Dr Sudath Gunasekara Former Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and President Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association (1991-1994)

29th. Oct. 2019.

My assessment of the Presidential Candidates 2019

I have selected only three candidates out of the list of 35 Presidential aspirants contesting for this assessment as I feel they are the only candidates who will make an impact at this election. They are Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (SLPP), Sajit Premadasa (NDF) and Anura Kumara Disanayaka (NDf)? All these three represent the former SLFP, UNP, and JVP respectively, contesting, under three new names, as all three old partiers, the SLFP, UNP and JVP are politically dead and already buried.  None of the other candidates will be discussed here as all of them will lose their deposits with the rare exception of Hisbulla and Sivajilingam, if they manage to get a sizable number of communal votes.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (SLPP)

Besides his patriotic disposition and proven capacity in leadership as a manager and a leader who is abundantly endowed with the qualifications, I have enumerated in part 1 of this series, which I quote below for your easy reference. (Published on 29.9.2019 in Lankaweb)

The BIGGEST challenge before the Sinhala nation at the forthcoming Presidential Election is the selection and election of the correct person as the head of the State” who can and who has the capacity and ability to,

First, reclaim the Augean political, economic, social and security mess created by the politicians of this country for the past 71 years since 1948 and particularly during the last 4 ½ years.

Second, solve the sky-high problems in all these fields heaped up before this country, due to the blunders made by those who are supposed to have ruled this country since the so-called Independence in 1948 and thereafter and again more particularly during the last 4 ½ years of miss-government and total anarchy.

Third, restore and rectify the lost rights of the Sinhala nation in particular while safeguarding the legitimately due rights of all communities in this country without compromising the birthrights of the native Sinhala people

Fourth, restore law and order and sanity in the country and who will also lay the foundation to make this country a strong, vibrant and prosperous nation in the near future.”

In my considered opinion Gotabhaya, backed by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the ex-President, is the only person out of all the candidates contesting, who is suitable to be  the correct person to be elected as the head of the State” at the forthcoming Presidential election. The whole Sri Lankan Nation, I think has already come to this unanimous conclusion.  

He is the official candidate of the SLPP the real and legitimate successor to the SLFP found by SWRD and nursed by Mrs. Bandaranayaka and Mahinda Rajapaksa. Now that those elements of the former SLFP who marked time with MS also have finally joined the SLPP, they together represent the only political party that stands for the 2500 year Sinhala Buddhist heritage in this country as it has clearly demonstrated from its past record ever since 1956.

Gota is the key man who planned and executed the 2009 war against the LTTE that ended up with the complete eradication of the LTTE outfit within the country. Besides ending the war he also has the record of making Colombo the best city in South East Asia in his post-war assignment.

He is also fully backed by the former President MR, the most outstanding leader of this country after Mrs. Bandaranayaka and the most charismatic and popular national leader in the country at present who is loved and admired by the people as a great patriot and as the leader who defeated the LTTE and constructed a first-class network of carpeted roads all over the Island for the first time after Henry Ward the greatest road builder Governor during the colonial times (1855-1860). This Gota –Mahinda union is the biggest asset for stable and patriotic Government. Gota also represents all the political parties of the SLPP Front and their policies that won a landslide in 2018 Local Government elections. He is also not a boaster and his composure in addressing both public and professional meetings, I would rate above board and highly dignified. As I see him, he means business and his priorities in nation-building are very clear and not vague and he comes out with direct solutions for the burning national problems without any ambiguity. He never throws mud at other candidates. He talks on facts and figures. He always ends up his speeches saying ‘tamunnanselata saha apage desayata Jaya weva’ tamunnanselage yuutkama karanata  etakota mama mage yutuka karanata poronduwenawa. He never talks bullshits like Sahit who displays immaturity and his ignorance and practice MPHOT (Monkey praises his own Tail) talks. He does not make empty statements of building castles in the air like Sajit whose speeches are full of such statements like I will make it heaven and give my head. Gota’s policy statement issued on 25 clearly demonstrates what I say here. His statement clearly shows that it is geared first for restoring security, good governance and law and order and much needed political stability that forms the sound foundation for economic social and cultural development in the country.

Political stability the most vital requirement for economic and social development even within the much-debated provisions of the 19th Amendment want to be a problem at all for him firstly as Mahinda Rajapaksa his own brother will be Prime Minister under his Government. Secondly, all partners of the SLPP will stand as one united driving force for nation-building. In addition, almost all the professional groups also have vouched to support him in his mission. In this backdrop, even though the country is faced with a grave economic crisis due to the loans piled up by this government where the national debt ratio to GDP stood at the end of 2018 at 80%, rescuing the country and taking it forward, I don’t think will be a problem for his government under better management and long term political stability, until the next General Election that is certain to give them a landslide victory.  If Mahinda could collect the majority in Parliament on the 28^th he can straight away swear in as Prime Minister on the 18^th itself making way for a Gota -Mahinda Government until the Parliament is dissolved in March.                   

As has been proved on record Gota in my opinion, genuinely stands for the people and their heritage. What is more, is he comes from the Dutugemunu tradition of the Ruhuna the Land of Dutugemunu.  Being Gotabhaya, I wonder whether he is an incarnation of Gotabhaya the famous and most outstanding warrior of King Dutugemunu. His past record, both as a soldier in the army and later as the Defense Secretary (from 2005 -2015) has abundantly displayed the highest qualities of a strong warrior and an able team leader and a patriotic Statesman, the crying need of the present-day Sri Lanka for whom all Sri Lankans are looking forward.

In this backdrop, in the field of good and effective governance, he is the best person who can skillfully handle the national priorities like national security, restoring Law and order, containing terrorism, extremism and separatism and restoring discipline and much needed political stability in the country, the prerequisites for economic development and efficient Public Administration and taking rational decisions on all matters pertaining to governance. I don’t see any other candidate who is better qualified to lead the country than him among all others on the list. All of them are light years behind him as I see it.

Beside his personal attributes and track record as the Defense Secretary during the LTTE war, he also has the full support of all the venerable Mahasangha all over the country, particularly those deeply committed to the protection and upliftment of the Sasana and his own brother MR, the most loved and charismatic, living politician in the country and almost all patriotic professionals and majority of people in this country. In him, I see a combination of people like DS, SWRD, Mrs. B, Lalith and MR among our local leaders and among world leaders like Lee Kwan Yu and Mahathir Mohammad who raised their countries to miraculously high levels. He is steady, firm and genuine. His art of addressing election meetings and even professional forums and the way he moves with all people with confidence and his preparedness to listen to others, unlike Sajit who says he doesn’t want any advice from anyone as he knows everything. In this backdrop, I rate him obviously as the only person who can handle the present crisis situation in this country. For these reasons honestly I feel he is exactly the kind of man with a clear vision and a mission, the country needs today.  

I have no doubt that the government under him will dispel all dark clouds piled up in heavens by this Government and will usher in a new era of sanity, a new political culture, development, and prosperity.

Finally, we will have a stable Government and a prosperous tomorrow ending up this country as the miracle of Asia in the 21^st century for posterity.

I wish him and the country good luck under his administration

My prediction on his (our) victory

As I have said even before at this election he will definitely start with 65 lakhs when Sajit is tottering behind with 22 lakhs. His block vote consists of the

SLPP   4,941,952                            44.65%

UPFA     989,821                             8.94%

SLFP      491,835                             4.44% polled at th2018 Local Government election

            6,423,668                          50.03%

Together these three Parties with a 3% increase from new votes and defections from UNP). Gota will poll at least 6,616,368. Added to this will be Tamils and Muslim votes disgusted with their communal leadership will also give another increase say at least 2 00,000. Then that total might exceed 6,800, 000 more even more. No one should get surprised even if the total exceeds 7,000.000 at the UNP vote base is getting eroded.

 In this context, assuming that majority of Tamils, Muslims and UNP will abstain, I expect Gotabhaya to poll anything between 65 to 70 lakhs, which will easily give him the 50+% lead required to win ending up around 65%

Under these circumstances I can assure you Sajit will never exceed 27 lakhs at this poll the way the UNP vote base has crashed this time and go on record as the UNP candidate who polled the lowest at any election and you will definitely get anything between 65 to 70 lakhs; an unprecedented record by anyone.

Devo vassatu kalena- sassa sampatti hetucha

Pito bhavatulokocha- Rajaa bhavatu Dhammiko.

Sajit Premadasa

Of Sajit Premadasa, I can only say that he is the son of R. Premadasa which of cause is one of the main factors that stand against him as the political record of Premadasa has not left many pleasant memories in the minds of people. He also does not have any plus factors his Father had. The main factor however behind his sudden rise as the UNP Presidential candidate is nothing but Ranil’s 25 years of total failure as the            UNP leader. The inside revolt against Ranil that rallied round Sajit by a disgruntled set of UNP MPP is the result of his failure to lead the UNP.

The fact that there is no one else, other than Premadasa, within the rank and file of UNP who is better than Sajit is the other. Ranil’s failure to find a scape goat-like Fonseka or Sirisena this time, as he did in the past, and Sujits readiness to jump into a sinking ship at mid seas caught in a politically deadly massive hurricane was another. Sajit’s inability to realize that he has to swim upstream a roaring river with many a steep waterfall and deadly rapids at a time the UNP is at its lowest level of popularity like in 1956 in the country after a 4 ½ years of political bungling by his own Party is another reasons that has pushed him in to this situation. Persuaded by anti-Ranil elements within the Party and his overestimation of his own popularity in the country, poor Sajit, I think has committed political suicide or harakiri in the first place by fighting tooth and nail to get the nominations for this election. If I were Sajit, I would never have taken this decision. Instead, I would have willingly promoted Ranil to contest and take the tall of the miserable defeat and taken over the leadership of the party after his defeat and get prepared for 2025 elections that might have a better chance than this election. Sajith decision at a time where defeat for UNP is a foregone conclusion is real political suicide for him.

I don’ think any sane man or woman with a wee bit of brain looking at the miserable performance of the UNP within the past four and half years will ever vote the UNP. Only those few Kapuwat , meruwath api UNP mad hats’ whose political indigestion and constipation are incurable even by surgical operations will vote the UNP this time. Majority of UNP Sinhala Buddhists also will not vote a UNP candidate at this Election, when they see the Governments dead silence against the devastation and vandalism done to their Buddhist religious places in the North and the East by extremist Tamil and Muslim elements and how even archaeological ruins are being used to construct even lavatories by them while the government keeps mum.

How on earth a man who has no brain to understand that much can restore a ruined country, let alone run it as the Head of the State. People of this country know how he has kept dead silent as the Minister of Cultural Affairs, and do so even now when 100 of ancient Buddhist sacred places in the north and the East were bulldozered and razed to the ground by communal Tamils and Muslims. What did he do when Tamil Hindu Extremists created havoc by not allowing even the cremation of the resident Monk at Gurukanda Viharaya in the Mullative area? Then also what action he took regarding Mudu Maha Viharaya while it is almost obliterated by Muslim extremists.  His inaction proves that either he does not know the culture of this country or keep silent for fear of losing Tamil and Muslim votes, for the UNP.

 Instead, he is taking people like Rauf Hakeem and Rishard Badurdeen all over the country to address his meetings. Another glaring example of his ignorance about our culture was displayed when he named all villages supposed to have been built under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Tamil and Muslim majority areas, as Nagar and Purams thereby complicating the place names of this country by adding new Tamil and Muslim names at a time when we are trying to replace even all English names given by Europeans during the colonial times with the local ancient names  Out of 107 new villages he is supposed to have built with public funds mostly Sinhala Buddhists, he has villages as 18 Gramams, and 17 villages as Nagar and 4 Purams as reported in Mavbima October 7^th P.03. What right he has to give such Tamil names to villages on this land of the Sinhala Nation with their tax money.

Additionally, I was aghast to see the way he addresses election meetings these days.  All his speeches at public meetings one after another, are the same. Just like a parrot, he repeats the same rhetoric at every meeting. I wonder whether he memorizes and repeats it at each. Overall they have no substance or meaning. It is just simply empty rhetoric as I see that makes the audience laugh. They are so boring and they never display expected qualities of oratory, leadership or Statesmanship. He addresses the voters as obala. He says he does not want advice from any and he knows everything. His body language, the words he uses, things he says at the highest pitch and his style of speaking reminded me of that famous late Maradana thug Choppe Aiya. Very often he poses himself like a bodybuilder and never like a future President of this country. His latest promise is to provide free sanitary packs monthly for women. Next time he might say that he will have a separate Ministry for this service which he has identified as a major national problem in this country. People laugh their guts out when they hear this kind of loose talk from a Presidential candidate.

 Having listened to his speeches I have my doubts whether he will poll even 22 Lakhs out of the 32 lakhs UNP got at the last 2018 Local Government Elections, with his latest election promise to give a cortex pack every month to every woman who needs it. The more he speaks; I think the more votes he will lose. The other day I saw a Buddhist monk at Anuradhapura advising him to be careful in his use of words.  I won’t be surprised even if he fails to poll 22 lakhs and go on record as the UNP candidate who polled the lowest in history. I don’t think anyone who has a wee bit of brain will ever vote a man like this as their President.

What is more tragic with his campaign is that all his star speakers are extremists minority leaders and terrorists like Hakeem, Rishard Badurdeen and Abdul Rahuman who ask Muslims to vote for Premadasa if they want to sing the National Anthem in Arabic. Every vote cast to Sajit is a vote against the Sinhala nation and Buddhism in this country.  Every vote for Sajit is a vote for Hakeem, Rishard Badurdeen and Hisbulla. Therefore it is a vote for Muslim terrorism Compared with Gota, he is only a Lilliput before a goliath.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

When he criticizes the failures of the present Government he seems to have completely forgotten that he is also responsible for all those blunders as the Deputy Leader to Ranil, the worst leader the UNP ever had and who destroyed the grand old UNP party of DS. The gradual wearing away of the UNP vote base over the past 4 ½ years, especially after Feb 2018, by now has come down to abo 22 lakhs. The Chandrika Sajit Pact will further worsen his vote base.?

Above all how can we expect a Cabinet of people like Ranil, Mangala, Ravi, Rajita, Badurdeen, Champika, John Amaratunga, Fonseka (The defense Minister named), Malik Samarawickrama, Daya Gamage and Kiriella, all rogues, traitors and first-class jokers under Sajit, with Ranil again as PM who has destroyed the UNP and t5he Country for the past 4 and ½ years, to restore good governance and take the country now to Prosperity? No one on earth will believe it even in his dreams. Don’t you think that it is like expecting feathers from a tortoise?

Finally even if by some misfortune of the nation and the country or some international conspiracy,which can mean anything, if Sujit is made the President, a Government under Sajit Premadasa’s Presidency will be a period of utter chaos and confusion leading again to another 5 years of total anarchy in this country due to continuous infighting, between Ranil and Sajit camps.  Ranil has already said that he will be the PM under Sajit. This will further badly reduce the vote base of Sajit. But Sajit also has said otherwise. Lack of vision and clear cut economic or governing policies, collective responsibility and love for the country and the people it will be a hundred times worse than the Sirisena – Ranil regime. Then where are we going to end up?  The whole nation must seriously pose this question before they cast their vote this time.

Can we afford to have another dark period like what we had for the past 4 and ½ years This being the worst government we had ever since 1948 do we want to have the same team including Ranil and Sajit for another 5 years.  This is the billion-dollar question I pose before the patriotic people in this country.

