RANJITH SOYSA

Dinesh Guanwardana has the key on his shoulder  when he was appointed  in recognition of his ability, honesty and unquestionable patriotism , to the key position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He will have a lot in his plate as he has to undo the damage caused to the independence and sovereignty of the country due to the bend over backwards foreign policies of the previous government.

I would earnestly request the Minister to consider taking urgent action to tackle the following issues.

1 The selection and urgent appointment of Sri Lanka’s foreign representatives based on the seniority and the capability of the officers in service and where appropriate to consider selection of  outstanding creative appointees outside the service. The nepotism and planting of friends and relations to be the country’s representatives never be even entertained, To appoint senior and tested foreign policy experts as advisors to the Ministry will be very useful to implement an effective policy.

2. It is of importance to concentrate on key areas of foreign policy to protect our interests, to counter adverse publicity and misinformation peddled of the separatist fronts and their partner FNGOs . Further, a change in the culture to should be a priority to  make it a 24/7 function to enhance the image of the country among the foreigners as well as the foreign organizations and to utilize the economic opportunities available for the country’s advantage.

3 To take suitable and urgent action to counter the adverse situation confronting the country and its armed forces due to the co-sponsoring of the UNHCR resolution slavishly by the Yahaplanaya government’s foreign minister.

4. To consider moving a resolution with the help of other sympathetic nations based on Lord Nasby’s observations , the Rebuttal presented to the UNHCR by the Sri Lankan Global Forum and other reports to rectify the damage caused to the country’s image by the dubious programs based on Darusman report including the resolution approved.

5. To discuss and clarify to the USA that MCC and related agreements contravene the non-aligned foreign policy which  will be followed by Sri Lanka and re-negotiate the conditions and stipulations which are intrusive.

6 To adhere to the non-aligned foreign policy by developing a dynamic relationship with all countries sharing our value systems bearing in mind the critical role assigned to Sri Lanka as a country located strategically in the Indian ocean.

7 To utilize the patriotic Sri Lankan organizations based in foreign countries to help countering misinformation, creating economic, technical, educational, social services and professional service to assist economic development and widen the  opportunities for Sri Lankan people

RANJITH SOYSA

Anjalika Silva USA

We need to do all we can to preserve our hard-won Peace from the disruption of miscreants who have sunk so low there is no place lower to go.  It is not about party politics.  It is about the country – SRI LANKA

When I wrote this piece of music for Peace, in my mind I believed our Peace had come to stay.  WHY CAN’T PEOPLE GIVE UP HATE?

However, from time to time it became necessary to revive and stir up short memories and the value of Peace.

After an enthusiastic election with an unprecedented record voter turnout of over 80% beating records of bigger democracies, tactics started again. 

Barely a day after a new President sworn in, the BBC got active providing a platform for hate mongers to talk Genocide” without knowing what it really means.  What Genocide?  If it was Genocide, we would not have seen a single Tamil good or bad survive.  Diaspora in their safe heavens are talking for those who don’t need their representation.  If there was Genocide they are going back and forth to Sri Lanka and enjoying freedom far from Genocidal treatment.  The ground situation is that “we the people live in harmony accepting all people the same”.  The fear psychosis is planted by a few to ruin the lives of many.

These folks may want to see real Genocide because they don’t know the meaning.  Well, the Genocide that took place a few weeks ago when Turks hunted down Kurdish people and stopped cars pulling Kurds out of cars and shooting them execution style.  Men women and Children had no escape.  That is real Genocide.  Not the fake one where the use of the word has became a convenience for some.  It is a joke how they pop out with the Genocide

These captains of Genocide fame have dual citizenship with Sri Lanka, they go back freely, purchase prime property in the  best parts of the country and no one is hunting them down!!!! Why now?   They call out the Genocide very conveniently. 

But fail to look at their own failings.  We have had enough of you lot!   This song is not for Utopia but we want to embrace all ethnicities and faiths with respect and live together as humans.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

I am extremely fortunate to address you from the sacred precincts of the Ruwanweli Maha Seya in Anuradhapura, which enshrines the Sacred Relics of the Buddha,”  said President Gotabaya in his maiden speech as President.  I have received the opportunity of addressing the nation before the statue of great Warrior King Dutugemunu due to the historic mandate given to me by the majority of citizens,” he said.

 It is unlikely that any Sinhala king of the Anuradhapura period would have gone to Ruvanvelisaya to be crowned or address the public. However, the decision to conduct the swearing in of President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa at Anuradhapura, beside the Ruvanvelisaya was a brilliant political move. It was a confident move, not a defensive one. The message was clear. The present state will emphasis the Sinhala Buddhist culture of Sri Lanka, its historicity and its unity.

The choice of Anuradhapura for the swearing will come in for comment. This is to be expected. Ruvanvelisaya, the location selected for the swearing in, will escape criticism. There will be mighty rumpus if this venerated temple is laughed at. But the reference to Dutugemunu will be pounced upon. Dutugemunu will be charged, among other things, with being a racist, making Sri Lanka into a Sinhala Buddhist state, killing Tamils and so on.

Jehan Perera has already observed ‘The Mahavamsa records as one of its central themes, the protection of Buddhism and the Sinhalese race from Tamil invasions originating from South India. This memory would be re-invoked by the oath taking of President Rajapaksa at the Ruvanvelisaya in Anuradhapura, which is the sacred Buddhist temple built by the hero king of the Sinhalese, Dutugemunu, nearly two thousand years ago, following his defeat of the Tamil king, Elara’.

Here are some brief observations on Dutugemunu. Firstly, Dutugemunu was not Dushta Gamini” (wicked). No king who elevated the monarchy to a high   level as Dutugemunu did would have been given such a name. He was Durstha Gamani”. Durstha means ‘strong.’

Secondly, the Sinhala monarchy did not start with Dutugemunu (161-137BC).  The Sinhala monarchy had developed much earlier. The evidence comes from India.  Indian emperor Dharmasoka had sent coronation robes to Sinhala king Devanampiyatissa (250-210 BC). The monarchy in Sri Lanka would have been well established by then for King Dharmasoka to make such a gesture. Dharmasoka would not have sent coronation robes to a kinglet or kingling.

Thirdly, Dutugemunu was not the first to unify the Sinhala state. Dutugemunu’s gesture of curling up in bed is not the gesture of someone who plans to newly unite a country. Lastly, Dutugemunu was not the first to think of chasing Elara out. The idea of ousting Elara came from his father King Kavantissa. Elara was probably not the first south Indian to invade Sri Lanka either.

Two days after taking up his appointment, President Gotabaya went to worship at the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. His focus was the Dalada Maligawa, but the visit to Kandy meant that he was going from the first capital of the Sinhala kingdom, Anuradhapura, to the last capital, Kandy. President Gotabaya would have gone there anyway, but the historical implication was not lost on the organizers.

At the Dalada Maligawa President Gotabaya was greeted by the Diyawadana Nilame in full costume, and both were taken into the temple by a bare bodied escort carrying spears.  President Gotabaya was later joined by a group of about ten or so Nilames, also dressed up. After becoming Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the Dalada Maligawa and the same process was repeated. There is sure to be contemptuous laughter in Colombo over all this pageantry. But, as I will show in later essays, Pohottu got it right.

President Gotabaya has made it clear that his administration will emphasis Buddhism. The Buddhist philosophy is infused into my thoughts and conduct. Buddhist philosophy calls for a righteous rule that respects law and order, justice and fairplay. It will be an administration that will be an oasis for all communities and religious groups. I will be dedicated to protect and nurture the Buddha Sasana during my tenure”, he said in his first speech as President.

This is a tremendous gain for the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ segment. I did not think I would see this in my lifetime.  Sinhala Buddhists” maintained a fighting spirit throughout British rule. After Independence, they set up the Buddhist Commission in 1954, celebrated Buddha Jayanti in 1956 and supported the 1956 MEP election.  But they were still recovering from several decades of repression and showed it.  The Christian segment continued to be dominant. The media mocked the political Sangha.

Sixty years later comes this unexpected ascendency. This is due to the shocks the complacent Sangha received under Yahapalana rule. They could not believe it. Bhikkhus were taken into remand, the monasteries were charged with sexual misconduct, the Triple Gem was altered to ‘Double Gem’. The Sangha were furious. They realized that this was part of a well planned political strategy and that it was necessary to get Yahapalana out. They supported the candidacy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa with great enthusiasm.  10,000 or so bhikkhus went canvassing for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, reported the media.

President Gotabaya made it a point to visit Buddhist temples after his victory. He was recognizing the role played by the Maha Sangha in his election victory, but he was also showing that his was a Buddhist administration.

From Dalada Maligawa he went to Malwatte and Asgiriya vihara (Siam Nikaya). He then commenced a round of temple visits. This is still continuing. He visited Vidya Sagara Pirivena, Menikhinne(Ramannya nikaya). He visited Ven. Kotugoda Dhammavansa at Galkissa Dharmapala aramaya (Amarapura nikaya).

Everywhere he went, teams of monks met him and gave lengthy speeches rejoicing in his victory and advising him on what to do next. Ven. Kotapitiye Rahula said that the Sangha were ready to work with President Gotabaya. President Gotabaya was mobbed by delighted supporters at the entrance to all these temples, including the Dalada Maligawa.

There was a strong Buddhist flavor in the ceremonies when Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his team took office. This was deliberate.   Groups of bhikkhus were present at every turn. The emphasis was on Buddhist ritual, on pansil and pirit. In Anuradhapura after the oath taking, there was Seth pirith. There was pirith again when President Gotabaya took over at the Presidents Secretariat, the next day.

It was the same when Mahinda Rajapaksa took up office as Prime Minister.   On that occasion there were 3 long rows of bhikkhus, a slow extended pirit, which the assembly had to listen to while standing, a long speech by Ven. Medagoda Abeyatissa and blessings from Hindu, Muslim and Christian priests.

Buddhist Ministers of the interim cabinet formed on 22.11.19 also had pansil and pirit chanted by groups of bhikkhus before they took office.  They all   signed in to the accompaniment of pirit.

President Gotabaya inaugural speech was cleverly crafted to include   three of the four elements of Sinhala Buddhist civilization”, namely, Buddhism, Sinhala language and Sinhala unitary state. (The fourth element, Sinhala nationality was not mentioned). These three elements are today bandied about as ‘religion’, ‘language’ and ‘ancient history.’

 We must protect the Sinhala culture and heritage that has a history of thousands of years, President Gotabaya said in his inaugural speech. State patronage will be given to protect our age-old moral values, traditions and rituals and oneness.  Sara dharma, Ape kama, Sirit virit must be protected and will receive state patronage, he said. He added that he had studied at Ananda College and spoke of Ananda’s Buddhist ethos.

 The inaugural speech was in Sinhala with a bit in English. As far as I can recall, there was no Tamil translation of the proceedings and no national anthem. The expected criticism came in. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accepted by the millions who ensured him of the outstanding victory as the long awaited saviour of Sinhala Buddhists in Sri Lanka,” said one critic in a confused sentence. We are now in the Glorious Rise of Sinhala Buddhism”. Another spoke of the Achievement of Sinhala Buddhist glory in the recent Presidential election.” We are clearly moving in a direction where [we will see] Sinhala Buddhist dominance, and its continuing impactful influence in Sri Lankan society and politics, he added.

