තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

අරහත්භාවය නොහොත් නිවන අත්කරගැනීමට පලමුවෙන් සෝතපන්නයට පැමිනිය යුතුය. සෝතාපන්නයෙන් තොර නිවනක් නැත. එසේ නම් සෝතපන්නය පලමුවෙන් දත යුතුය. සෝතාපන්නයට පලමුවෙන් පත්විය යුතුය.

ඉහත සඳහන් සංයෝජන තුනම සෝවාන් මාර්ගයට පිවිසීමට ප්‍රහානය කලයුතු ධර්මයෝය. මෙම තුන් සංයෝජන ප්‍රහානය සිඳුවන්නේ දැනුමෙන් නැතහොත් සත්‍ය ඤාණය හා එම දැනුමට අනුගතවූ ජීවිකාව තුල පමනක් බව බුදුන්වහන්සේ සබ්බාසව සූත්‍රයේ දස්සනේන පහාතබ්බා (දස්ස – දර්ශනය, නේන – අනුගතවීමෙන්, පහාතබ්බා – ප්‍රහානයවන) යනුවෙන් පෙන්වාදෙයි.

එසේනම් සෝවාන් අවස්ථාවට පත්වීමට මුල් සංයෝජන තුන තේරුම්ගෙන, එම සංයෝජන ධර්ම ප්‍රහීනවන ජීවිකාවකට අනුගතවිය යුතුය. සෝවන් මාර්ගය ඉතාමත් සරලව අත්කරගත හැක්කක් සේ ඔබට දැනෙනු නොඅනුමානය. එසේනම් සොවාන් වූවෙක් අපට හමුනොවන්නේ මන්ද? 

මුල් සංයෝජන තුන තේරුම් ගෙන (දැනුම – සත්‍ය ඤාණය) ඒවා ප්‍රහීනවන ජීවිකාව කුමක්ද? බුදුන් දවස වයස අවුරුදු 7 තේ දරුවන් පවා සෝවාන් වූ බවද අනෙකුත් වැසියන්ගෙන් 5/7 ක්ම සෝවාන්ව සිටි බවද නොයෙකුත් ධර්ම ග්‍රන්ථවල සඳහන්වෙයි. සෝවාන් තත්වය වයස අවු 7 තේ දරුවන්ට පහසුවෙනුත් අනෙකුත් අයට තරමක් වීරියකිනුත් ලබාගත හැකි තත්වයක් බවයි මෙයින් වැටහෙන්නේ. එසේනම් අපට අද දවස  සෝවාන් වූවන් හමුවීම විරල (හෝ ඇත්තේම නැත්තේ) ඇයි?

අද සියළුම දේශකයෙක් පාහේ මුල් සංයෝජන තුන ගැන නොදන්නවා මෙන්ම අධර්මය ධර්මය සේ දේශනා කිරීමෙන් ඒවායේ තේරුම් (දැනුම) වසා දමා ඇති නිසාය.

සියල්ලම කනපිට පෙරලා ඇති අවදියක සද්ධර්මය පමනක් එසේ වී නොමැතිනම් පුදුමයකි. බුද්ධිය ඇත්තෝ බුද්ධියෙන්ම දකිත්වා!

මුල් සංයෝජන ධර්ම තුන

සීලබ්බත පරාමාස ප්‍රහානය යනු අනාර්ය අට පිලිවෙතින් (අශ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය) මිදෙන ජීවන ක්‍රමයට අනුගතවීමයි. අනාර්ය අට පිලිවෙත තුල ගෙවන දිවිය හේතුවෙන් සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය ඇතිවී එය දිගටම පවතියි. සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨියෙන් මිදෙන (සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨි ප්‍රහානය) පිලිවෙත සීලබ්බත පරාමාස ප්‍රහානයයි. මේ සෝවාන් ස්වභාවයයි. සෝවාන් මාර්ගයයි.

එනම් භාහිරය දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් සේ දැනෙන, ‘මම’ ඉන්නවාසේ දැනෙන, ස්වාභාවයෙන් මිදෙනා (ඉත්ථභාවයෙන් මිදෙන) ජීවිකාවකට අනුගතවීම ‘සීලබ්බත පරාමාස ප්‍රහානය’ බව මෙම ලිපි පෙලේ පලමු කොටස වන 2024 මාර්තු 26 වනදා Lankaweb පිටුවේ පලවූ;

අෂ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය, අනාර්ය අෂ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය සහ සීලබ්බත පරාමාසය – න තෙ භවං අට්ඨමමාදියන්ති‘

ලිපිය මගින් දීර්ඝලෙස විස්තර කරන ලදී. එම ලිපියට පහත සඳහන් link එක හරහා පිවිසිය හැකියි.

ආර්ය අෂ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය, අනාර්ය අෂ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය සහ සීලබ්බත පරාමාසය – න තෙ භවං අට්ඨමමාදියන්ති

මෙම ලිපිය පරිහරනය කල ඔබ සිලබ්බත පරාමාසය යන සංයොජනය පිළිබඳ දැනුමෙන් සන්නද්ධය. එසේ නම් දැන් සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය හා විචිකිච්ඡාව යන සංයෝජන දෙක තේරුම් ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරමු.

තුන්දොර 

අප බොහෝ දෙනා දන්නා පරිදි සද්ධර්මය තුල හමුවන තුන් දොර වන්නේ සිත, කය නොහොත් ක්‍රියාව හා වචනයයි. සංකාර වන්නේ මෙම තුන්දොර තුලයි. අප විඤ්ඤාණමායාවට සංවේදිතාවයක් නැතහොත් ප්‍රතික්‍රියාවක් දක්වන්නේ මෙම තුන්දොර තුලිනි. සංකාර යනු විඤ්ඤාණමායාව එනම් හේතුඵල දහම නිසා මනසේ සකස්වන දෙයක් මිස භාහිරයේ පවතින්නක යථාභූත ස්වභාවය නොවෙයි. ‘හේතුං පටිච්ච සම්භූතා (-හේතු භංගා නිරුජ්ජතී)’ යනුවෙන් බුද්ධ දේසනාවේ හමුවන්නේ මෙම ධර්මතාවයයි. සංකාර යනු හේතුඵලය නිසා මනසේ සම්භූත වන (මනසේ හටගන්නා මායාවට සකස්වන) දෙයක් මිස සත්‍යවශයෙන් භාහිරයේ පවතින අනාත්මීය ස්වභාවය නොවේ.

අනාත්මීයව පවත්නා භාහිරය ආත්මීය කරන්නේ තුන්දොර හරහා සකස්වන සංකාරයයි. සංකාරය භවය සකස්වන ලෙසත් (සංකාර), භවය සකස් නොවන ලෙසත් (විසංකාර) හැසිරවිය හැකිය.

මේ තුන් දොර භවය සකස් නොවන ලෙස හැසිරවීමට හැකිනම් ඔබ සෝතාපන්න මාර්ගයට පිලිපන්නේ වෙයි. එම තුන් දොර භවය සකස් නොවන ලෙස හැසිරවීමට ඔබ අසමත් නම් ඔබ පෘතග්ජනයෙකි.

‘භවය‘ හෙවත් භාහිරයේ පවත්නා දෙයකට අගයක් එකතු කර නන්‍දියෙන් ග්‍රහනය කිරීම

‘භවය’ යනු භාහිරයේ අනාත්මීයව පවතින දෙයක් ආත්මීයව පවතින්නක් සේ දැනෙන ස්වභාවයයි. භාහිරයේ පවතින කිසිවක් වින්දනයක් (ආශ්වාදයක් හෝ ගැටීමක්) ගෙන නොදෙයි. වින්දනය ජනිතවන්නේ විඤ්ඤාණමායාව තුලයි. උදාහරනයක් ලෙස භාහිරයේ පවතින රූපයක ලස්සනක් (ආශ්වාදයක්) හෝ කැතක් (ද්වේශයක්) හෝ දැනෙන්නේ විඤ්ඤාණමායාවට හසුවුන සිත තුලය. භාහිරයේ ඇති රූපය විඳීමක් ගෙන නොදෙන ස්වභාවයෙන් පවතියි. භාහිරය අනාත්මීයයි පවසන්නේ මේ විඳීමක් (අගයක්, නන්දියක්) නැති මේ ශුණ්‍යතා ගුණයයි. විඤ්ඤාණමායාවට හසුවන භාහිරය (භාහිර රූපය) ආශ්වාදයක්, විඳීමක් ඇති සේ දැනෙයි. එනම් භාහිරය ආත්මීය ස්වභාවයෙන් දැනෙයි. අනාත්මීය හා ආත්මීය යන සංකල්ප දෙක දැන් ඔබට පැහැදිලි විය යුතුය.

භවය සකස් කිරීම හා භවය සකස් නොකිරීම

භාහිරයේ පවතින්නක් එහි යථාභූත ස්වභාවය වන අනාත්මීය ස්වභාවයෙන් ග්‍රහනය කලහැකිනම් ඔබට භවය සකස්වීමක් නැත.

භාහිරයේ පවතින්නක් එහි යථාභූත ස්වභාවයෙන් ග්‍රහනය නොකොට විඤ්ඤාණමායාව තුල ආත්මීය ස්වභාවයකින් ග්‍රහනය වන්නේ නම් ඔබ භවය සකස් කරගනියි. භවය සකස්වීම දුකට, තැති ගැනීමට හේතුවයි. එය සමුදය සත්‍යයයි.

සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය

භාහිර යමක් ආත්මීයව විඤ්ඤාණමායාවෙන් ග්‍රහනය කරනා ඔබට එම සිතුවිල්ල තුල ඔබ සිටිනා බවක් දැනේ. එනම් භාහිරය විඳිනා ‘මමෙක්’ සිටිනා බවක් ඔබට හැඟේ. මෙම සංසිද්ධිය ‘ඉත්ථභාවය’ නැතහොත් ‘අස්මිමානය’ ඔබතුල ඇතිවීමයි. දැන් ඹබට භාහිරය ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම ආත්මීයව පවතින්නක් සේ දැනෙයි. මෙය ‘සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨියයි’. 

සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය ඇති තැනැත්තා (in default we all fall in to this category) භාහිරය ආශ්වාදයක් (හෝ ගැටීමක්) ඇති ආත්මීය ස්වරූපයෙන් දකියි. ඒ නිසා එම ආශ්වාදය (හෝ ගැටීම) විඳිනා ‘මමෙක්’ ඇති බවක් දැනෙයි (ඉත්ථභාවය).

ඉහත සඳහන් ආකාරයට ඇතිවන සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය තුල භවය සකස් වෙයි. භවය සකස්කරන ‘මම’ නොහොත් ‘ජාති’ හටගනියි. පටිච්චසමුප්පාදයේ දැක්වෙන ‘උපාදාන පච්චයා භව හා භව පච්චයා ජාති’ යනු මෙම ක්‍රියාවලියයි.

භාහිරය දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් සේ ආත්මීයව දැනෙන්නේත් එසේ දැනෙනා ‘මම’ සිටිනා බවක් හැඟෙන්නේත් තමා තුල ඇති සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය හේතුවෙනි. ධම්මචක්කපවත්වන සූත්‍ර දේශනාවට අනුව බුදුන්වහන්සේ ලොවට දෙසූ පලමු ධර්ම පාඨය වන්නේ ‘කාමසුඛල්ලිකානුයෝගි හා අත්ථඛිලමතානුයෝගි යන අන්ත දෙකින් එනම් එම දිවිපෙවෙත් වලින් මිදෙනා ලෙසයි. මක් නිසාද යත් මෙම අන්ත දෙක මෙන්ම එම අන්ත දෙක අතර පවත්නා සියළුම දිවිපෙවෙත් (total spectrum containing this two end behaviours) තුලම ඇත්තේ සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨියම බැවිනි. ඔබ රජෙක් වුනත් සාමාන්‍ය වැසියෙක් වුවත් මහමග සිඟමන් යදින්නෙක් වුනත් ඔබ සිටින්නේ කාමසුඛල්ලිකානු දිවිපෙවත තුල භවය සකස් කරමිනුයි. තවද ඔබ සිල් රකිමින් හෝ භාවනා වෘතය ඇතැළු බලු, ගෝණ ආදිවු වෘත රකින්නෙක් නම් ඔබ සිටින්නේ අත්ථඛිලමතානුයෝගය තුල භවය සකස් කරමිනුයි. ඒ නිසයි බුදුන්වහන්සේ මෙම භවය සකස්කරනා සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය තුල පවත්නා දිවිපෙවෙත් වලින් ඉවත්වනසේ ලොවට දෙසු ප්‍රථම ධම්ම පාඨයෙන්ම ලෝකයාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියේ. 

පඨම උපාදාපරිතස්සනා සූත්‍රය

බුදුන්වහන්සේ ‘පඨම උපාදාපරිතස්සනා සූත්‍රයේ’ 

රූපං අත්තතෝ සමනුපස්‌සති, රූපවන්‌තං වා අත්‌තානං. අත්‌තනි වා රූපං, රූපස්‌මිං වා අත්‌තානං. තස්‌ස තං රූපං විපරිණමති අඤ්‌ඤථා හෝති.

‘සත්පුරුෂ ධර්මය තේරුම් නොගත්ත තැනැත්තා (පෘතග්ජනයා) සතර මහා ධාතූන්ගෙන් හටගන්නා වූ අනාත්මීය පවතින (අගයක් නන්දියක් නැති) රූපය ආත්මීයව ගෙන එම රූපය දකින මම (ආත්මයක්) ඇතිබවක් මුළාවෙන් දකිනවා. එක්කෝ ඔහු මුළාවෙන් දකින්නේ ආත්මය (මම) රූපයෙන් හැදිච්ච එකක් කියලයි. එහෙම නැත්නම් ඔහු මුළාවෙන් දකින්නේ ආත්මයක් (මම) තුළ තමයි රූපය තියෙන්නේ කියලා. එහෙමත් නැත්නම් ඔහු මුළාවෙන් දකින්නේ ආත්මය තියෙන්නේ රූපය තුළයි කියලා‘.

බුදුන්වහන්සේ විඤ්ඤාණමායාවට මැවෙන (සම්භූතවන) රූපය හේතු කොටගෙන මම (ආත්මය) නොහොත් ඉත්ථභාවය ඇතිවන හැටි සද්ධර්මය තුල පැහැදිලි කලේ මේ ආකාරයෙනි. මෙසේ ‘මම’ ඇතිබවක් දැනෙන ස්වභාවය සක්කාය දෘශ්‍ඨියයි.

ආත්මීයව ග්‍රහනය කරගත් භාහිර රූපය තුල එම රූපය දකින මම සිටින්‍නා සේ දැනීම නිසා අද අප සියළු දෙනාම සිටින්නේ භවය සකස් කරනා අනාර්ය දිවිපෙවෙතක් තුලය. බුදුන්වහන්සේ මෙම භවය සකස් කරනා අනාර්ය දිවිපෙවත අනාර්ය අට පිලිවෙත (අනාර්ය අශ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගය) සේ ලොවට තම ප්‍රථම ධර්මදේශනයෙන්ම) හඳුන්වා දුන් සේක. කෙනෙකුට සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය (භාහිරය සත්‍යයක් සේ දැනෙන, එම සත්‍ය වූ භාහිරය විඳිනා ‘මමෙ’ ක්‍ සිටිනා ස්වභාවය ‘සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය’ යි. සෝතාපන්න අවස්ථාව වැසීපවතින්නේ මෙම සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය ඇතිකරනා අනාර්ය අට මග (අශ්ඨාංගික) දිවිපෙවෙත හෙවත් ‘සීලබ්බත පරාමාසය’ හේතුවෙනි.

එසේ භවය සකස් කරනා සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨිය ඇතිකරනා දිවිපෙවත දැනගෙන එයින් ඉවත්වීම ‘සෝවාන් හෙවත් සෝතාපන්න මාර්ගයයි’. සොතාපන්නය අත්පත් වන්නේ භවය සකස් නොවෙනා නිවැරදි දිවිපෙවෙත තුලයි. එය දිවිපෙවෙතක් මිස ප්‍රතිපදාවක් නොවෙයි.

දැන් ඔබට සක්කාය දෘශ්ඨියත්, සිලබ්බත පරාමාසය හා ඒවායේ ප්‍රහීනයත් ගැන ගැඹුරු අවබෝධයක් ඇත. ලබන ලිපියෙන් සෝතාපන්නයට පත්වීමට අවශ්‍ය තුන් සංයෝජන ප්‍රහීනයට අවශ්‍ය ඉතිරි සංයෝජනය වන ‘විචිකිච්ඡාව’ හඳුනාගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරමු.

ඔබට තෙරුවන් සරණයි

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

eMail:  tgunite@tpg.com.au

2024 අප්‍රේල් මස 22 වනදා

Sent from Tissa’s Phone

Senaka Weeraratna

I got disillusioned with politics. An idea was born in my mind that a social revolution minus political colouring should be staged. The Sarvodaya Shramadana movement was the outcome of this thinking”

A.T. Ariyaratne

The passing of A.T. Ariyaratne at the age of 92 years on April 16, 2024, removes from the national scene a colossus that straddled many spheres of local life and singularly gained international recognition for himself and his country to an unimaginable extent. Though small and diminutive in physical size he reached dizzy heights that should inspire the current and future generations to emulate him. A.T. Ariyaratne was an innovative thinker who consistently punched above his weight.  

Much has been written of him and much will be written of him in the future. Therefore, I will confine myself in this short essay to the lesser publicized aspects of his charismatic life.  

On a personal note, I became aware of him when I was in primary school when my cousins at Nalanda and Ananda College started to talk of him in the late 1950s. Ariyaratne was a teacher at Nalanda College and he organized a strike at School in protest against a palpable injustice, the news of which spread rapidly among school teachers and their students. In that era school strikes were unheard of.

My first encounter with A.T. Ariyaratne was in 1961.  I was then 13 years of age. The German Dharmaduta Society founded by Asoka Weeraratna (my uncle), decided to construct in one day a Boundary Wall around the perimeter of the land at its premises at No. 417, Bauddhaloka Mawatha (formerly Bullers Road). The Society called for volunteers as it intended to carry out this project on a purely pro bono basis. Ariyaratne and his students (members of the fledgling Sarvodaya Shramadana movement at Nalanda Vidyalaya) responded magnificently. There were others too including children of the Office Bearers of the GDS who participated in this erstwhile project by carrying bricks to assist the masons.

Ariyaratne, then a young Buddhist schoolteacher, began adapting Gandhian concepts and strategies of rural awakening (Sarvodaya) to Sinhalese Culture. It started small in the late 1950s at Nalanda Vidyalaya under this visionary teacher and developed in the 1960s into a widespread national movement with a philosophical underpinning. A Sinhalese Gandhi was in the making.  

However, there was another major involvement of Ariyaratne in a national Buddhist movement that is lesser known. The media hardly refer to it today.  That was the formation of the Bauddha Jathika Balavegaya (BJB) that came into being following the abortive ‘Catholic Army Officers’ coup in January 1962.  Had it succeeded Sri Lanka could have plunged into becoming another South Vietnam under minority control (President Ngo Dinh Diem) backed by the USA.  It was to prevent such a catastrophe in Sri Lanka that the Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya (BJB) was formed in November 1962. The inaugural meeting was held at the premises of the All-Ceylon Women’s Buddhist Conference (ACWBC) on the invitation of L.H. Mettananda to a select 100 persons. The topic ‘A discussion about the future of the Sinhala Buddhist Society’

In his autobiographical ‘Bhava Thanha ’ A.T. Ariyaratne gives a good description of the origins and birth of the Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya.

Bhava Thanha: An Autobiography Volume One

A. T. Ariyaratne

ISBN 10: 9555992371 / ISBN 13: 9789555992374

Published by Vishva Lekha, 2001

Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya (BJB)

The first Office Bearers of the BJB were:

L. H. Mettananda (President), Nissanka Wijeyaratne (Vice – President), Gunaseela Vithanage (Secretary), Ronnie de Mel (Treasurer).

A.T. Ariyaratne was a founder member of the BJB and served as a Committee Member. Gunaseela Vithanage was a highly learned and dedicated intellectual who did much of the paperwork of the BJB.

Ariyaratne speaks of L.H. Mettananda as follows:

Mr. L.H. Mettananda stands out among the Buddhist mentors that he was associated with. Mettananda was an exemplary character – humble, courageous, principled, living a simple lifestyle, and never bearing rancour. He spurned high posts offered to him by the State – even Ministerial and Ambassador posts.   Economically he was under pressure but would never give up principles for personal gain. He was almost my guru. Born on March 19, 1894, he passed away on November 01, 1967. We participated fully at the last rites of this great man”.

Pages 290 – 316 extracted from his autobiography ‘ Bhava Thanha’ and reproduced as an attachment (and pdf document in the web link below) are of historical value as they contain vital information on a National Buddhist movement i.e., BJB, which played a pivotal role in the affairs of the nation from 1962 – 1965. Social historians should take note of this description.

