Talk with Chatura

Courtesy Hiru News

A person who was distributing mudslinging posters against SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapakse in Mirhana was arrested.

SLPP members charge that this suspect is a representative of non cabinet Minister Harsha De Silva.

A tense situation occurred at the time of the arrest

Mahinda Gunasekera

Thanks to the report published in the Lankaweb on November 6, 2019, by the Indian investigative journalist Sarojini Dutt, we are now able to see the foolish and dangerous steps taken by the present government to sacrifice our independence and sovereignty to the USA for a mere handful of dollars  ($480 million) promised as a grant, which too would go directly to US contractors engaged to carry out the work involving land surveys and converting the land grants given to landless farmers into freely marketable units to be registered in a digitized land bank system. This no doubt would make the land holders in the not too distant future, rootless and landless, selling off their land that provided them their livelihoods to the highest bidders including foreigners as provided in the new State Land Bank Act and the Land (Special Provisions) Act replacing the LRC Act which guaranteed them tenure over their lands.

Her expose’ reveals some of the hidden areas in the Millenium Challenge Corporation’s Compact under negotiation which was inadvertently distributed to invited participants by the MCC team leader Steve Dobrilovic during a briefing to senior legal officers of Sri Lankan banks and the then President of the Bar Association in September 2018. The documents released included a map of Sri Lanka as envisaged in the year 2050 following implementation of the Compact which the present Cabinet of Minister approved for acceptance and nominated the Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera to sign it on behalf of the country while the people were focusing their attention on the Presidential Election scheduled to be held on November 16, 2019.  The map in question also showed a 200 mile corridor between Colombo and Trincomalee to be awarded to the US authorities coming under US jurisdiction where an electric rail track was to be built effectively dividing Sri Lanka into a southern and northern region. These negotiations took place in absolute secrecy between representatives of the government and the MCC team from the USA housed within the Temple Trees complex used by the Prime Minister.  Due to the lack of openness and secrecy involved, the concerned citizens were jolted into shock and dismay, leading to the Most Venerable Ududumbara Kasyapa Thero to undertake a fast unto death at the Independence Hall demanding that the President, Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition commit themselves in writing not to proceed with the signing of the Compact Agreement prior to same being discussed in Parliament and a decision taken in a democratic manner. With opposition mounting and the fast of the monk going into the second day, the key officials of the government provided the written assurance enabling the venerable monk to call off his fast.

The USA which operated a major military base in the island of Diego Garcia from which they carried out hostilities in the Middle East, Afghanistan, etc.  obtaining a 50 year lease of the territory from the UK which expired in 2016, having tricked and cheated the indigenous Chagossian people of a place to live by instilling fear in them about a life threatening disease that would strike them if they continued to remain, and thereby expelling them from Diego Garcia and moving them away to live in Mauritius. The Chagossians have since appealed to the UK Supreme Court and the UNGA which have ruled in their favour which will allow them to get back to their island homeland soon with Britain being compelled to hand back the island to Mauritius in whom sovereignty rests.  No wonder the USA is eyeing Sri Lanka as a logistics hub and potential military base to replace Diego Garcia for which they were willing to make a grant of $480 million to the political party whom they helped to install in the year 2015. Please click on the LINK below to access the article:
https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/11/06/sri-lanka-cabinet-surrenders-the-country-to-the-americans/


It is unimaginable that the politicians elected for just a five year term had the audacity to secretly negotiate the break up of our sovereign country for a bundle of $480 million, overturning our Non-Alligned policy, and tie up our country with the military industrial complex of the USA which has evolved a policy of continuous war necessary to profit from the sale of weapons and war material and impose their will on other nations.  Having co-sponsored a resolution at the UNHRC along with the USA, UK and other western powers to put on trial our heroic security forces personnel that sacrificed their life and limb to regain the country after three decades of  Tamil Tiger terrorism, it was still not expected of them to drive their dagger into the heart of this country ending the independence, freedom and sovereign status enjoyed by the people from time immemorial over many millennia.

Mahinda Gunasekera

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට අපහාස වන අයුරින් සැකසූ අත්පත්‍රිකාවක් ‍බෙදාහරිමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනෙකු එම අත්පත්‍රිකා සමග මිරිහාන ප්‍රදේශයේදී අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබෙනවා.

එම ප්‍රදේශය නියෝජනය කරන ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලනඥයින් චෝදනා කළේ අදාළ  සැකකරු එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ කැබිනට් නොවන අමාත්‍ය හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා මහතාගේ ආධාරකරුවෙකු බවයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපෙක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට අපහාස වන අයුරින් සැකසූ අත්පත්‍රිකාවක් අද පෙරවරුවේ විජේරාම කලා ප්‍රදේශය සහ මිරිහාන ප්‍රදේශය ආශ්‍රිතව බෙදාහැර තිබුණා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් එම ප්‍ර දේශයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රාදේශීය දේශපාලනඥයින් කරන ලද සෝදිසියකදී අදාළ අත්පත්‍රිකා බෙදමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයා මිරිහාන ප්‍ර දේශයේදී සොයා ගැනීමත් සමග ඇතිවුණේ මෙවන් තත්ත්වයක්.

එහිදී එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ කැබිනට් නොවන අමාත්‍ය හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා මහතාගේ ලේකම්වරයෙකු එම අත්පත්‍රිකා මුද්‍රණය කරන ලද්දේ ඔහුගේ අනුදැනුම මත බව පිළිගත්තා.

පසුව මිරිහාන පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණ අදාළ අත් පත්‍රිකා බෙදමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයා සහ අදාළ ලේකම්වරයා මිරිහාන පොලිසිය වෙත රැගෙන ගියා.

මෙම සිදුවීම පිළිබඳ සොයා බැලීමට කැබිනට් නොවන අමාත්‍ය හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා මහතාද මිරිහාන පොලිසිය වෙත පැමිණ තිබුණා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මිරිහාන පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් විමර්ශන කටයුතු කඩිනම් නොකරන බවට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ප්‍රාදේශීය නියෝජිතයින් පැවසීමත් සමග නොසන්සුන්කාරී තත්ත්වයක් හටගත්තා.

>මේ සම්බන්ධයේන අමාත්‍ය හර්ෂ ද සිල්වා මහතා ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවමින් අදහස් පළ කලා.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මේ පිළිබඳ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගෙන් අප කළ විමසීමකදී ඔහු සදහන් කළේ කිසිවෙකු මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහු සමග සාකච්ඡා නොකළ බවත් එය සම්පුර්ණ අසත්‍යයක් බවත්ය.

Shenali

ALI SUKHANVER

Looking back to the history, during the 1947 partition of India, the region where the holy Dera Baba Nanak Sahib and Gurdwara Baba Guru Nanak situated was divided between India and Pakistan. The Radcliffe Line awarded the Shakargarh tehsil on the right bank of the Ravi River, including Kartarpur, to Pakistan, and the Gurdaspur tehsil on the left bank of Ravi to India. For many years after partition, Indian Sikhs had been using a bridge on the Ravi River to reach Kartarpur. This bridge was eventually destroyed in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 and this destruction added a lot to the troubles of the religious devotees desirous of going to Kartarpur. Now opening of the Kartarpur Corridor has made things very simple and convenient for them. It is no doubt an achievement of Pakistan that the Sikh community all over the world is expressing its joy and jubilance, thrill and excitement over getting an easy access to the shrine of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib near Narowal, in Punjab, Pakistan. Before opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, the Sikh pilgrims had to cover a long distance to reach this shrine but now this distance has been reduced to just 4.7 Kilometers. Though apparently the Indian authorities are expressing their happiness on opening of this corridor but inwardly they are not comfortable with it. They think that this is not a corridor linking the two shrines but a corridor providing Pakistan an access to the hearts of the Indian Sikh Community.

The inauguration ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor was attended by thousands of people from Pakistan and India including Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Indian Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, cricketer Navjot Sidhu and so many others. During the sacred ceremony, Mr. Amarinder Singh the Chief Minister of the Indian Punjab would certainly be thinking of his recent interview with India Today in which he has said that he feels Pakistan has a hidden agenda behind the opening of the Kartarpur corridor. He alleged that the Pakistan Army and the ISI are behind the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. He said, I look at it in two ways -As a Sikh, I am happy it happened, this will be like a pilgrimage back to history for me. But at the same time I feel like opening of this corridor is an ISI operation. I say this because the day that Imran Khan was sworn in as Pakistan PM, Navjot Singh Sidhu was invited to grace the occasion where General Bajwa told him that ‘you will be happy to know that we are opening the corridor’.

Be it the freedom movement in Jammu and Kashmir or in Nagaland, Assam, Tripura or the Khalistan movement and above all the Kartarpur Corridor Project, the Indian agencies and the politicians always try their best to frame the ISI in all such movements. Surprisingly, the ISI always seems haunting the nerves of Indian rulers, politicians, and even of the nerves of the Indian intelligence agencies. Dragging the ISI into the internal matters of India and blaming it for all that goes wrong in India is not a new tradition. Certainly this tradition will be followed now after the prejudiced and partially narrow-minded decision of the Indian Supreme Court on Babri Mosque. A very harsh reaction from the Indian Muslims is expected at some later stage as the Muslims there are in a state of fear and horror at present. The statement of Asaduddin Owaisi, the president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen very clearly reflects the hidden anger and anxiety of the Indian Muslims over the decision. He said talking to media, If the Babri Masjid wasn’t demolished that day, what would the judgment have been today?  There has been discrimination against Muslims and no one can deny it. We are fighting for our legal rights.” In short, sooner or later, the Muslims would certainly protest over this injustice but unfortunately the Modi sarkar, instead of pacifying the Muslims, would start blaming the ISI for all their protest.

This blame-story is not a new one; from the Mumbai Blasts to the Pulwama Attacks, the same story has been repeated so many times. Now, Pakistan’s efforts for materializing the Kartarpur Corridor have become a very strong proof of the fact that Pakistan is a peace loving country; it gives very much importance to the basic rights of the minorities and it can play a very vital role in bringing the regional hostile communities and nations closer. This exemplary role of Pakistan had already won a lot of appreciation with reference to its peace-efforts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka too. Some mouth-pieces of the Modi sarkar are trying to convince the world that Pakistan’s eagerness to open the Kartarpur Corridor is in fact a tactic of instigating the Sikh community against the government of India. They say that through this corridor Pakistan would try to bring the Khalistan leaders in close contact and this contact shall lead to the achievement of Khalistan, an independent land for the Sikh community. Let us wait and see what happens next.

[අමාදම් ගඟුල] විය යුතු දේ සිදු වෙමින් පවතී!

[1] ඓතිහාසික වශයෙන් තහවුරු වී ඇති මේ රට සිංහලයාගේ එකම මාතෘ භූමිය බැවින් සිංහලයාටද අන්‍ය ජාතීන් සමග එකමුතුව වෙන් නොවී වාසය කිරිමට කටයුතු කල මැනව.

[2] එසේම මේ සිංහල රටේ ජාතියක් හෝ ආගමක් හෝ දේශපාලන මතවාදයක් හෝ භූමිය හෝ මුල් කොට ගෙන කිසිදු ආකාරයක ත්‍රස්තවාදී තත්වයක් ඇතිවිමට ඉඩ නොතබනු මැනව.

[3] අපගේ මාතෘ භූමියට එරෙහිව ජාතිවාදය තුල හෝ ආගම්වාදය තුල හෝ කුමන්ත්‍රණකාරිව යෙදී සිටි හෝ සිටින කිසිදු දේශපාලකයෙකු සමග සම්බන්ධ නොවනු මැනව.

[4] සිංහලයාගේ පාරම්පරික උරුමය වන ඓතිහාසික පුරා විද්‍යාත්මක බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථාන ආරක්ෂා කිරිමට කටයුතු කල මැනව.

[5] අපගේ මාතෘභූමියේ ආරක්ෂාවත් භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාවයත් රකිමින් කිසිදු අයුරකින් මාතෘ භූමිය ජාත්‍යන්තර කුමන්ත්‍රණ කරුවන්ට පාවාදීමට හෝ විකිනීමට හෝ ඉඩ නොතැබුව මැනව.

[6] පෙර සිංහල රජදරුවන් සේ සිංහලයාගේ ආත්ම ගෞරවයත් ආර්ථික සමෘද්ධියේ සුරක්ෂිතභාවයත් බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ ආරක්ෂාවත් ස්ථාපිත කල මැනව.

[7] මේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුල කවර වූ හෝ ජාතිවාදී, ආගම්වාදී, අන්තවාදී මත දරන්නන්ගේ බලපෑම් මත නීතිය අවභාවිතයේ යොදවමින් සිංහල බෞද්ධයා පෙලීමට කිසිසේත් ඉඩ නොතැබුව මැනව.

Rohan Abeygunawardena Nugegoda Courtesy: Sunday Times (November 10, 2019) 

Senaka Weeraratna the Sri Lankan Lawyer who came out with the suggestion to introduce a Decision Review System (DRS) to minimise umpiring errors in the middle, as far back as 1997, has been fighting for due recognition for his contribution to the game, for over 20 years. However, in spite of many requests and appeals made by him to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and the International Cricket Conference (ICC), he has not been successful in receiving the kind of acknowledgment that Duckworth and Lewis got for their contribution towards deciding the result on rain-affected Limited-Over games.

According to a recent news item, he has appealed to one of the greatest cricketers produced in this part of the world, Kumar Sangakkara, to help him on this matter. I am sure Kumar, being a 100% Sri Lankan, who knows the benefits that would accrue to his country, would do everything possible as the President of MCC, to help recognise this claim by Senaka.

Senaka has also made representations to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has directed the Secretary of the Ministry of Sports (MoS), to take appropriate action, to get recognition for his work.

Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. This is the only sport in which Sri Lanka became World champs twice- Winning ODI World Cup in 1996 and T20 World Cup in 2014. The only other sport Sri Lanka produced a world champion is in Billiards, when M.J.M. Lafir became World Champion in December 1973, at World Amateur Billiards Championship held in Mumbai.

In 1982, Sri Lanka was admitted to full membership of the ICC and awarded Test status, thanks to the efforts of then President of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL), late Gamini Dissanayake. His efforts and how he set about achieving this task was vividly explained in an article written by Sunil Thenabadu, published in the Sunday Times of October 21, 2018.

The inaugural Test was played at the Colombo Oval in February 1982, against England, which Sri Lanka lost by 8 wickets. Sri Lanka toured Pakistan in March 1982 and played 3 Test matches, of which Pakistan won 2 and 1 was drawn. Again in October 1985, Sri Lanka toured Pakistan, with the same results. In the absence of neutral umpiring and/or Senaka’s DRS, there had been quite a few bad decisions by Pakistan umpires that went against Sri Lanka.

