පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

යුනෙස්කෝ ලෝක උරුම තෙත් කලාපීය වැසි වනාන්තරයක් වන සිංහරාජ රක්ෂියේ නැගෙනහිර රක්වාන කඳුවැටිය හා ඒ ආශ්‍රිතව පවතින්නා වූ වනාන්තර පද්ධතිය සූවිශේෂි ජෛව විවිධත්වයකින් යුක්ත වන අතර සිංහරාජයේ වෙසෙන අවසාන දැවන්තයන් දෙදෙනා වසරේ වැඩි කාලයක් සක්‍රීය වන ප්‍රදේශයකි. මානික්වත්ත, බෝටියතැන්න ප්‍රදේශය ආශ්‍රිත කලාපය සිංහාරජ අලි සංක්‍රමණ කලාපයක් ලෙසටද ලෙස නම් කර ඇත.

සීඝ්‍රයෙන් විනාශවෙමින් පවතින මෙම හඳපාන්ඇල්ල, සිංහරාජ අලි සංක්‍රමණ භූමියේ (අලිමංකඩ) බෝටියතැන්න ප්‍රදේශයේ අක්කර 8ක පමණ ඉඩමක් මේ වන විට අනවසරයෙන් කපා දමා ගිනිතබමින් සිටී. වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය මේ පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමේදී දැන ගැනීමට හැකි වූයේ විශ්‍රාමික කර්නල්වරයෙකු යැයි කියාගන්නා අයකු විසින් මෙම විනාශය සිදු කරන බවත් මෙම භූමිය තුල ජලය බෝතල් කිරීමේ කර්මාන්ත ශාලාවක් ඉදිකිරීම සඳහා මෙම විනාශය සිදුකරන බවත්ය. මේ වන විට වටිනා දේශීය ශාක ඇතුළු විශල ශාක ප්‍රමාණයක්  බැකෝ යන්ත්‍ර යොදාගනිමින් ගලවා දමා ගිනිතබා ඇත. මෙම ගිනි තැබීම නිසාවෙන් මුළු ප්‍රදේශයම අධික දූමාරයකින් වැසී ඇත.

අදාළ පුද්ගලයා වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය විසින් දුරකතනයෙන් සම්බන්ධ කර ගත් අවස්ථාවේදී දැන ගැනීමට හැකි වූයේ මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා හෝ වන හායනය සම්බන්ධව කිිසිඳු අවසරයක් ලබා නොමැති බව සහ ජල පෝෂක ප්‍රදේශයක් වන මෙම ප්‍රදේශය පාංශු සංරක්ෂණ කලාපයක් වන බැවින් බැකෝ යන්ත්‍ර යොදා ස්භාවිකව පවත්නා ගස්,ගල් ගලවා ඉවත් කිරීමට කිසිඳු අවසරයක් ලබාගෙන නොමැති බවත්ය.

මෙම ප්‍රදේශය සිංහරාජ පරිවාර වනාන්තරයක් වන හඳපාන්ඇල්ලෙන් ආරම්භ වන ඉතා වටිනා දොළ මාර්ගයකට මායිම් වන අතර එම දොළ මාර්ගයේ ජල පෝෂක කලාපයක්ද වේ. මෙම වන පියස සිංහාරජ දැවන්තයන් වන හස්තීන් දෙදෙනා සිංහාරාජයත් දෙල්වල, වලංකන්ද රක්ෂිත දෙසටත්, පන්නිල දෙසටත් සංක්‍රමණය වීමේදි භාවිත කරන ප්‍රධාන අලිමංකඩ ලෙසටද හඳුනාගෙන ඇති වටිනා වනාන්තර ප්‍රදේශයක් වන අතර පතන (මාන) වලින් ගහණ භූමියකි.   

මේ පිළිබඳව දැනුවත් කරමින් අප සංවිධානය විසින් පරිසර අමාත්‍යාංශය ප්‍රමුඛ ආයතන ගණනාවකකට ලිපි මඟින් දැනුවත් කර ඇත. එහිදී මූලික වශයෙන් මෙම කර්මාන්තශාලාව ඉදිකිරීමෙන් මෙම සංවේදී පරිසර පද්ධතිය විනාශ වී කර්මාන්ත පුරයක ආරම්භය විය හැකි බැවින් එම කර්මාන්ත ශාලාවට සහ වන විනාසයට අවසර නොදෙන ලෙසටත්, දිගින් දිගටම මෙම පරිසර කලාපයට එල්ල වන බලපෑම් අවම කර ගැනීම සඳහා එම කලාපය පරිසර සංවේදී කලාපයක් ලෙස නම් කිරීමට කඩිනම් පියවර ගන්නා ලෙසටත්, මෙම විනාශය සිදුකල අයට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලෙසටත් දන්වා ඇත.

මෙම වටිනා සංවේදී කලාපය රැක ගැනීම මෙන්ම දැනට ඉතිරි වී ඇති තෙත් කලාපීය අලි දෙදෙනාගේ අනාගත ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීමද අප සියළු දෙනාගේම වගකීම වේ. එබැවින් මේ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය පියවර කඩිනමින් ගත යුතු අතර ඒ සඳහා සියළු දෙනා එක්විය යුතුය.

මේ පිළිබඳ වැඩිදුර තොරතුරු  0777771348 (ජයන්ත විජේසිංහ, කැඳවුම්කරු, වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය) ඇමතීමෙන් ලබාගත හැක.

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න

මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක

වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

Mahinda Gunasekera

His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena
President of Sri Lanka

Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Your Excellency Maithripala Sirisena and Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe,

Please see the annexed video discussion with two representatives of the GMOA with one Chapa Bandara relating to serious wrongdoings in procedure and harm done to the health of the people through the corrupt practices of the current Minister of Health, and corrupt deals incurring huge losses to the state by the same person, namely Rajitha Senaratne, when he held the post of Minister of Fisheries.

Such corrupt activities cannot be pushed under the rug and forgotten as a colossal amount of public funds have been misappropriated and wasted under the direction of this individual who is currently the Minister of Health in your government.

Please take some positive steps to investigate the alleged wrongdoings and take appropriate action at least at the present stage to penalize those responsible for the high handed acts of corruption causing immense losses to the public purse.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera
Dated: July 16, 2019

Please watch this very interesting discussion with two GMOA representatives where they talk of importation of outdated drugs by the Ministry of Health which are outside the approved list and proven to be less effective.  They spoke of harm done to pregnant mothers, new mothers and new born babies by providing them with outdated and less effective iron pills and folic acid, plus several other drugs at exorbitant prices.  They quoted from the Auditor General’s Report on the wilful actions of the ministry that failed to carry three months buffer stock as required, and thereafter proceeding to bypass the normal tender process and order unknown drugs outside the approved list as an emergency measure, costing in some cases 100 times more.  The Minister of Health and responsible officials should be taken to task for the waste of funds and serious harm done to the people’s health.  They placed the losses to the country well above that of the Central Bank fraud.

It appears as though a Presidential Commission of Inquiry has been established to look into the irresponsible and fraudulent acts of the Minister and high officials.  The LINK to the discussion is given below.

Nilantha Jayawardena <nilantha.jayawardena@gmail.com>

If funds are required to duly proceed with the investigation and court trial, we should willingly contribute towards the costs in order that justice may prevail.

Mahinda Gunasekera

Rajitha Off The Hook In Fishy Deals
Posted on May 23rd, 2016

by Camelia Nathaniel Courtesy The Sunday Leader

Evidence has surfaced that a prominent minister and former fisheries minister had been engaged in bribery and corruption during his tenure at the fisheries ministry depriving the country of millions of rupees in tax revenue and depriving the fishing community of many opportunities.

Despite his tarnished track record, this minister jumped ship from the Rajapaksa camp and joined the Maithri-Ranil bandwagon in order to safeguard himself and avoid being taken to task over the corrupt activities he had been engaged in.

During his tenure, a Chinese firm which wanted to engage in fishing within Sri Lankan waters had approached the minister through its local arm Arugambay Fishery (Pvt) Ltd. Under the pretext of having further discussions on the matter, the then Fisheries Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne visited China on two occasions at the expense of the Chinese company. He left Sri Lanka aboard a Sri Lankan Airlines flight on sixth June, 2013 and returned on June 12,2013.

As a result of this visit, the minister laid down conditions that the deal could go through only if the local company Arugambay Fishery (Pvt) Ltd, would be replaced by a company that would be created with his secretary Don Lalith Anuradha Seneviratne as the major shareholder. Subsequently Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd was registered under N/A 176433 with his secretary Don Lalith Anuradha Seneviratne holding 60 per cent of shares. Misusing his privileges as a minister, Rajitha Senaratane set up this company knowing full well that it was illegal and appointed his secretary as the major shareholder in a bid to hoodwink the people. In addition, Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd, imported eight ships worth Rs. 400 million, but to date there is no mention of the duty that was or was not paid to the country. To date the investment of Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd is around Rs. 1000 million and the investment of Anuradha Seneviratne would have to be around Rs. 600 million. How a minister’s secretary could invest such a colossal figure is still a mystery.

According to the agreement between Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd and the fisheries ministry, 10 per cent of the catch of the eight vessels should be sold to the fisheries ministry at $ 1 per kilo, before the rest can be exported.

The Chinese company was earlier granted permission to engage in fishing under the Sri Lankan flag beyond the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Sri Lanka. The company had entered into an agreement with the Board of Investment to carry out fishing in international waters. According to an official of the Ministry of Investment Promotion, although the Dikovita Port was constructed as the biggest port in Asia, it was the minister’s son who got the contractors and handled the construction and the expenditure incurred for the construction of this port should be investigated separately.

However although the previous regime and Minister Senaratne claimed that this was the biggest port in Asia, the depth of it is just 5 metres.

Let alone accommodating large commercial vessels, even the Chinese trawlers could not be berthed there as it was not deep enough.Under the agreement, 90 per cent of the catch would be exported to China and 10 per cent given to the fisheries corporation at one dollar a kilo, the official said. The Chinese vessels were to be docked at the Dikovita fisheries harbour where the processing for exports would be carried out.

The operation was expected to generate  US$ 11 million (Rs. 1.3 billion)  in the first year. According to the official, the company started operations with four vessels and thereafter deployed 16 more 150 ft vessels.

However in spite of the profits made by this company, the minister had used his powers and obtained nine years of tax exemption for Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd. Moreover there is no declaration as to how this company obtained the funds to start up this investment.

This company has also not made any payment to the fisheries harbour corporation for the use of the Colombo or Dokovita harbours. Further, it is leant that in spite of a clause that has been inserted to the agreement with the cunning intention of obtaining tax concessions, that 10 per cent of the catch of these vessels will be sold to the Fisheries Corporation at $ 1 per kilo, this company had not supplied any fish to the fisheries corporation. This corrupt minister also used his powers in order to silence any official who dared to raise this issue.

According to the official, unsuitable appointments were made during the minister’s tenure further aggravating the situation at the fisheries corporation and contributed to its ruin.

According to fisheries ministry sources, During Senaratne’s tenure as the Minister of Fisheries, the younger brother of Rajitha Senaratne, Mahil Senaratne was appointed as the chairman of the fisheries corporation.

At the time Mahil Senaratne was appointed as chairman, he did not even own a house, but shortly after, he had constructed a luxury house in Nugegoda and also purchased a BMW motor vehicle. Workers claim that this was due to the fact that he was importing fish to the country at high commissions.

He was said to be receiving commissions from everything that was purchased for the fisheries corporation including the shopping bags that were used.

They claim that having worked as a store keeper at Bata, Mahil Senaratne had no knowledge on how to run the fisheries corporation and as a result the institution was ruined.

The workers also claim that a former police officer Ruwan Lankeshwara was appointed as the managing director and he too joined the minister and his brother in destroying the fisheries corporation. Hundreds of thousands of rupees were also taken claiming that the money was for the minister’s bodhi poojas. Further the workers claim that during the period under Minister Rajitha, the staff of the fisheries department was set at 745, of which 600 were permanent employees. However the workers charge that Rajitha Senaratne and his group had recruited a further 700 workers on contract basis and this had put a huge strain on the institution. In addition these workers were obliged to agree and cater to all the demands of the management.The workers also charge that around 20 kilos of small fish had to be delivered to Minister Senaratne’s residence supposedly to feed the dogs and cats. There were no bills or payments for this. According to the regulations of the fisheries department all goods purchased should be done after calling for tenders. But in spite of these regulations, the minister and his group had purchased used furniture and utensils for the main office from a hotel in Beruwela and these items were subsequently discarded due to being unusable.  Part of these items have also ended up at the residence of the chairman, managing director and the trade union president, it is alleged.Meanwhile, the cleaning contract for the Peliyagoda Fish Market at the time was given to one of Senaratne’s friends, one Kabir from the Minuwangoda without following any tender procedure. The contract was granted at Rs. 1.5 million monthly and of this, around Rs. 500,000 was the minister’s commission.

In addition, the manufacturing of life jackets was also given to another friend of the minister. The workers also claimed that in addition to their wages, special allowances ranging from Rs. 5000 to 25,000 were paid as allowances to the management friends of the minister. Moreover while practically all ice machine plants were in a dilapidated state, these too were sold as scrap metal with commissions.

Further, former Chairman of the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation branch in the SLFP affiliated Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, T.W. K. Dhammika who was accused of fraud of 2.8 million of NSS funds, imprisoned and later released on bail, was then reinstated by the minister without any proper investigation regarding the fraud.

While many crooks of the previous regime are being carted before commissions of inquiry and the bribery commission, those such as Rajitha Senaratne have cleverly switched allegiances and managed to avoid these investigations. According to the former president himself, Senaratne had made billions together with the Chinese and they too were unable to do anything about it because of their close relations with China. The JVP had filed a complaint at the Bribery Commission through the fisheries ministry regarding the misdeeds of Minister Senaratne, but since the minister has now switched sides and joined the Good Governance regime, so far no action has been taken. Voice Against Corruption (VOC) Convener and JVP North Central Provincial Councilor Wasantha Samarasinghe who was instrumental in filing this complaint said that as far as he knew no action was taken against the minister.