Anura Dissanayaka

Everybody in this country (Except the JVP cadres) knows that NDF candidate Anura Disanayaka can never win this election as the maximum he can poll will not exceed 693,875 they poled at the 2018 Local Government elections. Since all voters know that this is a Presidential Election between Gota and Sajit and there is absolutely no chance of Anura getting elected as the President. Therefore some JVP voters might opt to vote one of the two main contenders of their choice as they would like to feel that they have cast their vote to elect the President-elect of this country.  Additionally first, their realization that Anura will not get elected as the President and second, their emotional and psychological changes that might develop within their conscience to go with the unprecedented Island wide Sinhala Buddhist resurgence and the feeling for the country and their heritage might tempt them to vote the candidate whom they feel can rescue the country from the present Augean mess. Therefore the JVP might poll much less than expected this time. It could be even less than half of what they polled in 2018. But I have Anura’s name also here as he might be the only candidate who will not lose his deposit with the probable exception of Hisbulla, and Sivagilingam both of whom may save their deposits if extremist Tamils and Muslims in the North and East decide to vote them on communal grounds.

I do not want to waste valuable news site space and my reader’s precious time and my own time on other candidates as they all will forfeit their deposits and end up only as also ran candidates”.

Every vote cast on any one of these 32 is a national crime and every vote cast on Sajit and Anura this time will be a vote against the Sinhala nation, a vote against the country and a vote against the Saasana.

               One last word for Buddhist monks in this country and even Catholics, Hindu Priest and Muslim religious dignitaries. Every vote cast for UNP and JVP is a vote against the religion as both these Parties stand for a secular State. Professor K.M.De Silva, in his latest book D.S. The First Prime Minister of Ceylon (1884-1952) has said even D.S. Senanayaka, the Father of the UNP has refused to get religion involved in the affairs of the State when some Buddhist delegates headed by Buddhist Monks requested him to give the foremost place to Buddhism as it had been the tradition from the inception of history in this country. This clearly shows the attitude of the UNP to Buddhism in this country.

All Buddhist Monks I think should seriously keep this in mind when they vote a UNP candidate or get on a stage to ask the people to vote a UNP candidate. How can any Buddhist priest wearing the Buddha’s Robe on earth, under these circumstances ask a Sinhala Buddhist to vote a die-hard  UNP candidate at any election?

If you want to feel that you have voted to save the Sinhala nation, Sambuddha Saasanaya and the 2500 year old Sinhala Desaya, vote for Gothabhaya, assuming that he is de facto incarnation of Gothabhaya, the warrior who helped Dutugemunu to liberate this Island Nation in the 2^nd century B.C.in the war against Mighty Elara, the South Indian Invader who ruled the North for 44 years. Also remember he is the man who executed the war against the LTTE, which the whole world thought un-winnable.

 So I plead the whole nation to vote Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to save this country, the Sinhala nation, and the Sambuddha Sasana and our 2500-year-old Great heritage in this country

My above conclusions are based on the following six premises

1 Going by the 2018 Local Government election results

2 An opinion survey conducted by telephone calls and personal interaction

3 Random analyses of election meetings, press reports and speeches of the three candidates by self.

4 Past Presidential election results and

5. The general antipathy of people towards party politics and politicians in this country

6 my own understanding and conviction on Sri Lankan politics

RT

Russia still cannot verify Washington’s claims about the elimination of the Islamic State leader, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the US facilitated the rise of the group in the first place.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the (now former) leader of the notorious terrorist group Islamic State  (IS, formerly ISIS) is or was if he is really dead a spawn of the United States,” the minister told the Russian Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

ISIS as such came into existence in the wake of the US illegal invasion of Iraq, the collapse of the Iraqi state and the release of extremists that Americans previously kept in prisons there…”

So, to a certain degree, the Americans have now eliminated their own spawn, if it did happen.

ALSO ON RT.COMUS smuggles crude worth $30mn per month from occupied Syrian oil fields, violating its own sanctions – Russian Foreign Ministry

Lavrov also said that the Russian military still do not have enough information to confirm with confidence that the self-proclaimed ‘Caliph’ is indeed dead. We want to get additional information,” he said.

It was all stated triumphantly and jubilantly. Yet, our military still study the issue and … cannot confirm many US statements so far.

US President Donald Trump pompously announced American special forces neutralized the terrorist leader in a daring night-time raid” in northwest Syria, yet, his statement was met with skepticism by many. While the Pentagon released drone footage of the raid, it offered little proof regarding the terrorist leader’s demise itself. His mutilated body, found under the rubble of a collapsed tunnel, was allegedly buried at sea, but evidence for this assertion, too, essentially remains classified.

READ MORE: Pentagon declassifies al-Baghdadi raid VIDEO & DETAILS, confirms ISIS leader’s mutilated body buried at sea

Earlier, Syrian President Bashar Assad also expressed his doubts about the fate of the notorious terrorist and said that Washington could recreate him under a different name, as a different individual,” also suggesting the Americans could reproduce ISIS in its entirety,” possibly under a different name but with the same thought and the same purpose.”ALSO ON RT.COM‘Americans will RESPAWN al-Baghdadi’: Assad casts doubt on ISIS leader’s death, draws parallels with Bin Laden’s killing

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA.

As regards move by a foreign servile and shameless UNP government to sign the reprehensive MCC agreement before the presidential election a fundamental rights violation case has been filed in the Supreme Cou Court demanding to issue an interim order to prevent the signing of this agreement of pawning Sri Lanka to America for 200  years until after the election. The government has become convinced of the imminent defeat of their sanitary pad (feminine napkin) candidate is trying to expedite this horrendous agreement to make a future government of Sri Lanka (Gota-Mahinda government) bound to implement this agreement.  The son of Kaanu Kataa sanitary pad candidate in his manifesto released yesterday (Oct. 31st) has pledged that this agreement will be fully honored, the despicable UNHRC resolution No. 30/1 will be fully implemented, and the devolution demands will be granted on a priority basis.

So, accordingly Sri Lanka’s North will be for Tamil terrorists, Trincomalee-C corridor will be for Americans and the South will be for Sinhalese. In reality, a person in the South including Batticaloa will be compelled to obtain visas to cross the Trnco-Colombo corridor from the American authority stationed there and from the Northern government to enter that territory.  The procedure will be the same for a man in Jaffna to visit Colombo or any other place in the South and it will prevail for the next 200 years or more subject to an extension. So, there is every possibility that Nagadeepa will be a memory of the past for Southerners and the Kovilsin Kataragama, Colombomay become a single territory with the blessings of India and theUnited States and may be named as adhering to the same culture  be asked by every Sri Lankan is what nationality our children of the future generations will have.

In the case of North with making the Palaly an international airport and South Indian fishermen getting full immunity the North and Tamil Nadu will eventually become a single territory speaking the same language and adhering to the same culture and religion and by the passage of time, with the blessings of the Indian government and the Americans will become a single entity called Tamil Desam instead of Northern Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

The opposition is mounting throughout Sri Lanka from people of all walks of life since last Tuesday (29th September) when a forced cabinet approval was obtained for signing the agreement despite stern objection from the President.  Yesterday the President, consequent to a protest delegation of opposition MPs which met him, has requested Finance minister Mangala Samaraweera to suspend the signing of the agreement for which the foreign slavish quisling Samaraweera has responded saying that the agreement was drafted with consent of the Attorney General and it will be presented to Parliament for approval after its signing. This stupid minister who was also functioned as Foreign Minister must be thinking that signing of agreements with foreign countries, and that also with the United States, is like something in the market that can be returned if not required.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral the United States Foreign Aid Agency established by the United States Congress in 2004, applying a new philosophy towards foreign aid. It provides time-limited grants and assistance to developing countries that meet the rigorous standards for fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights. It is reported that the MCC undertook a “constraints to economic growth analysis” in the year 2016 and subsequently decided to focus on the land and transport sectors, which were identified as binding constraints to growth. The constraints analysis concluded that traffic congestion in the Colombo Metropolitan Region, poor transport connectivity between Provinces, and weakness in land administration constrain economic growth. Accordingly, the MCC agreed to grant USD 480 million for financing the above projects.

Final negotiations on the Compact were conducted in October 2018 between the MCC and a Cabinet approved GoSL delegation which consisted of officials from the relevant Ministries and Government Agencies for implementing the selected projects including a representative from the Attorney General’s Department.

The whole process and the final Agreements were done under the guidance of the Attorney General and well within the legal framework. The Attorney General is in the opinion that Agreements are in order and there exists no legal impediment to executing same. A Cabinet Memorandum along with the final drafts of the Agreements was submitted on 31.05.2019 to the Cabinet of Ministers. The Cabinet appointed a committee for further discussions of the matters in detail. And subsequently, the Ministry of Finance submitted the Cabinet Memorandum dated 05.07.2019 seeking the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers for signing the Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement. The Cabinet of Ministers has granted its approval for signing above Agreements on 29.10.2019.

The Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement will be submitted to and enacted by Parliament of Sri Lanka once it is signed and before its entry into force and will be published in the Government Gazette before submitted to Parliament. With all these exercises how can one expect that America which had been insisting for the signing of this agreement will just simply roll it back with all their strategic contours attached to it.

Protests against the MCC agreement and demand for abandoning it without signing are mounting throughout the country.  It has been pointed out that Sri Lanka will lose 15 million acres of land to American control for 200 years.

Several Muslim Mawlavis and religious leaders have condemned this agreement saying that it would divide the Muslim community into three segments such as Northern Muslims, American Muslims, and Southern Muslims and have said that through this several prominent mosques including the Grand Mosque in Colombo and the Muslims of Colombo and several other important places like Muttur, Kinniya and Trincomalee will become subjected to American domination. They have condemned nominal Muslim Ministers such as Rauf Hakeem Kabir Hashim, Eishad Bathiudeen and other Muslim parliamentarians in the government to wake up from their slumber and oppose the agreement and asked whether they have bartered the community in this instance as well as they have done on many issues to fain personal largesse.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has also urged the government not to go ahead with the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement without fully examining the proposed pact.

The following is the full text of the letter issued by BASL President Kalinga Indatissa, PC:

“The Bar Association of Sri Lanka views with grave concern the news item pertaining to the Cabinet paper seeking approval for the entering into of the MCC agreement.

“Despite news reports seeking to assure the public of the benign nature of the said agreement, the draft that was previously made available to us had a multitude of disadvantageous clauses for Sri Lanka. The BASL as a responsible organization took a lot of time to study the proposed MCC and submitted a detailed report. The BASL outlined the grave consequences that Sri Lanka would face as an independent and sovereign State in the event the GOSL proceeded to sign the MCC in that form.

The proposed MCC as it stood then contained many issues of a very grave nature, as explained by us to the Honourable Prime Minister in writing, which we now disclose to the public to make their own observations. In fact, on 5/8/2019, the BASL received a letter of the Hon. Prime Minister thanking us for our efforts.

“We take this step as a responsible Association as the assurance given to us previously by the Government not to take any step towards signing the agreement without amendment and making a full disclosure of the contents to the public after obtaining our views has not been honoured.

“It is our belief that the draft proposals should be made available for Democratic debate before committing the Country to honour an agreement which only a privileged few have been privy to according to these newspaper reports. In the past, these have been instances where the country and the people had to face the consequences where the respective Governments of the day proceeded to enter upon agreements without educating the public about the contents.

“In such circumstances, the BASL holds the view that the MCC agreement should not be signed without providing an opportunity to the people to understand the true nature of the agreement.

“Therefore, we urge the Government not to proceed with the proposed agreement whatever compelling short-term economic reasons there may be without honouring its commitment made to us which we accepted in good faith.”

There were two investigative articles published in the news website Lankaweb on 16th and 117th September 2019 related to the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) by an Indian journalist named Sarojini Dutt.  The title of the articles was When does a Gift Horse becomes a Trojan Horse?” Certain extracts from these articles are reproduced herewith:

Jenner Edelman, the new Country Director of the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), had egg on her face when she was caught red-handed dishing-out fake news during a series of public presentations in Sri Lanka.

The MCC had acquired a malevolent reputation in Sri Lanka and the US was hellbent on whitewashing that image. Edelman embarked on a laundering campaign conducting a series of public presentations and artfully placed newspaper articles scripted by large US Corporate-funded organizations like Advocata.

Razeen Sally, a member of a secret and subversive organization – The Mont Pelerin Society that is dedicated to destroying universal franchise and democracy -dutifully sang for his supper as instructed.

However, anger against the MCC  has been  snowballing and the Sri Lankan people are now demanding that any Presidential hopeful seeking their vote should publicly affirm before a Maha Sangha Council that he/she would not sign the MCC Agreement or any other similar Agreement, and that if such agreements, laws or Treaties have already been signed he/she would repeal such Agreements, Laws, and Treaties when elected to office; furthermore, the people are demanding that the Presidential hopefuls make this the foremost statement, unambiguously, in their Manifesto.

It appears that the objective of Edelman’s programme, besides whitewashing the MCC, is to take the MCC off the political agenda at the forthcoming election campaign.

When Edelman was caught out being untruthful and metaphorically with her pants down, critics were quick to pounce on her ham-handed deception, pithily describing her conduct as America’s ‘Millennium-Gate’ scandal.

Many in Sri Lanka have accused the MCC of subversion and of spearheading an alleged US military thrust into Sri Lanka; this campaign, people say, is in consonance with America’s much-trumpeted, and bi-partisan, foreign policy doctrine of ‘Pivoting-to-Asia’ pronounced officially by Obama in 2012.

In all their presentations and contrived newspaper articles, Edelman and her assistant projected the MCC as an altruistic organisation, playing ‘Santa-Claus’ to the most poverty-stricken countries of the world and, making the poor in those countries rich.

Edelman went on to suggest that the MCC was created by Washington as a philanthropic arm of the US and not a tool of US foreign policy; she said that if Sri Lanka is not interested in America’s benefaction, the US would take their ‘gift’ to a more appreciative and grateful country.

Having said that, Edelman in the next breath did a positional pirouette;  rather sternly, she said, We are determined that Sri Lanka shall accept our ‘gift’; we shall sign the agreement before 17 Sep 19; if the people do not like it, the President, they elect, can annul the Compact at that time”.

Edelman then went on to say, The MCC has been maligned by much fake news. There are no electrified railway lines and there is no special economic Corridor running from Colombo to Trincomalee; everything is done by the MCC is what the Sri Lanka Government wants”.

How complying with MCC conditions would  result in Sri Lanka gifting the entire country on a platter to the US forever, is dealt with further down this piece 

What is one word for an agreement where one party to an Agreement has to fulfill his part of the Contract before the Contract is signed and, where the other party fulfills his part of the Contract only after the contract is signed? That word is, ‘MCC-Compact’.

Controverting Edelman who said that the ‘gift’ is unconditional another page of the MCC document was shown

The conditions imposed on Sri Lanka by the MCC are: All-State Lands to be mapped out; All-State Lands to be inventoried; a parcel fabric of all State Lands to be prepared; The Land Registry to be converted from the Deed system to the Title Registration system; the Land Registry Records to be Digitalised; a– new system of Land valuation to be introduced; All government Grants (of Land) to be  Registered;A Land Policy Body to be Established; pass new laws that support reforms under the Title system.

Sri Lanka has done nearly ¾ of what MCC wants Sri Lanka to do; only about a quarter remains to be done. From Sri Lanka’s perspective, there is now hardly any requirement to sign an ‘Agreement’ Document as most of what the US wanted Sri Lanka to do, has been done; from the US perspective, the balance quarter must mandatorily be complied with if the MCC is to part with the money promised.

The Americans are laughing all the way.

All-State Lands have been mapped out, inventoried and a parcel fabric of State Lands done. The and Registry has been converted from a Deed System to a Title Registration system (this is the ‘Bim Saviya’ Act that was passed in 1998 by Kumaranatunge, a member of another secret subversive organisation of the Whites – the Club of Madrid – dedicated to breaking up Sri Lanka and the other Nation States).

With Sri Lanka responding subserviently to the crack of the MCC whip, MCC requires Sri Lanka to digitalize the Land Registry, establish a new system of Land valuation, register all Government Land grants, establish a Land Policy Body and pass new laws that would support Land Reforms under the Title System.

On these conditions which MCC requires Sri Lanka to act on and which remain to be completed, Sri Lanka has already taken the initiative to have them implemented.

