By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The demands translated from Tamil to English follow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

භයානක අම්පාරේ පාර

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

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

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

Lakshmi Jayakody Courtesy Ceylon Today

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

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

එම තිරණය ගෙන ඇත්තේ අද පැවැති පක්ෂ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේදී.

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

එය පැවැත්වුණේ පක්ෂයේ සභාපති ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්.

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

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do we know what MCC conditions are?

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

MCC document given in 2018, creates a Millennium Challenge Authority  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preparation of parcel fabric map / cadastral map is being done   

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

Shockingly this Act is ONLY VALID for 7 years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vesting powers all go to the State Land Bank.

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

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

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

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

MCC Condition – Registration of grants into the title system

MCC Condition – Conversion of deeds to title system

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happens when all State land is privatized?

Political power over land passes from Centre to the provinces.

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

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

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

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

However, there are 2 impediments –

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

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

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

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

Now let’s ask some questions?

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

Now let’s look at other scenarios

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

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

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

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

Shenali D Waduge

S. AKURUGODA Courtesy The Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

S. AKURUGODA

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA

FR. J. C. PEIRIS Galle Courtesy The Island

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FR. J. C. PEIRIS

Galle

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara 

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

News item

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

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

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

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

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

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

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

Premadasa also spoke during an election rally held at Ratgama.

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

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

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

Courtesy Adaderana

Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that, with the aim of boosting the tea industry once again, measures will be taken to halt the importing of substandard tea and mixing it with Sri Lankan tea.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential Candidate mentioned this addressing a public rally held in Bulathsinhala.

According to Rajapaksa, the current government is ignorant about the agriculture and plantation industries. Therefore, all sectors in plantation have collapsed, he added.

Everyone from the laborer till small to medium scale and large scale industries has collapsed, he said.

Exporting good-quality Sri Lankan tea with substandard imported tea has lowered the market for Sri Lankan tea, Rajapaksa pointed out.

He said that he will act to aid tea cultivators to continue their trade by completely halting the import of substandard tea for cultivation.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා සිහිනෙන් හෝ ආණ්ඩුවක් සාදන්නේ නම් එහි අගමැතිවරයා කවුද යන්න පිළිබඳ රටට හෙළි කළ යුතු බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා පවසනවා.

මන්ත්‍රිවරයා මේ අදහස් පළ කළේ අද කොළඹදී පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ජනාධිපතිවරයා පත්කර ගැනීමෙන් පසු සිදු කරන පළමු කාර්ය වන්නේ නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සම්මත කර ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු සිදුකිරීම බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පවසනවා.

යාපනය මානිපායි ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකදී ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළා.

නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපතිධුර  අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට සහය පළ කරමින් යාපනය මානිපායි සෙල්ලමුත්තු ක්‍රීඩාංගණයේ මෙම ජන හමුව පැවැත්වුණේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

තම ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයේ අඩංගු කරුණු ජනතාවට ඉටු කර පෙන්විය හැකි යථාර්ථවාදී පොරොන්දු බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රමුඛ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

බලපිටිය ප්‍රදේශයේ ඊයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ සියයට 65ක ඡන්ද පදනමක් ලබා ගනු ඇති බව එම පක්ෂයේ සභාපති මහාචාර්ය ජී.එල්. පීරිස් පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ කොළඹ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණු කාර්යාලයේ අද කැදවා තිබූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින්.<

මේ අතර, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය කොළඹ අද කැදවූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් එහි උප සභාපති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහින්ද සමරසිංහ කියා සිටියේ  පක්ෂයේ තීරණවලට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරන සාමාජිකයින් සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෙට රැස්වන මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේදී තීරණයක් ගන්නා බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය, නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට සහය පළ කිරීමට තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා. <br /><br />එම සන්ධානයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ආර්. සම්බන්ධන් හිරු ප්‍රවෘත්ති අංශයට ප්‍රකාශ කළේ එම තීරණය ඉදිරියේදී නිළ වශයෙන් දැනුම් දීමට කටයුතු කරන බවයි.

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය, ඉලංගෙයි තමිල් අරසු පක්ෂය, ටෙලෝ සහ ප්ලොට් යන පක්ෂවලින් සැදුම් ලබන අතර, ඉලංගෙයි තමිල් අරසු පක්ෂය ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට සහය පළ කරන බව ඊයේ නිවේදනය කළා

දෙමළ සන්ධානයේ තීරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිරු ප්‍රවෘත්ති අංශයට කරුණු පැහැදිලි කරන එහි නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ආර්. සම්බන්ධන් පළ කළේ මෙවන් අදහසක්.