President Gotabaya is the first President of Sri Lanka to have been educated at Ananda College.  I was educated at Ananda College, Colombo, one of the leading Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka,” he said, in his very first speech as President of Sri Lanka. It has taken Ananda College exactly one hundred years to reach this point.

Ananda College( est. 1886)  had been administered by several illustrious principals (Kuntz, Buultjens),had produced several distinguished  old boys,  (D.J. Wimalasurendra) and had some academic  achievements  to show,  when in 1918, P de S Kularatne took over as principal  of Ananda. He made Ananda into the leading school that it is today.

Kularatne   made Ananda College a highly nationalistic and   patriotic school. He emphasized Sinhala culture in the curriculum. When the Dutugemunu block of classrooms   was completed in 1919 Kularatne added a pedestal with a model of a lion with a sword in hand.   This indicates, said his biographer,   that from the beginning Kularatne had a political objective in mind. That was a courageous thing to do since Sri Lanka was under British rule at the time, the biographer observed.(Kamalika Pieris, Kularatne of Ananda”, 2015) 

In the 1970s, Ananda looked back and noted that Kularatne had consciously moulded persons who could participate actively in the nationalist revival and independence movement of British Ceylon, which was taking place at the time.

Also, Kularatne introduced cadetting to Ananda College. Anandians excelled in the sport and many joined the armed forces, after independence. Anandians pointed out, with pride, that In 1986, there were more officers from Ananda in the Sri Lanka army than any other school. The leading officers of Eelam War IV, including Gotabaya Rajapaksa, all came from Ananda. This was commented on.

Ananda College is sure to invite President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the school, to felicitate and celebrate.  When he goes there, I hope that he will make some mention of P de S Kularatne, who started it all.  

I end this essay with a snippet of historical information that may interest readers.  It is not well known that the Sinhala monarchy had devised a mechanism of ‘brother kings’. When Vasabha died in 111 AD, the island was ruled in three principalities by his three sons. Since the division was among the legitimate heirs, the unity of the state was not shaken.  I had found a second set of brother kings, also ruling in Anuradhapura, but unfortunately, I cannot locate the reference at this moment.

There was a third instance. Under Dharma Parakrama bahu IX (1489-1513),the Kotte kingdom was ruled by him and his four brothers. The brothers were united and ruled from their independent centres of administration at Madampe, Manikkadavara, Raigama and Udugampola.

The interim government of 2019 has three Rajapaksa brothers in three important positions. Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President, Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and Chamal Rajapaksa, a former Speaker, as Cabinet Minister.  The presence of three and four members of the same family dominating politics is seen as weakness when it should be seen as a rarity.

 Rajapaksa brothers entered Parliament, through general elections where they won seats through direct election. They won in highly independent, volatile, electorates. These electorates were not pocket boroughs of the Rajapaksas. They won, because, despite heavy criticism, the Rajapaksa brothers always delivered successfully on the tasks assigned to them. Sri Lanka is no longer a monarchy and these three are not kings. But I thought the information on ‘brother kings’ may be of interest. (continued)

Kudaligamage Geethanjana

සෑම දේශපාලකයෙකුම තමා විසින් ඉලක්ක කරගනු ලබන  ජන සමාජය රැවටීමට, මුළා කිරීමට හෝ ඊට සේවය කිරීමේ  අරමුණින්, අරුත් ජනනය හා සන්නිවේදනය සඳහාත්, යම් යම්  පණිවිඩ අවශේෂ ලෝකයට ප්‍රක්ෂේපනය කොට දැන්වීම සඳහාත්, දෘශ්‍ය සංඛේත (visual symbols and metaphors) සහ නිමිති ධර්මවාදය (semiotics) ඉතාමත්ම බහුල ලෙස උපයෝගී කරගනී. මෙහි, එනම් දේශපාලනයේදී නිමිති ධර්මවාදය භාවිත කිරීමේ ආරම්භය මිනිසා විසින් දේශපාලනය නැමති සංකල්පය භාවිතයේ ආරම්භය තරම්ම ඉපැරණි ය. අද වන විට රට රට වල ජාතික දේශපාලන කරලියේ පමණක් නොව, ජාත්යන්තර දේශපාලනයේදීත්, රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික  පණිවිඩ හුවමාරුවේදීත් මෙකී නිමිති ධර්මවාදය ඉතා බහුල ලෙස භාවිතා වේ.  

උදාහරණයක් ලෙස ගතහොත්, බටහිර රටවල රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික පණිවිඩ හුවමාරුවේදී තුන්වන ලෝකය ඉලක්ක කරගනිමින් භාවිතා වන සාමය, සංවර්ධනය හා මානව හිතවාදය පිබඳ සඳහන් බොහොමයක් අරුත් සුන් වදන් හා හිස් ප්‍රලාප (platitudes) මේ ගණයට අයත් වේ. බටහිර රටක රාජ්‍ය නායකයෙකු හෝ ඔවුන්ගේ විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශයක  ප්‍රකාශකයෙකු  විසින් කිසියම් අර්බුදයක් පිළිබඳව ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමේදී “සියලු විකල්ප මේසය මත ඇත” (All options are on the table) යැයි ප්‍රකාශ කළහොත් එහි නිමිති ධර්මවාදී (semiotic) අරුත වන්නේ, හන්දියේ චන්ඩියාගේ බැවහැර භාෂාවෙන් කිවහොත්…… “උගේ…අ…(මෙහිදී පාවිච්චිකළ කුනුහරුපය මව් වරුනට අපහාස වන නිසා බලධරයා විසින් කපා හරින ලදී) ඕකාට අම්බානක ගුටි පෝරියල් එකක් දෙන්ඩයි අපි/මං ඉන්නේ” යන්නය.

 අපි අපගේ ප්‍රස්තුතය ජාතික දේශපාලන තලයට ගෙන ආවහොත්, මංගල සමරවීර මහතා විසින් කිසියම් රාජද්‍රෝහී ප්‍රකාශයක් කරන විට හෝ බෞද්ධ ජන විඥානයට අපහාසකර ප්‍රකාශයක් හෝ කරනවිට, කට දෙකොනින් කෙළ පෙරීම මෙම නිමිති ධර්මවාදයට අයත් නොවූවත්, ඔහු විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍යයට ඉතා බරපතල ලෙස බලපාන්නා වූ දේශපාලනික ප්‍රකාශයක් කරනවිට වුව, එම වචන  උච්චාරණයට (යකඩ පෞරුෂයක් සහිත හඬක්/අවධාරණයක් වෙනුවට) කිසියම් වූ සියුම් කෝමළ ලාලිත්‍යයක් ආරෝපණය කිරීම තුල නම් නිමිති ධර්මවාදී පණිවුඩයක් ඔහු ඉලක්ක කරන සමාජ ස්ථරය වෙත ප්‍රක්ෂේපනය කිරීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන බව අනුමාන කල හැක.

එමෙන්ම, රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතාද සිය බිරිඳ සමග ජන සමාජය ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටීමෙන් සමාජයට දීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන පණිවිඩය ඉහත කී නිමිති ධර්මවාදයට (semiotics ) අයත් වන දේශපාලන තීරණයකි. ඔහු එසේ කිරීමෙන් ජන සමාජය වෙත දීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන පණිවිඩය වන්නේ, තමාත් අන්‍යයන් මෙන් සිය ජීවන ගමනේ පමාවී හෝ, “පවුල් පන්සල් වී” තැන්පත් වීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන කෙනෙකු බවය. එම පණිවිඩය සාර්ථක ලෙස සමාජ ගත කිරීමට ඔහුට හැකිවී නැතැයි ඇතැමුන් සිතන හෙයින්, අවම තරමින් ඔහු ස්ත්‍රී ලෝලියකුය යන පණිවුඩය වත් සමාජ ගත කිරීම මින් අපේක්ෂා කෙරෙයි.

(මෙවැනි කොන් වලට මාගේ ලිපිවල තර්කය එළඹුණු විට, අපවටා ඇති සමාජ දේශපාලන යථාර්තයන් පිලිබඳ මාගේ පෞද්ගලික නිරීක්ෂණ වලට අමතරව මවිසින් කල අධ්‍යයනයෙන්  උකහාගත් දැනුම ලිපිවල සටහන් කිරීමට සිත්වෙයි. එවිට මා නිතැතින්ම ප්‍රධාන මාතෘකාවෙන් පිට පැන වෙනත් මාතෘකා වලට පවා එළඹී, පන්සීය පනස් ජාතකය වැනි, පතරංග ජාතක වැල්වටාරම් සහිත විස්තර කථනයකට යොමු වීම සිදුවන්නේ ඒ ඒ මාතෘකා වලට අදාලව වෙන වෙනම ලිපි ලිවීමට මාගේ ඇති අලස කම නිසාය. එබැවින් පහත සඳහන් කාරණා වෙනම ලිපියකින් ඉදිරිපත් නොකිරීම පිළිබඳව මට සමා වන්න.)

සම්ප්‍රදායික මිනිස් සමාජයේ දේශපාලන ස්ථිතියක (entity) නායකත්වය තෝරාගැනීමේදී, කුටුම්භයට ගරු කරන, කුටුම්භ සංරක්ෂණයේ අපේක්ෂා, දුක්ඛ දෝමනස්ස ප්‍රත්‍යක්‍ෂයෙන්ම හඳුනන පුද්ගලයෙකු කෙරෙහි වඩාත් විශ්වාසය රැඳවීම මිනිසාගේ සත්ව ගතිවලට ආවේනික ගති ලක්ෂණයකි. මිනිසාගේ සත්ව ගති වලට ආවේනික ප්‍රධාන උවමනා කිහිපයකි. ආහාර සපයා ගැනීම (Basic sustenance of food and nourishment), තම ජීවත්වන පරිසරයේ දේශගුණික, කාලගුණික පීඩාවන්ගෙන් ආරක්ෂා වීම (weather shield and shelter), වන සිව්පාවුන්ගෙන් හා සතුරන්ගෙන් ආරක්ෂාවී විසීම (Defense), හා වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීම (Reproduction) ඒ අතරින් ප්‍රධාන වෙයි. 

ඕනෑම සත්ව සමාජයක් තම නායකයා තෝරා ගැනීමේදී ඒ තෝරාගන්නා සතා/පුද්ගලයා සිය ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ලින්ගිකයනට ආකර්ශනයක් විෂධ කරන සතෙකු/පුද්ගලයෙකු වීම විශේෂ කරුණකි. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස වඳුරු රෑනක් ගතහොත්, එහි නායකත්වයට තේරී පත්වන්නේ, රැහේ දසත දුව පැන හැසිරෙනාවූ තරුණ විසේකාර වැඳිරියන් දෙස නිස්සරණාද්‍යාෂයෙන්  බලන ඇස්දෙකෙන් පණගිය වඳුරෙකු නොවේ. එසේම තරුණ වැඳිරියන්, සිය චමත්කාරජනක තාරුණ්‍යයේ අංග ප්‍රත්‍යංග තම නාසයේ කණේ අතුල්ලන් ගියත් එසේ නොවුනාසේ සිටිනා බෝධිසත්ව වඳුරෙකුද නොවේ. සැබවින්ම උන් තෝරා ගන්නේ හොඳ විසේකාර, මදනය ගැසූ, තරුණ වැඳිරි ගැටිස්සියෝ දහ දොළහක් උනත් බලා කියාගෙන සිටියහැකි ‘වලත්ත’ වඳුරෙකි.  අප බෝසතානෝත් පෙර භවයක ඉහතකී වඳුරු නායකත්වයේ වගකීම ඉටුකරමින් සිය වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීමේ වගකීම වඳුරු ආචාර ධර්ම පද්ධතියට අනුකුලව අකුරටම ඉටුකළ සේක්නොවැ.  

