Dr Sudath Gunasekara

The BIGGEST challenge before the Sinhala nation at the forthcoming Presidential Election (Continued from 29.9.2019)

6.Oct. 2019.

Here I will give you a brief analysis about the main Sinhala political parties in this country, their past, and present status and add my views as to how you should act to save this country, the Sinhala Nation and the Buddha Sasana at his extremely critical time in the country’s history.(Note: I have dropped all communal parties (Tamil and Muslim) from this discussion as they are not national parties and they are only extremist outfits agitating for their narrow communal interest, going at a tangent to the national interests of the State, pausing a serious threat to the operation of the democratic process and the unity of the country. Whoever come to power this time he should ban all these communal Parties and have only two or three national parties like SLPP, Democratic or Republican ).

Now I will begin with the UNP.

The United National Party  (UNP) was formed in 1946 by the merger of the Ceylon National Congress and the Sinhala Mahasabha to contest the first Parliamentary election of the Independent Ceylon under the Soulbury Constitution in 1948, to enable the Westminster system of Government to function smoothly (as they said) under the party system. It is said that it was Henry Monk Mason Moor, the then Governor who suggested this name mischievously whereby he implied that there are many nations in Ceylon. The introduction of this concept was aimed at strengthening the divide and rule policy of keeping Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim divided and the country destabilized. This assumption is absolutely wrong as there was only one nation called Ceylonese (Sinhalese) even in 1946 which meant the people of the Sinhale (the land of the Sinhala people), as it was known from 543 BC

This was a shear colonial conspiracy to misinterpret the history of this Island nation to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist nation. This was the first time anyone has implied Tamils and Muslims as nations in this country. The UNP under British directions blindly agreed to accept this new concept in a wink without realizing the long term British coup behind it to destabilize and divide this country. The UNP did not object or protest to this historical blunder and total distortion of the history of this country. Instead, they meekly swallowed that colonial virus. This historical blunder later led to the concept of Sri Lanka being internationally accepted later as a multinational country where Sinhalese constituted over 80% of the total population of the country even at that time (after changing the demographic composition  for 443 years from 1505-1948,  by colonial invaders) and put Sinhalese in par with the minority communities. The total population in 1946 was 6.657.300. (Sinh 4.673, 600; Ceylon Tamils and Ceylon Moors 1.514 300. (CT 733,700. CM 780,600). The balance constituted Indian Tamils and Indian Moors, Burgers and Europeans and Malay who were not Ceylonese at that time. By doing so the British downgraded the Native Sinhala nation, the Bhumiputras of the land and elevated the Tamils and Muslims to parity status with Sinhalese, the sons of the soil. This was the first (1) political betrayal of the UNP. I put the whole blame for this betrayal on the political leaders who took over the country from the British.

Furthermore the UNP also failed in 1948  2) to get the name of the country Sinhale” restored, 3) to get the freedom over the motherland by asking the British to take back all those South Indian Tamils they brought here to work on their projects especially the plantations as cheap labour 4) to get a Constitution of our own enacted based on our civilization  as a fully independent and free State without just accepting a made in Britain Constitution drafted by them (Jennings) designed to perpetuate their control of the Island and exploitation of its resources, 5) to get our own legal and Administrative system restored, 6) to get the language of the people  of the country, Sinhala, declared as the official language of the State and finally 7) to get full freedom and Independence from the shackles and clutches of colonial rule (by accepting Dominion status while India was declared as a Republic in 1951), made the 1948 Independence a big faux pas. Therefore the UNP has absolutely no right to claim that it has got independence in this country in 1948. 

Very soon the UNP became a group of closely-knit family circle that was duped as Uncle and Nephew Party” merely enjoying the fruits of political power for personal gain serving the British colonial masters instead of building a free and independent nation as a country that has got independence from colonial rule and serving the natives.. History has clearly proved that the first UNP Government has done nothing towards this goal other than the continuation of the Dry Zone settlement development and irrigation work started during the State Council days. S.W.R.D. Bandaranayaka disillusioned by this negative approach of the Government left it in 1952 and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. D.S the first Prime Minister died in 1953. The people got disgusted and disillusioned over the neglect of their birthrights and the disregard for their Language, religion, and culture by the UNP and revolted in 1956 and formed a new people’s government under the leadership of S.W, R. D. reducing the UNP to 8 seats in Parliament. The new Government introduced a series of patriotic moves first by making the Sinhala, the native language of the nation, the official language of the country after 141 years. Thus the sons of the soil actually felt some sense of freedom only in 1956 and it is hailed as the dawn of a new era Sinhala Buddhist resurgence for the first time not only after 1948 but also since 1815.

This brought to an end the first unsuccessful phase of the UNP. The second UNP government was formed in 1965 under Dudley (DS’S Son) and ended in 1970 again without any significant achievement in nation-building. The third UNP government was formed under J. R. Jayawardhana in 1977. His Government completely reversed the nationalistic policies of the previous government, passed a new Constitution in 1987 replacing the 1972 Republican Constitution and introduced the Executive President system of Government.  He signed the infamous Rajiv /JR Accord in 1987 by which he declared the Northern and Eastern Provinces Comprising 1/3 of the total area of the country and 2/3 of the Island’s coastal belt, paving the way for separation and leading to a Federal State in the North and East with 9 independent Provincial Councils under the notorious 13th amendment  with power over land with Judicial and police powers to be governed by 9 Provincial Councils headed by 9 Governors and 9 Provincial Chief Ministers enjoying Cabinet level status with  nearly 700 Provincial level MPP and 45 Ministers, granting Citizenship to all Indians in this country over the counter without any condition, making Tamil also a national language all over country and thereby reversing the status of the Sinhala (language of the natives), that was the official language for  21 from 1956, increasing the number of MPP in Parliament from 155 to 225 with 29 National list MPP specially made to accommodate political stooges with no qualification without having to face the elections, politicizing the entire public service by  introducing a compulsory chit system from the local MP to get a Government job, giving a free hand for UNP goons to run the country, removing the Civil rights of the Mrs Bandaranayaka for 7 years, increasing the number of Ministers in the central Government to nearly 112, creating a new kind of Ministers called State Ministers and non- Cabinet  and State Ministers and creating 45 Ministers a the Provincial level are some of the prominent betrayals his government did ab initio. This increased the number of superficial politicians, institutions and staff at least by five times and the government expenditure went up exponentially by billions with very little benefit to people and completely disorganized and destabilized the provincial administration that was rum smoothly run until then.

It should also be noted that Rajiv /JR Accord of July 29th, 1987 was singed under Island wide emergency and confining the Government MPP to a Hotel in Colombo after getting all of them to sign an undated resignation letter under compulsion, thereby making democracy a big joke.

Thereafter in 1982, he got the term of Parliament extended for a second term of another 5 years under a referendum conducted in the most undemocratic manner. They also had an election in 1989 March and R. Premadasa took over as the President. Other than starting a garment industry and construction of few hoses under Gamudava program and constructing clock towers all over the country, hardly any other significant development took place during this period.  The biggest political coup during this time was the removal of Mrs. Bandaranayakas’ civil rights in October 1989 for 7 years, violating all basic tenets and ethics of human rights and carried on until they were driven out in August 1994.

Again the UNP came to power under Ranil as PM in 2001 for a short period by accident. During this time he signed an agreement with Prabakaran without the knowledge of President Chandrika and his government was sacked by Chandrika in 2004. He was defeated by Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2005 Presidential election and was driven in to political wilderness until he was unconstitutionally appointed as PM by Maitripala Sirisena who became the President after quitting and betraying the only Party that brought about the first wave of national resurgence in 1956 after independence and that nursed him as a political cub for long years. The first job they jointly did was to rob the Nation’s Central Bank. Ranil as the Prime Minister was the chief architect in this mega scam. But for obvious reasons the President has not taken any action against Ranil up to date.

This was followed by a series of undemocratic conspiracies like the dissolution of Parliament in July 2015 to avoid a Parliamentary debate on the COPE report, followed by August General elections, the second CB scam of 2016 and  a plethora of anti-national, anti- Sinhala and unpatriotic actions such as selling national assets like Colombo, Hambantota and Trinco harbours together with 101 oil Tanks at Trico and  Air Ports like Mattala and Pallali to India and China, allowing the Tamil and Muslim extremists to run riots and betraying the country at international forums like the UN and UNCHR and destroying the oldest political party in the country by internal feuds for power directly goes to Ranils account. What more evidence is needed to show the disqualifications of the UNP to hold on to national politics in this country anymore? Looking at the ongoing infighting and the mess they have made out of it how can anyone can expect them to run this country. Ranil is the worst and the most undemocratic, self- centered, irresponsible and inefficient leader UNP ever had in its 72 years of history.

Today as it stands even a tiny tot can understand that there is no political party called the UNP in the country anymore. As one writer recently said, History will write hi (Ranil)  off as morally corrupt pimp of the West who dragged the Grand Old Party, the Parliament and the people to the lowest moral level in the post-independent era”. To this, I would add that the UNP under his leadership has ruined the whole country and the entire social system beyond recovery.  The same writer observed The knell of the parting day will toll for Ranil on election night on Nov 16. But how many UNP mourners will be there to follow him to his political grave?” So said the same writer quoted above quite rightly.

Talking about the ongoing tussle between Ranil and Sajit some might think it is over with Sajith‘s appointment as the Presidential candidate. That is far from the truth. It is only the beginning of another major conflict. Ranil will do everything to defeat Sajit. As I see it Sajit will never win even with all Muslim and Tamil votes. Even if he wins by some miracle, which is very unlikely, Ranil will make it virtually impossible for Sajit to do his job as the President. That will mark the beginning of the war between Ranil and Premadasa which will drag the country will go from bad to worse.

The overall the UNP has never been people-friendly. Never has being patriotic either. As it stands today it is almost dead and buried as a national political party, thanks to Runil’s 29 years of miss-leading that grand old party. Its survival right throughout has rested on minority voters. The net result has been the unpardonable betrayal of the Sinhala nation and the country. It has gone down on record as the Political party which robbed the nation’s Central Bank by its own leader, the Prime Minister of the country. It is also on record that as the party that has sold the greatest number of national assets, as the party which has imprisoned the largest number of Buddhist monks and that kept the eyes closed while allowing the Tamils and Muslims to vandalize most of the Buddhist heritage in the North and East and openly declared that this is not a Sinhala Buddhist country.

I am asking the following q1uestiobs from those all Sinhala Buddhists who still remain stuck like leeches and ticks to this treacherous ant-Sinhala and the ant-Buddhist obnoxious band of political rogues.

 Don’t h you feel ashamed as the descendants of heroic Sinhala forefathers to be a party to these betrayals.

Don’t you have an atom of the brain to understand what these traitors have done and the irreparable damage they continue to do this great nation the country and the Sambuddha Sasana

Don’t you feel guilty that you have already become a party to the crime of destroying the Sinhala Nation   the motherland that has nursed you for 2600 years, not done by you but by someone else, that is those politicians who have come to power through  your vote promising the sun and Moon but has done nothing to you or the country

Don’t you realize that all that you had done so far by voting these rogues have only enriched them and their kith and kin while you have gone down the slope of poverty, misery and eternal hopelessness as individuals and a nation?

Don’t you see that the present-day UNP is a dead and stinking corpse that will never reappear again in this country under that name?

As such it is high time that you change your Maruvath Kepuwat Kola blind mentality at least now, as there want to be any UNP after the 16th of November. Therefore I strongly advise you to bury the UNP and align with a new patriotic force where all Sinhala people stand united under the Lion flag to rescue this nation from the socio-political and economic mess in which this government has put it within the past 4 ½ years. That is the only way the Sinhala people can save this country, the nation and the Buddha Sasana for posterity.

So now I appeal to all those mad and blind followers of UNP who are still suffering from the incurable mania of ‘Api Kepuwat Meruwath UNP” to immediately leave these unpatriotic good for nothing bunch of political rejects and get out of this rut as early as possible and join the patriotic forces to save your bellowed motherland and the Sinhala nation from extinction, for reasons, I have outlined above. In this noble mission, you have no alternative but to elect the person selected and presented by the Mahasangha as the most suitable leader who can take this country out of the present pathetic situation. A vote for the UNP is a vote against the Sinhala nation. A vote for the UNP is also a vote against this country and the Buddha Sasana.  

Now I Come to the SLFP.

The SLFP was found as a people-centered nationalistic political movement by SWRD in 1952 as said before as an alternative to the then Western servile UNP that was serving their colonial master rather than the needs of the native people. It formed the first people’s government in 1956 with the heavy backing of Sanga, Veda, Guru and Govi Kamkaru, the neglected segments of the society but who formed the five steel pillars of the then existing social system. Thus 1956 marked a turning point in Sri Lankan progressive and patriotic politics that ushered in a new era as an independent nation. Before long agitated and disturbed by the ensuing radical socio-political and economic changes that deplete their power and positions reactionary forces backed by the UNP conspired and got Banda assassinated in 1959. But proving the dictum that ‘A flowing river will never turn back’ the newly emerged forces continued under the able leadership of Mrs. Bandaranayaka, the wife of dead Banda, until 1965, in spite of a second coup attempted again by reactionary UNP forces backed by the Church to assassinate her as well. Again from 1970 to 77 under Mrs. B, and 1994 to 2001 under Mrs. B and Ratnasiri Wickramanaayaka, and 2002 to 2004 Chandrika and 2005 to 2015 under Mahinda Rajapaksa it carried out a number of people-friendly and patriotic programs.

The long list of patriotic and people centered activities like, making Sinhala the official language Setting up of the Ministry of Cultural affairs, a Ministry of Buddha sasana and the Ayurveda Department and the Navinna Ayurveda research Center, nationalization of the Colombo Harbour, taking over of Katunayaka and Trincommallee air base from the British, he Paddy Lands Act, nationalization of  the omnibus service and foreign owned Oil Companies, setting up The People’s Bank , Sri Lanka Insurance corporation, CWE, State Timber Corporation, creating the Employees Provident Fund, Nationalization of Sterling Tea Estates, abolition of the colonial vestige of Ceylon Civil Service and creation of The Sri Lanka Administrative Service that enable the Sinhala educate village boys and girls who knew their country and the needs of the native people to reach the higher echelons of Public Service that remained a privy of the children of English educated social elite who knew very little about the country and its people, the declaration of 200 miles Sri Lanka sea limit, Sirima Shastri Indo-Lanka Agreement and  annexation of Kachchtive Island are some of the highlights of SLFP achievement. Among all these fetes inauguration of the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 removing the Dominion Status  under Mrs B under the new Republican Constitution that replaced the British made Soulbury Constitution and defeating and ending the 30 years LTTE terrorist menace in 2009 under MR leadership (2005-2015) stand up as the most outstanding achievements under SLFP governments. The singular credit for having the best foreign policy also goes to the SLFP under Mrs. Bandaranayaka. The 1976 Non-Aligned Conference held in Colombo   that brought the Leaders of 77 countries and attracted the attention of the whole world that put Sri Lanka prominently on the world map and the settlement of Sino Indian war in 1959 and easing tension between India and Pakistan are the highest achievements of Mrs. B’s regime that have been inscribed in golden letter in world history.

UNP ridiculed her as a Kussiamma coming to politics. Some learned pandits sang Stribuddhi Vinaasaya. It was R. Premadasa who once said in the so-called supreme Parliament that the chair she sits will have to be washed every month. That was how UNP politicians ridiculed and despised this great ‘uncommon woman of an uncommon husband’ as D, B. Danapala the doyen of. Mrs. B brought credit to this Island nation like no other. Her Stature, Charming smile, impeccable character, graze and outstanding charm, wherever she  graced whether at home or abroad generosity as a true Sinhala  Buddhist Upasika and above all her lofty Leadership qualities she had inherited from her birth to rule as a Queen  among Kings have made her the most illustrious leader of Independent Sri Lanka. As D.B.Dhanapala the most eminent journalist in Sri Lanka (Lanka Puwath path Kalave Sakviti) once said ‘Nobody thought she will do it But today nobody doubts that she has done it” better than any male leader of contemporary politics in this country. I say, she has aptly proved the classical Sinhala saying Totilla padawana Ata Lokaya Paalanaya karai” The hand that rocks the cradle rules the World)   (I request you to read her book Sinhalayaage Anaagataya haa  Indulankaa Prasnaya” Jaatika Prakaasanamandala  Anka 1: published by Jaatika Adyaapana Mandalaya 1965, to rediscover the Modern Vihaaramahaadevi in this Great Sri Lankan personality.

All this incredible credit goes to the SLFP of the past. That is pre 20. Why I say so is, in my opinion, there is no SLFP today in this country. It was brutally murdered and buried under 100 feet below on 10th Nov 2014 when Maitripala Sirisena left to contest as the UNP Common candidate and betrayed it under the advice of Chandrika.

Although MS was able to snatch the leadership of the Official SLFP after becoming the President thanks to MR for not sacking him from the post of General Secretary, the next morning, he does not have the support of the grassroots level SLFPers anymore. So long as the present SLFP 12 or 13 MPP hanging on to the President he may be able to collect few people for his dream election rallies. But the day they come to know where the grassroots level SLFP men and women stand they will en masse jump to the legitimate and true successor to SLFP that is the SLPP as the election draws nearer and nearer. Judging by the latest events I will not be surprised even if Dayasiri Jayasekara and Duninda Disanayaka are suddenly discovered in the lap of Gothabhaya. Then what will happen to MS? He will be found all alone stranded in the middle of the devil and the deep seas or in the Minneriya weva medde as it happened to Lewke metindu who was found dead all alone in the mid of the paddy field surrounded by Marasenaga.

Therefore, the only way out for him to get out of this political catastrophe, in my opinion, is first, he should give up his daydream of either contesting or nominating someone else for the Presidency from his dead SLFP or supporting Sajit to take revenge from Ranil on the dead ropes given to him by his close associates. Second, he should directly talk with Rajapaksas and join that camp without allowing Dayasiri Jayasekara (former UNP) or Weerakuara Disanayaka (former JVP) to talk on his behalf. Third, as outgoing he himself should stop talking now as he will be no more the President in two months’ time. You just wait and see all these fellows who stick on and hang around making big noises for one reason or the other, will leave Sirisena the day nominations are closed when the realization that he is a dud coin. Fourth and finally he should openly apologize to MR for all the betrayals he had done to him and the SLFPers in the country for the damages he has done to the party and support Gota to be the next President. Then at least they will forgive and look after him and his family as if a prodigal and disobedient son who has come home                

As for those SLFP grassroots level foolish people who still hang on to anachronistic MS and his acolytes thinking they have power expecting to get their things done in future please give up this wild daydream immediately as there is no political party called SLFP today and also there is no tomorrow politically for anyone of this group. Therefore the wisest thing you should do is to immediately fall in line with the ‘Gota Wind’ and vote with him if you need to get your grand old party back in power and also to get your things done in future and more particularly if you want to save a country for posterity.

If an epitaph is needed, to decorate the tomb it could well be inscribed: Here lies the remains of The Sri Lanka Freedom Party” Founded by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, on September 2, 1951, and destroyed by his pissu daughter and Maithripala Sirisena, the modern Brutus in Sri Lankan politics.

                                           Final religious rituals are done on 16^th Nov 2019.

Finally, now let us look at the JVP.

The JVP is called the Jatika Vimukti Peramuna. You perhaps know better than me about their dark past and who they are.  To begin with, the name itself is a misnomer. Because to begin with, they don’t have a Jatiya. They at least pretend to be international. I don’t think they even know what the Jatiya of this country is.  For that matter, none of our politicians appear to know it. If they do why on earth they always like parrots say there are many Jatiin in this country. If you carefully listen to them or read what they write always they come out with lose talk like ‘siyaluma jaatiinta , kisima jaatiyakata venask netiva etc. This implies that they all believe there are many nations in this country. To me, this is a big joke. Because any country has only one nation. Eg Japan Japanese, China Chinese Every country has named its the Jatiya after their native language. So in this context here in Sri Lanka, the Jatiya is Sinhala. Because the native language people have used for millennia is Sinhala.  The irony is here in Sri Lanka our politicians call even Muslims a Jatiya, whereas there is no Jatiya called Muslims anywhere on earth. The word Muslim refers to those people who follow Islam Just like Buddhists and Hindus, who follow Buddhism and Hinduism are called Buddhists and Hindus. To that extent Muslin it is only a name used to denote a group of people who follow a certain religion. But our fools call it a Jatiya.

Coming back to JVP I am posing the question as to what is the Jatiya are trying to liberate when they themselves have no Jatiya. I am sure it is not Sihala Jatiya. Because in the first place, like all other Sri Lankan politicians, they don’t accept there is a Jatiya called Sinhala. Which means their Jatiya is also Sri Lankan. That makes it more than clear that the JVP doesn’t accept Sinhala as a Jatiya. Moreover, they also don’t have a religion or a culture to liberate or protect either, as what ordinary folk like us have. They also don’t believe that this is a Sinhala Buddhist country as most of our politicians do for political expediency. None of them know that we have a rich Sinhala Buddhist heritage in every grain of sand in this country running into millennia. The JVP cadre doesn’t know about our kings and Queens. They only know about Karl Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, and Stalin. That is why they only have their pictures hung on their stages. The way they talk, behave, dress and act clearly show that they appear to be an alien set of misguided set of lunatics. People know what they did in 1971 and 1979 and also the most uncivilized way how they did it. People also know how they have already destroyed the University students and the whole younger generation who are expected to take over the country tomorrow.

Class struggle, Jealousy, malice, and hatred seem to be the four pillars on which the JVP built. In their minds, they live in Russia. Marxism and Leninism are their bread and butter. They are neither Sinhala nor Buddhist.  So will they ever protect the people or their culture of this Sinhala Buddhist land? What is they will do that.  I admire the active roles played by Anurakumara in Parliament and Handunhetti at the COPE, in excavating the garbage of other political parties and the public and corporate sector. But I pity their inability to understand what Sri Lanka is and who its people are. I am more than convinced that unless and until they adjust to the local cultural matrix they can never come to power in this country through the democratic process. I do not know as why these young people don’t learn a lesson from their old Marxists veterans like NM, Colvin, Philip Gunawardhana etc and join the mainstream and work hard to prove their metal and do some service to the motherland without wasting their valuable youth in vain. They also know that they can never win a Presidential election. Then why are they contesting?  As I see every vote cast for the JVP is a loss to the nation as it is definitely going against the national interest. It is especially so at a Presidential election where each vote counts in deciding the fate of the nation. At a time when we are struggling to rescue the Sinhala nation from the extremist Tamils and Muslim every vote cast for JVP goes goal and you are increasing the chances of the UNP candidate that is extremely fatal to the Sinhala nation. If they want to liberate the nation as the name of their party suggests, what they should do is to support Gota and withdraw from the race. If they do that they will enhance their future chances as the UNP will disappear from Sri Lankan politics after this election. Therefore I appeal to the JVP cadre to act wisely on this most critical time. I am also requesting the younger generation who still hang on to this JVP mirage  that lead them headlong to destruction and disaster not to get misguided by the venomous rhetoric of the present day JVP leaders who are neither Sinhalese or Buddhists and to use their heads and think far and use your vote to select the correct Sinhala Buddhist as Anura Disanayaka will never get elected as the President at this election. You will be only wasting your valuable vote by voting JVP. If you do that you will be hailed as a patriotic set of youth and go down in history as a generation who saved the nation at a critical time of its history in the present context where all minority communities the UNP and even the whole world is working against the Sinhala Buddhist identity in this country.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna; A new Patriotic National Movement that saved the political philosophy of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of Bandaranayaka

In the aftermath of the 2015 Jan Presidential Elections, several important changes took place in the political landscape of this country. Maitripala Sirisena the General Secretary of the SLFP who left the party under mysterious conditions to crown the UNP as the Common candidate won the Presidential elections unexpectedly with the support of the UNP, and all anti-Sinhala, anti-Buddhist forces both at home and abroad. The SLFP, the only political Party died a natural death. Chandrika, the daughter of SWRD, the Father of the SLFP, was the chief architect of this coup. Consequently, the SLFP voters in the country were left fatherless and motherless too. A group of devoted SLFP stalwarts in desperation formed a new group called Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front” (OSLFF) as an attempt to gather round the disintegrated and rudderless SLFP voters. Later it was re-launched as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in November 2016 by Basil Rajapaksa and his friends with the blessings of MR under the chairmanship of Prof G. L. Peiris and became the focal point of rallying the Fatherless and Motherless SLFP orphans”, made destitute by Chandrika and Sirisena. Within a very short time, SLPP grew up as a mighty peoples force under the shade of MR and contested the 2018 Local Government Elections and came out with a resounding victory reducing both the UNP and the Sirisena factions to Lilliputs. We as patriots are happy that the SLFP voters, at last, have finally found a new home from where they can wage the third phase of the war in national resurgence and nation-building.

