By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada.

Nearly 4000 metric tons of illegally imported hazardous garbage, contaminated with hospital waste and human organs have been found in Colombo’s free trade zone. The foul stench emanating from the illegal cargo had let the cat out of the bag!

The Island Newspaper Editorial and writers like Dr. Ratnasiri (I29-07-2019, Island)  have discussed the loopholes that have been created by interested parties to make easy money from the increasingly acute garbage problem faced by most countries. Of course, the very same politicians who failed to stave off  suicide attacks that they knew of before hand, and  those  who promised to make Colombo a clean city and get rid of the Meethotamulla garbage dump after it exploded, have risen to exploit the  occasion and promised to take immediate action” and punish the culprits. The public knows very well that these promises by political hounds chasing carrion mean nothing, and that those who shout thief”  may very well be hand-in-glove with the perpetrators bf these very crimes against the public.

Meanwhile, several people who had read my  articles (e.g., Island 6^th May, or 17 the June) on the subject of generating sustainable energy using  floating solar panels, coconut husks, rubber  or castor seeds and other ‘dendro biomass’  instead of  fossil fuels,  had written to this writer  inquiring about the practicability of using urban waste to produce bio-energy and fertilizer”, thus  solving at one stroke the garbage problem, the energy problem, and also getting rid of industrial” fertilizers and pesticides which are alleged to be full of toxins.

The claim that our food is dangerously full of toxins is a popular slogan for many public figures including  Venerable Ratana and Dr. Jayasumana. They have more recently found fallopian tubes to be even more politically rewarding to them than grappling with toxins and kidney disease.  The vacuum created has been rapidly taken up by others. So the agriculture minster, P. Harrison,  claims (Island, July 29^th, 2019) that:

  “our vegetables are toxic. Our farmers use 300,000 metric tonnes of synthetic fertilizer and 5,000  tonnes of pesticides annually. We have 20,000 CKDu patients in the province. Our farmers put pesticides a few days before the produce is harvested and this places the lives of our people in danger”.

The minister is no scientist, and CANNOT  be blamed because such misleading views have been aired even in some local agricultural journals.  It is easy to blame the farms and the multinationals and change the pillow and claim to cure dysentery or eradicate dengue!

I have discussed such erroneous and fear-mongering claims in detail in articles that were published by the Daily News ( 07-November-2018, and 19-April 2018 http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/11/07/features/167704/toxic-cocktail-myth-and-truth,

http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/11/07/features/167704/toxic-cocktail-myth-and-truth ). Our vegetables and rice are no more toxic than what may be found in UK supermarkets, although some very wealthy people in Colombo fly in their weekly supply of organic food from Brexiting England and drink only Perrier water!

Can garbage be reprocessed into bio-fertilzer and energy cheaply and safely?

Leave aside Sri Lanka, even technically very advanced and organized countries like Japan are straining

under the problem of garbage. In spite of strong legislation, only a small percentage of household garbage is properly sorted out.  Landfills are already strained to capacity, and if left alone produce liquid matter (leachate) which percolates into the underground water table and contaminates drinking wells, rivers, and reservoirs. Even simply burning of garbage is no solution as it is expensive and some 15% of the garbage becomes ash or solid waste. There are no landfills to accommodate even the ash resulting from the incineration of garbage. Furthermore,  incineration adds to global warming and generates toxic gases and dangerous sub-micron particulate dust at levels far worse than from coal-fired power stations. A crisis situation is expected in Japan within 15-20 years, and Japanese businesses have been discretely shipping out their garbage to poorer countries using free-trade” loopholes.

In any case, Sri Lanka does not have the political and administrative discipline of a country like Japan or Germany, and if those countries are failing, one would wonder how countries like India, Bangladesh or  and Nigeria are coping. We only have to go to Chennai, India and drive along the superb  Pullavaram highway taking you to the high-tech IT sector, when the stench from a huge garbage dump which is hundred times bigger than the Meethotamulla looms into view, standing two to three stories high (see the figure of the Colombo and Chennai dump). There are, of course several such dumps in the Chennai area, while garbage is found in every street corner of the pooer districts. Fires and explosions occur every now and then. Poor people die and politicians come and go, but the dumps continue to go.

The public is legislated to sort out” their garbage into several bins to hoodwink the public, but the problem is so massive that the sorted out bins are not processed any further. Most cities do absolutely NOTHING which is effective. However, garbage dumps in advanced countries are not abandoned, but they are supervised and well-controlled, even if environmentally damaging. They do not periodically explode and kill people.

The very same issue of the Island newspaper that carried Dr. Ratnasiri’s article, an article by Mr. Gomi Senadhrira ( an ex-trade negotiator of the government) emphasizes dire consequences” in.

  importing of garbage of all sorts in accordance with the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SL-SFTA). …. Senadhira expressed his views in the wake of  Finance Minister Samaraweera revealing in Parliament last Friday UK  garbage imports began in 2017”.

The question then is, can we use urban garbage, available in plenty, not only in Meethotamulla but also in every major city in Sri Lanka or in all other countries, to make energy, and organic”  fertilizer to feed the world with allegedly toxin-free organic” food, and save all the money used for buying mineral fertilizers and pesticides used in conventional agriculture? If the advanced countries are forced to export their garbage legally or illegally, can we build a thriving industry by processing garbage globally?

One of the individuals who wrote to me inquiring about using garbage to make energy and fertilizer drew attention to some statements by a Colombo environmentalist Vidya Abhayagunawardena. He had stated (Sunday  Observer, 14 October 2018) that:

  Garbage is not rocket science anymore. We have enough technology to solve this issue. What we do not have is the political will to do so,” Abhayagunawardena said, adding, thus far governments have  failed to provide sustainable solutions to the matter.”.

The present writer has to  strongly disagree with Mr. Abhayagunawardena. There is in fact NO AFFORDABLE, SAFE technology currently available anywhere in the world for handling urban garbage at the scale and rate it is produced all over the world.  Solving the garbage problem at an affordable cost is utterly more difficult than rocket science which is mostly based on well understood classic engineering practice.

What the developed world has been doing in most localities, except in some extremely technologically and educationally sophisticated and wealthy cities (like Santa Barbara California) is to hoodwink the citizens. Even in cities like Toronto, Canada, the citizens have been told for years to separate out their household garbage into plastic, paper, and food waste, hazardous waste and so on, claiming that municipal contractors will recycle the plastic and paper while recovering energy and bio-fertilizer (compost) from the bio-waste. But only a tiny fraction of the waste is actually properly handled. The rest, including hazardous waste,  has been illegally shipped to third-world” countries like Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh and probably Sri Lanka. The recently detected 230 illegal containers in the Colombo free-trade zone is only like the visible tip of the iceberg. It is alleged that much more money had been made by some  powerful Perera’s” for at least a decade!

After a decade of being tricked, the Philippines has arm-twisted Canada and re-shipped  Canadian garbage to Vancouver, at a cost of nearly CAN $1.5 million to the Canadian taxpayer and loss of face to Canada. If the technology is as simple as  Mr. Vidya Abhayagunawardena.says, Canada would not have simply incinerated the waste – an environmentally unacceptable and expensive last case”  solution. It will not be possible to to arm-twist the UK as the UK  too has no effective and responsible government, with Boris Jonson, a jingoist politician who was at one time a reporter who established a reputation of inventing false news that fitted the appetite of the foolish British  public as well as the style of the BBC channel-4 propaganda. 

Simple nostalgia and cottage solutions will not work.

Many goodhearted but technologically naive individuals believe that all this can be solved by going back to the past, by turning the industrial model of food production into a village enterprise,  with revived tanks centered around the temple, with household garbage and animal droppings providing compost for the farm, while the Gambaedda” and Chena” providing firewood and fodder and herbal medicine. Work is done communally and manually, usually under the hegemony of a feudal social structure that imposed discipline by controlling the food supply to the peasants by a land tenure system. Such simple pastoral societies eat what is known today as organic food”, but are notoriously susceptible to famine and sickness, pestilence, poverty, and conquest. The average life expectancy in such societies was about 35 years. Furthermore, agrarian societies were far more environmentally damaging (per capita) than modern societies, or  hunter-gatherer societies where humans lived in harmony with nature, at a demographic level strictly controlled by the food supply available in virgin forests as well as the dangers to life due to natural causes” like epidemics and wild animals.  The environmentalists of today do not wish to return to the ecologically sound hunter-gatherer society, as they want their computers, cars, cell phones, and air conditioning and longevity while being wedded to ancient ideologies!

Composting, whether it be done in with modern vermicular methods etc., or in the old fashioned way, is no longer environmentally friendly as compost heaps produce a lot of greenhouse gases. Unlike in agrarian societies, modern urban waste has old batteries, shampoos, leftover medicines, birth control pills, cortisone, statins, rancid oil, kitchen waste, paint, plastic, and ‘YOU-NAME-IT’. Even if the city asks you to separate hazardous, toxic, chemical, electrical, medical and kitchen waste, that is mostly to make it easier to ship the problem to a poorer nation.

Some of these poor nations like India actually do make compost out of urban garbage, and sell the compost back to wealthier nations under the label of organic fertilizer”, especially if the garbage has been composted with some Neem leaves!  Garbage is often fed to swine and chicken, and the compost made from their droppings is extremely high in industrial toxins and heavy metal residues. Unfortunately, there is no legislation requiring that organic fertilizer importers or producer reveals the chemical composition of the market product. The usual organic certification does check on the METHOD of composting but no chemical analysis of the raw materials is done. In Sri Lanka, any given organic fertilizer producer is ready to indict his competitor claiming that the rival is using sludge from the bottom of tanks, or using urban garbage (Sidaadiyen genapu jaraava”).

So if tomatoes or rice is grown using such compost when the plant takes up water, all those toxins go up into the vegetables, or paddy, or whatever. Experiments show that if the soil has broken torch batteries, then Nikel and cadmium from those batters get absorbed by the rice and as plants don’t have kidneys, the toxins ACCUMULATE in the rice. If the soil or the added fertilizer is such that 5 micrograms of cadmium is present in a kilo of soil, the plant and its seeds may have some hundred times more toxins due to photo-accumulation. But such rice may still be sold as “organic rice”, and such tomatoes are sold as “organic tomatoes”, at 5 to 10 times the price of conventional vegetables.  Consumers are told, even by ministers of agriculture,  to not to eat the normal vegetables because the normal vegetables (grown with fertilizers, pesticides, etc) are full of trace amounts of toxic pesticide and fertilizer residues.

In Sri Lanka, some parts of the Rajarata soil is full of fluoride naturally (i.e., geology) and the water is hard (Kivul”). People who drink such water get kidney disease called CKDu, while those who drink water from agricultural canals do NOT get CKDu! Nevertheless,  the authorities and politicians like Ven. Rathana blames pesticides instead of providing the people with clean piped water. It is cheaper to blame glyphosate and ban it, instead of doing something positive.

Is there something we can do with the Garbage?

The garbage in open dumps like Meethotamulla is too wet, mixed and too polluted for use in energy production efficiently. The first step is to protect it and supervise it. Birds and animals feeding on open garbage dumps collect toxins in their bodies. Micro-organisms, worms and scavenger creatures that feed on their carcasses distribute the toxins into the food chain. So open garbage dumps have to be eliminated long before coal-power plants are eliminated. However, the focus in many parts of the world has been on the presence of a few parts per BILLION  of glyphosate in the environment!

We must PREVENT the garbage being used for making compost to grow FOOD, for humans or for livestock, chicken or fish and any contamination of the food chain must be prevented. However, landfills will contaminate the water table surely and certainly in warm humid climates. So it is essential to move and bury the garbage AWAY  from human habitations so that micro-organism will work on them. Shipping them to covered landfills in arid or desert-like areas and harvest the methane and other gases arising from bacterial action as such gas must NOT escape. Such a process can in the long term help to bring deserts and arid lands back to less arid conditions but they are by no means cheap.

So, the only way to make money from wet garbage is to CHARGE money for its disposal from households, and charge money from citizens to take them away to isolated places and guard them and seal them from the environment and the food chain until bacterial decay sets in. As citizens and politicians realize the cost of garbage, they will sort the garbage and so a  fraction of the garbage can indeed be recycled and reused in a sensible way. It is not clear if populist democracies subject to the sway of demagogues and crooks will solve these problems.

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As billions of people lift themselves out of poverty, we’ll need a lot more energy. But at the same time emissions need to reduce dramatically. This is the dual challenge the world faces.

India, with its growing, increasingly prosperous population – and where emissions have risen sharply – captures the complexity of this challenge better than anywhere.

The dual challenge

Despite strong, determined investment in renewable energy, coal is still likely to play a big role in India’s future energy mix.

In a small family bungalow outside Kerala, four ceiling fans spin overhead, a TV sits in the corner of the living area, and a fridge buzzes in the kitchen. This average Indian home is only modestly powered – but the electricity it’s using mostly comes from coal.

156% – Growth in Indian primary energy consumption by 2040.

India’s robust economic and population growth means that energy demand is rising more quickly here than anywhere else.

Although investment in renewable power sources like solar and wind continues at a rapid pace, coal continues to dominate; as the growth in consumption cannot be met with renewables alone – at least not in the near future.

116% – Growth in India’s net CO2 emissions by 2040.

Carbon emissions are projected to climb even further in the coming decade, but the growth rate will slow.

Learning from the lessons of the West – building smarter, more efficient buildings and cities, for example – and replacing coal with lower carbon natural gas alongside renewables will play a crucial role. But it’s the Government’s ambitious policies that will predominantly drive change, and India is showing ingenuity and determination in developing smart solutions – and rolling them out on a massive scale.

Critical steps

A radical response to provide cleaner-burning LPG, more efficient LED lights, and broad investment in solar are just a few examples of India’s ingenuity and incredible ability to deliver rapid change.

20 Gigawatts – Government solar target 20GW capacity in 2022.

Sweeping solar

India wants 40% of its electricity to be renewably sourced by 2027, and most of that growth is likely to come from solar. The Government isn’t wasting any time: in a country where sunshine is in abundance, India is on track to become the world’s third-largest solar power generator after China and the United States.

In 2017, the Government began a massive effort to deliver power to every home in the country. Part of the ‘Saubhyga’ scheme includes supplying off-grid, remote households with low-cost, or even free home solar kits – enough electricity for lighting, a fan, and one DC power plug. The wider scheme has been transformative, with the government claiming over 99% of the country is now electrified.

In 2018, for the first time, India’s investment in solar power outpaced coal. The speed of this transition is driven by a combination of sweeping government initiatives and the rapidly decreasing cost of solar panels. This cost-reduction has also fuelled large-scale solar projects across the country. The results speak for themselves: last year, solar accounted for nearly 53% of new energy capacity additions in the country.

LPG: Cleaner cooking

On a dusty street on the outskirts of Chandīgarh, a mother in a vibrant green sari prepares a fire for dinner. Tonight it’s sarhon dā sâg – mustard leaf dhal served with roti. She’s using coal, a typical fuel source, along with dung cakes, firewood and kerosene.

Emissions from these dirty burning fuels are lethal for those living in close proximity to the cooking quarters. The latest report from the Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre claims nearly a million people in India die annually from direct and indirect exposure of this kind of household pollution.

In 2014, the Government rolled-out a scheme to deliver cleaner-burning LPG to every household, and the results are nothing short of staggering.

The program, a straight-forward application process for a small, refillable LPG tank, has resulted in close to 80% of Indian homes having access to LPG in 2018, up 56% since 2016 according to the FGE.

In 2011, 89% of rural households used solid fuels for cooking

The government introduced 35 million LED lightbulbs.

LED: Increased efficiency

This year 30,000 existing incandescent streetlamps in the small north-eastern province of Tripura will make the switch to LED. It’s a sweeping and industrious change, but this massive government initiative is not the first from the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), part of the Union Ministry of Power in India.

In 2015, they introduced a radical scheme to deliver subsidised LED lights to every single household in the country through a simple online application. 35 million lightbulbs have been distributed under the scheme so far, each consuming about 80% less energy and resulting in annual savings of over 45 thousand kWh. The ultimate target of 770 million bulb replacements would mean a staggering 60 million tonne reduction in CO2 emissions.

Project director Saurabh Kumar says, “We hope to continue building on the momentum generated through this effort to continue scaling the Indian and global energy efficiency market”.

The future

“For countries where average energy consumption is less than 100 gigajoules per person, increases in energy consumption tend to go hand-in-hand with significant improvements in human well-being.”Bob Dudley, IP Week 2019

The world is facing a colossal dual energy challenge and countries like India are working hard, but everyone – particularly developed economies – must play their part.

According to BP’s 2019 edition of the Energy Outlook, improving energy efficiency in developed countries where consumption per person is considerably higher will be key to helping solve the dual energy challenge globally.

India and other developing countries do have an advantage, says Sashi Mukundan, BP’s Head of India. “New economies have the benefit of starting fresh with less polluting energy sources. For instance, switching to electric vehicles and distributed renewable energy across emerging economies. The reality is that a massive effort by all is needed to transition to a low carbon world and limit global warming.”

The Dual Energy Challenge is one of the world’s greatest challenges, but India proves that smart initiatives and robust action can deliver real change – and it’s offering great hope for the future.

Editorial  Courtesy The Island

Several key witnesses, testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Easter Sunday tragedy, have frowned on the participation of Opposition MPs at the National Security Council (NSC) meetings. One cannot but agree with them on this score. There is absolutely no need for the presence of Opposition politicians or even government MPs, for that matter, at the NSC meetings where highly sensitive information is discussed and shared and no one other than those who are responsible for handling national security should be privy thereto.

President Maithripala Sirisena should discontinue the absurd practice of bringing his cronies to the NSC meetings. If he wants to make them feel important or show them how close he is to them, he can invite them to tea parties or dinners at his official residence. He has to get serious.

The President has also drawn flak for debarring some of those whose presence is required at the NSC meetings from attending them. IGP Pujith Jayasundera has claimed that he was not invited to the NSC meetings prior to the Easter attacks as the President was not well disposed towards him. However, it is being claimed in some quarters that former Defence Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne’s testimony before the PSC, on Wednesday, gave the lie to the IGP’s claim and proved that he had been prevented from attending only a single NSC meeting (on 23 Oct. 2018); he had been present at the next one in November. Is it that no NSC meetings were held thereafter until the Easter attacks, as claimed by the critics of President Sirisena?

Immediately after the April terror strikes, the UNP claimed that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had not been invited to the NSC meetings. It obviously sought to lay the blame for the tragedy solely at the feet of President Sirisena. Strangely, it has not repeated that claim, recently.

It is not clear who is telling the truth about the circumstances that led to the Easter attacks as no proper investigation has been conducted to find out how the NTJ succeeded in striking with such ease. The on-going PSC is a very poor substitute for a thorough probe in that its members represent political parties which have shored up the present government. One can only see that the President’s longstanding feud with the UNP-led government has taken its toll on national security. It is unbecoming of those tasked with ensuring national security to let their prejudices get the better of them. If they really want to settle their personal or political scores, they had better do so without placing national security in jeopardy. What one gathers from the information being revealed before the PSC is that they fought their personal battles at the expense of national security.

The Attorney General’s Department and the Police are blaming each other for the serious lapses that prevented the arrest of the NTJ terrorists for nearly two years. The army blames the TID for non-cooperation, and the STF says that if it had been informed of the warnings of the Easter attacks, it would have prevented the carnage. The AG’s Department told the PSC, yesterday, that the TID could have arrested terror suspects without waiting for its instructions. Did it tell the TID so when the latter sought its opinion?

The President and the Prime Minister insist that they had not been forewarned of the Easter attacks. This kind of discombobulation at the highest level of government as well as the security establishment is proof that yahapalana leaders had been living in cloud cuckoo land, prior to the Easter attacks, thinking that terrorism was a thing of the past. After all, Zahran was their man; he had campaigned for them at the 2015 elections, according to former Eastern Province Governor M. A. L. M. Hizbullah’s testimony before the PSC. They may not have expected Zahran to resort to terrorism. (They are lucky that he did not do a Babu!)

The NTJ was able to make the most of the situation to plan and execute coordinated bomb blasts because the yahapalana leaders, sought to trifle with national security, which is not their long suit and made a mess of the intelligence system in the process. The result was the rise of the new form of terrorism the country has had to contend with.

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

August 1, 2019, 9:00 pm 

According to a media report, the former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa speaking during the adjournment debate on a new Constitution is reported to have stated: ‘this country could not move forward without clearing up the confusion created by the 19th Amendment’.

He is stated to have added: “Once a new government takes office we hope to obtain the support of all political parties represented in Parliament for the new Constitution”. (Daily Mirror, July 27, 2019)

The public is however not aware whether the fundamentals of the “new Constitution” would be based on a Presidential system or a Parliamentary system. If the new Constitution is based on a Presidential system, the hope is that it would be an improved Presidential system, and if it is the latter, it would amount to reverting back to a Parliamentary system that would be along the lines that existed in 1972.

However, if these good intentions do not materialize due to the inability to meet constitutional constraints such as a two-thirds approval of Parliament and a referendum, the country would continue to be governed by existing constitutional provisions of the 1978 Constitution together with the amendments introduced by the 19th Amendment (19A), notwithstanding all the confusion created by it as stated by President Sirisena, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and also more recently admitted by the architect of 19A. Therefore, it is of vital importance that 19A is revisited in order to ascertain whether the 19A as it currently operates is in violation of the Constitution or not, and furthermore, a clearer understanding of the powers of a President under 19A.

REASON for CONFUSION

Apart from several shortcomings in 19A the common perception is that 19A has derogated the powers of the President thereby creating two Heads of government responsible for Executive functions; one being the President and the other the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers drawn from Parliament. The question that arises is whether the notion of two Heads of government is due to a constitutional provision in 19A or due to the manner 19A is interpreted by constitutional experts that powers of the President were derogated by 19A, creating the impression that there are two Heads responsible for Executive functions.

The question of two Heads of government is not an issue if the President who is the constitutionally the Head of the Executive and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers belong to the same political party. However, if and when the President and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers are from two different political parties and therefore ideologically different, as it is under the present dispensation, the recognition of two Heads where both believe that they are constitutionally entitled to exercise Executive functions, leads to chaos and confusion. Therefore, it is imperative that the Judgment of the Supreme Court relating to 19A is scrutinized carefully to ascertain whether in fact two Heads of government could be charged with the responsibility of exercising the Executive functions of the People.

RELATIONSHIP between

PRESIDENT and CABINET

The relationship between the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers is the cause for the current confusion within the government. Setting aside personality traits and ideological differences between them, the confusion stems mainly from a total misreading of the constitutional authority of the President in relation to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. This relationship was made crystal clear by the Supreme Court during its determination on the 19A Bill. The Supreme Court stated thus:

“The People in whom sovereignty is reposed having made the President as the Head of the Executive in terms of Article 30 of the Constitution entrusted in the President, the exercise of the Executive power being the custodian of such power. If the people have conferred such power on the President, it must be either exercised by the President directly or someone who derives authority from the President.…. It is in this backdrop the Court in the Nineteenth Amendment Determination, came to a conclusion that the transfer, relinquishment or removal of a power attributed to one organ of government to another organ or body would be inconsistent with Article 3 read with Article 4 of the Constitution. Though Article 4 provides the form and manner of exercise of the sovereignty of the People, the ultimate act or decision of the executive functions must be retained by the President. So long as the President remains the Head of the Executive, the exercise of his powers remain supreme or sovereign in the executive field, and others to whom such power is given must derive the authority from the President, or exercise the executive power vested in the President as a delegate of the President. The President must be in a position to monitor or to give direction to others who derive authority from the President in relation to the exercise of the Executive power. Failure to do so would lead to a prejudicial impact on the sovereignty of the People. The constitutionality of the following Clauses are examined keeping in mind the observations referred to above” (Siripavan C.J. S.D. No. 04/2015).