ස්වභාව ධර්මයද වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීම කෙතරම් වැදගත් කරුණක් සේ සලකා ඇත්ද යන්න, පැහැදිලි වන්නේ එම ලිංගික ක්‍රියාවලියට සත්වයා ආකර්ෂණය කර ගැනීම සඳහා ඊට සම්බන්ධ කර ඇති තෘප්තියෙහි ඇති පරිමාණය සැලකිල්ලට ලක් කිරීමේදීය. එම ලිංගික ක්‍රියාවලිය කිසිදු තෘප්තියක් නොමැති නීරස වගකීමක් පමණක් වූවානම්, කිසිම සතෙකු එය ඉටු නොකරනු ඇත. මට දැන් කම්මැලියි අප්පා, පසේ කොරනවා” කියා හොඳ දෙයක් කිරීමට විරුද්ධ පක්ෂය උත්සාහ ගන්නාවිට  එජාපය දින නියමයක් නොමැතිව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තබනවාසේ, ලිංගික ක්‍රියාවද  කල් දමනු ඇත.

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නමුත් වත්මන් මිනිස් සමජයේ මෙම වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීමේ වගකීම ක්‍රමයෙන් නොවැදගත් දෙයක් බවට පත්වීමට හේතුවූ සමාජ දේශපාලන හා දාර්ශණික හේතුන් තේරුම් ගත යුතුය.

කිසියම් දේශපාලකයෙකු විසින් තමාගේ ලිංගිකත්වය කවරේද යන්න සමාජ ගත කිරීම රාෂ්ට්‍ර පාලනයට අදාළ දෙයක්ද? එය වැදගත් කටයුත්තක්ද? මෙය ඉතා වැදගත් ප්‍රශ්නයකි. ලිංගිකත්වය දේශපාලනයට අදාළ දෙයක් නොවන්නේනම්, ඇතැම් දේශපාලකයින් විසින් තම ලිංගිකත්වය කුමක්ද යන්න ජන සමාජයෙන් සඟවා තැබීමට අමතර වෙහෙසක් ගන්නේත්, ඇතැමුන් සමාජය රවටා ගොනාට ඇන්දවීමට උත්සාහ ගන්නේත් , හෝ එසේම, අවංක දේශපාලකයින් තම සැබෑ ලිංගිකත්වය කුමක්දැයි යන්න ජන සමාජයට හෙළිදරව් කිරීමට අමතර වෙහෙසක් ගන්නේ ඇයි? එමෙන්ම තම දේශය, රාශ්ට්‍රය පාලනය කිරීමට භාර ගන්නා තැනැත්තාගේ ලිංගිකත්වය කුමක්ද යන්න, එම වගකීම ඉටුකිරීමෙහිලා බලපෑමක් තිබේ යැයි ජනයා සිතන්නේ ඇයි?

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මෙය තේරුම් ගැනීමට නම් දේශපාලනය නමැති සංකල්පය මිනිසා විසින් සොයා ගැනීමටත් එය භාවිතා කිරීමටත් හේතුව කුමක්ද යන්න පැහැදිලි ලෙස වටහා ගත යුතු වෙයි. දේශපාලනය බිහිවන්නේ මානවයාගේ පැවැත්ම සහතික කර ගැනීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයක් ලෙසය. එනිසාම වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීමද මානව පැවැත්ම පිලිබඳ දේශපාලනයේදී වැදගත් වෙයි. ​

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අපි අපේ අතීතයට එබී බලමු. “නැවුම් පොළොවේ පළමු පස් පිඩැල්ල පෙරලුදා මිනිසා ශිෂ්ටාචාර ගත විය” යැයි කියමනක් තිබේ.  මිනිසා සිය දඩයක්කාර අශිෂ්ට සත්ව ජීවිතයෙන් බැහැරව, වනයෙන් එලියට විත්,  භූමිය සමග පොරබදන, කෘෂිකර්මයෙන් දිවි ගෙවන සත්වයෙක් බවට පත්වූ දා ශිෂ්ටාචාර ගතවී සාමූහික සමාජ ජීවිතයකට මුල පිරීය. මේ නවමු කෘෂිකාර්මික ජීවන රටාව දඩයක්කාර ජීවන රටාවට වඩා හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස් ජීවන රටාවකි. මෙම ජීවන රටාව තනි තනිව සරි කරගතහැකි ජීවන රටාවක් නොවේ. මෙය ජන කණ්ඩායමක් විසින් සරි කරගත් ජීවන රටාවකි. මීට ගම්  නියංගම් බිහිකර ගැනුමට අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. මහා ජන කණ්ඩායමක අවශ්‍යතාව උද්ගත වෙයි. ඒ අනුව වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීම මිනිසා විසින් සිය පැවැත්ම සහතික කර ගැනුමේ මුලික අවශ්‍යතාවක් බවට පත්වෙයි. මෙහිදී පවුල හෙවත් කුටුම්භය නමැති සංකල්පය බිහිවිය. මෙවැනි සමාජයක් මෙලෙස සංකීර්ණ වනවිට එය මනාසේ කළමනා කරණය කරගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව මතුවේ. ඊට විසඳුමක් ලෙස ‘දේශපාළනය’ නමැති සංකල්පය මිනිසා විසින් සොයා ගැනේ. දේශපාලනය යනු මිනිසා විසින් සොයාගත් තවත් එක් මෙවලමක් ලෙස සැලකිය යුතුය.  ​

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නමුත් අද එය කණපිට පෙරලී තිබේ. එනම් දේශපාලකයා සිතන්නේ මිනිස් සමාජය යනු දේශපාලනය විසින් සොයාගත් මෙවලමක් ලෙසය. එය අවලමාගේ දේශපාලනයයි. තමා දේශපාලනය කරන ජන සමාජය තමාට අවශ්‍ය ලෙස පාවා දීමට, කඩා  බිඳ දැමීමට, නව ලිබෙරල් වාදයේ වහලුන් බවට පත් කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගන්නේ එබැවිනි.​

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මේ කරුණු සංක්ෂේපයෙන් කිවහොත් මෙසේය. සිය වර්ගයා බිහි කිරීම මිනිස් පැවැත්ම සහතික කිරීමෙහි ලා මූලික අවශ්‍යතාවක් බව මිනිසා ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂයෙන් වටහාගෙන සිටී. එසේම දේශපාලනය යනු මිනිස් පැවැත්ම සහතික කරගැනීම සඳහා මිනිසා විසින් භාවිතා කරගනු ලබන කළමනාකරණ මෙවලමකි. දේශපාලකයින් සිය ලිංගිකත්වය කවරේද යන්න අවශේෂ ලෝකයාට දැනෙන්නට හැරීමට හේතුව වන්නේ, තමා මිනිස් වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීමට තිත තබන කෙනෙකු නොව, ඊට ජෛවීමය වශයෙන් (Biologically) දායකත්වය සපයන කෙනෙකු බව ලෝකයාට ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුනක්සේ දේශපාලකයා සිතන  නිසාවෙනි.  මන්ද, මිනිස් පැවැත්ම සහතික කිරීමෙහිලා භාවිතා වන මෙවලමක් වන දේශපාලනය කිරීමට මිනිස් පැවැත්මට දායකත්වය නොසපයන්නෙකු නුසුදුසු යයි මිනිසා සිතන නිසාය. ​

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එසේවුවත් ප්‍රංශ විප්ලවයෙන් පසු ආධිපත්‍යය පිහිටුවන නුතනවාදී බටහිර දේශපාලන දර්ශනයේ ධජය ධනවාදයේ ග්‍රහණයට හසුකර ගැනීමේ හේතුවෙන්, එහිම දිගුවක් වන පශ්චාත් නුතන වාදයේ ඉමෙහි බිහිවන නව ලිබරල් වාදී මතවාද විසින් ඉහතකී චිරාත් කාලයක් පුරා පැවතී, මිනිස් පැවැත්ම සහතික කරගැනීමේලා ඉවහල් කරගත් ඇතැම් මෞලික ප්‍රඥාප්තීන් උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් පවතී.​

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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. අද වනවිට බටහිර ලෝකයේ නව ලිබරල් වාදයේ පෙර ගමන් කරුවන් වන්නේ ලෝකයේ සකල ජනයා තම නව යටත් විජිතවාදී වියහසට ගැට ගැසීමට මාන බලන මහා පරිමාන බහු ජාතික සමාගම්, එම සමාගම් වලින් මුදල් ලබන බටහිර දේශපාලකයින්, එම සමාගම් හා ධනකුවෙරයින්ගෙන් මුදල් ලබන මිනීමරු ඔත්තු සේවා සංවිධාන හා ඔවුන්ගෙන්ම මුදල් ලබන NGO සංවිධාන හා අනන්‍යතා දේශපාලනයේ නියැලෙන LGBTQ  (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) කණ්ඩායම් ය.  ​

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නව ලිබෙරල් වාදයේ ඇති මානව විරෝධී, උග්‍ර ධනවාදී ආර්ථික හා දේශපාලන ප්‍රතිපත්ති පිළිබඳව බහුලව සාකච්චා වී තිබුනද, නව ලිබෙරල් වාදී දර්ශනයේ සියුම් තැන් පිළිබඳව සාකච්චා වී ඇත්තේ ඉතා මද වශයෙනි. ​

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නව ලිබෙරල් වාදීන් සිතන්නේ ඔවුන් වඩාත් පගතිවාදී, නුතනවාදී, හා අනාගත වාදී (futuristic) ජීවන දෘෂ්ටියකින් හා දර්ශනයකින් හෙබියන් බව යයි සඳහන් කලෙමි. ප්‍රංශ ජාතික දර්ශනවාදියෙකු වන මෛකල් ෆුකෝ ගේ Michel Foucault වැනි දර්ශන වාදීන් ගේ අදහස් වලින් සහ ස්ත්‍රී වාදී අදහස් වලින්  සන්නද්ද වී ඇති මොවුහු, ලෝකයේ අනාගතය නව ආනතියක් වෙත යොමු වී ඇතැයි සිතති. ලෝකයේ මෙතෙක් පැවති ආචාරධර්ම පද්ධතීන්, සමාජ ප්‍රඥප්තීන් පුහු වුත්, සමාජ ප්‍රගතියට එරෙහි වූත්, , අතීතයට අයත් ඒවා බව ඔවුහු සිතති. ලාංකික චින්තනය ඇතැම් නව ලිබෙරල් වාදීන් විසින් හඳුන්වන්නේ ‘පසුගාමී ‘ගොවි චින්තනය’ කියාය. එනිසා අතීතයට අයත් වත්මන් සමාජය පවත්වාගෙන යන සියලු පදනම් විනාශ කල යුතුයැයි ඔවුහු සිතති. ලංකාවේදී නම්, එය  බෞද්ධ දර්ශනයෙන් හික්මවුනු සමාජ දාර්ශනික  පදනම හා ඊට ආවේනික ආචාරධර්ම පද්ධතියයි. පසුගිය රජයේ සිටි නව ලිබෙරල් වාදී න් වන රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ  හා මංගල සමරවීර ගේ දේශපාලන තීරණ, ක්‍රියා කලාපය හා  ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රකාශ වඩාත් හොඳින් තේරුම් ගත හැකි වන්නේ මේ පසුබිම තුලය. මංගල නිරතුරුවම භික්ෂු සමාජයට පහර ගැසීමත්, රනිල් විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආරක්ෂාව දුර්වල කොට විදේශ හමුදාවන්ට රට තුලට පිවිසීමට අවශ්‍ය නයිතික පසුබිම සකසා දීමත්, මංගල ජාත්‍යන්තර තලයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පාවා  දීමේ  ක්‍රියාවලියත් යොමු වන්නේ ඉහතකී අතීතයට අයත් සමාජ දේශපාලන පදනම විනාශ කිරීමේ අරමුණ වෙතය.​

නව ලිබෙරල් වාදීහු පවුල නමැති  ඒකකය සමාජ ප්‍රගතියේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය සාධකයක් සේ නොසලකති. වර්ගයා  බෝ කිරීම, කුටුම්භ සංරක්ෂණය යල් පැනගිය පුරාවෘත  වලට අයත්  සංකල්ප සේ සිතති. ස්ත්‍රී පුරුෂ මෛතුන්‍යය යල් පැනගිය දෙයක්සේ මුන් සිතති. මෛතුන්‍යය ප්‍රජනන ක්‍රියාවලියෙන් වෙන් කොට සිතන මොවුහු එය සන්තුෂ්ටි මූලධර්මයහි  (pleasure principle) හි  කොටසක් බවට පත් කරති.     

