Leaders of the country were acting according to the whims and fancies of external forces and the government should immediately resign and allow those who were capable of governing the county to take over, Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith told devotees at St. Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya, which was reconsecrated yesterday.
The Cardinal said that Muslims in the country were not responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks and that it was carried out by a group of misguided youth to fulfil the desires of foreign nations that wanted to destabilise the country.
The Cardinal said: “This government has dismantled the intelligence agencies that were once very strong. This was done to fulfil the needs of international organizations and NGOs. When the security forces detected a training camp used by extremists at Wanathawilluwa, the extremists who were arrested were freed.”
The prelate said that the authorities had also ignored the destruction of Buddha statues at Mawanella and the extremists had shot the person who helped the police apprehend the perpetrators.
“The leadership of the country also ignored numerous clues on the preparations of the extremists,” said the Cardinal.
Before being nominated as the Chinese Ambassador to
Sri Lanka and arriving at the country to assume my office, I could hardly imagine
that there are so many world wonders on this tropical island of over 60,000 square
kilometers. The graceful
lake and mountains of Kandy, the quaint and ancient city of Galle, the gorgeous and colorful Colombo, and the breathtaking thrills of
Lion Rock are all amazing and stunning. Many Chinese tourists have been attracted to these beautiful sceneries with pleasant surprise like me.
qrf
With
the strong support and promotion of the Sri Lankan government as well as the Chinese
Embassy in Sri Lanka, the number of Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka has reached
nearly 300,000 annually
and ranks the top among foreign tourists to Sri Lanka. However, this number is only
a peanut while comparing with the number of Chinese tourists attracted by Thailand,
which is also a neighbor of China. In 2018, Chinese tourists to Thailand have
exceeded 10 million.
The reasons mainly
include following aspects. Firstly is language barrier. Many Chinese
tourists are not accustomed to English language, much less the Sinhalese or Tamil language.
Chinese-speaking tour guides’ accompany and interpretation is a must for them. But there are very few Chinese-speaking local guides here,
and Chinese guides are prohibited
from entering Sri
lanka and accompanying with tourists. Besides, Chinese people always have Chinese stomach” when traveling. They show strong preference to Chinese food. However, it is difficult for a Chinese chef to obtain a working visa to work in or set up a Chinese
restaurant. Therefore, the number of Chinese restaurants in Sri Lanka is
limited and sometimes cannot meet needs of Chinese tourists. In addition, a large percentage of Chinese tourists
are accustomed to Chinese tobacco and alcohol, which is a reality that the tourism
industries in Sri Lanka has to consider seriously, although it is not healthy
at all and should not be encouraged. The tourists cannot buy Chinese tobacco and alcohol
during their stay, and even not allowed to bring a few
Chinese cigarettes with
them for
their personal own use when entering this island. These restrictions make Chinese
tourists unaccustomed, which don’t exist or at least have some level of exemption or
tolerance in many other countries.
In fact, conveniences, experiences and
happiness are precisely what Chinese tourists most care about, and one of the
key factors in their decision-making of travel destinations. I noticed that the Tourism Authority of Thailand emphasized in an interview that the
promotion of the Chinese market in 2019 will focus on increasing convenience
and happiness, hoping all Chinese friends in Thailand would enjoy high-quality
experience. China is the world’s largest source of tourists with large scale of
outbound tourists and ranks No.1 in overseas consumption in the world for many
years. The size of China’s tourism market is too huge to imagine and compare by
many other countries. The growth of related industries such as aviation,
hotels, transportation and catering promoted by the tourism industry is also
considerable. At present, the Sino-Sri Lanka relations has stepped into a
fast development period. The implementation of Belt and Road Initiative
between the two countries
is in full swing, the exchanges in various fields are increasingly frequent,
and the prospect for Sino-Sri Lanka tourism cooperation is also promising.
I’m
fully confident that if Sri Lanka could continuously improve the tourism
environment, focus on improving the comfort of foreign tourists as much as
Thailand, adjust relevant regulations in accordance with Sri Lankan laws, ease
the existing obstacles for foreign tourists effectively, more and more Chinese
tourists will be attracted to Sri Lanka, which will stimulate tourism, consumption
and stronger vitality to local economy growth.
A Bangladeshi minister, Obaidul Quader, has stated that the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (HBCUC), Priya Saha, will face trial on the charge of sedition for her remarks about minority persecution in the country to US President Donald Trump, reports PTI.
The Hindu minority activist had been on a visit to the White House on Friday (19 July), when she told Trump that 37 million members of minority communities in the country had disappeared.
A video clip of the interaction went viral in Bangladesh and has evoked a strong backlash from the government and other quarters.
“Saha’s allegation was absolutely false. No one will agree with her. A sedition case will be filed against her. The process is underway. We must take measures against her and are in the process of doing so as a Bangladeshi national, she has made false, purposeful and treasonous remarks,” Quader stated.
Even the organisation she leads, the HBCUC, does not seem to be prepared to defend her.
“We are embarrassed. The comments she made were her own and not ours,” HBCUC spokesman Kajal Debnath said.
COLOMBO — What makes a country stand out as a Luxury Destination?
The high end traveler is willing to pay a much higher price to visit a truly amazing place without any crowds so that they would be the only ones there at that moment enjoying the venue. These travelers do not like to stand in line and waste their time. In short, the high end traveler likes to be pampered so that locked doors would open especially for them. For example I paid Euro 17 (around USD 19-20) to enter the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel. I had to wait for a long time to get in and the crowds inside were unimaginable. But then again there’s a special tour called Alone in Sistine Chapel & Hidden Vatican Tour” which goes at USD 426. This is a very popular tour and to be inside the Sistine Chapel all by yourself is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. There’re many visitors who book this exclusive tour.
A high end traveler doesn’t come to Sri Lanka to stay in a luxurious hotel room or to go in a helicopter. These facilities are readily available where they are from. In most European countries, the taxis are Mercedes Benz and BMW’s. So when we give these brands of cars to high end clients and say that they’re luxury vehicles, then the travelers tend to doubt our ability to understand their needs. If we think about the type of high end travelers who’re out there, then we can barely manage to collect 10 luxury properties from the entire country to match their needs. This is what we have in our country and we would have to work with that. I feel that our industry is pushing the luxury properties and air transfers more than trying to give them exclusive experiences. We can’t compete with the high end luxury properties that’re in the Indian Ocean since in Maldives they have rooms which goes at more than USD 100,000 per room per night on Bed & Breakfast. So we have to adapt our approach to attract these high end travelers to Sri Lanka.
As a destination we would have to make certain small changes to how we promote the cultural and wildlife attractions we have so that we can provide a luxurious product with the resources we already have. The below suggestions would have to be implemented in order to make Sri Lanka a Luxury Destination.
Early Access VIP Ticket
These VIP tickets will give the travelers access to Sigiriya, Dambulla, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa from 6am onwards. They will have the entire place to explore without the regular crowds. There will only be a handful of other VIP ticket holders. These tickets could be priced at USD 75 per person instead of the USD 25 or 30. The standard ticket entrance could start from 8am onwards (most sites around the world open after 9am) The cultural fund could use their website to manage these ticket sales where anyone from any part of the world can purchase these tickets by paying online. Afterwards an e-ticket with a QR code will be emailed to the traveler. The traveler only needs to carry this document with the QR code with them which would be scanned on site.
These early access VIP tickets can be applied for national parks as well. We could give access into the parks from 5am to 7am. It would be a bit dark at 5am, but in a park like Yala Block 1, it takes around 30 – 45 minutes to get to the area where the animals are at, once you enter the park. So the timings would work perfectly with the first rays of the Sun. We could keep this entrance ticket at USD 75 per person as well.
Exclusive VIP Ticket
The traveler’s will have the opportunity to block out the 6am – 7am time slot exclusively for them. This would mean that if they visit Sigiriya rock fortress, they would have the entire UNESCO World Heritage Site for themselves. Only the staff would be there and no other local or foreign tourists. This would be a proper VIP ticket for those who want complete privacy. This ticket could be priced at USD 500 up-to 2 guests. Any additional guest would be USD 75 per person. We could provide the option of blocking out the 7am – 8am time slot for the same group as well for another USD 500 flat fee and there won’t be any additional guest fee for the 2nd hour. These tickets could be booked online as well.
Skip the line Ticket
When it comes to places where there’re long queues to get in, we could provide a skip the line” ticket at an additional price where those ticket holders do not have to stand in line. Sometimes in some cultural places like Temple of the Tooth (at entry and at flower offering area) and especially with the safari jeeps at national parks in the morning. We could add a separate USD 10 per person for each ticket price to make it a Skip the line Ticket.
After Hours VIP Ticket
Temple of the Tooth could be a great place to have the After Hours VIP ticket. We could make sure that all local and foreign visitors clear out by 7.30pm. The after-hours entry could be between 8.30pm – 10.00pm. These would be priced at USD 80 per person which would be USD 5 higher since we could factor in the electricity usage which would not have to be factored in for the early access tours. Another great place would be the Colombo National Museum.
Better Beach Experience
There’re high end guests who simply want a beach stay for them and the quality of the beaches on the East coast is much better than West and South coasts. The Sri Lanka Air Force has got their MA 60 flights which has got 51 seats. Their prices are very reasonable as well. If we could have this flight leaving Colombo airport to Batticaloa on a daily basis, then we could have lots of tourists visiting the East coast since it cuts down the 8 hour drive from Colombo to Pasikudah. We could provide free shuttle service from Batticoaloa airport to Passikudah beach resorts as an incentive for the travelers to pick the East coast beaches, over the other regions of the island. The Passikudah beach resorts can get together and have a complimentary shuttle service from the Batticaloa airport to their hotels for all these travelers. The cost of this shuttle can easily be divided among the hotels and the bus will drop off clients at the hotel’s doorstep since all the hotels are next to each other. The flight ticket could be costed at around USD 100 per person. Thinking from the client’s point of view, they can directly take the plane to Batticaloa from the Colombo airport and get free hotel transfers as well. It would take a maximum of 45 – 60 minutes flight time plus another 20 – 30 minutes shuttle to the hotel. Within a maximum of 2 hours (to 2.5 hours – thinking about the airport formalities), they will be in their hotel. It takes 3 hours to get to Galle from the Colombo airport.
Another positive side effect of reviving Pasikudah would be the over flow of travelers into Ampara (and Gal Oya) which is just 2.5 hours drive. Also it’s a 2.5 hour drive to Arugam Bay from Pasikudah as well. This is a very good opportunity for wildlife enthusiasts (apart from the Surfers) since Kumana National Park is very close-by, which is filled with the leopards, bears, elephants and all the lost cultural sites.
Introducing Jaffna to the high end travelers
The above suggested flight that arrives in Batticaloa from Colombo airport on a daily basis could fly to Jaffna before returning back to Colombo. It would take a maximum of 2 – 2.5 hours to get to Jaffna from Colombo (via Batticaloa) as opposed to the 10 hour drive or the 6 hour train journey. Jaffna could be a nice sailing destination as well with all the islands scattered around with some of them having colonial castles, ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples, thousands of wild horses running around, etc.