‘‘ ඉලංගෙයි තමිල් අරසු පක්ෂය ඊයේ තීන්දුවක් අරගත්තා, නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට සහයෝගය දෙන්න. දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය විදියට අපිත් ඒ තීන්දුව පිළිගන්නවා. අපේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ සාකච්ඡාවකදී මේ තීරණයම අපි ගත්තා.

අපි ගත්ත තීරණය හරි. නමුත් අපි යළි රැස්වනවා. අපේ මේ, තීරණය ඉදිරියේදී නිළ වශයෙන් දැනුම් දෙනවා. ’’

කෙසේ වෙතත්, විපක්ෂය චෝදනා කරන්නේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක අමාත්‍ය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස දෙමළ පක්ෂවල කොන්දේසි වලට එකඟත්වය පළ කිරීම නිසා සහය පළ කිරීමට තීරණය කර ඇති බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම හිරු නිව්ස්

මෙවර ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂයට සහය දැක්වීම සඳහා තවත් දේශපාලන පක්ෂ 14ක් අද ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමඟ සන්ධානගත වුණා.

ඊට උතුරු – නැගෙනහිර නියෝජනය කරන දේශපාලන පක්ෂ රැසක් ඇතුළත් වීම ද විශේෂත්වයක්.

හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ප්‍රභා ගනේෂන්ගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ජනතා කොංග්‍රසය, අකිල ඉලංගෙයි ද්‍රවිඩ මහා සභාව, ශ්‍රී ටෙලෝ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනතා ජාතික පක්ෂය යන ලියාපදිංචි දේශපාලන පක්ෂයි මෙම ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් තබනු ලැබුවේ.

මීට අමතරව  ජනතා සේවක පක්ෂය, දේශප්‍රේමී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය, නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදි ජනතා පෙරමුණ ඇතුලූ ලියාපදිංචි නොවූ දේශපාලන පක්ෂ 10 ක්ද අද අවබෝධතා ගිවිසුමට අත්සන් තැබුවා.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ද එක්ව සිටියා.

RANJITH SOYSA

We would like to request the President in connection with the highly irregular and  ‘unethical’ manner in which the Prime Minister and the ministers have approved the above bill when the country is facing an election to choose the President to take over the affairs of the country.

According to section 42 of the Constitution, the President is the head of the Cabinet and hence we believe that you have the power to reject approval of the above bill which is being rushed before the pending Presidential election. Besides, for all intentions and purposes the present Government is functioning in the mode of Caretaker Government and we firmly believe that such a legislative assembly cannot take action on a bill such as MCC which will have far-reaching impact on the economy as well as the social, defense and security-related areas of the country’s governance.

The basic question is should the country be ‘sold’ for $480 million especially affecting the administration and control over 1/3 of the country’s land area including the millions of members of the peasantry who will be bought over by the multi-national companies like what happened in the Latin America countries reducing the peasantry to indentured labor. Further, the area demarcated for MCC control includes the priceless Cultural Triangle which encompasses  the ancient institutions of Sri Lanka’s civilization,

We also request the general public to promote and to convert the coming election to a referendum on the MCC Bill and REJECT  the proponents and the objectives of the MCC

By Charles.S.Perera

Before there was peace. We had left behind the fear psychosis of a few years back, the claymore bombs, suicide bombers, and even the rickety homemade planes that bombed the Colombo city.  Instead, we saw and heard development in progress. The massive construction sites,  trucks, tractors. waste haulers were common sights. There were armies of construction workers in their hard yellow hats,  trying as it seemed to do an impossible job to fill the sea to extend the land to construct the  Colombo Port City.

The President of China  His Excellency Mr.Xi Jinping had visited Sri Lanka to inaugurate the construction of the Colombo Port City. He laid the foundation stone with all ceremonial elegance and splendor. 

Development was not confined to Colombo, New railway tracks were laid, railway stations were renovated,  and now a long time after, there are trains from Colombo to Jaffna. The first time in the history of Sri Lanka, ancient potholed macadamized roads were carpeted, new bridges were built, modern highways were being constructed. All this and a new airport and a harbor saw  Sri Lanka stepping into a new era of development and modernization. Buildings of different shapes and heights were being constructed for schools, hospitals, hotels, and homes.  