When contacted by The Sunday Leader Minister Rajitha Senaratne refuting these allegations said that although there had been a complaint that had been lodged against him at the Bribery commission, so far he had not been called for any investigation.

This is done by Wimal Weerawansa’s people and although I heard about it, so far I have not been informed of any investigation that has been initiated.”

With regard to the allegations that then minister had engaged Chinese vessels illegally to fish in local waters he said it is not only the Chinese but Japanese vessels were also used. If we had not met our target of 362 metric tons we would have lost our quota.”

The EU is taking 52% while the other states only take 48%, but no one is talking about that,” said the minister.He further said that it was only a temporary measure and in order to meet the quota, we need to have larger vessels. Pointing to Thailand as an example the minister said that they had engaged around 100 foreign vessels, and we would need to consider that option in the future too. The minister also said that this is not being highlighted by the media and it was not something that could be understood by everyone.

This is something to do with international affairs and ordinary people don’t understand this situation,” added minister Senaratne.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

මේ මාසය අවසන් වනවිට බැංකුණය පොලිය 12% සිට 10% දක්වා අඩු කරන බව අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ දී පැවසීය. පාස්කු ප්‍රහාරයෙන් කඩා වැටුණු සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය කෙටි කලක් ඇතුළත යථාතත්වයට පත්වනු ඇති බවද අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළේය.

Need of the hour is not reducing existing interest rates ,but imposing rules on all private and public banks to write off loans or postpone repayment and servicing interest for at  least four years ,to overcome the difficulties of  hotel owners ,industrialists ,caused by the Easter bomb blast.

I am in a boutique hotel for the holiday  generally patronised by upmarket clientele at about 40 000 rs per night ,sold at less than 1/4th of the pice,

They are unable to service loans taken from banks .Staff is reduced to only a few .Place is deserted.

Staff is reduced and chef doubles as front office manager,waiter doubles as bell boy to cut costs .

Only one Austrian young couple who have braved to come to this country who stayed in the hotel.

Occupancy 10 % 

I thanked them for coming to our country in these difficult times.

Such an industry ruined by the short sighted rulers ,who had no sense of the danger faced by the country and let the unimaginable happen.

This  is worse than the times during 30 years of war.

Banks declare hefty profits and  toprung mangers drawing thumping salaries.

GOVERNMENT SHOULD ENFORCE SOME EXTRAORDINARY LAW AND FORCE BANKS TO FREEZE PAYMENTS FOR AT LEAST FOUR YEARS UNTIL THE INDUSTRY RAISE THEIR HEADS .

 (නිර්මාණය – ඩබ්.කේ. එස්. ජයතිලක)

සිංහල ඔබගෙ අයිතිය වෙයි මේක
පාට බේද නොබලව් ඔබ කිසි දාක
පෑන අතින් ගෙන නොබියව කිසි දාක
තබනු තබනු එහි අත්සන සැබෑ දැක

උගනිව් ඉගෙනගව් සැමගේ භාෂාව
පෙරමුණ දියව් තමගේ මව් භාෂාව
කෙළෙසන්නට එපා කිසිවිට මව් භාෂාව
සමතැන නොවේ නිසි තැන තබව් මව් භාෂාව

නීති පනත් ගෙනෙනා ඒ මිනිස්සූ
දුගී ජනයා තලනා ඒ මිනිස්සූ
නීති කඩන ඒ ගෙම්බර මිනිස්සූ
මිනිස් කමට සුදුසුද ඒ මිනිස්සු

 (නිර්මාණය – ඩබ්.කේ. එස්. ජයතිලක)

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ සහ අභියාචනාධිකරණ නඩු තීන්දු ලබා දිය යුතු භාෂාව සිංහල භාෂාව විය යුතුද?

යන කාරණය ජනමතවිචාරණයක් මගින් විසදන ලෙස ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලන අත්සන් ලක්ෂයේ එකතුව

මේ ඉල්ලීමට එකගනම් අදාල ලේඛන මත ඔබේ අත්සනත් තබන්න.

දුරකථන 0342256066,0432256067,0712063394

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. The party successfully carried out the well-planned strategy to save the United National Party (UNP) from the embarrassment of a defeat at a No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against Rishad Bathiudeen, by tabling an NCM against the Government, and at the same time managed to convince its cadres that the Party still considers the capitalist UNP as enemy number one.

The JVP has deviated from the position of anti-capitalist (read: anti-UNP), and became the most trusted supporter of Ranil Wickremesinghe. While voting with the UNP in all previous No-Confidence Motions against the Government, the JVP suddenly found that the party cadres, especially the young radicals, were not happy about the pro-UNP stance of the Marxist party. As there is a good possibility of JVP cadres crossing over to the more radical Forward Party (Peratugami), the JVP now wants to attack the UNP too, at least in public.

After the Easter Sunday Explosions, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake decided to attack the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe for the ills of the country. At the same time, the party obviously have an understanding with the UNP. The moment the Opposition tabled a No-Confidence Motion against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in Parliament, for his alleged links with Islamist terrorists, the JVP came out with another NCM, this time against the Government. This was a clear tactic to confuse the issue.

The vote of the No-Confidence Motion, tabled by the JVP against the Government, was taken up last Thursday, and defeated by 27 votes. Some of the ardent critics of the Government were among the absentees in Parliament, including Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Duminda Dissanayake, S.B. 

Nawinna, Dunesh Gankanda, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Ashoka Priyantha, Douglas Devananda, Shivashakthi Anandan, and V. Radhakrishnan.
The NCM was tabled against the Government for failing to prevent the Easter Sunday Bombings. The UNP and TNA voted against the NCM, accumulating a total of 119 votes, while the Joint Opposition and JVP voted in favour of the motion, reaching 92 votes in total.

Last-minute bribery tactic

The JVP Leader said Premier Wickremesinghe deployed his usual last-minute bribery tactic on the TNA, in order to save face, and defeat the No-Confidence Motion brought against his government. According to him, the bribe was the promise to form a separate District Council for Kalmunai. Dissanayake alleged that Minister Mangala Samaraweera has even done the needful, including approving the necessary cadre, in order to set the procedures in motion, to realise the promise made to the TNA, in exchange for their votes.If Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sampanthan took the right decision, this NCM could have been defeated because the Government had only 105 against the motion even by this morning,” Dissanayake said after the NCM defeat.

When President Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister in October 2018, the JVP came out openly in support of the UNP Leader. The JVP Leader’s argument was, his party did not care who will be the Prime Minister, but were troubled about the unconstitutional method used to get rid of Wickremesinghe and appoint Rajapaksa. Without giving a chance to explain the policies of the new Prime Minister, the JVP Leader jumped to the conclusion that this person will not be able to come up with a new plan to initiate a good political culture, or a good economic policy for this country. We do not have faith in any person from either side.”

After extending support to the Government to defeat the NCM, the TNA has proved that it was an ally of the UNP. Thus, TNA Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan indirectly acknowledged that his appointment as Opposition Leader earlier was wrong. All the TNA MPs – barring Shivashakthi Anandan, who abstained – voted against the NCM.

The TNA is using the current political developments to its advantage, with its dual principle of supporting Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNF, while criticising the Government, to appease the North and the East vote base.
The JVP-sponsored NCM against the Government was doomed to be defeated, because it was tabled with the intention of safeguarding Rishad Bathiudeen. If there was a vote on the NCM against Bathiudeen, there was a strong possibility of victory, as, in addition to the Joint Opposition members and SLFP members, a fair section of the UNF, TNA and JVP would have voted for the NCM.

UNP and TNA
Christian MPs

The UNP and TNA Christian MPs were planning to vote against Rishad Bathiudeen at that time. The NCM against Bathiudeen lapsed with his resignation from the Cabinet. Those UNP and TNA members, who openly said that they would vote for the NCM against Bathiudeen, could not vote for the JVP-sponsored NCM, as it was against the Government.
In the debate, the JVP Leader said the Government has failed to ensure the security of the country’s people, as evidenced by the Easter Sunday Terror Attacks. Moreover, it has now been clearly established that the Government failed to heed numerous warnings about an impending terrorist attack by Zahran Hashim and his associates.”  

Accordingly, the Government has no moral right to be in charge of the security of the country or its people,” he said, and pointed out that what was in power now was a minority Government, with just 106 MPs sitting on the Government side, while 118 MPs were in the Opposition. He called on Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure that all UPFA MPs were present in Parliament, to vote for the NCM. He also called on TNA Leader R. Sampanthan to ensure that the TNA votes in support of the NCM.

After the NCM is approved, this Parliament has a duty to pass another resolution by a 2/3 majority, dissolving this Parliament, and paving the way for an early General Election, so that the people can elect a new Government. It is what the people deserve,” Dissanayake said.

Now that the NCM is defeated, one anxiously awaits to see if the JVP would vote against Rishad Bathiudeen, if he becomes a Minister once again, and an NCM was brought against him by the Opposition.

 CT Web 02:00 AM Jul 15 2019

By Kamal Siddiqi Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Karachi, July 16 (The Express Tribune): This month a teenage Hindu girl, Payal Kumari, was abducted by her teacher from district Thatta. Police looked the other way as Payal went missing for several days before appearing to record her statement at a madrassa.

Payal joins the thousands of Hindu girls in Pakistan who are either abducted or leave of their own accord and end up converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man. Human rights groups estimate that 20 or more Hindu girls are abducted every month in Pakistan.

Krishan Sharma, Chairman of the Minority Rights Commission, tells me that there is institutional support for these conversions. What we see is that the recurring cases of forced conversion continue to make headlines. But nothing else.

This goes against Article 20 of the Pakistan Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion. The government is under obligation to safeguard the fundamental rights of all without discrimination based on religion, faith, or belief.

Sharma concedes that not all such cases are of abductions and in some instances the girl elopes with the man. This was not the case with Payal, says her family. Her brother Rakesh says if that was the case, his sister would have not left her gold ornaments and her savings. She would also have carried her dresses and they would have produced themselves in the court on the very same day. But she left home wearing ordinary clothes and chappals.

But as Sharma points out, even when it is done out of their freewill, one can only wonder how underage girls convert and marry. Both the lower and higher courts of Pakistan have failed to follow proper procedures in cases that involve accusations of forced marriage and forced conversions. The Islamabad High Court, for instance, declared in April 2019 that it was within the law for Hindu sisters Reena and Raveena to convert to Islam and stay with their husbands even though they were under-age.

The two underage sisters – Raveena aged 13 and Reena aged 15 – were kidnapped by a group of men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. The authorities did nothing for their recovery. Instead, the local police said such cases are common and advised the family to wait and see.

And sure enough, after days of their disappearance, these girls appeared before a madrassa that converted them and solemnised their marriage.

For all practical purposes, Pakistan has failed to fulfil its obligations under Constitutional provision and international treaties to protect the rights of vulnerable minorities from forced conversions and forced marriages. Things would be different if a bill was proposed by members of the minority community.

The Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill has failed to become a law. The Sindh Assembly passed the bill moved by PML-F lawmaker Nand Kumar against forced conversions in November 2016 but the then PPP-led Sindh government asked the-then governor, Justice (retd) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui not to ratify it and send it back for reconsideration following concerns shown by some religious quarters. The bill was, however, never re-assessed or discussed in the Assembly, despite the fact that the ruling party counted it among its achievements towards safeguarding minorities’ rights.

Since then, the bill has been kept blocked by the mobilisation of rightist groups and parties. A group of religious scholars, as well as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), termed the bill against the basic principles of Islam. Religious parties in Karachi launched a campaign against the bill in order to pressurise the Sindh government into repealing it. The Jamaat-e-Islami argues that there could be no age limit on people converting to Islam.

Thus far women rights groups have been focusing on how the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 puts the legal age of wedlock at 18 years. This is a good place to start. In fact, adopting a purely legal perspective serves to take some of the pressure off the Hindu community; which increasingly lives in fear of reprisals or worse.

The way forward must see a concerted effort – led by the political set-up but in collaboration with civil society and right groups as well as moderate clerics — to frame forced conversion within the context of child marriage as not only statutory rape but also ethnic cleansing. It is time the government took a stand.

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Express

As troubled Afghanistan moves towards a partial withdrawal of American troops; an end to violence; and a political solution, the presence or influence of China, Russia and Pakistan in that country has increased perceptibly.

Despite its accusation that Pakistan is not doing enough to contain terrorism on its soil and also in Afghanistan; despite its trade and strategic conflict with China; and its stand-off with Russia over issues relating to the Middle East, the US has roped in these very countries to help it get out of the mess in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Afghan troops, militants, and civilians have died every year in the last 18 years of US involvement. Even today, there are 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan either training government troops or participating in commando operations against the Taliban.

US Ropes in Pakistan

The US has roped in Pakistan to help it settle issues with the Taliban because Pakistan and the Taliban have had close historical ties.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be meeting President Donald Trump in Washington on July 22 to discuss a wide range of issues including Pakistan’s present and future role in Afghanistan.

The meeting comes after the seventh round of US-Taliban talks in Doha in which the two sides had reached a draft agreement on four basic issues: counterterrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, a ceasefire, and intra-Afghan talks.

Pakistan won a place in the high table on Afghanistan by being an intermediary between the Taliban and external parties such as Beijing, Moscow and Washington. This, it had been able to do without diluting its basic stand that there could be no lasting peace in Afghanistan unless the primacy of Taliban is recognized and guaranteed by all parties. It took the regional and global powers-that-be a long time to realize this simple truth.

According to former Indian Ambassador, M.K.Bhadrakumar, the US has assigned to Pakistan the role of ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a lab of terrorists” as President Donald Trump put it.

According to the White House, the Trump-Imran talks will focus on strengthening cooperation between the United States and Pakistan to bring peace, stability, and economic prosperity to a region that has seen far too much conflict.” This must be music to the ears of Imran Khan because Pakistan is facing severe financial problems.

It is difficult to say what exactly the White House statement meant when it said that the US will keep in sight the goal of creating the conditions for a peaceful South Asia and an enduring partnership between our two countries.”