Conclusion and my appeal to the Sinhala Nation!

 In this backdrop now I come to the question of Selecting and electing the next President of this country. As I have already pointed out above both the SLFP and UNP are dead and buried. The final rituals of SLFP was performed on Nov 10.2014. The UNP final rituals will be done by the people of this country on the 16^th of November this year. The JVP also will disappear after this election and go into political oblivion just like the old LLSP and CP, very soon. The JVP as a political party is utterly irrelevant to our context and absolutely inconsistent with our national needs. Already it has changed its name as Jaatika Janabala Vyaapaaraya and the Symbol also has disappeared. They may have sold it to somebody to bell a cat. But their alien political ideology remains the same. Going by the notorious performance of the UNP, more particularly during the past 4 and half years none of those who have eyes to see, ears to hear and a nose to smell and ahead to think will ever vote the UNP or the Sirisena camp if he nominates someone. All nominees under those defunct labels should not be even considered at this election, apart from electing them.

Going by the age-old traditions of this country the one to be elected at this election should be selected by the Mahasangha (preferably by a Council of Mahasangha) and elected thereafter by all the people in the whole country again keeping with the Mahasammata tradition. As I see already a group of eminent Mahasanga has selected Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the prospective candidate and this has already been publicly declared by Mahinda Rajapaksa the Leader of the SLPP group at a recent Convention of the Pohottuwa. He told the gathering, I don’t have to name him here as you have already selected Gota as your nominee”.

 As the next step, I propose that his selection be publicly ratified by a Maha Sangha Sabha (The great Sangha Council of Sinhale) consisting of the Mahanayaka Theras of the Tun Nikaaya and other subsidiary sects like Kalyani, Kotte, Rangiridambulu, Dakshina Sangha Sabha and Vanavasi Sangha sabha as soon as possible. That will set a new tradition in selecting and electing the nation’s future leaders so that it will last forever as a national convention of this Island nation. This will also bring the Mahasangha of the whole country under one Council for all purposes in the future.  This should be done before the handing over of nominations on the 11th of October. In case they fail to do it before, I suggest ratify it at a public meeting as soon as possible at a national convention of all Mahasangha to set a permanent tradition and Convention. Once that is done Mahasangha of the whole country has to refrain from appearing on behalf of any other candidate and advice everybody to elect the person so nominated. This will also firmly confirm and consolidate the universal concept of Sukha Samgassa Samaggi” (Happiness and peace is there in the world when there is unity among the Buddha’s disciples) as preached by the Buddha. Further, I also suggest that Sri Lankan Mahasanga all over the world should come back and work for Gota’s success going from village to village making a clarion call to the nation to Vote for Gota to save this country, the Sinhala nation, and the Buddha Sasana.

 Now that the SLPP has already pledged its support for Gota, and SLPP being the legitimate successor to the SLFP found by S.W.R.D and nursed by Sirima and Mahinda, first, all those who were with the SLFP all over the country should rally round him. President Sirisena also should now drop his ill-advised ambition of putting a candidate and throw his weight with Gota to keep the former SLFP votes together if he wants to defeat the reactionary UNP and rectify the damages he has already done in 2014 by helping the reactionary forces to come into power. He must now realize that he is now a political refugee only spending the last two months in power. In my opinion, he stands between two realities. That is on the one hand now he cannot toe with the UNP.  On the other, he also cannot win an election as an SLFP candidate as there is no SLFP now, as the majority of them have aligned with the SLPP as it was clearly demonstrated in the last Local government elections. The mere 4,90, 000 he got at the last Local elections is also now drastically eroded and therefore there is absolutely nowhere he can get at. Any action to the contrary on his part will only reduce the chances of SLPP candidate and increase that of the UNP. Under these circumstances, the best thing he should do now to safeguard his own interests is to openly support Gota, which will also mean that he is only going back to his old home. 

Second, all Sinhalese as one force should discard all their past political alignments, like UNP and JVP and rally round Gotabhaya, as he is the only candidate who stands for the Sinhalese. I appeal all hardliner UNP men and women and JVP cadres not to waste their votes by voting their old party candidates this time. Instead, vote Gota and be a party for a historic resurgence of the Sinhala nation in the year 2019.

I also have a word for the new voters nearing 6-7 lakhs. This is your maiden vote. Therefore you must vote the winning candidate if you want to be happy and proud that you have elected a President with your first vote. The man who will win this election is Gotabhaya, I swear you. By doing so you are not only electing a new President but also become an active party to change the History of this country and the Sinhala nation that is going to be a landmark in the annals of this country. As such I suggest you vote Gotabhaya, the trusted and able warrior who led the war against the LTTE and liberated the country for you and me and of cause the brother of Modern Dutugamunu, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Also please remember that by voting Gotabhaya you are also voting the legendary warrior Gotabhaya one of the trusted Dasamahaa Yodayas of Dutugemunu, the legendary warrior king of this Island nation, who defeated the Indian invader Elara, who ruled the northern parts of the country for 44 years and brought it the whole country under one parasol.

Once election trend gathers momentum I believe even the ordinary Tamils and Muslims, who understand the political reality, might revolt against the oppressive Tamil and Muslim Politicians who have been driving them as a herd of goats and free themselves from the cruel clutches of their politicians who have blindfolded them and exploited these poor and innocent creatures for 71 years and vote for Gota.  It will once again make this country a worthy place where everybody could live happily in peace and harmony and prosperity san all ugly communal and religious clashes ignited by Tamil and Muslim politicians from the day we got Independence in 1948. 

(To be followed up by Part 111)

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The former Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and several other UNP stalwarts said that there was more than 2/3 support of the members of the UNP’s working committee (WC) who attended the last WC meeting wanted party leader Mr. Ranil Wickreemasingthe to come forward as the party nominee for the presidential election but Ranil Wickreemasingthe nominated Sajith Premadasa subjected to abide with several conditions.  Mr. Premadasa agreed to uphold these conditions and hence the candidacy was vested with Mr. Premadasa.

They said that regardless of this fact Mr. Premadasa has spoken at several post WC meetings and boasted that he as the son of his father will not allow anyone to dictate terms to him and he has not agr4eed to any conditions whatsoever to secure party nominations and he will not bow down to such conditions. 

These statements have caused much irritations and anger to Mr. Ranil Wickreemasinghe and other UNP stalwarts and this situation has resulted in the cunning fox and politically experienced Ranil Wickreemasinghe to convene a party convention on October 3^rd at the Sugathadasa Stadium.  Sajith Premadasa together with his mother and several thousand party supporters from all over the country has attended this special convention.  Sajith Premadasa or his ardent supporters were not aware that this convention was a well-planned strategy by Ranil to get his own grave dug at this convention.  When the convention started Mr. Ranil Wickreemasinghe has taken the center stage and spelled out the WC conditions one by one and has requested the attendees to approve the conditions by raising their hands.  The imbecile and ignoramus politically childish Sajith Premadasa too has raised his hand and given his total consent to the conditions which sealed his arrogant pronouncement about conditions, which included devolution of power, introduction of electoral reforms, abolition of the executive presidency as early as possible, to work within close collaboration and under the tutelage of the Prime Minister and acceptance of Mr. Ranil Wickreemasinghe as the leader of the United National Party.

Mr. Ranil Wickreemasinghe holds the leadership of the UNP, his family party, for the last 26

years and during this period in Britain, which is considered as the political mentor of the UNP there had been 6 leadership changes in that country.  In recent years there had been confrontations between UNP members supportive and opposed to Mr. Wickreemasinghe and most of these confrontations have taken place under the blessings and instigation of Mr. Sajith Premadasa.

 The last such confrontation was between pro-Ranil UNP members and those opposed to him spearheaded by Maithree Gunaratne(MG) and Shiral Lankatilleke(SL), the then Southern and Western Provincial Council members respectively.  MG is presently the Governor of the Central Province and SL is an advisor to Sajith.  They organized a massive procession to proceed to Colombo from Devinuwara Devale under the slogans o ‘we do not want Ranil – handover party leadership to a youth etc’.   When this procession came to Matara it was attacked by a gang called ’ cinnamon pole gang’ unleashed by Mangala in front of the Matara Bodiya.  Several people were injured and the Pole apprehended many of the so-called cinnamon pole gang and filed a case at the Matara Magistrate Court against Mangala and several members of the gang.  A person known to me who has been enlarged on bail now employed in Qatar come to attend the trial from Qatar at his own expense and on No Pay.  The next hearing of the trial is scheduled in February next year. 

The stupid Sajith Premadasa speaking at the aforementioned Convention after the adoption of resolutions has said that he will get into a social pact with the people and thereby create a new industrial and social revolution if elected to office.  He had come up with a set of pledges which included the setting up of an administration without corruption and nepotism, creating a free education system by carrying forward the achievements which he says the present government had made in the sector, free health services will be further strengthened, highest possible allocation will be made for health, set up IT colleges in each division, English language schools and introduce new women and youth charters.

Also, he has pledged to provide concessions for farmers, to create a new industrial revolution, a new poverty alleviation program in addition to Samurdhi and to turn state institutions which have become a burden into new joint ventures.

He has further stated that he does not  have a family or a generation to safeguard (what about his wife and children – Are they aliens?) and he will rule according to the ten principles preached by the Buddha and he will fulfill the duty entrusted to me by the party with diligence since he got this opportunity today as there is a party leader who is willing to make sacrifices and he got this opportunity also because of the approval received from the UNP working committee, parliamentary group allies and the endorsement given by party members. UNP Buddhist sources claim that Sajith Premadasa has no right to speak about Buddhism as he and his sister belongs a new Christian Sect named Born again Christians” headquartered in the United States and he receives huge amounts of funds from this organization. In order to counter these allegations, he should declare his income sources as he has said that he will not accept the salary and other allowances if he gets elected.   

In the meantime, the reactionary foreign servile UNP which succeeded through the 19th amendment to the constitution in preventing Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa from contesting for presidential elections, they had a persistent fear that they will not be able to restrict Mr. Gotabhaya

Rajapaksa contesting the elections. As a solace to this they sought assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Colombo to help them and it was for this reason that former U.S. Ambassador AtulKeshap in violation of his diplomatic privileges and in interference of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka unsuccessfully requested in his farewell meeting with Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa not to field Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as a presidential candidate.  After that they attempted to file certain cases in U..S s, and finally to hamper his election campaign by filing several court cases against Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa which included a case saying that there had been misappropriation of funds in respect of the construction of the D.A.Rajapaksa memorial museum at Weeraketiya, a vase against the Avante Garde Maritime Services saying that this project has caused a huge foreign exchange loss to the country, and a petition filed at the Court of Appeal (COA) urging to invalidate the Sri Lanka citizenship certificate issued to Mr. Gotabhaya on 21st November 2005.

In respect of the Avante Garde case, the former Head of the Bribery or Corruption Enquiry Commission Mrs. Dilrukshi Dias Wickremasinghe, an intimate family friend of Mr.  Ranil Wickremasinghe , has said that she was subjected to excessive pressure by some Ministers to frame charges against Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and others.  In this case, charges were made against Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and 7 others.  At the same time the solicitor General Mr. Suhada Gamlath has told media that he was summoned to the Temple Trees to attend a meeting and there were several Ministers including Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka and the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and they wanted him to doctor a case to arrest Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, this he refused to do.  He has said that Minister Ranawaka was very harsh on him and even threatened to take action against him.  Media sources indicate that Mr. Gamlath’s services will be suspended soon.

The Court of Appeal  (COA) after having a hectic session for three days the three-member panel of judges unanimously dismissed the petition filed by NGO vultures Professor Chandragupta Thenuwara and Gamini Viyabgoda urging to invalidate the Sri Lanka citizenship certificate issued to Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.  Court sources said that there was an unprecedented number of lawyers amounting to over 300 present on behalf of Mr. Gotabhaya in addition to PCs Romesh de Silva, Gamini Marapana and Ali Sabri and hence the COA  had to be moved to a spacious room to deliver the verdict at 6.00 p.m. on Friday.  In addition to this, there was a huge crowd outside the courtrooms and when the verdict was announced the whole area thundered with shouts of ‘Jayawewa’ and crackers lit by the jubilant crowd.   The firing ng of crackers and motor vehicle parades were held by jubilant supporters throughout the country.

Mr, Gotabhaya was in Kegalle at the time the verdict was announced and he immediately returned to Colombo to participate in a cele76bration organized by JO parliamentarians and Pohottuwa supporters at the official residence of the Opposition leader Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse and at this function, the official theme song of Mr. Gotabhaya’s campaign was also released.  The theme song says,  රට බෙදන මිනිසුන් ආයේ.. සුන් කරන බලයයි මේ.. මිහිදු රජුගේ සෙවනැල්ලේ.. රට රකින අවියයි මේ. This means:’This is the power that would once again demolish the separatists …. Under the shade of King Mihindu’

Given below is a comprehensive report on this historic verdict:

The three-judge Bench of the Court of Appeal unanimously decided to dismiss the writ petition filed against former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s citizenship status.  The Bench comprising Justices Yasantha Kodagoda (President/CA), Arjuna Obeysekara and Mahinda Samayawardena made this decision after hearing all parties over almost four days of continued court proceedings at the Court of Appeal.  

This petition was initially filed invoking the writ jurisdiction by the petitioners. The petitioners Professor Chandragupta Thenuvera and Gamini Viyangoda said Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office as the president on November 18, 2005. Thereafter, the Cabinet and the Ministerial secretaries got dissolved- because PM ceased to function. However, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Dual Citizenship certificate was signed by former President on November 21, 2005, exercising the executive powers vested in the cabinet.  

On December 08, the new cabinet was formed by the President.  

Petitioners argued that If the cabinet was dissolved there were no ministers to sign the certificate and the President has no power to exercise all ministerial powers till the cabinet is appointed.  

However, the Attorney General appearing for certain respondents contended that even in the absence of a cabinet, the president continues to function all executive powers as the constitution provides him the plenary executive powers because he was the head of the executive and the government.

However, Romesh de Silva PC and Gamini Marapana PC who appeared for Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa argued that the President exercised repository executive power received from people’s sovereignty since 1972. So, keeping in mind that people’s sovereignty was exercised by the president, one should read Article 30, and 44, of the Constitution. And under Article 44(2), it provides as to how the president can assign ministries to form the cabinet. This Article provided also that he can keep the un-allotted ministries. It means the retaining of the ministries for him is self-explanatory that one can assign or give something, only if it is a repository. The president is the executive repository power in the country.  
Counsel Suren Fernando appearing for the petitioners concluded the oral submissions by rebutting the respondent’s arguments.  

He explained that the core issue that the petitioners are referring to is based on the fact that whether the then-president had the executive powers vested in the cabinet of ministers and whether he could, therefore, authorize the citizenship certificate of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on November 21, 2005 functioning in the ministerial capacity between a time period where the cabinet had been dissolved and ceased to be functioning.  

He said Article 44, which existed in the constitution in 2005 (this article was later removed by the 19 amendments) had provided how such power should be exercised as opposed to what the respondents have made so far in arguing.  

He said under Article 44(1) the President shall appoint the cabinet immediately after his assuming duties as the president.  

And under 44(2), which is a sequel subsection to the article, says that then the president shall determine on assigning Ministries, Ministers, and their subject areas. After doing that the President could keep the ministries that have not been assigned to any ministers. ‘It is the ministries that have not been allotted to a Minister can remain before, the president did not have any repository executive power in keeping those executive powers beforehand as respondents Suren Fernando said.  

Romesh de Silva PC and Gamini Marapana PC brought up several preliminary objections against the maintainability of the petition.  They said the petition is a mala fide application filed on pure political vengeance and it should be dismissed straight away as there is no right to invoke writ jurisdiction on technicality according to the decided law. Romesh de Silva PC made these remarks pointing out several factors that are relating to the petition.  
Mr. De Silva said if the president could not sign the dual citizenship certificate in 2005, it was not only Gotabaya Rajapaksa who would get affected by this matter. He said there were 21 other individuals whose citizenship certificates were granted on that day (November 21, 2005). ‘Now what about their stance on this issue? Will those 21 individuals are rendered stateless too?’ he asked.  

Secretary of the Defense Ministry can only be held by a citizen in this country. And

 client has been a citizen for almost fifteen years. And the petitioners suddenly come to court to dispute about his citizenship merely on the ground of a technicality now. Writ applications cannot be invoked on a technicality so this application should be dismissed straight away as per law”, He said. He also said that the writ jurisdiction should be exercised based on the concept of equity and therefore this petition should be dismissed.  

He also pointed out that the SLPP and 21 other persons whose rights are adversely affected by this petition have not been named as necessary parties and therefore it is flawed in law.  
Mr. De Silva further explained about the alleged intention of the petitioners by referring to certain parts of the writ petition.  

On the caption of this writ application, it is mentioned Minister of Home Affairs as ‘Honorable Minister’, but the sixth respondent, the former president of this country was cited as only Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa”, Romesh de Silva argued. He said that it reflects the clear mala fide intention of the petitioners.  

Romesh de Silva PC and Gamini Marapana PC stressed that even though the apology could be accepted, the defect of the petition for citing the then president in person could not be avoided. And they said that the assumption of mala fide intention of the petitioners also should not be set aside.  

Gamini Marapana PC also said that this petition should be dismissed straight away as this petition was filed to insult the respondents because in the petition it stated that then-President had done fraud in signing the citizenship certificate. ‘How can it be a fraud. Everyone admitted that the then-president was duly elected and then signed those certificates for several persons as a minister. So what is the fraud in it even if he had not possessed the power to do so’ he asked. He also said that it was a serious defect in the petition to accuse respondents of fraud for something which is not a fraud. ‘In such instances, if that accusation is found to be meaningless the whole petition should not be maintained,’ he said.  

Romesh de Silva PC with Palitha Kumarasinghe PC, Ali Sabry PC, Sugath Caldera, Ruwantha Coorey, Harith De Mel and Namik Nafath instructed by Sanath Wijewardene appeared for Gotabhaya Rajapakse.  

Gamini Marapana PC and Naveen Marapana PC appeared for former president Mahinda Rajapaksa

The Opposition leader M r. Mahinda Raja[aksa commenting on the court verdict has told media that the verdict exonerated the whole country. 

Reports said that Minister Rajitha Senaratne has commented that the JVP will file an objection to the court verdict at the Supreme Court.  MP Udaya Gammanpila speaking about Minister Rajitha’s statements said that although the UNP attempts to digress responsibility from the court cases it was this political chameleon dentist who confirmed UNP’s links with the two NGO vultures saying that they would file a petition in the Court of Appeal and now he has established JVP/UNP link in respect of court cases.  Addressing a media conference Mr. Gammanpila also showed video clips relating to Rajitha making these statements at media conferences.    This article will be continued with a roundup of comments from media institutions and veteran media personnel.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

REVISED 7.10.2019

The United States of America wishes to continue as the sole world power, but China is also eyeing the position. China is USA’s main adversary for world power. China has moved into the Indian Ocean, linking with Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Therefore USA also wants to station itself there. Dominance of   the Indo –Pacific region has now become important, said USA.

USA admits that it is not located in the Indian Ocean. USA is in the Pacific Ocean. However, USA says it is linked to its Indo-Pacific neighbors through unbreakable bonds of shared history, culture, commerce, and values.” It   therefore has an enduring commitment to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations, regardless of size, are able to exercise their sovereignty free from coercion by other countries.  

United States wants to see a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific that respects such principles as peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom of navigation, open and transparent investment environments, and strong and responsible governing institutions, it added.

Now let us turn to what the US is really planning to do. The United State of America is getting ready for war in the Bay of Bengal and plans to drag Sri Lanka into that war, to fight on behalf of USA.

The US can no longer fight wars by itself. Analysts observed that USA can no longer scare away countries, by dispatching carriers or guided missile cruisers to loiter menacingly offshore. In 1996, USA sent two carriers to the Taiwan Strait, leading Beijing to back down from its war games off Taiwan Today, however, such a deployment would no longer elicit the same response.

New classes of quiet diesel submarines and new developments in mine and torpedo technology make operations close to tense coastlines far more dangerous today than in the past. As a result, U.S. aircraft carriers are no longer immune from risk when entering waters within range of enemy forces. Also there is the deployment of Russian and Chinese area denial systems, like the so-called carrier killer DF-21 antiship missile developed in the last decade by China. Its range of over 1,000 miles far outstrips the range of any warplane on U.S. flight decks today. Sailing a U.S. carrier strike force through the Taiwan Strait these days, in a show of support for pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong, for instance, would risk catastrophe, said ‘Foreign Policy’.

Following this, analysts observed in October 2019, that the U.S. Navy isn’t ready to take on Iran either, though militarily Iran could be considered a second-tier power. Iran does not yet possess anything as sophisticated as China’s DF-21. However, its domestically produced Noor antiship missile (itself a reverse-engineered rip-off of an earlier Chinese cruise missile) is dangerous at over 100 miles. In 2016, the USS Mason, a destroyer ship, discovered this when it was targeted by several Noor missiles.

The combination of these missiles and Iran’s fleet of fast and cheap patrol boats has been enough to keep the USS Lincoln out of the Persian Gulf as tensions between Iran and the United States increased. Naval air power, which since World War II has been the main weapon in the U.S. arsenal, is quite suddenly nearly irrelevant. Forward-looking officers in the U.S. Navy have been warning that this day would come for years said analysts.

Now let us return to Sri Lanka .Head of the US Indo-Pacific command, Davidson, made a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2019, where    he identified China as the enemy  and Indo Pacific as USA’s ‘priority theater’ of war. He called for ‘combat-ready deterrence’ to ‘win before fighting’ and, if necessary, ‘be ready to fight and win.’ The armed forces are to be ‘forward-postured in the region.’ This document reads like a blueprint for war against China, said Lasanda Kurukulasuriya. She observed that the document describes Sri Lanka as a significant strategic opportunity in the Indian Ocean”

But America is no longer able to fight alone. It needs support. The challenges we face in the Indo-Pacific extend beyond what any single country can address alone, admitted USA. USA needs a Joint Force that can act as an effective deterrence and also win in a conflict. US therefore assembled the Quad, (America, India, Australia) Japan) and now there is QUAD plus, with UK and France added.

US recognized India as a “Major Defence Partner” in 2016, a designation that allows India to buy more advanced and sensitive technologies from America at par with that of the US’ closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future.

In 2019 United States Senate has passed a legislative provision that brings India on the same level as NATO countries and countries like Israel and South Korea for increasing defence cooperation. This also provides for increased US-India defence cooperation in the Indian Ocean in the areas of humanitarian assistance, counterterrorism, counter-piracy and maritime security. US had turned India into its proxy and India will now assume some of the security functions carried out by US, said one analysts .

USA is now   seeking further Alliances and Partnerships, with like-minded allies and partners into a networked security alliance  in the Indo-Pacific. Within South Asia, we have our Major Defense Partnership with India and are pursuing emerging partnerships with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal, said Davidson.

 US has made it clear that it   needs the support of Sri Lanka for its control of Bay of Bengal. Thomas J.Vajda US Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State dealing with South and Central Asia   visited Colombo in February 2019 and said ‘we view Sri Lanka as a critical partner in the region.’ As the United States increasingly turns its focus to more robust engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, it also looks to Sri Lanka as a valued friend and a partner to be a leader in that process, he said.

Vadja also decided to woo Sri Lanka with some flattery. He spoke of Sri Lanka’s important role in the region. Your country has a hugely influential role to play in the region said Vadja. Located at the nexus of the Indo-Pacific, Sri Lanka has the opportunity to shape the region’s future, said Vadja.