At the Bandaranayake International Airport,  huge planes carrying hundreds of tourists in their bellies were vomiting them out into sun and heat to be driven away to fleets of waiting for luxury coaches outside to take them to their Hotels.  Colombo was at last clean and tourists seem to enjoy the change. There were clean restaurants and eateries serving fresh food. The business was booming.  Service was brisk and efficient everywhere. The three-wheelers and cab drivers had a steady income. Super Markets were popping up in every town. The people were happy, satisfied and peaceful.

But yet there are those that grumbled ready to find fault. The opponents of the Government complained of a white van culture, lack of press freedom, dictatorship,  Impeachment of the Chief Justice seemed to them an interference into the judiciary.  The West liked developing countries left in poverty,  and dependent on their generosity. Therefore, the West which did not expect Sri Lanka to have ended terrorism and enter into a fast track development,  joined with the Tamil diaspora to encourage the Tamil Politicians in Sri Lanka to step up their demands for devolution of political power and territorial separation.  

The USA  which had changed tactics for regime change in developing countries has now resorted to NGO funded locals recruited for the purpose. Those in the West who have found a vocation in human rights are in International Forums backed by terrorist supporting Tamils in the diaspora, accusing  Sri Lanka Armed Forces of violation of human rights.

USA brought a resolution against the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. for violation of human rights and war crimes.

After eliminating terrorism, after 30 years of suffering, while at last Sri Lanka found peace and security , and the people regained their smiles,  the Government  of President Mahinda Rajapakse  had to face the Western forces backed by the Tamil Diaspora which had begun  to create new problems and dissension among communities, calling  for reconciliation measures.

Despite whatever accusations the interested parties in Colombo make against   President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government,  one cannot deny that President  Mahinda Rajapakse had the foresight  and a definite plan for the development of the country that no Presidents before him had.  It was appreciated by the masses of people who suffered most under terrorism whether they were in the North or in the south.  The virulent critics of Rajapakse and his government  came from among the English Educated  Colombians, with an  outlook and aspirations different from the ordinary mass of people outside

The President Mahinda Rajapakse who in 2014 had two more years for the end of his term of office, decided to call for a Presidential election two years before his term ended, probably because he thought that if he were to win,  he would have five full years to complete the projects he had planned. But that turned out to be an unfortunate decision.

His defeat at that Presidential election in January 2015 was assured by a plethora of foreign governments spending millions of Dollars with their secret service personnel working from within the country for the change of regime. After the defeat of President Mahinda Rajapakse, the US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that the American State Department spent 585 million US Dollars to establish democracy in  Burma, Nigeria and Sri Lanka  (https://www.sott.net/article/334209-US-spent-585mn-on-promoting-democracy-worldwide-in-past-year-and-proud-of-it).

This shows how frightful was the involvement of the USA in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, for their own benefit and not at all for the establishment of Democracy. The proof of this comes from the ACSA, SOFA and MCC agreements the signing of which are demanded by the US State Department. The benefits of these agreements are for the USA Armed Forces. The stupid Minister Mangala Samaraweera is gullible to swallow whatever rope given by America.

These agreements presented to Ranil Wickramasinghe brings to mind the CFA Ranil Wickramasinghe signed with the terrorist leader Prabhakaran without even consulting the President of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.   The American Embassy has informed that the MCC agreement after being signed will be presented to the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Of what use will it be debated in Parliament if it has already been signed by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka?

The events that followed  after the election of  Maithripala Sirisena as the President  and his  unconstitutional swearing-in of Ranil Wickramasinghe the leader of the UNP as the Prime Minister , and setting up a 100 day government of the UNP and SLFP which they called the Yahapalanaya, was the beginning of the fall of a country that was secured  from terrorism  and developed to a middle income status, with a fast-developing economy.

The Yahapalanaya Government of Ranil Wickramasinghe and UNP started off by the biggest Bond Scam- the robbery of the Central Bank by the government itself,  which had never been heard of before anywhere in the World. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe had evidently planned it by conveniently appointing a citizen of Singapore Arjun Mahendran who was his school friend at Royal College Colombo and a  friend of his  Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake, as the Governor of the Central Bank. 

Despite the scandal that followed and the accusations and the call for the arrest of the perpetrators, another bond scam was repeated the following year. Committees and Commissions were appointed to inquire into the robberies but little happened thereafter to punish the thieves”, the first accused the ex-Governor of the Central Bank,  the Citizen of Singapore had fled the country.

After the general elections the SLFP of President Maithreepala Sirisena and the UNP and its alliance of political parties- the Yahapalanaya,  wanted to change all development projects started by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Prime Minister set up a special police FCID under him to arrest and take into custody the former President, his family and his supporters for theft and corruption. 

