By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The global liberal mafia has already begun mobilizing against the Rajapaksas in anticipation of their return to power. Last Friday, Brahma Chellaney of the American funded New Delhi based NGO Centre for Policy Research wrote an article to the international web page Project Syndicate on the possible return of the Rajapaksas to power with the apocalyptic sounding title “The End of Sri Lankan Democracy?” Chellaney is an interesting character. He is the spin doctor credited with having invented the ‘Chinese debt trap’ theory, which was applied to Sri Lanka as well in relation to the Hambantota port. The theory that captured the imagination of the Western dominated international media was that the Sri Lankan government had been forced to lease the Hambantota port to the Chinese because they were unable to service the loan of 1.26 million USD taken to build the Hambantota port.

This is not borne out by the facts at all. The amounts borrowed for the various projects initiated by the Rajapaksas is minuscule in comparison with the commercial borrowings of the yahapalana government in the past five years. For the yahapalana government especially, 1.26 million USD is peanuts – just one afternoon’s borrowings. The total amount that had to be paid by 2036 in relation to the loan taken to build the Hambantota port is USD 1,266 million capital + USD 495 million in interest – a total of USD 1,761 million. By the end of 2016, nearly USD 500 million of this total amount had already been repaid. Thus Sri Lanka had no difficulty at all in repaying this loan. Be that as it may, we are told by the foreign liberal media that Sri Lanka was forced to sell the 1.26 billion USD port because we could not pay back the money taken to build it and nothing that we say will convince them otherwise!

The man responsible for this spin on things is supposed to be Chellaney. Some think he is a RAW operative, but it is highly unlikely that RAW would allow one of its operatives to work for an American funded NGO. It seems only too clear that Chellaney is an American agent operating from New Delhi. With the yahapalana government leasing the Hambantota port to the Chinese, the latter ended up getting a port in Sri Lanka which they would never have got if the Rajapaksa government had been in power. The Rajapaksa government was going to run the port itself. In fact, at the time the government changed, documents had already been signed to lease the container terminal in the port to the two Chinese companies that became the bidders to lease out the entire free port including its 2,000 hectare industrial park. The Chinese company that now manages the port was originally a joint lessee of the container terminal in the port.

The media reported recently that Japan’s NYK, the largest vehicle shipping company in the world had come to an agreement with the Hambantota port to use it as a transhipment hub. This too was a deal that was originally struck between SL and NYK when the Rajapaksas were in power. Had the Rajapaksas remained in power, Sri Lanka would have had a port in Hambantota, and not the Chinese. The fact that China now has a port in Sri Lanka is entirely due to the change of government in 2015, which the Obama administration was largely responsible for engineering. The US Ambassador in Sri Lanka at the time, Michelle Shison was up to her eyeballs in the regime change project in Sri Lanka. She was instrumental in not allowing Ranil Wickremesinghe to contest as the presidential candidate that year and insisting that the UNP agree to a common candidate.

The former US Secretary of State John Kerry had himself revealed that in 2015, the US had spent USD 585 million ‘to promote democracy’ in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nigeria in 2015 alone. So what happened in 2015 was that the USA spent money to bring into power the government, which provided the Chinese with a free port in Sri Lanka! This is one of the biggest foreign policy fiascos in modern world history. It would have come as a delightful surprise to the Chinese when they were offered the Hambantota port on a platter by the Obama administration’s puppet regime. The Chinese had never once asked the Rajapaksas for the port. Initially, the yahapalana government was so anti-Chinese that they stopped all Chinese funded projects as soon as they came into power.

A fig leaf to cover a free port

One of the things that motivated the yahapalana government to finally give up its infantile opposition to China was because the flood of aid and investment that it was expecting from their Western backers never materialised. Another reason why Wickremesinghe gave the Hambantota port to China could be as an act of vengeance as the US had deprived him of the chance to contest the 2015 presidential election. At the provincial council elections held in 2014, it was only too obvious that the trend was going in favour of the UNP. But RW had to forego the candidacy due to American pressure. Chellaney is the American sponsored Indian spin doctor who provided the explanatory fig leaf to conceal the Obama administration’s embarrassment when the Sri Lankan government brought into power by them, handed over a valuable strategic asset in the Indian Ocean to the Chinese. One would be hard put to think of another fiasco of this magnitude in the history of maritime politics.

True to form in this latest article on Sri Lanka Chellaney states apocalyptically that “… the Rajapaksa family’s potential return to power is welcome news for Chinese President Xi Jinping. But it is bad news for practically everyone else.” He paints the possibility of the Rajapaksas returning to power in the darkest colours possible. He says, “One of Asia’s oldest democracies may be in jeopardy. Sri Lanka’s presidential election next month, is expected to bring to power another member of the Rajapaksa family, whose affinity for authoritarianism, violence, and corruption is well known While Sri Lanka’s democracy survived the last test – an attempted constitutional coup by outgoing President Maithripala Sirisena a year ago – it may not survive a Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency”.

The entire article that he has written is nothing but a repetition of all the accusations hurled at the Rajapaksas over the past several years.

“Mahinda’s decade-long tenure, which ended in 2015, was characterised by brazen nepotism, with the four Rajapaksa brothers controlling many government ministries and about 80% of total public spending.”

“By steadily expanding presidential powers, Mahinda created a quasi-dictatorship known for human-rights abuses and accused of war crimes.”

“Mahinda’s pro-China foreign policy allowed for the swift expansion of Chinese influence in Sri Lanka – and rapid growth in Sri Lankan debt to China. It was the debt incurred during the last Rajapaksa presidency that forced Sirisena in 2017 to sign away to China the Indian Ocean’s most strategic port, Hambantota, along with 6,070 hectares (15,000 acres) of nearby land, on a 99-year lease.”

“There is little reason to doubt that Gotabaya would revive his brother’s corrosive legacy. Simply by becoming president, he could gain immunity from two lawsuits pending in US federal court over war crimes allegedly committed while he was Sri Lanka’s defence chief.”

“During the war’s final years, thousands of people – from aid workers and Tamil civilians to the Rajapaksa family’s political opponents – disappeared or were tortured. And the final military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels was, according to the United Nations, a “grave assault on the entire regime of international law,” with as many as 40,000 civilians killed.”

“According to the wartime military commander, Sarath Fonseka, Gotabaya ordered the summary execution of rebel leaders as they surrendered.”

International political Mafiosi

The spin that Brahma Chellaney has put on the presidential elections in Sri Lanka is the clarion call of the international liberal mafia. Even though there has been regime change in the USA and Britain as well, the effects of regime change in the USA and Britain have not been felt in Sri Lanka largely due to the liberal deep state in the USA and Britain and also to the fact that the government we still have in Sri Lanka is a creation of the ousted liberal regimes in the USA and Britain. The defeated global liberal Mafiosi are fighting back everywhere and Chellaney is the adavance party working on Sri Lanka. He is trying to organize opposition to a possible return of the Rajapaksas to power by saying things like the following:

“The Rajapaksas have already used the Islamist bombings (on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people) to fan the flame of Sinhalese nationalism. And Gotabaya has promised his supporters that, if elected, he will strengthen the intelligence services and reintroduce surveillance of citizens, in order to crush Islamist extremism. The prospect of an alleged war criminal still wedded to extrajudicial methods becoming president rightly terrifies minority groups, the media, and civil-liberties advocates.”

“Gotabaya’s camp has also confirmed that, as president, he plans to “restore relations” with China. Given Sri Lanka’s strategic location near the world’s busiest sea-lanes, the implications of this pledge extend well beyond the island. Indeed, Sri Lanka could play a pivotal role in the struggle for maritime primacy between China and Indo-Pacific democratic powers (India, the United States, Japan, and Australia). China’s “string of pearls” strategy has been encircling India by securing strategic military and commercial facilities along major Indian Ocean shipping lanes.

“… the Rajapaksa family’s potential return to power in Sri Lanka is welcome news for China, which hopes to turn the country into a military outpost … A Gotabaya presidency would… help China gain strategic supremacy in the Indo-Pacific.”

Chellaney has sought to organize India, the USA and Japan against the Rajapaksas by saying that a Rajapaksa restoration would turn Sri Lanka into a Chinese military outpost and that China would gain ‘supremacy’ in the Indo-Pacific. This kind of idea had much resonance in 2014-2015, but it is very unlikely that India especially, would fall for such propaganda this time around. Before 2015, there was no Chinese-run port in Hambantota. After the regime change in 2015 now there is one. India knows better than anybody else that if this government continues for another five years, there is no telling what else they will see coming to Sri Lanka as the yahapalana government sells parts of the country off to the highest bidder.

India knows through experience that what they need on their southern border is an independent country with a strong government that can run the economy properly and does not have a policy of selling off strategic assets to foreign parties. The government in Sri Lanka also should have a leadership strong enough to be able to give India the guarantees that it needs that Sri Lankan territory will not be used to the detriment of India. If the Rajapaksas do not win this election, India is going to be in deeper ordure than it is in already.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Attorney-at-law Maj. (retd) Ajith Prasanna, yesterday, urged the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) which probed the Easter Sunday carnage, Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri, MP, not to release his report until SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem appeared before the PSC.

Addressing the media, at Dr. N. M. Perera Centre, the former UPFA Southern Provincial Council member pointed out that Minister Hakeem, as a member of Kumarasiri’s PSC, owed the outfit as well as the public an explanation as to the revelation that he met Easter Sunday bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim in Kattankudy, in 2015, to discuss allocation of some National List seats.  The allegation was made by a Moulavi, who complained to Police Headquarters about Hakeem’s links to Zaharan.

Ajith Prasanna addressed the media in his capacity as the convenor of the Mawbima Wenuven Ranaviruwo (War Heroes for Motherland) – one of the groups backing wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s candidature at the Nov. 2019 presidential election.

Ajith Prasanna said that the PSC shouldn’t release its report without an explanation from Minister Hakeem.

Pointing out that the PSC had gone to the extent of recording a statement from President Maithripala Sirisena on the issue, Maj. Ajith Prasanna insisted Minister Hakeem be similarly summoned. “The report can be delayed by a few days to accommodate Minister Hakeem’s statement,” the lawyer said.

Referring to a statement made by Minister Hakeem at a rally held in support of New Democratic Front (DNF) presidential candidate over the weekend, Ajith Prasanna emphasised the urgent need to ascertain why the SLMC leader had met Zahran Hashim. Although Minister Hakeem said his meeting Zahran Hashim had been videoed soon after the last parliamentary election, the PSC should inquire into the possibility of subsequent meetings.

Ajith Prasanna, formerly of the Sixth Battalion of the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (6 SLSR) had to give up front-line duties after being injured in fighting at Atchuveli in the Jaffna peninsula on October 1, 1995.

Lawyer Ajith Prasanna said that Zahran Hashim hadplayed a significant role in Kattankudy politics at the last presidential and parliamentary polls in 2015. Referring to a media conference given by the NFGG (National Front for Good Governance) leader Abdul Rahuman in late May 2019, Maj. Ajith Prasanna said that Rahuman had admitted that political parties contesting the Batticaloa district at the 2015 parliamentary poll met Zahran Hashim at the latter’s Kattankudy office. “Wouldn’t it be necessary to identify who met Zahran Hashim on behalf of the SLMC?” Maj. Ajith Prasanna asked.

Rahuman held the media briefing at the Mandarina Hotel on Galle road.

Maj. Ajith Prasanna said that a comprehensive inquiry was required to ascertain the links between Zahran Hashim and registered political parties as well as other political outfits.

Rahuman contested the Batticaloa district on the SLMC ticket in keeping with a tripartite agreement among the UNP, SLMC and the NFGG.

Responding to another query, Maj. Ajith Prasanna pointed out that though the media reported that the then Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah had had a clandestine meeting with a group of Saudi nationals in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Sunday carnage, the PSC never bothered to question him on that issue.

The PSC consisted of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka (UNP National List), Ravi Karunanayake (UNP), Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne (UNP National List), Ashu Marasinghe (UNP National List), Dr. Rajitha Senaratne (UNP), M.A. Sumanthiran (TNA) and Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa (JVP).

Dr. Senaratne was brought in after UNP MP Dr. Kavinda Jayawardena declined to participate in the PSC process.

Attorney-at-law Ajith Prasanna said that the ongoing police investigations into the Easter Sunday carnage had taken a new turn with the revelation of the SLMC leader’s powpow with Zahran. The former PC member pointed out that President Sirisena had, on 21 Sep., appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate Easter Sunday attacks.

The Gazette Extraordinary notification issued on Sept 20, 2019 said that the five-member Commission, chaired by Court of Appeal Justice Janak de Silva, would comprise CA Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunarathna, CA Judge (retd) Nihal Sunil Rajapaksa, High Court Judge (retd) Atapattu Liyanage Bandula Kumara Atapattu, and W. M. M. Adikari Retired Ministry Secretary.

Maj. Ajith Prasanna said that the bottomline was that the PSC had lost its credibility due to the father of two of Zahran’s accomplice had been the JVP’s National List at the last parliamentary polls.

Laksiri Warnakula

Rev. MP (I opted for the initials to keep anonymity) was feared by even the tough fisherfolk. He was short and stocky with a complexion, which was quite fair by any standard and made his roundish chubby face turn red when he was angry. My uncles said that he was a Monsignor and was probably left in charge of a medium-sized church in a small parish by the bishop of the Diocese, knowing his reputation of being a no-nonsense cleric with no small temperament. 

Now on my way to the ‘Confessional’, where Rev. MP sat, waiting to hear his parishioners’ confessions and then absolve them of their sins, which he could do as he became a temporal representative of God after his ordination as a priest.

With a pounding heart and a giddying head, I finally make it to face Rev. MP. He sat inside the ‘Confessional’ with his head bent as if he was in prayer.  He blesses me as I kneel down on the pedestal that ran along on the side of the ’Confessional’. His face was only inches away from mine with a partition in between that had an intricate design of lattice work. I could see his face, only as a collection of pale patches separated by wooden strips on the lattice with little gaps in between and I am sure he could see mine too as a vague little roundish shape speckled with alternating little shades of dark brown and light brown.

I launch into the feared recital cautiously starting off with minor sins or ‘sulu pau’ (in my opinion, of course) such as hitting Frank that robust for his age troublemaker in my class across his face stopping him straight away as he menacingly advanced towards me with clenched fists. Or pinching Didi so hard that it must have hurt him so much that he couldn’t even scream and instead made him empty his bladder right in the middle of the church floor as our flock of little boys squatted and listened to the sermon. The news finally reached the principal or ‘Loku iskola mahaththaya’ and the reward for hurting Didi came in the form of caning by him as I stood on the little stage facing a crowd of my school mates, who seemed very amused and thrilled by the whole spectacle. By the way I must give it to Didi that he didn’t report it to any one and it was only few others, who witnessed the scuffle and reported it to the teachers with no malicious intent though, I am sure.

Now moving further away from ‘sulu pau’ and towards not so ‘sulu pau’ (in my opinion, once again) such as picking few coins that my grandfather left on his table and then forgot all about them, thanks to his failing memory. And, I, on the other hand, couldn’t forget the sight of those oil cakes (konda kewum) that were tantalisingly sitting in a glass cupboard at Peter ayiyas’ little boutique and my grandfathers’ forgotten little change was indeed very helpful to me in securing a couple of those sweet delights. 

Around fifteen or twenty minutes later, including few minutes of a probing- interrogation as to why I skipped that particular Sunday mass,  I am back kneeling down in front of the altar saying the prayers, usually ten ‘Hail Marys’ and five ‘Our Fathers’ or so as penance for my sins. Rev. MP probably thought that it was good enough as penance this time, for this lot of sins of a child, whom he knew was still lying to him even when he was in the middle of the ‘Confession’, for fear of admonition and now was stammering rather excitedly as he tried to explain why he couldn’t attend that Sunday mass.

I am sure he took the above fact into consideration too, when he ordered the number of prayers to say in penance. You couldn’t fool Rev. MP. He could recognise a lie from miles away, even when it was still in infancy, a tiny nucleus of an idea in your mind just beginning to take shape. And when the liar was a ten year old child, well, you can guess! Finally, it’s over and having finished my prayers and I run back to the playground to join my friends.  

Lastly I must make myself absolutely clear here as far as the objective of this article is concerned. It is written with a slightly amusing slant and a modicum of humour and is only a reflection on those long-gone years of my childhood.

All my folks have been Catholics for a few generations and as someone, who has been brought up amongst them, I know that the ‘Confession’ is a sacred religious rite (Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation) and is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. So to all, who might see this in a different light, please accept my sincerest apologies. Poking fun at this religious rite sacred to all Catholics was the furthest thing from my mind, when I wrote this.

The incidents and the people mentioned here are not fictional but were very real once upon a time, which was many years ago. And some of them are certainly not amongst the living now. Though they all come and visit me now and then, regardless: vague shapes emerging from a misty past that keep losing clarity and contour as years go by.