To digitalise the Land Registry, the US advertised in the local newspapers and selected a Sri Lankan contractor, Harin Gunawardena, to do the job of establishing the infrastructure for digitalising the Land Registry, under US instructions. The Registrar General of Lands, Gunasekera, and the Surveyor-General, Udayakantha, devotedly permitted the Americans to access to their offices and work on the process of digitalising the Register. The process is underway, with American input, unsupervised.

A similar situation exists in the Valuation department.

Gunasekera, Udayakantha and their successors are put on notice; they could, however, redeem themselves by assisting the State.

The double-speak of the Americans is quite evident. In their ‘Constraints’ analysis, a primary concern of the Americans is their inability to access and buy-up land in Sri Lanka.

Hence most, if not all, of the conditions laid down by the MCC for Sri Lanka to comply with, is to give the Americans easy access to buy-up or lease land in Sri Lanka.

What then is the motive of the MCC compact? The objective of the MCC is to create the necessary conditions in Sri Lanka to enable the United States to buy up Sri Lanka for a song.

Where then is the double-speak? The MCC tells Sri Lanka (and other poor nations) that they are here to alleviate poverty. If they have access to Sri Lanka’s land and buy up the land of the poverty-stricken farmer, the MCC does not alleviate poverty, they only aggravate poverty.

The MCC slogan, ‘alleviating poverty’, is a good sell; poor countries, because of their poverty, are vulnerable, malleable, and susceptible to economic blackmail; for example, ‘if you do not conform to our conditions, we take our ‘gift’ and go to a more appreciative country who would conform’.

Yes, there are many poor countries in the world; and the world today is a predator’s market for land-grabs. It could be argued that what motivates MCC is not altruism but naked self-interest.

In the last 70 years Sri Lanka has been able to maintain sovereignty of her land, not through an Army that would deter foreign aggression, but with Buddhism, a deeply engrained culture, a supportive Constitution, an incorruptible judiciary, legislature and Administration and, an Army that is excellently capable of dealing with the internal proxies of foreign military powers.

Consequently, the people of the country own 84% of the land.

Politicians, elected by the people, are only the temporary custodians of that land; they have been delegated the people’s authority to protect the sovereignty of that land and to preserve the fundamental rights of the unborn generations.

To deprive the people of Sri Lanka sovereignty over their land the foreign aggressor has to attack, Buddhism, Sri Lanka’s culture, Sri Lanka’s Army, Sri Lanka’s supportive Constitution, and the incorruptibility of  Sri Lanka’s judiciary, legislation, and administration.

The attack has begun and the attack is on all fronts. The MCC is an integral part of that attack.

The Corridor from Trincomalee to Colombo is mostly government land given on lease to farmers. One of the conditions laid out by the MCC is to register all Land grants.

Why has the MCC included this condition?

Until about three years ago no foreigner could own land in Sri Lanka. But Wickramasinghe enabled foreigners to own land in the country. However, this is restricted to the 14% of private land available in the market and that too is restricted by extent, to a limit of 50 acres.

The rest of the country’s land, an 84%, is not available for sale; it is only available for lease, only if the temporary custodian of the land, the President, deems it fit to be leased.

This 84% of Sri Lanka’s land is under the protective hand of the President of the country despite amendments to the Constitution and despite interpretation of the amendments being challenged in the Supreme Court of law.

How could America’s impediment to access 84% of Sri Lanka’s land, as a result of the President’s power, be overcome and how could these powers be devolved to the provinces as is the demand of the TNA?  

How could this ‘restriction’ on this 84% of the land is available only for lease and not for sale be removed and such land be made available for outright private sale?

How could the limitation of ownership of land to a maximum of 50 acres be done away with?   

This is where the MCC, Wickramasinghe, and Sirisena have colluded.

Wickramasinghe promised the issue of a million deeds to farmers who already have lease ownership to those lands; he and his hirelings have begun issuing deeds for these lands. 

Sirisena placed the Presidential seal on each one of those million deeds issued, as is mandated by law. 

The MCC has made it one of their mandatory conditions that all Land grants be registered under the Title system;

In short, by issuing a million Land Grants to the farmers, the land has been privatised; by the land being privatised, the power to deal with those lands has been devolved to the respective provincial councils along the MCC Corridor. The issue of  land grants, therefore, is not to alleviate  poverty, as is proclaimed, but a necessary ‘precedent’ condition – a condition that has to be met before the MCC donates its ‘gift’ –  that would enable the Americans to buy up land while satisfying  the Eelamists demand for power over ‘land’.

With the MCC electric railway barrier dividing the North from the South, with the Americans controlling the Corridor from Trinco to Colombo and having the ability to hinder movement of the military between the North and the South, with Land power devolved to the provinces, the separatists have got what the American-backed terrorists fought for before they were wiped out at Nandikadal; Eelam.

The farmers are poor not because of a lack of land; they are poor because they do not obtain, at the appropriate time, the fundamentals necessary for farming, such as seed, water, fertilizer, warehouse facilities for their harvest, markets, price, etc.

Since the farmers continue to be poor, they are encouraged to sell their land (for which they now have deeds) or mortgage their land with lending institutions; when the farmers default on their mortgages the lending institutions would seize the properties mortgaged with them, and sell these properties.

And this is exactly what the MCC wants and that is why the MCC requires, as a precondition, ‘the registration of land grants under the title system’. The MCC would buy all this land for a song.

When land deeds are given to farmers, these lands now become private land; no longer do these lands come under the control of the President (or the Centre); all land powers to these million deeds issued are devolved to the respective provinces.

The Corridor from Trinco to Colombo, approximately 1.2 million acres of land, is replete with Phosphate, Ilmenite, Monazite, Thorium – a nuclear fuel like uranium – and other precious and rare metals. 

Issuing of a million Deeds – viz a million Land Grants – has removed the restriction on Government lands being available only for lease; these lands are now available for sale, as required by the MCC.

A geopolitical analysis suggests that the US wishes to occupy Sri Lanka and that they propose to do so by buying out the country; they are restricted in a way that there is a limitation on ownership of land by an individual to a maximum of 50 acres.

This restriction and many other restrictions to America’s easy access to buy Sri Lankan Land have been done away with, in the draft laws prepared by the MCC, unknown to the Sri Lankan public.

The MCC has been cajoling the Government to sign the MCC agreement before 17 Sep 19. Wickramasinghe, Sirisena, the MCC and others are put on notice that they would be in contempt of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court should they sign the MCC Agreement before the Supreme Court give its determination on the plaint filed regarding the constitutionality of the  Land  (Special Provisions) Bill.

The member of the audience who publicly challenged Edelman for being economical with the truth indicated another pernicious issue in the MCC Plan put out by the MCC; he said that the MCC was planning to set up a Land Policy Body which would be the cardinal authority on Land Policy in the country.

This Policy body is empowered to override any decision relating to land made by the Government which is the denouement of Sri Lankan people’s sovereignty and democracy.

And in this policy body are entrenched the Americans and the NGOs, the paid hirelings of the Americans. When Edelman denied this allegation, this individual calmly pointed to the ‘Conditions Precedent for MCC Land Investment’ where the establishment of a Land Policy Body is one of the conditions that should be done before the MCC ‘gift’ can be given. 

Then turning to another page in the document in his hand, he showed a wiring diagram of this supreme Land Policy making body, as portrayed by the MCC. 

At the apex is the MCC and subordinate to it is the Land Policy Research Council and further below is the Land Policy Office of the Ministry of Lands!

With a very strong possibility of, an Eelam,  a terrorist caliphate in the East (see MCC map), Americans in control of the entire island, of the littoral states in the Bay of Bengal and the Bay being destabilised by the caliphate terrorists,  Sirisena, Wickramasinghe and the entire cabinet (collective responsibility)  and are put on notice.  

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy  Asian Tribune

Both presidential candidates Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa had pledged to protect the unitary status of the country. With both making the same promise, the challenge is before the voter as to which candidate to vote for, when both are pledging the same.Gotabaya Rajapaksa – had actually taken the initiative, worked hard, even at personal risk, to ensure that the country remains as a whole than a fragmented uni

As it is easy to make any promise, the voter must turn his attention to the course of action and stance the candidate has taken to fulfill his pledge. The voter must also take a closer look at the candidate’s team to understand whether the candidate may rely on his team to support him to fulfill his pledge.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the first to understand the implications of the Geneva Resolution 30/1, which was co-sponsored by the Yahapalana Government. He was able to do so because by that time he had already formed Sri Lanka’s very first think tank, Viyathmaga. As an organization Viyathmaga in 2015 was in its infancy. Yet, because of the caliber of professionals that gathered at this forum from the beginning, the contents of the Geneva Resolution 30/1 was well analyzed.

The very next year, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera was appointed as an envoy of the Sri Lankan people. He went to Geneva armed with facts and figures that easily refutes the absurd allegations made in the Resolution. It was a very odd experience indeed for a single citizen was doing the work that ought to have been done by the Sri Lankan Government. This lone individual’s only support was GR.

As is evident from the documented interpretations of Sri Lanka’s events from persons such as former American ambassador Teresita C Schaffer and Ryan Goodman, GR had been identified as a political threat even before the ahapalana Government was formed. Even as early as January 2015, GR was considered a serious obstacle in reaping the return of America’s investment from toppling a strong nationalistic Government to installing a weak government.

The solution envisaged was to remove GR from the political arena by implicating him of various crimes. Right on cue, the Yahapalana Government tried their level best to implicate him into various crimes. Even after four years however, the Yahapalana Government has not been able to achieve their objective.

In fact, the more the Yahapalana Government tried to persecute GR, he more strengthened he became politically. However, the fact that theYahapalana Government’s plan to neutralize GR backfired on the Yahapalana Government is visible now, it is very much news on hindsight. At the time, the pressure exerted especially via the newly and illegally formed FCID was immense. Entire military units were taken in for questioning. Even their families were pressurized to name GR as the point of command over various allegations.

A lessor man would have tried to stay invisible from the Government’s radar. He certainly would not have challenged the Government’s decisions. GR however grabbed the Geneva Resolution by the horns and spearheaded the challenge.

The Yahapalana Government scurried to establish the Office of Missing Persons when the then UNHRC High Commissioner Zeid Hussein threw a tantrum. Yet, the OMP still could not unleash its maximum power because GR’s team worked tirelessly to educate the clergy and the masses. By this time, GR had also founded Eliya – an awareness creating body that addresses these issues, simplifying technical details so that it is comprehensible to the ordinary man.

As the ordinary man became familiarized with the facts, its implications and the interest of those who are pushing to enact these highly detrimental agreements, the YahapalanaGovernment stood exposed. A favorite trick of the Yahapalana Government is to create a distraction and to use that moment of confusion to push through unpopular or unacceptable bills.

Yet, as Eliya locked its focus on the issue, the Yahapalana Government was unable to utilize their trick to the fullest extent. As a result, this Government’s efforts to create nine semi-autonomous governments with a very weak central government was negated. Therefore, no one can dispute that GR played a pivotal role to safeguard the unitary status of our country. He did so while being out of power and while being persecuted by the Government that was intent on neutralizing him by putting him behind bars.

During this entire episode, Premadasa was (and still is) a powerful cabinet minister. He is also the deputy leader of the ruling political party UNP. Yet, he silently allowed legitimacy to the Geneva Resolution 30/1 despite,

– Resolution was brought against Sri Lanka

– it was co sponsored without the knowledge or sanction of the cabinet

– if the conditions of the Resolution is completely fulfilled, it will push Sri Lanka to having a weak government and a weak security force

– the Resolution cannot be co-sponsored as it is unconstitutional

– Mangala Samaraweera who signed the co-sponsorship in effect gives a commitment to the UN on behalf of the Parliament. However, Samaraweera placed his signature to the co-sponsorship as the minister for foreign affairs. He was thus acting in the capacity of the executive. Yet, he gave a commitment on behalf of the Parliament, which is the legislature. This is not possible because the Executive and the Legislature are independent bodies

– as a member of the cabinet, Premadasa cannot escape from the sins of the Resolution and is also liable for collective responsibility.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa comes forward as the presidential candidate backed by an entire team that had stood and worked against the Geneva Resolution 30/1.

Sajith Premadasa on the other hand is backed by the very team that allowed and justified the Resolution. Both candidates may pledge to safeguard the unitary status of our country.

However, only one – Gotabaya Rajapaksa – had actually taken the initiative, worked hard, even at personal risk, to ensure that the country remains as a whole than a fragmented unit.

C. Wijeyawickrema

Everybody knew about RP’s affinity for Malayalam witchcraft, black magic oils, etc. but who could have guessed that he was also an admirer of Hitler. Ex-CCS officer cum minister Sarath Amunugama had known this since 1968 according to a short note that I accidentally came across when surfing the Internet.  Appended below is that note copied from the website, Colombo Telegraph. Our knowledge about a person depends on the quantity and quality of information we have about him/her. Without reliable information, it is GIGO, garbage in and garbages out. For a book chapter that I am engaged in, titled, sins and crimes of Sri Lankan PMs and Ps, I have a long section on R Premadasa, and I have decided to release some of it in this short essay for one important reason. RP’s words and actions make one wonder whether as a politician he struggled with an unbalanced mind, and I find his son, a presidential candidate, exhibits at least some traits that his father then possessed. To add insult to injury the son says at election rallies that his strength is his father’s work and vision and that he will follow his father’s political path. In a separate essay, I plan to compare Sajith with Gota and one or two other Vikalpa candidates.

The King of Seetawaka, Rajasinghe I, came under the spell of Malayali gurus and destroyed Buddhist temples. According to H.L.Seneviratne, RP built more Viharas (10-15?) than any other king in Sinhale. Now, Sajith plans to build over 1000 Viharas. Sri Lankan PMs and Ps, except perhaps, D.B. Wijetunga had been mixed bags of good and bad.  As Panchaskandas full of Lobha-Dwesa-Moha, each one has had his/her own share of baggage, hence RP is not unique at all in his anti-national deeds. However, of these politicians, starting with DSS, the worst culprit was RP. All politicians, including Ranil, Mahinda and Sirisena went to South Indian Kovils, but RP’s case is one of going to the extreme and one of confusion: building viharas left and right and hosting Malayalam Gurus and letting his goons to force monks to attend his meetings/functions.

Like any other human being, a PM or a P must be judged by his/her character and not by personality. Whether the person is honest, sincere, ethical, moral and unselfish about the nation’s long-term survival and prosperity, and not whether his nose is long or short, voice is coarse, or a good public speaker, ought to be the criteria of quality of a genuine ruler. Compare, for example, the election stage talks these days of Hirunika, Ranjan Ramanayaka, Vijithamuni Zoysa, Sujeeva Serasinghe, Mervyn Silva or the monk Dambara Amila with the so-called ‘uneducated’ Paba when she was an MP of the Gampaha District. She was so innocent, exuberating her quality upbringing as a descent child. Even Sarath Fonseka and Fowzie talk about killing the opposition candidate, without any reprimand from either Sajith or Ranil.

JRJ used Prof. W.S. Karunaratne and RP for his 1977 election and he had no choice but to give PM’s job to RP. It was even more revolutionary than the 1956 silent revolution, and JRJ mentioned about RP’s caste indirectly at his Dalada Maligava maiden speech. The problem was that RP could not overcome his own inferiority complex even after he became P. As if it was telepathy, Sajith now speaks of his superiority complex at election rallies, not realizing that one who speaks of superiority has inbuilt inferiority. Contrary to what Sirisena Cooray reveals now, RP used thuggery to dissuade JRJ from seeking a third term. Finally, JRJ did not attend RP’s tragic funeral. His affair with Dudley was more dramatic. It was a case of baby snakes fed with milk. Dudley went to the extent of giving a portion of his ancestral Woodlands land to the RP family and built a house. Yet, RP was so ungrateful, arguing with Dudley in writing in public, while Dudley was in the hospital. As a heart patient, Dudley was prevented from reading the newspaper replies from RP. This treatment by RP was considered as a reason for aggravating D’s health condition, and not surprisingly RP had a hard time getting permission to see the coffin.

