Generally,
all political parties in Sri Lanka have a common problem, which is they don’t
train the next leader for the party to take responsibilities on account of the
country. Next leader of a political
party should be a dynamic characteristic, which has a good education, excellent
attitudes, dynamic skills and broader experience as a person growing and
intelligent person to deal with a dynamic world where emerges unexpected problems
as a result of international or domestic reasons. If we look back the selection of leaders to
political parties it is observable that the election of leaders to political
parties has been the genesis of the destruction of the political parties because
elected new leaders failed to policy invention consistent to the dynamism of
the environment. In this sense, a leader
should not be a marionette of advisors, but an intelligent person to understand
the intention of advisors and the impact of advice.
Mr.
D.S Senanayake was the right leader for UNP at the beginning as his style of
administration and intelligentsia could address the issues faced by Sri Lanka
at the international and domestic level.
There may have disagreements among people on how Mr. Senanayake
addressed the problems. The most
superior aspect of his administration was he never betrayed the nation and the
religion, which highly recognized by any leader of the world. The characteristics of Mr. Dudley Senanayake
was people oriented and a follower of his father’s pathway but he was lack of
initiative in relation to changes in party policies adapting to
modernization. Mr. John Kotelawala was
an excellent determinant and good policy inventor in relation to economic
development and foreign relation, but his temperament was not consistent to the
culture of people and he was too aligned to the West. If the economic policies
and plans of Mr. Kotelawala were successfully implemented in the country, Sri
Lanka would be better than South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan with a strong
foreign asset base and domestic currency value.
However, economic and social inequalities in the country would have dominated
with differences among people.
Mr.
S.W.R.D Bandaranaike was a leader of uniting ordinary people and giving justice
to the rural community through education and cultural development. His economic policies provoked the West and
investors and promoted misguided attitudes among the working class, however,
his leadership promoted the transferring of power of the country from
feudalists to rural educated youths.
Mrs. Bandaranaike had excellent foreign advisors and attitudes to manage
good foreign policy. She continued weak
and inappropriate economic policies and failed to control the behavior of
family members’ influence on government administration and she as a leader had
not understood of modernization.
Mr.
J.R. Jayewardene did the best to UNP as a party leader who clearly understood
modernization and the way should the country go forward. He did many
international tasks that lead Sri Lanka to an internationally recognized
country with Mr. D.S Senanayake and Dudley Senanayake. At the funeral speech of
Mr. Dudley Senanayake before saying “Good Night Sweet Prince,” he
convinced the country that Mr. Dudley Senanayake did everything with him and he
continues Mr. Dudley’s policy in the country. Policymaking using capable leaders of the
party was his stewardship, but unable to successfully direct policies for
ethnic and religious issues. Mr R.
Premadasa had a serious weakness in uniting party heavyweights and according to
his experience with Mr. Gunassinghe, he committed to work for poor by offering
a carrot to them rather than developing strong policies for poor to emerge in
the economic and social field. Mr. Premadasa was a person easy to mislead by
considering his personal interest.
Mrs.
Chandrika Kumaratunga gained popularity, not because of the political dynasty
but the popularity of her actor husband and sympathy for him due to the
assassination. As a leader of the SLFP,
she could not show strong performance but she showed she was perusing for an
unseen recognition or a utopian status than the reality of the country. These
were not important to people from a party leader. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa had to face a gigantic
problem as party leader as well as the leader of the country and he managed it
well with the strong support of his brothers.
He did two most vital tasks defeat of LTTE and attempting to reduce the
inequalities of economic growth between urban and rural. When the West refused to support his
government he successfully associated with China and obtained good economic
supports. Although he lost power in 2015, he was able to able secure the power
as a member of the opposition.
Mr.
Ranil Wickremasinghe had an excellent background to be the party as well as the
leader of the country. The first
negative point for him was the selection to the law faculty for studies because
Mr. Dudley Senanayake had to answer for questions at the upper house regarding
his selection and he became the prime minister when there were more popular and
educated party leaders. There were many fabricated stories about his behaviour,
but they are not important to voters if he works for people. The result of this situation was Mr.
Wickremasinghe did not get full support from the party heavyweight.
Now
the issue is who should be the next leader of UNP. Many talks about Mr. Sajith Premadasa,
however, he has fundamental weaknesses. What are his educational
qualifications, he should openly express to the country? He is too much taking or claiming his
father’s work. Can he produce a photo to
the country that shows he participated in his father’s funeral and produce the
speech given to people at the funeral? What is his policy opinion in relation
to many areas such as foreign policy, economic development, and growth, a new
constitution for the country and many matters?
As a leader like J.R Jayewardene, he must be able to talk about many policies
matters rather than claiming his father’s work. The behaviour of his mother and
his sister was not popular in the country.
Mr.
Rawan Wijewardena has excellent qualities to be the leader of UNP. He has an
excellent family background and relationship to the past leaders of UNP even to
Kings in the country. He has an
excellent education, policy knowledge, and attitudes. However, he cannot defeat Mr. Gotabaya
Rajapaksa as security, policy development, policy correction and a building a
cultural design are the priority in the country. The best thing Mr. Wijewardena
to do is support Mr. Gotabaya and then go to power as a different leader. The
only weakness of Mr. Wijewardena is media bias because his family members owned
Lake House, however, his background is strong, he can get the support of
Sinhala Buddhists and poor people if he convinces right policies to the
country. He has no corrupt behaviour and he is a person with possibilities to
get on with poor and have and share a lunch sitting on the floor. He is a
completely different person from Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe. He never makes hate speeches and very polite
and pleasant characteristic.
A daily paid labourer who was living in appalling condition along Dutch Canal in Alakanda near the CMC garbage dump was helped to build his house with my personal funds.
He tells me that his wife is having chronic asthma.
She had to attend regular clinic in Ragama Teaching.
Hospital. He complained about the service In the hospital.
She has to go to the Ragama Hospital by a three wheeler at 3
am to get number and she had to wait until 3 pm same day to be called by the
doctor
There are over 2000 patients lined up
I am not sure how true this is ,but authorities should look
into this and improve the service to poor people
As my wife works in Private hospital she was asked to come
for a private consultation and we agreed to bear the cost
Minister gets a honorary post in WHO and keep boasting about
the fact the Sri Lankan health service is one of the best In the world and GMOA
having s personalize agenda against him should try to help such poor people
rather than trying to topple the government.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said yesterday President Maithripala Sirisena had no judicial power to pick out four convicts to be executed when there were many others on death row.
SLPP Chairman G.L. Peiris said there were more than a hundred people serving life imprisonment for drug trafficking and asked how the President had picked out four convicts – one woman and three men to be singled out for execution.
How can you pick four people from dozens of people? Is it a matter of chance or coincidence or for political reasons? The President has no judicial power. This is why the SC intervened suspending executions until October 30. The country is convinced that these are just dramas,” he said.
Prof. Peiris said the Justice Ministry has carried out a detailed review of the process of execution when Sirimavo Bandaranaike was Prime Minister and Felix Dias Bandaranaike was Justice Minister.
I saw these documents when I was the Justice Minister. I don’t know what happened to it since then. The main recommendations were that when a person is sentenced to death, first you called for a report from the presiding trial judge asking whether the death penalty should be carried out in all circumstances of the case. Then, there is a second report from the Attorney General.
If both these reports or one of these reports recommended that the death penalty should not be carried out, that is the end of the matter and the death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. If both of them recommend that there are aggravating circumstances and the sentence should be carried out then the reports should be sent to the Justice Minister and the Minister is expected to launch an independent investigation into the circumstances and make a final recommendation to the President,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
The Attorney General will file revision application before the High Court over granting bail to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, says the Attorney General’s Department.
Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne today (09) released the two defendants on bail imposing a surety bail of Rs 500,000 on each of them.
IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were informed to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 2nd.
However, the IGP was admitted to the Police Hospital in Narahenpita while the former Defence Secretary was admitted to the Coronary-Care Unit (CCU) at the National Hospital Colombo over sudden illnesses.
A group of CID officers had arrested the duo in the evening of the same day and ordered to be remanded until the 3rd of July.
Following a lengthy trial, Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne ordered to further remand the suspects until today (09).
The white man landed in Africa and set up his own systems to
rule and divide Africa to plunder. Ironically the same countries are now fine tuning
the very laws they set into motion to facilitate a new wave of plunder. However,
in most of Africa customary land laws prevail and is probably one saving factor
for Africa which unfortunately is not the case for Sri Lanka. What we need to
take stock of is the modus operandi that these global land grabbers are today
applying to Sri Lanka and mobilize ourselves to ensure not an inch of Sri Lanka’s
land is illegally taken from us by legally tweaking the laws & arm-twisting
officials. Let us not forget the future wars will be for water & food! Nearly
half of MCC’s overall budget of US$6.8 billion supports what it calls
market-based solutions to food security”.
Some of the investments on the pipeline across Africa questions
how far of these supposedly development projects are beneficial to the locals
& to the future environment of these countries. UN World Bank & a host
of other international agencies are partners in this crime to grab land by
re-writing laws, registering titles to enable quicker sale, setting up
satellite mapping and cadastral systems to facilitate foreign investors.
What is the MCC?
