Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

It was President Maithripala Sirisena who wanted to summon an emergency Cabinet meeting last Thursday to discuss the abolition of the executive presidency, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

Addressing a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a trilingual national school in Meerigama, the Prime Minister said he was oblivious to the 20th Amendment based discussions held last week by civil movements and religious organisations, and that they wanted it implemented forthwith.

President Sirisena telephoned me last Thursday morning and asked whether to summon a Cabinet meeting. I responded saying there was nothing wrong in discussing the proposed 20th Amendment. I also reminded him that the UNP had not discussed the matter yet. I called for a pre-Cabinet meeting and the ministers came out with various ideas on abolishing executive presidency. Subsequently, I informed the President that it would not be possible to get the legislation approved in the Cabinet owing to difference of opinion. During the meeting, I stressed that it will not be possible to abolish the executive presidency without the support of the SLPP. However, we reached an agreement at the Cabinet meeting that each party should discuss the issue amongst themselves,” he said.

Furthermore, he said several civil society organisations blamed him of not being able to get Cabinet approval for the 20th Amendment.

I was criticised by a group last Thursday and by another yesterday. People will decide on the matter at the end of the day,” he said.

The premier lauded Speaker Karu Jayasuriya who was present at the ceremony saying the latter had taken the lead in abolishing executive presidency. He said the Speaker upheld democracy during the 52-day constitutional coup and even thereafter. 

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් පැවැත්වීමට දින නියම කර ඇති අවස්ථාවක විධායක ජනාධිපති ධුරය අහෝසි කිරීමට සාකච්ඡා කිරීම වංචා කිරීමක් බව විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසනවා.

ඔහු මේ අදහස් පළ කළේ කරවනැල්ල ප්‍රදේශයේ පැවති අවමංගල්‍ය උත්සවයකට එක්වීමෙන්අ නතුරුව මාධ්‍යවේදීන් හමුවේ අද අදහස් පළ කරමින්.

කරවනැල්ල ප්‍රදේශයට පැමිණි විපක්ෂ නායක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, හිටපු අමාත්‍ය අභාවප්‍රාප්ත එච්.ආර්.මිත්‍රපාල මහතාට අවසන් ගෞරව දැක්වුවා.

පසුව විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා විධායක ජනාධිපතිධුරය අහෝසි කිරීමට ඊයේ සිදු කළ සාකච්ඡාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් අදහස් පළ කළා.

මේ අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ විදෙස් ශාඛා වල කටයුතු සම්බන්ධීකරණය කිරිම සඳහා නව ඒකකයක් කොළඹ නෙලුම් මාවත ආසන්නයේ ස්ථාපිත කෙරුණේ එම පක්ෂයේ ජාතික සංවිධායක බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්

https://youtu.be/GPNzEiZGwtU

 pasindu මව්බිම දැන්

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ අමෙරිකානු පුරවැසියකුව සිටියදී 2005 ජනාධිපතිවරණය සඳහා ඡන්දය භාවිතා කිරීමට වැරදිකරු වශයෙන් අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අධිකරණයෙන් කළ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප වී තිබෙනවා.

කොළඹ ප්‍රධාන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් ලංකා ජයරත්න මෙනෙවිය විසින් මේ තීන්දුව ලබා දුන්නා.

Courtesy South China Morning Post

• Rajapaksa’s spokesman said he met this week with Chen Min’er, a close ally of Xi, to discuss future ties
• Beijing and Colombo’s already strained relations took a further blow when Sirisena alleged corruption at a Chinese firm contracted to build the country’s tallest tower

Sri Lankan [1] presidential nominee Gotabaya Rajapaksa would restore relations” with the country’s top lender China if he wins the November 16 vote and met with a senior Chinese official this week, according to an adviser and his spokesman.China and Sri Lanka’s [2] already strained relations took a further blow on Monday when President Maithripala Sirisena alleged corruption at a Chinese company contracted to build the Lotus Tower, South Asia’s tallest tower. A Sri Lankan parliamentary panel said it would investigate.

Neither the company nor the Chinese embassy in Colombo has commented on Sirisena’s allegations. China has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in its multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka.

Now China is looking at us differently. When Gotabaya Rajapaksa becomes the president … he will set the record right and restore the relationship to where it was,” Rajapaksa’s adviser Palitha Kohona told reporters in Colombo.

Next Hambantota? Welcome to the Chinese-funded US$1.4 billion Port City Colombo[3]

I suppose the thinking was if we upset China, the West would come to us with endless bags of gold … But the bags of gold never materialised,” Kohona said.

Ties between Colombo and Beijing soured when, upon his election in 2015, Sirisena suspended all Chinese investment projects, citing allegations of corruption, overpricing and flouting of government procedures. He allowed projects to resume the following year after demanding changes in some.

Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on November 16. Photo: APRajapaksa’s spokesman said on Friday that the opposition politician, whose candidature has yet to be confirmed, and his brother, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, met this week with Chen Min’er, a leader of the Communist Party of China [4] and a close ally of President Xi Jinping [5], to discuss future ties.

Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said that at the meeting Chen pledged China’s support for the Sri Lankan government’s future endeavours.

Is Sri Lanka the next theatre for the US-China tussle?[6]

Rajapaksa is widely seen as the front runner in November’s election due to his popularity among Sri Lanka’s Sinhala Buddhist majority for his role in ending a 26-year civil war in 2009.

However, his candidature is yet to be confirmed, with uncertainties lingering over a legal battle related to misappropriation of funds and his renunciation of US citizenship. Sri Lanka does not allow dual citizens to contest elections.

Rajapaksa has denied wrongdoing and says he has already renounced his citizenship.Source URL: https://scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3029730/sri-lanka-presidential-hopeful-gotabaya-rajapaksa-wouldLinks

[1] https://www.scmp.com/topics/sri-lanka

[2] https://www.scmp.com/topics/china-sri-lanka-relations

[3] https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3009731/next-hambantota-welcome-chinese-funded-us14-billion-port-city

[4] https://www.scmp.com/topics/chinas-communist-party

[5] https://www.scmp.com/topics/xi-jinping

[6] https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3020308/us-naval-base-rumours-sri-lanka-spark-alarm-washington-andThis article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: PUPDATE 1-Sri Lanka presidential nominee Rajapaksa pledges to restore ties with China, adviser says

Courtesy London South East

COLOMBO, Sept 20 (Reuters) – China’s state-run Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co (ALIT) on Friday rejected Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena’s allegation of misappropriating 2 billion rupees ($11 million) in a deal to work on the construction of South Asia’s tallest tower.

Sirisena made the allegation at the inauguration on Monday of the 356-meter Lotus Tower, which overlooks Beira Lake in Colombo, sparking a political row in the country, which has relied heavily on China for project finance. A parliamentary panel will investigate the allegation.

The $104.3 million project was 80% funded by Exim Bank of China, with China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC) and ALIT recommended as the main contractors by Chinese government.

Sirisena alleged ALIT in 2016 had vanished, misappropriating some 2 billion rupees deposited with it by Sri Lanka’s state-run Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC).

ALIT in a statement said it had left the consortium in August 2015, entrusting its partner CEIEC to act solely on its behalf to fulfil the contract with the TRC.

It also said the TRC, according to the contract, paid $15.6 million (2 billion rupees) into CEIEC’s account in Exim Bank in October 2012, the same amount to which Sirisena referred to as misappropriated.

“This sum had been used for the project purpose solely,” ALIT said in a statement, without elaborating how and when the money was spent.

Sirisena’s predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was in power when the alleged incident took place in 2012, has denied any corruption in the deal.

Sri Lanka’s Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) said on Wednesday it will probe the allegation.

After coming to power in 2015, Sirisena suspended most Chinese-backed infrastructure projects started under Rajapaksa, citing allegations of corruption and the flouting of rules.

Sirisena’s Lotus Tower allegation comes ahead of a presidential election set for Nov. 16, which Rajapaksa’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to contest.

Political sources close to Sirisena and Rajapaksa have said talks between the president’s center-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) for a coalition deal have broken down. ($1 = 181.1000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Shihar Aneez, editing by Louise Heavens)

Courtesy Adaderana

A staggering telephone conversation between Avant-Garde Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi and supposedly former Director General of the Bribery Commission, Solicitor General Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe has been revealed through social media.

Taking to his Facebook account, Senadhipathi, who is currently receiving medical treatment in Singapore, released an audio clip of the telephone conversation which discussed the case filed against the Avant-Garde Maritime Services.

The purported female voice of the former Bribery Commission chief can be heard saying I know how to break the law and make the law.” She expressed her regrets over filing the Avant-Garde case while blaming the country’s disorderly politics as the reason behind the case.

However, the attempts Ada Derana made to contact the former Bribery Commission chief in this regard were proved unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the ‘Ravan Balaya’ and ‘Sinhale’ organizations lodged a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department against the Solicitor General.

The Avant-Garde floating armoury case against former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was taken up before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court today (20).

The Appeals Court has ruled that the former defence secretary be acquitted as the manner in which the Bribery Commission had filed the lawsuit is against the law, the defence attorneys told the court while presenting their submissions.

The chief magistrate then moved the further hearing of the case to September 23rd, stating that the acquittal order is yet to be received.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Friday Forum’s observations on Presidential Elections And The Peoples’ Options” (sic) published in The Island of September 3, 2019, are far wide of the mark. This is not surprising in view of their past press releases about related or similar topics. The ‘peoples’ in the title implies that the internationally respected intellectuals of that body view Sri Lanka as a collection of nations (‘peoples’), not as a single Sri Lankan nation/people consisting of a number of different racial and religious communities living in peace and harmony, which in fact, is taken for granted by 95% of the Lankan population today as before; the few extremists that there are exploit for their survival the few easily remediable anomalies waiting to be attended to by a patriotic political leadership on an independent national basis free from foreign involvement. The last-mentioned task was being unobtrusively addressed before it was unexpectedly cut short in January 2015. The Friday Forum worthies seem to be cheering on the perpetrators of the disastrous ‘reconciliation’ politics of the Yahapalanaya whose real purpose is now being revealed to have been, all along, anything but reconciling communities. FF’s perfunctory analysis of what they consider to be the truth about the current Sri Lankan political context and their blindly prejudiced assessment of the three presidential candidates whose names had been suggested by the time of their press release is as misleading as to their ill-considered endorsement of the January 2015 regime change. 

However, though their assertion that Sri Lankans are facing  ….. a multiplicity of crises, bereft of political leadership with appropriate commitment, integrity and skills to resolve them” is correct about the current administration, whose members are running around like a headless chicken that is about to fall dead, the tone of the whole statement reflects no contrition over their past judgment. It is an utter falsehood to claim that Sri Lankans are trapped in religious and ethnic divisions…”. The truth is that they are caught up in a mess created by the government. Simply, there are no real divisions like that except what is threatened in those directions by the intentional or unintentional acts of commission and omission on the part of the incumbent political authorities. External and internal forces hellbent on destabilizing and destroying the Sri Lankan state have always identified the so-called Tamil national problem as an ethnic one whereas the reality is that it is a political one (federalism/separatism Vs unitarism) with far-reaching  economic, social, and diplomatic ramifications, something that was being settled peacefully after the defeat of armed terrorism in 2009. The Sinhalese majority and the Tamil and Muslim minorities have been living in perfect amity and mutual accommodation for centuries; they did so even during the three decades of civil war. The deadly Wahhabi incursion is a relatively new problem. It is evident that both the present government and the previous one must take ultimate responsibility for the Easter Sunday violence and for the potential escalation of the problem in the future. It should be investigated whether or not conscious negligence of responsible sections of the incumbent administration and the misdirected application of the policy of political correctness towards certain communalist Muslim politicians (who abused it) by the previous government led to the April 21 mayhem. The present government is also being hampered by the same hypocritical policy, which made most politicians turn a deaf ear to the early peaceful warnings of the monks, among others, about the cancerous growth of anti-Buddhist religious extremism. However, except for a handful of misguided extremists among Tamils and some brainwashed religious fanatics among Muslims,  no ordinary Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim citizens, have anything to do with these problems. But it is these innocent ordinary citizens who become the ultimate victims of all the violence caused by extremists.

The current rulers are panicked because they are aware that only a miracle can save them from the certain electoral defeat that is awaiting them.  Some opportunists among them appear to be exploiting artificially inflated issues such as alleged ethnic and religious divisions to prolong their stay in power at least until they are able to complete their international commitments, which run counter to the national interest. It would be obvious even to the casual observer that the recent pronouncements and propaganda gimmicks of these elements and their nominal opponents like the JVP reflect a dangerous and deliberate politicization of alleged ethnic and religious divisions for their own survival. These elements that include people in the most powerful positions go among the Tamils in the North and the Muslims in the East and make statements that are clearly prejudicial to the amelioration of communal relations between the majority and the minority communities. The overwhelming majority of ordinary Tamils and Muslims in the northern and eastern provinces as well as elsewhere in the country are intelligent enough not to trust these Sinhalese Buddhist leaders who unjustly condemn fellow members of their own race as racists and religious extremists just for the sake of wooing Tamil and Muslim minority support at elections. If any Sinhalese Buddhist leaders thus betray their own people, can the Tamils and Muslims believe that they will be truthful to them? Should they trust their own communalist politicians who falsely accuse the innocent Sinhalese of racism just to get elected to parliament for their own selfish ends as the unfolding events are now convincing them? 

The FF statement next makes mention of a number of valid criticisms of the Yahapalanaya including the following:  unprincipled, shortsighted, election-results-oriented fiscal policies, unwise and inept handling of foreign policy that makes the country vulnerable to a new form of colonisation recently experienced in Africa and South America, the breakdown of law and order, the public’s loss of faith in the effectiveness of institutions entrusted with law enforcement and administration of justice, lack of awareness of government policies and actions among the citizens, and the resultant failure on their part to hold elected politicians accountable for their actions. 

While hypocritically disapproving of the Joint Opposition’s retrospective attacks on the way a new government was elected in 2015, the FF circumvents the legitimate reason behind the JO’s condemnation of that election. Shouldn’t they accept the obvious fact that the ‘new form of colonisation’ they are warning against had already started its work by then? Be that as it may. These yesteryear academics seem to have a good sense of humour: they set themselves on par with the young people who will vote for the first time” in the matter of exercising their franchise. They warn that they and these young people must not be misled by the political rhetoric of a group that supported an illegal and unconstitutional grab for power in 2018”. The luminaries must remember that today’s young, unlike them, are not so ignorant as to think on those terms; they know what actually happened on that occasion. There was no consciously illegal and unconstitutional grab for power” on the part of the former president; the motives of the current president are always shrouded in mystery, though. Joint Opposition criticism of the government is not mere political rhetoric”.  Contrary to what the FF panjandrums pretend to believe, the charges of abuse of power, extrajudicial abductions and killings, interference with the judiciary and other institutions, etc which were alleged to have taken place during the pre-Yahapalanaya government still remain unsubstantiated despite the present rulers’ desperate attempts to find incriminating evidence to support their allegations.  

The FF dignitaries express their disappointment and anger at the failures of the current government, but they caution us that this should not lead to a rejection of what they call the small gains on democratic governance that have been made”. There cannot be any talk about the size of alleged gains where no gains have been made that didn’t exist before. But if they insist that certain gains were made (their definitions or concepts of ‘gains’ may be different from ordinary mortals’), they  need to explain why ordinary Sri Lankans have to be content with small gains”; what prevented the current administration from making adequately large gains in terms of good government, or restraining (not to talk of eliminating) drug trafficking, and bribery and corruption, for instance. Nevertheless, though few people would be convinced even about the so-called small gains”, let us not grudge the FF members the cold comfort of ‘small gains’ in their wretchedness at their own abysmal failure to fulfill their obligations as intellectuals to their 22 million fellow citizens (the local population).  

They warn that Sri Lankans should not allow their acute disappointment with the government’s failures on the national security front to reject democracy itself as a form of governance. The problem is that the Yahapalanaya has destroyed the democratic form of government as well as national security by politicizing them. Given this reality, the FF warning begs the question: ‘What is your definition of democracy?’ For their cautionary words imply that, in their belief, the serious security lapse that led to the bloody Easter Sunday attacks was due to the Yahapalana rulers’ strict adherence to democratic norms! That is something hard to accept. Could the security lapse itself have anything to do with democracy? According to the neutral media sources I follow, the well-known rift between the prime minister and the president was most probably a contributory factor. 

We must not elect through a democratic exercise of our vote, political leadership that will sacrifice democratic norms in the name of promoting national security.” No one will disagree with this, but to those who are familiar with persons and politics in the current Sri Lankan political scene, it conveys more than what it says. By the phrase ‘a political leadership that will sacrifice democratic norms in the name of promoting national security’, they could only be hinting at the (from the FF point of view, catastrophic) eventuality of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa being elected as executive president. But the irrefutable truth is that the sort of firm, no-nonsense leadership that only a democratic, as well as a disciplined and decent leader like Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, can provide is indispensable for restoring democratic governance to the country after the Yahapalana depredation. Democratic norms should not be violated. But, isn’t it an equally valid argument that we must not fail to properly deal with terrorists in the name of protecting democracy? A country must physically survive for democracy to be protected. For ensuring that, its national security is of paramount importance. No elaboration is necessary for anyone to see that the national security that was established while restoring political stability and democracy to provinces that had lost these due to terrorism, has greatly weakened under the Yahapalanaya. The abuse of authority and the violation of people’s basic democratic rights have become the order of the day today, though they came to power falsely accusing the previous rulers of the very instances of misgovernance that they are responsible for at present. 

People are asking for a strong leader to reverse this trend. A strong leader needs not be undemocratic. An honest disciplinarian administrator who is feared by habitual shirkers is an asset to the country. These venerable FF members should not allow themselves to be misled by false propaganda about Gotabhaya. I don’t for a moment believe that they have any mercenary motives, though foreign money has been playing a big role in creating the political and economic crisis that the country is currently going through. They must appreciate the fact that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who has proven his mettle, has become a symbol of hope for a thoroughly disgruntled population. People are restraining their anger about being so doggedly and for so long denied their right to vote for a change. 

Talking about the (probable presidential) candidates, the FF press release rightly emphasizes the importance of examining their eligibility for the job of leading the nation. This, of course, must begin with the lower grades of representatives: local and provincial council, and parliamentary hopefuls. Then it may be stipulated that a candidate for the presidency should possess at least the minimum educational or professional qualifications that are prescribed for MPs. To the Yahapalana loyalists including the FF personages, the institution of the executive president is the greatest stumbling block on the road to good governance. The reality is that the country cannot afford to do away with it at the moment without precipitating the virtual disintegration of the state. It should be abolished, if it must, only after putting in place mechanisms to prevent that catastrophic outcome. This cannot be accomplished by the current parliament with the current president as executive head of state due to obvious reasons. 

The abolition of the executive presidency is not at all a public demand. It is being demonstrated how a wayward parliament  that is controlled by forces inimical to the national interest and that is at loggerheads with the president is a greater danger than the nationally elected executive president, particularly after the 19th Amendment that whittled some of his powers; even before, under the presently operative 1978 constitution, the emergence of a dictatorial president for life was not possible. What is the situation today after ….some changes that have benefited the country in the last four years” which these cloistered intellectuals attribute to Ranil Wickremasinghe’s leadership? The answer is quite clear to the concerned ordinary public. The overwhelming majority of them are unaware of the existence of a group of do-gooders called the Friday Forum.  So, the FF opinion will hardly reach them to make an impact on them.

The writers of the FF press release which we are dwelling on may salve their conscience with only a gingerly reference to the notorious Bond Scam committed by Ranil Wickremasinghe’s longtime bosom friend Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran with or without his knowledge. They deliberately ignore the fact that there were two such scams in 2016 for which both the principal Yahapalana champions (Wickremasinghe and Sirisena) are alleged to be directly responsible. The FF intellectuals let off their errant champion of democracy with a mild rebuke befitting a normally well-behaved adolescent schoolboy who has committed a juvenile offense. The press statement implies that for them Ranil represents the most viable presidential material; Anura Dissanayake is looked upon as the second-best choice in their estimate as potentially equipped with a ‘manifesto’ that is being developed by an expert committee. The reputed academics view Gotabhaya Rajapaksa only as a Presidential candidate who has several cases against him pending in the courts of Sri Lanka and in the USA”, and who has been ‘anointed’ by ‘the head of his own family’ (both assertions against GR, we are convinced, are mere calumny). I never expected such balderdash to be uttered by the FF academics. Strangely, they make no mention of UNP deputy leader Sajith Premadasa in this context. But, currently, he is emerging as the most popular UNP presidential nominee among the party’s rank and file, though not in the country at large, a reality that is not acceptable to his boss Ranil Wickremasinghe, hence apparently unpalatable to the FF as well.  

