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ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේ පක්ෂ නායකයින්ගේ රැස්වීමක් අද පස්වරුවේ ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ සහ අග්රාමාත්ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ යන මහත්වරුන්ගේ ප්රධානත්වයෙන් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයේදී පැවැත්වුණා.
රැස්වීම අවසන් වීමෙන් පසුව ඊට සහභාගීවූ ඇමතිවරුන් මාධ්ය වෙත අදහස් පළ කළා.
The International Court of Justice was set up in 1946 to settle international disputes. ICJ is taking up a complaint made by little known Muslim majority Gambia on behalf of the 57 OIC member states against Myanmar. Aung San Su Kii, Myanmar’s leader along with Government officials and scores of supporters arrived in Hague and faced the ICJ on 10th December 2019. ICJ cannot evade answering the legal status of Rohingyas in Myanmar vis a vis the colonial legacy that Myanmar carries. Is Rohingya issue an excuse for Western imperialists and its OIC partners to enter Asia with real intent to encircle China/Russia while as an additional bonus acquiring Asia’s natural resources/oil etc? Should Asia not be concerned about the geopolitical aspect of the Rohingya issue, a factor India must be concerned about too. Both India & Myanmar are on line to be balkanized as western imperialist with their Islamic state partners strategically draw the pawns on the chessboard.
Historical anomalies by Western Colonial/Islamic invaders cannot be unjustly used against post-independent victim countries under periphery of international bodies set up by them & influenced by them
Colonial legacy
The British colony of Burma was made part of the British run-state in India (though Burma was never part of pre-colonial British India), the Empire of India, from 1824 to 1937. A decade before India was given independence Burma was separated from the Indian Empire in 1937. Burma was actually the geographically largest province in India, it only had 9 million people in 1908. Its neighbor Bengal (East Bengal became Bangladesh) had 75million people. In 1872, when the earliest reliable census was taken, the highest concentrations of Muslims (more than 70%) were found in eastern Bengal. It is only from the late sixteenth century, and after the Mughal conquest (1574), that solid evidence of a Muslim peasant population anywhere in Bengal.
Also noteworthy is the formation of the Muslim League in 1906 demanding a separate Muslim ‘homeland’ in British India.
When Burma became Burma – India became India.
Legacy of CONQUER – COMMERCE – CONVERT continues
Artificial borders drawn by colonial invaders is one of the main reasons for contentions between nations even today. Forced migrations and dumping of indentured labor is another factor that has given rise to more ethnic problems in former colonies. Colonial rulers of these nations must take accountability for these intended divide and rule policies. Many a separatist ethno-religious movement today were encouraged and covertly funded by these countries a policy they continue to practice even in 21st century. Trail of insurgent/terrorist movements will take you to one or more of the western imperial or OIC member states who secretly support them. Drive for global hegemony, land grab in resource-rich countries are very much the same reason then and now. We cannot be naïve not to link the similarities.
Obsession with China/Russia
An additional feature has become the obsession with China’s development. The aim is to get to China and Russia either through Myanmar or India. These endeavors are happening parallel through various modus operandi. Unfortunately, India has invited the enemy to Asia and must be regretting now.
It is reason why Asia must back Myanmar including the Muslim majority countries for no Rohingya can be more important than helping turn Asia into a war zone similar to Middle East. Once countries allow an enemy that does not think twice to drop chemical bombs/drones etc no ICJ or ICC can stop them.
The crime of ‘Genocide’ means acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national or racial group. It has become fashionable to use term ‘genocide’ but population statistics cannot prove any reduction in population figures for Rohingyas. However, the ‘intent to destroy a racial group’ did very much take place by colonial/Islamic expansionists wherein they used to sword to exterminate entire populations. Who is going to hold their crimes to account?
Presume the ‘international bodies’ deem it is old news, what about the illegal invasions & killings by carpet bombings, chemical bombings, atomic bombs, drone killings that have killed millions too in this side of the century? Were these not committed by Western/Middle East nations – the most recent being the bombing campaign in Yemen. How is it that these acts do not make it to the ‘genocide’ table? Why are these not investigated or action taken against them? Is it because their political power and financial influence makes all others lesser than them?
How innocent are Rohingyas
Are Rohingyas illegal immigrants, did colonial Britain include them in their census are questions that need firm answers. How innocent are Rohingyas when it is having an armed group & has also committed heinous crimes against Myanmar people in particular Buddhist theros. Are OIC-member states arming the Rohingyas as ICG report 2016 confirms.
Can Gambia explain how Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army if innocent is carrying ARMS & AMMUNITION and also engaged in attacks? Who provides weaponry to ARSA and who is paying for this supply?
Myanmar cannot be accused and hurled up before any international court if it is only defending its nation & people against armed militant Rohingya. If Myanmar was attacking unarmed Rohingya it would be a different story but Rohingyas are no innocent people!
Why don’t these 57 majority Muslim nations agree to give refuge to these Rohingyas in their countries and look after them as fellow Muslim nations where they would be all the happier?
Myanmar’s Buddhist heritage at risk
It is no secret that the Buddhist world expanded from Persia to far East Asia without forced conversion or sword.
It is also no secret that the Buddhist world has shrunk as a result of the sword used by both Islamic expansionists and Christian invaders. The Buddhist world is now down to just 5 shrinking and regularly under threat majority Buddhist nations of which Myanmar and Sri Lanka are included. It is natural that the Buddhists in these countries have every right to fear and these fears should not be laughed upon or degraded.
While ancient tactics are not used the multiple methods presently used are more sinister and dangerous and come in the cover of many insidious forms that cover the real intent (loans/grants are given with hidden message to turn the other way to incursions / politicians are bribed to also do the same / powerful international blocs ensure international pressure to prevent any legal actions taken to protect the incursions).
India, China, Russia and rest of Asia must take stock of the geopolitical agenda behind using Rohingyas just as Sri Lanka’s Tamils have been used to similarly exert power to influence Sri Lanka to give in to various bullying tactics. When it is very clear that the target is China & Russia, the two barriers are India & Myanmar and it is natural that Rohingyas provide the best pawn to use to exert international pressure and presence in Myanmar as bogus conflict resolutionists whereby on the ground they will subtly plan to encircle China/Russia.
Asia must stand in solidarity with Myanmar and China, Russia and India must protect all Asian nations from numerous other manipulated tactics that will be used in time to come.
Shenali D Waduge
By Stanley Perera, Melbourne, Australia.
My dear Ambassador Mock,
It may be that you are so dumb not to understand the racist mentality of the world’s number one liars the racist Sri Lankan Tamils, or you were involved in coocking up of a failed attempt to campaign against Rajapakse government. You need 100 lies to cover a lie. Tamil local staffer put you in an embarrasing situation in the eyes of the civilised society. You are caught up with your pants down. Lies, lies and more lies is the motto of the bogus Tamil refugees scattered all over the western countries. Bash Rajapakse government campaign will extend their visas. Those bogus Tamil refugees’s suvival rest upon the mercy of the host countries. They need to tell the world through lies of victimisation and not a safe country to the Tamils expecting the western countries sympathy. Tamils in Sri Lanka are illegal immigrants from Tamil Nadu. They do not seek refuge in India. Those bogus Tamil refugees seek refugee status only in the western countries and those western countries jump into the band waggon to secure the votes. The Tamil diaspora contributed to Hillary Clinton’s Presidential elction campaign fund a sum of $125,000. Then Hillary Clinton said there are good terrorists to white wash LTTE Terrorist. If a white man joinig the bash Rajapakse government, it means they expect the Bogus Tamil Refugees to vote for their political party. There are 25,000 Bogus Tamil Refugees in Switzerland. Hanspeter Mock the Swiss Ambassador in Colombo is playing the game of politics and not playing the diplomacy. Corrupt Mock’s lie about the abduction and sexually assaulting of Local Tamil Staffer is a drama authored by the Bogus Tamil Refugees to tarnish the image of Rajapakse’s week old new government hoping their visas extention and more and more Tamils to leave for the western countries. Native Sri Lankan Sinhalese are clever to understand the motive behind the local Tamil staffer: 1. To cover up the smuggling out of Sri lanka of a crimal and wanted Tamil police officer Silva and bring disrepute to a week old Rajapakse government. 2. To highligt the fact that Sri Lanka is not safe to the Tamils which was in conniving with the Bogus Tamil Refugees. Whatever it is one thing is for sure that Swiss Ambassadore Hanspeter Mock became a disgraceful liar and a Tamil sucker. It is now up to the Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock to leave Sri Lanka ASAP if Sri Lanka did not deport the roiuge Ambassador. Please make sure when you go to take with you the lying and disgraceful Tamil staffer together with over a million lying Tamils living in the North of Sri Lanka. When you did that we peace loving patriotic Sri Lankans can live in peace and harmony.
Yours Truly,
Stanley Perera Melbourne, Australia.
මාරයා අපට හොඳට හුරුය පුරුදුය. එමෙන්ම මාරයාද අපව හොඳට හඳුනයි. අපි පළමුව මාරයාව හඳුනා ගන්නේ බුද්ධ චරිතය තුලිනි. සිදුහත් කුමරුන්ට කිසිදු කරදරයක් නොකර සිටි මාරයා පළමුව එකුමරු වෙත කඩා පනින්නේ ගිහිගෙයින් නික්ම යාම ඇරඹීමත් සමගය. විමුක්තියට එල්ල වෙන බාධකයන් මාරයාගේ නිර්මාණයන් වන අතර මාරයා සෑම පුද්ගලයෙකු සමගද, සෑම සමාජ ක්රමයක් සමගද ප්රබලව බැදී සිටි.
මාරයා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පාලනය සමග පොරබදා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂයන්ව පරාජය කල අතර මෙරට ජනතාව මහා බලකඳවුරක් සේ එක්ව මාරයාව පරාජය කර, ඒ සතුට විදිමින්, කිරිබත් කමින්, පුරන් කුඹුරු අස්වද්දමින්, මුළු රටම පිරිසිඳු කරමින්, අපවිත්ර තාප්ප පවිත්ර කරමින් ඒ මත මහා බිතු සිතුවම් නිමවමින් යන්තම් සතියක් දෙකක ගතවුවා පමණි, මාරයා යලි අවදිව මේ සිදුවන්නේ කුමක්දැයි සිතමින් බලමින් අවබෝධ කරගනිමින් යලිත් සිය කටයුතු ලහි ලහියේ අරඹමින් සිටිනු දක්නට ලැබේ. මාරයාගේ හොඳම බලකායක් වන ප්රේත ගෝත්රික බලමුළු අවදිකරමින් යලිත් සටනට කැඳවා ඇති ආකාරයක් අපි දකිමින් සිටින්නෙමු. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂයන් බලයට පැමිණ, මාසයක්වත් ගතව නැති තත්වයක් තුලදී මෙරට ජනතාවට ඉටුකර ඇති කාරය සම්භාරය දෙස බලා කලබලයට පත් ඔහු, සියලුම බල ඇණි සටනට කැඳවා තිබීම නිසා මාර යුද්ධය මාරයා විසින්ම මහා අවුල් සහගත තත්වයකට පටලවාගෙන ඇත.
1.ඔහුගේ බල ඇණියක් වූ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය, බුද්ධ, ධම්ම, සංග යන ත්රිවිධ රත්නයේ සරණ යැවීම. 2.ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ කෝප් වාර්තාව, සම්බන්ධ කර ගනිමින්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තැබීමට එරෙහිව නැගිටවිම.
3.ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ හා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය එක්ව රහස් පොලිසියේ සිටි සිය සගයන්ව ඉවත් කිරීමට එරෙහිව නැගිටවාලිම. 4.එංගලන්ත අධිකරණයකින් රණවිරුවෙකුට පවුම් 2400 දඩයක් නියම කරවීම. 5.ලංකාවේ ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ සිටි මාරයාගේ දියණියක් වූ රගා ලවා අමුතුම සුදු වෑන් පැහැර ගැනීමේ රංගනයක් එලි දැක්වීම. 6.මාරයාගේ අභ්යන්තර නියෝජිතයින් ලවා, මේ ජග්රහණය තනිකරම පොහොට්ටුවේ ජග්රහණයක් යයි කියමින් අනිත් පක්ෂවලට ඔච්චම් කරමින් අභ්යන්තරව සන්ධානය බිඳවීමට සැලැස්වීමට කටයුතු කිරීම. 7.ඒ සමගම පොහොට්ටු පුටු හබයක් මතු කොට අනවශ්ය වාග් සංග්රාමයක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට වෙර දැරීම. 8. දුෂිතයන්ව නිසි ක්රමවේදයකට අනුව යමින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම, දුෂිතයින්ව රැකීමට දරන උත්සහයක් සේ පෙන්වීමට තුලින්, අභ්යන්තර වියවුලක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට වෙර දැරීම
ඇතුළුව නව ආකාරයේ ක්රමයන් අධ්යනය කරමින් අත්හදා බැලීම සිදු කරමින් පසුවේ. මේ වනවිට පාලකයන්ට පෙර ජනතාව මාරයාව හොඳට හඳුනා ගනිමින් මාරයාගේ රෙදි ගලවමින් සිටි. හොදම උදාහරණය වන්නේ ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලය නිර්මාණය කල ජාත්යන්තර අර්බුදය ලත් තැනම ලොප් කිරීම තුලින් මාරයාට මාර පරාජයක් ලබාදීමයි. අප කොතරම් පරාජය කලද මාරයා අපට වඩා සුක්ෂම බැවින් ඉඩක් ලද විගසම අපව වැනසීමට නැගී සිටින බැවින්, අපි රටක් වශයෙන් අවදියෙන් සිට මාරයා පරාජය කොට ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ප්රමුඛ මේ රාජ්ය රැකගත යුතුමය එය මේ යුගයේ අපට පැවරී ඇති යුග මෙහෙවරයි. අපි ඒ සඳහා ඇප කැප වී අවදියෙන් සිටිමු. සටන් වදිමු.
නව ලිබරල් වාදී දේශපාලන ප්රවාහය තුල බල පවත්නා LGBT බල පරාක්රමය ඇති මහත්ය. මෙම ප්රවනතාව විසින් සමාජ ගත කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගන්නා ඇතැම් අභූත මති භ්රාන්ති පිලිබඳ වැටහීමක් පහත සඳහන් ලිපිය කියවීමෙන් ඔබට ලභාගත හැක.
| Western Civilization Is Now A Caricature of Absurdity – PaulCraigRoberts.org Western Civilization Is Now A Caricature of Absurdity. This Is Not A Joke. Dear Readers: If you have concluded that a small handful of crazed morons control the words we are permitted to use, you are correct. www.paulcraigroberts.org |
ඊයේ රාත්රියේදී මා හට මා දන්නා හඳුනන එක්තරා තරුණ කාන්තාවක් මුණ ගැසිනි. ඇය පිලිපීන ජාතික, විවාහක කාන්තාවක් වූ අතර, අතිශය රූමත් තැනැත්තියක්ද වූවාය. අප මුණ ගැසුනේ කිසියම් සාදයකදී බැවින් ඇය වයින් වීදුරු දෙක තුනක් බී මද වශයෙන් මත්වී සිටියාය. අප ආගිය තොරතුරු සහ වල් පල් කතා කරමින් ඉන්නා අතර එක වරම ඇය මාගෙන් මා බලාපොරොත්තු නොවූ ආකාරයේ අස්වාභාවික ප්රශ්නයක් ඇසුවාය.
“ගීත්, මට ඔයාගෙන් පුද්ගලික ප්රශ්නයක් අහන්න පුලුවන්ද?
“ඔව් කියන්න”
“ඔබේ බිරිඳ ඔබට චීට් (cheat) කලොත් ඔබ ගන්නා පියවර මොකක්ද?”