Millennium Challenge Corporation is a US govt agency created by
the US government in January 2004 supported by both Republicans &
Democrats. Since 2004, US has invested more than $13b on programs under MCC
worldwide. MCC was to replace what USAID had been tasked to do but with a
corporate twist & with USAID also involved. MCC programs are akin to IMF/World
Bank Structural Adjustment Programs for every grant (not loan) is dependent on
conditions committed by a host country & presented as a carrot. Countries
are supposed to feel elated that they have ‘passed’ MCC scorecard for selection
after which US consultants fly to the country & point out areas where
‘liberalization’ needs to take place
Though MCC is a govt aid agency its CEO is often a private
business individual but with previous links to govt. USAID and US Trade
Representative also sit on the board.
US Secretary of State is the Chairman of MCC while the US
Secretary of Treasury is the Vice Chairman.
Thus the MCC is a collaboration of US Govt together with US
corporates using foreign aid to enter developing countries using the tool of
development.
MCC CEO John Danilovich was U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica from 2001 to 2004 &
US Ambassador to Brazil
MCC CEO Daniel W. Yohannes served as US ambassador to OECD from
2014-2017
Cynthia Huger functioning as CEO of MCC from January 2019
following departure of Jonathan Nash
The grants provided claims to help a range of development
initiatives for developing countries but also ‘enhances American interests’.
The grants are dependent on countries meeting 20 ‘independent’
& ‘transparent policy indicators.
Countries are supposed to identify their priorities which begs
to answer who in Sri Lanka defined Sri Lanka’s priorities & how transparent
& independent these formulations were.
The implementation of compact grants is to give a sum of money
& get the local government to make all the necessary changes within the
country aligned of course to ‘America’s interests’.
The Compact grants are for 5 years while the Threshold programs
are smaller grants for institutional reform in countries.
Since 2004 the MCC has signed 33 grant agreements, known as compacts, with 29 countries spending $12billlion
MCC land projects clearly mean commodifying Africa’s land &
opening them for American agribusiness (seen in MCC projects in Mali, Ghana,
Mozambique & Benin)
2005
Madagascar – was the
first country to sign with MCC. MCC grant terminated in May 2009 due to
military coup
Honduras – MCC grant terminated in Sept 2009 due to change of
govt
Nicaragua – MCC grant terminated in June 2009 when Sandinistas
came to power
2006
Mali – awarded MCC grant of $461 million – US ‘interest’ linked
to Mali’s 2 major assets – Niger River (irrigation agriculture) &
Bamako-Senou International airport. Mali compact, put on operational hold in
March 2012 after a military coup, compact was terminated in August 2012.
2018
Sri Lanka – $450 million on an ‘economic corridor’ for 200 years
for a compact grant of $450m (increased to $480m) targeting Sri Lanka’s land,
infrastructure,
Armenia could
not qualify for the Millennium Challenges Corporation grants because MCC provides assistance to countries with low and
lower-middle-income economies.
1
July 2018 World Bank declared Armenia is a country with upper-middle-income
economy
WORLD
BANK HAS CLASSIFIED SRI LANKA AS A UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS ECONOMY TOO… WHICH MEANS
MCC CANNOT GRANT SRI LANKA.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32427.pdf
Sri
Lanka must learn lessons from Madagascar
Madagascar became the 1st country to
launch MCC compacts. Agriculture & land titling was the focus. Madagascar
has a history of about 2000 years and a population of 24.4million people. The
Portuguese landed in 1500 and France, Germany & Britian have held power
over until full independence came in 1960.
MCC began proposals to decentralize
Madagascar’s agriland. It was in December 2008 that the natives of Madagascar
learnt from the media that their government which had been using MCC funds to
allocate land certificates to thousands of citizens were SELLING LAND to
foreign investors via the revised National Land Program (isn’t this what the
UNP Govt plans to do via the Land Privatization Bill?) 1.3million hectares of
land had been given to a Korean company Daewoo Logistics and certificates were
given to Madagascar land owners on the condition that they would make their
land available to an Indian company Varun. The Madagascar government was
negotiating giving 3m hectares of land to foreign investors on a 99 year lease.
These 2 scenarios are most likely to happen to Sri Lankans newly given title
deeds to privatized state land.
The anger of the Madagascar people as a result
of the Daewoo sale leaving their farmers destitute ended up in a coup in 2009.
MCC cancelled its project & departed. This
is no different to the 200year Economic Corridor with electric fence from
Colombo Port to Trinco Port proposed by MCC.
The
next example is Mali which commenced in 2006 with a $461m compact grant – US
‘interest’ was in Mali’s 2 major assets – Niger River & Bamako-Senou
International Airport. MCC Mali has taken over some 20,000 hectares of land – the
most important irrigated land in Mali to foreign investors which is an
extraterritorial zone putting its own land management & laws. Eventually
the people of Mali who want to irrigate land have to buy land from the MCC
compact foreign investors and loans given to settle in 20 years. So what has
happened is foreigners have bought over Mali land and agree to sell off land to
the natives obviously at a higher price! Those unwilling to buy land will
eventually have no land, no livelihood & no place to live!
US firms are teaching the people of Mali how to
grow agriculture! So many countries have arrived to irrigate in Mali and the
farmers of Mali are struggling to survive & even tap resources like water
which the foreign investors are taking preferential control over. Mali’s
compact was put on operational hold in March 2012 following a military coup and
was terminated in August 2012.
MCC
Ghana
Pineapple production was the focus of MCC Ghana
and demanded changes to land management. The government signed a Roadmap which
used satellite technology to map & delimit the zone thereafter the Ministry
of Land in Ghana declared ‘compulsory Title Registration Area’ the first such
in Ghana. In September 2009 – 100 land titles were given all with intent to
take over Ghana’s pineapple plantations.
MCC
Benin
Multinational company Stewart International
(title insurance & mortgage service company) desired to commodify Benin’s
as well as provide technology for land record systems & selling title
insurance (Sri Lanka’s MCC proposes a Land Bank computerized system) Foreign
investors buying in developing countries want title insurance to protect their
investments in instances of competing claims to land ownership or rights to
property (as was seen in Madagascar MCC where the Govt sold the same lands for
which they gave title deeds to their farmers)
A 2016 World Bank Policy Research Working paper
declares that 45-75% of wealth in developing nations is made up of land &
real estate which has been inaccessible to global capital. Stewart
International & similar foreign entities are now planning to through MCC
create a ‘global real estate market’ accessible by computer! One click is all
that is required for foreigners to grab any piece of land or property in a
developing country under MCC compact.
Another interesting feature is that it is US
companies that are doing all the proposals for countries hired by MCC – Chemonics
& International Land Systems compiled the Mozambique government’s land
proposal. CDM did the land proposal for Mali. Stewart International did Benin’s
land proposal. The MCC hands a grant but US companies set the stage for the
grabbing of land and this is what must scare Sri Lanka in looking at how and
what took place under MCC compact in Africa.
With Africa’s leader no less corrupt than Sri
Lanka’s it is no surprise that only a handful of politicians are coming out
publicly to warn the people of the likely outcome.
One major hope is that if Africa’s land changes
are merely on paper following fierce resistance from locals which are now
gaining ground across Africa.
It is baffling how UN & associate entities
are silent while these land grabs are taking place given that they are paid to
look into the welfare of the poorest too!
MCC land grabbing blueprint as seen across all compact countries
is
Initial surveying of land & land laws in the country
Lobbying central government to make necessary changes to
existing laws
Ensuring central government agrees to privatize state land &
offer title deeds to those leasing/living on State lands
Pilot project zone exclusively created & given special
status by Govt
Foreign NGOs co-opted to carry out programs to convince people
to accept new laws & investments
The MCC office decides the value of land for sale to foreign
investors
Customary land laws are buried for foreign investor profits
MCC funds are used to connect rail-port-airports-storage
facilities (no different to colonial rule)
It is most likely that these pitfalls will be
addressed in Sri Lanka’s takeover using the agreements ACSA and SOFA that will
probably enable foreign troops to provide the armed security for these US &
foreign companies. The legal avenues for locals to take are also being subtly
diluted to reduce locals taking their case to courts. These neocolonial
transnational investors are ironing out every possible loophole to grab land a
far cry from how it happened during colonial rule. Scramble for Africa then is
now taking place with a modern twist and includes Scramble for Asia as well.
Sri Lanka probably the latest guinea pig.
Did Sri Lanka propose an ‘economic corridor’ or
did the USA?
Why do we need an economic corridor if it
entails not only the privatization of all State lands but to give title deeds
to individuals for these privatized state lands if the compact grant is only
for 5 years while the economic corridor that is over 200miles from Colombo Port
to Trinco Port with an electric fence dividing it, is for 200 years and the
corridor does not apply Sri Lankan laws?
Moreover, if title deeds are being presented
given under existing laws why present a New Privatization of Land Bill – what is
the catch here for the entire Bill is prepared by foreign lawyers who have
studied all our land statues.
Why must there be a land bank of all privatized
land & after 10 years destroy all existing records?
We seem to be getting more questions than
answers and no government elected for a term of office has any moral right to
be dishing out land that belongs to the people & future generations to any
foreign investor simply because of a dangling monetary carrot.
