BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Curriculum and Teaching reforms would be the most considerable area in the education reforms process of Sri Lanka and the quality of education will be dependent on the success of the curriculum and teaching process. This is the secrecy that the success of education in Western countries.  Parents of Sri Lanka wish to send kids for education to Western countries as the expectations of them could not be achieved in the current education system and economic opportunities in Sri Lanka too limited for educated youth the education has not organized to relate with economic plans. The curriculum and teaching have not disposed to support economic development. It needs to understand that education and economic development are variable with higher positive correlation.  

If Sri Lanka’s education system well organized to achieve the best quality and attract foreigners to education it is proved that no point sending kids overseas for education.  The current practice in Sri Lanka shows that sending kids for education in overseas generate cost to country absorbing country’s foreign exchange and finally educated and trained people sending to developed countries out of the cost of Sri Lanka. Indirectly this environment polarizes the society as foreign educated people and locally educated people.

Sometimes, kids in Western countries will come to Sri Lanka for education if the quality of education, the education system supports the expectation of foreigners, the cost of education substantially lesser than the Western countries. The truth is that Sri Lanka has not been to practically maintained all these factors as the fiscal capacity of the country is limited.

There are arguments among education experts in Western countries about their education policies. Either Sri Lankans or many people in overseas have no idea about this arena and blindly believe that the best education system exists in the West.  The major reason to this perception is the offer of education is based on research and many education philosophers such as John Dewey and Charles Sanders Pierce contributed philosophical insights to change the education practice in the West.  Education policy makers in Sri Lanka are neither highly regarded philosophers nor they are good researchers in the field but political supporters of the ruling government and they have no good experience to determine curriculum and teaching applicable to the country. What kind of education should be gained by kids is based on individual preference and ambition, which are concerned with many factors.

When it talks about education the most popular term that goes along with the word education is the curriculum. No matter which context of education talking about curriculum is a vital term to education.  It clearly seems that no education exists without organized curriculum in the modern era. When parents are selecting a school for kids, when matured students selecting a program in a TVET institution or in a university the priority is to investigate or research what sort of curriculum is being offered by the school or TVET institution or the university for educational programs.  Sometimes, it has a feeling that a curriculum is an ever-emphasized term in schools or in society.  Now workplaces also concern about the curriculum learned at schools by employees.  Therefore, it is very clear that the curriculum has a different meaning to different people or organizations and curriculum is the strongest source of knowledge and skills to learners.

The curriculum would be specialized education or training or a source of education and the way of gaining education to different people.  The traditional school system in Sri Lanka, curriculum for exams such as G.C.E. (Ordinary Level) and G.C.E. (Advance Level) had a homogeneous choice in nature and it created issues in the dynamic world as kids had not been supported by school’s curriculum to achieve life expectations such as finding a job. The school administration has not authority to develop school curriculum and the authority of tertiary institutions also very limited.

Curriculum and teaching give impression that it is over-emphasis area in education, the truth regarding education in Sri Lanka, it is less accentuated area in education and after independence many attempts made for changes, but they were not successful achieving expectations of stakeholders. The contributing factor for the failure was lack of experience in how to change curriculum and lack of understanding the strategies that should be used in a complex society for curriculum developments, presentation and teaching methods used in schools illustrating in the national curriculum documents.  In addition to policy in the destitution of knowledge and practical skills gaining from curriculum and teaching, the failure of reforms also contributed to weak curriculum and teaching in Sri Lanka.

Reformists did not educate the public on the essential changes and they haven’t had effective alternative strategies if the reform process would turn to a fiasco and what would be remedial actions to correct mistakes, were not pre-planned by policy makers.  This means that there was not a successful monitoring process to identify weaknesses in policy implementation in the education field. When I was in primary school, I can remember curriculum and teaching methods began to change and give some values to TVET curriculum in Primary education under leadership of Minister Irriagolla, but such a positive change was abandoned as the left politics attempted to use positive changes to discreet it.

Curriculum and teaching are interrelated features in education and practically working together. The success of the curriculum would be achieved on the effectiveness of teaching methods that apply to teach the curriculum in schools. Ornstein and Hunskins (1988) expressed that curriculum as a field of study is elusive and fragmentary and what it is supposed to entail is open to a good deal of debate and even misunderstanding.” Therefore, it is required to clearly understand the meaning of curriculum within the context of education level or area.  Ornstein and Hunskins (1988) further expressed that curriculum approach reflects a holistic position encompassing the foundation of curriculum (the philosophy, view of history, view of psychology, learning theories and view of social issues), domain of curriculum (Common and Important knowledge within the field) and theoretical and practical principles of curriculum.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

UNESCO defined curriculum is an organized education plan and curriculum in education in Sri Lanka has not become an education plan that leads kids to achieve future success and the national curriculum documents have not organized as an education plan. The weakness in curriculum in schools in Sri Lanka is that educational curriculum in all contexts has not carefully designed plan with education of students. When I was in secondary context, I found that some schools ignored teaching certain topics and the methods used were primitive than requirement of the era. A plan should have broader aims, objectives, specific objectives and the assessment to reflect the achievement of outcomes, however, it is not successfully working in the education system of Sri Lanka.

It is difficult to observe curriculum in schools, TVET systems and universities have organized accordance the definition of UNESCO, and presented in terms of an accepted way as a national curriculum document, which clearly expresses the accepted concept such as outcome-based or cognitive strategies.  Curriculum developers may have selected the necessary area of contents, but the curriculum has not developed organizing the programs with essential characteristics and the way of teachers to adapt to the method and to assess students in support of the method. In this environment, teachers have a predicament using appropriate teaching strategies and student assessment.  In this background tuition masters, who never obtained proper teaching and training qualifications have become heroes of students and parents must spend large sum of money for tuition masters while the government paying salaries and other benefits to teachers who do not play the role expected by stakeholders.

The philosophy of president Rajapaksa on education and training has already presented and adapting to the philosophy in the country has many impediments and substages as many people including school teachers, tertiary educators, tuition masters and, politicians directly or indirectly work against the philosophy and resist the reforms.

Curriculum and relevant teaching methods need to be changed according to aims of the changes, inventions, practices in the world. It needs wider consultation and continuous debate like in the western countries and in this debate desires of stakeholders cannot be ignored and the outcome generation from the education of students in primary and secondary contexts should be given the priority.  When talks about outcomes generation, the best place to demonstrate outcomes are the schools that should have a good environment for the purpose and some schools and teachers use the results of tuition masters’ efforts as their achievements.  tuition masters have good resources environment and resources; however, it is seen that kids are persuading tuition masters than attaching to schools and using the resources of schools. Why this situation created in the country? Many reasons contributed to this situation. 

The first contributory factor is the department of education has not trained teachers to use resources and implement the curriculum in schools to achieve educational outcomes, and the inspection and supervision process of the education department is weaker to assess the practical implementation of curriculum and rate teachers and teaching from the lowest level of education, which is the classroom. 

The education department has disappointed stakeholders without considering the expectations of stakeholders and allowing the promotion of tuition outside the schools, which an expensive method of gaining education despite the existing free education.  Tuition teachers were trained and tuition places have no resources like in schools, in such an environment why students attract tuition places because curriculum has not focused to generates outcomes (including theoretical, practical and qualitative), and schools have failed to achieve the expectation of stakeholders. The government spends money but the expected outcomes have not been generated by the education policy spending money.  Investigation to the problem should be a part of the curriculum and teaching reforms.

The second contributory factor is education assessment, which concerns on curriculum and teaching and they should base on the result generation from education. Outcomes are a combination of knowledge, practice, quality, values and many matters.  Students have a misguided perception that it they achieve knowledge outcomes at the exams it would be the achievement of stakeholders. It is an entirely misconception given to stakeholders’ mind.  This wrong perception must be changed by curriculum and teaching reforms and the achievement of outcomes in a broader area should be designed to focus on education results. The concentration of the achievement of outcomes will be supported to achieve expected results from education and to change the society.

While concentrating on policy developments in education reforms in early childhood, primary and secondary contexts, TVET contexts should be developed competency achievement of students, which relates to knowledge, skills, quality, values, adaptability to work environment and selected area of criteria.  Another significant point is that education policy makers should concentrate teaching from primary context a half of subject in Sinhala or Tamil medium and the other half in English medium, which promote competency in two languages. Knowledge of English has become a major reason to polarisation of society. Education should support to eliminate fallacious attitudes from the society.

TVET curriculum needs focusing on knowledge of the subject matter or trade area, skills in the application of trade competency, practice in the application of value and the ability to converse in Sinhala, English and any other international language such as German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Korean or any other.  When organizing the curriculum for a broader area of subject and training for the achievement of competencies, there wouldn’t be unemployment in the country as such a trained trade personnel have demand in anywhere in the world.  However, curriculum and teaching in TVET context have not organized in the international qualification framework and the education policy makers need to consider offering TVET qualifications on international framework.

Certificate 1 and 2 level could offer to grade 10 and 12 students and if they do not achieve university entrance, they can continue TVET education in TVET institutions and after an advance diploma they can enter to the university and to obtain a degree within two years, otherwise they can engaged in workplaces as skilled trade personnel.

There is no doubt that education reforms in school contexts and TVET context have lots to do and a country with a small population reforms could be easily implemented with lesser costs. 

Ira de Silva Canada

The Editor,
Human Rights Watch
New York,N.Y.
U.S.A.

 At the outset it is important to state that the so-called “war” in Sri Lanka was one that was waged by the terrorist group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which had the dubious distinction of being classed as the most violent terrorist group at the time, against the democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka, with the goal of dividing the country to establish a fascist, Tamil only state in the north and east of Sri Lanka comprising one third of the country. The LTTE was an internationally designated group banned by the UNSC and 32 countries. The protracted war was funded by LTTE supporters in Europe, Canada, the U.S. and Australia and supported by these countries just to get votes of LTTE supporters in their countries. Western countries never had any interest in helping Sri Lanka defeat the Tamil terrorists, Sri Lanka had to do it alone. This was at a time that the international community was broadcasting their “war on terrorism”!

When the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka, without any help from these western countries, finally managed to engage the LTTE and forced it to retreat from west to east, the LTTE compelled Tamil civilians to move with them to be used for their labour and serve as a human shield. In the final stages when it became clear that the LTTE would be defeated, all that the western countries wanted was to negotiate a safe passage for the LTTE leader and his hard core fighters. This effort was led by the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. R. Blake. This action merely confirmed the fact that the western countries supported LTTE interests, not the people of Sri Lanka who were the victims of Tamil terrorism.

Resolution Number 30/1 of October 1, 2015 was adopted by the UNHRC against Sr Lanka based on an imaginary figure of civilian deaths which were never proven or based of facts. The UN Resident Representative in Colombo reported a total of 7,721 killed between the end of August 2008 and May 13,2009 based on information from selected sources on the ground including Tamil employees of UN agencies whom the LTTE refused to release. TamilNet, the propaganda arm of the LTTE stated the number as 7398. Amensty claimed a total of 10,000 killed, the U.K. Sunday Times reporter, who only flew over the last battleground with Ban Ki Moon on May 25,2009 claimed 20,000 killed and later this figure increased to 40,000 killed. The pro-LTTE reporter Francis Harrison must be still be looking for the dead to count as she believed that 70,000 to 140,000 may have been killed but to  date has not indicated how many she has counted. The fact is that these numbers kept increasing based on the claimant’s need to exaggerate and dramatise but there was no substantiation or proven facts to back these claims. The number of genuine civilians killed is unknown because none of the published figures distinguish between combatants, LTTE auxiliary forces and non-combatant civilians.

The myth of 20,000, 40,000 killed is resurrected whenever the organizations and countries that supported the LTTE make representations at the UN in Geneva.  The pro-LTTE Yasmin Sooka, a Tamil from South Africa who is closely linked  with the Tamil lobby, attends propaganda meetings organized by the pro-LTTE groups, surfaces regularly in time for the Human Rights sessions in Geneva. She has benefited by her openly partisan approach and received a grant of twenty-five million Euros for a NGO headed by her in South Africa.

In 2012 the Government of Sri Lanka carried out  a census carried out by Tamil school teachers and public servants in the north  to find out the number killed in the last stages of the war. They established a number of 7,432 excluding those who had died of natural causes. TamilNet, the propaganda arm of the LTTE stated that the total killed during the period January 1,2009 to May 2009 was 7398. This proves that the figures from LTTE propagandists of 40,000 to 100,000 is merely a figment of their imagination. To date, there are no graves, no dead bodies to substantiate their fictitious numbers.

The question that the UN needs to answer is why Sri Lanka is being harassed by the UN  and orgsnizations such as yours and attempts continue to interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. Until the UN does and discredits your reports and opinions, Sri Lanka will be subjected to the same lies and myths for the next sessions in Geneva.

I. de Silva

Canada

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane 

Sinhala is the ethnic group native to Sri Lanka, forming the mainstream or the dominant indigenous community of the island for more than 2500 years. In fact, Sri Lanka is the only national sovereign motherland of the Sinhala people. Their culture, way of life and their Sinhala language originated and developed in Sri Lanka. Therefore, inevitably, the sovereign national rights of Sri Lanka rests with the Sinhala people who form the original dominant community of this country. Tamils, Muslims, and Malays are non-indigenous minority settler communities of Sri Lanka who settled in the island at different times in the past, coming from their own homelands or motherlands.

A good part of the long history of the island, has been recorded or written by its own people in an unbroken continuous manner. This written history goes back to over 2500 years and is described chronologically, in detail, in the ancient chronicles Deepavansa (3^rd-4^th century CE), Mahavamsa (6^th century CE), Chulavamsa, besides the Rajavaliya, Pujavaliya, Dhatuvamsaya, Elu-Attanagaluvamsaya, Elu-Bodhivamsaya, Maha Bodhivamsaya, Thupavamsaya, Daladavamsaya and Viharavamsaya. This written history is supported by archaeological evidence, and reports of foreign travelers of ancient times. Among archaeological evidence substantiating recorded historic information are rock inscriptions. The written history of Sri Lanka is regarded as the second-most remarkable recorded history in existence of an ancient and cultured civilization. It is second only to the records maintained by the Shang dynasty of Chinese emperors. The historical chronicles narrate in detail the history of the country since the arrival of Buddhism in 237 BCE or 3rd century BCE or about 2246 years ago.

These historic sources provide information on Sinhala Buddhist Kings who rescued the Sinhala race, the island and Buddhism from marauding Tamil armies of powerful South Indian Dravidian kingdoms. Also about its benevolent rulers who performed deeds of piety, who made the country self-sufficient in rice by way of irrigation engineering, promoted Ayurveda medicine and medical practice, build Buddhist temples, stupas and reigned with efforts to follow Dasaraja Dharma – the tenfold righteous path of a king. The accuracy of this historical record of ancient Sri Lanka is generally accepted by means of other numerous local and Indian edicts such as the  rock edicts of Indian Emperor Asoka and records of the Fa Hien the Chinese pilgrim monk, Roman historian Pliny and several others who have already been referred to. Also, by means of inscriptions, historical works, and literary works as well as by way of ruins, renovated historical and Buddhist monuments, ancient yet sophisticated irrigation networks, which extend the lifeline to date.

Sri Lanka is not the traditional name of the island. In ancient times, the island was referred to in many names but all implied that it is the land of the Sinhala. It was called Sinhaladveepa, Sivuhelaya, Heladiva, Heladveepa, Helabima, Seylan, Taprobane (by Greeks for the ancient name Tambapanni), Thunsinhale, Sinhale, Ceylon and Sri Lanka. Buddhist scholars of ancient times referred to the island as Dhammadveepa or the island of Buddhism. Fa-Hien’s (400 CE) writings & those of Xuan Zang and other ancient Chinese records refer to Sri Lanka as Simhala, Sinhaladipa or land of the Sinhalas. Ptolemy (2^nd century) although calls the island Taprobane, referred to inhabitants of the island as ‘Salai’. Sinhale (or Sinhalay) has been the legitimate historical name, for many centuries in the past, until about the early 19^th century when the people of the island were subject to European colonialism.  It was at this time that the name Sinhale was corrupted by the British as Ceylon. It was 44 years after gaining political independence from the British, in 1972, that the name Sri Lanka was imposed on the island.  It should be noted that in the Sinhala version of the Udarata Givisuma” or the so-called Kandyan Convention of 1815, by which the country fell into the hands of the British, the island is referred to as Sinhale. Excluding the roughly 150 years of British colonial rule, when the island was under colonial rule, Sri Lanka has existed as an independent sovereign nation for about 2500 years. In fact, it is, one of the oldest countries in the world within its present borders. The boundaries of most countries have changed in the past.   

Oldest Buddhist Country in The World

As much as 70% of the total population of Sri Lanka are Buddhists. Sri Lanka is the oldest Buddhist country in the world, where Buddhism was the dominant religion since 237 BCE or for more than 2250 years. It is noteworthy that until about the 16^th century, about 99% of the population of the island were Buddhists. In other words, for some 1800 years, Sri Lanka was an exclusively Buddhist country with almost the entire population being Buddhist. In terms of area and Buddhist population, Sri Lanka, is among the smallest of the 30 traditionally Buddhist countries in the world, which consist of substantial Buddhist populations. Also, it is the smallest among the six Theravada Buddhist countries, namely – Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and India. Although small in area and population, Sri Lanka is by no means ‘small’ in terms of its global significance as a Buddhist country. It has been the country where Buddhist teachings have been preserved in its original form or the Theravada tradition, for over 2200 years. Buddhists across the world respect Sri Lanka as the country where pure Buddhism prevails. It is the traditional Sri Lanka Buddhist flag that has become the acknowledged global Buddhist flag in recent years. It was the recent initiative of Sri Lanka that led the United Nations, to celebrate Vesak as an important global event.

The Buddhist way of life is based fundamentally on non-violence and peaceful co-existence with others irrespective of ethnic, religious, and other differences. For some 2500 years, the Sinhala people were organized in terms of their royalty, nobility, spiritual hierarchy, their Kingdoms and Royal Capitals, and their irrigation-based farming system.  Buddhist values are geared at developing a social ethic which, would contribute to co-existence, mutual understanding, co-operation, and total harmony. To strengthen impartiality, people are advised not to succumb to biases and prejudices not to give in to attachment, hatred, fear, confusion, but to rise above them and do what is righteous. This concept of righteousness, which is designated by the term ‘Dhamma’ in fact, provides the firm foundation for the whole of Buddhist culture. The general admonition is to do what is righteous (Dhamma) and avoid what is unrighteous (adhamma). On this basis, all that is beneficial to oneself and others is considered meritorious (Punna) and wholesome (Kusala) and their opposites as demeritorious (Papa) and unwholesome (akusala). As the Dhammapada (Stanza No.183) says: Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind – this is the Teaching of the Buddha. It is on this basic teaching that Buddhist values are developed, lives are molded, and social relations are cultivated. This explains why Buddhist culture attempts to nurture in the people a feeling for others, to mutually share with others moments of happiness and joy, to show respect to elders, to care for parents to attend on the sick and destitute, to honour and respect those who are deserving, to treat guests and visitors with friendliness and affection.

Sinhala Buddhist National Culture 

Sri Lanka’s identity as a nation is based on the Sinhala Buddhist culture and the Sinhala language which is the defining element of Sinhala culture. Buddhist norms and principles form the corner stones of this unique culture. With the arrival and spread of Buddhism in the island, there came an era of unsurpassed attainments and achievements in the country.The island’s civilization has achieved an individuality and identity of its own that distinguishes it from its neighbors.

All salient aspects of our national culture – tangible and intangible, either grew or evolved within the borders of our country. Sinhala language and literature originated in Sri Lanka. Sinhala language in fact is the most important defining element of our nation’s culture and heritage, from historic times. The Sinhala language grew out of Indo-Aryan dialects and exists only in Sri Lanka and has its own distinguished literary tradition. Sinhala is one of the world’s oldest living languages.  There have been a wide range of languages in the world, particularly in Asia which lived and died without leaving evidence of their existence, because they were never written down. This is not the case with the Sinhala language. All other languages used in Sri Lanka originated in other countries.  It is significant to note that the overwhelming majority of people of Sri Lanka are distinguished by their language – Sinhala, which even today has a strong unifying effect in our motherland helping to reinforce the solidarity of our people as a unique cultural entity in the world. Almost all place names of the country from historic times, are in the Sinhala language – in the North, South, East, West and Central regions.

Cultural heritage encompasses material culture, in the form of objects, structures, sites, architecture, sculpture, paintings, and other forms of fine arts, as well as living (or expressive) culture in the form of language, literature, customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies, and festivals, performing arts, music and so on. These unique forms of cultural expression provide this country with its distinct national identity. They are the living evidence of the outstanding cultural heritage of this nation. It was Buddhism that fashioned lifestyles, fostered the arts, and inspired the nation’s architecture, sculpture, paintings, and other fine arts. It led to the creation of stupes (pagodas), temples, monasteries, statues, and a fascinating diversity of aesthetically pleasing artistic ventures and cultural activities.  It is important to note that all salient aspects of the national culture – tangible and intangible, either grew or evolved within the borders of Sri Lanka. This includes the Sinhala language and literature which originated in the island. 

The exceptionally rich heritage of visual arts of the Sinhala Buddhist people of Sri Lanka, extends to a period that exceeds 2300 years, from the 3rd century BCE to the 21st CE.  The Sinhala Buddhist culture is one of the World’s oldest, continuous, unchanged cultures in existence.  It is one of world’s important and exemplary cultures in existence. It is a civilization unique to Sri Lanka alone.  The simple and uncomplicated lifestyle promoted by Buddhist culture, is based on the five basic precepts of Buddhism. Non-violence, compassion, tolerance, morality, and peaceful coexistence with others and with nature are the cornerstones of Buddhist culture. 

                                                                                                                                     Despite foreign invasions, threats and various forms of challenges and atrocities, Buddhist culture has remained intact in the island, unlike the case with many ancient cultures in most other countries in the world.  Throughout most of its history, Sinhala kings and Buddhist institution of monks, played a major role in the development and maintenance of Buddhist culture and institutions in the island. The world recognition of the greatness of this unique Sinhala Buddhist culture is reflected by the UNESCO designating ancient sites, including the ancient royal capitals of the Sinhala people such – Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Mahanuwara (Kandy), Sigiriya and Dambulla as World Heritage Sites. Ancient irrigation system developed by the Sinhala kings is still operational and is considered as – Engineering marvels. The earthen and stone dams and reservoirs systems the canal network and related water control and management structures and techniques show the skills of the ancient Sinhala people.

There is only one nation in this island of Sri Lanka or Sinhale. A ‘Nation’ is a self-identifying group of people who share a common history, a common language, a common culture and most importantly a homeland. In other words, a nation is the most persistent alliance or organization of three main social components -people-culture- territory. Culture can be defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.  In a broader sense, a subculture is any group within a larger complex culture who has interests that vary from those of the mainstream culture. In a more specific sense, it is a group with a distinct style and identity. Even though it is obvious that there are large number of subcultures within any given national culture, People live and think in ways that form finite patterns that can be mutually constructed through a constant process of social interaction. The country’s predominant culture is Sinhala Buddhist. Over the centuries, both Hindus and Buddhists have co-existed well despite occasional politically motivated power struggles. One should not be confusing the issue of citizens’ rights with that of a nation’s identity.

There were Tamils or Dravidians in Sri Lanka for several centuries in the past, most of them assimilated and appreciated the Sinhala Buddhist culture until the Europeans arrived and took control of our nation. Although we let them into our land and offered them hospitality, in return they acted to undermine our country, the Buddhist religion, and tried to destroy our culture and thereby break the harmony in our society. With the adoption of a policy of ‘divide and rule’ by the British, it has been a continuing saga against Sinhala people, especially the Buddhists. To serve their serf interests, the British were largely responsible for germinating mistrust among the various ethnic groups and among our own people.

Tamils cannot have a “right of self-determination” in Sri Lanka because the homeland of the Tamil nation is Tamil Nadu, and not Sri Lanka or ‘Sinhale’ as the island was known in early times. Only the Sinhala nation has the right to self-determination in Sinhale’. The real objective behind all this talk of a “Tamil Nation and Tamils’ Right to Self-Determination” (which even the Indian Constitution does not recognize) is to make way for the racist Tamil LTTE dream of creating a Greater Tamil Eelam linking Sri Lanka’s North and East with Tamil Nadu. The Tamils came from their motherland, the Tamilnadu where their culture and language originated. The Tamil nation of Tamilnadu is seven times bigger than Sri Lanka, where one needs to be a pure Tamil to hold any high official position. Tamils have their national heritage and aspirations protected within Tamilnadu. 

Violation of National Interests  

Hela nationals will not tolerate any community or person who whilst living in the Hela Nation and considering it their home, deliberately misusing such privilege by scheming and adopting violent and extreme actions or contributing to such actions violating the sovereignty, dignity, and territorial integrity of the Sinhala Nation. This includes the ridiculously false and unfounded claims made by Tamil and Muslim leaders in pursuit of carving out ethnic or religious enclaves within the Sinhala Nation, merely because some of them had lived in some specific places in the country for extended periods of time. Persons with such self-serving objectives and attitudes are traitors of the Nation and should be tolerated under any circumstances. There is no place in the Hela Nation for such traitors, double crossers, renegades, turncoats, collaborators of enemies, criminals and terrorists, conspirators, connivers, schemers and emissaries, spies, secret agents, undercover agents, and double agents of the enemies of the Sinhala Nation.