The following conclusions could be drawn from the determination of the Supreme Court:

1. “As long as the President remains the Head of the Executive others derive their authority from the President as a delegate of the President”.

2. “the ultimate act or decision of the Executive functions must be retained by the President”

3. “The President must be in a position to monitor or to give direction to others who derive authority from the president in relation to the exercise of the Executive power”.

In view of the conclusions cited above, it is beyond comprehension how Articles 43 (1) and (2) in the 1978 Constitution and 42 (1) and (2) in 19A that call for the Cabinet to be “responsible and answerable to Parliament” and also be “responsible for the direction and control of the Government”, came to be incorporated in the original Constitution and repeated in 19A when in fact it is only the President that is answerable to the People and responsible for direction and control of government as determined by the Supreme Court.

The more important question though, is how is the Judiciary to respond in the event these Articles were to influence a determination. Are they to accept them because they are included as part of the supreme law despite being conscious of their inappropriateness, or would they knowing that they contradict core principles of separation of power ignore their existence?

PRESIDENT – THE CUSTODIAN of

EXECUTIVE POWER

If the “ultimate act or decision of the executive functions must be retained by the President” as determined by the Supreme Court and as reported, he is opposed to agreements relating to ACSA, SOFA, MMC Compact, and for handing over of the East Container Terminal to Japan and India, his decision should prevail notwithstanding pressures from the Cabinet. Is the reason for not asserting his authority due to lack of awareness of his constitutional power or any other reason, is the burning question. Whatever, the case may be, in the final analysis it is the President and only the President who is answerable and responsible for the Executive action entrusted by the People as part of their sovereignty and stated in Article 4 (b). This Article states: “the executive power of the People, including the defence of Sri Lanka, shall be exercised by the President of the Republic elected by the People”.

Under these guidelines, the confusion associated with two Heads of government cannot exist. The only explanation is that those to whom Executive power has been delegated have usurped the powers of the President. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the President to assert himself and exercise constitutional powers entrusted by the people. This goes for the current President as well as any future President as long as the People are governed by a Presidential system of government.

CONCLUSION

The intention of 19A was to transfer power from the President to the Prime Minister. The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not permit the “transfer, relinquishment or removal of power attributed to one organ to another” without a Referendum. Since the coalition government did not want to face a Referendum, the project to transfer power to the Prime Minister failed, which means the President retains his powers. Despite this, 19A contains provisions that confuse the President versus Prime Minister relationship. A few key areas of this confusion were clarified by the determination of the Supreme Court.

For instance, there are Articles in the 1978 Constitution and 19A that contradict core principles of separation of power on which Presidential systems of government are based. These need to be amended if confusion is to be avoided. Another issue that adds to the confusion is the total misreading of President/Cabinet relationship in the field of Executive action. The Supreme Court determination made it crystal clear that all Executive power reposes with the President, and that all others associated with him in executive action derive their authority from the President as delegated powers. Therefore, the President is constitutionally required to assert himself and make sure that the “ultimate act or decision of Executive function must be retained by the President”. This means that the notion that 19A divided power between the President and the Cabinet is absolutely a wrong interpretation of the fundamentals of the Constitution.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris yesterday found fault with the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) for waiting for instructions from the Department of Attorney General without arresting terrorists connected to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ).

Testifying before the Parliamentary Select Committee probing the Easter Sunday carnage DSG Peiris said that the TID was empowered to arrest suspected terrorists. The TID did not need to wait for instructions to proceed with their arrests. The fault lay with the TID. “The TID has a trump card for every delay. They say that they sought advice from the AG Department and the latter did not provide instructions to proceed.”

Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, Prof Ashu Marasinghe, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, M.A. Sumanthiran, Minister Rauff Hakeem and Dr. Jayampathi Wickremaratne were present at yesterday’s PSC sitting.

DSG Peiris: A file referred to the Department of Attorney General by the TID was subjected to discussion at the PSC. A wrong impression with regard to the matter had been created in the minds of the people. We requested the Department’s Administrative Division to seek an opportunity to appear before the PSC to set the record straight. The Department is empowered by the Section 393 of the Chapter 33 of the Criminal Procedure Act to instruct and to provide legal advocacy to police and other investigators. We provide advocacy to proceed with the cases if there is a reasonable prospect of conviction of the suspects named in the case. We do not usually address matters forwarded to us by the general public. However, we receive public petitions and if the matter contained in the letter is leading to a serious offence or violation of laws then we may open a file. Similarly, we received a letter from Al Haj Abdul Jawadh Alim Waliyyullah Trust signed by Moulavi K.R.M. Sahlan. That was a letter addressed to the IGP and copied to us. The letter had been hand delivered. It requested the involvement of law enforcement authorities to investigate the threats against innocent Muslims from the National Thowheed Jamaath. Some pictures had been attached to the letter, showing mobs carrying swords marching on the streets of Kaththankudy. We asked the police on June 22, 2017 to update us on all investigations with regard to the NJT. So far we have not received any response from the IGP or any police station or any other law enforcement agencies. Later, I came to know that the TID had investigated the NJT and Zahran Hashim.

Dr Jayatissa: From where and when did you came to know of that investigation? Was it after the attacks?

DSG Peiris: Yes, after the attacks. We found that Moulavi Sahlan on the very same day he handed over the letter to our department had gone to the TID too and handed over a copy of the same letter with two CDs containing video clips. However the police had not recorded a statement from Moulavi Sahlan. It took two years for them to do so.

M.A. Sumanthiran: Yes, we could suppose that particular letter was not attended to. But there have been several other investigations by the Police and TID. As a part of those investigations, investigators have sought your instructions to proceed with. According to those witnesses who came to the light that the AG Department could not furnish them with the instructions they had sought.

DSG Peiris: The TID should have arrested them. They do not need to consult others. They could have done that on their own if they suspected them to be terrorists. They sent us three files. They are incomplete files. Those files did not have anything to form an accusation and to take legal action. The files referred to us by the TID did not have substance for a case. One of the files contained nothing but two speeches and printouts of posts taken from Zahran’s Hashim’s Facebook page. Could we file a case on the basis of that?

 M.A. Sumanthiran: Was there a revision application or bail application in the Batticaloa High Court?

DSG Peiris: Yes, it seems. There had been a bail application. Police objected to the application.

 M.A. Sumanthiran: The State Counsel in Batticaloa attended to that case and sent you a report. Did you enter that report in the file you had opened?

DSG Peiris: No, it was in another file. It is in bail application file.

 M.A. Sumanthiran: So the two documents in two separate files?

DSG Peiris: Yes. 

M.A. Sumanthiran: All these reports are about a single issue and single group. Reports on the websites, reports on the street violence and reports on bail applications and several officials are dealing with the same issue and same group and they are three separate files. Is it a system error?

DSG Peiris: It depends on the investigative officers. For example, the CID, they keep in touch with us in investigations. The TID does not have that discipline. There was a time that we did not have contact with them.

Dr. Jayatissa: When was that time?

DSG Peiris: They do not usually cooperate with us. They carry out their investigations. They do not contact us. They claim that they sought our instructions and the AG Department delays the process.

 Dr. Jayatissa: A copy of the same letter was sent to the Minister of Justice. Do you remember that the then Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse sending you any reminder or any communiqué with regard to that issue and that letter.

DSG Peiris: No. He sent us many letters on various other issues but not a single letter or reminder on this issue.

 M.A. Sumanthiran: There are systemic problems. We are not here to pinpoint or level allegations against others. We know there are many lapses in many departments. To sum up, we all have failed. That was why the unfortunate incidents occurred. That is the truth. We the PSC is here to find what went wrong and to take remedial measures to prevent the recurrence. We may remedy the mistakes.

DSG Peiris: The TID has not mentioned of any terror activities in their reports. They mentioned only of religious violence. The TID did nothing in this regard.

Xinhua

ADDIS ABABA, July 31 — Officials from Ethiopia, China and Sri Lanka on Wednesday vowed to spur trilateral partnership under the South-South cooperation modality in the renewable energy technologies sector.

They disclosed the joint commitments in the renewable energy technologies sector in here on Wednesday during a high-level workshop, which focused on a trilateral South-South cooperation that will focus on enhancing access to renewable energy technologies within the global commitment to achieve the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As part of the trilateral South-South cooperation which was discussed on among officials from the three countries, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka are partnering with China on a trilateral South-South cooperation that will focus on enhancing access to renewable energy technologies within the global commitment to achieve the SDGs.

According to the UN Development Program (UNDP) Ethiopia office, the trilateral cooperation project among the three countries “seeks to promote sustainable energy solutions by focusing on demonstrating the applicability of biogas and solar photovoltaic technologies for communities in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.”

“Close technical cooperation between countries could be the key to acquire sustainable energy technologies for developing countries,” Harsha Wickramasinghe, Deputy Director-General of Sri Lanka’s Sustainable Energy Authority, told the high-level inception workshop organized by UNDP and the government of Ethiopia.

“It will speed up the dissipation of technologies vital for the global energy transition. This project could be a good start for similar actions all over the developing world,” Wickramasinghe added.

Financing for the three-year project comes from the Ministry of Commerce of China with the provision of two million USD, which will be equally shared between Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

UNDP and the government of Ethiopia are also expected to contribute resources for the implementation of the project, which is expected to be officially launched later this year.

Ethiopia’s State Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Frehiwot Woldehana emphasized the significance of the imminent trilateral South-South cooperation among the three countries and the UNDP to Ethiopia’s vision to close the energy gap by 2025 by providing access to clean renewable energy to its citizens.

UNDP Ethiopia Resident Representative, Turhan Saleh, also stressed the project’s vital importance to UNDP’s engagements in Ethiopia.

“As we support Ethiopia to improve access to the renewable energy mix, we help the country to promote a climate-resilient green economy and foster inclusive growth that is strongly gender-sensitive as women and children bear the brunt of a country’s energy challenge,” the UNDP Ethiopia Resident Representative said.

Liu Yu, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, also reaffirmed China’s progressive role as one of the major funders of renewable energy technologies and green economy globally.

“China is always a strong supporter of international cooperation. We are a long-term supporter of the multilateral mechanism with the UN at its core. We want to make better use of international organizations,” said Liu.

Liu further underscored the growing Ethiopia-China partnership in multilateral cooperation platforms, which she said will help the East African country to benefit from technical and financial support in renewable energy technologies as an essential imputes for achieving the SDGs.

The high-level workshop also explored possible plans of action to address question around barriers to access to energy solutions, tackle issues around sustainability in terms of production and consumption, while touching upon topics like how to scale up on market access opportunities.

Courtesy News18

Civil Aviation Authority vice-chairman Shashi Danatunge said they had irrefutable facts to prove that Ravana was the pioneer and the first to fly using an aircraft.

Bengaluru: The Sri Lankan government believes that King Ravana was the first aviator in the world and flew over 5,000 years ago and the country’s Civil Aviation Authority has now launched an initiative to understand the methods used by him to fly in ancient times.

Speaking to News18 over telephone from Colombo, Civil Aviation Authority vice-chairman Shashi Danatunge said they had irrefutable facts to prove that Ravana was the pioneer and the first to fly using an aircraft.

King Ravana was a genius. He was the first person to fly. He was an aviator. This is not mythology; it’s a fact. There needs to be a detailed research on this. In the next five years, we will prove this,” he said.

A conference of civil aviation experts, historians, archaeologists, scientists and geologists was held at Katunayake, where Sri Lanka’s biggest international airport Bandaranaike is located on Wednesday.

The conference concluded that Ravana first flew from Sri Lanka to today’s India 5,000 years ago and came back. However, many dismissed the stories that Ravana had kidnapped Lord Rama’s wife Sita, claiming that it was an Indian version, and Ravana was a noble king.

There is renewed interest about the ancient Lanka king in Sri Lanka these days. Sri Lanka has recently sent a satellite called Raavana to outer space in the first space mission.

Many in Sri Lanka believe that Ravana was a benevolent king and a scholar. Even some Indian scriptures describe him as “Maha Brahmana”, meaning a great Brahmin or a great scholar.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa no longer has any legal obstacle to contest the upcoming presidential election, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said yesterday.

MP Kanchana Wijesekara said United National Party (UNP) MP Thushara Indunil has pointed out that Mr. Rajapaksa was unable to contest the presidential election because he was a US citizen.

“Mr. Indunil is challenging us saying Mr. Rajapaksa cannot contest because he is a US citizen. Mr. Rajapaksa never abandoned his Sri Lankan citizenship. If he had any legal obstacle, its all over now,” Mr. Wijesekara told a news briefing held at the SLPP head office yesterday.

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A telephone conversation between the Shangri-La Hotel bomber and his wife on April 21 reveals the series of explosions had been carried out in retaliation to Christchurch Mosque shootings and harassment against Muslims, State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament yesterday.

Speaking during the emergency debate held yesterday, he said the CID was able to recover excerpts of telephone conversations held between the Shangri-La Hotel bomber and his wife just before the attack was launched.

I had the opportunity of listening to the phone conversation where he clearly states the attacks on April 21 were in retaliation to harassment against Muslims including the attack on the Christchurch Mosque. He also talks about harassment against Syrian Muslims and the plight of Rohingya in Myanmar. He clearly states that the attack he was going to launch was in retaliation of all these. Zahran’s group had been following the ideologies of ISIS though it did not have direct links with the terror group,” he said.

On a different note, he said the government had decided to extend emergency regulations for another month following the advice of defence officers. Besides, he said emergency was needed because of the Kandy Perahera and Madhu Feast which are to be held in the month of August. )

Courtesy Adaderana

The Colombo High Court today rejected the preliminary objections presented by attorney on behalf of former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and IGP Pujith Jayasundara stating that the High Court does not have the authority to hear the revision application filed by the Attorney General.

The Attorney General on July 18th filed a revision application requesting the Colombo High Court to issue an interim order against the granting of bail by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court to Fernando and Jayasundara, who were arrested for failing to prevent the terror attacks on Easter Sunday.

The former Defence Secretary and the IGP, who has been sent on compulsory leave, are charged with criminal negligence by failing to prevent the attacks despite the receiving of prior information on the impending suicide blasts, among other charges.

Delivering his decision High Court Judge Vikum Kaluarachchi stated that the magistrate had granted bail despite the fact that charges have been drawn under article 296 of the penal code. He pointed out that a magistrate’s court does not have the authority to grant bail to defendants charged with murder as only the High Court has the authority to do so. 

The HC Judge said that the preliminary objections will be rejected and permission will be granted to hear the petition as the Magistrate’s bail order could lead to a deviation of the law and thereby considering this as a special instance.

The court also ordered to present any objection pertaining to the petition before August 30 while the hearing of the petition was fixed for September 06

Courtesy Adaderana

A Bill on repealing the death penalty was presented to the parliament today (01) by MP Bandula Lal Bandarigoda.

The Bill was tabled as a Private Member’s Bill.

The proposal was seconded by UNP MP Mylvaganam Thilakarajah.

Courtesy Adaderana

The police have not taken any action against Zahran Hashim, the Attorney General’s Department alleged today (01).

Testifying before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris said the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and the Inspector General of Police had acted irresponsibly from the beginning.

State Counsel Malik Azeez testified before the Select Committee on behalf of the Attorney General as Deputy Solicitor General Azath Navavi was reported to be overseas at the time.

The Attorney General’s Department today requested the Select Committee to grant permission to Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris to give evidence today as there are misconceptions about the testimonies of State Counsel Azeez.

Deputy Solicitor General Peiris said that then-Attorney General, who is the current Chief Justice, had received a letter from Al-Haj Abdul Jawad Alim Valiyullah Trust, dated 3rd of April 2017.

He revealed that this letter, which was personally handed over to the AG’s Department, had contained information on the extremist activities of the Zahran Maulvi of National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) and the severity of these activities.

The letter had requested the Attorney General take action on the provided information stating that these extremist activities of the NTJ had disrupted the peaceful environment of the area and that it could escalate to a serious situation in the future.

Several photos that had captured persons carrying swords and several others who had sustained injuries during an extremist activity carried out by the NTJ.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris further stated that, under the instructions of then-Attorney General, he had directed a letter dated 22nd of June 2017 to the IGP calling for a report on the NTJ if the police had conducted any investigations on the organization.

However, the IGP nor any law-enforcing unit has not submitted any report to the AG’s Department as a response to the letter.

Although a complaint was lodged with the TID on the matter, yet it took more than two years for the TID to record a statement from the complainant.

Hence, the deputy solicitor general alleges the IGP and the TID had acted irresponsibly from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Deputy Solicitor General Azath Navavi, giving evidence before the Select Committee, stressed that he vehemently refutes the allegations levelled at the AG’s Department over Zahran Hashim and Easter Sunday attacks

Courtesy Adaderana

According to several MPs, the draft constitution for the proposed new alliance has not been approved at the United National Party (UNP) Working Committee meeting, contrary to the statements made by UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

The meeting was held at the Temple Trees chaired by Party Leader Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at 9.45 am this morning (01).

It had been previously announced that the United National Front (UNF) and several political parties will sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) to enter into a new alliance on the 5th of August.

However, the group supporting Minister Sajith Premadasa as the UNP Presidential candidate had requested the Committee not to sign the relevant MoUs on August 5th.

The group supporting Premadasa further stated that they are against the draft constitution of the proposed new alliance over several weaknesses such as the General Secretary of the alliance, the address of the alliance, and the majority power of the alliance.

According to Minister Ajith P. Perera, Minister Sajith Premadasa had volunteered to take up the post of the General Secretary of the alliance.

Perera stated that Party Leader, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, had requested proposals on the relevant weaknesses and amendments to the constitution.

He further stated the majority’s opinion was that signing the MoU on the 5th of August was not suitable, yet no agreement was reached on the matter.

Minister Harsha de Silva stated that, although a vote on the matter was proposed, the Committee didn’t go for a vote as the decision has to be taken together as a party.

However, when Ada Derana inquired UNP General Secretary Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, he stated that it was agreed upon that the MoU on the alliance would be signed on the 5th of August as planned.

Kariyawasam stated that several members objected to the constitution of the new alliance and amendments to the constitution will be discussed with input from Party Leaders.

Minister Kariyawasam and former Opposition leader of the Southern Provincial Council Tennakoon Nilame stated that the nomination of the UNP Presidential Candidate was not discussed at the meeting.

However, Minister Ajith P. Perera stated that they proposed to the Committee that the Presidential Candidate must be chosen before entering into any alliances and senior members of the party such as Ministers Kabir Hashim and Mangala Samaraweera agreed on this.

Speaking to the media following another event today in Colombo, Minister Ajith P. Perera stated that all in the Working Committee unanimously agree to form a new alliance; however, there were objections to the content of the constitution drafted for the new alliance.

He says that a heavy objection was towards not appointing a UNP member for the post of General Secretary of the alliance.

There is no mention of the presidential election in the draft constitution, which is a grave matter, he said.

The scale of the event organized for the signing of the MoUs was also debated, according to Perera.

The Majority, except for 12 Working Committee members and Party Leader Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, disapproved of rushing into signing the agreement for the alliance on August 5.

Perera also added that the statements that a vote was taken on the matter of the draft constitution are completely false. This was in reference to a statement made by Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam that a vote was taken on the constitution and the proposal was passed with 35 votes in favor and 7 against. Kariyawasam had further said that Minister Sajith Premadasa refrained from voting.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, August 1 (newsin.asia): The first phase of the Slave Island Redevelopment Project named Metro Homes” executed by the Tatas of India, was completed on Thursday. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe handed over completed houses to 626 families. 114 shops were handed over to shop owners. The families and the shop owners had previously lived and done business in that area

They had been temporarily displaced to modernize and rehabilitate the congested inner-city area of Slave Island. The new Metro Home houses are well-built with modern amenities. The total cost of the project is Rs. 7000 million or US$ 40 million.

The Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Power, Energy & Business Development, Ravi Karunanayake, High Commissioner of India, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Member of Parliament, Mujibur Rahuman, MD & CEO, Tata Housing, Sanjay Dutt and other dignitaries were present at the inaugural.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe thanked the Government of India for its development partnership over the years. He specially mentioned the visit of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka after the Easter bomb attacks, which provided a big boost to Sri Lanka’s confidence. Wickremesinghe added that he looked forward to further strengthening connectivity and people-to-people ties between Sri Lanka and India.

In his inaugural speech, High Commissioner Sandhu thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for giving the status of Strategic Development Project” to this housing project. The High Commissioner pointed out that this was yet another manifestation of the confidence that Indian firms have in the Sri Lankan economy. He stressed that India and Sri Lanka are going through a phase of rapid urbanization and there was a need to ensure smart development of their cities with due emphasis on ‘inclusivity’ and ‘sustainability’.

The Tatas are a well-known name in Sri Lanka and are a global enterprise with an annual revenue of more than US$ 100 billion with operations in more than 100 countries across the globe. They have had a presence in Sri Lanka since 1961 in several fields like transport, communications and hospitality.

(The featured image at the top shows Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe symbolically hands over the key to a house in the presence of Minister Champika Ranawaka and High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu)

By Rohana R. Wasala

‘I am an entertainer, albeit one with the temerity to deal frequently with serious ideas, concepts or – as we say in the theater, where I came from – the spines” of drama. Simple things like the abuse of power, the conspiracies of manipulators, the debasers of the public weal, the sanctimonious screamers hell-bent on transforming their personal morality into everyone else’s legality, the bastards of the social contract who corrupt the agreements between the governing and the governed. Not exactly buck-and-wing stuff.’

• Robert Ludlum (1927-2001), American novelist/thriller writer, opening his Introduction to the ‘Ludlum Triad’ published by WINGS BOOKS, New York, 1989

Issues associated with the ‘serious ideas, concepts or…….. the spines” of drama’ that Robert Ludlum set himself to deal with in his fiction have largely contributed to the evil realities that the 21 million hapless Sri Lankans are plagued with today. However, few present day Ludlum readers, if any, among Sri Lanka’s English readers might know that there is a connection between  Sri Lankans’ present predicament and the evils that the late American novelist criticized in his fiction. Even if there was such awareness among the elitist dominated English language reader minority, it might be ignored as something insignificant. The real tragedy, though, is that most ordinary Sri Lankans are still not adequately informed about the evil impositions surreptitiously made on them from outside with the servile acquiescence of a bunch of petty local Nazis and narcissists who are guilty of many offences including all those mentioned in the Ludlum extract.  

 What Ludlum next says is about his engagement with those themes in his entertainment- oriented professional novel writing:

‘Yet, although privileged to have received a decent education, I am certainly no scholar in those areas that so disturb me – nay, outrage me. Therefore, like a painter with his oils, I can only interpret my impressions and reactions with words, expressing themes through the depiction of people framed in a succession of scenes that form the stories in which they are intensely involved…’

 He adds that this may not make sense to judges of literature, but that it does make sense to him. Ludlum is not unconscious of his vulnerability to be treated with suspicion as a professional literary artist with a past theatrical background.

 ‘Then again, I come from the theater and we’ve always been suspect. They tell their demon stories with mirrors and smoke! Beware the jongleurs!” 

 He can’t help it if readers are sceptical about the authenticity or seriousness of his ‘impressions and reactions’ in respect of the social and political problems he deals with in his novels. 

Ludlum’s relevance to Sri Lanka today is obvious. I have pretty much similar things to say in this instance about my topic and my purpose, though both are different from the bestselling author’s. The serious problems that Ludlum says he tackles in his narratives, we find duplicated in the political social context in Sri Lanka today, at least forty years after he wrote them (The three novels in the 1989 trilogy were first published in the period 1978-1980). I am not writing a story, but I am going to direct the readers’ attention to a mildly entertaining, but actually disconcerting, scene currently taking place in Sri Lanka against a somber backdrop of impending doom, as reflected in the online media (on which I depend for news from Sri Lanka). Some players in what I enjoy conjuring up  as now being enacted in my country of birth that could be called ‘Janadhipati Koloma’ or ‘Presidential Masquerade’ are from diverse fields of activity including mainly the business domain, its close relative the political arena, and the lawyer community that shares a special affinity with both, education, entertainment and media. They are joined by some non-presidential buffoons as well. The last mentioned come from the media and the entertainment worlds, which I find indistinguishably mixed. Fortunately, however, the most popular young social media activists such as Iraj W and Lahiru J, have begun to identify with the emerging broad national cause of rescuing Sri Lanka for Sri Lankans.       

