Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

Dr. Mohamed Shafi has performed 4372 Caesarian surgeries at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) informed the Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court today (27).

The CID produced a 210 pages long report to the court on the finding of their investigations on the assets of Dr. Shafi and the complaints lodged by mothers who underwent Caesarian surgeries under him.

The CID had recorded statements from over 500 persons on Dr. Shafi with regard to the investigation carried out against him.

However, no evidence was discovered connecting the doctor to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) or terrorist activities.

The CID informed the court that they refer to the Defense Secretary and take measures to release Dr. Shafi who under currently detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, the CID reported to the court that 4372 mothers had undergone Caesarian surgeries under Dr. Shafi and that they consist of 3479 Sinhala mothers, 860 Tamil mothers, and 33 Muslim mothers.

It was observed that the doctor had taken a shorter amount of time when performing Caesarian surgeries on Sinhala and Tamil mothers than the usual amount, CID informed the court and that he had sent away the attending staff towards the end of the surgeries, according to the statements received from some doctors and staff at the Kurunegala hospital, said the CID.

Meanwhile, an anaesthetician at the hospital, Dr. Deepani Nandasena had made a complaint to the Assistant Director of the hospital on Dr. Shafi which had resulted in a heated argument between the two doctors on a hospital corridor, reported the CID.

Reportedly, during the argument, Dr. Shafi had told Dr. Nandasena that he possesses he has the power of money as well as political power.

However, the CID has received615 complaints against Dr. Shafi and among them, 468 are based on suspicion, the department relayed to the court.

The remaining 147 complaints are from mothers who experience some complications following the surgery, the CID said.

Accordingly, the CID sought a court order to carry out an SHG test on the affected mothers at the Colombo National Hospital.

The attorneys representing the victimized parties objected to this request stating that the SHG would further deteriorate the health condition of the mothers who already experience complications or infertility.

Therefore, the court rejected the request of the CID and ordered to obtain a report on the matter from the doctors at the Kurunegala hospital including the hospital director and to produce it to the court on the 11th of July.

The attorneys representing the victimized parties stated that the CID has taken the investigations against Dr. Shafi lightly.

The CID further informed the court that the monthly income of Dr. Mohamed Shafi is Rs. 1,923,500 and he has purchased property worth Rs. 53,047,600 in the recent past.

Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, too, attended to hear the court proceeding on Dr. Shafi today.

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

June 26, 2019, 8:56 pm 

The case where several officers and other rankers of the Sri Lanka Navy have been implicated in the disappearance of 11 persons during the war in 2008-2009 has made waves both locally as well as internationally. At the international level, when the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) presented its report titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ to the Fortieth Session of the UN Human Rights Council in March this year, the case that was the first to find mention in that report as an ‘emblematic’ case of human rights violation was the disappearance of these 11 persons.

This case also gained much attention locally mainly due to the high profile arrests that took place in the course of the CID investigation into the matter. Among the high ranking Navy officers who were arrested during this investigation were, the present Chief of Defence Staff Ravindra Wijegunaratne the highest ranking armed forces officer in the land, D. K. P. Dassanayake, a former Navy Spokesman and Sumith Ranasinghe the then intelligence chief of the Eastern Command. The war time Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda was also to be arrested in connection with this case but the Supreme Court issued an order preventing his arrest until the conclusion of a fundamental rights case filed by him.

The supreme irony in that being that this whole investigation into the disappearance of 11 persons began on the basis of a complaint made to the police by Wasantha Karannagoda himself in 2009 when he was the Commander of the Navy. Despite the high profile arrests that have taken place in its connection, the general public knows next to nothing about this case. Indeed even the highest officials in the defence establishment who should have known everything that there was to know about this case, also seemed to be surprisingly ill-informed.

Former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando once announced in public that indictments were to be filed in relation to one of the most serious violations of human rights that took place during the war and he invited the Tamil diaspora to provide similar details of violations of human rights so that the government can take action to bring the perpetrators to book. Fernando did not refer to this case by name but it was obvious that he meant this case and no other. He was for some reason under the misconception that details of this case had been provided to the government by the Tamil diaspora whereas in actual fact the Tamil diaspora had little or nothing to do with initiating this case and they were, at best, interested spectators. If a defence secretary can be that ill-informed about this case, the general public can only be expected to be completely clueless. We publish here the details of this case which emerge from the B reports filed by the CID before the Fort Magistrate’s Court and other documents pertaining to the court proceedings.

Victims and perpetrators

This case relates to eleven individuals who are said to have been arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy at various times between 25 August 2008 and March 2009. The names of the missing individuals are as follows: Kasthuri

Arachchilage John Reed, Thyagarajah Jegan, Rajiv Naganathan, Susaipulle Amalan Leon, Susaipulle Roshan Stanley Leon, Prageeth Vishwanathan, Tilakeshwara Ramalingam, Mohamed Dilan Jamaldeen, Mohamed Saajin, Mohamed Ali Anver.

The CID has named fourteen suspects, all of the Sri Lanka Navy as being responsible for the disappearance of these eleven individuals. The list of suspects includes high ranking officers as well as other rankers and is as follows: Nilantha Sampath Munsinghe, Sumith Ranasinghe, T. Lakshman Udayakumara, K.P. Nalin Prasanna Wickremasinghe, T. A. Dharmadasa, D. K. P. Dassanayake, Rajapaksa Pathirage Kithsiri, Anura Thushara Mendis,Kasthuri Arachchige Gamini, Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, Prabath Sanjeewa Senaratne, Imbulana Liyanage Upul Chaminda, Anton Fernando, Wasantha Karannagoda.

The present Chief of Defence Ravindra Wijegunaratne has not been named as a suspect in this case. He was arrested and remanded on the allegation that he had given Rs.500,000 from a navy fund to Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi a suspect named in this case, to flee overseas.

As we said earlier, this whole case started with a complaint made to the police by the last named suspect Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda. This is a rare instance where the original complainant himself has ended up being named as a suspect in the course of a criminal investigation. According to the B report filed on 1 June 2009, the first complaint was made to the Criminal Investigation Department by Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda on 28 May

2009 against naval officer Sampath Munasinghe to the effect that this officer was suspected of having maintained links with the LTTE. The original complaint stated that the navy had carried out a preliminary inquiry into the matter and that this officer had gone missing during the inquiry.

Due to the suspicion arising from his disappearance, naval officers had taken steps to search his quarters. Several suspicious documents had been recovered from his quarters including identity cards, passports and cheques. Navy Commander Karannagoda had thereupon requested the Inspector General of Police to make a formal inquiry into the matter. On 30 May 2009, the CID had taken custody of the documents recovered from officer Samapath Munasinghe’s quarters. It was found that four of the national identity cards recovered belonged to four individuals who had been abducted and the next of kin of these persons had made complaints to the Kotahena and Fort police stations about the abductions.

Over one year after the investigation began, the CID’s B report of 28 July 2010 stated that five youth who were suspected to have links with the LTTE had been abducted and inquiries were proceeding in this regard—these five youths were among the 11 persons mentioned in relation to this case—but that no evidence had been found directly linking officer Sampath Munasinghe to the abductions. The B report of 5 January 2011 stated that GovindasamyNaganathan the father of one of the abducted youths Rajiv Naganathan had received a call from a person called Hajiar or Ali saying that his son was in the custody of the navy under an officer named Hettiarachchi and asked for Rs. 10 million to obtain his release. The mobile phone used for this purpose belonged to one Mohamed Anver, who had also subsequently disappeared.

Investigation resumed

After the change of government, the B report of 19 February 2015 reported that the inquiry had been resumed on the orders of the court and that the CID needed to obtain a statement from officer D. K. P. Dassanayake to verify some matters relating to this inquiry. Dassanayake was at that time following a Master’s degree course in counter terrorism policy and strategy in the USA and he was brought back to Sri Lanka to be questioned by the CID.

The B report of 20 April 2015 contained a statement given by naval officer named Crishantha Welagedara. The latter had stated that he had been assigned as the second in command of the intelligence unit of the Navy’s

Eastern Command on 25 March 2009 under the then Lt Commander Sumith Ranasinghe and that Dassanayake was the officer in charge of the Special Intelligence Unit. He had further stated that there were some underground bunkers in a part of the Trincomalee navy base called ‘Gunside’, where detainees were being held and one day when they were brought out for a bath, he had spoken to them and found that Ali Anver, Rajiv Naganathan and Kasthuri Arachchige John Reed were among them. Ali Anver had shown signs of having been beaten and Welagedara stated that he had instructed naval ratings to have the injuries on Anver attended to.

On 22 May 2015, the CID reported to courts that a witness named B.M.Vijeyakanth a former LTTE cadre turned navy informant had declared that he been held in detention at Gunside in the Trincomalee base where he had met two individuals called Shantha Samaraweera of Kegalle and Pradeep of Ibbagamuwa. Shantha Samaraweera had given Vijayakanth a soap wrapper on which some names and telephone numbers had been written to be given to

Shantha’s family. Writing similar to that on the soap wrapper was to be seen on the walls of the detention cells and the CID had sealed off that cell. The pivot on which this whole case was based was the evidence given by officer Crishantha Welagedara and informant B. M. Vijeyakanth.

One year later, on 1 June 2016, the CID reported to courts that the 11 missing individuals had been held before their disappearance at Gunside illegally and in contravention of their human rights and that naval officers Lt Commander Sumith Ranasinghe, Captain Guruge and Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda knew of the existence of this detention center. On 27 September 2016, Inspector Nishantha Silva reported to courts that a statement needed to be recorded from former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda but he had not been able to attend to the matter because he was involved in several other investigations such as the abduction of Keith

Nohyr, the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, the attack on Upali Tennakoon and the murder of schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya in Jaffna.

Role of Mohamed Ali Anver The B report of 9 February 2017 stated that Mohamed Ali Anver was an informant working with Lt Commaner Sampath Munasinghe and that Ali Anver had given Munasinghe information about Rajiv Naganathan, and Munasinghe had told Lt Commander Hettiarachchi to arrest them. According to the testimony of a naval rating named Aluthgedara Upul Bandara, Sampath Munasinghe had been told by Ali Anver that he had information to the effect that a gang was collecting money for the LTTE by skimming credit cards. Ali Anver had got Rajiv Naganathan down to his house in Dehiwela and got them arrested by the navy. Arrested along with him were four other youths named Pradeep Vishwanathan, Tilakeshwara Ramalingam, Mohamed Dilan and Mohamed Saajin.

Thereafter, Ali Anver had phoned Naganathan’s father and asked for Rs. 10 million for his release. He had said that this money needed to be given to officers Sampath Munasinhe and Prasad Hettiarachchi. One day in November 2008, Ali Anver had in fact personally gone to see Govindasamy Naganathan and asked for Rs.10 million to secure the release of his son and they had ultimately agreed on a sum of Rs. 7.5 million. This money however had not been paid. Ali Anver, too, had disappeared in February 2009. Naval rating Aluthgedara Uplul, Bandara stated to the CID that one day in February 2009, the informant Ali Anver had also been arrested on the instructions of Sampath Munasinghe. He was the last of the 11 missing persons to be arrested. In probing the disappearance of navy informant Ali Anver, the CID obtained a statement from Mohamed Siraj Ali, the brother of Ali Anver. Siraj said that his brother had been an informant working under officer Sampath Munasinghe and that Anver had informed him that Sampath Munasinghe had told him to obtain Rs.10 million to release those those abducted. Siraj said that Anver had been in a despondent mood, and when asked about it, he stated that he had given information to the navy to arrest Rajiv Naganathan and four others and that it was Sampath Munasinghe who had told him to collect Rs. 10 million for their release, and that Anver did not like the task he had been given.

Siraj also stated Anver had called him from the detention center and told him that he had been abducted by Sampath Munasinghe and to talk to DIG Kamaldeen and Chief Inspector Lokuhetti to try and obtain his release. Siraj had said that he had put Anver onto CI Lokuhetti on the phone and based on the conversation that took place between them, he realised that Anver had been under threat from Sampath Munasinghe. DIG Abdul Said Kamaldeen said in his statement to the CID that he had got to know Anver Ali when the latter came to his house to study the Koran and that it was Anver who had given the information about the five youths to Sampath Munasinghe. Subsequently, Anver admitted to Kamaldeen that the five youth were not in fact LTTE, and that thereafter Anver had been under death threat from Sampath Munasinghe.

Ahmed Yunoos Imtiaz of Colombo 10, an associate of Anver’s, who knew Rajiv Naganathan had stated to the CID that Anver had made inquiries about Rajiv Naganathan and whether the latter’s father had money and other such details.

By C. A. Chandraprema (Continued from yesterday) Courtesy The Island

Navy Sampath

After the abduction of these 11 persons, the details in the B reports submitted by the CID reveal that at least two of them mainly Rajiv Naganathan and Ali Anver had made calls to the outside over mobile phones lent to them by the naval ratings guarding them. The B report of 7 June 2017 stated that the naval ratings on duty guarding the detainees had allowed them to speak to their next of kin in order to let the latter know that they were in detention. They had used SIM cards bought in other people’s names for this purpose. The B report of 20 June 2017 directly stated that it has been revealed that it was those who were guarding the detainees who had obtained extortion money from their next of kin.

Raman Prabhakaran, an uncle of Rajiv Naganathan, had received a call from the latter saying that he was being held in the Navy camp in Trincomalee, and he had given the phone number of a naval rating to his uncle. Then Raman Prabhakaran had received calls from the camp asking for Rs. 8 million for Rajiv Naganathan’s release. This had been negotiated down to Rs. 1 million. (This extortion demand was separate from the earlier demand of Rs. 10 million made by Ali Anver.) Rajiv Naganathan had told his uncle that the boss of the camp where he was being held was Capt. Dassanayake. Rajiv Naganathan’s mother and father had told the CID that the abduction had taken place on the orders of a Navy officer named Sampath.

Samsudeen Nihara the wife of K. A. Anthony stated to the CID that their son K. A. John Reed had been arrested on 8 September 2008 and on 17 October 2008, her husband Anthony had also been arrested. On 30 October 2008, she had got a call on her landline asking for Rs. 1.5 million for the release of the father and son. This was negotiated down to Rs. 500,000. The money had been handed over to the extortionists at a place in Narammala in the Kurunegala District. However the father and son were not released.

Naval rating John Kotelawalage Bandu Kumara stated that Rajiv Naganathan and Anver Ali had been allowed to take calls by him. His superior officers Sumith Ranasinghe and Chishantha Welagedara pulled him up for allowing detainees to take calls. He admitted that he had thought of accepting a payment of Rs. 500,000 from Rajiv Naganathan’s parents and allowing Rajiv to escape, but had given up the idea due to the difficulties involved. Naval rating Bandu Kumara’s plan had been to dress Rajiv Naganathan in new clothes and to get him out of the camp during the Sinhala New Year or Vesak.

Conflicting stories

When questioned on the disappearance of these detainees, the CID was told different stories by different people. B. M. Vijeyakanth, the LTTE cadre turned informant of the navy intelligence unit under officers Sumith Ranasinghe and C. K. Welagedara said that the detainees had been shot, and their bodies tied to concrete fence posts and taken to out to sea and dumped. The head of that intelligence unit, officer Sumith Ranasinghe, told the CID that he had never took charge of any of Sampath Munasinghe’s detainees. He said that a naval rating called Bandara had told him that the detainees arrested by Sampath Munasinghe had been killed and dumped in the Kelani River.

Ranasinghe also said that he was aware that Sampath Munasinghe had been abducting people from various parts of the country and that four of them had been killed in Colombo and the others in Trincomalee. He also said that he was not on good terms with Sampath Munasinghe. For his part the first suspect in this case Munasinghe said that his room (which was searched and from which the ID cards of the disappeared were discovered) had in fact been used by Lt Commander Hettiarachchi and that Hettiarachchi had worked under Dassanayake and further that it was Hettiarachchi who had arrested the five youths (including Rajiv Naganathan) and that those responsible were officers Hettiarachchi and Ranasinghe and that he had nothing to do with it.

Officer Crishantha Welagedara told the CID that one day, he had got to know that some detainees at Gunside had been killed and he gone there to look into the matter. When he arrived at Gunside he saw a parked cab and one Gamini, a naval rating attached to the intelligence unit loading a long black polythene bag onto the vehicle. The shape of the bag led him to believe that this could be a dead body. He surmised that the detainees brought from Colombo had been killed and taken in the cab and disposed of. Nalin Prasanna Wickremasuriya said that Rajiv Naganathan was one of those he questioned and that he had been told by naval rating Bandara that four of the detainees had been strangled to death and dumped in the Kelani River in the Kaduwela area.

Despite a decade of investigations and statements obtained from mutual antagonists within the navy, the B reports do not indicate that anyone, at all, had actually seen these detainees killed or even a dead body after they were killed. The CID told courts that it had been established beyond doubt that the 11 persons abducted in Colombo had been detained at Gunside and that there was no evidence to show that that these people had been rehabilitated or that they have gone abroad. Though it was nine years after the abductions, none of them had come back home either and there is no evidence to show that they are alive. Therefore, there was a justifiable suspicion that these persons had been killed.

Officer Travis Sinniah, who was soon to become the Commander of the Navy, told the CID that on the orders of Wasantha Karannagoda the detention centre at Gunside had been administered by Lt Commander Ranasinghe under the supervision of D. K. P. Dassanayake. Sinniah said that he had been told by Karannagoda not to interfere with the Gunside operation. He also said that Dassanayake controlled ingress and egress to the Gunside detention centre and that vehicles entered and exited without being checked on the orders of Dassanayake. He said that he, too, had heard about some killings that had taken place at Gunside and that Karannagoda and his officers were responsible for everything that took place. According to the B report of 13 July 2017, Sampath Munasinghe also told the CID that the then Navy Commander Karannagoda had been informed of the arrest of these suspects.

First suspect Sampath Munasinghe

The lawyers making written submissions on behalf of the second and third suspects Sumith Ranasinghe and Tilakaratnage Udaya Kumara, pointed out before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s court on 12 March 2017 that though the ID cards of some of the missing persons had been found in Sampath Munasinghe’s quarters and though the CID had informed courts on several occasions that Munasinghe was directly responsible for the disappearances, at no point, had the CID charged him for murder under Section 296 of the Penal Code or for an offence involving the use of firearms under Section 44 of the Firearms Ordinance. However, after nine years, the CID had charged the second and third suspects for murder under Section 296.

The first suspect Sampath Munasinghe was arrested in 2009 and released on 9.6.2010. He was charged with the lesser offence of kidnapping or abducting a person in order that such person may be murdered under Section 355 of the Penal Code which carried a maximum penalty of 20 years rigorous imprisonment unlike Section 296, which carries the death penalty. However, after the new government came into power, it was decided that an offence under Section 296 and Section 44 of the Firearms Ordinance had taken place. On 26 April 2017, the Colombo Magistrate’s Court issued an order in relation to the request that officer Sampath Munasinghe be re-arrested. The Court observed that the Attorney General’s Department had stated that since the first suspect was already on bail there was no need to re-arrest him. But the lawyer representing the victims requested that he be re-arrested.

The court observed that Munasinghe had first been arrested on10 June 2009 and granted bail on 9 June 2010. Furthermore, the court observed that the CID had informed Court that the IDs found in the first suspect’s room were those of persons who had disappeared but that it had not been ascertained who had abducted those people. The CID further informed Court that the first suspect’s involvement in the abduction of five persons in Dehiwala had not been ascertained. Furthermore, the first suspect had not been identified by the next of kin of the victims. Those were the reasons why he had been granted bail in 2010. The Court therefore rejected the call for re-arresting Sampath Munasinghe.

In the written submissions to Court made on behalf of T. I. G. Dharmadasa, a naval officer, working under Lt Commander Hettiarachchi, his lawyers stated that Dharmadasa had been called to the CID for the first time on 16 February 2015 to give a statement. He had been told by the CID that he could become a state witness if he gave a statement in a certain way. He refused to do so on three occasions. On 21 April 2017, he was named a suspect in the case.

CID guilty of perjury?

Through the B report filed on 22 February 2019, the CID informed Court that Lt Commander Prasad Hettiarachchi had abducted the victims and the then Navy Commander (Karannagoda) had been informed of the arrests. Though he had been in the know about the abductions, Karannagoda had tried to shield the culprits and pass off the blame on Sampath Munasinghe, saying that he was involved in terrorist activities and that the IDs of the victims had been found in his room. The CID told Court that if Karannagoda had exerted due diligence when he first heard about these arrests, the victims could have been saved.

