By Garvin Karunaratne

President Trump is looking after the interests of the USA and mind you within months many industries will open up making what the USA did import. Once I owned a Roadtrek-Chevrolet campervan in the USA and clocked over 50,000 miles travel over hill and dale. It was a marvel, far better that the Benz 200 I drive today. Earlier, When I was a doctoral student at Michigan State I ran in a Delta 99 Oldsmobile, a great car and I am certain that the car giants in the USA will soon make better cars than the Benz.

Our new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is kindly requested to get going with opening up new ventures to make everything we import.

In the Fifth Century we built the Yodha Ela at a gradient of six inches in a mile- so miniscule a gradient that defies the irrigation engineers of today. In 1963, as the Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in Anuradhapura I presided over the Irrigation water allocation meeting for over a hundred tanks from Kalaweva and to satisfy the farmers who never got water in time I suggested to put a concrete base  for the seventy mile long Yodha Ela. The District Irrigation Engineer admitted that they cannot lay such a base as the gradient was so miniscule- six inches in a mile, a gradient that the most sophisticated equipment today cannot lay.

That was the achievements of out ancient forefathers.

Get to today. We administrators were once charged with the task of creating production, alleviating poverty and we have real stories of what we did to tell-not fiction.

In the late Fifties the Department of Rural Development provided for small construction work everywhere. Every village had a Rural Development Society. These were manned by Rural Development Officers who know not what to do now.

Under the Paddy Lands Act we organized farmers into Cultivation Committees and did wonders in organizing paddy cultivation with certified seed, and fertlizer use.Farmers were organized into cultivation committees and paddy cultivation was done in an organized manner cooperatives providing fertlizer etc. We never gave farmers money to buy fertlizer as we now do. Instead the cooperatives were active and provided fertiliser. 

Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake  took charge of paddy production  in 1965 and got the Government Agents in the Districts to be in charge and Sri Lanka produced all the rice it needed. He was not satisfied with the Department of Agriculture reporting the yield of paddy. He ordered plots to be decided by random sampling and crop cuttings done by staff officers of other departments to be certain of the yield. I organized this in the Kegalla District in 1967 and 1968. Then, As the Additional Government Agent of the Kegalla District it was my task every Saturday and Sunday to to greet him at nine in the morning every Saturday and Sunday and accommpany him to a host of meetings and inspections in his electorate. There was no poverty and no one who had to live on two meals a day. On the other five days in the week I toured the other electorates and Yatiyantota was Dr NM’s electorate. All development programmes were concentrated on even  in the electorates of the opposition- Yatiyantota and Dehiovita.  We had definitely avoided poverty and deprivation then. Otherwise Dr NM would have raised the matter in Parliament and I would not know where to run.

Unfortunately things changed. With the abolition of the Pady Lands Act the Department of Agrarian Services was completely slashed. Cultivation committees ceased to exist. In 1980  the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture boasted about paddy production and I asked for the crop cuttings done  by staff officers of other departments. Out came the answer that it was costly and done away with. In  about 1992 President Premadasa promoted all Agricultural Overseers- 2300 of them as Grama Niladharis and till today there are no agricultural overseers. Cultivators plough and cultivate as they like and the Governments have to import rice every year. All tanks in NuwaraKalaviya are ruined almost beyond repair.

Then, till 1978,  Sri Lanka was not a country in debt to anyone. Our forte was to fund what we can. We had development programmes that effectively alleviated poverty. But in 1978 at the instance of the IMF President Jayawardena abolished all those development programmes, confined the administrators to the barracks and today we are begging for dollars in the streets of the World. As a member of the Administrative Service, I was privy to play a role with Premier Dudley and also in the DDCP of Sirimavo, thus I speak of what we actually did, not learned surmises and projections on a chalk board.

In the days of Sirimavo we had the Divisional Development Councils Programme, directed by professor HAdeS Gunasekera, the most qualified economist of the day. It was really Dr NM Perera’s Programme. As he said in his 1970 Budget Speech it was to fullfill the aspirations of young men and women for whom life will loose all meaning unless they can find a useful place in our society”. Passing by his statue in Borella last year, I was sad that my driver did not know Dr N,M,I was myself neck deep involved with Dr N.M.implementing his great programme as the Government Agent at Matara

The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale, charged with creating employment and also making something useful , collected all the waste paper he could find, rolled up his sleeves and worked with the youth to wet and churn the waste paper, spread it out to dry and out came saleable paper and cardboard. President Jayawardena in 1978 put a stop to Kotmale Paper to please the IMF.

In the Youth Self Employment Programme I established in Bangladesh in the two years I worked there-1983-1984 we had to address hundreds of youths on training workshops and we provided the youths with lunch packets. The lunch came in cardboard packs and there were some youth entrepreneurs collecting the discarded cardboard covers and packing them– back at home their sustenance came from churning it to cardboard. Our Divisional Secretary at Kotmale was a great man to make paper out of waste paper. Let us find him and get going instead of wasting money for the imports of paper. I hope he is kicking and alive. I am sorry I do not know his name.

In the DDCP of the Sirimavo days as the GA at Matara I established the Matara Mechanized Boatyard that made seagoing fishery boats- some forty a year. That was a great industry fixed by me in some two months. My giants, the DivSec Ran Ariyadasa and his Development Assistant did that task within two months and our youths made 40 seaworthy boats a year, a feather in the DDCP cap. The boats were sold to fishery cooperatives and ran on the high seas bringing a catch of fish. Ran is no more but his work stands out as something that can be done fast. However President Jayawardena to please the IMF closed that Boatyard in 1978. Imagine what the trained youths thought when they were thrown into the heap of the unemployed. Mind you they were fully trained entrepreneurs.

I got sick of the Ministry of Plan Implementation that ran the DDCP as they failed to allow more industries for me to establish-and I took charge without their knowledge. I had a Planning Officer , Vetus Fernando a raw chemistry grad from the University of Colombo. One day I persuaded him to find the method of making crayons. Once I had worked as Deputy Director of Small Industries and had a background in running powerlooms, handlooms, ceramic and all sorts of industries. Then I authorized the purchase of a few items that were required and started experiments in the night at my Residency at Matara. We never got anywhere due to the lack of equipment. A science lab was needed and we sought the assistance of the Principal of Rahula College the leading secondary school. Mr Ariyawamsa readily agreed for our use of the science lab after school hours. Vetus aided by me- the GA, the AGA and Development Assistant Paliakkara, and the science teachers at Rahula  were at it experimenting every night from six to midnight. It went on for two months and the crayons made were really useless. Then Vetus sought the help of his professors at the University of Colombo, beseeching help on three days on bended knees and was chased away. We were not going to take that lying down and again undertook the daily experiments every night with vehement force. I was there every night. In around a month we did make a real crayon and I sat with Vitus experimenting again and again till the quality of our crayon was as good as Reeves, the best of the day.

We had won but how could we start an industry without money. Though I had money at the katcheri they were all tied up with rules that I could not vary. I was gazetted a Deputy Director of Cooperatives for the purpose of agriculture development. The Coops had money and it so happened that Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament was the President of the Morawaka Cooperatives. I summoned Sumane and showed him the crayon and he was ready to make it using cooperative funds if only I approved it. I was certain of his sincerity and ability. Though I had no authority I did approve it and Sumane got cracking. He and the Divisional Secretary at Morawaka found twenty unemployed youths, Sumane purchased the utensils and equipment and cleared two rooms at the  Morawaka Cooperatives and Vetus and five or six of us moved in to train the youths to make crayons. It had to be a dare devil job endless working 24 hours a day non stop as we had to be successful and all of us broke rest for two weeks making crayons. It was hand made and thus every crayon had to be handcrafted. In the second week labels were printed and packets of crayons filled two large rooms. All this was done with unauthorized cooperative funds and I had no business to set up an industry without Ministry approval. 

We got over that in a smart manner by tying in other Ministers. Sumane and I took the crayons we made and showed them to Mr Subasinghe the Minister for Industries. He was taken aback at the quality and agreed to open sales and with that we came into legitimacy. We faced the problem of having to purchase dyes in the open market at high cost and the Ministry of Industries said that their funds were not for cooperatives. We got to know when the Ministry for Imports was about to authorize the import of crayons and both of us moved in. We showed the crayons we made to the Controller of Imports Harry Guneratne and he was satisfied with the quality but he wanted us to obtain the approval of his master the Minister for Imports, Mr Illangaratne as such a cross allocation had never been done earlier. . Sumane and I met the Minister and the moment we showed him the crayons he started scribbling them on paper and testing the quality and shouted for the Controller of Imports to stop all imports and gave us a fat allocation of foreign exchange to import dyes. He had a hard look at me and said, I want you to set up a branch in Kolonnawa my electorate.” I gave him that assurance.

Coop Crayon, made crayons equal to the Crayola crayons of today. Sumane developed the sales to become islandwide. Coop crayon was very successful. It was easily the best industry that the DDCP ever made. Sumanapala excelled and developed the venture to have islandwide sales. But not for long- the Government changed and President Jayawardena won the elections. Coop Crayon was the best industry established in the DDCP and it had to get discredited. Sumane had to be sent to the gallows to discredit the industry so President Jayawardena hatched a masterplan . He summoned the Deputy Director of Cooperatives, N.T.Ariyaratne and entrusted to him the task of taking a posse of auditors to do a forensic audit of Coop Crayon. Ariyaratne when I met him in 1982 told me of this and that he had subjected all the books to an audit for four full days and found everything in order. Ariyaratne was not an officer to fabricate facts to put Sumane in the soup. Sumane was saved a stint in the gallows. But the IMF stepped in 1978 and decided that if Sri Lanka was to be given loans the government has to accept that the private sector was the engine of growth and all development work had to be stopped and the administrators who had manned all development departments had to be sent to the barracks. The IMF effectively ensured that all development activities were closed down

Since 1978, not a single industry was approved and all development activities were stopped and this stoppage continues to today- that is the barrier we have to surmount to create production and alleviate poverty within us.

I got sick of doing little work and decided to proceed to the UK to do further studies and sent in papers for retirement. I was entitled to retire but Minister Felix Dias decided that circular 28 should have retrospective effect. I lost my pension and resigned.

That ended my development tasks in Sri Lanka. I bagged the M Ed in Community Development from the University of Manchester and the Ph.D. from Michigan State in Non Formal Education & Agricultural Economics. I moved to the UK and the Bahamas and to Edinburgh, when Bangladesh somehow wanted me for Youth Development and the Military Government that took over the country when I was there was determined to close youth development altogether. Identifying me as a foreigner, Minister Aminul Islam, the Air Vice Marshal ordered me: What can you do for Bangladesh.”

I replied: ‘You should approve a new programme to create employment for the youth, the unemployed who have to scrape the barrel for life.”

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest officer in the land, objected: The ILO tried hard to create employment on a special programme for three long years at Tangail, Bangladesh, bringing experts from all over the World, but miserably failed. The Treasury had to face a huge loss. We cannot face a loss again.”

I do not need funds. All I need is the approval to start and approval to divert approved funds for training workshops”

“The ILO are the experts and they did fail. You are talking nonsense. ” 

The battle between me and the Secretary to the Treasury took over two long hours and the Minister Aminul Islam who was patiently listening got sick of our arguments and stopped our battle. He ordered: I approve a new Self Employment Programme for the Youth”.

We got cracking the very next day-training officers in economics and guiding youths in a manner where they became self reliant. That was economics and non formal education in action . I worked pell mell for seventeen months- over fifteen hours everyday including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and trained the staff including members of the elite BCS-( Bangladesh Civil Service).  In 2023 the Ministry of Youth Development reported that total self employment created since inception  was 2,782,000 youths.(Activities of the Department of Youth Development, 2023)

It is an ongoing programme that can be seen by anyone interested.

  Even our High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda when he came forward as a candidate for the mayorship of Colombo in 2011 in his Manifesto stated that if elected he would seek to implement the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh which incidentally was an amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka, Dr Garvin Karunaratne who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.”(The Nation 11/9/2011)

Since 1978, the biggest industry one can find in Colombo is the collection of waste cardboard- we ship some 8000 tonnes to India every month and collect a few coppers and buy the cardboard that India makes out of it paying fat dollars. Mind you we have been doing it for the past four decades. We do deserve to be called lunatics for doing this for forty five long years from 1978 to today. I saw a lorry being loaded with used cardboard in February 2025. That is the prosperity that President Jayawardena brought to us and mind you we should call it a day even now.

It is sad that today, we do not have even a Central Bank of our own- the IMF hijacked our Central Bank and now we are on bended knees begging for dollars. Till 1977 we managed with our finances. Since 1978 we closed all development tasks and allowed the rich to spend foreign currency travelling to the galore and educating their children abroad and borrowed dollars- which we do even till today. Now our foreign debt is well over $ 100 billion.

It is upto us to change, develop employment creation programmes once again to make everything we import. We did it once and  it can be done again.

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University

former GA Matara 1971-73

garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com 10052025

By Rohana R. Wasala

This article is dedicated to the memory of Sri Lankan patriot, humanitarian, and friend of fellow global Buddhists, Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was instrumental in winning official recognition for Vesak as an international holiday at the United Nations in September 1999, on the eve of the 3rd Millennium

Jairam Ramesh quotes the following short quatrain from Sir Edwin Arnold, the author of The Light of Asia, writing in 1893:

Praise me or asperse,

Deck me or deride,

In my veil of verse,

Safe from you I hide.

Edwin Arnold addressed these words to his hypothetical biographer. His denial of his overt presence in the poem amounts to more than stating an obvious fact, which is that he is assuming a persona for the purpose of his artistic expression of his central theme. It is also a gentle invitation to the reader to catch, if possible, a whiff of his own authentic spiritual discovery, as  reflected in the quality of his absorption in his subject: presenting the life and teachings of Buddha Gautama in the form of fictionalised fact for easy understanding at a time when little or nothing was known in the West about the great Indian sage. In his book about Edwin Arnold’s poem Jairam Ramesh offers a brief description of the life and times of the poet, and narrates the story of how the poem came to be composed and how it was received at home and abroad, and how it later evolved to be a global phenomenon in the last quarter of the 19th century and beyond.

Before proceeding, I would like to introduce Jairam Ramesh to the reader. Seventy-one year old Jairam Ramesh (b. 1954) is an Indian economist and politician with a diverse academic background. He can also be described as a dabbler in literary matters who adopts a maverick approach. At present, he is a Member of Parliament elected from the Indian National Congress Party (INCP), representing the Karnataka State in the Rajya Sabha, the Indian parliament. Jairam obtained a B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1975, and a Master of Science degree in Public Policy and Public Management from the Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Although he enrolled for a doctoral program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1977, he quit it after some initial preparation. 

Jairam served as the Union Minister of Rural Development under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from July 2011 to May 2014, and has been active in various official capacities in the public sphere during INCP governments, sometimes receiving controversial attention. He has been dispensing his varied expertise as university lecturer, international scholar, economic consultant, and journalist, among other things. He has authored a number of books dealing with subjects related to economics and policy management. ‘THE LIGHT OF ASIA: the poem that defined the Buddha’ reveals an exception to his normal secular academic interests. But it doesn’t surprise us, considering the fact that he shows a deep commitment to spiritual values. According to the Wikipedia that quotes from a 2012 feature in Hindustan Times, Jairam Ramesh considers himself a practising Hindu ‘ingrained with Buddhism’, and calls himself ‘Hind-Budh’.

(This article is based on an Amazon Kindle version of Jairam’s work (as a Penguin book), which I acquired in 2021, in which year it was first published in India. Though I wanted to find the printed edition, I failed to get a copy here in Australia at that time. The Kindle form has the look of an uncorrected manuscript, but I was able to grasp its main points.  It being the Covid-19 lockdown time then, I found this Kindle edition of Jairam’s thesis a helpful companion for me to revisit the print version of Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia that I already had with me.)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his Foreword (dated 3 October 2020) to Jairam’s book writes:

‘I believe what Sir Edwin’s poems showed was that the message of the Buddha is timeless, eternal and relevant. I am sure the readers will find this reflected in Mr Ramesh’s book, too’.

Jairam divides the text into four Sections. Section I is devoted to an account of ‘the man (Arnold the poet), the milieu and the moment (that) would come together in 1879 and The Light of Asia would blaze forth….’, as he writes at the end of that part of the book.

But to begin at the beginning, in his introduction to the book (‘A First Word’), Jairam remarks how The Light of Asia led to ‘an epidemic of exuberance’ as he calls it, when it was originally published in London in July 1879. The book created great enthusiasm in England, which soon spread to America and Europe and to other parts of the world, and the trend would continue for a few decades. 

Jairam goes on to mention the names of five persons in subcontinental India, and Sri Lanka who were fascinated and inspired by Arnold’s epic poem. They later reached iconic stature through their contributions to the multifaceted (political, social, cultural,  and economic) upliftment of their peoples: The young Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda (b. 1863), and  the Buddhist renunciate and missionary Anagarika Dharmapala (b. 1864) from Colombo, Sri Lanka, were deeply motivated by the poem. The aspiring lawyer of Indian origin in London who was later to become  Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1869), and his teenage followers Jawaharlal Nehru (b,1889) who would become India’s first prime minister in 1947, and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (b. 1891), later to become  the chief architect of the Indian Constitution and the first Minister of Law and Justice of Independent India, similarly found Edwin Arnold’s epic to be a source of profound inspiration and succumbed to its strong positive impact.

Apart from this, The Light of Asia had a marked influence on at least eleven famous literary figures from across the world according to Jairam. Five of them were to become Nobel Laureates, namely, Rudyard Kipling (1907), Rabindranath Tagore (1913), W.B. Yeats (1923), Ivan Bunin (1933), and T.S. Eliot (1948). The other six were to become equally famous in the world of literature: Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Lafcadio Hearn, D.H. Lawrence, John Masefield, and Jorge Luis Borges. 

The Arnold classic’s influence spread into other fields of human intellectual engagement, including the world of science and industry. Around the beginning of the 20th century, it exercised its charm on the life of C.V. Raman, the young student of science in Madras, who would be honoured in 1930 with the Nobel Prize for Physics, becoming the first Indian Nobel Laureate in that subject area. The Russian chemist and the formulator of the periodic law and the creator of one version of the periodic table of elements Dmitri Mendeleyeev, and the Scottish-American industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie felt a special attraction towards Edwin Arnold’s poem about the Buddha. Despite his extremely controversial reputation in the military, colonial administrator Field Marshal Herbert KItchener (1850-1916) was regarded as a hero of his time. He used to carry a copy of The Light of Asia in his pocket wherever he went.

Jairam shows how, in the decades that followed its publication, the Arnoldian magnum opus was  translated into many foreign languages including thirteen European, eight North and South-East Asian, and fourteen South Asian, languages; it was adapted in a number of plays, dance   dramas, and operas. In the last half a century, it has continued to engage academic interest. It has formed the subject of scholarly publications and even doctoral dissertations in the UK, Canada, USA and Germany. Jairam found that the latest example of this trend was a February 2020 study of the influence of The Light of Asia on James Joyce (b.1882), a pioneer of the modernist avant garde movement in literature and the famed author of such monumental ‘stream of consciousness’ novels as Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. 

The first of two events that revived his interest in the Arnold classic that he had read in his mid teens, Jairam says, was his discovery of a letter that the late Jawaharlal Nehru had received from his British counterpart Winston Churchill bearing the date February 21, 1955. Churchill wrote:

I hope you will think of the phrase ‘The Light of Asia’. It seems to me that you might be able to do what no other human being could in giving India the lead, at least in the realm of thought, throughout Asia, with the freedom and dignity of the individual as the ideal rather than the Communist Party drill book.’ 

Another letter from Churchill to Nehru ended thus: ‘….Yours is indeed a heavy burden and responsibility, shaping the destiny of your many millions of countrymen and playing your outstanding part in world affairs. I wish you well in your task. Remember The Light of Asia.’

(Jairam’s italics)

Nehru was going through his first, and Churchill his second, term as prime minister. They were facing life and sharing individual burdens as kindred spirits, while giving leadership to two nations which were opposed to each other as the coloniser and the colonised. Between 1921 and 1945 Nehru had spent a total of ten years in prison during the oppressive British colonial rule, three of which (1942-45) were when Churchill was prime minister for the first time, during which he led his country to victory over the NAZI (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) forces under Adolf Hitler. The friendship that Nehru and Churchill mutually sustained between them defied external circumstances. Both shared morale boosting memories associated with their having been engaged with the meaning of The Light of Asia in their youth. Churchill’s friendly admonition to Nehru to provide leadership to India with ‘the freedom and dignity of the individual as the ideal’ at heart was prompted by the British leader’s memory of the particular Buddhist insight he had gained by reading The Light of Asia in the formative years of his youth.

To be concluded

Aloysius Hettiarachchi

I must confess that I am only a professionally qualified Civil & Structural Engineer with some computer programming experience plus some knowledge about Structured Computer Organization, I have no training on teaching methods. However, throughout my carrier I have been associated with teaching at primary and secondary education in several parts of the world. This is because I am married to a teacher from a teacher family that has also done a significant amount of community work in that field. By trying to help her in photocopying the question papers on mathematics for distribution to her students and at times trying to help solve questions at higher level like GCSE- A-Levels, I have come to appreciate the type of hard work our teachers put in. In this connection I thought of giving a new insight on teaching methods by a scientist, the creator of veritasium, whose valuable videos I previously presented in this forum:

It is quite clear that most of the time the students only use the top-level portion of the brain and use the same in answering the questions. If the teacher had managed to put similar questions to the deeper section, then the students become successful in answering the question on which his or her mind has been ‘trained’ (as in AI). So, the success of the tutor depends on how the student selects the questions that will come at the exam and train them on method to be used. To be able to do that the teacher should have the ability to ‘connect’ with each student. Perhaps this is why some teachers become successful and become very popular while others fail. I have seen that tutors try various strategies by coming out with stories related to current affairs and get their confidence and attention first. I my view, giving the confidence to the students take time unless of course he is well known already as an achiever. I remember when my wife was teaching in a secondary school overseas, the tendency was to take students in one particular school as very weak as good grades for maths had been very rare. But her first batch of students when they reached the O-level had developed confidence and became serious. So, every weekend the whole class of 26 or so students would be at our house getting drilled on the questions that would come. When the results came the whole class had scored credit passes or above (the A* at GCSE). From there onward our residence became a favourite tuition centre for A* results in both O-Levels and A-Levels. In her assessment Sri Lankan students are a lot better than all others she had taught. Perhaps this is due to special place our country is situated as given in the following report. This report has been published by an Indian research organisation very recently:

Massive Gravity Hole Discovered in the Indian Ocean—And What’s Beneath Could Redefine Earth’s Evolution

We all knew that according to a NASA observation our country is situated at a low point on the earth’s geoid. It was said to be about 80m below the average level. But now it turns out that it is about 120m below and that the closest point in our land to the actual gravity hole is in the deep south of the country. I now give a picture of that area in Bundala National Bird Park taken six years ago when a group of us went there (after spending a night in a hotel close to the place):

This was our get together 55 years after graduation from University of Peradeniya. All except one guy (wearing the hat) were working in different parts of the world and are citizens of those countries (except one dear friend who has passed away about a year ago) . Apparently one brilliant guy in this picture had earned their president’s (United States of America) award for his invention of an alloy used in aircraft industry. I am sure the emeritus professor will be recognised by his colleagues and PhD students of his Uni.  Yours truly is in the extreme right (sporting a British product by the name Tensar).

This is a historic area. Somewhere close to this place excavations had been carried out by a prominent archaeologist of the country recently. He had done excavations on an area of 10X10km and found an ancient settlement belonging to 1100 BCE with a population of about 35000. It had been an ancient port. Also, nearby he had found a burial ground of a settlement of ‘Hulavali’ or gypsy people carbon dated to be 12000 years old. It seems the artifacts found suggests that they practiced ‘linga vandana’ (or veneration of genitals). In another nearby site he had found a rock inscription dating back to first century BC, based on Buddha era, with the date written in decimal format at the top of the inscription. This seem to suggest that decimal maths had been in existence in Sri Lanka. The notion that decimal math system and written form in Proto Indo European (or PIE) originated in India may not be correct. Perhaps same language was used in some parts of India as well as in Sri Lanka (or Taprobana according to Ptolemy).

Knowledge Passing down from one generation to the next:

In my view, each generation sits on the shoulders of the previous one, gets a better view and figure out the situation before moving forward. History is like a weaved cloth, each bringing a new colour or an abrupt end of a nice picture. We have seen how Elon Musk’s favourite child,  X, trying to sit on the shoulders of his father to see the proceedings clearly for himself and even the US president Trump didn’t want to stop it. This is the same way my father who was an engine driver of a mill would show me how he would tackle a problem of his huge Ruston & Hornsby engine when the bearings would cease. And also, how to make ‘biththtara wee’ (or selecting rice seed paddy). Perhaps even the present day Rajarata farmers would not know the real meaning of ‘biththara wee’ as the agricultural officers would like to promote seeds from multinationals. The seeds he selected by using and egg and a salt solution would withstand the onset of saline water from a nearby tidal river to give a reasonable yield. This was my father’s hobby while working at the mill, and I could not understand why he got me involved. At times he would ask me to skip school, I didn’t mind though. I was about ten years old, but this distraction did not affect me as I was first in the class throughout.

We know Einstein is the greatest scientist so far. What does Einstein name means: it is stone worker or quarry worker which perhaps was a traditional work in a feudal society. He was considered a dull person and was sent to school only at the age of 14 or so, according to the book I read on him. During his childhood he used to go to the field, sit under a tree and watch reeds swaying in the wind with the backdrop of moving trains. His education in the school had been just enough to earn him a job as a clerk in a patent office. Those patents of other people had been a treasure trove for him. He had found how others would carry out inventions and register them under their name. May be the time he spent as a boy watching nature must have given ‘energy’ to the deeper section his brain and it remained active. The inspiration he got may have helped him to move forward with confidence. During the world- war two, they had to run away and escape the persecution. I remember my grandmother saying that a lot of Jewish people came to our village and lived under tents. The people of the area gave them food and treated them well. When the war ended, they all went back. It seems Einstein also visited Negombo area after he became famous and retired. People of that area are known for generosity.