Maintaining the foremost place for Buddhism and protecting and fostering the Buddha Sasana should be essential components of any Constitution of Sri Lanka. The unitary character of the country and the supremacy of the Parliament should always be maintained thereby preventing any form of separatism including federalism or administrative units based on Race, Religion or Language. Police should operate within the entire territory of Sri Lanka under the direction and control of Inspector General of Police who is the head of Sri Lanka Police Force. State land must always be vested with the Republic of Sri Lanka. The Parliament should have full control over public Finance and no institution should be permitted to receive funds from any foreign source, without the approval of the President or the Cabinet of Ministers. 

In Sri Lanka, the granting of excessive rights to minorities in the form of alien-national rights of language and culture, land rights and police powers and so on, and thereby eventually enabling them to form separate ethnic enclaves in different parts of the island should not be permitted under any circumstances.  Such action as evident today, will be strongly resisted by the nation’s patriotic forces, including Buddhist monks who have from historic times been in the forefront in promoting and protecting the Sinhala Buddhist culture of the island. These patriotic forces will not tolerate any disintegration of the national sovereignty, the cultural integrity, and the long-established territorial integrity of the country. There has been serious deprivation of the legitimate rights of the Sinhala Buddhists, in recent times.  In Sri Lanka, many Bhikkhus have entered the political arena to ensure the protection of Buddhist heritage, the Buddha Sasana and Buddhist values which undermined and subject to threats in recent times. Their main motive is to safeguard the national heritage and culture and thereby to secure the rights of the Sinhala Buddhists.

Those settling down or have already settled down in host countries have a bounden duty to merge with the host nation into a single coherent nation of members.  It is basically, a state of mindset, not necessarily physical interaction. Within these host countries, human rights and civic rights of the host nation are what the settler minorities are entitled to and not the alien-national rights of the countries of their national origins they left behind for pastures anew. Their alien-national rights will shift to the private domain when in host countries and not to threaten the national sovereignty of the host countries either.

Sri Lanka wants all non-indigenous minorities of our nation such as the Tamils, Muslims, Moors and others of whatever label, to be a part of our Nation, to join the country’s mainstream, just the way how minority communities are expected to do in all countries of the world, especially in places like Canada, Australia, USA, UK, Norway and help to strengthen our nation founded on the noble principles of non-violence, tolerance, compassion, where peaceful co-habitation has been the cornerstone from historic times. Forgiving and forgetting” has been the attitude of our people, even to those who have harmed us repeatedly from historic times, because our people know that eventually justice and truth will prevail.

Sinhala Buddhist Leadership   

Our Bhikkhus, the traditional leaders of the nation, should necessarily be in the forefront in movements aimed at protecting and promoting the Buddha Sasana and important national interests, especially when they are under threat.  Many Bhikkhus have voluntarily made their choice to take an open public stand on issues surrounding Buddhism and Buddhist culture which is the greatest treasure that our country could offer to the world, to humanity. Our Bhikkhus have become a thorn in the flesh of racists, religious extremists, the recent breed of inter-faith dialogue facilitators, those in the ethnic and human rights businesses and above all those who are funded or backed by extremist foreign anti-Sinhala or anti-Buddhist elements.  Why should anyone feel uncomfortable when Bhikkhus, the traditional spiritual leaders of our country, take the initiative and provide necessary leadership to protect the greatest wealth of this nation – our Buddhist cultural heritage. Like anyone else, under a democratic system, Bhikkhus are eligible to exercise their rights, including political rights. Those who object to the initiative taken by our Bhikkhus appear to be those with ulterior motives, having their own self-interests and opposed to the strengthening and consolidation of Buddhist culture in this country. They in fact are resorting to devious unwholesome activities that are contrary to Buddhist norms and principles which have been preserved and promoted for thousands of years in this country, by the large majority of its inhabitants. These undesirable elements may be feeling uncomfortable about recent changes in the country, especially with the emergence of a political leadership that is representative of the aspirations of the mainstream Sinhala Buddhist community of the island. The recent election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the President of Sri Lanka, with the overwhelming support of the Sinhala, the dominant community of the island, can be considered as a definite positive development in the country.

The forthcoming parliamentary election provides the opportunity for people to elect such upright, capable and patriotic individuals to work for the welfare of the country, and for the consolidation of the Sinhala Buddhist cultural legacy of the nation. Genuine and practicing Buddhists of our country, or in general, those who strictly follow the Five Precepts, should be more actively involved in politics either directly or indirectly. Most of the ills of our nation’s political life could be attributed to the absence or withdrawal of genuine Buddhists from the nation’s political arena and the domain of the media where they could be quite influential in bringing about necessary changes in public opinion of issues that are of national importance. Genuine Buddhists have a duty by the nation, which is founded on Buddhist principles, to be fully involved and participating in organizations working for the welfare of the nation. This is particularly relevant today because our nation is severely threatened at present by diverse negative forces both local and foreign.

It is the Buddhist perspective to public life and decision-making, that is most needed today, especially in the country’s political domain and administration. We need compassionate politicians and professionals with unselfish and mindful interest in the welfare of the country. This alone can bring about needed positive changes in public life which has been for decades, infected with dishonesty, crime, and corruption. The impact and influence of genuine, selfless patriotic Buddhist leaders, can make a big difference. They can help to generate a wholesome political culture, that is characterized by Buddhist approaches and attitudes and a truly Buddhist atmosphere, conducive to the development of a healthy political climate in our nation, so that all nationals will benefit irrespective of their diverse origins and cultural-religious inclinations.  

Politics in fact is simply about deciding how to live together peaceably while bringing together the wide variety of perspectives available in the human realm. It is something necessary and something creative.  Politics is part of our life. If we regard all life as sacred and politics is a part of life, then politics must be sacred. Politics is not an inherently unclean and base activity. It becomes dirty in the way that everything else becomes dirty. That is, through lack of attention, through lack of mindfulness, through ego, all of which resulting in greed, hatred, and delusion. The best kind of politics can take the profound viewpoints and virtues of spiritual practice and apply them in the public realm. Buddhism can be of fundamental help in this regard. If we do not bring spiritual virtues to the public arena, we are destined to both a selfish kind of spirituality and a selfish kind of government, devoid of vision and meaning. It is time that increasingly of our genuine and practicing Buddhists entered the political arena in various influential capacities.

Buddhism has always been engaged in various socio-political contexts. The idea of interdependence is widely associated with Buddhism. Buddhism is the religion of Human Ecology. Engaging in the lives of others through compassion, sacrifice and service is the worthy spiritual path that the contemporary world needs to observe.  Buddhists need to expand our approach or shift somewhat away from those traditional customs that excessively promote monasticism and individual salvation. They should become more socially engaged and be more concerned about service to the community, the human habitat, and the environment in general. Buddhists need to broaden their spiritual practices to include both family and community and the social and environmental concerns of the broader world. We need to be better able to identify and understand social hardships, misery, and perils, and can do something tangible to relieve them.  It is time that we as Buddhists involve ourselves in an organized manner, become socially engaged and apply Buddhism to matters of everyday life, individual work, family, politics, and the community.  It needs to be a direct application of Buddhist principles and concepts to the overall development of our motherland, to the varied social, economic, and political issues that have implications for the short and long term welfare and development of our motherland, the only country of the Sinhala community.             

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The evil trio Sambandan/Sumanthiran/Wigneswaran who fervently desist the people’s victory in the presidential election and look at everything cynically and matters to defame and and discredit the government and thereby project Sri Lanka as a nation of discrimination, suppression and a despotic country have taken up National Anthem as their latest punching pad.  Their cohorts, the foreign based diaspora scribes, the pro-UNP Tamil/NGO elements and surprisingly the ignoramus and nincompoop Tamil Nadu politicians such as Stalin, the current leader of DMK (inTamil this party is known as Thi Mu Ka and some people say it represents for Thirutta Mudiyatha Kaluthaikal {The donkeys that cannot be tamed} as well have joined the chorusexpressing their objection to singing the National Anthem only in Sinhala at the forthcoming Independence Day on February 4^th.   

Before proceeding further it is important to say a few words to this Tamil Nadu fellow that he should keep his politics confined to Tamil Nadu and not attempt to meddle with Sri Lankan affairs and if he has any guts and gumption launch a demand to sing the Indian National Anthem of Bengali language Jana Gana Mana” in Tamil in the next Indian Independence Day.  If he made such a demand then this stupid will get a real and unforgettable treatment of cow dung bath from the ordinary street folks in Chennai, before the Indian government take appropriate action against him.

There are nearly 200 countries in the world and in all these countries, countries even with multiple official languages suchas India the National Anthem is sung by only in one language and in some countries it is sung by a language other than the official language of that country.

For instance :

In India  – in Bengali Language although the official language is Hindi.

In Singapore – in Malay language

In Malaysia – in the Indonesian language, Java

In Sri Lanka prior to 1948 the British National Anthem God save the King/Queen” was sung at official functions.  The Cabinet formed by the Prime Minister D.S.Senanayake in 1948 had a quandary of selecting an appropriate song to be sung at the 1949 first independence day.

Minister J.R.Jayawardene then suggested to use the Namo Namo Maatha” song sung by Mr. Ananda Samarakoon and his chorus at the National Congress of Sri Lanka in 1934.  However a Cabinet Sub-committee under the chairmanship of E.A.P. Wijeratne was appointed to select an appropriate song and Messrs. J.R.Jayawardene, G.G.Ponnambalam and C,Sittambalam served as members of thar Committee.  The Committee summoned Mr. Ananda Samarakoon and suggested some minor changes for which Mr. Samarakoon agreed. 

Accordingly Namo Namo Maatha” became the official National Anthem of Sri Lanka.  Many linguistic scholars objected to the term Namo Namo” saying that it is inauspicious and it was the reason for the sudden death of D.S.Senanayake and many other unexpected bad omens around that time and accordingly Namo Namo Maatha” was changed as Sri Lanka Maatha”. It is stated that Mr. Ananda Samarakoon was highly annoyed about this change and it contributed to his suicide.

A terrorist diaspora scribe has written in one of his articles that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government did enact several constructive achievements favourable to Tamils and chief among them was the climate of ethnic amity and harmony it brought about. A key factor in this was restoring the practice of singing the national anthem in Tamil again. This change was best illustrated by the singing of the national anthem in Tamil at the annual day of independence celebrations. It has been the practice from 2016 to 2019 for the national anthem to be sung in both Sinhala and Tamil at the freedom day event. The ceremony began with singing the anthem

In 2016 the Tamil and terrorist diaspora servile government which blatantly and shamrlrssly igmore and neglect the aspiraions of other people created an unwanted controversy through singing the National in Tamil as well from 2016 Independence Day Celebrations. This stupid and myopic government believed that by singing the national anthem in Sinhala and Tamil, the country would step towards ethnic reconciliation.The question ewmains unanswered as to how does singing the national anthem in two different languages bring two ethnic groups together? On the contrary, it helped them to move further away from one another by singing the anthem as two separate groups?

As per a foreign based diaspora scribe thefirst Tamil political leader to react against the contemplated move to sing the National Anthem only in Sinhala was former Cabinet minister and Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader (the Indian descendent) Mano Ganesan. This Indian Origin Tamil (IOT) MP has expressed his criticism through posts on Facebook and Twitter. More importantly, He has also written to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa protesting against the proposed move and released the contents of the missive to the media. Ganesan has pointed out that Tamil was enshrined in the Constitution as an official and national language and urged the President to desist from such a course of action. He also reminded the President that sidelining Tamil was contrary to the pledge Gotabaya made at his swearing in where he said he would function as the President of all Sri Lankans. This nincompoop should be reminded that in his motherland India there are 22 constitutionally recognized lamnguages but their National Anthem is sung only in Bengali although Hindi is the all Indian official language. 

Ganesan followed up his letter to the President by participating in many meetings and televised programmes and expressing strong criticism of the proposed move to abolish the singing of the NA in Tamil at the Independence Day event. He has also been posing the question as to whether the government wanted to set up a Sri Lankan Rajya” or Sinhala Buddhist Rajya.” 
The main reason for Ganesan’s concern over the national anthem issue is perhaps due to the fact that the TPA leader played a constructive role in restoring the rightful status of the national anthem in Tamil. In fact, it was Mano Ganesan who started the ball rolling in gaining recognition for the NA in Tamil after the 2015 regime change. 

Media reports appeared in early March 2015 that Mano Ganesan – who was not evenan an MP then – had raised the issue of the national anthem being sung in Tamil at the National Executive Council in ehich he was member, and the then President Maithripala Sirisena had responded positively and reiterated the constitutional position that there was no bar on the national anthem being sung in Tamil. He had guaranteed that the NA would be sung in Tamil too. Now this IOT may be dreaming that he could manipulate President GR as well like he kept shameless and spineless Sirisena/Ranil under his hackboot.  He should understand that President GR has no obligation at all to listen to him and he is rightfully obliged to fulfil the aspirations of the people who worked and toiled day and night and under sun and rain to make him victorious in the election and to put an end to the foreign and terrorist servile neo-liberal government of Ranil Wickremasinghe..

 It is pertinent to ask this IOT that if he is so concerned about the National Antham Sri Lanka Matha why he remained silent and tongue tied when his swimmingpool paetner megalomanuiac Prabhakaran banned singing this National Amthem and instead sing songs praising and glorifyting terrorism and terrorists.  This IOT should also be reimded the Supreme Court rejection of the petition filed by his Colombno machan Pakyasothy Sarawanamuttu in 2016 pleading to declare tht NA should be sung in Tamil as well.   

The megalomaniac Prabhakaran in 2005 banned Sri Lankan Independence Day and decxlared it as a day of mourning and invited bards and Minstrels to write a national anthem” with patriotic flavour glorifying and extalling the Tamil liberation struggle and submit it to him within one month.  He said that the proposed national anthem should symbolise the history of their struggle and victories, and it should have a maximum of 18 stanzas in “immaculate Tamil.”

Further it was stated that the lyrics should extol the “virtues of those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil struggle, celebrate the unique qualities of exclusiveness and resourcefulness of the Tamil homeland, and manifest the resoluteness, dedication and the aspirations of the Tamil people for freedom and dignity.”

Many extremely pro-terrorists, including the terrorist poet Kasinathan submitted their songs and they were feroxiously against war heroes, Sri Lankan securityforces, condemning the countryand calling thr Tamils to rise up against to destroy Sri Lanka. 

Accordingly from 2005 upto 2019 until the terrorists were vanquished it was only terrorist songs that were sung in the North and East and these songs were even distributed in foreign coubntries and why they have suddenly become Iinteresred in Sri Lanka Maath” national anthem and their demand to sing it Tamil as well is a well calculated ploy to disrepute the country internationally and hence the government should stand firm and unwavering in its decision. 

Prof. Sandagomi Coperahewa, Head of Department of Sinhala, University of Colombo opined that there may be two official languages, but the national anthem is one symbol and should carry the national significance of a country. If it is sung in another language there has to be a Constitutional Amendment as well. He further statedd that even in countries that have more than one language there is only one National Anthem. Take India for example, it has Hindi and English as official languages but its National Anthem is highly Sanskritised Bengali. It’s not even Hindi, but all Indians sing it. In Singapore there are Tamil, English, Malay and Chinese people, but their National Anthem is sung in Malay. Translations could be there for the purpose of understanding or interpreting, but everybody should sing it in one language,”. 

 Dr. Kalana Senaratne, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, University of Peradeniya said it is clear that singing the national anthem in Tamil during the past few years hasn’t improved national reconciliation. It is also good to remember that whether we sing the anthem in Tamil or not, Sinhala is considered as the prominent language, because it is the language of the majority. Therefore, singing the national anthem in Tamil is simply a symbolic act, which is immaterial to the advancement of national reconciliation in Sri Lanka. 

Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero enphasising that it is our foremost duty to protect the independence and sovereignty of the country said that the political parties in the North have deliberately started the demand for singing the National Anthem in Tamil to create chaos in the country to undermine the firthcoming elections. The Ven. Thero further stated similar to we jiuned to gether to get the independence abd similar to we joined together to liberate the country from the terrorists we must join together against these threats as well and explained that disgrunbntled foreign elements are behind these threats.

Rear Admiral Sararath Weerasekera said that the denabd for singing the National Anbthem was not something that originated from the Tamil o rMuslim in the North. It was something floated by racist politician and something that would violate our constitution.     It os a new attempt to create rivalry among the communities.  There should pme nayipnal anthem for a country.  In India swaspite they havng a large population and a large number of communities and languages they sing only one national anthem and that is also in NBengali langiage. He said that this is an unwanted stupid problem created Tamil amd foreign servile Sirisena/Ranil government.

Thw terrorist proxy Sumanthiran whose concerted efforts together with his rterrorist grandpa to segregate the country with theblessings of Ranul flopped has saiud that the attitude of the present gocwenment has become abn obstruction doenational reconciliation and the barrier imposed to sing the National Anthemin Tamil is one such example.  He has reminswsrhar rhey attended the Independence day celebeations in 2015 after several tears because that government made arrangement to sing the Anthem in Tamil as well.  He says the governmwnr promised to provide equal treatment to everyone and it is now being changed. Hehasfuerhwe stated that if the government says that the Tamil people should not sing the National Anthem theywould happily ewdeain from doing so. Going to his eacist and separatist agenda he has said that the main communitysidelined the Tamils several years ago and if that situation is to be changed there should be devolution of power amd then omly you could live in Sri Lanka as equal citizens.

The leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya MP Udaya Gammanpila has said that in Clause 7 of the constitution it is stipulated as to what our National Amthem is and singing the Anthem in the Tamil language will violate the constitution.  Accordingly the National Anthem of the Republic of Sri Lanka is the song Sri Lanka Maathaa” . The verses and the nusic are stipulated in the 3rs subchedule.  If verses other than what is stipulated in the 3^rd sub-schedule was considered as the National Anthem it becomes a violation of the constitution.  Hence singing yhe Anthem as Sri Lanka Thaate” will become a gross violation of the constitution..If the change to be done is a simple change it can be changed by a simpke majority in the Parliamentvut a fundamental change like this requires an approval in the parliament ratified in a eferendum.

Continued………………………….

W. Pathirana.

I am referring to the above titled article in Daily Mirror, p A9 of 6/1/2020 (kksperera1@gmail.com) and the article titled ‘Tamils Want to Sing National Anthem in Their Mother Tongue” on Daily Mirror, p A9 of 11/1/2020 (dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com).

Material presented here without inhibitions is essentially directed at pathologically broad minded Sinhalese whose ideas in reality give a wrong message to the minorities. There are many articles that poorly reflect the 20 centuries old magnificent Sinhalese heritage and ownership to this island. This is in sharp contrast to the voicing for piling up rights incessantly demanded by the minorities. The issues raised here must be viewed with the back ground that Sri Lankan minorities assume for themselves a majoritarian mind set in that there is a larger Tamil population of 75 million in Tamil Nadu and that the Muslim world extend from Morocco in Atlantic ocean to Indonesia in Pacific ocean with an arch of Muslim countries over India and Sri Lanka (SL).

There is all the time news items for one to see as to how people stand up to protect and uphold their countries. The latest is how Swiss embassy staff and their government went all out to protect a staff member, despite her being a Sri Lankan citizen. One wonders if it has become a fashion to appease the Tamils in this country by many of our eminent journalist.

Not a word was said about a Tamil anthem by the journalists until Sirisena-Ranil government sang it as a vote catching ploy. None of the election manifestoes or even a cursory mention made before the event. There wasn’t any notable demand even by the Tamil leaders on the Tamil anthem issue.

The dire predicament of the Sinhalese are not realized by these journalists and the cocoon dwelling Sinhalese in general. The Sinhalese occupying just a small island and limited to a part of it, increasingly loosing the 20 centuries old territory, in the north by descendants of invading Tamil armies and labor force brought from Tamil Nadu by the Dutch for the tobacco cultivation, in the central hills by labor force brought by the English for tea cultivation, Tamil mercantile class establishing in Colombo area (Sinhalese now a minority in capital?), destroying and erasing Sinhalese cultural heritage in the north and east by the minorities, yet our able journalists split hair to paint a racial picture about the Sinhalese.

Despite using Tamil as their mother tongue, 60,000 Muslims in the north were chased out within 48 hours. Over the years 25,000 Sinhalese had been evicted from the north. Recently due to harassment as many as 80 undergraduates from the University of Jaffna had to be transferred to other universities. About two weeks back few Buddhist murals painted by Jaffna prisoners were prevented from displaying by Tamil politicians. There were minority protests about the burial of a Buddhist monk in the east. The idea is to set up a tribal Tamil racist state to their own peril and to everyone around them. This idea is probably based on the epic Ramayana where thirteen headed mythical Ravana of Lanka is viewed as a Dravidian and hence Tamil rights predate those of Sinhalese. However 20 centuries of recorded Sinhalese history with connections stretching from Rome to China meaning the whole world at that time, together with extensive literature, network of tanks and canals and over 100,000 ruins ever visible reflect the Sinhalese heritage of the island.

One must be concerned about the progressively restricting premise of the Sinhalese from every angle, one of the most accommodative people on earth. In the whole world only the Sinhalese are encouraged and driven to learn Tamil spoken by a very limited population, one more wasteful misguided exercise for Sinhalese in place of learning any one of the international languages. Tamil language had not evolved and refined stagnating for last so many centuries. Incidentally Tamil language too in a global scale is essentially confined to the very south-eastern tip of India at about 5% of Indian population. All the critics of Sinhalese including those Sinhalese themselves are sitting on the lap of Sinhalese and carry on Sinhalese bashing.

Nationally and Internationally the Sinhalese are taken to task by many as they have identified the mindless nature of the Sinhalese. There is a severe drought of ideas even when it is a matter of life and death. More often than not whenever there is a reaction it is misplaced and out of proportion complicating the issue. The international pogroms include: some sections of the Sinhalese themselves, certain SL political parties, by the SL Tamils, Tamil Nadu Tamils, Tamil diaspora with a government in exile, International Non-governmental Organizations who are actually governmental in providing funds and policy directions at the other end, India with the historical blunder in sponsoring Tamil terrorists, Ms. Suka of South Africa’s, Darusman of Indonesia (brought out a strange UN repot available to the accused SL only after 30 years, none had the presence of mind to say we shall respond after studying it at the end of 30 years”). British ruling and Opposition parties where their leaders selectively congratulated Tamils during new year and Thai Pongal without uttering once SL or Sinhalese, Norway, Canada, USA- Co-sponsoring a suicide pact and Hillary receiving Tamil election funds, later returned, France involved during last phase of civil war, Switzerland- courts releasing LTTE terrorists from prison saying they have the right to terror, Australia with a woman in charge of LTTE child soldiers putting on cyanide capsules necklaces, Argentina- for SL siding with UK during Folkland war, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Sri Lanka’s one China policy and by Germany as a pastime. However to their credit a former LTTEr for having indicated movements of late Mr Kadiragamer to the assassins was sentenced to 10.5 years imprisonment. Withstanding such an onslaught, no wonder that Sinhalese are the longest surviving culture in the world (Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian, Ottoman, Persian, possibly Indus all disappeared), that too with a smile despite such powerful adversaries.

On the face value of it and on good intentions in the tradition of Sinhalese, the article ‘Let’s Sing a 50:50’ appear acceptable. The reference to few countries that sing national anthem in 2-3 languages hides the horrendous facts about extreme racist nature of Tamils in SL and for that matter most Tamils as listed above. Those shared singing of anthems in the said countries are not with races who forever are aiming at the throat of the other party. The backwardness of dual/multi language anthems are reflected in the fact that majority of these are in backwrd African countries. Please see listing below on extremely anti SL racial nature of Tamils.

