Courtesy Adaderana

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Presidential Candidate of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), says he will take steps to remove the unnecessary taxes imposed on the people and introduce a simpler tax system.

Addressing a rally held in Mathugama, he says that the complexity of the current tax system has created a situation where people are not paying their taxes. As a result, government revenue has decreased and corruption has increased, he pointed out.

It is an issue for government officials as well to manage the complex tax system and therefore, the existing tax system should be simplified, Rajapaksa said.

It is the responsibility of a government to encourage industries, investors, and businessmen, increase consumption and encourage people to save, according to the former Defence Secretary.

Pointing out that reducing the VAT to 8% would bring relief to all sectors, Rajapaksa said that this would increase government revenue, bring more investments, create more business and build an environment where taxation is easier.

Rajapaksa further stressed that this would interest the public more to pay taxes and make it easy for government officials to manage taxation.

Courtesy Adaderana

The United States Embassy in Sri Lanka has stated that the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement will only be signed after the Presidential Election.

Issuing a statement on the next steps for the Millennium Challenge Corporation development assistance grant, the Embassy stated the grant is expected to benefit at least 11 million Sri Lankans.

The statement reads that the grant will assist to reduce traffic congestion, improve public transportation in Colombo, upgrade provincial roads, and expand existing government initiatives to improve land administration and strengthen the land rights of Sri Lankans.

The Embassy reiterated that the US will not own or lease any land under this grant deal.

However, the Sri Lankan government will have the opportunity to review in order to approve it, stated the US Embassy.

Full statement by the Embassy:

The United States welcomes the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to approve the $480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) development assistance grant.  Sri Lanka requested this support, which is expected to benefit at least 11 million Sri Lankans through the funding of government- and private sector- identified needs. 

The programs supported by this grant will reduce traffic congestion, improve public transportation in Colombo, upgrade provincial roads, and expand existing Government of Sri Lanka initiatives to improve land administration and strengthen the land rights of Sri Lankans.  The Government of Sri Lanka has posted the draft of the grant agreement on the Ministry of Finance website, where it is available for the people of Sri Lanka to review.  The United States will not own or lease any land under this development assistance grant.  Sri Lanka will oversee and manage all grant-funded projects throughout the implementation of the five-year grant assistance agreement.

With presidential elections approaching, the United States anticipates working toward grant signing and parliamentary approval with the Government of Sri Lanka after November 16, 2019.  Per our policy – applied in all 29 partner countries – the Sri Lankan Parliament will have the opportunity to review and approve the grant.  The United States looks forward to continuing our partnership with Sri Lanka and to supporting its efforts to reduce poverty through economic growth.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Minister Daya Gamage says that the government did not rescind the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Agreement with the United States.

Speaking to media personnel near the Aluth Kade court complex today (06) Minister of Primary Industries and Social Empowerment commented on inking the MCC Agreement.

He says that although the Agreement may be signed, it should be approved by the parliament.

We hope to implement the Agreement only after obtaining the approval of the parliament”, he said.

Responding to a question on the recent LP gas shortage prevailed in the country Gamage said that the government needs to have a better connection with the private sector.

Litro Gas is a private company. I agree that we, as a government, need to work better with private companies and keep count of their stocks”, he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister Charitha Ratwatte has forwarded a copy of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Agreement to Ven. Ududumbara Kashyapa Thero.

In a letter attached to the copy, Senior Advisor Ratwatte has requested the Thero to submit a proposal of necessary amendments to be made to the Agreement, should the Thero deem the content in the Agreement may harm the country.

Further, the letter had corrected the name of the Agreement which was mentioned on a banner during the protest fast as the ‘Millennium City Development Corporation Agreement’ to ‘Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement’.

Ven. Ududumbara Kashyapa Thero, last morning (05), commenced a protest fast calling for the government not to ink the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Agreement with the United States.

However, the Thero called off his fast this morning (06) after receiving letters from the two presidential front-runners Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa as well as PM Ranil Wickremesinghe assuring that the MCC Agreement will not be signed before the Presidential Election.

Courtesy Adaderana

Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa claims that like the draft Constitution, the UNP presidential election manifesto also aims to turn Sri Lanka into a loose federation of virtually independent provincial units.

He stated that the chapter on constitutional reform in the manifesto of the UNP presidential candidate contains provisions to replace the unitary state with a formulation that describes Sri Lanka as an ‘undivided and indivisible’ state. 

This is accompanied by the pledge that governmental power will be devolved to the provinces to the ‘maximum extent possible’. Identical provisions can be seen in the draft constitution tabled in Parliament by the Prime Minister in January this year,” he said. 

He charged that the UNP manifesto also contains provisions to expand the powers and functions of the provincial councils, to set up a second chamber in Parliament made up of provincial council representatives in order to curb the powers of Parliament, to allow the provincial units to raise funds independently, to place district and divisional secretaries under the provincial councils and to create a Constitutional Court which will adjudicate in disputes between the center and the provincial units. 

Like the draft constitution, the UNP presidential election manifesto also aims to turn Sri Lanka into a loose federation of virtually independent provincial units.”

He said that former Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has rejected devious and dishonest attempts play around with words to convey different meanings to different persons in the UNP manifesto. 

He said significantly, the UNP manifesto has refused to use even the Sinhala phrase ‘ekeeya rajya’ that had been conceded earlier in the PM’s draft constitution to assuage Sinhala sentiments. 

There is a clearly apparent hardening of the federalist position in the UNP manifesto,” he alleged.

Rajapaksa charged that the UNP manifesto with its toxic constitutional provisions” was presented with much fanfare to the Venerable Mahanayake and Anunayake Theras in order to deceive both the Maha Sangha and the general public.

This is the first time that a mainline political party has included in an election manifesto provisions to dismantle the unitary state and to create a federal state in its place. Therefore this is a matter that needs to be taken very seriously,” he said.

Regardless of the contents of the manifesto that has already been released, I earnestly request the Venenerable Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas to obtain from the UNP candidate, a written pledge to uphold the unitary state, to oppose federalism and to oppose all the proposals contained in the draft constitution tabled in Parliament by the Prime Minister earlier this year.”  

Courtesy Hiru News

The two Petitioners who sought an interim injunction against the signing of the controversial Millennium Challenge Cooperation Agreement requested the Supreme Court today to appoint a full bench for the hearing.

The two petitions filed by Agunugalle Siri Jinananda Thera and the GMOA were taken before Supreme Court judges Buwaneka Aluvihare and S Thurairajah.

Appearing for the petitioners, their lawyers told the court that the petitions should be heard by a full bench as the MCC agreement could risk the sovereignty of the country and its freedom.

Later, the two judges ordered the court registrar to refer the matter to the Chief Justice.

Meanwhile, Surakimu Sri Lanka Organization handed over a petition to the US Embassy in Colombo this morning.

The petition points out that the MCC could hinder the sovereignty, freedom and economy of the country

Courtesy Hiru

An agreement was signed between Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the All Ceylon Disabled Persons Association.

Thirty associations for Disabled People are included in this agreement which was signed at the home of Presidential Candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa with the objective of supporting his election campaign as well as in agreement that the proper place should be given to persons with disabilities.

Expressing his views the Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that he will implement agreements he signed with various factions, during his tenure as President

Meanwhile, he said that he will fulfil everything he has presented in his Election Manifesto during his term as President. This was mentioned at a rally held in Ududumbara yesterday.

Courtesy Hiru

Ududumbara Kashyapa Thera who staged a fast unto death campaign against the signing of the Millennium Challenge Cooperation Agreement says that he has no faith in the letters he received from the Prime Minister’s Office and the NDF Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa.

The Thera who called off the campaign at the Independence Square last night held a media conference today.

The Thera was requested by several factions including the Maha Sangha, but he insisted that he needed assurance in writing to do so.

In addition, a letter from the SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was conveyed to the Thera by MP Bandula Gunawardana last night.

At the same time, UNP former General Secretary Tissa Attanayake handed over two letters to the Thera, one from the Prime Minister’s Office and the other from NDF Candidate Sajith Premadasa.

Later, Kashyapa Thera who considered the requests he received from many factions, including some written assurances, called off the fast unto death campaign last night

Courtesy Hiru

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa released a communique titled the Stance of the UNP Presidential Candidate on the Unitary State

The communique states that the UNP Candidate has proposed in his manifesto to introduce a concept of undivided and an unseparated state.

It also proposes maximum power devolution

The Opposition Leader points out in his communique that these proposals are very similar to that of the proposals to be included in the new constitution

They were tabled by the Prime Minister in parliament last January

Therefore, the Opposition Leader requests the Chief Prelates of the three Sects to demand an assurance from the UNP presidential candidate, that he opposes all such proposals and he abides by protecting the unitary status of the country.

Garvin Karunaratne,Ph.D. Michigan State University, former Government Agent, Matara. 

I am prompted to write about what was achieved in Sri Lanka since we gained independence in order to educate some of our presidential aspirants who have said that we have not achieved anything.

I can emphatically state that Sri Lanka had done wonders in the field of agricultural marketing within the short period of three decades  1948 to 1977.  By 1977 Sri Lanka stood far ahead of what all .other countries have ever achieved. However, it is sad to note that after 1977 the development infrastructure that had been built up with great care was privatized and abolished under the advice of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) by the Government of President JR Jayawardena.

The main programmes of agricultural marketing were:

The Guaranteed Price Scheme for Paddy & Cereals

Rice Milling

The Vegetable & Fruit Marketing Scheme

The Cannery

The Bakery

The Fair Price Shops

Agricultural Loan  Scheme

I entered the Public Service of Sri Lanka in 1955 as an Assistant Commissioner in the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing, covering its activities in Districts and was  in charge of the Vegetable & Fruit Purchasing Scheme in 1957. In 1958 a special Department, the Department of Agrarian Services was created for furthering agricultural marketing and also agricultural production where I was an  Assistant Commissioner. In 1961 I was in charge of the Agricultural Loan Scheme.  I was an Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services from 1958, but covered all activities of the Marketing Department till 1960.

The Guaranteed Price Scheme for Paddy and Cereals was meant  to purchase paddy and cereals from genuine producers at a premium price well above the prices offered by traders. The price was also  above the World Market price. This was done as an incentive for producers., as otherwise the producers will be at the mercy of traders who tried to buy their produce at the lowest possible price.  The Department had established stores all over producing areas and had rice mills to mill the paddy.   One of the key features was that purchases were to be made only from genuine producers.  . The agricultural overseer of the area had to produce a list of cultivators and owners who cultivated in each season, giving the extent cultivated in the particular season  and based on the average yield, the cooperative society was authorized  to purchase only on this list. Thus in the Sri Lankan system the premium price reached the genuine cultivator. Other countries that had similar programmes purchased produce from anyone and then the premium price offered went to the persons who handed over the produce, mostly to traders who had collected the paddy. 

This system was continued by the Department of Agrarian Services when it took over the guaranteed price scheme. Later the Paddy Marketing Board took over the paddy purchasing scheme and continued it.  This was a great success and I am certain that this purchasing scheme was greatly instrumental in making Sri Lanka self sufficient in paddy production by 1970. It is important to note that Sri Lanka became self sufficient while implementing a rice ration scheme offering rice at a low rate. If not for the rice ration scheme the poor would not have been able to buy rice at the market rate.

Rice Milling

Rice Milling came to the fore when Sri Lanka had to mill large quantities of paddy that were produced by the success of the green revolution. The Marketing Department(MD)  imported a few large rice mills and installed them in the producer areas- at Ambalantota, at Anuradhapura and Amparai. These were the best available then.  I supervised the working of the rice mill at Ambalantota for two years. The MD also called for applicants from the private sector to invest in rice milling.  MD produced  specifications of rice milling machinery that can be imported and also drafted plans to construct rice mills- with storage, drying floors etc. The Private Sector responded, applicants were selected and allocations of foreign exchange were  authorized for the import of machinery as at that time foreign exchange was controlled. The millers had to construct the buildings under the supervision of the Assistant Commissioners. I served as Assistant Commissioner in the Southern Province and I supervised the rice mills being constructed and getting into rice milling.  The response was quick and very successful. Many rice millers later became business magnates like Harischandras.

This method of using our private entrepreneurs was the opposite of what President JR Jayawardena did when  he had to import flour. Instead of depending on local entrepreneurs to mill the wheat to flour, he invited a multinational from Singapore-. Prima, to come over and establish flour mills, import wheat, mill and handover the flour to us. Then the profits went tax free to Singapore while in the case of rice milling the profits stayed in the country, benefiting our private sector. The Government also benefited because the rice millers paid taxes.

It has to be noted that rice milling was a great success, a feather in the cap of   Sri Lankan  investors.  It tells anyone that the  Sri Lankan private sector can  be successful if only the Government will give them some direction. Proper direction is required because otherwise many investors could undertake the same activity and further the Government has to actively control imports.

.

The Vegetable & Fruit Marketing Scheme & Cannery

In order to ensure that Sri Lanka could produce all its vegetable and fruit, it was necessary to offer attractive prices to producers.  Generally traders tried to purchase at the lowest possible rates. The aim of a trader is to boost their profit.

The MD developed an islandwide marketing programme for vegetables and fruits. The MD appointed Assistant Commissioners to the Districts which produced large quantities of vegetables. These officers were expected to visit the producer fairs. All producers brought their wares for sale to the producer fair in the area. The fairs were held every week. The Assistant Commissioners in the areas informed the availability of vegetables and the prices at which the traders purchased to The Tripoli Headquarters in Colombo. Similarly the MD Unit at the wholesale market in Colombo reported the  prices at which the goods were being sold to retailers.  (Tripoli was a very large hangar at the Colombo Railway Goods Shed and this was the headquarters of the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme of the MD)

The Assistant Commissioner at Tripoli Market studied the prices at which the goods were being sold at Colombo wholesale market and the prices at which the goods were being bought by traders at the producer fairs. He would then fix a buying price for the main varieties well above the prices at which the traders purchased and he would keep a margin of around fifteen percent and fix the prices at which the goods would be sold at the MD Fair Price Shops. The buying prices were intimated to the District Offices by telegram and over the telephone.  The MD had Purchasing Depots and a fleet of lorries in the producer areas and a Marketing Officer will proceed to every important fair and put up a board giving the prices at which they would buy from producers.  The MD would buy from producers and dispatch the goods immediately to Tripoli Market in Colombo by lorry or by railway wagons. . 

The MD had, a main retail shop at Tripoli Market and around fifty small Fair Price shops in Colombo and a few in many cities.

Local producers would call over at Tripoli  with any produce they have and the MD purchased all produce..

Triploi Market opened at six in the morning and around ten or more wagons were always at the rail siding to be unloaded. In addition there were always around ten to twenty lorries. The goods were unloaded, allocated to the different sections- the Upcountry Unit, the Low country vegetable Unit or the Fruit Unit, where the goods were weighed, cleaned up and immediately dispatched to the retail units in the morning itself. By nine in the morning the goods received would be offered for sale at the retail units.