I though young of age (14 years) witnessed much of these events in the company of my father Dharmasena Weeraratna, whom A.T. Ariyaratne describes on page 298 as follows:

” Mr. Dharmasena Weeraratna, a businessman, was another untiring warrior in our movement” i.e., Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya. 

Dharmasena Weeraratna served as a Committee Member and Press Officer of the BJB. I remember occasionally visiting Ariyaratne at his home (‘under the Breadfruit Tree’) in a lane off the main road at Maradana to deliver BJB-related material given by my father. Our family shop ‘P. J. Weeraratna & Sons, was situated at 2^nd Division, Maradana, Colombo 10 not far from where Ariyaratne then resided.

The official headquarters of the BJB was located at Galle Road, Kollupitiya, and declared open on June 04, 1963. However, it was our family residence that served more or less as an unofficial headquarters of the BJB in the 1962 – 1965 period.  The likes of L.H. Mettananda, T.U. de Silva, Gunaseela Vithanage, Nissanka Wijeyaratne,, Premachandra de Silva, A.N.S. Kulasinghe, W.J. Fernando, Ramsay Wettimuny (CTB Engineer and father of Sunil, Mithra, Sidath, Ranjan), Professor K.N. Jayatilleka, A.T. Ariyaratne, Wijayananda de Abrew, K.H.M. Sumathipala among others, were some of the visitors to our house including leading monks who congregated at our house before leaving in a convoy of vehicles for the public meetings they addressed.  My father’s vehicles among other vehicles given by others such as W.J. Fernando (Benz), and A.N. S. Kulasinghe (Benz) were deployed to help transport the speakers to the BJB meetings which were held in various parts of the country such as Polonnaruwa, Medawachchiya, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kandy, Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Beruwala, Matara, Nugegoda, and Kirulapone among others. I have attended some of these meetings.

The highly reputed monks who addressed these meetings were Ven. Kalukondayawe Pannasekera Nayake Thero, Prof. Ven. Bambarande Siri Sivali Thero, Dr Kotagama Vachissara Thero, Ven. Madihe Pannasiha Nayake Thero, Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa Nayake Thero, Ven. Talpavila Seelavansa and Ven. Devamottawe Amarawansa Thero, among others.  The latter monk Ven. Devamottawe Amarawansa Thero was one of the finest orators at that time. He was kept as the last speaker at a meeting to retain the crowd and keep them enthralled.

People by the thousands flocked to our meetings ……..They used to come in processions. It was a Buddhist Resurgence at a Sizzling Peak” says Dr. Ariyaratne (page 299).

He further says that Mettananda used to delegate him (Ariyaratne) to speak first at these meetings because he always placed stress on Ahimsa (non–violence) a cardinal tenet of Buddhism.  The crowning public meeting of the BJB was held in front of the Ananda College building but within the school premises. Thousands of people attended this meeting in November 1963 and the demonstration with placards and colourful banners took two hours to pass a point. It was at the height of the Buddhist Protest in South Vietnam against the Catholic dictatorship of President Ngo Dien Diem. Mettananda was at the height of his popularity as a Buddhist leader. The Buddhist public of Ceylon showed utmost solidarity with the victimized Buddhists of South Vietnam.

Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike who was the then Prime Minister alerted the United Nations via our delegate Mr. R.S.S. Gunawardena to the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam. However, it was the worldwide publication of the photograph of self-immolation of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc (1897–1963) on June 11, 1963, that brought international attention to the suppression of Buddhists in Vietnam. President Kennedy called for the exploration of a regime change.   On November 02, 1963, President Ngo Dien Diem was overthrown by a coup d’etat of the Vietnamese army.

The special feature of the BJB meeting at Ananda College was the presence of leading Hindu nationalist leaders like Sir Kandiah Vaidyanathan, who joined hands with Mettananda in protesting against religious conversions by unethical means.

http://www.lhmettananda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Buddhist-National-Movement.pdf

The Press Commission (1963 – 1964)

Ariyaratne says as follows:

Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Government established a Press Commission. We utilized this Commission to highlight anti–Buddhist activities and focus attention on immoral acts treacherous to the nation. The Supreme Court Justice K.D. de Silva headed this Commission”.  (page 298)

 The Press Commission in its Report (1964) said as follows

 The Press is an instrument which is primarily meant to serve the real interests of a country. It can also be misused. If we were not satisfied that the newspapers of the Lake House and the Times groups were guilty of anti-national and anti–Buddhist conduct on a large scale, we would not have recommended a drastic change in the ownership of the newspapers belonging to these groups. From the evidence placed before us, we are satisfied that the existing newspapers did not hesitate to fabricate, suppress, slant, or distort news and views whenever it suited them. They have been further guilty of anti-national and anti–Buddhist activities, which are more serious than the earlier-mentioned lapses on their part. Indeed, the most vehement critics of the present activities of the Press were the Buddhists and some of their organizations, and we are satisfied that their grievances are genuine and should be removed.

Buddhist leaders have been falsely accused of being intolerant. Their hopes and ambitions receive scant consideration, and their rightful place due to their religion has been denied by the newspapers. This has been deliberately done to help the minorities, in particular, the Christian minorities, to perpetuate the unjust privileges acquired by them during the last four centuries at the expense of the Buddhist Majority.

Paragraph 212, Page 90 Final Report of the Press Commission (1964)

The Press Commission Report (1964)- Some Extracts and a Brief Commentary

The following web link was found in a highly resourceful website dedicated to L.H. Mettananda.

http://www.lhmettananda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Buddhist-National-Movement.pdf

The BJB made a major contribution to public debate by taking an important and brave stand on Catholic Action. Its publication ‘Catholic Action: A Menace to Peace and Goodwill– A Reply to the Catholic Union of Ceylon’ was published by the Bauddha Jathika Balavegaya in March 1963.

https://archive.org/details/CatholicActionByLHMettananda/page/n5/mode/2up

The other major publication of the BJB (September 1963) was the work of A.T. Ariyaratne himself entitled

 Ariyaratne, A.T. (1963) Whence? Wherefore? Whither? Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya

Buddhist Social Order

He calls for establishing a Buddhist Social Order in a wide-ranging discussion about the challenges faced by Buddhism both within and from outside. The content of the Booklet has been reproduced in the ‘Bhava Thanha’ autobiography under the Chapter title ‘ A Path to Buddhist Resurgence’ (pp 302 – 316).

Photo – Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya – Opening of the Headquarters, Galle Road, Kollupitiya, Colombo 03

Date: 4^th June, 1963

Picture Seated (left to right)

Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa Nayake Thero and Ven. Madihe Pannasiha Nayake Thero.

Standing (left to right)

Mr. Wijayananda de Abrew (first from left), Mr. Ronnie de Mel (Treasurer,BJB( 4^th from left),  L.H. Mettananda (President, BJB)(fifth from left), Nissanka Wijayaratne (Vice – President, BJB) (sixth from left) and Gunaseela Vithanage (Hony. Secretary, BJB) (bespectacled dark complexioned – eighth from left)

http://www.lhmettananda.com/gallery-2/

Senaka Weeraratna

April 19, 2024

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Kurundi issue has created an interest in the archaeology of Sri Lanka. Siran Deraniyagala said that   Sri Lanka’s archaeological heritage is divisible into Prehistoric (Stone Age) Protohistoric (Iron Age) and historical periods. This covers an estimated 1 million years or more. The Iron Age appeared at about 1000 BC and the historic period at about 500 BC.

The ancient chronicles set out Sri Lanka’s history in considerable detail since the 2 century BC and less reliably back to the 6 century BC. These chronicles are supplemented by over 4000 inscriptions on stone from the 3 century BC, said Deraniyagala.

The island has shown a high degree of historical awareness.  This historical awareness is a concomitant of Sri Lanka’s almost total immersion in the Buddhist tradition, notably Theravada from the 3 century BC down to the present. This unbroken intellectual heritage manifests itself materially in an extremely rich archaeological heritage. This is very much a living entity and many of the monuments continue to function as places of worship. In managing this heritage the concept of it being a living entity must necessarily take a paramount position.

 For the past 2000 years, rulers have conserved and restored the more important monuments archaeologists cannot intervene in the management of these sites without due consideration being paid to the country’s strong historical consciousness. This is fundamental in the preservation of the archaeological heritage of Sri Lanka, concluded Deraniyagala.

The Department of Archaeology has come in for criticism because of its involvement with Buddhist monuments in the north and east. Tamil Separatist Movement has poured scorn on the Department. They spoke rudely to the Department officials at Kurundi, when there was a confrontation over Pongal.

The Department of Archaeology is not a rogue Department   to be sneered at in this manner. It is a respected government Department, supported by a legal enactment, possessing technical expertise and a long record of good work. 

The true name of the department is Archaeological Survey Department, said experts. The Department    is empowered to inspect sites and gazette monuments as protected monuments or archaeology reserves. There is legal provision for declaring archaeological reserves. All the archaeology sites on state land before 1940 automatically became archaeology reserves of the Department, said Senerath Dissanayake, former Director General, Department of Archaeology.  Now, a survey plan of the site is prepared when a new site is declared a reserve.

The Dept of Archaeology uses two methods to find monuments and archaeological reserves,   through informants and through exploration in selected areas. Surface exploration is followed by excavation  and if   there is archaeological value, the area is marked on a map.

The one inch maps of the Survey Department act as the base document for identifying monuments and sites. During British rule, surveyors had identified a large number of monuments and located them in these maps. A large number of monuments were marked as archaeology reserve in the maps. There is now a massive collection of these maps. Some of the monuments that have disappeared can still be identified with the help of these maps, said Senerath Dissanayake.

By the end of 1989 the list of monuments had increased to over 10,000 and sites to 2700. The Department has also recorded a large number of small monuments scattered all over the country, said Senerath.

The   Department of Archaeology came under attack when Kurundi was getting conserved. The Department was not doing its job properly, critics said. It is important to conduct proper archaeological surveys first. Restoration was done at Kurundi without sufficient evidence, they said.

We are not opposed to archaeological research that is carried out scientifically and professionally. But when the department furthers a political project by building new Buddhist shrines in our area in the name of restoration, we cannot accept that,” said Thurairajah Raviharan, speaking of Kurundi.

The Department of Archaeology dismissed the charge that they were at fault. The conservation at Kurundi is done under me, said an   official, and we are doing it correctly. We are not making mistakes. We are working in a difficult location. Kurundi is in a very difficult area, in middle of a forest, far away from anywhere.

Chinthaka Sandaruwan, another official in the Department of Archaeology also defended the Department. He had been stationed at Vavuniya in 2018-2019. He had done site inspections and maintained records at Kurundi. We worked with great dedication and energy in 2018 and the present team are also working with much dedication in 2022, he said.

A new concept has been introduced to archaeological work, the concept of Heritage’. Archaeology sites such as Kurundi are now considered Heritage sites” not archaeological sites. These archaeological sites are now dominated by international Heritage rules.

Conservation is now regulated   by international agreements, such as the International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites, 1964 known as   Venice Charter”. This charter was accepted by UNESCO, ICOMOS and the International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments. 

Sri Lanka we are told is a signatory to this charter and is legally bound to do as it says. I am unable to find out   when we signed this document and whether it really is legally binding.

Through this Charter, external bodies are now telling us how we should   conserve our Buddhist ruins. They do not simply give helpful guidelines and stop at that. They instruct us on when, what and how to conserve. It is not possible to provide universal rules on archaeological conservation.  The applicability of Venice charter to Asian archaeology is therefore under discussion, said Gamini Wijesuriya. ‘

Heritage differs with each country. There are states which enjoy a single undisturbed cultural heritage, like China. There are settler states which successfully replaced indigenous culture with the settler culture, like USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Then there are states that have emerged from colonial rule and find that they are now saddled with two heritages, Indigenous and colonial, competing with each other.

Sri Lanka finds itself with two indigenous cultures, one genuine and the other implanted, both demanding recognition. S Sritharan, TNA MP, said in Parliament that the Sinhalese and Tamils are the two main races in the country and both have their heritage. Equal importance must be given to protecting not only the cultural heritage of the Sinhalese but also of the Tamils.

 Interested parties are now gleefully using the Venice Charter and it’s off shoots to shackle Buddhist   monuments in Sri Lanka. They complain that when the bombed sections of the Dalada Maligawa were re-done, Venice Charter was violated.

 New tiles were laid, new sandakadapahana (moonstone) and new carvings were added, totally in contravention of the Venice Charter. The clash here is between a historical temple as a living heritage where people come to practice their rituals, and the World Heritage view of historical places as unalterable entities fixed in time, said Nira Wickremesinghe.

Earlier it was considered sufficient to protect the monument. Now, under the Venice Charter, the setting and the environment is to be protected together with the monument. ‘Heritage    introduced a new concept of ‘stakeholders’. Stakeholders are the individuals, groups, or organizations that have an interest or influence in the Heritage project.

According to Heritage principles, those living nearby are also stakeholders. In the case of Kurundi, it should be firmly argued that there are no nearby stakeholders. Kurundi is in a forest and archaeology reserve.  A buffer zone is also specified. The nearest settlement is 10 km away.

 

The Buddhist lobby should use the .Kurundi vihara issue to squash the Venice Charter and other such regulations where Buddhist monuments are concerned. Buddhism is a living tradition in Sri Lanka. There is regular worship in temples, and a pilgrimage tradition which includes historical monuments. Heritage thinking ignores the local pilgrimage tradition, observed Wijesuriya.

In   Sri Lanka there are many ancient Buddhist sites with a long record of historical continuity. When Asian communities built monuments they were aware of the conservation needs and these were built into the process, said Wijesuriya. ‘Loke Arakmena’ in Nissanka Malla inscription has been translated as ‘chief conservator of monuments ‘

There are many references in Mahavamsa     showing concern over monuments and their decay. There were permanent cadres of skilled craftsmen carpenters, masons and superintendents for conservation. There were special villages established for them, said Wijesuriya citing Epigraphica Zeylanica Vol 1, p 8-9 ‘  ( continued)

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Doomsday Clock and Minutes to Midnight – an initiative by the world’s top nuclear scientists to quantify the likelihood and yes we are closer to nuclear war in 2024 than ever before. It is just 90 seconds to midnight. Worst ever.

But this did not happen suddenly. It gradually deteriorated over since 1997. It was 15 minutes to midnight after the Cold War ended but since then it again reduced (worsened).

Now it is worse than during the Cold War.

Doomsday Clock – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (thebulletin.org)

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Ministry of Defence announces that the General Amnesty period announced from 20.04.2024 to 20.05.2024 for members of the Tri-Forces who have been marked as Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) is not applicable for Commissioned Officers who are marked as AWOL.

1.         General Amnesty is valid only for other rank personnel of the Tri-Forces who have not reported for duty without leave on or before 31.12.2023.

2.         This General Amnesty period does not apply for Commissioned Officers who have not reported for duty without leave.

3.         During this General Amnesty period, those who report will be legally discharged from their respective services. However, the General Amnesty is not applicable to those personnel mentioned below while taking into consideration the expenses incurred for the special training provided using public funds in the following sectors and considering the difficulties encountered to maintain the operations in those sectors by their discharge.

            a.         Rates where General Amnesty does not apply in the Army,

                        i.          Public Health Inspector

                        ii.         Dental Therapist

                        iii.        Dental Surgery Assistant

                        iv.        Electromagnetic Draughtsman

                        v.         Laboratory Technician

                        vi.        Nurse

                        vii.       Ophthalmologist

                        viii.      Surgery Room Technician

                        ix.        Pharmacist

                        x.         Drug Combinatory

                        xi.        Physiotherapist

                        xii.       Rectifier and Preservation

                        xiii.      Occupational Therapist

                        xiv.      Electrophoresis Artist

                        xv.       Radiologist

                        xvi.      Smart Devices

                        xvii.     Carpentry

            b.         Rates where General Amnesty does not apply in the Navy,

                        i.          Artificers in all categories

                        ii.         Professional Medical / Professional Dental Sailors

            c.         Rates where General Amnesty does not apply in the Air Force,

i.          The personnel in the following rates under the Directorate of Aircraft Engineering who have not completed 12 years of service after completing advanced vocational training courses,

                                    (a).       Aircraft Airframe Technician

                                    (b).      Aircraft Engine Technician

                                    (c).       Aircraft Electrical and Avionics Technician

                                    (d).      Aircraft Safety Equipment Assistant

                        ii.         The following rates under the Directorate of Health Services,

                                    (a).       Certified Nurse

                                    (b).      Electromagnetic Draughtsman

                                    (c).       Electrophoresis Technician

                                    (d).      Pharmacist

                                    (e).       Medical Laboratory Technician

                                    (f).       Biomedical Technologist

                                    (g).      Air Force Medical Inspector

                                    (h).      Radiologist

                        iii.        Rates in Dental Service,

                                    (a).       Certified Nurse

                                    (b).      Radiologist

                                    (c).       Surgery Room Technology

                                    (d).      Dental Assistant Specialties

                                    (e).       Dental Technician Specialties

                                    (f).       Dental Technician (I)

                                    (g).      Dental Therapist

4.         Absentees who are presently abroad can also obtain discharge without reporting to their respective Regiments conforming to the following criteria:

a.         Those seeking discharge should not have any pending disciplinary actions taken against them apart from that of being AWOL.

b.         Should not have travelled abroad by illegal means or should not have fraudulently prepared passports and other documents and have not travelled abroad.

c.         This Amnesty does not apply to those who had gone AWOL and failed to return to the country after attending foreign courses funded by the government or courses offered to Tri-Forces by foreign institutes and those who had proceeded on diplomatic missions or any other requirements.

5.         Further, Other Rank personnel who are currently abroad seeking discharge can do so through a representative with a Power of Attorney attested at the Embassy of Sri Lanka established in the concerned foreign state or attested before a qualified Attorney at Law/Notary Public or equivalent professional of the concerned state (Duly registered in the Registrar General’s Department of Sri Lanka) certified by the Embassy of Sri Lanka established in the respective foreign country or certified before a qualified Attorney at Law/Notary Public or similar professional in the respective country to obtain discharge from service during this General Amnesty period.

Manusha Media

Sakura blossoming Japan has become the dream state of many Sri Lankans. Accordingly, the SSW (Specified Skilled Worker) Visa project that provides an opportunity to earn a high salary in Japan. It’s given you a great opportunity to fulfill your Japanese dreams, and for that you have to come to the ”Jayagamu Sri Lanka” program which will be held on April 20 and 21 at the Mannar Municipal Council Stadium.

The opportunity to realize the Japanese dream has been created through several leagle methods, where Sri Lankans have been given the opportunity to access job opportunities in Japan under a special visa catogary, now you also can  apply for jobs in Japan through the SSW (Specified Skilled Worker) Visa project.

A joint test conducted between Sri Lanka and Japan will confirm skills and Japanese language proficiency. Those who pass the test have the opportunity to work in Japan for a period of five (5) years. Under the SSW program, Japan has announced 14 employment areas, out of which Sri Lanka has been approved for 6 areas.

Nursing Caregiving

Food service industry

Agriculture

Construction Division

Building Cleaning

Aviation Field

Among these, skill tests for nursing, food service industry, agriculture, and aviation are currently being conducted in Sri Lanka. And interviews are conducted by the public sector and sent to Japan for these sectors.

The basic qualifications that are mainly required for you to apply for a job in Japan are:

Being a Sri Lankan citizen between 18 and 45 years of age.

Proficiency in Japanese language. To confirm the Japanese language proficiency, the Japanese government must have passed the JFT (Japanese Foundation Test) or JLPTN 4 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) Japanese language proficiency level.

Apart from this, one should have passed the skill test conducted related to the chosen field of work. There are two skill tests to be passed for nursing. Skill Evaluation Test for Technical Knowledge of Nursing. The Skill Evaluation Test can appear in English or Japanese. In addition, the Japanese language evaluation test for nursing technology should also be taken. In addition to the above basic tests, the following qualifications should also be met.

Being in good health.

Absence of body tattoo

If you meet the above qualifications, you can apply for career opportunities in Japan and the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau is providing the necessary advice and guidance for that.

If you want to get a job opportunity in Japan under the SSW project and make your Japanese dream come true, come to the Jayagamu Sri Lanka Work Camp on April 20 and 21 at Mannar Municipal Stadium.

