Editorial Courtesy Island

Friday 27th December, 2019

UNF MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne played a vanishing trick the other day. He had given the CID spooks the slip, our lead news item said yesterday. We thought the CID, which specialises in arresting suspects and interrogating them for hours on end, would be able to take Senaratne into custody in next to no time, after it had obtained a court order, but it was groping in the dark. Rajitha outfoxed it in style and had himself admitted to hospital, yesterday evening.

The CID was much more efficient under the previous dispensation, we reckon; it made a series of lightning arrests a few years ago. By the time the suspects who were mostly Opposition MPs realised what had happened they were inside what US President Donald Trump has called ‘paddy wagons’ on the way to courts, some of which were kept open till midnight. (Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has recently told the party leaders that MPs should not be arrested after nightfall!)

Curiously, Senaratne, who recently said he should not be arrested on account of his health condition, chose to disappear, instead of having himself admitted to hospital immediately.

The CID has sought to arrest Senaratne on the basis of statements by two suspects who made some serious confessions at a media briefing, which the then Minister Senaratne presided at, in the run-up to the 16 Nov. presidential election. They have been remanded. One of them claimed to have driven a White Van which transported abductees, who were fed to crocodiles in a tank, in Moneragala, after being tortured. The other one said he had transported a stock of gold seized from the LTTE to Colombo illegally.

The allegation that crocodiles had been fed with some victims of the White Van abductions reminds us of Jean Bedel Bokassa, who once proclaimed himself the Emperor of Central Africa and was accused of having schoolchildren and his political rivals killed and fed to his pet crocodiles. When such serious allegations are made in public, especially in the presence of a government minister, the image of the country suffers irreparably; they should have been investigated immediately after they were made. Why the UNF government did not do so is the question. It should, at least, have initiated a probe.

All those responsible for the White Van abductions must be brought to justice. Better late than never! Dr. Senaratne should have handed over the aforesaid suspects to the police when they were introduced to him instead of organising a media briefing for them to go public with their claims. The police personnel, who were present at that press conference, must be asked to explain why they did not arrest the suspects who admitted to having committed serious crimes. The police arrest suspects for far less serious offences, don’t they? Won’t they arrest a person if he happens to say, in their presence, that he has snatched a gold chain? They even arrest litterbugs and jaywalkers.

One may not care whether Senaratne is arrested or not, but one is concerned about the failure on the part of the police to trace him.

The present government came to power, promising to safeguard national security and ensure public safety by neutralising terrorist threats. This is an uphill task it cannot accomplish unless it has an efficient police force capable of tracking down evil elements hell bent on destroying innocent lives. During the war, the police gathered intelligence and prevented bomb attacks in the city by arresting terrorists together with bombs. What has become of the efficiency of the long arm of the law?

How can the police, who cannot at least trace an Opposition MP in hiding, in spite of an arrest warrant on him, be expected to track down elusive terrorists?

Courtesy TASS

On January 14, Sergei Lavrov will meet with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, also planning to hold talks with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Sri Lanka and India on January 14-15, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated during Thursday’s briefing.

“On January 14-15, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will come to Sri Lanka and India on a working visit,” she noted.

According to her, on January 14, Lavrov will meet with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, also planning to hold talks with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. “They plan to discuss the current state of relations between Russia and Sri Lanka, the prospects for promoting political dialogue, developing cooperation in the trade-economic, humanitarian and other spheres, as well as to discuss expanding the bilateral treaty and legal basis. Special attention will be paid to expanding cooperation within international organizations, namely within the UN and its specialized bodies,” the spokeswoman said.

The diplomat noted that on January 15, Lavrov would hold talks with his Indian colleague Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi. “The foreign ministers will consider the current state and prospects of development of bilateral relations in light of the goals outlined on the outcomes of the XX Russian-Indian Summit that took place on September 4-5 in Vladivostok. They will also discuss the 2020 schedule of upcoming top-level political contacts. They plan to have a comprehensive exchange of opinions on regional and international issues,” she said. Zakharova added that the Russian top diplomat also plans to take part in the Raisina Dialogue conference set to take place in the Indian capital on January 14-16.

Courtesy Ada Derana

UPDATE (10:58 pm): Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are yet to record a statement from MP Rajitha Senaratne as the parliamentarian has been taken for a medical check-up.

Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are currently recording a statement from Parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne who was hospitalized earlier today (26).

MP Rajitha Senaratne was admitted to the Lanka Hospitals in Narahenpita earlier this evening.

On 24th December, the Colombo Additional Magistrate issued a warrant to arrest the former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne over the controversial white van” media briefing he had called last month.

However, officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were not able to arrest the former Health Minister despite arriving at both his residences in Colombo and Beruwala.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing the parliamentarian filed a motion before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court this morning (26) to submit explanations for the recall of the arrest warrant on the MP, only to withdraw it later today.

Subsequently, a team of CID and Special Task Force (STF) personnel carried out a search at the parliamentarian’s residence in Colombo, today, to no avail.

Courtesy Hiru News

A CID Team arrived at the Lanka Hospitals,Narahenpita where MP Rajitha Senarathna is Admitted at the CICU.

Courtesy Hiru News

MP Rajitha Senaratne admitted to CICU at Lanka Hospitals, Narahenpita

With regard to LAND there are critical factors Sri Lanka cannot afford to ignore any longer. We are into 72 years of ‘independence’ but still following colonial statutes and it is nothing we can be too proud about. It is essential to realize that these colonial statutes were drawn up by colonial invaders to suit their administration under which our natives were subservient. True, we gained adult suffrage and education but that too had ulterior motives in developing brown sahibs to continue colonial rule in new colonial form. Nonetheless, for a country to proudly stand up for sovereignty and territorial integrity, it must essential draft its own laws and regulations to suit its governance while of course conforming to ‘international standards’ but keeping national sovereignty respected by all & in tact. It is not simply a reversal or opposite of colonial laws that is required but reforming the laws to suit natives in their present living conditions.

Having understood the gist of this let us first look at the problems in hand

1. Existing Colonial Statutes & Preservation of Land Registry Post independence?

Sri Lanka is still maintaining the 1863 land registry. It is now broken into 45 land registries which cover 9.5million blocks of Sri Lanka’s land area (State & Private) and scattered in different state buildings. Are these books in good condition? Have they got damaged? Is there a national policy that demands their maintenance?

These 45 land registry books are 156 years old. How many have thought of their wear & tear and need to preserve them or to ensure that they are not harmed? Have successive governments taken action to ensure every land registry is prevented from damage and harm and most importantly kept secured? None of these land registries have been completely digitalized. Imagine the state they are in.

However, there is the reconstruction statute and this provision must be used.

• Foreigners doing Sri Lanka’s Land Research/Reports & Recommendations

World Bank & USAID have done more reports on Sri Lanka’s land than Sri Lanka has tasked its academics, students and ministry departments. It is based on their research and recommendations that funding is being requested by Sri Lanka or given. $5million was given by World Bank to digitalize Sri Lanka’s land deeds. Simply giving money is insufficient even World Bank concluded in its own 2001 report which deemed Sri Lanka not ready for digitalization. World Bank gave 15 to 25 years for Sri Lanka to increase tenure security for farmers and land holders, enable efficient land transactions, recover cost over long-term and land administration to be without political, social class or ethnic based. 20 years has passed and none of these objectives have been fulfilled.

This same 2001 World Bank report said the GOSL (RanilW’s Govt) now wants to transform the country’s land administration system from one based on deeds and documents permitting private use of State land to one based on registration of titles” (the 1998 Govt via Bim Saviya began to change deeds to titles and then the 2001 Govt wanted to change deeds to titles with no definition of private which could mean foreign private too)

While we appreciate the efforts of World Bank & USAID to research and publish reports on land in Sri Lanka we must also be mindful of the recommendations that come with the carrot of funding. Why does World Bank want to lift the land market restrictions? Is it to convert our agricultural land to grow some other crop. Sri Lanka has about 1m titles that restrict what can be done with land – why did the UNP Govt and World Bank wish to remove these restrictions and their studies showed that by amending articles in the Land Development Ordinance of 1935 they could do so. The World Bank Reports are well researched and seem to have even identified all the restrictions (State Land Ordinance 1949, Land Reform Law 1972, Land Grants (special provisions) 1979.

Recommendations for improvements to land law in Sri Lanka is based on foreign reports & by foreign research teams and recommendations are by foreigners on what they deem suitable for Sri Lanka. Will foreign recommended laws implemented secure and protect our intellectual property rights? 

• Haphazard Decisions based on foreign funding – Changing entire law of the country?

BIM SAVIYA (transferring from Deed Registration to Title Registration)

Australian ‘Torrens System’ of title registration – Registration of Titles Act No. 21 of 1998, known as Bim Saviya which requires compulsory title registration.

In 1998 a sudden change in land took place probably due to funding associated with the proposal that changed Sri Lanka’s land law from deed system to title system. Whose decision was it to bring another foreign law into the colonial laws we were already complying with without much change?

How many are aware that this Act 21 of 1998 has taken away the rights of the Judiciary to adjudicate land frauds and the rights of the people to seek justice for land issues. In lieu of the judiciary a new title Commissioner of Title is created to adjudicate 9.5million blocks of land!

However, the Registrar of Lands says that 50% of Sri Lanka’s land deeds are fraudulent – in such a scenario without resolving this 50% of land cases via courts how correct is it to include fraudulent deeds into electronic form – denying the original owner the right to claim his/her land?

Let’s not forget the Empire State Building in US was ‘sold’ for $2b by a ‘Willie Sutton’ and deed was registered within 90minutes in US electronic register. The registration could be reversed because it was the Empire State Building but will the same happen to others?

Were the lawyers aware that the law of co-ownership and the law of prescription was removed at the Bill stage of Act 21 of 1998?

Have those who introduced Bim Saviya in 1998 thought about the consequences of taken away people’s deeds, where to store them, aspects of hacking and cyber crime when digitalizing records (no system is foul proof) at least with physical records, there are ways to make duplicate copies and keep for owners.

Section 33 of the Act judiciary is given no power to hear cases related to land ownership especially if the grantees ownership is affected by fraud. The grantee will have to seek compensation in lieu of his ownership. The judiciary cannot question the entries in the registry made by the Registrar General.

Under Act 21 a grantee under the new bill could not pass half share of the land  to his or her spouse or child to be a co-owner.

The banks cannot give them loans if the wife becomes a co-owner.  How can he obtain bank loans if a salaried family member was not joined as a co-owner 

Given the context of land issues and its association with colonial land statutes how far have successive governments spent on remedying the irregularities and bringing laws and outdated statutes to suit and conform with Sri Lanka’s laws as well as its Constitution?

ONLY Relief we have is the 7 day window to file FR in Supreme Court. Can lawyers afford to rely on the 7 days to study statutes & file complaint? Are the foreign lawyers not taking advantage of this?

• Digitalizing Sri Lanka’s deeds & Land Registry

Digitalizing means reducing physical land registry. Ideally, it is good to have one large building to house all of the 45 land registries and the computer systems with the electronic land deeds with local technical and computer experts. In any emergency the referral option is available.

The Sri Lanka Survey Dept has developed a Land Information System & put each block of land into a 12 digit system.

Without passing the Land Bank Act which was part of the MCC pre-condition, a US outsourced company is now doing cadastral mapping across Sri Lanka. Why has it not been given to the Sri Lankan Survey Dept to do?

According to former Survey General who had been working for the department since 1978 – Rs.5000million had been spent from 2007 to 2018 ($28m)

In 2007 World Bank had given $5m to digitalize deeds

Sadly, only 200,000 of the 9.5m blocks of land has been digitalized from 1998-2019 into 10 land registries. So in 20 years we have digitalized only 200,000 blocks of land for the $5million given by World Bank excluding the maintenance & other costs.

Clearly, $67m allocation for land project by MCC is not enough.

MCC will have to wait 300 years in Sri Lanka to digitalize 9.5million blocks of land!

For any GPS, paperless digital translation to search land title with 12 digit unique number the first requirement is to ensure the Registry has the legal owners. What we have is a set of new systems which are half in operation without first addressing the most important element – who are the legal land owners and register them first to the computerized land registry. What good is a land registration system if we have not first addressed land identification issues?

• Is Sri Lanka ready to digitalize land registry & deeds?

The most important part of the 2001 World Bank project was that World Bank identified Sri Lanka was NOT READY for any type of digitalization. The key issues are important for the team presently studying ONLY the MCC Agreement without looking at the larger and more critical land related issues the policy makers are ignoring.  

World Bank says Sri Lanka is NOT READY for any type of digitalization because

1. Land settlement dept staff lacks skills in adjudication
2. Organizational framework for title registries is not efficient, effective or sustainable
3. No published results, workshops or stakeholder discussions have reviewed progress of ongoing titling activities
4. Little coordination between survey & adjudication staff is wasting govt budgets
5. 50% cases incomplete
6. coverage limited to rural areas
7. large-scale financing of systematic titling unlikely
8. lack of modern and efficient survey & information technology in titling
9. absence in involving private sector to supplement government capacity to speed up titling registration
10. no motivation to carry out continuing land related policy reform dialogue
11. human resource development essential for efficient long-term land titling program not addressed

Going Forward

There are millions of books in the land registry which are over 200 years old which nedd to be scanned for digitalization and archiving. What Sri Lanka lacks and what Sri Lanka’s government must invest in are digital engineers and train Sri Lankan citizens instead of having to outsource a nationally-important activity to foreigners – that too for an exorbitant payment often increasing if the terms and conditions are not finalized properly. External contractors shrewdly quote for a feature often hiding other required complimentary future features which are undertaken only if another fee is paid. If not, that project ends up gathering dust with only part work done. New features to be inserted over time have to be given to the same outsourced company as they keep all the passwords and back office access features.

Sadly, it has been foreign-funded international bodies who have been studying Sri Lanka’s land laws and customary practices and prepared extensive reports. World Bank and USAID have studied all of Sri Lanka’s land statutes. Have Sri Lanka’s land and legal fraternity as well as academia done the same and has successive governments funded these initiatives that should have been done locally.

World Bank & USAID spent time and money on reports but have been disappointed with the progress & have abandoned the recommendations. Ironically, it is making use of these misgivings that the MCC project team are now attempting to manipulate to their country’s geopolitical and trade advantage. MCC wants control over 11 land registries? Why? If MCC a US government body takes over these land registries & digitalizes them, only they are privy to the laws and back office. Sri Lanka will have no access without MCC approvals. Any government should regard this aspect a national security threat & risk. Land is the essence of a country’s sovereignty.

Mrs. Kirtimala Gunasekera suggested Sri Lanka adopts systems similar to India & Malaysia

• biometric identification similar to the Bhoomi Project in India where 20m records of land ownership of 6.7m farmers in a state was computerized (with anti-hacking system)
• Electronic land administration system in Malaysia is called e-Tanah – where land registry has a security system to prevent land fraud via thumb impression plus signature.

Saving Sri Lankas’ Land from impulsive legislative changes prompted by foreign funds is what Sri Lanka needs to be mindful of.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

After World War II ended in 1949, several countries got together to debate the issue of war. This gave them the opportunity to outlaw war and create agencies to settle future conflicts peacefully through negotiation. Instead of doing this, they ‘legalized’ warfare through the ‘Geneva conventions.’ Armies could shoot and kill each other These countries then enlarged the scope of lawful war to include wars within states (civil wars). They announced that ‘national-liberation-movements-fighting-against-alien-occupation-and-racist-regimes-in-the-exercise-of-their-right-of-self-determination’ were entitled to take arms and use force. This gave the green light to both genuine and bogus liberation movements.

The western powers saw civil war as a useful political tool for intervening in sovereign states, partitioning them and controlling the segment useful to them, such as the   east of Sri Lanka with access to the Bay of Bengal. These internal wars were therefore labeled ‘conflicts between sovereign states’, making the existing government an aggressor instead of the legitimate ruler. The ‘liberation movement’ was permitted to engage in terrorism.  Terrorists were ‘lawful combatants’. International law said terrorism was outside its scope and wriggled out of the issue.  Thanks to all this, rogue secessionist groups could now seize territory by force and get it recognized as a separate state in the UN, using ‘friendly countries’

It is now suspected that the Eelam war was not a home grown war. It was masterminded by outside forces. A group of Jaffna boys who had never left Jaffna and who did not know English styled themselves ‘Liberation Tigers’ and said they were seeking ‘self determination’ for their ‘nation’. They went to war with little training but somehow managed to get territory and hold it. How did they do it?

The LTTE did receive some sporadic training. India trained them in the 1980s. Norway had provided training at the Special Forces training camp in Rena on weapons tactics and military strategy (2003).  Norwegian ex -Special Forces had trained Sea tigers in underwater demolition in Thailand. Instruction on conducting the war could have come from abroad. The VSAT high frequency equipment acquired by the LTTE in 2002   could transmit voice, pictures, video without any interception from anybody.

But the main reason LTTE was able to defeat the army was because they had superior weapons and explosives. They had a continuous supply . of highly sophisticated weapons sent by a weapons procurement network operating from a foreign country.  They were able to procure armaments from all over the world and transfer them across borders without any difficulty.

