by Garvin Karunaratne, former Government Agent, Matara

I am prompted to write about what was achieved in development since Sri Lanka achieved independence because some of our presidential aspirants have said that Sri Lanka had no development whatsoever since gaining independence 71 years ago. It is sad to note that some of our presidential aspirants happen to be that ignorant.

It is important to note that we made strides in development, in increasing agricultural production, poverty alleviation and industry. Of course there were pitfalls due to political interference at times and finally, in 1978 we caved into the International Monetary Fund(IMF) which decimated most development work done by us by imposing its Structural Adjustment Programme on us.

I assumed duties as an Assistant Commissioner for the Development of Agricultural Marketing in 1955. At that time we staff officers were some 400 in number and worked in a few departments that were specially established to deal with development. Above us were the members of the Civil Service, about 125 in the number  who held the senior positions in the Departments and also worked as Permanent Secretaries in charge of the Ministries. There were some twelve Ministries and a few Departments and let me assure anyone that we did work. We never left a stone unturned. The Ministers decided the policies and it was left to us to implement them. There was no stopping us. We even clashed with local Ministers, Members of Parliament and Trade Unions. The maximum punishment was to transfer us. We were happy to pick up our bag and baggage and move to start working in another district. Though not officially members of leftist parties we were influenced by savants, leaders like Dr. N.M., S. A. Wickremasinghe and Philip Gunawardena. It was to uplift the downtrodden masses and alleviate them from the depths of poverty. Of course, there were pitfalls, but we knew to surmount them all.

The main Departments of Irrigation, Agriculture, and surveys were already equipped with trained staff. Their work was exceptional. On the first day of my consultancy in Bangladesh, I called for the one-inch survey sheets of the country, the basic document from which we start work in Sri Lanka. They had no one-inch sheets. No surveys were ever done. I have known the Superintendents of Surveys in the Districts I worked in and their work was meticulous.

It is sad that the current Government had to call in the services of a Survey Company from the USA to do some surveys ignoring our Survey Department. That is a sad saga of the Americanisation we are going through in the last few years.

The Department of Agriculture and Irrigation did wonders. Suffice it to state that the Irrigation Department reconstructed the lost tanks in double quick time and this enabled the development of thousands of acres. In Agriculture, we achieved self-sufficiency in paddy by 1970 which no other country could achieve.

One main felt need was the lack of land for residence and development. During the days of the State Council, well before we gained independence, plans were laid for peasant colonization schemes, where lands were brought under cultivation under tanks that were restored by the Irrigation Department. This was a major task done very quickly.

The land had to be alienated to people and this task fell on the Government Agents in charge of the Districts.  A Land Commissioners Department was established and District Land Officers were posted to the Districts to work under the Government Agents.  There was a full cadre of officers- Supervisors of Land Development and Overseers appointed and their task was to help the peasant colonists in the newly cultivated colonization schemes.  Each District also had a Surveyor to attend to minor surveying. Major surveying was passed onto the Survey Department.

The Land Development Department was formed to make roads and buildings in the colonization areas and each unit had a labour force of hundreds. They were equipped with D8 and D4 land machines, graders and many lorries and theirs was a major task. Colonists were settled in the thousands and the Land Development Department had to attend to all their wants. There were many colonies and the work was so important that certain key areas like Anuradhapura had a member of the Civil Service specially tasked to ensure that the colonists were cared for.  It is important to note that the officers had to work in malaria-infested areas. Once it so happened that the colonists were fleeced by traders in Padaviya and when this was raised at the District Coordinating Committee meeting, I as the Assistant Commissioner for Marketing undertook to establish a Fair Price Shop. This was done within a week. We worked that fast.

In Districts where there were no major colonies crown land if available was apportioned among the landless and at times estates belonging to private owners were taken over on payment and allocated to landless people.

In all this land alienation utmost care was taken to ensure that the land will remain with the people. The land could be handed over to children and their kin but not sold outright. In fact, this system was arrived at after careful consideration by Prime Minister DS Senanayake. He appointed a Committee to make recommendations and it is on record that this Committee held deliberations for over a year. .. The current MCCCompact Proposal has tried to provide full sale rights of this land and if this had gone through and the land was made freely saleable the main aim of providing land to the landless would have been undermined. with multinationals coming in and this land could have ended in their lap. 

The Department of Local Government was established to ensure that the local government institutions that were elected by the people did function efficiently. Contracts were given for the councils to attend to the construction of roads and public utilities like water supply and the Assistant Commissioners were very strict to ensure that the work was done well. In an instance known to me, an Assistant Commissioner who did not approve the work done was obstructed by placing a tree across the road. Luckily, his car was a Peugeot 203, a hardy car that went over the tree.  He had to fight his way through firing a gun he had. His life was saved.

 Then if any council was found wanting the Assistant Commissioner took over and functioned as a Special Commissioner in charge. I can remember Sonny Gunawardena the Special Commissioiner at Anuradhhapura acting like a dictator serving the people, very efficiently,  without bending to influence.  The main function of any local council happens to be the collection of garbage and at that time there were never any garbage pile-ups to talk of. The current pile-ups of garbage commenced with politicians taking over power from officials- a trend from the Seventies. (later)

Very early after achieving independence it was felt that the rural areas need development. To attend to administrative work there were Village Headmen in every cluster of villages and they were under a Divisional Revenue Officer(DRO). Initially, the tasks were administrative,  but gradually they were handling rural development.

The people in rural areas had to be helped with employment- to create incomes and with this aim, a Rural Development and Cottage Industry Department was established to function under the Government Agents. A Rural Development Officer was posted to each Divisional Revenue Officer’s area.  In each village area, a Rural Development Society was formed- elected by the people. These RD Societies had to look into the needs of the village. To attend to small infrastructure development tasks like small roads. This was done on a self-help basis where the people also had to contribute their labour. The Rural Development  Societies were given charge of the work and generally, the members of the Rural Development Society organized the work.  Every District had an allocation of funds for infrastructure development work. Some districts could not spend the full allocation and in the two years I worked as Additional Government Agent at Kegalla I liaised with the Director of Rural Development my friend,  Mr. Ratnavira to obtain the unspent funds from other Districts.  He would scout to find the possible savings and inform me and I was ready with plans to commence projects at short notice. Those were the non-internet days and on the last day to close accounts I would turn up in Colombo to collect a cheque- the savings from other districts. Back at Kegalla I wrote out the cheques in payment and held them in my safe to be released when the work was completed in a few weeks. This was not in order but we got used to bending rules in the national interest. These details are given to show that we officers were very concerned with development.

Garvin Karunaratne

21/10/2019

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරය තුළ අගමික අන්තවාදී තත්වයන් මතුකර දැක්වීමේ උත්සාහයක් පවතින බව කැෆේ සංවිධානය අවධාරණය කරයි. එම සංවිධානයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂිකා සුරංගී අරියවංශ මහත්මිය සඳහන් කළේ මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන්  මැතිවරණ කොමිසම වෙත ලිඛිතව දැනුම් දී ඇති බවයි.   සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ ඉතා සංවිධානාත්මකව අන්තවාදී තත්වයන් මතුකර දැක්වීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බව ඇය පෙන්වා දුන්නාය. මීට අමතරව  ප්‍රසිද්ධ මැතිවරණ ජනහමු තුළ පවා ආගමික අන්තවාදය මතුකරන ආකාරයේ ප්‍රකාශ ඉස්මතු වෙමින් පවතින බව ද කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ නිරීක්ෂණය බව ආරියවංශ මහත්මිය සඳහන් කරයි.

තමන් කැමති අපේක්ෂකයෙකුට සහය දැක්වීම නිසා   ජන වර්ගය, ආගම,භාෂාව හෝ කුලය පදනම් කරගනිමින් යම් පුරවැසියෙකු, හෝ ජනකණ්ඩායමක්, වෙන්කොට සැලකීම ඔවුන්ගේ දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමක් බව කැෆේ සංවිධානය මෙම ලිපිය මඟින් අවධාරණය  කර තිබේ.  එමෙන්ම  මෙම තත්වය ඉදිරියේදී වාර්ගික ගැටුමක්, දක්වා වූව වර්ධනය කරවිය හැකි අතර එය  නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සදහා බාධා පමුණුවන බව ද එම ලිපියේ දැක්වෙයි.

මේ වනවිට මැතිවවරණ ව්‍යාපාරය තරමක ප්‍රචණ්ඩකාරී ස්වරූපයක් ගෙන ඇති බවත්  ගතවූ දින දෙක තුළ දිවයිනේ ප්‍රදේශ කිහිපයකින් ප්‍රචණ්ඩකාරී තත්වයන් වාර්තා වූ බවත් කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂිකාව සඳහන් කළාය.   පවතින ප්‍රචණ්ඩකාරී තත්වය පාලනය කිරීම ප්‍රධාන අපේක්ෂකයින්ගේ වගකීමක් බවත් එය පාලනය නොකරන්නේ නම් ඉදිරියේදී මෙම් තත්වය වර්ධනය වීම බරපතල කරුණක් බවත් ඇය පෙන්වා දුන්නාය.

ජනාධිපතිවරණය ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළ දින සිට මේ දක්වා කැෆේ සංවිධානය වෙත වාර්තා වී ඇති සිදුවීම් ප්‍රමාණය 286 ක් වන අතර ඒ අතර වැඩි වශයෙන් වාර්තා වන්නේ මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝනය කිරීම් සහ රාජ්‍ය දේපළ අවභාවිත කිරීම් වේ.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

lanka C news

තමන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස තේරී පත් වූ පසු පරමාදර්ශී චරිතයක් ලෙස කටයුතු කරන බව එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා පැවසීය.

එමෙන්ම තමන් ජනතාවගේ පයට පෑගෙන දූවිලි තරමට නිහතමානී ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු වන බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

මෙරට යුධ විරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් සිරිසඟබෝ මෙන් බෙල්ල දීමට ද තමන් සූදානම් බව ඔහු පැවසුවේය.

ඇමතිවරයා මෙම අදහස් පල කරන ලද්දේ නාත්තන්ඩියේදී පැවති ජනාධිපතිවරණ ජනරැුලියන් අමතමිනි.

lanka C news

එජාප ජනාධිපති අපේක්‍ෂක සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතා වෙනුවෙන් පැවති මාළඹේ ජනරැළියකදී මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකුට අමානුෂික ලෙස පහර දීමක් සිදු කරනු ලැබීය.

ඊයේ දිනයේ පැවති මෙම රැළිය අමතමින් සිටි චම්පික රණවක මහතාට විරෝධය දැක්වූ තරුණයෙකුට මෙසේ කිහිප දෙනෙකු එක්ව දරුණු ලෙස පහර දුන්හ.

එම ප‍්‍රහාරයට පසු සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතා ජනරැලිය ආරම්භ කරන ලද්දේ ධම්ම පදයේ ගාථායක්ද කියමිනි.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), which probed the Easter Sunday carnage, has, in its report, held the State Intelligence Service (SIS) responsible for bungling, which enabled terrorists to kill 270 persons on 21 April 2019.

Chairman of the Committee Deputy Speaker Ananada Kumarasiri said that if the SIS Chief Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena had conveyed the intelligence warnings it had received from foreign and local sources to the defence authorities, the disaster could have been averted, or at least mitigated. “For example, one of the suicide bombers went to the target site, but left that place after seeing some uniformed policemen detailed there for some other duty. That shows the attacks could have been prevented if the defence authorities had been alerted by the SIS.”

Kumarasiris said: “The first warning of the extremist activities in Sri Lanka was revealed to public by former Western Province Governor Alavi Moulana in 2011. Thereafter during the period 2013-14 several Islamic groups also brought the issue to the notice of the security authorities. Both the SIS and Terrorist Investigation Division had been operating in Kattankudy area separately and had links to the extremist group led by Zahran Hashim. In April 2018, the SIS requested the Defence Secretary to suspend the TID operations there and took the full responsibility for monitoring the Zahran’s group.