In case there was an excess that could not be disposed of Tripoli  Market would decide to have Van Sales where a van load of produce will be taken around selling to anyone. The Van Sales on many days will go on till late in the night till the full quantity was sold.

In case of goods that could be kept for the next day, there were a few cold rooms at Tripoli but the idea was to sell the produce more than storing.

The MD purchased around ten percent of the produce but the presence of the MD buying from producers at a high purchasing price meant that traders who bought from producers too had to buy at the price offered by the MD because otherwise they would not be in business.

Many cannot figure out the business acumen that we followed in MD.  In my words, The motto of the MD was to pay the highest possible price to the producer and sell at the lowest possible price to the consumer a creation of Ceylon administrators basset and BLW. Fernando. We as Assistant Commissioners  tried hard to work on this tight rope. At the end of each month a profit and loss account was made and I have had to bear the brunt of censure if either I incurred a loss or achieved a profit of over 10%”(From: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka)

The installation of a Cannery in the early Fifties proved to be a boon to producers. The entire quantity of Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin, Melon and Oranges were purchased. These were made into Golden Melon Jam, Silver Melon Jam and Orange Juice. Pineapple was turned into  Juice and  Jam.  Tomatoes were made into  Juice and Sauce.  With the opening of the Cannery chena producers made fantastic incomes.

By the mid Fifties within a few years from the  installation of the Cannery the MD had in addition to making our country self sufficient in Jam, Juice and Sauces, even built up a foreign trade exporting pineapple pieces and rings. Assistant Commissioner Oswald Tilekeratne in charge of the Cannery often took wings to foreign lands.

The Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme had two aims:  To provide good prices to producers and also to offer goods at reasonable prices to city consumers.  When a Fair Price Shop is selling goods , no one will go to a private shop, unless the private shop too sold at a similar price. The MD  unofficially controlled prices. The Scheme controlled inflation, by not allowing traders to keep a fat margin.

 Fair Price Shops

Through Fair Price Shops  established in every City- there were around fifty in Colombo alone,  the Department, ensured that the prices of all essential commodities were indirectly controlled and the traders were compelled to sell at fair prices to consumers.”

In addition to the vegetables and fruits, the Shops had for sale all essential items like rice, sugar, flour, lentils,  and MD Cannery products. The aim in having essential items like lentils, sugar and flour always in stock was to avoid traders creating a shortage and thereby increasing the prices. When stocks are available in the MD Shops people would not buy at the private shops unless they offer at a reasonable rate, equal or priced a few cents above the MD shop price.

Bakery

The MD had a first class bakery that made quality bread, and  pastries and these items were sold at many outlets..  Expertise at the Bakery were used to run large Restaurants at festivals like at Kataragama. Food preparations were sold at rock bottom prices and this actually controlled the prices at Hotels in Kataragama. during the Festival period.  I supervised this Restaurant for the two years I served in the Southern Province.

The Agricultural Loan Scheme

The Department of Agrarian Services provided loans to agricultural cooperative societies. In 1961 I worked in charge of this loan scheme. Cooperative Societies had to provide cultivators with funds to buy agricultural requisites like fertilizer. Every Cooperative Society would collect details of the loans that are required, make a total, check whether the applicants were genuine producers and submit papers to get a loan from the Department of Agrarian Services.

The Cooperatives would be given the funds to be distributed to the producers. It was also my duty to visit the cooperative societies at random and inspect their books to ensure that the loans had been disbursed and also that recovery had been done.

The Cooperative Wholesale Establishment(CWE) While the Marketing Department handled the marketing of local produce, there was a need for imported  goods to be made available at reasonable rates. The CWE was established with this aim in view. Goods that were being imported by traders were sold keeping a high margin of profit and the CWE imported the same items and sold them at rock bottom prices , keeping a small margin of profit. The CWE ran a number of shops in Colombo and the outstations.  The Salu Sala  was like the CWE dealing with textiles. These trading institutions played a major role in enabling the people to buy imported essential items at reasonable rates. 

This entire agricultural marketing infrastructure to help the producer as well as to bring an increase in production was totally intact till the United National Party won the 1977 general election. The newly elected Government of President Jayawardena requested financial aid from the International Monetary Fund(IMF). Then the IMF insisted that if financial assistance was required Sri Lanka had to follow the Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP). This SAP had a number of provisions that were damaging to Third World countries but President Jayawardena agreed to follow the SAP conditions. While Sri Lanka submitted India and Bangladesh did not follow the SAP. They dodged and rejected the SAP. The main condition that ruined the agricultural marketing infrastructure that Sri Lanka had built up was the provision that the Government could not do any commercial undertakings and that all commerce should be left to the private sector. In fact in the SAP, the Private Sector was adopted as the engine of growth. The other provision was that Sri Lanka had to follow a high interest rate. The interest rate was increased and entrepreneurs had to obtain loans at the interest rate of 24%, which was forbidding.  This caused the death knell of the agricultural marketing infrastructure we had built up with great care. I am concerned because I was a part of it and have been fine tuning the system, wherever I worked for eighteen long years.

In detail, The Guaranteed Price for Paddy was abolished and in its place during  the harvest season  the Government fixed a price to purchase paddy. Paddy was purchased from anyone who brought it to the Government store. The arrangement to buy from genuine producers was dropped. Today, our Government makes a glorious utterance that they have purchased a great deal of paddy, but the fact that the system had only helped the traders and not the actual producer is forgotten. In fact today there is not even an agricultural overseer at the village level who can tell who cultivated what extent.  Paddy farming is done at the whims and fancies of the farmers who have no one to get any help or instruction. Earlier there was an Agricultural Overseer and in the days of the Agrarian Services there were Cultivation Committees with a qualified Field Assistant at the village level. The Paddy Lands Act was abolished and with this the Cultivation Committees ceased to function. Even today there is a vacuum at the village level. It is sad that the Ministry of Agriculture does not realize this fact.

In the case of Rice Milling, the State of the Art Rice Mills of the MD which ultimately belonged to the Paddy Marketing Board were abandoned. The most valuable rice milling machinery was in some cases sold for scrap. Once I gazed for ten minutes at the Ambalantota Rice Mill, my home for two years. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was on a plot of around five acres that had been apportioned to various departments. Many valuable parts of the machinery which we doted on with great care were strewn all over. That was a mill that milled 4000 bushels of paddy a day and when we started the mill at eight in the morning on a Monday it worked non stop day and night till it was stopped  on Saturday night. Sunday was for cleaning and re surfacing the rollers. That was done with great care. Now everything was in a scrap heap. I can make a statement that new rice mills even if bought cannot be easily installed. To start with it is not easy to find suitable  land. That itself will take years if at all it can be found. It is a colossal irrepairable damage. 

The Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme was abolished and now the traders have a hay day making fat margins. In fact I visited a friend in Pangiriwatta recently and I saw a four story house that had sprung up overnight. I inquired from my friend and down came the reply that it belonged to a vegetable wholesaler in Colombo who buys a new limousine every year. In the days of the MD the profits they could keep were low and that was how the Government could offer vegetables and fruit at reasonable rates to consumers and also keep inflation at bay.

The Cannery was privatized and it is no longer run to help producers. The MD Cannery enabled producers to sell all their Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin, Tomatoes etc and producers had good incomes. Simultaneously Sri Lanka was self sufficient in Jam, and Fruit Juice, Tomatoe Sauce. Last year the only Tomato sauce available in a Supermarket in Colombo was from Colorado in the USA. All Jam and Fruit Juice comes from Australia and the USA. The foreign  trade we had built up in exporting pineapple rings and pieces was lost.

The CWE was partly abolished by President Jayawardena and what remained was further abolished during the UNP reign of 2001 to 2003 by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and Minister Ravi Karunanayake. The CWE was reestablished by President Rajapaksa but it could not function efficiently as it did earlier. 

When in 1977 Sri Lanka was handed over to the UNP Government of President Jayawardena the foreign debt of |Sri Lanka was only $ 750 million. Chandra Maliyadda one of our then Permanent Secretaries had quoted that in 1970 we were not having a foreign debt and he queried as to how Sri Lanka had built up a massive debt today of around 56 to 60 billion dollars.  Today there is no production and it is a question of importing everything.

The Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure that we had built up is unique to Sri Lanka. There is no other country that had any similar infrastructure. The closest in paddy is BULOG of Indonesia but that too did not function as efficiently as our Guaranteed Price System. Bulog too was abolished at the instance of the IMF.

This was the legacy left by the United National Party of President Jayawardena. It is a  very sad story that I have narrated in great detail in my book:  How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success, (Godages) 2006.

Garvin Karunaratne,Ph.D. Michigan State University, former Government Agent, Matara. 

Author of How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages:2017)

 05/11/2019

චාර්ලස් පෙරේරා විසින්

ජනාපති ධුරයට තෝරාපත් කරගත යුතු එකම තැනැත්තා ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමායි. ඔහු තමා පුම්බවාගන්න කතාකරන්නේ නැති දිය නොසැලෙන පිරුණු කලයක් වැනි පින්වත් මනුෂ්‍යයෙකි . ඔහුට මම, මම  කිය කියා පුම්බවාගනීමක් අවශ්‍ය නැත.  ඔහු  අවුරුදු විස්සක් තම ජීවිතය පරදුවට තබා  මරණයේ මුහුණ  දැක දැක ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් ට මුහුණට මුහුණ දී  වදමාරච්චි ප්‍රහාරය ආදී සටන් වලදී  ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් ට විරුද්ධව සටන් කර යුද සටනේ සටන් කීර්ති පදක්කම් ලබාගත් වීරෝධාර නායකයෙක්. 

ඔහු ජීවිතය නොතකා සටන් කලේ මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් ඔබ අපි හා අපේ දරුවන් සඳහා රටක් ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට බිලිවෙන්න ඉඩනොදී  අපිවෙනුවෙන් අපට නිදහසේ හුස්මගන්න පුළුවන් වාතාරණයක් ලබා දුන් නායකයෙක්.  ගොටාභය මැතිතුමා  සජිත් වගේ තමා ගැනම කතාකරන්නේ නැ, ඒ ඒක කීමට අවශය නැතියි  හිතන නිහතමානී පුද්ගලයෙක් නිසා, ඒකයි නායකයෙකු ගේ ලක්ෂණය.  

තවත් සමහරු අහන ප්‍රශ්නයක්  ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මයා යුද මානසිකත්වයෙන් යුතු පුද්ගලයෙක් නිසා දේශපාලනයට ඔහු කෙසේ  සුදෙස්සෙක්විය හැකිද ?

ඔහු අවුරුදු විස්සක් යුදපිටියේ සිට,  අවුරුදු දහයක්  ඇමෙරිකාවේ නීතිවිද්‍යාලයක පරිපාලන සේවයේ යෙදී සිට,  ලංකාවට පැමිණ ආරක්ෂක ලෙකම් වශයෙන් තවත් අවුරුදු  දහයක්  සේවය කර විවිධ ශේස්ත්‍රරයන් පිළිබඳව දැනුම් සම්හාරයකින් යුතු  ජනතාවගේ  ආදරය දිනාගත් දේශපාලන පිලිබඳ අත්දැකීම්  ඇති  දේශපාලක්ඥයන්  සිටි  හොඳ බෞද්ධ පවුලක  ඉපිද හැදුන  වැඩුන  හොඳ බෞද්ධ විද්‍යාලයක අධ්‍යාපනයක් ලබා හොඳ බුද්ධිමත්  පුද්ගලයන්ගෙ ආශ්‍රයෙන් දේශපාලනය පිලිබඳ  වාද විවාදවිලින්  දාර්ශනික  දැනුමෙන් හෙබි පුද්ගලයෙක්. ඒ  නිසා ඔහු තුල දේශපාලකයකුගේ  හිස් වචනවලින් මිනිසුන් තුල සිහිනමවන මිනිසුන්ගේ හිත ගන්න කතා ගොතන හුඟක් ඝෝෂා නගන හිස් භාජනයක්  වැනි කෙනක් නොවේ. 

රුසියාවේ ජනාධිපති  ව්ලැඩිමීර් පුටින් ද  රුසියානු හමුදවේ ලෙෆ්ටිනන්ට්  කොලොනෙල්  කෙනෙක්ය. ඔහු රුසියානු රහස් සේවයේ KGB යෙ සේවය කළේය. අධිරාජ්‍ය වාදීන්  විසින් කඩා හෙලා  අගාදියට ඇද දැමීමට  සුදානම් කල  රුසියාව ආරක්ෂා කර අසීරුවෙන්  ඔසවානැවතත්   දියුණු බලවත් රාජ්‍යයක් කිරීමේ හැකියාව  ව්ලැඩිමීර් පුටින්ට  තිබුනේ  ඔහුගේ යුදයෙන් ලැබූ ආත්ම විශ්වාශය හා අධිෂ්ඨාන ශක්තිය  විය හැකිය.   ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාත්  එවැනි හැකියාවක් ඇති   යහපාලනයෙ අදුරධර්ශී පාලනයෙන් කඩාවැටී ආදියට වැටී සිටින රට නැවත ගොඩගෙන සෞභාග්‍යමත් රටක් කිරීමේ හැකියයාව ඇති දුරදර්ශී  ශිෂ්ට බෞද්ධ හැදීයාවකින් යුත් නායකයෙකි. .

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස තරුණ මදයකින් පෙලෙන බවක් පෙන්වනවා . ඔහු තමාව පුම්බාගන්නවා.  ඒක නැණවත්  පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ ලක්ෂණයක් නොවේ. ඔහු තුල නිහතමානි ගතිගුණයක් දකින්න නැ . මිනිස්සු රවට්ටන්ට බොරුවට කෑගහලා අතිශයෝක්තියෙන් තමා කරන දේ කීම තමාම වර්ණනා කිරීම  අශෝභන ක්‍රියාවක්. එයින් දකින්නේ අහන අය රැවැට්ටීමට බොරු පොරුන්දු දෙන  වගක්.  ඉතා අලංකාරික කිසිම  හරයක් හෝ දර්ශනයක් නැති කතා කීමෙන් පෙනෙන්නේ  සජිත් තුල ගැඹුරු දර්ශනයක් නොමැති බවයි . ඔහු අහිංසක මිනිස්සු රවට්ටනවා. දුර දර්ශී වැඩපිලිවේලක් ඔහුට නැ . ඔහු හිස්  කලබරකාරී චරිතයක් .   රනිල්ට ඉහලින් කවදාවත් නොයන ආත්ම විශ්වාශයක් නැති පුද්ගලයෙක් .

