President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a committee consisting of six members to recommend qualified professionals for the topmost positions in State institutions, says the President’s Media Division (PMD).
This committee is required to submit its recommendations for the leading posts at public enterprises, state institutions, and state-owned commercial enterprises on or before the 18th of December this year.
Mr. Sumith Abeysinghe, former Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers and senior State official with extensive experience in the public sector, will chair this committee.
Former Chairman of John Keells Holdings Plc. Susantha Ratnayake, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Hela Clothing Chairman Dian Gomes, Neurosurgeon Dr. Prasanna Gunasena and Senior Lecturer Jagath Wellawatte have been appointed as committee members.
Colombo, November 28 (newsin.asia): The Government of Sri Lanka has said that it has taken serious note of the alleged criminal incident concerning a locally recruited staff member of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo, on Monday 25 November 2019.
On being informed of the alleged incident yesterday, the Police has taken immediate action to commence an investigation into the matter.
In order to enable the relevant authorities to conduct the investigation smoothly and according to established procedure, the fullest cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland has been requested.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany who is concurrently accredited to Switzerland, Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi will be meeting with the Swiss authorities to provide an update on the investigation, shortly.
The Government of Sri Lanka takes this opportunity to reaffirm unequivocally its commitment to give effect to the obligations undertaken as a State Party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), to facilitate the smooth functioning of diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka.
UNF coalition leaders met at Sirikotha today to discuss the crises over the opposition leader position and the UNP Leadership.
A group of party members including UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam participated.
However, MP Sajith Premadasa was conspicuously absent in the meeting today as well.
UNP General Secretary Kariyawasam told our news team that he finds it difficult to contact MP Premadasa.
He said that he expects to discuss the outcome of today’s meeting with MP Premadasa.
Meanwhile, a letter signed by 57 UNP MPs has been handed over to the Speaker last afternoon requesting him to appoint Sajith Premadasa as the new Opposition Leader.
Speaker’s office confirmed that the letter was referred to UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam asking the latter to draw his attention to the request of the 57 MPs and confirm the final decision about the opposition leader post.
Accordingly, the speaker will officially announce the name of the new opposition leader at the beginning of the next parliament session.
Earlier, the speaker said that he was compelled to respect parliament tradition and accept the proposal of the UNP General Secretary.
He also said if somebody challenges that decision, such a matter should be resolved within the party.
On the advice of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a six-member committee of professionals have been appointed by the Presidential Secretariat to recommend the appointment of competent and qualified professionals to government institutions.
The committee is headed by Sumith Abeysinghe, a former Cabinet Secretary.
The committee is comprised of Susantha Ratnayake, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Dias Gomes, Dr. Prasanna Gunasena and Professor Jagath Wellawatte.
The Presidential Secretariat has also informed the Committee to submit recommendations on qualified professionals to public enterprises, statutory bodies and state-owned commercial enterprises before the 18th of this month.
The Ambassador of Norway in Sri Lanka Trinee Joranly Eskedel and the Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Ahmed Ali al-Mu’ala met with President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday.
Meanwhile President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa left to India on a two-day official visit today. This was on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The President is also scheduled to meet the Indian President Ramnath Kovind. Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ravinath Ariyasinghe, Secretary to the Treasury S. Attigala, Presidential Advisor Lalith Weeratunga and Private Secretary to the President Sugheshwara Bandara accompanied the president.
The new President elect of Sri Lanka,
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is only a week into his administration, but he has
already hit the turbo gear and is on full throttle. The president
expects everyone in his governance mechanism, including his two elder
siblings – irrespective of the fact that one was a two-term president
and the other the eldest brother in the family – to deliver results at
the same pace with which he is cruising.
Sri Lanka is experiencing an unprecedented
political transformation that many Sri Lankans have been yearning for in
the backdrop of the abysmal failure of the good governance regime that
was promised by the previous government. This article is not an analysis
of the domestic political shaping of the new presidency, instead it
attempts to explain the rise of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a symbol
of a much larger global political phenomenon.
The South Asian Trinity
In 2014, a then little-known political
figure in the rest of India – despite being Chief Minister of Gujarat
for nearly a decade – became the BJP nominee for premiership during the
Lok Sabha elections. Narendra Modi, who was seen by Western powers as a
key figure in the 2002 Gujarat riots, was shunned by the Western world
for a long time. He, however, broke all historical conventions and
political narratives to become India’s undisputed strong man. Even since
becoming prime minister in 2014, he has steered India into a formidable
regional and global standing.
Modi’s meteoric rise was heralding a new
political era in India, the so-called ‘Third Republic’ that would propel
it further into the center of the world stage and with confidence
realise its full potential. He promised a ‘New India’, a slogan that won
the hearts and minds of his followers. Today, his track record is open
to debate, yet it does not change the fact that Modi was the turning
point in India’s recent political history.
India’s traditional nuclear rival Pakistan –
plagued by political instabilities, hounded by the United States under
President Trump yet zealously guarded and empowered by China – had its
Modi moment during its general election in 2018. A leader emerged out of
a new political grouping, defying the two traditional political parties
which have exchanged powers for decades since Independence. A
cricketing hero, championing Pakistani national interests, defying
Western powers and riding on a massive wave of support from urban, rural
and tribal Pakistan, Imran Khan ran and won on the promise of a ‘New
Pakistan.’
Voters in India and Pakistan were both
wooed by a common message, a calling that broke from past political
narratives. This was a message not just of hope but of a new beginning.
For Indians and Pakistanis, living under circumstances of incremental
change as a result of political transitions since Independence, the
promise of renewal from Modi and Khan was a game changer.
Modi is riding a wave of popularity not
just within India but among Indian diasporans globally; he won his
second term in 2019 with an increased mandate from the first. In
Pakistan, political analysts were skeptical of an Imran Khan
premiership, it was deemed a failure, yet today he hangs in and seems to
be making headlines locally and globally for being the change agent he
promised to be.
India’s foreign policy and global posture
has broken its Nehru Gandhian framework which was pretty much the status
quo since 1947. The country today is flexing its muscles across the
region and has a clear plan for its global role. As Professor Raja Mohan
eloquently writes in his book Modi’s World, Modi has managed
to expand and strengthen India’s sphere of influence, thus India’s
present and foreseeable future is and will be ‘Modian’ by design.
With last week’s presidential election
outcome in Sri Lanka, South Asia completes the trinity. The tech-savvy
and innovative Indian Prime Minister, the modern and sophisticated
Pakistani leader, and an action-driven no-nonsense President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka, complete an iron triangle of political leaders
spearheading change in the South Asian political landscape in the 21st century.
Regional and Global leadership
Xi Jinping, since his ascendancy first as
the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China in
2013, has helped China shed its long-time self-constraints of external
engagements. Modern China and its prosperity are attributed to its
enterprising leader, the late Deng Xiaoping. Deng transformed a China
that was rural, poor and low tech into a vastly urbanised society with
massive infrastructure development projects making up the backbone of
China’s massive empowerment drive.
China’s domestic developmental success
through infrastructure development has become the key driver of current
President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) which is a
planetary level strategy of connecting China with the rest of the world.
Xi Jinping belongs to the new breed of
leaders who are self-made change agents. He has broken China’s
self-imposed isolation when it comes to foreign policy and its regional
and global ambitions. He has clearly outlined China’s global ambitions
which demonstrates his ambition to lead China’s transformation into a
‘fully developed nation’ by 2049. President Xi has set this as a policy
goal to celebrate the centenary of the creation of modern China.
From President Erdogan in Turkey, President
Maduro in Venezuela, President Putin in Russia, President Macron in
France, Prime Minister Abe in Japan to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin
Salman, all of them have become change agents and are challenging the
contextual intelligence of international relations scholars who have
pitted their belief on global governance and global institutions as
factors that shape leaders. The rise of these self-made leaders and
their policies are setting up a chain reaction of disruptions that are
transforming global politics and creating an alternative set of new
political realities in the 21st century.
There are many factors why global politics
and their local manifestations are shaped by new leaders or established
leaders taking new trajectories. The causes range from decay in legacy
systems, liberal institutionalism and liberal internationalism reaching
its limits and strategic blunders of liberal powers. These have all
created a popular revulsion of traditional politics, institutions, and
leaders who are products of such systems.
