Courtesy Adaderana

The Supreme Court today (25) issued an order preventing trial at Special High Court against Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case till the 1st of October, says Ada Derana reporter.

The order was delivered by the Supreme Court three-judge bench consisting of Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Gamini Amarasekara and S. Thurairajah considering an appeal filed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The case against the former Defence Secretary and six others was filed by the Attorney General, for allegedly misappropriating state funds amounting to Rs 33.9 million during the construction of the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana.

The Permanent High Court at Bar had rejected the preliminary objections filed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa stating that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the case.

The former defence secretary then lodged a revision petition with the Court of Appeal seeking an order suspending the rejection of his appeal. However the Appeals Court ruled that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the revision petition, hence, rejected it without taking it up.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa then filed a special appeal petition with the Supreme Court challenging the Appeals Court verdict.

This special appeal petition was taken up before the Supreme Court three-judge bench today (25).

Considering the submissions by defence attorney President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, the Supreme Court judge bench granted permission to hear the relevant petition.

Fixing the petition for support on October 1st, the Supreme Court judge bench issued an order preventing the hearing of the filed before the Special High Court until the Supreme Court’s ruling is delivered.

Courtesy Adaderana

Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF), Senior DIG M. R. Latheef, says he is still not invited to the country’s intelligence coordinating meetings and that he was invited to the National Security Council meetings only after the Easter Sunday attacks.

Testifying before the parliamentary select committee probing the terror attacks, the Senior DIG said that he had received the state intelligence chief’s letter on April 09 warning of impending attacks, along with a single annexure which had identified the Indian High Commission and main churches in Colombo as possible targets.

However, he said that he subsequently learned that there had been other annexures that had been shared with other agencies with more details.

He said those annexures had contained more specific details about the organization, what they are up to, specifics about their group and addresses and that he only received it during an interaction in the aftermath of the suicide bombings. 

Mr Latheef said he then realized that there was a wealth of information on the terrorist organisation and the individuals which was available with the security organisations where preventative action could have been taken.

The STF chief said after he received the intelligence chief’s letter, he took the initiative to check with the Indian High Commission, but they did nothing about the churches because there were no specifics and no request was made for the STF’s assistance. 

He said that when there is a requirement the IGP or Senior DIGs makes a request concerning assistance of the STF after which they attend to it.

I was under the inference that the territorial policing will attend to churches and that if they required STF assistance for additional security or searches or any other requirement, they would have made a request,” he said. 

Responding to a question, he stated that neither the IGP nor the Senior DIG of Western Province made any request to him for STF assistance. 

He said that he knows for a fact that every Tuesday the country’s intelligence and various organizations meet to review on many things and that if the STF was an important component the STF Commandant or a representative from the STF would definitely be invited for the review meetings. 

Replying to another query, he said the intelligence coordinating meeting is a very important meeting, but the STF has never been a part of that meeting in spite of the fact that at previous other meetings at Police Headquarters assertions had been made to the IGP that the STF would like to be in that meeting specially because they are providing security to the President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries. 

He also said that it would have been prudent if the information had been shared with the Senior DIG in charge of the Easter Province as well because most of the suspects are originating from that province.

He said that if they had more information on this they would have definitely shared because there should be actionable intelligence or information to go on. 

When asked whether he was part of the intelligence coordinating meeting held on April 09, Mr Latheef said that he was not part of the meeting and reiterated that even now he is not invited to the said meetings.

The STF Commandant said that he has made a request to attend the meetings, but has never been invited for it. I have made a request,” he said. 

However, he said that he was invited to attend the National Security Council meeting only after the attacks as he was invited for the meeting on April 23.

Intelligence coordinating meeting I have never been invited to date, but national security meeting on the 23rd of July after the attack I was invited and then I shared what I knew.”

He said he was never invited to security council meetings before the attacks.

Senior DIG Latheef further said that he heard through the media that now everyone says that the STF should have prevented the attacks, but pointed out that for the STF to act they should have actionable intelligence and a request should be made by those who have the information. 

The STF is always there to augment or to support the police. We are part of the police and a separate arm of the police,” he added. 

He also said that prior to the terror attacks, the Senior SIGs in charge of various provinces including the Easter Province had not saught the STF’s assistance with regard to any NTJ activities while requests for other matters had been made.

But the fact remains that when the 21/4 tragedy happened a lot of information came in and we have acted, he said, adding that because it was a crisis they did not wait for requests and acted on the information. It was a national security issue.”

I am surprised that why only after the incident they shared it with the STF,” he said. 

He reiterated that the STF’s role is to augment and the STF will act only if there is a written or verbal request unless it concerns designated areas such as narcotics which they have been given freedom to act on.

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

Dr. Mohamed Shafi, who is accused of allegedly amassing assets through suspicious means, performing illegal sterilization surgeries and having links to terrorist activities, has been granted bail this evening (25) following a lengthy trial.

The case against Dr. Shafi was taken up before the Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court for the third time at around 1.30 pm today.

Accordingly, the suspected doctor was released on four personal bails each adding up to Rs 2.5 million and a cash bail of Rs 250,000.

Appearing on behalf of the defendant, President’s Counsel Nawaratne Bandara pointed out, as the Dr. Shafi’s trial has raised furor in the society, certain groups of people including Buddhist monks are in an attempt to dismantle reconciliation by making statements to the media.

Since such deliberate statements are prejudicial to his client, the defense attorney requested the Kurunegala magistrate to remove the parties that are not related to the case from the court premises.

The magistrate then sought the opinion of Deputy Solicitor General Thusith Mudalige, who spoke on behalf of the Attorney General’s Department, on the matter. He responded that it is unnecessary to remove the other parties who had attended the hearing, if there is any aggrieved mother, she is entitled to know the details of the trial.

Speaking up again, PC Bandara pointed out that his client, Dr. Shafi, has the right to know the aggrieved parties and the attorneys who appeared for them.

Thereupon, a heated exchange of words between the accused and the aggrieved.

Defense attorney then defiantly said the aggrieved party that the attendance of the mothers, who lodged complaints against Dr. Shafi, is unrequired for the trial.

He also challenged the aggrieved party to prove if Dr. Shafi has incised fallopian tubes of any mother.

The attorney of the aggrieved party defended that the defense counsel’s comments are insulting to the motherhood.

The magistrate was then forced to request the defense and the aggrieved parties to respectfully assist the court proceeding.

Meanwhile, Deputy Solicitor General Mudalige, presenting submissions, told the court that among the total of 615 complaints received by the Criminal Investigation Department on the cesarean sections performed by Dr. Shafi, only some 147 complaints raised suspicions on sterilization. The rest of the complaints concerned complications in conceiving experienced by the mothers who had not passed an adequate time period to reconceive following their previous C-sections.

Accordingly, the 147 complaints raising suspicions fall under the Article 311 of the Penal Code Ordinance for causing grievous hurt”.

The deputy solicitor general further told the court that the charges laid against the defendant for allegedly amassing assets through illegal means have been directed to the Financial Crimes Investigation Division and separate investigations are being conducted to probe sterilization charges. However, there is no corroboration to prove money-laundering charges, he added.

Continuing to present submissions, the deputy solicitor general said investigations into sterilization charges have been temporarily halted owing to the court order which temporarily suspended the SHG tests that were to be conducted to confirm the allegations.

He requested the magistrate to issue an order to the directors of Castle Street Hospital and De Soysa Hospital for Women to submit a report on five-year data compiling the complications experienced by mothers who have underwent SHG tests.

The deputy solicitor general also made a request to order Derana and Hiru television channels to hand over the unedited video clips to the CID containing the statements made by certain individuals following the previous hearing of the case on June 27th.

The Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court granted permission to both of the requests made by the deputy solicitor general.

Speaking on detaining the defendant, the deputy solicitor general said the Attorney General’s Department has no objection to granting bail to Dr. Shafi, as he is detained under Article 311 of the Penal Code Ordinance for causing grievous hurt”, which is a bailable offence.

The defense attorney reiterated that it is unfair to imprison only Dr. Shafi as has not performed C-sections all by himself.

He further requested the court to grant bail to the defendant under any conditions as the CID and the Attorney General’s Department do not have objections against it.

However, the attorneys of the aggrieved party emphasized that the CID has not submitted any report to the court on the alleged illegal accumulation of assets by Dr. Shafi.

They raised objections for granting bail to the suspect citing that it could lead to pressurization of the mothers who have complained against him and have a negative effect on the ongoing investigations.

The magistrate has again asked for the opinion of the Attorney General on granting bail to the suspect and the deputy solicitor general responded that the Attorney General’s Department has no objections on the matter.

Accordingly, the Kurunegala magistrate decided to release Dr. Mohamed Shafi under bail conditions.

Courtesy The Week

South Asian government implores Britain to take back its hazardous waste

The Sri Lankan government says the UK must take back containers full of hazardous waste landing in its ports.

The South Asian country has accused Britain of dumping medical debris – including human remains – in Colombo, under the guise of metal recycling, reports France24.

Many of the containers were dispatched from the UK as far back as 2017, reports the BBC. Sri Lankan Customs Department spokesman Sunil Jayaratne said that a Sri Lankan businessman had illegally imported the containers and would face prosecution if he failed to return them to their point of origin.

Authorities said on Tuesday that they had already taken immediate action to order the re-export of the 111 containers abandoned at the port”.

Area residents claim that with the prevailing rains, the deteriorating waste would soon flow into the nearby canals,” the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror reports. If the waste reaches the marshlands at Muthurajawela, north of Colombo, it could eventually disperse into the ocean, threatening marine life.

Another 130 containers already transported from the port to inland facilities will be dealt with under environmental laws, Jayaratne said.

They include various clinical waste, including materials disposed from mortuaries, syringes, and other material. Some of these materials have been liquidised and deteriorated to the point that we cannot even examine them, and this waste is emitting a very bad odour,” Jayaratne told the Mirror.

Sri Lanka is internationally protected from waste imports through the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal, the most comprehensive global treaty on hazardous waste treatment.

On Wednesday, a group of environmentalists and Buddhist monks held a protest outside the British High Commission in Colombo, handing over a letter asking Britain to take back the containers.

Sri Lanka is not your dump yard,” read one sign.

The UK’s Environment Agency told the BBC on Wednesday that it was investigating what had happened, and that it has yet to receive a formal request from Sri Lankan authorities to reclaim the waste.

Earlier this month, Cambodia announced it will send 83 containers holding 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste back to the US and Canada in an attempt to crack down on a surge in unlicensed recycling plants. In May, the Philippines returned 69 containers to Canada which it claimed had been falsely labelled as recyclable plastic.

Southeast Asia has seen a huge spike” in waste shipments from the West, says Time, since China – formerly the largest importer of scrap plastic – banned further imports at the beginning of 2018, “because of severe pollution due to a poorly managed waste process”.

Mario Perera, Kadawata

BETRAYAL is the key word of the Sinhala history from time immemorial, from that of the Kings to the Diyawanna Oya assemblies.  Such betrayals facilitated foreign interference and foreign invasions of this country. Even during the Duttu Gemunu-Elara war, Sinhala Generals led Dravidian troops to battle, although Duttu Gemunu had clearly stated that his fight was for the Sinhala-Buddhist nation.

Examples of inmates of the royal houses plotting and overthrowing kings abound. The classical example is that of Dhatusena and Kassyapa. The tragic result of such intrigue within the palace was the grip or hold the Tamils had over parts of the country since the remotest times. Another element of alliances going wrong for the country were the inevitable need our kings had for South-Indian brides. That story which begins with Vijaya lasted up to the Kandyan Kingdom, paving the way for a Dravidian to sit on the sacrosanct Sinhala-Buddhist throne.

In more modern times, intrigue and betrayals among the Sinhala opened the gates for European domination of the island. Much has been written in these columns recently about Don Juan Dharmapala. Realistically that name must not be used to identify an individual. Countless Sinhala Don Juan Dharmapalas have left their mark on our history. While some stab in the back, yet others do so face to face. This latter phenomenon is called crossing over. Differently from the former this is a show of open defiance.  Both however are invariably done for personal gain. The attitude is always ME FIRST.

How many unpredicted cross-overs have brought down governments be it immediately or eventually? Think of SWRD and Rajapaske crossing over…of C.P.de Silva crossing over…Of Dahanayake crossing over….Think of more recent times when MPs of one party cross the aisle and even unashamedly cross back! Such somersaults was even done by Chandrika and Anura Bandaranayake, as well as the present speaker. Has the country benefitted from such stabbings, whether in the back or from front? The present situation of our country will provide the irrefutable answer.