Nearly all of the negligible lot hinted at before, in my opinion, display most or all of the following symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) as outlined by Dr Steve Bressert (psychocentral.com): a grandiose sense of one’s own importance, preoccupation with unlimited success, power, brilliance, etc., a strong belief that one is special” and unique,  great yearning for excessive admiration, an unreasonable sense of entitlement, being exploitative of others, arrogance, lack of empathy with others, that is, unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings of others, being envious of others or believing that others are jealous of one, being arrogant and haughty in one’s social behaviour and attitudes. Intelligent voters have no difficulty in identifying affected individuals both among the old hands in the political game, and the crowd of little known upstarts associated with the aforementioned fields, who fancy that they are fit to rule or lay down moral laws merely on the strength of their personal successes in their careers. They have no track record to show in politics or in administration; neither do they have any practical visionary plans to implement in the future. But they are able to impress a few thousand gullible voters among the millions of ordinary citizens with the help of their NPD-inspired pretentions. Neither these vain upstarts nor their silly admirers seem to know that there were far more insightful articulators of the same shortcomings half a century ago, and national leaders of proven ability since, who did a lot to move the country away from Western hegemony. 

NPD brings suffering to the affected persons, and might cause some inconvenience to their close associates. At the individual level, however, there is nothing to worry, for it can be tackled by consulting relevant specialists when the persons become aware of it and decide to take treatment. But when people who aspire to play important public roles such as giving political leadership to the country, or projecting  it as a sovereign nation to the outside world, or managing the religious identities and freedoms of the diverse communities, or educating the young, and offering them moral advice, etc. are afflicted with NPD, the potential harm it could cause to millions of people need not be elaborated, as evident to any Sri Lanka observer at this juncture.

Like Ludlum did about American politicians of his time, I express here my sense of distress and disgust at the disordered tragic-comic display  put up by this motley crowd of middle-aged or old male individuals in the current Sri Lankan political theatre who are probably suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (But I don’t include all contesting politicians, media persons, and social activists in this crowd.There are many honourable exceptions). This is no time for  clowns and jokers. Yet, they seem to be taking centre stage at the present moment at least in the media. What is unacceptable is that their antics draw undue attention while the real burning issues are relegated to the backburner and the potential saviours with the necessary experience, vision, and love of the country are patiently waiting in the wings until Democracy, that is being temporarily suppressed, allows them to enter the stage. It is my fervent hope, as it is sure to be that of all patriotic Sri Lankans, that the narcissistic nincompoops will be pushed to the periphery in due course. They will simply be forgotten along with the unsolicited comic relief they have already begun providing, when the serious contest for president is hopefully over in less than four months’ time. 

Readers who differ, please bear with me. These are only my personal opinions for what they are worth.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

REVISED 14.8.19

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION (MCC)

TheMillennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. The Millennium Challenge Compact is a US grant for development work in foreign countries.

On August 13, 2018, the MCC delivered to the U.S. Congress a Congressional Notification of its intent to negotiate a Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact with the Government of Sri Lanka.    On 25th April 2019, the Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation of USA approved a five-year, $480 million Compact grant to the Government of Sri Lanka. 

According to MCC criteria, countries must qualify as low income or lower middle income countries according to the World Bank’s classification in order to be eligible for MCC grants. On the 1st of July 2019, the World Bank classified Sri Lanka as an upper middle income country with a per capita income in excess of $ 3,895. However, by that time the MCC grant for Sri Lanka had already been passed and in any event according to MCC criteria, when a country’s classification changes, it will retain its former classification for a further two years. 

When a country is awarded a Millennium Challenge compact, it sets up its own local MCA accountable entity to manage and oversee all aspects of implementation. Sri Lanka has set up Compact Development Team in the Policy Development Office of the Office of the Prime Minister.    This will later be replaced by MCA-Sri Lanka, which will deal with the work of the Compact.

The MCC Compact has not been received well in Sri Lanka. According to various foreign policy analysts, MCC is one of the US government’s best “arm twisting” tools for encouraging political, social and economic reforms that are prescribed by the US foreign policy. The USD 480 is not a big sum today, critics said. The present government would borrow 480 million USD in a single afternoon through the issue of Sri Lanka Development Bonds.

The MCC’s approval of the $480 grant for Sri Lanka was announced by the government just days after the Easter Sunday attacks – when one would imagine that Sri Lanka’s investment credentials were at an all-time low. The secrecy, the odd timing of the announcement and other aspects would suggest that the MCC is being imposed by the US for its own purposes, rather than for the benefit of Sri Lankans. Analysts observed that the US does not historically give Sri Lanka direct aid, they do it through World Bank. But in this case, they readily provided money direct. The embassy confirmed that the full sum of USD 480 has already been approved.

The MCC was developed in secrecy by a team located in the Sri Lanka Prime Minister’s office, charged critics. The government has been inexplicably secretive about the whole MCC project, said Chandraprema. There has been no public discussion on it, said Lasanda Kurukulasuriya. The embassy replied. All MCC Compact programs,   all over the world are prepared by the locals of that country, the embassy said. In Sri Lanka too, the Sri Lanka plan was prepared by teams of Sri Lankans including civil society. At least 15 Sri Lanka were present at the negotiations, the embassy said. Verite said that they had been involved in planning the transport programs.

The MCC compact had been initially offered in 2008 and then withdrawn for political reasons. A present Compact is a tool for furthering the objectives of the USA.   It is a treaty, not a compact, said Kohona.MCC supersedes all other US agreements and it is not under Sri Lanka law.

The controversy over the MCC has now been at the forefront of political discourse for months but the government has done nothing to enlighten the public the benefits that it is supposed to bestow on Sri Lanka.

Neither the government nor the MCC has published anything that would enlighten the public any further. Even though money has been allocated for this project, nobody has seen a proper project description or a diagram of how that effect is to be achieved, said Chandraprema. One analyst, (name withheld) who it appears to seem to have seen the document, said the MCC Compact is not a Compact at all. There are annexures and cross-references and the agreement is difficult to understand. It has ‘shall’ only twice and that is for the US, not Sri Lanka.

There is uncertainty as to the current status of the Compact whether it has been signed by the President, as the Chairman of the National Physical Planning Council, and whether it has been gazetted or not.

MCC Sri Lanka Compact is expected to be signed in the near future, pending Congressional notification, according to an MCC press release of May 2019, reported the media. The Agreement between the MCC and the GoSL is yet to be signed said the Prime Minister office in June 2019. According to the Standing Orders of Parliament, this compact will be reviewed by the Oversight Committee and will be open to the interested parties, PMs Office added. The agreement would also be presented to Parliament after obtaining Cabinet approval.

PROJECTS

The Prime Minister’s office made a statement on the MCC project in June 2019, in reply to a query from the National Joint Committee. The statement was made public.   It appears to be the only official statement by Yahapalana on the MCC projects.

The statement said that   MCC’s Board of Directors selected Sri Lanka for a threshold programmed in December 2015 and elevated Sri Lanka to eligibility for a compact in December 2016 after continued improvements in performance as measured by the MCC scorecard.

The Government of Sri Lanka, with the help of the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University, conducted constraints analysis (CA) to identify constrains which hampered the economic growth in the country and identified three binding constraints, 1. Access to land 2. Weakness in transport and logistics infrastructure and planning and 3. Policy instability.   Yahapalana government then decided to focus on the two of these, access to land and improvement in transport.

The Government of Sri Lanka and MCC then consulted with hundreds of individuals from government, the private sector, and civil society in small group discussions and one-on-one meetings to understand the root causes of the transport and land binding constraints and potential activities that would address those root causes. The Government of Sri Lanka and MCC also launched multiple rounds of due diligence to identify potential projects that could meet MCC’s investment criteria, continued the statement

On the basis of such engagements and analyses, the Government of Sri Lanka submitted project proposals to MCC for consideration in November 2017. They received a grant of US$ 480 million, to be used over a five-year time period. There would be two sets of projects, Transport Projects, and Land Projects.

The following activities are proposed under the TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, continued the statement.

1) Establishing an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) covering the Colombo Metropolitan area to improve the efficiency, capacity, and safety of the CMA road network to improve flow rate, reduce travel time and congestion, reduce traffic emission and reduce accidents.

2) Bus Transport Sector Modernization (BTSM) program will make a significant improvement to the speed and quality of the public bus system combining state-owned and private buses.

3) Developing and improvement of 137 km road sections in the Central Ring Road (CRR) covering and connecting Sabaragamuwa, Uva, North Central and Central Provinces to markets in the Western Province.

 4) Connected to this Road development is a study to locate and finance, locations for wholesale storage of Agro produce in collaboration with private investors at locations on the CRR Road network, to improve post-harvest management of produce.

Under the LAND ADMINISTRATION PROJECT, the following activities will be done:

 5)  Preparation of the Parcel Fabric map and inventory of state land.

6)    Improvement of the Deeds Registry.

7)    Improvements in the land valuation system.

8)    Land Grants Registration and Deed Conversion Activity.

9)   Land Policy and Legal Governance Improvement Activity.

The above activities will be implemented in the following 7 districts with the limited funds available for the land sector. (Kegalla, Kandy, Matale, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee) Further, we requested to include Gampaha district as well, said the statement

The statement ended by saying that the copy of the report can be accessed through https://assets.mcc.gov/content/uploads/constraints-analysis-sri-lanka.pdf More information on the MCC grant for Sri Lanka could be obtained from the following link, please. https://www.mcc.gov/where-we-work/program/sri-lanka-compact.

ECONOMIC CORRIDOR

Analysts ignored the transport projects and pounced on the land projects. These had serious implications. The MCC Land plan includes four ‘Economic Corridors’, they said. These economic corridors have been identified and mapped out. Colombo-Trincomalee will be developed as the main economic corridor with three other sub-corridors,  Jaffna-Kilinochchi in the Northern Province, Galle-Tissamaharama in the Southern Province and Chenkaladi-Ampara in the Eastern Province. Anuradhapura and Kandy will be developed separately as metropolitan areas.

Critics observed that the Colombo-Trincomalee project will carve out an economic corridor from Colombo to Trincomalee, taking in Colombo, Negombo, Kurunegala, Dambulla, and Trincomalee, covering 1.2 million acres, in a manner that physically divides the territory of Sri Lanka into two distinct parts. It has been alleged that the MCC envisages an electric railway line that would bisect the country in a straight line linking Trincomalee with Colombo. The underlying purpose of the MCC compact was to divide Sri Lanka into two distinct parts, said, critics. That the so-called economic corridor is to serve the interests of the U.S.

The excuse given was that the corridors were to help economic growth in economically poor areas. Critics pounced on this.  The majority of the Districts within the economic corridor do not qualify on grounds of poverty, they are below the national poverty headcount index of 4.1 Districts with high levels of poverty are outside the proposed corridor.

NATIONAL PHYSICAL PLAN

The corridors will be based on a  new National Physical Plan (2018 – 2050) which is expected to replace the earlier Physical Plan (2011 – 2030) prepared in 2011. While the earlier Physical Plan addressed development over the entire territory of Sri Lanka, the revised Physical Plane has deviated from this holistic approach and focused development along “growth corridors” observed critics. These districts overlap with those coming under the MCC.

A National Physical Plan has to carry out certain procedures for it to be accepted as an official document. It has to be prepared under the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act (No. 49 of 2000). The earlier Physical Plan had followed all the procedures required by the Act. The question is whether the revised Physical Plan has followed the due process as required by the Act.

Such procedures should include preparing a Draft Physical Plan and conducting hearings with experts, professionals, and the general public and obtaining provisional approval of the Minister concerned after which it is gazetted with maps and plans, for scrutiny by the public, for them to propose revisions to be incorporated in the Draft Plan. It is after following such procedures that the final version of the National Physical Plan is submitted to the National Physical Planning Council for approval.

The revised National Physical Plan 2050, prepared by the National Physical Planning Department of the Megapolis and Western Development Ministry, has been approved by the National Physical Planning Council and the National Economic Council (NEC) of Sri Lanka and is expected to be gazetted shortly said Daily News in February 2019. It is yet to be made public, although it is said to be ‘completed,’ said analysts in June 2019.”

Critics wanted to know whether the President as the Head of the National Physical Planning Council has approved the Plan. What is the status of this new Plan? If the final Physical Plan had not followed the required procedures prior to the approval of the National Physical Planning Council, how legitimate would be the final version of the Plan, even if it was approved by the President and the Council, and consequently, the status of the Compact negotiated with MCC, they asked.

LAND DEEDS

Analysts have seen a connection between the MCC Land projects and the Yahapalana plans to dispose of state land. The State Land (Special Provisions) Bill was gazetted on 27.03.19.” This is a Bill to grant absolute title to state lands held by citizens who hold land grants. Its validity is for seven years.

According Part I Section 3, the provisions of the Act shall apply to persons who are holders of (i) a grant under the Land Development Ordinance; (ii) an instrument of disposition under Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act; (iii) an instrument of disposition under Crown Lands Ordinance for agricultural purposes provided that they have held the Land “for more than ten years immediately prior to the appointed date of this Act.

However, according to Section 4, the Act shall not apply to Land (i) over one thousand five hundred and twenty-four meters above mean sea level; (ii) declared as development areas; (iii) within reservations or protected areas; (iv) vested in any Local Authority; (v) declared by the Minister; (vi) any settlement programme.

According to Part II, applications for eligibility would be reviewed by a Committee made up of fifteen Secretaries of related Ministries and five ex-officio Members such as the Land Commissioner who shall be the Chairman of the Committee, the Surveyor General, the Registrar General of Lands and nominees of the President and the Prime Minister. The Committee would be assisted by administrative arrangements such as Sub-Committees and Boards to review objections that are normal to finalizing the report of the Committee for submission to the Minister for Lands who in turn is expected to forward it to the President for issuance of the Absolute Land Grants.

The move will enable those occupying these lands to sell or transfer ownership legally and also obtain other facilities such as bank loans and use the deed as a valid document for school admissions, said Yahapalana

The Bill covers lands granted under the provisions of the Land Development Ordinance, lands disposed under the provisions of the Land Grant (Special Provisions) Act or lands provided under the Crown Lands Ordinance granted for agricultural purposes, under a land settlement program or a colonisation scheme. Those holding land grants and permits for more than 10 years will be benefited by the new legislation. They are entitled to apply and be eligible to get an Absolute Land Grant up to five acres in extent under the provisions of this Act.

The provisions of this Act apply to holders of grants under the provisions of the Land Development Ordinance, instruments of disposition under the provisions of the Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act, and instruments of disposition of lands under the Crown Lands Ordinance granted for agricultural purposes or colonization schemes”.

The Committee will forward its observations to the Land Minister on all applications for Absolute Land Grants and the relevant documents, and the minister will forward them to the President. Once the President issues the Absolute Land Grants, those will be registered in the Land Registry. The grantee of an Absolute Land Grant will have the right to transfer the land to the heirs or with the consent of all heirs in writing to sell such land to any person.

A 20-member ‘Land Grants Committee’ consisting of Ministry Secretaries, Heads of relevant institutions and two nominees of the President and the Prime Minister will be appointed for the administration of this Act. However, any land which is used for paddy cultivation can be sold only to another farmer. President had wanted that the land could be sold only for a person in the adjoining Grama Niladhari division preventing persons from outside areas from buying lands on a large scale.

The Absolute Land Grant issued by the President will be conclusive proof of absolute title to that land. It will be admissible and valid before any court, institution or authority for any transaction, business, transfer of title, as security for a bond or for any other purpose.

Prime Minister said that large extents of land had been distributed among the people under the D.S. Senanayake administration. Those lands were given under the Land Development Ordinance of 1932. “People were given licenses. Later people were given letters when they were settled. Sometimes people were settled without any documentation. None of these groups have deeds to show outright land ownership,” he said. Without land deeds, those people faced a number of issues and at times they were asked to leave. “With these deeds, you can use your land freely. “For a country to develop people must have the ownership of land,” he said.

Wickremesinghe said that the government was distributing one million deeds to the people granting them outright ownership of their land. “People who have been using plots of land for over a decade will get outright land ownership.”

The Bill has been virulently opposed. The Bill has been submitted without the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, said, critics. The Bill with amendments proposed by President should be presented for Cabinet approval before it is submitted to Parliament. But Lands Minister has submitted the Bill to Parliament without presenting it to Cabinet, said Dayasiri Jayasekera. Critics want to know whether there was a connection between this decision and the Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement (MCC) which the Government is expected to sign with the United States of America.

The government seems to be in a mighty hurry to grant outright ownership to those who have their landholdings under the Land Development Ordinance of 1935, said critics. The government wants to neutralize the Land Development Ordinance, Crown Land Ordinance and Lands Grant Act by way of the proposed Lands (Special Provisions) Bill. These had ensured the state land provided to the needy families remained with them.

The introduction and the implementation of the Land Development Ordinance 1935 was one of the most important welfare measures taken before independence. It was a very effective rural development strategy followed during pre and post-independent period, explained critics.

The initial objectives of the Land Development Ordinance were (a) protecting peasant farmers as a group (b) alleviating land hunger among the poorest of the poor (c) relieving population pressure of the villagers in the wet zone of the country, (d) increasing food production particularly paddy (e) developing the scarcely populated dry zone.

The land alienation was done under different types of schemes such as major settlement schemes, village expansion schemes, highland settlement schemes, middle-class schemes, and youth settlement schemes and regularization of encroachments. The land alienated originally was crown land. Latterly with suitable crown land not being available land from other sources such as estates were acquired and alienated under this Ordinance.

Under the Ordinance the allottee could not fragment the land, mortgage the land or dispose of it without Government Agent’s permission. The tenure was liable to cancellation for any default. The allottee’s land was a protected holding. Selection of allottees was done at a land Kachcheri by the Government Agent or his representative. Landless peasants from the area with large families were given preference and on selection were issued a permit. The land could be passed on, only to a nominated successor by the allottee. This prevented the fragmentation of peasant holdings.

When the permit holder had fulfilled the requirements stipulated in the permit he was entitled to receive a grant of his allotment. The grantee was able to freely dispose of his allotment without the consent of the Government. However, The LDO requires a peasant holder to obtain the prior consent of the Government Agent before disposal. The restriction has been designed to prevent the passing of land intended for the peasantry to the richer classes or high-income groups. The LDO ensures that no State land shall be alienated to any person other than citizens of Sri Lanka and declaring that any alienation made in contravention of this provision shall be invalid.

The Bill would have far-reaching consequences the country couldn’t cope up with. Since farmers are chronically indebted, the reforms underway will in all likelihood lead them to sell their plots. “We’ll have to struggle with thousands of families being homeless with the selling off of their property overnight,” critics said. A farmer who owned about a quarter acre of land, after selling it to a multinational company would himself be destitute after some time.

Well organized unscrupulous politically influential persons would rapidly procure land received by the landless. The project would cause a massive displacement of people, especially smallholders. It will drive poor peasant families off the state land they had settled on for generations, critics said.

The concept of the village having a temple, agricultural land, and a tank would be gone. Factories would crop up in farmlands. The agricultural economy would fall. The natural environment might change for the worse.

Critics have also seen in Bill as a move to enable Yahapalana to sell off state land to foreign companies. Through this Bill, the government seeks to dispose of large tracts of land in a short time,  to make them quickly available for investors.

The Ranil Wickremesinghe administration was also attempting to create a cheap labour force needed to facilitate the implementation of neoliberal economic policies, by amending` land laws, said the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform, MONLAR.

Providing land deeds may look like a progressive move but we have to look at the reasons said MONLAR. On the one hand, there is a serious crisis in the rural economy, created by the policies of successive governments, especially the present administration. On the other hand, large multinational companies have made small-time farmers bankrupt and are buying off their agricultural land. The only thing that has held back these predatory companies and the neoliberal economic policies are the so-called antiquated land laws. By giving desperate people, an asset that they can sell the government has ensured that these lands will be sold off.”  They will sell their smallholdings for a pittance. The net result will be the rise of a generation of the poverty-stricken landless populations in rural areas.

Molar said that they had looked at all documents approved by the Cabinet between January 2015 and April 2019 on land reform, recommendations given by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the government on the land rights of the people and bilateral trade agreements between Sri Lanka and other countries had the potential projects that would deprive the people of their land rights.

The target clearly is state-owned land. In Sri Lanka, we have freehold properties that belong to individuals or companies and then there is state-owned land a portion of which is utilized directly by the government and a portion which remains allocated for other purposes of the republic such as forest reserves and the like and another potion of state land is held by the public under lease or licensing arrangements, pointed out Chandraprema. It is obviously the latter that the MCC is targeting.

Even though such state-owned lands have been alienated to individuals under licensing or long term lease arrangements, the tenants on these lands enjoy the security of tenure because the government will not simply kick them off the land if it is cultivated and used productively. The leaseholder or licensee will be adequately compensated before the government takes back a state land that has been given to private individuals for farming or other purposes. We almost never hear of even the smallest of smallholders being unreasonably evicted from state-owned land that had been leased or given to them on a license by the state.

Such land can also be passed down from generation to generation provided the land had been utilized productively. The fact that the land is owned by the state discourages fragmentation of the land and strategic buying up of cheap land by organized parties

Admittedly, recipients of state-owned land on the lease will face issues when trying to raise money from banks with the land pledged as surety. Banks prefer freehold land. However, this was a problem that had to be dealt with at the level of the banks instead of trying to give leaseholders freehold tenure.

If leaseholds on state land can be bought and sold between citizens of Sri Lanka and their only problem is the inability to use that lease as collateral, the answer to that can’t be the wholesale transformation of such lands into freehold tenures. There is besides, the well-founded fear that if state owned lands which are at present farmed by individuals on leasehold or licensing arrangements are turned into freehold properties, it will not be long before unscrupulous elements lay their hands on these lands creating a landless rural population.

The first attempt to do away with these laws was made in 2003. The UNF had wanted to see large scale organized transferring of ownership of land and this would have certainly become law if not for the Supreme Court ruling given in 2003.

.Justice Shirani Bandaranayake ruled that the disputed Bill should be approved in parliament with a two-thirds majority and by the people at a referendum. The ruling, he said was based primarily  on two factors (1) As the subject of land is under the purview of the Provincial Councils, the Bill required the consent of 09 Provincial Councils and (11) The exclusive right enjoyed by the President in respect of granting of land cannot be transferred to the Minister responsible for the subject of lands.

In 2015, Yahapalana UNP revived the project. “It was the same Bill rejected by the Supreme Court in 2003. The cabinet discussed it several times after January 2015. ” it was difficult to see how this law could take effect in view of 2003 Supreme Court ruling.

Critics argue that this Bill would violate the sovereignty of the People as given in entrenched Article 3 of the Constitution, Land cannot be granted to anyone outright without a two-third approval of Parliament and approval by the People at a Referendum all land and all its resources belong to all the people of Sri Lanka as part of their sovereignty. This is inalienable. Governments hold Land in trust, said, critics. This has been determined by the Supreme Court in several instances   such as the Eppawela case (S.C. 884/99)

State Land is an inalienable right of the sovereignty of the People. In view of this undeniable and uncontestable fact, it is a violation of the inalienable rights of all the People for any government to legislate granting Absolute Land Grants to some of the People, an asset that belongs to all without due process of two-third approval of Parliament and approval of the People at a Referendum.