(ඔබගේ බිරිඳ වෙනත් අයෙකු සමග අනියම් සබඳතාවක් ඇතිකරගතහොත්, එසේ නැතහොත්, ලිංගිකව හැසිරුනොත් ඔබ ගන්නා පියවර මොකක්ද?)
මා වාඩි වී සිටියානම් සැබවින්ම මා පුටුවෙන් බිමට වැටීමට ඉඩ තිබිණි. නමුත් මා සිටියේ සිටගෙන බැවින් පිළිතුරු දීගත නොහැකි වූ මම තතනන්නට වීමි. හොඳම උපාය මෙය විහිළුවට ගෙන ගැළවීමයයි සිතා මම මෙසේ කීමි.
“ගෑණියෙක් හැටියට ඔයා දන්නවා ඇතිනේ ගැහැණු කිසිවිටෙක අහුවෙන්ඩ cheat කරන්නේ නැති බව.”
(පිරිමි තම බිරින්දෑ වරුනට cheat කරන විටද එය අහු වෙන්නට කරන්නේ නැති බව මම සඳහන් නොකළේ එය අදාළ නැති නිසා ය.)
ගෑණුන්ට තමන් දන්න මායං ඔක්කොම දාල, නිර්දෝෂ වෙන්නෙ කොහොමද කියන එක අමුතුවෙන් උගන්නන්ඩ ඕන නැහැ. බල්ලන්ට පිහිනන්ඩ පුරුදු කරන්ඩ ඕන නැහැ වගේ, ඒ අයට ස්වභාව ධර්මයෙන්ම ඒ ශක්තියයි ධ්යිර්යයි ක්රම උපායවලුයි දීලයි තියෙන්නෙ. එනිසා ඔය ප්රශ්නය අදාළ නැහැ යයි කියා ගැලවෙන්නට මම උත්සාහ කලෙමි.
කිතුනු ලබ්ධිකයෙකු වූ ඇයට මම මෙසේද පැවසීමි.
“දහවලදී කපුටු හඬටත් බියවන ගැහැණිය, රෑ කලදී සොරමුලක් සමගින් නර්මදා නදිය වුව තරණය කරන්නීය” යැයි බුදුන් වහන්සේද වදාරා ඇතැයි මම ඇයට පැවසීමි.
(කාන්තා විමුක්ති වාදීන් මට පාරේදී අල්ලන් ගහන්න ඉඩ තිබෙන නිසා ඔවුන්ට කරන සාධාරණයක් ලෙස, ඉහතකී තත්වය පිරිමින්ටත් අදාළ බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න.)
මගේ පිළිතුරෙන් ඇය සැහීමකට පත්වූ බවක් නොපෙනුණු නිසා කිසියම් බැරෑරුම් බවක් ආරෝපණය කර ගනිමින් මෙසේ කීමි.
පවුලේ සහ දරුවන්ගේ අවශ්යතා හා තත්වය අනුව මෙවන් තීරණ වෙනස් වන බවත්, ඇතැමුන් දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් මෙවන් තත්වයන් ඉවසන බවත් පැවසීමි. එමෙන්ම ඇතැම් පියවරු සේම මව් වරුද පවුලේ අනාගතය තම පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතයේ ප්රශ්න වලට වඩා වැදගත්සේ සලකා, උදාවී ඇති තත්වය අනුව කැප කිරීම් කොට, සිය පවුල රැකගැනීම පිණිස මෙවන් තත්වයන් ඉවසා දරාගෙන, ජීවිතයට මුහුණ දෙන බවත් පැවසීමි. මා හැදුනු වැඩුණු ශ්රී ලාංකික සමාජය පවුල නමැති සංස්ථාව වඩාත් වැදගත් සේ සලකන බව ඇයට පැවසීමි.
මෙම පිළිතුරෙන්ද සැහීමකට පත් නොවූ ඇය, එවන් තත්වයන්ගෙන් පරිබාහිරව ඔබගේ බිරිඳ ඔබට cheat කළා නම් ඔබ ගන්නා පියවර කුමක්දැයි මගෙන් පෙරළා ඇසීය. කෙසේ වුවද, කරකියාගත හැකි කිසිවක් නොවූයෙන් අවසානයේදී…
“මම දික්කසාද වෙමි යයි කීමි.”
එසේ කියා එය සාධාරණය කරනු වස්… “මම හිතන්නෙ මම එතරම්…” මට කිව හැකි වූයේ එපමණකි…ඇය මගේ වාක්යය සම්පූර්ණ කළාය.
“ප්රගතිගාමී (progressive) නැහැ නේද?”
ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම ඔබ හරි…මම එතරම්ම ප්රගතිගාමී (progressive) නැහැ.”
“ඇයි…ඔබ විවෘත විවාහ (open marriages) වලට කැමති නැත්ද.”
“අනේ මන්ද, මට ඕව තේරෙන්නේ නැහැ., විවෘත විවාහ (open marriages) මොනවටද? ඇයි… තනිකඩව ජීවත් වෙන්න පුළුවන්නේ.”
“ඒ උනාට එතකොට වයසට යනකොට තනි වෙනවනේ” යයි ඇය පෙරළා පැවසුවාය.
(open marriages යනුවෙන් ඇය අදහස් කළේ, විවාහකව සිටියදී අන් අය සමග ලිංගිකව හැසිරීමට ඉඩකඩ තිබෙන විවාහ ජීවිත වලටය. බටහිර ඇතැම් අය මෙවන් open marriages වලට වඩාත් ප්රිය කරති.)
“ඇයි ඔයා මගෙන් මෙහෙම ප්රශ්නයක් ඇහුවෙ, ඔයාගේ husband ට cheat කරන්නඩ ඔයාට අදහසක් තියෙනවද?” යැයි මම ඇගෙන් ඇසුවෙමි.
මා එසේ ඇසු විටම වාගේ ඇගේ ස්වාමිපුරුෂයා ඇය කැටුව යෑමට පැමිණ අප වෙතට පියමන් කරනු අප දුටිමු. මාගේ ප්රශ්නයට පිළිතුරු දීගත නොහැකිවූ ඇය, තම සැමියා වෙත පියමන් කළාය. ඒ යන අතරවාරයේ එකවරම මා දෙසට හැරුණු ඈ, “ආ…අර ප්රශ්නෙට උත්තරේ ‘ඔව්’ හොඳේ” කියාගෙන ගියාය.
මේකි නං යක්ස ගෑණියෙක් තමයි කියා මම හිතින් හිතා ගතිමි.
මෙම දෙබසින් පසු මට එක වරම මතක් වූයේ මා නිමා නොකොට අතපසු කල මෙම ලිපිය පිලිබඳවය.
ඉහතකී දෙබස මෙම ලිපියට වැදගත් යයි මට සිතුනේ එම කාන්තාව මම ප්රගතිගාමී (progressive) නැතැයි පැවසීම නිසා ය. (“You are not that progressive right?)
නව ලිබෙරල් වාදීන් සිතන්නේ ඔවුන් වඩාත් පගතිවාදී, නුතනවාදී, හා අනාගත වාදී (futuristic) ජීවන දෘෂ්ටියකින් හා දර්ශනයකින් හෙබියන් බවය.
පසුගිය තිස් වසර තුල නව ලිබරල් වාදී මත බහුලව සමාජ ගත කිරීමේ ප්රතිඵලයක් ලෙස තරුණ පරපුර මෙම අදහස් වල බලපෑමට හසුව තිබේ. මෙම ප්රකාශයෙන් එය තව දුරටත් තහවුරු විය.
ලිංගිකත්වය ලිබෙරල් කිරීම ප්රගමනයට අත්යවශ්ය සාධකයක් යැයි ඔවුහු සිතති. ඒ අනුව පවුල හෝ කුටුම්භය යල් පැනගිය හණමිටි අදහස්ය.
ලිංගිකත්වය නව ලිබෙරල් වාදී න්යාය පත්රයේ අතිශය ප්රධාන මුලිකංඟයකි. නව ලිබරෙල් වාදී අදහස් වල ඇති එක වැදගත් මුලිකාංගයක් වන්නේ ‘ලිංගිකත්වය’ පිලීබඳ ඔවුන්ගේ නව අදහස්ය. සැබවින්ම මේ අදහස් පවුල නමැති ආයතනය, නැතහොත් ‘කුටුම්භය’ විනාශ කරන අදහස්ය.
අනන්යතා දේශපාලනයේ නියැලෙන අය තම අයිතීන් සමාජ දේශපාලන මහා ප්රවාහය තුල ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට කරනු ලබන සටනට අප හට එකඟ විය හැකි වුවත්, මහා ප්රවාහය මුළුමනින්ම විනාශකොට අනතුරුව තමන්ට අභිමත හැඩයක් එයට ආරෝපණය කිරීමට LGBGT කණ්ඩායම් ගන්නා උත්සාහයට බහුතරයක් ජනයා එකඟ වනු ඇති යැයි සිතිය නොහැක. නව ලිබරල් වාදය හරහා තත්කාලීන දේශපාලන කතිකාවත හා එහි නියාමක බලවේග සියතට ගැනීමට අනන්යතා දේශපාලනයේ නියැලෙන අය උත්සාහ ගනිති. මෙය මානව පැවැත්මට හිතකර තත්වයක්ද? එය ඉතිහාසය විසින් තීරණය කල යුත තත්වයකි.
අනන්යතා දේශපාලන මතවාද දේශපාලන කරලියට පැමිණීමේ හේතුව
පසුගිය ලිපියේදී මවිසින් “නව ලිබෙරල් වාදීන් සිතන්නේ ඔවුන් වඩාත් පගතිවාදී, නුතනවාදී, හා අනාගත වාදී (futuristic) ජීවන දෘෂ්ටියකින් හා දර්ශනයකින් හෙබියන් බවය. සැබවින්ම සත්ය වන්නේ එහි ප්රති විරුද්ධ පැත්තය. මොවුන් මානව ප්රගතියේ පරිනාමය ආපස්සට හරවා ශුන්යත්වය කරා මානව සංහතිය දක්කාගෙන යන්නෝය” යයි ප්රකාශ කලෙමි. මා එසේ ප්රකාශ කලේ හේතු සහිතවය. මෙය බටහිර දර්ශන වාදය ගමන්කළ දිසානතියේ ප්රතිඵලයකි.
බටහිර දර්ශනය පුද්ගල කේන්ද්රීය දර්ශනයකි. එහි වීරයා මිනිසා නොව, තනි පුද්ගලයාය. මෙහිදී ‘මිනිසා’ යනු පෙරදිග දර්ශනයට අනුව, තනි පුද්ගලයෙකු නොව සමුහයක් බව වටහා ගත යුතු වෙයි. නමුත් බටහිර දර්ශනයේදී ‘මිනිසා’ යනු තනි පුද්ගලයෙකි එනම් individual ය. බටහිර දර්ශනවාදයේ පුද්ගල කේන්ද්රීයත්වය ඉස්මතු වන්නේ ධනවාදයේ නැගීමත් සමග බව වටහා ගත යුතුය.
යටත් විජිත වාදය නිසා විශාලවශයෙන් ධනය රැස්කොට පොහොසත්වූ බටහිර විසු සාමාන්ය ජනයා ඉතිහාසයේ එක්මොහොතකදී දේශපාලන බලය අපේක්ෂා කරන, තමන්ට අවශ්ය පරිදි ලෝකය වෙනස් කල හැකි බලයක් අපේක්ෂා කල බලවේගයක් බවට පත් වූහ. ප්රංශ විප්ලවයට පාදකවූ පසුබිමෙහි මොවුන්ගේ මෙම දේශපාලන අපේක්ෂා ද, මිනිසා සහ ඔහුගේ නිදහස පිලිබඳ නව අපේක්ෂා ද විය. මෙහිදී මිනිසා පිලිබඳ සිදුකල දර්ශනවාදී විග්රහයන්ගෙන් ඉස්මතු කලේ මිනිසාගේ පෞද්ගලික නිදහස පිලිබඳ සංකල්පනා ය.
කිසියම් සංස්කෘතියක් පෞද්ගලික නිදහස නමැති සංකල්පයේ උපරිමයට ගමන් කරන විට, පෞද්ගලික නිදහස සිය ජීවන දර්ශනයේ ප්රධානතම අංගය බවට පත්වන විට, සාමූහිකත්වය පිලිබඳ සංකල්ප නොවැදගත් සංකල්ප බවට පත්වී බැහැර වෙයි. කුටුම්භය හා කුටුම්භ සංරක්ෂණය වැදගත් දෙයක් බවට පත්වන්නේ මිනිසා මිනිස් පැවැත්ම පිළිබඳව තමාට වගකීමක් ඇතැයි සිතන සමාජයක් තුලය. මමත්වය මුල්වන සමාජයකට එය වැදගත් නොවේ. බටහිර සමාජ ක්රමය පදනම්ව තිබෙන්නේ ඉහතකී මමත්වය මතය.
නව ලිබරල් වාදීන් ලොව දේශපාලන බලය අත්පත් කරගතහොත් මිනිස් සංහතියට දේශපාලනික, ආර්ථික, සමජ හා සංස්කෘතික වශයෙන් අත්වියහැකි ඉරණම කුමක්ද යන්න පිළිබඳව මීට වඩා සාකච්චාවට ලක්විය යුතුය.
(මතු සම්බන්ධයි)
Officials, donors and well-wishers led by Union Ministers Dr Myo Thein Gyi and Nai Thet Lwin attend the third mass alms-giving ceremony for 30,000 monks at the Chanmyathazi Airport in Mandalay yesterday. Photo: MNA
Supervised by Mandalay Region
Government, Myanmar well-wishers and Thailand’s Dhammakaya Foundation
jointly organized third mass alms-giving for 30,000 monks at the
Chanmyathazi Airport in Mandalay yesterday.
Present at the event were Union Ministers Dr Myo Thein Gyi and Nai Thet
Lwin, Deputy Minister U Kyi Min, Mandalay Region Minister for
Electricity, Energy and Construction U Zarni Aung on behalf of Mandalay
Region Chief Minister, Mandalay Region Hluttaw Speaker U Aung Kyaw Oo
and cabinet members, Hluttaw representatives, departmental officers,
consuls general of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of
India, invited guests, social organizations, donors from Thailand and
well-wishers.
Mandalay Region Minister U Zarni Aung and Deputy Minister U Kyi Min
lighted candles, and representatives from Myanmar and Thailand offering
flowers, the alms-giving ceremony was opened with the three-time
recitation of Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa” .
That was followed by the congregation receiving the Five Precepts from
the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee member Sayadaw Thanlyin Min
Kyaung Sayadaw Agga Maha Pandita Bhaddanta Candima Bhivumsa.
Afterwards, the audio message sent by
Luang Por Dhammajayo, the patron of Dhammakaya Monastery in Thailand,
was played and Members of Sangha recited parittas.
Six donors from Thailand led the recitation of offering the Four Requisites and donated offertories to the monks.
Supplicating the Members of Sangha at the event, patron of the
alms-giving organizing committee Mandalay Region minister for
Electricity, Energy and Construction U Zarni Aung on behalf of Mandalay
Region Chief Minster expressed delights for getting opportunity for
doing merits by peoples of Myanmar and Thailand.
Deputy Minister U Kyi Min supplicated religious matters, Thai donors
expressed delights and followed by U Soe Lin, the chairman of the
alms-giving event organizing committee, saying words of thanks.
The congregation listened to the sermon given by Mogok Nyaung Thone Bin
Pariyatti Thamanaykyaw Monastery Sayadaw Dr Bhaddanta Tejosara Bhivamsa
and shared merits they gained.
The ceremony concluded after reciting Buddha Sasanam Ciram Titthatu” three times.
The officials, donors and well-wishers led by Union Ministers Dr Myo
Thein Gyi and Nai Thet Lwin donated K 30,000 each monk and offertories
to the Members of Sangha.