Laksiri Warnakula

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The National and common presidential candidate had a series of successful and highly attended meetings in the areas coming under the landscape popularly referred to as ‘the Catholic Belt’ – kiribathgoda, Katana, Ragama, Negombo etc., – in which Catholic MPs Nimal Lansa, Arundika Fernando and several others made emotional speeches about the Easter Sundage carnage and the government’s deliberate negligence to prevent the bomb blasts even at the last moment and pointed out that government Ministers and MPs did not attend Easter Sunday services in their neighbourhood churches on that day because they were well aware what was going to happen on that melancholic day.  It was also pointed out that Minister Harin Fernando had told the media that he did not attend church on that day because his father told him that there will be bomb blasts in churches on that day.

 They said not a single government Minister or MP despite their awareness of the looming carnage did not take any action at least to keep the priests of the churches informed.  All the MPs emphasized that all Ministers and MPs in the government should be held responsible for the unfortunate deaths of over 250 people and nearly 500 people injured and colossal damages done to the churches. They also stated that some of the injured people are still hospitalised and some have become disabled.

Addressing the meeting held in Negombo, which is considered as Sri Lanka’s Vatican, on October 19^th Saturdat, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa promised to fulfil His Eminence Cardinal’s request.

He asserted that under his administration, he would appoint the presidential commission that His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had been requesting for, to uncover the persons responsible for the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

Mr. Rajapaksa also vowed to restore the disrupted security measures and to make the country a safe haven again.

Attending a public meeting held in Ragama, Mr. Rajapaksa claimed that the incumbent government failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite receiving all the necessary information on the date and the venues where the attacks would take place.

Toda, October 21^st in the date this article was written it is exactly 6 months from the Easter Sunday carnage.  Up to now the government has not apologized for the havoc.  The ignoramus UNP candidate Sajith Premadasa keeps on shrieking and thumping on the chest at his meetings uttering nonsense but so far bot a single word of apology has been made on behalf of the unfortunate victims of this butchery.  Killing people is not a matter to be regretted for this man who proudly calls himself as the son of his father Ranasinghe Premadasa and the one who is possessing the genes of Premadasa who was responsible for the death of over 60,000 southern youth.  

His Eminence Cardinal Dr. Malcolm Ranjith who became very annoyed and saddened over this carnage urged that all officials who received prior information about the bombings but did not take any action to prevent them should be removed along with the country’s leadership, The  Archbishop made these commands at a  Sunday mass held at St. Lucia’s Cathedral in Kotahena to commemorate those killed in the Easter Sunday attacks and invoke blessings on the injured.

The prelate said that the Easter Sunday bombings had come as a shock to him and he was still grief-stricken like millions of others. He emphasized that not only the officials who had not acted on an intelligence warning of terror attacks but also the rulers were responsible for the tragic incidents.

The cardinal added that a large number of people had been killed and injured in the attack not because of God’s will but because of the evil of men and those who were incapable of taking responsibility must be removed from their positions and from the leadership of the country.

He said some terrorists were still at large and they thought they could escape punishment and if they were not punished by courts, there would be divine justice. Those who failed to punish those involved in acts of terror would be punished by God .

The cardinal added that those who were trying to use the tragedy to get their personal gains and political agendas fulfilled would also be punished by God.

A large number of relatives of the victims of the bombings attended the mass.

Addressing a seminar held at Bolawalana, the Archbishop while blaming the government  for its deliberate negligence to prevent the suicide bombings, said that  they are not bothered about whether an election is held or not but what they want is to know the truth about the background to this carnage and the innocent people, men, women and children were massacred in this manner?

Many religious, social and political analysts have pointed out that Sri Lanka is fortunate to have a person in the stature of His Eminence Cardinal Dr. Malcolm Ranjith as the Archbishop of the country at the time of the Easter Sunday carnage and if there was a myopic person in his place there could  have been a horrendous bloodbath in the country and religious riots.  They said that all Sri Lankans should be immensely thankful for Cardinal Dr. Malcolm Ranjith for preventing such a calamity and ensuring peace and harmony in the country. 

In a special appeal to the Muslims in Sri Lanka the Archbishop called on all Muslims in the country to personally minimise and shed their cultural differences and integrate with the rest of society and the common culture, as one people and citizens of the country. He said that Muslim politicians, should be authentic in their faith and the core values of Islam instead of using religion as a label or for selfish purposes.

The Cardinal along with several Buddhist religious leaders, also claimed that regional level leadership of various political parties and politically aligned groups and agents at the base and grassroots level were the lynch mobs who fuelled and motivated by the provision and consumption of alcohol behind the spate of tense and riotous situations and violent attacks, in the past couple of days, targeting Muslim properties, including shops and mosques, in certain areas which led to the imposition of curfew and arrests. They thus called on all leaders of political parties to rein in and control their Party members and henchmen.

Advocating on behalf of the private nature of religion and worship, and the separation of religion from politics and vice versa, the religious leaders also reiterated their call to ban all national level political parties which contained references to race, ethnicity or religion in the names of their Parties as it only served to cause further divisions. They emphasised that, political candidates representing minorities should be able to contest from national level Parties for even the Presidency and Premiership, and should respect diversity.

It was also the view of the Cardinal and other religious leaders that all affairs pertaining to religion should be brought under the purview of one Government Ministry as was previously the case as opposed to having separate Ministries per religion.        

These views were expressed by Archbishop Ranjith and Chief Prelate of the Kotte Chapter of the Siam Sect, Ven. Ittepane Dhammalankara Thera at a Media conference convened at the Archbishop’s house in Colombo to make a special appeal for the public to refrain from giving vent to their emotions and causing chaos, taking the law into their own hands owing to a misguided sense of faux heroism and thereby disturbing the peace and unity, and instead act intelligently and patriotically, keeping emotions in check, maintaining calm, exercising compassion, love and patience, respecting dignity and individual liberty and freedom, and allow and assist the law enforcement authorities to carry out their duties, including search operations and obey their orders as that would constitute the highest tribute to be paid to those whose lives were sacrificed in the 21 April Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks on churches, hotels and elsewhere.

Archbishop Ranjith urged all to allow for Buddhists and Muslims to celebrate their forthcoming festivals, Vesak and Ramadan, respectively. 

When questioned as to Tamil National Alliance MP, President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran’s recent statement that the Easter Sunday carnage was partially the result of the grievances of the minorities not being addressed by the Government, Archbishop Ranjith whilst acknowledging that minorities had legitimate problems which should be separately discussed and resolved. He pointed out that there was no evidence to indicate a direct link between the Easter Sunday attacks and unaddressed issues facing the minorities, and that therefore Sumanthiran’s claim was a case of overreach.

The Archbishop also took the security forces personnel to task over the recent incidents which revealed that areas and places previously searched and swept by law enforcement during search ops had revealed more weapons. We told them to do a thorough search area by area, house by house, irrespective of religion, yet this went unheeded, he noted. The searches have not been done properly, he further added.

He also bemoaned that their call to appoint a commission to probe the assets of politicians had fallen on deaf ears.

On Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s recent claim that Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist country, and not a Sinhalese country the two religious leaders said that such a view was one bereft of even the most rudimentary understanding of the country, its history and culture. The Archbishop also cited examples of how well Christians and Catholics were treated in Sri Lanka when compared to the treatment afforded them in other Christian and Catholic countries (example – separate seats for clergy in public transportation).

D6espite these conciliatory and pacifying moves by these two religious leaders and many other religious leaders and erudite scholars the vicious elements similar to Sumanthiran, some Sumanthirams in the Sinhala community also attempted to espouse hatred and communalism among the Sinhalese as well.  They were only blood thirsty and were not concerned at all about that could cause to this country.  A person calling himself as Ratanapala” without giving his full name or proper identification writing an article to Lankaweb news-site under the title Easter Sunday bombings – Islamic terror and R2P – clash of the Barbarians”.  Exract from the opening paragraph of his article and writer’s comments are given below:

On 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday – on the holiest day in the Christian Calendar, suicide bombers simultaneously attacked three Catholic Churches and three 5 – Star Hotels in Sri Lanka killing over 250 including nearly 40 foreigners visiting the island. The reason for attacking the Catholics and White Foreigners can be adduced to ISIS losing territory in the Middle-east to Christchurch massacre of Muslims by a white nationalist in New Zealand.

It seems that the so-called Ratanapala unfortunately does not know who the ISIS are, who invented this terror group and for what purpose it was invented?  ISIS was a strategic terrorist group invented by the United States when they found Russian influence is increasing in Iraq and Syria extensive and these two countries would become appendages of Russia and it is necessary to install American puppet regimes in these two countries.  American aspirations have not succeeded and the ISIS has suffered heavy casualties recently.  At the same time, America is also very much worried about increasing Chinese influence in South Asia and was looking forward to destabilise these countries and establish a base in lieu of the Diego Garcia island in order to arrest and contain the Chinese influence..  Accordingly they have chosen Sri Lanka as the ideal location and the Easter Sunday carnage was a part of their plan to foment Muslim-Catholic clashes in the country thus paving the way for them to assume the role of peace keepers and establish a command base and maintain a puppet government in the country.  Do you think that it was because they like you and me and other Sri6 Lankans they proposed t0 grant U.S.$ 480 Million grant under a project named MCC. 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was to sign the SOFA agreement even without cabinet approval under which comes the MCC project on 27^th October, 2019 and President Maithreepala Sirisena forced to dodge it by appointing Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa on the previous day of the Ranil-American D-Day and launching Sri Lanka’s October Revolution. After getting re-instated with the help of the TNA Ranil attempted to get cabinet approval twice for the SOFA agreement but it was stalled by the President.  

President’s Counsel Ali Sabry commenting on the Easter Sunday carnage said that the number of members in terrorist leader Zahran Hashim’s group grew significantly following the ethnic clashes in March last year and that this goes to show extremism feeds extremism.

He said Zahran’s terrorist group had only 20-25 members in the past, but after last year’s unfo6rtunate clashes in Digana a large number of youths had joined them and this has been confirmed through intelligence reports.

It is also pertinent to present here a comprehensive investigative report on the Easter Sunday carnage posted by the Colombo correspondent of the Indian daily The Hindu” Meena Srinivasan.

Meera says that at first, they were nameless. Nine suicide bombers,” is all authorities would reveal. In a little over a week, the police identified each of them and their stories began coming out. A month after a messy web of disgruntled radicals emerged, throwing up troubling hints of how readily rage can court terror.

She says that Zahran Hashim, 33, was a radical preacher and was the alleged ringleader, who f6ound little acceptance in his hometown Kattankudy, in eastern Batticaloa. Mosques in the predom6inantly Muslim town rejected him outright and their members even complained to authorities, before he went absconding in 2017 after a clash with a fellow priest who challenged his interpretation of Islam.

But soon, a team of young Muslim men — and one woman — from other, mostly Sinhala-majority, areas eagerly joined him on his Easter mission to carry out a suicide attack on churches and high-end hotels in and around Colombo and Batticaloa. All nine bombers were in their 20s and 30s.

Ms. Srinicasan states that they were radicalised at different times, for different reasons, and in varying measures and they encountered Hashim on social media or in person. She adds that in him they saw a mentor who could give their lives purpose and direction. With time and interaction, their shared cause acquired considerable weight — enough for them to pledge their lives for it.

She states that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), w6ho conducted the probe, have traced all nine to two jihadist organisations — National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ), led by Hashim, and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI), a less formal group of youth who had met on social media.

Marred by internal power struggles,Meera says that the two organisations gradually became less relevant for Hashim’s team as its focus shifted to a new mission in the last six months. They were bound by ideology and connected by technology.

And on April 21, the nine bombers killed over 250 people, including 45 children, drawing attention to the underground terror network they had built quietly and efficiently, even as the rest of Sri Lanka was enjoying a relative post-civil war calm.

Ishana Exports is a nearly three decade-old spice export company. Its founder Y.M. Ibrahim is widely known as 6a millionaire with modest beginnings, and an ever-ready philanthropist. He has friends of all political hues, and they all respect him. In natural course, his sons would have inherited his business, fortune, and possibly all that goodwill. Instead, they chose to become suicide bombers. The CID has detained their father for questioning.

An extremely mild-mannered and polite young man.” That is how a senior staff member at Ishana Exports remembers his boss’s son Inshaf Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim. Even as a child he was not mischievous. He was a lovely child,” said a family member.

Inshaf, 33, went to D.S. Senanayake College, he didn’t go to university but learned the tricks of the spice trade.

Of nine siblings, only Inshaf and Ilham — the second and third sons — were directly involved in the business. Both were on the board of directors. Inshaf was more actively engaged, said company sources. Th6e two often travelled on work, including to India.

Though he [Inshaf] was technically our boss, he never gave orders. He would say ‘can you please do this’, as if he were asking a favour,” said an employee, who asked not to be named. Ilham, 31, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have evoked a similar warmth. Ilham was a loner, he rarely showed up at family events or spoke to people. He was very introverted. We hardly even know him,” said a family member.

It was not until a year ago that employees and family noticed a change in the two brothers.

Inshaf often objected to his father’s practice of taking short-term loans on interest for rotating cash. He said our 6religion does not permit borrowing money on interest and we must stop it,” a senior employee rec6alled. It’s something Muslims often hear their preachers say, but their father — with a practical business sense — did not consider it an offence.

• At least two arrests made after the attacks suggest that young IT professionals were among those associated with JMI.
• Investigators say they suspect Aadhil Ameez, 24, a software engineer who might have provided technical and logistical support to the bombers, to have been a link between different jihadist units.
• A Reuters report reveals that Ameez — who calls himself Aadhil Ax — has been under Indian surveillance from 2016, when he was found to be in touch with two suspects linked to a plot targeting Ahmedabad and with three Indians promoting the IS.
• Ameez was from Dharga Town, near Aluthgama on the southern coast, where Muslims faced large-scale, targeted violence in 2012. As in Digana in 2018, the attacks seemed part of a pattern. It was repeated6 last week in parts of Kurunegala and Gampaha, when mobs torched Muslim-owned shops and homes.
• Ameez is believed to have interned with IT company Virtusa in 2013, where one employee was recently arrested for suspected links with the Easter attacks. We don’t know if he played a role, but there are indications that this employee met Hashim on April 6,” said a senior investigating officer.

Inshaf continued to run a copper factory that he had set up some five years earlier, in Wellampitiya, 5 km from the family’s plush villa in the Colombo suburb, Dematagoda. Ilham managed a part of the spice sourcing for his father’s company.

Inshaf continued to visit the office, dealing with employees as cordially as before. A company source said there was no drastic change in Inshaf’s appearance. He only sported a slightly longer beard, I noticed. But ma6ny people do that.” He wore formals or the usual jeans and T-shirt.

He came last on April 18.” That was four days before he blew himself up at Colombo’s Cinnamon Grand Hotel, just as Ilham and mastermind Hashim did at the nearby Shangri-La hotel.

The same day, Ilham’s pregnant wife Fathima blasted explosives strapped to her body as the police surrounded the Dematagoda house, where Ilham’s family lived on the top floor. Their three children as well as three policemen died on the spot.

Investigators believe the brothers came in contact with Hashim via Facebook and private chat rooms. The bond seems to have grown over time, with Ilham becoming a key funder of the Easter plot, according to a top officer.

The CCTV footage from Taj Samudra that Sri Lankan television played, showed a restless Abdul Latheef Jameel M666ohamed seated at a restaurant, fiddling with his backpack. Minutes later, he walked out after a botched suicide attack. Without a clue of the terror he was carrying on his shoulders, staff helped him wheel out his bigger bags to the porch. Five hours later, he blew himself up in a small hotel in a southern suburb of Dehiwala, killing at least two other guests.

As a teenager, Jameel was a motivated student. He pursued aerospace engineering at Kingston University in southwest London from 2006 to 2007, and later went to Melbourne for postgraduation. Australian immigration records show that he left Australia in 2013.

Jameel’s sister Samsul Hidaya told Daily Mail that he was normal” when he went to study in Britain. But after Australia, he returned to Sri Lanka a different man,” she was quoted as saying. The Australian reported that the police had marked Jameel for his apparent terrorist leanings, based on evidence linking him 6to IS recruiter Neil Prakash, one of Australia’s most wanted jihadists.

Others, however, believe Jameel was radicalised earlier, in the U.K., where he met notorious British Islamist Anjem Choud66ary. Jameel’s friends also told media that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 had deeply affected him when he was in his early 20s.

According to investigators, Jameel returned t0 Sri Lanka in 2014, after a failed attempt to travel to Syria. He could go only up to Turkey,” an officer said. Back home, he lived with his wife and four children in Wellampitiya, the Colombo suburb where Inshaf’s copper factory is located.

Jameel and the Ibrahim brothers knew each other well,” said a senior investigator. Initially, it was Ilham who linked up with Jameel online. Later, they were all part of JMI.”

Like Jameel, Alawdeen Ahmed Muath too was a motivated student. He graduated in law from a college in Colombo and was registered to practise. Following his wedding a year ago, Muath mostly lived in Sainthamaruthu, his wife’s hometown in the Eastern Province. The town, less than an hour’s drive from Kattankudy, where Hashim was based, came into focus when troops found 15 bodies inside a house on April 27. After an overnight gun battle between security forces and suspects, three suicide bombers triggered explosions, killing themselves, six children and three women inside.