Elon Musk named his electric cars as Tesla as he may have considered him as a genius. At his time the use of electrical power was just getting started. The understanding at the time was that electrons travel from one end of line or the source to the device its being used and then return like a stream. Even the famous IT persons (like the Anastasi lady whose videos on new chip design I have presented in this forum) thinks electrons flow along wires). However, there is a video from Derek Muller, whose video on Teaching Methods,  I have presented above explains clearly that it isn’t the case. He thinks it is an electro-magnetic wave that travels along the wires. But new inventions on quantum field seem to suggest that it isn’t case either. So, Tesla’s incredible solution for the transmission of electricity using cables over long distances worked even though there was no clear understanding on the principles. It appears to be a much more simple thing, and had been figured out by our easterners. Perhaps main part may be the quanta of energy from electrons moving from one level in the atom to next one above and then releasing it plus the other part of energies due to spin being transmitted. The latter may be the part that travels as photons connecting living objects and register in their brains as memory. This may even be a thing that can be represented by a polynomial that can be broken to an infinite series similar to Fourier series. The people of our country believes that there are things called ‘as waha’ and ‘kata waha’ (or powers of certain people have to cast spell using light from their eyes and sound from mouth). It is well known that rats can generate light from their brain with which they see in the dark. Similarly, there can be so-called dark photons that people cannot see, but connect people.

We know that the ancient people who built huge structures with bricks and mortar to securely place relicts of religious leaders like Buddha had a good knowledge how lightening strike on them and to safely let it pass to the ground. When some one explained how it was achieved in a stupa in the ancient city of Anuradhapura a guy in Iran came to the place, got additional info and used them to register a patent. Also, when Sri Lankans explained the use of a local yam type called ‘Kothala Himbutu’ for treatment of diabetics, a guy in Japan where this plant is never seen patented it and now we cannot even talk about it. So, let us be careful in revealing our ideas that are gaining grounds in the ‘High Tech’ sector.

As usual, let me wind up with some lovely songs that our readers would like to enjoy.

The first is from the duo in the group ‘Fantasy’ (Martin and Freddy) singing with a backdrop of an area similar to the scene in the picture given above (paradise):

I give a song by Olaf der Flipper on ‘Stern von Jamaika’ (the Star of Jamaika)

The scenario is very much like the beach font of Negombo, the most economically active part of the country:

Next one from a French lady singing in their beautiful language (like Sinhalese without rough edges) a popular song about her gold fish which has a smooth skin etc. (a sort of ‘jarre marre’ or stress of the gold fish, as we call it).

And finally, one from the attractive guy Hemanta Kumar singing in sync to the voice of Dev Anand ‘Hai Apna dil To aawara’:

Doesn’t this give an idea how people connect via photons and sound?. I tend to believe that at one time in history, people in the region spoke the same language like the English of today.

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන. 

1. කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට අධිකරණයට යන නීතීඥයන් සහ තැනැත්තන් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කිරීමට විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ අධිකරණ ඇමති ගෙනා 2024 අංක 8 දරන අධිකරණයකට, විනිශ්චය අධිකාරයකට හෝ ආයතනයකට අපහාස පනත අහෝසි කිරීම.

2. සරත් එන්. සිල්වා අගවිනිසුරුගේ බලපෑම මත අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් නීති අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා දීම 2009 සිට නතර කර ඇති ශ්‍රී ලංකා නීති විද්‍යාලයේ නීති අධ්‍යාපනය නැවත අධිකරණ භාෂාවෙන් ලබා දීම ආරම්භ කිරීම.

3. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට/ කථානායකවරයා වෙත යොමු කරන ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීරණ රාජ්‍ය භාෂාවෙන් හැන්සාඩ් වාර්තාවට ඇතුළත් කරවීමට පියවර ගැනීම.

4. උසස් පෙළ සිසුන් සඳහා ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව, පාරිභෝගික අයිතිවාසිකම්, ළමා අයිතිවාසිකම්, නවකවදය සම්බන්ධ නීති කරුණු ඇතුළත් “මූලික නීතිය විෂය” අනිවාර්යය විෂයක් ලෙස හඳුන්වා දීම.

5. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 83වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පවතින වැරදි 2ක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට නීතිපතිවරයාගේ අනුමැතිය මත ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 78වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ 2024.07.18 දින නිකුත් කළ ගැසට් පත්‍රයේ පළකර ඇති 22වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර සම්මත කර ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පවතින වැරැදි නිවැරදි කිරීම.

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/05/23-5.html?m=1

නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), සමායෝජක, වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යයන වැඩසටහන. දුරකථන 0712063394 (2025.05.10)

SEPAL – short clip

VFM RADIO 107

Madubashana P

Courtesy Tamil Guardian

The National People’s Power (NPP) has released a series of Tamil-language campaign songs for the upcoming local government elections, embracing rhetoric and imagery closely associated with Tamil nationalism and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

The campaign, aimed at boosting electoral performance in the Tamil North-East, has raised questions over the sincerity of the party’s political stance.

One of the songs, circulated by NPP’s Jaffna Member of Parliament Ilankumaran on Facebook, pledges the construction of a bronze statue in Valvettithurai to honour LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. 

The lyrics the song are as below:

O land that yearned for valour,
O soil where Tamil pride has flourished,
The land where History was born 
And gave the nation its noble leader (Prabhakaran)—
In the name of Veluppillai Parvathy Ammal,
A new harbour shall rise,
And it shall echo our history for a hundred years.
The principles of the national peoples power and those of the Tamil national leader are one and the same.
A bronze statue of the Tamil national leader
Shall stand in the land of his birth.
We shall build a memorial hall,
And install the bronze effigy,
And move the first resolution in the city’s urban council.
Across all regions,
The Maveerar thuyilumillam shall be rebuilt and preserved—
A duty to be borne by the councils.

No matter how many years may pass,
The identity of the Tamil people shall endure;
And the national party shall uphold it.

The song also promises to rename Nallur’s Sankiliyan Park as ‘Kittu Park’ – a reference to senior LTTE commander Sathasivam Krishnakumar – and to build a memorial hall and landing pad dedicated to Prabhakaran’s parents, Velupillai and Parvathyamma.

Another song, reportedly created for the Karaithuraipattu Pradeshiya Sabha in Mullaitivu, compares the left-wing ideology of the NPP with that of Prabhakaran, vowing that each Pradeshiya Sabha will support the reconstruction and upkeep of LTTE cemeteries.

The song’s lyrics state:

The ideology of the Tamil national leader is communism.
The ideology of the National People’s Party is also communism.
Let us unite under one shared vision.

A total of 28 such songs have been produced and shared across NPP-affiliated social media platforms, including official district-level pages.

Critics have lambasted the NPP, traditionally a southern-based leftist party with no historical alignment to Tamil nationalism, for what they describe as opportunistic mimicry. 

These songs reveal the extent to which Tamil nationalist sentiments have taken root,” noted one activist in Jaffna. Southern parties cannot remain electorally relevant in the North-East without adopting this language.”

Indeed, despite its vocal opposition in the past to Tamil self-determination and its alignment with Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarian narratives, the NPP now appears to be leveraging the imagery of LTTE leaders and invoking the memory of the Tamil armed struggle to win support. Photographs of Prabhakaran’s former residence, footage of Maaveerar Naal commemorations, and emotionally charged references to the LTTE’s martyrs” feature prominently in the music videos.

The strategy has drawn criticism from Tamils who accuse the NPP of hypocrisy. This is a party that has remained silent on the continued occupation of Tamil lands and the denial of justice for genocide,” said one campaigner. Now they’re trying to use our martyrs and our history as campaign material?”

Observers have noted that the NPP’s sudden turn to Tamil nationalist rhetoric is not isolated, but part of a broader political pattern in which southern parties attempt to rebrand themselves during elections in the North-East. However, critics warn that such performative gestures, have been made without concrete commitments to accountability, demilitarisation, or self-determination.

By Sasanka De Silva (Pannipitiya)

Sri Lanka’s public road transport has long been a menace on the roads. For decades, citizens have endured the daily trauma of riding in filthy, overcrowded, and dangerously maintained buses, often driven by men who appear to treat roads like racetracks. Public transport, instead of being a symbol of convenience and safety, has mutated into a moving hazard. What’s worse is the widespread sense of impunity that emboldens such behaviour.

Passengers are neither treated with dignity nor transported with care. Many are forced to cling to handrails for dear life, endure ear-splitting music, and inhale noxious exhaust fumes. Add to that the daily reports of reckless overtaking, red-light jumping, and frequent collisions, and it becomes painfully clear: the system is broken.

The Sri Lanka Police, tasked with upholding road safety, appears more interested in extracting bribes than enforcing the law. Traffic violations go unchecked, and in the rare event that a serious accident draws media attention, the response is disturbingly performative. Politicians visit the site, make teary-eyed statements, and promise inquiries that fade with the next news cycle. But systemic change? Nowhere in sight.

The reason for this inaction lies, in part, in political cowardice. Public transport unions—particularly those tied to the state-run Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB)—wield disproportionate influence. Governments fear their backlash, especially in election years, and as a result, accountability is postponed indefinitely.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Imagine a policy where a driver’s license is directly tied to vehicle insurance premiums. If you’re a repeat offender, your insurance cost skyrockets—not just for you, but also for the employer who hired you. This economic disincentive could force bus owners and transport companies to think twice before hiring reckless drivers. After all, a high-risk driver becomes a financial liability.

But for this to work, the government must enforce it across the board, especially within its fleet. If the SLTB refuses to comply, it will render the initiative toothless. Without parity between the private and public sectors, there can be no sustainable reform.

The challenge before us is not technical but political and cultural. We must create a system where safety is incentivized and recklessness is punished. People, too, have a role to play. Civic activism, consumer pressure, and consistent media coverage can shame authorities into action. Riders must be encouraged to report misconduct, and technology can assist: GPS tracking, speed governors, and public dashboards for complaints could usher in transparency.

So, what can people do to enter this sector and be part of the change?

Young entrepreneurs with a vision for safe, efficient travel should be supported to start model transport services. With government grants or low-interest loans, they could introduce a new class of commuter services—clean, punctual, and professionally managed. Technology platforms can help connect these services with the public, bypassing the chaos of bus stands and rogue operators.

In the end, this isn’t just a battle for better buses—it’s a battle for our collective dignity and safety. It’s time we stopped normalizing death and disorder on our roads. Until someone dares to tame the beasts, we will all remain at their mercy.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 11 (Daily Mirror) – The Media Division of the Ministry of Energy has rejected reports circulating in the media regarding the resignation of CEB Chairman Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya.

A senior official from the Ministry said that the Chairman had submitted a letter to the President informing him of his leave, as he plans to travel abroad for personal reasons.

“There is no truth in the media reports suggesting the resignation of the CEB Chairman,” the official added.

Dr. Siyambalapitiya was appointed as the CEB Chairman on September 26 last year under the NPP government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya has handed in his letter of resignation.

It is reported that he submitted his resignation letter to Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody last Friday, and accordingly, it has been accepted by the Subject Minister.

Dr. Siyambalapitiya was appointed to the post on September 26, 2024.

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

Before you study the economics, study the economists!”

e-Con e-News 04-10 May 2025

The French warship Beautemps-Beaupré has just barged into Colombo – so far from gay Paree and le port de Marseille. And while India (using French & US weaponry) and Pakistan (using US, Chinese & Swedish materiel) indulge in target practice on live civilians and others, Sri Lanka’s government has bravely declared it shall not allow the country to be used as a base in regional or global wars. Yet, as noble declarations go, the JVP-led NPP government’s recent dramatic pivot towards India, contradicts the JVP leader’s previous pronouncements, that such military pacts (as newly signed with India) would cripple our ‘freedom to freely move our hands & legs’!

     This is Sri Lanka’s first such agreement with a foreign power since the Anglo-Ceylonese Defence Agreement signed with England, due to post-1947 fears of Indian invasion, with the English clinging on to Trincomalee and Katunayake. The JVP has always viewed India as a ‘sub-imperialist’ power. With the threat of such a pact dragging us into the USA-led Quad’s warmongering against China, Rathindra Kuruwita suggests it would have been far wiser for Sri Lanka to push for a regional security agreement ‘instead of signing a security pact that makes the country seem like a satrapy of India‘. Also, a trilateral MoU with India, Sri Lanka & United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ‘develop’ Trincomalee into an ‘Energy Hub’, involves the English-built oil tank farm, now partially run by state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). ‘The English Raj considered a foothold in Trincomalee harbor vital for Indian defence, a doctrine that the Indian republic has inherited.’

     The JVP ‘risks becoming the very thing it once rose up against; a facilitator of foreign entrenchment on Sri Lankan soil’ (see ee Focus), Meanwhile, the recent local elections saw the People’s Struggle Alliance, which includes JVP-breakaway Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) which vehemently opposes the Indian pact, secure 16 seats for the first time: Kegalle, Baddegama, Karandeniya, Kalutara, Karuwalagaswewa, Seruwila, Uva-Paranagama, Nuwara Eliya, Hingurakgoda, Ibbagamuwa, Matugama, Walallawita, Ukuwela, Raththota, Kegalle, and Aranayaka Pradeshiya Sabhas.

*

• The untimely demise of a young University professor, and an outpouring of grief in social media & news columns, provides an opening for an intriguing investigation into the birthing and nurturing of an anti-jathikathva (anti-national) gang of scholars. The US Embassy’s troll farms and message-multiplier bots had started to ‘trend’ these so-called ‘intellectuals’ during the 2^nd term of President Mahinda Rajapakse, 2010-15, soon after the terrorist war ended in 2009. Visakha Dharmahewa & Aravi Hettiarachchi (D&H) in ‘The Anti-National Deliberation Front’ (see ee Focus), call it a concerted coup by the imperialist countries ‘to co-opt emerging Sinhala thinkers against Sinhala nationalists’, to ridicule the role of Anagarika Dharmapala (exiled), Kumaratunga Munidasa (defamed), and SWRD Bandaranaike (assassinated), and also Gunadasa Amarasekara, Nalin de Silva, Susantha Goonetilleke, etc.

     D&H also name the latest batch of young recruits funded by the US State Department. D&H however fail to note the corollary funding of anti-Marxist-Leninist ideologies among certain Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist organizations that stretches back to the 1950s and even before. Though D&H perceptively link, how US Colonel Henry Olcott & his theosophist gang, sought to mystify rather than enhance the science of Sinhala Buddhism. Olcott set the foundation for Dharmapala’s eventual isolation, hounding and exile. Latter-day Olcottians have sought to deny any link between scientific socialism and Buddhism. Yet there are connexions aplenty. Nonetheless D&H’s efforts are pathbreaking for they not only name the poseurs & fake scholars, but also go on to describe the role played by foreign funders, such as Germany, of NGOs that have led to the proliferation of IMF-linked economists, and such centres for so-called poverty alleviation and not poverty elimination – alternatives that oppose any alteration by the ‘natives’, and only promote colonial has-beens and further splintering prescriptions.

*

• ee recalls those who opposed the English slicing up of India and the carving out of Pakistan. & recall those prophesies that ‘Partition’ would simply continue the warmongering for the next 100 years. ee would also like to footnote that it was Canada that so helpfully provided uranium to both India and Pakistan to enable their nuclear weapons programs. And now all of them, Canada & the US included, salivate to slice & quarter & dismember, if not annihilate, Sri Lanka as well. Meanwhile, US President Trump kindly reminds us that India and Pakistan (created in 14 August 1947) have been fighting ‘for centuries’. He resounds a good old colonial scripture that our purported differences are primordial and unending, needing the great white father in London or Washington to gather us tendentious natives into his folds…

*

• A deadly threat, is how Development Banks (DBs) have always been seen, by the World Bank, IMF and their imperialist sponsors. Any attempt at a real DB has always inspired equally deadly countermeasures: expulsions of cabinet ministers, assassination of a PM, coups, terrorism, etc, subverting the Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon (DFCC) & National Development Bank (NDB), that are now just money lenders to merchants. The prolix Ahilan Kadirigamar, who is now a director of the People’s Bank, suggests the NPP Government ‘is working towards setting up a development bank’, through the National Credit Guarantee Institution (NCGI).

     The International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led Structural Adjustment Program, post-1977, ‘drastically changed the structure of our economy with increasing privatisation‘. Kadirgamar grew ‘fascinated by the history of the Japan Development Bank (JDB), and its role in ‘the post-war economic development of Japan’. It inspired his leadership in developing the Northern Co-operative Development Bank (NCDB), a federation of about 1,200 co-operative societies in the Northern Province. Yet there is no mention of any investment in modern machine-making industrialization (the real definition of Karl Marx’s modern capitalism) nor of the role of Jaffna’s dollar (as opposed to the South’s rupee) diaspora, but he provides interesting insight into the history of such banks (see ee Focus).

*

• No bodies embody the ‘expatriate’ joie de vivre more than the airs of white denizens at English literary festivals in Galle or Colombo, and the Sri Lankan ‘fliterati’ who seek to mimic them, led by the Borah business memsahib. Such gravitas and profundity they perform. You can see them in their shorts or see-through flimsy cottons, harem pants or salwar khameez, if they have any pale skin or parts half-decent to flaunt – tho most times not – lounging, with AC on at its most comforting adjustments, or fans lazily awhirl, white porcelain cups of steaming tea or coffee sitting untouched before them, apparently squandering money, as the Sinhala saying goes, ‘spending like a white man’. However, SBD de Silva concludes that it is actually a stereotype of the white man (who was more parsimonious than the browner leftovers who now front for them) who have actually dominated Sri Lanka’s economy, and are yet very much different from the white settler-colonials & the genocidal settlers who dominated in other parts of the world, and invested in the modern industrialization of their ‘responsible’ dominions (ee Focus).

     ee therefore continues SBD de Silva‘s brilliant exposition of the growth of Sri Lanka’s Import-Export Mafia, excerpting Chapter 4 of his classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. De Silva shows how England has actively prevented industrialization in our countries to this day, while promoting industrialization in other countries. What is amazing is de Silva rarely mentions Sri Lanka in this chapter but looks for antecedents in Africa (both ‘Sub-Sahara’ & ‘Mahgreb’) and the different roles played by white ‘expatriates’ & ‘settlers’ and darker ‘natives’ in the economy, especially in the mixed ‘Settler-Colonies’ of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Congo, and South Africa, as well as Algeria, etc.

     The white settlers not only tried to manage the economy ‘independently’ from London & Paris, etc, but they even militarily fought them, whereas the English preferred to hand over our countries to ‘elite’ but totally idiotic native satraps who would continue the import-export plantation fakery. Whereas our pampered economists claim that the divide is between free trade & protection, SBD details the strategic application & removal of tariffs to protect industries, depending on their maturity. Settler governments deployed customs tariffs to ‘promote domestic production rather than as a source of public revenue’.  England also chose ‘free trade’ only after it ‘ruled the waves’ and its economy had been advanced beyond agriculture, to industry.

     De Silva details how ‘settler agriculture’ which involved ‘prolonged experimentation and research… generated both a European bourgeoisie and a proletariat’, whereas in Sri Lanka the English sought to impoverish peasant production, and promote outdated social relations, which we would have moulted along the way if left to ourselves. ‘The production structures which emerged in the settler colonies had elements of a development policy‘, whereas ‘development‘ in Sri Lanka became a synonym for continued colonial depredation. Imported technologies, roads & railways, etc, then deliberately undermined peasant production. SBD’s fascinating glimpse into the sabotaging of industrialization in Sri Lanka and other nonsettler colonies, exposes a deeply damaging historical process of divide&rule – which prevails to this day, with our policy makers & policy implementers, policy executors & policy enforcers, policy operators or policy administrators, all deaf, dumb, blind & disabled to the real meaning of the need for modern machine-making industrialization.

*

• With local elections finally over, after a 7-year hiatus, and the usual whining about ‘election spending’, ee continues the raucous peek into the antics of the early-1800s New York’s Tammany Society – a secret body, that operated the more open Tammany Hall political vote machine. This adaptation from Gustave Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall, suggests that much of the chicanery involved in elections was not just an inheritance from England but involved ‘creative’ innovations. Decisions were made not just by verbal resolutions but by fist & boot. While setting up organizations to oppose banks, they actively promoted their own banks that defrauded people. He shows how candidates were first decided by bankers on Wall Street, with politicians bribed by shares in bank stock, just as opponents were made bankrupt and jailed, and how bankers were taxed less than workers. Any attempts by workers to organize unions were punished and jailed, while enabling ‘the countless combinations of aristocracy; boards of bank & other chartered directories; boards of brokers; boards of trade & commerce; combinations of landlords; coal & wood dealers; monopolists and all those who grasp at everything & produce nothing‘.  However, Myers makes no reference to their views on the ‘peculiar’ institution of chattel slavery, or of the genocidal wars on the original people taking place during those decades.

Welcome then to another edition of ee and a glorious Vesak to you, dear readers. May the light of the new moon and our historical & collective intelligence, resistance & resolve, shine brighter, and show us the way forward…

*

________

Contents:

Expats Vs Settlers Vs Natives: How Imperialism Sabotages Modernization in Sri Lanka

Shenali D Waduge

A 15-year-old girl named Amshi—brilliant, talented, and full of promise—is dead. She took her own life after being sexually abused three times by her teacher at Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College in Colombo. Instead of being protected, she was forced to be removed from school by the very principal who should have defended her. Forced into a new school in Kotahena, she then endured repeated public humiliation at a tuition class run by a friend of her abuser. On April 29, 2025, the trauma became unbearable—Amshi ended her life. Her death is not an isolated tragedy but a damning reflection of systemic rot: a school that expelled the victim, an education ministry that acted only after protests, a tuition teacher who abused power, and a society that failed to protect its children. There can be no more Amshi’s. Its time society acted & demanded justice & system changes that punish the abusers & prevents sexual abuse of children.

The incident in brief:

A 15-year-old school girl had been sexually abused by her Maths teacher at her school Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College in October-November 2025.

The school principal had forced her parents to remove her from school

She had been put to a school in Kotahena where she lived.

She was a talented student (academically & extracurricular) from certificates shown by parents.

She attended a popular tuition class. Her teacher was a friend of the teacher who abused her & infront of the tuition class she had been humiliated repeatedly.

The sexual abuse & the humiliation was too much to bear so she took her life on 29 April 2025.

Let’s go through the timeline:

• Amshi sexually abused by male teacher in Ramanathan Hindu Ladies School Bambalapitiya in Oct-Nov 2024 (3 times)
• 8 January 2025 – Bambalapitiya Police arrests teacher, produces him before Magistrate & remands him for 3 days & released him (10 January 2025) on bail with travel ban.
• 18 January 2025 – Amshi joins Rajeshwari tuition class. It turns out that this tuition class is run by Sivanandarajah a JVP organizer & friend of the teacher who sexually abused Amshi.
• 29 April 2025 – Amshi takes her life
• 29-30 April 2025 – Amshi’s parents give statement to Kotahena police
• 4 May 2025 – Amshi’s parents make a press statement
• 8 May 2025 – 4 Public Protests a) outside Education Ministry b) outside Bambapalitiya School c) outside tuition class d) outside the home of Amshi demanding justice for Amshi
• 8 May 2025 – Education Ministry letter calls for explanation from Principal of Bambalapitiya School & transfers the teacher to a school in Puttalam
• 9 May 2025 – Statement from Police Media Division (very important)

The police statement claims that based on a complaint filed on 8 December 2024 to the Bambalapitiya Police, the alleged teacher had been arrested on 8 January 2025 and produced to the Aluth Kade Court 3 Magistrates Court & had been kept in remand till 10 January 2025 (3 days) & was released on bail with a travel ban. This case is to be taken on 19 May 2025.

Note: the statement does not state who filed complaint to the Bambalapitiya Police. As per MP Mujabur Rahaman, it was the Kotahena Police.

• After the child’s death, on 6 May 2025 the Child and Women Abuse Prevention and Investigation Bureau had received a call to their 109 emergency number by a third party informing that the owner of the tuition class the girl attended, had humiliated the girl infront of the class and that together with the sexual abuse was the reason to take her life. Thus the bureau had presented these facts to the Court. The Bureau & the Bambalapitiya police are continuing investigations.
• 19 May 2025 – teacher accused of sexually abusing Amshi to appear in Court 3 Magistrates Court Aluth Kade

Unanswered questions:

• How did the parents come to know about the sexual abuse of their daughter – did Amshi tell them, did a friend tell them & was this told immediately after the abuse? – reports claim she had been sexually abused Oct-Nov 2024, the Opposition Leader mentions 23 October 2024 as first incident.
• Did Amshi inform the Principal of the school or a teacher?
• When did Amshi’s mother inform the Principal of Bambalapitiya Ramanathan Hindu Ladies School?
• What did Principal do after being informed by Amshi’s mother? Why did the Principal not take proper action against the teacher?
• When did Principal force Amshi’s parents to remove her from school? Was it after the teacher had been arrested? As per the statement by the Police Media Division dated 9 May 2025, the Bambalapitiya Police had arrested the teacher on 8 January 2025 after a complaint filed on 8 December 2024.
• Sivanandarajah who runs the Rajeshwari tuition class in a statement outside CID is a JVP organizer & friend of the teacher who sexually abused Amshi. He is accused of verbally humiliating her in front of other students. An anonymous call made to the Child and Women Abuse Prevention and Investigation Bureau 109 emergency number on 6 May 2025 disclosed these details as another reason for Amshi to take her life. Amshi’s parents in their statements on 29^th & 30^thApril to the Kotahena police following the death of Amshi on 29^th April had also mentioned the Rajeshwari tuition class & the tuition owner.
• Sivanandarajah claimed that Amshi joined the tuition class on 18 January 2025 – this was 10 days after the arrest of his friend, the teacher who had abused Amshi. Was this a key reason for him to humiliate Amshi in class?
• MP Mujabur Rahman on 9 May in Parliament claims that the tuition teacher’s house has been given 8man police protection – how true is this & on what grounds is he been given protection by the Govt?
• MP Mujabur Rahman also states that the girl was examined by the GMOA who confirmed sexual abuse & informed the Kotahena police who had informed the Bambalapitiya police to take necessary action. The MP does not mention dates. But for GMOA to examine Amshi, for the Kotahena police to be informed & Kotahena police to file complaint on 8 December 2024 & ask Bambalapitiya Police to inquire – the GMOA checkup has to have taken place in December 2024, which resulted in the eventual arrest of the teacher on 8 January 2025.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1001036855344255&rdid=vDn1wW6RIZCm8hvy (9 May)

MP Mujabur also stated in Parliament that it was only AFTER the joint protests that the Education Ministry took action against the teacher by transferring him.