 “Soon after the attacks, an individual by the name of Army Mohideen was arrested. That shows that there had been prior knowledge of the persons responsible for the carnage. It has come to light during investigation that some extremist Muslim youth had been used by defence establishment as paid informants during the war. Thereafter, they were used for various other purposes. They were allowed to operate freely,” he said.

 Asked to name the single most culpable official or institution responsible for the mishap, PSC member MA Sumanthiran said it was the SIS Director. The SIS had the intelligence reports very close to the day of attack. In addition they shooed off TID from operations. And the arrest of Army Mohideen showed that they had links to the terror group. Thus, the SIS should be held responsible. The former Defence Secretary, IGP, Chief of National Intelligence too are responsible,” he said. 

Sumanthiran said that the SIS should have informed the police stations in the Eastern Province but they had issued warnings only to some police officers in the Western Province. That was one mistake made by the SIS.

Asked whether political authorities had been named as being responsible, Chairman Kumarasiri said that the President, the Prime Minister, State Minister of Defence and former Eastern Province Governor Hizbullah had been named for failure in political responsibility.

 The PSC report could not be used as evidence to hold anyone liable for a civil or criminal case in a court of law as per Section 16 of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act, Sumanthiran said. “But the evidence found here could be used to counter any testimonies by the same persons before a court of law,” he said. “PSC Member Minister Rauff Hakeem said that the post of CNI had been made redundant for some unknown reason. There seems to be reluctance on the part of intelligence and defence authorities to share intelligence.”

The PSC makes several recommendations that require urgent attention. These are broadly categorised as follows:

1. Essential reforms in the security and intelligence sector

2. Establishment of an enhanced financial supervisory mechanism

3. The need to control and monitor the rise of religious extremism

4. Addressing delays with justice: Reforming the Attorney General’s Department

5. Wahabism and the need for action

6. Media reporting, fake news and other areas of concern

7. Holding politicians/ people’s representatives accountable

8. Reforming the educational sector to counter growing extremism. 

The Executive Summary of the report follows:

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, suicide terrorist bombings that took place in three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka killed around 277 people (including 8 suicide bombers) and wounded more than 400 people as per the information provided by Police Headquarters. At least 40 foreign nationals and at least 45 children were reported to be among the dead. Investigators identified Zahran Hashim, one-time leader of the National Thowheed Jamaath, as the main suspect behind the execution of these co-ordinated attacks. Subsequent to the attacks, incidents of ethnic violence and tension targeting the Muslim community occurred in several parts of the country. 40 Members of Parliament representing the UNP, UPFA, ITAK and JVP presented a resolution in Parliament requesting the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) with the resolution passed in Parliament on the 22nd of May 2019 without a division. The PSC held 24 sittings from May to October 2019 and heard evidence from 55 persons. The present report is endorsed by all members of the PSC. The PSC makes several findings and recommendations in the report.

 Below are key findings: Following the attacks, evidence emerged that prior intelligence information was available regarding the impending attack but that it was not acted upon. The PSC notes that intelligence information related to the attacks was first received by the Director, SIS on 4th April 2019 but there were delays from his end to share it with the relevant intelligence and security personnel. The Director, SIS was called by name by the then Secretary MOD to brief the ICM on 9th April 2019 but failed to do this by saying he would send a written update on the intelligence received. This, the PSC notes is a major failure from the Director SIS, the lead in the intelligence apparatus who had received pride of place at the ICM and NSC.

The PSC also notes the failure on the part of the SIS to act upon the subsequent intelligence information received after the explosion on 16th April 2019 in Kattankudy. The PSC notes that the Director SIS bears the greatest responsibility. This is compounded by the fact that since 8th April 2018, a full one year before the incident, he had in writing to the IGP requested for the shutting down of investigations by others into Zahran, which resulted in the SIS becoming the sole investigator into Zahran. PSC also observes that the SIS missed a series of events that should have alerted the state security apparatus to the impending attacks and demonstrated to them the importance of the intelligence information received. This was in the context of intelligence already known on Zahran and his allies including police reports on him and arrest warrants issued on him dated March 2017. Other incidents since 2018 (described in detail in the findings) demonstrate how the lead intelligence party should have been more vigilant and taken steps to keep the ICM, NSC and other relevant parties informed. This failure by the SIS has resulted in hundreds of deaths, many more injured and immeasurable devastation to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans and that must not be treated lightly. The PSC makes this observation considering attempts made to shield the culpability of key individuals and the need to hold all individuals responsible without further delay.

The PSC further notes, that whilst the greatest responsibility remains with the Director SIS, others too failed in their duties. Within the security and intelligence apparatus, the Secretary MOD, IGP, CNI and DMI failed in their responsibilities. All were informed of the intelligence information prior to the Easter Sunday attacks but failed to take necessary steps to mitigate or prevent it. The PSC makes a very serious finding in terms of the status of the state intelligence apparatus, where intelligence information known to a few was not shared with relevant parties. The PSC also observes that further investigations will be needed to understand whether those with vested interests did not act on intelligence so as to create chaos and instill fear and uncertainty in the country in the lead up to the Presidential Election to be held later in the year. Such a situation would then lead to the call for a change of regime to contain such acts of terrorism. Coincidently or not so coincidentally, the security situation and fear would be unleashed months away from the Presidential Election. The PSC also notes that this occurred in the context of changes in the leadership in the Sri Lankan Army and DMI in 2019. These are extremely serious observations that can impact the democratic governance, electoral processes and security of Sri Lanka and must require urgent attention.

 In addition, the PSC observes that the President failed in numerous occasions to give leadership and also actively undermined government and systems including having ad hoc NSC meetings and leaving out key individuals from meetings. Whilst the fissures in Government were evident in 2018, amplified with the Constitutional Crisis, these also impacted the security apparatus. Several others are listed in the report as having failed in their duties including the Prime Minister and State Minister for Defence and the Attorney General’s Department. An important finding of the PSC is the need for structural and legislative reform which are discussed in detail in the report. A critical introduction would be an independent and robust National Security Council with a National Security Advisor, essential in addressing evolving security challenges.  

The PSC also highlights the need for legislative reforms in several areas such as initiatives to counter fake news and responsible reporting, work in the education sector, the need for greater Parliament oversight, among others. The PSC also makes note of the rising extremism in Sri Lanka. Evidence received by the PSC indicates that Zahran started a campaign to radicalise Muslim youth and motivate them to use violence to achieve their ends post March 2018 attacks on Muslims in Digana. However, investigations to date have not shown any evidence that Zahran had direct links with the ISIS.

 It observes that several people of Kattankudy and several local Muslim groups made complaints against Zahran as early as 2013/2014 to the authorities. Testimony also showed that investigations had commenced into some of his speeches and activities. The rise in extremism was also in the backdrop of increasing levels of Islamaphobia. The PSC also observes increasing levels of Wahabism and Arabization in parts of Sri Lanka in recent years. A physical change had taken place in recent years in Kattankudy town with the emergence of Date-Palm Trees and Arabic lettering on public sign boards. The Batticaloa campus buildings also prominently display Arabic architecture and landscape, making it drastically different to any university building in the country. Evidence received by the PSC indicates that Arabization commenced and was fostered in Kattankudy by M.L.A.M. Hizbullah.

 The PSC notes that the spread of Wahhabism and the Arabization of Kattankudy contributed to the growth of extremism in the Islamic community especially in the East and must be further investigated. The PSC also notes that several politicians made comments subsequent to the Easter Sunday attacks which were inflammatory and irresponsible. The PSC notes that speeches that incite hate and racism, by politicians, religious leaders and others, are extremely dangerous and must be independently investigated and individuals held to account. Inaction will only exacerbate the impunity and contribute to further hate and fear in Sri Lanka.

Yoshitha Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While asserting that the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) is a white elephant, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has today justified the current government’s decision to store paddy at the airport storage facilities in 2015.

He said this while providing the evidence at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate corruption of the current administration on the decision to store paddy at MRIA.

Accordingly, Commissioners questioned the losses that occurred through the damages to the equipment in the airport premisses.

Responding to the question Prime Minister said that former Paddy Marketing Board Chairman had instructed the Mattala Airport officials to remove the equipment which can be destroyed by the paddy dust.

However, the Presidential Commission observed that the PMB stored over 4000 metric tons of rice at Mattala Airport and the damages amounting to Rs.600,000 were incurred to equipment at the storage area.

Prime Minister denied the allegations that the present government had destroyed the glory of the airport by storing paddy in its stores in 2015.

Accordingly, Chairman of the Commission retired Supreme Court Judge, Upali Aberathne questioned the Prime Minister that as current leaders in the country whether it is the government’s responsibility to take such decisions to boost the glory of MRIA.

That airport has no glory to boost up. It’s called the world’s emptiest airport due to lack of flight operations,” Prime Minister responded to the PCoI Chairman’s question.

Providing evidence, Prime Minister said that he believes that it was a correct decision taken by the government to store paddy in the airport since the airport has the storage facilities.

In 2015, there was an excess of rice cultivation and also there was an election around, so we have to maintain the price level on the rice. Considering all these situations the government had appointed a committee to find suitable solutions for the matter,” he said.

Accordingly, the Commissioners questioned the Prime Minister whether he has appointed three members from his office to the particular committee. Responding to the question, Prime Minister said that he has not appointed any of his officers to the committee.

It is a normal practice to appoint a committee when there is an excess amount of yield and we followed that normal procedure. Line Minister had provided a cabinet memorandum regarding the excess amount of paddy harvest in 2015. Accordingly, I and the Finance Minister had provided observations to that memorandum,” Prime Minister informed the Commission.

The Attorney General’s Department representative asked the Prime Minister whether he was aware that two of his senior advisors, Charitha Ratwatte and R. Paskaralingam, have been taking part in some of the meetings at the particular committee.

Mr. Wicremesinghe said that he was not aware of such things and the committee might have asked his advisors to help to solve the matter.

Commissioners also questioned the Prime Minister about sending letters through the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the decision on storing paddy at Mattala Airport. However, the Prime Minister said that he was not aware of such letters sent to the Mattala Airport officials through his office.

Chairman of the Commission then questioned the Prime Minister on 16 warehouses in Hambantota which had the facility to store 8,131 metric tons of goods at the same time. I can’t say anything about the decisions taken by the PMB and other officials unless I see the papers,” Mr. Wikremesinghe informed the Chairman.

He also said that the Mattala Airport officials had been given permission to store paddy at the airport and if the airport officials were against that decision the government would have arrived at some other solution to store the paddy.

Mattala Airport is still incurring losses; no company has agreed to take this airport. Currently, we are having discussions with an Indian Company about handling the airport. All we need is to minimise the losses coming through this airport,” Prime Minister informed the Commission. 

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Foreign Affairs State Minister Wasantha Senanayake today said that he informed the UNP of his decision to withdraw from the party organiser post of Rambukkana and the presidential election campaign of Minister Sajith Premadasa.

Addressing a news briefing held in Colombo today, the State Minister said he sent a letter informing of the decision to UNP General Secretary Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

He said he also sent a letter to Minister Premadasa expressing displeasure over the way the presidential election campaign is being conducted and that his decision to withdraw from the campaign.

Those who defamed Minister Premadasa blamed not only him but also his parents and threatened to leave the party if he was given presidential candidacy have become the pioneers of Minister Premadasa’s campaign today. Those who fought beside Minister Premadasa to ensure his candidacy has been pushed to the side,” he said.

Also, he asked if Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would be reappointed in the post if Minister Premadasa was elected president.