Better sailing experience in the South
Weligama harbor would be an ideal place to operate all the sailing yachts from, since for a high end guest, it’s not a good sight to see all the fishing boats docked in Mirissa harbor with their plastic chairs in the boats and old life jackets. Also in the morning the road leading up to the harbor entrance, once you turn into the by-road could be chaotic with all the vehicles coming in and going out. Since it’s an active fishing harbor, the smell of the fish could be something that turns a lot of people off (but then again some might see this as a positive). At the Weligama harbor we could have a small lounge area (with good toilet facilities) built for the guests to wait until boarding happens. We could charge USD 50 per person as the Government whale watching fee.
Use the local communities to solve the problems in their own regions
The high end guests like their privacy and want to be left alone when they are enjoying their beach stay. They don’t want to be approached by beach boys / girls trying to sell them souvenirs or any excursions. Since none of the beaches in Sri Lanka are private, we have no control over this. However we could legalize the Beach Boys and Beach Girls where we give them a Beach Guide” license. If we appoint a Beach Guide association and give them license and a training on how to conduct excursions on their own and how to treat the guests properly, etc then these Beach Guides will protect their beach towns and make sure that the un-licensed beach boys & girls do not operate, giving rise to the bad image of the beach boys.
Honest user generated reviews
Travel consultants across the island has their own versions of what luxury tourism is all about. For some of them, the tourist board certified large 5 star hotels would be the ultimate luxury. But for some a 5 bedroom bungalow up in the hills would be barefoot luxury. So, what you and I consider as luxury” would be different. Therefore, if the travel consultant doesn’t understand the guests’ needs properly, the guests will be booking the travel consultant’s version of luxury”. Every high end traveler understands this and that’s why they work very closely with the agents who understand their requirements. To break away from this trend we could come up with an App for Sri Lanka tourism products and services. We could work with Google and use their Maps and locations. How this app would work would be, say a traveler is in Colombo and she is looking for a luxury hotel. But this traveler is looking for smaller boutique places with personalized service. So the boutique property names that we have in Colombo would just be unknown locations for a first time visitor. Through this app if we could give the chance for the users to upload their reviews into the hotels, restaurants, excursions, vehicle companies, etc then before making a reservation, this traveler could read up on what the previous users have said about these places and then make an informed decision. It could be our own Trip Advisor app but much more extensive since we would be focusing on all tourist related aspects of Sri Lanka. The users will keep uploading their reviews and they will run it. This will be a good launching platform for new products and services and also make sure that the local suppliers having to maintain their standards.
Tour Operator Interaction – Indian Ocean Exclusive”
We always have to keep updating the knowledge of our foreign tour operators since they are the ones who’re really selling Sri Lanka to the world. (apart from the FIT business) So it’s important that we have Indian Ocean Exclusive” – an International Trade Show which showcases our luxury products and services. Since we are starting out, it’s a bit unrealistic for us to expect that we could host a mega event with lots of participants, with just selling Sri Lanka. We can look at other destinations who’re not competing with us directly such as Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles. Most of the luxurious clients that come to Sri Lanka like the combination of a round tour in our island and then take a short flight to Maldives to relax. This is something that we have to come to terms with and use this to our advantage. This event will bring together the luxury hotels, DMC’s of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles into one location in Colombo. This is an amazing collection of information and contacts that the European, Americas, Australian and other high end tour operators would be very interested to network with. We could provide 30 minute meeting slots from 9am to 5.30pm for 3 days. We will put all the registered exhibitor information into one online platform and any tour operator who buys the visitor pass to this event will get access to this online platform and they can see the exhibitors’ availability and start booking appointments with them. We could have competitions and the winners could win stays across the island. We also could do a Pre- Conference tour or a Post-Conference tour to make sure that the tour operators get to experience the country first hand.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says Sri Lanka’s leaders were locked in power struggle rather than paying attention to intelligence warnings about the bombings
The head of Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church Sunday called for the government to resign over its alleged failure to investigate an “international conspiracy” behind the deadly Easter bombings.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said the authorities had failed to identify those behind the suicide bombings that killed at least 258 people at three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo.
“The executive and the legislature were locked in a power struggle. They did not care about the international conspiracy against the country,” Ranjith said at the reconsecration one of the bombed churches.
He was referring to President Maithripala Sirisena’s failed bid to oust his erstwhile ally, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the ongoing power struggle between the two since October.
“The selfish power hungry leaders did not worry about ordinary people… The leaders did not heed intelligence warnings… the security council did not meet since October because of the power struggle,” he said.
“The current leaders have failed. They have no backbone. They must leave the government and go home,” Ranjith said.
In a hard-hitting sermon, Ranjith said he had no faith in the inquiries set up by the authorities to probe lapses leading to the April 21 bombings police have blamed on a local jihadi group.
“I have no faith in any of these committees and commissions of inquiry. These are election gimmicks. The leadership must allow someone else to run the country,” the cardinal said.
There was no immediate comment from the government.
Ranjith also lambasted the United Nations, saying it was only interested in the welfare of the dozens of suspects arrested in connection with the bombings and not the plight of the survivors.
“The UN representatives ask about human rights and they visit those who are in detention, but not the victims,” Ranjith said adding that Pope Francis gave him just over $90,000 last month to help the victims.
President Sirisena initially blamed Islamic extremists, but later began accusing international drug dealers of being behind the bombings, allegedly to destabilise his anti-narcotics drive.
The country’s police chief and the then official in charge of the defence ministry are being prosecuted for not acting on prior information about the attacks.
Just over 100 people have also been arrested in connection with supporting the local National Thowheeth Jama’ath group to carry out the bombings. The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility.
Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharamsena’s controversial decision to give six runs to England’s total, instead of five, from a deflected overthrow effectively sealed the faith for New Zealand in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 final
Kumar Dharmasena, a former Sri Lanka spinner, is one of the leading umpires today
It indeed was a judgement error to award six runs to England from an overthrow in the World Cup final admitted umpire Kumar Dharmasena but the Sri Lankan will never “regret” the decision.
Dharamsena had signalled to add six runs to England’s total, instead of five, when Martin Guptill’s throw from the deep raced to the boundary ropes after being deflected of a diving Ben Stokes’ bat.
The match was stretched to a Super Over which also remained inconclusive and eventually hosts England were declared champions on better boundary count, leaving New Zealand players in disbelief.
“It’s easy for people to comment after seeing TV replays,” Dharmasena told Sunday Times.
“I agree that there was a judgment error when I see it on TV replays now. But we did not have the luxury of TV replays at the ground and I will never regret the decision I made. Besides, the ICC praised me for the decision I made at that time.”
The TV replays showed that Adil Rashid and Stokes had not completed the second run when Guptill released the ball from the deep.
Dharmasena, who was standing as head umpire, consulted leg umpire Marais Erasmus and added six runs to the England total following the incident — four runs for the ball reaching the boundary plus two for running between the wicket.
England needed nine from the final three balls. This changed to three off two balls.
The 48-year-old added that according to the law, there was no provision to consult the third umpire on the incident.
“There is no provision in the law to refer this to the third umpire as no dismissal was involved.” he said.
“So, I did consult the leg umpire through the communication system which is heard by all other umpires and the match referee. And, while they cannot check TV replays, they all confirmed that the batsmen have completed the run. This is when I made my decision.”
Former international umpires Simon Taufel and K Hariharan had also come out and said the officials standing in the World Cup final erred by awarding six runs.
Law 19.8 of the ICC rules, pertaining to ‘Overthrow or wilful act of fielder’, states: “If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side, and the allowance for the boundary, and the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act.”
“One must understand that there were too many things on our plate. We had to watch the batsmen complete the first run, the ball being fielded, how it was handled by the fielder and whether the batsmen completed the second run. And where the throw would come from, the striker’s end or non-striker’s end.”
“In this case, we were all happy that the batsmen had completed the second run because the ball ricocheted off Stokes’s bat at the time of him completing the second run. So, we assumed that they had crossed each other at the time of fielder releasing the ball,” Dharmasena said.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz said Washington has no intention of setting up a military base in the country.PHOTO: REUTERS
COLOMBO (REUTERS) – The United States wants a special forces cooperation agreement with Sri Lanka to sidestep bureaucracy and has no intention of setting up a military base in the country, the American ambassador to the island nation said in a television interview.
The comments represent the latest attempt by ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz to assuage concerns over US involvement in the Indian Ocean island after plans to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) by the two countries was heavily criticised by local media and some political analysts who see it as a threat to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
Also called the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), it will establish the framework for US military personnel visiting Sri Lanka at the invitation of the government and is still being negotiated by both nations, Ms Teplitz said.
“The visiting forces agreement is an update to an existing agreement and it is designed to address a number of red tape issues,” Ms Teplitz told state-run TV channel Rupavahini in an interview late on Saturday (July 20).
Giving the example of the 2017 floods in Sri Lanka, Ms Teplitz said the government had sought help from the United States and it brought in relief supplies but the aeroplanes transporting them required clearance from the government.
The agreement would allow the United States to speed up these procedures, she said, so that when there is an emergency “we don’t spend time to cut through the red tape”.
Sri Lanka sits near one of the world’s busiest shipping routes in the Indian Ocean and over the last several years China has become a major investor, building ports and highways.
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India, which is just next door, is starting to push back against China’s growing influence and so are the United States and Japan, experts say.
Ms Teplitz had earlier this week dismissed the idea that the military pact had anything to do with China.
“China has nothing to do with the VFA; this is all about the long-standing bilateral partnership with Sri Lanka,” she said during a live Facebook chat on Wednesday.
She said the US and Sri Lanka currently renegotiate certain administrative issues around entry and exit of military personnel before every single training or ship visit, which takes up a lot of time.
The agreement lays down rules for the benefit of both countries – “meaning no base, no permanent presence of US troops”, said Ms Teplitz, adding that Sri Lanka retains the right to approve or deny all entry of people, vessels and aircraft.
The debate on the need to have such an agreement has taken centre stage especially after the Easter Sunday attacks and is driving a deeper wedge between the country’s President Sirisena Maithripala and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who are already at loggerheads.
Mr Sirisena said earlier in July he would not sign any military cooperation deals that are “unsuitable for the country”.
Days later Mr Wickremesingh told the parliament that negotiations are still on with the United States to agree on a pact but he too would not agree to anything that challenges Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
Colombo, July 21 (ECONOMYNEXT): Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals have increased to an average 4,000 a day in the second week of July from 3,200 arrivals a day a week earlier, recovering further from the Easter Sunday attack with more visitors from India, a top official said.
There’s a significant increase in arrivals now, and we are averaging about 4,000 arrivals per day,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Kishu Gomes told EconomyNext.
This is a 45 percent fall from the 7,026 average daily arrivals from July 2018.
Arrivals had plunged 71 percent in May 2019, immediately after the Jihadist terror attack on churches and hotels, to around 1,200 a day.
It had then recovered to 2,102 arrivals a day in June, which was a 57 percent fall.
Gomes said that tourists from neighbouring India have contributed most towards the growth seen in the second week of July.
In June too, the highest number of tourists (15,048) came from India, which has traditionally been Sri Lanka’s largest tourism market.
The industry is expecting more Indian visitors, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Sri Lanka in June, the launch of budget promotional packages and Air India restarting its third daily flight to Colombo from the second week of July in a show of solidarity for its neighbour.
A festival in August, which will include participation of Bollywood actors and Indian cricket stars is expected to boost arrivals further, Gomes had earlier said.
SLTPB is about to spend 416 million rupees on a public relations campaign and 500 million rupees on a short-term marketing campaign to drive global arrivals to Sri Lanka.