The Prime Minister denied this, claiming action was taken by the Education Ministry before the protest, however this has been proven wrong with the transfer notice dated 8 May 2025 https://www.newswire.lk/2025/05/08/colombo-school-girl-death-teacher-transferred-with-immediate-effect/ In actual fact the transfer & calling for explanation was on the SAME DAY of the protests.

The Education Ministry is calling for explanation from the Principal 9 days after the death of Amshi.

The Education Ministry is transferring the teacher who sexually abused Amshi to another school in Puttalam fully aware of the sexual crime he is accused of by sending him to another school where innocent children may be likely prey.
Additionally, the Education Ministry was transferring him fully aware that the Bambapalitiya Police had arrested him on 8 January 2025, kept him in remand for 3 days & his case was to be taken up at Court 3 Magistrates Court, Aluth Kade on 19 May 2025.

• The PM says an investigation has been launched – when, by whom, with what mandate?
• The PM says no one knows what has happened” the police statement is very clear about the crime & GMOA has confirmed it.
• The PM even gives the wrong age for Amshi – claiming her to be 13 when she was 15.
• The PM has to admit that action against the Principal & the teacher took place by her & his Ministry ONLY 9 days after Amshi’s death.
• There is little that needs to be said about the Women’s Minister Paulraj who has absolutely no empathy for a child who took her life because of sexual abuse & public bullying, even demanding that Amshi’s parents need to come to her feet to meet her.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1423932412109453&rdid=6qUvV7fjLuFa1Wsx / https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Teachers-Union-slams-Minister-over-comments-on-Kotahena-schoolgirls-death/108-308586

Amshi is no more.

But she deserves justice.

Several crimes have been committed. The guilty must be legally punished & socially shunned.

1. Criminal Prosecution for Sexual Abuse – Penal Code
2. Abetment of suicide – as teachers / tuition teachers actions led to her suicide
3. Investigation & arrest & judicial proceedings – case is ongoing
4. Crucial role of NCPA – to protect the child’s rights even though she is no more.
5. Civil suit – family can file civil suit for damages against teacher (legal fraternity must come forward to offer free service for this & consider this as a civic duty)
6. Institutional accountability – hold the Principal to account & anyone else involved who knew & did nothing. Legal action for negligence & dereliction of duty, failure to protect a child, failure to act on knowledge of abuse which has jail term & fine. If evidence shows the principal covered up or discouraged reporting the principal should be charged as an accessory.
7. Action against tuition teacher (friend of abuser) – committing psychological cruelty to the child, humiliating a minor especially a sexual abuse survivor is a crime (penal code) & has jail term & fine. If the humiliation contributed to the suicide he can be further charged.
8. If any others are found guilty of aiding & abetting the teacher abuser of tuition teacher, police must investigate & arrest & prosecute all involved. The Women & Children’s Bureau, the NCPA must take a lead in using Amshi’s case to severely punish the guilty so that it serves as a future deterrent to sexual predators of what is going to be in store for them if they can’t keep their sexual organs in place without harming a child.

Recent legal proceedings – Kalutara, tuition teacher arrested for sexually abusing multiple school girls, wife discovered videos on laptop & reported to police.

Kalutara tuition master in sexual abuse case arrested

https://www.onlanka.com/news/tuition-teacher-under-investigation-for-student-assault-ignores-ncpa-summons.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Shenali D Waduge

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=494829160291097&rdid=LQhQA5TLnRI773jl(press conference by Parents of Amshi)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1001036855344255&rdid=vDn1wW6RIZCm8hvy (MP Mujabur Rahman / PM Harini – 9 May 2025)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=6AJuK9&v=1209294490940811(Opposition Leader)

By Garvin Karunaratne, former GA Matara 

It is reported that a number of leading countries including the USA and India want to wrest control of our graphite. I have read somewhere that our graphite is of superb quality- something like the best in the World.. Because we are buried in the quagmire of debt and hold a failed economy it is likely that we sell our family silver for a song. Our treacherous leaders are selling everything for a song. I hope they do realize what they are doing to Mother Lanka. Anyone in power  should know to be patriots. 

It is perhaps unfortunate that I was the Government Agent at Matara and not the GA at Kegalla when we implemented the Divisional Development Councils Programme because had I been in Kegalla  we would today be producing all our pencils. 

The DDCP gave us administrators  a framework to establish industries and in Matara I did establish a Crayon Factory that within the small space of a year did make crayons and sold it islandwide,  

We actually  did not know how to make a crayon.  But I had a chemistry graduate as my Planning Officer and I decided to convince Vetus Fernando that he should put his knowledge of chemistry to the test and find the art of making a crayon. We also roped in the science teachers at Rahula College Matara and my wife was one of them. I  convinced Vetus that he should have a try. Once he agreed I authorized the purchase of some ingredients from some Rural Development funds- I had no authority to do this but for the sake of Mother Lanka we administrators had got used to the art of bending rules.  We decided that we start experiments at my Residency and  we met and made a few experiments  but  realized that we had to get more equipment to conduct experiments. I approached the Principal of Rahula College Mr Ariyawansa and he readily approved. 

From that day, Vetus helped by the science teachers  was conducting experiments at the science lab from six to midnight every day. We really got  nowhere even after a full two months.  

Then Vetus got a brainwave to contact his Professors who had graduated him a year earlier. I approved the mission and Vetus went to the Chemistry Department at the University of Colombo.  Vetus said that the science lab at the University had some special machinery that could help. On the fourth day Vetus came back, a broken down man with a tale of woe- that he had begged help from all the lecturers and professors who had taught him but that had said that they had no time- they were busy in lectures and making answer scripts. 

It was a bolt from the blue and we were dumbstruck. But my team of katcheri officers and I were not going to take it lying down. We recommenced experiments at the Rahula College science lab again at six in the evening to midnight and in a month Vetus found the art of making a good crayon. That month, on most nights I too was there  and we even sang songs to keep going when every night we did fail.  Finally one night we did succeed  and I sat with Vetus and did final experiments to make the crayon as fine as Reeves Crayons- the best of the day.  

The next question was how to make crayons. I could have easily summoned Harischandra the business magnate and given him the recipe and he would have jumped at the idea. But that would not be us. It had to be us and racking our brains I decided that it should be a cooperative.  Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament for Deniyaya was the President of the Morawak Korale Cooperative Union and  I had been struck with the fact that Sumanapala was a go getter who was dependable- a man from the South who could even take fire under the water, as the saving goes. I summoned Sunapala and asked him whether he would like to undertake to set up a crayon factory and he readily agreed. As the GA I controlled vast funds but every fund had a specification  that it had to be used for a specific purpose and I could face censure. However Sumanapala too held funds in the Cooperative Union  but he had no authority to use any of it   for some experiments. Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake had gazetted all, Government Agents as Deputy Directors of Cooperatives for the purpose of the paddy production programme,  

I usurped the right to authorize Sumanapala to use cooperative funds for the purpose of establishing a crayon factory.  

The very next day Vetus and I accompanied by half a dozen officers moved to Morawaka where we started training youths to make crayons. It was a 24 hour operation a few of us snatching a few hours sleep on a chair while others worked. Sumanapala was everywhere. In the second week we got printed labels, pasted them and packets of ten filled two large rooms. It was a great success. 

Then to acquire legitimacy Sumane and I took samples to the Minister of Industries who was so taken up with the quality that he agreed to open sales in three days. We rushed back and made arrangement and Coop Crayon was  sold in Matara Colombo and over the entire island. 

We were purchasing dyes in the open market at high prices as the Small Industries Department refused to give us an allocation of forex to import dyes. We heard that the Controller of Imports was about to authorize the import of crayons and we moved in. We showed Coop crayon to Harry Guneratne who wanted us to obtain the approval of Minister Illangaratne. The Minister was highly taken up with the product that he approved us a fat allocation and even got me to agree that I will open a crayon factory at Kolonnawa. He ordered the stop of all imports. 

That was all in 1973 and Coop Crayon held till 1978 when imports were fully allowed and Coop Crayon a well establish industry was closed down to satisfy IMF conditions. 

This is not a fable but something we did in 1973. 

Over to our new leader President Dissanayake: We did it once and can do it again. 

Garvin Karunaratne 

Former GA Matara 

8 th May 2025 

garvin_karunaratne @ hotmail.com 

German Dharmaduta Society

Vietnamese Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien greets

 President Anura Kumara Dissanayake

Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien  also known as Ven Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata

The American Vietnamese Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien  also known as Ven Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata is seen greeting President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Conference Hall in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) where President Anura Kumara Dissanayake delivered the key note address reaffirming longstanding Buddhist ties between the two countries. He was the Chief Guest honouring a joint invitation extended by the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha and the Government of Vietnam  on the occasion of the celebrations of UN Day of Vesak 2025 in Vietnam on May 06, 2025.

Biographical sketch
Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien is a dedicated and entrepreneurial Buddhist . She was born in Phu Quoc Island,  Vietnam and entered the USA with her parents as a child. She succeeded in life with dignity and beauty. She commenced demonstrating her cultural pride in 1986 in Kansas and won the Traditional Vietnamese Dress Award. In 2012 she won the USA Miss Asia International Competition honoring the beauty, talent, wisdom and traditional cultural values of thousands of competitors from 58 countries.

Furthermore, during this period, she displayed her amazing creativity and enterprise by founding international cosmetics companies like EV Princess, BL Miracle, and Herbs EV, that distributed products to 15 nations, as well as, beauty salons. Her success as a Woman Entrepreneur earned her the respect of American Presidents namely George W. Bush and Barack Obama who both invited her to events at the White House.

Additionally, she established the Bich Lien Charity Foundation to empower the Vietnamese people in both the USA and Vietnam who are facing a multitude of problems such as hunger, poverty, and other difficulties.

in the midst of her glittering success it dawned on her to see the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings and the three characteristics (ti-lakkhaṇa) that apply to all existence in Samsāra.

In February of 2015  Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata made a bold and courageous decision in the tradition of the great Buddhist Nuns beginning with Mahapajapati Gotami (foster mother and aunt of the Buddha), to go forth (Pabajja ) as a Buddhist Bhikkhuni. She made a profound statement that day: 

“All the glories of the world cannot compare to the wonderful Dharma which uniquely brings true happiness to our lives.”

Bhiksuni Bich Lien visited Sri Lanka to pursue her education in the Dhamma and after 4 years of persevering research and writing she obtained her Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Kelaniya, and thus becoming  first Vietnamese-American and the first Bhikkhuni on the island of Sri Lanka to do so.

She has served Buddhism notably by founding the Lotus International Meditation Center in southern California and acting as the Senior Advisor and Director of International Affairs at Minh Dang Quang Temple in Los Angeles, California.

She established and serves as the President and Director of the International Buddhist Bhikkhuni Congregation. Irrespective of consideration of race or nationality, she promoted connectivity using the digital option to connect young nuns around the world with each other, so that they may speak to each other and share their knowledge and experience about monastic life. It held its first meeting in 2020.

Her resolve is to have the proceeds of the continued business success applied’ to non-profit community events. Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien walks with vision and determination on the path to enlightenment – along the Bodhisattva Path.

Supporter of the Berlin Vihara
Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata ( also known by her Vietnamese name Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien) is a strong supporter of the  Berlin Vihara in Germany. She financed the publication of the Book ‘ 100 years – Das Buddhistiche Haus ‘ published by the German Dharmaduta Society ( Vijitha Yapa bookshop) and which was launched at the ‘ Temple Trees’ on August 3rd, 2024 under the patronage of Prime Minister Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena and in the presence of the German Ambassador Dr. Felix Neumann and a large gathering of 600 invited guests. She also attended the 100 anniversary celebrations held in Berlin ( Das Buddhistische Haus and Zehlendorf Community Centre in Berlin) on August 3 – 4, 2024.

Recently Ven. Elizabeth Sujata Bhikkhuni donated a sum of US Dollars 5, 000 to the fund organized by the Europe based Sri Lanka Bhikshu Sangamaya for the purpose of rehabilitation and reconstruction of Myanmar devastated by the recent earthquake.

Here is the full report of the event

A sum of Rs. 3.1 million collected by the Sri Lanka Bhikkshu Sangamaya in Europe for the rehabilitation of the victims of the recent Earthquake in Myanmar was handed over on behalf of the Sri Lanka Bhikkshu Sangamaya in Europe by Ven. Pelane Dhamma Kusala Thero, Resident Monk of the Berlin Buddhist Vihara ( Das Buddhistiche Haus in Berlin – Frohnau),  to Ven. Kumarasiddhi Thero (Burmese monk) representing the Myanmar ( Burmese) Bhikkshu fraternity living in Sri Lanka, at a new Buddhist Temple (in formation) in Madapatha under the watch of Ven Dhamma Kusala. This money will be utilized for the rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in Myanmar, which is one of the oldest Theravada Buddhist countries in the world alongside Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Members of the Myanmar Embassy in Sri Lanka and Representatives of the German Dharmaduta Society were present on this occasion to witness this meritorious deed.

German Dharmaduta Society මියන්මාර භූමිකම්පාවෙන් පීඩාවට පත් ජනතාවට සහන සලසන්න මූල්‍ය පරිත්‍යාගයක් | මියන්මාර භූමිකම්පාවෙන් පීඩාවට පත් ජනතාවට සහන සලසන්න යුරෝපයේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකික භික්ෂු සංගමයෙන් මූල්‍ය පරිත්‍යාගයක් #News1st #lka #SL | By Newsfirst.lk | Facebook

Shenali D Waduge

Two young lives lost—one a university student, the other a schoolgirl in Kotahena. These are not isolated tragedies. They are searing warnings that Sri Lankan society is spiraling into a moral crisis. A breakdown is underway—of values, of accountability, of conscience. Behind every funeral lies a failing: in our families, our schools, our media, and our government.

This is a call to all Sri Lankans. Not tomorrow. Now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WgthnVDzLs (Parents of Amisha)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-N9qPHjGZg (Parents of Charith Dilshan)

Media Complicity

Children today are raised in a digital jungle where morality is mocked, innocence is monetized, and decency is dismissed as outdated. Global platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook operate with one goal: profit. Their algorithms are built not for protection, but for addiction. And our children are the casualties.

Sexualized content, gender confusion, disrespect for elders and teachers, distorted ideas of love and identity—this is the daily digital dose of Sri Lankan children. With just a click, they are pulled into a world that devalues their innocence and glorifies chaos.

The media, both local and global, are guilty, without a doubt. They glorify rebellion and sell immorality as freedom. They sensationalize trauma, often revictimizing girls already crushed by abuse. They ignore responsibility, forsake ethical journalism, and leave society to bleed & then relay this to viewers as sensational breaking” news. Shameful.

We demand

Strict legal action against media houses and platforms that expose children to inappropriate content.

A regulatory framework that forces online platforms to implement mandatory filtering and restrict age-inappropriate content.

Penalties for broadcasters and internet providers that fail to protect minors, including those offering free data during late-night hours—when children are most vulnerable.

Collapse of Family and Educational Authority

The family was once the moral nucleus of Sri Lankan society. Today, it’s mocked as old-fashioned,” dismantled by foreign ideologies that encourage children to question even their own biological reality.

When discipline disappears from the home, when schools focus only on grades but ignore values, children grow up emotionally vacant, mentally fragile, and morally adrift. They become easy prey—trapped in a world of digital deception, identity confusion, and emotional exploitation.

We must

• Reclaim traditional family values rooted in respect, modesty, and discipline.
• Equip parents to understand the threats of the digital world and teach them to safeguard their children.
• Empower schools to become sanctuaries of learning and character-building, not just exam factories.

Institutional Abuse and Systemic Failure

No Government. No Minister can be allowed to shrug the issue aside.

They are elected by the people to solve the problems of the people not to provide security for the abusers.

What is more tragic than a predator in a place of trust?

Schools and universities, once bastions of learning and protection, now house teachers and lecturers accused of demanding sexual favors, ignoring bullying, and punishing victims instead of perpetrators.

In the Kotahena case, instead of being suspended, the accused teacher was simply transferred. Why should grieving parents have to beg for justice? Why does accountability require a public outcry before action is taken?

Do people need to protest for action to be taken & justice to happen?

We demand

• Immediate suspension of any educator or authority figure accused of abuse, pending investigation
• Swift, transparent disciplinary inquiries and criminal prosecutions when necessary.
• Nationwide training for teachers on ethical conduct, student mental health, and child protection laws. The child & parent must know the law but they must also be taught there are duties to uphold too.

Strengthen and Enforce Child Protection Laws

Sri Lanka’s child protection laws are outdated and dangerously out of step with the digital world. Children are being exploited while laws remain paralyzed. The nation has failed its most vulnerable.

We demand:

• Updated legislation that criminalizes the distribution of sexual content to minors and severely penalizes violators.
• Cybercrime and Child Protection Units, capable of monitoring and responding in real time.
• A national child-safety surveillance mechanism involving government, civil society, and trained parents.

A private member’s bill that attempted to remove vital protective sections of the Penal Code (365 and 365A) was supported by individuals and organizations who should have defended children, not endangered them. This betrayal cannot go unanswered.

Those that supported the petition to repeal the clauses on homosexuality & sex with children under 16 included:

Founder & Executive Director – Child Protection Force & 3 key officers / President of Stop Child Cruelty Trust, member of Child Protection Alliance, member of Family Planning Association & advisor Save the Children, a Child health expert, Executive Director of Women in Need who was also Chairman Police Commission, 16 lawyers, 4 medical practitioners, 4 LGBTQIA activists, 10 from the media industry, 9 from the banking & financial industry, 18 from the business community, 9 so-called professionals, 9 youths, 6 NGO activists, 3 retired government servants.

Is there really hope for the children of Sri Lanka when so-called educated” want to remove the safety measures in place to protect children?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JFTjBWmsQ /  (list of names)

Education Reform Rooted in Morality and Mental Health

Sex education in Sri Lanka must protect, not confuse. It must not be hijacked by ideologies that promote identity experimentation in children. Instead, it should teach self-respect, boundaries, and protection against abuse.

Schools lack trained counselors, moral education, and leadership rooted in values. A generation is growing up emotionally broken—burdened by cyberbullying, peer pressure, exposure to adult content, and an identity crisis. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are the symptoms of a system in decay.

We demand

• Mandatory inclusion of ethics, emotional intelligence, and respect-based education across all schools.
• Compulsory training for teachers on child psychology and social media manipulation.
• A trained school counselor in every institution—someone who advocates for the child, not just occupies a position.

Religious and Community Leadership Must Rise

Religious institutions cannot remain silent. They must reclaim their historical role in moral leadership, become watchdogs for societal degradation, and speak with wisdom, urgency, and compassion.

We call on all religious and cultural leaders to:

• Raise their voice against harmful media content and moral erosion.
• Lead community outreach and education on parenting, digital dangers, and child protection.

National Call to Action

Let the deaths of the campus student and Kotahena schoolgirl not be just another breaking news. No mother carries a child for nine months to bury them in a coffin. These tragedies must shake us to our core and spur immediate, collective action.

We demand a 24/7 national child protection hotline, monitored, resourced, and publicized.

We demand that perpetrators—whether in homes, schools, or online—be held legally accountable without delay.

We demand that this government, all political parties, civil institutions, religious leaders, media professionals, and educators rise together to protect Sri Lanka’s future—our children.

The children are our future.

We must protect them.

Shenali D Waduge

Dr. Neil Fernando & Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge

Suicide is a psychiatric emergency and needs immediate intervention. It has been recognized as a major health problem and a leading cause of death worldwide. Suicide does not occur in a vacuum; it’s a fatal outcry and a highly complex and multifaceted phenomenon.

Suicide is the most severe and final manifestation of psychological pain (Rahman et al., 2010). Suicide is a social malady with far-reaching impact. Suicide is defined as an act of intentionally terminating one’s own life (Nock et al., 2008). The National Institute of Mental Health defines suicide as a death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior. Suicides result from the complex interaction of many factors (O’Connor et al., 2014).

Suicidal behavior has a unique trajectory and the behavior pattern is clearly in the medical domain. Suicidal behavior encompasses a spectrum of behavior from suicide attempt and preparatory behaviors to completed suicide. Suicide behavior disorder (SBD) was introduced in DSM-5 as a disorder for further consideration and potential acceptance into the diagnostic system. Many mental health clinicians recognize suicidal behavior as an independent construct.

According to the French sociologist Emile Durkheim, the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result. For Emile Durkheim suicide is not a personal act. He believed that the more socially integrated and connected a person is, the less likely he or she is to commit suicide. Durkheim identifies four different types of suicide which are egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide.

Psychodynamics of the pathway to suicide is complex. According to Menninger (1938) suicide is caused by unconscious drives. Depression, psychic pain, impulsiveness, anger, anxiety, despair, loneliness, panic, violence, revenge, and a host of other factors are acting in a complex and almost infinite combination to produce the catastrophic behavior and it leads to suicide (Gibbons, 2024).  Some experts propose the relationship between attachment styles and suicide ideation. Silva Filho and team (2023) highlight that disruptive attachments are related to emotional dysregulation and mental disorders throughout life.  

Suicide and suicidal behavior have become a public health concern in Sri Lanka. The suicide rate in Sri Lanka in 2022 was 27 per 100 000 and 5 per 100 000, in males and females, respectively, with an overall suicide rate of 15 per 100 000 populations. However, incidence of suicide is underreported in Sri Lanka due to legal and stigma-associated factors. According to the World Health Organization-based statistics, suicide occurs in approximately 16.7 per 100,000 persons per year and is the 14th-leading cause of death worldwide.

For the development of suicide risk, biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors have been identified (Turecki, et al., 2019). The link between suicide and mental disorders is well established. There is a correlation between suicidality and psychopathology (Gvion &Apter, 2011). Psychopathology, biological vulnerability, family characteristics, and stressful life events play a key role in suicidal behaviors.  The most common psychiatric conditions associated with suicide or serious suicide attempts are mood disorders, but personality disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia are also frequently associated with suicidal behavior. (Sher,2004). Other risk factors such as unemployment, marital disruptions and financial crises also play a crucial role.

Suicides have a rippling effect. As described by Pirkis and Nordentoft (2011), media reporting of suicide can influence suicide rates. According to the social learning theory one person’s suicide can influence another’s suicidal behavior. The aftermath of suicide touches the lives of family and friends of the victim. The ripple effect can impact individuals and their families and friends. The ripple effect can extend to something known as “vicarious suicidality”. The evidence suggests that suicidal behavior is contagious” (Gould & Lake 2013).

Suicide is preventable and preventing requires strategies at all levels of society with a comprehensive public health approach. Promoting mental health education and de-stigmatisation efforts are highly essential. Suicide prevention is an emotive, complex goal for clinicians and health systems (Larkin et al., 2023).

Clinical suicidology” emphasizing suicide risk assessment, treatment, training, and the management of suicide-related liability. For there to be suicidal behavior there needs to be an established intent to die and a measurable medical lethality associated with the behavior (Silverman,2006). Clinical suicidology identifies suicide an act with a fatal outcome which the deceased, knowing or expecting a potentially fatal outcome, has initiated and carried out with the purpose of bringing about wanted changes (DeLeo et al., 2004).

Psychotherapeutic, pharmacological, or neuromodulatory treatments of mental disorders can often prevent suicidal behavior (Turecki et al., 2016). antidepressants are widely used in suicide prevention pharmacotherapy. For psychotherapeutic methods mental health clinicians recommend dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive therapy prolonged grief therapy and attachment based family therapy.

Implementing effective public health programs, promote wellness and removing stigma around suicide related behaviors can reduce the risk of suicide contagion. Furthermore, identifying risk factors and recognizing the warning signs for suicide can help prevent suicide. Media reporting on suicide can affect suicidal behavior and responsible reporting help prevent the suicide contagion effect. There should be a comprehensive national strategy to prevent suicide.

(Dr. Neil Fernando is a consultant Psychiatrist and   Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge is a Clinical Psychologist)

References

De Leo, D., & Spathonis, K. (2004). Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour in Late Life.  Suicidal Behaviour: Theories and Research Findings.

Gibbons, R. (2024). Understanding the psychodynamics of the pathway to suicide. International Review of Psychiatry, 36(4-5), 508–516.

Gould, M., & Lake, A. M. (2013). The contagion of suicide behavior: Impact of media reporting on suicide. Forum on Global Violence Prevention: Based on Global Health Institute of Medicine, National Research Council: Washington DC: ational Academics Press.

Gvion Y, Apter A. Aggression, impulsivity and suicide behavior: a review of the literature. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2011;15:93-112.

Larkin C, Arensman E, Boudreaux ED. Preventing Suicide in Health Systems: How Can Implementation Science Help? Arch Suicide Res. 2023 Oct-Dec;27(4):1147-1162. doi: 10.1080/13811118.2022.2131490. Epub 2022 Oct 20. PMID: 36267036

Nock MK, Borges G, Bromet EJ, Alonso J, Angermeyer M, Beautrais A, et al. Cross-national prevalence and risk factors for suicidal ideation, plans and attempts. Br J Psychiatry. 2008;192:98-105.