Pakistan’s 1st tour of Sri Lanka, after the latter attained Test Status, was in February 1986. This tour was nearly disrupted due to bad umpiring by the Sri Lankan umpires. Imran Khan wrote in his book All Round View” about this tour. He said, The result was an ugly series, where the main bone of contention was the quality of the umpiring.”

Interviewed by Sidharth Monga, Imran said, We all agreed that there was no point in continuing the tour. We drafted a statement to this effect, but General Zia [President of Pakistan] called me up and told me to persuade the boys to complete the tour.’’

At the time of this tour, the late Gamini Dissanayake was the President and the late P.I. Peiris (Cambridge Blue in cricket) was the Vice President of the BCCSL.  When the captain and the players were agitating for a cancellation of the tour, the Pakistan manager contacted the officials of their Cricket Board. A senior official was sent to discuss with the Sri Lankan officials to pullout the Pakistan team from the tour, of course, diplomatically.

The Pakistani official, initially, discussed the matter with P.I. Peiris, and thereafter with the President. Nearly 3 hours of discussion did not provide a favourable result. Gamini Dissanayake then called President J.R. Jayewardene (JRJ) and briefed him on the situation and JRJ, himself a lover of cricket, invited them to his Ward Place residence.

JRJ listened to both parties. And then quietly walked to the phone and dialed. When someone answered he said, Your Excellency, these 22 fools in flannels, are trying to disrupt the good relations between our countries. Therefore, I am ordering the Pakistan team to stay and get on with the game.”

JRJ spoke for few more minutes and laughed. Then he turned to the Pakistan Official and said Your President wishes to speak with you”.

He went over to the phone and only said Yes your excellency, Yes,….yes”, then came back and informed President JRJ that they will continue with the tour.

This is a typical example of how bad decisions by the person of authority, who is responsible for presiding over the game, from a neutral point of view, and making on-the-fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection, make mistakes or biased decisions, leading to unpleasant situations among the players and sport lovers.

There is very little room now for such bad decisions, thanks to Senaka Weeraratna’s brilliant idea of the players and field umpires appealing to the 3rd umpire when in doubt. As Sri Lankans, we should be proud of his contribution to Cricket, which is like a second religion to a majority of Sri Lankans. Besides, even in other sports, this concept is now practised. For example, in Rugby, which is a very fast body contact game, where the chances of wrong decisions by the on field referee is extremely high, this concept is being practised since 2001. They call it Television Match Official (TMO). Many decisions were changed by the TMO at the Rugby world cup this year and, as a result, the best teams came to the semis and finals, without creating any doubt in the minds of the loyal supporters, spectators and those millions of Rugby fans watching on TV.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has failed so far to make representation to the ICC and obtain recognition for Senaka’s concept, in spite of many appeals made by him. May I therefore, suggest that the SLC and the MoS Secretary work hand in hand with Kumar Sangakkara and help obtain the due recognition for Senaka. This is an honour for Sri Lanka and will be a feather in SLC’s cap!

Rohan Abeygunawardena 

Nugegoda

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM- MATARA

The veteran journalist H.L.D.Mahindapala, who was the Chief Editor of ‘Observer’ and now resides in Australia has said that watching the video of the launch of the UNP manifesto, one of the factors that surprised him most was the performance of Sajith Premadasa. He says that he had never seen him so stiff in delivering his public speeches and he was speaking more like a ventriloquist (a comedian) than as a fired-up, rabble-rousing politician gesticulating frenetically, or beating his chest on public stages. He stood there at the launch as stiff as a statue made of clay and only his tongue was moving to make noises.

Mahindapala says that somebody must have told him that to look presidential he must not throw his hands around and blast his opponents at the top of his voice. So he was as solemn and stiff as he could be, cutting a very poor image of a want-to-be president. The image he projected was that of defrocked priest delivering a Sunday sermon from his pulpit which is about to come apart.

 However, it must be conceded that the flow of his verbal gymnastic was flawless. But it was all puffery. It was all sound and no substance. Sajith is a man in a hurry to make an impression. He is trying to cover his immaturity and inexperience with sounds of empty phrases. But all his rhetoric so far comes down to offering freebies, ranging from gewgaws, lollipops and tampons. His offering of tampons to villagers is the equivalent of Ranil offering computers to farmers in previous election campaigns. I was wondering whether Sajith got this idea of distributing free sanitary pads from Prince Charles who once wrote endearingly to his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, saying that his ambition in life was to be her tampon!

All his sound and fury can be reduced to one simple argument: he is going to be the new broom that will sweep all evils away in one swipe and bathe Sri Lanka in milk and honey. There is nothing new in this. He is repeating what Ranil and Sirisena promised in 2015

Mahindapala asks did he lift a finger, or raise a whisper to stop the daylight robbery of his leader, Ranil?0r when Ravi Karunayake found guilty by the courts, was reappointed as a Cabinet minister, sitting next to him? Or when his leader failed to honour his promise of bringing back from Singapore the crook who steered the robbery on the floor of the Central Bank? Etc? Etc? If he did nothing then how can we trust him to do something now?

Premadasa is telecasting a TV ad in which he says that upon his election as President, he would appoint a new Prime Minister and a Cabinet of Ministers and repeats his ear claim that he will not appoint anyone with allegations of corruption, bribery, wasting public funds, and allegations of malpractices.  Under this utopian dream will he guarantee the following to fulfil this promise in order to clean the political frauds in the UNP and its allied partners?

Will Sajith Premadasa, first of all, surrender to the authorities for the lapses on his part which include :

• Distribution and driven by himself of several luxury buses each valued @ Rs. 45 Million to several schools; Can the public know who was/were the donor of these buses and for what reason these donations have been and what the donor will get in return.
• Allegedly keeping over 1,000 persons on his Ministry payroll without any employment;
• Spending huge sums on advertisements to chicken pen houses projects at the times of foundation laying and at the times of opening;
• Distribution of building materials and 15 bags of cement to each from the Hambantota district;
• Distribution of money to incumbent priests of some temples as political bribes etc.
• Misuse of funds belonging to the Central Cultural for his personal image building;

Ranil Wickremasinghe (Alleged architect of TreasuryBonnd Scam and commission agent for the sale of state properties and making the country liable to pay damages to China for suspending Port City, Lotus Tower and some other projects) )

Ravi Karunanayake (Alleged beneficiary of a residential flat and commission agent for power purchases)

Mangala Samaraweera (alleged money launderer for Tamil diaspora and commission agent for large scale government projects and for promoting MCC and other American projects)

Pa.Cha.Ranawaka (accused in a court verdict on malpractices in a coal tender award etc, and for promoting MCC and other American projects)

Malik Samarawickrema (alleged involvement in a railway coach project and promoter of the Singapore FT etc)

Lakshman Kiriella (alleged recipient of commissions from Kandy expressway project and misusing his Ministry funds to make monthly payments to over 75 persons)

Kabir Hashim (allegedly making the country liable to pay millions of Dollars as a breach of agreement in respect of aircraft orders)

Sarath Fonseka (self-confession relating to the receipt of several million rupees from Arjun Aloysius.  Another 118 persons including government MPs have received several hundred million rupees from Arjun Aloysius

P.Harrison (causing several Million Rs. Loss to Mattala airport by using it for storing paddy)

Rajitha Senaratne(alleged import of sub-standard drugs and malpractices related to Neville Fernando Hospital and becoming a shipowner during the last government.  A complaint in this connection with documentary evidence was made to Bribery Commission by the Matara district MP Niroshan Premaratne but no action was taken))

Sujeewa Senasinghe (an alleged receipt of Millions from Arjun Aloysius for writing a book to clear him from Treasury Bond Scam allegations )

John Ameratunga (demolition of a walking track built at a cost of Rs. Several million to facilitate one of his friends to take lorries to his property )

Mano Ganneshan (allegations related to multiple frauds and malpractices)

RaufHakeem (allegations related to multiple frauds and malpractices including 200 million US$ believed to have received for the toilet )

Rishad Bathiudeen (allegations related to multiple frauds and malpractices including drug peddling through Sathosa imports and frauds related to re-exports)

Harin Fernando (Allegations related to WI-FI project and Google Baloon mishap)

Arjuna Ranatunga (Allegations related to nepotism and frauds in the railways)

Palani Digambaram (an alleged receipt of funds from India in the name of various projects)

Ajith P.Perera(Acting as a footnote man of Arjun Aloysium}

Harsha de Silva (Acting as a footnote man of Arjun Aloysius)

The Galle district MP Wijepala Hettiarachchi has sent letters to his supporters in Akmeemana saying they will be given Rs. 50,000 each Gamperaliya housing loans when they come to attend the UNP Balamandala meeting.

The inter-party conflict in the UNP is reported to have increased with each group attempting to form themselves as the dominant group and to become future stakeholders.  SeveralUNP Ministers have been heckled by their own party supporters in their own areas. The latest was heckling received Minister Daya Perera at a UNP meeting in Ampara. 

Many Sri Lankans resident in overseas countries is coming back to vote for their favourite candidate Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.  The flood gates were opened today with groups arriving from Australia, England, UAE, Kuwait,  They told media that this is the last chance they can offer to save the country. They said that over 2million Sri Lankans resident will be arriving to vote for Gota and the will come until 15^th night.

Meanwhile, Ministry sources indicate that several Ministers were clearing their desks at their Ministries.  They say Rajitha has taken away some files and Pa.Cha.Ranawaka has set fire to some files 

The indecent and inhuman Sarath Fonseka reputed as Kalawedda (wild cat) extremely disappointed by the Ill-prospects of Sajith has once again started his wild talks.  A few days ago he said that all Rajapaksas will be hanged at Medamulana.  He has now said that Gotabhaya will become a worm in his rebirth and when it happens that worm will be killed by striking with a mammoty. 

Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday claimed that Sri Lanka would not benefit from the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) pact and that not even a cent would be received by the Treasury.

He told a news conference that the US$480 million would be received by the particular US company which would undertake the project in Sri Lanka and according to the MCC pact, the Treasury will not receive a cent.

The MP said neither the Auditor General nor the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) would be able to mediate in any of the transactions involving the MCC funds.

He said the government had agreed to sign three agreements with the US namely SOFA, ACSA and MCC and the government had given priority to the MCC agreement which sets the background to the other two agreements.

The MP said the government had passed several laws and acts in preparation to the signing of MCC such as amending the Foreign Exchange Bill, privatising the clearing department of the Central Bank, the Land Bank Act and the Counter-Terrorism Bill. (Ajith Siriwardana)

BY GAMINI SENEVIRATNE Courtesy The Island

The Island editorial today (7th November, 2019) points out that “there should be sufficient time for independent legal experts and other knowledgeable persons to go through such agreements with a fine tooth comb and challenge them in court if necessary.”

What is being touted here is a serial violation of that fundamental premise – violations that are to be, by the said agreement, immune to any and all forms of challenge under our laws.

 Set out below for the information of the public (including such Members of this Parliament as are, at the least, literate) are a sample of the provisions therein. Am constrained to note also that the foreign lawyers picked by the true beneficiary of this project, the Millennium Challenge Corporation headed as of now by, yes, Mike Pompeo, to secure ’good governance’ laboured for three years in the all-encompassing security of ‘Temple Trees’ to draft this document away from prying eyes. The care taken to exclude any and all Sri Lankans knowledgeable in the law was way above the Security Clearance required of Presidential Advisers in the ‘White House’.

 Land laws prepared under the instructions of the MCC ignores Article 76 (1) of our Constitution: “Parliament shall not abdicate or in any manner alienate its legislative power and shall not set up any authority with any legislative power”.  

         They say all laws are referred to AG under Article 77 and 82 —As your editorial points out (and this agreement specifies) AG would have no power to look into the legality of laws. 

 Article 78– effectively the public have no power: “Every Bill shall be published in the Gazette at least seven days before it is placed on the Order Paper of Parliament”. Yup, seven days is all the time allowed for the public and the judiciary to intervene.

      In any case, Article 80[3] ensures that the Judiciary has no power where “a Bill becomes law upon the certificate of the President or the Speaker, as the case may be being endorsed thereon, no court or tribunal shall inquire into, pronounce upon or in any manner call in question, the validity of such Act on any ground whatsoever”.    Well!

It would be necessary for the new administration to dismantle some other initiatives of USAID and related agencies.

They include “Bim Saviya” and an “Electronic Hub for a National Land Titling program” in Sri Lanka.

 As so happens, I was Commissioner of Title Settlement some 30 years ago, and can certify that this Yankee go at our country would be far worse in its operation than even the Brits’ instruments of theft – the Waste Lands Ordinance and the Crown Lands Ordinance.

Courtesy The Hindistan Times

Convicted killer Jude Jayamaha, from a wealthy, high-profile family, walked out of Welikada prison Saturday following the highly unusual amnesty granted by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sri Lanka’s president has pardoned a death-row prisoner who murdered a Swedish teenager just a week before he leaves office, officials said Sunday, in a move that sparked national outrage.

Convicted killer Jude Jayamaha, from a wealthy, high-profile family, walked out of Welikada prison Saturday following the highly unusual amnesty granted by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena, who is stepping down after Saturday’s presidential election at which he is not a candidate, announced last month he was considering a request to grant Jayamaha a pardon.

Victim Yvonne Jonsson, who was holidaying in Sri Lanka, was beaten to death at a high-rise apartment in Colombo in 2005 after she and Jayamaha had an argument.

The court had been told her skull was fractured into 64 pieces.

Jayamaha was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison. He appealed to a higher court, which rejected his plea and instead sentenced him to death, which was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014.

Jonsson’s sister Caroline wrote in a Facebook post about her concerns over Jayamaha’s pardon before the amnesty announcement.

He showed and continues to show absolutely no remorse for what he has done,” she wrote.

We’ve worked hard to rebuild our lives and here we are, going into 15 years, still fighting for justice. Unfortunately, we now have to prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcome, the pardon of my sister’s murderer.”

Many Sri Lankans took to social media to condemn Sirisena.

Monstrous act by a failed president,” said a Twitter user identified as Thass.

This news makes me sick,” added Shamila Cooray.

Others speculated Sirisena may have pardoned Jayamaha to test the water ahead of possibly pardoning another high-profile death-row inmate whose family owns radio and television stations that support him.

Sirisena failed to secure support from his own party to contest the November 16 election and must leave soon after results are declared, a day or two after the polls.

Courtesy Straitstimes

COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has pardoned a death-row prisoner who murdered a Swedish teenager just a week before he leaves office, officials said on Sunday (Nov 10), in a move that sparked national outrage.

Convicted killer Jude Jayamaha, from a wealthy, high-profile family, walked out of Welikada prison last Saturday following the highly unusual amnesty granted by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena, who is stepping down after this Saturday’s presidential election at which he is not a candidate, announced last month he was considering a request to grant Jayamaha a pardon.

Victim Yvonne Jonsson, who was holidaying in Sri Lanka, was beaten to death at a high-rise apartment in Colombo in 2005 after she and Jayamaha had an argument.