Perhaps it means that the US will restrain India if the latter becomes belligerent towards Pakistan and intensifies its policy of isolating Pakistan globally on the plea that Pakistan is the launching pad for cross-border terrorism.

However, what is likely is that the US might step up military aid to Pakistan. Gen Mark Milley, who is Chief of Staff of the US army, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee recently, that Trump had recognized Pakistan as a key partner in achieving US interests in South Asia, including developing a political settlement in Afghanistan; defeating Al Qaeda and ISIS-Khorasan; providing logistical access for US forces; and enhancing regional stability”.

Gen.Milley argued for closer military ties with Pakistan. Former US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, told a gathering in Colombo recently that the Obama Administration under which he worked, had erred by cutting off military ties with Pakistan. As a result of this, the US lost touch with a whole generation of Pakistani military officers,” Blake said.

Accommodating China

In a move welcomed by Islamabad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has kept China in the loop on the Doha talks with the Taliban. Last month, Beijing itself had hosted Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Prior to this, in 2018, China had met Taliban leaders on several occasions.

China’s Economic Route To Afghanistan

China has only recently begun playing a role in bringing about peace in Afghanistan. But it had been quietly making economic inroads into that country since 2006.

According to the latest report of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan done by the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), a Kabul-based think tank, China is now Afghanistan’s largest business investor. Chinese companies have been involved in construction projects.

Beijing has an interest in Afghanistan’s vast deposits of essential minerals such as lithium (used in mobile phone batteries). China has won rights to the Amu Darya Basin oil in the north and the massive Mes Aynak copper mine near Kabul, though work on these projects has suffered because of the bad security situation.

In 2016, China and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding. In September 2016 the first direct freight train from China reached the Afghan border town of Hairatan. An air corridor linking Kabul and the Chinese city of Urumqi was also opened. In May 2017, Afghan officials attended the international Belt and Road Forum in China, and in October Afghanistan joined China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which funds BRI projects.

According to DROPS, China has pledged huge support” for building railways in Afghanistan. In 2017, China convened a trilateral dialogue with Pakistan and Afghanistan to discuss extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan.

China’s Anxieties

However, all these ambitious economic plans would hinge on the assurance of safety and security, which have always been a question mark in Afghanistan. One of the main reasons for China’s increasing involvement in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan is the fear that Afghanistan-based Islamic terror groups might infiltrate into Muslim-majority Xinjiang where there has been continuous resistance to Chinese domination.

Beijing’s anxiety about security started growing when the US began to scale down its military presence in Afghanistan in 2011. To protect itself, China built a base in Badakhshan Province and funded a Mounted Brigade. It launched the Quadrilateral Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism (QCCM) with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

Since 2015, China has been involved in a number of multilateral peace initiatives, including the Quadrilateral Coordination Group and, more recently, the Moscow Format”.

Beijing has cultivated good ties with the Taliban, meeting them several times in 2018. It was in early 2015 that China began facilitating talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But deteriorating relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the Taliban made these efforts ineffective.

Therefore, China arranged talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It set up a Trilateral Crisis Management Mechanism. In December 2017, China hosted trilateral talks where the three countries called on the Taliban to join the talks process.

Pakistan and China played a key role in brokering a ceasefire deal. Interestingly, the Taliban agreed to declare a ceasefire only if Pakistan and China became its guarantors.

Ties With Kabul Regime

While all this was going on, China maintained close ties with the Afghan government as well. It signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborly Relations with Kabul regime in 2006. Two years later, Chinese companies won a US$ 3 billion contract to extract copper from the Mes Aynak mines in Logar province. In September 2017, China gave US$ 90 million towards development projects in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province alone.

In the past three years, China has also extended more than US$70 million in military aid to Afghanistan, according to Ahmad Bilal Khalil, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul.

In the telecommunications sector, China’s role has grown from supplying Afghanistan with telecom equipment in 2007 to the construction of fiber-optic link in 2017.

(The featured image at the top shows a Taliban delegation headed by Maulana Abdul Ghani Baradar in China for talks)

Dr D.Chandraratna

During the last so many years we have agonized over the unsatisfactory state of affairs in our body politic and the helplessness of its citizens. If we are to survive this madness, simply switching off or merely ridiculing the current crop of Parliamentarians will not deliver. We must actively canvass our good intentions to rectify the gross abuses of the so-called democracy that we are corralled into. Our reform agenda should be known to those around us and thereby encourage a vigorous debate about how we plan to see happen. After almost five years of disenfranchisement we must seize the upcoming opportunity to educate the public. Mere bleating will not give us the future we deserve.

Remember the famous words of the French lawyer and philosopher, Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) that every nation gets the government it deserves. If we lose interest by giving lame excuses, or wash our hands off the whole enterprise of politics then we will get the sort of government that we deserve. It is understandable that many people of good intellect are disengaged right now because of the parlous state of politics but we are a resourceful people once and we can do better. The opportunity will come at the forthcoming elections and hence let us be prepared. To do nothing is to acquiesce.

What then are the steps to recovery? First, we need to understand current reality with clarity. It must be grasped that it is not the time to support candidates who are unable to garner a winnable proportion of votes. We need a candidate who has earned credits through past performance to be at the starting point. We will not find candidates who are totally unblemished. Even with certain misgivings we are duty bound to go for a candidate who has the potential to muster more than 50 precent of the votes, Therefore the mushrooming, inexperienced new faces have to be cleared out for the moment so as not to spoil the chances of one who can win.

Second, stated very briefly the need of the hour is a courageous leader with reasonable intellect, who is willing to work with professional opinion, who can work according to plans and policies, with the interests of the suffering people of this nation at heart.  That is real democracy at work. We need no new laws. Such claims are a chimera to dupe the masses. The country has all the laws necessary for good governance. But you must let the institutions that are there work without crass political interference. The bureaucracy must be made to work efficiently. Let not the legislators dictate terms to the bureaucrat. The heads of departments should set the example by not heeding the politician’s dictates. If they resign in disgust the whole working population must down the tools. Let the high end of the professions take the lead. We have seen how the 17th amendment made matters worse. The Parliament, the role of the Speaker, the procedures, and the opposition deserve their due place. Do not make the Parliament a sick joke by getting rejects through the back door. Killing off democratic institutions is one sure way for nations to fail and we are just standing at the edge. A law is a law, which has come through correct passage in the Parliament. Not one that has been crookedly altered half way through. We need a democracy in the spirit of the law and not in the form of the law. Do not allow our Nation to Fail

Third, we need to broaden democracy. The modern state is too complex and Parliament will not have the intelligence by itself to administer the nation. We cannot get experts to adorn the seats at Diyawanna Oya. We are not a successful democracy because we have not reached the kind of economic development coupled with high education and maturity to have a sizeable middle class. For sixty per cent of the people life is a fight for basic survival and elections are won through taxpayer’s money offered as bribes and the country is made poorer after every election.

Constitutional Councils and Police Commissions fail because they are manipulated to appoint cronies to important places to do the bidding of the corrupt politician. But broadening democracy means a senate or council of public men and women, experts not orators, a Council assisting the popularly elected President. It is given adequate powers to curb irresponsible talk and action. The one thing that our country, steeped in debt, needs is financial management by specialists. Britain set an example and precedent in 1997 when it transferred control over interest rates from politicians to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) whose advice cannot be ignored by the politicians. In that MPC are four from the Central bank, an economist, an academic and two others with specialized knowledge. Vital aspects of our nation must be given to such Council(s) of excellence. Others like power and energy, environment, come to my mind.

The Fourth is in the area of Defence and Foreign policy. A person who has the interest of the country is desperately needed. We need a patriot who can communicate with the world even without an interpreter standing in the middle. Sri Lanka’s location is becoming  a matter of concern but Sri Lanka need not build military alliances with new emerging powers. Without compromising our non-aligned stance we need to keep them all at arms length and stay neutral from a military perspective. Having the nation’s interest at heart let us pursue economic cooperation and technological collaboration and maintain multiple links for military training and joint exercises and be an independent friend in the Indian Ocean and not a power pawn of any super power.  We need a strong willed patriotic individual assisted by professionals to lead the nation at the forthcoming contest. Time is of the essence.

At a time when controversial secretly discussed and signed agreements are surfacing all posing national security risk and sovereignty threats to Sri Lanka, it only calls to mind a comparison of the modern day black princes to Don Juan Dharmapala who betrayed not only the Nation but Rata, Jathiya, Agama. The present black princes are betraying Sri Lanka with impunity and immunity and with no qualms about the damage being done to either the Nation or its People. How different is Don Juan Dharmapala from the bevy of black princes who are destroying a proud historical past.

Prince Dharmapala was baptize Dom Joao in 1557 & eventually came to be known Don Juan Dharmapala. He was the eldest grandson of the King of Kotte. Dharmapala’s youth and rule being divided gave Portuguese the upper hand which cannot be likened to the rule of present leadership who has over 40 years in politics. What eventually did happen was that the Portuguese did not respect the young King Dharmapala or his rule and the West/India is likely to be pooh poohing the present Government only until it gets this government to do all that it wants.

What young Dharmapala came to realize too late and what the present Government should realize before its too late, is that there was no rule in the country.

If the Portuguese did what they wanted without respecting the King, is it any different to the present foreign envoys flouting all Vienna diplomatic conventions entering state institutes, demanding to see state records, meeting every person they like without following diplomatic protocols, inspecting Sri Lanka’s lands, travelling all over the island without seeking permission first?

Eventually it came to a point where the king had to end up seeking support of the Portuguese as his own people disgusted with his rule was going against him – so the king had to reach out to the enemy for safety. Isn’t this what the present government is doing? Isn’t the West & India keeping this government alive, propping them up with cosmetic diplomatic statements applauding their ‘good governance’ that is fast becoming a laughing matter among the public? This government has been up to no good since day 1 of regime change but have you heard the West/India complain?

How different is Don Juan’s gifting mortis causa (Gift Deed) the Kingdom of Kotte to the Portuguese on 12 August 1580 to the ACSA-SOFA-MCC deals being ventured into virtually 422 years later and an over 200mile economic corridor cutting Sri Lanka into 2 for 200 years? Bequeathing an entire island nation is an act of treachery both in 1580 and every secret agreement signed since 2015.

Don Juan not only betrayed his kingship by becoming a willing puppet which is exactly what the present Government is doing yet thinking they can continue to enjoy the perks of office after having bequeathed all control over governance & government in Sri Lanka virtually outsourcing all to foreign hands.

Even if we excuse Don Juan Dharmapala for forsaking his kingship, heritage of Lanka and virtually handing over Lanka to foreign hands, we can never forgive or forget the treacheries being done presently partnering with countries that have had no qualms about using atomic bombs, dropping drones killing civilians and public infrastructure, purposely destroying heritage sites out of jealousy, using chemical weapons in warfare and carrying out unethical warfare with countries that have not even declared war with them.

When Dharmapala forfeited Buddhism to become Catholic it kick-started the wave of anti-Buddhist programs that were rolled out by Portuguese-Dutch British & continued post-independence by INGOs, NGOs, faith-based organizations, foreign-funded media and other groups. Incrementally the damage has been happening since 1597.

Don Juan went overboard to please the Portuguese – Sri Lanka’s ancient temples were transferred to Franciscan Friars (Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, Kithsiri Mewan Viharaya at Kelaniya & Dalada Maligawa too) Don Juan simply watched them being destroyed. 12 Churches were built on top of them. Churches sprang up in Panadura, Maggona, Beruwela, Galle & Weligama. Don Juan watched as Portuguese men satisfied their lust for women – it reminds us about the 3000 Tamil women raped by IPKF soldiers and the same scenario likely to happen if US troops are allowed to enter Sri Lanka and have virtual barracks anywhere in Sri Lanka.

Every piece of legislation passed since 2015 is a threat to the nation for it is giving foreign hands a say in what happens in Sri Lanka as if these countries are virtuous, moral or even having good governance records. All of these nations today pointing fingers at Sri Lanka have blood on their hands and history is witness making no apology, accountability or even reparation for these crimes while they unashamedly demand crimes be investigated of other countries all of which are suffering conflicts indirectly engineered by them and by groups armed by them. Knowing the records of these countries – how can any country even consider venturing into such dangerous agreements with them?

In 1597 Don Juan Dharmpala did not think that when he forfeited his powers to the Portuguese he would not be able to ask it back, even if he did he did not realize that he would not have been returned the Kotte Kingdom.

Has the Govt that is now attempting to privatize all land, create an economic corridor where foreign law would apply which is over 200m long and is supposed to be valid for 200 years – thought about the repercussions of allowing this corridor? Once signed can we annul the agreement without paying billions in compensation. Why should the people have to pay for mistakes made by leaders who are refusing to see the dangers of these detrimental deals and going ahead to secretly sign them? The law should have a new clause that any secret deals ventured into in case of annulment because of national security risk, compensation should be paid by the politicians and public officials that helped secretly sign them.

Don Juan by forfeiting his Kingdom became a virtual slave & puppet of the Portuguese – he was even poisoned after being invited to dinner by Diogo de Melo and reminds us of the fate of – Osama, Saddam, Gaddafi, Milosevic who faced the same fate. Dharmapala didn’t die but ended up a stammerer for the rest of his life. Of course, the government must be getting untold inducements for their treacheries – we do not mind them forsaking their personal property but Sri Lanka is an island nation with a recorded history of over 2600 years, we have faced over 18 invasions from South India and 3 Western countries ruled for over 400 years not because they invaded us or conquered us but because we had traitors to hand over the nation to them. Traitors have handed Sri Lanka numerous other times and that is the sad story of Sri Lanka and we see this repeatedly happening. Probably treachery is in their genes. But we have also had great war heroes, great defenders of the Nation, proud people who have come forward to defend the Nation & their People and it is now time for them to rally again.

Sadly, when the white man descended first to Lanka, our people were innocent and welcomed them little knowing the evil they had in mind. However, over 400 years of atrocities done to us, recorded known by our people and the realization that the very countries guilty of colonial crimes are today venturing to commit neocolonial crimes should make our present day leaders more aware and not willing fall into their hands for various personal inducements made tapping their weaknesses but leaving the entire nation vulnerable.

The People’s Court will soon decide the fate of these traitors for their treacheries.