Shenali
D Waduge
Further reading: The Great Food Robbery: How Corporations Control Food,
Grab Land and Destroy – Genetic Resources Action International,
Caught with his pants down, literally
selling off Sri Lanka to the Americans, a desperate Wickramasinghe has
reportedly called on his thugs to get onto the Streets to prevent and
intimidate law abiding citizens seeking Justice from Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court
of Justice.
Wickramasinghe has reportedly exhorted his
goondas to enforce the Rule of the Street over the rule of Law.
Seen by many Sri Lankans as a traitor in
the mould of a Don Juan Dharmapala, they see Wickramasinghe’s call for anarchy
as a call to the Americans to militarily intervene in the country.
Stunned law abiding citizens were openly
asking the question, If the Police fail to arrest and question Wickramasinghe
even with a State of Emergency in place, wont the new Attorney General who has
shown a great deal of spunk order the arrest of Wickramasinghe?”
A member of the notorious Mont Pelerin
secret society and the head of an equally obnoxious Nazi style organisation,
‘Independent Democratic Union’ Wickramasinghe has lived on the fringes of the
Law; he has a yet unresolved and an unsavoury past with the Batalanda murders
and with Sri Lanka’s Biggest Bank robbers.
Wickramasinghe’s reported call for anarchy
came in the wake of many exposures which revealed that he had secretly drawn up
agreements with the Americans to enable them to make the country a US Base.
One of the Compacts or Agreement with the
Americans. was the secret deal with the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Before any monies could be even released
by the MCC, the MCC have in black and white laid out three pre-conditions.
The first is the issue of Land grants to
people with all rights of private ownership.
Sri Lanka has preserved its territory and
Land with the tight control exercised by the Centre in the issuance of land
grants. This way the people of Sri Lanka have been able to maintain tight
control of over 80 percent of its sovereign territory and prevent foreigners
taking over the land.
The second and third preconditions of the
MCC are that we legislate the ‘Land (Special Provisions) Bill’ and the ‘Land
Bank’ Bill, both drafted by the Americans.
Both these Bills together with the
Issuance of Land Grants would facilitate the US buying up the entire country.
Furthermore, when land is privatised political power over Land passes
from the Centre to the provinces which the separatists have always been clamouring
for.
If these two Bills are passed in
Parliament it would be in contravention of a Supreme Court Judgement
(Bulankulame Vs the State) which determined that Sri Lanka’s Constitution
secures the Fundamental Rights of the unborn generations to the Land.
In this attempt to privatise Sri Lanka’s
Land a legal expert commented that this again is in contravention of Sri
Lanka’s Constitution which does not consider the right to private property, a
Human Right.
With the American Indo Pacific forces outside
our shores, with a vulgar American Ambassador acting like ‘Ma Baker’ and with
an exposed Wickramasinghe peevishly threatening Sri Lanka’s people with
violence, the law abiding citizens are nervously waiting with abated breath to
see whether the rule of law will prevail and whether Wickramasinghe would
be arrested and tried. Indeed, is he not also in contempt of Court
The Ranil Wickremesinghe administration was attempting to create a cheap labour force needed to facilitate the implementation of neoliberal economic policies, by amending` land laws, Chinthaka Rajapakshe, Convener of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) said commenting on the scheme to grant outright ownership of land to one million people.
“Providing land deeds may look like a progressive move but we have to look at the reasons. On the one hand there is a serious crisis in the rural economy; created by the policies of successive governments, especially the present administration. On the other hand, large multinational companies have made small time farmers bankrupt and are buying off their agricultural land. There is also an attempt by the government to create a land bank. The only thing that has held back these predatory companies and the neoliberal economic policies are the so-called antiquated land laws. By giving desperate people, an asset that they can sell the government has ensured that these lands will be sold off.”
He said that in a recent study they had looked at all documents approved by the Cabinet between January 2015 and April 2019 on land reform, recommendations given by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the government on the land rights of the people and bi-lateral trade agreements between Sri Lanka and other countries had the potential projects that would deprive the people of their land rights.
“What is obvious was that the government wants to create a land bank that are not bound by any laws. The government has promised a lot of powerful entities access to our land and it also wants to create a large pool of cheap labour to be exploited by multinationals. This can’t be done as long as people have land and the government is creating an environment where people will sell off the land they had been using for decades. That’s why we oppose these evil mechanisms.
Former Corporal of the Army Intelligence Unit Lalith Rajapaksa has been arrested over the assault on the former newspaper editor, Upali Tennakoon.
The arrest has been carried out arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Hanwella last night (07), stated the Police Media Spokesperson.
https://youtu.be/tpkQyubNxds
On 23rd September 2009, the former editor of the Rivira newspaper, Upali Tennakoon, was assaulted by four individuals. The senior journalist and his wife left the country following the incident.
No Sinhalese person would receive the rights to land in Sri Lanka in the future through the Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act, stated UNP MP Wijeydasa Rajapakshe.
Rajapakshe expressed these views addressing an event held in Colombo.
He says that if Founder of United National Party (UNP) and late Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake were alive now, he would be gravely disappointed by the current state of the party.
The Parliamentarian stated that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would be begging on the roads today if it weren’t for the women migrating for domestic work in the Middle East.
if it isn’t for the ‘Dollars’ from the women who leave the country for domestic work in the Middle East, the Prime Minister wouldn’t be able to ride in bulletproof vehicles. Even if he does travel in bulletproof vehicles he will not be safe. He should find himself a ‘curse-proof’ vehicle”, said Rajapakshe.
The Criminal Investigation Department is set to launch probes into the revelations made by Venerable Medagoda Abayatissa Thero over 20 persons being allegedly killed under the Sharia law, says Police Media Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara.
Reportedly, Abeytissa Thero has made the revelations on the 4th of July.
A fuller Bench comprising seven judges of the Supreme Court has been appointed to hear the petitions filed against Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara and former Defense Secretary claiming that they had violated fundamental rights by failing to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks.
The Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya will comprise of Justices Sisira de Abrew, Buwaneka Aluvihare, Priyantha Jayawardena, Prasanna Jayawardena, L.T.B. Dehideniya and Murdu Fernando.
The relevant fundamental rights petitions are set to be considered before the Bench on 12th July.
The petitions were filed by seven parties including the Sri Lanka Bar Association (BASL), a businessman engaged in the tourism sector named Janak Sri Vidanage and Saman Nandana Sirimanne, a father who had lost his son and daughter in the attack on April 21st.
The petitioners accuse that the IGP and the former Defense Secretary of infringing the fundamental rights of the people by failing to prevent the attacks on churches and hotels even when intelligence information had forewarned.
Colombo, July 8 (newsin.asia) – The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority together with the Prime Minister’s office, the Ministry of Tourism and the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka tabled a cabinet paper on Monday and received the approval for the reduction of ground handling charges, aviation fuel, and the embarkation levy for all international flights for 6 months.
The Ministry said that in 2018, approximately 2.3 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka while generating an income of USD 4.4 billion. More than 98 percent of tourists to Sri Lanka were brought by international airlines.
By April 2018, 29 airlines were serving Sri Lanka offering 300 flights per week. However, following the April 21 Easter Sunday Attacks, the connectivity was reduced to 239 flights per week resulting in a total of 41 flights cancellations which amounts to a loss of seat supply by 8,000 per week from six countries – China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Oman, and Thailand.
Eleven foreign airlines reduced their flight frequencies to BIA while one airline (Rossiya -Russian Airline) withdrew completely (2 flights/week) resulting in a complete loss of direct air connectivity with Russia. Most of the airlines which reduced frequencies are low-cost carriers.
Accordingly, the direct and indirect negative impact of the Easter Sunday Attacks per day is approximately Rs.12 million and Rs.51 million respectively.
Given the need to resurrect the tourism industry, which was badly affected by the Easter Sunday Attacks, the Tourism Ministry said the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority took prompt action to work with the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the Ministry of Tourism and the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka to draft a Cabinet paper and initiate the implementation of the following reductions in Aviation-related discounts in order to encourage Airlines to reduce the cost of airline tickets and combine these specially priced tickets with the discounts being offered by Hotels and Restaurants in Sri Lanka.
The positive and immediate action taken by the Government, especially by the Prime Minister, John Amaratunga and the DGCA, Mr. Nimalsiri, in response to the urgent request made by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, comes at a critical time and is most appreciated”, said Johanne Jayaratne, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
The Authority will be working closely with the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), and the Sri Lanka Association of Airline Representatives (SLAAR) to ensure that these lowered rates are reflected in the Airline ticket pricing going forward” he added.
As large colonial-era tea plantations crumble, family-owned plots are trying to take their place and save the industry.
A tea plantation worker shows off plucked tea leaves in the Nuwara Eliya district of Sri Lanka on Feb. 5. THARAKA BASNAYAKA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
For nearly a year now, Priyantha Gamage, the son of a Tamil tea plucker, has been documenting the scars and scabs of the tea plantation workers on the Deniyaya Estate in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. This is just one of his many projects aimed at recording and improving estate conditions while he finishes his studies to become a Catholic priest. He explained that after a brief national ban on the herbicide glyphosate, weed overgrowth in tea fields skyrocketed. The change in landscape provided a perfect breeding ground for leeches, which in turn left workers with more bites. Singh Ponniah, a union leader in the heart of tea country, summed it up: The fields are turning into jungles.”