 US Indo-Pacific Command Chief Admiral Philip Davidson told the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, during a Congressional hearing, in January 2019 that Sri Lanka was   a significant strategic opportunity in the Indian Ocean. Despite the political upheaval in Sri Lanka, it is in America’s interests to continue military collaboration and cooperation with Sri Lankan Forces he said. Military-to-military relationship continues to strengthen between the two nations., said Davidson.

The United States and Sri Lanka agreed to expand military-to-military cooperation” said a  joint statement from the Foreign Ministry in  May 2019. The cooperation included demining, joint military engagements, Sri Lanka’s peacekeeping operations, human rights training for Sri Lankan officers, and visits by U.S. ships and military officials. The use of the term ‘joint engagements’ (rather than ‘joint exercises’) is significant as it suggests a combat role, commented Lasanda..

U.S. Ambassador stated in January 2019 that “U.S.-Sri Lanka security cooperation includes a variety of joint exercises and training,  helping  among other things,  interoperability. This cooperation was designed by both countries to address our mutual security interests. Every joint exercise, every training in disaster response, is done at the invitation of our Sri Lankan hosts.

The Sri Lankan Navy is a well-trained and professional force with the potential to contribute to multi-lateral maritime interoperability in the Indian Ocean, said Davidson. The  US Indo-Pacific command  would focus in 2019 on increasing navy-to-navy engagement with Sri Lanka.

The last joint US-SL naval exercise,   ‘Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Exercise (CARAT) 2019,’  took place in Hambantota in  April 2019, with the participation of hundreds of personnel.     The two US ships participating were Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS ‘Spruance’ and Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USS ‘Millinocket,’ which is part of the United States Military Sealift Command. The 103m long ‘Millinocket’ has a displacement of 2362 tons, while ‘Spruance’ is 155.3m long and has a displacement capacity of 9580 tons.

SLNS Sayurala  and SLNS Samudura participated from Sri Lanka. The exercise was meant to strengthen the maritime security and cooperation through small boat handling, diving exercises, anti-terrorist operations.

Sri Lanka navy has also held exercises with Indian navy. The six-day joint exercise SLINEX 2019    took place in September at Vizag port. Sri Lanka has sent SLNS Sindhurala, an advanced offshore patrol vessel which had been constructed by India’s state-run defence firm Goa Shipyards, and SLNS Suranimala, a fast missile vessel to the Vizag port for the exercise.

The Indian Navy is being represented by the missile corvette INS Khukri and the Naval offshore patrol vessel INS Sumedha. India has also deputed integral helicopters in addition to shore-based maritime patrol aircraft in the event. the four ships and their crew will participate in drills including aircraft tracking, cross-deck flying, gun firing, visit board search and seizure procedures, underway replenishment and navigational manoeuvres in the sea.

Yahapalana government is  also expanding the Sri Lanka navy,  in keeping with  the SLN’s Maritime strategy 2025 Sri Lanka  plans to build a 20-ship Navy by 2025. Why do you need a peacetime fleet bigger than one available during the conflict, asked the media.

 The Navy authorities replied  that is was necessary to meet present and future maritime surveillance, patrolling as well as search-and-rescue needs.  Even in the absence of war, we need a larger fleet to guarantee our maritime rights and interests and also to meet our international obligations. Our SAR (Search and Rescue) region is nearly 27 times that of land area therefore an expanded fleet is necessary.

Sri Lanka Air Force held an  Air symposium on October 2018  attended by over 40 delegates from 20 countries. The topic was  ‘ Air strategy in substantiating the geo strategic importance of Sri Lanka. The conference discussed geo strategic deployment of air power in meeting national, regional and global challenges.  The conference  also explored the conditions and necessities of maritime security in the Indian Ocean with respect to geopolitical perspective of Sri Lanka and  possible collaboration.

In  2019 the US embassy wanted to have a display of US Air Force aircraft in Colombo .They suggested conducting an air parade over the skies of the Galle Face Green using aircraft from the USS John Stennis, the Nimitz class nuclear powered carrier strike group which was  lying  off the shores of Sri Lanka. The US embassy thought  Sri Lankans would love this. The Foreign Ministry did not think they would. Their opinion was quite  different .The idea was abandoned.

The general opinion in Sri Lanka  was that USA  wanted to turn Trincomalee  into a US base. Firstly, USA  would like to have Trincomalee  as a counterweight to China-controlled Hambantota, which sits on the edge of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, said analysts.  “It will be about balance not containment of China,” they said  Hambantota Port might soon become a forward military base for China’s growing blue-water navy, said USA. This was denied by Sri Lanka. While China has control over Sri Lanka’s US$1.5 billion Hambantota port city, it does not have rights to build a naval facility there Sri Lanka said.

Secondly, Trincomalee would be a  useful, highly strategic base for the US navy. Trincomalee  is one of the world’s largest natural deep water harbours. Entrance to the harbor is four miles wide and five across. Inner harbor which lies in the north covers about 12 sq miles and is securely enclosed by outcrops huge rocks and small islets. It has great depth.

 In the time of sailing ships the harbour could ensure the safety of a whole fleet during the monsoon from October to March. A fleet so protected was in a position to dominate the Bay of Bengal and the eastern sea. Thus any power that controlled this harbour had a great advantage from a naval and strategic perspective. Trincomalee  is ideal for nuclear submarines.  They can dive low in the inner harbour and effectively avoid radar and sonar detection.

However, there is  virulent resistance in Sri Lanka  to the idea of an American base on Sri Lanka soil. This resistance, despite repeated government denials, showed just how strongly citizens feel a foreign military base would hurt national interests, said observers. A foreign base raises questions of sovereignty and foreign interference, they observed. 

There will be opposition from outside too, they said. Neighboring countries such as India  will not be happy either. India said it  is keeping a close watch as protests grow in Sri Lanka over a proposed SOFA pact with the US, which could enable the setting up of an American military base in Trincomalee . We are keeping a close watch as this has strategic significance for India.

US denied that it intends to establish a military base in Sri Lanka. United States has no intention of building a base here. Instead, we are building relationships that will help keep both our countries safe, US embassy said. A base has never been a part of the relationship nor have there ever been discussions aimed at establishing one,  said the embassy.

David Brewster, a senior research fellow at the Australian National University researching Indian Ocean security, said that  The United States has no need for a military presence in Sri Lanka.” Ranil Wickremesinghe said that US navy is “not a fleet of fishing trawlers and they do not need any bases in Sri Lanka”.

Nowadays the US strategy is not to establish full-blown, costly military bases overseas but to use the ‘Lily-pad’ concept, whereby it increases its force deployment globally, but with a smaller footprint. This affords a more nimble capability to move equipment and personnel where they are required in a contingency, observed  Lasanda Kurukulasuriya.

This confirms that what the US wants is  a hub. The  U.S. navy has its eye on Sri Lanka’s northeastern port of Trincomalee to serve as a logistics hub, said analysts. The US Navy announced in December, 2018, the setting up of what it called logistic hub in Sri Lanka to secure support, supplies and services at sea, reported the media. The purpose of this hub, said the US 7^th fleet,   would be to secure “mission-critical supplies and services to U.S. Navy ships transiting through and operating in the Indian Ocean.”

The US Navy first operated this air logistic hub in late August 2018. Under the ACSA, the US Navy transferred cargo between planes at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The cargo was meant for the strike group at Trincomalee. Experts think the move was a test run to ascertain timing and other procedures for re-supply using the Colombo airport as a  launching pad during an exigency. ( Continued)

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Tonight I am not going to have any dinner, because I am not hungry. Tonight I am not going to sleep, because I am not feeling sleepy.  Tonight I am not going to answer any telephone calls or meet any one.

Today is a very sad day for me.   If I have paid the deposit, I can nominate myself for another term as President of Sri Lanka. Nobody can understand why I am very angry these days.  Nobody can understand why I am  very erratic these days.

How unfortunate, when I can legally contest again to retain my Presidency, I did not do it.   Nobody understand the mental agony I am going through.

Last year, I asked Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith to become Prime Minister and remove Ranil Wickremasinghe.  They both refused.  Finally I managed to get my good old friend Mahinda to become Prime Minister and I thought, he will support me for the second term as President.   But  that plan also misfired.

Next forty odd days will be very long for me.  How can I suffer for that long.  Now nobody care for me. Nobody trust me. 

I now feel how much pain I might have inflicted on Mahinda when I betrayed him.  I cannot ask for forgiveness from Mahinda, but I am now at your Mercy Sir!

By A. Abdul Aziz.

Head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community says double standards in foreign policies have destabilised the world and says that money cannot buy peace

On Saturday 28 September 2019, the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad addressed an audience of more than 125 dignitaries and guests on the second day of the 39^thAnnual Convention (Jalsa Salana) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Holland.

During his address, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad presented a comprehensive definition of ‘peace’ and outlined the teachings of Islam that led to both ‘inner’ and ‘outward’ peace.

His Holiness also outlined the far-reaching consequences of modern-day conflict and warfare and said that despite world powers making claims of establishing peace, it had been proven time and again that their real objectives have been to ‘protect and enhance their vested interests’.

Contrasting such behaviour with Islamic teachings, His Holiness stated that Islam teaches the principle of ‘liking for others what you like for yourself’ and said that wherever there was disconnect between a person’s words and acts it caused instability and conflict.

Early in his address, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said the character of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has long been slandered in the non-Muslim world and that certain individuals from Holland in the recent past had taken lead in inciting hatred against Islam”.

His Holiness underlined that tolerance and mutual respect” were the cornerstones for building peace.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Religion is a personal matter for every individual. It is a matter of the heart and no one has the right to speak ill of the beliefs of other people.  No one should mock what others consider sacred because treating other people with derision and contempt can only lead to pain and suffering and create division. Conversely, tolerance and mutual respect are the cornerstones through which we can build a peaceful and harmonious society.”

His Holiness went on to elucidate an in depth understanding of what constitutes ‘peace’ and the distinction between ‘outward’ and ‘inner’ peace.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad explained:

Often, at a superficial level, people can appear to be happy and content. Yet, though they have ‘outward peace’, they remain bereft of ‘inner peace’.” 

His Holiness said that despite having worldly possessions and wealth, people are still plagued by anxiety and their hearts remain unfulfilled.” 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The reality is that until a person attains inner peace, their material comforts are worthless. Simply put, the one thing money cannot buy is inner peace.”  

His Holiness said that in both the developing and the developed world mental health issues were on the rise. This was proven by increased rates of suicide and depression in many countries.

Speaking about the role of religion, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

In today’s world, critics are quick to blame religion and particularly Islam, for the problems of the world. Yet, many people who are suffering from inner torment and unrest are those who live a purely secular existence and so their problems cannot be blamed on Islam or any other religion. As a religious leader, I firmly believe that instead of being the cause of today’s problems, religion is the answer.”

Speaking of the practical teachings of Islam leading towards peace, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

A golden principle given by the Founder of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) is that a true Muslim‘should like for others, what he likes for himself.’ I believe that this simple and profound point, if acted upon, not just by Muslims, but by all people, is the means for everlasting peace in society.” 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

No doubt, everyone desires peace for themselves and their loved ones, but most people will be lying if they claim that they want their opponents and competitors to have peace and to live with contentment. Yet this is the standard of nobility and generosity of spirit that Islam requires. It is a religion and teaching that promotes selflessness and urges humans to discard all traces of selfishness.” 

His Holiness said modern society has failed to live up to this standard, and this was reflected in the foreign policies of many rich and powerful countries.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It has been a constant theme of modern history that dominant powers have sent their armies to distant lands, on the pretext of establishing peace, but time has proven that their real objective has been to protect and enhance their vested interests.  During such conflicts, if just one of their soldiers dies there is an outpouring of grief and they pledge to take revenge. Yet, when their bombs or munitions cause the death of hundreds or even thousands of innocent civilians – including defenceless women and children – they remain silent and do not express any hint of regret or remorse.” 

Due to the interconnected world we live in, His Holiness said, the rest of the world would be foolish to think that they will not also be affected.”

His Holiness further shed light on the duplicitous actions of certain world leaders and said that while all strongly condemn warfare and claim to promote human rights, their cries are only in favour of their people and their interests, whilst at the same time they are themselves guilty of exploiting civil wars or conflicts within other countries for their own benefit.” 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Major powers have habitually interfered in the conflicts of other countries by arming or funding whichever side supports their interests.  They are pouring petrol on an open flame and the result is that innocent people, including women, children and the elderly, are losing their lives and observing the torment of their families.” 

His Holiness said that the conflicts prevalent in the world today were based on geo-political rivalries and material factors and not, as often alleged, due to the teachings of Islam.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

Let it be clear that the state of unrest in the world, whether in Muslim countries or otherwise, has nothing to do with the teachings of Islam. Rather, such turmoil is based on the vested interests and selfish ways of certain leaders or corrupt governments on the one side and rebel, insurgent or separatist groups on the other. It is caused by the brutal acts of terrorist and extremist groups who seek only enrichment or power.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

The centre of today’s disorder may well be Muslim countries but no one can deny that non-Muslim countries have inflamed the situation, rather than resolve it.” 

His Holiness then spoke in detail to refute the baseless allegation that the Founder of Islam, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) promoted intolerance and warfare.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) taught that Allah the Almighty is the Source of Peace and the Provider and Sustainer of all mankind. Thus, how could it be possible for him to promote intolerance or to sow the seeds of division in society? Rather, throughout his life, he promoted inter-faith harmony and emphasised the need for peace at every level of society – from the basic domestic family unit all the way to international relations.”

Explaining that despite the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) and his companions facing bitter persecution for several years in Makkah where many were brutally martyred and tortured, His Holiness said that the Muslims never retaliated and showed unparalleled examples of patience.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The patience of the Muslims was based on the command of Allah the Almighty, which is mentioned in chapter 25, verse 64 of the Holy Quran. Addressing the Muslims in this verse, Allah the Almighty said: And the servants of the Gracious God are those who walk on the earth in a dignified manner, and when the ignorant address them, they say, ‘Peace!

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad further stated:

Disregarding a natural inclination for revenge, and, living up to the standard of liking for others what you like for yourself, the Muslims sought peace for their enemies.” 

His Holiness further outlined the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and said that after continued years of persecution, the Muslims migrated to a city called Medina to flee the persecution and seek religious freedom.

However, His Holiness explained, the disbelievers of Makkah pursued them and waged war against the Muslims and only then were Muslims given the permission to respond with force.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad explained:

It is very important to note that permission to fight back was not given just to defend Islam or Muslims. Rather, the Holy Quran states in chapter 22, verses 40-41 that permission to fight back was given to defend the institution of religion and universal freedom of belief, as those were the real targets of the opponents of Islam.”

His Holiness explained that even in a state of defensive war, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed that the Muslims abided by the strictest rules of engagement. Furthermore, at all times he sought to bring an end to conflict and warfare and instructed his followers to waste no opportunity for peace.

Hazrat Mira Masroor Ahmad said:

Rather than seeking conflict or fostering hatred, Islam has only ever instructed Muslims to knock down the walls of hatred that divide mankind and to build bridges of love and compassion in order to unite it.  In short, at every level of society, and across all communities and peoples, Muslims have a duty to spread peace.”

Concluding his address Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

It is the need of the time that we all join together and instead of inveighing against one another’s religious sentiments, we join forces and work towards building a better future for our children and future generations. Let us set aside our differences and work faithfully towards developing true and sustainable peace in the world. Let us respect one another and strive to build a better society founded upon principles of unity and the common good.” 

Earlier in the day, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad directly addressed the members of Lajna Imaillah (The Ladies Auxiliary Organisation of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community).

Speaking of the fact that a large number of people had immigrated to Holland from Pakistan, where they were denied religious freedom, His Holiness reminded the attendees that they must show gratitude to their adopted nation and at the same time they must become more devoted to their faith as they now had the freedom to practice it.

Speaking about the need to excel with one another in good works, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

A believing man and a believing woman must vie with others in good deeds, rather than always seeking to outdo others in material gains. God Almighty is the most Merciful and Forgiving and is most loving towards His servants who turn to Him. Thus he listens to the pious desires and prayers of His righteous servants accepts their good deeds.”

තරංග රත්නවීර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

 * රට ගිනි තබන්නට නයාරු ගුරුකන්ද විහාරාධිපති කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ ආදාහනය

 * මෙරට ශාසන ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු වතාවට භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේගේ ආදාහනායට විරෝධතාවය…

 * දේහය ඔසවාගෙන ගිය ස්වාමීන්වහන්සේලාට ගල් වරුෂාවක්…

නයාරු ගුරුකන්ද විහාරස්ථානයේ නායක හිමි කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවෝ අපවත් වූහ. කාලයක් තිස්සේ සිට පිළිකා රෝගයකින් පීඩා විඳි උන්වහන්සේ අපවත් වන විට වයස අවුරුදු හැත්තෑ තුනකි. රෝගය උත්සන්න වී පසුගිය දිනක මහරගම අපේක්‍ෂා රෝහලට වැඩම කළ උන්වහන්සේ පසුගිය සිකුරාදා හිමිදිරියේදී දෙනෙත් පියාගත්හ.

 කොළඹ මරදාන ප‍්‍රදේශයේ පදිංචිව සිට ගිහි ජීවිතයේ නිස්සාර බව අවබෝධ කරගෙන පැවිදි ජීවිතයට ඇතුළත් වූ උන්වහන්සේ දුරකතර ගෙවාගෙන නයාරු ගුරුකන්ද වැනි දුෂ්කර ගම්මානයක වැඩ වාසය කිරීමට තීරණය කර ඇත්තේ දුෂ්කර ක‍්‍රියා සිදු කිරීමටම පමණක් නොවේ. හේමමාලා, දන්ත කුමරු දළදා වහන්සේ මෙරටට වැඩම කරගෙන පැමිණ ප‍්‍රථම වරට තැන්පත් කර තැබූ ඓතිහාසික ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරය අන්තවාදීන්ගෙන් ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීමටය. දළදා හාමුදුරුවෝ යනු මෙරට රාජ්‍ය උරුමයේ සංකේතයයි. එවැනි උතුම් වස්තුවක් ප‍්‍රථම වරට තැන්පත් කර තැබූ ස්ථානය ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීම ශාසනික යුතුකමකි. බෞද්ධ 

 ජනතාවගේ යුතුකමකි. කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවන් ගුරුකන්දට වැඩම කරනු ලැබුවේ එකී ශාසනික යුතුකම ඉෂ්ට සිද්ධ කරමින් උතුර, නැගෙනහිර භූමියේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ උරුමය ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීමේ මහා පුණ්‍යකර්මයට දායකත්වය ලබාදීමටය.

 මීට වසර දහයකට ඉහතදී උන්වහන්සේ එම විහාරස්ථානයට වැඩම කළ දිනයේ සිට ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දෙමළ අන්තවාදී දේශපාලනඥයන් සහ ඇතැම් අන්තවාදී සාමාන්‍ය දෙමළ මිනිසුන් විවිධාකාර කෙණෙහිලිකම් සිදු කළහ. එහෙත් උන්වහන්සේ තර්ජන, ගර්ජන හමුවේ නොසැලී බැණ අඬගසන සියලූ දෙනාට මෛත‍්‍රී කරුණාව දැක්වූහ. මෛත‍්‍රී කරුණාව කෙරෙහි පැහැදුණු ඇතැම් බුද්ධිමත් දෙමළ මිනිසුන් උන්වහන්සේට දාන මාන කටයුතු සිදු කිරීමට පවා ශ‍්‍රද්ධාවන්ත වූහ. සිංහල, දෙමළ, ඉංග‍්‍රීසි භාෂා තුනම කතා කළ හැකි උන්වහන්සේ සැදැහැවත් දමිළ බැතිමතුන්ට ධර්මය අවබෝධ කර දුන්හ. 

උන්වහන්සේගේ ධර්මය ඇසීමට පැමිණෙන දෙමළ බැතිමතුන් දවසින් දවස වැඩි විය. විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණෙන දෙමළ බැතිමතුන්ට වන්දනා මාන සිදු කිරීමට විහාර භූමිය තුළ හින්දු දේවාලයක් ඉදිකරදීමට ද ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරාධිපතින්වහන්සේ මූලිකත්වය ගත්හ. ගුරුකන්ද විහාරස්ථානය තුළ ගොඩනැෙඟමින් තිබූ ආගමික සංහිඳියාවට ප‍්‍රදේශයේ අන්තවාදී දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයෝ අකැමැති වූහ. එම අන්තවාදී දෙමළ 

දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ සිත් තුළ බුර, බුරා නැෙඟමින් තිබූ ආගමික වෛරයේ ගිනි දලූ 2017 අවුරුද්දේ ජූලි මස 14 වැනිදා පත්තු විය. එදින හිමිදිරියේ ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරයට පැමිණි අන්තවාදීහු බලහත්කාරයෙන් විහාර භූමිය තුළ තෛපොංගල් උත්සවය සැමරීමට සූදානම් වූහ. කඩු, කිණිසි, කැති මන්න රැගෙන ට‍්‍රැක්ටර්වල නැඟී පැමිණි දෙසීයකට ආසන්න දෙමළ අන්තවාදීහු විහාර භූමිය තුළ ලිප් බැඳ කිරිබත් පිසීමට සූදානම් වූහ. ගුරුකන්ද පින්බිමේ සිට ශබ්ද විකාශන යන්ත‍්‍ර ඔස්සේ ප‍්‍රදේශය පුරා සිසාරා රැව්දෙන ලෙස ද්‍රවිඩ ගීත ප‍්‍රචාරය කළහ. ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරාධිපති කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති නායක හාමුදුරුවන්ට බැණ වදිමින්, තර්ජනය කර උදලූ, අලවංගු ගෙන විහාර භූමිය තුළ ගෙපල් කපමින් කෝවිලක් ඉදිකිරීමට පාදම සැකසීමට ද අන්තවාදීහු සූදානම් වූහ.

 දෙමළ චිත‍්‍රපටවල දුෂ්ටයන් කඩා පණින අයුරින් පැමිණ සත්තම දමා තැතිගැන්මක් ඇති කිරීමට සූදානම් වුවද ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරාධිපති කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති නායක හාමුදුරුවන් වීරයකු සේ නොසැලී සිටීයහ. මොහොතින්, මොහොත තත්ත්වය උණුසුම් විය. ‘කොටි’ උණුසුම ඇඟට ගත් දෙමළ තරුණයෝ වියරු වැටුණු තිරිසන්නු ගානට විහාර භූමිය තුළ කෑකෝ ගසමින් කළහකාරී ලෙස හැසිරුණහ. එම සිද්ධිය සැළවී පැමිණි පොලිසිය සහ යුද හමුදාව එක්ව තත්ත්වය පාලනය කළ ද අන්තවාදී ගිනි ජාලාව අළු යට සැඟ වුණා විනා සම්පූර්ණයෙන් නිවී ගියේ නැත. උද්ගත වූ එම සිද්ධිය ගැන සොයාබැලීමට ඊට දින හතරකට පසු ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරයට අපි ගියෙමු.

 මනරම් පරිසරයක පිහිටි ගුරුකන්ද පුරාණ රජමහා විහාරයට පය තැබූ මොහොතේ විඩාබර සිත නිවී සැනහූ සැටි දැනුදු මගේ සිතට දැනේ. සියවස් ගණනාවක සිට බුදු බණ ඇසෙන ඉපරැණි පින්බිම පුරා විසිරුණු බෞද්ධ නෂ්ඨාවශේෂ දැක මගේ සිත බුද්ධාලම්භන ප‍්‍රීතියෙන් පිරුණු හැටි දැනුදු මතකයට නැෙඟ්. කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවෝ මහා කැප කිරීම් සිදු කොට ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරයේ වැඩ වාසය කරනු ලැබුවේ එකී ඓතිහාසික පින්බිම ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීමටය.