The personality of Don Juan Dharmapala has endured over the millennia.  Some are even now continuing to don that personality – the personality that epitomizes dishonour, treachery, and betrayal. As regards Sinhala rulers, the word betrayal goes hand in hand with back-stabbing. An unbelievable number of our kings died at the hands of their kith and kin. In his clash with the Cardinal, Sirisena evokes his own past which is tainted with DISHONOUR. Betrayal by back stabbing is inalienably linked to DISHONOUR.

Evoking this theme brings to my mind the death of JULIUS CAESAR and its aftermath.  When his closest friend and confidant BRUTUS stabbed him, the words of reproach Caesar uttered were ones of powerlessness, desperation, and anguish: ET TU BRUTE. These three words summarize all that went through the mind and heart of Caesar at that unexpected moment. ET TU BRUTE…Can this be?  Caesar was asking himself. HOW CAN YOU…Brutus!

In his speech, standing over the dead body of Caesar, Marc Antony playing to crowd sentiments calls Brutus ‘honourable’. Brutus is an honorable man” he says. But the use of that word is sheer irony, as Antony is attempting to portray Brutus as ungrateful and treacherous, while adding ‘so are they all…all honourable men’. The use of the word ‘honourable’ only highlights its utmost importance when attributed to rulers and lawmakers.  A modern Marc Antony playing to the gallery could well say with reference to Sirisena: Sirisena is an ‘honourable man’. So are they all, ‘all honourable men’, all standing to attention as the maze arrives and bowing to the Speaker (How nice and heart-warming!). Honourable? What honour for these backstabbing treacherous betrayers of Diyawanna-Oya.

Sirisena, replying to the Cardinal supports his claim of having a strong backbone, by referring to his dramatic act in 2015. But on that occasion did he act differently from Brutus as regards Caesar? The next morning when learning of what the modern Brutus did, Caesar Raja could well have said: ET TU SIRA!  If ever there was dishonor, betrayal and backstabbing, that was it – the crossover of Sira, after enjoying a wonderful dinner with Caesar Raja.

That night, whether restful or restless is anyone’s guess, Sira dreamt of the day at hand when he would occupy the seat of Raja, but not through his own power and popularity. He would do so with the help of others, accomplices of dishonor, betrayal and backstabbing. Yes Sira, as Marc Antony so ironically said: you are an honourable man…so are they all, all who were accomplices of your dishonor, on both sides of the aisle. Such is the nature of the strong back bone you lay claim to.

And later, as is the nature of backstabbers, he would turn against his saviours and redeemers, the ones who lifted him on their shoulders and placed him on that high seat of power. But those who promote backstabbing cannot claim immunity from being backstabbed. After the betrayal and backstabbing of Raja, Sirisena continued on his merry way betraying and backstabbing Ranil, and that after repeated violations of the Constitution which he swore to protect and uphold. How can any man, leave alone the President of a country with an age old culture and civilization, equate such shamelessness with a strong backbone? ‘O Judgment ! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason’.

Sirisena, if you really have the strong backbone you claim to have, you still have a chance to prove it: present yourself for re-election. With the strong backbone you profess to have you can dare do so. But for all your strong backbone talk you know you are doomed to fail, that your days are numbered. The writing is already on the wall.

But you still have a chance of showing your remorse for your dishonourable, shameful, cowardly, treacherous, backstabbing past. Stop overturning your shit bucket on your head by referring to your strong backbone, and just do as the Cardinal told you. Just GO. That applies to all the other ‘honourable men’ so dishonourably connected to your story. Just GO.

Mario Perera, Kadawata

Courtesy Adaderana

There is no evidence to claim that the Islamic State (IS) was behind the Easter Sunday bombings, stated the Senior DIG in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Ravi Seneviratne.

The Senior DIG mentioned this testifying at the special Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to probe the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

He pointed out that the terror group that was behind the attacks had requested the Leader of the IS, through a third-party in Indonesia, to release a statement on the matter.

The relevant request, too, had been made through another person, he added.

However, the investigations of the CID have revealed that the terror group behind the attack had carried out IS ideologies, Senior DIG Seneviratne further said.

Courtesy I-news

If the presence of British human remains in the containers is confirmed, it is feared the remains may have originated from NHS hospitals

Sri Lankan customs officials inspect the load of a container at a port in Colombo (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The Sri Lankan government has urged Britain to take back more than 100 containers containing hazardous waste including human remains said to come from mortuaries.

Port of Colombo officials made the discovery while investigating a strong smell” emanating from 111 containers which have been arriving at the docks over the past two years.

Inside the crates, customs officials found the extremely hazardous” materials mixed in with mattresses, plastics and clinical waste.

The waste has triggered concerns about water contamination, because the port is close to an estuary.

Waste triggers concerns

Some of the materials have been liquidised and deteriorated to the point that we cannot even examine them and the waste is emitting a bad odour,” a customs department spokesman, Sunil Jayaratne, said.

The discovery sparked anger on the island. Environmentalists and Buddhist monks demonstrated outside the British High Commission in Colombo.

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Many of the containers are believed to have arrived from the UK as long ago as 2017.

According to reports, they were only inspected last week after port officials complained of smells and leaking liquids.

‘Smells and leaking fluids’

A Sri Lankan businessman, Rohan Masakorala, was identified by local reporters as the importer of the containers. He has denied any wrongdoing and insists no human remains were inside.

British waste disposal experts said that disguising human remains as recyclable metals would be highly lucrative as it is illegal to export anatomical waste such as human organs or body parts.

The UK Government said it was committed to tackling illegal waste exports”, with guilty parties facing a two-year jail term or unlimited fine.

Britain could only repatriate the waste if it could be shown it was illegally exported directly from the UK, if those who exported it either could not be identified or refused to bring it back, and a formal request from the Sri Lankan government was made.

If the presence of British human remains in the containers is confirmed, it is feared the remains may have originated from NHS hospitals which are struggling to dispose of anatomical waste.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

An LTTE member, who was arrested in Germany over the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in 2005, had been charged by the German prosecutors over the murder, foreign news agencies reported today.  

German prosecutors said on Wednesday that they filed the indictment against the 40-year-old G. Navanithan who was arrested in January. The suspect had also been charged with membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.

The indictment had been filed in a Stuttgart court earlier this month.

The prosecutors said that the suspect belonged to the intelligence unit of the LTTE from 2002 to 2009 and provided information that was used to carry out the killing of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Kadirgamar in 2005.

They also said that the suspect had helped LTTE stalwarts flee Sri Lanka in the final phase of the war.

Editorial Courtesy The Island

A Foreign Ministry panjandrum has come under fire for allegedly seeking to facilitate a UN bid to influence the Sri Lankan judiciary. The Opposition is out for his scalp as he has written to the Chief Justice and the High Court judges, asking them to make available information pertaining to some cases to a group of UN officials.

Allegations that foreign powers are influencing the Sri Lankan judiciary are not of recent origin. They have been there for the last several years. Two months ago, UPFA MP and Joint Opposition member Udaya Gammanpila told Parliament that a US diplomat had sought information about some ongoing court cases here from a group of Sri Lankan judges attending a seminar in Washington.

The government ought to act on the aforesaid very serious allegation against the Foreign Ministry and order an investigation to find out whether the official concerned has done anything high-handed and his action amounts to a violation of the Constitution, as alleged by some MPs. It is hoped that the Opposition won’t allow the issue to fizzle out with the passage of time.

The incumbent government brags that it has restored the independence of the judiciary. If so, there cannot be allegations of foreign interference with the judicial system. A prerequisite for ensuring judicial independence is to prevent foreign governments from getting involved in various programmes purportedly aimed at modernising and strengthening the judicial system. Nothing comes without strings attached thereto. Such matters must not be left to foreign governments or the outfits funded by them.

The practice of foreign governments sponsoring state officials should also be discontinued. There is no such thing as a free lunch, as the saying goes. It is not out of pure altruism that other countries sponsor top bureaucrats’ and judicial officers’ foreign training programmes and overseas visits. They spend their taxpayers’ money to further their interests at the expense of the countries dependent on their largesse. The same goes for MPs and other elected representatives.

There is hardly any MP who hasn’t been on an all-expenses-paid trip to China, which also sponsors provincial councillors’ and local government members’ junkets. The National Election Commission has also received assistance from the USAID, we are told.

The Sri Lankan government should bear the cost of foreign training and visits of public and judicial officers if their independence is to be guaranteed. They must not be beholden to external organisations. There is no way the government can convince the public that it is without enough funds. Its pecuniary difficulties mainly stem from its wasteful expenditure, which has to be curtailed drastically. The presidential commission of inquiry probing alleged malpractices under the present administration has recently been informed that the Ministry of Agriculture paid about Rs. 300 million to a private company as the rent (and taxes) for a building over a period of one year before shifting there. The person responsible for that questionable deal must be dealt with under the Offences against the Public Property Act.

Minister Ravi Karunanayake has sought Cabinet approval for shifting his ministry at a cost of Rs. 364 million. In 2016, the JVP revealed in Parliament that two vehicles ordered for the Prime Minister’s use cost as much as Rs. 600 million. The Cabinet was recently requested to allocate funds for another expensive vehicle for Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. Thankfully, President Maithripala Sirisena turned down that request. That vehicle, too, would have cost Citizen Perera an arm and a leg. The government drew heavy fire in Parliament, the other day, for having raised Rs. 300 from poor Samurdhi recipients for propaganda activities related to the expansion of the poverty alleviation programme.

If the government cares to curtail the criminal waste of public funds and corruption, it won’t have to depend on external assistance, which opens the door to foreign interference with vital state sectors.

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA Courtesy The Island

It was indeed a breadth of fresh air to read the American Ambassador’s clarifications on US-Sri Lanka Agreements in The Island newspaper – 18 July 2019.

The Ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, needs to be commended for understanding the Sri Lankan concerns and articulating her Govt’s assertions in a professional manner. This is in contrast to our Govt. responses, which were basically either denials of the existence of such agreements or a dismissal of the concerns, as bogie constructs of people/political parties trying to defame the govt.

The Ambassador’s assurance that ‘Sri Lanka would retain all sovereign rights to approve or deny entry or exit of U.S. personnel, vessels, and aircraft into Sri Lanka’s territory and territorial waters/airspace’, as reported in the said article is indeed comforting and assuring to Sri Lankans. The Ambassador mentioned a new treaty in the making, Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), to address the status of US military and civilian employees of the Defense Department, who may have to enter Sri Lanka for various Sri Lankan Govt. requested services.

Whilst Sri Lanka has a dire need for infra structure development and perhaps for a better land management information system, the need for a military cooperation that can impact our sovereignty status, needs further clarification. It stands to reason that we needed all the military/logistic assistance we could get during the terrorist war in 2007. Such an overwhelming necessity is however not apparent in current times. Perhaps some may argue that the ISIS attack on Sri Lankan churches on 21 April 2019 presents a need for some kind of external military support. There are also the claims that the April attacks were a local manifestation rather than an external imposition. Whatever the source of the attacks, our armed forces were able to restore normalcy, with the intelligence received and the assistance of the domestic Muslim community. Perhaps our military aid requirement is still in the region of intelligence, as in 2007, rather than having foreign troops within our shores.

The Govt. has asserted that Americans have signed ACSA (Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreements) with many countries, and it should not be a concern for Sri Lanka to be a part of a global response. If indeed ACSA is a common agreement there bounds to be an issue for the Americans as to whom they would support in case of a conflict between two or more of ACSA partners. There is also the more serious risk that American adversaries could target American interests in Sri Lanka in times of a war, annihilating our fair land.

The Ambassador has also confirmed that US Govt. ‘will not buy, sell, or own any actual land – or take control of any actual land’, under MCC Agreements’. The question however arises whether the US Govt. is able to ensure multi-nationals will not grab our crown land or the land for development projects, from rural folk to whom ownership is currently being granted. I do not think any rational minded Sri Lankan would want Sri Lanka to be like Thailand, where rural folk were forced out to the cities after the loss of their land to development projects; and village women in particular, had to resort to prostitution to sustain their existence. The experiences of these countries need to taken into consideration when developing Agreements for so called developments.