The barefoot leaf pluckers, too, acknowledge that things are getting more difficult. We want to leave from here, from this danger,” a worker named Vilechemi said, with Gamage translating. Her estate saw lethal landslides and flooding recently, and she fears it will happen again. Unfortunately, families like hers are often trapped where they are by the debts they owe to the estate. Even after her 40 years of labor, Vilechemi lacks the resources to build a new house and make the transition out of life on the plantation. Forty long years,” Gamage emphasized, you see how much the estate has earned out of her?”
These laborers, the bedrock of the tea industry, are known locally as Estate Tamils. Originally from South India, they emigrated to Sri Lanka throughout the 1800s at the strongly worded request of their colonial overlords. For five generations, the workers have lived in poor housing conditions on isolated plantations as they maintain, pluck, and process 675 million pounds of Ceylon tea each year, the vast majority for export.
For five generations, the workers have lived in poor housing conditions on isolated plantations as they maintain, pluck, and process 675 million pounds of Ceylon tea each year, the vast majority for export.
The Ceylon tea industry constitutes 11 percent of Sri Lanka’s total exports, worth nearly 2 percent of the nation’s GDP, a value of $1.37 billion.
In a recent publication commemorating the tea industry’s sesquicentennial, Sri Lanka’s Institute of Policy Studies estimated that, over the last 20 years, as many as 70,000 Estate Tamils have abandoned working in large plantations. The remaining 200,000—down from nearly half a million in the 1980s—are facing increasingly difficult conditions as the colonial-era infrastructure disintegrates. While the traditional large-scale estates decline, mainly due to worker migration, smaller and usually family-owned tea farms have been on the rise. These small farms are responsible for a growing proportion of Sri Lanka’s tea exports each year. A few trailblazers in the conventional plantations have tried to copy that success, but progress is limited. And if the established estates don’t change, more land will spoil, and levels of overall tea production may never recover. In the meantime, the workers at large estates will continue to face grim living conditions as money becomes even scarcer.
The feet of a Sri Lankan Tamil tea plantation worker after she returned with her share of the plucked tea near a factory in the Nuwara Eliya district of Sri Lanka on Feb. 5. THARAKA BASNAYAKA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
When he can, Gamage helps young people access education to get them off the estate, something the children love him for as much as the chocolate he occasionally brings them. But securing a good education is not always possible. A lack of resources in the plantation sector and its tendency to lag well behind the rest of the country in education and opportunity stymies his efforts. So that’s why I want to take those children that are capable of studying to a town school,” he said. But even those who make it out often face discrimination outside the estate.
That’s due, in part, to a law passed just after Sri Lanka’s independence from Great Britain. The Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 stated that anyone who wished to obtain citizenship in the new nation had to prove that their parents had been born within the new borders. In that moment, nearly 1 million Estate Tamils—then 11 percent of Sri Lanka’s total population—became stateless, according Daniel Bass, an anthropologist who has extensively studied the community. This Tamil group only fully gained citizenship in 2003 at the repeated urging of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Although ethnically separate from the Tamils of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam movement, which waged a brutal civil war against the Sinhalese majority for many decades, the tea workers still feared for their safety through the years of conflict.
It was in this environment that Gamage’s low-caste Hindu Tamil tea plucker mother married her Sinhalese Buddhist supervisor. While not entirely unheard of at the time, it was a fairly rare type of union. But in this case,” he said, my father was a good man. He didn’t see any difference.” He told me the story while we visited the home of one of his students. The small living space bustled with an impromptu sewing class while an infant crawled around on the floor.
Throughout the larger plantations in Sri Lanka, such so-called line houses provided by the estate are common. Most often, these simple structures consist of a series of five independent rooms with each unit meant for one family. The small windows typically have no glass, and old cloth curtains offer little privacy. When people rest at home after work, the naked light bulb usually stays off in favor of the dull glow of a television’s cathode ray tube. The outhouses are shared.
A tea plantation worker carries a bag of tea leaves uphill in the Nuwara Eliya district of Sri Lanka on Feb. 5. THARAKA BASNAYAKA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
The most ambitious of the estate workers have managed to improve their dwellings through a combination penny-pinching, group savings, and borrowing against their retirement. The last method is both the most common and the riskiest, as it can lead to spiraling debt—of the kind Vilechemi faces. Another worker, Jayanti, showed her living conditions. This,” she said indicating the original room at the rear, is the estate-provided house.” A single mattress meant for four family members—the couple and their early teen children—occupied most of the space. Her family took out a loan against retirement to build a new room in the front for her mother-in-law. To make the payment, Jayanti, like a growing number of Estate Tamils, decided to leave Sri Lanka to be a domestic servant in the Middle East soon after our interview. She is due to return home in late 2020.
In addition to shelter, the estate provides basic education and health care. To pay for these and other benefits, an agreed upon amount comes out of the workers’ paychecks alongside a somewhat ironic monthly deduction for about a pound of powdered tea. The workers are left with take-home earnings of around 600 rupees, or less than $4, in daily wages. And even if one of their perennial strike efforts for 1,000 rupees a day eventually succeeds, they would still earn only about half Sri Lanka’s average urban wage. The youngest generation of Estate Tamils have figured that out and leave in massive numbers to work in towns, often in garment shops. Those who stay face surging alcoholism rates alongside a rise in violence against women.
On the bigger estates, at the same time as unions and workers try to push salaries up, the plantations’ productivity has gone down. Besides worker migration, other factors of the decline include soil exhaustion after over 150 years of continuous cultivation and decades of poor agricultural practices, such as improper use of fertilizer and mistimed replanting.
Tea plantation workers wear gunny sacks due to a lack of proper uniforms as they prepare to start work in the Nuwara Eliya district of Sri Lanka on Feb. 5. THARAKA BASNAYAKA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
In a different time, like when the island’s share in the global tea trade was 40 percent in 1970, the plantations would not have had trouble surviving—and they might even have had enough resources to better manage environmental concerns. But a new crop of tea-growing countries—Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Malawi, Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam—have begun to produce for export. Combine that with expanding exports from Kenya, India, and China, the traditional rivals, and the Sri Lankan share of the global tea trade has dropped to 15 percent. Moreover, despite the relatively low wages within the nation, estate workers still earn up to four times as much as their Kenyan and Vietnamese counterparts. This means Sri Lanka now produces less tea at more cost compared with its international competitors.
Sri Lanka now produces less tea at more cost compared with its international competitors.
To tell you frankly,” one estate manager outside Hatton said, the plantations are facing a lot of crises in Sri Lanka.”
One solution may be the outgrower system. In this model, larger plantations hand over management of an unproductive or abandoned plot to estate families. Theoretically, doing so has several benefits. Workers would have more incentive to maintain the land and would maximize the estate’s output at minimal cost to management. The idea comes from the smallholder tea plantations that started proliferating in the 1970 and ’80s when the nation was preoccupied with civil war. Those smallholder farms are typically smaller than 20 acres, or six city blocks, and are mostly located in the southernmost parts of tea country. Since there is low overhead, wages are usually higher: Farmers can earn around 100 rupees, or 60 cents, for every three pounds, which is over $8 for the standard 44 pounds. And since the smallholder farms tend to be family owned and operated, the work environment is often more pleasant. Together, they now produce over 70 percent of Sri Lankan tea.
One of these small farms, the Amba Estate, has been able to capitalize on a growing tourist market as well as a demand for organic products. Nitanjane Senadire, the production manager, told me he was happy for those workers who are leaving the country and getting better jobs overseas and getting better salaries.” But that development comes with a price. Good for them and good for the country. Good for the future,” he said, but unfortunately very bad for tea.” To entice traditional Estate Tamils, or really anyone who wants to work (50 percent of Amba’s workers are Sinhalese), he offers base salaries that are around twice those of larger plantations as well as revenue sharing. Workers come from the larger traditional estates as well as neighboring small towns, and there is a waiting list of would-be employees.
Senadire sees the end of the tea industry as a possibility—That can happen!”—but he won’t give in easily. If we give up on tea, I think it’s a very stupid idea,” he said. While large estates struggle, business for him has been good. And since Amba has a backorder of three months, Senadire doesn’t think it will be a problem if all of his neighbors were to copy his business model. As long as other small farms maintain the quality, everyone should be able to find a niche market,” he said.
A tea plantation worker rests after returning with the tea she plucked in the morning session of work in the Nuwara Eliya district of Sri Lanka on Feb. 5. THARAKA BASNAYAKA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
Ram Ramakrishna, a tea broker with nearly 40 years of estate administration experience, had some thoughts about how the system would work on a national scale. At one point he managed 8,000 workers. He was proud of that, if also a little overwhelmed by its memory. The British system of having large plantations has to decentralize,” he said. When asked why the industry was failing, his smile instantly dropped. The industry is not failing,” he clarified, there is a shortage of workers in the plantations.” He was confident that the youth will come back the moment they know a lot of money is involved.” Like with Amba, he said, the most successful plantations are the smallholders. That is the way forward.”