• Prior to racist Vaddukoddai Resolution there was the famous Tamil Conference in San Francisco, US attended by eminent Tamils from all over the world in which SL was identified as the soft target to set up a Tamil state.
• Then came the Vaddukoddai Resolution with the working idea of setting up a Tamil country in SL, All these were before Sinhala Only Act, which had been duly amended but racial slogans continue. Sinhala Only Act was not a demand by the Sinhalese but was a political ploy.
• Tamil population of 15% wanted 50:50 representation in the legislature, the world’s most warped political demand.
• Tamil Nadu has an enactment that all sign boards must have Tamil on top and there is a Tamil language day when only Tamil is used in government institutes including air ports.
• All north east based SL political parties have the word Tamil in their party name but none accuse them of being racial.
• Varadaraja Perumal declared a separate Tamil country in the east.
• Crude and rude mind set is symbolized in the LTTE flag with an angry tiger face surrounded by a string of bullets, number one brutal symbol for a flag.
• Drawing up a map of a separate country covering north-east not realizing how anybody could defend a ‘horse shoe shaped enclave’ with disproportionately long border in proportion to the land area. However upcountry Tamils may join them under ‘little now and more later on’ scheme.
• LTTE attacked all the major vital points in SL- Joint Central Command, Army Headquarters, Central Bank, Central Bus Stand, Central Telegraph Office, Bandaranayake Int. Airport, Fort and Maradana major Railway Stations, Yal Devi express train, Kollonnawa oil tank farm, air raids on Kelani-Tissa Power Generation Plant and Inland Revenue Building, the flight path of which suggest it was an attempted suicidal attack on prime minister’s residence 1-2 Km away, 35 story World Trade Center, Sri Maha Bodhi, Temple of Tooth, sword attacks killing 33 novice hungry Buddhist monks on their way to alms, many mosques attacked last being Akuressa area mosque following which terrorism was wiped out, 550 surrendered policemen massacred (all the mad men are inquiring armed forces for a made up story of killing surrendered LTTE carders. It was LTTE that shot carders of other militant Tamils while pleading on knees), killed 26,000 SL armed forces personnel and 1200 Indian soldiers total killings account for more than all the deaths on either side of Indo-Pak post- independence wars and these numbers are reflective of African ethnic warfare, Massacred countless people in passenger buses, trains, planes, one fell in to sea off Mannar that included a friend of mine Dr Paramasivam, men in agricultural farms, diplomats visiting north injuring Italian ambassador, otherwise vociferous diplomats mute on this occasion, stripped and pulled out fetuses from pregnant mothers, thrashed toddlers held by legs on tree trunks, split head in four from top with swords, drew blood from captured soldiers until collapsed to death, shut Mavil Aru aniquet depriving water , burst a dam causing floods to drown soldiers, extensively used banned Claymore bombs, used hundred of thousands anti- personnel mines, now make international efforts to dig them out without any contribution by Tamils.
• Blasted Chennai airport killing 45, blasted a Tamil Nadu bridge plunging a train load in to river, invaded Maldives islands.
• Killed two heads of states, SL and India and a third in SL escaped but with a lost eye.
• Thrive on smuggling, drugs and every kind of illicit deals. Dug tunnel under US-Canada border to smuggle drugs, Raj Rajaratnum in a 17 yr. prison sentence in US for money laundering.
• During natural disasters it is the Sinhalese who volunteer for action. During Tsunami Colombo Medical Faculty students were there in Trincomalee within 48 hours. These actions are not reciprocated by Tamils perhaps reflecting an inherent deficit in feeling the ownership to the island. Now and then Tamils are driven out of Bombay, Kerala and Andra Pradesh, a similar event took place in Malaysia around 1973.
• Suicidal nature is symbolized with suicide vests and cyanide capsule wearing carders.

For a small ethnic population, confined to a small strip of land, in a small island, to commit such disproportionately horrendous crimes on another group of ethnic population generally recognized as most friendly and graceful, there must be some nasty design by an agency that is yet to be identified. This is a phenomenon that certainly goes far beyond any body’s language rights. No Tamil has ever expressed regret on beastly acts.

One must ask, if there was a Tamil migration over the years in to Sri Lanka whether naturally the opposite too had happened, migration of Sinhalese in to Tamil Nadu (TN). There probably may not be a single Sinhala family, for that matter even a single sign board in Sinhala in TN. Further unlike in SL, there is no Tamil migration in to three states adjoining Tamil Nadu being only less than 1-3% (as against 15% In SL) as they resist Tamil migration. Tamils should have easily walked across overland unlike sailing in to SL but they are not welcome. The introvert nature of Tamils is reflected in the fact that Chennai is the least cosmopolitan and dull city in India as confided by a Tamil friend. However they are much more forward looking compared to SL Tamils in that they elected a non- Tamil/Indian?  Mr Ramachandran as the Chief Minister and A R Rahman compose world beating Hindi songs. Though out of context, I am failing in my duty if no mention is made about great Indian Tamils: mathematician Ramanujam, five times world chess champion Anandan and most humble and respected former president of India Abdul Kalam, the father of India’a nuclear program from Rameshwaran so close to SL are an inspiration to SL, graced SL with a lecture at University of Moratuwa. Also remembered with gratitude are the school teachers in1960s Mr. Cherion and Mr.Venayagam Pillai.

In TN, Buddhist monk was attacked, Sri Lankan airline office stoned, school boy cricket team turned back and Sri Lanka- India cricket encounters take place all over India except in Chennai. A former president of SL was not allowed to pray at a Hindu temple in TN and he had to find an alternative temple in Karnataka and was most welcome by the political leaders there. It is not the Sinhalese but the TN fishermen who rob billions of rupees worth of fish from northern sea symbolic of what is in store. Worst of all, the Kudankulam Atomic Power Generation Plant in TN is staring on the face just across the Polk Straits, an ever presenting symbol of TN big brotherhood?

All this Tamil howling is despite the fact that they were holding eminent positions in the government, business and politics, too long to list here. The climax should have been the appointment of Mr. Lakshman Kadiragaman as the Prime Minister when almost unanimously people were looking forward to, given little more time but was assassinated not by Sinhalese but by Tamils. Only Tamil politician working at present on the spirit of Sinhalese is Mano Ganeshan and is sure to win any seat in Sinhala constituents provided he represent a popular political party. Muslims are a way ahead in this regard.

The Sinhalese do not make eye to eye kind of abrasive replies to Tamil aspirations very likely because they do not see any reason to argue out as to why they live in their own country. The problem is the insurmountable aspirations of the Tamils in SL like crying for the moon. Aspirations and equal rights are to hide their secessionist movement and to belittle Sinhalese nationhood. The talk about second class by the Tamils is to mislead and win sympathy of the Sinhalese. There are no class stratification in SL and whatever is there is only in the minds of the Tamils.

 In Malaysia not a word is uttered about the official language Malay. In fact a Tamil cannot enter any university in Malaysia or outside if he has failed in Malay language as happened to brother of my Tamil roommate in India. Illogical attitude is seen in aspiration to separate and at the same time need to join northern and eastern provinces despite predominately heterogeneous origin of eastern population, a sizable Sinhalese and Muslim populations. Some time back Colombo Chettiyars requested not to classify them as Tamils.

The Sinhalese aspire to revive whole of its heritage in the entire country and live in all parts of the country. They are acutely aware of the fact that this island is the only patch of land on earth that they can claim ownership and live freely. Archaic Jaffna Thesawalamai land ownership rule must be rescinded. There is no purpose of Tamils pretending to umbilical connection to India because Sinhalese too are of north Indian origin, the first chapter of Sinhalese history is set in Vanga Desh (Bengal) from where King Wijaya Sing departed. Relationship to TN is well taken. Tamils are quite insignificant in India, 70 million in a population of 1300 million. You take any distance train or flight from Chennai there is hardly a Tamil to be found. In Kolkata, the next cosmopolitan city with a 10 million population not a single cinema shows any Tamil film, not a single Tamil word to be seen and fortunately there are about 4-5 Tamil restaurants for us to have a familiar meal. Vast majority of Indians cannot understand ondu, rendu, moolu. Pampered by the colonialists they continue to expect the same from others.

Three eminent gentlemen declared i) SL is the country that belongs to Sinhalese- Muththayya Muralidaran, ii) Sinhalese are the least racial people in the world- Lakshman Kadiragaman and iii) SL is a Buddhist country- Malcom Cardinal Ranjith. It may be mentioned here that the famous British prisoner Robert Knox in his treaty on SL not even once mention about a Tamil. It was Mahinda Rajapaksha who addressed the UN in Tamil language and during the recent Thai Pongal festival. Was there a reconciliatory response from the Tamils? None.

 Eternal fighting mood and demands by Tamils could be a result of influencing Tamils with the sickly habit in India to quarrel on every little issue often leading to separation of many states, Assam and Meghalaya, Punjab and Haryana, Andra Pradesh and Telengana. Language, religion, cast, economic disparity, Rama-Ravana are all firing quarrels in India. East of India except for Ache movement in Indonesia with over 600 ethnic groups and Islamists in Philippines all the countries live peacefully. Whatever the issues there are mostly political.

People with this kind of attitude surely cannot be a party to sing the national anthem 50:50. Considering the Tamil strategy of ‘little now and more later on’ it is not advisable to sing the national anthem in Tamil. You can see this craze in incessant demands for Tamil national anthem following singing it by Sirisena-Ranil government as a vote catching gimmick. National anthem in two languages is divisive not reconciliatory. In the ‘Sri Lanka Matha’ lyrics not once a mention of words Sinhala or Buddhist could be found. It is misleading to play down the hard realities and the predicament of Sinhalese or anybody else for that matter. There is an underlying truth in that LTTE heroics went on only until the southern politics patronized it with cash, arms, put them up in 5 star hotels, provided construction material and a wait and watch attitude. A Tamil confidant of President Premadasa blasted him to death.

Hope this article will bring some sanity to Sinhalese journalists and extreme Tamils. Tamil racism narrows down their own potential for larger engagements in the country and display of intellect to the fullest extent. One wonders from the time of King Elara until Tamil Conference in San Francisco in a span of 1500 years there were no issues between Tamils and the Sinhalese. When carefully analyzed it can be seen that it is the non- Hindu Tamils who are responsible for most of the issues. This realization prevented TN Tamils from extending large scale support to LTTE unlike the central government. If the Hindu religious culture of Tamils is revived there could be more peaceful times. The problem is not that of a minority but a minority wanting to rule like a majority. Thesawalamai law in Jaffna, their ability to chase away all other ethnic groups from Jaffna show that the Tamils have more rights than the Sinhalese in SL. Equal rights are already there and the talk of discrimination and multiculturalism is to deny the 20 centuries old rights of the Sinhalese. Sinhalese have every right to establish linguistically a parallel administration in line with Tamil Nadu for Tamils, Bangladesh for Bengalese, Russia for Russians, Malaysia for Malays. SWRD warned of the possibility of a tyranny of the minority which the majority has to guard against. Wish you share this article with the colleagues.

W. Pathirana.

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera

First, let me thank all of you for the tremendous support you have given me during the last few years to establish the National Security Think Tank of Sri Lanka, (INSSSL) under the Ministry of Defence. From the first email I sent to all of you from INSSSL in August 2016, it was a challenging uphill task. We had four Chairman’s starting from 2016 and it was a challenging environment faced with numerous significant national security threats. 

Although establishing a national security think tank was considered as a futile effort by some, each year the importance of a security think tank was felt essential when 250 lives were taken by the extremist terrorists in the Easter Sunday attack. This heinous crime I witnessed from my own eyes at the Shangri-la hotel. I am proud to say it was the National Security think tank INSSSL that forecasted the threat of growing violent extremism in the country from 2018 and warned multiple times that extremists could even target five-star hotels at a threat lens discussion at Ministry of Defence and the last documentation of the extremist terrorist threat was written by INSSSL monthly threat forecast in 2019 January. Unfortunately, all this went unheard and I hope in future that research and analysis conducted by think tanks will be taken much more seriously by our policymakers and government administrative staff. Most reports and observations we compiled were not shared with the higher authorities and was not given enough attention. 

From the time we launched the first research journal Defence Review” in 2017 to all the 74 successful events conducted and recognized regionally and ranked at the global think tank index, it was all of you who were a part of the success. We have built a resource pool of 100 experts from around the world to support INSSSL. I thank all of you for your kind support to be part of the national security think tank. I would like to acknowledge everyone including the distinguished military officers, senior diplomats, researchers, academics to all the resource persons who contributed their time for this endeavour.

From 1st February I will step down as the Director General of INSSSL and handover to Admiral (Retd.) Dr. Jayanath Colombage. While I wish my successor all success, I would like you to kindly support him to build this important institute to a much greater height during his tenure. 

My email and mobile remain the same. Let us keep in touch.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera

සිතුම් රාජකරුනා

ඒ ඒ විෂයන්හි වියත්, ස්වචින්තනයකින් යුත් ගුණවත් 
විෂය භාර ඇමතිලා සපිරි ගින්දර ආණ්ඩුවක
දේශ-පාලනය නොකර, දේශ-මෙහෙකාරකමේ යෙදෙන 
මහා සද්ධතිස්සලා නැවත රජ කරන
පින්බර දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

එතෙර නාකි ඇලඩින්ලාගේ ශුද්ධ වූ බුමුතුරුණු 
කඳුලින් දෝවනය කරන අපේම තැලුණු පිච්ච මව්වරු 
යළි මෙහි වඩම්මවා
ඒ අයට එකලාව සමෘද්ධ වීමට සමෘධිය නොව, 
අත, හිත වගේම නිදහසේ පිබිදීමට සැලසුම් සපයා දෙන
නිවහල් දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

රටේ හෙට දින පිපෙන්නට කල් බලමින් සිටින චූටි පොහො** වලට,
 කුජ ග්‍රහයා දෙස නෙත් යොමා සිටින දුරේක්ෂ කාච විවරයෙහිද 
හෙළ බොදු හැදියාව කියූ, ගවයා ඇති සඳකඩ පහනේ නෙළුමෙහි ද 
රැඳි පින්නෙන් දිය දෙන 
නිර්මල දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

දැනට ලොව සම්පතක් කරගෙන ඇති අපේම වැඩ්ඩන් ගෙන්වා, 
කළකිරීම් පහකොට, රටේ සම්පත් පොළොවෙන් ඔසවා, 
ජේතවනය සේ උසට ජාතියේ ‘සක්කෝ’ ගුණය නංවන 
අනුරපුර යුග දවස යළි කවදා උදා වේවිද?

දත් කුහර වන් රැස්වීම් වසන පිරවුම් ලෙස ජනයා නොසලකන, 
මිනිසාගේ ස්වෛරීයත්වයට ගරු කරන, 
ඔවුන් සමඟ වායු සමීකරණය නොකළ, බසයේදී, කෝච්චියේදී
කොණ්ඩය අවුල් කරන, 
සමීකරණ නොවූ සරල වූ හුළඟ ආඝ්‍රහණය කරමින් ගමන් කරන
අනතිමානී දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

ප්‍රභුත්වය සමාජ රෝගයක් ගණනට දමා ඒ ගැන ලජ්ජා වන, 
මාරයා විනිවිදින ආරක්ෂක භටයන් වෙනුවට, 
තම අවංක සේවයේ සුභ විපාක පළිහය පෙරමුණේ තබා දිවි ගෙවන
සුඛෝපභෝගීත්වය නිසා, 
තමාට ජනතා දුක නොහැඟෙන ලෙස මුළු සර්වාංගයම නිර්වින්දනය වෙන බව දැන,
 එය මුල් කැවුම සේ අහක ලන
බෝසත් දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

ජනතා ජීවයෙන් තැනූ ජාතික නිෂ්පාදන නංවන උපායන්හි වැහුම් අරිද්දී,
 අනුන්ව දම්මවා තමාට පුදාගන්නවා වෙනුවට, 
බුදුන්ට මල් පුදා, කැටපත් ඵලක වල අතිගරු නම් නොකොටා
 ශ්‍රී බුද්ධ වර්ෂය පමණක් දිලිසීමට සලසා දෙන
පැහැබර දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

කැමරාවන් ඇහැරීමට පෙර 
අඳුරු සීතල අළුයම පමණක් පන්සල් වඳින
තම ආර්යාවන්, දරුවන් හා ඥාතීන්
පළමු ආර්ය සත්‍යයෙන් කෘතීමව වසන් නොකෙරුන
සත්‍යවාදී දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

විදෙස් ආභාෂ උකහාගෙන මුත් 
බඩගැති පෙරාපරදිග යක්ෂයින්ගේ අමාශගත නොවී බේරෙන
නානාප්‍රකාර ආක්‍රමණික පිළිකා පළමු අවදියේම දැන හඳුනාගෙන
 මිලිටරි චිකිත්සා මාර්ගයෙන් මර්ධනය වෙන
සතිමත් දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

නැවතත් ඡන්ද සමය ලං වූ විට, ජනතා සේවයෙන් හෙම්බත්ව, 
කෙසඟ වූ ඇමති තුමා, ගෙයින් ගෙට යනවා තබා නැගිටගන්නවත් පණ නැතිව
 මඳ සිනහ රැඳී මුවින් යුතුව වැතිර හිඳිද්දී, 

පිරිපුන් ශරීර හෙබි ජනතාවම 
ගරා වැටුණු නිල නිවෙස කරා විත් තුටු පඬුරු දී,
හිරු බස්නා තෙක් ගුණ වයන

සිහින දවස කවදා උදා වේවිද?

Courtesy Ada Derana

Sri Lanka is well prepared to address any possible coronavirus outbreak, says World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Sri Lanka Dr Razia Pendse.

She stated this speaking exclusively to ‘@HydePark’ on Ada Derana. 

Dr Pendse stated that WHO works closely with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health, the Disaster Preparedness Unit and the Disaster Management Center (DMC) to ensure that the country is well prepared to address any emergency of this sort.

We have all the necessary stockpiles what is needed in terms of equipment in this present situation. We are working very closely with the Ministry of Health to look at the preparedness in the hospitals, to also look at the different stockpiles and what could be the anticipated need, to see whether the country has it.” 

She stated that if required they can quickly mobilize their international networks to get the supplies that is needed. 

We don’t see any kind of huge gap here. The preparedness is very well. It is being monitored from the highest level,” Dr Pendse said. 

Courtesy Ada Derana

The Ambassador of China in Colombo Cheng Xueyuan called on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa last evening (Jan. 30) at Temple Trees.

Mr. Xueyuan has assured the safety of Sri Lankan students studying in Wuhan Province, China, following the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Ambassador has stated that the Government of China is taking every measure to contain the outbreak and meet the needs of the Sri Lankan students and families in Wuhan. 

He further noted that the two governments are working together closely to make arrangements to have a special flight land in Wuhan Province to evacuate the Sri Lankans as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister has conveyed the concerns of the parents of the students and other family members of those Sri Lankans living in Wuhan.

PM Rajapaksa has also informed the Ambassador that he has made an appeal to the general public in Sri Lanka, in particular, the media, to act responsibly when sharing information about the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese Ambassador has added that Chinese nationals living in Sri Lanka should have no concerns in going about their day-to-day lives.

Mr. Xueyuan stated that the Government of China has confidence that it will be able to bring the outbreak under control and have life in Wuhan Province return to normalcy very soon.

Courtesy Ada Derana

An individual, who is allegedly a member of the staff of United National Party (UNP)MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara, has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over a case of printing counterfeit notes.

Media reports stated that the suspect was arrested last night (30) at the Monaragala party office of MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara.

According to reports, a computer and a printing machine, too, have been seized along with the suspect.

However, MP Ranjith Madduma Bandara, speaking to the media today (31), stated that the arrested suspect is not a staffer under the MP despite being a UNP supporter.

The parliamentarian further stated that he does not know the arrested suspect and that this is deliberately done by opposing parties to slander his name.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

මාවනැල්ලේදී බුදු පිළිමවලට හානි කිරීමේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනය කිරීම සඳහා අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එම ප්‍රදේශයට පැමිණියද, නිල වශයෙන් එම විමර්ශන භාර ගැනීමක් සිදුනොකර එහි හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකර එම ස්ථානයෙන් පිටව ගොස් ඇති බව අද අනාවරණ වුණා.

ඒ, පාස්කු ඉරිදා ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබඳව විමර්ශනය කෙරෙන විශේෂ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේදීයි.

එම කොමිසම හමුවේ අද ප්‍රකාශ ලබාදීම සඳහා පැමිණියේ කෑගල්ල සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරී එච්. කමල් පෙරේරායි.

එහිදී ඔහු කියා සිටියේ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයෙකු කිසියම් විමර්ශනයක් සඳහා පැමිණෙන්නේ එය විශේෂ විමර්ශනයක් නම් පමණක් බවයි.

එමෙන්ම, එලෙස අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා පැමිණෙන්නේ අදාළ විමර්ශනය භාර ගැනීමට පමණක් බවත් ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළා.

ශානි අබේසේකර එලෙස පැමිණ විමර්ශන භාර නොගෙන පිටව යෑම පිටුපස යම් දේශපාලන මැදිහත්වීමක් පවතින්නට ඇති බවට තමාට සැකයක් මතුවන බවයි සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කියා සිටියේ.

ඔහුගෙන් හරස් ප්‍රශ්න විමසීම සඳහා හිටපු ආණ්ඩුකාර අසාද් සාලිිට ද අවස්ථාව හිමිව තිබූ අතර, ඒ අනුව, අද ඔහු ද කොමිසමට කැඳවා තිබුණා.

අදාළ සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පළමුව සැකකරුවන් කොපමණ පිරිසක් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්තේ දැයි කොමිසම මෙහිදී ප්‍රශ්න කළා.

සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ පළමුව එක් පුද්ගලයෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමෙන් පසුව සිදුකළ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම් වලදී සාදික් හා සිද්ධික් යන පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනා මෙයට ඍජුවම සම්බන්ධ බවට තොරතුරු අනාවරණ වූ බවයි.

ඔවුන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට මෙහෙයුම් දියත් කිරීමට පෙර සාදික් හා සිද්ධික් ඔවුන්ගේ දරු පවුල් සමග ප්‍රදේශයෙන් පලාගොස් තිබූ බව ද මෙහිදී සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කියා සිටියා.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, පලාගිය සාදික් හා සිද්ධික් මව්ලවිවරයෙකු හරහා පොලීසියට භාර දෙන බවට එකල ආණ්ඩුකාර අසාද් සාලි පොලිස්පතිවරයාට දැනුම් දුන් බව නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති පාලිත සිරිවර්ධන සම්මන්ත්‍රණයකදී තමන් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායමට පැවසූ බව ද සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කොමිසම හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් කියා සිටියේ එවැනි භාරදීමක් පසුව සිදු නොවූ බවයි.

එමෙන්ම, තමන් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම ඒ වනතෙක් සිදුකරමින් පැවති විමර්ශනවල තොරතුරු අසාද් සාලිට ලැබී තිබූ බවට තමන්ට සැක මතු වූ බවද සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කොමිසම හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඔහු කියා සිටියේ 2018 වසරේ දෙසැම්බර් 26 වනදා කෑගල්ල මූලස්ථාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක කාර්යාලයට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ එවක අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකර ඇතුළු නිලධාරින් කණ්ඩායමක් පැමිණ තමන් මුණ ගැසුණු බවයි

එහිදී කොමිසම පොලිස් අධිකාරීවරයාගෙන් විමසා සිටියේ ශානි අබේසේකර පැමිණ කුමක් විමසා සිටියේද යන්නයි.

පරීක්ෂණ පිළිබඳව වැඩිදුර විමසා බැලීමට තමා එහි පැමිණි බවට ශානි අබේසේකර එහිදී ප්‍රකාශ කළ බවත්, පැය හතරහමාරකට පමණ පසුව එම ස්ථානයෙන් පිටව ගිය බවත් ඔහු ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

එහිදී තමාගේ නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් පරීක්ෂණ සඳහා කෑගල්ලේ රඳවා යන බව ශානි අබේසේකර ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති අතර,එය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් සිදුනොවන ක්‍රියාවලියක් බව පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා පෙන්වා දුන්නා.

මේ අතර, අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අදාළ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්ෂණ සිදුකළා.

තමා ඇතුළු පිරිසටද තවදුරටත් පරීක්ෂණ සිදුකරගෙන යන ලෙසට නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති පාලිත සිරිවර්ධන දැන්වූ බවයි ඔහු කියා සිටියේ.

>අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව පිළිබඳව නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයාට තිබූ අවිශ්වාසය ඊට හේතුව විය හැකි බව පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

සිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනාගේ පියා වන ඊබ්‍රාහිම් නැමැත්තා අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව අදාළ විමර්ශන කටයුතු තමාගෙන් ඉවත් කළ බව ද කෑගල්ල සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරී එච්. කමල් පෙරේරා මෙහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් කියා සිටියා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

මංගල සමරවීර මන්ත්‍රීවරයා මුදල් අමාත්‍යවරයාව සිටි කාලය තුළ සිදුකර තිබෙන වංචා දුෂණ සම්බන්ධත්‍යන් තමන් සතුව සාක්ෂි පවතින බව නව සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානයේ මහලේකම් පූජ්‍ය මාගල්කන්දේ සුදත්ත හිමියන් පවසනවා.

පූජ්‍ය තිනියාවල පාලිත හිමියන් කළ ප්‍රකාශයක් උපුටා දක්වමින් සුදත්ත හිමියන් මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබාදීම සඳහා අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අද පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේ මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

කොරෝනා වෛරසය ආසාධිත රෝගීන් සුව කිරීමට හැකි බටහිර හා දේශීය වෛද්‍ය ක්‍රම පිළිබඳව ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ප්‍රවීණයන් කැඳවා තොරතුරු ලබාගන්නැයි ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරීන්ට උපදෙස් ලබාදී තිබෙනවා.

සෞඛ්‍ය, විදේශ සබඳතා, සංචාරක සහ උසස් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යවරුන් සහ නිලධාරීන් සමග අද පස්වරුවේ පැවති විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවකදීයි ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙම උපදෙස් ලබාදී ඇත්තේ.

කොරෝනා වෛරසය ශරීරගත වූ පළමු රෝගියා මේ වන විට ඉතා යහපත් සෞඛ්‍ය තත්වයෙන් පසුවන අතර වෛරසය පැතිරයාම වළක්වා ගැනීමට වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට හැකියාව ලැබී තිබෙනවා.