It was a wild goose chase which even after an hour and a half years could not find a single theft or file a valid charge against any one of the previous government, accept harassing them continuously taking them to courts and then to prison and releasing them as the accusations were not substantiated. That had been the major pre-occupation of the Yahapalanaya government throughout the past four and a half years.

The Yahapalanaya believed that the USA and the West will support them financially for the development of the country instead of the Chinese on whose financial support Mahinda Rajapakse had depended on the development of the country. They severed connections with China first by stopping the work of the Colombo Port City financed by China. The Foundation stone laid by the President of China His Excellency Xi Jinping was remùoved and thrown away with the other debris. They renamed the site the Colombo Financial City”.

It was only later that they found to their deception and chagrin that America had other interests in Sri Lanka than financing any development projects.

Today four and a half years after Yahapalanaya,  Sri Lanka is economically at the brink of bankruptcy. There is a resurgence of different terrorism worse than what Sri Lanka had seen before, which President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse had led its Armed Forces to eliminated successfully in  May 2009. The people are poorer. The new harbor at Hambanthota has been given on a renewable 99-year lease to China, and the Hambanthota Airport is to be sold to India.

However, there is, at last, some hope to stop Ranil Wickramasinghe led Yahapaalanaya causing further damage to the country and the people by changing the President at the presidential election scheduled to be held on the 16 November 2019. 

Ranil Wickramasinghe was determined to contest the Presidential elections from UNP led alliance of several Political parties.  But  Ranil Wickramasinghe’s Presidential candidacy was vehemently protested within the party, and his deputy leader Sajith Premadasa has been put forward as the Presidential Candidate of the UNP led alliance.  Sajith Premadasa is a vociferous man. He carries the mantle of his s father’s criminal conduct to thwart a rising of Sinhala youth in the country. The people have not lost the memory of at least one member of the family  burnt or tortured by his men

Even though Sajith  has been able to draw crowds for his meetings he does not speak against any wrongs of his leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, and has not spoken a word against the Bond Scam, selling of the Hambantota Harbour, of ACSA, SOFA and MCC Agreements Ranil Wickramasinghe is seen determined to sign with USA,  for  480 million Dollars offered  by USA  for the signing of the  MCC.  Why does the USA pay 480 million dollars for signing the MCC, if it is not for their benefit?

Sajith Premadasa the Presidential Candidate of the UNP led alliance is submissive to Ranil Wickramasinghe,  his leader.  Ranil Wickramasinghe is a stubborn leader who would not like to play the second fiddle to anyone else and would continue his authoritative disastrous path even if Sajith Premadasa were to be elected President. , Ranil Wickramasinghe allowed Sajith Premadasa to contest the Presidential election on condition that he would be the Prime Minister with some of the executive powers of the President which he manipulated to transfer to the Prime Minister under  19^th Amendment to the Constitution.

Sajith Premadasa at his political meetings shouts to demonstrates his youthful vigour and promises numerous things which he could have done while being a Minister in the Cabinet of the Yahapalanaya government. Sajith Premadasa has apparently done nothing in the Government except constructing poor houses, for poor people. 

The TNA  of the Tamil politicians has presented a  very racist and separatist 13 point demand as a condition to support the  Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa. But Sajith Premadasa has still not stated whether he accepts the 13 points or reject them. He is a deceptive candidate the large crowds at his meetings are no guarantee that they will all vote for him. The danger with Sajith Premadasa is that if he becomes the President it would again be Ranil Wickramasinghe with Paskaralingam and Charitha Ratwatte who will be running the Government, with Ranil as the Prime Minister.

When Sri Lanka was battered by terrorism and everybody around, foreign diplomats and Ministers of foreign Governments said that the terrorists were a strong-armed force and advised that there was no military solution to terrorism,  but a political settlement. But fortunately in 2005 at that decisive time in the history of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse was elected the  President. He turned out to be the savior – the legendary Diyasena. Mahinda Rajapaksa was a determined politician who had one thought at that time. It was to do or die. He wanted to end terrorism for good.

Today Sri Lanka is facing a different type of terrorism and the people are desperate having lost confidence in the government and seeing no immediate solution to their suffering. The situation is as it was in  2005. It was then a miracle that Mahinda Rajapakse was elected President. If he had not been elected President in 2005, we would still have terrorism and perhaps the country territorially divided and Communities separated.