ඔහු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජනාධිපති වීමට සුදුසු නැත්තේ ඔහුගේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ  පසුතලයයි.  රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ  එක්සත්  ජාතික පක්ෂයේ නායකයාව හා අගමැතිව සිටින තුරු සජිත්  ප්‍රේමදාසට ඔහුගේ හිතුමනාපයේ දෙයක්  කිරීමට පුළුවන් කමක් නැත.  සජිත් ජනතාවට දෙන  පොරොන්දු කිසිවක් කිරීමට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ  ඉඩ නොදෙන්නේය. රනිල්  වික්‍රමසිංහ  සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  ජනාධිපති  උනත්   තුට්ටුවකටවත් ගණන් නොගෙන ඔහුට  ඕනෑ විධියට කටයුතුකරනවාට අනුමානයක් නැත.  

එය අපි හොඳාකාරව දුටුවා. ජනාධිපති චන්ද්‍රිකා ගේ අගමැති වශයෙන් ඔහු ජනාධිපතිවරිය ඉන්නබවක්වත් නොතකා ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් සමග CFA ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කළේය , එයින් කෙතරම් හානියක් ද රටට සිදුවුයේ ? රනිල්  ඒ වගේමයි මයිත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිතුමා සමගත් කටයුතු කලෙ, තාමත් කරන්නේ.  ඒ වගේ තමයි සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  ජනාධිපති උනත් ඔහුට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගෙන් ගැලවීමක් නෑ.

සජිත් මහාබලපුලුවන් කාර කම්  කියනවා නමුත් ඔහුගේ නියම චරිතය පෙන්වන්නේ නැ.  ඔහු රනිල්ට බයයි. තව අදවෙනකම් MCCC  ගිවිසුම ගැන  සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස රැස්වීම්වලදී වචනයක්   කියලා නැ. ඇමෙතිවරුන්ගේ කැබිනේට්ටුවට  ඉදිරිපත්කලාම ඒ ගිවිසුමට ඉහුගේ විරුද්ධත්වයක් පලකලේ  නෑ අත ඔසවා ගිවිසුම පිළිගෙන තිබෙනවා,  එකෙන් පේනවා සජිත් බොරුවට ගිරියපුම්බාගෙන  කතාකලාට රට විකුනන්න ඔහුත් සම්මාදන්වෙනවා, ඉතින් කොහොමද ඔහු ජනාධ්පතිවීමෙන් රටා ආරක්ෂා කරයි කියා විශ්වෂකරන්නේ  ?  එබැවින් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපති කිරීමට දෙන චන්දය  රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ට චන්දයක් දුන්නා වගෙයි.  

අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක අවුරුදු හතරහමාරක් තිස්සේ රනිල් ව්ක්‍රමසිංහ පිටිපස්සේ ගිහිල්ලා දැන් සුදනෙක් වෙන්න හදනවා. ඒවාට මිනිස්සු රැවටෙන්නේ නැ  ඔවුන් ආගම බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය ගැන කතාකරනෙවත් නැති බොරු වංචනික මාක්ස්වාදයක් පටලවාගෙන සිටින කොටසක්.  දිසානායක සන්හිදියාවට වැඩ කරන දෙමල මිනිස්සු ලන්කරගන්න  ඔනදෙයක්  පිළිගන්න සුදානනම් මිනිහෙක්. පලාලි ගුවන්තොටුපලේ නාම පුවරුවේ දෙමළෙට පළමු තැනත් සිංහලට දෙවන තැනක් දීම ගැන කතාකිරීම ජාතිවාදියයයි කීමෙන්ම පේනවා දේශපාලන බලය ලබාගැනීම සඳහා ඕනෑම දේශ ද්‍රෝහි වැඩක් කිරීමට ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ සුදානම් .

 ජනතා විමුක්ති  පෙරමුන මාක්ස්වාදීන්  කියාගනිමින් පසුගිය අවුරුදු හතරහමාරම  වාමාංශික  සමාජවාදී පාක්ෂිකයින්ට විරුද්ධව ධනවාදී දක්ෂිණාංශික එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ නායක රනිල්ගේ  කඳවුරට  ආධාර  අනුග්‍රහ කරමින්  සමාජවාදීන්ට විරුද්ධව පාරලිමේන්තුවේ හා ඉන් පිට වැඩ කළා.

මාක්ස්වාදී පක්ෂයකට ජනතාවගේ  විශ්වාශය දිනාගන්න බෑ. ඒ නිසයි  රටකට මාක්ස්වාදය ගෙනහැක්කේ පරලිමෙන්තුවකින් නොව විප්ලවයකින් බව සඳහන්කරන්නෙ.   එවැනි විප්ලවයකට ශ්‍රී ලංකා සමාජය සුදානම් නැ. එබැවින් එයකළ යුත්තේ ක්‍රමානුකුලව ජනතාව ක්‍රමක්‍රමයෙන් ඊට හුරුකරවාගෙන. එකට කාලයක් ගතවෙනවා.

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ  රටේ තුන්වන බලවේගයක් කිරීමසඳහා  උනුත් එපා අරුනුත් එපා යන පිලිවතේ සිට  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයටටයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහජන පෙරමුටය් විරුද්ධව  උන් එපා අපි තෝරාගන්න කියා ගෙනගිය දෙශපාලන වැඩපිළිවෙල ජනතාව පිළිගන්තෙ නැ. ඒ ආකාරයෙන්  මහජනතාවගේ විෂවාශය දිනාගන්න බැ.  ඔවුන්ගේ මේ මාක්ස්වාදී  දර්ශනය  උඩයටිකුරු කරගෙනයන දේශපාලන බලය ලබාගැනීමට කරන උත්සාහය නිෂ්පලයි. ඔවුන් ගෙනයන දේශපාලන වැඩපිළිවෙල අනුව ඔවුන්ට කවර දාකවත් ජනතාවගේ  විශ්වාශය ලබාගන්න පුළුවන්කමක් පෙන  මානයක නැ.  එය සිහිනයකින්ම අවසන්වෙවි.

කිසිම තර්කයක් නැ අද රටට අවශ්‍ය නායකයා ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස. ඔහු ට හොඳ දැක්මක් තියෙනවා ප්‍රශ්නයක් මනුස්‍යත්වයෙන් , ප්‍රායෝගිව හා දර්ශනාත්මක විහුවයකින් බැලීමේ හැකියාවක් තියෙනවා. එතුමා මෙවර අපේ ජනාධිපති නොකලොත් ඒ අපේ හා රටේ අවාසනාවක්,අභාග්‍යයක් ඒ අපෙ රටේ විනාශයට පාර විවුර්තකරදීමක්. එබැවින් වෙන විකල්පයක් නැ ගොටභය රාජපක්ස මහතා ජනාධිපති කලයුතුමයි,  

මේ කියවන ඔබේ චන්දය මෙතුමාට දීම සඳහා  නොවැම්බර 16 වනදා පොහොට්ටුව ඉදිරියෙ කතිරය ගහන්න. එය ඔබේ දරුවන් හා ඔබේ  රටවෙනුවෙන් ඔබ කල යුතු යුතුකමයි.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA.

The para-gethi, koti-hitherhi (the foreign servile and tiger docile)Ranil Wickremasinghe, who unfortunately happens to be the Prime Minister of our country has said  that no agreement has been reached with any political party in North by  the UNP led-alliance and they have  not signed any covert or overt agreement with any party in the north and their candidate Sajith Premadasa will only devolve power as it is stated in his election manifesto. Accordingly, power will be devolved to the provinces based on the proposals which came out during the terms of late President R. Premadasa, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he has said

Denying secret pacts with TNA, a terrorist political outfit formed in 2001 by amalgamating fringe Tamil political parties together with the so-called Federal Party (the Ilangai Tamil Arasu Katchi – ITAK) to promote the ideals of terrorist Prabhakaran, deny atrocities that were then being carried out by terrorists and justify terrorist action and to project the terrorist LTTE as the sole representatives of Tamils in Sri Lanka.  Wickremasinghe has a surfeit of secret pacts with the terrorist TNA that have come to light only subsequent to the desired event. They included:

American Embassy initiated secret pact signed with TNA for them to back Sarath Fonseka in the 2010 Presidential Elections ( a tongue twister and an  immoral  rhetorician whom Mangala Samaraweera said once as a person suitable only to be the commander of the Salvation Army, who became furious when Lt. General Kamal Gunaratne informed that they have finished off the tiger supremo Prabhakaran, who was accused by Ranil and Joseph Michael Perera in the Parliament as responsible for having a secret military unit and killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga by this unit – refer to Hansard dated 9th January, 2009, voluntarily making a confession in the Courts that our soldiers shot and killed the terrorist leaders who came with white flags to surrender in a vulgar move to brand the soldiers as war criminals, who was severely criticising Sajith Premadasa until recently and now making Hosannas for Sajith after was promised a ministerial portfolio, and who has repeated the ungrateful UNP female thug MP Hirunika  Premachandra’s statement that Rajapaksas will be hanged in Medamulana after the elections);

The Singapore Secret Pat of 2012 signed by Mangala Samaraweera on behalf of UNP with the blessing of Ranil and Chandrika and Sumanhiran for TNA and Rudrakumar for TGTE. After signing this agreement Sumanthiran has said that Mangala came like a beggar to get this agreement signed and ready to oblige to any conditions;

A secret pact with terrorist Seeya Sambandan to get TNA support for the No-Confidence Motion against him in April this year;

So, how can we believe Ranil Wickremasinghe’s statement that they have not signed a secret pact? Ministers P.Harrison, Ravi Karunanayake and Deputy Minister Vijeayakala Maheshwaran who justified the need to revive the terrorist LTTE but Ranil’s government took no action against her, have addressed this meeting.

Many UNP Ministers, especially those who are highly worried about their future political prospects are reported to be campaigning in the North, some with TNA MPs as well because of the fear they hold about Padman Sajith’s impending disaster and attempt to increase Tamil votes for him at least to minimize the damage.  

The shameless political chameleon and ship tycoon Dentist Rajitha is reported to have camped in the North and campaigning with the TNA politicians on behalf of the pad-man promising the sun and the noon.

It is believed that the pad-man has signed a secret pact with TNA to implement their 13 demands which has been totally rejected by Gota as well as the former President Mr, Mahinda Rajapaksa saying no consideration at all can be given to their demands. The also-ran man, the Springman who jumps up and down and to and fro when he speaks at a meeting the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka has not rejected the demands implying they have no objection for the demands.

The Website TamilNet reported on 14^th October, under the title that the Tamil parties in North-East stipulate ‘acid test’ terms to Sri Lanka’s presidential candidates. It said that he main political parties of Tamils, which claim to uphold the principles of the concept of Tamil nationhood through the Right of Self-Determination and distinct sovereignty of Tamils to their traditional homeland, have come to an understanding of the terms to be placed as the acid-test conditions to the candidates running for the executive presidency of the unitary state of Sri Lanka. While the parties have unitedly formed the main demands towards the presidential candidates, they have failed in two crucial aspects. Firstly, the failure to course-correct the ‘Quisling politics’ of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Secondly, the inability to stipulate the conditions and choices of Tamils if and when the actors in the South fail to meet the acid-test terms, especially before the Presidential elections.

TamilNet said that none of the primary Sinhala candidates would pass the test. Therefore, it is more important to look into the conditions than the terms.

The TamilNet said that those among the demands, which must be immediately addressed, should be resolved within three months since the day the new president assumes office,” reads the concluding paragraph which was drafted in Tamil.

While articulating the terms and the vague conditions, the drafters of the written and signed ‘consensus’ document seems to have forgotten the Tahnil audience and the significance of the lingua franca.

Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) that constitute the current Tamil National Alliance (TNA) took part in the process. All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) which comes under the alliance of Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF), Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) as well as Thamil Makkal Koottani, the party under the leadership of Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, also constituted the platform in the consensus process.

The process was brought forward through the efforts of the university student community in the North and the East.

It was unclear which immediate issues that should be addressed first by the future SL President. Similarly, the website said that the signed document fails to specify the mid-term and long-term demands.

The lack of clear conditions creates the loophole for meaningless promises and discourses, it added.

For example, a presidential candidate could come up with the vague assurance of setting up a Presidential Commission to look into the demands within the three months and the TNA could ask Tamils to vote for a particular candidate based on the meaningless promise of looking into the ‘consensus’ document of the Tamil parties.

Therefore, the primary fault line of the process was its failure to establish the assurance of non-recurrence on the part of the TNA which could water down the concepts as it did in the recent past taking part and tacitly approving the interim report on ‘reforming’ the SL Constitution, a move that failed to comply with the Tamil demands. This is the Achilles heel of the TNA.

The second concern is the succumbing electoral politics practised by the TNPF. While it was sharp on the Achilles heel issue of the TNA, the TNPF has also contributed to the vague formulations of the conditions.

Five parties, the ITAK, TELO, PLOTE, EPRLF and the TMK have signed the document while the ACTC (TNPF), which contributed to shaping the outcome, refrained to do so due to the specific and justified concern it had.

However, TamilNet said the process itself was a good starter and educative, especially to the new generation of Tamil students in the North and East.

The demands translated from Tamil to English follow

1. New constitutional processes that uphold the unitary system of the rule should be rejected. The Tamil national question of Ilangkai [Ceylon] must be resolved through a federal framework with the realisation that Tamils constitute a nation with distinct sovereignty and that nation is entitled to the Right of Self-Determination under the International Law
2. Comprehensive and independent investigations must be carried out through the International Criminal Court/ Criminal Tribunal on the allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the final war
3. The Prevention of Terrorism Act must be repealed
4. Unconditional release of all Tamil Political Prisoners
5. Justice must be accorded through international mechanisms to those who have suffered by the enforced disappearances
6. The state forces stationed in the Northern and Eastern provinces must be evicted from the private and crown lands which were utilised by the Tamil people before the war; those areas must be released, and the resettlement process should be accelerated
7. The ongoing state-sponsored Sinhalicisation, Buddhicisation and Sinhala colonisation in the Northern and Eastern provinces must be stopped forthwith
8. The jurisdiction of Mahaweli Authority, which is functioning as an authority to create Sinhala only colonies in the Northern province under cover of diverting the Mahaweli river towards the North, must be abdicated. Furthermore, all Sinhala colonisation schemes being taken forward in the Eastern Province under the so-called Mahaweli Development Programme must be terminated
9. All the recently introduced Sinhala colonisation schemes under the Moragaskanda Irrigation Programme in Vanni must be stopped forthwith
10. Encroachment of lands and places of worships through government departments including the Archaeology, Forest and Wildlife conservation departments must be immediately stopped. The lands, which were appropriated through Gazette notifications by the above-mentioned departments, must be de-gazetted
11. The legal impediments faced by the Ceylonese living abroad in making direct investments and obtaining lands to develop the war-affected Northern and Eastern provinces and to provide job opportunities to the youth must be removed
12. Preference must be accorded to those who hail from the Northern and Eastern provinces in the public and the private sector employment in the North-East
13. Declare North-East as War-Ravaged Region and create a Joint Mechanism, which should handle the development assistance and place it under the guidance and disposal of the elected representatives of the people in the North-East.