The court had been told her skull was fractured into 64 pieces.

Jayamaha was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison. He appealed to a higher court, which rejected his plea and instead sentenced him to death, which was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014.

Jonsson’s sister Caroline wrote in a Facebook post about her concerns over Jayamaha’s pardon before the amnesty announcement.

“He showed and continues to show absolutely no remorse for what he has done,” she wrote.

“We’ve worked hard to rebuild our lives and here we are, going into 15 years, still fighting for justice. Unfortunately, we now have to prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcome, the pardon of my sister’s murderer.”Related Story

Sri Lanka Parliament blames President Sirisena for Easter attack lapses

Many Sri Lankans took to social media to condemn Sirisena.

“Monstrous act by a failed president,” said a Twitter user identified as Thass.

“This news makes me sick,” added Shamila Cooray.

Others speculated Sirisena may have pardoned Jayamaha to test the water ahead of possibly pardoning another high-profile death-row inmate whose family owns radio and television stations that support him.

Sirisena failed to secure support from his own party to contest the Nov 16 election and must leave soon after results are declared, a day or two after the polls.

Courtesy RT

In his final week in office, Sri Lanka’s outgoing president has pardoned a death row killer who murdered a Swedish teenager in 2005. The girl’s skull was smashed into 64 pieces during the horrific attack.

Yvonne Jonsson, who had dual Sri Lankan and Swedish nationality, was killed in the stairwell of the Colombo apartment building her family was living in at the time. The attack had come after an argument between the teenager and killer Jude Jayamaha, then aged 19, who reportedly hails from an influential family. 

Jayamaha was initially sentenced to 12 years, but his appeal ended in him being sentenced to death. Confirming the decision to pardon and release him, President Maithripala Sirisena said Jayamaha was imprisoned over an incident of impatience” and had served his term with good behavior.

President Sirisena in his final week in the office has granted a Presidential Pardon to Shramantha Jayamaha imprisoned for murdering a 19 year old girl at Royal Park apartment in 2005. The court imposed the death sentence on Shramantha in 2012.

In a Facebook post, Jonsson’s sister wrote in detail about her family’s heartbreak over news of the killer’s pardon and release, rejecting any claims the murder was an accident or minor incident. Instead she insisted Jayamaha had planned the attack, waiting outside the apartment for his victim and chasing her down in the brutal assault. 

Caroline Jonsson-Bradley also said the attacker had taken pains to try to destroy evidence of his involvement and evade justice, and the family will never overcome the pain and distress” he caused by murdering Yvonne. 

He showed and continues to show absolutely no remorse for what he has done,” she wrote. To say my sister’s brutal killing has turned our world upside down is an understatement.”

Sri Lankans commenting online shared their disgust over news of the release, sending fresh condolences to the bereaved family and calling the president an idiot” for the senseless and meaningless” pardon. 

Shafa Rameez@ShafaRameezReplying to @ShafaRameez

According to Sirisena, Shermantha Jude Jayamaha went to prison at age 19 over an incident of impatience”. AN INCIDENCE OF IMPATIENCE? HE MURDERED A WOMAN. Guess who else was 19?? YVONNE JONSSON. #JusticeForYvonne207:22 AM – Nov 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacySee Shafa Rameez’s other Tweets

Shamila Cooray@cooray_shamilaReplying to @AzzamAmeen

This news makes me sick. 26:28 PM – Nov 9, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacySee Shamila Cooray’s other Tweets

Where is the justice for the victim?” one asked. Shame on you President Sirisena.”

This is an utter disgrace,” another wrote.ALSO ON RT.COM‘Election gimmicks’: Head of Sri Lanka church blasts ‘selfish’ govt over Easter bombings probe

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

Lo! The main contenders with gusto swing into full stride

With today begins the election week. Unless another Zaharan-style attack befalls us between now and the 16 November, our entire focus would be dominated on the upcoming Presidential Election.

 The key question we as a nation would be trying to solve this week is who would be the correct leader for our country for the next five years. Though over 30 nominates have come forward, only two can be considered as serious contenders: Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa.

Interestingly, the rebellious voter who does not want to support either one of these two main candidates are gravitating more towards General Mahesh Senanayake than Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The JVP politburo had better make note of this phenomenon. 

Voter would rather waste his vote on a candidate who neither has a chance at winning the election, nor a presence in Parliament than one who had been a member of the Parliament since 2004 and has apolitical presence in Parliament. The reason being is that apart from the die-hard JVP block vote, both the rebellious and the floating voter has identified Dissanayake as an UNP stooge.

This voter is clearly rejecting both the main candidates – despite one of them will become the President of our country and the other will have a political representation in the Parliament to weigh policies adopted against his policies. 

Considering this election is also a mandate for the incumbent Government to continue its tenure for the next five years, the rebellious voter is one who is clearly disenchanted by the Yahapalana Government. The fact that he does not want to consider Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the other winning possibility, indicates that he also has issues with the previous administration, which is the Rajapaksa Administration.

Therefore, it is safe to deduce that those who are gravitating towards General Senanayake are those who voted for Yahapalana Government and got their fingers burnt.

 Almost from the beginning of the Yahapalana Government, it has been exposed that most of the issues they levelled against the Rajapaksa Administration had been fabricated for political gain. Still, the rebellious voter would rather take his chances again on yet another unknown candidate as he did in 2015 than someone who has been exonerated from allegations.

The floating voter is the other factor that can tilt the balance between the two main candidates. There is actually very little difference between the rebellious and the floating voter. Both are too lazy to do their homework. 

They would rather latch on to real or imagined misdeeds of all political entities and yap about it, than make an informed decision to use their vote effectively. Within an imperfect system, they are expecting all politicians to be just like Julius Caesars’ wife.

Vaddukkoddai Resolution

However, this Presidential Election is significant perhaps more than any other in the past because the sovereignty of the nation is backed right up against the wall. From one end, the economy is fast crumbling.

 From the other end, we are facing a rise in both Tamil and Islamist extremism. TNA attempts to push their Vaddukkoddai Resolution, albeit with different names must be carefully observed for it is far more subtle than the rise of Islamist extremism for which to date a reason does not exist.

Both candidates had pledged to prioritise national security. However, two extreme elements have voiced support to the two candidates. Hizbullah had pledged his support to Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) and had even called upon his voters to cast their second preference to GR. Premadasa has been promised the support of TNA. The two candidates’ reaction could not have been more different.

GR did not waste any time to disown Hizbullah. He categorically stated that extremists would not be entertained in his camp, even if it cost him the election. Undeterred, Hizbullah like a prospective suitor keeps expressing his support, but to no effect.

The TNA made a huge drama for weeks to show that they had not yet decided on the candidate to support. Perhaps TNA was the only ones fooled by the drama. The Yahapalana Government could not have come to power in 2015 without TNA’s support.

 Throughout these five years, the Yahapalana Government and the TNA had only pretended to be in the opposite side of the fence, when in reality both had been partners for all practical purposes. In fact, the Yahapalana Government could not have made it this far either had it not been for TNA’s support.

Having promised their constituents to win Eelam through the pen, the TNA cannot afford to part ways from the UNP. Therefore, their support to the Yahapalana candidate is a given.

 The show was only for the benefit of those who can still be hoodwinked into thinking that the TNA and the UNP are two separate entities. Yet, once again by extending their support for the incumbent Government to continue along its current path, TNA exposed themselves as being in cahoots with the UNP than not.

TNA’s 13 demands

Just over a week before the much delayed Yahapalana candidate’s manifesto was released, the TNA released 13 demands. These 13 demands are actually a rewording of the 1976 Vaddukkoddai Resolution that calls upon the rejection of the unitary status of the country and introduce a federal system. Furthermore, it is being demanded that Tamils must be recognised as a nation with a distinct sovereignty. Therefore, Tamils must be recognised as a nation with the right to self determination.

It was TNA’s stipulation that their support is only to the candidate who accepts their demands. Gotabaya Rajapaksa outrightly rejected all 13 demands, without even indicating a space to negotiate any of these demands.

Premadasa’s camp on the other hand remained very silent. They appeared to be having trouble with their own manifesto for they could not even release it before the postal vote began. Therefore, those who cast a postal vote on the first and second days did so without knowing the Yahapalana plan for the next five years of our country. It was speculated that the delay must be to plagiarise content from the Pohottuwa manifesto, for in the campaign Premadasa has become noted for copying speech notes from GR.

However, when finally Premadasa’s manifesto was released it was obvious that his manifesto is a rewording of the draft Constitution that was presented earlier this year by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe.

 As political analyst C.A. Chandraprema had noted, not even Maithripala Sirisena toed the TNA line as blatantly as Premadasa has done. He had resorted to the same manipulation of words to create confusion over the unitary status as the draft Constitution did. Though Premadasa referred to an “ekeeyarajya” when he presented his manifesto to the Prelates, his manifesto does not make any reference to a Unitary State.

In his manifesto he has explicitly outlined a second tier where the Provincial Councils will have control over policies passed in Parliament. In effect, the supremacy of the Parliament would no longer count, instead would be subjugated to the will of the Provincial Councils. Furthermore, it will be Constitutional Court and not Supreme Court that will hold constitutional jurisdiction to resolve any dispute between Parliament and Provincial Council.

If, Premadasa’s manifesto is implemented, then we would end up with a very weak central government. 

How such a Government could handle foreign Agreements such as the MCC or even the foreign Trade Agreements such as the one signed with Singapore becomes a matter of great concern. The fact that the MCC was almost signed when everyone’s attention was on election signifies that Premadasa does not share the same concerns that the GR camp does. Hence, he does not believe that the MCC needs a revisit and a renegotiation that GR had pledged to do.

The main question in GR’s manifesto is whether he can achieve all he plans within five years. The fact that he comes with a plan and a capable team, with achievements such as winning a war that dragged on for 30 years in just under three years and revolutionising the urban landscape gives hope that he can achieve all he has set to do. Premadasa’s achievements despite being a Member of Parliament for 20 years cannot hold a candle to GR’s list.

There are undesirables in both candidates’ camps. They will need to be managed firmly. As the idiom goes, a pack of dogs led by a lion will behave like lions, but a pride of lions led by a dog will cower like dogs. At the end of the day, what matters is leadership. 

Our job as the voter is to decide which of the two candidates – Gotabaya Rajapaksa or Sajith Premadasa – would be the lion to lead the country forward.
ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Presidential election campaign that was focused on promises on subsidies, salary hikes, free fertiliser, cost of living and similar issues during the last four weeks has suddenly deviated this week to the issue of the proposed system of Government. 

The current focus is whether Sri Lanka would continue as Unitary State or a new Constitution would be adopted to change it to a Federal Government without using the term ‘federal’.

This issue re-surfaced last week when the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) extended its support to New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa. Although the TNA did not stress on the 13-point demands of Tamil university students, the party expressed satisfaction over the promises given by Premadasa in his manifesto.

Candidate Sajith Premadasa’s election manifesto clarifies the need for constitutional reforms: “Our Constitution must reflect the multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual and pluralistic nature of our country and must unite us not only in law, but also in our hearts.” (Page 14).

On the system of Government, it says, “Maximum devolution of power within an undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka will be implemented.” (Page 18).  

English version of manifesto

Although, the English version of the manifesto did not have the word ‘unitary’, the Sinhala manifesto states that Sri Lanka will continue to be a Ekeeya Rajyak (Unitary State).

The difference between a Unitary and a Federal Government is that a Unitary Government puts its power in one Central Government while in a federal system the governing power is divided into federal and local governing bodies that connect to the National Government.

In a Unitary State, the Central Government commonly delegates authority to sub-national units and channels policy decisions down to them for implementation. The majority of Nation States are unitary systems. 

They vary greatly. In India, the federal seat or the Central Government has decentralised powers to State Governments. Federalism is an institutional mechanism to accommodate two sets of polities, i.e., first is the centre or national level and second is at the provincial or regional level. Both the sets of polities are autonomous in its own sphere.

 Certain subjects, which are the concern of a nation as a whole, for example, defence or currency, are the responsibility of the Union or Central Government.

 On the other hand, regional or local matters are the responsibility of the regional or State Government. In case of a conflict between the Centre and the State on any issue, the judiciary has the powers to resolve the disputes.

In the United States, too, all States have Unitary Governments with Bicameral Legislatures (except Nebraska, which has a Unicameral Legislature). Ultimately, all Local Governments in a Unitary State are subject to a central authority.

Great Britain, for example, decentralises power in practice though not in constitutional principle. Others grant varying degrees of autonomy to subnational units. In France, the classic example of a centralised administrative system, some members of Local Government are appointed by the Central Government, whereas others are elected.

TNA to support Premadasa

Immediately after the release of the election manifesto by Premadasa and the decision by TNA to support Premadasa, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa accused Premadasa, of deliberately misleading the people. In a statement, the Opposition Leader said that the chapter of the UNP’s manifesto dealing with constitutional reforms will replace Sri Lanka’s ‘Unitary State’ and will lead to the nation becoming “a loose federation of virtually independent provincial units”.

He further asserts that the UNP is deliberately misleading the Sinhala majority by avoiding the English phrase ‘Unitary State’, as he maintains that this has “specific constitutional connotations”. 

Instead, the Sinhala edition uses the phrase Ekeeya Rajya roughly meaning “undivided and indivisible”. In Tamil, the phrase orumiththanadu is used. Rajapaksa claims that the deliberate avoidance of the term ‘Unitary State’ will mean that in Sinhala the label of a Unitary State will remain whereas in Tamil and English this would no longer be the case.

This deliberate avoidance of the term ‘Unitary State’, he asserts, is also shown by the use of the phrase mawbime ekeeyathwaya which means “the unity of the Motherland” but has no constitutional value.

Rajapaksa maintains that the UNP’s proposal 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 Centre and the provincial units.

Premadasa’s manifesto states, “We will protect the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of our Motherland. We will bring Government decision-making closer to the people.

 Maximum devolution of power within an undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka will be implemented. Devolution of power will be meaningful, efficient and waste will be reduced. Devolution of power will ensure that we create true unity among all Sri Lankans”.

However, Premadasa pointedly said at campaign speeches that he was for ‘maximum devolution within a Unitary State’ to resolve the ethnic issue. He said he felt that the current decision-making structure in the country is ‘ad-hoc, disjointed and personality driven’ that has led to the ‘system favouring one segment’ of society over others. 

He reiterated this at an interactive forum on news media held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, Colombo. He said he supports “maximum devolution within a unitary country, which was our policy stance in the 2015 manifesto.But to do so we need to eradicate racism from our society, fight discrimination and prejudice.”

This clearly shows there is an ambiguity in Premadasa’s policy on constitutional reforms. This, the SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa is likely to use to sway the floating vote.

With five days to go for Presidential Polls, one can be certain that the vast majority of the people, perhaps over 80%, have already decided to whom they vote. While the first two candidates would split 80% of this among themselves, the other 33 candidates are likely to get less than a million votes collectively.