It should be noted that currently Sri Lanka is moving towards a Presidential election and thereafter a Parliamentary election within the next 12 months, if there are no mysterious divergences, due to so called ‘unforeseen circumstances’. In this setting, many Sri Lankans would prefer to have US Agreements revisited with the next regime, without having to rush them through the current system. I am confident that a win-win arrangement can be negotiated with adequate transparency, if these Agreements are revisited after the national elections, as some of the economic development activities suggested are of value to the country.

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka’s parliament has blocked a visiting United Nations human rights expert from meeting with judges hearing war crimes cases, citing fears of foreign interference in the judicial system.

Clement Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, travelled to the island nation to discuss civil rights protections in Sri Lanka.

But opposition leader Mahinda Rajapakse told parliament on Tuesday (Jul 23) that Voule’s plans to meet with senior judges overseeing cases concerning military excesses during the former strongman’s tenure amounted to foreign interference.

On Wednesday parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya said he had intervened and stopped the meeting”.

I thank the opposition for bringing this to my notice, I have taken timely action,” Jayasuriya was quoted as saying by AFP.

UN expert Voule has so far met Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya in the presence of foreign ministry officials. He is due to leave Sri Lanka on Friday

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, July 24 – Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers has approved a proposal from the Sri Lanka Tourism Ministry to include China and India in its free visa policy which will be launched from Aug. 1, Minister of Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs, John Amaratunga said Tuesday.

Addressing a media briefing held at the conclusion of a tour by visiting Chinese journalists to Sri Lanka, Amaratunga said China was the second largest market for Sri Lanka tourism and the free visa policy for the Chinese market would boost Chinese tourist arrivals, the Xinhua news agency reported.

We are aware that China is one of our main markets. Despite the set back from the Easter Sunday attacks, I am sure this year we will be able to achieve our targets. From August 1, Chinese tourists can come to Sri Lanka without a visa fee and we see this as a landmark decision for the tourism industry,” Amaratunga said.

Some of the other countries entitled for the free visa policy are USA, Netherlands and certain European countries.

We are very keen to improve our tourist arrivals from China. The government has taken timely action to improve the industry after the Easter attacks and we have conveyed this to the Chinese leaders,” Charmarie Maelge, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) said.

According to official statistics from SLTPB, currently 4,000 tourists from across the world arrive in Sri Lanka daily following the suicide attacks.

Last year over 280,000 tourists from China visited Sri Lanka.

සිය`ඵම වෘත්තීය සංගම් වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරණු ලබන සංදේශය-නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහපොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය

මේ රටේ කම්කරු නීති සම්පාදනය වසර 100 ට ආසන්න කාලයක් පුරා සිදුව ඇත්තේ කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අනුදැනුම හා අවශ්‍යතා අනුවය. කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව සුද්දන්ගේ යටත් විජිත පාලන කාලයේ පිහිටුවනු ලැබූයේත් තවමත් එහි මූලික අරමුණ වන්නේත් සේවක හා රැුකියා සුරත්ෂිතතාවය සහතික කිරීමය. එය ජාත්‍යන්තර කම්කරු සංවිධානය විසින් සේව්‍ය – සේවක ගනුදෙනුවෙහි සේවකයා දුර්වල පාර්ශවකරුවෙකු යැයි පිළිගන්නා සිද්ධාන්තය අනුව කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැවරෙන වගකීමකි.

කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඒ වගකීම වත්මන් නිදහස් විවෘත වෙළඳපල ආර්ථිකයේ ආයෝජක වුවමනාවන් වෙනුවෙන් අතහැරිය නොහැකි වගකීමකි. දෙවන ලෝක යුද්ධයෙන් පසු මේ නවීන ලෝකයේ කම්කරු, මානව, කාන්තා හා ළමා අයිතීන් ජාත්‍යන්තරව පිළිගත් හා ජාතික වශයෙන් රටවල් විසින් සහතික කර කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කරන්නාවූ අයිතිවාසිකම් ය. රටක දියුණුව අද ගණන් හැදෙන්නේ ආර්ථික හා සමාජීය වර්ධන මත පමණක් නොව, මූලික අයිතීන් ලෙස එම අයිතීන් කෙතරම් සකී‍්‍රයව සහතික කෙරෙන්නේද යන්න මතය. ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී සමාජයක එය හුදෙක් ආයෝජකයින් හා හාම්පුතුන්ගේ වුවමනාවන්ට යටත් නොවන්නකි.

එවැනි පසුබිමක, බලවත් රාජ්‍යන්හි දේශපාලන හා ආර්ථික වුවමනාවන්ද ඇතිව පිළිගත් ජාත්‍යන්තර හා කලාපීය සංවිධාන බිහිව ඇත. ලෝක බැංකුව, ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදල, ලෝක වෙළඳ සංවිධානය, ආසියානු සංවර්ධන බැංකුව, යුරෝපා සංගමය, එවැනි ස්ථාවර ආයතන වන අතර, ඊට අමතරව වරින් වර ඉස්මතුවන කාලීන අවශ්‍යතා මත කියෝටෝ සමුළුව, මොන්ටි‍්‍රයල් සමුළුව, රියෝ දි ජනෙයිරෝ පරිසර සමුළුව වැනි කලාපීය හා ලෝක සමුළුද පැවැත්වේ. එවැනි ජාත්‍යන්තර හා කලාපීය සංවිධාන හා සමුළු විසින් ගනු ලබන තීන්දු සමග අප හවුල් වන්නේත් ඒවා යාවත්කාලීන කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් අප රටක් ලෙස අත්සන් තබා පියවර ගන්නේත් ඉතා විවෘත ගනුදෙනු හරහාය. නිදහස් වෙළඳ ගිවිසුම් සැකසෙන්නේත් එවැනි නිල රාජ්‍යතාන්ත‍්‍රික ගනුදෙනු ලෙසය.

නවීන ලෝකයේ ඒ පිළිගත් සාම්ප‍්‍රදායන් හා රාජ්‍යතාන්ති‍්‍රක පිළිවෙත් සියල්ලට පිටින් සහ ඒ සියල්ලට පටහැනිව ඇමෙරිකානු රාජ්‍ය ආධාර ආයතතනයක් වන ‘‘යුඑස්ඒඞ්’’ ආයතනය සමග සංවර්ධන උපාමාර්ග හා බාහිර වෙළඳාම් පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශය කිසිදු ප‍්‍රසිද්ධ ප‍්‍රකායකින් තොරව ඇතිකරගත් ගිවිසුමකට අනුව, ‘‘යුඑස්ඒඞ්’’ ආයතනයේ උපදේශන සමග ඔවුන්ගේ මුදල් ආධාරද ඇතිව මේ රටේ කම්කරු හා කාර්මික නීති සියල්ල තනි, එක නීති කෙටුම්පතකට අලූතින් සකසා ඇත. එය කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වගකීම්ද නොතකා කෙරුණකි. සංවර්ධන උපාමාර්ග හා බාහිර වෙළඳාම් පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශයේ එම හිතුවක්කාර කි‍්‍රයාව බරපතල ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය කාරණාවකට තුඩු දෙන්නකි. ඇමෙරිකානු රාජ්‍ය හා සම්බන්ධ ආධාර සංවිධානයක උපදේශන සමගින් රටේ නීති සම්පාදනයට ඉඩ තැබීම අනාගතය සම්බන්ධව ඉතාම භයානක පූර්වාදර්ශයකට හේතු සපයන්නකි. බලයට පත්වන ආණ්ඩුවක දේශපාලන නායකත්වයේ අප‍්‍රකාශිත වුවමනාවන්ට විදේශ බලවතුන්ගේ න්‍යාය පත‍්‍ර වෙනුවෙන් රටේ නීති සම්පාදනය කිරීමට ඉඩ ලබාදෙන පූර්වාදර්ශයක් වන්නකි.

වඩා පැහැදිලිව හා විවෘතව කිවහොත් ඉන්දියානු සාගරයේ ඇමෙරිකානු භූ-දේශපාලන අවශ්‍යතා ගණන් හැදීමේදී අප රටේ ඉතා සංවේදී භූගෝලීය පිහිටීම හේතුවෙන් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉන්නේ බලපෑම් සමූහයකට හසුවය. වසර 25 ක පමණ කාලයක් පුරා වර්ධනය වූ ගෝලීය නව ලිබරල් ආර්ථිකයේ මූල්‍ය ඒකාධිකාරී වෙළඳපල 2008 දී මහ බලවතුන් නොසිතූ අයුරු බිඳ වැටුණු පසු එහි වාසිය සමගින් වර්තමාන ලෝකයේ නව බලවතා ලෙස තහවුරුව ඇත්තේ චීන යයි. ඔවුන්ගේ මුදල් මේ වනවිට ආසියානු කලාපයේ පමණක් නොව, ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාවේත් ලතින් ඇමෙරිකානු කලාපයේත් විශාල වශයෙන් ආයෝජනය කෙරෙන්නේය. ඔවුන් එළෙසින් ගෝලීය බලවතෙකු ලෙස තහවුරු වීමේදී ඔවුන්ගේ හමුදා බලයද වැදගත් සාධකයකි. ඇමෙරිකානු විරෝධය නොතකා චීනය ආසියානු මහද්වීපය හරහා තුර්කිය දක්වාත් ඉන්දියානු සාගරයෙහි ඕමානය දක්වාත් සේද මාර්ග ව්‍යාපෘතියක් කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරීමේදී ඔවුන් හම්බන්තොට වරායත් කොළඹ
පෝට් සිටියත් පාලනය කිරීමේ අයිතිය ලබා ගැනීමත් සමග, ඇමෙරිකාවට අප වැදගත් වන්නේ ආර්ථික වශයෙන් පමණක් නොව හමුදාමය බලයද සමගය.

චීන ආර්ථික ආයෝජන සමග ගැට ගසා ඇති ඔවුන්ගේ හමුදාමය වුවමනාවන් පිළිබඳව ඇමෙරිකානු මැදිහත්වීම් ඒ අනුව ආරම්භ වූයේ රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව සමගින්ය. වසර 10 ට බලපාන ලෙස පළමු ‘‘පවරා ගැනීම් හා සේවා හුවමාරු ගිවිසුම’’ (්ක්‍ී්* අත්සන් කරනු ලැබූයේ 2007 මාර්තු මාසයේ ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාපක්ෂ සමග ය. කිසිදු පරීක්ෂා කිරීමකින් තොරව ඇමෙරිකානු නාවික හමුදා සහ යාත‍්‍ර වලට මෙරට වරායවලට

පැමිණීමට එමගින් අවසර ලැබිණ. එය නැවත දීර්ග කෙරුණේ 2017 දී මේ ආණ්ඩුව විසින්ය. මෙවර තවත් වසර 10 ට දීර්ග කෙරුණු ගිවිසුම පසුගිය වරට වඩා වැඩි බලයක් ඇමෙරිකාවට ලබාදී ඇතැයි පැවසේ. එම ගිවිසුම පාදක කර ගනිමින් ඇමෙරිකාව සමග තවත් අතුරු ගිවිසුමක් අත්සන් කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුව සූදානම් විය. ඇමෙරිකාව විසින් ඉදිරිපත්කර ඇති ‘‘බලකායන්ගේ තත්ත්වයන් සම්බන්ධ ගිවිසුම’’ (ීධත්‍්* අත්සන් කළහොත් ඇමෙරිකානු හමුදාවනට ඔවුන්ගේ නිල ඇඳුම් හා ආයුධ සමග ලංකාවේ ඕනෑම ප‍්‍රදේශයක සංචාරය කළ හැකි බවත් ඔවුන් කිසිවිටක ලංකාවේ නීතියට යටත් නොවන බවත් වාර්තා වන්නේය. එම ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කර නැතැයි අගමැති පැවසුවද මේ කිසිදු ගිවිසුමක් අවම තරමින් ඇමති මණ්ඩලයේ හෝ පූර්ණ ලෙස සාකච්ඡුාකර නැත.