පූර්ණ කැපවීමෙන් ඊට සහය වූ සියලු ක්ෂේත්‍රවල පිරිස් වෙත ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ප්‍රසාදය පළ කෙරුනු බවයි ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය අංශය කියාසිටියේ.

ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට එම ක්‍රියාමාර්ග අඛණ්ඩව ඉදිරියට ගෙන යන ලෙසට ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා උපදෙස් ලබාදී තිබෙනවා.

කොරෝනා වෛරසය පැතිරයාම වැළැක්වීමටත් චීනයේ සිටි සිසුන් මෙරටට රැගෙන ඒමටත් විශේෂඥ කමිටුව ගත් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ විමසුමට ලක්වුනා.

වූහාන් නගරයේ සිට පැමිණෙන සිසුන්ට අවශ්‍ය සියලු පහසුකම් උපරිමයෙන් ලබාදී ඔවුන් රැකබලා ගන්නා ලෙසට ද ජනාධිපතිවරයා උපදෙස් ලබාදී ඇති අතර සංචාරක කර්මාන්තය ආරක්ෂා කරමින් වර්තමාන තත්වයට මුහුණදීමට ගත යුතු පියවර පිළිබඳව ද අවධානය යොමු කළා.

රෝග පරීක්ෂණය සඳහා සහ රෝහල්වල පහසුකම් හැකි උපරිමයෙන් පුලුල් කරන ලෙසට ද ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා උපදෙස් ලබාදී තිබෙනවා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

මුන්දලම ප්‍රදේශයේ ව්‍යාජ රියදුරු බලපත්‍ර සාදන ජාවාරම්කරුවකු පිළිබඳ හිරු සී.අයි.ඒ. ඊයේ අනාවරණ කළා.

අප කළ එම අනාවරණයෙන් අනතුරුව එම සැකකරු පොලිසිය විසින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබෙනවා.

අදාළ ජාවාරම්කරු කූට ලෙස පවුල් පසුබිම් වාර්තා සකසා කාන්තාවන් විදෙස් ගත කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියක ද නිරත වන බව එහිදී අනාවරණය වුණා.

පුත්තලම – මුන්දලම බරණංකට්ටුව ප්‍රදේශයේ පදිංචි සිටින මෙම පුද්ගලයා මෝටර් රථ ප්‍රවාහන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මගින් පවත්වන විභාගයට පෙනී සිටීමකින් තොරව වංචනික ලෙස රියදුරු බලපත්‍ර සාදා දෙන බව පවසා මුදල් අය කර තිබුණා.

එලෙස ව්‍යාජ රියදුරු බලපත්‍රයක් සෑදීම සදහා මොහු අයකරන මුදල රුපියල් 20000 ක්.

හිරු සී.අයි.ඒ. හරහා මේ පිළිබද අණාවරණය කිරීමත් සමග මුන්දලම පොලිසිය ඔහුගේ නිවස සොයා ගොස් ඔහුගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළේ අප හෙළිකළ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය ද සැකකරුට පෙන්වමින්.

පළමුව මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමන් කිසිවක් නොදන්නා බව පැවසු ජාවාරම්කරු පසුව තැරව්කරුවන් හරහා අදාල ජවාරම සිදුකරන බව පිළිගත්තා.

මොහුගේ නිවස සෝදිසි කිරීමේදී ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්කාර්යාලවල ලිපි ශීර්ෂ සහිත හිස් කොළ, විවිධ පුද්ගලයන්ගේ උප්පැන්න සහතිකවල ජායා පිටපත්, කාන්තාවන් විදේශගත කිරීමට අදාළ පවුල් පසුබිම් වාර්තා ඇතුළු ලිපි ලේඛණ රැසක් සොයා ගැනුණා.

කලකට ඉහත මුන්දලම ප්‍රදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ මුරකරුවෙකු ලෙස සේවය කර ඇති මොහු වැඩතහනමකට ලක්ව ඇත්තේ ද කූට ලේඛණ සැකසීමේ සිද්ධියක් මුල් කර ගෙනයි.

සැකකරු අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමෙන් පසු පුත්තලම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කෙරුණා.

>එහිදී අනාවරණය වුනේ කූට ලේඛණ සැකසීමේ සිද්ධි සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුත්තලම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේ මොහුට විරුද්ධව මේ වනවිට තවත් නඩු දෙකක් ද පවතින බවයි.

A government with a will to defend the nation combined with the heroic efforts of Sri Lanka’s national army reunited every inch of land under one national flag on 19 May 2009. The LTTE held a shrinking area of 100 metrex 100 metres which was finally taken with the announcement of the killing of Prabakaran on 19 May 2009. Needless to say LTTE terrorism served the purpose of many. For the West terrorism provided a source of exertion over the GoSL and with LTTE now over the West was quick to use IDPs, resettlement, reconciliation as its themes to exert influence over Sri Lanka with UN being source for war crimes/genocide charges lest GoSL did not tow line. These are realities that we cannot be naïve too. 

Sri Lanka Army battle successes

2 Ja nuary	Kilinochchi captured (LTTE political capital)
5 January	Elephant Pass captured
9 January	A9 reopened
14 January	Jaffna captured
22 January	Dharmapuram captured
24 January	2 LTTE camps south of Pudukudurippu
25 January	Mullaitivu captured
28 January	Vishwamadu captured
3 February	Jungle airstrips with 2km runway & hangar for light aircrafts in Thirivilaru village
6 February	Chalai (LTTE now hold access to only 20km (12miles) of coastline in Mullaitivu
2 April	Pachchapulmudai (LTTE’s last supply route used for reinforcement and logistic transportation to Puthukkudiriruppu junction)
3 April	Anandapuram
21 April	Troops enter Putumathalan & Amapalavanpokkanai in the no-fire zone
25 March	Army capture hideout of Pottu Amman in Iranapalai (LTTE intelligence head)

Safe Zone declared by Sri Lanka (only for civilians) – no fire zone

1^st safe zone: 35sq.km (13sq.miles)

2^nd safe zone: 12 Feb 2009 – 12sq.km (7.5mile)

3^rd safe zone: 8 May 2009 –  2sq.km long and 1.5sq.km wide

LTTE reactions to Army advances

24 Jan – LTTE blasts dam releasing large volume of water from an irrigation tank in Kalmadu, Mullaitivu & flooding section of A-35 main road at Dharmapuram and Vishwamadu.

8 May – Troops continued their advance further… amidst stiff resistance as LTTE terrorists made their maximum effort to hold the earth bund (embankment) built to obstruct the security forces,” the ministry said. Troops also received minor damages from exploding anti personnel mines,”

LTTE controlled areas shrinking

25 Jan 2009– LTTE confined to a small strip of between 20 kilometres by 15 kilometres (300 square kilometres, 115 square miles)

6 Feb 2009 – LTTE now control area just 200 square kilometres (77 square miles).

7 Feb 2009 – LTTE restricted to area less than 100sq.km (38 sq.miles)

22 Feb 2009 – LTTE shrunk to 73 square kilometres (28 square miles)

25 Feb 2009 – LTTE have lost almost 99 percent of the territory they held

12 Mar 2009 – LTTE restricted to an area of just 35 square kilometres (13 square miles)

26 Mar 2009 – LTTE confined to 21 square kilometres (8 square miles), most of which is a government-declared safe zone

16 April 2009 – LTTE restricted to 20sq.km

22 April 2009 – LTTE confined to 12sq.km (five square miles) 

23 April 2009 – LTTE controlled just 10-12 sq.km (4 square miles) of territory

5 May 2009 –  LTTE confined to 4 sq.km (1.5 square mile) area in Mullaittivu

18 May 2009 – LTTE now boxed into a 100m x 100m area,”

18 May 2009 – He (Prabakaran) is there and we have surrounded him — it is a 360 degree cordon and he has no escape,” (SL Army)

Note: Government forces were advancing into LTTE held territory at the rate of more than a kilometre (0.6 miles) a day

By 31 March 2009 – LTTE were cornered to a tiny but densely populated strip of coastal jungle measuring just 21 square kilometres (8 square miles), The army says LTTE has less than 500 fighters left, but those that remain appear to be offering stiff resistance.

Breakdown of civilians fleeing LTTE / rescued by SL Army

Number	Date
170	17 Jan 2009
350	19 Jan 2009 (including 50 children)
139	4 Feb 2009 to Jaffna
10,000	8 Feb 2009 throughout 4 days to Kilinochchi–over 2800 children/3000 women)
240	10 Feb 2009 Tamil patients evacuated by ICRC (official figures as of 14 Feb 2009 showed 37,420 Tamils crossing to govt area)
745	10 Feb by ferry/ICRC
440	16 Feb by ferry/ICRC
1000	18 Mar  (650 escaping by boat others walking through jungle)
1,150	21 Mar (108 left by boat while the others walked through jungle)
381	28 Mar
475	15 Apr wounded evacuated by ICRC
3000	19 Apr
5000	20 Apr – biggest single rescue early morning
30,000	20 Apr – throughout day
4000	21 Apr
81,420	22 Apr
10,000	14 May
115,000	20 Apr to 13 May
63,000	14 May to 16 May (total nearly 250,000 saved – GoSL)

• Official figures as of 17 Feb 2009 showed 35,745 Tamils crossing since 1 Jan
• 5 Mar 2009 – ICRC says since February, it has helped evacuate nearly 2,800 patients and their relatives by sea out of the island’s north-east
• 18 Mar – nearly 40,000 have escaped LTTE
• 21 Mar –  from Jan more than 55,000 civilians have escaped LTTE
• 17 Apr – Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR said more than 63,000 people have fled since the fighting began
• 18 Apr – United Nation says up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the area in dire humanitarian conditions.”
• 21 Apr – 80,000 people had fled the shrinking patch of territory
• 22 Apr – UN estimated 150,000 civilians in the rebel-held territory before Monday’s exodus
• Around 100,000 people have managed to escape rebel-held territory this week (20-23Apr)
• 24 Apr – UN says 95,000 civilians have fled LTTE but thousands remain trapped
• 26 Apr – UN believes up to 50,000 civilians are trapped in a strip of jungle
• 7 May – government estimates that up to 20,000 civilians are being held in the less than five-square-kilometre (two-square-mile) area
• 12 May – UN say up to 50,000 Tamil civilians hostage kept by LTTE.
• 17 May 2009 – More than 50,000 people have come out of that area in the past three days and with that we have rescued all the civilians held as a human shield by the Tigers,” (SLArmy)
• 17 May 2009 Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said more than 63,000 people had crossed over into government territory in the past three days, raising the total number of civilians who fled the war zone since January to nearly 250,000.

Civilians killed

Number	Date
10	26 Jan inside safe zone (alleged by Gordon Weiss)
20	25 Jan inside safe zone (alleged by Gordon Weiss)
52	27 Jan in Suranthapuram (alleged by Gordon Weiss)
8	9 Feb LTTE suicide attack on refugee camp
17	10 Feb LTTE shoot dead fleeing Tamils/wounding 69
16	10 Feb during makeshift hospital shelling
1	14 Feb grenade thrown at bus carrying civilians/13 wounded
4	14 Feb Puttumatalan – elders home shelling/Dr. Satyamurthy
10	21 Feb – village of Kirimetiya mainly farmers
1	5 Mar – ICRC local worker killed in Chalai
3	7 Mar – LTTE shot fleeing Tamils escaping by boat in Mullaitivu coast / 1 civilian seriously injured
1	26 Mar (LTTE fired at fleeing civilians)
5	12 Apr farmers killed by LTTE in Mahagodayaya village Buttala
17	20 Apr suiciding bombing by LTTE to prevent civilians leaving
170	May 1st week – claim by Anandasangaree

17 Feb 2009 – TULF leader Anandasangaree says total deaths for last week was 288 with 766 injured

27 Apr 2009 (AFP) – UN estimates that as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed

8 May 2009 – TULF leader V. Anandasangari said at least 170 Tamil civilians had been killed and 951 wounded during four days of fighting last week.

12 May 2009 (AFP) – UN says up to 6,500 civilians may have been killed and 14,000 wounded in fighting since January.

LTTE killed by SL Army

Number	Date
6	8 Feb by SL Navy sinking 2 LTTE boats trying to escape
28	12 Feb
65	22 Feb
13	24 Feb
11	26 Feb
5	28 Feb
33	5 Mar in Chalai
over 100	6 & 7 Mar in Mullaitivu / over 100 injured
50	9 Mar in Mullaitivu
12	12 Mar in Pudukudurippu
33	13 Mar (Fri)
32	15 Mar (Sun)
31	19 Mar
2	21 Mar
24	30 Mar (1 SL Navy officer also killed)
13	1 Apr by SL Army
44	3 Apr in Anandapuram
33	3 Apr by SL Army
11	4 Apr by SL Navy
7	4 Apr by SL Army
111	4 Apr in ground & sea clashes
450	(3 to 5th April)
10	15 Apr by SL Navy
8	17 Apr
17	18 Apr
8	21 Apr
25	29 Apr by SL Navy sank 6 LTTE boats
23	1 May by SL Navy 3 LTTE boats sunk
10	13 May LTTE suicide boat attack
70	17 May trying to escape through lagoon in 6 boats
1	18 May Charles Anthony body found in Karayamullavaikkal area
3	18 May bodies of Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh
250	18 May (still Prabakaran not found)
1	18 May Prabakaran killed

Note:

• Sri Lanka Army claims LTTE admitted 2000 of its fighters died in combat in 2008
• 27 Jan – army claim 2 LTTE killed were senior field commanders.  
• 24 Apr – 58 division commanded by Brigadier Silva had killed 5,953 LTTE & wounded another 2,938 since September 2007
• 1 Apr – Prabakaran’s son Charles Anthony injured

Statements by UN Secretary General – Ban Ki Moon

30 Jan 2009

The Secretary General calls upon the (rebel) Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in particular, to allow civilians in the conflict zone to move to where they feel most secure, including (government-controlled) areas,”

He called on both Colombo and the LTTE to do all in their power to make this safe passage a reality, and to ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.”

3 April 2009 – . The Secretary General calls upon the LTTE (Tamil rebels) leadership to allow civilians to leave the conflict area of their own free will,” a statement issued by UN spokeswoman Michele Montas.

The severe restrictions of the LTTE on their freedom of movement violate international law.”

Ban also deplored the forced recruitment of civilians, particularly children” The UN statement said Ban is deeply distressed by continuing reports from the Vanni region of Sri Lanka that civilians are at extreme risk,”

23 Apr 2009 – I intend to immediately despatch a UN humanitiarian team to the no-fire zone,” he told reporters in Brussels

The purpose of this humanitarian team will be to first of all monitor the situation and support the humanitarian assistance and try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population,”

(oh yeah sure and LTTE will stand and watch them monitor J)

It is critical that this team be allowed into the no-fire zone as soon as possible, and I’m asking for the strong support and speedy assistance of the Sri Lankan government.” (well if the GoSL allowed – what if LTTE doesn’t allow them out? Then what does UN propose to do … bomb LTTE + the civilians???)

Statement by UNHRC Head – Navi Pillay

13 Mar 2009 – Geneva (AFP) –

her statement confirmed 2800 civilians COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED since late January.

Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE (Tamil Tiger rebels) may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” said Pillay

We need to know more about what is going on, but we know enough to be sure that the situation is absolutely desperate. The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” 

The statement said credible sources had told the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that more than 2,800 civilians might have been killed, including hundreds of children, and more than 7,000 injured since January 20.

(Jan 20 to 13 Mar – 2800 civilians killed says UNHRC/Navi Pillay)

UN Spokesman Gordon Weiss

26 Jan 2009 –

• At least 10 civilians killed on 26 Jan (Mon) inside ‘safety zone’ by the Sri Lanka Military while ‘roughly at least 20 people were killed or wounded over weekend.
• Weiss said he could not say who was responsible for civilian casualties by UN staff in area had witnessed civilians getting hit by artillery shells
• Pro-LTTE Tamilnet website claimed 100 civilians killed by artillery fire on 26 Jan 2009

29 Jan 2009

• “About 350 critically wounded civilians, including 50 children, crossed the front lines,” 

4 Feb 2009 (AFP)

• at least 52 civilians killed on (27 Jan) in Suranthapuram
• We don’t know who is responsible or how many shells hit, but we have this report from our staff.”
• The hospital was evacuated after 16hours of shelling including cluster bomb attack.

UN & International statements against LTTE (use of civilians as human shields/hostages)

18 Feb 2009 – UN humanitarian head John Holmes arrived in SL. He arrived earlier in August 2007.

19 Feb 2009  – John Holmes I call on both sides, the government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), to ensure civilians are left alone,”

I hope to hear no more of shootings of people trying to leave or recruitment of children as soldiers,” 

11 Mar 2009 (AFP) – UN accused LTTE of siphoning off food meant for severely malnourished children in June 2007. UN had sent a high energy food supplement known as BP-100” which was found on a LTTE killed in the fighting.

The United Nations deplores that such lifesaving items, destined for severely malnourished children, were diverted from their intended purpose,” the UN said in a statement.

16 Mar 2009 (AFP) – UN said an employee & his teenage daughter forcibly were recruited by LTTE. The forced recruitment included the 16-year-old daughter,” UN called for their immediate release.

The UN said another of its employees recruited by the Tigers two weeks ago has not yet been released.

A month ago, another UN staff member was abducted by LTTE.

The UN has accused LTTE of preventing tens of thousands of civilians from leaving Sri Lanka’s war zone and of shooting and sometimes killing” those who try to escape.

26 Mar 2009 – John Holmes UN’s top humanitarian official, estimated that 150,000 to 190,000 civilians were trapped by the fighting and could not escape, resulting in dozens of deaths each day.

31 Mar 2009 – UN’s top humanitarian official, John Holmes, had asked the government to allow civilian authorities to manage the camps (accordingly Sri Lanka handed camp management over to the resettlement and relief ministry)

15 Apr 2009 – UK & French Foreign Ministers say LTTE are using civilians as human shields & preventing them from leaving conflict zone.

Joint statement by David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner

France and Britain, as two members of the Security Council, continue to support the active engagement by the UN and by other members of the international community on this urgent issue,”

We are deeply concerned that there was no large scale movement of civilians away from the conflict area to safety as we had hoped to see”

16 Apr 2009 – Vijay Nambiar, UNSG’s chief of staff arrives in Sri Lanka.

The secretary-general is doing his utmost to alleviate the situation in Sri Lanka and high-level contacts were continuing to be pursued on that matter,” UN statement

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) did not appear to have responded constructively in allowing civilians to leave,” This is truly disappointing. Civilians must be allowed to leave the area of violence. They must not be used as targets of political or military designs.” UN spokesman Farhan Haq noted.

22 Apr 2009 – We demand that the LTTE immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism, allow a UN-assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process,” Claude Heller, of Mexico, UN Security Council President.

UNSC President speaking on behalf of 15 UNSC Members said strongly condemned the LTTE, a terrorist organization, for the use of civilians as human shields and for not allowing them to leave the area.”

25 Apr 2009 – John Holmes arrives in Sri Lanka again on a 3 day mission

The top priority remains the preservation of the lives of the tens of thousands of civilians still trapped inside the combat zone,” 

I also want to see the people in the camps, to visit UN staff being held there, and to review how the sudden outflow of so many people from the combat zone is being managed.”

We need a new humanitarian pause to get aid and aid workers into the combat zone,”

12 May 2009 – We’re deeply concerned,” on reports that more than 400 civilians had been killed in a no-fire zone” We think that there’s an unacceptably high level of civilian casualties. We’ve repeatedly urged the Tamil Tigers to lay down its arms and allow the civilians to leave the safe zone,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly

12 May 2009 – Joint Statement by UK & US Secretary Clinton and UK Foreign Secretary Miliband expressed their profound concern about the humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka caused by the ongoing hostilities,”

13 May 2009 – United Nations /UN Security Council adopted a non-binding statement that expressed grave concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in northeast Sri Lanka, in particular the reports of hundreds of civilian casualties in recent days.” For the first time, a text is formally adopted to express our concern over the situation, which explains the absolute condemnation of the LTTE (rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam),” France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, one of the three sponsors of text, said.

14 May 2009 – Washington / US President Obama called on LTTE to lay down arms & GoSL to take greater care for the safety of civilians.

Going forward, Sri Lanka must seek a peace that is secure and lasting, and grounded in respect for all of its citizens,” …….More civilian casualties and inadequate care for those caught in resettlement camps will only make it more difficult to achieve the peace that the people of Sri Lanka deserve.” We have a humanitarian crisis that’s taking place in Sri Lanka, and I’ve been increasingly saddened by the desperate news in recent days”

Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe,” So I urge the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and let civilians go. Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out.”

GOSL & SL Army Statements

27 Jan 2009 – Army engaged in taking control over 30km (18mile) coast.

Brig. Nandana Udawatte to AFP reporter in Kumalamunai, south of Mullaitivu (captured on 25 Jan- Sunday) We are moving along the coast as well as to the north-west towards another pocket of Tiger resistance,” 

(Udawatte says his troops had killed at least 2000 LTTE in battle to capture Mullaitivu. LTTE had established 3 defence lines to protect Mullaitivu but his men had surprised them by crossing lagoon by boat)

 We also suffered casualties in overcoming their obstructions,”

1 Feb 2009 – Defense Ministry LTTE terrorists continued worsening suffering of the thousands of civilians entrapped in the outskirts of Mullaittivu, ignoring the 48-hour ultimatum served for the safe passage of civilians,”

1 Feb 2009 – The next step for us is to liberate the civilians,”….. There will be new operations to get the people to safety now that the Tigers have not allowed civilians to leave,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

10 Feb 2009 – The civilians came to an army position carrying the 17 dead and 69 others who had gunshot injuries,” Among those wounded in the attack were 27 women and 11 children

24 Feb 2009 – Battlefield reports indicate intense fighting going on in the area as troops closing in on Puthukkudirirppu,” the defence ministry

24 Feb 2009 – The military is taking more casualties now because they can no longer soften the target using artillery and air attacks,” Defense Secretary told AFP late Tuesday in an interview

26 Feb 2009 – Ground troops have positioned for a final thrust towards the remaining LTTE foothold,” the ministry said.

28 Feb 2009 – Troops who have entered Puthukkudiriruppu town perimeter have found LTTE’s high-tech satellite communication centre, while further advancing into the built-up area amidst stiff resistance from terrorists,”

8 Feb 2009 – As the Mullaittivu battle reached its last phase, the LTTE terrorists made several desperate attempts in vain to infiltrate the military forward defences,” the defence ministry

15 Mar 2009 – Infantrymen further advanced into LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) hiding areas… inflicting heavy damages to terrorists,” (confirms Army is advancing on foot)

18 Mar 2009 – These civilians have revealed the continuation of forcible child recruitment by the LTTE for battle purposes and brutal killings of individuals and families who defy their orders,” the ministry said.

16 April 2009 – the world’s largest hostage rescue operation undertaken by a conventional armed force in modern times.” Defense ministry

18 April 2009 – The LTTE terrorists continued mounting heavy artillery and mortar attacks from the no-fire zone at troops now advancing towards the general area of Vellamullivaikkal,” tdefence ministry said.

20 Apr 2009 – Defence ministry secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa called on the international community and the United Nations to put pressure on Tamil Tiger rebels to lay down arms and surrender.

21 Apr 2009 – The defence ministry has given Velupillai Prabhakaran and his fighters until 0630 GMT Tuesday to surrender. The Sri Lanka army’s 58th division soldiers entered into (the) areas of Putumathalan and Amapalavanpokkanai in the no-fire zone,” the ministry said

26 Apr 2009 – What is the need for a ceasefire when they are running away? They should first lay down arms, surrender and let the people go,” (Gotabaya Rajapakse responding to Pulidevans request for ceasefire)

27 Apr 2009 – Sri Lanka’s military has been ordered to stop using heavy guns and combat aircraft that could cause civilian casualties in the battle against LTTE.

30 Apr 2009 – President Mahinda Rajapakse ruled out halting military offensive.

We have no plans to go for a ceasefire with the Tigers, but they have a little time left to drop their weapons and surrender even though our military operation is at a final stage,” (after arrival of David Miliband & Bernard Kuchner)

President Mahinda said he would not bow to international pressure & promised to rescue Tamil civilians. He accused western governments of being hypocrites. They are trying to preach to us about civilians. I tell them to go and see what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said in a speech in the southern town of Embilipitiya.

If I say we don’t use heavy weapons, that means we don’t. But these foreign envoys are prepared to believe the propaganda of a terrorist organisation,” the president added, 

1 May 2009 – Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara says 2 columns of troops have consolidated positions along a strip of coastline in the northeast –

The Tigers have no land escape routes left. We have troops in place to move in at anytime,”

If not for the civilians still trapped inside, we would have gone in by now.”

Troops have to consider the civilians” still trapped in the territory held by LTTE

12 May 2009 – government forces advanced 800 metres (yards) during fighting, cutting deeper into the roughly four square kilometres (1.5 square miles) of coastal jungle in rebel hands.

14 May 2009 – Sri Lanka military accused LTTE of using phosphorus bombs in a last-ditch attempt to save itself. Burns on civilians who fled LTTE areas suggested such weapons had been used by LTTE.

15 May 2009 – Sri Lanka Navy captured wife & 2 children of LTTE Soosai trying to flee by boat.

16 May 2009 – I am proud to announce… that my government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily,” President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a speech in Jordan.