This has been exacerbated by the rise of
information economics and cyber politics, as it is not merely the
technologies but the platforms and narratives as well. Today, if a
leader can use the technology strategically, he or she will build
formidable networks of power. In a recent article in the online journal Foreign Affairs,
Professors Daniel Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack argue, ‘The information
revolution has given rise to the super-empowered individual and the
super-empowered state and pitted them against each other’. Sri Lanka’s
new presidency needs to be understood from this global context not
exclusively from the domestic frameworks.
Gota’s X-Factor
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seen as a
tech-savvy individual and he has encouraged many in both the civilian
and security sector to invest in technologies for national security, and
later urban planning and development, while functioning as the
secretary of defense during the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.
When it comes to Sri Lanka’s global
projection and our foreign policy initiatives, the new president will
seek to adopt a pragmatic foreign policy which he is compelled to do. We
are moving into an era of intense geopolitical rivalries, breakdown of
global governance mechanisms and alternative forms of international
cooperation. Thus, in a time where both completion and collaboration
co-exist in parallel universes, making the job of any national leader
challenging, this demands strategic vision to penetrate the distortions
of contradictory global forces.
When it comes to the current Sri Lankan
president, there have been concerns regarding his lack of political
experience, of not holding political office. This was one of the main
critiques before and during the election campaign with which the
Opposition targeted Mr. Rajapaksa. But one interesting observation here
is that when you are not clouded by political interests and lenses, it
provides a fresh leader with limitless clarity to see the world and work
out responses. It also helps them to be very honest and forthcoming in
diplomatic dealings and interactions with diplomats and other global
leaders.
Western and non-western ambassadors have
already commented on this aspect regarding the new president of Sri
Lanka. Thus, when things are so complicated and complex in the global
political scenario: clarity, honesty, and transparency can boost the
X-factor of this leader and enable interactions that preserve and
advance our national interests.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has emboldened these
universal values within the Sri Lankan political psyche, while his
brother – former president and newly sworn-in prime minister – Mahinda
Rajapaksa has used his charm for political appeal. Gotabaya’s mantra of
meritocracy, apolitical institutionalism and national security
enhancement as the pillars on which a new Sri Lanka can stand is a
message that all Sri Lankans are emphatically embracing. The new
president will face many domestic and global challenges, yet Sri Lanka
looks confident in its outlook. From people to markets there is a
resurgence of hope and confidence. How this will pan out in the future?
Time will tell.
— Reprinted with permission from the Daily Mirror
The author is Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) in Colombo. Views are personal
UK
is holding general elections. Anyone contesting should be trying to represent
the interests of the people in the UK and not issues relevant to other
countries which the government of those countries should solve. How representative
of the British is the Labor Party? Some of the Party stalwarts have been
regularly engaged in speaking about issues relevant to other countries more
than what the Brits are going through in Britain. More
than 14 million Brits, including 4.5 million children, are living below the
breadline. 33.4 million people in the UK labour force and 1.56 million people were classed as unemployed. There
are 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the UK. There were 32,733 asylum seekers in 2015 alone and the rich-poor gap
widening. Without solving these issues Corbyn and McDonnell wish to give ‘self-determination’
for Tamils in another country. While UK Tamils are around 200,000 there are
around 275,000 Jews in the UK. Why is it that Corbyn & Labor are not
showing same empathy towards Tamils to Jews in UK?
On 23 November 2019 days after Sri Lanka elected a new
president, a video was released by John McDonnel, Labor Party’s Shadow Minister
representing Hayes & Harlington constituency which has a population of
303,870 but only 2568 Tamil residents. This is what he had to say obviously
reading from a script written in front of him!
I
and Jeremy Corbyn Leader of the Labor Party have stood firmly on the side of
the Tamil community as its experienced brutal oppression in Sri Lanka”
Why not give facts with evidence –
not third party statements.
We
believe it should be recognized as an attempt of genocide against the Tamils”
Firstly, prove genocide &
explain how Tamil population can increase via genocide
that
brutal oppressions has continued with the military occupation of the Tamil
homeland”
A country’s military deployment
is nothing anyone can question & will depend on the security threat
We
urge that the military are withdrawn”
We urge UK to withdraw military
from all of its illegally occupied locations – will UK do so?
We
believe that the Tamils have the right to a peaceful political solution, but
based upon the recognition of their human rights but also their right to
self-determination as well.
Whose demands is the UK Labor
party chirping and why?
We
believe that the British Government has a specific role to play”
UK is a sovereign country &
so too is Sri Lanka – look after the British and Sri Lanka’s Government will
look after Sri Lankans.
both
in terms of ensuring that our relationships with Sri Lanka, trading relationship
in particular are based upon human rights but also on progress with the
implementation of the UN’s Resolution”
Perhaps countries should also start
benchmarking funding acceptance depending on the human rights records of the
donors!
We
believe also that we have a role to ensure that our High Commission monitors
human rights particularly with the election of the new President, whose record
we have to say, presents us with real concerns and fears for the future”
Please do tabulate all concerns
and take it up at high commission level with facts & evidence
One
of the aspects that we’re particularly concerned about is the Prevention of
Terrorist Act against Tamils to ensure that basic rights assembly and freedom
of speech particularly journalists are no longer applicable”
Do we ask UK to abolish its
anti-terror laws? UK must learn to respect country anti-terror laws too.
We
believe there has to be a long term political solution”
Political solution for whom is
the question
let
me make this absolutely clear: the Labor Party will always stand with the Tamil
community, both in terms of supporting them here in this country but also
supporting them and their families in their homeland”
You mean Tamil Nadu … you may
hear from Modi very soon!
We
stand with the Tamils”
By all means do… don’t forget to
stand with the Brits too – you need to win the Brits vote to come to power – remember
that!
Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell should
take Nick Cohen’s advice Labour would do better if it learned to like the
English”.
Looks like McDonnell has a
history of links to LTTE fronts:
In 2008 LTTE held its Heroes Day rally
at the ExCel Centre London.
Prabakaran
delivered what was to become his last ‘live’ speech. In London, the keynote
speech was by Vaiko whose visa denial was opposed by the All Party Parliament
Group for Tamils in the British Parliament. Other British MPs speaking at event
were Edward Davey (LibDem, Kingston and Surbiton), Siobhain McDonagh (Labour,
Mitcham and Mordern), John McDonnell
(Labour, Hayes and Harlington), Andrew Pelling (Independent, Croydon
Central), Joan Ryan (Labour, Enfield North) and Vireindra Sharma (Labour,
Ealing and Southall) obviously fishing for Tamil votes. https://tamilnation.org/tamileelam/maveerar/2008/london.htm
2009 November LTTE Day participated by
John McDonnell
But
in 2019 Corbyn drew wrath from Indian Diaspora for seeking international observers
to enter Kashmir and allowing people of Kashmir to seek self-determination!
In 2017 McDonnell declared Labor Party
would not provide military aid to Sri Lanka
Corbyn also spoke at the Tamil Genocide
Conference in October 2019.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AIiNywEP0I
so it comes as no surprise that Labor election manifesto mentions Sri Lanka
Tamils but then Corbyn is contesting elections in UK and issues related to Sri
Lankan Tamils is for Sri Lanka Govt to resolve – why need to insert foreign
issues into an election manifesto relevant to UK tax payers and UK citizens? When
Labour is able to collect £1 million in small donations in just 10 days..we don’t
need to wonder how!
So why doesn’t Corbyn, McDonnell or
Labor feel the same for the 275,000 Jews living in the UK?
A Guardian article
ironically on the same day as Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections (16 Nov 2019) titled
Corbyn resists calls to apologise to British Jews after rabbi’s claims”. BBC’s
Andrew Neil questioned Corbyn for taking over a year to investigate Labor
member who declared Rothschild Zionists run Israel
and World Governments.”
Corbyn
denied 130 cases of alleged antisemitism by Labor members. However, the
archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in a tweet
highlighted the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews”.
While
Corbyn/McDonnell and Labor are trying to create self-determination and a Tamil
homeland in Sri Lanka, totally out of their gambit, not only the Brits but the
Jews living in UK are feeling very insecure and apprehensive about Labour
ruling UK.