මෙම ගිවිසුම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා පැවසූයේ එවැනි ගිවිසුම් නොමැතිව අපට ඇමෙරිකානු වෙළඳපල හා රැුකියා සඳහා ඉඩකඩ නොලැබෙන බවය. එහි අනෙක් තේරුම නම්, ඇමෙරිකානු භූ-දේශපාලන අවශ්‍යතා අපගේ ආර්ථික හා සමාජීය අවශ්‍යතා සමග ගැට ගැසීමේ වුවමනාවක් ඔවුන්ට ඇති බවය. මේ රටේ කම්කරු හා කාර්මික නීති සියල්ල තනි, එක නීති කෙටුම්පතකට අලූතින් සැකසීමේ උත්සාහය කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හරහා නොමැතිව සංවර්ධන උපාමාර්ග හා බාහිර වෙළඳාම් පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශය හරහා එන්නේ එබැවින්ය. එය කම්කරු අයිතීන් ශක්තිමත් කිරීමේ අරමුණින් නොව ඇමෙරිකානු භූ-දේශපාලන වුවමනාවන් ශක්තිමත් කිරීමේදී ඔවුන්ගේ ජාවාරම්කාර ආයෝජකයින් සඳහා අයිතිවාසිකම් හා සේවා කොන්දේසි කේවල් කළ නොහැකි අසංවිධානාත්මක ශ‍්‍රම බලකායක් හැදීමේ වුවමනාවකි. අලූතින් නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප 50 ක් පිහිටුවීමේ අගමැතිවරයාගේ කතාවත් ඒ සමග සැළකිය යුත්තකි.

මෙය ඉදිරිපත් කෙරෙන කෙටුම්පතේ කොන්දේසි කතා කිරීමට කලින් ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය කාරණාවක් වන්නේද එබැවින්ය. කෙටුම්පතෙහි ඇති වගන්ති වල හොඳ නරක කතා කිරීමේ අරුතක් නැත්තේ සේවක අයිතීන් වෙනුවෙන් ඇතළත් කෙරෙන නාමික ප‍්‍රතිපාදන සැකසෙන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ මූලික අරමුණට පටහැනි නොවන තාක් පමණි. එබැවින් ඒ අරමුණින් ඔවුන් එක`ග වන්නාවූ ප‍්‍රතිපාදන කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරීමේදී මේ දේශපාලන හා ආර්ථික කි‍්‍රයාවලිය තුල සේවක අයිතීන් ලඝුවීම වැළැක්විය නොහැකි වනු ඇත. ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය කාරණාව මත මෙයට විරුද්ධවීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව ඇත්තේ එබැවින්ය. එය අනාගතය පිළිබඳ කාරණාවක්ද වන්නේය.

යුඑස්ඒඞ් (ඹී්ෂෘ* ආයතනය විසින් යෝජනාකර ඇති මෙම යෝජනා 2017 අගෝස්තු මස 16 වන දින ජාතික කම්කරු උපදේශක සභා රැුස්වීමේ න්‍යාය පත‍්‍රයට අතුලත් කළ අවස්ථාවේ දී එම සභාව නියෝජනය කරන වෘත්තීය සමිති 10 ක් එම රැුස්විමට සහභාගිවීමෙන් වැළකි සිටියේ ද මෙම ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිමය මත පදනමේ පිහිටා ය. තව ද එම වෘත්තීය සමිති විසින් හිටපු කම්කරු සහ වෘත්තීය සමිති සබඳතා ඇමති ජෝන් සෙනවිරත්න මහතාට යවන ලද 2017 සැප්තැම්බර් මස 07 වන දිනැති එ්කාබද්ධ ලිපියෙන් ද යුඑස්ඒඞ් (ඹී්ෂෘ* ආයතනය සම්බන්‍ධව්මට විරෝධය පළකර ඇත.
මෙම ඊණියා එ්කීය කම්කරු නීතිය සම්පාදනය කිරීමේ දී කම්කරු සහ වෘත්තීය සමිති සබඳතා අමාත්‍යංශය සහ කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අන්තර් ජාතික කම්කරු සංවිධානයේ සම්මුතියක් වන අංක 144 හි සඳහන් ත්‍රෛපාක්‍ෂික ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියට පටහැනිව කි‍්‍රයාකර ඇත.
මෙම ඊනියා කම්කරු නීති කෙටුම්පත 2019 ජුලි මස 09 වන දින රැුස්වූ ජාතික කම්කරු උපදේශක සභාවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට පෙර ලංකා සේව්‍ය සම්මේලනය බණ්ඩාරනායක සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණ ශාලාවේ දී 2019 ජුනි මස 27 වන දින සංවිධානය කරන ලද සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණයට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. එම සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණයට කම්කරු කොමසාරිස් ජනරාල් සහභාගිවී ඇත.
ස්තූතියි,
මෙයට සහෝදරත්වයෙන්,

ඇන්ටන් මාකස්
සම ලේකම්
නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ
පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 

This morning as I was listening to  Mulpiituwa news I heard the US Ambassador as saying that the American Army and Civil official are here on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government. The sources also said these forces and civilians are to be used in an emergency?.

Could  the President tell the country as to whose Government has invited these  American to be here?

whether it is

1 His Government

2 Ranil’s

3 Speaker’s

4NGO’s

5 Or else somebody else’s  unknown Government

And what is the emergency expected?

Having found that information, and if it is not his Government, will he take necessary steps to find out as to who invited them without his knowledge. Thereafter will he take action to deport these Americans and take action against the Government/person who invited the Americans expecting an emergency in this country?

What is the need to invite the American Army by the the party who has made such invitation, unless there is some subversive activity going on in the country, to curb the emerging national forces, when this country has one of the best Armed forces in the world and a police force who could defeat the LTTE, the most dangerous terrorist army in the world, only 10 years ago?

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, July 23 (AFP) – Sri Lanka customs Tuesday ordered the return of container loads of hazardous mortuary and clinical waste illegally imported into the island from Britain under the cover of metal recycling.

Customs officials said the racket dating back to 2017 was uncovered after the Colombo port complained last week that an importer had abandoned 111 containers which were emanating a huge stink.

A total of 241 containers had been imported since 2017 and 130 of them had been taken to a free-trade zone ostensibly for recycling and re-export, customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratne told AFP.

We are taking immediate action to order the re-export of the 111 containers abandoned at the port,” Jayaratne said.

The other 130 which had already been cleared from the port will be dealt under environmental and other laws.”

He said the 130 containers were stuffed with used mattresses and plastic and clinical waste imported in violation of international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material.

A Sri Lankan businessman who imported the containers would be liable for criminal prosecution if he failed to re-export them to Britain, from where they originated, Jayaratne said.

An official at the finance ministry, which is responsible for the customs department, said it would take up the issue with British authorities for exporting hazardous cargo without first checking if Sri Lanka was willing to accept it.

This is a well-organised racket that has been going on since 2017,” said the official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

The 111 containers are believed to contain mortuary waste including human organs and had been unloaded and exposed to the elements for the past two years.

The 130 containers taken to a free-trade zone near Colombo International Airport were contaminating water and polluting the air in the area, he said.

Sri Lanka’s pushback on imported trash came as Indonesia and the Philippines returned shipments of foreign rubbish to their originating ports.

Indonesia announced two weeks ago it was sending more than 210 tonnes of garbage back to Australia and Canada has agreed to accept 69 containers of rubbish it had shipped to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014.

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror

While the Cholas of the Coromandel coast in Tamil Nadu were known for their maritime conquests and successful trade, with conquest and trade going hand in hand, the Muslims of the Coromandel coast were successful in maritime trade without the aid of conquest.

However, ultimately, with the advent of European traders, who operated under entirely different principles, the Muslims had to yield to the hard reality of political power and military might.

The Muslims of the Coromandel coast, who were related to the Muslims of Sri Lanka, came from the Arab world as peaceful traders and stayed as peaceful traders right through.

Perhaps because of the non-violent orientation of their vocation, the Muslims of Tamil Nadu were in international maritime business for a much longer time than others, going well into the British Raj.

But the absence of political and military backing was not an unmixed blessing. It did have adverse effects on the Muslims’ maritime trading interests when their competitors had begun to use political dominance and military might.

It was when the intolerant Portuguese ruled the roost in the South Asian region (coastal peninsular India and Sri Lanka) that the Muslims in the two countries suffered the most.

According to the Tamil Nadu historian Dr.J.Raja Mohamed, the curtains came down on the Muslims’ maritime trade finally in early 20th Century due to two factors: (1) stiff competition from the British (2) reluctance of the Tamil Muslims to adopt new shipping technology and modern education.

But Srinivasa Rao Vadlamudi of Austin University in the US, says in his Ph.D. dissertation, that Tamil Muslims actually found a way to prosper under British rule too. They carved out a niche for themselves under the Imperial trading system.

Muslim Monopoly

In his book entitled:Maritime History of the Coromandel Muslims Raja Mohamed says that before the arrival of the European powers on the Coromandel coast, maritime trade was entirely in the hands of Tamil-speaking Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestry.

Muslims dominated trade with South East Asia so much that British records described the ports on the Coromandel coast as Moor ports”. Few would now know that modern-day Cuddalore was known as Islamabad” and Porto Novo or Parangipettai was known as Mohammad Bandar” or Mohammad harbor.

The Tamil-speaking Muslims of Arab-Tamil ancestry had inherited their dominant position in India-South East Asian trade from the Arabs, who had acquired a virtual monopoly of Indian maritime commerce by 3rd Century BC. According to Raja Mohamed, Arab contact with Tamil Nadu is mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature of 2nd Century AD.

He contends that the term Yavana” in Sangam literature did not refer to the Greeks, as generally presumed, but to people hailing from modern-day Yemen. He also says that the term Sonaka” used to identify Coromandel and Ceylon Muslims of Indo-Arab descent is but a corruption of Yavana. The Mapilla or Moplah Muslims of Kerala were known as Sonaka Mapillas.

The Zamorin of Calicut in Kerala, who needed Arabs to man his ships, even decreed that the Arab traders should marry Malayali women and bring up at least one of their children as a Muslim. The Rowthers made a name for themselves as traders in Arab horses. The Marakkayars (boat people) and Lebbais were expert mariners and traders.

Portuguese Era.

But once the pushy, ruthless, cunning and better organized European merchants entered the arena, the Coromandel Muslims began to lose ground rapidly.

And sadly, in their fight for survival, they got no help from the Indian rulers. After the Cholas, South Indian rulers were indifferent to indigenous maritime trade, preferring to leave it to the Portuguese and other European traders. The Indian rulers had even declared trade in spices, gold and silver a Portuguese monopoly.

Prior to the advent of the Portuguese in the early part of the 16th. Century, trade in South and South East Asia was free. But the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and the English, introduced the system of monopolies. Their trade regimes were unfair as they were based on military might and political clout, Raja Mohamad says.

By 1530, the Arabs lost their monopoly over trading in horses. This passed entirely into the hands of the Portuguese. By 1537 the Portuguese had converted to Catholicism, an oppressed fishing community on the Tamil Nadu coast called Paravas. The rejuvenated Paravas were set up to compete with the Muslims in trade and pearl fishing. Pearl fishing, which was entirely in the hands of the Muslims for a long time, went into the hands of the Paravas, Raja Mohamed says.

To control trade in the entire region, the Portuguese established their power over key points like Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and Malacca in South East Asia. Ceylon too had passed into their hands. The Portuguese used the cartaz” system (a permit system) by which those who did not have a cartaz” or permit could not enter a port.

However, Sundara Sreenivasa Rao Vadlamudi of the University of Austin has a different view. In his dissertation Merchants in Transition: Maritime Trade and Society of Tamil Muslims in the Indian Ocean World, c. 1780-1840,” he contends that the Coromandel Muslims prospered under British rule, though eventually, British laid impediments and their own limited vision stunted their growth.

In 1778, the British East India Company (EIC) took control of Nagore, an important historical port-town, among the cluster of coastal towns inhabited by Tamil Muslims. In 1786, the EIC acquired the island of Penang in Malaya from the Sultan of Kedah.

These two developments, taking place only a few years apart, occurred at the two ends of a maritime trade route from South India to Southeast Asia and had a significant impact on the Tamil Muslim merchants,” Vadlamudi says.

In Nagore and Penang, the East India Company sought to develop these ports into important trading hubs. As part of such efforts, the EIC invested in improving the port’s infrastructure, issued concessions to indigenous merchant communities from paying the full rate of port duties, and encouraged the settlement of Indian merchant communities in these two ports.”