17 May 2009 – More than 50,000 people have come out of that area in the past three days and with that we have rescued all the civilians held as a human shield by the Tigers,” (SLArmy)

17 May 2009 – there was no bloodbath” during its rescue” of tens of thousands of civilians held hostage by Tamil Tiger rebels. There was no bloodbath as some people feared,” Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters. Everybody has come out safely and they are being looked after by the government.”

Journalists flown over conflict area

24 Apr 2009 – Journalists flown to Kilinochchi & shown large haul of mortars & small arms captured from LTTE.

17 May 2009 – AFP reported that the LTTE leader was still missing. They say he is still there, leading the fight. But we haven’t found anybody, not a single person, who has actually seen him,” a Sri Lankan defence official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A huge fireball was seen inside the jungle area.

LTTE statements – LTTE call for ceasefire/truce

27 Jan 2009 – It is malicious propaganda — our leader is still with us — our leader is giving leadership to our freedom struggle. He is with our people,” ……… In a liberation war it is normal for a force to lose territory and regain the same and achieve freedom,”…… In the past we have withdrawn many times and bounced back to achieve big victories.”

BBC Sinhala quoted Tiger political wing leader B. Nadesen via satellite phone interview

23 Feb 2009 – LTTE was ready to comply with international calls for ceasefire but WOULD NOT lay down arms. The international community must do everything in its power to bring a ceasefire so that the miseries of the Tamils… are brought to an end,” a statement from LTTE.

We also wish to inform the international community that we are ready to discuss, cooperate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement,” the LTTE’s political chief B. Nadesan

14 Apr 2009 – LTTE says its ready to negotiate a ceasefire & restart peace talks.

Such a ceasefire should also contain a base for political negotiations,” 

GoSL rejected the call and asked LTTE to first lay down arms.

26 Apr 2009 – The ceasefire is purely for humanitarian purposes and the duration will depend on the response of the Sri Lankan government,” Puleethevan told AFP by telephone (LTTE could still call overseas!)

27 Apr 2009 – We made our position very clear to the international community. We will never surrender till our legitimate demands are met,” Puleethevan

LTTE asked to surrender / lay down arms

3 Feb 2009 – US & Donors (Co-Chairs)

Co-Chairs called on the LTTE and the government not to fire out of or into the no-fire zone established by the government or in the vicinity of the hospital in the war-zone where more than 500 patients are receiving care and many hundreds more have sought refuge.

Co-Chairs called on both sides to allow food and medical assistance to reach those trapped by fighting, cooperate with the international Red Cross to facilitate the evacuation of urgent medical cases, and ensure the safety of aid and medical workers.

The LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka must respect international humanitarian law,” 

22 Apr 2009 – LTTE chief spokesman Velayudam Dayanidi, better known as Daya Master and another surrender

Tamil witnesses against LTTE

18 Feb 2009 – Trincomalee: Shopkeeper Subramaniam Sudaharan escaped but his 2 teenage (14 & 16) sons were shot dead as family fled from LTTE. Wife was also shot but did not die.

I suffered minor injuries. We are lucky to be able to get out.”

29 Apr 2009 (AFP) – Daya Master & George Master who surrended to SL Army come on tv & make statements denouncing LTTE.

Every point from where people could move away from LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) areas were unfortunately manned by LTTE cadre,” said V.K. Pancharatnam, alias George, a translator and aide to the Tigers’ late political leader S.P. Thamilselvan.

People who tried to leave met with violence,”

Velayudam Dayanidi, better known as Daya Master & LTTE spokesman, said he had been trying to escape from the LTTE for several years.

When the LTTE broke away from the peace talks in 2006, I decided to break away since I believed in negotiations,” he said in the interview, 

International Community calls for ceasefire/truce/temporary ‘no fire’

3 Feb 2009 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton & UK Foreign Minister David Miliband calls for temporary no-fire period” to evacuate casualties and allow in relief. 

5 Feb 2009 (AFP) – Canada called for truce to evacuate wounded civilians & for LTTE to lay down arms. We continue to believe that the conflict cannot be resolved militarily and can only be settled through a durable political solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of all the people of Sri Lanka,” Lawrence Cannon, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs,

23 Feb 2009 – Brussels/EU foreign ministers issued joint call for an immediate ceasefire. The EU is deeply concerned about the evolving humanitarian crisis and vast number of internally displaced people,”…The EU calls for an immediate ceasefire thereby providing for the establishment of full and unrestricted access” to allow aid to reach a jungle area of northern Sri Lanka as well enable traumatized civilians to leave.

7 April 2009 – UK calls for humanitarian ceasefire. Foreign Secretary David Miliband

Recent reports suggesting that the Sri Lankan military have now captured all the territory outside the so-called ‘no fire zone’ and that fighting is now going on inside the zone, where the civilian population is concentrated, are deeply worrying,” 

The need for a humanitarian ceasefire is now even more urgent.”

 Nothing excuses the reported use of civilians by the LTTE as a human shield”

9 Apr 2009 – Co-Chairs (representatives of the Tokyo Co-Chairs — the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway) called for both camps to cease their futile” fighting.

LTTE should permit freedom of movement for the civilians” 

12 Apr 2009 – GoSL announce 48hr temporary ceasefire for New Year celebrations

14 Apr 2009 – Brussels/Czech EU presidency statement welcomes the two-day ceasefire,” but remains however deeply concerned about the situation for the civilians trapped in the conflict zone.”

16 Apr 2009 –  We call upon the government and military of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers to immediately stop hostilities until the more than 140,000 civilians in the conflict are safely out,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

18 Apr 2009 – Britain — a permanent member of the Security Council — will ask Nambiar to report immediately to the UN Security Council after his visit,” David Miliband said

25 Apr 2009 – Washington/White House – First statement by President Obama on Sri Lanka. The United States is deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the mounting death toll,” 

We call on both sides to stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone,” 

We call on both sides to strictly adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law. We are very concerned about reports of violations, and take these allegations very seriously,”

26 Apr 2009 – Foreign Secretary David Miliband, together with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner and Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt, will visit (Sri Lanka) on Wednesday,” Downing Street said in a statement.

29 Apr 2009 – foreign ministers of Britain and France, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, arrived in Sri Lanka

16 May 2009 London – British PM Gordon Brown warned Sri Lanka of consequences for its actions” if Colombo did not allow humanitarian agencies access to civilians and end the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. 

Sri Lanka stands on the brink,”…. We have called repeatedly for the violence to cease”…..The humanitarian agencies must be granted access to civilians caught in the crossfire of a dreadful conflict. We are backing UN efforts to secure an orderly end to the conflict. The LTTE must lay down its arms and allow civilians to leave” …Sri Lanka must understand that there will be consequences for its actions”

Statements on No Fire Zone / Safe Zone

13 Mar 2009 – Washington (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed deep concern” over mounting deaths in a government safe zone. Clinton offered immediate and post-conflict reconstruction assistance,”

17 Apr 2009 – Civilians — estimated at more than 140,000 by the United States and more than 100,000 by the United Nations — are holed up in the narrow strip on the northeastern coast initially designated a safe zone

LTTE keeping hospital patient’s hostage (human shields)

28 Jan 2009 (AFP) – LTTE prevented ICRC evacuating some 300 hospital patients inside rebel-held territory. 24 vehicles arranged by ICRC and the United Nations to transport the sick was barred from crossing the frontline 

Convoy had been detained by gun-carrying” fighters and that there had been heated argument” with Red Cross and UN officials.

Hospitals shelled

2 Feb 2009 (AFP) – A hospital in LTTE held area (300 sq.km – 110sq.miles in jungle) claiming to house 500 hospital patients shelled (1Feb-Sun) 9 patients claimed dead and 15 injured.

ICRC Colombo Head Paul Castella We’re shocked that the hospital was hit, and this for the second time in recent weeks,” 

ICRC did not say WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SHELLING

10 Feb 2009 (AFP) – 16 patients die during shelling on makeshift hospital northern Putumattalan (ICRC did not say who was responsible for shelling)

Statements from Doctors (local & foreign)

29 Jan 2009 (AFP) – more than 250 civilians killed & over 1000 injured since beginning of January 2009 (T. Varatharajah, regional director of health services in Mullaittivu.

“There are dozens of unclaimed bodies lying in the hospital mortuaries because no relatives are coming forward to claim them,” Dr.Varatharajah told AFP by telephone.

14 Feb 2009 (AFP) – 4 civilians killed from artillery shelling near elderly home in Puttumatalan says Dr. T. Satyamurthy but did not say who fired shells. On phone to AFP Dr. Satyamurthy says on 13 Feb 2009 nearly 100 civilians were admitted to makeshift hospital for injuries

25 Apr 2009 – British surgeon working for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Paul McMasters, said his team in the state-run hospital in Vavuniya had performed 71 operations in one recent 24-hour period.

One of the patients I have seen is a little girl of about seven or eight who has a severe leg injury. Her elder sister is in the same bed with wounds on her arms and legs,” ….Their sister has burns to her face. Their mother has been killed and their father is in intensive care. With the level of aftercare that we can provide at the moment, he has a fifty-fifty chance of making it, at best.”….It’s so crowded that the nurses cannot physically walk around the ward,” he said, estimating the number of patients in a 45-bed ward at around 320…..There are simply too many people to treat them all. We are not able to save some people because we need to provide more aftercare,”

LTTE attack bus carrying civilians

14 Feb 2009 (AFP) – LTTE threw grenade at bus transporting civilians out of Puliyankulam killing 1 woman and injuring 13 (4 women & 2 girls with gunshot injuries)

LTTE block UN staff leaving war zone

22 Jan 2009 – UN accused LTTE of preventing UN local staff & their families leaving North with convoy that had brought food and emergency supplies.

The UN calls on the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to meet their responsibilities and immediately permit all UN staff and dependents to freely move from this area,” 

LTTE suicide attacks

9 Feb 2009 (AFP) – LTTE suicide bomber kills 20 soldiers and 8 civilians in refugee camp near Vishwamadu.

US condemned attack This apparent effort by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) to discourage Tamils from leaving the conflict area killed and wounded many Tamil civilians.”

21 Feb 2009 – LTTE suicide attack in Colombo by plane

10 Mar 2009 (AFP) – 15 killed and 60 wounded including 2 ministers in suicide attack by LTTE in Akuressa, South Sri Lanka at a mosque function.

Telecommunications minister Mahinda Wijesekara and Cultural Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena   

UNICEF Statements

17 Feb 2009 (AFP) – LTTE intensified conscripting child soldiers as young as 14. LTTEE has recruited more than 6000 child soldiers since 2002.

We have clear indications that the LTTE has intensified forcible recruitment of civilians and that children as young as 14 years old are now being targeted,” said Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF’s chief in Sri Lanka

17 Apr 2009 – UNICEF is calling for a ceasefire and for a humanitarian pause which allows humanitarian workers to access the conflict zone and for civilians who are trapped in this zone … to be allowed to seek refuge in secured zones,” said Veronique Taveau, spokeswoman UNICEF

UNHCR

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had received 300 acres of land from the government to set up, by the end of the week, a camp for 42,000 people.

ICRC

16 Jan 2009 ICRC reported massive displacement” 

Repeated displacements, often involving the loss of their personal belongings, have taken a toll,” said Paul Castella, the ICRC’s head of delegation.

Tens of thousands of displaced civilians are concentrated in an area so small that there are serious concerns for their physical safety and living conditions, in particular in terms of hygiene,” 

30 Jan 2009 We are negotiating with both parties to the conflict to ensure safe passage for more patients that need urgent medical attention,” Sarasi Wijeratne, spokeswoman for ICRC told AFP

17 Jan 2009

Tens of thousands of displaced civilians are concentrated in an area so small that there are serious concerns for their physical safety and living conditions, in particular in terms of hygiene,”  

5 Mar 2009 – One of our male workers was killed on Wednesday afternoon by shrapnel,” (ICRC local worker – Vadivel Vijayakumar killed in Chalai)

HRW Brad Adams on Civilians

29 Jan 2009 (AFP) –

The situation for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable civilians trapped in the Wanni war zone (in Mullaittivu district) is becoming increasingly dangerous,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Both the government and the LTTE need to take urgent action to prevent large-scale civilian deaths.”

13 Mar 2009 – Human Rights Watch accused the LTTE of holding civilians as human shields,” preventing people from leaving the areas under their control and forcibly recruiting children to fight the army.

Amnesty International – Yolanda Foster

“People displaced by the conflict are experiencing acute shortages of humanitarian aid, especially food, shelter and medical care,”  

“There has been no food convoy in the area since 16 January.”

“Preventing civilians from accessing medical care constitutes a war crime.” (who was preventing? LTTE)

28 Mar 2009 – LTTE were holding civilians hostage and were reported to have deliberately attacked civilians that have tried to escape from areas under their control.”

Pro-LTTE rallies abroad

19 Mar 2009 (AFP) – Pro-LTTE rallies in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, US.

Self-immolations in Tamil Nadu, UK & Switzerland.

Demonstrators draping themselves with LTTE flags!

The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is a banned organisation in some of these countries. We are surprised these countries allow LTTE sympathisers to use the LTTE flags” (GoSL)

7 Apr 2009 – UK police action on pro-LTTE demonstrators in Westminster Bridge.

13 Apr 2009 – Syndey/Australia – about 300 pro-LTTE protestors stage rally outside Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s official Sydney residence calling for a lasting ceasefire in Sri Lanka.  Protester Geetha Mano

21 Apr 2009 – Ottawa/Canada – up to 30,000 protestors blocked road for 15^th day in a row demanding Canada stop GoSL ending LTTE. Canada has banned LTTE in 2006 and refused to meet protestors.

27 Apr 2009 London – 6 Tamils arrested for smashing windows in Indian High Commission and causing damage outside Sri Lanka’s High Commission

11 May 2009 London – British police arrest 45 Tamil protestors for blocking traffic outside Parliament. Bharathy Maheswaram

India on alert against LTTE

21 Mar 2009 – Thiruvananthapuram/Kerala – India tightened security in 3 major airports in Kerala following threats by LTTE sympathizers.

9 Apr 2009 – Indian security warn Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and family of being targets of LTTE ahead of Indian election.

24 Apr 2009 – India’s Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan flew to Colombo re civilians trapped. The only lasting solution will come from political efforts to address the real concerns of the Tamil people, giving them lives of dignity within the Sri Lankan mainstream,”

6 May 2009 India – Sonia Gandhi, leader of Congress Party cancelled election rallies in Tamil Nadu due to security risks. Her husband former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed by LTTE in Tamil Nadu in 1991.

18 May 2009 – We also want an authentication of Pottu Amman’s death,” (Indian Govt)

International Action against LTTE

28 Jan 2009 – Washington

Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, 40, and Sahilal Sabaratnam, 29, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn, New York to conspiring to purchase guided anti-aircraft missiles for LTTE during trial in a US district court

Co-defendants Sathajhan Sarachandran, 29, and Nadarasa Yogarasa, 54, pleaded guilty to similar charges.

Thanigasalam, Sabaratnam and Sarachandran face a 25-year sentence to life in prison, while Nadarasa faces up to 30 years prison.

The four defendants were arrested on Long Island, New York in August 2006 after three from the group were accused of negotiating with an undercover FBI agent to buy and export military equipment for the Tamil Tigers.

28 Jan 2009 UK – Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar  (AC SHanthan) head of United Tamil Organisation charged with 5 offences by Kingston Crown Court in London in Britain (before UK banned LTTE in 2001)

17 Apr 2009 – London – Kingston Crown Court convicted Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, 52, of coordinating supplies of material to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Jurors failed to reach verdicts on three other charges against Chrishanthakumar, also known as AC Shanthan, plus one charge against another accused, Jegatheeswaran Muraleetharan.

 He was also convicted of receiving documents for the purpose of terrorism, 

USAID assistance

2 Apr 2009 – USAID donated $15m (Rs1.7 billion) worth of food aid for Sri Lanka to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP)

The food scheduled to arrive in June 2009, consisted of wheat, lentils and vegetable oil, will be distributed to a large number of displaced and conflict-affected people in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka.

It would feed 300,000 people over 4 months.

USAID Mission Director Rebecca Cohn said the donation represents about 21% of the total food aid that WFP has called for in 2009 to meet the needs of refugees and other conflict-affected people in Sri Lanka.

Role of Norway

2 April 2009 – Sri Lanka summoned Norway’s envoy (Tore Hattrem) to complain about the Nordic country’s alleged role in arranging a telephone conversation between LTTE’s KP and UN John Holmes.

13 April 2009 – Sri Lanka stripped Norway of role as broker in Sri Lanka’s peace process. The government of Sri Lanka perceives that there is no room for Norway to act as (peace) facilitator,” 

Calls for Political Solutions

6 Jan 2009 UK High Commission Colombo issues statement by Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government and Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development.

 This development makes it even more urgent that all parties achieve progress on setting out a political solution that addresses the legitimate concerns of all communities,”

We remain concerned about the humanitarian impact of the conflict and call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs

12 Feb 2009 (AFP) Sri Lanka rejected UK appointing special envoy Des Browne to SL accusing London of interfering into Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

Resettling IDPs

30 Apr 2009 – 400 civilians out of 3000 returned to their homes (confirmed UNHCR)

This is the first time in years that internally displaced people are able to return home in the Mannar district,” (UNHCR)

ABSURDITY OF STATEMENTS by foreign envoys/international media & rights groups:

Claims by either side cannot be verified as human rights groups, diplomats and independent journalists are not allowed to report freely from the conflict zone.”

Battlefield casualty claims are impossible to verify as journalists are not allowed to travel freely in the area.

tens of thousands” was a chorus used in virtually all of the statements issued by UN/ICRC & international media. None of them could give any definite number or detail.

When LTTE does not allow their own people to leave and ICRC local staff have also died or had been held hostage by LTTE – does the foreign elements think that reporters, rights groups and diplomats will be allowed inside for them to count the dead, monitor situation or ask questions from LTTE while engaged in hostilities? These are statements just issued for lack of any practical thinking!

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse formally announced end of LTTE Terrorists & their ground force on 19 May 2009

We have successfully ended the war,” said Defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse

Prabhakaran’s body is among the 300 terrorist bodies that we captured,” Army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said on state television. Now the entire country is declared rid of terrorism.”

Sadly those that supported LTTE are very much back in action firstly to take revenge for ending LTTE and secondly as this affords a new opportunity to keep GoSL under their influence & control.

Shenali D Waduge

By– Public Opinion Committee [POC]

The most vital issue regarding the MCC: Should Sri Lanka privatise state lands under  foreign laws?. 

Over the past  4 decades   successive Government policy makers have moved towards introducing land policies and land laws promoted in western countries.  They keep ignoring our own institutions, laws and practices, totally eroding them beyond recognition.   

Digitalising and formalising a country’s land titling system is an extremely difficult task. Itis a minefield of practical difficulties, complicated bylegal culture,  social norms, institutional capabilities and corruption.

It appears the government has readily agreed with the MCC to ensure coordination with the studies and designs made by other donors  namely World Bank, USAID, US Embassy, and other US interests (Annex 1 p33).   Further it agrees that the availability of MCC funds for land privatisation has to depend on the enactment of the Land Special Provision Act (LSPA), where the registration of absolute land grants must be completed through the title registration system, called the Bim Saviya, based on a foreign land law (Annex 1, p30). Annex 1, p28 also refers to Bim Saviya and the preparation of an e-register. This is the result of entering into several agreements that  have required us to legislate foreign laws relating to land, simply to enable us to accept foreign grants. ‘All this for the sake of alleviating poverty’, appears to be how we were pacified.

No mention is made to consider the advice given by the legal fraternity.

Was the Bim Saviya introduced under a new parliamentary procedure ?

No one knows   when  laws are passed by parliament .No one was aware, of when and how, the Act 21 of 1998 –Bim Saviya came into operation.  Bim Saviya is an  Australian law restricting access to court, repealing the Roman Dutch law and the Common law of our country  practiced for over 100 years.    Lawyers and  land owners are totally unaware of the implications of this law .  The committee looking into the MCC may not be aware of the economic burden created  by  this law .

Is the Committee aware of the economic burden and the legal ramifications  of   Bim Saviya  ? [The new law Assurance Fund in lieu of judicial remedies ]

Bim Saviya is a law where  ownership could be obtained by means of an invalid / forged document. Example if A ‘s land is sold to B on a forged invalid transfer  to B.   B’s name once registered in the digital register the law of Bim Saviya protects  the ownership of B. A’s fundamental right to access court is repealed by the law of Bim Saviya.  A’s solution is to obtain compensation from the Government.   The Government therefore under the  Bim Saviya has to set up the statutory Assurance Fund   [ Act 21 of 1998 ] to compensate owners.   The Government must look around to see the  consequences of this law,  in other nations — — for example notwithstanding   UK ‘s   stringent laws to prevent fraud compensation to owners  over  the last 10 years had been  around £55 million under the Assurance Fund  Scheme—

Can the Government genuinely make this promise to the land owners ?  

 Sri Lanka’s vulnerability—dependence on foreign funds and advisors 

The  successive governments have completely abdicated their responsibility, to, revise outdated colonial land laws, promote legal education & research among Sri Lanka’s academics and legal fraternity.  Without commencing any  local initiative, merely  permitted  entities like World Bank, USAID and US Actors  to enter the country to introduce Bim Saviya and digitalization.  We have moved on to digitalization commencing with advice from US interest.  For instance, this report prepared by the American Embassy  Colombo – November 2011 https://photos.state.gov/libraries/sri-lanka/577989/pdf/eLand%20Hub%20Project.pdf  .

They had already commenced copying the names of owners from the old register   [  which was in operation without any revision since 1864 ] to the new Digital register ,  when the  Registrar  General of Lands claimed  that 50% of  entries  in the old register were   forged.    

The names of owners are  determined by a  non judicial process for the first time in Sri Lanka ; entrusted to the administration.  Land owners names are  exposed with  their  ID numbers and addresses, without  the international laws to protect owners in a  Digital world 

Is it  not oxymoronic that to alleviate poverty we create  poverty ?

The promise to make  poverty history for the past 60 years with foreign aid and advice  had been a failed effort  in many jurisdictions . The  judiciaries of many countries are faced with challenges;   for which they have given a new legal term  ‘ BIJURAL EFFECT’ . There is ample literature on the  subject —

 1]Malaysia https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2007/12/23/at-the-mercy-of-land-scams  .  A  former member of the Malaysian Bar Council   states  ‘Title registration’ [ Bim Saviya]  is a  law   which has wreaked havoc in land transactions and increased the number of land scams in the last  9 years[ Boonsom Boonyanit case the Torrens system, innocent landowners who are victims of fraudsters and scam artists cannot expect to find justice in the law.]       

2 ]Singapore Article –. Whither Torrens  Title in  Singapore ? Written by Barry C CROWN ; Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore    Torrens system was designed to solve problems  in South Australia in 1858 Will this law be relevant to us today in the 21^st century  ‘ ‘   https://journalsonline.academypublishing.org.sg/Journals/Singapore-Academy-of-Law-Journal-Special-Issue/e-Archive/ctl/eFirstSALPDFJournalView/mid/513/ArticleId/375/Citation/Jo  

 3]England –UK –The helpless Judiciary , orders recovery of damage for land fraud from    lawyers    https://hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk/2017/02/06/recovering-indemnity-payments/  Can the lawyers practice with such economic burdens    

4] Although Sri Lanka has  commenced with Bim Saviya ,   USA itself has  not considered the law in many states,  they are considering whether  governments would be equipped  to finance  the system. https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2264&context=wmlr

Has the US and UN telescoped  into One  Entity?

After signing the MCC , the implementation of Bim Saviya and digitalsiation will be assigned to a Primary Agent of the Government  called the    MCA Sri  Lanka Ltd  according to Annex 1 page 34 of MCC. The agent shall have operational legal independence and full decision making autonomy with or without consultation.  The agent  becomes responsible for exercising the Sri Lanka Government’s rights and obligations to oversee, manage the Bim Saviya and the digitlistaion project in the Targeted Districts .  

The   Government waives all claims   for all loss, damage, injury or death arising out of activities or omissions of the agent  section 6.8  of the MCC –will have complete legal immunity for all its actions. 

Do we consider the  MCC as a  UN organisation,  giving them the privileges and immunities enjoyed by representatives of the Members of the UN and officials of the Organisations  As  only representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organization under UN rules  enjoy   privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions  https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cpiun-cpisa/cpiun-cpisa.html

Perhaps this is a precautionary measure as Bim Saviya erodes   our  institutions, laws and judicial practices. Diplomatic Immunity will protects the MCC and the MCC Sri Lanka  from fraud charges and the inevitable consequences to the  legal process where   lawyers and judges  will be  programed  to accept  cut and paste laws from foreign  countries.    

The Government claims  to have funds to complete Bim Saviya

The Government  whilst  limping along for 12 years , wasting funds on a failed project  has promised  to complete the balance 35 land registries and complete 9.5 Million parcels of land less  100000  undertaken by the MCC in 10 land registries . The  MCC   document  also  refer to the  Government’s poor  performance for 12 years relating to Bim Saviya  completing only  600,000 parcels  from 2007 to 2019, costing nearly 2.5 Million per year  

Can the Government genuinely make this promise? [  MCC No, Section 2.6 (Government resources budget – page 6 of MCC & Annex 1-34). 