Only a Hitler-worshipping type of man can be this cruel with those who gave him a helping hand. RP used Premadasa Udugampola to kill JVPers but then Udugampola had to hide and run to India to escape from RP’s goons. I know personally that Prof. Tilak Rathnakara who helped RP tremendously to grow-up had to leave the country in fear of death! Then at the funeral, he came to shed crocodile tears before the widow!  Once when Felix Dias came to RP’s office asking some minor help, he was treated like a dog. One can gauge one’s honesty and character traits with one or two incidents without a long list.

I first came to know about him when newspapers reported that he said at an election rally that PM’s chair will have to be washed monthly if the widow Mrs. B becomes PM. Now repeating history, his son says sanitary pads for women is a national problem that deserves priority attention! Yes, AnuraB insulted him saying that he was selling lavaria (sweetened rolled string hoppers) on Panchikawatte streets, but it is on record in the Hansard that RP brought the name of Duncan de Alwis, SWRD’s private secretary to the debate. UNP election rallies use more filth, perhaps in desperation because of a sure election defeat, not realizing that such behavior is an insult to the listening public and our culture.

Another incident that I know personally is how RP got officers to move out of government houses in Colombo 7, to be sold later at exorbitant prices. One such officer got a call from RP’s secretary K H J Wijedasa, asking him when he was going to move out, warning that Lokka (RP) is angry about the delay. The officer refused to vacate. A monk living in Texas tole me how monks were forced to attend RP’s various functions, and he once attended a meeting because RP’s goons threated to white van him if he refused.

A family I know living in Wellawatte who had a group photograph with faces of almost all the PMs before RP. One day RP borrowed this photo and the daughter of the mother who was also in the picture, who told this story to me when she was visiting the USA was puzzled when I asked her why RP did that. My wife told me that her brother and others went home from their youth society meeting at Pita Kotte, to change their trousers and come back wearing sarongs after RP gave a speech. This was during the 1950s-1906s. But this same RP made government officers wear ties during office work as a mark to separately identify them from civilians. When RP said that he can write the Budget on a bus ticket and that he wanted baas and not engineers, there was some truth hidden behind such statements, a mind of a young man saturated with nationalism. A. E. Gunasinghe, a labor leader was his teacher. From my discussions with a close original Colombo 7 lady friend, I gathered the idea that the Colombo 7 crowd and the black-white establishment did not respect RP and even ridiculed him behind his back. I suspect RP himself felt this and reacted despising them as well as by placating them. Who knows, getting Col. 7 govt officer bungalows and selling them could have been money-making as well as a revenge tactic.

The trio, RP, Wijeweera, and Prabhakaran marked a sad interlude in the country’s history. His suffering under caste prejudice by the Federal Party leadership created a cruel Prabhakaran. Wijeweera’s support base was the so-called low caste village youth. A. E. Gunasinhge’s daughters had a hard time getting married, because of caste conflicts. When we think of it, since the 1930s, when Govigama and Karawa castes controlled/dominated public politics, lower castes gravitated toward leftist/Marxist names. In 1935 LSSP opened-up an opportunity for them. In 1952 SLFP performed better than UNP in this regard. It is amazing how under the new election laws this- now you see, now you don’t- caste card is operating at the local-village-town level.

To my knowledge, Dayan Jayatilaka and Imthiaz Bakeer Markar are the only two individuals who praise RP as a political-administrative genius. To me, a ruler, who lived alone with his loyal driver Mohideen in a lonely house, waking-up his married officers calling them at 4 A.M. was a Hitlerian act. My relative told me that RP’s Gam Udava, in most cases ended as a waste, disturbing the life and ecology of an already surviving locality, resulting in clock towers rusting and broken. This reminds me of how he sent masons to a suburb in London to build a Vihara, which became dilapidated in no time due to weather and climate conditions there. Gam Udava was used by the evangelical missionaries to distribute truckloads of bibles to villagers shipped from abroad. Sajith is accused of selecting Buddhist archaeological sites (e.g. Vijithapura) and ecologically sensitive locations for his one and only project of creating new villages with funny names. And, the houses apparently are not free, but on housing loans.

After RP’s death questions arose about where he studied in Colombo and what grade he passed. Did he attend St. Joseph College or some other school? His opponents called his government the clique of the seven (seven men with grade seven). Interestingly this kind of question did not arise with DSS or Mrs. B, because they did not disrespect educated people. Sajith got into a similar problem with regard to his basic education due to the fact that he bragged about his LSE education. Speaking in English after a foreign stay does not make one a degreed person after hard work. Mrs. CBK also had this problem with her higher educational qualification during her stay in France. Some people are simply not O.L. or A.L. material and do not have to worry about higher educational qualifications.

I mentioned these aspects of RP’s life characteristics so that it helps one to gauge his mental state before and after he became president. One last information I have is what the late PM/President D. B. Wijetunga told his close relative when they were residing at the Temple Trees. After RP’s demise, ballot boxes full of money were taken out of his Sucharitha home/office, and Sirisena Cooray ought to be the person who knew where they were taken.  After all, it was SC, who got Somawansa Amarasinghe out of the country when Wijeweera was captured. Mulgirigala rock temple picture missing from the Queen’s House was found at an auction in London and RP’s son-in-law was the suspect. His daughter was caught in an illegal money printing case and MahindaR gave her protection. How RP who began as a patriotic young man well versed in Buddhism left this world leaving his widow and daughter who became evangelical Christians and then Sajith with a Christian spouse visiting a church at Kirulapona on a regular basis is a relevant public issue, because Like RP, Sajith is also too much into saving or decorating Buddhism.

Everybody is barking at Arjuna Mahendran and RanilW for robbing the Central Bank, but nobody knows that Pakaralingam is with Ranil since 2015. Paskaralingam was RP’s link to Prabakaran, and he pumped, information, money, and material to the LTTE until the day of RP’s demise. The next day itself Paskaralingam escaped and joined the tiger crowd in Australia. Apparently, like RP, RanilW is so attached to Paskaralingam.  What this means is that if Sajith becomes president because of the very bad karma of Sri Lanka, just by saying Sir and Sir, Paskaralingam will have two servants, not two masters.

Just think of the harm done to Sri Lanka by RP with Paskaralingam sitting next to him or under his table to display his fake loyalty.

1. He betrayed the Sinhala people by agreeing with Asroff to reduce the district voting cut-off point from 12 to 5%. This was done in a Hitlarian manner just two days before the 1988 presidential election to get Asroff’s support. Then, since 1994, Sinhala politicians became dog tails of Muslim MPs.
2. He secretly gave arms, materials, and money to Prabakaran to fight against the IPKF, which were later used against the SL army by Prabakaran.
3. His decision to order the police to surrender to Prabakan resulted in the cold-blooded massacre of 600+ police/army personnel.
4. His decision to increase the number of GSN units from 4,000 to 14,000 without any scientific basis created an army of grama sevaka niladharees without any basic education but UNP goons in villages.

Hitler was wiser in his statecraft, but RP could not handle wisely at least a man from his social class, Wijeweera. The IPKF left Sri Lanka not because of RP’s demand but the Indian government could not control Tamilnad state training and nursing tigers wounded in fighting against IPKF in Jaffna. After treatment in Tamilnad hospitals they returned and fought again! Therefore, trapped in its own political game, a weak Delhi govt decided finally to withdraw after heavy loses. In the meantime, RP watched in agony how his blind faith in Balasingham and Co. made him literally, a prisoner of war. The story was that he asked Wijedasa to help him to come out of the mess. It was a tragic saga. If Mohideen, his life-long, loyal driver was the conduit pipe that Prabakaran used to get Babu into the business of shaving RP’s beard, one could imagine the level of dysfunction in the president’s own world.  What was so sad was the fact that when he was blasted into pieces beyond recognition, his severed head or his hand or a finger with his ring found later in a mortuary full of parts of dead human flesh, people all over the country lighted fire crackers, perhaps as revenge for the killings that took place during 1988/89 JVP revolt. In the case of Saddam Hussein and Muhammar Gaddafi it was foreign manipulation.

RP lived with insecurity, fearing if a potential rival would emerge. He suspected Sarvodaya Ariyaratne and appointed an NGO commission to silence him. He was afraid of Denzil Kobbekaduwa’s popularity and the threat of Athulath Mudali-Navin Dissanayake challenge. People were not sure if tigers killed them or if tiger or JVP friends of RP did it. It is better for Sajith not to talk about his father’s legacy which is like opening a can of worms.

May 1, 2018

author: Rifat Halim

Why Did Premadasa Admire Hitler?

By Rifat Halim –

Ranasinghe Premadasa was a fascinating leader, who deserves a much better biography than the ones that Bradman Weerakoon and Evans Cooray have produced.

Premadasa, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Local Government with the Minister of Local Government Senator M Tiruchelvam QC (In the White Suit) in the Colombo Airport in 1968.

There are three questions that come to mind on his 25th death anniversary:

(1) Why did he admire Hitler?

Premadasa served as the Parliamentary Secretary (colloquially known as the Deputy Minister) to the Minister of Local Government Murugeysen Tiruchelvam QC from March 1965 to September 1968. Tiruchelvam was the Federal Parry’s nominee in Dudley Senanayake’s Cabinet. He succeeded Tiruchelvam as Minister, when the latter resigned in September 1968.

In early 1968, the Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a think tank controlled by German Social Democratic Party (SPD), invited Minister Tiruchelvam to study local government in West Germany. The Minister declined the invitation and nominated his Deputy Premadasa, Dr. Sarath Amunugama (who was then a coordinating secretary in the Ministry) and one more official. Dr. Sarath Amunugama is now a Cabinet Minister.

When they arrived in Bonn (West Germany’s capital), Premadasa asked Amunugama to purchase books on Adolf Hitler. Premadasa told Amunugama that he was a long-standing admirer of Hitler. This was the first and only time that Amunugama had met a fan of Hitler.

Amunugama had to look long and hard for books on Hitler in Bonn. The Americans had restricted all pro-Nazi literature from the bookshops. When a few books were produced, Premadasa was delighted. He exclaimed that he wished that his late mentor AE Goonesinghe (who modelled the Ceylon Labour Party on the Nazi Party) could have been in Bonn.

Former UNP MP Asoka Somaratne (who resigned after the accord) has written that Premadasa enjoyed watching Hitler’s speeches, even if he could not speak one word of German. Premadasa even adopted Hitler’s mannerisms in his own speeches.

(2) Why did he save Asia’s Hitler?

Nobody who values democracy can forgive Premadasa for giving Asia’s Hitler Velupillai Prabhakaran the lease of life during the Ali – Koti (Elephant-Lion) alliance of 1989-90. The IPKF had brought the LTTE to its knees, but Premadasa inexplicably entered into negotiations with them in April 1989.

He not only talked to the LTTE, but he armed them. Former Defense Secretary General Cyril Ranatunga has written in page 103 of his book From Peace to War, Insurgency to Terrorism that President Premadasa had decided to give arms to the LTTE”.

When the TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam was killed by the LTTE on 13th July 1989, both President Premadasa and Minister of State for Defence Ranjan Wijeratne defended the LTTE. They absolved the LTTE of any responsibility.

When Mahathaya admitted that the LTTE killed Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran in October 1989, Ranjan Wijeratne still refused to blame the LTTE.

Eventually, their Karma caught up with them. Both Ranjan Wijeratne and Ranasinghe Premadasa were killed by the same organisation that they defended.

(3) Was his success due to luck or ability?

Premadasa, the only non-Govigama leader in the country’s history, had a generous share of good fortune.

He was lucky that his Minister (Tiruchelvam) was a Senator. Only the lower house can present legislation and Premadasa presented several important bills. This meant Premadasa had a much higher profile than any other Deputy Minister. He presented the Tamil language Special Provisions bill in 1966 on behalf of his Minister. Premadasa often quipped that he (a man without formal qualifications) was representing a Queen’s Counsel.

He was lucky that Tiruchelvam resigned in September 1968, which paved the way for his entry into Cabinet.

He was lucky to hold his seat during the UNP debacle in 1970. This elevated him to the top tier in the UNP hierachy. He was lucky that the JVP disrupted the 1988 Presidential elections. Mrs. Bandaranaike would have won if the turnout was higher.

C. Wijeyawickrema

In the west, pre-marital and sex with multiple partners before or within marriage is the norm for women. In Sri Lanka and other non-western societies, girls are expected not to have sex before marriage. The situation is so bad in the USA ( I have no knowledge to say this about Canada, Europe or Australia) that if a boy or a girl is not dating he or she was considered abnormal or gay or lesbian in sexual orientation.

The video clip below shows how our Sri Lankan culture is morally and scientifically superior to western norms, embraced nowadays by the corrupted new generations especially after JRJ coming to power in 1977. Recently, I saw video clips of how Hela Veda system cures hemorrhoids with two types of oil steam, one to take the rectum out of the anus, the other to push it back inside. Another Sri Lankan and another Asian habit that received scientific validation in the west are that the commode is not the best way for bowl movement. Our method of squatting eases it and people now use a squatty potty, a bathroom toilet stool of nine inches height to keep the legs up when seated on the commode.

Those who talk about advancement and progress as imitating the western model and mega-projects ought to resurrect our thousand-year-old tools of living, such as organic farming promoted by Ven.  Atureliye Rathana. 

---

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

‘The Rajapaksas are the most closest to the Muslims among the present lot of political leaders in the country and Muslims are equally with Gotabaya Rajapaksa today, Ali Sabry PC said.

Speaking at the event ‘The Turning Point’ organised by the National Muslim Collective in Colombo on Thursday, he said the UNP or the West would never look after Muslims and that the

Sri Lankan Muslims expected stability, national security, communal harmony, progress and prosperity in the country.

We are proud Sri Lankans and that’s why we call this organisation the National Muslim Collective. First, we are Sri Lankans. We don’t want giveaways or to be in someone’s pay roll. We want to ensure the security in the country and reject extremism be it Sinhalese, Muslim or Tamil. We don’t want anything above or below the law. We want equality,” Mr. Sabry said.

He said they could not work with race or ethnic-based parties and that they had to work with national parties and the majority. That’s why 35% of Muslims are now supporting Gotabaya. Our target is to make it about 50%,” he said.

He said Gotabaya is a meritocrat who rewards ability. He will be the Lee Kuan Yew of Sri Lanka,” he said.

SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, SLPP and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, SLPP Chairman G.L. Peiris, Governor A.J.M. Muzammil, MPs Faizer Mustapha and Mahinda Amaraweera and former diplomat Razik Zarook were also present at the event.  

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa said if elected president, he would hold himself responsible for all the communities in the country and not just a single community.

He said this at the event titled, ‘The Turning Point’ which was organised by the National Muslim Collective held in Colombo Thursday night.

While inviting the people to place their trust in him, Mr. Rajapaksa said he had fulfilled the responsibilities handed over to him 100%.

I will be responsible for not one but all communities including the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Muslims. I will ensure that state sponsorship will be given to create a Sri Lanka where everyone can live proudly without fear by winning the trust of all communities,” he said.

Mr. Rajapaksa said a government led by him would not allow any form of extremist terrorism to raise its head in the country. I will fulfil the objective of reviving the economy and ensuring security for everyone. We will create an environment where everyone can practice their religion peacefully,” Mr. Rajapaksa said.

Commenting on the war victory, he said, Our post-war achievements were greater than defeating terrorism. Neither we started the war nor we fought the war with the Tamil community. Our war was with the LTTE. That’s why we implemented massive development projects in the North to improve the livelihood of the people there”.

Mr. Rajapaksa said the former Rajapaksa Government’s reconciliation and rebuilding efforts did not receive due attention.

We had one of the most successful rehabilitation programmes in the world to rehabilitate former LTTE cadres. The provincial council system was introduced as a solution to the issue of the Tamil people and only the Rajapaksa Government was able to hold the election to the Northern Provincial Council establishing democracy there,” he said.