Despite his optimism, his professional advice for estates with failing acres is to avoid replanting tea as the original trees planted by the British reach the end of their natural 150-year life cycle. Take the best tea and plant the balance of the land with timber,” Ramakrishna said. Because you cannot sustain it. You will not have the people.”
Back in the endless hills of the Deniyaya Estate, Gamage walked through several workers’ line houses. Speaking with a mouth full of betel leaf, one worker, named Ponanga, said she feels sorry for the estate system” in its state of decline. Gamage clarified. They don’t like it,” he said, but yes, that’s their world.” When asked about her happiest memory there, Ponanga, whose teeth and tongue were died bright red by decades of chewing the leaf, paused for a moment, spat, and shook her head. Gamage interpreted again. No, they don’t find a happy moment as such,” he said. They spend time: ‘What to do? We have to work. And we have to earn and then only we can eat.’ That’s their idea.” He looked back at Ponanga and smiled. We have to bring the awareness of what they lost,” he said.
Over the last few years, a number of sporting events have been hijacked to propagate political messages.
As India went about clinically demolishing Sri Lanka in the final group game of the cricket World Cup on Sunday, some headlines were stolen by an airplane dragging a couple of banners across the Leeds skyline. The banners bore political messages pertaining to the Kashmir issue and mob lynching incidents in India. Correctly so, the BCCI was quick to register its protest saying security at the match was not tight.
Just a few days ago, when Pakistan was playing Afghanistan, ‘Justice for Balochistan’ message flew across the sky. The ICC rightly denounced it saying display of any political messages in the stadium was forbidden.
Over the last few years, a number of sporting events have been hijacked to propagate political messages. Of course, this is nothing new—Adolf Hitler had recognised the value of the Olympics as a propaganda tool as far back as 1936. The Olympics saw one of its most politically-charged moments in 1968 when American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists during the US national anthem to protest the treatment of African Americans. Forty-eight years later, the same issue prompted Colin Kaepernick to take a knee during the national anthem at a National Football League (American football) game in the US. Cricket too witnessed such protests—Sri Lanka’s 1975 World Cup game against Australia saw a pitch invasion from activists protesting the treatment of Tamils in Lanka.
Regardless of the cause, mixing politics with sport takes away from the pure, undiluted essence of the latter. Sport is a celebration, of athletes and their great feats, of heart-warming stories of triumph and redemption or of heartbreaking near-misses. It leads its viewers into a surreal world, so far removed from the usual one, a world of irregular breathing patterns and missing heartbeats where feelings of euphoria and despair usually start at the highest end of the scale and then go even higher. Bringing politics into this world would only drag someone back to the mundaneness of reality. Something unfair indeed.
I
do not know whether Mangala Samaraweera is the adherent
of a religion. I only know, from a photo published in the newspapers some time
back, that he has no respect for the Lord Buddha. The photo showed him holding
a Buddha statue by the neck and behind his person. I remember the strong
criticisms levelled against him for that act, which if done by a Catholic with
regard to a statue of Jesus,
would have been considered as being sacrilegious. But Mangala S. as do other
high ranking politicians, visits the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, pays his
respects and obeisance, and then visits the Mahanayakes for the same purpose. In
Sinhala you call all this ‘AS BANTHUNG’
But
Samaraweera’s problems with Buddhism are of a wider scale. Recently even when
Hindu and Muslim political leaders openly stated that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala
Buddhist country, Samaraweera publicly declared it was NOT. Also a venerable
monk recently pronounced Samaraweera to be a persona non grata in Buddhist
temples. It was also said that Samaraweera’s name should not be displayed in
the precincts of Buddhist Temples.
Since
recently Samaraweera has been going hammer and tong against the Cardinal
Archbishop. The latter was accused by Samaraweera of fanning religious
conflicts. Now the Cardinal has been taken to task for his stand against the
imposition of the ‘human rights’ ideology on Sri Lanka. Samaraweera’s view has
been seconded by a lawyer who calls himself a Catholic. What the Cardinal said
was that Sri Lanka with its religious background had nothing to learn from the
West about human rights.
Delving
into what the Cardinal said, religions are rooted in the human conscience, while
concepts such as ‘human rights’ are mainly, even purely political weapons.
Indeed when one reflects on all the ongoing military conflicts in the world,
and the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated, all ten fingers
could only point at those ardent promoters and defenders of HUMAN RIGHTS.
This
brings .us to the pivotal issue. Since when did this ‘human rights’ concept
emerge and take root in the Western consciousness? That happened at a time the
world was divided by the Western capitalist powers into two blocks: FREE and
COMMUNIST. The West posed as defenders of PRO-HUMAN values while the communist
block, literally the iron curtain countries were branded as anti-human. At that
time the West prided itself and put on show its open arm policy about welcoming
into its fold all who fled from the communist block.
But
now the iron curtain has fallen. It will be remembered that the architect of
that fall was no other than Pope John-Paul 11. It was the anti-communist
revolution in Poland inspired and promoted by the Pope that brought about the
domino effect on other iron curtain countries. Ever since the iron curtain
ceased to be and since the two block division of the world has been done away
with the emergence of new powers, the human rights issue has lost its universal
impact and is seen as a partisan Western weapon to promote its political
dominance, in spite of the erosion of its moral foundation. It is now nothing
more than the cloth bandage over the eyes of nations ready to say ‘EHEY
SWAMINI’ to them, the qualification for receiving loans.
Where
do Sri Lankan non-adepts of religions stand in this matter? How were their
consciences formed? Was it by Western human rights activism or by the religious
foundations on which this country stands? The answer is so obvious that only a
West dependent brain and loan money ambitions of Samaraweera and his ilk would fail
to see.
The
iron curtain fell a long time ago. They are now being replaced or intended to
be replaced by concrete walls by the foremost proponent of HUMAN RIGHTS.
Finally there is only one difference between the communist iron curtain, and
the American concrete curtain. The former was set in place to keep the hungry,
the starving, the sick, and the impoverished within the wall. The latter
curtain has as its objective to keep all such people whose plight is largely
due to American hegemony politics, outside the wall. ‘Human rights’ politics
have lost every conceivable moral purpose for its being.
Despite
the various arguments against the executive presidency in Sri Lanka, when
impartially consider on the role played by the position, it is acceptable that
the executive presidency has performed a significant role in the country in
relation to a various area. There may
have been weaknesses in it as human discharges the functions of the position.
People must ignore the point that who was established the position and what was
his political philosophy, but critically evaluating the role played, it is easy
to conclude that the executive presidency supports the stability of Sri Lanka
and if people could see weaknesses of the institution the right step is to
reorganize the position with
constitutional valid reforms in the way more effective to the country.
The
executive presidency is associated with the constitution like a skin to a tree.
Therefore, the reshaping of the executive presidency must need constitutional
changes and associated process such as referendum and two-thirds majority, etc.
While allowing to current legal and constitutional provisions it could be
developed to more democratic and to a status of beyond the party, ethnic and religious
politics. The individuals who held and currently holding the position did not
attempt to develop or reform the position in order to develop the position as a
public friendly institution that effectively works for the national integration
and the unity of people.
The
current eminence is to the executive president to work with political parties
and the cabinet, which is consist of politics and has the potential to neglect
many areas beyond politics. Therefore,
people see the decisions of the executive president were bias against national
interest or the requirements of the country. If there are negative criticism or
bias against the president’s behaviour could be changed for the benefits of the
country. It would be the best constitutional institution for Sri Lanka.
Sri
Lanka needs an executive president (national leader) with a constitutionally
binding advisory board (Council) which is appointed without political, ethnic,
religious bias and the president must listen to this panel of experts when
making decisions. The advisory council must have constitutional obligations for
quick decision making with subject to a litigating for negligence,
misinformation and wrong directions. The parliament plays its role with the
leadership of the prime minister and representatives, who have partially
executive and legislative roles. This is
a policy idea only, the procedure of implementation should be broadly discussed
or debated at an open forum and develop the framework for implementation
consistent with the terms of the existing constitution. The current president
has an aggressive accent whether he speaks in Sinhala or in other language
according to Western language experts and many might assess as a dictator based
on accent.
Currently,
the president has so many advisors, the majority of whom are seemed to be
bullshitting than playing the right role with a view to attracting the pay and
benefits for the job. They have no constitutionally binding obligations and
they are politically, ethnically and religiously bias and people have no
understanding what is current advisors doing.
Therefore, a transparent advisory system mitigates the monopolistic
power of the president creating peoples’ friendly and good institution to the
country avoiding differences among people.
In
history people of Sri Lanka used to the dictatorship of kings and queens, the
authority of them was beyond the current meaning of democracy and they
safeguarded the national integration and the unity among people with authoritative
decisions. Although it was a dictatorship, people respected to it as the
dictatorship had not been operated by bribery, friendship, kinship or any other
kind of bias. Therefore, people accepted
the reign of kings and queens. However,
it appears that some people at present does not prepare to accept the
leadership of the executive president thinking utopian style of democracy.
People
in Sri Lanka clearly know that the executive presidency is the best leadership
style to the country if it operates without any kind of bias and if the
leadership gives for the national integration, policy-making and policy
correction with a right vision for the future.