Could someone give a road map of how foreign funds and  foreign laws could alleviate poverty 

Any one who had taken a  loan from a bank will know that if you are poor and is unable to produce evidence of wealth banks will not grant loans!

Privatisation of land rights require a land law system that could be understood by the local people, if it is to alleviate poverty.  This is the reason that countries that were successful with digitalisation, spent over 12 years to train academics and staff to enter into the  revolutionary process.

 Can the poor function with 12 digit number given to them in lieu of their deeds.?  

Can they manage transactions on a digital register with the 12 digit number. ?

I am sure even the affluent land owners are not aware of the revolutionary changes. The advice to initiate research programs and to disseminate knowledge was given in the  World Bank report in  in 2007

. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/418081468781158319/pdf/multi0page.pdf.http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/750021530107195459/pdf/Improving-the-Quality-of-Land-Administration-in-Sri-Lanka-19-June-2017-final-draft-clean. ]

After neglecting the required process  given in the above reports  for over 12  years,  to embark on further  radical changes with MCC funds will be a grave mistake.  The changes will result in destroying  our paper deeds, destroying  all historical records of our land ownership; owners will be reduced to a paperless deed environment and our current land ownership will be confined to a digital number toxic with corruption reflected in the manual register. Perhaps we will not have   professionals well equipped to handle the foreign systems nor will we have  the  intellectual property rights to manage the   electronic operations in land registries.

I hope the committee will advice the Government to be intellectually independent.  Reference must be made to the  advice given in the 2007 World Bank Report and the   Economic Commission for Europe -Geneva Land Administration Guidelines with  Special Reference to countries such as Sri Lanka. Their advice is for countries to build their own systems according to their  own social, economic and cultural environments.

http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/hlm/documents/Publications/land.administration.guidelines.e.pdf

සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී සේවා සංගමය.

ගරු රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන හා ස්වදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය,
ජනක බණ්ඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මැතිතුමා,
රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යාංශය,
නිදහස් චතුරස‍්‍රය,
කොළඹ 07.

ගරු ඇමතිතුමනි,
අභ්‍යාසලාභී උපාධිධාරීන් ස්ථිර කිරීමේ දී උපාධිය ලබාගත් දින සිට 2017.09.08 දින දක්වා පෞද්ගලික/රාජ්‍ය/අර්ධ රාජ්‍ය අංශවල රැකියාවක් නොකළ බවට දිවුරුම් ප‍්‍රකාශ ලබාගැනීමේ කොන්දේසිය ඉවත්කරන මෙන් ඉල්ලමු

2018.08.20 දින සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුරට බඳවාගැනීමේ පූර්ව අවස්ථාව ලෙස අභ්‍යාසලාභී පුහුණු කාලයට බඳවාගෙන වසරකුත් මාස 05ක් ගතවී ඇත. අදාල පුහුණුව නිමවී එම උපාධීධාරීන් තනතුරේ සිථිර කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබුණේ 2019 අගෝ. 21 දිනය. නමුත් ඒ සඳහා පියවර නොගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පැවති රජයට අපගේ විරෝධව පළකරමු. එම නිසා විවිධ කොන්දේසීන් යොදා උපාධිධාරීන් ස්ථිර කිරීම තවදුරටත් ප‍්‍රමාද නොකර කඩිනම් කරන ලෙස වත්මන් රජයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

එලෙස බඳවාගත් අභ්‍යාසලාභී උපාධිධාරීන් සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී සේවයට පත්කිරීමට සලකා බැලීම සඳහා සුදුසුකම් පරීක්ෂා කිරීමට 2020 පෙබරවාරී 07 දින ඇතුළුව දිනවල සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ පැවැත්වෙන බවට මේ වන විට දැනුම් දී ඇත. ඒ සඳහා ඔවුන් වෙත නිකුත්කර ඇති රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන හා ස්වදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශ ලිපියේ අංක 03 හි viii පවතින වගන්තිය ගැටළු සහගත බව දන්වා සිටිමු.

‘‘උපාධිය ලබාගත් දින සිට 2017.09.08 දින දක්වා ඔබ පුද්ගලික අංශයේ, රාජ්‍ය අංශයේ හෝ අර්ධ රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ කිසිදු ආයතනයක රැකියාවක නිරත නොවූ රැකියා විරහිත උපාධිධාරියෙකු බවට දිවුරුම් ප‍්‍රකාශයක්/ප‍්‍රතිඥාවක් ඉදිරිපක් කළ යුතුය…’’

මෙවැනි තීරණයක් පැවති රජයේ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය මගින් හෝ වත්මන් රජයේ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය මගින් හෝ ගෙන ඇත්නම් ඒ පිළිබඳව අපගේ බලවත් විරෝධය පලකරන අතර එය සමාජ සාධාරණත්වයට එරෙහිවීමක් බවද වැඩිදුරටත් දන්වා සිටිමු.

2. රටේ ආර්ථික තත්වය, ඇතැම් උපාධිධාරීන්ගේ පවුල්වල ආර්ථික තත්වය, උපාධියක් ලබාගත්තවුන්ගේ දෙමාපියන්, සොයුරු සොයුරියන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපන, සෞඛ්‍ය ඇතුළු අවශ්‍යතා වෙනුවෙන් කුමන හෝ අංශයක අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසුකම නොසලකා රැකියවක නිරතවීම රටේ සාමාන්‍ය තත්වයක් වන අතර මෙමගින් ඉහත වටපිටාව තුල වුවද රැකියාවක් නොකළයුතුයැයි අනියමින් කොන්දේසියක් පැනවී ඇත.

3. මෙවැනි කොන්දේසි මගින් කියැවෙන්නේ රටේ මූලික නීතිය වන ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් උපාධිධාරියෙකුව අවම වශයෙන් රැකියාවක් ලෙස සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුර අනිවාර්යයෙන් ප‍්‍රදානය කරන බැවින් එතෙක් කිසිදු රැකියාවක් නොලළ යුතුය යන්නය.

4. 2018 අගෝ. 20 අභ්‍යාසලාභින් බඳවා ගැනීමට පෙර උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ අවසන් අවස්ථාව වන්නේ 2012 මාර්තුය. 2018.08.20 වන විට වසර 06ක් ඉකුත් වී ඇත. ඒ අනුව 2012 සිට විශ්ව විද්‍යාලවලින් උපාධියක් ලබාගෙන පිටවූ උපාධිධාරීන් ජීවත්වීම සඳහා කිසිදු රැකියාවක් නොකලා නම් පමණක් සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුරට බඳවාගැනීමේ සුදුසුකමක් ලෙස කොන්දේසියක් පැනවිය හැකිද?

5. රජය එසේ ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන්නේ නම් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් පිටවන සෑම උපාධිධාරියෙකුටම වාර්ෂිකව රැකියා ලබාදීමේ ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් ප‍්‍රකාශනවලට සීමා නොකර නීතිගත කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව මෙයින් අවධාරණය වේ.

6. රාජ්‍ය හා අර්ධ රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ රැකියාවක නිරත වූ ඇතැම් උපාධිධාරීන් එම අංශවල රැකියාවක නිරතව ඇත්තේ සා/පෙළ හෝ උ/පෙළ අධ්‍යාපන සුදුසුකම් අනුව බඳවාගනු ලැබූ රැකියාවන් සඳහාය.

7. ඔවුන් සේවයට බැඳුනු පසුව හෝ ඊට පෙර උපාධියක් ලබාගෙන ඇත්නම් උපාධිය පදනම් කරගෙන කරනු ලබන බඳවාගැනීමක දී ඊට පෙර පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ හෝ වෙනත් රැකියාවක් කිරීම සංවර්ධන නිලධාරී තනතුර අහිමි කිරීම මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම්වලට කොතෙක් එකඟදැයි වගකිවයුතු බලධාරීන් අවධානය යොමුකළ යුතුය.

8. 1999 සිට 2016 දක්වා රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ සිටි ඌන සේවා උපාධිධාරීන් විවිධ අවස්ථාවල උපාධිධාරීන් බඳවැගැනීමේ දී අන්තර්ග‍්‍රහණය කිරීම් සිදුකළ අවස්ථාද ඇත.

ගරු ඇමතිතුමනි, සුදුසුකම් සපුරා ඇති සියළුම අභ්‍යාසලාභීන් තවදුරටත් අපහසුතාවයට පත්නොකර අදාල සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ කඩිනමින් අවසන් කර පෙබරවාරි 20ට පෙර පත්වීම් ස්ථිර කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන මෙන් අපි රජයෙන් ඉතා වගකීමෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.
එමෙන්ම ඉහතින් දක්වා ඇති කොන්දේසිය අදාල නොකරගන්නා මෙන්ද ඉල්ලන අතර එම කොන්දේසිය අභ්‍යාසලාභි කුමන හෝ උපාධිධාරියෙකුට බලපාන අවස්ථාවකදී වෘතීයමය හා නීතිමය වශයෙන් අප සංගමය අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගැනීමට ක‍්‍රියාකරන බවද දන්වා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි
ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

Dr. Mervyn D. De Silva Former Director, Plan Implementation Ministry and Ex SLFP National List MP

A few weeks ago a select group of opposition academics sought a frank, analytical, constructively critical, discussion with the author on the prevailing threats to democracy and its tradition, the creaking edifices of our hallowed institutions, and the rapid erosion of time honored codes and practices that ensures a vibrant democracy and good governance.

Called upon to enlighten them with a broad overview of the issues facing the country that have serious consequences for the future and, the present as well, the focus got directed towards the multiplicity of acts of omission and commission ever since the country attained independence 65 years ago. Most of what was explained verbally is incorporated into the content of this article, expanded, in the sincere hope that it will throw some light and, will be of some use, in stimulating the minds and hearts of politicians and the public in general.

Unmistakably, there is an urgent need to look at the problems that have risen in practically every sector of government and society clinically, and bring in a whole raft of reformatory changes that are honest, rational, sincere, and radical in the politico-socio-economic arena. Since the word radical” is used very much in the rhetorical outburst, freely and loosely in fact, from many a political platform, the need to define its context in which it is advocated and used throughout this article, becomes necessary. The word ‘radical’ as both a noun and an adjective, the derivative of which are radicalization, radicality, and radicalise are relatively recent words. The word ‘radical’ itself is derived from the word ‘radix’ which means the root, whose initial sense pertains to the roots of a thing or a being.

Accepting this definition and slant of the word, it is abundantly clear that our country, 65 years independent requires radical reform and changes by approaching all the created problems, and the issues, and the inconsistencies at their very source, making a clean sweep of all skewed interpretations and irrational practices built into the system. There has to be concurrently, a clean sweep of worn out strategies and prejudices, habits, view points, and opinions in our programmed collective minds and institutions. But, most importantly, attention must be focused on the state of our democracy and, the three arms, the executive, the legislature, and judiciary that jointly have been ordained to ensure that there is good, just, and fair governance for the benefit of all the people.

Any keen student of social-economics and politics who takes the troubles to feel the pulse of the masses particularly, that of the skeptical and restless younger generation, can’t escape admitting the fact that people have many unhealed wounds and woes and that it is reaching the point where they can’t tolerate it any longer. They are fed up with politicians, their arrogance, their life styles and indeed, how they manage the government. As the task of putting into paper the whole gamut of what transpired during the discussion and the litany of all the people’s woes, demands, and frustrations, the author settled to put it down in a summarized form as given below:

1. They, the people, are disillusioned or disaffected, by the old styled politics where political power is just what money can buy, and thus, the quality and calibre of those who come forward as candidates at every election is questionable.

• They are fed up and suspicious of the manifestoes they offer and, the policies there in, of the two major parties. They detest the manner in which they relegate such manifestoes and promises to the limbo of forgotten things in no time.

• They are angry that the major parties have demonstrated an abysmal lack of political morality and never attempted to control corruption at higher echelons and of politicians.

• They feel they have no control over their lives or, the laws passed that affect them, and are applied selectively.

• They have realized that politics is not working as promised in a just manner, responding to the deeper needs of the majority of the lower segment of the population.

• They are alarmed and feel helpless at the almost complete breakdown in discipline, law and order and that the principle that ‘might is right’ has come to stay in all levels of the society today.

• They are shocked how politics has become criminalized, the public service politicized, and how politicians have usurped executive, administrative and judicial power, steering the county to a state of chaos and disorder.

What do they want, and what do they plead for

1. They want the politician, the silent majority, the intellectuals, the professionals, the businessmen, the scientists, the university professors, the legal fraternity and of course the heads of religious organizations to wake up, speak up, stand up and be counted. 

• They want them to pioneer a completely radical and rational change in the political outlook and culture that has bedeviled our motherland for too long.

• They want a sea change in the style of governance that stimulates a vibrant democratic society where all religious and ethnic communities live in peace and harmony.

• They want the sacred principle of public morality recognized and, that power is neither a right nor, an entitlement but, a trust to be strictly observed.

• They want the whole management of government overhauled and a comprehensive plan crafted and designed to steer the country toward a state of balance economic development, social development and the development of civic society.

• They want absolutely free and fair elections at all times, at all levels because, it is the corner stone of democracy. They fail to understand why a foolproof system for elections with absolutely no room for rigging can’t be implemented in this technologically advanced era.

• They long for a socially responsible media which is completely unfettered,, exposes corruptions, public mismanagement and, does not act as a crude propaganda arm for any government.

• They want a government that is honest, transparent, truthful, dedicated, and that presents a vision that inspires people especially, the youth.

This is not all, the woes and demands of the people is an unending list and only some have been extracted out from my mind. However, it has been written in the fervent hope that what appears in this article will not fall on deaf ears or blind eyes of those concern, especially, of those in the opposition. Whether, these changes for the better can be brought out is difficult to guess because, we live in a world of spiritual and moral crises, where extreme individualism is glorified, altruism scorned, and the so called ‘rational self interest’ is propagated.

Nevertheless, hopes springs externally in the human hearts. 

Dr. Mervyn D. De Silva – 

Former Director, Plan Implementation Ministry and Ex SLFP National List MP

D Sank

Sri Lanka Military Band At Russia Spasskaya Tower Military Music Festival 2018 held in Moscow on Red Square. This International Music Festival Held from the 24th August to the 2nd Of September. This year festival participants came from over 40 Countries. The Band was Combination of Army , Navy , Air-Force . And Led By Captain Chandana Amarasinghe

https://youtu.be/FZ51WW2Ir9o

Courtesy The New Indian Express

After his official engagement in Delhi, Rajapaksa will travel to Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya and Tirupati, the External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit India from February 7-11 during which he will hold talks with the top leadership here to strengthen bilateral ties.

After his official engagement in Delhi, Rajapaksa will travel to Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya and Tirupati, the External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena on a host of topics, including the sensitive fishermen issue

By Swati Bhat Courtesy Reuters

SDFR, SLFR cut by 50 bps each
SRR left unchanged at 5%
Inflation seen below 5% in 2020 (Updates with analyst comment, details)

MUMBAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank cut both its key interest rates by 50 basis points in an unexpected move on Thursday, citing the need to support an economic recovery.

This is the third time in less than nine months that it has reduced rates, having first cut rates in May following the Easter bomb attacks that triggered a slump in investments and tourism in a blow to domestic growth.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) lowered the standing deposit facility rate (SDFR) and standing lending facility rate (SLFR) by 50 basis points (bps) each to 6.50% and 7.50%, respectively. The statutory reserve ratio (SRR) was, however, left unchanged at 5%.

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year change in the Colombo Consumer Price index (CCPI), accelerated in December due to domestic supply disruptions.

“In spite of such short-term fluctuations, the near-term forecast suggests that inflation will hover below 5% in 2020, and stabilise between 4%-6% thereafter, assisted by appropriate policy measures and underpinned by well-anchored inflation expectations,” the CBSL said in its policy statement. (bit.ly/2O9GNMg)

Economists were sceptical about the central bank cutting rates at its first monetary policy meeting of 2020, especially after a slew of fiscal-loosening measures taken by the new government over the past two months.

Newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to boost annual growth to 6.5% in his election manifesto. The economy grew 3.2% last year, the slowest pace in 17 years.

It grew at a slow pace of 2.6% in real terms in the first nine months of 2019. The rate of growth for the whole year is likely to be around 2.8%.

Given that credit growth has been picking up in absolute terms since around August/September and overall lending rates have moved lower, this cut may have come in too soon,” said Trisha Peries, product head of economic research at Frontier Research.

It is likely to increase pressures towards end-2020 and into 2021, if there is an excessive build-up in demand conditions.”

The national consumer price inflation rose 6.2% in December, compared with a 4.1% rise in the previous month.

With Thursday’s cut, the central bank has cumulatively reduced its benchmark rates by 150 bps and the SRR by 250 bps, releasing around 150 billion rupees ($832 million) of liquidity into the financial market.

As money market rates have continued to decline albeit at a slower pace, the CBSL said it felt it was essential that the rates should fall further to support a probable pickup in credit growth and economic activity.

The growth of money and credit aggregates is expected to accelerate with the envisaged continued decline in lending rates,” it said.

Analysts said the rate cuts would help growth but at the expense of stability in financial markets, as lower rates put pressure on the rupee and drive foreign funds out of domestic bonds.

The Monetary Board will stand ready to respond to any build-up of demand-driven price pressures in the foreseeable future,” the CBSL said. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Subhranshu Sahu)

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, Jan. 30 – Sri Lanka has decided not to issue a formal travel advisory against visiting China as yet, however, Sri Lankan citizens have been encouraged to halt all non-essential trips to the Hubei Province, whose capital is Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus, a top government source told Daily Mirror yesterday.

The source said that the reason for not issuing a formal travel advisory is that flights will have to continue normal two way operations between Colombo and China, to pave way for local citizens in China to return back home and to allow Chinese travelers who wish to travel back, to return.

The source said that China had made commendable efforts to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus and they were confident that it will be controlled in due course.

Several countries, earlier this week raised their ‘alert levels’ for travel to China and is advising their citizens to reconsider travel to all Chinese cities” because of increased risk of the virus. The countries include US, Canada, UK, and India. British Airways yesterday stopped flights to Beijing and Shanghai in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak with no bookings possible until March at the earliest.

So far the deadly coronavirus has killed 132 people in China after 26 more died in the last 24 hours.
And the number of confirmed cases has leaped to 5,974. Sri Lanka has so far reported one confirmed case.

Courtesy Ada Derana

Sri Lanka Podujana Eksath Peramuna has come into a decision to change its name to ‘Sri Lanka Podujana Sandhanaya’.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Eksath Peramuna –the alliance between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) – has agreed to change its party constitution in this manner, stated General Secretary of SLFP Dayasiri Jayasekara.

The decision has been made when the leaders of parties under the Sri Lanka Podujana Eksath Peramuna council convened today (30).

The meeting was held under the patronage of former President Maithripala Sirisena.

Courtesy Ada Derana

The United National Party’s Working Committee has decided to name Sajith Premadasa as the Leader of the UNP-led alliance and the Prime Ministerial candidate, MP Lakshman Kiriella said.

Meanwhile former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been elected to continue as the Leader of the UNP, he said.

Accordingly MP Sajith Premadasa will lead the election campaign of the UNP-led alliance at the upcoming General Election. 

The Working Committee of the UNP convened a meeting today at party headquarters – Sirikotha to reach a final decision regarding the party leadership, after the previous meeting held on January 16 ended without a decision.

However, it was reported that around 35 members of the UNP Working Committee including Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa have decided to boycott the committee meeting.

Earlier today, it was revealed that MPs Ajith P. Perera, Sarath Fonseka, Colombo Mayoress Rosy Senanayake and former MP Imtiaz Baker Markar have not been included in the newly appointed Working Committee of the party.

MP Harsha de Silva, in a twitter message, had also stated that Sajith Premadasa ‘loyalists’ Ajith P. Perera, Sarath Fonseka, Rosy Senanayake and Imtiaz Bakeer Markar were ‘sacked’ from the working committee last night before today’s meeting to agree on ‘settlement’. 

Accordingly the UNP Working Committee had convened at Sirikotha today with several members reportedly absent. 

චාල්ස් පෙරේරා  විසින් 

ජනාධිපති තේරීමේ චන්දය ඉවරවෙලා දැන් මාස දෙකකුත් වෙනවා . ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ස මහත්මා ලක්ෂ 70කට කිට්ටු චන්ද ගනනාවකින් ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත්වෙලා ඉතාමත්  වගකීමකින් යුතුව යහපාලනය විසින් කඩා බිඳ දැමු පාලනශේත්‍රය ක්‍රමක්‍රමයකින් නගාසිටුවීමටත් ඉන් ජනතාවගේ බිඳී තිබෙන ජීවනරටාව ගොඩනැංවීමටත් මහත් උත්සාහයක් ගනිද්දී සජිත් සහ  යහපාලනයේ භූතයින් කියනවා එළවලු ගණන්, ගොවියන්ට සහන දීල නෑ, දුන් පොරොන්දු ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්නේ නැතිව ජනතාව රවට්ටනවා කියල. 

මුන් අවුරදු හතරක්ම කලේ මිනිස්සු රවටලා හොරකම්කරලා උන්ගේ මඩි  තරකරගන්න එක. දැනුයි උන්ට මිනිස්සු ගැන කැක්කුමක් ඇතිවෙලා තියෙන්නේ. ජනතාව ගැන හිතනවානම් උන්ට තිබුන අස්වෙලා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවහැරලා චන්දයකට යන්න. 

එතකොට ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති තුමාට තිබුනා ආණ්ඩුවක් හදාගෙන අවශ්‍ය මුදල් ප්‍රදිපාදන ඇතුව රටේ නියත ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටවලා ජනතාවට ලැබිය යුතූ  පහසු කම් ලබාදෙමින් ඔහුගේ ආණ්ඩුවකින් රටගෙනයන්න. සජිත්ලා කෑ මොර තිබ්බට ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපති තුමාට ඔවුන් සම්පුර්ණ සහාය දෙනවා කියල, ඔවුන් ව විශ්වශකළ හැකිද?ඒකෙන් උන් හදන්නේ ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ වැඩ කටයුතුවලට උදව්කරනවා කියන මුවාවෙන් ඇවිත්  උන්ට අහිමි වූ ජනතා විශ්වාශය දිනාගන්නද ?  

කෙසේවෙතත් ජනතාව ජනාධිපති  ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ තුමා කෙරෙහි තබා ඇති විශ්වාශය කඩනොකරන්නේ ඔවුන්  රනිල් සජිත් ඇතුළු එක්සත්ජාතික පක්ෂය හා ඔවුන් සමග එක්ව සිටින චම්පික, මනෝ ගනේෂන්, හකීම්, මරික්කාර්, මුජුබු රහුමන්, අසාද් සාලි,ර්ශඩ් බද්යුදීන්  හැතිකරය, මේ රට ආගාතියට ඇද දැමූ දේශද්‍රෝහීන් බවට හඳුනාගෙන සිටින බැවිනි. 

මේ රට සිංහල බෞද්ධරටක් වියයුතුය. ඒ  සාමන්‍ය දෙමල, මුස්ලිම් හා අනිත් රටවැසියන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව හා එකමතුකම,ආරක්ෂාකරගත හැක්කේ  සියයට 75ක් තරම් වන සිංහල බෞද්ධයයන් විසින්මය. ජනාධිපති නීතින්ඥ අලි සබ්රි මැතිතුමාද සිටින්නේ මේ මතයේය. ජාතික එකමුතුව, සමගිය කඩා දමන්නේ ආත්මාර්ථකාමී දෙමල, මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලන නායකයන් විසින්ය. එබැවින්  ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව කලයුත්තේ ඒ දෙමල මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලකයන්ගේ ඕනෑ එපාකම් සපුරාලීම නොවේ, දෙමල මුස්ලිම් සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවගේ ඔනෑ එපාකම් සපුරාලීමයි. 

සජිත්  ප්‍රේමදාස පසුගිය අවුරුදු හතරේම රනිල්ගේ යහපාලනයේ සහකාරයෙක්ව සිටියේය. එබැවින් සජිත්  ප්‍රේමදාස, අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ආණ්ඩුව මුල සිටම කල සියලූ විනාශකාරී දේශපාලන වැඩපිළිවෙලේ ක්‍රියාකාරී සාමාජිකයෙක්  වී සිටියේය. නමුත් අද සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස කතාකරන්නේ රටේ ජනතාවට ඒ සත්‍ය අමතකවී ඇතියයි සිතන මැරිලා උපන් අවතාරයක් වගේ. 

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ආණ්ඩුව අමෙරිකාවත් සමග අත්සන්කරන්න සුදානම්ව සිටි රටට කිසිසේත්ම සුදුසු නැති ගිවිසුම් වලට  විරුද්ධව පාරලිමේන්තුවේදීවත් ප්‍රකාශයක් නොකළ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස, අද ජනාධිපති ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ආණ්ඩුවට බෙරිහන්දෙනවා අමෙරිකාව ඉදිරිපත්කර තිබෙන  ගිවිසුම් හා සින්ගප්පුරුව සමග අත්සන් කර ඇති වෙළඳ ගිවිසුම් ඉරා දමන්න කියල. ඇයි මේක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට යහපාලන ආණ්‌ඩුකාලයේ කියන්න බැරි උනේ, කටේ ගෙඩිදාලා තිබුනද ? 