How can a sensible Sri Lankan with at least an iota of patriotism ever think of supporting any of these proposals?  Gota and MR have done the right thing by rejecting the proposals entirely without any form of consideration. This should be the stance of all Sri Lankans devoid of party affiliations, ethnicity, and religiosity.

Fortunately, due to the uncompromising stand taken by the Mahanayaka Theros, other religious leaders and the leaders and the people we were able to prevent the Yamapalana government adopting a federal and secular constitution prepared by the Sumanthiran/Jayampathi duo. We do not say that all the UNPers are foreign servile and spineless people.  Only the leader and his acolytes fall into this category.  But it was sad that they also failed to join the Mahanayake theros, other religious leaders etc, when the constitutional proposal was brought in similar to the solidarity they displayed when Chandrika’s divisive document called package formulated by Neelan Thiruchelvam was brought in.

What Sri Lanka urgently need is to stop this talking about the foreign motivated concept of reconciliation. The Ministry in charge of this subject under the yamapalana government is under a hardcore chauvinist Mano Ganeshan.  He spends millions of rupees of state funds to promote divisions among the people. How can you expect a man who has expressed that he is an ;Indian origin Tamil’ (IOT) and his objective is to get at least14 IOTs elected in the next election, which of course is the clandestine move to create the initial stage to create the dreadful entity called ‘Malai Nadu’.  Myopic J.R.Jayawardene should be held responsible for granting Sri Lanka citizenship to the category called Stateless Tamils who were repatriated to India under the Sirima-Shastri pact and who were made to fall into the ‘Stateless’ category during D.S.Senanayake’s people. 

 The so-called reconciliation is only for the people in the South.  It does not pontificate to people in the North/East and in Non-Sinhalese/Muslims in the upcountry.   In the MTVs Tamilchannel ‘Shakti’ TV there iS a programme titled ‘Minnal’ televised on Saturdays in which the former MP Sri Ranga talks to people in the North asking about their problems and in people from all walks of life narrates about their hardships relating to drinking and irrigation water problems, and all other problems such as education, housing, employment, transport etc.  They also state that their politicians are not bothered about solving these problems and at the same time they get fooled by these politicians at every election espousing hatred towards the Sinhalese community.

The political editor of Sunday Times in his weekly political roundup on 3^rd October has stated under the sub-heading Rajapaksa Era Achievements” has said the following:

There is a tragic irony in this. It was the Rajapaksa administration that developed the asphalt road network beyond Vavuniya to Kankesanthurai, the furthest northern end of this peninsula. It also developed the intricate road network within. In addition, that administration was responsible for introducing a new rail track from Vavuniya to Kankesanthrai. What remained until then was only a non-paved, rugged road with overgrown bushes and large craters. The Tiger guerrillas, during the war, had removed the rails and the sleepers to build bunkers.

With assistance from the Indian government, a more stable track to facilitate speedy travel was built. That these two measures contributed immensely for people in the north and south is to say it mildly. It was the main contributory factor for a new Jaffna. The railway stations in the south pale into insignificance compared to these nearly new stations in the north. For those in the south, it was like laying the paavada or white cloth on the ground for guests to walk. They came in their hundreds from the south to an area denied to them for almost three decades with the ‘north-south’ bridge former President Rajapaksa built. And then, they restored democracy in the north by establishing the provincial council. The SLPP did not exploit that unique achievement that tremendously changed the lifestyles of residents here. The people in the North and East have all that was done to them by the Rajapaksa regime in the post-war era through the ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ (Northern Spring) and Neganahira Udanaya (East Revival) to develop the infrastructure and provide relief to the people. 

When I was working in the Information Department we held a media conference in which the main speaker was the then Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Pillaiyan and when a question was asked from him why the Tamil people in the East have not politically paid gratitude for the unprecedented development work carried out by the government his response was that he too was shocked about that and the ungrateful response of the Tamil people in the East. 

When the provincial election campaign in the north was ongoing the late Mr A.H.M.Azwar made a visit to the North and when it was asked him about the political situation there his response was that until Tamil racism that had been implanted in the minds of the Tamil people by the Tamil leaders for their political expediency, the Tamils will remain docile to racist politics and it would take generations to make them understand the reality.

Ranil Wickremasinghe has insisted that then proposed constitution process will be revived. He is interested in only keeping the people of this country divided on a racial basis and not united as the people of one country and one nation.  There is no difference between him and Chelvanayagam or between him and megalomania Prabhakaran.  This is perennial cancer wrecking our country and all those who fall into Ranil’s category should be rooted out if this country is to progress as a peaceful and harmonious nation. 

It is time for all Sri Lankans to join together devoid of political party affiliations, ethnicity and religiosity to sternly resist constitution process or the new 13 entreaties.  It is clearly evident now that the terrorists despite vanquishing of them militarily in May 2009, have not given up their objective of achieving separation through other means as it had been done in Yugoslavia and East Timor.

Therefore, it is not prudent for us to think about party politics at the moment and our prime and sole objective should be to put a permanent end to any form of clamour for separation as it was done by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in India, Chairman Mao Tse-Tungi in China, President Vladimir Putin in Russia and in many other Latin American countries. If these separatist elements want to live in Sri Lanka let them live as Sri Lankans and otherwise leave this country and join their diaspora cousins. Let the 20 odd tyrant countries of the west, including America, Canada, Britain etc., out of nearly 200 countries in the world calling themselves as international community enforce any measures against us.  Our people’s solidarity and determination cannot be shattered by them as we have already displayed it through defeating the world’s ruthless terrorist outfit named so by these so-called tyrant countries itself.

The maximum punishment these tyrant nations could impose on us is subjecting us to certain sanctions.  Our people have the experience of successfully facing such sanctions. They imposed on us such sanctions when Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike nationalised the oil distribution trade and the sterling estates.  They could not prevent even a drop of oil reaching our shores as President Gamal Abdul Nasser of United Arab Republic (present Egypt)although it was a non-oil-producing country diverted many oil shipments to Sri Lanka.

Sanctions imposed by these tyrant nations have failed to cause any hardships to Cuba, have failed to retard developments in Iran, have failed to restrict progress in Qatar and have failed to suspend the nuclear testing programmes in North Korea. Sanctions will become a futile exercise in the face of people’s solidarity.

We need a Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin whom we find in Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the one who is only concerned about the future generations of our country.

Noor Nizam, Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart and Convener – “The Muslim Voice” –

POLITICAL PARTIES BASED ON COMMUNITY, RELIGION AND COMMUNAL BASIS HAS TO BE BANNED IN SRI LANKA BY THE MAJORITY SINHALESE COMMUNITY AND NATIONALIST SINHALA FORCES IMMEDIATELY UNDER ANY NEW CONSTITUTION TO BE PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT. FOR THIS –  ALL SINHALA FORCES, INCLUDING THE MAHA SANGHA, THE SLFP, UNP (those who love the maathruboomiya”), JVP AND OTHER PATRIOTIC POLITICAL PARTIES INCLUDING THE SLPP/JO SHOULD GIVE THEIR FULLEST SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. SEVENTY TWO PERCENTAGE (72% ) SINHALA MP’s (voters) CAN EASILY DO THIS. MINORITY REPRESENTATION SHOULD ONLY BE IN THE NATIONAL PARTIES BY MEMBERSHIP AND BY BEING ELECTED FOR OFFICE IN THOSE PARTIES.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY VOTE BANK CREATION BY MINORITY COMMUNITY POLITICAL LEADERS (THE MUSLIMS AND TAMILS) WHO TRADE THE VOTE BANK FOR SELFISH PERSONAL BENEFITS, FORGOING THE REAL BENEFITS FOR WHICH THE MINORITY GROUPS, ESPECIALLY THE MUSLIM VOTERS CAN BE SURE TO REAP THE TRUE BENEFITS OF THEIR POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS AND INSPIRATIONS, BE MADE POSSIBLE / A REALITY. A good example is the confession made by Rauf Hakeem when Rauf Hakeem admitted that he took money from Mahinda Rajapaksa, then President, to vote in favour of the 18th., Amendment Bill to the constitution on September 8th., 2010. One of the SLMC stalwarts, Segu Dawood exposed this incident and Rauf Hakeem admitted it in public. Browse this web link and learn how this political leader (MP. Rauf Hakeem) got money to vote for the 18th., Amendment in parliament on 8th., September 2010.

http://www.jaffnamuslim.com/2016/07/blog-post_144.html  (for Muslim tamil readers).

In 1994, when the SLMC found an opportunity, supported by R. Premadasa to reduce the cut-off point in proportional representation from 12.5 to 5 per cent, in return NOT to field a Muslim candidate as a Presidential candidate, to stop the Muslims voting Premadasa, the SLMC joined the UNP. (Rishad Bathiudeen) and theAtthaullah, regional Eastern province Muslim party), began to adopt THIS POLITICAL TRADING OF THE MUSLIM VOTES” and making DEALS” that was of NO BENEFIT, BUT DETRIMENTAL TO THE MUSLIM FACTOR” which were supported by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema and so-called Muslim Civil Society groups, whose leadership also were given a SHARE” of these SPOILS and BENEFITS”, became the NORM” of the SLMC, ACMC, NATIONAL CONGRES, ACJU, THE NATIONAL SHOORA COUNCIL and the MUSLIM COUNCIL OF SRI LANKA, in the equation of Minority politics in Sri Lanka since 1994/1980. As a result of these deceptions, the Muslims in Sri Lanka do NOT have a voice – a POLITICAL VOICE” for that purpose. The Muslims did not benefit to resolve their economical, employment, development, land education and fundamental rights issues by VOTING the SLMC, ACMC or THE NATIONAL CONGRESS. The Muslims became POLITICAL ORPHANS” in Sri Lanka at last. Today this has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. Not only has it affected the Sri Lanka Muslims, but also PRALALYSED THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY SINHALA COMMUNITY WHICH IS 72% OF THE NATION TO MAKE ANY DECECIVE POLITICAL CONCLUSSION BENEFICAL TO THEIR AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA” OR TO AMEND / ADJUST THE CONSTITUTION TO THEIR NEEDS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA”. The present constitutional conflict in parliament is a result of this POLITICAL PLIGHT”.  

With the media uncovering the corruption and deception of the Muslim political leaders in recent times and exposing these DECEPTIVE AND HOODWINKING” Muslim politicians and their operating beneficial gangs, the Muslim political culture has begun to change. Today this VOTE BANK TRADING BY MINORITY MUSLIM AND TAMIL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS” has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. THIS HAS TO STOP FORTHWITH FOR A HEALTHY POLITICAL PROCESS TO TAKE PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY and the RIGHT for the voters to decide what their communities should do and the majority who are SINHALA VOTERS to decide what is best for the country they should do.

As for the Muslim Minority Community, the fact remains NOW, the Muslim voters are acting on their own and do NOT wish to be represented by these MUNAAFIKK and DECEPTIVE MUSLIM POLITICIANS”. THE SLMC AND ACMC MP’S SHOULD ALSO ACT ON THEIR OWN NOW, Insha Allah. We Muslims should set an example like our predecessors who TRUSTED” the majority community in the wake of the British trying to delay giving us independence in 1948. The role of Dr. T B Jayah becomes paramount at this moment to recollect, because had he, or the Muslim community, sided with the British at that time, granting of Independence to Ceylon would have been postponed. It is only because the minorities agreed that there was a United Front of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims asking for Independence. But one man was against it. That was G G Ponnambalam who tried to extract his pound of flesh. He said I will sign on the dotted line only if you agree to Fifty Fifty”. That is 50% of the seats for the Sinhalese and 50% for the minorities. Only if you agree to that, he told D S Senanayake, will I support the call for independence. It was at this point that Jayah rejected the ‘fifty fifty’ formula. He said he preferred to work in trust, to work in faith and goodwill with the majority community. Thereby T.B.Jayah totally undercut G G Ponnambalam’s fifty fifty” cry. That was the death knell of Fifty Fifty”. If Jayah joined the fifty fifty” cry at that time, Independence would have been postponed. One has to remember that even the word Sinhala was erased from the political lexicon. S W R D Bandaranaike ditched the idea of the Sinhala Maha Saba and he first joined the UNP and later set up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which too did not have racial connotations. Everybody felt that communal parties were counter-productive. It is time up that a NEW POLITICAL FORCE” that will be honest and sincere that will produce CLEAN” and diligent Muslim Politicians to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH has to RISE”, and this NEW POLITICAL FORCE” has to support the new government to be formed under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the majority Sinhalese citizens notwithstanding the fact that the Tamils of the North and East and the Upcountry Tamils and all minorities should be equally respected, politically, for a better Sri Lanka, God willing, Insha Allah.

Muslims should decide to vote Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the New President of Sri Lanka on November 16th., 2019 wholeheartedly, and be part of the VICTORY OF THE SRI LANKANS who love our “MAATHRUBOOMIYA”, Insha Allah.

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., M.A., Ph.D.

මේ දිනවල චන්ද රැස්වීම්වල සජිත් පිලේ කතා කරණ අය කියන බොරු හා මහජනයා නොමඟ යවන ප්‍රකාශ අති විශාලය. පොහොට්ටුවෙන් මෙවැනි ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම ඉතාමත් අඩු බව අපක්‍ෂපාතව බලන විට පිලිගත යුතුය. අශීලාචාර කතා හා සජිත්ගේ කවට විලාශය මනස අවුල් කරවන සුළුය. හිරුනිකා හා රන්ජන් මේ දුෂ්ට, ගුණමකු කතා කීමට සේරසිංහ, සරත් ෆොන්සේකා හා මර්වින් සිල්වා සමග තරග කරනවා වැනිය. ඔවුන් සිතන්නේ රැස්වීම් වලට එන්නේ පහත්, කුපාඩි මනස් ඇති වනචාරී ජනයා කියාය.