O’Connor RC, Nock MK. The psychology of suicidal behaviour. Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Jun;1(1):73-85. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)70222-6. Epub 2014 Jun 4. PMID: 26360404.

Pirkis J, Nordentoft M. Media influences on suicide and attempted suicide. In: O’Connor RC, Platt S, Gordon J, editors. International handbook of suicide prevention: research, policy and practice. Chichester; Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons; 2011. pp. 531–44.

 Rahman B.,   Shirin V ., Mitra. N (2010). The relationship between attachment styles and suicide ideation: the study of Turkmen students, Iran, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 5,   Pages 1190-1194, ISSN 1877-0428,

Sher,L.(2004). Preventing suicide, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 97, Issue 10  Pages 677–680, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hch106

Silva Filho OCD, Avanci JQ, Pires TO, de Vasconcellos Carvalhaes Oliveira R, Assis SG. Attachment, suicidal behavior, and self-harm in childhood and adolescence: a study of a cohort of Brazilian schoolchildren. BMC Pediatr. 2023 Aug 17;23(1):403. doi: 10.1186/s12887-023-04215-7. PMID: 37592202; PMCID: PMC10433545.

Silverman. M.M.  (2006). The Language of Suicidology.Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2006 Oct;36(5):519-32.

Turecki, G., Brent, D.A., Gunnell, D. et al. Suicide and suicide risk. Nat Rev Dis Primers 5, 74 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-019-0121-0

Turecki G, Brent DA. Suicide and suicidal behaviour. Lancet. 2016 Mar 19;387(10024):1227-39. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00234-2. Epub 2015 Sep 15. PMID: 26385066; PMCID: PMC5319859.

මනුකා විජේසිංහ

May 2, 2025 සංස්කාරක Comments Offon අහිංසාවාදයට සිදුවූයේ කුමක්ද?(2) නව ලිබරල්වාදය ස්වමාංශ භක්ෂණය අරඹා තිබේ. දැන් ඔවුහු දරුවන් මරාදමමින් සිටිති.

(What Happened To Ahimsa? යන ලිපි පෙළේ  – Neoliberalism Has Turned Inwards – It Is Killing Its Children යන මැයෙන් පළවු 2 වන කොටසේ පරිවර්තනය)

1 කොටස

ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නම් හොල්මනක් ගැන ප්‍රචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයක් ගෙන යන අතරම ස්වෛරී ජාතින් රැසක් විනාශ කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව සිය න්‍යාය පත්‍රය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා  නව ලිබරල්වාදය දැන් ස්වකීය අභ්‍යන්තරය වෙත හැරෙමින් සමස්ත මානව සංහතියේම අනාගතයත් එහි දරුවනුත් විනාශ කිරීම අරඹා තිබේ.

මේ ස්ත්‍රීපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ මතවාදයේ ආගමයි. ස්ත්‍රිපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ මතවාදය විද්‍යාවක් නොවේ. එක්සත් ජනපදයේ සුපිරි ධනවතුන්, එහි මූල්‍ය ආයතන ආදිය විසින් අරමුදල් සපයමින් රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානවල උමතු උද්‍යෝගය හරහා  විවිධ ඇදහිලි කල්ලි විසින් ආගමක් ලෙසින් වපුරන මතවාදයකි. ලිංගික අනන්‍යතාව වූකලී සිය කැමැත්ත අනුව වෛද්‍යමය මැදිහත්වීම් හරහා වෙනස් කළ හැකි යෝ-යෝ ක්‍රීඩාවක් බව ඇදහීමට මෙම මතවාදය විසින් ළමුන්ව තල්ලු කරනු ලබයි.

මා විසින් මේ ගැන  බොරුවෙන් ජීවත් නොවෙමු යන මගේ ලිපිය මගින් සාකච්ඡා කර ඇත. එහි අරමුණ වූයේ ලිංගික පරිවර්තන ක්‍රියාදාමයට සඳහා වැඩිහිටියන් ලෙස යොමුවන පිරිස් ඇමතීම නොවේ. මෙම ක්‍රියාදාමය මානව හිමිකම් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටීමක් නොවන බවත් ළමුන්ට එරෙහි අපරාධයක් බවත් තේරුම්ගැනීමට අසමත්ව මෙම වරදට ඉඩහරින දෙමව්පියන් දැනුවත් කිරීම එම ලිපියේ අරමුණ විය.

එම ලිපියට එරෙහිව කෝපාවිෂ්ට අපහාසාත්මක අවලාද එල්ලවිය. මා කිසි විටෙකත් මිනිස් වර්ගයාට ඇත්තේ හුදෙක් වෙනස් ලිංගභේද දෙකක් පමණක් බව ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම අනුමත නොකරන නමුත් එම ලිපිය හේතුවෙන් මට මගේ ඇතැම් මිතුරු මිතුරියන් අහිමි වූ අතර සුදු ක්‍රිස්තියානුවෙකු ලෙස මාව හෙළා දක්නා ලදි. සැබැවින්ම දුර්ලභ ද්විලිංගික ආකාරයන් පැවැතිය හැකි නමුත් එය සිදුවන්නේ සොබාදහමේ ඌනතාවක් නිසා මිසෙක සොබාදහම හමුවේ තුන්වන ලිංගයක අවශ්‍යතාව මතුව ඇති නිසා නොවේ.

සමවයසේ වූවන්ගේ බලපෑමත්, USAID සහ යුරෝපා සංගමය විසින් විශාල වශයෙන් සපයන අරමුදල්වලින් පවත්වාගෙන යන රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන, සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ජාලා පවුල් සැලසුම් සහ මානසික උපදේශන සංගම් ආදිය විසින් ගෙන යන දැවැන්ත ප්‍රචාරක යුද්ධයත් විසින් ළමුන්ගේ ලිංගික පරිවර්තයන් සිදුකිරීමට පොළඹවන මෙම මතවාදයට දෙමව්පියෝ වේගයෙන් යටත් වෙමින් සිටිති. ස්ත්‍රීපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ ද්‍රවශීලිතාව (Gender fluidity) ස්වභාවික ප්‍රේරණයක් නොව ඩිජිටල් මාධ්‍ය උපයෝගිකරගනිමින් නිර්මාණය කර ඇති විකාර රූපි මතවාදයකි. එය සැල්වදෝර් දාලිගේ සිතුවමකට හෝ සිනමා ප්‍රබන්ධයකට අයත් විය හැකි නමුත් යථාර්ථය නොවේ. එය යථාර්ථයක් බවට පත් කිරීමට දැරෙන උත්සාහයන් අසීමාන්තික හානියක් සහ වේදනාවන් ඇති කිරීමට  හේතුවේ. එය වැඩි විය පැමිණීම අවහිර කරන ඖෂධ සහ ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ලිංගික හෝර්මෝන ආදියට ඇබ්බැහිවීම් කරාද, පියයුරු ඉවත් කිරීම, ලිංගික අවයව කප්පාදුව, බාහිර පෙනුම යළි සැකසීමේ ශල්‍ය කර්ම සිදු කරගැනීම කරාද යොමු කරමින්, අවසාන වශයෙන් වේදනා නාශක, මානසික අවපීඩනය සඳහා ගනු ලබන ඖෂධ, සහ වන්ධ්‍යාකරණ ඖෂධවලටද ජීවිතය යටත් කෙරෙන භයානක ප්‍රවණතාවයකි.

අපගේ රට තුළ මෙම කරුණු පිළිබඳ සමාජ දැනුවත්භාවය නැංවීම සඳහා මවුවරුන්ගේ ව්‍යාපාරයක් ගොඩනැගෙමින් පවතින අතර අපේක්ෂා කළ යුතු පරිදිම මෙම ව්‍යාපාරයට එරෙහිව අවලාද නැගීම් සහ හෙළාදැකීම්ද සිදු වෙමින් පවතී. කිසිදු මිනිසෙකු නිර්දෝෂී නොවේ. තමන් සර්ව නිර්දෝෂීයැයි පවසන අය මෙම මවුවරුන්ගේ ව්‍යාපාරය තුළ නැත. ඔවුන් සිදු කිරීමට තැත් දරන එකම දෙය ලිංගික අධ්‍යාපනයේ මුවාවෙන් පාසල් තුළදී අපගේ දරුවන්ට උගන්වන සාවද්‍ය මත පිළිබඳව සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීම පමණි. වර්තමාන ලිංගික අධ්‍යාපනය තුළ මානව වර්ගයා තුළ ලිංග බේදයන් දෙකකට වඩා පවතින බවත් තමන් අයත්වන ලිංගිකත්වය උපතින් උරුමවන ජීව විද්‍යාත්මක දෙයක් නොවන බවත් එය සමාජමය තෝරාගැනීමක් බවත්ය. එමෙන්ම තමන් කැමැති ලිංගිකත්වය තෝරාගැනීමට ළමයාට නිදහස ඇති බවද ඉගැන්වේ.

නමුත් මෙම නිදහස උදෙසා ගෙවිය යුතු මිල කවරේද?

අපි අපගේ දරුවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අහිංසාව ප්‍රගුණ කළ යුතු වෙමු.

නමුත් ඉහත සාවද්‍ය මතවාදයන්ට එරෙහිව කතාකරන්නවුන් සමලිංගික විරෝධීන් හෝ සමලිංගික භීතිකාවන්ගෙන් පෙළෙන්නවුන් ලෙස ලේබල් කරමින් ප්‍රහාරයන් දියත් වේ. අපගේ සමාජය තුළ සමලිංගිකත්වය පිළිගැනී ඇති අතර එහි සමහර වඩාත් නිර්මාණාත්මක සහ කලාත්මක ප්‍රතිභාවකින් සමන්විතවන්නවුන් සමලිංගික ප්‍රජාවට අයත්වූවන් වේ. කිසිවෙකු ඔවුන්ට එරෙහි නොවේ.එයට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ලෙස ඔවුන් ගේ විශිෂ්ට නිර්මාණශීලිත්වය, ප්‍රඥාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආදරයක් සහ ගෞරවයක් පවතින අතර ප්‍රශංසාවටද ලක් වේ.

නමුත් මෙම ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ මතවාදය විසින් සිදුකරමින්ඇත්තේ සමලිංගික ප්‍රජාවටද අවමානයකි. ඔවුන්ට තමන් කැමැති පරිදි තමන්ගේම ලිංගිකත්වයට අයත් පුද්ගලයෙකුට ආදරය කිරීමේ සතුට භුක්ති විඳීම තවදුරටත් සිදු කළ නොහැකි බවට බලපෑම් සිදුවන පරිසරයක් නිර්මාණය කෙරෙමින් පවතී. ඔවුන්ගේ බාහිර පෙනුම ඖෂධ හෝ ශල්‍යකර්ම මගින් විකෘති කරමින් සංක්‍රාන්තික ස්ත්‍රියක හෝ සංක්‍රාන්තික පිරිමියෙකු බවට පත් කිරීමට විවිධ පෙළැඹුම් යාන්ත්‍රණයන් ක්‍රියාත්මක වේ.

නැවතත් අවධාරණය කළ යුත්තේ යම් වැඩිහිටි පුද්ගලයෙකුට තාර්කිකව සිතීමේ හැකියාව ඇති අතර ඒ මත පදනම්ව සිය ජීවිතය සම්බන්ධව තීරණ ගැනීමේ හැකියාවද පවතී. ඔහු හෝ ඇය තමන් සංක්‍රාන්තික ලිංගිකයෙකු වන්නට තීරණය කරන්නේ නම් ඔවුහු එම තීරණය ගනු ලබන්නේ එම තීරණයේ අනිවාර්ය ප්‍රතිඵල සහ බලපෑම් පිළිබඳව දැනගත යුතු අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු පිළිබඳව දැනුවත්වීමකින් අනතුරුවය. නමුත් බාලවයස්කරුවන් මෙම ප්‍රභේදයට අයත් නොවේ.

මෙම ලිංගික පරිවර්තන ක්‍රියාදාමයට යොමුවන යෞවනයන්ට එහි ඉතිහාසය පිළිබඳව හෝ ඒ සඳහා යොදාගැනෙන ඖෂධ පිළිබඳව හෝ එවැනි වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාත්මක මැදිහත්වීම්වල අහිතකර ප්‍රතිවිපාක පිළිබඳව හෝ කිසිදු වැටහීමක් නැත. ඔවුහු ජීවත්වන්නේ විශේෂයෙන්ම කොවිඩ්-19 ප්‍රතිපත්ති සහ ලොක්ඩවුන් තුළ ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් ගොඩ නගන ලද විද්‍යා ප්‍රබන්ධයක් තුළය. ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයේ නියෝගවලට නිවට ලෙස යටත්වුණු ලෝකයේ ස්වෛරී රටවල් ළමුන් ඔවුන්ගේ සමවයස් මිතුරු මිතුරියන්ගෙන්ද පවුල්වලින්ද ක්‍රියාකාරකම්වලින්ද, ක්‍රීඩාවන්ගෙන්ද වෙන්කර හුදෙකලා කරන ලදි. අනතුරුව ඔවුන්ව සන්සුන් කර ඔවුන්ගේ ජීවිතය ස්වාභාවික ප්‍රකෘති තත්ත්වය වෙත ගෙන එනු වෙනුවට තාක්ෂණික සමාගම් විසින් මෙම ළමුන්ගේ භීතිකාවන් වර්ධනය ‍කෙරෙන පරිගණක තිර මතට ඔවුන්ව කොටු කරන ලදි. එමගින් ඔවුන්ව මානසික අවපීඩනයන් උත්සන්න කරමින් ඔවුන් මත සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ජාලා හරහා සංක්‍රාන්තික ස්ත්‍රීපුරුෂ සමාජභාවයන් පිළිබඳ මතවාදයන් පටවන ලදි. කොවිඩ්-19 ලොක්ඩවුන්වල කාලකණ්නි සහගත ප්‍රතිවිපාක වලින් මිදීමට මෙම ළමුන් වෙත විවර කරන ලද දොරටුව එයයි.

කොවිඩ්-19 ප්‍රතිපත්ති මිහිමත සෑම මානවයෙකුටම එරෙහිව සිදු කරන ලද අපරාධයක් වන නමුත් එයින් වඩාත්ම පීඩා වින්දේ ළමුන්ය. ඔවුන්ගේ ලෝකයේ යථාර්තවාදි ප්‍රකෘති පැවැත්ම අහෝසි කරන ලද අතර එය විකාරරූපී යථාවක් බවට පත් කරන ලදි. ඔවුන්ගේ ජීවිත අනුභූතික ‍යථාර්ථය මත පැවැතීම අහෝසි කර එය ඩිජිටල් යථාර්ථයක් මතපිහිටුවන ලදි. ඒ මගින් මෙම ළමා පරපුරට ඔවුන්ගේ මවිපියන් සහ නෑදෑ වැඩිහිටියන් සමග ඇසුර අහිමි කරන ලදි.

එය අහම්බයෙන් සිදු වූවක් නොවේ. එය චේතාන්විතව,සැලසුම් සහගතව ක්‍රියාවට නංවන ක්‍රියාදාමයක ප්‍රතිඵලයකි. ඖෂධ නිෂ්පාදන සහ ජීවතාක්ෂණික කාර්මික සංකීර්ණයේ සියලු පෙළඹවීම්වලට පහසුවෙන් ගොදුරු කරගත හැකි, කාලකණ්ණි සහ බියෙන් පෙළෙන දරුවන්ගේ පරම්පරාවක් නිර්මාණය කිරීම එහි අරමුණ විය.

මෙවැනි දුෂ්ට මතවාදයන් නැගෙනහිරෙන් කිසිදිනෙක පැමිණ නැත. අප ජීවත්වන්නේ අහිංසාවාදය උපත ලද සහ වර්ධනය කරන ලද කලාපයකය. නමුත් අපගේ ආර්ථික දුබලතාවන් හේතුවෙන් අපට බටහිර මුදල් ලබාගැනීමට බල කෙරෙන තත්ත්වයක් නිර්මාණය කෙරී ඇති අතර ඒ හේතුවෙන්ම ඔවුන්ගේ මතවාදයන්ද පිළිපැදීමට බල කෙරෙමින් පවතී. කොළඹ 7 වෙසෙන දරුවෙකු මෑතකදී මා සමග පවසන ලද්දේ ” ස්ත්‍රී පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ මතවාදය යහපත් එකක්. ඒ මගින් නියෝජනය කරන්නේ සමලිංගික වීම හේතුවෙන් ගල්ගසා මරාදමන ලද අයයි”.
මෙම දරුවා අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන්නේ ජාත්‍යන්තර පාසලකය. ඔහුට සිය දෙමව්පියන්ගේ මවුබස කථා කළ නොහැකිය. ඔහු ආහාර ගනු ලබන්නේ දෙමව්පියන් සමග නොව ” Uber” වෙතින් ආහාර ඇණවුම් කිරීම මගිනි. ඔහුගේ නිවාඩුකාලය ගතවන්නේ විදේශයන්හි සහ තරුපහේ හෝටල්වලය. මේ රටතුළ සමලිංගික වීම නිසා වෙනත් කවර හෝ හේතුවක් නිසා මිනිසුන් ගල්ගසා මරාදමා නැති බව දැනගැනීමට මෙම දරුවාට අවස්ථාවක් නැත. මෙම දරුවා සහමුළින්ම යථාර්ථයෙන් වෙන්ව ජීවත් වෙයි. අපගේ රටවල් තුළ සමලිංගිකතාව විහිනතාවක් ලෙසින් නොව උපලක්ෂණයක් හෝ ගුණාංගයක් ලෙසින් සළකන බව මේ දරුවා දන්නේ නැත.( අපි අති විනීත බටහිර ක්‍රිස්තියානුවන් නොවෙමු.) තවමත් කලාවට ගරු කරන මෙම රටතුළ , අපගේ හොඳම කලාකරුවන් අතර සමලිංගික කලාකරුවන් රැසක් සිටිති. තවද, ඉඳහිට පැවැත්වෙන සංක්‍රාන්ති ලිංගිකයන්ගේ සාද බොහෝ දෙනෙක් සහභාගී වීමට ප්‍රිය කළ ස්ථාන විය. ඔවුහු සතුටින් සහ බියෙකින් තොරව ජීවත්වූහ.දෙමාපියභාවය රාජකාරියේ බරින් කෙනෙකු පුරවන අතර, සමලිංගිකත්වය මිනිස් නිර්මාණයේ අලංකාරය ආරක්ෂා කළේය.

මගේ තර්කය ඉදිරිපත්කරන්නේ දැනුවත් තෝරාගැනීම් සිදුකර වැඩිහිටියන් සඳහා නොව ළමුන් වෙනුවෙනි. අප අතරින් කී දෙනෙකු අපගේ පාසල් සමය තුළ සමාන ලිංගිකයන් කෙරෙහි ආකර්ෂණය වී නොමැතිද ? අප එය හැඳින්වීමට හුරුව සිටියේ ඇඟෑලුම්කමක් නැතහොත් ” ක්‍රෂ් එකක්” ලෙසය. අප එය තුළට ඇතුළු වුවා මෙන්ම එයින් බැහැරවීමද සිදු විය. අපගෙන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු ඔවුන්ගේ මුල්කාලීන ඇඟෑලුම්කම් කුමක් වුවද පසුකාලීනව දෙමව්පියන් බවට පත්ව තමන්ගේ වර්ගයාගේ අඛණ්ඩ පැවැත්ම ගෙන ගියෝය. ඉහත ඇඟෑලුම්කම් අපගේ ළමාවියේ සොඳුරු මතකයන් ලෙස ඉතිරිව පවතී.

වර්තමානයේදී අපගේ දරුවන්ට ළමාකාලයක් නැත.

සමාන ලිංගිකයක් කෙරෙහි ආකර්ෂණයක් ඇතිවන විට වර්තමානයේ දරුවෙකු කරන්නේ ඒ පිළිබඳව දෙමව්පියන්ගෙන් හෝ මිතුරු මිතුරියන් සමග සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට පෙර අන්තර්ජාලය තුළ ඒ පිළිබඳව ඇත්තේ මොනවාදැයි විමසා බැලීමය. එවිට අල්ගොරිතම විසින් ඔහුව යොමුකරන්නේ ඔහු ස්ත්‍රිපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ ද්‍රවශීලිතාවයෙන් පෙලෙන අයෙකු බවට විශ්වාස කිරීමට පෙළැඹවීම සඳහාය. ජීව විද්‍යාත්මක ලිංගිකත්වය මෙහිදි සහමුලින්ම නොතකා හැරේ. X සහ Y ක්‍රොමසෝම විසින් ජීව විද්‍යාත්මක ලිංගිකත්වය නිර්ණය වන බවද බොරුවක් බවද ඉගැන්වේ. සායනික ප්‍රතිකාර ලැබීම සඳහා යොමුවීමට පළමු ඔහු විසින්ම ස්වයං- විනිශ්චයක් සිදුකරගෙන තිබේ. සායනික චිකිත්සකයාද එම සමූහගායනයම ප්‍රතිරාවය කරයි. දෙමව්පියන් මෙහිදී සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අසරණ බවට පත්කර තිබේ.

නමුත් ජීව විද්‍යාත්මක සත්‍යය ප්‍රතික්ෂේපකළ නොහැකිය. ස්ත්‍රීපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ සම්පූර්ණ න්‍යායම පදනම්ව ඇත්තේ කුඩා කල සිය ප්‍රචණ්ඩ පියා විසින් පුරුෂ ලිංගිකත්වයට වෛර කිරීමට උගන්වන ලදුව මානසික කම්පනයට ගොදුරු වූ ජොන් මොනේ නම් පුද්ගලයා විසින් ගොතන ලද පර්යේෂණයක් මතය. ඔහු පිරිමි බිලිඳුන්ගේ ලිංගික අවයව ශල්‍යකර්ම මගින් කප්පාදු කලේය. එම පිරිමි බිළිඳුන්ට අනාගතයේදී සමලිංගිකයන් මෙන් තමන්ගේ ජීවිත සාමාන්‍ය පරිදි ගතකිරීමේ හැකියාව තිබිණි. නැතහොත් ආබාධිත මූලික ලිංගික අවයවන් තිබූ අවස්ථාවලදී පිටියුටරි ග්‍රන්ථිය සක්‍රිය කෙරෙන හෝර්මොන ප්‍රතිකාර මගින් සාමාන්‍ය තත්ත්වයට පත්කිරීමට හැකියාව තිබිණි. ජොන් මොනේගේ ස්ත්‍රි-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ න්‍යාය සහ එහි දරුණු ප්‍රතිවිපාක විසින් නිරෝගී දරුවන් සිය දිවිනසාගැනීම්වලට සහ මරණයට ගොදු වූ ආකාරය පිළිබඳව ජෝන් කොලපින්ටෝ ( John Colapinto) විසින් ලියන ලද ස්වභාව ධර්මය ඔහුව නිර්මාණය කළ ආකාරයට” (As nature made him.) නම් කෘතිය තුලින් කියවිය හැකිය.

අපගේ දරුවන්ට අප කරමින් ඇත්තේ කුමක්ද? තවදුරටත් අපි ඔවුන් හදාවඩාගන්නේ ඔවුන්ට යථාර්ථය සහ ප්‍රබන්ධය වෙන්කර හඳුනාගැනීමට පහසුවන පරිදි කතන්දර පැවසීම්, නාට්‍ය රංගනයෙන් හෝ පොතපත් කියවීමෙන් තොරවද? මා විසින් කතා කරන ලද බොහෝ දරුවන් මනෝ චිකිත්සක උගුලට හසුව තිබේ. මෙම දරුවන් මානසික රෝගීන් නොවන අතර ඔවුහු සාමාන්‍ය දරුවෝ වෙති. ඔවුන්ගේ කාංසාව මෙම වයසේ සාමාන්‍ය ලක්ෂණයකි.

සිය විභාගයෙන් පසුව සාංකාව උත්සන්න වූ දරුවෙකු මෑතකදී මට මුණගැසිණි. තමන් විසින් දරුවා මත පටවා ඇති තමන්ගේම අභිලාෂයන් සහ ඉලක්කයන් ඉවත්කරගනු වෙනුවට මෙම දෙමව්පියන් සිදු කර ඇත්තේ ඔහුව මනෝ චිකිත්සකයෙකු වෙත යැවීමය. එමගින් එම දරුවාගේ ස්වාභාවික සහජාසය මානසික රෝගී තත්ත්වයක් ලෙස නිර්ණය කරනලදි. ළමුන්ට මනෝ චිකිත්සකයන් අවශ්‍ය නැත. ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය ක්‍රීඩාවේ සහ රංගනයේ යෙදීමටය.

මනෝ චිකිත්සකයෝ ස්වකීය ආදායම තරකරගැනීම සඳහා යමෙකුගේ මනසේ පවත්නා රෝගී තත්ත්වයන් පිළිබඳ මවාගැනීම් මත රඳා පවතින්නෝය. විභාග විසින් සෑමවිටෙකම දරුවන් ආතතියකට ලක්කරනු ලබයි. අතීතයේදී දෙමව්පියෝ දරුවන්ගේ ස්වාභාවික ප්‍රතික්‍රියාවන් තුලින් රෝග නිර්මාණය කරනු වෙනුවට සිදු කළේ ඔවුන්ව එළිමහනට ගොස් ක්‍රීඩා කිරීම හෝ දරුවන් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් කිරීමට කැමැති දේවල් කිරීම සඳහා දිරිගැන්වීමය. ආතතිය බවත් කිරීම සඳහා හොඳම ප්‍රතිකාරය එයයි. මෙමගින් දරුවාට සිය ස්වයං නියෝජනය අහිමි නොවනවා පමණක් නොව දැඩි ආතතියක් පවත්නා තත්ත්වයන්ට මුහුණදී එ්වා ජයගැනීමට බලයක් ද ළමයා තුළ නිර්මාණය කරයි. පැවැත්ම පිළිබඳ පළමු පාඩම එයයි.