LTTE had a formidable array of weapons, far superior to those owned by the Sri Lanka army. They had at least 30   pieces of heavy artillery. Also assault rifles, self loading rifles, light machine guns, sub- machine guns  rocket propelled grenades,  anti aircraft weapons, such as surface to air missiles and peddle guns. A four barreled air defense gun with a range of 2000 meters was found by the Sri Lanka army. This was a formidable acquisition and the army wanted to know where it came from.

LTTE was not a lawful army, therefore they smuggled in the weapons, including heavy items, by carrying out mid sea transfers, 200 nautical miles off Sri Lanka. They used special semi submersible submarines, capable of carrying 10 tons of equipment. Other items such as power generators also came in.  LTTE had a fleet of 50 ships, and was managing two dozen ships at any given time. Sri Lanka wanted the International Maritime Organization to investigate how the LTTE managed to operate this fleet when it was a proscribed organization.  They also wanted the countries which provided flags of convenience investigated.

Large hauls of arms was   recovered from Mullaitivu, Vakarai, Vishvamadu, Wellamulliwaikal beach, Panichchankerni jungle and Alanchipotha. Arms were also found in Kumana National Park. Troops found six boats laden with 996 kilos of explosives at Puthukkudiyiruppu,  1004 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives   at Mollikulam,  over 80 varieties of bombs at Iranamadu.

and two other stocks of explosives, elsewhere, weighing 2500 kilos and   3900 kilos. ‘The amount of weapons found is unbelievable,’ said the army ‘and much still remains to be recovered.  These could not have been only for Sri Lanka.’

There was a ‘navy’ containing fast attack craft   fitted with powerful outboard motors, radar and communication equipment. These had been smuggled in.  ‘Indumathi’, a 16 metre long wave rider class boat, had a mounted twin-barrel anti-aircraft weapon and multi purpose machine guns. LTTEalso had pedal type suicide boats  and stealth craft laden with explosives. They had also tried to mine the sea,  using limpet mines,  pressure mines  and closed circuit diving equipment   

Certain findings indicate that LTTE was preparing for a massive sea battle. Two huge torpedoes with launchers were recovered from Puthukudiyiruppu, ready to attack a ship. The navy wanted to know who purchased these and how were they brought into Sri Lanka? Under international law only governments can purchase torpedoes. Four submarines were found in an ultra secret factory there. Interpol was asked to find out how advanced equipment from Switzerland and Norway came to be fitted into these submarines. 

LTTE started an ‘air force’ of small, fixed wing aircraft.  ‘Air Tigers’ were added to ‘Sea Tigers ‘and ‘Sea Pigeons’. Three Czech built Zlin 143 planes came secretly from South Africa  These arrived by ship in knocked down condition and were brought ashore in   large trawlers. Of the seven airstrips built by the LTTE, Mullativu   could accommodate large aircraft. The military wanted to know where the heavy machinery needed for its construction had come from .

The Army Commander was asked on ‘Thulawa’ how did the LTTE acquire the knowledge to run this war? Were they helped by foreign countries and NGOs? This was a frequently asked question. His answer was ‘yes.’ Sri Lanka army said fforeign military experts had come in and provided training and advice on weapons. The heavily fortified defenses of deep ditches and strong bunds behind which the LTTE hid in Eelam war IV, could never have been constructed without external help. Ukrainian specialists came and trained LTTE in sea warfare. Japanese experts came, developed submersibles   and built a camouflaged tunnel for launching these in a high security zone in Puthukkudiyiruppu area. Sri Lanka Air force stated that foreigners came and trained the LTTE in using planes.  South African pilots are expert in night air raids  and its mercenaries could be easily hired as trainers.

It is suspected that NGOs, who had worked with LTTE, had helped in the war. Equipment belonged to Oxfam and Save the Children were found in a high tech satellite communication facility at Puthumathalan.  Troops found 20,000 litres of petrol in Iranamadu and Puthumathalan area   also a massive stock of diesel and kerosene oil in Dharmapuram, in plastic barrels which could hold 225 liters of fuel each. Only NGOs had the authority to transport fuel to LTTE areas.

Western countries had refused to help the government win the war. Britain had    refused to provide spare parts for army’s aging Saladin and Daimler armoured cars. US and NATO also refused. Army then bought Cadillac armored cars from USA. But USA did not provide the number agreed and only gave six, without the turret and gun,  ‘though we had paid for them.’  Britain provided ten 30 mm guns with 6000 rounds of ammunition but refused to deliver 2000 more rounds which had been agreed. Certain countries had not allowed aircraft carrying war items to fly over their airspace. The government had to search for a country which would ship the Bushmaster guns bought from Russia. Finally Poland agreed to allow the use of its port.

When it became clear that the government was going to win the war and the LTTE was going to lose, President Rajapakse came under heavy pressure from western powers, to suspend the offensive and resume ‘peace talks’ with the LTTE. When Kilinochchi was taken, (January, 2009) US, Norway, UK and France exerted pressure. India, UK, France wanted the war stopped in April 2009. There was also an appeal from Japan. These countries were trying to save the badly cornered LTTE.

USA has also worked behind the scenes to get the LTTE leadership to surrender to a third party. About two months before the final battle US had offered to evacuate the top LTTE leaders and their families. There were secret negotiations to take away Prabhakaran, Sea Tiger wing leader, Soosai, intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman and their families, numbering over 100. The US Pacific command sent a team of experts to look into this.  USA feared that if Prabhakaran was arrested by the government he would tell them how the west helped him in the war.

LTTE committed serious war crimes throughout out the Eelam wars. USA, UK, European Union, Japan   India and the UN did nothing to stop them and never censured their actions. However, according to a report filed by Times Online, the US military has used satellites to spy on Sri Lanka during the final stages of its battle against the LTTE. India too deployed air craft fitted with sophisticated equipment to monitor the war. US sought to justify its action on the ground that it was looking for evidence of war crimes.   ( CONTINUED)

Kudaligamage Geethanjana

Rajapakses, Geopolitics, ‘Eurocentric Developmentalism,’ and the western hegemony (Part 23)

ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි, අනාගතයේ යම් දිනෙක, මඩ සෝදාගත් අපගේ ගොවි තරුණයෙකුට  ඩෙනිමකින් සැරසී, කුඹුරේ සිට කෙලින්ම ක්‍රිකට් පිටියට ගොස්, අප ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායමේ සාමාජිකයෙකු ලෙස එංගලන්තයට එරෙහිව ටෙස්ට් තරඟයක් ක්‍රීඩා කිරීමට තරම්වූ පිළිගැනීමක් මෙරට ජන සමාජය තුල කුඹුරු ගොවිතැනට හිමිවූදා, අප සාර්ථක කෘෂිකාර්මික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් ඇති කිරීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය සමාජ–සංස්කෘතික  පසුබිමක් බිහි කර ඇතැයි සතුටු විය හැක.”

Dear Mr. President, the day when our young paddy farmer who cleaned himself off of mud and dressed in a denim jeans, and go directly from the paddy field to the cricket field as a member of our national cricket team to play a test match against England team, that would be the day we can happily confirm that we have been successful in creating appropriate socio-cultural background for socially sustainable agriculture in Sri Lanka.”

_______________________________________________________________________

The colonialism and its pet dogs Kolombians who maintained apartheid and segregated social conditions in Sri Lanka had used their brainwashing mechanism of colonial education to marginalize and continuously mock villagers and paddy farmers for so long, so the newer generations firmly have determined never to go into agriculture, especially into paddy farming. The young generation of the village Sri Lanka has said it aloud, GOODBYE!!!”

It seems iPhone and mamoty are not mutually complementary tools for our young generation. But computers along cannot feed a nation. Cold and belittling social condition toward people who occupy in agriculture is a unique issue in Sri Lanka uncommon in other parts in the world. This condition of social demeaning toward farmers is not common in Latin America or in Europe. Like any other profession, agriculture also gets its fair share of the labor force in every generation in those countries. So then what went wrong in Sri Lanka to have a different situation? Why is our young generation going away from agriculture? I personally knew some village fathers who firmly determined that they would never let their children go through the bitter experiences of marginalization that they had gone through as paddy farmers in the society. Every parent in the village sending their child into higher education in our universities intended to disconnect their child from the agrarian culture that they inherited for generations. They want to see a full stop. Therefore we must understand that one of the major challenges of paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka is a social issue that has created a severe labor shortage.

President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa rightfully avowed to the nation that his administration will put maximum effort to develop our agricultural economy to make us self sufficient in food production. Yes, it is a clever strategy considering our agriculture friendly rich soil and climatic conditions. All other negative conditions that had weakened the agricultural economy could be fixed, and all the problems could be resolved but one; the unappreciative social condition toward paddy cultivation needs to be addressed as our first priority if we truly need to resolve this issue.

The shortage of young labor has been felt in the agricultural sector for quite some time, especially for paddy farming. It is expected that Sri Lanka may have to import foreign labor for paddy farming within the next ten to twenty years; if paddy farming happened to exist at all in Sri Lanka without vanishing with no trace by that time.

Among many reasons, there is a very special political reason behind paddy cultivation for us to protect and preserve our agriculture especially paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka at any cost. As I have explained in the previous article, paddy cultivation is anthropological evidence of national heritage; a civilizational act. Paddy cultivation was the main dynamism that shaped the Sri Lankan culture into a unique culture among other cultures in Asia. Buddhism had assimilated into Sri Lankan culture only later on. Etymological studies of paddy farming culture prove that the activity was here in Sri Lanka for many millenniums beyond our knowledge of the history of the island; especially its related language and the Sinhala terminology it used are as old as the history of the paddy plant in Sri Lanka.

www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/12/22/the-etymology-of-sinhala-language-related-to-paddy-cultivation-in-sri-lanka-is-vital-anthropological-and-archaeological-evidence-of-the-history/

The Sinhala words used in the culture of paddy cultivation are the oldest words that are still in use in the Sinhala language. Since we haven’t found these words anywhere else, the ancientness or primordial character of the words used in paddy cultivation alone proves that Sinhalese people were living in this island and built their civilization for a long time from time immemorial. In addition to the language used in paddy cultivation related activities, the ethics, rituals, belief systems, folk arts, folklore, and folksongs are some of the indisputable attestations that prove that Sinhalese were inhabiting this land way before Buddhism introduced into the island nation.

It is the strong bondage between paddy cultivation and its related belief system that has left a splendid cultural heritage for the future generations of our nation. The reservoir, the stupa, the village and the Buddhist temple (වැවයි, දාගැබයි, ගමයි, පන්සලයි) is the moto and the slogan of Sri Lankan culture after Buddhism was introduced. They are the well-established edifying element of our cultural identity. The day paddy cultivation ends in the island will mark the day of the end of the distinctiveness of Sri Lankan culture. Thus the uniqueness of Sri Lankan culture will end. The oldest occupation of the Sinhalese will vanish. The magnificent ancient irrigation system will die without a valid purpose. The glorious past of the Sinhalese people will be a subject for the sixth-grade essays. Without this solid anthropological evidence to prove the authenticity of the information, the fighting against the global intellectual agenda of separatism will be ever more difficult. It will go very well with the separatist project because archaeological evidence is the enemy of separatism. In the end, the phrase ‘Sri Lankan civilization’ will be added to the list of lost civilizations and cultures of the world.

The intellectual project of separatism in Sri Lanka is a global issue, largely controlled, fantasized and financed by global actors. Watch the following video.

However, agriculture won’t be economically sustainable until we create a social condition for paddy farming and agriculture to be socially sustainable in Sri Lanka. Paddy farming will be in decline until we change the social attitude that had been edified by Kolombians and their colonial education to think that agriculture is for backward masses and plantation is for the more sophisticated and worldly-wise people. (colonial hubris) It was Kolombians who invented the word ‘Kultoor’ (the corrupt version of ‘culture’) to denigrate the village-based agricultural people and their social structures in the village implying village peasantry is uncultured or culturally backward. Kolombians sneered and vilified rural cultural and social norms and named them as ‘Govi Chinthanaya.’ So the new president may have to do a lot of work educating masses countering this condition to create a new normal through social understanding to attract the younger generation into paddy cultivation. We must establish the idea that food production as equally respectable as the production of high-tech products. We must begin a large scale social awareness program.

It might be economically helpful for poverty-ridden agricultural families to receive free fertilizer. However, we wouldn’t be able to develop sustainable agriculture in Sri Lanka just by distributing free fertilizer to farmers alone. We must radically change the social attitude toward agriculture. It is the shortage of manpower that has created a situation to abandon paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka, especially in the suburbs. It is a fundamental condition that we have to change the colonial education that has created the negativity toward agriculture while glorifying plantation, even though both are different forms of agriculture. It was the Kolombians called the farmers contemptuously ‘Goiyas, Gorakayas, Gam-Kabarayas, Madakariyas and Ambuda Karayas forcing the new generation to abandon agriculture to get out of the humiliation of being farmers and to get into other professions. We must change this culture and its social outlook. We must create a new culture to respect agriculture as a noble profession. We need to give an appreciative stipend to active paddy farmers. Then only the new generation will embrace agriculture as their profession. We need a revolution in our social outlooks.

Is it a realistic target to envision a change in the social outlook? I think yes. We must start the new culture of ‘honoring agriculture’ in schools. We must have a national week of glorification of paddy farming at all levels. The media must be briefed and requested to support the agriculture promoting drive of the government.

Paddy cultivation is not just another business venture like any other business to determine its fate based on profitability. It is much more than that. It is the main element in the highest order of shaping up the heritage of Sri Lanka. It must be protected and preserved reverently and wholeheartedly like next to the tooth relic. 

Is it possible to create this background when there is a very unreceptive denigrating social background created by Kolombian ideology against farmers in general and paddy farmers in particular? Yes, we can! Since the entire damage had been initiated by Kolombians and their despicable ideology, we must make the Kolombians undo and correct their mischiefs. We must address directly to the adherents of the Kolombian culture and its ideology. We must talk to the victims of this ideology; we must discuss in-person to the icons of the Kolombian culture such as leading cricket players, artists, English language announcers and actors, and actresses. We also can ask the help of Rev. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith since Christianity is also a part of the Kolombian cultural iconography. We must appeal these layers of society to help save paddy farming in our country.

We must inaugurate state festivals, marking major rituals of paddy cultivation such as Aluth Sahal Mangalyaya,” and Vap Magula.” Being an example to the nation in such events, our president and entire parliament can get into the paddy field and get fully muddied to show the rest of the country that paddy farming is a noble task EVEN FOR KINGS, but not a task as many thought for Mudakariyas, Gam-Kabarayas, Ambuda-Karayas or Gorakayas. It must be a week of festivities with all schools and university participation. Iconic cricketers former and current, liks of Muralidaran,  and Malinga also can get into the paddy field and physically work in the field. Not just symbolically, but physically must work in the field to get the real feeling of this noble task.

Just visualize Kolombian iconic personalities like leading cricketers working in the paddy field and finishing the task of turning soil and fixing ‘Niyaras,’ by hand, fully muddied, for a few hours in front of television cameras once a year in this kind of festivals? What would be the message that would convey to the society at large, and particularly to the young generation of our country who have been discouraged by existing unfriendly social norms toward paddy farming? 

One major reason why the young generation to go away from paddy farming is that its incompatibility with the modern lifestyle that youngsters aspired to affiliate with. We must understand that our young men wouldn’t wear a loincloth (Ambudey) and work in the paddy field. They wouldn’t get into mud due to soiling the skin. These are pretty simple problems to remedy. We can modernize paddy cultivation introducing machinery and also we can change our way of working in the paddy fields by introducing gumboots and farming gloves like in other countries such as Japan and countries in East Asia. 

The day when our young farmer can clean the mud off of himself, and dressed in a sport jacket or a denim jeans and then go directly from the paddy field to the cricket field as a member of our national cricket team to play a test match against England team, then only we can tell that we have been successful in creating a background for sustainable agriculture in Sri Lanka.

අනාගතයේ යම් දිනෙක, අපගේ ගොවි තරුණයෙකුට  මඩ  සෝදාගෙන ඩෙනිමකින් සැරසී කුඹුරේ සිට කෙලින්ම ක්‍රිකට් පිටියට ගොස්, අප ජාතික ක්‍රිකට් කණ්ඩායමේ සාමාජිකයෙකු ලෙස එංගලන්තයට එරෙහිව ටෙස්ට් තරඟයක් ක්‍රීඩා කිරීමට තරම්වූ පිළිගැනීමක් මෙරට සමාජය තුල ගොවිතැනට හිමිවූදා, අප සාර්ථක කෘෂිකාර්මික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් බිහි කර ඇතැයි සතුටු විය හැක.”

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 31.1. 2019.

Did this country get any Independence in 1948?   Are we an Independent country at all, at least after 70 years of so-called Independence? 

Independence in respect of any given country means the power for self-governing without control or authority of another country or an outside party.

 As history records we are supposed to have got independence from British rule in 1948. Now that the much hyped Independence Day celebrations (Jatika Day as the present Government calls it) is again around the corner for the 71st time, I posit this question very seriously to the whole nation. Has this country got any Independence in 1948 in the above self-governing context that is worthy of  such fanfare and wastage of public funds  Are we independent at all, at least now, after 71 years of so-called independence? The BOLD BIG answer, in my opinion, is NO, NOT AT All.