 ‘‘මේ විහාරස්ථානය මුලතිව්වල තියෙන පැරැණිතම පූජා භූමියක්. චෛත්‍ය පහක් තිබුණු බවට සාක්‍ෂි තියෙනවා. තවත් බෞද්ධ නටබුන් රාශියක් මේ පුදබිමෙන් සොයාගෙන තියෙනවා. ඒ හැර මෙතැන කෝවිලක් තිබුණු බවට කිසිදු සාක්‍ෂියක් හමු වෙලා නෑ. මේ විහාර භූමිය ශාසනික දේපළක්. ඒ වගේම පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අයත් භූමියක්. අක්කර අනූ තුනක පුරාවිද්‍යා භූමියක්. 2013 අවුරුද්දේ ඔක්තෝබර් 18 වැනිදා ගැසට් පත‍්‍රයේ ඒ බව සඳහන් කරලා තියෙනවා. යුද්දෙ අවසානයත් එක්ක වරින්, වර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා තිස්හතර නමක් මේ විහාරස්ථානයේ වැඩ වාසය කළා. ඒ ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ සේරම මේ පන්සල අතහැරලා වෙන විහාරස්ථානවලට වැඩම කළා. අවුරුදු අටක් තිස්සෙ ඉඳලා දැනට වැඩ සිටින්නෙ මම විතරයි. මට ඕන මේ විහාරස්ථානය ආරක්‍ෂා කරගන්න. වැලිඔයට යනකම් තියෙන එකම බෞද්ධ විහාරය. ඒ නිසා මේ පූජා භූමියත් කොල්ලකා ගන්න කාලයක ඉඳලා අන්තවාදීන් විවිධාකාරයෙන් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා. ඒකට මම ඉඩ දෙන්නෙ නෑ…’’ පළමු වතාවට ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරස්ථානයට ගිය අප සමඟ කොළඹ මේධාලංකාර හාමුදුරුවෝ සැබෑ සිංහයකු ලෙස අදහස් දැක්වූ ආකාරය දැනුදු මගේ දෙසවනෙහි දෝංකාර දෙන්නේය.

 ‘‘2014 අවුරුද්දේ විහාර භූමියේ ලොකු බුද්ධ ප‍්‍රතිමාවක් හදන්න මුල් ගල තිබ්බා. ඒ අවස්ථාවෙත් නායාරු මුහුදුබඩපත්තුව ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ ලේකම්වරයා ඇතුළු ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභා මන්ත‍්‍රීවරු පිරිසක් ඇවිත් ‘ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ අවසරයක් නැතිව බුදුපිළිම හදන්න දෙන්න බෑ…’ කියලා විරෝධය දක්වලා මුලතිව් අධිකරණයේ මට විරුද්ධව නඩු දැම්මා. අපි නීතිඥ මහත්වරු මාර්ගයෙන් සාක්‍ෂි සහිතව කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරනකොට නඩුව පරදින බව දැනගෙන අතරමඟදී නඩුව ඉල්ලා අස් කරගත්තා. ඊට පස්සෙ අපි මුලතිව් අධිකරණයට කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරලා පිළිම වහන්සේ ඉදිකිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ලිඛිත අවසරය ඉල්ලා හිටියා. 2018 නොවැම්බර් මස 01 වැනිදා බුදුපිළිම වහන්සේ ස්ථාපනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ලිඛිත අවසරය ලැබුණා. උසාවි නියෝගය ලැබුණු දිනට පහුවෙනිදාම මම බුදුපිළිම වහන්සේ ස්ථාපනය කිරීමේ වැඩ පටන් ගත්තා. ඒ බුද්ධ ප‍්‍රතිමා වහන්සේ ස්ථාපනය කරන්න ගත්ත දවසෙ ඉඳලා මේ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දේශපාලනඥයන් විවිධාකාර ප‍්‍රශ්න දානවා. ඒත් මේ ගම්වල අසරණ දෙමළ මිනිස්සුන්ගෙන් නම් වචනයකින්වත් වරදක් නෑ. ඒ මිනිස්සු නිතරම විහාර භූමියේ හින්දු දේවාලයට ඇවිත් වැඳුම් පිදුම් කරලා යනවා. මම ඒ දේවාලය ආරම්භ කළෙත් මේ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දෙමළ ජනතාවට වැඳුම් පිදුම් කරන්න අවශ්‍ය ආගමික පරිසරය නිර්මාණය කරලා දෙන්නයි…’’ නයාරු ගමේ දෙමළ මිනිසුන් අන්‍ය ආගමිකයන් ලෙස නොසැලකූ බව කොළඹ මේධලංකාරකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවෝ වරක් නොව කිහිප වරක්ම අප සමඟ පැවසූහ.

අනේක විධ ගැටලූ මැද විහාර භූමියේ මුල් ගල තැබූ බුද්ධ ප‍්‍රතිමාව කෙටි කාලයකින් වැඩ නිමා කොට වන්දනාවට පාත‍්‍ර කිරීමට උන්වහන්සේ පින්වන්ත වූහ. එම බුද්ධ ප‍්‍රතිමාවට පසෙකින් කුඩා බෝධියක් රෝපණය කරමින්, විහාර ගේ, ධර්ම ශාලාව, දාන ශාලාවට පොදු වූ නව ගොඩනැඟිල්ලක් ස්ථාපනය කිරීමට ද උන්වහන්සේට හැකි විය. ආගම් බේදයකින් තොරව විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණෙන සියලූ බැතිමතුන්ට ධර්මය දේශනා කිරීමට තරම් උන්වහන්සේ බෝසත් ගුණ ඇති බුද්ධ පුත‍්‍රයෙකු වූහ. එහෙත් උන්වහන්සේට ගෝත‍්‍රික අන්තවාදීහු සිදු කරන තර්ජන, ගර්ජන කෙණෙහිලිකම් අඩු නොවූහ. කිසිදු හේතුවක් මත ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරයට ඇතුළු නොවන ලෙසත්, විහාරාධිපතින් වහන්සේට හිංසා නොකරන ලෙසටත් උසාවියෙන් තහංචි පනවා තිබූ දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයන් පවා විටින් විට එම විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණ උන්වහන්සේට බැණ අඬ ගැසූහ. මේ අවුරුද්දේ පොසොන් පෝයට පෙර දිනක මාර්ග සංවර්ධන අධිකාරියේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරයේ නාම පුවරුව ද ගලවා පැත්තකට කර දමා තිබිණි. එම සිද්ධියත් සමඟ සිත් තැවුලට පත් සිංහල බෞද්ධ විශාල පිරිසක් කොළඹ සිට දුර කතර ගෙවාගෙන නයාරු ප‍්‍රදේශයට ගොස් පොසොන් පෝය දා ගුරුකන්ද විහාරස්ථානයේ අටසිල් සමාදන් වී, අනතුරුව විහාරස්ථ නාම පුවරුව ගලවා දැමීමට විරුද්ධව සත්‍යග‍්‍රහනයක් ද සිදු කළහ. එහෙත් එම ප‍්‍රදේශවල ප‍්‍රාදේශීය දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයන් ඉදිරියේ පොලිසිය අන්ත අසරණ බවත්, පුරාවිද්‍යා නිලධාරීන් කොපමණ දැනුවත් කළ ද නිකමටවත් ඇවිත් බැලූවේ නැති බවත් උන්වහන්සේ අප සමඟ පැවසූහ.

 ‘‘මේ ප‍්‍රදේශවල සිංහල අපි අසරණයි මහත්තයො… දකුණේ සිංහල මිනිස්සු මේවා දන්නෙ නෑ. කවුරුවත් හරියට රටේ මිනිස්සුන්ට දැනුම් දෙන්නෙත් නෑ…’’ කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති නායක හාමුදුරුවො ඒ වචන පවසන විට රටේ මහ ජාතිය කෙරෙහි ඇති වූ කම්පනය දැනුදු මට දැනේ. බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයක, උතුර නැගෙනහිර බෞද්ධ විහාරස්ථානවල වැඩ සිටින ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ අන්තවාදී කෙණෙහිලිකම් හමුවේ අසරණ වී සිටින අයුරු අපි අත්විඳ ඇත්තෙමු. එහෙත් විහාරස්ථානයක වැඩ වාසය කළ ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ නමකගේ ආදාහන පූජෝත්සවයක් සිදු කිරීමට නීතියේ පිහිට පැතීමට සිදුවීමේ ඛේදජනක සිද්ධියක් ගැන මීට පෙර අපි අත්විඳ නැත්තෙමු.

 වසර නවයකට වැඩි කාලයක් අන්තවාදීන්ගේ අනේක විධ අපහාස නින්දා මැද දුක්ඛිත ජීවිතයක් ගත කර අපවත් වූ ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරාධිපති වහන්සේගේ දේහය එම විහාරස්ථානයට ගෙන ඒමට විරෝධය පාමින් දෙමළ වැසියෝ විශාල පිරිසක් විහාරස්ථානය ඉදිරිපිට රැඳී සිටියහ. එමෙන්ම විහාරාධිපති හිමියන්ගේ දේහය පන්සලට රැගෙන ඒමෙන් කෝවිල් කටයුතුවලට බාධා ඇති වන බව පවසමින් මුලතිව් පොලිසියට පැමිණිල්ලක් ද ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබිණි. එහෙත් පසුගිය ඉරිදා හිමිදිරියේ විශාල පොලිස් ආරක්‍ෂාවක් මැද වැඩම වූ උන්වහන්සේගේ දේහය ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරස්ථානයේ තැන්පත් කර තැබූහ. පසුව එම විහාර භූමියේදී උන්වහන්සේගේ ආදාහන පූජෝත්සවය පැවැත්වීමට විරෝධය පාමීන් විහාර භූමියේ ඇතැයි කියන කොවිලේ භාරකාර මණ්ඩලය එදිනම අධිකරණය ඉදිරියට ගියේය. එම පැමිණිල්ල ගැන සලකා බැලූ මුලතිව් මහෙස්ත‍්‍රාත් අධිකරණය විසින් කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ දේහය එම විහාර පරිශ‍්‍රය තුළ ආදාහනය තහනම් කරමින් නියෝගයක් නිකුත් කර, මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ ආදාහනය සිදු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සුදුසු තීන්දුව පසුගිය සඳුදා (23 වැනිදා) ලබාදෙන බව මුලතිව් මහෙස්ත‍්‍රාත්වරයා විසින් දැනුම් දී තිබිණි. සඳුදා පෙ.ව. 9 ට විහාරවාසී හිමියන්ට සහ සෙසු පාර්ශ්වකරුවන්ට මුලතිව් අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටින ලෙස ද නියෝග කර තිබිණි. දැන් අපි කතාව නතර කර ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාර දායක සභාවේ ලේකම් මානෙල් කරුණාරත්න මහතා කියන කතාවට සවන්දී සිටිමු.

 ‘‘මේධාලංකාකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ දේහය එම්බාම් කරලා තිබුණේ සඳුදා වෙනකම් තියාගන්න විතරයි. ත්‍රෛනිකායික මහා සංඝ සභාව තීරණය කරල තිබුණෙත් මේධලංකාකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ ආදාහන කටයුතු සඳුදා කරන්න ඕන කියලා. ඉරිදා දවසේ පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරිවරයෙක් ඇවිත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ ආදාහන කටයුතු මේ ස්ථානයේ කරන්න කියලා තැනක් පෙන්නලා ගියා. ඒත් අපි උසාවි තීන්දුව ගැන සැලකිලිමත් වෙලා සඳුදා උදේ 9 වෙනකොට විහාරාවාසී මිහිඳුපුර රතනදේවකිත්ති හාමුදුරුවොයි අපි කිහිපදෙනකුයි මුලතිව් උසාවියට ගියා. සිංහල, දෙමළ, ඉංග‍්‍රීසියෙන් නඩුව විභාග කළා. අන්තිමේ අපේ නීතිඥ මහත්වරු ඇවිත් කිව්වා විහාර භූමියට කිලෝ මීටර් දෙකක් ඈතින් මුහුදු වෙරළේ ආදාහන කටයුතු සිදු කිරීමට අධිකරණය තීන්දු කරලා තියෙනවා කියලා. ඒ තීන්දුවත් අහගෙන අපි පන්සලට ආවා. ඒ එනකොට මේධාලංකාකිත්ති 
 හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ ආදාහන පූජෝත්සවය සිද්ධ කරලා ඉවරයි…’’ ගුරුකන්ද විහාරස්ථාන දායක සභාවේ ලේකම්වරයා නිහඬ විය. අනතුරුව අපි උතුර, නැෙඟනහිර දෙපළාතේ සහ තමන්කඩුව දිසාවේ ප‍්‍රධාන සංඝ නායක අරිසිමලේ ආරණ්‍ය සේනාසනාධිපති පනාමුරේ තිලකවංශ නායක හාමුදුරුවන් බැහැදැක කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ ආදාහනය පිළිබඳ මතු වූ ගැටලූව සම්බන්ධයෙන් කතා බහ කළෙමු. මේ උන්වහන්සේ අප සමඟ පැවසූ කතාවය.

‘‘ගුරුකන්ද රජමහා විහාරාධිපති වහන්සේගේ අවසාන කැමත්ත වෙලා තිබුණෙත් අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් වැඩ විසූ විහාරස්ථාන භූමියේම ආදාහන කටයුතු සිද්ධ කරන්න කියලයි. ඒ අනුව පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන් පෙන්නූ ස්ථානයේ උන්වහන්සේගේ ආදාහන කටයුතු සිද්ධ කරන්න කටයුතු සූදානම් කළා. හරි හැටි ඒ කටයුතු ටිකවත් සිද්ධ කරන්න පොලිසියයි, දෙමළ මිනිස්සුයි අපිට ඉඩ දුන්නෙ නෑ. පාංශුකූල කටයුතු සිද්ධ කළෙත් හොර රහසේ වගෙයි. ඒකටත් පොලිසිය බාධා කළා.

 උන්වහන්සේගේ දේහය චිතකයට රැගෙන යන කොට මඟ හරස් කරලා දෙමළ මිනිස්සු අපිට ගල්වලින් ගැහුවා. අපේ මිනිස්සු ඒ හැම හිරිහැරයක්ම විඳගෙන උන්වහන්සේගේ ආදාහන කටයුතු සිද්ධ කළා. ඒත් පුතේ මෙරට ශාසන ඉතිහාසයේ මෙවැනි ආකාරයට ආදාහන කටයුත්තක් වෙච්ච පළමු අවස්ථාව. භික්‍ෂුවකගේ පාංශුකූල කටයුතු ඔහොම කරන්න වෙනවා නම් හෙට දවසේදී මහණ කරන්නත් අධිකරණ නියෝග ගන්න වෙන තත්ත්වයට කටයුතු සිද්ධ වෙනවා. මේවාට වගකියන්න ඕනෑ කොන්දක් නැති පාලකයො. අපේ ශාසනය භාරව සිටින මහානායක උන්වහන්සේ. මේ ගැටලූව සම්බන්ධයෙන් උන්වහන්සේ තවම වචනයක්වත් ප‍්‍රකාශ කරලා නෑ. බුද්ධ ශාසන අමාත්‍යාංශය කිසිදු කතාවක් නෑ. ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා තියා රජය නියෝජනය කරලා ග‍්‍රාම සේවක කෙනෙක්වත් ගුරුකන්ද විහාරස්ථානයට පැමිණිලා උද්ගත වූ ගැටලූව සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයා බැලූවේ නෑ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරලා ඇවිත් හිටියේ මොනරාගල දිස්ත‍්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී උදය ශාන්ත මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයා විතරයි. අපේ බුද්ධ ශාසනය කොහාට ද ගමන් කරන්නෙ කියලා දැන් අපිට ඉතා හොඳින් පැහැදිළියි. ඒත් පුතේ බෞද්ධ ශාසනය විනාශ කරන්න ඉඩ දීලා බලාගෙන ඉන්න බෑ. මේ කාලකණ්ණි ක‍්‍රියාපිළිවෙත වෙනස් කරන්න බෞද්ධයන් හැටියට අපි එකමුතු විය යුතුයි. එසේ නොවෙන්න ආදාහන කටයුතුවලට තහංචි දාන අන්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම් අපිව මහ මඟදී මරා දාන්න ඉඩ තියෙනවා. මෙවැනි පාලකයන් සහිත රටක එහෙම වුණා කියලා පුදුම වෙන්න ඕනෙත් නෑ. මේ දේවල්වලින් පැහැදිළි වෙන්නේ රටේ පාලකයන්ගේ නිවට කම. මට කියන්න තියෙන්නෙ එච්චරයි පුතේ…’’

 අරිසිමලේ නායක හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ කතාව සැබෑය. කොඳු නාරටි බිඳගත් පාලකයන් සහිත රටකදී, අන්තවාදයෙන් ඔද්දල් වී තිබෙන උතුර නැගෙනහිරදී මීට වඩා යමක් අපට බලාපොරොත්තු විය නොහැකිය. එහෙත් බෞද්ධයකු වශයෙන් අප කම්පනයට පත් විය යුත්තේ උතුර, නැගෙනහිර බෞද්ධ උරුමය ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීමට අප‍්‍රමාණ කැප කිරීම් කර අපවත් වූ කොළඹ මේධාලංකාරකිත්ති හිමියන්ගේ ආදාහන කටයුතුවත් ගෞරවනීය ලෙස සිද්ධ කිරීමට නොහැකි වීම ගැනය. 

 භික්‍ෂූන්වහන්සේ නමක් වැඩ වාසය කළ විහාර භූමියේ උන්වහන්සේගේ ආදාහනය සිදු කිරීමට ඉඩක් නැති නම් මේ බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයෙන් ඇති ඵලක් තිබේද? මෙවැනි ගෝත‍්‍රික අන්තවාදීන් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වන රටක බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ හෙට දවස ගැන පමණක් නොව බෞද්ධයන්ගේ ජීවිත ගැන ද දැන් අපට ඇත්තේ දැඩි අවිනිශ්චිතතාවකි.

ඡායාරූප මුලතිව් ප‍්‍රදීප් ප‍්‍රසන්න

කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

හමුදාපති ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා හමුදාපති ලෙස පත්කිරීමට එරෙහිව ජාත්‍යන්තර මැදිහත්වීමට විරෝධය දක්වමින් රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර කළ පැමිණිල්ල මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ නිලධාරි රසාබි මර්සායි වෙත ඉතාලියේ රණවිරු සේවා මුක්ත සංගමයේ සභාපති සුනිල් ශාන්ත විසින් බාරදීම, ගෝලීය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සංසදයේ විධායක සභාවේ පෝලන්ත නියෝජිත සේනක රාජපක්‍ෂද ඊට සහභාගි විය.
 

⋆ සංහිඳියාව එපා වගවීම පමණක් ඕනෑ කොටි ඩයස්පෝරාව ඉල්ලයි
⋆ සාම සාධක බළකායේ සියයට 25 ක් අඩුකළේ යස්මින් සුකාගේ බොරු වාර්තා මත
⋆ හමුදාවට එරෙහිවූ සිංහලයන් හෙලිවෙයි
 
‘‘ඇමරිකානු හමුදා ප‍්‍රධානීන් වූ විලියම් ෂර්මන් සහ පුලිසිස් ග‍්‍රාන්ට් යුද අපරාධකරුවන් බව හෙළිවී ඇත- ඇමරිකානු ඉතිහාසය ලිපි
 
පසුගිය සැප්තැම්බර් 27 දා දකුණු අපි‍්‍රකාවේ ජොහැන්ස්බර්ග් නුවර සිට යස්මින් සුකා නැමැත්තිය නිවේදනයක් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත්කරමින් මෙලෙස කියා සිටියාය.
 
 ‘‘තම හමුදාව යුද අපරාධ සිදුකිරීම ගැන වගවිය යුතු යයි සිංහලයන් රැසක් පවසනවා. අප කළ විමර්ශනයට ඔවුන් සහය වුණා. නමුත් ආරක්‍ෂක හේතූන් මත එම සිංහලයන්ගේ නම් හෙළිකළ නොහැකියි. එහෙත් අපි ඔවුන් ලබාදුන් තොරතුරු ඇගයීමකට ලක්කරනවා…
 
 ඇය මේ ප‍්‍රකාශය කළේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකා කටයුතු වලින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව අත්හිටුවා ඇති බවට දියත්වූ ප‍්‍රචාරය සම්බන්ධයෙනි.
 
 එහෙත් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ බලධාරීන් පැවසුවේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සාමසාධක බලකායෙන් සියයට 25 ක් පමණ සේවා කටයුතු අවසන් වීමෙන් පසු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එවන බවයි.
 
 මේ පසුබිම මැද ඇමරිකාවේ සිටින කොටි කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්කරුවකු වන මාටින් රසල් ලී නැමැත්තා එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ප‍්‍රකාශකයන්වූ ස්ටෙන්සේ ඩුජාරික් – පර්හාස් හක් සහ මෙලිසා ජලේටින් වෙත ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් යොමුකරමින් ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා හමුදාපති ලෙස පත්කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප‍්‍රතිචාර නොදක්වන්නේ මන්දැයි විමසනු ලැබීය.
 
 ඊට පෙර මැතිව් රසල් ලි ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා සාම සාධක බලකායේ උපදේශකයකු ලෙස පත් කිරීම ගැන මහලේකම් අන්තෝනියෝ ගුටාරෙස් ගෙන් කළ ප‍්‍රශ්න කිරීමෙන් පසු ඉනර් සිටි ප්‍රෙස් වෙබ් අඩවිය එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය තුළට පැමිණීම තහනම් විය. මේ නිසා ඔහු ගුටාරෙස් දූෂිත පුද්ගලයකු යයි චෝදනා කළේය. මේ වනවිට මැතිව් රසල් ලීට පනවා ඇති තහනම දින 450 ඉක්මවා ඇත. ඒ නිසා ඔහු දැඩි කෝපයෙන් පසුවේ.
 
 ඇමරිකානු කොටි ඩයස්පෝරාවේ පදයට නටන මැතිව් රසල් ලීට පසුගිය 27 දා 44 වැනි එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සමුළුවට පැමිණි විදේශ ලේකම් රවිනාත් ආරිසිංහ” ඇමරිකාවේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා තානාපතිනි ෂෙනුකා සෙනෙවිරත්න” තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ හමුදා උපදේශක බි‍්‍රගේඩියර් විජේන්ද්‍රලාල් ගුණතිලක යන පිරිස එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකායේ මහලේකම් ජින් පියරේ ලැන්රොසික් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ හමුදා උපදේශක ලූතිනන් ජෙනරාල් කාලයේ ගම්ස්ර්ටෝ මහලේකම්ගේ නියෝජිත පීටර් ඩුටේ බෙල්ගේ‍්‍රඞ් නුවර එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ කාර්යාලයේ ප‍්‍රධානි මාර්කෝ බියන්එනි ඇතුළු නිලධාරීන් හමුවී සාකච්ඡුා කිරීමේ සිද්ධිය වාර්තා විය.

ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේදී කොඩි ඩයස් පෝරාවට දැඩි ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කළ ගෝලීය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සංසදයේ විධායක සභාවේ නීතිඥ ජයරාජ් පලිහවඩන බ‍්‍රයන් බස්නායක සහ එරික් මාකවිටගේ මේ අවස්ථාවට මහාචාර්ය මෙහෙමුඞ් හෙල්මුට්ද සහභාගි විය

මෙහිදී සාම සාධක බලකායේ මහලේකම් ලැක්ක්‍රොයිස් පැවසුවේ ලෙබනනයේ සිටින ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සාම සාධක බලකායේ සියයට 25 ක පිරිස සේවා කාලය නිමවීමෙන් පසු ආපසු යන බවත් නැවත වරක් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සාම සාධක භටපිරිස් අඩුකරන්නේ නැති බවයි.
 
 එසේම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා දූත පිරිස එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකා ප‍්‍රධානීන් හමුවේ තර්ක කළේ ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා හමුදාපති කළේ ජනපතිවරයා බවත් ඔහුට එරෙහි චෝදනා තහවුරු වී නැති බවත්ය.
 