Voice of Dharman

0 දශකයේ(1980 සිට 1990 දක්වා) ධවල භීෂණයේ අඳුර විනිවිදි සත්‍ය සිදුවීමක තිත්ත ඇත්ත කියන youtube චැනල් එක @ භීෂණය සියැසින් දුටු සහ වාර්තාකළ ගවේෂණාත්මක මාධ්‍යවේදී ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න කියයි. ලාංකීය දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසයේ ගමන්මග වෙනස්කල සන්ධිස්ථානයක් ලෙස 1986 සිට 1990 දක්වා පැවති ජවිපෙ 2වැනි කැරැල්ල හැඳින්විය හැකිය. එම කාලය තුළ ඝාතනයට ලක්වූ සහ අතුරුදන් වූ සංඛ්‍යාව 41,813 වේ. එහෙත් මානව හිමිකම් සංවිධාන වාර්තාවන්ට අනුව 2වැනි කැරළි සමයේදී ඝාතනයට සහ අතුරුදන් වීමට ලක්වූ සංඛ්‍යාව 67,652කි. මින් 6,661 කැරළිකරුවන් අතින් ඝාතනයට ලක්වූ අතර ප්‍රා සංවිධානය මගින් ඝාතනය කරන ලද සංඛ්‍යාව 1,222කි. සෙසු සියළු දෙනා ඝාතනයට පත්වූයේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ ඇතුළු එයට සෘජු සහ වක්‍ර සම්බන්ධකම් පැවතුනැයි කියන අතුරු හමුදා කණ්ඩායම් වූ කලු බළල්ලු, ප්‍රා, උකුස්සා, රාජාලියෝ, කහ බළල්ලු, කොළ කොටි, රතු මකරු, මාපිලා, ගෝනුස්සා, නී, කේසර සිංහයෝ, ලේ මාපිල්ලු, කළු කොටි වැනි සංවිධානයන් ගෙනි. මෙම සටහන් කියනු ලබන ‍ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මාධ්‍යවේදී ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න එම ඇතැම් සිද්ධි සියැසින් දුටු සහ බොහෝ කතා වාර්තාකළ, ඉන් නැගුණු සිද්ධීන් ගවේෂණය කළ දිවයින පුවත්පතේ එවකට සිටි කතෘ මාණ්ඩලිකයෙකි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන නායකයින්, කැරලි නායකයින්, ශිෂ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරයේ නායකයින් සහ ක්‍රියාකාරිකයින් දහසකට ආසන්න සංඛ්‍යාවක් වෘත්තීය වශයෙන් ඇසුරු කළ ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න අදාළ පාර්ශ්වයන් සමඟකළ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡා, ගවේෂණ, පර්යේෂණ සහ සමීක්ෂණ මගින් සොයාගත් දත්ත වලින්ද මෙම කතා පොහොසත්ය. වසර 1980 සිට 1990 දක්වා 80 දශකයේ ධවල භීෂණයේ ඇතුලාන්තය පිළිබඳව මෙතෙක් බොහෝ දෙනා ඇසූ සහ කියවූ උපකල්පන, විකෘති කිරීම්, වැරදි වැටහීම් සහ වැරදි මත වෙනුවට සත්‍ය ඉතිහාසය මෙම Voice of Dharman youtube චැනලය මගින් විවරකර තිබේ.

Reinvent Money

Paul Buitink talks to John Mearsheimer, a renowned American political scientist and international relations scholar who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is a Professor at the University of Chicago. John gives an overview of what offensive realism is. Furthermore he discusses the European Union’s foreign policy and how dependent it is on that of the US. He explains Russia’s strategy and how Ukraine is going to lose with severe negative consequences for Europe and NATO. He also gives his view on the tensions between US and China and how the situation in the Middle East could spiral out of control. At the end John discusses the strength of the dollar and how in general things will get worse across the world before they get any better.

ගෝලිය ඒකාබද්ධ ජාතික සංවිධාන

ශ්‍රී ලකාවේ යෝජිත අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිපත්තිය තුළ මවු භාෂා
භාවිතයේ වැදගත්කම පිළිබඳව සැලකිිමත් වී නැති බැවින් අපගේ
අනාගත පරපුරේ දැනුම් උකහාගැනීමේ හැකියාව සහ
ආත්මාභිමානය ප්‍රවර්ධනය පිළිබඳව සිදුවිය හැකි අඩාල වීම සහ,
එ් ඔස්සේ සිංහල භාෂාව මළ භාෂාවක් බවට තල්ලු වී යාමේ
ඇති දැඩි අවදානම

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව විසින් සැප්තැම්බර් 23 දාතමින් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු
ලැබ ඇති ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිපත්ති රාමුව හා ඒ සඳහා වූ ධවල
පත්‍රිකාව තුළ පාසල් අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යය ඉංගිරිසියට හැරවීම සඳහා
යෝජනා කරනු ලැබ ඇති අතර මාතෘ භාෂාවන්ගෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය
ලැබීමේ වැදගත්කම අමතක කර ඇති බව පෙනී යයි. මේ අතර,
විපක්ෂ නායක සංජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා ද ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රකාශ කර
ඇත්තේ අධ්‍යාපනයේ මුල් වසරවලදී පටන් ඉංගිරිසි මාධ්‍යයෙන්
සියලු පාසල්වල අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දීමට තම රජයක් තුළ පියවර
ගන්නා බවයි. ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ජනතාව අතර බහුතරයක මවුබස වන
සිංහල භාෂාව අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම පිණිස දැරෙන බව
පෙනෙන මෙම ප්‍රයත්නය පිළිබඳව සහ එවැනි පිළිවෙතකින් ජනනය
විය හැකි බව පෙනෙන ජාතිකමය අවදානම් පිළිබඳව පහත අත්සන්
කරන අප සංවිධානයන් හි සුවිශේෂී අවධානය යොමු වී ඇත.
එක්සත් ජාතීන් ගේ සංවිධානය සහ යුනෙස්කෝ පවා පිළිගෙන ඇති
අධ්‍යාපන මූලධර්මයක් වන්නේ මූලික වසර වලදී පටන් මවු
භාෂාවෙන් දරුවන්ට පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දිය යුතු බවයි. ඒ
මූලධර්මය පහත දැක්වෙන ප්‍රකාශයෙන් මනාව පිළිබිඹු වෙයි :
ගුණාත්මක අධ්‍යාපනයක් සහ සමාජ අන්තර්ග්‍රහණය තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා මවු
භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දීම ඉතා තීරණාත්මක සාධකයක් බව පර්යේෂණ
ප්‍රතිඵල වලින් පෙන්නුම් කෙරෙයි. තව ද, මාතෘ භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබීමෙන්
ඉගෙනුම් ප්‍රතිඵල මෙන් ම අධ්‍යයන කාර්යසාධනය ද ඉහළ නැංවෙන බව ද ඒ
පර්යේෂණවලින් නිරීක්ෂණය වෙයි. ප්‍රාථමික පාසල්වල මේ සාධකය වඩාත් වැදගත්
වන්නේ දැනුම් හිදැස් වළැක්වීම පිණිස සහ දැනුම ලබා ගැනීමේ මෙන්ම වටහාගැනීමේ
වේගය ඉහළ නැංවීම උදෙසා වැදගත් පිටිවහලක් මාතෘ භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා
දීමෙන් ලැබෙන බැවිනි. මේ සියල්ලටමත් වඩා සුවිශේෂී මෙහෙවර වන්නේ සමාජයේ
පූර්ණ වශයෙන් ක්‍රියාකාරී වීමට අවශ්‍ය බලගැන්වීම මවු භාෂාවෙන් ලැබ ගන්නා
අධ්‍යාපනය ඔස්සේ සියලු සිසුනට ලැබීමයි. ඒ තුළින් අන්‍යෝන්‍ය අවබෝධය සහ

එකිනෙකාට ගරු කිරීම ප්‍රවර්ධනය කෙරෙයි. තව ද, ලෝකයේ ඇති සෑම භාෂාවක් තුළම
කා වැද්දී ඇති සංස්කෘතික හා පෞරාණික උරඅමයන් හි වත්කම් සංරක්ෂණයට ද ඒ තුළින්
මඟ පෑදෙයි. එ සේ වුව ද, වඩ වඩාත් අවදානම්කාරී වේගයෙන් භාෂාවන් අතුරුදහන්වීමේ
ප්‍රවණතාව නිසා මේ වන විට භාෂා බහුත්වය අභියෝගයට ලත් වී ඇත. යම් භාෂාවක්
අතුරුදහන් වන්නේ නම් එසේ වන්නේ සමස්ත සංස්කෘතික හා බුද්ධිමය උරුම පද්ධතියක් ඒ
සමඟම අභාවයට යවමිනි.”
අපගේ දුවා දරුවන්ට ඉංගිරිසි භාෂාව හැසිරවීමේ ප්‍රවීණත්වයක්
ලබා දිය යුතු බවට විවාදයක් නැත. ඊට අමතරව, දෙමළ දරුවන්ට
සිංහල හා සිංහල දරුවන්ට දෙමළ වැහැරීමේ හැකියාව ද, වෙනත්
විදේශ භාෂා ඉගෙනගැනීමේ අවස්ථා ද ලබා දීම වැදගත් ය.
විශේෂයෙන් ඉංගිරිසි භාෂා ප්‍රවීණත්වය සැලකීමේ දී, පාසලේ අවම
වශයෙන් වසර නවයක් හෝ දහයක් පුරාවට අනිවාර්ය විෂයක්
ලෙස ඉංගිරිසි ඉගැන්වුව ද ඒ භාෂාවේ ප්‍රවීණත්වය දරුවන්ට ලබා
දීමට අපේ පාසල් අධ්‍යාපන පද්ධතිය සමත් වී නැති නම් ඒ කවර
දුර්වලතා නිසා දැයි සොයා බලා ඒවාට පිළියම් යෙදීම
අධ්‍යාපනඥයන් ගේ හා ප්‍රතිපත්ති තීරකයන් ගේ වගකීමකි. එසේ
නොකර, ඉංගිරිසි භාෂා ව්‍යවහාර හැකියාව දියුණු කිරීමට සිතා
විෂය ඉගැන්වීම ඉංගිරිසි මාධ්‍යයට හැරවීමට කැස කවන්නේ නම්
එය රෝග මූලය ඇති තැනට නොව වෙනත් තැනකට ශල්‍ය
කර්මයක් කිරීමට තැත් කිරීම වැනි නිෂ්ඵල මෙන් ම විනාශකාරී
ප්‍රතිවිපාක දිය හැකි ක්‍රියාවකි.
අපි දැන් අපගේ මාතෘ භාෂාව වන සිංහල පිළිබඳව සලකා බලමු.
සිංහලය එහි නූතනයේ පවත්නා ඉහළ මට්ටමට අනුවර්තනය
වූයේ සියවස් තුනකටත් අධික කාලයක් තිස්සේ අප ගේ රට හා
ජාතිය මුහුණ පෑ විවිධ සංස්කෘතික බලපෑම් නිසි ලෙස
අන්තර්ග්‍රහණය කරමිනි. එය ඉතා ඉහළ මට්ටමේ අදහස්
පැහැදිලිකිරීමේ හැකියාවක් සඳහා අවශ්‍ය වූ පොහොසත් හා
නම්‍යශීලී ගතිලක්ෂණ සහ සාරවත් ව්‍යාකරණයක් සහිත ව්‍යක්ත
භාෂාවකි. තව ද, සංකීර්ණ වචන තාර්කිකව උච්චාරණය කිරීමට
ඉවහල් වන්නා වූ ඉතා අලංකාර අක්ෂර මාලාවක් සහිත භාෂාවන්
අතරින් එකකි.
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ පදනමට ඇති ඍජු සම්බන්ධය ලෙස
පවතින්නේ දිවයිනේ බහුතර ජනතාවක ගේ මවුබස වන සිංහල
භාෂාව වීම විශේෂ අවධානයට ලක් විය යුතු කරුණකි. එ සේ වූ
සිංහල භාෂා භාවිතය අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට කෙරෙන

යෝජනාව මවු බසට සමාජයේ ඇති වැදගත් ස්ථානය විනාශ
කරමින් අපේ අනාගත පරපුර ජාතියේ සංස්කෘතිය, කලාවන්,
සාහිත්‍යය, හා බුද්ධ ධර්මය ඉගෙනීමෙන් බැහැර කිරීමට පමණක්
නොව අප ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ මුදුන් මුල් උදුරා දැමීමට හිතාමතා දරනු
ලබන ප්‍රයත්නයක් බව අපගේ නිරීක්ෂණයයි.
අප විසින් මතු කරන ලද මෙම අවදානම්කාරී ප්‍රවණතාව කෙරෙහි
සුවිශේෂී සහ කඩිනම් අවධානය යොමු කර සිංහල භාෂාව ප්‍රාථමික
අධ්‍යාපනයේ පටන් තෘතීයික මට්ටමේ අධ්‍යාපනය තෙක් සියලු
කටයුතුවල ඉගැන්වීම් කටයුතුවල භාෂා මාධ්‍යය ලෙස තව දුරටත්
පවත්වාගෙන යාම තහවුරු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගන්නා ලෙස
සිංහල කථාකරන සංවිධාන අතරින් කිහිපයක් වන අපි ගරුතර
මහා සංඝරත්නයෙන්, ජනාධිපතිවරයා, අගමැතිවරයා,
අමාත්‍යමණ්ඩලය, විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීන් සහ
සියලු දේශපාලන හා සමාජ සංවිධානවලින් ඉතා අවධාරණයෙන්
ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
අත්සන් කළේ –
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – වික්ටෝරියා
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – නිව් සවුත් වේල්ස්
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – ක්වීන්ස්ලන්ඩ්
ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ සිංහල සංස්කෘතික සංගමය
සීහලේ ලෝක උරුම පදනම – ලන්ඩන්
තවලම සංවර්ධන පදනම – කොළඹ
අරණ විහාර පදනම – කොළඹ

By KELUM BANDARA Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, April 20 (Daily Mirror) – The representatives of bondholders who hold around 50 per cent of Sri Lanka’s outstanding international sovereign bonds (ISB), during closed-door interactions with the representatives of Sri Lankan political parties, have expressed fear whether any debt restructuring agreement will be honoured in case of a regime change at the elections pending this year, Daily Mirror learns.

The bondholders held talks with various political leaders including from the opposition parties such as the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the National People’s Power (NPP) and the United Republican Front (URF) led by MP Patali Champika Ranawaka during the New Year holiday period.

During talks with the NPP, the party has assured that the programme with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) will not be derailed.  Currently, the Sri Lankan government has concluded the initial restricted discussions with nine members of the Steering Committee of the Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders over a span of three weeks. Sri Lanka was joined by its legal and financial advisors Clif­ford Chance and Lazard, respectively, while the restricted members of the Steering Committee were joined by the

Group’s legal and financial advisors, White & Case and Rothschild & Co., respectively.

The Steering Committee as a whole comprises ten of the largest members of the Group, with the Group controlling approximately 50% of the aggregate outstanding amount of ISBS.

Earlier, the Finance Ministry said in a statement that the parties failed to come to an agreement on restructuring terms, despite the constructive discussions.

During this period, Sri Lanka, the Steering Committee and its advisors met during a two-day working session in London on 27 and 28 March to discuss the Group’s latest debt treatment proposal. Prior to the meetings, March 15 Sri Lanka had also sent its own debt treatment proposal to the Group’s advisors which was rejected by the Steering Committee.

Also, Sri Lanka rejected last week international bondholders’ proposal to restructure more than $12 billion in debt, putting at risk critical International Monetary Fund support and delaying its efforts to resolve a two-year-long debt crisis.

Dilrook Kannangara

Will this be the end of the IMF program?

Before this SL had 16 IMF programs – all failed half way through the program!

Bond holders own 50% of foreign loans and these are the loans with highest interest rates and administration fees. A debt restructure without them is like a wedding without the groom.

Bond holders demanded more money on top of existing massive interest rates! They now want the interest rate linked to SL’s GDP growth! When the SL grows, the interest rate should also grow! But if the SL economy slows, they don’t want their interest rates to fall. This is Shylock+++++.

As I said many times since 2020, SL cannot repay bond loans. No chance. Just default them. They are loan sharks. No one knows what happened to that money. Ask them to get it from Basil, Mahinda, Ranil, Gota, etc.

Bad news – SL can’t borrow from them again. Excellent. SL survived without them until 2007. 

Nothing else will happen because all bilateral loans and foreign bank loans will be paid. SL already have agreements with them.

Hope all future discussions with bond holders will FAIL!

Politics

In Haiti, after the state borrowed money in the 1970s and 1980s to feed corruption and sustain autocracy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pushed subsequent democratic governments to privilege the free market, while opening ever more quickly to the global economy. Sensing opportunity, non-governmental organizations streamed into Haiti to provide food, housing, and health care, everything a cash-strapped government couldn’t do. The succession of catastrophes — coups, an earthquake, cholera, hurricanes — only strengthened the humanitarian sector but at the expense of effective government. In this century, the situation had become so dire that all too many parents were giving their children up to orphanages run by foreign charities. In other words, the road to Haiti’s hell was, in part, paved by good intentions.

By John Feffer Courtesy Tomdispatch.com

Haiti has descended into chaos. It’s had no president or parliament — and no elections either –for eight long years. Its unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned recently when gang violence at the airport in Port-au-Prince made it impossible for him to return to the country after a trip to Guyana.

Haiti is the poorest country in the region, its riches leached out by colonial overlords, American occupying forces, corporate predators, and home-grown autocrats. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also suffered an almost Biblical succession of plagues in recent years. A coup deposed its first democratically elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not once but twice — in 1991 and again in 2004. An earthquake in 2010 killed hundreds of thousands, leaving 1.5 million Haitians homeless, out of a population of less than 10 million. In the wake of that earthquake, nearly a million people contracted cholera, the worst outbreak in history, courtesy of a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers. To round out the catastrophes, in 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall, pushing Haiti back even further.

And now the country has been overrun by gangs that emerged as practically the only groups capable of providing services, however meager, to Haiti’s long-suffering population. People have become the country’s largest export. Anyone who has money, connections, or sufficient courage has fled, even if those who somehow made it to the United States were all too often deported back into the maelstrom. Haiti doesn’t have the three things that might prevent the sort of vacuum into which gangs so eagerly rush: robust democratic governance, a strong civil society, and a sufficiently uncorrupt constabulary. As a result, it’s returned to what political theorist Thomas Hobbes once called a war of all against all” in which violence and the urge for power prevail, as fist takes precedence over gavel — the perfect environment for gangs to flourish.

Political scientists often label places like Haiti failed states.” With the breakdown of order, everything from political institutions to border controls disintegrates. In a comparable fashion, clans contested for power in Somalia in the 1990s and paramilitaries battled each other in the Democratic Republic of Congo during its repeated wars, while rebels and jihadis targeted the Syrian government beginning in 2011. In the end, such diverse groups seem to boil down to one thing: guys with guns.

In Haiti, the gangocracy is organized along the classic lines of criminal enterprises like the gangs that ruled New York City in the mid-nineteenth century (immortalized in the film The Gangs of New York) or the Chinese tongs that warred over San Franciscan turf in the years after the Civil War (featured in the current Netflix series Warrior). The two major Haitian gangs in the capital city Port-au-Prince, GPep and the G9 Family, have similarly hierarchical structures, roots in particular neighborhoods, and flamboyant leaders like the former police officer and current G9 head Jimmy Barbecue” Chérizier.

But gangs aren’t simply criminal syndicates. The Haitian gangs have close connections to political parties and align themselves with business interests (or run businesses of their own). Sometimes such gangs even begin as anti-gangs, neighborhood self-defense groups meant to help locals survive in an era of lawlessness.

Their mischaracterization resembles the overly narrow understanding of terrorists.” Hamas, for instance, is on the U.S. terrorism list, but it’s not just a bunch of guys with guns and a predilection for violence. It’s also been a political party, a government, and a service organization that provided food, health care, and other necessities to underserved communities in Gaza.

Don’t make the mistake of associating gangs like Haiti’s with a primitive” stage of political development or only with countries on the geopolitical margins. What’s happening there today could prefigure the future of the United States, too. In place of the Biblical succession of plagues that swept through Haiti, the U.S. might only need the tinder of climate change and the flint of Donald Trump to go up in similar flames.

Gangs R U.S.

Today, Americans associate gangs” with the Crips and Bloods, who developed a murderous rivalry in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s or, more recently, Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, a gang of young Salvadoran transplants to Los Angeles initially focused on protecting its members from other gangs.

But shouldn’t we be more catholic in our definitions? After all, what are right-wing paramilitary forces, from the Three Percenters to the Proud Boys, if not gangs? They have their rituals, worldviews, indifference to the rule of law, even their own Barbecues.” The gangs associated with far-right ideology and white supremacy today could claim a lineage stretching back to the European settlers of this continent who routinely engaged in the extrajudicial murder of indigenous peoples while expanding westward, or the vigilante mobs that administered rough justice” to disobedient” slaves before the Civil War, or even the Ku Klux Klan. As for real-world impact, the Crips or MS-13 never had the audacity to force their way into the U.S. Capitol and trash the place, as Donald Trump’s informal gang did on January 6, 2021.

But why stop there? The Pinkerton detective agency once functioned like a gang in its attacks on the labor movement. The Central Intelligence Agency developed distinctly gang-like behavior overseas with its assassinations, coups, and outright criminal activities. And what about all the deaths associated with corporate gangs like Philip Morris and ExxonMobil? These institutions of normal” society have had a much higher kill count and a more debilitating effect on the rule of law than the institutions of organized crime.

