ගසාකමින් හරහම්බ කළ එකී ධනය සහරාන් හෂීම්ලා අතරත් බෙදුණේද?

මේවා දැන් වහා වහා සොයා බැලිය යුතු කරුණුය. අරයගේ පැටිකිරිය මේකයි, මෙයාගේ මෙහෙමයි කියමින් රටේ ජනතාවට තොරම්බල් නාටක පෙන්වීමෙන් පලක් නැත. මේ දේශපාලන අපතයන් වහා අත්අඩංගුවට ගතයුතුව ඇත.

කවුරුන් කුමක් කීවත් කොහොමත් රිෂාඞ් බදියුදීන්ලා මෙතෙක් කරගෙන ගිය දේශපාලනය ඉස්ලාම් අන්තවාදය මායිමේ තිබෙන්නක් බව පසුගිය කාලයේ ඔවුන් දේශපාලනයට මුවා වී කළ කී දෑ හමුවේ පැහැදිලිවම පෙනී යන්නකි. දේශපාලන බලයෙන් පිම්බී ඔවුන් දිගින් දිගටම පහර දුන්නේ මේ රටේ චිරාත් කාලයක සිට පැවති සිංහල මුස්ලිම් සහෝදරත්වයටය.

විමසීමෙන් බලන කල පැහැදිලිවම පෙනී යන කරුණ වන්නේ රිෂාඞ් යනු දේශපාලනයේදී කපටියෙකි, ගසා කෑමේදීද කපටියෙකි. අන්තවාදයේ විෂබීජවලින් මෙරට මුස්ලිම් සහෝදරත්වය ඉතා සූක්‍ෂම ලෙස සමස්තයෙන් ඈතට රැගෙන යමින් සිටින ඔහු වැන්නන් එහිදීද ඉතාම කපටියෙකි. මේ සියල්ල තුළ තිබෙන්නේ මමත්වය පමණි.

ඒ අනුව බලන කල මෙවන් දේශපාලන කපටි නරි සදහටම මෙරට දේශපාලනයේ ඉවතට ඇද දැමීමේ කාලය දැන් උදා වී තිබේ. අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ එයට ආරම්භයක් දීම පමණකි.

By P.K.Balachandran/Ceylon Today Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Trade relations have hit the rocks but India will buy US weapons

India and the US frequently trumpet goodwill for each other describing each other as democracies” and as strategic partners” against a common rival, China. But India and the US are not on the same page in several substantive ways. There are serious differences on trade. Mutuality on regional strategic issues is also less than perfect.

This is because of the rise of populism and nationalism in the two countries. Competition in nationalism has created a wide chasm between the two. This is more visible now than before because India and the US are presently led by hardcore populist-nationalists – Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US.

However friendly Modi may be towards the US and Trump, he is under pressure from the Indian nationalist lobby led by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and other Hindutwa” organizations not to allow foreign interests to dominate India’s economy or curb Indian domestic trading, economic and political interests. Likewise, Trump is pledged to safeguard America’s and Americans’ trade and political interests vis-à-vis other countries, having come to power on that plank and hoping to be back in power on that very plank.

It is this duality – the need to be together on one plane, and the need to differ on another, which will determine the outcome of Trump’s two-day visit to India on February 24 and 25.

On the one hand, the reception to Trump will be as grand as, or even more grand than, the one given to Modi when he visited the US in September 2019. An estimated 50,000 had gathered at the Howdy, Modi” event in a stadium in Houston, Texas. Commenting on his visit to India, Trump boasted that Modi had promised to get 7 million people lined up to receive him on arrival at Ahmedabad in Modi’s home State of Gujarat. And 7 million is more than 80% of Ahmedabad’s population. And in line with Howdy Modi” in Houston, Modi will hold a Namaste Trump” rally in the newly constructed Ahmedabad Stadium, said to be the world’s largest with a capacity of 100,000. According to the Indian media outlet WION, Trump’s three-hour sojourn in Ahmedabad would cost the Indian exchequer Rs.120 crore (US$ 16.7 million). The preparations included the building of a half a kilometer wall to prevent Trump from seeing an ugly roadside slum.

The initial expectation was that Trump and Modi will negotiate a new mega trade deal and lay the foundation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and an investment pact ironing out persistent differences. But Trump pricked the balloon saying: We can have a trade deal with India, but I am really saving the big deal for later, maybe before elections.” The Indian side chimed in saying that both sides did not want to rush into a new agreement as it will have long term consequences.”

This led to commentators describing the 36-hour Trump visit to India as a Tamasha” as vacuous as the grand reception Modi gave to the Chinese President Xi Jinping – a lot of song and dance with little substance.

Indo-US Trade

In 2018, the US was India’s second largest goods export market (16.0% share) and the third largest import supplier (6.3%) after China (14.6%) and the EU28 (10.2%). But Indo-US bilateral trade is facing severe problems.