If Ravi Karunanayake re-elected to parliament or named to be an MP, will he hold a cabinet minister post? Will Rishard Bathiudeen hold a cabinet post? Will Minister Rauff Hakeem, who is alleged to have maintained relations with extremists, play a major role in the election campaign? Minister Premadasa should answer these questions,” he said.

He said Minister Premadasa should also clarify whether he would reappoint old cronies, fraudsters, thieves, Central Bank bond scammers and ineffective elderly as ministers if elected president.

“I’m elated that Sajith Premadasa finally gets to contest the presidential election and hope for his victory. However, I have a doubt whether he has been caught in a trap. If Minister Premadasa give satisfactory answers to my questions, I will withdraw my resignation letters and back him completely in the election campaign,” he said. 

By Mirudhula Thambiah Courtesy Ceylon Today

Rejecting allegations that the Government had damaged the reputation of the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport by storing paddy in some of its storage buildings in 2015, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said  the Mattala Airport was a white elephant.

He was testifying before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate into alleged corruption of the current administration yesterday (23).
The Premier said, “What reputation? It has no prestige. It is known as  the world’s emptiest Airport. The unnecessary construction of the Airport is a massive misuse of public funds.”

Premier Wickremesinghe went on to say that inquiries by the Auditor General’s Department and the Committee on Public Enterprises had proved that the decision to build an Airport in Mattala was a disaster. “A PCoI on the SriLankan Airlines also made similar observations in its report,” he said.

He noted that moreover in 2014, the then Government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa had forced the SriLankan Airlines and other airlines to use the Mattala Airport.

“Thus, there were over 2,900 flights to the Airport in that year but once the Government stopped forcing airlines, they stopped using the Airport altogether. SriLankan Airlines incurred a loss of Rs 740 million during the use of the Mattala Airport. We are not preventing people from using the Airport. In fact, we have been trying to encourage people to use it,” he said. He added that the Mattala Airport was built at a cost of USD 209 million and that the Government pays around Rs 2.95 billion per year as loan payments. “This is a big loss and if this was not carried out, the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake could have been well developed.”

Denying any personal involvement in the storing of paddy, he said that a committee comprising of Ministry Secretaries in 2015 was appointed to deal with a high paddy yield from the Yala season.

“These committees are appointed at times when such incidents occur because even in the past, Sri Lankan Governments have tried to protect the farmers by preventing a drop in prices,” he added.

Meanwhile, State Counsel representing the Attorney General’s Department questioned Premier Wickremesinghe whether he was aware that two of his senior Advisors, Charitha Ratwatte and R. Paskaralingam, had participated in some of the meetings of the said committee.

Wickremesinghe replied: “I’m unaware. The committee might have asked them to come in and help. They don’t need my authorisation to take part in Government meetings.”

At an earlier occasion, former Chairman of the SriLankan Airlines, Ajith Dias told the PCoI that Ratwatte had called him and requested permission to store paddy at the Mattala Airport. However, Premier Wickremesinghe noted that he was not aware of this, adding that Ratwatte probably was acting on behalf of the said committee.

“I went through the reports and there were damages of Rs 600,000 to the equipment, and Rs 500,000 was spent on cleaning and another Rs 20,000 was spent on an air compressor.

It had cost Rs 60,000 to transport this compressor. The Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) had informed officials at the Mattala Airport to remove any valuable items from the storage units.  If they now claim that there was valuable equipment, they should have told the PMB that they won’t allow the storage of paddy,” he said.

 Wickremesinghe also said: “This shows the way they do things there. A whole bunch of people responsible for the construction of this vanity project and running the Mattala Airport down, are now trying to blame us.

Please get these people back so that my lawyers too can cross examine them.”
Accordingly, over 4,000 metric tons of rice was stored at the Mattala Airport in 2015 by the PMB.

Recently, former Head of the PMB, Bandara Dissanayake stressed that Premier Wickremesinghe personally instructed him to store paddy at the Mattala Airport.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක අමාත්‍ය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස සහභාගිවූ ජන රැළියකදී අමාත්‍ය පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක, එම රැළිය අමතන අවස්ථාවේ එහි සිටි තරුණයෙකු නැගී සිට යම් ප්‍රකාශයක් කිරීමත් සමඟ පාක්ෂිකයින් ඔහුට පහරදී තිබෙනවා.

මෙය සිදුව ඇත්තේ ඊයේ මාළඹේ නගරයේදි පැවති ජන හමුවකදියි. එහිදී තරුණයෙකු නැගී සිට යම් කිසි ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදුකිරීමත් සමඟ එහි සිටි පාක්ෂිකයින් ඔහුට පහරදී ඇති අතර, එහිදී උණුසුම් තත්ත්වයක් ද හටගත් බවයි හිරු වාර්තාකරු කියා සිටියේ.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

යතුරුපැදිවලින් පැමිණි පුද්ගලයින් දෙදෙනෙකු කළ පහරදීමකින් පො‍ළොන්නරුව – ගිරිතලේ ප්‍රදේශයේ ආබාධිත රණවිරුවෙකු තුවාල ලබා රෝහල් ගතකර තිබෙනවා.

ආබාධිත හා විශ්‍රාමික රණවිරු සංවිධානය අද ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවමින් සඳහන් කළේ රණවිරුවන්ට දිගින් දිගටම සිදුකරන මෙම පහරදීම් රාජ්‍ය දැනුවත් වීමෙන් සිදුකරන ඒවා බවයි.

පොළොන්නරුව ගිරිතලේ නිල් මානෙල් මල්විල ප්‍රදේශයේදී මෙම පහරදීම සිදුකර ඇත්තේ ඊයේ පස්වරු 6.30ට පමණයි.

යතුරුපැදි දෙකකින් පැමිණි පුද්ගලයන් දෙදෙනෙකු මාර්ගය හරස්කර මෙම ආබාධිත රණවිරුවාට පහරදී පලාගොස් තිබෙනවා.

පහරකෑමෙන් තුවාල ලැබූ දෙදරු පියෙක් වන එම්ගජීගඒග ජයවර්ධන මහතා 42 හැවිරිදි වියේ පසුවන ආබාධිත රණවිරුවෙක්.

පසුව ප්‍රදේශවාසීන් තුවාලකරු දියබෙදුම රෝහලට ඇතුලත් කර ඇති අතර, පසුව පොළොන්නරුව මහ රෝහල වෙත වැඩිදුර ප්‍රතිකාර සඳහා යොමුකර තිබෙනවා.

මෙම පහරදීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදා, පොලිස් දිවිපිදු ආබාධිත හා විශ්‍රාමික රණවිරුවෝ සංවිධානය අද පෙරවරුවේ මාතරදී ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවා තිබුණා.

මේ අතර, හිටපු හමුදා සෙබළුන්ගේ බිරින්දෑවරුන්ගේ සහ රණවිරු සෙබළියන්ගේ සංවිධානය අද කොළඹදී ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් කැඳවා තිබුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පාස්කු ඉරිදා ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයට ශ්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග්‍රසයේ නායක අමාත්‍ය රවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා සෘජුවම වගකිව යුතු හෙයින් ඔහුට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු බවට විවිධ පාර්ශ්ව චෝදනා එල්ල කරනවා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඊ.ටී.අයි. තැන්පත්කරුවන්ගේ ගැටලුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් එළැඹෙන 16 වැනිදාට පෙර විසඳුමක් ලබා නොදුනහොත් ජනාධිපති අපේකෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඡන්දය ලබා දෙන බව ඊ.ටී.අයි. තැන්පත්කරුවන් සුරැකීමේ ස්වාධීන සංවිධානය පවසනවා.

එහි සාමාජිකයින් මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදහස් පළ කළේ කොළඹ පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

රට තුළ යළි ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කර සංවර්ධන කටයුතු සිදුකළ හැක්කේ තම රජයක් යටතේ පමණක් බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

ගම්පොල ප්‍රදේශයේ අද පැවති ජන හමුවකට එක්වෙමිනුයි ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ.

එම ජන හමුවට එක්වෙමින් අදහස් දැක්වූ ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ ඇතුලු පිරිසක් විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ද එක්ව සිටියා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව සමයේ රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වල සිදුවු දුෂන සහ වංචා සෙවීමට පත්කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාව හමුවේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා අද දෙවන දිනටත් පෙනී සිටියා.

ඒ මත්තල ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළේ වී ගබඩා කිරීමෙන් රජයට පාඩු සිදුවු බවට වූ පැමිණිල්ලකට අදාළව ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාව හමුවේ සාක්ෂි ලබාදිම සදහායි.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා අද පෙගව 10.30ට පමණ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම වෙත පැමිණියා.

එහිදී මත්තල, ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපලේ වී ගබඩා කිරීමේ සිද්ධිය තුළින් රජයට පාඩු සිදුවුයේ යැයි සැලකෙන පැමිණිල්ලට අදාළව නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් යුරේෂා ද සිල්වා මහත්මිය සහ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ සමාජිකයින් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයාගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කර තිබෙනවා.

මෙහිදි අග්‍රාමාතයවරයා ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත්තේ මත්තල ජත්‍යාන්තර ගුවන් තොටුපලේ වී ගබඩා කිරිමට අදාළ තීරණය ගනු ලැබුවේ ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පත්කළ කැබිනට් අනුකමිටුවක් විසින් බවයි.

එබැවින් එම තීරණය සම්බන්දයෙන් තමන්ගේ කිසිදු සම්බන්ධයක් නොමැති බවද අග්‍රාමාතයවරයා ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ සඳහන් කර තිබෙනවා.

හදිස්සි අවස්ථාවකදි භාණ්ඩ ගබඩා කිරීම සඳහා ගුවන්තොටුපලවල්හි පහසුකම් සලසා ඇති බව සඳහන් කළ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා කොමිසම හමුවේ පෙන්වා දුන්නේ සුනාමි අවස්ථාවේදි කටුනායක ගුවන් තොටුපලේද භාණ්ඩ ගබඩා කර තිබු බවයි.

එසේම මෙම වී ගබඩා කිරීමේ කටයුතු සිදුකර ඇත්තේ ගුවන්තොටුපළ අධිකාරිය සහ වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලය යන රාජ්‍ය ආයතන දෙකෙහිම මැදිහත්වීමෙන් බව පෙන්වා දුන් අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් සදහන් කළේ වී ගබඩා කිරීම තුළින් යම් පාඩුවක් සිදුවී ඇත්නම් එය ගුවන්තොටුපළ අධිකාරියට වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලයෙන් අයකරගත හැකි බවයි.

පැයකට අධික කාලයක් ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබාදිමෙන් පසු අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා මධ්‍යන 12ට පමණ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමෙන් පිටව ගියා.

අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ පෙනීසිටි දෙවන අවස්ථාව මෙය වන අතර කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යංශය බත්තරමුල්ල ඩීගපී ජයසිංහ ගොඩනැගිල්ලට රැගෙන ගොස් මාසිකව රුපියල් මිලියන 24.6ක කුලියක් ගෙවීම තුළ රජයට පාඩුවක් සිදුවුයේ යැයි ගොනුකර තිබු පැමිණිල්ලක අදාළවද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ඉකුත් සැප්තැම්බර් මස 16 වන දින ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ සක්ෂි ලබාදුන්නා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක කුමාරණතුංග ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය සහ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය එක් කිරීමේ උත්සහයක නිරතවන බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම පවසනවා. 

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ කොළඹ අද පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින්.

එම මාධ්‍ය හමුවට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී වීරකුමාර දිසානායක ද එක්ව සිටියා.