Shenali D Waduge

Like Sri Lanka, Greece too declared default on €1.6 billion debt to IMF. It was the same year US-India sponsored regime change took place in Sri Lanka. Greece’s default came exactly 15 years after joining the Eurozone. Both Greece & Sri Lanka had one thing in common – both guilty of systematic tax evasion which was a key component in their default.

In 2015 the Greeks voted to reject debt restructuring. The Greeks were told its best to be bankrupt & start again with help of IMF of course, is this some sort of new template being forced upon nations? Was Sri Lanka the next victim in 2022? They called it hair cut” and eventually who ends up getting this hair cut” let’s just say it’s certainly not the rich. They have the audacity to even say it’s the only way out”! The welfare states are the targets. Obviously, the aim is to use bankruptcy” and erase welfare. Its happening in Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Portugal. Their governments hold partial fault too. Failure to tax the rich and giving mostly the rich incentives and concessions is one of the key reasons, though not discussed as much. The scenario is no different in Sri Lanka.

The self-claimed saviors IMF & World Bank have been on the game for decades but exactly what country have they advised to economic stability without bringing down the quality of life of the middle class & ordinary? This question is never properly answered. What good is a bailout or debt restructuring if it is going to leave people in worse conditions. The Greeks found out they were saddled with even more long term debt that their generation couldn’t pay back. Greek debt is some $350billion. Their population is half of Sri Lanka. Even a miracle is a miracle. Greece was overtaxed – Sri Lankans are going through same. Greece’s companies couldn’t cope up with the taxes and began closing down – same is happening to Sri Lanka. But segments of both governments & IMF as well as their international ‘friend’ network thinks everything is honky dory and they use their ‘friend’ channels to manipulate the media into telling people everything is honky dory. However, both Greece & Sri Lanka’s pensioners found out their pensions were one of the first targets. How come there is little or no recovery of the defaults by the rich given that they have been privy to incentives and tax concessions of the state.

To be in the Eurozone, Greece had to apply structural adjustments to comply with the 1992 Maastrich Treaty which meant Greece required to limit government deficits to 3% of GDP & public debt to 60% of GDP. Both Sri Lanka & Greece suffer lack of revenue – much of this is due to systematic tax evasion, under reporting income & over reporting debt payments. This was a social problem that Greece & Sri Lanka suffered. Loans end up covering the ground realities, as governments get into the habit of taking loans delaying addressing the core problem and with each government the situation worsened for both nations.

Notice the role of the US in both nations. In 2010, US rating agencies gave Greece its lowest grade precipitating bailout that came with conditions by pro-US IMF. Sri Lanka is going through exactly what Greece experienced. The conditions on Greek budget reforms created a vicious cycle of recession increasing unemployment, closure of SMEs, increased social problems, impact on health of citizens including large numbers of suicides. Exactly what Sri Lanka is now experiencing.

The social, economic & political conditions in both Greece & Sri Lanka are unusually similar. While Greece too has 2 prominent political parties that tussle power between themselves, Sri Lanka also does the same even after jump overs. Amidst this both nations experienced a rock star” image where an abnormal boost of publicity was given to Greece’s Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA (a coalition of the radical left). The same boost is being given to JVP-NPPs Anura Kumara Dissanayake who is suddenly going on world tours to western states & India (pretending to be from radical left)

Tsipras’s coalition in 2009 received only 4.6% of the vote, while in 2010 JVP supported DNA received 5.49% of the vote. In 2012, SYRIZA party received 26.9% of the vote while JVP (which played a key role in the US-India regime change) received just 4.87% though the number of voters had risen to 543,944.SYRIZA emerged in 1968 after restructuring the Greek communist movement. JVP was created in 1965.

The most important aspect of the remainder of this article is to understand where the Greeks went wrong & why and prevent Sri Lankans from doing the exact same mistake. In their anger against the two main political parties (PASOK & New Democracy) in Greece, where people held the two parties responsible for Greece’s bankrupt status, they sought revenge by voting for a radical left who eventually turned out to be worse than the centre right neoliberal parties. The economic crisis was the reason for the rise of SYRIZA and the JVP. Another common factor between SYRIZA and JVP-NPP is their attempt to hide their left” identity – the world tours by JVP-NPP leader to Canada, Australia, US and UK proves this from Sri Lanka’s perspective too. Ultimately SYRIZA did not deliver to the left or the right – JVP & NPP will do the exact same if voted to power.

When SYRIZA came to power the first victims were the very people who supported SYRIZA to power. It is going to be no different in the case of JVP-NPP as well.

Within days of coming to power SYRIZA targeted the working class, the retirees, increased health charges, cut social benefits to schools and worst of all unleashed the police against all those who protested. These are tell-tale signs of what to expect from the JVP-NPP too.

What Sri Lanka and Greece have common is that debt in both nations are a product of over 30 years of budget deficits, poor management, lack of political will and vision. Another common factor was the opinion of the citizens in both Greece & Sri Lanka that their 2 main political parties had failed. In wanting to seek revenge against the 2 political parties at the election, the Greek people voted for SYRIZA nevertheless the Greeks found out too late that the party they voted to power was not politically savvy, had no strategy or alliances in Greece or even internationally. Adding to the situation was that the party was filled with internal conflicts and rifts with different opinions merging causing more problems than they could fathom. In such a scenario, to hold on to power, the common trait is to agree to any painful compromises and for a party that remained 30% radicalized this created more rifts within. With disagreements surfacing, it should be clearer how the situation would mirror in Sri Lanka. JVP is identical to SYRIZA both in its ways and radicalism and the common trait is that they lack a vision and governmental culture. The citizens realized too late. SYRIZA was given 31% in 2019 which reduced to 20% in 2023 – results that showed SYRIZA had disappointed Greece & Greeks in just 4 years in power.

If Europe’s and America’s social democracy is falling apart as can be seen happening presently, it is high time Asia, Africa and the other continents wake up to ground realities instead of tagging to the failed tail & taking their nations along the same path. Nation’s need to discover their own national economic development model, not cut & paste from others.

ඉඟුරු දී මිරිස් ගත්තාවාගේ – has been our historical blunder

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Buddhists in Sri Lanka should be made aware of the stature of Buddhism in the Asian region when discussing the Kurundi issue. Buddhism enjoys a unique place in Asian history as the single shared experience among half the world’s population. No other movement has equaled the degree to which Buddhism has affected nearly every corner of Asia, said Robert E Fisher. Buddhism influenced the cultures of all these countries.

Buddhism did not convert by force or through inducements, only thorough conviction. Buddhists are very proud of this fact. Buddhism   was a very accommodating religion, able to fit into any cultural and social framework, observed analysts. It did not ask its followers to renounce earlier beliefs. That was one reason for its success. Buddhism readily accommodated existing beliefs, such as the Nats in Burma, spirit worship in Thailand, Shinto practices in Japan.

Buddhism was a scholarly religion and has several contemporary   firsts” .The world’s oldest document available today is the Diamond Sutra manuscript (Mahayana) written in Chinese, dated   11 May 868. It is in the British Library.  The small Buddhist scroll of the Dharani sutra dated to 751 A.D, discovered at the Pulguk-sa Temple in South Korea, is the oldest surviving woodblock print. 

The buildings associated with Buddhism are far more diverse in form and style than those found in other religious architectures, said architect Vikram Lall. The stupa with all its variations is the most identifiable and most important architectural monument of the Buddhist world. Stupas of diverse forms were constructed in Asia. There is also the Buddha statue. The colossal images of Buddha in Afghanistan and China are very impressive.

Buddhism started in North India, in the Ganges region where Gautama Buddha lived. It then  spread    across India,  down to  Sri Lanka and  also east wards, to  all the countries of South-east and  East  Asia.

The  Buddhist region  eventually included (given here in alphabetical order)   Afghanistan,  Bangladesh, Bhutan ,Cambodia, China, India,  Indonesia, Japan , Korea,  Laos,  Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan,  Thailand , Tibet and  Vietnam.

Buddhism was also practiced in the Russian regions that were adjacent to Mongolia, such as Buryatia, Zabaykalsky, Krai, Tuva and Kalmykia. In August 2023 researchers found a 1,200-year-old Buddhist stupa and two Buddha statues in good condition in Malaysia’s Bujang Valley, in northwest Kedah. Kedah adjoins Thailand. Bujang Valley was the site of an ancient civilization which had stretched across the northwestern coast of the Malay Peninsula into Thailand.

Buddhism would have spread very quickly in India. Researchers now   say that Buddhism en­tered Andhra Pradesh   during the life time of the Buddha. This was obvious and one wonders why it took so long for researchers to realize this.  Buddhist ruins can be seen in the littoral states of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Maharashtra.

Buddhism was supported by several Indian kings. The best known are Dharmasoka (304-232 BC) of the Mauryan Empire and Kanishka (127-150 AD) of the Kushan Empire. They were great supporters of Buddhism and helped to spread Buddhism in Asia.

Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE. The last state to support Buddhism was the Pala Empire in Bengal. By the end of the 12th century, Buddhism had disappeared from India. It was first overtaken by Hinduism. The Bhakthi religion of Tamilnadu wiped out Buddhism from Tamilnadu in 7^th century .Any remaining Buddhism in India was eliminated by the Muslim rulers who   ruled India from 12^th to 18 century.

Buddhism would have reached    East Asia both by road and sea via trading routes.  Buddhism was the merchant’s religion and it came in the wake of trade, said analysts. Buddhism in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, China and Japan are well known.  In China Buddhism first arrived during the Han dynasty   and grew in importance till the 8th century. There is a colossal Buddha statue in Leshan, 233 ft high and 92 feet across the shoulders, the largest in China. In Japan the wooden architecture was stimulated by Buddhism.  This led to   a subtropical building style which was never modified to reflect Japan’s much colder climate.

Buddhism in Indonesia and Vietnam are not so well known. Indonesia was   home to both Hinduism and Buddhism, till Islam got rid of both. Indonesia mainly followed Mahayana and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism.  Sri Vijaya kingdom, with its capital at Sumatra, was Buddhist. Sailendra dynasty (760-850) was considered the golden age of Buddhism in Indonesia. Sailendra built Borobudur and Candi Mendut. Candi Mendut has three very large, well preserved Buddhist stone statues of high standard. Buddhist monuments were also found in the Batujaya Buddhist complex in Java as well as Kedu plains and Prambanan valley (8-10 AD).

Vietnam followed Mahayana Buddhism, with a dash of Tantra. There was Buddhism in Luy Lalu, the ancient capital close to Hanoi. Also in Dong Dong monastery in 875 AD. Hundreds of Sutra pillars   were built in Hao Lu. Buddhism was the official religion in Vietnam in late 10 century. The Ngo (939-965) and   Dinh (968-979) dynasties were Buddhist,  and hundreds of temples were built in this time.

The 11-13 centuries were the golden age of Buddhism in Vietnam. Practically every king In the Ly dynasty constructed Buddhist temples. After the 15 century, Confucianism took over, but Buddhism remained popular in the villages. Buddhism was back in favor in Vietnam In 17-18th century. Buddhist monks were active in the 20 century. Some set fire to themselves in protest in the Vietnam War of 1955-1975.

Researchers in Sri Lanka have repeatedly pointed out that Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka during the time of Buddha.  There was regular contact between north India and Sri Lanka at the time and it was impossible for Buddhism not to have come in through these visits. The idea that Buddhism took three hundred years to arrive in Sri Lanka is absurd. Mahinda’s visit in the 3rd century was to formalize Buddhism. It was part of the diplomatic exchange between Dharmasoka and Devanampiyatissa, which started with coronation robes.

Sri Lanka has played a significant role in the advancement of Buddhism in Asia. Sri Lanka preserved the Theravada doctrine. The Sinhala   Theravada commentaries and manuscripts were known.  Buddhaghosa came to translate the commentaries and Fa Hsien came to   pick up manuscripts. Abhayagiri monastery was a recognized centre for, not one, but three schools of Buddhism, Theravada, Mahayana and Tantra. Archaeological evidence from Tiriyaya-Kuchchivele-Anuradhapura triangle confirms the influence of Tantric Buddhism  said Bandu de Silva. Sri Lanka sent a bhikkuni to Tibet to advice on Tantra. Sinhala Buddhism influenced Buddhism in Andhra Pradesh and the influence could be seen at Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda.

 Sri Lanka helped entrench Buddhism in South East Asia. Sinhala Buddhism went first to Cambodia and from there to Thailand and Burma. Cambodia was the most advanced of the South East Asian states in the medieval period. Its kingdom included parts of modern day Laos and Thailand. Sri Lanka   had high level diplomatic relations with Cambodia. During the time of Parakrama bahu I, Mahavamsa speaks of a ship taking a Sinhala princess to Cambodia, clearly for marriage. Cambodia, in its turn, had the best preserved Mahavamsa, and when Sri Lanka wanted to provide a new edition of the Mahavamsa, they turned to the Cambodian Mahavamsa to fill the gaps.

Sri Lanka   influenced Buddhism in Thailand and Burma. This is well known. Sri Lanka established ‘Sihala Sangha’ in these countries, influenced Buddhist architecture and exported its legends and the Mahavamsa. Burma has the myth that Buddha had visited Burma, and Tappassu and Balluka met the Buddha in person and he gifted them a strand of his hair which are now in Shwedagon in Yangon.

Buddhism was introduced to Europe in the 19th century. Asia was under European rule at the time, and European officials administering Asia took Buddhism back home with them. France would have picked up Buddhism from Vietnam and Cambodia.  Britain and Germany learnt about Buddhism from Sri Lanka.

T.W. Rhys Davids (1843-1922) joined the Civil Service and was posted to Ceylon. In 1871 he was sent as Assistant Government Agent of Nuwarakalaviya, where Anuradhapura was the administrative centre. Rhys Davids became involved with the excavation of the city of Anuradhapura. He began to collect inscriptions and manuscripts, and wrote a series of articles for the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Journal about them. He   had studied Sanskrit when in UK, he now learned Pali and Sinhala. He returned to Britain  prematurely and was Professor of Pāli at the University of London from  1882 to 1904.

Rhys Davids founded the Pali Text Society in 1881 This Society undertook the task of translating the Pāli canon of Theravada Buddhism  into English. In 1924  Christmas Humphreys founded The Buddhist Society, London .

Paul Dahlke (1865- 1928) from Germany , encountered Buddhism when visited Sri Lanka( Ceylon)  in the course of a world tour  in 1898. Two years later he returned to Sri Lanka to learn more about Buddhism. He learned Pali and met Ven. Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Suriyagoda Sumangala, Nyananissara and Wagiswara. He returned a Buddhist. In 1924 he established Das Buddhistische Haus” in Berlin, using elements of Sinhala Buddhist architecture.

Das Buddhistische Haus was  purchased by Asoka Weeraratna in 1957 ,on behalf of the Trustees of the German Dharmaduta Society and converted into a Buddhist Vihara by stationing Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka on a permanent footing. Das Buddhistische Haus (also called Berlin Vihara), thus became the first Theravada Buddhist Vihara in Europe.( continued)

ෆීන්ක්ස් නීති සාර සංග්‍රහය

නීති ග්‍රන්ථ ගණනාවක් ලියා ඇති, විද්‍යුත් සහ මුද්‍රිත මාධ්‍යයේ නීතිය පිළිබඳ ලිපි ලියන, නිතිය පිළිබඳ අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන්, වැඩමුළු පවත්වන කොළඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ විද්‍යාවේදී උපාධියක් සහ උපදේශනය පිළිබඳ පශ්චාත් උපාධි ඩිප්ලෝමාවක් ලබා ඇති නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන විසින් සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් පැවැත්ම සහ මූලධර්ම ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීම ස‍ඳහා වන පනත් කෙටුම්පතක් අධිකරණ ඇමතිට, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට ක්‍රියා කර ඇත.

එකී යෝජිත පනත් කෙටුම්පත අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පත (A Bill to Protection of the Rights of Persons Presenting Submissions before Courts, Tribunals and Institutions.) යන දීර්ඝ නාමයෙන් හදුන්වා ඇත.

එකී පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ වගන්ති 5ක් දැක්වෙන අතර එහි 3 වන වගන්තිය මගින් “අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ට වෙනත් ලිඛිත නීති වලින් ආරක්ෂා කර ඇති සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට අදාල නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන, 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තිය අභිබවා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේය.” ලෙස දක්වා ඇත.

එසේම එකී යෝජිත පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ 4 වන වගන්තිය මගින් “අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ යම් ලිඛිත නීතියක ප්‍රතිපාදන මත කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ව ඒ මත අත්අඩංගුවේ රඳවා  ගැනීමට හෝ රීතියක්  නිකුත් කිරීමට නොහැක්කේය.” ලෙස දක්වා ඇත.

මේ පිලිබද වැඩි දුර අධ්‍යයනය කිරීමේදී පැහැදිලි වන්නේ 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තිය මගින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව හැර වෙනත් සියලු නීතිවල ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය නවතා ඇති බවයි.

2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තිය මෙසේය.

“වෙනත් යම් ලිඛිත නීතියක පටහැනිව කුමක් සඳහන් වුවද මේ පනතේ විධිවිධාන බලපැවැත්විය යුතු අතර, ඒ අනුව මේ පනතේ විධිවිධාන සහ ඒ වෙනත් නීතියේ විධිවිධාන අතර යම් අනනුකූලතාවයක් ඇති වුවහොත් එවිට මේ පනතේ විධිවිධාන බලපැවැත්විය යුත්තේය.” (The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other written law, and accordingly, in the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Act and such other law, the provisions of this Act shall prevail.)

ඉහත දක්වා ඇති 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තියේ ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය අනුව ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව හැර අනෙක් සියලු නීති 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තිය මගින් යටපත් කර ඇත.

සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් ලබා දීම සඳහා ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය විසින් ලිඛිත නීති ගණනාවක් මේ වනවිට පනවා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 3 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව මගින් දක්වා ඇති ජනතාවගේ  පරමාධිපත්‍යය ආරක්ෂා කර ඇත. එසේ වුවත් ඉහත 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තියේ ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය අනුව එකී සියලු ලිඛිත නීතිවල බලපෑම නිශ්ක්‍රීය වී ඇත./ යටපත් වී ඇත.

1978 අංක 2 දරන අධිකරණ සංවිධාන පනතේ 49 වගන්තිය, සිවිල් නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහ පනතේ 834 වගන්තිය, 2023 අංක 10 දරන අපරාධයක වින්දිතයන් සහ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් හට සහාය දීමේ සහ ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනතේ විධිවිධාන, දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 289 වගන්තිය,
1969 අංක 22 දරන රජයේ සිවිල් වැරදි පිළිබද පනත, සාක්ෂි ආඥා පනත වැනි ලිඛිත නීති මගින් සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් පුරවැසියන්ට ලබා දීම ආරක්ෂා කර ඇත.

උදා. යම් තැනැත්තෙකු යම් විනිසුරුවරයෙකුට එරෙහිව නඩු පවරා ඇති අවස්ථාවක නඩුවක පාර්ශවයක් වන විට හෝ විනිසුරුවරයා නඩුවට පෞද්ගලික සම්බන්ධතාවයක් ඇති විට හෝ විනිසුරුවරයා පෙර අවස්ථාවකදී නඩුවේ තීන්දුවක් ලබා දී ඇති විට 1978 අංක 2 දරන අධිකරණ සංවිධාන පනතේ 49 වගන්තිය අනුව ඒ නඩුවේ කටයුතු වලින් විනිසුරුවරයා ඉවත් වීම කළ යුතු වෙයි. එසේ වුවත් 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තියේ ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය අනුව එකී සියලු ලිඛිත නීතිවල බලපෑම නිශ්ක්‍රීය කර / යටපත් කර ඇති හෙයින් 1978 අංක 2 දරන අධිකරණ සංවිධාන පනතේ 49 වගන්තිය නොසළකමින් 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ විධිවිධාන ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට හැකියාව ලබාගෙන ඇත. එවැනි තත්ත්ව සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට බාධාවක් වන අතර නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන විසින් අධිකරණ ඇමතිවරයාට, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරිපත් කරන “අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පත” මගින් සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් ලබා ගැනීමට පුරවැසියන්ට හිමි අයිතිය ආරක්ෂා කර ඇත.

එසේම එකී යෝජිත අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ 4 වන වගන්තිය “අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ යම් ලිඛිත නීතියක ප්‍රතිපාදන මත කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ව ඒ මත අත්අඩංගුවේ රඳවා  ගැනීමට හෝ රීතියක්  නිකුත් කිරීමට නොහැක්කේය.” ලෙස දක්වා තිබීම මගින් අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ යම් ලිඛිත නීතියක ප්‍රතිපාදන මත කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ  ගරුත්වය, ආරක්ෂාව, රැකවරණය සහ අභිමානය ආරක්ෂා කර ඇත.