According to Shayerah Ilias Akhtar, who wrote a paper for the Congressional Research Service (CRS), India is demanding exemption from high duties imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products. It wants resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under the US General System of Preferences (US GSP) and greater market access for its products from sectors including agriculture, automobile, auto components and engineering.

On the other hand, the US wants greater market access for its farm and manufacturing products, dairy items and medical devices, and cut on import duties on some ICT products. The US has also raised concerns over high trade deficit with India which was US$ 16.9 billion in 2018-19.

India has relatively high average tariff rates, especially in agriculture. After India lost its eligibility for a US GSP in June 2019, it imposed higher tariffs affecting about US$ 1.4 billion worth of US exports (2018 data), such as nuts, apples, and chemicals. India also raised duties on certain non-essential” consumer and other goods to stem its current account deficit. There are non-tariff barriers too. The two sides are challenging each other’s tariffs in the WTO.

In 2018, India was the largest beneficiary of GSP. Over one-tenth (worth US$ 6.3 billion) of U.S. goods imports from India entered the US duty-free under the program, such as chemicals, auto parts, and tableware. GSP removal reinstated US tariffs, which range from 1% to 7% on the top 15 GSP bilateral imports, Akhtar says. India has raised barriers to US firms’ ownership of enterprises in the country to meet local presence” requirements.

A key issue for India is the US temporary visa policies, which affect Indian nationals working in the US. India is challenging US fees for worker visas in the WTO, and monitoring potential US action to revise the H-1B (specialized worker) visa program.

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers in India limit US agricultural exports. According to Akhtar, the US questions the scientific and risk-based justifications for such barriers. Each side sees the other’s agricultural support programs as market-distorting”. India’s food security concerns complicates matters for the US.

The two sides differ on how to balance Intellectual Property protection with broad access to medicines. India remained on the Special 301” Priority Watch List in 2018, based on U.S. concerns over its treatment of patents, infringement rates, and trade secret protection.

The US questions India’s indigenization policies which it calls forced localization practices”, such as domestic content, and domestic testing requirements, Akhtar points out. Adding to U.S. concerns are India’s new restrictive localization rules for certain financial data flows, which affect companies such as Visa and MasterCard. New Indian restrictions on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart worry the US.

India recently announced that it would not join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), citing concerns about RCEP’s fairness and balance, and about the potential effects of opening its markets to imports from manufacturing giant, China.

Defense Trade Doing Well

But the US is doing well in trade in defense items, Akhtar notes. The two nations have signed defense contracts worth more than US$ 15 billion since 2008, up from US$ 500 million in all previous years combined. Major anticipated sales include 24 MH-60 Seahawk multi-role naval helicopters (US$ 2.6 billion) and 6 additional AH-64 Apache attack helicopters (US$ 930 million), among others. India is eager for more technology-sharing and coproduction initiatives.

However, Akhtar points out that the US has urged India to announce higher FDI caps in its defense sector. Also India’s multibillion-dollar deal to purchase the Russian-made S-400 air defense system may trigger U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (P.L. 115-44).

Politico-Strategic Dimension Ignored

Those specializing in strategic affairs regret that the Trump administration is too US trade oriented and is missing out on the strategic aspect of its relations with India. The US needs India to counter China and Russia in the South, South East and Central Asian region. But this aspect is sacrificed at the altar of domestic trading interests.

The administration does not have an integrated policy toward India or anyone else for that matter,” Ashley Tellis, an India expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told a leading US foreign affairs magazine. The fruits of a schizophrenic policy are becoming evident,” he added.

Like the US, India too is primarily concerned about its domestic economic interests. The Indian government has the local trade and industries lobbies to cater to, as these are its electoral constituencies. Both India and the US are democracies holding periodic elections, and nationalism has arisen as a key factor in politics in the two countries. It is the combination of populism and nationalism in the two countries which has created trade tensions between them.

Courtesy Portstrategy.com

Sri Lanka Ports Authority will carry out a 15-month feasibility study for a new port development to help it meet its goal of container handing capacity of around 35m teus.

The port authority planned to develop the Colombo North Port, in the northern side of the existing Port of Colombo to use for for liquid bulk, dry bulk, ro-ro and containers.

Capacity at the Port of Colombo is around 12m teu per annum, but the completed extension of West Container Terminal brings the capacity of Port of Colombo to 15m teus.

SLPA has signed a consultancy agreement with AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited for the Colombo North Port Development Project feasibility study.

The South Port of Colombo predominately focuses for transshipment and domestic container handling.

As the energy demand of the country increases rapidly with the large developments taking place in the Colombo city, the requirement of a terminal facility for the importation of LNG is a mandatory requirement” said the port authority.