Today nearly  15 years after the election of Mahinda Rajapakse as the President in 2005, Sri Lanka is again facing a situation worse than it was in 2005.  The country has lost everything it had achieved since the elimination of terrorism in May 2009.  The economy is in shatters. The development projects are grinding to a halt. The country is being forced to enter into doubtful agreements dividing the country selling its sovereignty to the USA for 480 million dollars and deprive the future generation of its ancient motherland as it had been for over 2600 years, its culture, its identity, and its valued heritage.

But as it was 15 years ago, today nearly  15 years after 2005,   once again to save the country from the  dangers it is facing , and rescue it from slipping into  disappearance Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been presented  as a Presidential Candidate by  the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna to challenge the evil and wrench our country from the jaws of disaster,  and bring back its losing shine and glory , to place it  back among  the people who hold it sacred.    . 

Gotabhaya Rajapakse had given his youth to the service in the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. He walked the rough soil in rain or sunshine. He was a fearless worrier who faced the ruthless terrorists face to face. He walked besides death as his companion, to win a war against terrorism to save the country from being divided.  He fought to eliminate the enemies of the country to bring peace and security to everyone-  Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. 

Gotabhaya Rajapakse did not run away from the battlefield, but retired and lived with civilians and worked with foreigners. He came back to organize and coordinate the three Armed Forces the Army, Navy and Air Force as the Defence Secretary. He stood beside the President and worked alongside the Armed Forces to allow the respective Commanders to conduct the war with the soldiers of the Army, sailors of the Navy and the airmen of the Airforce,  to conduct a successful war to eliminate terrorism.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse has experience in the battlefield as much in the administration. He has a sharp intellect. He organized the Army personnel for their life after the war. They were trained in different fields,  as farmers to run farms, to help in natural disasters, cope with serious accidents. He got them trained in construction work, road building, landscaping, beautifying towns, parks, and gardens. He was able to get together specialists in different professions and knew how to work them, and prepare them to serve the country and successfully organize and complete projects.

Sajith Premadasa talks as he is a politician, but has not experienced real life. Sajith Premadasa talks to amuse people. He makes promises as if he had never been in the Government.  What he now promises to the people from the stage could have been done when he was a Minister in the Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. Even as a politician we have not seen him participating in debates in the Parliament.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse is not a politician but a man loaded with experience. He is not an empty vessel that makes a noise, but a person who knows what he is doing, where he is going and what is expected of him.

Gotabhaya is the most qualified and the most suitable Presidential Candidate who when elected will glorify the Office of President as no office can glorify him.  Sri Lanka is fortunate to have a man like Gotabhaya Rajapakse to lead the Country, protect the country and the people and bring peace and security and have a nation of smiling satisfied people.   

Dr. Sudath Gunaekara

I am appealing to all Sinhalese to awake, arise and vote the correct person on the 16^th  if you want to save this nation and our beloved motherland.

Now that today the TNA and its allies have at last declared they have decided to support Sajit Premadasa and Sajit has not said anything up to now on the 23 demands Tamil Parties have made has confirmed this underhand deal. Ranil and Rajitha Senaratna have been almost residing there for the past one week addressing meetings and meeting Tamil politicians wooing the Tamils on behalf of Sajith. Probably they must have already signed the agreement betraying the Sinhala nation and the motherland as they all ways do.

I appeal to all UNP Sinhalese to take this very seriously and refrain from voting Sajit, if you want to save the Sinhala nation and the Motherland for your children and posterity. Please remember if you vote Sajit and he wins by any chance that is the end of the Sinhala nation and the motherland protected from all enemies to us by our ancestors for the past 2500 years. Thereafter you and your children have no country of your own to live.  It is not a question of SLFP vs UNP or Rajapaksa vs Premadasa. It is a struggle between life and death and a matter of survival for a nation. Therefore please go to the polling station early morning on the 16^th and cast you to vote for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa if you want a country to live forgetting all your political differences.

 I also want all my readers to read the following news item immediately and look at the names of the key persons rallied round in the South to support Sajit to become the President of this country in order to support these extremist Tamil conspirators to wipe out the Sinhala nation and Buddhism from the surface of this planet.

Chandrika Kumaratunga,

Ranil Wickramasingha.

Wikramabahu Karunaratna,

Rajita senaratna

Chatura Senaratna

Champika Ranawaka 

Rauf Hakeem,

Rishars Badurdeen,

Prof Chandragupa Thenuwara

Saman Ratnapriya

Dambara  Amila

 Asad Sali”.