 ලූතිනන් ජෙනරාල් ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වාට එරෙහිව එල්ල වී ඇති චෝදනා වල විශ්වසනීයත්වය ගැන රජය ප‍්‍රශ්න කරන බවද දූත පිරිස තවදුරටත් පවසනු ලැබීය.
 
 2011 වසරේදී දරුස්මාන් වාර්තාව එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ලියවිල්ලක් ලෙස පිළිගනු ලැබුවේ නැත. 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් මස මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිල වාර්තාවෙන් දරුස්මාන් වාර්තාව මානව හිමිකම් ගැනවූ විමර්ශනයක් මිස අපරාධ විමර්ශනයක් ලෙසට පිළිගත්තේ නැත.
 
 2019 ජනවාරි මස සත්‍ය සහ යුක්තිය කොමිසමේ (යස්මින් සුකාගේ සංවිධානය) වාර්තාවේ දැක්වෙන තොරතුරු විශ්වාස කළ නොහැකිය. උගත් පාඩම් කොමිසම සිදුකළ විමර්ශනයේදී වත්මන් හමුදාපතිට එරෙහිව කිසිදු සාක්‍ෂියක් සොයාගත්තේ නැත යයි ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා දූත පිරිස තවදුරටත් සඳහන් කර ඇත.
 
 මෙහිදී හෙළිවූයේ සාමසාධක බලකාය අඩුකිරීම ගැන එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය ඒකපාක්ෂිකව තීරණයක් ගෙන ඇති බවයි.
 
 මේ අතර තමන්ගේ හමුදාව යුද අපරාධ සිදුකළ බව කියමින් ඒ සඳහා වගවිය යුතු යයි කියන සිංහලයන් කවුදැයි අනාවරණය වීය. මේ එම පිරිසගෙන් කීපදෙනෙකි.
 
 
 ⋆ හිටපු මේජර් ජෙනරාල් වරයෙක්. මොහු හිටපු ශ‍්‍රීලනිප 
 
 ඇමැතිවරයකුගේ (දකුණු පළාතේ) සමීපතම ඥාතියෙකි. යහපාලන රජය මේ ද්‍රෝහියාට තානාපතිධුරයක්ද පිරිනමා තිබුණි.
 
 ⋆ ජර්මනියේ සිටින කොටින්ගේ දේදුන්න පුවත්පත සංස්කරණය කළ කොටි හිතවාදියා – ජේ ඞී එස් සංවිධානය
 
 ⋆ රජයේ පුවත්පතක සේවය කර ස්විට්සර්ලන්තයට පැනගිය මාධ්‍ය පාර්ශවය මොහු හිටපු හමුදාපති සරත් ෆොන්සේකාගේ මැතිවරණ කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයේ සේවය කළේය.
 
 ⋆ ස්විට්සර්ලන්තයේ සිටින සිංහලයන් සිව්දෙනා
 
 ⋆ හිටපු කර්නල්වරයෙක්.
 
මෙවන් පසුබිමක් මැද වන්නි මෙහෙයුම නතර කරලීමට කොළඹ එන්.ජී. ඕ කල්ලිය කි‍්‍රයාකළ ආකාරයටම අද එන්.ජී. ඕ. ප‍්‍රධානි හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයා ජනාධිපතිධුර අපේක්‍ෂකද ලෙස තරග කිරීම ව්‍යාර්ථ කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම දියත් කර ඇත.
 
 මේ දීන මෙහෙයුමේ කොටස්කරුවන් මෙසේයි.
 
 හිටපු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ නියෝජන යස්මින් සුකා – 1971 කැරැල්ලට සම්බන්ධ හිටපු කැරලිකරුවන් කීපදෙනෙක්” අල්ජසීරා සහ බී බී සී සිංහල වෙබ් අඩවිය” කොටි පරාජය වීම වැලැක්වීමට දැඩි උත්සාහයක් ගත් පාර්ශව සහ කොටින්ට අවි ආයුධ සහ මුදල් දීමට 
 
 මුල්වූවන්ගේ සමීපතම ඥාතීන් මෙම පිරිස ගෝඨාභය ජය ලැබුවොත් භීම සමයක් ඇතිවන බවට ප‍්‍රචාරය කර ඇත. ඊට හොඳම නිදසුන උතුරේ අතුරුදන් වූවන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ සභාපතිනි ඊෂ්වරී නැමැත්තිය ජීපීඞීපී නායක ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්දා සහ හිටපු උතුරු මහ ඇමැති වර්ධරාජා පෙරුමාල් හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් සමඟ එක්වී ද්‍රවිඩයන් මර්දනය කිරීමට කි‍්‍රයාකරන බව පැවැසීමයි.
 
 මේ අතර ගතවූ කාලය තුළ රහස් පොලිසියට බරපතල ලෙස චෝදනා එල්ල විය. ඉන් රහස් පොලිසිය විසª සියලූ අපරාධ නඩුවලට කැළලක් ඇතිවිය. ඊට මූලික හේතුව රහස් පොලිසිය මුළුමනින්ම දේශපාලනීයකරණය වීමයි.
 
 එහි ප‍්‍රතිඵලයක් වූයේ යහපාලනය රජය සමයේ රහස් පොලිසියේ රහසිගත වාර්තා ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයට දැකගැනීමට හැකිවීමය.
 
 මේ බව හිටපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමාසාරිස් සෙයිද් රාද් හුසේන් අනාවරණය කර ඇත.
 
 අද හතු පිපෙන්නාක් මෙන් විවිධාකාර දේශපේ‍්‍රමීන් බිහිවී ඇතත් මේ පාර්ශව ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය තුළ සිදුවන අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතු ගැන කිසිවක් නොදනී.
 
 එහෙත් හිටපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමසාරිස් සෙයිද් රාද් හුසේන්ගේ වාර්තාවේ 55 වැනි පිටුවේ මෙලෙස සඳහන් කර ඇත.
 
 ‘‘රහසිගත රහස් පොලිස් වාර්ථා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය දුටුවෙමු. Confidential CID Reports Seen by OCHCR)
 
මෙය රාජ්‍ය රහස් පනත මුළුමනින්ම උල්ලංඝණය කිරීමකි. එහෙත් අගමැති ජනපති සහ පොලිස්පති මේ ගැන කි‍්‍රයාකර නැත. මෙහිදී නැගෙන බරපතල ප‍්‍රශ්නය නම් ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් නිලධාරීන් මේ වාර්තා දුටුවේ කොළඹ අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තුළද එසේත් නැත්නම් එම වාර්තාවල පිටපත් ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය වෙත ලැබීමෙන් පසුවද?
 
 එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂ නියෝජිතයකු වරක් රහස් පොලිසිය වෙත පැමිණි බවද අනාවරණය විය.
 
 මෙය පුදුමයක් නොවේ. ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ හමුදාව යුද අපරාධ සිදුකළ බවට සාක්‍ෂි උතුරේ සිට වීඩියෝ ක‍්‍රමවේදය මගින් යස්මින් සුකාට ලබාදීම සඳහා හිටපු උතුරු පළාත් සභා මන්ත‍්‍රිනී ආනන්දි සසිතරන් පළාත් සභා කාන්තා කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශයේ පහසුකම් භාවිත කළාය. එහෙත් රජය නිහඬ විය. ඇය යාපනයේ සිට උතුරේ ද්‍රවිඩ කාන්තාවන් ලවා සුකා වෙත සාක්‍ෂි ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට කි‍්‍රයා කළාය.
 
 මෙවන් රාජද්‍රෝහි කි‍්‍රයා ලොව වෙන රටවල සිදුවේද? පසුගිය සතියේ ඇය ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් සමුළුව අමතමින් 1983 වසරේ සිට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩු ද්‍රවිඩයන් මර්දනය කළ බව කීවාය.
 
 හිටපු කොටි කාන්තාවක් වූ ආනන්දි පුනරුත්ථාපනය සඳහා අසු නොවී යාපනයේ සැඟවී සිටියේය.
 
 ඇයව ජිනීවා ගෙන්වන්නේ ප‍්‍රංශ කොටියා වූ මරියදාස් බොස්කෝයි. ජිනීවා නුවරට පැමිණෙන ආනන්දි සසිතරන් නතර වී සිටියේ කොටි හිතවාදී තැනැත්තියකගේ නිවසේ බව අප කළ විමර්ශනයේදී හෙළිවිය.
 
 මෙවන් පසුබිමක් මැද රහස් පොලිසිය කරන වැරදි ගැන කි‍්‍රයාකිරීමට පියවර නොගැනීමද බරපතල සිද්ධියකි.
 
 මේ අතර ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ සාමසාධක බලකායේ කටයුතු නතර කිරීමට දැඩි උත්සාහයක් ගෙන ඇත්තේ හිටපු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ නිලධාරිනි යස්මින් සුකා බව හෙළිවිය.
 
 ඇය 2014 මාර්තු 01 දා සිට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙහි කොටි කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්තුව බාරගෙන තිබුණි. එය යුරෝ මිලියන ගණනක කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්තුවකි. 2014 සිට සුකා ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙහිව සාද්‍ය වාර්තා 53 ක් ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබුණි.
 
 2019 වසරේ පමණක් ඇය මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයට වාර්තා 16 ක් යොමු කරනු ලැබීය.
 
 2014 සිට 2019 දක්වා ඇය කොටි යුද අපරාධ ගැන කිසිදු වාර්තාවක් කෙටුම්පත් කර නොතිබුණි.
 
 ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය තුළ පවත්වන සමාන්තර රැස්වීම් වලදී කොටි සංවිධානය පොලිස් භටයන් 600 ක් ඝාතනය කිරීම සහ වෙනත් බිහිසුණු අපරාධ සිදුකිරීම හා රජීව් ගාන්ධි ඝාතනය කිරීම ගැන විමසූවිට ඇය නිහඬව සිටියාය.
 
 එසේම යස්මින් සුකාට සහය දක්වන සිංහල ද්‍රෝහියෙක්ද ජිනීවා නුවර සිටී. ඒ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ රජය තමාව මරන්න යනවා යයි කියමින් ස්විට්සර්ලන්තයට ගොස් දේශපාලන රැකවරණ ලබාගත් සුනන්ද දේශපි‍්‍රය නොහොත් රංජිත් නැමැති හිටපු කැරලිකරුවායි.
 
 මේ හිටපු කැරලිකරුවන් අතරින් සමහරෙක් දැන් වෙස්මුහුණක් දමාගෙන මෙරටට පැමිණ සිටී. ඉන් එක් අයෙක් වන්නේ 1971 කැරැල්ලේ කැරලිකරුවකුවූ ලයනල් බෝපගේ නැමැත්තායි. ගෝලීය ද්‍රවිඩ සංසදය ඕස්ටේ‍්‍රලියාවේ මෙල්බන් නුවර පැවැත්වූ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා හමුදාවට එරෙහිව සමුළුවට බෝපගේ කැරලිකරුවා සහභාගි විය.
 
 1971 කැරැල්ල සිදුවී වසර 48 ක් ගතවන අතර වත්මන් තරුණ පරපුර සහ වත්මන් මාධ්‍ය මේ අතීතය නොදනී.
 
 මෙම පසුබිම මැද වසර 32 කට පෙර බොරු උපවාසයකින් මියගිය කොටි දේශපාලන නායක තිලිපන් නැමැති මිනීමරුවා සැමරීමේ උත්සවයක් නවදිල්ලියේ පැවැති අතර ඊට සික් කි‍්‍රයාකාරීන්ද සහභාගිවී ඇත.
 
 කොටි හිතවාදී නාම් තමිලර් පක්‍ෂය මෙම සමරුව සංවිධානය කර තිබුණි. ඉන්දීය රජය කොටි සංවිධානය තහනම් කර තිබියදී තිලීපන් සමරුව පැවැත්වීමට ඉඩ ලැබුනේ කෙසේද?
 
 එසේම මෙරට විදේශ තානාපතිවරු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ තීරණ වලට පවා අභියෝග කරන තත්ත්වයක් අද මතුවී ඇත.
 
 හමුදාපති ලෙස ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා පත්කළ අවස්ථාවේ කොළඹ ඇමරිකානු තානාපති ඇලෙයිනා ටෙප්ලිස්ට් ඊට අභියෝග කළාය.
 
 මානව හිමිකම් කොමාසාරිස් මිචෙලි බැචලට් පවා එම පත්වීමට එරෙහිවිය.
 
 මේ අන්දමට ඇෆ්ගනිස්ථානයේ සිටන ඇමරිකානු හමුදා ප‍්‍රධානින්ට එරෙහිව ඔවුන් අභියෝග කරන්නේද?
 
 වියනා සම්මුතිය මත රටක අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතු වලට මැදිහත්වීම තහනම්ය. එහෙත් බි‍්‍රතාන්‍යය ස්විස් ප‍්‍රංශ ජර්මානු කැනඩා සහ ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරු ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියේ මෙරට කටයුතු වලට සෘජුව මැදිහත් වේ.
 
 ඇමරිකාව මෑතකදී රුසියාවෙන් හමුදා උපකරණ ලබාගැනීමෙන් වළකින ලෙස ජනපතිට කියා සිටියේය.
 
 එහෙත් ඉන්දීය රජය ඇමරිකාවේ රාජ්‍ය ලේකම් මයික් පොම්පියෝ හමුවී අපි අවි ආයුධ ගන්නේ කුමන රටෙන්ද කියා තීරණය කිරීමට නුඹලාට අයිතියක් නැතැයි කියා සිටියේය.
 
 ඉන්දියානු බලධාරීන් කළ ප‍්‍රකාශයට සමාන ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කිරීමට මෙරට බලධාරීන්ට හැකිද?
 
 මේ අතර 2018 වසරේ පමණක් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සාමසාධක බලකාය ඉපයූ මුදල ඩොලර් මිලියන 739 ක් යයි හෙළිවිය.
 
 සාමසාධක බලකා භටයන් 19000 ක් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකායේ සේවය කර ඇත. 2018 වසරේදී මාලි රාජ්‍යයේ සේවය කරමින් සිටි ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සාම සාධක බලකා භටයන්වූ මේජර් වසන්ත දිනේෂ් සහ කෝප‍්‍රල් සමන්ත විජේවික‍්‍රම බෝම්බ පිපිරීමකින් මරුමුවට පත්වූහ.
 
 අද බොහෝ රටවල් තම හමුදාභටයන් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකායට ලබාදෙන්නේ නැත. ඇතැම් රටවල පවතින භයානක තත්ත්වය මත මෙම පියවර ගෙන ඇත.
 
 එහෙත් යස්මින් සුකා ප‍්‍රමුඛ කොටි ඩයස්පෝරාවේ සාද්‍ය ප‍්‍රචාර හමුවේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සාම සාධක බලකා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙහි ඒකපාක්‍ෂික තීරණයක් ගෙන ඇත. මේ අතර සාද්‍ය සුදු කොඩි සිද්ධිය යළි මතුවිය. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ ඉදිරිපත් වීමත් හමුදාපති ලෙස ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා පත්වීමත් සමඟම හියුමන් රයිට්ස් වොච් සංවිධානයේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරයකු වූ ලූවිස් චාර් බොනියු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා හමුදාපති පිළිබඳව එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය දැඩි ස්ථාවරයක සිටින බව කියා සිටියේය. ඔහු මෙලෙස හෙළිකර ඇත.
 
 2015 වසරේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විමර්ශනය නොතකා පසුගිය අගෝස්තු මස රජය ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා හමුදාපති ලෙස පත්කරනු ලැබීය. 2015 දී එක්සත් ජාතීන් සිදුකළ පරීක්‍ෂණයේදී ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වා මෙහෙයවූ හමුදා සේනාංකය සිරකරුවන් මරාදමමින් සිවිල් වැසියන්ට ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කළ බව සොයාගෙන ඇත. එල්ලවූ යුද අපරාධ චෝදනා ගැන රජය විමර්ශනයක් සිදුකර නඩු පැවරීමට කි‍්‍රයාකර නැත.
 
 මේ පසුබිම මැද මහලේකම් ගුටාරෙස් ගෙන ඇති තීරණය යුද අපරාධ සිදුකර ඇති ආණ්ඩු වලට එල්ලවූ දැඩි සංඥාවක් ලෙස හැඳින්විය හැකිය.
 
 මෙලෙස හියුමන් රයිට්ස් වොච් සංවිධානයේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ අධක්‍ෂවරයා 2015 දී එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය 58 වැනි සේනාංකය ගැන පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පවත්වා ඇති බව හෙළිකළේ සිව්වසරකට පසුවය. එහෙත් එවන් පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පවත්වා ඇත්තේ හොර රහසේ බව දැන් තහවුරු වී තිබේ.
 
 මෙහිදී එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය කි‍්‍රයාකර ඇත්තේ පැමිණිලිකරු සාක්‍ෂිකරු සහ විනිසුරු ලෙසිනි. මේ පරීක්‍ෂණය ගැන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජයට හෝ එල්ල වී ඇති චෝදනා ගැන හමුදාපති ශවේන්ද්‍ර සිල්වාගෙන් කරුණු විමසීමටද කි‍්‍රයාකර නැත. එහෙත් සිරකරුවන් ඝාතනය කළ බවට තීන්දු කර ඇත. මේ සිරකරුවෝ කවුරුන්ද? ලූවිස් චාර් බොනියුගේ හෙළිදරව්වෙන් සනාථ වන්නේ පුලිතේවන් නඬේසන් ඇතුළු කොටි මිනීමරුවන් මියයෑමේ සිද්ධියයි.
 
 මොවුන් සිරකරුවන් නොව බිහිසුණු මිනීමරුවන්ය. මේ අයුරින් 2015 ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට එරෙහිව පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පැවැත්වෙන බව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජය දැන නොසිටි බව පැහැදිලිය. මේ අතර ගෝලීය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා සංසදයේ විධායක සභාව ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ පැවැත්වූ සමාන්තර රැස්වීමකදී කොටි ඩයස්පෝරාව දැන් ඉල්ලන්නේ සංහිඳියාව නොව වගවීම පමණක් බවට චෝදනා එල්ල කරනු ලැබීය. මෙයට ප‍්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමට කොටි හිතවාදීන් ඉදිරිපත් වූයේ නැත.

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

The civil lawsuit against the Pohottuwa presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa exposes the hypocrisy of democracy promoters. GR, from an American citizen, became a dual citizen in 2005 – almost 15 years ago. To question its integrity in court at this juncture is questionable to say the least.

 Unlike the last two presidential elections, this time there are 32 candidates (discounting Chamal Rajapaksa, whose name was forwarded as a mere precaution).

The strategy might have changed from common candidate to individual candidates – some from political parties never even heard before, but they all have the same common goal; to obstruct GR’s path or at the very least bag some of the floating votes that may flow towards GR.

Former Sri Lanka Army Commander General Mahesh Senanayake is the latest entrant to the upcoming presidential election.

 He, who is contesting from the National People’s Movement, is causing waves in the social media by annoyed SLPP loyalists. Interestingly, those who protested over General Shavendra Silva’s appointment as the Sri Lanka Army Commander are silent over this development.

Both Generals fought in the same war and if one is unacceptable for having played a role in the war, then the other should also be unacceptable. 

The fact General Senanayaka is running for presidency should have raised protests from Alaina Teplitz and her followers. They certainly cannot object afterwards. Yet, we see the same double standards we saw when General Sarath Fonseka became the 2010 presidential candidate.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is contesting from the JVP is hardly making a ripple. Dr. Ajantha Perera and Nagananda Kodithuwakku occasionally beam down on the passing traffic from electronic billboards, but otherwise maintain a very low profile in both mainstream and social media.

 The major battle with the UNP leadership is over for Sajith Premadasa, during which time he never allowed an opportunity to take a shot against the Rajapaksas go waste despite his fight being with the UNP leadership.

Concerns

When Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his candidacy, there were concerns that the SLPP campaign started too early. Indeed, maintaining the momentum of a campaign for three months is not an easy task. However, the organisers need not have worried as the Opposition is working overtime to keep him in news.

The whole of last week, the headlines of mainstream and social media were of the latest controversy GR’s opponents had cooked up, which was over his citizenship. 

The courts took three days to argue over a mere technicality. Not knowing which way the legal pendulum was about to swing was a matter of grave concern for all his supporters.

If the civil rights groups that have been fighting for democracy are true to their cause, they should take exception over the timing. Yet, we hear only absolute silence from these numerous groups.

 At the very least, we do not hear even a sound from any of the other candidates. They, if not anyone else, should be demanding a fair race for anything else would be a show of cowardliness.

In 2010 and then again in 2015, all the political parties in the Opposition ganged up against the then incumbent Administration and fielded a common candidate. 

This was a good strategy to take on a powerful and popular Government. Though the first time they failed with General Fonseka, they were successful the second time with Maithripala Sirisena.

However, it is very curious that in the 2019 presidential election Tamil Progressive Alliance, SLMC and ACMC have again got together with the UNP. 

Only the JVP has opted to field their own candidate, who, as mentioned above, is not being taken seriously enough even to warrant a regular FaceBook post. For the JVP, the game is up and they have been exposed as being in cahoots with the UNP. 

Though fielding Dissanayake, their marked strategy is to promote the second option. As that option, they are asking their vote base to select any candidate who is not a Rajapaksa. They are clearly hoping that second vote would be for Sajith Premadasa.

Unusual

While it is logical for the Opposition parties to combine efforts to defeat the incumbent Government, it is most unusual for the Opposition to get together with the Government to try and protect it. Yet, this is what we see in this election. 

Indeed, throughout this Government’s short life, we have seen this protectiveness from the political parties who are insisting that they are in the Opposition. 

In that same pattern, we see that all these parties, who are contesting as part of the Government’s alliance or as individual parties are set to allow this Yahapalana Government to continue to its second term. 

Obviously, their common enemy is not the Yahapalana Government but the emergence of Gotabaya Rajapaksa via the youngest political party in Sri Lanka – the SLPP.

The anti-GR propaganda campaign is to portray GR as an evil man who will take away our rights.

 In reality, though these rights – may it be media freedom or abductions from white vans to control freedom of expression – are not experiences that were introduced during the Rajapaksa Administration.

 These have been part and parcel successive governments. In fact, even during this Government we experienced entire weeks of media blackout and our right to social media clamped.

White van phenomenon reached its peak during the late ’80s with the efforts to eradicate the JVP menace.

 It was not only the State-sponsored terror we witnessed then, but also the horror unleashed by the JVP. While the South was thus getting washed in a bloodbath, the North and East was going through its own nightmare with IPKF and the LTTE clashing. 

These two were also equally ruthless and many innocents were killed in cold blood.

Bogus peace

When the Rajapaksa Administration came to power in 2005, the country was enjoying a bogus peace. The Cease Fire Agreement brokered by the Norwegians in 2002 ensured that the military was confined to barracks. 

The LTTE on the other hand flagrantly violated the conditions, which all were afraid to confront. 

Hence, our military intelligence units were razed by the LTTE killer squads. When the Rajapaksa Administration came to end in 2015, the country was in a very different place with these human and humanitarian violations already fading from memory.

In this context, it is very interesting how it was possible to narrow the focus of a nation that had witnessed absolute depravity to few isolated incidents. 

Recently, when MP Udaya Gammanpila questioned as to how many had been reported as been enforced to disappear since the end of the war in 2009, the Yahapalana Government had to admit zero as the answer. Yet, the anti-GR camp still has an audience and that audience ardently believes him to be a murderer.

Though the Opposition chant the same mantra about GR, they are composed of a variety of political parties and civil groups. Left to themselves, they will not see eye-to-eye with each other. Therefore, it is obvious they are all brought to the same platform by one dedicated force. 

That force, whatever it may be, is dictating one main narrative and that is, the Rajapaksa Administration committed war crimes and violated the human rights of minorities. Even during the height of the war, this narrative never wavered from its course.

Despite the hardships the ordinary Tamil citizen in the North and the East had to undergo at the hands of the LTTE, these groups maintained a disproportionate sympathy towards the LTTE. 