Additionally, said the port authority, the LNG ships require a sheltered area. The berth occupancy and usage in the existing Port of Colombo is already congested, so demand to have another sheltered area adjoining to the Port of Colombo is in discussion.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Refuting media reports that the Cardinal had expressed his dissatisfaction with the Presidential Commission probing the Easter Sunday attacks, Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith yesterday said he was very satisfied with the Presidential Commission.

The Archbishop expressed this view at a press release yesterday. Following is the press conference issued by the Archbishop.

The media release said:

Consequent to Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith’s press conference held on the February 18, 2020, at the Archbishop’s House, Borella, certain print and electronic media institutions, while telecasting the said news item on February 18, 2020, had erroneously highlighted the fact that Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith was not satisfied with the Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate the Easter Sunday bomb blast.

Under such circumstances, we wish to clarify on behalf of His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, that His Eminence has reiterated on several occasions that he was very satisfied with the workings of the present Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating the Easter Sunday bomb blast. This was reiterated at the press conference on 18th February 2020 and previous press conferences as well. His Eminence stated that he was not satisfied with the Parliamentary Select Committee proceedings and the report issued therein.”

Sandun A. Jayasekera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Cabinet had given conditional approval to begin constructions for much delayed 300MWs Kerawalapitiya LNG power plant to Lakdhanavi Ltd. to start constructions immediately after settling the litigation out, Power, Energy and Commuter Transport Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

When tenders were called in 2016 to construct the first-ever LNG plant in the country, two companies Lakdhanavi, with a majority shareholding by Lanka Transformers Limited (LTL) and Wind Force Ltd with mother company in China, had been shortlisted by the Cabinet Appointed Tender Board and the tender was given to Wind Force, ignoring the low unit cost quoted by Lakdhanavi.

When several appeals by Lakdhanavi to the government fell wayside, the local company challenged the tender offered to Wind Force Ltd.

The delay in the construction of the Kerawalapitiya LNG power plant has created a power crisis. Our aim is to start constructions in March and commission the plant in 2023. The bureaucratic red tape contributed much to delay the LNG power plant project,” Minister Amaraweera stressed.

He added that though the demand for power increased by 17% in the last five years, the increase of power generation was at a poor 2%. This has made a power crisis in the country.

A unit of power generated by the proposed Kerawalapitiya 300MWs power plant would be about Rs. 15. 

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A proper mechanism was required to provide blocks of lands to the landless, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday.

He said that even though lands had been marked to be allocated for the low-income people, there were many incidents of these people not receiving land.

Speaking at a ceremony to hand over title deeds of the Land Reform Commission at Temple Trees, the Prime Minister said measures would be taken not to repeat such incidents in the future.

The Prime Minister said that when the Land Reform Act No. 1 of 1972 was introduced in Parliament, they were able to vote in favour of the bill and pass it.

After the Land Reform Act was passed, the Land Reform Commission was established. After its establishment, the land was taken over by the Government.

A large number of lands were then marked for settlement and the collective settlement system was established. Some lands were given for agricultural and industrial projects as well,” he said.

Mr Rajapaksa said to his recollection, he had participated in at least 16 ceremonies to award title deeds to people and that even in the recent past, the land deeds had borne the signature of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The deeds were distributed by President Maithripala Sirisena but they had my signature. The deeds of land belonging to the Land Reforms Commission are being given to 2,500 families today. Since they had been residing for years in the land with no deeds, they have faced numerous problems,” he said.

Today, I am pleased to be able to bring you to this hall and present the deeds. This hall was built for a function attended by leaders from many countries around the world.

The opponents said there were golden toilets in this hall and that this was the palace with gold. But there is no such gold today. Seems they have taken it along with them. Anyone can sling mud when they want to do so,” he said.

Land deeds were given to the Ceylon Electricity Board, Kaduwela Municipal Council, entrepreneurs and many others during the function.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Lands and Land Development Minister S.M. Chandrasena, State Minister S. B. Dissanayake, Chairman of the Land Reforms Commission, Nilantha Wijesinghe and others were also present. 

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Deputy Minister and LTTE’s special commander for Ampara and Batticaloa Districts Vinaygamurthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman said on Saturday that it was he who persuaded President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa not to go ahead with the carving out of an Urban Council for the Sainthamaruthu region.

During a discussion held at the Karaithivu Vipulananda Cultural Centre in Ampara, he said that the Gazette notification on the institution of Sainthamaruthu Urban Council was issued on February 14, while a demand by Tamils to upgrade the Kalmunai North Divisional Secretariat had been ignored for the past 30 years.

The Government on February 14 issued a Gazette notification establishing an Urban Council for Sainthamaruthu and dissolving the Kalmunai Municipal Council to facilitate the demarcation of borders of both the councils.

Later on, February 20 Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardane said that Government had decided to withdraw the Gazette with a view to instituting the Sainthamaruthu Urban Council with other new councils that had been proposed.

“I contacted the Subject Minister on the Gazette who denied any knowledge about the Gazette. I immediately contacted the President and the Prime Minister and persuaded them not to go ahead with the Gazette notification,” he stated.