A Special Determination petition challenging the Bill entitled ‘State Land (Special Provisions)’ was filed before the Supreme Court in July 2019. Convener of the Truth Seeker’s Organization has sought a declaration that this Bill shall become law only through a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the approval of the people at a referendum.

The petitioner, Attorney Premanath Dolawatta stated that the concerned bill was presented to Parliament and placed in the Order Paper of Parliament on June 28, 2019. Dolawatta states that the Bill contains 36 clauses and a schedule and the entirety of the Bill violates and is inconsistent with Articles 3, 4, 12(1), 12(2), 75, 154G of the Constitution. The petitioner stated that the purpose of the proposed law is to alienate State lands which amount to a breach of the duty of the state to be the guardian of state lands holding the same in trust. There have been several other petitions against this Bill.

The National Joint Committee also took an interest in the matter. National Joint Committee wrote to the Prime Minister requesting him to release to the public the text of the MCC agreement. They said that websites point out that the MCC agreement will create an economic corridor extending from Trincomalee to Colombo containing a landmass of 1.2 million acres which would be leased for 200 years to America for a sum of 480 million dollars. To accommodate the acquisition of land for this proposed economic corridor, these articles state, that two new laws, namely the State Land Bank bill and Land Special Provision Bill, are to be enacted. , said the National Joint Committee.

Furthermore, these articles indicate that the area covered by this economic corridor will contain Eppawala phosphates, Limonite, Thorium, Monazite, and rare earth metals Cerium and Lanthanum. It is also pointed out in these articles that the law applicable within this economic corridor would be the American law and not the Sri Lankan law.

Therefore, if such an agreement is implemented, the country will be divided into two parts by this economic corridor with the northern part being available to create the nation of Eelam as envisaged in the separatist ideology. It is in this northern part that the ancient cities of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Kurunegala are situated. When Freeport McMoRan, an American Company, in 2000 tried to mine the phosphates in Eppawala that is now within the proposed economic corridor, by acquiring land, this was prevented, as the Fundamental Rights of the people to possess their land was upheld by the Supreme Court, continued National Joint Committee.

When delivering judgment in this Eppawala case, Justice Amarasinghe quoted what Arahat Mahinda had said to King Devanampiyatissa. Therefore, if the land belongs to the people, and the King who was the head of state was only a guardian, what right has a Prime Minister to sign an agreement to establish an economic corridor and deprive the people of the land on which they live.?

However, given the fact that you did sign a peace agreement as the Prime Minister with the LTTE leader Prabhakaran in 2002 sans the approval of the then head of state or the Cabinet, and been made aware that MCC has recommended a 500 million dollar payment to Sri Lanka subject to the approval of the American Congress, would you be kind enough to inform the National Joint Committee and the public the text of this agreement and if it was signed by you on or about April 27, 2019, the National Joint Committee concluded.  The Prime Minister’s office replied and that reply can be found in the first part of this essay.

the Deputy Speaker announced to the House on July 2019 that he had received the determination of the Supreme Court in respect of the Bill titled State Lands (Special Provisions)” which has been challenged in the Supreme Court in terms of Article 121 (1) of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has determined that in terms of Article 120 read with the Article 123 of the Constitution, that the Bill in question is in respect of a matter set out in the Provincial Council List, and shall not become law unless it has been referred by the President to every Provincial Council, for the expression of their views thereon, and only thereafter be placed on the Order Paper of Parliament, as required by Article 154G (3) of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has further stated since the Bill has been placed on the Order Paper of Parliament without compliance with the provisions of Article 154 G (3), it would not at this stage make a determination as to the other grounds of challenge referred to above.

LANDBANK

The upset over land does not end there. For some time now, land rights activists and analysts have warned of potentially disastrous consequences of reforms to land laws contemplated by the Wickremesinghe-led government announced critics. President Sirisena said he had blocked two ‘anti-national’ Land Bills the PM sought to introduce. He said these new laws sought to allow foreigners to buy any land in the country, both privately and publicly owned.

“USA has done a study on Sri Lanka and issued a report with recommendations on Sri Lankan lands. They are engaged in surveying the lands in Sri Lanka and have suggested establishing a state land bank. According to these proposals, all state lands would come under this bank, allowing these lands to be given to anyone even foreign parties said, critics.

The government’s moves to remove the bar on foreigners owning land, the removal of the 50-acres limit on individual ownership, the proposed ‘Land Bank’ (that will bring publicly owned land under a single hub and make it available for private investors), are inter-related.”You need to look at all the factors to see the final outcome” said MONLAR

LAND SURVEYS

Lastly, there is an interesting tussle going on regarding land surveys. Trimble Navigation Ltd, a US company based in California, had in October 2015,  forwarded a proposal for ‘Title/Tenure Regularisation and Cadastral Registry Modernisation’ in Sri Lanka. This proposal has been rejected earlier in 2010. 

A high-level committee headed by a senior advisor to Prime Minister R. Paskeralingam had recommended this proposal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) approved it and Cabinet accepted it. Trimble had asked for USD 170 million and Yahapalana had beaten it down to USD 154 million. The money would come as a loan at an interest of four percent. The loan is to be paid back in 15 years inclusive of a grace period of five years.

The Finance Ministry’s External Resources Department was authorized to negotiate with Trimble to prepare land survey maps and create a streamlined database of 3.6 million parcels of state-owned land. Trimble would first survey 2.5mn blocks of land around the country, excluding the Western Province and issue title deeds. Then it would survey 2.5mn plots of land in the Western Province.

The Government Surveyors’ Association (GSA)   announced  on January 2017, that there was a move to hand over several operations of the Sri Lanka Survey Department (SLSD), including Land Information System (LIS) and Aerial Survey Operations to Trimble Navigation for 15 years  ‘The required plans are already in place to complete the transfer. It appears that the US government had forced Yahapalana to agree to this, said the surveyors.   ( continued)

Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada

When public suspicion is aroused, it is extremely important to ensure that innocent people are not victimized just to satisfy  blood-thirsty crowds and opportunistic politicians. Those who are under suspicion must be investigated in a transparent way, and the accused must NOT be harassed by investigating officials, the public, or by Buddhist monks who should, as true followers of the Buddha,

should exercise their compassion and allow the justice of Kamma to act unhindered instead of engaging in street battles and farcical fasts.

The attack on the Churches and the murder of some 260 people, while injuring over 500 others have indeed raised public indignation. Politicians linked with the Thowheed organization have been singled out for public wrath. Muslim ministers and governors were made to resign, and lethargic public servants have been made the scapegoat for the sins of Presidents and Prime Ministers. If the Prime minister did not get security briefings while even the ailing father  of one of his MPs had got the information, is that not an abject failure of the PM?

Did the Muslim politicians   have more serious links than those of other politicians who were looking for the Muslim vote? Did they engage in some illegal activity what ever? 

But what about the members of Parliament who openly  collaborated, aided and abetted the LTTE in its hay-day, and even now talk glowing of the terrorist leader Prabhakaran?  When Vaiko, the Tamil Nadu politician made statements in support of Prabhakaran he was promptly hauled up in a tamil Nadu court and indicted. UNP  politician Vijayakala spoke of  Velupillai Prabhakaran in glowing terms during a government function in the Northern Province, and called for a revival of the LTTE. In December 2017, she claimed 200,000 Tamils had been massacred along with Prabhakaran.  If these accounts are correct, she is guilty of sedition. Venerable Rathana, a member of the UNP, did not hold a  farce unto death”  in front of the Temple of the tooth and ask the leader of his party, the Prime Minster,  to take action against Ms. Vijayakala. It was the Prime Minster, or was it Mr. Sumanthiran from behind the thrown, who moved swiftly to  remove the defense attaché at the High Commission in London for allegedly making an inappropriate gesture at LTTE sympathizers who allegedly brandished terrorist flags of the LTTE?

It is not just Ms. Vijayakala, but also Mr. Sampanthan, and Mr. Wigneswaran, etc., who have made statements in support of the LTTE and its leader,  at various times, and celebrated the memory of Suicide bombers. Are we to soon allow the celebration of the memory of the Thowheed suicide killers  like Zahran Hashim in the name of reconcilliation?

Unlike the present leaders of the LTTE, the Muslim leaders do not seem to have sought to glorify the Thowheed Jamat suicide killers, and in fact there is clear evidence that information from the Muslim community, and the security forces, were already with the AG for over a year.  But, just as they soft peddled the seditious acts of pro-LTTE Mps, the Thowheeds have also been soft peddled by the AG’s department.

Mr. Wigneswaran’s pro-LTTE parole came about only after he became the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). On the other hand, Mr. Sampanthan and Mr. Sumanthiran have a clear track records of being mouth pieces of the LTTE and in fact came to power because they were the candiates of the LTTE, and the LTTE ensured that opposing candidates will be assassinated or driven out, seeking sanctuary in Colombo or in foreign climes. Mr. Shamindra Ferdinando’s columns on the War on Terror” may be perused by those who have forgotten those times.

Why are the carnage in Churches by the Thowheeds in April 2019 treated differently from the carnage in the Kattankudy Mosque, or the killings of Monks in Aranthalawa, and the killings of pilgrims in Mahamevna Park, Anuradhapura, by the LTTE when LTTE collaborators are still among us?

So the case against Sampanthan, Sumanthiran, and their ilk who were LTTE spokesmen is much stronger than the case against Azath Ally, Hisbullah and other Muslim leaders who are being targeted. The supreme irony is that Mr. Sumanthiran is a member of the Public Security Commission that is probing into the Terrorist Attack!

Do we back-peddle any criticism of Tamil sedition and Eelamism  in the name of reconciliation, and do we do the same with respect to Thowheeds? Is that why the Attorney General’s department and senior security officers  took no action against the hatef language of the Thowheeds, and the Vijayakala?

So, let us say that the Rajapaksa government has already set the tone of not acting against the collaborators of the LTTE, and hoped to let bygones be bygones, repaired the infrastructure of the North,  de-mined the land, and appointed the NPC legislators to build up the North. Unfortunately, Mr. Wigneswaran never even fully spent the budget that was given to him, and spent more time reviving  a Nationalist history of the Tamils,  building statues of Sankilli, and making seditious statements against the Sri Lankan state, in the hope that he can provoke the Sinhalese to riot, and there by please the Diaspora extremists who are demanding their Shylockian pound of flesh.

Mr. Wigneswaran is Lawyer enough to know how the French Government under  General de Gaulle handled the Nazi-collaborators of the Vichy regime. Surely, international justice and national fair-play demand that the TNA leaders who supported terrorism, and continue to talk of reviving the LTTE, be treated just as the leaders of the Vichy government were treated.

 Why victimize the Muslim leaders and become part of the world-wide Islamophobia fanned  by the US, when those who abetted and aided terrorism for three decades are treated as honorary citizens because they have a handle on Western administrations led by the US?

Bodhi Dhanapala

Thank your Mr. van der Poorten

You are most welcome to push forward your own analysis of the events that had occurred in Sri Lanka and hold your own analysis of the Eelamist Racist program of “an exclusive Tamil Homeland” put in place since 1949 that has been the cause of the calamitous evolution of Sri Lanka’s ethnic history.

I find it strange that you write “Sri Lanka has paid a serious price for all the dabbling that has been done by well-meaning” expatriates and we hardly need another voice to stoke those fires”.  And when you say  WE in the “we hardly need”, who are these We, especially because you are yourself a Canadian, by your admission! What hypocrisy!

You seem to believe that only you have the right to speak, and only your perspective is good and useful?  May be you do not have a vote in Sri Lanka, but I still have a vote, and live there sufficiently long each year and pay taxes there.

Here are some points for you to ponder.

1).  I feel that you begin the discussion by applying the tar brush to your interlocutor  instead of giving an evidence-based analysis because you have NO FACTUAL basis for what you say.

 If you feel that my analysis is biased by “sinhala-Buddhist”, thinking, I could have equally well stated that your analysis is biased by your Dutch- Burghur background (jusging by your name – I don’t of course know if the name is authentic).
 But such personal attack is not my approach to  discussing these matters as such a demarche is totally counterproductive and in the end leads to what has happened in Sri Lanka over the years. In fact, it was this attitude shown by people who think like you, but went further and took matters to their own hand that led to the coup d’etats attempted in Sri Lanka on two occasions (e.g., against Sirima’s government) and foiled.

2. The tone of the narrative IN  Sri Lanka and abroad, ON Sri Lanka, has been set by the Land-owning upper class  and upper Caste communities of Sri Lanka, which constitute the Tamil Vellalar, Sinhala Goigama and European Colonial -planter progeny.

When SJV Chelvanayagam declaired the North and East “exclusive Tamil Homelands” and launched a program  to extricate the northern  fiefdoms of the rich Vellalar living in in Colombo 7, he expected this to be quite easy because in the 1950s the public service, the GCSU,  the professions, the private sector mercantile trade, import-export (shipping lines etc) were in the hands of the tamil community. Remember that the ITAK, and before them the Tamil Congress in the state council, PREVENTED the  building of causeways and roads in the Jaffna peninsula as they felt that it will make the olow caste people “uppity”.  Jaffna was maintained as an Urban council so that the Vellalar living in Colombo did not have to pay municipal-level taxes, even though Jaffana had become a big town. It was SWRD Bandaranaike who passed laws against explicit and implicit caste discrimination, and moved Jaffna to the status of a municipal council.

 But this did not happen due to complex reasons explained in detail by historians and by perceptive journalists coming from the Tamil community itself. Nevertheless, the atttude the ITAK is seen in the fact that Dr Navaratnam, the chief ideologue of the ITAK at that time even wrote a book entitled the “Irreconcilability of the sinhalese and the tamils”, published I think, in 1952.  The standard narrative is that the Banda-Chelva pact was torn apart by the actions of Buddhist priests. It is only rarely mentioned that Navaratnam and other federal party stalwarts held a shut down of all Jaffna shops and government services protesting AGAINST the B-C pact because the core-component of the Jaffna ITAK were too and nail against the BC pact. Chelva assuaged them by saying a little now, but we will get full control later. Such statements, made in tamil, not reported in the English press, did nevertheless percolate to the south. You CANNOT HAVE federalism and

3. Who  are these historians?  I hope you are familiar with the writings of the Oxford historian Dr. Jane Russell. See for instance her book “Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1948”. You can also read Professor K. M. de Silva.s writing on the ethnic conflict.

4. See the writings of Dr Sebastian Rasalingam, one of the few Tamil journalists coming from a “depressed cast”. In fact you should ask why there are virtually NO low caste politicians, journalists or academics in the Tamil community, and how the social engineering has controlled that society so that the Periya Dorei class controls the vast majority of low caste people so that they continue to be landless and educationless.

5. The most incisive  writings of Dr. Rasalingam are in  Tamil. But it is quite probable that you do not read Tamil (while you may know enough pidgin Tamil to speak to servants and workers). So let me send you some references to Dr. Sebastian Rasalingam’s English articles. Many of Dr. Rasalingam’s articles have appeared in the columns

of  D. B. S. Jeyraj, a Tamil journalist who lives in Toronto, and in the Sri Lanka Guardian.

Of course, you will say that Rasalingam and Jeyraj are expacts “dabbling in Sri lankan politics” and that only you and your voice should be heard.

http://federalidea.com/focus/archives/201

http://pdfs.island.lk/2007/08/15/m1.pdf

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/02/tamil-racism-is-kami-kaze-of-tamil.html

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/01/one-mans-political-solution-anothers.html

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/07/keeping-tamil-culture-and-uprooting.html

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/06/sinhalization-of-north-and-tamilzation.html

http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/10/a_texan_tamils_jambustained_wo.htm

http://www.island.lk/2009/05/04/features8.html

and so on, many many articles.

IGNORANCE IS BLISS.

On Wed Jul 31 2019 02:29:35 GMT-0500 (EST), Emil van der Poorten <emilvan@sltnet.lk> wrote:

Mr. Dhanapala:

With all due respect, you are comparing apples with oranges in comparing the LTTE, its roots and the Sri Lankan political history that gave it traction with the Jihadists who are driven by VERY different needs.

Or is this simply, yet another exercise in trying to justify the gospel of Sinhala Buddhist Supremacy?”

Sri Lanka has paid a serious price for all the dabbling that has been done by well-meaning” expatriates and we hardly need another voice to stoke those fires. 

In case you are wondering about my credentials, check them out because I still hold citizenship of the country in which you reside.

Emil van der Poorten

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මේ කතාව කියන්න වෙන්නේ අ, ආ, ඇ, ඈ, ඉ, ඊ කියන පිළිවෙළට නම් නෙවෙයි. අපේ ජීවිත අද තියෙන මේ විදිහට හැදෙන්න බලපාපු දේවල් මේච්චරයි කියලා කියන්න බෑ. සිද්දවෙච්ච පිළිවෙළට මේ දේවල් කියන්න ගියොත් ඒ දේවල්වලින් සෑහෙන ප්‍රමාණයක් මග ඇරෙන්න පුළුවන්. අන්තිමට ජීවිතේ එක මානයක් දිගේ විතරක් මේ කතාව කියලා ඉවරවෙයි. එහෙම කරන්න ඕනකමක් මට නෑ. මේ කතාව කියවන්නේ යමක් කමක් තේරුම්ගන්න පුළුවන් පිරිසක්. ඒ හින්දා පිළිවෙළ ගැන නොතකා මේ කතාව කිව්වා කියලා ඒ අයට මේක තේරුම්ගන්න බැරිවෙන එකක් නෑ.

හැබැයි කාල වෙනසත් එක්ක සමහර පරණ දේවල් වෙනස්වෙලා. ඒ දේවල් ගැන අපේ අලුත් අයට නිච්චියක් නැතිවෙන්න පුළුවන්. එහෙම වෙලාවට ඒ ගැන හිතලා යමක් පැහැදිළි කරලා දෙන එකත් මගේ යුතුකමක්.

1977 අවුරුද්දේ පවත්වපු මහ මැතිවරණයෙන් පස්සෙයි 1982 අවුරුද්දේ පවත්වපු ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් පස්සෙයි තාත්තා අපිත් එක්ක හංගිලා හිටියේ ඇයි කියන කාරණය ගැන අපේ අලුත් පරම්පරාවල අයට තේරුමක් නැතිව ඇති. පරණ අය නම් ඒ ගැන හොඳින් ම දන්නවා. ඒ කාලේ මැතිවරණයකට පස්සේ කලබල ඇතිවෙනවා. දිනපු පක්‍ෂයේ අය පැරදිච්ච පක්‍ෂයේ අයට ගහනවා. ඒ අයගේ ගෙවල් දොරවල් ගිනිබත් කරනවා. මිනීමැරුම් පවා සිද්දවෙනවා. පශ්චාත් මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචණ්ඩ ක්‍රියා” කියන ගරුගාම්භීර වචන හතරෙන් තමයි ඒ හපන්කම් නම් කරලා තිබුණේ.

ධර්මිෂ්ඨ සමාජයක් හදනවා කියලා බලයට ආපු ජේ. ආර්. මහත්තයා රට පාලනය කරන්න පටන්ගන්නත් කලින් ම මැතිවරණ වේදිකාවේ දීපු එක පොරොන්දුවක් ඒ විදිහට ම ඉෂ්ට කළා කියලා කියනවා. ඒ තමයි තමන් බලයට ආවම පොලීසියට සතියක් නිවාඩු දෙනවා කියලා කියපු එක. ඉතින් ඊට පස්සේ සිද්දවෙච්ච දේවල් ගැන අමුතුවෙන් විස්තර කරන්න ඕන නෑ.

ඡන්දේ ඉවරවෙච්ච ගමන් ම රූපහ ඉස්කෝලේ උගන්නපු ධර්මදාස මහත්තයාගේ ගෙට ගිනි තියලා තියෙනවා. ඒත් අපේ අම්මා තාත්තා සන්තක කරගෙන හිටිය දේවල්වලට නම් හානියක් සිද්දවුනේ නෑ. අපි හරස්බැද්ද ඉස්කෝලේ ගුරු නිවාසයේ ජීවත්වෙච්ච එක තමයි ඒකට හේතුව. අපිට ගෙයක් කියලා තිබුණේ ගුරු නිවාසය. ඒක තිබුණේ ඉස්කෝලේ ශාලාවක කොණේ ඒකට ම අල්ලලා. ඉතින් එහෙම එකකට ගිනි තියන්න විදිහක් නෑ. ඒ හින්දා අපේ තාත්තාට කරන්න සිද්දවෙලා තිබුණේ ජීවිත බේරගන්න හැංගිමුත්තන් සෙල්ලම විතරයි. ඒ වෙද්දි වයස අවුරුදු අටක්වත් සම්පූර්ණ වෙලා නොතිබුණු හින්දා මට ඕවා ගැන තේරුමක් තිබුණේ නෑ. ඒ හැංගිමුත්තන් සෙල්ලම ගැන අකැමැත්තක් මට ඇතිවුනෙත් නෑ. පොඩි කාලේ අපිට රෑ වෙද්දි කොහොමත් ඉක්මනින් නිදිමත එනවානේ. ඉතින් ගෙදර ඇඳක නිදාගත්තත් පන්සලට පල්ලෙහා කැලේට වෙන්න තිබුණු මාන පඳුරක් ළඟ නිදාගත්තත් දෙක ම එකයි. දුක කියලා කියන්නේ මිනිස්සු ලොකු මහත් වෙන්න වෙන්න ඒ එක්කම හැදී වැඩෙන දෙයක්!

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයට වැඩ කරපු වලපනේ ආසනයේ ගුරුවරු දාහත් දෙනෙක් ඈත පළාත්වලට මාරු කරලා යැව්වා කියලා තමයි මම අහලා තියෙන්නේ. ගේ දොරත් දේපොළත් අහිමිවෙච්ච ධර්මදාස මහත්තයාව මාරු කරලා තිබුණේ අම්පාරට. අපේ තාත්තා, විජයසුන්දර මහත්තයා වගේ අය මාරු කරලා තිබුණේ කුරුණෑගලට. තමන්ගේ ආසනේ හිටිය දක්‍ෂ ගුරුවරු දාහත් දෙනෙක් රේණුකා හේරත් නෝනා විහින් ම නැති කරගත්තා. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිකම ලබාගන්න කලින් රේණුකා නෝනාත් ගුරුවරියක්. ඒත් තමන්ගේ ආසනේ අධ්‍යාපනය වෙනුවෙන් කරන්න ඕන දේවල් ගැන අවබෝධයක් ඒ නෝනාට තියෙන්න නැතුව ඇති.

හැබැයි පඬුවස්නුවර ආසනයෙන් දිනපු කළුබණ්ඩා රත්නායක මහත්තයා එහෙම නෙවෙයි. ගුරුවරු කණ්ඩායමක් ඈත පළාත්වලින් කුරුණෑගලට මාරු කරලා එවලා කියලා දැනගත්ත ගමන් ම ඒ මහත්තයා එක මොහොතක්වත් පමාවුනේ නෑ. එක හුස්මට කුරුණෑගලට ගිහිල්ලා මාරු කරලා එවපු ගුරුවරු ටික තමන්ට දෙන්න කියලා ඉල්ලගෙන තියෙනවා. ඉතින් ඒ විදිහට තමයි අපේ තාත්තාට මගුලාගම ඉස්කෝලේ උගන්නන්න අවස්ථාව ලැබුණේ.