මෛතුන්‍යය වර්ගයා බෝකිරීමේ වගකීමෙන් බැහැර කල විට, එය සන්තුෂ්ටි මූලධර්මයහි  (pleasure principle) හි  කොටසක් බවට පත් කලවිට, ස්ත්‍රී පුරුෂ යෝගය හා සමවායේ ඇති වැදගත් කම අහෝසි වී යයි. එවිට පුරුෂයෙකු ස්ත්‍රියක සමග සේම ස්ත්‍රියකට පුරුෂයෙකු සමග ලිංගික ක්‍රියාවලියේ යෙදීමට අවශ්‍ය නොවේ. ලිංගික ක්‍රියාව සන්තුෂ්ටි මූලධර්මයහි  (pleasure principle) හි  කොටසක් නිසාත්, වර්ගය බෝ කිරීම නමැති වගකීම ඉන් ඉවත් කර ඇති නිසාත්, පිරිමියෙකුට තවත් පිරිමියෙකු සමගත්, ස්ත්‍රියකට තවත් ස්ත්‍රියක සමගත්, කෙනෙකුට බෝනික්කකු (sex robot dolls) සමග හෝ ලිංගික ක්‍රීඩා භාණ්ඩයක් (sex toys) සමග ලිංගික ක්‍රියාවේ  යෙදිය හැක. 

මේ පසුබිම තුල මානව සංහතියේ පැවැත්ම සඳහා ස්ත්‍රී පුරුෂ යෝගය අවශ්‍ය නොවෙතැයි සිතන මොවුහු, මිනිස් වර්ගයා බෝ කිරීම විද්‍යා ගාරයක් තුල සිදු කල හැකි ඉතා සුළු දෙයක් යැයි සිතති. සැබවින්ම කිවහොත්, විශාලතම මානව ඝාතක අවිය (Bigest wepon of mass-destruction) ලෙස සැලකිය යුත්තේ පරමාණු බෝම්බය නොව, නව ලිබෙරල් වාදී මත බව අප විසින් වටහා ගත යුතුය. අපගේ නව ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැති තුමා පරෙස්සම් වියයුතේ මුන්ගෙන්ය.  මන්ද, මුන් දැන් දැන් නව   ජනාධිපති  තුමා වටේ හොල්මන් කිරීම ආරම්භ කර ඇති බව අපට දැනගන්නට ලැබී ඇති නිසාවෙනි. මුන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පාලනයත් පීලි පැන්වූ නිසා, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂගේ   රජයත් එලෙසම පීලි පැන්විය හැකි යයි සිතනවාට සැකයක් නැත. 

මතු සම්බන්ධයි    

Sri Lanka Economy CT CLSA

Government co-media spokesperson Dr. Bandula Gunawardena stated that certain changes have been made to taxes during the first Cabinet meeting today. Changes as below

 Reduce VAT from current 15% to 8% w.e.f 01 Dec 2019 – VAT on Financial services will remain at 15%

 2% NBT removed w.e.f 01 Dec 2019– including for Financial Services businesses

 Telecommunications Levy reduced by 25% (current voice levy of 15% to likely to be reduced to 11.25%)

 Foreign Currency earnings exempted from income tax

 Construction Industry to be placed on 14% income tax instead of 28%

 IT & enabling services to be made tax free from all taxes

 Tax free threshold for turnover for Vat to be raised from Rs.1mn per month to Rs.25mn per month

 Farm income from agriculture, fishing & livestock to be made income tax free

 Capital gains tax on stocks, debit tax on financial institutions and debt service tax to be removed

 Tourism business will be treated as export for zero rate provided that 60% turnover is sourced from local supplies.

 Withholding Tax on interest income to be removed for those with monthly interest income less than Rs 250,000.

 PAYE tax free threshold to be increased to Rs.250,000 from current Rs.125,000 per month for all public & private sector employees w.e.f 1 Jan 2020

AS per news reports all the other proposals, except for VAT, NBT reduction and changes to PAYE tax threshold will be implanted with immediate effect

The proposals are positive for sectors across the board with reduced taxes likely to drive the overall economic activity and the broader consumer sentiment.

Whilst the proposals are yet to be gazetted, we expect the stock market to react positively from 28 Nov 2019

While we expect above proposals to result in an increase in the budget deficit (especially for 2020E), increase in consumption given the anticipated increase in disposable income, would partially offset the negative impact on the fiscal deficit.

උපුටා ගැන්ම lanka C news

පසුගිය රජය සමයේ සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරන ලද රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් පැන යාමට කටයුතු සූදානම් කර ඇති බව රාජ්‍ය ඇමති මන්ත්‍රී රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

හෘදයාබාධයක් සඳහා ප්‍රතිකාර ලබාගැනීමට යයි පවසමින් සිංගප්පූරුවට පැන ගොස් එතනින් වෙනත් රටකට පැන යාමට සූදානමින් සිටින බවට තොරතුරු ඇතැයිද ඇමැතිවරයා සඳහන් කළේය.

කෙසේ වෙතත් සේනාරත්න මහතා රටින් පලා යාම දැක්වීම සඳහා වැඩපිළිවෙලක් යොදා ඇතැයි ද ඔහු පැවසුවේ කොළඹදී පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදීය.

උපුටා ගැන්ම lanka C news

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ පරාජිත ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහුගේ පාර්ශ්වයේ වැඩි මන්ත්‍රී පිරිසක් දැඩි කලකිරීමෙන් සිටී.

පරාජයෙන් පසුව නැවතත් දේශපාලන පිටියට නොපිවිසි සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතා හුදෙකලාව කාලය ගත කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහුව් විරෝධය පළ කර ඇත.

අඩුම තරමින් පක්ෂ නායකත්වය හෝ විපක්ෂ නායකත්වය ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා ප්‍රමාණවත් සටනකට ඔහු යොමු නොවන ඔවුනතර සාකච්ඡා වෙයි.

අද දිනයේද සිරිකොතේදී කැඳවා තිබූ පක්ෂ නායක හමුව සඳහා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා සහභාගී වී නොසිටීම හේතුවෙන් එහි පැමිණ සිටි සජිත් පිලේ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් අදහස් පල කර ඇත්තේ දැඩි කලකිරීමෙනි.

එක් මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ද සදහන් කර ඇත්තේ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට මේ වන විට දැඩි ලෙස මානසික බිඳ වැටීමකට ලක්ව ඇති බවයි.

ඔහු ඉක්මනින්ම මානසික වෛද්‍යවරයකු වෙත යොමු කර ප‍්‍රතිකාර කිරීම සදහා සාකච්චාවක් සිදුවෙමින් ඇතැයිද මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයා සදහන් කර ඇත.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

The Swiss embassy in Colombo has declined to give Sri Lanka, conducting an investigation into an alleged abduction of one of its employees, access to the person concerned.

Authoritative sources told The Island yesterday that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had been denied an opportunity to record the alleged victim’s statement. Responding to another query, sources said that the investigations had been hampered by the failure on the part of the detectives to question the alleged victim.

Susil Premjayantha, who assumed duties as the junior foreign minister at the Foreign Ministry yesterday morning declined to comment on the alleged incident as he wasn’t aware of it. The lawmaker said so when the media raised the alleged abduction of the Swiss embassy employee.

Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena on Wednesday, Nov 27, told the first-post Cabinet media briefing that he wasn’t aware of the alleged incident.

Government sources said that for want of cooperation on their part, the CID had been compelled first to verify the Swiss government accusation. First of all authorities had to establish the identity of the local female employee who complained to the embassy of unidentified persons seeking information from her as regards Sri Lankans seeking refuge in Switzerland.

The New York Times quoted officials in Colombo as having said that the men forced her to unlock her cellphone data, which contained information about Sri Lankans who have recently sought asylum in Switzerland, and the names of Sri Lankans who aided them as they fled the country because they feared for their safety after Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency at the election this month.

The Foreign Ministry yesterday morning expressed hope that the Switzerland embassy would fully cooperate with the government.

Authoritative sources said that the Swiss refusal to reveal the identity of the alleged victim meant that she had been also advised against lodging a complaint with the police.

Sources questioned the allegations that unknown persons obtained cellphone data regarding Sri Lankan asylum seekers and those who assisted them. “We have never heard of diplomatic missions allowing local employees access to confidential information,” a senior official said.

Switzerland demanded an investigation into alleged abduction soon after Chief Inspector Nishantha Candappa de Silva, who handled a spate of high profile investigations during the previous administration, sought refuge in Switzerland.

Silva accompanied by his wife and three children left the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) over the last weekend.

Sources said that Sri Lanka hadn’t so far raised the issue of the police officer being given refuge in Switzerland. Sources suggested that Swiss accusations in respect of alleged threats to an employee had pre-empted Sri Lanka raising the issue regarding the policeman receiving refugee status.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and for the guarantee of the security of the Swiss representation in Colombo and for the full restoration of its employees. The statement added, “this message was conveyed by the Swiss ambassador to Sri Lanka to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena together with a diplomatic demarche.”

The Foreign Ministry, in a second statement that dealt with the alleged incident, stated: “In order to enable the relevant authorities to conduct the investigation smoothly and according to established procedure, the fullest cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland has been requested.”

The Swiss mission brought Monday’s incident to the notice of the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, Nov 27.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany who is concurrently accredited to Switzerland, Karunasena Hettiarachchi would soon meet Swiss authorities to obtain an update on the investigation.

The Foreign Ministry reassured unequivocally its commitment as a State Party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) to facilitate the smooth functioning of diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka.

Sources pointed out that the alleged victim instead of complaining to the police on the day of the incident sought intervention of the diplomatic mission. The police were yet to receive access to the alleged victim, sources said, Thursday afternoon.

Swiss embassy alleged the abduction of local staffer in the wake of former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, MP, urging the Foreign Ministry to take the Chief Inspector’s case with the Colombo mission.