“Actual independence for the dominion of Ceylon came on February 4, 1948, when the constitution of 1947 went into effect. The constitution provided for a bicameral legislature with a popularly elected House of Representatives and a Senate that was partly nominated and partly elected indirectly by members of the House of Representatives. A Prime Minister and his cabinet, chosen from the largest political group in the legislature, held collective responsibility, for executive functions. The Governor-General, as head of state, represented the British monarch. In matters that the constitution failed to address, the conventions of the United Kingdom were observed.”as Wikipedia roecords it”

The Constitution referred to here is the Soulbury Constitution that was made in England by Ivor Jennings, for the Dominion of Ceylon as it was called then. A Dominion is described as a self-governing territory within the British Commonwealth of Nations. This clearly implies that Ceylon continued to be a part of the group of countries defined as the British Commonwealth of Nations that included Great Britain, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and few other Islands that were under the British as their colonies. It also implies that governance of these member countries is subjected to the conditions operative within that family of the Common Wealth headed by Britain, the chief player. Obviously it then imposes restrictions on the member states. There ends self-governing of all ex- colonies for all intent and purposes. Such is the true nature of Independence of all there countries.

Secondly, as stated above the Government of the so-called Independent Ceylon was fashioned under the Westminster model. The Soulbury Constitution provided the structural mechanism of Government and Governance that embodied all the checks and balances Britain needed to control governance of this Island. They retained the power to appoint the Governor General, as the representative of the King of England, thereby retaining executive power in their hands. Though the Prime Minster was appointed by the Governor, legislation was made in the name of the King of England. The appellate power of the Judiciary also was kept with the Privy Council. Katunayaka and Trincommallee air bases were retained under them. The defense and external affairs were kept with the King in terms of section 45 of the Constitution, which says ‘The Executive powers of the Island shall continue vested in His Majesty and may be exercised, on behalf of His Majesty, by the Governor General in accordance with the provisions of the Order and of any other law for the time being in force’. The prerogative powers of declaring war, making peace, sending Ambassadors or entering in to treaties were also kept with the King of England. But this country was called a free and Independent and our leaders accepted it as political independence

Nearly 600,000 acres of tea and rubber owned by Sterling companies were kept in the hands of white masters even after they left our shores. Official language of the country continued to be English. English continued to be the medium instruction above grade six in all schools.  Proceedings in courts also remained to be English where justice was dispensed to the local Sinhale in English and proceedings in Parliament where legislation for a newly independent country where the native language of the people was Sinhala at the time of ceding to the British in 1815. Transaction between the people and the State also continued to be conducted in English.

 Nearly 1.2 Million Indian indentured labourers brought by the British to work on British owned after 1840 were left behind without being either repatriated to India, as they were brought from there, or taking them back to UK as they were British citizens at that time, leaving behind a sad and dangerous legacy of enormous political, demographic, economic, social and cultural  consequences and an eternal cantankerous bone of contention  between Sri Lanka and India, thereby creating a serious headache for both countries that has led to political tension and uneasiness between the two neighboring countries forever and particularly for this country in areas like preserving’s its vital watersheds rights at the center of the country at the highest elevation and creating enormous demographic, political, economic, social, environmental and cultural problems and above all the question of the need to hand over legal vacant possession of the motherland for its original owners.

Moving on to the question of Independence, in reality, what Britain should have done was to completely hand over the entire country what they deceitfully annexed on 2nd March 1815 under the Kandyan Convention without any conditions in order to make Sri Lanka fully independent and allow the people of this country to decide as to how it should be run thereafter. The way how it was deceptively done as stated above clearly shows that it never happened. The constraints and limitations imposed were more than the concessions given. As I see it it is a big political fraud committed by Britain keeping all the, vital reins in its own hands to manipulate the destinies of this Island nation the way they want. As i see it it was only a crafty handing over of a colony to a set of  descendants of its former owners well trained by the British in all respects, to run it free of any expense for the British Empire, as thier accredited agents.

In becoming independent from foreign rule the first and foremost condition is getting back the territory the conqueror took over at the time of conquest. In our case the territory they took over in 1815 including the Maldives Islands. They returned only the main Island. Maldives Islands (90,000 sq. km) that were a longtime a protectorate of this country was not returned to us. The Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council 1946 Part 1 (2) stated ‘Nothing in this Order shall extend to the Maldives Islands. The British kept it as one of their protectorates until they granted Independence to it as a separate Independent State on July 26th. 1965. Again we never regained the 600,000 acres of   old prime forest cover  in the central hill country, the Heartland of the Lankan nation that  provided the source for all its rivers in the Island, that decided the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island nation throughout history.

Instead they left behind a sad legacy of vast stretches of physically degraded, unfirtile and unproductive tea lands with a turbulent foreign labour force of over 1.2 million South Indian workers on this soil, who were not citizens of this country at the time of British leaving the country. None of this 1.2 was there in 1815. All of them were brought by the British after 1840, partly to fight against the native Sinhalese who rose against the invader in the 1848 Matale uprising, but mainly to work in their coffee estates and later in tea plantations.  When left in 1948 our leaders should have demanded to hand over the land without their labour force. It is just like a tenant on rent taking his servants when he leaves the rented out house.  Instead the British left behind this sad legacy of 1.2 million exploited and poverty stricken  South Indian labourers who belonged to an entirely a different culture, speaking a different language and professing a different religion and culture completely different from that of the native Sinhalese. This stateless millions were left behind high and dry, right at the Heartland of the Island Nation, thereby creating a cantankerous demographic, political, social, economic and environmental problems for this country, for which the colonials alone are responsible. Led and manipulated by treacherous and extremist ethnic Tamil politicians, these Indians have become one of the biggest headaches this country faces today with wider ramifications including tense Indo- Sri Lankan relation caused by Indian intervention in all their affairs as if the central hill country of Sri Lanka is already a part of India, with the threat of creating a Malayanadu right at the center of the historical motherland of the Sinhala race for 2500 years. 

Furthermore we never got any of our rights what we lost in 1815for example on our language, religion, political institutions, social system or our heritage and were never restored to date. Sinhala was the official language of the country and Buddhism was the State religion before 1815. Sinhala was official language from 543 BC and Buddhism State religion from 307 BC. But they were never restored. Do we have at least a homemade Constitution even after 71 years of ‘Independence’? India did it within 3 years of Independence by declaring it as a sovereign Democratic Republic. Even as a Dominion India was completely free to shape its own policy, both domestic and foreign, unlike Sri Lanka. They even declared India An Independent Republic. In fact their Constitution making started even long before 1947. Presiding over the first meeting of the Constitution making its Chairman Dr Ambedkar said “No constitution will be workable which is not acceptable to the majority people. The time when you were to choose and India was to accept is gone, never return. Let the consent of the people not the accident of logic be the touchstone of our new Constitution’.

This was how India made its Constitution. But here at home our politicians got Ivo Jennings, a British lawyer to write the constitution for a free and Independent Sri Lanka. That is the difference between Indian Leaders and our leaders. No wonder Sri Lanka is like this even after 71 years.

Soulbury’s constitutional recommendations were largely those of the 1944 Board of Ministers’ draft, a document reflecting the influence of Senanayake and his main advisor, Sir Ivor Jennings, They were based mainly on the recommendations of the Colonia Secretary. The content was never discussed with the people. Therefore they had no say what so ever in the making of the Soulbury Constitution.             

Sri Lanka had to wait till 1972 for Sirimavo to declare it a Republic. Even the Republican Constitution 1972 was mainly based on the Westminster model. As such it was also not a people’s constitution of this country. Even after making it a Republic, Britain continued the game of interfering in our internal matters. Isn’t this country being run by the so-called international Community of the West and India to suit their agendas. Today we at times need to get the consent of India to permit even a foreign ship to enter our harbour as it had been demonstrated recently.  Interference by the Western block is more and serious now than ever before 1948 as we are tormented by almost all Western nations, whether they are in the West or East or North or South, where as we were governed only by the British at that time.  What is worse is all these countries also support the Tamils spread all over the world, whom they call Tamil Diaspora who had staged a brutal and savages 30 year war against this country to convert this country in to a Tamil Homeland called EELAM as they cannot have it in India, with a long term dream of destroying the Sinhala nation and Buddhism and their civilization in this country.

Did we have a single Sinhala political leader in the post 1948 period that could stand up against these external harassment and assert as a national leader who could lift up this country as a fully Independent, free, prosperous, self- sustained and vibrant nation. Look at India, Singapore, Japan, Korea and even Bangladesh where they stand today, though they were far behind us in 1948. Ambedkar, down to earth Indian intellectual, was the architect of the Indian Constitution where as in Sri Lanka it was Ivor Jennin’s a down to earth Englishman. That again is the difference between India and Sri Lanka.

So in this backdrop repeatedly I ask as to how one can say we are an independent nation. Apart from being an independent nation, have we at least restored the name of this country, Sinhale, in 1948 or even after 71 years up to date, as it was mentioned in the Kandyan Convention. Have our politicians been able to at least decide as to what our nation is. Restore ‘The Sinhala Buddhist nation’ they ceded to British in 1815 and able to restore the Sinhala Language as the State language. Instead the British handed over a Ceylon in 1948 as a multi-ethnic, multi -national and multi-religious society. They also introduced the concept of minority to Sri Lankan politics for the first time in the history of this country by introducing it under section 29 to the Constitution. These are all well calculated and well-designed conspiracies to divide the Lankan nation on various grounds and destroy it. First it divided the Sinhala people as Kandyans and Low Country and thereafter it divided the nation like an scrambled egg, that can never be unscramble thereafter.

 In short it was a constitution made by a British lawyer Jennings to suit their perpetual interests imposed on our people without getting their consent either. It was never a constitution people in this country wanted or they accepted. People were told that they got full independence from British rule by their leaders. That is all what they wanted. Nor did the people see the Constitution. As a people who were governed only by customs and traditions for millennia they never bothered about a constitution. They must have thought they are getting the pre 1815 status. So they were happy with that. The leaders on the other hand blindly accepted it as divine right coming from above for them to rule over the down trodden. This is exactly how the UNP Colombians led by RW think even today. They don’t understand the fact that this country is one village or at least a conglomeration of a number of villages and Colombo is not Sri Lanka. Like any other metropolis, as A.G. Frank and moving it towards the word core centers. On the other hand it also provides the gateway through its harbour and airports the door way that brings in all things harmful to our economy, culture and environment.

Isn’t it more than clear, from the above account that we have not got any independence in1948. I challenge all those constitutional experts who say we have got any independence in 1948. It is true that it has gone on record that on 4th Feb 1948 Britain gave independence to this country. It is also true that they gave a Parliament headed by a local Prime Minister (one of their own making) to make legislation. But a closer analysis of the Soulbury Constitution clearly shows that it was only a fake Independence or a big fraud. True they gave a Parliament to make legislation by locally elected legislators. But all legislations made in that Parliament were made in the name of the King and Queen of England up to 1972 until Sirimavo Bandarnayaka declared it an Independent Republic, after 24 years since 1948. In my opinion this country was given independence by the British Colonial Government only to make legislation and govern the way they wanted to perpetuate their colonial hegemony. In conclusion I say this in short is exactly what British wanted to do under the Soulbury Constitution. By retaining the Dominion status they further retained power to control the ex- colony as long as they want and the way they wished.  Probably they must have thought Sri Lanka is far more important from a strategic point of view in future global politics than even India in view of its strategic location in the middle of the Indian Ocean forming a pivotal position between the East and the West open to the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean extending up to the South Pole.

Soulbury Constitution the Pandora’s Box of Sri Lankan politics in post 1948 Sri Lanka.

Looking at the plethora of unmanageable problems like political instability, social confusion, ethnic tensions, the rise of the tyranny of minority politics,  serious and frustrating erosion of Sinhala Buddhist birth rights of the natives and the disintegrating tendencies of the Sri Lankan political map, splitting on minority issues brought about by the Soulbury Constitution,  I am compelled to conclude that the  Soulbury Constitution has become a veritable Pandora’s Box in post independent politics in Sri Lanka. Sec 29 (2) of the Constitution killed the millennia old privileges of the Sinhala Buddhist majority in this country by conferring undue and disproportional privileges on minority ethnic and religious groups, who were only intruders from time to time in history. This section that introduced a minority concept for the first time in the history of this country’s politics had completely ruined peaceful coexistence between Sinhala Buddhists majority and other ethnic groups. As such giving legal recognition to separate minority groups opened the doors for ethnic and religious tensions never existed before in this country.

I pity the rootless, brainless and visionless native leaders who embraced this so-called Independence package with open arms in 1948 (which I call “a veritable political Pandora’s Box” rather than a Constitution made in good faith and good intention for a country meant and designed for nation building) with pomp and glamour without realizing the inconsistencies’ and dangers hidden beneath this English trap.

If this country and its people have not got any independence in 1948 (in spite of some people including the fathers, sons and the nephews of the UNP denying it), then who has really got it. Obviously the happy recipients of ‘this birth day gift of somebody’ are the lucky pack of unscrupulous rogue politicians created by the Soulbury Constitution and party politics introduced by it who have destroyed this ‘Wonder in Asia’ to a level almost beyond recognition. Just like a gang of hungry jackals from the jungle that have invaded a poultry pen, they have destroyed this country with impunity, while the true owners of this country are in deep slumber, engrossed in Midsummer night dreams of freedom, prosperity and happiness of independence

In this backdrop what is there to celebrate annually in such high pomp and glamour at such enormous cost to the nation’s coffers. Isn’t it only a part and parcel of the mega fraud and deception of the masses by the rogue politicians annually staged to exhibit their naked vanity

 My final question is why try to commemorate a non-existing independence at such cost, causing enormous inconvenience to the people. This is nothing but shear madness on the part of politicians to exhibit their vanity and emptiness just to deceive the voters as they have been successful doing ever since 1948. Isn’t it better that we  as a nation either commemorate May 22 the Janraja Day or the 29th of May 2009 on which the Rapaksa Government liberated the motherland from the LTTE terrorists.

As for me I shall not raise a flag at my house to mark this fraudulent political freedom deceptively imposed on us by the accredited black-white agents in 1948. I will raise it only on the day this country gain full independence as the Sinhala Buddhist nation that was there on my motherland for 2358 years before 1815. I call upon all patriotic Sinhala sons and daughters of this country to join with me in this patriotic and noble resolve so that one day at least you will realize this dream in my name, as I want be living by the time this dream come true.

ආචාර්ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර

25.12.2019.

මන්ද පලමුව 48 පෙබරවාරි 4 දා අපගේ මව්බිමට හා සින්හල ජාතියට පූර්ණ නිදහස නොලැබුනු නිසාය. දෙවනුව අර්ධවශයෙන් හෝ  මේ රටට කිසියම් දේශපාලන නිදහසක් ලැබුනේ 1972 මැයිමස ජනරජයක් වශයෙන් ප්රකාශකළ දා බැවිනි.1972 සිට 1977 දක්වාපුරාපස්වසරක්මරටේනිදහස්දිනසැමරුම්උත්සවයපැවැත්වූයේදමැයිමස 22 වනදිනය. eya hAdinvuuyeida janaraja dinaya vaSayen misa nidahas dinaya vaSayen novimada wAdagatya. 1972 dii janarajayak bavaTa patvuvada tawamat mei raTa pawatinneda  eseima ei tula kriyaatmaka vanneda brataanya yatat vijitayak men bAvin ei artakatanayada vadaat artaanvita yaida mama sitami.එබැවින් මේ රටේ නිදහස් දිනය venuvaTa apa sAmariya yuttei janaraja dinayayi mama sitami. eya kaLayutteida.මැයි මස 22 දා මිස ජෙන්නින්ගේ බිරිදගේ උපන් දිනය සිහිකිරීම සන්දහා සුද්දා විසින් අපේ  මෝඩ  බටහිර ගැති කලු සුද්ධන්ගේ හිස  මත පටවා ගිය පෙබරවාරි 4 වන  දිනය. පෙබරවාරි 4 වන දින නිදහස් දිනය සැමරීමෙන් බ්රිතාන්ය යටත් විජිත ගැතිභාවය තවදුරටත් අප පිලිගන්නා බව යළිත් තහවුරුවෙයි. එබැවින් දැන්වත් මෙ පර ගැති මානසිකත්වයෙන් මිදී නව ජනාධිපති වරයාගේ දේසප්රේමී චින්තනයට ගැලපෙන පරිදි මැයි මස 22 වනදිනම ජනරජ   දිනය සැමරීම වඩා උචිත බව මගේ අදහසයි.