For
a period that exceeded 150 years, from 1505 to1658, a greater part of Sri
Lanka’s coastal region was under the control of Portuguese Catholics.
This was a period marked by extreme forms of violence and atrocities by the
Portuguese, against local inhabitants especially the Sinhala Buddhists,
who, at the time of arrival of Portuguese in the island, accounted for more
than 95% of the total population of the country. Roman Catholic missionary
activities of the Portuguese included the widespread conversion to the Catholic
faith, of local inhabitants, most often by force. From the year 1543 onwards,
the Franciscans were establishing their centers in the country, while the
Jesuits were involved actively in their religious conversion activities in the
north. The Dominican and Augustinian Catholics arrived in the island toward the
end of the 16th century and pursued their religious conversion
activities vigorously. Those indifferent to or opposed to conversion were
treated with extreme forms of violence. Besides the incitement of hatred
towards Buddhists, they were subjected to severe forms of persecution including
unwarranted arrest, imprisonment, torture, and
execution. Confiscation or destruction of property owned by Buddhists were
commonplace during this period. The Portuguese used their extensive
powers of patronage and preference in appointments to promote Christianity. To
avoid hatred and violence, many members of the landed aristocracy in coastal
areas embraced the Catholic faith, taking Portuguese surnames at baptism. Many
coastal communities, particularly in Jaffna, Mannar, and the fishing
communities who lived north of Colombo, underwent mass conversion. Soon,
Catholic churches and associated schools were established in these areas to
serve the Catholic communities.
Undermining
Buddhists and destroying Buddhist shrines and establishments became the order
of the day during this Portuguese period. Lands belonging to these Buddhist
sites were taken over and given to Catholic establishments. It is recorded that
all Buddhist temples, monasteries and places of learning along the coastal belt
occupied by them were plundered and destroyed by the Portuguese. Buddhist monks
and devotees associated with these establishments were subject to untold
harassment. They plundered and destroyed all prominent Buddhist Seats of Learning,
most notably: The famous Vijayaba Pirvena of Totagamuwa, The Padmavathi
Pirivena of Keragala and The Sunethra Devi Pirivena of Pepiliyana. It is
important to note that these were seats of learning associated with reputed
Sinhala Buddhist scholars and literary icons at the time, such as Most
Venerable Totagamuwe Sri Rahula and Veedagama Maitreya Nayaka Theras. All
lands that belonged to these seats of learning were taken away and given to the
Catholic church.
The
Citadel of Kotte, was the administrative capital of Sinhala Kings from the 14th
century. By the 15th century, especially during the reign of the
famous Sinhala King Parakramabahu VI (1411-1467 CE), this city expanded and
developed as a spectacular fortified city known as Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte.
This fabulous city was plundered and destroyed by the Portuguese. The Dalada
Maligawa of Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, was one of the monumental Buddhist
structures in the country at the time of arrival of the Portuguese to Sri
Lanka. This spectacular religious establishment was destroyed by the Catholic
Portuguese. The Kelani Rajamaha Viharaya was the foremost, highly venerated
Buddhist shrine and monastery complex of the island at this time. In 1575, the
Portuguese set fire to this most sacred historic site, thereby destroyed it
completely and all lands that belonged to Kelani Rajamaha Viharaya were taken
over by the Portuguese and given to the Catholic Church. Among other colossal
Buddhist vihare and monastery complexes completely destroyed by the Portuguese
were: Mapitigama Rajamaha viharaya, Wattala Rajamaha viharaya Devinuwara
Rajamaha viharaya and associated buildings besides the Munneswaram Kovila in
Chilaw.
Buddhist Tolerance
The history of Buddhists of Sri Lanka during the four hundred years of
foreign Christian rule prior to the country’s political independence in 1948,
is nothing but a long and poignant chronicle of Buddhist tolerance in the face
of oppression and injustice. Who but the Buddhists tolerated harassment by the
Roman Catholic Portuguese to give shelter and employment to Muslims? Or endured
similar treatment from the Dutch to give shelter to Roman Catholics? Who but
the Buddhists tolerated the rank injustice of the foreign rulers who used the
revenue from one of the most sacred places of Buddhist worship, the Dalada
Maligawa, to pay for the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral? Or the injustice
of destroying a Buddhist Vihara in Kotte to erect in its stead a Christian
School? Who but the Buddhists tolerated the extortion from them of four hundred
pounds a year for the building of Christian Churches?
The undertaking to maintain the Buddhist religion given in 1815 by the
British (Christians) was grossly betrayed. In 1884 all the Government schools,
which were the only schools to which the Buddhists could send their children
for higher education were handed over to the Christian Missionaries. Up till
1886 Buddhists paid by far the largest amount for the maintenance of the
Ecclesiastical Department. Religious fanaticism and brutality and unethical and
confrontational approaches adopted by the Catholic Portuguese particularly
during the 16th – 17th century period, and today by
extremist Wahhabi Muslims of Sri Lanka, to serve their selfish ends, provide a
stark contrast to the approach in Buddhism which is reflective of the Buddha’s
supreme message of harmony and moderation, of an inspiring middle way” in all
human situations in an impermanent world. History of Sri Lanka reveals vividly
that this spirit of tolerance and accommodation of others irrespective of their
religious or other differences has been a common distinguishing characteristic
of the Sinhala Buddhists of this country from very early times.
Wahhabi Muslims
In contemporary times we witness a disastrous hardening of the different
forms of Islam into rigid fundamentalism, in which each aggressively proclaims
its beliefs, zealously proselytizes, and even takes up arms against its rivals
and the so-called infidels”. This fundamentalist and intolerant stance, taken
by Islam is offensive to followers of other faiths and other spiritual
traditions and to those of no faith at all. It is well evident today that
overzealous attempts of Wahhabi Muslims in particular at conversion disturb
peaceful coexistence. Extremist Muslims of Sri Lanka who have grown in numbers
in recent years, are trying hard, using cunning and deceitful means to
introduce their crude extremist Saudi Arabian cultural norms to our country,
thereby undermining our traditional Sinhala Buddhist cultural norms. Their
disgusting halal terrorist methods of animal slaughter, their unsightly and
repulsive black ‘gonibilla’ outfits, their nauseating loudspeaker shouting at
odd times of the day disturbing entire neighborhoods, and using internet and
other means to insult and discredit our Sangha community are some well known
Muslim (Arabian) cultural garbage they are introducing to our land. They
disregard the fact that they live in a predominantly Buddhist country and what
they are doing is incompatible with the way of life and the social value system
of this country.
Intolerance is essential only to monotheism. An only God is by nature a
jealous God who will not allow another to live. When a religion sees its
scripture as revealed and divinely inspired, it finds a basis for exclusivity
and intolerance. Justification for intolerance is provided by the very nature
of a Supreme Being who is described as a jealous and angry being, who punishes
those who defy him with eternal damnation. The Koran says: Slay unbelievers wherever
you find them, and drive them out of the places they drove you from . . . Fight
them until idolatry is no more and God’s religion is supreme.” Buddhism does
not accept an omnipotent God, a Creator, nor any revealed scripture. Because
faith in God or a savior is not an issue for Buddhists, there is no reason to
judge others, to condemn them for their beliefs, or to feel compelled to
convert them. The Buddha Dhamma is described as ehipassiko”, inviting one to
come and see for himself. There is no concept of coercion or proselytization in
Buddhism. Buddha taught the importance of patience, tolerance, and
non-aggression, providing a splendid ideal of tolerance for Buddhists to
follow. There is not a single occasion in the Buddhist scriptures of the Buddha
being less than compassionate, not only to those who accepted his teachings but
also to the followers of all faiths, not only to the good but also to the
wicked, not only to humans but also to animals and to all living beings. In
striking contrast to the spread of other world religions, which are replete
with unethical and forcible conversions and sectarian strife, the history of
Buddhism is remarkable for the complete absence of bloodshed in the name of the
teacher.
The
Bodu Bala Sena Movement
In recent years, Buddhists have started to mobilize in large numbers
under the bold leadership of organizations such as the Bodu Bala Sena, rallying
to the Buddha’s call to “go forth… for the good of many, for the benefit
and well being of many.” It is time we organize ourselves fully
against this Muslim menace, and adopt appropriate strategies and measures in a
legitimate manner, to subdue the ‘anti-Buddhist’ anti national” attitudes and
activities of Muslims. It is encouraging to note that concerned Buddhist
leaders, both ordained and lay, are getting to the forefront today, in
promoting appropriate counter measures.
Anti-Buddhist
and anti-national undesirable elements, including those funded by foreign NGOs
and extremist Muslims, evidently appear to feel uncomfortable about the
emergence of the Bodu Bala Sena which is on all counts, a timely and legitimate
organization of Buddhists. Led by Bhikkhus, the traditional Buddhist leaders of
the country, the program of activities of the Bodu Bala Sena, is structured on
Non-violence and compassion. Among its aims is to legitimately counter
the varied local and foreign forces that are hell-bent on undermining Buddhist
culture and Buddhist heritage of this nation founded on Buddhist principles, in
addition to saving this only Sinhala Buddhist nation in the world from
spiritual decay and disintegration and to halt the erosion of Buddhist social
values. Our Bhikkhus have become a thorn in the flesh of religious extremists,
the recent breed of inter-faith dialogue facilitators, those in the ethnic and
human rights businesses and above all those who are funded or backed by
extremist anti-Buddhist elements. The Bodu Bala Sena aims at directing society
towards a cultural rejuvenation based on traditional Buddhist norms, principles
and values which have been the foundation of this nation for over 2200 years.