The cabinet has also approved a cut in aviation fuel sale prices, ground handling charges and an embarkation tax to reduce air fares to Sri Lanka.
The Easter Sunday attacks had targeted three luxury hotels in Colombo, while an attack on a fourth had failed.
Of the 259 persons killed in the attacks, 45 were foreigners.
Tourism advisories recommending against travel to Sri Lanka which were implemented immediately after the attacks had been relaxed in May and June, faster than many expected, helping the country recover faster, the central bank has said.
(The featured image shows Indians showing interest in the Sri Lanka stall at a travel mart)
The Bodu Bala Sena organization held (seemingly the first edition
of) its Siv Hele Maha Samuluwa or National Convention of Siv Hela at the
Bogambara Grounds in Kandy on July 7, 2019. Its purpose was, presumably, to
propose a democratic, non-violent way out of the present political morass that
the country is engulfed in. (Siv Hela is an ancient name for Sri Lanka. A
commonly accepted conjecture is: Siv Hela > Sihela> Sinhale > Ceilao
> Ceylon. Literally, the phrase means the Country of the Four Helas. Hela Diva
or the ‘Island of the Hela’ was another classical name for the country. The
people of the island were called Helaya3.s. The significance of the name ‘Siv
Hela’ is that it includes all the people who make the country their home, as it
did in ancient times. The idea of unity in diversity is implicit in that name.
When the well known historical, geographical, political, social, cultural and
geopolitical factors are taken into consideration, there is no better way to
restore and reinforce Sri Lanka’s national unity than to democratically
re-establish, in the form of a modern secular democracy, the Sinhalese Buddhist
State that came into being with the official introduction of Buddhism and the
simultaneous inception of the Buddha Sasanaya nearly 2300 years ago. It has
persisted down the ages, though perhaps not more than a nuclear entity at
adverse times caused by numerous foreign invasions and internal divisions. The
problem for the false guardians of democracy in the West is their failure or
unwillingness to accept the fact that the principles of secular democratic good
governance were anticipated by the long line of Sinhalese Buddhist kings from
Dewanampiya Tissa {307-267 BCE} down to Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe
{1798-1815}). The Buddhist state, of course, was subject to the pressures
exerted by the inevitable internal and external challenges that it had to
tackle in each specific period of its history like any other sovereign state.
Incidentally, a popular myth among most Sri Lankans that sometimes
assumes significance in the context of Tamil Sinhala interactive politics
concerns the racial identity of the last mentioned king: It is falsely claimed
that he was a Tamil. He was not a Tamil. The ruling family (the Nayakkars or
Nayakas) in Tamil Nadu that he belonged to was from the northern area known as
the Telangana State today and they were Telugu speakers. So Sri Wikrama, though
a Dravidian, was not Tamil. However, having been born and bred in Sri Lanka, he
was fluent in Sinhala as much as Telugu, and he was fluent in Tamil as well. In
Sri Lanka, he and his people were called Vadugas or Northerners. The Kandian
kings had a tradition of bringing their queens from Madurai. The last native
Sinhalese king, Narendrasinghe (but, biologically as much Nayaka as Sinhala, as
Gananath Obeysekere describes him in ‘The Doomed King’ pub. Sail Fish, Colombo,
2017, the source for this information) known as Sellam Nirindu or Playboy king,
was issueless. So he made the brother of his wife juva-raja or sub-king.
Consequently on his death in 1747, that Nayaka brother-in-law of his was
crowned king. This was the great Kirti Sri Rajasinghe the first Nayaka Buddhist
king who ruled till 1782. All the Nayaka kings including the last were
recognized by the Kandyans as their sovereigns, not because they were Tamil,
Telugu or some other variety of Dravidians, but because the Kandyan Sinhalese
accepted them as Sinhala Buddhist kings. This is similar to the racial ancestry
of the present British monarch queen Elizabeth II. The dynastic family to which
she belongs, the House of Windsors, is of German paternal descent. The original
name of the dynasty was ‘the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha’. The name ‘the
House of Windsor’ was adopted on July 17, 1917 due to anti-German sentiment in
the British empire; it was during World War I (1914-18). Who argues that
Elizabeth II is a German queen?
To resume the main topic, the writer watched the proceedings on
the Asian Mirror TV broadcast live from Sri Lanka. Named ‘Daeyama Eka
Rodata’ ‘The Whole Nation Gathered into One Mass’ and blessed by the Venerable
Mahanayakes of the Three Nikayas, it was attended by a large number of
yellow-robed bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, and lay Buddhists clad in white. (The
size of the assemblage could have been even larger but for the severity of
obstructions that the BBS had to contend with, and the fear psychosis
that gripped the nation after the April 21 Islamist terror attacks.) They were
a representative crowd that came from many parts of the country. In addition to
erudite monks, the Vedda Chief Uruvarige Vannila Aeththo – hereditary leader of
the forest-dwelling Vedda minority – was among the main speakers. The
convention was attended by members of other racial and religious communities as
well, including Tamils and Catholics. At the end of his one and a half hour
long speech, Ven. Gnanasara Thera thanked all those who contributed in various
ways to the success of the meeting which had to be organized amidst numerous
difficulties and obstacles; he also thanked the media persons who were there to
cover the event. This timely national reawakening rally in the form of a BBS
Convention was meticulously well organized and it was completely devoid of party
politics, while embracing representatives from all communities and religions.
The only fly in the ointment was the presence of a single active politician, of
whom, on the top of it, Ven. Gnanasara made special mention. He must have
genuine reasons for this; Sumathipala may be a contributor of funds for BBS,
and he may be involved in Buddhist resurgence activities. A national event of
its nature on such a large scale was probably unprecedented in independent Sri
Lanka.
Despite that, looks like, even within Sri Lanka, the event did not
receive the massive media coverage it really deserved. Except for the social
media, it would have passed globally unnoticed. This was not unexpected because
the money-controlled media have turned Ven Gnanasara into a terrorist worse
than Prabhakaran or Saharan, and the Buddhists into extremists, and Jihadists
into peace doves. This is regrettable. Native Sri Lankans, wherever they are at
present, can understand the determination of the large concourse of the
‘sivvanak pirisa’ or the ‘fourfold assembly,’ (male and female monks and the
male and female lay followers), as the classic Buddhist congregation is
traditionally described. Outsiders who have no familiarity with the dominant
Buddhist cultural tradition of the country or feel no empathy with people who
share moral values derived from that tradition might only see it as a brazen
show of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist extremism. There is no such extremism
involved here. The show of heightened Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism was
immediately triggered by the mindless Wahhabi terrorism that caused such mayhem
and destruction of property recently. It was probably a great disappointment
for critics of imagined Sinhalese Buddhist extremists that they got no
opportunity to blame them for the gruesome violence on April 21; their chagrin
grew when they found that Buddhist monks immediately got involved in the
voluntary rescue work trying to bring every possible form of relief and
consolation to the victims.
This writer doesn’t think that there is no media freedom in Sri
Lanka. But considering the pall of implicit censorship, apparently self-imposed
by the mainstream media, that hangs over the legitimate activities of
grassroots nationalist organizations that claim to stand up for the threatened
vital interests of the majority community, it is as if over 75% of the
Sri Lankan population are being denied their democratic right to freedom of
expression; the rightness or the wrongness of their views is a different
matter. This virtual media asphyxiation of the rising public awareness of the
existential danger that all communities, especially the Sinhalese majority, are
facing must be recognized and countered. This is especially menacing,
given the present government’s indefinite postponement of provincial council
elections. This virtual throttling of democracy is done by the powers that be
for their own ends, which are clearly not in the interest of the Sri Lankan
people. A government cannot do this with impunity because the politically
conscious Sri Lankans, particularly the most social media savvy millennials
(25-40 year olds) and the younger new voters (18-24 year olds) do not now
entirely depend on the mainstream media. They are the ones who are most aware
of the cruel irony of victims of violent racial and religious extremism of some
sections of the minorities being condemned, persecuted and silenced as racists
and extremists merely for trying to reveal to the civilized world what they are
actually experiencing. (The victims here are the majority Sinhalese.)Those who
want to stay in power only because they feel a need to keep promises made to
foreign powers as quid pro quo for helping them to gain power must remember
that any governmental meddling with the social media is going to prove
counterproductive.
The ‘reconciliation’ that powers that be claim is being
threatened by the activities of the BBS is only a threadbare slogan that they
invented to destabilize Sri Lanka. There has been no need for any special
reconciliation, because ordinary Sri Lankans of all communities were living in
harmony even during periods of the most violent confrontations between the
state’s security forces and the separatist terrorists at the time of the nearly
thirty year long conflict. The majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils were not
at war with each other; the government military was not targeting ordinary
Tamils, who were as much at the receiving end of terrorism as all others. But
the Tamil separatists, certain NGO mercenaries thriving on the suffering of
innocents, and geopolitical players and their local beneficiaries created the
myth of a communal conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities. Now
they have succeeded in introducing a religious dimension to this in the form of
the Wahhabist incursion under the suspected secret patronage of the same
obnoxious global gamesters.
Any opportunity that offers itself for the BBS bashing media
channels to attack it by misinterpreting or distorting whatever it says or does
in the pursuit of its genuine national goals is never given a miss by them
since they are in the thrall of those gamesome monsters of global power
politics. A news report about the BBS Convention in Kandy written by Buddhika
Samaraweera and published in the July 9, 2019 edition of Ceylon Today’s
weekly newsletter is an excellent piece of typical misreportage. It is a string
of lies. It will do to mention a few illustrative distortions it contains:
According Samaraweera, Gnanasara Thera said ‘action will be taken to set up a
Sinhalese Parliament, reliable for the people, adding that everyone should to
work together to restore the traditional systems of governance, which were lost
with the subjugation of Sri Lanka by Great Britain in 1815’. The monk said no
such thing. It is a willfully garbled version of the Thera’s words. What he
said was that MPs representing the majority Sinhalese must be able to form a
government without depending on the help of communalist minority parties.This
is to prevent the majority being unduly dominated by minorities as has been
happening for decades now. There is no fear of the minorities being neglected.
A Sinhala nationalist dominated government will look after minority interests
better than the racists that represent them now; nationalist minority politicians
will invariably participate in such a government
Again, Buddhika Samaraweera mistranslates the monk thus: People
were forsaken in the democratic concept introduced to Sri Lanka by the United
Kingdom in 1948. People have been deceived by this method and the people have
not been able to choose who is suitable and who is not suitable for the
Parliament or governance, and people have as a result, been rendered helpless
due to the actions of the present rulers ……”. This is not what Ven. Gnanasara
said. He actually upholds the democracy; what he was saying was that the
democratic system is being abused to the detriment of the people, particularly,
the majority Sinhalese through mishandled party politics. The few racists among
minority politicians exploit the divisions in the majority electorate that is
non-racist and have never voted as voting bloc. What the monk is saying is that
we have had enough of dividing ourselves on party lines and allowing ourselves
to be unfairly dominated by opportunistic minority politicians; let us also
persuade the Sinhalese to cast their vote as a voting block for once. This will
make minority voters to think in terms of national interest rather than
communal interest.