ලබන පෙබරවාරි 4 දා ‘නිදහස් දින උළෙලේදී ජාතික ගීය සිංහලෙන් පමණයි” යන ප්රවුර්තිය මම දුටිමි. මේ වූ කළී  ගෝඨාභය රජයේ තවත් එක් වැදගත් දේශප්රේමි තීරනයක් වශයෙන් මම දකිමි..එසේ වුවද ජාතික ගීය සින්හලෙන් ගායනාකිරීමෙන් පමණක්  නිදහස සම්පුර්ණ නොවෙන බව පැහැදිළිව කිව යුතුය. මන්ද 1948 ෆෙබරවාරි 4 දා යටත්විජිත වාදීන්ගෙන් මේ රටට කිසිම නිදහසක් නොලැබුනා පමනක්  නොව අද වනතුරෘත් අපගේ මව්බිමට පුර්ණ නිදහසක් ලැබී නැති නිසාය. මා එසේ කියන්නේ ඇයි කියා පැහැදිලි කරගැනීමට  කරුනාකරමේ   සමගම ලන්කාවෙබ් හි පලවන

(Did this country get any Independence from Britain in 1948? Some new thoughts on Independence to Sri Lanka? Dr. Sudath Gunasekara යන ලිපිය බලන්න)

මේ ලිපියේ පෙන්වාදී ඇති කරුණු අනුව ශ්‍රි ලන්කාවේ නිදහස ගැන කතාකිරිමේදී 1948 මේ රටට නිදහසක් ලැබුනාය කීම  චේතිය රජුගේ ගනයේ මුසාවක් බව දැන්  සක්සුදක් සේ පැහැදිළිය. 1956 ජාතියක් හා රටක් වසයෙන් එක්තරා නිදහසක් ලැබුවද 1965 දී නැවතත් බලයට පත්වූ එක්සත් විජාතික පක්ශය” එම ජාතික පිබිදීම නැවතත් ආපසු හරවනු ලදුව 1972 වනතුරුම යලිත් ඒ පරගැති නිදහස්දිනයම සිරිත් පරිදි ජාතික ධනය කෝටි ගනනින් වැය කරමින් දේශපාලකයින්ගේ උජාරුව සහ පුරාජේරුව ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීම සන්දහා ඊනියා නිදහස් දිනය උතසවාකාරයෙන් පවත්වන ලදී.

මේ රට ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම අර්ධ වශයෙන් හෝ නිදහස් රාජ්යක් බවට පත්වූයේ 1972 මැයි මස 22 දින ජනරජයක්වූ දා සිට බව බහුතරයේ පිලිගැන්මයි. වසර 2500ක් පුරා මේ රටේ බුද්ධාගමට හිමිව තිබුණු තැනද නැවත ආපසු ලැබුනේ 1972 මැයි 22 දිනය. එතෙක් මේ ර රටේ නීති පැනවුයේ නයික ශ්‍රි බලපරාක්‍රමයෙන් විරාජමාන එන්ගලන්තයේ මහාරාජිනියගේ නමින්මය.  එසේම එන්ගලන්තයේ මහරැජිනගේ නියොiජිතයාවු අග්‍රආණ්ඩුකාරයා විධායකයේ නායකයාද වීය.  රටක් වශයෙන් අපි තවදුරටත් බ්රතාන්ය පොදුරාජ්ය මන්ඩලයේ සුවච කීකරු ගෝලයෙක්ම විය. එම තත්වය වෙනස්වූයේ 1972 මැයිමස 22 දිනය.  ඒ අනුව මේ රටේ ජාතික නිදහස්දිනය සැමරිය යුත්තේ සෑම වස්රකම මැයි මස 22 මිස ජෙනින්ගේ බිරිදගේ උපන්දින වු පෙබරවාරි 4 දින නොවෙන බව දැන්වත් අපේ දේශපාලකයින්ට නොතේරීම මොනතරම් අභාග්යක්ද.1972 සිට 1977 දක්වාවසර 5 ක්මජනරජදිනයවශයෙන්ජාතිකනිදහස්දිනයපැවැත්වුණුබවඅපිකවුරුත්දනිමු. එසේම 1977 දී නැවතත් බලයට පැමිණි බටහිර ගැති  ‘එක්සත් විජාතික පක්ශය” 1978 සිට යළිත් පෙබරවාරි 4 වන දිනම ජාතියේ නිදහස් දිනය සැමරීම ආරම්භ කරනලදී. 1994 දී ජනරජයේ මාතාව වූ සිරිමා බන්දාරනායක මැතිනියගේ අතිජාත දූහිතෲවරියක් වූ චන්ද්රිකා 1995 සිට ඇයගේ සුපුරුදු බටහිර ගැතිබව ප්රදර්ශනය කරමින් යලිත්  ජෙන්නින්ගේ බිරිදගේ උපන්දිනය සැමරීම සන්දහා  පෙබරවාරි 4 ම මේ ලන්කාවේ ඊනියා නිදහස් දිනය සැමරීම අරබන ලදී. 2005 දී ස්රී ලන්කා නිදහස් පක්ශය බලයට  පැමිණියද 2015 වන තුරුම පරන පුරුදු ආකාරයටම පෙබරවාරි 4 ම ඊනියා  නිදහස් දිනය  සමරණ ලදී. මහින්ද රාජපක්ශ ජනාධිපතිවරයා 2006 සිට සැබෑ නිදහස් දිනය මැයි මස 22 වශයෙන් ප්රකාශකලයුතුව තිබුනද දයිවයේ සරදමකට මෙන් එය එසේ  සිදු නොවින. 2015 දී චන්ද්රිකා-රනිල්-සිරිසෙන තුන් කට්ටළයේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන්  නැවතත් රාජ්ය බලය අත්පත්කරගත් එක්සත් විජාතික පක්ශය යලිත් නිදහස පෙබරවාරි 4 ටම ආපසු දක්කාගෙන යන ලදී. පසුගිය වසර හතරතුල නිදහසේ අභිමානය කොතරම් නොසැළකීමත් හා සෑල්ලුවට ලක්කෙලේද කිවහොත් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ නියෝගයෙන් ජාතික ගීය පවා දෙමලෙනුත් ගායනාකරන තැනට පල්ලන් බස්සවන ලදී. ඒ රනිල් – සිරිසේන- චන්ද්රිකා යන තිදෙනා ප්රවුඩ නිදහස  සැමරූ ආකාරයය. මෙහෙව් අය තමා රටේ ජාතික නායකයෝ වශයෙන් අපි පත්කර ගන්නේ. ඉතින් රටක් හැදෙන්නේ කෙසේද

1956 න් පසු ජනපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ශගේ නායකත්වය යටතේ දැන් ලබා ඇත්තේ 1956 මෙන්ම 2005 තත් වයට වඩා ප්රබුද්ධ එසේම ප්රබල ජාතික පිබිදීමකි. පක්ශ දේශපාලනය සහ ආගම් භේධයකින් තොරව සින්හල ජාතිය මේ වන විට ඉතා ප්රභලව ගොනුවී ඇති බව උතුරු නැගෙනහිර සහ වතුකර දෙමල ජනතාව් හැර එකාවන්ව එක්වී ඇති සැටි චන්ද ප්රතිඵල දැක්වෙන සිතියමෙන් පැහැදිළිව පෙන්නුම් කෙරින.. මේ වූ කලී ප්රභල ජාතික පනිවිදයකි. එසේම ජාතියේ නිසි මන්ඝ දක්වන අඉතිහාසික හරවුම් ලක්shයකියි මම සිතමි.

කිතුවසින් 2020 දී ලන්කා රාජාවලියෙ සිළුමිණවූ දුතුගමුණු  මහ  රජුගේ ජන්මභූමියවන රුහුණු පුරයේ ජන්ම ලාභියකුවූ ගෝඨාභය රාජ්පක්ශ නම්වූ ලකිසුරු වරයකුගේ නව පාලනයක් යටතේ ස්රී ලන්කාවට යළිත් පූර්න නිදහස  ලබුණුබව සනිටුහන් කරමින් ගනුලැබූ අනේකවිධ ජාතිමාමක  තීරන අතර තවත් ඉතා වැදගත් සන්සිද්ධියක්  සනිටුහන් කරමින් 1977න් පසු අවසනාවන්ත වසර 48 කව පසු සියලු පරගැති බලවේග පරදවා ජාතියේ නිදහස් දිනය ලෙස ස්රී ලන්කාව ජනරජයක් වසයෙන් ප්රකාශ කෙරුනු වෙසක් මස  22 වන දින යලිත් ජාතියේ නිදහස් දිනය මහත් අභිමානයෙන් සමරා ඉරහද පවතිනාතුරු එම දිනය මේ රටේ ජනරජ දිනය වශයෙන් ස්ථාපිත කළ වග මෙසේ සටහන් කළෙමු කියා කීමට ලැබේවායි ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමින් මේ කෙටි සටහන නිම කරමි.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The Sunday Island in its editorial said that it is now abundantly clear that neither Switzerland nor Sri Lanka want to escalate what followed the alleged abduction of a local employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went on public record saying that Switzerland did its duty by standing up for its employee while Sri Lanka did its duty by thoroughly investigating the complaint. But he was clear that there was no abduction according to the physical and technical evidence examined. In effect he was saying that the alleged victim’s story is untrue and she has been arrested and remanded and due process in the court will now follow. The embassy employee, on a court order, has been produced before a panel of specialist psychiatrists. Its finding has not yet been made public. This would, no doubt, be conveyed to the court which directed the examination possibly in the course of this week.

Developments both in Bern and in Colombo and public statements from their respective capitals indicates that neither party wishes to endanger hitherto cordial relations between the two countries. The editorial said that Switzerland has beefed up its diplomatic presence in Colombo by sending an experienced ambassador who was previously posted here to explore the possibilities of “clarifying” the incident. This can be interpreted as a perception by Bern that the matter, from their end, may not have been properly handled.

Extracts from the said editorial are given below in point form:

• Clearly the embassy totally believed the version of the alleged ‘victim’ and acted accordingly with complaints lodged with the Prime Minister and elsewhere. That was why the woman concerned and her family were given refuge in the ambassador’s residence.

• Other actions on the Swiss side included broaching the possibility of using an air ambulance to take her out of the country and skyped consultations with Swiss doctors. These are understandable in terms of the severity of the complaint which includes poking a barrel of a firearm into her mouth, opening her mobile phone and sexual molestation.

• The question in everybody’s mind is that if a false complaint had been lodged, what was the motive of the person making such a complaint? Most people believe that possible asylum in Switzerland may be the intent. Given that Switzerland had recently granted asylum (or is looking at the possibility of doing so) to Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva, Head of the Organized Crime Division of the CID, who recently left the country ballasts this view.

• The various Independent Commissions were appointed under the constitution to ensure proper merit based appointments, promotions etc. and obviously prevent victimisation. But there had been criticism that the Constitutional Council, headed by the Speaker, is skewed in favour of politicians.

• Hopefully whatever differences there may be over the alleged abduction of the Swiss Embassy employee will be quickly sorted out in an absolutely transparent manner. President Rajapaksa says he’s the “victim” in this case due to the reference to a white van (actually a white car). But he has not compromised his independent stance on this matter with wild rhetoric.

The shameless prat fallen JVP (spoken in defense of the Swiss the Janatha Viparyasa Peramuna) has spoken in support of the Swiss allegations and Lal Kantha the booser who has been secluded by the people has justified the Swiss allegations.  Perhaps it may bner the story of a crab in a boiling water!

In the course of all these matters it has come to light that a son of notorious Nimalka Fernando functions as the political advisor to the Swiss Embassy in Colombo.  Nimalka is one of the pseudo Sri Lankan who is a staunch western, tiger terrorist and UNP servile foreign sustained NGO activist who had participated in several UNHRC sessions to promote and defend the LTTE terrorists.  She also made a concerted effort during the Mahinda Rajapaksa era, in association with the infamous Channel 4 to get Sri Lanka declared as a Failed State” by the Tyrant Western Nations (TWNs).  The UNP/TNA government of Ranil Wickrermasinghe rewarded her appointing her as a member of the Committee appointed to investigate the alleged grievances of the so-called missing persons, most of whom are in fact living in foreign countries.  With the son working as the political advisor to the Swiss Embassy it is obviously understandable that these anti-Sri Lankans frustrated and annoyed by the GR victory would obviously have been behind and steered the Swiss Hoax drama to defame and vilify the image of Sri Lanka. 

Many patriot minded Sri Lankans living in the country have urged the President through social media and media conferences not to take this Swiss Hoax lightly as it is the tip of an impending western, terrorist and reactionary plot to obstruct the government to implement its populist programmes, create religious and ethnic disharmony in the country and ultimately to topple the government and implant one of their stooges.  They have urged President Gotabhaya to familiarise with what had happened to Mohammed Mossadeg of Iran, Salvador Allende of Chile in the past and to Saddam Hussain of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya recently and several other leaders. 

Sri Lankan Critics Fear a Crackdown Is Underway, and Some Flee

The above referenced New York Times article written by Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir and published on Nov. 27, 2019 and updated on Nov. 29, 2019 is purely based on hearsay accounts and devoid of true facts.  It says a Swiss Embassy employee was abducted and asked about asylum applications and investigators were banned from leaving just days after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected. Extracts from the lengthy article and comments appropriately in bold letters are presented below:

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, center, greeting supporters after his swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura

Fears of a potential crackdown on critics of the newly returned Rajapaksa political dynasty in Sri Lanka are rising just days after the election, as officials and journalists who investigated the Rajapaksas for human rights abuses and corruption began trying to flee the country.

In a case that raised particular alarm, a Sri Lankan employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo was reportedly abducted on Monday by unidentified men and forced to hand over sensitive embassy information. Officials in Colombo said the men forced her to unlock her cellphone data, which contained information about Sri Lankans who have recently sought asylum in Switzerland, and the names of Sri Lankans who aided them as they fled the country because they feared for their safety after Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency in elections this month.

On the same day, Mr. Rajapaksa imposed a blanket travel ban on more than 700 members of the Sri Lankan police unit that had been investigating the family. And other police officers raided a news outlet critical of the Rajapaksas and forced several journalists to hand their computers over for analysis, in what the police said was an investigation into accusations of hate speech. The news outlet referred was News Hub” a New Zealand website which seldom news about Sri Lanka.

In the abduction case, the diplomatic officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the men held the embassy employee for several hours and then, before releasing her, threatened to kill her if she told anyone. The political columnists of the Island” and Sunday Times” have given detailed accounts of this hoax and these accounts are mentioned above.

It was not clear whether the men were connected to Mr. Rajapaksa or were acting of their own accord as supporters of the popular leader and his political dynasty.

A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, told The New York Times, We can confirm that a local employee of the embassy was detained against her will on the street and threatened at length by unidentified men in order to force her to disclose embassy-related information.”

Switzerland regards this incident as a very serious and unacceptable attack,” he said, adding that the Swiss government was demanding an immediate and complete investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

The Rajapaksa family had held power for a decade until 2015, when they were voted out of office. Their last few years in government were marked by frequent abductions of opponents, who were often bundled away into vans by men in civilian clothing, never to be seen again. This was a concocted allegation invented by the former Minister and LTTE megalomaniac leader Prabhakaran’s close ally Mano Ganeshan and this allegation was refuted as a false allegation by the government’s Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Gayantha Karunatilleke in the Parliament. 

Sandhya Eknaligoda, the wife of Prageeth Eknaligoda, a missing Sri Lankan journalist, outside the United Nations offices in Colombo in 2013.

There is a complaint filed with the CID by a retired General named Ajith Prasanna saying that the journalist was abducted and killed by the former Minister Patali Champika Ranawake for divulging in an article written by him to Lanka E News website detailing the horrendous sex tortures the former Minister had been carrying out against his wife Nirmala.

After a devastating terrorist attack by Islamist extremists killed hundreds of people in April, security concerns were thrust to the forefront of public consciousness, creating an opening for Mr. Rajapaksa and his family to gain in the elections.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defense secretary and his brother Mahinda was president during the crucial final phase of Sri Lanka’s long and deadly civil war. The Rajapaksas received wide credit within Sri Lanka for bringing the war to close..

Shortly after his election victory, President Rajapaksa appointed Mahinda as prime minister, keeping the country’s two most powerful political posts within the family. This is a calculated attempt to misguide the readers.  The election campaign of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP – an alliance of 17 political groups) was carried out promising that Gotabhaya will be President and Mahinda will be the Prime Minister and the voters fully mandated a rule by this combination.

Many diplomats had thought that Mr. Rajapaksa, who had handily won at the polls, would try to reconcile with his opponents. In a statement shortly after his victory, Mr. Rajapaksa had urged peace and unity.

We thought there would be a period of demonstrating benign intent,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive director of the Colombo-based advocacy group, the Centre for Policy Alternatives. But this is a situation in which anyone who stands in their way, anyone who is critical of the government or the president, will be seen as the enemy. We are in slow descent into something very frightening.” This person who is a Tamil, and a staunch racist is a leading pro-Western and UNP activist sustained from western funds and has a gang of NGO personnel under him to extend servility to Tamil terrorists and the reactionary UNP.

On Sunday, the president raged against the investigations of him, his family and their allies, dismissing them as politically motivated.

The investigations’ focus was to put those who fought the war, the former navy commander, intelligence officials and me in prison,” he said in a speech to Buddhist monks. They forced officers to say my name and implicate me in investigations.”

That is not justice,” he added. That is not the rule of law.”

One case that may implicate Mr. Gotabaya had been set to begin on Wednesday, but was postponed until next month. It involves the 2010 disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist and critic of the Rajapaksas. Government investigators said that a military intelligence unit abducted and likely killed him, and an army lieutenant colonel and six others who served under President Rajapaksa’s command when he was defense secretary have been indicted.  The true account of this matter was mentioned above together with the allegation of former Minister Ranawaka’s role to avenge publication of his sex crimes.