Muralitharan said that he was not against the establishment of an Urban Council for Sainthamaruthu, but the Kalmunai North Divisional Secretariat must be upgraded first and cannot be dragged on, on the pretext of delimitation, he argued.

Responding to statements made by certain TNA leaders calling him a traitor Karuna Amman said that it was the TNA leaders who were called by the LTTE as traitors.

“Once LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran-who never called me a traitor-had ordered to shoot all TNA leaders, except Mavai Senadhirajah,” he said.

He recalled that he became the Commander of the LTTE for the Ampara and Batticaloa Districts at the age of 19 and it was a record that nobody had broken.

“It was the Batticaloa fighters who created history by rushing to the north whenever the leader was in danger ever since the historic Vadamarachchi Operation (Operation Liberation), Karuna Amman claimed. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Members of the Sri Lanka Corps Military Police (SLCMP) of the Army have now been deployed in most congested entry/exit points in the Greater Colombo area under a new assignment in order to help ease the city traffic congestion in collaboration with Colombo City Traffic Division.  

The project, implemented on the guidelines given by the acting Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva following a conceptual notion, suggested by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces was launched Monday (24) morning and is expected to minimize wastage of valuable man hours on roads and help increase the national productivity through punctuality, the army said.

The deployment of Military Police personnel, covering most congested points across the city limits is expected to closely liaise with City Traffic Policemen during peak hours between 6.00 – 10.00 a.m and 4.00 – 7.00 p.m on all seven days of the week.

In addition, SLCMP mobile cars and five motorbikes would continue to monitor congestion, coordinate communication and keep surveillance during those peak hours with the objective of alerting the public and encouraging them to use alternative roads, if necessary.

Courtesy Adaderana

The driver of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka has admitted that he had not driven the jeep involved in the Rajagiriya hit-and-run case back in 2016, stated Ada Derana reporter.

It was revealed at the court that the driver Dilum Thusitha Kumara had issued a statement admitting to this revelation.

On January 22, the second suspect of the case, driver of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, upon his request, gave an hour-long confidential statement to the Colombo Additional Magistrate.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), stated that Dilum Thusitha Kumara had not driven the Jeep involved in the accident and that he had only been instructed to come forward as the driver to the Borella Police.

After notifying Thusitha Kumara to arrive at the Police Station, the MP had allegedly handed over the Jeep in question to Thusitha Kumara through another driver under the MP, named Alwis. Reportedly, driver Thusitha Kumara had been assured that he would be freed without delay.

Deputy Solicitor General pointed out that it appears as if the police had acted in a manner that would give some relief to the suspect, as promised. The Attorney General’s Department is currently studying the verdict given by the Magistrate at the Colombo Traffic Magistrate’s Court, Deputy Solicitor General further notified the court.

Further, the statement by the driver has revealed that when Dilum Thusitha Kumara was summoned to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) to record a statement regarding the investigation in 2019, he had been hidden in the residence of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka.

Meanwhile, Attorney-at-Law Anuja Premaratne, appearing on behalf of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, requested the court to grant permission for his client to travel to Australia for a private business for two weeks.

The court stated that the verdict on the request will be issued on the 4th of March.

In 2016, the vehicle in which the former Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister was traveling in had collided against a motorcycle, causing life-threatening injuries to its rider. The case was taken up for hearing at the Colombo Magistrate’s Court today (24).

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව ගත වූ කෙටි කාලසීමාව තුළ රුපියල් බිලියන 600 ක මුදලක් නාස්ති කර ඇති බවට විපක්ෂනායක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා නඟන චෝදනාව ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන බව සම කැබිනට් ප්‍රකාශක අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පවසනවා.

රජයේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේදී අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී ඔහු විපක්ෂනායකවරයාට අභියෝගයක් ලෙස ප්‍රශ්න 5 ක් ද යොමු කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

තම පක්ෂයේ ඇතැම් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨයින්, ජාතික ලැයිස්තුව දේශපාලන නොහැකියාව වෙනුවෙන් භාවිත කිරීම හේතුවෙන් එළැඹෙන මැතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණය කිරීමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් උද්ගතව ඇති බවට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී හේෂා විතානගේ මහතා පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ රත්නපුර ගොඩකවෙල ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකදී.

මේ අතර සිරිකොත පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ මහ ලේකම් අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම් මහතා මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

2016 වර්ෂයේදී පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මහතාගේ ජීප් රථයේ තරුණයෙකු ගැටූනු අවස්ථාවේදී එම ජීප් රථය පැදවූයේ තමා නොවන බවත්, තමන්ට ලැබුණු උපදෙස් මත බොරැල්ල පොලීසියට පැමිණ පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මහතාගේ රියදුරු ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් වූ බවත්, රියැදුරු දිලුම් තුසිත කුමාර මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇතැයි අධිකරණයේදී අද අනාවරණ වුණා.