Meanwhile, he responded to a comment made by Ali Sabry PC who spoke prior to Mr. Rajapaksa at the event that the SLPP would get about 35% Muslim votes at the presidential election and their target is to increase it to 50%.

Ali Sabry PC said we have 35%. I’m surprised why its 35% and not 65%,” Mr. Rajapaksa said to the crowd which cheered in response.

He said the people wanted to see a change in the political culture in the country. SLPP and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, Governor A.J.M. Muzammil, MPs Faizer Mustapha and Mahinda Amaraweera were also present at the event.  

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The parliament will have ample opportunity to review the MCC grant assistance agreement once it is signed, the US Embassy today said.

Issuing a statement, the Embassy said once the grant assistance agreement is signed, the Government of Sri Lanka will send it to parliament for approval.  

Consistent with the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) worldwide policy in all partner countries, once the grant assistance agreement is signed, the Government of Sri Lanka will send it to parliament for approval,” it said.  

It said during that review period, the government will develop plans to implement the grant assistance agreement and design projects to improve transportation and land administration.  

Parliamentary review and approval are required by MCC to ensure the grant assistance agreement has the support of the government and the people,” it said.

The Embassy said the MCC pact will directly benefit over 11 million Sri Lankans and meaningfully stimulate economic growth.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

Daya Gamage worked at the American Embassy in Colombo, as the Sole Foreign Service National and a Political Specialist. 

He retired in 1994 and has been living in Las Vegas since retirement. He has been able to share his knowledge, understanding and his intimate professional association with the US Department of State in the form of a book – ‘Tamil Tigers’ Debt to America’.  

While assuring the facts contained in his book cannot be found anywhere else, he has authorised the writer “to quote anything from his book”  so that that the readers will get a sound idea of  America’s Foreign Policy,  Sri Lanka’s National Issues and the LTTE struggle in depth.

A politician’s career mainly consists of making a part of the nation do what it does not want to do, to satisfy the other part of the nation. It is the persistent sacrifice of the rights of some at the request and for the gratification of others. 

The dominant idea of the politician therefore would be that those who are opposed to him exist to be made to serve his ends if he can acquire enough power to force these ends upon them.

It was Auberon Herbert’s dictum that formed the basis of the Foreign Service Officers’ (FSOs) mindset from the time of Kenneth M. Scott (1981) and throughout the next fifteen years, which created policy planks formulating the United States’ attitude towards numerous Sri Lankan issues related to good governance, civil rights, race relations, shared rule at the centre and periphery and the rule of law.

It is in this context that one needs to consider American policies towards Sri Lanka, in order to put it into proper perspective, to clear the air for both nations to have a better understanding and a fruitful relationship.

 It is even more important for Sri Lankan officials, even those who at the time regarded themselves as ‘diplomatic/foreign policy whiz kids’ and ‘political pundits,’ to get an erudite understanding of how the American diplomatic mind works.

It is this mind that was taken seriously in Washington through a constant flow of classical diplomatic cables to which Daya Gamage had the privilege to contribute.

 But, what is noticeable is the ignorance of the GoSL (Government of Sri Lanka) officials and their inability to even decipher a glimpse of FSOs’ (Foreign Service) mindset, the result being unexplainable contradictory policy decisions by GoSL officials.

The FSOs listened to and interacted with both sides: the Sinhala activists,who claimed that a majority of Tamils enjoyed privileges beyond their numerical strength and proportion in Sri Lanka and Tamil representatives, who highlighted the separate identity of their ethnic group and canvassed the West to convince them that their rights, status in society and privileges had declined. 

The latter had a better hearing due to the occurrence of significant incidents that the American diplomatic corps took serious note of.

Nancy Murray (Journalist) who carried out extensive research in 1984 for her article titled, “The State against Tamils in Race and Class”, greatly influenced the thinking of American Diplomats in Colombo during the initial period.

A tense atmosphere exploded into State-sponsored mayhem on 31 May 1981 when an unidentified gunman opened fire during a District Development Council election meeting.

Two Cabinet ministers, Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake (both self-confessed Sinhala supremacists), who were present in town,with uniformed security  men and plain-clothes thugs, carried out several well-organised acts of destruction in burning down certain targets that included the Jaffna Library, with its 95,000 volumes and priceless manuscripts, a Hindu Temple, the office and machinery of the independent Tamil daily newspaper Eelandu, the home of a Jaffna MP, the headquarters of the TULFand more than 100 shops and markets. 

Four people were killed. No mention of this appeared in the national newspapers, not even the burning of the library and the symbol of the Tamils’ cultural identity.

Eye Wash

The District Development Council system, which the Jayewardene administration (1977-1988) put into effect in 1981, as an answer to Western pressure, mainly by America, to devolve power to the periphery, was regarded as eyewash by the international community. 

The American diplomats who scrutinised the system concluded it was not the remedy required to broad-based Tamil agitation for devolution to the periphery; indeed, it would be a catalyst for a violent uprising by the minority Tamils in the country.

The Jayawardene administration’s failure to immediately declare an islandwide curfew when the Sinhala mobs started attacking Tamil households and businesses in July 1983 in Colombo and other cities/towns, following the killing of thirteen army soldiers in the Jaffna Peninsula by the Tamil Tigers, perturbed American observers, as closely witnessed by Daya Gamage.

 The declaration by President Jayawardene, which described the mob attacks on Tamil properties and Tamils as an ‘expression of sentiments by the Sinhalese,’ shocked American diplomats in Colombo.

 The embassy also received credible information that a leading political leader of the Jayawardene regime from the Kurunegala District assembled Sinhala mobs elements, transported them by train to Jaffna and created havoc in the predominantly Tamil district in the Northern Province.

Diplomatic Cables

The reports, observations, and analysis that went into the diplomatic cables on ethnic disturbances of 1977, 1979 and 1981and regarding other significant political trends and developments were readily available to every chief mission and FSO at that time (1981-1995) for them to digest.

Once serious attention was focused on issues such as race relations, devolution of power to the periphery, governance, civil liberties, and the rule of law. The reading materials and the embassy officers’ engagements in public diplomacy and strategic communication helped the United States to develop policy planks on critical issues faced by the country.

It is important to understand that the policies pursued by the United States in the new millennium were the ones that were developed, shaped, and brought forward from the 1980s and 1990s.

 The focus of the American diplomats regarding the status of Tamils in Sri Lankan society was clearly portrayed when Ambassador James W. Spain (1985 -1989) confronted the Minister of  Education in the 1956 Solomon Dias Bandaranaike regime, Dr. W. Dahanayake, at his Richmond Hill residence in 1987 in the presence of Daya Gamage and asked him why was he responsible for English being used as a medium of education with a prime place for Sinhala language and marginalising Tamil education when he  too was  educated…… to which Dahanayake replied that it was not under his watch that the change was made but during the time of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1960.

Diplomacy

When Cyril Mathew, a Sinhala Nationalist Minister in the Jayawardeneregime, died late 1989, the American Ambassador and the chief of political affairs quite rightly refused to pay their last respects to a ‘Sinhala chauvinist,’ but finally agreed at the insistence of Daya Gamage, who was their prime political specialist, to visit the Mathew residence in Horton Place in Colombo 7, after discussions that took note of the fact that his son, Nanda Mathew, was a Minister in the Cabinet and it was advisable to sustain the cordial contacts with him.

This was at a time when Cyril Mathew’s special assistant, who was one of Daya Gamage’s high school teachers, had been inquiring from Daya as to why the American Embassy was so interested in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs and raised questions about whether the United States was supporting the Tamil separatist agenda.

The renowned Sri Lankan journalist, Mervyn de Silva, in the May 15, 1990, edition of Lanka Guardian, wrote a eulogy for  Sri Lankan (EPRLF) Parliamentarian Sam Thambimuttu, who was assassinated by an LTTE hit squad in front of the Canadian High Commission  in Colombo, viz: “Right through the war in the East, before and after the arrival of the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force), Sam Tambibuttu was the reporter’s (Mervyn)  first choice for what in the professional patois is called a ‘check’ and a  ‘double-check’…. 

 There was the more exacting professional demand rooted in the very character of a highly competitive profession.

For the foreign correspondent or the local stringer, the source of information is vital. So is ready access to the source but most of all one had to depend on reliability and credibility.

 Since this was not personal, but a professional’s tribute toSam Thambimuttu, DayaGamage had to break an old established rule of revealing the source in this instance, however, Sam’s assistance to the International Press was hardly a secret. His name had been mentioned a hundred times.

tilakfernando@gmail.com
To be continued
Courtesy: Daya Gamage – Author of ‘Tamil Tigers’ Debt to America.’

---

By Faadhila Thassim Courtesy Ceylon Today

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that it is his primary responsibility to build a secure nation while ensuring communal harmony.

He claimed that the only concern of all citizens is national security even though the country is amidst an economic crisis and that this is because the present Government had not prioritised national security, while adding that as an individual who has experienced the impact of terrorism and having dealt with it, he would ensure that no such extremist activities take place in the future.

He further claimed that democracy had been upheld prior to the present Government taking over and assured that he would take control of the situation after he becomes the President. ”We brought the war to an end and achieved much during the period of peace that followed, while this Government only initiated a new war and built fear within all communities,” he alleged.

He expressed these views while attending a convention under the theme ‘The Turning Point’ organised by National Muslims Collective on 31 October.

 He added that strategic plans had already been formulated in this regard and he was looking forward to implementing them in order to completely eradicate terrorism while gaining the confidence of all communities and ensuring that the rights and freedoms of the Muslim community are upheld, along with the rights other minorities.

 ”The Tamil community’s issues were heard and addressed while rehabilitation programmes were carried out for LTTE cadres who surrendered following the war.

 This is the way a caring Government should ensure the prosperity of all its citizens,” he said. President’s Counsel M.U.M. Ali Sabry claimed that over 35 per cent of people from the Muslim community had extended their support to Rajapaksa and that this is expected to increase to at least 50%, adding that the Muslim community is would not place their trust in any of the promises made by other candidates who have continuously lied to the Muslims.

”This Government has failed the entire community and we are now being looked down upon.

 We need a leader who would ensure that our rights and security is protected and this is definitely not a part of the agenda of the UNP candidate,” he added.Parliamentarian Faiszer Musthapha further added that over 95% of the Muslim community voted for a regime change in 2015 and instead had to face incidents such as those that took place in Digana, Gintota and the Easter Sunday attacks in which there was a total breakdown of the national security apparatus, adding that Gotabaya is the only candidate who can bring about a change that is required by the Muslim community.

---

By Saundarya Wellaboda Courtesy Ceylon Today

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Chief Organiser Thusitha Kularathne claimed that they have verifiable information to believe that Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa will receive more than 70 per cent of the Government workers’ votes.

Speaking at a Press conference yesterday (1), Kularathne claimed that with a total of 6.7 million votes from both the SLFP and the SLPP on his side, announcing Rajapaksa’s Election win will simply be a formality.

He claimed the project ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ which was conducted under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa helped develop the country to a great extent after the separatist war and added that he is certain Gotabaya Rajapaksa will prioritise the improvement of the country if elected.

Kularathne alleged that President Maithripala Sirisena was not able to complete all the promises he made was because he received zero cooperation from his Government.

Boralesgamuwa Municipal Council Chairman Anura Priyashantha added that if elected, Rajapaksa will ensure the living status of villagers is uplifted and will also develop the infrastructure of agriculture.

 Priyashantha claimed that Rajapaksa has the full support of the local Government and added that the Presidential hopeful is capable of ensuring the country’s security.

The SLFP clarified that though the Organisation to Protect the SLFP operates using the name of their Party, it is not an organisation the SLFP agrees with or is a part of.

Colombo Municipal Councilor Sharmila Gonawala said that people who lived in shanties were provided apartments in the city during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Presidency and added that if elected, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has promised to bridge the gap between urban and rural development.

She alleged that the Colombo Municipal Council is one of the most corrupt Municipal Councils in the country and claimed that measures were taken to ensure the Council wouldn’t be a culprit to bribery and corruption during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure.

She added that Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to improve public transportation and introduce a systematic solution to waste disposal which the current Government has failed to do.

Courtesy Adaderana

SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that he believes the people want to change the political culture of this country. 

Speaking during the conference ‘The Turning Point’ organised by the National Muslim Collective, he said that towards the latter stage of the previous government a certain fear was created within the Muslim people in the country.

It is no secret that the Muslims decided to remove that government then due to that suspicion,” he said.

We are not people who started a war.  We are the people who ended a war.” 

Rajapaksa said that they know very well the effects of terrorism and as a person who witnessed it, there will be no room for any extremism and terrorism under his rule. 

President’s Counsel Ali Sabry, who also addressed the event, said that Sri Lanka’s Muslims want somebody who empowers the communities and who will give a vision to the communities. That’s the kind of leader the Muslim community is looking for.”  

I think Sri Lanka will be turned around by Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He is the next Lee Kuan Yew for this country,” he added. 

Mr. Sabry stated that Muslims need to live here with dignity, with respect. Ensure communal harmony and the security. That is all we want. Rest of it we can look after ourselves.”  

UPFA MP Faiszer Musthapha stated that today the Sinhala community is voting for Gotabaya Rajapaksa and he will definitely win. 

We asked for a change in 2015. We failed. We need to have a turning point,” he said. 

The Muslim community will be the biggest beneficiary of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory at the presidential election, he said.

Courtesy Adaderana

The presidential candidate of the National People’s Power (NPP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake says that NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa cannot talk about catching thieves” when the whole team” is on his stage.

He stated that if Sri Lanka is to be developed an administration devoid of stealing and wastage is required and that only they can provide such governance.

Speaking during a rally in Chilaw, Dissanayake said that they have individuals who will be better finance ministers than any of the individuals who have held that position so far in the country.

Give us power. What is our fault? Is it the fact that we don’t steal?” he questioned.

Courtesy Adaderana

UPFA MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena says that the election manifesto unveiled by NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa is a dream shop” while also comparing it to a small novel”.
 
Speaking at a press conference today (1), he alleged that they had somewhat delayed the released on their manifesto as it would be emulated by Sajith Premadasa.

He said that as they had predicted even in the last minute it had been clear that certain parts of SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s manifesto had been included into Sajith Premadasa’s manifesto.

We have presented a manifesto which has a programme, a vision,” he said, adding that in Premadasa’s manifesto it is clear that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will come forward to help Sajith.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court today (01) reminded the Attorney General to brief the bench on legal action that would be taken against State Minister of Education Vijayakala Maheswaran over her statement concerning the now-defunct LTTE.

When the case was taken up before the Colombo Magistrate this morning, the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told the court that the investigations on the case have concluded and all of the relevant reports have already been directed to the Attorney General.

The CID officers stated that they are yet to receive the Attorney General’s instructions on the legal action to be taken against the State Minister.

The magistrate then ordered to issue a reminder to the Attorney General calling for his briefing on the matter and postponed further hearing of the case until December 13th.

Addressing a state event held at Veerasingam Hall in Jaffna on the 2nd of July 2018, the former State Minister of Child Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran had stated that the LTTE should be resurrected for the freedom of the Tamil people.

The OCPD subsequently commenced investigations into the controversial statement made by the State Minister of Education and she was arrested on October 8th 2018.

She was granted bail on a personal bond worth Rs 500,000 on the same day.

Courtesy Adaderana

A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking an interim injunction against the signing of certain agreement with the U.S.  including the MCC, ACSA and SOFA by the government of Sri Lanka. 

The FR petition has been filed by Attorney-at-Law Darshana Weraduwage while the Attorney General, President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana and Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera have been named as respondents. 

The petition states that local media had widely reported recently that Cabinet approval has been granted to sign several agreements including the MCC without the consent of the Parliament or the people.

The petitioner also claims that these agreements would be seriously harmful to the national security and sovereignty of the country and that this is a violation of the Constitution.