Foods and soft drinks for congregation were also donated by well-wishers
at the event. The first Myanmar-Thai friendship alms-giving ceremony
was held for 10,000 monks on 20 September 2015 at the foot of the
Mandalay Hill and the second was held for 20,000 monks on 21 January
2018 at the Chanmyathasi Airport. This was the third alms-giving in
Mandalay and donated to 30,000 monks. —Min Htet Aung (Sub-Printing House) (Translated by Kyaw Zin Tun)
Thousands of supporters in Myanmar have waved banners and colorful portraits of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, on Saturday, December 7, in a show of their loyalty on the eve of her departure for the U.N.’s top court i.e. International Court of Justice (ICJ), to face genocide charges over the Rohingya crisis.
One supporter named Damien Chakma in a comment on the Internet has said:
What Suu Kyi is doing is absolute right, protecting Myanmar’s interest in the face of OIC funded propaganda. So called Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Where was ICJ and UN when Bangladesh was ethnic cleansing Buddhist tribes (Chakma, Marma, Tripura etc.) from Chittagong Hill Tracts?”
China, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and several other countries such as Ukraine and Israel, have unreservedly given their unqualified support to Myanmar at the UN. India, is sympathetic towards Myanmar and on December 09, passed legislation amending India’s Citizenship laws excluding Rohingyas from seeking asylum in India or claiming Indian Citizenship on the basis of Muslim refugees.
The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a two-day visit to Myanmar at the invitation of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on December 07.
U Maung Maung Soe, a political analyst, has said that When it comes to the Rohingya issue, China has always shown their strong support for Myanmar,”
Myanmar is highly likely to discuss with China how the country has prepared for the lawsuit, and China will likely give Myanmar some tips for the hearings as well,” said U Maung Maung Soe.
He added that China does not want to see Myanmar get into trouble, as the country is strategically and geographically important for China’s agenda and its sphere of influence in the region.
In another development, Twenty-eight supporters from Myanmar on Sunday (December 08) joined Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in her trip to The Hague.
U Kyaw Htay Oo, one of the supporters, said that ICJ case is related to all Myanmar citizens because it could have huge impact on the dignity of the country.
It is not only a case for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or the Military,” he told The Myanmar Times. “We want to show that we always follow and obey the leader we believe in. Therefore, we are supporting our leader with all the money and all the people we have.”
The 28 supporters are spending around US$2,000 per person for a round trip to The Hague. According to the supporters, they are going to The Hague using their own money.
The ICJ will hold hearings in the case from Tuesday to Thursday (December 10 – 12, 2019).
About 350 supporters of Myanmar based in European countries such as France and Norway will also be travelling to The Hague during the hearing of the case.
Earlier on Saturday (December 07), thousands of people gathered at the administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw to show their support for the State Counsellor.
Gambia’s lawsuit
Gambia, acting on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Co – operation (OIC), has filed a lawsuit against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), allegedly on the ground of committing the crime of Genocide.
The Government of Myanmar has taken up the challenge to contest this case at the ICJ and the State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, in her capacity as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, will lead the legal team to defend her nation.
Myanmar’s legal team is expected to argue that genocide did not occur, that the top U.N. court lacks jurisdiction and that the case fails to meet a requirement that a dispute exists between Myanmar and Gambia.
Under the Charter of the United Nations (UN), all member states of the UN, including Myanmar, are bound by the Statute of the ICJ.
The crime of ‘Genocide’ means acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national or racial group. It is an issue that concerns all civilized nations and peoples, especially those who were victims of colonial rule during the last 500 years against whom much of the brazen acts of Genocide were committed in many parts of the world.
Both the Government of Myanmar and its armed forces face many internal problems related to ethnic tensions. Turning to recent events in Myanmar, the ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) with links to radical Islamic terrorist groups have been responsible in Rakhine for acts of terrorism and slaughter of the innocents.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA also known by its former name Harakah al-Yaqin (meaning Faith Movement in English),is a Rohingya insurgent group active in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. According to a December 2016 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), it is led by Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi, a Rohingya man who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Other members of its leadership include a committee of Rohingya émigrés in Saudi Arabia.
The ICG reported on 14 December 2016 that in interviews, the leaders of ARSA claimed to have links to private individuals in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The ICG also claimed in unconfirmed reports that Rohingya villagers had been “secretly trained” by Afghan and Pakistani fighters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arakan_Rohingya_Salvation_Army
Attack on Hindus
On 25 August 2017, Hindu villages in a cluster known as Kha Maung Seik in the northern Maungdaw District of Rakhine State in Myanmar were attacked and 99 Bengali Hindu villagers were massacred, by Muslim insurgents from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). A month later, the Myanmar Army discovered mass graves containing the corpses of 45 Hindus, most of whom were women and children.
Ni Maul, a Hindu leader who helped Myanmar’s authorities with the search of the bodies, told the media that the mass-graves were found from testimony of eight Hindu women whose lives were spared and brought to Bangladesh after they agreed to convert to Islam.
Four Hindu women in Bangladesh told Agence-France Presse that they were among the eight who escaped. They stated that they were forced to marry the attackers in order to save their lives and they were later taken to camps of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh.
The Hindu women stated that the militants found them beautiful and decided to convert them. They added that later the eight women along with children were taken to a house in Bawtalar village where they were forced to eat rice with meat, which is prohibited in their religion. They were then brought to Kutuparlaung refugee camp on August 28 where they were housed with Muslims and forced to wear burqas.
The Myanmar authorities accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of perpetrating the Hindu massacre in the Kha Maung Seik area.
Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International, said, ″It’s hard to ignore the sheer brutality of ARSA’s actions, which have left an indelible impression on the survivors we’ve spoken to.…………….In this brutal and senseless act, members of ARSA captured scores of Hindu women, men, and children and terrorized them before slaughtering them outside their own villages. The perpetrators of this heinous crime must be held to account″.
Kha Maung Seik massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kha_Maung_Seik_massacre
Co – ordinated attacks by ARSA
On 25 August 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on police posts and an attempted raid on an army base. The Myanmar government announced a death toll of 77 Rohingya insurgents and 12 security forces in northern Maungdaw following the attacks. The government stated that they had attacked a police station in the Maungdaw District with a handmade bomb alongside the coordinated attacks on several police posts.
In late August 2017, the Burmese government accused ARSA of killing 12 civilians, including Hindus and Muslims, some of whom were suspected by ARSA of being government informants. On 24 September 2017, Myanmar’s military accused ARSA of killing 28 Hindus in Ye Baw Kya village in the previous month after they uncovered their bodies in a mass grave
The elected Government of Myanmar with a mandate to protect the citizens of Myanmar, had no choice but to send its armed forces to Rakhine in order to protect Buddhists, Hindus, and various indigenous Tribal Groups, who faced the wrath of ARSA and the Bengali Muslims who have infiltrated Rakhine heavily with intent to grab land and dispossess the original inhabitants namely the citizens of Myanmar, from their traditional home land in Rakhine.
A propaganda war has been launched against Myanmar by the OIC and the highly prejudiced international media such as Al Jazeera that totally ignores the Bengali Muslim land grab that blights Rakhine, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), and various parts of India including Assam.
A similar situation of organized and co -ordinated violence arose in Sri Lanka, when on Easter Sunday April 21, 2019, suicide bombers linked to radical Islamic terrorist groups killed 259 people and injured over 500 people. Three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings.
Both Myanmar and Sri Lanka have a shared past linked to Theravada Buddhism running for over a thousand years. History shows that both countries had assisted each other in times of crisis when the survival of each country was at stake. An existential threat from a common source intending to displace Buddhism in both countries persists today. This trend is clearly visible in the narrative of the disappearance and replacement of Buddhism in several Asian countries during the last one thousand years.
The Dharmic (Indo – Buddhist) world must take cognizance of these historical developments and ask the question whether the current happenings in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand (all Theravada Buddhist countries now besieged ) are but a continuation of a calibrated process set in motion over a thousand years ago to dislodge and finally replace Buddhism from its traditional primacy in Buddhist Asia.
It is worthy of note that Indian civilizational influence outside India prevails largely in Buddhist countries of Asia. The failure to counter aggressive Abrahamic incursions can only lead to the shrinking of Buddhist and Hindu space in South Asia, South East Asia and the Far East. It is in India’s long – term interest as a rising world power to extend both support and protection to countries where India’s Dharmic civilizational influence prevails and continues to be valued and deeply respected.
What can India and Buddhist majority countries do at the UN and International Court of Justice?
a) Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Nepal must join hands with China, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and several other countries that have unreservedly given their unqualified support to Myanmar at the UN.
b) It is open to any country to intervene at the International Court of Justice in the capacity of an amicus curiae. What is ‘amicus curiae’? Latin ‘for friend of the court’. In other words, amicus curiae is an instrument for the benefit of the court, that assists it in some manner. Black’s Law Dictionary defines amicus curiae as ‘[a] person who is not a party to a lawsuit but who petitions the court or is requested by the court to file a brief in the action because that person has a strong interest in the subject matter.’ It is within the power of the ICJ to accept Amicus Curiae briefs from countries that have a strong interest in the proceedings and its outcome.
OIC is in the picture via Gambia. The absence of the equivalent of an OIC in the Buddhist world such as a summit level League of Buddhist Nations, is worrisome.
While European Christian heritage nations are protected heavily by the European Union (EU) and NATO, and Islamic countries have the powerful 57 member OIC to take up their cause at the drop of a hat, Buddhist countries lack an international Buddhist organization with clout to adequately defend them at a time of crisis.
Between Turkey and Indonesia, there are only four non – Muslim countries, namely the pre-dominantly Hindu India, and three predominantly Buddhist countries, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
They all face threats to their survival from armed violence and demographic change.
Can they withstand the storm of history?
Senaka Weeraratna
December 10, 2019
UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam says that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will contest the forthcoming General Election in the capacity of the party leader. He was addressing a media conference held at UNP Headquarters Sirikotha this morning.
වෛද්ය සාෆි ෂිහාබ්දීන් විසින් මව්වරුන් වඳභාවයට පත්කල ආකාරය පිළිබදව හෙළිදරව් කිරීමට තමන් ඇතුලු රෝහල් කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය සූදානම් බව කුරුණෑගල රෝහලේ අධ්යක්ෂ්ය වෛද්ය සරත් වීරබණ්ඩාර මහතා පවසනවා.
කුරුණෑගලදී අද පැවති ප්රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී ඔහු මෙම අදහස් පලකළා.
එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. අරමුදල් මගින් මෙහෙයවන ලයිකා මොබයිල් නම් විදේශීය ආයතනය මෙරට මාධ්ය ආයතනයක් මිලදී ගැනීමේ ගනුදෙනුව පිටුපපස එවක අග්රාමාත්ය රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා සිටින බැවින් ඒ සම්බන්ධව මුදල් විශුද්ධිකරණ පනත යටතේ වහා විමර්ශන කළයුතු බව සිංහල රාවය සංවිධානයේ මහ ලේකම් පූජ්ය මාගල්කන්දේ සුදත්ත හිමියන් පවසනවා.
උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ අද පැවැති ප්රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින්.
බලශක්ති රාජ්ය අමාත්ය රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා අද පෙරවරුවේ සපුගස්කන්ද තෙල් පිරිපහදුවේ නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවක නිරත වුණා.
එම ආයතනයේ සේවකයින් අමතමින් ඔහු පැවසුවේ, පසුගිය රජයේ දූෂිත අමාත්යවරුන්ට දඬුවම් දීම ජනතාවගේද වගකීමක් වන බවයි.
සපුගස්කන්ද තෙල් පිරිපහදුවට පැමිණි බලශක්ති රාජ්ය අමාත්ය රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා එම ආයතනයේ ඇති අඩුපාඩු මෙන්ම, ඉදිරියේදී එහි නිෂ්පාදන ධාරිතාව තවදුරටත් ඉහළ නැංවීම ඇතුළු කරුණු රැසක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවධානය යොමු කළා
මෙහිදී රාජ්ය අමාත්යවරයා ඉන්ධන ගබඩාවක් නිරීක්ෂණය සඳහා එක්වූයේ මෙලෙසයි.
මේ අතර, නාවලපිටිය දුම්රිය ස්ථානයේ නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවක නිරත වූ දුම්රිය සේවා රාජ්ය අමාත්ය සී.බී. රත්නායක මහතා එහි අඩුපාඩු පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලුවා.
එම අවස්ථාවේදී නාවලපිටිය දුම්රිය ස්ථානයට ළඟවූ දෙනුවර මැණිකේ දුම්රියට ගොඩවූ රාජ්ය අමාත්යවරයා එහි වායුසමීකරණ ක්රියාත්මක නොවීම පිළිබඳවද අවධානය යොමුකළා.
මේ අතර, අධිකරණ, මානව හිමිකම් සහ නීති ප්රතිසංස්කරණ අමාත්ය නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා මහතා ද වැලිකඩ බන්ධනාගරයේ නිරීක්ෂණ චාරිකාවකට එක්වූ අතර, බන්ධනාගාරයේ පවතින අඩුපාඩු මෙන්ම රැඳවියන් මුහුණ දෙන ගැටලු සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද සොයා බැලුවා.
මෙහිදී දෑතේ පහළ කොටස අහිමි රැඳවියෙකුගේ සිතුවම් කරන චිත්ර නැරඹීමටද අමාත්යවරයා එක්වුණා.
පාස්කු ප්රහාරයට පෙර ලැබුණු බුද්ධි තොරතුරු පැහැදිලි නොවන බවට ඇතැම් වගකිවයුත්තන් පැවසුවද එම තොරතුරු පැහැදිලි බුද්ධි තොරතුරු බවත් ඒ ඔස්සේ ප්රහාරය වළක්වා ගැනීමට පැවති රජයට හැකියාව තිබූ බවත් ජාත්යන්තර ත්රස්තවාදය සම්බන්ධ විශේෂඥයෙකු වන මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න මහතා පවසනවා.
ඒ, පාස්කු ප්රහාරය පිළිබඳ සොයා බැලීමට පත්කළ කොමිසම හමුවේ සාක්ෂි ලබාදෙමින්.
පාස්කු ප්රහාරය පිළිබඳ සොයා බැලීමට පත්කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ විශේෂ ආරාධනයකට අනුව සාක්ෂි ලබාදීම සඳහා මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න මහතා අද එම කොමිසම හමුවේ පෙනී සිටියා.
මෙරට ජාත්යන්තර ත්රස්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම්වල ක්රියාකාරකම් සිදුවෙමින් ඇති බවට රොහාන් ගුණරත්න මහතා 2016 වසරේ පුවත්පතක් සමග කළ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් එහිදී ප්රශ්න කෙරුණා.
ඊට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් ගුණරත්න මහතා පැවසුවේ 2016 වසර වන විටත් අයි.එස්. සංවිධානය සමග සබඳතා පැවැත්වූ මෙරට පුද්ගලයින් 200 ත් 300 ත් අතර පිරිසක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමන්ට කරුණු අනාවරණ වූ බවයි.
ඒ අනුව තමන් එවක රජයට අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සිදුකළ බවද ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නා.
පාස්කු ප්රහාරයට පෙර ලැබී තිබූ තොරතුරු අපහැදිලි බවට ඇතැම් වගකිව යුත්තන් ප්රකාශ කර තිබීම නිසා එම තොරතුරු පූර්ව බුද්ධි තොරතුරු ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිද යන්න ජනාධිති කොමිසමේ සභාපති ජනක් ද සිල්වා මහතා ප්රශ්න කළා.
එහිදී ගුණරත්න මහතා සඳහන් කළේ ප්රහාරය එල්ල කරන කණ්ඩායම, එල්ල විය හැකි දිනය, එහි අරමුණ සහ ප්රහාරයේ ස්වභාවය නිශ්චිතව තිබූ බැවින් එම තොරතුරු පැහැදිලි බුද්ධි තොරතුරු ලෙස සැලකිය හැකි බවයි.
ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කාදිනල් හිමිපාණන් දැනුවත් කළේනම් දිව්ය පූජා අවලංගු කරමින් ප්රහාරය වළක්වා ගැනීමට පැවති රජයට හැකියාව තිබූ බවද ගුණරත්න මහතා පෙන්වා දුන්නා.
යම් රටක ත්රස්තවාදී ක්රියා වර්ධනය වීමට එරට පවතින දේශපාලන වාතාවරණය කෙතරම් දුරට හේතුවන්නේද යන්න කොමිසමේ නියෝජිතයින් මහාචාර්යවරයාගෙන් ප්රශ්න කළා.
එහිදී ගුණරත්න මහතා පැවසුවේ කිසියම් ජාතියකට හෝ ආගමකට හෝ පමණක් වෙන්වූ දේශපාලන පක්ෂ බිහිවීම අන්තගාමී අදහස් වර්ධනය වීමට හේතුවන බවයි.
එබැවින් රටක් ලෙස ඉදිරියට යාමටනම් මෙරට පවතින ආගමික සහ ජාතික වශයෙන් වෙන්වූ පක්ෂ තහනම් කළ යුතු බවද මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න මහතා කොමිසම හමුවේ වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළා.
Hiru News
Former Defence Advisor attached to the Sri Lankan High Commission in Britain Brigadier Priyanka Fernando has been appointed to a new position at the Army Headquarters. The army media stated that he has been appointed as the Director of land, property and housing in the army. Earlier the Westminster Court found him guilty of making a threatening gesture during a protest held in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in Britain by a group of LTTE sympathizers and, a fine for 2400 sterling pounds was imposed on him. Subsequent to the said incident, Brigadier Priyanka Fernando was called back to Sri Lanka, and started working at the Ranviru Resources Centre in Wattala.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Indian tour concluded on a positive note. This was despite Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko staging a protest opposing the Sri Lankan president’s visit to India.
What’s striking about the former military man turned lawmaker is his show of calmness in the face of opposition. There is much talk about Gotabaya being a vegetarian and a Buddhist and these factors could be attributed to his composure.
Gotabaya’s travels in and around India made him realise that there was an arm of hospitality extended to him. India being concerned about the last stages of the Sri Lankan civil war now wanting close ties with one of the island’s chief defence officials, who oversaw military operations that crushed separatist rebels, merits note. It may be that India wishes to look to the future with its neighbour, Sri Lanka, at a time when some of the European countries are hell-bent on raking war crimes that took place in the island.
The only little issue which would not have been to Gota’s liking would have been the many cutouts and posters that decorated the streets; put up to welcome the arrival of the Sri Lankan president.
Back at home the Sri Lankan President has called for the complete stop of wasteful ways. He has also set the example for the need for lawmakers to live like ordinary citizens. The president used the entrance for ordinary passengers before boarding the flight to India. This culture is now catching up in the Rajapaksa clan with Basil Rajapaksa too using the entrance meant for civilians when boarding a flight to make a quick visit to USA days ago.
Though the Indian trip for Gotabaya seemed a mere courtesy call, he was presented with opportunities to discuss matters of great importance. One such issue was the existing mafia associated with the import of western medicine to Sri Lanka. A businessman who is reported to have sought an audience with the Sri Lankan president, while in the flight, had highlighted the fact that medicine of low quality is being imported to the island nation by certain individuals whose sole intention is to make profits. The president was informed that the problem also affected the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC). The Sri Lankan President had vowed to sort out the issue.
One key highlight about Gotabaya’s first few weeks as president is that he has not been ruthless and not used force; using force being a trait associated with ex-military men. He has set the trend by frist disciplining lawmakers and also allowing the country’s law to take its course.
Brigadier Priyankara Fernando, the one-time Defence Attache of the Sri Lankan Mission to UK, was charged by a London Court for making a threatening gesture during a protest by a group of LTTE sympathisers in London. Though several monks and politicians have made comments that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) shouldn’t pay the fine, the president has remained silent over the issue. This is a positive sign for all law-abiding Sri Lankan citizens. It’s important to note that the LTTE cadres who surrendered to the Army were later tried in courts before being sent to serve their jail terms. Even ruthless tiger rebels were given a fair hearing in a court before being convicted of committing crimes. This is confirmed in Thamilani Jeyakkumar’s book ‘Under the shade of sharp sword’ (The book translated into Sinhala by Swaminadan Wimal sold like hotcakes). This is not the time to let emotions run wild. Giving the law due respect would immensely help in sending a strong message to citizens; especially when a nation that’s being rebuilt also has indisciplined lawmakers and citizens.
In the backdrop of President Gotabaya stepping onto a path that encourages diplomacy and decency instead of force, the recent alleged white van abduction raises concerns however. But the secretive manner in which the Swiss Embassy has responded to calls by the Sri Lankan authorities for their employee to cooperate in investigations and this employee taking so long to arrive at the CID to give her statement raises suspicion as to whether the whole incident is politically motivated by a force in the opposition.
Another sector which is still functioning smoothly despite a change in Government is the media. Many expected restrictions on the media after the presidential elections. But Gotabaya seems to think its wise to allow media institutes to enjoy the freedom to report which is anyway tied to the string called self-regulation. If Gotabaya doesn’t undermine the law like his brother Mahinda did it would strengthen the whole foundation on which the country is to be rebuilt on.
Gotabaya needs time to settle down as a politician. Earlier in his role as Defence Secretary Gotabaya only knew of a way of making subordinates stand in attention and take orders. Now we see the first citizen of the country mingling with crowds and attempting to shatter that image which suggests he is difficult to get-along with. It may be that this is the perception people have of him and he has now moved away from that past; willingly or unwillingly.
When NDF candidate Sajith Premadasa was defeated at the last presidential elections people thought that the country would be isolated in the international scene. But these perceptions are slowly being proved to be false with countries like India, America, Australia, Japan, China and Norway offering support and blessings to the new Government.
Just after Gotabaya secured support from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna as its elections candidate, Sri Lanka’s total market cap weighted index, the All Share Price Index (ASPI), was up 1.2% in response. Business elsewhere too is showing signs of picking up after he clinched the presidency with his ‘development talk’. It seems like this stock market friendly lawmaker would now go about extending his hand to anyone with potential to join his team whose members have been set lofty targets that have to be achieved within a very short time.
MCC cannot erase the rights of Sri Lanka’s future generations
When late Justice Amarasinghe delivered the landmark verdict in the Eppawela phosphate case in the 1990s which ironically was associated with a US & Japanese tie-up with a rail track from Anuradhapura to Trincomalee, he cited that a government was only custodians and the land and all of its resources could not be harmed and made unavailable to future generations. This judgment has set a precedence for the giving away of lands & resources and should be a solid foundation to any decision vis a vis MCC land and road project proposals. State land cannot belong to anyone outright be it Sri Lankan or Foreigners. All state land/resources that holds the inalienable sovereignty of the people must be held with the State functioning only as custodian and caretaker on behalf of future generations.
The MCC agreement must be taken as part of the regime change that took place in January 2015 after which scores of US tie-ups and deals took place while weakening Sri Lanka via co-sponsorship of UNHRC Resolution and carrying out a campaign to vilify the 2 historical pillars that defend the nation – the armed forces & the Maha Sangha.
Another key aspect seen in the numerous aid/grants that the former government was entering with external parties was the manner that aid/grants demanded changes to legislation BEFORE grants/aid was given. This was a highly dangerous scenario – a government or international body offers to give some money in exchange for changing Sri Lanka’s laws. Has the Government or officials thought of the repercussions of changing land laws and its impacts simply to get some money for which we will not only end up paying colossal interest but leave Sri Lanka all the weaker & without land to call our own!
A closer look at the pre-conditions of the MCC as shown in the PowerPoint presentation by MCC in Temple Trees highlights major changes to Sri Lanka’s land laws and honoring its commitment, the Ranil Wickremasinghe Govt removed not only the barriers preventing foreigners to purchase land but also enabled foreigners to buy any amount of land in Sri Lanka. So imagine the damage this decision can do to any foreigner or foreign company handing big chunks of money and buying our land? What explanation can we give to the future generations who will be born into a country where land belongs to foreigners?
Another closer look at the MCC ‘gift horse’ amount of $480 ruse also highlights that under various pre-conditions money has already been disbursed to American firms tasked to survey Sri Lanka’s land, digitalize Sri Lanka’s land deeds, cadastral map all state land and resources – so while US claims to give us a gift from one hand it is taking back that money from the other hand and that too we have to take a loan and the loan is topped off by having to pay interest.
The MCC agreement clearly states that Sri Lanka will have to bear costs in addition to the $480m if costs increase. So do we know how much of this $480m has been spent already or will get reduced from the money we have had to give US firms to do the pre-conditions set in the agreement? No, we don’t – what the new Govt should immediately do is to find out how many items have been outsourced to foreign or local firms, for how much and for how long, which are all related to this MCC project.
Already the company tasked to digitalize Sri Lanka’s deeds having taken an X amount of $ and simply dumped some computers in the Land Ministry, are asking more millions to carry out the rest of the task. This whole agreement seems to be part of a well-planned under cover set up to enable a group of people to ground themselves in Sri Lanka, carry out some tasks for showpiece and share the money between the outsourced foreign and local companies and a small group of locals handling the project and for that we have a few lobby groups like those finding the path and those verifying the research to present that Sri Lankans are refusing some super gift horse!
Everyone is taking decisions related to Sri Lanka’s land completely ignoring the experts knowledgeable enough to look at the MCC agreement not only from what is presented as a rich gateau but considering the repercussions, the national security dangers, the demographic dangers, the resource issues once resources fall into foreign hands and a plethora of other issues that need to be looked too in greater detail. Of course, we are all forgetting that the National Economic Council gave a detailed report addressing all above issues and recommended that Sri Lanka does not enter the MCC agreement in view of many a danger they outlined. This report must be distributed amongst all MPs and Secretaries so they can read and understand before they go making silly statements to the public.
What must worry Sri Lanka’s policy makers
Justice A R B Amarasinghe in his book ‘Title Insurance’ pointed the need to amend age-old colonial laws which must be changed not to suit western laws but to conform with our own history & heritage.
Why are we not learning lessons?
In 1815 the colonial British took over our land claiming we did not have documents (Waste Land Ordinance) lands were held by the King and locals were using them as grants – there was no written documents. The British used this drawback.
2020 – Do we have documents preserved in land registries as required by law for the next generation to claim the land? Any state land given for a term exceeding prescribed period has to have a copy in the Registrar of lands for Public inspection – this is primary evidence as given in section 62 of Evidence Ordinance. Was this done when former President Sirisena gave some 1million title deeds to farmers along the MCC marked map areas?
Digitalisation is so far being done without proper leadership, without proper expertise, without proper planning, without looking at the dangers and repercussions and without taking adequate legal measures to protect the interests of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, uphold Sri Lanka’s land rights. Sri Lankans utilizing state land on lease etc..
It is therefore suggested that the President should FIRST appoint a Land Council of eminent experts in land laws to look into the influx of land statutes and to revise the colonial land statutes to suit modern times.
This must be done by lawyers knowledgeable in both, natural resources experts, environmental experts etc and all land related projects, have to go through them before being approved by any Minister. Land council should be a statutory body and all land statutes should be made not for keeping up with the Joneses and for the false pursuits of capitalism and industrialisation as required by funding organisations at the expense of agriculture and the customs of our people.
There is MUCH to do before AGREEING to MCC and these steps must be followed first and this is good enough reason to explain to MCC as to why Sri Lanka will withhold signing of agreement.
Shenali D Waduge
Each time Ranil Wickremesinghe is faced with a threat to his leadership he comes up with a band aid solution which either postpones his day of reckoning, and / or worsens the situation for the Party, creating internal chaos and bringing it down in the eyes of the people. The latest attempt to solve the power struggle within the UNP is to divide the leadership into two compartments : 1 the Leader of the Opposition whose role is confined to the limited area of the Parliament and 2. the Leader of the Party with overriding powers to control the affairs of the Party. This has only postponed the date of the impeding removal of him from the leadership. It has not solved the internal power struggle. In fact, it has forced the Sajith to come out fighting more fiercely than before. Perpetuating the chaos within the Party – a common tactic of Ranil — is not what the Party needs at a time when it is facing another defeat in the coming Parliamentary elections.
Clearly, splitting the leadership at the top has neither appeased the second tier rebelling against him. Nor has it inspired the electorate to follow Ranil as the alternative leader of the nation. It is a useless exercise that will neither solve the problem for him nor the Party to rise from the pit into which it has fallen. Of the two divisions it is obvious that the Leader of the Party has a greater clout than the Leader of the Opposition. As Leader of the Party Ranil Wickremesinghe will have the full control of the Party organisation throughout the Island on all issues at all times. Whereas, as the Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa can only walk in the corridors of Parliament (which is not sitting now) with a name board round his neck. The managing and directing of all party politics impacting on the nation and, consequently within the Parliament, will reside in the hands of Ranil who is the Leader of the Party.
Even the Speaker will be dealing with the Party leaders in settling affairs of the Parliament. In the current state of play a nominal role will be allotted to the Leader of the Opposition, if at all. The policies, programs, directions and political alliances at the national level at all times will be with the Leader of the Party and not in the hands of part time Leader of the Opposition who has no significant role to play now that the Parliament is not sitting. Even when Parliament resumes its sittings after January 3 Sajith will be jobless because it is due to dissolved to make way for next election. So Sajith is back to square one: an empty title with no role to play. The trump card is still with Ranil who commands a majority in the Working Committee – the key instrumentality which has been manipulated by him solely to serve his survival. It is questionable as to whether Sajith will even have the full control of the Parliamentary group to run the opposition according to his will as Ranil is bound to manipulate the MPs to dance to this tune.
All this reflects the utter chaos in which the UNP is struggling to survive as a credible party in the eyes of the nation. Can a divided party win the confidence of the people? This also raises a critical question: if the UNP can’t manage its own internal affairs how can it manage the affairs of the nation? It is clear that the division within the Party is deep-seated with the pro-Sajith ranks presenting formidable opposition to Ranil. They are ready to take on Ranil at every level. But as things stand now, Sajith will have to twiddle his fingers and hang around doing nothing as the Parliament is prorogued. Ranil still has the whip hand to determine the critical issues of the Party. Not that he is going to revamp the Party and make it a dynamic force to contest the coming election. At this late stage he is doomed. He has no vision, no formula or strategy to recover. Whatever he does now, it will result only in the Party losing again to the overwhelming forces that triumphed in the Presidential election.
The future of the Party depends on democratising the Party. And this can begin only with the removal of Ranil from the leadership. It is his leadership that has dragged the UNP and the nation to the prevailing depths of despair. He is ensconced in power because the UNP constitution has empowered the Leader of the Party with dictatorial authority. Together, Ranil and the UNP constitution negate the possibilities of the Party gaining maximum internal democracy. The Ruwan Wijewardene report that inquired into reforms of the UNP had recommended the democratisation of the constitution as a prime necessity. But Ranil, after paying lip service, undercut any meaningful changes. The constitution and the packing of the Working Committee with his yes-men have given him the necessary powers to move his pawns on the chess board.
In other words, Ranil still has the power to move Sajith from place to place without giving him the power he needs to make a difference. Sajith has been moved from Deputy Leader to Presidential candidate and now to Leader of the Opposition. Ranil has been playing snakes and ladders with Sajith. Ranil is bent more on pulling Sajith down than sending him up the ladder. The latest move is to turn Sajith into another Rajavarothiam Sampanthan – a ceremonial figure head who would be the best prop for him to retain his power inside and outside the Parliament. In any case, there is no Parliament for Sajith to play any significant role. The only role left for Sajith is to play that of the Leader of the Opposition to Ranil!