Among the dead were Hashim’s father and two brothers, including Rilwan Hashim, later identified by investigators as an explosives expert”. The jihadists were tenants on the first floor of a small house in a crammed tsunami resettlement colony. Muath, officers say, likely met the Hashims in Sainthamaruthu.

Muath would visit us now and then. He last came [home] on April 14 to see his sister’s newborn. His wife was pregnant, their baby was also due soon. Muath bought baby clothes and left for Sainthamaruthu,” his father said in court.

On Easter morning, Muath’s wife called the family to ask if they knew where he was. Then came news of the blast. On M6ay 5, Muath’s baby was born, a fortnight after the father took his life and that of many others, at St. Anthony’s church in Colombo.

Hashim’s network was not restricted to the nine Easter bombers. Over the years, he had found allies and fans in different cities. For instance, the Abdul-Haq brothers in Mawanella, some 25 km from Kandy, who were on the run from December 2018. That’s when Buddha statues in Mawanella, which is home to a sizeable Sinhala-Buddhist population, were vandalised. At least six people were arrested, but Mohammad Sadik Abdul-Haq and Mohammad Shaheed Abdul-Haq went into hiding. They were caught days after the Easter terror attacks.

Military intelligence sources said they have not found any evidence of the duo’s role in the Easter bombings, but other investigators indicated that Sadik likely trained some of the bombers.

of their role, their backstory gives a peek into how some crucial links in Sri Lanka’s Islamist radical m6atrix go back years. Their story also reveals how raging anger can swiftly morph into a thirst for revenge, making an indoctrinator’s job easy.

Hashim visited a mosque near Mawanella over eight years ago and, typically, made more enemies than friends before being barred from preaching there. Hashim would frequently argue that our preachers were wrong in their practice of Islam. After a point, they realised he was a trouble-maker and asked him not to come,” said an official at the Mawanella masjid.

The brothers grew up in Mawanella in a pious family. Their father Ibrahim Moulavi was a well-respected preacher and a member of the local Jamaat-e-Islami, an influential socio-religious organisation. Sadik failed his A Levels but was known for his karate skills. He was very athletic,” the source said. Sadik and Sha6heed met Hashim once or twice” at that time, said a source close to the family.

Investigators can’t confirm these earlier meetings, but believe the brothers gravitated towards Hashim later, in 2017, enticed by his doctrinal videos. From our investigation, it appears they got close in 2018, months before getting the statue vandalising assignment from Hashim,” a senior officer said.

Meanwhile, friends of the brothers were aware of their growing radicalism. In fact, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its youth wing, Sri Lanka Islamic Students’ Movement, expelled them four years ago. Sadik went to Turkey on a scholarship and promised to return in three months but stayed on for over four months. We heard he went to Syria from there,” said one member.

On his return, Sadik tried usurping leadership of the organisation, and was expelled. He grew a long beard, his wife began to wea6r the face veil, not very common among Muslims in Mawanella. Shaheed too changed his attire. Their father tried bringing them back on track. Instead, they tactfully drew Moulavi to their radical line,” said a relative. The father had to be expelled from Jamaat-e-Islami less than a year ago. He challenged our constitution,” said a member.

Then, the defacing of the Buddha statues put them back in the spotlight. Friends and family members of the duo point to two likely triggers for the brothers’ growing slant towards radicalism.

Mawanella experienced a spate of violent anti-Muslim attacks in 2001 that shook the town. Fearing more losses to business and property, Muslims did not retaliate. Sadik and Shaheed were in their late teens at the time.

In 2018, Digana, located 40 km east of Mawanella, witnessed one of the worst targeted attacks on Muslims in years. Following a ro6ad rage incident, at least one Muslim youth died, and Muslim-owned property worth millions was burnt down. Many saw the incident as a crude expression of a resurgent Sinhala-Buddhist extremism.

It must have impacted Sadik very much. Why Sadik, it affected all of us. I was very disturbed that these hardline groups were getting away with such deplorable actions,” says a young professional, in his early 30s, who knew the brothers from childhood. We all felt the same rage. The only difference was in how we chose to express it — emotionally or rationally. Sadik was always emotional and aggressive, the kind whose hands would speak first even when someone violated traffic rules.”

A few others in Mawanella, Kattankudy and Colombo echoed similar sentiments. As much as they vehemently condemned the terror attacks, they seemed to appreciate why their friends or relatives had turned radical. They say radicalism and terrorism have many roots. The feeling of injustice must surely be one,” said the young p6rofessional.

He recalled Hashim’s Facebook cover picture from late 2018. I remember it said in Arabic ‘we are going to conspire against your statues’. It must have spoken directly to Sadik and Shaheed’s anger.” As it turned out, Hashim — who staunchly opposed idol worship — chose the brothers for the statue vandalism that investigators, in retrospect, see as an important precursor to the Easter attacks.

The many hazy links Hashim had with radical youth appear to have firmed up into an informal alliance in 2016, at a wedding. Investigators said: It was at a wedding in Kattankudy. Many JMI members went for it. We think Ilham and Jameel were also there.” Beginning then, most in the group stayed in touch largely through WhatsApp and Telegram, even after Hashim went into hiding in 2017.

But the real close circle,” investigators said, was formed mid-2018, with no specific mission but probably as some sort of preparation” for a future attack. Investigators point to the clue they saw in the huge cache of explosives unearthed in January in Wanathawilluwa town, near Wilpattu national park.

The Easter plot itself seems to have come to shape much later. From our interrogation of suspects, it is evident that Hashim spoke of attacking churches,” said a senior officer. He thinks the plot was provoked by the Christchurch killings in New Zealand in which over 50 Muslims, kneeling in prayer, were shot dead.

Others are less certain. The Christchurch attack was mid-March. A well-coordinated, sophisticated attack of this nature will need meticulous planning and longer preparation time,” said a senior officer. There is little evidence to support that theory.”

In fact, one of the main questions that remains is whether the suspects had a direct channel to the IS leaders6hip,” he said. Evidence shows that some suspects, including Jameel and Hashim’s brother Rilwan, were in touch with two of the five main Sri Lankan IS fighters who went to Syria some years ago. But none of the bombers had direct links with the IS leadership.

One of the Sri Lankan jihadists that Rilwan had been speaking to died in 2017; and another, whom Jameel knew, is in custody, reportedly in Turkey. They were two of the first five fighters who left from 2015 to Turkey and Syria. They left with their entire families. That is how politicians came up with that number,” he said, referring to the over 30 Sri Lankan youth” who, politicians say, joined the IS.

It is unclear if Hashim was independently in touch with the IS leadership. He often claimed to have received instructions from Sham,” referring to Syria, in his videos and conversations with recruits.

Investigators are also grappling with another contradiction — the target. Why did the Islamist radicals choose to attack a fellow minority community with whom they had no enmity?

In the raid in Sainthamaruthu, troops not only found explosives, but also white dresses that Buddhist women usually wear for temple visits or prayers. This has sparked doubts of whether the attacks were planned for the Buddhist festival of Vesak — May 18-19 — or for the July Kandy Perahara, known for its procession of traditional dancers and parades of elephants. Every year, tens of thousands of people are on Kandy’s streets to witness this spectacle.

Some investigators wondered if an initial plot, planned against Sinhala-Buddhists, had been hijacked by an external element” at a later stage. In other words, did an individual or group abroad use an already activated local radical group to put out its own message to the Western world? There are no clear answers yet.

It also looks as if JMI members initially hoped to join the IS in Syria. But after the ‘fall’ of the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria, they had to put off the plan, an official source said. Ever since, Ilham was desperate to execute an attack in Sri Lanka. He found his answer in the Easter plot.”

His brother Inshaf appears to have been roped in at the last stage. He had flight tickets booked for himself and his family for Mecca this May.

It was only weeks before the Easter weekend that they have evolved into a proper team, with their specific roles charted out. In the final weeks, they communicated using ‘Threema’, an encrypted messenger service considered highly secure, according to an officer.

Now, after extensive searches and key arrests, officers are confident of having virtually eliminated the threat. However, investigators continue to connect the dots — old and new — to deconstruct the deadly operation. Gaps remain,” a senior officer admitted.

Further probes will reveal if the plot was accelerated after Christchurch or if the target shifted at some point, but what is clear is that the suicide bombers had harboured enough rage in recent years to willingly embrace terror and execute a ruthless act. After that, the date, venue and target were merely details.(END)

Editorial Courtesy The Island

October 21, 2019, 8:58 pm

 It is said that victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan. Everybody now wants to take the credit for defeating terrorism. Those who opposed the war tooth and nail and condemned the military, during the height of the Vanni conflict, are now using former war-winning army commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to score political points.

Fonseka has sought to settle old scores with SLPP presidential candidate and war-time Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa by claiming that the latter was not involved in planning military operations, which were prepared and executed by service commanders, according to him. Earlier, he claimed that the Navy had made no contribution whatsoever to the war victory, and it was only operating a fleet of ‘fishing boats.’ He seems to have changed his attitude towards the Navy, which was led by his bete noire Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda during the war.

Who really won the war? Was it Fonseka or the Rajapaksas or Karannagoda or the war-time Air Force Commander Roshan Goonathilake? We believe that it was the right combination that worked. Fonseka, no doubt, played a pivotal role in defeating the LTTE. So did other service commanders and their officers and men. The credit for that feat should also go to the police, who foiled many a terrorist bid to blast nerve centres in the city, and the Civil Defence Force personnel, the unsung heroes.

The war would never have been over but for the bold political leadership. Several army commanders before Fonseka failed to defeat the LTTE because governments under which they served lacked the courage to fight the war to a finish. Fighting was still on when Fonseka reached the retirement age and the then President Rajapaska gave him an extension in service at the instance of the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That proves that the then government leaders had recognised Fonseka’s outstanding contribution to the war and wanted him to continue as the army commander. One can also argue that but for that extension, Fonseka would not have been the war winning army chief.

If the Navy, under Vice Admiral Karannagoda’s command, had not destroyed the LTTE’s naval wing, Prabhakran would have taken delivery of many more consignments of sophisticated weapons to match the army’s fire power, and the supplies to the North would have been crippled. It was the naval intelligence that revealed in early Noughties that under the UNP-led UNF government, the LTTE was using a fragile ceasefire to move its big guns to the East and North so as to have the Trincomalee harbour and the Palali airstrip within their range; it was preparing to mount simultaneous attacks on those facilities to cripple the supplies to the North. Had that plan worked, the troops would have been trapped in the North. When the LTTE pulled out of the ceasefire, it successfully targeted the Trinco harbour and the Palali airstrip but precautions had been taken to meet the threat.

The manner in which the Navy with the help of its meagre assets accomplished extremely difficult tasks such as destroying the LTTE’s floating armouries on the high seas may have made the commanders of the blue water navies turn green with envy. The Air Force neutralised the LTTE positions for the ground troops to advance. The STF kept the LTTE at bay, especially in the East.

Nobody would have been able to brag about the war victory if the political leadership had buckled under international pressure in 2009. The then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner rushed here in a bid to stop the war, days before its conclusion. The army would have had to stop its advance if President Rajapaksa had given in to them.

Ironically, Field Marshal Fonseka has undertaken to protect national security as a member of a team that went all out to scuttle the country’s war effort and ridiculed him as a person unfit to lead even the Salvation Army. Those who praised him as the best army commander in the entire world now claim that they would have been able to win the war without him!

Fonseka’s contention that the political leadership and the Defence Secretary had no role to play in preparing the strategy to defeat terror is counterproductive. He aspires to be the Defence Minister in case of NDF presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa’s victory. Going by his aforesaid argument, he as the Defence Minister would have no role to play in preparing military plans in case of terrorism raising its ugly head again; that task would have to be left to the future military commanders, according to Fonseka’s own logic. In other words, in the event of Premadasa winning, to ensure national security, his government would need good military commanders and not a former army commander as the Defence Minister.

Fonseka should be asked whether he, as the Defence Minister of a future government, led by a group of opponents of war advocating appeasement, would be able to fight a war in case of terrorism re-emerging. The Rajapaksas need to be asked whether they would be equal to the task of countering terrorism again without military commanders of Fonseka’s calibre.

Moderated by Rishini Weeraratne Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal responded to a few questions posed to him by viewers during a live interview conducted on Facebook. Here, he spoke about the growth of the economy during his tenure, where it has gone wrong, allegations on bond issues and the future of certain political factions.
Excerpts : 

Live interview on DM online​

Q The economy grew from USD 24 billion to USD 79 billion during your period as the Governor. What would you say was the main reason for this?

We were prepared for the challenge of taking the economy forward. We didn’t come during early 2006 and say we must find what to do. We were ready with the plans and focused areas we were going to work on and started on each of those areas together. Sometimes we cannot wade through one to the other, but have to do several things together. That was our key thrust. Then we started on the development, dealing with the war and that helped us to give confidence to the rest of the country and stakeholders and their were results. Each year there was an incremental way in which it was going forward and it gave more confidence to people. 

Q  Recently you presented a 12-point revival plan and said that the rupee should be 150 per USD. Don’t you think that’s a little too ambitious?

What happened was at the beginning of 2018 the rupee was at 150 and then just a year later it was 183. If the rupee could have depreciated in one year why can’t the opposite happen? Why are we thinking that we cannot do it? I’m sure we can with the right conditions put in place. I think what we need is to have confidence restored back into the economy. Once that happens and investments come back and other macro-fundamentals start moving in the right direction. 

Q Hoteliers have been agitated for years. Municipality and Local Government licence fees based on up to 1% tax on turnover based on the hotel industry. They feel this is an unfair tax where they are singled out in comparison to other sectors such as banking, insurance etc where they only take Rs. 5000. What are your comments?

Many industries have told us that they have been taxed unfairly. These include the banking sector, hotels, small and medium enterprise sector, professionals and various traders who have been taxed unfairly. I think hoteliers have a very good reason to be agitated because they have been made to pay many taxes. I believe we need to rationalise all these quickly. That’s why the first part of the plan that I have presented suggests that we should cut taxes at least by 20%. Some of these obnoxious taxes such as those on apartment sales and remittances need to be scrapped because they are inhibiting growth. Tourism is a sector that we want to support, which will touch people and filter down fast. It’s much better to forego some taxes and ensure that the people have jobs and their energy to do additional activities and that’s the philosophy that will drive the economic policy in future.  If they are energized they will take Sri Lanka to a five million tourism product. Even a three-wheel taxi driver will have more hires. 

Q Could you clarify the fraudulent bond issues during your time? Greek bonds, hedging, humping and dumping using EPF money to buy shares of nearly bankrupt companies etc.?

When I left Central Bank, the portfolio of the Employers Provident Fund (EPF) had had an unrealised gain of Rs. 20 billion. That wouldn’t have been the case had there been pumping and dumping. The Greek bond case was a situation where it was challenged in the Supreme Court by Sujeewa Senasinghe, who wrote a book on the alleged Bond Scam. Details of the case is in the website of the Supreme Court. They specifically say ‘considering the totality of the circumstances, it is neither possible nor desirable to hold that the members of the monetary board in taking a  decision to invest in Greek bonds have acted arbitrarily, unreasonably and in a fraudulent manner. In view of the conclusion reached, the Court is not inclined to express any opinion on the objections raised’. 

I recommend all these people who ask this question regularly to go read it through. If anybody has any doubts, please refer to this case.  Hedging is not a fraudulent activity. It is an activity that people use in order to deal with some risk. It’s like an insurance and was proposed by the Central Bank. But something went wrong with that as a result of certain factors. But no one alleged. That was not done by the Central Bank, but the Petroleum Corporation. It was only an idea that was generated by the Central Bank’s economic research team. It was never alleged that there was anything fraudulent in that. There was a loss that occurred, but that was certainly less than what this Government paid as compensation for the Port City stoppage of work as well as the cancellation of the SriLankan Airbus. Coming back to the Greek bonds, although they say that there was a loss of USD 6.6 million what they said is that during the particular year, the Central Bank made its highest ever profit which was USD 430 million against a USD 50 million profit made last year and a USD 100 million the previous year. You can see that despite taking this loss into consideration, the Central Bank made its highest ever profit and it was a landmark year; although this loss was suffered. 

Sometimes we need to hold the hand of certain state institutions to ensure that those also grow. I think we must do what is right for the country at the stage that it is in. Don’t embrace certain theories and principles, merely because they have been applied in other countries

Q What is your stance with regard to the perpetrators and masterminds behind the bond issue? Would we ever see those responsible being behind bars and their gains brought back to the Government? 

This alleged bond scam was twofold ; it happened in February 2015 and again in March 2016. You could see the number of people involved in it. 

The main way in which this alleged bond scam took place was that the system of issuing bonds didn’t allow any bonds to be issued in a fraudulent manner.