In these circumstances, the floating votes are crucial for one of the first two – Sajith Premadasa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa – to edge out the other at the finish tape. Hence, the attempts to woo voters will continue until 16 November, although official campaigning will have to end at midnight
13 November.

By Rohana Aryaratna Courtesy Ceylon Today

Why is number 13 considered unlucky?

Some believe number 13 is unlucky and it could bring bad luck. Some people avoid inviting 13 guests for a dinner or a party or any other gathering, as 13 is often associated with the term ‘unlucky.’

Many buildings don’t have a 13th floor, and people do not intend getting married or purchasing a new house on the 13th day of the month.

Most of us believe 13 to be unlucky, due to the reference to the Last Supper that Jesus Christ had with his disciples. There were 13 disciples and one of them – Judas Iscariot – betrayed Jesus to the Romans. Judas was the 13th to sit at the table.

Number 13 is also considered as a karmic number by the Hindus, as they believe 13 has great power, and is linked to upheaval. They believe if this power is used for selfish purposes, it will bring destruction and calamity.

There are several instances where number 13 has brought bad luck and failures, and those incidents have helped to strengthen the bad luck theory.

Now, we Sri Lankans too are confronted with this dreaded number in the form of 13 demands forwarded by six Tamil political parties.

With the approaching Presidential Election, the 13 demands by the Tamil parties seem to have created a sense of uncertainty and confusion among the main contenders, as well as the voters. Especially, the Sinhala-Buddhist and Christian voters, the majority in the Island, seem to be very much concerned about the reactions and responses these contenders will be giving to these 13 demands.

Their apprehension is due to the fact that these demands are linked with the suffering they had to endure for 30 long years, the horrors of death lurking behind them, and the fear of the loss of the motherland, because of the dreaded war perpetrated by the LTTE. 

It must be mentioned that Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Opposition Leader and mentor of one of the main contenders, has completely rejected the 13 demands.

Why are these 13 demands so important? Who is really interested in granting these demands and why? In other words, who is counting on the Tamil vote, to gain victory, and why?

Answers to all these questions seem to be connected with the various opinion polls that, it is said, have predicted a massive victory for the contender whose party has already fully rejected the dreaded 13.

Why is the so-called young and active contender silent about his response? Why is he letting his backers hint about getting the support of the Tamil voters? His backers too have showed their apprehension of the 13 demands in a vicarious manner.

The Tamil votes are vitally important for him, as he seems to be uncertain about getting the Sinhala-Buddhist and Christian votes, which represents the majority in the Island.

As the belief emphasises, the number 13 is synonymous with bad luck, hence these 13 demands too will bring destruction, mayhem and failure, if they are accepted for selfish purposes.

The separatist Eelamist project seems to be back on track with these 13 demands. With these 13 demands, they intend achieving the Eelam which Prabhakaran failed to achieve by waging a cruel war for 30-long years, and the destruction of thousands of valuable human lives and property.

In the name of so-called ‘reconciliation’ or, shall we say with the selfish intention of winning the Presidential Election, if someone accepts the tragic 13 demands, he or she will be branded as another Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Mother Lanka.

In other words, if the 13 are accepted and approved, it will bring back the upheavals and destruction that enveloped the pearl of the Indian Ocean for 30 years.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

තමා පැමිණියේ පවතින වැරදි දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතිය වෙනස් කිරීමට බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

ඒ, කලාවැව ප්‍රදේශයේ අද පැවති ජන හමුවකට එක්වෙමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

තිස් වසරක් පුරා මෙරට පැවති යුදමය වාතාවරණය සහ පාස්කු ඉරිදා එල්ලවූ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබඳව අද වනවිට ජනතාවට අමතක වී ඇති බව පූජ්‍ය කිරිබත්ගොඩ ඥානානන්ද හිමියන් පවසනවා.

උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ කඩුවෙල අද පැවති උත්වයකට එක්වෙමින්

පූජ්‍ය කිරිබත්ගොඩ ඥානානන්ද හිමියන් විසින් රචිත මහාවංශයේ තුන්වන කොටසග්‍රන්ථය එළිදැක්වීමේ උත්සවය අද පැවැත්වුණේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව රැක ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම හැර උතුරේ ජීවත් වන ජනතාවගේ ගැටලු විසඳීමට කිසිදා උනන්දු නොවූ බව විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසනවා.

අද පෙරවරුවේ මුලිතිව් නගරයේ පැවති ජන හමුවක් අමතමින් විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා මේ බව සදහන් කළා.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ජය තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා සංවිධාන කළ ජන හමුවක් අද පෙරවරුවේ මුලිතව් නගරයේදී විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පැවැත්වුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

වයිබර් සහ වට්ස්ඇප් සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ 14 සහ 15 යන දෙදින විපක්ෂයේ ජනපති අපේක්ෂකයාට එරෙහිව මඩ ප්‍රචාර ගෙන යෑම සඳහා ආණ්ඩුව විශාල මුදලක් යොදවා ඇති බව  පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා චෝදනා කරනවා.

කොළඹ අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී ඔහු පැවසුවේ ආණ්ඩුව ගෙන යන මඩ ප්‍රචාර සම්බන්ධව  තමන් කළ හෙළිදරව් මේ වනවිට කරලියට පැමිණෙමින් තිබෙන බවයි.

ඒ අනුව රාජිත සේනාරත්න අමාත්‍යවරයා පැහැර ගැනීම් සිදුකළ බව කියන සුදුවෑන් රථ රියදුරෙක් සහ පැහැර ගැනීමට ලක්වූ බව කියන පුද්ගලයෙකු  සමග අද කොළඹදී ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක්  පැවැත්වූවා.

ඊට සහභාගී වූ පුද්ගලයන් දෙදෙනා ඝන රැවුලකින් මුහුණේ ස්වරූපය වෙනස් කර පැමිණ සිටි බව දක්නට ලැබුණා.

මේ අතර, විමල් වීරවංශ මන්ත්‍රිවරයා අද මොරටුව ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවැති රැස්වීමකදී මේ සම්බන්ධව මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා.

අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී විමල් වීරවංශ මන්ත්‍රිවරයා ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ඉදිරි දින කිහිපය තුළ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට එරෙහිව සැලසුම් කර ඇති මඩ ප්‍රචාර සම්බන්ධව මෙවැනි අනාවරණයක් සිදුකළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී රට, ජාතිය ගැන සිතා ඡන්දය භාවිත කළ යුතු බව පූජ්‍ය ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හිමියන් පවසනවා. <

උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ කළුතර ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති යුතුකම සංවිධානයේ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයකට එක්වෙමින්.

Courtesy Hiru News

His Lawyer, President’s Counsel Ali Sabri said that the Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has renounced his American Citizenship legally and that reports being published further that he is yet an American Citizen are totally untrue.

He said at a special media briefing held in Colombo today that with the participation of a council of lawyers representing Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that all documents in connection with his client renouncing his American Citizenship have already been handed over to the Election Commission.

He said further at the media briefing that all documents have been accepted by the Election Commission.

චාර්ලස් පෙරේරා විසින්

අම්මේ තාත්තේ පුතේ දුවේ  තව සතියක් වැනි  කෙටි කාලයකින් ඔබට අපේ අභිමානවත් මාතෘ භුමියේ, අපේ සම්මා සම්බුදු පියාණන්ගේ  සිරිපතුල් ස්පර්ශයෙන්  පුණ්‍ය භූමියක් වූ  ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අපේ අපේ අම්මාගේ අනාගත පැවැත්ම පිලිබඳ තීරණය ගැනීමට  සිදුවෙනවා, මෙවර ඔබ හොඳ සිහි බුද්ධියෙන්  කටයුතු නොකර ඔබේ  වටිනා චන්දය  ඔබේ අතට ලැබෙන චන්ද්‍ර පත්‍රිකාවේ ගොටාභය  රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමාගේ  චන්ද ලකුන වන පොහොට්ටුවට  ඉදිරියෙන් කතිරය නොගැහුවොත් අපේ ආදර මව් බිමේ අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තන්ගේ,  අපේ ජීවිතයට පනපෙව් මේ පින්වත් භුමියේ අයිතිය අපේ අතින් ගිලිහී විනාශ වීමට  ඉඩ තිබේ.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය අවුරුදු  හතරක් තිස්සේ අපේ රට සම්පුර්ණයෙන් විනාෂකරලා 2015 ජනවාරි මාසයේ තිබුන ලංකාව කාලා ඇටසැකිල්ලක් බවට පත්කරපු මුන්ට අනේ දෙය්යනේ ඔබේ චන්දය දීල මුන්ට රටේ ඉතිරිවෙලා තියන ඇටස්කිල්ලත් පොඩිපට්ටම් කරන්න ඉඩදෙන්න එපා.

පව්කාර එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය  හා උන්ගේ අනුගාමිකයින්දේශපාලනයෙන් සම්පුරණයෙන් අතුගාදමන්න ඔබ පෙළගැසිය යුතු දවස  එළඹ තිබේ.  මුන් දේශපාලකයෝ නොවේ රටේ ලේ උරා ගෙන බොන්ට ඉපදී සිටින  යක්කු,   රාක්ස්ශයෝ, දෙය්යනේ මුන්ට එක චන්දයක්වත් දෙන්න එපා. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට   වඩා අති මහත්,  දුරදශී අත්දැකීම් බහුල  ජීවිතය උරගාබලා තියෙන, ජීවිතය පරදුවට තබා සතුරු ත්‍රස්තවාදී සේනාවන්ට මුහුණට මුහුණ දී සටන් කරලා රට සතුරන්ගෙන් බේරාගෙන ජනතාවට සාමය හා ආරක්ෂාව ලබා දී,  රට හදලා , වැඩකරලා හැකියාවන් පෙන්නාදුන්, නැණවත් , බුද්ධිමත්,  මහත්මාගුනයෙන් යුත් මුදු අනතිමානී බෝසත් චරිතයක් ඇති ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මහත්මයාට ඔබේ චන්දය දෙන්න. අපේ රටේ අනාගත පැවැත්ම රට ගලවාගන්න පුළුවන් හැකියාව ඇත්තේ ඔහු අතේය.  ඔහුට මිස චෙන කිසිවෙකුට රටගොඩගන්න නොපුළුවන.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස දිනුවොත් ඔහු ඔය ගිරියපුම්බාගෙන කෑ ගහ ගහා දෙන පොරොන්දු එකක්වත්  ඔහුගේ තනි තීරණයෙන් දෙන්න,  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ මහා පුටුව අත්පත් කරගෙන් සිටින රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ  ඉඩ නොදෙන්නේය.  රනිල් ව්ක්‍රමසිංහ ඉතා දක්ෂ කපටි කයිරාටික ප්‍රයෝගකාරී අබෞද්ධ සංකර පුද්ගලයෙක්. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට ඔහුගෙන් ගැලවීමක් නැ.  රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ ඔහු අවට සිටින සියලුම දෙනා රවට්ටාගෙන ඔහුගේ දෑත් ශක්තිමත් කරගෙන සිටින්නේ.  

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට  අපි නොදන්නා හේතුවක් නිසා  ඇමේරිකාව සතුටු කරන්නයි ඕනෑ. ඒ සඳහා ඔහු මංගල සමරවීරත්  සම්බන්දන්ධ කරගන සිටී.  රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට ඕනෑ  ලංකාවට ෆෙඩරල් ක්‍රමයක් සඳහා ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් ලියා එය සම්මතකරගන්න.  මොනයම් බලවත් හේතුවක් නිසා ඇමෙරිකාවට  අන්ධ භක්තියකින් වැඩකරන රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ  ඇමෙරිකාව සමග මිල්ලෙනියම් MCCC ගිවිසුම  අත්සන් කර ඇමෙරිකාවේ හිත දිනාගෙන ඩොලර්  මිලියන 480ත්  ලබාගැනීමයි ඔහුට උවමනා. ලංකාවට මොන හෙනගේඩියක් වැදුනත්, මොනවිනාශයක් උනත් ඔහුටවත් ඔහුගේ සගයාවන මංගල සමරවීරටත්  ඒ ගැන  කම්පාවීමක්  නොමැත.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස දැන් කතාකරන්නේ පිස්සෙක් වගේ. ඔහු ඔහුගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති  ප්‍රකාශය ඉදිරිපත්කර තිබුනත් හැමදාම වගේ රැස්වීම්වලට පැමිණ රැස්වී සිටින ජනතාව දැකලා ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයේ නැති  අලුත් අලුත් පොරුන්දු දෙයි.  දැන් ඔහු වැව් උදාවක් ආරම්භ කරන්න පොරොන්දුවෙනවා.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස , සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඔහුට විරුද්ධව කරගෙන ගිය ප්‍රකාශයන්ගෙන් බේරෙන්න ගොල්ෆේස්  පිට්ටනියේදී  ජනරැලියේ මිනිස්සු දැකලා තීරණයක් අරන්  සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඔහුගේ ආරක්ෂක ඇමති කරනවා කියල ජනතාව ඉදිරියේ ප්‍රකාශ කලා, ඒ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ගේ  පිස්සු ක්‍රියාවක්. සරත් ෆොන්සේකා  කොහොමටවත් එවැනි ඇමතිකමකට සුදුසු නැ. ඔහුගේ කතාපිලිවෙල  කට ප්‍රවෙසම්කර නොගෙන නොසෑහෙන නොකිවිය යුතු  වචන ප්‍රකාශ කරන  පිස්සු මිනිහෙක්. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස කරන ලොකුම වැරැද්ද ඔහු ඉදිර්පිට සරත් ෆොන්සේකා ඔහුගේ කටහැකර කතා නතරන නොකරන එක,

දවසක් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා විශාල ජනරැලියකදී සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  ඉදිරියේ  ඔහුගේ වනචර කටින් කියනවා රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවල සිටින නිලධාරී  හාල්පාලුවෝ අන්ගුත්තරයෝ  කුම්භාණ්ඩයෝ  එළවලා දන්නා ඕනේ කියල, තවත්  දුරට ඔහු කියනවා ඔහු බලයට අපුවාම එක රාජපක්ෂකයෙක් ජනේලෙක එල්ලුනාවගේ අනිත් රාජපක්සලා හතරදෙනාම අනිත් ජනෙල් වල  එල්ලලා දානවා කියල,  තවදුරටත් ඔහු කියනවා ගොටාභය හෙට මැරුනොත් පනුවෙක්වෙලා ඉපදෙයි එතකොට ලේසියි උදැල්ලක් අරන් කෙළින්ට පුළුවන් එකපාරට දෙකට කැඩීලායන්න.  මේවගේ කතාද ආරක්ෂක ඇමැතිකමට නම්කර ඇති කෙනෙක් කිව යුත්තේ ?