ඇතැම්විට විදේශීය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලවලට යන දරුවෙකුට මිතුරුන් සොයාගැනීම අසීරු විය හැකිය. ඔහු ඔහුගේ දෙමව්පියන් අමතමින් තමන්ට මිතුරු මිතුරියන් නොමැති බව පවසයි. මෙහිදී දෙමව්පියන් කරන්නේ සමාන අදහස් ඇති අය සොයාගැනීමට ඉවහල්වන යම් ක්‍රීඩා හෝ කලා ක්‍රියාකාරකම්හි යෙදෙන කණ්ඩායමකට සම්බන්ධවීමට සිය දරුවාට උපදෙස් දෙනු වෙනුවට ඔහුට මනෝ චිකිත්සාව නිර්දේශ කිරීමයි. ජීවිතයේ සෑම දෙයක්ම ඩිජිටල්කරණය කර ඌනනය කර ඇත්නම්, ආපසු හැරවීමක් සිදු කර ඇත්තේ මනෝචිකිත්සක රෝග විනිශ්චයයි.
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මානසික රෝග යනු ව්‍යාධි විද්‍යාත්මක විෂයයක් නොවේ. ඒවා සොයාගැනීම්ය. මානසික ආබාධ පිළිබඳ සංඛ්‍යානමය අත්පොත (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- DSM ) යනු විද්‍යාවක් නොව ප්‍රබන්ධයකි. කලක් අපි සාමාන්‍ය යැයි සලකන ලද සියලු තත්ත්වයන් එහි මානසික රෝග ලෙස වර්ගීකරණය කර තිබේ. ලජ්ජාශීලිත්වය, අන්තර්වර්තනය, සැකය, කනස්සල්ල, උකටලී බව, හුදෙකලා බව යනාදිය ස්ථාවර තත්ත්වයන් නොවේ. ඒවා වඩදිය සහ බාදිය මෙනි. සාමාන්‍ය උච්චාවචනයට ලක්වන මෙම මිනිස් හැඟීම් දැන් මානසික ආබාධ ලෙස සැලකේ. සිය ආසියාතික පවුල සහ පරිසරය අත්හැර දමා කැනඩාවේ විශ්වවිද්‍යාල අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා පිටත්වන අසරණ දරුවෙකුට සමීප මිතුරන් සොයාගත නොහැකි වීම සමාජ කාංසා අක්‍රමිකතාව (social anxiety disorder) ලෙස නිර්ණය කරනු ලැබේ. සීමා සහිතව සමාජ සබඳතාවන්ට නිරාවරණය වීමට දක්වන පෙළැඹුම සමාජශීලිත්වයේ අක්‍රමිකතා( meeting people disorder) හෝ ආත්ම විශ්වාසයේ අක්‍රමිකතා ලෙස විනිශ්චය කරනු ලැබේ. දැන් මෙම දරුවා ඖෂධීය ප්‍රතිකාර ලැබිය යුතු අන්තයක පසුවන්නේ යැයි නිගමනය කර ඇති බැවින් ඔහුගේ පෞරුෂය වෙනස් කිරීමට සැලසුම් කෙරේ. අනතුරුව කෙටි කලක් තුළ ඔහු භින්නෝන්මාද පෞරුෂයකින් පෙලෙන බවට නිර්ණය කරමින් වඩාත් හානිකර මනෝචිකිත්සක ඖෂධ නිර්දේශ කෙරේ. මේ සියල්ලලෙන් පසුව දරුවා සිය පැරණි සාමාන්‍ය තත්ත්වයට පැමිණීමට ඇති ඉඩකඩ ඉතා අඩුය.

විදේශීය රටකට යන කිසිවෙකුට ක්ෂණිකව මිතුරන් සොයාගත නොහැකිය. ඒ සඳහා කාලය, උත්සාහය සහ ඒ සියල්ලනටම වඩා ඉහළින් අධිෂ්ඨානයක් පැවැතිය යුතුය. මිතුරන් සොයාගැනීම සඳහා යම් ක්‍රීඩා හෝ කලා සංගමයකට එක්වීමට නිර්දේශකරනු වෙනු වෙනුවට දෙමව්පියන් විසින් දරුවා මනෝ චිකිත්සාවට යොමු කිරීම දෙමව්පියන්ගේ සම්පූර්ණ අසමත්භාවයට ඉහළම නිදර්ශනයක් ලෙස සැලකිය හැකි අතර තමන්ගේ පහසුව සඳහා ඔවුහු දරුවාගේ නියෝජනය සම්පූර්ණ ආගන්තුකයෙකු වෙත පවරා දෙයි.

ආගන්තුකයෝ අපගේ දරුවන්ගේ හැඟීම්, අවශ්‍යතා, අදහස් නොදනිති. ඒවා පිළිබඳ දැනුවත්බව ඇත්තේත්, තේරුම්ගත හැක්කේත් දෙමව්පියන් වන අපට පමණි.

හංගේරියන් ඇමෙරිකානු මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු වන තෝමස් ට්සාස්ට්ස් (Thomas Zsasz) මෙසේ පවසයි. මනෝ සෞඛ්‍යය පිළිබඳ වර්තමාන මෙවලම් වූකලී අතවර කිරීමේ දැවැන්ත මෙවලම්ය. එහි විශාලතම ගොදුර බවට පත්ව ඇත්තේ ළමුන්ය.

දෙමව්පියන්ට තවදුරටත් තමන්ගේ දරුවන් කෙරෙහි බලපෑමක් නැද්ද? ඔවුහු තවදුරටත් දරුවන්ගේ මාර්ගෝපදේශකයෝ හෝ අනාගතය දකින්නෝ නොවෙතිද? සිය මවගෙන්, මුතුන්මිත්තන්ගෙන් ලද තමන් ලද දැනුම සිය දරුවන් වෙත ලබාදීමට ඩිජිටල් විප්ලවය විසින් ඔවුන්ට බාධාකර ඔවුන් අසරණ බවට පත් කර තිබේද?

ස්ත්‍රියක් යනු කවරෙක්ද? මාතෘත්වය පිළිබඳ පෞරාණික දැක්ම

ස්ත්‍රියක් යනු කවරෙක්ද? ස්ත්‍රියක් යනු වර්තමාන ස්ත්‍රී-පුරුෂ සමාජභාවය පිළිබඳ මතවාදයේ කෘත්‍රිම සහ විකාර වාංග්මාලාව තුළ හඳුන්වා දෙන පරිදි හුදෙක් උපත් සිදුකරන පුද්ගලයා (birthing person) නොවේ. මවක් යනු බෙහෝ වැඩි අයෙකි. ඇය අනන්තය, අපරිමිතය.

ආසියාතිකයන් වන අපගේ වෛදික සහ පෞරාණික ප්‍රඥාවේ උරුමයට අනුව බිහිවීම නැතහොත් උපත සිදුවන්නේ හිරුගේ සහ සහ සඳුගේ අන්තර් ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය හේතුවෙනි. හිරු යනු පුරුෂ ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයේ සංකේතය වන අතර චන්ද්‍රයා විසින් නියෝජනය කරන්නේ ස්ත්‍රී මූලධර්මයන් වන මනස, හැඟීම්, සංසුන් බව සහ ප්‍රතිභාඥානයයි.

ස්ත්‍රී මූලධර්මය යනු පුරුෂ මූල ධර්මය වන වෘක්ෂය නැතහොත් ශාකය වෙත ජීවය ලබා දෙන බීජයයි.

පෞරාණිකයන්ට අනුව ස්ත්‍රී මූලධර්මය යනු ජ්‍යොති හෙවත් ආලෝකයයි.

මාතාව යනු අන් කවරෙකු හෝ නොව උත්තරීතර ස්ත්‍රිවාදි දේවතාවිය වන පාර්වතීය. ඇය සප්ත සෘෂිවරුන් නැතහොත් අනාගත වක්තෘවරුන් පිරිවරා ආලෝකයේ සහ බලයේ ප්‍රභවය වන ජ්‍යොතිලිංගම් මධ්‍යයේ වැඩ වසයි. වෛදික තාරකා විද්‍යාව වන හෝරා ශාස්ත්‍රයේ කර්තෘවරයා වන පරශාර පවසන අන්දමට සෑම ශාස්තෘවරයෙකුම ග්‍රහයන් 7ක ශක්තිය, බුද්ධිය සහ රසය නියෝජනය කරයි.” මෙහිදී රසය යනු දිවට දැනෙන රසය” නොවේ. එය ජීවිතයේ තීරණාත්මක අත්‍යවශ්‍ය ගුණාංගයකි. දිව්‍යමය මාතාව වන පාර්වතී ජ්‍යොති නැතහොත් ආලෝකය යනුවෙන්ද හැඳින්වේ. මක් නිසාද යත් ඇය සප්ත සෘෂිවරුන්ගේ ආලෝකය අවශෝෂණය කරගන්නා බැවිනි. ජ්‍යොතිගේ මාතෘ ස්වරූපය සරස්වතීය. ස යනු සියල්ලය. රස යනු ගුණාත්මක බවයි. වතී යනු දිව්‍යමය රසයේ අධිපතිනියයි.

මේ වනාහි මාතාවයි. ඇය සප්ත සෘෂිවරුන්ගෙන් ලබාගන්නා රසය ඇය සිය දරුවාට ඇගේ නාඩි: ස්පන්දන මගින් ලබා දෙයි.

මාතාව යනු ආලෝකයයි. අන්ධකාරය පරදවන ආලෝකය ඇයයි. මාතාව තුළ පවත්නා ගිනිදැල් ඇගේ දකුණු ඇසෙන් ධර්මය ‍ලෙස නිකුත් වේ. ඇගේ වම් ඇසෙන් අනුකම්පාව, දයාව සහ ආදරය නිකුත් වේ. ඇගෙ දෙවන ඇස වන අජ්න මගින් සත්‍යය පිළිබිඹු වේ.

ඇගේ දරුවා පුත්‍රයෙක්ද දියණියකද යන්න ඇය දනී. සැකයක් පවතී නම් සැකයේ අන්ධකාරය පලවා හැරීමේ හැකියාව මාතාව සතුව පවතී. එය අහිංසාවයි. මව විසින් සිය වගකීම දරාගත යුතුය. අපේ පැරණි ප්‍රඥාව තුළ දරුවෙකුගේ දුක පිළිබඳ බොහෝ ඉඟි ඇති බව ඇය දැන සිටිය යුතුය.සමහර විට ග්‍රහලෝකවල චලනයන් හරහා එය පහසුවෙන් පැහැදිලි කළ හැකිය.විපත පහව යාමට ඉඩ ඇති බැවින්, ඒවා පහව යන තෙක් බලා සිටීම පමණක් කළ යුතුය.

සයිබර් අවකාශය යනු ළමුන් වල්මත් කරන වංකගිරියකි

ළමුන්ව පාලනය කරන සහ ඔවුන්ව උදුරාගන්නා සයිබර් අවකාශය යනු දරුවන්ගේ ව්‍යාකූලත්වය, විකෘති කිරීම සහ වන්ධ්‍යා කරණයට ලක්කිරීම එමගින් ද්‍රව්‍යමය වාසි ලබාගන්නා බලවේග විසින් නිර්මාණය කර පාලනය කරනු ලබන වංකගිරියකි. එය ඔවුන්ට ලාභ ගෙන දෙයි. සංක්‍රාන්තික ලිංගිකත්වය, සංක්‍රාන්තික ස්ත්‍රිපුරුෂ සමාජභාවය, සහ සංක්‍රාන්තික මානුෂිකත්වය (Transsexual, Transgender, Transhuman’) නැමැති කෘතියේ කතුවරිය වන ජෙනිෆර් බිලෙක් (Jennifer Bilek) පවසන්නේ ඔබට යමක් පිළිබඳව සත්‍යය දැනගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය නම් ඒ පිටුපස පවතින මුදල් වල අඩිපාර හඹායනු ලෙසයි.

ළමුන්ගේ ජීවිත ගලවාගැනීම යමෙකුගේ අරමුණ නම් ඔහු හෝ ඇය විසින් කළ යුත්තේ සමාජ යුක්තිය පිළිබඳ හිස් අලංකාරිකයන්ට රැවටීම වෙනුවට සත්‍යය සොයා යාමයි. සත්‍යය සයිබර් අවකාශයේ අන්තර්ගත නොවේ. සයිබර් අවකාශය පාලනය වන්නේ උපරිම ලාභ ලැබෙන පරිදි අල්ගොරිතම මගින් එය හසුරුවන බලවේගයන්ටය. සයිබර් අවකාශය යනු සත්‍යය පාවාදීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන්නවුන් අන්ත දක්ෂිණාංශිකයන්, උමතු ආගම්වාදින් සහ නාසි වාදින් ලෙස ගර්හාවට පත් කෙරෙන අවකාශයකි. බාලවයස්කාරිත්වය, දැනුම සහ අත්දැකීම් නොමැතිවීම හේතුවෙන් තමන්ට වටහාගත නොහැකි දේවලට ගොදුරුවීමෙන් තමන්ටම හානිකරගැනීමෙන් ළමයෙකුගේ ජීවිතය ගලවා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම අන්ත දක්ෂිණාංශිකවාදි වීම නොවේ. එය අහිංසාවාදයයි.

වෛද්‍ය විද්‍යාවේ ප්‍රධාන න්‍යායන් දෙකකි. එනම් මියාම්සා( Miasma theory) සහ විෂ බීජ (Germ theory) යන න්‍යායයන්ය. මියාම්සා න්‍යාය අනුව රෝගවලට ප්‍රතිකාර කරනුයේ පෝෂණය මගින් ප්‍රතිශක්ති පද්ධතිය ශක්තිමත් කරමින් විෂවලට ආවරණය වීම වැළැක්වීමය. විෂබීජ න්‍යාය අනුව ක්ෂුද්‍රජීවින්ගේ ආසාදනයන් හේතුවෙන් රෝග ඇතිවන බව පැවසෙන අතර එම විෂබීජ විනාශ කිරීම සඳහා විෂ යොදාගැනේ. පසුගිය ප්‍රෝඩාකාරි කොවිඩ්-19 වසංගත කර්මාන්තය තුළ පැවැති ඒකාධිපතිවාදි ක්‍රියාකාරකම් විෂබීජ න්‍යාය විසින් මහජන සෞඛ්‍ය ආක්‍රමණය කිරීම සඳහා මනා නිදසුනකි. ස්වයං විනාශකාරි වැඩිවිය පැමිණීම වළක්වන ඖෂධ, ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ලිංගික හෝර්මෝන, ලිංගික අවයව කප්පාදුව, ඉහළ සිට පහලට කෙරෙන ශල්‍ය කර්මයන් ආදිය වෙතට ළමුන් පෙළැඹවීම, තල්ලුකිරීම, සහ එමගින් ඔවුන් පරිවර්තනය කිරීමට තැත්කිරීම වනාහි මනෝවිද්‍යාත්මක මට්ටමේදී සිදුවන එම විෂබීජ න්‍යායේම දිගුවකි. එය දරුවන්ට ආදරය කරන ඔවුන් රැක බලාගන්නා ආසියානු අපගේ අහිංසාවාදයට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ දෙයකි.

මනුකා විජේසිංහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ උපත ලද අතර රංගශිල්පිනියක ලෙස සිය වෘත්තිය ජීවිතය ඇරඹු ඇය ඇමෙරිකාවේ මායින් සරසවියේ දී නාට්‍යකලාව වැඩිදුරටත් හදාරා ඇත. දැනට ජර්මනියේ පදිංචිව සිටින ඇය Mad Cow, Flight 582 to Zurich, Marital Disadventure,The Affair, My Way, Karma වැනි නාට්‍ය කෘතින් ගණනාවක් නිර්මාණය කර තිබේ. මනුකා 1994 දී Silhouettes for Justice නමින් කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයක් පළ කළාය. ඇය විසින් රචිත නවකථා වන්නේ Monsoons and Potholes, Theravada Man, Sinhala Only,Like Moths To A Flame යන කෘතින්ය. හෝමියෝපති වෛද්‍යවරියකද ලෙස කටයුතු කරන ඇය පසුගිය කොවිඩ්-19 ආඛ්‍යානය  සහ සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරින් විසින් අනුගමනය කළ ක්‍රියාමාර්ග විවේචනයට ලක් කර ඇත.

.වැඩිදුර කියවීම්

බොරුවෙන් ජීවත් නොවෙමු: ලිංගික මතවාදයේ ඉතිහාසය

Bad Therapy by Abigail Shreir. Transnation by Miriam Grossman, Transgender by Jennifer Bilek. Trans by Helen Joyce

මනුකා විජේසිංහ

April 30, 2025 සංස්කාරක Comments Offon අහිංසාවාදයට සිදු වූයේ කුමක්ද? (1) ජාතික විමුක්ති ව්‍යාපාරයන්ට එරෙහි අධිරාජ්‍යවාදයේ රහසිගත මෙහෙයුම්: බණ්ඩාරනායක ඝාතනය සහ නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ බිඳ වැටීම

මනුකා විජේසිංහ

(මෙම ලිපිය මනුකා විජේසිංහ විසින් ලියන ලද What Happened To Ahimsa? – From Ahimsa To Democracy & Non-Alignment To Gender Ideology යන ලිපියේ පළමු කොටසේ පරිවර්තනයයි.)

තමන් විසින් මෙහෙයවන ලද කාලිංඝ යුද්ධයේදී වගුරුවන ලද අපරිමිත රුධිර ගංගාවන් හේතුවෙන් පසු තැවිල්ලට පත් ධර්මාශෝක අධිරාජයා විසින් අහිංසා ප්‍රතිපත්තිය අනුගමනය කරමින් ” සතුන්ට හිංසා නොකරනු”
යන නීතිය පැනවූ බව පැවසේ.

අහිංසාවාදය පදනම්ව ඇත්තේ සියලු ජීවීන් දිව්‍යමය ශක්ති ප්‍රවාහයක කොටසක් බවත් එයට හානි නොකළ යුතු බවත් යන අදහස මතය. බුදුදහම සහ ජෛන දහම උපත ලබාඇත්තේ මෙම අහිංසාවාදයේ බීජ තුළිනි. අනෙක් අතට, කාලිංග යුද්ධයෙන් පසුව පසුතැවිල්ලට පත් ධර්මාශෝක බුදු දහම වැළැඳගත් බවත් අවට රාජ්‍ය්‍යන් වෙත බුදු දහම සහ ඒ මගින් අහිංසාවාදය පතුරුවාහැරීම සඳහා ධර්මදූතයන් පිටත්කර හැරි බවත් අපට උගන්වා ඇත.

අශෝක ජෛනයෙක් ද බෞද්ධයෙක් ද යන්න වැදගත් නොවේ, මක්නිසාද යත් ‘අහිංසාව’ උතුම් වන අතර ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨතම ශාන්තිකර ආගමික දර්ශනයන් වන ජෛන හා බුදුදහමේ ගොඩනැගී ඇති පදනම වන්නේ ‘අහිංසාව’ යන උතුම් මූලධර්මයේ පදනම මත බැවිනි.

අපට මෙය දෙස වෙනත් කෝණයකින්ද බැලිය හැකිය. අශෝක අධිරාජයා අහිංසාවාදය අනුගමනය කළේ පශ්චාත්තාපය නිසා නොව අසල්වැසි රාජ්‍යයන් තමන්ගෙන් පලිගැනීමට හෝ තමන්ට එරෙහි යුද්ධ කිරීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා ඔවුන් නිශ්ක්‍රීය කිරීම සඳහා විය නොහැකිද?
අරමුණ කුමක් වුවද අහිංසාවාදී ප්‍රතිපත්තිය උතුම් නියෝගයකි. වසර දෙදහසකට අධික කාලයක් තිස්සේ අහිංසාවාදය ආසියානු ශික්ෂාපදයක් විය. බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදයට එරෙහිව ගාන්ධි සිය අරගලය දියත්කරන ලද්දේ අහිංසාවාදී මූලධර්ම මත පදනම්ව දියත්කරන ලද සත්‍යග්‍රහ සහ ප්‍රචණ්ඩ නොවන විරෝධතා මගිනි.

අහිංසාව බුදු දහමේ පංචශීලයන්ගෙන් පළමු එක වන අතර එම පංචශීල අදහස මත ගොඩනැගුණු නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ සංකේතය බවට පත් විය. භූ-දේශපාලනයට අදාළ වන පරිදි මෙම ශික්ෂාපද නිර්වචනය කරන්නේ නම් ඒවා, එකිනෙකාගේ භෞමික අඛණ්ඩතාව සහ ස්වෛරීභාවය සඳහා අන්‍යෝන්‍ය වශයෙන් ගෞරව කිරීම, එකිනෙකාට එරෙහිව ආක්‍රමණශීලී නොවන ප්‍රතිපත්ති අනුගමනය කිරීම, සෙසු රාජ්‍යයන්ගේ අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතුවලට මැදිහත්වීම් නොකිරීම, රාජ්‍යයන් සහ ජාතීන් අතර සමානාත්මතාවය සහ අන්‍යෝන්‍ය ප්‍රතිලාභ සහ සාමකාමී සහජීවනය ලෙස වටහා ගත හැකිය.
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මුස්ලිම් රාජ්‍යයක් වූ ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ ජනාධිපති සුකර්නෝගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ බැංඩුං හි දී ආරම්භ කරන ලද නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරය අනුගමනය කරන්නේ යැයි ප්‍රකාශිත ප්‍රධාන මූලධර්ම පහ එයයි.

නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරය දෙවන ලෝක මහා යුද්ධයෙන් පසුව ක්ෂණිකව බිහි නොවීය. එය බිහි වූයේ දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයේ විනාශකාරි ප්‍රතිඵල හෝ මානව ඛෙදවාචකයන් පිළිබඳව කිසිදු පසුතැවිල්ලක් නොමැති බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි රාජ්‍යයන් විසින් ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්මික යුද සංකීර්ණයන් සහ ඝාතක යන්ත්‍ර අඛණ්ඩව ව්‍යාප්ත කරමින් සිටින බව වඩවඩාත් පැහැදිලි වෙමින් පැවැති පරිකල්පිත සීතල යුද්ධ” තත්ත්වයක් තුළය. කාලිංග යුද්ධයේ මිනිස් ඝාතනවලින් පසුව අශෝක අධිරාජ්‍යයා තුළ පහළ වූ පසුතැවිල්ල මෙම බටහිර රටවල් තුළ නොවීය. මෙම බටහිර ආක්‍රමණශීලි යුදවාදයේ කළු කුහරය තුළට සමාජවාදි සෝවියට් සංගමයට එරෙහි විරෝධය, විඥානවාදය, ඝාතන, බොරුව, වෛරයපැතිරවීම සහ ලෝභකම වපුරුවමින් තුන්වන ලෝකය ආකර්ෂණය කරගැනීමට අපේක්ෂා කරන ලදි.

මෙම කළුකුහරය තුළ තුන්වන ලෝකය ගිලී යාම වළක්වන ලද්දේ නොබැඳි ජාතින්ගේ ව්‍යාපාරයයි.

ආසියාවේ හෝ අනෙකුත් තුන්වන ලෝකයේ ජාතින් මෙන් නොව යුරෝපය එහි ඉතිහාසයෙන් වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් ගත කර ඇත්තේ ඝාතන භූමියක් ලෙසය. එක්සත් ජනපදය එහි පූර්ව ඉතිහාසයේ පවා ඝාතකාගාරයක් විය. දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයෙන් පසුව යුරෝපය බිඳවැටී තිබිණි. එහි තරුණ ජනයා යුද්ධයේදී මරණයට පත්වී හෝ ආබාධිතයන් බවට පත්වී තිබිණි. බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය සහ එහි බටහිර සන්ධානය යුද්ධය ජයගත්තේ ඔවුන්ගේ අධ්‍යාත්මික හෝ සදාචාරත්මක උසස් බව නිසා නොව ඔවුන්ගේ ආයුධවල අනභිභවනීය බලය සහ තමන්ගේ යටත් විජිතවලින් සිය හමුදාවන්ට බඳවාගන්නා ලද පරාධීන ස්වදේශික සෙබළුන් මිලියන ගණන් නාසි හමුදාවන් වෙත බිලිදීම මගිනි. යුද්ධය ආරම්භ කරන ලද්දේ එවකට යුරෝපයේ වඩාත් දියුණුම කාර්මික රාජ්‍යය වූ ජර්මනියට සිය වෙළඳපළ සහ අමුද්‍රව්‍ය සඳහා ස්වකීය අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි සැලසුම් දියත් කිරීමට ගත් උත්සාහය හේතුවෙනි. මේ වනවිට ලෝකය සෙසු බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදින් වන බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය, ප්‍රංශය, බෙල්ජියම හෝ ස්පාඤ්ඤය විසින් බෙදාගෙන තිබූ අතර පළමු ලෝක යුද්ධයෙන් පරාජිත ජර්මනියට සිය ජීවන අවකාශය” පුළුල් කරගැනීම සඳහා යුද්ධය දියත් කිරීමට සිදුව තිබුණේ බෙහෙවින් ප්‍රමාදවීය. බටහිර රටවල් ජර්මනියට එරෙහිව යුද ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ජර්මනිය නැගෙනහිරට ගමන්කිරීම ඇරඹූ පසුව පමණි. හිට්ලර් විසින් සිදු කර ඇති අපරාධයන්ද බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය, බෙල්ජියම්, ප්‍රංශ හෝ ලන්දේසි යටත්විජිවාදින් විසින් සිය යටත්විජිතයන් තුළ ඉතිහාසයේ බොහෝ අවස්ථාවන්හිදී සිදුකර ඇති අපරාධවලට සමාන අපරාධ වේ. සෝවියට් සංගමයේ අති විශාල භූමි ප්‍රමාණයක් සතුවූ අසීමිත ස්වාභාවික සම්පත් හිට්ලර් විසින් අයත් කරගැනීමට පෙර ඔහුව නැවැත්විය යුතුව තිබිණි. හිට්ලර්ගේ ආක්‍රමණය පරාජය කරන ලද්දේ බටහිර මිත්‍ර සංධානය නොව සෝවියට් සංගමයේ රතුහමුදාව ඇතුළු එහි ජනතාවන් මිලියන 27ක් ජීවිත පරිත්‍යාගයෙන් ගෙන ගිය අරගලය හේතුවෙනි.

දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධය නිමාවන විට යටත්විජිත බලය පිරිහෙමින් තිබිණි. එමෙන්ම යටත්විජිත බලවේග එහි මූල්‍යමය සීමාවන්ට මුහුණදෙමින් සිටි අතර යටත් විජිත තුළ සෘජු ආධිපත්‍යයක් පවත්වාගෙන යාමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් උද්ගත වෙමින් පැවැතිණි. පසුව එවකට එක්සත් ජනපද ජනාධිපති රූස්වෙල්ට්ගේ අදහසක් අනුව එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානය නිර්මාණය කරන ලදි. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ප්‍රඥප්තියට අනුව එහි සාමාජික රටවල් විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තර සාමය සහ ආරක්ෂාව පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට කැප විය යුතු අතර ජාත්‍යන්තර නීතිය පිළිපදිමින් තමන්ගේ රටවැසියන්ට කිසිදු ආකාරයක වෙනස් ලෙස සැලකීමකින් තොරව උපරිම ජීවන තත්ත්වයන් ලබා දීම සහ මානව හිමිකම් සහ මූලික නිදහස ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා කටයුතු කළ යුතු විය. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානයේ 2.7 වගන්තිය අනුව කිසිදු රටක අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතුවලට මැදිහත්වීම සිදු නොකළ යුතුය. නමුත් යථාර්ථයේදී තත්ත්වය වෙනස් විය. බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි රටවල් සිය පැරණි යටත් විජිත තුළ දියත් කළ රහසිගත මෙහෙයුම් (stay behind operations) දිගටම සිදු විය. ආගම යුද අවියක් බවට පත් කිරීම, උත්කර්ෂයට නංවන ලද නමුත් අකාර්යක්ෂම සංවර්ධන ප්‍රතිපත්ති, ස්වදේශික ජනතාවන්ගේ බුද්ධිය සහ දැනුම පහල මට්ටමක පවත්වාගෙන යාම ආදිය මෙම රහසිගත මෙහෙයුම්වලට ඇතුළත් විය.

සාමාජික රටවල් විසින් බොහෝ කලෙක සිටම අවබෝධ කරගෙන තිබුණේ උසස් ජීවන තත්ත්වයක් ලබාගැනීමේ ඉලක්කය නිර්-යටත්විජිතකරණයෙන් තොරව සාක්ෂාත් කරගත නොහැකිබවය. එහෙයින් 1960 දී එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ මහා සභා සම්මේලනය විසින් සිය 1514(XV) යෝජනාව මගින් සියළු යටත් විජිත රාජ්‍යයන්ට සහ එවායේ ජනතාවන්ට ස්වාධීනත්වය ලබා දිය යුතු බවට ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලදි. මේ අනුව පැරණි යටත්විජිත ජනතාවන්ට ඔවුන්ව යටත් කරගෙන සිටි අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි හාම්පුතුන් සතුව පවතින සියලුම අයිතීන් හිමිවිය යුතුවිය. සමාන අයිතීන් සහ ස්වයංතීරණය නූතන ලෝකයේ අහිංසාවාදය විය.

එහෙත් අරමුණ එකක්ම වූයේද?

එසේ වූයේ නැත. මෑතකදී නිදහස ලද ජාතින් සමාන අයිතීන් සහ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය පිළිබඳ අලංකාරිකයන්ගෙන් මුලාවට පත් කිරීම බටහිර ජාතින් විසින් පුරුදු පරිදි දිගටම සිදු කරගෙන ගියේ පුද්ගලික හිමිකාරිත්වය සහිත විදේශීය සමාගම් මගින් සම්පත් කොල්ලය සිදු කරමින් සහ දේශීය ප්‍රභූ පෙළැන්තියට වරදාන දෙමින් ඔවුන් සිය න්‍යාය පත්‍රයට නැටවෙන දූෂිත රූකඩ බවට පත්කරමිනි. මෙයට සමාන්තරව සී අයි.ඒ (Central Intelligence Agency- CIA) නැතහොත් ඇමෙරිකානු මධ්‍යම ඔත්තු සේවය විසින් එම රටවල ආගමික වෙනස්කම් යුද අවියක් බවට පත්කරමින් අභ්‍යන්තර ගැටුම් නිර්මාණය කරන ලදි.

එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානය සතුව විශිෂ්ට ප්‍රඥප්තියක්පැවතුන ද, ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සිලයේ ස්ථීර සාමජිකයන්ගේ නිෂේධ බලය මගින් එහි මහලේකම්වරයාගේ දෑත් බැඳ දමා තිබේ. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානයේ පළමු මහලේකම්වරයා එහි ප්‍රඥප්තිය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීම කතාවට සීමා කළද එහි දෙවන මහලේකම්වරයා වූ ඩැග් හැමර්ෂල්ඩ් විසින් නිවැරදි සහ යුක්ති සහගත නිර්-යටත්විජිතකරණ ක්‍රියාදාමයක් පෙරට ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරනලද්දේ මෑතකදී ස්වාධීනත්වය ලද නව ජාතින්ට සිය පැවැත්ම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය මූල්‍ය සම්පත් ආරක්ෂා කරදීම සඳහාය.

කොංගෝව යටත් කරගෙන සිටි පැරණි අධිරාජ්‍යවාදින් විසින් තමන් අතුපත් කරගෙන සිටි අතිවිශාල ධන සම්භාරයක් උපයන ලද තඹ සහ කොබෝල්ට් ආකාර පවරාදීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් එහි මැතිවරණ කඩාකප්පල් කර දියත් කළ කෲර යුද්ධය තුළ එහි මැතිවරණයෙන් තේරීපත් වූ නායක පැට්‍රික් ලුමුම්බා මරාදමන ලදි. මෙම සාපරාධී ක්‍රියාදාමයට එරෙහි වෙමින් එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ප්‍රඥප්තියට අනුව සාමකාමි ලෙස නව නිදහස් කොංගෝ ජනරජයක් බිහිකිරීමට ඩැග් හැමර්ෂල් (Dag Hammarskjöld)තමන්ට කළ හැකි සෑම දෙයක්ම කළේය. ඒ හේතුවෙන් අධිරාජ්‍යවාදින් විසින් ඔහුව මරාදමන ලදි.

එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සංවිධානය පැවතුණද අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි ක්‍රීඩාව අවසාන වී නැති බවට ඩැග් හැමර්ෂල්ගේ මරණය විසින් සනාථ කර තිබේ. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලය තෙවන ලෝකයේ සාමූහික හඬට වඩා බලවත්ය. ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය, මානව හිමිකම්, සහ සමානත්මතාව පිළිබඳ ඔවුන්ගේ අලංකාරිකයන් වූ කලී හිස් වදන් පමණි.

දුෂ්ටත්වය බටහිර ආවේණික ලක්ෂණයක්ද?

1977 දී අපගේ නව ලිබරල් වීර ක්‍රියාවන් ආරම්භවන සමය වන විට නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ නිර්මාතෘවරුන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු සී අයි ඒ සංවිධානය විසින් අරමුදල් සපයමින් පුහුණු කරන ලද හමුදාවන් විසින් බලයෙන් පහකර තිබිණි. නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ ආරම්භක නායිකාවක වූ සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායකගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය නව ලිබරල්වාදි ජේ ආර් ජයවර්ධන විසින් දූෂිත අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාමයක් මගින් අහෝසි කරන ලදි. වර්තමානයේදී ප්‍රංශයේ මාරි ලපෙන්ගේ ප්‍රජා අයිතිය අහිමි කිරීම, පකිස්තානයේ ඉම්රාන් ඛාන් බලයෙන් පහකර සිරගත කිරීම ආදි ක්‍රියාදාමයන් ඊට සමාන කළ හැකිය. නව යටත් විජිතවාදය නිරෝගී විපක්ෂයක පැවැත්මට ඉඩ නොදෙයි. එහි ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය ගෙන යා හැක්කේ මිලිටරි ජුන්ටාවන්, එකාධිපතිවාදය සහ දේශපාලනීකරණය කළ අධිකරණය මගින් පමණකි.

ලංකාව බේරී සිටිමට සමත් වී ඇත්ද?

ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ බැංඩුංහිදි පවත්වන ලද නොබැඳි ජාතින්ගේ පළමු සම්මේලනයෙන් වසර 5කට පසුව 1959 දී ඝාතකයෙකුගේ උණ්ඩයට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අගමැතිවරයෙකු බිලි විය. මෙම අගමැතිවරයා කලින් සිටි පාලකයන් මෙන් නොව සමාජවාදියෙකු විය. කොමියුනිස්ට්වාදයට සහ එහි සරල ආකාරය වන සමාජවාදය කෙරෙහි ඇති භීතිය හේතුවෙන් එක්සත් ජනපදය සීතල යුද්ධයට මුවා වෙමින් පිහිටුවන ලද මිලිටරි නිෂ්පාදන සංකීර්ණය විසින් USAID සහ ආසියානු පදනම( Asia Foundation) වැනි රහසිගත සීඅයිඒ මෙහෙයුම්වලට අරමුදල් සපයන ලදි. ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණ වූයේ කොමියුනිස්ට් සිද්ධාන්තයක් වන සමාජ සමානාත්මතාව සඳහා කිසිදු ඉඩක් නොතැබීමය. එයට විරුද්ධව යොදාගත හැකි හොඳම ආයුධය ලෙස ඔවුන් සලකන ලද්දේ ආගම ආයුධයක් පත් කිරීමය.

මෙම සංදර්භය තුළ අපගේ අවධානයට යොමු විය යුතු කරුණ නම් අගමැති බණ්ඩාරනායක ඝාතනය කරන ලදැයි සැලකෙන තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම භික්ෂුව අහිංසාවාදය සැබෑ ලෙසම අත්හැර දැමූවෙක්ද නැතහොත් සීතල යුද සමයේ දකුණු ආසියාවේ බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් ආයුධයක් බවට පත්කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම්වල ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස ඝාතකයෙකු බවට පත්වූයේද යන්නය.2

හුදෙක් දෙමල ජනතාව සඳහා භාෂාමය සමානාත්මතාව ලබාදීමට අගමැතිවරයාට අවශ්‍ය වූ පමණින් ඔහුව ඝාතනය කිරීම සඳහා බෞද්ධ භික්ෂුවක් අහිංසාවාදය අත්හැර දමනු ඇත්ද? 1959 දී යමෙකු ඝාතනය කිරීම සඳහා භාෂාව හේතුවක් වූයේද? එසේ නම් බුද්ධ ධර්මය ගොඩනැගී ඇති මූලික පදනම කෙලෙසීම සඳහා ඔහුව පොළඹවන ලද්දේ කවුරුන් විසින්ද? ඔහු 14 හැවිරිදි වියේ සිට බෞද්ධ ශික්ෂාවන් පිළිපැද ඇති අතර එවැන්නෙකු සිය 46 හැවිරිදි වියේදී යමෙකු ඝාතනය කිරීමට පෙළැඹුණේ කෙසේද? ඔහු එලෙස බුදුදහම කෙලෙසා ඇත්නම් ඔහුගේ ආගමික පැවැත්මේ පදනම අහිංසාවාදය විය හැක්කේද? එසේ නොමැතිනම් සීතල යුද්ධයේ උපක්‍රමයක් ලෙස ආසියාවේ බුදුදහම ආයුධයක් බවට පත්කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම් විසින් ඔහුව යොදාගනිමින් එම ඝාතනය සඳහා පොළඹවා ඇත්ද?

බුදුන්ගේ උපත සමරනු වස් 1956දී උත්කර්ෂයට නංවන ලද බුද්ධ ජයන්ති උළෙල සඳහා දින වකවානු නියම කරන ලද්දේ ඉන්දියාවේ හෝ ලංකාවේ නක්ෂස්ත්‍ර කරුවන් හෝ ශාස්ත්‍රකාරයන් නොවේ. එම උපන්දිනය ප්‍රබන්ධගත කරන ලද්දේ සී.අයි.ඒ. සංවිධානය විසින් සපයන ලද අරමුදලෙන් පවත්වාගෙන ගිය ආසියානු පදනම විසිනි. සී.අයි.ඒ සංවිධානයේ සහ එහි මෙහෙයුම්වල ඉලක්කය වූයේ සම්ප්‍රදායික සමාජයේ පදනම් බිඳ හෙළීමය. අන්‍යොන්‍ය ගෞරවයෙන්, සුහද සහජීවනයකින් ජීවත්වූ ජාතින් සහ ආගමික ප්‍රජාවන් අතර සමගිය සහ විශ්වාසය ආගම් ආයුධ බවට පත් කිරීමේ අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි මෙහෙයුම් මගින් බිඳ දමන ලදි. බුද්ධ ජයන්තිය සමරුව විසින් ආගම් අතර සංහිඳියාව විනාශ කරමින් අහිංසාවට වඩා ජාතික ස්වෝත්තමවාදය වැදගත් කොට සලකන ප්‍රචණ්ඩවාදි භික්ෂූන් බිහිකිරීම සඳහා පදනම නිර්මාණය කරන ලදි.

එසේ නොමැතිනම් තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම භික්ෂුව මෙම ඝාතනය සඳහා යොදාගැනීමට පොළඹවා ඇත්තේ ලංකාවේ ඇමෙරිකන් ගැති දේශපාලන පක්ෂය වූ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රභූන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන දායකත්වය සහිත කැලණි රජමහා විහාරයේ විහාරාධිපතිව සිටි බුද්ධරක්ඛිත භික්ෂුව විසින්ද?

ග්‍රාමීය භික්ෂුවක් වූ තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම භූ දේශපාලනය පිළිබඳව කොතෙක් දුරට දැන සිටියේද? අගමැති SWRD බණ්ඩාරනායක ත්‍රිකුණාමල වරාය බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය නාවික හමුදාවෙන් මුදවාගෙන එහි උරුමය ලාංකිකයන් වෙත පවරා දීමට කටයුතු කළේය. එවැනි විශාල සේවයක් දේශය වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කළ අගමැතිවරයෙකු මරාදැමීම සඳහා සුළුතර ප්‍රජාවන්ට භාෂාමය සමානාත්මතාව ලබා දීමට එම අගමැතිවරයා කටයුතු කිරීම පමණක් යුක්ති සහගත හේතුවක් බවට තමන්ටම එත්තුගැන්වීමට තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම සමත්වූයේ කෙලෙසකද? ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමාජවාදය කරා යොමුවීම වැලැක්වීම සඳහා ඉත්තෙකු ලෙස තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම යොදාගෙන ඇත්ද?

බණ්ඩාරනායක ඝාතනය ඇමෙරිකාව සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය විසින් සැලසුම් කරන ලද මෙහෙයුමක්ද?

එක් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ නොහැකි ඓතිහාසික සත්‍යයක් නම් තල්දූවේ සෝමාරාම ඇතුළු බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් රොස්මීඩ් මන්දිරයේ රැස්ව සිටි අවස්ථාවේ අගමැතිවරයාගේ ඝාතනයට පෙර ඔහුව දුටු අවසාන පුද්ගලයා ලෙස සැලකෙන්නේ එවකට ලංකාවේ එක්සත් ජනපද තානාපතිව සිටි බර්නාර්ඩ් ගෆ්ලර් (Bernhard Gufler) බවය. ගෆ්ලර් එක්සත් ජනපද විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ සේවය කළ පළපුරුදු නිලධාරියෙකු වූ අතර දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයෙන් පසු යුද සිරකරුවන් ලෙස එක්සත් ජනපදයට යටත් වූ නාසි ජර්මනියේ නිලධාරින් සහ විද්‍යාඥයන් එක්සත් ජනපදයේ සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ප්‍රමුඛ මිත්‍ර පාර්ශ්වයේ උවමනාවන් සඳහා සේවය සඳහා බඳවාගැනීම ගෆ්ලර් විසින් ඉටුකළ එක් ප්‍රධාන කාර්ය භාරයක් විය. මෙම නාසි නිලධාරින් එක්සත් ජනපදය සහ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය විසින් සමාජවාදි නැගෙනහිර ජර්මනිය සහ සෝවියට් සංගමය ප්‍රමුඛ සමාජවාදිකඳවුරට එරෙහි මෙහෙයුම් සඳහා යොදාගන්නා ලදි. ගෆ්ලර්ව ලංකාවේ තානාපති නිලධාරියා ලෙස පත් කර එවන ලද්දේ 1956 දී බණ්ඩාරනායක අගමැති තනතුරට පත්ව කෙටිකාලයක් තුළය. ඒ නව අගමැතිවරයා සමාජවාදි කඳවුරට හිතවාදි ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් අනුගමනය කරන බව පැහැදිලි වූ පසුය. වෙනත් වචනවලින් කිව හොත් ගෆ්ලර් වැනි පළපුරුදු ඉහළ නිලධාරියෙකු ලංකාවට එවනලද්දේ කිසියම් විශේෂ මෙහෙයුමක් සඳහා බව පැහැදිලිය.

කලක් ලංකාවේ එක්සත් ජනපද තානාපතිව කටයුතු කළ ජේම්ස් ජේ. ලෝවන්ස්ටයින්(James J. Lowenstein), තානාපති ඩෙනිස් කුක්ස් (Dennis Kux) සමග කරන ලද සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවේදී මෙසේ සඳහන් කර තිබිණි.

තානාපති ලැම්ප්ටන් බෙරී කාර්යාලයට පැමිණියේ ඉතා කලාතුරෙකිනි. ඔහු වෙනුවට වෘත්තීය පළපුරුදු නිලධාරියෙකු තානාපති ලෙස පත් කරන ලදි. ඒ ජර්මානු ජාතික විශේෂඥයෙකු වූ බර්න්හාර්ඩ් ගෆ්ලර්ය. ඔහු කලක් නියෝජ්‍ය තානාපති ලෙසද කටයුතු කර තිබුණ අතර ඔහු රට පිළිබඳව මෙන්ම එහි වැදගත් පුද්ගලයන්ද දැන හඳුනාගෙන සිටියේය.

ඔහු(ගෆ්ලර්) සිය ජීවිතය ආරම්භ කර තිබුණේ විදේශ සේවය තුළින් වන අතර රුසියන් භාෂාවෙන් ආරම්භක
පුහුණුව ලද කීප දෙනා අතරින් කෙනෙකි.

වාර්තා සටහන් කරන්නෙකු ලෙස මම ගෆ්ලර් සමග අගමැතිවරයා වෙත ගියෙමි. මා එහි ගිය විට ඔහු (ගෆ්ලර්) මෙසේ පැවසීය
මම හිතන්නේ නැහැ මට වාර්තා සටහන් කරන්නෙකු අවශ්‍ය  වෙයි කියලා. කාර් එකට වෙලා මා එනතුරු ඉන්න.

ඉන්පසුව ඔහු ඇතුළට ගොස් ආපසු පැමිණි අතර අපි බණ්ඩාරනායක නිවස්නයෙන් පිටත් වූයෙමු. අපි එළියට රිය පදවන විට අපට යම් පිපිරුම් හඬක් ඇසිණි.
අප නැවතත් තානාපති කාර්යාලයට පැමිණි පසු බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය තානාපති කාර්යාලයට අනුබද්ධ බුද්ධි අංශයේ සේවය කළ මගේ මිතුරෙකු මට මෙසේ පැවසීය
අර හාදයට වෙඩි තියලා
මොන හාදයාටද මම ඇසිමි.
අගමැතිට, ඕල්ඩ් බෝයි ඔහු පැවසීය.
ඇත්තටමද? ඒක වෙන්න බැහැ. අපි මේ දැන් ටික වේලාවකට කලින් එයාව දැක්කා. යි මම පැවසිමි.
එහෙමද, ඔහුට වෙඩි තියලා තියෙන්නේ ඔබලා ඔහුව මුණගැහුණට පස්සේ ඔහු පැවසීය.
සත්තකින්ම අගමැතිවරයාට වෙඩි තබා තිබිණි. මා සිතන අන්දමට ඔහුව ජීවතුන් අතරදී දුටු අවසාන පුද්ගලයා ගෆ්ලර්ය. ගෆ්ලර් එතැනින් පිටත්වීමත් අගමැතිවරයාට වෙඩි තැබීමත් අතර කාලය තුළ වෙනත් අයෙකුට එහි ඇතුළු වීමට හැකි වූවා යැයි සිතාගැනීමට මට අපහසුය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමග ඇමෙරිකාවට ඇති ගැටළු මොනවාදැයි අසන ලද ප්‍රශ්නයට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් හිටපු තානාපතිවරයෙකු වූ ලෝවන්ස්ටයින් මෙසේ පැවසීය.
බරපතල නොසළකා හැරීම් බව මට කිව හැකියි. ඒ ප්‍රශ්න සීතල යුද්ධයට අයත් ප්‍රශ්න. චීන්නුන්ගේ පැමිණීම, චීන්නුන් සහ රුසියානුවන් ලංකාවට දේශපාලන සහ ආර්ථික වශයෙන් සිදු කරන ලද රිංගා ගැනීම්, සංස්කෘතික යුද්ධය, නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරය ආදිය එම ප්‍රශ්නයි.

එක්සත් ජාතික පාක්ෂිකයන් විසින් කළු ඉංග්‍රිසිකාරයෙකු ලෙස හඳුන්වනලද අගමැතිවරයාගේ මරණයෙන් පසුව එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවක් බලයට පත්වෙතැයි විශ්වාස කරන ලදි. නමුත් එම අපේක්ෂාවන්ට පටහැනිව SWRD බණ්ඩාරනායකගේ වැන්දඹු බිරිඳ නව අගමැතිනිය ලෙස බලයට පත්වූවාය. ඇය පැරණි යටත් විජිත හාම්පුතුන්ට ත්‍රිකුණාමල වරාය නැවත පවරා දීමට කටයුතු නොකළ අතර නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයෙන් ඉවත්වීමට කටයුතු නොකළාය. නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ ප්‍රඥප්තිය කෙරෙහි ඇය විසින් දක්වන ලද පක්ෂපාතිත්වය හේතුවෙන් ශ්‍රි ලංකාව තුළ අභ්‍යන්තර දේශපාලන අසහනයක් පැවතුණද අපගේ අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතුවලට ඉන්දියාව මැදිහත් නොවන බවට සහතිකයක් විය. ඉන්දියාව අපව විශ්වාස කළ අතර ගරු කටයුතු අසල්වැසියෙකු ලෙස සළකනු ලැබිණි.

1977 මැතිවරණයෙන් ජේ.ආර් බලයට පත්වීම සහ නැවතත් නව ලිබරල් යටත්විජිතයක් බවට ලංකාව පත්වීම

නමුත් වසර 7කට පසුව SWRD බණ්ඩාරනායක විසින් සුදු ඉංග්‍රීසින් ලෙස හඳුන්වන ලද ජේ ආර් ජයවර්ධන ප්‍රමුඛ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය බලයට පත්වීම සිදු විය. ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධනගේ අන්වර්ථ නාමය යැංකි ඩිකී විය.
අසල්වැසි රටවල් සමග අන්‍යොන්‍ය මිත්‍ර සබඳතා ගොඩ නගා ගනිමින් ජාතික ස්වාධිපත්‍ය පවත්වාගෙන යාමට මෙම පශ්චාත් යටත්විජිත රාජ්‍යය විසින් දැඩි වෙහෙසක් දරා ලබාගත් ප්‍රතිඵල විනාශ කිරීමට ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධන පටන්ගත්තේය.

පළමුව ඔහු ත්‍රිකුණාමල වරායේ කොටසක් එක්සත් ජනපද ප්‍රොක්සි සමාගමක් වූ සිංගප්පූරු සමාගමකට පවරා දුන්නේය.

ඔහු වොයිස් ඔෆ් අමෙරිකා ගුවන් විදුලියේ මෙහෙයුම් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ සිදු කිරීමට ඉඩ දුන්නේය.

1977 දී තමා ලද මැතිවරණ ජයග්‍රහණයෙන් මාස කීපයකට පසුව ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන අතිශය රහසිගත ලෙස සිය මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා වූ රොනීද මැල් එක්සත් ජනපදයේ වොෂින්ටනය වෙත යැව්වේ නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ මිනී පෙට්ටියට පළමු ඇණය ගැසීම සඳහාය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුදල් ඇමැති රොනීද මෙල් එක්සත් රාජ්‍ය ලේකම්වරයා සමග කරන ලද සාකච්ඡා පිළිබඳව වන නිල ලේඛන 482 හි මෙසේ සඳහන් වේ.
ජයවර්ධනගේ රජය විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍රයන් තුළ ප්‍රායෝගික දේශපාලන ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් ක්‍රියාවට නංවන ලද බවද තම රජයේ විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය තුළ ද වඩ වඩාත් ප්‍රායෝගික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීම සඳහා කාලය පැමිණ ඇති බවද දි මෙල් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය විසින් ජනාධිපති කාටර්ගේ රාජ්‍ය සභා දේශණය දැඩි සැලකිල්ලෙන් යුතුව අධ්‍යයනය කර තිබේ. විශේෂයෙන්ම දකුණු ආසියාතික කලාපයේ රාජ්‍යයන් සමග සහයෝගයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීමට එක්සත් ජනපදයේ අභිලාෂයන් ගැන ලංකාවේ අවධානය යොමුව ඇත.