 That is why I told that anyone who was making allegations about my period of issuing to please go and ask anyone to do any check whatsoever. I’m not afraid and I don’t think anyone in Central Bank is afraid to face any inquiry. We know that it wasn’t possible to initiate any bond scam with that system in place. But on February 27, 2015 that system was changed arbitrarily on the insistence of PM Ranil Wickremesinghe. They changed the system which allowed this kind of thing to take place. If the system wasn’t changed, even Mahendran couldn’t have done that. Now we need to get to the bottom of that. During the past five years there have been one cover-up after another. I’m writing a book on the cover-ups because people should know the extent of them. Those people have to account for their actions and the loss that we have suffered, not only the direct loss we suffered on the day of the alleged scam. 
There were losses that were suffered for thirty years as a result of what is being issued at higher rates of interests. Because of bad publicity, the confidence in the economy was lost and interest rates have still not come down. The Average Weighted Prime Lending Rate (AWPLR) was only 6.2% at the time I left the Central Bank. Today it is nearly 12%. This means that every single person who is paying interest has to account for an additional 6% premium that has been added to all transactions. The Commission that was appointed didn’t do its job properly. 

Q  But your sister was on the Perpetual Board. Your comments?

That was again being said by many people. I’m glad that you asked this question. My sister was invited to the board of Perpetual Holdings and she was there for one year. She hadn’t attended a single meeting and she had never had any dealings with Perpetual Treasuries. People pretend as if they don’t know this. Even the Commission didn’t write about any involvement regarding her during that period. During the time I was Governor, Perpetual Treasuries had bid for about Rs. 2.7 billion worth of bonds at the auctions. They had only received Rs. 26 million. Billions bid but Rs. 26 million received. That was all they had got which was at normal rates. That was  what  all others had got. It was only after I left that the entire incident had taken place. My sister and I have never run away. They are all here. My sister has said that she would come and give evidence any time. I even told the first COPE Commission that I would come. I would have been one of the first people to have said to invite me to the COPE and I’ll gave evidence.Try to find the man after me and catch him and see if you can ask a single question. 

Q According to the President, the bond reports states that there was a loss of Rs. One trillion from 2008-2016. Between 2015 and 2016 the loss was Rs. 11 billion. Doesn’t the rest fall under you?

Our President Sirisena has been making all sorts of comments of that nature. We all know that. But nobody takes him seriously. These are just statements he has made. Whatever he says, let the records speak for themselves. It is not true. It complete nonsense. Even if it is the President who has said it, nonsense is nonsense. 

Q  State enterprises are a drain on taxpayers. Government-owned monopolies such as CEB and CPC have made huge losses which have required tax money to prop up these unproductive organisations. Every Government has promised to reform them, even when the previous regime had a 2/3rd majority in Parliament, they still failed. Economics show us that competition and private enterprise lead to cheaper and better services. The privatization of Sri Lanka Telecom and the opening of the telecom market are excellent examples of how privatisation and de-regulation help. Will you support opening up the electricity and petroleum markets to more competition besides CEB and CPC?

There is one area which may need a little clarification. You have mentioned that it’s cheaper, but it’s not so. Those days the prices you would have paid for telecom would have been much cheaper. Of course the service is terrible. 

That is what we need to accept as the difference. When you have a private entity they will charge the right price or a higher price to make a profit and ensure that the customer gets a proper deal. Take the Petroleum Corporation – tomorrow the CPC can increase the price and make a profit because it’s a monopoly. If it is handed over to the private sector, the first thing they would do is to bring in a price that would make money. But what does it do to the customer? Are we prepared to do that? If yes, that’s perfectly fine. At the time that the oil price went to USD 145 per barrel, we still gave petrol at a much lower rate. 

That loss was accepted by the Government. The Government subsidised that. During that period of time although it was a tough call, the Government took a political as well as economic decision that we want to ensure that the country’s economic activities don’t get stalled by this high price that it had to pay. So we took an economic and a political call and that was a deliberate action by the Government. 

It had nothing to do with the efficiency of the Petroleum Corporation. Even if the CPC becomes inefficient the bulk of its expenditure is  not on salaries or any other factor, but on the fuel price. 

If the fuel price is high the price will have to be high. Here what has happened is that there are certain times you have to offer support to the consumers in order to bring that economic activity up to a certain level of robustness. 

At the same time we need to ensure that these are companies which are not in any way a burden on the government taxpayer as well as the people of the country. So it’s a balance. Economics is always about a balance. Sometimes the most optimum solution is not found in that particular organization alone. It can be found elsewhere. 

The SriLankan Airlines is going to be restructured, but we should view tourism as a product. Who would support tourism during a downturn? We mustn’t get completely carried away by this privatisation thought and think that everything would be perfect with privatisation. Right now we are at USD 4000 per capita income and our economy isn’t robust enough to charge interests of that nature. Sometimes we need to hold the hand of certain state institutions to ensure that those also grow. I think we must do what is right for the country at the stage that it is in. Don’t embrace certain theories and principles, merely because they have been applied in other countries. So let’s give it some time and I would support the companies you just mentioned, to make them better managed companies. 

Q So you don’t support Sri Lankan consumers to have more choices as to whom they buy their power and energy from?

 I wouldn’t say that. But for everything there’s a timing. We need to ensure that people have it at the right time. If we were to bring in so many other oil companies to Sri Lanka I don’t think we would be doing justice to consumers. We may only have a steep increase in the pricing alone. There’s a lot more focus on electricity as well, but what has happened? During the past five years not a single unit has been added to the National Grid. So how do we tackle that? The Government is contemplating adding 500 MW of emergency power. The worse thing that you can do is have emergency power. The answer to that is not that you do a tender for emergency power, but have a longterm generation plan. This way you would ensure that each year there would be new amounts of units added to the national grid. Then we would be in a position to have better pricing and better relief to the consumers. In 2014 the electricity prices actually reduced after the 300 MW Norochcholai Power plant was commissioned. That was a promise that was given in the manifesto of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and it was followed because we were in a position to do that. 

Many industries have told us that they have been taxed unfairly. These include the banking sector, hotels, small and medium enterprise sector, professionals and various traders who have been taxed unfairly. I think hoteliers have a very good reason to be agitated because they have been made to pay many taxes

Q What is Sri Lanka’s way out of this issue with the fiscal deficits because state finances are in dire straits and brought down further by SOE burdens?

The SOE burdens are minimal compared to what can happen in the case of the total public sector management of the economy. Last year the Central Bank report showed that due to the depreciation of the currency, Sri Lanka’s debt burden grows by Rs. 1063 billion. The Colombo-Katunayake expressway cost us only Rs. 37 billion. We could have done about 35 such expressways through the amount the rupee depreciation added on to our debt. That is the critical part of public sector management. All debts put together of SriLankan Airlines etc., won’t come anywhere close to it. So we need to manage our economy properly. If we don’t manage it we get into serious trouble. So we need to get our interest rates, rupee and the SOEs right.  Why we are here in this situation, where people are wondering whether we could survive is because we have actually gotten into trouble in the mega areas of our economic management. We have done badly in terms of interest rates, rupee, fiscal deficit and foreign direct investments coming in and those need to be fixed very quickly. 

Q  Do you think the SLPP is a Democratic Party? Can any other candidate other than a member of the Rajapaksa family be party leader some day?

It is a young party. It has been in existence only for about three years and there’s lot more time for leadership changes. If you take the SLFP, it had the leadership of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and then from him to Sirimavo and Chandrika, but then it changed. If you take the UNP from D.S Senanayake it went to Dudley Senanayake and then it changed. So there were times where you would have seen certain initial stages of the Party being dominated by a certain group or a certain family. But over a period of time as other leaders emerged and they come forward there will be changes taking place. So I’m confident that even here there would be a certain transition.  I think people accept the undisputed leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa and there has been consensus that the person who should contest the Presidency is Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

Transcribed by Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

A petition has been filed in Supreme Court, seeking issuance of a directive to the Government, to take measures to withdraw from the UNHRC Resolution it co-sponsored in September 2015, titled ‘Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka.’ The petitioner claimed that his fundamental rights were violated due to the Government co-sponsoring the Resolution. The respondents included former Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera and Foreign Secretary, Ravinatha Aryasinha.

The Petitioner, Truth Seekers Movement (Sathya Gaveshakayo) Convener, Attorney-at-Law Premnath C. Dolawatta, states his fundamental rights, protected by Article 12(1), 12(2), 13(1) of the Constitution are continuously being violated or caused to be violated by the Government co-sponsoring this Resolution.
The Resolution was moved in September 2015 and the petition to challenge it has been moved four years later.

However, there is a precedent. In 1988, after the Provincial Councils were set up under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, President J.R. Jayewardene issued a proclamation to temporarily amalgamate the Northern and Eastern Provinces. This was challenged in Supreme Court 17 years later, by the JVP.

A five-Judge bench, headed by then Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, ruled the temporary merger of the Northern Province with the Eastern Province is “unconstitutional, illegal and invalid.” The ruling was delivered on 16 October 2005. The three JVP petitioners, being residents of the Trincomalee and Digamadulla Districts, within the Eastern Province, the alleged infringement of their fundamental rights to the equal protection of the law, guaranteed by Article 12(1) of the Constitution. The Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict to allow the applications and grant to the petitioners the relief prayed for in the respective petitions.

The executive action impugned as denying to the petitioners equal protection of the law relates to the proclamation declaring that the provisions of Section 37(1) of the Provincial Councils Act No. 42 of 1987 shall apply to the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which resulted in these two provinces forming one administrative unit, a process commonly described as the merger of the two provinces. The case for the petitioners, articulated by H.L. de Silva, is that the proclamation (P2) resulting in the merger is “fatally flawed” due to the non-observance of the mandatory conditions as contained in the Constitution.

Political destiny of people

The petitioners said there was a strong likelihood of crucial decisions affecting the political destiny of the people of the Eastern Province being taken, on the basis of an unconstitutional order to merge the two provinces in September 1988.

Although, it was stated that a referendum will be held to decide on permanent merger or de-merger of the two provinces. But the referendum was never held. The then President, on 12 July 1990, made an Emergency Regulation, under Section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance, which stated the notice published by the Commissioner of Elections fixing the date and time of nominations “shall be deemed for all purposes to be of no effect.” The electoral process stopped there, and has remained ever since. As it were frozen, up to date. There has been no election for either the North East Provincial Council or separately for the Northern Provincial Council or the Eastern Provincial Council. Whereas, in respect of the councils for the other seven provinces in the country, elections have been held on the due dates in 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2004, the petitioners pointed out.

After a lengthy hearing, the Supreme Court ruled the merger of North and East was a violation of the Constitution, and ordered a de-merger.
The Petition calling for a declaration that co-sponsoring Geneva Resolution null and void, points out that by cosponsoring the resolution, the 1st and/or 2nd respondents and other delegates representing the Government of Sri Lanka at the UNHRC have given an undertaking and/or forwarded proposals to engage in several activities that are inconsistent with the Constitution.

The most serious among these undertakings relates to the establishment of a judicial mechanism with powers to investigate human rights violations and abuses and violation of international humanitarian law. The petitioner states, adding that as long as this remains in force, the petitioner and every citizen of Sri Lanka would be subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign judicial mechanism.

Sri Lankan Constitution

The Sri Lankan Constitution declares it a “free, sovereign, independent and democratic” republic, and the UNHRC Resolution infringes on the sovereignty of the people, especially subjecting the people and the country to foreign sovereignties and jurisdictions which would be amounting to unlawful alienation of sovereignty, which amounts to violation of Article 3 of the Constitution.
The petitioner states personnel who served in the armed forces and State officials who served in the State machinery and engaged in activities in State security would continuously be subjected to foreign jurisdiction.

Last year, President Maithripala Sirisena too publicly stated that he did not recognise the UNHRC Resolution. He said that this resolution, which was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka for a second time, had been worked out without his knowledge and that of the Foreign Ministry. Yet, a joint UNF-SLFP delegation sent by President Sirisena that was in Geneva did not oppose it and the resolution was carried unanimously.

President Sirisena said he had not given his consent for co-sponsoring either the 2015 Resolution (30/1) or the one passed the following year. The latest resolution, moved by a core group including the United Kingdom, Canada, North Macedonia and Montenegro, was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka without his approval, he said. It pledged to implement remaining provisions of Resolution 30/1, including the setting up of Hybrid Courts to try alleged war crimes by troops and LTTE terrorists.

Mano Tittawala

The President told a public meeting that it was Mano Tittawala, Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM), and Advisor to the Finance Ministry, who had written to Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva to co-sponsor the second resolution. It had been on the grounds that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had agreed to it. President Sirisena bitterly criticised those responsible for the co-sponsorship, saying it was done behind his back. “I would wish we can withdraw from it. Discussions are now on over this matter,” President Sirisena told the Media.

The move would be a dramatic shift in Sri Lanka’s official position since 20 September 2015. The pros and cons of the withdrawal, a Foreign Ministry source said, were now being studied, in consultation with President Sirisena.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court petition was filed seeking withdrawal from co-sponsorship of the UNHRC Resolution.

By Gagani Weerakoon Courtesy Ceylon Today

The rift between two groups of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) became quite evident with former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) and Party’s General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara taking to social media to criticise each other. While the former accused Jayasekara of trying to uprooting the Party from its soil, the latter accused Kumaratunga of having underhand deals with the UNP to destroy the alliance between the SLFP and the SLPP merely based on personal grudges.

It is no secret to those who know a little bit of history that Jayasekara initially left the SLFP to join the UNP due to continuous ill-treatment by Kumaratunga in late 1990s and early 2000.

Incidentally, Kumaratunga also exchanged several letters criticising Prof. Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa when he served for a short period as the Party’s General Secretary.

It is in the midst of this that a group of artistes from Nuwara Eliya visited the SLFP Headquarters last week to meet Prof. Piyadasa who is now the Chairman of SLFP, and Jayasekara to honour them by adorning them with the tradition shawl.  
CBK fishing in troubled waters

Former President Kumaratunga played a vital role from behind the curtains in the major political change that happened on 8 January 2015. It is no secret that she went to lengths to make Maithripala Sirisena the common candidate of the Opposition. Five years later, on the brink of another pivotal Presidential Election, she returned to the country from abroad.

She opposed the SLFP aligning with the SLPP. Even before coming to Sri Lanka, she expressed her disapproval of the MoU between SLFP and SLPP. From England, Kumaratunga contacted SLFP Parliamentarians and electoral organisers and instructed them to not go into an alliance with SLPP. Without stopping there, she is said to have even exchanged opinions with Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

She then pioneered the forming of the Organisation to Protect the SLFP. It was after this she got into a heated argument on WhatsApp with SLFP General Secretary Jayasekara, courtesy the differences in their political stances. 

 Kumaratunga didn’t hesitate to make the conversation she had with Dayasiri on the popular social media platform public. In response, Jayasekara did the same which angered the former President even more. ‘Stop going into agreements with Rajapaksas’, CBK has messaged Dayasiri and continued to blame Mahinda Rajapaksa. ‘Madam Chandrika harbours such hatred towards Rajapaksas and it is the only issue she has,’ Jayasekara has replied. 

Without stopping at exchanging heated opinions on social media, the duo even wrote letters to each other. In response to one such letter Jayasekara responded to CBK rather strongly.

CBK tried to make some Parliamentarians join the Organisation to Protect the SLFP and then declare their support to National Democratic Front candidate Sajith Premadasa but her intentions went wide off the mark. According to Jayasekara, this was because only the members ousted by SLFP are representing the Organisation to Protect the SLFP.

Yasodara to enter politics

Meanwhile, a dinner has been organised for some of the closest journalists of CBK. “I’m so disappointed. Even though I’m the advisor of the party I have no say in what is happening in SLFP. How hard our parents worked to make this Party progress. I say we must save SLFP from Rajapaksas. I have an idea to bring my daughter Yasodara into politics and for that, I need your support,” CBK requested the journalists.

Prasanna’s solution to stop booing

The second rally of SLPP was scheduled to be held in Kadawatha last 13. As SLFP members taking to the stage didn’t sit that well with the SLPP members and they didn’t hide it, the organisers were faced with rather a tough time when organising the rally. This first happened during the first SLPP rally in Anuradhapura and even the higher-ups of SLPP talked about it.

 As the leader of Gampaha District Prasanna was given the responsibility of organising the second rally and he was in the strong opinion that such booing should not happen in a stage of a rally he organises. To ensure everything goes smoothly, he made phone calls to all the organisers of the seats, Mahara, Wattala, Dompe, Kelaniya, Biyagama, and Gampaha. 

Prasanna stressed that the rally should go without any incident and especially, the unpleasant incidents that happened in Anuradhapura should not be repeated. He also instructed the seat organisers to make sure no SLFP member coming to the rally should be mistreated or booed.

A day prior to the second SLPP rally, a special meeting of Gampaha District UPFA Parliamentarians took place under the patronage of Basil Rajapaksa. Basil too brought out the incidents of SLFP members getting booed in Anuradhapura. “Incidents that happened in Anuradhapura should not be repeated. We should make sure to avoid such incidents,” Basil said. 

“I have already taken measures to ensure this. Gampaha District used to be called as an SLFP fortress but now, it has become an SLPP fortress. Therefore, I have paid special attention to makes sure what happened in Anuradhapura shouldn’t be repeated in Kadawatha,” Prasanna stressed.