Well informed sources told The Island that a Navy officer who provided a statement implicating Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne in a high profile case, too, reached Switzerland ahead of CI Nishantha de Silva.

Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Parliamentarian Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera said yesterday the government should intervene to investigate the incidents of Dr. Shafi Shahabdeen and the controversy involving Shariya University of former governor M.A.L.M. Hisbullah without any political involvement.

The Thera told a news conference that he expected the government would carry out its responsibility in dealing with these issues.

It is regrettable in the way the previous government and the CID behaved in the matter regarding Dr. Shahabdeen. The government should conduct a proper investigation into this matter,” the Thera said.

He said a special committee should be appointed to look into the controversy involving the Shariya University of Hisbullah and added that the judiciary should be allowed to take up these matters without political intervention.

We do not hope to stage protests or convene media conferences to remind the government of these matters. We hope it would carry out its responsibility,” he said.

The Thera said the country needed one law including one education policy and one marriage law.

Ven. Rathana Thera said he expected that the government would not implement detrimental pacts such as MCC, SOFA and ACSA proposed by the previous government.

The UNP should do a self-criticism on the above agreements. Everyone should protest against any agreement detrimental to the country without any political differences,” he said.

Speaking on the presidential election, the Thera said the Sinhala people had proved that they could unite and establish a government without the support of the minority communities.

The government received less than 5 per cent votes from the minority communities including Tamils and Muslims. Buddhist monks supported President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s victory without political differences,” he said.

Ven. Rathana Thera said the hunger strike launched by him after the Easter Sunday attack against extremists became a decisive factor in the presidential election. 

Courtesy Adaderana

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a committee consisting of six members to recommend qualified professionals for the topmost positions in State institutions, says the President’s Media Division (PMD).

This committee is required to submit its recommendations for the leading posts at public enterprises, state institutions, and state-owned commercial enterprises on or before the 18th of December this year.

Mr. Sumith Abeysinghe, former Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers and senior State official with extensive experience in the public sector, will chair this committee.

Former Chairman of John Keells Holdings Plc. Susantha Ratnayake, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Hela Clothing Chairman Dian Gomes, Neurosurgeon Dr. Prasanna Gunasena and Senior Lecturer Jagath Wellawatte have been appointed as committee members.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, November 28 (newsin.asia): The Government of Sri Lanka has said that it has taken serious note of the alleged criminal incident concerning a locally recruited staff member of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo, on Monday 25 November 2019.

On being informed of the alleged incident yesterday, the Police has taken immediate action to commence an investigation into the matter.

In order to enable the relevant authorities to conduct the investigation smoothly and according to established procedure, the fullest cooperation of the Embassy of Switzerland has been requested.

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany who is concurrently accredited to Switzerland, Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi will be meeting with the Swiss authorities to provide an update on the investigation, shortly.

The Government of Sri Lanka takes this opportunity to reaffirm unequivocally its commitment to give effect to the obligations undertaken as a State Party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), to facilitate the smooth functioning of diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

කුරුණෑගල රෝහලේ සේවය කළ වෛද්‍ය සාෆි ෂිහාබ්දීන් පිළිබඳව පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව ක්‍රියාකළ ආකාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පූජ්‍ය අතුරලියේ රතන හිමියන්අදහස් පළ කළා.

ඒ, කොළඹදී පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව සමයේදී සිදු වූ බවට පැවසෙන දූෂණ සහ අක්‍රමිකතා පිළිබඳව පැමිණිලි කිරීම සඳහා සිවිල් සංවිධාන කිහිපයක් අද අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ චෝදනා විමර්ශන කොමිෂන් සභාවට පැමිණියා.

බිංගිරිය ආයෝජන කලාපයේ කිලෝමීටර් 6ක මාර්ගයක් ඉදිකිරීමේදී සිදු වූ බවට පැවසෙන වංචාවක් පිළිබඳව බිංගිරිය ආයෝජන කලාපය සුරැකීමේ සංවිධානය අල්ලස් කොමිසමට පැමිණිලි කළා.

මේ අතර, මහනගර සහ බස්නාහිර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යංශයේ සිදු වූ මූල්‍ය වංචාවක් පිළිබඳව ජාතික නිදහස් වෘත්තීය සේවක සංගමයද අල්ලස් කොමිසමට ලිඛිත පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා.

හිටපු සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතාගේ අනුදැනුම මත බාල ඖෂධ ගෙන්වමින් සිදු කළ බවට පැවසෙන මූල්‍ය වංචාව පිළිබඳව පැමිණිලි ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම සඳහා සිංහලේ අපි සංවිධානය සහ බෞද්ධ තොරතුරු කේන්ද්‍රය ද අල්ලස් හෝ දුෂණ චෝදනා විමර්ශන කොමිෂන් සභාවට පැමිණියා.

මේ අතර, අධිකරණ කටයුත්තක් වෙනුවෙන් බස්නාහිර පළාත් මහාධිකරණයට පැමිණි බලශක්ති රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා අදහස් පළ කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

රණවිරු දඩයමට එරෙහිව ජනාධිපති කොමිසක් පත් කරන ලෙස විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් අජිත් ප්‍රසන්න මහතා ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

ඒ හෝමාගම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේ පැවති නඩු කටයුත්තකට පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේදී මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින්.

මාධ්‍යවේදී ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැළිගොඩ අතුරුදහන්වීම පිලිබද නඩුව හෝමාගම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේදී අද යලි සලකා බැලුනා.

මෙහිදී මෙතෙක් හෝමාගම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයේ පැවති නඩු කටයුත්ත අවසන් කිරීමට හෝමාගම මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා අද තීරණය කළා.

මෙම නඩුවේ දෙවන විත්තිකරු වන ප්‍රබෝධ සිරිවර්ධන ඇතුළු බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීන් තිදෙනෙකු නිදහස් කිරීමටද මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා නියෝග කළා.

>කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම නඩුවට අදාළ චූදිතයන්ට කොළඹ ත්‍රිපුද්ගල මහාධිකරණයේදී සහ හෝමාගම මහාධිකරණයේදී අධිචෝදනා ගොනු කර තිබෙනවා.

Sri Lankan News

A WELL PLANNED OPERATION THAT FAILED TO BEAR FRUIT

THE BELLIGERENTs

(1) NGO OPERATION BACKED BY CIA

(2) BACKED BY LOCAL OPERATORS SIMILAR TO THE LATEST  SWISS EMBASSY SCANDAL

(3) THAJUDEENS SOCIALITES WHO LASED HIS FINAL SHOTS OF POL WITH MIND BENDING DRUGS

(4) YAHAPALANA GOONS ON A  PAID MISSION TO ELIMINATE THE RAJAPAKSES FROM THE POLITICAL ARENA

(5) FOREIGN MISSIONS ANGERED AT  ENDING THE E- eLAM  WARS

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

රගර් ක්‍රීඩක වසීම් තාජුඩීන්ගේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයින් සම්බන්ධ බවට සාවද්‍ය සාක්ෂි ලබාදෙන ලෙස අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ශානි අබේසේකර ඇතුළු නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් තමන්ට සහ තම පවුලට දැඩි බලපෑම් එල්ලකළ බවට නාරාහේන්පිට පොලිසියේ අපරාධ අංශයේ හිටපු ස්ථානාධිපති සුමිත් පෙරේරා මහතා අද අනාවරණ කළා.

ඒල සත්‍ය ගවේෂකයෝ සංවිධානය කොළඹ අද කැඳවා තිබූ ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදීයුදීන් විසින් දිර්ඝ කාලීනව අවතැන් වූ පුද්ගලයින් නැවත පදිංචි කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතියට වෙන් කල මුදල් ඡන්දදායකයින් ප්‍රවාහනය කිරීම සඳහා යොදා ගෙන ඇති බව කර්මාන්ත හා වාණිජ කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය පවසනවා.

ඔහු විසින් රුපියල් අනුපන් ලක්ෂ 29,060ක මුදලක් මෙලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා ගමනා ගමන මණ්ඩලයට ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ගෙවා ඇති බව සදහන්.

පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදි අවතැන් වුවන් ලෙස හදුන්වමින් පුත්තලමේ ජිවත් වු පිරිසක් ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කිරිම සදහා ශ්‍රී ලංගම බස්රථ 222කින් මන්නාරම දක්වා ප්‍රවාහනය කිරිම පිළිබදව හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදීයුදීන්ට එරෙහිව චෝදනා එල්ල වුණා.

ඒ පිළිබදව ප්‍රථමයෙන් කරුණු හෙළි කළේ හිරු CIA මගින්.

කෙසේ වෙතත් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා දිර්ඝ කාලීනව අවතැන් වු පුද්ගලයින් නැවත පදිංචි කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපෘති අධ්‍යක්ෂක වරයාට දන්වා ඇත්තේ මෙම ගෙවීම් ජනාධිපතිවරණයට අදාල ගෙවීමක් බැවින් රජයේ මුදල් මේ සදහා වැයකිරිම කිසිසේත්ම නොකල යුතු බවයි.

ඒ අනුව හිටපු කර්මාන්ත හා වාණිජ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදීයුදීන් මෙම මුදල් නියමිත කාර්යයන්ගෙන් පරිබාහිර කාර්යක් වෙනුවෙන් භාවිත කර ඇති බවට පෙනි ගොස් ඇති බවයි එම අමාත්‍යාංශය අද නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් සඳහන් කළේ.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ස්විට්සර්ලන්ත තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරිනියක් රඳවාගෙන ප්‍රශ්න කළ බව කියන සිද්ධිය පිළිබඳව සම්පූර්ණ වාර්තාවක් ලබාදෙන ලෙස ආරක්ෂක අංශ වලට තමා උපදෙස් ලබාදුන් බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ ඔහු යටතේ පවතින නිවාස සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යාංශයේදී අද වැඩ භාර ගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින්.

කෙසේ වෙතත්, අද පස්වරුව දක්වා ඊට අදාලව කිසිදු පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් වී නොතිබුණු බවද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා සඳහන් කළා.

එහෙත් පැමිණිල්ලක් නොමැතිව වූවද, විමර්ශන සිදුකරන ලෙස තමන් දැනුම්දුන් බවයි අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් කියා සිටියේ.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

පසුගිය රජය විසින් පාසැල් දරුවන් සඳහා ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ සුරක්ෂා රක්ෂණය කිසිසේත්ම නතර නොකරන බව අධ්‍යාපන, ක්‍රීඩා සහ තරුණ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම පවසනවා.

අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ හිරු ප්‍රවෘත්ති අංශය ඔහුගෙන් මේ පිළිබඳව විමසු අවස්ථාවේදීයි

එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේ, හිටපු අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් ආරම්භ කළ මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය අගය කළ යුතු බවයි.<br /><br />ශ්‍රී ලංකා රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කර මෙය යළිත් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන බවයි ඔහු ප්‍රකාශ කළේ.

මිට අමතරව පාසැල් දරුවන්ට පසුගිය රජයෙන් ලබාදුන් ටැබ් පරිඝනක ව්‍යාපෘතියේ ගැටළු සහ අක්‍රමිකතා පවතින බැවින් එම ව්‍යාපෘතිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තීරණයක් ගැනීමට සුදානම් බවයි අමාත්‍යවරයා කියා සිටියේ.