මේ ප්‍රකාශයන්  කලේ  සජිත් ඉදිරිපිටදී  සජිත් මහත්මයෙක්නම් ඒගැන ෆොන්සේකාට තරවටුකරලා ඒ වචනවලට සමාව ගන්න තිබුනා, ඒ නොකළේ  ඔහුට සරත් ෆොන්සේකා පාලනය කරන්න බැරි නිසා  නැත්නම් සරත් ෆොසේකාට තියෙන බය නිසා විය හැකියි. මේ ගැන කිසිවෙක්  මොනම ප්‍රකාශයක් නොකර තිබීම කනගාටු දායකයි,

මෙවැනි වැරදි මිනිහෙක් වැරදි තැනට පත්කිරීම සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  ජනාධිපති කමට කෙසේවෙතත් කාර්යාලයක  ලොකුලියනමහත්තෙයකුගේ තනතුරකටවත්   සුදුසු නැති පුද්ගලයෙක් හැටියටයි පෙනෙන්නේ. වැරදිලාවත් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපතිවුනොත් මොනවා නොකරයි ද ?

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස දක්ෂ ක්‍රියාශීලී බවක් පෙන්වනවා ඒ තරුනමදයක ස්වභාවයක්. ඔහු තමාව

පුම්බාගන්නවා.  එක ඥාණවන්ත පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ ලක්ෂණයක් නොවේ. ඔහු තුල නිහතමානි ගතිගුණයක් දකින්න නැ . මිනිස්සු රවට්ටන්ට බොරුවට කෑගහලා අතිශයෝක්තියෙන් තමා කරන දේ කීම තමාම වර්නනා කිරීමේ  අශෝභන ක්‍රියාවක්. එයින් දකින්නේ අහන අය රැවැට්ටීමට බොරු පොරුන්දු කියන වග. . ඉතා අලංකාරික කිසිම  හරයක් හෝ දර්ශනයක්ක නැති කතා කියන්නේ . සජිත් ගැඹුරු දර්ශනයක් නොමැති අහිංසක මිනිස්සු රවටනවා මිසක්අවංක දුරදර්ශී වැඩපිලිවේලක් ඔහුට නැ . ඔහු හිස් දේශපාලකයෙක් රනිල්ට ඉහලින් කවදාවත් නොයන ආත්ම විශ්වාශයක් නැති චරිතයක්.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය  ධනවාදය මුල්කරගත් ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රමයක්. එකයි ඒ පක්ෂයේ අනන්‍යතාවය  ඒක වෙනස්කරන්න සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට ඇත්තටම අවශ්‍ය උනත්  ඒක කරන්න එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජේස්ටයින් ඔහුට ඉඩ දෙන්නේ නැ.  සජිත්ට එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය හැර  වෙන විකල්පයක් නැ. සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසයි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයයි  දෙකක් නොවේ එකක්, ඒ හින්ද සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  කදාවත් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජෙෂ්ටයින්ට පිටුපාන්නේ නැ. 

එහෙම වෙන්නේ නැ කියල සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ පොරොන්දු වලට  රැවටිලා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට චන්දය දීලා  ඔහු ජනාධිපති උනාට පස්සේ  සජිත්  දුන් පොරොන්දු  නොදී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය,   පක්ෂ සභාපති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ගෙනගියොත්  මහජනතාවට තවත් අවුරුදු පහක් යනකම් දුක් කම්කටොලු විඳීනවාහැර  කරන්න වෙන දෙයක් නැ. රට තවතවත් අගාදියටම වැටී නැත්තටම නැතිවෙ, ශ්‍රී ලංකා අනන්‍යතාවය  නැතිවේ,  ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඇමෙරිකාවේ  කොලොනියක් වීමට  ඉඩ තියෙනවා. ඒ නිසා සජිත් ගේ පොරොන්දුවලට නොරැවටී ඔහුට දෙන චන්දය අණිවාර්යයෙන්ම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට හා වක්‍රව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට දෙන  චන්දයක් වන බැවින්,  නොවෙම්බර 16වන දා ඔබේ චන්දය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට දෙන්න එපා.

මේ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස නොකියන මේ විනාශයෙන් රට ගලවාගෙන ආරක්ෂාව ඇති සෞභාග්‍යමත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවක් නැවත බිහිකරවන්න ඔබේ වටින චන්දය නොවෙම්බර 16වනදා ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මහතාගේ චන්ද ලකුණ පොහොට්ටුව ඉදිරියේ කතිරය ගසා ඔහු අපේ ජනාධිපති කර ගනිමූ.

එදා 2005 අපේ රට ත්‍රස්ත වාදීන්ගේ ප්‍රවාහයන්ට මුහුණ දෙමින් කර කියාගන්න දෙයක් නැතුව සිටිද්දී අපේ වාසනාවට මහින්ද  රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා ජනාධිපති විය. එදා මහින්ද රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා ජනාධිපත් වරයා නොවුයේනම් තාමත් අපේ දරුවන් ත්‍රස්තවාදයට බිලි වෙමින් සිටින්නට ඉඩ  තිබුණි. අදත් අපි  රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ හා එක්සත් ජාතිජ පක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවකින්  අපේ රටට කර ඇති විනාශය නිසා  අපේරට අද මුහුණ දී සිටින්නේ  2005 ටත් වඩා  භයානක ඉතා මත්  ඛෙදජනක අවස්ථාවකය. එබැවින් එදා මෙන් මෙදා අපි මෙරට බේරාගැනීමට කල යුත්තේ ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මැති තුමා ජනාධිපතිවරයා කරගැනීමයි. 

අද අපට තියන එකම විසිදුම ගෝටාභය  රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමා අපේ ජනාධිපති කර ගැනීමයි………..

ජනාපති ධුරයට තෝරාපත් කරගත යුතු එකම තැනැත්තා ගොටාභය රාජපක්ස මැතිතුමායි. ඔහු තමාපුම්බවාගන්න කතාකරන්නේ නැ. ඔහුට ඒක කරන්න අවශ්‍ය තාවයක් නැ, 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 ලබාගත් වීරෝධාර නායකයෙක්.  ඔහු ජීවිතය නොතකා සටන් කලේ මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් ඔබ අපි හා අපේ දරුවන් සඳහා රටක් ත්‍රස්තවාදයට බිලිවෙන්න ඉඩනොදී  අපිවෙනුවෙන් අපට නිදහසේ හුස්මගන්න පුළුවන් වාතාරණයක් ලබා දුන් නායකයෙක්.  ගොටාභය මැතිතුමා  සජිත් වගේ තමාගැනම කතාකරන්නේ නැ, ඒ ඒක කීමට අවශය නැතියි  හිතන නිහතමානී පුද්ගලයෙක් නිසා, ඒකයි නායකයෙකු ගේ ලක්ෂණය.  

තවත් සමහරු අහන ප්‍රශ්නය  ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහත්මය යුද මානසිකත්වයෙන් යුතු පුද්ගලයෙක් නිසා දේශපාලනයට ඔහු කෙසේ  සුදෙස්සෙක්විය හැකිද ?  යුද්ධය කරන මිනිස්සු වෙනම මිනිස්සු වර්ගයක්ද ? ඔවුනුත් අපිවගේම මිනිස්සු ඒ අයත් කරන්නේ රස්සාවක්.  ඒ රස්සාව කරන මිනිස්සුත් අනිත් මිනිස්සු වගේ  එක රක අදහස්,  හැගීම් , දර්ශන, වෙනවෙන චරිත ලක්ෂණ තියෙන  සාමාන්‍ය මිනිස්සුමයි. ත්‍රස්තවාදයට විරද්ධව වැඩකරනකොටයි, නගර සන්වර්ධනකරනකොටයි,  ඔහුගේ වරදක් නොදුටු අය ඇයි දැන් ජනාධිපතී අපේක්ෂකයෙක් උනාම වෙනත් අදහස්  ඇතිකරගන්නේ ?

ඔහු අවුරුදු විස්සක් යුදපිටියේ සිට,  අවුරුදු දහයක්  ඇමෙරිකාවේ නීතිවිද්‍යාලයක පරිපාලන සේවයේ සිට ලංකාවට පැමිණ ආරක්ෂක ලෙකම් වශයෙන් තවත් අවුරුදු  දහයක්  සේවය කර විවිධ ශේස්ත්රයන් පිළිබඳව දැනුම් සම්හාරයකින් යුතු  දේශපාලන නායකයන්  සිටි  හොඳ බෞද්ධ පවුලක  ඉපිද හොඳ 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 පුටින් මෙන් ගොටාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාටද සාර්ථක ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු වියහැකියි.

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 අභාග්‍යයක්. ඒ නිසා.

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

Kanthar Balanathan, Australia

SriLanka and India had several elections since granting independence by the British. Some Indians feel that they would have been better if the country was still under the British. This is because of the bribery, corruption nepotism practiced by the governments and the Ministers. Recently You all would have read about Chidambaram’s fraud of accumulation of foreign assets which has been hushed up (maybe) by the government(s). The story widens to SriLanka not only in foreign assets abut government attempting to bribe their members of Parliament to pass bills, with no debates. Car imports for MPs, by the UNP government, is a typical example. What the UNP government does not understand or not is that the government is elected to serve the people on a broad spectrum on various programs. The UNP government at various stages failed to stabilize the country on economy, technology, Agrarian services, etc.

One fine view; the Tamils, have failed to realize is that the UNP was the cause for instigating racial riots and confrontation since independence from 4/2/1948. From the time SL got independence, the UNP was responsible for disfranchising the one million estate workers (Tamils). Since then every time there had been a racial riot/confrontation with murders, Tamils shall dig deep as to how, why and who instigated the racial violence. The writer is aware that in the early days, the Kelaniya electorate had a tyrant politician who contested, which is none other than JR Jayawardene. The electorate had a significant number of Tamil settlers in that area. JRJ was racially intimidating the Tamils that if he does not win the Tamils are responsible for the defeat and that the Tamils will receive a punishment. This is racial intimidation by the UNP of the Tamils. However, Tamil politicians seem to support only the UNP all along. Do the Tamil voters know this prodigy and the cunningness of the Tamil politicians?

Recently Sambanthar and MA Sumanthiran were thrown with Shoes in Jaffna. It’s a shame for the TNA. The writer believes that TNA was established by the LTTE under V. Prabakaran’s direction.

TNA can also be read as Terrorists’ National Alliance” because the members in it are from terrorist organizations. Right from the inception of Independence, the Federal Party which is now within TNA has been cheating the Tamils of Federalism, Tamil Eelam, Missing persons, etc. God knows what they will tell the Tamils now. It is an act to keep their political seats by cheating the Tamil voters. The political culture of Indian Tamils will confirm the culture of the upcountry estate worker Tamils. The estate Tamils shall dig deep and understand who is best for the country and the damages UNP did to their people all along. How can there be a big wider economical gap between the workers and politicians like Thondaman etc?

Recently UNP candidate promised a salary of Rs 1,500 to the estate workers. Did he get up from sleep? Where was he all these years? On a different planet? He could not bring up a proposal for an increase of Rs 50, however, he is promising Rs. 1,500 if he is elected. Isn’t this a cultural cheating of the UNP? UNP was prepared to import cars for its MPs at different costs of several million.

Sambanthar is an old fool should retire and get his pension. Mavai Senathirajah has been cheating the people since 1972 and was able to keep his position to date. He managed to bring his son into village/town politics/Pradeshiya Saba. On the whole, TNA should be stripped and the Jaffna University Students should get up from sleep and come into politics.

Millennium Challenge Corporation-USA attempting to divide SriLanka into three pieces

It is known that the MCC has still not been signed by the President, hence cannot be implemented. However, the people in SL should study the map that runs a corridor from the East to the West dividing the country into three pieces, which will have USA law in the middle corridor. How does this affect the sovereignty of SL? No country can have a foreign law within their own state. How will this impact on the movement of the people from the South to the North? Strategically, does this promote Tamil Eelam republic to be established in the North on a horizon of 5/10/30 years? If UNP wins this election people can be sure that SL will become a slave country with the creation of a new state called Tamil Eelam in the short term.

Voters of SriLanka should study the above photos where SPUR Australia plays an active role in the campaign for a patriotic National United SriLanka. The youngsters in the picture are none other than TAMILS in SriLanka. This campaign is supporting Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) to keep the country united, free from evil crawling into the country in the name of MCC or any other Bullshit, to divide and establish another issue of Tamil Eelam.

AS the writer addressed several times, it is only Gotabaya Rajapaksa who can keep the country united free from evil crawling into the country. GR capability and competence in strategic planning and tactical moves, and his previous credential as a Defence Secretary, we can study the volume of work GR implemented and contributed to SL.

The credit also goes to Mahinda Rajapaksa who has a non-partisan belief in politics and social who brought the country to the level of uniting and today Tamil youngsters are on the road campaigning for GR.

People in SL: Please get up from sleep and get rid of the UNP who has been a slave to the West since 1948. Vote for Gotabaya Rajapaksa for a United SriLanka and save SriLanka.

Important

Counterfeit votes and vote rigging are a threat to Democracy and sovereignty of a country.

By: A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The former President and the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa finding the danger being posed by the manifesto of the pad-man Sajith Premadasa and his total captivity to the terrorist TNA’s plan to make this country a federal and secular state has issued the following message both in Sinhala and English.

The chapter on constitutional reforms proposed 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.

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.

The draft constitution sought to describe Sri Lanka as an ‘ekeeya rajya’ in Sinhala and as

an  ‘orumiththa nadu’ in Tamil while carefully refraining from using the English phrase ‘unitary state’ which has specific constitutional connotations. Thus the label of a unitary state would have remained in Sinhala while in Tamil and English Sri Lanka would no longer be recognized as a unitary state. A similar deviousness is to be seen in the UNP presidential election manifesto. Though great care has been taken to avoid using phrases like ekeeya rajaya or unitary state, it has a reference in Sinhala to ‘maubime ekeeyathwaya’ which translates into English as ‘the unity of the motherland’.

The phrase ‘maubime ekeeyathwaya’ has no constitutional value but it can be used to misleadingly suggest to Sinhala readers that the manifesto seeks to uphold the unitary state.

Former Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran has rejected such devious and dishonest attempts to play around with words to convey different meanings to different persons. 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.

A federal arrangement will never work in this country because the majority of ethnic Tamils live outside the northern and eastern provinces and the vast majority of the Muslims live outside the east. Any attempt to impose a federal system on a country with such a demographic pattern will be fraught with serious consequences. Even the British colonial rulers never sought to dismantle the unitary state. The Donoughmore and Soulbury Commissions expressly rejected federalism. 

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.

Regardless of the contents of the manifesto that has already been released, I earnestly request the Venerable 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. 