These efforts were aimed at increasing revenue from port duties that could be levied on goods and for procuring goods from Southeast that were necessary for obtaining tea in China,” Vadlanudi says.

Tamil Muslim merchants took advantage of such policies in Nagore and Penang.

In Nagore, and other South Indian ports that were subsequently won by the EIC in its battles with rival European trading companies, Tamil Muslim merchants settled and traded under the EIC’s authority. Some wealthy merchants such as Muhammad Qassim negotiated favorable contracts to collect revenue on behalf of the EIC administration, a system of managing taxes previously practiced by Indian rulers. This allowed Muhammad Qassim to increase his wealth and also his prominence in Nagore. Smaller traders were attracted to Nagore by the system of courts and the granting of trade concessions.”

Penang lay along existing trade routes between South India and Southeast Asia and Tamil Muslims took advantage of the free trade policies at Penang to trade and settle there.”

The developments in Nagore and Penang show that the expansion of the EIC along the Coromandel coast and in Southeast Asia provided opportunities for Tamil Muslim merchants to trade in EIC-controlled ports, both in South India and Southeast Asia,” Vadlamudi says.

Changes in 19 th.Century

However, in the 19 th.Century, concessions from paying the full port duties that were granted to Tamil Muslims were gradually withdrawn, Vadlamudi notes.

The EIC began to implement a system of transit duties that aimed to collect duties at multiple stages from the production of a good till its export. By 1801, the EIC had emerged as the dominant military power in South India and controlled a vast territory. The development of the system of transit duties emerged alongside the expansion of administrative mechanisms by the EIC,” Vadlamudi points out. These developments adversely affected Tamil Muslim maritime interests.

(The featured image at the top shows Tamil Muslim traders in Penang, Malaya in early 20 th.Century)

BY VIRAJ SOLANKI  & ANTOINE LEVESQUES Courtesy defenseone

From Sri Lanka to Kenya, governments try to balance major-power influence — except in arms purchases.

As India and China have intensified their geopolitical interestin the Indian Ocean, the region’s smaller states have aimed to balance their political relations with these major powers. But in at least one realm of engagement, countries have resisted balancing their relations. Since 2015, the island countries of Mauritius, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka have procured military equipment only from India, while the coastal countries of Bangladesh, Djibouti, Kenya, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Tanzania have bought solely from China. 

This timeframe is significant because it was in January 2015 that the U.S and India issued and unprecedented Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region. This was shortly after followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own announcement of India’s Security and Growth for All in the Region,” or SAGAR, program  a multifaceted effort to engage politically, diplomatically, economically and on security matters with Indian Ocean island states. 

The strategic significance of the area’s island states — notably Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Maldives and the Seychelles — arises primarily from their proximity to key international sea lanes. China, India, Japan, and the United States each have some cooperative but otherwise mostly competing interests and projects in these states, largely for capacity building. Yet these states do have agency and their own agendas, influenced by domestic factors, in their relations with the major powers.

Related: Who Will Prevent the Next India-Pakistan War?

Related: Naval Task Groups Are Proliferating in the Indo-Pacific

Related: China’s Growing Power Is Bringing Military Drills Center Stage in Asia

Under Prime Minister Modi, India has engaged more substantively with each of these states on defense and security. At the same time, China, under the banner of the Maritime Silk Road and the wider Belt and Road Initiative, has substantially increased its involvement in Sri Lanka, Maldives, and the Seychelles; Mauritius is also set to join the initiative. And as China increases its naval activities in the region, Japan, Britain, and the United States are also increasing their relationships with the smaller states. All this adds potential points of contention between those major powers, with commensurate prospects of spilling into the regional states. 

Sri Lanka’s dealings illustrate how the smaller states are working to balance influence and investment by regional powers. China is the major investor in the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City project. Beijing also designed the December 2017 debt-for-equity swap — China calls it a public-private partnership investment — in which Sri Lanka handed over a controlling stake in the southern port of Hambantota and 15,000 acres of surrounding land to China on a 99-year-long lease in return for $1.1 billion in debt relief. But Sri Lanka has also accepted infrastructural investment from other sources. In January 2018, India provided more than $45 million to build a commercial port in the northern harbour at Kankesanthurai, and now is offering some $2 billion to develop the port, oil terminals, and refinery at Trincomalee in northeastern Sri Lanka. As well, on 28 May, India, Japan and Sri Lanka agreed to develop the second foreign-operated container terminal at Colombo port as a joint venture.

And yet neither Sri Lanka nor its small neighbors have so finely balanced their arms imports, according to the Military Balance+ database produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS. This sole-sourcing represents a change for Sri Lanka, which bought Chinese arms during its civil war that ended in 2009, and for Seychelles, which bought from China two light transport aircraft in 2011 and a patrol boat in 2014.

The range and quantity of these purchases also varies. India’s regional customers have procured solely maritime-security-focused equipment, including donated boats. Mauritius bought 12 coastal patrol craft and patrol boats; Seychelles, one maritime patrol aircraft; and Sri Lanka, three offshore patrol ships and ocean-going patrol craft. But Chinese arms sales to the region include a wider selection of air and land as well as maritime security equipment. Pakistan is the biggest customer, having bought 610 main battle tanks and 100 Viraj Solanki Viraj Solanki is Research Analyst for South Asia at the IISS, where his research interests include India’s policy towards its neighbours, including the littoral and island states of South Asia and the Indian Ocean. JF-17 fighter ground-attack aircraft. Other sales include Bangladesh’s purchase of 47 main battle tanks and armoured recovery vehicles; Kenya’s 30 light forces vehicles; and Tanzania’s 24 light tanks.

Each of these defense contracts depends on India and China’s capacity to deliver equipment to the smaller states, as well as the willingness and financial capacity of each of the smaller states to procure from the two powers. China has a more extensive defense industrial base, suggesting a greater capacity to efficiently meet its delivery obligations. Meanwhile, the Indian government is working to strengthen its own industrial base via the Make in India” policy, yet many equipment projects have experienced delays and cost overruns.

This state of either-or defense procurement may be about to come to an end. By year’s end, Sri Lanka is expected to accept a donated Chinese frigate, and that may encourage its neighbors to become more ecumenical in their own purchases. That may augur a new phase of bolder strategic initiative from Indian Ocean countries in their own abilities to balance major-power influences — and a new arena of competition for those powers themselves.

Antoine Levesques is Research Fellow for South Asia at the IISS, where he specialises in the facts and assessments of South Asian policies towards China, regional nuclear issues, as well as Pakistan’s political and security perspectives. 

Viraj Solanki is Research Analyst for South Asia at the IISS, where his research interests include India’s policy towards its neighbours, including the littoral and island states of South Asia and the Indian Ocean. 

Courtesy Business Insider

• Western countries have been sending their recycling to developing nations in Southeast Asia for decades.
• Officials in the recipient countries complain that the trash they receive is improperly labeled, and contains other types of garbage that they can’t recycle.
• On Tuesday, Sri Lanka ordered the return of 111 shipping containers to the UK, which it says contains waste like rotten human organs, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
• Authorities claim that a total of 241 containers of trash have been illegally sent to Sri Lanka since 2017.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Sri Lanka has ordered the return of hundreds of tons of trash to Britain, the latest move in Southeast Asia’s campaign to end its role as a dumping ground for garbage made in the West.

According to Sri Lankan officials, the stinking containers include mounds of foul waste — including rotten human remains — and represent a breach of the terms on which the trash was shipped.

Sri Lankan customs officials accused the UK of illegally importing hazardous waste into the country since at least 2017 by wrongly labeling it as metal recycling, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Authorities discovered the waste after people complained of the stench from 111 abandoned containers in a port in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital city, the news agency reported.

They are believed to contain mortuary waste, which include human organs that had been left unrefrigerated for the past two years, AFP said.

Read more: The West has been dumping tens of millions of tons of trash in Southeast Asian countries for more than 25 years — now they want to send it back

Those containers will be returned to Britain, Sunil Jayaratne, a spokesman for Sri Lanka’s customs office, told AFP.

Sri Lankan officials did not give an estimate for the weight of the trash. But given the size and carrying capacity of 111 containers, it is likely to easily come to several hundred tons, and more likely several thousand.

A typical shipping container can carry as much as 26 tons, and weighs four tons even when empty. If all 111 containers were full, that would equate to around 2,900 tons of trash.

A shipment of trash sent back to Canada by the Philippines weighed 1,500 tons spread across 69 containers.

After being alerted to the stinking British trash, Sri Lankan officials looked further, and found 130 other containers of trash that had been imported into Sri Lanka since 2017, AFP reported. It’s not clear where those ones came from.

Authorities found mattresses and carpets stuffed among the waste, which violates international laws on shipping hazardous material, Sri Lankan news site News First reported, citing Ajith Weerasundara, director of hazardous waste management at the country’s Central Environmental Authority.

Fifty-seven of these containers have already been re-exported to their originating countries, and many others were taken to the Katunayake Free Trade Zone in western Sri Lanka, News First reported. Officials plan to send the rest of the containers back.

The containers have been contaminating the water and polluting the air at Katunayake, AFP reported.

“This is a well-organized racket that has been going on since 2017,” an unnamed official at Sri Lanka’s finance ministry told AFP.

Read more: Staggering photos show one small town covered in 19,000 tons of plastic waste

The global trash war

Sri Lanka’s move is the latest in a series of actions by Southeast Asian countries to send illegally-imported trash back to its home countries, which are mostly in the West.

Broadly, rich Western countries — like the UK, US, Canada, and Australia — sign contracts with companies in developing Southeast Asian countries — like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and the Philippines — to dispose of their trash.

By Padraig Colman Courtesy Ceylon Today

I often try in my columns to comfort Sri Lankans who despair at the condition of their polity. Sri Lankans might wonder in horror what antics their leaders will get up to next, but UK citizens contemplate having Boris Johnson as their Prime Minister some time soon. Sri Lankans might be uncomfortable at the loss of sovereignty involved in handing over ports to the Chinese, and the submission to the US implied by SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) but Britons are horrified at the notion that President Trump decides who is suitable to be UK Ambassador to Washington.

SOFA

The Status of Forces Agreement, which the US is keen to force on Sri Lanka, seems to many Sri Lankans to be a step too far in bending over and being submissive to the US. The main points of SOFA are:

All American personnel based in Sri Lanka will have the equivalent of diplomatic immunity. US troops and contractors will be able to enter and leave Sri Lanka without passports or visas.

US personnel can wear uniforms and carry arms while on duty in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan laws will not apply to them. The US Government will exercise criminal jurisdiction over US personnel in Sri Lanka.

The GOSL will protect US assets in Sri Lanka, but the US Government will not pay anything.

US vessels and vehicles may enter and leave Sri Lanka freely without payment of tolls or taxes, navigation, overflight, terminal or similar charges. Aircraft and vessels of the US Government will not be boarded or inspected.

US contractors will not be liable to pay any tax or similar charges and will be exempt from any licence, or other restrictions, customs duties, taxes or any other charges.

The US will be allowed to operate its own telecommunication systems.
Claims relating to damage or loss shall be resolved by the US Government in accordance with US laws and regulations.

SOFA so good

President Sirisena has decided he does not like this, but he might change his mind. The US defended SOFA, saying they had no intention of setting up military bases in Sri Lanka. Wouldn’t dream of it! The US maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries. Sri Lankans must be paranoid if they think the US wants to use Sri Lanka as a base for keeping an eye on China. Of course, the US does not covet Trincomalee Harbour! The SOFA with Sri Lanka would give reciprocal rights to Sri Lanka’s Army, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard to use US facilities. However, Sri Lanka’s main concern is internal security. It has no global enemies and has no resources to pay for using military facilities in the US.

There are 38 US military facilities on Okinawa. They account for up to 30 per cent of the land mass of the island. The US military bases on Okinawa also cover over 40 per cent of the arable soil, once some of the best agricultural land in Japan. Figures up to 1998, show that since 1972, 4,905 crimes were committed against Japanese people by US military personnel, their dependents and US civilian contractors and employees.

 More than 10 per cent of these were serious crimes – murder, robbery or rape. In most cases, the Japanese authorities were not allowed to arrest or question the alleged perpetrators.