We may
not emigrate in large numbers if Corbyn gets into No 10 – but having our bags
packed is how we articulate our anxiety”. A recent poll for Jewish News
suggested that 47% of British Jews would seriously consider” leaving the
country should Corbyn win. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/26/british-jews-corbyn-emigrate
In
2015, Corby described Hamas
and Hezbollah as friends” so is it a surprise Corbyn is pals with LTTE
terrorists & their bid for a separate state?
Corbyn
has personally been close to a range of individuals and organizations which
constitute an extremism and terrorism threat,” said David Toube, director of
policy at the counter-extremism Quilliam think-tank.
So what
is McDonnell blabbering about? Why not listen to this disgruntled Britisher who
has no qualms about vocalizing what he thinks about the Labor Party supporters
who came canvassing to his door!
Our advice to Corbyn, McDonnell & Labor is just look after the British citizens first & foremost – give to UK Jews the same attention given to UK Tamils…. Let the Sri Lankan Government take care of the Sri Lankan citizens.
The massive swing against the UNP indicates clearly that the nation was biding its time to cut the neck of Ranil’s regime with the sharp edge of their lengthy ballot papers. And they did it in right royal style, peacefully and decisively, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that they can’t be fooled by bogus theoreticians in civil society and NGOs who had lost their moral compass. The people’s reply was loud and clear.
And the besieged nation is now settling down again hoping that a change of regime will at least bring them a clean administration. This is an indispensable factor for the survival of the new Rajapaksa regime. If Gota fails to achieve this he too will have to go home like Ranil.
The trust placed in Gota is to prevent the pollution of the political culture under his reign. Quite significantly, the Sinhala-Buddhist ethic was defined by Gota when he took his oaths – not at the traditional Malwatte – but at Ruwanweli Seya in Anuradhapura. He went back to his roots that ran all the way to the epic period of history written by Dutugemunu. The symbolism and its meaning resonated deeply in the hearts of the Sinhala-Buddhists threatened by the arrogant minorities. When, for instance, M. L. A. M. Hisbullah crowed that the Arab nations will come rushing to rescue the Muslims if the Sinhalese attack them, he was pushing the Sinhalese to unite against Muslim arrogance.
Voting clout
After Tamil extremism lost its military power at Nandikadal, the minorities were banking on their voting clout to dominate the nation. Their main aim was to gain through electoral politics what they could not gain militarily. Gota’s win on purely Sinhala-Buddhist votes, stunned the political pundits and the UNP leaders who believed that the majority could not win without the minority.
Gota’s victory rewrote the political equation that was accepted by the intellectuals and the NGO pundits as the indelible truth written in stone. The anti-Sinhala-Buddhist intellectuals and academics must revisit their fake theories and reconsider their spurious assumptions of the grassroots forces that determine national politics.
It is reasonable to assume now that the Rip Van Winkles in the majority community will rise as one, when they are driven to the brink. They may lie low for some time patiently. But when they are pushed against the wall they will rise to defend their heritage. They did so at Nandikadal when Prabakaran pushed the nation to the brink.
And they have risen again to preserve their heritage, when Ranil was dragging the reluctant nation once again to reinforce his CFA (22 February 2002) through his ‘constitution-making’ – the ill-fated policy unwanted and rejected by the majority. With his CFA he was ever willing to hand over the nation’s territory to the bitter enemy of the nation. The mantra he was chanting then, together with the NGOs, was ‘confidence-building for peace’.
He thought he would win the Nobel Prize for his CFA. But, neither the majority nor the minority fell for it. Ranil’s much-vaunted CFA, praised by him as his political masterpiece, exposed his stupidity: Prabakaran treated him like a fool by shooting Ranil’s peace formula to pieces.
This time it was Gota who saved the nation, when Ranil was about to handover territory and powers through ‘Constitution-making’. It was the Number One item in Sajith’s manifesto launched in Kandy. The Tamil Net corroborated it: “While one of the mainstream candidates, Sajith Premadasa, at least dropped the term ‘unitary’ and the phrase ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ in his election manifesto, Gotabaya Rajapaksa made it undoubtedly clear that genocidal Sri Lanka would remain unitary with the foremost place to Theravada Buddhism.”
The keynote speaker, Victor Ivan spoke only on that and nothing else. Ranil, though silenced, was quite happy that Sajith was working his guts out to fulfil his original plan in the CFA. Both were dependent on Tamil votes and both were willing to sell the nation to win a handful of votes.
They underestimated the power of the Sinhala-Buddhist vote and relied entirely on the minority votes. If they won, they would have argued that they got a mandate from the people to re-write the Constitution. It was Gota’s War II, fought with the ballot, that stopped Ranil’s move to hand over powers and territory to the Tamil extremists.
The post-Independent history is a stunning record of an Invisible Hand moving into place in the nick of time to save the nation from falling into the hands of its enemies. How else can one explain Prabakaran rejecting Ranil’s CFA and Chandrika Bandaranaike’s handing over of the North and East to Prabakaran for ten years without an election? If Prabakaran accepted any one of these two offers he would be ruling the roost today, constructing kovils in the two names – Ranil and CBK – for the Tamil to offer poojas whenever they run out of luck.
This Invisible Hand has thrown the predictions, the electoral mathematics and the punditry of our intellectuals into the dustbins. Ever since 1956, they have been labouring in seminars, forums, publications, academia and Media to undermine and diminish the power of Sinhala-Buddhists. But 16 November has proved the resilient power of the grassroots that guide the destiny of the nation.
Under Ranil, they were delighted that they were incorporated into his regime as stake-holders of the nation’s future, marginalising the Sinhala-Buddhists. He even was chuckling on the sidelines that his Ministers were ridiculing and belittling the Sangha. In the end, he was made to pay for the stupidity of his Ministers’ foul mouths.
Realistic assessment
A realistic assessment will confirm that it was not Sajith who was defeated. It was Ranil. Sajith was faced with an uphill task, battling to wipe out the evil memories of Ranil and present a new face to the public. But the public knew that Sajith was merely the mask hiding Ranil’s anti-national, anti-majority, pro-West, corrupt regime. He made a desperate bid to distance himself from Ranil. Predictably, in his desperate bid to win, Sajith too swallowed Ranil’s calculation that the minorities could save him.
He signed secret agreements with Ranil, and Akila Kariyawasam, the Secretary of the UNP, to sell the nation to the Tamil separatists. But the people saw through it and refused to accept his rhetoric.
The alliances made by Ranil with the minorities boomeranged on Sajith. The more Ranil got closer to the minorities, the more it threatened the security of the majority. The demonised majority reacted en masse to defend their cherished heritage and their way of life from the arrogant minorities who assumed that they could make the majority dance to their nagasalam. Ranil fell for that line and danced all the way to 16 November believing that the Northern drumbeat would do the trick for him. The people refused to trust the man behind Sajith’s mask.
With a silent stroke of the pen the voters cut the neck of the selected protector of the nation, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. There was no one to protect the protector when he lost his Kelaniya seat. Chandrika Bandaranaiake who came flying in on a rescue mission, could not win her seat to save Ranil. Even the Presidential candidate could not win his seat in Hambantota. To change the metaphor, this lot put all their eggs in the minority basket. And the majority rejected them.
Azath Sally boasted of the power of the 30 per cent minority that could teach a lesson to the majority. Make no mistake: It was the Sinhala-Buddhist forces, threatened by the minorities in the North and the East that triumphed on 16 November. It was a clear-cut power struggle between the minority and the majority. This election turned out to be the most defining event since Nandikadal. Nandikadal was won with bullets. 16 November was won with ballots. Both were led by Gota.
The nationalist forces that swept Gotabaya into power is not confined to Sri Lanka. It is the force that is sweeping the globe. Though it is an odious comparison, it is the Sri Lankan version of ‘Make America Great again’.
Similar corresponding forces dominate global politics in the post-Cold War era. Easter Sunday highlighted the dangers haunting the nation. They have yet to learn that violence of all three communities – the JVP, Tamil Tigers and Zahrans – will not pay any dividends. In fact, violence will boomerang on the minorities. Running against the trend, Ranil ganged up with the minorities. This alliance with the minorities became his first and last defence line. But, it boomeranged on him too.