මේ අතර නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරය සම්පූර්ණ අසත්‍ය ප්‍රචාරවලින් සමන්විත වන බවට ද පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතා චෝදනා කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පාස්කු ඉරිදා එල්ල වූ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයේදී ඇතැම් පුද්ගලයින් ප්‍රහාරය වැළැක්වීම සඳහා වන, සිය වගකීම් ඉටු කිරීමට අසමත් වී ඇති බව පාස්කු ඉරිදා එල්ල වූ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයාබැලීමට පත් කළ පාර්ලිමේන්තු විශේෂ කාරක සභාවේ අවසන් වාර්තාව මගින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කර තිබෙනවා.

ඒ අනුව වරදක් සිදුකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රමාණවත් සාක්ෂි රැස්කර ගැනීමට හැකිවන අවස්ථාවලදී අධිචෝදනා ගොනුකිරීම සහ නඩු පැවරීම සිදුකළ යුතු බවටයි විශේෂ කාරක සභා වාර්තාව මගින් නිර්දේශ කර ඇත්තේ.

අප්‍රේල් 21 වැනිදා එල්ල වූ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයාබැලීමට පත්කරන ලද පාර්ලිමේන්තු විශේෂ කාරක සභාවේ අවසන් වාර්තාව අද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලැබුවේ කමිටු සාමාජික පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ආචාර්ය ජයම්පති වික්‍රමරත්නයි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් තේරීම් කාරක සභාවේ අවසන් වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කිරිමට ප්‍රථම ඊට විපක්ෂයෙන් විරෝධතා එල්ල වුණා.

ඔවුන් කියා සිටියේ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයට සම්බන්ධ සහරාන් හෂීම් සමග අමාත්‍ය රවුෆ් හකීම් සාකච්ජා පවත්වා ඇති බවට චෝදනා එල්ල වී ඇති බැවින් ඔහු සමාජිකත්වය දරන විශේෂ කාරක සභාවේ වාර්තාව පිළිගත නොහැකි බවයි.

පාස්කු ඉරු දින පල්ලි 03 ක සහ හෝටල් 03 ක සිදුවූ මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාරවලින් පුද්ගලයින් 277 දෙනෙකු මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බකරුවන්ද ඇතුළුව ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත්ව ඇති අතර, 400 කට වැඩි පිරිසක් තුවාල ලබා ඇති බව විශේෂ කාරක සභාව පවසනවා.

මරණයට පත්වූවන් අතර අවම වශයෙන් විදේශිකයින් 40 ක් සහ ළමයින් 45 ක් සිටි බව වාර්තා වූ බවයි කාරක සභා වාර්තාවේ දැක්වෙන්නේ.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු විශේෂ කාරක සභාව 24 වතාවක් රැස්වී පුද්ගලයින් 55 දෙනෙකුගෙන් සාක්ෂි සටහන් කරගෙන තිබෙනවා.

පිටු 242 කින් සමන්විත විශේෂ කාරක සභා වාර්තාවෙන් දක්වා ඇත්තේ බුද්ධි අංශ යාන්ත්‍රණය තුළ රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයාගේ අති විශේෂ භූමිකාව සලකා බැලීමේදී ඔහුට බරපතල වගකීමක් පැවරී ඇති බව අවධානයට ලක්වූ බවයි.

අප්‍රේල් මස 04 වැනිදා ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබඳව බුද්ධි තොරතුරු පළමුව ලැබුණු පුද්ගලයා වූ රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා ඇතිවිය හැකි තර්ජන අවම කිරීමට සහ වැළැක්වීමටත් සියළු පියවර ගත යුතුව තිබූ බව වාර්තාව මගින් සඳහන් කර ඇති අතර, එම සියළු අංශවලින් ඔහු අසාර්ථක වී ඇති බව එහි දක්වා තිබෙනවා.

එසේම ජාතික ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයේ රැස්වීම් පිලිවෙලකට පැවැත්වීම ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා විසින් වගබලා ගත යුතු බව සඳහන් කරන, විශේෂ කාරක සභාව රැස්වීම් කැඳවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා මත රැඳී නොසිටිය යුතු බව පවසනවා.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරුන් වන කපිල වෛද්‍යරත්න සහ හේමසිරි ප්‍රනාන්දු යන දෙපලම වරදක් සිදුකර ඇති බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු විශේෂ කාරක සභාව ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබෙනවා.

පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබඳව ලද බුද්ධි තොරතුරු දේශපාලන නායකත්වය සහ ආරක්ෂක හමුදා දැනුවත් කිරීමට හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් හේමසිරි ප්‍රනාන්දු අවශ්‍ය පියවර නොගැනීම බරපතල අඩුපාඩුවක් බවයි එහි දැක්වෙන්නේ.

පොලිස්පතිවරයා විසින් සිදුකර ඇති අඩුපාඩු කිහිපයක්ම පාස්කු ඉරුදින ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයා බැලීමට පත්කළ විශේෂ කාරක සභාවේ වාර්තාව මගින් සඳහන් කර තිබීම විශේෂත්වයක්.

ඒ අනුව කාත්තන්කුඩි ප්‍රදේශයේ සිදුවූ පිපිරීම සහ ලැබුණු බුද්ධි තොරතුරු තිබියදීත් නැගෙනහිර පළාත භාර නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පතිවරයා දැනුවත් කිරීමට අපොහොසත් වීම, දේශපාලන නායකත්වය දැනුවත් නොකිරීම සහ ලැබුණු තොරතුරු සම්බන්ධයෙන් බිම් මට්ටමේදී ගත යුතු පියවර පිළිබඳව ප්‍රමාණවත් උපදෙස් යටත් නිලධාරීන්ට ලබාදී නොතිබීමද ඒ අතර වනවා.

පොලිස්පතිවරයා විසින් ක්ෂණික සහ ශක්තිමත් පියවර ගෙන බිම් මට්ටමේ සූදානම් වීම් සඳහා පැහැදිලි උපදෙස් ලබාදී තිබුණේ නම් ප්‍රහාරය වළක්වා ගැනීමට හෝ එහි තීව්‍රතාවය අවම කර ගැනීමට බොහෝ දෑ කළ හැකිව තිබූ බව විශේෂ කාරක සභාවේ අදහසයි.

ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් වහා අවධානය යොමුවිය යුතු නිර්දේශ කිහිපයක් විශේෂ කාරක සභාව මගින් ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙනවා.

ඒවා අතර, ආරක්ෂක සහ බුද්ධි අංශයේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ, ආගමික අන්තවාදයේ නැගීම පාලනය කිරීමේ සහ අධීක්ෂණය කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය, වහබ්වාදය සහ ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව යන කරුණු දක්නට ලැබීම විශේෂත්වයක්.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Any lawyer who has made it to the peak of his profession carries with him the authoritative air of having achieved the highest intellectual capacity to build up a case on hard evidence and presenting it cogently, logically, rationally to persuade his audience, court, forum, etc., of the unshakeable truth on which the case is based. But there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. C. V. Wigneswaran,(CVW)  former Supreme Court Judge and later Chief Minister of Jaffna, is one of them.

After he left the bench and joined the Northern political class obsessed with Tamil extremism allied to Prabhakaran he has played a mean and vicious role of denigrating the Sinhala-Buddhist at every turn. Like most other Tamil politicians he is playing the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist card to the hilt for survival in Jaffna which has consistently and unreservedly rejected pluralism, diversity, peaceful inter-ethnic coexistence with the Sinhala majority, or even the Muslim minority. They have never considered the construction of an enlightened path for reconciliation, overriding the narrow and partisan interpretations of history for separatism. They have never sat down and revisited the failure of their post-independent politics that led them all the way to Nandikadal. As seen in the 13-point demands put to the leading presidential candidates they are going back only to revive the policies that dragged their hapless people into death, destruction and despair.

The only ideology that  was allowed to reign supreme in Jaffna by the Vellalar ruling class – they were in the majority– is anti-Sinhala-Buddhism. This  ideology has come down from the early decades of the twentieth century. It was honed, weaponised and unleashed as a deadly force against the Sinhala-Buddhists by G. G. Ponnambalam in the 1930s. Ever since then demonising  the Sinhala-Buddhists has  been the primary platform that dominated Jaffna politics. No  politician competing  for electoral votes could  survive without scapegoating the Sinhala-Buddhists. Following this  line, CVW is now performing to beat his  rivals in this game of demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists. After the defeat at Nandikadal CVW has stepped into the Northern political stage to revive and activate the failed bid by his predecessors to perpetuate the anti-nation building politics of the Jaffna political class.

The latest exhibition of this campaign surfaced in Colombo Telegraph of October 14, 2019. Consider, for instance, the following story taken out of a long list of complaints made against the Sinhala-Buddhist recently.( See Colombo Telegraph, — 14/10/2019).  In it CVW . spins his stories accusing the Sinhala-Buddhists and the state of victimising the Tamils and then says: . ”How far this is true I do not know. But we are told many families…….”  have been victimised. (In the last phrase I am summarising his numerous charges).

Imagine him presenting this case to a judge in a court of law and then concluding by saying: ” How far this is true I do not know. But we are told manyfamilies … etc., etc. Which judge is going to take him seriously? Will not his case be thrown out of court summarily without any further hearing? He goes to court without knowing whether there is any truth at all in his stories of Tamil claims of victimisation but he wants the whole world to believe that the victimisation of the Tamils is true.

If this is the best that a Tamil judge of the supreme court can produce how much truth can there be in most of the wild accusations made by the Tamils against other sources? This penchant for repeating second and third hand stories has been one of the main reasons that had warped the public discourse on the ethnic issue. Had they checked their facts and stuck to the stark realities the ethnic issue would not have gone so far as Nandikadal.  At the core of the ethnic issue is that deep craze to believe that the Tamils are the victims of the Sinhala-Buddhist state and any story is good enough to turbo -charge their imagined or rumoured stories of victimhood. For instance, in the dying days of the Vadukoddai War (aka Eelam war) a Tamil Christian priest in a church in Melbourne (where I live) was swearing that the Sinhala-Buddhist soldiers were throwing up Tamil babies up in the air and pinning them with bayonets as they come down!

Adding fuel to the fires of anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism has been the standard practice of the Tamil leadership. Just last month CVW led another anti-Sinhala-Buddhist rally in Jaffna, along with Suresh Premachandran and Jaffna University students and lecturers. The main objective of this Ezhuga Thamil rally was to turn back the Jaffna clock to the history concocted in the Batakotte (Tamilised as Vadukoddai) Resolution. That version of Tamil history ended in Nandikadal. Reports reveal that CVW’s Ezhuga Thamil rally was a flop. Considering all the failures of the Tamil leadership since independence the time has come for the Tamil people to seriously question the misleading and the disastrous role played on their behalf by the so-called brilliant Tamils. It is time for the Tamil people to rise up and ask CVW and his gang of University students and lecturers : Are you going to lead us down the path of Batakotte Resolution to Nandikadal again?

CVW’s swing to radical Tamilness is reflected, somewhat garishly, in his face which is plastered with Saivite strips of ritualistic ash in technicolour. These strips seem to be more symbolic of his anti-Sinhala-Buddhist hatred than any expression of his spiritual purity. What is objectionable is the aggressive political statement he makes through his face make-up. It is like the Sinhala-Buddhist politicians displaying their pirith noolas, sometimes thick as ropes strong enough to hang them up in the nearest tree. Which reminds me also of the cynic who told a Christian congregation that if Jesus was shot with a pistol then Christian devotees would be wearing canons round their necks now! Not surprisingly, kovils, churches, mosques and temples have become powerful centres of politics more than religion.