Mr. Eknaligoda’s wife, Sandya Eknaligoda, believes the trial will not go forward, and fears for her safety after a decade of accusing the Rajapaksas of abducting her husband. It was also alleged the former minister Ranawaka has given a large amount of money to Sandya Ekneligoda to continue with her allegations of Rajapaksas so that his involvement will get covered.

The infrastructure that had been built to support the investigations into the Rajapaksas and their allies has swiftly been unraveled over the last week. The Criminal Investigations Department, or C.I.D., which has been spearheading the inquiries, has been gutted, and its powers limited.

The head of the C.I.D. was reassigned last week to a junior position away from the capital, Colombo, officials said. And the lead detective on many of the cases, Nishantha Silva, fled to Switzerland on Sunday. National television channels on Tuesday displayed the photos of other detectives involved in the investigations, accusing them of corruption and treason, after they were stripped of their personal security.

A spokesman for the National Police Commission of Sri Lanka said they would decide in the next few weeks whether the investigations would continue.

Mr. Silva was the lead detective in several investigations into Sri Lanka’s military, when President Rajapaska served as defense secretary.

On Monday, Mr. Rajapaksa ordered a blanket ban on travel out of the country for all 704 C.I.D. officials, a move seen as an attempt to prevent other police officers from fleeing.

Some diplomats said Mr. Rajapaksa may be trying to take stock of the government he just took over. But, they added, they would be watching closely whether the travel ban is eventually lifted or whether the ban leads to the ranks of C.I.D. being purged.

Kamal Gunaratne, Sri Lanka’s newly appointed defense secretary, said Mr. Silva had broken the rules by not seeking approval from the government before leaving to Switzerland. He denied accusations that the new government intended to derail the cases against the Rajapaksas and their associates.

We are not going against anybody or any officer of the C.I.D. We are just following the rule of law,” Mr. Gunaratne said in a telephone interview. This is a democratic country. It is not a military rule, where dissent will be crushed.”

During the civil war, Mr. Gunaratne led a military unit that the United Nationsaccused of conducting summary executions of detained rebels. Mr. Gunaratne has denied the accusations. The western imperialists and the Tamil terrorists are envy of Mr. Gunaratne because it was the Army Division under him that shot and killed the terrorist leader Prabhakaran at Nandikadal, a lagoon area, and thereby put an end to the 30 years of aggressive war.

PaulCraigRoberts.org

Dr Thsitha Wijemanne

ෂරියා විවාහ තහනම් කරන යෝජනාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් වේ. ඉස්ලාම් ෂරියා නීතියට අනුව සිදු කරනා බාලවයස් විවාහ තහනම් කිරීම
සඳහා වූ යෝජනාවක්  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබේ.පුද්ගලික
මන්ත්‍රී යෝජනාවක් ලෙස මෙම යෝජනාව ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත්තේ 
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිනී තුසිතා විජේමාන්න මහත්මිය විසිනි.

Dr Thsitha Wijemanne

Stanley Perera Melbourne Australia.

 I remember my childhood days playing the game of HORA POLICE when to-day CID is looking for Rajitha Senarathna after the court issued an arrest warrant.  This dutt dostharaya with his loud mouth (kimbul kata) conniving with the rouge ambassador Mr. Mock and Siriyalatha published in the TV news media of an unbelievable story of crocodiles fed with people who were disappeared like a hero.  Immediately thereafter that Nidahan Hora the son of the president appeared and condemned the President Gotabhaya.  In that scenario the people were wise enough to put two and two to-gether and sensed the rat.  The CID has searched two houses to arrest minister kimbul kata.  Please search the temples  this fellow is hiding under a bed of one of those buddhistpriests who were present at the magistrate’s court.  If CID need a better clue check Mr. Mock’s residence without wasting a minute.  That dutt dostharaya will flee the country with a Swiss visa disguised as a buddhist monk changing the name too to join Nishantha Silva in Switzerland.  This is what you call kela kela de pala pala de or ditta damma vedaneeya akusala karmaya.  Mark my word  Rajitha Senarathna and his family will disappear with a Swiss visa to Switzerland where he stashed up all his wealth in Swiss Bank account with the help of rouge ambassador Mock.  No matter what the corrupt free loaders will thrive in luxury in rouge country where the rouges and crims and corrupt pollies the free loaders are hiding.  My dear President, don’t let these free loaders escape the law and the country.  When the law makers break the law punishment must be severe.  Otherwise they they keep doing it all the time like in the past during Wickremasinghe government.
My dear President, let me say a word or two about that daddy long legs.  Those rouges are now qued up to worship maha sanga and I am warning Wickremasinghe and Nidahan hora clan to leave our sacred monks alone withought harassing.  They have insulted aour buddhist priests and the buddhist country enough and more.

Stanley Perera Melbourne Australia. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම  මව්බිම

හිටපු අමාත්‍ය පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක විසින් 2016 වසරේදී රාජගිරියේදී අනතුරක් සිදුකොට පලා යෑම, සාක්ෂි වසන්  කිරීම යනාදී චෝදනා මත සිදුකෙරෙන විමර්ශනවලට අදාළව පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයකුගෙන් සහ හිටපු පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරුන් තිදෙනකු ඇතුළු පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් හත් දෙනකුගෙන් කොළඹ අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසය ප්‍රශ්න කර තිබේ. 

මෙලෙස ප්‍රශ්න කර ඇත්තේ එවක වැලිකඩ පොලිසිය භාරව කටයුතු කළ සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයකු වූ වර්තමාන පොලිස් අධිකාරි ධුරය හොබවන හේරත් ප්‍රියදර්ශන, එවක වැලිකඩ පොලිසියේ ස්ථානාධිපති වූ වර්තමාන සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයකු ලෙස කටයුතු කළ සුදත් අස්මඩල, එවක බොරැල්ල පොලිසියේ ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයා වූ වර්තමාන සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයකු වන ප්‍රගති ලක්මිණ අබේසිංහ, පාදුක්ක පොලිසියේ එවක ස්ථානාධිපති ධුරය හෙබවූ ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක රොහාන් මහේෂ්, එවක වැලිකඩ පොලිසියේ රථවාහන අංශ ස්ථානාධිපති වූ පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක පෙරේරා සහ එහි රාජකාරි කළ පොලිස් කොස්තාපල්වරුන් දෙදෙනකුගෙන් මෙලෙස ප්‍රශ්න කර ඇත.

මෙම විමර්ශනයට අදාළව අධිකරණ නියෝග මත ඉදිරි දින කිහිපය ඇතුළත රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර සිටින පොලිස්පති පූජිත් ජයසුන්දරගෙන්ද ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබේ.

කොළඹ අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ පොලිස් අධිකාරි ජේ. නන්දනගේ අධික්ෂණය මත එහි ස්ථානාධිපති ප්‍රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක නෙවිල් ද සිල්වාගේ උපදෙස් මත මීට විමර්ශන සිදුකෙරේ.

Courtesy PTI

The 80-year-old author was travelling along with his family in a van, which crashed into a container truck.

COLOMBO:  Renowned Hindi author Ganga Prasad Vimal and his two family members were killed in a road accident in southern Sri Lanka, police said on Wednesday.

The 80-year-old author was travelling along with his family in a van, which crashed into a container truck from behind on the Southern Expressway in Kurundugahahathapma area on Monday night, they said.

Vimal and two of his family members were killed on the spot while a local driver died on the way to hospital.

Two more persons sustained injuries. The van was heading towards Colombo from the southern port town of Galle when the accident took place, police said.

Born in 1939 in Uttarkashi, a Himalayan town in Uttarakhand, Vimal held key responsibilities in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra.

He wrote more than one dozen poetry collections, short story collections and novels.

His last novel, Manushkhor, was published in 2013. He received several Hindi literary awards.Stay up to date on all the latest Nation news with The New Indian Express App. Download now(Get the news that matters from New Indian Express on WhatsApp. Click this link and hit ‘Click to Subscribe’. Follow the instructions after that.)

මව්බිම දැන්

යතුරුපැදියක් පදවාගෙන ගොස් අනතුරක් සිදුකර පලායාම සම්බන්ධයෙන් යුද හමදා සෙබළෙකු අද (25) සවස සැකපිට අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්බව මින්නේරිය පොලීසිය කියයි.

හෙතෙම මින්නේරිය කාලතුවක්කු යුද හමුදා කඳවුරේ සේවය කරන අයෙකු බව අනාවරණයවී ඇත.

ඉකුත් 22වෙනි දින මින්නේරිය නගරයට නුදුරුවදී මාර්ගයේ පයින් ගමන් කරමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයෙකු යතුර පැදියක ගැටී ඉන්පසුව අසල තිබූ වාරිමාර්ග ඇලකට වැටී මිය ගොස් තිබුණි.

සිද්ධියෙන් මිය ගොස් ඇත්තේ වත්තේගෙදර  පේ‍්‍රමරත්න නැමැති 46 හැවිරිදි අයෙකු බව පොලීසිය පවසයි.ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශන සිදුකර අනතුර සිදුකල බව කියන සෙබළා සැකපිට අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබේ. 

පොලොන්නරුව අනුරාධ විශ්වනාත්

Sandun A Jayasekera Courtesy Daily Mirror

We will propose amendments to the UNHRC resolution 30/1 of October 1, 2015, co-sponsored by the US and Sri Lanka allegedly without the knowledge or the consent of the then president and the government, International Relations State Minister Susil Premajayantha said yesterday.

The next UNHRC sessions will be in March 2020.

He said the new government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already begun the diplomatic process to face the challenge expected when the 43rd UNHRC sessions are held next year.

The minster told a media conference that the US-SL sponsored resolution was adopted by the UNHRC at its 30th sessions on October 1, 2015, promoting, human rights, accountability and transitional justice.

But unfortunately there are a number of conditions in the resolution, Sri Lanka cannot accept as a sovereign and independent nation,” he said.

When this resolution was passed in 2015, neither the then Cabinet nor the then president Maithripala Sirisena were aware of the contents. It was later found that certain conditions of the resolution were detrimental to the sovereignty, the independence and dignity of the country,” the minister said.

He said a team of top officials representing the Attorney General’s Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prime Ministers office was reviewing the UNHRC resolution 30/1 with a view to sift the merits and demerits.

We have fulfilled 17 out of 20 conditions in the resolution. Sri Lanka has a new government with a new mandate. Therefore, we have every right to prevent any untoward impact on our nation from any quarter,” the minister said. “The alleged war crime charges and so-called hybrid courts contained in the 30/1 resolution have demoralized our armed forces. There is a school of thought that this loss of confidence among the intelligence arms of the armed forces led to the Easter Sunday massacre.”

He said some patriotic organizations and local NGOs helped the country by safeguarding the nation’s interests during the UNHRC sessions.

The Rajapaksa government will give its fullest support to these organizations to carry out their good work in the local and international forums,” he said. 

Courtesy Ada Derana

Officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) have reportedly inspected UNP Parliamentarian Dr. Rajitha Senaratne’s residences in Colombo and Kalutara, in order to execute a warrant for the former minister’s arrest.

Over 24 hours have passed since the Colombo Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Rajitha Senaratne in connection with the now infamous ‘white van’ press briefing, however the police are yet to place the MP under arrest.

Based on the instructions of the Attorney General, the CID had obtained an arrest warrant from the court, which had previously imposed an oversea travel ban on the former Health Minister. 

The two individuals who had participated in the ‘white van’ press conference along with Dr. Senaratne are currently in remand custody.

Officers of the CID today visited the MP’s residence in Colombo in order to execute the warrant, however they later left as Dr. Senaratne was not at home.

 Afterwards the team of CID officers inspected the MP’s house at Hettimulla, Beruwala also to no avail. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලෙස වරෙන්තු නිකුත් කර පැය 24 කට වැඩි කාලයක් ගතව ඇතත්, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රාජිත සේනාරත්න මෙතෙක් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට හැකි වී නැහැ.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, මන්ත්‍රීවරයා සිටින ස්ථානයක් පිළිබඳ මෙතෙක් නිශ්චිත තොරතුරක් නොමැති බව වාර්තා වනවා.

ආන්දෝලනාත්මක සුදු වෑන් මාධ්‍ය හමුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රාජිත සේනාරත්න අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නැයි කොළඹ අතිරේක මහේස්ත්‍රාත් බණ්ඩාර නෙළුම්දෙනිය ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ වරෙන්තු නිකුත් කළා.

ඒ, දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ ප්‍රතිපාදන සහ ජනාධිපතිවරයා තෝරාපත් කර ගැනීමේ පනත යටතේ වරදක් සිදුකර ඇති බැවින් ඔහු අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට වරෙන්තු නිකුත් කරන ලෙස නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කළ ඉල්ලීම අනුවයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, රාජිත සේනාරත්න මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ඊයේ දින අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සිදුවූයේ නැහැ.

ඔහු අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට වරෙන්තු නිකුත් කිරීමත් සමඟ ඊයේ දිනයේ මෙන්ම අදත් කොළඹ බෞද්ධාලෝක මාවතේ පිහිටි ඔහුගේ නිවස වෙත විවිධ පිරිස් පැමිණෙනු දක්නට ලැබුණා.

මේ අතර, අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන් කණ්ඩායමක්ද අද පෙරවරුවේ කොළඹ බෞද්ධාලෝක මාවතේ පිහිටි රාජිත සේනාරත්න මන්ත්‍රීවරයාගේ නිවස වෙත පැමිණි බවයි අප වාර්තාකරු සඳහන් කළේ.

එසේම, පොලිස් විශේෂ විමර්ශන ඒකකයේ නිලධාරීන් කණ්ඩායමක් විසින් රාජිත සේනාරත්න මන්ත්‍රීවරයාගේ බේරුවල – හෙට්ටිමුල්ල ප්‍රදේශයේ පිහිටි නිවසද අද පස්වරුවේ විශේෂ පරීක්ෂාවකට ලක්කර තිබෙනවා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

උතුර හා නැගෙනහිර ඒකාබද්ධ කර ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ෆෙඩරල් ක්‍රමය ඇතුළත් කර උතුර හා නැගෙනහිර දෙමළ භාෂාව කතා කරන මුස්ලිම් ජනයා වෙනුවෙන් වෙනම ඒකකයක් පිහිටුවීම මඟින් සිංහල, දෙමළ, මුස්ලිම් සියළු දෙනාට අත්වැල් බැඳගෙන ඉදිරියට යා හැකි බව උතුරු පළාත් හිටපු ප්‍රධාන අමාත්‍ය සී.වී. විග්නේෂ්වරන් පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ යාපනයේදී අද මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් පළ කරමින්.

එමෙන්ම, මහා වංශය ලියවෙන 05 වන ශත වර්ෂයේදී සිංහලයින් නොසිටි බවත්, හයවන සහ හත්වන ශතවර්ෂවලදී සිංහලයින් පැමිණි බවත් ඔහු පවසනවා.

එසේම මෑතකාලීන ඞී.එන්.ඒ. පරීක්ෂාවලින් දමිලයින් සහ සිංහලයින් පැවත එන්නේ එකම මූලාරම්භයකින් බව තහවුරු වී ඇතැයිද පවසන ඔහු එය පිළිගන්නා ලෙස සිංහල ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියා.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බෞද්ධ රටක් ලෙස අර්ථ ගැන්වීමට කිසිදු පුද්ගලයෙකුට අයිතියක් නොමැති බව උතුරු පළාත් හිටපු ප්‍රධාන අමාත්‍ය සී.වී.විග්නේෂ්වරන් පසුගියදා ප්‍රකාශ කළා. අද දිනයේදී මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද ඔහුගෙන් විමසා සිටි අතර, ඊට පිළිතුරු ලබාදෙමින් සී.වී. විග්නේෂ්වරන් කියා සිටියේ මහාවංශය යනු බුදු දහම පිළිබඳව උත්කර්ෂය ඇති කිරීම සඳහා පාලියෙන් ලියන ලද කල්පිතයක් බවයි.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The public wanted to know why the government took so long to defeat the LTTE.  Why had they not won the war when the LTTE was much weaker? If the LTTE had been defeated earlier, then many lives could have been saved. The armed forces knew the strategies needed to defeat them. They wanted an eastern strategy. The east was the real centre of Eelam and the war must be fought there, they said. ‘LTTE would have collapsed long ago if the north- eastern waters had been patrolled.  LTTE ‘successes’ were due to our ‘failures’ and those failures were due to government blunders. The war would not have lasted three decades if the government had taken the war seriously.

The Tamil separatist war was anticipated by N.Q. Dias, when he was Permanent Secretary for Defence and External affairs in the SLFP government of 1960-1965. Neville Jayaweera recalls that ‘NQ’ was the most powerful public servant of the time. He was feared and respected even by cabinet ministers. Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike listened to him.  In 1963, NQ had told Jayaweera, then GA, Jaffna that within the next twenty years the Tamil protest would develop into an armed rebellion and the government must prepare for that now.   N.Q. Dias had been in Jaffna as AGA in the 1940s.

NQ wanted to set up a chain of military camps to encircle the Northern Province. They were to be set up at Arippu, Maricchikatti, Pallai and Thalvapadu in the Mannar District, Pooneryn, Karainagar, Palaly, Point Pedro and Elephant Pass in the Jaffna District, Mullaitivu in the Vavuniya District and Trincomalee in the East. He said that there were already two military camps of platoon strength in Pallai in Mannar and in Palaly in Jaffna and a rudimentary naval presence in Karainagar, but that he wanted to upgrade them.