A highlight at the well attended BBS Convention was the public
announcement of a set of proposals for the Sinhala Buddhist state to be
democratically set up in the future. It included nine items, which can be very
briefly summarized thus (any misinterpretation that could occur is completely
unintended):1. effective implementation of Article 9 – which concerns the
status of Buddhism – of the existing constitution until a new constitution is
enacted in due course; the term ‘Buddhasasanaya’ must be defined to facilitate
this; 2. restoration of the Sinhala state, and the restructure of all relevant
institutions based on it, the Sinhalese should be defined as bhumiputras,
dividing people according to religion should be stopped, so Muslims should be
called Sinhala Muslims, Catholics as Sinhala Catholics, Christians as Sinhala
Christians, etc., the Sinhala State should be recognized as the homeland of
all 3. For national security a central operational command centre should
be established, all kinds of separatism (religious, racial, etc.) should be banned;
4. preservation of national heritage sites, protection and promotion of the
Sinhala language and literature, traditional Sinhala medical knowledge, etc.;
5. There will be one country-one nation-one law, and a new electoral system
will be introduced; 6. a sound economy with special attention to the agrarian
sector, a ‘web-baendi rajyaya’ (based on the concept of ancient waev baedi
rajyaya) i.e., an IT and knowledge based economy should be established; 7.
introduction of the English medium after the primary level for a patriotic
education system, proper population management, development of a national
policy for health and nutrition; 8. proper management of housing,
infrastructure facilities, human settlement, and population; irregular
sterilization targeting Sinhalese mothers should be immediately stopped, a
population control system that is common to all communities should be
introduced; and 9. Health and nutrition should be based on a broad national
policy that recognizes a favourable combination of Sinhala, Ayurveda, and
Western medical systems, halal certified food should be restricted to the
relevant community, it should not be imposed on non-Muslims by
force.
The proposal for the restoration of the Sinhala state that was
ceded to the British empire in 1815 needs to be understood as an ultimate
reaction to the continued machinations of forces that are opposed to the
majority Sinhalese reasserting themselves as an independent sovereign nation in
their own homeland of countless millennia, sharing it, as equal citizens, with
a number of minorities of different racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious
identities.
The ending of separatist terrorism in 2009 reassured all these
communities in their accustomed peaceful coexistence, promising a politically stable
Sri Lanka that started making strides in every sphere economic, social and
human development. But soon this was cut short by the powers that be to whom
the survival of the Sinhalese people who have abundant written and epigraphical
records of their over 2500 year unbroken history as a sovereign nation state is
of no concern.The emergence of a strong sovereign state with control over Sri
Lanka’s land, air, and maritime resources is probably thought to be not in the
best interest of the global powers competing in the region.
…….Everybody knew
that it was a carrot, for it was orange with a green top” – Rowan Atkinson aka
Mr Bean in one of his stage presentations
Another season of
carrots has dawned. And the above regarding carrots came to my mind, of Rev.
Bean reading a passage from his gospel to his congregation.
Now they are just beginning to pop up once again from various plots belonging
to various owners. However, does everybody know as Rev. Bean says that they are
just carrots?
On offer are
or will be few varieties and you may also see some dangling in front of you,
just beyond your reach though. Some carrots are quite nice with a healthy
orange tan and equally healthy tops of several colours and you can actually eat
and taste them with relish. Some perhaps are not fresh, yet still edible. And
some are but well and truly rotten and you can smell them from miles away with
their givers in company.
Since we have had a
few of these carrot seasons come and go through the political ‘farmland’ (I
opted for this word instead of the clichéd ‘landscape’) of our country over a
period of not so short seven decades, one would expect that our people now are
quite capable of recognising a carrot for a carrot, whether it is with a green
top, blue top or a red top etc., fresh or old and rotten.
Alas. No. They or the majority still seem to fall for it and run for it until
they realise as has happened before that it was indeed a carrot and nothing
else. And once the carrot season is over and the carrots disappear, it will be
once again back to the same old and barren farmland with people yearning for at
least the sight of a carrot dangling in front of them.
For the sake of
brevity, I will give you just two examples of carrots that you may have seen
and heard about already, these days.
One carrot in the
form of ‘tabs to school children’ has already been given, with perhaps more to
come. This is while we have school children, who are still short of even the
very basic needs at their impoverished rural schools. So before the tabs, there
is a lot more to be done such as improving their health, hygiene and other
amenities at their schools. If the learned Minister thinks that the tab is a
must, let it be so, by all means. However, please do not forget the rest. The
other day I saw a photo on Facebook with some rural school children wearing
helmets for the fear that the roof above them in their classroom may come
crashing down on them. Perhaps it was made up. However, the message that it
gives to us is clear and I am sure that such scenarios are not far from
reality, nowadays.
And the other is a classic. This particular ‘carrot-giver’ is
preparing/proposing to give free electricity to religious places of worship.
This is a very big carrot indeed and the ‘donor’ is acting as if the
electricity for this seemingly benevolent project, a carrot of benevolence, is
going to be generated in the backyard of his home and distributed at his own
expense.
Aren’t they
spending money on election gimmicks as if they own the treasury and also aiming
to boost their ego too at the same time? And another comes to my mind; ‘make a
name while you can, by hook or by crook’, which is a supplement to the familiar
‘make hay, while the sun shines’
Let us not fall for
the carrots any more, like we have done many times before!
Prolific punditry on the Easter Sunday massacre in Colombo has taken a pause because investigations have reached a stage where all sides have to take a political call. Different interests would like investigators to be nosy in different directions.
A calamity on a scale where nearly 300 people were killed and 500 injured immediately causes Intelligence agencies to descend with angelic intent, armed with all the technologies. A mystery which Hercule Poirot would leisurely solve over delectable wines and gourmet food is, with the arrival of the agencies, not solved in one go but incrementally, leaving space for stings and hisses, hints and guesses.
The agencies from the US, UK, Israel, Australia and India have been in a scrum according to sources. Even though Intelligence and Security are the responsibility of President Maithripala Sirisena’s office, the direction of the inquiry by the group is more to the liking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has taken Sri Lanka in its embrace. This is not what the agencies listed above are interested in promoting.
It remains a puzzle why Sri Lanka did not take action when Indian Intelligence (RAW) alerted them as early as April 4, weeks before the massacre. Have the differences between the President and the Prime Minister percolated down to Sri Lankan agencies too?
Clearly, Ranil is keen to sign the Status of Forces Agreement with the US before the elections next year. This would be anathema to the Chinese who share their confidences only with the President.
Opinion in Colombo is divided on India’s role. One view is that New Delhi and Washington would join hands to impede the Chinese. Others believe it is not in New Delhi’s interest to have the strategically located island transformed into a US base. New Delhi would prefer a drastically toned down, cooperative foreign presence.
How strategically important Sri Lanka is became clear to me during a visit to Mauritius some years back. My TV team did a feature on the tragic, homeless people from Chagos Island. The story is not easy to digest. An entire island was emptied of its population by the British along with the Americans to set up a base in Diego Garcia. The International Court of Justice ruled in February 2019 to return the island to its citizens. Has the Judgement been thrown in the waste-paper basket?
New Delhi has exerted its influence to keep Mauritius and Bhutan out of the Belt and Road project. Everything else in SAARC has gone the other way. Credit must go to the nimble, creatively ambiguous management of Foreign Policy. Modi-Xi Jinping summit in Varanasi in October may be the culmination of important developments.
The events of Easter Sunday have inspired important research. For instance, Weaponization of Religion as New Cold War Looms”. The paper has been written by Darini Rajasingham Senanayake, a Sri Lankan scholar and writer.
She wastes no time in coming to the point: China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative may well have been the prime target of the bombings that rocked the Indian Ocean Island caught in the crosshairs of super power rivalry”.
According to her, there is a clear effort to mislead Sri Lankans. She points to a video tape of Islamic State leader, Al Baghdadi purportedly speaking about the attacks on Sri Lanka. Arabic and French intelligence experts had no doubt that the tape had been doctored.
Hotels that were targeted were Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury. And there, says Darini, hangs a tale. These hotels were owned by Sri Lankan conglomerates which are into property development with the China construction company.
Four oceanic scientists who were staying at Kingsbury hotel were among the six Chinese who lost their lives. This has been confirmed by the Chinese embassy in Colombo. The deceased were from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanography. Chinese state-run Global Times reported that two other scientists from the First Institute of Oceanography, were scheduled to board the Chinese research vessel Shiyan 3. This was to be the start of an important China-Sri Lanka joint exploration mission in the East-Indian Ocean.
Darini sees a design in the venues that were attacked: Churches located among coastal communities with congregations whose livelihood depends on fisheries and other Indian Ocean resources in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. As continuation of the pattern, even luxury sea front hotels also became targets. No town in the interior was targeted.
She concludes: Marine affairs and the ocean is the red threat that runs through the design and detail of the selected targets.”
It is puzzling that instead of following the leads Darini Senanayake has focused on, the foreign intelligence agencies have dwelt more on the clash of civilizations and religious strife” as their preferred theme of inquiry.
All sorts of conspiracy theories begin to claim attention. A single column story from Nepal, where also Chinese are influential, on the inside page begins to look significant as part of a larger design. Near Lumbini in South West Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, five statues of Buddha are vandalized. Is someone trying to create Buddhism-Hindu strife in the Himalayan state? It is difficult to see what political spin can be given to this vandalism.
Likewise what earthly purpose would be served by promoting strife between two Sri Lankan minorities – Muslim and Christian.
There is another way of looking at Sri Lankan developments, exactly as Darini’s headline suggests. Since 2012 I have written consistently on Islamic terror being controlled by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia as assets” to unsettle societies with sizeable Muslim minorities – Xinxiang in China, Caucasus in Russia. Since this is Salafi Islam, it may have its uses against Shia Iran too. There is that whole turf of Central Asia. And, why forget India? For an elaboration of Terrorism as an asset”
White glove tea service at The Rubens at The Palace (The Rubens at the Palace)
Have £500 (CAD$817) to spare on a cuppa tea? A luxury hotel in London has launched the U.K.’s most expensive afternoon tea service, featuring a pot of tea made with leaves handpicked at sunrise in the highlands of Sri Lanka.
It’s tea fit for a queen. The experience at The Rubens at The Palace hotel in London involves gold tweezers, gloved service, and a rare tea blend selected by specialist tea merchants at PMD Tea.
Guests take their tea in one of the most extravagant tea rooms in the city, overlooking The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace.
What makes the Ceylon Golden Tips tea so expensive? To brew a pot of tea, expert tea pluckers have hand-picked the tips of the plant shoots at sunrise, when the leaves have been anointed by the sun.
The buds are then sun-dried on a velvet cloth. Under the sun’s heat and light, the buds turn from silver to gold in color.
As you would expect from a £500 (equivalent to about US$625) tea service, there’s a lot of pomp and circumstance to accompany the experience.
The dedicated tea master uses gold tweezers to pick the leaves and weigh them with precision. The tea is infused with still natural mineral water and poured from a silver tea set, in a “white glove” service.
The tea itself is described as “smooth, light and mellow” in texture, with hints of fruity notes. The leaves can be infused up to three times.
A pot of The Rubens Golden Tips Tea serves three cups and comes accompanied with scones, pastries and finger sandwiches.
The visiting UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly has appreciated the fact that Sri Lanka was able to recover and ensure the rule of law in the aftermath of the April 21 tragedy, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
It said in a statement that Special Rapporteur Clément Nyaletsossi Voule also expressed his condolences on the recent terrorist attacks that occurred in April.
Mr.Voule called on Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana at the Ministry on Thursday.