Shenali D Waduge

by Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan

What happened recently in Hong Kong Autonomous Region (SAR) of China has shocked the world. On 1 July, the 22^nd anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to mainland China, some riots with the dressed lie of democracy, acted like cruel extremists, broke into the Legislative Council building of Hong Kong, and vandalized various facilities. What enraged China and shocked the world further is British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s remarks on the second day. Mr. Hunt said that the UK stands behind people in Hong Kong in defence of the freedoms that Britain negotiated for them, and the Hong Kong authorities must not use demonstrators’ vandalism as a pretext for repression.

I would stress that China has resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong and the Chinese government started administering Hong Kong since 1997. The 150 years’ humiliating history of Hong Kong being a colony to UK since 1840s has gone. It seems that someone is still immersed in the faded glory of colonialism. Mr. Hunt is obsessed with condescendingly criticizing other countries and keeps lying without remorse.

First, after Hong Kong’s return to China, British rights and obligations as outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration were completed. The UK has no sovereignty or rights to rule and supervise Hong Kong after the handover. There is no room for Britain to claim any so-called responsibility over Hong Kong whatsoever. Claiming itself the guardian of Hong Kong is nothing more than self-entertaining.

Second, Mr Hunt says that the UK negotiated freedoms for Hong Kong. How brazen is that! Was there any democracy when the British governors were in Hong Kong? People in Hong Kong didn’t even have the right to take to the streets then. It is only after the return that Hong Kong residents started enjoying unprecedented democratic rights and freedoms. The Chinese Government strictly follows the Constitution and the Basic Law. It earnestly implements the one country, two systems” policy. It ensures that the people of Hong Kong govern Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy.

Third, the violent storming into the Legislative Council on July 1 is a grave illegal activity. It tramples on the rule of law and undermines social order. In total disregard of facts, Mr. Hunt called the SAR government’s response “repression”. That is entirely misleading. We want to ask Mr. Hunt, if it were the British Parliament that had been broken into and vandalized, what would the British government do? Will it sit by idly and let the protesters have their way? Will he call the British police’s handling of the August 2011 riot in London “repression”?

Those external forces who under the disguise of all self-boasting justice and human rights, are actually bullying other countries all the time while interfering with others’ internal affairs. In the colonial times, they exploited wealth and enslaved people from other countries. In the new ear, with the old mindset, they are making use of every opportunity to stick nose into others’ internal affairs and create chaos.

Countries like China and Sri Lanka, who shared a common history of being bullied and colonized by powers should always remain vigilant in terms of external interference. Such interference can never bring benefits, but only trouble, chaos and disasters. China, adhering to independent and peaceful diplomatic policies, will never interfere with others’ internal affairs and is strongly against such behavior. We should always insist on independence, fight against external interference and make their own decisions. Only in this way can we march toward the right direction and embrace a brighter future. 

Courtesy Adaderana

Four persons have been arrested while in possession of 290 electric detonators at Hedigama, Piliyandala, says the Police Media Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara.

They were taken into custody from a house in the Hedigama area acting on a tip-off was received by the Piliyandala Police on the matter, the police spokesperson said.

The arrest was made in a search jointly carried out by the Sri Lanka Army and the Police.

Accordingly, the arrestees were identified as the owner of the house, his two sons and the person who had given them the stock of detonators.

Piliyandala Police conducting further investigations into the incident. 

Courtesy Adaderana

President Maithripala Sirisena has said the people will have the opportunity to elect a new government within the next five months and that he expects them to use their franchise wisely to select honest individuals who love the country.

The only way to re-build this economically backward and the corrupted country is to elect a government with honest politicians, the President has stated attending a ceremony to declare open the newly-constructed District Hospital in Nuwara Eliya today (15), the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

Politicians, who love the country will instinctively work to uplift the public, the President has said.

He has pointed out that achieving development goals would not have become a challenge if the workforce of the government sector, the front runner of the forward march of the country with strong manpower of 1.6 million as well as the academics, carry out their due responsibilities.

During the last five years, the welfare programmes carried out for the benefit of the estate sector people is unparalleled, the President has said, adding that many steps have been taken to ensure free medical and education facilities of this important segment of the society.

Illegal drug trafficking is the simplest and the easiest way to destroy a country, the President has stressed. The country is unable to reap the real benefits of many progressive activities due to clandestine agendas of some political parties and their members, he has continued.

The President has also emphasized the importance of work beyond petty political gains.

The Nuwara Eliya district hospital, built with the financial assistance of the Kingdom of Netherlands, comprises a 600-bed ward complex, operation theatres with modern technology, Intensive Care Units, Outer Patients Clinics, pharmacies, dialysis units as well as quarters for doctors and nurses, the PMD reported.

The construction work of this hospital was commenced in 2012 when the President was holding the portfolio of the Health Minister and the hospital is expected to provide quality service to the tourists who are visiting the picturesque Nuwara Eliya city, the PMD said.

Following the unveiling of the plaque, President has reportedly engaged on an inspection tour.

President has registered the first three patients who came to the hospital for treatment, the PMD added. 

Ministers Rajitha Senaratne and Navin Dissanayake, Governor of the Central Province Maithri Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Health Wasantha Perera, Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe, a delegation from the Netherlands and the Director of Nuwara Eliya Hospital Dr. Mahendra Seneviratne were among the gathering.

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.) Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

11 July 2019

His Excellency David McKinnon
Canadian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka
Canadian High Commission
33A  5th Lane
Colpetty
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka.

Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon:

Re: Canada distorts the Truth about Tamil Genocide allegations in Sri Lanka

 I read with hurried interest the news item Canada to support conflict prevention in Sri Lanka , in The Island of July 4, reporting what you had said on Canada Day.

Reading it, one would have expected this expatriate Sinhalese-Sri Lankan-Canadian who has been domiciled in Canada, since 26 August 1968 (with a  hiatus between 29 May 1970, and October 16, 1970), first in St. John’s, Newfoundland and then in Ottawa since 16 October 16, 1970, to tell himself, O! Canada, you have finally seen the light about Sri Lanka.”

If what you said should had excited the cockles of my heart and made me sit on a Roman Candle on Canada Day fire-works display, to shoot myself up into the indigo sky throwing multi-coloured fireballs on everyone down below,  shouting ”Yippee..yippee”  with joy  celebrating Canada Day,  but, Oops,  unfortunately it never happened.

Why not?” You may ask.  There was an undertone of bigotry in your statement”,I would say. Then what would have satisfied the cockles of your heart?” you may ask. And I would have responded,

That is easy.  If your statement had been – Canada to support conflict prevention in Sri Lanka as well as in Canada by reining the anti-Sri Lanka politicians who make the reconciliation process difficult by sustaining the Eelam rhetoric  with their questionable statements and Private Member Bills and voting to probe Tamil Genocide” in Sri Lanka which never happened, like a bunch of Tamil Blarney Curry-in-a-Hurry popsicle suckers.”  That would have delighted me and I would have said, Thank You, High Commissioner David McKinnon, you are one honest Canadian diplomat, much, much better than High Commissioner Nancy Stiles who had a soft spot for the Tamil Eelam cause.  Way to go Sir!”

Brampton City Council under its veteran Sri Lanka hater  Mayor Patrick Brown,  declaring May 18 as the City’s Remembrance Day of Tamil Genocide, only showed your bigotry, This is the MP for Barrie who bicycled around Parliament’s campus with NDP rookie Tamil MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan in October 2011 showing the Channel 4 questionable film,”Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” film, with John Argue of Amnesty International following them like a sick puppy to give their dubious act  legitimacy.

Do you know what High Commissioner? That declaration of the Brampton City Council,  kicked and woke up the sleeping Sinhalese lions and lionesses as over 600 of them demonstrated in front of Brampton City Council on May 21.  I believe the Council was sitting in its Chamber that evening and heard the  ‘lion and lioness’ roars of the angry demonstrators loud and clearly in protest shouting Patrick Brown you are a Clown.”   This is the same anti-Sri Lanka hating MP who lambasted the Sri Lanka Government  on TV in mid- 2009 for not giving him and his colleague Paul Calandra visas to enter Sri Lanka in mid-2009 to check on the Tamil refugee camps in the North.

 I thought it was an unfair demand when the Sri Lanka Government was involved in the horrendous logistics to provide comfortable accommodation to the 295,873 Tamil refugees that they rescued from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers and preparing a million hearty meals a day, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, than spend time to provide visas and security to Patrick Brown and Paul Calandra, when they were not even Junior Ministers of the Canadian Government.

 You bet,  these Sinhalese protesters won’t go to sleep again, as  they have had enough of this Tamil blarney from the separatist Tamils and their Canadian politician supporters, who have sold their souls for a Tamil vote.

The question to you High Commissioner is, what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to rein in these politicians of deceit, who have willfully broken the Human Rights Code of reconciliation, and introduced their Tamil Tiger Code of re-CON-ciliation, between the Sinhalease and the separatist-Tamils. Too bad!

Then there was ACT 2 of ‘Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka: The dishonest Play of Tamil Genocide Blarney’.

The City of Toronto under the Mayorship of John Tory  too proclaimed May 18 as the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.”  and so  pouffff went your statement , Canada to support conflict prevention in Sri Lanka, but Canada certainly keeps the banned Tamil Tiger flag flying with such Tamil Genocide Tamil Blarney proclamations.  So, High Commissioner David McKinnon,  your statement on Canada Day had lost its currency of diplomatic honesty.  So what are you going to do about it?  And the Tamil Tiger Code of re-CON-ciliation lives another day in Canada.

Then there was ACT 3 of ‘Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka: The dishonest Play of Tamil Genocide Blarney,’ which blew your statement ‘Canada to support conflict prevention in Sri Lanka’ into smithereens,   That was a cruel joke on the Sri Lankans.  How could you support conflict prevention when the pro-Eelam politicians keep  stirring the witches brew in an iron cauldron decorated with the Canadian red Maple leaf.  This is ‘Bigotry” I said, and I will say it again.  It is bigotry in the first order!

This was Act 3, when 59 members of the Ontario Legislature stood up in the Legislative-Chamber and said Aye”  pushing through the Second Reading of Tamil Genocide Bill 104.  This Bill 104 was drafted packed with indelible untruths, lies,  to proclaim a Tamil Genocide Education Week in Ontario.

My observation was, Are these 59  Moms and Dads, the majority who very likely have young families who are focused to bringing up their childen in an honest Global Village, trying not to pollute their young minds with the words Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka, when it never happened.  And mind you, the word Genocide” is twinned with the active word Hate”.  What?   A Canadian kid who wouldn’t recognize where the little speck of an island, a pimple in the Indian Ocean is in a world map, being taught  that there was Tamil-Genocide  in that remote island of Sri Lanka, and  thus hating the guilty, the Sinhalese-Canadian classmates.  This is surreal.   This is insane. This is poppycock-crazy!.

These 59 Aye” saying Councillors have to take that parental responsibility for distorting the truth, when Tamil-Genocide never happened.  Shish!  What nastiness.  I object to this Bill 104 which is a callous act of mockery of the word Truth”  It is an incipient act of divisiveness of the multi-ethnic Sri Lankan-Canadan community right across Canada, just not only in the Province of Ontario.  This Bill 104 insults the dignity of the Sri Lankan-Sinhalese Canadian community, which I happen to be one of them.

And that Bill 104 denies the validity of your statement in Colombo on Canada Day, High Commissioner McKinnon.  And that is a sad indictment of guilt of bigotry.  That is the rub.  And that’s how the cookie  crumbles, Mr. High Commissioner.  The question is, what are you going to do about it when it impacts on you and your statement on Canada Day?

And here is Act 4 of  Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka: The dishonest Play of Tamil Genocide Blarney”, and it is a doosey, showing that our Canada is a nation of putrid-arrogance, to promote ourselves as We are Holier than Thou.”  And that is an overkill, isn’t it High Commissioner David McKinnon?

Here is a perfect textbook example of a Canadian pot calling a Sri Lankan kettle black. Specially, when Canada is accused of Genocide” on Aboriginal women  in a voluminous Report, ‘Claim our Power and Our Place’ delivered on Monday, June 3, 2019, to the Canadian authorities which was written after two years of work by a specialized Commission – that thousands of indiginous women were murdered or missing in recent decades have been victims of ‘Genocide’; in our Canada,  and Lo behold, the NDP Motion was adopted in the House of Commons to investigate Sri Lanka’s actions to defeat Tamil Tiger Terrorism in the years 2006 to 2009 as an act of Genocide”. 

Mr. High Commissioner, all what I want to do is scream saying Give me a break, Canada.”  That Motion was proposed by NDP and was passed in the House with the consent of all parties on the 19th of June, 2019.  Wow!  What a colonial-type of arrogance!

Ha! All parties they said.   What?

 Let’s look at these parties clinically, and their interest in Sri Lanka, and their extraordinary interest in the separatist Tamil Movement, and warring with the Sri Lankan armed forces for 30-bloodying years, to carve out one-third of the prime real estate in the north and east to create their mono-ethnic, racist, separate Tamil State, Eelam for 12% of the population.

NDP’s support for the separatist Tamils  was exposed when their  late leader Jack Layton compared the  leader of the ruthless serial assassins, the Tamil Tiger terrorists, Velupillai Prabhakaran to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, in front of 10,000 Tamils at Queen’s Park.   Nelson Mandela would have turned in his grave, looked straight into Jack Layton’s eyes and told him, Stop insulting me man.  Are you an idiot or what!”

It was Jack Layton who called for an Emergency Meeting on Sri Lanka at the Parliamentary Chambers on 4th February 2009, which was a circus of clowns.  I watched them on CPAC and christened this event as the  Canadian Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show. 

So the NDPiers sold their souls to the Tamil Diaspora, to seek a favour from them – their bloc vote.  And they have the gall and temerity to pass a motion in parliament to investigate Sri Lanka’s action to defeat Tamil Tiger terrorism between 2006 and 2009 as an act of Genocide.”