To avoid an outcry from the Tamils, he intended to say that these camps were for controlling illicit immigration from India to Sri Lanka and smuggling from Sri Lanka to India.    Work started immediately and within a year, the infrastructure for setting up the military camps was nearly complete. When Jayaweera left Jaffna in 1966 all of the camps were up and running.  This network of military camps helped to mount counter strikes against the LTTE later.

 NQ also set up a Task Force for Anti Illicit Immigration (TAFFI) under the command of Lt. Col. Sepala Attygalle,  to encircle the North militarily and wanted to know whether the Gal Oya Board could turn out boats to use for ‘anti smuggling’ work. He raised new infantry regiments, starting with the Sinha Regiment. He wished to get rid of the ‘unpatriotic persons’ in the military top command  and planned to strengthen Sri Lanka’s relations with Beijing to neutralize India’s influence in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.  

  Jayaweera notes that N.Q’s vision of Tamil uprising, and gun running from Tamilnadu began to unravel exactly as he had foreseen. ‘He was a political prophet as well as a military strategist. His grand design for strangling a future Tamil revolt by girdling the north with a chain of military encirclement was as audacious as it was brilliant.’ Jayaweera says NQ Dias was an outstanding strategist.  It was NQ’s duty to plan well ahead for the suppression of any anticipated armed rebellion and he fulfilled that obligation as no one else had done before him. Sri Lanka is much in his debt,  said Jayaweera. ‘NQ’s vision of a future armed Tamil uprising and of India’s intervention on the side of the rebel cause has not been properly chronicled.’

If these military camps had been nurtured and developed in the 1970s, the armed forces would have been better prepared for the Eelam wars. They would have studied the northern landscape from the military angle, prepared military maps and got ready for a future separatist war. Instead, when the Eelam wars began, the LTTE had the advantage. They knew the landscape of the north intimately; the soldiers did not know it at all. Vadamarachchi was selected in 1987 using data obtained at great risk by the intelligence units.   In 1990, a seaborne rescue mission was launched to save an army detachment at Mullaitivu. The forces first had a mock landing north of Mullativu as they had never done this before.

The  war dragged on for so long because our Presidents did not give a clear order to the armed forces to go ahead and win.   President Wijetunge, alone, said LTTE were merely terrorists and ordered the armed forces to clear the east of the LTTE within two months. The other three Presidents wanted to avoid war.  They wished to negotiate a deal with the LTTE at any cost.

Because of this, the authorities neglected the military. Recruitment and training were stopped whenever there was a lull in the war. The government refused to provide the multiple rocket launchers   and Bushmaster cannon the army and navy urgently needed. But they bought a hovercraft at a staggering cost of Rs 250 million. It was never used for war. The government   wanted to know why the army needed need a large stock of ammunition when there were only 2000 LTTE fighters. Troops died because substandard arms and equipment were purchased.

Officers were promoted, on seniority not competence. They were not vetted, there was no security classification  and sensitive information was easily obtained.  ‘Our battle plans were known to the media before operations began’.  The Eelam war was not over, but in 2004, Sri Lanka sent troops to the UN peace keeping forces in Haiti. The service commanders had no say in the matter. Earlier, the government set up a Defence Review Committee (2002) which was asked   to examine the size of the security forces and see whether such a large army was necessary. Observers are now asking did the authorities want the LTTE to win? 

Politics took precedence over war. The heads of the three forces were selected on loyalty to the government. Commanders who stood up to the government were dismissed and replaced by persons with less experience. In-fighting between senior officers of the army was encouraged. The media said that superior officers opposed strategies planned by subordinates  and that    subordinate officers wanted to kill their superiors. There was political interference in the military campaigns.  But when things went wrong the army was blamed.  The government said that the army had allowed LTTE to win the Oya Alaigal” operation.  The army furiously denied the allegation.

Officers capable of defeating the LTTE such as Janaka Perera and Sarath Fonseka were brought in, moved out and brought in again. Janaka Perera angrily complained that he had never been allowed to command the army though he had the knowledge and expertise needed to defeat the LTTE. Officers who opposed the LTTE were removed. Vajira Wijegoonawardene, then Overall Operation commander called for firm military action against the LTTE. He was transferred. Eastern Naval Commander, Rear admiral Sarath Weerasekera was moved out of Trincomalee when he objected to the LTTE flexing its muscles.  Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda reported that LTTE had positioned guns pointing towards the Trincomalee navy base. Instead of taking action the government attacked me. State television ran a programme defamatory of me and I decided to take legal action.”

President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s period of office (1994-2005) is notable for a series of battlefield defeats. LTTE took Mullativu (1996) Kilinochchi (1998), Elephant Pass (2000) and nearly took Jaffna peninsula. At Elephant Pass, the most important military base in the north, with access to the Jaffna peninsula, the army withdrew leaving behind massive stock of arms, ammunition and equipment including artillery pieces.  In Kilinochchi, 500 soldiers were   killed, 3,000 wounded and 500 missing.  LTTE burnt alive the 1300  Sri Lankan soldiers at Mullaitivu and removed the entire arsenal including artillery pieces, mortars, and machine guns. Those who survived the Mullaitivu attack  had revealed the pathetic state of Mullaitivu defenses at the time.  Experts  say the  Mullaitivu debacle could have been avoided. The government wanted to regain Mullaitivu, but the  military opposed this and refused to deploy any more men.  They were against maintaining isolated bases.  

The government engaged in  a series of highly publicized, knee jerk military operations which kept the focus on Jaffna, and off the Eastern province. These seriously weakened the army and helped LTTE further entrench itself.  These operations were given names that screamed success even before the operations had started,   ‘Thrivida pahara’,    ‘Sath jaya, ‘Jayasikurui, ‘Edibala,   ‘Rivi bala’ and ‘Ranagosa’. They  suffered from a shortage of weapons and the lack of holding strength at crucial moments. They all failed. ‘Thrivida pahara,’   was called off within hours, leaving a group of soldiers stranded on the beach. They were eventually killed by the Tigers.   ‘Ranagosa’ spread three divisions thinly on the ground. LTTE crushed them. Jayasikurui seemed a lunatic venture even to the public. It was trying to regain the highly exposed Jaffna-Kandy road, with the LTTE lined up on both sides of the route,  using just two fighting divisions. These two divisions were soundly defeated by the LTTE.

These ill planned military operations resulted in a huge number of deaths. Operation Riviresa (1995) took Jaffna, but with a loss of 600 men.    The government did not care. The lives of the armed forces and police didn’t matter.  Security issues and long term implications were not important.  Governments simply wanted to show territorial gains. When the campaigns failed, the government imposed censorship .The press could not report on the bloody fighting and the number of lives lost.   The statement issue by LTTE when they took Elephant Pass was completely censored. ( CONTINUED)

Malinda Seneviratne

A senior Swiss diplomat and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jörg Frieden is on his way to help clarify to Swiss authorities what Switzerland describes as a ‘current crisis’. 
The Swiss are perturbed, we are told. ‘Confused’ would be a better descriptive though. They call it a ‘security incident’. The knowledge of the Swiss on ‘security’ is amply demonstrated by the fact that they see nothing wrong in their citizens collecting money to fund terrorism.  
The Swiss has issued a statement. Apparently Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, who is the Swiss equivalent of ‘Foreign Minister’ believes that Frieden will look for ways of ‘clarifying the security incident”.’  That sounds like Diplospeak for ‘damage control’.  
What’s interesting is that in this long missive, the Swiss have not talked about the incident itself. That ‘incident’ was about an abduction claim by a woman employed by the Swiss Embassy. A former Sri Lankan minister is on record saying that a gun had been shoved into the lady’s mouth. ‘White van abduction’ was what it was called by dubious websites which were operating as though they were outfits to which the United National Party and the now defeated Yahapalana Government had outsourced propaganda operations. 
Originally, the Swiss Embassy spoke about people having seen this ‘abduction’. Well, it look like the Swiss are now on the back foot. No talk of abduction. No witnesses. No white vans. Instead it’s a ‘security incident’. Whose security, though? The Swiss Embassy is not under a security threat. The Swiss Ambassador is not at risk. The woman concerned, then?
Well, the Swiss are now talking about the health and safety of the Embassy staff; essentially the woman’s one assumes. They’ve expressed disappointment over ‘the high level of media coverage, lack of privacy safeguards and public condemnation in this case’ and believe that this has ‘not only endangered Swiss embassy staff but also eroded the trust and confidence required to jointly clarify the incident.’
Yes, there’s a high level of media coverage. Who is to blame for this? Who made it a ‘high profile case’? Who sold a dubious story to shady websites? Whose interests have these websites defended and promoted? A political party! Who picked up these bits and pieces and made a fun story out of it?  Well, the New York Times! 
Has Switzerland taken issue with the New York Times or that outfit’s local correspondents? We don’t know. Anyway, when a mission of a foreign government plays judge, jury and complainant, it is certainly newsworthy. When that mission’s missives verge on fantasy and when the fantasy can have a direct impact on the image of a government and a nation, that too is newsworthy. 
As for the Swiss Embassy staff being at risk, the best antidote would be to come clean. Just say it as it is and not regurgitate a shoddy story and make tall claims and paint darker extrapolations. The worst enemy of the Swiss Embassy at this point, in fact, is the Swiss Embassy itself. And now, having spilled things all over the place carelessly, the Swiss are upset about a ‘high level of media coverage’. 
Privacy safeguards. Yes, that’s an issue. It’s not easily obtained when people go out of their way to make things ‘high profile’. The Swiss Embassy made some grand proclamations but refused to cooperate with the investigators. So much for a need to get to the bottom of things! The lady’s identity was not revealed. No information whatsoever about the person was revealed. And they now worry about due process, they worry about risks, they worry about security and privacy! 
The police had to sweat to obtain information that the Swiss Embassy could have furnished within a few seconds. Is it that the Swiss are not interested in the truth but are looking for part-truth where uncomfortable elements are footnoted or left out altogether? Is that what ‘justice’ is as far as the Swiss are concerned? 
The statement from Switzerland mentions the principle of the presumption of innocence. Well, they went to town pointing fingers before things went South, didn’t they? So did the New York Times. So did people like Rajitha Senaratne, that great fantasist whose prowess at fiction was abundantly evident when he conjured a ‘White Van Driver,’ beard and all. 
We don’t know what kind of relationship the Swiss Embassy folk have with the likes of Rajitha Senaratne or certain ‘journalists’ feeding misinformation to media outfits which seem inept at separating fact from fiction [Yes, that’s the New York Times we are talking about].  Officially, of course, the Swiss Embassy has to deal with the Government and is not answerable to would-be do-gooders operating as lackeys. And they’ve been way too shy for their own good. 
So there’s public condemnation. Of course there is public condemnation. There’s no point whining about it, especially when you’ve tried to slip in a deuce and wanted people to think it was an ace. Surely the Swiss can’t expect the public to cheer them? What did they expect, wild applause for their highly unprofessional behavior?  
Ah yes, the health of the lady. The Swiss Embassy didn’t want any doctor to check her out. Initially. It took a court order to get her to give a statement. It took a court order to have her examined by medical professionals. If her health is important, well then, she is now in the right hands — doctors, not diplomats. 
So this decision to send Frieden to Sri Lanka is good. Maybe he will teach his less experienced colleagues what diplomacy is about, what to say and what not to say, what to do and what not to do. Maybe, in that manner, he can do justice to the stated intention of ‘strengthening the basis of trust between Switzerland and Sri Lanka.’
There’s a kata boru kiwwath diwa boru kiyanne nae (the tongue doesn’t lie, even if the mouth is untruthful) part at the end of the Swiss statement: ‘Switzerland wishes to maintain close relations with Sri Lanka and support the country as it moves forward.’ The Swiss see Sri Lanka as ‘moving forward’. Forward from what, though? From the mess left behind by the previous regime’s masochistic urges, yes indeed. 
I would think the Swiss owe all Sri Lankans an apology for the way its representatives in Sri Lanka have behaved over this incident, but if hush-hush is the way to ‘move forward’ by way of allowing for saving-of-face, so be it.  Just retire the condescension. It’s patently insufferable. 
On that note, let me extend Mr Jörg Frieden a warm welcome back to Sri Lanka. There’s a bit of rain, but let that not dampen a visit that’s being made in a season whose festive spirit has been quashed somewhat by incompetence and arrogance. You’ll find that if people come clean, they are applauded. We are a forgive-and-forget kind of nation, as you probably know by now. This article was first published in the SUNDAY OBSERVER [December 22, 2019]malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

It has become very clear now that the Swiss drama was a deliberate hoax enacted by neo-liberal western powers, the UNP and the LTTE terrorists to discredit and malign the new Sri Lanka government headed by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. just one week after it came to power to    Political columns of both the Island” abd Sunhday Times” have posted details relating to Swiss threats made to the new government to force to acquiesce to its dictates and make it collapse before it started its programmes. 

The Island columnist C.A.Chandraprema (CAC) states that Sri Lanka can never expect fair play from Switzerland as it is more pro-LTTE than most other Western countries and points out recent actions by Swiss authorities which include court ruling saying that the Tamil Tigers are not a criminal organization, acquitting 12 LTTE activists who had been charged with sending 15 million Swiss Francs collected from the Sri Lankan community in Switzerland during the war and about the sophisticated system being maintained by Swiss LTTE to raise funds from the Tamil community in Switzerland.

CAC further points out that when Malaysia is rounding up LTTE activists, India and Sri Lanka are on the alert for attempts to revive the LTTE and the whole world is on alert with regard to any kind of terrorist activity because terrorism is the scourge of the modern world, Switzerland has justified terrorist attacks if it is to seek separate independent state. They have decriminalized the collecting of funds in Switzerland for terrorist attacks on Sri Lanka and refuses even to consider the LTTE to be a criminal group even though the FBI categorized the LTTE as the deadliest terrorist organization in the world in 2008.

Although the LTTE military machine was smashed by Sri Lanka in 2009,its international networks still remains intact and still poses a direct threat to countries like Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia. The Swiss government however actively promotes LTTE terrorism and provides a safe haven for LTTE terrorists on Swiss soil. This is the background in which this entire abduction drama had taken place.

Gania Barrister Frncis alias Sriyalatha Perera

A statement issued by the the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on this hoax drama has stressed: –

* An employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo has today been detained on the grounds that she allegedly made false statement sand they calls on the Sri Lankan judicial authorities to ensure better protection of its employee’s personal rights in any further proceedings and compliance with national law and international standards.

* The local employee has reported that she had been abducted in Colombo to force her to disclose embassy-related information.

* The staffer was subjected to a 30-hour interrogation and was subjected over three days despite being in poor health.

* They expect the Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities to comply with national law and international judicial standards and to ensure that the employee’s rights are now better protected and it calls on the Sri Lankan authorities to meet their obligations under applicable law and give due consideration to the employee’s poor state of health.

* That in this high-profile case Sri Lanka’s reputation as a country that upholds the rule of law is at stake.

The Swiss government prior to its dealings with Sri Lanka on this case has given all related information to the New York Times facilitating them to publish an article highly critical of Sri Lanka under the title “Sri Lankan Critics Fear a Crackdown Is Underway, and Some Flee” on November 27 before we Sri Lankans knew anything about this alleged incident. The said article has quoted the Swiss foreign ministry as its source.  Extracted details and comments on the article will follow.

CAC explains that the Swiss embassy took nearly two weeks after the incident to present the alleged victim for a medical examination to be carried out and for a statement to be recorded. During that entire period she was held incommunicado in the Swiss embassy in Colombo and there is no word about that in the Swiss government’s statement. Even though the Swiss authorities have condemned the 30-hours of interrogation to which the employee was subjected over three days despite allegedly being in poor health, the Swiss have not explained why this person who was supposedly in poor health was kept inside the Swiss embassy instead of being given medical help for nearly two weeks.

He further states that even after presenting the alleged victim for a statement to be recorded, the Swiss embassy retained possession of the alleged victim’s and her husband’s phone and a court order had to be obtained asking the embassy to give that phone and the sim cards to the CID and there are no reports to say that the Swiss embassy has complied with this order. CAC states that wee have to hope that the Swiss Embassy will not do to those phones and SIM cards what Hillary Clinton had done to her phones and SIM cards – the FBI found that they had been smashed to bits with hammers!  

In conclusion of his column CAC says that another possibility is that this woman may have been motivated to do this by some outside party without the knowledge of the Swiss embassy. He claims that there seems to be a close connection between the LTTE groups in Switzerland, the UNP, the TNA and the Swiss government and hence the new Sri Lankan government will have to figure out a way to deal with this. From the very beginning, the enemies of the Rajapaksas were the UNP and associated political parties and the Western embassies backing them. Now that the Rajapaksas are back with a huge mandate, naturally, these local representatives of the global liberal mafia are doing their damnedest to undermine the new government. We have seen this happening in other countries too where the global liberal mafia has been conclusively defeated.