මෙම පනත් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරනු ලැබුවහොත් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 85.2 ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව ජනතාවගේ අනුමැතිය ලබා ගැනීමට ජනමතවිචාරණයකට යොමු කිරීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට බලය ඇත.

සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක පැවැත්ම සහ මූලධර්ම ආරක්ෂා කර ඇති එකී යෝජිත අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂා පරිවර්තනය සහිතව පහත දැක්වෙයි.

අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පත

අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ට වෙනත් ලිඛිත නීති වලින් ආරක්ෂා කර ඇති සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට අදාල නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන වල රැකවරණය හිමිවන බව සහ ඒ හා සම්බන්ධ හෝ ඊට ආනුශංගික කාරණා සම්බන්ධ විධිවිධාන සැළැස්වීම පිළිබඳ පනතකි.

1.මෙම පනත 2024 අංක …. දරන අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත යනුවෙන් හදුන්වනු ලැබේ.

2.අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ට මෙම පනතේ විධිවිධාන අදාල වේ.

3. අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ට වෙනත් ලිඛිත නීති වලින් ආරක්ෂා කර ඇති සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට අදාල නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන, 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස කිරීම පනතේ 15 වන වගන්තිය අභිබවා ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේය.

4. අධිකරණ, විනිශ්චය අධිකාර සහ ආයතන ඉදිරියේ යම් ලිඛිත නීතියක ප්‍රතිපාදන මත කරුණු දක්වන තැනැත්තන්ව ඒ මත අත්අඩංගුවේ රඳවා  ගැනීමට හෝ රීතියක්  නිකුත් කිරීමට නොහැක්කේය.

5. මෙම පනතේ සිංහල සහ දෙමළ භාෂා පාඨ අතර අනනුකූලතාවයක් ඇතිවුවහොත්, එවිට සිංහල භාෂා පාඨය බලපැවැත්විය යුත්තේය.

A Bill to Protection of the Rights of Persons Presenting Submissions before Courts, Tribunals and Institutions.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONS PRESENTING SUBMISSIONS BEFORE COURTS, TRIBUNALS AND INSTITUTIONS ACCORDINGLY TO THE LEGAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO A FAIR TRIAL, WHICH ARE PROTECTED BY OTHER WRITTEN LAWS, AND TO PROVIDE FOR MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH OR INCIDENTAL THERETO.

1. This Act may be cited as Protection of the  Rights of Persons Presenting Submissions before Courts, Tribunals and Institutions Act No 21 of 2024.

2. The provisions of this Act are applicable to those presenting submissions before courts, tribunals and institutions.

3. The legal provisions relating to a fair trial, which are protected by other written laws for those presenting submissions before the courts, tribunals and institutions supersedes section 15 of the contempt of court, tribunal or institution Act, No. 8 of 2024.

4. No rule can be issued against a person nor can a person be detained in custody on the basis of the submissions under provisions of any written law before courts, tribunals and institutions.

5. In the event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2024/04/blog-post_17.html?m=1

ෆීන්ක්ස් නීති සාර සංග්‍රහය
විද්‍යුත් තැපැල් arunaunawatuna@gmail.com
දුරකථන 0712063394

Shenali Waduge

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Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo

Colombo, April 17 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Tuesday rejected international bondholders’ proposal to restructure more than $12 billion in debt, putting at risk critical International Monetary Fund support and delaying its efforts to resolve a two-year-long debt crisis.

Some of the proposal’s baseline” assessments and a lack of a contingency option in the case of continued economic weakness were the two main reasons the deal was not agreed, the government said in a statement.

Colombo said it hoped to hold further talks as soon as feasible” but the immediate risk was that without a compromise in the coming weeks, the next tranche of all-important IMF support money could potentially get delayed.

Sri Lanka has already struck a deal with its main government creditors, but an agreement in principle” with bondholders was also needed to secure IMF Board approval for the next $337 million instalment of its $2.9 billion programme.

The government said one of the main stumbling blocks had been that the baseline parameters” of the bondholders’ plan had not matched those embedded in its IMF programme.

It added that the bondholders’ steering committee” that it has been negotiating with in recent weeks had not wanted to extend restricted discussions” – a key part of debt talks where they are held privately, behind closed doors.

Following an initial extension, it would be unusual for big money managers to remain restricted for too long given it also limits their ability to participate in the market.

A source familiar with the process said discussions could continue as early as later on Tuesday, with some interested parties in Washington for the IMF/World Bank meetings.

The source said that, as has been the case in other recent debt negotiations, an asymmetry of information between the parties, including a lack of visibility among bondholders of the terms agreed with both the Paris Club and China, has complicated the negotiations.

CONTENTIOUS MLBs

Sri Lanka also disagreed with a proposal to link future repayments to bondholders to the country’s macroeconomic growth, through macro-linked bonds” or MLB for short.

It said it was seeking more protections if Sri Lanka’s economy were to underperform IMF growth projections, and a test” for triggering both the upward and downward adjustments in the MLB.

Disappointment that a deal had not yet been reached sent Sri Lanka’s bonds down about 2.5 cents , , leaving them at just over half their original face value at between 54 and 55.4 cents on the dollar.

Completing the IMF review by June becomes difficult now because there will have to be more talks,” said Udeeshan Jonas, chief strategist at equity research firm CAL Group.

IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Sri Lanka plunged into its worst financial crisis since independence from the British in 1948 after its foreign exchange reserves fell in early 2022 leaving it unable to pay for essentials including fuel, cooking gas, and medicine.

The island nation defaulted on its foreign debt in May 2022 and kicked off negotiations with bilateral creditors several months later, eventually securing an agreement in principle with China, India and the Paris Club last November.

Sri Lanka also needs agreements with each of the bilateral creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of China, to complete the IMF review process.

Supported by the IMF program, Sri Lanka has seen its once soaring inflation moderate to 0.9% in March and its currency strengthen 7.6% so far this year. The economy is expected to return to growth after contracting 2.3% in 2023.

It is one of several poorer countries that have been hit by debt crisis in recent years and were struggling to put it behind.

Ghana this week has also seen its $13 billion restructuring talks stumble after the IMF indicated that the deal it was hoping to strike with bondholders would not be enough to make its debt levels sustainable again.

Viktor Szabo, an emerging market debt portfolio manager at Abrdn in London, said Sri Lanka’s setback was likely to be just a delay rather than a deal-breaker.

It is moving in the right direction,” Szabo said. But it is just a bit slower than expected.”

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

අමෙරිකානු අධිරාජ්‍යය බිඳවැටෙන සෑම විටම ඔවුන් විසින් ලෝකයේ යුදමය තත්ත්වයක් නිර්මාණය කරන බවද, ඊශ්‍රායලය ත්‍රස්තවාදී රාජ්‍යක් ලෙස අමෙරිකාව භාවිත කළේ ඛනිජ තෙල් වෙනුවෙන් අරාබි මුහුද, රතු මුහුදේ ගැටලුවක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට බවද වෛද්‍ය වසන්ත බණ්ඩාර මහතා පවසයි.

ඒ මහතා මේ  බව පැවසුවේ දෙරණ වාද පිටිය දේශපාලන සංවාදය හා එක් වෙමිනි.

ලංකාව පිහිටා ඇත්තේ ලෝකයේ වැදගත් උපායමාර්ගික මරමස්ථානයක බවත්, ලෝකයේ ප්‍රධානතම නාවික මාර්ගයේ පිහිටා ඇති රටක් නිසාම බලපෑම් කිරීමට හා අත්පත් කරගැනීමේ උවමනාව ඉන්දියාව අමෙරිකාව ප්‍රමුඛ විදෙස් බලවේගවලට ඇති බවත් ඒ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

සවිස්තරාත්මක වීඩියෝව නරඹන්න…

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

මෙරට ගැමි සමාජය හසුරුවන ප්‍රධානතම රැහැන නම් සාමූහිකත්වයයි.පැරණි ගැමියන් කිසි විටක සාමූහිකත්වයෙන් තොරව සංවිධාන ගත නොවූහ.ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රධානතම ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාවලිය වූ කුඹූරු ගොවිතැන සහ හේන් ගොවිතැන සාර්ථකත්වයට පත් කරනු ලැබූවේ එකට වැඩ කරගැනීමට තිබූ දක්ෂතාවයෙනි.මුල් කැටෑ හේන නම් වියළ් ගොවිතැනේ දී සියලුම දෙන එකතු වී මූකලානක් කොටා පුලුස්සා වටේ දඬුවැට සවි කර තමන්ගේ පංගු වෙන් කර ගත්තද හේනේ පැල් රැකීම කරන ලද්දේ සාමූහික හැඟිමකිනි. එසේම අස්වනු කපා පා ගා ගැනීම සහ බෙද‌ා හදා ගැනීම සඳහා පුද්ගලිකත්වයට වඩා සාමූහිකත්වය ඉස්මතු විය.මේ නිසා මුලු රටේම වැඩ කිරීමේ හැකියාව ඉතා ඉහළ මට්ටමින් තිබුණි. පසු කාලීනව රාජකාරිය යනුවෙන් නම් කළ අතර සියලුම රට වැසියන්ට තමන්ගේ කාර්යයක් හිමි විය. කුල වශයෙන් වෙන් කර තිබුණද ඒ ඒ අය අතර බෙදා හදා ගැනීමද අත්තමට කයියට වැඩ කිරීමද උපරිම මට්ටමින් තිබූ ආකාරය පැහැදිලි වේ.

          මේ බෙදා හදා ගැනීම ජාන වලින් පැමිණි දෙයක් නොවේ.බදු දහම වැළඳ ගැනීමෙන් පසු ඒ සාර්ධර්මයන් හි රජු පිහිටීම නිසා මෙවැනි හැදියාවක් ආරම්භ වන්නට ඇත. සතුරු ආක්‍රමණ මත රටේ අවුල් වියවුල් ඇති වූ නිසා නැවත ඒ පෙර සිරිත් පණ ගැන්වීම අවශ්‍ය විය.ඒ අනුව සකස් කරනු ලැබූ නීති සහ රීති මගින් නැවත ඒ සිරිත් ආරම්භ විය..චාරිත්‍ර සහ වාරිත්‍ර යනුවෙන් අප අතර අද ව්‍යවහාර වන්නේ එයයි. යම් නීතියක් චාරිත්‍රයක් වන්නට නම් ඒ සිරිත දිගු කාලයක් තිස්සේ ජන සමාජය විසින් භාවිත කල යුතු විය.එවිට එම පෙර සිරිත නීතියක් වුවත් නීතියක් නොවී ජන සමාජය විසින් ආරක්ෂා කරනු ලබති. බෙදා හදා ගෙන කෑම බෙදා හදා ගෙන වැඩ කිරීම සිංහල ජන සමාජයට පුරුදු පුහුණු කරන ලද්දේ එසේය.ඉරිපින්නියාව( පදවිය අසල ) ටැම් ලිපිය අනුව වාරිමාර්ග අමුණු බැන්දවීමටද පෙර සිරිත ක්‍රියාත්මක විය.එයද නීතියකින් පැමිණියකි.මේ සම්බන්ධව තිබෙන තවත් වැදගත් හොඳම උදාහරණයක් ලිඛිතව පැවතීම මේ පිළිබඳව විමර්ශනය කරන්නවුන්ට ඉතා වැදගත්ය. අනුරාධපුරයේ ඇතුලු නුවර මහාපාලි දාන ශාලාව ආසන්නයේ පවතින සතරවන මිහිඳු රජුගේ ශිලා ලේඛනය ඊට දෙස් දෙයි.

      සතරවන මහින්ද( ක්‍රි.ව.980 -996) පස්වන කාශ්‍යප රජුගේ පුත්‍රයෙකු ලෙස සැළකිය හැකිය. ඔහුගේ බිසව කාලිංග කුමරියක වූවාය. ඒ වන විට දළදා වහන්සේ සන්තකයේ පැවතීම කාලිංග දළදා පරපුරේ නොහොත් කීරවැල්ල බිසවක් සිටීම රාජ උරුමය තහවුරු කරලීමට බලවත් සාධකයක් විය.ඒ ශක්තිය නිසා මහින්ද රජු දඹදිව ආක්‍රමණය කොට තුන්වන කෘෂ්ණ රජු පරාජයට පත් කළේය.එසේම ඌරාතොට නැතිනම් කයිට්ස් දූපතට පැමිණි දෙමළ ආක්‍රමණිකයෙකු පරාජයට පත් කොට රාජ්‍ය ස්ථාවර කොට වසර දහසයක් රජකම් කලේය.මේ නිසා ඔහුට ශාසනික මෙහෙයක් කල හැකී වූ අතර දළදා වහන්සේ කෙරෙහි තිබූ භක්තිය නිසා දළදා මැදුර ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට ලක් කළේය. අනතුරුව ඒ ආසන්නයේ ශිලා ලේඛනයක් ද පිහිටුවන ලද්දේය. ඊට අමතරව වෙස්සගිරිය අසල සහ මිහින්තලයේ යන ස්ථාන වල පිහිටුවන ලද ශිලා ලේඛන මෙරට ශාසනික නීතිය සහ රටේ පෙර සිරිත හුවා දක්වන ප්‍රබල සාධක වෙති. අනුරාධපුර පුවරු ලිපියයයි සදහන් වන පහත සඳහන් ලිපිය මගින් කියැවෙන වැදගත් රීතින් සමාජය වෙත මුදා හැරීමට සිදු වූයේ කුමක් නිසාදැයි මේ ලිපි ය කියැවීමෙන් පසක් කරගත හැකිය.    

          ‘සිරිබර් කැත් කුල කොත් ඔකාවස් රජ් පරපුරෙන් බට් ලක්දිව් පොලොයොන පරපුරෙන් හිමි වූ සිරි සඟ්බො අබය් මහ රජ්හු තුමා සත් ලැගු සොලොස්වන හවුරුදුයෙහි මැදින් දින සන්ද් අවප් මස්හි  දස පක් දවස් සතර් පස්හි අය්වූ උකස් ගම්හි ඉසා පමුණු ගම්හි ඉසා ගිය තුවාක් දවස්හි රද් කොලට් වැලෙන්දමින් සිටි කැබැල්ලෙ හි කළැලි කුම්බුර් පෙරෙ වළන්දමින් සිටි සෙ වළදනු කොට් ඉසා සෙසු වියළ් තිබූ තුවාක් තැන් පමුණු ලදුවන් වියළ් නෙරුන් මුත් කැබලි ලදුවන් වියළ් නෙරනා කොට් ඉසා පමුණු ලදුවන් වියළ් නෙල් තැන්හි පහන් ……………………ගත් කිරි අමුණ බා  දෙ කැබලි ලදුවන් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා …………..මෙයට් උපන් දෙවිතයක්  ඇත ගම් වැසියන් ………………….පිරි කපා බා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා පෙරෙ කැබලි …………………….වල් පියොව තිබූ තුවාක් තැන් වැව් බැන්දැ………………..කැරුණ් හසෙකැ බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා ………………………….ක් ඇත ගම් වැසියන් දුට් නැස්මක් ……………………යන් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා මෙකුන් විය …………………………..බද් වැව් සර් වියළ් නෙළැයෙහි වැවූ ප…………ගම්වැසියන් පස් දෙනෙකු කී බා දෙ කැබලි……………….කොට් ඉසා පෙරෙ ඔත් ගස් කොලට් අ…………..වහන්සෙ හුණන්හි වැඩැ වෙන කලැ කළ ව්‍ය ………………තුනින් එකක් නියායෙන් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා ……………….තුවාක් දවස්හි පමුණු ලදුවනට කුඩී……………..වැටෙමින් සිටි වැට්මක් ඇත පෙරෙ …………………….කොට් ඉසා මෙකුන් අයෙළින් ඔත් නැරුළ් ත………………මහ වරක් දෙකැබලි ලදුවන් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා …………….කින් පකක් දෙකැබලි ලදුවන් බෙදා ගන්නාකොට් ඉසා …………….බුලත් දොඩම් කෙල් කොස් සෙසු උපො පල …………හවුරුදු පතා වත්තකට් ළිදෙකින් දෙ අකක් බැ……………න් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා……………….ගම් වැසියන්…………….. ඇත  කුඩීන් නොපල්වා ගම් වැසියන්…………………කැබලි ලදුවන් බෙදා ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා ………තන්හි මෙලාට්සි ලද්දකු ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා ගම් වැසියන් පස් දෙනෙකු කී දඩ් ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා දෙකැබලි ලදුවන්  වෑ මෙහෙයට් දෙ ……………….උපන් වියවුලක් ඇත මහා ලෙයක් හු ………………වරැඅරක්මෙහෙකැමියක් හු ඉසා ස………………කුසල් කැමි ලෙයක්හු ඉසා දඩ් නා ප…………………….පි කාරයක් හු ඉසා ඇතුළ්වැ මෙතුවාක් ………………..සාහා දෙනු කොට් ඉසා එකොලොස් ………………..හිමියන් වහන්සෙ  පසුවනු ප……………කැබලි ලද් කෙනකු න් විචාර කොට් ………………….ත්‍යාග කරනු කොට් ලියවා දළදා ගෙ ………………ලී කර්ම නො ඉක්ම වැ  වෙනු සන්ද් හා……………..තබනු ලදි සතර් පස්හි දෙමෙළ් ගම්බිම් ……………ඔත් ගස් කොළ්හි පෙරෙ සිරිත් සෙ ගන්නා කොට් ඉසා මෙහි පවා මත්තෙ ඔත් ගස් කොළ්හි දස පැකින් පකක් හා සතර් මහ වරක් හා ළින්දෙකින් දෙ අකක් බැගින් ගතැ යුතු

         රදළ කුලයට පරිභෝග වූ උකස් ගම් සහ පමුණු ගම් වල කැබලි වල අස්වනු පෙර සේම වැළඳීම නොහොත් පරිභෝජනය කළ යුතු යැයි මෙහි මුලටම දක්වා තිබේ.මෙම ගම්හි හේන් ගොවිතැන් ගැන දක්වා තිබෙන්නේ වියළ් යනුවෙනි.ඒවා පෙර සේම වළන්දවමින් ඒ ලැබෙන අස්වැන්න ගම් වැසියන් විසින් අඩක් වශයෙන් බෙදා ගත යුතු බව දක්වා තිබේ.ඒ ගම්වල කැලෑ එළි කොට වැව් සකස් කර ගත් කල්හි ලැබෙන ලාභයන් බෙදා ගත යුතු බව දක්වා තිබේ. එසේම ගම් වැසියන්ට යම් කරදරයක් නොහොත් නැස්මක් වුවහොත් තිබෙන තැනින් ගෙන බෙදා හදා ගැනීම අගය කර තිබේ. සැබවින්ම අදටත් මේ සිරිත ගම් වල පවතී. කරදරයකදී ඔවුන් සැම එකතු වෙයි. සැමියා නැතිවූ බිරිඳ නඩත්තුවට කුඹුරු කැබලි පවා වෙන් කරන සිරිතක් දක්නට තිබුණි. දඹුල්ල අසළ කලුන්දෑවේ එලෙස වෙන් කරන ලද කූඹුරකට සුද්දන්ගේ පාලනය යටතේ අත්වූ ඉරණම ගැන විස්තර මෑත කාලයේ දී අසන්නට හැකිය.එකල රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ සිටි දෙමල අගම්පඩි සේනාවක්ට දුන් දෙමළ ගම් බිම් වලින් පෙර සිරිත් ලෙසම එනම් දෙමළ් කූලී අය කරගන්නා ලෙසටද මෙහි දක්වා තිබේ. ඒ අනුව සතරවන මහින්ද රජුගේ අනුරාධපුර පුවරු ලිපියෙන් හෙළිවන්නේ සිංහල නීතියේ වැදගත් මූලාශ්‍රයකි.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Manusha Media

Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara said today (17) that the demands for systemic change voiced by the public on the streets have been achieved within the Ministry over the past two years, with necessary policy adjustments implemented.

The minister made this statement today (17) when he participated in the special event organized by the Ministry of Labor and Foreign Employment to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

The Minister noted that many positive changes have been made in Sri Lanka’s labor sector and highlighted that steps were taken to lay the foundation for these changes at the end of last year

The Minister went on to say ;

“Nearly two years ago, the public took to the streets, demanding a change in the system. However, their true desire went beyond simply replacing top officials; it encompassed a comprehensive transformation of the system itself.

That’s why we needed national policies. We aimed to establish a program that remains unchanged regardless of personnel shifts. Over the past two years, our ministry has successfully implemented this program.

We developed a migration policy and revisited the labor policy. Additionally, we introduced relevant policies to create a safe work environment and successfully changed labor laws. Furthermore, we brought about policy changes by amending the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment Act.

Also, we were able to digitize the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment as well as the Labour Department. Additionally, we launched the Garu Saru Program, which promote dignity of labour, a concept that was not even considered during colonial times.