The minister said the freedom of association and peaceful assembly was guaranteed to the public under the present government which embarked on a new trajectory upholding the rule of law and democracy and engaging with the international community including the UN on the promotion and protection of human rights.
He said even with emergency regulations being effective, the rights of freedom of assembly and of association had not been restricted and observed that a number of protests/ trade union actions had been carried out in the country in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks.
The Special Rapporteur and his team attended a stakeholders meeting of relevant Government officials, chaired by Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha.
Representatives of Government agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka Police, the Attorney General’s Department, Department of Labour, Ministry of National Integration, official Languages, Social Progress and Hindu Religious Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Board of Investment (BOI) and Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) participated at the meeting.
The Special Rapporteur will visit Colombo, and several areas in the Northern, Eastern and South Provinces of the country.
During his visit, the Special Rapporteur will meet government officials, representatives of civil society, trade unions and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
He will also meet representatives of the United Nations system and other international organisations, along with other stakeholders in the country.
Following his visit, the Special Rapporteur will submit the Report of the country visit to the Human Rights Council at its 44th Session in June 2020.
The visit takes place on the invitation extended to the Special Rapporteur by the Government, at his request, in response to the standing invitation extended to all thematic UN special procedures mandate holders in 2015. S
Since then, Sri Lanka has received eight special procedures mandate holders and this year the Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture visited Sri Lanka from 2-12 April 2019.
In addition to this visit, Sri Lanka will receive two more special procedures mandate holders this year — the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief from 15-24 August and the Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity from 28 October to 8 November this year.
Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The Acting IGP has written to the National Police Commission (NPC) yesterday saying it is not possible to remove the CID from investigating Dr. Mohammed Shafi’s case and hand it over to the Police Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
The NPC on Thursday called for a report from the Acting IGP over the possibility of removing the CID from investigating Dr. Shafi’s case.
Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera yesterday said the Acting IGP has said in his letter that the CID has launched the investigation into the case in an appropriate manner in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure Act’ s clause 125.
The CID has informed the court in this regard and senior officials of the Attorney General’s Department had appeared on behalf of the CID in court. In this context, the Acting IGP said it is not possible to take the investigation away from the CID as it would create many legal and practical issues,” SP Gunasekera said.
It was reported that an attorney had lodged a complaint with the NPC stating that investigations carried out by the CID against Dr. Shafi should be withdrawn.
The lawyer had requested in the complaint that the investigations should be handed over to a Special Investigation Unit which should comprise police teams from the CID, the Kurunegala Police and the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).
Accordingly, the NPC earlier inquired from the Acting IGP about the possibility of handing over the investigations to the SIU. (
Hayleys Free Zone Limited (HFZ) today denied that the company has any involvement with a shipment said to be containing garbage that is lying at the Port of Colombo.
Video footage of the piles of biomedical waste shipped from the UK, recorded during the observation visit made by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), was released to the media yesterday (19).
The CEA has ordered to return the consignment of biomedical waste imported to Sri Lanka back to the United Kingdom.
Certain groups, media reports and social media posts had claimed that the shipment was imported into the country by Hayleys Free Zone Limited.
However, issuing a press release today, HFZ denied all allegations levelled against the company in this regard while clarifying that it is not an importer or exporter of goods.
Statements to the effect that HFZ imported these goods are therefore baseless and false,” it said.
Full Press Release Issued by Hayleys Free Zone Limited:
In light of recent adverse media publicity in relation to a shipment said to be containing garbage, Hayleys Free Zone Limited (HFZ) wishes to categorically state that the company has no connection to the cargo that is lying at the Port of Colombo.
HFZ is a legal entity established to provide logistics services to importers and exporters mainly with the aim of providing value added services for re-exports, as done in other free zones across the Globe.
HFZ is not involved in any way or manner with the said containers presently lying at the Port of Colombo. It is not the importer nor consignee nor logistics services provider in respect of the said containers.
There has also been adverse media publicity with regard to an earlier shipment, which was also not imported by HFZ. The said shipments were sent to HFZ by the importer for the purposes of processing and re-export. Some such cargo has already been processed and re-exported.
All others, once processed, would also be re-exported. The containers received by HFZ did not contain any garbage or other waste material as alleged in several media reports.
HFZ wishes to make it clear that it is not an importer or exporter of goods. Statements to the effect that HFZ imported these goods are therefore baseless and false.
HFZ denies all allegations levelled against the company in this regard and requests the general public not to be misled by these baseless allegations.
One of the matters under discussion at this point in time is whether the long delayed Provincial Council elections should be held before the presidential poll this year. This debate is driven largely by one man – the Chairman of the Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya, who has said that he will resign from the Chairmanship of the Commission unless the PC elections are held before the Presidential election. Everybody else in the country, the politicians, the general public and even the provincial councilors who have lost their positions as elected representatives of the people, appear to have forgotten about the provincial councils altogether.
Even the northern Tamil lobby on whose behalf the provincial councils system was created as a consolation prize that stops short of a separate state, have not been vocally demanding that the delayed PC elections be held. The Eastern PC ceased to exist on 30 September 2017, nearly two years ago. The Northern PC ceased to exist on 25 September 2018, nearly one year ago and there has been no demand for elections to be held either from the Tamil general public or even the politicians and political parties in that part of the country. One gets the feeling that even if the entire provincial councils system is allowed to die a natural death, there will be no outcry from the north and east asking for the PCs to be reestablished.
Be that as it may, we have to consider the question whether the PC elections can in fact be held before the next Presidential poll. According to Article 31(3) of the Constitution, the poll for the election of the President has to be taken not less than one month and not more than two months before the expiration of the term of office of the President in office. Since President Maithipala Sirisena was sworn in on the 9th of January 2015, under the provisions of Article 31(3), the next presidential poll will have to be held before the 9th December 2019. To see whether there is still time for the PC elections to be held, we have to calculate backwards from the 9th December date.
If President Sirisena desires to call for a snap presidential poll in the coming several weeks before the full expiry of his term of office, then under Article 31(3A) it is the President himself who will have to by Proclamation, declare his intention of appealing to the People for a mandate to hold office, by election, for a further term. Once such a declaration is made, the Commissioner of Elections will take over from that point onwards. If a declaration calling an early election is not made and the President remains in office till the end, under the provisions of Articles 31(3) and 31(5) of the Constitution read together with Section 2(1) of the Presidential Elections Act No: 15 of 1981, the Elections Commissioner is required to start the presidential election process by issuing a gazette notification fixing the dates for nominations and the poll.
Tight, but not impossible
Assuming that there is no snap presidential election called with the intention of trying to outmanoeuvre potential opponents, then the earliest date on which the Elections Commission can issue the gazette notification fixing the dates for nominations will be the 9th September 2019. The latest date on which the Elections Commission can issue that gazette notification will be 23 October 2019. What Section 2(1) of the Presidential Elections Act No:15 of 1981 says on this matter is that where the Commissioner of Elections is required by the Constitution to conduct the election of the President, he shall by Order published in the Gazette (a) fix the date of nomination of candidates being a date not less than sixteen days and not more than one month from the date of publication of such Order, and (b) fix the date on which the poll shall be taken, being a date not less than one month and not more than two months from the date of nominations.
Hence the Elections Commission will call for nominations for the presidential election on a date between the 9th September and the 23rd October. The question whether the provincial council elections can be held before the next presidential elections are called depends on how long the PC elections process will take. Under the provisions of Article 154E of the Constitution, a Provincial Council stands automatically dissolved five years from the date of its first meeting. As of now, eight PCs have stood dissolved under this provision but no election has been held. Only the Uva Province still has a functioning provincial council. Be that as it may, when a PC stands dissolved, Section 10 of the Provincial Councils Elections Act No: 2 of 1988 kicks in, and the Elections Commission has to call for an election to that provincial council within one week.
The notice issued by the Elections Commission in this regard has to specify the period during which nomination papers will be accepted by the returning officers of each administrative district in the provinces which will be going in for elections. The nomination period has to commence on the fourteenth day after the notice of elections is issued by the Elections Commission and end on the twenty-first day after the issuance of that notice. Thereafter the returning officers of the districts have to fix the date for the poll being a date not less than five weeks or more than eight weeks from the date of publication of the notice. What this means is that the earliest that elections to the PCs can be held is six weeks after the dissolution of a Council and the latest is nearly nine weeks. Going by this, it is possible that even if the provincial council elections are declared at the end of August this year, there will still be enough time to hold both the PC elections and the Presidential elections this year.
It will certainly be a tight run, but it will not be impossible. Back in 2014, the Uva PC election was held on 20 September 2014 and the Presidential election was declared on 20 November 2014 just two months later. There is no need to have a gap between the conclusion of one election and the declaring of another. Elections can be held back to back if necessary. At the present moment, what the Chairman of the Elections Commission seems to have in mind are back-to-back PC and presidential elections. If this actually takes place we may experience the shortest gap ever between two elections in this country.
Why the PC elections were delayed
The reason why the provincial council elections could not be held when due was because the government hurriedly changed the provincial councils elections system in September 2017, just a day or two before the Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Eastern provincial councils were to stand dissolved. The immediate purpose behind this exercise was to put off the elections. The method by which this change was effected was by bringing sweeping committee stage amendments to a Bill that had originally been gazetted and introduced in Parliament to increase women’s representation in the provincial councils.
On the day that Parliament was to make changes to the system of elections to provincial councils, at around 5.00 pm the Attorney General by virtue of the powers vested in him under article 77 of the Constitution informed the Speaker that the Bill to increase women’s representation in parliament which had now been changed completely to become a Bill to change the system of elections to the PCs, could not be passed without a two-thirds majority in parliament. The government which was desperate to stop the provincial councils election from taking place at any cost, filibustered in Parliament until they were able to collect enough MPs to make up a two- thirds majority. Even when the two-thirds majority was assembled, that was not the end of the story. Some of the smaller political parties demanded that the proportion of candidates elected on the basis of the constituencies and proportional representation be changed from the stipulated ratio of 60%-40% to 50%-50%.
This major change to the elections law was made at the last moment literally on the floor of the house in order to prevent the smaller parties from voting against the proposed amendments. Thus, we have the anomalous situation where the proportion of constituency-based seats and proportional representation seats is 60%-40% at the local government level and 50%-50% at the provincial council level. So shameless was the government’s headlong scramble to avoid holding the provincial council elections.
According to the Act that was passed in September 2017 changing the provincial councils elections system, the delimitation report had to be completed within a period of four months and then tabled in parliament by the Minister in charge of the subject. Within one month of it being tabled in Parliament, the delimitation report had to be passed with a two- thirds majority. Even though the delimitation report was tabled in Parliament in March 2018, it was not passed within the stipulated period of one month. Thereafter, there was a long delay of several months during which the whole process was in abeyance. When it seemed as if the Joint Opposition was about to go to the Supreme Court to get a ruling that the amendments made to the Provincial Councils elections law were now defunct, the government suddenly placed the delimitation report on the order paper and after a debate, even the Minister who presented it to Parliament voted against it to buy further time.
Under the PC elections amending Act of September 2017 if Parliament does not pass the provincial councils delimitation report, the next step in the process was for the Speaker of Parliament to appoint a Review Committee comprising of the Prime Minister and four other members which would make recommendations within a period of two months to the President and the latter was to gazette the delimitation report with any changes made by the Review Committee. There was no provision in the law to extend the two-month period. This period expired on the 28th of October 2018 and no report was submitted by the Review Committee to the President. Thus, there is now no system of elections to elect representatives to the provincial councils.