Karannagoda is being investigated by the CID for murder under Section 296 of the Penal Code, under Section 356 for kidnapping or abducting a person with intent to wrongfully confine that person, under Section 388 for criminal breach of trust in dishonestly converting to his own use property entrusted to him and under Section 199 of the Penal Code for intentionally failing to give any information about an offence that he has knowledge of. From the B report of 16 March 2018 and 12 September 2018 the CID referred to officer Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi as ‘Navy Sampath’ even though the original Navy Sampath was Lt Commander Sampath Munasinghe.

In filing B report dated 12 September 2018, Inspector Nishantha Silva stated that it had been 10 years since the victims in this case had been arrested and their next of kin were in great pain of mind. He stated that as this endeavour is being made to do justice to the next of kin of the victims, the Navy and other concerned parties should extend the fullest cooperation to the investigation. In the B report dated 26 September 2018 Inspector Silva stated that the next of kin of the victims were in a state of deep sorrow and whatever the obstacles he had to face, he would not be discouraged in his endeavor to do justice to the victims’ next of kin.

On 2 January 2018, one of the key witnesses of the CID, B. M. Vijeyakanth, the former LTTE cadre turned navy intelligence operative, made a special statement before the Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne. He stated that it was officer Chrishantha Welagedara who had taken him into the Navy. One day, officer Welagedara had introduced him to two men one of whom he later learnt was Inspector Nisantha Silva. The two men had shown Vijeyakanth 12 photos and they took down his details and got him to sign a statement. As he was leaving after giving the statement, Vijeyakanth told the men that he did not know the people in the 12 photos. Once he had left, officer Welagedara accosted him and said that he had said that he did not know the people in the photos and sent him right back to tell the CID officers that he did know the people in the 12 photos.

Officer Welagedara instructed Vijeyakanth to tell the CID that he knew one Shantha and the other 11 persons and that they had been in detention together in Trincomalee. The CID officers told Vijeyakanth that he would be taken to a room and questioned and that he should answer as if he were doing it on his own volition and he should not say that he had been coached to say those things. Subsequently, Vijeyakanth was asked to come to the CID headquarters. Inspector Nishantha Silva had not been present but he had reached Vijeyakanth on the land line in the room and told him to give the statement as agreed. Vijayakanth did as instructed and left the CID headquarters.

These, in a nutshell, are the basic details of this ‘emblematic’ case which emerge from the B reports and certain other court records.

(Concluded)

By Ifham Nizam Courtesy The Island

June 27, 2019, 10:06 pm 

Dr. Kohona addressing the media. Mohan Samaranayake looks on(pic courtesy Eliya)

Sri Lanka has no defence agreement with the US and it should be cautious as regards agreements that may put it on a collision course with countries like India, China and Iran, warns former Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Palitha Kohona.

Speaking to the media in Colombo yesterday on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Acquisition and Cross-Servicing agreements (ACSA) between Sri Lanka and the United States of America, former Foreign Secretary and UN official asked why Sri Lanka has to enter into agreements which were not beneficial to it.

“What is our political leadership thinking? The US has over 100 SOFA agreements around the world?’ he asked.

He said the US military personnel could come to Sri Lanka, carry weapon and do anything and they could not be dealt with under the local laws.

Citing examples, Dr. Kohona said US forces faced a number of rape charges in the Philippines, but did not face legal action in that country.

The former top UN staffer said that parliament should have a role in discussing such agreements because they affected sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the country. Agreements of that nature should be approved by parliament by a two-thirds majority, he added.

“What I say is that we must maintain good relationships with USA, China and India but that it should not mean we should sacrifice our independence,” the former Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to UN Headquarters in New York said.

The Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) was signed first in 2007 and renewed in 2017 after being expanded with many controversial annexures.

The ACSA provides for joint military cooperation between Sri Lanka and the United States and includes logistic support, supplies, services and the use of airports and ports during “unforeseen circumstances”, Dr. Kohona said, warned that while the 2007 ACSA permitted US military vessels to enter Sri Lanka ports on a ‘one-off’ basis, the 2017 ACSA appears to be “open ended”.

Senior Journalist and former UN official Mohan Samaranayake said that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was the only winner who wanted to promote imperialism and danced to the tune of Western powers.

Citing examples, he said that PM Wickremesinghe was the only leader in the developing world who justified the US invasion of Iraq.

He stressed that Sri Lanka could not antagonise any country but at the same time could not give in to anyone.

Courtesy The Island

The interrogation of a hardcore National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) leader recently extradited from Saudi Arabia has led to the single biggest detection of explosives belonging to the now proscribed organisation.

The police identified the suspect as Hayathu Mohammadu Ahamed Milhan, a close associate of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of Easter Sunday bombing campaign. Zahran triggered a suicide blast at luxury Shangri-la hotel.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday recovered 1,000 detonators, over 300 gelignite sticks, eight liters of liquid gelignite, detonator code and nearly 500 rounds of T-56 ammunition buried at Ollikulam in the Kattankudy police area.

Police headquarters spokesperson attorney-at-law Ruwan Gunasekera told The Island last night that the CID had taken Milhan to Ollikulam, where the suspect revealed the buried items.

Milhan was among five terrorist suspects deported from Saudi Arabia on June 14 following negotiations between the two governments.

They have left the country before the Easter Sunday attacks.

SP Gunasekera earlier in the day told The Island that Milhan had been involved in the first major terrorist attack carried out by the group on Nov 30, 2018 at Vavnativu, Batticaloa, where NTJ activists killed two police officers.

The NTJ had subsequently damaged several Buddha statues on Dec 22 and 26, 2018 in the Mawanella police area, followed by an attempt to kill Mohamed Rasik Mohamed Naslim at Danagame, Mawanella on March 09, 2019, controlled explosion of a motorcycle at Kattankudy on April 16 and Easter Sunday carnage on April 21, 2019, SP Gunasekera said.

SP Gunasekera said that two brothers responsible for the destruction of Buddha statues had been arrested in the Gampola police area following Easter Sunday attacks. The police official identified them as residents of Delgahagoda, Mawanella. Responding to another query, SP Gunasekera said that the CID had arrested Abo Hanifa Mohamed Mufees, 26, involved with the brothers wanted over destruction of Buddha statues during a raid on Lactos estate in the Puttalam area on January 16, 2019. In addition to Mufees, the CID arrested three others namely Amir Hamza Mohamed Hamaz (25), Mohamed Nafeez Mohammed Navith (20) and Mohamed Nafeez Mohamed Nafrid.

According to SP Gunasekera, the detection made in Kattankudy yesterday was the biggest one since the recovery of NTJ hardware made in Lactos estate where 99 detonators were among the items found.

Of those arrested from Lactos estate, two persons, Mohamed Nafeez Mohammed Navith and Mohamed Nafeez Mohamed Nafrid, were produced before Mawanella Magistrate on April 10, 2019. According to SP Gunasekera, the suspects in terms of the bail conditions, reported to CID on April 27, May 25 and were scheduled to report again tomorrow (29).

By Imtiaz Thaha/Daily FT Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Easter Sunday seemed to be another peaceful day in Sri Lanka. Then suddenly there was pandemonium as five bombs exploded and a carefully-planned ISIS-oriented bombing resulted in nearly 300 lives being lost to the deadly bombs with scores of people injured. The ISIS had struck in Sri Lanka this time.

The killers were suicide bombers and of Sri Lankan ethnicity. In a matter of hours, the authorities identified the killers as Sri Lankan Muslims belonging to the National Thawheed Jamaat. Suddenly the Sri Lankan Muslims who were hitherto a very peaceful people were now looked upon as merciless killers. Every Muslim was now a suspect and was fearful of communal backlash and riots. A very scary time for them as the majority community looked at them with suspicion and hatred.

How did the Muslims who were a peaceful people get entangled in this mess? They were less than 10% of the population and could be victimised and targeted so very easily. The mobs were screaming for blood. The Government imposed a curfew to contain the situation. It was however a Christian Cardinal who addressed the nation on mainstream media who saved the day and brought about, at least a temporary stop to the mobs running riot. It was his flock that had paid the price. The dead were mostly Christians and foreigners.

Sadly, none of the Muslim politicians or even the President or the Prime Minister or the Cabinet Ministers were able to appease the mobs so that they wouldn’t attack and loot the Muslims. This was however successfully accomplished by the Cardinal with his clever approach.

It would take time for the people and mainly the majority race to find out that these killers were not Muslims who followed Islam, but a group known as the Wahhabis or Salafis with their peculiar brand of interpreting Islam. In this article I shall try to show that the Muslims have nothing to do with Wahhabism, that Wahhabism is not Islam. Islam is against and has always been against Wahhabism.

Islam is a tolerant religion and Wahhabism seeks to terrorise. Islam does not compel others to embrace it. Wahhabism destroys all those opposed to it. Islam seeks to live a good life and Wahhabism seeks to restrict it. Islam respects other religions while the Wahhabis seek the destruction of all ideologies other than theirs. Islam seeks beauty and culture, but the Wahhabis want to destroy all culture, art and civilisation. I can go on and on about the difference in ideologies but suffice it shall be for now.

Islam encourages all faiths to intermingle and integrate among themselves. Islam teaches respect and love between all communities and religions. Islam encourages peace and advancement. Wahhabism is just the opposite of this. The Wahhabis do not tolerate anyone belonging to another faith and treat them like enemies.

My purpose in writing this article is to be able to differentiate between Islam and Wahhabism and to deal with each as they deserve. Let’s start with the very roots and see how far this cancer has eaten into society. Wahhabism is trying to pervert Islam to bring disrepute to it. They want Islam to be hated and made into a terrorist belief so that their political agendas are met. Let’s trace their beginnings and look into their beliefs and ideology in order to understand their motives and plan.

The fanatic – The roots of present-day Wahhabism

It all began with Ibn Taymiyyah. The Wahhabis get their ideology from him. They refer to Ibn Taymiyyah as Sheikh Ul Islam. His full name was Ahmad Ibn Abdul Halim Ibn Abdul Salam Ibn Taymiyyah, he was born in 1263 in Harran, Turkey about 600 years after the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal). He died in 1328, aged 65 in Damascus, Syria. This was during the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, which reached great heights due to Islam, as it carried the banner of Islam during this time and which was officially established in 1299. Eturgul and his son Othman, the founders of the Ottoman Empire, lived during his time.

Ibn Taymiyyah was a person who liked to be different and was known for his peculiar and alien beliefs. He was disliked by the mainstream scholars of his time for trying to forge a new ideology that was opposed to the accepted views on Islam, well founded by a rich heritage of Scholars.

We are told that all the Sunni Scholars (the two main divisions in Islam were the Sunnis and Shiites) of that time signed a document that he was preaching harmful and destructive practices and requested that he be put to death. He was accused of spoiling the faith of the Muslims of the time and corrupting Islam. All the Four Schools (Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki and Hanbali Schools of Jurisprudence) of Thought at that time opposed him.

Although the death sentence was not carried out by the Governor of Damascus, Ibn Taymiyyah was jailed for life. He miserably failed to establish his destructive and hate ridden School of Thought and it failed in totality. It was observed that this man was a fanatic and his teachings included intolerance and violence and many were the books written by scholars from both Damascus and Egypt refuting these teachings of his. Thankfully it died a natural death during his time.

Taking advantage of the teachings of a fanatic

Muhammad Ibn al Abdul Wahhab was born In Najd in Arabia and now Saudi Arabia in the year 1703, which was about 375 years after the death of Ibn Taymiyyah. He was the one who succeeded in bringing Ibn Taymiyyah’s teachings to the fore and was highly successful in most of the Arab countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Although the average Wahhabi was trying to say that these teachings were Islam, the name Wahhabism stuck and is still used on those who follow these teachings much to the chagrin of the Wahhabis. There are hardly many differences between what is known as Wahhabi and Salafi. The enemies of Wahhabism used this term in a derogatory sense. So, the Wahhabis coined another name for themselves and called themselves Salafis. The British and Ibn Saud both needed Wahhabism to fulfil their political agendas. Let us shed some light on this.

The British factor

The Ottoman Empire had reached great heights, the Europeans were fighting the Ottoman Empire. The Crusades had happened, and Europe was wary of the Muslims. It was in short, a Christian and Muslim war for supremacy. The British Empire wanted to weaken and destroy the Ottoman Empire, they were always looking for ways and means to divide the Muslims so that they could achieve victory over them. It was during these times that the British made a plan to send in many spies to Turkey, the home of the Ottoman Empire. They planned a strategy to find out the weakest spot in the Ottoman Empire. They sent their spies in.

Ironically, my source is from one of the spies who made a confession by the name of Hempher. In his Confessions of a British Spy, he detailed that the British planned to gather information and use this information to destroy the Ottoman Empire. The spies found that each Muslim was equal in faith, to one of the Christian priests and that Islam was deeply lodged in their hearts and that their faith was very strong. The spies also reported, to weaken the faith of these Muslims; it would be necessary to plan out a strategy that would destroy Islam from within. With this purpose in mind the spies worked tirelessly to find a way to divide the Muslims. This spy, who I have mentioned above had the good fortune to meet with Muhammad ibn al Abdul Wahhab. In his estimation this scholar was all that they had been looking for.

Abdul Wahhab was a person with a rude disposition and did not have any respect for his peers or for the past scholars who were the Shining Stars of Islam. He looked down on Imam Abu Hanifa, (one of the Imams of the four Islamic Schools of Thought) and the other great Imams of the Islamic Schools of Thought. He was always trying to find fault with them and show that he was superior in intellect to these great religious personalities. He was greedy and was very ambitious. Hempher understood that he appeared to be the ideal tool with which he could contaminate Islam and to this end he began to work relentlessly.

Very soon he had befriended Abdul Wahhab and won his confidence. He begun to lay his trap. He even used two women named Saffiya and Asiya to have sexual relationships with Abdul Wahhab on a temporary marriage basis, which was anyway against Islam. From outside Hempher worked on him and from inside, from the bedrooms, the ladies got at him. The two ladies mentioned here according to Hempher were also funded by the espionage ring.

Slowly, they could see Abdul Wahhab walking into their trap. Because of his nature, Abdul Wahhab was attracted to fanaticism, intolerance and violence. This was the way of Ibn Taymiyyah as explained above. So, he made use of the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah to corrupt the teachings of Islam. He did this in a systematic and forceful manner and created an ideology which was to later be called by the name of ‘Wahhabism’. I would like to give the reference to the book below so that the readers may have access to the details of the British plan. The pdf is available to be downloaded free of charge below:

The Ibn Saud connection

During this time there was a person called Abdul-Aziz Ibn Abdur-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Al Saud. He was ambitious and was looking for a way to establish his power in Arabia. The British helped him with the most sophisticated arms at that time to win over and conquer the others and to form a Kingdom. They introduced into these regions, the Wahhabi ideology, now propounded by Abdul Wahhab, which they embraced as it also suited their purpose.

To rule in Arabia, and particularly to have the rights over Mecca and Medina, the two most holy places of Islam, it was necessary that the rulers be of the family of The Prophet (Sal) or the Hashemites (those who belong to the tribe of the Prophet known as the tribe of Banu Hashim). Ibn Saud did not fall into this category, so he had to change the ways of the thinking of the populous, so that his rule could be legitimised. Wahhabism gave them that opening.

The Prophet’s (Sal) family was not supposed to be specially respected in accordance with the Wahhabi teachings, as also the earlier Scholars and Saints too were not respected by Wahhabism. Wahhabism believed that personalities in Islam should not be looked up to and only Allah alone should be worshipped. So, this creed suited Ibn Saud to establish his Kingdom. The British got Ibn Saud and Abdul Wahhab into an alliance with each other, where the political backing would be given to Wahhabism by Ibn Saud and Wahhabism would be the official religion of Ibn Saud’s Kingdom, thereby serving both their purposes.

The New World Encyclopaedia summarises the Ibn Saud connection in the following words which gives us a greater insight into the Wahhabi conquest, expansion and rule in Arabia:

In 1744, Ibn Abdul Wahhab sought refuge in the village of Dariyah. This district was ruled by the rebel Muhammad ibn Saud and his family, Al Saud, which was responsible for organised banditry within Najd. The family ruled Dariyah according to its own whims and the village was a place of lawlessness when Abdul Wahhab settled there. In 1747, he made a power-sharing agreement with the family; Abdul Wahhab would become Dariyah’s religious authority, while the Al Saud family would be responsible for the village’s political leadership.

The Al Saud family also benefited from the pact, as the Wahhabi movement and its extreme religious fervor helped to legitimise their rule. The fusion of religious and political control would come to represent the modern Saudi Arabia, as well as mark the break between the Islam of the past, in which traditional Muslim scholars focused on inward contemplation as opposed to focusing on gaining global and political power.

With this new power arrangement in place, Abdul Wahhab and his followers urged a ‘jihad,’ or ‘The Struggle’ to promote the faith, against other Muslims, and thus, the Wahhabis began a blood-soaked campaign for expansion and domination.

Ibn Abdul Wahhab’s views were opposed to the mainstream Muslim scholars of Mecca and Medina of that time. For example, he called intermediation of Muhammad (Sal) an act of polytheism. Ibn Abdul Wahhab went so far as to declare jihad against Muslims who practised so-called acts of polytheism. By 1788, the Wahhab- Saud alliance controlled most of the Arabian Peninsula.

In 1801, the Wahhabis began a campaign to gain control over the two holy cities of Islam. They raided Mecca and Medina and stole holy books, works of art, and other gifts the city had accumulated over the last thousand years. While they controlled the Two Holy Places, they imposed Wahhabism upon the populace, destroyed shrines and cemeteries, closed off the entrances to the holy city, to Ottoman pilgrims, barred pilgrims from performing Hajj and murdered respected citizens in both holy cities.

Through the 1820s to the 1860s, the Wahhabis launched attacks upon the Ottoman Empire, urged on by Great Britain, which was eager to see the collapse of the Turkish Empire and the distribution of its overseas possessions.

The Wahhabis’ power grew and shrank by turns throughout the century, until in 1901, the latest representative of the Al Saud and Wahhabi alliance decided to try and re-seize control over the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina. Ibn Saud journeyed to Riyadh, where he murdered the city’s ruler and took over control of the country. Over the next twenty-five years, he went on to unify the Arabian Peninsula through force. Wahhabism was the only official faith sanctioned in the state that would come to be formed there. To this day, no other religious establishment is allowed in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Petro-dollars that helped spread Wahhabism to the world

Even though this alliance was made, and both continued successfully and captured various parts of Arabia, and destroyed culture and important shrines of Saints, Sahabas (Companions of Prophet Muhammad, Sal) and even of Prophets, Wahhabism still lacked global acceptance. History records the blood thirsty deeds of the Wahhabis during this time, with many massacres and gruesome deeds accomplished by them and the cruelty perpetrated on the innocent Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

This wasn’t sufficient to get Wahhabism on the map. Even Mecca and Medina were ransacked and thousands were killed. The Wahhabis took over the two most holy places of Islam. They thus became the custodians of Islam in the eyes of the world. But still Wahhabism as such was not spread till after the Arabs became super rich due to the discovery of oil. Once the petro dollars came in, they had all the wealth in the world to propagate this, harsh, cruel and intolerant ideology of Wahhabism to the world, under the guise of propagating true Islam.

The third world countries were especially targeted and large sums of money was spent in spreading Wahhabism to these lands. In 1970 and the period after, the Wahhabis gained a lot of ground by bribing poor countries and using influential individuals in those countries to establish their brand of Islam in the world.

Madrassas or religious schools were funded in these countries where a lot of money was pumped in to educate the children of many countries to Wahhabi doctrines and brainwash their minds into thinking that this was true Islam. Free Wahhabi doctrine books were freely distributed which then slowly became the syllabus of Islamic education in these countries.

Today terrorism and ISIS oriented attacks are a direct result of these teachings and they have nothing to do whatsoever with Islam. Many Muslims were taken in by these teachings and began to think that Islam was what Wahhabism taught. Even the world at large failed to understand that Islam was not Wahhabism, the Wahhabis relentlessly pursued their goal of corrupting and perverting Islam by making it change into the interpretation of Islam, given by Abdul Wahhab and Ibn Taymiyyah.