CAC in a note of caution states that the Swiss drama which began within days of the new President assumed office clearly shows that the Western embassies will not allow the new government to rule the country in peace but will do their damnedest to undermine it. In last Monday’s statement, the Swiss authorities had indicated to the Sri Lankan authorities that it is seeking ‘a common and constructive way forward’ to resolve the security incident. This position has been reiterated in the statement issued by the Swiss authorities on Thursday as well. What is the resolution that the Swiss are seeking? If they want to have legal action against their local staffer stopped and permission to take her out of the country as they have been demanding all along, that is a not a feasible option for Sri Lanka because we would then be portrayed as the guilty party.

 We have not yet got to the bottom of who is behind all this. If the government caves into the Swiss demands and stops legal action against this local staffer, will Sri Lanka be left alone? Hardly likely. It will only intensify the campaign against Sri Lanka. Thus, the only feasible option that Sri Lanka has in the present case is to come down hard on all those involved. That will at least deter any future gimmicks of this sort.

CAC also advises that Sri Lanka’s economy too should turn east and the economy will have to be oriented away from the West to the east consciously over the next few years so that our dependency on the West is reduced and their ability to dictate terms goes down proportionately. It is certainly true that it is only the Swiss embassy that is involved in this spat with Sri Lanka and the other Western embassies have not got involved. But the fact that the Swiss can get away with what they have done up to now without international condemnation, indicates that Sri Lanka has no future with the West and that the wisest course of action is to look Eastwards.

The Sunday Tines Political Editor (STPE) states that the Swiss government has issued a virtual ultimatum urging Colombo to ensure all matters in the case of Garnier Banister Francis, their Assistant Migration Officer, be completed on December 16. This was with the case being taken up in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court that day. In other words, the Swiss government expected the matter to end there and the ding-dong controversy brought to a halt and it did not work that way.

As the officially designated Assistant Migration Officer Garnia Barrister Francis was dealing with visa and asylum applications together with her Migration Officer, a Swiss lady. In her official capacity, she was privy to sensitive information on those who have obtained asylum as well as those who sought visas among related matters. This included the case of Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva, head of the organised crimes division of the CID. He has now obtained asylum in Switzerland.

She had alleged that she was sexually abused and assaulted at the teacher’s apartment by unknown men according to what she told the CID. She had not complained to the Police because the unidentified persons had warned that her family members would be killed. One of these men had also pointed a pistol at her, she has alleged. This is in marked contrast. Either in her first statement to her bosses or the later one to the CID there was no reference to the purported abductors thrusting a pistol in her mouth. The charge was made by former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne as if he was A witness to this hoax drama or who was a party to the abductor gang.

The first account she gave her Ambassador and later confirmed by his deputy, Imbach, runs completely against her version to the CID. She has told CID that she went to the apartment of a teacher at St Bridget’s Convent at 3 p.m. on November 25. However, she has claimed that the incident occurred just after 5 p.m. Surveillance camera footage in the vicinity had revealed that she had left the apartment by that time. An Uber taxi in which she claimed she travelled had no records of that journey. The CID had also found evidence to confirm she has told neighbours around the apartment she lived in Maligakanda that she and her family were leaving home since they were going abroad. Similarly, there have been many other statements that were contradictory leaving the CID and the Attorney General’s Department to conclude that she had fabricated the incident. Exacerbating the situation, they confirmed, was the fact that she was in a physically and mentally fit and proper condition. She was, however, in a confused state at times, said one source.

From Monday, she remains in the Y” Ward of the Remand Prison at Welikade. This ward also houses a number of female drugs suspects whose cases are pending in courts. This came amidst reports that alleged she was found in possession of a sim card and a mobile phone. Prison sources said that the matter was now being investigated. Meals for Banister Francis were being delivered from outside. It has remained a common practice for prisoners and remand prisoners to smuggle in telephones into prisons by bribing their way through. A group of European envoys, a diplomatic source in Colombo said, urged Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to provide her with reasonably better” facilities in the remand cell. He has replied that it was possible to do so if her counsel made a formal request – a procedure that is usually followed.

The EU envoys meeting with Minister Gunawardena had been fixed before the Swiss saga began. The envoys took up the same position as the Swiss government that due process” should be followed. They asked that Banister Francis be properly protected.” The EU envoys also complained that the local media were biased” and one sided.” Minister Gunawardena had replied that the media in Sri Lanka were free” and the government had no role to play in what they do, the same source said.

STPE said that according to Colombo based western diplomats the alleged abduction centres on Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva of the CID.  The CID denied such accusations. Another suspicion is whether an outside party staged it with the intention of placing both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the government in an awkward position. In Colombo, the latter position has gained more substance as the investigations continue. It has come to light that an outside party who had allegedly colluded with the CID, has fled the country with his family. That a second person connected to the investigations, after CI de Silva, has flown away has angered the government leaders. ght by western countries in particular. The tragic irony is that the new government is in accord, but for very different reasons. In the recent years, this elite organisation of the Police department has been politicised to such a degree it has lost its credibility and reputation. In the past four and half years, the CID was handling a part of the so-called high-profile cases. In reality it was against the ruling party’s opponents.

Either agreed before or otherwise, STPE points out that the statements made by Banister Francis relate entirely to her two claims, one to her Ambassador and the other to the CID, only over the alleged incident. It is facts arising from this purported incident that the CID has been reporting to the Chief Magistrate’s Court. Being a Sri Lankan citizen, she does not enjoy any diplomatic immunity. Like all other citizens, during a Police inquiry where they are required to make a statement, they would have to sign it to affirm its authenticity. There is a paradoxical situation here.

Mindful of any undertaking given, or on their own volition to avoid accusations, CID detectives appear not to have dealt with the CI de Silva affaire during the interrogation – the sole cause why Bannister Francis claims she was purportedly molested sexually and assaulted. If the CID did so, answers to some questions would have surfaced. However, the CID complained she was not co-operating.” That would have included details like for how long CI de Silva has the asylum application remained under consideration, who were the parties helping him and the telephone details that are linked. She has told investigators that her mobile phone was with the embassy. Of course, this is not to suggest that she has to violate confidentiality to which she is sworn into by her employers. This is only to make clear how knotty the issue has become for the investigators.

The role of the CID has also been one of the bones of contention between Bern and Colombo when efforts were being made to urge the local staffer to make a statement. After protracted discussion, it was agreed that the local lawyer representing the embassy staffer would be near when her statement was being recorded. In addition, two embassy staffers were also allowed to sit at a distance. They were able to see the statement being recorded but were not within hearing distance. The government agreed to these moves to obviate any complaints of the absence of transparency or complaints of impropriety.

STPEAlso reported that Ambassador Mock, once his Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, played the role of an interlocutor shuttling among backers of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena during last October’s political crisis. He said that The Sunday Times can now reveal that the role of a ‘peace maker’ came at the request of then President Sirisena. By then, he had realised he had erred over the foisting of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister after ousting incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Supreme Court was to later pronounce the move as unconstitutional. Envoy Mock was the second diplomat from whom Sirisena sought help after the first person he consulted declined To intervene.

Notwithstanding the current deadlock, it is imperative that the government resolves the Swiss saga by ensuring that relations reach normalcy. The pronouncements of Bern and Colombo make clear their positions are well known. The issue over a local employee should not be allowed to irreparably sour relations between two nations.

To be continued………

Malinda Seneviratne

The recently held presidential election, like all major elections, was a hard fought affair. In terms of who supported whom, historical antipathy, who wanted to remain in power and who wanted to assume power, there were differences. Well, the candidates themselves, outside of their political homes, were also different in the way they conducted themselves and of course their track records. Apart from all these rather trivial differences actually, Sajith Premadasa and Gotabaya Rajapaka had more things in common than has been acknowledged by either or their supporters, especially when it comes to policy issues.
Both promised goodies. Sure, Sajith went a bit overboard with such things, as he did with almost everything, but still, ‘welfarism’ was a key part of both manifestos.  Both candidates said that if elected they would review all bilateral agreements. The point of reference was the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact (MCC Compact). They both believe, sadly, in growth-led development. Both, happily (the way I see things), spoke in one voice about the legal system in the country. Apart from promising the independence of the judiciary, due process, rule of law etc., they both assured the electorate that the future, in terms of legal matters, would be framed by the following: ONE COUNTRY, ONE LAW!  
A total of 6.9 million voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa while Sajith Premadasa obtained 5.7 million votes. That’s 12.6 million. There were altogether 35 candidates. They either echoed this vision in their manifestos and rhetoric or were silent. In other words, at least 12.6 million people or 94.24% of the total number who cast valid votes (52.25% for Gotabaya and 41.99% for Sajith), voted for candidates who believed that Sri Lanka is a SINGLE COUNTRY and therefore should have ONE LAW for all.    

What does it mean, though? 
Before answering that question, let’s flag some slogans frequently tossed around by the class-less, identity-less, religion-less saints who are fond of blaming all ills on the majority community: ‘There should not be a special place for Buddhism,’ ‘This is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country,’ ‘Article 9 should be repealed,’ ‘religion should be separated from the state,’ ‘Sri Lanka should be a secular state.’
Fine. 
First of all, is there any county with a population at least as large as Sri Lanka’s that is mono-ethnic, mono-religious and monolithic in terms of political beliefs? No. We are multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Should the fact be enshrined in a constitution? Should we also say ‘Sri Lanka is an island?’ No. Should we say ‘In Sri Lanka there are men and women?’ No. More importantly, if you are really fixated with this multi-religious, multi-ethnic wording, the you have to insert the numbers as well, for clarity if not for anything else.  Otherwise, the impression given is that the population is equally divided into ethnic groups and religious communities, much like how the use of the words ‘North’ and ‘South’ during Sri Lanka’s long struggle against terrorism gave the mischievous impression that Sinhalese and Tamils were equal in numerical strength and that the relevant ‘homelands’ could be demarcated by drawing a horizontal line perpendicular to the half way point in a line connecting Devundara and Point Pedro. 
What Gotabaya and Sajith (and other candidates) promised is that there would be a single corpus of laws. In other words, what applies to a Sinhalese would apply to a Tamil, what applies to a Hindu would apply to a Muslim, etc. In other words, the fundamental concept of ‘Equality’ should be applied across the board. 
The next question is ‘what IS this One Law”?’ C.V. Wigneswaran delivering the Kanthaiah Sivanantham Memorial lecture about a decade ago vociferously defended the Thesawalamai Law. He maintained that it would protect even non-Tamils who purchase property in areas that come under this law. Well, it is arguable that there could be laws that help strengthen community integrity. If that’s the case, such laws could cover the entire country. The same would go for, say, Sharia Law or the Kandyan Marriage Law. We don’t have to throw away the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance. We could expand its ambit to cover all religious communities and atheists too!  
Alternatively, and this seems to be the most logical course of action, all such regional, ethnicity or religion based laws should be repealed. What applies in the general should not be trumped by the specific.  
But then again, horror of horrors (some might whine), wouldn’t that hurt customs, religious practices and culture of some communities? Well, there’s give and take. There’s having the cake and trying to eat it too. You want ‘secular’? Fine. You want ‘secular’ for some but not for others? No. The truth is that there is celebration of specificity and there’s also abuse of specificity. 
What is held sacrosanct by each religious community should not be brushed aside. Agreed. However, it is humbuggery of the highest order to demand sensitivity (and secularism) in the name  of reconciliation and co-existence and then use sensitivity as a cover to chop off other people’s noses so you can have more room to flex your muscles ‘freely’.  
There’s something wrong, for example, in saying ‘equal rights for all communities, but not when it comes to gender,’ using these ‘sensitive’ religious ‘edicts’.  
These are not easily resolved, of course. All the more reason for these issues to be widely debated and taken seriously, instead of taking the easy path of, say, repealing Article 9 (but leaving Thesavalamai, MMDC and the Kandyan Marriage Laws untouched, [Aha!].’  
Religious freedom is non-negotiable. The parameters of ‘religion’ need to be fixed, though. You cannot have a set of laws that has any reasonable degree of integrity if there are ‘religious’ caveats through which certain people can creep through but others cannot. Religious communities in a ‘multi-religious’ (that term!) nation cannot have it all for this would mean, theoretically, that in the name of religion certain groups can enjoy privileges that are denied other religious groups, or that women of a particular faith are subjugated in specific ways in which others are not. 
Religious holidays tell the story best. There are 13 Buddhist holidays, three for Hindus, 54 for Christians and three for Muslims. Hold on, there’s more.  Muslims are given two hours of leave from 1 pm every Friday. That’s the equivalent of 13 work days if you want to be mathematically clinical about such things. During the Ramadan period, Muslims have the privilege of obtaining ‘special leave’ to take part in prayers. A Muslim woman is given leave of four months and ten days in the event her husband dies and three months following divorce.  
If you want ‘One country, one law,’ and if you want Sri Lanka to be ‘secular,’ then this religion-fixation should be dissolved. If you are a devout adherent to a religious faith, it’s fine. Just do it on your time. Take leave to observe sil.  Take leave on Good Friday and Christmas. Take short-leave to go to the mosque. Take leave for Ramadan. Take leave and grieve if your husband passes away. Take leave if you find it hard to deal with divorce. 
The best would be to apportion a certain number of days under ‘Religious Leave’ (which could be broken down to hours if needed) for everyone, just like Annual Leave, Sick Leave and Short-Leave. 
If you want to leave such things as they are and at the same time beat your chest and stamp your foot for secularism, you are indulging in the worst kind of buffoonery. As things stand, it’s all about having the cake and eating it. It boils down to removing Article 9 (which, in any case, is negated by Articles 10 and 14), whacking Buddhists and allowing other religious communities to entrench the privileged positions already enshrined in the Constitution.  
Well, the people have spoken, haven’t they? We are talking of 12.6 million (or 94.24% of those who voted). They subscribe to the ONE COUNTRY, ONE VOTE notion. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has the mandate. And the United National Party (UNP) is honor-bound to support implementation.
This article was first published in the ‘SUNDAY MORNING’ [December 22, 2019]malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com

Courtesy Ada Derana

A warrant has been issued by the Colombo Additional Magistrate to arrest former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne.

The Attorney General Dappula De Livera has instructed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to obtain an arrest warrant from court and arrest former minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne following investigations regarding the ‘white van’ press conference. 

The UNP MP had filed a fresh affidavit yesterday with regard to his second anticipatory bail application seeking to prevent his arrest by the CID.

On November 10  this year, Senaratne had called the said press conference, which was attended by two persons named Anthony Douglas Fernando and Athula Sanjeewa Madanayake.

During the briefing, the duo had made controversial statements and allegations regarding white vans” and purported incidents of certain abductions, assassinations, robberies and forced disappearances during the administration of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

One of them had claimed that he was a white van” driver involved in abducting people while the other claimed he once served as a driver to transport a stock of gold in previously LTTE-held areas.

On December 02, the CID presented a submission to the Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne regarding the said media briefing. 

Considering a request made by the CID, the chief magistrate had ordered several media institutions to submit the unedited video footage from this press conference to the investigators for onward probes.

The investigations in this regard were launched after a complaint was lodged by an individual named Kumudu Pradeep Sanjeewa Perera.

The CID later arrested the two individuals in question and detained them for 72 hours for onward interrogations.

The duo was subsequently produced before Colombo Chief Magistrate, who delivered an order to remand them until December 27.

Courtesy Hiru News

MP Patalie Champika Ranawaka who was in remand in connection with a motor accident that injured a youth at Rajagiriya in 2016 has been released on bail this morning.

When MP Ranawaka was produced before the court, Colombo Additional Magistrate Kanchana Neranjani Silva ordered to release the MP on a 25 thousand cash bail and two surety bails of 500 thousand rupees each.

The Magistrate also ordered the MP not to influence the witnesses.

– අරවින්ද අතුකෝරල උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකාසීනිවුස්

පිවිතුරු හෙල උරුමයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා එම පක්‍ෂ මූලස්ථානයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී මෙම අදහස් පල කලේය.

නීතිය පිලිබඳ මහචාර්ය අජිත් පෙරේරා මැතිතුමාත් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ නලින් බණ්ඩාර මැතිතුමාත් පුංචි දඩයක් ගහන්න ඕනෑ මාර්ග නීති වරදකට පාච රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමා බන්ධනාගාර ගත කර ඇති බවට ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා අපි දැක්කා. ඔය අජිත් පෙරේරා නීති විශාරදයා තමයි කිව්වේ ගීතා මන්ත්‍රිතුමිය ද්විත්ව පුරවැසියෙක් බව ඔප්පු වුණොත් ගාලු දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සංධානයෙන් පත් වුණු සියළුම මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ගේ මන්ත්‍රි ධූර අහෝසි වෙනවා කියලා.