මේ අස්සේ ඇමෙරිකාව හරහා ලංකාව තුනට බෙදීයාමේ මිලේනියම් ප්ලෑන දැන් කරලියට ඇවිත් තිබෙන්නේ චන්දයට පෙර එය අත්සන් කිරීමට යහපාලනකාරයින් කරණ වෑයම නිසාය. ත්‍රිකුණාමළ වරායේ මුහුද යට ඇති භූවිද්‍යා අගාධවල න්‍යෂ්ටික ආයුධ ඇති සබ්මැරීන් යාත්‍රා වලට සැඟවී සිටිය හැකි බව ලොව දන්නේ දැන්‌ය. නමුත් මේ වරායේ අගය ගැන බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය අගමැතිවරු තුන් දෙනෙක්ම සිටි කමිටුවක් නිර්දේශ දුන්නේ අවුරුදු 150 කටත් පෙරය. 1815 උඩරට අල්ලාගත් වහාම ඉංග්‍රීසීන් කලේ කොළඹ හා ත්‍රිකුණාමළය යාකරණ පාරක් දැමීමය. දැන් 2019 දී ඇමෙරිකාව කරන්නේ ඒ පාර නොකැඩුණු අක්කර ලක්‍ෂ 12 ක ඇමෙරිකන් පටියක් කිරීමය. මේ ගලෙන් ඔවුන් එකවර කුරුල්ලන් දෙන්නෙක් නොව කීපදෙනෙක්ම බිමදා ගනී. ටයිමෝර් දූපත බටහිර-නැඟෙනහිර වශයෙන් හෝ සුඩානය උතුරු-දකුණ වශයෙන් හෝ බෙදා ඒ රටවල් විනාශකලා මෙන් නොකර, උතුරු හා දකුණු ලංකාව වශයෙන් රට බෙදා ඒ දෙක මැදින් ඇමෙරිකන් පටියක් හදන්නේ ඊළම් රටක් හදා ඉන්පසු නිසි කාලය හා අවස්ථාව ආවිට දකුණු ඉන්දියාවටද ගේම් එකක් දීමටය. ඔළුවිල් ප්‍රකාශනයට අනුව මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රදේශයක් හැදීම මේ වේලාවේ ඔවුන්ට වැදගත් නැත්තේ ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය දේ හා ප්ලෑන දැනටමත් 1997 දී චන්ද්‍රිකා විසින් ලෑස්‌තිකරදී තිබෙන නිසාය.

ඒ ප්ලෑන රනිල් විසින්, ඊළම් සුමන්තිරන් හා උග්‍ර මාක්ස්වාදී ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න ලවා සැදූ යහපාලන ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩියේ නොකියා කියා ඇත. ඒ ප්ලෑන කෙතරම් ශූක්‍ෂමද යත්, ඒ මගඩිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නම් පිස්සු කඩේට (මෑඩ් ෂොප්) ගෙනා විට රනිල් එහි අයිතිය, භාරකාරත්‌වය ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කලේය. ඇමෙරිකන් පටියට විදුලි රේල්පාරක්ද ඇතුලත් නිසා අලියෙකුට තබා හරකෙකුටවත් ඇමෙරිකන් අවසර නැතිව උතුරු-දකුණු මාරුවීමකට ඉඩක් නැත. මේ මිලේනියම් පාවාදීමත්, අනිත් එක්ටා හා සෝෆා දෙකත් එකට ආ විට දකුණේ මිනීමරුවෙකුට ඇමෙරිකාව කැමතිනම් පටිය හරහා උතුරට පැන ගොස් සිටිය හැකිය. ඇමෙරිකන්කාරයෙක් ජපානයේ ඔකිනාවා දූපතේ සිදුවුන අයුරු කාන්තාවක් දූෂණය කලොත් ඔහුව දකුණේදී ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීමටවත් අත්‌අඩංගුවට ගන්නවත් නොහැකිය. කෙසේ වෙතත් ඔහු ඇමෙරිකන් පටියට ඇතුල්වූ විට වැඩේ එතනින්ම ඉවරය.

යම් ලෙසකින් රටේ කාලකන්නිකමට සජිත් දිනුවොත් මිලේනියම් හා යහපාලන ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩිය යන දෙකම ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බව රනිල් උතුරට ගොස්, 1954/55 කාලයේ සර් ජෝන් යාපනයට ගොස් කල කතාමෙන්, කරණ කතාවලින් පෙනේ. සජිත් මිලේනියම් ජාවාරම ගැන මෙතෙක් නිහඬ අතර, ඔහුගේ චන්ද ප්‍රාකාශණය ප්‍රමාද කලේ ටී.එන්.ඒ ඉල්ලීම් 13 සමග පෑස්සීමට බව දැන් පැහදිලිය. සී. ඒ. චන්ද්‍රප්‍රේම විසින් ලියන ලද (අයිලන්ඩ්, නොවැම්බර් 2) ලිපියකින් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස හා ටී.‌එන්. ‌ඒ. ඊලම්කාරයින් විසින් සිංහල ජනයාට විරුද්ද්ධව කරණ ලද කුමන්ත්‍රණය එලිදරව්කර ඇත.

ස්කොට් ජාතික පෝල් හැරිස් විසින් 2002 දී ප්‍රභාකරන් හා එරික් සොල්හයිම් විසින් ලියා රනිල් විසින් හොරෙන්ම අත්සන්කල සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුම හැඳින්වූයේ, එවකට ලෝකයේ සිදුවු ලොකුම රාජ්‍ය භූමි පරිත්‍යාගය (වෙස්සන්තර-සිරි සංඝබෝ ගනයේ) ලෙසය.
(හ්ට්ට්ප්://www.ලන්කwඑබ්.චොම්/නෙwස්/ඉටෙම්ස්/2013/12/10/ච්‍රිමෙස්-අන්ඩ්-සින්ස්-ඔෆ්-ඨෙ-එන්ග්ලිස්හ්මන්-පෞල්-හර්රිස්/) එයත්, පොලිස් ශුනඛයින් භාරව සිටි උඩුගම්පොල යොදවා කරගත් මිලේනියම් සිටි පාවාදීමත් ගැන සිතන විට, රනිල්ට, රට-ජාතියට කලනොහැකි ද්‍රෝහී කමක් ඉතුරුව නැත. එහෙත් රනිල්ගේ බෙල්ල දියරෙද්දෙන් කපා චන්දය ඉල්ලන සජිත් ඔහුගේ චන්ද ප්‍රකාශණය ටී.එන්.ඒ උවමනාවට අනුව ප්‍රමාදකර, කලින් ඊට පෙර සුමන්තිරන් හා ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්න විසින් ගෙනා සඟවා ගෙන ගැසූ ව්‍යවස්ථා ජරමරය ඉදිරියට ගෙනයාමට ඉදිරිපත්‌වී සිටීම ඛේදජනකය. මෙහි කෙටි ඉතිහාසය කුමක්ද?

1918 දී ඉන්දියා-ලංකා පෙඩරේෂන් එකක් සදන්නට යෝජනාකල පොන්නම්බලම් අරුණාචලම් මහතා, 1919 දී ඔහුම මූලිකව ආරම්භකල ලංකා ජාතික සංගමයෙන් 1921 දී ඉල්ලා අස්වී, 1923 දී ලංකා දෙමළ සංගමය පිහිටුවා ගත්තේය. එහි අරමුණවූයේ ලංකාව, දකුණු ඉන්දියාව හා අනිකුත් මලයාව වැනි දෙමළ වැසියන් සිටිනා යටත් විජිතවල, දෙමළකම (ටැමිලක්කම්) පණගැන්‌වීම, පැතිරවීම, එකමුතුකම හා සංවිධානය කිරීමය. මේ වනාහි ඉංග්‍රීසින්ගේ බෙදාපාලන උපක්‍රමය අනුව බලවත්‌ව සිටි ඔහු, තමා බලාපොරොත්තුවූ රටේ නායකත්‌වය ක්‍රිස්තියානි හෝ අර්‌ධ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සිංහල කළුසුද්දන්ට මිස ඔහුට නොලැබෙන බව ප්‍රත්‍යක්‍ෂවූ විට, වසර පහක කෙටි කාලයක් තුල ඔහු විසින් ඔහුගේ ප්ලෑන් බී එක ක්‍රියාත්මක කල ආකාරයය. මේ වනවිට ධ‌ර්‌මපාලතුමාද මොවුන් හා සහයෝගයෙන් වැඩකිරීමට සැදුවත් දෙමළ කට්ටියට හෝ සිංහල කළුසුද්දන්ට, 1815 වනතෙක් දිවයින පාලනයවූ, ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන ත්‍රිත්‌ව සිංහල බෞද්ද්ධ රාජ්‍ය සංකල්පයට අරහංවූවා නිසැකය. 2019 දී අදද රටට අවශ්‍ය මේ සංකල්පය බව අප්‍රේල් පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු තහවුරුවී තිබේ. මෙය කාදිනල්තුමා විසින් කියා සිටියේ ඊට බොහෝ කලින්‌ය. එය 1551 දී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රථම හා අන්තිම කතෝලික රජුවූ දොන් ජුවන් ධර්‌මපාලට පසු ක්‍රිස්තියානි පල්ලිය විසින් ප්‍රථම වරට කල පාපොච්චාරණයක් වැනිය.

රටේ ඉතිහාසයට හා ධර්‌මපාල ප්‍රායෝගික දර්‌ශනයට හා පසුව 1930-40 කාලයේදී එය ගම්මට්ටමින් සාර්‌ථක ලෙස ක්‍රියාවට නැඟූ කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්‍රඥාශෙඛර නාහිමියන්ට අසාධාරණ ලෙස සැලකූ සිංහල කළුසුද්දන් හා මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව අනුගමනය කිරීමට නොදත් ඩොනමෝර් බෞද්ද්ධයින්ගේ අඥාන හැසිරීම නිසා 1923 දී අරුණාචලම්ගෙන් මතුවී, 1930 ස් ගණන් වලදී පොන්නම්බලම්ගේ පනහට-පනහේ (හා බංගවේවා දේශපාලනය කල මාක්ස්වාදිිැන් ඇම්ලාගේ සමතැනේ) සිට, 1957 බණ්ඩා-චෙල්වා, 1965 ඩඩ්ලි-චෙල්වා, 1976 වඩුකෝඩ්ඩෙයි ප්‍රකාශණය, රනිල්ගේ 2002 සටන් විරාම පාවාදීම හා 2002 ඔස්ලෝ විසඳුම, චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ පීටොම්, ෂුනාමි අන්තර් පාලන මගෝඩිය දක්‌වා උඩුදුවා, අන්තිමේදී අවිබලයෙන්, මහින්ද-ගෝටාභය-සරත් ෆොන්සේකා (ඔහුට ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්‍ය්‍යාලය විසින් ජනාධිපති ඇමක් දීමට පෙර) යටතේ 2009 මැයි 18 දා නන්දිකඩාල් කලපුවේ මඩවඟුරකදී විනාශකල ඊළම් පිළිකාව සජිත් විසින් බදා ගැනීම සජිත්ගේ දේශපාලන මළගම වනු නියතය.

ශිෂ්‍ය සමිතියක් හරහා ඊළම්කාරයින් ගෙනා යෝජනා 13 සිංහල දේශපාලකයින්ට දුන් කම්මුල් පහරක් වුනත් එහි යම් ශූක්‍ෂම උපක්‍රමයක් අඩංගුය. ගෝඨාභය නිසැකවම ඒවා ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කරණ බව ඊළම්කාරයින්, සුමන්තිරන්, විග්නේශ්වරන් ඉඳුරාම දැන සිටියේය. දෙමළ ජනයා අතර ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් අවලංගු කාසි වෙමින් සිටිනා හා අළුතින් මතුවෙමින් පවතිනා දෙමළ-සිංහල අවභොධතාවන් ඉදිරියේ නැවතත් වඩුකෝඩ්ඩේ කඩදාසි කොටීන් වීම මොවුන්ට ඇති එකම වරණයය. එවැනි සිහිවිකල් යෝජනා දෙමළ ජනයාට දෙන්නේ සිංහලයින් හා සහයෝගීවීම දෙමළාට ද්‍රෝහී වීමක්‌ය යන පෙඩරල්-ඊළම්කාරයින්ගේ ගේම් එක මතය. එහෙත් 13 න් එකකට දෙකකට හෝ සජිත් කැමති වුනොත් එය දෙගොල්ලන්ටම ලැබෙන ජයක්සේ දෙපැත්තටම සැලකිය හැකිය.

ඉල්ලීම් 1 හා 2 ට එකඟවුනාට ඉතිරිවාට එකඟ නොවන බව සජිත්ට කියන්නට ඉඩ ලැබේ. මූලික ඉල්ලීම් දෙක ලබාගත්තායයි සුමන්තිරන්-විග්නේශ්වරන්ලා කිව හැකිය. මෙය සිංහල මිනිහාටත්, දෙමළ මිනිහාටත් කරණ ඇස්බැන්ඳුමක් බවත්, එය හරියට පැස්බරා වැල්ලේ හිස සඟවා ගැනීමක්වගේ බවත් මොවුන්ට නොතේරේ. දෙමළ ශිෂ්‍ය යෝජනා (1) යුනිටරි සංකල්පය ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කල යුතුය, (2) පෙඩරල් සංකල්පය පිළිගත යුතුය, (3) දෙමළ ජනයා සර්‌වාධිපත්‍යය සහිත වෙනම ජාතියක් බව පිළිගත යුතුය, (4) එම ජාතියට ස්වයං නිර්‌ණායක අයිතියක් ඇති බව පිළිගත යුතුය, යනු ජෙොර්ජේ විසින් ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කල තිම්පු
යෝජනාමය. යහපාලනකාරයින් විසින් ඊළම්කාරයින් ලවා පිළියෙල කල ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩිය හරහා හොරපාරෙන් යන්නට ගිය ඊළම් පාර දැන් එලිපිටම ඉහත ඉල්ලීම් හතරේ ඇත. 13 වන සංශොධනය අනුව ලංකාව දැනටමත් පෙඩරල් වුන රටකි. මඩකලපුවේ රාජ්‍ය වැඩ කෙරෙන්නේ දෙමළ භාෂාවෙන් පමණක් නිසා එහි සිංහල ජනයා අතරමංවී සිටී. රෑ හෝ සති අන්තයේ රජයේ වියදමින් කොළඹට පැමිණ තම සිංහල ලේලිලාගේ මුණුබුරන් සමඟ විනෝදවුන උතුරේ මහaැමතිව සිටි විග්නේශ්වරන්, යාපනේදී කරන්නේ පන්සල් කඩන්න, බුදුපිලිම කඩන්න වැනි කතා වලින් අහිංසක ද්‍රවිඩ ජනයාගේ මනස දූෂ්‍ය කිරීමය.

මෙවැනි පසුබිමක් යටතේ රට කැඩීම සඳහා චන්ද්‍රිකා සැදූ රහස් ප්ලෑන රටේ ජනයා දැන ගැනීම ඉතාමත් වැදගත් වන්නේ මිලේනියම් ආවත් නැතත් සජිත්-රනිල්-චන්ද්‍රිකා රැළ දේශපාලනයේ ඉන්නා තුරුම රටට ද්‍රෝහී මේ ක්‍රියාව පසුපස ඉන්නා නිසාය. ලබන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණය දැන් තිබෙන චන්ද ක්‍රමය යටතේම කලොත් මොවුන් නැවතත් මන්ත්‍රීලාවේ. මොවුන්ට ලැබෙන චන්ද අඩුවන්නේ මේ ද්‍රෝහි ක්‍රියා ජනයා දැනගත්තොත් පමණය. මෙහි පහතින් ඇත්තේ චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ මේ රහස් ප්ලෑන ගැන 2017 ජූනි මස ලංකාවෙබ් වෙබ්‌අඩවියේ පළවූ ලිපියකින් උපුටාගත් කොටස්‌ය.

චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ රහස් ප්ලෑන අහම්බෙන් මා දුටුවේ (ඉන්දියානු) ප‌ර්‌තා ඝොෂ් විසින් 2003 දී ලියන ලද එත්නිසිටි වර්‌සස් නැෂනලිසම් යන පොතේ‌ය (163 පිටුව). චන්ද්‍රිකා විසින් 1995 අගෝස්තු 3, 1996 ජනවාරි 16, 1997 ඔක්තෝබර් 14 දිනවල පැකේජ් ඩීල් පිලියෙල කරණ ලදී. මින් අන්තිම එක 2000 අගෝස්තු 3 දා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතක් වශයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කලේ එහි තිබූ රහස් ප්ලෑන ඉවත්කරය. ඒ මඟින් ලංකාව පෙඩරල් ප්‍රදේශ (රීජන්ස්) නවයකට බෙදීමට යෝජනාවිය. 1997 රහස් ප්ලෑනේ සරල අරමුණවූයේ, උතුරු නැඟෙනහිර පලාත් දෙක එකතුකර වෙනම රීජන් එකක් සදා දීමත්, හැකිතාක් දුරට එය අඛන්ඩ (ඉන්දියාවේ පොන්ඩිචේරි මොඩලය මෙන් කාවෝ කෑවා වැනි සිංහල හා මුස්ලිම් දූපත් ඒ තුල නැති) මොනෝ එත්නික් (තනිකර දෙමළ) ප්‍රදේශයක් කර දීමත්‌ය.

මෙහි ඇති අංක 1 හා 2 ක සිතියම් වලින් මේ රට කැඩීමේ විස්තරය පෙන්වයි. මේ අනුව:

1.මධ්‍යම, දකුණ, උතුරුමැද, වයඹ හා සබරගමුව යන පලාත අළුත් ප්‍රදේශ 5 ක් බවට පෙරලේ.
2.බස්නාහිර පලාතෙන්, කොළඹ හා ජයවර්‌ධනපුර මහනගර සභා භූමි දෙක, කැපිටල් ටෙරිටරි යනුවෙන් වෙනම මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩු ප්‍රදේශයක් වේ.
3.ඌව පලාතට, අම්පාර චන්ද කොට්ඨාශය (2 සිතියමේ තැඹිලි පාට) අළුතින් තාවකාලිකව එකතු කිරීමට නියමිතය.
මේ අනුව ප්‍රදේශ 8 කි.
4.ඉන් පසු උතුරු හා නැඟෙනහිර පලාත් දෙකෙන් අළුත් ඊසානදිග ප්‍රදේශයක් හා,

1. පොතුවිල්, කල්මුණේ හා සම්න්තුරෙයි චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ එකතුකර අළුත් ගිණිකොණදිග ප්‍රදේශයක් සැදේ (1 සිතියමේ කොල පාට).
   මේ අනුව ප්‍රදේශ 10 කි.
   මෙය සිදුවන්නේ ත්‍රිකුණාමළ හා මඩකලපු දිස්ත්‍රික්ක දෙකේ චන්දයකින් (අම්පාර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය නැතිව) ඒවායේ ජනයා ඊසානදිග ප්‍රදේශයකට එකඟ වුනොත්‌ය. එකඟ නොවුනොත්, උතුරු පලාත උතුරු ප්‍රදේශය ලෙසත්, නැඟෙනහිර පලාත නැඟෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශය ලෙසත් පවතී. තවද එසේ එකඟ වුනොත්, අම්පාර චන්ද කොට්ඨාශයේ (තැඹිලි පාට) ජනයා චන්දයකින් තමන්ට අම්පාර කියා වෙනම ප්‍රදේශයක් අවශ්‍යද යන්න තීරණය කලයුතුය. එකඟ නොවුනොත්, අම්පාර චන්ද කොට්ඨාශය ඌව ප්‍රදේශයේ කොටසක් වශයෙන් තාවකාලිකව දැනට ඊට එකතුකර, පසුව අම්පාර කියා වෙනම ප්‍රදේශයක් ඇතිකල යුතුය. එතෙක් අම්පාර චන්ද කොට්ඨාශය, මධ්‍යම රජය යටතේ කැපිටල් ටෙරිටරි ප්‍රදේශයේ ආකාරයට පාලනය වනු ඇත.

මේ අනුව රටේ ප්‍රදේශ 11 ක් සැදේ.
මීට අමතරව යම් ප්‍රදේශ දෙකකට හෝ වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවකට, (දැනට ඇති) පලාත් සීමාවෙන් ඔබ්බට ගිය එකතුවීමක් සදා ගැනීමට අවකාශ සලසා දෙනු ලැබේ. ඒ හැර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනුමැතිය ඇතිව, යම් ප්‍රදේශයකට එය තුලම (ප්‍රදේශ ලෙස?) නැවත බෙදීමටද හැකියාව ලබාදෙනු ඇත. තවද ප්‍රදේශ දෙකකට හෝ වැඩි ගණනකට විශේෂ පොදු කටයුතු සඳහා සහයෝගීව කටයුතු කිරීමට ඉඩ ලබා දෙනු ඇත.

භයානක අම්පාරේ පාර

මේ ආකාරයට අම්පාර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය වෙන්කිරීමේ ඒකායන අරමුණ, උතුර හා නැඟෙනහිර පලාත් එකතුකර දෙමළ ජනයාටා දීමත්, නැඟෙනහිර පලාතේ මුස්ලිම් ප්‍රදේශයක් සාදා දීමත්‌ය. මීට පෙර ජෙොර් විසින් සිංහල ජනයාට පලත් සභා ක්‍රමයක් බලෙන් පැටවූවා මෙන්, දැන් අම්පාරේ සිංහල ජනයාට අම්පාර කියා ප්‍රදේශයක් බලෙන් පැටවේ. යම් චන්ද කොට්ඨාශයක 51% ට වඩා යම් ජනවර්‌ගයක් සිටිනවාය යන පදනම යටතේ මෙසේ ප්‍රදේශයක් සැදීම අනාගතයේදී භයානක ප්‍රතිපල ගෙන එනවා නිසැකය. මෙයක් අහක යන නයි යට ඇඳුම් අස්සේ දාගන්නවා වැනි අඥාන ක්‍රියාවකි. ඊට හේතුව නම් මුස්ලිම් ජනයා අතර ජනගහන වර්‌ධනය ශීඝ්‍ර නිසාත්, මුස්ලිම්-දෙමළ වන්ද එකතුවකින් ඔවුන් 51% වැඩි චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ රාශියක්ම සදාගත හැකි නිසාත්‌ය.

උංදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ඉහත සිතියම් දෙකේ රතු පාටින් පෙන්වන්නේ ඒ චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ වල ඉන්නා ලංකා දෙමළ හා ඉන්දියන් දෙමළ චන්දදායකයින් ප්‍රතිශත පමණක් බවත් (1977 ජන සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛනය), ඒවායේ සිටිනා මුස්ලිම් චන්ද දායකයින් ඊට එකතුකර නැති බවත්‌ය. එසේ කලොත් ඒ සිතියම්වල ඇති රතුපාට චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ ගණන හා ජන සංඛ්‍යා ප්‍රතිශතය බෙහෙවින් ඉහල යන්නේය. උංදාහරණයක් වශයෙන්, සිතියම් වල නිල් පාටින් පෙන්‌වා ඇති වතුකරයේ ඉන්දියන් දෙමළ බහුතරයක් ඇති චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ හතර (නුවරaෙලිය-මස්කෙළිය, කොත්මලේ, පස්සර, හපුතලේ) හඳුනාගෙන ඇත්තේ ඒවායේ සිටිනා මුස්ලිම් චන්ද දායකයින් එකතු නොකරය. මේ නිසා අම්පාරට දුන් දෙය අපටත් දෙන්නයි යම් මලයනාඩු පක්‍ෂයක් නුදුරු අනාගතයේදී ඉල්ලා සිටියොත් දෙන්න උත්තරයක් නැතිව සිංහලයා කොට උඩ යනවා නොවේද?

සුමන්තිරන්-ජයම්පති ව්‍යවස්ථා මගඩියේ භයානක කම දැන් ඔබට වැටහෙනවා යයි සිතමි. මිලේනියම් බෙදීමෙන් උතුරු ලංකාව (අනාගත ඊළම) පටියක් දමා සුරක්‍ෂිත කරදුන්නත්, දකුණේ මුස්ලිම් ශාරියා රටක් ගැන මිලේනියම් ඇමෙරිකන් නියෝජිතයින් නිහඬව ඉන්නේ චන්ද්‍රිකාලා, රනිල්ලා 1997 සිටම ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය කරණ පිඹුරුපත් දැනටමත් සදා ඇති බව ඇමෙරිකන් මිලේනියම් බලධාරීන් දන්නා නිසාය. මේ නිසා මේ සජිත් කියන්නේ සිංහලයාට අබසරණ ගේන්න හදන ජාති භ්‍රෂ්ටයෙක් නොවේද?

Lakshmi Jayakody Courtesy Ceylon Today

Former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran said that the Government had allegedly paid cash to the Parliamentarians of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) in order to coax them into their camp prior to the 16 November Presidential Poll.

He made this comment to the Tamil media regarding the decision taken by the ITAK to support the New Democratic Front Presidential nominee, Minister Sajith Premadasa at the coming Poll.

He said: “It is obvious that the ITAK had taken this decision without thinking of the public, but only of the Party. Even the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam had claimed that they too agree with the decision taken by the ITAK. However, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front and our Party, the Tamil Peoples Collective, have taken a firm decision not to support any of the nominees at Poll. Therefore, it is up to the Tamil people to vote for whatever nominee of their choice. It is clear to us that the ITAK has taken this decision to support the Government having obtained money from for development work.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) today called upon the government not to proceed with the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and urged the President to inform the MCC and the US government that it will be rescinded with immediate effect.

Issuing a statement, the BASL says it has been reliably informed that the Finance Ministry is in the process of making arrangements to sign the MCC today. 

In our opinion the Finance Ministry has no legal authority to sign the MCC Agreement which contains many more matters other than a simple agreement to borrow money from the lender.”

As explained to the Prime Minister by the BASL in August 2019, the proposed agreement goes much beyond a simple loan/ grant and contains many clauses dealing with land and jurisdiction,” it said. 

These are matters clearly outside the purview of the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet could not have authorized the Minister of Finance to proceed with the MCC, the association said.
 
It is rather unfortunate that the basic concepts of Governance such as collective responsibility and Constitutional assignment of subjects are not considered at all in arriving at such decisions which have a serious impact on the sovereignty of the Nation,” the statement said.

The BASL said it vehemently opposes such a move by the Ministry of Finance and called upon the Prime Minister to honour the undertaking given to them in July/August 2019 that the MCC would not be signed without taking into consideration the observations of the Bar. 

The association said it is totally misleading for certain persons holding responsible positions to maintain that the MCC will be placed before Parliament after it is signed. Such a course of action is meaningless and once signed the Agreement will have a binding effect.” 

BASL called upon the PM who is a very senior politician on this country to refrain from proceeding with this move unless sufficient discussion takes place. 

We also urge the President to immediately inform the MCC and the US Government that even of the Agreement is signed it would be rescinded with immediate effect if the signing is done without playing the Agreement before Parliament,” it said.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa has requested Venerable Ven. Ududumbara Kashyapa Thera to call a halt to the protest fast that he commenced against the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Agreement this morning (05).

The former Defence Secretary has addressed a letter to Ududumbara Kashyapa Thera making the said request.

Rajapaksa says, from the time the Presidential Election was announced until its results are released, he would scrutinize the agreements so far signed by the government and to take measures to revoke them if they are contrary to national interests.

Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardena visited Ududumbara Kashyapa Thera to deliver Rajapaksa’s letter to him.

Ududumbara Kashyapa Thera, addressing a three-paged letter to the government, resorted to a protest fast this morning, stressing that he cannot silently watch the motherland being ‘betrayed’ to a foreign country.

He urged the government to halt the signing of the MCC agreement with the United States.

The letter issued by SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa is as follows:

Courtesy Adaderana

The presidential front-runner of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he would not allow the importation of eggs and poultry products under his administration.

Rajapaksa made this remark while addressing a rally at Hettipola area, which was held as a part of his election campaign last evening (04).

The rally took place with the auspices of former President and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and SLPP’s presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa also vowed to slash the cost of production of poultry farming.

If elected, Rajapaksa says he would boost the poultry farming so that the farmers can acquire an increased income.

Under his administration, Rajapaksa intends to take governmental measures to protect the local farmer.
 

Addressing the event, the Opposition Leader said the incumbent government has failed to guarantee uninterrupted gas supply to the citizens but continues to give false promises to the public.

Courtesy Adaderana

President’s Counsel Ali Sabry says that the manifesto of New Democratic Front (NDF) Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa contains ideas from the interim report complied with inputs from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Speaking at the 360° political program on TV Derana last night (04), Sabry said that there are grave and serious issues in the manifesto of Sajith Premadasa.

He points out that that the interim report of the Steering Committee on the Constitution submitted to the parliament was made by the Prime Minister and TNA Spokesperson MP M. A. Sumanthiran. 

These ideas and proposals are contained in the recently published manifesto of Premadasa, he added.

According to Sabry, the manifesto read, Sri Lanka shall be a union of provinces and states. Sri Lanka shall be a federal state within the framework of the united and undivided and indivisible country”.

President’s Counsel Ali Sabry says that there was no chance of defeating the LTTE without Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Responding to a query on defending a person who has corruption charges against him, Sabry says that anyone can accuse anyone and all the charges against Gotabaya Rajapaksa are false accusations made with political intentions. That is why we represent his without any doubt or hesitation, he added.

He said, We need a motherland to live and work. We need leaders who can protect the country. Among the few leaders, we have Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the best leader we have at this moment. Therefore, it is our duty to protect him.”

Speaking on the allegations that Gotabaya Rajapaksa won all his cases through the loopholes of the law, Sabry said that they have only won through the fairness of the law. 

He says the judges who had given the verdicts in these cases are unblemished great judges and that these same judges have rejected cases of Gotabaya at other instances. However, no one talks when a case is rejected, but when a case is won, it is criticized through websites registered abroad, he added.

Sabry says that accusing one person or one government for racial conflicts is unfair. Although it was wrong to not have punished the perpetrators, Mahinda Rajapaksa or Gotabaya Rajapaksa never fled from issues, he said. 

They took the responsibility of the incident which happened during their regime and did what had to be done. However, this government, instead of taking responsibility for the situation, blamed someone else and let the issue grow worse. They had nicely managed it and pushed the blame on the Rajapaksas to show that it was a creation of them. This is a lie. This is a common challenge for us as a nation. These happened under the Bandaranaike era, J. R. Jayawardena era, R. Premadasa era, Chandrika Bandaranaike era, Mahinda era and even now.”