Therefore the petition requests the court to issue an order declaring that the decision taken by the government of Sri Lanka to sign these agreements are in violation of the constitution and to also issue an interim order preventing the signing of them. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන්ගේ ගැටලුවලට විසඳුම් ලබාදීමටනම් අමාත්‍ය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට සහය පලකරමින් ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් පවත්වන ලෙසට බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ සිට තමන්ට දුරකථන ඇමතුම්ලැ බුණු බවට රණවිරු අයිතිවාසිකම් ජාතික බලවේගය අද හෙළිදරව්වක් කළා.

මේ අතර 2016 වසරේ ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් සිදුකළ උද්ගෝෂණයකට සහය පළ කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පැවරූ නඩුවකට සහභාගිවීම සඳහා අද දස වන වතාවටත් භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේ කොටුව අධිකරණ සංකීර්ණයට වැඩම කර සිටියා.

2016 වසරේ ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන් පැවැත්වූ උද්ඝෝෂනයක් අතරතුර ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයට ඇතුළුවීමට උත්සාහ කිරීමේදී ඊට සහය දුන් බව පවසමින් භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේට 2018 වසරේ ගොනු කළ නඩුවකට සහභාගිවීම සඳහා අද එම භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේ කොටුව මහේසත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට කැඳවා තිබුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

නව ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශය සිහින මාලිගාවක් බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ලක්ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ අදහස් පළ කළේ නෙළුම් මාවතේ පිහිටි ශ්‍රි ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණු පක්ෂ කාර්යාලයේ අද පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී.

මේ අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශකවරයාගේ සහභාගීත්වයෙන් කොළඹදී තවත්ප්‍ රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවක් පැවැත්වුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

කිසිදු අවස්ථාවක යළි මෙරට තුළ ත්‍රස්තවාදය ඇති වීමට ඉඩ නොතබන බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ මුස්ලිම් නියෝජිතයින් පිරිසක් සමඟ කොළඹ ඊයේ පැවති වැඩසටහනකට එක්වෙමින්.

මේ අතර ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂගේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් සංවිධානය කළ තවත් ජන රැළියක් ඊයේ මොරටුව ප්‍රදේශයේදී පැවැත්වුණා.

මුස්ලිම් නියෝජිතයින් සමඟ ඊයේ කොළඹ පිහිටි ප්‍රධාන පෙලේ හෝටලයකදී පැවති වැඩසටහන සඳහා එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ මහලේකම් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහින්ද අමරවීර ද එක්වුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ස්වාධීන මාධ්‍යයට බලපෑම් එල්ල කරමින් හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයට එරෙහිව දියත් කර තිබූ මඩ පෝස්ටර් ව්‍යාපාරය පිළිබඳ හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලය පොලිස් මූලස්ථානයට ඉදිරිපත් කළ පැමිණිල්ලට අදාළ විමර්ශන සිදුකිරීම සඳහා පොලිස් නීති කොට්ඨාශයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයාගෙන් උපදෙස් ලබාගන්නා බව පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පොලිස් අධිකාරී රුවන් ගුණසේකර පවසනවා.

හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයට එරෙහිව ඊයේ කොළඹ නගරය අවට මඩ පෝස්ටර් ව්‍යාපාරයක් දියත් කර තිබූ අතර, මරදාන සහ මොරටුව ප්‍රදේශවලදී අදාළ මඩ පෝස්ටර් අලවමින් සිටි පුද්ගලයින්ද හිරු වාර්තාකරුවන්ගේ කැමරාවටද හසුව තිබුණා.

මෙම මඩ පෝස්ටර් පිළිබඳව හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලය ඊයේ පොලිස් මූලස්ථානය වෙත CIB 3-187/43 දරන අංකය යටතේ පැමිණිල්ලක්ද ඉදිරිපත් කළා.

එහි විමර්ශන පිළිබඳව පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පොලිස් අධිකාරී රුවන් ගුණසේකර අද මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා.

මේ අතර, හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයට එරෙහිව දියත් කර තිබූ මෙම මඩ පෝස්ටර් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මහා සංඝරත්නය අදහස් පළ කළා.

මේ, අස්ගිරි පාර්ශවයේ අනුනායක අතිපූජ්‍ය වේඬරුවේ උපාලි හිමියන්, ඇමරිකාවේ ප්‍රධාන සංඝ නායක, ආචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය වල්පොල පියනන්ද හිමියන්, තිස්සමහාරාම – සඳගිරි – උභය රජමහා විහාරාධිපති පූජ්‍ය දේවාලේගම ධම්මසේන හිමියන් සහ ඌව – මඩකලපුව – බිංතැන්න තෙපලාතේ අධිකරණ සංඝ නායක පූජ්‍ය කහත්තේ සිරිනිවාස හිමියන් දැක්වූ එම අදහස්.

මේ අතර, සුරකිමු ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය, රාවණා බලය සංවිධානය ඇතුළු ජාතික සංවිධාන එකමුතුව ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා වෙත අද ලිපියක් භාරදුන්නා.

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිදහස සුරකිමු යන තේමාව යටතේ යොමුකර තිබූ එම ලිපියේ දක්වා ඇත්තේ හිටපු ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය මංගල සමරවීර පසුගියදා හිරු ටී.වී. නැරඹීමෙන් වළකින ලෙස ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටි අතර, ඊට දින දෙකකට පසු දියත් කර තිබූ මඩ පෝස්ටර් ව්‍යාපාරය පිළිකුලෙන් යුතුව හෙලා දකින බවයි.

ඒ අනුව රාජ්‍ය ත්‍රස්තවාදයේ අඳුරු සෙවණැලි ස්වාධීන ජනමාධ්‍යයට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම පිළිබඳව ස්වාධීන පරීක්ෂණයක් සිදුකරන ලෙස ජනමාධ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයාගෙන් එම සංවිධාන ඉල්ලා තිබෙනවා.

මේ අතර, හිරු මාධ්‍ය ජාලයට එරෙහිව එල්ල කර තිබූ මඩ පෝස්ටර් පිළිබඳව දේශපාලනඥයින් ඇතුළු සිවිල් ක්‍රියාකාරීන් අද දිනයේද ස්ථාන රැසකදී අදහස් පළ කළා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඇමරිකානු එක්සත් ජනපදය සමඟ ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය අත්සන් කිරීමට සූදානම් වන මිලේනියම් චැලේන්ජ් කෝපරේෂන් හෙවත් එම්.සී.සී.ඇක්සා සහ සෝෆා ගිවිසුම්වලට අත්සන් තැබීම වළක්වන අතුරු තහනම් නියෝගයක් නිකුත් කරන්නැයි ඉල්ලා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට අද මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සමක් ගොනු කෙරුණා.

නීතිඥ දර්ශන වේරදූවගේ විසින් ගොනුකළ පෙත්සමෙන් සඳහන් කර ඇත්තේ මෙම ගිවිසුම් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අනුමැතියකින් තොරව අත්සන් කිරීමෙන් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාවට තර්ජනයක් එල්ල විය හැකි බවයි.

එමෙන්ම, රටේ ඒකීය භාවයට ද ඉන් තර්ජනයක් ඇතිවිය හැකි බව පෙන්වා දෙන පෙත්සම්කරු එමගින් තමා ඇතුළු රට වැසියන්ගේ මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් කඩවන බැවින් එම ගිවිසුම්වලට එළඹීම වළක්වන ලෙස ඉල්ලා තිබෙනවා.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Former Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs Bandaranayaka and President Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association (1991-1994)

31.10. 2019.

1 Abolition of the Provincial Councils that have been a white elephant and that has wasted billions or even trillions of public funds for the past 33 years with no benefit at all for the country or the people and has become a political and Administrative disaster for this country, aggravating separatism laying the foundation for a Federal State in this country. To continue a rotten and  devastative political machinery spending billions that only multiplies a useless set of parasitic political rogues like 9 Governors, 5 Chief Ministers, another 36 Ministers and nearly 700 parasitic politicians and 9 institutions called Provincial Councils wasting billions with no service to the country at all when the whole nation is deeply sunk in a national debt trap, where  the debt ratio to GDP stood at the end of 2018 at 80% and now it could be even 100%, is disastrous for any country.

2 Abolishing the Rajiv /JR Accord of 29 July 1987 whish has almost nullified the Sri Lankan Constitution of 1987 reducing it to a mere piece of useless demy paper by compelling us to

1) Accept the Northern and Eastern Provinces as the Traditional Home land of the Tamils comprising 1/3 of the country and 2/3 of the coastal belt plus the marine resources for just less than 5 % of the nation’s population who are claiming a separate Rata (EELAM) for Tamils, first within this country and later to embrace the whole of Sri Lanka that would finally form the Head Quarters of their dream EELAM Empire.    

11)          Making Tamil also a National Language in this country and

111)       Granting Sri Lankan Citizenship to all Estate Tamils contrary to the Nehru/Kotalawala Pact of       1954 and thereby paving the way for India to convert the entire Central Hill country of this country in to an overseas Indian Protectorate in future.

(This is a total distortion of the history of this land of the Sinhala Nation that was there for 2500 years and a criminal and unprecedented betrayal of the Motherland and the Sinhala Nation by the treacherous politicians in 1987 which has to be reversed at least now if we are going to exist as a nation on this planet earth.) 

3 Reducing the Cabinet to a maximum of 20 and the number of Politicians in Parliament to 150 and Pradesiya Sabhas by half, removing the 4300 odd new additions made at the last Local government Elections ( oe preferably abolishing the PS sabhas and replace them with Village Councils), abolishing the National list, going back to earlier electoral system and abolishing the District MP system and PR system and reverting to the old electoral system where we will again have true representatives of the people in Parliament.

4 Pruning exorbitant Public institutions and reducing overstaffed Public Service to manageable levels to cut down public expenditure.

5 Creation of a new Political Culture by laying down minimum educational and other qualifications and a Strict Code of Conduct to Politicians and making attendance in Parliament compulsory

6 Abolition of Pensions and excessive privileges to politicians and converting politics to a ‘Mahajana Sevayak and a Desa Sevayak” instead of the present political culture of public exploitation and torment. Also do away with Official vehicles to all; instead give them a loan to buy their own  vehicles and pay the mileage as it was done in the past.

7 Ending the tragic House Maids trade with Middle East countries,that has completely ruined our culture and valued social fabrics and reduced this country to a land supplying slaves to oil rich countries. And replacing it with

        a) Avenues of a dignified and safe employment for them within the country and

        b)  Start a programme of sending professionals and technicians as an exportable item to earn foreign exchange, if the government cannot develop other means of earning Foreign Exchange

8 Ending the menace of University ragging by addressing their grievances and to convert the youth of this country to a dignified and valuable asset for development.

9 Declaring all lands over 5000 ft above Sea level as a strictly protected natural reserves and prohibiting any form of settlement above 3500 ft MSL as it had been in the past, to protect the water resources of the country, as water resources originating on these hills decide the entire life system and all economic activities in this country like Agriculture, Hydroelectricity potentials and all other industries

10 Making Buddhism the State Religion as it had been throughout history

11 Lay down the Laws as to what is the  Nation of this country, Official Language, National Anthem, the Law of the country and the National flag (One Official Language, One National Anthem, One law and One National Flaga)  

12 Need for a clear Action Plan to solve the plight of the Kandyan Peasants (all Sinhalese) heaped up from 1815, not rectified for the past 72 years by any Government, although we are supposed to have got some fake Independence in 1948 from the Colonial British.

13 An independent efficient, productive and people centric Public service and Judiciary free from Politics and Recruitments to Public Service and Judiciary only on competitive exams and meritocracy to be the only criterion in selection and appointment.    

14 Prohibiting all communal and religious Political Parties and replacing them with National Political Parties [f you can’t think of a system to run the country without political Parties imported from the colonial west and ending the tyranny of  minority politics in this country wedded to a One nation concept.

15 A national programme to develop and diversify the economy to make them productive and attractive avenues of self-employment in the fields of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Industries, Shipping, Aviation, trade and Commerce and Services instead of trying to pack all men and women to an already excessive and unproductive government service that has become a big burden to the national coffers and tax payers

16 Professional Foreign Service that can take Sri Lanka to the world and bring the whole world to Sri Lanka to develop this country

17 A programme to make Sri Lanka number 1 in the world in Fishing Industry by making use of the Indian Ocean that stretches from Africa in the West to Australia in the East and South Pole in the South and making this country a major naval power in the world by using our strategic location on the globe in relation to the Great East and West trade routes and its enormous economic potentials of fabulous ports around the Island. (The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world’s oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km² or 19.8% of the water on the Earth’s surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west, and Australia to the east)

18.To convert this country to an International hub in Aviation, Shipping, trade, Banking and all kind of Services to make this Island a world Giant making use of its strategic location and god given resources both natural and Human.

19 The need to take immediate action against Hindu and Muslim vandalism against Buddhist religious places in the North and East and to take steps to protect those places and the Monks living there.

20 To reduce excessive public holidays (some years running in to 132) to world average of 12 per year and to limit religious holidays only to those who profess those religions to save hundreds of millions of man days to boost development to catch up with the competitive world

 21 Death Penalty to persons involved in drug dealing

23 Designation of Ministers will be confined to Cabinet Ministers and Deputies only

24 A national Planning Council and a Supreme national Advisory Council consisting of non-political personalities

25 A new Constitution based on the history, State craft, legal systems, cultural heritage and traditions and customs of the 2500 year old civilization that suits this country best without blindly following the imported alien systems. That will end up with what is called A Civilization State” as expounded by Martin Jacques in his When China Rules the World.

Realization of these objective entails far and wide structural changes in systems and institutions which call for many a hardship and sacrifices in the short term that brings long term benefits for the country.

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanwara

Mr. President, Sack all these Governors immediately for Messing up the provincial administration like bulls in a China shop in the absence of the Provincial Councils. How can they behave like this, When you as the President has set an example not only by remaining impartial but also by handing over even the Chairmanship of the Party to your Ex-General secretary?  These Governors were appointed by you as your representatives in the Provinces. I am sure the Secretaries of the PCC can do a better job than these parasitic so-called Governors. Then why spend millions out of public funds to maintain these jobless men for nothing.

The whole nation must condemn the ridiculous behavior of these men for bringing these positions to public disrepute.

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanwara

31 10 2019

The News item

Seven Provincial Governors supporting two main candidates

October 30, 2019, 9:57 pm

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Seven Provincial Governors were directly or indirectly supporting the two main candidates in the November 16 Presidential Election, Acting Executive Director of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Manas Makeen said yesterday. He said that four Governors that support Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa were doing so openly while three Governors supported New Democratic Front (NDF) Presidential candidate, Sajith Premadasa indirectly. He said the Governors that supported Premadasa had done so indirectly. But CaFFE and civil society organisations that work with it were keeping an eye on their activities, Makeen said. Since Provincial Councils were not functioning, Governors had access to vast resources. Using those resources and their positions to support candidates was illegal and unethical.

By :A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

In a sudden move, this quisling Mangala Samaraweera got the cabinet to approve on Tuesday  (29th October) to sign theMilleniumChallenge Corporation ( MCC) agreement with the United States despite stern objection by the President. Political analysts say that this move has been taken 18 days before the election to express gratitude for the assistance being provided by the American Embassy for the election and ask why Sajith Premadasa who keeps on making hollow promises saying that he will not bow down to foreign powers did not oppose this move and raised his hand supporting it? Not only the visionless, rakish and lewd Sajith Premadasa abut all American stooge Ministers who raised their corrupt hands in support of this sell-out motion should be condemned as unpardonable traitors. 

Sri Lanka’snational enemy, the foreign servile Ranil Wickremasinghe has said that the agreement with the United States on the  MC will be signed before the Presidential Election. It will be a Black Day in the history of SriLanka and all Sri Lankans should Black flags on their houses, religious places of worship, offices, shops and vehicles (Including three wheels and bicycles) on the day that Ranil signs this agreement. The treacherous Ranil authorized negotiations of this agreement soon after getting elected in the 2001 General election.