It is a sad story of how a most peaceful and tolerant Islam was changed to becoming known as a highly intolerant and cruel religion. Bombs begun exploding all over the world and thousands died. Suicide bombers carried out these attacks and the blame was put on the Muslims and on Islam. Islam being the peaceful religion it was, became known as terrorism and all the while it was Wahhabism that was being projected and implemented and not Islam, the Religion of Peace.

This has reached to such alarming proportions that people are fearful of being in the presence of a Muslim as they associate Muslims to be violent terrorists waiting to ignite explosives and bombs. This has caused fear which is now known and called as Islamophobia.

Glorious era of Islamic civilisation and dark doctrine of Wahhabism compared

I give below a few thoughts about the Islamic world given in an article entitled ‘The Islamic world in the middle ages’ (https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zx9xsbk/revision/1):

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Muslim world was more advanced and more civilised than Christian Western Europe, which learned a huge amount from its neighbour.

The ‘Islamic world’ was not a single state in the Middle Ages, but the different countries which formed it, had many things in common.

This fact is hidden from the world today and only very few know about the great Islamic civilisation that was known as the Golden Era.

It was created by the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. From the 11th to the 16th centuries many thousands of Turks and Mongols migrated across the vast plains of Central Asia into the Middle East. They also adopted Islam. It stretched from India to Spain. Muslim traders travelled to places as far apart as the Sahara, South Africa, China, Scandinavia and Russia. Muslims traded high-quality goods such as silk, carpets, ivory and spices.

Knowledge of science and medicine in the Islamic world was far more sophisticated than in Western Europe. Cordoba in Muslim Spain was a city of over half a million inhabitants with street lighting and running water. At the same time 10,000 Londoners lived in timber-framed houses and used the river as their sewer.

Muslims were going to beauty parlours, using deodorants and drinking from glasses, at a time when English books of behaviour were still telling pageboys not to pick their noses over their food, spit on the table or throw uneaten food onto the floor.”

The extract quoted above is a short synopsis of how glorious the Islamic world was before the advent of Wahhabism. Many have been the books written on the Golden Era of Islamic civilisation and subsequent Islamic History, extolling the greatness and glory of Islam and its tolerance of other faiths. The world respected the Muslims and its culture.

This glorious period resulted in cultural monuments and architecture reaching to great heights. The romance of the Taj Mahal, the fascinating Arabian Nights, the wonder of Topkapi, and the Great Mosque Architectural Constructions in Cordoba, to mention just a few, all bear witness to this magnificent civilisation.

In contrast today, Wahhabism has cast a shadow of death, mayhem, mass murder, torture, cruelty, genocide, and terrorism over the world. Suicide bombers with no mercy in their hearts have been let loose to go on a rampage, killing the innocents. The world is being terrorised and held to ransom.

The Wahhabis vow that only they shall rule according to their ideology and the rest have to be killed or subjugated. They believe that they should kill the Christians, the Jews, all Non-Muslims like the Hindus and the Buddhists and even other Muslims who do not subscribe to their horrendous beliefs. This is not Islam, or will it ever be Islam. Islam means peace, the very opposite of this. Islam is identified with terrorism today. This is not Islam. Islam has ceased to be Islam and Wahhabism has replaced it.

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

The drama caused by Muslim politicians, since the decision to leave their Ministerial posts, has taken a new twist. Out of the nine Muslim politicians, who resigned in a huff, two have returned to their posts; almost from the backdoor. 

Kabir Hashim’s and Abdul Haleem’s decisions have caused a rift among the group and in the process they let the cat out of the bag, as to the real reason for this group to take the stand it did when they resigned from their Ministries.

After the collective decision to leave their posts, they held a press conference to explain the reasons to the Sri Lankan public. They told us that it was to facilitate the ongoing investigations into the Easter Sunday massacres, that they were leaving their posts. Even at the time this statement drew much scepticism, for if it was indeed the case, they would have left the Yahapalana Government altogether.

Instead, not only did they opt to stay in Government and to support the Government,  Rauff Hakeem continued to sit in the Presidential Select Committee appointed to probe into the 21/4 tragedy. From the aggressive manner he pursued the Government Circular, regarding the dress code for Government servants; the role he plays in the panel is obvious. Furthermore, despite their pledge to sit as backbenchers, they dominate the front, on flimsy excuses. Instead of revoking their Parliamentary privileges that they were no longer entitled to, as mere Members of Parliament, their security had been enhanced.

Favouritism    

These decisions taken by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya are highly questionable indeed and did raise the hackles of Parliamentarians like Udaya Gammanpila. The reason given to justify a front bench seat for Bathiudeen, is applicable to Gammanpila as well. However, Gammapila who was in the Joint Opposition since 2015, and now in the Opposition since the beginning of this year, has been discriminated by the Speaker and forced to sit as a backbencher, despite being the leader of a political Party, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya. 

 While the official reason for the Muslim politicians to quit was to facilitate the 21/4 investigations, unofficially, another reason was circulated among the public. Apparently, when Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Western Province Governor Azath Salley resigned, from their posts, on the request of President Maithripala Sirisena, pressure for Rishad Bathiudeen mounted. However, apparently he was obstinate not to follow suit. After much persuasion he had agreed, if all resigns. Therefore, fearing a backlash against the ordinary Muslims by non-Muslim communities, the other eight Muslim politicians opted to resign, en masse, ensuring that Bathiudeen too resigned.

Rathana Thera factor

This might have been palatable had it not been for the sequence of events. Venerable Rathana Thera began a fast-unto-death campaign to pressurise Bathiudeen to leave the Government. Interestingly, Rathana Thera’s campaign came in the backdrop of the Opposition’s call for a No-Confidence Motion against Bathiudeen. This NCM comprised a ten item charge sheet that links Minister Bathiudeen with the terrorists responsible for 21/4.

In the most unexpected manner Rathana Thera’s campaign gained traction. The non-Muslim communities united in this campaign to oust Bathiudeen from the Government. For Rathana Thera this was an incredible rejuvenation from the political wilderness he was stumbling about after the Yahapalana Government he helped to instal proved to be an absolute disaster. However, the reason for the campaign to draw the support, it did, was not because of Rathana Thera but because the animosity Sri Lankans have against Bathiudeen.

Until Rathana Thera took the initiative he was rendered a nonentity in the political arena. By the third day of the fast, however, the Thera’s well-being had become a national concern and even His Eminence Ranjith Cardinal Malcolm visited the fasting monk whose strength was fast deteriorating. By the time Hizbullah and Salley resigned Rathana Thera was almost comatose, but had regained some of his former glory. That may be the reason for the Venerable Thera to quit his campaign, without holding on until Bathiudeen too followed suit.

Nine Ministers

The group of nine Muslim politicians quit their Ministerial posts (but not the Government) after Rathana Thera stopped the campaign and while he was recuperating in hospital. Though they called a press conference and announced their resignation, they had not handed over their resignations even by the time Rathana Thera had left the hospital.

The No-Confidence Motion that was brought by the Opposition was against Minister Bathiudeen. However, as he is no longer a Minister of the Yahapalana Government, this NCM too went into abeyance. Despite Bathiudeen’s continued presence in the Government, Rathana Thera too had lost interest in him and was off to other ventures like storming into the controversial university that is under construction in the East conveniently with a Media crew on tow. However, in the wake of Hashim and Haleem retaking their Ministries their real reason for resigning in the first place was unwittingly revealed. This duo’s return to their posts was obviously done without the knowledge or consent of the other seven Muslim politicians, as this has come as a shock for the rest of the group. It is in their shock that they revealed that it was their collective decision not to return to their Ministries unless Bathiudeen was also reappointed. Therefore, this duo returning to their Ministries without Bathiudeen and the rest is being seen, by the rest of the group, as an act of betrayal.

Bathiudeen factor

If the collective decision was not to accept Ministerial posts unless and until Bathiudeen is also reappointed, then the decision to leave in the first place was obviously to protect Bathiudeen. They were protesting as a group against the call for Bathiudeen’s removal from Government.

It is indeed a pity that these politicians cannot keep track of their own falsehoods. When they thus expose themselves it is their supporters who are left with egg on their faces. Bathiudeen being protected by other Muslim politicians, just because they share the same faith, is a racist act and must be condemned unreservedly. Their collective failure to understand the gravity of the tragedy that befell nearly a thousand Sri Lankan citizens, in just one day within the space of an hour or so, is almost criminal. The explosive material used by Zaharan and his clan causes far more serious burns than the C4 used by the LTTE. Even as this is being written, there are many children still under treatment for their burn injuries. This is only a pinch of the tragic stories that 21/4 caused.

Ranil upset

Yet, most interestingly, it is not only the seven Muslim politicians, still in the group, that has taken exception to this duo’s return to their Ministries. It had riled Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well, as he had alleged that this group took the collective decision after consulting him. However, he had been kept totally in the dark when the two Parliamentarians decided to return to their Ministries. Thus, he obviously finds the decision of this duo most unethical.

The fact that these two had gone behind his back, to his arch enemy Maithripala Sirisena, to be reappointed, had hit Wickremesinghe hard. He had lashed out, at a UNP Working Committee meeting that he as the Prime Minister must consent to the appointment of any Minister, for Sirisena as President to appoint. So, naturally, he is not very happy that this ‘vital’ step had been ignored.  

Most unfortunately, he too had unwittingly exposed his role in this contentious matter. It is obvious from his remarks that he too had played a decisive part in divisive politics to gain block votes at the expense of national security and unity. 

It is indeed incredible the despicable lengths some of our politicians go to, just to get vote blocks, to retain the power base for themselves. It is time we realise, the sheer evilness of our current politicians and that Sri Lanka is in dire need of  a true national leader who has no time for politics or to play this disgusting number game.

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today

Since 1977, Sri Lanka has been following neo-liberal economic policies uninterruptedly. The change of Government has had no major impact on them. A forty-year period is long enough to assess the correctness of economic policies. 

During this four decade period (1977-2019), total production as measured by Gross National Product (GNP) has increased substantially and as a result, per capita income has reached US dollar 4,000 mark. So Sri Lanka has moved from poor country category to lower middle income category. One may argue that this is a remarkable achievement. Many families have either a motor bike or a small car. Almost everyone has a mobile phone. Poverty in the traditional sense is not visible.

However, as we all are aware averages do not tell the entire story and are oftentimes misleading. Let us have an example. If the annual per capita income is US$ 4,000, the average annual income of a four-member family is US$ 16,000, approximately, Rs 2,848,000. So the monthly income of the family is approximately Rs 237,000. According to Income and Expenditure Survey, the monthly income of an average four-member-family is much lower, about Rs 65,000. A substantial number of families receive a monthly income lower than Rs 65,000. So, family indebtedness has increased. The number of hours that a person should work just for survival has increased from the accepted norm of eight hours a day. Nutrition level of the population has lowered. People are generally complaining as they are not happy with their lives. The quality of nature – land, water and sea – has declined. Indebtedness has so far led to 179 suicides. So what looks hunky dory at surface level does not tell the story in its totality.  

Questions to be Asked

Are we allowed to continue with these neo-liberal policies? Will the continuation of these policies take us out of the present impasse? It is clear that the major contenders for power – United National Party-led coalition and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna-led coalition – want to continue with the present economic policies backed by the trident – International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. Do these policies represent the interests and aspirations of the lower rung of the Sri Lanka society? No, on the contrary, they served the local and international rich elites. If we look at economic development from the perspective of the workers, peasants, fisherfolks, marginalised people and the like, we have to find an alternative. Alternatives emerge from praxis. Many in the peoples’ movement are still suffering from TINA syndrome. Some tend to think that alternatives exist, but they are not practical in the present international context. So first we should escape from this trap and start to believe that realistic alternatives exist and fighting for them makes them practical.

Alternatives that are Possible

The first and foremost we should move away from the system of exchange value production. In place of the production of exchange value, the country must move to a system of use value production. The most important use values include food, clothes, shelter, transport, health goods, education, culture products and entertainment.

1. Food and beverages: In order to have food autonomy, we need in sufficient quantities rice, red lentils, vegetables, onion, fruits, spices and oil and fish and meat products. Out of this list, except red lentils and garlic, all other items may be locally produced organically.

2. For a person to wear clean, smart and aesthetically designed clothes and garments may be produced locally, may be with some imported raw materials and machines. In this sector we may export some products.

3. Every family should be ensured decent housing with water and electricity. Sri Lanka may move gradually to non-fossil energy production.

4. A quick, comfortable, regular and reasonably priced public transport can reduce fossil fuel imports and consumption. People have the right to keep a private vehicle if they are ready to bear its operating cost.

5. Rigorous implementation of Senaka Bibile proposals and public hospital and health-care system with some essential imports may contribute to provide a better health system. As far as this is concerned mere improvement of the public health system would be adequate.

6. There has been a breakdown of our education system in the last 40 years. Education system should be free, less differentiated and holistic. It should be catered to critical thinking and technical and professional training.

7. Publicly-funded programme of culture production would help to create a new person”. Culture products should be available at a reasonable price.

8. People need like food, clothes and shelter entertainment. So maximum working hours should not exceed eight hours a day. Cheap hotels, vacation centres should be made available.

9. Imports: Some imports are necessary and unavoidable. Imports should be allowed classifying them into three categories. (1) No import duty (2) 10-100 per cent import duty (3) more than 100 per cent duty.

Secondly, we propose to gradually move away from the system of capital to a system beyond capital”. Capital is above all a social relation that situates machines, instruments and money in a dominant position above and over living labour. Placing capital goods such as computers, machines, and other instruments in the process of use value production in itself reduces their position in the labour process. Instruments are being in use from time immemorial. Nonetheless, under the present system, it is machines and instruments that control us in the process of production determining the speed and rhythm of work. In short it is not the fisherman who controls the fishing rod, but the fishing rod starts controlling the fisherman.  

Thirdly, the process of production is controlled and steered by the associated producers. This may be done through multiple ownership and management systems, such as small ownership, cooperatives, producer collectives, State and so on. There have been many examples for successful collective ownership and management all over the world even under the constant threat of capital.

Fourthly, the present system kills our environment, so we propose the protection and improvement of our eco-system which is under serious threat by a system seeking profit. Environment has been made subservient to capital accumulation process. Organic farming, non-or reduced fossil fuel-based energy production, recycling and reusing would be the solution for serious threat to humanity and to existence of all life forms.

 This policy goes with the very advice given by Arhat Mahinda to King Devanampiya Tissa. Arhat Mahinda emphatically warned the king that he (the ruler) was not an owner of the land; he was a just guardian so that it is his duty to protect the land and its vegetation. What Marx had informed about the environment is exactly an improvement of what Arhat Mahinda said. Marx writes: Even a whole society, a nation or even all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the globe. They are only its possessors, its usufructuaries, and like boni patres familias, they must hand it down to succeeding generations in an improved condition.”

Adopting these four principles, we offer a new definition for economic development. Sri Lanka has been seeking to reach US$ 100 billion level of total production. We argue that all Sri Lankans can be given a better living standard with less than US$ 100 billion GNP. According to Income and Expenditure Survey an average family with four members needs a monthly income of about Rs 55,000 to have a reasonable living. Suppose a new economic system gives an opportunity for an average family to get Rs 100,000 a month the annual income should be Rs 1,200,000. Assuming that there are 9 million family units in the country, the country needs an economy with total GNP, less than US$ 70 billion. So each family with the new economic system gets a better standard of living and a better quality of life. Not only that we offer another dimension to economic development. We not only maintain the existing ecological balance, we leave an improved environment for next generation.

Capital will definitely resist this economic programme. Hence it needs new social forces that benefits from it to struggle for the new system.  

The writer is a retired teacher of political economy.

E-mail: sumane_l@yahoo.com

 02:00 AM Jun 28 2019

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Building a stronger sense of national identity holds the key to achieving social cohesion, true reconciliation and overall development in our island nation. We need to be united behind the Sinhala Buddhist norms and values that historically underly our nation.

Genuine Sri Lankan patriots, should not under any circumstances let our nation’s wholesome Buddhist cultural inheritance be undermined and eroded away by extremist Muslim religious and cultural trends that are totally incompatible with the enviable Buddhist social values that form the basis of life of this historic Sinhala Buddhist island nation of ours. As patriotic citizens of this nation, we are duty-bound to work towards transforming and changing whatever harmful and undesirable trends evident in our motherland. It is important that we firmly reinforce Buddhist principles that constitute the basis of the national culture of Sri Lanka.

Muslim communalism and religious extremism are not in-keeping with Buddhist norms and principles.  Attempting to implant norms and behavior patterns of Muslim countries aimed at being exclusive and different to the long established social and cultural norms of our nation has a strong and highly undesirable divisive effect on our society.

Buddhist leadership in our country, especially the traditional custodians of our nation’s cultural and values – our Bhikkhus, are duty-bound to prevent attempts by anyone to undermine the long-established Buddhist socio-cultural norms of our nation. They should necessarily be in the forefront to confront and contain in a legitimate manner, any extremist and divisive trends on the part of Muslims or any non-indigenous community who have been accommodated in our nation. It is clear from events in the recent past, that in general, separatism, divisiveness and terrorism appear to dominate the thoughts of the minority communities – the Muslims and Tamils who have made Sri Lanka their home. This attitude inevitably prevents them from developing a sense of belonging to the nation and cultivating better relationships with the mainstream community. This parochial attitude prevents extremist elements from appreciating the worthy principles and values that characterize the Sri Lankan nation, and that give this nation its identity as a peace-loving unique nation in the world.

The development path of our country needs to be built from the grassroots, based on its Buddhist cultural foundation. It should involve the development of strong local economies in which producer-consumer links are shortened and cultural values are respected and peaceful coexistence in harmony with the environment and all diverse people are assured.