(I am surprised that the names of people like Gamini Viyangoda, Victor Ivan, Sumantiram, Pro Ratnajeevan Hoole, Hisbulla, Savul Hameed, Digambaran, Mervin Silva and Vignesvaran are not given in the list. Nevertheless, they must be there somewhere at least providing the background music and funds). It is noteworthy that almost all these people are already there in the UNP led by Ranil Wickramasinha).

I don’t think I need to say anything about each of these Dignitaries” as perhaps you know better and the whole country also know them from Adam

Nevertheless, I would just highlight a few among them who play a leading role in this treachery and national crime.

Chanrika Badaranayaka alias Kumaratunga.

She is the woman who first broke away from SLFP and formed Mahajana Paksaya against the SLFP with her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga and later joined the SLFP in 1993 to oust her own brother Anura. Then she betrayed her own great parents and the whole nation and the country during her 11 years in office as the President both in her speeches and actions. She is also the one who wanted to hand over the North and the East to Prabhakaran for 10 years. Then she tried to introduce a New Constitution called the Package in 1997, popularly known as Pottaniya, as JR named it. During her tenure she criticized all the SLFP policies like the Sinhala only policy of her own Father, giving foremost place to Buddhism which her mother did and who publicly said the problems of this country could never be solved until the Sinhala Buddhist majoritarian mindset is finally defeated.  She also said that she feels sad that she was born a Sinhalese as her son once said and finally instigated Maitripala Sirisena quit SLFP and join the UNP as the Common candidate in Nov 2014 to defeat the Sinhala Buddhist forces lead by Mahinda Rajapaksa  and committed the biggest treachery against this country and the nation by Installing Ranil and his rogue clique. What happened thereafter you all know, for which the patriotic people of this country will never forgive her.

I quote here the best testimonial ever said on her by none other than her own Mother, to me when I was working as her (Mrs B) Secretary in 1994. Sudath Chandrika kelinne okkoma pissu, man kiyana kisideyak ahanne ne” and now I think this perhaps is the last of that long list of Pissukeli by her in her last days of political rejection and oblivion.

Ranil Wickramasingha

About Ranil I don’t think I need to say a word as any tiny tot in this country will know his long list of political bungling ever since his illegal appointment as PM by an exited President Sirisena on Jan 8^th, 2015. But I am compelled to say that he is the only Prime Minister in the whole world who has gone down in history as the one who robbed the nation’s Central Bank by conspiring, aiding and abetting and yet continues as the PM with Impunity and he is also the man who destroyed that Grand Old Political Party, the UNP by misleading it for 25 long years without allowing anyone to emerge as a second rank leader to take over the Party and finally cleverly put the poor Sajit to the political guillotine which the poor man driven by pride self -conceit and ignorance, swallowed it with hook, line, and sinker and got destroyed himself. Even if Sajit win by some miracle Ranil says he is the PM. But Sajit says otherwise

About the rest in the list, and all those behind this treacherous move I leave it for you to do your homework. The gospel truth I can say about this whole bunch is that all these people including the man appearing as a Buddhist monk is that they all are anti-Sinhala, anti-Buddhist and anti-national conspirators working on an agenda on extremism, communalism, separatism and foreign money pumped in to NGOO to destabilize and destroy this 2500-year-old Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this country.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Massive publicity has been given that a large number of Gota friendly Sri Lankans living overseas have already reached or arriving within the next few days before Presidential Election.

However, there is no publicity given of the number of Tamil Diaspora and ISIS members already reached or arriving within the next few days. New land mines, Sniper attacks could be on their navigation kits, inter-alia.

The number of travelers of non-friendly Gota groups consisting of Tamil Diaspora and ISIS trained attackers is minimum in numbers, but they have a diagonally opposite target to achieve.  Above all, the Anti-Gota travelers have the blessings of the corrupt Sri Lankan Government.

Therefore, let Douglas, Karuna, Reginald Cooray, etc.  do the hard work, for 400,000 votes, otherwise, it could be a very costly journey.

Gota’s Victory will not depend on the votes of  N/E, Tamil Leaders would like to see  the end of Gota than Mahinda. Gota will score the highest number of votes of N/E voters for the first time in a Presidential Election, sensing the danger for Tamil Leaders, they are ready.

Therefore, I appeal to SLPP to re-schedule remaining campaigning in N/E  and continue the aggressive campaign in Sinhala dominated regions, as Sajith will unveil massive financial package next week including Rs 25,000 pay rise per month to win votes of our foolish Sinhalese!

Please protect our next President, at any cost. King is not just a King, but a Guardian”!