And I wouldn’t hesitate to tell Ms.Salma Zahid, MP for Scarborough Center, to get off her high-horse and try not to embarrass herself, by trying to be smart to win the Tamil votes in her constituency.  And not to challenge the strategy and intelligence of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for annihilating the Tamil Tiger terrorists to give back the  most coveted human right, the right-to-life to 21 million peoples which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 30 long years.  Come down from your high-horse Ms. Salma Zahid.”

Let’s look at the Liberals, clinically, why they looked aside when the separatist Tamil Diaspora collected 2 million dollars a month for 13 years under the leadership of

Prime Ministers Jean Chretian and Paul Martin, to stuff the Tamil Tiger War Chest to buy a sophisticated armoury of Kalashnikovs, bullets, land mines, claymore mines, et cetera, to help win their separatist war. Hmmmm!  In other words, Canada aided and abetted that Eelam war and prolonged it.  There is No ifs and buts.

It was the Liberals in 1994 who let a member of the Tamil Diaspora cut a cheque from a Bank in Vancouver to pay the Rubizone Chemical Factory in the Ukraine for the purchase of 10 tons of hexogen, plastic explosives like Semtex; 50 tons of TNT, and a large quantity of electric timing caps and detonator cord.  These were the explosives that were used in a truck bomb to bring down the Central Bank Building in Colombo, on January 31, 1996.  That truck bomb killed 114 people and  maimed 1,338 others for life.

And so the Liberal Party had the gall and temerity to support this brainless motion by the NDP to investigate Sri Lanka’s actions between 2006 and 2009 which they say was an act of Genocide.

It were the Liberal Terrible 5 – Robert Oliphant, Jim Karygiannis, Judy Sgro, Derek Lee and Albina Guanierri, who accused the Sri Lanka Government of Genocide during the Canadian Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show on 4 February 2009.  When questioned about Genocide”, this Liberal Terrible 5 choked.  They just could  not back up their allegation.  Your Excellency, at that point I fell on my knees  with my palms together and I asked , the Sweet Mother of Jesus, to help Sri Lanka from these moronic Canadian accusations.  All this for a Tamil vote. 

And finally, lets clinically analyse the Conservatives who supported this motion of the NDP.

It was the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper who went into a hissy-fit and boycotted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference held in Colombo  in November 2013.  He was merely pandering to the Tamil voters in the Greater Toronto Area.  This was embarrassing as he expected the other Commonwealth Heads like the UK and Australia to file behind him in support.  There was not a snowball’s chance in hell for his silliness. He was snubbed as they all more or less told him, All right Stephen, if you want to stay back, go ahead and stay back but we are going to Colombo to attend the Summit.  If you want to go to the corner of your office, stick your thumb in your mouth and sulk, that is your business.  Good luck!”

So he sent his emissary  Minister Deepak Obhrai to represent him and Canada.  And he was another disaster. Another embarrassment and angered the majority of the Sri Lankan-Sinhalese Canadians across Canada.  He acted like a High School Bully.

When asked by a Sri Lankan Official, not to lay a wreath for the Tamils who died for their Eelam cause at Elephant Pass, he was rude and did it anyway,  He said that it was a neutral spot where he laid the wreath.  He obviously didn’t do his homework nor did your High Commission in Colombo.  I had to point it out in a letter that Elephant Pass was the war theatre for three major battles between the Tamil Tigers and the SriLankan Armed Forces.  So he returns to Canada, meets the Tamil separatists in Toronto to tell them what he did for them.  Thus wanting them to return the favour by giving the Conservatives their vote. 

All this for a Tamil vote and sustaining the separatist Tamils in Canada by providing them with enough oxygen to continue their War from the Canadian Legislature Chambers, to claim their mono-ethnic, racist, separate Tamil State, Eelam.

So what are you going to do about it Mr. High Commissioner?  You know as well as I know and so does the other Canadian Foeign Affairs diplomats know, that although the Tamil Tigers were militarily defeated on the shores of the Nandikadal lagoon on the east coast in Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009, that war continues in the legislative chambers of the Federal, Provincial and City Councils in Canada.  All for the Tamil votes using the Tamil Genocide bogey which never happened,  Shame on  the  Canadian politicians who support the allegations of Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka  And that is the rub.

Let me share my last observations which has pained me for the past decade. Why three events in Sri Lanka have missed the radar of Canadian political bleeding hearts of Human rights.  This amazes me, which proves that we are not squeaky clean and  live a lie that we are a bunch of Goody-two-shoes.

1. When the world patted the back of Sri Lanka after she annihilated the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists on 19 May 2009, saying, Good Show, way to go Sri Lanka”, but Foreign Minister of Canada, Hon. Lawrence Cannon put out the most pathetic Press Release ignoring this classic event, when the world was fighting to eliminate terrorism, and Sri Lanka annahilated the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists after a 30-year long war almost single handed, Canada had nothing congratulatory to say to the Sri Lanka Government.  That was pathetic.  Why?  I smell a rat here, High Commissioner;

1. When by the end of the Tamil Tiger terrorist War  on 19, May 2009, the Sri Lankan soldiers rescued 295,873, Tamil refugees from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers, who marched them for 30 months from the west coast to the east  coast, like unwashed cattle as a human shield  under a scorching hot  Jaffna-Killinochchi sun, which was  a historic classic textbook event of a Human rescue from terrorists, This did not show up on the Canadian Government’s bleeding heart radar. Not a word of acknowledgement.  Sick! Why? I smell another stinky Canadian rat here!

    3.  The amazing humanitarian effort of preparing a million hearty breakfasts  lunches and dinners every day to feed the 295,873 Tamil refugees  housed in temporary camps, to keep them alive, missed the Canadian Government’s bleeding heart Radar, again.  Not a hum…not a word by the Canadian Government so  far  And especially  when the Sri Lankan soldiers, mainly Sinhalese were part of the army of cooks who prepared these million meals. each day.

          Not a word.. not a hum from Canadian Government  bleeding hearts  Why?  I  suspect one more stinky rat again.  This classic humanitarian event didn’t  show up in the Canadian  Government’s Bleeding Heart radar.

           All this shows that there is a lack of honesty in all these Canadian shenanigans on Sri Lanka’s war against the most ruthless Tamil terrorists  who perfected the suicide bodyt pack which was used to assassinate    India’s Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lanka’s President Ranasinghe Premadasa. 

            Why?

            Do you know why, High Commissioner David McKinnon?   I wish you would   share this information with me.  I have suspicions but I need  a confirmation  from someone with authority that I can trust.  I like to believe that you are  not a Nancy Stiles.  A Canadian diplomat that I could trust   I hope we will meet someday, somewhere when we can exchange our   views on these issues which needs answers. I am not a happy camper, the  first Sinhelese-Sri Lankan Canadian together with my colleague  Asoka Yapa who was fearless and dismissed the Tamil serparatist intimidation, and went on National TV’s  evening 6 o’clock News, on 4 August 1983, to defend the good name of our Motherland Sri Lanka.  By then she had been bashed to  pulp, kicked and spat at by these separatist Canadian-Tamils day in and  day out for eight long days in the print and audio-visual media.

Enough was enough.  We took them on  to let the Canadians know   our side of the story.  Since 4 August 1983, I have been singing –  ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the Liar of them all.’ ever since.

Sincerely, 
Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

Laksiri Warnakula

Introduction

I am exhausted. It’s not just physical. It stems from my incapability to take in and digest all of what is written on paper and spoken about, almost everywhere. The incessant barrage of peoples’ howling and protesting, talking and reporting colourfully (pun intended) and ruefully on moronic deals, deeds and a plethora of other adventures by the ‘Diyawanna Oya Outfit’ has risen to a crescendo, which most likely has never been heard before. The number of people asking, arguing, criticising and writing in newspapers and other social media sites has reached heights never reached before.

And I am sure that most of them like myself are truly exhausted too by trying to take on this onslaught of the thoughts of a people, who are angry and utterly tired of being taken for a ride. 

The never-ending bedlam, cheating, corruption lies and many other vices, of the governors as well as the governed that have now become the general order of the day of the ‘Republic of Sri Lanka aka ‘A land like no other’.

So I thought of writing something different from the familiar and the typical and instead opting for a wee bit of atypical. Even though it addresses the same social and political drama of today, the approach is different, speckled with grains of humour and seeds of sarcasm. At least, yours truly hopes so.

I am going to limit my essay to a very few only, even though you could probably write a voluminous treatise on the subject, of the antics of our politicians of past and present-day packed to the brim at times, with highhandedness, stupidity, thievery and tomfoolery, all present in various proportions in their packages containing, supposedly sensible, sustainable and sound solutions, presented to a malnourished nation and its maltreated people.

Oxymora

Agree to disagree – A familiar habit of many of them

Deceptively honest – In my opinion, there are quite a few, who could be under this category

Disgustingly-delicious – What some of them say!

Honest thief – Can some of them be called as such?

Loyal opposition – Who on earth can this be? Well, we have seen them barking, snapping and screaming in our ‘Hall-of-Shame’ around ‘The Oya’ in many an occasion

Shrewd dumbness – Guess, who could easily answer the description

Silent scream – You can hear the people’s ‘silent scream’ as they write in the newspapers of today; And mostly about the despicable and deplorable behaviour of many of our politicians, their antics and unfathomable logic, which they apply to solve serious problems facing the nation

Unbiased opinion – Aren’t they good at giving it?

Wise fool – I am sure we have few amongst them. What do you think? Even though, they choose to be foolish more often than be wise!

There are many more. I chose the ones that are less common, yet suit the topic of my essay. It would be fun to think about who could fall into each of these, despite the fact that there are some, who would instantly come to your mind.

Note 1 – The word ‘oxymoron’ is of Greek origin.

Note 2 – The examples of ‘Oxymora’ given here have been taken from few sources; Merriam-Webster, the Cambridge English Dictionary, et al.

Laksiri Warnakula

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

I was watching the greatest game ever last night.

After lifting the cup jubilant English players were holding the cup 

After holding the cup Champaign bottles were uncoked

I noted that two bearded Muslim players slowly and unnoticed creep away until Champaign is sprayed all over the players 

News.com .au of Australia published following already .

England World Cup stars Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were forced to flee the team’s wild celebrations immediately following the World Cup trophy presentation in a culture clash for the new world champions. 

Ali and Rashid bolted from the middle of the trophy podium moments after England captain Eoin Morgan raised the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy and confetti began to shoot from cannons alongside the champions” signage placed in front of the team.

As the team burst into cheers and flames exploded behind them, teammates were handed sponsored champagne bottles and a few short moments later began spraying them in all directions.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Yesterday we saw every element of good spirit , sense of responsibility , integrity , showing one’s courage in a fight until you live or die, how not to give up the task entrusted until last breath.

We can elaborate many such human qualities humans and animals have.

Two teams of nations with players predominantly with fair skin colour, showed us how to fight.

We were under the same race as a colony  for many many years .

They left our country after building much of the infrastructure we need, and also the bureaucracy to govern .

When they landed on our soil and walked into the resplendent interior of the country, they determined to plant coffee and tea in a difficult terrain  to earn money and spread their religion and culture to our people

We may condone what these nations did to us but we should learn one thing .

We should learn how to live with dignity and honestly and foster courage and endurance , 

We had few dark patches in our history after the Colonial Powers  retreated  who may have left some some scars  in our minds.

Latest incidents involving Muslim extremism should not hamper our determination to overcome the emotional -feeling and hatred . 

We should fight and play together.

Finally in yesterday’s game we have seen how losing team behaved in ,” a gentleman’s manner” .

But I felt sad about the Kiwis as they are also a gentle nation who have shown courage and patience       until the last breadth.

Leave-out racism aside what our leftists and some clergy practice for their own benefits.

Let us learn from this great game 

  Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own”. Bruce Lee

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Sugath Samarasinghe

Being an ignoramus, I was neither for nor against this idea of Judicial Executions. Yet I have been reading most of the stuff that is being written mostly against the idea. I am stuck by the mostly pseudo intellectual arguments that is being written, I am wondering whether there is no other approach to this issue; and after reading the article the article of Dr. Nihal Jayawickrame in ‘The Island’ last Sunday, it was virtually like the last straw that broke the back of the camel! I thought I must respond to this pseudo intellectualism. For instance he asks whether it is proper for Buddhists to approve judicial killings. Now let us stop kidding. I think Dr. J is trying to pull wool over our eyes. It is true that it is more than 2000 years ago the first disciple of the Buddha took upon himself I shall not take life”. Does it mean that no Buddhist has ever killed anybody since then? Several Kings came to listen to and discuss Dhamma with the Buddha. Did he ever ask the kings not to execute criminals in their kingdoms, as it was the criminal justice system of the day, because that was contrary to what he preached? He left state craft to the kings, because it was not his business. He was one who left his kingdom in search of a truth which was beyond statecraft. In fact, among the Jataka Tales there is a story where he as a Bodhisthva king tried to mix criminal justice with Dhamma, messed up the whole system and was forced leave kingship to the jungles for meditation. So it is not necessary to re-discover wheel all over again. The two does not go together like cheese and cake. Thus, it is not necessary to misdirect ourselves with such false arguments.

Then there is another situation for us to learn from. We had an unending Terrorist ‘war’ running for thirty years. All these intellectuals both local and foreign, and of course the usual do gooders like the US , Canada, UK and Europeans, mostly one time colonialists, told us that it was an ‘unwinnable war’ and that the only way out was through negotiation. But when they had such problems like in Iraq, Libya of Syria they had no hesitation to using unethical and uncivilized means to achieve their targets. At last, a villager from the paddy fields of down South came up, he probably knew little English and may even have been originally a village thug (!). He said that is enough” and took on the Terrorists head on, and finished the matter! And now what? The hypocrites of the West are splitting their hairs, to send him to gallows for ‘war crimes’! And our intellectuals are with them. When the Terrorists were creating havoc here they were all in hiding, pontificating; they sent their children abroad for protection and education. Now that peace is restored, they preach that to rejoice the hard earned freedom is nothing but ‘triumphalism’, when the WWII victory is still being celebrated in the West. Isn’t this funny logic?