Tissa Jananayake

Best Explanation

මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාව  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ

අද (26* පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වු මන්තී‍්‍රවරුන්
x පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර සී.බී රත්නායක මහතා.
x පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර රෝහිත අබේගුනවර්ධන මහතා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර සී.බී රත්නායක මහතා.
මේ රටේ අද දෛනික ව විවිධ ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් වෙනවා. මේ වෙලාවේ සුන්දර වචන රටට අසුන්දර කියමන් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් වෙනවා. දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවේ මග මගපෙන්වීම මත රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානව රට අරාජික කරන්න, මේ රටේ ප‍්‍රශ්න වැඩි කරන්න,හදනවා. වෙනම රාජ්‍යයන් ගැන කතා කරපු අය දැන් ආගම්වාදය ඇති කරන්න උත්සාහවා. අද පුවත් පතක පාක්‍යසෝති සරවනමුත්තු ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කරලා තිබුණා අස්ගිරිය මහා නායක ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගත යුතු බවට. ඔහු මුලින් බලන්න ඕනේ ඔහුගේ ආචාර්ය පදවිය ගත්තේ කොහොමද කියලා. ඒ ආචාර්ය පදවිය ඉස්සරහට දමාගෙන රටක් අරාජික කරන්න සූදානම් වෙන අතරතුර ආගමික නායකයින් හැටියට අපේ උත්තරීතර සියම් නිකායේ අස්ගිරි පාර්ශ්වයේ මහා නායක ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේට ඇඟිල්ල දික් කරන්න කරන්න තරම් කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් බලයක් ඔහුට ආවේ කොහොමද. කවුරු නිසා ද කියන එක ප‍්‍රශ්නයක්. රටක ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබඳ තහවුරු කරන්න බැරි රාජ්‍යයක් තුළ ඔවුන්ගේ බලය තහවුරු කරගැනීම සඳහා අනිත් ජාතීන්ගේ ඡුන්ද ටික ඩැහැ ගන්න ඕන කම නිසාම ඒ අය මුනිවත රකිනවා.මේ වගේ වෙලාවල්වල අමනෝඥයො විවිධ ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කරන්න සූදානම් වෙනවා. ”මතක තියාගනින් පාක්‍යසෝති සරවනමුත්තු මේ රට බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයක් ආගමික නායකයින්ට ඇඟිල්ල දික් කරන්න උඹට අයිතියක් නැහැ. අපි උඹේ වහලූ නෙවෙයි.” නමුත් අපි පැහැදිලිව ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන්න ඕන අස්ගිරිය මහා නායක හිමිපාණන්ට කරපු ප‍්‍රකාශය ඉතා ඉක්මනින් අයින්කරගන්න සූදානම් වෙන්න කියලා. එසේ නොවෙන්නේ නම් දිගින් දිගටම වැරදි ආකාර ප‍්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කරන්න සූදානම් වෙන්නේ නම්, රට එක පෙළට පෙළ ගස්සන්න අපි සූදානම්. අපි මොන හිරගෙවල් වල දැම්මත් මොන චෝදනා අපිට කරත් මේක අපි ප‍්‍රකාශ කරන්න අවශ්‍යමයි.” පාක්‍යසෝති සරවනමුත්තු උඹ හිතේ තියා ගනින් අති උතුම් කාදින තුමා බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය තුළින් බෞද්ධ ආගම තුළින් කොයි විදිය හැදියාවක් පැහැදිලි කරනවද කියන එක” උන්වහන්සේගෙන් මේ පිළිබඳව අවබෝධ කරගන්න ඕන. මේය අවබෝධ නොකරගෙන මේ ආකාරයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීම තුච්ඡුයි නින්දිතයි කියන එක පැහැදිලි කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි. ලෝක පූජිත ආගමික නායකයෙක් විදිහට කාදිනල් උන්වහන්සෙ ්මේ විදියට බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය ගැන කතා කරනකොට කොහෙවත් නැති කුලියට ආචාර්ය පදවි ගත්ත උදවිය රට අරාජික කරන්න කටයුතු කරනවා. එදා ඉඳලම ධනේශ්වර පන්තියේ මුදල් වලට කෑගහන අය මේ ආකාරයෙන් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වීම පිලිබදව අපි කනගාටුවට පත් වෙනවා. සුළු ජාතීන් වන කතෝලික ආගම අදහන ඉස්ලාම් ආගම අදහන හින්දු ආගම අදහන මගේ සහෝදර මිත‍්‍රවරුන් අසාධාරණයක් කරනවා කියලා ඒකෙන් ගම්‍ය වෙන්නේ නැහැ. මේ කාරණය අපි තරයේ හෙලා දකිනවා. මේක වහාම ඉල්ලා අස්කර ගත යුතුයි. මේ රටේ ජීවත්වන මිනිසුන් හැටියට මේ රටේ සමස්ත ජනතාවගෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලනවා. ඒ වගේම තරුණ තරුණයින්ගෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලනවා මේ අයට පාඩමක් උගන්නන්න අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සකස් කරගැනීමට එක්වෙන්න කියලා. මේ කාරණයේ දී විවිධාකාර ක‍්‍රියාකාරකම් විවිධාකාර කතා කියන්න සූදානම් කරලා තියෙනවා. මේ වෙලාවෙදි ජාතිවාදය ආගම්වාදය ඉස්මතු කරගනිමින් මේ රටේ බලය තහවුරු කරගැනීමට ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරගෙන යනවා. එදා මේ රජය පත්වුණාට පස්සේ 18 වෙනි සංශෝධනය කරලා දහනමවැනි සංශෝධනය පටන් ගන්න සූදානම් වුනා. දහනමවැනි සංශෝධනය පටන් ගන්න සූදානම් වුණේ ඒ වෙලාවෙ යහපාලනයත් එක්ක දීඝ කාපු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය එක්ක ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්යභාරය ඉටු කර ගැනීම සඳහායි. මෙයට අපිත් අත ඉස්සුවා. එහෙම කළේ මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා අපට විසිවෙනි සංශෝධනය ඊළඟ සතිය තුළ ම ගේනවා කියලා පොරොන්දු වූ නිසයි. ඔහු ඒ වෙලේ කිව්වා 20 සංශෝධනය කරන්න දෙන්න නම් 19 සංශෝධනය කරන්න අවස්ථාව දෙන්න කියලා.දැන් එක එක කතා කියනවා ජයම්පති වික‍්‍රමරත්නගේ ලණුව කෑවා. ජනාධිපති දැන් විවිධාකාර කතා කියනවා. පක්ෂවල මහලේකම්වරු ඇතුළු බොහෝ පිරිස අද ඒ ගැන කතා කරනවා. නමුත් ඒ අයට අමතක වෙලා තියෙනවා රටේ ජනාධිපති තමයි කණ්ඩායම් රැුස්වීම ගෙනල්ලා අපිට කිව්වේ විසිවෙනි සංශෝධනය ගේනවා කියලා. 19 දහනමවැනි සංශෝධනයට කැමැත්ත දෙන්න කියලා. අද වෙනකම් ඒ විසිවෙනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනාවේ නෑ. මේ විගඩම් නිසා විවිධාකාර විදිහට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් 225 ගැනම චෝදනා සහ මතවාදයන් රට තුළ ඇති කරමින් යනවා. හැට දෙලක්ෂයක් ඡුන්දය දුන් උදවියට හීනමානයක් තියෙන නිසා දැන් ඒක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන්ගේ පිටින් යවනවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට බුද්ධිමතුන් යවන්න ඕනේ කියනවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවකට බුද්ධිමතුන් යවන්න අවශ්‍යයි. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරමින් කළුතර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ ඇස්පිල්ලන් ගහමින් කතා කරන කෙනා වෛද්‍යවරයෙක් හැටියට කතා කිරීමේදී රට ගැන රටේ උන්නතිය ගැන රටේ අභිවෘද්ධිය ගැන කුමන ආකාරයෙන් කතා කරනවා ද කියන එක ප‍්‍රශ්නයක. දත් දොස්තර වෙන්න පුළුවන.් එම්. බී. බී එස් එක සමත් වෙලා තියෙනවා නම් කොයි විදියට ද කළ යුතු වන්නේ. දැන් කතා කරන විදිය ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් නොවේ ද. අතපය හතර තිබුනට ඉංජිනේරු විභාගය පාස් උනා කියල කිව්වට ඒ අය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කතා කරන ආකාරය හැසිරෙන විදිහ අනාගත සැලැස්ම ගැන කියන්නේ මොනවද කියන එක රටේ ජනතාව දන්නවා. වෛරි දේශපාලනය පතුරවලා ඔවුනගේ බලය තහවුරු කරගන්න කර ගන්න සූදානම් වෙන ආකාරය අපට පෙනෙනවා. මේ පිළිබඳව කතන්දර කියන අයට මම කියන්න කැමැතියි ප‍්‍රායෝගිකව දේශපාලනඥයෙක් හැටියට අපි මේ මාතෟ භූමියට ආදරය මිනිසුන් . ඊයේ මාධ්‍ය තුළ පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දේශපාලනය ගැන කතාවක් මම දැක්කා. නළුවෙකත්ු කතා කලා. නළුවාගේ දේශපාලනයේ ඉතිහාසය මොකක්ද , ඡුන්දෙ ඉල්ලන්න ගිය මොන පක්ෂයෙන්ද, ඒ කාලේ මොන විදිහට ද කතා කලේ කියල දැක්කහම පුදුමයි. නැවත පත් වෙන්න බැහැයි කියල හිතෙනකොට වෙනස් විදියකට කතා කරනවා. ඒ වගේම තමයි කරුණාරත්න ජයසූරිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කතානායකවරයා වගේ. ස්වාධීන රාජ්‍යයක් වෙනකොට මේ ස්වාධීන රාජ්‍යය සඳහා ධනේශ්වර පන්තියේ බටහිර ගැත්තෙක් උපදේශකයෙක් හැටියට ඔහු පත් කරගෙන මේ රට විනාශ කරන්න ක‍්‍රියා කරන්න සූදානම් වෙනවා. මේ රටේ ම පුරවැසියෙක් එන් ජී ඕ වලින් වැටුප් ලාභියෙක් බවට පත් කරගෙන පත් කරගෙන කටයුතු කරපු ආකාරය පිළිබඳව අපි අධිකරණයට යොමු කරල තියෙනවා. ඒ විතරක් නෙමෙයි පොලිසියට අධිකරණයට. මහ බැංකුවට. සී .අයි .ඞී එකට පවා ඇමරිකානු නියෝජිතයො දාලා තියෙනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා.
අපේ‍්‍රල් මාසේ විසි එක් වෙනිදා සහරාන් සහ අනෙක් පිරිස සිදුකළ මිලේච්ඡු ප‍්‍රහාරයක් නිසා රටේ විශාල ජීවිත ප‍්‍රමාණයක් අපට අහිමිවීම සිදුවුණා. අනික් අතින් මේ මොහොත වනවිටත් රටේ ආරක්ෂාව ඉතාම අවාසනාවන්ත තත්වයකට පත්වෙලා තියෙනවා. රටේ ජීවත්වන හැම කෙනාම බියෙන් සැකෙන් ජීවත් වෙන තත්වෙට පත්වෙලා තියෙනවා. සහරාන්ගේ බෝම්බය වගේ නෙවෙයි. දැන් මේ රටේ ජීවිත විනාශ කරන බෝම්බ හා තවත් මේ රට ආර්ථික වශයෙන් ¥ෂණය කරන වැඩ දිගින් දිගටම සිද්ධ වෙමින් පවතිනවා. සහරාන්ගේ බෝම්බයත් මේ ආණ්ඩුවට වාසි සහගත තත්ත්වයක් නිර්මාණය කරලා තියෙනවා. ජනතාව ඉන්නේ බෝම්බ බියෙන්. ඔවුන් රටේ රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ෂාව ගැන හොයනවා. ඒ අතරතුරේ වෙනම පොඩි පොඩි බිම්බෝම්බ ආණ්ඩුව පත්තු කරන එක අති භයානක වලා. ඒ වගේ එකක් තමයි දැන් පත්තු වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ. අපේ රටේ අධ්‍යාපන ඇමැතිවරයා ගැන බලමු. ඔහුගේ අතේ තමයි රටේ අනාගතය තියෙන්නේ. අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිවරයෙක් අවුරුදු හයක් පාලනය කරන කොට ඔහු ගන්නා තීන්දු තීරණ මත දැයේ දරුවන් උගත් දරුවන් බවට පරිවර්තනය වෙනවා. අද අධ්‍යාපන ඇමැතිවරයා මොකක්ද කරල තියෙන්නේ. ඊයෙ පත්තරේ වාර්තා කරනවා ” අකිලට දුර ගමනක් යන්න ඡුායාරූපය සහිත ලිපියක් පෙළපොත් වලට දමන්න කියලා” ඇමතිවරයාම තියෙනවා. ඒක කියන්නේ හිටපු අධ්‍යාපන කොමසාරිස්. මේ වන විට එතුමා අධ්‍යාපන සැලසුම් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලදාරියෙක්. කේ ඞී ඉලංගසිංහ මහත්තය. ඔහු එවකට හිටපු නිලධාරියෙක් හැටියට ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කරනවා මේ ගැන.” මම කිව්වා විෂය භාර ඇමැතිවරයාට මේ ගැන නැවත හිතන්න කියලා තවත් කොළ හතරක් අලූතෙන් එකතු කරන්න සිදුවෙන නිසා” ඇමතිවරයා එතකොට කියලා තියෙන්නේ මගේ ප‍්‍රතිරූපය නංවන්න මේක කරන්න කියන දේ. නිකන් පින්තූරයක් නෙවෙයි වර්ණ පින්තූරයක් යොදන්න කියලා තියෙනවා. අධ්‍යාපන ඇමැතිවරයා ලස්සනට ඉන්න තරමට තමයි අගමැතිවරයාගෙන් අවශ්‍ය කරන පහසුකම් ලැබෙන්නේ. එතුමා කියලා තියෙන එකක් හරි නේ .මමත් දැක්කා ඒ ඡුායාරූපය. එකේ තොල් පාට කරල තියෙන්නෙ. කොන්ඩෙ ලස්සනට පීරල තිබුනා. හැබැයි ගියපු ගාන කෝටි දාසයයි. දරුවන්ගේ පෙළපොතට තමන්ගෙ පින්තූරය දාලා විස්තරය දාන්න කෝටි දාසයක් අධ්‍යාපන ඇමැතිවරයා වැය කරන කොට රටේ තත්වය තත්ත්වය මොකක්ද. මම පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගිණුම් කාරක සභාවේ සාමාජිකයෙක්. පහුගිය මාසයේ දී පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගිණුම් කාරක සභාවේ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශය කතාබහට ලක් කෙරුණා. මේවා අපිට ලිඛිතව මාධ්‍ය ආයතනවලට ලබා දෙන්න පුළුවන්කම තියෙනවා. ඒකෙ තියෙනවා එක තැනක බස්නාහිර පළාතේ මතුගම කලාපයේ මංගල දෙමළ විද්‍යාලයේ තොරතුරු. දැනට පන්ති කාමර ටකරං මඩු වල පවත්වාගෙන යනවා. ඔවුන් මේ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයෙන් ඉල්ලන්නේ පන්ති කාමරයක් හදලා දෙන්න කියලයි. ඊළඟට ඉල්ලනවා කොස්වත්ත ජනාධිපති විද්‍යාලයෙන් පන්ති කාමරයක්. ඒකෙත් කියන්නේ ටකරම් මඩුවල පන්ති කාමර පවත්වාගෙන යාම සහ වැසිකිලි වැසිකිලි නොමැති බවයි. ආරක්ෂිත වැටක් දරුවන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාවට නෑ කියලා කියනවා. මේ හැම පාසලකම වැසිකිළි පහසුකම් ඉල්ලලා තියෙනවා. ශ‍්‍රී සුමංගල ජාතික මහා විද්‍යාලය, බැල්ලපිටිය කණිෂ්ඨ විද්‍යාලය, මීවනපලානේ මහා විද්‍යාලය, පොලේගොඩ මහ විද්‍යාලය, යටියන කනිෂ්ඨ විද්‍යාලය වගේ තවත් විද්‍යාල රැුසක් වැසිකිළි පහසුකම් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.මේක මානව අයිතිවාසිකමක්. පාසල් යන දරුවකුට වැසිකිළි කැසිකිළි පහසුකම් ලබාදෙන එක රජයේ වගකීමක් වගේම ඔහුගේ මානව අයිතිවාසිකමක්. පාසල තුලට වැසිකිලියක් ලබා දෙන්න බැරිවෙච්ච ආණ්ඩුව අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිතුමාගේ ප‍්‍රතිරූපය නංවන්න කෝටිදාසයක් වියදම් කරනවා. මේ කෝටි දාසයෙන් අර වැසිකිලි ටික හදන්න තිබුණා නේද. මේ ටකරන් මඩුවල පිච්චි පිච්චි ඉන්න දරුවන්ට අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන්න පුළුවන් පන්ති කාමරයක් හදලා දෙන්න තිබුණේ නැද්ද. මෙන්න අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිවරයාගේ ප‍්‍රතිරූපය. ඊයේ දවසේ අකිල විරාජ් අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ ටැබ් ලබාදීේම යෝජනාවට කැබිනට් අනුමැතිය ලබා දුන්නා. මේ රටේ දරුවන්ට ටැබ් එකක් ලබා දෙනවා නම් ඉතාම හොඳයි. මේක 2016 අයවැය යෝජනාවලිය තුලින් ඉදිරිපත් කරපු දෙයක්. 2017ත් ටැබ් නැහැ. 2018 නෑ 2019 ටැබ් එක මතක් වෙනවා ජනාධිපතිවරණය එනකොට. හැබැයි මේ ටැබ් පරිගණකය ලබාදීම තුල ¥ෂණයක් වෙනවා. කරුණාකරලා අපි කියනවා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හෙට සහ අනිද්දා ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වෙනකොට මේක පැහැදිලි කරන්න කියලා.අපි අකිල විරාජ් අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිවරයාගේ ප‍්‍රශ්න කරනවා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන්, ටෙන්ඩර් ක‍්‍රමවේදයක් භාවිත කළා ද යන්න පිළිබඳව. කවුද මේවට ඉදිරිපත් වුණ සමාගම්. ඒවට ඉදිරිපත් කරපු මිල ගණන් කීයද. එයින් කාටද මේ ටෙන්ඩරය ලබා දුන්නේ. පෙල පොතෙන් කෝටි දාසයක් ගැහුවනම් ලැප් එකෙන් කීයක් ගහලා ඇත්ද. ඒ නිසා සහරාන්ගේ බෝම්බෙට වැඩිය මේ බෝම්බෙ භයානකයි. මේ රජය අද රටේ අධ්‍යාපනය කඩා බිඳ දැමීමේ ක‍්‍රියාවලියක් අරගෙන යනවා.
ජනාධිපතිතුමා අද පෙරවරුවේ මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡුාවක් පැවැත්වුවා. මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම වූ හතර දෙනෙකුට එතුමා මරණ දණ්ඩනය දෙන්න අත්සන් කලා කියලා ප‍්‍රකාශ කළා. දැන් අපට පුළුවන් මරණ දණ්ඩනයට නියම වෙලා තියෙන අයව එල්ලන්න. ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒ අයට මරණ දණ්ඩනය නියම කරන ගමන් අපි ජනාධිපතිවරයාට යෝජනා කරනවා, මේ රට මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිතුමා 2015 බාර දුන්නෙ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කරල කරලා. එදා මේ රට සම්පූර්ණයෙන් ම නිදහස් වෙලා තිබුණා. බෝම්බයක් පිපිරෙනව තියා අසුබ විදිහට රතිඤ්ඤා වත් පිපිරුවේ නැහැ. රට නිදහස් වෙලා අවුරුදු 10 වෙන්න තිබුණෙ 2019 මැයි 19වෙනිදාට. නමුත් 2019 අපේ‍්‍රල් 21 ජීවිත ගානක් විනාශ කරලා බෝම්බ පිපුරුනා. අපි ජනාධිපතිතුමාට කියනවා ගරු ජනාධිපති තුමනි ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ඔබේ අතේ තිබෙන රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ෂාව, පොලීසිය, ත‍්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව යොදා ගෙන ත‍්‍රස්තවාදයට උඩගෙඩි දීපු අනුබලදීපු බෝම්බ හදන්න මුදල් පහසුකම් ටික සලසපු උන්නැහෙලා ටිකව නීතියට හසු කරල එල්ලන්න කියලා. ඔවුන්ට මරණීය දණ්ඩන දෙන්න ඕනෙ.් ඊට අවශ්‍ය වාතාවරණය හැදීම ඔබතුමාට භාරයි. ඒ විතරක් නෙමෙයි රට ආර්ථික වශයෙන් බිමට හෙලූ මහා බැඳුම්කර වංචාවේ මහ මොළකරු ඉන්නේ එළියේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇතුළේ ඒ අයට කිසිම ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් නෑ. ඒ අයවත් නීතිය ඉදිරියට ගෙනල්ලා එල්ලන්න අවශ්‍යයි. ඒ වගේම ජනාධිපතිවරයා තේරීම් කාරක සභාවට තමන් නොඑන බවත් ,එය සිරිකොතේ කෙරෙන නාඩගමක් බව ප‍්‍රකාශ කරලා තියෙනවා. දැන් තේරීම් කාරක සභාව ටෙලිඩ‍්‍රමා එකක් මගේ. සමහර වෙලාවට ප‍්‍රශ්න අහන කෙනාම චූදිතයාත් එක්ක පිළිතුරු දෙනවා. තේරීම් කාරක සභාවට ජනාධිපතිතුමා එන්නෙ නෑ. දැන් තියෙන්නේ අගමැති තුමා ලියලා දීපු ප‍්‍රශ්න ටික අහන එකයි එතන කෙරෙන්නේ.
අපේ අස්ගිරි පාර්ශවයේ මහා නායක මහනායක හාමුදුරුවෝ ගැන කරල තියෙන ප‍්‍රකාශය සිංහල බෞද්ධයො හැටියට අපි හෙළා දකිනවා. පාක්‍යසෝති සරවනමුත්තු උන්නැහේට අස්ගිරි මහනායක හාමුදුරුවෝ කියන්නේ කව්ද කියල අපිට කියල දෙන්න වෙනවා. ශ‍්‍රී දළදා වහන්සේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ අපගේ මුදුන්මල්කඩයි. අස්ගිරි විහාරස්ථානයේ නායක හාමුදුරුවෝ ඒ වගේ ම වටිනවා. අපි මේ කරුණ පිළිබඳව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ සහ රජයේ අවධානයට යොමු කරනවා. එදා කොච්චිකඬේ පල්ලියේ, කටුවපිටිය පල්ලියේ මිනිස්සු කෑලි කෑලි වෙලා මැරෙන සරවනමුත්තුගේ කට ඇරුනෙ නැහැ. හෝටල් වල විදේශිකයෝ එක්ක ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝ මැරෙනකොට කට ඇරුනේ නැහැ. හැබැයි දැන් කට ඇරිලා. ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් හැටියට, අපේ ඉවසීම බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය තුළ තියෙන ගති ලක්ෂණ එවැනි ප‍්‍රකාශවලින් නැති කරන්න එපා කියලා අපි බොහොම පැහැදිලිව කියනවා. මේක එක පැත්තකින් ආගම්වාදය ඇවිස්සීමට මුල පිරීමක්. පළමුවෙන් පාක්‍යසෝති සරවනමුත්තු අත්අඩංගුවට ගත යුතුයි. අපේ නායක ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ කෙනෙක් අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්න කියන කොට සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනතාව මොනවද කල්පනා කරේ. මේ ගැන වහාම අවධානයෙන් කටයුතු කරන්න කියලා අපි ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කියනවා.
ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හැටියට අපි ජනාධිපතිවරණය ඇතුලූ අනෙකුත් මැතිවරණ කටයුතු සංවිධානය කරමින්, ඒවා අනෙකුත් පක්ෂ සමඟ සාකච්ඡුා කරනවා. සෙසු පක්ෂ සමඟ එකඟත්වයකට ඇතිකර ගන්නවා. අගෝස්තු මාසේ 11 අපේ සම්මේලනය සුගතදාස ක‍්‍රීඩාංගනයේදී අති උත්කර්ෂවත් අන්දමින් සියලූ පක්ෂවලට ආරාධනා කරමින් පවත්වනවා. අපි අපේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ මෙහෙයුමක් ආරම්භ කරන දැනටත් ආරම්භ වෙලා ඉවරයි. ගම් මට්ටමින්, පළාත් මට්ටමින්, දිස්ත‍්‍රික්ක මට්ටමින්, ආසන මට්ටමින් ග‍්‍රාම ග‍්‍රාමසේවා මට්ටමින් දෙවුන්දර තුඩුවෙ ඉඳල පේදුරුතුඩුව දක්වා අවශ්‍ය සංවිධාන ශක්තිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වෙමින් පවතිනවා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයින් රැුසක් පිළිබඳව අපට මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ අහන්න ලැබෙනවා. රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිතුමා, කරූ ජයසූරිය කථානායකතුමා නියෝජ්‍ය නායක සජිත් පේ‍්‍රමදාස ඇමැතිවරයා, පාඨලී චම්පික ඇමැතිවරයා, රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමැතිවරයා, දයා ගමගේ ඇමැතිවරයා වගේම පොදු කියලා කෑල්ලක් දාලා ව්‍යාපාරික ධම්මික පෙරේරාවත් අපෙක්ෂක නාමවලියෙන් එළියට ආවා.