The SLPP President and the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has expressed curiosity why the government is in a hurry to sign this disgraceful agreement prior to the presidential election, for which there are only a few more days and it is highly awkward to sign an agreement in this manner with a foreign country. Issuing a special message in this connection Mr. Mahinda has stressed that there is much suspicion on the contents that will be included in the agreement and hence the government should divulge to the people and the Parliament the contents of the agreement.  He has called to immediately summon the Parliament and give sufficient time for the opposition members to study the agreement and express their views and suggestions.  If it was not possible or the government is not willing to do so the signing of the agreement should be deferred until after the election. The message also states that although the government has said that this agreement is about road development and land reform the government has failed to properly apprise the people what would happen this proposed measures. Wonder why there is so much secret about this agreement if it, as the government says, is beneficial to the country. We emphatically point out to the government that no agreement with a foreign country should be signed on the sly without the knowledge of the people and the parliament. 

Many Buddhist prelates, religious organizations, civil society personnel, and parliamentarians condemned Tuesday’s cabinet approval and strongly demanded to abandon the moves to sign this agreement through which the country is pawned to the United States for 200 years.  It was sad to note that the bogus nationalist JVP and the NGO vultures remained totally silent as nothing has happened in the country.

Now let us see what the American Embassy says about this project.  Here are extracts from an interview given by U.S. Ambassador Alaina Teplitzto to Nirmala Kannangara of Daily Mirror on 27th May this year (2019). This was her first interview given in this country.

Denying the allegations leveled by the media concerning a permanent US base in Sri Lanka, the US envoy said the ‘Visiting Forces Agreement’ that the US has been negotiating with the Sri Lankan Government updates an existing agreement that dates way back to 1995.

I know there has been talking in the press around the concern of a permanent US base in Sri Lanka. This agreement would provide for nothing of that sort. It is about visiting forces here temporarily at the request and invitation of the Sri Lankan government for the conduct of exercises,” she added.

Responding to a question as to what are the geopolitical interests of the USA in Asia she said that she would look at it from a slightly different perspective. Not so much what the US’ specific geopolitical interests are but as a community of nations, their more global interests regarding a free and open Indo-Pacific space, the free transit of goods both by sea and air, and making sure there are laws and norms that allow nations to trade together peaceably and to get along, and that preserves these spaces for the transit of goods and the transit of services. She said that their interest is in preserving that rules-based order, ensuring that they have a chance to interact with other countries to their mutual benefit. Peace and prosperity are what they jointly working towards as beneficial outcomes for their countries. That’s how she sees their interests. It’s around what is in the mutual interests of all nations.

Responding to a question as to what is the interest of the USA in Sri Lanka’s strategic geographical position along a major sea lane, she said that there is no denying that Sri Lanka is in a very strategic location because of the sea lanes pass by here. For hundreds of years, it has become a path of trade and commerce heading between other parts of the world and the far east. So, it is very important in that regard and a lot of the economy here is linked.

She said that their interest in Sri Lanka as a friend and partner of this country, however, is not entirely around those sets of issues. Sri Lanka is a democracy. The US is a democracy. She said that they partner with democracies worldwide and they have common interests around maintaining that rules-based order that can benefit all nations globally with free and fair playing fields. She said that they also have interests around other issues of global stability and security, such as peacekeeping. Sri Lanka has been a troop-contributing country and they have also wanted to support that effort to maintain stability in other parts of the world.

She added that they also look at other security interests in the sense of ensuring the sovereignty of nations and making sure they can patrol and maintain not only the economic space around their countries but end transnational crime like global narcotics trafficking and human trafficking. We have common interests there. The bottom line is we have many, many more interests than Sri Lanka’s physical geographic locations.

She stated that they have another common interest around human rights and dignity for all and we want to make sure that globally these values are respected.

In response to a question the proposed status of forces agreement between the Sri Lankan and US military and hat are the benefits and drawbacks for both countries in entering into such an agreement, she explained that the Visiting Forces Agreement will help to mutual recognition of professional licenses, fees for professional support rendered, regulations for hiring foreign and local contractors, how US military personnel and civilian personnel can enter and exit Sri Lanka, the mutually agreeing what specific methods will be used. Given that she said that they conduct many joint exercises throughout any given calendar year as a part of their military-to-military relationship, it would certainly help both sides avoid a lot of case-by-case negotiations as they go from one exercise to another. The Ambassador said that there has been talking in the press around the concern of a permanent US base in Sri Lanka and said that this agreement would provide for nothing of that sort and it is about visiting forces here temporarily at the request and invitation of the Sri Lankan government for the conduct of exercises.

Ms. Tepliyz stated that the US looks at partnerships in the region including Sri Lanka with the idea that countries need to have many options, many friends and many partners. She said that they themselves have a relationship with China and they would expect that other countries in the region are also going to maintain relationships and the question for her was always what is the quality of those relationships? Are they ones where there is mutual respect for sovereignty? Are the relationships mutually beneficial in the sense that countries can work together for prosperity in the future? Are they transparent relationships? Are they equal relationships? These are the questions that any country should be asking about its partnerships.

The Sri Lankan Association in Australia SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) published an article in Lankaweb on 4^th May, 2019 titled Reveal the contents of the MCC agreement to the general public” stated that in the aftermath of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27/04/2019 announced that the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement was signed and that this agreement has provided Sri Lanka USD 500 million which could be used for development work.  In two articles published on the internet in February and March 2019, alleged details of this agreement were leaked to the public.

The articles allege that the MCC agreement is nothing but a plan to splinter Sri Lanka and turn it into a US Military Base.

The Key points alleged in these articles are:

• The agreement was drafted after two years of secretive negotiations between Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Millennium Challenge Corporation and It was to be signed in November 2018
• Undercover of ‘Megapolis’ development, the Americans demanded from Sri Lanka an ‘Economic’ Corridor of 1.2 Million Acres of land from Trincomalee to Colombo for a lease period of 200 years and they insisted that US law must prevail within this corridor
• The US has offered USD 400 million for the corridor which works out to Rs.24 per acre per month.
• It appears that Sri Lanka has been offered 80 million USD more
• The area covered by the corridor contains Eppawela’ phosphates, ilmenite, thorium, monazite, and rare-earth metals Cerium and Lanthanum
• The US insisted that Sri Lanka should abrogate her land laws which had protected her Sovereignty and National Security and that Ranil Wickramasinghe has agreed to oblige by drafting to  two new Bills – the ‘State Land Bank’ Bill and the ‘Land (Special Provision)’ Bill
• The construction of an ‘Electrified’ Railway Line from Trincomalee to Colombo protected with electric fences on either side which will effectively physically split the country into two.
• Anuradhapura and Kurunegala will be in the north of the corridor

The allegations above show that Ranil Wickremasinghe has signed an agreement that destroys the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Given the grave nature of the allegations, it is imperative that the government immediately reveal the contents of the agreement without any redactions to the general public. We strongly request the government to do so immediately and all political and national leaders to recognize the dire implications of the agreement to the national sovereignty and take all steps to REJECT AND REPEAL ‘the agreement with MCC, USA.

Turning towards the audience, this person then went on to show another of the pages from the document in hand, a page that had a Map.

As the lettering just above the map indicates, the map is a visual representation of the spatial structure of Sri Lanka in 2050, as perceived by the MCC.

Edelman was clearly upset and she mumbled feebly that Steve had erroneously shown the wrong map.

Contrary to what Edelman said, there is an electrified railway line running from Trincomalee to Colombo; see the map-legend on the right side of the map; it indicates ‘proposed electrified railway line’. The protective electric fences on either side of the railway line would be the electric border between the North and the South of Sri Lanka.

Again, contrary to what Edelman said, the Corridor between Trinco and Colombo is one of the focus areas for land investment selected by the MCC; it has been chosen by the MCC for maximum economic impact, as indicated in the MCC document above.

In the 7 districts along this Corridor, the Edelman team admitted that there are 10 Land Registries; the GOSL has authorized the Americans to go into these Land Registries where documents pertaining to Sri Lanka’s sensitive and precious Land-Assets are stored and secured; this, even before any agreement has been reached.

Today, from all accounts received, there are Americans seen crawling out from all crannies and crevices in the Land Registry and Survey department buildings.

The Commissioner-General of Lands is no doubt aware of the principle of law applied at the Nuremberg Trials; he is required to comply with only lawful orders; failure to do so would make him equally liable before the law. Perhaps, the Surveyor-General, the Land Title Commissioner, the Government Chief Valuer, officials involved with digitalizing land documents and other Government Officers thrust with responsibility should bear this in mind and consider themselves, to have been put on notice.

In that same MCC Map above, to the South East of Polonnaruwa where the MCC has projected an International airport, there is a distinct encirclement of an area bounded by Vallachenai, Kattankudi, Batticaloa, Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai, Amparai, Moneragala, Badulla and Hingurakgoda.  

Within this area is, where the ‘Muslim University’ has been constructed, where investigators have identified the heartland of Sri Lanka’s Caliphate terrorists, where the US army, from the US Indo-Pacific Command, has built barracks that could accommodate a Division of US troops, where 20 Caliphate terrorists committed suicide following the Easter massacre, where investigators have identified the home-base of terrorist Zaharan and where the meeting between Hizbullah and Teplitz took place, just two days prior to the Easter slaughter.

Quite suspiciously, while Sri Lanka was yet in deep shock the MCC Board in Washington, just two days after the Easter massacre, unilaterally approved the MCC compact although there is much opposition to it from the Sri Lankan public (on the grounds that they have been deliberately kept in the dark about the details of the Agreement).

and, the matter not even discussed in Parliament; the ‘gift’ had been upped from 420M to 48OM USD by an organization adjudged the most transparent in the US.

‘Matara-Spyhole’, Samaraweera and Teplitz announced the details of the ‘gift’ gleefully to a Nation numbed by shock and horror; it is a silver lining was their message and a ‘gift’ that must be taken immediately, lest the Americans withdraw the ‘gift’.

It would appear that the Americans are using the Easter killings to force us to accept their ‘gift’. That is food for thought.

An untruthful Edelman said that this ‘gift’, has no attached conditions, it is an outright grant and does not have to be repaid.

Bernard Gunathilaka of Pathfinders, of the same ilk as Prasad Kariyawasam the willing servant of the US, said Do not look a gift horse in the mouth”.

Was it Sri Lanka’s misfortune that these two persons had to be in the Foreign Ministry and head it too?

When does a gift horse become a Trojan horse? It is when the gift horse is given with attached conditions; it is when an Agreement has to be signed, to receive a ‘gift’. The ‘conditions’ laid down by the MCC for Sri Lanka to comply with, become the price Sri Lanka has to pay.

When payments are made by the receiver of the ‘gift’, the money touted as an outright grant, ceases to be a grant.

This is the type of modus operandi that was adopted by the traveling snake-oil-salesmen of the wild-west to dupe the people in America; MCC, Teplitz, and Edelman have traveled a long way to Sri Lanka to do the same.

And in the case of the MCC Compact, Sri Lanka would be making an eternal payment to the donor of the ‘gift’ horse; Sri Lanka by complying with the conditions laid down would be gifting the Americans, the donor of the ‘gift’ horse, the entire country forever.

/ to be contd

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා යටතේ සේවය කිරීමට ලැබුනු කාලය මාගේ වෘත්තීය ජීවිතයේ ඉතා එලදායී කාලයක් ලෙස මම සලකමි. 2002 වසරේ සිට 2006 වසර දක්වා යුද හමුදා රෝහලේද 2007 සිට 2009 දක්වා සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයට අනුබද්ධිතව මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය  වැඩසටහන් වලදීද මම එතුමා සමග වැඩ කලෙමි. මම වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා  ගෙන් ඉගෙන ගත් දේ බොහෝය. වර්තමානයේ මම කැනේඩියානු / ඇමරිකානු මනෝ චිකිත්සකයන් සමග සේවය කරන අතර කැනඩාවට එන දේශපාලන අනාතයන් ගේ (asylum seekers) මානසික තත්වයන් තුලනීක්‍ෂණය කිරීමේ (Psychological Assessment) සේවාවන්ද සපයමි. මේ හැර ජර්මානු ජාතික මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු වන මහාචාර්‍ය මයිකල් ලින්ඩෙන් විසින් සොයා ගන්නා ලද නවතම මනෝ සමාජීය අක්‍රමතාවය වන Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED)   මණ්ඩලයේ වෛඥානික කමිටු සාමාජිකයෙකු ලෙස කැනඩාව නියෝජනය කරමින් සේවය කරමි. අන්තර්ජාතික තලයක මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය සේවා සැපයීමට දැණුම මෙන්ම පදනම ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා එතුමාගේ ඉගැන්වීම් මට උපකාර විය.

නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු දක්‍ෂ සායනික මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකි. එසේම ඉතා දක්‍ෂ ගුරුවරයෙකි. ප්‍රවීණ දේශකයෙකි. මානසික සෞඛ්‍ය  ක්‍රම සම්පාදනය , සැලසුම්කරණය පිලිබඳව හසල දැණුමක් ඇත්තෙකි. ඔහුගේ මේ දක්‍ෂතා නිසා ඉහලට මතුවීම වෙනුවට ඔහුට ශ්‍රී ලාංකික වෘත්තිකයන් තුල නිසගවම පවත්නා ඉරිසියාවන් සහ කුහකකම් වලට මුහුණ දීමට සිදු විය. එය එක්තරා ආකාරයකින් ඛේදවාචකයක් විය. නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වෙනුවට උතුරු ඇමරිකාවේ උපත ලද්දේ නම් ඔහු මීට වඩා බොහෝ දුරක් ගමන් කරනු ඇත.

වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දුව මට මුලින්ම හමු වන්නේ 2002 වසරේ මාර්තු මාසයේදීය. කොලඹ යුද හමුදා රෝහලේ සොල්දාදුවන් වෙනුවෙන් මනෝ චිකිත්සනය සහ මනෝ ප්‍රතිකාරයන්  කිරීම අප දෙපළ ආරම්භ කලෙමු. ලංකාවේ රෝහලක ප්‍රථම වතාවට ප්‍රතිකාරාත්මක උපදේශනය සහ මනෝ චිකිත්සනය සඳහා ඒකකයක් ආරම්භ කලේ අප විසිනි. ඒ සඳහා වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු නායකත්වය දුන්නේය. අප දෙදෙනා ගුවනින් උතුරේ යුද කඳවුරු වලට ගොස් යුද ආතතියෙන් පෙළුණු සොල්දාදුවන්ට ප්‍රතිකාර කලෙමු. එසේම යුද හමුදා නිලධාරීන් සඳහා දේශන පැවැත්වූයෙමු. අප දෙදෙනා උතුරු අර්ධද්වීපයේ නොගිය කඳවුරක් නොමැතිතරම් ය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා  යුද හමුදාවේ පවත්නා පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවය (PTSD) පිලිබඳව විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතාත් මමත් 2002 – 2006 කාලයේදී අධ්‍යනය කරන ලද අතර අප වෙත යොමු කරන ලද සොල්දාදුවන් 824 අතරින් සොල්දාදුවන් 56 දෙනෙකු පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවයේ පූර්ණ ලක්‍ෂණ පෙන්වූ බව සොයා ගත්තෙමු. මෙම අධ්‍යනය සංග්‍රාමික පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාව (Combat Related PTSD) පිළිබඳව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කරන ලද ප්‍රථම අධ්‍යනයයි.  මෙම අධ්‍යනය ලංකාවේ මිලිටරි සහ දේශපාලන බල අධිකාරිය විසින් යටපත් කරන ලද අතර මෙම අධ්‍යනය ඇමරිකානු සහ ඊශ්‍රායල මනෝවිද්‍යාත්මක පරියේෂකයන් ගේ අවධානයට ලක් විය.