මෙහිදි දිලුම් තුසිත කුමාර වන රියැදුරා පවසා ඇත්තේ, අදාළ රිය අනතුර සිදුවන අවස්ථාවේ තමා රිය පැදවූ බව පැවසුවේ, එවකට පාඨලී අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ තවත් රියැදුරෙකු වන නිශාන්ත ප්‍රදීප් නමැත්තා දුන් උපදෙස් අනුව බවයි.  

කොළඹ අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසය අධිකරණයට දැනුම් දුන්නේ, ඒ අනුව පසුගිය 12 වැනිදා දක්වා දිලුම් තුසිත කුමාර, පාඨලී චම්පික මන්ත්‍රීවරයාගේ නිවසේ රැඳී සිට ඇති බවට ද ප්‍රකාශ කළ බවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, 2016 වසරේ පෙබරවාරි 9 වැනිදා ඇප හිමි වූ දිනයේදී තමා එවකට අමාත්‍ය පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක හමුවීමට ගිය බවත් එයිදී තුසිත ඔයාට මොකුත් වෙන්නේ නැහැ බය වෙන්න එපා යැවි අමාත්‍යවරයා තමාන් හමුවේ පැවසූ බවත්, සැකකරු කොළඹ අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසයට පවසා තිබෙනවා.

හිටපු අමාත්‍ය පාඨලි චම්පික රණවක අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරින් විසින් රාජගිරිය සිදු වු රිය අනතුර සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොලිසිය නොමඟ යවන සුළු ප්‍රකාශ ලබා දි ඇති බවත් ඔවුන් ඉදිරියේ දි විත්තිකරුවන් ලෙස නම් කිරිම සම්බන්ධයෙන් කරුණු සලකා බලන බවට නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් දිලිප පිරිස් මහතා අද කොළඹ අතිරේක මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් නේරංජනා ද සිල්වා මහත්මිය වෙත දැනුම් දුන්නා

රජයේ අධිනිතිඥ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් දිලිප පිරිස් මහතා අධිකරණය වෙත දැනුම් දුන්නේ සිද්ධියට අදාල දුරකථන වාර්තා කැදවා ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිටපු අමාත්‍ය පාඨලි චම්පික රණවක අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරින්  වන පොලිස් සැරයන් කරුණාරත්න හා පොලිස් පරික්ෂක කුමාර ප්‍රකාශ ලබා ගත් බවත් ඔවුන් විමර්ශනය නොමඟ යවන අසත්‍ය ප්‍රකාශ ලබා දී ඇති බවට කරුණු අනාවරණය වි ඇති බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

සුළු පක්ෂ සමඟ එක්වී සන්ධානගතවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමා ඊයේ සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශය එළැඹෙන මහ මැතිවරණය ඉලක්ක කරගෙන සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයක් නොවන බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග්‍රසයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා පවසනවා.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් සඳහන් කළේ රවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයේ කිසිදු සත්‍යතාවක් නොමැති බවයි.

තමන් ඊයේ සිදුකළ මෙම ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පැහැදිලි කිරීමට රවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා අද මහනුවරදී  ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවා තිබුණා.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් සඳහන් කළේ, ශ්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංගසය සමඟ සන්ධානයක් ලෙස තරග වැදීම පිළිබඳව කිසිඳු සාකච්ඡාවක් සිදුකර නොමැති බවයි.

මේ අතර, රවුෆ් හකීම් ඊයේ සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් දේශපාලනඥයින් මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා.

By Garvin Karunaratne, PhD. Michigan State University

Ideas of possible development, poverty alleviation for the people in Hambantota reign supreme in my mind as I watch the parade of our President and Prime Minister opening the Hambantota Section of our Southern Highway.

I recall a Paper I have published earlier which deserves immediate action. It details  how the next phase of development  after the building up of an airport, a tank- Lunugamwehera and a port- Hambantota  has to be done. My Paper A Rural Renaissance in the Offing, publishded in 2014 is reproduced here in full for the kind perusal by our leaders.

Every recommendation I have made is practical to the hilt. I do not belong to the category of doctrinaire economists, who know only theory and not a day’s practical work. I can assure that the peasants of Hambantota District can easily be rewarded with incomes – poverty alleviation can be accomplished within a year at most.