“That’s good Prasanna,” Basil said. Lasantha Alagiyawanna said that he will be attending the SLPP rally in Kadawatha. “Please do, I will try my best to control the situation,” Prasanna assured.

Special guests at JO meeting

A special meeting of JO Party Leaders took place at Mahinda Rajapaksa’s official residence. Apart from JO party leaders it was unique to see Dayasiri Jayasekara and Mahinda Amaraweera among the attendees representing SLFP. “Today, Dayasiri and Amaraweera too have come here representing SLFP.

 We warmly welcome the SLFPers who have joined us in ensuring Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory. I should emphasise the importance of treating everyone who has joined us equally and with respect. Prasanna did a nice job in Gampaha. If leaders of other districts follow Prasanna, these types of incidents would not happen,” Mahinda opined.

“True, now that we have joined hands to win, we shouldn’t make these types of incidents hamper our progress,” Amaraweera said.
“Not only in Gampaha, similar kind of incidents, have occurred in other areas as well. These incidents discourage our supporters,” Dayasiri said.

“We will look into it. All the party leaders will act vigilantly. Apart from that, district leaders are also instructed to inform supporters,” Mahinda assured.
“These incidents should not be taken lightly. Maybe the ones who create these types of incidents could well be of some other party with the aim of breaking the trust and unity we have built. It is very easy to influence people and boo when there are thousands gathered. We should pay our attention to this possibility too,” Wimal opined and Mahinda agreed. Then the gathering discussed the MoU to be signed between Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the SLFP.

After the JO party leaders meeting, Prasanna, Rohitha, Keheliya, Wimal and some others were having a chat with Mahinda about the booing of SLFP members. “We have reasons to believe that there is a former lady leader behind all this. It is done in the hopes of getting SLFPers to vote against SLPP in the coming election,” Wimal said.

“Whatever said and done, this should be stopped immediately before it becomes a habit. Those who have joined us to support our victory should not be mistreated,” Mahinda said.

“Some can’t stand SLFP and SLPP joining hands. Team Sajith was looking forward to get the support of whole SLFP or at least a part of it but it didn’t work out. Now they have gone mad in the face of definite loss,” Prasanna said.

Sajith addresses, Ranil coordinates

UNP’s election campaign is now reaching a pivotal height courtesy, the mutual understanding candidate Sajith Premadasa and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe came into and the encouragement of party leaders. Premadasa, Wickremesinghe and other leaders of the party meet at Temple Trees almost every morning.

 Sajith usually attends three or four big rallies a day and they all are co-ordinated by the Prime Minister. Last Wednesday after a discussion with Sajith and other leaders of the party, the Prime Minister was ready to go to the North for a number of development and political projects. He didn’t forget to talk to the ministers and parliamentarians, as well as the Media before he went. “We always lose Elpitiya but not putting enough enthusiasm into the election despite being the party in power is a shortcoming,” Kiriella said.

“If the election was in Negombo, Colombo, Kandy or Nuwara Eliya instead of Elpitiya, wouldn’t we have won by a landslide?” Chaminda Wijesiri argued which was agreed by all.  

    Mangala wants things clarified

SLPP Candidate Rajapaksa at a much talked about press conference on Tuesday (15) said that the Tamil people have “more important issues” and that the country needs to “move forward”.
Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera, following this, took it upon himself to set the record straight as it was he as former Minister of Foreign Affairs who was directly involved in Sri Lanka’s dealings with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) starting in 2015.

He went on to detail the commitments made to the Council by the Government of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, many of which he said were ignored.
Excerpts of Minister Samaraweera’s statement:
On 26 May 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Secretary-General of the United Nations made a Joint Statement which said:

“Sri Lanka reiterated its strongest commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, in keeping with international human rights standards and Sri Lanka’s international obligations. The Secretary General underlined the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The Government will take measures to address those grievances.”

Further, on 27 May 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka proposed a Resolution on its own in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva titled ‘Assistance to Sri Lanka in the promotion and protection of human rights’ which was adopted by a vote.
However, the Government failed to address the grievances of citizens of all communities in our country as undertaken in May 2009. The Government also failed to restore the honour of our security forces and Police, by investigating allegations in terms of the due process of the law so that action is taken against those who have committed crimes, and others do not have to suffer in disgrace for years to come.

Non-implementation of recommendations of the Presidential Commissions appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa resulted in the erosion of trust and confidence resulting in a series of resolutions in the Human Rights Council on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Although Sri Lanka refused to participate in a dialogue with the co-sponsors and disassociated itself from these resolutions, they were adopted irrespective of Sri Lanka’s disassociation, and by 2014, the Council had set up an investigation on Sri Lanka called the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). This was the first-ever international investigation on a human rights situation in our country.

By December 2014, Sri Lanka had become isolated on the international stage. Our security forces were deprived of peacekeeping opportunities and training opportunities in the developed countries of the world, naval ship visits from the developed countries of the world had ceased and so had joint exercises, EU GSP+ facility had been withdrawn, there was a ban on fish exports from Sri Lanka to the EU, IMF and World Bank had stopped lending to Sri Lanka, the economy was burdened by debt taken at commercial rates for vanity projects, the judiciary was in tatters with a weakened rule of law regime and the impeachment of the Chief Justice, investor confidence was at an all time low, and Sri Lanka’s stature on the international stage had eroded, and so had confidence, credibility and trust.  

The Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka was due in March 2015, and further strictures including targeted measures on individuals were expected following the release of the Report.  

It was in this backdrop that the Government, following the Presidential Election on 8 January 2015, based on the mandate received from the voters to implement the 100 Day Programme, presented its own proposals and co-sponsored Resolution 30/1 to regain and reassert Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to solve its own problems locally, so that space for any further international action or strictures would not be opened. 

This was the path to establish durable peace and reconciliation in our country, restore Sri Lanka’s dignity on the international stage as a State that takes responsibility to address the problems of all sections of its own citizens, renew Sri Lanka’s engagement with the international community, rebuild eroded trust and confidence, restore the dignity of our security forces, Police and judiciary, and usher in the sustained stability required for investor confidence and durable prosperity for all our citizens.

It is as a result of this Resolution (30/1) that prospects for international action initiated through Resolution 25/1 of March 2014 and the OISL (OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka) that was adopted during President Rajapaksa’s regime was effectively halted. It is important to remind everyone that it is only if we as a responsible and sovereign nation fail to act that we place our citizens in grave peril by allowing space for others to step in, and international action, as well as universal jurisdiction to apply.

 By Gagani Weerakoon 02:00 AM Oct 20 2019   

By Chamara Amarasuriya Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Police Department has launched a probe into a group of people having hooted at Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was addressing a public rally held in support of New Democratic Front Presidential nominee, Minister Sajith Premadasa in Laggala, Matale, on 19 October.

Police said that a group of people who were attending the rally had continued to heckle the Premier during his speech.

They said that upon the matter being brought to their notice, an initial inquiry had been initiated by Kandy Division Deputy Inspector General of Police and that the report is to be handed over to the Acting Inspector General of Police.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), issuing a statement yesterday (21), expressed its concern over the decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers to allow President Maithripala Sirisena to continue to reside in his official residence located in Colombo.

The TISL believes that the timing of the decision, when the President is still in office and is the Head of the Cabinet, raises serious questions regarding conflicts of interest. The TISL added that it is underscored by the 2007 decision of the Supreme Court regarding the premature exercise of Executive powers under the Presidents Entitlements Act of 1986.

The TISL went on to mention that the Supreme Court, in 2007, had delivered the verdict in a fundamental rights petition against former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, in favour of the petitioners, quashing the Cabinet decisions on grants and entitlements to the President, while the President was still in office.

“The TISL is firmly of the stance that decisions pertaining to such entitlements should only be taken at such a time when the sitting President ceases to hold office,” the TISL noted, further questioning the current political context in which the said decision was made, which, according to the TISL, raises red flags on electoral integrity and potential corruption under the Bribery Act.

TISL Executive Director, Asoka Obeysekara said, “A conservative estimate could place the benefit afforded to President Sirisena, as a result of retaining the official residence, at over Rs 360 million over a 20-year period.”

Moreover, the TISL urged the Cabinet to immediately revoke any Cabinet decisions on the entitlements of President Sirisena.

By J.T. de Silva Courtesy Ceylon Today

The officers from Election Commission (EC) were able to bust a large-scale election violation racket when they raided the Ministry of Primary Industries and Social Empowerment yesterday following a complaint received.

According to the EC, a programme had been lined up to distribute cheques to the value of Rs 1 million each, to over 100 Samurdhi Managers, through Minister Daya Gamage, after having invited them to the Ministry premises. The raid was carried out by officers of the EC along with the Police.

Sources said, when the EC officers had arrived at the Ministry premises, the Minister concerned along with Samurdhi Director General (DG) had been present.  
Later, the EC officers had imposed a Prevention Order on the issuance of the cheques and had recorded statements from the Samurdhi Managers who had arrived at the Ministry to obtain the cheques as well as from the Samurdhi DG regarding the event.

Informed sources said EC officers had recorded statements from all officers serving at the Suhurupaya building in Battaramulla and from all officers attached to the Samurdhi Ministry till late evening yesterday.

During the initial probe conducted into the incident, it had come to light that the distribution of cheques had been proposed to be carried out in several phases.
These sources said officers from the EC had raided the said Ministry during the afternoon of last Saturday after Samurdhi Director-General S.E.R.G.M.S.P. Bandara had attempted to distribute 800,000 Samurdhi ownership cards that had been printed.

A top officer from the EC stated that before the lapse of 48 hours after last Saturday’s bust, the second violation of election-related laws and regulations had been committed by the Samurdhi DG last morning.

He added that a complete report will be submitted to the State Services Commission and the Attorney General regarding the blatant violation of election laws and regulations by the Samurdhi DG.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential Candidate stated that he will create an intelligence-based economy under his rule.

He mentioned this at a public meeting held in the Dickwella area.

Rajapaksa says that they have an economic plan for this country formulated through years of discussion and identifying issues with the assistance of intellects and professionals.

There will be short-term and long-term changes in the education system to allow the Sri Lankan youth to join the country’s economy through employment opportunities with good pays, said the former Defense Secretary.

He pointed out that a lot of employment opportunities can be generated through an intelligence-based economy.

He said: We have plans and we are capable of implementing them.

I promise that I will 100 percent fulfill this responsibility you are giving me just as I did back during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Sajith Premadasa should reveal the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers of his government should he become President, says MP S. B. Dissanayake.

The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP posed three questions to the New Democratic Front (NDF) Presidential Candidate Sajith Premadasa at a press conference held in Kandy, today (21).

Dissanayake pointed out that Premadasa has repeatedly said that there will be no corrupt ministers in his government.

MP S. B. Dissanayake says that he would like to inquire from the United National Party (UNP) Deputy Leader whether he would appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister of his government.

His second question is whether Minister Mangala Samaraweera will be appointed the Finance Minister of that government.

As his third question, Dissanayake inquires Premadasa whether Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, who has been charged with serious allegations, will be included in his Cabinet of Ministers.

According to the parliamentarian, the public is very keen to know Premadasa’s response to this matter.Disclaimer: All the comments will be moderated by the AD editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or slanderous. Please avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment and avoid typing all capitalized comments. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by flagging them(mouse over a comment and click the flag icon on the right side). Do use these forums to voice your opinions and create healthy discourse.

Courtesy Hiru News

SLFP presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says that he will take measures to develop the country built on an intellectual based economy.

He stated this while attending a public rally held in Beliatta this morning.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa participated in a meeting of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna activists in Tissamaharama yesterday.

Speaking at a public rally held in Ambalantota yesterday, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the present government has acted without any responsibility towards national security.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Easter Sunday bomb blasts where over 300 persons killed were unleashed six months ago.

The terror and its aftermath are still haunting the minds of Sri Lankans.

https://youtu.be/PCbaY_E3nRY

In such a backdrop, a photograph in which Muslim Congress leader and Minister Rauff Hakeem posing with the mastermind of the Easter Sunday terror attack, Hashim Zahran and his brother Rilvan Hashim is circulating on social media.

Later, Rilvan Hashim was also killed in a suicide bomb blast in a house at Saindamarudu.

In addition, social media circulated information that Minister Hakeem has visited Zahran Hashim’s brother Rilvan Hashim when the latter was receiving treatment at a hospital.

Earlier, a video footage where Minister Rauff Hakeem and Zahran Hashim were together was circulated on social media.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Election Commission has suspended an attempt to distribute loans for one million rupees each to Samurdhi Development Officers today.

The event was organized disregarding the election law under the patronage of Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister Daya Gamage at Suhurupaya in Battaramulla today.

It is also reported that the video footage of the media personnel who covered the event had also been deleted forcibly by Gamage’s security guards.

In addition, the Election Commission officers inspected the Housing Development Authority today as well.

The commission had received a complaint that the vehicles belonging to the authority are abused by violating election laws.

At the same time, parents of Ananda College in Colombo staged a protest against Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam for the attempt by the latter to declare open an unfinished building tomorrow.

Later they joined the old boys association and school development society to make complaints to the Education ministry and the Election commission.

Later, the election commission had suspended the opening of the unfinished building at Ananda College tomorrow.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන නිළධාරීන්ට ලබාදීමට සූදානම් වූ රුපියල් ලක්ෂ 10 බැගින් වූ ණය මුදල් චෙක්පත් මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ නිළධාරීන්ගේ පැමිණීමෙන් අත්හිටුවා තිබෙනවා.

මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් සිදුකළ මෙම උත්සවය ප්‍රාථමික කර්මාන්ත සහ සමාජ සවිබල ගැන්වීමේ අමාත්‍ය දයා ගමගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් අද පැවැත්වුණේ බත්තරමුල්ල – සුහුරුපායේ ගොඩනැගිල්ලකයි. උත්සවය ආරම්භ කිරීමෙන් පසු ලද තොරතුරු අනුව මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ නිළධාරීන් එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණ ඇති අතර, ඒ අනුව උත්සවය නතර කිරීමට එය සංවිධානය කළ නිළධාරීන්ට සිදුවුණා.

ඒ හේතුවෙන් අදාළ චෙක් ලබාදීමට  අමාත්‍යවරයාට හැකියාවක් ලැබී නැහැ.

පසුව උත්සවය ආරම්භ කරන අවස්ථාව පිළිබඳව එය ආවරණය කිරීමට පැමිණි මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ගේ කැමරාවල පටිගත වී තිබු තොරතුරු එහි සිටි ආරක්ෂක නිළධාරින් විසින් මකා දමා ඇති බව සඳහන්.                         

එසේම සමෘද්ධි අධිකාරිය තුළ හිමිකම්පත් පිිළියෙල කරමින් සිටීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලැබුණු පැමිණිල්ලකට අදාළව වැඩිදුර විමර්ශන සඳහා මැතිවරණ කොමිසම් සභාවේ නිලධාරීන් අද පස්වරුවේත් එම අධිකාරිය වෙත පැමිණියා.

ඒ පෙරේදා දිනයේදී එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණි මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ නිලධාරීන් අදාළ හිමිකම් පත්‍ර ලබාදීම තාවකාලිකව නතර කිරීමට පියවර ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වන ඉදිරි විමර්ශන කටයුතු සිදු කිරීමටයි.

එමෙන්ම, මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාවේ නිලධාරීන් අද යළිත් ජාතික නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියට පැමිණියා.

ඒ, මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් එම ආයතනයට අයත් වාහන අවභාවිතා කරන බවට මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට ලැබුණු පැමිණිල්ලට අනුව සිදුකරන විමර්ශනයට අදාළවයි.

මේ අතර, අමාත්‍ය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාසට එරෙහිව සිංහලේ ජාතික සංවිධානයේ මහලේකම් පුජ්‍ය මැඩිල්ලේ පඤ්ඤාලෝක හිමියන් අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ චෝදනා විමර්ෂන කොමිසම් සභාවට අද පැමිණිල්ලක් සිදු කළා.

එමෙන්ම, කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ අභිනව සත්මහල් ගොඩනැගිල්ලේ වැඩ අවසන් නොකර හෙට දිනයේ අනාරක්ෂිත ලෙස විවෘත කිරීමට අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම් සැළසුම් කර ඇති බවට චෝදනා කරමින් විද්‍යාලයේ සිසු දරුවන්ගේ දෙමාපියන් සහ ආදි ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය අද එම විද්‍යාලය ඉදිරිපිට විරෝධතාවක නිරත වුණා.

ඔවුන් අද පෙරවරු හතේ සිට පැය දෙකකට ආසන්න කාලයක් විද්‍යාලය ඉදිරිපිට විරෝධතාවයේ නිරතවූ බවයි එහි සිටි හිරු වාර්තාකරු සඳහන් කළේ.

විරෝධතාවයෙන් අනතුරුව ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පැමිණිලි කිරිම සඳහා කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ ආදි ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය, පාසල් සංවර්ධන සමිතියේ සමාජිකයන්, අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයට සහ මැතිවරණ කොමිසම් සභාවට පැමිණියා.