In fact, Gamini Viyangoda, one of the petitioners against GR’s citizenship was of the view that the LTTE should be recognised as legitimate rulers of the Northern and Eastern Provinces for ten years.

They completely ignored the brutal manner the LTTE abducted small children to be made use of as cannon fodder

. Fathers and school principals who tried to intervene were killed for protesting. Up to date, none of these civil rights groups or political entities have taken up this matter to at least quantify the number of such murders or abductions.

Today, those who endorsed the LTTE and thereby their atrocities have formed a front against GR and are portraying him as an evil man. The question is, what do they stand to lose if GR comes to power on the will of the people.

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

By this afternoon (7 October), the final list of candidates for the 16 November presidential election will be known. As Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said earlier, nearly 30 candidates have placed their deposits. 

However, it is a foregone conclusion that the main battle will be between two top candidates, while the next two or three candidates will not be able to get even one million votes collectively.

 All other motley crowd of applicants – most of who are filing nominations for 15 minutes of fame, and a few seconds of television ops – will lose their deposits.

While Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Podujana Peramuna candidate finally got over legal hurdles, and Sajith Premadasa wrested the UNP candidacy after months of internecine warfare in the Party, the battle line has been clearly defined.

The presidential election race will heat up from today. The outcome of the 2019 presidential and 2020 parliamentary election will determine whether Sri Lanka renews its forward progress on the post-civil war homework of reconciliation and accountability. 

The results matter not only in terms of Sri Lanka’s long-term stability, especially the relationship between the Sinhala majority and the country’ minorities, but also regarding Sri Lanka’s geostrategic position.

Most of the candidates are from recognised political parties. But most of those political parties have very few party members or activists.

 Although there are several minor party candidates and independent candidates, the presidential Contest is essentially a two-person affair. Alliance-building will be part of the process. The coming weeks are bound to be both messy and interesting.

Sri Lanka has a proud history of elections, with 88 years experience in adult franchise, as the voting rights were given to elect the State Council in 1931. With this maturity, the average Sri Lankan voter is not willing to waste his/her vote, by casting it for a candidate who has no chance of winning.

 Hence, in every presidential election, about 85 per cent to 90 per cent of the votes were divided between the first two candidates, and on every election the winner managed to get over 50 per cent, to ensure verdict in the first count, without resorting to a count of second preference of votes.

In the first presidential election of 1982, President J.R. Jayewardene received 3.4 million votes (52.9 per cent) and the main rival, Hector Kobbekaduwa polled 2.5 million. 

The third candidate, Rohana Wijeweera of the JVP could poll only 273,428 votes or a mere 4 per cent.

Second presidential
election

In the second presidential election in 1988, then Prime Minister, Ranasinghe Premadasa won by polling 2.5 million votes (50.43 per cent).

 He defeated Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who polled 2.2 million votes. The third candidate, Ossie Abeygunasekera could get only 235,719 votes. In 1994, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga polled a record 62.28 per cent or 4.7 million votes, defeating Srimathi Dissanayake, who polled 2.7 million votes. The other four candidates could collectively get only 137,038 votes.

There were 13 candidates for the 1999 presidential election. The last ten candidates got less than 180,000 votes.

 While Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga won for the second time, with 4.3 million votes (51.12 per cent), the UNP’s Ranil Wickremesinghe polled 3.6 million. The third candidate, Nandana Gunathilake of JVP polled 344,173 votes.

In 2005, too there were 13 candidates and 11 of them got less than 2 per cent of the total. Mahinda Rajapaksa received 4.8 million (50.29 per cent) and Ranil Wickremesinghe polled 4.7 million (48.43 per cent).

There were a record 22 candidates in the 2010 presidential election and Mahinda Rajapaksa romped home with 6.1 million (57.88 per cent) votes, defeating Sarath Fonseka, who polled 4.1 million (40.15 per cent). The other 20 candidates lost their deposits.

In 2015, Maithripala Sirisena polled 6.2 million (51.28 per cent) votes, defeating then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who polled 5.7 million (47.58 per cent). There were 19 candidates, and barring the first two, others could not cross even the 40,000 mark.

The highest number of votes polled by a third candidate in any presidential election was JVP’s Nandana Gunathilake, who polled 344,174 votes in 1999. However, he could not even get 10 per cent of the 4.3 million votes polled by the winning candidate, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Upcoming presidential election

In the upcoming presidential election, there are at least two formidable candidates, in addition to the two main candidates.

 Both of them, former Army Commander, General Mahesh Senanayake and JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake hope to do better than the other losing candidates in the past seven presidential elections. 

However, it is highly doubtful if any of the minor candidates, barring the first two, could cross the half million mark.

The above results clearly show that the voters in Sri Lanka have no faith in third candidates, even if they have sound principles and impeccable characters.

 The voters select the candidates backed by the main two national political parties – SLFP and UNP. However, this time, there is a changed scenario, as the Podujana Peramuna has emerged as a formidable national Political Party.

By a Special Correspondent Courtesy Ceylon Today

“In keeping with the concept of good governance, the national interest demands to abolish the Executive Presidency, and several other Constitutional reforms in order to strengthen the Parliamentary system of governance and sovereignty of the people,” the background of the Cabinet Memorandum of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution presented by the office of the Prime Minister, and signed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on 16 September 2019.

Why do we need an Executive President? Countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, where the Leader of the Nation is chosen by the Parliament, faces many disturbances in governing the Nation.

 Because of the fact that the Prime Minister is chosen from the Parliament and due to conflicts that happen occasionally between political parties, most Prime Ministers in the United Kingdom and Australia have a term of three years.

 In a developing country, this system could make the country unstable; for Sri Lanka to proposer in terms of national security and development, the Nation requires strong leadership for at least five consecutive years, to implement national agendas. 

It is no secret that the Sri Lankan Parliament is determined by agendas of Political Parties, which often result in conflicts. Political Parties have a proven history of promoting their political agendas to gain power through the Parliament, rather than promote a unity national agenda. 

Sri Lanka needs an Executive President who is elected by the public to establish the stability of the country, without strings attached or pulled by the Parliament. 

To make substantial decisions on national security, public policy and guide development strategies nationally; 

for example during a national security crisis the Executive is capable of making quick active decisions to ensure the security of the Nation.

 If the Prime Minister faced such a situation, he would have to respect opinions and approvals of multiple Political Parties, because it’s highly unlikely any single Political Party can get 113 votes in Parliament independently, so they would have to go for an alliance with other parties, which will come with demands. The Prime Minister can’t make independent and quick decisions, while satisfying the Political Parties’ demands, that will be required to get the majority of Parliament, in order to secure the Prime Minister seat.  

Constitution of Sri Lanka

The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (exercise of sovereignty) Article 4(b) states the executive power of the people, include the defence of Sri Lanka, shall be exercised by the President of the Republic, elected by the people. The 20th Amendment amends Article 4(b) of the Constitution according to Article 2(i) stating the deletion of the words “elected by the people” 

in paragraph (b) of Article 4 and substitution therefore of the words “and the Cabinet of Ministers provided for in the Constitution.” Article 2(ii) deletion of the words “the President of the Republic and of” in paragraph (e) of Article 4; paragraph (e) of Article 4 of the Constitution secures the right for the public to vote and elect the President of the Republic, but it gets cancelled according to Article 2 of the 20th Amendment.

 Chapter VII Article 30(1) of the Constitution is amended by Article 3 of the 20th Amendment. Article 3(i) indicates the deletion of words “and of the Government” 

in paragraph (1) of Article 30. Article 30 of the Constitution is regarding the Executive President and basically Article 3(i) of the 20th Amendment restrains the President of the Republic from being the Head of the Government.

Which in turn gives power of the Government to the hands of the Prime Minister, but who is the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister is a position that requires a majority of the Parliament, in order for the PM candidate to remain in that significant position.

 The finest illustration of the inequitable process in selecting a Prime Minister would be for a candidate to become a Member of Parliament from Colombo, the candidate would require to get somewhat forty to sixty thousand votes, but a candidate from Jaffna can be elected to Parliament by a vote base of two thousand; both of these Parliamentarians will have the same voting and influencing power when selecting a Prime Minister.

 It is no secret to the public that, in Sri Lanka, Parliamentarians representing various Political Parties will show their support only if their political or personal demands are met. 

The conclusion that the Prime Minister position will always have backdoor deals and strings attached to multiple power centres come to light, and is an unstable position to govern a developing Nation like Sri Lanka. Article 3(ii) of the 20th  Amendment determines the deletion of the word “people” in paragraph 2 of Article 30 of the Constitution and substitutes with the word “Parliament.” Article 30, paragraph 2 of the Constitution secures the voting right of the people to elect the President of the Republic as they please, but that privilege is given to the Parliament. 

This will put the position of the President to the same situation as the Prime Minister, of pleasing political and personal demands of MPs to remain in power, rather than the people of the Republic.

Article 3(v) of the 20th Amendment expresses the immediate insertion of Article 3(v), paragraph (3) of the 20th Amendment, right after paragraph (2) of Article 30 of the Constitution.

 Article 3(v), paragraph (3) says a citizen qualified under Article 88 and not disqualified under Article 89 and 92 of the Constitution shall be elected by a majority of MPs within four weeks of its first sitting, by a closed ballot. Article 88, 89 and 92 state, regarding the eligibility to contest for the Presidency; 

All three articles of the Constitution don’t indicate of the practical fact of the prevention of rich businessmen or other persons from bribing or influencing MPs to the Presidency. 

However, the JVP expressed in a parliamentary session that they are willing to make the amendment flexible in preventing the potential of such a situation.

Article 8(a)

On the bright side, Article 8(a) of the 20th Amendment; in a situation of the President by reason that cause him to be unable to exercise the powers and duties of his office, the Speaker of Parliament will perform the duties of the President, instead of the Prime Minister. In addition, Article 8(b) deletes paragraph (1) of Article 37, where in such case the Prime Minister will remain as the Prime Minister, and not assume duties of the President.

The 8th Article of the 20th Amendment also states in a situation of the Executive unable to perform his duties, the Chief Justice will not consult the Speaker, instead consult the Prime Minister;  the Consultation of the Chief Justice is directed form the Speaker to the Prime Minister, who is a politician representing a Political Party. 

 Article 8(e) again directs power over the Speaker of Parliament to the Prime Minister.  

The 20th Amendment also states that the President and the Speaker of Parliament cannot represent any Political Party, which raises the question why more privileges and power is directed to the Prime Minister, who will represent a Political Party?

The accusation of the fact that political parties like TNA are motivated by personal agendas over political, and in respect to the 20th Amendment; demands by the TNA can be higher when electing a Prime Minister from the Parliament, who will be the main power of the Nation. Since a single MP will have the power to influence or challenge the main power of the Nation;

 minority parties will have a higher bargaining power with the 20th Amendment, when active.

The Executive President cannot be influenced by Parliament, or his position cannot be challenged by Parliament, and is capable of making independent decisions in protecting the sovereignty of the country; which can be the reason most foreign powers support abolishing the Executive Presidency.

 If so, even foreign powers can influence positions such as Prime Minister and government, by simply supporting a minority Political Party or independent MPs, due to the fact that their bargaining power is more by the implementation of the 20th Amendment. 

Even a small Political Party would possess the power to influence the Government, in turn creating an unstable country. 

The 19th Amendment has created transparency, and given authority to Parliament, in decisions such as selection of the Inspector General of Police, Chief Justice, Supreme Court Judges and independent commissions.

 Will the 20th Amendment establish democracy or demoralise the confidence of the public on the sovereignty of the Nation?

By W.K. Prasad Manju  Courtesy Ceylon Today

Co-Convener of the Jathika Vidwath Bikshu Sansadaya, Ven. Medagoda Abayathissa Thera, said that the journey of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, cannot be stopped by any evil power and it has been confirmed with the dismissal of the petition filed against him challenging his citizenship.

He opined that no evil power can stop Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s journey as he receives the blessings of the Maha Sangha. The Court confirmed Rajapaksa’s innocence within three days and he always receives the blessing of the Maha Sangha, the Thera added.

Ven. Abayathissa Thera further said that the Pirith chanting ceremony  organised to invoke blessings on Gotabaya Rajapaksa will be held till midnight today (7). 

The Thera further added that more religious activities are scheduled to be held at temples situated islandwide including the Pepiliyana Sunethra Devi Pirivena.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Leader of the National Congress, A. L. M. Athaulla today (06) said that the National Congress will support Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the upcoming Presidential Election.

Further, the National Congress is a member of the United People’s Freedom Alliance.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපතිධූර අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා පසුගියදා සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයක් පිළිබඳ මේවන විට සමාජයේ දැඩි කතාබහට ලක්ව ඇති අතර, ඒ පිළිබඳ පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දේශපාලනඥයින් මෙලෙස අදහස් පළ කළා

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාගේ දැවැන්ත පරාජය වෙනුවෙන් කටයුතු කරන්නේ අන් කිසිවෙකු නොව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ මහතා පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළේ ඊයේ බුලත්කොහුපිටිය ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති ජන හමුවකට එක්වෙමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

තමන් ජනාධිපති ධුරයට පත්වූ පසු වැටුප් සහ දීමනා මහා භාණ්ඩාගාරයට පරිත්‍යාග කරන බව එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ බව කියා සිටියේ පොළොන්නරුව පුලතිසි බුද්ධි මණ්ඩපයේ අද පැවති එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ පොළොන්නරුව දිස්ත්‍රික් ගොවි සම්මේලනය අමතමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

රට බේරා ගැනීමට ලැබී ඇති අවස්ථාව නිවැරදිව භාවිත නොකරන්නේනම් යටත් විජිත ආක්‍රමණයක් අභිමුවෙහි පවතින රට ඉන් මුදා ගැනීමට හැකියාවක් නොලැබෙන බව මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය මැදගොඩ අභයතිස්ස හිමියන් පවසනවා.

උන්වහන්සේ මේ අදහස් පළකළේ ජාතික වියත් පවුර කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික් සමුළුව අමතමින්.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ජනාධිපති ධූර අපේක්ෂක ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පුරවැසිභාවය සම්බන්ධයෙන් නැවත ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ නඩුවක් ගොනු කිරීමට සූදානම් වන බව අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා පවසනවා.

අද කොළඹදී පැවැති උත්සවයකින් අනතුරුව මාධ්‍යවේදීන් නැගූ ප්‍රශ්නවලට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් අමාත්‍යවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළා.

ඉදුනිල් උස්ගොඩ ආරච්චි උපුටාගැණීම රාවය APRIL 19, 2019

2015 වසරේ නොවැම්බර් මස රජයේ විගණකාධිපති ධූරයට පත්වූ ගාමිණී විජේසිංහ එම ධූරයෙන් විශ්‍රාම යාමට නියමිතව තිබෙන්නේ 2019 අප්‍රේල් 23වන දාටය. මෙම සටහන ලියැවෙන්නේ ඔහුගේ සේවා කාලය තුළ ඔහු විසින් සිදුකරන ලද අතිවිශාල මුදල් නාස්ති කිරීම් හා අදූරදර්ශී ක්‍රියා පිළිබඳ නැවත ආවර්ජනය කිරීමට නොව පත්වීමට නියමිත විගණකාධිපතිවරයා ද ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ හෝ වෙනත් පාලකයන්ගේ අතකොලුවක් බවට පත් නොවිය යුතු යැයි ද විගණන ක්ෂේත්‍රය පිළිබඳ මනා දැක්මක් සහිත පුද්ගලයකු එම ධූරයට පත් විය යුතු යැයි ද යන පැතුමෙනි.

වරක් විගණකාධිපති ගාමිණී විජේසිංහ ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබුණේ රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන්ගෙන් භාගෙට භාගයක් සිටිය යුත්තේ හිරේ යැයි කියාය. ඇතැම් රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් විවිධ වංචා සහගත කාර්යයන් සිදු කළත් එය රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන් අඩක් හිරේ සිටිය යුතු යැයි වැනි බරපතල ප්‍රකාශයක් කිරීමට තරම් ඔහුට ඇති දත්ත වාර්තා මොනවාදැයි ඔහු පවසන්නේ නැත. එමෙන්ම ඔහු පසුගිය දිනක පවසා තිබුණේ රාජ්‍ය ආයතන තුළ සිදුවන නාස්තිය නිසා රාජ්‍ය වියදම්වලින් 25%ක ප්‍රතිශතයක් අවභාවිත වන බවකි. එම නාස්තිය අවම කරගනු ලැබුවහොත් එම ආයතන සඳහා වියදම් වශයෙන් ලබා දී තිබෙන මුදල්වලින් 25%ක් ඉතිරි කර ගත හැකි බවත් ඔහු පවසන්නේය. එය ඉතා අනර්ඝ යෝජනාවක් බව නම් තර්කයක් නැතත් අපට ඇති ගැටලුව වන්නේ එසේ ප්‍රකාශ කරන විගණකාධිපතිවරයාම විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තුළ ක්‍රියා කර තිබෙන්නේ ඊට පටහැනි අයුරින් වීමය.

සීමා නැති සංචාර

ඊට දිය හැකි නිදර්ශන ගණනාවක් අතුරින් එක් කදිම නිදර්ශනයක් වන්නේ විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන් 1360 දෙනකු මැලේසියාවේ පුහුණු වැඩසටහනකට යැවීමට විගණකාධිපතිවරයා කටයුතු කර තිබීමය. ආයතනයක නිලධාරීන්ට පුහුණුවක් ලබා දීම ඉතා අගනා කාර්යයක් බව විවාදයක් නැත. එහෙත් එය කුමන වැදගත්කමක් සහිත පුහුණුවක්ද, ලබා දිය යුත්තේ කාටද ආදී කරුණු සලකා බලා මිස ආයතනයක මුළු කාර්ය මණ්ඩලයම පාහේ විනෝද චාරිකාවක් සඳහා මෙන් විදේශ පුහුණු වැඩසටහන්වලට යැවීම කිසිසේත් අනුමත කළ හැක්කක් නොවේ. එහෙත් එක්දහස් පන්සියයක් පමණ සේවක සංඛ්‍යාවක් සහිත දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අසූව බැගින් කණ්ඩායම් 17ක් ලෙස සේවකයන් 1360 දෙනෙකු දින 14 බැගින් වූ පුහුණු වැඩසටහනකට මැලේසියාවට යැවීමට මෙම විගණකාධිපතිවරයා කටයුතු කරන්නේය. ඒ සඳහා වැයවී තිබූ මුදල රුපියල් කෝටි 41කි. ඒ අනුව දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අතිරේක විගණකාධිපති, නියෝජ්‍ය විගණකාධිපති, සහකාර විගණකාධිපති, විගණන අධිකාරීවරු, විගණන පරීක්ෂකවරු යන සියලු තනතුරුවල අය එකම පුහුණුව සදහා මැලේසියාවට යවා තිබුණි. අප්‍රේල් 16 වන දින ද එලෙස තවත් කණ්ඩායමක් මැලේසියාව බලා පිටත්වී තිබුණි.

මැලේසියාවේ විගණකාධිපතිත් කියනවා ලංකාව පුදුම රටක්, අපේ රටේ නම් තෝරාගත් හොඳම අය කීපදෙනෙකු යවා පුහුණු කරවා ඒ අය ලබා ගත් අත්දැකීම් අනෙක් අයට ලබා දෙනවා කියලා. නමුත් මෙහේ කිසිම අරමුණක් නැතිව එකම පුහුණුවට 1360 දෙනෙකු අවුරුදු තුන ඇතුළත යැවුවා. ඒක ඇත්තටම අපරාධයක්. එක් අයෙකුට ලක්ෂ තුනක් වැනි මුදලක් වැය වෙනවා. 1360 වෙනුවෙන් කෝටි 41ක මුදලක් වැය වුණා.” පුහුණු සංචාරයට සහභාගීවූ විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉහළ නිලධාරියකු අප සමග පැවසුවේය. වර්තමානයේ භාවිතා වන වෝහාරික විගණනය වැනි විද්‍යාත්මක පුහුණුවක් හෝ ලබා දුන්නා නම් එය ප්‍රයෝජනවත් වීමට ඉඩ තිබූ නමුත් මැලේසියාවේ පුහුණු වැඩසටහන වූ කාර්යසාධන විගණන (Performance Audit) ඉතා ප්‍රාථමික මට්ටමේ වූවක් බැවින් එය විශාල මුදල් නාස්තියක් බව ද ඔහු ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. මැලේසියාව වැනි රටවල අපට ලබාගන්න අත්දැකීම් අඩුයි. ලොකු වංචා නැහැ. වංචා වෙනවා නම් තමයි ඒවා සොයාගත් විධිය ගැන අධ්‍යයනය කළ හැකි වන්නේ. එහෙත් එහි තියෙන්නේ කාර්යසාධනයයි. කාර්යසාධනය ලෙස හඳුන්වන්නේ ආයතනයක් තමන්ගේ අමුණු ඉටු කරගත්තේ කොහොමද කියන එක විගණනය කිරීමයි. ඒ පුහුණුව ඉතාම ප්‍රාථමික එකක්. දවස් 14 තුළ කළ එම පුහුණුව වැඩක් වුණේ නැහැ. ෂොපිං ගියා විතරයි, විනෝද වුණා. එච්චරයි. මෙය මහා මුදල් නාස්තියක් ලෙසයි මම දකින්නේ” එම නිලධාරියාගේ අදහස වූයේ එවැන්නකි.
නිලධාරීන්ගේ ප්‍රසාදය දිනා ගැනීමට මෙවැනි දේ කිරීම අනුන්ගේ මඟුල් ගෙදර ගොස් තමන් කෑම බෙදීමක් වැනිය. දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවකට පුහුණුවක් අවශ්‍යය නමුත් මෙවැනි දේ කිරීම රටේ මුදල් නාස්ති කිරීමකි. අවශ්‍ය නම් සිදුකළ යුතුව තිබුණේ නිසි ක්‍රමවේදයකට තෝරාගත් කොටසක් පමණක් පුහුණුවට යවා ඔවුන් ලවා අනෙක් අය පුහුණු කිරීමය, ඔවුන්ගේ අත්දැකීම් බෙදාගැනීමට අවස්ථාව සැලසීමය. සියදෙනෙකුගේ කණ්ඩායමක් ඒ සදහා යැවුවත් ඔවුන් යොදවා අනෙක් අයට එම අත්දැකීම බෙදා දිය හැකියි. නමුත් එසේ නොකර සිදු කර තිබෙන්නේ මහජන මුදල් හිතුමනාපයේ වැය කිරීමය. එමෙන්ම පුහුණුවලට යැවිය යුතු වුවත් සියල්ලෝම එකම පුහුණුවකට යැවීම ඵලක් වන්නේ ද නැත. තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය, කාර්යසාධනය ආදී විවිධ අංශවල අය තෝරා විවිධ පුහුණුවීම්වලට යැවිය යුතු වුවත් සිදුව තිබෙන්නේ නිලධාරීන් තමන්ට හිතවත් කර ගැනීමට අරමුණක් නැති පුහුණුවකට යවා ජනතා බදු මුදල් නාස්ති කිරීමය. මෙවැනි ආකාරයේ ක්‍රියාපිළිවෙතක් විගණකාධිපතිවරයෙකුට කිසිසේත් සුදුසු කටයුත්තක් නොවනවා සේම ඔහු කරන ප්‍රකාශවලට ද පරස්පර විරෝධීය.