In my Paper I have argued for the establishment of a Cannery where we will turn out Red Pumpkin into Golden Melon Jam and Ash Pumpkin into Silver Melon Jam and have Melon Juice  and Mango Slices and Juice. This is nothing new. We in the Marketing Department did it earlier and if our leaders give the go ahead it can be accomplished within six months.  I have written another Paper on Paper Making subsequently which too tells how Paper can be made out of straw. It was our bold scientists that found the art of making Paper out of straw and it is an irony of fate that we do not make any paper out of straw while India, Thailand, China and every country around us make paper out of straw. My suggestion is simple, import a small scale paper making machine from India or China and get going. If the machine is air flown we can install it within a month and the Maha harvest straw will become Paper and we can kiss good bye to paper imports. The time frame I am suggesting in this Paper  is the speed at which I did work as the G.A. at Matara in 1971-1973 and as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Government of Bangladesh in 1981-1983.

My readers may think of my suggestions as impractical- here is an old hand who worked half a century ago talking nonsense. But we did work fast then. Under the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1970 to1977, we katcheri administrative officers did wonders. We established a Boatyard turning out 40 foot motor fishing boats a year- the boatyard was established within three months. A Divisional Secretary  at Kotmale established a Paper Factory and it was a great success. I can also speak of the Crayon Factory we did establish at Morawaka. The craze in me to teach the Ministry of Plan Implementation a lesson, because they did not approve my establishing any import substitution type of industry made me take over the Rahula College science lab after hours. I put my scientist- my own Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, to work on a myriad experiments to find the art of making crayons. He was helped by non grad science teachers.  We spent the mid night oil six to midnight for almost every day for three months and we found the art of making crayons equal in quality to the Reeves crayons that were then imported. Then with one word from me Sumanapala Dahanayake the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya in his capacity as the President of the Morawak Korale Coop Union  established the handmade crayon factory within two weeks working 24 hours a day. The Crayon Factory came into being in less than five months. A Crayon is a sophisticated product and the Crayola Crayon recipe will be patented and worth millions. The fact that we were successful in making crayons means that we can make almost everything we import.

From where will the funds come? Funds will come from the savings we make by stopping imports. With a very small expenditure, if we work fast we can easily recoup our expenses from savings in imports. When the Minister for Trade,Mr Illangaratne approved a small allocation to import dyes for Coop Crayon,  in 1971, his Import Controller Harry Guneratne immediately  reduced the import of crayons.

These words come to you from the person who challenged the ILO when they failed to establish a self employment programme in 1978 to 1981 at Tangail Bangladesh. I proved to the Hon Minister for Manpower and Labour that I can do what the ILO failed and with his approval I got cracking and designed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme within eighteen months, trained youth workers and vocational educators in economics and established the Programme, which is yet going strong in Bangladesh and has so far guided three million youths to become self employed. This is the premier employment creation programme the world has known

I hope I have convinced our leaders that poverty alleviation is something that can be done. We did it once and can do it again. Let us think of Hambantota or better, the Southern Province as a  model area- just as once in 1960 the Government of Pakistan requested the USA to provide them with the expertise to find the quickest method of poverty alleviation. The USA its Agency for International Development( AID) selected Michigan State University to provide the expertise and the Government of Pakistan selected Dr Akhter Hameed Khan as the Director. The Kotwali Thana, a division of the Comilla District was selected. In less than ten years the yield of paddy was increased by 103%, cooperative members increased from 200 to 11,637,  overdues kept within 2%, 80 % of land was brought under high yielding varieties and full employment was established (From:Non Formal Eduvation Theory & Practice at Comilla)

I am prepared to give an undertaking that total poverty alleviation, involving the establishment of many small industries, the development of agriculture and small industries can be achieved within five years.  I am prepared to work with administrator and scientists  and can assure success.

Mahinda Gunasekera Agincourt, Ontario   Canada  M1W 3L9

February 23, 2020

His Excellency, Gotabhaya Rajapakse
President of Sri Lanka
Copy to:  Hon. Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse

Your Excellency,

Fundamental Rights of Sri Lankan Citizens

I am in receipt of the video sent herewith wherein an unnamed person is discussing the lack of rights for Sinhala people in areas predominantly resided by members of the Tamil and Muslim communities.  According to the attached video, the minority Tamils and Muslims living in the north and east tend to assume that they are in control of fully autonomous regions having exclusive powers, and are in a position to deprive the Sinhala Buddhist people who are the vast majority and founding people of the country  the basic fundamental rights due to each and every person of every community throughout the length and breadth of the island. They are of the view that they could arbitrarily prevent the settlement of even the Sinhalese and Muslims who were evicted from the region during the time of the ethnic tensions in the 1980s and 1990s, and also stop the restoration of ancient Buddhist archaeological sites or construct any religious monument at such locations.  The authorities must ensure that the law is firmly upheld in every part of the country.  They are even manufacturing false histories of their claims to Buddhist archaeological sites as Kuragala, and even display name boards giving falsified information on billboards on roads leading to Sri Pada, which could  result in further unrest and conflict in the country.