Commenting on the Easter Sunday terror attacks, the President’s Counsel says that he agrees although there were some deviations from the mainstream within the Muslim community, it is unfair to blame the whole Muslim society for this incident. 

Blaming the whole Muslim community over the act Zahran Hashim is wrong. Because Hashim had been chased away from his mosque in Kattankudy. The trustees there had carried out Satyagrahas. Fifteen complaints had been lodged at the police. Arrest warrants had been issued. You cannot push this on Muslim people. 

I think the government is completely responsible for this incident. Nearly 97 intelligence reports had been submitted. It seemed as the government just waited for this to happen. 

It is fair to have suspicion against Muslims after the incident. But it is not fair to claim that the Muslim community is connected to this act because the Muslim community doesn’t have a reason to do so. LTTE terrorism had a goal. To gain an Eelam, separate land and a separate state. But Muslims do not have such a goal. 

The people who attacked had no issue with Sri Lanka. They just wanted to create mayhem over the issues with the West. Therefore there is no connection between the Muslim society and the Easter Sunday attacks.”

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

හිටපු ජනාධිතිනී චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක කුමාරතුංග මහත්මියගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද පැවැති සමුළුවට සහභාගී වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ ආසන සංවිධායකවරුන්ට එරෙහිව විනය පියවර ගැනීමට පක්ෂය තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා.

එම තිරණය ගෙන ඇත්තේ අද පැවැති පක්ෂ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේදී.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාව අද පස්වරු 7.30ට පමණ ආරම්භ වුණා.

එය පැවැත්වුණේ පක්ෂයේ සභාපති ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්.

මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවට සහභාගී වූ පක්ෂ නියෝජිතයින් කිහිප දෙනෙකු අනතුරුව අදහස් පළ කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ලෝකයේ නව තාක්ෂණික ප්‍රවණතා පිළිබඳ අවධානය යොමු කරමින් ඉදිරි නගර සංවර්ධන සැළසුම් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට තමන් කටයුතු කරන බව ශ්‍රී  ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

අද පෙරවරුවේ මහියංගණය හසලක ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති ජන රැළියකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සහ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් ඇතුලු විශාල පිරිසක් ඊට එක්ව සිටියා.

Location, Location, Location” is reason why Sri Lanka is important and it is the reason why nations adopt numerous approaches to ensure stakes in potentially any corner of the island all of which bring immeasurable value to them. Why can’t Sri Lankan leaders & citizens understand the country’s geopolitical potential as much as external parties/players? It is in the inability to understand and maximize this potential to Sri Lanka’s benefit that has enabled external parties to use cunning methods to wriggle their way into tapping what ideally should be a strategic wealth asset to Sri Lanka & held by Sri Lankans.

With global focus shifted to Asia, it is imperative that Sri Lankans come to terms with how global players will turn to Sri Lanka for geopolitical, military & trade perspectives. It is in the light of this understand that we can be better positioned to understand the developments since the end of LTTE in May 2009, the US pivot to Asia, US Air-Sea Battle doctrine, China’s announcement of Belt & Road Initiative in 2013 prior to which in 2010 Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port was launched are in some ways connected to the successive UNHRC Resolutions drafted by US & supported by its allies against Sri Lanka to weaken and diplomatically pressurize Sri Lanka into opening its systems for the perusal of ‘foreigners’ who had bigger plans up their sleeves.

This culminated in 2015 regime change, placing a puppet government in power, psychologically hypnotizing citizens into being mesmerized by yahapalana good governance until faux pas came to such appalling levels that even the regime changers had no damage control for. However, while the nation was kept busy dealing with countless faux pas perhaps purposely planted to keep the nation busy & diverted, strategic changes were taking place.

Now we come to a point where we can view these changes from a perspective of what benefits Sri Lanka or what benefits those funding the changes. It is left to the reader to decide.

However, this is being written from the point of view of the country & the citizens and future generations.

US says it is giving $480m as a non-refundable grant. WHY?

US says MCC has no conditions, if so why produce a Constraints Analysis which names

• Lack of Assess to Land
• Policy Uncertainty
• Inadequate overland transport as root causes for investment impediments while also highlighting ‘shortage of skills in science, technology, engineering & math(STEM) as another impediment which means it is highly likely that foreigners will be employed in MCC investment ‘economic corridor’ and elsewhere too.

If MCC is coming to help Sri Lanka’s poor why does MCC want access to land?

MCC Constraints Analysis makes clear that MCC wants to buy land for ‘investment purposes’.

How do we know what MCC conditions are?

MCC official Steve Lovic on 25 September 2018 in Temple Trees handed out a MCC document which had a list of very interesting details that would open our eyes to understanding what MCC is really about.

MCC document given in 2018, creates a Millennium Challenge Authority  

Unbelievable that in a sovereign country a government ministry is placed subordinate a US MCC authority board. Where have you heard of a government Ministry below a corporate body?

Sri Lankans have access to land – who doesn’t have access? It is the foreigners

When MCC speaks about lack access to land it is MCC that is seeking land for investment.

When MCC speaks about policy uncertainty, it is MCC that is seeking legislative changes advantageous to MCC investors

When MCC speaks about inadequate overland transport, it is for MCC investors.

So for this non-refundable $480m GRANT to be given, the GOSL has to first make the following changes

(if STATE LAND IS NOT PRIVATIZED MCC COMPACT-Economic Corridor CANNOT take place)

MCC Condition – Issue land grants to people – giving them all rights of private ownership (this nullifies Sri Lanka’s control over its territory exercised by the Centre)

Preparation of parcel fabric map / cadastral map is being done   

MCC Condition – Legislative change 1 – Land Special Provisions Bill (drafted by US) repeal State Lands Ordinances of 1947 & removes powers of the President over Land & confers those powers to Provinces (13a – Land Powers given & US/Allies will be buying land directly from the Provinces)

Shockingly this Act is ONLY VALID for 7 years.

Which means that the idea behind privatizing 84% of state land in Sri Lanka, is to within 7 years enable the sale of State land held by grantees to foreign investors.

The obvious plan via the Land Special Provisions Bill was to remove obstacle where 84% of state land was held by farmers. The only way to do that was to give outright ownership to grantees of state land by privatizing state land. Once grantee land owners had title deeds to land they are on their own.

The Land Special Provisions Bill Section 29 claims that state land privatized can be mortgaged to any financial institution or any purchaser (that means even foreigners can buy land as the cap to prevent foreigners owning land was removed after this government came into power in 2015)

MCC Condition – Legislative change 2 – Inventory of State Land – Land Bank Bill (drafted by US)

State Land Bank Act is passed by legal draftsman & signed by Attorney General and copied to Charitha Ratwatte & attorney Ms Bimba Tilakaratne (legal advisor to PM Ranil) but has not been presented YET to Cabinet or Parliament.

The preamble to this Act is to compile all state land owned or vested with public institutions (land used by schools, libraries, armed forces, police, nature parks etc) and enable these public institutions to sell. There is no criteria/restrictions or scope for such sale even.

Section 33 of this Act aspires to repeal land reform law of 1972 that limits ownership to 50 acres.

Vesting powers all go to the State Land Bank.

State Land Bank can even be sued by corporations – so where is Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The State Land Bank organization board is to comprise of 19 Additional Secretaries and 5 members of the Constitutional Council (you can imagine what we are in store for)

Section 28 of the Act gives a virtual carte blanche to the Minister to dispose of land simply by a letter. By vesting powers to the State Land Bank/Minister Sri Lanka can even be sued by corporations – so where is Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

• Privatizing of 84% of State Land via Land Special Provisions Bill
• Loophole penetrated is Land issued by President is conclusive proof of absolute title.

MCC Condition – Registration of grants into the title system

MCC Condition – Conversion of deeds to title system

MCC Condition – Establish a Land Policy Body under Ministry of Lands

The MCC 2018 document also gives a map of geographic areas of focus for MCC Land Investment. Again you must ask yourself – were we not told that this $480m was simply a grant to help Sri Lanka’s poor, then what is this MCC land investment?

Is it not clear that MCC is actually planning to buy our land and buy our land cheap by getting the government to re-survey our land and that is why a new valuation system is being designed with foreign inputs & advice.

Those that are saying why are people making a fuss over the ‘gift’ of $480m seem to totally ignore the loans that the GOSL is taking to give US firms to iron out areas that would quicken the process for US investors to land & buy over our land & even cheap labor as ILO are already redrafting our labor laws.

How many know that GOSL has given US firm Trimble Navigation to prepare land survey maps & create a database of 3.6m parcels of state owned land? Trimble is doing what Survey Dept should be doing and the dangers of Sri Lanka signing the US Tropic Forest Act which was rejected in 2004 is highly likely to occur. GOSL has taken a loan of $154m to pay Trimble to survey our land and 400 public surveyors & 200 additional private surveyors with crews will all be serving under Trimble. Trimble would take control of Sri Lanka’s electronic land register & details of lands – isn’t this a threat to National Security when a private company is given access to all land details of a sovereign country & the government takes a loan to pay them for it? This $154m is not part of the $480m grant!

Now please remove your pro-foreign lens and imagine what all these changes will mean to Sri Lanka & its citizens?

Why is US asking for changes to our administrative systems – privatizing state land, giving title deeds, removing cap on foreign ownership of land – what is their bigger plan?

What happens when all State land is privatized?

Political power over land passes from Centre to the provinces.

Isn’t this what TNA & LTTE had been fighting & demanding for 30 years?  

By now you should have understood that Land Special Provisions Act & Land Bank Act are integral parts of the MCC conditions   

All this means – the GOSL has privatized all state land, given title deeds to people living on state land as grantees by an Act that is valid for only 7 years while allowing title deed holders to sell their land to anyone including foreigners the intent of which is for foreigners/foreign investors to buy land within 7 years. While the Act also allows foreigners to even sue the country.

This happened in Peru where secret land deals with a foreign company resulted in its cancellation & foreign company took issue with international tribunal resulting in Peruvians paying $24m for a deal done in secret by their government – https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/trade-agreements-pre-empt-dissent-an-interview-with-aftinets-dr-patricia-ranald/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

However, there are 2 impediments –

First is the FR case filed in the Supreme Court against the Land Special Provisions Bill which prevents MCC signing and any MCC signing must be regarded as a contempt of court.

Second is the Supreme Court Judgement (Bulankulame vs the State) famously known as the Eppawela Case where the Court determined that Sri Lanka’s Constitution secures the fundamental rights of even our unborn generations to our land. The right to private property is not a human right.

1 million deeds have already been distributed by President Sirisena-Prime Minister Ranil especially aligned to those living along this ‘economic corridor’ – against these two judgements how valid are these deeds?

MCC economic corridor cannot be created without privatizing state land to enable private owners to sell and selling state land used by schools/libraries/forces etc. Both scenarios will create incremental displacement of people and public utilized buildings.

Now let’s ask some questions?

• What happens if farmers who now have private title deeds mortgage their land to a financial institution & the bank takes over their land for non-payment?
• What happens if farmers sell their land because foreigners offer a price they cannot refuse?
• What if private land title owners end up selling their land & have no livelihood or even place to live?
• How can a government survive when a government forfeits all State land & loses its ability to collect revenue from taxes? How can a government survive without taxes & revenue?
• What is the jurisdiction of a government & politicians over land that belongs to private citizens or foreigners? These are incremental scenarios likely to happen
• Is there any use in having a Parliament or a Government? Will Politicians be jobless?

Now let’s look at other scenarios

• If MCC goes through, the other agreements ACSA & SOFA will only strengthen US/transnational corporate presence in Sri Lanka – US military/civil contractors armed, with weapons, bringing unchecked equipment without paying any duties can enter Sri Lanka & go anywhere.
• Palaly international airport means that India has been given air capacity to bring any military hardware from air into Sri Lanka.
• TNA 13 demands and the partnership with the NDF candidate means that there is more than room for another unilateral declaration of independence – with a corridor and rail preventing Sri Lankan Armed Forces using ground-naval-air to defend itself, the Eelam gift is given on paper but under Indo-US control and Tamils will realize too late they have sold Sri Lanka and themselves. https://www.tamilguardian.com/sites/default/files/File/Tamil%20orgs/1.Translation%20of%20the%20Five%20Party%20Document-%20Issued%20by%20Jaffna%20Unniversity%20Stduents%20-%2014.10.2019.pdf
• What powers will our National Army & Police have to carry out their national duties? Not much!
• Economic Electric Rail Corridor vests US 1.2million acres for 200 years dividing Sri Lanka into 2 and taking part of Sacred Anuradhapura as well. Will Sri Lankans need visa to go & pray?
• Then we come to the East terrain – the Batticoloa university is also part of the MCC map where US envoy is opening buildings in the very area that the Easter Sunday suicide bombers resided and paid for by the US Pacific Command funds? Why? This is linked to the Caliphate in Sri Lanka and we cannot ignore who jihadi terrorists best friend is and it is a factor that the Muslims of Sri Lanka cannot ignore too.

Sadly, the minorities of Sri Lanka have been ready proxies to weaken Sri Lanka.

Tamils & LTTE terrorists were used for 30 years to weaken Sri Lanka and now simultaneously a proxy political Tamil alliance together with proxy Muslim militant/political synergy is now being used to further weaken Sri Lanka tapping into the weaknesses of the political system and the ignorance of the masses.

We can only hope that people can see the larger picture. All of the 3 foreign agreements must be taken together with the legislative changes that have taken place by a weak and spineless government put into the saddle by the parties aspiring to grab Sri Lanka geopolitically, economically & militarily. Will this end Sri Lanka’s 2500 proud history and heritage will be seen in days to come?

Shenali D Waduge

S. AKURUGODA Courtesy The Island

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe hands over CFA document to then Norwegian Ambassador Jon Westborg

According to media reports, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the agreement on the implementation of a US$ 480 million MCC grant would be signed before the presidential election, and asked why should it be rejected when government was receiving US$ 480 million under the grant?   His Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has said that the agreement will be presented to Parliament after signing it. 

UNP leaders are well known for signing notorious agreements, detrimental to the country in many ways, with foreign powers or with their involvements, without going through the parliament or briefing the contents of the agreements to the opposition political parties or the general public. 

We remember how the UNP leader J.R. Jayewardene (JRJ) signed the Indo-Lanka Pact in 1987 amidst curfew.  JRJ signed the hurriedly prepared document endorsed by the Tamil separatist groups including the LTTE. The opposition to the treacherous agreement was notable and the extent of the opposition to it was seen when a sailor attacked the Indian PM while the latter was receiving the guard of honour. The agreement didn’t serve the desired expectation at all.  The Provincial Councils (PCs) set up under Indo- Lanka Agreement are mere white elephants. According to available records, the government’s allocation for maintaining PCs had gone up from Rs. 90m (1989) to Rs. 60,000m in 2010. Fortunately, no government has yet devolved the police and land powers as per the said agreement, based along ethnic lines. If fully implemented, it will be irreversible and, if an attempt is made to reverse them, the consequences will be disastrous. 