Special relationship

Britain has long deluded itself that it has a special relationship with the US. When Charles de Gaulle wrote to LBJ in 1966, ordering that all US troops be removed from French soil within 12 months, Britain offered a warm welcome, and during the Cold War, the UK became one of the USA’s unsinkable aircraft carriers.” In the 1990s, the number of US-manned military facilities in Britain reached 100. By 2014, this had fallen to 13, ranging from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk – one of the largest air bases outside the US – to a joint GCHQ and National Security Agency satellite station at Morwenstow in Cornwall. There were still 24,000 US personnel, civilian staff and family members on British soil.

Lindis Percy, a veteran peace activist who has protested outside US bases since 1979, said: The thread … through everything to do with these facilities is an almost total lack of accountability. Even now, new by-laws are being introduced to deter people from going near bases already protected by draconian legislation.

 Assurances made by the US to the UK that ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights had never landed on British territory were later shown to be false, when official US records proved that such flights had landed at Diego Garcia repeatedly.”

US right of veto

The UK Ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, was reviled by Donald Trump, when Darroch’s unflattering confidential memos about the President were leaked to the press. When the Foreign Office Permanent Secretary, Simon McDonald, appeared before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on 10 July, the Chair, Tom Tugendhat asked what precedent there was for the Head of State of a friendly government to do what Donald Trump did, and made it impossible for Britain’s Ambassador do his job? McDonald said there was no precedent. 

Nothing like this has ever happened before,” McDonald told another MP. There must be consequences. What they are in detail I can’t tell you this afternoon.”
Boris Johnson, probably the UK’s next Prime Minister, knowingly refused to express confidence in Darroch during the leadership hustings with Jeremy Hunt. 

It was Johnson’s action that led directly to Darroch’s inevitable resignation. 

Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said that by six times refusing to back the Ambassador, Johnson had thrown him under a bus. Tugendhat, a former Army Officer said: Leaders stand up for their men. They encourage them to try and defend them when they fail.”

Trump’s actions were a crude assertion of power over a country that wants desperately to be the friend of the US. This is not a special relationship, it is sado-masochist one. The rest of the world, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, will be watching. For Britain, as Martin Kettle put it in The Guardian: it is a stake through the heart of its entire post-war self-image.”

Sri Lanka’s friend Liam Fox has failed miserably to gain trade deals to replace what will be lost when the UK is out of the EU. The only hope left was the US, who threatened to bombard the sceptered isle with chlorinated chickens. It looks as though the special relationship will entail the US bullying the UK.

Wimal weerawansa

Wimal weerawansa

By Charles S Perera

The thirty years of terrorism though it affected the whole country through uncertainty of life, threat of the division of the country, loss of peace and security , we the Sinhala Buddhists  were able to keep the unity of the communities suffering under terrorism , protect the  Sinhala Buddhist culture, maintain the pride of being  members of a Sri Lankan nation, and the willingness to fight against terrorism despite the risk to life, and  continue  our religious practices without fear and maintain a satisfactory standard of living., even if that was  at a  great loss of  life and property.

But today, after  four years of Yahapalanaya of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe , what is left of that Sri Lanka which existed before they came into power on the 8^th January,2015 ? 

Yahapalanaya  boasts that it brought back democracy , and allowed media freedom. But  they presume the people have forgotten  what the  situation was before 8^th January2015. It  was different, with a most ruthless terrorism  which no one from JR Jayawardhana to Chandrika Kumaratunga  was able to stop. But, even then,  democracy was  not at stake, though  a certain amount of media control was necessary.

No one can remove the frightful situation that existed  then in Sri Lanka , when  criticising Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government. Things were unusual  and the actions that had to be taken were also  unusual. Mahinda Rajapakse’s  government had to move cautiously keeping in mind the existing uncertain situation with terrorism on the one onehand  with foreign interventionists  try to thwart military operations, and on the other hand to feed a nation, keep employment  at a safe level, and  carry out  development projects .

But the UNP Parliamentarians at TV political debates incessantly shout themselves hoarse on Rajapussella shooting incident, a white van culture, disappearance of journalists  without having  any substantial proofs  of involvement of Mahinda Rjapakse and his government.

The main accusation levelled at Mahinda Rajapakse and his government is that it was corrupt. But no one has been able to prove until today whether Mahinda Rajapakse and his family and his  close associates had committed any serious bank robberies or misappropriations.

But  there are only  rumours , false unfounded accusations, and garish scandalous utterances, all merely to slander, insult  to make Mahinda Rajapakse, his family and his associates unpopular, with the intention of keeping political power  in their own  hands. Even then although they  took over the Government from Mahainda Rajapakse , they could not take away  from Mahinda Rajapakse and his associates the  love, the affection, and the confidence the  real people of the country had placed on them.

On the 8^th January,2015 the people voted for Maithripala Siriuesena, but the people never voted for Ranil Wickramasinghe to become the Prime Minister . Ranil wickramasinghe was only appointed the Prime Minister by the President Maithripala Sirisena.

There  is now a  rift between the President and the Prime Minister- a disagreement  of political views and political action. This means that there is a rift  also in the confidence the people placed  on President  Maithripala Sirisena as President,  viz a viz   Ranil Wickramasinghe  who was   selected by the President as the Prime Minister.

Unfortunately the Judiciary erred in their decision that the President had no right to dissolve the parliament before the end of four and a half years. Since then Ranil Wickramasinghe the Prime Minister has been  taking arbitrary decisions  on various matters without consulting the President or the Parliament, to the detriment of the country.

Today   Sri Lanka is facing a serious political situation with almost empty state coffers, administrative mismanagement by entering into agreements with foreign countries  resulting in loosing the sovereignty of the country, making Sri Lanka a play ground for the  USA and the West like what  Cuba was under Baptista before Fidel castro ousted him .

USA has an unholy government apparatus. They lack human qualities of  love, compassion and generosity. An American institution like the CIA, is a symbol of how unconcerned USA is with regard to  helping the poor countries to develop independently in their own way without USA  interfering into their internal  affairs , because of the American economic and military power. 

Both USA and Canada are what they are today because of the complete depletion of the population of the original inhabitants of the country the American Indians and the Canadian First Nation.  They talk of democracy having nailed the coffins of the real  owners of the America and Canada.

USA is still continuing their disastrous manipulative  non-democratic political game to keep the developing countries under their filthy iron feet.  They want to do  the same they  did using their CIA to Guatamala, Iran, Chili, and Congo then,  and to Iraq, Libya, etc. in the recent past. 

They used a man’s weakness for sex to deprive France of  perhaps a good President. They are trying to do that to Sri Lanka by using the sin of having taken USA citizenship to deprive a man loved by the people of Sri Lanka from: becoming a good President to his motherl and  his people in Sri Lanka.

To-do all that USA  along with the Western Governments has done to Sri Lanka  is to help  setting up a weak puppet yahapalanaya government  in Sri Lanka using their agent the member of the International Democratic Union  Ranil Wickramasinghe. The UNP Parliamentarians and members of the  UNP follow Ranil Wickramasinghe  without questioning his actions or  intentions.

Yahapalanaya Government from the day it was set up in Jnauary,2015 traced a path to destroy  Sri Lanka nurtured  in its Sinhala Buddhist Culture, by giving an important place for  a process of reconciliation with the Tamils. They commenced by destroying the identity of Sri Lanka by allowing the National Anthem to be sung in Sinhala and Tamil,  a thing that never happened in any other Country in the world  before.  All nations have one National Anthem sung in one language- the language of the majority.

After that the Yahapalanaya set the trail for leading the country towards bankruptcy by staging a Bond Scam robbery  twice and emptied the Government Coffers and went on a spree of debt raising putting the blame on the  necessity to re-pay loans taken by the  previous government of  President Mahinda Rajapakse for the develop of the country.

Yahapalanaya also began by  stopping   development projects started by Mahinda Rajapaksa government. it stopped  the development work of the Colombo City funded by China  causing unemployment to thousands of workers. Groping in political darkness Ranil Wickramasinghe who had diminished the powers of the President Sirisena under 19A was acting on his own signing agreements with Singapore, India, China and USA without consulting the President or the parliament.

USA had helped Ranil to drive nails into the coffin of real democracy, and hoist a name plate democracy of which he trumpets to a fooled nation of a renewed  democracy, freedom of the press and the end of a white van culture.  Ranil Wickramasinghe even took over the  Judiciary on to his side with USA twisting his arms trying to set up  its own legal system in Sri Lanka along with a base camp for the American Armed Forces. Besides that the Yahapalanaya has imported Islamic terrorism, and made Sri Lanka a dumping ground of British Garbage.

The Presidential election  is due to be held in Sri Lanka and if by some bad luck or through the sins the people have committed, and for their bad kamma Ranil Wickramasinghe or a some one  from the political front lead by him would come to power, that would be the end of Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lanka with over 2000 years of history.

The people of Sri Lanka should wake up to the looming danger and avoid voting for  any Presidential Candidate of the UNP or a United Front lead by the UNP, Ranil Wickramasinghe or the J.V.P.  

If Sri Lanka is to be saved from dangers it is facing today a solution is with the former President  Mahinda Rajapakse who had the vision and the ability to find ways to win the war with  the  ruthless terrorists, and  parallel to it develop the country from rigors of a thirty year terrorism and the ashes of poverty. 

The ability of setting the Sri Lanka back on its feet to walk towards a targeted development process, is in the camp of the Sri Lanka Podu Janaperamuna led by Mahinda Rajapakse and his patriotic supporters.  

One has to tread the ground carefully in making plans to rescue Sri Lanka dragging it out of the political, economic and social mire into which it has been pushed by Yahapalanaya goons blinded by power,  clean, and nurse  the Country before setting it back on its staggering feet weakened after four and a half years of destructive Yahapalanaya.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna would probably  propose the former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse as their Presidential Candidate . He has shown his ability to stand against foreign powers and face the  local political and racial elements in the interest of the country and produce strong surprisingly fresh development projects to develop   towns and the country, using the Armed Forces in useful development projects. 

There may be those who criticise him for personal reasons but if one is selflessly looking at the country as a whole, the ideal candidate for the Presidential election, and subsequently  to lead the Country as its President would certainly be Gotabhaya Rajapakse, even if there are complaints that he is a military man rather than a politician to be the President of Sri Lanka, Once in power he is quite capable of adjusting himself  to political needs as he proved his ability to successfully coordinate  different Armed Forces of the ground, air and sea, to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka, and later to start development projects  bringing  peace and security to the country.

කතු වැකිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

පුරාවිද්‍යා ස්මාරකයක් ලෙස ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කර ඇති ත‍්‍රිකුණාමලයේ කන්නියා උණුවතුර ළිං පරිශ‍්‍රයේ පිහිටි ඉපැරණි බෞද්ධ දාගැබ සංරක්‍ෂණය සඳහා ගිය පුරාවිද්‍යා නිලධාරීන්ට විරෝධය පා, දෙමළ ජාතික සංධාන මන්ත‍්‍රීවරු හා ඔවුන්ගේ ආධාරකරුවන් මහත් කලබැගෑනියක් ඇතිකර තිබේ. ඒ මෙම භූමිය හින්¥න්ට අයිති බව හා එහි පැවතියේ හින්දු කෝවිලක් බවට ප‍්‍රකාශ කරමිනි.
 
 සැබෑය! බෞද්ධයන් මෙම ස්ථානයෙන් නික්ම ගිය පසුගිය අරාජික, යුද සමයේදී මෙහි තාවකාලික මඩුවක අනවසර කෝවිලක් ඉදිකර තිබී ඇත. එපමණක් නොව තිස් වසරක යුද සමයේදී කන්නියා උණුවතුර ළිං බලන්නට එහි ගිය දහස් ගණනක දකුණේ ජනතාවගෙන් ටිකට්පත් (කප්පම්) වලින් මුදල් ගරාගත්තේ එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සංවිධානය බව ද නොදන්නා කෙනෙකු නැත.
 