The political activity of CVW indicate that he is eager to ride on the back of Tamil youth into power like his predecessors in ITAK (example: S. J. V. Chelvanayakam) who urged the Tamil youth to take up arms against the nation. CVW has also jumped into the bandwagon of Tamil extremism with an eye to claim Tamil leadership in the North. Claiming to be the sole representatives of the Tamils” is an obsession with Tamil politicians. He is hoping to cash in on the prestige of his judicial background (thanks to the Sinhala-Buddhist state which he condemns) to be the only Tamil worthy of being a respected and hero-worshipped leader, now that Prabhakaran is no longer with them to be their  thalaivar”. As the head of the newly established Tamil Makkal Kootani (Tamil Peoples’ Congress) he is making a desperate bid to revive and retain Tamil politics at the same virulent and intransigent level defined and pursued by his predecessors, starting from G. G. Ponnambalam in the 1930s’ to Velupillai Prabhakaran.

In one sense he is, like all other Tamil politicians, a prisoner of the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. Jaffna never had a history of embracing any other ideology. The political fathers of Jaffna and their followers were, from birth to death, bound by two main ideologies : 1. Saivite casteism as defined by the Vellalar guru, Arumuka Navalar and 2. anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics which demonised the Sinhala-Buddhists in the dying days of the British raj as their main enemy. They never took to socialism, liberalism, pluralism, humanism or any other ism” unlike the South which embraced all the ideologies that were sweeping the world, from Marxism, Maoism, Castroism to neo-liberalism.

However, for a brief period in the late twenties the Tamil youth embraced Gandhism and peaceful co-existence with the rest of the nation. But that was snuffed out swiftly by Ponnambalam’s anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism which became the ruling ideology that gripped the North. Ever since then Jaffna has been the permanent home of virulent Tamil racism, excluding all others as non-Tamil outsiders. Tamil ideologues tried to give it a shine by labelling Tamil racism as sub-nationalism, or Tamil nationalism. But historical events prove that it was a latter-day development that began with Ponnambalam raising Tamil racism in the  thirties to protect and  preserve the disproportionate Tamil power, privileges and  perks  in the British colonial regime. Tamil supremacist arrogance closed the minds of the Jaffnaites  to any other alternative. Tamil casteist arrogance went as far as dismissing its own low-caste people as pariahs who should not be allowed to walk in God-given sunlight. For instance, the Turumbas, the lowest of the low-castes, were allowed to walk only in the night to protect the purity of the eyes of the ruling Vellalars who might bump into them in day time. In this tight environment, dominated by Tamil casteism/racism, there was no space for CVW, particularly as a new comer to the political arena, to compete with any other rival ideology that would tend to be conciliatory and moving towards peaceful co-existence with the other communities.

Today he is facing similar (not identical) forces that confronted the young G. G. Ponnambalam when he arrived from UK, qualified as a lawyer. To make his name he had to compete with the established and elderly aristocracy consisting of Ramanathans, Arunachalams  and Mahavdevas. He had no constructive program to beat the turbaned aristocrats” (Jane Russell) entrenched in the colonial system. The only card he could play to stand out from the pack was anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism. So to cut his teeth in politics and to make a name for himself he embraced anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism in the colonial period. 

The racism he unleashed in the 1930s remained as the permanent norm for peninsular politics. He defined and propagated the aggressive and the intransigent political culture of Jaffna that ran all the way to Nandikadal – and beyond to Wigneswaran. He ruptured the inter-ethnic relations that had lasted for centuries. The most marketable slogan for competing and winning votes in peninsular politics was based on bashing Sinhala-Buddhists. This Tamil tactic was not labelled as racism. It was labelled as minority rights. But when the Sinhala-Buddhist reacted to it and defended their right to preserve and maintain their historical legacies they were called racists.

Ever since Ponnambalam unleashed anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism as the norm for peninsular politics his successors never deviated from it. It was suicidal for any Tamil to champion any other brand of politics that moved towards reconciliation, or peaceful co-existence.  Those deviating from this norm were condemned as collaborationists” or traitors to the Tamils, as seen in the time that Prabhakaran ruled Jaffna. Tamil extremism blocked all attempts at nation-building. Even the best deals offered with international guarantees were rejected by the Tamil leadership.  If the Jaffna electorate did not eliminate them with their votes then the guns of Tamil militants liquidated them. Examples: Lakshman Kadirgamar, Neelan Tiruchelvam, Appapillai Amirthalingam etc. Arrogant and relentless Tamil violence didn’t stop at that. Tamil violence went as far as assassinating Rajiv Gandhi who attempted to keep Sri Lanka united for his own self-interests, with powers devolved to the periphery to appease the Tamil separatists.

Clearly, there was no escape route for any new entrant to deviate from the entrenched political culture of Jaffna. In varying degrees of antagonism Tamil politicians had to conform to its anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. The Jaffnaites were prisoners trapped tightly inside the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist straight jacket. They could move only within the perennial parameters   drawn by the cadjan curtains of Saivite casteism which morphed into virulent anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism. Whether CVW likes it or not he had to fall in line with the racism initiated by Ponnambalam and finally consolidated by Prabhakaran. For him to survive in the competitive electoral politics of Jaffa CVW is compelled to dance to the beat of nagasalam choreographed by Ponnambalam and Prabhakaran.

His ambition now is to grab the leadership of the Tamils to be the sole representative of the Tamils. To achieve this he has to kick out of his way the TNA ladder on which he climbed to seats of power in Jaffna. Having done that, he is now aiming to take over the Jaffna leadership by beating the TNA with his aggressive anti-Sinhala-Buddhist programmes, politics and pronouncements. As Chief Minister he did his damnedest to denigrate the Sinhala-Buddhists and paint them as the sworn enemies of the Tamils. He passed the notorious resolution in which he condemned all Sinhala leaders, from the time of independence, as killers of the Tamils. He was so obsessed with anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racism that he could not provide even a toilet at the Jaffna bus stand. Like most of the Tamil leaders he was obsessed with anti-Sinhala-Buddhist politics and not with the well-being of the Tamil people.

His latest gimmickry is to take up the 13-point demands put up by the Tamil University students in the North and the East universities. As M. Sumanthiram states, there is nothing new in it. It is the same old, same old – all 13 demands pointing to separatism. Clearly, we are back to square one. We are back to the time when S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and his band of fake Gandhians were ganging up to the draw the belligerent Batakotte (Tamilised as Vadukoddai ) Resolution.

It was a time when the Tamil leadership had pushed Tamil extremism to the bitter end and had nowhere to go except to declare war on the rest of the nation. It was time when the Gandhian Chelvanayakam was delighted with the placing on his forehead a red pottu, consisting of blood drawn from the vein of a Tamil militant. It was a time when the ageing Vellalar Tamil leadership was ready to sit back in their arm chairs and sacrifice the low-caste Tamil youth, hoping that they would win Eelam for them to take over as their permanent lords and  masters of the feudal days gone by. The educated Vellalars went overseas to enjoy the greener pastures, with two cars, one to take their children to universities and the other to take their wives shopping.

The sequence of events that happened tell the story of the utter failure of Tamil politics. The precise date was May 14, 1976. The place was Batakotte. The entire Tamil leadership collectively declared war on the rest of the nation and urged the Tamil youth to take up arms and never stop until they had achieved Eelam. They, of course, never expected to land in Nandikadal. That, in short, the failed history of Tamils.

The 13-point demands put up by the Northern and Eastern Universities seems to heading the way of the Batakotte Resolution. History seems to be getting ready to repeat itself, this time as a greater tragedy than before. The oldies are taking cover under the 13-points presented by the Tamil youth in the universities. The oldies are happy that the Tamil youth had taken up their demands, once again. The oldies, of course, have nothing to worry. If the worst comes to the worse, the Sampanthans, Sumanthirams, and the Wigneswarans would come rushing down to the South (which they hate) and take refuge with the Sinhala-Buddhist state providing police protection..The oldies expect the  Tamil youth to fight for the tall tales told in Tamil fiction. In relating these tales they will demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists and never mention a word about the miserable failure of the Tamil leadership to serve or save the Tamil people whom they oppressed throughout their history.

The more  I look into  Tamil politics the more  I am convinced of the value of the words of Prof. Kumar David which described the Tamil leadership as a bunch of congenital idiots”.

More of Tamil politics in the next article.

By Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada

[Full version of the article that appeared in the Island, 22nd October, 2019]

A reader named “Vegetarian” (The Island 15th Oct.) had written asking if ‘outsized vegetables are some type of “engineered” vegetables’? Jayantha Samarasinghe (JS) has replied (21st October), alluding to a science fiction story by Arthur Clarke to argue that it is best to NOT eat such “engineered vegetables”.

 JS advises that “this story demonstrates how a subtle difference can trigger a serious problem”. Clarke’s story is not based on a subtle difference, but a huge difference, as big as the left foot not fitting into the right shoe. SJ says, “…there was a plan to set up a lab in Sri Lanka to detect genetically engineered food imports… scuttled by people who benefit in selling such food”.

SJ’s advise that we must avoid engineered food and eat “natural food”, is as fictional as the Arthur Clarke story. SJ is also equally wrong when he implies that genetically modified (GM) food has been produced by people (scientists) who benefit by selling such food, and that it is worse in every sense (including nutritionally, i.e. compared to “natural food”.

 Certainly, if SJ can do it, eating his home grown food is an excellent idea. However, it is not practicable to feed the 22 million population in Sri Lanka, or the seven billion globally. SJ may have a choice of foods, but many can only sleep hungry as they don’t have food, leave aside the  choices that people like SJ have.

 If we use the “traditional” varieties of rice used decades ago, grown according to traditional methods (e.g. “organic farming”), it yields 1.1-1.5 metric tonnes of paddy/hectare, and giving two harvests (Yala and Maha). Modern hybrids, developed by scientists at Batalagoda, Kundasale and other research stations, produce yields like 6 to 10 metric tonnes per hectare. That is how Sri Lanaka has managed to feed its population that grew exponentially since world war I.  But those unsung scientists get no benefit in selling such food., or any recognition. In fact, they are often blamed unreasonably as being in the pockets of multi-national companies.

 Modern varieties use less water and yield harvests in shorter time – e.g. in three months. So, to produce one kilo of rice takes less water, less land, less tilling and less erosion. If modern pesticides are used, no tilling is needed, cutting down erosion to a minimum and boosting harvests.

If old “goma and geri-katu” agriculture is used, together with the admonition to not to use pesticides, the harvests are open to attack from epidemics of pests. In Sri Lanka, the attack of the senaa (“army”) caterpillar recently  is a notable example. Venerable Ratana,  who champions the “Toxin-free agriculture”  claimed that he can kill them all using  “organic pesticides” if he were given the responsibility  of combating the army caterpillar.  Leave aside the ethics of  a Buddhist monk taking over such a task, such technical matters should be  the concern of  agricultural scientists. Furthermore, such pesticides, often based on Neem (“Kohomba”) have been used from time immemorial and so plants and  pests have developed resistance to them. Pests develop resistance even modern pesticides and they need to be constantly modified as organisms evolve.

 The claim that there are harmful amounts of pesticide residues on vegetables is a canard spread by the Organic Food lobby. Sensitive chemical analyzes show, say, 10-100 parts per billion of Roundup or some such pesticide on cabbage. This is potentially harmful if you eat about 200 kilos of cabbage daily. If SJ were to test the vegetables grown in his garden, he will find much larger amounts (parts per thousands) of noxious chemicals in his vegetables, coming from the motor vehicular traffic on the busy roads in “Mahanuwara”, and from the dust laden acid rain that falls on his vegetables, even if he lives far away from any traffic!

There is a phenomenon known as “bio-accumulation” of toxins in plants. Plants  take up toxins from the ground and concentrate them hundreds of times. So, if the same plant material is composted again and again, higher and higher levels of toxins accumulate in the soil. In the old days, people moved to a different “chena” and continued their cultivation. But today people don’t have the luxury of moving from the “Parana-hena” to the “Aluth-hena” periodically, to grow one’s crops.  So a partial solution to the problem is crop rotation, or leaving the land fallow for a few years.