Similarly, the CFA arranged by the Norwegians and signed by the UNP leader Ranil and the terrorist leader Prabhakaran in 2002 was not transparent and didn’t serve any purpose to the country. Its legality is questionable since the agreement was signed by the PM who was neither the Head of the Executive nor the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Ranil, via the agreement, blindly gave some areas of the North and Eastern Provinces to the LTTE under so-called “LTTE territories”, without the knowledge or the approval of the country. Unless this foolish agreement was abrogated and LTTE defeated militarily to remove the so-called “LTTE territories”, the situation of the country would be entirely different today. 

Thus signing any form of treacherous agreement by a UNP leader like Ranil, behind closed doors disregarding its consequences, is not a surprise at all. 

S. AKURUGODA

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island

In the 2500 long history of this country there have been several betrayals that had adversely changed its destiny. Some of them were forced on the rulers and some engineered by them. And some could have been avoided. An act by a ruler that compromises the independence and sovereignty of the country could be considered a betrayal of its people. Legend has it that Kuveni and her people were betrayed by Vijaya. However, the first major betrayal is perhaps by King Don Juan Dharmapala, who in 1580 after listening to Franciscan monks wrote his last will naming the king of Portugal as the claimant to the throne of Kotte after the demise of the king, as he had no son to succeed him. Then comes the often quoted gross betrayal in 1815, the Kandyan Convention which handed over the hitherto unconquered Kandyan Kingdom to the British. Though conditions were included in this agreement they were breached with impunity by the British. Since then a similar betrayal cannot be found until 2016 when the ‘yahapalana’ government co-sponsored the UNHRC Resolution against its own country, which is unprecedented in UN history, and which enabled the western powers to encroach on our independence and take this country in its grip, opened the doors for a new constitution which eventually if adopted would establish a federal/separate state in the North and East, and also made unsubstantiated charges against the war wining armed forces of war crimes, which were to be investigated by a foreign judiciary.

Perhaps this little country is prone to periodical betrayals, but now it seems they are coming on us at rapid succession. The same government which co-sponsored the UNHRC Resolution is going tooth and nail to sign three agreements with the USA before its tenure ends. One has already been entered into; the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA). This was originally intended for NATO countries and other pro-US submissive states. The agreement provides for logistic support for US forces by Sri Lanka, in case there is a need for their forces to be stationed in the region. This obviously is a military agreement which grossly compromises our claims for non-alignment. It could either discourage economic aid from countries like China, Russia and Iran, or make them pressure the government for similar military arrangements in order to counter the aggressive moves by the US.

ACSA has to be considered with the other proposed military agreement the State of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which aims to establish Rights and Privileges of US forces, particularly with regard to visa-less entry, freedom of movement, and civil and criminal jurisdiction. These two agreements together would enable the US forces to enter into Sri Lanka, get logistic support and even launch a military base and a campaign against its enemies using our soil for the purpose, without prior permission from the government. The US personnel would not come under our law and if they commit an offense our police and courts will not be able to take any action. For instance in 2011 in South Korea, which has a SOFA,  three brutal rape and arson cases were committed by US soldiers and a curfew had to be enforced to control the riots. The other relevant fact is most countries who have entered into SOFA with the US have US military bases on their land. Therefore the argument that the US which has huge aircraft carriers in the oceans doesn’t need to have bases on land like Sri Lanka may not hold water.

The other wicked betrayal that may befall us is the Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement (MCC). It was started by President George Bush purportedly to streamline aid, and it is supposed to be independent of the State Department and USAID, though its chair is the Secretary of State. More than 23 countries have entered into the compact, most of them are US allies in Africa and South America, with only Indonesia and Philippines being the Asian countries to have entered into it. Indonesia and Philippines had MCC compacts for five years and the projects pertained uncontroversial areas like prevention of corruption, revenue, immunization, transportation. Once these projects are completed the US or its companies have no hold or presence in those countries. In some others, however the compact had a facade of innocence but core projects were designed for the pursuit of an imperial agenda. The proposed MCC compact for Sri Lanka is also for five years, but according to the terms and conditions of the compact and the areas they cover, there may be provision for US and its companies to have a hold on land and other national assets for a long period of time.

Researchers like Emma Mawdsley (2007), Mark Engler (2006), Susanne Soederberg (2004) have commented on the real intentions of the US in pushing countries to accept MCC on their terms. For instance Mawdsley says that the first five MCC compacts in Cape Verde, Honduras, Madagascar, and Georgia is using a new security development paradigm to legitimate more spending on “development” programmes, which are primarily intended to serve the interests of US consumers, manufacturers and investors, and that poverty reduction at best is a secondary objective. These researchers say that security improvement projects in recipient countries are really intended to serve US defense and military goals. Further they reveal how the World Bank contrives to show bad business of these projects as good business.

The proposed five year MCC compact for Sri Lanka has programmes for transportation improvement and land registration, ownership, and utilization aimed at poverty alleviation. There are 17 Eligibility Criteria for US MCC agreements and one of them is termed Land Rights and Access Indicator and items under this include suitability of land to buy. Under the latter the lands that are suitable for purchase by companies are given in detail, for example it is stated there should not be title disputes. The Land Acts that were proposed by the government recently are obviously for the purpose of meeting these criteria. The titles of a substantial extent of land that lies in the area identified for these projects, are in the form of permits and not in deeds, this needs to be corrected to meet MCC conditions, hence the need for new Land Acts. The Land (Restrictions on Alienation) Act No. 38 of 2014 which prevented companies with foreign ownership of shares in excess of 50% purchasing land has been amended to remove that restriction. Further a Task Force is being put in place to establish Land Banks which are essential for the MCC.

Obviously the ground work is being done for the US to take complete control of the economy of the country supported by a military presence. It is part of their geopolitical anti-Chinese agenda in the Indian Ocean region. The US is pressuring the Government to sign the ACSA, SOFA and MCC as a matter of urgency before the presidential election. An item in the Eligibility Criteria for MCC is Government Effectiveness Indicator, under which policy consistency and continuity is stressed so that the MCC could continue even after a change of government.

 Because of these several betrayals by the government the people, their land, economy, independence and sovereignty are in great peril. Unwavering vigilance and a concerted resolute effort by the people to thwart these treacherous deeds are needed at this critical hour.  

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA

FR. J. C. PEIRIS Galle Courtesy The Island

It is most likely that Ali Baba and the 225 thieves will creep back into the den of Diyawannawa yet again for five years of robbing and pillaging the country; another five years of selling our women to slavery and our resources for paltry commissions; another five years of alienating our harbours, airports and land for 99 years or for good. This time not even god Sakra will be able to protect our Central Bank and our Employees Provident Fund. There will be taxes on taxes on taxes and the price of basic food items will rocket into the stratosphere. The boot licking civil administration will morph into a brood of human jellyfish; again there will be a few women and men of integrity, in the pool, wasting away their life. Rampant trafficking of drugs, prostitution, thuggery and lawlessness will be the order of the day. Breakdown of education, health care and public transport will be inevitable. Freedom of speech and of the media will deteriorate. Finally my country will be divided between America, China and India and we will be strangers in our own motherland.      

I am neither a soothsayer nor a prophet of doom. I am deducing the above from what has gone before for the last 71 years, and especially what happened after the seventies. The two leading candidates from the UNP and the SLFP (SLPP is an offshoot of SLFP) are screaming in competition, to grant people everything under the sun and the moon; lies, lies and damn lies. But there are plenty of morons in this country who believe them! Look at their rallies; how expensive to organize them and where is the money? I suppose Aloysius and drug lords are generously spending. The average low IQ of the country, and the still extant feudal mentality, are no help to put this country on the right track to eliminate poverty with its sovereignty intact and independence guaranteed. 

And that is what we hoped for and worked for promoting the Autochthonous Constitution and the non-violent system revolution. But it was blocked by the powers that are and their cats’ paws. They are deadly in fear of it. The so called alternative groups and their candidates are each going their own way to oblivion. The JVP, the safety valve of the corrupt system, carries on faithful to its services to the powers that are. Nothing has changed; everything is working according to the evil designs of the kleptocracy.  

Is there still a possibility of a miracle? Will some candidate carry the Autochthonous Constitution to implementation even at this eleventh hour? I wonder.

The ordinary, free and honest citizen of this country is in a dilemma. What is s/he supposed to do on the 16th? S/he is supposed to vote for somebody to govern this country. There are 35 candidates. Only three of them matter. The rest are going to lose their deposits. But of the three the red one is of no consequence. They are in the race out of habit and just to safeguard their four seats in the den. Two seats are illegal! So there are only two candidates left and what difference does it make who wins?

As a Sri Lankan and a Catholic I cannot take the decision whom to vote for without taking into consideration what happened on Easter Sunday. The ‘insects’ who were responsible for the safety of this country had foreknowledge of the attack. They knew who was going to do what and where. With the connivance of a global power they looked aside and waited for it to happen. The defense establishment said: “We did not expect it to be so big, so horrible.” One of the 225 thieves whined: “Papa told me not to attend the Easter Sunday main mass.” The ‘insects’ began to point fingers at one another and finally, as usual, nobody took responsibility. For them it is Karma, it just happened like the Tsunami, the floods and the droughts. I accuse the entire governing apparatus of Ali Baba and the 225 thieves for the massacre of hundreds of mainly Catholics, but also of Christians, tourists and hotel staff. Immediately after the terrible tragedy the finance minister crowed that they got US$ 480 million. They are still crowing about it. Don’t the ‘insects’ realize it is blood money? Don’t touch that money and to hell with the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact. It is the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas! 

The three towns, Colombo-Kochchikade, Negombo-Katuwapitiya and Batticaloa sank to the depths of anguish and bereavement. Some little ones were simply vaporized and the people have not got over the enormity of the ‘Holocaust’. The relatives of the victims and the residents of those three localities were emotionally shattered and traumatized. They are still trying to cope with it and get back to normal life. And these ‘insects’ dare to come with their begging bowls seeking our vote. 

And so, to conclude, what shall we do on the 16th? People ask me what they should do on the 16th. Since there is no Autochthonous Constitution to vote for I do not know what to tell them. My personal problem as a Catholic, the dilemma, is how to vote for one of the two betraying my co-religionists and brethren, whose lives were extinguished in vain and so many remaining maimed? However ugly, rotten and stinking the current political reality is, we have to face it. We have to go to the polling booth; otherwise some ‘insect’ will steal our vote. These are the options: Tear the voting card and stuff the box with the pieces (Probably a useless exercise. At least it will not be stolen.) Or scratch out the card from top to bottom and write a few choice words of disgust (Since there will not be a None of the Above box to tick off.) or vote for the lesser evil. I still do not know what I would do on the 16th. I try to discern.

My discernment doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Look around the world. Many countries are not waiting for elections to get rid of their rotten, corrupt and evil governments. In South America, Africa, Middle East and Far East people are on the streets in huge mass protests day after day, month after month, forcing their governments to resign. Shall we learn a lesson from them? Is there no other way to get rid of Ali Baba and the 225 thieves and send them home, or to exile or to jail or to gallows? 

FR. J. C. PEIRIS

Galle

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara 

I draw the serious and prompt attention of the Government to the following news item and take immediate action first, to stop this subversive interference on the part of the Indian Government in our domestic affairs and second, to disband the Indian Sub-Office immediately before their activities become a headache to us.

News item

Divaina 11.3 reports the Raw is spying on the Election programmes of Gota and Sajit. It is said that this is being done by Indian Consular Offices in Jaffna and Hambantota

This is clear interference uncalled for on our internal matters and sovereignty by a foreign country.  In this context I suggest the Government take immediate action not only to stop this interference immediately but also simultaneously close down these two consular Offices forthwith. I also suggest that the Government also take action to close down the Indian assistant Commissioners Office in Kandy as well, as it also has ceased to serve the objectives for which it was opened in 1949, as I have pointed out previously as well that there is no point of having so many Indian Embassy offices all over the country, unless India has some subversive design behind it. The danger of having so many Indian Embassy Offices in this small Island which I pointed out long ago is now clearly confirmed by this action of the Raw reported in tomorrow’s Divaina.

Therefore taking this incident as a proof of what I said before I urge the Government immediately disband the regional Offices before India creates more problems to u

I am sure the Indian Embassy in Colombo can attend to diplomatic activities between the two countries without these appendages all over the country.     

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The SLPP today said the ITAK’s decision to support New Democratic Front presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa, indicated that the latter has accepted the conditions put forward by the TNA.

Addressing a news briefing, SLPP Chairman Professor G.L. Peiris said the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) was the main constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which made public 13 conditions to candidates of the presidential election.

“The TNA said they would only support the presidential candidate who would accept their conditions. Removal of the unitary state of the nation, merging of the North and East Provinces and repealing of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) are some of their conditions. Had we not had the PTA in force, we would have been in great trouble in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attack while launching investigations. SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa clearly said that he was rejecting their conditions,” he said.

However, Mr.Peiris said that Mr. Premadasa kept mum over the conditions made by the TNA and the ITAK supporting him, only implied that he had accepted those conditions. “This shows the duplicity of uttering two different stories to the North and South. People reject such political culture with disgust,” he said. 

Courtesy Adaderana

SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that the former government used the TID and the CID of the Police to find terrorists, but the incumbent government is using those agencies to ‘chase after political opponents’. 

Speaking during a rally in Chilaw, the former Defence Secretary claimed that the government even attempted to arrest and imprison him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

How can you get the person who ended terrorism under the Prevention of Terrorism Act?” he questioned.

Rajapaksa stated that if investigation into the murder of police officers in Batticaloa had been carried out properly, the Easter Sunday attacks could have been prevented. Those are the things that the commission should have looked into,” he said.

He said that they had set up a special unit to probe extremist elements with specially trained officers, however those officers had been removed and transferred to different positions overseas by the current government.

Rajapaksa said that if elected they will once again strengthen the intelligence service in the country, give intelligence officers the required powers and complete legal protection” to act for the country and ensure its safety. 

Courtesy Adaderana

NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa says that his first task as President will be to hold two international aid conferences for the North and the East as well as establish special presidential task forces for the war-torn provinces.

Addressing an election rally in Mullaitivu, the minister said that he also said that he will ensure a ‘golden era’ for every community in the country.

Premadasa also spoke during an election rally held at Ratgama.

He stated that presidential units will be established in every divisional secretariat allowing the public with an opportunity to come forward with their common and personal issues and that thus far there has not been such a system in place. 

This is my best time,” he said, before adding that he intends to work tirelessly and with utmost diligence to provide a matured service to the public. 

Premadasa said that the plan he will execute to develop the country is in his ‘head’ and that he is in no need of ‘tuition classes’ from anyone as he is with a sound knowledge and a clear vision.