With that now let us now come to some other dangerous pledges or lapses in this Pad-man’s manifesto a major portion of which has been understandably written by the terrorist proxy Sumanthirsan.  Before proceeding we would like to pose the question as to what has happened to the lawyers in the UNP for them to become so captive to Sumanthiran? 

Addressing a media conference held at the Pivithuru Hema Urumaya party office , Attorney at Law Mr. Udaya Gammanpila MP said that the pseudo-Buddhist and Qasi-Sinhalese Pa.Cha.Ramawaka has made a big bang saying that there is no mention of giving prime place to Buddhism in Mr. Gotabhaya’s manifesto.  Although this myopic sycophant could not notice it due to his personal enmity perhaps, it is clearly mentioned in two places such as on page 9 relating to the new constitution and on page 71 relating to the religion.  Mr.Gammanpila has said that he is giving these details as he was involved in drafting chapters related to the constitution and the religion.

Mr. Gammanpila in return has challenged Pa.Cha.Ranawaka to show him where in Sajith’s manifesto it is mentioned about affording priority to Buddhism? He said that as per information he has received that Pa.Cha.Ranawaka has also got involved in formulating Sajith’s manifesto and hence he asked to show wherein it is mentioned about giving prominence to Buddhism?

Speaking further, MP Gammanpila said regardless of what is said in Mr. Gotabhaya’s it is vital to mention about it in Sajith Premadasa’s manifesto because it was the so-called yamapalana government in which Sajith Premadasa was a powerful Minister and the Deputy leader of the treacherous UNP that presented a constitution in the Parliament to deny prominent place to Buddhism and it was Sumanthiran a co-author of Sajith’s manifesto who spoke in the parliament on numerous occasions the need to make this country a secular state.

Mr. Gammanpila pointed out that not only over 70% of Buddhists in this country but Cardinal Dr. Malcolm Ranjith and other religious leaders have opined that prominent place should be given to Buddhism in this country.  Therefore, he said that they consider the lack of mentioning it as a serious lacuna in Sajith’s manifesto.

MP Gammanpila further stated that the ekeeya raajya mentioned in the Sinhala version of the manifesto was not available in the English version and it is mentioned only with the word ‘unity’.  For a full explanation of the difference between ‘ekeeya raajya’ and ‘unity please refer to Mr. Mahinda Rajaka’s statement given at the beginning of this article.

Further explaining the deficiencies and beguiling in the constitution, Mr. Gammanpila said that on page 16 of the constitution, it is mentioned under Power to the people – We would safeguard the unity of our motherland, territorial integrity, the sovereignty, and political independence.  He said that the Sinhala presentation in this portion is erroneous, and it implies that no one with adequate knowledge of the Sinhala language has not been present when writing at least this segment.

As English is their mother tongue of these reactionaries it has been presented in English appropriately.

And which reads as will protect the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and political Independence of our motherland.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa commenting on the statement issued by the terrorist TNA on their support to Sajith Premadasa has said that TNA chose the side that can fulfill their separatist demands. Speaking in a rally at Ratnapura, Mr. Rajapaksa said he has held neither parliamentary membership nor a ministerial position, but fulfilled the responsibility put on his shoulders. Referring to Sajith Premadasa’s campaign promises, Mr. Rajapaksa said, it is unbelievably ridiculous to make such promises when he failed to fulfill them while holding a powerful ministerial post in the government.

As per the latest intelligence unit reports it is predicted that out of the 22 districts, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will be the winner in 16 districts and his opponent Mr. Sajith Premadasa will become successful in only 6 districts.  This information has been disclosed by MP Kanchana Wijesekera, Matara district MP in a Twitter message today. (8th November). 

People of Polonnaruwa accorded a rousing welcome to Deputy Minister Mr. Wasantha Senanayake when he attended a Gota Rally that was being held at Polonnaruwa tody.  Eye witness accounts said that Mr. Senanayake, the grandson of Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister and founder of the UNP Mr. D.S.Senanayake joined the rally with a large number of UNPers who accompanied him to the rally.  In a message issued to media, prior to proceeding to Polonnaruwa, Mr. Samamayake has said that he will have no politics with UNP even if Sajith Premadasa wins and that is a desert mirage. 

He has said that he could not further tolerate the hostility shown to him by the UNP,and he has no intention of continuing politics with the UNP and its existing members. He has disclosed that several powerful UNPers including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa have telephoned me requesting not to quit the party and Minister Ravi Karunanayake and several others came to his residence to urge him not to leave the party.   

Besides, Mr. Senanayake has shown video footage of MPs Rishard Badurdeen, Rauf Hakeem and M. A. Sumanthiran who came to his residence to persuade him to remain with UNP.  These MPs who represented as party leaders urged him to remain in the UNP, and work with them as usual, he said.

  
He has said although he left the party, he would not quit from active politics and he doesn’t think that the UNP’s leadership would change in the next 10 to 15 years and go back to the principles of his great grandfather late Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

In watching the video of the launch of the UNP manifesto, one of the factors that surprised me most was the performance of Sajith Premadasa. I had never seen him so stiff in delivering his public speeches. He was speaking more as a ventriloquist than as a fired-up, rabble-rousing politician gesticulating frenetically, or beating his chest on public stages. He stood there at the launch as stiff as a statue made of clay. Only his tongue was moving to make noises.

Somebody must have told him that to look presidential he must not throw his hands around and blast his opponents at the top of his voice. So he was as solemn and stiff as he could be, cutting a very poor image of a want-to-be president. The image he projected was that of defrocked priest delivering a Sunday sermon from his pulpit which is about to come apart. On the public stage he comes across like a street-corner evangelist, (inspired by the born-again cult of Rosy Senanayake, a family friend), who promises to bring paradise down to the  earth before  the  day’s sun goes down.

However, it must be conceded that the flow of his verbal gymnastic was flawless. But it was all puffery. It was all sound and no substance. Sajith is a man in a hurry to make an impression. He is trying to cover his immaturity and inexperience with sounds of empty phrases. He is certainly better than Ranil in performing on the stage. He has also energised the crest-fallen UNPers to be more active. But all his rhetoric so far comes down to offering freebies, ranging from gewgaws, lollipops and tampons. His offering of tampons to villagers is the equivalent of Ranil offering computers to farmers in previous election campaigns. I was wondering whether Sajith got this idea of distributing free sanitary pads from Prince Charles who once wrote endearingly to his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, saying that his ambition in life was to be her tampon!

All his sound and fury can be reduced to one simple argument: he is going to be the new broom that will sweep all evils away in one swipe and bathe Sri Lanka in milk and honey. There is nothing new in this. He is repeating what Ranil and Sirisena promised in 2015 – a vena-suck (difference). And he was an integral part of the Yahapalanaya (good governance) which promised the difference. But what did he do when he was a vena-sucker? Did he lift afinger, or raise a whisper to stop the daylight robbery of his leader, Ranil?0r when Ravi Karunayake found guilty by the courts, was reappointed as a Cabinet minister, sitting next to him? Or when his leader failed  to honour  his  promise of bringing  back from Singapore the crook who steered the robbery on the floor of the Central Bank? Etc? Etc? If he did nothing then how can we trust him to do something now?

He admits that the state of which he is a key figure is rotten. His new-found political guru, Victor Ivan, too states that the Yahapalanaya regime of which he was part is rotten to the core. But he promises to clean  it up. How? Now it is obvious to even the blind man’s blind dog that if and when Sajith is elected (Fat chance!) he will have to work with the same rotten mob. How can he fulfil his promise of restoring purity, honesty and integrity to his government when he is bound to appoint Ravi Karunanayake and Ranil Wickremesinghe, two of the leading political apparatchiks behind the biggest bank heist in Sri Lanka, to his Cabinet?

He is lying through his teeth when he  promises to be  the next Mr. Clean” of the UNP. He knows that he can’t fulfil his fake promises. Obviously, he is making these fake promises because he knows that he will never be asked by the people to honour his promises on November 16. They know as a vena-sucker he went along with the rotten state” (his words) of his leader Ranil. And despite his bravado on the stage, he will continue to go along with the same rotten mob which will pressure him to fall in line with their rotten politics. If he is the honest man that he claims to be can he gives the nation an assurance now that  he will not appoint crooks like Ranil and Ravi?

Sajith is tied, hand and foot, to Ranil’s rotten” political agenda. His desperate attempts to project himself as a new force within the UNP, divorced from Ranil, lacks credibility because he has fallen into the hands of Ranil’s doppelganger, Mangala Samaraweera who is with Victor Ivan and the NGO gangs who constitute the so-called civil society. The difference between Sajith and Ranil is only a personal conflict of interests / ambitions and not ideological, defining two different political philosophies. Sajith’s flowery language is a mere cover to hide his hidden commitment to Ranil-TNA political agenda.

At this critical stage when he has to walk a tight rope between the South and the North he is unable to reveal his hand. That is why he and his minders hired Victor Ivan to propagate the fiction of a new constitution as the final solution to the national crisis. To the vast majority the talk of a new constitution is as dangerous as one of the bombs made by Victor Ivan when he was a JVP fascist. Sajith is promising to devolve uparima balaya (utmostpower) to the Tamils within a united nation which is the mechanism designed by Ranil and Sumanthiram. All this means, that the UNP has put forward Sajith, dressed in national costume and pirith noola, to sell the TNA agenda instead of Ranil marketing it in shirt and trousers. In this election the stand taken on constitutional reforms is critical to win the Tamil votes. Gotabaya Rajapakse has bluntly rejected the 13 proposal put forward by the Tamil extremists. But Sajith is silent. Instead he puts forward Victor Ivan to praise the necessity of constructing a new constitution – a concession that goes to please only the Tamils.  When on the day Sajith makes his firm pledges to the nation he invites Victor Ivan to preach the value and the necessity of constitutional changes as drafted and promoted by the TNA he is indirectly guaranteeing that he will give top priority to the devolution of uparima balaya” to the Tamils in exchange for a handful of votes.

Prioritising of the constitutional changes” was the main platform of the UNP at the launch of the manifesto. Sajith and his minders had pre-planned in advance and picked Victor Ivan to deliver the message of constitution-making as a sine qua non for the future of the nation. Events on political stages of this magnitude do not happen by chance. Key events are pre-planned. Which means that Sajith had embraced and endorsed Victor Ivan to be his spokesperson. And victor  Ivan was the ventriloquist who uttered the words of Sajith.

Sajith should hang his head in shame for committing this betrayal. He was not only betraying the nation but also his father, President Ranasinghe Premadasa. If his father wanted to betray the nation he had the opportunity to do it when  he was the President. He need not have risked his life. He sacrificed his life to save the nation from the Tamil extremists. Sajith, like Chandrika Bandaranaike, is somebody today because his  father  gave his life to save his people. Sajith’s lack of principles and readiness to betray fundamental decencies that define honest men of integrity was revealed when he invited the man who celebrated his father’s death to deliver his betrayal of the nation.

He is doing exactly what CBK has been doing. She climbed on her father’s coffin to raise her image in the eyes of the sympathetic public claiming to be the legitimate heir to his heritage. Once she climbed to the top she betrayed her father with no qualms. The children are shamelessly climbing up the public ladder by claiming to be the legitimate heirs of their fathers. When they get to the top they party on their fathers’ graveyards, kicking their fathers’ principles without any respect or gratitude.

In a sense the whole scenario at the launch is hilarious. Imagine the giants like D. S. Senanayake, Dudley, JR and Premadasa of the Grand Old Party being told what to do by Victor Ivan, the bomb-maker of the  JVP which went all out to decimate the UNP leadership. It is a comic show that could be organised only by the UNP jokers. He was hand-picked by Mangala Samaraweera and Harin Fernando – two of the key minders of Sajith. Where does this leave Ranil? Is this the shape of things to come?

The battle lines are quite clear now: Gota has openly rejected the TNA demands. Sajith thinks he can get away by spinning rhetorical yarns to cover up his surrender to the Tamil demands. The launch of the manifesto now has exposed him as a prisoner of the Mangala-gang within the UNP who is equally committed as Ranil’s commitment to grant the Tamils their demands. 

The internal struggles for power, the betrayal of national interests, the bankruptcy of a  party which cannot  guarantee a secure  future and, above all,  the rottenness of the leadership in the  UNP are factors that reveal the pathetic state of the UNP. Besides, the indecent act of Sajith inviting Victor Ivan to launch his manifesto is reason enough to question whether the son carries his father’s DNA. Victor Ivan not only celebrated his father’s death but he took the son’s stage to promote the political agenda of the Tamil Tigers who assassinated his father.

What a father! And what a son!

by Tamara Kunanayakam, Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva

[T]here is no friendship when nations are not equal, when one has to obey another and when one only dominates another.” -Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India Closing Speech at the Asian-African Conference, Bandung, 1955

Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) are agreements integral to US national security and self-defense strategies, whose goal is American Self-Preservation,” an ideology incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

MCC, crude and dogmatic alignment with US National Security Strategy

A clarification of MCC’s role in America’s national security and ‘self-defense’ strategies is required. The alignment is crude and dogmatic, designed to advance US influence globally and secure allies and partners by imposing upon developing countries, mostly those branded failed states,” fundamental political, legal and economic reform of the state apparatus and a ‘rule of law’ that benefits US interests in the long-term.

MCC’s central role was ‘codified’ in the 2002 National Security Strategy of US President George W. Bush, which for the first time contained the controversial doctrine of ‘pre-emptive’ war. It elevated development aid to the level of defense and diplomacy as one of the three pillars of the global War on Terror.” The current President’s 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) links US military strategies to the imperative of political and economic reform, claiming consolidation of its military victories” were made possible only bypolitical and economic triumphs built on market economies and fair trade, democratic principles, and shared security partnerships”.

One of the most novel and coercive features of MCC is the ‘pre-emptive’ method used to administer aid – it will reward countries that have demonstrated real policy change and challenge those that have not to implement reform.” Before receiving aid, the country must successfully pass 16 eligibility criteria devised by the Bush Administration ranging from civil liberties to ‘days to start a business.’ In a March 2018 speech on US-Africa relations, the then US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, described the coercive essence of MCC that goes far above and beyond the particular project targeted. Referring to a $524 million compact signed with Cote d’Ivoire to improve its education and transportation sectors, Tillerson declared, This was only possible after the country had implemented policies to strengthen economic freedom, democratic principles, human rights, and to fight corruption. Spurring reforms before a dollar of U.S. taxpayer money is even spent is the MCC’s model.”

The 2017 National Security Strategy reaffirms MCC as a coercive tool to bring fragile” and developing countries under America’s influence to counter Russia and China, by achieving radical transformation of the recipient State, based on free-market principles, privatization, and good governance: “We already do this through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which selects countries that are committed to reform and then monitors and evaluates their projects.” MCC is “a model to achieve greater connectivity” in the so-called Indo-Pacific. 

It is notable that unlike the MCC of the Bush era, the Trump Administration will no longer provide MCC assistance” in the form of “grants,” but “loans.”