None of the former strange bedfellows who got together at the end of 2014 to topple the Rajapaksa administration have a convincing case to present to the electorate to urge them to give them another term. They have not demonstrated any clear vision or plan of activity for stimulating economic development, forging communal harmony, or strengthening national security. Five years of Yahapalanaya or Good Governance dismantled most gains made in these vital departments during the previous five years since the end of terrorism in 2009. Terrorism is raising its ugly head again in the form of violent Wahhabi extremism. According to a senior academic monk, some twenty executions have taken place in the eastern province under Sharia law (he says he has documentary proof of this) for such offenses as adultery, lending money at interest, being a member of the government army, etc. Islamic terrorism adversely affects people of all religions including traditional Muslims. 

A paradoxical situation that could be suspected is that though possibly sponsored by divisive forces, the Wahhabi terrorism will cause all peace-loving communities to unite against it in order to defeat it. A very senior monk who used to be consulted in the privacy of his temple by a number of past prime ministers and executive presidents complained recently that while terrorists are being handled with kid gloves, Buddhist monks who traditionally raise their voice in defense of the nation are put in jail for unintentional minor infractions while engaged in peaceful protests; war veterans are said to be similarly ill-treated, he said. Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus identify a common enemy is Islamic extremists, which does not augur well for Tamil separatists. 

At the upcoming elections, the contest will be between the SLPP-led and the UNP-led groupings/fronts/alliances. Since anyone associated with the Yahapalanaya will not win the presidential election, the second faction will have no chance against the first. The moribund SLFP under the volatile Sirisena who betrayed it in 2015 will be too weak to make any significant enough positive or negative contribution to the certain victory of the SLPP-led front. The JVP candidate and the many independents will be largely ignored by the voters, but their collective poll will most likely affect the size of the victorious margin of the SLPP candidate.

So, to my understanding, Gotabhaya stands to win. It is his advent on the scene that has infused some confidence into a nation in despair (Hopefully, the West-oriented FF will appreciate the significance of this understatement, taking into consideration the current uproarious political context in Sri Lanka). 

Gotabhaya has established his credentials with the people who matter, that is the voters of Sri Lanka, as a patriotic scion of a respected political family, an able administrator, a decorated soldier, a disciplinarian, an intellectual, a visionary, and a technocrat and team leader. He is democratic and law-abiding. His strictness in adhering to his admirable principles could make him look like an authoritarian ruler to the uninspired, but that is not his fault. Therefore he is a worthy national contender for the post of executive president, particularly at this critical moment in the country’s history. FF’s representation of Gotabhaya as a fugitive from justice in Sri Lanka and US-based on unsubstantiated (or actually unsubstantial because false) accusations is most unfortunate. It will only strike a chord with the failed Yahapalana apologists and their sympathizers and backers abroad that exclusively form their audience. 

There is enough evidence of geopolitics-driven Western interference in Sri Lanka’s internal problems which is narrowly focused on the American national interest. None apart from a few MPs from the SLPP have shown the courage to talk about this brazen foreign interventionism, the deadliest and the most intractable issue the country is facing today as a sovereign nation. Only Gotabhaya among serious presidential aspirants has evinced his awareness of the problem and is equipped to deal with it properly. Addressing the Third Annual Convention of his futuristic Viyath Maga (Professionals for a better future) Organization held at Shangrila Hotel Colombo on September 8, 2019, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa quoted from a book as if from memory (which speaks for itself):

Parag Khanna විසින් ලියන ලද THE FUTURE IS ASIAN නැමති පොතෙහි දක්වා ඇති ආකාරයට, Today all of Asia’s empires and powers are seeking national revival. None will bow to others. The future Asian geopolitical order will thus be neither American nor Chinese led. Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Indonesia, Australia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia will never collectively come together under a hegemonic umbrella, nor unite into a single pole of power that is neither bandwagoning with China or balancing against it. Instead, they are on a high alert against the excessive US and Chinese influence in their affairs. Asians in particular, have realized that their intense economic integration and rising prosperity require geopolitical stability”

According to Noam Chomsky (‘Who Rules the World?’, Penguin Books, 2017) there are two categories of intellectuals: conformist intellectuals who ‘support official aims and ignore or rationalize official crimes are honored and privileged in their own societies while the value-oriented (intellectuals) are punished in one way or another.’ Chomsky is, of course, talking about the American society dominated in this matter by its political/ruling class. The FF intellectuals seem to belong to the category of conformist intellectuals. They would have been more ‘honored and privileged’ had they been living in America, where Noam Chomsky is not so honored or privileged but has often got into trouble with authorities, as an active politically engaged value-oriented intellectual. 

The title: Readers are cordially invited, for the heck of it, to ponder, if they like, on whether the intended contradiction between the biblical connotations of Quo Vadis – Where are you going? – me vadinne koheda? –  and ‘Running errands for someone?’ – katahari kade yanavada? – is meaningful in this context.   

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

HIGHER EDUCATION (QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACCREDITATION) ACT

  Yahapalana announced In August 2019 that is was planning to introduce a Higher Education (Quality Assurance and Accreditation) Act. This Act would create a national authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of higher education.

This National authority” turned out to be nothing more than a Commission. This Commission is to be the apex body for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of higher educational institutions at the national level.  It is expected to “maintain high standards of quality of educational qualifications in higher educational institutions.”

The draft Act said that the Commission shall be composed of persons who have academic qualifications, knowledge, experience and who have shown fluent capacity in quality assurance, educational, professional, commercial, management, industrial, scientific, legal, or administrative field or any other relevant field said the Act.” This is a very loose definition said, critics. 

The Commission will have 13 members. Four ex-officio and a further nine members who will be appointed by the President from a panel of 15 persons nominated by the Minister. Five of these 9 members will be full-time members of the Commission, with one of them chairing the Commission.

The quorum for any meeting shall be five. Therefore, out of 13 members, less than 50% of attendants are sufficient to take decisions, said critics. Also, by setting the quorum of meetings conducted by the Commission at 5, the Bill allows the five full-time members, who are political appointees, to make any decision related to the Commission.

These provisions give considerable power to the Minister of Education. It is the minister who decides the suitability of candidates. At the same time, the nine persons to be appointed by the President could be anybody who could be influenced by the minister.

The powers of this commission are very extensive. Here are some of them.

• The Commission has the power to formulate, implement, and update Sri Lankan qualification framework.( Section  9 a)
• Commission has the power to revoke provisional accreditation or full accreditation granted to Higher Educational Institutions and Programmes conducted thereof that are not keeping up with the required quality and standards determined by the Commission.”(sec 9f)
• Evaluate foreign degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions for the purpose of recognition or accreditation of such degrees, diplomas or academic distinctions in consultation with the relevant professional or statutory or regulatory body or foreign academic institutions where necessary.( sec 9h)
• Notwithstanding the provisions in the Universities Act No 16 of 1978 relating to Quality Assurance and Accreditation functions, the Commission shall discharge the functions in relation to Quality Assurance and Accreditation pertaining to Higher Educational Institutions established or deemed to be established under the Universities Act No 16 of 1978 and Institutions recognized under section 25 of the Universities Act No 16 of 1978 (section 55 (c) (ii)

These provisions indicate that the functions presently carried out by higher educational institutions and professional institutions, will be taken over by the Commission. Eventually, the powers vested with the University Grants Commission will also be taken over by this Commission, said critics.

This draft Bill has been strongly opposed by many in the Higher education sector, including the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), Medical Faculty Teachers’ Federation. It has been criticized by many University Vice-Chancellors and Student Unions.

FUTA President said The Bill would end the GCE Advanced Level examination as a qualifying examination to enter State Universities. Those with money will be able to gain entry to State Universities through lateral entry. The Bill allows for students to move between HE institutions under ‘cross mobility.’ This is allowed through the Sri Lanka Qualification Framework (SLQF). This could force State Universities to allow multiple entry points in their Degree programmes for students from Private Education institutions,” he observed.

The Bill would take away accreditation powers regarding higher education institutions currently vested with the University Grants Commission and entrust it to this new Quality Assurance & Accreditation Commission, he continued. FUTA was not opposed to Accreditation & Quality Assurance of Private Education institutions. But we see no need to do that to State Universities, which already have a mechanism to ensure this.

Further, the proposed Bill will seriously undermine the state university system. The Bill would essentially place the State Universities and Private Education institutions on an equal footing. Private Education institutions operate on a platform based on profit-making, while the State University system is based on social justice. You can’t equate the two. FUTA President said.”

Organization of Professional Associations (OPA) also objected to the draft Act. OPA President Nissanka Perera stated that their organization was seriously concerned that the proposed Quality Assurance & Accreditation Commission will be a politicized body, given that, so many members can be appointed from outside.

 We acknowledge there is a need for Quality Assurance & Accreditation in the HE sector. However, the Bill, in its current form, is extremely dangerous. The OPA strongly feels that the Bill should be withdrawn and views of professionals obtained on the matter,” OPA President said.

FOREIGN SCHOLARSHIPS

 Yahapalana government announced, through Minister  Mangala Samaraweera that Yahapalana has decided to send 14 top performers in the Advanced Level examination to foreign universities for undergraduate education at taxpayer expense. Nawam Mawatha had a  large billboard advertising this in September 2019.

Critics promptly calculated the cost. The annual fees for a top US University are around Rs 9.0m. For 14 students the annual school fees alone will be about Rs 126m. The four-year bill will be about Rs 500m. Travel, books, etc. will cost an additional sum. Without adjusting for inflation, the university fees for 14 students in a US university will cost 3% of Colombo’s annual budget, said, critics.

 It is possible that foreign universities may offer scholarships to reduce the cost to the government. What happens when very good students privately apply to such universities. But the government making arrangements to send the best students abroad makes little educational sense, critics said.

The move could be interpreted as an admission that the state does not believe that the universities which it runs are good enough for the best students in the country, said critics. The Rs 126 million can be used to award generous scholarships so that more students can enter local universities. There are many other ways by which this money can be spent to help cash-strapped local state universities,  said, critics.

Those who go on these scholarships will have to sign an agreement to return and serve the country for 15 years, said Yahapalana. That is unlikely said critics. The students who are selected are the very people who will move on to postgraduate studies soon after undergraduate studies, and thereafter to careers abroad.

TABLET COMPUTERS

 Yahapalana put forward a plan in 2017 to distribute  234,321 tablet computers in three stages to school children and teachers in the Advanced level classes. Around 77,309 students and 12,221 teachers in national schools will receive 89,530 tabs. Other schools will receive 47,872 tabs for 39,091 students and 8791 teachers,   said Yahapalana. Steps would be taken to block access to data outside educational matters.

The ministry planned to distribute 96,919 tabs at a cost of Rs.4,000 million in August 2019, in the first phase. The second and third phases were scheduled to take place in 2020. President Sirisena  had intervened to say that any money left over should  be used for other shortcomings in schools such as desks, chairs and other equipment.

Since Advanced Level students and teachers will receive about 100,000 high-quality, brand new  tablets with a three-year guarantee, to start with, said Minister Kariyawasam.  It will be unnecessary for the government  to print textbooks  for Grade 6 to Grade 9 thereafter. With tablets, the use of written documents and taking down notes in exercise books will be minimised.

“Tablets will be first given to GCE AL students of National Schools and then to AL students in schools with Wi-Fi facility. In the third stage we will identify schools without the Wi-Fi facility and give the Wi-Fi as well as tabs,” said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in July 2019.

This was promptly contradicted by President Sirisena. .Cabinet approval had been granted for the programme to provide tab computers to G.C.E.Advanced Level students on condition that it is first implemented as a pilot project in national schools, he said. The next stage would  depend on the success of the pilot project.

The tender for the purchase of  tablet computers ran into trouble. It was not done in a straight forward way. Procurement Appeal Board  told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating corruption in the  Yahapalana  administration, that the government’s allocation to procure the tab computers was Rs. 5 billion . Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) however, awarded the tender to Metropolitan Computers  for a model that would  cost the government Rs. 7.4 billion. TEC had rejected all bids except the one by Metropolitan Computers

 Seven rejected bidders had  lodged complaints with  PAB and   PAB had  conducted an investigation and found the following. PAB   found that  TEC has not adhered to the procurement guidelines. TEC  had not given exact specifications to suppliers.  Only TEC knew what the specifications were. For instance they had merely given a photo of what the casing should look like, nothing else.

TEC had changed criteria for the project on a number of occasions and  adequate time had not been given to the bidders to make adjustments to their bids. They were only given 12 days to comply. Usually, we give them 28 days even when it’s a domestic bid. But in this case some bidders had to communicate with computer manufacturers from foreign countries and bidders said that they needed about eight weeks for this, said PAB.” Lastly,  TEC had   rejected bids  which did not have FCC safety certificate, though Telecommunications Regulatory Commission had advised it to accept both FCC and CE certification.

The rejected bidders said they did not know why their bids had been rejected. PAB  got the TEC to reveal the reasons for their rejection. Once that was done, we asked the bidders to re-present documents,  said PAB . TEC had rejected a number of bids, stating that there were ‘major deviations,’ but PAB found that these   ‘deviations’  could have been sorted out. PAB cleared four bids rejected by the TEC for having ‘major deviations .

PAB  found that four bids, apart from Metropolitan, met the required criteria. Out of them, PAB decided that the tender should be awarded to  the Haier Tab Computer,  marketed by Abans, which met all the criteria, was the cheapest  and had CE certification.” Ministry of Education  instead, asked the TEC to re-evaluate the bid. Instead of purchasing the Haier product, TEC chose a Lenovo product offered by Abans.

Around May 2019, Ministry  decided that it wanted to  conduct a massive publicity campaign about the forthcoming Tablet project , costing  a whopping Rs. 55 million , obtained   as a supplementary estimate to the Budget. The Ministry said that a publicity campaign prior to the distribution of the tablets was needed to create greater awareness among the people on the educational and social benefits received by students by the use of tablets.

The ministry  planned to create an attractive publicity campaign using advertisements in the electronic, radio and print media,  in addition to hoardings.  Three advertising agencies which had submitted  proposals to the Procurement Committee of the Ministry were short listed. Cherry Isle  quoted Rs. 70.8 million, Media Solutions Rs.70.3 million and the CAPR 7 Media Pvt Ltd Rs. 55 million.   Due   to lack of time, the Ministry  wanted  to  bypass  the customary  open competitive procedures and award the publicity campaign to the lowest quotation.

SURAKSHA INSURANCE SCHEME

Several weaknesses of the Suraksha Insurance scheme emerged before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating corruption in the Yahapalana administration. The idea of an insurance scheme for school children  came from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Education Minister Kariyawasam, said Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. These two presented a Cabinet Paper on Suraksha Insurance scheme without conducting a feasibility study.

The project was duly approved by the Cabinet, and the project was placed under the  Health and Nutrition Division of the Education Ministry. The Education Ministry had neither the jurisdiction nor expertise to carry out such a project. It should have been managed by the Health Ministry, said Wijeyadasa. 

The Commission was urged to look at the money allocated to the project. By mid-2018, students had claimed only about Rs. 160 million, but the Ministry had allocated Rs. 2.7 billion for the project.  Education Minister Kariyawasam and Petroleum Resources Minister Kabir Hashim had also re-insured ‘Suraksha’ with a reinsurance company in India, paying it Rs. 2,430 million, said informants.   Officials in the Ministry of Education had objected to this but the Suraksha committee had overruled them, saying this was the Minister’s decision.

The first insurance contract in 2018 was given to the state-owned Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.  The next    contract for 2019 was given to Allianz Insurance.  Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd is a fully-owned subsidiary of Allianz SE, Germany. Pannipitiya Private Hospital together with Allianz Insurance, decided to grant a 20% discount to students who own Suraksha policies when they take treatment at the hospital.

Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) appointed to select the suitable bidder for 2019 did not have an expert on insurance though this was a requirement in the procurement guidelines.  Two TEC members had doubts about the no-claim payback of Allianz Insurance. They had not been invited to the last meeting where the final decision was taken. The Commission said that it looked as though TEC had deliberately attempted to ensure that Allianz obtained the tender.

EDUCATION  MINISTER’S PHOTO

A photograph of Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam was printed in the school textbooks for 2018/2019, along with a message. The Presidential Commission investigating frauds under the current administration focused attention on the costs incurred by this. The photo appeared in 18 million textbooks in 2018  and 39 million textbooks in 2019.

Kariyawasam had wanted a colour photograph, but education officials had managed to   get him to agree to a black and white photo.  Ministry officials did not approve the publication of this photograph. They thought it was unethical. It was the first time that a Minister had added his photograph to textbooks, they said. Minister Kariyawasam however said that the Ministry had assured him that  color photos of previous education ministers had been included in textbooks.

Former acting Commissioner of Education Publications, I.M.K.B. Ilangasinghe, who testified about the photo was transferred, on July 24, 2019 without a charge sheet,  to the Education Services Establishment Division pool. It was thought that this was because he spoke against Education Minister on the photo matter.

An earlier file against Ilangasinghe, which has been closed without any action was now dug out   and sent, with a note from Kariyawasam, instructing the Secretary to take action against Ilangasinghe. The government was trying to intimidate state officials so that they would not testify truthfully before these commissions,  said education officials. Critics pointed out that witnesses coming before the Commission could not be victimized in this manner. They were protected by several laws. The Commission ordered that Ilangasinghe, be immediately  reinstated.

In addition to school textbooks, the photograph of Education Minister Kariyawasam  was also printed on the school uniform voucher. Kariyawasam had instructed  Secretary, Education,  in August 2016, to place photos of the President, Prime Minister, himself and the state minister at the back of school uniform vouchers. This   was reported to the Commission. This is the first time that a photo of a politician was inserted into the school uniform distribution process, informants said.  Commission was told  by  Printcare Secure ,the firm which did the printing that the cost of printing  the vouchers could have been reduced by about 25% if photos of the President, Prime Minister, Education Minister and the State Minister had not been printed on the reverse.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

 Yahapalana trumpeted on August 9 2019 that around 500 School buildings, built at a cost of Rs  10 billion over the past 4 years, would be declared open in 9 Provinces  on that one day. The new  buildings include, Science Labs, Computer Labs, Sports Complexes, buildings for Technical studies, Libraries, Principals’ and Teachers’ Quarters, Classrooms, improved Sanitation facilities and Supply of Electricity and Water. Of 18,600 projects, 15,000 were Provincial projects and about 2,000 were for National schools. Minister of Education said this was the largest number of buildings opened on the same day, for school related projects.

Ceylon Teachers Service Union said  these were  not 500 new projects as claimed by the Ministry of Education. In some cases, old buildings have  been re-painted and shown as new buildings. 50 of these buildings were only renovated and not newly constructed. Some buildings were not up to standard.  Principals had raised objections about the buildings, but the authorities had forced them to arrange for opening ceremonies

Derana News on 9.9.19 then showed the opposite. At Sri Siddhartha secondary school, in Dikkumbura, Galle, a three storey new building has been approved. The first thing  the builders had done was to break down the existing buildings. They broke down an entire  block of class rooms and removed the roof of another set of classrooms.  Then they   stopped  work and left.6 classrooms, the common room, library, staff room, and  deputy principal’s office  were  among the building broken down.

But the school is continuing to function. The principal told Derana that one class room is divided into two and classes held. Classes are taught in rotation.  We give leave on one day  to    grade 7 and get down grade 6,  next day get down 7, next day give leave to Grade 8 and get down 6,  and so on. Every day  around   300  pupils  are at home” We are studying under umbrellas when it rains.”  Derana television showed the  principal, staff and students busily engaged  in building a class room . We also saw the staff having their lunch under a staircase.

The media reported in May 2019 that the staff residential  quarters at Tunkama Maha Vidyalaya, Embilipitiya,  were in dilapidated condition. The tutorial staff of about 40 teachers, attend to about 1500 students in this school. Most of the teachers are from distant areas and the majority reside in Embilipitiya. The existing quarters have not been used for about 2 years, due to the lack of repairs, and the teachers’ requests to the authorities to renovate them, had fallen on deaf ears, the media said.

SCIENCE TEACHING ( 1)

The General Certificate of AL Bio-Science stream syllabi will be modified as the subject content is changing with new discoveries taking place in the world, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam told Parliament  in August 2019.  Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda has been tasked with modifying the Bio-Stream syllabi, he said.   Jayadeva Uyangoda retired as  Professor of Political science in the  University of Colombo. He is not an expert in bio-science.

SCIENCE TEACHING ( 2)

With 2 weeks to go for the 2019 GCE Advanced Level exam, students complained  in July 2017  that they were unable to obtain Sinhala/Tamil Resource books on Science subjects because the printing has been delayed.

The National Institute of Education responsible for the printing of these books, said that, due to its involvement with the main task of designing and developing curricula it had failed to get the books printed on time. The Resource books, a new concept introduced last year, is an additional responsibility to our main tasks, they said.  The material for the books is in English, and have to be translated into Sinhala and Tamil. However, the contents of the books have been published on the Internet and students could log on to the NIE website and download the material.