ඒ අනුව අද පස්වරුවේ මැතිවරණ කොමිසම් සභාවේ නිළධාරින් කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයට පැමිණ හෙට පැවැත්විමට සැලසුම් කර තිබු විවෘත කිරිමේ උත්සවය අත්හිටුවා තිබෙනවා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවී මාස 06ක් ගතවුවද මෙතෙක් රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිසි සැලස්මක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරිමට ආණ්ඩුව අපොහොසත් වි ඇති බව, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති ධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව සදහන් කලේ තංගල්ල – රන්න ප්‍රදේශයේ අද පැවති ජනරැලියකට එක්වෙමින්.

එම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව  සිටි ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් විරවංශ අදහස් පලකලා.

මේ අතර, ඊයේ අකුරැස්සේදී මෙන්ම අදත් බෙලිඅත්තේ පැවති ජනරැලියේදී  එක්සත් ජාතික පාක්ෂිකයින් පිරිසක් ජනාධිපතිධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට සහාය පළ කළා.

එමෙන්ම, හක්මන, මුලටියන ප්‍රදේශයේ ඊයේ පැවති ජනරැලියේදි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ සාමාජිකයන් පිරිසක් ද ඔහුට සහාය පල කිරීමට එක්ව සිටි බවයි අප වාර්තාකරුවන් ප්‍රකාශ කළේ.

මේ, ජනාධිපතිධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට සහාය පලකිරිම සදහා  බෙලිත්අත්තේ  අද පැවති ජනරැලියේදි අදහස් දැක්වූ විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ කියා සිටියේ දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ කිසිදු කොන්දෙසියකට යටත් වීමට සුදානම් නොමැති බවයි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ජනතාවට බියෙන් සැකයෙන් තොරව ජීවත් විය හැකි රටක් බිහිකිරීම සදහා අවශ්‍ය නායකත්වය තෝරාගැනීමට ලැබී ඇති අවසන් අවස්ථාව මෙය බව පූජ්‍ය ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හිමියන් පවසනවා.

උන්වහන්සේ මේ අදහස් පළ කළේ ඊයේ කොළඹ පැවති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

අමාත්‍ය රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයේ මහමොළකරු වූ සහරාන් හෂීම්ගේ සොහොයුරා වන රිල්වාන් හෂීම් බවට සැලකෙන පුද්ගලයෙකු සමග එකට සිටින ඡායාරූපයක් මේ දිනවල සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සංසරණය වනවා.

රිල්වාන් හෂීම් මියගියේ පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයෙන් දින කිහිපයකට පසුව සයින්දමරුදු ප්‍රදේශයේ නිවසක සිදුවූ මරාගෙන මැරෙන ප්‍රහාරයකින්.

අප්‍රේල් 21 වනදා සිදුකල ප්‍රහාර මාලාවේ මහමොළකරු වන ත්‍රස්තවාදි කල්ලි නායක මොහොමඩ් සහරාන් හෂීම්ගේ සොහොයුරෙකු වන මොහොමඩ් රිල්වාන් හෂීම් බවට සැලකෙන පුද්ගලයා සමගින් මුස්ලිම් කොන්ග්‍රසයේ නායක අමාත්‍ය රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා සිටින ඡායාරූපය පිළිබඳ මේ දිනවල සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ දැඩි කතාබහට ලක්ව ඇති අතර අමාත්‍ය රාවුෆ් හකීම් මහතා සමග මුස්ලිම් කොංග්‍රසයේ හිටපු පළාත් සභා මන්ත්‍රී සිද්ධි ෆාරුක් ද මෙම ස්ථානයේ සිට<br />තිබෙනවා.

https://youtu.be/PCbaY_E3nRY

සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ තොරතුරු හුවමාරු වන්නේ රිල්වාන් හෂීම් රෝහල්ගත කර සිටින අවස්ථාවකදී අමාත්‍යවරයා ඔහු බැලීමට පැමිණ ඇති බවටයි.

පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවී දින 5 පහකට පසුව අප්‍රේල් 26 වනදා කල්මුණේ සයින්දමරුදු ප්‍රදේශයේ නිවසක් ආරක්ෂක අංශ විසින් පරික්ෂා කිරීමට උත්සහ කිරීමේදී එහි සිටි ත්‍රස්තවාදී පිරිස මරාගෙන මැරෙන ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කළා.

එහිදී සහරාන් හෂීම්ගේ සොහොයුරු රිල්වාන් හෂීම් මියගිය අතර ඊට පැය කිහිපයකට පසුව ඔහු සහ සහරාන් හෂීම් එකට සිටින ඡායාරූපයක් ෂී හිතවාදී අමාක් පුවත් සේවයේ වෙබ් අඩවිය ප්‍රසිද්ධ කර තිබුණා.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත්වීමෙන් පසු සිදුකරන වැඩපිළිවෙළ සම්බන්ධ ඇතැම් පාර්ශ්ව අසත්‍ය ප්‍රචාර ගෙන යමින් සිටින බව විපක්ෂනායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසනවා.

විපක්ෂනායකවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ සූරියවැව ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකදී.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපතිධුර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් සූරියවැව විහාරගල මංසන්ධියේදී ඊයේ ජන හමුවක් සංවිධානය කර තිබූ අතර ඊට ප්‍රධාන ආරාධිතයා ලෙස සහභාගි වූයේ විපක්ෂනායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතායි.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දේශපාලනඥයින් අදත් අදහස් පළ කළා.

Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara

Red Onions was a major crop produced in the Jaffna Peninsula. Gerry Stevens the Assistant Commissioner ran round in circles to ensure that the cooperatives bought red onions from producers at the premium price we offered and handed the stocks to our stores where we stored them and dispatched them by rail to all parts of the country. He must have dispatched around thirty or more wagonloads a day during the season. This was easily his major task.

I covered the Southern Province. My main task was buying paddy, storing it, issuing paddy for milling and also rice milling. I had the largest rice mill at Ambalantota, a mill that worked 24 hours a day for six days a week.  Marketing Red Onions, during the red onion season, was a very minor part of my job.

Daily five wagon loads of Red Onions were dispatched from Jaffna to Boosa and my Divisional Marketing Officer stationed at Galle was tasked to clear the wagon loads to get them to his stores and sell the Red Onions to dealers at a wholesale price and also ensure that red onions are retailed at the Fair Price Shop we had at Galle.  Very often I would come to Galle, do a round of inspections of my paddy store at Boosa and also inspect our Wholesale Red Onion Store and our Fair Price Shop to see that red onions are available.

I had done my round of inspections and that included visiting private dealers at random to check whether they had stocks of red onions. If any dealer did not have red onions I would speak to the owner and inquire why. When visiting private stores my method was to linger with people buying red onions, inquiring for the price. Instead of asking for the price I would rather hear sales being done.

I fixed the retail as well as the wholesale prices and I had to ensure that my red onion store had stocks I kept a low margin of some fifteen percent to cover up wastage and handling. That was how the Marketing Department controlled inflation.  Inflation as far as sales of products is concerned is caused by the traders keeping a fat margin of profit. The MD ate into that profit.

The Marketing Department had a variety of activities to ensure that traders did not fleece the people.

The MD had a restaurant at the Kataragama Festival, where every eat was offered at rock bottom prices. The two years I worked in the South included supervising this unit. We had selected the best of staff from all the other units. The  MD very unofficially controlled the prices at which other hotels provided food. That MD restaurant was always full of people. The MD also had a bakery in Colombo that produced quality bread and short eats at very cheap rates.

The IMF dictated to the Government of President Jayawardena that the MD had to be abolished and it was done in around 1979. Since then the sky is the limit for traders to make a fantastic profit. The other day I visited a friend of mine at Pangiriwatta. Almost next to his house a four-story house had come up overnight. I inquired from my friend.

 He is a vegetable dealer in the Colombo market. He is rolling in money. He buys a new car every year.”

That was not possible when the Marketing Department was functional

We all Assistant Commissioners- some fifteen of us from all corners of the island were summoned in the first week of each month for a Conference.  We have to bring with us the profit and loss sheet for every Fair Price Shop and every Store and at Galle, it included the wholesale unit of selling Red Onions. Our Commissioner, BLW Fernando, a chartered accountant would scan each profit and loss sheet. As his eyes moved he would figure out the profit margin we had kept. If any Assistant Commissioner had kept a margin of over fifteen percent one would be hauled over the coals. We had somehow to keep a very low margin, not make a loss, the ideal was to keep to around five to ten percent profit. It was a difficult task, but we had to be careful, otherwise, hell will be let loose

One day I had inspected our  Fair Price Shop and the Red Onion Store at Galle visited at random some private traders and was satisfied that red onions were being sold at a reasonable rate and available. I got back to Ambalantota by night.

The next morning as I went to my office at Ambalantota a postal peon brought a telegram. Those were the days when phones never worked. From my office to get a phone call one had to first phone the postmaster and request a phone call giving the number I wish to call. I had to wait long. It was simpler to send a telegram.

The telegram stated. Member of Parliament Dahanayake reports shortages of red onions in Galle. Inspect at the report at once.”

I saw stars. I hooked to my Peugeot 203, a fast car, and took off,  back to Galle. I went to our stores, wholesale as well as retail and found plenty of red onions and I visited many private dealers and saw them retailing red onions. I had been there the earlier day too. I was very angry. Running all over the Southern Province like a mad dog my task was to ensure that producers could hand over their produce at the premium prices we offered without difficulty- that was paddy. Again as far as Red Onions was concerned during the Red Onion season I had to see that Red Onions were available to people at a reasonably low price. My empire looked shattered. 

Finally, I decided to meet Mr. Dahanayake. I knew him well, meeting him at Conferences and fairly closely associating him. It was dusk and I thought I could catch him at his residence. I went there but he was not in. I had to meet him somehow and I waited patiently. The telegram had almost killed the reputation I had built up in the Department. It was a long wait. He turned up at around ten o clock.

Garvin. What brings you here at this time?”

I was quick to show him the telegram,

Sir, this is not true. I was in Galle yesterday and Red Onions were readily available at our shops, at our wholesale unit as well as with private traders. I have gone round today too and have found that there has not been a shortage of red onions.  Why have you sent this telegram? You should have contacted me if you find a problem. He did not reply for a full five minutes. I wondered why.

You know Garvin one fellow came and said that there is a shortage of red onions in Galle and to satisfy him  I sent a telegram to the Minister. You know we have to keep everyone happy otherwise I will not get their vote at the next elections.”

But my Commissioner will have a poor opinion of my work and will conclude that I am inefficient.”

“Leave that to me. I will be meeting the Minister tomorrow and will tell him that everything is perfect in Galle as far as the Marketing Department is concerned, as has always been.’

That was how politics work with us officers.

Days passed by and the Head Office did not get in touch with me. Evidently Mr. Dahanayake had kept to his word.

That Marketing Department with its Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme, which effectively controlled inflation is no more. The Jayawardena Government abolished it on the advice of the IMF and traders today make hay, while the consumers suffer.

Food for thought. That is the only method of controlling inflation.

Since leaving the Administrative Service after serving for eighteen long years I have studied and lived in five countries and have also traveled far and wide, but have never come across any country that has a Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme like what we had in the Marketing Department. It was built up by administrators R.H.Basset and BLW Fernando and fine-tuned to serve the country.  It provided fair prices, above than what the traders offered to the producers all over the island, provided produce at cheap rates to consumers and also made Sri Lanka self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit preparations. Today producers do not produce as they are not assured of a reasonable price.

Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara

18/10/2019.

Author of:
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(kindle/Godages, 2017

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sri Lanka should take a look at the way other countries are dealing with USA.  We could start with Iran. USA’s interest in Iran started due to its oil. American companies were drilling Iran’s oil. USA got rid of Iran’s popular ruler, Mossadegh and replaced him with the awful Shah Reza Pahlavi. The Shah’s secret police SAVAK was assisted by CIA and Israel’s MOSSAD. The Shah was unpopular and the USA had to take him away. A theocratic Iranian state, openly hostile towards USA, came into being.

USA then started its present day battle with Iran. Iran has loomed large in American politics, despite the distance, observed analysts. There was the ‘Iran hostage’ crisis, the ‘Iran Contra’ issue, ‘Iran nuclear programme’  and so on.   Iran returned the compliment. Iran criticized USA at every turn. When you click on Al Jazeera today, there is sure to be an Iranian authority on the screen, scolding USA. Iran is simultaneously fighting three cold wars, Israel, Saudi Arabia and US, commented TIME. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has ‘confounded every US President’ for the last 30 years, said TIME.

Then there is Venezuela. USA is   meddling in Venezuela too. USA wants Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro to go. USA is supporting opposition leader Juan Guido, who has declared himself ‘Interim President’ without any constitutional right to do so. Guido’s wife was invited to the White House to meet President Trump.  The US, Canada, EU and many OAS countries have recognized Guido as the Interim President, making the country have two Presidents, observed analysts.

But there is   support for Maduro too. Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and dozens of other countries at the United Nations have joined together  to show support for Venezuela in its showdown with the United States, said France 24” (on 14.2.19). Maduro is winning in Venezuela, said analysts speaking on France 24” (on 2.10.19)  Maduro told Trump ‘don’t repeat a Vietnam in South America’

Venezuela   formed a support group of its own in the UN, of around 50 countries. When he spoke to the media in February 2019, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister was flanked by the ambassadors of several countries including Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, North Korea, Syria, the Caribbean countries and the Palestinian representative.

Venezuela and Palestine on behalf of the Non-aligned Movement, presented a draft resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Council in July 2019 condemning the imposition of sanctions by the United States and its allies against Venezuela and other member states. The document also reaffirms the “inalienable right” of every country “to choose freely and develop, in accordance with the sovereign will of its people, its own political, social, economic and cultural systems, without interference from any other State or non-State actor.”

The draft resolution was approved with 28 votes in favor, 14 against and five abstentions. “I am grateful for the overwhelming support of the member states of the UN Human Rights Council for the resolution presented by NAM in favor of Venezuela, said Maduro.

India is now having second thoughts about its link with the USA. India has already established contact with Russia and now it is trying to settle its disputes with China. China and India met at a summit in Chennai in October 2019.   This is the 19th occasion that they have met since Indian Prime Minister   Modi took office, said analysts. Some meetings were informal visits.

At this meeting India wanted China to do something about India’s trade deficit with China. India has a trade deficit of USD 53 billion in China’s favor, the biggest India has with any country. China said it was willing to address the issue.

India’s  drug industry and India’s IT services have long sought  market access to China.  China said both were welcome. In return, China wanted India to consider Huawei’s bid for India’s proposed 3G network and not be swayed by U.S. pressure. The United States has asked its allies not to use Huawei equipment, which it says China could exploit for espionage.

China also seeks to link some of her relatively backward, land-locked Western regions with India’s North-East. India’s North-East is rich in strategic resources, such as, mineral and energy reserves, said analysts.

Yahapalana on the other hand is continuing its link with USA. Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, Austin Fernando paid a courtesy call on the US Ambassador to New Delhi in December  2018 at the US Embassy there. The High Commissioner held cordial discussions with the US Ambassador on a wide range of affairs covering subjects such as economy, bilateral and multilateral relationships of Sri Lanka, trade relations with the United States of America and the country opinions on foreign relations and governance issues. The High Commissioner briefed the US Ambassador on the political situation in Sri Lanka and the need for robust involvement of the US in the economic front and promoting economic assistance to Sri Lanka.

USA is determined to capture Sri Lanka, politically and militarily. The most important  of these  for USA, at the moment is  the military aspect. Robert. O. Blake, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 2006 to 2009, visited Sri Lanka  in May 2019. He said that Sri Lanka is a very attractive partner  and  a military role is expected of Sri Lanka. Military links between USA and Sri Lanka are getting strengthened, he said. USA military and Sri Lanka military train together. There are joint exercises with all three services.  The US embassy and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have separately  denied  that US plans to set up a military base in Sri Lanka.

In addition to US-Sri Lanka military-to-military partnership, Sri Lanka  also entered into a ‘Comprehensive Partnership Agreement’ (CPA) with Japan in October 2015. Japan is part of the USA Quad. The recent tripartite agreement between Sri Lanka, India and Japan on Eastern Terminal of the Colombo port should be examined taking into consideration Western powers seeking to dominate Sri Lanka,   added Shamindra Ferdinando, in June 2019.

Yahapalana is also trying to link Sri Lanka with ASEAN. Sri Lanka has asked ASEAN to include Sri Lanka as an ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partner to strengthen engagement with ASEAN and its member countries. Sri Lanka submitted its dossier for Sectoral Dialogue Partnership to ASEAN in March 2019 ASEAN has links to USA. The United States began engaging with ASEAN as a dialogue partner in 1977, and has cooperated with ASEAN ever since.

USA wants Sri Lanka to sign two agreements which will benefit USA militarily. The first of these, ACSA, has already been signed. An Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA)  between Sri Lanka and US was first signed in 2007 by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as Defence Secretary and expanded in 2017 by the Yahapalana government, said Yahapalana .