උසාවියට වාර්තා කළ කරුණු අනුව පාටලි මන්ත්‍රිතුමා අත්අඩංගුවට අරගෙන තිබෙන්නේ මාර්ග නීති කඩ කිරීමකට හෝ හුදු රිය අනතුරකට නොවෙයි. නොසැලකිලිමත් ලෙස රිය ධාවනයෙන් අනතුරක් සිදු කිරීම එක චෝදනාවක් විතරයි. ඊට වඩා බරපතල චෝදනා තිබෙනවා. අනතුරක් සිදු කර පලා යෑම, සැබෑ රියදුරා වෙනුවට වෙනත් රියදුරෙකු ඉදිරිපත් කර අධිකරණය නොමග යැවීම, සාක්ෂිකරුවන්ට තර්ජනය කිරීම, සාක්ෂි විනාශ කිරීම, පොලිස් නිලධාරින්ගේ රාජකාරියට බාධා කිරීම කියන චෝදනා තිබෙනවා. සාක්ෂිකරුවන්ට තර්ජනය කිරීම සහ සාක්ෂි විනාශ කිරීම කියන්නේ ඇප ලබා දිය නොහැකි බරපතල වැරදි. අන්න ඒ නිසා තමයි එතුමා රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත වී තිබෙන්නේ. කොහොම නමුත් අද දින මහේස්ත්‍රාත්තුමිය ඇප ලබාදුන්න බවයි අපට දැන ගන්නට තියෙන්නේ. නමුත් දින හයක් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගතකිරීමට අවශ්‍ය කරුණු පැහිදිළිව තිබෙන බවයි පෙනෙන්නේ.

වාහනයේ පසුපස වැදීම නිසා වරද සංදීප්ගේ කියන්නේ බොරුවක්

පාච රණවකගේ ගෝලයින් පවසන විධියට වාහනයේ වම් පස අග හරියේ මෝටර් සයිකලය වැදී තිබෙන නිසා වරදකරු සංදීප්ලු. පොලීසිය දෙපාර්ශවයෙන්ම ලබාගත් තොරතුරු අනුව සහ උසාවියට වාර්තාකර ඇති කරුණු අනුව පාටලි මන්ත්‍රිතුමා කෝට්ටේ පාරේ සිට බොරැල්ල දෙසට වේගයෙන් පැමිණ එක පාරට සරණ පාරට හරවනවා. වාහනයක් හරවන්න කලින් ඉදිරියෙන් එන වාහන වලට ඉඩ දිය යුතු බවයි මර්ග නීති වල තිබෙන්නේ. එක පාරට දකුණට හැරෙව්වාම ඉදිරියෙන් එන වාහනය තමන්ගේ වාහනයේ පැත්තක වදිනවා තමයි. ඒකේ වරද හරවපු කෙනාගේ මිස ඉදිරියට වාහනය ධාවනය කළ කෙනාගේ නොවේ. සන්දීප් සහ මිතුරන් අතේ වරදක් නැහැ වරද තිබෙන්නේ මාර්ග නීති කඩමින් නොසැලකිලිමත් ලෙස පාච රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමන් රිය ධාවනය කිරීමේ කියන එක ඉතා පැහැදිලිව ඔප්පුවෙලා හමාරයි.

අද සංදීප් සහ ඔහුගේ මිතුරන් උසාවියේ සාක්ෂි දීම වැලැක්වීමට ඔවුන් බිය වැද්දීමේ පහත් අරමුණෙන් චම්පික මන්ත්‍රිතුමන්ගේ ගෝලයෝ ටික සංදීප් සහ මිතුරන් ධාවනය කළ මෝටර් සයිකල් ලංකාවේ ධාවනය කළ නොහැකි මෝටර් සයිකල් බවට පොලිසියට පැමිණිලි කරලා. යටි අරමුණක් නැතිනම් වසර හතරක් නිහඬව ඉඳලා පාටලි මන්ත්‍රිතුමා අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් වහාම මේ පැමිණිල්ල කරන්නේ ඇයි?

සීසී 1000ට වඩා අඩු එංජින් ධාරිතාවක් ඇති මෝටර් සයිකල් ලංකාවේ මාර්ග වල ධාවනය කළ හැකියි. සංදීප්ලාගේ මෝටර් සයිකල් සීසී 1000ට වඩා අඩු නිසා තමයි ඒවා ලංකාවේ ලියාපදිංචි කර තිබෙන්නේ. බොරු පැමිණිලි කරලා වින්දිතයින්ට සහ සාක්ෂිකරුවන්ට බලපෑම් කිරීමට කටයුතු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වින්දිතයින් සහ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ පනත අනුව සාක්ෂිකරුවන්ට සහ වින්දිතයින්ට බලපෑම් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඒ බොරු පැමිණිලිකරුවන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට පොලිසිය කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි.

කතානායකගේ හැසිරීම පක්ෂග්‍රාහියි

කතානායකතුමා නායකත්වය දරණ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාව විසින් පත් කළ අධිකරණ සේවා කොමිසම යටතේ පාලනයවන අධිකරණයක් දැන් තිබෙන්නේ. ඒ අධිකරණයෙන් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගතකළ පාච රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමාගේ නිදහස පතා පවත්වන බෝධි පූජාවකට කතානායකතුමා සහභාගි වෙලා තිබෙන බවට වෙබ් අඩවි වාර්තා කර තිබෙනවා. මොකක්ද මේ කියන්නේ. තමන් විසින් පත්කරපු අධිකරණය ස්වාධීන නෑ කියලා තමන් විසින්ම ප්‍රකාශ කරණවා. පා ච රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමා බලන්න සිර ගෙදරටත් ගිහින් තිබෙනවා. තමන් පත් කළ අධිකරණ කොමිෂන් සභාව තමන්ටම විශ්වාස නෑ කියලා ද කතානායක මේ කියන්නේ. අපේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් 11ක් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කළා. එක් අයෙකු බලන්න හිර ගෙදරට ආවාද? අපේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ව ගෙවල් වලට පැනලා අරගෙන ගියා. එක මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කළා ද? නෑ. තමන් ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ බිහි වුණු අපකීර්තිමත්ම සහ පක්ෂග්‍රාහිම කතානායක බව නැවත වතාවක් කරු ජයසූරිය මැතිතුමා සනාථ කරලා තිබෙනවා.

කතානායකතුමා මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් කියනවා රාත්‍රි කාලයේ ගෙදරට ගොස් මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම වැරදියිලු. ඔය නීතිය කොහේද තිබෙන්නේ? අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහය සංශෝධනය කිරීමට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට මිස කතානායකට බලයක් නෑ. නීතිපති උපදෙස් ලැබී තිබෙන හෝ වරෙන්තුවක් නිකුත් කර තිබෙන ඕනෑම අපරාධකරුවෙකු පොලිසියට අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට ලැබෙන පළමු අවස්ථාවේම අත්අඩංගුවට ගත යුතුයි. නැතිනම් අපරාධකරුවෙකුට පැන යන්න දුන්නා කියා පොලිස් නිලධාරින් අමාරුවේ වැටෙනවා. වාහනයේ රියදුරු ලෙස අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටි තුසිත කුමාර අතුරුදහන්. අනතුරට පත් වුණු වාහනය පොලිසියට රැගෙන ආ ප්‍රදීප් අල්විස් අතුරුදහන්. ඒ නිසා මන්ත්‍රිතුමාත් සැඟවේවි කියන සාධාරණ සැකය පොලිසියට ඇති වෙන්න පුළුවන්.

මේ තිබෙන්නේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම පිළිබඳ 2015 අප්‍රේල් 10 දින ඉලංගකෝන් පොලිස්පති විසින් නිකුත් කළ චක්‍රලේඛය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සහ ගරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ගේ වරප්‍රසාද සුරක්ෂිත කිරීම සඳහා මෙතෙක් පැවති පූර්වාදර්ශ සහ විවිධ සම්ප්‍රදායන් පිළිබඳව සියලු කරුණු මැනවින් සලකා බලා ගරු කථානායකතුමා විසින් 2015 මාර්තු 03 වන දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ගන්නා ලද තීරණයකට අනුව යමින් මින් ඉදිරියේ දී කිසියම් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිවරයෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමේදී අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් වහාම හෝ ඊට පෙර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ගරු කථානායකතුමාට ඒ පිළිබඳව විධිමත් ලෙස දැනුම් දීමට අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු කළ යුතු බවට තීරණය කර ඇත. මම ආයෙත් කියනවා අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් වහාම හෝ ඊට පෙර. එහෙම නම් අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වුණාට පස්සෙත් දැනුම් දෙන්න පුලුවන්. අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නට පෙර දැනුම් දෙන්නටත් පුළුවන්.

එතුමාගේ ගේ වටකල පොලීසිය 6.57ට එතුමාව අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නවා කියලා නියෝජ්‍ය කතානායකතුමන්ට දැනුම් දුන් බව නියෝජ්‍ය කතානායකතුමාම පිළිගන්නවා. ඉන් පැයකට පමණ පසුවයි එතුමන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නේ. චක්‍රලේකයට අනුව අවශ්‍යනම් අත්අඩංගුවට අරගෙන ඉන් පස්සේ කතානායකතුමන්ට දැනුම්දෙන්න පුළුවන්. නමුත් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට පෙරයි නියෝජ්‍ය කතානායකතුමන් දැනුම්වත් කලේ. ඒ නිසා කිසිදු නීතියක් චක්‍රලේඛයක් සම්ප්‍රදායක් උල්ලංඝනය වී නොමැති බව අප කියනවා. අවාසනාවකට මේ රටේ අපක්ෂපාතී විය යුතු කතානායකතුමන් කොළපාට ඇදුම් ඇදගෙන මේ කරන විකට රංගනය නිසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ උත්තරීතර භාවය හා මෙතෙක් කතානායකවරුන් රැකගත් නම්බුවත් දෙකම ඉතාම පහත් මට්ටමකට ඇද දමන්න කරු ජයසූරිය මැතිතුමන් කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා කියන එක ඉතාම කණගාටුවෙන් සදහන් කරන්න ඕනෑ.

ප්‍රශ්න සහ පිළිතුරු

ප්‍රශ්න : සන්දීප්ගේ රිය අනතුර සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුව පාර්ශ්වයෙන් යම් මැදිහත්වීමක් කරනවද?

පිළිතුර : මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුවේ කිසිදු මැදිහත්වීමක් නැහැ. මේ නඩුව යළි ආරම්භ වන්නේ රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමන්ගේ එවකට සිටි පෞද්ගලික සහකාරවරයා රටින් පලාගොස් සිට නැවත ලංකාවට පැමිණියා. ඔහු පොලිසිය ඉදිරියේ ප්‍රකාශයක් කරමින් කියනවා රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමා හදිසි අනතුර කරගෙන ගෙදරට ආවට පස්සෙ මට කතා කරනවා. ඒ වෙලාවේ මම සහ ප්‍රදීප් අල්විස් එකටයි හිටියේ. අපි එතුමන්ගේ ගෙදරට යනවා. එතනදී තීරණය කෙරෙනවා රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමා වෙනුවට තුසිත කුමාරව රියදුරා ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නට. ඒ වන විට තුසිත කුමාර කැබ් රථයේ වෙනත් ගමනක් යමින් සිටියේ. තුසිත කුමාරව ගෙන්වා ගන්නවා. මම සහ ප්‍රදීප් අල්විස් තමයි අනතුරට පත් වූ වාහනය බොරැල්ල පොලිසියට අරගෙන ගියේ. වෙනත් කැබ් රථයකින් තමයි තුසිත කුමාර එතනට ආවේ. ඉන්පසු අපි තුසිත කුමාර ධාවනය කළ පුද්ගලයා ලෙසින් ඉදිරිපත් කළා කියලා. ඒ වගේම එවකට නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති පූජිත ජයසුන්දර මහතාට කතා කරලා ඒවා ලෑස්ති කරගත් ආකාරය ආදිය රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමාගේ පෞද්ගලික සහකාර හර්ෂ තිලකසිරි හෙවත් සුකි විසින් හෙළි කරනවා.

ඒ අනුව තමයි වසා දැමුණු ලිපිගොනුව නැවත විවෘත වන්නේ. අපි මේකට මැදිහත් වීමට කිසිදු තීරණයක් ගෙන නැහැ. පොලීසිය නීතිපති සහ අධිකරණය ඒ පිළිබඳ ක්‍රියාවලිය ඉදිරියට ගෙන යාවි.

ප්‍රශ්නය : රිය අනතුරෙන් පසුව චම්පක රණවක මන්ත්‍රිවරයා සහ පූජිත ජයසුන්දර එවකට නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයා හා දුරකතනයෙන් කතා කළ බව කියවෙනවා නේද?

පිළිතුර : අපට තියෙන්නෙ ද උසාවිය ඉදිරියේ පොලිසිය විසින් අනාවරණය කරන ලද කරුණු පමණයි. ඒවා අනුව ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලිව ඔහුගේ දුරකථන බිල්පත් හි සඳහන් වෙනවා දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් දීලා විනාඩි 3කට ආසන්න කාලයක් ඔහු හා දුරකථනයෙන් සාකච්ඡා කළ බව. ඒ වන විට පූජිත ජයසුන්දර මහත්මයා පොලිස්පති ධුරය බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් හිටියත් ජේෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ඊට වඩා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨයි ජේෂ්ඨයි වගේම ජනාධිපතිතුමන්ගේ ආරක්ෂක අංශය භාරව ද කටයුතු කරලා. පාච රණවක මන්ත්‍රිවරයා පොලිස්පති පත් කරන ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක සභාවේ එවකට මන්ත්‍රිවරයෙක්.. ඔහු අමාරුවේ වැටිලා සිටින අවස්ථාවක උදව් කිරීම අනාගතයේ පින් පල දෙන පුණ්‍යකර්මයක් කියලා, සත්‍යවශයෙන්ම එය පාපකර්මයක් වුණත් පූජිත ජයසුන්දර මහත්මයා හිතන්න ඇති.. දැන් පොලිස් නිලධාරින් සාක්ෂි දෙමින් ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා වැලිකඩ පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිට බොරැල්ල පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිට බලපෑම් කරලා තියෙනවා කියන එක. ඒ අනුව පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරු සාක්ෂි සටහන් කරගන්නා පොලිස් කොස්තාපල් වරුන්ට බලපෑම් කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ අනුව තමයි මේ කතාව විකෘති වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. එක් පසෙකින් අපරාධකරුවෙකු බේරාගැනීමට නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයා කටයුතු කරනවා. අනික් පැත්තෙන් පොලිස්පතිකමට නුසුදුස්සෙක්ව එම තනතුරට ගෙන ඒම සඳහා චම්පික රණවක මන්ත්‍රිතුමන් කටයුතු කරනවා. අවසානයේ පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවී ජීවිත ගණනාවක් වැනසෙද්දී මේ සිදු වූ මහා විනාශයට එවකට පොලිස්පති ධුරය පූජිත ජයසුන්දර මත පැවතීම හේතු වූ බවත් අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ නීතිපති දිරියේ හෙළිවී තියෙනවා. ඔහුට එම පොලිස්පති තනතුර ලබා දෙන්නේ වෙනත් අපරාධයක් වහන්නට ඔහු ලබාදුන් උදව් මතයි. නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයෙකු අපරාධ වැසීමට කටයුතු කරනවා නම් ඔහු පොලිස්පති තනතුරට නුසුදුස්සකු වෙන්නට ඕනෑ. නමුත් මොහු අපරාධයක් වැසීමට කළ උදව්ව තමයි ඔහුට පොලිස්පති ධුරය ලැබීමට හේතුව බවට පත් වන්නේ. අවසන් ප්‍රතිඵලය විදිහටයි පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය නැමැති මහා ව්‍යසනය රටට සිද්ධ වන්නේ. ජීවිත වලට සිද්ධ වෙච්ච හානියට මිලක් නියම කරන්නට බැහැ. මෙරටට ආර්ථික වශයෙන් වෙච්ච හානියට මිලක් නියම කරන්නට බැහැ. මේ මහා විනාශයට මේ අනතුරක් හේතු වෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ හදිසි අනතුර හරහා තමයි පූජිත ජයසුන්දර අන්අය කපාගෙන පොලිස්පති තනතුරට ඉදිරියට යන්නේ. මෙය පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය දක්වා දිවයන මහා භයානක රිය අනතුරක් .

ප්‍රශ්නය : රණවක අමාත්‍යවරයා අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම හේතුවෙනි විපක්ෂයට නව ජීවයක් ලැබුණු බවට කතා පැතිරෙනවා. ඔබතුමන් ඒ ගැන මොකද හිතන්නේ.

පිළිතුර : මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්තම සහෝදර මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් බලන්නට යනවා. ඒ කාලෙත් මේ කාලෙත් ඒක වෙනවා. අනාගතයේ සිදු වේවි. ඉන් ජීවයක් ලැබෙනවා කියලා කියන්න බැහැ. දිනනවා කියපු සජිත් තමයි 10% පරතරයත් තියලා පරාජයට පත්වන්නේ. නමුත් ඔවුන් අන්තිම මොහොත වෙනකන් කිව්වෙ දිනනවා කියලයි. දැනුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ඡන්දය ළඟ නිසා කියනවා නව ජීවයක් ලැබුණා කියලා. මේ ක්‍රියාවලිය බලද්දී ජනතාව පාර්ලිමේන්තු ඡන්දයේ දී මේ අයට උත්තර දේවි. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා ලබා ගත්ත ඡන්දවලින් 80% වත් ගන්න එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී බැහැ.

SL VLOG

SL VLOG

පාඨලී චම්පික තමන්ගෙ රහස් රකින්නට 6 වතාවක් හිසට විදුලිය අල්ලලා ||VLOG 58||