පොදුජන මාධ්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානය

ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමඟ එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමට දේශපාලන  පක්ෂ ගණනාවක් මේ වනවිට සිය එකඟතාව පළ කර ඇත.
මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජනාධිපතිවරයාව සිටි සමයේ සිට එක්ව කටයුතු කළ සහෝදර දේශපාලන පක්ෂ සමඟ ඉදිරියේදීත් එක්ව කටයුතු  කරන අතරම මෙතෙක් සන්ධානගත නොවී සිටි  අනෙකුත් පක්‍ෂ සමගද එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමේ අභිලාශයෙන් මේ දිනවල පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හා එම දේශපාලන පක්ෂ අතර සාකච්ඡා ආරම්භවී තිබේ.
දේශ විමුක්ති ජනතා පක්ෂය, ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහජන පක්ෂය, ලිබරල් පක්ෂය, ඊ පී ඩී පී පක්ෂය, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය, ලංකා සමසමාජ පක්ෂය, එක්සත් ලංකා පොදුජන පක්ෂය, මුස්ලිම් උළමා පක්ෂය, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රගතිශීලි පෙරමුණ, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී වාමාංශික පෙරමුණ, යන පක්ෂ සමඟ සමග මේවනවිට සාකච්ඡා සාර්ථකව අවසන් කර ඇත.
බියෙන් සැකෙන් තොර ආරක්ෂිත රටක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමටත්, රාජ්‍ය සම්පත් ආරක්ෂා කරන, ආර්ථිකය සවිමත් කරන, සංවර්ධිත රටක් බිහිකිරීම උදෙසාත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමඟ අත්වැල් බැදගනිමින්, ජනතා විරෝධී එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණු රජය පලවා හැරිය යුතු බව මෙම සියළුම දේශපාලන පක්ෂ අවධාරණය කර තිබේ. එමෙන්ම ඉදිරි ජනතාවාදී රජයක් යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු වැඩපිළිවෙල ඇතුලත් ප්‍රතිපත්ති මාලාවක් සකස් කිරීමේ කටයුතුද එකී පක්‍ෂවල දායකත්වයෙන් මේ දිනවල සිදුවෙමින් පවතී.

පොදුජන මාධ්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානය

දිවයිනේ පාසල් රැසක වැසිකිලි කැසිකිළි පහසුකම් හෝ සපුරාලීමට ආණ්ඩුව අසමත්ව තිබියදී අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම්ගේ ප්‍රතිරූපය නංවාලීම සඳහා පාසල් පෙළ පොත් වලට ඔහුගේ ඡායාරූපය ඇතුලත්  කිරීමට  රුපියල් කෝටි දහසයක මුදලක් වැය කිරීමට එරෙහිව දැඩි ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමට සූදානම් බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ පවසයි.
අද පෙරවරුවේ කොළඹ නෙළුම්  මාවතේ පිහිටි පක්ෂ කාර්යාලයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රෝහිත අබේගුණවර්ධන මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගිණුම් කාරක සභාවේ ද අවධානය යොමුකොට ඇතැයිද, ටකරන් මඩු වෙනුවට පහසුකම් සහිත ගොඩනැගිලි ලබාදෙන ලෙසත්, වැසිකිලි කැසිකිලි පහසුකම් සපුරා දෙන ලෙසත් දිවයිනේ පාසල් රැසකින් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යංශයට ඉල්ලීම් ලැබී තිබියදී ඒ පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු නොවීම කනගාටුවට කරුණක් බවද මන්ත්‍රීවරයා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.
එවැනි තත්වයක් යටතේ එම ඉල්ලිම් ලබාදීම වෙනුවට අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍ය අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම් මහතාගේ ප්‍රතිරූපය නංවාලීමට රුපියල් කෝටි 16ක මුදලක් වැය කිරීම බරපතල අක්‍රමිකතාවක් බවත් පෙන්වාදුන්, මෙම මාධ්‍ය හමුවට එක්වු සී බී රත්නායක මන්ත්‍රීවරයා   ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉදිරි දිනවලදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී  ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට තමන් අපේක්ෂා කරන බවත් වැඩිදුරටත් පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.    
අමාත්‍යවරයාගේ ඉල්ලීමකට අනුව ඔහුගේ ඡායාරූපය සහ විස්තරය පෙළ පොත්වලට ඇතුළත් කළ බව හිටපු අධ්‍යාපන කොමසාරිස් ඒ. බි ඉලංගසිංහ මහතා පසුගිය සතියේ බරපතල වංචා දූෂණ සම්බන්ධ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම හමුවේ අනාවරණය කලේය.

නලින් කුමාර නිශ්ශංක
සම්බන්ධීකරණ ප්‍රධානී,

පොදුජන මාධ්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානය 

ජාතියක් ලෙස එකට සිටිමින් එකම රටක් ලෙස ඉදිරියට යාමට නම් කාටත් පිළිගත හැකි එකම නීතියක් අවශ්‍ය බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ නිර්මාතෘ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය. 
ඒ මහතා මෙසේ පැවැසුවේ අද (26) නෙළුම් මාවතේ පිහිටි ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී මුස්ලිම් උලමා පක්ෂයේ නියෝජිතයින් පිරිසක් හමුවූ අවස්ථාවේදීය.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන ප්‍රමුඛ රජයක් මගින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට නියමිත වැඩ පිළිවෙළක් සකස් කිරීම සහ ඉදිරි මැතිවරණ වලදී එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සෙසු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ සමග සාකච්ඡා කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළ යටතේ අද දිනයේ දී ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමග එක්සත් ලංකා පොදුජන පක්ෂය, මුස්ලිම් උලමා පක්ෂය, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ප්‍රගතිශීලි පෙරමුණ අතර විශේෂ සාකච්ඡා වට කිහිපයක් පැවැත්වීණි.
 එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙසේද පැවසීය
ඉදිරි සතියකදී අපි අනුගමනය කළ යුතු පතිපත්තිය ජනතාව ඇසුරින් සකස් කරන්න අපි තීරණය කළා. ඒ අනුව  ගම සමග පිළිසදරක් වැඩසටහනක් ගම් මට්ටමින් අදහස් හා යෝජනා එකතු කරමින් තිබෙනවා.  ඒ වගේම මහින්ද  රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සමඟ එක්ව කටයුතු කරපු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වල අදහස් යෝජනාවලියට එකතු කරන්න  තීරණය කළා. 
ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රදේශයකට ආගමකට ජාතියකට සීමා වුන පක්ෂයක්  නෙවෙයි. අපේ පක්ෂයට අවුරුද්දකටත් වඩා අඩු වයසක දී පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වී ජයග්‍රහණය කරන්න හැකිවුණා. මේ වන විට ලංකාවේ වැඩිම මහජන නියෝජිතයින් ප්‍රමාණයක් ඉන්නේ අපේ පක්ෂයට. රට පුරාම මහජන නියෝජිතයින්  4000 කට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් අපිට ඉන්නවා. මහජන නියෝජිතයින් වැඩි වීමත් සමහර වෙලාවට ප්‍රශ්නයක්. දරුවෝ වැඩි උනාම පාලනය කරගන්න අමාරුයි. ඒවුනත් අපි නිසි විනයක් සහිත පක්‍ෂයක්. එනිසා අපිට ඒ අය මෙහෙයවීම අමාරුනැහැ.
අපේ පක්ෂයේ කිසිම ජාතියකට ආගමකට ප්‍රදේශයකට සීමා කරලා නැහැ. රටේ හැමෝමටම එක නීතියක් තිබිය යුතු බවයි අපේ අදහස. ජාතියක් විදියට එකට ඉන්න එක නීතියක් අවශ්‍යයි .
අනාගතයේ රටේ පාලනය ගැන ඉන්න පක්ෂයක් විදිහට රටේ සාමකාමී පරිසරයක් අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. එල්ටී. ටී ඊ සංවිධානයෙන් රට බේරාගෙන ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීම නිසයි ශීඝ්‍ර සංවර්ධනයක් කරා රට ගෙන යන්න හැකිවුණේ. අපි ආණ්ඩුව භාර ගන්න කාලේදී රටේ ජාතිවාදී අරගල තියෙනවා නම් බලාපොරොත්තු වන සංවර්ධනය කරා යන අපට බැහැ .ඒ නිසා පාස්කු ඉරිදා සිද්ධිය වැනි සිදුවීම් රට තුළ නැවත සිදුවෙනවා දකින්න අපි කැමති නැහැ.බේරුවල සිද්ධිය අවස්ථාවේදී ඊට මැදිහත් වෙලා සිද්දිය සමථයකට පත් කරන්න අපට හැකි වුණා.සියලු තොරතුරු තිබිලත් පාස්කු ඉරිදා සිද්ධිය නතර කරගන්න වත්මන් රජයට නොහැකි වුණා.ආණ්ඩුව මෙයට වගකිව යුතුයි. නමුත් ආණ්ඩුව උත්සාහ කරන්නේ එහි වගකීමත් අප පිට පටවන්න. නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ආයතන අධිකරණය හමුදාව  මේ හැමදේම තියෙන්නෙ ආණ්ඩුව ලග.
මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගෙන් කීප දෙනෙක් කරපු දෙයකට සමස්ත මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව වගකිව යුතු නැහැ.ඒ වගේම පොහොට්ටුවේ කිහිප දෙනෙක් කරන වැඩ වලට වැඩවලට සම්පූර්ණ පොහොට්ටුව වග කියන්න අවශ්‍යත් නැහැ.
යුද්ධයෙන් පසුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ සමයේ එවකට රජය මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් කළ සේවය වචනයෙන් කිව නොහැකි බව එහි දී සඳහන් කළ මුස්ලිම් උලමා පක්ෂයේ නායක  මුබාරක් අබ් මජීඞ් මහතා ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පෙරමුණ සමඟ එක්ව කටයුතු කරන බව එහිදී සඳහන් කලේය.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, yesterday, told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday carnage that there was still the possibility of terrorist attacks. 

Testifying before the PSC, Lt. Gen. Senanayake said: “There is still room for attacks similar to the Easter Sunday carnage. There is the possibility of what we call lone wolf attacks. Next time it might not be bombs and guns. They could use vehicles, knives, water or fire to strike a disaster and kill similar number. That threat is still there.” 

The PSC members present, yesterday, were Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne, Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Prof Ashu Marasinghe, M.A. Sumanthiran, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Chairman Ananda Kumarasiri, Rauff Hakeem and Dr. Jayamapathy Wickramaratne.

 Field Marshal Fonseka: Terrorist do not need a team of trained combatants. They need only a single highly motivated cadre to carry out such an attack.

Lt Gen Senanayake: Yes, that is the nature of a lone wolf Attack. That way terrorists could wreak maximum destruction at minimum cost.

 Chairman Kumarasiri: There were reports that you came under the influence of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to release some terror suspects. Is that true? 

Lt. Gen. Senanayake: No one has influenced me to release any one in custody over the terrorism charges. 

Chairman Kumarasiri: But he called you and inquired about some terror suspects.

LT Gen Senanayake: Yes, he called me thrice to inquire about a suspect by the name of Ahmed. Soon after the Easter Sunday attacks, the Minister called me and asked whether we had in our custody a suspect by that name. I told him that I have no information but I could check and let him know. When he called a second time I still did not have the information. Third time, I had the information, and I confirmed to the minister that there was a terror suspect in our custody by that name and he had been taken in from Dehiwala and asked him to make inquiries one and a half years later.

Field Marshal: How did you know that the person under the custody had links with extremists?

LT Gen Senanayake: There was a network of them and we had information about them.

Field Marshal Fonseka: How come you gave exactly one and a half years?

LT Gen Senanayake: The suspect was taken into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the charges were of severe nature. Soon after taking in such a person, it is our duty to hand him or her over to the Terrorist Investigation Division of the police within 24 hours. Thereafter they could detain such a suspect for one and a half years. The period has now been reduced to one year. With my experience of dealing with similar cases and as per the charges, I know it would take that much time at least.

Minister Karunanayake: What do you think of the current security situation? Are we in a secure position?

 Senanayake: It is not practical or correct to say that this problem is completely over. It is still there. We are making arrangements to coordinate our security forces and intelligence officers to ensure public security. We have received the support of intelligence communities of the neighbouring countries. We are coordinating with everyone responsible to ensure that there would be no incidences, but the threat and the possibility of disaster striking again are there. That is for sure.

Minister Karunanayake: Do you think that the arrest of intelligence community members under various charges and incarceration of them had led to the breakdown of security establishment?

Lt Gen Senanayake: There can be some effect but stating that such actions would lead for the collapse of entire intelligence mechanism is wrong.

The rest of the testimony was recorded in camera.

By Danielle Haynes Courtesy UPI

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said he wants to follow the Philippines’ war on drugs. File Photo by M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA-EFE

June 26 (UPI) — Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena approved the executions of four drug offenders Wednesday, putting an end to the country’s moratorium on the death penalty since 1976.

The move is part of Sirisena’s effort to replicate what he said was the success of the Philippines’ war on drugs. He said the country is home to 300,000 addicts and 60 percent of all prisoners were imprisoned due to drug offenses.

“I have already signed the death penalty for four [convicts]. It will be implemented soon and we have already decided the date as well,” he said.

Though Sri Lanka put a hold on executions 42 years ago, some 1,299 people sit on death row, including 48 convicted for drug crimes.

After Sirisena first announced his intention to lift the moratorium in July, the government began looking for an executioner. One has not yet been appointed.

Amnesty International Secretary-General Kumi Naidoo called on Sirisena not to carry out the executions.

“I reach out to you to plead for the lives of people who may soon be executed in Sri Lanka if you revive the death penalty,” Naidoo said.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was working towards releasing Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen who was alleged to have performed illegal sterilization, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa said today.

Addressing a news conference, he said there was no need of an institution called CID if it attempted to release the criminals, even when there were clear cut evidences to prove their culpability.

It seems that the CID is doing the same thing in the case of Shafi as it is doing for former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. The CID is doing everything to disprove that Bathiudeen had not abetted to flourish extremism in the country,” MP Weerawansa said.

It is clear that the CID protects extremists and criminals,” MP Weerawansa added.

However, he said they were even ready to come out with relevant names of officials who are clearing Dr. Shafi, if any senior official of the CID challenged them.

Now the CID is attempting to put the journalist who revealed the case of Shafi first, behind the bars,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the complaint lodged by Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu to the Police Commission against Asgiriya Chapter Mahanayake claiming that the Mahanayake Thera had aroused the feelings of disharmony by uttering that Dr. Shrfi must be stoned to death, should be ignored as the statement of the Mahanayake Thera was not expressed with the real intention of stoning him to death.

The stoning law is not in our Constitution and it is not a mode of punishment in Sri Lanka. Hence, the statement signifies the gravity of what was allegedly done by Dr. Shafi,” he added. (

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The United Kingdom (UK) yesterday said the implementation of the death penalty in Sri Lanka would inevitably makes it more difficult for the UK to cooperate on law enforcement issues, including counter-terrorism.

In a statement, a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said it would require the UK to review its technical assistance programmes on relevant policing, defence and other security issues if the death penalty was implemented.

We are deeply concerned at reports that Sri Lanka intends to abandon its long-standing moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty. The UK opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle.

Sri Lanka voted in favour of a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty at the UN General Assembly just six months ago.

A reversal of this policy would be a regressive step that would harm Sri Lanka’s international standing and its reputation as a tourist destination and growing centre for business.

We have raised our concerns at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan Government. We continue to call on Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty,” the statement said.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, June 26 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan President Maithipala Sirisena said here on Wednesday that if the country is to be saved from chronic instability, the 19 th.Amendment of the Constitution must be amended either before or immediately after the Presidential election which is to be held in four months’ time.

Addressing the media, Sirisena said that as a matter of priority” all political leaders must put their heads together and agree on proposals to suitably amend 19A.

The 19A had created two centers of power in place of one which existed earlier, the two centers being the President, who is directly elected by 6.2 million people, and the other being the Prime Minister who derives his power from parliament.

These two have been clashing because of the structural flaws in the 19A, he said.

Sirisena quoted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as saying that the Sri Lankan government is like a car which has two drivers at the wheel. No wonder the car has been hitting the sidewalk or bumping into other cars.

The President said that the car should have only one driver and that should be the President, who is directly elected by the people. In his case he was elected by 6.2 million votes and not by a 225-member parliament.

Sirisena said that the 19A was enacted not in the interest of the people of the country but in the interest of Non-Government Organizations and certain vested interests. Its provisions were not thought though. Many loose ends remained to be tied.

Independent Commissions were set up, but these have been functioning without any set rules and regulations.

The Independent Human Rights Commission sent a list of 300 complaints of rights violations to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva without consulting the government and without examining the veracity of the complaints. Only complaints which had been investigated and found to be true should be sent, and that after discussing the matter with the government,” Sirisena said.

The 19A was enacted in a frightful hurry, with the result, many issues were not considered in-depth for their ramifications. And the chickens came home to roost as the days passed by.

Asked if he favors an entirely new constitution or only some amendments to the existing one will do, the President said that suitable amendments to the 19A would do.

He pointed out that he did not want the resurrection of the 18 the Amendment which was replaced by the 19A because the 18A gave too much power to the President.

By rejecting the 18A, Sirisena has sent a message to the Opposition Leader and former President Mahinda Rahapaksa that he will not support any move by the latter to revive 18A. The 18A was brought in by Rajapaksa to further strengthen the Presidency and enable him to be President any number of terms.

On the question of going in for a referendum if his term should be counted from the date on which the parliament Speaker signed 19A into law ,or on the date on which he was elected, Sirisena said that he never said to anyone that he wants a referendum to be held on this matter.