Our Bhikkhus should necessarily be in the forefront in movements aimed at
protecting and promoting the Buddha Sasana especially when it is under threat.
Bhikkhus of the Bodu Bala Sena have voluntarily made their choice to take an
open public stand on issues surrounding Buddhism and Buddhist culture which is
the greatest treasure that our country could offer to the world, to humanity in
general.
From
the year 1505 until 1658, for about 153 years, a good part of the coastal
region of Sri Lanka was under the control of the Portuguese. This was a period marked by extreme forms of violence
and atrocities against the Sinhala community, especially the Sinhala Buddhists.
It was a period marked by intense Roman
Catholic missionary activity. From the year 1543 onward, Franciscans
established centres in the country and Jesuits were active in the north. Dominicans and Augustinians arrived toward
the end of the 16th century.
The
Portuguese used their extensive powers of patronage and preference in
appointments to promote Christianity. For varied reasons, many members of the
landed aristocracy in coastal areas embraced Christianity. They often took
Portuguese surnames at baptism. Many coastal communities underwent mass
conversion, particularly in Jaffna, Mannar, and the fishing communities north
of Colombo. Catholic churches with schools attached to them served Catholic
communities all over the country. Devastation of Buddhist establishments and
undermining Buddhists was the order of the day.
All Buddhist
temples, monasteries and places of learning along the coastal belt were
plundered and destroyed by the Portuguese, and Buddhist monks and devotees associated
with these establishments were subject
to untold harassment. Lands belonging to
these Buddhist sites were taken over and given to Catholic establishments.
The
Portuguese plundered and destroyed the Citadel of Kotte, which was the
administrative capital of Sinhala Kings from the 14th century. It was a fortified city known as
Jayawardanapura Kotte, and by the 15th century during the reign
of the famous Sinhala King Parakramabahu
VI (1411-1467CE), it had expanded and developed to be a fabulous city.
The Dalada Maligawa of Sri Jayawardenapura
Kotte, was one of the most spectacular Buddhist structures in the country at
the time of arrival of the Portuguese to Sri Lanka. This monumental religious
structure was completely destroyed by the Portuguese.
In 1575, the
Portuguese set fire to the historic Kelani Rajamaha Viharaya and destroyed it
completely. At that time, Kelani
viharaya was the foremost shrine and monastery of the island’s Buddhist
community. At that time, the Buddhist
community accounted for almost 99% of the population of the country. All lands that belonged to Kelani Rajamaha
Viharaya were taken over by the Portuguese and given to the Catholic Church.
Among other colossal Buddhist vihare and monastery
complexes completely destroyed by the Portuguese were:
Devinuwara Rajamaha viharaya
and associated buildings besides the Munneswaram
Kovila in Chilaw.
The
Portuguese plundered and destroyed all prominent Buddhist Seats of Learning, most notably :
The famous Vijayaba Pirvena of Totagamuwa,
The Padmavathi Pirivena of Keragala and
The Sunethra Devi Pirivena of Pepiliyana.
These were seats of learning associated with reputed
Sinhala Buddhist scholars and literary icons at the time, such as Most
Venerable Totagamuwe Sri Rahula and Most venerable Veedagama Maitreya Nayaka
Theras. All lands that belonged to these seats of learning were taken away and
given to the Catholic church.
We refer to the motion proposed by the NDP to investigate Sri Lanka’s action to defeat Tamil Tiger Terrorism in the years 2006 to 2009 as an act of Genocide against Tamils, which was passed in the House with the consent of all parties on the 19th of June 2019.
We thank you for granting members of our Sri Lankan community to meet with you today and explain the correct situation in Sri Lanka, so that you may report back to your party colleagues who have been misled by certain extremist elements of the Tamil community that extended support to the internationally designated terrorist group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). You are no doubt aware that the LTTE was so designated by the UN Security Council in September 2001, and banned by 32 countries including Canada, USA, UK, EU, India and Malaysia amongst others.
In order to briefly advise you on the ground situation which existed in Sri Lanka ten years back, I wish to list out the following events for your information and assessment of the associated facts:
1. The LTTE and its supportive groups extorted large sums of money from Tamil expatriates and businesses to launch their so called final war of liberation confirmed by the Human Rights Watch report of March 2006;
2. The LTTE ignoring the ceasefire agreement carried out isolated attacks against Sri Lankan targets from December 2005 and thereafter thrust a war on Sri Lanka by shutting off drinking and irrigation water for 12 days at Mavil Aru to 30,000 farming families;
3. Sri Lanka was compelled to restore the water supply and proceeded from there to militarily dislodge the LTTE from the usurped territory in the east and north;
4. As Sri Lankan forces advanced on LTTE strongholds they began to retreat at the same time forcing the resident Tamil civilians to move with them from the northwest coast to the east to be exploited for their labour, conscripted to fight and serve as a human shield;
5. The Sri Lankan Army steadily advanced and soon came to surround the LTTE forces that had retreated to a narrow strip on the northeast coast in Mullivaikal. In order to protect the Tamil civilians from harm, the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) marked out a Civilian Safety Zone (CSW) which was infiltrated by the LTTE with their heavy guns which they fired at the SLA attracting retaliatory fire.
6. Sri Lanka called on the LTTE to surrender from the beginning of 2009 which they disregarded and continued to fight. Later Sri Lanka unilaterally declared two 48 hour ceasefires in February and mid-April 2009, but the civilians who attempted to leave were fired on and killed by the LTTE to prevent an exodus thereby depriving the LTTE of a human shield. This fact is confirmed by Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch who went to Sri Lanka and met with the rescued Tamil civilians, in the following TVO video clip viz.https://youtu.be/OJsAa7s4Asg .
7. Sri Lankan Security Forces which had earlier rescued nearly 120,000 trapped civiliansin April 2009 by carrying out a military manouvre to split the area held by the LTTE, finally used their special forces to breach the high defensive berms (bunds) built by the LTTE to attack the hardcore LTTE fighters and rescue the remaining civilians held by these terrorists bringing an end to the three decade long armed conflict. In all, 295873 civilians held against their will were brought to safety including about 12,000 former LTTE fighters dressed as civilians that gave up the battle to escape with the civilians.
8. The total number Tamil civilians bandied about by the pro-LTTE groups as having been killed between January 1 and May 19, 2009 ranges from 70,000 to 140,000, whereas the UN Resident Representative’s office in Colombo reported 7,721 civilian deaths between August 2008 and May 13, 2009. The Government of Sri Lanka conducted a census using Tamil teachers and Tamil public servants as enumerators and arrived at a figure of 7,432 excluding those who had died of natural causes, whilst the Tamilnet, a key propaganda arm of the LTTE reported monthly deaths from January 1 to May 19, 2009, which added up to 5,295, which they later revised and claimed was 7398. Lord Naseby of the British House of Lords obtained heavily redacted copies of confidential reports sent by Col. Gash, the Military Attache at the British High Commission in Colombo to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, where he reported a total of around 8,000 civilian deaths with 2,000 of that number being killed by the LTTE to prevent these civilians that formed a human shield from fleeing their area of control. Contrary to what is claimed as genocidal attacks by the Sri Lankan forces, the number of genuine civilians killed is unknown as none of the published figures distinguishes between combatants, LTTE Auxiliary Forces Personnel, and genuine non-combatant civilians. In fact, the UNSG’s panel on Sri Lanka reported that a large number of LTTE fighters battled in civilian attire blurring the distinction between fighting cadres and civilians.
9. Another interesting statistic is the total number of injured persons among the Tamil IDPs according to the ICRC responsible for ferrying them by land and sea for medical attention was 18,439 which is lower than the 40,000 supposedly killed during the last stages according UNSG’s personal panel. Normally, the world’s average ratio of injured (WIA) to the number killed (KIA) is between 2-3 times the number killed, which means that the number injured should have been 80,000 – 120,000. Can someone explain this discrepancy other than determining that the high civilian death numbers being quoted are bogus guesstimates.
10. They were housed in Welfare Camps, provided all meals, medical/ psychological care, education, vocational training, and resettled in their former places of residence after clearing the land of 1.5 million landmines laid by the LTTE to hamper the advance of the country’s armed forces. The former Tiger cadres were enrolled in a rehabilitation program, given new life skills that would enable them to lead independent lives and released to society. ARE THESE ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TAMILS?
Please consider the above factual data and arrange to share this information with your parliamentary colleagues.
Yours sincerely,
Mahinda Gunasekera
Honourable Premier, Cabinet Ministers and Members of the Ontario Provincial Legislature,
Further to my mail sent on April 7, 2019, please read the detailed article written By Professor Michael Roberts of Adelaide, Australia, on the many aspects of the armed conflict which took place in Sri Lanka between the nation’s security forces and the fighting forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam (LTTE) designated as a terrorist movement by the UNSC in September 2001 that sought to carve out a mono-ethnic racist Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka, carried in his blogsite called the “Thuppahi’s Blog” covering mainly the critical latter stages during the first five months of 2009: https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/the-western-worlds-cumulous-clouds-of-deception-blanketing-the-sharp-realities-of-eelam-war-iv/
The microbiome inside our bodies dictates many aspects of our health – and is as individual as we are.