 එනමුත් කඩාවැටී තිබුණු තාවකාලික කෝවිල්  ගොඩනැඟිල්ලේ පස් ඉවත් කරන විට ඒ යටින් සඳකඩ පහනක් හා චෛත්‍යයක පාදමක් ඇතුළු බෞද්ධ විහාරයක නටබුන් මතුවීම බෞද්ධයන් විසින් ගෙතූ කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයක් හෝ බොරුවක් නොව, මේ මහපොළොවේම ඉතා හොඳින් සනිටුහන් වූ සත්‍යයකි. එහි පවතින සෙල්ලිපි ඇතුළු ඉපැරණි බෞද්ධ මූලාශ‍්‍ර අනුව මෙම ස්ථානය ක‍්‍රි. ව. 143 – 167 කාලයේදී භාතික තිස්ස රජු විසින් කරවන ලද විහාරස්ථානයක් තිබී ඇති බවට තහවුරු වී ඇත. මීට නුදුරු විල්ගම් රජමහා වෙහෙරට සමගාමීව මෙම විහාරය ද එකලම ස්ථාපනය කර තිබී ඇති බැවින් පවතින පුරාවිද්‍යා සාධක අනුව 2011/11/09 දින 1723 දරණ ගැසට් නිවේදනය මගින් රජය විසින් පුරාවිද්‍යා ස්මාරකයක් බවට ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කර ඇත.
 
 1940 අංක 09 දරණ පුරාවිද්‍යා ආඥා පනත ප‍්‍රකාරව පුරාවිද්‍යා අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා විසින් මෙම ස්ථානය සංරක්‍ෂණයට කටයුතු යොදා ඇත්තේ ඒ අයුරිනි.
 
 එනමුත්, දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය ඇතුළු දමිළ විරෝධතාකරුවන් මීට විරෝධතා දක්වමින් සංරක්‍ෂණ කටයුතු සඳහා බාධා සිදුකරන්නේ කුමන පදනමකින් ද? මීට පෙර පැවැති සාකච්ඡුාවලදී ගත් එකඟතා ද පසෙලකාය.
 
 රජයේ පාර්ශ්වයෙන් ගත්කල හින්දුන්ට වැඳුම් පිදුම් කරන්නට මෙහි පසෙක කෝවිලක් ද තනා ගන්නට අවසර ලබා දී තිබියදීත්, මෙසේ බෞද්ධ විරෝධයකින් කටයුතු කිරීම අනුමත කළ නොහැක්කකි.
 
 අද මුලතිව්-නයාරු ගුරුකන්දේ ද සිදුවන්නේ මෙයමය. බෞද්ධ උරුමයන් වනසා දමමින් ඒ මතද හින්දු කෝවිලක් තනා ඇත. බෞද්ධ නටබුන් මත හින්දු කෝවිල්, ඉස්ලාම් පල්ලි තැනීම දැඩි ප‍්‍රවණතාවක් වී තිබේ. කූරගල ඊට නිදසුනකි. එසේ හෙයින් මේ තත්ත්වය නොසලකා සිටිය හැක්කේ නොවේ.
 
 ගුරුකන්දේ පැහැදිලිවම බෞද්ධ උරුමය දකින්නට තිබෙද්දී ඒ මත කෝවිලක් තනා මේ වන විට එම විහාරයේ කඨින පිංකම පැවැත්වීම සඳහා ද බාධා පමුණුවා ඇත. බෞද්ධයන්ගේ රටේ බෞද්ධයන්ට ඇති උරුමය පාගා දමමින් ජාතිවාදී, ආගම්වාදී කෝලාහල ඇති කිරීමට මේ අනුව කටයුතු කරන්නේ බෞද්ධයන් ද යන්න විමසා බැලිය යුතුය. මානව හිමිකම්කාරයන්ට මේවා පෙනෙන්නේ නැත.
 
 සිංහලයන්ගේ අයිතියට තිබූ පානම ඔකඳ දේවාලයේ අයිතිය ද මේ වන විට සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම
 
 අන්‍යාගමිකයන් විසින් ඩැහැගෙන ඇතැයි දැන ගන්නට ඇත. ‘මුතුබණ්ඩා’ පරම්පරාවට අයිතිව තිබූ ඔකඳ දේවාලයේ අයිතිය සූක්‍ෂ්මව හින්දුන් විසින් ලබාගෙන ඇත්තේ ‘‘නොසිතූ පරිදි’’ මුතුබණ්ඩාත්, ඔහුගේ සොහොයුරාත්, පුතුන් දෙදෙනාත් මිය යෑමෙන් පසුවය. දැන් නැගෙනහිර පූජකයන්ට හිමිකම් ඇති ඔකඳ දේවාලයේ සුවිශාල විශ‍්‍රාමශාලා කුමන ජාතික උද්‍යානයේ සීමාව ද පසුකර උද්‍යානය තුළට කඩාවැදී ඇත. උද්‍යානය තුළ කුඹුක්කන්ඔය අසබඩ පිහිටි දෙවියන්ට වැඳුම් පිදුම් කළ ස්ථානය ද කුඩා කැබිලිත්ත නමින් ගොඩනඟන්නේ නීති විරෝධීවය. කුමන උද්‍යානය මෙන්ම විල්පත්තුව ජාතික උද්‍යානය තුළ ද ජනාවාසකරණය යහමින් සිදුවෙමින් පවතින බව අප වගකීමෙන් යුතුව ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන්නෙමු.
 
 හින්දුන් විසින් හා ඉස්ලාම්වරුන් විසින් ඉතා දරුණු ලෙස රක්‍ෂිත වනාන්තර ඉඩම් සහ බෞද්ධයන්ගේ උරුමයන් වනසා දැමීමත්, ආක‍්‍රමණය කිරීමත් දැඩි තර්ජනයකි. නොසලකා සිටිය හැක්කක් නොවේ. මේවා කතා කිරීම මගින් ‘දිවයින’ට ජාතිවාදී ලේබලය අලවන්නට ද ඇතැමුන් ක‍්‍රියා කරනු ඇත.
 
 එහෙත්, සමානාත්මතාව අප ඉතා ඉහළින් පිළිගන්නා නමුත්, ආක‍්‍රමණය සහ බොදු උරුමය වැනසීමට එරෙහිව අප දැඩිව හඬ නගන බව ද එවන් ප‍්‍රතිගාමීන්ට කියා සිටින්නට අප කැමැතිය.
 
 නයාරු ගුරුකන්ද, කූරගල සහ කන්නියා යනු ඉතා හොඳින් තහවුරු කළ බෞද්ධ පුරාවිද්‍යා ස්මාරක බව අමුතුවෙන් කිවයුතු දෙයක් නොවේ. දෙමළ සන්ධානය ද වෙනත් සංහිඳියා ඇමැතිවරු ද වෙනත් ආගමික නායකයන් ද එවන් අනාවරණයන්ට ගරු කළ යුතුය. මන්ද අප මෙවන් අනන්‍යතා සන්සන්ධනය කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ අප ගිලගන්නට එන ජාත්‍යන්තරය සමඟ මිස හින්දු, ඉස්ලාම්, බෞද්ධ යන පදනමෙන් නොවන නිසාය.
 
 ඇමෙරිකාව, චීනය, ඉන්දියාව, ජපානය යනාදී මෙකී නොකී බලවතුන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවට අමුතු ආදරයක් පෙන්වමින් මෙරටේ භූ සම්පත් කොල්ලකන්නට උත්සාහ දරන මෙවන් වකවානුවක අපට වැදගත් වන්නේ බෞද්ධ, හින්දු, ඉස්ලාම් වශයෙන් භේද භින්න වී ගහ මරා ගැනීම නොව, රටේ සැබෑ උරුමය මේ යැයි ජාත්‍යන්තරයට පෙන්වා දී දේශය බේරා ගැනීමටය.
 
 එවන් විටෙක කන්නියා හෝ ගුරුකන්ද හෝ කූරගල හෝ මෙරටේ සැබෑ බොදු උරුමයක් වේ නම් ඒවාට ගරුකර ඒවා තහවුරු කරන්නට රජයට ඉඩදීම අන්‍යයන්ගේ ද යුතුකමය.
 
 එසේ හෙයින් කන්නියාවට තැබූ පියවර යළිත් ආපස්සට නොගත යුතුය.

http://divaina.com/daily/index.php/kathuwakiya

Courtesy The Island

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.

 lanka C news

අපේ රටේ නායකයන්ගේ කොන්ද පන නැති බවත් ඔහු වැඩ කළ යුත්තේ මේ ආකාරයෙන් නොවන බවත් අගරදගුරු මැල්කම් රංජිත් කාදිනල් තුමන් සඳහන් කරති.

ඉතාමත් ශක්තිමත් ව තිබූ බුද්ධි අංශ පාලකයන් විසින් විනාශ කළ බවද එහිමියන් චෝදනා කළහ.

වනාතවිල්ලූවේදී අන්තවාදීන් හසුවූ අවස්ථාවේ කිසිම දෙයක් නොකර ඔවුන් නිදහස් කළ බවත්, මාවනැල්ලේ බුදු පිළිම කැඩූ අය හමුවූ පසු වූ විට ඔවුන් නිදහස් කර ඒ ගැන ඔත්තුව දුන් පුද්ගලයාට වෙඩි තැබූ බව ද කාදිනල් හිමියන් පැවසූහ.

විධායකය සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය අතර ඇති වී තිබෙන බල අරගලයේ හේතුවෙන් ඔක්තෝබර් මාසයේ සිට ආරක්ෂක මණ්ඩලය කැඳවා නැති බවත් ලැබී තිබූ තොරතුරුද අතහැර දැමුවත් කාදිනල් තුමන් සදහන් කලහ.

දැන් සියලු දෙනාටම ගෙදර යන්නේ කීමට කාලය පැමිණ ඇති බවත් රට කරන්න පුළුවන් කාට හරි භාර දෙන්නැයි ඉල්ලා සිටින බවත් වැඩිදුරටත් එහිමියන් සඳහන් කළහ.

පාස්කු ඉරිදා දිනයේ එල්ල වූ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු කටුවාපිටිය දේවස්ථානය නැවත පිලිසකර කර දේව පූජා ආරම්භ කිරීමේ දේව මෙහෙය අමතමින් කාදිනල් හිමියෝ මෙම අදහස් පල කළහ.

ආචාර්ය සුදත් ගුණසේකර

සිව්වන සියවසේ (ක්‍රි ව. 313) කීර්ති ශ්‍රී මේඝවර්ණ රජතුමා දවස ශ්‍රී දළදා වහන්සේ මෙරටට වැඩමවූදා සිටම අරම්භවූ ශ්‍රී දළදා ප්‍රදර්ශනය හා දළදා පෙරහැර ඉතිහාසය පුරාම ඉතා  උත්කර්ෂවත් අන්දමින් පවත්වා ඇතිබැව් වන්ශකතාවලින් පැහැදිළිවෙයි. එදා සිටම සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යක් වූ මේ රටේ දළදාවහන්සේගේ භාරකාරයා මෙන්ම ආරක්ශකයාද වුයේ රජතුමාය. ඒ  නිසාම දළදාවහන්සේ වැඩසිටි දළදාමන්දිරය පිහිටියේද මාළිගා චතුරස්‍රයේමය.  දිනපතා උන්වහන්සේට සිදුකෙරෙන පුද පූජා වලට අමතරව වසරකට වරක් දළදා වහන්සේ අභයගිරි විහාරයට පෙරහැරින් වැඩමවා දින අනූවක් එහි ප්‍රදර්ශනයකොට ජනතාවට වැඳපුදා ගැනීමට අවස්ථාව සලස්වයි. අනතුරුව නැවතත් දළදාවහන්සේ පෙරහරින් රජමාලිගා පරිශ්‍රයට  වැඩමවා දළදා මන්දිරයේ තැන්පත් කිරීම සිරිත විය. මේ තුලින් දළදාවහ්න්සේගේ භාරකාරයා වසයෙන් රජතුමා එය ආරක්ශාකොට තබාගෙන ඇති බවත්, දයිනිකව වතාවත් සිදුකොට ඇති බවත්, වාර්ෂිකව ජනතාවට උන්වහන්සේ දැකබලාගැනිමට සහ වැඳපුදා ගැනීමට අවස්ථාව සලසාදී ඇති බවත් ඒ තුලින් රාජ්යත්වය ආරක්ශාකොටගත් බවත් පෙනේ. සින්හල බෞද්ධ රටක් වශයෙන් මේ රටේ ඉතිහාසය පුරාම මෙම  සම්ප්‍රදාය මහනුවර යුගයේ අවසානය දක්වාම පැවති බව වර්තමාන දළදා මන්දිරයද රජ  මාලිගා චතුරස්‍රයේම පිහිටා තිබීමෙන් මනාව පැහැදිළිවෙයි

1815 දී මේ රට ඉන්ග්‍රීසීන් කුමන්ත්‍රණයෙන් අල්ලාගත් පසු මෙම තත්වය වෙනස් විය. උඩරට ගිවිසුමේ 5 වන වගන්තියෙන් මේ රට් බෞද්ධ උරුමය ආරක්ශාකරණ බවට ව්‍යාජ පොරොන්දුවක් දුන්නද බ්‍රවුන් රිග් ආණ්ඩුකාරයා මාර්තු 2 උඩරට ගිවිසුමේ තීන්ත වේලීමටත් පෙර එය උල්ලන්ගනය කළේය. එපමණක් නොව බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් සිරගතකිරීමට සහ මරාදැමීමටද ඔහු ක්‍රියාකළ අතර දළදා පෙරහැරද කිසිදිනක නොපැවත්විය.