මීට කලින් ලියපු ලිපියෙන් කිව්වේ ඒ විදිහට 1977 අවුරුද්දේ මැතිවරණය පවත්වපු දවස්වල ඉඳලා 1982 අවුරුද්දේ ජනාධිපතිවරණය පවත්වන කල් අපේ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයෙක් විදිහට මම මුහුණ දීපු අත්දැකීම්වලින් ටිකක්. මේ අත්දැකීම්වලට මුල්වෙච්ච ප්‍රධාන ම කාරණයක් තමයි තාත්තාගේ දේශපාලන කටයුතු. 1956 අවුරුද්දේ දේශපාලන පෙරළිය වෙද්දි ගජ ඉලංදාරියෙක් වෙලා හිටිය තාත්තාට ඒ උෂ්ණය ගහලා තිබ්බාට සැකයක් නෑ. 1961 අවුරුද්දේ දී ගුරු රස්සාවකුත් ලැබුණු හින්දා තමනුත් පංච මහා බලවේගයට අයත් කෙනෙක් කියලා තාත්තා හිතන්න ඇති. කොහොම හරි ඉතාමත් හොඳ ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෙක් වෙන්න තාත්තාට පුළුවන් වුනා. තමන් පිළි ඇරගෙන හිටිය මතවාදය – ඒ කියන්නේ, ජාතිකත්වයට මුල් තැන දීපු සමාජ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී අදහස්; ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය තුළින් ප්‍රකාශ වෙන බව තාත්තා තේරුම් ඇරගෙන ඉන්න ඇති.

තාත්තා ඉස්සෙල්ලා ම උගන්නලා තියෙන්නේ සීගිරිය මහා විද්‍යාලයේ. ඒ කාලයේ ඉස්කෝලේ ඇරුණාමත් නිතර නිතර සීගිරිය පර්වතය පැත්තේ කරක් ගහන බව තාත්තා මට කියලා තියෙනවා. අපි මගුලාගමට ආපු දවස්වල තාත්තා මේ කතා නිතර ම මාත් එක්ක කියනවා. ඒ වෙද්දි මගේ වයස අවුරුදු නවයක් විතර ඇති. සීගිරිය පර්වතයට නගින පාරේ තියෙන මහ ගලක් දෙකට මැදින් පළලා ඒක පෙරලලා ඒ මත්තේ ආසන පනවපු රාජ සභාවක් වගේ එකක් හදලා තිබුණු බවකුත් තාත්තා කියලා තියෙනවා. සීගිරිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තාත්තා කියපු කතා අතරින් මගේ හිත වැඩියෙන් ම ඇදුණේ මේ කාරණයට.

මගුලාගම අපි හිටිය ගෙදර මිදුල අයිනේ ලොකු කොට්ට පුළුන් ගහක් තිබුණා. මමයි අයියයි සෙල්ලම් කළේ ඒ කොට්ට පුළුන් ගහ යට. අපි වැලිවලින් ඒ ගහ යට එක එක දේවල් හදනවා. අයියා මොනවා හැදුවා ද කියන එක ගැන කල්පනාවක් මට නෑ. හැබැයි මම නම් සෑහෙන්න උත්සාහ කළේ අර කියපු මහ ගල වගේ එකක් වැලිවලින් හදලා ඒක දෙකට පළලා පෙරලන්න. ඒත් ඒ වැඩේ එච්චර සාර්ථක වුනේ නැති බව තමයි මගේ කල්පනාව. ඒ හින්දා මම වැලිවලින් රුවන්වැලි මහා සෑය, අභයගිරි සෑය, ජේතවනාරාම මහා සෑය වගේ ඒවා හැදුවා. අභයගිරියේ උඩත්, ජේතවනය උඩත් පොඩි පොඩි වල් පැළ හැදුවා. ඒ කාලේ ඒවා උඩ කැලෑ වෙලානේ තිබුණේ. ඒ කාලේ ටියුෂන් පංති සෙල්ලමක් නොතිබුණු හින්දා ඉස්කෝලේ ඇරිලා ඇවිල්ලා මේ වගේ වැඩ කරන්න අපිට වෙලාව තිබුණා.

ඔය කාලය වෙද්දි දවල් කෑමෙන් පස්සේ මට කැමැති දෙයක් කරන්න කියලා තාත්තා ඉඩදීලා තිබුණා. ඒත් ඊට අවුරුදු දෙක තුනකට කලින් හරස්බැද්දේ ඉන්න කාලේ එහෙම නෙවෙයි. ඒ කාලේ තාත්තා දවල් කාලා නිදාගන්නේ අයියයි මාවයි ඇ‍ඳේ බිත්තිය පැත්තට වෙන්න නිදි කරවලා. මාව තමයි බිත්තිය අයිනෙන් ම නිදි කරවන්නේ. අයියා මැද්දේ. ඒත් මට දවල්ට නින්ද යන්නේ නෑ. මම ටිකක් වෙලා බොරුවට ඇස් පියාගෙන ඉන්නවා. ටිකක් වෙලා යද්දි ඒ දෙන්නාට ම නින්ද යනවා. ඉතින් තව බලාගෙන ඉන්නේ මොකට ද? මම ඒ දෙන්නාගේ ඇඟට උඩින් පැනලා එළියට ගිහිල්ලා ඉස්කෝලේ වත්ත පල්ලෙහාට යනවා.

ඒ කාලේ අපේ ඔළුවල උකුණෝ ඉන්නවා. අම්මලාගෙයි දරුවන්ගෙයි ඔළුවල තමයි උකුණෝ ඉන්නේ. අපේ ගෙවල්වල උකුණු පනා කියලා පනා ජාතියකුත් තිබුණා. ඒවායින් පීරුවාම තමයි උකුණෝ වැටෙන්නේ. තාත්තාගේ ඔළුවේ උකුණෝ හිටියේ නෑ. ඒත් දවල්ට නිදාගෙන නැගිට්ටාට පස්සේ ඔළුව බලන්න කියලා තාත්තා අපිට කියනවා. ඒක මහ කරදර වැඩක් කියලායි මට හැම වෙලාවේ ම හිතුණේ. ඉතින් දවසක් මම මගේ ඔළුවෙන් උකුණෙක් හූරලා ඇරගෙන ඒකාව තාත්තාගේ ඔළුවට දාලා ආපහු අමාරුවෙන් වගේ ඌව අල්ලලා තාත්තාට දුන්නා. එදායින් පස්සේ කවදාවත් ඔළුව බලන්න කියලා තාත්තා මට කිව්වේ නෑ!

ඒත් ඒ විදිහට අපිට කියලා තාත්තා ඔළුව බලාගත්ත එකේ රහස දැන් මම දන්නවා. තමන්ගේ දරුවකුට කියලා ඔළුව අත ගා ගන්නවා කියලා කියන්නේ තාත්තා කෙනෙක්ට ලබන්න පුළුවන් පුදුමාකාර සතුටක්. ඒත් ළමයින්ට මේවා තේරෙන්නේ සෑහෙන්න කල් ගියා ම. එතකොට අපි තාත්තලාගෙන් හුඟක් ඈතට ගිහිල්ලා. කරදඬු උස ගිහිල්ලා ඒ විදිහට ඈත්වුනාට පස්සේ ආයෙත් තාත්තාගේ ඔළුව අත ගාන්න අපිට බෑ. ඒ වෙද්දි අපි ඒ වැඩේට නුසුදුස්සෝ බවට පත්වෙලා. ලෝකේ හැටි එහෙම තමයි. තාත්තා කෙනෙක්ගේ ඔළුව අතගාන්න ඕන පොඩි ළපටි අත්වලින්!

අපේ අයියා මට වඩා මාස දොළහයි දවස් දොළහක් වැඩිමහළුයි. ඉතින් අයියාට අකුරු කියවලා ටික දවසක් යද්දි දන්නේ ම නැතුව මමත් අකුරු කියවලා තියෙනවා. ඉතින් අද වෙන කල්වත් මට නැකතක් බලලා අකුරු කියවලා නෑ. කොහොම කොහොම හරි මම අයියා එක්කමයි හැදුණේ. අයියා ඉස්කෝලේට ඇතුළු කරද්දි මමත් ඒ එක්කම ඉස්කෝලේ ගියා. ඒ කාලේ අපි හිටියේ රූපහ. වතුමුල්ලේ (දැන් වතුමුල්ල නගරයට වලපනේ කියලා කියන්නේ) ඉඳලා නිල්දණ්ඩාහින්න හරහා ඇමෙස්ට් හන්දියට යන පාරේ තමයි රූපහ තියෙන්නේ.

දෙවතාවක දී අපි රූපහ ගමේ ගෙවල් දෙකක හිටිය බවක් තමයි මට මතක. ඒ දවස්වල අපි නාන්න යන්නේ රුපස්ඔයට. රූපහ පන්සල තියෙන්නේ ඉස්කෝලෙට පල්ලෙහාට වෙන්න පාරේ අනිත් පැත්තේ රුපස්ඔයට තරමක් කිට්ටුවෙන්. ඒ පන්සලට ගිය වගක් නම් මට මතක නෑ. හැබැයි මරපු වල් ඌරෙක් රුපස්ඔය ළඟ තියාගෙන විකුණන සිද්දියක් මට මතක්වෙනවා. ඒ ඌරාගේ රෝම පුච්චලා තමයි විකුණුවේ. ඒ රෝම පිච්චෙන ගඳ තාමත් දැනෙන තරමට ම මට ඒ සිද්දිය මතකයි.

එකේ පන්තියේ ඉඳලා පහේ පන්තිය වෙනකල් ම අයියයි මමයි එක ම පන්තියේ ඉගෙනගත්තේ. ඉතින් මම අදටවත් අයියාට අයියා” කියලා කියන්නේ නෑ. එක පන්තියේ ඉගෙනගත්ත කොල්ලෙක්ට අයියා” කියලා කියන සිරිතක් කොහෙද තියෙන්නේ? ඒ මදිවට අපි එකට සෙල්ලම් කරලා ඒවා ආරවුලකින් කෙළවර වුනා ම මම අයියාට ගහනවා. හැබැයි අයියා මට කවදාවත් ගහලා නෑ. ඉතින් ඒකට අදාළ ප්‍රතිප්‍රහාරය මට එල්ලවෙන්නේ තාත්තාගෙන්.

ඒ කාලේ අපේ තාත්තාලා අපි කාටත් ගහනවා. ඒක මහ අමුතු දෙයක් කියලා අපේ කාලේ කවුරුවත් තුන් හිතකින්වත් හිතලා නෑ. හැබැයි ඒ කාලේ අපේ තාත්තාලා අපිට ගහන්නේ කෝටුවලින්. ඒ වෙනුවට අඩි කෝදු වගේ ඒවාත් පාවිච්චි කරන අවස්ථා ඕන තරම් තිබුණා. එහෙම ගැහුවා ම හරියට රිදෙනවා. අපි ගුටිකාලා අඬනවා. හැබැයි අපි කවදාවත් ඒ ගැන අමනාපයක් ඇති කරගන්නේ නෑ. ගුටි කෑවේ නිස්කාරණේ නොවන බවත් අපි දන්නවා.

අයියා නම් මම තරම් තාත්තාගෙන් ගුටි කාලා නෑ. අයියා මට ගැහුවේ නැතුවට මම අදාළ හපන්කම සතියට දවස් හතරක්වත් කරලා තියෙනවා. ඉතින් ඒකට අදාළ ප්‍රති ප්‍රහාරවලටත් ඒ හා සමානව ම මම මුණදීලා තියෙනවා. ගහන්න ඉඩදීලා ටිකක් වෙලා ගියා ම අම්මා මැදිහත් වෙලා ඒක නවත්තනවා. ඒ කොහොම වුනත් ඒකට අදාළ න්‍යායක් හදාගන්නත් ඒ කාලේ ම මට පුළුවන් වුනා. ඒක එක්තරා ආකාරයක න්‍යායක් කියලා මට තේරෙන්නේ දැන්. ඒ න්‍යාය මෙහෙම එකක්. තාත්තා මට වැඩියෙන් ගහන්නේ වෙන හේතුවක් හින්දා නෙවෙයි. ඒ, තාත්තා මට වැඩියෙන් ආදරේ හින්දා!”.

ඉහේ කෙස් ගානට තාත්තාගෙන් ගුටි කාලා තියෙන හින්දා ඒවා ගැන වැඩි විස්තරයක් මට මතක නෑ. මම අයියාට ගැහුවා – තාත්තා මට ගැහුවා”. ඔන්න ඔච්චරයි මට ඒ ගැන මතක. හැබැයි ගුටි කාපු අවස්ථා දෙකක් ගැන නම් මට හොඳට ම මතකයි. ඒ දෙක ම හරි රසවත් ගුටිකෑම්. ඒ හින්දා ඒ ගැනත් යමක් කෙටියෙන් කියන එක වටිනවා කියලා මට හිතෙනවා.

මේ ගුටිකෑම් දෙකෙන් පළමුවැන්න රස විඳිද්දි අපි හිටියේ මගුලාගම. මමයි අයියයි දෙන්න ම ඉගෙනගත්තේ පහේ පංතියේ. ඒ දවස්වල අපි කුලී ගෙදරක නැවතිලා හිටියට අපේ ගෙදර කුකුල්ලු හදනවා. ඉතින් කුකුල්ලුන්ව දාලා හිටිය කොටුවට දහයියා දාන්න ඕන. උන්ට හාල් කුඩු අනලා කන්න දෙන්න ඕන. දහයියා ගන්නත් හාල් කුඩු ගන්නත් වී මෝලට යන්න ඕන. වී මෝලේ වැඩ කරපු අයියාගේ නම සෝමතිලක කියලා තමයි මගේ මතකය. ඉතින් සෝමතිලක අයියා වැඩ කරපු මෝලට ගිහිල්ලා කුඩු ගේන එකයි දහයියා ගේන එකයි අයියයි මමයි සැරෙන් සැරේට කළා. හුඟක් වෙලාවට අපිට ඕන දහයියයි කුඩුයි පොහොර උරයට දාලා ක‍ට ගැට ගහලා දෙන්නේ සෝමතිලක අයියම තමයි.

මේ කියපු දවසේ කුඩු ගේන්න ගියේ මම. ඒත් මම යන වෙලාවේ මෝල එක දිගට ම වැඩ. දහයියා නම් වැටෙන්නේ ටිකක් ඈතට වෙන්න. ඒත් කුඩු වැටෙන්නේ මෝල අයිනට ම. ඉතින් ඒ විදිහට මෝල අයිනේ ම වැටෙන කුඩු ගන්න නම් ඒක නවත්තන කල් බලාගෙන ඉන්න ඕන. ඒත් එදා එක දිගට ම වී කොටනවා. ඉතින් මම මෝලේ බැම්මට වෙලා ඒ වැඩේ ඉවර වෙන කල් බලාගෙන හිටියා. මේ විදිහට සෑහෙන වෙලාවක් ගතවුනා. හවස හය විතර වෙද්දි මම කුඩු උරයකුත් කරේ තියාගෙන ගෙදර ගියා.

එ දා මොකක් හරි වැඩකට තාත්තා කොළඹ ගිහිල්ලා ආපහු ඇවිල්ලා තිබුණා. කුඩු ගෝනියත් කරේ තියාගෙන මම වත්තට ඇතුළුවුනා. මෙච්චර රෑ වෙන කල් කළේ මොකක්ද? එන්න කියලා කිව්වාම එන්න දන්නේ නැද්ද?” කියාගෙන තාත්තා ඉස්සරහට එනවා. ඒ මදිවට අතේ කෝටුව. ගෙදර වැඩ කරලාත් ගුටි කන්න ඕන ද?” මම මට ම කියාගත්තා. ඒ එක්කම මම කුඩු ගෝනිය බිම දැම්මා. ඊට පස්සේ ආපහු පාරට ගියා. දැන් මට ඕන ගෙදරින් යන්න. ඉතින් මම කල්පනා කර කර පාර දිගේ ඉස්සරහට ම යනවා. තාත්තා ආපහු ගේ ඇතුළට ගිහින්. වත්ත පේන මානේ තියෙන බෝක්කු බැම්ම උඩින් වාඩිවුනු මම යන්න හිතපු ගමන සැලසුම් කරන්න පටන්ගත්තා.

කරුවල වැටෙන්න ළඟ හින්දා දුර යන්න බෑ. ඒ හින්දා රෑට ජයසේන අයියලා ගෙදරට හැරෙන තැන තියෙන කජු ගහ යට ඉන්නවා. හෙට උදේ ම යන්න යනවා”. මේ සැලැස්ම ගැන මම හිත හිතා බෝක්කු කැටේ උඩම ඉන්නවා. හවස හය හමාරත් පහුවෙලා. ගොම්මන් ගතිය එන්න එන්න ම වැඩිවෙනවා. ඒත් මම එතනමයි. මෙන්න මේ වෙලාවේ අම්මා ඇවිල්ලා කතා කළා. දැන් රෑ වෙලා. යං යං ගෙදර” අම්මා කිව්වා. ඉතින් ටිකක් අදිමදි කරලා කොහොම කොහොම හරි මම ආපහු ගෙදරට ගියා.

ගෙදර හරි ම සාමකාමීයි. ගෙදර තියෙන වැඩ කර කර තාත්තා ඉන්නවා. වගේ වගක් නෑ. මම ළිඳ ළඟට ගිහිල්ලා නාලා ආවා. තාත්තා කොළඹින් පොත් ගෙනැල්ලා තිබුණා. ගුණසේන එකෙන් ගෙනැල්ලා තිබුණු ඒ පොත් අතර බේකන්ගේ ප්‍රබන්ධ” වගේ ඒවා තිබුණු බවයි මගේ මතකය. ඒ පොත් බලලා රෑට කෑමත් කෑවා. පිඟාන හෝදලා තියලා නිදාගන්න සූදානම් වුනා.

ඒත් … අන්න ඒ වෙලාවේ තමයි තාත්තා මාව අල්ලගත්තේ. කොහෙද යන්න ගියේ?” මෙන්න මේක තමයි අලුත් ම චෝදනාව. යන්න! ගෙදර දාලා යන්න!! කොහෙ යන්න ද?” තාත්තා දිගට ම කියවනවා. මට ගැලවීමක් නැති බව ස්ථීරයි. ඉතින් එ දා රෑ අම්මා මැදිහත් වෙලා බේරගන්න කල් කාපු ඒ ගුටි මුරය මට තවමත් මතකයි. ඒක නම් කවදාවත් අමතක වෙන එකක් නෑ!

වාර්තාගත කරන්න පුළුවන් දෙවැනි ගුටිකෑම අදාළ ඊට පස්සේ අවුරුද්දට. ඒ වෙද්දි මම හයේ පන්තියේ. පහේ ශිෂ්‍යත්ව ප්‍රතිඵල ඇවිල්ලා නැති හින්දා මමයි අයියයි ගියේ කුලියාපිටිය මහා විද්‍යාලයට. දැන් ඒකට කියන්නේ සාරානාත් විද්‍යාලය කියලා තමයි මම අහලා තියෙන්නේ. ඉතින් එක දවසක් ඉස්කෝලේ ඇරිලා වෙන දා වගේ ම මූණමල්දෙණිය හරහා කටුපොතට යන බස් එකේ නැගලා අපි ගෙදර ආවා. බස් එකෙන් බහින්න ඕන මගුලාගම කණිෂ්ඨ විද්‍යාලය ළඟ. බස් එක නවත්තන්න කලින් පා පුවරුවට බැස්ස බස් එක නවත්තද්දි ම මම බිමට පැන්නා. ඒත් එක්ක ම කකුළ පැටලිලා වැටිලා මගේ දණිහ තුවාල වුනා. මහ තුවාලයක් නෙවෙයි. කුඩුහම හීරුනා විතරයි. ඒත් දැන් බස් එක යන්නේ නෑ. ගෙදර කෙනෙක් එන කල් බස් එක යන්නේ නෑ” කියලා බස් එක නවත්තගෙන ඉන්නවා. ඉතින් පණිවිඩයක් යවලා විනාඩි දහයක් විතර ගතවෙද්දි තාත්තා ආවා.

ඊට පස්සේ තාත්තා ඩ්‍රයිවර් මාමා එක්කත් කොන්දොස්තර මාමා එක්කත් කතා කළා. බස් එක යන්න ගියා. තාත්තා මාව බයිසිකලේ තියාගෙන ගෙදර එක් කරගෙන ගියා. ඊට පස්සේ …? ඊට පස්සේ වෙච්ච දේ අහන්න ඕන නෑ. ඒ වගේ ප්‍රහාරයක් අමතක කරන්නේ කොහොම ද? ඉතින් ඒ මතකයත් එ දා ඉඳලා අද වෙන කල් ම මාත් එක්ක එකට රැඳිලා ඉඳලා තියෙනවා.

මේ අත්දැකීම්වලට අමතර ව තාත්තාගේ දේශපාලනේ ගැන, සමාජ සේවා ගැන, ඔය හැම දෙයක් මැද්දේ අපේ ජීවිත ලොකු මහත් වෙච්ච විදිහ ගැන තව ගොඩක් විස්තර කියන්න තියෙනවා. ගතවෙලා තියෙන අවුරුදු හතළිහක් හතළිස් පහක් විතර කාලය තුළ සිදුවෙච්ච සමාජ – ආර්ථික විපර්යාසවලට යම් යම් ආකාරවලින් ඒ හැම දෙයක් ම බැඳිලා තියෙනවා. ඉඩ ලැබෙන විදිහට පස්සේ ඒවා ගැනත් පුළුවන් තරමින් කියන්නම්.

ඒත් මේ කතාව කියවන්න පුළුවන්කමක් තාත්තාට නෑ. මම ආචාර්ය උපාධියට ඉගෙනගන්න චීනයට යද්දිත් තාත්තා අසනීපයෙන් හිටියේ. කලින් උපාධි ගන්න කිසිම වෙලාවක මම එක ඡායාරූපයක්වත් ඇරගෙන නෑ. ඒත් ආචාර්ය උපාධිය ගත්ත වෙලාවේ මම ඡායාරූප කීපයක් ගත්තා. ඒවායින් එක ෆොටෝ එකක් තෝරගෙන ඒක ටිකක් ලොකු කරවලා රාමු කෙරෙව්වා. උපාධිය ඇරගෙන ආපහු ගෙදරට එද්දි තාත්තාට ගෙනැල්ලා දෙන්න ඕන හින්දා තමයි මම එහෙම කළේ. ඒක බලන්න තාත්තාට පුළුවන් වුනා. ඒත් මම ආපහු ගෙදර ඇවිල්ලා හරියට ම සතියක් ගතවෙන දවසේ තාත්තා මේ ලෝකයෙන් සමුගත්තා!

(අද ආයෙත් වචනයක්වත් ලියන්න බෑ. කතාවේ ඉතිරි හරිය පස්සේ කියන්නම්)

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera

That day I was passing by the SLLRDC office( now letter R” dropped) to give a better definition to Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation hitherto earlier called Low Lying Development Board.

I fully agree with their thinking as Reclamation is not a very environmentally friendly and good name to be linked to this organization which has done omen service to the city.

I hail there forward-thinking

I headed the same outfit in the nineties under RP when  SLLRDC became a fearful name to many land developers. I faced death threats by politically backed land developers and yet I stood my grounds (on marshy land)

What I saw that day in front of the office of SLLDC was one of the stupidest actions taken by Megapolis.

I heard that a company deployed  by the ministry of Megapolis to install a flood gate in the canal

Very stupid idea to install the gate in this  Location spending millions..

SLLDC surely wants to wash their hands off from this stupidity.

Megapolis with world bank funding wants to pump water from the Kelani River during drought to get rid of polluted water, and pump rainwater out.

Any sensible person will understand that during drought salt water will flow upstream along the Kelani River until Ambatale. Any more water pumped out from Kelani mother river to Colombo will cause enormous damage to Colombo ecosystem

I do not intend to elaborate further.

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera

Courtesy ABC News

Shocks from deadly suicide bombings on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka are reverberating throughout its economy in the worst crisis since the South Asian island nation’s civil war ended in 2009.

The blasts that killed more than 250 people were blamed on Islamic extremists. They have devastated Sri Lanka’s vital tourism industry, source of jobs for many, and are hindering foreign investment.