Apprehensions about EC’s motive
If the PC elections are to be held, it can only be held under the previous system of elections as the new system was never put into place properly. This can be done only if Parliament annuls the PC elections amending Act of 2017 with a two-thirds majority or by invoking the provisions of Section 6(2) of the Interpretation Ordinance, which states that if an amendment brought to a law is for some reason inoperative, then the previous provisions of the law before amendment continue to apply. Even though getting Parliament to annul the amendment they made to the PS elections law in 2017 by a two-thirds majority, will be a complicated matter, invoking Section 6(2) of the Interpretation Ordinance is less complicated.
There are so many ways in which Section 6(2) of the Interpretation Ordinance could have been invoked. Firstly, the Elections Commission could have simply made a decision that since the PC elections amending law was inoperative that they were going to act on the basis of the provisions in the Interpretation Ordinance and proceeded to call for nominations for the provinces that had no Councils and told anyone who was against that decision to go to courts against the Elections Commission. In the alternative someone could have filed an FR case in the Supreme Court on the grounds that his rights have been violated due to the non-holding of PC elections. In the 1998 case of Karunatilleke vs the Elections Commissioner, Justice Mark Fernando said that the Constitution presumes that the country would have functioning provincial councils.
Another way would have been for the President to make an inquiry from the Supreme Court under Article 129 of the Constitution, as to whether the amendment made to the PC elections law in 2017 was operational or not. Even though the opinions given by the SC to inquiries made under Article 129 are non-binding, that would have provided the Elections Commission with the cover to proceed with the PC elections. Justice Fernando made it clear that the responsibility of the Elections Commission was to see that elections were held and not to play ball with the politicians in postponing elections. Going by that, what the Elections Commission should have done was to invoke the Interpretation Ordinance on their own, start the process of holding elections and tell whoever disagrees to go to court and obtain a stay order.
The question that begs an answer today is why the Elections Commission has wait for so long to press for the PC elections? Whatever they do now to have the PC elections held could have been done much earlier and the delay of the elections prevented.
One member of the Elections Commission even petitioned the supreme court against the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a general election in November last year. Though a member of the elections has petitioned the SC against the holding of an election, they have never petitioned the SC to have a delayed election held.
Now Rip Van Winkle style the Chairman of the Elections Commission seems to have woken up from a two-year slumber and is demanding that the long delayed PC elections be held before the presidential polls to be held this year.
At a presidential election, the vote gets polarized between the two main contenders. However at all other elections the vote gets fragmented among many political parties. If a PC election is held immediately before a presidential election, the vote will get fragmented at the PC elections and when a presidential election is held immediately afterwards, they may be hoping that the fragmentation that pertained at the PC elections will be carried forward to the presidential elections. At the presidential elections, political parties that contest separately at other elections come together to back one candidate. The yahapalanites may be banking on collecting votes by fragmenting at the PC elections and to come together later at the presidential election and that the synergy of that coming together will help them to win the presidential election on the basis of block votes as what happened in January 2015.
This could, of course, backfire if the SLPP sweeps the board as it did at the local government elections last year and the trend set by that carries forward to the Presidential elections. Despite this risk factor, it is better for the yahapalana side to try even a desperate gamble rather than simply give up without a fight. This is a government that has consistently fought shy of facing elections. In August 2017 it introduced changes to the local government elections law in order to delay holding elections to local government bodies that had been dissolved more than two years earlier in March 2015.
As the pressure to hold the local government elections mounted, the government made changes to the local government electoral system creating constituencies and then prevaricated further by citing delimitation disputes. The manner in which the local government elections system was changed was also unprecedented. Instead of gazetting a Bill to change the system of elections and then giving the people an opportunity to have its constitutionality examined by the Supreme Court, the entirely new system of elections was brought as committee stage amendments to a Bill that had been gazetted and then introduced in Parliament to correct some technical glitches in the local government elections law.
Thus, the Bill that was gazetted and introduced in parliament and even read the second time, was not the Bill that was finally passed by parliament after the committee stage, but something totally different. After having run around in circles for several months and after dodging persistent questions from journalists about the delay in holding local government elections, the government then got some of their supporters to file action in courts against the delimitation of wards in a large number of local government institutions so as to delay the election further.
It has to be admitted that the only reason why we had a local government election in February last year was because the head of the Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya announced that they would go ahead and hold elections to the 93 local government institutions in respect of which there were no delimitation disputes real or contrived. At that point the government caved in and decided to have elections to all the local government institutions because the damage would be done anyway even if elections were held for a limited number of local government bodies. The reason why the Chairman of the Elections Commission forced the local government elections on the government was probably because of the expectation that the UNP would win by default due to the division of the UPFA vote between the SLPP and the SLFP.
The hope of the Elections Commission seems to be that the political parties that came together in January 2015 and then held together through thick and thin colluding with one another in delaying elections to the local government institutions and the provincial councils and blocking the move to hold a general election, will contest the PC elections separately and then come together for the presidential election uniting behind one common candidate. They also probably hope that the SLPP may not be able to obtain 50% of the votes at a PC election due to the fragmenting of the vote and that this will carry forward into the presidential election as well.
UPFA General Secretary and MP Mahinda Amaraweera has gone on record as saying that he will move a private member’s motion for abolishing the executive presidency. Reflected in his statement is his realisation that the SLFP/UPFA has failed to secure the SLPP’s consent for fielding President Maithripala Sirisena as their presidential candidate. If Amaraweera goes ahead with his move, he might be able to receive the backing of the UNP-led government and its allies.
The next presidential election has become a huge problem for all political parties save the SLPP and the TNA. The SLPP is said to have decided to field former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa as its presidential candidate; it is expected to announce its decision next month though it has chosen to remain silent on the revocation of Gotabaya’s US citizenship and the ongoing court cases against him both there and in the US. As things stand, the TNA will throw its lot with the candidate who has the UNP’s blessings. The JVP wants to prevent the Rajapaksas from making a comeback, but cannot support a UNP candidate. It has said it will contest the presidential election, but as for its success, it has the same chances as a cat in hell.
The UNP has pledged to contest a presidential election after a lapse of about 15 years for want of a better alternative, but is in a dilemma as to who should be its candidate. There are three presidential hopefuls within its ranks and choosing one of them will be at the risk of a debilitating internal conflict.
Why is it that Amaraweera wants to present a private member’s motion for scrapping the executive presidency? Why can’t the UPFA do so as an alliance represented in Parliament?
Amaraweera and his boss, President Sirisena, are desperate to get out of the political mire they have got into. But it is only wishful thinking that they can achieve that goal through Amaraweera’s proposed motion, given the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their path. Any motion aimed at abolishing the executive presidency is doomed to failure without the JO’s support for it in that it has to be ratified with a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Besides, it will have to be approved by the people at a referendum. This is an even bigger hurdle.
The UNP and the JVP may agree to do away with the executive presidency in principle or even support the motion to be moved. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who cannot seek another presidential term, may be well disposed towards the abolition to the presidency, but it is doubtful whether the SLPP will agree thereto.
An attempt to abolish the executive presidency will entail the process of introducing a new Constitution. The government has already undertaken to write a new Constitution but come up against a brick wall on the question of devolution. Its attempts have been abandoned to all intents and purposes. The proponents of the existing Constitution view the executive presidency as the only safeguard against secessionist forces that are using devolution to achieve their goal. The government has put its constitution making project on hold, unable to tackle this contentious issue. The JVP’s 20th the Amendment has also suffered a similar fate due to, more or less, the same reasons.
There are only a few months to go for the next presidential election and even if all parties agree to abolish the executive presidency, there won’t be enough time. Amaraweera cannot be unaware of these difficulties. If so, why is he trying to have the executive presidency abolished at this juncture?
A drowning person clutches at anything. Amaraweera and President Sirisena, out of sheer desperation, seem to be toying with the idea of having the presidential election postponed. Hope refuses to go away like flies and mozzies.
Like
in many other countries, there are no mandatory academic or professional
qualifications required by a person to be elected as President, Prime Minister
or Cabinet of Ministers of Sri Lanka. Late Mr D S Senanayake’s
qualifications were never questioned when he became our First Prime Minister
under independent Sri Lanka.
Unlike
in 1948, now Sri Lanka has produced thousands of highly educated and
world renowned academics and professionals. Yet, our political system
continuing musical chairs with the same old seasoned politicians.
There
are rumours that the former Auditor General Mr Gamini Wijesinghe might come
forward as a Presidential caididate from JVP, as he continuously had close
links with Sunil Handunhetti during Bond Scam investigations.
Sajith
Premadasa’s academic credentials are now being questioned in public.
Sajith entered Mill Hill School in London. In addition to normal
admission requirements of GCE OL, the Mill Hill School has a direct entry
for those over 17 years of age, without GCE OL passes. Sajith did enter
the Mill Hill when he was just turned 17.
From
there he entered the prestigious LSE (London School of Economics) when his
father was the President of Sri Lanka. Sajith only completed the first
year studies, he fell ill and could not complete full course of
studies. However, the LSE awarded Aegrotat
Certificate, as a Bachelor of Science in 1991. Aegrotat is not Pass Degree
certificate. It is an Unclassfied” degree, not recognised as equivalent to a
Pass Degree. Towards end of first year, Sajith fell ill with Measles and
paralysis of his legs. Aegrotat Degree is a pathway of an exemption from the
rest of the course of studies, due to exceptional circumstances of the student,
such as serious illness. Aegorat is therefore is a Degree, but not
classified as a Degree, a Clayton’s Degree.
It
is common politicians twist and turn their academic and/or professional
qualifications. A former Finance Minister of the current government claim
FCMA signifying Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting
(CIMA), UK. However, his studies were in Certified Management
Accountants, Sri Lanka, not CIMA UK. However, CMA Sri Lanka is a well
structured examination, but recognised by CIMA UK to register as a
student, with few exemptions.
Similarly,
a former Power and Energy Minister who claim membership of Chartered Institute
of Electrical Engineers, Sri Lanka is also under a cloud. He did complete
the degree from Katubedda ( now prestigious University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka),
but did not complete the post qualification experience segment to qualify for
the B.Sc.Engineering.
The
National List of Sri Lanka was originally introduced to fill the vaccum, to be
able to recruit properly qualified men and women to become Ministers of
the Cabinet etc. But today Sri Lanka has not been able to make productive use
of National List, as originally intended. It is now a gateway for defeated
candidates, Buddhist Monks like Rathana to enter the Parliament. Going forward, it would be most appropriate to restrict the National
List nominees to Specialists, at least until mandatory minimum academic
qualifications are stipulated in a future Constitution Assembly.
Recently, I was
surprised to notice that some politicians and media in the western countries continuously
attacked China’s policy in Xinjiang, falsely claiming that a large number of concentration
camps” violating human rights have been established there. But what is the true
story?