1828 දි රටපුරා ඇතිවූ නියගයක් නිසා ඉන්ග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවේ ආධාර ඇතිව දළදා පෙරහැරක් පැවත්වූ බව වාර්තා වී ඇත. ඒ සඳහා මහමලුවේ විශාල ශාලා දෙකක් සාදා අලන්කාර ලෙස සරසා ආණ්ඩුකාරයා ඇතුලු රජයේ නිලධාරින් විසාල පිරිසකගේ  සහභාගීත්වයෙන් මුරකාවල් යොදා තිබුණු බවද වාර්තාවේ.  අනතුරුව අණ්ඩුකාරයා පෙරහැරකින් මාලිගාව තුලට කැඳවා ගෙන ගොස් ධාතුකරණ්ඩුව දෙහිගම දියවඩන නිලමේ විසින් දෙන ලදුව ආණ්ඩුකාරයා විසින් ඇතුමත තැන්පත් කොට මහමලුවට පැමිණ අසුන් ගැනීමෙන් පසු පෙරහැර ආරම්භ කරණ ලදී. පෙරහැර අවසන්වීමෙන් පසු දියවඩන නිළමේ ඇතුලු පිරිස ආණ්ඩුකාරයා බැහැදැක පෙරහැර  අවසන්කළ බව වාර්තාකල බවද සන්දහන්වෙයි. රජ මැදුරේදී ආණ්ඩුකාරයා බැහැදැකීමේ සම්ප්‍රදාය ආම්භවූයේ මේ ආකාරයෙන්ය.

ඉන්ග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුව මින් බලාපොරොත්තුවූ කරුණු කීපකි. ඉන්ග්රීසි ආන්ඩුවේ අධිකාරිය මේ රටතුල තහවුරු කරගැනීම, යටත් විජිතයේ රාජපාක්සික භාවය ඉස්ථිරකරගැනීම  සහ යටත්විජිතවාදී අධිකාරී බලයේ යසෝරාවය ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරිමද ඒ අතර වේ.

1948 දී මේ රටට නිදහස ලැබීයයි  කයිවාරු ගැසුවද අදද දියවඩන නිලමේවරයා බස්නාක නිලමේ වරුන් පිරිවරාගෙන අලිඇතුන් සහිත පෙරහරකින් ආණ්ඩුකාර නිල නිවසට ගොස් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ දිසාපතිවරයා ඇතුලු යටත්විජිතවාදී නෂ්ටාවශේෂ නිලධාරීන් බැහදැක සිදුකරණුයේද මේ දෙයමය. මේ වු කලී අපගේ රජවරුන් තම යුතුකම් ජනතාව සහ භිෂූන් වෙනුවෙන් වාර්ෂිකව ඔවුන්වෙත ගොස් පෙන්වීමේ පෙරදිග විසිෂ්ඨ සන්කෘතිය මුලුමනින්ම කණපිට හැරවීමකි. ඒ නිසා අන්ධානුකරනයෙන් හා ලජ්ජානැතිව  මොවුන් අද මේ සිදුකරන්නේද  යල්පැනගිය එම යටත්විතිත සම්ප්‍රදායම නොවේද? ඊනියා නිදහස ලබා වසර 71 ට පසුව හෝ යටත්විජිත භාවයේ නෂ්ටාවශේෂයන්ට දැන්වත් තිත තබන්නේ නැත්තේ ඇයි ? එසේ නොකරන්නේ ඔවුන් තවමත් අධිරාජය්වාදීන්ගේ සුවච ඇම්බැට්ටයින් නිසා නොවේද? 1948 සිට සිටි එකම රාජ්ය නායකයෙකුට හෝ මෙබන්දු සිතිවිල්ලක් පහල නොවීම ගැන ඔවුන් ලජ්ජා විය යුතුය.රට ගැන හා අපේකම ගැන ඔවුන්ගේ ඇති ඇපකැපවීම මෙයින්ම පැහැදිළිවේ. සින්හල බෞද්ධ අප තුලනම් ඔවුන් පිලිබන්ද ඇත්තේ බලවත් කලකිරීමක් සහ  පිළිකුලකි.

ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම මේ අධිරාජ්යවාදි දීන බව ප්‍රදර්ශනය කිරීමේ සම්ප්‍රදායට තිත තැබීමට පලමු

පියවර ගතයුත්තේ නිදහස්යයි කියන මේ රටේ රාජ්ය නායකයින් නොවේද?

එමනිසා තවදුරටත්  ලෝකයේම් විෂිස්ඨ සන්ස්කෘතියකට හිමිකම් කියන මේ නිදහස් රටේ අපි ඉන්ග්‍රීසි ගැත්තන් නොවී ඔවුන්ගේ දීන ගැත්තන් වන  දේසීය පාලකයින්ගේද ඇම්බැට්ටයන් නොවන බවට වගකීම සමස්ත ලාන්කේය සින්හල බෞධ ජන්තාවගේම ගිහි නායකයා සහ දළදාවන්සේගේ ගිහි භාරකරුවන  දියවඩන නිලමේ ඇතුලු සතරමහා දෙවාලවල බස්නායක නිලමේ වරුන්වත් පියවර ගතයුතුයයි මම යෝජනා කරමි.

දේශපාලන හා වෙනත් හේතුන් නිසා ඔවුන්ටද එසේ කිරීමට පිටකොන්දක් නැතිනම් මේ රටේ හා ජාතියේ  මුරදේවතාවුන්  වහන්සේලා වන අස්ගිරි මල්වතු මහා නාහිමිවරුන් ඇතුලු ප්‍රධාන භික්ෂූන්   වහන්සේලා හෝ මේ අධිරාජ්යවාදී ගැතිකමේ නස්ඨාවශේෂ සම්ප්‍රදායන්ට වහාම තිත තැබීමටත්  ඒ සන්දහා සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යක සම්ප්‍රදායන්ට ගැලපෙන ක්‍රම වේදයක් ඇති කිරීමටත් සුදුසු කාලය දැන් එළම්බ ඇතැයි මම සිතමි. දැන්වත් ඒ අනුව කටයුතු කරනමෙන් රාජ්ය පාලකයින්ට නොපමාව උපදෙස් දෙන මෙන් උන්වහන්සේලාගෙන් මම ගෞරාව්යෙන්  ඉල්ලා සිටිමි

උන්වහන්සේලාද මේ සන්දහා එවැනි පියවරක් ගැනීමට මැලිවන්නේනම් මේ රටට හා සින්හල බෞද්ධ සන්ස්කෘතියට ආදරේ ඇති සින්හල බෞද්ධ උරුමය  පිලිබඳ උගතුන් හා බුද්ධිමතුන් එක්ව හෝ මේ යටත් විජිත නශ්ඨාවශේසයන් දැන්වත් ඉවත්කොට නිදහස් රටක් හා ජාතියක් වශයෙන් අපගේ අනන්යතාව රැකගතයුතු අතරම ශ්‍රී දළදා වහන්සේගේ මෙන්ම සින්හල ජාතියේ හා සම්බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ  ගෞරවය නැවතත් ප්‍රතිශ්ඨාපනය වන පරිදි සුදුසු වැඩ පිලිවෙලක් යෝජනා කළයුතුයැයි මම සිතමි.

 මේ පිලිබන්ද තීරණයක් ගැනිමේ ශක්තියක් මට ඇත්නම් මා යෝජනා  කරණුයේ රටේ රාජ්ය නායකයා විසින් පෙරහැර පවත්වා අවසානයේදී සින්හල ජාතියේ වර්තමාන සම්ප්‍රදායික නායකයින් හා සාශනභාර මුර දේවතාවුන් වහන්සේලා වන අස්ගිරි මල්වතු මහා නායක හිමිවරුන් ඇතුලු ත්‍රයිනිකායික මහානායක හිමිවරුන්ගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් මහනුවර මඟුල් ම්ණ්ඩුවේදී පැවෙත්වෙන ද්විපාර්ශික කාරක සන්ඝ සභාවකට පෙරහර සාර්ථකව අවසන්කළ බව සැළකර සිටීමයි. එසේම ඊලන්ග වසරේදී පෙරහැර පැවත්වීම පිල්බන්ද  උන්වහන්සේලාගේ අනුශාසනා ලබාගැනීමද සිදුකළයුතු බවය.

රජදවස රජතුමාද ඇතෙකුපිට නැගී පෙරහැරේ ගන්කළ බව සන්දහන් වේ. අද අපට රජෙක් නැත. ඒ වෙනුවට වර්තමානයේ සිටින්නේ ජනාධිපති වරයෙකි. නමුත් ඔහු අද රටේ ජනතාව විසින් පත්කරගත් රටේ හා ජාතියේ  නායකයාය. ඔටුණු නොපලන් රජතුමාය. ඒ නිසා පුරාණ රජතුමාගේ කාර්යභාරය ඉටුකිරීමට ඔහුටද සෑම අයිතියක්ම තිබේ. මෙහිදී ජනාධිපති වරයාද ඊට සුදුසු මුල් ඇන්දුමකින් සැරසී දියවඩන නිලමේ සහ සතර මහා දේවාල බස්නායකවරුන් සහිත  පෙරහැරකින් පැමිණ මෙම සැළකර සිටීම කළ මැනවයි මම යෝජනා කරමි.

එසේ කිරීමෙන් දළදා වහන්සේට කිසිදු සම්බන්ධයක් නැති යටත්විජිත නෂ්ඨාවශේෂයක් වූ ආණ්ඩුකාර නිල නිවසට ගොස් යටත්විජිත ප්‍රතිරූපකයන්ගේ හා සම්ප්‍රදායන්ගේ අමිහිරි මතකයන් සිහිගන්වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ දිසාපතිවරයා අතුලු නිලධාරීන් බැහැදැකීමේ නිවට සම්ප්‍රදාය අවසන්කොට නිදහස් නිවහල් සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යකට උචිත නව ආගමික, සාමාජික හා සoස්කෘතික සම්ප්‍රදායක ආරම්භයක් පිලිබන්ද අයිතිහාසික   සටහනක්ද සනිටුහන් වනූ ඇතැයි මම විස්වාශ කරමි. එසේම මේ රටේ තවමත් සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යක ලක්ෂණ නොනැසී පවතින බව මුලු ලොවටම පෙනීයනු ඇත. එසේ නොකොට ජනාධිපති වරයා සිය පවුල සමඟ රැජිනහෝටලයේ සිව්මැදුරු කවුලුවක වාඩිවි පෙරහැර නැරබීමෙන් ඔහුට සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්යත්වයේ  ආගමික හා සාමාජික යුතුකම් ඉටුකළ නොහැ

1853 දී ඉන්ග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුව විසින් දළදා වහන්සේගේ භාරකාරත්වය අස්ගිරි හා මල්වතු නා හිම්වරුන්ට සහ දියවඩන නිලමේට භාරදීමෙන් සිදුකොට ඇත්තේ අමිල සේවයකි. මන්ද එසේ නොවී අපේ දේසපාලකයින් අතට එයත් ලැබුනේනම් මේ උතුම් රටට්  1948 සිට ඔවුන් විසින්  සිදුකොට ඇති විනාශය දෙස බලනවිට මේ වනවිටත් දළදා වහන්සේද විකුනාගෙන කා අවසන්වීමට සෑම ඉඩක්ම තිබුණ නිසාය.

by Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan

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.

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.

by Swarajya Staff Courtesy Swarajyamag

Donald Trump,Bangladesh,Hindu activist,priya saha,minority activist,hindus in bangladesh,

Priya Saha at the White House (Pic via Twitter)

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.

The Island/Asia News Network 

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.