පුහුණු මධ්‍යාස්ථාන

විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන් පුහුණු කිරීමේ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් මීට වසර කීපයකට පෙර කුරුවිට ප්‍රදේශයේ සාදා තිබිණ. විගණකාධිපතිවරයා එය දුර වැඩි බව පවසමින් මීට මාස කීපයකට පෙර සබරගමුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ වෛද්‍ය පීඨයට ලබාදී ඇත. එසේ සිදුකරන ඔහු ආයතනයේ සියලුම සේවකයින් පාහේ මැලේසියාවේ පුහුණු වීමට යවන්නේ කුරුවිටට වඩා මැලේසියාව ළඟ නිසාදැයි අප දන්නේ නැත. කුරුවිට පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානය විකුණා දැමීමෙන් පසු ඔහු නැවතත් හොරණ ප්‍රදේශයෙන් අක්කර 25ක භූමියක් ලබාගෙන බිලියන 10ක් වැය කරමින් පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් පිහිටුවීමට ආරම්භ කරයි. මුළු සේවකයින් සංඛ්‍යාව එක්දහස් පන්සියයක් පමණ වන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සේවකයන් එකවර පුහුණුකිරීමට අවශ්‍යතාවයක් හෝ හැකියාවක් නැතත් මෙවන් විශාල ස්ථාන කුමක් සදහා දැයි අරමුණක් ඔහුට තිබූ බවක් පෙනෙන්නේ නැත. තිබූ පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානය විකුණා ඉන් පසු ඔහු නැවත මුළ සිට පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් අලුතෙන් සෑදීමට ආරම්භ කළේය. මේ වන විට පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් නොමැති බැවින් 45 දෙනෙකු පමණ පුහුණු කිරීමට කුකුළේගඟ හමුදා කදවුරක ස්ථානයක් ලබා ගන්නා බව විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉහළ නිලධාරියෙකු ප්‍රකාශ කරයි. හැටකට හැත්තෑවකට පමණ පිරිසකට නේවාසිකව පුහුණුව ලබා ගත හැකි අයුරින් හිටපු විගණකාධිපතිවරු විසින් ඉදිකර තිබූ ස්ථානය විකුණා දමා ඔහු කර තිබෙන්නේ විකාර සහගත දෙයක්” යැයි එම නිලධාරියා පවසයි.

සීමා නැති වාහන

හිටපු විගණකාධිපති භාවිතා කළ මොන්ටෙරෝ ස්පෝට්ස් රථය විගණකාධිපති ගාමිණී විජේසිංහ විසින් ඉතා අධික වියදමක් වැය කරමින් අලුත් වැඩියා කරවූවත් එය ද තිබියදී 2016 වසරේ සිට අධි සුඛෝපභෝගී බෙන්ස් රථයක් ද ලබා ගැනීමට ඔහු කටයුතු කර තිබුණි. එහි මාසික කුළිය පමණක් රුපියල් පන්ලක්ෂ තිස්පන්දාහක් බව වාර්තා විය. ඒ අනුව එහි අවුරුද්දක කුළිය රුපියල් හැට හතර ලක්ෂයකි. කුළී පදනම මත වාහන ලබා ගන්නවා නම් ලක්ෂ හතරකට නොවැඩි විය යුතු යැයි කොන්දේසියක් තිබුණ ඔහු එම රථය ලබා ගන්නේ ඊට වඩා වැඩි මුදලකටය. රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වලට කුළී පදනම මත ලබා ගැනෙන වාහනවල අවාසිදායක තත්ත්වය පෙන්වාදිය යුත්තේ ද විගණකාධිපති වුවත් ඔහු සිදු කර තිබෙන්නේ ද අධික කුළියකට අධි සුඛෝපභෝගී වාහනයක් ලබා ගැනීමය. කොන්දේසිවලට අනුව එම බෙන්ස් රථයට යම් හානියක් වුවහොත් රක්ෂණ සමාගමෙන් ගෙවන්නේ කොටසක් වුවත් ඉතිරිය ගෙවිය යුතු වන්නේ ද දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙනි. මෙම බෙන්ස් රථය ලබා ගන්නා අවස්ථාවේ අදාල නිලධාරීන් ඊට විරෝධය දක්වා තිබුණද ඔහු එම රථය ලබා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කර තිබුණි. ඒ අනුව රජයේ නිලධාරියකුගේ වාහනයකට ලක්ෂ හැටහතරක කුළියක් ගෙවීම රටට ඔරොත්තු දෙනවාද යන්න හෝ මේවා බදු ගෙවන ජනතාවගේ මුදල් බවට මෙම රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ට කිසිදු හැගීමක් නොමැති බව පැහැදිලිය. එමෙන්ම මීට පෙර විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වසරක වියදම බිලියන එකක් වුවත් එය මෙම විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ කාලයේ දෙගුණයක් බවට පත්වූ බව ද වාර්තාවේ.

ඔහුගේ බෙන්ස් රථයට අමතරව තවත් ඩබල් කැබ් රථ 25ක් කුළී පදනම මත දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ලබා ගෙන තිබුණි. ඒ සදහා මසකට තිස්හතර ලක්ෂයක් වැය වන අතර එම රථවල ධාවන සීමාව මාසයකට කිලෝමීටර් තුන්දාහක් වුවත් කිලෝමීටර් දාහක්වත් ඒවා ධාවනය නොවන බව දෙපාර්තමෙන්තු ආරංචි මාර්ග සදහන් කරයි. කොළඹ ආශ්‍රිතව ගමනාගමනය සදහා විගණන නිලධාරීන්ට ඩබල් කැබ්වල ගමන් කිරීම අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය නොවන අතර, ඊට අඩු මුදලකට වුවත් පහසුකම් සහිත වෙනත් මාදිලියක වාහන ඒ සදහා යොදා ගත හැකිව තිබුණි. එහෙත් කටයුතු කර තිබෙන්නේ මේ කිසිවක් පිළිබද නොසලකා හරිමිනි.

හිටපු විගණකාධිපති සිටි කාලයේ එක් නිලධාරියෙක් විගණකාධිපතිගේ අත්සන හොරට ගැසීම නිසා සේවයෙන් ඉවත්කර ඇති අතර කෙනෙක් එලෙස සේවයෙන් ඉවත් කළ පසු රාජ්‍ය සේවා කොමිෂන් සභාවේ අවසරය නොමැතිව නැවත බදවා ගත නොහැකිය. සේවයෙන් ඉවත් කළ මෙම පුද්ගලයා ඉතා සූක්ෂ්ම අයුරින් නැවත සේවයේ පිහිටුවීමට ද විගණකාධිපතිවරයා කටයුතු කළ බවට ද විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ආරංචි මාර්ග සදහන් කරයි.

කොමිෂන් සභාව අනවශ්‍යද?

රජයේ මුදල් අවභාවිතා කරන, මූල්‍ය අක්‍රමිකතා සිදුකරන නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව විගණන කටයුතු කළද අධිභාර පැනවීමට හෝ දඩුවමකට යටත් කිරීමට රජයේ විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සතුව නීති ප්‍රතිපාදන නොමැති බැවින්19 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය යටතේ ස්වාධීන විගණන කොමිෂන් සභාව 2015 වසරේ ස්ථාපිත කෙරුණී. එහි නිල බලයෙන් සභාපති වන්නේ විගණකාධිපතිය. මාස තිස් හයක් ඒ සදහා ද වැටුප් ලැබුවත් 2018 වසරේ අගෝස්තු වන තුරු කොමිෂන් සභාව බලාත්මක නොවූයේ ජාතික විගණන පනත සම්මත කිරීම ප්‍රමාද වූ බැවිනි. 2018 අගෝස්තු සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ පසු ඔහු තම හිතුමනාපයට විගණන කොමිෂන් සභාව හැසිරවීමට කටයුතු කළා. කොමිෂන් සභාවේ අනෙක් සමාජිකයින් ඊට කැමති වුණේ නැහැ. ඔහු පසුව විශාල වැටුප් වර්ධක ලබා දෙන බවට පැවසුවත් ඊට කොමිෂන් සභාව විරුද්ධව වුණා. මොකද වැටුප් වර්ධක ලබා දිය යුතු වන්නේ ජාතික වැටුප් අර්බුදයකට නොයන ලෙසයි.” විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරියකු ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. එමෙන්ම රාජ්‍ය ගිණුම් කාරක සභාව සහ රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යාවසාය කාරක සභාවලට විගණකාධිපති සම්බන්ධවී වාර්තා ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු වුවත් මේ දෙකම සදහා බොහෝ අවස්ථාවල සහභාවගි වන්නේ අතිරේක විගණකාධිපතිවරයා බව ඔහු සදහන් කරයි. එබැවින් ඇතැම් දිනවල කෝප් කමිටුවේ සභාපතිවරයා ද පවසා තිබුණේ ස්පෙයාර් වීල් එක එවා විගණකාධිපති එන්නේ නැහැ යනුවෙනි.

විගණකාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සභාපති වන අතර විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ විශ්‍රාමික නිලධාරීන් දෙදෙනෙක්, පරිපාලන සේවයේ ලේකම්වරයෙකුට සමාන අයෙක්, අභියාචනාධිකරණයේ හෝ ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ විනිශ්චයකාරවරයෙක් යන අය කොමිසමේ සාමාජිකයින්ය . 2018 නොවැම්බර් 23 කොමිෂන් සභාවට වසර 3ක් සම්පූර්ණ වන විට කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සාමාජිකයන්ගේ කාලය අවසන් වීමට නියමිතව තිබූ අතර විශ්‍රාමික නිලධාරීන් දෙදෙනා වෙනුවට තමන්ගේ කාලය තුළ උසස්වීම් ලැබූ දෙදෙනෙක් පත්කිරීමටට විගණකාධිපතිවරයා සූදානම් වුවත් කොමිසමේ සාමාජිකයන්ගේ සේවා කාලය තවත් අවුරුදු තුනකට දීර්ඝ කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුව තීරණය කිරීම නිසා එම උත්සාහය අසාර්ථක වූ බව දැනගන්නට ලැබේ. එම සිදුවීම් සමග කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සාමාජිකයන්ට නිලධාරීන්ගේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ රැස්වීම්වලදී නිර්දය ලෙස බැණවැදීමට විගණකාධිපතිවරයා කටයුතු කර තිබුණි. පසුව ඔහු කොමිෂන් සභාවට සහභාගී නොවෙමින් එහි කටයුතු අක්‍රිය කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගෙන තිබුණි. 2019 පෙබ 27 වන දා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ජනාධිපතිවරයා පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේ මෙම විගණන කොමිෂන් සභාව අහෝසි කරීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙස විගණකාධිපතිවරයා පවසා ඇත. එහෙත් මෙම කොමිෂන් සභා තිබිය යුතු බවට ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ කථානායක වරයා එම අවස්ථාවේ පැහැදිලි කර තිබුණි. වසර තුනක් වැටුප් ලබාගනිමින් සිටි කොමිෂන් සභාව අහෝසි කරන ලෙස මේ වන විට එහි සභාපති වන විගණකාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කරයි.

දේශීය ආදායම් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නියෝජ්‍ය කොමසාරිස් ලෙස කටයුතු කළ ගාමිණී විජේසිංහ විගණනකාධිපති ලෙස පත්වූයේය. දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේම අයෙකු එම තරනතුරට පත් කිරීම බොහෝ අයගේ බලාපොරොත්තුව වී තිබුණ ද අවසානයේ මොහු පත් කළ පසු ඔහුට සහයෝගය ලබා දුන් බව එම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීහු කීපදෙනෙක් ප්‍රකාශ කළෝය. එහෙත් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ගෞරවය රැකෙන පරිදි ඔහු ක්‍රියා නොකළ බව ඔවුන්ගේ අදහසයි. ඔහුගේ සමුගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් ද විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉහළ නිලධාරීන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු සහභාගී නොවීමට තීරණය කර තිබෙන්නේ ඔහු වැනි දේශපාලන පිළිලයක් හේතුවෙන් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට සිදුව තිබෙන හානිය පිළිබද කළකිරීමෙන් බව ද ඔවුහු පැවසූහ.

විගණන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හා කොමිෂන් සභාව යනු රටේ අනෙකුත් ආයතනවල සිදුවන වංචා දූෂණ සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද නිවැරදිව සොයා බලා වාර්තා ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු ආයතනයකි. එවැනි ආයතනයක ප්‍රධානියා යනු රටේ සිදුවන කටයුතු සම්බන්ධනේ අති විශාල බලපෑමක් කළ හැකි පුද්ගලයෙකි. එබැවින් එවැනි ධූරයකට පත්විය යුතු වන්නේ එම විෂය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මනා අවබෝධයක් දැක්මක් සහිත අයෙක් වන අතරම අදූරදර්ශී ලෙස හෝ දේශපාලන අතකොලුවක් ලෙස ක්‍රියා කරන්නෙකු නොවේ. හතළිස් වැනි විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ නික්ම යෑම සමග එම තනතුර වඩාම සුදුස්සාගෙන් පිරවිය යුතුව තිබෙන්නේ එබැවිනි.

අපේ කටයුතු ඉස්මතු වුණේ පුහුණුව නිසයි
විගණකාධිපති- ගාමිණී විජේසිංහ

රටේ අද විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තුළ පිබිදීමක් ඇති වෙලා තියෙන්න හේතුව තමයි පුහුණු කිරීම. පහුගිය අවුරුදු විස්සට ඒ අය පුහුණු කරලා තිබුණේ නැහැ. මම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට එද්දී නිලධාරීන් 1500න් අනූඑක්දෙනෙක් පමණයි විදේශ පුහුණුව ලබා තිබුණේ. විගණනය කියන්නේ ජාත්‍යන්තරව හඳුනාගත යුතු කටයුත්තක්. ඉතාම අඩු වියදමින් ඒක කරන්න තමයි මැලේෂියාව දාලා තියෙන්නේ. මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයත් ඊට මුදල් වෙන් කළා. මැලේෂියානු රජයේ විගණකාධිපති ආයතනයේ පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයේයි පුහුණු කළේ. තෝරාගත්තේ නෑ, සියලු නිලධාරීන් යැවුවා. මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය වැනි ඒවායේ හැම මාස තුනකට සැරයක් හැම කෙනෙක්ම වගේ යනවා, ඒවා කවුරුවත් කතා කරන්නේ නෑ. නමුත් මේ ආයතනයේ අවුරුදු විස්සකට විදේශ පුහුණුව ලබා තිබුණේ අනූඑක්දෙනයි. පසුගිය අවුරුදු තුනේ විගණකාධිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව උඩට ඇවිත් වාර්තා එළියට ආවේ මේ පුහුණු කිරීම් නිසායි. දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තිබුණේ කාර්ය සාධන විගණනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් අතහැරලායි. මේක මිනිස්සුන්ට රැකියාව ආසාවෙන් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය එක වැඩපිළිවෙලක් විතරයි.

කුරුවිට පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයේ පහසුකම් තිබුණේ හතළිහකටයි. ඒක සබරගමුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයට ලබා දුන්නා. ආණ්ඩුව මැදිහත් වී ජාත්‍යන්තර මට්ටමේ පුහුණු මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් දැන් හැදීමේ කටයුතු පටන් අරන් තියනවා. ඒක හැදෙන්න තව කාලයක් යාවි. අපට මැලේෂියාවට යන්න වුණේත් ජාත්‍යන්තර පහසුකම් නැති නිසායි. එවිට සම්පත්දායකයන් ගෙන්වාගන්න පුළුවන්. මෙතැන තෝරාගන්නත් ප්‍රධාන හේතුව විනාඩි හතළිහකින් විතර කටුනායක ඉදලා එන්න පුළුවන්. කුරුවිටට යන්න පැය පහක් විතර යනවා.
කලින් තිබූ වාහනය මාස තුනක් පමණ අලුත්වැඩියා කරන්න වුණා. මේක ලබා ගන්න මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය තමයි චක්‍රලේඛනය නිකුත් කළේ. මම දන්නවා මේක රටට පාඩුයි කියලා. නමුත් ඒක රජයේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය නම් මට කරන්න දෙයක් නැහැ. කුලිය සම්බන්ධව ගැටලු තිබේ නම් මට ඒවායේ වගකීම භාර නැහැ. නීතියක් කඩ කර තිබේ නම් ඒවා කළ අය වගකියයි. හැබැයි එහෙම ප්‍රශ්නයක් මම නම් දකින්නේ නැහැ. මේ ක්‍රමය යටයේ වාහන දහස් ගණනක් රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවලට අරගත්තා. එහෙත් මම එහෙම ගන්න ගියේ නැහැ, මම පැහැදිලිවම ඒවා ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කර මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයට ලීවා.

අපි කාටවත් කඬේ ගියේ නැහැ. සාධාරණ විධියට රජයේ අවභාවිතයන් එළියට දැම්මා. තව දුරටත් එළියට දානවා.”

Gamini Sarath Godakanda 

Can Sri Lanka afford a trillion rupee Public Service?

Sri Lanka’s annual Public Service Salary and Pension bill exceed one trillion rupees per annum for the first time in history. Milinda Moragoda calls upon Presidential Candidates to present their proposals for meaningful Public Service reform. 

The budgetary allocation for salaries and pensions for 2019 amounts to Rs 685 billion. The estimated cost of the public sector salary increases this year is Rs 120 billion. The total public sector salary bill for 2019 is therefore estimated to reach Rs 805 billion. In addition, the budget outlay for pensions in 2019 is Rs. 212 billion and is expected to be Rs 235 billion in 2020. This will take the annual public service wage and pension bill in excess of one trillion rupees for the first time in history.

Public sector salary and pension increases boost aggregate demand without generating an increase in supplies in the economy. They are, therefore, inflationary. In practice, the increases in salaries are likely to be eroded by a rise in prices. In addition, the incremental aggregate demand will also leak into imports, thereby putting pressure on the balance of payments. This can then result in a depreciation of the Sri Lanka Rupee, and place further pressure on the price level (inflation). 

These negative effects can only be contained if the salary increases are funded by cutting other recurrent expenditures, raising revenue, or a combination of these two measures. Cutting capital expenditure is a less good option as it reduces growth impulses in the economy. Ultimately, someone has to pay the piper. 

The worst option is to fund the salary increases through additional borrowing. Increasing the public debt to fund recurrent expenditure will be highly detrimental as there would be no rate of return to defray the cost of servicing the additional debt incurred. Against this backdrop, it is imperative that all Presidential candidates present realistic and sustainable plans and policies to deal with public service reform to the country as part of their election manifestos as a matter of urgency.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Today I watched the TV program where aspirants who intend to contest the presidential election were requested to table the program they intend to implement during their tenure if they win.

Regrettably, all of them talked about-creating  a utopian society 

None of them did specify the revolutionary changes we need today

Lack of discipline among the young generation in the cities, on the road, and in public transport. Was never discussed or explained

I expected at least one of them to promise to control indiscipline by promoting national service in the country to make them disciplined and respectable  people when they complete training 

The second proposal I expected them to promise to implement is strict punishment for graft and for drug distribution to make the society safe 

During the four minutes at least one of them could have promised to undertake such tasks 

I am personally not impressed by any of them

Dr S Obeysekera 

By C. A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

GR’s citizenship issue cleared
Another boost for SLPP expected in Elpitiya
The five month transition period

Sri Lanka has had presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, and 2015 but never one like the present election. With just two working days to go to the close of nominations, a former local government head from Galle petitioned the Supreme Court seeking an order calling off the election. Thankfully, this was dismissed by the SC. But the attempt to knock out the principal opposition candidate from the race even before it began, was heard in the Appeal Court over three days throwing the entire opposition election campaign into a state of uncertainty. Several weeks ago, in an article titled “Geetha, Gota and the Elections Commission”, this writer pointed out that Gota’s citizenship matter had been sorted out to the maximum extent it could ever be, citing the Appeal Court and Supreme Court judgements in the Geetha Kumarasinghe case.   

It was not as if the Appeal Court was hearing a case involving dual citizenship certificates and renunciation of foreign citizenship etc. for the first time. This is ground that the AC has already gone over. On Friday, after hearing the arguments presented, the Appeal Court dismissed the petition filed by two yahapalana activists Chandragupta Thenuwara and Gamini Viyangoda seeking an interim order prohibiting the recognition of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as a citizen of Sri Lanka. As things turn out, Thenuwara and Viyangoda have unwittingly done Gotabhaya Rajapaksa a favour by filing that petition and enabling the latter to prove conclusively that there is no issue with regard to his present Sri Lankan citizenship. This columnist warned in two full page articles published some weeks ago, of the power that the Elections Commission assumes in the event an objection is received regarding a candidate’s qualifications to contest a presidential election and the need to take precautions.

Now Thenuwara and Viyangoda have served up the best possible precaution on a platter. This is not something that the Gota camp could have done by themselves even if they had tried! According to the Presidential Elections Act, there are only three grounds on which objections can be raised to a nomination. Firstly, ‘that it is apparent from the contents of the nomination paper’ that the candidate is not qualified to be elected as President; secondly that the candidate is disqualified by reason of conviction by a court of law for a corrupt or illegal practice or an election malpractice; and thirdly, that civic disability has been imposed on the candidate by Parliament.

When it comes to objections raised on the second and third instances, the Elections Commission cannot decide on its own but has to refer such objections to the Supreme Court within three days after the day of nomination. Such petitions have to be heard by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court within a period of seven days. Unless and until the Supreme Court decides to uphold the objection the candidate concerned will stand nominated.But when it comes to objections based on a candidate’s qualifications, the Elections Commission assumes unbridled power. The Elections Commission itself will decide what the term ‘apparent from the contents of the nomination paper’ means in a context where the nominations paper is directly connected to the Constitutional provisions listing the qualifications of a presidential candidate through the declaration that the candidate signs.

The power of the Elections Commission in this regard was hanging like a sword of Damocles over Gota’s candidacy and one never knew what would happen on the 7th after nominations closed.  The Appeal Court decision now eliminates that uncertainty, and also precludes other candidates from carrying on a negative campaign against Gota by casting doubts about his citizenship. Gota is personally indebted to Thenuwara and Viyangoda for having got this matter cleared up once and for all. This unequivocal decision of the Appeal Court will no doubt give the SLPP campaign a boost. Next Friday there will be the Elpitiya PS election which the SLPP is tipped to win by a comfortable margin – which will give the SLPP campaign yet another boost.

Fragmentation of the

yahapalana vote

Last week, Sajith Premadasa tried to get Maithripala Sirisena’s support for his Presidential bid. However, he has not yet approached the JVP, which is very surprising because the single most important factor that will decide the fate of the yahapalana camp at this election is not really the SLFP or Maithripala Sirisena but the JVP. Even if Maithripala Sirisena personally joins the UNP campaign, it is very unlikely that he will be able to carry the SLFP rank and file with him into the UNP. Unlike the SLFP, the JVP voters are an integral part of the yahapalana camp. If not for the JVP votes at the 2015 Presidential election, Maithripala Sirisena would have lost. This time, for the first time since Rohana Wijweera contested the Presidency, the JVP has put forward their own leader as the Presidential candidate and will be compelled to put their best foot forward and to win the maximimum number of votes possible.

In 1982, Rohana Wijweera contested the Presidency as a Marxist candidate and fared poorly. This time the JVP has shed all such encumbrances and are going for broke to win votes from all and sundry, Marxists and non-Marxists alike. Every vote the JVP takes will be from the yahapalana camp. The differences between the JVP and the pohottuwa types have built up over nearly a decade and no pophottuwa votes will go to the JVP. The agenda that the JVP has espoused also appeals to a yahapalana constituency and not to the pohottuwa constituency. The JVP has been with the yahapalana crowd for a decade so the likelihood of the UNP candidate being able to get the JVP vote is much higher than him being able to get the SLFP vote. So Sajith would have been better off wooing the JVP rather than Sirisena.

Almost all the other ‘also ran’ candidates are those who would have been with the yahapalana camp in 2015, including former Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake. The latter was among the officers sent on compulsory retirement in 2010 in what was described as a ‘military purge’ by the Rajapaksa Government against officers deemed loyal to the fomer Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. Mahesh Senanayake returned to the country after the change of government in 2015 and was reinstated in the Army. Mahesh Senanayake’s motivation to contest the presidential election would come from his bitter experiences of 2010 and perhaps a need to get his own back on the Rajapaksas by siphoning off some military votes from Gotabhaya. The organization supporting Senanayake,  are clearly yahapalanites.

So it appears that virtually all the ‘also rans’ will be eating into the yahapalana vote bank instead of the SLPP vote bank. The appeal of the also rans are also pitched at the disappointed yahaplana voter of 2015 rather than the pro-Rajapaksa voter. It’s a moot point as to whether the also rans would be able to appeal even to the new voters who have come of age during the past five years.