Now another villager who also knows little English and therefore his mind not cluttered with pseudo intellectualism, has come from the backwoods of Polonnaruwa (difficult to pronounce for Anglophiles of Colombo!), wants to hang some convicted drug dealers to see whether he could reduce the drug problem that is stalking this country, like Duterte of Philippines. Duterte told his detractors and Western critics Go to hell. I owe an explanation only to people of my country.” Such commonsense is abhorrent to these people.

This man, Maithripala, for whom 62 ½ lakhs of people had voted (though now we cannot find them!) has, let us admit, dealt the biggest damage on the Drug world here so far, and wants to see whether he could deal it a knockout blow if possible, may be as a political gambit. But is willing to go with it unlike any of his predecessors dared to, whether it is unethical or not according to conventional intellectual thinking of which he does not know. He, in his naivety, seems to think unprecedented problems need unprecedented solutions”. Why not let him have a go ahead and watch the outcome, especially since we too do not have a solution?

His detractors may say how could you play with other people’s life like that? But let us not forget that he is the President for whom 6 and a half million people voting directly, whether we like it or not now. Does he reflect the majority view of the people with whom sovereignty is said to lie? These intellectuals seem to equate their acquired views to be the view of the people. Isn’t this simple humbuggery? I am told that when the Daily Mirror carried out a public poll on this, 63% had voted for hanging.

Besides, look at the enormous extent of social devastation that the Drug menace is doing to this country. Why are these pseudo intellectuals not addressing this major aspect of the problem? How can one argue only looking at a single facet of this matter? Besides this, this menace is corrupting the entire Prison system. The day it will corrupt and intimidate the other limbs of the criminal justice system is not too far away. It is common knowledge that our political system has already become a victim of the Drug mafia. Is the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister expecting financial support from the Drug lords at the coming elections?  Otherwise why cannot they not keep their gaps shut in this critical moment?

I am told that countries like Malaysia and Singapore have the death penalty for Drug dealers. And their drug problem seem to be contained. I also recall that when some Australian drug smugglers were to be hung in Malaysia some time ago, the Western detractors and Human Rights people appealed to that government, Malaysia’s reply was: Just respect our laws”. Why cannot we an independent country think like that? What is this backboneless servile thinking?

These intellectuals are horrified at the suggestion of bringing back capital punishment as inhuman and uncivilized. But thousands of people die on the roads due to driving like maniacs. So many hundreds are murdered daily in society, so many commit suicide. We have not seen concern expressed on all these tragedies and remedies suggested by these grandees. Then, who is concerned with the victims of these crimes. They and their families suffer in silence. There is no one to care for or bring solace to them. Also convictions in these cases is rare to come by. The slightest benefit of the doubt is given to the suspect. Trials are woefully delayed. Witnesses are intimidated and some die. While all this is happening around us, these pseudo intellectuals raise such a hue and cry when someone tries to do something decisive. I wonder whether they are genuinely concerned about human welfare. As far as I see, in this imperfect world there are no perfect answers to all these problems. Yet something has to be done, no doubt.

Some of them argue on the level of proof and judicial procedures. It is quite well known of the existing due process in operation. It is detailed as practically as possible to avoid a mistake by this fine comb procedure. The Sathasivam case is in fact an example where benefit of doubt was eventually given in favour of the accused. There are many other examples.

Then Dr. J has questioned the manner in which the President has selected the four persons to be hanged from among the drug offenders. As long as they are all drug offenders who are duly condemned to death, does it so much matter which one is taken first or second? I am told there is a convict who was held responsible for having Judge Ambepitiya who found him guilty, killed? For whose sake did that Judge do that? So what is the limit for ‘retributive justice’? Isn’t there some conclusion in these matters? Can good governance be maintained like that? We know of the grave situation prevailing in some Latin American countries like Columbia, Bolivia and Mexico where governance has become virtually impossible, that at a point no one was willing to become the IGP in Mexico. Things are bad here. But need we wait doing nothing till we come to that pass arguing whether death penalty is good or bad? Let some common sense prevail.

We are told by the Police Anti-Narcotics Bureau that this country is considered a soft target for drug trafficking because of the soft laws and corrupt politicians. This shows that unless someone takes a drastic step as this even as an experiment, we are doomed to eventually become a drug heaven.

Dr. J had ended his article in persuading the President to change his mind with the following quotation:

…execution of the death penalty as described by Professor Chris Barnard:

“The man’s spinal cord will rupture at the point where it enters the skull, electro-chemical discharges will send his limbs flailing in a grotesque dance, eyes and tongue will start from the facial apertures under the assault of the rope and his bowels and bladder may simultaneously void themselves to soil the legs and drip on the floor”.

I recall that a beautiful eighteen year school girl in Kayts Island was gang raped and killed in brought daylight that scandalized the entire nation. One accused had even videoed it to make money out of it by showing it in Switzerland. I would like to ask Dr. J whether this unfortunate girl would have felt much different when raped by five people and killed. Just imagine that such things happen in our midst in our country where we too live. How should we deal with it?

I am still not promoting judicial killing. But want to highlight the fact that this is not an open and shut matter where we could pontificate on right and wrong. Let some common sense also prevail.

Sugath Samarasinghe

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

In colloquial sinhala we have words like Kamba horu, pal  horu, neelakasa horu, ali horu, Karawala horu , Ali baba Saha horu hathaliya, jaraa horu , and  may  be few more pseudonyms ,to name a few who are robbers.

When you read about the robbing which had taken place in Sri Lankan Air lines published in Sunday Paper today  and plethora of newspaper articles about Robbing the Central Bank , we Sri Lankan should start seriously think before we place of cross to elect next parliament and their leaders.

There was s news item sometime back when a girl trespassed into a coconut land and stole few coconuts because she did not have money to eat , the judge almost put her in the prison.

But the crooks who have stolen national wealth are freely roaming around .

When we heard about chief of staff of the head of the state and another head of a State Corporation being caught red handed when they were counting the loot ,  we remember the Sinhala saying wattath niyarath goyam ka man Kaata pawadami a Amaruwa

{ in a poor translation in means to whom can we complain when Paddy cultivation is consumed by the fence and bund which is supposed to be protecting it

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

When people get power, they always do mean, dishonest things. We shouldn’t allow anyone to have too much power.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

By Stephan Shemilt Courtesy  BBC Sport at Lord’s

England beat New Zealand to win the men’s World Cup for the first time after one of the most amazing games of cricket ever played was tied twice.

In an emotional and electric atmosphere at Lord’s, both sides scored 241 in their 50 overs and were level on 15 when they batted for an extra over apiece.

It meant England were crowned world champions by virtue of having scored more boundary fours and sixes – 26 to New Zealand’s 17 – in the entire match.

That it even got to that stage was astonishing in itself and came as a result of a barely believable conclusion at the home of cricket – the first tie in a World Cup final.

England required 15 from the last over of the regular match. Ben Stokes hit a six and then benefited when a throw from the deep hit his bat as he dived for ground and was inadvertently deflected for four overthrows.

He could not get the two needed from the last ball – Mark Wood was run out coming back for the second – but ended 84 not out and joined Jos Buttler for the super over.

In glorious evening sunshine, they were roared on by a febrile crowd that belted out Sweet Caroline in the change of innings.

When New Zealand replied, Jimmy Neesham hit Jofra Archer’s third ball for six, then scrambled to leave Martin Guptill needing two from the last delivery.

As Jason Roy’s throw came in from deep mid-wicket, a diving Guptill was short when Buttler removed the bails, sending England and the whole of Lord’s into delirious celebration.

• I never imagined World Cup win – Morgan
• NZ captain Williamson says final defeat ‘devastating’
• Reaction to dramatic World Cup final

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/48983890

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Jalani Premadasa, the wife of Sajith Premadasa on Saturday addressing and event said that she appeared before them as the first lady of future leader of the country.

The first Women’s Conference of the ‘Jathika Maha Sabha’ in Hatton was held at the D.K.W. Cultural Hall in Hatton on Saturday under the patronage of Mrs Premadasa.

I know that you would have to face to many problems, if all of you do not own a land. Even though I cannot give you a quick solution to this, I urge you that I have come in front of you as the first lady of the future leader Sajith Premadasa, who has expectations in your heart,” she said.

Although Minister Sajith Premadasa was unable to attend the event he and I are dedicated to serve the public and do a great service to the poor and the needy,” she said.

She said Sajith Premadasa was a leader who had not confined to the Minister post or to Colombo.
I promise that he would give a solution to your land issues,” she said.(Ranjith Rajapaksha)

Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday said there were as many as 300 allegations against Minister Bathiudeen and a bulk of them were baseless. “The CID reports have cleared Mr. Bathiudeen,” the Prime Minister said.

After the Easter Sunday attacks there was an allegation that Minister Bathiudeen tried to influence the Army Commander into releasing the son of an acquaintance. However, the army chief later denied and said the minister did not attempt to influence him. The CID had sent a report on Mr. Bathiudeen to the Speaker,” he said addressing a public meeting in Kinniya to mark the opening a building for Kinniya Central College.   

He said instructions had been given to the Parliamentary Select Committee probing the Easter Sunday attacks and the CID to brief Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.  

Catholics have legitimate concerns about the investigation process. They are entitled to know whether investigations are being carried out properly or not,” he said.   

The CID has completed investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks and a report has been handed over to the Speaker. He had referred it to me and to the Parliamentary Select Committee probing the bomb attacks, the PM said.   

However some people have said they reject the CID reports. They have said they are not satisfied with the investigations that were being carried out with regards to former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. The reports have cleared Mr. Bathiudeen when it comes to 300 complaints filed against him by various individuals.

However CID has submitted their investigation reports to the Attorney General and had wanted him to file legal action against some suspects. It is not advisable to reject these reports as lawyers for some of those facing charges will be able to argue that it is not possible to file legal action against their clients as certain persons have rejected the CID reports as lacking credibility, the PM added.  

The Prime Minister said all ethnic groups should be proud to be Sri Lankans. The Sinhalese will not lose anything by calling themselves Sri Lankans. Likewise Tamils and Muslims should first think of themselves as Sri Lankan before identifying with their respective ethnicities,” he said.(

Courtesy Adaderana

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike and her clan in the UNP will not be allowed to destroy the identity of the party, says Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

The minister stated this addressing the media following a religious event held at Kataragama Kiriwehera last evening (13).

Although Chandrika Bandaranaike is the organizer of Attanagalla electorate, she cannot even win her electorate and it is ridiculous to continue to work with such a person, the minister further said.

Responding to a question raised by a media person on the implementation of the death penalty, the minister said the UNP including himself is against this decision. The death penalty is inappropriate for a country like Sri Lanka, he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

The proposal with the recommendations to amend the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act will be presented to the Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms Thalatha Atukorale tomorrow (15), stated MP A. H. M. Fowzie.

The Muslim parliamentarian recently held a meeting to discuss the amendment of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act.

The proposal contains 11 amendments to the Act including the legal age for a Muslim marriage.

The amendments include:

-The age of marriage for both the bride and the groom should be 18 years
-The bride should sign the Register of Marriage as a sign of her consent
-Upgrade the required qualification of a Kadi to Attorney-at-Law
-Permit female Kadis (women who will adjudicate family law of Muslims)

The draft bill, which contains the relevant proposals, is to be tabled at the parliament after gaining the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Courtesy Adaderana

State Intelligence Officers including the Head of the State Intelligence Service should not be revealed through media, says the Leader of the opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He expressed these views speaking to journalists in Colombo, today (14).

A group of women who sell flowers near the Mihintale sacred sites called on the Opposition Leader today.

They informed Rajapaksa on a decision taken to remove their stalls from the area.

The Opposition Leader then responded to the questions posed by media personnel.

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The controversy over the involvement of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Sri Lanka has now come to a head. MCC was created in the early years of the new millennium by the Bush Administration as an aid distribution programme for developing countries that are inclined to ‘govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom’. The formation of the new body was in recognition of the fact that the US development assistance programmes, which existed at the time, had consistently failed to meet their stated goals. Despite decades of economic aid, most recipients are poorer now than they were before first receiving development assistance. From 1980 to 2000, the United States had disbursed $167 billion in aid to 156 developing countries; but among the 97 countries for which reliable economic data for that period are available, median per capita gross domestic product (GDP) had declined from $ 1,076 in 1980 to $ 994 in 2000!  The MCC is thus supposed to be an experimental programme that seeks to explore new strategies to improve the effectiveness of development assistance programmes.

We now have the honour of being one of the guinea pigs testing out the efficacy of the aid programmes of MCC. One complicating factor is that the American aid organisation will be investing only USD 480 million in Sri Lanka in a situation where the government’s foreign borrowing through sovereign bonds during the first half of this year alone was USD 4.5 billion. With a government that has borrowed not tens of millions but tens of billion of US Dollars during a period of three or four years, a grant of 480 million is too small even to register on the scale. At the time the Millennium Challenge Corporation was created in the early years of this millennium, 300 or 400 million USD was considered a colossal amount of money in Sri Lanka.

The pledge of a concessionary loan from China of USD 300 million to build the first phase of the Norochchcolai power plant during the last years of the Chandrika Kumaratunga government was welcomed at that time as a major breakthrough. Since that time, much water has flown under the bridge and Sri Lanka has moved from being a low income country to an upper middle income country and the government that came into power in January 2015 commenced an era of mega foreign borrowings to pay for the election related government expenditure they incurred to win the 2015 August Parliamentary election. A grant of 480 million USD would have been a significant aid package during the Rajapaksa government. The present government would borrow 480 million USD in a single afternoon through the issue of Sri Lanka Development Bonds.   

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

Veil of secrecy over MCC project

As with everything else, the controversy over the MCC project is largely due to the lack of transparency in the doings of the government. Ironically, the MCC in selecting partner countries, uses an indicator that measures a country’s commitment among other things, to the freedom of information. Yet the very thing that is missing about the agreement that has been entered into by this government and the MCC is information! One would think that when the Opposition and members of the general public begin to voice misgivings about a deal that the government has struck with some foreign party, the first thing any government should do is to immediately launch a programme to explain to the public what the deal is about and how it is supposed to benefit Sri Lanka.