Also, the setting up of an illegal housing development within the Wilpattu National Park after clearing  vast tracts in excess of 2,500 hectares to settle Muslims said to have been evicted from the north with funds obtained from rich donors of the Middle East (Qatar), unilaterally named the SHEIKH JASIM CITY, is a matter of serious concern, as the illegal scheme went into operation from around 2011/2012 as a result of political meddling involving senior ministers of the then government and former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to win votes of the Muslim community at the next election.  The illegal clearing was undertaken in violation of the Forest Conservation Ordinance and the National Environment Act overlooking statutory procedures to win the political favours of this community which continued into the term of the next administration which took office in 2015. President Maithripala Sirisena on being notified of the illegal settlement project publicly stated that he would order the illegal forest devastation to be stopped, but turned out to be empty words and no action was forthcoming from the President’s office.  The harm caused by this intrusion into these protected areas which forms a contiguous flourishing ecosystem that sustains high levels of biodiversity including species such as leopards, elephants, sloth bears, and other varieties is immense. The clearing of the forest, constructing access roads, infrastructure development including electrical transmission lines causes immense damage to the ecological value of the Wilpattu Forest complex, which is a vital part of Sri Lanka’s natural heritage. Such actions can drastically affect the weather patterns, tending to convert this semi-wet zone into a dry zone as found in the NCP before long.  If we are to right this wrong, action must be taken to determine the status of those settlers to verify if they had been previously evicted from the north or elsewhere, and arrange to resettle them in their former places of residence or alternate site in that locality, and allow the forest to regenerate to offset the declining forest cover as a result of such illegal encroachment into our green areas.

One of the reasons for the minorities to feel that they have exclusive rights in their main areas of residence is probably due to the fact that the different governments that have ruled Sri Lanka during and after the conflict to defeat the forces of Tamil Tiger terrorism neglected their duty to uphold the right of return of non-Tamils who had been ethnically cleansed by the terror forces to their former places of residence in the north and east.  No doubt, priority had to be given to the resettlement of internally displaced Tamils following their being herded by the retreating LTTE forces to be exploited for their labour, conscripted to replace fallen cadre and serve as a human shield at the conclusion of hostilities. However, the authorities failed to uphold rights of the evicted Sinhalese and Muslim people, allowing the Provincial Councils and local councils in the north and east to adopt policies of shutting out the evicted from resettlement within their administrative regions, and also act in a hostile manner especially against the Sinhalese who were a minority in their midst.

This mindset of the Tamil and Muslim majorities of the north and east should be changed without delay by upholding the fundamental rights of minorities within their midst, just as much as Muslims and Tamils in the rest of the country are recognized as fellow citizens with equal rights by the majority Sinhalese people in those regions. The fundamental right of Freedom of Movement guaranteed to every citizen by the National Constitution must be made a living truth so that people may settle where ever they wish and engage in lawful livelihood activities.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Shirley Pulle Tissera, President, Sri Lanka Situwarunge Sangamaya Courtesy The Sunday Times

Front row the Ven Soma Maha Thera and Ven Kheminda Thera before ordination and (inset) the Ven Soma Maha Thera

Soma Maha Thera was born on  December 23,  1898 in Kotahena, Colombo. His father was Emmanuel Marian Pererapulle and his mother Theresa Rodrigo Babapulle and his name was Victor Emmanuel Pererapulle. He received his entire education at St Benedict’s College, Kotahena, the premier Catholic school in Colombo and a school that also produced such great Buddhist leaders like Anagarika Dharmapala and Ven Narada Nayaka Thera.

He belonged to the Colombo Chetty Community. The Colombo Chetty Community known historically as Situ, Sitana or Setthi originally inhabited areas in and around Coorg and Benares. Their involvement and contribution to Buddhism dates back to very early times– it was a Setthi of Savastthi named Sudatha who became famous because of his unparalleled generosity to the Buddha and was known to all as Anathapindika. It is also stated in the History of Early Ceylon” by Prof Hema Ellawala that the Mother of Prince Vijaya and Princess Sangamitta was Videshi Devi the daughter of Deva Setthinater of Avanti. It was his seven sons headed by Prince Sumitta who accompanied the sacred Bo Sapling to Anuradhapura on the request of Kind Devanampiyatissa.

Ven Soma Maha Thera’s contribution to Buddhism in Sri Lanka started sometime in 1920 when he met W J. Oliver Soysa, one of the founder members of the servants of the Buddha”, the well known association which has its headquarters at Laurie’s Road, Colombo 4, and of which the Ven Kassapa Thera was the founder Patron. He was actively involved in the publication of blessing” which was edited by Dr Cassius Pereira and he along with Mr. Soysa founded the Fort Study Circle” and was elected the first Secretary. Later W Don Michael was elected Joint Secretary to assist him.