The contest for an emasulated presidency

What is puzzling is why a record number of ‘also rans’ would want to contest the emasculated presidency that exists at present. One of the first to point out that this presidency is not what it used to be, was Dr Nihal Jayawickrema and he is absolutely right. The powers of the presidency in the 1978 constitution rested on three pillars – the President made appointments to all the most important positions in the state such as Supreme Court judges, the Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police. It was the President who appointed and dismissed Cabinet Ministers and in addition to assigning subjects to Ministers, the President could assign any subject to himself. Finally, it was the President who had the power to dissolve Parliament at his discretion. The 19th Amendment has dislodged all three pillars of Presidential power and the position is no longer the pivot on which all political power rests.

Now, the President cannot make any important state appointment except in mandatory consultation with the ten-member Constitutional Council. This mandatory consultation can take place in two ways. The Constitutional Council was to recommend to the President persons for appointment as Chairmen or members of the Election Commission, the Public Service Commission, the National Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Permanent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, the Finance Commission and the Delimitation Commission. In such cases, it was the Constitutional Council that was to take the initiative by recommending persons suitable to be members of the independent commissions. In the case of important offices of the state such as the Judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, members of the Judicial Service Commission other than the Chairman, the Attorney-General, the Auditor-General, the Inspector-General of Police, the Ombudsman and the Secretary-General of Parliament the roles were reversed with the President making the recommendation of the candidate to the Constitutional Council and the latter indicating its approval or disapproval. Either way, it’s the Connstitutional Council that has the real say in making these appointments.

Article 70 of the Constitution has been amended so as to make it impossible for Parliament to be dissolved before the lapse of four and a half years unless Parliament resolves to dissolve itself by a resolution passed by two thirds of its total membership. According to Article 43 of the Constitution as amended by the 19th Amendment, it is the President who will determine the number of ministries and the subjects and institutions that are to be assigned to those ministries. He may, only if he deems it necessary, consult the Prime Minister in doing so. However, when appointing individual MPs to hold these ministries, the President is mandatorily required to consult the Prime Minister. After the Cabinet is formed in this manner, the President may at any time change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of the Cabinet. Article 43 is silent on the question whether the President is required to consult the PM when he changes the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of a Cabinet that has already been formed. However, the wording of Article 43(2) seems to suggest that in appointing MPs to be Ministers, the President cannot avoid consulting the Prime Minister whether it be before the Cabinet is appointed or afterwards.

Most importantly, the provision in the Constitution in the old Article 44(2) whereby the President could assign to himself any subject or function and was to remain in charge of any subject or function not assigned to any Minister, has been repealed. What this means is that a future President will not be able to assign any subjects to himself or even remain in charge of the subjects not assigned to any other Minister because the provision that made it possible for the President to hold some subjects by default now no longer exists in the Constitution. The repeal of the provision that enabled the President to assign any subjects to himself or to hold the subjects not assigned to anybody has reduced the power of the President drastically. The incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena holds several ministries including that of Defence only because of a transitional provision in the 19th Amendment which will lapse when his tenure ends in a few weeks. The next president will not have any power to assign Ministries and subjects to himself – not even the Defence ministry.

Furthermore, the 19th Amendment has made it possible to challenge actions taken by the President by way of a fundamental rights application. This provision was put to the test last October when the President dissolved Parliament and the resulting judgment has taken even more power out of the hands of the President. Even though the President’s powers have been reduced by the 19th Amendment, the Prime Minister’s role has not been properly defined. He is the PM and sits in the Cabinet, but he is not the head of the Cabinet. He is not the head of the government either – both those titles still belong to the President. The PM has a tenuous hold on power through Article 43(2) which makes him the effective appointing authority of Ministers. Despite the ematiated state of the presidency at present we have a record number of candidates – which seems to indicate that they have not read the 19th Amendment properly!

Five month plus cohabitation

period

As the negotiations between the SLPP and the SLFP floundered over the question of the pohottuwa symbol, Mahinda Rajapaksa was heard making a new argument to the effect that because Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was not a sitting or former Member of Parliament, he has to contest as the nominee of a recognized political party and that a deposit had been already made in his name by the SLPP and that he would not be able to hand in nominations through another political party. This is a reference to Article 31(1) of the Constitution which states that any citizen who is qualified to be elected to the office of President may be nominated as a candidate for such office by a recognized political party. However, if he is or has been an elected member of the legislature, he can be nominated by a political party which has not been recognized by the Elections Commission or by an elector whose name has been entered in any register of electors.

Whoever gets elected President will find that the first few months will be the most difficult period of his tenure. If Gota is elected, he will have to co-habit with the UNP led Cabinet for over five months. If Sajith wins he too will have to cohabit for more than five months with a Prime Minister and Leader of the House who tried their damnest to prevent him from becoming the UNP Presidential candidate. Why the co-habitation period extends to five months can be explained as follows: According to Article 31(3A)(d)(ii) of the Constitution,  if the person declared elected as President is not the President in office – which will be the case inevitably at this election – hold office for a term of five years commencing on the date on which the result of such election is declared.

This means that the new President will have to be sworn into office on the 17th Novermber 2019. In terms of Article 70(1) of the Constitution, the President cannot dissolve Parliament at his discretion until the expiration of four years and six months from the date of its first meeting.  The present Parliament met for the first time on 1 September 2015. Hence, the 1st March 2020 will be the earliest date on which the present Parliament can be dissolved by the new President. At presidential elections it is the Elections Commission that calls for nominations and fixes the date for the poll when the incumbent President either declares an early election or when the incumbent President’s term nears completion. However, when it comes to Parliamentary elections, in terms of Article 70(5)(a) of the Constitution, it is the President who dissolves Parliament. The dissolution can be an early dissolution or a dissolution upon the completion of the five year Parliamentary term.

Either way, it is a mandatory requirement that the President’s proclamation dissolving Parliament has to fix a date for the election of Members of Parliament, and also has to summon the new Parliament to meet on a date not later than three months after the date of the Proclamation calling the election. There are other requirements as well. In terms Section 10(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act No: of 1981,  the President shall, in every Proclamation dissolving Parliament specify the period during which nomination papers shall be received by the returning officer during normal office hours at his office; and the date on which the poll shall be taken. The nomination period shall commence on the fourteenth day after the date of publication in the Gazette of the Proclamation dissolving Parliament and expire at twelve noon onthe twenty-first day.

The date fixed for the poll shall be not less than three weeks and not more than eight weeks from the closing day of the nomination period. What these provisions mean is that if the new president dissolved Parliament on the very first day that he is able to constitutionally dissolve parliament, which is on the 1st March 2020, it will take an absolute minimum of 42 days to hold the elections after the proclamation dissolving Parliament. Due to intervening Poya Days or other public holidays, it will be impossible to hold the Parliamentary election within the minimum possible period. What this means is that the new President who will have to assume office on 17 November 2019 will have to work with the present Cabinet of Ministers until the Parliamentary election is concluded some time after 17 April 2020 at which point the present cabinet of ministers will cease to hold office – a full five months and more. 

The long transition period from November 2019 to April 2020 when the new President will have to work with the present Prime Minister and Cabinet will be a trying period for whoever wins the Presidential election. If the opposition candidate is elected President, he will have to deal with a hostile prime minister, a hostile cabinet and a hostile Parliamentary majority. If the government’s own candidate wins in circumstances where the Presidential candidacy was yielded only in the most acrimonious circumstances, there is the distinct possibility of intra party conflicts emerging with renewed ferocity as those who backed the government party candidate move in to claim their reward.

BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE 2 Courtesy  Maritime Executive

The underutilized port of Hambantota, Sri Lanka is set to gain a major new tenant. The Sri Lankan government has given its approval to the Singaporean company Sugih Energy International (SEI) to build a $20 billion refinery at the port. The project’s value exceeds the total of all foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka over the past forty year, development minister Malik Samarawickrama told Sri Lankan outlet Daily FT.

In 2010, with financial backing from China and the assistance of Chinese construction companies, Sri Lanka built a greenfield port development at the quiet fishing community of Hambantota. The port project attracted limited use, and it – along with many other infrastructure initiatives – left Sri Lanka deeply indebted to Chinese state banks. In 2017, Sri Lanka gave the final go-ahead to sell 70 percent of the port to state-controlled China Merchants Port Holdings for $1.1 billion, satisfying a portion of its debt burden. 

Western analysts have often described Hambantota as a “white elephant” project lacking in commercial viability, but CMPH’s managers insist that they are turning it around. The refinery deal is one of several recent energy-related development announcements at the port. In March, the Sri Lankan government green-lighted a proposal to build a smaller, $3.8 billion refinery complex at Hambantota, with backing from the government of Oman and another Singaporean firm. In addition, in 2018, Chinese investors were cleared to build a $700 million natural gas-powered electrical station at Hambantota. The 400-gigawatt power plant will be fueled with LNG. 

Chinese oil major Sinopec holds the rights to provide bunkering at the port of Hambantota. The port’s Chinese managers have signaled their intention to make bunkering – which is a natural complement to oil refining – into a key part of the development strategy for Hambantota. The port is adjacent to the busy east-west sea lanes across the Indian Ocean, and it is roughly at the halfway point between the bunkering mega-hubs of Fujairah and Singapore. 

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, October 5: The political situation in Sri Lanka returned to normal on Friday, after the Court of Appeal rejected a petition by two civil rights activists to bar Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), from contesting the Lankan Presidential election set for November 16.

The petition, filed just a few days before the date set for the filing of nominations (October 6), charged that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had unlawfully obtained a Dual Citizenship Certificate. Therefore he had no right to contest the forthcoming election.

Petitioners Prof.Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Gamini Viyangoda, had sought the cancellation of the Dual Citizenship Certificate issued to Gotabaya Rajapaksa on November 21, 2005 and the Sri Lankan passport and National Identity Card (NIC) issued to him thereafter.

A three-judge Court of Appeal, headed by Yasantha Kodagoda, heard both sides for nearly four days and finally threw out the petition Friday evening, without granting the petitioners leave to proceed.

If the petition had been allowed and leave to proceed was granted, Gotabaya Rajapaksa would not have been able to contest the election. In that case, the entire complexion of the election would have changed. Sajith Premadasa, the candidate of the ruling United National Paty(UNP) would have had the best chance of winning the Lankan Presidency.

None of the other candidates in the field, including Anrua Kumara Dissanayaka of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP), has the capability of Sajith Premadasa. The UNP has the largest voter base among the non-SLPP parties. The UNP is also exceptionally united and charged up now because it has, at long last, found a candidate with a common touch” after putting up with an elitist and distant leader like Ranil Wickremesinghe, the current Prime Minister.

Right from the start, political pundits had been considering Gotabaya of the SLPP (founded and led by the charismatic former President Mahinda Rajapaksa) as the front-runner in the Presidential race. As Defense Secretary and also as the Urban Development Secretary, Gotabaya had distinguished himself as a dynamic official and a creative leader, though he also had a reputation for using strong arm methods to quell trenchant critics.

Following the April 21, 2019 multiple suicide attacks by a bunch of Jihadis and the utter failure of the UNP government to act on accurate prior intelligence given by India, the majority of Sri Lankans especially of the Sinhala-Buddhist and Christian communities had been yearning for a strong national security orient government, which, under the circumstances, only Gotabaya can provide.

In the absence of Gotabaya, the SLPP would have put up Chamal Rajapaksa, the eldest of the Rajapaksa siblings. But Chamal is a colorless and uninspiring politician though with a reputation as an honest and fair-minded man. He lacks the dynamism of Gotabaya, who as Defense Secretary, had defeated the dreaded LTTE, and as Urban Development Secretary, re-built post-war Colombo and other Lankan towns.

Petitioner’s Plea

Appearing for the petitioners, Suren Fernando recalled that before 2003, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was a citizen of Sri Lanka by descent. Thereafter, on or around January 31, 2003, he had become a citizen of the United States of America. From that day onwards, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ceased to be a citizen of Sri Lanka under the country’s Citizenship Act.

Subsequently, in November 2005, when his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, won the Lankan Presidential election, Mahinda wanted to make Gotabaya Defense Secretary to help him prosecute the war against the Tamil separatist militant group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). For this purpose, Gotabaya, who was a US citizen at that time, had to be given Dual Citizenship.

Gotabaya applied for a Dual Citizenship Certificate, a Sri Lankan passport and a National Identity Card. These were sanctioned on November 21, 2005, a few days after Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn-in as President of Sri Lanka. The Dual Citizenship Certificate was signed by Mahinda in his capacity as the President of Sri Lanka.

The petitioners pointed out that the certificate bore no signature of the concerned Minister and the Ministerial Secretary, something it ought to have had as per the legal requirement.

The petitioners pointed out that as per law, the Cabinet of Ministers and Ministerial Secretaries had resigned after the election of the President to enable him to choose his own men. A new Prime Minister, Ministers and the assigning of the subjects to the Ministries took place on November 21, 23 and December 08 respectively. When Gotabaya was given a Dual Citizenship Certificate on November 21, 2005, there was neither a subject Minister nor a Ministerial Secretary. But President Mahinda Rajapaksa had signed on and issued the Dual Citizenship Certificate.

The petitioners pointed out that the President had no power to do that and therefore, the certificate and everything that flowed from it, was null and void.

The Court of Appeal President, Yasantha Kodagoda, asked whether there was any residual power vested upon the President to exercise the executive power of the government in the absence of the Cabinet. Counsel for the petitioners, Suren Fernando, replied that the 1978 constitution is a combination of both Westminster and Presidential systems of governance and that its intention was not to provide plenary executive powers to the President. He has to share it with the Cabinet of Ministers and cannot act on his own.

The Defense

Appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, Controller General for Immigration and the Registrar of Persons, Senior Deputy Solicitor General (SDSG) Nerin Pulle told the court that the former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had signed the Dual Citizenship Certificate of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2005, had the power to do so as the relevant Minister.

After the Presidential election, the cabinet stood dissolved and Secretaries to the Ministries had also quit. But as per the 1978 constitution, all executive powers were vested with the President during that period. As such, the President could sign any document that a Minister would have signed.

In other words, the President could exercise his plenary powers” to take decisions of Ministers in the absence of Ministers. Pulle also argued that the subject Minister’s recommendation was enough and the Ministerial Secretary’s signature was not needed. And the subject Minister at that time, in the absence of a cabinet, was the President himself.

Pulle pointed out that Article 44 (2) of the Constitution, which was in existence in 2005, said that the President could continue to function with all the executive powers as the head of the government and the executive, until the new Cabinet was appointed.

Counsel for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Romesh de Silva, said that the litigation against his client had been brought by political opponents to prevent him from standing for the Presidential election. This was tantamount to breaching the right of people to vote for the candidate of their choice. The petition was drafted in cahoots with the leaders of the UNP, he charged.

De Silva also took objection to the fact that the writ application had been filed while an investigation into the same facts was taking place under the supervision of the Colombo Magistrate.

The counsel for Gotabaya further stated that the petitioners had not included in their plaint, 21 others who were given Dual Citizenship Certificates on November 21, 2005, the day on which Gotabaya was given the certificate. On this technicality alone, the petition should be dismissed, he said.

(The featured image at the too shows Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa)

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ජාතික ඒකාබද්ධතා රාජ්‍ය භාෂා සහ හින්දු ආගමික කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශය විසින් අද ගුරු පුහුණු තනතුරට අදාළ පත්වීම් 400 ක් ලබාදීමට සංවිධානය කර තිබූ උත්සවයක් අත්හිටුවීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ නිලධාරින් සහ පොලීසිය මැදිහත් වුණා.

හෝමාගම – මාකුඹුර ප්‍රදේශයේ පිහිටි ජාතික භාෂා අධ්‍යාපන පුහුණු ආයතනයෙහි මෙම පත්වීම් ලබාදීමේ උත්සවයට සංවිධානය කර තිබුණේ අමාත්‍ය මනෝ ගනේෂන්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන්.

එම කටයුත්ත අත්හිටවූ අවස්ථාවේදී එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණි නාගරික මන්ත්‍රීවරියක් සහ අමාත්‍ය මනෝ ගනේෂන් අතර උණුසුම් සංවාදයක් ඇති වුණා.

බදුල්ල, වව්නියාව, මඩකලපුව, නුවරඑළිය ඇතුලූ ප්‍රදේශ ගණනාවක දෙමළ ගුරුවරුන් සඳහා ගුරු පත්වීම් ලබාදීමටයි මෙම උත්සවය සංවිධානය කර තිබුණේ.

අදාළ පත්වීම් ලබාදීම අත්හිටුවීම හේතුවෙන් පැමිණ සිටි පිරිස යළි හරවා යැවීමටයි අමාත්‍යවරයා එහිදී කටයුතු කළේ.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

අමාත්‍ය සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස කොළඹ පැවති මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක රැස්වීමකට ඊයේ එක්වෙමින් ඔහුගේ ශ්‍රී මුඛයෙන් පවසන වදන් යනුවෙන් සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සමාජය තුළ පුළුල් සංවාදයක් මතුව තිබෙනවා.

බුදු පියාණන් වහන්සේ උදෙසා වූ ගෞරවය දේශපාලනයට යොදා නොගන්නා ලෙස සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස අමාත්‍යවරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කරන බවයි සුරකිමු ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංවිධානයේ සභාපති පූජ්‍ය පාහියන්ගල ආනන්ද සාගර හිමියන් ප්‍රකාශ කළේ.

උන්වහන්සේ මේ බව කියා සිටියේ හෘද සාක්ෂියේ ආමන්ත්‍රණය යන තේමාව යටතේ සුරකිමු ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංවිධානය කොළඹ කොටුව දුම්රියපොළ ඉදිරිපිටින් ආරම්භ කළ පාද යාත්‍රාව අතරතුර පේරාදෙණිය – ගැටඹේ ප්‍රදේශයේදී මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින්.

පාද යාත්‍රාව අද මහනුවරින් අවසන් කෙරුණා.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

The Court of Appeal has placed Mr Wiyangoda’s petition in the most appropriate place, by dismissing it without further consideration.   In other words, Mr Wiyangoda once again has gone to the place  where he deserve to reside, i.e. Kunu Goda.

Anti-yahapalana voters  have been further encouraged with these episodes to increase the vote base for Gotabaya Rajapakse.  Those who promised a new world in 2015,  did destroy Sri Lanka in all areas of employment and  investment.  It further destroyed the Sri Lankan culture and basic values of civilisation.

Wiyangoda  has always been in the company of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and took a leading role in 2015 campaign to defeat President Mahinda Rajapakse, with Groups of Conspirators, including Sarath Wijesuriya, Jayadeva Uyangoda, Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, Jayampathy Wickramaratna, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Imitiaz Bakeer Marker, Mahim Mendis, Rohan Edirisinghe, Ravi Jayawardena and Nimalka Fernando.

Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya  declared the 8 January 2015  as the date on which law-abiding citizens of Sri Lanka executed a silent revolution.” PaCha Ranawaka called the Change, A Revolution”, Ranil called it a Revolutionary Victory”, Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda opined that “the replacement of an authoritarian government by electoral means … without bloodshed [makes] Sri Lanka a real wonder of the modern world”, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri  called it “a revolution with low intensity”.

Gotabaya Rajapakse victory is now unstoppable.  Within  next 2 months, rivalry groups will further enhance their attack with insinuations, lies with the support of NGOs, LTTE Diaspora etc. 

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Responding to the Appeal Court’s decision to dismiss the petition against SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s citizenship, SLPP Leader and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said not only Gotabaya but the entire country had been exonerated.

I think the entire country was exonerated. Not only Gotabaya but the entire country was exonerated. (Nidos kota Nidahas karala thiyanawa),” he told journalists at the Opposition Leader’s Office soon after the decision was announced.

He said the decision showed the independence of the judiciary and the faith they had in the judicial system.

Sound legal arguments were made by the legal team including counsel Romesh De Silva PC and Gamini Marapana PC,” he said.

When asked about MP Chamal Rajapaksa making a cash deposit to contest the presidential poll, Mr. Rajapaksa said, That was a backup plan. In case the court decision was different, we couldn’t abandon our people. We were getting ready to face any decision.”  

Shehan Chamika Silva Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Court of Appeal today contemplated that if those who dishonoured the Court by cheering inside the court room soon after the decision on Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was declared are found to be legal professionals of the bar, they would have to face legal repercussions in due course.

It was seen soon after the order on the writ petition was delivered by Court of Appeal president Justice Yasantha Kodagoda, some part of the audience in the court room reacted to the decision by cheering. This sudden reaction caught the attention of Justice Kodagoda and he said if lawyers were among those who cheered, then they will be dealt with the necessary laws over their behaviour as professionals.

However, it was also seen that Romesh de Silva PC was very quick to signal the audience not to disturb and dishonour the court. He also apologized to the Bench for the behaviour of some persons and highly deplored that behaviour. 

Ada Derana

The Court of Appeal has unanimously decided to dismiss the petitions filed challenging the citizenship of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, without taking it up for consideration.

The court today concluded the consideration of the petition while all parties were given time to present their written submissions before 3.15 p.m.

The decision of the Appeal Court regarding issuing an interim order on the petition was be announced at 6.00 p.m. 

The petition, filed by two social activists Gamini Viyangoda and Prof. Chandraguptha Thenuwara on September 30, was taken up for consideration for a third straight day this morning before a three-judge bench comprising Justices Yasantha Kodagoda, Mahinda Samayawardena and Arjuna Obeysekara.

The Controller General of the Department of Immigration and Emigration, the Commissioner-General of the Department of Registration of Persons, Minister Vajira Abeywardena, Secretary to the Ministry of Internal & Home Affairs and Provincial Councils & Local Government, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Senior Deputy IGP of CID and Officer in Charge of CID’s Special Branch have been cited as the respondents of the petition.

The petitioners had alleged that Gotabaya Rajapaksa has obtained a passport and a National Identity Card (NIC) claiming that he revoked his US citizenship.

The petitioners further stated that they have the necessary information to prove the former Defence Secretary did not submit proper documentation to verify the revocation of his US citizenship when obtaining a Sri Lankan passport and a NIC.

Hence, the petitioners had requested the Appeals Court to deliver an order suspending the issuance of a passport and a NIC to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. They also sought an interim order preventing the functioning of said passport and NIC until the court delivers the petition’s verdict.

However, the court decided to dismiss the petition without taking it up for consideration.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.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Civil Society Activists in many countries in the world appear to be working as independent activists without engaging in popular politics or supporting political parties, however, in Sri Lanka civil society activists appear to be in a mud puddle without clearly understanding the role of them. As I reiterated before, civil society activists were in the past in Sri Lanka under the reign of Kings and Queens, but they did not engage in active politics because they understood the real role and limits of them.  Since the 2015 presidential election, civil society activists have been engaged in a misguided role like politicians without understanding and identifying the role of them. It is possible to assume that they were mad on making easy money misleading international NGOs.  This situation is clearly understood by other countries in the world. It can assume that other countries and international NGOs are observing what is going on in Sri Lanka. 

Another vital point concerning the behavior of NGO activists is whether the international NGOs which are believed to be financing for local NGO activists knew that local activists were playing a game for an undue enrichment out of foreign taxpayers’ money. This is a serious issue that UNO or any other international organizations must be discussed or investigated and make justice for international donors.

It also seems that several activists have engaged in the role of government media to attract support from international NGOs, which have already learned a good lesson from civil society activists in Sri Lanka after 2015.  There are many issues that civil society activists must be worked in, despite such requirements they have engaged in complete rubbish politics such as to take presidential candidates to courts rather than playing their role.  What were purposes or aims of these local NGO activists sought funds from international donors and did the organizations audit how funds were using in Sri Lanka? If the purpose of them is to playing politics, they can go to the USA and support the Democratic party to impeach President Donald Trump, but they are scared to engage in such an active role.  Some of these activists are supposed to participate in university research and teaching roles and people of Sri Lanka have a question whether these activists playing the right role or a dishonest role.  Do they addicted to money coming from external sources rather than doing the owned job? Could these people trust is an issue for international NGOs?

International NGOs must extremely careful when funding for local NGO activists in Sri Lanka.