SCIENCE TEACHING ( 3)

A petition has been filed in the Court of Appeal  in August 2019, complaining that the Biology teachers are deprived of proper course material for the Biology New Syllabus and thereby they are unable to properly and effectively guide the GCE A/L students. It says that the GCE A/L Biology students are deprived of proper course material. Hence a grave injustice would be caused to them at the GCE A/L examination.

The petition said that the Biology New Syllabus introduced with effect from 2017 was amended from time to time, without due notice to teachers and students.  Also there is a wide discrepancy between the New Biology Syllabus in English and the one in Sinhala. The petitioner wanted Court to restrain the Education Department from conducting the Biology examination, scheduled for August 5, 2019.

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 1)

Many newly appointed graduate teachers, at Provincial Council level, had been recruited to teach subjects they had not studied in universities and were therefore finding  it difficult to teach these subjects, reported  the media in June 2019.

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 2)

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) claimed that the   postings  granted to 4,286 new teachers  in May 2019 has created a chaotic situation and  has failed to clear the teacher shortages in rural schools. Ministry of Education has assigned the majority of the teachers to the 353 National schools, while ignoring the over 9,800 Provincial schools, which are experiencing a severe teacher shortage.

These teachers were recruited under Section 6.1.1 of Gazette notification No.1914 where, Advanced Level students from difficult areas were selected to the National College of Education  despite their lower Z-scores, because they were willing to serve in rural areas. Those with high Z-scores from urban areas were ignored. They may be appointed to National schools only if there are no vacancies in the Provincial schools. But there are vacancies in Provincial schools.

Secondly, teachers have been posted in a haphazard way. Teachers of the Uva Province were appointed to the Eastern Province, those from the Northern Province to Sabaragamuwa Province and teachers from the North-Central Province to distant areas.

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 3)

In late May, 3,850 UNP henchmen were appointed as school sports instructors. “Even Governors of the provinces opposed these appointments. The qualification of some instructors has been taking part in tug of war contests and this event is no longer held in schools, reported the  Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU. The basic qualification for this position is passing the GCE O/L examination and at least the third place at a district level schools sports event.

In July 2019, the CTU complained that the Ministry of Education would appoint another 510 UNP henchmen as school sports instructors  despite the overwhelming opposition to such political appointments by the education sector trade unions. The appointments have been made according to the lists given by UNP MPs. “This is a part of the government’s strategy to stuff the education sector with UNP henchmen, said CTU.  By entrusting schoolchildren to such mediocre individuals, there will be  serious concerns about the safety of the children.

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 4)

Principals, teachers and Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service (SLEAS) officers, held a major protest opposite President’s House in Colombo in August 2019,against  a move to appoint a SLAS Class III officers to SLEAS Class 1. This would create a precedent, enabling Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) officers to cross over to the SLEAS cadre. The appointment of SLAS officers to the SLEAS will  cause a disparity in the grades and  create a vacuum in the number of Class 1 officers in the SLEAS cadre . 

 This  would create a mix and cause much disruption within the Education sector. SLAS officers will be allowed to get into the Education sector, while teachers and principals are not allowed to sit the SLAS exams. Southern Province Governor Keerthi Tennakoon, who had initiated this, said that  this Assistant Director posting to the Province was nothing new. It has been in existence for some time, and was vacant for the last 8 years in the SLAS.

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 5)

On June 26, 2018, the EUs representing the SLEAS officers, teachers and principals,  had planned a token strike protesting against the Government’s plan to grant 3,000 officials in the Education sector, concessions for being politically victimized. President intervened and directed the Ministry to appoint a 3-member committee to review the move. The committee was to review all files and the PSC was  to grant concessions to deserving persons, after discussion with the EUs.

Despite these, assurances  in June, that no officer will be granted appointments, promotions or increments on claims of political victimization, in August 2019, that the Ministry was planning to grant concessions to 1,028 ‘politically victimized’ SLEAS officers The CTU  says the  Ministry does not have the power to act for the PSC, which is mandated with all administrative work of public servants and  also that the education unions were not consulted .

TEACHING STAFF (COMPLAINT NO 6)

Retiring teachers in government schools have requested the Public Service Commission PSC to look into the new system imposed by the Pension Dept   for obtaining  their Widows and Orphans pensions. It is causing much  distress and hassle. In the new system  retiring teachers have to obtain all documents from the areas they have worked in, when preparing their WAOP fund documents.  Teachers have  also to submit certified documents of all deductions from the Zonal offices of the schools they have worked in. This means that a retiring teacher has to visit all Zonal offices of areas they have worked in, in order to prepare the W&OP for his/her family. A teacher who has served for 30 years, in schools, has to visit several Zonal offices in order to apply for his/her pension. Earlier, the files of all pensioners were maintained by the Pensions Department.  

 BIG BAD WOLF”

Big Bad Wolf  book sale of Malaysia  came to Sri Lanka for the first time after Yahapalana took over. There were two BBW book sales in Colombo in 2017 and 2018.The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale  is  a book sale held  primarily in Malaysia by  BookXcess” of Malaysia. This shop buys  up stocks of  unsold books from publishers, and makes them available for sale. ‘We buy the excess or remainder books from the publishers and keep them stashed away in our warehouse’  the firm said. This means that these are books for which there was no demand. By the time they re-emerge for sale  they will be even more out of date.

The Colombo sale had  1.5 million books of 20,000 titles. It was open 24 hours for ten days. Trade was brisk.  There were dozens of customers with packed trolleys. There were heaps of books for  toddlers and young children and  lots of  guides to learning English. There were  coffee table books and  cookbooks. I saw a huge cart containing dozens of copies of Volume One  only of Game of Thrones”. The books were unbelievably cheap. Books to the total    value of  USD 300 was picked up  by one customer for  a  mere Rs 8,700. However,  local booksellers  were not too concerned. They said that  Big Bad Wolf  did not have the books Sri Lanka usually reads.

Big Bad Wolf stated that it was supported by The Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka. And the sale was officially inaugurated by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. The support of the Ministry of Education for this   venture can be questioned.  ( Continued)

A growing number of citizens are becoming aware of the dangers to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty as a result of the MCC proposal together with SOFA & ACSA. They view this as unnecessarily putting Sri Lanka in the middle of political tensions between China & US. Sri Lanka does not wish to be victim of power rivalries. We would rather maintain cordial relations with all independent nations of the world. Advocta is organizing a seminar to answer questions on MCC on 19 September 2019 at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Centre at 6p.m. Please raise some of these questions to those trying to justify land grabbing of Sri Lanka.

These questions are based on 2 articles written by Sarojini Dutt on the MCC Land Grab

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF ADVOCATA (Member of Atlas Network)?

Advocata is a Colombo-based think tank launched in May 2016.

On its board locals include:

Nishan de Mel Executive Director – Verite Research,

Premachandra Athukorala – President – Centre for Civil Society,

Rohan Samarajiva –Chairman – Lirneasia,

Razeen Sally – Senior Advisor to Finance Minister, Chairman of IPS (also connected to US Govt) and promoting sale of national assets & privatization?

Prof. Suri Ratnapala – invited to assist with new constitution for Sri Lanka

IS MCC PART OF US FOREIGN POLICY

Is MCC replacing or redefining the role that had been tasked to USAID previously?

Is MCC not a tool of US foreign policy aligned to US Pivot to Asia policy?

Is ADVOCATA connected US administration & funded by US Corporates – if so are they not promoting their own project?

MCC DEMANDING SEPARATE LAND REGISTRIES & PUBLIC OFFICIALS CONDUCT

If MCC is not making any demands or ‘conditions’ who wants 10 land registries for the 7 Districts?

Who gave authority to Americans to go into Sri Lanka’s Land Registry and Survey Departments, Valuation Departments where documents pertaining to Sri Lanka’s Land-Assets are stored & secured before an agreement has been signed?

According to Sarojini Dutt’s article 3 public officials allowed US access to their offices & allowed them to interfere in internal affairs of a sovereign state. Registrar General of Lands (Gunasekera)

Surveyor General (Udayakantha)

Valuation Dept

What is the govt response to public officers allowing unsupervised access to foreigners inside state offices to digitalize Sri Lanka’s Land Register?

The document shown at Temple Trees on 25 September 2018 highlighted 2 activities subject to condition BEFORE funding of activities. Items subject to condition was

1. All State Lands to be mapped out (completed)
2. All State Lands to be inventorized (completed)
3. Parcel Fabric of all State Lands to be prepared (completed)
4. Land Registry to be converted from Deed System to Title Registration system (done via Bim Saviya in 1998)
5. Establishing a land policy body
6. Land Registry Records to be Digitalized (US embassy advertised this task in the local newspapers and selected a Sri Lankan contractor, Harin Gunawardena to do task under US instructions)
7. New System of Land Valuation to be introduced
8. All Government Grants of Land to be Registered
9. Pass new laws that support reforms under the Title system

Sri Lanka has done ¾ of MCC demands. All done without the knowledge of the People & in secret.

MCC COUNTRY DIRECTOR CONTRADICTIONS

If MCC grant is supposed to be a gift as said by new Country Director Ms Edelman, why did she sternly declare we shall sign the agreement before 17 September 2019, if the people do not like it, the President, they elect can annul the Compact at that time”?

MCC GIFT”

On what basis did US MCC Compact Grant suddenly increase ‘gift’ from $420m to $480m – where was the transparency MCC boasts about?

MCC Country Director Edelman says this US ‘gift’ of ‘$480m has no attached conditions and is an outright grant and does not have to be repaid. Then why are they taking so much pains to visit professional organizations, hold seminars, articles, tapping locals to promote their project? Just give the money!

According to Sarojini Dutt a gift horse becomes a Trojan Horse when the ‘supposed gift’ is attached to conditions. To receive $480m ‘gift’ Sri Lanka has to sign an agreement with MCC who is setting the conditions for the gift. 

Can we not presume that to get grant of $480m Sri Lanka the receiver of the gift has to virtually give the country on a platter to the giver of the gift – USA?

Why is it that Sri Lanka has to fulfil its part of the contract before the contract is signed while US fulfills its part of the contract only after Sri Lanka fulfills its part and Sri Lanka signs the contract? Doesn’t this describe MCC-Compact?

MCC 1.2M ACRE ECONOMIC CORRIDOR” & ELECTRONIC RAILWAY LINE”

Edelman says there is ‘no special economic corridor running from Colombo to Trincomalee’ then why was there a MCC created MAP showing the route of this railway line shown in Temple Trees on 25 September 2018 in the presence of then President of Bar Association U R L de Silva, legal officers from various banks?

If MCC grant is for all of Sri Lanka why is it only covering 7 districts along the Colombo-Trincomalee Economic Corridor and representing spatial structure of Sri Lanka in 2050 as perceived by MCC?

Is it not correct that when the Map was publicly shown the MCC Country Director claimed it was a wrong map though it did highlight the electrified railway line that the MCC Country Director claimed did not exist. Why did the MCC Country Manager lie?

Is this ‘electronic railway line’ not dividing North from South taking parts of ancient heritage areas (Anuradhapura) to the North?

MCC ECONOMIC CORRIDOR” GRABBIND SRI LANKA’s NATURAL RESOURCES

Is the ‘Economic Corridor’ holding 1.2m acres of land to tap and take over Sri Lanka’s natural resources – phosphate, limenite, monazite, thorium and other precious metals?

By giving 1m deeds along this corridor has the Govt not removed the restriction on the Govt and enabled MCC directly to purchase lands from the farmers?

FOREIGNERS OWNING LAND

Foreigners could not own land until law was changed by present Govt but restricted to 14% private land and limited to 50 acres.

The 84% other land goes as ‘Protective’ Land not for sale but available for lease if the President (temporary custodian of the land) decides to lease it.

It is the President and not the provinces that can decide to lease land from this 84%.

How can 84% land that should only be for lease be made available for outright foreign sale and the limit of 50 acres be removed?

We have witnessed the PM issuing 1m deeds to farmers who have been given lease ownership and the President has placed his seal as is mandated by law.

By giving these deeds the lease land they occupied is now privatized.

The power to deal with those lands has been devolved to the provincial councils along MCC Corridor

What will happen to these 1m farmers if their lands are bought over by MCC?

US LAND GRAB & BOGUS POVERTY ALLEVIATION CLAIM

Is it correct to assume as per MCC Constraints Analysis’ the US concern is their inability to access and buy-up land in Sri Lanka?

Is this not why MCC is demanding Sri Lanka to comply to all of its conditions first & accord US easy access to buy-up or lease land in Sri Lanka?

Is it correct to assume that US will soon buy-up Sri Lanka for $480m?

If Sri Lanka complies to all of MCC conditions – Land registries will be according to US wishes and they will soon buy up land of Sri Lanka’s poor farmers. Do Sri Lanka’s Govt not know that they are not only destroying our farmers livelihood but will leave them without a home or a means of living? Land grab in Africa is a good lesson for Sri Lanka.

MCC is trying to grab 84% of Sri Lanka’s land that is vested in the State as custodian.

MCC demand to privatize State Land (People’s Land) will enable MCC to acquire the State Land along the Economic Corridor from Colombo to Trincomalee.

Do farmers need a piece of paper (Deed)? Is it not better to give them water, fertilizer, warehouse facilitites for their harvest?

By giving a deed would these farmers not end up mortgaging their land to banks and banks seizing their lands when they cannot pay and then selling the land and MCC buying it for a song?

MCC ECONOMIC CORRIDOR DIVIDING NORTH & SOUTH & HINDERING ARMY

When MCC controls an economic corridor from Colombo to Trinco will it not affect Sri Lanka’s National Army in the event of a national security situation?

Isn’t there more possibilities of ‘LTTE’ terrorism rturning to North & Islamic terrorism in East all ‘enablers’ for US troop presence via ACSA & SOFA the two other detrimental agreements?

MCC & ISLAMIC CALIPHATE & EASTER ATTACKS

Was the construction of a ‘Muslim Univeristy’ purposely built to create Caliphate terrorists where there is also to be an international airport (South East of Polonnaruwa) – in an area bound by Vallachenai, Kattankudi, Batticaloa, Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai, Amparai, Moneragala, Badulla and Hingurakgoda & where US Indo-Pacific Command & US troops can justify their presence?

According to Sarojini Dutt’s article a meeting between Hizbulla and US envoy took place 2 days before 21/4 Easter attacks.

Didn’t the MCC board approve the MCC Compact two days after the Easter attacks when Sri Lanka was in deep shock and majority of Sri Lanka were not in favor of the project? The Finance Minister and US Envoy announced this claiming Sri Lanka must be grateful for this ‘gift’.

MCC Land Policy Body

Is another pre-condition of MCC before ‘gift’ of $480m can be given.

How can the US decide on Sri Lanka’s Land Policy?  

Why should a Land Policy Research Council, Land Policy Office of the Ministry of Lands be subordinate to the MCC? Why should state officials report to foreigners?

TREACHERY OF GOVERNMENT

In reading & understanding above the public can put into context the 4 attempts by the PM to pass the Land (Special Provisions) Bill but has been kept on hold by Supreme Court.

Land Privatization Act and Land Bank Bill are mandatory pre-conditions of the MCC

As per the Supreme Court verdict the Govt cannot sign MCC Compact.

Will US not do to Sri Lanka what it did to Hawaii – turning Sri Lanka into a US fiefdom?

The Supreme Court has dealt blows to the Govt

a) Govt. withdraws State Land (Special Provisions) Bill

http://www.ft.lk/news/Govt-withdraws-State-Land-Special-Provisions-Bill/56-684317

b) Ruhunu Economic Development Corporation Bill gets shot down by SC http://www.ft.lk/news/Ruhunu-Economic-Development-Corporation-Bill-gets-shot-down-by-SC/56-686010

Is it therefore not ILLEGAL for the Govt to hand 1m deed ownership to farmers under existing constitution? Shouldn’t case be filed against this unconstitutional move?

IMMUNITY FOR MCC OFFICIALS

Why should MCC & its officials get diplomatic immunity?

Why is MCC & MCC Employees & US Govt exempt from any liability for loss or damage resulting from activities of MCC?

If MCC & its employees are given exemptions and safeguards – how can Sri Lanka take action against MCC for any non compliance?

Where is the draft agreement? Why is it not shown to the public? Where does it state the actions to be taken if MCC obligations are not completed within 5 years?

Why is this MCC Agreement governed by international law – does that mean disputes are subject to international law in areas where MCC agreement is effective?

What if MCC withdraws its funding – what are the dangers Sri Lanka would have walked into by weakening state systems and enabling foreign land grab via privatisation of People’s Land?

Shenali D Waduge

Refer Sarojini Dutt’s 2 articles

When Does a Gift Horse Become a Trojan Horse?

When Does a Gift Horse Become a Trojan Horse? (Part 2)

How foreign-government linked neo-liberal think tanks are undermining Sri Lanka’s sovereignty?

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන නිළධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය

සභාපති,
මැතිවරණ මහ ලේකම් කාර්යාලයල
රාජගිරිය.
 
මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් සමෘද්ධි බැංකු වෙත පරිගණක සහයක තනතුරට බදවා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් 19 (අද) පැවැති සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණය සම්බන්දව පැමිණිල්ල.

මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස් විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරණය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කර තිබිය දී සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව යටතේ පවතින සමෘද්ධි ප්‍රජාමූල බැංකු හා සමෘද්ධි ප්‍රජාමූල බැංකු සමිති වෙත පරිගණක සහකාර තනතුරට අළුතින් බදවා ගැනීම සදහා වු සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයක් අද (19) දින සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් කොළඹ පදනම් ආයතනයේදී පැවැත්වීම සම්බන්දව පැමිණීල්ල මෙයින් ඉදිරිපත් කරමු.

02. ඒ අනුව ප්‍රාථමික කර්මාන්ත හා සමාජ සවිබල ගැන්වීමේ අමාත්‍ය දයා ගමගේ මහතාගේ මුලිකත්වයෙන් පසුගිය දා සමෘද්ධි ප්‍රජාමූල බැංකු හා සමෘද්ධි ප්‍රජාමූල බැංකු සමිති වෙත පරිගණක සහකාර තනතුරට 2146 අළුතින් බදවා ගැනීම සදහා සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ කැදවා කොටසකට පත්වීම් ලිපි අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් ප්‍රධානය කර තිබිණි.

03. සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අනුමත තනතුරක් නොවන ඉහත තනතුර සදහා අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ මැදිහත් වීම මත විධිමත් ක්‍රමවේද උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් අදාල බදවා ගැනීම් සිදු කල අතර 2146 ඉතිරි කොටස සදහා පුරප්පාඩු පිරවීමට මෙම සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණය සමෘද්ධි සංවර්ධන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්ගේ මැදිහත් වීම මත සිදු කර ඇත.

04. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය තහවුරු කරමින්ල සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් පැවැත්වීමට බාදාවන අයුරින් මැතිවරණ අල්ලස් දීමට අමාත්‍යවරයා හා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා කටයුතු කිරීම හා මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් කටයුතු කිරීම සම්බන්දව කඩිනම් පර්ක්ෂණයක් සිදු කරන මෙන් කාරුණිකව අප මෙයින් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට විශ්වාසී,
චාමර මද්දුමකළුගේල
ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්.

ලංකා පිරිවෙන් ගුරුසේවා සංගමය.

දිනය:- 2019.09.19

මහින්ද දේශපි‍්‍රය මහතා
සභාපති,
මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාව
තැ.පෙ. 02,
සරණ මාවත,
රාජගිරිය,
ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා.

ජනාධිපතිවරණය කැඳවා තිබියදී නීති විරෝධීව කරනු ලබන පිරිවෙන් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ධුරයට පත්කිරීම වහා අත්හිටුවන ලෙස කරන ඉල්ලීම

ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් සඳහා දින නියමකොට තිබියදී රජයේ කිසිදු පත්වීමක් ලබාදිය නොහැකිය යන පොදු තීන්දුව කඩ කරමින් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම් මහතා විසින් අද දින සවස් භාගයේ දී පිරිවෙන් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ධුරය සඳහා කිසියම් අයෙකු පත්කිරීමේ උත්සායක් පවතී. පෙර දින යොදමින් මෙම පත්වීම සිදුකිරීමට යන බව කරුණු වාර්තා වී ඇත.

මෙම නීතිවිරෝධී පත්වීම වහාම අත්හිටුවන ලෙස ඉතා  ඕනෑකමෙන් යුතුව ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු. යම් ලෙසකින් මෙකී ඉල්ලීම නොසලකා කටයුතු කරන්නේ නම් වෘත්තීය සමිති කි‍්‍රයාමාර්ගයන්ට එළඹීමට සිදුවන බවද දන්වනු කැමැත්තෙමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,
සභාපති
ලංකා පිරිවෙන් ගුරුසේවා සංගමය

veganaustralia.org.au

https://www.veganaustralia.org.au/carnage

Carnage – the world’s first vegan comedy movie.