The Sinhala voters rallied as one united force to reject Ranil’s formula for peaceful co-existence. This is the election that taught Ranil at last that he cannot make the waves roll back according to his commands. He, his fellow-idiots in academia and NGOs, and the minorities must realise that they can go only thus far and no further. Ranil must learn that he can’t change 2500 years of history by buying MPs in Parliament.
The Sinhala forces that saved the minorities from the fascist tyranny of the Pol Pot at Nandikadal have risen again to define peacefully and democratically, the parameters within which the minorities could co-exist in a shared society with equal rights to all. Hiding behind the bogus claim of ‘reconciliation’ (which came only from the Sinhala side) the minorities ganged up to dictate politics to the majority.
It was this threat to the majority that kept the numbers ticking for Gota as results tumbled down on live telecasts. Except for a brief moment or two, the consistent 50+vote never left Gota as the results captured the emerging polling trend on the screen. There were no prizes for the runner-up. The winner took it all.
New guru
As for Sajith he was made to believe by Victor Ivan, the new guru of the UNP, that thousands were behind him. He was theorising that Sajith has behind him the thousands of beneficiaries who were recipients of his visionary father’s (1) poverty alleviation through samurdhi, (2) house-building on a national scale, (3) decentralising bureaucratic power and taking it to the grassroots through gam-udawas, (4) creating jobs by incentivising businessmen to take garment factories to the villages , etc. President Premadasa also ‘peoplised’ the UNP by taking it away from Kurunduwatte to Kehelwatte. But Ranil reversed it. He took it to his new haven in Kollupitiya, which is next door to Kurunduwatte.
Delusional beliefs
Obsessed with his delusional beliefs, Ranil also ran after George Soros, the Hungarian billionaire, hoping he would rush to save him with investments. He joined the IDU – the exclusive club of white, Christian, Western leaders – hoping that the Western entrepreneurs would flock in their hundreds and thousands with investments to save him. In the end, the collective actions of his allies in the West and in the North helped him only to go gurgling down the drain.
It must be conceded that Sajith in his own flamboyant style tried to reclaim his father’s heritage. But there is more to the shaping of historic events than a slick tongue, theatrics on stage and packing the Galle Face space with bussed Bandas bought with buth packets. The expected crowds predicted by Victor Ivan did not turn up at the polling booths. As usual, his theories went down.
Gota’s second victory against the anti-national forces is as great as his first victory in defeating the ‘invincible’ Tamil Tiger terrorists. The battle lines were drawn clearly between the nation and the anti-national forces. If Sajith won it would have taken the nation in the same direction as Ranil. Despite all his chest-beating bravado, Sajith was a mere ventriloquist for Ranil.
Gota won this war because the Sinhala people rallied behind him to fight the battles against the anti-national forces. When his brother and mentor return as Prime Minister, they will collectively capture the power that was denied in the 19th Amendment. Ranil has been hoisted by his own petard.
He designed the 19th Amendment to strengthen his prime ministerial hand, because the Presidency was beyond his reach. The irony is that all Ranil’s labours have ended in consolidating the power of the Rajapaksas. Jointly they both have another chance to act jointly to overcome all the obstacles placed in the 19th Amendment. The coming events will mock the constitutional-makers who were straining every muscle to curtail the powers of the presidency by increasing the powers of the Prime Minister.
But, when the President’s brother is also his mentor, what obstacle can stand in his way to override the 19th Amendment? Soon Gota will have all the powers except making a man a woman, and vice versa. Together they will have unlimited power to achieve what they failed to fulfil in their first run.
Gota cannot do what Ranil did to the nation: betray the interests of the people with immoral politics and anti-national betrayals.
Gota owes everything to the Sinhala people. And the Sinhala-Buddhists, he must remember, never failed to protect the minorities and give them security and prosperity at all times, even when they were persecuted by their own leaders or the foreigners. For instance, the Muslims will remember that when Sankili ethnically cleansed Jaffna, partly by throwing pig’s heads into their wells, and when Prabakaran persecuted and chased the Muslims out of Jaffna within 24 hours, it was the Sinhala South that gave refuge to them. He will also remember that the Sinhala people can protect the minorities as long as long as they live under the protective umbrella of the democratic, sovereign, undivided State and not if they fall under the separate rule of fascist Tamil or Sinhala Pol Pots.
War-winning brothers
There is no doubt that the two war-winning brothers will be back again after the next Parliamentary Elections. That, of course, will be another story for another day.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has pledged to enact a Bill to protect public servants who perform their duties.
The Premier made these remarks as he assumed duties as the Minister of Water Supply Housing Facilities today (27).
He also stated that the existing procedure that brings such public officers before the judiciary or the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) when they perform their duties. ‘We must ensure their safety,’ the Prime Minister stressed.
In the meantime, three State Ministers, who took oaths this morning, and several Cabinet Ministers assumed duties in their respective posts.
Minister of Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development, Internal Trade, Food Security, Consumer Welfare Chamal Rajapaksa took office at the Agriculture Ministry.
State Minister of Land and Land Development S.B. Dissanayake, State Minister of Road Development Lohan Ratwatte and State Minister of Wildlife Resources Wimalaweera Dissanayake also assumed duties after taking oaths at the Presidential Secretariat earlier today.
The Cabinet has given its approval to remove the Nation Building
Tax (NBT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax and Withholding Tax on interests,
the Co-Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena said today.
He mentioned this during the first press briefing to announce the
decisions of the new government’s Cabinet of Ministers, held at the
Department of Government Information this evening.
He also said that the Cabinet has further decided to reduce the
telecommunications levy by 25%. Thereby the current telecommunications
levy of 30% has been reduced to 5%.
These decisions were taken during the first Cabinet meeting of newly
formed government held this morning (27) at the Presidential
Secretariat.
The Cabinet of Ministers also decided to cut the Value Added Tax
(VAT) from 15% to 8%. The ceiling for VAT has been raised to Rs. 25
million turnover per month from existing Rs. 1 million, the Co-Cabinet
Spokesman said further.
In the meantime, the income tax on the construction industry has also been reduced from 28% to 14%.
The Cabinet also announced that all religious places are exempted from taxes.
Minister Gunawardena charged that the economy had collapsed under the
previous government and that interest rates have sky-rocketed.
Therefore the new government has decided to abolish some taxes and
also to reduce VAT from Dec. 1 to boost economic activities, he said.
Sweeping tax cuts and removals were leading election pledges in the
manifesto launched by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in view of the
recently held presidential election.
During the election campaign, President Rajapaksa vowed to remove Pay
As You Earn (PAYE) and Withholding taxes and amend the existing Inland
Revenue Act in order to remove the heavy tax burden imposed on the
general public.
He also vowed to slash the VAT to 8% and reduce the income taxes for
the manufacturing sector and to make religious places exempt from all
taxes.
The Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya says that he has
recognized UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Leader of the
Opposition, upholding Parliamentary traditions.
In a twitter message, he said that recognition of the Leader of the
UNFGG as the Leader of the Opposition was done upholding established
Parliamentary traditions that should not be violated
While I empathize with the challengers too, it is best that a party’s internal disputes are settled from within,” he tweeted.
Last week, the UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam had
requested the Speaker to appoint former Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe as the new Opposition Leader.
However, it was later reported that a group of UNP parliamentarians
had signed a letter requesting the Speaker to appoint UNP deputy leader
Sajith Premadasa as the Opposition Leader.
The United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) is the
political alliance formed by the United National Party (UNP) ahead of
the 2015 general election.
COLOMBO, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Sri
Lankan shares ended higher on Wednesday, helped by gains in beverage
and banking shares, while the rupee ended firmer on hopes of tax cuts by
the new government. ** After the market closed, Cabinet Spokesman
Bandula Gunawardana said the government has decided to reduce
value-added tax to 8% from 15% with effect from Dec. 1. ** Sri Lanka’s
central bank is likely to leave its key interest rates on hold at a
policy review on Friday, a Reuters poll indicated, while it waits for
the new government’s economic policies after the election of a president
on Nov. 16. ** The benchmark stock index ended up 0.39% at 6,118.87,
further moving away from its lowest close since Nov. 15 hit on Monday.