We were able to create a policy change, which is the most basic thing needed to effect change in the system. Everyone in the ministry was committed to it. This represents the real aragalaya, where all public servants work diligently together to bring about a change in the system.

Building the country through hard work is the true struggle. In these past two years, we have accomplished tasks that were previously deemed impossible for many years.”

Courtesy Adaderana

The owner of a street food eatery in Aluthkade, who was arrested for price-gouging a foreign tourist and behaving in a verbally aggressive manner, has been granted bail.

When the accused was produced before the court earlier today (17), he was ordered to be released on a cash bail of Rs. 50,000 and surety bail of Rs. 1 million.

On Tuesday (16), the police arrested the 51-year-old in question for trying to charge Rs. 1,900 from a foreigner for a Kottu Roti and verbally harassing him when he refused to buy the food item at the quoted price.

The arrest came hot on the heels of public outcry on social media after a video of the incident went viral.

e-Con e-News

ee wishes readers a Happy New Year!

Last week, ee reproduced an Island report recalling how an attempted military coup, to overcome the so-called 2018 ‘constitutional coup’, was thwarted. Observers of such machinations of state & statecraft wonder if the latest tale about former President Maithripala Sirisena allegedly disclosing an ‘Indian Hand’ as being behind the April 2019 bombings, may indeed be true. ee also wonders if the dearly beloved ‘Cardinal’ too had inside information about this all along, ‘incensed’ because this handler was being censored? After all, the precious prelates of the Catholic Church must surely have hourly access via the Vatican to the oldest of the black-robed practitioners of such Jesuitical methods, amply provided to certain actors at regular intervals, 1948, 1959, 1962, 1971 and 1983-2009?

     In those smoky hours in 2019, ee also wondered about the role of such ‘secretive’ organizations as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the power behind India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – seeking to kill (& malign) 3 birds (Christian, Muslim, & Buddhist) with one coordinated blow. This also included a so-called ‘failed attempt’ at an Indian-owned hotel, where the alleged bomber later blew himself (or was blown up) at another non-Indian location. India’s PM N. Modi was the first foreign head of state to visit Sri Lanka after that carnage, in June 2019, chaperoned throughout by Sajith Premadasa. Meanwhile, media this week also headlined the push for a ‘Hindu Eelam Movement’ & their Presidential candidate (see ee Sovereignty).

     If Indian secret services had arranged the April 2019 terror, do their links with Sri Lanka’s own secret services explain why they were not pursued? Their ‘warning’ beforehand fits the pattern, evident in the planners of the Moscow concert hall attack who also claimed, later, that they had ‘warned’ the recipient (Russia) of their intended actions beforehand. Our good & generous neighbour too ‘warned’ us in 2019. Double gain! First, it signals friendliness and diverts suspicion away. Second, it allows later icing on the cake by blaming the recipient for not taking the warning seriously, to perhaps suit their own stratagems. ee would have loved to see ‘our’ mass media outlets pursue other parties like the JVP & their current apparently popularized leader about his opinion on this matter. We guess, it is too much to ask for that level of independence in ‘our’ media. Meanwhile, perhaps fearing arrest or possible harm, Sirisena and family are said to be taking refuge in Singapore, that bastion of the rule of law where a former fugitive Central Banker resides – the closest outpost perhaps, far from India’s hitmen?

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• Fast & Furious in Mariyakaday – Last week ee wondered if there were weapons meant for Sri Lanka aboard that Maersk-chartered Baltimore-bridge-crashing ship that had docked at the US Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, prior to its fateful Maryland snafu. Curiosity was piqued by the amount of ‘empty containers’ on that ship making such a long journey all the way around that Cape of Storms aka Good Hope.

     With the US (& their Core Group, including Canada, etc) about to invade Haiti, to apparently suppress ‘gangs’, it is important to recall that it is the US via their ‘gusano’ (expat Cuban) gangsters in Miami who are flooding Haiti with guns. Haiti does not have a ‘gang problem’, it has a US imperialism problem. The same goes for Somalia, which the Anglo-Saxon media keeps repeating, has a ‘piracy problem’. It is the US (& their EU allies) who’s financed various ‘terrorist’ groups in Somalia. Again, East Africa & Red Sea & West Asia too, have an US imperialism problem, but no Anglo-Saxon media dare call it so.

     ee also recalls how the US sold 1,000s of firearms to Mexican ‘drug cartel’ leaders, which has led to the current ‘gang wars in Mexico’. The US claimed this ‘gunwalking’, or ‘letting guns walk’ tactic was ‘purposely’ used by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) Project Gunrunner aka Operation Fast & Furious to identify gang leaders. Each weapon was equipped with a GPS unit, to supposedly enable the ATF to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. Instead, over 150 Mexican civilians were maimed or killed by these guns in Mexico. In September 2011, the Mexican government linked an undisclosed number of guns found at about 170 crime scenes, to the US project. The US scheme aimed to intentionally arm the Sinaloa drug cartel to defeat rival drug gangs. US President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege in order to withhold documents about the project. Mexico – so far from their Aztec gods & so close to the US – has a US imperialism problem too. The US’ pitbulls in Ecuador just broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito. Just as the USA’s pitbulls in occupied Palestine just bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria. Unprovoked attacks, indeed! So, the question remains: just what was in those Dali containers? Which fractions in which political faactions are they arming?

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‘Customs has no way of knowing who the consignee is & what

the cargo is until the cargo manifest is filed by the agent here.

Even then, cargo description is in most cases not sufficient to properly

identify such goods. No one will declare contents as ‘Toxic Waste’.’

– Customs Spokesman Senior Customs Director Seevali Arukgoda

Another administrative ‘coup’ is in progress to reduce or remove the powers of Customs Officials and replace them with ‘senior traders’ aka fraudulent importers. Customs unions, threatening industrial action if the Finance Ministry’s proposed amendments go through, say this is being done on behalf of the same ‘family of corrupt officials’ that annulled the 1953 Foreign Exchange Control Act and relaxed policies in 2017, enabling the bleeding of foreign exchange out of the country, causing the present economic ‘crisis’ (see ee Random Notes).

     After ee’s revelations on 30 March about hazardous wastes aboard that Danish-Maersk-chartered ship, a National Coordinating Committee (NCC) of ‘all relevant stakeholders’ was formed in Colombo and met on Friday, 5 April 2024. There has been no news since on what was decided, though we see that Germany’s GIZ is supposedly going to fund a pilot pre-arrival processing of import shipments, from May, where Colombo will get ‘cargo information 48 hours before the departure of the ship from the foreign port.’

     There were however continued attacks on ee (by Maersk-related NGOs & media) with doubts expressed about our revelations. They carefully admit that the materials imported were indeed hazardous, but only one of the 4,700 containers was for Sri Lanka and it was a ‘normal’ hazardous import needed for ‘manufacture’, while ignoring why Maersk was transporting toxic US waste through our waters. Maersk has gained a reputation for attacking its own workers who report on their mischief (see ee Random Notes).

     However, in the Daily Mirror, Rohan Masakorala, ‘founder of Shippers Academy International, a former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council & 1^st Secretary General of the Asian Shipper’s Council’ calls ee a ‘false blog’ (whatever that is) publishing ‘false information’ attempting ‘to mislead the very vulnerable Sri Lankan society’, tarnishing ‘the image of a reputed shipping line, a private terminal operator in the Port of Colombo & US government institutions supporting Sri Lankan maritime sector through capacity building initiatives’ (see ee Random Notes).

     Yet, also in the Daily Mirror, Gehan L Kuruppu – also a ‘former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council’ & 38-year veteran in this import-export scene – decries the attacks on the media who publicized ee’s revelations, adding:

‘Who the toxic materials & fuel were consigned to in Sri Lanka – in technical

terms the consignee of the cargo or the notify party – is not being reported.

Also, it is a long way for such hazmat & fuel to be exported in one voyage

without calling in other ports en route to Colombo Port. There are reports of uncertainty

about who is exporting such toxic waste to Sri Lanka, and who is importing them.

Are the US & the media institutions attempting to divert attention

from the ship charterer Maersk Line’s involvement?

Unless there is some classified information that cannot be divulged

for reasons that are unknown to authorities. In this instance, it is not possible to say

that the authorities cannot find who the exporter & the importer are,

as the US Customs rules are that any vessel leaving the port of US origin

has to make a prior establishment in filing the manifest.’

(see ee Industry, Baltimore Bridge collapse, Dali & controversy)

Ansell Lanka General Manager Ramesh Nanayakkara told the Sunday Times’ Sunimalee Dias (who reports Maersk & IMF, World Bank, ADB press releases as uninvestigable gospel) that they had one container on the Dali bound for Colombo that contained a chemical resin classified as hazardous. Used ‘in the normal manufacturing process’ – this raw material is used to make ‘industrial gloves’, and has been ‘imported for over 2 decades’. ‘The country of origin of this particular chemical is the USA’. The rest of the over 500 containers were said to be for transshipment cargo due for India.

     If this is gospel, isn’t it odd to bring this resin all the way from Baltimore? Is this imported ‘resin’ another ploy for foreign-exchange fraud? Ansell is linked to an old English multinational Dunlop, now based in Australia. Why not import the resin from there? Or produce it here? And if the rest of the containers were going to India, Singapore &/or Malaysia, or most going to China[ as some claimed, why not thru the Pacific? After all their talk of ‘carbon footprints’ & ‘Asia-Pacific’ etc. Odd, no?

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‘English industrial policy was to prohibit any form

of industrialisation in any of their colonies’

– HN Thenuwara (see ee Focus)

Lanka is about to miss the 5th industrial revolution, having missed the first 4 industrial revolutions in the world, and HN Thenuwara, a former Sri Lanka Central Bank Director of Economic Research now teaching at the University of Iowa, USA, is worried. This latest revolution of the industrial kind is being fueled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Thenuwara therefore consults ChatGpt to find out what he thinks we should do (see ee Focus). Unfortunately, he does not quite get it, as neither can ChatGpt, whose intelligence is not that artificial at all.

     While Thenuwara very kindly lays out what the first 4 revolutions were all about, he does not quite hit the nail on the thumb. The English did not just prohibit, they destroyed & mutilated, as in India, where they cut the thumbs of the weavers, etc. In Sri Lanka, ingenious traders, including, and not only Indian, importers & exporters, and the Central Bank & officials they have trained very well, who all work on behalf of US & European multinationals & banks, will simply not allow any hint of a modern industrial policy in our parts of the world.

     Thenuwara repeats standard mercantile shibboleths about 1970-77, saying ‘the country experimented with closed economy policies, which are countermeasures of industrial revolutions, and resulted in colossal failure’. His notion of failure is not good or bad, it’s sheer ignorance! Because even if there was a loss, a lack of industry would have led to further greater losses elsewhere – as is now evident, with no modern production taking place.

     And industrial policy did not ‘fail’ – it was strangled and sabotaged! He fails to show how the proportional representation system impacted those institutions curbing corruption. He ignores how the current US and EU greenwashing is to bind Sri Lanka into only buying their machinery and not making our own. He also does not call out India’s blatant movies to tie Sri Lanka into India’s industrial orbit, making it Chennai’s bitch. Finally, a top Central Bank official going to work for a foreign country, especially a country that displays constant enmity to the country’s economic wellbeing, may well constitute high corruption as well.

     Thenuwara should have asked ChatGPT to improve on this sentence: ‘Imperialist industrial policy will sabotage any form of industrialization in their colonies (including India & Japan, etc)’.

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• Just like the US & EU are constantly threatening to remove Sri Lanka’s preferred access to their hallowed market (GSP+, etc), the US is now threatening South Africa with similar menace after S Africa took US-funded Israel to the International Court of Justice for their ongoing genocide in Palestine. While the ICJ’s ruling of ‘plausible’ genocide doesn’t appear to have deterred Israel one bit (these international bodies are weaponized only against us, usually triggered along with other force-multipliers), the US has launched an investigation into South Africa’s ‘uppity negro’ behavior (see ee Focus), detailing not only their upset about Israel, but also South Africa daring to continue to pursue closer ties with Russia, China, Iran. This sheds further light on how the US views and treats Sri Lanka, a more acquiescent vassal.

     Hence, the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act was introduced in the US House on February 6. Pandor says, ‘There’s almost an implication that when the USA holds a particular position, South Africa must follow… I don’t know whether it’s because we’re Africans or some other reason.’

     South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor was thus beckoned to Washington, DC. South Africa’s accession to the beckoning may relate to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ deal struck in 1994 between Afrikaner cabinet minister Roelf Meyer & then ANC General Secretary (now President) Cyril Ramaphosa under the aegis of the USA, which led, 1948 Soulbury-suckering-like, to the maintenance of white minority rule over the economy. The US must be threatening to expose this ‘behind-the-scenes’ deal to undermine the ANC before the upcoming elections.

     In May 2023, the US’ South Africa ambassador’s unfounded accusation that the country was providing weapons to Russia, led to President Ramaphosa saying the allegation ‘had a most damaging effect on our currency, our economy, and our standing in the world; in fact, it tarnished our image’. In August 2023, a South African official said the country would not give in to pressure from the US to stop using Chinese company Huawei’s equipment on its networks.

     South Africa is the USA’s largest trading partner in Africa. About 600 US businesses operate in the country. The US African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides sub-Saharan African countries some duty-free access to the US. The US has removed several countries from AGOA, eg, Ethiopia, Mali, Guinea, Uganda, Gabon, Niger, & the Central African Republic. The unstated threat of potential removal from AGOA hovers over the US-South Africa relationship, too.

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Contents:

Coup After Coup After Coup: Sabotaging the 5th Industrial Revolution in Sri Lanka

Garvin Karunaratne, PhD. Michigan Stae University,

Is it not sad that Sri Lanka, a country that had no foreign debt in 1977, is today having a foreign debt of $ 91 billion( Prof. Charitha Herath:Lankadeepa- 7/2/24) When President Gotabhaya left the debt was $ 56 billion.

Sri Lanka is a country of ample resources, a fertile land, blessed with rain and ample manpower.

As a development expert with experience of handling development I can recall Great Development Programmes that if copied, could provide a way out.

The Comilla Programme of Rural Development.(1960-1969)

The Government of Bangladesh sought the help of the USA to find the quickest method of bringing about development. This task was entrusted to Michigan State University and a few professors moved to the cobra infested Kotwali Thana, the area where the development was done for over eight years . Akhter Hammed Khan was posted as the Director of the Academy for Rural Development. They worked on a cooperative model where farmers -members of cooperatives were trained and the entire administration was re-organized and farmers provided with deep tube well water. Paddy Yields were increased by 170%, industries established and employment was found for everyone.

This successful method is being followed today in many areas in Bangladesh.

Paddy Production In Sri Lanka- 1965-1970

This was an islandwide programme where paddy farmers were organized through cultivation committees to follow improved methods like the use of high yielding seeds, row seeding, and the use of inorganic fertilizer, In 1967 the District Administrative head, the Government Agents were charged to ensure results. Sri Lanka reached self sufficiency. The yields of paddy was checked independently by staff officers on plots identified by random sampling. It was the combination of an effort by two departments- the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Services, directed by the Government Agents, the Administrative Heads of each District, The Programme was directed by the Prime Minister himself, Mr Dudley Senanayake. Self sufficiency was achieved while also giving a ration of one measure (two Kilos) of rice free per person in 1966-1970.
(The author was an active participant as Senior Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in 1966-67 and as Additional Government Agent of Kegalla District in 1968-1969. )

The Marketing Department Cannery

A Cannery was imported and installed in 1955. The Marketing Department bought fruit and veg from farmers, buying at their doorstep, moved to the Cannery where we made fruit drinks, jam. We achieved self sufficiency. We staved off all imports of fruit products in three years(1955-1958), working under Hon Philip Gunawardena as the Minister for Agriculture.

I was involved, providing fruit and veg as I was in charge of Tripoli, the headquarters implementing the purchasing and selling of veg and fruit in the entire island. I also was acting in charge of the Cannery when the Assistant Commissioner in charge was abroad , We exported 9% of our tinned pineapple.

The Divisional Development Councils Programme of Sri Lanka(1970-1977) was a programme aimed at creating production and also alleviating poverty.

The highlights of this Programme were:

Paper making out of Waste Paper at Kotmale.

All Waste Paper in the District was collected and used to make paper and cardboard.

Today we do not collect and convert waste paper to paper and cardboard. We bury and set fire to waste paper! Instead we have fine tuned the art of selling used cardboard to India- 8000 tons per month collecting a few dimes and buying paper with dollars from India. Making paper from waste paper is a well known process, but we do not roll our sleeves to do it. Instead we import with dollars we find on loan.

Seagoing Boat Making Factory at Matara

A new industry to make seagoing boats was established within two months. The work included building the workshop, installing sawing equipment, training over twenty youths to make 40 seafaring boats a year. Boats were sold to fishing coops. It was an acclaimed success.

This project was initiated and directed by me in 1971-1973

Coop Crayon Factory at Morawaka

The art of making crayons, equal in quality to Reeves, the best of the day was unearthed by my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, by experimenting at the Rahula College Science Lab, every evening from six to midnight for three months.

The Coop Crayon Factory was set up at Morawaka in two weeks by my staff training youth on a 24 hour basis. The organizer was Sumanapala Dahanayake the member of parliament of the area in his capacity as the President of the Cooperative Union. Coop Crayon was sold islandwide from 1971 to 1977. The success of Coop Crayon enabled Minister Illangaratne to stop the import of crayons. Coop Crayon was a grand success

This project was initiated and directed by me in 1971-1973..

The Youth Self Employment Project of Bangladesh

Self employment commenced in Bangladesh with a two hour argument I had with the Secretary to the Treasury of Bangladesh when he said that I could not establish this self employment programme as the ILO of the United Nations had failed to establish such a programme in Tangail, Bangladesh. Hon Aminul Islam the Minister for Labour and Manpower who listened to our arguments for two hours, approved my establishing the programme. The Secretary to the Treasury denied any funds and I worked from savings within approved budgets. . I designed this programme teaching youth officers economics and methods of working with youths to develop their abilities and capacities in running commercial ventures.(Communty Developmet & Non Formal Education) I was also training the officers including members of the Bangladesh Civil Service to continue this programme when my consultancy was over. This is today the premier youth employment creation programme the world has known.

On 19/10/2011 the Govt of Bangladesh reported to the IFAD(FAO) one of the funders, that over two million youths have been found self employment. By now (2024) this Programme has guided over three million youth to become self employed. This is a coveted development programme of the Government and the World Bank has tried to buy the programme several times.

This Programme was designed and established by me in 1982-1983. In 2005, twenty two years later Mr M Asafuddowlah, the Joint Secretary who worked with me reported: that this Programme has expanded across the country and attained great success. I have not forgotten your valuable contribution to the success of this Programme,”(Letter dated 20/6/2005 from Md Asafuddowlah, twice Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Development.)

In Sri Lanka Former Ambassador, Mr Milinda Moragoda, in his bid for the Mayor of Colombo said:  he should seek to implement theYouth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, which incidentally was an amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka, Dr Garvin Karunaratne who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.”(The Nation: 11/9/2011)

To our leaders and my countrymen, my word is that we can develop our country and call an end to poverty and deprivation. The above documented successes do prove that we can.

Garvin Karunaratne, PhD. Michigan Stae University,

16/4/2024

garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

දේශමාන්‍ය ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර. අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය සිරිමාවෝ බන්ඩාරනායක      මැතිනියගේ හිටපු ලේකම් සහ ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පරිපාලන සේවා සන්ගමයේ සභාපති (1991-1994)

සුභ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවා!

ශ්‍රී ලන්කා ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී සමාජවාදි ජනරජයේ                             2024 ක්වූ අප්‍රේල් 14.

ගරු ජනාධිපති, රනිල් වික්‍රමසින්හ මැතිතුමා වෙතය.

ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි,

1815 ආරම්භවූ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය යටත් විජිත පාලනයෙන් මිදී, මේ රට  ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක,විධායක සහ අධිකරණ බලය සහිත පූර්ණ නිදහස ළබාගත්තේ 1972 මැයි 22 දාය. එසේම 1948 සිට වසර 24 කට පසු සෝල්බරී ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ තිබුණු අධිරාජ්‍යවාධී යදම්වලින් මේ රට මිදුනේත් එදිනය. 1972 සිට 1977 දක්වාම  හත් වසරක්, එවකට පැවති සිරිමා බණ්ඩාරනායක රජය විසින් ජනරජ දිනය, මැයි 22 දින මහත් උත්කර්ෂවත් අන්දමින් පැවැත්වීය.