“Carnage: Swallowing the Past” is an inspiring and uplifting film which allows us to imagine a future vegan world, where humans no longer use animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. The film is definitely a comedy, with a wry and understated sense of humour, but it has a very powerful message. While some of us may think that the world will never change, this film gives us a feel-good (and playful) picture of what it might look like.

Set 50 years in the future, Carnage shows an idyllic world where the idea of eating flesh and bodily secretions of animals has become unimaginable. Young people are in touch with their feelings of unity with each other and with other animals. “For these youngsters, the idea that human beings like them were once complicit in a bloodbath of unnecessary suffering is too absurd to imagine.” As one young person says tearfully “Why would anyone eat a baby? Just a little baby. A little baby lamb”. This theme, why people ate animals, is a thread explored throughout the film.

In this future world, older people, those who used to eat animals, now suffer remorse and guilt. “There remain painful memories of a time before empathy, before we realised we had to stop eating each other.” It has become taboo to even talk about this shameful animal-eating past. People have repressed these feelings for decades and “a whole generation is being suffocated by shame.”

One of the characters in the film, a psychotherapist, has written a “taboo-busting and deeply personal book”, The Guilt Of Eating Your Brother, which suggests that former meat-eaters are psychologically under threat. The therapist helps these people by encouraging them to express their feelings of guilt and make apologies to the animals. This lifts the shame they feel. “We couldn’t have known we were active participants in the slave trade, because the language of the time suggested we were just eating our dinner.”

The film is a “documentary” made in 2067, looking back at the history of veganism from 1944 to the “present”. It also serves as a lesson to younger generations about the brutality of the past and a reminder not to repeat it. Regarding the animal-eating past: “history has been replaced with silence”. As one character says, “If you try to explain the dairy industry to young people today, they’d be traumatised.”

Much of the film is an examination of why people believed it was OK to eat animals. It covers similar ground to Melanie Joy’s concept of “carnism”, the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat certain animals. For example, the film looks at how fast food advertising made it acceptable for children to enjoy watching a film like “Babe” and then celebrate afterwards with a “Happy Meal”. And how television cooking shows helped normalise meat eating. “Nobody is to blame. We were all victims. Our parents just did to us what their parents had done to them.”

While the film concentrates on the ethics of eating animals, it also looks at other issues, such as swine flu and mad cow disease, the link between meat eating and cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, the environmental impact of animal agriculture, such as species extinction, climate change and flooding, the rights of women and the English class system.

A high point of the film’s narrative is when the government passed the 2035 Bill of Animal Rights. This “criminalised the enslavement, breeding and killing of all animals as well as the manipulation or consumption of anything coming out of one.”

The future presented in the film is an idyllic one, where people are peaceful and happy and “where violence has been defeated with compassion, depression cured with intimacy”. The implication is that ending meat production and consumption has improved people’s mental and physical health and made the world a more peaceful place. While idealistic, this view echoes that of Will Tuttle in The World Peace Diet. In this book he looks at how historically violence towards non-human animals has been normalised and how people fail to make the connection between the flesh on their plate and the animal from whose body it was taken. This undermines their capacity for compassion and teaches them that it is OK to oppress the voiceless and weak to fulfil their desires. This can transfer into other areas of human life and can kindle historical atrocities such as human slavery, conflicts and war.

The film is valuable because it gives us a vision of a vegan world. Vegan advocacy has come a long way in the last few years. Until recently, vegans were limited to trying to persuade others to become vegan. We are now working towards changing institutions and laws to pave the way to a vegan world. Carnage is one more step on this road.

Let’s finish with some memorable quotes (some humorous) from the film:

• “It’s still difficult to say it out loud. I ate animals.”
• “What looks to us now like a documentary about a lunatic was in fact a hit show about cooking.” (Referring to a TV cooking show)
• “Which, of course, to us now sounds almost as offensive as Ethnic Cleansing-Free Tuesday.” (Referring to Meat Free Monday)
• “I even made a feature film. But who wants to sit and watch an entire film about veganism?”
• “If you look into a cow’s eyes, you can see there is a person in there. But who has the time to get so busy with a cow?”
• “Now, of course, if a cow had a baby and you decided to drink its milk you’d be put in a rehab centre for perverts.”
• “We are not vegans. They are carnists.”
• “Why don’t people like vegans?”

To view Carnage

Carnage is a BBC production that can be viewed here, but only if you live in the UK: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sh6zg

If you are not in the UK, another way to view Carnage is to add an extension to your Chrome web browser which allows you to watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere. The extension is: Beebs – Access BBC iPlayer. After you have installed the extension, use the BBC link above to view the film.

Several people have uploaded Carnage to YouTube and other sites, but after a time these may be removed due to copyright issues. Here are a couple of links that were working at time of publication:

• https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5txizo
• http://youtu.be/h555EbDxTlQ (no longer available)

This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of The Australian Vegan Magazine (page 18).

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku today issued a clarification regarding the Lotus Tower Project allegations.

Since the Lotus Tower was declared open on Monday, the 16th of September 2019, various news versions have been shared regarding the companies that were involved in its constructions. I am releasing this interim statement to clarify the extent of the interventions in this matter by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing, as my name has also been mentioned in some of the reports. 

The construction of the Lotus Tower had originally been assigned to two Chinese companies, namely the China National Electronics Importers & Exporters Corporation (CEIEC) and the Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co. Ltd. (ALIT). In mid 2018, His Excellency President Sirisena telephoned me in Beijing and requested that I look into the whereabouts of the second company (ALIT), as letters posted to it by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka had been returned to Colombo informing that no such company was at the given address. 

I then entrusted the task of tracing the current location of ALIT (since the company was no longer located at the given address) to the Head of the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing. After much effort, the Embassy found that the company had moved to a different location, as well as withdrawn from the Lotus Tower project without informing the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka. Once the company’s new premises were located, we visited it and met the officials who were present there at the time. They then informed us that their company (ALIT) was no longer involved in the Lotus Tower project.

Following this meeting, the Embassy prepared a report about our visit and the meeting, and this report was forwarded to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka for their information. Simultaneously, we were able to establish connections with the other company (CEIEC), and the Lotus Tower project went ahead to be completed this year.

The above information is given based on my recollections of the interventions made by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing regarding this project a few mouths ago. The names of those who were present at the meeting we attended, as well as the contents of the Embassy’s detailed report on what transpired at the meeting, will be issued for further clarification upon my return 10 Beijing on the weekend,” the statement issued by Dr. Kodituwakku said.

උපුටා ගැන්ම  හිරු පුවත්

චීනයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපතිවරයා විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා නොමග යවා ඇති බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කංචන විජේසේකර කොළඹ අද පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

මාධ්‍ය හමුවට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන සහ ෂෙහාන් සේමසිංහ ද එක්ව සිටියා

https://youtu.be/IG8WaYxok70

කතුවැකිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

වංචා, දූෂණ, අක‍්‍රමිකතා, අල්ලස් ගැනීම් එළිපිටම හා ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියේම සිදුවන මෙවන් රටක් මේ මිහිපිට තවත් තිබේ දැයි ප‍්‍රශ්නයකි. එවන් හොර මැරකම්, වංචා, දූෂණ සිදුකළා යැයි කියන ආණ්ඩුවල වැරදි සොයා චූදිතයන් ‘අල්ලා සක්වල ගලේ ගසන්නට’ ආ යහපාලන ආණ්ඩු ද දැන් තිබුණාටත් වඩා වංචා, දූෂණ අක‍්‍රමිකතා නම්  ගොහොරුවේ මේ රට හෙළා තිබේ. ඉදින්, රටට ජනතාවට තවත් කාගේ නම් පිහිටක්ද?

 දූෂණ, අක‍්‍රමිකතා හෙළිදරව් කරන්නට කතා කරන යහපාලන රජයෙන් එවන් එකම හෙළිදරව්වක් හෝ සිදුකර නොමැති අතර චූදිතයෝ අදත් නිදැල්ලේ පසුවෙති.

 එවන් විටෙක යහපාලන රජය තුළම සිදුව ඇති දුෂණ, අක‍්‍රමිකතා පිළිබඳව තවත් මොනයම් කතා ද?

 රටක් බලා හිඳින මේ රජයේ දැවැන්තම අක‍්‍රමිකතාව මහ බැංකු කොල්ලයයි. ජනාධිපතිතුමන්ගේ බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම නොවන්නට එවන් අක‍්‍රමිකතාවක් කිසි ලෙසකින්වත් හෙළිදරව් වීමට (සවිස්තරාත්මකව* ඉඩ නොතිබිණි. එසේ හෙයින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ඉදිරිපත්වීමට ජනතාවගේ ස්තුතිය නොව ගෞරවය පුද කළ යුතුව ඇත.

 මෙහිදී බැඳුම්කර සොරුන් පමණක් නොව, සාපරාධී පරිහරණය කළ අති විශාල ධනස්කන්ධය පිළිබඳව ද හෙළිදරව් වූ අතර, බිලියන දහසක් පමණ වන එම මුදල ද සමඟ අතුරුදන් වූ සොර දෙටු අර්ජුන මහේන්‍ද්‍රන්, මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා අදටත් සිටින්නේ සැඟවීය. නොහොත් සඟවා ය. මෙම මහ බැංකු සොරකම පිළිබඳ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමෙන් නම් කියැවුණු තවත් බොහෝ ආණ්ඩු ප‍්‍රධානීන් සහ රාජ්‍ය ප‍්‍රධානීන් රැුසක් ඇති බවද, ගෙවී යන යහපාලන රජයෙන් ඔවුන්ට දඬුවම් නොලැබෙන බව සක්සුදක් සේ පැහැදිලි බව ද පසක් කළ යුත්තකි.

 එසේ හෙයින් බලයට පත්වන (තවත්* යහපත් පාලනයක් හා එවන් ‘පාලකයෙක්’ යටතේ මහ බැංකු සොර මුළ ඇදගෙනැවිත් උන් හොරා කෑ මුදල් ජනතා අයිතියට ගෙන (මේ සොර දෙටුවන්* ‘පරසක්වල’ ගසනු ඇතැයි අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.

 මහ බැංකු සොරකම යහපාලන රජයේ ‘එකම’ (දැවැන්ත* දූෂණ, අක‍්‍රමිකතාව නොවේ. මේ දිනවල අගමැති වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සාක්‍ෂි දීමට පැමිණෙන, බත්තරමුල්ලේ කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශය පවත්වාගෙන යන ඞී. පී. ජයසිංහ ගොඩනැඟිල්ලේ ගනුදෙනුව තවත් එවන් සුවිසල් අක‍්‍රමිකතාවකි.

 රුපියල් බිලියන 2.1 ක් රජයේ මුදල් අනිසි භාවිතයට වැයකර, තවත් රුපියල් මිලියන 21 බැගින් මාස්පතා කුලිය ගෙවමින් වසර 5 ක බදු පදනමට ලබාගෙන ඇති මෙම (අනවසර ඉදිකිරීමකි* ගොඩනැඟිල්ලට එම අමාත්‍යාංශය ගෙනයෑම තනිකරම හිතුමතේ කළ දෙයක් බවට ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පත්කර ඇති රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවල දූෂණ අක‍්‍රමිකතා සොයා බලන කොමිසම හමුවේ හෙළිදරව් වී ඇත.

 එබැවින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මෙම කොමිසමට හා මිහින් ලංකා – ශ‍්‍රී ලංකන් ගුවන් සමාගම් හි දූෂණ අක‍්‍රමිකතා සෙවූ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමට ද කෘතඥතාව පුද කළ යුතුය.

 යහපාලන රජයේ දූෂණ අක‍්‍රමිකතා සොයා බලන මෙම කොමිසම හමුවේ ද හොඳ හොඳ දෑ හෙළිදරව් වී තිබේ.

 ඒ අතරින් ඞී. පී. ජේ. ගොඩනැඟිල්ල කුලියට ගැනීම කැපී පෙනෙන්නකි

 කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශයේ බත්තරමුල්ල පිහිටි නිත්‍ය ගොඩනැඟිල්ල වෙනත් කටයුත්තකට පවරා දෙනු ලබන බව පවසා (එහෙත් තවමත් ඒ පැවරීම ද කර නැත* ඞී.පී.ජේ. ගොඩනැඟිල්ලට ගෙන යන්නේ දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමැති හා ශ‍්‍රීලනිප මහ ලේකම්ව සිටියදීය.

 මාධ්‍ය මගින් හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ද මේ දූෂිත 

 ගනුදෙනුව ගැන කොතෙක් කතා කළත්, ඊට එදා පිළිවදන් නොදුන් දුමින්ද දිසානායක, කොමිෂන් සභාව හමුවේ දැන් කියන්නේ අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කැබිනට් තීන්දුවක් මත ගොඩනැඟිල්ල මිල දි ගත් බවයි.

 එනමුත් අගමැතිවරයා ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන්නේ තෝරාගත් ගොඩනැඟිලි තුනක් අතරින් දුමින්ද මෙම ගොඩනැඟිල්ල තෝරාගත් බවයි. එසේම ගොඩනැඟිල්ලට රුපියල් බිලියන 2.1 ක විශාල වියදමක් යනු ඇතැයි තමා නොසිතූ බවත් ය.

 එහෙත් අරුමය නම්, සොරකම් කළ එකාට ‘හොරා’ යැයි කීම වර්තමානයේ (සොරාට* ආශිර්වාදයක් වීමය. ‘සොරා’ යන්න දැන් ගරු නම්බුනාමයක් බවට පත්ව තිබේ. එසේ හෙයින් දෝ බොහෝ දේශපාලනඥයෝ එම නම්බුනාමයට කැමැත්තක් දක්වනු පෙනේ. සොරකම ජනතාකරණය කර තිබේ. එයින් ගැලවී සිටින්නේ අතලොස්සක් දෙනා පමණි.

 රටේ දූෂණ අක‍්‍රමිකතා ගැන කියැවෙන අලූත්ම කතාව ජනාධිපතිවරයා කීවේ දකුණු ආසියාවේ උසම 

 ගොඩනැඟිල්ල නොහොත් නෙළුම් පොහොට්ටුව මත සිටය. ඒ රටට ලෝකයට හොඳින් ඇසෙන නිසා විය යුතුය.

 එනම් 2012 වසරේදී නෙළුම් කුලූන තැනීමේ කාර්යය ආරම්භයේදී ඇතිකර ගත් ගිවිසුම් පරිදි චීනයේ ‘ඇලිට්’ :්ඛෂඔ* සමාගමට ලබාදුන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජයේ රුපියල් බිලියන 2 ක් අතුරුදන් වී ඇති බවය.

 ජනාධිපතිවරයා වසර හතරක් තිස්සේ සඟවාගෙන සිට, නෙළුම් කුලූන විවෘත කිරීම වැනි ‘වැදගත් සභාවක්’ ඉදිරියේ නඟන චෝදනාවෙන් ඔහු නොකියා කියන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ යුගයේදී සිදුකළ අක‍්‍රමිකතාවක් පිළිබඳව බව අපගේ හැඟීමයි.

 නමුත් හිටපු ටී. ආර්. සී. ප‍්‍රධානියා, අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා මෙය ප‍්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කරන අතර, ජනාධිපතිවරයා නොමඟ ගොස් ඇතැයි ඔහු පවසයි.

 කෙසේ හෝ මෙවන් දූෂණ, අල්ලස්, අක‍්‍රමිකතා දැන් අපේ කනට අප‍්‍රසන්නය. ඒ අප‍්‍රසන්න කතා ගොඩට මුදල් ඇමැති මංගල සමරවීර මහතාට හොරෙන් යූ.එන්.පී.ය හොර සුරා බලපත් 84 ක් ලබා දීමේ කතාවද ඇතුළත්ය.

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

නෙළුම් කුලූන විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී පසුගිය සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වැනිදා ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඉමහත් ආන්දෝලනාත්මක ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කළේය. ඒ කතාව අසා සිටින කාට වුවත් හැෙඟන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඉතා නිර්භීතව අති විශාල මහජන මුදල් මංකොල්ලයක් රටට හෙළි කරමින් සිටින බවයි. ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියන පරිදි අතුරුදන් වූ මුදල් ප‍්‍රමාණය කෝටි 200 කි. මෙය සුළු පටු මුදලක් නොවේ. එනම් ජනාධිපතිවරයා කීවේ නෙළුම් කුලූන ඉදිකිරීම සඳහා ගිවිසුම්ගත වූ චීනයේ එක් සමාගමක් වන ALIT සමාගමට රජය අත්තිකාරමක් ලෙස ගෙවූ රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක (රු. කෝටි 200 ක* මුදලට සිදු වූ දෙයක් හොයා ගන්නවත් නැතැයි කියාය. එය ව්‍යාජ සමාගමක් බව සොයා බැලීමේදී හෙළි වූ බවද නෙළුම් කුලූන විවෘත කරමින් ජනපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේය. රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් අත්තිකාරම් මුදල් ලෙස ගෙවන ලද සමාගම ව්‍යාජ එකක් බවත් චීනයේ එහි සඳහන් ලිපිනයේ එවැනි සමාගමක් නැති බව චීනයේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති ආචාර්ය කරුණාසේන කොඩිතුවක්කු මහතාට තමන් කළ දැනුම් දීමකින් පසුව අනාවරණය වූ බවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා කීය. මේ කුලූන ඉදිකිරීම සඳහා ඇස්තමේන්තුගත වියදම වූ රුපියල් බිලියන 19 ක ප‍්‍රමාණය ණය මුදලක් ලෙස සැපයීමට චීනයේ EXIM බැංකුව එකඟ වී තිබූ බව සඳහන් කළ ජනාධිපතිවරයා, ඒ අනුව කුලූන ඉදිකිරීම සඳහා 2012.01.03 වැනි දින විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසම චීනයේ CEIEC සහ ALIT යන සමාගම් අතර ත්‍රෛපාර්ශ්වීය ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් කළ බවත් එසේ ගිවිසුම් ගැසූ ALIT සමාගම ව්‍යාජ එකක් බව පසුව සොයා ගැනීමට හැකි වූ බවත් කීවේය. මේ බරපතල ප‍්‍රකාශයෙන් බැලූ බැල්මට හැෙඟන්නේ මේ ජනපති කියන මුදල් වංචාව සිදුව ඇත්තේ පසුගිය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සමයේ බවයි. ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රජයත් සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කළ චීන සමාගම ව්‍යාජ සමාගමක් බව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපතිවරයා ඇතුළු චීන උසස් නිලධාරීන් ඉදිරියේම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටීමෙන් ඔවුන්ද බලවත් අපහසුවට පත් වෙයි. මීළඟට මතු වන ප‍්‍රශ්නය වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ සියල්ල දැනගෙන ඒ පිළිබඳව මෙතෙක් කිසිදු විමර්ශනයක් නොකර මේ වටිනා උත්සවයේදීම මෙය කියා සිටීමට මෙතෙක් ප‍්‍රමාද වූයේ මන්ද යන්නයි. මේ පසුබිම තුළ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මේ චෝදනාව ගැන අප තවදුරටත් විමසා බලමු.

ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මේ කතාව සමාජයේ බොහෝ ආන්දෝලනයට තුඩු දුන් අතර මේ පිළිබඳව ද සමාජ ජාල මාධ්‍යයන්හි බොහෝ දේශපාලන පෝස්ටු ද පළ වෙමින් තිබුණි. ඇතැම් අය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ නෙලූම් කුලූනෙනුත් හොරා කාලා යයි කියා සිටිද්දී තවත් අය මේ රජය බලයට පත් වී වසර හතරහමාරක් ගතව තිබියදී ජනපතිවරණ කටේ මෙවැනි චෝදනාවක් කිරීම ගැන උපහාසාත්මක අදහස් පළ කර තිබිණි. ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියන පරිදි මෙලෙස රුපියල් කෝටි 200 ක මුදල් වංචාවක් සිදුව ඇත්නම් ඒ ගැන මුලින්ම කළ යුතුව තිබුණේ ඒ ගැන පැමිණිලි කර නීතිමය විමර්ෂණ ආරම්භ කිරීමයි. එම විමර්ශන ප‍්‍රකාරව ඊට වගකිවයුත්තන්ට එරෙහිව නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීමයි. එහෙත් පොලිසිය සහ අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව පවා භාර ජනපතිවරයා මේ කිසිවක් නොකර මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අන්තිම කාලයේ මැතිවරණ කටේ විශේෂයෙන්ම නෙලූම් කුලූන විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී මෙය කියා සිටියේ ඇයි? මෙය බොහෝ දෙනෙක් ප‍්‍රශ්න කරන්නකි. මෙය සිදු වූ කාලයේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කළේ අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතාය. ඔහු සිය මුහුණු පොතේ ජනපතිගේ ප‍්‍රකාශය ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පෝස්ටු කිහිපයක්ම පළ කර තිබුණි. ඒ අනුව මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා කියන්නේ මෙවැනි කතාවකි.