The Grand Bazar (market) in Urumqi, Xinjiang,
2018
In Xinjiang
have settled as many as 47 ethnic groups, including the Uygur, Han, Kazak, Hui,
Mongolian, Tajik etc. Among the 24.4 million population of Xinjiang, nearly 13
million are Muslims. The Chinese government has attached great importance to
maintaining the ethnic and religious harmony, as well as the economic and
cultural development in Xinjiang. There are 24,400 mosques in Xinjiang by far,
which means one mosque shared by every 530 Muslims, an even higher proportion
than some Islamic countries. In Xinjiang, television programs are broadcast in
multiple languages, and diverse ethnic groups are allowed to use their own
languages in lawsuits and election. Chinese, Uygur and Kazak languages are
equally available in The National College Entrance Examination. All the facts
clearly prove the so-called oppression of Muslims” a total fake news.
a training center in Xinjiang, 2018
However, such
stability and prosperity in Xinjiang is not what some external forces wish to
see. Since the 1990s, under the combined infection of separatists, extremists
and terrorists, both domestically and internationally, Xinjiang has seen thousands
of violent and terrorist crimes, leading to huge casualties of innocent
citizens and death of hundreds of policemen. Those terrorists such as East
Turkistan Islamic Movement have already been identified by UN and many
countries as international terrorist organization.
As a precaution measure to
fight terrorism, the Chinese government has established vocational training centers
in Xijiang, in accordance with the Constitution and the
Counter-terrorism Law. These centers are in fact boarding schools, where
lessons on national language, laws, vocational training and deradicalization
are offered for free, so that trainees can master a skill and achieve
self-reliance after the training. It is a common sense that any citizen, no
matter in which country, should be able to use the national language; laws of
all countries shall not be ignored or even overridden. Lack of access to
necessary vocational skills will cause unemployment and poverty, which would
become soil nurturing extremist ideas.
In Xinjiang, trainees sign
agreements with the training centers, share free food and accommodation, and
enjoy all fundamental rights. Trainees can have home visits on regular basis
and can ask for leave for personal affairs. Families are also free to visit and
to video chat with them.
What is most significant
and important is that since the establishment of training centers, no violent
or terrorist activity occurred in Xinjiang for more than 25 months, and the
overall security has been largely improved there. In the year of 2018, tourists
to Xinjiang, from inside and outside China, numbered over 150 million, with a
40 percent growth comparing to the year of 2017.
Riot in Xinjiang, 2009
Riot in Xinjiang, 2009
The international community
will no longer easily believe the rumors of western media. On 12th
July, 37 countries of diverse regions, nationalities, religions and social
systems co-signed a letter to United Nations Human Rights Council, supporting
China’s policy in Xinjiang and objecting politicizing human rights issue. They
speak highly of China’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization efforts in
Xinjiang, including the establishment of training centers, which they believe
will benefit the security and stability of China, the region and the world. It
is worth mentioning that many among these 37 countries are actually Islamic
countries. Because many countries also suffer from terrorism, extremism and
separatism, they fully understand that the real problem in Xinjiang is the
threat of terrorism, and strongly support China’s anti-terrorism practice in
Xinjiang.
About two weeks ago, on 7th July, I had an opportunity to visit Negombo, mourn in the St. Sebastian Church, and visit the children injured in the 21/4 terrorist attacks. I can strongly feel the pain of the Sri Lankan people from all ethnic communities. The attacks reminded us once again that terrorism and extremism are common threats for both China and Sri Lanka. We believe that people from all circles of Sri Lanka society can tell what is right from wrong, and can fully understand China’s efforts in fighting terrorism, extremism and separatism. Let us work together, enhance our cooperation on security and law enforcement, encourage more exchanges between different ethnic and religious groups of our two countries, and uphold peace and safety of our two peoples.
Ambassador
Cheng Xueyuan Visiting St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, 2019
Dilrook’s
comment must be printed in RED and posted in every street corner of this
country. Read any and every article in our newspapers and journals. They all
establish and confirm the stark reality that ‘we live in a fairytale’. Hope as
regards the hopeless is not hope. It is delusion. The vast majority of our
Sinhala writers are personifications of Nero playing his lyre and singing while
Rome was burning. The core issue has not filtered into their consciousness.
Even those who strike the alarm do not advance compatible solutions. Every
remedy they foresee is from within the existing structure. It does not strike
them that the prevailing frame-work is totally sterile and inapt to restore the
status quo which is Sri Lanka – the land of the Sinhala.
Yes
the Sinhalese need a Sinhala Buddhist nation. Both realities, Sinhala and
Buddhism have undergone a massive erosion, so that calling this nation
Sinhala-Buddhist is being taken by minorities with a pinch of salt. That the
whole Island is NOT Sinhala-Buddhist is obvious. The North is exclusively
Tamil. The East is predominantly Tamil and Mussie. What about the rest of the
country? Well, it is fast being flooded by Tamils and Mussies. Wattala,
Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia…name it: they are all gone. The others are fast gong…going.
Hope that someone or something will fix this is day-dreaming at its worst. It
must be called for what it is: ramblings of deluded minds.
We
cannot expect the Buddha to visit this country again. If he does, the Hindus
will brand him ‘Vishnu’: that is what it is in India. The mussies will declare
him to be a prophet of Allah: that is how they consider Jesus. They will change
the nature of Buddha and Buddhahood making him unrecognizable to even die-hard
Buddhists. Indeed: how long are the Sinhala people going to tolerate this
nonsense of the tyranny of minority politics? The answer cannot be evaded. The
truth is before all eyes to see. It is: Forever until the Sinhalese are no more.
If
one reads the Mahavamsa, it becomes obvious that Sri Lanka is a country under
siege. The veritable symbol of this reality is the image of Duttu Gemunu lying
curled up in his bed. How can I stretch myself when the enemy is all around?
Nothing of that has changed today. It is even more fearful. They have
penetrated into the Sinhala heartland from all directions. ‘‘This is the
reality. House by house, road by road, school by school, shrine by shrine,
village by village, later district by district go to Tamils and Muslims but the
converse is not true.’’ (Dilrook). What is even more tragic is that ‘‘No one is
interested in this and no one can fix this.’’
Indeed
no one can fix it. Do not count on the Diyawanna Oya rulers of both ruling
party and opposition. They all had their way and their say at some time, and
.they all flopped. They will play the same old game until their chairs are
pulled away from underneath their filthy backsides.
If
history is a factor to go by there is something that should strike our minds.
We know how SWRD died. He came into power with the same hands that took that
power away from him. They gave their ballot for him, and fired their bullet
into him. No doubt there was much intrigue and machination about which
speculation will always be rife. Yet there is no mistake in the assertion that
SWRD was bending backwards to accommodate the Tamils. Tragically yet
symbolically the men who paid the ultimate price were ones in the yellow robe.
They put him on the throne: they brought him down.
We
all know the legend of the dying young rebel monk who entered the womb of
Vihara maha Devi and emerged as Duttu Gemunu. The monks led the Sinhala
regiments even incrusting Buddhist relics into their spear heads. And when the
war was over, many of them, including famous Dasa Maha Yodayas donned the
yellow robe. We saw how a monk assuming a fast unto death made the powers that
are to tremble. We saw the immense gathering of monks in Kandy and heard their
rumblings. What we are seeing could well be the tip of an iceberg.
The
Theravada doctrine established by the Sinhala Sangha is not just another form
of Buddhism. It is a radical version of the Buddhism known in India. It was
conceived and elaborated specifically to meet the unique challenges faced by
our island nation, Lanka. It was the threat of Indian invasions and the
absorption of Buddhism into Hinduism. Theravada was like cannons placed on
bastions and turrets pointing at the sea to safeguard that treasure. Did not
Duttu Gemunu says that he agonized at being circumscribed by the ocean? Theravada not only safeguarded Lanka, it also
safeguarded the Buddha who left India and stepped into Lanka consecrating the
land with his hallowed footstep.
What
am I advocating? Is it violence? Is it killing? It is time to call a spade a spade.
The blessed one never laid down commandments. Thou shall not kill is not a
commandments ascribable to the Buddha, certainly not the Buddha of Theravada
Buddhism. The Blessed One insisted on right thought and right action. It is for
his followers to take right decisions and translate them into right actions. If
that right action makes the Sinhala to kill and be killed then so be it.
The
question is: how long are the Sinhala people going to tolerate this nonsense of
the tyranny of minority politics? The answer predictably is: Forever until the
Sinhalese are no more. But the Sinhalese being no more means Theravada Buddhism
becoming extinct. It means sending the Buddha into oblivion. It means the
Buddha becoming Vishnu and a prophet of Allah in the very land that once was
the land of the Sinhala of Theravada Buddhism, of the chosen sons of the Buddha
and in his chosen land.
What
is happening in Sri Lanka is not a political upheaval. It is a crime against
the Buddha. We know the following verse that sprang from the lips of a monk, a
guardian of the nation. The sword is
pulled from the scabbard, it is not put back unless smeared with blood. Our
mothers turned their blood to milk to make us grow. Not for ourselves but for
the country. My brave, brilliant fighter son leaving home to defend our cause.
That act of merit is enough to reach Nirvana.
The
tragic situation facing the Sinhala-Buddhist nation cannot be cured any more by
the ballot. The presidential election will be just another farce. Is there an
alternative? YES. Enlightened minds among Sinhala-Buddhist know it. It is NOW
the time to have recourse to it. The treacherous rulers must go.
Abby Martin sits down with Peter Phillips, former director of Project Censored and professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. His new book Giants: The Global Power Elite” details the 17 transnational investment firms which control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they are kept in power by their activists, facilitators and protectors.
A wave of controversial
agreements none of which anyone has seen are being drafted by foreigners and
envoys are making open statements on them. US envoy recently claimed Sri Lanka’s
land administration is poor & so MCC is recommending changes. MCC is an arm
of the US government. Why has Sri Lanka’s legal fraternity not raised the issue
of foreign interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs?
Citizens of Sri
Lanka enjoying free education owe something back to the Nation and Sri Lanka is
in a miserable situation for the lack of the legal fraternity exerting the need
to play a role in the governance of the country. The legal fraternity &
academics must now wake up to the reality that land law and the land policy is being
changed simply because a country is handing out some money.
How aware are Sri
Lanka’s lawyers of new laws being introduced to the country by foreign lawyers?
These new laws and electronic systems designed by foreigners claim to manage our
land transactions but something our legal circles are all not aware of.
The role of our
lawyers have sadly got restricted to running to court every time a statute is
suddenly presented in Parliament giving them just 7 days to not only read the
Statute but to file arguments against it.
The Land Special
Provision Bill is a good example. The Bill was presented without any lawyer
having seen the statute. A Government minister thought it a big deal that the
Bill was drafted by foreign economists with a few inputs by locals associated
with them. However, how can a Bill that is meant to change the land policy and
land law of Sri Lanka be kept hidden from the citizens?
There have been
cases where Government has been cunning enough to pass Bills when Courts are
about to face vacation or on a Friday which omits the weekends from the 7 days
reducing citizens right to file petition to 5 days. Politicians cannot be
allowed to get away by passing dangerous Bills that are a threat to the
sovereignty of Sri Lanka and the land rights of future generations.
Let us wake up to
some realities. Can our lawyers in this situation permit foreign hands to
change the land policy and the land laws without their knowledge?
A senior lawyer
when consulted pointed out .that as far back as 1970’s the World Bank made it
pretty clear it was soon going to set standards for land reforms departing from
the colonial statutes that existed. They wanted to introduce Title
Registration, repealing the Common law and the deed system that was practiced
in the country for 100 years.
Very fortunately
timely legal solutions were suggested by Hon Justice Amerasinghe with help of
the Governor of the Central Bank and the Government at that time. This law
called Title Registration was introduced 20 years later without any further
consultation with lawyers, when we had a draft of a better statute.