එහෙත් 1977 දී බලයට පත්වූ රජය යළිත් යටත් විජිත වාදී වහල් මානසිකත්වය වැළඳ ගනිමින් 1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 8 වන වන්තියෙන් නැවතත් පෙබ 4 ම ජාතික දිනය” වෂයෙන් ව්‍යවස්ථාගතකොට, 1948 දී ලැබුණායයි කියන නිදහසක් සමරමින්, නිදහස් දිනය උත්සවත්ශ්‍රීයෙන් සැමරීම යළිත් ආරම්භ කළේය. මේ අන්දමින් 1972 කේදී ලබාගත් ජාතික අභිමාණය වලලා දැමුවේ වසර 6 ක් ඇතුලත රටක ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවද වෙනස් කිරීමේ ලෝක වාර්තාවක්ද තබමිනි. ඒ සමඟම මැයි 22 ජනරජ දිනය පැවැත්වීමද නතර කරණලදී. මේ වූ කලී සමාව දිය නොහැකි දේශපාලන කුහකකමකි. රටට හා ජාතියට කරණලද නින්දාවකි.එසේම ලජ්ජා විරහිතව රට ජාතිය පාවා දීමකි. එහෙත් එම රජයද ජනරජය යන නාමය හා ජනාධිපති  තනතුරද වෙනස් නොකොට දිගටම භාවිතා කිරීම ගැන අපි සතුටු වෙමු.

1972 මැයි 22 ජනරජ ව්‍යවස්ථාව යනු මේ රටේ වසර 2566 ක දේශපාල ඉතිහාශයේ ඉතා වැදගත් අයිතිහාසික ලේඛණයකි. එසේම එය ලන්කා ඉතිහාසයේ රාජ්‍ය විචාරණය පිලිබඳ රන් අකුරෙන් ලියා තැබිය යුතු පුස්ථකයකි.මහාවන්ශයේ සුවිෂේශී පරිච්චේධයකි.මන්ද 1815 ආරම්භවූ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය යටත්විජිත පාලනයෙන් වසර 157 කට (ලන්කා ඉතිහාසයේ දීර්ගතම විදේශ පාලනය) පසු මේ රට සැබෑ නිදහස් රාජ්‍යයක් බවට පත්වූයේ එදින වන බැවිනි.

1948 බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයෙන් මේ රටට නිදහස ලැබුණා කීම අයිතිහාසික බොරුවකි.මන්ද 1948 ඇත්තවෂයෙන්ම සිදුවූයේ එන්ගලන්තයේ සුද්දන් විසින් ඔවුන්ගේ රාජ්‍ය විචාරණය අනුව, එන්ගලන්තය වෙනුවෙන් මේ රට පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා අසරුවන් මාරු කිරීම පමණි. ඔවුන් උරුමකොට දී ගිය දේශපාලන ආයතනවල නම්,පාලකයින්ගේ තනතුරු, පාර්ලිමෙන්තුවේ වැඩ කටයුතු ක්‍රියාත්මක් වූ ආකාරය, ඒ සඳහා යොදාගත් භාෂාව, නීති රීති හා සම්ප්‍රදායන් සියල්ලම 1972 මැයි 22 වන තුරුම භාවිතා වූයේ එන්ගලතයේ පිලිවෙලටමය.

1972 කේ සිදු වූ වෙනසත් සමඟම ලක් රජය, ශ්‍රී ලන්කා ජනරජය විය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ජාතික රාජ්‍ය සභාව විය. අග්‍ර ආණ්ඩුකාරයා ජනාධිපති වීය. රජයක මූලික අන්ග තුනවන ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක, විධායක සහ අධිකරණ යන තුනම ලන්කා  රජය යටතට පත්විය. ජන රජය ස්වෛරී විය. ස්වෛරී බලය ලක්වැසියන් අතට පත්විය.ඒ අනුව 1972 වන තුරුම පැවති බ්‍රතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යයේ බලපෑමද අවසන් විය.  බ්‍රතාන්‍ය රජයට තිබුණු ව්‍යවස්ථාමය බැඳීම් සියල්ලගෙන් පූර්ණ නිදහස ලැබුණේද ඉන් පසුවය.1972 දී මේ රට ස්වාධීන ස්වෛරී අභිමානවත් රාජ්‍යයක් වූයේ ඒ අයුරිනි.

 1948 නිදහසක් ලැබූ බව කිවද  ඉහතින් දැක්වූ පරිදි ඇත්ත වෂයෙන්ම පූර්ණ නිදහස් රටක් බවට මේ රට පත්වූයේ 1972 මැයි 22 දාය.

1948 පෙබ් 4 වන දින එවැනි ආශ්චර්‍යක් සිදු වී නැත. එදින සිදුවූ එකම දෙය නම් 1815 මාර්තු 2 දා සිට අපගේ රට යටත්කොටගෙන සිටි බ්‍රතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් ඔවුන්ගේ රිජු පාලනය ඉවත්කොටගෙන ඔවුන් විසින්ම තෝරාගත්, ඔවුන්ගේම නියෝජිතයින්වූ කළුසුද්දන් පිරිසකට, ඔවුන්ගේම පාලන ක්‍රමය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා භාරදී මේ රටේ රට වැසියන්  සින්හල, දෙමළ, මුස්ලිම් ජාති වෂයෙන් බෙදා, බහුජාතික, බහුආගමික සහ බහුවාර්ගික වෂයෙන් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 29 වන වගන්තියෙන්ම බෙදා, මේ රට අවුල් ජාලයක් කොට මේ රටෙන් ශාරීරිකව පිටවී යාම පමණි. ඔවුන්ගේ නිර්වචනයේ හැටියට උඩරට සින්හලයින් සහ පහත රට සින්හලයින්ද ජාති දෙකකි.

1972 න් පසු දැන් අපි නිදහස්, නිවහල් ස්වාධීන රටකි.එම නිසා තවදුරටත් යටත් විජිත වැසියන් වශයෙන් හා නිවටුන් මෙන් ක්‍රියා නොකොට අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී වහල් මානසිකත්වයෙන් දැන්වත් මිදී මේ වසරේ සිට හෝ, යලිත් මැයි 22 ජාතික ජනරජ දිනය සහ නිදහස් දිනය” වෂයෙන් නම්කොට ලබන මැයි මස 22 දිනට එම ජාතික උත්සවය පවත්වන මෙන් මම ඔබ තුමාගෙන් දේශප්‍රේමයෙන් හා ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. 

එසේ කීරීමෙන් 1978 සිට අවුරුදු 46 ක් පුරා මේ දක්වා සිටි සියළුම රාජ්‍ය නායකයින් විසින්  සිදුකළ වරදක් නිවැරැදි කිරීමේ සම්පූර්ණ ජනතා ගෞරවය සහ ප්‍රශන්සාව අනිවාර්‍යෙන්ම ඔබතුමාට හිමිවණු ඇත. තවද එවැනි ජනතා අභිලාෂයක් මේ අවස්ථාවේදි ඉටුකිරීම ඔබ තුමාගේ ඉදිරි වැඩ කටයුතුවලටද ආශිර්වාදයක් වණු නොඅණුමානය. අනිවාර්‍යෙන්ම එය සියළුම ජාති හිතෛෂි දේෂප්‍රේමින්ගේ ගෞරවයටද හේතුවණු ඇත.

ඒ සමඟම 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අන්ක 8 යටතේ මේ රටේ ජාතික දිනය වශයෙන් ව්‍යවස්ථාගතකොට ඇති පෙබ 4 පරිච්චින්න කොට ඒ වෙනුවට පොසොන් දෙපෝය මේ රටේ සහ ජාතියේ ජාතික දිනය වශයෙන් නම්කොට ව්‍යවස්ථා ගතකරණ මෙන්ද මම ඔබ තුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලාසිටිමි. මා එසේ ඉල්ලා සිටිණුයේ මේ රටේ සින්හල බෞද්ධ ජාතියේ උපත සිදුවූයේ, කිතු වසින් පෙර 307 වන වසේ එදින සිදුවූ අසිරිමත් මහින්දාගමනයත් සමඟ බැවිනි.එසේ කළහොත් පොසොන් දෙපෝය මේ රටේ ජාතික දිනය වෂයෙන් ප්‍රකාශකළ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා වෂයෙන් ඔබ තුමා ඉතිහාස ගතවණු ඇත.

මෙම යෝජනා දෙකම මැයි දින රැළියේදී ජාතියට ප්‍රකාශ කරන මෙන්ද මම යෝජනා කරමි. එවිට ඉන් පළමුවැන්න මැයි 22 දිනත් දෙවැන්න ජූනි 21 සහ 22ත් ක්‍රියාත්මක් කොට මාස 2 ක් වැනි කෙටි කාලයක් තුල ඔබ තුමාගේ මුළු දේශපාලන ජීවිත කාලය තුලම ලබා ගැනීමට නොහැකිවූ අති විශාල සින්හල බෞද්ධ ප්‍රසාධයක් ඔබතුමාට ලබාගත හැකිවනවා නියතයි.

නව වසරේ ඔබ තුමාගේ සියළු ප්‍රාර්ථනා සඵලවේවායිද ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි!

මෙයට විස්වාශිවූ,

දේශමාන්‍ය ආචාර්‍ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර. අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය සිරිමාවෝ බන්ඩාරනායක      මැතිනියගේ හිටපු ලේකම් සහ ශ්‍රී ලන්කා පරිපාලන සේවා සන්ගමයේ සභාපති (1991-1994)

ගෝලිය ඒකාබද්ධ ජාතික සංවිධාන

ශ්‍රී ලකාවේ යෝජිත අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිපත්තිය තුළ මවු භාෂා
භාවිතයේ වැදගත්කම පිළිබඳව සැලකිිමත් වී නැති බැවින් අපගේ
අනාගත පරපුරේ දැනුම් උකහාගැනීමේ හැකියාව සහ
ආත්මාභිමානය ප්‍රවර්ධනය පිළිබඳව සිදුවිය හැකි අඩාල වීම සහ,
එ් ඔස්සේ සිංහල භාෂාව මළ භාෂාවක් බවට තල්ලු වී යාමේ
ඇති දැඩි අවදානම

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව විසින් සැප්තැම්බර් 23 දාතමින් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු
ලැබ ඇති ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිපත්ති රාමුව හා ඒ සඳහා වූ ධවල
පත්‍රිකාව තුළ පාසල් අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යය ඉංගිරිසියට හැරවීම සඳහා
යෝජනා කරනු ලැබ ඇති අතර මාතෘ භාෂාවන්ගෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය
ලැබීමේ වැදගත්කම අමතක කර ඇති බව පෙනී යයි. මේ අතර,
විපක්ෂ නායක සංජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා ද ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ප්‍රකාශ කර
ඇත්තේ අධ්‍යාපනයේ මුල් වසරවලදී පටන් ඉංගිරිසි මාධ්‍යයෙන්
සියලු පාසල්වල අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දීමට තම රජයක් තුළ පියවර
ගන්නා බවයි. ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ජනතාව අතර බහුතරයක මවුබස වන
සිංහල භාෂාව අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීම පිණිස දැරෙන බව
පෙනෙන මෙම ප්‍රයත්නය පිළිබඳව සහ එවැනි පිළිවෙතකින් ජනනය
විය හැකි බව පෙනෙන ජාතිකමය අවදානම් පිළිබඳව පහත අත්සන්
කරන අප සංවිධානයන් හි සුවිශේෂී අවධානය යොමු වී ඇත.
එක්සත් ජාතීන් ගේ සංවිධානය සහ යුනෙස්කෝ පවා පිළිගෙන ඇති
අධ්‍යාපන මූලධර්මයක් වන්නේ මූලික වසර වලදී පටන් මවු
භාෂාවෙන් දරුවන්ට පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දිය යුතු බවයි. ඒ
මූලධර්මය පහත දැක්වෙන ප්‍රකාශයෙන් මනාව පිළිබිඹු වෙයි :
ගුණාත්මක අධ්‍යාපනයක් සහ සමාජ අන්තර්ග්‍රහණය තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා මවු
භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දීම ඉතා තීරණාත්මක සාධකයක් බව පර්යේෂණ
ප්‍රතිඵල වලින් පෙන්නුම් කෙරෙයි. තව ද, මාතෘ භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබීමෙන්
ඉගෙනුම් ප්‍රතිඵල මෙන් ම අධ්‍යයන කාර්යසාධනය ද ඉහළ නැංවෙන බව ද ඒ
පර්යේෂණවලින් නිරීක්ෂණය වෙයි. ප්‍රාථමික පාසල්වල මේ සාධකය වඩාත් වැදගත්
වන්නේ දැනුම් හිදැස් වළැක්වීම පිණිස සහ දැනුම ලබා ගැනීමේ මෙන්ම වටහාගැනීමේ
වේගය ඉහළ නැංවීම උදෙසා වැදගත් පිටිවහලක් මාතෘ භාෂාවෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා
දීමෙන් ලැබෙන බැවිනි. මේ සියල්ලටමත් වඩා සුවිශේෂී මෙහෙවර වන්නේ සමාජයේ
පූර්ණ වශයෙන් ක්‍රියාකාරී වීමට අවශ්‍ය බලගැන්වීම මවු භාෂාවෙන් ලැබ ගන්නා
අධ්‍යාපනය ඔස්සේ සියලු සිසුනට ලැබීමයි. ඒ තුළින් අන්‍යෝන්‍ය අවබෝධය සහ

එකිනෙකාට ගරු කිරීම ප්‍රවර්ධනය කෙරෙයි. තව ද, ලෝකයේ ඇති සෑම භාෂාවක් තුළම
කා වැද්දී ඇති සංස්කෘතික හා පෞරාණික උරඅමයන් හි වත්කම් සංරක්ෂණයට ද ඒ තුළින්
මඟ පෑදෙයි. එ සේ වුව ද, වඩ වඩාත් අවදානම්කාරී වේගයෙන් භාෂාවන් අතුරුදහන්වීමේ
ප්‍රවණතාව නිසා මේ වන විට භාෂා බහුත්වය අභියෝගයට ලත් වී ඇත. යම් භාෂාවක්
අතුරුදහන් වන්නේ නම් එසේ වන්නේ සමස්ත සංස්කෘතික හා බුද්ධිමය උරුම පද්ධතියක් ඒ
සමඟම අභාවයට යවමිනි.”
අපගේ දුවා දරුවන්ට ඉංගිරිසි භාෂාව හැසිරවීමේ ප්‍රවීණත්වයක්
ලබා දිය යුතු බවට විවාදයක් නැත. ඊට අමතරව, දෙමළ දරුවන්ට
සිංහල හා සිංහල දරුවන්ට දෙමළ වැහැරීමේ හැකියාව ද, වෙනත්
විදේශ භාෂා ඉගෙනගැනීමේ අවස්ථා ද ලබා දීම වැදගත් ය.
විශේෂයෙන් ඉංගිරිසි භාෂා ප්‍රවීණත්වය සැලකීමේ දී, පාසලේ අවම
වශයෙන් වසර නවයක් හෝ දහයක් පුරාවට අනිවාර්ය විෂයක්
ලෙස ඉංගිරිසි ඉගැන්වුව ද ඒ භාෂාවේ ප්‍රවීණත්වය දරුවන්ට ලබා
දීමට අපේ පාසල් අධ්‍යාපන පද්ධතිය සමත් වී නැති නම් ඒ කවර
දුර්වලතා නිසා දැයි සොයා බලා ඒවාට පිළියම් යෙදීම
අධ්‍යාපනඥයන් ගේ හා ප්‍රතිපත්ති තීරකයන් ගේ වගකීමකි. එසේ
නොකර, ඉංගිරිසි භාෂා ව්‍යවහාර හැකියාව දියුණු කිරීමට සිතා
විෂය ඉගැන්වීම ඉංගිරිසි මාධ්‍යයට හැරවීමට කැස කවන්නේ නම්
එය රෝග මූලය ඇති තැනට නොව වෙනත් තැනකට ශල්‍ය
කර්මයක් කිරීමට තැත් කිරීම වැනි නිෂ්ඵල මෙන් ම විනාශකාරී
ප්‍රතිවිපාක දිය හැකි ක්‍රියාවකි.
අපි දැන් අපගේ මාතෘ භාෂාව වන සිංහල පිළිබඳව සලකා බලමු.
සිංහලය එහි නූතනයේ පවත්නා ඉහළ මට්ටමට අනුවර්තනය
වූයේ සියවස් තුනකටත් අධික කාලයක් තිස්සේ අප ගේ රට හා
ජාතිය මුහුණ පෑ විවිධ සංස්කෘතික බලපෑම් නිසි ලෙස
අන්තර්ග්‍රහණය කරමිනි. එය ඉතා ඉහළ මට්ටමේ අදහස්
පැහැදිලිකිරීමේ හැකියාවක් සඳහා අවශ්‍ය වූ පොහොසත් හා
නම්‍යශීලී ගතිලක්ෂණ සහ සාරවත් ව්‍යාකරණයක් සහිත ව්‍යක්ත
භාෂාවකි. තව ද, සංකීර්ණ වචන තාර්කිකව උච්චාරණය කිරීමට
ඉවහල් වන්නා වූ ඉතා අලංකාර අක්ෂර මාලාවක් සහිත භාෂාවන්
අතරින් එකකි.
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ පදනමට ඇති ඍජු සම්බන්ධය ලෙස
පවතින්නේ දිවයිනේ බහුතර ජනතාවක ගේ මවුබස වන සිංහල
භාෂාව වීම විශේෂ අවධානයට ලක් විය යුතු කරුණකි. එ සේ වූ
සිංහල භාෂා භාවිතය අධ්‍යාපන මාධ්‍යයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට කෙරෙන

යෝජනාව මවු බසට සමාජයේ ඇති වැදගත් ස්ථානය විනාශ
කරමින් අපේ අනාගත පරපුර ජාතියේ සංස්කෘතිය, කලාවන්,
සාහිත්‍යය, හා බුද්ධ ධර්මය ඉගෙනීමෙන් බැහැර කිරීමට පමණක්
නොව අප ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ මුදුන් මුල් උදුරා දැමීමට හිතාමතා දරනු
ලබන ප්‍රයත්නයක් බව අපගේ නිරීක්ෂණයයි.
අප විසින් මතු කරන ලද මෙම අවදානම්කාරී ප්‍රවණතාව කෙරෙහි
සුවිශේෂී සහ කඩිනම් අවධානය යොමු කර සිංහල භාෂාව ප්‍රාථමික
අධ්‍යාපනයේ පටන් තෘතීයික මට්ටමේ අධ්‍යාපනය තෙක් සියලු
කටයුතුවල ඉගැන්වීම් කටයුතුවල භාෂා මාධ්‍යය ලෙස තව දුරටත්
පවත්වාගෙන යාම තහවුරු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගන්නා ලෙස
සිංහල කථාකරන සංවිධාන අතරින් කිහිපයක් වන අපි ගරුතර
මහා සංඝරත්නයෙන්, ජනාධිපතිවරයා, අගමැතිවරයා,
අමාත්‍යමණ්ඩලය, විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීන් සහ
සියලු දේශපාලන හා සමාජ සංවිධානවලින් ඉතා අවධාරණයෙන්
ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
අත්සන් කළේ –
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – වික්ටෝරියා
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – නිව් සවුත් වේල්ස්
ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමය, ඒකීයත්වය හා මානව හිමිකම් සඳහා වූ
සංගමය – ක්වීන්ස්ලන්ඩ්
ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ සිංහල සංස්කෘතික සංගමය
සීහලේ ලෝක උරුම පදනම – ලන්ඩන්
තවලම සංවර්ධන පදනම – කොළඹ
අරණ විහාර පදනම – කොළඹ

Sugath Kulatunga

A strident cry we hear now from goverment politicians and economic pundits is that State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) must be privatized to make them efficient and profitable and ease the burden of losses to the state. Majority of them think that a wave of the majic wand of privatization will turn the white elephants to cash cows. Historically in Sri Lanka, SOEs have made a significant contribution to industrial development, employment creation and providing essential services. Before 1977 many SOEs came into existence out of a nationalization wave born out of compulsions of state control or to fill a gap in the production of essential goods or services. Other than Corporations established under specific Acts, SOEs were formed under the Government Sponsored Corporations Act No. 19 of 1955 and the State Industrial Corporations Act No. 49 of 1957. As of now it is estimated that there are 527 SOEs.

Economic analysts presently take a more balanced view of its effectiveness (of privatization). Few dispute the positive results of privatization of firms operating in competitive, or potentially competitive markets, but experience has yielded a deeper understanding of the complexities of implementing the policy, especially in infrastructure sectors such as electricity, railways or water and sewerage, and particularly in lower-income, less developed economies. There is a greater recognition that privatization needs to take place in a supportive institutional and policy framework if it is to live up to its potential; and there is a better realization of the socio-political challenges that inevitably accompany this always contentious activity. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1999098

Privatization should not lead to monopolies and if it leads beyond the institutional and professional capacity of the private sector it will be counterproductive.