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට දේශපාලන  දැක්මක් නෑ. ඒක අපි හොඳට ජනාධිපති චන්දයේදී දුටුවා. ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනය පමාකලා ගොටාභය මැතිතුමාගේ රටහදන සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම ප්‍රකාශනය කරනකම් . ඊට පසුව සජිත් ඔහුගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාෂණය  සකස්කළේ ගොටාභය මැතිතුමාගේ රටහදන සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්ම පදනම්කරගෙන. ඒක හින්දා වෙන්න ඇති දැන් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස හැම තැනම කියා කියා යන්නේ ජනාධිපති ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා සමග වැඩකරන්න ඔහුට කිසිම ගැටලුවක් නැති බව. නමුත් රටේ ජනතාව දන්නවා එක්සත්ජාතික පක්ෂයත් සමග  හෝ ඊට සම්බන්ධ කිසිම දේශපාලන සංධානයක් සමග එක්ව පොහොට්ටුවට ගමනක් නැති බව. ඒ එල හරකයි මී හරකයි වගේ . සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ ඒ කතාවට රැවටෙන්න එපා.

අද අගමැතිකම බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන්  මැතිවරණයට තරඟ කරන්න හදන්නේ එදා ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තරඟ  කල සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ අවතාරයමයි. එදා ජනාධිපති ධුරයටමෙන්ම අද අගමැතිධුරයටත් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස සුදුසු නොවන්නේ ඔහුගේ බලවත් මමත්වය මම සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාසගේ  ජාන තියෙන පුතා කියා කියා තප්පුලමින් කරන අනාර්තවත් කතාව. 

රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාස  ජනාධිපති තුමා ගැන ජනතාව දන්නවා නේද ? ටයර් ගිනි  සෑයවල් අමතක නෑ නේද ? සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මොනවාද කලේ ? කිසි තේරුමක් නැති ගම්මානවල් හැදුව. නමුත් ඒ නිවාස ලත් මිනිස්සු බැංකුවලින් ලබාගත් නය ගෙවාගන්න බැරිවී සිටිනවාලු. ඇරත් ඒ නිවාස  සංකීර්ණ උනත් නවතම ක්‍රමයකට හැදුවේ නැ . නිවාස හැදුවා කියන්න හැදුවා මිසක් අලුත් විධියක් ක්‍රමයක් ගැන කල්පනා කරලා හැදුවේ නෑ. ඔහු හැදුවේ දුප්පත් මිනිස්සුන්ට සුදුසු දුප්පත් ගෙවල්. ඔන්න මහලොකුවට කතාකරන සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස කල දේ.

එහෙම කෙනෙකුගෙන් කොහොමද මොනම  සංවර්ධන කටයුත්තක් අනාගතයට සුදුසු විධිමත් සැලැස්මක් අනුව සාදාගැනීමට බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන්නේ ?

ගොටාභය ජනාධිපතිතුමා සාමාන්‍ය චන්දයෙන් නැවත බලයට ඒමේ බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් බල හා තනතුරු ලෝභයෙන් වැඩකරන දේශපාලකයෙක් නොවේ. ඔහු දේශපාලකයකුගේ එවැනි මනසින් යුත් කෙනෙක් නොවේ. ඔහුට උවමනා ඔහු ලැබූ තනතුරෙන් ලංකාව සෞභාග්‍යමත් ඉදිරිගමනක් සඳහා  අද ආසියාකරයේ දියුනුවෙමින් පවතින රටවල් වලට නොදෙවෙනි රටක් බවට සංවර්ධනය කිරීමටයි.

ඒ කාර්යට ඔහු සමග  ඒ සංවර්ධනයට සම්පුර්ණ සහාය දෙන විශ්වාෂ අගමැතිවරයෙක් හා ඇමති මණ්ඩලයක් ඔහුට අවශ්‍යයි. ඒ සඳහා ජනතාවගේ ආදරය අඩුවක් නැතිව තිබෙන විශ්වාසාත්මක අගමැතිධුරයට වඩාත්ම සුදුසු ඔහුගේම ආදර වැඩිමහල් සොහොයුරා මහින්ද රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා සිටිනවා. ඇමති මණ්ඩලයකට සුදුස්සන් දැනටමත් ඔහුවටා රැස්ව සිටිනවා. එබැවින් ගොටාභය  රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමාට අවශ්‍යවන්නේ ලබන මැතිවරණයේදී ජනතාව ඔවුන්ගේ චන්දයෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා ඇතුළු පාරලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක බලයක් සඳහා පොහොට්ටුව වටා රැස්ව සිටින පක්ෂවලින් පමණක් ඉදිරිපත්වන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු පිරිසක් තොරාපත්කරදීමට ජනතාවගේ සහායයි.  

එබැවින්  සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස වැනි බලලෝභී ආත්මවර්ණනාවෙන් පුම්බවාගත් අහංකාර, විෂවාශයක් තැබිය නො හැකි කෙනෙක් අගමැතිවශයෙන් හෝ සරත් ෆොන්සේකා, චම්පික රණවක, රාජිත සේනාරත්න මනෝගනේෂන්, මුජිබු රහුමාන්, මර්ක්කර්, රංගේ බණ්ඩාර වැනි වැඩකට නැති මිනිසුන් මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වශයෙන්  පත් උනොත් ජනාධිපති ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමාගේ රට හදන සෞභාග්‍යයේ දැක්මට කුමක් වේවිද ? ඔවුන් එතුමාගේ ඒ අපුර්ව ගමනට භාදාවක් වන බව ජනතාව නොදන්නේද ? 

මේ පිළිබඳව බුද්ධිමත්  සිංහල දෙමල මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව හොඳට හිතාබලා ඔබේ චන්දයෙන් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසත් ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන සගයනුත් දේශපාලන වේදිකාවෙන් සදහටම අතුගාදැමිය යුතුය. ඔවුන් මෙන්ම නිතරම රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන් නියෝජනයකරන සමාජවාදී දේශපාලන පක්ෂ විවේචනය කරන ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණද  ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමා සෞභාග්‍ය සඳහා යන ඉදිරි ගමනට භාධාවක් නිසා අහිතකරය . ඔවුන්ගෙන් රටට කිසිම සේවයක් මෙතෙක් නොලැබින . 

විවේචන  අවශ්‍යයි නමුත් එයත් සීමාවක් දැන රටවෙනුවෙන් කලයුතුය. නමුත් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුනේ විවේචනය  ඔවුන්ගේ බලතන්හාවෙන් හොඳ වැඩ හොඳ නොවන වැඩ නොබලා ඔවුන් විසින් බලය ගන්න තන්හාවෙන් කරන්නෙකි. එය සුදුසු නැත. 

මාර්කස් වාදයේ තියෙනවා මාර්ක්ස් වාදී පක්ෂ බලය පැමිණීමට නම්,   තිබෙන සමජවාදී පක්ස සමග එක්ව කටයුතු කලයුතු බව. නමුත් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ  ධනවාදී පක්ෂ, සමාජවාදී පක්ෂ හඳුනා නොගෙන ධනවාදී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයත් සමඟ අත්වැල් බැඳගෙන  ස්මජවාදිපක්ෂවලට විරුද්ධව කටයුතුකරනවා. එබැවින් ජනතාව ඔවුන් කෙරෙහි විශ්වාශය තබන්නේ නෑ . 

ජනාධිපති  ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමන්ට විරුද්ධව  ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණත් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  ඇතුළු එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ කාණ්ඩායම, බැංකු වෝහාරික රපොර්තුවේ දැක්වෙන කරුණු  කෙලින්ම රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ඇතුලු කාණ්ඩායමට බලපාන නමුත්, එයත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ කඳවුරට පටවන්න හදනවා. මෙය ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ  නින්දිත හෙළාදැකිය යුතු ක්‍රියා පිළිවෙලක්. මෙයින් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ කෙලින්ම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ කඳවුරට වැටෙනවා. ජනතාව මෙය හොඳින් අවභෝධ කරගත යුතුයි. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණට චන්දයදීම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට චන්දය දෙනවා වගේම විනාශයකරා  රට ගෙනයාමක්.   

වෝහාරික  බැංකු රපොර්තුව වෙනම කතාකරමු. දැනට ලබන මාර්තු මාසයේ පැවැත්වීමට යෝජිත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු චන්දය පිළිබඳව මැරී උපන්න සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ ඒ සඳහා ප්‍රවේශවීම පිලිබඳ වචනයක් කියා මේ ලිපිය අවසන්කරමු. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්මයා  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ අද පවත්නා ගැටලුසහිත වාතාවරනයෙන් ගැලවී චන්දයට ඉදිරිපත්වන්න හදන්නේ රටේ අගමැතිවරයා වෙන්නලු . මේ ප්‍රකාශනයත් සමග ජනතාවට හිතෙන්නේ චන්දය ඉල්ලන්න ප්‍රථම සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා ඔහුගේ මොලය පරික්ශාකරගතයුතු බවයි. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ඉදිරිපත්වෙන කොයියම් පක්ෂයකින් උනත් බලාපොරොත්තු වියයුත්තේ සැලකියයුතු  ප්‍රමානයක ආසන දිනාගැනීමයි. එසේ තිබියදී ඇතිකරගෙන තියෙන අගමැතිගාය තේරුම්ගන්න බැහැ. 

රටට දැනටමත් අගමැතිවරයෙකු සිටින නිසා එම තනතුර සඳහා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  රටට අවශ්‍ය නැත. මෙතරම් දුරට යහපාලනයත්, විනාශකාරී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයත් 69 ලක්ෂයක චන්ද දායකයින් විසින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේපකර ජනතා හිතකාමී දේශපාලන දැක්මක් ඇති ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා  ජනාධිපති වශයෙන් තෝරා පත්කරගෙන සිටින බැවින්, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ රටට අහිතකර ප්‍රතිපත්ති හිසේ තියාගෙන එන සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස චන්දයෙන් දිනුවත් ඔහුව අගමැති වශයෙන් තෝරාගැනීමට ජනාධිපති  ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට කිසිම උවමනාවක් නැත. 

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 

23.1.2020.

The Hadabima Authority of Sri Lanka (Haritha Danav Bim Sanvardhana Madyama Adhikariya) was founded by me in 1991 to implement a major national development Project within the three badly neglected Provinces of Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa, covering the entire three Provinces, as an extension of the former NADSA concept started in 1978 to address three important objectives namely, a) Watershed management, b) Agricultural Diversification and c) Settlement Development, that was started to develop the area between 300-900 ft. MS of the hill country of this Island.

HADABIMA Development concept was first conceived by me in late 1986s when I was appointed to preside over the last rituals of NADSA, which was to be closed down by end of 1986. It was proposed by me in 1991, with a view to replicate the NADSA (National Agricultural Development and settlement Authority) experience as a pilot Project to address the above objectives. I conceived it  within a broader national perspective to address, the alarming   deforestation, soil erosion, land degradation and acute landlessness among the Kandyan peasants in the entire Central Hill Country and its fringe land around it focusing on  four important objectives namely,

a) Watershed conservation

b) Settlement Development

c) Agricultural Diversification

d) Addressing the Indian Estate Tamil labour problem with a lasting socio-ethnic integration through a mixed settlement programme under the provisions of the Nehru/Kotalawala Agreement of 1954

Origin of the HADABIMA Concept

 I named this Project as the HADABIMA Authority on three grounds I perceived. Firstly its physiography that resembles a heart flanked by two lungs m on eithersides, as shown in the diagram given below. Second its geographical location right at the centre of the Island and third, its functional correlation between that of a blood circulatory system.  My perception was inspired by my familiarity with its peculiar physiography and its relationship to the general lay out of the Islands landscape and the peculiar radial drainage pattern that has a commanding grip over the entire Island and its critical role in the sustainability of the entire life system in the country. My baccalaureate training in Geography at the University helped me to first visualize the analogy between the broad physiography of the central hill country with its two outliers, the Knuckles ranges on the North East and Rakwana Hills on the South West one day as I turned the physiographic map of the central hill country 15 degrees clock vice. Actually one day this happened by accident. After that I superimposed a drawing of the blood circulatory system to find a jig saw fit between the two that enabled me to draw a close analogy between the overall morphology of the central hill country to that of a heart flanked by two lungs on either sides. Thereafter I visualized the Islands river system as the arteries that perform the function of blood circulation in a living organism. In this case I visualize the river system as the arteries that keep the hydrological cycle going as I have pointed out in my original concept paper on this subject that was published in the Island paper and Asian Tribune (29^th Oct 2006) and Lankaweb Dec. 2. 2017, with full details. As I have sated there, in closer examination ”just as much as the beat of the heart decides the fate of a man, similarly, the physical stability (beat) of the central hill country decides the fate of the entire life system and the civilization of this country for the following reasons. Therefore, the crying need  to protect the Sri Lanka’s Heartland at any cost.

All 103 rivers of the Island that provide water to sustain the entire life system on this lands, agriculture, industry and hydro power and human civilization have their sources on these hills, supported by the forest cover that protects their physical stability. If the forests are not there, there want be any rain and the rivers will cease to flow. If the rivers go dry at their sources they will go dry in their entirety and the whole country will end up as an uninhabitable sterile desert. As much as the man dies when the heart stops, similarly on the day the physical stability of the central hills is gone the entire life system of the island will disappear from its surface. It is in this context I argued for the crying need to protect the central hill country like the heart of our nation as this is the only watershed that provides water for the whole Island. This is a unique situation in the whole world. Therefore the need to protect it as the nation’s heart, you will agree, is a matter between death and survival for this nation.

 It is with this broad national perspective I called for the protection of the land above 5000 ft MSL as a strictly declared reserved and protected forest and limit all human settlement strictly to land below 3500 ft as it was done in the ancient times. If you look at Kotmale, Welimanda and Mandaramnuwara settlements you will see the wisdom of our ancient Kings. They never allowed any settlement above this level.

In this backdrop, Just imagine the scale of the danger and the crime of Building 63,000 houses, as it is being done today, on this HEARTLAND of the nation on the fragile steep slopes going up to 7700 ft MSL haphazardly and settling an army of Indian Tamils who consider India as their motherland and have both their hearts and minds in India, with no love what so ever for this country and are scheming to build up a Malayanadu on the HEARTLAND OF THE SINHALA NATION”, right at the center of this country. The latest reported in the press is the decision to hand over 300 acres to squatters in the Pidurutalagala reserve

                                                                             MAP 1

 Source : Sudath Gunasekara  1991

More than the historical injustices caused thereby to the native people who lived here for 2500 years and who sacrificed everything they had inherited from their glorious past within 500 years, from 1505-1948 to defend their Motherland in war against  three colonial invaders and the impending devastative strategic, political, economic and social implications on this Island nation that will follow due to this ongoing Internationally funded neo colonization” programme headed by India and it was this primary concern for a nation’s survival which made me to think about this comprehensive development project way back in late 1980s, as a person who love this country and deeply concerned with the destiny of the Sinhala nation at large.

As the man who resurrected a once dead and buried project (NAdA) between 1986-1992  that was rejected, discarded, blacklisted and money withdrawn in early 1980s by the World Bank and decided to close it down by bend of 1986 for political and administrative failures, I am deeply concerned and agitated by the present sad plight it has fallen in to. After resurrecting it from its abysmal depths and scratches during a short period  of 3 years, I gave it a new lease of life, even before the golden period of this Project emerged between 1989-1992 with WFP assistance. Lalith Atulathmudalai the then Minister of Agriculture on his first visit in Dec 1991 to this Project described it as the best small farm project in Sri Lanka at that time, incidentally which he described as the best example in the whole world where the poor is made poorer’ just one month before that date. The WFP followed suit by naming it as the best small farm project in Asia in 1992.

Having resurrected this dead Project from its grave by awakening a set of utterly disappointed and dejected 35,000 farmers to a highly motivated group of farmers with new hopes, I got 12.5 US$ million grant from the WFP and fed them three meals a day for six years, (that is 2.5 billion meals) from 1991—1992, with the slogan Food for development”. Coupled with a vigorous development plan I uplifted the standard of living of these men and women amidst immense political obstruction from the ruling UNP and got its area of authority expanded to cover the entire CP, UVA  and the Sabaragamuva provinces in 1992, in spite of the objections by the Minister Dharmadasa Banda.

As the first man who pointed out the crucial dependence of the Island’s entire life system and its civilization on the physical stability of the Central Hill Country, as its ‘GEOGRAPHICAL HEARTLAND’, with the lessons learnt from large scale deforestation done by the British, I am deeply grieved the way it had been destroyed and vandalized by native politicians from 1992 to date for political expediencies. They had no brain to understand the critical value of this Project for the survival of a nation and the need to protect it for the next generation. None of the Chairmen under both UNP and SLFP regimes during this period had the brain to understand the value of this Great Project and none has done a penny worth thing to protect it. All of them are either defeated politicians or political bats who change their party affiliations with every election and creep in in to these positions just to collect the money they spend on candidates and rob these institutions. They all have only enjoyed the benefits of office inherited from my perilous effort for six years. Beside mismanaging it and enjoying the benefits at public expense they have killed a hen laying golden eggs and also made it unmanageable and unrealistic by expanding its activities to areas outside its legal operational area of the three Provinces set by the Sri Lanka Hadabima Authority Act of 1991, which I got passed in spite of Minister of Agriculture Dharmadasabanda objecting to it openly. This illegal expansion they did by Gazette notification No. 2026/45 published on 07^th July 2017 firstly, to cover up their gross financial misappropriations done for 25 years since 1992 to 2017, running about all over the country like Hambantota in the extreme South and Vavuniya in the North, outside its legal area of operation and secondly, to justify new recruits loaded to the cadre for political favouritism.

In my opinion the importance of the protection of the Heartland should be inculcated to every man and woman starting from the President of the Republic to every school going child in this country if we want to preserve this beautiful land for posterity. In that context the message of the value of this Project and its objectives should be passed down to every man, woman and child. I strongly believe the protection of the Hill Country, the geographical HEARTLAND of the nation, is the golden key to the future survival and prosperity of this Island nation. It should be taught to everybody to be observed as a RELIGION”, in this country, I think.

As you will agree, more trees on the Hill country means more rain, more water, less erosion and less land degradation and better soil, better physical stability with their anchoring root systems, more waterfalls, more hydroelectricity, more industries and more agriculture, more bio diversity, more flowers and more fruits with more birds and song, more people and more prosperity. 

A brief history of the NADSA (now called HADABIMA project (for the benefit of my readers).

 In the wake of the newly emerged worldwide development euphoria in the early 1970s based on environmental protection, land reforms and equitable distribution of wealth and to achieve social justice advocated by people like Gunnar Myrdal in his classic Asian Drama and the  thought provoking concept of appropriate technology (enunciated by Schumacher) as an alternative for modern technology to face the challenges of sustainable development and the need for increased production to avoid hunger and the dangers of blanket application of Western technology to the so-called Third World countries, the attention of the then Government (1970-1977) was drawn to the  following problems at Home.

1 Serious soil erosion and land degradation in the hill Country and silting of the Islands rivers in the lowlands and recurrent floods in downstream areas due to large scale deforestation started by the British in 1830s and still continuing un-arrested due to poor land management and inappropriate cultivation practices followed by an utterly ineffective and inefficient plantation sector.

2 The problem of serious landlessness and poverty and social injustice, particularly in the Kandayn provinces due to loss of their ancestral land to the British and non- implementation of the recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission of 1951 and lack of income generating opportunities among the peasant population in the region.

3 The crying need to diversify the plantation sector with a package of diversified crops like pepper, Cloves and Coffee combined with other native home garden crops like coconut, Arica, vegetable and fruits and animal husbandry to reduce dependency on few mono crops like Tea and Rubber and also to avoid the vagaries of recurrent price fluctuation in the world market to face balance of payment problems

4 The need to revisit the Kandyan Forest Garden concept that is as good as the natural forest for environmental protection and to control soil erosion (with an annual  soil loss rate of 0.1mt/ha/year) with a modified mixed farm version to generate more income than from a traditional Kandyan Forest Gardens. (Recent studies by Guido Kuchelmeister (1987) and Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (1995) have found the Kandyan Forest Garden model to be the best ecosystem for this type of hilly terrain as it possess both ecological and environmental characteristics that are ideal for such situations in a tropical country- only second to the natural forests)

Subsequently on a request by the Government World Bank carried out a comprehensive study on all these aspects and finally they produced 97 excellent research documents that remains a gold mine guideline for any development in this region of the country for income generations.

First Phase

Based on the findings of these studies the next Government that came to power in 1977 set up the National Agricultural Diversification and Settlement Development Authority (NADSA) in August 1978 to implement a pilot Project in few selected river basins in the Kandy (Gampola and Nawalapitiya) and Kegalla (Mawanella and Yatiyantota) Districts to be replicated in other hill country areas with similar problems after the trial period. These Projects were confined to the mid country (300-900m MSL).The new Government started with a bang contributing 2.5m US$ as GOSL component and the World Bank providing 4.5m US$. The Minister of Agriculture E L Senanayaka vested few LRC marginal and neglected Tea and Rubber lands from the two Districts and established the NADSA in August 1978 and as usual packed it with their political stooges who knew nothing next to the objectives of the Project. They had no proper plan of development either. They also had no vision or a mission on the implementation of this Project. The Minister toured the area by helicopter with WB Chairman. Kapila Wimaladharma Pathirana (SLAS) the General Manager was the only professional attached to this Project. But before long the Minister chased him out as he had refused to carry out some of the Ministers mad orders and put one of his supporters in that place from Kandy kachcheri, a Surveyor by the name Wikramasuriya.  In no time the Word Bank got disgusted with mismanagement and poor Project performance and decided to withdraw from the Project with the 4.5 Million Grant. They discarded and blacklisted it as a failed Project.

Subsequently on a Report by Ranjan Wijeratna, who knew only about Tea planting, the then Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture the government decided to close down the project. Thus conceptually one of the best development projects ever conceived in the post Independent era in this country, finally the Government decided to close it down by end of 1986, on his report. Thereafter productive estates and good Bungalows were appropriated by politicians and sometimes even by the officials. For example Kelli Estate with its Bungalow was given to Deputy Minister Agriculture Imbulana. Part of Ovel Estate and its manager’s bungalow in Gampola to a relation of Gamini Disanayaka and Wariyagala Bungalow with few acres of Tea was appropriated by the successor to Kapila as Director and part of the same state was given to the Administrative Officer of NADSA. Meanwhile all the Tea factories were given for a song to one Karunaratna from Colombo a close friend of JR. who dismantled them and made a fortune of it.  Immediately after I took over the Project, I stopped all such nefarious activities and the left out assets were used for development within the Project

The second phase that opened a new lease of life to the NADSA Project (later named by me as HADABIMA Project) under my administration

On April 1st 1986 I took over a Project that was to be closed down by end of the year. In fact Minister Gamani Jayasuriya sent me there to preside over the last rituals of NADSA, until he takes me as his Additional Secretary on Janu.1. 1987.

This appointment came at a time when I was getting ready to leave public service in disgust, to take up a Commonwealth assignment as an Expert in Handicrafts in Sierralyon, as my appointment as Government Matale and Kandy had been blocked thrice and even as the Registrar of Peradeniya University in spite of the fact that I had come first at the Interview. On the day I met Minister Gamani Jayasuriyain this backdrop in the company of Mahanaayaka Thero of Asgiriya, after going through my Bio-data he said he will take me immediately as his Additional Secretary and moreover there is no point in going to NADSA as it will be closed down by the end of the year. Had I accepted his offer I could have been the Secretary Ministry of Agriculture in no time since by that time I had completed more than six years in Class1 and 21 years in SLAS. It also would have been a very big promotion in my carrier. But since I opted to be in Kandy for personal reasons till end of year he put me on this job on condition that I will come to the Ministry of Agriculture as his Additional Secretary in Jan 1987. Objections by the Chief Minister for my appointment CP were thwarted and I assumed duties as its Director on April 2nd 1986.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

I sat down and first studied the project reports. The first I read among them in detail was a comprehensive evaluation report of the Project made by Kapila the first Director that gave me a bird’s eye view of the Project. This was followed by few visits to the field and trying to understand the ground situation by meeting the people and seeing the actual situation and trying to understand the actual problems faced by the farmers. I met the Minister on Monday the next and told him how I have understood the project by going through the reports and seeing things on the ground coupled with my experience in District Administration and my knowledge on the landscape as a student of Geography. I told him that, in my opinion, NADSA is one of the best development concepts, if not the best, as I see, that had ever been proposed in the post Independent era in this country by any Government and therefore it should never be closed down as long as this country exists on earth” he looked at me sharply and said. ”Sudath all the other fellows say just the opposite of what you say, either all of them are mad or you are mad.’ He posed for a while and continued but having listened to you, I too think there is lot of truth in what you say”

From next day I started my mission by my country and the neglected Kandyan peasants with full drive, determination and commitment to make this the best small farm development Project in this country by the end of the year and to replicate it to all areas with identical problems within three years as a model Agricultural settlement Development Programme in South East Asia at least if not the whole world.