In the late twenties, having heard from  Wong Mow Lam, the Chinese scholar, who was in Ceylon for some time, that there were great possibilities for spreading the Theravada in his country and that there was much that could be translated from the Mahayana literature of China he together with his great friend and companion Ven Kheminda Thera went to Burma in 1934, and began their journey to China by way of Kawkerik, over the misty Dawna Mountains and across the border for 4 days on foot to Raehaeng in Thailand, and thence by bus, river boat and train through Svankaloke, Pisaloke and arrived in Krum Teb which is Bangkok today. They then went through Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong to arrive at Shanghai in China. They spent one year at Kawatana-Machi and translated for the first time the Chinese translation of the Vimuttimagga” to English.

Buddhist delegation to Bangalore

on the invitation of Sir Baron Jayatilleka Ven Soma Maha Thera visited Bangalore in 1939 again in the company of Ven Kheminda and Ven Naravila Dhammaratana Maha Thera and they were able to secure from the Government of Mysore a site for a Buddhist Centre. Due to ill health he had to rest and was invited by the Ven Nyanaponika Maha Thera to the Island Hermitage in Dodanduwa.

He lived in this hermitage from 1940-45 and from 1948-54, and it was from here that the first edition of The way of Mindfulness”(1941) and His last Performance” 1943 were written. He also edited the Anapana Sati” by Dr Cassius Pereira in 1943.

First Buddhist delegation to China

At the invitation of Ven Tai Tsu, the well known Buddhist leader of China, Ven Soma Maha Thera accompanied the Ven Madihe Pannasiha Nayaka Thera (later Maha Nayaka) to China to establish a Pali College in Sianfu, the ancient Buddhist Centre in Shensei Province the home of Fa Hsien the famous pilgrim. The Shanghai YMBA which was founded by him had nearly 300 members and his radio talks were very popular, he delivered lectures and sermons to large gatherings in Singapore and Malaysia and then on returning he initiated the founding of two important Buddhist Associations the Sasanadhara Kantha Samitiya” and the Banks Asoka Society” in 1950 and 1956 respectively, he was the founder patron of the latter.

Most of the editorials on the dhamma in the Buddha Jayanthi” and a large number of translations from Pali and German, besides original articles, and the Jayanthi Miscellany” were written by him. Ven Soma’s masterly articles The greatest Maha Nayaka Thera of our time” and the editorial A maker of Good Men” on the passing away of the Ven Paelaene Siri Vajiranana Maha Nayaka Thera was well accepted and written from his sick bed at the hermitage. Ven Soma was well known to English speaking audiences in Ceylon. Many will remember his talks over Radio Ceylon. He is also credited to have translated and edited the Satipatthana Sutta”. Ven Soma participated in the making of the Sima” chapter house at the Maha Bodhi Society’s centre in Bangalore during the Buddha Jayanthi celebrations in 1956.

First Buddhist delegation to Germany

On June 15, 1957, Ven Soma led the first Theravada Buddhist group from Sri Lanka to Germany. It comprised three Dharmaduta monks, Ven Soma, Ven. Kheminda and Ven.  Vinita all from the Vajiraramaya, Bambalapitiya. They were accompanied by W.J. Oliver Soysa, a close associate of the Vajiraramaya monks. Dharmapriya Mahinda (formerly known as Nelson Soysa) a Vice-President of the GDS had left for Germany earlier. The mission commenced its journey from Mihintale on Poson Poya Day June 11, 1957 with the blessings of the Maha Sangha and the Buddhist public.

The second stage of the journey to Germany began on June 15, from the GDS Headquarters, No 417, Bullers Road (now Baudhaloka Mawatha), Colombo 7. A motorcade of about 100 vehicles participated in the procession that escorted the three Bikkhus from the GDS to the Elizabeth Quay, Colombo Harbour . There, the GDS and the Harbour Buddhist Society organised a meeting under the chairmanship of the Ven Kalukondayawe Pannasekera Nayaka Thera.

Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike handed over a casket of sacred relics to the Ven. Soma Thera. Former Premier Dudley Senanayake presented the Buddhist flag to the mission to be used at the Berlin Vihara. The monks embarked on the voyage on board the `SS Orantes’ amidst cries of Saadhu, Saadhu” from the people who had come to witness the memorable ceremony. The ship reached Naples on June 29, 1957.

The mission upon disembarking at Naples proceeded to Frankfurt by train via Switzerland and was met by Asoka Weeraratna, who had flown in from Colombo. The mission then flew from Frankfurt to Berlin where members of the Berlin Buddhist Society greeted them at the airport. On July 2, 1957, the mission took up residence at the Das Buddhistische Haus in Frohnau, Berlin.

Ven Soma Maha Thera had written over 30 books on Buddhism. He  lived a life of a devoted follower of the Buddha and  was loved and respected by all those who knew him and many thousands benefited from his sermons and teachings. His passing away at Vajiraramaya, Bambalapitiya on Februrary 23, 1960 was a great loss to Buddhists and also to the Colombo Chetty Community in Sri Lanka

Shirley Pulle Tissera,

President, Sri Lanka Situwarunge Sangamaya
(2008 – 2010)