The ACSA between the two states provides for ‘logistical support, supplies and services’ to each other’s militaries. While the support is said to be ‘reciprocal’ it may be inferred that the agreement is weighted heavily in favour of the US, since Sri Lanka  army does not engage in military adventures abroad, said critics.

Both agreements say  that the USA army can come into Sri Lanka in   an unforeseen situation.  However, unlike the 2007 agreement, the 2019 agreement has annexures which  list by name, the various military units which can come in.  With the signing of ACSA, we are no longer non-aligned, announced  Tamara Kunanayagam.

Critics  are pursuing this matter of ACSA because it has not been made public. Opposition wanted to know why even after two years the signed text of the ACSA was not tabled in Parliament  by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The  agreement  has not being presented to the Cabinet, Parliament and the people, they complained .

Yahapalana offered excuses. Yahapalana said that  the ACSA  Yahapalana  signed with USA had less number of pages than the ACSA signed in 2007. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in Parliament that You don’t measure the harmfulness of an agreement based on the number of pages. That depends on the content.”

Wimal Weerawansa  responded to Prime Minister’s observation that the new ACSA signed had only five pages.” I am tabling the Agreement signed during Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s period. It has only eight pages and no annexures. The  recent ACSA document  has 83 pages with more than 50 annexures .I have a copy of it. I also have with me the Sinhala version forwarded to the Cabinet. This contains only the primary section, concluded Weerawansa..”

Once ACSA was signed the USA  moved onto the second agreement, the SOFA. Although the full details of the proposed SOFA pact still remain largely confidential what is now known should surely ring alarm bells among those in this country concerned about its sovereignty and security, said Sunday Times. From the little that is known about the SOFA, its terms will reduce the host state to the level of a neo-colony.

A draft copy of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), now under negotiation between the US and Sri Lanka, obtained by the Sunday Times, reveals a number of Washington’s demands that would impinge on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The agreement said  The US is seeking that aircraft and vessels of the US Government to be free from boarding and inspection.” This means none of the state security arms, like the Navy, Coast Guard or the Customs can board any US military vessel or aircraft when it is in a Sri Lankan airport or sea port – or even vehicles on land and helicopters, an internationally accepted sovereign right of a country. The US wants exemption from licence, Customs duties, taxes and any other charges within Sri Lanka.

The US is also seeking authorization for its troops to wear uniforms whilst ‘on duty’ in any part of Sri Lanka, carrying arms and radio communications equipment.Both in terms of the Sri Lanka Constitution and normal laws, only the armed forces and the Police are empowered to carry out this task. The only exceptions are Sri Lankans who are authorized by licence. In addition, Washington wants US troops and contractors to be allowed to enter and leave Sri Lanka, individually or collectively, with the use of only their US identification. This will mean they will carry no passports or visas.”

Among the privileges that the US has asked for, is the right of US military personnel to carry weapons and be subject not to Sri Lankan jurisdiction but to US law in the event of some crime or criminal activity. They will be beyond Sri Lanka’s jurisdiction even if one of them kills or wounds a local person with his weapon.

Those stationed in Sri Lanka will be using their US driving licences which need not be produced before any local authority. Nor would their passports or other travel documents be inspected . Their vehicles on Sri Lankan roads cannot be inspected or boarded. They could kill anybody and get away with it as they would just wave their diplomatic papers. There is also a clause that exempts US vessels and aircraft being boarded and inspected by Sri Lankan authorities. It also exempts equipment and other articles and material being used under this agreement, from inspection within Sri Lanka.

Ranil Wickremesinghe   said in Parliament  that SOFA was not an agreement but an exchange of letters signed between the US Embassy and our Foreign Ministry. These agreements generally establish the framework under which US military personnel operate in a foreign country. SOFA provides for rights and privileges of covered individuals while in foreign jurisdictions and how the laws of foreign jurisdictions apply to US personnel.

This has been going on from 1995, he said. Such letters were exchanged in May, 1995 during the Presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga. One of the letters is as follows: The (Foreign) Ministry is pleased to inform the above-mentioned personnel that US military personnel, civil employees of the Department of Defence will be accorded the same status as provided to technical and administrative staff of the Embassy of the United States. The Ministry also wishes to inform that this reply shall be considered an agreement effective May 16, 1995. This shows that diplomatic privileges are already accorded to US military personnel and civil employees of the Department of Defence, he concluded.

Since there was  so much  opposition to SOFA, the USA changed SOFA’s name to  ‘Visiting Forces Agreement.’ A Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is a version of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that only applies to troops temporarily in a country. Philippines President Duterte threatened to abrogate the VFA the Philippines had with the US, but found that  the  treaty can only be repealed by an Act of the US Congress.

President Sirisena said in August 2019  that SOFA should not be signed without his approval. He made it  clear that he was the Minister of Defence and SOFA was a subject that came under his purview. S   said that it will suspend talks on  SOFA until the presidential election is over. The US embassy hopes to take it up again after the Presidential election of November 2019.

The Sri Lankan  intelligentsia wanted  clarification about these agreements. This was the first time that the public had even thought about such matters.  Until now,  sixty years past independence,  the intelligentsia had shown no interest in the agreements that  the  government  were signing.   They trusted  the government not to sign anything  mad. This time it was different.  The intelligentsia were concerned as to what mess Yahapalana was getting them into. They made inquiries.

The law  relating to treaties says that the Head of state, Head of government and foreign minister can sign  on behalf of the country, said Palitha Kohona when consulted.   In US A  these officials cannot sign a treaty until US  Senate had approved it. Sri Lanka has no such safeguards.

These agreements are legally binding, Kohona  told his concerned audience.  Once you enter into an agreement you are bound by it. We sign these things  voluntarily   and then find that we are obliged to  realize the provisions.  With superpowers there is no easy way out of it, he said. You can get out of a treaty only on the treaty’s own conditions.

Tamara Kunanayagam  added to this.There may be an International law of Treaties but still they cannot go against the UN Charter. We are entitled to protect our resources, our land. There is a right to permanent sovereignty, said Tamara Kunanayagam.” Future government must say it will not recognize the treaties.

The intelligentsia debated   on how to get out of these treaties, when the next President comes in. Military treaties will being in troops. If the Americans come how to get rid of them, pondered the intelligentsia. Land grabbing is violation of international law but it may be difficult to throw them out, if US leases our land.

The best way, the intelligentsia decided was to keep them out at the start itself. A new organization named STOP USA was started in Colombo in June 2019. The objective is to prevent the three USA treaties.” The organization was joined by many lawyers, politicians and artists, reported the media.The organization seems to be going strong. In August there was a Stop USA meeting at Gampaha.

There is a third US-Sri Lanka  agreement, the Millenium Corporation Compact. The time frame for MCC Sri Lanka Compact has now ended said the US  Ambassador in August 2019. This was the first time that this kind of situation has arisen in the final stages of signing the agreement, she said, adding that it will be very difficult  to convince the MCC board that they should continue with the deal. The government is still undecided. I don’t know what to do as there is not much we can do now,”  she said.

Those supporting the United States of America praised the MCC agreement. It is only a critic of the most destructive kind who would see the compact as having nothing of value to Sri Lanka, they said. The MCC Compact should be seen as having essentially the same aims as other foreign-aided development ventures, including those funded by, for example, the numerous UN agencies operative in Sri Lanka. What goes for the latter goes for the MCC Compact as well. It needs to be noted that the Compact has been and will be worked out in collaboration with the Sri Lankan government, said   USA’s admirers.

The Colombo-Trincomalee railway link   which the public associate with the MCC,  would not be dividing the country, it would be linking it more strongly, they said.  In Japan, there is a high-speed railway line between Tokyo and Nigata. The bullet train takes less than two hours to complete the journey and  no one has access to the bullet train track. This train track has not divided the country or the people, but actually connected them with a fast and safe mode of transport. A high-speed railway link between Colombo and Trincomalee ,  would   also connect the two places . It will  accelerate income growth and job creation, bringing about economic benefits to people, as well.

Those who were anti-USA flatly rejected this. ‘There’s nothing called a free lunch’ they said. The intended Compact falls into the sort of  lunch which carries a price. It could serve certain foreign policy aims of the US and could be described as designed to meet specific national interests of the USA.

The Trincomalee –Colombo link is going to be Sri Lanka’s first electric rail link. It  is viewed with suspicion because it is suggested by the USA. It has a clear  military  importance to USA, but for  no one else. USA has brought in military items by plane  to Katunayake and then transported them by road to their ships in  the Trincomalee sea. High speed train will be better.

The USA is busy trying to create another military opening  to try and enter Sri Lanka . The doctrine of Right to Protect (R2P). R2P  has been developed as an excuse  to justify international intervention by sovereign countries in  the domestic affairs of other countries. it is viewed with concern by the countries that the US is trying to get into.

 R2P   flies in the face of the founding principles of the UN, said analysts. The UN Charter already  covers the objectives of global peace based on sovereignty and equality. the way to achieve this is given in chaps 6, 7, 8 of the Charter. UN agencies have been successful in  maintaining global peace and R2P is unnecessary. 

The International Commission on Intervention and state Sovereignty (ICSS) established in 2000 and headed by Gareth Evans of the International Crisis Group,  issued in 2001, a report titled ‘Responsibility to Protect’ . This presented the idea that the international community has the responsibility to  intervene militarily, when there are  crises in  sovereign states, in order to bring ‘security and justice’ to the victim population.

 The ICISS report was not accepted by national governments. The idea was projected at various  summits such as 2005 World Summit, and member states reluctantly agreed after a lengthy debate to include reference to R2P in the outcome document, limited to two paragraphs 138 and 139. in 2006, UN Security Council resolution 1674 of 2006 reiterated the reservations of paragraphs 138 and 139.

in 2009 Ban Ki Moon put forward a report ‘ implementing the responsibility to protect’ it was debated in General Assembly in 2009 with 94 member states voicing concerns and the resulting resolution only records that it had taken note of the resolution. UN Secretary General’s report  of 2010  only refers to the existence of R2p in paras 138 and 139 of the World Summit Outcome, concluded analysts.  

The US has put in place a set of ‘interfering agencies for R2P’ said G.H.Pieris. . They include government agencies associated with foreign affairs in powerful countries, key humanitarian activists in and around the Office of the Un High commission for Human rights, scholarly ‘think tanks’ at leading universities, international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international,  International Crisis Group and the  ‘Chicago R2P coalition’. The global advocacy networks  for R2P includes elite level NGOs in operating in third world states and key personnel in powerful media firms. R2P has not developed any further, but Sri Lanka must take note of the fact that R2P is  still hovering in the air.

Currently USA is the largest single contributor to the UN paying 22% of the budget. This gives them financial clout. With the creation of a  Human Rights Council to replace UN Commission on Human rights, in 2006 a busy special procedures regime  was established to monitor Human Rights in particular countries.  The Universal periodic review of member countries is used by the US to blackmail non compliant countries. US  also expanded the operational coverage of UNHCR to included IDPs and other affected populations. A global NGO movement was  nurtured  parallel with this.  More than 3000 NGOs have been named as official consultants to the ECOSOC with many more contributing unofficially through the embassies, said Kamal Wickremasinghe. (CONTINUED)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

USA had planned to entrench itself comfortably in Sri Lanka immediately after the regime change of 2015. ‘What we offer Sri Lanka is a true and transparent partnership, particularly in terms of development and infrastructure, avoiding unsustainable debts,’ said USA to Sri Lanka. ‘Your country stands to gain substantially from these opportunities.’ 

Unfortunately, USA is not that admired and welcomed in Sri Lanka. Critics seem to outnumber admirers. Loyal supporters of the USA are ridiculed. Mangala Samaraweera is America’s poodle and the West’s darling, said Rajeewa Jayaweera.

Even the USA embassy in Colombo is criticized.  USA is at present completing a huge embassy on Galle Road, amalgamating the old British embassy site. The new complex appears to extend from the Kollupitiya junction to the old Colombo Swimming Club area, covering the entire length of the front wall of the Temple Trees, said critics.

The current government appears to be highly dependent on the West for its political survival, said analysts. This link will not benefit the country.  Over a thousand so-called independent “Think Tanks” have been established both in the USA and in other countries to influence governments towards USA projects. Institute of Policy Studies and Advocata are playing that role in Sri Lanka, said Tissa Vitarana.

USA wants to wean Sri Lanka away from China. Sri Lanka should avoid the vulnerability associated with excess indebtedness to a single lender, USA advised, meaning China. Hambantota port is a Lankan operation, said Yahapalana soothingly. Not a single ship can enter Hambantota unless it is guided by the harbour guards who come under Sri Lankan Navy. No Chinese submarines can dock here. Just because we take loans from China, it does not mean we will subscribe to their strategic interests,” said Yahapalana.

China   responded. China’s development can be seen all around the world in ports, roads, railway while American bombings can also be felt all around the world, replied China. US and British imperialists secretly create difficult situations in sovereign countries in order to pave the way to interfere openly, warned China. One method is to create spurious narrative about regimes they want to target.  

It is now suspected that the USA was probably behind all the political killings in Sri Lanka. The assassination of SWRD Bandaranaike, the two attempted assassinations of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the two JVP killing sprees of 1971 and 1989 and the Eelam wars. These are all externally induced. None of them are local. Easter Sunday Bomb blasts are also blamed on the USA. The bombings were carefully planned and executed, showing an external influence.

The US seems to be funding all types of clandestine operations in Sri Lanka during the present period of Yahapalana rule, observed analysts.  The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) received substantial US funding.  USAID and DAI which are operating in Sri Lanka are used by CIA for clandestine operations. Contracts and funds are issued through them, said Tamara Kunanayagam.

It is well known that the US meddled in the elections of 2010 and 2015.The US funding of Sirisena campaign in 2014/2015 is not a secret though identities of recipients remained confidential, said Shamindra Ferdinando.  US Secretary of State John Kerry said a massive USD 585 million was spent in Nigeria, Myanmar and Sri Lanka to ‘restore democracy’. This was in addition to USD 3.4 million made available to the Yahapalana government between the January 2015 Presidential and the August 2015 Parliamentary polls.

The forthcoming 2019 presidential poll will not be an exception,   said analysts.    USA is clearly going to play a role in that too. For instance, US embassy officials met Arumugam Thondaman, head of the Ceylon Workers Congress to discuss the election.

There are at least three Presidential candidates who are considered pro-USA. Apart from the UNP candidate, who will definitely get the support of the USA, there is also the CIA funded JVP. There is speculation to why JVP has presented a candidate this time. JVP last contested the presidency in 1999.

The former Army Commander, Mahesh Senanayake is also a Presidential candidate. Mahesh Senanayake left the country after 2010 election. He   returned in 2015. Many do not know where he went, said Former Army Major Ajit Prasanna, now an Attorney at Law. Senanayake had gone to USA where he worked on intelligence in Afghanistan and Libya, then held a senior position in the American embassy in Dubai.  He served USA for five years, said Ajit Prasanna on television news.

We know that the present government is not coming to power the next time, said USA. Therefore, USA is now courting the new political power in Sri Lanka, the Pohottu. USA hopes that   having links with both sides will allow the US to further its interests after the next Presidential election, observed analysts.

 In May 2019, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa attended a dinner given for Robert . O. Blake  former  US ambassador in Sri Lanka . At this dinner, Blake praised the three Rajapaksas, Mahinda, Gotabhaya and Basil. He  paid a glowing compliment to Basil for being the brains behind the new opposition SLPP. Blake had praised Gotabhaya earlier at a Pathfinder seminar. Blake also met Mahinda Rajapaksa, in private discussion, on invitation from Mahinda Rajapaksa, reported the media.

Sri Lanka is mistaken if Sri Lanka thinks it can get rid of USA as easily as Sri Lanka invited USA in. The USA has no intention of getting out of Sri Lanka now that it has got in. Sri Lanka is too important. The attraction is not Trincomalee ,  as it is popularly supposed. It is Sri Lanka ‘s  strategic  position in the Bay of Bengal, with Trincomalee thrown in as an added bonus.  The unique geographic position of Sri Lanka makes it a natural aircraft carrier. It is also ideal for a major communications center and it has Trincomalee, said analysts. 

USA’s military interest in Sri Lanka has been expressed in a roundabout way, to avoid alarming the public. Sri Lanka occupies a strategic point in the Indian Ocean, said USA. She sits in the middle of one of the busiest  and most strategically important  sea lanes in the world .  The sea lanes in the Indian Ocean are considered among the most strategically important in the world, announced USA.

More than 80 % of the worlds seaborne trade in oil transits through Indian Ocean choke points, with 40 % passing though straits of Hormuz, 35% through the Strait of Malacca and 8 % through Ban el Mandab strait. These sea lanes are the gateway to the control of resources and market in the near east, Middle East, Africa and Asia, said USA. 

This  sea route has been  in operation for a long time, centuries in fact.  It is nothing new.  But it  is presented as a new  discovery by the USA. Suddenly Sri Lanka  is not  India’s heel.  it is at the cross road of the emerging energy, trade and air route linking Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asian and Australia, commented critics, sarcastically.

What the US did not say is that the Bay of Bengal is now  becoming a theatre of war. Indian Ocean is a heavily militarized ocean and a military battle is possible, said analysts. There is  competition in the Indian Ocean   between India and China, and between China and USA. There is competition for military bases as well.