But there were serious limitations to achieving my goals such as

1 Lack of adequate staff both in the Office as well as in the field

2 Lack of sufficient funds, materials and equipment

3 An utterly depressed and demotivated set of settlers

4 And above all obstructions from the local politicians on personal grounds

For example the office staff was limited to an Administrative officer, an Accountant (both retired from public service), few clerks and 2 peons, three drivers and two labourers. In the field there were about 6 Field officers to look after 15 settlements in two Districts. The rest had been discontinued pending the closure of the project in December 1986. The vehicle flight consisted of 1 hacked Pajero jeep. 3 rackety small Daihatsu Jeeps, one Box model Mitsubishi Lancer old car, 2 old Lorries, all that escaped the hammer.  All development activities had come to a standstill by that time.

The following Monday I had a staff meeting of all officers and briefed them about the situation and my proposed future plans in the backdrop of my understanding and what the Minister indicated to me for my proposal to resurrect the Project and sought their support for my future plans.

The first step in this process was to motivate the staff and the settlers with new hopes and then to find sufficient funds to continue. My first approach was the Treasury. But point blank it said no as the Government has already taken a decision to close down the Project by year end. The next major problem was to bring back those settlers who had left the farm plots and look for a device to keep the settlers on the farm lots. With my experience in problems of rural development as a DRO, I met the WFP Country Director Mr Hersy in Colombo with a modest Project proposal for 2.5 million US $ request. But he said the WFP will never agree to reopen this as this project was rejected as a failed project due to mismanagement and moreover grant money with drawn and it was blacklisted. I insisted saying that I will give a guarantee that I can resurrect the project since it is one of the best development concepts ever conceived in this country since Independence. He again said WFP will never agree to come back. However as I insisted he finally agreed to take my proposal to Rome the following week when he goes there saying just to try your luck”.

To my surprise on his return he rang me up to congratulate me saying that Rome has agreed to reopen the Project under new management as they were highly convinced on my reasoning and he wanted me to make it 5 Million as he as the country Director can recommend up to 5 Million US $. In few seconds he rang me up again and said ‘Don’t worry Mr Gunasekara, I myself will adjust the figures and as from today onwards I will treat it as one of my own Projects. That is the way I was able to convince the WFP Country Director at that time.

In two months’ time came a Project appraisal mission to appraise it along with another proposal for Kotmale requested by Minister Gamini Disanayaka. I did my homework got an evaluative study done by Prof J.M. Gunadasa of the Peradeniya University supporting my arguments on the economic viability in the Project proposal. I submitted it to the appraisal team. I also got a 35 minute video film done on the importance of the objectives of this Project and its future potentials in nation building by Dharmasena Pathiraja  called’ Haritha Danavva” (Green Habitat) to be shown to them. (This film was later awarded a merit certificate at the International Film festival held that year in  Praha-Checholovakia on Environment). By the time the appraisal team arrived I had got the settlers to clean up their farms and roads on Shramadana basis and also got them to start on a vigorous programme of Development activities including planting, putting up stone hedges for soil conservation and even giving a new outlook to their temporary huts. Meanwhile I also provided pipe born water services where ever possible. For all these activities I gave them only 50% of the cost including material likes s-lon pipes. In order to get this work done. I organized the settlers in to groups of 25 families called Pasvisi Sabaha’ where they took all decisions and the officials playing the role of facilitators only using the participatory management technique. (Incidentally one person did a study on the success story of this first Highland Farmer Organization in Sri Lanka and got a PhD from a USA University).

 When the Appraisal team came, each member was given a docket with reading material along with a copy of the Evaluative Study followed by screening the video film Haritha Dannvva. By this time I also got the Board of Directors reconstituted with the Directors of the Departments of Agriculture, Minor Export Crops and the two Government Agents of Kandy and Kegalla with senior representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Treasury. I also had an advisory body formed with eminent men like Ray Wijewardhana and Dr Waidyanatha of the University Peradeniya who were experts on appropriate technology and planting and Kapila the first General Manager and Director and also Prof J.M Gunadasa who compiled the Evaluative study. I also got them to participate in field visits as facilitators to the Appraisal team. I got the farmers to welcome the visitors with traditional Bulath hurulu and in some places even by putting up traditional pandoles with local materials which they procured from their own farms.

At the end of the three day field visit I hosted the Appraisal Team for lunch at the Kegalla Rest House. While thanking them for visiting to appraise my Project I told them that it is a Herculean task to take this Project uphill. I also told them that when I think of the constrains and difficulties of taking it uphill it reminds me the famous Dover mail story that comes in Tales of Two Cities of Charles Dickens. I also told them that there were two horses to pull the Dover mail where as there is only one little horse here to pull the NADSA mail; the two horses there had eight legs whereas this horse here has only two legs. The mud on the Dover hill was only natural whereas here it is not only natural but also political, administrative, financial and even psychological in which I am already buried to the neck. However, I told them, I am determined to forge ahead uphill nonstop until I reach the top even if I don’t get an ounce of American flour or a grain of rice or an ounce of Sugar, dhal or Dry fish from WfP. Team leader Arora got up and this is what he said in reply.

Mr Gunasekara this is the fifth visit I made to this Project. What I have seen this time is something entirely different from all what I have seen in my All previous visits. I do not know what magic you have done to make this change and the brimming enthusiasm and hearty laughs seen on the faces of the settlers. You should not have any doubts about your goal. You are already at the top of the NADSA hill and I declare on behalf of the whole team that last night we have unanimously decided to approve your Project Proposal and more over it is not 5 million as you have requested but double that amount”.

At the end instead of 5 Million for five years they gave 12.million for six years after their second visit having seen my video film ‘The Miracle Basket” a short film made by me showing what a Great Change’ the food basket has brought about. At the end of that year my project was hailed as the best Small farm Development Project in Asia funded by the WFP. By end of 1991 the assets of the project went up by millions and the staff increased by hundreds as well as quality of service they did to the people. The vehicle fleet rose up to about 50 including, 6 tractors, a mini bus to transport settles for training in different places  and 48 motor cycles for field officers,.

Incidentally to everybody’s surprise the request for WFP assistance for Kotmale made by Minister Gamini Disanayaka was rejected by the WFP. 

Phase three 

 Encouraged by this success I moved on to the next step of my Dream, that is expanding the Project to all the three Provinces around the hill country, Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa, under the New name Sri Lanka Harita Danau Bim Sanwardhana Madyama Adikariya” (Sri Lanka Hadabima Adikariya) from 1991 as they together form one physiographic unit and also correspond with the area covered by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report of 1951.

I visualized this expansion with a holistic perspective of development within a broader geographical area covering the entire CP, UVA and the Sabargamuwa Provinces, covering about 2/3 the area of this Island, with the dual objectives of,

Firstly, to protect the Central Hill Country, the nation’s mother watershed which I named as the The Geographical Heartland of Sri Lanka” or   Bhuugoliya HADABIMA” of Sinhale to save the entire life system in this country from its extinction and

Secondly, to retain this land as the LAND of the SINHALA NATION as long as the sun and moon shall last in this universe.

Meanwhile President Premadasa summoned me for a meeting at the Presidential Secretariat along with the Minister, Deputy and the chairman. At that meeting he asked me 3 questions. A) The present position of the Project b) What I propose to do next and c) The assistance we need to implement the programme. After listening to me he asked me Why are these Gampola side people so angry with you,” probably referring to the continual objections by the CM Dissanayaka.

Thereafter he explained the importance of this project to the committee as I had outlined in my concept paper I had given to him earlier on The geographical heartland of the country” where he quoted my statement that as much as the beat of the heart decides the fate of the man similarly the physical stability of the central hill Country decides the entire life system and the civilization in the entire Island”.  And finally he said gentlemen, as Sudath says this is a very good Project and that is why I have decided to support it.

This was followed by another meeting in the Ministry of Agriculture at Peradeniya presided over by him and attended by the Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, Governors of the three Provinces and all the MPP and the GA A of the new Project area. At that meeting after my briefing where I requested or 40 million for the expansion programme he after consulting Paskaralingam who was also present gave me the 40 million over the counter, after I told him that I am planning to settle 250 000 families under the proposed new Project area at completion in all three Provinces covered by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission. He then said ‘Sudath I have given you all what you asked for. Now I want you to start a very vigorous publicity programme

This rang up the alarming bells for the politicians of the area as the politicians of the ruling UNP.They  immediately started their war against me perhaps fearing that I would be a political threat to them as they always thought I was a SLFP man. The Chief Minister Dissanayaka CP rekindled his torch as he had been gunning at me from the day I was appointed, as Director of this Project and soon the doom phase of the Project began to raise its ugly head.

 I was taken by surprise when I found that I had been transferred to the pool with immediate effect within a week after the famous Peradeniya meeting where the President gave me 40 million over the counter for the expansion I proposed without a blink.

This decision of Premadasa not only to put an end to the golden period of the HADABIMA Project but it also drew the curtain over the beginning of the dawn of a new era of physical stability, watershed management for the HAERTLAND and a new chapter in socio-economic prosperity, meaningful social integration and human contention and political stability for the whole country.

(But having realized perhaps his mistake, within a month President Premadasa appointed me as the State Secretary to the Ministry of Health after I got him convinced of the dangers of a proposal before the Cabinet for the amalgamation of the Divisional Secretariats and Pradesiyasabha, as the President of the SLAS held at the BMCH in December 1992.  On behalf of the general membership of the SLAS I wanted the President to withdraw a) the Cabinet paper to be taken up next day proposing to amalgamate the DSS and DCC, to appoint Divisional GAA as Secretaries to the Pradesiya Sabha Chairmen and also to appoint All Island Class 1 Officers as Divisional GAA by his Government.  Those SLAS Officers who were there would remember how profusely he thanked me for pointing out the dangers of the proposal and he agreed to withdraw that death warrant on the SLAS. I hope all will agree with me that if not for that timely intervention by me there would have been no SLAS thereafter in this country, thanks to Jolly Somasundaram the architect of that Cabinet paper. That is a different story altogether.)

To revert to the original subject of HADABIMA story I will now give you how politicians again killed a golden hen that would have laid even Diamond EGGS for this nation and created a new chapter in scientific watershed management, water resource development, economic and socio cultural renaissance and finally, brought about lasting political stability to this Island nation by solving the canker that is The Indian Estate Tamil Problem” forever in this country, had my proposal been carried out to its logical conclusion.

Thirty years after I left it, today sadly only the name HADABIMA I gave it is left. None of the objectives of the original fathers of either the NADSA as envisaged in early 1970s or that broad national vision I conceived and perceived in late 1980s on the enormous potentialities of this important Project are active there now. Just like most other Projects, It also has got reduced to another semi-Government Institution that provides lucrative and remunerative political jobs to satisfy those who pretend to have helped the ruling party to come to power. All this is done at public expense with no contribution at all to national development. When are we going to save this country from this rut?

Even after I left in 1992 this Authority functioned under the Ministry of Agriculture up to 2016  but sadly again it went back to the pre-1986 situation and became a heaven for politicians their unscrupulous henchmen who had no understanding of the basic objectives or the values  of this all important national project. They were only concerned in making a fast bug and reaping the harvest of what I had planted enjoying the benefits of their official positions doing nothing for the country or the people who pay their salaries. 

It was assigned to the Ministry of Regional Development from 18th March 2016. That enabled Minister Fonseka’s b/in-law to function from Colombo as Chairman. Now it has been converted to an all Island Project by the Gazette notification No. 2026/45 published on 07th July 2017. This was done firstly, to cover up financial misappropriation committed by its Chairmen, Board members and even officials in travelling all over the island, outside its area of authority between 1992 and 2017. Because as we know you can’t spend public funds for any work or travelling outside the area of its legitimate operation unless one has the approval of the Secretary of the Ministry concerned to travel or do any special business outside the area of its legitimate authority. Doesn’t this display the scale of corruption and abuse of authority by all those who have handled this Project ever since 1992? These haphazard changes clearly evince the inability to understand the basic objectives of the Project for which it was established in 1978 as NADSA. Political objectives getting precedence over development and creating unproductive jobs for their men and providing more facilities like vehicles and enhanced travelling appear to have overtaken the development objectives of the Project.

 After it came under Minister Fonseka, he has appointed one of his relatives as the Chairman and got an Office opened up in Colombo, as said before to enable him to function from there, thereby reducing the Peradeniya office to a Sub-office. They also created a post of Vice Chairman and allowed him to function from Hambantota as he happened to be a person from that area, I am told, that is how they have abused political power and misappropriated public funds and ruined this Project over the past 28 years.

Gazette notification No. 2026/45 published on 07^th   July 2017 enabling its functions to cover the whole island has brutally killed its original objectives.  I have narrated this sad story to the country in order to bring this to the notice of the President and the Prime Minister so that they will take suitable measures at least now, before it is completely ruined by unscrupulous political appointees for which the final responsibility will come on the President.

However I must make it very clear here that I am not asking for a job by pointing out these blunders.  I am only requesting the President to rescind the 2017 gazette and confine its activities to the project area defined by the 1991 gazette and appoint someone who can understand the ABCD of this Project. In the process if the President or the Prime Minister want me to take over HADABIMA as its Head as the founding father of this wonderful Project, I shall work WITHOUT a SALARY with full commitment, dedication and determination until I put it back on its wheels as I  had dreamt in late 1980s. Within 2 or 3 years the most I shall make it the best development Project in this country by paving the way to realize the following objectives within five years and make history in the annals of post independent era of this country in people centered development, for everyone to see as to how a public institution should be run under Sinhala Buddhist ethos and perception for the benefit of the many and for the happiness of the many.

1 Get all the land above 5000 ft. declared as a strictly prohibited National Forest Reserve, a Thahanchi kele as it was done by our ancient Kings

2 Get the HADABIMA (> 1000 ft. MSL) protected as the Nations Heart to guarantee that the life system and Civilization in this country is not endangered and it will last as the sun and moon shall rise over this land.

3 Get 250 000 self-sustained farmer families settled within the Project area on 2 ½ acre farm lots

4 Obtain WFP Food assistance for 6 years, under the motto, Food for Development” to sustain these farm families, (as I did from 1991-1992) until they are on their own feet

5 Draw up a programme to cover the entire HADAMIMA with natural forest and Agro forests (Kandyan Forest gardens) to arrest soil erosion and land degradation endangering biodiversity

6 Once again restore the Central Hill Country as the nation’s biggest natural reservoir”, and the best hideout in the country and make all the 103 rivers starting on these hills perennial, increase water flow in all the rivers and minimize flood and silting in downstream areas and make at least the major rivers like Kelani (up to Yatiyantota rapids as it had been before 1815 and Mahaweli and Kalu ganga in ancient times

7 Make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in Hydro Electricity, minimizing dependency on thermal power and if possible make it a Hydro Power exporting country.

8 Make Sri Lanka a water exporting country in future as I have stated in my paper on Vision and Mission on Water Management” in Sri Lanka I have already sent to you.

9 Rectify all the historical injustices done to over 600 000 Kandyan peasants by the British and all Governments since the so-called Independence in 1948

10 End the all- important pestering Indian Tamil problem in the hill country by establishing Sinhala-Tamil mixed settlement schemes below 3500 ft. MSL with the final goal of integrating all of them under the Nehru/Kotalawala Agreement of 1954 with the main stream, as full citizens of this country.

By Asoka Bandarage Courtesy Asia Times

Sri Lanka’s historical narrative has been defined by geopolitical rivalry, external aggression and internal resistance to that aggression. The early historical era experienced successive waves of invasion from South Indian kingdoms. These were followed by European conquest and consecutive rule of the coastal lowlands by the Portuguese (1505-1666), the Dutch (1666-1796) and the British (1796-1815).

There have been numerous sea battles among rival powers to control Trincomalee, the second-deepest natural harbor in the world, situated on the island’s east coast. Of great strategic military value, it has been controlled in turn by the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English. Its capture by the British in 1782 paved the way for Britain’s colonization of the entire island after the usurpation of the Kandyan Kingdom in the Central Highlands in 1815. With deception and manipulation, the British conquered the land and built a class of native collaborators; native lords, commoners and Buddhist monks who rebelled were convicted of treason and banished, imprisoned or killed.

British colonial authority and associated capitalist development resulted in a fundamental political, economic and social transformation of the island. The authoritarian and coercive policies used to maintain law and order, land expropriation for plantations, harsh taxation of the local population and the import of indentured labor from South India and other measures had long-term detrimental effects on subsistence agriculture, peasant land rights and livelihood, and the island’s demographic distribution, communal harmony and ecological balance.

Although Sri Lanka’s period of classical colonialism” with direct political control by Britain ended with its independence in 1948, the socioeconomic and cultural forces set in place during the colonial period have continued to dominate the island’s development, particularly in terms of economic growth and social class and ethno-religious politics. Neocolonialism – a term introduced by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, in the early 1960s – describes a post-colonial state that is in theory independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty,” but in reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.” The concepts of neocolonialism and non-alignment in foreign policy that Nkrumah and other leaders of ex-colonial states championed in the 1950s and 1960s still have great relevance for Sri Lanka today.

Sri Lanka is at a decisive historical juncture, facing new forms of geopolitical rivalry and external military, political and economic as well as cultural intervention, primarily involving overt and covert expansionist efforts of the US, China and India. The small, beleaguered country is struggling to safeguard its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and its very ecological survival.

Politics is about propaganda, control of narratives and exploiting ignorance and fear. There is therefore a practical need for an understanding of the colonial experience that goes beyond academic interest.

Post-colonial developments

Since independence, Sri Lanka’s political, economic and cultural evolution has centered on a high level of tension between external intervention and local resistance.

In the early years, Sri Lankan governments, like those of many ex-colonial states, introduced policies to nationalize foreign-owned plantations and other private enterprises, to foster local industries and develop local culture and identities. The Constitution of 1972 replaced the island’s colonial name Ceylon with Sri Lanka, declaring the country to be a free, sovereign, independent and democratic socialist republic.” These designations remain on paper, but many of the nationalist policies backfired, giving rise to massive youth unemployment and violent social class and communal conflicts, specifically the 1971 Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Sinhala youth insurrection and Tamil militancy.

In 1977, urged on by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a newly elected Sri Lankan government introduced an open economy,” reversing autarkic economic policies, giving free rein to foreign investment and imports, and privatizing hitherto state-owned sectors. This economic liberalization” and associated dismantling of the welfare state, as well as the constitution adopted a year later, made 1977 a turning point in the modern economic and political history of the island. Still, it was not a radical departure, but rather an acceleration, of the capitalist development that had begun with the colonial plantation economy in the 1830s.

The central concern of the post-1977 period was the armed struggle for separatism by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In May 2009, the Sri Lankan government defeated the LTTE in what is considered one of the few instances in modern history in which a terrorist group had been defeated militarily.” Since the end of the armed conflict, both the political and ideological struggle demanding Tamil regional autonomy, as well as geopolitical intervention by external powers in Sri Lanka, have intensified. The convergence of these forces poses serious threats to the island’s peace, security and survival as a united and independent country.

Neocolonialism and geopolitical rivalry

Colonialism involves control of a less powerful country by a more powerful one, to exploit resources and increase the latter’s power and wealth. In essence, neocolonialism involves the same factors as classical colonialism: militarism, external expropriation of natural resources, deception and manipulation, collusion with local elites, incitement of ethnic and religious differences and local resistance to external aggression. Colonized people must recognize the history and methodology of exploitation and power in order to prevent continued manipulation, deception and domination and to protect the sovereignty and resources of their countries.

In the era of classical colonialism, a single external power, Britain, controlled Sri Lanka. Today, several powerful foreign countries, with China on the one side and the US, India, Japan, and others on the other side, are competing for control over the island, which is strategically located in the heart of the Indian Ocean in the ancient East-West maritime trade route. Sea lanes of the Indian Ocean are considered to be the busiest in the world today, with more than 80% of global seaborne oil trade estimated to be passing through the ocean’s chokepoints.

China has incorporated Sri Lanka within its US$4 trillion Belt and Road Initiative spanning the world and considered the most ambitious infrastructural investment effort in history.” China’s projects in Sri Lanka include the Hambantota Port taken over on a controversial 99-year lease and the massive Colombo International Financial City, built on 269 hectares of land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean.

In challenging China’s increasing military assertiveness in the region, the US is seeking to include Sri Lanka in its own grand strategy of a united military front between the US and India in the Indo-Pacific.” Concerned that Hambantota Port could become a Chinese military base, India is pursuing control over Sri Lanka’s other strategic seaports, developing the British-colonial-era oil-tank farm in Trincomalee and constructing a container terminal at the port in Colombo (in partnership with Japan), next to a Chinese terminal built as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

While there is antipathy in Sri Lanka toward Chinese and Indian intervention to grab local resources and control of ports and infrastructure, given the US military record, there is a much greater fear of US military intervention and interference in local governance. The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution of October 1, 2015, co-sponsored by the United States and the former US-backed Sri Lankan government, in the name of peace and reconciliation could turn Sri Lanka into a client state where the US and the international community” can dictate terms for constitutional reform and internal governance including the security and judicial sectors. In effect, the resolution has echoes of the Proclamation of March 2, 1815 – the Kandyan Convention – signed by the British and a faction of the Kandyan aristocracy that turned Sri Lanka into a British colony.

There is a parallel between the UNHRC Resolution and the proposed Sri Lanka compact with the US Millennium Challenge Corporation, a component of US National Security Strategy linking economic development with defense and diplomacy. They both manipulate the Sri Lankan government to turn against itself, giving up its power and responsibilities over the most vital sectors of the state, the resources of the country and the rights of its people. The MCC Compact seeks to privatize and commoditize state land to make them readily available to investors including foreign corporations. It brings to mind the early stage of capitalist development in Sri Lanka, when the British colonial state introduced legislation, infrastructure and other measures to establish the plantation economy.

Military engagement with Sri Lanka is considered vital to achieving US objectives in the Indo-Pacific region. The Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) provides the basis to set up a US ‘logistic hub’ in Sri Lanka to secure support, supplies and services at sea. If fully implemented, the ACSA would in effect undermine the Chinese share of geopolitical control in Sri Lanka, by way of military presence in the country.” Similarly, if Sri Lanka signs the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US, it would allow US Army personnel to operate in any part of Sri Lanka, without any restrictions. Sri Lankans fear that the SOFA would make the whole island … a US-controlled super state operating above the Sri Lankan laws and state….”

The way forward

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former defense secretary who led the armed victory over the LTTE in 2009, was elected president of Sri Lanka on November 16, 2019. His massive victory was a response to growing concern over national security and widespread opposition to external interventions.

The newly elected president and his administration are under pressure both from Sri Lanka’s nationalist forces that brought him into office and from external powers, especially India and the United States, who want to continue pursuing their own geo-strategic and economic interests in Sri Lanka. Local activists are continuing their demands to discard the MCC compact, military agreements and UNHRC Resolution, and also renegotiate better terms for Sri Lanka on the lease of Hambantota Port and environmental regulation of the Chinese Port City. The demands against Indian projects including the oil-tank farm in Trincomalee also persist.

Sri Lankan people recognize that these interventions together would thoroughly subordinate their country and turn the government into a mere shell of a state, leaving the island wide open for economic and military exploitation and a battleground for the geopolitical rivalry over the Indian Ocean.

It is not easy for a small country like Sri Lanka to forge a foreign policy that uses its geo-strategic position to its own advantage. While maintaining cordial relationships with the external powers, the principles of sovereignty, democracy and environmental sustainability must continue to be upheld. In light of the dangers posed by the recent bilateral agreements and the UNHRC Resolution, Sri Lanka has to join with other small countries in Asia and Africa to renew the policy of non-alignment that it championed valiantly during the Cold War.

It is also necessary to call on India to do the same. India, which was itself the victim of two centuries of British colonialism, needs to take on an enlightened leadership role in the region, independent of the China-US geopolitical rivalry. In fact, the term non-alignment” was coined by Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a speech he made in 1954 in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s National Joint Committee expressed the urgent call for the island’s non-alignment in a June 2019 letter written to the then Sri Lankan prime minister regarding the MCC Agreement:

[We are] committed to protect and preserve the unity and territorial integrity of our nation. We believe that Sri Lanka should follow a foreign policy of nonalignment. Due to the fact that Sri Lanka is strategically located in the Indian Ocean the country needs to remain nonaligned and refrain from getting involved in the geopolitical confrontation that is developing between America and China, through agreements that would enable these countries to gain a foothold in Sri Lanka.”

Indeed, it is urgent for all countries to uphold the principles of non-alignment and resist the polarization and militarization tearing the world apart. These principles – sovereignty and territorial integrity of states; independence from great power block influences and rivalries; the struggles against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism, foreign occupation and domination; disarmament; non-interference into the internal affairs of states; rejection of the use or threat of use of force in international relations; the restructuring of the international economic system; international cooperation on an equal footing – are more urgently needed than ever.

Sri Lanka’s historical trajectory – geopolitical rivalry, external aggression and internal resistance to that aggression – continues with great vigor in this current complex period. The tremendous suffering and destruction caused by this narrative calls for a shift in human relations from domination to partnership, from the exploitative and violent path of colonialism and neocolonialism to one of peace, justice and ecology. This is the transformational challenge facing both Sri Lanka and the world at this decisive time.

Courtesy WION