The controversy over the MCC has now been at the forefront of political discourse for months but the government has done nothing to enlighten the public the benefits that it is supposed to bestow on Sri Lanka. As of now, all that the public knows is that the USA will be giving Sri Lanka a grant of $480 million to carry out the work involved. This grant was the ‘silver lining’ that Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera Mangala saw in the dark cloud that covered Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings. All that the public knows about this project is the limited information that is available on the MCC website. What the website says is that MCC seeks to assist the Sri Lanka Government in addressing two of the country’s binding constraints to economic growth, namely, inadequate transport logistics infrastructure and planning; and lack of access to land for agriculture, the services sector, and industrial investors.

The MCC website further states that the Transport Project aims to increase the relative efficiency and capacity of the road network and bus system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region and to reduce the cost of transporting passengers and goods between the central region of the country and ports and markets in the rest of the country. The stated goal of the Land Project is to increase the availability of information on private land and underutilized state lands or all land in Sri Lanka to which the government is lawfully entitled or which may be disposed of by the government, in order to increase land market activity. The MCC Land Project is supposed increase tenure security and tradability of land for smallholders, women, and firms through policy and legal reforms. The picture that the public has of the transport project is that a road transport corridor is to be set up between the ports of Colombo and Trincomalee with the Americans having an interest in the port of Trincomalee.

Neither the government nor the MCC has published anything that would enlighten the public any further. Even though money has been allocated for this project, nobody has seen a proper project description or a diagram of how that effect is to be achieved. While the Mahaweli project was being built, everybody knew what was being built and where. If the ‘efficiency and capacity of the road network and bus system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region’ was to be improved and ‘the cost of transporting passengers and goods between the central region of the country and ports and markets in the rest of the country’ was to be reduced, that would give the government a much-needed boost and one would think that they would have turned this into one of their main trumps in their re-election bid as well. Yet the government has been inexplicably secretive about the whole MCC project. The government’s silence on what exactly is going to be done under this project is what is fuelling speculation and suspicion.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

The goal of the Land Project has been explicitly stated as seeking to increase the availability of information on private land and underutilized state lands or all land in Sri Lanka to which the government is lawfully entitled or which may be disposed of by the government. The aim was to increase land market activity. The Land Project is supposed to increase tenure security and tradability of land for smallholders, women, and firms. The target clearly is state owned land. In Sri Lanka, we have freehold properties that belong to individuals or companies and then there is state owned land a portion of which is utilized directly by the government and a portion which remains allocated for other purposes of the republic such as forest reserves and the like and another potion of state land is held by the public under lease or licencing arrangements.

It is obviously the latter that the MCC is targeting. Even though such state owned lands have been alienated to individuals under licensing or long term lease arrangements, the tenants on these lands enjoy security of tenure because the government will not simply kick them off the land if it is cultivated and used productively. The lease holder or lisencee will be adequately compensated before the government takes back a state land which has been given to private individuals for farming or other purposes. We almost never hear of even the smallest of smallholders being unreasonably evicted from state owned land that had been leased or given to them on a license by the state. Furthermore, the state owned land given out to individuals can change hands and be sold. There is a separate market for leasehold or licenced land holdings with the price being somewhat lower than in the case of freehold land.

Such land can also be passed down from generation to generation provided the land had been utilized productively. When the  Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in South Africa proposed an overhaul of the country’s land holding system, what they proposed was that state land be under lease-hold and private land be under freehold with limited extent while foreign ownership should be linked to productivity and partnership models with South African citizens. That is much like the system that prevails in Sri Lanka at present. If something is not broken, why try to mend it? Admittedly, recipients of state owned land on lease will face issues when trying to raise money from banks with the land pledged as surety. Banks prefer freehold land. Only the high value customers with a proven track record would stand a chance of being able to raise money by pledgeing a lease on a state owned land as surety. In such an environment, startups would have little or no chance.

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

The fact that the land is owned by the state discourages fragmentation of the land and strategic buying up of cheap land by organized parties as what happened in Palestine before the creation of Israel. In a country like ours, this is a paramount consideration when discussing land policy. In this country, even a leasehold land has a monetary value which is below the value of a similar freehold property and the banks should be encouraged to lend to leaseholders at least to the extent of the reduced value of the land without turning away leaseholders wholesale. When we look at the Land Rights and Access indicator of the MCC we see that the kind of land reform that they have in mind would be applicable to countries in sub-Saharan Africa which don’t even have governments worth the name rather than countries like ours.

The MCC’s Access to Land indicator assesses the extent to which the institutional and legal framework provides secure land tenure and equitable access to land in rural areas. They look at the extent to which the law guarantees secure tenure for land rights of the poor; the extent to which the law guarantees secure land rights for women and other vulnerable groups; the extent to which land is titled and registered etc. Sri Lanka has no major issues with regard to any of those benchmarks. The MCC also looks at how long it takes to register property and the time taken to transfer the property title from the seller to the buyer so that the buyer can use the title for expanding business, as collateral in taking new loans, or, if necessary, to sell to another business. Sri Lanka does not have any major issues with regard to such matters either.

The MCC also looks at the cost to register property as a percentage of the value of the property. The latter is one area where vast improvement is needed in Sri Lanka not because of the cost in registering the land per se, but in the duties charged by our exploitative government on land transactions which drives up the transaction cost. That however is a matter that only the Sri Lankan government can address. The exorbitant duties charged on land transactions goes for the maintenance of the white elephants known as the provincial councils. Most people doing land transactions would have found that the provincial council does not necessarily accept the cost of the land as stated on the deed but they do a valuation on their own and the tax that has to be paid is calculated on the basis of that estimated value. The only genuine problem that Sri Lankans have with regard to land tenure and other issues is the exploitative attitude of the government which seeks to make a killing off land transactions.  

The MCC states that secure land tenure gives people long-term incentives to invest and to use land as collateral for loans. Sri Lanka’s rand reform laws enacted in the 1970s was instrumental in fixing a ceiling on land ownership. According to the Land Reform Laws No:1 of 1972 and No: 39 of 1975 brought by the then SLFP government, the maximum extent of agricultural land which may be owned by any person, was twenty-five acres of paddy land and fifty acres of other agricultural land. There have been strident calls for the abolition of this ceiling in order to encourage commercial agriculture. That too is not something that would require the intervention of a foreign donor organization.

Cloak and dagger development work

The MCC, which uses an indicator that measures a country’s commitment to the freedom of information in order to qualify for a programme, has been very reticent with information on what exactly it is doing in Sri Lanka. The MCC freedom of information indicator measures a government’s commitment to enable or allow information to move freely in society. This indicator is based on the degree of press freedom; the status of national freedom of information laws; and a measure of internet filtering. The MCC website even has a lecture on how information flows relate to growth and poverty reduction. The following is what the MCC says about the importance of free information flows:

“Governments play a role in information flows; they can restrict or facilitate information flows within countries or across borders. Many of the institutions (laws, regulations, codes of conduct) that governments design are created to manage the flow of information in an economy. Countries with better information flows often have better quality governance and less corruption. Higher transparency and access to information have been shown to increase investment inflows …”

The MCC uses several indicators to measure a country’s eligibility for grants including the freedom of information mentioned earlier. Among the other indicators are the following:  Ruling Justly – prevalence of free and fair electoral processes; political pluralism and participation of all stakeholders; government accountability and transparency; freedom from domination by the military, foreign powers(!), totalitarian parties, religious hierarchies and economic oligarchies; and the political rights of minority groups. Civil Liberties – freedom of expression and belief; association and organizational rights; rule of law and human rights; and personal autonomy and economic rights.

Government Effectiveness – the quality of public service provision; civil servants’ competency and independence from political pressures; and the government’s ability to plan and implement sound policies, among other things. Rule of Law – the extent to which, the public has confidence in and abides by the rules of society; the incidence and impact of violent and non-violent crime; the effectiveness, independence, and predictability of the judiciary; the protection of property rights; and the enforceability of contracts. Control of Corruption – “Grand corruption” in the political arena; the frequency of petty corruption; the effects of corruption on the business environment; and the tendency of elites to engage in “state capture,” among other things. 

There are also some economic indicators such as the following: Fiscal Policy – government borrowing as a percent of the GDP averaged over a three year period. Inflation – The most recent average annual change in consumer prices. Regulatory Quality – the burden of regulations on business; price controls; the government’s role in the economy; and foreign investment regulation. Trade Policy – openness to international trade based on average tariff rates and non-tariff barriers to trade.

Land Rights and Access – the institutional, legal, and market framework to provide secure land tenure and equitable access to land in rural areas and the time and cost of property registration in urban and peri-urban areas.

According to Sri Lanka’s scorecard for 2019 published on the MCC website, Sri Lanka has passed the tests for Political Rights, Civil Liberties, Control of Corruption (!!), Government Effectiveness (!!!) and the Rule of Law. SL has failed the tests for the Freedom of Information (which is not surprising given how little information there is about what MCC is doing in Sri Lanka.) When it comes to the economic indicators, SL has passed the tests for Inflation, Regulatory Quality, Trade Policy, Business Start-Up, but failed on Fiscal Policy, Land Rights and Access to Credit.

The Editorial on  Monday 15th July, 2019 Courtesy The Island

Opposition Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaska has taken up cudgels for the working class. He has warned of a government move to rob the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) by removing the Central Bank (CB) from the purview of the Ministry of Finance. A bill has been prepared to amend the Finance Act for that purpose, he says.

That the incumbent government is trying to dip into the 2.5-trillion-rupee superannuation fund is no secret. First, it sought to separate the EPF from the CB, but in vain. True, there is a conflict of interest on the part of the CB, which is tasked with raising funds for the state coffers at the lowest possible interest rates while trying to get the highest possible interest rates for the EPF, whose monies are mostly invested in government securities. But what matters most is the efficient administration and the safety of the EPF. The CB is one of the few professionally run state institutions. But for the intrepid whistleblowers among the CB officials, the bond scams which had a devastating impact on the EPF among others perhaps would not have come to light.

As for the EPF, successive governments have been behaving like greedy canines near a meat stall. Given half a chance they will rob workers’ savings. The Rajapaksa government was also salivating over the EPF. It sought to introduce a private sector pension scheme, which, on the face of it, looked a pro-worker move. But if it had been implemented, workers, upon retirement, would have had to settle for paltry sums a month by way of pensions; they would have been denied the right to lump sum withdrawals, which can be deposited with banks or other financial institutions, which offer much higher interest rates. When President Rajapaksa proposed that pension scheme through a national budget, we argued, in this space, that it would lead to disaster. Thousands of FTZ workers took to the streets in 2011, when an attempt was made to force the private pension scheme down their throats, and a brutal crackdown on protests left a worker dead.

EPF returns have since dipped to 9.5 percent! If governments and their leaders are really concerned about the private sector workers’ savings, they should do away with the extortionate taxes amounting to billions of rupees on the EPF. Trade unions are either really dumb or playing dumb. They are not fighting against the draconian tax system. Many private sector workers are taxed several times over. They have to pay the PAYE tax on their monthly earnings including their EPF contributions. Their savings in their superannuation fund are taxed again. Their lump sum withdrawals are also taxed. When their savings are deposited with banks, etc., they are made to pay withholding and other taxes. Trade union leaders are busy licking the boots and sandals of their political leaders and, frustratingly, workers also do not care to fight for their rights.

Those who are in power today alleged, before the 2015 regime change, that the EPF had been a victim of sordid pump and dump operations carried out by some moneybags close to the former ruling clan. They promised to probe the scams and bring the culprits to justice. Instead, they themselves got involved in bond scams, and the pump and dump racketeers who caused heavy losses to the EPF got away with their crimes.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed various probe commissions and committees; some of them have yielded discernible results. The bond probe commission is a case in point. The PRECIFAC also helped expose malpractices under the previous dispensation, but the promised action has not been taken against the culprits because the President and some members of the former regime have kissed and made up.

Private sector workers and their trade unions must call for a special commission of inquiry to probe the EPF and the losses it has suffered. They must not leave the fight for their rights to wily politicians who shed copious tears for them.

By  Rohana R. Wasala

It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that more outrage was expressed by interested parties at an incidental comment made by the Most Venerable Warakagoga Gnanarathana, the Mahanayake Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter, during an anusasanawa (homily) than at the April 21 Easter Sunday suicide bombings by Wahhabi Islamists. He was presiding over a religious event conducted at the Dodamwela Diyakelinawela Kitsirimewan Raja Maha Viharaya on June 15, 2019. The social and printed media were immediately awash with condemnations of the senior monk’s remarks taken out of their context. They tried to stress the monk’s alleged pro-Sinhalese Buddhist extremism and his anti-Muslim hatred. They have decided that the Mahanayake Thera has committed an offence that is worse than what the Islamist suicide bomber Saharan did and what the doctor at Kurunegala hospital is accused of having done, put together.

An Indian website (The Wire) reported that hundreds of Muslim refugees fled Negambo as communal tensions flared up, following the Mahanayake Thera’s speech (Since no Sri Lankan source confirmed it, this could very well be a fabrication). The same website quoted  Mangala Samaraweera, minister of finance, as having stated that ‘true Buddhists’ should unite against the ‘Talibanization’ of the religion. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the NGO known as the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) lodged a complaint with the Acting Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickremaratne against the monk, wanting him to be arrested for allegedly saying, according to Saravanamuttu’s interpretation, that a certain Muslim doctor should be stoned to death for the crime of having surreptitiously sterilized a large number of Sinhalese mothers without their prior knowledge and consent by restricting the fallopian tube during cesarean section operations that he had  performed at a hospital in Kurunegala. (The problem is that this racist NGO Tamil with no following even among his own people refuses to recognise the gravity of the allegations against the doctor.) The CPA also made a complaint to the UNHCR High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who, in an immediate response during her address to the organization’s 41st Session, has expressed concern about statements made by ‘certain religious leaders advocating violence’. The Dalai Lama (obviously fed with false news from similarly biased sources) has condemned the Asgiriya Prelate’s alleged comment without reservations, and his criticism is likely to have a negative impact even on Buddhist opinion around the world regarding the senior Sri Lankan monk’s random remarks and more importantly, on their impressions about inter-communal  and interreligious relations in Sri Lanka, which, in reality, remain quite healthy. The case represents one tragic aspect of Sri Lankans’ present sorry plight. They are reported on by local and global media that don’t or pretend not to, understand them or their problems, or their different ethnic identities; most unfortunate of all is their deliberate oversight of the real existential threats that Sri Lankans as a nation are actually facing.