Sri Lankans fear that the US in planning to drag Sri Lanka into a global war against China. On account of its strategic location, Sri Lanka is  now in the crosshairs of dangerous power games among the big powers, said Lasanda Kurukulasuriya. Sri Lanka will be dragged into wars and conflicts over which it has no  control. They will use our army elsewhere in the world, said Tamara Kunanayagam.,  In place of our traditional non-aligned foreign policy of equal friendship with all nations ,Sri Lanka has become a part of the USA’s military machine,  they said.

The alarmed intelligentsia have now started to look for ways of getting out of  this awful possibility. They called for the restoration of the country’s independence, sovereignty and non-aligned foreign policy. Leaders, both present and future, should align the country with the nations which do not interfere with internal affairs of the country, they declared.

“Stop the use of our military bases and ports by foreign powers. Repudiate all military agreements. Have friendly relations with all nations on the basis of equality. Reverse the harmful Neoliberal changes designed to make Sri Lanka a semi-colony of the USA”,  said LSSP.

Sri Lanka must pursue an independent foreign policy. This must stress the protection of the territorial integrity,  sovereignty  , independence and economic advancement of Sri Lanka,  said Palitha Kohona. Sri Lanka should not permit its territory to be used to create a strategic imbalance or threat to any country. Sri Lanka   should follow a non aligned position.

We need to have a foreign policy which is effective, which ensures our security, safeguards our territorial integrity and sovereignty and ensures prosperity of all our people. [We must have ] healthy relations with India. We cannot at the same time antagonize the west. But we need  not be intimidated by them, said Sudarshan Seneviratne.

The intelligentsia brushed aside Yahapalana claims that relations with the  West” were badly damaged by the Rajapaksa regime and that  Yahapalana had changed this. The west did their utmost to prevent us from winning the war said the intelligentsia.  If Rajapaksa government  saved the county at the cost of good relations with the west, the present  Yahapalana  government mended those relations at the cost of independence of the country,  they  said angrily.

A group of concerned citizens offered a solution. Sri Lanka  should establish good relations with countries other than the USA, they said. There are other countries to turn to, notably China and Russia. We were able to end the Eelam war because China threw its weight behind us and sent us the required arms. It was China that supplied much needed weapons, at a time when Western countries refused to do so citing human rights concerns, they said.

Russia and China supported us in Security Council. Russia gave military assistance as well.  Iran has also been helpful, not only with military supplies but also with interest free loans. Iran supplied us with our crude oil requirements. So we are not without real friends, said K Godage. Sri Lanka also realized during Eelam war IV, that India’s support   is not essential for Sri Lanka, concluded analysts.

But a better solution for getting out of this dilemma would be to return to Non-Alignment, said the intelligentsia. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) established in 1961 is, as its name indicates, a forum of 120 states that are not formally aligned with any major power bloc. NAM is   second only to the United Nations in size. It represents two thirds of the world population and could be a formidable force in the international arena.

Sri Lanka enjoyed status way above its size in the NAM in the 1970s. Under the Chairpersonship of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka helped this movement reach its zenith in the mid 1970s.  Sri Lanka held a very successful Non-Aligned Summit in Colombo in 1976.  After that, Sri Lanka occupied a respected position in international relations. Sri Lanka was regularly consulted at the United Nations. Sri Lanka’s opinion was sought at the UN when issues came up. This is the highest recognition Sri Lanka has ever achieved in an international arena. Taking into account our small size this was an extraordinary achievement, said analysts proudly.

 When J.R.Jayewardene became President, in 1977   he did not continue to support NAM. Instead he took Sri Lanka away from Non Alignment to alignment with USA. NAM is still in existence, though in low profile. It is called on when necessary. NAM recently supported Venezuela at the UN Human Rights Council. Before that, Sri Lanka had received support of the NAM at the Council when resolutions were brought against it after the Eelam War. We should recover our earlier position in the NAM, said Palitha Kohona.  Some senior NAM diplomats still have sympathetic feelings towards Sri Lanka, he said. (CONCLUDED)

By Chandre Dharmawardana.

According to news reports (e.g., Island 18-Oct.-2019), the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi”, a constituent party of the  The Tamil National Alliance” (TNA) has hurled a 13-point request letter into the political arena of the presidential stakes, even though the prospective president has been shackled by the 19th amendment crafted by the Jayampathy-Sumanthiran cabal.

It should not be forgotten that parties constituting the TNA  backed the LTTE in its heyday and were the political facades of Prabhakaran’s Terror campaign, even though their very own colleagues like Amirthalingam and Yogeswaran had been murdered in cold blood by Prabhakaran. Those acts have never been condemned by the TNA. The terrorism of the LTTE is ignored and the tigers are adulated as Freedom Fighters”.

Amirthalingam, the highly respected leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) midwifed the separatist Vaddukkoddai resolution for an  exclusive Tamil Homeland”. Ironically, according to medieval Sinhalese records, Portuguese and Dutch texts, Colonial maps, as well as British-era documentation, Vaddukkoddai was known as Batacotte”  well into the end of  19th century. No Vaddukoddai” is mentioned in colonial or early Tamil sources. The name board of the American Seminary school showed the name Battikotte” as sanctioned by the Tamil scholars of the era. The place-name signified a garrison town, i.e.,  a fortification (Kotte”) for soldiers (Bhata”)  defending the North against possible south Indian offensives.

Amirathlingam lapsed his seat in parliament after the  1976 Vaddukkoddai resolution but returned to parliament accepting the Indo-Lanka accord of Rajeev Gandhi and JR Jayawardena.   Since neither India nor the LTTE, complied with even the major terms of the Rajeev-JR accord, the agreement stood null and void. Nevertheless, JRJ heeded Amirthalingam and implemented the provincial councils even without the sanction of parliament.

Although Mr Sampanthan and other TNA leaders collaborated with Prabhakaran, the war-winning Rajapaksa government did not treat them as de Galle had treated the Vichy collaborators of Hitler. Instead, the TNA was main-streamed into parliament. A Northern Provincial Council was created after the fast-track de-mining and infra-structure development that stunned Western observers; they had expected no progress given the 2008 economic downturn. The TNA hand-picked Mr Wigneswaran, an upper-crust  Karuvakaaddu lawyer to anoint as the chief minister of the North.

Mr Wigneswaran’s rule of the North did little for the locals, and failed to spend the money allocated to the NPC! Instead, Mr Wigneswaran erected statues of King Cankili” known for his massacres of Tamil converts to Christianity in the 15th century.  Re-stating history and commemorating  LTTE-suicide fighters were more in the line of these politicians.

The most notable act of the Northern Provincial Council under Wigneswaran was the resolution claiming that all Ceylonese and Lankan governments since 1948  followed genocidal policies against Tamils, even though the Tamil population had grown by a factor of three  during the period, at a rate superior to that of the Sinhalese, even with massive  immigration of Tamil speaking  Sri Lankans since the 1983 pogrom directed at Tamils,  following  the assassination of 13 soldiers by Prabhakaran.

Given such a backdrop, it is not surprising to find that Mr Wigneswaran drafted the 13-point document which harks back to the Vaddukkodai resolution as if nothing whatever has happened since 1976! 

Most of the  propositions are classic Vaddukoddai verbiage:

1. Acceptance of the political aspirations of the Tamil Nation; 2. Recognition of the merged Northern and Eastern Provinces as the historical habitat and the traditional homelands of the Tamil Nation;

3. Acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the Tamil Nation and 4. The realisation of the fact that the Tamil People under the provisions of International Law have entitled to the right of self-determination accordingly the creation of federal rule in the merged Northern and Eastern Provinces would be our considered Political standpoint.

Mr Wigneswaran knows the Thesavalamai” law. A landowner cannot act against the wishes of his neighbours. Colombo, the southern neighbour of the purported historical habitat” of the Tamils,  does not agree to Eelam. Colombo had thirty years of negotiations and battles, and it finally decided on a military settlement (e.g., see Shamindra Ferdinando,  http://pdfs.island.lk/defence/defence.html).  The Northern neighbours (India and Pakistan) also oppose a Tamil Eelam in their doorstep. So all neighbours of the purported historical Tamil habitat” object to these propositions that Mr Wigneswaran now wants acted upon in three months!

The Tamil claim to an exclusive traditional homeland” is not supported by historians ( see e.g., Roberts: Tamil nationalism: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., Vol.XXVII, no.1, April 2004, available at https://dh-web.org/place.names/posts/rob-ajwilson.pdf, or  K.M. de Silva, ‘Separatism and Political Violence in Sri Lanka’, G. H. Peiris, ‘Twilight of the Tigers’, OUP ). It is not history, but the current status that matters, when a majority of Tamil speakers live in the south, among the Sinhalese and the Moors. As to who were the majority in the North when  Ceylon became a crown colony of the British,  the colonial records, and especially those of Captain Percival who lived in Jaffna from 1800 to 1820 are unequivocal that the Moors were the dominant group, while the Tamils and Sinhalese formed minorities. In fact, it may be that the Jaffna peninsula then was ethnically more like the Eastern Province today.

How can the ITAK claim sovereignty over the Eastern Province, where even the TULF in its heyday in 1977 did not get an electoral mandate? Why does the ITAK assume that the Moors of the East or the Sinhalese of the East wish to be in  Eelam, simply because the Tamil leaders seek it?

If the merging of provinces is to link regions occupied by Tamil speakers, then the central hills, Colombo and Kandy should also be included – or is that a future step?  The ITAK-led group has forgotten that there are more Tamil speakers in the south than in the regions claimed within Wigneswaran’s wigwam.

 ITAK-led group requests that:

The expropriation of lands and areas of religious worship by Government Departments including Archaeology Department, Wild Life Department, Forests’ Department must forthwith be stopped. Those lands and places of worship already expropriated through these Departments must be freed from the effect of the Gazette Notifications which so expropriated them”.

Should we,  by the same logic, reverse the  Tamilized names of the North to their original names (e.g., Vaddukoddai becomes Batakotte)? Thousands of place names have been identified even by 19th-century Historians like K. Velu Pillai in Yalpana Vaibhava Kaumudi”, and confirmed by contemporary historians like Karthigesu Indrapala (for details, see https://www.dh-web.org/place.names/).

The Wigneswaran group has also requested that:

(a) Full-fledged independent impartial International mechanisms through the International Criminal Court /International Arbitration Tribunal must be set up to inquire into the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity and Genocide committed during the final stages of the war. (b) The Prevention of Terrorism Act must be withdrawn. (c)  All Tamil Political Prisoners must be freed unconditionally”.

What is surprising and contradictory is that Mr Wigneswaran who claimed a genocide since 1948 now wants to investigate war crimes limited to just the final stages of the war. It was fought for a political purpose. Tamil political prisoners or any indicted war criminals should be freed only if found NOT guilty by the courts.

The ITAK letter claims that the Moragaskande Irrigation Scheme is indulging in planned Sinhala Colonization in the Vanni Region”. It also says that priority must be given to those belonging to the Northern and Eastern Provinces in Governmental and Private Sector job opportunities in the said two Provinces”.

So even the private sector has to fit into Mr Wigeswaran’s ideology of Tamil exclusivity.  Singapore’s iconic leader, Mr Lee Kuan Yew,  introduced rules to avoid creating mono-ethnic enclaves and pursued vigorous multiculturalism that proved successful in ensuring ethnic harmony. Dr Sebastian Rasalingam, an anti-LTTE Tamil writer, has also supported increased  Sinhalization of the North, and Tamilization of the south  (see: Sri Lanka Guardian, June 2011, http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/06/sinhalization-of-north-and-tamilzation.html). G. G. Ponnambalam also said that the whole of Ceylon is the homeland of the Tamils (and so, of the other communities as well).

The well-to-do Tamils of the homeland”  migrate to Colombo and go abroad when richer. So government-encouraged migration to the North is needed to counter such population shifts.

The LTTE did not want the Yal Devi. The ITAK-led group does not even want Mahaweli water, even though a shortage of water and a climate catastrophe are facing the peninsula. The rising sea level will salinate and destabilize the limestone aquifers while global warming and arid conditions will have serious effects. However,  the ITAK is determined to turn even a  sinking ship towards Eelam

Asoka Kuruppu

US ship visits, aircraft transits, and small unit exercises happening in Sri Lanka at the moment are reminiscent of what the US attempted with the Philippines.

History tells us how the inherent and entrenched anxieties and phobias the US arms manufacturers and high military officials have, has led to building war bases all over the world.  Massive military budgets and interventionist attitudes are leading to a resurgence of US bad behaviour in Sri Lanka fuelling a kind of Cold War with Asia.  The US wants to show ‘Who is Boss” to emerging power bases of China and India.

November 1992 US/Philippines agreement was drawn up and ratified under the innocuous name of “Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement” (ACSA)  giving the US, military access, to Philippine ports, airfields, and military installations. In hindsight, now we can conclude that it was existential anxiety in the US.  However this unjustified fear on the part of the US-led to repercussions which undermined the Philippines morale, led to horrendous demonstrations and protest rallies which in turn led to violence, deaths, and injuries.  Further, it gave rise to Amer/Asian children, toxic waste at the former base sites and prostitution of Philippine women by returning U.S. military personnel.  In other words, it did not end without leaving permanent scars in the Philippines psyche.

Now the US is starting it all over again in Sri Lanka.  If we do not nip it in the bud, we will end up in similar circumstances, if not worse. So do not encourage the US to influence Sri Lanka and entrench themselves in the Sri Lankan political scene.  And better start saying `Yankees Go Home ‘ now rather than later.

An editorial, “Re-inventing the bases,” in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of November 23, 1994, wrote:

“As far as the Philippines is concerned, any arrangement that re-instates the bases in Philippine waters or on land in whatever euphemism they are labeled is unacceptable. What should be clear to the US is that among America’s Cold War allies, it is only the Philippines that decided to end the bases and that anti-bases sentiment still runs deeply and strongly.”

If you don’t believe me read the whole article: 

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54a/004.html#N39R

V. KITHSIRI Courtesy The Island

Our constitution is there to safeguard the rights of every individual irrespective of their race, religion, and ethnicity.

This is one of the basic requirements in a secular country. I’m in the opinion that application forms for the candidates for the forthcoming Presidential election do not require them to declare their religion on the forms.

Well and good we all will say. However, it should equally safeguard the voters from those culprits who masquerade as belonging to a certain religion, for the votes from that community. News is floating in social media/web that certain candidates contesting this election are duping the masses, proclaiming on stage that they belong to Buddhism when they are not so actually. 

As much as any individual belonging to any religion has the right to contest an election in the country, will it not be a violation of the election rules to fake your identity? However, a candidate cannot be held responsible for faking if he is not required to declare his religion on the form.

Therefore, I see the necessity for the Elections Commission to request all the candidates to reveal their religion on forms for accountability, if it is not the case already.

V. KITHSIRI

Courtesy Adaderana

The Chairman of the ‘Organization for the Protection of Muslim Rights’ Moulavi Mohamed Miflal says that he is has received a lot of harassment following the revelation of the controversial video of Minister Rauff Hakeem and Easter attacks ringleader Zahran Hashim.

The ‘Organization for the Protection of Muslim Rights’ handed over to police a CD containing footage and images from a discussion allegedly attended by both Hakeem and Zahran.

The organization demanded the arrest of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLC) Leader Rauff Hakeem over his alleged connections to the leader of the now-banned National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) organization, Zahran Hashim.

However, commenting to the media, Hakeem stated that he did not know of Zahran Hashim on the day of the relevant discussion.

In this context, the house of the ‘Organization for the Protection of Muslim Rights’ Chairman, Moulavi Mohamed Miflal, was raided by the police, yesterday (19).

A stock of handbills and posters themed ‘Stop to the 70 years of deception’ was seized by the Kantale police during the raid.

Another haul of the same handbills was seized while en route to Trincomalee. The Police said that the relevant handbills and posters cannot be utilized without prior permission from the Elections Commission.

Accordingly, the Moulavi Miflal arrived at the Elections Commission today (20) to obtain the necessary approval. Speaking to the media, the moulavi stated that he is being increasingly harassed following the revelation of the video.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Presidential candidate of New Democratic Front (NDF) Sajith Premadasa pledged to reduce existing taxes and introduce reforms to the current tax system to encourage entrepreneurs.

Addressing a meeting of entrepreneurs, Premadasa said his future administration will create an environment where entrepreneurs can gain more opportunities to widen the scopes of their businesses.

“Our economic policy will be established according to national interests. We will give maximum benefits to entrepreneurs so, that they can expand businesses.

For those who are unemployed, I will ensure there will be many job opportunities and we will ensure that through a strong economy and economic policy… While we use the free market system to generate wealth, we also have to be cognisant of the aspect of redistribution of wealth and income.

 By that I do not mean taxing the business class, not at all, I think they are already heavily taxed. I’m not the usual tax and spend politician. Rather, I would reduce existing taxes and reform the tax system to encourage private entrepreneurship to grow and expand. So in summary I believe in competitive markets, but I also believe in social justice,” he elaborated.