‘හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි නෙලූම් කුලූන ව්‍යාපෘතිය 2012 වර්ෂයේ දී ආරම්භ කරනු ලැබූ අතර මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්කරුවන් ලෙස එවකට චීනයේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති කරුණාතිලක අමුණුගම මහතාගේ නිර්දේශය මත (China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation – (CEIEC) iy Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co. Ltd. (ALIT)  යන සමාගම් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය මත තෝරාගනු ලැබිණි. මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ මුල් පිරිවැය ලෙස ටෙන්ඩර් මණ්ඩලය අනුමත කළ මුදල වන්නේ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 104.3 කි. මෙම පිරිවැයෙන් ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 15.45ක් විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාවේ අරමුදල්වලින් ගෙවීමටත් ඉතිරි මුදල වන ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 88.5ක් චීනයේ එක්සිම් බැංකුවේ ණය මුදලක් ලෙස ලබා ගැනීමටත් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය අනුමත කර තිබුණි.

ටෙන්ඩර් මණ්ඩල සභාපති වූ එවකට අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය ජයරත්න මහතා චීනයේ ඇලිට්  සමාගමේ ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී සාකච්ඡාවක නිරත වූ අයුරු.

2012 ව්‍යාපෘතිය ආරම්භ කරන අවස්ථාවේ දී මුල් අත්තිකාරම ලෙස (Mobilization Advance)  ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 15.45ක මුදලක් එනම් රුපියල් බිලියන 2කට ආසන්න මුදලක් CEIEC සමාගමට ගෙවන ලද අතර මේ සඳහා අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය ද මහ බැංකුවේ මුදල් මණ්ඩලයේ අනුමැතිය ද විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසම ට ලැබී තිබුණි. අදාළ මුදල පේ‍්‍රෂණය කර ඇත්තේ චීනයේ එක්සිම් බැංකුවේ CEIEC සමාගම විසින් පවත්වාගෙන යනු ලැබූ බැංකු ගිණුමටය. ALIT සමාගමට කිසිදු ගෙවීමක් කවර හෝ අවස්ථාවක සිදු කර නොතිබුණි. මෙම අත්තිකාරම් මුදල සඳහා අවලංගු කළ නොහැකි බැඳුම්කරයක් (Irrevocable on demand Bank Grantee)  ප‍්‍රධාන කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්කරු වූ CEIEC සමාගම විසින් විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසම වෙත ලබා දී තිබුණි.

ව්‍යාපෘතියේ ප‍්‍රගතිය අනුව මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ මහාචාර්යවරුන්ගේ නිර්දේශ මත වරින්වර අතුරු ගෙවීම් කිරීමේ දී මුල් අත්තිකාරම් මුදල අයකරගෙන ඇති අතර 2018 වන විට අය කර නොගත් අත්තිකාරම් මුදල ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 2.13ක් පමණ විය. ව්‍යාපෘතිය දිගින් දිගටම ප‍්‍රමාද වීම නිසා එක්සිම් බැංකුව විසින් ණය මුදලේ ඉතිරි ශේෂය ලබා දීම ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කර තිබුණි. ඒ වන විට මුළු ණය මුදල වූ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 88.5 මුදලින් අය කර ගෙන තිබුණේ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 67 කට ආසන්න මුදලකි. මුල් අත්තිකාරමෙන් පසුව කරන ලද සියලූ අතුරු ගෙවීම් සිදුකර තිබුණේ එක්සිම් බැංකුව හරහා CEIEC සමාගමටය. 2018 න් පසුව ඉතිරි අතුරු ගෙවීම් සිදුකර ඇත්තේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමේ ප‍්‍රතිපාදන 

මගින් වන අතර මුල් අත්තිකාරම් මුදලින් 2018 වර්ෂය වන විට අයකර ගෙන නොතිබූ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 2.13 ක මුදල ද විදුලි සංදේශ කොමිසම විසින් CEIEC සමාගමට ගෙවන ලද අතුරු ගෙවීම්වලින් අඩුකර ගෙන තිබුණි. ඒ අනුව මේ වන විට ව්‍යාපෘතිය ආරම්භයේ දී ගෙවන ලද අත්තිකාරම් මුදල වූ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 15.45 ක මුදල CEIEC සමාගමෙන් අයකර ගෙන ඇත.

මේ අනුව නෙළුම් කුලූන ඉදිකිරීමේ දී රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක වංචාවක් සිදු කළ බවට මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් නෙළුම් කුලූන විවෘත කරන අවස්ථාවේ දී (සැප්තැම්බර් 16 දින* සිදු කළ ප‍්‍රකාශය පදනම් විරහිත බවයි. ALIT සමාගමට කිසිම අවස්ථාවක කිසිදු මුදලක් විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාව මගින් ගෙවා නොමැති බව ද පැල්පිට මහතා අවධාරණය කරයි. විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා වශයෙන් අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා මේ පැහැදිලි කිරීම කරන්නේ කිසියම් දැනුවත් භාවයකින් බව පෙනේ. එය තහවුරු කිරීම හෝ ප‍්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමට වත්මන් විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාවේ බලධාරීන්ට පුළුවනි. එහෙත් ප‍්‍රශ්නය තිබෙන්නේ ඔවුන් එසේ කරනු ඇති ද යන්නයි. ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයාය. ඒ නිසා ජනපතිවරයා කියන කතාවේ ඇත්ත නැත්ත කුමක් වුවත් ඔහුට එරෙහිව මේ මොහොතේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාව විසින් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් සිදු කරනු ඇතැයි සිතීමට අපහසුය. මේ නිසා අනුෂ පැල්පිට කුමක් කීවත් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේනට මෙවැනි මුදල් මංකොල්ලයක් සිදුව ඇති බව හොඳටම විශ්වාස නම් වහාම ජනාධිපති පරීක්ෂණ කමිටුවක් පත් කර සති දෙක තුනකින් වාර්තාවක් ලබාගෙන සත්‍ය හෙළිදරව් කර ගැනීමට අමතරව ඊට වගකිව යුත්තන්ට එරෙහිව නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීමට ද පුළුවන. ජනාධිපතිතුමා කියන ඇලිට් නම් සමාගමකට මුදල් ගෙවා ඒ මුදල් අතුරුදන් වී තිබෙනවා නම් මේ පිළිබඳව වහාම සති දෙකක් ඇතුළත පූර්ණ පරීක්ෂණ වාර්තාවක් ලබා ගත හැකි වන පරිදි ස්වාධීන ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාවක් පත් කළ හැකි බව ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී ආචාර්ය බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ද පෙරේදා (17 * කොළඹ විපක්ෂ නායක කාර්යාලයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී කීවේය.

අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා මෙන්ම තවත් ඇතැම් අය කියන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කවුරු හෝ වැරදි තොරතුරක් ලබා දී ඔහුව නොමග යවා ඇති බවයි. එසේම ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලවා එවැනි ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කර ඔහුව හෑල්ලූවට ලක් කළ බවයි. එය එසේ නම් බරපතල කරුණකි. එසේ නම් ජනපතිවරයා කළ යුත්තේ තමාට ඒ වැරදි තොරතුරු දුන් අයට එරෙහිව පියවර ගැනීමයි. එහෙත් එය එසේ නොවන්නේ නම්, එනම් මේ කියන රුපියල් කෝටි 200 ක් මුදල අතුරුදන් වීම සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම අතුරුදන් වී ඇති බව ඔහු තවමත් සිතනවා නම් මේ ගැන දැන්වත් වහාම පරීක්ෂණයක් කළ යුතුම වෙයි. මහජන මුදල් කොල්ලයක් ගැන ප‍්‍රකාශයක් පමණක් කර නිකන් සිටීම කිසිසේත්ම අපට අනුමත කළ නොහැකිය. ඒ තුළින් ඔහුගේ ක‍්‍රියාකලාපය ගැනම අපට බරපතල ගැටලූවක් මතු වේ. එනම් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පොලිසිය පවා තමා යටතේ තිබියදී මේ ගැන කිසිදු පියවරක් නොගෙන මෙතෙක් නිකන් සිටියේ ඇයි ද යන්නයි. දැන්වත් වහාම පරීක්ෂණයක් කරනවාට අමතරව මෙතෙක් කිසිදු පියවරක් මේ සඳහා නොගැනීම ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයා රටවැසියාට වහාම පිළිතුරු දිය යුතු වේ. එවැනි පරීක්ෂණ කටයුත්තක් ආරම්භ කළහොත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙන්ම අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා කියන දේ ඇත්තද යන්නත් පැහැදිලි කර ගත හැකිය. ඊට අමතරව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අසත්‍ය තොරතුරු ලබා දී එතුමා ලවා මෙවන් ප‍්‍රකාශයක් මෙවන් ඉතා වැදගත් අවස්ථාවක ලෝකයට කියවා ගැනීමේ සැලසුම කුමක්ද යන්න ගැනද එතුමාට පැහැදිලි අවබෝධයක් ලබාගෙන එම කුමන්ත‍්‍රණකරුවන් ද රටට හෙළිදරව් කළ වනු ඇත.

මීළඟ බරපතල කරුණ වන්නේ නෙළුම් කුලූන ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්කරුවකු වූ චීනයේ එලිට් නම් සමාගම විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමෙන් රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් ගෙන අතුරුදන් වූ බවට ප‍්‍රකාශ කිරීමයි. චීනයේ සිටින අපේ තානාපති කරුණාසේන කොඩිතුවක්කු මහතා එම සමාගමේ ලිපිනය සඳහන් ස්ථානයට ගොස් බැලූ විට එවැනි සමාගමක් නොමැති බව අනාවරණය වූ බවද ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ප‍්‍රකාශ කළේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපතිවරයා මෙන්ම චීනයේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති කරුණාසේන කොඩිතුවක්කු මහතා ඇතුළු තවත් චීන උසස් නිලධාරීන් ද ඉදිරියේ වීම විශේෂත්වයකි. මෙය කිසියම් ආකාරයකට මුළු ලෝකයේම අවධානය ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව කෙරෙහි යොමුව තිබූ මොහොතකි. ඒ නිසා එවන් අවස්ථාවක රු. කෝටි 200ක් මුදල් ගෙන චීන සමාගමක් අතුරුදන් වූ බව සහ එය ව්‍යාජ සමාගමක් බවට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා ප‍්‍රකාශ කළ විට ඊට චීනයේ ප‍්‍රතිචාරය කුමක් වනු ඇතිද? එය තවමත් පැහැදිලි නැත. ඒ නිසා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් චීනය පැත්තෙන් ද යම් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. 2012 වසරේ නෙලූම් කුලූන ව්‍යාපෘතිය භාරව තිබූ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාව පැවතියේ වත්මන් විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා වන හිටපු ජනපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා යටතේය. ඔහු මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කරමින් ඊයේ සවස මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කර තිබුණි. එහි සඳහන් වන පරිදි අදාළ චීන ණය පහසුකම යටතේ මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා කොන්ත‍්‍රාත්කරුවා චීන ආණ්ඩුව විසින් තෝරා ගත් බව සඳහන් කර තිබුණි. ඒ අනුව චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් කෝපරේෂන් සහ එලිට් යන සමාගම් දෙක එකතු වී සෑදු හවුල් ව්‍යාපාරයක් නිර්දේශ කර ඇත්තේ චීන ආණ්ඩුව විසින්මය. මේ සමාගම් දෙකම සියයට සියයක් චීන ආණ්ඩුවට අයත් මහාපරිමාණ සමාගම් බව ද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කියයි. එසේ නම් ජනපති මෛත‍්‍රී කියන පරිදි මෙසේ 2012 වසරේදී රු.කෝටි 200 ක් ගෙන අතුරුදන් වී ඇත්තේ මේ චීන ආණ්ඩුව විසින්ම නිර්දේශ කළ එම හවුල් ව්‍යාපාරයේ පාර්ශ්වකාර චීන ආණ්ඩුවට අයත් සමාගමක් විසිනි. චීන ආණ්ඩුව විසින් නම් කළ සමාගමක් මෙසේ අපේ මහජන මුදල් රු.කෝටි 200ක් ගෙන අතුරුදන් වී ඇති බවට අපේ ජනාධිපති කියන කතාව ගැන චීනය පැත්තෙන්ද පිළිතුරක් අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙන්ම අනුෂ පැල්පිට මහතා ද කියන්නේ ජනපති මෛත‍්‍රී කියන එලිට් නම් සමාගමට මේ බිලියන දෙකක මුදල් ලබා දී නැති බවයි. එසේම මුල සිට සියලූ ගෙවීම් කළේ චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් කෝපරේෂන් සමාගමට බවයි. මේ සියලූ තොරතුරු අපේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිෂන් සභාවේ ලියවිලිවල තිබිය යුතුය. ඒ නිසා මෙය තේරුම් ගැනීමට හෝ සොයා ගැනීමට අපහසු මහ ලොකු උභතෝකෝටිකයක් නොවේ. එසේ නම් මේ ගැන වහාම පරීක්ෂණයක් කර සත්‍ය හෙළිදරව් කර ගැනීම ඉතාම වැදගත්ය. එවිට මහජනයා නොමග යවමින් සිටින්නේ කවුද යන්න ගැනත් මහජනයාට වැටහීමක් ලබා ගත හැකිය.

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත
shyam.divaina@gmail.com

H. L. D. Mahindapala

A common snide remark in the days gone by used to say derisively that if there is a traffic jam somewhere there is a cop in the middle of it. It means that an incompetent cop without any sense of direction had caused an unwanted and avoidable problem to the public. In contemporary times it can be said, without fear of being contradicted, that if there is a political jam you can be sure that Ranil Wickremesinghe is in the middle of it. You can also be sure that Ranil has been the cause of it partly because he has shown no sense of direction in handling the grave national issues.

Whether it is his disastrous Ceasefire Agreement with Prabhakaran, or whether it is the burning of the CBK-Neelan agreement in Parliament, or whether it is the kurundu polu attack on marchers against him in Matara, whether it is the undermining the integrity of sacred traditions of the Parliament, or whether it is biggest bank heist in the history of Sri Lanka, Ranil was in the middle of it. He has never been able to rise above his self-serving politics of plotting and kuth-thufying, pitting one against another, which has resulted eventually in dragging the nation down to its current perilous chaos.

The nation which ended one of the longest running wars in Asia is still running desperately in search peace, stability and security.  When he took over in 2015 there was hope. He promised to make a difference”. Today there is only despair without the difference” he promised.. He will be remembered mainly as the man who dragged the nation from hope  to despair. But he sees himself as the solution when in reality he has been the incorrigible problem. So like most of our semi-literate and crooked politicians he is under the delusion that the worst thing that can happen to the nation is for him to lose his grip on power, particularly the UNP leadership that keeps him going in politics..

Take the current crisis in the UNP which is still running in search of a candidate for the coming presidential election. With only a few days left for the declaration of the election date Ranil’s party is still twisting in the wind without a presidential candidate. As opposed to this, the main contender in the opposition has already declared his candidacy. But the UNP, the oldest Party in the nation, is still teetering without naming a candidate. Why? The answer is well-known: Ranil wants to be nominated as the candidate of the UNP which has openly declared its preference to Sajith Premadasa in so many clear ways. It is Ranil who is in the middle of this latest political jam. His capacity to create problems is far greater than his capacity to solve any of them.

The last remaining card for Ranil is to nominate Karu Jayasuriya as the UNP candidate. This will put Sajith in a dilemma. He can oppose Ranil but it will be difficult to oppose Karu as he has a better image than Ranil in the electorate. In the meantime, the media is having field day dramatising the rivalries between the UNP leader and his Deputy.

With Ranil cornered by the forces raging against him he is playing the role of King Canute, sitting on shore and ordering the waves of the sea to stop moving.  The Premadasa camp, however, is out there in the open ever ready with sound bites to dig their teeth into Ranil’s flesh. The rising popular waves within the UNP — and outside it too — have signalled, quite unambiguously, that Ranilhas been the unwanted and moos-pain-tu Jonah of the UNP.  Judgmental opinion believes that Ranil has lost the popular vote of winning even the job of cleaning the toilet at Siri Kotha because no one can rely on him to clean the droppings into it. They are right when they think that Ranil do not have the capacity to clean up the rot that has set into the political culture. From the Central Bank to Parliament his self-defeating trick has been to appoint committees to cover up the smelly toilets. Perhaps, the most remarkable feature is that, after all these years, the top ranks in the UNP hierarchy have abandoned him. Never before has he been in this situation where he has been publicly exposed as a loser by those at the top and at the bottom of the UNP.

There are, of course, some die-hard loyalists who are struggling to save him from his impending fall from grace by applying some fresh paint on his ageing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde face. The chances of these loyal desperadoes succeeding are as great as any Pamankada or Alimankada cosmetician trying to lift the image of a pig by applying lipstick on its snout. The visible anger and reaction of a critical section of the UNP leadership indicates clearly that Ranil’s stature as a leader has lost all credibility. The disillusionment with Ranil is almost universal.  It has come to a point where some of traditional Colombo 7 fashionistas, parading in high society  cat walks, have come out condemning him as a pig-headed” loser.

All political metrics indicate that the time for applying cosmetics is over for Ranil. The time has come for him, after his long innings at the UNP crease, to stand down honourably and admit that he has failed to score the winning innings expected of captain. He has been a perennial failure which has been forecast at birth by naming  him as Run- NIL”. The problem with him is that he refuses to admit that he is a spent force. He has never shown a capacity to score a century for his team and win the hearts and minds of the nation. If the UNPers don’t bowl Ranil out the people will whip his bails out if he steps out to bat in the pitch that is being prepared for coming presidential elections. (Note for the readers: Please don’t remove the ‘i” even accidentally and substitute an ‘l” in the word bails”’)

Right now Ranil is playing the most despicable role in his career. He is like the dog in the manger. As they say in Sinhalese:”Balla piduru kanneth naha, kana gonata then-neth naha. It is in this dizzying climate that the NGO , including Jehan  Perera, the Napoleon Boru-part of NGOs, have  rushed to back him. Ranil is banking on the depleted cadres of the civil society, (some have abandoned him publicly disillusioned by his role as the scheming Ali Baba of the biggest heist in the history of banking in Sri Lanka), depleted TNA, depleted Ranil-Party-licker Champikaya, depleted Muslims   (his own Muslim chairman is against him), depleted Catholkic belt, and, of course, the JVP, the Sinhala Prabhakaranists now posing as the born-again champions of democracy and human rights. .

Ranil’s unprincipled and self-centred politics is revealed in his choice of presidential candidates. Twice he had gone all out to back two complete outsiders: Sarath Fonseka and Maithripala Sirisena. Both occasions should be considered as a public confession of his inability to win the confidence of the people to lead the nation. He opted for the two outsiders because they had better chances of winning than him. But it protected his leadership in the UNP. Clearly, on the principle that he supported Sarath and Maithripala he should go for Sajith because his deputy has better chances of winning than the leader. Besides, he is an insider and not an outsider. But he is out to block Sajith’s path for the simple reason that if Sajith wins the chances are that he will lose his power, position and pakum.  Those in politics will be looking up to Sajith for leadership and not to Ranil.

If there was a chance for Ranil it was in riding the anti-Rajapakse wave in 2015. Since then his chances have declined dramatically. In 2019 the electoral pendulum has swung back considerably to the Rajapakses. Considering all the available factors, this is the time to back the most favoured candidate, Sajith, though Karu Jayasuriya is flapping his wings on the sidelines waiting to be called. Instead Ranil is still hoping that he has  a chance at a time when his image has fallen to the level of the dust under the heel of Arjuna Mahendra’s Central Bank-funded boots in Singapore.

With his back to the human wall, put up by Malik saha Mangala-young–gay gang, Ranil, is playing his usual game of appointing committees, planting anti-Sajith stories in the media, promoting rival candidates within the UNP to degrade the potential of Sajith and, most of all dragging the date of announcing the presidential candidate and holding out until the eleventh hour to present a fait accompli to Sajith. Timing is of the essence now and Ranil is aiming to cut off any time that could advantage Sajith to mount a counter attack on Ranil’s nominee, which is most likely to be himself, or Karu Jayasuriya.

However, the latest comments leaked to media confirm that both are digging their heels in. Neither is willing to yield to the other. Ranil is making a bid to denigrate Sajith’s image, having failed to tempt him with bogus offers, as before, to keep him out of his way. Deceived by the previous feint offers that took him nowhere Sajith seems to be determined not to give in this time.