The bourse gained 1.6% last week, and is up 1.10% for the year. **
Analysts said investors are awaiting for some policy directions from the
country’s newly elected president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
** The
rupee ended 0.39% firmer at 180.80/181.10 per dollar, compared to
Tuesday’s close of 181.50/90, Refinitiv data showed. It is up 0.6% so
far this year.
** Foreign investors were net sellers for 22 sessions in 24.
**
They sold a net 176.7 million Sri Lankan rupees ($981,667) worth of
shares on Wednesday, extending the net selling so far this year to 9.45
billion rupees worth of equities, according to index data.
**
Equity market turnover was 1.3 billion rupees, more than this year’s
daily average of about 711.6 million rupees. Last year’s daily average
was 834 million rupees.
** Meanwhile, foreign
investors were net buyers of government securities on a net basis for
the fifth straight week, purchasing a net 0.21 million rupees worth of
government securities in the week ended Nov. 20.
** Total foreign outflows from government securities through Nov. 20 stood at 48 billion rupees, central bank data said.
**
For a report on global markets, click ** For a report on major
currencies, click ($1 = 180.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Ranga
Sirilal and Shihar Aneez; Editing by Maju Samuel)Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The government today said it was unaware
of the incident where an employee of the Switzerland Embassy in Sri
Lanka was detained forcefully and threatened.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry said that an employee of the Swiss Embassy in Sri Lanka has been forcefully detained and threatened.
When questioned about these reports at
the cabinet news briefing today, Minister Bandula Gunawardana said they
were unaware of such an incident.
We are not aware of such an incident. The Acting IGP will make a statement on this issue,” he said.
I
love my country. I am proud of my country. I have a vision concerning my
country. I appeal to all Sri Lankans to join together in building a prosperous
land for posterity” declared Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on being sworn in as the
seventh executive president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
near the Ruwanveli Mahasaeya at Anuradhapura on November 18, 2019. After
assuming duties at the presidential secretariat in Colombo on the following day,
he made this FB entry: ‘I
am now the President of all Sri Lankans, whether they voted for me or not and
irrespective of their ethnicity or religious beliefs. Elections are now over and
I need the support of all Sri Lankans to build a prosperous and harmonious
nation where all can live with respect and dignity’.
Gotabhaya
is a man of few words, he means what he says; he is a near perfect exemplar of
the Buddhist ideal of acting according to what one preaches. As president he
will not renege on his election promises. This is something that his past
performance, both as a military officer for two decades (1971-1992), a
lieutenant colonel by the time he voluntarily left the army, and as a civilian
government functionary – defence secretary – for ten years under war winning
former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, his older brother (2005-14), has already
borne out. He doesn’t mince his words when he speaks out about important but
unpalatable truths. During his campaigning, he urgently called upon the Tamil
and Muslim minorities to trust him, vote for him, and be partners to the certain
historic victory that he was going to score on behalf of all Sri Lankans. The
election results made it clear that his appeal had largely fallen on deaf ears.
Gotabhaya said that the level of compliance with his request fell short of what
was expected. He referred to this fact on the occasion of his taking oaths, and
remarked that although he knew he could win by relying on Sinhalese votes alone
he requested the minorities to participate in the victory by voting for him. And
he repeated his appeal for cooperation from the two minority communities in the
future for nation building.
The
new executive president was sworn in at the historic Ruwanveli Maha Saeya in
Anuradhapura under the gaze of a statue of king Dutugaemunu (161-137 BCE), the
builder of that edifice. The symbolic significance of this event cannot be lost
on the fair-minded and patriotic Sri Lankans who are aware of the 2500 year long
recorded history of the majority community, the indegenous Sinhalese of the
island nation. Sinhalay (Ceylon), now called Sri Lanka, is the homeland of the
Sinhalese; there is no other land or country that they can call their homeland
(The word ‘homeland’ here means a particular people’s or nation’s native land).
But in the context of widely prevailing distortions of the history of the
Sinhalese in their island home, introduced by racially biased fake historians,
this swearing in ceremony is bound to be misinterpreted to the disadvantage of
all Sri Lankans, particularly the majority Sinhalese. Such misreadings of the
historic proceeding, the taking of oaths by Gotabhaya before the Maha Stupa and
the statue of the king Dutugaemunu, are likely to be attempted by strategically
‘concerned’ outsiders having various designs on the island, which is located on
a geopolitically most sensitive point in the region.
Chapter
XXV (25) of the Mahavamsa or the Great Chronicle of the 5th century CE records
the main purpose of Dutugaemunu’s military campaign against the Chola invader
king Elara of Anuradhapura (205-161 BCE). (The source text used here is the 1889
English version of the Pali original compiled in two parts by Mudliyar L.C.
Wijesingha as an imperial government commission; the first part of the work
where Chapter 25 occurs was translated by George Turnour in 1836, and was
annotated and emended by Wijesingha in 1889.) Before beginning his campaign,
king Duttha Gamani (Dutugaemunu) went to Tissa Vihara at Mahagama (cf. modern
Tissamaharama viharaya, Magampura international airport, etc., in the Hambantota
district in southern Sri Lanka), reverentially bowed down to the monks, and
said, I am about to cross the river for the restoration of our religion” and
asked for some monks to be allotted for our spiritual protection. Their
accompanying us will afford both protection and the presence of ministers of
religion (which will be) equivalent to the observance of the services of our
religion”. So, five hundred monks were assigned, and the king left, accompanied
by them.
The
five hundred ‘ministers of the faith’ (i.e., monks or bhikkhus) were to attend
the king in the campaign ‘as a self-imposed penance’, which Wijesingha
elucidates as ‘punishment for breaches of discipline’. It is important to
understand the term ‘penance’ in this Buddhist, non-Christian, context. The
author of the Mahavamsa was a Buddhist monk, and he didn’t actually want to
glorify war as it involved violence and killing. He depicts Dutugaemunu as being
contrite when he has committed such acts, though these are unavoidable in war.
The presence of the monks kept him reminded of the justness of his cause and
helped him take part in religious practices and rituals to keep his conscience
clear. At one point in his march from Mahagama to Anuradhapura, Dutugaemunu had
occasion to remark: This enterprise of mine is not for the purpose of acquiring
the pomp and advantage of royalty. This undertaking has always had for its
object the re-establishment of the religion of the supreme
Buddha”.
Eleven
chapters of the Mahavamsa (Chapters XXII to XXXII) are devoted to Duttha
Gamani,the victor over invaders and re-unifier of the divided country, and the
builder of the Maha Stupa/Maha Chetiya or the Ruwanveli Maha Saeya (completed by
his successor king Saddha Tissa, Gamani’s younger brother, two or three years
after his death in 137 BCE) . In the long narrative covered in these chapters,
we are treated to balanced accounts of friend and foe alike. Usurper king Elara
receives just praise for his righteous rule. However, perhaps in his desire to
emphasize the heroic stature of prince Dutugaemunu, the Mahavamsa author
represents his father king Kavantissa as a pacifist who constantly dissuaded his
sons Gamani and Tissa, particularly, the first, the more rebellious elder of the
two, from challenging the foreign usurper Elara at Anuradhapura, allegedly
fearing for their physical safety. But now we know that the father king was
actually preparing for war against Elara, but did not like the adolescent
brashness of Gamani. He had assigned the responsibility of looking after the
food security of the people to Tissa, and went about amassing the necessary
forces. Gamani ran away from his father and remained in hiding in the Malaya
country for a time. He returned home to Mahagama on his father’s unexpected
death, and after a brief armed encounter with his younger brother over
succession, which was settled by the intervention of the monks, and before
setting off on his campaign march to Anuradhapura, ‘sent back Tissa (to
Digavapi) to superintend the agricultural works in progress. He similarly
employed himself also, calling out the people by the beat of
drums’.
On
this (that is, on the two brothers being thus reconciled through the mediation
of the monks), Mahanama Thera reflects philosophically: ‘Thus good men being
sensible that violent resentment, engendered hastily by many and various means,
is pernicious; what wise man would fail to entertain amicable sentiments towards
others?’