ඔහු වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මූලික වශයෙන් නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරයේ රැඳී සිටින අතර කලාපය තුළ වෙනත් භූමිකාවක් රඟදැක්වීමේ අපේක්ෂාවෙන් පසුවන බවය. සෝවියට් ආක්‍රමණය හමුවේ දකුණු ආසියානු කලාපයේ රටවල් තුළ උපදේශාත්මක කාර්යභාරයක් ඉටු කිරීමට එයට හැකිය….

මූලික වශයෙන් නොබැඳි වීම යනුවෙන් දෙයක් නැත. එක්කෝ නොබැඳි විය යුතුය. නැත්නම් එසේ නොවිය යුතුය. එමෙන්ම 1978දී හෝ එයට පෙර හෝ පසුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව කිසිදු ආකාරය සෝවියට් ආක්‍රමණයක තර්ජනයකට මුහුණ දී සිටියේ නැත. සෝවියට්වරුන් අපට නිරන්තරයෙන් අධ්‍යාපනය, සංස්කෘතිය, කාර්මික සහ වෙළඳ ක්ෂේත්‍රයන් තුළ ආධාර කළහ.

ජේ.ආර්. එක්සත් ජනපදයට ලංකාවේ මිලිටරි පහසුකම් විවෘත කරයි

එක්සත් ජනපද විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශය විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති දි මැල්ගේ ප්‍රකාශයේ සඳහන් වන්නේ ජනාධිපති කාටර්ගේ රාජ්‍ය සභා දේශනයේ එන කලාපය අර්බුදයන්ට මුහුණ දී ඇති කාලයකදී එක්සත් ජනපදයට එම කලාපයේ මිලිටරි පහසුකම් සඳහා ප්‍රවේශ වීම සඳහා ඇති ශක්‍යතාවන් හඹායෑම පිළිබඳ කරුණට ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සුදානම් බවත් ඒ සඳහා ආරම්භයක්ලබාදීමට ජනාධිපති ජයවර්ධන සුදානමින් සිටින බවත් විවෘත ගැටුම්කාරි තත්ත්වයකදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සිටින එකම මිතුරා එක්සත් ජනපදය පමණක් බවත්ය.

මෙය නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරය අමු අමුවේ පාවාදීමක් විය. එහෙත් එය එතැනින් නතර නොවීය.

ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධනගේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සිය නාවික සහ අනෙකුත් මිලිටරි පහසුකම් සඳහා එක්සත් ජනපදයට ප්‍රවේශය ලබාදීමට සුදානමින් සිටියේය.

මෙම ප්‍රදානය රහසක් ලෙස තබාගැනීමේ වැදගත්කම අවසන් වශයෙන් විශේෂයෙන් අවධාරණය කර තිබිණි. මෙම තොරතුරු කාන්දුවීම ජයවර්ධන රජයට හානිදායක ප්‍රතිඵල අත්කර දීමට ඉඩ තිබිණි.

ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන එක්සත් ජනපදය වෙත ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පාවාදීම විසින් හානි සිදුකළේ ආණ්ඩුවට පමණක් නොවේ. එය සමස්ත ලාංකීය ජනතාවට යළි පිළිසකර කළ නොහැකි සදාකාලික හානියක් අත්කර දී තිබිණි. කුඹුරුයායවල් පවරාගෙන නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප පිහිටුවනු ලැබිණි. මෙම කලාපයන් තුළ කම්කරු ව්‍යාපාර පිහිටුවීම තහනම් විය. කම්කරු අයිතීන් හෝ හෝ සේවා ස්ථානයේදී සිදුවන ශාරිරික හානි වෙනුවෙන් වන්දි ලබාදීමක් සිදු නොවීය. අපි ආසියාවේ චිලී දේශය බවට පත්වූයෙමු.

1973දී චිලියේ ජනාධිපති සැල්වදෝර් ඇලන්ඩේව සී.අයි.ඒ සංවිධානය විසින්ඝාතනය කරන ලද අතර එමගින් චිලිය තුළ සිය නව ලිබරල්වාදි න්‍යායපත්‍රය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමට එක්සත් ජනපදයට අවස්ථාව ලැබිණි. ඇලන්ඩේගේ රජය පෙරළා දැමීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණය සිදුකරන ලද්දේ චිලියේ ධනවත් ප්‍රභූ පෙළැන්තියේ සහයෝගය සහ එක්සත්  ජනපදයේ මෙහෙයවීම සහිතව එරට හමුදා ජුන්ටාවක් විසිනි. එය අතුරුදහන් කිරීම්, වධ බන්ධන පැමිණවීම්, ඝාතන ආදියෙන් පිරී ගිය භීෂණ සමයක් විය. මෙම මර්දනය දියත් කළ ඝාතක කල්ලි හඳුන්වන ලද්දේ චිකාගෝ බෝයිස්” ලෙසය.

රොනීද මැල්ගේ වොෂින්ටන් සංචාරයේ අරමුණ වූයේ ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධනට සිය එම නව ලිබරල්වාදි න්‍යාය පත්‍රය ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සකස් කිරීමද? ඒ සඳහා භීෂණ සමයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ දියත් කිරීමටද ඔහු සුදානම් වෙමින් සිටියේද?

අධිරාජ්‍යවාදි මිලිටරි මැදිහත්වීම්වල ඉඩ සැලසීම සඳහා  කළු ජූලිය නිර්මාණය කිරීම සහ වාර්ගික අර්බුදය ප්‍රචණ්ඩ යුද්ධයක් බවට පත්කිරීම

අපගේ ආණ්ඩුව විසින් අපට එරෙහිව හමුදාමය මර්දනයක් දියත් කිරීමට සැරසෙන බව පැවසුව හොත් අපි එය සැහැල්ලුවෙන් බාර ගන්නෙමුද? නැත. අපි එසේ නොකරන්නෙමු. නමුත් ඔවුන්ගේ සැලසුම් ක්‍රියාවට නැංවිය හැකිව හැකිව තිබුණේ රැවටීම සහ නොමග යැවීම් මගින් පමණි. ඒ සඳහා ඔවුන් සිදු කළේ දෙමළ සුළුතර ප්‍රජාව අපගේ දිවයින තුළ වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් ඇතිකිරීම සඳහා සුදානම් වෙමින් සිටින බවට අප තුළ විශ්වාසයක් ඇති කිරීමය.

ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන ද සිදු කළේ එයයි. ඔවුහු වාර්ගික අර්බුදයක් නිර්මාණය කළහ.

ජනවාර්ගික වෛරය සහ අසත්‍යයන් ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම සඳහා එකල අභිනවයෙන් ස්ථාපිතකරන ලද ඇමෙරිකන් හඬ” ගුවන් විදුලියත්, දේශීය රූපවාහිනි සේවාවනුත් යොදාගනු ලැබිණි. වාර්ගික සංහිඳියාව විනාශ කරන ලද්දේ නව ලිබරල්වාදි සැලසුම් වන පුද්ගලීකරණය නීතිරීති හා සීමාවන් ඉවත්කිරීම්, ආර්ථිකය නිර්-කාර්මිකකරණය, සහ රජය සතු සම්පත් ජේ.ආර් ජයවර්ධනගේ ව්‍යාපාරික හෙංචයියන්ට සහ විදේශීය සමාගම්වලට පවරා දීම ආදිය සාක්ෂාත් කරගැනීම සඳහාය. නව සිංහල බෞද්ධයෝ සිය අරමුණු ඉටුකරගන්නා ලද්දේ සම්ප්‍රදායික දෙමල ව්‍යාපාරික ප්‍රජාව ඝාතනය කරමින් ඔවුන් රටින් පලවා හරිමින් ඔවුන්ගේ ව්‍යාපාර හා දේපල කොල්ලකෑම මගිනි.

ඒ අයුරින් දේශීය නිෂ්පාදනය විනාශ කරන ලද අතර සාමාන්‍ය පරිභෝජනය ආනයනය මත රඳා පවතින එකක් බවට පත්කරනලදි.

1979 දී ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත පනවනු ලැබිණි. 1981 දී යුදමය පදක්කම් හා රණ විරු සම්මාන නිර්මාණය කරන ලදි. මිලිටරි ජුන්ටාවක් උපත ලබමින් පැවැතිණි. ඉතිහාසයේ ආරම්භයේ සිටම පරම්පරා ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ අප සමග සමාජ, සංස්කෘතික, ආර්ථික ජීවිතය බෙදාහදාගත් දෙමල ප්‍රජාව අපගේ සතුරන් ලෙසද එහෙයින් ඔවුන් මරාදැමිය යුතුයැයිද විශ්වාස කිරීමට පොළඹවන ලද ග්‍රාමීය සිංහල තරුණයන් එම මිලිටරි ජුන්ටාවේ සේවය සඳහා බඳවා ගන්නා ලදි.

ප්‍රචණ්ඩ මර්දනය සහ ධර්මිෂ්ඨ රාජ්‍යය

ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන ධර්මිෂ්ඨ සමාජයක් නිර්මාණ කිරීම ගැන පුරාජේරු දෙඩවීය. එහෙත් එය තුළ අහිංසාව නොපැවතුන අතර පැවැතියේ හිංසාව සහ ම්ලේච්ඡ ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වයක් පමණි.

1983 ජූලියේදී රජයට අයත් ලංගම ප්‍රවාහන සේවාවේ බස්රථවලින් ගෙන එන ලද මැරයන් විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වෙළඳ නගරය වන කොළඹට ගිනි තබන ලදි. ඡන්දායක ලැයිස්තු නාමලේඛණ අතැතිව පැමිණි මේ මැරයෝ දෙමළ ජනයාගේ නිවාස සොයමින් ඒවා මංකොල්ල කමින් ගිනිතබා විනාශ කරන ලදි. මෙම තොරතුරු ලබාගත හැක්කේ ආණ්ඩුව හරහා පමණකි. ඔවුහු දෙමළ ජනයාට අයත් නිවාස, කඩසාප්පු, කර්මාන්ත ශාලා, ගබඩා, සහ ආපන ශාලා ආදිය ඇත්තේ කොහේදැයි පැහැදිලිව දැන සිටියහ. ඔවුහු ගිනිතබා විනාශ කරන ලද්දේ දෙමළ ජනයාට අයත් දේපල සහ ව්‍යාපාරික ස්ථාන පමණකි.

අපගේ සිවිල් යුද්ධය අහම්බයක් නොවීය. එමෙන්ම එය යාපනයේදී හමුදා සෙබලුන් 13ක් ඝාතනය කිරීම නිසා ආරම්භ වූවක්ද නොවීය. එය මනා ලෙස සැලසුම් කරන ලද්දකි.

ඉන්දීය රහස් ඔත්තු සේවය වන පර්යේෂණ සහ විශ්ලේෂණ අංශයේ ( Research and Analysis Wing -RAW)
ධ්‍යක්ෂවරයාගෙන් ඉන්දියාව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දෙමල ත්‍රස්තවාදයට ආධාර කලේ ඇයි? යනුවෙන් වරෙක මිතුරෙකු විසින් ප්‍රශ්න කරනලද අවස්ථාවේ ඔහුගේ පිළිතුර වී ඇත්තේ ඔබලාගේ ජනාධිපති එක්සත් ජනපදය සමග හවුල්ව කටයුතු කරන නිසා යනුවෙන් පිළිතුරු දී ඇත.

ජේ ආර් ජයවර්ධන නොබැඳි ව්‍යාපාරය පාවාදීම මගින් වර්ෂ 50ක් තිස්සේ පුපුරා යමිනි පැවැති ගිනිකන්දක් නිර්මාණය කරන ලදි. ජෛන මහාවීර සහ ගෞතම බුදුන් වහන්සේ ධර්මයන් මත පදනම් වූ අහිංසාව අපගේ ආගම අතුරුදහන් විය.

මෙම යුද්ධය අවසාන වන විට ලක්ෂයකට අධික සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවගේද, පනස් දහසකට ආසන්න සටන්කාමින්ගේද, විසි හත්දාහකට ආසන්න කේඩරයකගේද, හමුදා නිලධාරින් සහ සෙබලුන් 28,000කගේද, පොලිස් නිලධාරින් 1000ක පමණද ජීවිත විනාශ වී තිබිණි. 60,000කට අධික පිරිසක් කැරැලිකරුවන් ලෙස සළකමින් පැහැරගෙන යන ලද අතර ඔවුන්ට වද දී මරාදමා හෝ අතුරුදහන් කර තිබිණි.ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත යටතේ සත්‍යය වලදමා තිබූ අතර එහි කිසිදු විනිවිදභාවයක් , නීත්‍යානුකූලභාවයක් හෝ යුක්තියක් නොවිණි.

මනුකා විජේසිංහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ උපත ලද අතර රංගශිල්පිනියක ලෙස සිය වෘත්තිය ජීවිතය ඇරඹු ඇය ඇමෙරිකාවේ මායින් සරසවියේ දී නාට්‍යකලාව වැඩිදුරටත් හදාරා ඇත. දැනට ජර්මනියේ පදිංචිව සිටින ඇය Mad Cow, Flight 582 to Zurich, Marital Disadventure,The Affair, My Way, Karma වැනි නාට්‍ය කෘතින් ගණනාවක් නිර්මාණය කර තිබේ. මනුකා 1994 දී Silhouettes for Justice නමින් කාව්‍ය සංග්‍රහයක් පළ කළාය. ඇය විසින් රචිත නවකථා වන්නේ Monsoons and Potholes, Theravada Man, Sinhala Only,Like Moths To A Flame යන කෘතින්ය. හෝමියෝපති වෛද්‍යවරියකද ලෙස කටයුතු කරන ඇය පසුගිය කොවිඩ්-19 ආඛ්‍යානය  සහ සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරින් විසින් අනුගමනය කළ ක්‍රියාමාර්ග විවේචනයට ලක් කර ඇත.

Business reporter, BBC News

The UK and the US have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries.

President Donald Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods entering the US.

But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK’s exports, including cars, steel and aluminium.

Here’s an at-a-glance look at what’s in the deal.

This isn’t a trade deal

Trump declared on social media this announcement would be a “major trade deal” – it’s not.

He does not have the authority to sign the type of free-trade agreement India and the UK finalised earlier this week – this lies with Congress.

Congress would need to approve a trade agreement, which would take longer than the 90-day pause in place on some of Trump’s tariffs.

This is an agreement which has reversed or cut some of those tariffs on specific goods.

It is only the bare bones of a narrow agreement, there will be months of negotiations and legal paperwork to follow.

Car tariffs cut to 10%

Trump had placed import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US on top of the existing 2.5%.

This has been cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of cars the UK exported last year.

But any cars exported above that quota will be subject to a 27.5% import tax.

Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US – worth about £9bn last year.

Jaguar Land Rover, which exports almost a quarter of its cars to the US, said the deal “secures greater certainty for our sector”.

But car industry leaders have told the BBC the quota could effectively put a ceiling on the number they can export competitively.

The UK currently imposes a 10% levy on US car imports, but it is not clear if there is any change to this.

The US has previously demanded the tax be cut to 2.5%, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves had indicated she is open to such a cut.

Trump also announced that Rolls-Royce engines and plane parts will be able to be exported from the UK to the US tariff-free.

No tariffs on steel and aluminium

A 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports into the US that came into effect in March has been scrapped.

This is good news for firms such as British Steel which was brought under government control as it struggled to stay operational.

However, the White House said it would impose a quota on the “most favoured nation rates for UK steel and aluminium and certain derivative steel and aluminium products.”

It is currently unclear how much of these products the UK will be able to export to the US under this quota system without paying more.

It is also unclear whether the scrapping of tariffs will apply to steel derivative products and whether only steel melted and poured in the UK will benefit.

The UK exports a relatively small amount of steel and aluminium to the US, about £700m in total.

However, the tariffs also cover products made with steel and aluminium, including things such as gym equipment, furniture and machinery.

These are worth much more, about £2.2bn, or about 5% of UK exports to the US last year.

Industry body Steel UK said there were “a number hoops to jump through before the UK steel sector can see the benefits of this deal”.

It said firms needed to know what supply chain conditions need to be met, what the quotas are and when they take effect.

Pharmaceuticals still the big unknown

What will be agreed on pharmaceuticals is still unknown with the UK saying work would continue on this and the remaining reciprocal tariffs.

The US said both countries would “promptly negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals”.

Pharmaceuticals are a major export for the UK when it comes to US trade – last year sales of these products were worth £6.6bn making it the UK’s second-biggest export to the US.

It’s also America’s fourth biggest export to the UK, valued at £4bn last year.

Most countries, including the US, imposed few or no tariffs on finished drugs, as part of an agreement aimed at keeping medicines affordable.

The president has not announced any trade restrictions on medicines yet.

• QUICK GUIDE: What tariffs has Trump announced and why?
• ANALYSIS: Trump deal is a significant achievement for Starmer

No change on digital services tax

There was no change to the UK’s 2% digital services tax in this deal and it appears to be a sticking point.

Businesses that run social media, search engines or online marketplaces have to pay it if they receive more than £500m in global revenues and £25m from UK users annually.

But this threshold is easily met by US tech giants like Meta, Google, Apple.

The UK reportedly netted nearly £360m from American tech firms via the tax in its first year.

The UK government said it had “agreed to work on a digital trade deal”.

But the US government said it was “disappointed that the UK was unwilling to agree to fully address the tax.

“It is discriminatory, unjustified, and should be removed promptly,” it said.

No drop to food standards

US beef exports to the UK had been subject to a 20% tariff within a quota of 1,000 metric tons. The UK has scrapped this tariff and raised the quota to 13,000 metric tonnes, according to the White House document.

In return, the UK has been given the same quota at a lower rate in line with other countries.

Crucially, there will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports as part of this deal, the UK government statement said, insisting that American hormone-treated meat will not seep onto the UK market.

Many American farmers use growth hormones as a standard part of their beef production, something that was banned in the UK and the European Union in the 1980s.

The US has previously pushed for a relaxation of rules for its agricultural products, including beef from cattle that have been given growth hormones.

This is an area where the UK has chosen alignment with EU – and the forthcoming “Brexit reset” with the EU – over the US.

The tariff on ethanol coming into the UK from the US has also been scrapped.

The National Farmers Union said the inclusion of “a significant volume of bioethanol [a renewable fuel made from crops] in the deal raises concerns for British arable farmers”.

By Raj Gonsalkorale

The trees

The quotation “Missing the wood for the trees” means being unable to see the whole picture or larger context because one is fixated on minor details or individual components. It suggests a lack of perspective and an inability to understand the bigger picture due to being too focused on the small parts.   This catchy phrase originated as part of the works of John Heywood, an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs, circa 1546. It is an idiom used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. (https://www.cmfgroup.com/blog/ healthcare-professionals/sometimes-we-cannot-see-the-forest-for-the-trees/#:~:text=This%20catchy%20phrase%20 originated%20as,the%20situation%20as%20a%20whole)

However, local government elections in fact must be about the small parts that constitute the whole. It must be about local issues and which party or individual at grass roots level is close to the people and can work with the people to attend to matters at local level. It is a misplaced assumption and a misguided promotion that local government elections are about national issues, and they are a like a referendum on a party in power at national level. As much as a wood would be barren if there are no trees in it, a country would be similarly barren if it does not have a strong, participative local government that represents the people at grass roots level. A strong local government system should be the backbone of a country’s political system, but not necessarily constituted as a partisan political system as would be mentioned later in this article.

Perhaps the staging of local government elections should precede a national general election if a bottom-up approach is to replace the bottom down approach that the country has experienced for many decades. While there are some issues that are essentially national in nature like defence and foreign policy, taxation and major infra structure developments, policies pertaining to many other areas need to consider local situations, wider consultations with people, and national policy formulation linked to such grassroots participation on local issues.

While a governing party, in this instance the NPP, would have strived to bask in the glory of their presidential and general election successes and win the local government election on the strength of those successes, such a line of thought would not have been necessarily the best outcome for the local government bodies and the people at grassroots level. At such a level what matters is the record of efficiency and the effectiveness of those who have been members of local government bodies and those who are aspiring to be members and who have their ears to the ground their eyes on the people in towns and villages in local government areas. In this context, people would be the best judges as to who should represent them at local government level on matters that are essentially local in nature. Success at presidential or general elections should not automatically translate into success at local government level, unless those contesting could demonstrate they are well across local issues and are able to offer solutions for such local issues.

Many analysts, and of course opposition politicians have seized on the drop in votes for the NPP at the May 6^th local government election. Reportedly only about 60 percent of the 17.14 million electorate turned out to vote on Tuesday, down from nearly 70 percent in the November general election and 80 percent in the September presidential vote. While voter fatigue after two major elections could well be one reason for the drop in vote, as far as the governing party is concerned, which more or less campaigned on the strength and success of the two preceding national elections, their own supporters may have been lulled into thinking that local government elections do not count for much since presidential and general election powers were with them. Some may have opined that promises made have not been delivered and decided not to vote although the NPP government has been in power for less than 6 months and the national budget passed only in April this year.

The line of thought that a government at national level should have control over local government entities simply because of such power, without a focus on local issues and how to address them, is a line of thought that does not produce optimum democratic outcomes for the people at grass roots level. In fact, the results of the May 6^th election, with many local bodies requiring coalitions of some sort, either multi-party, or with independents, to be able to govern the local body has restored a welcome degree of democracy that is a good for the country. 

However, this gain will be negated if the Opposition political parties desire to group together is only to cause embarrassment to the NPP national government and thwart their programs and activities at Presidential and National Parliament level using local bodies as platforms for their political and personal gain and not for the sake of the people at local government level.

Ideally, elections at local government level should be nonpartisan to the extent possible, as at this level, governance is more about operational issues that impact on people at this level than about policy formulation on national issues. Avenues to make local government entity elections based on electing independents of proven capability rather than electing representatives of national political parties to local government entities should be seriously considered by the people. Political divisions at this level further alienate people from each other based on the political labels they carry. Minimising such divisions and taking the path of aggregation rather than segregation is a system change that needs to be considered by all political parties.

One can only hope that all political parties will grasp the opportunity now to govern with a difference and govern for the well-being of the people belonging to their local government entities rather than using the entities as platforms to further their political ambitions.

If people at grass root level, as constituents of local government entities are independent minded, they will be better able to view national policy formulation from a more constructive point of view and consider policies offered by political parties at national level with much less bias and more from the perspective of what policies are best for the country rather than for any political party. Outcomes for the country will decidedly be better if partisan political divisions begin and end at national level and divisions even at this level are based on policy differences, not personal or other pseudo differences, and their ability to plan and incorporate their policy action plans, as strategic plans in their manifestos. Hopefully this would create a pathway to end the NATO syndrome of No Action, Talk Only, as manifestos would then become part of the accountability process at national level should a particular political party win a general election.

Irrespective of which party or political grouping is running local government entities, they all must subscribe to accountability policies legislated by the National Parliament to ensure uniformity of accountability policies across all local government entities. While programs and priorities of local government entities may vary, accountability policies pertaining to programs should not vary as fundamentally, all programs of entities are financed by the people and therefore accountability to the people via national legislation considered as a moral and legal necessity.

Several local government entities have been accused of waste, bribery and corruption from time to time and there appears to be a need to review existing accountability policies and processes and fill any voids with the appropriate legislation to strengthen them and hold all local government entity expenditure accountable to the people. Legislation should provide for enforcing strict punishment for those found guilty of violation of the law and misappropriation of funds.

The wood

As noted earlier, the wood” in the context of this article is the political structure at national level comprising of an Executive Presidency, a Parliament, a government which enjoys the majority support in Parliament, and an Opposition, or as one might say, an alternate government in waiting, all of whom are responsible for national policy development. Ideally, each of these entities should be elected by the people based on the policies they offered to the people at an election. In this context, the Opposition has a role and a responsibility to make sure the government complies with their manifesto that was offered as a policy composite to the people but has even a more important role in offering their alternate policy options as per their own manifesto and any new ideas and proposals as constructive alternate options to government actions. This might be asking for too much from Sri Lankan Opposition parties who have habitually just criticised governments rather than offering alternate constructive options for consideration by governments.

The role and responsibilities of provincial authorities who in a way are neither the wood or the trees, will have to be reviewed and their form, substance and responsibilities clarified.

The provincial councils were established consequent to the provincial council’s act of 1987 at the behest of India as a means of appeasement to wean the LTTE from their separatist agenda. The LTTE rejected the provincial council system, and so did the Tamil political parties. The act provides for activities that are to be managed by provincial councils, activities that are within the province of the national government, and activities that are to be jointly administered. Overall, provincial councils have functioned more as administrative centres rather than as political centres. It appears that a significant amount of duplication of administrative activities occur due to the lack of clarity and direction on the national government’s role and that of provincial councils Their future and their future role needs to be reviewed, and a decision taken whether they belong to the wood or are part of the trees. On the face of it, it does appear that they have a role in a devolved administrative system but not in a devolved political system

The NPP government included the introduction of a new Constitution in their manifesto, and it is hoped that wide consultations and reviews will occur of all political institutions at all levels and findings and suggestions will be considered when drafting a new Constitution.

My Darling Chuti,

Look, at the haphazard way Radcliffe, a British Lord said to have had no previous experience in boundary making, unscientifically divided British India in to India and two Pakistans (West and East) in 1947. This division was deliberately done to perpetuate Indian (Hindus) and Pakistan (Muslims) wars indefinitely in keeping with the avowed British colonial policy of divide and rule to perpetuate the British empire where the sun will never set.