The attempt to kick Sajith into an empty chair upstairs is nothing but a cosmetic exercise with no substantial change in the power structure for the Leader of the Opposition to make meaningful changes to create a new image of the party to win back the voters who had deserted the Party in droves. What the UNP need is a radical change of politics, policies and personalities. What the UNP has got is the same old same old leadership of Ranil – a change doomed to fail. .
The so-called reform of appointing Sajith as the Leader of the Opposition is not to promote him but to save Ranil’s skin. Each time recommendations were made for the reforming of the Party Ranil has been sweeping any change that threatens his dictatorial grip on the Party under the carpet. Furthermore, no other party has appointed committees as the UNP to report on the necessary reforms. Starting from the Panditharatne report to the most recent Ruwan Wijewardena’s report the UNP has been warned of the changes needed to make itself relevant to the contemporary electorate. The Wijewardene report has been the best so far.
Ranil had the necessary blue print to adjust the direction of the Party in the Ruwan Wijewardene’s report which drew attention to the need of (a) creating a second tier leadership giving more authority to the young (b) democratising the party by whittling down the executive powers of Ranil who was running it like a one-man dictatorship (c) make provision for the election of a leader (d) moving the party closer to the grass root base (c) adjusting the party to meet the historical aspirations of the Sinhala-Buddhist base etc. Ranil made big noises about it in the media but the status quo remained unchanged. Ranil who spends all his energy on handing over the powers of the nation to the Tamil separatists, or whittling down the powers of the Presidency to make his Premier’s seat the center of state power, never moved a finger to devolve his powers to his own party men. He doesn’t trust his own party men but he has implicit faith in making Sampanthan the Leader of the Opposition with 16 votes in a House of 225, violating all known principles of parliamentary democracy.
But as usual Ranil never took the necessary steps to implement the report. The changes, if any, have been mere optics and theatrics to appease the forces threatening him. He would craftily offer changes (like appointing Sajith as the Leader of Opposition) not to revamp the Party but to get his rivals out of his way to consolidate his position as the sole leader of the party.
Had Ranil implemented the Ruwan’s report there was a possibility (though remote) of avoiding the crash of November 16. There are, of course, several reasons that led to the crash of November 16. But the primary cause was undoubtedly Ranil. If the UNP won he would have crowed that it was his leadership and his political alliances with the minority parties that led to the victory. Now that the UNP has lost he must take full responsibility for its failure – for the 30th time!
The current reformists, however, must not fall for the belief that removing Ranil will solve their problems. They have to go deeper than that. They must root out the policies and programs of Ranil that alienated the Sinhala-Buddhist base. When 70% of the Sinhala population reject the UNP then it is time for the new guard to revisit the policies and the programs pursued by Ranil-Mangala gang. If Ranil inflicted the wounds on the Sinhala-Buddhist body politic then Mangala rushed in and rubbed salt into it.
The first prophetic UNP pioneer who realised the destabilising role of Ranil and its destructive impact on the Party was Bodhi J. Ranasinghe. He was a party loyalist but like all loyalists he moved away from Ranil realising that he was not the man who could save the party or the nation. The seminal rebellious group of UNPers gathered round him and he gave the necessary quantum of oxygen to the disillusioned UNP youth. Bodhi invested his hopes in Sajith, having been a committed loyalist of his father, President Premadasa. Like all those who followed Ranil initially, Bodhi realised that Ranil’s power to repel is far greater than his power to attract. A common complaint of all Ranil loyalists is that he is never loyal to them. He either casts them out or keeps them at arms’ length. Bodhi too was a victim of Ranil’s karapincha treatment. Sadly, Bodhi’s untimely death dispersed the UNP youth who gathered round him.
Ruwan’s report got the same treatment of all other reports presented to Ranil: it was locked up inside the nearest drawer, unread, untouched and unwanted. Ranil will not touch anything that threatens his supremacy. His latest move to appoint Sajith as the Leader of the Opposition is only a bone thrown to keep the barking dogs quiet. He thinks he can deceive the young Turks again with false hopes and promises. But their thinking is that they have come as close as they can to overthrow the old guard represented by Ranil. Harin argues that the rebels had won every battle they had fought so far and there is no reason why they can’t deliver the final coup de grace. They are exasperated and impatient having come to the end of the tether. They are right: there is no point in following a leader that can’t win. After losing 30 elections under Ranil can they hope to win the next critical Parliamentary elections with a born loser? Nor can they be happy with Sajith playing the second fiddle?
Though Ranil is playing his own games to survive in the leadership Sajith, in a sense, has been inching his way like the camel in the Arab’s tent. Sajith still has some distance to go to oust the Arab and capture the tent. He has been drifting more horizontally than vertically. He has been going across the chess board from Deputy Leadership to Presidential candidate and from there to the Leader of the Opposition. Despite these advances he is still not in command of the Party to determine the fundamental policies and run the party under his leadership. In Parliament he will have space only to act as the peon who will deliver the policies dictated by Ranil.
In any case, Sajith has nothing to do now because Parliament has been prorogued till January 3. Ranil loses nothing by making Sajith the leader of the Opposition as there is no Parliament for Sajith to act. Ranil, of course, has merely postponed his day of departure. But he should know that his days are numbered. The seething anger rising within the lower layers of the Party indicate that the power struggle within the Party has not ended. The young Turks are hanging over his head like the Sword of Damocles.
Ravi Karunanayake argues that for the sake of unity they have to keep Ranil as the leader. But can the UNP win the coming Parliamentary election under Ranil? What the UNP needs is a leader who can lead them to victory. November 16 proved once again that Ranil is not a vote-winning candidate. What the UNP need is a radical change – a change in policies, personalities and the failed politics. In short, it means throwing Ranil out because he has nothing new to offer the party or the Party
During the presidential election 2019, many candidates and people publicly talked about education reforms. Except for Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, other candidates and public have not expressed clear views on this subject and reluctant to talk about what kind of reforms need to Sri Lanka. Education is a broader subject area that involves in ocean of topics, views, and ideas. Although education is working as a right of people political platforms in presidential election presented an idea that education should be inserted to the constitution as a human right. There is no doubt that education has been working as a right and an essential role in human life since the beginning of first human to this world. It is quite difficult to identify what are essential reforms to the country as the dynamism and changes in society force to focus on the requirements of education and training in distinct areas. I have broadly written about this subject area based on experience in developed and developing countries. Education is a policy matter as well as practical application and, the ability to successfully implementing reforms countrywide would be buttressed the success.
Since the beginning of the education policy of Mr.C.W.W. Kannangara during the era of the State Council, education reforms have been a subject of talking and some attractive policy actions have been successfully implemented in the country while talking was going on among limited interested people, the main reason for current urgency may have been contributed by politics and economic predicaments faced by majority of the country. Without understanding the purposes or the way reforms should be implemented in the country, education reforms might not be successfully achieved. On the other hand, educational reforms would not be successful if policymakers don’t clearly understand the quantum and the approach they needed to make as well as limits in the country to launch reforms successfully. Many people of the country talk on education reforms with individual interest or with self-centered attitudes such as a finding job or gaining the opportunity to go overseas or providing opportunities for own group of community. These are the completely self-centered focus.
Education reforms should be beyond self-centred attitudes and they must be firm actions with a national focus providing broader benefits to different people in the social structure and the reforms shall involve in capacious objectives consistent to international experience, which align on different focus based on technological innovations and timely human needs. The other important point is that education reforms are continuing process beyond the election promises. Election promises are concerned with short term interest and education reforms go beyond the short-term requirements.
Before initiating education reforms, policymakers, as well as the public who supposed to gain benefits from reforms need to understand fundamental economic issues and limits of the country. The status of the economy at present indicates that upliftment and the forward movement of economy would be depended on the timely educational reforms. Economic issues in Sri Lanka associated with macroeconomic factors and the management of public and private enterprises and service firms concern with microeconomic considerations. Education reforms in Sri Lanka should go along with economic reforms, which essentially need to reform the existing education system. In addition to economic issues and status, education reforms need to consider other important areas such as value education, which included anti-discrimination and equality of citizens, and elimination of mythical attitudes of people, which are hindrances to development and growth. They are factors involved in the development of human quality of the country. Although religions are operating in the country for centuries human quality has not been improved in the process and the result of this situation is less quality and demand for human capital of the country. The other vital area is key knowledge and skills development in relation to environment, health and communication in students in all context of education. This is a significant issue that should be especially considered by the reforming policy process.
Essential economic reforms might be a considerable temperament to public in the short-run and it appeared in Western countries after the cold war, and Western countries and Communist countries understood the essence of reforms and they successfully dealt with human temperaments and implemented reforms tackling with many problems such as unemployment, workplace reforms and multi-skills requirement against reforms to maintain the economies pushing to an upward trend. Now the most important economic reforms are policy corrections and deviation policy focus while inventing new policies for the future.
People of Sri Lanka have many expectations, which may not be achieved quickly within the expected time framework as Sri Lanka has many limits or impediments to growth. No country can achieve social and economic expectations overnight through reform process. Positive results from education reforms could be achieved only in medium term.
The limits of education reforms are associated with many factors, which are beyond economic considerations and they are involved in social, cultural, legal, religious and international relation related factors.
Traditional society in history had not regulations, and impediments limited, but in modern society have many regulations and impediments which are difficult to defeat by an independent country like Sri Lanka. Sometimes Sri Lanka needs to work with other countries. Economically, countries in the modern world are in a competitive circle and Sri Lanka cannot work alone ignoring the factors limit to growth.
Generally, education reforms concern with contextual education, curriculum development and management, education administration, teachers’ and trainers’ development (teacher education and training), policy initiating and review of current policy framework and remedial management of policy consistent to dynamism of the world. These are quite difficult activities that are involved in massive costs and quality human services. Therefore, the capacity of the economy spending money for these activities is the key point for the success of education reforms. In the meantime, these reforms would generate massive employment and sometimes job losses and diverting jobs one area to others should be a part of reforms. Finally, education reforms would be highly advantaged to the country despite the cost involved in and the productivity generate from reforms will outweigh the any cost.
International structure or acceptance for a million of population (as a Model), it must include one university for higher education and research in a variety of fields, at least two technical colleges for each five hundred thousand population for technical vocational education and training for current staff in workplaces and newcomers, five high schools for secondary context, ten or more schools for primary education context and twenty or more for early childhood contexts, and in addition, there may be several colleges to absorb dropouts in all contexts focusing on different level of contextual education. The general structure of education must be organized according to this basic principle and requirements and there may be more educational institutions with private investments with a greater supervision and review of the government. This basic structure is highly expensive and lots of economic, social, cultural and religious issues involved in the situation and the nature of organizations. When education reforms consider this basic requirement, it is needed to eliminate divisions such as religious, language and any other differences, which might hindrance to providing equal education opportunities for people. As Sri Lanka consist of 24 million population the country needs to consider to implement the structure without any difference based on population. It is a horizontal expansion of education, which eliminate current vertical expansion to giving priority for urban areas. Horizontal provision of education bring justice and opportunities for rural community and the current competition for popular schools, colleges and schools will be exterminated by a horizontal model.
When population changes the structure would be changed in the future and the general assumption is to implement the structure as a government investment, but investments for education and training could be contributed by Non- Government and private investors, especially religious organizations could participate with qualitative and strict government supervision. The provision of education should be free, but according to the affordability of parent and it needs to insist fee-based education provision on individual cases and parents under the new model would be saved a large sum of spending in the current system as private tuition spending and many others will be eliminated by new structural reforms. The structure will give a dignity to all students with any difference. In terms of the structure, Sri Lanka needs many universities and technical colleges to provide good and quality education and training in relation to different fields. The current available infrastructure and facilities would help to successfully build the proposed structure.
The economy of the country should be expanded to absorb more than 85% of graduates and there is no harm 10% to 15% going overseas in terms of democratic freedom. Sri Lanka should not be a free education and training place for attracting labour for developed countries. If the economy of Sri Lanka is prosperous educated citizens and professionals will not migrate overseas to offer hard labour to developed countries. It entirely depends on the preference of individual and the government has no responsibility for them unless they subject to discrimination in overseas. This situation can be seen in all developed countries and the government may impose various regulations considering the requirements. The government is not directly responsible for individual cases; however, the operation of international relations would force the government to intervene case by case.
Within this basic structure, the other essential reform is to change current attitudes of people on good schools or bad school feeling and the elimination of such feeling would be depended on the improvement of quality of education for kids providing equal knowledge and skills from whichever school studied without a difference in rural or urban. This should be a key aspect of education reforms. The government can promote private investment through incentives for investors and eliminate various expensive competitive exams such as scholarship exams and private tuitions, which will not necessary under the reforms. The new structure allows for each student to attend university or technical education, in other words, it is possible every student to gain tertiary education.
With the structural reform’s curriculum reforms, which is a broader aspect that eliminates unnecessarily aligning too many students to certain area of education such as science, commerce, and arts. Many Western countries allow students to learn arts, science, and commerce together and some times to select other pathways in health, engineering, agriculture, services, sports, and many other areas. Curriculum reforms would direct to solve current major problems and it needs including value education. Sri Lanka has many religions but followers are not consistent with the policies of religions. It seems that religion has become a symbol and religion is not working in homes or workplaces or society. In this situation, curriculum reforms need focusing to offer value education in all educational contexts. In Western countries, value education is key in practical knowledge and application. For example, care and compassion are vital values that mean care for self and others. In any education context, safety is a value, which broadly applies to any subject area and when value education included, the behavioral pattern of students dramatically changed and the quality of knowledge and skills improve with a higher demand for knowledge and skills. Part two of this article focus on reforms related to curriculum and teaching.
Swiss Embassy staffer leaves CID after giving a statement for 5 1/2 hours.
The allegedly abducted locally recruited Swiss Embassy staffer Garnia Banister Francis reported to the CID for the second day today
Earlier, she was produced before the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer for a medical test.
The staffer was produced before the Colombo Chief magistrate Lanka Jayarathna today.
Garnia Banister Francis reported to the CID yesterday, 14 days after the alleged incident following a court order issued on her to do so.
It was seen that an individual was covering her face while being escorted to the CID.
Meanwhile, the CID told the court that it recorded a statement from the particular woman yesterday and another statement was to be recorded today as well.
At the same time, the lawyer appearing for the allegedly abducted embassy staffer Upul Kumarapperuma said that local and foreign doctors attached to the Swiss Embassy have inspected his client after the incident.
He said according to the two doctors, his client was assaulted and was subjected to sexual harassment.
Later, the CID told the court that a report from the Colombo Judicial Medical officer was delayed as the staffer rejected to appear before a male doctor.
Responding to the lawyer of the embassy staffer the Magistrate stated that she cannot issue any order to produce his client before a female medical officer as the practice is to test such a victim by a doctor attached to the judicial medical unit.
However, the CID further said that it has made arrangements to produce the staffer before a female doctor for a medical test.
At the same time, the magistrate also ordered to provide another report of the mental condition of the Swiss embassy staffer
In addition, the magistrate extended the overseas travel ban on the embassy staffer
Meanwhile, when the Swiss Embassy staffer visited the CID yesterday, a self introduced agent of the Embassy staffer, Manjula Perera said that the Embassy staffer would issue a statement to the media today.
Manjula Perera invited the media to participate in the event to be held at an address on Barnes Place, Colombo.
Accordingly, media personnel visited the given address but neither the embassy staffer nor her agent were present there.
Later, the media personnel have shown the security guard at the place, the video on which the particular agent announced the scheduled event today
At that point, the security guard had identified the man and told journalists that neither that agent nor the embassy staffer had visited the house for the last few days.
Meanwhile, the self-imposed agent of the Swiss embassy staffer Manjula Perera has driven to the CID in a motor car registered under CAF-0165.
Our news team discovered that the vehicle is registered in an address on No.78/2, Devala Road, Makola North, Makola.
ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනිය අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැමිණ ප්රකාශයක් ලබා දීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දේශපාලනඥයන් සහ පූජ්ය පක්ෂය මෙලෙස අදහස් පල කළා
පැහැරගෙන යාමේ චෝදනාවට ලක්වූ බව කියන ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ ගානියා බැනිස්ටර් ෆ්රැන්සිස් පැය පහමාරක කාලයක් ප්රකාශයක් ලබා දීමෙන් පසු රහස් පොලිසියෙන් පිටව ගොස් තිබෙනවා
පැහැර ගැනීමට ලක්වූ බව කියන මෙරට ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයට දේශීය නිලධාරිනියක වන ගානියා බැනිස්ටර් ෆ්රැන්සිස් අද දෙවන දිනටත් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හමුවේ පෙනී සිට ප්රකාශ ලබා දුන්නා.
ඊට පෙර ඇය කොළඹ අධිකරණ වෛද්ය නිලධාරිවරයා හමුවට ද ඉදිරිපත් කළ බවයි හිරු වාර්තාකරු සඳහන් කළේ.
මේ අතර, ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ අදාළ නිලධාරිනිය අධිකරණයේ අවසරයකින් තොරව විදෙස් ගත වීම තහනම් කරමින් පනවා තිබූ නියෝගය ලබන බ්රහස්පතින්දා දක්වා දීර්ඝ කිරීමට කොළඹ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න අද නියෝග කළා.
ඒ, එම සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුකෙරෙන විමර්ශන පිළිබඳව අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අද අධිකරණයේ කරුණු දැක්වූ අවස්ථාවේදීයි.
කිසියම් පිරිසක් විසින් පැහැර ගැණුනු බව කියන ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ දේශීයව බඳවා ගත් කාර්ය මණ්ඩල සාමාජිකාවක් වන ගානියා බැනිස්ට ෆ්රැන්සිස් නම් කාන්තාව සිද්ධියෙන් දින 14 කට පසු ප්රථම වරට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හමුවේ ඊයේ පෙනී සිටියා.
එ අදාළ සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අද දිනට පෙර එහි පෙනී සිට ප්රකාශයක් ලබා දෙන ලෙස කොළඹ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත්වරිය ලබාදී තිබූ නියෝගයකට අනුවයි.
එ අනුව, ඊයේ පස්වරු 2.30ට පමණ ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරින් පිරිසක් සමඟ පැහැර ගැණුනා යැයි පවසන තැනැත්තිය අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හමුවට පැමිණ තිබූ අතර, එහිදී අනන්යතාවය තහවුරු කර ගත නොහැකි ආකාරයෙන් මුහුණු ආවරණය කර ගත් පුද්ගලයෙකු එම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තුළට කැටුව යන ආකාරයක් ද දක්නට ලැබුණා
කෙසේ වෙතත්, පැය 5 ක පමණ කාලයක් ප්රකාශ ලබාදීමෙන් අනතුරුව අදාළ නිලධාරිනිය අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් පිටව ගොස් තිබුණා.
මේ අතර, එම පැමිණිල්ල කොළඹ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න හමුවේ අද යළි කැඳවනු ලැබුවා.
එහිදී අපරාධ පරික්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙනුවෙන් කරුණු දක්වමින් සහකාර පොලිස් අධිකාරි ඉන්දික ලොකුහෙට්ටි සහ ප්රධාන පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක රංජිත් මුණසිංහ සඳහන් කළේ අධිකරණ නියෝගයට අනුව, ප්රකාශයක් ලබාදීම සඳහා අදාළ නිලධාරිනිය ඊයේ පස්වරු 2.20ට පමණ තම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙත පැමිණි බවයි.
කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඊයේ දින ඇයගෙන් මූලික ප්රකාශ සටහන් කර ගැනීම ආරම්භ කරනු ලැබුව ද, එය අවසන් කිරීමට කාලය ප්රමාණවත් නොවූ බව ද අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අධිකරණයට දැනුම් දුන්නා.
මෙහිදී පැහැර ගැනීමට ලක්වූවායැයි පැවසෙන නිලධාරිනිය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි නීතිඥ උපුල් කුමාරප්පෙරුම සඳහන් කළේ ඇයගෙන් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේදී ප්රකාශ ලබා ගන්නේ ද වෙනත් ස්ථානයකදී ප්රකාශ ලබා ගන්නේ ද යන්න තම පාර්ශවයට දැනුම්දීම ප්රමාද වූ බවයි.
එ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලය, විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්යාංශය සහ පොලීසිය අතර පසුගිය සතිය පුරා සාකච්ඡා පැවති බව ද අවසානයේ ඊයේ පෙරවරු 11 ට පමණ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේදී ප්රකාශ ලබා ගත හැකි බව දැනුම් දුන් බව ද නීතිඥවරයා අධිකරණයේදී සඳහන් කළා.
පැහැර ගැනීමට ලක්වූ තම සේවාදායිකාව ස්විස්ටර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයට සම්බන්ධ විදේශීය සහ දේශීය වෛද්යවරුන් දෙදෙනෙකු විසින් පරීක්ෂාවට භාජනය කර වාර්තාවන් ලබා ගෙන ඇති බවත්, එ ඔස්සේ පැහැර ගැනීමෙන් පසු ඇය පහරදීම්වලට සහ ලිංගික අපයෝජනයට ලක්වී ඇති බව අනාවරණ වී ඇති බවයි නීතිඥවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්රකාශ කළේ.
මෙහිදී කොළඹ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න ප්රශ්න කළේ එම නිලධාරිනිය අධිකරණ වෛද්ය නිලධාරියෙක් හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර වාර්තාවක් ලබා ගත්තේ ද යන්නයි.
එයට පිළිතුරු ලබාදෙමින් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරින් සඳහන් කළේ ඇය ඊයේ දින එම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැමිණීමෙන් පසු කොළඹ අධිකරණ වෛද්ය නිලධාරියා හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළ ද ඇය පිරිමි වෛද්යවරයෙකු හමුවේ කායික පරීක්ෂණයකට භාජනය වීමට අකමැත්ත ප්රකාශ කළ බවයි.
එ හේතුවෙන් ඊයේ දින එම පරීක්ෂණය සිදුකිරීමට නොහැකි වූ බව ද අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අධිකරණයට කරුණු දක්වමින් ප්රකාශ කළා.
තම සේවාදායිකාව කායික වෛද්ය පරීක්ෂණයකට පිරිමි වෛද්යවරයෙකු ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටීමට අකමැති බැවින් ඇයගේ ඉල්ලීම සලකා බලා කාන්තා වෛද්යවරියක් ඉදිරියේ ඇයට අධිකරණ වෛද්ය පරීක්ෂණයකට පෙනී සිටීමට හැකිවන ලෙස නියෝගයක් නිකුත් කරන්නැයි නීතිඥ උපුල් කුමාරප්පෙරුම අධිකරණයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටියා.
එම ඉල්ලීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවධානය යොමුකළ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත්වරිය ප්රකාශ කළේ සාමාන්ය ක්රියා පටිපාටිය තුළ ස්ත්රී දූෂණ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වෛද්ය පරීක්ෂණ සිදුකරනු ලබන්නේ අධිකරණ වෛද්ය කාර්යාලයේ සිටින පිරිමි වෛද්යවරුන් බැවින් එවැනි නියෝග නිකුත් කිරීමට තමන්ට හැකියාවක් නොමැති බවයි.
කෙසේ වෙතත්, ඊයේ දින ලබා ගන්නා ලද ප්රකාශයේ ඉතිරි කොටස සම්පූර්ණ කිරීම සඳහා එම තැනැත්තියට අද දිනද, අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හමුවේ පෙනී සිටින ලෙස දැනුම්දී ඇති බවයි විමර්ශන නිලධාරින් අධිකරණයට කරුණු වාර්තා කළේ.
එලෙස පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේ ඇය වෛද්ය පරීක්ෂණයක් සඳහා කාන්තා වෛද්යවරියක් හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට කටයුතු සූදානම් කර ඇති බව ද, අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එහිදී දැනුම් දුන්නා.
මෙහිදී අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි රජයේ ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ අධිනීතිඥවරයා අධිකරණය හමුවේ සඳහන් කළේ පැහැර ගැණුනේ යැයි සැලකෙන එම තැනැත්තිය යහපත් මානසික මට්ටමක පසු නොවන බව මින් පෙර විත්ති පාර්ශවයේ නීතිඥයින් අධිකරණයේදී කරුණු දක්වා ඇති බැවින් ඇය මානසික වෛද්ය මඩුල්ලක් හමුවට යොමුකර වාර්තාවක් කැඳවිය යුතු බවයි.
එහිදී තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනිය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි නීතිඥවරයා අධිකරණය හමුවේ සඳහන් කළේ තම සේවාදායිකාව ප්රකාශයක් ලබාදීමට සුදුසු මානසික මට්ටමක මේ වනවිට පසුවන බවයි.
එම කරුණු සලකා බැලූ කොළඹ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න එම නිළධාරිනිය කිසියම් පහරදීමකට හෝ ලිංගික අපයෝජනයකට ලක්ව ඇත්ද යන්නත් මෙම අවස්ථාවේ ඇය කිසියම් මානසික පීඩනයකින් පසුවන්නේ ද යන්නත් පරීක්ෂා කර, වාර්තා කරන ලෙස අධිකරණ වෛද්ය නිලධාරින්ට නියෝග කළා.
එම නිලධාරිනිය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි නීතිඥවරුන් අධිකරණය විසින් තම සේවාදායිකාවට පනවා ඇති විදෙස් ගමන් තහනම හැකි ඉක්මනින් ඉවත් කර ගැනීමට අවශ්ය බව මහේස්ත්රාත්වරියට දැනුම් දුන්නා.
එම ඉල්ලීමට පිළිතුරු ලබාදෙමින් ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත්වරිය සඳහන් කළේ මෙම සිදුවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් එම තැනැත්තියගේ මූලික ප්රකාශ සටහන් කර ගැනීම හෝ මෙතෙක් අවසන් වී නොමැති බැවින් ඇයගේ විදෙස් ගමන් තහනම ඉවත් කිරීම තුළ සමස්ත විමර්ශන ක්රියාවලියටම බලපෑම් එල්ල විය හැකි බවයි
එබැවින් එම විදෙස් ගමන් තහනම ඉවත් කිරීම පිළිබඳ මූලික ප්රකාශ සටහන් කර ගැනීමෙන් පසු එම ඉල්ලීම සලකා බැලිය හැකි බව සඳහන් කළ ප්රධාන මහේස්ත්රාත්වරිය අද දිනය දක්වා පනවා තිබූ විදෙස් ගමන් තහනම ලබන 12 වනදා දක්වා දීර්ඝ කිරීමට නියෝග කළා.
මේ අතර, ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනිය ඊයේ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේදී ඇයගේ නියෝජිතයෙකු බව පැවසූ මංජුල පෙරේරා නැමැත්තා සඳහන් කළේ අදාළ නිලධාරිනිය අද මාධ්ය වෙත ප්රකාශයක් නිකුත් කරන බවයි.
බාන්ස් පෙදෙසේ ලිපිනයක් ද සදහන් කළ ඔහු එම අවස්ථාවට පැමිණෙන ලෙස එහි සිටි මාධ්යවේදීන්ට ආරාධනාවක් ද සිදුකළා.
ඒ අනුව මාධ්යවේදීන් අද උදෑසන ඔහු පැවසූ ලිපිනය සඳහන් නිවසට ගිය ද එහි අදාළ තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනිය හෝ ඇයගේ නියෝජිතවරයා සිටියේ නැහැ.
එම අවස්ථාවේ අදාළ නියෝජිතයා ඊයේ ලබාදුන් ප්රකාශය ඇතුළත් වීඩියෝපටය නිවසේ ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරියාට පෙන්වා තිබෙනවා.
එහිදී ආරක්ෂක නිලධාරියා එම පුද්ගලයා හඳුනාගෙන ඇති අතර ඔහු ප්රකාශ කළේ් තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනිය හෝ අදාළ පුද්ගලයා දින කිහිපයකින් එම නිවසට නොපැමිණි බවයි.
මේ අතර, ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරිනියගේ නියෝජිතයෙකු බව පැවසූ මංජුල පෙරේරා ඊයේ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙත පැමිණ තිබුණේ සී.ඒ.එෆ් – 0165 දරණ මෝටර් රථයෙන්. හිරු ප්රවෘත්ති අංශය කළ සොයා බැලීමකදී අනාවරණ වුණේ එම මෝටර් රථය අංක 78/2 දේවාල පාර, මාකොළ – උතුර – මාකොළ යන ලිපිනයේ ලියාපදිංචි වී ඇති බවයි.
කෙසේ වෙතත්, එම නිවස වසර 8ක් පමණ මුළුල්ලේ වසා දමා ඇති බවයි අසල්වාසීන් ප්රකාශ කළේ.
Mario Arulthas writes to Al Jazeera on 8 Dec 2019 titled Trouble brews in post-election Sri Lanka”. What are the concerns he raises:
He refers to Gotabaya Rajapakse as a ‘hardliner’ exactly what does he imply by this?
He claims ‘prospects for justice & reconciliation between the different communities on the island lie in tatters” – can he give examples of justice & reconciliation that were brought to success by previous government?
He says ‘victory of Gota, sent shockwaves across the Tamil-dominated northeast’ – can he say how many are in shock and what is the type of shock they are suffering weeks after the victory? Are any of them hospitalized by the shock, how many thousands have ‘gone missing’ ‘how many thousands’ have been abducted since 16 Nov 2019?
What are the ‘war crimes’ he is allegedly accused of – does Mario have direct proof & evidence or is it all hearsay from 3rd party and 4th party sources?
On what grounds did Sajith Premadasa become the ‘lesser evil’ is it because he promised to deliver the 13 demands made by TNA, didn’t TNA ask the same Tamil people to vote for the former President Sirisena, didn’t TNA also ask the Tamil people to vote for Sarath Fonseka the army commander as President in 2010, months after the same Tamils called him a war criminal! The trend in voting was nothing that anyone was surprised over. Its just that the Tamil leadership ensures Sinhalese do not mix with the Tamils for greater harmony and prefer to feed Tamils with lies. This has to now change.
Oh Mario, you seem to have got your wires crossed, Sajith was a key government minister in a government that co-sponsored the UNHRC resolution and he didn’t even object to LTTE getting compensation – so what crap about vowing to protect the military. Well, suggest you check whether he is actually a practicing Buddhist or has embraced another religion too. Lots of politicians pretend to be Buddhists for votes!
If the Western nations can give Christian prominence and Islamic majority nations can give premier place to Islam, there is absolutely no harm in acknowledging the historical role of Buddhism that built this island civilization on the strength of the dasa raja dhamma practiced by all Sinhale kings even the invader kings that ruled Sri Lanka. By the way invader Elara was no Tamil king.
Its certainly interesting to see Mario refer to the Swiss affair. Very soon the Swiss embassy will be exposed for its part in a Hollywood drama. Much of the gossip international media outlets are spreading will soon be nullified by factual details when investigations conclude. What is worrying is an embassy keeping a Sri Lankan national & her family inside the Swiss embassy since 25th Nov and only bringing her to give a statement before a court order lapsed whereby she would have been declared guilty of contempt of court for not arriving to make a statement.
Any journalist in any part of the world have self-censorship, while all journalists can write sparingly against other countries, try writing damaging pieces against the country they are domiciled/working in and certainly action will be taken by the authorities. How many US journalists write about the US or NATO crimes or disclose secrets happening inside the US State Dept? Every government has a right to protect its national security interests.