The
Mahavamsa author Mahanama Thera was an erudite Buddhist monk. In fact, he was a
royal in robes, for he was king Dhatusena of Anuradhapura (c. 460-478 CE)’s
maternal uncle and teacher. Dhatusena spent his childhood as a novice monk
living and learning under the care of Thera Mahanama, who obviously groomed him
for assuming kingship at the opportune time, for at that time, the island was
under foreign invasion. Dhatusena turned warrior, made war on and defeated the
south Indian Damila usurpers Parinda, Khudda Parinda (sons of Pandu who had died
after five years on the throne), Dathiya, and Pithiya, and ‘entirely extirpated
the damilas who had been the devastators of the island by their various
stratagems – by having erected twenty-one forts, and incessantly waged war in
the land; and re-established peace in the country, and happiness among its
inhabitants. He restored the religion also, which had been set aside by the
foreigners, to its former ascendency’. So, king Dhatusena repeated the heroic
deed that king Dutugaemunu had done six hundred years before. He also did a lot
for the economic wellbeing of the nation through his massive Kalawewa reservoir
project and numerous other enterprises. But he did something more: he had his
uncle Mahanama Thera compose the Mahavamsa in order to charter the course of
history since the arrival of legendary prince Vijaya from the Vanga (modern
Bengal region) country in India and the later introduction of Buddhism as
recorded in earlier works and as transmitted in oral tradition and preserve it
for posterity.
Again,
about six hundred years after Dhatusena, as described in Chapters 57-60
contained in Part II of the Mahavamsa (continued as Culavamsa), prince Kirti
(born around 1039 CE), son of ‘the Great Lord’ Moggallana and princess Lokita of
Rohana, who became sub-king in that southern part of the kingdom of Lanka, as a
tender teenager, having subdued his enemies there, fought many battles against
powerful south Indian Chola invaders ruling at Pulatthi (Polonnaruwa) and
finally became king over the whole country as Vijaya Bahu (the First) in 1055
and ruled till his death in 1110 CE. As usual since the time of king
Devanampiyatissa (307-297 BCE) when Buddhism was introduced to the country under
royal patronage, at this time too ‘the princes of Lanka……. .continued to defend
the country and the religion of the land’ through the counsel of the Order
(i.e., the Maha Sanga). ‘Thus did Vijaya Bahu, the ruler of men, hold the reins
of government without any fear in his hands for fifty and five years more; and
when he had had improved the religion of the land and the country…….sore
distressed by the wicked …..(Chola invaders), he ascended up to heaven as if to
behold the great reward arising from his good deeds on earth’.
From
the hallowed precincts of our magnificent past as recorded in the Mahavamsa
(continued down the ages to date as a royal/state enterprise) let’s return to
the present.
With
the decisive electoral victory of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Sri Lanka has just emerged
from the worst, the strongest, recent threats to its existence as a sovereign
nation with a glorious history that none in the world can surpass in spite of
its tiny geographical size or its political, economic and military
insignificance. But Sri Lanka’s pivotal importance as the repository of pristine
Buddhism, which, whether it is explicitly acknowledged or not, has already
automatically become (perhaps) the single indispensable non-religious
ethico-philosophical refuge for the human species, who
appear to be lost
….
on a darkling plain
Swept
with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where
ignorant armies clash by night”
as
Maththew Arnold, the 19th century visionary English poet put
it.
We,
the Sinhalese, have from time immemorial been patriots, lovers or supporters of
the country, or nationalists, but never racists (those who love or support their
own race to the exclusion or disadvantage of other races) or, as followers of
the Buddha dhamma, we have never been religious fanatics (those who believe
that, as only their religion is true, all other religions are false, and that
all those who profess other faiths are inferior to themselves, and are in need
of being converted, or deserve harassment and even physical elimination). We
have been passionately patriotic; throughout our long history, we have fought
victoriously, shedding much blood defending our country from various foreign
invaders attracted by its strategically important location and its natural
resources. Today, however, we are being represented to the outside world by
inimical forces in various manifestations as rabid Sinhalese racists and violent
Buddhist fanatics, whereas the truth is the exact opposite: We are actually
victims of others’ essentially politically motivated racism and religious
intolerance. Over the past seven decades of independence, we have been intensely
persecuted by Tamil racism, and since recently, by Islamic extremism. But this
statement must be immediate qualified with the following: it cannot be believed
that this religious fanaticism and racial discrimination against the Sinhalese,
particularly against the Buddhist majority among them, is shared by the majority
of the Tamil and Muslim minority communities. But such passions are aroused
among innocent Tamils and Muslims by a handful political opportunists among them
to win their votes at elections. Externally, our cry for justice is not heard,
because our voice is drowned out by the bullying noises of the enemies who
outnumber us a hundredfold.
We
may breathe a sigh of relief now that Sri Lanka is being placed in safe hands
with Gotabhaya at the helm. He will look after the security of the unitary Sri
Lankan state in all its aspects (economy, law and order, civil administration,
and all other conceivable departments) in the face of threats from separatist
zombies and Islamic terrorists still lurking in the shadows, neither of whom has
any legitimate issue to settle with the Sinhalese Buddhist majority community.
Gotabhaya has pledged to complete implementing all the development proposals
contained in his meticulously drafted election manifesto within his five year
term. It is the citizens’ responsibility to extend their full cooperation to him
without being distracted by the machinations of political, moral, and physical
decrepits who have agreed to sell out the land and resources of the country,
and to divide and destroy the nation in order to savour power at least in their
dying years.
Beginning
with the immediate ending of the state of anarchy that has been prevalent for
the past five years, the change envisaged by patriots on this occasion will
involve, not only regaining the postwar momentum of growth reached during the
2009-2014 period and restoring the safe and secure background that made such
development possible, but also, even more vitally, eliminating threats to the
continued existence of the unitary state that our ancient and modern heroes
guided by the Guardians of the Nation, the Maha Sangha, have delivered to
us.
Swearing
in at the sacred Ruwanveli Maha Saeya that is so deeply steeped in history shows
the seriousness with which Gotabhaya views his epoch-making mission of saving
the country of which all fair-minded and patriotic Sri Lankans must be justly
proud.
While offering my heartfelt congratulations to Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the President of our beloved country it is important to note his road to success was not an easy one.
It is suffice to say the mood nationwide was reminiscent of the day in May 2009 when Tiger guerrillas were militarily defeated once and for all.
By winning the election handsomely with the support of Mahinda Rajapaksa the duo have debunked myths that prevailed in our country for a second time now. It is no secret we all believed Sri Lankan elections are not winnable without the support of at least one extremist group from a minority party.
The duo similarly had earlier destroyed a theory of an unwinnable war to the dismay of the international masters at the time.
What is sad to the readers of English print media was most of the views, information and forecasts thrashed out by regular set of journalists were off the mark. Those looked stale and repetitive without taking the pulse of the mass. Among others Jehan Perera, Rajan Philips, Kumar David, Cassendra Cry and Harim Peiris were paying hosannas to a spoilt yahapalana regime with an unwavering conviction of its return to power at the election.
I am sure readers would value very much to read columns from a fresh bunch of journalists in touch with the hoi polloi instead.
Daily Mirror on line comments are taken over by unpatriotic group with no space for others.
It was difficult to imagine the majority populace of the country would find so soon an affable charismatic leader to embrace with the warmth shown towards Mahinda Rajapaksa but in Gotabaya they have found one no doubt.
UNP MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, yesterday revealed that he had personally brought the underhand activities of Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva to the notice of the then President Maithripala Sirisena but the officer had been given a free hand.
Former justice minister Rajapakse was commenting on the officer attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) leaving the country over the last weekend with his wife and three children to Switzerland without informing the police.
Responding to The Island query why he had intervened, MP Rajapakse said the CID was planning to take wartime Navy Commander the then Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne into custody on unsubstantiated accusations. Therefore, the CID move had been brought to President Sirisena’s attention in late 2018, MP Rajapakse said.
“The President summoned Senior Officer in charge of the CID Deputy Inspector General of Police Ravi Seneviratne to his Paget road residence and I was also asked to be present,” MP Rajapakse said.