Today, we are all
seemingly shocked about the Millennium Challenge Corporation proposal. However,
the proposal is an outcome of numerous reports by World Bank & USAID that
studied Sri Lanka’s land laws, colonial statutes and devised their solutions
obviously based on what was advantageous to them
Where were Sri
Lanka’s policy makers and legal academics when all this research and reports
were being done by foreign parties. How did they visit all the official places
such as land registries survey departments in Colombo and outstations to make
these reports – why didn’t the State apparatus wonder what they were up to and
they were studying our systems over several years! The outcome of their
research are these reports
Why did we not improve
the land administration and the land law before they could intervene &
demand the changes?
Why did we remain
with the statutes which were a colonial legacy? The academics in law had not
played a role in Sri Lanka’s legal status relating to land statutes – which is
a must.
If our legal
fraternity were on the ball they would have seen the changes coming & would
have known the dangers of all the statutes passed & raised the concerns
before the Bills became enacted.
Presently the Land
Bank Statute and Port City Act is prepared and is to be passed. The Land Bank
Act was approved by AG & Legal Draftsmen – According to Act 21of 1998 can
there be 2 land bank registers? Why didn’t lawyers come forward to raise this
when the proposal was first made? Obviously none of them knew about the
dangerous clauses.
How many lawyers
have studied the Port City Act? Have they demanded that Government share these with
the legal fraternity of Sri Lanka?
How aware are our
lawyers about the Land bank Act which is approved by the AG and the Legal
Draftsman. According to Act 21 can a new register is to be prepared under the
Land Bank Act ? The register under Act 21 is final and occlusive, the Act specifically
excludes any other statutes
In 1998 a top down
legislation modeled on the Australian Torrens system was introduced by Act No
21 of 1998 known as Bim Saviya. How did this law that repealed the entire
Common law that was practiced in this country for 100 years pass through the
AG‘s department and the Legal Draftsman Department. Was it debated in Parliament?
Can our lawyers practice the law of Australia to maintain property rights in
Sri Lanka?
A senior lawyer
pointed out that the Act 21 had confused the lawyers. The act has repealed the entire Common law and the
judicial precedence which existed for over 100 years relating to land law.
Did our lawyers
draft this statute or was it drafted by foreigners with the help of locals
working for these foreigners? Unfortunately, this new law is questionably
unconstitutional because it does not permit land owners their fundamental right
to access court for grievances. The judicial powers to hear land cases have
been repealed as well as laws such co-ownership law and law of prescription.
The legal
fraternity did not take lessons from this and it is no surprise that the 2nd dangerous
act was drafted some 20 years later with the Land Privatization Act which the
present government claims was drafted with assistance of local teams but by
foreigners.
It is also revealed
that the re-engineering process suggested to this Act by the Bar Association
was not accepted. The electronic systems introduced that follows with the
re-engineering process of Act 21 was attended to by an appointee made after an
advertisement initiated by the foreign Embassy pushing the MCC & making
very controversial public statements.
All this is taking
place in the midst of land fraud which is presently extremely pervasive as the
new law was superimposed upon the old laws that have plenty of loopholes t commit
forgery of deeds.
The Registrar General’s Department states that almost 40 –
50% of the land deeds in Sri Lanka are forged documents. Foreign experts reiterated that before
electronics was introduced this matter has to be cleared as land transactions
will be registered within one day or few hours and this will be ideal for
fraudsters. What are our lawyers doing about this?
The act 21 has also repealed the deed
system and the owner today ends up with a computer print-out for his ownership
document without deeds. Soon the government grantees will have the same law
applying with a computer print-out for their ownership.
Rights of the
grantees under the land privatization
bill with operation of Act 21 of 1998
The judiciary is made
subordinate to the executive, by this Act Section 33 of the Act where judiciary
is given no power to hear cases related to land ownership especially if the
grantees ownership is affected by fraud. The grantee will have to seek
compensation in lieu of his ownership. The judiciary cannot question the
entries in the registry made by the Registrar General.
Soon the grantees
rights will have to be moved to the new register by the Commissioner of Title (new
title)
How did an the Act
pass fthe judicial process to the executive to determine owners of our
country’s 10 million blocks of land?. The new office known as the Commissioner
of Title. The adjudication of ownership is made by untrained officials.
Under Act 21 a
grantee under the new bill could not pass half share of the land to his or her spouse or child to be a co-owner.
The banks cannot
give them loans if the wife becomes a co-owner.
How can he obtain bank loans if a salaried family member was not joined as a co-owner
Were the lawyers
aware that the law of co-ownership and the law of prescription was removed at
the Bill stage of Act 21 of 1998?
When land is
privatized the question of injustice to women surfaces. As personal ethnic laws
apply to them (Thesawalamai, Muslim & Kandyan Laws ) Earlier when the lands
belonged to the Government all ethnic
groups were Governed by one law . Only
issue was the superior inheritance right of a son which could have been
repealed easily. Women’s land rights
without equality constitutes a violation of the principle of ‘equality’ assured
to citizens in the constitution.
Do we have lawyers
aware of the future scenario once the Land Bank Act & Port City Act becomes
operational? Can lawyers afford to rely on the 7 days to study statutes &
file complaint? Are the foreign lawyers not taking advantage of this?
1]A
fully transparent Request for Proposals has been made from reputed UK based law
firms to evaluate the draft CIFC law and the selected British law firm is being
involved in drafting the detail rules regulations of the CIFC in accordance
with the common law and in line with the constitution, he revealed.
2]This will take place before land is leased on 99-year
basis to the project company.
3] senior
official of the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs said the
zone will have its own legal, regulatory, tax and business infrastructure. And,
this is where constitutional law experts see the problem. In Sri Lanka, unless
you change the Constitution, you cannot have a separate law even in a newly
created area of the country,” one President’s Counsel told the Business Times,
noting that arbitration decisions and judicial rulings on commercial matters
should be made under the existing Sri Lankan law.”
Sri Lanka although
pushed by donor agencies to make over-night changes to land law, must tread
cautiously.
The European
Economic Committee have created the European Economic Area in 1994 to prevent
their countries being exploited by land grab etc but these countries are
attempting to what they are protective of in their countries to other
countries! Should Sri Lanka also not have its own protective clauses in place?
Our ancient state
land statutes already have enough of protective measures in place. The problem
is that governments are getting influenced by money inducements &
diplomatic arm-twisting.
Sri Lanka has
stagnated with old colonial laws to manage the activates of the 21st
century with entry of electronics.This is where the vacuum of practicing
lawyers, surveyors, legal academics, environmentalists are felt because there
is no united front pooling their expertise to safeguard every inch of Sri
Lanka’s land & resources. This vacuum has resulted in external forces
manipulating the politicians to their advantage with no legal avenues to block
them. We cannot go on like this in particular since we are at a very crucial
juncture where the likelihood of statutes being passed which will apply foreign
laws inside our own island nation looks more than a possibility questioning the
risk to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
Had the BASL
demanded a greater strategic role together with associated entities these
dangers could have been avoided but it is not too late. We cannot be satisfied
with BASL simply issuing statements. Their role has to be far more pragmatic
& pro-active.
The frequent
references made by senior lawyers raising the greatness of late Justice Dr A R B
Amerasinghe who delivered the landmark Eppawela Phosphate verdict and the
yeomen service by late Hon. Justice Christy Weeramantry should be the bible for
all lawyers that are bound to protect the sovereignty & territorial
integrity of Sri Lanka as Justice Amerasinghe did in his brilliant verdict
quoting the Mahavansa & the great deeds of our nobel Sinhala Kings. Land
cannot be a commodity. Land must remain for future generations & this must
be enshrined in the constitution & the legal fraternity are beholden to
uphold this.
Government must request from the affectionate wellwishers and donors for funding to set up Research Group. All statutes relating to our lands must be made available for the legal entities and academic supervision like in the prosperous nations like USA, UK Australia etc. The laws must be known to the public. There must be regional dialog as the donors are presently working in the entire Asian region and the 53 Commonwealth countries with their agendas.
Another presidential election is
around the corner. And that means the nation is forgotten once again and
political clans take centre stage.
There is a sinister side to all
presidential elections.
All presidential elections after
1994 showcased internal divisions to the whole world. The ethnic group
classified as ‘Sri Lankan Tamils’ demand Tamil Eelam – a hypothetical state
making up the entirety of the north and parts of the east and the north western
areas. This has been an election issue since 1977. Similarly since 2002 the
ethnic group classified as ‘Indian Tamils’ have been demanding Malaya Nadu –
another hypothetical state within the hill country in the middle of the island.
All presidential elections after
1994 divided voters into two main camps very clearly separated out on a map.
The areas claimed as Tamil Eelam and Malaya Nadu are obvious on the election
results maps. This is the perfect opportunity for external meddlers to
interfere in local matters. What they see are three different countries within
the island.
Politicians understand this very
well but they don’t care. However, they do rely on this fact for their benefit.
People demanded referendums for the 13A and the proposed new constitution.
Politicians (including likely candidates for the 2019 presidential election)
stated that it is dangerous as it will display to the whole world our internal
divisions. Correct. However, why don’t they see the very same danger in
presidential elections? Surely, it’s an attempt to hide their real views on 13A
and the proposed new constitution. If a referendum is called they have to say
their stand and people will know they are not different to TNA.
Sirisena won the 2015
presidential election. He had support of the two dissenting Tamil speaking
areas. This calmed the international community down as the president was seen
to have won the confidence of the pro-India and pro-West minorities. What will happen
if the result is the opposite?
This happened in 1999, 2005 and
2010. In all these instances the international community put severe pressure on
Lanka to come up with separatist political solutions, address sham human rights
issues and downgrade the military. However, before 2009 it was a difficult
choice for the international community. Accepting separatist territories was
out of the question as one of them was controlled by a banned terrorist
organization. Even the Chief Minister of the East was a former LTTE cadre
accused of using child soldiers. The north didn’t have an elected Chief
Minister.
This is not the case since 2013.
There are governance mechanisms in place in each of these areas that have
devolved powers now vested in them.
More than anything else, the 2019
presidential election will be a massive display of a fractured country,
outright rejection of the winner with executive powers by the minorities and
existing divisions will be exploited by foreign powers for military purposes.
It is much worse than a referendum on 13A which federalist politicians of all
shades of patriotism have cunningly avoided.
May and June are the low season in Sri Lanka, but this year, following the Easter Sunday bombings, tourism ground to a halt. Hotels were empty, beaches were deserted and popular attractions that had been starting to suffer from overtourism were eerily quiet. The UK Foreign Office’s warning against all but essential travel was issued on April 25, effectively forcing UK holidaymakers to either cancel or postpone bookings.
Visitors in May were down 70% year on year. After the FCO changed its advice six weeks later on 6 June – and other countries lifted their restrictions – visitor numbers rose a little but were still 57% down year on year.
We had four yoga groups in May and June – they all had to cancel,” says Kevin Abbott, owner of Jim’s Farm Villas in central Sri Lanka. We effectively closed the hotel. Last weekend we had our first guests since the attack.”
![ඔබලාට රට පාලනය කරන්න බෑ.. දැන් ගෙදර යන්න.. පුළුවන් කෙනෙකුට රට දෙන්න.. කතෝලිකයන් ආණ්ඩුවට තීරණාත්මකව අහිමි කරමින් අගරදගුරු කියති.. [Video]](https://lankacnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/agara.jpg)