American self-preservation and the right of self-defense

The US-Sri Lanka ‘defense’ agreements, which logically flow from the infamous US-led Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, are explicit recognition by the Ranil Wickramasinghe regime of America’s global leadership and its hegemonic status, which commit the country to a global unilateral system for America’s ‘self defense’.

The US view of ‘self-defense’ is rooted in ‘self-preservation’ and not on some reciprocal relationship between equal subjects of international law, but on combatting a threat to its own interests. It is based on the ideology of ‘American Exceptionalism’ that arrogates to itself exclusive prerogatives and special responsibilities for global governance, which continue to guide US national security and defense strategies. The US President’s 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report (IPSR),bothaffirm US global leadership is grounded in the realization that American principles are a lasting force for good in the world.”

The notion of American Exceptionalism was best expressed by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, “If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future.” In May 2015, the then US Secretary of State, John Kerry, claimed America’s leadership of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ because we have a strong economy and an ability to be able to project”. It is the worldview of a global hegemon that sees itself destined by divine providence for full-spectrum domination – air, maritime, land, outer space, and cyberspace, and full-spectrum force (2017 NSS).

Historically, self-preservation” and self-defense” was used by Nazi Germany to occupy neutral Belgium, neutral Norway, neutral Netherlands, neutral Denmark, neutral Luxembourg, and Poland.

Doctrine of pre-emptive, preventive wars

The 2002 US National Security Strategy (NSS) under President Bush introduced the controversial doctrine of pre-emptive and preventive war, using the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a pretext, which provided the new enemy in the form of terrorism. The existence of terrorists, described as the unknown unknown,” by the then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, served to justify a unilateral right to pre-emptive and preventive use of force in ‘self-defense’ against states even before an armed attack” occur. The US argument was an act of violence by the terrorists amounted to an armed attack.”

In Afghanistan, for 18 years, the US continues to claim self-defense, extending the right to preventing the return to power of the Taliban. Such unilateral intervention is expressly forbiddenby the UN Charter and unequivocally rejected by both the International Court of Justice and the Security Council.

The US justifies the illegal act by an abusive interpretation of the right of self-defense” in Art. 51 of the UN Charter, the only exception in the Charter to the use of unilateral force. Contrary to US claims, however, self-defense under the Art. 51 is permitted only under narrowly defined conditions: (a) it is an armed attack”; (b) the armed attack actually occurs,” and is not just an imminent or potential threat”; (c) the state using force was the object of an attack on its own territory, not elsewhere, as a sine qua non; (d) it is a temporary right until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security”; (e) it is proportional; (f) it does not affect the authority and primary responsibility of the Security Council; (g) it must be at the request of the victim; (h) the victim must request assistance from the state claiming to act in collective self-defense.

Committing Sri Lanka to the logic of war, not the logic of peace

The 2018 US National Defense Strategy that translates into military terms the strategic objectives outlined in the US President’s 2017 National Security Strategy is based on the indefensible illogical logic that the surest way to prevent war is to be prepared to win one,” which is antipodal to the logic that drives the UN collective security system – that war must be prevented at all costs to achieve international peace and security. The documents are replete with bellicosity – enhancing  joint lethality,” credible combat-forward posture,” forward force manoeuvre,” forward deployment”… It is a clarion call to war, but not to any kind of war. It will be a more lethal war – more deadliness, more carnage and more destruction, to be fought together with a robust constellation of allies and partners.”

It must be recalled that ACSA, SOFA, and MCC are part and parcel of the US concept of a Free and Open Indo Pacific” (FOIP), a sinister security system whose objective is to impose on countries of two distinct regions and Oceans, a single US-led geographic and geopolitical order founded on rules determined by Washington. The concept not only excludes China from the region as a hostile existential threat to US interests, but is aimed at putting in place a networked security architecture” under US leadership to fight and win” a war against China. China as principal adversary is named in the 2017 National Security Strategy, the Pentagon’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, and 2019 Indo-Pacific Strategy Report.

By entering into such US ‘self-defense’ agreements in the context of big power rivalry and the threat of war, the Ranil Wickramasinghe regime is committing Sri Lanka to the logic of war, not the logic of peace, a partner in crime that poses a grave threat to regional and international peace and security and drags Sri Lanka into a war not of its own making.

This warmongering vision of the ‘global’ order is shared by the ruling UNF Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa as reflected in his 2 October exchange with foreign diplomats at which he outlined his foreign policy objectives not in terms of Sri Lanka’s national interests, but in terms of Washington’s FOIP strategy: open trade,” freedom of navigation,” air and maritime connectivity,” rules-based world order,” and violent extremism”.

However, it was unequivocally rejected by Sri Lanka’s opposition party leaders, by letter of 9 August 2019 addressed to the Secretary General of Indian Ocean Rim Association, demanding that the UN Charter-based rule of law be restored in the Indian Ocean by, inter alia, implementing the UN Declaration of the Indian Ocean as Zone of Peace, which designates the Indian Ocean, for all time, as a zone of Peace, together with the airspace above and the ocean floor subjacent thereto.

The Declaration, it must be recalled, was adopted at the initiative of Sri Lanka, joined by Tanzania, backed by the Non-Aligned Movement. While preserving free and unimpeded use of the zone by the vessels, whether military or not, for all nations in accordance with international law, it called on the “great powers” to eliminate from the Indian Ocean “all bases, military installations and logistical supply facilities, the disposition of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction and any manifestation of great power military presence… conceived in the context of great power rivalry,” and halt “further escalation and expansion of their military presence in the Indian Ocean.” The Declaration also calls on littoral and hinterland States, the Permanent Members of the Security Council and other major maritime users of the Indian Ocean to enter into consultations to ensure that, inter alia, warships and military aircraft would not use the Indian Ocean for any threat or use of force against any littoral or hinterland State.” 

Threat to peace and security

Sri Lanka is committing itself not to defending its own national interests, its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, but to combatting threats to US prosperity and security,” which are named in NSS and NDS as the revisionist powers” China and Russia, the rogue regimes” North Korea and Iran, and ‘transnational terrorism.’ None of the countries mentioned pose a threat to Sri Lanka’s national interests. On the contrary, Sri Lanka has excellent relations with all four countries within the framework of the United Nations and close bilateral ties with China, Russia and Iran. 

However, the ‘defense’ agreements involve the use of Sri Lanka’s territory, airports, harbours, defense installations, and infrastructure, for transport of military equipment, training and joint operations with Sri Lankan forces, and other activities, known and unknown, to enhance joint lethality” in preparation for an act of aggression against one or more friendly states in the ‘Indo-Pacific’. In doing so, Sri Lanka will find itself a partner in crime and potential target of reprisal or retaliation, posing a grave threat to Sri Lanka’s security.

It was not so long ago that British occupied Ceylon was targeted by Japanese bombs, during World War II, characterized by the independence movement as an imperialist war, which resulted in the panicked fleeing of civilian population to India by boat. The Japanese military raids also took place on an Easter Sunday, in 1942.

The threat to Sri Lanka’s security will not only come from outside. When US forces are permitted to freely roam the land, in their vehicles, without permission, armed, in uniform and with impunity, Easter Sunday type carnage or protests against US occupation could result in Sri Lanka itself becoming America’s military target in the name of self-defense”.

Bilateral agreements, inherently unequal

The so-called partnership” entered into with Washington is not between equals.

Bilateral agreements between a global hegemonic power and a small developing country heavily indebted to international capital markets dominated by the power and highly dependent on its market for exports, are inherently unequal.

Since the Bush Administration’s ‘War on Terror,’ which coincided with emerging powers challenging US hegemony, it has increasingly resorted to preventive and pre-emptive unilateral interventions imposing decisions on weaker states or to bilateralism with significantly weaker states to establish US-led collective defense systems (or collective self-defense” systems), which allow Washington to modify international norms and rules or impose decisions not in accordance with international law, thus, retaining its hegemonic status.

ACSA, SOFA and MCC are pre-existing institutional arrangements that are an integral part of the US national security and national defense strategies designed for ‘American Self-Preservation’ to achieve strategic US goals and objectives grounded in the realization that American principles are a lasting force for good in the world” (US National Security Strategy, 2017). ‘American Self-Preservation’ is rooted not on reciprocal relationships between equal subjects of international law, but on combatting a threat to its own interests. Its sheer hegemonic power makes the principle of reciprocity impracticable in bilateral negotiations with weaker states such as ours, and it is illusory to believe that ACSA, SOFA and MCC can be “re-negotiated” or “amended” for “mutual benefit.”

Historically, bilateralism is associated with the commercial policies of Hitler’s Germany; it is inherently discriminatory in contrast to the system of collective security based on the UN Charter. The US shift to bilateralism is also reflected in its free trade and economic agreements as an important tool to coerce or reward potential allies and partners to support its geopolitical agenda.  

International collective security v. US-led collective ‘self-defense’

Washington’s unilateral vision of a US-led global order for ‘American Self-Preservation,’ justified by a divine mission, is diametrically opposed to the universally recognised international order under the UN Charter, based on sovereign equality and international cooperation, respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states.

Contrary to the US-led collective system for America’s self-defense, the universally recognised collective security system under the UN Charter seeks to prevent war – not make war – to achieve permanent universal peace based on equal rights and justice for all, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

The UN collective security system is a system without military alliances. It is based on multilateralism, the duty to cooperate, and respect for the principle of sovereign equality of States. It expressly prohibits war, as it does the use of force or the threat of use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state and all forms of foreign interference and intervention in its internal affairs, including by the United Nations. The Charter expressly prohibits any unilateral or preventive action outside of the UN framework.

The primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security lies with the Security Council, with member States agreeing that it acts on their behalf in carrying out its duties. Despite being at the highest level of the international legal hierarchy, the Security Council is required to act in accordance with the Charter, and not violate fundamental norms of international law, customary international law, and treaties, in the accordance with the UN Charter.

The generally binding international law obliges states to resolve any dispute that may endanger international peace and security through peaceful means, firstly by parties seeking a solution through negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice”. Any member State or non-member may bring such a dispute to the attention of the Security Council or the General Assembly. Legal matters should be brought before the International Court of Justice of which all UN members are ipso facto parties.

The role of regional arrangements is strictly limited to efforts toward pacific settlement of local disputes before referring them to the Security Council. Regional arrangements are forbidden from taking enforcement measures unless authorised by the Security Council.

The use of armed force in the case of collective action is only permitted under the authority and supervision of UN Security Council, and only once it has determined the existence of  threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression” and that other measures would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate to “maintain or restore international peace and security“.

Non-Aligned Movement and Friendly Relations

The Non-Aligned Movement, of which Sri Lanka is a founder member, has contributed in no small measure to developing the universally recognised principles on which friendly relations and cooperation among states must be based, including the landmark UN Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, which is viewed as an authentic interpretation of the Charter. 

The Movement recognised that State sovereignty, sovereign equality and international cooperation are fundamental features of an international order that would permit weaker states to exercise greater leverage over their former colonial masters, and, toward this end, focused every effort to enhancing the role of multilateralism, promoting a new international economic order based on justice and equality, and strengthening the collective security system based on the UN Charter.

The identity of the Non Aligned Movement is not determined by the existence of Great Power rivalry. It reflects the aspirations of newly independent states for an independent stand, based on a shared history and a positive perception of their own identity and views. It is essentially an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist alliance to defend their collective interests, protect their freedom and dignity, prevent the restoration of Western domination, support the struggles of peoples still under foreign domination and occupation, promote the right to development, and advance universal peace.

Their experience had shown that wars and alien domination result only in exploitation, oppression, death and destruction, not peace nor development nor social progress. At all cost, a return to Western domination, recolonisation, and war had to be prevented, and the ambitions of the most influential founders of the Movement was to unite the newly independent states to bring their collective weight to bear on the side of international peace, against war. The Movement opposed military alliances and collective ‘defense’ pacts with Great Powers, especially in the context of rivalry between them, since they would be designed to serve Great Powers interests and allow them to intervene in their internal affairs. Such pacts would only bring them closer to war and destruction, and strengthen the forces of war, not peace.

India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking at the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, energetically opposed US-led collective defence pacts in Asia and the Middle East, including the short-lived anti-Communist Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), primarily aimed against China. He argued membership in such pacts would only result in demeaning oneself to a role of camp-follower of others” and hangers on,” and lead to the loss of freedom and individuality”: It is most degrading and humiliating to any self-respecting people or nation. It is an intolerable thought to me that the great countries of Asia and Africa should come out of bondage into freedom only to degrade themselves or humiliate themselves in this way.”

The Non-Aligned Movement and the principles on which it is based remain valid in a world that continues to be dominated by wars of aggression, foreign occupation and domination, unilateralism, coercion, intervention and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, and in which the victims are from the global south and the perpetrators, the US and its Western allies.

Sri Lanka’s decision to go to war if necessary for the preservation of America against an emerging power identified with the developing world, and the threat this poses to the interests of friendly nations and to the multilateral collective security system that the Movement is committed to strengthening, will result in the loss of Sri Lanka’s credibility and its increasing isolation from the majority in the United Nations.  

An isolated country is more vulnerable and easy prey to a global hegemon.

International agreements incompatible with UN Charter are null and void

International agreements that are incompatible with the international obligations of the State under the Charter of the United Nations and impede the fulfilment of the purposes and principles of the United Nations, in accordance with the Charter, are null and void under international law. Besides, secret treaties are incompatible with the UN Charter and unenforceable.

ACSA, SOFA, and MCC violate Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and undermine its ability to fulfil its international obligation to protect its population and ensure respect for a broad range of their individual and collective rights: the right to determine the system best suited for their needs and aspirations; the right to exercise permanent sovereignty over their wealth and resources, including maritime resources; their economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights; the right to development; the right to a clean and safe environment; and, the fundamental right to peace and to be free from war.

Sovereignty and its international corollary, sovereign equality of states, are non-derogable peremptory norms of general international law that form the basis of the United Nations Charter, which is akin to a world Constitution. An international treaty that violates sovereignty is null and void and, hence, non-negotiable. 

In the event of conflict between a State’s obligations under the Charter, which it is duty bound to fulfil in good faith,” and its obligations under any other international agreement, Article 103 of the Charter, the supremacy clause, stipulates that it is their obligations under the present Charter that prevail. Subsequent treaties must conform to the Charter and are invalid if they impede the achievement of its purposes and principles, including its provisions concerning international peace and security, friendly relations among states, international cooperation, promotion of human rights and development. 

Under Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, A treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law.” The Vienna Convention is a restatement of pre-existing law that the International Court of Justice applies as generally applicable international law having reached the level of customary international law.

Toward a new era of peace and prosperity in Sri Lanka and internationally

MCC, ACSA, and SOFA are incompatible with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, as developed in the landmark UN Friendly Relations Declaration and in other international instruments, in accordance with the Charter. If Sri Lanka is to pursue an independent foreign policy that is in conformity with its international obligations, it cannot ignore those principles.  