Sri Lanka’s economy already was in trouble, dogged by political crisis, its currency under pressure from a growing national deficit and rising debt. The attacks have added to those challenges.

Business is the worst it’s been in the 60 years that Ranepura Hewage Jayasena has been doing business in the capital Colombo, where he runs a shop that sells spectacular wooden carvings, wooden elephants and clothing designed for tourisms.

“Almost 100% of my business is gone. There are days without a single sale,” said Jayasena, 76, looking grief-stricken as he went through the previous days accounts.

“We had a war that raged for years, but we had good business. Bombs exploded in Colombo city itself, but that did not affect our business,” he said. “This is the worst period I have seen in my life.”

Seven suicide bombers struck two Catholic and one Protestant church and three luxury hotels on April 21. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were carried out by a local radicalized Muslim group known as National Thowheed Jammath.

Among those killed were 45 foreigners, mainly from China, India, the U.S. and Britain.

For days after the attack, many businesses remained shuttered. Tourists fled: the number of arrivals dropped more than 70% from a year earlier in May and nearly 60% in June.

The economy is forecast to grow at about a 3% pace this year, according to Central Bank governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy, way below the 6% plus average of recent years and possibly the lowest level in nearly 20 years.

The worst hit have been people, many of them self-employed, living close to the brink of poverty, economists say.

“Sri Lanka is undergoing a severe economic crisis at present and it is manifested at both the individual and national level,” said W.A. Wijewardena, an economic analyst and a former deputy governor of central bank.

The blasts “surely caused a temporary setback to the economy, which was already a sick one,” Wijewardena said.

While a huge share of job losses were in the tourism sector, they’ve rippled through many other industries.

Sanjeewa Samarasinghe, a 51-year-old father of three, began working as a marketing manager at a publishing company in June, after a long stint without a job. He was let go after just one week due to weak sales after the attacks.

“It’s true sales had plunged, but look at the plight of workers. How can they live?” he said.

For K.S. Mahendran, a peddler of mobile phone accessories on a sidewalk in downtown Colombo, recovery seems as far off as the day the explosions ripped through the churches and hotels

In a matter of hours, Mahendran’s business collapsed, leaving him without a way to pay rent and other daily expenses.

“The attacks were a severe blow to us and almost ruined our lives,” he said. “We had to borrow money from money lenders and we are in a great difficulty at the moment. No one is helping us.”

Sri Lanka has made significant progress thanks to a tourism boom and expanding manufacturing after the military defeated separatist Tamil rebels in May 2009, which ended the 25-year civil war. The country was engulfed in a political crisis late last year, however, when President Maithripala Sirisena suspended Parliament, firing the prime minister and replacing him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had ruled Sri Lanka as president for nine years from 2005.

Sirisena eventually backed down, reinstalling Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. But divisions within the leadership are not helping the country overcome its myriad problems in the aftermath of the attacks.

Government debt is rising quickly as tax revenues fall far short of spending. Weakening growth also is adding to the burdens for repaying foreign debt totaling $33 billion as of March, as the country digs itself in deeper to meet repayments that will total nearly $6 billion in 2019.

With Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves expected to drop to as low as $6.3 billion by the end of this year, in June the government raised $2 billion from U.S. dollar bond markets in its 14th bond offering since 2007.

“That’s not a wonderful level of reserves, but it is nowhere near a crisis either,” Coomaraswamy said in a recent speech. He noted the government could arrange foreign currency swaps and also seek panda or samurai bonds from China or Japan.

“If you take all these together, we feel fairly confident that we can manage the situation,” he said.

Apart from the direct impact from business disruptions and falling tourist arrivals, the attacks shattered a sense of stability that had helped draw in foreign investment.

Muslims living in this Buddhist-majority nation have suffered attacks and dozens of their shops and homes were burned, frightening both local and foreign investors.

“The government has not been able to eliminate the ‘economic fear’, that is, the fear that the economic assets owned by people could be destroyed by mobs with total impunity, from the minds of investors,” said Wijewardena.

“It is absolutely necessary for the government to build confidence among investors by bringing the trouble makers to justice,” he said.

So far, most efforts to cushion the impact of the attacks have focused on tourism. The government has slashed airline ground charges, aviation fuel prices and departure fees for at least six months. It set a one-year moratorium for repayment of loans for tourism-related businesses and cut interest rates on new loans.

Leaders also ordered officials to slash spending on electricity, water and telephone costs, banning use of public funds to print diaries and calendars for 2020.

Some businesses are seeing improvements.

Suresh Silva’s shoe shop was only selling one or two pairs of shoes a week just after the bombings. Sales are now back up to about 90% of normal, he said.

“I think the remaining 10% could be achieved this month.”

For many, though, the outlook remains uncertain.

“People have limited cash on hand, so they spend it on essential items such as food and medicine,” said Hameed Aslam, who runs a fabric shop.

“In my view it’s been like this for the past three years,” he said. “Living costs have been going up and the people are having great difficulties.”

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake today questioned as to what action the government intends taking about the failure on the part of the Attorney General’s Department to take steps to ban National Thowheed Jama’at when the Terrorist Investigation Unit made requests to this effect twice.

Mr. Ratnayake said the TID had made two requests in 2017 and in 2018 to ban NTJ but the Attorney General’s Department had done nothing about it other than binding time. He said the government is bound to take stern action on this shortcoming.

Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella said a court case has been filed against NTJ leader Zaharan while the intelligence units were going behind him. However this activity by the TID was thwarted as a result of changes made against an Intelligence Chief on an assassination attempt of a VVIP,” Mr. Kiriella said. (

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, July 31 (Xinhua) — Sri Lanka will begin to waive off its existing visa fee for travelers from 48 countries including China from Aug. 1 as part of the island’s efforts to attract more tourists into the country, Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Minister, John Amaratunga said here Wednesday.

In a media briefing held in Colombo, Amaratunga said that cabinet approval has been obtained to waive off the existing 25-U.S.-dollar visa fee for travelers arriving from the listed countries which included China, India, the United States, Germany, Canada, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others.

Amaratunga said the policy would remain in place for six months.

Controller General of Immigration and Emigration, Pasan Ratnayake said travelers wanting to visit Sri Lanka could obtain the visa approval by submitting all required information through the electronic method by accessing the Sri Lankan embassy websites in their respective countries or by visiting the Immigration website.

For travelers who have not obtained visa approval before arriving in the country, they can do so by submitting the necessary documents at the existing visa counter set up at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

He said travelers from the listed countries will be issued a free 30-day visa and if any travelers need an extension, they will be required to make a payment.

Despite suffering a set back from the Easter Sunday terror attacks on April 21, Sri Lanka is aiming to attract at least 1.9 million to 2 million tourists by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaking at the media briefing, assured that Sri Lanka was now safe for travel as all the suspects linked directly and indirectly to the suicide explosions had been arrested or had died.

The following is a list of the country who will be exempted from the entry visa fee –

1/ USA

2/ UK

3/ Ukraine

4/ Thailand

5/ Switzerland

6/ Sweden

7/ Spain

8/ Slovenia

9/ Slovak Republic

10/ South Korea

11/ Singapore

12/ Russia

13/ Romania

14/ Portugal

15/ Poland

16/ Philippines

17/ Norway

18/ New Zealand

19/ Netherlands

20/ Malta

21/ Malaysia

22/ Luxembourg

23/ Lithuania

24/ Latvia

25/ Japan

26/ Italy

27/ Israel

28/ Ireland

29/ Iceland

30/ Indonesia

31/ India

32/ Hungary

33/ Greece

34/ Germany

35/ France

36/ Finland

37/ Estonia

38/ Denmark

39/ Czech Republic

40/ Cyprus

41/ Croatia

42/ China

43/ Cambodia

44/ Canada

45/ Bulgaria

46/ Belgium

47/ Australia

48/ Austria

Courtesy The Times (UK)

Continuing to use statins after the age of 75 nearly halves the risk of a heart attack, research has suggested.

Taking the drugs into old age could also reduce the risk of a stroke by a quarter, according to the first study to focus on what happens when people aged above 75 stop using statins. Scientists have debated whether healthy older people with no history of heart-related conditions should take statins, with some arguing that there is no evidence of any benefit.

Researchers found that stopping the drugs after the age of 75 was associated with a 46 per cent higher risk of a heart attack and a 26 per cent increased chance of suffering a stroke. Overall, the French study of more than 120,000 over-75s taking statins suggested that those who stopped were 33 per cent more likely to need hospital treatment for a heart or blood vessel-related problem over the next four years than those who continued with the medication.

Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in Britain, used by about six million people. They help to prevent heart attacks and strokes by lowering levels of bad cholesterol”.

NHS guidance says that people who have a 10 per cent or higher risk of developing heart disease in the next decade should be offered statins. This includes most people aged over 75, although decisions are made on an individual basis. Previous research has suggested that about 40 per cent of over-65s prescribed statins stop taking them. In the latest study, researchers analysed data from the French national health insurance claims database, including statin prescriptions and information on hospital diagnoses and clinical procedures.

They looked specifically at patients who had turned 75 between 2012 and 2014 and had been taking statins for at least 80 per cent of the time in the previous two years but were in good health.

They followed 120,173 people for up to four years, during which time 14.3 per cent chose to stop taking statins and 4.5 per cent were admitted to hospital with a cardiovascular problem. The researchers did not have access to data on deaths.

The lead researcher, Philippe Giral, of Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, said: We estimated that an extra 2.5 cardiovascular events per 100 people would occur within four years among those who discontinued their statins at the age of 75 years compared with those who continued taking statins.”

Researchers did not have precise information on why patients stopped taking the drugs but some ceased because they developed other health problems or started cancer treatment.

Previous research into statins and older people has been based on analysis of subsections of wider data but the latest study, published in the European Heart Journal, was the first to look exclusively at a large number of healthy over-75s who were taking statins. The research was observational, meaning it could show only an association and could not prove that stopping the drugs raised health risks.

Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: This study, although observational, adds to evidence that statins reduce heart attacks and strokes in older people.”

Q&A: How do statins work? 
They lower cholesterol in the blood by limiting a liver enzyme which regulates its production. This helps to prevent heart attacks and strokes because high cholesterol can narrow arteries over time.

What is the problem with older people taking them?
There is conflicting evidence about whether statins benefit healthy older people with no history of heart disease or stroke. In September a Spanish study of 47,000 patients with an average age of 77 suggested that statins only helped those with type 2 diabetes, for example. Some doctors think prescribing statins to healthy people is wasteful. Side effects such as diarrhoea or headaches are reported by some users.

How could they help over-75s?
A study published in The Lancet this year suggested that giving statins to everyone over that age could save up to 8,000 lives a year. Today’s research adds weight to this claim, suggesting that when older patients continue to take them they have a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes

By Charles.S.Perera

It is perhaps because they are rich and that their parents  were from  UNP, that the UNP Parliamentary backbenchers do not see that the old capitalist system is not suitable  to Sri Lanka any more.

When we got our Independence in 1948 there was Colonialism. It was the Russian Revolution that influenced  Colonies to gain Independence. After Russian revolution Communism spread in Europe and the ideas of a Socialist  system of government, different from Capitalism began to take root in European Countries,  and even  those countries that got  independence from colonial rule.  

In Sri Lanka capitalism- a political  system, a step away from  feudalism that existed in pre-colonial Sri Lanka, was acceptable to the then political leaders, who  continued with the capitalist parliamentary system proposed by their  Colonial Masters. They interpreted the Socialist system of Government  the Communist and the Samasamaja Parties were proposing to the people ,   a system of government against religion,  and  against accepted Buddhist Cultural norms where they addressed everyone including their elders as Comrades.

The Marxists- the Samasamaja and the Communist parties found  that their revolutionary political ideas  were more easily accepted by the working class, and hence neglected  the farmers and the peasants of the villages outside townships.

However the leaders of the  Marxist Parties,  N.MPerera, Colvin R De Silva, Bernard Soysa,Dr.Wickramasinghe, Keunaman, Philip and Robert Gunewardhan brothers, William Silva were becoming popular political figures as people began to understand them through their speeches that Socialism they proposed was a people friendly system  more acceptable than the  capitalist British system of the less  talkative political leaders – of the Sinhala Mahasabha the  predecessors to the UNP system.

By 1951 the UNP Government started having political difference within the party. D.S.Senanayake died in 1952. The UNP then as they are today were leaning heavily towards the Western Countries , and they were not willing to change their western capitalists  system to a people friendly system of Government.

The political leaders of the UNP then,  as they are  now were  more concerned  about themselves  and kept the people dependent on their capitalist  system, placing them-selves above the ordinary people and within their feudal hierarchic system. The people were   depending on them as the slaves of their Capitalist system of Government. Even today we see how much they look for their place in the social hierarchy, when a wife of a UNP Presidential hopeful tells the people at a public meeting  that she is the future first lady of Sri Lanka.

Seeing that UNP will not move from their  assumed  social superiority to form a people friendly Government, SWRD Bandaranayake left the UNP to give the people of Sri Lanka their  cultural and national rights denied to them by the Colonial rulers, as well as by  the UNP Government,  SWRD Banadaranaike  formed a government  of the people giving the rightful place to  Buddhist Monk,  the physician,  the teachers, and the peasant and the farmer.  He further put right the wrong political system by which the country had been ruled since independence by joining hands with the left wing politicians of the Samasamaja Party, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Communist Party. He made meaningful the National anthem and the National flag.

The UNP Backbenchers should look  back and see for themselves  the failure of their  Capitalist System of Government, which has not contributed to the development of an Independent Sri Lankan Culture, society, or  even such an economy. There was a  cultural revival in Sri Lanka only after 1956 and that was not under the UNP.

The UNP Backbenchers should note  that  the system of government necessary for the benefit of  Sri Lanka,   and its people, is a system away from Western Capitalism, a socialist system. That is the demand of the people. It is why  Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has become a popular party of the people, within a short time it was  announced as a Political Party.

The people will not vote for the present SLFP too if it contests any election in future as they have failed in 2015 to respect the  very reason that made SWRD Bandaranayaike leave the UNP in 1951 to form a Socialist Government in 1956 and join with the leftwing Political Parties.

To-day the General Secretary of the SLFP Dayasiri Jayasekara unable to feel the pulse of the people, is making a great effort to  make SLFP an independent party without joining the progressive Sri Lanka Socialist political Camp led by  Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. This may be  because Dayasiri Jayasekara  comes from UNP and he can  not sense the thinking of SWRD Bandaranayake when he left UNP to form the SLFP.  Today SLFP has lost the reasons for which it was organised by its founder and therefore  SLFP is reduced to a mere a name board. It is likely to break up and some of its members  may even join the UNP.

The UNP, states   as a criticism against the former Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse , that it  antagonised the Western Countries led by USA, and boasts that the UNP has now established friendly relations with those countries.

The UNP backbenchers when they speak in TV debates etc.,  should make sure of what they say without repeating what had been told by the UNP leaders.  The UNP backbenchers should investigate the truth.  

Mahinda Rajapakse and his government did not want to antagonise USA and the west, but they wanted them kept away from Sri Lanka until they  completed the military operations against terrorism.

But again Mahinda Rajapakse government  had invited USA to help Sri Lanka  to defeat terrorism, which USA did by locating the most of the ten LTTE ships transporting arms and ammunitions for terror purposes.

Yet other than that can the UNP backbenchers say whether USA had really helped Sri Lanka at any time in the past ?

USA is a country which has still not helped any developing countries in the world to develop even by giving them  loans.  JR Jayawardhan the UNP President had accepted USA as his close friend.  JR was in fact called Yankee Dicky. When he became the President he had no fear even about terrorism as he thought USA  would stand by him to defeat terrorism and help him bring peace and security to Sri Lanka.  Did it happen ?

When India dropped dry ration”, to the terrorists in the North, and asked the President to enter into a peace agreement and amend the Constitution of Sri Lanka to include the 13^th  Amendment. USA looked away , and President Jayawardhana had nobody to help him. USA had betrayed him. Therefore, he entered into a peace agreement with India and mutilated  the Constitution of Sri Lanka by including the 13^th  Amendment proposed by India.

Though there is no developing country in the world  that USA helped to develop, there is no difficulty to name many countries destroyed, their leaders assassinated  or  their development hampered by USA ?

Cuba  under Fulgencio Batista was  some what like what  Sri Lanka would be under  Ranil Wickramasinghe preparing to sign  the SOFA Agreement with USA. Batista leased the sothern part of Cuba to USA  which is now a USA army base called Guantanamo.

Under Fulgencio Batista,  Cuba  became the play ground for the rich Americans. There were  prostitution, casinos, drug dealers ,and so on. It was  that Cuba,  Fidel Castro made a free and an  independent country. Yet Americans was all out to destroy Cuba. There were planned military attacks,  having failed in that America imposed trade embargos against Cuba. Cuba faced all that but never allowed America to  enter into the country. That is why Cuba survived.

China is a rich and a great country today, because they did not allow America to interfere in to China.  USSR was divided by USA, because Russian  leaders began to have ultra diplomatic relations with USA. After that USA did not allow USSR to unite again. However Russia  did not allow USA  to interfere into Russia. Thanks to President Putin, Russia is a rich and a  developed country today because  Russia had severed connections with USA.

USA cannot be trusted. Sri Lanka should learn  to avoid dealings with USA as USA can bring about only ruin to Sri Lanka. The UNP Backbenchers should pay serious attention to persons like Mangala Samaraweera in the UNP, who is a party to  selling  Sri Lanka to America. He proved that  by even sponsoring a Resolution by America  against  his own Country-Sri Lanka, without even the permission of the President and the Parliament.

India too claims an economic growth, but is that growth seen on the ground and amoung the people. There is a never ending caste problem in India and  many are subject to utter misery  many without even proper sanitary facilities.

 Sri Lanka was progressing fast towards development when unfortunately the people voted Yahapalanaya  into power which has  brought Sri Lanka back to being a poor country.

The UNP  Backbenchers please see and understand how much you are correct about USA.  Though you   repeatedly say  at TV Debates that the Government of  USA is  friendly  towards Ranil Wickramasinghe, and you had  seen the  Ambassador for USA Alaina Teplitz played a very close role  alongside   UNP in October,2019  when the President had dismissed  the Prime Minister, do you think that USA ws playing a protective role to help the PM Ranil in the development process , or was only looking after America’s own benefits, without  development of  Sri Lanka not even in their thoughts ?

This is what the UNP Backbenchers should seriously contemplate, think of, and understand from what the UNP had been doing in the past. Today UNP  is like an old race horse. It has run out of breath. It can never run any more races. It should be tethered and perhaps kept as a museum piece, it cannot plough, it will only  ruin the ground.

It is now time for the UNP Backbenchers to start from scratch and  initiate action to form a new political party or reconstruct the UNP getting rid of the destructive elements in it such as Ranil Wickramasinghe, Sajith Premadasa, Karu Jayasuriya, Malik Samarawickrama, Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Katunanayake, Lakshmn Kiriella, Daya Gamage, Rosy Senanayake, Thalatha Athukorala, Amaratunga and the whole of that lot, including the Muslim MPs. who do not toe the line in the formation of a new political party.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

ACQUISITION AND CROSS SERVICING AGREEMENT (ACSA)

The United States made an abortive bid, in 2002, to finalize an Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), formerly known as ‘NATO Mutual Support Act’, with Sri Lanka. The attempt was made after the Ceasefire Agreement was signed on Feb. 21. 2002.

Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreements are negotiated on a bilateral basis by the US for use in combined exercises, training, operations, or deployments and allow its forces to obtain food, fuel, transport, ammunition, and equipment, collectively termed logistical supplies. Reimbursement is in cash, or rarely, replacement in kind.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage announced plans for ACSA after Premier Wickremesinghe met US President George W. Bush in Washington.  The ACSA was to be finalized in July 2002. Minister Milinda Moragoda, being close to the US, played a high profile role in the project. But when in Dec 2002, Ambassador Wills explored the possibility of using Sri Lankan ports and air space to invade Iraq, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando explained the difficulty in giving into US request and ACSA was abandoned. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, (2004-2005) on a   visit to Washington DC, ensured that the subject of ACSA not be listed on the agenda for his talks with senior leaders and officials there.

However, in the first week of March, 2007 Sri Lanka entered into ACSA with the US. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Ambassador Robert O. Blake signed on behalf of Sri Lanka and the US, respectively. Both were US nationals, but Gotabhaya Rajapaksa held dual citizenship. President Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Defence Minister, authorized ACSA. The Rajapaksas never bothered to inform Parliament of the Agreement, observed Shamindra Ferdinando. They dismissed calls from the left parties to table the agreement in Parliament.

The agreement allowed the United States and Sri Lanka to transfer and exchange logistics, supplies, support, and re-fueling services, either in kind or at cost, during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations or joint exercises.

Specifically excluded from its coverage were weapon systems such as guided missiles, naval mines and torpedoes, nuclear ammunition and items such as warheads, warhead sections, cartridge and air crew escape propulsion system components, chaff and chaff dispensers, guidance kits for bombs or other ammunition, chemical ammunition (other than riot-control agents), any other materials, subject to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

There was absolutely nothing special about the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), which Gota signed, said Chandraprema. It was like so many other ACSA’s that the US had signed with other countries. The provisions of the Sri Lankan ACSA of 2007 are almost identical to those found in the ACSA signed between the US and Australia in April 2010. The difference being that in Australia, the ACSA is a public document whereas in Sri Lanka it is a top secret document. There was nothing in the 2007 ACSA that warranted the secrecy in which it was signed either.

It was the US that wanted it to be done secretly, said Chandraprema. A cable sent to the State Department by the then US Ambassador in Colombo Robert Blake, on 31 January 2007, (several weeks before the ACSA was signed) and released to the public by Wikileaks said, “On December 7, 2006, Ambassador and Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) Chief met with Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to provide background information on a Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) and a the draft ACSA proposed for signature. On January 25, 2007, Secretary Rajapaksa provided concurrence to ODC Chief on the proposed agreement. Secretary Rajapaksa stated that he was ready to sign the SIPDIS agreement at anytime convenient to the U.S.

 “The US Government faces some risk that the Government of Sri Lanka might seek to exploit the signing to convey the US Government’s support for possible ongoing offensive military operations. The Embassy therefore recommends the Ambassador sign the agreement in a low-key ceremony with Secretary Rajapaksa in late February. The Sri Lankan military is presently engaged in mop-up operations against the LTTE in eastern Sri Lanka. However, the Defense Secretary and other military leaders have hinted they are considering further offensive military operations in northern Sri Lanka.

“We recommend holding off on the signing ceremony until late February when we will have a clearer idea of the Sri Lankan military’s intentions. We also do not wish to detract attention from the Sri Lankan Commission of Inquiry (on human rights) and the work of the International Independent Group of Expert Persons who will arrive in Sri Lanka the second week of February to observe the work of the Commission. Since the ACSA benefits U.S. forces transiting through the region, and since the GSL might leak news of the signing, the Embassy proposes to have the Ambassador sign the ACSA with the Defense Secretary with a select number of photographers and no statements. The Embassy will then issue a press release following the ceremony explaining the purpose of the ACSA.”

United States, in its fierce opposition to the Eelam War had banned the sale of war items to Sri Lanka. As a result, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) could not use its US built C-130 Hercules troop transport aircraft or the Israeli built Kfir fighter jets. Israel, a strong US ally, followed Washington’s policy. Thus, the C-130 and the fighter jets were grounded for lack of spares. In 1993 when the Special (Boat) Squadron was created, the US helped and in 1996, the US military  engaged in exercises with Sri Lankan Special Forces, including the Navy’s elite Special Boat Squadron.

USA had helped Sri Lanka and Gota was right to give them a favour in return by signing the ACSA, observed Chandraprema. Ambassador Blake assured that that ACSA wouldn’t pave the way for US bases here. Having signed ACSA, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to defeat the LTTE, militarily, in talks with top State Department official Stevan Mann, when the latter met him at the Defence Ministry.