Ranil, however, knows that if he gives in he will have no future in politics. As stated earlier, the nation and the Party will look up to President Sajith Premadasa as the leader. Ranil will cease to be the indispensable force in national politics or in the Party if the President is Sajith. This inevitability would clip the wings of Ranil. The big stick used by him to determine politics in the big league of political leaders – and the American Embassy, of course — will be whittled down to a toothpick. Ranil’s manoeuvres are to save his leadership role at any cost.. It is not a move to save the nation, or the party. It is Ranil trying his best to save Ranil.

Ranil is banking mainly on five political sources in his presidential race. He hopes to win the support (1) of his divided Party (1) the TNA (3) the Muslims (4) the civil society and (5) the JVP. His latest tactic is to challenge Sajith to prove that he can win over these groups. In other words, he is telling Sajith: These are my people. How are you going to win them over to your side?” Ranil’s question is a direct threat to undercut Sajith’s image and chances to win the backing of the pro-UNP minorities. Ranil is telling his Deputy that he has the cards up his sleeve to undercut him.

Clearly, Sajith is doomed mainly because Ranil is not likely to throw his full weight behind Sajith, even if the latter wins the nomination.  Ranil will front up in public pretending to support Sajith. But Ranil’s tendency so far has been to undercut Sajith and prevent him rising to a position of commanding power that would undermine his own leadership. Sajith is a Deputy Leader by name. On par with Sajith is Ravi Karunanayake –Ranil’s doppelganger–as an Additional Leader with equal claims for the leadership in the event of something happening to Ranil.

Besides, the visceral personal struggle for power within the Party has gone far deep into the body politic of the UNP that it will be almost impossible to stop the internal haemorrhaging in time to present a credible image of unity before the election. Whether both can sell a winning image, plastered with band-aids, to the voters is questionable. The bitter division, fought openly in public, will only add to the deepening crisis within the Yahapalanaya regime led by Ranil.

Both know that a divided UNP will kill the chances of either of them winning the election. The other most likely option is to present Karu Jayasuriya as the compromise candidate. He is waiting on the sidelines hoping that a last minute compromise would throw him into the ring. But internal bleeding has eroded the integrity and credibility needed to present the UNP as a viable force to govern the country. Its stature has dropped to almost the same level as it was in 1956 in the Sinhala-Buddhist electorate. It has to lean heavily on the minorities to save its respectability and future as a political party.

Ranil has fallen almost to the same level as West-leaning Sir John Kotelawela, one of the despised figures of the time. Ranil’s chances of rising from the stinking Meethotamulla politics of the UNP under his stewardship is nil, even with the backing of the five forces which are no longer formidable as it was in 2015. Besides, the anti- Rajapakse pendulum of 2015 has swung back with a new momentum to give the Rajapaksas a lead in the race to the next presidency. If the dictum that it is not the oppositions that win but it is the governments that lose is valid then the chances of the UNP winning either the presidential or the parliamentary elections are zilch.

The incremental decline and fall of Ranil’s image has one good silver lining: he will be thrown out of politics for good. History will write him 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. He will never rise again. It will be good riddance of bad rubbish that ruined the nation throughout his failed career.

The knell of parting day will toll for Ranil on election night. But how many UNP mourners will be there to follow him to his political grave?

By Garvin Karunaratne

It was these two facts that caused the failure of Zimbabwe. My Paper reproduced here tells the details.

The death of Robert Mugabe has brought a spate of writing which appears to portray him as a lost cause, due to his failings. However as my earlier writing of 2008 portray that the culprit was Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the UK who failed to honour the Lancaster House Agreement which promised that the UK Government will pay compensation to the white farmers who would be dispossessed of their lands provided Mugabe did not dispossess the white farmers for ten years. True to his word, Mugabe for the first ten years abided by the Lancaster House Agreement and did not take over any land. After the ten years had elapsed Mugabe requested the British Government to honour the Lancaster House Agreement. Tony Blair did not honour the provisions of the Lancaster House Agreement and refused to pay compensation.  Mugabe then commenced take over of white farmer’s land to distribute to the landless peasants. Here the culprit was not Mugabe. Instead, it was Tony Blair who refused to abide by the conditions of the Lancaster House Agreement who is to be blamed.

Thereafter the IMF came on the scene with sweeteners the Structural Adjustment Programme which Mugabe agreed to follow.Liberalizing the use of the foreign exchange, freeing imports and meeting the shortfall with loans led to disaster.

Garvin Karunaratne

September 13 th 2019.

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe Today: The Stranglehold of the Superpowers & the IMF in action. Lessons for Sri Lanka.(written in 2008)

Garvin Karunaratne

Many of my friends and contacts have been surprised at my statement about President Mugabe, showing him as a victim of the Superpowers- how they have actually strangled him in my paper: Zimbabwe’s Election Results; The Double Standards of the Superpowers(Asian Tribune 20/04/2008). I wrote:

Why are the Superpowers so angry with Mugabe? When Mugabe came to power the Whites were ruling the economy. They had established plantations on most of the ideal cultivable land which was taken over from them virtually by force. Earlier this land was controlled by the communities and worked for the welfare of the people. This happened in every country that was colonized and this included countries like Sri Lanka and Kenya. The British did this in a subtle manner by declaring all unoccupied land as belonging to the Crown. In pre-colonial days the forest land near habitations belonged to the villages as common land used for water retention, firewood collection, for forest produce, for habitation as the populations grew, for cattle enclosures during the cultivation season etc. The land was thereafter sold to the white planters for a song and in Kenya, within the forest sold were entire villages, including the people.

In Out of Africa Karen Blixen documents how the planters sold their land including full villages with the people. In Sri Lanka it is on record that the Police were used to throw out villagers when their villages were situated in forest extents sold to the planters.

When we think of the Third World countries today we tend to forget that the Third World was entirely conquered by the Colonial Superpowers. In the words of Cecil John Rhodes, the aim of the British Empire was to bring the whole of the uncivilized world under British Rule”. The colonial masters changed the self reliant economies to become economies that brought about an income for them. The colonies were made to produce raw materials required for their industries and the goods manufactured were sold to the masses in the colonies. In this process the Third World countries were exploited with riches accumulating in the Countries of the Colonial Superpowers. Zimbabwe, earlier Rhodesia, was thus exploited to the maximum.

Mugabe was a guerilla fighter who fought tooth and nail against the colonial domination of his country. At last in 1978 the guerilla forces forced the British to cede independence. Under the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, Britain, the country that had ruled Rhodesia from 1890 to 1965, when Ian Smith declared independence unilaterally, agreed to pay compensation to white famers who will be dispossessed of their land when the land will be taken over and distributed to the indigenous people. This was argued necessary because the colonial ruler, the British had taken over these lands from the communities that controlled these unoccupied commonly held lands without the payment of any compensation and had thereafter sold these lands to foreign-mainly British planters at nominal- very low rates and they had established plantations and had thereby amassed fortunes over decades. The prosperity of the UK was brought about by the profits that came from the plantations The vast bulk of the cultivable land of Rhodesia was in this process bought and occupied by 6000 white farmers. The dispossessed local people had no employment. It was an attempt to make these impoverished landless people farmers that made Mugabe argue for the plantations to be taken over for distribution.

However this takes over of plantations was to be done on a willing seller” basis. In fact the question of compensation payments rocked and almost aborted the Lancaster House Agreement which took three months of discussions to complete. An important premise of this agreement was that no repossessions out side the willing seller concept could be done for ten years. In 1981 Britain pledged to pay GB Pounds 630 million, but there was continuous disagreement and haggling and ultimately in 1997, the British Government of Tony Blair, reneged on its commitment and paid only pounds 44 million. According to a Report from the Zimbabwe Government the amount actually paid was only Pounds 17 million.

Independent Zimbabwe under President Mugabe did well initially after independence. Little land was taken over because of the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement to find willing sellers and the White Farmers continued to work their farms. The indigenous population continued to be landless. There was rapid growth in the Eighties. and then came the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which Mugabe embraced in 1990. However it did not take long for Mugabe to realize that the Structural Adjustment Program did not bring about any development and he ditched the SAP in 2001.. IMF withdrew balance of payments support in 1999 and withdrew providing Aid in 1999.

During the period of the Structural Adjustment Program loans were made available even for consumption. The tenet of the SAP was to allow free trade, deregulate and reduce or abolish tariffs on imports on the basis that the IMF will provide easy loans to bridge budget deficits. In this process the foreign debt ballooned to $ 4,500 million in 2001 to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank. Earlier Zimbabwe was not an indebted country at independence. It was the IMF that ruined Zimbabwe.

In the words of Richard Saunders, “Loan agreements emanating from the Structural Adjustment Programme have stretched Zimbabwe’s foreign and domestic debt to unmanageable proportions.”(Saunders:30)

As explained by Patrick Bond and Richard Saunders: 1991 was the turning point… The US was suddenly the sole superpower and the IMF, the World Bank and GATT(later WTO), wasted no time imposing a global neoliberal iron heel. Zimbabwe had significant international debts and suddenly new debt service was conditioned on yielding to the global neo liberal dictatorship. The large State Sector and protected local industries inherited from the prior regime were condemned as inefficient and an Economic Structural Adjustment Program was adopted by Mugabe with considerable enthusiasm. The results were disastrous.

Manufacturing output declined by 40% from 1991 to 1995 accompanied by a similar decline in worker’s real standard of living and dramatic increase in inflation that ravaged savings and those in the informal economy….Domestic Industry was destroyed in 1990 by the ESAP(Bond & Saunders)

The Government however was under constant pressure from the people to provide them with land and Mugabe had no alternative but to take over the plantations without paying compensation. Mugabe commenced repossession of plantations in 1997. In March 2002, all whites were ordered to leave their land without compensation. The Current aim is to transfer 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March 2002 Mugabe established a one party state but by 1990 changed his ideas and held multi party elections.

Many world authorities are unaware of the real reasons for the disaster that Zimbabwe faces today. Professor Paul Collier of Oxford in his book: The Bottom Billion:Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What can be done about it(Oxford 2007) states: Mugabe must take responsibility for the economic c collapse in Zimbabwe since 1998 culminating in inflation over 100.000 %.”

If the British Government had stood by the conditions that were agreed at the Lancaster House Agreement and had provided the 630 million pounds to be paid as compensation, there would have been no problem. But the British Government had reneged on its promise and President Mugabe cannot be blamed for this decision to take over the plantations. It was this act of President Mugabe that made the International Superpowers move sanctions on Zimbabwe.

No country with a massive foreign debt can face sanctions imposed. Though in the July 2008, G8 Meeting of the Superpowers, full sanctions were not agreed on because Russia and China did not support it, compliance with sanctions already imposed by Britain and Western Superpowers have ruined the economy.

Paul Collier has taken Mugabe’s present Zimbabwe out of context in castigating Mugabe. One has to castigate Tony Blair and his British Government for reneging on the aid that was agreed at the Lancaster House Agreement and also blame the IMF for implementing the Structural Adjustment Program that ruined local industry and local production. Once the development infrastructure in a country is abolished, it is an extremely difficult task to rebuild. Go through the IMF annals of ‘development’ and the Structural Adjustment Programme and one will find that each and every country that followed it have had their economies ruined.

In today’s context once a country has a high foreign debt which it cannot service and further its economy has been ruined by following the tenets of the Structural Adjustment programme, it has to depend on the grace of the International Superpowers for further Aid, if it is to pay its dues and survive. Mugabe came to a point where he had to displease the International Superpowers by his decision to take over the plantations without the payment of compensation and by his decision to not implement the Structural Adjustment Program. What happens is that through following the SAP the development infrastructure that is there in the country is abolished, the country’s assets are privatized and get into the foreign hands- hands of the multinationals and further through privatization of paying assets, the Government does not have a tax base to meet its development expenditure.

No country can face the sanctions of the International Community for long. Initially a country can raise a few foreign loans at high interest rates, through foreign banks, but this source dries up particularly because the countries cannot service those loans taken at high interest and further because the foreign banks eventually fall in line to the tunes of the International Community and the IMF.

Mugabe could not face the sanctions of the IMF and the International Superpowers. Thus his economy gradually got into ruins with the inflation rate reaching 7,000% in 2007 and this rising further to 100,000% in 2008. Today the unemployment rate is around 80% and about a fourth of the population work in foreign countries, mainly in South Africa. The people have their incomes from foreign funds remitted by the relatives working abroad.

What has happened to Mugabe and Zimbabwe is due not to Mugabe’s inefficiency, but entirely due to the fact that Mugabe failed to counter the machinations of the International Community that started imposing sanctions. In today’s neocolonialist era, it is the foreign funded Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) that are used by the Colonial Superpowers to sabotage the development of the Third World covertly. Overtly the Superpowers function as paragons of democracy and human rights and their educated Envoys in their verbosity continue to pose as if they are helping our countries and our leaders are snared. There is a catch in everything that the Superpowers tell us, if only we can decipher it.

There are a number of lessons for Sri Lanka from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. The United National Party that ruled Sri Lanka from 1977 embraced the SAP and in the process the economy of the country was really ruined. In 1977 when the SAP was embraced by President Jayewardene the Rupee was immediately devalued by 100%. The continued implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme of high interest rates and free trade- allowing a free flow of foreign exchange to everyone for everything and meeting the excess with loans, increasing our debt is the easiest method of ruining any economy. See my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternate Programs of Success(Godages) for the process of ruination that took place. This is exactly what happened to Mugabe.

Sri Lanka has been kicked by the IMF and the World Bank. It is their refusal to give us aid that has made other financial authorities discredit us and it is this that has forced us to get loans with as high an interest as 8.25%. Why are we yet continuing to follow the IMF precepts of the Structural Adjustment Program like high interest rates, which are the highest in Asia and due to which no local production can emerge. Why have we not commenced regulating the use of foreign exchange. Unfortunately Sri Lanka even free floated the Rupee in 2001 under Chandrika’s Government with the result that the Central Bank no longer is in charge of the foreign exchange that comes to our country. We allow the Banks and this includes the foreign banks to use the foreign exchange that comes in- it is supposed to be according to the rules of supply and demand. In actual practice it has been proved that the foreign banks hoard the foreign exchange that comes in and bids the value of the foreign currency upwards as did happen on 25 th January 2001.( See pages 95-130 of my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka…)

Faced with sanctions by certain foreign superpowers and the IMF Mugabe, failed to take total control over the economy. He allowed the NGO to nibble at the economy and did not organize production to take place. Sri Lanka too has to face a grim future unless it is prepared to take total control over the economy, including its foreign exchange and control the use of foreign exchange in the interests of the country

ALI SUKHANVER

Very unfortunate are those who fail in protecting the places of worship belonging to other religions and in giving them due regard. Be it a temple, church, cathedral or a mosque; all places of worship are sacred and sublime. Honour and respect for all such places are strictly stressed upon by every religion. There have been so many examples in the recent history where holy places of worship belonging to other religions were brutally disrespected rather insulted but the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Uttar Pradesh India is the ever worst among all these examples though Hinduism in no way preaches and promotes violence, hatred or extremism. A large group of Hindu activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organizations demolished the 16th-century Babri Mosque in the city of Ayodhya on 6 December 1992. Reports say that the demolition occurred after a political rally organized at the site by Hindu nationalists turned violent. An inquiry was held to look into the matter which found 68 people responsible, including several leaders of the BJP and the VHP. The inter-communal riots between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities resulted in the death of more than 2000 people. The act was widely condemned even by a large number of Hindus have a moderate approach towards religion; some NGOs also staged protest demonstrations against the incident but all these efforts proved in vain and futile because the Hindu extremists laid the foundations of a temple at the place of the Babri Mosque. Now seventeen years after the incident, once again, another incident of the same type is in the making. The Gyanvapi mosque in the Varanasi area of Indian province Uttar Pradesh is very soon going to be converted into a temple.

According to the details provided by the Indian media, Mr. Narendra Modi had promised to materialize the reconstruction of an old temple Kashi Vishwanath when he was addressing a political session in Varanasi (old name Banaras) on the eve of filing nomination papers for Lok Sabha 2019. In the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh along the River Ganges the city Varanasi is regarded as the spiritual capital of India. Every year thousands of Hindu pilgrims come to this city to have a sacred bath in the River Ganges. There are more than 2,000 temples in Varanasi; Kashi Vishwanath is the central one. Gyanvapi is a very ancient mosque situated very close rather adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. This mosque is a serious hurdle in the extension project of Kashi Vishwanath temple. This mosque was built by the Mughal King Aurangzeb somewhere in 1664. This area is in the constituency of Mr. Modi and he has directed Yogi Adityanath the Chief Minister to work as the caretaker of the project. Yogi Adityanath, an extremist Hindu monk is the founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini, a youth organization that has been involved in communal violence. In June 2017, an article of Dhirendra K Jha was published in Aljazeera which said, Although Yuva Vahini was registered as a cultural organization, the HYV worked like a Hindu nationalist militia, trying to create a fear of minorities – especially Muslims – among the majority Hindus. Its preferred tactic was to frame every argument and altercation between a Hindu and Muslim in religious terms and turn it into a mini-sectarian riot.” This organization headed by Yogi Adityanath has always remained engaged in a campaign to forcibly convert Muslims to Hinduism.

Reports say that in January 2015 the Vahini men forced nearly 300 local Muslims of Ghazipur village in eastern Uttar Pradesh to convert to Hinduism under the guidance of Yogi Adityanath. In February 2015, more than 80 Muslims of Bhibani village in Kushinagar were forcibly converted to Hinduism. Now the same Yogi Adityanath has been assigned the task of demolishing the Gyanvapi mosque. The work there is in the process; the aimed target is to clear up an area of 45000 meters and spare 50 feet wide pathways for the pilgrims. This area consists of more than 300 houses which are home to more than 1000 families. The Gyanvapi mosque is also one of the buildings supposed to be demolished. The people living in this area belong to a very poor class, doing odd jobs to keep them alive. They have no power or force to stop the Hindu extremists from throwing them out of their houses with all their bags and baggage.

The members of Yuva Vahini say that King Aurangzeb had demolished a temple to build this mosque; now the scenario is being changed to its original. To prove their stance some Hindu extremist activists had attempted to burry an idol of bull to claim that the mosque site was a Hindu site. Maulana Abdul Salam Nomani had been the Imam of the Gyanvapi mosque before his death in 1987. He had flatly rejected the blame of Hindu extremists that the mosque was built after destroying a temple. According to him, the foundation of the mosque was laid by the third Mughal emperor Akbar, and Akbar’s grandson and Aurangzeb’s father Shah Jahan started a madrasah called Imam-e-Sharifat at the site of the mosque in 1638. He said that the mosque never had anything to do with any temple. In fact, this is the same story that was narrated by the Hindu extremists in the case of the Babri mosque. The conflict on the Gyanvapi mosque is not a new one; for the last many decade’s extremist Hindu groups have been continuously claiming rights to the land of the Gyanvapi mosque. There had been serious disputes on this issue many times. In 1936, after disputes with the Hindu residents of the area, the local Muslim community filed a suit in a civil court of (Banaras) Varanasi. In 1937, the court decided in favour of the Muslims and allowed them to offer prayers in the mosque as they desired. In 1991, the government of Narasimha Rao passed ‘The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act’ which stated that all religious sites would be maintained as they were on 15 August 1947. Even after approval and implementation of this Act, Somnath Vyas; an activist of RSS, filed a case in a Varanasi civil court demanding that the mosque site be handed over to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The tragic incident of demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992 became a hurdle and the matter could not go further. Now things are again in a horrible situation. The Hindu extremists are eager to repeat the history of the Babri Mosque in Varanasi. But one thing must always be kept in mind; BJP, Yuva Vahini, Vishva Hindu Parishad, and Mr. Modi do not reflect the true face of Indian society which is a society of love and care for everyone. Such extremism simply mars the serene face of a peaceful society.

Dr Sarath obeysekera 

There was a bombshell in October 2018 when Premiere was sacked 

Then we had another bong shell  in April during Easter Sunday creating havoc in every front 

Then premiere got another bond shell with indirect accusation related to the Bond sale 

Last week one more bombshell was dropped from Nelum Tower with an accusation by the head of the government with a claim of a large amount been embezzled 

By the time the presidential  election is declared, we may be seeing many more bombshells coming 

We are so used to bombshells for the last 40 years. And the people have become deaf and also DUMB

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

1952 අවුරුද්ද වෙද්දි අපේ මිනිස්සු එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට උන්ගේ නෑයන්ගේ පක්‍ෂය” කියලා නමක් පට බැන්දා. ඒකට හේතුවුනේ ඒ පක්‍ෂයේ නායකත්වය සේනානායක – කොතලාවල – ජයවර්ධන පවුල්වලට සීමාවීම. මේ කතාව හදන්න මූලික ම හේතුව වුනේ දොන් චාල්ස් ගෙමෝරිස් ආටිගල මුදලිතුමාගේ දෝණියැන්දලා තුන්දෙනා සේනානායක – කොතලාවල – ජයවර්ධන පවුල් තුනට බන්දලා දීමේ කාරණය. කලින් ලිපියකින් මේ ගැන විස්තරයක් මම කිව්වා.