Grasses and straw accumulate toxins from the soil, and so cow-dung is richer in toxins than the soil. The soil naturally contains small amounts of cadmium, lead, arsenic and other noxious elements. These come to the soil from naturally occurring minerals, from urban waste like discarded batteries, electronic parts, paints, vehicle exhaust, burning of plastic, car-repair garages etc.

 Most of the soya bean safely eaten all over the world is GM soya invented decades ago by scientists and commercialized. Canola oil produced by Canadian scientists has been, and is used safely all over the world for decades. Genetic engineering is simply plant breeding equipped with the information about the genetic code available from DNA analysis of the plant genome. In the old days, before DNA, people used hit and run hybridization, and so it took long years by farmers to develop useful varieties. Even the traditional varieties such as “heenati”, “nilnaadu” etc., are NOT natural varieties. The natural varieties are grass-like wild rices, which are the actual ancestors of traditional rices. The same story goes for fruits and vegetables.

 The larger-sized vegetables that I have seen in markets are simply cultivars of standard varieties,  grown with adequate application of mineral fertilizers, instead of relying on the old “cow dung and geri-katu” agriculture which often does  not provide enough nutrients to crops.  Traditional  agriculture takes up a lot of land, water, digging-tilling causing erosion.  Organic farmers do not usually analyze their soils for N, P, K etc. or toxins. Essential minerals may be lacking in their soil. The scientifically farmed vegetables are more fully grown and can be large if they are from “larger-size” cultivars.

 There are self-styled “patriots” and “heroes” who agitate against “multinationals” claiming that agri-businesses seek profits. Companies need profits to survive. These activists claim to “save the environment” by agitating against the “pollution” coming from agrochemicals. The overuse of agro-chemicals is simply a consequence of the uncontrolled “free-market” introduced by politicians, and not intrinsic to agrochemicals, which are as necessary as the vitamins and drugs that most people need. Most soils get depleted of their N, P and other minerals on repeated farming, and hence adding the right amount of fertilizer, organic or mineral, is essential to good farming practice. A ton of organic fertilizer may be necessary for what is done with just one kilo of mineral fertilizer.

 The self-styled “green heroes” agitating against GM foods have caused enormous harm and retarded progress. They are mostly driven by unreasoned and unsubstantiated fear. They fear that GM is toxic, and that GM-product companies will control the farmers by controlling GM seed supplies. That surely is a matter of legislation and not science. Do we stop the imports of cars or pharmaceuticals, saying that car companies or big-pharma can control our destinies?

Household compost pits and urban garbage dumps emit methane, a green-house gas much worse than CO2,  adding to the environmental burden coming from organic farming.
 
An excellent example of a false prophet causing much damage to South Asians is “Shiva Vandana”. She campaigned against golden rice in India.   Most early-blindness cases in Asia are due to lack of Vitamin A in the diet. Carrots contain carotene – a source of Vitamin A. Most Asians eat rice, but little of carotene containing foods. So, a simple solution is to hybridize rice with carrots. This cannot be done by plant hybridization. But it is very simple to take the relevant carrot gene and add it to the rice DNA, giving a new golden coloured, known now as “golden rice”. Although golden rice was produced by scientists decades ago, opposition to GM foods by the likes of Shiva Vandana has prevented its release in India. Health officials estimate that millions of people could have been spared of blindness if this rice had been licensed. The anti-GM protesters have spread fear among the public and lobbied politicians (who are equally ignorant of genetics). People fear what they do not understand, and especially when it is claimed that GM is a tool of subjugation of poor nations by global conglomerates.  However, the most recent news is that the Indian government is – after decades of delay – set to approve the sale of golden rice.  

 The bottom line is, please cultivate your garden if you can, but avoid using urban waste and even household waste, unless you are sure that it is free of contaminants, road-side pollution etc. Avoid excessive composting,  and instead use a mixture of mineral fertilizers and humus if needed. But be informed that genetically modified foods are as safe and often better for you (and the environment) than traditional varieties.

[The author worked as the head of the science department of a Quebec technical college, and retired recently.]

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B.Ph.D

මුලතිව් ගුරුකන්ද විහාරයේ හාමුදුරුවන් විහාර ඉඩමේ අදාහනය කිරීම තහනම් කිරීමට වැඩබලන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් දුන් තීරණය මතක් කරන්නේ නමින් කපුරුහාමි, නමුත් කට ගඳයි යන ආප්තෝපදේශයය.  බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර හාමුදුරුවන්  නැවතත් කොටු කිරීම සඳහා මෙවර ඉදිරිපත්‌ව සිටින්නේ විග්නේශ්වරන් ප්‍රමුඛ උතුරේ ඊලම්කාරයින් පිරිසකි. ඒ සඳහා ඔවුන් ගේන්නේ නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය නොහොත් උසාවියට අපහාසකල යන පරණ බයිලාවමය. හෝමාගම මහේස්ත්‍රාත් හරහා නීතිපති දෙපාර්‌තමේන්තුව හා ජේවීපී නීතීඥ කුමාරප්පෙරුමලා ගැසූ කලින් බයිලාව කෙතරම් අසාධාරණද යන්න ඉංග්‍රීසි හා සිංහල ලිපි කීපයකින්ම මීට පෙර පෙන්වා දෙන ලදී. ඒවා ඇපැල් උසාවියද ඇතුළු ආයතනවලට ඊමේල් මඟින් යවන ලදී.

උසාවියට අපහාසකලා යන සංකල්පය අයුතුලෙස යොදවා ගැනීම වැලැක්‌වීමට නීතියක් පාස්කර ගන්නා තෙක්, එය කැලෑ නීතියක් බවට පෙරලීම නතර කිරීම ඇපැල් උසාවියේ වගකීමක් බව මෙම ගුරුකන්ද විහාර පෙත්සමට අදාල කාරණා විමසන විට සක්සුදක්සේ පැහැදිලි වන්නේය. වැඩබලන මහේස්ත්‍රාත්‌වරයා ඊලම් විග්නේශ්වරන්ගේ ගෝලයෙක් වීම මෙහිදී වැදගත් නැත. නමුත් ඕනෑම නඩුකාරයෙක් විසින් ගන්නා තීරණයක් හිතුවක්කාර (උන්ෆෛර්, අර්බිට්‍රර්ය්) විය නොහැකිය. පුද්ගලික නඩුවකදීත්, පොදු නඩුවකදීත් මෙය එකසේ භාරදූර වගකීමකි.

අපවත්‌වූ හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ දේහය නරක්‌වී දුගධ ගසනතුරු තබාගත නොහැකිය. අනික එය වලලන එක හා ගිනිතබන එක අතර වෙනසක් ඇත. මිනියක් වැලලූවිට එය දිගටම ඒ ඉඩමේ තැන්පත්‌ව තිබේ. එහෙත් සොහොනෙන් අළු ඉවත් කල පසු එහි කිල්ලට අසුවීමට දෙයක් ඉතිරි නොවේ. බෞද්ධයින් අතර මෙවැනි විශ්වාසයක්ද නැත. හින්දු කෝවිල්වල සතුන්ගේ බෙලි කපා ඒ ලේ කටේ ගා ගැනීමද සිදුවේ. වැඩබලන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් දෙමළ හින්දු හෝ ක්‍රිස්තියානි අයෙක් නම් ඔහුට මේවා ගැන තේරුමක්, දැනුමක් නොතිබිය හැකිය.

එහෙත් ඔහුට තිබූ සීමිත කාලය තුලදී මෙම විහාර-කෝවිල් අර්බුදය නිරාකරණය කර ගැනීමට සධාරණලෙස (රෙසොනබ්ලෙ) හා ප්‍රඥාවන්තලෙස (wඉසෙල්‍ය්) ක්‍රියාකිරීමට අවකාශ තිබුණේය. ඔහු විසින් ඉතිහාසය අමතකකර ඇත. අක්කර 90 කට වැඩි භූමියක් පැරණි විහාර නටබුන් ලෙස 1930 ස් ගණන්වලදී සිට හඳුනාගෙන ඇත. ඓතිහාසිකව දළදා සමිදුන් වැඩමකරගෙන ආවේ මේ පන්සලටය. දෙමළ ත්‍රස්තවාදීකාලයේ මෙම අපවත්‌වූ හිමියන් මෙහි පන්සලක් ස්ථාපිතකර, අසල තිබූ දේව පිලිමයක් ඒ අසල තබා එය පන්සල ආශ්‍රිත දේවාලයක් ලෙස පවත්‌වාගෙන යන ලදී. අවට ජීවත්‌වූ දුප්පත් හින්දු මිනිසුන් පන්සලේ හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ උපකාරද ලබමින් ජීවත්‌විය.

මේ සියල්ල වෙනස්‌වූයේ උතුරු පලාත් සභා වන්දයක් පවත්‌වා සිංහල ලේලිලා දෙන්නෙක්ම ඉන්නා විග්නේශ්වරන්ට එය ලබාදීමෙන් පසුවය. මේ කොළඹ ජීවත්‌වන ඊනියා දෙමළ මධ්‍යස්ථ මතධාරියා යයි සැලකූ පුද්ගලයා, සිංහල ආණ්ඩු නිදහසේ සිටම දෙමළ ජනසංහාරයක් කරනවා, උතුරේ පන්සල් හා බුදුපිලිම එපා යන ව්‍යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කලදා සිට උතුරු-නැගෙනහිර පුරාණ බෞද්ධ නටබුන් ආක්‍රමණය කිරීමේ කැත, දුෂ්ට ජාතිවාදී විෂ අහිංසක හින්දු ජනයාට පෙවීම, කොළඹ යහපාලන ඇමතිලාගේ අනුග්‍රහය යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක විය. මේ අනුව පන්සලේ තිබූ දේවාලය, කෝවිලකට පෙරලී කෝවිල් කමිටුවක්ද බිහිවිය. කලින් හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙන් පාසැල් පොත්, ආහාරපාන යනාදිය සතුටින් ලබාගත් හින්දූන්ට ඒවා ආපසු පන්සලට දෙන ලෙස අණකරන තත්‌වයකට ටිිෙන්‌ඕකාරයින් කෲරවිය.

මෙවැනි පසුබිමක් යටතේ පන්සල් ඉඩමේ අපවත්‌වූ හාමුදුරුවරුන්ගේ මෘතදේහ ආදාහනය කිරීමේ බෞද්ධ සම්ප්‍රදාය නතර කිරීමේ බලයක් මහෙස්ත්‍රාත්ට නැත.  13 වන සංශොධනය යටතේ මෙවැනි බලයක් උතුරු පලාතට නැත. පන්සලේ දායක සභාව විසින් ගත් තීරණයට පන්සලේ දායක සභාවට මිස, ඥානසාර හාමුදුරුවන් පස්සේ හඹaaේමට  විග්නේශ්වරන් ඇතුළු උතුරේ ඊලම්කාරයින් හා මන්ත්‍රීලා ගන්නා උත්සාහය නීතියේ අධිපත්‍යය ගනිකාවක් සේ සැලකීමකි. 

දකුණේ සිංහල දේශපාලකයින් මේ අවස්ථාවේදීත්, මුහුදු මහා විහාර ආක්‍රමණයෙදීත්, ත්‍රිකුණාමල කින්නියා උණුදිය උල්පත් විහාරභූමි ප්‍රශ්ණයේදීත් හොරගල් අහුලන්නේ දෙමළ චන්දවලට ඇති පෙරේතකම නිසා මිස යුක්තිය හා සත්‍යය නොදන්නා මිස නොවේ. ගෝඨාභය පුරවැසිකම පිළිඹඳ පෙත්සමේදී මෙන් මෙහිදීද පෙනීයන්නේ සද්භාවයෙන් තොරව මේ ඊලම්කාරයින් විසින්, උසාවිය, කොස් ඇට බා ගැනීම සඳහා බළල් අතක් කරගන්නට හදන බවය. මොවුන් උසාවියට එන්නේ අත්‌වල තැවරුණු දේශපාලන ඊලම් ලේ ඇතිවය.