එකල සංග්‍රාමික පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාව යුද හමුදාව තුල තහනම් වචනයක් විය. අප විසින් පෙන්වා දුන් කරුණු සහ  නිර්දේශ බල අධිකාරිය විසින් අවඥාවෙන් යුතුව ප්‍රතික්ශේප කරන ලදි. එහෙත් සෙබළුන් 50,000 ආසන්න සංඛ්‍යාවක් යුද හමුදාවෙන් පළා යද්දී සහ උතුරේ බංකර වල සොල්දාදුවන් වෙඩිතබාගෙන සිය දිවි නසා ගනිද්දී ඔවුන්ට අපට සවන් දීමට සිදු විය. ඒ අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මිලිටරි ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු වරට 2005 වසරේදී හිටපු යුද සිරකරුවෙකු වූ සංඥා බළකායේ කෝප්‍රල්වරයෙකු සංග්‍රාමික පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාව නිසා ආබාධිතයෙකු ලෙස යුද හමුදාවෙන් දීමනා සහිතව ඉවත් කරන ලදි. මේ නයින් ඊලාම් යුද්ධයේදී කායික තුවාල පමණක් නොව මානසික තුවාල ඇති වන බවට පිළි ගැනීමට මිලිටරි සහ දේශපාලන බල අධිකාරියට සිදු විය. මෙය යුදට ගොස් ආබාධිත වූ දුප්පත් සොල්දාදුවන් ගේ පාර්ශවයෙන් ලද විශාල ජයග්‍රහණයකි. 

සුනාමි වියසනය වූ සමයේදී විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා විසින් කරන ලද කාර්‍යභාරයට සමාන කාර්‍යභාරයක් ලංකාවේ කිසිදු මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු විසින් සිදු නොකල බව මම සාධක සහිතව පෙන්වා දෙමින් පවසමි. සුනාමි වියසනයේදී වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු බොහෝ කඳවුරු වලට ගොස් ආපදාවට පත් වූ ජනතාවට මනෝ සමාජීය සහන සේවා ලබා දුන්නේය. එසේම සුනාමි වියසනයෙන් වසර දෙක තුනක් යන තෙක් ඔහු දකුනේ අපදාවට ලක්වූ මිනිසුන් ගේ මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය නංවාලීමට ඔවුනට ප්‍රතිකාර කලේය. එකල සති අන්තයේදී වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මා ඇතුළු ඔහුගේ අනෙකුත් වෛද්‍යවරු කැටුව මෙම ප්‍රදේශ වලට ගොස් මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය සායන පැවැත්වීය. එසේම එම ප්‍රදේශ වලින් ස්වේච්ඡා සේවකයන් එකතු කොට ඔවුනට ප්‍රාථමික මනෝ සමාජීය සහන සැපයීමේ පුහුණුව ලබා දුන්නේය. මේ කාලයේදී අප දෙදෙනා විසින් විශාදය මෙන්ම දිවි නසා ගැනීමේ චර්‍යාව නිශේදනය කිරීම සඳහා මනෝ උපදේශකයන් සඳහා පොත් කීපයක්ද ලියුවෙමු. සුනාමි වියසනය වූ සමයේදී විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා විසින් කරන ලද කාර්‍යභාරය යම් දිනෙක ඇගයීමට ලක් කෙරෙනු ඇතැයි මා බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමි. 

තමන් ගේ කනිෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට සවන් දීම ඔහු තුල පැවති නිහතමානී ගුණාංගයකි. වරක් ජාතික රෝහලේ මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය සායනයට අධිකරණය විසින් යොමු කරන ලද පාතාල නායකයෙකු වියාජ ලෙස මානසික රෝග ලක්‍ෂණ පෙන්වන ලදි. ඔහුගේ මෙම වියාජ රෝග ලක්‍ෂණ අධිකරණයට වාර්තා කිරීමට පෙර ඔහුව මවෙත යොමු කොට මෙම පාතාල නායකයා ගේ මානසික තත්වය පිලිබඳව මාගේ නිගමනය කුමක්ද කියා එතුමා මගෙන් විමසුවේය. 

කඩිමුඩියේ මානසික රෝග නිර්ණය නොකිරීම සහ මානසික රෝග සබැඳිව ඉතා ඉක්මන් තීරණ  නොගැනීම මා ඉගෙන ගත්තේ එතුමා ගෙනි. වරක් කොලඹ යුද හමුදා රෝහලේ එක් රෝගියෙකු අප දෙදෙනා මාස 3 පමණ කාලයක් නිරීක්‍ෂණ කලෙමු. ඔහු  පිලිබඳව මානසික තත්ව තක්සේරුවක් (Psychological Assessment) කරන ලෙස එතුමා මට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. මෙසේ මාස 3 කාලයක් එම රෝගියා නිරීක්‍ෂණය කිරීමෙන් ඔහු භින්නෝන්මාදයෙන් පෙලෙන බව වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු රෝග නිර්නය කලේය.

වරක් විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය මහාචාර්‍ය අශෝක කුරුප්පුආරච්චි මහතා භින්නෝන්මාදයෙන් පෙලෙන බවට සනාත කොට එක් රෝගියෙකු යුද හමුදා රෝහල වෙත එවන ලදි. මෙම රෝගියාට මොනරු කෑගසන සහ හෙලිකොප්ටර් අවරපෙති ශබ්දයන් ඇසෙන බව කියන ලදි. එය ශ්‍රවණ භ්‍රාන්තියක් ලෙස මහාචාර්‍ය අශෝක කුරුප්පුආරච්චි මහතා විසින් සලකන ලදි. එහෙත් මෙම රෝගියා පිලිබඳ යම් කුකුසක් මට ආවෙන් මම ඒ පිලිබඳව නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතාට කීවෙමි. ඔහු පිලිබඳව මානසික තත්ව තක්සේරුවක් කරන ලෙස එතුමා මට උපදෙස් දුන්නේය. මාගේ වාර්තාවෙන් පසු මෙම රෝගියා භින්නෝන්මාදයෙන් නොව පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතායෙන් පෙලෙන බවට වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා සනාත කලේය. පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතායෙන් පෙලෙන රෝගීන් ගෙන් 16% සමහරක් අවස්ථා වලදී ඇතිව නැතිවන මනෝව්‍යාධික ලක්‍ෂණ පෙන්වති. මෙය හඳුන්වන්නේ කෙස්ලර් සංසිද්ධිය (Kessler Phenomena) ලෙසටය. මෙය විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය මහාචාර්‍ය අශෝක කුරුප්පුආරච්චි මහතාට මඟ ඇරුනි.

විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතා යටතේ අංගොඩ රෝහලේ අධිකරණ වෛද්‍ය අංශයේද සේවය කිරීමට මට ඉඩ ප්‍රස්ථාව ලැබුණි. එයද මාගේ අත්දැකීම් පුළුල් කරන ලද කාලයක් වූයේය. 

මම පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික් මානසික සෞඛ්‍යය සම්බන්ධීකරණ නිලධාරී ලෙස සේවය කල කාලයේදී අපගේ වෛද්‍යවරු සහ හෙදියන්ට දේශනයක් කිරීම සඳහා 2007 වසරේදී විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දු  මහතාව මම මාදම්පේ නියෝජ්‍ය පළාත් සෞඛ්‍යය  සේවා අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක කාර්‍යාලයේ ශ්‍රවාණාගාරයට ආරාධනා කලෙමි. මාගේ ආරාධනය පිලිගෙන පැමිණි එතුමා අප කාර්‍යමණ්ඩලයට හරවත් දේශනයක් පැවැත්වීය.

මට ලෝකයේ ප්‍රමුඛ පෙලේ මනෝ විද්වතුන් හමුවී තිබේ. ඔවුන් අතර මහාචාර්‍ය බැසිල් වැන්ඩකොල්ක් , මහාචාර්‍ය ජුඩිත් හර්මන් (හාවඩ් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය) , මහාචාර්‍ය මේරී සීමන් (ටොරොන්ටෝ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය) මහාචාර්‍ය රිචඩ් ලේලොන්ඩ් (යෝක්  විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය) නම් කල හැකිය. එම පතාකයන් අතර විශේෂඥ මනෝ වෛද්‍ය නීල් ප්‍රනාන්දුද මට සුවිසල් චරිතයක් බව ප්‍රකාශ කරමි. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

By Noor Nizam, Peace and Political Activist, Political Communications Researcher, SLFP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice” –

SLMC & ACMC “PORAALIGAL/PAMARAMAKKAL” IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE SHOULD FOLLOW THIS EXAMPLE TO VOTE GOTABAYA ON NOVEMBER 16th., 2019.

Hassanali is a powerful vote bank in the Nithavur district and the Eastern province. Hassanali joining the Gotabaya campaign team will strengthen the Muslim support base for Gotabaya in the Eastern Province. The Muslims have begun to act on their own politically and have started to support Gotabaya, Insha Allah. 

THE MUSLIM VOICE” has been doing all it is possible since June 14th., 2014 within its ability to make Gotabaya’s victory a success. “The Muslim Voice” has written nearly 1500 “Rebuttals and Comments” to lobby support from among the Muslim vote bank in Sri Lanka in almost all the Tamil and English web news publications, web forums, National newspapers, yahoo groups, TV channel websites and Indian Tamil websites reaching out to Sri Lankan Tamil/Muslim readers.

Wait and see” what the Muslims voters will do in the Eastern and Northern provinces too, “The Muslim Voice” had predicted, Insha Allah. Rauf Hakeen has already complained that the Muslims are moving away from the SLMC and this has become a “craze” in the Muslim supported SLMC areas.

The duped and hoodwinked Muslim voters who were made to vote” the Hansaya” have begun to understand the treachery of these Muslim Civil Society Leaders, Community Leaders, and Ulema Sabai Leaders by the action of the Yahapalana Government” now. They are disgruntled” and they have begun to show their displeasure and have begun to retaliate against these so-called deceptive, hoodwinking and opportunistic Muslim Politicians, Muslim Political parties and their leaders, Muslim Civil Society Leaders, Community Leaders and Ulema Sabai Leaders to safeguard their legitimate Muslim Rights” and work towards National Reconciliation”. They are no more willing to be duped by the press releases and media dramas staged by these stooges of the Yahapalana Government” anymore. 

The Muslim Youth and the young professionals of the community have begun to use SOCIAL MEDIA” to challenge these scoundrels. In the next elections, surely the Muslims are contemplating to vote the Joint Opposition” to power even in the general elections of 2020, Insha Allah. THEY WILL VOTE GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA TO BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF SRI LANKA BECAUSE THEY CAN TRUST HIM TO ERADICATE MUSLIM TERRORISM TOO, Insha Allah.

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ විපක්‍ෂ නායක

ඇමරිකාවේ මිලේනියම් චැලේන්ජ් කෝපරේෂන් ආයතනය සමග ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් කිරීමට කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය තින්දුවක් ගෙන ඇත. මේ ගිවිසුම ජනාධිපතිරණයට පෙර අත්සන් කිරීමට පියවර ගන්නා බවටත් අගමැතිවරයා මාධ්‍යට ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේය.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තව ඇත්තේ සති දෙකක් වැනි කාලයකි. තීරණාත්මක මැතිවරණයකට දින ගණනක් තිබියදී විදෙස් රටක් සමග ආණ්ඩුව කඩිමුඩියේ ගිවිසුමකට එළඹිය යුතු නැති බව අපි තරයේ ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිමු. එවැනි ගිවිසුමක් ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව අත්සන් කරනවානම් එය සිදුවිය යුත්තේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පසුවය.

මෙකී ගිවිසුමේ අන්තර්ගතය කුමක්දැයි රටේ ජනතාව තබා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්වත් දන්නේ නැත. මේ ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කිරීමට පෙර එහි පිටපත ජනතාවගේ දැනගැනීම සඳහා ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් කළ යුතු බවත්, එය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර විවාදයට ලක් කළ යුතු බවත් අපි ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිමු.

මේ යෝජිත ගිවිසුම මහාමාර්ග සංවර්ධනයට හා ඉඩම් ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට අදාල එකක් බව කියා සිටියද එයින් හරියටම සිදුවන්නේ කුමක්ද යන්න ආණ්ඩුව ජනතාවට පැහැදිලි කර නැත. මෙයින් ලංකාවට සෙතක් සැලසෙන්නේ නම්, මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙතරම් රහස්‍ය බවක් පවත්වාගෙන යන්නේ කුමටද යන්න ගැන අපට සාධාරන සැකයක් ඇත.

ජනතාවට හොරෙන් හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට හොරෙන් මේ ගිවිසුම් කිසිසේත්ම අත්සන් නොකළ යුතු බව අපි ආණ්ඩුවට තරයේ ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටිමු.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

විපක්‍ෂ නායක

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition

The Cabinet has decided to enter into a pact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the USA. The Prime Minister in answering a question put to him by the media stated that the government intends signing this agreement before the presidential elections. It is now just over two weeks to the presidential elections. We wish to stress in the strongest possible terms that no agreement should be hurriedly signed with a foreign government just days before a decisive presidential election. Any such agreement should be signed if at all, only after the presidential election.

The contents of this proposed agreement are not known even to parliamentarians let alone the general public. Before this agreement is signed, its text should be made public, and presented to Parliament and debated. The information available indicates that this agreement has to do with road development and land reform. However, the government has not taken any steps to explain what exactly this entails and what its impact will be on the country. If this agreement will be as beneficial to Sri Lanka as is made out, why is everything shrouded in secrecy?

We wish to emphatically state that the government should not sign this agreement behind the backs of the general public and the Parliament.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Leader of the Opposition

Embassy of Sri Lanka, Bangkok

Adding boost to Sri Lanka’s growing potential as an emerging world ICT destination of choice, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Bangkok together with the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka, organized for the first time, the participation of Sri Lankan IT companies in the ‘Digital Thailand-Big Bang 2019 Exhibition’ held in Bangkok Thailand from 28-31 October 2019. The Exhibition, which is considered the biggest international conference and exhibition on digital technology and innovation in South East Asia, had the overall theme of ‘ASEAN Connectivity’, also promoting and featuring Thailand’s current Chairmanship of the ASEAN.

Prime Minister of Thailand General Prayuth Chan O Cha, declared open the exhibition which facilitated exhibits connecting to three distinct segments, namely ‘creativity zone’ including advanced creativity in the field of digital technology, the ‘society zone’, encompassing new ways of improving quality of life and equal opportunities, and  ‘smart city zone’ projecting future outlook of cities.

The Sri Lankan pavilion was opened by H.E. (Mrs.) Samantha K. Jayasuriya, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Thailand and Mr. Anil Sirimanna, First Secretary (Commerce) of the Embassy also joined her on this occasion. The five IT companies, namely  Imara Software Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, Softcodeit Solutions (Pvt) Ltd., Sky Management Systems (Pvt) Ltd,  Itechro (Pvt) Ltd, and Silverleap Technology (Pvt) Ltd. displayed their IT products and services ranging from Big Data Solutions, eBusiness Development, ERP Software, ICT Infrastructure & Services, Mobile Application Development, Software Development, Systems Integration, Web Development and Marketing, IOT, Cloud Services, Business Solutions and MIS, Payments Processor and Real-Time System etc. They already have strong niche for their Software products and services to North America, EU, Australia, East Asia, Middle East, Africa and in the Nordic, and Big Bang 2019 provided an opportunity to further explore potentials to expand into the ASEAN market.

Sri Lanka’s IT sector is aspiring to transform the country into the most prepared ICT hub in Asia and it is the 4^th highest export revenue generator in the country’s economy, catering also as an offshore development center for several fortune 500 companies from the USA, Ireland, UK, Australasia, Sweden and joint venture development companies from Sweden, Norway, USA, Japan, etc.  The Exhibition brought in more than 200 exhibitors from 14 countries from the region and world and drew several thousands of visitors from multiple disciplines.

Embassy of Sri Lanka,

Bangkok