ඒත් ඇත්තට ම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය කියලා කියන්නේ උන්ගේ නෑදෑයන්ගේ” පක්‍ෂයක් ම ද? සතියකට විතර කලින් මගේ යාළුවෙක් එක්ක මම මේ කාරණය ගැන කතා කළා. ඒ යාළුවා පොහොට්ටුවට බැහලා වැඩ කරන කෙනෙක්. හැබැයි ඒ යාළුවාගේ අම්මා යූ. ඇන්. පී! අපේ තාත්තා හොඳ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෙක් වුනාට මගෙත් සෑහෙන නෑදෑයෝ ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නවා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට බොහොම ලැදිව වැඩ කරන. මේ මිනිස්සු එක් කෙනෙක්වත් ඔය කියන විදිහේ පරගැති, දීන, රටට ජාතියට කිසිම ආදරයක් නැති පිරිසක් නෙවෙයි. ඇත්තම කියනවා නම් ඒ හැම කෙනෙක් ම පුදුමාකාර විදිහට රටට ආදරෙයි. ආගමට ජාතියට ලැදියි.

මේ ගැන හොඳින් හිතලා බැලුවාම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය කියලා කියන්නෙත් අපේ නෑදෑ හිතවතුන්ගේ පක්‍ෂයක් බව පැහැදිළි වෙනවා. හැබැයි 1988 – 94 කාලයේ දී හැරුනාම මේ පක්‍ෂයේ පාලනය මුළුමනින්ම අල්ලගෙන ඉන්නේ උන්ගේ” නෑදෑයෝ! ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයා විතරයි මේ වැඩේ වෙනසක් කළේ. ඒකත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී විදිහට හොඳින් කරපු වැඩක් නොවන බව අපි දන්නවා. රට පුරා ඉන්න පහළ මට්ටමේ සාමාජිකයන්ගේ කැමැත්ත කොච්චර තිබුණත් ඒ පක්‍ෂයේ නායකත්වය හොඳින් ලබාගන්න බැරිවීම ඒකට හේතු වෙන්න ඇති. මේ දවස්වල සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයා මූණ දීලා තියෙන්නෙත් ඒ ප්‍රශ්නයට ම නෙවෙයි ද?

ඉහළ ප්‍රභූ පවුලකින් ආවත් බණ්ඩාරනායක මහත්තයා බලය තහවුරු කරගත්තේ සඟ, වෙද, ගුරු, ගොවි, කම්කරු කියන පංච මහා බලවේගයටත් අපේ රටේ දේශපාලනයේ දොරවල් ඇරලා දීලා. මේ රටේ දේශපාලනය එක පැලැන්තියකට, කල්ලියකට අයිති එකක් නෙවෙයි කියන අදහස ඒ වැඩෙන් තහවුරු වුනා. ඉතින් ප්‍රභූ පන්තියට අයිති නැති විශාල පිරිසක් රාජ්‍ය පාලන කටයුතුවලට හවුල්වෙන්න ඉස්සරහට ආවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය මුල්වෙලා පිහිටුවපු ආණ්ඩුවලට අපේ ආණ්ඩු” කියන නම පට බැ‍ඳෙන්නත් මේ කාරණය හේතුවක් වුනා.

බණ්ඩාරනායක මහත්තයාගේ මූලිකවීමත්, සිරිමාවෝ මැතිනිය ලබාදීපු ජාතික නායකත්වයත් හින්දා 1951 ඉඳලා 2005 වෙන කල් ම ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය ඒ පවුලේ නායකත්වයෙන් මෙහෙයවුනු බව ඇත්ත. ඒත් ඒ මුල් පරම්පරා දෙකෙන් පස්සේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයට අලුත් නායකත්වයක් ලැබුණා. අද වෙද්දි යම් යම් හේතු හින්දා ඒ බලවේගය දෙකට බෙදිලා තියෙන බව ඇත්ත. ඒත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් අපේ රටේ නිර්මාණය කෙරුණේ ජාතිකත්වය මත පදනම් වුනු, සමාජ – ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය ආත්ම කරගත්ත, ප්‍රගතිශීලි, අදීන මතවාදයක් තියෙන දේශපාලන බලවේගයක් කියන අදහස ජනතාව තුළ හොඳින් තහවුරු වෙලා තියෙනවා.

1977 අවුරුද්දෙන් පස්සේ (1988 – 94 කාලයේ දී ඇරෙන්න) එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ නායකත්වය ලිබරල් අදහස් තදින් ම වැළඳගත්ත අය අතට පත්වුනා. හොඳ දේශපාලන පරිචයක් ලබාගෙන තිබුණු හින්දා තමන් පිළිගත්ත ලිබරල් අදහස් ඒ විදිහට ම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න ජේ. ආර්. මහත්තයා පෙළැඹුණේ නෑ. එතුමා එක්තරා ආකාරයක ඩබල් ගේම්” එකක නිරත වුනා කියන්නත් පුළුවන්. ඒත් ඒ මහත්තයා කරපු වැඩ හින්දා අපේ රටේ සමාජ ස්ථාවරත්වයට සෑහෙන්න හානි සිද්දවුනා. දෙමළ කොටි කැරැල්ල, ජවිපෙ භීෂණය ඇතිවෙන්න එතුමා කරපු කියපු දේවල් සෑහෙන්න හේතු වුනා. සමස්ත සමාජයත්, රටේ ආර්ථිකයත් මහා අවුලක් බවට පත්වුනා.

1987 – 89 කාලය තුළ ඇතිවෙච්ච භීෂණය නිසාත්, කොටි සංවිධානයේ බිහිසුණු ක්‍රියා නිසාත් වැඩිම අලාභයක් සිද්ද වුනේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට කියලා මට හිතෙනවා. ජේ. ආර්. මහත්තයාගේ කාලේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට මහ විශාල දෙවැනි පෙළ නායකත්වයක් තිබුණා. ඕන කරන හැම ජාතියේ ම කොළ ජේ. ආර්. මහත්තයාගේ කාඩ් පැක් එකේ තිබුණා. ඒක ඇතුළේ ප්‍රේමදාසලා, ගාමිණි දිසානායකලා, ලලිත් ඇතුලත්මුදලිලා, ගාමිණි ජයසූරියලා, නිශ්ශංක විජේරත්නලා, රොනී ද මෙල්ලාට අමතරව සිරිල් මැතිව්ලත්, දේවනායගම්ලත්, හමීඩ්ලත් හිටියා. මහ යෝධයෝ ගොඩක් ඉන්න බල ඇණියක් පිරිවරා ගෙන කටයුතු කරන රජෙක් වගේ තමයි ජේ. ආර්. මහත්තයා වැඩ කළේ.

ඒත් 1994 අවුරුද්ද වෙද්දි මේ හැම දෙයක් ම වෙනස් වුනා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය රනිල් මහත්තයාගේ තනි බූදලයක් බවට පත්වුනා. ඒ මදිවාට රනිල් මහත්තයා ලිබරල් අන්තවාදියෙක් විදිහටත් වැඩ කරන්න පටන් ගත්තා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට සම්බන්ධ අයගෙන් සියයට එකක්වත් ලිබරල් අදහස්වලට කැමැතියි කියලා මම හිතන්නේ නෑ. ඒ පක්‍ෂයට සම්බන්ධ අති මහත් බහුතරයක් අපි වගේ ම හිතන, පතන මිනිස්සු. කලින් කියපු විදිහට ඒ අය අපේ නෑදෑයෝ. යාළු මිත්‍රයෝ. ඉතින් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ ඔළුව ලිබරල් අන්තවාදයකට තල්ලු වෙද්දි ඒ පක්‍ෂයේ කඳ ඉතාමත් අමාරුවෙන් ඒක ඉවසගෙන හිටියා. වරින් වර පොඩි ගැටුම්, හැල හැප්පලි ඉස්මතු වුනා. ඒත් පක්‍ෂයේ දෙවැනි පෙළ නායකත්වය මුළුමනින් ම වගේ විනාශ වෙලා තිබුණු හින්දා රනිල් මහත්තයාට අභියෝගයක් කරන්න පක්‍ෂයේ කඳට බැරි වුනා.

මේ කලබැලෑනිවලින් කලකිරිච්ච සමහර එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂිකයෝ අක්‍රිය වුනා. නිශ්ශබ්ද වුනා. තවත් සමහරු පක්‍ෂය අත ඇරලා මහින්ද මහත්තයා එක්ක එකතු වුනා. ඔළුව ජපන් – කඳ ජර්මන්” වගේ පක්‍ෂයකට දේශපාලන බලයක් ගොඩ නගාගන්න අමාරුයි. ඉතින් ගතවෙච්ච අවුරුදු 25 ක කාලය තුළ පවත්වපු එක ජනාධිපතිවරණයකින්වත් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට දිනන්න බැරිවුනේ මේ කාරණය හින්දා කියලා තමයි මට හිතෙන්නේ.

දැන් ආයෙත් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය ඇතුළේ ගිනි කෙළි පටන් ඇරගෙන. පක්‍ෂයේ බලය අල්ලගන්න සජිත් මහත්තයා සෑහෙන්න වෑයම් කරනවා. ඒ මහත්තයා මොන අදහස් නියෝජනය කරන කෙනෙක් ද කියන එකත් පැහැදිළි නෑ. ඉතින් මොනවා වෙයි ද කියන එක දැන් ම අපිට කියන්න බෑ. අපිට තියෙන්නේ බලාගෙන ඉන්න.

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Colombo Lotus Tower, the President made a statement to the effect that back in 2012, one of the Chinese contractors involved in the project – a company named ALIT – had taken the advance payment of Rs two billion (Around 15 million USD at that time) made by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRC) and disappeared. The President also stated that the government had sent the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Beijing to the address given by ALIT and discovered that there was no such company at that address. This allegation was flashed around the world by international news agencies including Reuters and it became a major news story in many Asian countries.

At the time that this payment was made in 2012, the TRC which was in charge of this project was directly under me as the President. Therefore I wish to make a clarification regarding this matter. In 2012, the total cost of the Lotus Tower project was estimated at 104.3 million US Dollars. The Exim Bank of China agreed to provide a loan facility of 88.6 million USD or up to 85% of the total project cost. The remaining 15% of the cost had to be borne by the TRC. The contractors for projects financed by the Exim Bank of China are nominated by the Chinese government. Accordingly, the China National Electronics Corporation and ALIT were nominated by the Chinese government. The Lotus Tower was due to be completed by 2015, but due to the yahapalana government causing delays in the project and due to lapses on the part of the contractor, it could not be completed according to schedule.

In projects of this nature the 15% ‘local component’ has to be paid to the contractor upfront as an advance payment. Documents confirm that on 9 October 2012, the TRC had credited 15 million USD (Rs. two billion) to the account of the main contractor China National Electronics Corporation. The latter company is still the main contractor of the project. The advance payment of Rs. two billion was never paid to the other contractor ALIT. The relevant documentation will show that from day one all payments had been made to the account of China National Electronics Corporation.

The two contractors recommended for the Lotus Tower projects are 100% Chinese government owned conglomerates. The active party doing the contract was always the China National Electronics Corporation and not ALIT. To say that a major Chinese government owned conglomerate had disappeared with Rs. two billion belonging to the Sri Lankan government, is a horrendous insult to China. This insulting statement was moreover made in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador. We can understand why the government would want to sling mud at the political opposition on the eve of a decisive presidential election. But to publicly insult a major world power that has always been friendly and helpful to Sri Lanka, is unconscionable.

From the time the present yahapalana government came into power, all they have done is to declare open the projects started by my government. The Colombo Lotus Tower is also one such project. The Lotus Tower can generate enormous revenues for the government by providing telephone, television and radio broadcasting services and also by attracting local and foreign tourists. But its cost has been less than a seventh of the cost for example of the privately owned Shangri La hotel project in Colombo. The Lotus Tower is therefore, an excellent investment. This is also an edifice that will symbolise Sri Lanka, much like the Eifel Tower in France.

This unfounded allegation of a Rs. two billion fraud in the construction of the Lotus Tower was made at its opening ceremony in order to prevent the credit for constructing such a national asset from going to the SLPP and the Joint Opposition. What we saw happening was no different to throwing stones at a neighbour’s new car out of sheer jealousy. For more than five years we have heard a lot about golden horses, Lamborghinis and bank accounts with a balance of 18 billion USD, but this is the first time that anybody heard of a Chinese company that had disappeared with Rs. two billion belonging to the TRC. In April 2019, the Auditor General published a 670 page special report on the Lotus Tower project, but it makes no mention at all of a Chinese contractor who disappeared with Rs. two billion.

What this indicates is the remarkable ability that the yahapalana leaders have to concoct complete falsehoods in a manner that suits the occasion. If this statement was made due to wrong information being conveyed, I expect the relevant individuals to move quickly to issue a correction. Since all documents pertaining to the Lotus Tower project are available with the TRC and the Auditor General, ascertaining the truth with regard to this matter is not a difficult task at all.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Leader of the Opposition

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය – මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ විපක්‍ෂ නායක

කොළඹ නෙළුම් කුලුණ විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී කතා කරමින්, එම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ  කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුවෙකු වූ චීනයේ ‘ඒලිට්’ නැමති සමාගමක් ලංකාවේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමෙන් දුන් රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක (ඒ කාලයේ හැටියට ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 15ක) අත්තිකාරම් මුදල රැගෙන අතුරුදහන් වූ බවට  ආන්දෝලනාත්මක ප්‍රකාශයක් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිදු කළේය. චීනයේ සිටින අපේ වත්මන් තානාපතිවරයා මෙකී ‘ඒලිට්’ සමාගමේ ලිපිනය සඳහන් ස්ථානයට ගොස් බැලූ විට ඒ ලිපිනයේ එවන් සමාගමක් නැති බවට අනාවරණය කරගත් බවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේය. මේ චෝදනාව රොයිටර්ස් ඇතුලු විදේශීය ප්‍රවෘත්ති සේවාවන් විසින් සැනෙකින් මුලු ලෝකය පුරාම ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම හේතුවෙන්, එය ආසියානු රටවල් ගණනාවක මාධ්‍ය වල ප්‍රධාන පුවතක් බවට පත්විය.  

මෙකී ගෙවීම සිදු කළ 2012 වසරේ,  නෙළුම් කුලුණ ව්‍යාපෘතිය බාරව සිටි විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන  කොමිසම තිබුණේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා හැටියට ඍජුවම මා යටතේය. එම නිසා මේ චෝදනාව ගැන පැහැදිලි කිරීමක් සිදු කළ යුතුය.  2012 දී නෙළුම් කුලුණ ඉදිකිරීම සඳහා මුලු ඇස්තමේන්තුව වූයේ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 104.3 කි. චීන එක්සිම් බැංකුව මේ සඳහා  ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 88.6 ක් (එනම් ව්‍යාපෘති වියදමෙන් 85% ක උපරිමයක් දක්වා) ණයක් සැපයීමට එකඟ විය. ව්‍යාපෘති වියදමේ ඉතිරි 15% දැරිය යුතු වූයේ ලංකාවේ විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසමයි. චීන ණය පහසුකම් යටතේ කරන ව්‍යාපෘති සඳහා කොන්ත්‍රාත් කරුවා නම් කරනු ලබන්නේ චීන ආන්ඩුව විසිනි. ඒ අනුව චීන ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ‘චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් කෝපරේෂන්’ සහ ‘ඒලිට්’ යන සමාගම් දෙක එකතු වී සෑදූ  හවුල් ව්‍යාපාරයක් නිර්දේශ කළේය.  නෙළුම් කුලුණ අවසන් කිරීමට සැලසුම් කර තිබුණේ 2015 දීය. නමුත් යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පැමිණි පසු මේ ව්‍යාපෘතියට බාධා කිරීම හා කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුගේ අතපසුවීම් නිසා ව්‍යාපෘතිය ප්‍රමාද විය.

මෙවැනි ව්‍යාපෘති ආරම්භ කිරීමට පෙර ණය ලබාගන්න රට, අදාල ව්‍යාපෘතිය වෙනුවෙන් ආයෝජනය කරන 15% ක මුදල අත්තිකාරමක් හැටියට කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරුට ගෙවිය යුතු වේ. ඒ අනුව 2012 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 09 වෙනි දින විදුලි සංදේශ නියාමන කොමිසම විසින් ප්‍රධාන කොන්ත්‍රාකරු වන චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් සමාගමේ ගිණුමට රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් (ඩොලර් මිලියන 15ක්) යැවූ බව ලියවිලි වලින් පෙනේ. අදටත් නෙළුම් කුලුණේ වැඩ කටයුතු කරන්නේ එම ගෙවීම ලබාගත් චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් සමාගමයි. මේ රුපියල් බිලියන දෙක අනෙක් කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරු වූ ‘ඒලිට්’ සමාගමට ලබා දී නැත. මුල් දවසේ සිට අද දක්වා සියලු ගෙවීම් කර ඇත්තේ ප්‍රධාන කොන්ත්‍රාත්කරු වෙන  චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් සමාගමේ ගිණුමට බව අදාල ලියවිලි වලින් තහවුරු කරගත හැක.

නෙළුම් කුලුණේ කොන්ත්‍රාත්තුවට නිර්දේශ වූ චීන සමාගම් දෙකම සියයට සියයක්ම චීන ආණ්ඩුවට අයත් මහාපරිමාන සමාගම්ය. හැමදාමත් මේ ව්‍යාපෘතියේ ක්‍රියාකාරී පාර්ශවය වුයේ ‘ඒලිට්’ සමාගම නොව චයිනා නැෂනල් ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනික්ස් කෝපරේෂන් නැමති සමාගමයි.  චීන රජයට අයත් මහා පරිමාන සමාගමක් ලංකාවේ රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් රැගෙන අතුරුදහන් වූවා යැයි කීම චීනයට කරන ලද මහා අපහාසයකි. ඒ අපහාසය කළේ ද ලංකාවේ චීන තානාපතිවරයා ඉදිරිපිටදීමය. ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් අතළඟ තිබියදී අපට මඩ ගැසීම තේරුම් ගත හැකිය.  නමුත් ඒ වෙනුවෙන්, අපේ රටට බෙහෙවින්ම උදවු උපකාර කළ චීනය වැනි මිත්‍රශීලී ලෝක බලවතෙකුට මේ ආකාරයට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ අපහාස කිරීම අදහා ගැනීමටත් නොහැකි දෙයකි. 

මේ ආණ්ඩුව බලයට ආපු දා සිට කළේ මගේ ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ඉදි කරපු දේවල් විවෘත කිරීම පමණි. නෙළුම් කුලුණත් එවැනිම ව්‍යාපෘතියකි. දුරකථන, රෑපවාහිනී හා ගුවන් විදුලි සම්ප්‍රේෂණ සේවා සැපයීම තුළින් පමනක් නොව දෙස් විදෙස් සංචාරකයන්ගේ ආකර්ශණය ඇති ස්ථානයක් වීමෙනුත් නෙළුම් කුලුණ හරහා අතිවිශාල ආදායමක් ආණ්ඩුවට ලබාගත හැක. නමුත් මේ මුලු ව්‍යාපෘතිය වෙනුවෙන්ම  වැය වී ඇත්තේ කොලඹ ෂැන්ග්‍රි – ලා හෝටල් ව්‍යාපෘතිය පමණක් ඉදිකිරීමට ඒ පුද්ගලික සමාගමට වැය වූ වියදමෙන් හතෙන් පංගුවකටත් අඩු මුදලකි. ඒ අනුව බලන කළ නෙළුම් කුලුණ යනු කදිම ආයෝජනයකි. එමෙන්ම මෙය ප්‍රංශයේ අයිෆල් කුලුණ මෙන්, ලංකාව සංකේතවත් කරන ඉදිකිරීමකි.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් අතලඟ තිබියදී මෙවැනි ව්‍යාපෘතියක් ඉදිකිරීමේ කීර්තිය පොහොට්ටු පාර්ශවයට ලැබීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා, සුබ මොහොතෙන් මේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය විවෘත කරන අවස්ථාවේදීම මේ රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකේ මඩ ප්‍රහාරය දියත් කළ බව මගේ විශ්වාසයයි. මෙතන සිදු වී ඇත්තේ අසල් වැසියගේ අලුත් වාහනයට, ඉරිසියාවට ගල් ගැහීමට නොවෙනස් දෙයකි.  රත්තරන් අශ්වයින්, ලැම්බෝගිනි, ඩොලර් බිලියන 18 ක බැංකු ගිණුම් ඇතුලු වෙනත් චෝදනා රාශියක් අවුරුදු පහකට කළින් සිට අපි අසා තිබුණද, රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් අරගෙන අතුරුදහන් වූ චීන සමාගමක් ගැන අපි ඇහුවේ පළමු වතාවටය. නෙළුම් කුලුණ ගැන 2019 අප්‍රේල් මාසයේදී පල වූ පිටු 670 ක විගණකාධිපතිවරයාගේ විශේෂ වාර්ථාවේද රුපියල් බිලියන දෙකක් අරගෙන අතුරුදහන් වූ චීන කොන්ත්‍රාත් කරුවෙකු ගැන කිසිඳු සඳහනක් නැත.