It was the same policy they adopted in Dividing Sri Lanka, the land of the Sinhala people for 2500 years into two countries, with two nations Sinhalese and Tamils- (who were Malabar Tamil   slaves first brought by the Dutch in the late 18^th century and thereafter by the British, first to settle in the North and East and much later after 1840 to work on the Coffee and Tea plantations in the hill country (after 1870s) as the proud native Kandyan Sinhalese refused to work for the British. They used the Cleghorn minute 1799 to the first British Governor Fredrik North who was in charge of the Maritime provinces of this Island acquired from the Dutch in 1797.  This minute had artificially divided the country as follows.

All that land north of Puttalama going right round the country up to Walave Gannga in the South, including the present NCP (Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts) down the coastal low lands up to Walave leaving only the central hill country and a narrow stretch of land abutting it to the Sinhalese. Fortunately, after the Panaduraa waadaya by Mohottivatte Gunanandha Thera, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts were taken out of this dream Tamil Land and created the NCP (new Province) in 1873 The Malaba Tamil coolies were Gazette as Ceylon Tamils in 1901 by Arunachalam Ramanadan the first Sri Lankan Civil Servant created by the British. He was a grandson of Arunachalam grandson of a Malaba cooli toilet cleaner of the then governor. Now you can see how these British conspired to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom that ruled the whole Island named as TUN Sinhale for 2500 years, that stood in par with all the ancient world civilizations like the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Indian and Chinese.

The latest attempts made by them as you know are the formation of the Tamil EELAM in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces for which the road map was laid down in 1987 by the Rajive /JR Accord of 29^th July and the more recent attempt to create a Malayanadu for the 1.2 estate Tami coolies again brought and planted right at the center of this country including the CP, UVA. and Sabaragamuwa Provinces with all abutting areas where tea and rubber are grown. This includes parts of the SP, WP, and the NWP as well.

I am struggling very hard to avert this disaster. I only hope that I will live at least another 10 years to complete this project.  I still have a distant hope that it could be definitely done as I strongly believe that with the blessings of the Triple gem and guardian gods lead by Vishnu will protect this land of the Sinhalese Buddhists, as it had been the only land on this earth that was thrice visited and thrice blessed by the Lord Buddha. This was also the first and the only foreign country to which the Buddha had visited, blessed, marked 16 sacred places on its ground and protected the whole Island by circumambulating it thrice as the epic Mahavamsa has recorded. Lord Buddha also has predicted, at his passing away bed that his doctrine will remain here for the next 5000 years.  In view of all these miracles this land of the Sinhalese had been named as the Land of the Buddha.”  Therefore, I strongly believe that this land of the Sinhalese can never be concurred by any enemy in its totality including the land, the Sinhala nation and the Buddhist civilization. That is why it has stood the test of time from 18 invasions from South India from the 2^nd century BC up to date, including the most powerful four colonial invasions of Portugues, French, Dutch and the British with all their super fire power that captured the whole world , and annihilated all the older civilizations in both Americas, Australia and New Zeeland and finally the last attempt by the LTTE  which was called the most powerful and dangerous terrorist outfit with their own Naval, Air and Ground power in addition to money and the open support given by India with logistic support, military training and financial support openly given coupled with political support by the Government of Rajiv Ghandhi.

Coming back to Radcliffe,

The Radcliffe Line was the boundary drawn during the Partition of India in 1947 to divide the provinces of Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan. It was established by the Punjab and Bengal Boundary Commissions, with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as the chairman of the Punjab Boundary Commission. This line resulted in the division of culturally close areas and triggered massive human migrations.

Although their Language English has assumed global recognition and the sad legacy of dividing the whole world in to an eternal never ending conflict Zone, I think, will last forever.  If I were entrusted with the demarcation of boundaries for India and Pakistan, I would have simply drawn the dividing lines along the crest line of the mountains that divide the two watersheds of the Indus and Ganges so that it will last, perhaps forever, using the Buddhis theory of resolving problems of this sort. During the Buddha’s time, a conflict arose between the Sakya and Koliya clans over the sharing of water from the Rohini River. The clans, who lived on opposite banks of the river, faced a drought, leading to suspicion and conflict over water access for their crops. The Buddha intervened and helped resolve the dispute through a peaceful resolution, emphasizing the importance of shared resources and avoiding violence.

This is why I blame the Church driven, power and riches hungry Colonial British for dividing the whole world in to an eternally warring battle field on ethnic and religious conflicts, hoping to perpetuate the British Commonwealth of Nations where the sun will never set as they once said.

 The final solution for all worldly and thereafter rests in the Buddhist teaching and no other. Let us cross our fingers and wait till 2050 and see how Sir Arthar Clerk’s prophecy on Buddhism becoming the only religion that will survive thereafter, while all other s based on a divine origin will disappear from this world. (Please see DEEP RANGE Arther Clerk)

Courtesy The Island

Patriotic National Movement, Global Sri Lanka Forum, Swadeshika Jathika Viyaparaya and Thunhela Jathika Viyaparaya have filed a petition, requesting the Supreme Court to prevent the implementation the seven Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by India and Sri Lanka during Indian Premier Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Colombo.

Challenging constitutionality of the seven MoUs finalised on April 07, 2025, in terms of Article 126 read with Article 17 of the Constitution, the petitioners, Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, Dr. Wasantha Bandara, Shyamendra Wickremarachchi, Chaminda Priyadarshana, Dr. Asoka Indrajith Kamaladasa and Ballanthudawa Achchige Nuwan Chamara Indunil asserted that the implementation of MoUs would violate the sovereignty of the people—including their economic sovereignty and right to governance—as well as the independence of Sri Lanka as a free state and nation.

They also warned that the MoUs violated the constitutional rights of the people, rule of law suppressed and annihilated as well the national security and placed the sovereignty of the country at risk.

The petitioners also informed the Supreme Court that they, together with several other patriotic activists, on May 02, 2025, handed over a letter to the Indian High Commission in Colombo to be forwarded to Premier Modi protesting the signing of the MoUs. According to the petition, copy of that letter has been submitted to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The MoUs covered implementation of HVDC interconnection for import/export of power, cooperation in the field of sharing successful digital solutions implemented at population scale for digital transformation, development of Trincomalee as an energy hub, defence cooperation, multi-sectoral grant assistance for Eastern Province, cooperation in the field of health and Medicine and cooperation between the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission and National Medicines Regulatory Authority.

Among the 29 respondents were members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, secretaries to the relevant ministries complicit in the issue at hand, Cabinet Secretary and the Attorney General.

Alleging that the government suppressed the MoUs thereby deprived the right of the people as well as MPs to know the truth, petitioners complained that Cabinet spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa failed to answer specific questions (1) whether the government had right to amend the clauses of MoUs if they were found to be adverse and detrimental to the interest of Sri Lanka and (2) whether the government agreed, under the defence cooperation agreement with India, that Chinese vessels would not be allowed in Sri Lankan waters?

The petition listed the violation of the Constitution as well as domestic and international laws. Under this heading, the petition dealt with what it called threat to energy and data sovereignty.

Addressing the energy sovereignty of the people and energy security of the country, the petition stated that the ultimate impact of implementation of the intended objectives of the said MOUs would be subjecting Sri Lanka’s connectivity and supply of electricity to the arbitrary decision-making authority of India which may lead the country to experience conditions similar to those recently experienced by the people of Bangladesh and Pakistan consequent to abrupt and arbitrary disconnection of electricity and water supplies respectively.

Declaring that data sovereignty of the people is a prime responsibility of the State, the petition asserted that it was the duty of the state to protect and safeguard to prevent foreign entities, States and individuals from having access to personal information, bio-data, bio matrix data of the natives and State secrets and in the event of failure of the state to provide such protection and security it would endanger the national security including the health and economic security of the people; such move would also discourage the foreign investors for the reason that data fed to local systems would not be secured. (SF)

Wimal Weerawansa

Dasatha News

Courtesy COLOMBO Reuters  — 

Apr 16, 2025

The Maldives has banned Israeli passport holders from entering its territory, the president’s office said on Wednesday, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu ratified an amendment to the country’s immigration law after it was passed by parliament on Tuesday, a statement from his office said.

The amendment introduces a new provision to the Immigration Act, expressly prohibiting the entry of visitors with Israeli passports into the Maldives, it added.

The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” the statement said.

The Israeli foreign ministry and the country’s consular office in Colombo did not respond to requests for comment.

Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that prompted the war.

South Africa has brought a case against it at the UN’s International Court of Justice and Amnesty International accused it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report last December, charges it has denied.

Maldives’ Muizzu initially made the call to ban Israeli passport holders in June 2024 after a cabinet recommendation, which prompted the Israeli foreign ministry to recommend that its citizens avoid the archipelago famous for its pristine beaches and plush resorts.

Tourism is a major driver of the Maldives economy, accounting for about 21% of its GDP and earning $5.6 billion in 2024, according to government data. The island nation is expecting earnings of about $5 billion this year.

By Patrick Martin

Topic:Archaeology

Wed 7 MayWednesday 7 May

The Piprahwa Gems are considered to be among the most significant finds in the history of Buddhism. (Supplied: Sotheby’s)

In short:

Sotheby’s has postponed its sale of jewels linked to the physical remains of the Buddha after New Delhi threatened to launch legal action.

The relics were inscribed and consecrated about 2,000 years ago and then excavated in 1898 by a British estate manager. 

New Delhi argues the sale of the Piprahwa gems violates international laws and UN conventions.

abc.net.au/news/piprahwa-gems-sale-sothebys-india-legal-action/105261720

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Sotheby’s has postponed its sale of jewels linked to the physical remains of the Buddha after a legal threat from India and moral questions about the sale of religious antiquities.

The Piprahwa gems have spent most of the past century in a private family collection after being unearthed in 1898 by a British estate manager.

The relics were found buried with what was believed to be bone fragments and ash of the Buddha.

The collection was set to be sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Wednesday, until New Delhi threatened Sotheby’s with legal action if it did not call off the sale.

India argued that the auction of the gems, which were expected to fetch $20 million, “violates Indian and international laws as well as UN conventions”.

In a statement to the ABC, Sotheby’s confirmed that the auction had been called off.

“In light of the matters raised by the Government of India and with the agreement of the consignors, the auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha, scheduled for 7th May, has been postponed,” they said.

“This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate.”

What are the Piprahwa gems?

The Piprahwa gems, made up of thousands of pieces of topaz, pearls, rubies, sapphires and gold sheets, were excavated in 1898 by British estate manager William Claxton Peppé.

William Claxton Peppe unearthed the gems in 1898. (Supplied: Peppé family/The Piprahwa Project)

He unearthed the jewels and what are believed to be remains of the Buddha from inside a funeral chamber, known as a stupa, in present-day Uttar Pradesh in northern India.

The relics were inscribed and consecrated about 2,000 years ago, during the Mauryan Empire.

Experts agree that the items are linked to both the Buddha’s Sakya clan and Buddhists worldwide.

When they were unearthed in 1898, the bones and ash found were separated from the jewels, before being gifted by the British colonial government in India to the King of Siam — modern-day Thailand.

He then distributed some of the bones and ash to Buddhist centres across Asia, including in Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, where they continue to be venerated.

The rest of the hoard was taken to the colonial museum in Kolkata, before a portion was granted back to the Peppé family.

by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

Whither India’s Global Peace Making?

In the cover image Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, abbreviated NSF Diego Garcia, is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius. Africa), from which US Air Force can use to target Iran

The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Links to Gospa News articles have been added by our Editorial Staff

There have been several geopolitical developments in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian origin wife, Usha and their children to India in April and terror attacks on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which were blamed on Pakistan. The same week there was a huge blast in Iran’s port Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf that opens into the Indian Ocean.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2025/05/01/israel-on-fire-irans-revenge-for-the-port-massacre-as-we-predicted-24-hours-ago/embed/#?secret=eZTNA67sYU#?secret=4OmyFKtENA

Earlier in the month there were reports of the return of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), operatives to the Bangram Air Base in Afghanistan. This was reportedly in consultation with erstwhile proxy, the Taliban.

President Trump had stated that former President Biden made a mistake abandoning Bangram Base during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan given its infrastructure investments and proximity to China’s missile sites, not to mention Russia.

The Easter week attacks in Kashmir were similar to those of the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 in Sri Lanka, mysteriously claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These also targeted tourists, as well as, churches and a Chinese research mission in the Seas of Sri Lanka– in a Hybrid operation.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/02/10/hybrid-economic-war-with-neocolonial-debt-bondage-in-the-indian-ocean/embed/#?secret=FRXTpGnKw5#?secret=278P9xqJvP

Following, the attacks in Kashmir which killed 26 people, the global corporate media propaganda machine echoed the moment of America’s Global War on Terror”.

India’s Adani owned NDTV was full of India’s War on Terror” moment, echoing rhetoric after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks; cheerleading a hard military response and possible war with Pakistan. This would of course destabilize South Asia, one of the world’s most impoverished regions, despite the Indian growth story economic hype. A war between the nuclear armed neighbors would moreover further weaponize religious diaspora networks and destabilize historically multi-religious South Asia.

What of India’s Push to be a Peace-Maker drawing on Spiritual Traditions?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent push to be a global peace-maker in the Russia-Ukraine war, leveraging India’s spiritual traditions of Ahimsa (non-violence) in the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu Yogic and Ghandian legacies, appeared forgotten.

Rather, there was rush to deliver collective punishment to Pakistan’s farmers by withholding Indus Valley Waters, affecting food security, by putting on hold the treaty for sharing of water resources. India and Pakistan were in any case a single country until the retreating British Raj Partitioned India in 1947, as it did Cyprus, Ireland, Palestine and other places as part of its Exit Strategy. Was this in order to retain British imperial and corporate economic and security interests, a different kind of GLADIO-style stay behind operation in the Jewel of the Crown” of a lost Empire?

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2023/03/16/the-environmental-cost-of-the-superpower-economic-hybrid-war-games-in-indian-ocean/embed/#?secret=L4vc4cpCoR#?secret=vpROoXR4w1

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Indian State’s response to the attack in Pahalgam has been the metering out of collective punishment in lieu of a measured, calibrated and targeted response. In addition to holding in abeyance the Indus Water treaty there has been a destruction of the homes of purported terrorists for the collective punishment of their kin. Is India drawn into the I2U2 mimicking the Israeli barbarism of collective punishment in the occupied Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip and forgetting Ahimsa?

Diaspora Wags the Dog”: Weaponizing Religion for a new Cold War

It is now increasingly clear that along with the QUAD (the collective of Australia, Japan USA, India) and I2U2 (the collective of Israel, India, United Arab Emirates and USA), in the Western Indian Ocean, set up to target China, the Indian Diaspora in the US are being harnessed to wag the dog” so to speak and lure India into the US military business industrial complex and NATO War Machine.

Although the Indian Ocean was declared a Zone of Peace on the initiative of the third world at the United Nations in 1971 at the height of the first Cold War it has become highly militarized.

Bringing India into America’s new Cold War on China would also break the BRICS and Global South unity, perceived as a threat to the hegemony of the US dollar and the existing global trade and financial system.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/09/22/de-dollarize-to-de-colonize-sri-lanka-must-pivot-to-the-brics-embrace-the-asian-21st-century-after-elections/embed/#?secret=nBAKyjaRnr#?secret=lTyGXOPXI1

Working with the Indian Diaspora in North America to draw India seems to be a bi-partisan agreement for Washington’s Republican and Democrat Uni-party.

Was the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance with his Indian origin wife and children dressed in Desi garb just days before the Kashmir, Pahalgam attacks a coincidence?  Tulsi Gabbard, head of US National Security Agency is a Hindu as is Kash Patel who is the head of the FBI. Kamala Harris the Former Vice President, and Presidential hopeful also had some South Indian roots.

Is the Indian diaspora being used to draw India which had stood with Palestine during the hey days of Non-Alignment, to partner with Zionist Israel, which ironically, also works with Saudi Arabian Petrodollars to promote the Muslim Fundamentalist (Muslim Zionist?) Wahabi- Salafi- Islamist –ISIS, ISIL, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Tariq Islam, Towheed Jamat, Lashkar-e-Taiba, off shoots and Islamist terror networks around the world?

Fighting ‘God-less Communists’ and Independence Movements with Religion

Claiming to fight God-less Communists” during the Cold War against Soviet Russia the United States and its European allies weaponized religion, seen as a conservative forces in the Third World, This to buffer against de-colonization and national Independence movements seeping across Asia and Africa after the end of World War 2. National liberation movements were often Communist or Socialist in nature.

Internal ethno-religious proxy wars were promoted in the post-colony to deflect de-colonization and independence struggles and retain the economic and security interests of retreating European empires, or transfer them to the rising American empire.

All ‘world religions’ are politically constituted and hence more or less weaponized, Islam is by far the Most Weaponized religion on the planet. That is, excepting Southeast Asian Islam, which is softer and culturally diverse, given proximity to polytheistic Buddhist and Hindu cultural traditions. This is demonstrated in the Indonesian State’s Constitutional commitment to Pancha Sila.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/08/09/literary-prize-politics-cold-war-and-the-disinformation-game-on-the-weaponization-of-religion-s-and-decolonizing-history-and-fiction/embed/#?secret=fS9qSdPREP#?secret=Jp1GDsse7W

During the Cold War, Muslim networks were used at the handmaiden and cat’s paw of the Evangelical Christian Zionist empire to stage violence and destabilize multi-religious countries in Asia and Africa. There was also a concerted attempt to weaponize Buddhism as documented in an excellent book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia”, albeit with less than spectacular results.

As academics like Diane Kirby have shown, in Cold War USA, evangelical Christian and the Jewish diaspora networks, particularly, Zionism and the Chabad movement helped fund and underwrite settler colonialism in Palestine. Simultaneously, Muslims were used as the handmaiden and cat’s paw to stage violence in the interest of the US Empire and Israel around the world, with the support of Evangelical Christian Zionist groups. There is of course a long tradition of Israeli security agencies, Shin Bet and MOSSAD working to weaponized religions in Palestine in order to promote settler colonialism.

The Head of the Snake of Islamist Terror and the US Military Business Industrial Complex

The head of the snake of Islamist Terror around the world was Saudi Arabia that during the Cold War spread Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam in cooperation with the CIA and Mossad also targeting Persian/ Iranian Shia Islam which had a more spiritual orientation. The Ayatollahs in Teheran had after all thrown out the US-backed Shah of Iran and nationalized its oil wells.

Saudi Arabia’s pole position in Islam as the county of the holy site of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet, and its Petrodollars enabled the spread of Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam throughout the Muslim world. This was in exchange for regime protection for the house of Saud. The US has massive bases in the Kingdom.

Of course NATO’s Turkey and other neighbors of Palestine which are complicit in the on-going genocide there, along with the UAE, Qatar, Egypt etc. helped. Some were subject to blowback from the Muslim Brotherhood.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2025/04/21/the-hidden-secrets-on-isis-massacres-in-sri-lanka-2019-western-zionist-ties-with-palestine-genocide/embed/#?secret=rniZsHq4qE#?secret=UEYYIOePVJ

Once the Soviet Union, Red Peril and the Cold War ended in 1991, Islamist Terror became America’s official new enemy. The’ Global war on terror” after the World Trade Center attacks were staged purportedly by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida enabled perpetuating the US military business industrial complex with a new Islamist enemy.

It is worth recalling here that President Dwight Eisenhower had warned the American people about the threat posed by the US military business industrial complex in his farewell address to the nation. And sure enough, President John F. Kennedy who wanted to draw down the US war machine in Vietnam was assassinated a couple of years later in 1963 reportedly in an internal covert operation.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/11/09/freemasonry-zionism-3-devilish-roots-of-holocaust-in-holy-land-70-of-exterminated-are-children-women-by-netanyahu-thanks-western-neonazis/embed/#?secret=lAWzaftctZ#?secret=nBsIZvQwcM

The covert links between Zionist-Evangelical Christianity and Islamist Wahabi groups that go back to the Cold War weaponization of Islam also to fight Russia in Afghanistan may partly explain why the Muslim dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region), is the most violent part of world at this time. Muslim communities and networks around the world were weaponized and used for terror while, others turned a blind eye, to on-going radicalization particularly via the internet, social media and On-line religiosity. As Yasha Levine has detailed in his book, the Internet was a military invention for surveillance and control rather than to promote Democracy.

Staging a Clash of Civilizations” between Buddhism and Islam to destroy Asia?

Ironically, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks happened in Pahalagam, Kashmir, and he cut short his visit to the Kingdom to return to Delhi.

In the wake of the attacks, the global corporate media echo chamber seemed taken with the prospect of a war between nuclear armed India and Pakistan. Although Pakistan had long been a ‘Garrison State’ with its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), being well oiled by the CIA and funded by Saudi Arabia, it was painted as a proxy of China in the media.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/09/11/cia-gate-11-exclusive-unveiling-saudi-network-behind-9-11-former-fbi-agents-revelations/embed/#?secret=dYyeANniTr#?secret=OmFYVefBpM

Soon after the British Partition of India in 1948 as part of its Exit Strategy to continue to dominate the South Asia region, Pakistan was turned into a CIA Garrison State while India allied with the Soviet Union/Russia. The region has been kept in turmoil ever since– as a Cold War proxy war site. This also explains the lack of progress in the SAARC in contrast with Southeast Asia’s ASEAN.

It is increasingly clear that under Trump, the US is now focusing on China and trying to isolate it from Russia (Ukraine Peace deal), and correct the mistake that Biden made of pushing Russia into China’s arms, while trying to break BRICS by courting India. After the Pahalgam attacks, there were Hollywood inspired dreams voiced on Social media of India’s Akand Barath, breaking up Pakistan, and partitioning Baluchistan given the new Chinese built Gwadar Port, which the CIA had deemed one of the String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2020/01/23/weapons-lobby-4-uk-and-italy-in-the-hands-of-qatars-muslim-brotherhood-rothschild-partner-and-jihadists-funder/embed/#?secret=iRZAh8vcwi#?secret=yxr1vMtJqO

If the US and its proxies succeed though a strategy of hybrid maritime and staged terror attacks in drawing India into its security architecture, this would challenge the rise of the BRICS and Global South cooperation which threatens US dollar hegemony. This would also put an end to the Rise of Asia and the Asian Century.

At this time there are on-going attempts to stage a new ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between the two great religious communities in Asia, Buddhism and Islam in order to crash the Asian Century. This was signaled back in 2001 with the Taliban blowing up the ancient 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan on the Silk Route in Afghanistan– prior to the 9/11 attacks on the WTC to inaugurate and legitimize America’s ‘Global War on Islamist Terror’ and is also evident in Myanmar with the Rohingya refugees and human trafficking issue.

Whither India’s ‘Neighborhood First” policy?

Over the past three years there were US-backed regime change operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 2022 when the popular democratically elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted and imprisoned and Pakistan de-stabilized, India, the South Asian regional hegemon, looked on. Khan accused Donald Lu then Secretary of South Asia of spearheading the regime change in collusion with elements in the Pakistani establishment.

The same year, India capitalized on the US National Endowment for Democracy and Soros Foundation-funded, social media coordinated Aragalaya protest chaos operation to stage regime change and Sovereign Default in Sri Lanka. As South Asia’s wealthiest country was implausibly declared Bankrupt’ overnight due to a purported lack of US dollars to enable the IMF to upend its economic sovereignty, India played the supporting role of good neighbor to the rescue.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2024/05/29/wealth-of-nations-and-the-poverty-of-theory-2-imf-mission-creep-while-green-blue-and-pink-washing-blackrock/embed/#?secret=sissqUc5DO#?secret=qiB0NpoVnv

However, last year in August India lost a close ally who had just won the national elections, in Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Bangladesh to another US-back regime change in South Asia.

Indeed, the Modi government’s policy of self-interest sans principled Foreign Policy seem to belie proclamations of the ‘neighbourhood first”, and have paid diminishing returns in the face of America’s over the horizon (OTH), operations and aspiration for Full Spectrum Dominance in South Asia.

Is it becoming increasingly difficult for India to ‘run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’? The destabilization that OTH protests curated via remote social media platforms for regime change and staged economic crises have rendered South Asia including India poorer. The case of ASEAN shows clearly that countries develop only when their neighbors are stable and developing too.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2023/08/04/great-reset-fed-ecb-imf-ready-to-sell-the-nations-to-blackrock-devilish-plot-rst-thanks-to-interest-rate-hike/embed/#?secret=DI3rep4wOz#?secret=YaVQlKGiMO

Increasingly, India’s growth story hype is belied by the reality of poverty due to external destabilization and staged OTH crises across South Asia. It may be time to fully embrace the BRICS and Global South in the Asian 21st Century. Otherwise, India may help normalize the Abraham Accords and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that would legitimize a brutal new world order” across the Indian Ocean World, which is entirely contrary to Hindu-Buddhist-Jain traditions of Ahimsa and peace-making.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YUTT7cfuCAQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

Finally, it is high time for a global movement to shut down the 750 environment-polluting US military bases around the world, particularly those in the Indian Ocean, which should be again declared a ‘Zone of Peace’ in keeping with Principles of Non-Alignment.

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Links to Gospa News articles have been added by our Editorial Staff

Courtesy Daily Mirror

Colombo, May 8 (Daily Mirror) – A Fundamental Rights petition has been filed before the Supreme Court, seeking an order to invalidate the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) recently signed between Sri Lanka and India.

A group of petitioners, including Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara, filed this petition, naming Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, members of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Attorney General, and several others as respondents.

Seven MoUs between India and Sri Lanka, covering several key sectors, were exchanged on April 5 at the Presidential Secretariat in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The petitioners alleged that the recently signed MoUs are contrary to the Constitution of Sri Lanka as well as international laws.

They further stated that the public has not yet been informed about the contents of these MoUs, which constitutes a violation of the people’s Constitutional rights.

The petitioners claimed that the agreements undermine Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that the government’s decision to sign them without presenting them to Parliament is unlawful.

The petitioners are requesting the Supreme Court to rule that their fundamental rights have been violated and to issue an interim order preventing the implementation of the said agreements.