There can be no benefit to Sri Lanka from a bogus “partnership” that involves surrender of territory, institutions, infrastructure and resources to a foreign power to perpetrate acts of aggression against third states, thus also becoming a partner in crime and a potential target for reprisals. There can be no benefit to Sri Lanka from its armed forces’ involvement in hostile acts against friendly nations for ‘American Preservation’ There can be no benefit to Sri Lanka from fanning existing bilateral hostilities that may lead to regional conflagration and pose a threat to international peace and security. There can be no benefit to Sri Lanka if another terrorist attack in Sri Lanka with alleged international links turns the US forces against our own people.

If there is to be change rather than continuity, every effort must be made to restore Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and promote peace, development, and social justice, unequivocally rejecting externally imposed agendas to transform Sri Lanka into a permanent aircraft carrier for Washington’s hegemonic wars in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Western dominance must not be allowed to re-enter through the back door, taking the country and the region into war, not peace, and into full spectrum domination”.

The UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, in his full report based on six years of work on the mandate, underlined the importance of international efforts to peace: In a context of increasing confrontation and competition among world powers, we must re-centre peace as a unifying multilateral objective, and we must ensure that propaganda for war and sabre-rattling are banned.”

Punsara Amarasinghe Scuola Superiore Sant Anna Pisa, Italy

The presidential election in Sri Lanka has already produced enough humor at this moment and also the opinions coming from so-called public intellectuals too have given great entertainment to the gallery. In particular, if somebody observes our envoy to Moscow Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka’s FB these days, it becomes an evident factor that Dr. Jayatilleka suffers from a paranoia towards an imaginary fascist rule.

As an example, one of the recent posts he shared on facebook states that Fascism is coming unless you defeat it . Well. This is simply a reference to Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Dayan hypothetically assumes it to be an utter fascist rule like Hitler, Mussolini or General Franco in Spain, also in his post, he invokes people to defeat it. Most of the posts shared by Dr. Jayatilleka since the announcement of the presidential campaign have been mainly focused on fantasizing a reign of terror under Gatabaya Rajapaksa and Jayatilleka’s alternative has been supporting Sajith Premadasa through and through. Well. Indeed, it is a democratic right for somebody to have dissenting political views as it enhances the objective of good governance. Yet, the views held by Dr. Dayan from time to time give us a greater picture of his psyche. Moreover, the posts created by him on FB and his write-ups filled with his urbanized English are no more than mere rhetorical quibbles claiming his own personal agendas.

Now, it would be much important to examine the most notorious political history of this character. In the days of his youth, he remained a fan of Marxism as a student in Peradeniya University and at the end of his youth transformed him to be a lover of Tamil separatism and furthermore, he excelled himself as one of the Sinhalese ministers in the infamous Eastern and Northern provincial council under Varadaraja Perumal. Then his power transformation again took another U-turn as he supported president Premadasa and the public agitation towards Premadasa finally emancipated upon poor Dr. Dayan when he attended the funeral of General Kobbekaduwa on 1oth August in 1992 where he and his wife were stripped off and hammered. In fact, I am not trying to legitimize the thuggery faced by him, yet it is being said that one will reap what he sowed. I am sure being a devout Catholic and perpetual critique of Sinhalese Buddhist ideology, Dr. Dayan was well aware of this biblical phrase.

His second inning of the dubious character was started during president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s era where he was appointed as our representative in Geneva and the initial victory we gained by defeating human rights violation charges at UN human rights committee was completely snatched by Dayan as he pretended to be the man of the match. But what happened, in reality, was India did support us in the initial stage that paved the path for saving Sri Lanka in Geneva, but when India voted against us later we lost terribly at Human Rights Committee in Geneva by that time our good doctor Dayan chickened out. When President Rajapaksa called him back from Paris and in particular, when his needs and wants were not properly addressed by the Rajapaksa government, Dr. Dayan changed his voice by again exposing his dubious nature. In the last months of the Rajapaksa rule, the interviews given by him to English and Sinhalese newspapers were filled with some anti-Rajapaksa slogans displaying his ardor for restoring good governance in the country, because in the last stage of president Rajapaksa’s rule, the phrase good governance became the common phase to bring Maitri Palanaya”, which has probably marked the weakest rule after Mahinda V rule in Sri Lankan history. Nevertheless, the logic I cannot fathom is the intensity of Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka in changing his political allegiances in accordance with his existential needs. After having realized his inability to infiltrating into the Yahapalana government in its first stage, Dayan became a harsh critique of Ranil and his gang and published some coarse newspaper articles and then we saw him in the settings of Viyath Maga as a professional association that rallied around Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He was much eager in his words of criticizing the Yahapalana government and still one can read his given interviews and opinions on news websites like Colombo Telegraph in order to understand his political position then. However, again his appetite for status overcame principle as he meekly accepted president Sirisena’s offer to Moscow as our ambassador. In fact, he became a GR critique overnight with this move and it was rather strange the way he began his criticism towards Gotabaya Rajapaksa by portraying him as a fascist, because when he was honeymooning with Viyath Maga during its initial stage, he often described Goatabhaya as a realistic, pragmatic statesman and I can recall the way he roared at the first meeting of Viyath Maga held in Boralasgamuwa. However, since the day he stepped into the office of Sri Lankan embassy, his political expressions were only rotated around posting pics with wife in the snowy roads in Moscow and blabbering about his utopian foreign policy strategies. As a matter of fact, Sri Lankan envoys to Moscow since Gunapala Malalasekara have played vitally important roles in promoting the relations between two countries and it is also true Moscow embassy became a sanctuary for some other dubious characters like Udayanga Weeratunga whose notoriety made him an international rouge. Yet, our good Dr. Dayan seems to have been doing nothing except posting pictures on his facebook account with some minor Russian officials and taking selfies with his wife. The sources coming from Moscow, in particular, from its Sri Lankan student’s community have affirmed Dayan’s attitude towards fellow Sri Lankans is quite arrogant and boorish unlike the most amicable manner of his predecessor Dr. Saman Weerasinghe, who was a product of Russian education. It is true that people like Dayan can be found from every society and they would continue to be a scum bug and will do everything as long as they are given the needs and wants in life. Having realized his duplicity, there is no wonder why Dayan is quite occupied now apart from posting a picture on Facebook to pamper Sajith Premadasa and vehemently painting Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a fascist. I vouch if later becomes the president by any chance, Dayan will become a Sinhalese nationalist from the following day to stay a bit longer in Moscow. In Shakespearian sense Such men are dangerous ….!

Punsara Amarasinghe

Scuola Superiore Sant Anna

Pisa, Italy

Sarath Bulathsinghala

8 Nov 2019

The Way Forward and What is to be done

After 70 years what the nation needs is time and space to move forward as one nation leaving behind the enmity and divisiveness. For this to happen the unity of the Sinhalese is paramount. Minority politics and their aspirations will never see the light of day with only half of the Sinhalese agreeing. This is why the unity of the Sinhalese be they UNP, SLFP or other is of paramount importance for the good of all concerned, minorities included.

What ailed Sri Lanka during the last 70 years is the constant demands of minority Shylocks asking for their pound of flesh and more. In their own words, it has always been – Little now and More later”! Even as we speak, these forces are at play 24/7 finding ways to keep Sri Lanka destabilized and poor. Their ultimate goal is to make Sri Lanka a  Failed State. Sri Lanka lost hundreds or even thousands of valuable opportunities to forge ahead because of the minority destabilization of the country and the fickleness of our politicians to stay in power, by giving in to their demands at whatever cost to the nation. Many a potential investor went elsewhere because of the ground situation in Sri Lanka.  1958, 1971, 1983, 1989 and the Tiger Terrorist War 1980 – 2009 are already history.

Finally, in Jan 2015, Yahapalanaya came into power on a platform of eliminating corruption. From what transpired later it is now obvious what they had in mind all along. Within seven weeks of their coming into power the first bond scam took place. From hind sight, it is clear that Ranil and his cohorts planned this bank heist long before the Presidential Elections of Jan 2015. All this was clear from the way he set in motion the intermediate steps necessary for the Central Bank Bond Scam. Getting himself appointed Prime Minister, taking over part of the Finance Ministry that included the Central Bank, getting Arjun Mahendran appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank whilst his son in law was a Primary Dealer himself. Many think the ‘heist’ took place by chance on 26 Feb 2105 and that is the imbecilic folly of the ordinary Sri Lankan! To add insult to injury the same scam but on a bigger scale was repeated in March 2016! Thereafter they continued to rob the nation all of which are now the subject of a Presidential Commission of inquiry.

With Jadapalanaya taking over reins of power, its main task was to complete the task of making Sri Lanka a Failed State. Compromising food security, National Security, Economic Security involving Bond Scams, High Taxation , High Interest Rates, destruction of the plantation sector economies has led finally to an  import dependent failed state that would be vulnerable for economic sanctions. The attempt to change the constitution was the final masterstroke to make Sri Lanka a vassal state of the USA. The emergence of ACSA, SOFA and MCC Agreements are the final nails in the coffin of a free and sovereign Sri Lanka. 

Even after making the TNA with only 16 seats in the Parliament the main Opposition Party, did they have anything to do with the governance of the nation? They abstained with scorn and enmity in their eyes, from every parliamentary activity that had to do with the governance of Sri Lanka and only participated in legislating actions that would lead to the balkanization of Sri Lanka and in the end her destruction as an independent political entity in South Asia. Their main purpose of occupying the position of the Opposition was to prop up the unpopular and traitorous  regime of Ranil and his cohorts in his Administration. Ranil was aided and abetted in this unholy enterprise by a selfish, mindless, vain individual elected into the position of the President of Sri Lanka – Maitripala Sirisena. The 62 lakhs of votes he received were simply Anti Rajapakse votes based on half truths, lies and simply – slander manufactured by the Unpatriotic Party  – the UNP. Very few if at all he received were personal votes similar to what Sarath Fonseka received in 2010!

The Islamists are spreading Wahabbism throughout the length and breadth of SrI Lanka. Just at the eleventh hour when there was a clear need for ousting  Ranil in November 2018, they left to Mecca indicating that they will return to enjoy the spoils! Then came the Easter Sunday Bomb attacks. It is abundantly clear what has been found so far of the Wahabbi Islamic threat is only the tip of the iceberg!

Even after 97 warnings from Foreign Intelligence sources as well as our own  the authorities headed by the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet failed the nation and the innocents who died and others who are maimed for life.

Patriotic UNPers and SLFPers should see this reality and leaving aside their petty differences unite to save Sri Lanka. The horrors of Easter Sunday attacks would not have come about if not for the criminal negligence and neglect of the Security Apparatus in Sri Lanka by the government led by Sirisena and Ranil. If they had any self respect they should have resigned their posts in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

This why they all must join forces under Pohottuwa, not because it is the best, but because it is ground reality and the only existing common place where all from different political hues can gather irrespective of differences and unite to end once and for all the tyranny of Minority Politics. We must be in a position to muster a 2/3^rd majority to bring about the necessary constitutional changes as well as provide for reasonable minority demands that do not infringe on the security, wellbeing and continued existence of Sri Lanka as a separate, unitary and independent political and geographical entity south of the Palk Straits!

It is time, all those well-meaning Tamils and Muslims leave the divisive politics and join the mainstream to achieve their realistic aspirations. Division of the country into fiefdoms or giving land and police powers to Eelamists is no way to achieve lasting peace in Sri Lanka. A separated country will lead to a permanent state of war as has happened elsewhere in the world. Sri Lanka simply does not have space nor the security measures necessary to entertain such wishful thinking that only bring luxuries to a selected few and keep the majority mired in misery, be they Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim!

It is time, Sinhalese of all hues, be they UNP, SLFP, Buddhist or Christian unite behind Pohottuwa to take the country away from the ‘dog eat dog’ politics of today, for together we can prosper as a nation. For the UNP to contest for Presidency this time around is a big no no after serially failing the country on every undertaking they laid their hands on.

It is also time the Sinhalese demanded from Pohottuwa that it cannot be ‘Politics as Usual’  and as it used to be. It is time they got rid of the useless riff-raff, the traitorous, self-serving and the bribe-taker lot among them and move forward with only those who can be trusted to make way for progress. Pohottuwas must leave space only for the best in the SLFP, the UNP and those among minorities who aspire to prosper together. Pohottuwa also must take heed of the agendas put forward by the Vikalpa groups for they too are advancing  a message that tells what ails the nation and is relevant to our immediate needs.

Other nations such as Malaysia and Singapore sorted similar problems right at the beginning of their independence from Colonial Powers. This is why these countries prosper and Sri Lanka not! Big and powerful nations respect their strengths and politics!

UNLESS THE SINHALESE UNITE AS ONE, BECOME SELF SUFFICIENT IN THEIR BASIC NEEDS AND SECURITY THERE ARE NO SOLUTIONS TO THE MINORITIES. THIS IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH BEHIND POLITICS IN SRI LANKA. This is what ailed Sri Lanka for the last 70 years. It is only the United Sinhalese who can accommodate those peaceful intentions of the minorities and take the nation towards progress! No solution or agreement, call it what may provided by 50% Sinhalese will be valid in the days, months and years ahead!

The so-called International Community are at the door calling for ‘democracy and human rights’.  The world has come to the realisation that these ideals have been used  time and again only to further the neo colonialist ambitions of the Western World.  It is their system of governance that made  the 1% own the 99% of world’s wealth. They would rather make Sri Lanka unstable, divided, a failed state and divide the spoils rather than try to negotiate with a weak state. On the other hand, they would support and respect a country that is strong politically and militarily. They say Nature abhors a vacuum and so does politics. They are onto Sri Lanka because they find Sri Lanka divided, unstable and vacuous. United we can stand, divided certainly it is oblivion, death, and destruction a la Libya, Iraq and Syria! Ranil has been tasked to make Sri Lanka a Failed State and he nearly accomplished that during the last 5 years by taking Sri Lanka towards external dependence on all her needs be they food, security or else.  

We must provide India the security she needs south of the Palk Straits! It is only a strong Sri Lankan military which can provide this assurance and not a weak Sri Lanka! Senior Indian politician Subramaniam Swamy put it succinctly – We can trust the words of Mahinda Rajapakse. He is a strong man and we can depend on what he promises”.

Time is of the essence, let us learn from Jan 2015 and not bungle it this time! The Jadapalana lot is still regurgitating the same stale promises they made in 2015, this time with a Premadasa’ flavour. It is heart-breaking to see the bribed, drugged and intoxicated multitudes they bring to their political meetings. All patriots, be they UNP or SLFP, or from minority communities, all who wish well for Mother Lanka, unite behind Pohottuwa! Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabhaya and Basil are the better leaders who have a chance to make Sri Lanka great again! Vote for Pohottuwa and make Gotabhaya the 7^th President of Sri Lanka. Long live our sacred Motherland!