Rajapakse said that the CID Chief had arrived at the President’s House accompanied by J.C. Weliamuna, who wasn’t invited by the President’s Office. He alleged that the then government sent Weliamuna to ensure that the DIG would not say anything that could be used against the government.
Dr Rajapakse said that when explained the CI de Silva going after retired top brass and intelligence services at the behest of his masters overseas, the DIG had defended the conduct of the officer concerned. MP Rajapakse quoted the DIG as having told the President that Nishantha de Silva was the best officer.
Since then Weliamuna had been appointed as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Australia, MP Rajapakse said.
Rajapakse said that in spite of his complaints Nishantha de Silva had been given a free hand.
The former minister said that police headquarters owed an explanation as to how the CI and his family had left the country unhindered. Responding to another query, MP Rajapakse pointed out that over a week after the Nov 16 presidential poll, those responsible for security didn’t bother to alert entry/exit points of the possibility of the likes of de Silva leaving the country.
MP Rajapakse said that Foreign Ministry should seek Switzerland’s cooperation to have de Silva extradited. The President’s Counsel said that a thorough inquiry was required to establish the relationship the Chief Inspector maintained with Western embassies in Colombo. The officer and his family wouldn’t have received visas unless there was intervention at the highest level, MP Rajapakse said, warning of dire consequences unless immediate measures were taken to get hold of him.
MP Rajapakse said that high ranking military officers had been denied visas whereas relatively junior policeman and his family had received visas in record time. The former Minister said that the way the West intervened on the Chief Inspector’s behalf proved his complaint to President Sirisena that he worked closely with the foreign missions.
MP Rajapakse said that Nishantha de Silva’s case would be a challenge to the new government. “Western powers are certainly testing Sri Lanka’s readiness to take a stand,” lawmaker Rajapakse said, adding that the officer could turn up in Geneva at the next sessions in March 2020.
MP Rajapakse recalled as to how the CID conducted partial investigations into the disappearances blamed on the Navy.
Lawmaker Rajapakse urged the government not to take Nishantha de Silva’s case lightly and it was a clear case of diplomatic missions in Colombo playing politics with domestic issues.
The Indian government, by acting with strategic alacrity managed a diplomatic advance in inviting the New President of Sri Lanka to Delhi, within the first breath of the new presidency. The new president, in accepting the invitation equally rapidly has shown his friendliness and openness for dialogue, at a time when Tamil Nadu leaders remained mute, judging the election purely in terms of a hostile historical narrative. The central government in India has always had its doctrine of dominance in the south Asian theater. However, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has already stated very clearly that the Sri Lankan government hopes to follow a neutral or non-aligned foreign policy. A natural consequence of such a policy is that the internal matters of the small nation should be its own concern, and the attempts of strong nations to interfere and intervene have to be repelled by balancing the international forces to counter each other. Instead, we have had five years of abject bent knees towards certain big powers, when some foreign diplomats behaved like Viceroys of yester year, even writing constitutions for Sri Lanka, with no compensating gains what so ever to the country, but of course some individuals gained priivately.
The first step to ensure that the Indian government does not interfere in Sri Lankan matters is to address its presumed concerns squarely and fairly, while calling upon India to respect and address those of Sri Lanka.
What are the main concerns of Sri Lanka? In my view, these are: mainly environmental and constitutional.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS.
1) Strong environmental concerns arise from the presence of some 50 coal-burning power stations along the southern shores of Tamil Nadu. In fact, the pollution levels even in Colombo correlate with those in the Indian subcontinent when the prevailing winds carry them south.
2) Lack of even observer status and agreed upon joint safety procedures regarding the Kundankulam Nuclear Reactor just across the Palk straits
3) Indian fishermen using sea-floor dredging and other methods extremely harmful to marine ecology and destined to rapidly diminish and destroy available fish stocks. They also constantly encroach on Sri Lankan territorial waters and deprive Northern Fishermen of their legitimate catch.
4) Illegal traffic in goods, people and narcotics across the Palk straits, posing health concerns as well as other concerns to national security and integrity as well.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS. These are all too well known to most Sri Lankans.
1. The 13th Amendment to the constitution, where a system of provincial councils was imposed on Sri Lanka by India using strong-arm tactics, during the hay day of the TULF separatist bid for Eelam. It was hijacked by the LTTE after assassinating the TULF leaders. The terms of the Gandhi-Jayawardena agreement (which included the disarming of the LTTE by Indian forces) were not fulfilled by India, and the agreement is legally caduc. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka implemented the Provincial councils creating nine unnecessary administrative hubs that generate red tape, corruption and great expense. The main reason” for the provincial councils was power devolution” to the majority Tamil” areas which the TULF claimed were their exclusive traditional Tamil homelands”. The wish to merge the North with the East, where the East does not even have a Tamil majority is simply an anti-democratic Tamil hegemonist move. It has been amply proved, both by 30 years of failed negotiations, and then by a failed separatist military bid brutally pushed forward by the LTTE, that the concept of an exclusive traditional homeland of the Tamils will not be accepted by the majority community, or the international neighbours of Sri Lanka extending from Pakistan through India to Malaysia. Even G. G. Ponnambalam rejected it, saying that the whole of Ceylon is the homeland of the Tamils. The jingoist sections of Tamil Nadu politicians view Tamil Nationalism favourably only because they believe that a weakly integrated Northern Sri Lanka will merge into its fold, recreating a historic Chola kingdom.
A Northern Provincial Council (NPC) under the TNA existed from 2013 to 2018. It proved beyond doubt that the concept is a failure. It failed to do the minimum for the people. It did not even succeed in spending the budgets allocated to it, and showed how provincial administrations get bogged down in parochial animosities, irregularities, and fail to even rise above local caste” prejudices.
Furthermore, NPC spent its time promoting hate against the majority community, building memorials for suicide bombers, and passing resolutions claiming that all Sri Lankan governments since 1948 have committed genocide against the Tamils. However, the Tamil population has increased by a factor larger than that of the Sinhalese since 1948. The Tamil separatist movement helped to spawn similar separatist movements among the Muslims. The initial Mulsim leaders of those movements have also been displaced by more radical leaders, just as the TULF was displaced. Such radials had no hesitation in getting financial support from extremist Islamic groups, and became a law unto themselves under the weak Maithree-Ranil government. Sinhala-Buddhist extremist groups also reacted and added to the unrest. The Easter bombings and the rise of sectarian violence have strong causative links with the devolution of power into the hands of provincial political thugs and war lords.
So, the provincial councils have failed. The political conditions that existed in the country in the 1970s do not exist any more. Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of the country. If adequate implementation of bilingualism is wanting, I find it no different from what has been achieved in Canada which has spent billions on bilingualims since the late 1960s, and yet many civil servants cannot muster anything beyond Bon Jour”.
Unlike the separatist Tamils of the TNA, the Indian Tamils who opted to cooperate with the Sinhalese instead of joining in the separatist struggle have won their citizenship and now play an important role in the legislatures of the nation. Tamil politicians representing a mere 12% of the population have played a major determining role in Lankan administrations, but the polarization caused by the mishandling of the official languages act became a cancer in the body politic. Consequently we have communities that totally distrust each other, even to the extent of manipulating semantics with Aekeeya and Orumitta” while claiming them to be the same as Unitary”.
The constitutional message that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa must take to the Indians is as follows. The security of the nation, its economic growth, mercantile efficiency and ethnic harmony all require a well integrated and centralized constitution which respects the multi-ethnic character of the Nation. Lanka has, in the Greater Colombo metropolis a vibrant example of a multi-ethnic multi-religious community where Tamil culture and Hindu devotional practice are thriving, even with greater vigor than in Jaffna with its closed cajan fences and enracinated caste prejudices.
Technology has advanced well beyond what it was during the days of Banda and Chelva”. There is no difficulty for ANYONE to work in ANY language, in any court or government office. This is not just for Tamil or Sinhala, but even for Malay or Urdu, because cell-phone browsers can adequately translate from any language to another. Voice Apps can be made to render the Sinhala or Tamil message into vocalized Tamil or Sinhala. A fast bullet train connecting Jaffna to Colombo moving at 250 kmph will convert Jaffna into a Colombo suburb. Colombo and Jaffna already have the same cellular-phone area code!