අවස්ථාවට ගැලපෙන පරිදි පට්ටපල් බොරු නිර්මාණය කර කීමට යහපාලකයන්ට ඇති සහජ හැකියාව මෙයින් ඉතා මැනවින් විදහා දැක්වේ. මෙය වැරදි තොරතුරු ලබාදීම හේතුවෙන් සිඳුකළ ප්‍රකාශයක් නම් අදාල පාර්ශවය එය ඉක්මනින්ම නිවැරදි කරනු ඇතයි මම බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමි.  නෙළුම් කුලුණු ව්‍යාපාතියට අදාල සියලුම ලිපි ලේඛන විදුලි සංදේශන නියාමන කොමිසම සහ විගණකාධිපතිවරයා සතුව තිබෙන නිසා, මේ කාරණා වල ඇත්ත තත්වය සොයා බැලීම කිසිසේතම අසීරු කාරණයක් නොවේ.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

විපක්‍ෂ නායක

By Sanjay Perera Courtesy Ceylon Today

The world has seen many examples of how progressive countries and Nations have become weak Nations, as a result of politically motivated witch-hunts by successive governments. The continent of Africa is a good example of how successive governments have been solely focused on eliminating political opponents, instead of focusing on the country and its citizens, which has led to disastrous consequences. 

One of the prominent 100-day election promises made by the coalition Yahapalana Government during the Presidential and General Elections in 2015, was to investigate and reprimand those in the Rajapaksa Government, including the Rajapaksa family, for fraud and corruption, which included the alleged personal wealth of Mahinda Rajapaksa, amounting to over US$ 13 billion, alleged import of Lamborghini cars by the young Rajapaksas using public funds, and alleged  money laundering, corruption, ill-gotten wealth, amassed by Senior Ministers and officials of the Rajapaksa Government. Despite not having any solid proof, the Yahapalana campaign promise was based on unfounded allegations – trillions of dollars of public funds wasted and scammed by the Rajapaksas and the Government. This election promise had to be made good by the Yahapalana Government – by hook or by crook!

Within a week of Sirisena taking oaths as the President of the Yahapalana Government, Premier Wickremesinghe was afforded the privilege of forming a government, passed a Cabinet Paper appointing the Secretariat established by a Cabinet Sub-Committee under patronage of the Premier, set up in accordance with the Cabinet decision taken by a Cabinet which constituted only one Cabinet Minister from the SLFP. This Sub-Committee was set up at the Premier’s official residence, Temple Trees. On 13 February 2015, just weeks after the Yahapalana Government took office, the Gazette establishing the FCID was issued. It should be noted at this point that the FCID was named as the Fraud and Corruption Investigation Division, and not as the Financial Crimes Investigation Division as known today.

In accordance with the Cabinet Paper presented by the Minister on 21 January 2015, under the topic “Establishment of Fraud and Corruption Investigation Division,” the below mentioned crimes committed in any part of Sri Lanka could be investigated by this Division:

i. Grievous financial crimes, corruption and massive unauthorised projects.
ii. Crimes against public funds and property.
iii. Grievous crimes against national security, public finance, health and environment.
iv. Unlawful enrichment and misuse of official powers.
v. Investigating into the money -laundering, funding of terrorists and illegal transactions.

This Division functions under a Deputy Inspector General of Police and a Director, under the supervision of the Inspector General of Police and, the Division was given the powers to investigate within all the jurisdictions established in Sri Lanka, and the complaints are forwarded to the IGP for investigation by the Secretariat established by the Cabinet Sub-Committee, under patronage of the Prime Minister, set up in accordance with the Cabinet decision and, in addition to that, the special complaints are forwarded by the Cabinet Sub-Committee directly to the DIG in charge of the Division.

It is clear that the priority of the Wickremesinghe Government was to eliminate all possible political opponents, especially the Rajapaksas, via a legitimate witch-hunt, by directly setting up this Sub-Committee under his purview, and at Temple Trees. In order to bring about fear within the security and government establishments, this witch-hunt was not limited to the Rajapaksas and Ministers of the Rajapaksa Government. 

It extended to the security establishments of SL, including individual high-ranking Officers to lower ranks, government and State sector establishments and officials, and even the private sector. This witch-hunt was also for the purpose of pleasing Wickremesinghe’s Western allies, who supported the defeat of Rajapaksa in 2015. Sirikotha has been noted for similar witch-hunts in the past, including against Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1978, wherein JRJ amended the Constitution, to strip Mrs. B of her civic rights, preventing her from contesting in 1982, as Mrs. B was likely to make a comeback, defeating the JRJ Government.

However, Wickremesinghe was well aware that not a single honest and respectable high-ranking Police Officer would investigate allegations of fraud and corruption, sans clear evidence and proof. Hence, the appointment of DIG (subsequently suspended) Ravi Waidyalankara, an Officer with a questionable background as Director FCID. No sooner Waidyalankara took office as Director FCID in March 2015, Muhammed Fazl conducted a one-on-one hard talk interview with him at his office at the FCID. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5vNPS0axBw). In this interview, Fazl questions Waidyalankara about corruption in the Police Department indirectly, pointing fingers at Waidyalankara’s suspect background, and also asking if a radical approach is to be taken by the FCID to arrest as many as possible alleged suspects within the Yahapalana 100-day programme.  A key factor mentioned during this interview is the possibility of arresting alleged suspects based on complaints, arresting these suspects and getting the alleged suspects to prove their innocence. The intention of Wickremesinghe and the Yahapalana Government is made obvious during this interview.

Citizens of SL are limited to information based on Media news reports and Media interviews by Police Media Spokesmen and politicians. In reality, the truth is far from what it seems.

Carlton Sports Network (Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Rohan Weliwita) – Misuse of Public Property

In addition to the yet unfounded money laundering charge against CSN, one of the other charges filed by the FCID was the misuse of public property. The only proof to arrest the officials of CSN was a Rs 150.00 (one hundred and fifty) voucher issued by CSN to mend a tire patch of a vehicle belonging to the Presidential Secretariat. No further proof or evidence on misuse of PP has been found or exposed even after 4 years. However, the arrested persons were remanded on the request of the FCID for a lengthy period. Public opinion was created that Yoshitha, Namal and Rohan had used their ties with President Rajapaksa to misuse public property for the privately-owned CSN.

Lalith Weeratunga – Sil Redi

The FCID case against Lalith Weeratunga, former Presidential Secretary, the highest-ranking State sector employee, was a case that instilled fear in the Government and State sector, which has crippled the efficiency of the State sector since 2017, resulting in drastic consequences, bringing SL to its knees, and chaos. In the Sil Redi case, while the decision given by Courts is not challenged in any way in this article, it is a well-known fact in the State and private sector, that handwritten minutes and footnotes on an originated internal memo or external/internal originated letter, which is circulated for action, recommendations, approvals etc. are perceived as a valid mechanism of documentation in an efficient work environment. It is regrettable that these minutes and footnotes on all the correspondence related to the subject were disregarded by the FCID. This case against the highest-ranking State official brought about a ‘cover your behind’ attitude among all file and rank in the State sector, and as a result it is obvious that State sector employees lack the motivation to make decisions within their capacity, and one can clearly note the lack of innovation in a State sector since 2017.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa – MiG deal allegation, memorial museum misappropriation of funds, Avant Garde case  

One of the first overseas fact-finding missions entrusted to Waidyalankara was to Ukraine, regarding the alleged corruption and fraud on purchasing of MiGs for SL. This was done by Waidyalankara almost soon after the revolution in Ukraine ended. As a result of the revolution in Ukraine and the country being in disarray, the relevant documentations on the procurement of the MiGs by the Rajapaksa Government was not available for scrutiny. On his return, Waidyalankara reported to the Sub-Committee that no contract or agreement is available in Ukraine, and assumptions were made that the MiGs had been purchased through a third party, without any tender process or agreements with suppliers, and that large amounts of commissions received would have been the reason for the high rate paid. During the process of the FCID filing the case against Gotabaya and Udayanga Weeratunga, who was Ambassador at the time, the VP of Ukrinmach, Mr. Strudenkin issued a statement through the authorities of Ukraine that he was responsible for the sale of the MiGs to SL, and forwarded the duly signed copies of contracts. Also proven, that the price per MiG was higher than what SL paid in the early 2000s was due to the reason that previously the MiGs were purchased by the previous SL Government on an “as-is condition” basis. However, under the Rajapaksa Government, it was decided to overhaul the MiGs prior to purchase and import. Further, the third party involved in the transaction was proven to be an international funding company who facilitated the procurement of the MiGs, as Ukrinmach was in no state to provide credit to the SL Government – reason for the additional charge. Similarly, in the recent weeks, we have seen Gotabaya being discharged from alleged cases on the Rajapaksa Memorial Museum and the alleged Avant Garde irregularity. However, the adverse publicity given against Gotabaya and others in these cases made the public believe that frauds had been committed with certainty.

FCID cases against Basil Rajapaksa, Gamini Senarath and Johnston Fernando
Likewise, the allegations of Basil Rajapaksa’s violation of the Public Property Act is built solely on the Economic Affairs Ministry transferring flag poles to another government entity – The Ministry of Local Government. No charges of bribery or corruption have been filed in this matter. FCID cases filed against Gamini Senarath, former Chief of Staff to President Rajapaksa, and allegations of unlawful wealth against former Minister Johnston Fernando have been thrown out by the Judiciary. Special note to be made on the Johnston Fernando case is that during the interview in March 2015, journalist Fazl makes special mention of Johnston’s assets, and inquires from Waidyalankara if that is one of the cases the FCID plans to investigate. Despite having no concrete evidence to go by, the arresting of these individuals and remanding them seems to be the PR victory achieved by the Wickremesinghe Government.

It is not just the Rajapaksa family and the Rajapaksa Government Ministers and State sector employees who have been witch-hunted since 2015. The security forces have been betrayed by the Wickremesinghe Government in Geneva, and high-ranking Officers have been arrested and remanded, along with junior ranks, on various allegations, including alleged war crimes. Most of these allegations are based on unfounded, word of mouth witness accounts, as seen in the case of the disappearance of the 11 youth from Dehiwala. Reprimanding and arresting of SL forces rank and file seems to have pleased the Wickremesinghe Western allies and HR NGOs. The detrimental result of these actions was seen when suicide Islamic terrorists killed over 250 innocent civilians on Easter Sunday.

While the objective of setting up a Sub-Committee to advise the FCID, which allegations and against whom to be investigated seems to be politically motivated with the FCID having little or no proof to proceed with most allegations in a Court of Law, the impact of arresting, questioning and remanding Ministers, MPs, State Officials, Police and Security forces personnel, Senior and minor staff of the public and private sector has been the downfall of the Wickremesinghe Government, and that of SL, which was an economically progressive Nation State up to 2014. Following the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, SL prided itself as a sovereign Nation State. The economy grew by leaps and bounds, and the country became an efficient work ground in terms of investments, infrastructure development and private sector growth. The economic boom created an upper middle class sector in SL. Small and medium enterprises grew to an extent that it contributed 52 per cent to the economy of SL. The State sector became efficient, with speedy decision-making by public officers.

This work ground (in Sinhala Wedabima) was converted to a hunting ground (in Sinhala Dadabima) by the Yahapalana Government, resulting in the chaos and calamity within the Yahapalana Government itself, and now even the UNP. With this transformation of SL becoming a Yahapalana hunting ground, came along regular strikes and protests, the slow progress on infrastructure and other developments, the lethargy in the State Sector, and the slow decision-making process in Government institutions. This negative energy spread to the private sector, with the shutting down of over 900 SMEs since 2016, downsizing in the private sector, drop in profits in blue chips, cautious attitude of commercial banks overall resulting in the economic collapse in SL, with a loss of employment to over 600,000, and worst of all the failures in national security mechanism and the loss of over 250 innocent lives.

It has been proven around the world that any government that makes a country its hunting ground for political gain fails, and drags the Nation along with it to failure. The failed States in the world is proof of this. A 30-year LTTE-battered Nation has been battered once again since 2015. Wrongdoers should be punished without doubt. But it should not be politically motivated or based on the sole objective of eradicating strong political competition, or for gaining cheap popularity. It is the hope of all Sri Lankans that the President and Government elected in 2020 will once again transform Sri Lanka from the current hunting ground (Dada Bima) to a progressive work ground (Weda Bima)!

(Acknowledgment C.A. Chandraprema)

Anirudh Tyagi Courtesy The Times of India

The growing presence of Chinese footprints in Sri Lanka has made India a bit of nervous and forced it to further strengthen its ties with Colombo. The Chinese involvement in Sri Lanka ranges from infrastructure development, economic aid, investments, trade, and strong diplomatic support to the island state, especially in the wake of human rights accountability issue that emerged after the end of the Lankan Civil War. This is a cause of concern for New Delhi as Beijing is encroaching on its sphere of influence in the region and eroding its commercial and cultural links with the island nation.

When it comes to infrastructure development Chinese footprint in Sri Lanka has attracted considerable attention of India and it has been proven by the former’s strong foothold in Hambantota. Even in terms of timely completion of projects, cost-effectiveness and quality of infrastructure, the island nation favours Beijing over India. Other reasons why Colombo backs China is that they not only bring in their labour workforce but also grant the leverage on structural adjustments, policy reforms, competitive biddings, or transparency attached to their loans” or even human rights which something India doesn’t give to its age-old friend.

While most Indian companies are privately owned, Chinese ones are state-owned and supported by state financial institutions like China Development Bank Corporation, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) etc. This political attitude of Beijing to look towards strategic advantages, diplomatic mileage provides it with an extra edge over New Delhi. Thus to improve the tie-ups with Sri Lanka, New Delhi should take the above-mentioned engagement on a serious note.

As far as economic engagement is concerned, the volume of trade between Beijing and Colombo reached nearly $ 2.1 billion in 2010 and grew further to $3.14 billion in 2011. Of this figure, Sri Lankan export was a mere $153 million as against China’s $2.989 billion. The balance of trade is hugely in favour of China.

Yet Sri Lanka is not complaining. Even in terms of foreign investment and lender China is the largest one. But contrary to that Indian rupee does not enjoy the same privilege, despite the loud stated fact that for decades India remains as Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner and one of the largest donors and investors.

During the Civil War, when no country was willing to supply arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan, India stepped in to provide only non-lethal weapons” considering domestic political implications.

Again Beijing sensed the opportunity and liberally supplied requisite arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan troops to defeat the LTTE. This behaviour of China fetched them tremendous goodwill from the Sri Lankan government and the Sinhalese in general.

In the words of Gen Sarath Fonseka, the then Army Chief of Sri- Lanka- India had told us they were not in a position to sell or send offensive weapons or even equipment like radars and basic communication equipment to meet our requirements. So we had no other option…. It was readily available and comparatively cheaper — almost half the price compared to Russia. I think we had no other option.”

Despite knowing the fact that Colombo will be appreciating China’s diplomatic support against the West-led call for an international investigation on war crimes committed against the humanity during the Civil War, India too supported Sri Lanka along with Russia in defeating UN resolution in May 2009 censuring Sri Lanka. However after 3 years, not happy with Colombo’s sincerity of maintaining resolution and establishing long term stable relations with India, Delhi decided to back the US-sponsored resolution. But China again came forward as a trustworthy friend and backs Colombo against the resolution.

In March 2013, India again voted in favour of UNHRC further disappointing Sri Lanka. China again sensed an opportunity and mobilised its support against UNHRC resolution in favour of Sri Lanka.

And as there is no free lunch: Sri-Lanka time and again supported Beijing’s ‘one-China policy’ — that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory.” Sri Lanka has also supported China several times on human rights motions against it.

Keeping in mind, all the above-mentioned developments, New Delhi concern should be more about the possibility of the dual-use mode of certain infrastructure projects. For Instance, China is allowed to have storage and fuelling facilities at Hambantota, although India has also been offered to enjoy the same facilities.

Last but not the least New Delhi must list its strengths and weaknesses when it is participating in the third country on developments. Apart from that New Delhi must establish the neighbourhood constituencies and should have a dialogue with the concerned political, economic, social and cultural actors.

A sustain bilateral ties with Sri Lanka is the key to make up for the ground lost to China.

Courtesy Adaderana

The date for the Presidential elections has been set as the 16th of November, 2019, stated the Elections Commission Chairman.

Further, the nominations for the elections will be called from the 07th of October, 2019. 

Reportedly, the nomination applications can only be submitted between 9 am until 11 am on October 7.

The relevant Gazette notification will be issued tonight (18), stated the Elections Commission Chairman.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

I have read the opinion column today’s paper written by a learned Uswatte Arrachi with brilliant opinion in perfect English parlance with an analysis which can cause the CB Bond Scam ( rather government bond. Scam ) legal case to collapse.

In my younger days I was told by my father who was a government Servant and also taught Sinhala to Tamil government servants and English to Sinhalese ,educated in a  Missionary school and eloquent in Latin , about  a legal case (which collapsed ) filed against a known landowner in our Neighborhood because of the error in defining the place where a certain act of crime was committed 

The landowner shot and killed an intruder in the paddy field where paddy harvest is stored for drying prior to being crushed to retrieve rice This plot of land is called Kamatha” 

A witness has given evidence that the offender stood behind Goyam Kolaya” which had a double meaning for a heap of rice plants cut and placed in Kamatha and the leaf of the rice plant 

When the witness said that killer hid behind the Goyam Kolaya  ” the shrewd witty lawyer proved to the ignorant judge that killer could not have been hiding behind a rice leaf” and commit such a heinous crime   

I was told that the  charges were dropped and accused was released 

Whether you call this Government or Central Bank Bond Scam it is  a horrendous crime 

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday that he was ready to introduce a new constitution within an year based on the consensus reached at the Constitutional Assembly (CA).

Flanked by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, the Prime Minister called for a special meeting with the TNA MPs in the parliamentary complex in view of the presidential election.

After the meeting, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran told Daily Mirror that his party made significant compromises on its position to reach consensus on constitution-making. He said the TNA would also agree to forge ahead based on a consensus reached to evolve a new constitution.

Mr. Sumanthiran said the TNA informed the Prime Minister that it was left to the United National Party (UNP) to sort out its internal differences as far as its presidential candidate was concerned and that theTNA would not be party it.

He said there seemed to be three presidential hopefuls in the UNP and his party would decide on whom to support only after holding talks with all those in the fray including those from other parties. 

Mahinda Karunaratne

It is my humble pride to write this mote of gratitude in memory to late Mr. D.J. Wimalasurendra the Eng., the founder father of Hydro Electricity in Ceylon. 

Devapura Jayasena Wimalasurendra born 17 September 1874 (In Galwadugoda, Galle) – died 10 August 1953 with an unparalleled and invaluable service rendered to the Country and Nation which is in bleak memory now, but it is of my duty-bound to remember being a great-grandchild of the Vishwakula clan of which Late Mr. Wimalasurendra belongs is from Southern sect while I am of the Upcountry sect.

Those were the days the County under the Colonial rule that only the Colombo and few other major cities and places important to Colonials were powered by Diesel generating sets and that had been no electricity around the country.

It was my great-great-grandfather who immensely had thoughts and rendered and sacrificed his academic and ancestral talents to create the marvelous work of Laxapana hydropower station which is also known as Wimalasurendra hydropower station situated near Maskeliya.

Like any other such sons of the Hela nation, he too had several barriers to pass through with many obstacles of saboteurs and enemies that did not like him doing his endeavor, however according to family chronicles that he even had to contest the Ratnapura electorate and enter to the Parliament in order to get his project approved by the then govt.

The commendable initiative he had taken was so much excellent even the colonial rulers did not think about, thus Late Mr. Wimalasurendra deserves the same position of Michal Faraday of England and Thomas Edison of America.

The Nation is indebted timelessly to Late Mr. Wimalasurendra for lighting up the nation.

Red Cats

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා බෞද්ධයෙක් නොවන බවට තමන්ට උදාහරණ ඇති බවට ඉරාජ් වීරරත්න පවසනවා.