As for hate speech – these new vocabularies and terms are simply meant to silence only one party with political correctness… how about doing a content analysis and seeing the scores of lies and fake news based on which many of the LTTE fronts are becoming ultra-rich, opening charities to enable them to not pay taxes and accrue more benefits and forcing Tamils overseas to help raise ‘funds’ the Human Rights Watch report on extortions by LTTE diaspora remain valid still.
Can Mario give any evidence of Tamils being attacked after the elections without simply brandishing his pen? Was it like Occupy Wall Street protestors getting attacked?
Have you Mario, tried to remove Christian domination from Western countries or tried to erase Islamic/Muslim dominance from OIC member states! Why not you take this same argument to these countries and change them first. In the meanwhile, produce evidence what the minorities do not enjoy because they are a minority what only the majority enjoys because they are the majority without simply parroting what others say.
‘Tamil self-rule culminated in the defeat of the LTTE’ very interesting – so Mario means to say all Tamils were with the LTTE, then how about explaining why LTTE killed so many Tamils and we can give a very long list for Mario to explain. Why did LTTE shoot at fleeing Tamil civilians and kill them, there are scores of Tamils giving witness accounts of being shot at. Why did even the UNSG appeal to the LTTE to allow Tamil civilians to come to government controlled areas. Why not look through all of the statements made by various international bodies appealing to the LTTE to release Tamil civilians. So you Mario, are implying that our soldiers didn’t save 294,000 Tamils and that they voluntarily were with the LTTE!
Mario, you are wrong again. The UN never said anything about 70,000 deaths. UN report in Colombo gave just over 7000 deaths which tallies with the Government death statistics. Well activists can give any number but the least they can do is match the number with some names or NIC or even birth certificates. Anyone can say x number died but without even a scrap of evidence that is a very lame argument. Demanding justice for dead without details is like that Swiss woman the embassy claimed was abducted in a white vehicle but authorities have proved the details given didn’t match at all with the evidence and every minute detail was given to the Swiss leaving them obviously speechless and embarrassed and now desperately trying to recover from their stunt.
Mario and all those living overseas need not worry about Tamils in Sri Lanka, the government will set up not only a structured development for all nationals but will address their issues and NOT the issues of Tamils living overseas or Tamils holding foreign passports. Tamil Sri Lankan problems will be addressed together with the problems of all other communities. The GOSL will NOT solve the problems of LTTE Diaspora though.
Again, you are wrong, Tamils did not turn out in droves to commemorate LTTE dead which is what this Maaveerar Naal is all about – how about commemorating the Tamils killed by LTTE too, who is going to mourn for people like Alfred Duraiappah, Sam Tambimuttu & wife, scores of Tamil militant leaders killed by LTTE including Mahaththaya…. Who is going to mourn for them, Mario?
Exactly what did LTTE give the Tamil people? LTTE made $300m annual profits according to Janes Intelligence report – did LTTE build a school, train station, roads, a kovil, a library, a sports complex for Tamils… what did LTTE give the Tamil people? Thousands of Tamils were given electricity for the first time by GOSL after 2009. They were living using a kerosene lamp under LTTE rule. Some of these Tamils rescued by the Sri Lankan troops did not even know how to brush their teeth or use a toilet when they were put in the refugee camps. They were this backward because of the LTTE.
The President of Sri Lanka must address the needs of all the citizens not only one community. As you can see a new wave of hope is taking place and negative reporting or media releases is unlikely to change their enthusiasm – streets are getting cleaned, walls are getting painted with all citizens joining in, trees are being planted, our sports stars are winning gold, youth are taking to farming, the inventors are busy thinking of ways to help – the whole country is looking forward, we don’t need negative vibes or energies trying to disturb or disrupt the people. Let them be.
As for devolution – 36 of the 37 subjects have been devolved since 1987 and what is the big deal you see in 13a – we have been functioning pretty well without provincial councils for 2 ½ years now and it is very clear to all we don’t need the 13a.
We don’t need political changes – we need changes beneficial to the people. This is where media have erred in continuously drumming political solutions – we need only people’s solutions for people’s problems.
So happy that Al Jazeera has as disclaimer ‘views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance’.
Mario is an Advocacy Director of Washington-based PEARL (People for Equality and Relief in Lanka) The aim and objective of PEARL will help understand the objective behind his article
Our mission is to advocate for
justice and self-determination for the Tamil people
in the North-East of Sri Lanka.
Our vision is for a Tamil nation
that is inclusive, free from oppression and able to determine its own future.
For over a decade, PEARL has been advocating for
human rights in Sri Lanka with U.S. policy makers,
the United Nations, European Union and
other governmental and non-governmental organizations.
We conduct innovative research and analysis, centred in the experiences of Tamil victim-survivors, to report on key issues affecting the North-East of the island.
Shenali D Waduge
December 9, 2019, 8:30 pm
Oratory is based upon the noble art of rhetoric, introduced by ancient Greeks. In fact, Aristotle (384-322 B.C) wrote an entire thesis on rhetoric. In the first century A.D., rhetoric was divided in to three categories – high, middle, and low. High rhetoric should convey deep, strong, feelings using sublime language. Low rhetoric should use simple words without unnecessary frills, the middle rhetoric should not use high sounding words, but words pleasant to the ear, and should flow smoothly. None of these categories were considered of a higher order of value than the other. The idea is that the speaker should choose one of the three modes to suit the occasion and the audience.
But Longinus (first century A.D.) considered as the foremost theoretician on rhetoric, wrote his masterpiece, called ‘Peri Huspous’ on rhetoric, explaining its finer details.
He said the aim of rhetoric is to achieve sublimity, which reflects a noble mind. The speaker’s delivery in this instance should be effective. Above all, a speaker should possess, noble concepts, and strong emotions. A noble diction should be adopted, and he also said that these characteristics are in-born qualities of a true speaker. Furthermore, he should select proper, meaningful words and a proper attitude towards the audience.
How does Sajith Premadasa measure up to these qualities. At the hundred odd elections meetings he addressed; the entire content of his speeches can be reduced to two factors. His promises to deliver benefits to all and sundry, and his most evident characteristic; self-adulation.
Even on the first count, he cannot be excused by saying that all other candidates resorted to this ploy, because even on this matter he went to ridiculous extremes, beyond acceptance.
Some of his utterances are worthwhile remembering. He said he will be on the streets, all the time, moving with common people and attending to their grievances. He will visit every village, in the country, during his tenure, to understand the conditions of the people at firsthand and assist them where necessary. (By the way Sri Lanka has 19000 villages). Another one of his promises was to say that he intends to meet every disabled soldier and ameliorate his hapless conditions. One of his famous promises was to keep awake, during the major part of the day, depriving himself sleep; in order to be available for the people to contact him.
The Oxford English dictionary defines oratory as “The skill of making powerful and effective speeches’’. One of the keywords here is being ‘effective’. Were these promises ‘effective’ by any measure. On the contrary, they were unrealistic and beyond rational acceptance. Quite opposed to Longinus’s definition, where effectiveness was a major attribute.
It was his self-adulation, that was mostly evident during his campaign. One can remember very clearly, the things he said about himself. That his dynamos were sound and working in their full gear. He had inherited, he said, powerful genes, which enables him to withstand any obstacles and overcome them with youthful energy. His sagacity is such that he himself drafted the party’s manifesto, without any outside assistance. That he is a happy combination of philosopher-cum-politician. (Plato’s philosopher kings come to mind) There were so many other utterances, all revolving round, Sajith the Man.
It is doubtful whether Sajith adopted, any of the modes described above, which would suit the occasion concerned and the particular audience. In fact, his speeches were active volcanoes’ from start to finish, interspersed, occasionally with howlers like Srimukha.
A noble mind, noble concepts, using proper meaningful words, noble diction, a proper attitude towards the audiences were main attributes of an ideal orator according to Longinus.
Sadly, Sajith Premadasa did not live up to any of these qualities; thereby harming his own campaign, because common people were able to see through what he uttered and coming to their own conclusions.
It is time for Sajith to reflect on the part he played during his campaign, and mend his erratic approach, as he is destined to play an important role in national politics.
ARIYAWANSA RANAWEERA
Since Mr. Gotabhaya won the presidential election the anti Sri Lankan media outlets have unleashed a spate of reports and write-ups against Sri Lanka and President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Lanka-E-News (LEN) the UNP website published from London, access to which was restricted from Sri Lanka by the former President following harsh personal attacks on him and his family, has published several news items especially focussing the readers in foreign countries with the objective of building antagonism and hostility against Sri Lanka.
In one of these items it says that Gotabaya Rajapaksas visit to India was to deceive India and to join hands with China and to put the country in an irreparable nuclear danger.
It says that Gotabhaya has entered a confidentiality agreement with China to launch a non-commercial military nuclear power project on Sri Lanka’s Kachchativu Island, which is adjacent to India. In addition to that Gotabaya is trying to fill up another 400 hectares from the southern sea, join with the current port city and sell out to China and his is the reason that the Chinese government lavishly spent on Gotabaya’s election campaign and China has already started the work following Gota’s swearing in ceremony held on the 18th but it does not say what work it has started.
The news item states that representatives of a Chinese nuclear power company, Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC), the backbone of the Chinese central government, President Secretary P.B Jayasundera and a group of Sri Lankan Navy officers has gone on an observation tour to the Kachchativu Island in a helicopter on the 21st.
It explains that there is no people living in Kachchatheevu Island but people from India and Sri Lanka annually gather to the feast of St. Anthonys church situated in the island and if a nuclear project constructed in Kachchatheevu people entering it would be prohibited.
The news item further states that following their revelation Gotabhaya government may declare that they are working with China in Kachchativu to generate electricity using nuclear power, but the real story behind is different and that is the reason why pt is carried out in secret.
LEN states that to cover this story from Indian officials, Gotabaya in an interview with an Indian journalist said that he is going to revive the Hambanthota port already given to China and pretended that he is a pro Indian.
LEN adds that the Chinese nuclear project at Kachchativu is certainly a serious threat to India and giving addition of another 400 hectares of land to port city in Colombo will strengthen China’s power in the region and at the same time, the country becomes a ballpark of world powers that cannot be restored.
The news item concludes that although Gotabaya tries to hide this to all but could not hide this from European intelligence services. It says reports reaching Lanka e news confirm that this is one of the reasons that EU countries were not happy about Gotabayas swearing in.
The LEN also give much publicity to the Swiss Embassy drama and attempts to project as a true incident perpetrated by the government. In this respect it make use of a disparaging article published by the New York Times saying A Swiss Embassy employee is abducted and asked about asylum applications and investigators are banned from leaving just days after Gotabaya Rajapaksa is elected.
Twisting the contents of the New York Times article to get its objects fulfilled LEN says 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.
It says a Sri Lankan employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo was abducted on Monday by unidentified men and forced to hand over sensitive embassy information, and the abductors have 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.
It says on the same day of this abduction, 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.
This particular website is making these malicious allegations because it is foreign based and some appropriate diplomatic action should immediately be taken against it before it causes irreparable damage to the image of Sri Lanka.
Mano Ganesan,
leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) believes that ‘India has
the moral duty and political right towards the Tamils of the North and
East since the 13th Amendment is the child of the Indo-Lanka Accord.’
Prime
Minister Modi, when he met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Delhi,
flagged the 13th Amendment. That ‘flagging’ (of a dead horse, should we
add?) has excited Tamil politicians. M.A. Sumanthiran and S Sritharan of
the Tamil National Alliance have spoken about ‘Indian pressure’ almost
as a given, something wholesome and necessary. They, like others, have
often talked of the 13th Amendment as ‘just a start’. That’s
Chelvanayakam’s ghost talking, ‘a little now, more later’.
Well,
we’ve had the 13th Amendment for 30 years now. It was not an Indian
baby nor an Indo-Lankan baby. In real terms it was Rajiv Gandhi’s first
step in extending India’s hegemony in the region. He famously said ‘This
is the beginning of the Bhutanization of Sri Lanka!’ But then again,
arm-twisting aside, the accord certainly carries the Indian signature. Does that give India a ‘moral authority’ to see it implemented?
If
we talk moral authority, then we need to consider the Indo-Lanka Accord
not as an inflation of favorite parts but its entirety. Part of the
agreement was for India to disarm the LTTE. India didn’t hold up that
end of the bargain. The moral authority argument ends just there.
Now
all provincial councils, set up in accordance with the Indo-Lanka
Accord and the 13th Amendment, are dissolved. Indeed, some were
dissolved a couple of years ago. The administrative arm of the state
continued to function, however. So far, no complaints. No agitation for
elections, not from the democracy-darlings fronting for the United
National Party (UNP) whenever its political fortunes seemed to be going
down the tube and not even from the raucous Tamil communalist
politicians screaming ‘India’s Baby, India’s Baby!’
It
is not, let us repeat, India’s baby. The people of Sri Lanka never
wanted it. Their views weren’t obtained. The 13th Amendment was
illegally enacted and in a scandalous rush to boot. To claim that India
still has some stake on account of an Accord that died the day the
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) left the island, is silly or else
sycophantic. To plead for Indian ‘pressure’ so that Sri Lanka’s
political landscape can be altered can be read, if one were generous, as
a sign of helplessness. Another reading is possible: par for the course of Tamil communal politicians.
The
Tamil nationalist formula would retire for a considerable period of
time any chance of inter-communal reconciliation. That’s a recipe for
political instability. A weak, unstable state is of course something
that may make certain Indians salivate, but Narendra Modi would know
that desperate leaders could willingly barter sovereignty and much else
besides to the highest bidder. Indians talk about China’s footprint in
Sri Lanka. Indians aren’t exactly cheering on USA’s designs via SOFA and
the MCC Compact either.
All
that is external. There’s an internal element here. Sri Lanka. Sri
Lankans. Defunct provincial councils that’s not inspiring any whines
from any quarter. A Tamil
nationalist project based on a myth model that has served only the petty
projects of two-bit Tamil politicians. A war waged by warriors spawned
less by Sinhala chauvinism than Tamil nationalist who nurtured in THAT
baby unrealistic aspirations. A nation that requires healing.
Interestingly,
the communalism and the anti Sinhala and anti Buddhist rhetoric have
all been couched in the language of oneness, secularism and almost an
erasure of identity. Well, erasure of all identities except those of the
non Sinhala and non Buddhist sections of the population. ‘ONE SRI
LANKA!’ they shout, but not exactly in undertones interject ‘Tamil
National Identity,’ and Religious Identity (yes, all religious
communities except Buddhists). Having the cake and eating it. Trying to
ride two donkeys with one backside.
The
abolition of the 13th is necessary on account of its unholy enactment
and failure to resolve issues that have been mislabeled. Would that sort
matters out? Obviously not. Neither will ‘development.’ There’s an
issue of belonging which the ‘full implementation of the13th’ cannot
resolve (because it was ill-conceived and utterly out of sync with
geographic, economic, demographic and historical realities). It is
nevertheless an issue that requires priority attention.
President
Rajapaksa has referred to ‘inclusive nationalism’. What’s inclusive
here? Is it for the subjugation of all identities, communal and
religious, to some vague notion of ‘Sri Lanka’ and ‘Sri Lankanness’? Is
it some kind of ethnic assimilation, which is another term for gradual
and/or coerced dissolution of minority identity in that of the majority
community? Is it a celebration of all identity communities? He has not
spelled it all out. Not yet.
However,
if there is to be a Sri Lanka which is inclusive, then an important
non-negotiable would be the full restoration of Rule of Law and ensuring
the absolute independence of the judiciary, quite apart from addressing
and resolving representational anomalies (and not just on the subject
of identity).
This
country is made of a lot of things and people are one element. There
are resources that have to be protected and used in ways that are
wholesome. There is talent that goes unnoticed and eventually wasted
because the talented are not ‘properly’ positioned or are made invisible
by certain structures and processes. There are notions of ‘development’
that are inclusive and those that result in costs that are not counted
or are ignored out of boorishness, ignorance or simply because people
don’t want to deal with inconvenient truths.