මනා දැණුමක් හෝ නිසි ප්‍රඥාවක් නැතිව යම් මහේස්ත්‍රාත් කෙනෙක් යම් හිතුවක්කාර තීරණයක් ගත්තොත් එය නීතියට පටහැනි වන නිසා, එය නොසලකා හැරීම උසාවියට අපහාස කිරීමක් නොවේ. මහේස්ත්‍රාත්ගේ තීරණයට විරුද්ධව ඉහල උසාවියකට යාමට ගියොත් මළමිනිය කුණුවන්නේය. මහේස්ත්‍රාත්ගේ තීරණය අවලංගු කලේ දායක සභාව මිස ඥානසාර හිමියන් නොවේ. රටේ ජනතා නායකයෙකු වශයෙන් උන්වහන්සේට මෙම ආදාහනයට සහභාගී නොවී සිටීමට නොහැකිය. මෙම සිද්ධිය ජාතික ප්‍රශ්ණයක්‌වීම වැලකුණේද ඒ නිසාය.

ALI SUKHANVER

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan was in China a few days back with Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Qamar Bajwa; experts say that this visit was simply another effort of pulling the people of Kashmir out of an inferno of trials and tribulations. On their first day of the visit The Gulf News published a very detailed report which said, While Imran Khan and his delegates will meet businessmen and Chinese officials, Pakistan’s army chief General Bajwa is meeting the top military officials to discuss the security situation in the region and the tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issue.

A top diplomat told Gulf News that both Prime Minister Imran and General Bajwa are trying to convince China to stand by Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.” Pakistan’s concerns over Kashmir are very genuine and legitimate as the situation there is getting horrible day by day. The helpless Kashmiris are hopelessly waiting for someone who could save them from the tyranny and brutality of the Indian security forces.

A very true picture of the present-day Indian-Held Kashmir was portrayed by the Aljazeera in a report a few days back, In more than 50 interviews, residents in a dozen villages in Kashmir told The Associated Press that the military had raided their homes since India’s government imposed a security crackdown in the region on August 5. They said the soldiers inflicted beatings and electric shocks, forced them to eat dirt or drink filthy water, poisoned their food supplies or killed livestock, and threatened to take away and marry their female relatives. Thousands of young men have been arrested.” But on the other hand, Mr Modi is still harping on the same string that the cancellation of Article 370 and 35A would bring a new flood of peace and prosperity in the Indian Held Kashmir. It is difficult to understand what type of peace and prosperity this region is going to be blessed within such a horrible situation where even the honour of Kashmiri women is not safe. If this is Modi’s desired shape of peace and prosperity, let the Kashmiris live in the hell of anarchy and distressful poverty instead of Modi’s paradise of peace and prosperity.

 A painfully agonizing fact is that whosoever tries to raise voice in favour of the wretched Kashmiris, the Modi government starts a very well organized type of hostile propaganda move against it. Pakistan is also one of such victims to this propaganda move; it has to face a lot of hindrances and hurdles, sometimes in shape of blames and allegations and sometimes in form of conspiracies; the objective is simply to malign Pakistan’s support to the Kashmiris. But positive is the fact that in spite of this childish and notorious behaviour of the Indian government, Pakistan has neither changed its policy nor its philosophy regarding its efforts for the world peace specifically for peace in the Indian-Held Kashmir. It is also a notable fact that Pakistan has never supported, favoured or encouraged any type of militancy based action against the cruelties of the Indian security force in the Indian Held Kashmir. A few days before going to USGA, the Prime Minister of Pakistan had said talking to media that anyone wanting to go and fight in occupied Kashmir would do a great injustice to the Kashmiris by undermining their legitimate cause. He had further said, Such an act would be an act of animosity towards the Kashmiris.” This statement of Mr Khan was warmly appreciated and admired even by the US authorities. Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice G. Wells said commenting upon Mr Khan’s statement, Pakistan’s sustained commitment to counter all terrorist groups is critical to regional stability.” Whatever Imran Khan said in his statement is a very clear message to the world that Pakistan wants a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue without any bloodshed without any massacre. Unfortunately, the Modi sarkar is taking Pakistan’s desire for peace as a weakness of Pakistan. Just to make things clear for the Modi sarkar, Imran Khan, in his speech at UNGA, had to warn the world that India’s actions in Kashmir could cause a bloodbath” in the region and provoke a war between the two nuclear-armed countries.

On the other hand, Mr Modi also did his best to misguide the world regarding the ever worst situation of human rights violations in Kashmir by presenting a very calm and peaceful picture of the valley but all his efforts surely received a very serious setback when the honourable participants of the General Assembly came to know of a petition filed in the Houston Court by a victim Kashmir-American family for grave human rights violations in Kashmir. The Court had summoned Mr Modi, Amit Shah and the commander of the Indian army in Kashmir. It seems that Mr Modi could not remember that Court ‘invitation’ in his heat and haste. Hopefully, he would again receive an ‘invitation’ for the same purpose.

No internet, no mobile phones, no media, no communication; for the last many weeks, the situation in Kashmir is getting worse and worse. incidents of rape are on a rise; Indian security forces are brutally butchering the protesters; use of pellet guns on Kashmiri youth has become a routine practice; people are not allowed even to go to the mosques. In short, on one hand, the Modi government is claiming that Kashmir is ‘Atoot Ang’ of India but at the same time the people of Kashmir are being treated as if they belong to some hostile land; as if they are aliens. The atrocities and cruelties inflicted upon the people of Kashmir by the Indian security forces are a proof that inwardly Modi sarkar has accepted the reality that Kashmiris, in no way, want to be a part of India. The hostility of the Indian government against the Kashmiri people shows that India wants Kashmir without the people of Kashmir. To the Modi government, the people of Kashmir are not of any value and importance; important and valuable is the land of Kashmir.

Dr Hector Perera         London

There are far too many cooking programmes in many British TV channels. When I watched them to see any energy saving cooking, I must say I didn’t observe that much energy saving in cooking. Cooking has to be done using energy but that has to be controlled depending on the situation. Many chefs cook so many different types of food and they are far too many to be mentioned here.
One of the common things to be cooked is rice then comes a curry or two. This is quite common in a country like Sri Lanka or among Sri Lankans or Asians. Some of these Asians eat rice and curries as their main meal when compared to British people who eat fish and chips or chicken and chips than rice and curries. Don’t forget they also eat pasta, spaghetti and many different pies as well. There is no strict method of cooking them. They bake them in ovens after a certain stage then mix with so many things then eat. Before they eat the food they add so many varieties of flavours and sources to make the food palatable. Most of the times these flavours are found in bottles or in packets and they just add them to the food as they eat. If someone eats fish and chips then the person would add some sources from bottles or from packets as they eat. Some tomatoes sources are sweet and as well. Not only tomatoes sources but other sources such as mustard, vinegar and salt are also eaten to get the food flavour. The more they eat, more salt and far too much sources are eaten without their knowledge. Who would recommend too much salt to eat?

Judges in cooking competitions

When the judges, judge the individual cooking of each competitor they also go by these food flavours than anything else. Most of the times these food flavours are added to the plates so the judges are forced to taste the food flavours along with the food. The judges watch how the food are cooked then they make so many facial expressions and say so many things while these cooking competitions are taking place. I have my doubt if they cared about energy wastage while cooking. The fire goes out of the cooking pans and most of the times they even let the food catch fire. When food flavours and vapours catch fire, there are so much misty, cloudy vapours surround the cooking vessels but the chefs do not care and even the so called judges just keep on looking at them but never mention if that kind of work is right or wrong. Most of the times there are two judges watching the cooking of a few contestants but they never say anything right or wrong of that kind of cooking.

Any mistakes are ignored while cooking, why?

Strictly speaking these kinds of cooking should give an example to the public as they are broadcasted on the spot. Within an hour and half they finish cooking a few dishes, may be three or four but not anymore. Judges keep on walking and watching how these cooking are taking place and they always see how the food cooked.  They often see how mistakes are done but seem to ignore.

Usually there are about four cooking sessions and at the end of every session, one competitor is eliminated. The rest of the few contestants have to face similar risks. They make so many mistakes while cooking, waste far too much energy, and often get showered with cooking aroma. I think the judges are not taking those mistakes into the competition, as long as the food are palatable. Sometimes even beef not properly cooked. When they are sliced one can easily see that they are virtually raw meat.

I am certain that this kind of cooking cannot be called energy saving cooking but they are send to viewers in their inbox with a name such as energy saving cooking. I had the chance to demonstrate to the public in four different TVs in Sri Lanka how scientific energy saving cooking is done. Also I demonstrated this scientific energy saving cooking for the approval of The Sustainable Energy Authority then The Invention Commission added my work to their official web site. All these work can be viewed even right now at The Google search under my name. I am certain if my work is good enough to be broadcasted by four different TVs in Sri Lanka then my work should be good enough to be shown in any British TV but so far none of the British TVs have contacted me about my work.

I still claim to save about 60% of the energy used in cooking by applying science. When I explained the scientific energy saving cooking in Sri Lanka TVs, I had to use both English and Sinhalese in my explanation because I was not aware of the proper Sinhalese terms only but if I had to demonstrate my work in any British TV then I would stick to English only in my scientific energy saving cooking. I am capable of cooking so many things where majority of people use on daily basis. Please let me repeat if my work is good enough to be shown in four different TVs in Sri Lanka then it should be good enough to be shown in British TVs as well. Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk

Editorial Courtesy The Island

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the people are free to question politicians, without fearing reprisal, unlike in the past. True, there have been instances where people even booed and hissed some ruling party politicians at public rallies, without being harmed. If such incidents had occurred in the past, hecklers would have been taken away in white vans and each one of them made to regret the day he was born.

A wag says that under the previous regime, too, the people, especially journalists, were free to say anything, but the problem was that others were free to kill them for saying that!

Yahapalana leaders would have the public believe that they have restored democracy and the freedom of expression. They pride themselves on the fact that there are no white van abductions and no attacks on dissenters. True, the situation has improved in comparison to what we experienced under the repressive regimes of Presidents J. R. Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. But this improvement is not due to the present-day leaders’ commitment to democratic governance or their aversion to repression.

It is said that when governments fear the people there is liberty and when the people fear governments there is tyranny. People feared the last regime, which went so far as to order a military crackdown on a group of protesters demanding clean water as a factory had contaminated the groundwater in the area. There were also numerous attacks on the UNP-led Opposition and the media. Some journalists had to flee the country, fearing for their lives.

The incumbent government is weak and fears the people so much so that, unable to face them, it has even resorted to postponing elections. What has made the present-day leaders act with restraint without baring their true faces is the instability of their government. We saw some of them in action during the JRJ regime and the second JVP uprising, in the late 1980s. They had private armies led by notorious criminals and suppressed their rivals in every conceivable manner. It is they who introduced the white-van method to tackle troublemakers.

The present government was at war with itself for more than three years, with the UNP and the SLFP trying to destroy each other, while sharing power. It has been staggering along since the collapse of the so-called national unity government. Political cripples cannot take on others, can they? This is why the people have been able to exercise some of their democratic freedoms.

As for the freedom of expression, the people and the Opposition are free to ask questions, and the government politicians are free to refuse to answer them. The question time in Parliament is a case in point. UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila has been asking the government, for about two years, how many foreign trips President Maithripala Sirisena has made; his question has gone unanswered.