පසුගිය රජයේ දුෂණ වංචා සෙවීමට හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පත්කළ විශේෂ ජනාධිපති කොමිෂම මඟින් ද ටැබ් පරිඝනක ව්‍යාපෘතියේ යම් දුෂණ සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෙළිදරව් කර ඇති බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

ටැබ් පරිඝනක වලට වඩා මුලික අවශ්‍යතා රැසක් පාසැල් දරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් සම්පුර්ණ කළ යුතුව තිබෙන බව අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යවරයා හිරු ප්‍රවෘත්ති අංශයට වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළා.

Courtesy Hiru News

UNF coalition leaders met at Sirikotha today to discuss the crises over the opposition leader position and the UNP Leadership.

A group of party members including UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam participated.

However, MP Sajith Premadasa was conspicuously absent in the meeting today as well.

UNP General Secretary Kariyawasam told our news team that he finds it difficult to contact MP Premadasa.

He said that he expects to discuss the outcome of today’s meeting with MP Premadasa.

Meanwhile, a letter signed by 57 UNP MPs has been handed over to the Speaker last afternoon requesting him to appoint Sajith Premadasa as the new Opposition Leader.

Speaker’s office confirmed that the letter was referred to UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam asking the latter to draw his attention to the request of the 57 MPs and confirm the final decision about the opposition leader post.

Accordingly, the speaker will officially announce the name of the new opposition leader at the beginning of the next parliament session.

Earlier, the speaker said that he was compelled to respect parliament tradition and accept the proposal of the UNP General Secretary.

He also said if somebody challenges that decision, such a matter should be resolved within the party.

Courtesy Hiru News

All forms of tax on information and communication technology have been waived.

This was announced by joint cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardene this afternoon.

He further stated that three segments of tax, 6%, 12 % and 18 %, have been reduced for income tax as well.

Courtesy Hiru News

On the advice of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a six-member committee of professionals have been appointed by the Presidential Secretariat to recommend the appointment of competent and qualified professionals to government institutions.

The committee is headed by Sumith Abeysinghe, a former Cabinet Secretary.

The committee is comprised of Susantha Ratnayake, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Dias Gomes, Dr. Prasanna Gunasena and Professor Jagath Wellawatte.

The Presidential Secretariat has also informed the Committee to submit recommendations on qualified professionals to public enterprises, statutory bodies and state-owned commercial enterprises before the 18th of this month.

The Ambassador of Norway in Sri Lanka Trinee Joranly Eskedel and the Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Ahmed Ali al-Mu’ala met with President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday.

Meanwhile President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa left to India on a two-day official visit today. This was on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The President is also scheduled to meet the Indian President Ramnath Kovind. Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ravinath Ariyasinghe, Secretary to the Treasury S. Attigala, Presidential Advisor Lalith Weeratunga and Private Secretary to the President Sugheshwara Bandara accompanied the president.

Harinda Vidanage Courtesy Strategic News International

The new President elect of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is only a week into his administration, but he has already hit the turbo gear and is on full throttle. The president expects everyone in his governance mechanism, including his two elder siblings – irrespective of the fact that one was a two-term president and the other the eldest brother in the family – to deliver results at the same pace with which he is cruising.

Sri Lanka is experiencing an unprecedented political transformation that many Sri Lankans have been yearning for in the backdrop of the abysmal failure of the good governance regime that was promised by the previous government. This article is not an analysis of the domestic political shaping of the new presidency, instead it attempts to explain the rise of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a symbol of a much larger global political phenomenon.

The South Asian Trinity

In 2014, a then little-known political figure in the rest of India – despite being Chief Minister of Gujarat for nearly a decade – became the BJP nominee for premiership during the Lok Sabha elections. Narendra Modi, who was seen by Western powers as a key figure in the 2002 Gujarat riots, was shunned by the Western world for a long time. He, however, broke all historical conventions and political narratives to become India’s undisputed strong man. Even since becoming prime minister in 2014, he has steered India into a formidable regional and global standing.

Modi’s meteoric rise was heralding a new political era in India, the so-called ‘Third Republic’ that would propel it further into the center of the world stage and with confidence realise its full potential. He promised a ‘New India’, a slogan that won the hearts and minds of his followers. Today, his track record is open to debate, yet it does not change the fact that Modi was the turning point in India’s recent political history.

India’s traditional nuclear rival Pakistan – plagued by political instabilities, hounded by the United States under President Trump yet zealously guarded and empowered by China – had its Modi moment during its general election in 2018. A leader emerged out of a new political grouping, defying the two traditional political parties which have exchanged powers for decades since Independence. A cricketing hero, championing Pakistani national interests, defying Western powers and riding on a massive wave of support from urban, rural and tribal Pakistan, Imran Khan ran and won on the promise of a ‘New Pakistan.’

Voters in India and Pakistan were both wooed by a common message, a calling that broke from past political narratives. This was a message not just of hope but of a new beginning. For Indians and Pakistanis, living under circumstances of incremental change as a result of political transitions since Independence, the promise of renewal from Modi and Khan was a game changer.

Modi is riding a wave of popularity not just within India but among Indian diasporans globally; he won his second term in 2019 with an increased mandate from the first. In Pakistan, political analysts were skeptical of an Imran Khan premiership, it was deemed a failure, yet today he hangs in and seems to be making headlines locally and globally for being the change agent he promised to be.

India’s foreign policy and global posture has broken its Nehru Gandhian framework which was pretty much the status quo since 1947. The country today is flexing its muscles across the region and has a clear plan for its global role. As Professor Raja Mohan eloquently writes in his book Modi’s World, Modi has managed to expand and strengthen India’s sphere of influence, thus India’s present and foreseeable future is and will be ‘Modian’ by design.

With last week’s presidential election outcome in Sri Lanka, South Asia completes the trinity. The tech-savvy and innovative Indian Prime Minister, the modern and sophisticated Pakistani leader, and an action-driven no-nonsense President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka, complete an iron triangle of political leaders spearheading change in the South Asian political landscape in the 21^st century.

Regional and Global leadership

Xi Jinping, since his ascendancy first as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China in 2013, has helped China shed its long-time self-constraints of external engagements. Modern China and its prosperity are attributed to its enterprising leader, the late Deng Xiaoping. Deng transformed a China that was rural, poor and low tech into a vastly urbanised society with massive infrastructure development projects making up the backbone of China’s massive empowerment drive.

China’s domestic developmental success through infrastructure development has become the key driver of current President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) which is a planetary level strategy of connecting China with the rest of the world.

Xi Jinping belongs to the new breed of leaders who are self-made change agents. He has broken China’s self-imposed isolation when it comes to foreign policy and its regional and global ambitions. He has clearly outlined China’s global ambitions which demonstrates his ambition to lead China’s transformation into a ‘fully developed nation’ by 2049. President Xi has set this as a policy goal to celebrate the centenary of the creation of modern China.

From President Erdogan in Turkey, President Maduro in Venezuela, President Putin in Russia, President Macron in France, Prime Minister Abe in Japan to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, all of them have become change agents and are challenging the contextual intelligence of international relations scholars who have pitted their belief on global governance and global institutions as factors that shape leaders. The rise of these self-made leaders and their policies are setting up a chain reaction of disruptions that are transforming global politics and creating an alternative set of new political realities in the 21^st century.

There are many factors why global politics and their local manifestations are shaped by new leaders or established leaders taking new trajectories. The causes range from decay in legacy systems, liberal institutionalism and liberal internationalism reaching its limits and strategic blunders of liberal powers. These have all created a popular revulsion of traditional politics, institutions, and leaders who are products of such systems.

This has been exacerbated by the rise of information economics and cyber politics, as it is not merely the technologies but the platforms and narratives as well. Today, if a leader can use the technology strategically, he or she will build formidable networks of power. In a recent article in the online journal Foreign Affairs, Professors Daniel Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack argue, ‘The information revolution has given rise to the super-empowered individual and the super-empowered state and pitted them against each other’. Sri Lanka’s new presidency needs to be understood from this global context not exclusively from the domestic frameworks.

Gota’s X-Factor

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seen as a tech-savvy individual and he has encouraged many in both the civilian and security sector to invest in technologies for national security, and later urban planning and development, while functioning as the secretary of defense during the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

When it comes to Sri Lanka’s global projection and our foreign policy initiatives, the new president will seek to adopt a pragmatic foreign policy which he is compelled to do. We are moving into an era of intense geopolitical rivalries, breakdown of global governance mechanisms and alternative forms of international cooperation. Thus, in a time where both completion and collaboration co-exist in parallel universes, making the job of any national leader challenging, this demands strategic vision to penetrate the distortions of contradictory global forces.

When it comes to the current Sri Lankan president, there have been concerns regarding his lack of political experience, of not holding political office. This was one of the main critiques before and during the election campaign with which the Opposition targeted Mr. Rajapaksa. But one interesting observation here is that when you are not clouded by political interests and lenses, it provides a fresh leader with limitless clarity to see the world and work out responses. It also helps them to be very honest and forthcoming in diplomatic dealings and interactions with diplomats and other global leaders.

Western and non-western ambassadors have already commented on this aspect regarding the new president of Sri Lanka. Thus, when things are so complicated and complex in the global political scenario: clarity, honesty, and transparency can boost the X-factor of this leader and enable interactions that preserve and advance our national interests.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has emboldened these universal values within the Sri Lankan political psyche, while his brother – former president and newly sworn-in prime minister – Mahinda Rajapaksa has used his charm for political appeal. Gotabaya’s mantra of meritocracy, apolitical institutionalism and national security enhancement as the pillars on which a new Sri Lanka can stand is a message that all Sri Lankans are emphatically embracing. The new president will face many domestic and global challenges, yet Sri Lanka looks confident in its outlook. From people to markets there is a resurgence of hope and confidence. How this will pan out in the future? Time will tell.

                                               —   Reprinted with permission from the Daily Mirror    

The author is Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) in Colombo. Views are personal

Sri Lankans in Australia

UK is holding general elections. Anyone contesting should be trying to represent the interests of the people in the UK and not issues relevant to other countries which the government of those countries should solve. How representative of the British is the Labor Party? Some of the Party stalwarts have been regularly engaged in speaking about issues relevant to other countries more than what the Brits are going through in Britain. More than 14 million Brits, including 4.5 million children, are living below the breadline. 33.4 million people in the UK labour force and 1.56 million people were classed as unemployed. There are 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the UK. There were 32,733 asylum seekers in 2015 alone and the rich-poor gap widening. Without solving these issues Corbyn and McDonnell wish to give ‘self-determination’ for Tamils in another country. While UK Tamils are around 200,000 there are around 275,000 Jews in the UK. Why is it that Corbyn & Labor are not showing same empathy towards Tamils to Jews in UK?

On 23 November 2019 days after Sri Lanka elected a new president, a video was released by John McDonnel, Labor Party’s Shadow Minister representing Hayes & Harlington constituency which has a population of 303,870 but only 2568 Tamil residents. This is what he had to say obviously reading from a script written in front of him!

I and Jeremy Corbyn Leader of the Labor Party have stood firmly on the side of the Tamil community as its experienced brutal oppression in Sri Lanka”

Why not give facts with evidence – not third party statements.