President
Rajapaksa may or may not have a comprehensive understanding of
‘nation’. One hopes he does, because that would be a good thing. Then he
would not ‘forget’ anyone. He would not forget things like carbon
neutrality. He would not forget history and heritage. He would not make
anyone feel a lesser citizen or one who has to depend on the largesse of
someone else.
He
has told Prime Minister Modi (and also others who take note) that he
will speak his mind. This is a good thing. We’ve had politicians of all
hues promising the undeliverable, to one and all. The UNP in particular
has hoodwinked the Tamils (going by patterns of loyalty in elections)
into believing that their grievances will be redressed and aspirations
realized.
In
any event, obtaining such inclusivity will be difficult because of the
13th Amendment (among other things). Simply because it was a monumental
blunder and an affront to reason. Thirty years is long enough for people
to realize this. Keep it, and Tamil communalists will stand on it and
scream. Take it out and the true dimensions of grievance have a chance
of being articulated, i.e. the frills will be done away with.
It’s
not India’s baby now, anyway. India is out of the equation and can
claim equation-residence only on account of nostalgia or hegemonic
intent. Modi is obviously far too intelligent for such puerile
indulgences. No, it is not India’s baby. It’s Sri Lanka’s irrational
irritation.
If
India insists on the 13th or some version along those lines as price
for ‘help’ then Sri Lanka, which cannot really declare war on India,
should say ‘udau epa….vadath epaa’ (Help? Thank you, but no. Just don’t harass us).
Sumanthiran
has expressed hope that the new President will engage with his party.
Nothing wrong in that. Indeed, it would be good for the President to
meet the TNA and other parties representing districts that rejected him
in favor of Sajith Premadasa. He can listen to them. He can tell him his
story and his plans.
Those
plans, whatever they are, cannot be about the Tamils and Muslims only.
They will have to be about the Sinhalese too. And they will tell us what
he thinks about categories of people outside of ethnic and religious
colors. The ‘ethnic’ and ‘religious’ let us not forget have stolen
center-stage to the point that many subjugated and neglected communities
have been made invisible. A nationalism that includes Tamils, Muslims,
Sinhalese and other identity based groups but excludes the many
underclasses whose woes are forgotten or imagined not to exist, will be
partial inclusivity. That won’t do.
India
has certain moral obligations, I’m sure. Indians would know them.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has moral obligations. That’s obtained from manifesto
and tested in implementation of the same. He’s known to be a
workaholic. Let’s see how he works and whether or not it will work.
malindasenevi@gmail.com.
This article was first published in the Sunday Observer [December 8, 2019]
A group of Indian and American researches simulated soil moisture content during major Indian famines to come to the conclusion.
The 1943 Bengali famine was caused by then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s policies and not drought, a group of Indian and American researchers have found in a study published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.
The researchers came to this conclusion by using weather data to simulate the amount of moisture present in the soil during six major Indian famines, those of 1873-’74, 1876, 1877, 1896-’97, 1899 and 1943. Deficit of soil moisture is a key indicator of poor rainfall and high temperatures.
According to the study, the first five famines were a result of drought, as concluded by the soil moisture study, but not the one that happened in 1943.
There have been no major famines since independence,” Vimal Mishra told CNN, And so we started our research thinking the famines would have been caused by drought due to factors such as lack of irrigation.”
Mishra, an associate professor of Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, has co-authored the study, along with Amar Deep Tiwari, Saran Aadhar, Reepal Shah, Mu Xiao, DS Pai and Dennis Lettenmaier.
The 1943 Bengal famine led to the deaths of an estimated three million people, and is widely believed by several historians to have been caused or made worse by British policies of the time.
The study showed that though the eastern region of India experienced severe drought in the early-1940s, the amount of rainfall was above average in late-1943, a period considered to be the peak of the famine.
The British policies alleged to be the cause of the famine were the heavy distribution of food and vital necessities to the military during the second world war, halting import of rice, and the British government not declaring famine in India.
According to the study, another factor that exacerbated the mortality count of the 1943 famine was the Japanese capture of Burma (now Myanmar), which was a major source of rice imports in India. The study noted that in the past, famines, despite being deadly, could not cause much damage due to rice imports from Myanmar and the British government’s relief aid.
Speaking to CNN, Mishra said that during the 1873-’74 famine, the Bengal lieutenant governor, Richard Temple, saved many lives by importing and distributing food. But the British government criticised him and dropped his policies during the drought of 1943, leading to countless fatalities.
That the 1943 Bengal famine was a result of wilful negligence by the British government was accepted and believed strongly across India for quite a while. In 1981, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen said that supplies should have been in abundance during 1943 to control the deaths brought about by the famine.
Madhushree Mukherjee’s 2011 book, Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II, notes that the famine was caused by heavy exports of food from India. As the famine got worse, she wrote, 70,000 tons of rice were exported from India between January and July, 1943.
Despite Churchill’s War Cabinet being warned about the famine at the time, Mukerjee wrote, the British Prime Minister was reluctant to devote time and resources to fix the Indian problem, and instead, strengthen his military operations and accumulate stocks at home.
A concession to one country at once encourages demands from all the others,” Churchill commented in a memo on March 10, 1943, as quoted in Mukerjee’s book. They must learn to look after themselves as we have done. The grave situation of the UK import programme imperils the whole war effort and we cannot afford to send ships merely as a gesture of good will.”
In 2017, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said about Churchill, This is a man the British would have us hail as an apostle of freedom and democracy, when he has as much blood on his hands as some of the worst genocidal dictators of the 20th century.” He chronicled the havoc wreaked by the British empire on India in his book, Inglorious Empire.
The revelations of Mishra and his fellow researchers’ study vindicated several Indians as well as others, as seen on Twitter. One user questioned the validity of a study complimenting Churchill as a human rights crusader.
Since independence, India’s population has increased manifold, but famine deaths have been brought under control. Expansion of irrigation, better public distribution system, rural employment, and transportation reduced the impact of drought on the lives of people after the independence,” Mishra’s study said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlN8NJ2fMZQ
Thousands of supporters waved banners and colorful portraits of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, Saturday, December 7, in an ostentatious show of their loyalty on the eve of her departure for the U.N.’s top court to face genocide charges over the Rohingya crisis. The Myanmar leader is set to testify at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague starting Tuesday, where lawyers are pressing a case against Myanmar for alleged genocide against its Muslim Rohingya minority. Gambia, a tiny, mainly Muslim West African country, filed a lawsuit in November, accusing Myanmar of genocide, the most serious international crime. During three days of hearings, it will ask the 16-member panel of U.N. judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to impose provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya before the case can be heard in full. More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh after a 2017 military crackdown, which U.N. investigators found in August to have been carried out with genocidal intent.” Myanmar vehemently denies allegations of genocide. The office of Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has said she will lead her country’s defense personally. Myanmar’s legal team is expected to argue genocide did not occur, that the top U.N. court lacks jurisdiction, and the case fails to meet a requirement that a dispute exists between Myanmar and Gambia.
December 8, 2019, 9:18 pm
The annual Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 25) began in Madrid on 2 December, largely unnoticed in Sri Lanka which is just settling down after a bruising presidential election. But given the critical importance of climate change to this beautiful island with its miles of unspoilt beaches, populated low lands, breathtaking tea covered mountains, and weather dependent agriculture, it should have received more attention. Sri Lanka became party to the Paris Accord of 2016, an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, on 21 September 2016.
COP 25 was moved to Madrid after original host Chile, beset by ongoing and widespread social disorder, requested in late October for it to be moved elsewhere.
Some 50 world leaders were expected to attend COP 25, although a notable absentee was US President Donald Trump, who, in 2017 announced his country’s withdrawal from the 2016 Paris Accord. The leaders of Russia, China, Brazil and India were also missing from Madrid. The Paris Accord which involved a mix of compromises was largely the work of a handful of world leaders, including President Obama and President Xi Jinping. Writing on the subject at the time, I expressed my concern that while a great effort was made by all negotiating parties to accommodate the USA as much as possible, given the US reluctance to become party to the Kyoto Protocol, it would be a forlorn hope to expect the world’s second biggest emitter of green house gasses to remain faithful to its own commitments. Similarly, I doubted whether the goals of the Accord to increase the ability of parties to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, and make “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development would be realised.
The speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi will be present in Madrid, leading a congressional delegation.
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist and the initiator of the school strikes for climate in September 2019, which were attended by over four million people, will be there.
Speaking at the opening of COP 25, an emotionless, almost dull, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres somberly noted that “By the end of the coming decade we will be on one of two paths, one of which is sleepwalking past the point of no return,” He also asked “Do we want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand and fiddled as the planet burned?” The other pathway, Guterres said, was to aim for carbon neutrality by 2050″. “There are calls from young people to do more, much more. They know we need to get on the right path today, not tomorrow, and COP 25 offers us an opportunity.”
Ever since the UN FCCC was adopted in 1992 in Rio and was followed up with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the world has heard similar dire warnings from a succession of Secretaries-General and the scientific community. While some countries have heeded these forecasts of gloom and doom and begun to take necessary action, the countries mainly responsible historically for the current state of affairs have not chosen to proactively adopt the mitigation measures so desperately required.
Climate change is becoming the most important global environmental challenge, with implications for food production, water supply, health, energy security, coastal settlements, forest ecosystems, coastal economies, etc. Addressing climate change requires a good scientific understanding as well as coordinated action at national and global levels. Unless global action is taken in a coordinated manner, humanity may be doomed to suffer seriously from what we ourselves have caused to the climate in our headlong and uninformed rush towards development. The required global reduction of carbon emissions has more than doubled from 3.3 percent 10 years ago to seven percent now, while the world was “still waiting for transformative movement from most G20 nations” responsible for three-quarters of carbon emissions. Some progress has occurred but not enough to ensure global sustainability.
Hoesung Lee, the chair for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has said “immediate reductions [of carbon emission] have powerful benefits for all sectors of society”.
Sri Lanka needs to take climate change extremely seriously and the policy platform of the newly elected President, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has recognised this factor. His platform, if faithfully implemented, will place Sri Lanka at the forefront of environmentally responsible countries.
There are clear signs that the country is already a victim of something unusual happening to the climate. The regular and familiar weather patterns of the past do not seem to occur any more. Droughts devastate crops more regularly with reservoirs drying up visibly while heavy and unseasonal rainfall has also become a major threat, causing floods, landslides and deaths. Climate related deaths, which were not a common experience for this country, also appear to have increased. Over 21% of the population is still engaged in agriculture, and this is not a happy situation to be in. Although the cricket season starts in October and lasts till March in the Western Province, largely because it used to be the dry season, heavy rains and floods have become a disruptive feature of this period.
Climate change is expected to cause other challenges to the island. It is expected that the warming of the ocean will cause fish stocks to migrate further away from the equator in search of lower temperatures. With over 145,000 thousand people dependent on fisheries, this may result is widespread unemployment. Exacerbating poverty levels
Furthermore, with tourism being identified by the newly elected Government as a 10 billion Dollar industry for the near future, sea level rise will have a devastating impact. The millions of Dollars currently being invested in coastal resorts exploiting the country’s fabled golden beaches may turn out to be a mistake. The tourism industry needs to take account of the possible effects of climate change and focus on the other attractions, of which the country is blessed with abundance.
It is not likely that whatever measures that Sri Lanka will take alone will have a major impact globally on the growing threat of climate change. But if one were to follow the adage that every bit helps, then Sri Lanka has an important role to play. It has bravely taken a lead role in the past in global fora on different issues. Sri Lanka now has the opportunity to contribute to initiatives undertaken by the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to put pressure on the big emitters to mend their ways. Sri Lanka has and could play an important role within its own neighbourhood. Regional neighbours such as the Maldives and Bangladesh are at the forefront of activism designed to put pressure of the big emitters. Both countries are staring at the possibility of going underwater, fully or partially, in the not too distant future due to sea level rise. Both large neighbours, India and Pakistan, are severely water stressed. Bhutan and Nepal are likely to be victims of glacier melt. The SAARC Convention on Cooperation on the Environment was signed during the Sixteenth Summit. The Convention has been ratified by all Member States and entered into force with effect from 23 October 2013 and this could be further enhanced.
Sri Lanka would also be well advised to take note of growing NGO demands, especially in Europe, to restrict imports from countries which do not comply with the Paris Accords. While these demands may be in their infancy now, the barely camouflaged measures could actually become protectionist or political. The possibility remains. Abandoning the commitments made in Paris to curtail fossil fuel use and reverting to coal and oil based power generation might prove to be extremely short sighted.
We know that species extinction is occurring at an unprecedented pace, including in the seas and oceans. Global warming is contributing substantially to this phenomenon. Species adaptation to changing weather and climate factors is threatening the livelihood of millions who depend on the oceans and seas for their living. Fish swim away from familiar habitats to areas where the temperature is more conducive to their existence.
Attempts to arrest global warming have received storms of verbal support but not much by way of practical action, particularly from the major emitters of green housegasses. Some in positions of power have even challenged the overwhelming scientific view in order to cultivate uninformed electoral support. In Sri Lanka, the population needs to be better informed by the authorities and adaptation mechanisms introduced. At COP 25 in Madrid, we need to encourage thinking that would balance economic consolidation and advancement and the conservation of the environment for our children. Our future must not be left to the whims of those who thrive on selfish ignorance.
December 9, 2019, 10:13 pm
Lord Naseby PC, President of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group in the UK Parliament, has stated, in a statement, that if Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party becomes UK Prime Minister it will be disastrous for Sri Lanka as Labour will threaten the country’s sovereignty as an independent nation.
Lord Naseby makes it clear that the Conservatives offer the best opportunity to develop a balanced relationship with the UK and where all communities may unite to live together as one country.
The full text of the media release issued by Lord Naseby titled ‘Conservative Party Manifesto Page 53 reference to Sri Lanka’: “Following interventions from a great many Sri Lankan organisations, including the Conservative Friends of Sri Lanka and myself, the Conservative Party has clarified the confusion of the wording on page 53 by stating and I quote from the Party’s Deputy Chairman:
“To be absolutely clear, the two-state line was intended to refer only to the Israel–Palestine situation in the Middle East. The commitment on Sri Lanka was simply about continuing efforts to support peace and reconciliation.”
This was further clarified by the Foreign Secretary Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab who has confirmed that the Conservative policy towards Sri Lanka has not changed.
I accept the reassurances given. Nevertheless, this issue should never have arisen in the first place. It is particularly poor that whoever wrote and checked the Foreign Policy part of the manifesto failed so badly to see the implications of the Manifesto as published. The leadership of the Conservative Party should understand that it is not the least bit surprising that the Sri Lanka High Commission as well as the Sri Lanka Government and British Sri Lankans were deeply concerned about this manifesto error. This has been compounded by sections of the Tamil Diaspora stating to their followers that the Conservatives were considering a two-state solution.
I am now asking the Party Chairman to issue to the world at large that ‘The Party does NOT have or seek a two-state solution for Sri Lanka’. On top of this I shall, once Parliament is opened by Her Majesty the Queen on December 19th immediately put down a written Question seeking confirmation of the statements made so that The High Commissioner for Sri Lanka, The Government of Sri Lanka and all the people of Sri Lanka will see in writing that there is absolutely no policy for a two state solution. Furthermore, I expect to speak in the Debate of the Queen’s speech which will quickly follow the Opening and will ‘ram home’ to Her Majesty’s Government the need to reassure Sri Lanka that there is no two-state policy for Sri Lanka.
Having said all this, British Sri Lankans of all ethnicities should be under no illusion that a vote for Labour is a vote that does threaten Sri Lanka as a single sovereign independent country.
For a united unitary Sri Lanka where all communities may live together in peace and harmony in one nation – VOTE CONSERVATIVE.”
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