The Speaker takes pride in having introduced the right to information laws, but the Opposition’s right to information is denied under his nose. When JVP MP Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, last month, asked how many times the PM had travelled overseas and how much his foreign trips had cost the taxpayer, the government asked for six more months to respond! The question was first raised, on March 08, and the government asked for three months to answer it. When it was repeated, on June 18, MP Jayastissa was asked to wait three more months to receive an answer.

The Opposition has also asked, in Parliament, how many vehicles are being used by government ministers. That question, too, has gone unanswered. The Finance Minister claims to have found the exact amount of funds the former rulers have stashed away in offshore accounts. He says they have USD 18.5 bn in foreign banks. (If so, the question is why that money is not brought back to pay back foreign loans and develop vital sectors.) But the government says it cannot figure out the number of vehicles at the disposal of ministers!

The people can ask politicians questions, but they won’t get answers.

by Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

A report in The Island of October 18, 2019 titled “SL would be subjected to ‘Universal jurisdiction’ unless allegations were probed”, cites Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera as having “warned of dire consequences unless accountability allegations leveled against Lankan military were properly investigated”.

The issue is what is meant by the statement: properly investigating accountability allegations. If Minister Samaraweera means that a proper investigation of the accountability allegations could only be achieved by a judicial mechanism as provided for in Paragraph 6 of the UNHRC Resolution 30/1cited below, it must follow that when the Minister co-sponsored the Resolution, he was either not aware of the Constitutional impediments associated with stipulations in Paragraph 6, or that despite being aware, he knowingly committed Sri Lanka to undertakings beyond its capacity to fulfill. In either case, the fact that no attempt was made to seek approval of Parliament not only for Paragraph 6 but also for the entire Resolution, amounts to a violation of the principles of separation of power on which are founded the Constitution of Sri Lanka. The consequence of this unilateral action on the part of the Executive is to violate the sovereignty of the People.

PARAGRAPH 6 of the UNHRC RESOLUTION

Paragraph 6 states:

“Welcomes the recognition by the Government of Sri Lanka that accountability is essential to uphold the rule of law and to build confidence in the people of all communities of Sri Lanka in the justice system, notes with appreciation the proposal of the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable; affirms that a credible justice process should include independent judicial and prosecutorial institutions led by individuals known for their integrity and impartiality; and also affirms in this regard the importance of participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the special counsel’s office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorized prosecutors and investigators”.

The statement made by Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana at the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council states:

“We would like to stress with sincerity and conviction that we will not be deterred by anyone in fulfilling the undertakings given by us to our people, which will lead to building a peaceful, stable, reconciled and prosperous Sri Lanka for all our “citizens.”

“Sri Lanka’s judiciary and law enforcement mechanisms are fully capable and committed to the processes of advancing justice to all concerned. It has a long history of integrity and professionalism and since January 2015, steps have been taken to further strengthen its independence. And may I add, Mr. President, that all reconciliation mechanisms will be implemented in accordance with our Constitution.”

The statement made by Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana at the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council states:

“In referring to para 68 (C) of the OHCHR Report (A/HRC/40/23), which pertains to the Recommendations to GOSL, to ‘to adopt legislation establishing a hybrid court to investigate allegation of violating and abuses of international law and violations of international humanitarian law’, I wish to make it clear that our position on this matter is as follows”,

“The Government of Sri Lanka at the highest political levels, has both publicly and in discussions with the present and former High Commissioner for Human Rights and other interlocutors, explained the constitutional and legal challenges that preclude it from including non-citizens in its judicial processes. It has been explained that if non-citizen judges are to be appointed in such a process, it will not be possible without an amendment to the Constitution by 2/3 of members of the Parliament voting in favour and also the approval of the people at a referendum”.

In summary, the Sri Lankan Government informed the UNHRC that it had the capacity and the capability to address issues of accountability and furthermore, that if it was to be undertaken by a foreign judicial mechanism it would involve serious Constitutional amendments.

Although it was only in 2018 and 2019 that the Government brought to the attention of the UNHRC the constraints associated with the accountability process, the stark fact is that they were addressed prominently by the public from day One. Notwithstanding such warnings, the fact remains that the government did not take the initiative to demonstrate in good faith its inability to secure the needed 2/3 majority in Parliament together with a referendum to address accountability within the framework stipulated in the Resolution. Furthermore, having failed to act responsibly the Government did nothing to renegotiate more pragmatic mechanisms to address accountability. By doing nothing the Government has left it to a future Government to pull the proverbial chestnuts out of the fire.

By co-sponsoring the Resolution the Government became co-owners responsible for implementing the provisions in the Resolution. Therefore, the former Foreign Minister Samaraweera has to take full responsibility for committing the Sri Lankan State to undertakings without the requisite formations in Parliament to amend the Constitution without which the issue of accountability could not be addressed; a fact admitted by Minister Tilak Marapana in Geneva. The same fate is likely to befall a future government because there is no guarantee that a future Government would have the needed majorities and success at a referendum to fulfill the UNHRC Resolution in its current form. Therefore, the only option open to a new administration is to reject the Resolution in its current form and work with the UNHRC to develop an arrangement that allows alleged violations to be addressed by Sri Lanka in the context of an armed conflict wherein International Humanitarian Law applies as it should be. In such a context, the threat of Sri Lanka being “subjected to ‘universal jurisdiction’ unless allegations are probed” has to be treated as a threat to divert attention from the present Government’s dismal failure to address Accountability to which it committed itself in 2015.

UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION

Quoting Minister Samaraweera, The Island report states: “Should we let allegations remain without investigations and make our security forces personnel vulnerable to be subjected to universal jurisdiction”? The question as to whether “we let allegations remain” is not by intent but a matter of circumstance, since it is entirely a product of Resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by the Minister containing provisions relating to accountability that require Constitutional amendments of a nature that is not achievable due to existing dispensations in Parliament.

It is too late in the day for Minister Samaraweera to feel guilty about making the security forces vulnerable because it was none other than the Minister himself who took the initiative to co-sponsor the Resolution. By doing so, the Minister trapped the Sri Lankan State into Constitutional constraints that his Government is not in a position to overcome. Furthermore, these same Constitutional constraints would prevent a future Government from addressing allegations either, unless that future formation in Parliament is such that at least a 2/3 majority to amend the Constitution is a realistic proportion. Thus, the options are either for the security forces to remain vulnerable forever, or for a new Government to amend Resolution 30/1 to make it implementable.

CONCLUSION

The UNHRC Resolution 30/1 on Sri Lanka was co-sponsored by Minister Mangala Samaraweera without reference to Parliament. It was finally tabled in Parliament after it was co-sponsored due to demands from the then Opposition. However, by then it was too late to propose any amendments. This left the Sri Lankan State being compelled to undertake commitments that it was in no position to fulfill due to lack of the needed majorities in Parliament to comply with the provisions in the Resolution. These commitments are inconsistent with the Constitution.

The procedures adopted by the Executive at the behest of Minister Samaraweera as (the then) Foreign Minister, was for one organ of Government, i.e., in this case, the Executive, to make commitments without reference to another organ of Government – the Parliament, and commit Parliament to undertake commitments that the Executive has no control over, despite Articles 33A and 42 (2) calling for the President and the Cabinet of Ministers to be collectively responsible and answerable to Parliament. This is a violation of the sovereignty of the People. Even if the act of co-sponsoring was undertaken in the flawed belief that it would correct the international isolation that Sri Lanka found itself in, due to the “irresponsible responses” of the former government as stated by the Minister, the country has to now face the dilemma of how to extricate itself from the trap it is in, with the minimum of damage to its international image. This is the daunting challenge for any future government.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Tamil Muslim National Alliance has confirmed that it would support Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the forthcoming Presidential Election.

Holding a media briefing yesterday (21), the chairman of the Alliance, Attorney-at-Law Abdul Raheem stated that Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa promised to ensure the safety of Tamil and Muslim communities in the country.

He said concerns existed with regard to the security of Muslims on the occasion that Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins the Presidential Election, however, the discussion held with the former President had put the concerns to rest.

Responding to a question raised by a media person on removing military forces from the North and the East and merging the two provinces, Mr. Raheem said they are against the idea of merging, adding that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has promised to develop the North and the East.

Addressing the media briefing, Moulvi Rizwan Saudi said, they helped ‘Yahapalana’ government to come to power with the hopes that the security of the Muslims would be ensured. However, the government has failed to do that, he said, adding that behind Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are India and the US forces. The political policy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa is to develop the country, he said further.

Meanwhile, nine independent members of Kalmunai Municipal Council have met with Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to confirm their support for SLPP’s presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa says the security of the country can only be reaffirmed in a Rajapaksa era which has a security system with well-guided and planned intelligence units.

The former Defense Secretary stated this addressing a public meeting held in Middeniya yesterday (21).

There was no concern for national security and priority for national security since the current government came to power, states Rajapaksa.

He says that they humiliated and broke mindsets of the war heroes in the tri-forces and the police.

Rajapaksa also pointed out that they have signed international agreements and taken the war heroes before international courts.

He said: Back during our time, we had established a special unit to investigate extremist terrorists with specially trained agents. But when this government came into power they transferred those officials to other departments. The units were disbanded.

The government failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite receiving intelligence on the time, date and method of attacks, the names, addresses and phone numbers of the individuals behind the attacks.

The main reason for this is them not caring for national security. The security of a country with such a cabinet cannot be ensured.”

Courtesy Adaderana

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දේශපාලනඥයින් මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන්  සොයා බැලීමට පත්කළ පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාවේ නියෝජිතයෙකු ලෙස අමාත්‍ය රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා කටයුතු කිරීම හේතුවෙන් එහි සුජාතභාවය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පැහැදිලි ගැටලුවක් පැන නගින බව මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය මැදගොඩ අභයතිස්ස හිමියන් පවසනවා.

උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව සදහන් කළේ කැලණිය මානෙල්වත්ත ශ්‍රි නාගානන්ද ජාත්‍යන්තර බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ පැවති වැඩසටහනකට එක්වෙමින්.

යුගයේ අවශ්‍යතාව සහ භික්ෂු සමාජයේ කාර්යභාරය පැහැදිලි කිරිම සඳහා සමස්ත ලංකා ශාසනබල මණ්ඩල සභාපති හිමිවරුන් සහ ලේඛකාධිකාරී හිමිවරුන් සහභාගී වූ මෙම විශේෂ සමුළුව පැවැත්වුණේ කැලණිය මානෙල්වත්ත ශ්‍රී නාගානන්ද ජාත්‍යන්තර බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යස්ථානයේදීයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ අපේක්ෂකයින්ට දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති යෝජනා සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා කැලණිය රජමහා විහාරාධිපති පූජ්‍ය කොල්ලුපිටියේ මහින්ද සංඝරක්ඛිත හිමියන්ට කරුණු පැහැදිලි කළා.

මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය කොල්ලුපිටියේ මහින්ද සංඝරක්ඛිත හිමි – විහාරාධිපති

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් හිමිව ඇති කැමති ආගමක් ඇදහීමේ අයිතිය මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාව විසින් මෙරට ජනතාවට අහිමි කර ඇතැයි  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නායක විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ජය තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා මිද්දෙනිය ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවැති ජන රැලියකට එක්වෙමින්.

සාර්ථක දැක්මක් වැඩකරන රටක් තේමාව යටතේ, ජනාධිපතිවරණය ඉලක්ක කරගෙන ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රමුඛ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය සංවිධාන කරන ජනරැලි මාලාවේ තවත් එක් රැලියක් මිද්දෙණිය සති පොළ භූමියේදි ඊයේ පස්වරුවේ පැවැත්වුණා.