It is a total fabrication” the President said and wondered why his party (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) General Secretary, Dayasiri Jayasekara, made a statement on that.

Not To Attend PSC

The President said that he will not answer any summons from the Parliamentary Select Committee on the April 21 blasts which claimed 259 lives because there is no law under which the PSC can summon him.

At any rate, he added, he is opposed to the PSC given the fact that the blasts are being probed by the police; a committee he had appointed had submitted its final report; and there are seven cases filed in the court on the matter.

The PSC is just a political drama,” Sirisena said.

Drug Menace

Pointing out that June 26, is the World Drug Prevention Day, the Lankan President presented a grim picture of drug misuse scene in Sri Lanka.

Drugs are used in city social parties in which one does not know what happens to the girls present. Drugs are of common use even in village schools. Sri Lanka is woefully short of drug addicts rehabilitation centers. Over 60% of inmates in Lankan jails have been booked in drug cases,.” Sirisena stated and re-iterated his resolve to send serious repeat offenders to the gallows.

Four offenders have been earmarked for execution. And the date for execution has also been fixed,” he said but declined to give any more details.

Justifies Foreign Trips

Sirisena accused the Prime Minister’s office of spreading false news about his foreign travels. All his overseas visits had been at the invitation of other countries and never has his delegation comprised more than ten persons.

China

And every visit of his has brought in gains for Sri Lanka, he asserted. China’s President Xi Jinping gave 100 military jeeps and 100 million Yuan for post-Easter Sunday bombing reconstruction and rehabilitation. Besides, China and Sri Lanka are to sign two Defense Agreements, he added.

The Lankan President spoke warmly about his interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He told Putin about the difficulties in buying defense equipment from Russia due to US sanctions but recalled that the three MIGs given by the Soviets in 1972 to fight an insurgency are still in service in the Lankan air force.

India

On his relations with India, Sirisena said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him on the phone after the April 21 suicide attacks, he asked what kind of help India could render. Sirisena said that it would send a powerful message to the world if Modi came down to Colombo even if only for a few minutes. That is why Modi came for a four-hour visit.

Explaining his changed stand on foreign involvement in the Eastern Container Terminal in the Colombo harbor, the President said he did oppose the initial deal to give it to Indian companies. But later, the terms were changed in favor of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority will now have a 51% stake, India will have 15% and Japan the rest. The international partners will also bring in the money, Srisena said.

Opposed to SOFA

The Lankan President reiterated his stand that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the US should not be entered into.

He also expressed his opposition to changes in the land laws which will enable foreign entities to buy private land.

It is believed that in addition to SOFA, the Americans are seeking 18,000 acres of land near Trincomalee to develop it as a logistics base.

Courtesy Adaderana

No one can assuredly say that the threat of terrorism in the country is completely over, says Commander of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake.

Testifying before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee this afternoon (26), the Army Commander pointed out that giving such assurance is impractical.

Just because several intelligence officers were arrested, the entire intelligence service was not dismantled,” the Army Commander commented further.

Responding to Minister Ravi Karunanayake’s queries on the current situation of the country, the Army Commander said the Tri-Forces and the Police, through the state intelligence service, are jointly taking measures to curb the growth of terrorism in the country.

Sri Lanka Army is renowned as an army that had defeated terrorism once but during the past 10 years there could have been certain setbacks, he said further.
MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, criticizing the Defence Secretary’s testimony before the Select Committee that the ‘immediate threat’ of terrorism is 99 percent over, said several suspects with strong links to terrorist activities were arrested even after the assurance was given.

In response, the Army Commander said the Defence Secretary’s reference was to the arrests that were made subsequent to the terror attacks which prevented an immediate follow-up attack.

Responding to another committee member’s question whether he had been pressurized by any politician over the search missions and arrests carried out in the aftermath of the Easter attacks, the Army Commander said, he was contacted by MP Rishad Bathiudeen over an arrestee named Ishad Ahmed, however, he was not pressurized at any time.

On April 26th, an individual by the name Ishan Ahmed was arrested in Dehiwala. Following the arrest, I received a call from MP Rishad Bathiudeen,” he said. According to the Army Commander, MP Bathiudeen had inquired him whether Ishad Ahmed, who was the son of a senior officer working under him, was arrested. The Army Commander had then told the parliamentarian that he would look into it and contact him later. MP Bathiudeen had subsequently contacted the Army Commander for two more times.

On the third time, the Army Commander had confirmed MP Bathiudeen that the said person was arrested. The parliamentarian had then asked the Army Commander what could be done over the arrest of the said person.

The Army Commander told the committee, he had received information from the intelligence officers that Ishan Ahmed had ties to terrorist activities. 

However, the Army Commander assured that neither MP Bathiudeen nor any politician or public officer had pressurized him over an arrest or the release of a suspect. Not even the President and the Prime Minister has pressurized me.” He emphasized that the Army works independently.

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva

The international and regional strategic landscapes becoming increasingly constrained, only accentuates the need for the Conference on Disarmament (CD) to get down to its substantive task of negotiating appropriate disarmament frameworks, said Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez speaking at the CD Plenary Session in Geneva.

Speaking further, Sri Lanka’s envoy called for balanced and comprehensive disarmament, that should be realized through a step by step approach, underpinned by the adoption of legally binding frameworks and through addressing existing legal gaps.

We attach priority to full compliance with, and effective promotion of, the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) without further delay, support the preservation of all existing disarmament architecture, remain committed to achieving a legally binding instrument on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), and promote the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention and call for their effective and non-discriminatory implementation”.

Outlining Sri Lanka’s position on arms control, Ambassador Azeez stressed, Sri Lanka supports the effective implementation of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, calls for practical steps towards establishing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)-free zones particularly in regions where such zones are not in place, remains committed for negotiations on a legally binding instrument on Negative Security Assurances, and recognizes the importance of identifying and negotiating on new and emerging issues including Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems”.

It is recalled that after 22 years of stalemate in negotiations, the CD arrived at a decision in 2018 under Sri Lanka’s Presidency, to work through an informal process towards evolving a programme of work. The momentum, however, slackened in the current year due to competing strategic security priorities of mostly nuclear weapons states. In his address, Ambassador Azeez expressed Sri Lanka’s continuous support for efforts by the CD and its Presidency towards building consensus on a Programme of Work that would facilitate serious and committed negotiations on core disarmament related issues on the agenda of the Conference.

By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP Stalwart and Convener – The Muslim Voice,

THIS IS WHY “THE MUSLIM VOICE” IS PRAYING SINCE JUNE 2014, THAT IT IS TIME UP A NEW POLITICAL FORCE THAT WILL BE HONEST AND SINCERE THAT WILL PRODUCE ‘CLEAN’, HONEST AND DILIGENT MUSLIM POLITICIANS FREE FROM ANY FORM OF CORRUPTION, WHO COULD STAND UP TO DEFEND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY POLITICALLY AND OTHERWISE, ESPECIALLY FROM AMONG THE YOUTH/YOUNGER GENERATION HAS TO EMERGE FROM WITHIN THE SRI LANKA MUSLIM COMMUNITY TO FACE ANY NEW ELECTIONS IN THE COMING FUTURE, INSHA ALLAH. 

Let Muslims who are WISE and who REALLY CARE ABOUT THE MUSLIM UMMAH AND THEIR FUTURE GENERATIONS SHOULD UNITE TO BRING ABOUT A CHANGE. The MUSLIMS SHOULD NOT recognize the present MUSLIM PARTY LEADERS AND POLITICIANS who have been causing more and more harm than good to the Sri Lanka Muslim Community. 

Muslims who REALLY CARE ABOUT THE MUSLIM UMMAH AND THEIR FUTURE GENERATIONS should also come forward INDEPENDENTLY, form INDEPENDENT GROUPS as the “NEW POLITICAL FORCE” and contest all elections in the future, Insha Allah. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS SHOULD ALSO BE DELIBERATED. IT IS TIME UP THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY GET PREPARED FOR THESE CHALLENGES, INSHA ALLAH.

Dr Sarath Obeysekara

There was a news about Colombo Dockyard which is a BOI company which generates much needed foreign currency ,has delivered a state of the art Cable Laying vessel for a Japanese customer .

Managing Director of the company stated that they are expecting an order to build a trailing suction hopper dredger for the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation ( SLLRDC) . I am sure that the funds for the above job need to be allocated by the government of Sri Lanka ,either by borrowing or printing money .

 51% of the profit generated by the company will be pumped away by the Japanese Investor, and y will be taking out the money from the coffers of the treasury.

What the government should endeavor to do is to create a investment friendly atmosphere in Sri Lanka ,so that foreign companies places orders with Colombo Dockyard ,so that foreign currency flowsin to the country .

We have started a shipyard in Sri Lanka ,which is not a BOI company .has to obtain Temporary Import and Export permit ( TIEP) with much struggle going post to pillar from Ministry of Industries to Sri Lanka customs to undertake the a job for Maldives . Even after obtaining TIEP company has to give Bank Grantees to the Sri Lanka Customes for the estimated value of the custom duties for the material imported .This has caused an enormous cash flow problem for the company as the banks keeps funds in their coffers as security .Same company imported equipment for the shipyard and paid over 50 million. Custom duty .Company has failed to declare the value of design of the equipment to customs during clearing ,Customs received a petition and held an inquiry against the Company and slammed a 24 millon as penalty .

This a clear example of Sri Lankan Government how they try to promote the Ship/Boat Building Industry in the forefront .

Premiere keeps talking about taking the driving seat in investment promotion ,without studying the necessity to ease bureaucracy in Customs and Sri Lanka Treasury .

Premiere inaugurated a NES ( National Export Strategy ) which was earmarking to earn over 28 billion US $ by 2022!

Of course it was an unexpected drawback to NES after the Easter Sunday Attack ,but government should place themselves in a high gear mode to provide feacilities and ease the investments by changing current regulations in Customd and Sports so that foreign companies start coming in .

By looking at the current affairs in political landscape ,when HE and Premiere in a tug of war before the election , we should be wary of the ouctcome.

We need a dramatic change in political weather front  

 Dr Sarath Obeysekara

මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාව  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ

අද (25) පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්
■ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ලක්ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා
■ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා මහතා
■ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී එස්. එම්. චන්ද්‍රසේන මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ලක්ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතා
අද ඇමැතිවරු විශාල අපහසුතාවයකට පත්වෙලා සිටිනවා. ඔවුන්ට අද රෝහලකට යන්න බැහැ. උද්ඝෝෂණයක් තියෙන තියන තැනට ගිහිල්ලා බහින්න බැහැ. රටේ යම්කිසි   සිද්ධියක් වුණහම ඒ ස්ථානයට යන්න බැහැ. ජනතාවගෙන් විරෝධයක් එල්ලවෙමින් පවතිනවා. මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ඇමතිවරුන්ට අද මහජනතාව අතරට යන්න බැරි තත්වයකට පත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. වෙන හැම කාලෙකම මහ ජනතාවට ප්‍රශ්නයක් වුනහම  ඒ වගේ තැනකට මහජන නියෝජිතයෙකුට යන්න පුළුවන්. මේ ආණ්ඩුව දැන් ඒකත් නැති කරලා තියෙන්නෙ.  මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ මැති ඇමතිවරු එවැනි ස්ථානයකට ගියපු හැම අවස්ථාවකදීම  ජනතාවගේ විරෝධයක් එල්ල වෙමින් පවතිනවා. ඒකට හේතුව තමයි ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී ස්වභාවය අද මහජන නියෝජිතයාගේ පිටින් යවන්න මහජනතාව කටයුතු කරනවා. ජනතාව මේ ආණ්ඩුවෙ ඇමතිවරු ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරනවා. ඒ නිසා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ පසුපෙළ අමාත්‍යවරුන්, මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ අමාත්‍යවරුන් ඉවත් වෙන්නේ නැත්තං තමන් ඉවත් වෙන බවට අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කරන්න පටන් අරන් තියෙනවා.ඇතැම් පසුපෙළ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පක්ෂයේ සමහර අයට කියනවා මේ අමාත්‍යවරු ඉල්ලා අස්වුණේ නැත්තං තමන් මන්ත්‍රීධූරයෙන් ඉවත් වෙනවා කියලා. අන්න ඒ වගේ තත්ත්වයට අද මේ රට පත් වෙලා තියනවා. මේ රටේ ඉතිහාසය තුළ රජයේ ඇමතිවරයකුට මහජන ගැටලුවකට කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් අවස්ථාවක් තිබුණා. මොන තරම් බැරෑරුම් අවස්ථාවකදී වුණත් රජයේ  මන්ත්‍රීවරු ඇමතිවරු ඒ අවස්ථාවට මැදිහත්වෙලා ඒවා බේරුම් කරන්න  බේරුම් කරුවන් හැටියට කටයුතු කළා. අද ඇමතිවරයෙක් ඉස්සරහා දොරෙන් ගියොත් පස්සේ දොරෙන් පිට වෙලා යන්න සිද්ද වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒ තරමට මහජන විරෝධය වැඩි වෙමින් පවතිනවා. අපි දැක්කා කල්මුනේ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලය මහලේකම් ලේකම් කාර්යාලයක් බවට පත් කරන්න කියලා ඉල්ලා සිටිමින් කරපු උද්ඝෝෂණයේ දී ඇමතිවරුන්ට දක්වපු විරෝධය. වෙන කිසිම කලෙකටත් වඩා අද ආණ්ඩුවේ ඇමතිවරුන්ට එරෙහිව මහජන ප්‍රතිවිරෝධය දකින්නට ලැබිලා තියෙනවා. මේක ඉතාමත් කනගාටුදායක තත්ත්වයක්. ඒ වගේම අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තුළ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා අධ්‍යාපන පොදු සහතික පත්‍ර සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ දක්වා පල්ලෙහාට වැටිල තියෙනවා. ආණ්ඩfුව ඇමතිවරු කියනවා අධ්‍යාපන පොදු සහතික පත්‍ර විභාගය සමත් නැති කෙනෙක් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ අපේක්ෂකයා හැටියට දාන්න තරම් අපිට පිස්සුවක් නෑ කියලා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ශකයා ඒ තරම්  පහත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. එහෙම තියෙද්දි අපෙන් අහනවා අපේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා කවුද කියලා. අපි අගෝස්තු මාසෙ එකොළොස් වැනිදා අපේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා කවුද කියලා ජනතාවට හෙළිකරනවා. නමුත් ඒ අපේක්ෂකයාට අධ්‍යාපන පොදු සහතික පත්‍ර සාමාන්‍ය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක් නෑ. උපාධිය තිබෙන, දැක්මක් තිබෙන, විශේෂ සුදුසුකම් තිබෙන, අත්දැකීම් තිබෙන දේශපාලනඥයෙක් අපේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා හැටියට ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි. මහජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් වැඩ කරප,ු මහජනතාවට විශ්වාසයක් තියන්න පුළුවන්, රටේ අනාගතය බාර ගන්න පුළුවන,් ඕනම අවස්ථාවකදී ප්‍රශ්නෙකට මුහුණ දෙන්න පුළුවන් අත්දැකීම්  ඇති දේශපාලනඥයෙක් අපි ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. ඒ නිසා අපේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයාට අධ්‍යාපන පොදු සහතික පත්‍ර සාමාන්‍ය පත්‍ර සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ විභාගය පිළිබඳ ගැටළුවක් නැහැ. අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය ඒ තරම් පහත් තත්වයට වැටිලා තියෙනවා. ඒ වගේම මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපතිවරයා දැන් ප්‍රකාශයක් කරලා තියෙනවා ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණයට කලින් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණ  තියන්න බැරි වුනොත් එතුමා ඉල්ලා අස්වන බවට. මේකෙ කාරණය අපි හොඳටම දන්නවා. දැන් මේ ආණ්ඩුව තුන් බියකින් පෙලෙනවා. එකක් ජනාධිපතිවරණය, අනික මහමැතිවරණය,   අනිත් පැත්තෙන් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය. නමුත් දැන් මේ වන විට නීති අංශයෙන් උපදෙස් ගන්න කටයුතු කරලා පළාත් සභාමැතිවරණය  කියන්න පුළුවන්ද කියලා.මේක අලුත්ම තත්ත්වයක්. මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයා මේ ප්‍රකාශය කරන්නේ මැතිවරණයක් ඉස්සරහට ගන්න යම් යම් කරුණු පිළිබඳ ඔහුට යම් ඉඟියක් ලැබුන නිසයි. එතුමාට ඉල්ලා අස් වෙන්න වෙයි කියලා මම හිතන්නේ නැහැ. මැතිවරණයක් ඉක්මනට එයි් කියලා අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. එවැනි තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිකර ගන්න දැන් උත්සාහයක යෙදෙනවා. අපිට ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ. තියන්නේ ජනාධිපති මැතිවරණය වුණත් මහ මැතිවරණය වුණත් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය වුණත් අපි ඒ හැම මැතිවරණයකට සූදානම්. මේ රටේ ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය වෙලා තියෙන්නේ මොනම හරි මැතිවරණයක.් මේ මැතිවරණය කුමක් වුණත් ඕනෑම මැතිවරණයකට මුහුණ දෙන්න අපි සූදානම්. ඒ වගේම ඒ මැතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණය කරන්නත් අපිට පසුබිමක් තියෙනවා. මේ රටේ ජනතාව ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී ඡන්දයක් දෙන්න සූදානමින් ඉන්නවා. මෙතන අපේක්ෂකයා බලන්නෙත් නැහැ. පුද්ගලයා බලන්නෙත් නැහැ. ආණ්ඩු විරෝධීව ඡන්ද පෙළ ගැසීමක් රට පුරා තිබෙනවා. අද වෙනකොට රාජ්‍ය සේවකයාගේ ඉඳලා අනිකුත් හැම ක්ෂේත්‍රයක්ම ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී පැත්තට තල්ලු වෙලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මේ මැතිවරණ තුන්බියෙන් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට එක බියකට හරි මුහුණදෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙලා තියෙනවා. එහෙම නැති වුණොත් මේ රටේ මිනිස්සු පාරට බහින තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවෙනවා. ඊයේ වන විට ගම්බිරිස් මිල රුපියල් තුන්සීයක වැටිලා තියෙනවා. ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිම දවසක මේ තත්වයට වැටිලා නැහැ. ගොරකා විකුණගන්න බැරි තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවෙලා තියෙනවා. කුරුඳු මිල ඉතාම අඩු වෙලා තියෙනවා. සුළු අපනයන බෝග මිල අඩුවෙලා තියෙනව.තේ මිලට ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇවිල්ල තියෙනව. ඒවායින් බහුතරයක් සාමාන්‍ය ගොවි ජනතාවට බරපතළ බලපෑම් එල්ල කරනවා. ආණ්ඩුව පහුගිය කාලේ කරපු දේවල් වල ප්‍රතිඵල හැටියට තමයි මේ සියලු දේවල් අපි දකින්නේ. ආණ්ඩුව දැන් ඩොලර් බිලියන දෙකක් ණය ගන්න තීන්දුකරලා තියනවා. ඒ මිලියන 2000  ගන්න කොට රටේ ණය ප්‍රමාණය ඩොලර් බිලියන 10.5 දක්වා ඉහළ යනවා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව කාලේ 2005 ඉඳලා 2015 වෙනකන්ම අපි ණය ගත්තේ  ඩොලර් බිලියන 5.2 ක් විතරයි. ඒ මේ රටේ සංවර්ධනය යුද්ධය ඇතුළු ප්‍රශ්න ගණනාවකට මුහුණ දෙන අතරයි. 2005 ඉඳලා 2015 වෙනකන් ගත්තු ප්‍රමාණයට වඩා මේ අවුරුදු හතර හමාරකට ඩොලර් බිලියන දහයකට වඩා අරන් තියනවා. හරියටම 2029 දි බැඳුම්කරවල සම්පූර්ණ ගෙවීම කරන්න සිදු වෙනවා. මේ තත්ත්වයට මුහුණ දෙන්නේ අනාගතයේ එන ආණ්ඩුවක්. ඒ කාලෙ කිව්වෙ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුව ණය බරින් මිරිකිලා තියෙන්නෙ කියලා. ඒ කාලේ ණය  අරගත්තු එක ගැන මේ අය ලොකුවට කතා කළා. ඒත් අද සංවර්ධනයක් නැහැ. යුද්ධයක් නැහැ. මුකුත්ම නැතුව අපි ලොකු ණය බරකටත් එකතුවෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මෙි පැවැත්ම තුළ රට අරාජික තත්වයට පත් වන එක වළක්වන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නැහැ. ඉදිරි මාස කිහිපය තුළ ආණ්ඩුවේ මේ තත්ත්වය ඉතාමත්ම කණගාටුදායක තත්වයකට පත් වෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මේ තුන් බිය තිබුණත් කරුණාකර මැතිවරණයකට සුදානම් වෙන්න කියලා, ජනතාවට මැතිවරණයක් දෙන්න කියලා අපි ආණ්ඩුවෙන්  ඉල්ලනවා. එතකොට ජනතාව තමන්ගේ යුතුකම කාර්්‍ය ඉෂ්ට කරයි කියලා අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා මන්ත්‍රීවරයා.
අද අපේ රටට  හරියට නායකයෙක් නැහැ. නායකයින් තුන්දෙනෙක් ඉන්නවා. හැබැයි රට ගෙනි යන්නේ කවුද කියන එක අප කාටත් තේරුම් ගන්න නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් තියෙන්නෙ.  ඕනෑ ම රටකපාලකයකුට තියෙන වගකීම තමයි ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව රැක ගැනීම. අපේ ආර්ථිකය නිසි කළමනාකාරිත්වයක් තුළ ගෙන යාම. මේ රජයට එවැනි කිසිම කළමනාකාරිත්වයක් නෑ. ඔහේ ඉබාගාතේ දුවන රුවල් කැඩිච්ච නැවක් තත්ත්වයකට ආණ්ඩුව පත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒ හා සමානවම රටේ සෑම අංශයක්ම කඩා වැටිලා තියෙනවා. රටේ ජනතාව තුළ තියෙන්නෙත් බලාපොරොත්තු කඩ වීමක්.   රජයේ කිසිම කෙනෙක් කිසිම කතාවක දී මේ ගැන කිසිම වචනයක් කතා කරන්නේ නැහැ. මේ නිසා ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන්ම අපේ රටේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයාට ප්‍රධාන ප්‍රශ්න තුනකට උත්තර දෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. එකක් රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව රැකගන්නෙ කොහොමද කියන එක. දෙවැනි එක තමයි ජාතික ආර්ථිකය ගොඩනගලා වඩා හොඳ සුබදායි අනාගතයක් ජනතාවට දෙන්නේ කොහොමද කියන එක. තුන් වෙන එක තරුණයින් සඳහා වන ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාවලිය කුමක්ද කියන එක. ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව ඉතා වැදගත්. ඒක නොතකා ඔහේ ඉබාගාතේ රටට යන්න දුන්න එකේ ප්‍රතිඵලය තමයි ඉතාම කුඩා කණ්ඩායමක් ආගමික අන්තවාදය මතු කරලා මේ රට ඇතුළේ විශාල පීඩනයක් එල්ල කරපු එක.
ඕනෑම රටක ඔත්තු සේවා ආරක්ෂක අංශ වල බිඳ වැටීමක් සිදු වෙච්ච අවස්ථාවක රට ඇතුලත හෝ පිටතින් ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ලවීමෙ ඉඩ වැඩියි. අපේ රටට සිද්ධ වුනෙත් ඒක. මේ ප්‍රහාරය ඉන්දියාව වලක්ව ගත්තා. ලංකාවේ මේක ඇති තරම් තොරතුරු දීලා තිබිලත් වලක්වගන්න බැරි වුණා. කවුරු මොනවා කිව්වත් රටේ ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබඳව කාටවත් වගේ වගවිභාගයක් තිබුනෙ නැති බවයි අපේ අදහස. 2014 වර්ෂයේ අග වෙනකොට රටේ දළ ජාතික නිෂ්පාදනයේ වර්ධනය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් 6.8 ක්  විතර වුණා. 2018 වෙන කොට ඒක 3.8 ට අඩු වෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ අවුරුද්ද අවසාන වෙනකොට මේක තව 2.4 ක ට විතර අඩු වෙයි කියලා අපි හිතනවා. අපේ  කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් බිඳ වැටිලා තියෙනවා. ඉදිකිරීම් කර්මාන්තය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඇන හිටලා තියෙනවා. ඒ සඳහා තිබෙන අමුද්‍රව්‍ය, විශේෂයෙන්ම පුපුරණ ද්‍රව්‍ය ලබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි නිසා මෙි ක්ෂේත්‍රය අඩාල වෙලා. ඒ පිළිබඳව ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නිර්මාණය කරන්න තවමත් මේ රජය අපොහොසත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. පුපුරන ද්‍රව්‍ය පාවිච්චි කරලා ඉදිකිරීම් කර්මාන්තයට අවශ්‍ය කළුගල් ආදිය කඩන විශාල පිරිසක් සේවකයොත් එක්ක ම අද අතරමං වෙලා. ඒ අය ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්  හමුවෙනවා. අපිට කියනවා. බලධාරීන් හම්බවෙනවා. හැබැයි තවමත් විසදුමක් ලැබිලා නැහැ ලැබිල නැහැ. ඒ නිසා ඉදිකිරීම් කර්මාන්තය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඇන හිටලා.  ගල් වැලි නැතුව ඉදිකිරීම් කර්මාන්තය කරන්නේ කොහොමද. එහෙමනම් ඒකට වෙන ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වලා දෙන්න ඕන. කෘෂිකර්මය කඩාවැටිලා. සියළුම කෘෂි නිෂ්පාදන වල මිල සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම පහත වැටිලා. මේ පවතින කාලගුණ විපර්යාසයන් මැද ඉදිරියේ    ලොකු අස්වැන්නක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න බැහැ.
ඒ නිසා සහල් මිල ඉහළ යාමේ ප්‍රවණතාවක් තියෙනවා. නමුත් ඒ හා සමග නිෂ්පාදනය ඉහළ දමන්න රජය කිසි දෙයක් කරන්නේ නැහැ. සුළු අපනයන බෝග සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම කඩා වැටිලා. විකුණගන්න බැරිව වවන්නේ මොකටද කියලා ගොවියෝ අහනවා. අපේ පැත්තෙ පොල් ඉඩම් වල  මෙි මුරේ පොල්  කැඩුවෙ නැහැ. කඩන මිනිහටත් සල්ලි දීලා තව අහුලන කෙනාටත් ගෙවලා පොල් ගෙඩිය රුපියල් විස්සට තිහට විකුණල ලාභයක් ගන්න බැහැ. ලංකාවේ වියලි පොල් නිෂ්පාදන වලට හැමදාම ඉහළ මිලක් ලැබුණේ ලංකාවේ පොල් වල තියෙන ගුණාත්මක භාවය නිසයි. පසුගිය කාලයේ මේ ආණ්ඩුව පොල් මද පිටරටින් ගේන්න ඉඩ දුන්නා.  ඒ නිසා වියලි පොල් වල අපිට තිබුණු තවය පහළ වැටුණා. ඒ නිසා දැන් අපේ රටේ වියළි පොල් වල මිල තායිලන්තයේ ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ තත්ත්වයට පහත වැටිලා තියෙනවා. ඩොලර් 3.5 ක ට වික්ක   වියලි පොල් කිලෝ එක ඩොලර් 1.5 ක් දක්වා අඩු වෙලා. දැන් ලෝකෙ වෙළෙඳපොළ දන්නවා අපේ පොල්වලින් නෙමෙයි මේ නිෂ්පාදනය කරන්නේ කියලා. ඒ වගේ හැම අංශයක්ම මේ ආණ්ඩුව විනාශ කළා. මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ තියෙන අකාර්යක්ෂමතාවය අනිත් අයටත ්පටවනවා. ඒ නිසා දැන් 225ම හොඳ නෑ කියලා කියනවා.  225ම හොඳ නැහැයි කියන්නෙ අපි  ආන්ඩුවේ හිටියේ නැහැනෙ.් මේ අවුරුද්ද ඇතුලේ මෙි ආණ්ඩුවේ ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාවලිය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනත් පැත්තට හැරවිලා තියෙනවා. විශේෂයෙන්ම අපි පිළිගන්න ඕනේ අපේ රටේ අද අලුත් තරුණ පරම්පරාවක් හැදිලා තියෙනවා.  පිටරට විශ්වවිද්‍යාලවල ඉගෙන ගන්න තරුණ පිරිස් අපේ රටට ආපහු එන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ අය කැමති නැහැ දේශපාලඥයන් ගේ පස්සේ ගිහිල්ලා රස්සාවල් ගන්න. ඒ නිසා රටේ ආර්ථික ක්‍රමය තුළ දේශපාලඥයා විසින් රැකියා ලබා දෙන ක්‍රමය වෙනසක් කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි. කාටත් සාධාරණ ක්‍රමයක් රාජ්‍ය සේවය ඇතුළෙ අපි හදන්න ඕන. රාජ්‍ය සේවයේ වැඩක් කරගන්න ගිය කිසිදු කෙනෙකුට තවත් කෙනෙකුගේ බලපෑමක් නැතිව ඉතා ඉක්මනින් වැඩ කරලා දෙන ක්‍රමයක් අපිට අවශ්‍යයි. අපේ දේශපාලන ක්ෂේත්‍රය තුල තියෙන අකාර්යක්ෂමතාවය ගොඩනගන්න පුළුවන් ජනාධිපතිවරයෙක් වැඩපිළිවෙළක් පිළිබඳව පොදුජන   පෙරමුණ කටයුතු කරල තියෙනවා. ඒ පිළිබඳව අවශ්‍ය වැඩ කටයුතු කරගෙන යනවා. අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ අපේක්ෂකයෝ කිහිපදෙනෙක් ගැන කතා කරනවා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්තයා, කරු ජයසූරිය මහතා, සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස  යන මහත්වරුන් ගැන  ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කතා කරනවා. මේ කවුරුවත් අපිට ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ. ඒක ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී අයිතියක්. නමුත් විවේචනය කිරීමේ අයිතිය අපට තියෙනවා.
රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිතුමා අද අසාර්ථක පාලකයක් වෙලා ඉවරයි.   එතුමා ට ජනාධිපතිවරණයකට ඇවිත් ලොකු වැඩක් කරන්න හම්බ වෙන්නේ නැහැ.  කරූ ජයසූරිය රජතුමා තමන් ජනාධිපති කියලා හිතාගෙන ප්‍රධාන පෙළේ පුද්ගලයින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට කැඳවමින් ඉන්නවා. විදේශ ඇමති වරයා කැඳවන්න ඕනෑ තානාපතිවරුන් කතානායක වරයා කැඳවනවා. ආරක්ෂක නිලදාරීන් කැඳවනවා. ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබඳ ප්‍රධා්න්ීන්  කතානායක වරයා කැඳවනවා. කවදාවත් එහෙම තත්ත්වයක් තිබුණේ නෑ. ලංකාවේ එක් අවස්ථාවක ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධන ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඉන්න කාලෙ බකීර් මාකර්  කතානායකවරයා මේ වගේ තානාපතිවරු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට කැද වූවා. ජනාධිපතිවරයා බාකීර් මාකර් කතානායක වරයා ව ඉවත් කලා.හැමෝම හැමදේම කරන්න ගියාම මේ රටේ කවුද පාලකයා කියලා හොයාගන්න බැරි වෙනවා. අද මේ රට ඇත්තටම පාලනය කරන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාද අගමැතිවරයාද එහෙම නැත්තං අලුතෙන්ම රට පාලනය කරන   කතානායක වරයාද කියන එක කවුරුත් දන්නෑ. මේක අද තුන්  ඈ ඳුතු නවකතාවක් වෙලා තියෙනවා. මේ තුන් දෙනාම දන්නෙ නෑ තමන්ගේ කාර්යභාරය මොකක්ද කියලා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය බරපතළ   ප්‍රශ්නයකට මුහුණ දීලා ඉන්න බව පේනවා. තමන්ගේම අපේක්ෂකයා පිළිබඳව ඔවුන්ට නිවැරදි තක්සේරුවක් කරගන්න බැරිවෙලා තියෙනවා. පසුගිය සතියේ නිවාස අධිකාරිය හතළිස් වන සංවත්සරය පැවැත්වූවා. අවුරුදු හතළිහක දී  නිවාස අධිකාරිය තුල ජනාධිපති ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා කළ ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය ඒ කියන්නේ හුදකලාව ගෙවල් සෑදීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයෙන් ඉවත් වෙන්න පුතාටවත් බැරිවෙලා තියනව. හුදකලා ගෙවල් ටිකක් ඉඩම් ගොඩ කරමින් කැළෑ කපමින් හදන බව අපට පේනවා. ඒවත් මිනිස්සුන්ට ණය දීලා තමයි කරන්නෙ. මේ වෙනුවට අද අපේ රටට  ගැලපෙන විදිහට ක්‍රමවේදයක් සකස් කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි. අපේ භූමි ප්‍රමාණය සීඝ්‍රයෙන් අඩු වෙමින් තිබෙනවා.  කෟෂි කාර්මික ඉඩම් විශාල වශයෙන් නිවාස තැනීමට යොදනවා. ඊට වෙනස් වන  දියුණු  ලෝකයේ වැඩි පිළිවෙළක් හදාගන්න අවුරුදු හතලිහකට පස්සෙත් නිවාස අධිකාරිය අසමත් වෙලා තියෙනවා.
ජාතිය ගොඩ නැගෙන අලූත් ක්‍රමවේදයක් නිර්මාණය කරන්න මේ සියලු දෙනා අසමත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ඔය  කියන අපේක්ෂකයෝ තුන්දෙනාම අසමත් වූ තුන් දෙනෙක්. මේ අසමර්ථ වූ තුන්දෙනාගෙන් ලොකු දේවල් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න රටකට බැහැ. ඒ නිසා රටට අලුත් අදහස් අලුත් බලාපොරොත්තු අලුත් වැඩ පිළිවෙලක් සහිත අපේක්ෂකයෙක් අවශ්‍යයි. මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ කවුරු අපේක්ෂකත්වයට ආවත් ඔහු පරදින බව අපි ඉතාමත් වුවමනාවෙන් කියන්න කැමතියි.
දැන් මේ රටේ පාලනය හුඟක් දුරට විදෙස් ජාතිකයින් සතු ව  පවතිනවා. පසුගිය කාලේ තර්කයක් ආව මිලේනියම් කෝපරේෂන් කියන ආයතනයේ  ලංකාවේ නියෝජිතයින් ඉන්නෙ  අරලියගහ මන්දිරය කියලා. අපි දැක්කා සිංගප්පූරු ජාතිකයෙක් හැටියට අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා මහ බැංකු අධිපති හැටියට පත් කරලා රටට කරපු විනාශය. ඔහුට   ප්‍රශ්නයක් ආවහම රට පැන්නා. කවුද අල්ලන්න යන්නේ.    
මේ ආණ්ඩුව ස්වදේශිකයින් මත රැඳුණු පරිපාලන තන්ත්‍රය ක්‍රමානුකූලව බාහිර විදේශීය බලවේගවලට පවරා දෙමින් ඉන්නවා. මේක අපිට පේන්නෙ නැහැ. නමුත් එක සිදුවෙනවා. මේ නිසා තමයි අපේ රටේ පාලකයින් බොහොම දුර්වල පුද්ගලයින් ලෙස ක්‍රියා කරන්නේ. අපේ රටේ පාලන තන්ත්‍රය තුළ තිබෙන ස්වදේශික තත්ත්වය ස්වයිරිත්වය අපි ආරක්ෂාකරගත යුතුයි. පුළුවන් රටවලින් ආධාර උපකාර ගන්න ගමන් රටවල් වල මිත්‍රත්වය පවත්වා ගෙන යන ගමන් ගෝලිය වශයෙන් රටවල ණයකාරයන් බවට පත්වෙන එකෙන්  වලකින්න අවශ්‍යයි. අපේ ජාතික ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාවලිය හසුරු වීමේ බලය ඔවුන්ට ලබා දෙන්න කොහෙත්ම හොඳ නැහැ. ඒ නිසා තමයි අපි කියන්නේ මේ ආණ්ඩුව හැම අතින්ම දුර්වල ආණ්ඩුවක් කියලා. දුර්වල ආණ්ඩුවක් තියෙන හැම විටම බාහිර බලපෑම් බහුල වෙනවා.  ශක්තිමත් ආණ්ඩුවක් තියෙන හැම මොහොතකම මේ බාහිර බලපෑම් අවම වෙනවා. එහෙම තමයි සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිනිය බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිතුමා මේ රටේ බි්‍රතාන්‍යයන් සතුව තිබුණු ප්‍රධාන කඳවුරු දෙකක් ඉවත් කළේ. ඊට පස්සේ ඔවුන්ට පුළුවන් වුණා ඛනිජ තෙල් ආධිපත්‍ය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාව කියන ආයතනය හදලා ස්වදේශිකයන්ට භාරදෙන්න.   මේ හැම නායකයෙක්ම මේවා කෙරුවේ රටවල් එක්ක තිබෙන  තරහට නෙවෙයි. ඔවුන් දැනගෙන හිටියා මේ රටවල් ලංකාව ඇතුලේ හිටියොත් දේශපාලන තත්වයට ඇඟිලි ගහනවා, බලපානවා කියලා. අද අපිට ඒක හොඳට පේනවා.  ඒ තරම් හීන දීන භාවයට මේ රජය පත්වෙලා තිබෙනවා. මේ නිසා අද අපට වගකීමක් තිබෙනවා අපේ ආර්ථිකය සහ ආරක්ෂාව  ගොඩ නැංවීමට සහ තරුණ පරම්පරාව පිළිබඳ අදහස් උදහස් සැලකීමට    පුළුවන් සමාජ තලයක් නිර්මාණය කරලා හැමෝටම ජීවත් වෙන්න පුළුවන් වටපිටාවක් නිර්මාණය කරන්න. ඊළඟට අපෙන් පත්වන ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයාට ඒ වගකීම පැවරීම අපේ බලාපොරොත්තුවයි. ඒ සඳහා අපි සියලු දෙනාම එකතුවෙලා ඉන්නවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී එස්. එම්.  චනද්‍රසේන මහතා
මේ දවස් වල කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය විශාල වශයෙන් කඩා වැටිලා තියෙනවා. පසුගිය කන්නයේ  බඩඉරිගු වගාවට සේනා කියන දළඹුවා  මගින් විශාල හානියක් සිද්ධ වුණා.  එහෙම තියෙද්දී   ඉතුරු උන අස්වැන්න ග්‍රාමීය මට්ටමේ වෙළඳ ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ මිලදී අරගෙන ගබඩා කළා.  ඒක තමා ඉතිහාසයේ ඉඳලා පැවතගෙන එන ක්‍රමය. මිල ඉහල යනකම් සාමාන්‍ය වෙළෙන්දෝ බඩ ඉරිගු ගබඩා කරගන්නවා. පසුගිය කාලය තුළ රජය  පිටරටින් විශාල වශයෙන් බඩඉරිගු ගෙන්නලා තියෙනවා. දැන් අර ගබඩා කරපු බඩඉරිඟු විකුණගන්න විදිහක් නැහැ.
ඒවට ගුල්ලෝ  ගහන්න පටන් අරගෙන. මේක නම් පුදුමාකාර ආණ්ඩුවක්. කවුද මේවා කරන්නෙ කියලා හිතාගන්න බැහැ. කිසිම පාලනයක් නැහැ. කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයේ ඉන්න ඔක්කොම සීසීකඩ වෙලා. අගමැති තුමා වත් ඇමතිවරු වත් කරන දේ එකිනෙකා දන්නෙ නැහැ. මෙික කැඳහැළියක් වෙලා ඉවරයි. ආර්ථික මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙළෙඳ   පොළවල් වලින් මට කතාකරනවා. අද දුර පළාත්වල රුපියල් විස්සට විකුණගන්න බැරි එළවළු කිලෝ එක කොළඹ රුපියල් සීයය.ි සමහර එළවළු විකුණගන්න බැරිව අලින්ට දානවා. කාණු වලට විසි කරලා යනවා. ගොවි ජනතාවට ජීවත් වෙන්න විදිහක් නැහැ. ඒ නිසා ගොවි ජනතාව ගොවිතැනින් ඉවත් වෙනවා. ඒක භයානක තත්ත්වයක.් ගොවිතැනින් ඉවත් වෙලා තරුණ කණ්ඩායම් නගරෙට ඇවිල්ල ගොඩනැගිලි වල අත්වැඩ කරුවෝවෙලා  සිමෙන්ති අදින   තත්වෙට පත්වෙලා තියෙනවා .කොහොමද මේ කෘෂිකාර්මික රටක් ගොඩ ගන්නේ. අපේ ආණ්ඩුව කාලේ අපි පිට රටටත් හාල් යැව්වා. ඉතියෝපියාවටත් අපි හාල් නැවක් ඇරියා.  අන්තිමට අපි ඒ ආණ්ඩුව භාර දෙනකොට වී අලෙවි මණ්ඩලයේ වී ගබඩා ටික පිරිලා.  සමුපකාර ගබඩාවලත් වී පිරිලා. හැරිසන් ඇමතිතුමා ගිහිල්ලා වී  වැඩියි කියලා මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපලේ  හොඳට හෝ නරකට හෝ වී ගබඩා කලා.
එතුමා වැඬේ කලේ වෙන අරමුණක් ඇතිවය.ි කොහොමහරි වී ගබඩා කරන්න මත්තල තෝරාගත්තා. ඒ වගේ රටක තමයි අද මන්දපෝෂණයෙන් දරුවො මැරෙන්නෙ.් හම්බන්තොට මොනරාගල ප්‍රදේශවල විතරක් නොවේ සමහර ප්‍රදේශවල  ජනතාව අද මුරුන්ගා කොල තම්බලා කන තත්ත්වයට, නෙළුම් අල හාරලා කන තත්ත්වයට පත් වෙලා. ඒ වගේ දර්ශන ඒ පැත්තට ආවොත් බලා ගන්න පුළුවන්.හික්කඩුව පැත්තේ කුරුදු වගා කරන අය පෙළපාලියක් ගියා. රුපියල් 2000 තිබිච්ච කුරුඳු  කිලෝ එක රුපියල් දාහට බැහැලා. දැන්   මංගල සමරවීර ඇමතිතුමාට තියෙන්නෙ කුරුඳු පොලු ටික කපා ගන්න එක තමයි.
 දැන් ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා පිළිබඳව කතා කරනවා. රවි කරුණානායක ඇමතිවරයා කියනවා තාත්තා   සහ පවුලේ අය දේශපාලනයේ හිටියට ඒක සුදුසුකමක් නෙවෙයි ජනාධිපති තනතුරට කියලා. සාමාන්‍ය පෙළ වත් නැත්නම් මේ තනතුරට සුදුසු නැහැ කියලා එතුමා කියනවා. ඇත්තටම ඒක පිළිගන්න ඕන කාරණයක්.  තවත් සමහරු තමන්ගේ සුදුසුකම් ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමැතිතුමා කියනවා ජනතාව තමන්ටත් ඉල්ලන්න කියනවා කියලා. හැබැයි සල්ලි නැහැ කියලා. සයිටම් ප්‍රශ්න ගැන දන්න අය හැමෝම දන්නවා එතුමාට සල්ලි තියෙනවද නැද්ද කියලා. ආණ්ඩුවේ පිරිස ජනාධිපතිවරණයට සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණය තම තමන්ම කරගන්න තත්ත්වයට පත්වෙලා තියෙනවා. තව කන්නාඩි දාන උස  කෙනෙක් තමන්ගේ සුදුසුකම් කියනවා. කථානායක කරු ජයසූරිය මැතිතුමා කියනවා පක්ෂය ඇතුළේ කැමැත්ත තියෙන්නෙ තමන්ටයි කියලා.
තවත් පිරිසක් කියනවා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පක්ෂ නායකයා අපේක්ෂකයා විය යුතුයි කියලා. මේ විදිහට ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකත්වයට තම තමන්ගේ සුදුසුකම් කියන අතරේ රට බල්ලට ගිහිල්ලා. ඊයේ පෙරේදා කාදිනල්තුමා කිව්වා දැන් උඹලා හිටියා ඇති පලයල්ලා කියලා. අපේ නායක හාමුදුරුවෝ කියන්නේත් උඹලා පලයල්ලා කියලා. රටේ ජනතාවත් ඒකම කියනවා. දුම්මල ගහලවත් එලෝ ගන්න බැරි එක තමයි අද ප්‍රශ්නේ වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. අපේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයාට ඉතාම හොඳට සුදුසුකම් තියෙනවා.   එතුමා ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශය ලේකමි විදිහට අවුරුදු තිහක් තිබිච්ච එල්ටීටීඊ ත්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කරන්න පෙරමුණ ගත්තා. නාගරික සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්  වරයා වශයෙන් ඉඳගෙන ඒ කටයුත්ත ඉතාම හොඳින් කරා. ඒ නිසා අපේ අපේක්ෂකයාට ඉතාම හොඳ සුදු තියෙනවා. අපිට ඉන්නෙ එක අපේක්ෂක යයි.
ඒ අතරේ මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපති තුමා දැන් කියනවා පළාත් සභා  පුළුවන් තරම් ඉක්මනින් තියන්න ඕනෙ කියලා. උතුරු මැද ,නැගෙනහිර සහ සබරගමුව දැන් අවුරුදු දෙකක් පුරා මැතිවරණ නවත්තල තියෙන්නෙ. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට කලින් පළාත් සභා දිනන්න බැරි වුණොත් තමන් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙනවා කියලා මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපති වරයා කිව්වා. ජනාධිපතිවරණය ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන්න තව තියෙන්නේ මාස දෙකයි.  එහෙම තත්ත්වයක් තුළ පළාත් සභා මැතිවරනයක් තියන්න කාලයක් නැහැ. ඒ නිසා අපි කියනවා හිත හදාගෙන, අවුල් කරන්නෙ නැතුව   ජනාධිපතිවරණය හරියාකාරව කරන්න කියලා. මාස දෙකක් ඇතුලත පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණයක් කියන්න බැහැ.
 වෛද්‍යවරු කණ්ඩායමක් ඊයේ මාව හම්බවෙන්න ආවා. රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමතිවරයා පිළිබඳව කාරණා දහයක් පිළිබඳ බරපතළ වැරැද්දක් ඔවුන් පෙන්වා දෙනවා.ඊට එරෙහිව අත්සන් ලක්ෂ ගානක් එකතු කරන්න ඔවුන් කටයුතු කරා. අපි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගේන විශ්වාසභංග යට ගහන නිසා මහජනතාවගේ අස්සනින් විශ්වාසභංගයක් ගේන්නයි ඔවුන් මේ කටයුත්ත කළේ. අනුරාධපුර  රෝහලේ එක කළා.  කළුතර කරන්න ගියාට පස්සේ කුරුදු පොලු ප්‍රහාරය වගේ වෛද්‍යවරුන්ට ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කළා. ඒක අද වෙනකොට රටේ විශාල අවුලක් නිර්මාණය කරලා තියෙනවා රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමතිවරයා සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය භාර ගත්ත දවසේ ඉඳලා මේ කරපු වැරදි වැඩ  සහ වැරදි පාලනය නිසා අමාත්‍යාංශය කඩා වැටිලා. වෛද්‍යවරුත් එක්ක ගහගෙන   සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශය  අරගෙන යන්න කවදාවත් බැහැ. ඒක නිසා මේ රටේ  ජනතාව තමයි වන්දි ගෙවන්නේ. මේ වෛද්‍යවරුන් ගෙන් පලිගන්න කටයුත්ත නවත්තන්න කියලා අපි ඉල්ලනවා. අසරණ ජනතාවගේ ජීවිතත් එක්කයි මේ සෙල්ලම් කරන්නේ කියලා අපි පැහැදිලිව කියන්න ඕන.
පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය තියන්න කාලයක් නැත්තං අද හෙට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇතුළේ අත්සන් 150ක් අරගෙන මහ මැතිවරණයකට යන්න පුළුවන්.

  ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ

ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීම සහ තිරසාර වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සදහා වූ ජාතික ප‍්‍රතිපත්තියක් සැකසීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ වන විට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හා සෙසු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ සාකච්ඡුා ආරම්භ කොට ඇත. ඒ අනුව අද (25* පෙරවරුවේ ඊ. පී. ඞී. පී පක්ෂය, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය සහ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදි වාමාංශික පෙරමුණ යන පක්ෂ සමග නෙලූම් මාවතේ් පිහිටි ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප‍්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදි සාකච්ඡුා වට කිහිපයක් පැවැත්විනි. විශේෂඥ කමිටු විසිහයක් යටතේ සහ ගම සමග පිළිසදරක් වැඩ පිළීවෙල යටතේ ගම් මට්ට්ටමෙන් රැුස් කළ තොරතුරුත් සමග ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හා එක්ව කටයුතු කරන දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල යෝජනාද ඇතුළත් කරමින් අනාගතයේදි කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරිමට නියමිත මෙම ජාතික ප‍්‍රතිපත්තිය සකස් කෙරෙයි.

අදාල දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල යෝජනා සහ අදහස් ලිඛිතව ලබාදීමටත්, ප‍්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදක කමිටු සදහා නියෝජතයින් සහභාගි කරවීමටත් මෙහිදි එකගත්වය පළවිය.

එමෙන්ම රටට අහිතකර ගිවිසුම්, රාජ්‍ය දේපල පෞද්ගලීකරණය, ඇතුලූ මාතෘභූමිය අභියෝගයට ලක්කරන තීින්දුවලට එරෙහිවත්, ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කර සුරක්ෂිත රටක් බිහිකිරීම උදෙසාත් ඉදිරි මැතිවරණවලදී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ විරෝධී බලමුලූවක් ලෙස එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමේ වැදගත්කම පක්ෂ නියෝජිතයින්ගේ දැඩි අවධානයට ලක්විය.

ඊ. පි. ඞී. පී පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්දා මහතා ඇතුලූ මහජන නියෝජිතයින් පිරිසක්ද, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයේ ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම් ඞීව්. ගුණසේකර මහතා ඇතුලූ පිරිසක්ද, ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී වාමාංශික පෙරමුණ නියෝජනය කරමින් පක්ෂයේ නියෝජ්‍ය ලේකම් ජී. වී. ඩි. තිලකසිරි මහතා ඇතුලූ පිරිසක්ද, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නියෝජනය කරමින් පක්ෂයේ නිර්මාතෘ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා, පක්ෂයේ ලේකම් සාගර කාරියවසම් මහතා, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර අනුර පි‍්‍රයදර්ශන යාපා, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී‍්‍ර සි. බී. රත්නායක මහතා ඇතුලූ පිරිසක් ද සහභාගි වූහ.

360 with Udaya Gammanpila 

පසුගිය සදුදා (24) දෙරණ 360 වැඩසටහන හා සම්බන්ධ වූ පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි නීතිඥ උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා වෙත ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රශ්න රාශියක් ඉදිරිපත් විය.

ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා යම් හෙයකින් සිර ගත කළහොත් ඔහුට ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වීමේ අවස්ථාව අහිමි වන බවට පවතින මතය සාධක සහිතව බිඳ දැමූ ගම්මන්පිල මන්ත්‍රිවරයා සිරගත කළ ද ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජනපති කරන ආකාරය පිළිබඳ විශේෂ හෙළි දරව්වක් සිදු කළේය.

එමෙන්ම ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සිදු කරන ලද සැත්කමේ සත්‍ය තත්වය හා ඔහුගේ ඇමරිකානු පුරවැසිභාවය සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද වැදගත් කරුණු රාශියක් උදය ගම්මන්පිල මන්ත්‍රිවරයා දෙරණ 360 වැඩ සටහනේ දී අනාවරණය කළේය.

 Ranmini Gunasekara Courtesy Ceylon Today

If Sri Lanka does not take a stand against the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) immediately, there will be no turning back, claimed Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa today (25).

He was speaking at a Media conference organised by the STOP United States of America (USA) organisation.

As we speak, the United States Military ship and Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is anchored near the Trincomalee harbour. This vessel belongs to the US Indo-Pacific Command. This Indo-Pacific Command is responsible for Military operations in an area which encompasses 52 per cent of the Earth’s surface. We know that 26,000 of the soldiers of the Indo-Pacific Command are stationed in Japan whilst 24,000 are stationed in South Korea. Currently, Task Force 73, a US Navy task force of the US Seventh Fleet is stationed in this vessel off the Trincomalee harbour,” he claimed.

He further alleged that this Military task force was biding its time until the Sri Lankan Government signs the SOFA and the ACSA.

They’re all waiting for us to sign those Agreements. But none of these agreements have even been presented to the Parliament nor has the Government made the citizens aware of it. Even Ministers haven’t been given a proper briefing as to what these two entail,” he further claimed.

Weerawansa also said the US Government has aided in the construction of four buildings that can house up to 4,000 people in Batticaloa.

We don’t know whether this is to house people who are displaced from a disaster. But what is this disaster that only affects Batticaloa that only the US knows about?”

He also alleged that the US Company Trimble has now taken over the Survey Department of Sri Lanka, and that even the American Bar Association has asked to set up office in Sri Lanka.

China hasn’t asked us to open up an office here for their Bar Association, neither has India, so why does America want one so badly? This is to make sure that their contractors, officials and Military officers, receive immunity from Sri Lankan law. Even if they were to assault a Sri Lankan woman, they will not be taken to Court. On the one off chance that they are arrested, the American Bar Association will intervene,” claimed Weerawansa.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the Media conference, MP Udaya Gammanpila said that the time has arrived for Sri Lanka to find friends in countries that will not intervene in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

The time has come for us to find allies that will not intervene in our internal affairs. Even if this agreement was for a certain time period, what happens when the time period is over and if the US refuses to leave? If this was the Maldives, Bangladesh or Nepal coming into our country and refusing to leave, we can chase them out. But are we strong enough to do the same with the US?”, he said.

He further said if these Agreements are signed, even a change in Government at the next Elections will not stop the US.

If we are to stop this, we need to do it now. This is not something that can be accomplished by just politicians. All of us need to lay aside our religious or racial biases and stand together to support the movement to ‘STOP USA’,” he added.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has proposed for a national-level commission to overlook the investigations carried out regarding illegal sterilization charges against Dr. Mohamed Shafi.

This proposal came as a recommendation of the committee appointed by the GMOA to inquire into the case.

The relevant committee published their report on the inquiry and findings today (25).
The report further says that all parties involved in the case will be aggrieved through the investigation carried out by the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shafi has filed a Fundamental Rights petition with the Supreme Court requesting to declare his arrest and detention as unlawful.

When Sinhala Buddhists speak of existential fears, there are justifiable and valid reasons for doing so. Historically, all of Buddhist territory in Central Asia such as e.g. Afghanistan, Gandhara, Kashmir, Bactria, Samarkand, Bukhara, Tukharistan, Bamiyan, Kabul, Sindh, Balkh, Swat Valley, and South Asia such as Bangladesh, Buddhist India, Maldives, and South East Asia such as Indonesia, Malaya  during the last one thousand three hundred years have been lost to the sword and Buddhists either killed or converted. Theravada Buddhist nations, for example, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and even Sri Lanka, today are fighting to survive under creeping incursions shrouded by liberal, deceptive slogans such as multi – culturalism and reconciliation, to mislead the Sinhala people.   Ethnic and Religious harmony prevailed in the country under tolerant Buddhist Kings right through our history, until European colonial rulers beginning with the Portuguese commenced their ‘Divide and Rule’ policies in 1505.

The historic events that lost Buddhist territory find eerie similarities to the current wave of incursions that are claiming Buddhist heritage sites e.g. Sri Pada, turning Buddhist historic places e.g. Buddha Gaya in India, Maha Nuwara (Kandy), Anuradhapura, Dambulla to multicultural sites and towns with Mosques proliferating by the day using screaming loudspeakers disturbing the serene atmosphere in the citadels of Buddhism, confiscating Buddhist temple lands and incrementally achieving a globalist objective using terrorism like their ancestors did in other Asian countries.

This strategy has been made very clear by those that carried out Easter Sunday mass murders. Therefore, any national leader expecting to come to power on the strength of the Buddhist Sinhala votes must first agree to protect the majority group that built the country’s historic and unique Buddhist civilization that has lasted for over 2000 years.

The Sinhalese have only this country to call their own and identify themselves with. They lack the luxury and privilege to link their ethnic and religious identity to territories (aka traditional homelands) in the Middle East, South India or Europe.

Given these realities, we ask 15 simple questions for a future Presidential candidate to answer.  

If you want to be President of Sri Lanka ….

1. Will you recognize Sri Lanka as one indivisible unitary country?  
2. Will you ensure that no ethno-religious ghetto areas exist & take steps to ensure all such areas are open for all citizens to live in, to ensure ethnic harmony?
3. Will you give pride of place to Sinhala Buddhists (the Bhumiputras) who built this nation and who have to be recognized and acknowledged for that singular service, by establishing a Buddhist Social Order based on Ahimsa (non – violence), Metta (loving kindness) and Karuna (compassion)for all living beings? 
4. Will you take steps to ensure that one Law applies to all citizens in line with Article 12 of the National Constitution where every individual is equal before the law?  This means that all special laws granting separate privileges to members of an ethno-religious community are repealed. There can be no parallel laws and certainly NO shariah laws (full or part)
5. Will you ensure that there is only one criminal law for all citizens/no parallel criminal laws? The existing provisions in the Penal Code against the offense of Bigamy must apply across the board, without excepting one individual, creed or adherents of a religion? In other words, there must be Zero tolerance of the shameful medieval practice of Polygamy.  
6. Will you take steps to stop use of the name of a religion for trade purposes, banking, food, commercial activities, clothing, political parties, etc. that contributes to further division of the society? 
7. Will you embark on developing a Population policy to ensure that no ethnic or religious group use the freedom to procreate in a competitive manner to steal a march over other communities and increase their numbers by stealth with a medium to long term strategy to take hold of the political power of the country?  Limit the number of spouses to one and number of children to three children maximum.
8. Will you ensure that mechanisms are in place to stop external funds going direct to any ethno-religious group? Any bilateral ties mean countries that fund programs do so for Sri Lankan citizens and the govt has to allocate funds proportionately.
9. Will you place mechanisms to monitor & take actions against any community disproportionately promoting their faith across Sri Lanka? In other words, 10% of the country’s population belonging to a particular faith should be entitled to only 10% of the total number of the places of worship in the country. No group should be allowed to change the cultural and religious landscape of the country which is quint essentially Buddhist since historic times.  Historic Buddhist centres and towns such as Anuradhapura, Kandy, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Mihintale, Mahiyangana, and the like must be protected such that the historic Buddhist character of these sites is not allowed to be rapidly changed with constructions of another religion to envelope and mask the pre – existing Buddhist sites and cultural atmosphere. There must be a moratorium on Mosque proliferation.    
10. Will you ensure all public servants and Ministers promulgate strict regulations on public building architecture, residential architecture, new places of worship registrations, monitoring new religious cultures etc.?
11. Will you take steps to revive the Animal Friendly Cultural Heritage we had in the pre-colonial era and enact the Animal Welfare Bill prepared by the Law Commission without any further delay? And put a stop to the barbaric practice of Animal Sacrifice which has soiled the Buddhist image of the country.
12. Will you appoint a Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the conduct of the Mass Media ( Press, TV etc.) along the lines of the K.D. De Silva Press Commission (1964)– covering its role in creating disharmony, hate speech against Buddhism, and Buddhist leaders and Maha sangha, column coverage by ethnic ratio, employment policies, media ethics?
13. Will you appoint a Presidential Commission to evaluate the issues that have affected disharmony in order to devise a national policy commencing from Education to all other areas so that peaceful coexistence will not be subject to only words and Buddhist ethical values are upheld and applied in all areas of administration and education?
14. Will you take steps to ensure that the National Anthem be in one language, National Flag retains the imprint of the flag that flew at the time of the handing over of the Kingdom of Kandy to the British in 1815? And History is made a compulsory subject in all schools and Patriotic values are imbibed in children from the time of pre- school?
15. Will you ensure that any denigration of Buddhism, Buddhist practices, National Flag, Sinhala culture in the mainstream and social media is subject to strict curtailment?    

If you assure above, you have won our vote & probably will become the NEXT PRESIDENT OF SRI LANKA.

Shenali D. Waduge