After ACSA, Sri Lanka received valuable US support, particularly during Eelam War IV.  US provided specific intelligence on ‘floating LTTE arsenals’ to Sri Lanka on a request made by Navy Chief Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda. Karannagoda’s move enabled the destruction of four LTTE vessels on the high seas, thereby hastening the collapse of the LTTE. In addition to those vessels that had been hunted down on the basis of intelligence provided by the US, the Navy hit several other LTTE ships during Eelam War IV.

Several weeks after the signing of the agreement, Karannagoda had sought a meeting with the then US defence attaché in Colombo. Karannagoda has requested for US assistance to track down the remaining LTTE vessels as the superpower was engaged in worldwide campaign against terrorism. That meeting at Karannagoda’s office led to a meeting with Ambassador Blake, also at the same venue in late May 2007.

 In late August 2007, the US provided the required information secured from a satellite to the Navy. The US verified the positioning of four vessels about two weeks later. They had been at the same position as two weeks before. In fact, the US had queried whether Karannagoda’s Navy had the wherewithal to destroy four ships so far away from Sri Lanka. Karannagoda dispatched naval task force comprising six vessels on Sept 2007 from Colombo, Trincomalee and Galle.

 Karannagoda, in his memoirs revealed how an Indian diplomat based at its High Commission in Colombo made a despicable attempt to misdirect the Navy by providing information contrary to that of the Americans. Acting on US intelligence, the Navy destroyed three out of four LTTE vessels in the second week of Sept. 2007. The US again provided specific intelligence in late Sept. 2007 regarding the LTTE vessel that escaped during Sept. 2007 operation. The fourth vessel was destroyed on Oct 7, 2007. Although Karannagoda, made no reference to ACSA, it would be pertinent to stress that the US, perhaps reluctantly, provided critically important intelligence following the finalization of the agreement on March 05, 2007, said Shamindra.

The 2007 ACSA ended in March 2017. USA and Yahapalana entered into another ACSA signed on August 4, 2017. Analysts have compared the 2007 and 2017 ACSAs. The 2007 ACSA was only eight pages including the cover. The 2017 ACSA was 83 pages and had over 50 annexures. The annexure gave the lists of US commands and military establishments which will be allowed the use of Sri Lanka’s airports and sea ports. These voluminous annexures carried the names and addresses of almost all US military establishments that could have a foot print or boots on the ground in Sri Lanka. The list was exclusively revealed in the Sunday Times of May 19. 

The Sunday Times said it has seen the ACSA agreement between by the US Defence Department and the Ministry of Defence. the agreement begins with a preamble which says This Agreement is designed to facilitate reciprocal logistic support between the parties (US and Sri Lanka) to be used during combined exercises, training, deployments, port calls, operations, or other co-operative efforts, or for unforeseen circumstances or exigencies in which one of the parties may have a need for Logistic Support, Supplies and Services.

 This Agreement applies to the provision of Logistic Support, Supplies, and Services from the military forces of one party to the military forces of the other Party in return either for cash payment or reciprocal provision of Logistic Support, Supplies, and Services to the military forces of the Supplying Party. For the purpose of this Agreement, the Sri Lanka Coast Guard is considered part of the military forces of the Ministry of Defence of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Significantly, it allows every single security or military apparatus in the United States access to Sri Lanka. All those security commands are listed one by one and the Point of Contact (POC) defined. .Though the agreement provides reciprocity, Sri Lanka’s Army, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard simply have no resources to pay and use a military facility in the US. It is not required either.

The 2007 agreement was only for a period of seven years. The  2017 agreement is open ended, It says, This agreement shall remain in force unless terminated by mutual written consent of the Parties or by either Party giving not less than 180 days’ notice in writing to the other Party of its intention to terminate. While the 2007 ACSA permitted US military vessels to enter Sri Lanka ports on a ‘one-off’ basis, the 2017 ACSA appears to be “open ended”.

Ambassador Hettiaratchchi told President Sirisena that during the negotiations for the renewal of ACSA in 2017, he was under constant pressure from Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka’s then ambassador in the US, to expedite the passage of the ACSA. Kariyawasam had made many calls to ensure the draft ACSA be concluded and placed before the Cabinet of Ministers immediately, he said. Also telephoning Hettiaratchchi periodically over the same matter, was then Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

Kariyawasam and Samaraweera had pressured him at a time when the Defence Ministry had sought the observations of the Armed Forces Commanders on the ACSA deal. . The draft ACSA was rushed for approval by the Cabinet because of this pressure. It had been hurried through before a thorough study had been done by the armed forces commanders or officials well versed in the matter. Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne had expressed serious reservations over some of the provisions in the ACSA. The Cabinet approved ACSA 2017.

Defence Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne, a former Additional Solicitor General said that he had been compelled to sign the document since the Cabinet had approved it. He was simply implementing a Cabinet decision. His predecessor, Hettiaratchchi, negotiated the ACSA but was forced to rush it through the Cabinet, even before all armed forces commanders could send in their observations. This, he said, was due to pressure from the then Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera and former Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam.

ACSA  was signed without careful examination. When told that the service chief’s responses were being awaited  before sending the ACSA to the Cabinet , President Sirisena had said ‘Ekeng mata vedak nehe. Vahaama assang karanna lesthi karanna’ .   ACSA hadn’t been discussed at the Cabinet or  in Parliament. ACSA was not presented to Parliament, said Dayasiri Jayasekera.

President Sirisena’s Cabinet memorandum of June 30, 2017  in Sinhala had only a brief nine pages and no annexures. The Sinhala version of the ACSA  presented to the Cabinet,  did not contain translations of  the annexures. Due to delay in translations,  the  agreement has been sent to Cabinet without the annexures. The English version, however, had 83 pages that included the annexures.

When the ACSA with Sri Lanka was renewed in 2017, it was once again shrouded in secrecy. The Sunday Times  said that the  US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Atul Keshap, directed that there be no media coverage or any publicity regarding the signing event. This was why there was no news release from the US Embassy in Colombo. Keshap signed on behalf of the US Department of Defence. Even for the US, therefore, the matter was one of utmost secrecy. The renewed document  has not been made public by Yahapalana either. Sri Lanka Freedom Party, among others,  said that the people should be made aware of the dangers of ACSA.

The Prime Minister said considering the current international political situation and developments, the 2017  ACSA agreement would be favorable to the country. He said extending the agreement with the U.S. will be utmost importance given the global situation today. The Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) allows the United States and Sri Lanka to transfer and exchange logistics supplies, support, and re-fueling services, either in kind or at cost, during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations or joint exercises. The categories of allowable goods and services include food, petroleum, and transportation. The provision of weapons or ammunition is prohibited. Each nation’s forces can support the other during contingencies such as disaster relief or peacekeeping operations, which reduces the logistics requirement for each nation. 

But  others are not so happy. President of the Bar Association (BASL) Kalinga Indatissa, PC has written to Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana, PC in June 2019, under the provisions of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 and Article 14A of the Constitution, requesting a copy of the proposed Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA).

The letter said, ‘the undersigned is a citizen of Sri Lanka and the present President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which is the sole representative body of more than 19,000 Attorneys-at-Law in this Country. The BASL has always been concerned about matters of national importance, and matters relating to the Rule of Law and administration of justice. It has been reported in the media that the Sri Lankan Government is due to enter into an Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) with the United States of America. Considering the national importance of the said agreement and I request from you to make available a printed copy of the proposed Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) by virtue of Section 3(1) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 read with Section 24 of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 and Article 14A of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’. ( Continued)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SOFA)

FULL TEXT   OF DRAFT AGREEMENT.

Here is the full text of the draft Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) dated 28TH August 2018, which the Government of Sri Lanka is negotiating with the United States. (Sunday Times 30.6.19)   

 (1)   The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and has the honour to refer to recent discussions between representatives of our two Governments regarding issues related to United States (U.S) military and civilian personnel identified as members of the U.S Department of Defence, respectively, hereafter referred to collectively as U.S. personnel) and U.S. contractors (defined as non-Sri Lankan companies and firms, and their employees who are not nationals of Sri Lanka, under contract to the U.S. Department of Defence who may be temporarily present in Sri Lanka in connection with ship visits, training, exercises, humanitarian activities, and other activities mutually agreed. Companies and firms, and their employees, not under contract with the U.S. Department of Defence shall not receive any privileges and exempt under this Agreement.

(2)   As a result of these discussions, the Embassy proposes that U.S. personnel be accorded the privileges, exemptions, and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961, that U.S. personnel may enter and exit Sri Lanka with U.S. identification and with collective movement or individual travel orders; that Sri Lanka shall accept as valid all professional licenses issued by United States, its political subdivisions, or States thereof to U.S. Personnel for the provision of services to authorized personnel, and that Sri Lankan authorities shall accept as valid, without a driving test or fee, driving licenses or permits issued by the appropriate U.S. authorities to U.S. Personnel for the operation of vehicles. The Embassy further proposes that the U.S. personnel be authorized to wear uniforms while performing official duties and to carry arms while on duty if authorized to do so by their orders.

(3)   The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the particular importance of disciplinary control by U.S. Armed Forces authorities over U.S. personnel and, therefore, authorizes the Government of the United States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel while in Sri Lanka.

(4)   The Embassy further proposes that the U.S. Department of Defence and U.S. personnel shall not be liable to pay any tax or similar charge assessed within Sri Lanka. The Government of the United States of America and Sri Lanka shall co-operate to take such measures as may be necessary to ensure the security and protection of U.S. personnel property, equipment, records, and official information in Sri Lanka. Such importation, exportation, and use shall be exempt from any inspection, license, other restrictions, customs duties, taxes or any other changes assessed within Sri Lanka. The Governments of the United States of America and Sri Lanka shall co—operate to take such measures as may be necessary to ensure the security and protection of US personnel, property, equipment, records, and official information in Sri Lanka.

(5)   The Embassy proposes that vessels and vehicles operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the US. Department of Defence may either, exit, and move freely within the territory of Sri Lanka, and that such vehicles (whether self-propelled or towed) shall be exempt from payment of overland transit tolls. Vessels and aircraft owned or operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the U.S. Department of Defence shall not be subject to the payment of landing fees, or port fees, pilotage charges, lighterage, and harbor dues at facilities owned and operated by the Government of Sri Lanka. Aircraft owned and operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the U.S. Department of Defence shall not be subject to the payment of navigation, overflight, terminal or similar charges when in the territory of Sri Lanka. The U.S. Department of Defence shall pay reasonable charges for services requested and received at rates no less favorable than those paid by the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka. Aircraft and vessels of the U.S. Government shall be free from boarding and inspection.

(6)   The Embassy also proposes that the U.S. Department of Defence may contract for any material, supplies, equipment, and services (including construction) to be furnished or undertaken in Sri Lanka without restriction as to choose of contractor, supplier, or person who provides such material and supplies, equipment or services. Such contracts shall be solicited, awarded and administered in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Government of the United States of America. Acquisition of articles and services in Sri Lanka by or on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defence in connection with activities under this Agreement shall not be subject to any taxes or similar charges in
Sri Lanka.

(7)   The Embassy further proposes that U.S. contractors shall not be liable to pay any tax or similar charge assessed within Sri Lanka in connection with activities under this Agreement and that such contractors may import into, export out of, and use Sri Lanka any personal property, equipment, supplies, material, technology training, or services in the fulfillment of contracts with the U.S. Department of Defence in connection with activities under this Agreement. Such important, exportation, and use shall be exempt from any licence, or other restrictions, customs duties, taxes, or any other charges assessed within Sri Lanka.

(8)   The Embassy proposes that U.S. contractors shall be granted the same treatment as U.S. personnel with respect to professional and driver’s licences.

(9)   The Embassy proposes that U.S. personnel shall have freedom of movement and access to and use of mutually agreed transportation, storage, training, and other facilities required in connection with activities under this Agreement.

(10) The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes that it may be necessary for the U.S. Armed Forces to use the radio spectrum. The US Department of Defence shall be allowed to operate its own telecommunication systems (as telecommunication is defined in the 1992 Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union). This shall include the right to utilize such means and services as required to ensure full ability to operate telecommunication systems. Use of the radio spectrum shall be free of cost to the U.S. Government.

(11) The Embassy proposes that the parties waive any and all claims (other than contractual claims) against each other for damages to, loss of, or destruction of the other’s property or injury or death to personnel of either Party’s armed forces or their civilian personnel arising out of the performance of their official duties in connection with activities under this Agreement. Claims by third parties for damages or loss caused by U.S. personnel shall be resolved by the U.S. Government in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations.

(12) Further, the Embassy proposes that this Agreement, upon its entry into force, shall supersede the Agreement regarding the status of U.S. military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of Defence who may be present in Sri Lanka for exercises or other official duties, effected by exchange of notes at Colombo, February 9 and May 16, 1995, which entered into force May 16, 1995.

(13) Finally, the Embassy proposes further that our two governments, or their designated representatives, may enter into implementing arrangements to carry out the provisions of this Agreement.

(14) If the foregoing is acceptable to the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Embassy proposes that this note, together with the Ministry’s reply to that effect, shall constitute an agreement between the two Governments, which shall enter into force on the date of the Ministry’s reply.

(15)         The Embassy of the United States of America avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka the assurance of its highest consideration. (END OF DRAFT AGREEMENT.)

CLAUSES EXPLAINED.

Sunday Times thereafter explained the clauses saying, the public can now decide whether the SOFA is harmless” or inimical to the national interests of Sri Lanka.   A number of these demands would impinge on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, Sunday Times   said.

• United States personnel (troops, contractors etc) be accorded the privileges, exemptions and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of the US Embassy. They may enter and leave Sri Lanka with US identification individually or collectively. (Note: This means they could enter Sri Lanka without Passports or Visas)
•  Sri Lanka shall accept, without a driving test or fee, driving licences or permits issued by the appropriate US authorities to US personnel. US personnel be authorised to wear uniforms whilst performing official duties and carry arms while on duty.

• Disciplinary control by US Armed Forces authorities over US personnel and, therefore, the Government of the United States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over US personnel whilst in Sri Lanka. (Note: This clearly means Sri Lankan laws do not apply to them.)
• US personnel not be liable to pay tax or similar charge assessed within Sri Lanka. The Government of the United States of America and Sri Lanka shall co-operate to take measures to protect US personnel property, equipment, records, and official information in Sri Lanka. (Note: They want the Government to protect their assets free of charge)
• Vessels and vehicles operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the US Department of Defence may either, exit and move freely within the territory of Sri Lanka. Such vehicles shall be exempt from payment of overland transit tolls. Vessels and aircraft owned or operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the US Department of Defence shall not be subject to payment of navigation, overflight, terminal or similar charges when in the territory of Sri Lanka. The US shall pay reasonable rates for services requested and received at no less favourable than those paid by the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka. Aircraft and vessels of the US Government shall be free from boarding and inspection. (Note: This is a blatant infringement of the sovereign right of a nation)
• The US Department of Defence may contract for any material, supplies, equipment and services (including construction) to be furnished or undertaken and shall not be subject to any local taxes. (Note: Makes clear that construction work would be required in Sri Lanka. What do they propose to construct?)
• US contractors will not be liable to pay any tax or similar charges. Property, equipment, supplies, material, technology training, or services in the fulfilment of contracts with the Department of Defence and use shall be exempt from any licence, or other restrictions, customs duties, taxes or any other charges assessed within Sri Lanka. (Note: This again is a blatant infringement of the sovereign right of a nation to impose taxes and ensure their rules are followed)
• The Government of Sri Lanka recognises that it may be necessary for the US Armed Forces to use the radio spectrum. The Department of Defence shall be allowed to operate its own telecommunication systems. This shall include the right to utilise such means and services as required to ensure full ability to operate telecommunication systems. Use of the radio spectrum shall be free of cost to the US Government. (Note: This simply means they will have their own radio communications network parallel to those used by the Army, Navy, Police and the Coast Guard)
• Waive any claims (other than contractual claims) against each other – and  damage or loss shall be resolved by the US Government in accordance with US laws and regulations. (Note: This is also an infringement of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. Sri Lanka’s laws will not apply to US troops and those associated with them. For the troops and others, it would be just as good as moving around in any part of the United States)
• The US is seeking that aircraft and vessels of the US Government to be free from boarding and inspection. This means none of the state security arms, like the Navy, Coast Guard or the Customs can board any US military vessel or aircraft when it is in a Sri Lankan airport or sea port — or even vehicles on land and helicopters, an internationally accepted sovereign right of a country.
• The US is also seeking authorisation for its troops to wear uniforms whilst on duty” in any part of Sri Lanka, carrying arms and radio communications equipment. (Both in terms of the Sri Lanka Constitution and normal laws, only the armed forces and the Police are empowered to carry out this task. The only exceptions are Sri Lankans who are authorised by licence)
• The US wants exemption from licence, Customs duties, taxes and any other charges within Sri Lanka.
• Washington wants US troops and contractors to be allowed to enter and leave Sri Lanka, individually or collectively, with the use of only their US identification. This will mean they will carry no passports or visas.
• 3 party claims by us, only under US Law. They  run over one of us,  and kills, it will be under US law.
• thay can do anything to our forces, our army can be killed. our movements can be restricted.

 THE DIPLOMATIC NOTE

Lasanda Kurukulasuriya commented  on the agreement.  She said, the SOFA under negotiation relates to a confidential Diplomatic Note from the US embassy to the foreign ministry dated 28th August 2018, said Lasanda.. The US embassy ‘reminds the GSL’ that “as a result of these discussions the Embassy proposes that U.S. personnel be accorded the privileges, exemptions, and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; that U.S. personnel may enter and exit Sri Lanka with U.S. identification and with collective movement or individual travel orders”..

Lasanda observes: “The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the particular importance of disciplinary control by U.S. Armed forces authorities over U.S. personnel and, therefore, authorizes the Government of the United States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel while in Sri Lanka.””…the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. personnel shall not be liable to pay any tax or similar charges within Sri Lanka. The U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. personnel may import into, export out of, and use in Sri Lanka any personal property, equipment, supplies, material, technology, training, or services in connection with activities under this agreement. … They shall be exempt from any inspection within Sri Lanka.”

“The Embassy proposes that vessels and vehicles operated by or, at the time, exclusively for the U.S. Department of Defense may enter, exit, and move freely within the territory of Sri Lanka. The discussions so far held between the GSL and USG in Colombo and, most recently in Washington highlighted “Aircraft and vessels of the U.S. Government shall be free from boarding and inspection.”

The Embassy also proposes that the U.S. Department of Defense may contract for any material, supplies, equipment, and services (including construction) to be furnished or undertaken in Sri Lanka without restriction as to choice of contractor, supplier, or person who provides such material, supplies, equipment or services. Such contracts shall be solicited, awarded and administered in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Government of the United States of America. Acquisition of articles and services in Sri Lanka by or on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense in connection with activities under the Agreement shall not be subject to any taxes or similar charges in Sri Lanka.”The Embassy proposes that U.S. personnel shall have freedom of movement and access to and use of mutually agreed transportation, storage, training, and other facilities required in connection with activities under this Agreement.” .

The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes that it may be necessary for the U.S. Armed forces to use the radio spectrum. The U.S. Department of Defense shall be allowed to operate its own telecommunication system. This shall include the right to utilize such means and services as required to ensure full ability to operate telecommunication system. The use of the radio spectrum shall be free of cost to the U.S Government.The classified diplomatic communication dated 28 August 2018 sent to the Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the conclusion states that (Quote) If the foregoing is accepted to the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Embassy proposes that this note, together with the Ministry’s reply to that effect, shall constitute an agreement between the two Governments, which shall enter into force on the date of the Ministry’s reply.” (End  of Quote)

There is further information regarding the contents of the SOFA in relation to ‘contractors’ brought in by the US Department of Defense:”The Embassy further proposes that U.S. contractors shall not be liable to pay any tax or similar charge assessed within Sri Lanka in connection with activities under this Agreement and that such contractors may import into, export out of, and use in Sri Lanka any personal property, equipment, supplies, materiel, technology, training, or services in fulfillment of contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense in connection with activities under this Agreement. Such importation, exportation, and use shall be exempt from any license, other restrictions, customs duties, taxes, or any other charges assessed within Sri Lanka.””The Embassy proposes that U.S. contractors shall be granted the same treatment as U.S. personnel with respect to professional and drivers’ licenses.”

“Sri Lankan authorities shall accept as valid, without a driving test or fee, driving licenses or permits issued by the appropriate U.S. authorities to U.S. contractors of the operation of vehicles.”The US embassy has repeatedly asserted that the US has ‘no plans to establish a military base’ in Sri Lanka. But then, in recent times that’s not the approach used by the superpower in extending its military footprint. Nowadays the US gets its ‘partners and allies’ to share part of the burden of meeting shared goals. The US’s mantra of a ‘free and open Indo Pacific’ illustrates the strategy, with Japan, India and Australia asked to join in pushing back against China’s growing maritime power. Meanwhile the US finds it useful (and economical) to negotiate bilateral agreements with individual strategically located states.

SALLYPORT

In the backdrop of the ACSA, already signed and a SOFA deal pending, security companies in the US are looking for personnel in Sri Lanka.Sallyport, a US firm offers a comprehensive range of global protective, security and mission support solutions to the US Government, foreign allied governments, and a wide range of private and commercial clients.In a note to recognised Sri Lankan security companies, Sallyport has on offer jobs which are full time and hourly.The note, among other matters, says: As a part of our Professional Services group at Michael Baker Global Services, a whole owned subsidiary of Caliburn International, the Cleared American Guard (CAG) is professionally trained to protect the security integrity of the construction site and responsible for protection of building materials, furniture, fixtures, and other items. CAGs will perform access control functions at all vehicle and pedestrian entrances to the site on a 24/7 basis throughout the construction or project period.” (Sunday Times 7.7.19)

The note adds:

• Denies introduction of prohibited materials such as explosives, weapons, electronic devices, or other items as specified by the Accrediting Official (AO) or designee.
• Conducts random inspections of all site areas to ensure no prohibited materials have been brought on to the site.
• Ensures that all suspicious materials or incidents be brought to the attention of the site security manager or construction surveillance technician.
• Monitors all non-cleared guards provided by the construction company.
• Maintains and operates the Secure Storage Area (SSA) established by the assigned construction company within the construction site footprint where they will store construction materials and equipment that will be used for the project.

What are the key skills required for this role?

• Must possess the ability to exercise discretion and good judgment to make logical and effective decisions.
• A CAG will typically progress onto one of our next construction projects or with the required experience be promoted to a Construction Surveillance Technician or Team Lead. 

Minimum qualifications and education requirements:

• You must be a U.S. citizen with an active TOP Secret clearance. You must have at least 3 years’ experience in a security field. Candidates with overseas experience are highly preferred.
• Selected candidates will be sponsored for required 40-hour CAG training. Candidates with active DOS CAG certification are preferred.  You must be capable of independent decision making, possess a high degree of individual initiative and be able to function with minimal supervision.
• You need to be able to stand for 8 hours, work outdoors in all seasons and lift up to 25 pounds. ( CONTINUED)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SOFA) continued.

US and Sri Lanka had  an agreement  in 1995, by exchange of diplomatic notes, regarding the status of US military personnel and civilian employees of the Department of Defence  who may be present in Sri Lanka for exercises or official duties. The SOFA currently under negotiation seeks to update this 1995 agreement between the US and Sri Lanka. US government has made a request to extend the former agreement, and to include an annexure to expand it, called Annex B.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced in Parliament in July 2019 that Sri Lanka is negotiating a fresh military cooperation deal with the United States. The government was discussing a replacement for the 1995 Status of Forces (SOFA) arrangement that would allow the US military easier access to Sri Lanka.