Part of the problem is the fact that only a person who knows the subtly expressive Sinhala colloquial idiom well and is familiar with the sort of speech context in which the words were uttered can be expected to understand what the monk really said without misconstruing his meaning. Non-Sinhala speakers who depend on translations (often distorted) naturally miss out what the speaker left unsaid to be inferred by the immediate listeners. The different English translations I saw in the media deliberately misinterpret the passionate  but peaceful message of the monk. The occasion for such misreporting arises from these monks’ own remissness in being careful about their language, particularly at a time like this. The language they habitually use could convey unintended meanings to those unfamiliar with their idiom.  

In Saravanamuttu’s complaint, the Mahanayake Thera is reported to have spoken these words in a ‘sermon’ implying that he preached violence. An ‘anusasanawa’ is not a sermon, but an informal homily that suits the occasion. By that mistranslation, the NGO activist was probably implying that the Thera was giving a religious imprimatur for the violent actions he mentioned in his casual remarks to be actually carried out  (though ethnically Tamil Saravanamuttu knows that Indian religions do not advocate violence on any grounds); of course, it is possible that the error is due to his ignorance of the real meaning of the Sinhala term ‘anusasanawa’.

 Like on a previous occasion that involved the Ven. Anunayake Thera of the same Asgiriya Chapter in a similar, but more private context, who became a target for attack as an advocate of Hitlerism, a regrettable  verbal faux pas has led to this present furore among anti-nationalist forces over alleged racism and religious intolerance led by Buddhist monks against Muslims. In each situation, the speaker narrowly focused on the audience before him and failed to take into account the public outside of that context, much less the global community waiting to condemn the Sinhalese Buddhist majority on the slightest pretext that emerges for them to denounce their alleged racist  and religious extremism against minorities.

 In reality though, the monk’s controversial remarks were partly meant to let the steam off among the Sinhala community shocked by  the genocidal implications of forced sterilization allegations raised against a Muslim doctor in a Kurunegala hospital by the name of Shafi Shihabdeen. These sterilizing allegations, along with some similar earlier allegations made in different unrelated contexts, have been pooh-poohed by government authorities, but are claimed to be supported with evidence by non-political activists  including an internationally recognized medical science professor. The government could have easily allayed people’s fears by having these allegations duly investigated in a credible transparent manner. But, going by media reports, this does not seem to be yet happening. Hence, there is no let up in the societal tension that has been created by the uninvestigated complaints against the doctor. 

The Lanka C News online journal in an exclusive news report (July 4, 2019) said that an internal investigation conducted by the Kurunegala hospital has confirmed the sterilization and other allegations such as illegal LRT surgeries done without the consent of the mother or father raised against the Muslim doctor. The same source carries another report where it is said that the Police CID has informed the Defence Secretary that since no evidence at all has been found to show that the doctor is a member of the National Thawheed Jamat (NTJ) or of any other terrorist group, it is not justifiable to detain him any longer. Young activist Professor Channa Jayasumana who features in the first report (i.e., the one about the investigation done by the Kurunegala hospital) has placed the authentic information that he has before the public. However, it is usual these days for patriotic monks and lay activists to be branded as racists and extremists by inimical anti-nationalist agents, who equate nationalism with racism for their convenience. 

It is against this background that UPFA MP of the Joint Opposition Romesh Pathirana, himself a doctor, urged in Parliament (July 11) that an epidemiological and statistical study be conducted in response to these allegations. Over 1000 complaints received against Dr Shafi after 4,732 caesarean section operations done by him suggest that about 25% of the mothers he had operated on could have developed secondary subfertility. This figure is unusually high when compared to the world average of 10%, MP Pathirana pointed out. Meanwhile, the Sinhala daily ‘Divaina’ (July 12) reported that the Kurunegala magistrate (July 11) ordered the Dean of the Colombo University Medical Faculty to provide suitable recommendations on the correct methodology to be adopted in holding the HSG (Histerosalpinogram) Test for Blocked Fallopian Tubes through a committee comprising five professors of the faculty. All this reflects the seriousness of the sterilization allegations that was one factor that coloured the mental preoccupations of the senior monk and his audience in that particular context.

 As reported in the online Lanka C News (July 3, 2019), at a special press gathering held at Kirulapane Bodhi Bauddha Mandiraya a day before, Ven Galaboda-Aththe Gnanasara Thera, leader of the Bodu Bala Sena, revealed where in reality racism and extremism exist. He illustrated his point by having a 38 year old Muslim woman from Bandaragama Atalugama named Abdul Hasat Fatima Haifa who is married to a Sinhalese Buddhist man explain to the media the ordeal that she and her two children aged 11 and 7 were subjected to by her parents’ family and her Muslim neighbours in their hundreds for marrying a Sinhalese Buddhist man. They allegedly pushed the mother and her children along the road to the police station, she claimed. She blamed the Bandaragama police officers for failing to do enough to protect them from assault and harassment by Muslim men. The Thera stated that every man and woman must have the right to marry any person (of their choice) belonging to any race or religion. This, he stressed, should hold for Muslim women as well. The press briefing was prior to the BBS convention which was to be held in Kandy on July 7, 2019. 

A number of other individual monk and lay activists and groups have done a lot of work to expose the growing Wahhabist scourge in Sri Lanka and to alert the authorities, but, to date, in vain. A well known young activist named Amith Weerasinghe, who was jailed in connection with the incidents at Kundasale that took place about a year ago is reported to be on conditional bail. He headed an organization, now banned, that he claims had a membership that comprised some 273,000 young men and women. (This fact alone makes him an invaluable potential asset to politicians. But he vows he will have no truck with them; he says they have shown no genuine concern with the Islamist problem that he has been trying to raise public awareness of.) He had gathered a lot of information about the clandestine activities of Islamic extremists; he also had reported to the authorities a Muslim-owned pharmacy in the neighbourhood of Kandy with a number of outlets in other places that sells expired drugs, though without success. Weerasinghe is 28 years old, married, with two children. He has twenty-five cases pending against him, all filed against him in the course of his work for the nation done without any ulterior motives and against Islamic extremism, as he claims. 

Ven. Ampitiye Sumanaratana Thera (50) is known as ‘Madakalapuwe Hamuduruwo’, a hero, who is an intrepid campaigner constantly threatened with assassination by Islamists, but he provides refuge to poor people of all three communities, while  living among a community that is being terrorised by extremists where he often berates publicly some of the government employees there including some police officers for failing in their duty by the people. During the war, this monk looked after wounded LTTE cadres as well as wounded SL army soldiers brought to his temple for help, he claims. The biased media have projected him as a violent monk. He is not. Only his speech is violent, and that is directed at errant government officers, who, he alleges, are guilty of dereliction of duty under the influence of Wahhabists enriched by oodles of petro-dollars coming from their sponsors in the oil-rich middle-east. Ven. Sumanaratana has been able to do a lot of work for the dispossessed Sinhalese minority suffering discrimination even at the hands of certain corrupt government officials at the beck and call of Islamic extremists who oil their palms. The monk performs his service with the help of donations received from patriots working abroad. He does not exclude the poor of other communities in that impoverished corner of eastern Sri Lanka, which is covered with ruins of the island’s ancient Buddhist civilization (The deliberate destruction of archaeological evidence of Sinhalese Buddhist history in the eastern and northern provinces has gone on for decades).

At a mass rally held at Nugegoda on July 4 by the National Movement against Wahabi Extremism, Ven. Professor Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera made a startling revelation. It was that more than twenty people had been executed under the sharia law in Kattankudy in the eastern province for various alleged offences including leaving Islam and being a member of the government army. Another instance when the problem of Islamic extremism was raised was when Ven. Athuraliye Ratana Thera MP said, during a heated exchange with a Muslim MP in parliament (July 10), that Wahhabi extremists have prohibited education for girls in the same area, thereby violating their basic human rights. Both monks claim that they have verifiable information to support their complaints.  

The Bodu Bala Sena Convention that took place in Kandy on July 7, 2019 was for ensuring the survival of Sri Lanka as a single sovereign state, where the various majorities and minorities can live in peace and harmony as equal citizens without mutual discrimination on any grounds, under one common law. The key to that ideal is the time honoured Buddhist cultural foundation of the country. It is an inclusive accommodating culture most compatible with secular democratic governance. One of the immediate threats to the nation built on that cultural foundation is the scourge of Wahhabist Islamic extremism, which is apparently being used as a smokescreen by Western imperialists to conceal their secret operations for destabilizing and ultimately destroying Sri Lanka in pursuit of their own selfish geopolitical ends.  The passionate sentiments that the Most Venerable Asgiriya Mahanayake Thera expressed were intended to caution the whole nation to that wolf at the door. 

The proposal for the democratic restoration  of the Sinhala Buddhist State that was ceded to Britain in 1815 through the so-called Kandyan Convention (actually through intrigue) should be seen as a natural reaction to aggressive attempts by external and internal forces to destroy the Sinhalese as a sovereign nation both politically and culturally. Buddhist  monks cannot look on passively until such an eventuality takes place. They have been the Guardians of the land of the Sinhalese, the Sinhala language and the Buddhasasanaya from the time of King Devanampiyatissa of Anuradhapura (307-267 BCE). The monks always protected and guided the Sinhalese kingdom in their own righteous way. They were above the king, who paid obeisance to them. They never advocated violence in any form, but they were not averse to even fighting as soldiers, when it was found unavoidable in countering invasions (For example, King Dhatusena of the 5th century CE was a monk before he led the country to victory against invaders; King Senerath of Kandy of the early 17th CE was also a monk before assuming kingship and he too led operations against foreign occupiers; both of these monks turned monarchs were trained warriors. It was King Senerath who settled Muslims persecuted by the Dutch in Baticaloa. There were no Muslim settlements in that part of the Sinhale kingdom before. What is happening today is a historical irony.)

(Genuine Buddhist monks whether mentioned or not mentioned in this essay are representative members of the Maha Sangha {Community}. They symbolise nonviolence, renunciation and victory over samsaric suffering. In terms of Christian symbolism, they are Lambs. The Lamb of God symbolises the identical virtues of innocence, self sacrifice and ultimate triumph. Hence the title of this article. With apologies to Christian readers. I beg that you don’t take offence.)

 lanka C news

මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයන් වෙනුවෙන් ස්ථාපිතකර ඇති කාති උසාවි මගින් පිරිමි පක්ෂයට පක්ෂපාතී වන ලෙස නඩු තීන්දු ලබා දෙන බව ඌව පරණගම ප්‍රදේශයේ පදිංචිකාරිනියක් වන මුස්ලිම් ජාතික අබ්දුල් හසීනා නම් කතාව චෝදනා කරයි.

මෙම උසාවිය තීන්දු නිසා කාන්තාවන් බහුතරයක් දරුවන් සමග මහමගට ඇද වැටී ඇතැයි ද ඇය කියා සිටියාය.

ඇය මෙම විසින් හෙළිදරව් කරන ලද්දේ තම පියාද සමග දිය නිවසේදී මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් 

 lanka C news

අනාගත නායක සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතාගේ ආර්යාව තමන් බව ඇමති සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහතාගේ බිරිද වන ජලනි පේ‍්‍රමදාස මහත්මිය පවසයි.

ඇය මේ බව කියා සිටියේ හැටන්හිදී පැවති ජාතික මහ සභාවේ හැටන් කලාපයේ පළමු කාන්තා සම්මේලනයේ ප‍්‍රධාන ආරාධිතයා ලෙස සහභාගී වෙමිනි.

ඇය එහිදී මෙසේද කීවාය.

‘ඔබ ඉදිරියට අද ඇවිත් තියෙන්නේ ඔබ ආදරේ කරන, ඔබේ හදවතේ බලාපොරොත්තු ඇති කරගෙන තිබෙන, අනාගත නායක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මැතිතුමාගේ ආර්යාව හැටියටයි මේ ස්ථානයට.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මැතිතුමාගේ අනාගතය පිළිබඳව ඔබ සියලු දෙනාට විශාල බලාපොරොත්තු රාශියක් තිබෙනවා.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ඇමතිතුමා කියන්නේ ඇමතිකමකට සීමා නොවී, කොළඹට පමණක් සීමා නොවී, මහජනතාවත් සමඟ එකතුවෙලා මහජනතාවත් සමඟ සිටින නායකයෙක්.

ඔබ සියලු දෙනාගේ මේ ඉඩම් ප්‍රශ්නයට එතුමා අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ඔබ සියලු දෙනාටම විසඳුමක් ලබාදෙන බවට මම පොරොන්දු වෙනවා.

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ඇමතිතුමා කියන්නේ වචනයට පමණක් සීමා වෙච්චි නායකයෙක් නෙවෙයි.

ඒ ජනතා සේවකයා ඔබ සියලු දෙනාගෙන් මා ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ එතුමාව ආරක්ෂා කරගන්න එතුමාව බලාගන්න එතුමාට ඔබ සියලු දෙනාට දිය හැකි උපරිම සහයෝගය දෙන්න කියලා’

Courtesy Adaderana

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka says that UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa always fulfills the needs of the President and supports his statements.
 
The UNP Parliamentarian also said that if the incumbent Prime Minister does not stand for candidacy at the upcoming presidential election and if the alternative candidate is not an individual who can contribute to the country, he is opposed to that.

Responding to a question from reporters regarding the implementation of the death penalty, the former Army Commander said that an attempt is being made to hang certain prisoners with the intention of gaining votes.

He said the UNP’s stance is against the death penalty and that they stick by that stance. However, he said that party’s deputy leader Minister Sajith Premadasa always fulfills the needs of the President and approves of his statements.

Fonseka was referring to Premadasa’s recent comments in support of the President’s decision to implement the death penalty against certain convicted drug traffickers.

He also said that before the government was toppled for 51 days, Premadsa had said that the UNP is indebted to the President and after the constitutional crisis ended he commended the President for safeguarding democracy