We believe it should be recognized as an attempt of genocide against the Tamils”

Firstly, prove genocide & explain how Tamil population can increase via genocide

that brutal oppressions has continued with the military occupation of the Tamil homeland”

A country’s military deployment is nothing anyone can question & will depend on the security threat

We urge that the military are withdrawn”

We urge UK to withdraw military from all of its illegally occupied locations – will UK do so?

We believe that the Tamils have the right to a peaceful political solution, but based upon the recognition of their human rights but also their right to self-determination as well.

Whose demands is the UK Labor party chirping and why?

We believe that the British Government has a specific role to play”

UK is a sovereign country & so too is Sri Lanka – look after the British and Sri Lanka’s Government will look after Sri Lankans.

both in terms of ensuring that our relationships with Sri Lanka, trading relationship in particular are based upon human rights but also on progress with the implementation of the UN’s Resolution”

Perhaps countries should also start benchmarking funding acceptance depending on the human rights records of the donors!

We believe also that we have a role to ensure that our High Commission monitors human rights particularly with the election of the new President, whose record we have to say, presents us with real concerns and fears for the future”

Please do tabulate all concerns and take it up at high commission level with facts & evidence

One of the aspects that we’re particularly concerned about is the Prevention of Terrorist Act against Tamils to ensure that basic rights assembly and freedom of speech particularly journalists are no longer applicable”

Do we ask UK to abolish its anti-terror laws? UK must learn to respect country anti-terror laws too.

We believe there has to be a long term political solution”

Political solution for whom is the question

let me make this absolutely clear: the Labor Party will always stand with the Tamil community, both in terms of supporting them here in this country but also supporting them and their families in their homeland”

You mean Tamil Nadu … you may hear from Modi very soon!

We stand with the Tamils”

By all means do… don’t forget to stand with the Brits too – you need to win the Brits vote to come to power – remember that!

Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell should take Nick Cohen’s advice Labour would do better if it learned to like the English”.

Looks like McDonnell has a history of links to LTTE fronts:

In 2008 LTTE held its Heroes Day rally at the ExCel Centre London.

Prabakaran delivered what was to become his last ‘live’ speech. In London, the keynote speech was by Vaiko whose visa denial was opposed by the All Party Parliament Group for Tamils in the British Parliament. Other British MPs speaking at event were Edward Davey (LibDem, Kingston and Surbiton), Siobhain McDonagh (Labour, Mitcham and Mordern), John McDonnell (Labour, Hayes and Harlington), Andrew Pelling (Independent, Croydon Central), Joan Ryan (Labour, Enfield North) and Vireindra Sharma (Labour, Ealing and Southall) obviously fishing for Tamil votes. https://tamilnation.org/tamileelam/maveerar/2008/london.htm

2009 November LTTE Day participated by John McDonnell

http://terencebunch.co.uk/protest-photographer/tamil-heroes-day-of-remembrance-excel-center-london-27-11-2009/

This is what McDonnell said in 2010

I opposed the ban on the LTTE and now support the election of the trans national government.”

https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/tamils’-cause-finds-support-amongst-candidates-all-three-british-parties

In 2016 Corbyn & Labor Party reiterated its party’s support for self-determination http://colombogazette.com/2016/04/14/labour-party-leader-backs-self-determination-for-tamils/

But in 2019 Corbyn drew wrath from Indian Diaspora for seeking international observers to enter Kashmir and allowing people of Kashmir to seek self-determination!

In 2017 McDonnell declared Labor Party would not provide military aid to Sri Lanka

(pl note UK gives nothing free)

2018 – his webpage featured his participation in Mullaivaikkal Remembrance https://www.john-mcdonnell.net/nwsletters/2018/06/25/may-18/

Labor Leader Jeremy Corbyn first visited Sri Lanka in 1984 and since has been aligned to Tamil separatist sentiments.

Both Corbyn and John McDonnell opened a Tamil War Museum in May 2019. http://www.uktamilnews.com/?p=31370

Corbyn also spoke at the Tamil Genocide Conference in October 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AIiNywEP0I so it comes as no surprise that Labor election manifesto mentions Sri Lanka Tamils but then Corbyn is contesting elections in UK and issues related to Sri Lankan Tamils is for Sri Lanka Govt to resolve – why need to insert foreign issues into an election manifesto relevant to UK tax payers and UK citizens? When Labour is able to collect £1 million in small donations in just 10 days..we don’t need to wonder how!

So why doesn’t Corbyn, McDonnell or Labor feel the same for the 275,000 Jews living in the UK?

A Guardian article ironically on the same day as Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections (16 Nov 2019) titled Corbyn resists calls to apologise to British Jews after rabbi’s claims”. BBC’s Andrew Neil questioned Corbyn for taking over a year to investigate Labor member who declared Rothschild Zionists run Israel and World Governments.”

Corbyn denied 130 cases of alleged antisemitism by Labor members. However, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in a tweet highlighted the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews”.

While Corbyn/McDonnell and Labor are trying to create self-determination and a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka, totally out of their gambit, not only the Brits but the Jews living in UK are feeling very insecure and apprehensive about Labour ruling UK.

We may not emigrate in large numbers if Corbyn gets into No 10 – but having our bags packed is how we articulate our anxiety”. A recent poll for Jewish News suggested that 47% of British Jews would seriously consider” leaving the country should Corbyn win. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/26/british-jews-corbyn-emigrate

In 2015, Corby described Hamas and Hezbollah as friends” so is it a surprise Corbyn is pals with LTTE terrorists & their bid for a separate state?

Corbyn has personally been close to a range of individuals and organizations which constitute an extremism and terrorism threat,” said David Toube, director of policy at the counter-extremism Quilliam think-tank.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-upcoming-elections-uk-jews-increasingly-fear-a-corbyn-government/

The Jewish Leadership Council has even written an open letter to Corbyn & Labor Party https://www.thejlc.org/letter_to_jeremy_corbyn

So what is McDonnell blabbering about? Why not listen to this disgruntled Britisher who has no qualms about vocalizing what he thinks about the Labor Party supporters who came canvassing to his door!

Our advice to Corbyn, McDonnell & Labor is just look after the British citizens first & foremost – give to UK Jews the same attention given to UK Tamils…. Let the Sri Lankan Government take care of the Sri Lankan citizens.

Shenali D Waduge

lanka C news

November 27, 2019 at 10:32 pm |

රාජ්‍ය ආයතවල සභාපතිවරුන් හා අධ්‍යක්ෂ මණ්ඩල සාමාජිකයක් බඳවා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය පුරවැසියන්ගෙන් අභිලාෂ (කැමැත්ත) කැඳවීමට තීරණය කර තිබේ.

ඒ අනුව රාජ්‍ය ආයාතන හා ව්‍යාපාර ලාභදායි ලෙස පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට ඒවා ලාභදායි වභාපාර ලෙස පත්කිරීමට හැකි සුදුසුකම් ලත් වෘත්තීය වේදින්ගෙන් ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය අභිලාෂ කැඳවීමට තිරණය කර තිබේ.

මේ සඳහා වන දැන්වීම් පුවත් පත් මගින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කර තිබේ. එසේ යොමුකරන අභාලාෂ පත්‍රිකා වෘත්තීය වේදීන්ගෙන් සමන්විත කමිටුවක් මගින් නැවත සලකා බැලීමෙන් පසුව පත්කිරීම් සිදුකීරිමට නියමිතව තිබේ.

මේ සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලාංකික පුරවැසියන්ට මෙන්ම විදේශයන්ගේ ජීවත්වන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ට අභාලාෂ කැඳවීම් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැකි බව ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය නිකුත් කළ දැන්වීමේ සඳහන් වෙයි.

එම අභිලාෂ කැඳවීමේ පත්‍රිකා දෙසැම්බර් 18දාට ප්‍රථමව ජනපති අතිරේක ලේකම්, ලේකම් කාර්යාංශය, ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය, කොළඹ 01 ලිපියනට හෝ sb@presidentoffice.lk යන විද්‍යුත් තැපැල් ලිපියනයට යොමුකරන ලෙසද ජනපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය පවසයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

විල්පත්තු වනාන්තර පද්ධතියේ කොටසක් එහි අනවසර පදිංචිකරුවන්ට ලබාදුන් බවට පැතිර යන කටකතා අසත්‍ය බව සුරකිමු ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය පවසනවා.

එහි සභාපති පූජ්‍ය පාහියන්ගල ආනන්ද සාගර හිමියන් අද වනජීවි අමාත්‍යාංශයේ පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් සඳහන් කළේ හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ උපදෙස් මත විල්පත්තු නඩුව සමතයකට පත් කිරීමට නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව යෝජනා කර ඇති බවයි.

මේ අතර, හිටපු අමාත්‍ය රිෂාඩ් බදියුදීන් මහතාට අයත් බව කියන ඉඩම් විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද උන්වහන්සේ මෙහිදී අනාවරණ  කළා.

By H. L. D. Mahindapala Courtesy Ceylon Today

The massive swing against the UNP indicates clearly that the nation was biding its time to cut the neck of Ranil’s regime with the sharp edge of their lengthy ballot papers. And they did it in right royal style, peacefully and decisively, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that they can’t be fooled by bogus  theoreticians in civil society and NGOs who had lost their moral compass. The people’s reply was loud and clear. 

And the besieged nation is now settling down again hoping that a change of regime will at least bring them a clean administration. This is an indispensable factor for the survival of the new Rajapaksa regime. If Gota fails to achieve this he too will have to go home like Ranil.

The trust placed in Gota is to prevent the pollution of the political culture under his reign. Quite significantly, the Sinhala-Buddhist ethic was defined by Gota when he took his oaths – not at the traditional Malwatte – but at Ruwanweli Seya in Anuradhapura. He went  back to his roots that ran all the way to the  epic period of history written by Dutugemunu. The symbolism and its meaning resonated deeply in the hearts of the Sinhala-Buddhists threatened by the arrogant minorities. When, for instance, M. L. A. M. Hisbullah crowed that the Arab nations will come rushing to rescue the Muslims if the Sinhalese attack them, he was pushing the Sinhalese to unite against Muslim arrogance.

Voting clout

After Tamil extremism lost its military power at Nandikadal, the minorities were banking on their voting clout to dominate the nation. Their main aim was to gain through electoral politics what they could not gain militarily. Gota’s win on purely Sinhala-Buddhist votes, stunned the political pundits and the UNP leaders who believed that the majority could not win without the minority. 

Gota’s victory rewrote the political equation that was accepted by the intellectuals and the NGO pundits as the indelible truth written in stone. The anti-Sinhala-Buddhist intellectuals and academics must revisit their fake theories and reconsider their spurious assumptions of the grassroots forces that determine national politics.

 It is reasonable to assume now that the Rip Van Winkles in the majority community will rise as one, when they are driven to the brink. They may lie low for some time patiently. But when they are pushed against the wall they will rise to defend their heritage. They did so at Nandikadal when Prabakaran pushed the nation to the brink. 

And they have risen again to preserve their heritage, when Ranil was dragging the reluctant nation once again to reinforce his CFA (22 February 2002) through his ‘constitution-making’ – the ill-fated policy unwanted and rejected by the majority. With his CFA he was ever willing to hand over the nation’s territory to the bitter enemy of the nation. The mantra he was chanting then, together with the NGOs, was ‘confidence-building for peace’. 

He thought he would win the Nobel Prize for his CFA. But, neither the majority nor the minority fell for it. Ranil’s much-vaunted CFA, praised by him as his political masterpiece, exposed his stupidity: Prabakaran treated him like a fool by shooting Ranil’s peace formula to pieces.