The United States Embassy in Colombo sent to Foreign Secretary, Prasad Kariyawasam a five-page document dated August 28, 2018.it was a draft Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which Washington was keen to sign with Sri Lanka.  Kariyawasam initiated discussions supported by Foreign affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Discussions were between the United States Embassy in Colombo and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   Ministry of Defence, responsible for the country’s national security, was kept out.

The draft said that the acceptance of their draft” shall constitute an agreement between the two Governments, which shall enter into force on the date of Ministry’s reply.” This meant that once the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign affairs, Sri Lanka, accepted the offer or says Yes, the agreement is effective. Once the Sri Lanka Government agrees, it has to stick by it, the embassy said. The Public Affairs Office of the US Embassy had invited select local media to brief them on this. . The veiled warning made news, said Sunday Times.

However, at this point President Sirisena butted in. He asked Secretary Kariyawasam to quit his post in Washington.  Ambassador Kariyawasam left on October 31, 2018. That put the SOFA project on temporary hold. But negotiations went on.

 SOFA was listed for discussion at the third Sri Lanka-United States Partnership Dialogue in Washington DC in May 2019, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, who led the Sri Lanka delegation, discussed the draft SOFA, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

He was to express Sri Lanka’s concern over some of the provisions. There were two clauses which Minister Marapana sought to change during talks in Washington DC — one was diplomatic immunity for US troops who would be present in Sri Lanka and the other subjecting all their actions to US laws. Such an agreement, would have given an open licence for uniformed US troops with arms and communications equipment to roam any part of Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile President Sirisena declared, in June 2019, I am against the proposed SOFA.  He was not prepared to accept military agreements with the US including SOFA. President Sirisena then telephoned Marapana in Washington DC and said he should not sign the SOFA agreement without any consultation with Sirisena since Sirisena was the Minister of Defence. This has stalled the move for the time being but pressure from the United States continues, said the media in June 2019.

State Minister for Defence, also said No agreement which is not favourable and which has consequences to national security will be signed. If any agreement was to be signed, the President’s advice as Minister of Defence would be sought and signed thereafter by the Defence Secretary.”

The proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US has come in for much discussion. The whole process lacks transparency and accountability, said critics. SOFA is very comprehensive.  Our independence, our territorial integrity, and freedom of action are at stake. Ths treaty once signed witll be binding on us. Sri  Lanka will be dragged into the US camp.

The new agreement is comprehensive and provides for full enjoyment of diplomatic immunity not only by any member of US armed forces, but also by the contractors and employees of US armed forces. SOFA is more far reaching than ACSA since it is not confined to purchase of goods and services. They include rules governing US military personnel in a foreign country.

 WARNING STATEMENT BY M.M. ZUHAIR.

M.M. Zuhair has provided the clearest and bluntest assessment of what will happen when SOFA is signed. Here are his comments.

Zuhair warned that proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would transform Sri Lanka into a US military facility. it will create a ‘separate state’, having an independent power structure for the US military and its contractors, within the territory of Sri Lanka.  That state will be run from Washington by the US Defense Department. The Sri Lankan government, it’s Parliament, the country’s judiciary it’s armed forces or the Police will have no say, under the published agreement, over the US armed forces entering Sri Lanka at their will and pleasure, freely transiting, exiting or remaining without exiting, within any part of the territory of Sri Lanka in vehicles, vessels and aircrafts, wearing uniforms, armed with communication equipment and weapons.

“The unwritten objective of the proposed agreement would be for the US to obtain from Sri Lanka, the non-consultative status of using at any time, any part of the Sri Lankan territory, as a permanent or transit point for the military activities the US is habitually and perennially engaged in, outside the Western world. For the first time, fully armed American men and women can freely move within any part of Sri Lanka, as persons above Sri Lankan laws,

US armed forces can move anywhere in the island both individually as well as collectively with arms and ammunition. All the recognised ingredients that constitute a technologically virtual ‘separate State’, though an unrefined concept in international law are to be found sandwiched in SOFA.”With SOFA in hand, the Americans do not require a military ‘base’ in Sri Lanka’s Eastern city of Trincomalee or elsewhere here, because the whole island will be a US controlled super State operating above the Sri Lankan laws and State”. The consequences would be the country will abdicate its sovereignty, in respect of an unprecedented list of powers exercisable by the Sri Lankan State, to the US President and his successors.

The list of US contractors is open ended. It will include contractors signing with the US Defense Department in the future and the future employees of the contractors, over whom Sri Lanka will have no control.  The US armed forces and its civilian personnel will be governed only by US laws while enjoying privileges, exemptions and immunities in Sri Lanka that even the country’s Head of State, our Mahanayake Theros or Sri Lanka’s Judges or Generals do not have.

Zuhair points out that this could be used further. US money power will also enjoy structural facilities in the island that can be used to influence future elections. Eventually the US might want a puppet regime elected or installed to consolidate more effectively and permanently its presence” in this admittedly strategic location.

“The US Ambassador here had tried to call the SOFA as the Visiting Forces Agreement. The one is entirely different from the other. In fact the Visiting Forces Act of 1949 is more than adequate to serve the objectives the Ambassador had been publicly posturing on this issue. The Visiting Forces Agreement and the Public Security Ordinance, the latter empowers Sri Lanka’s Head of State to declare emergencies, are adequate to receive any emergency assistance. But red tape is absolutely necessary to exercise due diligence before foreign forces are allowed into the country.

“As per the agreement, the US armed forces and its civilian components, while in Sri Lanka, will not be subject to Sri Lankan criminal or civil laws, hitherto applicable under the Visiting Forces Act No 31 of 1949.

“Lately, we have seen the US over active in Sri Lanka under colour of joint military exercises. Almost every other month they are here”. Enemies of the US in the Asian region, though pretending to be asleep, will soon fully wake up. Are we going to allow our country to be used for engineering external wars and internal conflicts? SOFA is not limited to any emergency in Sri Lanka. It applies to any emergency the US is getting itself entangled in, presently in the Middle-East and very soon in Asia.  The agreement is a clear threat to the national security of the country, particularly vis a vis competing international forces which the American government treats, from time to time, as its enemies. This country cannot afford to get dragged into the present or future wars that the US government has a devastating record of getting involved in third world countries. Sri Lanka will have to pay a heavier price than the returns from exports to the US, when Sri Lanka is used by the US as a front line launching pad for its military operations, which could include wars in the Middle-East and Asia to confront its real and fake enemies.

The US will not give up the agreement so easily as some anticipate. No doubt the US can force its way. But to surrender in advance to the US, with its declared policy of ‘US interests first’ will turn out to be a national disaster. (end of statement)

LSSP STATEMENT

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), at a meeting of its Politburo in june 2019 last week, called upon the people of Sri Lanka to publicly protest against the move to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

This agreement which is being signed with the Government of the USA is a follow up to the ACSA agreement, a 83-page document, signed by the UNP Government with the USA in 2017. The ACSA agreement enables the American armed forces to make use of any military bases and ports, whenever they want, and the Sri Lankan Government would take all action to provide them with the necessary support. There will be joint training exercises to enable the two armed forces to work together under US directives.

The new SOFA agreement is aimed at providing the facilities and conditions for the implementation of the ACSA agreement. Thus SOFA, as signed by the USA with other countries, would enable US armed personnel, and even their support staff and contractors, to enter Sri Lanka without a visa or passport, merely by showing their Identity Card. There will be no checking of any containers brought in and no duties will be charged. They will be permitted to travel and work anywhere in our country, and in so doing if they break our laws they cannot be charged under Sri Lankan law, but only under US law.

This is a complete violation of our national impendent and sovereignty. Sri Lanka will be made 51st state of the USA.

Every effort must be made to prevent this agreement being signed.The ACSA and SOFA agreements would enable the US army to invade Sri Lanka, even without the consent of our government, on the pretext of fighting global terrorism, as it did in Iraq and Syria, and make Sri Lanka a battlefield. This will help promote the sale of the armaments of the USA and its allies, including Israel.

To avoid such a distressing chain of events that will adversely affect our country and our people, it is vital that all agreements signed by the present government should be made available to the members of Parliament and the general public. There must be no secret agreements.This would enable any commitments that are against the interest of Sri Lanka and its people to be exposed and revoked.

There should be legislation brought up in Parliament that makes it mandatory for government to disclose the contents of any future agreements in full to Parliament and it should also be made public. The American government has included the discussion of GSP and other trade commitments to take place at the same time. This is to bring pressure on our government with the hidden threat of removing any trade benefits given to Sri Lanka. The Government must not weaken its stand because of such veiled threats.

If we give into their demands on the SOFA and ACSA agreements, then we cannot stop the USA from using Sri Lanka as a substitute for the Diego Garcia military base, they have lost to Mauritius, to enable the USA to control the Indian ocean. Once it is used as a base and they have open entry into our country in terms of these agreements there will be no way in which we can get rid of them so long as there is a pro-USA puppet regime in power.If we are to stop this dangerous sequence of events that threatens Sri Lanka taking place, then we must act now to stop the signing of the SOFA agreement and get parliament to revoke all harmful parts of the ACSA and other agreements.

OTHER  OBSERVATIONS

Sri Lanka has no defense agreement with the US and it should be cautious as regards agreements that may put it on a collision course with countries like India, China and Iran, warned former Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Palitha Kohona at a media conference on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Acquisition and Cross-Servicing agreements (ACSA) between Sri Lanka and the United States of America, He said  under SOFA,  US military personnel could come to Sri Lanka, carry weapon and do anything and they could not be dealt with under the local laws”.For instance, US forces faced a number of rape charges in the Philippines, but did not face legal action in that country.

Defence Secretary Gen.(Rtd). Shantha Kottegoda also said that SOFA should not be signed. He  said that no foreign troops are needed to protect Sri Lanka, referring to provisions in SOFA in regard to the deployment of US defense personnel in the island.

Ven. Mahanayakes and His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith issued a joint statement, on the need to exercise caution when entering into agreements with foreign powers.

In the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, senior officers whom I spoke with this week were numbed by the provisions in the SOFA,  said a journalist, In July 2019. They seem to have woken up. a senior Army officer, said My earlier understanding was they were coming here to help us – paint walls of hospitals, make donations for orphanages, provide injections for livestock, build schools and other social welfare or humanitarian measures. However, they are now asking for immunity from our laws.

An Air Force officer remarked unlike naval operations which the US can co-ordinate even outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, the US has to use our airports for troops as well as cargo. We will have to share all our Air Force installations and air fields with a foreign country’s air force. Unlike for emergency situations like relief or rescue operations, prolonged use will definitely affect our activities. We will see another Air Force functioning alongside us and this is abhorrent.” . We should not antagonise the United States. However, we should find acceptable common ground instead of forfeiting our national interests,” said a senior Navy official.

Chandraprema had a different take on the subject. Even though the Status of Forces Agreement that has been proposed with Sri Lanka is shrouded in secrecy, as far as other countries are concerned, SOFA agreements are open documents.

 The provisions of the proposed Status of Forces Agreement between Sri Lanka and the US are almost identical for example to the USA’s SOFA with Poland. The provisions in these agreements are largely generic and can be cut and pasted from one agreement to another with minimal changes. SOFA agreements apply to US military and civilian personnel working for the US Department of Defense, and to US contractors under contract to the US Department of Defence. The agreement applies to the presence of US personnel in the host country in relation to ship visits, training, exercises, humanitarian activities, and other activities mutually agreed, said Chandraprema.

the Department of State and the Department of Defense, working together, identify the need for a SOFA with a particular country and negotiate the terms of the agreement. SOFAs may be as short as one page or in excess of 200 pages as is the case with the SOFA between the US and Germany.

 The question that the US government should ponder is why there is so much resistance in Sri Lanka to signing a SOFA agreement with the US. The first reason is that Sri Lankans in general do not see the USA as an ally or even a friend. For the most part, the US is seen as an adversary that has worked against Sri Lanka in the international arena. The few hundred million dollars that the US seems to be willing to throw in Sri Lanka’s direction is just chicken feed and the people know it.

What Sri Lanka has been getting from the US since 2009 are only criticisms and lectures on how to run our country. The US does not want to even acknowledge us as partners. In such circumstances, who in his right mind will be happy at a proposal that will give US troops a free run of this country? The presence of US troops in this country will on the one hand seriously compromise the non-aligned tradition which has become an article of faith in this country. Then there is the very real danger that the presence of US troops on Sri Lankan soil may spark off rivalry between super powers. Then there is the danger that the presence of US troops in our country may fuel Islamic terrorism as well. Sri Lanka will have to go through all that for nothing in return from the US– not even a kind word let alone the kind of goodies that other countries get for doing the US similar favours, concluded Chandraprema.

AMERICA REPLIES

The US embassy in Sri Lanka had now turned defensive. In view of the opposition,  SOFA is now given a new name, Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).  the embassy held a press conference and announced that There was no plan to establish an American military base in Sri Lanka and ongoing negotiations on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), was aimed at facilitating cooperation between the two countries,. “Allegations being leveled against the proposed VFA, are blatant misinformation”, any agreement reached, would fully respect the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

US ambassador also tweeted that US denied any plan to establish a US base in Sri Lanka. Teplitz in a twitter message said the negotiation on the Visiting Forces Agreement is aimed to facilitate cooperation and any agreement will respect the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.
Any agreement will fully respect the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” she has tweeted.

In a note to the Government (a non-paper), a copy of which was seen by the Sunday Times, the US Embassy in Colombo has claimed that  the SOFA in no way would permit the United States to base forces or equipment in Sri Lanka.”

US Ambassador Alaina Teplitz met the Mahanayakes of Asgiriya and Malwatte Chapters and told htem that SOFA was not meant to take advantage of Sri Lanka. There hadn’t been a previous instance of a US Ambassador, or any other foreign envoy for that matter, making representations to Mahanayakes as regards security-political issues, commented analysts.

PRESENT SITUATION

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe denied that the new SOFA would lead to a permanent US presence on the island.”The US navy is not a fleet of fishing trawlers. They don’t need any bases in Sri Lanka,” he said.

 He told the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in July 2019  that there is no SOFA” agreement between the Sri Lankan and US governments and neither is there any proposal to that effect forwarded by any Ministry to the Cabinet. The government has not signed any Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with United States.

 Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament , in the same month  that the government had not signed a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with America, although discussions were ongoing. he had  informed the U.S  that his government was not agreeable to some of the conditions in the draft proposal under discussion. He stressed that regardless of the outcome of negotiations, nothing would be done to harm Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. ( continued)

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න, මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක, වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පුරා විහිදී ඇති ජාතික වනෝද්යාන තුල ඉතාම දුෂ්කර රාජකාරියක යෙදමින් වනජීවී දෙපාර්තමෙන්තුවට විශාල ආදායමක් ස්වෙච්ඡා සේවකයන් විසින්  ගෙන දෙයි. වනෝද්‍යානයන් තුල දැනටමත් කාර්ය මණ්ඩල පුරප්පාඩු විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් පවතින අතර එසේ තිබියදීත් මෙම ස්වේච්ඡා මාර්ගෝපදේශකයින් ස්ථීර නොකිරීම නිසාවෙන් 2019 අගෝස්තු මස 01 වන දින සිට ඔවුන් සේවයෙන් තාවකාලිකව ඉවත්ව වැඩවර්ජනයකට එලඹීමට තීරණය කර ඇති බවට වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානයට වාර්තා වී ඇත.

මෙලෙස  තාවකාලිකව හෝ සේවයෙන් ඉවත්ව වෘත්තිය ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගනිමින් වැඩවර්ජනයක නිරත උවහොත් එය වනජීවී රක්ෂිත වලට මෙන්ම එම රක්ෂිත තුළ වෙසෙන වනජීවීන්ටද දැඩි බලපෑමක් ඒල්ලවේ. එම නිලධාරීන් සේවයෙන් ඉවත් උවහොත් එළඹී ඇති නියං කාලය තුල වනජීවින්ගේ පැවැත්මට දිය කඩිති ජලයෙන් පිරවීම, වනඅලින් ගම් වැදීම හා වන සතුන් දඩයම් කිරීම වැලැක්වීම වැනි අත්‍යවශ්‍ය රාජකාරි රාශියක් අකර්මණ්‍ය වීමේ අවදානමක් උදා විය හැකිය

මේ පිළිබඳව අදාල නිලධාරීන්ගේ අවධානය හැකි ඉක්මනින් යොමුකර එයට පිළියම් යොදා වනජීවී රක්ෂිත හා එම රක්ෂිත තුල වෙසෙන්නා වූ වනජීවීන්ගේ ජීවීත වලට මේ මගින් ඒල්ල වන බලපෑම නතර කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙස වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධනය ඉල්ලා සීටී

මේ පිළිබඳ වැඩිදුර තොරතුරු  0777802308 (චාමර රත්නවීර, වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය) ඇමතීමෙන් ලබාගත හැක.

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න
මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක
වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

By Noor Nizam, Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFSLPP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice”. – December 15th., 2018.

POLITICAL PARTIES BASED ON COMMUNITY, RELIGION AND COMMUNAL BASIS HAS TO BE BANNED IN SRI LANKA BY THE MAJORITY SINHALESE COMMUNITY AND NATIONALIST SINHALA FORCES IMMEDIATELY UNDER ANY NEW CONSTITUTION TO BE PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT. FOR THIS –  ALL SINHALA FORCES, INCLUDING THE MAHA SANGHA, THE SLFP, UNP (those who love the maathruboomiya”), JVP AND OTHER PATRIOTIC POLITICAL PARTIES INCLUDING THE SLPP/JO SHOULD GIVE THEIR FULLEST SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. SEVENTY TWO PERCENTAGE (72% ) SINHALA MP’s (voters) CAN EASILY DO THIS. MINORITY REPRESENTATION SHOULD ONLY BE IN THE NATIONAL PARTIES BY MEMBERSHIP AND BY BEING ELECTED FOR OFFICE IN THOSE PARTIES.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY VOTE BANK CREATION BY MINORITY COMMUNITY POLITICAL LEADERS (THE MUSLIMS AND TAMILS) WHO TRADE THE VOTE BANK FOR SELFISH PERSONAL BENEFITS, FORGOING THE REAL BENEFITS FOR WHICH THE MINORITY GROUPS, ESPECIALLY THE MUSLIM VOTERS CAN BE SURE TO REAP THE TRUE BENEFITS OF THEIR POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS AND INSPIRATIONS, BE MADE POSSIBLE / A REALITY. A good example is the confession made by Rauf Hakeem when Rauf Hakeem admitted that he took money from Mahinda Rajapaksa, then President, to vote in favour of the 18th., Amendment Bill to the constitution on September 8th., 2010. One of the SLMC stalwarts, Segu Dawood exposed this incident and Rauf Hakeem admitted it in public. Browse this web link and learn how this political leader (MP. Rauf Hakeem) got money to vote for the 18th., Amendment in parliament on 8th., September 2010.

http://www.jaffnamuslim.com/2016/07/blog-post_144.html  (for Muslim tamil readers).

In 1994, when the SLMC found an opportunity, supported by R. Premadasa to reduce the cut-off point in proportional representation from 12.5 to 5 per cent, in return NOT to field a Muslim candidate as a Presidential candidate, to stop the Muslims voting Premadasa, the SLMC joined the UNP. That was the beginning of the DEMOCRATIC DOWNFALL” of the aspirations and inspiration of the Sri Lanka Muslim community, because the late M.H.M. Ashraf started to trade with the Muslim vote bank to gain  POLITICAL POWER IN THE CENTER” and get ministerial and deputy ministerial positions, high government statutory posts, diplomatic posts and many other perks for his stooges/henchaiyas. The SLMC splitting into the All Ceylon Muslim Congress, which became the All Ceylon MAKKAL Congress (Rishad Bathiudeen) and the National Muslim Congress which later became the National Congress (Atthaullah, regional Eastern province Muslim party), began to adopt THIS POLITICAL TRADING OF THE MUSLIM VOTES” and making DEALS” that was of NO BENEFIT, BUT DETRIMENTAL TO THE MUSLIM FACTOR” which were supported by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema and so-called Muslim Civil Society groups, whose leadership also were given a SHARE” of these SPOILS and BENEFITS”, became the NORM” of the SLMC, ACMC, NATIONAL CONGRES, ACJU, THE NATIONAL SHOORA COUNCIL and the MUSLIM COUNCIL OF SRI LANKA, in the equation of Minority politics in Sri Lanka since 1994/1980. As a result of these deceptions, the Muslims in Sri Lanka do NOT have a voice – a POLITICAL VOICE” for that purpose. The Muslims did not benefit to resolve their economical, employment, development, land education and fundamental rights issues by VOTING the SLMC, ACMC or THE NATIONAL CONGRESS. The Muslims became POLITICAL ORPHANS” in Sri Lanka at last. Today this has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. Not only has it affected the Sri Lanka Muslims, but also PRALALYSED THE DEMOCRATICE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY SINHALA COMMUNITY WHICH IS 72% OF THE NATION TO MAKE ANY DECECIVE POLITICAL CONCLUSSION BENEFICAL TO THEIR AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA” OR TO AMEND / ADJUST THE CONSTITUTION TO THEIR NEEDS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA”. The present constitutional conflict in parliament is a reslt of this POLITICAL PLIGHT”, where Democracy is killing Constitutional Democracy”

With the media uncovering the corruption and deception of the Muslim political leaders in recent times and exposing these DECEPTIVE AND HOODWINKING” Muslim politicians and their operating beneficial gangs, the Muslim political culture has begun to change. Today this VOTE BANK TRADING BY MINORITY MUSLIM AND TAMIL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS” has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. THIS HAS TO STOP FORTHWITH FOR A HEALTHY POLITICAL PROCESS TO TAKE PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY and the RIGHT for the voters to decide what their communities should do and the majority who are SINHALA VOTERS to decide what is best for the country they should do.

As for the Muslim Minority Community, the fact remains NOW, the Muslim voters are acting on their ownand do NOT wish to be represented by these MUNAAFIKK and DECEPTIVE POLITICIANS”. THE SLMC AND ACMC MP’S SHOULD ALSO ACT ON THEIR OWN NOW, Insha Allah. We Muslims should set an example like our predecessors who TRUSTED” the majority community in the wake of the British trying to delay giving us independence in 1948. The role of Dr. T B Jayah becomes paramount at this moment to recollect, because had he, or the Muslim community, sided with the British at that time, granting of Independence to Ceylon would have been postponed. It is only because the minorities agreed that there was a United Front of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims asking for Independence. But one man was against it. That was G G Ponnambalam who tried to extract his pound of flesh. He said I will sign on the dotted line only if you agree to Fifty Fifty”. That is 50% of the seats for the Sinhalese and 50% for the minorities. Only if you agree to that, he told D S Senanayake, will I support the call for independence. It was at this point that Jayah rejected the ‘fifty fifty’ formula. He said he preferred to work in trust, to work in faith and goodwill with the majority community.Thereby T.B.Jayah totally undercut G G Ponnambalam’s fifty fifty” cry. That was the death knell of Fifty Fifty”. If Jayah joined the fifty fifty” cry at that time, Independence would have been postponed. One has to remember that even the word Sinhala was erased from the political lexicon. S W R D Bandaranaike ditched the idea of the Sinhala Maha Saba and he first joined the UNP and later set up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which too did not have racial connotations. Everybody felt that communal parties were counter-productive. It is time up that a NEW POLITICAL FORCE” that will be honest and sincere that will produce CLEAN” and diligent Muslim Politicians to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH has to RISE”, and this NEW POLITICAL FORCE” has to support the new government of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the majority Sinhalese citizens notwithstanding the fact that the Tamils of the North and East and the Upcountry Tamils and all minorities should be equally respected, politically, for a better Sri Lanka, God willing, Insha Allah.