If some of the many SOEs which do not make an elemental contribution to the economy or provide an essential service, a selective and judicious privatization is justified. But when one looks at the past privatization episodes in Sri Lanka one shudder to think of the consequences. Privatization became a fetish during the JR regime on political grounds and more as an opportunity for politicians to enrich themselves and their henchman. A reputed economist and the head of the prestigious Institute of Policy Studies, late Dr. Saman Kelegama 2001 cites a case where in Sri Lanka an SOE valued at US $100 million was sold at only US $7 million on the ground that the government only wanted to get the privatization policy itself moving.” In many episodes the buyer of SOEs did not continue operating the SOE but sold the machinery for scrap like in the case of Kantale Sugar. A similar tragedy happened with the Werehara workshop of the CTB which was considered one of the best equipped and efficient workshops in South Asia. One cannot recall a single privatized SOE during this period operating more efficiently and profitably. Most of them are cannibalised or nonexistent. 

During the regime of Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaratunga (CBK) selling of the family silver in the way of selling off SOEs was the easy way to balance the budget. Fortunately, the Supreme Court found that some of those deals in the sale of valuable national assets were illegal and restored them back to the State. In addition,CBK was fined and her accomplish the Secretary of Finance was banned from the public service. The bigger crime of the pair was the selling back to Prima Flour Mill for a pittance an asset that was to be handed over to Sri Lanka on the terms of the BOT agreement. As a result, the country has lost its grip on food security.

It cannot be denied that behind the economic rationale on privatization is a lurking ideological pollical obsession which prevents these advocates to examine the issue in depth and consider alternate strategies. Firstly, it must be accepted that it is not the ownership but the management of an institution which is of paramount importance for its success. Secondly all SOEs cannot be put into one basket. Some deal with the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy and are of strategic importance, some are purely commercial and others noncommercial. It is also important to gain from the lessons of past experience of Sri Lanka and the knowledge of international insights in privatization.

 Even after several episodes of privatization it is reported that Sri Lanka as of now has 527 state-owned enterprises which could be categorized under: 55 Strategic SOEs, 287 SOEs with commercial interests, and 185 SOEs with non-commercial interests. (Advocata)

 The typical criticism of SOEs is that they are not profitable as they are not free to determine the price of their products or services. While it is important to maintain a cost reflective pricing mechanism in SOEs it has to be conceded that SOEs have to strike a fine balance between helping the Government achieve its socioeconomic objectives while ensuring the enterprise’s financial viability. This challenge stems from the engagement of SOEs in the provisioning of essential products and services, which are sometimes not commercially viable; for instance, the provision of public transport to rural communities or electricity in geographically challenging areas such as in mountainous regions.” CBSL.

Without rushing into a frenzied bout of privatization it would be useful to learn from the experience of privatization in the past in Sri Lanka and abroad. Before resorting to surgery, it is essential to diagnose the malady. The problems of SOEs arise from three sources i.e., political interference, poor systems, and bad management. Political interference can be curtailed by law that the Minister is made to issue instruction only on policy and that too made in writing through the secretary of the ministry who is the chief accounting officer. All other interventions should be considered as illegal. Political interference occurs mainly on recruitment where Ministers insist on their list of candidates. It would be necessary to introduce a Public Enterprise Service Commission   parallel to the Public Service Commission vested with similar powers and functions. Even Provincial Councils have their independent Public Service Commissions.

With regard to systems, we need not invent new systems when we have a functional system in our public service tested over at least 74 years since independence. The Financial Regulations and Establishment code of the public service are updated only on rare occasions when necessary. Export Development Board at its first Board Meeting decided that the EDB will follow the Financial and Establishment rules of the government and any deviations necessary will be dealt with by the Board. The EDB dipensed with significant amount of funds in grants and financial assistance schemes and has had no deviations necessary and has had no audit queries. The critics of government rules are those who neglect forward planning or create emergencies with dishonest intentions. Deviations from FRs are allowed when reasons are adduced justifying the need for such deviation. In government departments even in ‘profit and loss’ accounts, annual accounts are finalized unfailingly on the 31^st of December. But in the case of SOEs most of them do not even submit their accounts for several years.

Efficient management is the key to success of any enterprise in the public sector or in the private sector. A good management can set up a new organization and introduce an untested system effectively. A good example is the CTB where with nationalization a brand-new system had to be set up to operate a massive island wide organization. This was accomplished by a handful of administrators seconded from the civil service. Until the CTB became the employment exchange of politicians it was run efficiently providing an essential service and making profit. In fact, in 1964 the CTB paid a significant dividend to the Treasury.

Before privatization of an SOE it would be useful to examine the original objectives of establishing the particular entity. For instance, the CWE was for wholesale trade and to serve the cooperative sector. But one government stopped the CWE engaging in wholesale trade. Now CWE is focusing on retail trade. CWE should compete with the import trade mafia controlling the price of major commodities like sugar. State Trading Company was mainly to deal with restricted imports. STC could become a center for information on import trade serving the private sector. There are small SOEs which can be merged. There are others which only act as middlemen or conduits. They can be eliminated. If the original objectives of the establishment of the SOE has no validity the SOE should be scrapped.

Reckoning a chairman and a managing director for each SOE, the 573 SOEs would consist of over 1100 personnel. At present these individuals are picked on an ad hoc basis where political loyalty becomes the dominant criterion. Most of these henchmen have no long-term interest in the success of the enterprise and would only be keen to please the minister and would stoop to corrupt practices. With over 550 SOEs there is a need for a special cadre of around 1000 top managers to run these entities. This number exceeds the cadre in SLAS Special Class and Class 1 which at present is around 700. This cadre should be professionals seconded from the management cadres of the Public Service or selected out of present holders in the SOEs. Both officers on secondment and inservice personal should be absorbed through an examination and interview by the proposed Public Enterprise Service Commission. SOE service may  be structured in two or three grades. All holders of SOE posts should be given a high-level training in business management. Their salaries should not exceed the salaries of the parallel SLAS grades but they should be entitled to profit sharing. The posting of individuals into specific posts should be based on the needs of the job description of each post.

The feasibility of forming a holding company for say 10 of the most strategic SOEs on the model of Temasek of Singapore and SASAC of China should be considered. This should have the independence of business policy and operations similar to what is already enjoyed by the Port City.

Privatization decisions are of national importance and should be done carefully. All such decisions must be approved by the Parliament to avoid CBK type scams.

There are three key motives for privatization of SOEs. They work independently or frequently in unison. Economic rationale is the first and is relevant to loss making enterprises. Privatization is also resorted for private gain. There are many examples of such cases during the time of JR and CBK. Of course the justification is all that is done under economic compulsion. The third reason is ideological and followed religiously out of a belief in a particular politico-economic dogma.

The mass privatization of Public enterprises in UK by Thatcher was the best example of compulsive action. Thatcher stated that Privatization… was fundamental to improving Britain’s economic performance. But for me it was also far more than that: it was one of the central means of reversing the corrosive and corrupting effects of socialism…….. Just as nationalization was at the heart of the collectivist programme by which Labour Governments sought to remodel British society, so privatization is at the centre of any programme of reclaiming territory for freedom.’ (Thatcher, 1993).

She was influenced by the economic theory of monetarism, notably put forward by Friedrich Hayek‘s The Constitution of Liberty/

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Thatcher’s 1979 election victory the BBC reported that Together with US presidents Reagan and Bush, she helped bring about the end of the Cold War. But her 11-year premiership was also marked by social unrest, industrial strife and high unemployment.” Her critics claim British society is still feeling the effect of her divisive economic policies and the culture of greed and selfishness they allegedly promoted. We too suffer from that culture of greed and selfishness propagated in the free market policies of 1977.

Critics of Thatcherism claimed that its successes were obtained only at the expense of great social costs to the British population. There were nearly 3.3 million unemployed in Britain in 1984, compared to 1.5 million when she first came to power in 1979.

The public is made to believe that this policy is guided by the directions of the IMF. The Letter of Intent signed by the Presdent and the Governor of the Central Bank sums up what we have agreed with the IMF. There is no doubt it is impelled by the IMF Staff. The following is all that the IMF poposes and we have agreed on SOE reforms

Article13. Structural reforms are needed to strengthen the governance of SOEs and make them financially viable. To strengthen the governance of SOEs and enhance their financial transparency, we will:

• clarify the mandates of key SOEs through Statements of Corporate Intent and hold their management accountable for delivering satisfactory results informed by key performance indicators;
• (ii) review the framework for selecting SOE board members to ensure that they are qualified and independent; and (iii) ensure that all 52 major SOEs publish their audited financial statements, which could be accessed on a dedicated website. For 2021, 33 SOEs have so far published audited financial statements for 2021. We will ensure that the remaining 19 major SOEs will also publish audited financial statements for 2021 and that audited financial statements for 2022 will be published by end-June 2023.”

Why then is the President keen on privatizing even the profit making and strategical vital public enterprises. If the rationale is economic the IMF would have made it a condition. RW has been Mr. Clean other than the allegation of complicity in the Arjuna Mahendran Bond scam. A good guess is it is due to the Mont Pellerin Society dogma which is his guiding principle. RW was an active member of the Mont Pellerin Society (MPS) and even organized one of its meetings in Sri Lanka. The Neo Liberal ideology of MPS postulates that the elimination of state interventions in economic and social activities and the deregulation of labor and financial markets, as well as of commerce and investments is the panacea to resolve all economic and social problems of all nations. Thatcherism experience is relevant to the present attempt to privatise SOEs in Sri Lanka.

The presumption is that like Thatcher, RW is afflicted with the Mont Pellerin sickness and the canker of acute anti socialism and is determined to rescind all vestiges of substructures of socialism.

Sugath Kulatunga

By David Hearst

Zionism wants large war to cover the Genocide, and the West needs World War 3 to stall the BRICS and Rise of the Global South in the Asian 21^st Century

Staunch allies calling themselves friends of Israel are beginning to realise they are also friends of the murderers of western aid workers, friends of genocide and friends of fascism

Six months on, the entire edifice that allowed Israeli forces to kill more than 33,000 Palestinians and wound another 75,000, displace a population of over 2.3 million and then starve them, demolish the north of Gaza, dismantle the health service and signal that it would do the same in Rafah for the next six months, is tumbling down.

Political leaders who framed this carnage as Israel’s right to defend itself, journalists who peddled fictional horror stories about beheaded babies and mass rape on 7 October, and editors who day in, day out ignored stories about aid convoys being targeted by Israeli forces are rushing for cover.

All the arguments they used to maintain this slaughter are crumbling in their hands – that this is a just war, that Israel must be allowed to finish the job, that the action taken is proportionate, that the legal process in the International Court of Justice hinders peace talks and can be ignored, that the UK and US can simultaneously admonish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and continue to arm him.

The dam has burst. The Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron can no longer play cat and mouse with Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair Alicia Kearns, who revealed a few days ago that government lawyers knew that Israel had breached international humanitarian law.

More than 600 prominent lawyers, academics and former judges, including former Supreme Court president Lady Hale and two other former justices in the court, signed a letter warning the UK government that it was breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

Former Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan asked how could Israel still be considered an ally of the UK, and called for its chief supporters Lord Polak, Lord Pickles and Tom Tugendhat, to be held to account for their support for Israel.

I think that anything in support of what is becoming a total catastrophe in Gaza is morally unacceptable and what we have to accept is it’s not just what they’re doing now is wrong – it’s what Israel has been doing for years has been wrong because the Israeli Defence Force does not follow international law,” he told LBC.

It has been backing and supporting illegal settlers in the West Bank who steal Palestinian land and it is that land theft, that annexation of Palestine, which is the origin of the problem, which has given rise to the Hamas atrocity and the battles we’re seeing.”

Tipped over the edge

The mood is indeed changing. A poll conducted by YouGov found that 56 percent of UK voters are now in favour of a ban on the export of arms and spare parts, with 59 percent saying Israel was violating human rights in Gaza.

The poll found strong support for an arms export ban among voters intending to vote Labour at the next election. An overwhelming 71 percent to nine percent of those intending to vote Labour backed an arms export ban, while Lib Dem voters supported a ban by 70 percent to 14 percent and Conservative voters by 38 percent to 36 percent.

Asked if Israel was violating human rights, Tory voters by two to one said Israel was doing so. Duncan was voicing the mood of his party.

Cameron has been flushed out into the open. He has to choose: admit that the government is indeed in breach of international law, and could be prosecuted as such – including him personally – or stop the arms trade.

The letter is not the work of pro-Palestinian activists. It’s the cream of the legal establishment speaking, figures such as the former Supreme Court justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, the former lord justices of appeal Sir Richard Aikens, Sir Anthony Hooper, Sir Alan Moses and Sir Stephen Sedley.

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Founders and partners of top law firms in the UK as well as professors from the University of Oxford, London School of Economics and King’s College London are included.

And what exactly tipped everyone over the edge this week? What tipped the Israel-supporting tabloids to turn on it?

A lot had happened on Monday 1 April before that attack on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy. And little of it ruffled any feathers.

The morning broke with the withdrawal of Israeli forces besieging al-Shifa hospital, leaving the hospital in ruins and a large pile of bodies behind. The Israeli army congratulated themselves on a textbook operation.

Amazing battlefield achievement,” proclaimed former prime minister and special forces commander, Naftali Bennett, on X (formerly Twitter). The results are remarkable: 6,000 civilians were evacuated by the IDF to keep them safe. 200 Hamas terrorists were killed. 500 Hamas terrorists have been captured.  *No civilian was killed*. Not one.”

This was not the experience of Dr Amina al-Safadi, who was given hours to move patients out of her department. Of them, 16 patients in intensive care died.

On the second day they forced us to move all patients from where we were, the orthopedic department in building four to the reception area and they gave us a set time,” she said. A lot of them died. They were in intensive care and we couldn’t do anything for them.

Three days ago they gave us these wristbands. They said they’re for the snipers and anyone leaving the building without them will be targeted.”

Nor was it the experience of Rafik, an emaciated, skeletal youth who could barely lift his head.

They tortured us there. There was no food or water,” he said. We stayed without food or water for five days. We were dying. We lived in agony. There were no dressings for our wounds. There was no food. I can’t take it anymore.”

Patients, doctors, and even the dead, whose corpses were dug up by bulldozers, were all the same to the besiegers, who left a wasteland behind them.

Two of Gaza’s most respected doctors, mother and son, were among the dead. Ahmad al-Maqadmeh, a Palestinian plastic surgeon in his early 30s, and his mother, Yusra al-Maqadmeh, a general practitioner, were found alongside the corpse of their cousin Bassem al-Maqadmeh at the roundabout next to the Carrefour Mall in Gaza City, a short walk from al-Shifa.

Had they been shot by snipers? A Palestinian mother was overwhelmed by the devastation. All she wanted was to find the body of her son.

Please find out where he is,” she addressed everyone around her. Where, dear God? Please help me find him. I want to gather his bones. I don’t want to leave him here. Please find him, I beg you.”

Al-Shifa was once the largest hospital in the occupied territories. It catered for 30 percent of the needs of Gaza. It is no more. If the plan all along was to make Gaza uninhabitable, the destruction of al-Shifa was indispensable to that project.

That was just the morning news on Monday. Much more was to follow.

Another red line crossed

As if to rub out the record of such horrifying scenes, Netanyahu pledged to shut down the regional office of Al Jazeera.

This was another nail in the coffin of a negotiated peace. Israeli officials have until now stopped short of taking action against the jewel in Qatar’s crown, mindful of Qatar’s role in funding construction projects in Gaza and its part in the negotiations with the political wing of Hamas, whose leadership it houses.

Al Jazeera, several of whose journalists have been deliberately killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, rejected the accusation that it was a threat to Israel’s national security as a dangerous and ridiculous lie”.

But just reporting the truth of what is taking place in Gaza hurts Israel.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi accused Al Jazeera of encouraging hostilities against Israel. It is impossible to tolerate a media outlet, with press credentials from the government press office and with offices in Israel, acting from within against us, certainly in wartime,” he said.

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This is how a state that we are constantly told shares our values behaves when push comes to shove. Freedom of expression? Tell that to Shireen Abu Akleh, Samer Abu Daqqa, Hamza al-Dahdouh and countless others who have paid for their reporting with their lives.

Then came the Israeli air strike that destroyed an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, killing Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the second most senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to die since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani.

This time, the US hurriedly told Iran they played no part in Israel’s strike, but the attack marked another red line crossed in hitting an embassy or consulate.

Following the same line that claimed al-Shifa was not a hospital but a command centre for Hamas, an Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, told CNN: I repeat, this is no consulate and this is no embassy. This is a military building of Quds forces disguised as a civilian building in Damascus.”

But Israel knew exactly what it had done. And what line it was crossing. It wants to provoke Iran into a war. According to the US State Department, an attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents.

But Israel also knows it will not use the same logic when a synagogue or Jewish centre is hit by an Iranian proxy in revenge. It will claim no responsibility for putting the lives of Jews around the world in danger. But that is surely what it is doing.

‘Indefensible… horrific’

And then, and only then, came the triple drone strike which killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, three of them British.

The front pages in Britain, Canada, Poland and Australia (the home countries of the dead aid workers) reacted in outrage. Even the staunchly pro-Israel the Sun, owned by the Murdoch family’s News UK group, went ballistic.

SBS hero John Chapman and former marine James Henderson were travelling in a clearly marked car, operated by charity World Central Kitchen, when the convoy was struck with three missiles fired by an IDF [Israeli army] drone,” it wrote.

Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency said the killings were intentional. Three WCK vehicles were targeted after the group had delivered 100 tonnes of food aid to a warehouse in Deir al-Balah.

The second vehicle was targeted approximately 800 metres away from where the first was hit,” its report read.

The third car was targeted about 1.6km away from the second car, based on its location after being bombed.” The WCK said that their convoy was hit despite coordinating movements” with the Israeli army.

So how was this repeated attack on the convoy different from all the other attacks on Unwra convoys which resulted in hundreds dead and which sparked the siege of al-Shifa?

The only difference is that seven dead aid workers were British, Polish, Australian and Canadian, and that the founder was a celebrity chef.

Nick Ferrari, a presenter on LBC, said: This is indefensible… Every single fact is horrific… from one friend to another, this has to stop.”

But so surely have all the other strikes on aid convoys been indefensible. The only thing that was different this time was the nationality of the people in the cars – all from nations that support the continued war.

Ferrari could have come to the conclusion that Israel’s actions in targeting aid convoys were indefensible from day one of this war and said it on air every day since. What stopped him? Because he describes himself as a friend of Israel. A friend of what, he may well be asking himself?

A friend of apartheid? A friend of genocide? A friend of mass starvation? A friend of settlers setting fire to Arab villages? A friend of religious fanaticism? A friend of fascism?

Biden’s fake indignation

But no reaction can be more inadequate than the fake indignation mouthed by a geriatric incumbent US president seeking re-election.

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Joe Biden has said a bombing campaign on Rafah, where 1.5 million refugees have been corralled, would cross a red line”. He said the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, showed that Israel has not done enough to protect” aid convoys, as if it has ever done anything more than bottle up the aid at the borders and bomb its distribution consistently.

Turn down the volume, ignore the statements of concern coming from the White House and State Department, and focus solely on Biden’s actions.

Biden has the power to halt all armaments, including the supply of 2,000lb bombs, or indeed the power to set strict limitations on their use. He has done neither.

He has shown no hesitation in doing this with Ukraine, which is not permitted to fire US-made weapons into Russia. Biden has set no such conditions on Israel.

The opposite is happening. As he publicly speculates on replacing Netanyahu, he is considering selling Israel up to 50 new F15 fighters, 30 Aim-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, as well as Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, equipment that can change dumb bombs” into precision-guided weapons, as Politico first reported.

The new F-15s aren’t for bombing Gaza. They are for aerial jousts with Iran and its many drones.

What else has Biden done this week? Send Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, to pressure Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to sign up to the Abraham Accords.

Contagious mood of revolt

If Biden seriously thinks that amid the mayhem created by Israel’s sixth-month war, a signature on a piece of paper is going to be enough to staunch the revolt that is taking place in Arab hearts from Amman to Morocco, he is even more delusional than the professional president watchers on Capitol Hill think.

The kingdom of Jordan is staring down both barrels of a shotgun, its government unable to decide what to do: face down the rallies that have been rocking Amman for over a week by arresting its organisers and speakers; or praise the protests as an expression of the national mood.

Former Jordanian minister of information, Samih al-Maaytah, speaking to the Saudi channel Al Hadath, has tried to point the finger of blame at Khaled Meshaal, the former head of Hamas’s political wing, who survived an assassination attempt by Mossad in Jordan.

But as Maaytah knows only too well, the protests have become much larger than a mere expression of solidarity with Gaza. They are displays of strength by the clans, in which East Bankers outdo Palestinians in their challenge to the king’s authority.

The mood of revolt is contagious, just as it was at the start of the Arab Spring. The rallies in Amman are echoed by mass demonstrations in Morocco and the syndicates in Cairo. The dictators who suppressed the Arab Spring are worried and have begun giving each other support.

It’s clear what is happening, and what will happen if Israel is allowed to continue this war for another six months.

It takes a lot to admit that a lifelong dream of a homeland for Jews in the Middle East is turning into a nightmare. But for all those who support this venture, that is what is happening.