The solutions to the politically vexed language question or the ethnic question are technological, and we already have them.
The 13the Amendment to the constitution must be repealed. That is the bottom line where the New President must begin his discussions about constitutional matters.
Who
can explain how communities can be brought together when the leaders representing
them continue to drum racism? Have we heard any national sentiment from the
present day Tamil leaders? When will they cease to recirculate a handful of
past examples that plug hate & revenge in the minds of their people? Why do
they not want to urge their people to think in the interests of the Nation
first? No peaceful coexistence can take place in word or paper if the leaders
that claim to represent minorities carry forward a different and racist agenda
and drag their people to follow that line of thinking too? These Tamil
politicians will drum hate but they do so for their own political relevance –
in the end the Tamil people or the country is getting nothing out of it. By
their hateful speeches and actions, they are only weakening Sri Lanka, destabilizing
Sri Lanka and making Sri Lanka vulnerable.
Racism is foundation stone of Tamil
‘Nationalism” & ‘liberation’
Tamil
leaders lavishly uses cudgel of racism for political mileage & Tamil people
as pawns. So long as this happens there can be no peaceful coexistence or meaningful
reconciliation.
Money-Media-Propaganda has stilled the voice of truth and drummed lies &
distortions. Racist actions have begotten racist reactions. However, international
attention is always given to the reactions and not the racist actions.
Examples of Tamil Racism
1920s Tamil legislator
Ramanathan led 2 delegations to Colonial Office in London
Tamil
leaders were demanding encoding of Caste into legislative enactments in Ceylon.
Vellala
caste is imported from South India and have no origins in Sri Lanka though they
continue to try to dominate Tamil politics. Should Tamils change this?
Tamil
racism created ITAK – Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi that sought a separate
Tamil Nation the year after independence when Sri Lanka was under foreign
control since 1505. Why would ITAK seek a separate Tamil Nation when they had
been ruled by Westerners since 1505?
The
1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution wording depicts the hatred and racism of Tamil
leaders who wish to brainwash younger generations to carrying forward their
racism.
https://www.sangam.org/FB_HIST_DOCS/vaddukod.htm
The
hatred of Tamil politicians could be seen in the 1977 General Election
Manifesto
2016 – Sinhala student
studying in Jaffna university attacked by Tamil students & hospitalized
with head injuries simply because they were preparing for a Kandyan dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rQmvalFi0
TNA threats to Buddhist
priests to vacate Buddhist temples in existence since 5th century
b.c in North & East
(Minister
Cyril Mathew’s report to UNESCO gives evidence) Racist attempt to chase away
Sinhalese and Buddhist priests, destroy ancient Buddhist temples and claim only
Tamils live in North/East. UN declares destruction of cultural property a war
crime.
Racism was such that
Sinhalese were chased out of North giving less than 48 hours to leave.
No one
spoke against this in 1990 and no one is speaking now to help return these
chased away people to their original homes.
Even
since 2015 Tamil leaders are demanding Sinhalese should not be settled in the
North. Up & until 2013- 70 plus C J V Wigneswaran was living in Colombo
amongst Sinhalese.
Racism of Wigneswaran was
such he prohibited Tamils marrying Sinhalese
2014 TNA leader Sambandan
declared ‘Sinhala colonization a great worry to Tamils’
this
sentiment has been floated since ITAK was formed in 1949.
2013 – Bank of Ceylon
branch in Chennai attacked.
2013 – Mihin Lanka Sales
Office in Madurai attacked
2012 – 184 Sinhala
Buddhist pilgrims attacked in Chennai
A
special flight had to be arranged to bring them back to Sri Lanka
2011 Maha Bodhi Society
office in Chennai vandalized.
It was
where Sinhala Buddhist pilgrims visited.
2 Buddhist priests
attacked & manhandled by Tamil mobs in India.
Brutally
attacking unarmed Buddhist priests is the worst type of racism
2008 film maker assaulted
in Chennai because he was Sinhalese
Tamil leaders constantly
referring to national army/police as ‘Sinhalese’
this
very army saved close to 300,000 from LTTE.
Tamil racism –
evident by the list of Tamil political parties & their objectives
only for Tamils.
Racism of R. Sambanthan
former Opposition Leader / Leader of ITAK/TNA – a man who sat with Prabakaran
& regularly engaged in discussions with them
What did Sambanthan do when LTTE was killing fleeing children?
What
did Sambanthan do when LTTE snipers were shooting and killing fleeing Tamils?
What
did Sambanthan do when Tamils were kept as human shields by LTTE
If
Sambanthan claims food, medicines etc were not sent by the Govt – did TNA and
LTTE fronts using their $300m annual profits send even a biscuit?
Sambanthan
& TNA supported regime change in 2015 – how did the supporter end up the
main opposition with just 16 seats in a 225-member Parliament? Isn’t that why
the Opposition for the first time supported the yahapalana budget?
Why
didn’t Sambanthan & TNA speak for the thousands of Tamils killed by LTTE
and generations of Tamil youth who were forced to become child soldiers?
On what
basis can Sambanthan/TNA claim Tamils are ‘second-class’ citizens?
What is it that the Sinhalese enjoy
because they are Sinhalese that the minorities do not enjoy because they are
not Sinhalese”?
What is
it that the minorities do not enjoy because they are the minority which the
majority enjoys because they are the majority”?
What is
legally, constitutionally & legislatively given to the majority that is not
given to the minorities”?
Name a
single country that has changed its original national anthem, national flag
just to please & appease the minorities & have these afforded any
reciprocity by the minorities?
Lets’ take C J V Wigneswaran
Where
did Chief Minister Wigneswaran study – Royal College
Where
was Chief Minister Wigneswaran living all his life – Colombo. He went to live
in North only after 2013 – after Prabakaran was defeated – after he was
parachuted from Colombo & made Chief Minister. He was no representative of
the Northern people.
Where
was Chief Minister Wigneswaran working – as a Supreme Court Judge
How
many times has he been to North Sri Lanka when LTTE was on a killing spree?
Did
he object to LTTE kidnapping Tamil children to turn into child soldiers?
Did
he appeal to LTTE to release Tamil civilians kept hostage or to be used as
human shields?
Did
he send any food or medicines to these civilians kept trapped by LTTE?
He
complained to Swiss envoy that Sinhalese fishermen are fishing in Northern
waters.
He
falsely claims Tamils lived in North before Sinhalese
He
says Sri Lanka army does not need to be praised for post-war good deeds
He
criticizes Sri Lanka army presence in North
He
asks yahapalana govt to withdraw army from North and East
He
goes all round the world complaining against the Sri Lanka Armed Forces
He
calls for international investigation claiming genocide (but can’t explain how
Tamil population is increasing)
He
requests US envoy to get US medical teams to examine LTTE combatants in Jaffna
He
calls for ‘shared sovereignty’ within a united Sri Lanka (all confederal nomenclature)
He
claims Sinhalese are ‘outsiders’ looting ‘their’ resources
He
claims Tamils should align to party pushing for ‘self-determination’
Presents
Constitutional Reforms Committee a resolution by Northern Provincial Council proposing
2 states
Leads
protests by Tamils – most of these Tamils later say they are given money &
food to hold placards and they know nothing about demands made by Tamil leaders
Seeks
India’s help on new constitution which is federal
He
seeks merger of North East claiming it prevents minority communities from
losing their identity
Tamil
racism has compromised the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national
security of this country. The entire populace will suffer in time to come
because of a handful of racists. When racist examples are brought out people
must learn to accept the racism in these examples and not scoff at those that
expose the racism.
Why
don’t Tamils tell Tamil politicians to fight the Sinhalese or vandalize
Buddhist temples instead of outsourcing to Tamil civilians?
We need
to move forward not go backward. If there is no record of any disunity among
Sinhalese & Tamils pre-1505 how, why & who is the cause of the
disunity?
Should
we continue to drum past incidents instead of finding solutions to them?
Lots of questions for people to ponder and answer and it is no better a time than now to find the answers and to disallow the mischief makers to continue to drag people towards hatred & racism.