This time it was Gota who saved the nation, when Ranil was about  to handover territory and powers through ‘Constitution-making’. It was the Number One item in Sajith’s manifesto launched in Kandy. The  Tamil Net corroborated it: “While one of the mainstream candidates, Sajith Premadasa, at least dropped the term ‘unitary’ and the phrase ‘foremost place to Buddhism’ in his election manifesto, Gotabaya Rajapaksa made it undoubtedly clear that genocidal Sri Lanka would remain unitary with the foremost place to Theravada Buddhism.”

 The keynote speaker, Victor Ivan spoke only on that and nothing else. Ranil, though silenced, was quite happy that Sajith was working his guts out to fulfil his original plan in the CFA. Both were dependent on Tamil votes and both were willing to sell the nation to win a handful of votes. 

They underestimated the power of the Sinhala-Buddhist vote and relied entirely on the minority votes. If they won, they would have argued that they got a mandate from the people to re-write the Constitution. It was Gota’s War II, fought with the ballot, that stopped Ranil’s move to hand over powers and territory to the Tamil extremists.

The post-Independent history is a stunning record of an Invisible Hand moving into place in the nick of time to save the nation from falling  into  the hands of its enemies. How else can one explain Prabakaran rejecting Ranil’s CFA and Chandrika Bandaranaike’s handing over of the North and East to Prabakaran for ten years without an election? If Prabakaran accepted any one of these two offers he would be ruling the roost today, constructing kovils in the two names – Ranil and CBK – for the Tamil to offer poojas whenever they run out of luck.

This Invisible Hand has thrown the predictions, the electoral mathematics and the punditry of our intellectuals into the dustbins. Ever since 1956, they have been labouring in seminars, forums, publications, academia and Media to undermine and diminish the power of Sinhala-Buddhists. But 16 November has proved the resilient power of the grassroots that guide the destiny of the nation.

Under Ranil, they were delighted that they were incorporated into his regime as stake-holders of the nation’s future, marginalising the Sinhala-Buddhists. He even was chuckling on the sidelines that his Ministers were ridiculing and belittling the Sangha. In the end, he was made to pay for the stupidity of his Ministers’ foul mouths.

Realistic assessment

A realistic assessment will confirm that  it was not Sajith who was defeated. It was Ranil. Sajith was faced with an uphill task, battling to wipe out the evil memories of Ranil and present a new face to the public. But the public knew that Sajith was merely the mask hiding Ranil’s anti-national, anti-majority, pro-West, corrupt regime.  He made a desperate bid to distance himself from Ranil. Predictably, in his desperate bid to win, Sajith too swallowed Ranil’s calculation that the minorities could save him. 

He signed secret agreements with Ranil, and Akila Kariyawasam, the Secretary of the UNP, to sell the nation to the Tamil separatists. But the people saw through it and refused to accept his rhetoric.

The alliances made by Ranil with the minorities boomeranged on Sajith. The more Ranil got closer to the minorities, the more it threatened the security of the majority.  The demonised majority reacted en masse to defend their cherished heritage and their way of life from the arrogant minorities who assumed that they could make the majority dance to their nagasalam.  Ranil fell for that line and danced all the way to 16 November believing that the Northern drumbeat would do the trick for him. The people refused to trust the man behind Sajith’s mask. 

With a silent stroke of the pen the voters cut the neck of the selected protector of the nation, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. There was no one to protect the protector when he lost his Kelaniya seat. Chandrika Bandaranaiake who came flying in on a rescue mission, could not win her seat to save Ranil. Even the Presidential candidate could not win his seat in Hambantota. To change the metaphor, this lot put all their eggs in the minority basket. And the majority rejected them.

Azath Sally boasted of the power of the 30 per cent minority that could teach a lesson to the majority. Make no mistake: It was the Sinhala-Buddhist forces, threatened by the minorities in the North and the East that triumphed on 16 November. It was a clear-cut power struggle between the minority and the majority. This  election turned out to be the most defining event since  Nandikadal. Nandikadal was won with bullets. 16 November was won with ballots. Both were led by Gota.

The nationalist forces that swept Gotabaya into power is not confined to Sri Lanka. It is the force that is sweeping the globe. Though it is an odious comparison, it is the Sri Lankan version of ‘Make America Great again’. 

Similar corresponding forces dominate global politics in the post-Cold War era. Easter Sunday highlighted the dangers haunting the nation. They have yet to learn that violence of all three communities – the JVP, Tamil Tigers and Zahrans – will not pay any dividends. In fact, violence will boomerang on the minorities.  Running against the trend, Ranil ganged up with the minorities. This alliance with the minorities became his first and last defence line. But, it boomeranged on him too. 

The Sinhala voters rallied as one united force to reject Ranil’s formula for peaceful co-existence. This is the election that taught Ranil at last that he cannot make the waves roll back according to his commands. He, his fellow-idiots in academia and NGOs, and the minorities must realise that they can go only thus far and no further. Ranil must learn that he can’t change 2500 years of history by buying MPs in Parliament.

The Sinhala forces that saved the minorities from the fascist tyranny of the Pol Pot at Nandikadal have risen again to define peacefully and democratically, the parameters within which the minorities could co-exist in a shared society with equal rights to all. Hiding behind the bogus claim of ‘reconciliation’ (which came only from the Sinhala side) the minorities ganged up to dictate politics to the majority. 

It was this threat to the majority that kept the numbers ticking for Gota as results tumbled down on live telecasts. Except for a brief moment or two, the consistent 50+vote never left Gota as the results captured the emerging  polling trend on the screen. There were no prizes for the runner-up. The winner took it all.

New guru

As for Sajith he was made to believe by Victor Ivan, the new guru of the UNP, that thousands were behind him. He was theorising that Sajith has behind him the thousands of beneficiaries who  were recipients of his visionary father’s (1) poverty alleviation through  samurdhi, (2) house-building on a national scale, (3) decentralising bureaucratic power and  taking it to the grassroots through gam-udawas, (4) creating  jobs by incentivising  businessmen to take garment factories to the villages , etc. President Premadasa also ‘peoplised’ the UNP by taking it away from Kurunduwatte to Kehelwatte. But Ranil reversed it. He took it to his new haven in Kollupitiya, which is next door to Kurunduwatte.

Delusional beliefs

Obsessed with his delusional beliefs, Ranil also ran after George Soros, the Hungarian billionaire, hoping he would rush to save him with investments. He joined the IDU – the exclusive club of white, Christian, Western leaders – hoping  that the Western entrepreneurs would flock in their hundreds and thousands with investments to save him. In the end, the collective actions of his allies in the West and in the North helped him only to go gurgling down the drain. 

It must be conceded that Sajith in  his own flamboyant style tried to reclaim his father’s heritage. But there is more  to the shaping of historic events than a slick tongue, theatrics on  stage and packing the Galle Face space with bussed Bandas bought with buth packets. The expected crowds predicted by Victor Ivan did not turn up at the polling booths. As usual, his theories went down.

Gota’s second victory against the anti-national forces is as great as his first victory in defeating the ‘invincible’ Tamil Tiger terrorists. The battle lines were drawn clearly between the nation and the anti-national forces. If Sajith won it would have taken the nation in the same direction as Ranil. Despite all his chest-beating bravado, Sajith was a mere ventriloquist for Ranil.

Gota won this war because the Sinhala people rallied behind him to fight the battles against the anti-national forces. When his brother and mentor return as Prime Minister, they will collectively capture the power that was denied in the 19th Amendment. Ranil has been hoisted by his own petard. 

He designed the 19th Amendment to strengthen his prime ministerial hand, because the Presidency was beyond his reach. The irony is that all Ranil’s labours have ended in consolidating the power of the Rajapaksas. Jointly they both have another chance to act jointly to overcome all the obstacles placed in the 19th Amendment. The coming events will mock the constitutional-makers who were straining every muscle to curtail the powers of the presidency by increasing the powers of the Prime Minister. 

But, when the President’s brother is also his mentor, what obstacle can stand in his way to override the 19th Amendment? Soon Gota will have all the powers except making a man a woman, and vice versa. Together they will have unlimited power to achieve what they failed to fulfil in their first run.

Gota cannot do what Ranil did to the nation: betray the interests of the people with immoral politics and anti-national betrayals.

Gota owes everything to the Sinhala people. And the Sinhala-Buddhists, he must remember, never failed to protect the minorities and give them security and prosperity at all times, even when they were persecuted by their own leaders or the foreigners. For instance, the Muslims will remember that when Sankili ethnically cleansed Jaffna, partly by throwing pig’s heads into their wells, and when Prabakaran persecuted and chased the Muslims out of Jaffna within 24 hours, it was the Sinhala South that gave refuge to them. He will also remember that the Sinhala people can protect the minorities as long as long as they live under the protective umbrella of the democratic, sovereign, undivided State and not if they fall under the separate rule of fascist Tamil or Sinhala Pol Pots.

War-winning brothers

There is no doubt that the two war-winning brothers will be back again after the next Parliamentary Elections. That, of course, will be another story for another day.

Courtesy Adaderana

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has pledged to enact a Bill to protect public servants who perform their duties.

The Premier made these remarks as he assumed duties as the Minister of Water Supply Housing Facilities today (27).

He also stated that the existing procedure that brings such public officers before the judiciary or the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) when they perform their duties. ‘We must ensure their safety,’ the Prime Minister stressed.

In the meantime, three State Ministers, who took oaths this morning, and several Cabinet Ministers assumed duties in their respective posts.

Minister of Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Development, Internal Trade, Food Security, Consumer Welfare Chamal Rajapaksa took office at the Agriculture Ministry.

State Minister of Land and Land Development S.B. Dissanayake, State Minister of Road Development Lohan Ratwatte and State Minister of Wildlife Resources Wimalaweera Dissanayake also assumed duties after taking oaths at the Presidential Secretariat earlier today.

Courtesy Ada Derana

The Cabinet has given its approval to remove the Nation Building Tax (NBT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax and Withholding Tax on interests, the Co-Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena said today.

He mentioned this during the first press briefing to announce the decisions of the new government’s Cabinet of Ministers, held at the Department of Government Information this evening.

He also said that the Cabinet has further decided to reduce the telecommunications levy by 25%. Thereby the current telecommunications levy of 30% has been reduced to 5%.

These decisions were taken during the first Cabinet meeting of newly formed government held this morning (27) at the Presidential Secretariat.

The Cabinet of Ministers also decided to cut the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 15% to 8%. The ceiling for VAT has been raised to Rs. 25 million turnover per month from existing Rs. 1 million, the Co-Cabinet Spokesman said further.

In the meantime, the income tax on the construction industry has also been reduced from 28% to 14%.

The Cabinet also announced that all religious places are exempted from taxes.

Minister Gunawardena charged that the economy had collapsed under the previous government and that interest rates have sky-rocketed. 

Therefore the new government has decided to abolish some taxes and also to reduce VAT from Dec. 1 to boost economic activities, he said.

Sweeping tax cuts and removals were leading election pledges in the manifesto launched by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in view of the recently held presidential election.

During the election campaign, President Rajapaksa vowed to remove Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Withholding taxes and amend the existing Inland Revenue Act in order to remove the heavy tax burden imposed on the general public. 

He also vowed to slash the VAT to 8% and reduce the income taxes for the manufacturing sector and to make religious places exempt from all taxes.