Inside your gastrointestinal (GI) tract are trillions of micro-organisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. You have roughly the same number of micro-organisms in there, mostly in the large intestine, as you do human cells in your entire body. But only 10% to 20% of the bacteria you have in your gut will be shared with anyone else.
These microbiomes differ hugely from person to person, depending on diet, lifestyle and other factors, and they influence everything from our health to our appetites, weight and moods. But despite being one of the most-researched parts of the body, there’s still a long way to go to fully understanding our guts. BBC Future reviewed the findings of some of the science so far.
Scientists hope that population-wide research will advance existing findings. One such project, the ongoing American Gut Study, is collecting and comparing the gut microbiomes of thousands of people living in the US. So far, research suggest those whose diets include more plant-based foods have a more diverse microbiome, and one that is “extremely different” from those who don’t, says Daniel McDonald, the project’s scientific director.
“We can’t say one end is healthy or unhealthy yet, but we suspect that those who are eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have very healthy microbiomes,” he says. However, McDonald adds, it’s unclear if and how radically switching from a diet high in plant-based food to a diet low in healthy food would change the microbiome.
Probiotics
There has been a lot of hype around the health benefits of prebiotics and probiotics in recent years, but while they’re increasingly used in treatments including inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, several reviews suggest there needs to be further research on which strains and dosages are effective.
Eran Elinav, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, has recently found that some people are immune to probiotics – although he did this in a relatively small study that would require future research to come to any concrete answers. He gave 25 healthy individuals either 11 strains of probiotics or placebos, and tested their microbiomes and gut function with colonoscopies and endoscopies before and three weeks after the intervention.
Siome people have a gut biome which welcomes probiotic supplements (Credit: Getty Images)
“People could be divided into two groups – those in which probiotics were welcomed by indigenous microbiome and allowed to colonise the GI tract, where probiotics were able to change the microbiome, and those who were resistant. In this group, the probiotics weren’t allowed to settle in, and did almost nothing,” he says.
The researchers were able to predict which category a person would fall into by examining features in their microbiome. Elinav says his findings suggest a need for more advanced tailoring to personalise probiotics to the needs of individuals.
Health
Gut microbiota has a major role to play in the health and function of the GI tract, with evidence that conditions such as as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often coincide with altered microbiota. But it also plays a much wider role in our health, and this is largely determined in the first few years of life.
Our microbiomes start developing when we’re born, when microbes colonise the human gut. Babies delivered by natural birth have been found to have higher gut bacterial counts than those delivered by Caesarean section because of the contact they make with their mother’s vaginal and intestinal bacteria, says Lindsay Hall, microbiome research leader at Quadram Institute Bioscience.
“C-section-born infants miss out on that initial inoculation, and some of the microbes they come into contact with will be from the skin and environment” says Hall.
Numerous studies have shown that C-sections affect health long-term – Lindsay Hall
“This is very important for infants to develop their immune systems. Recent work has suggested that disturbances in early life gut microbiome have negative consequences for host health,” she says.
“Numerous studies have shown that C-sections affect health long-term, and there’s strong evidence to suggest they lead to a higher risk of developing allergies, and a less robust ecosystem, meaning you’re more susceptible to changes and disturbances, such as antibiotics.
However, there is no robust evidence on what this difference means specifically for the immune system.”
“We know that Bifidobacterium are able to digest components found in breast milk. These components are not normally found in formula milk, which is why formula-fed babies have less of them,” Hall says.
One problem with supplements is that every person’s gut microbiome is subtly different (Credit: Getty Images)
Scientists are getting closer to understanding how the gut can also be used to treat disease. One of the newest treatments in the field is faecal microbiota transplants, where a healthy person’s microbiota is put into a patient’s gut.
The procedure is used to treat antibiotic-resistant intestinal bacteria clostridium difficile, which can infect the bowel and cause diarrhoea. Though there’s no conclusive evidence on the underlying mechanism, it’s believed that the transplant repopulates a microbiome with diverse bacteria that helps to fight the bacterium off.
We haven’t established what’s normal, but also what’s normal for each individual – Fiona Pereira
The big question around these transplants is defining what a normal gut microbiome is.
“We haven’t established what’s normal, but also what’s normal for each individual. It depends on their ethnicity, environment and other things they body has gone through,” says Fiona Pereira, head of business development and strategy for the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, which oversees research into the relationship between the microbiome and diet.
Pereira says if scientists can gain a clear understanding of what is healthy in different ethnic groups and age groups, they can then profile a person and see how their gut varies and what this is related to – it could be diet, environment, or genetic predispositions to certain diseases.
Antibiotics
It is already well established that antibiotics can dramatically alter our gut microbiota.
The gut is an environment where harmless and beneficial bacteria are in very close contact to opportunistic pathogens that cause infections, says Willem van Schaik, professor at the University of Birmingham and lead researcher of a new study identifying more than 6,000 new antibiotic-resistance genesin pathogens.
He found that most of these pathogens weren’t associated with DNA that can transfer between bacteria, which means there’s no immediate risk of spread of these genes from normal bacteria to pathogens.
Our findings highlight how many resistant genes are in the microbiome and could potentially be mobilised to be opportunistic pathogens – Willem van Schaik
However, many of the genes thought to be fixed in certain bacterial environments can start spreading by overuse of antibiotics, which can put pressure on the resistant genes locked up inside a single bacterial cell, causing them to mobilise.
“Our findings highlight how many resistant genes are in the microbiome and could potentially be mobilised to be opportunistic pathogens. They should be seen as a warning that there is a large reservoir of these genes we don’t want to start mobilising,” van Schaik says.
Further investigation is uncovering how interlinked the gut is to the brain, however, including our mood and mental health, says Katerina Johnson, a researcher of the microbiome-gut-brain axis at the University of Oxford.
There is a recent trend toward taking probiotic supplements because we are only now realising the extent to which the gut microbiome affects us (Credit: Getty Images)
“Research shows that if we take gut bacteria from depressed humans and colonise the guts of mice with it, the mice show changes in their behaviour and physiology that are characteristic of depression,” she says.
Gut microbes can produce most of the neurotransmitters found in the human brain, including serotonin, which plays a key role in regulating mood. It is hoped that scientists will soon be able to understand how microbes can be used to produce neurotransmitters to treat psychiatric and neurologic disorders liked to our microbiomes, including Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
Behaviour
We’ve also started to glimpse how gut microbes can influence behaviour. Some studies, largely conducted in animals, for example, suggest that certain types can affect brain chemistry and behaviour to make animals act more socially.
Germ-free animals who’ve had no exposure to microbes, on the other hand, have shown deficits in social behaviour, and researchers have found that this can be restored by adding specific types of bacteria such as Lactobacillus, often found in yoghurt, according to Johnson.
Behavioural changes are likely to be a by-product of processes that help microorganisms grow and compete in the gut, such as fermentation
A recent paper titled ‘Why does the microbiome affect behaviour?’ examined the theory that the gut microbiome has evolved to manipulate its human host for its own success, much like parasites, by making the host more sociable in order to be transmitted.
The paper argued, however, that this theory is unlikely, and behavioural changes are likely to be a by-product of processes that help microorganisms grow and compete in the gut, such as fermentation.
“The gut microbiome is so diverse that, even if there was a type of bacteria producing active chemicals to manipulate our behaviour, this bacteria would quickly be outcompeted by other bacteria not investing any extra energy to produce the compound,” says Johnson, one of the paper’s authors.
The future
Science has not yet defined what a healthy microbiome looks like, and a conclusion appears some way off yet. But there is growing consensus that environmental factors, such as diet and antibiotics, affect our microbiome more than our genes, and that a more diverse microbiome is better for us.
“While we can change our microbiome with our diet, they seem to have a set point to which they often return after a temporary disturbance,” says Johnson. “But one thing we can do is eat more fibre, to increase the diversity of the gut, which is frequently associated with health.”
While there have been many advancements within microbiome research in recent years, there also remain some challenges.
One of these is the reliance on a method called 16S rRNA sequencing, says McDonald, which looks at a specific region of a single gene believed to exist in all bacteria. E. coli is an example of why this method is too broad, McDonald says.
It has been proven that antibiotics can have a powerful effect against gut bacteria (Credit: Getty Images)
“While there are pathogenic E.coli, there are also E.coli that play a neutral or beneficial role in the gut, which would all be indistinguishable with the current method we use. An increase in the level of E.coli doesn’t mean it’s bad for you.”
McDonald’s advice is that we should remain cautious.
“There are a lot of cool things microbiome research will lead to, and there are exciting developments going on now, but while continued advances will lead to improvements in health, a lot of this stuff is tied up in basic research, and there’s a lot of research we can do with mice that we can’t translate to humans, because it’s not safe to do so.”
In the meantime, the most scientists can advise is to eat our greens.
Emerging evidence suggests a 10:1 ratio of carbohydrates to proteins may protect the body from the ravages of ageing
The search for the elixir of youth” has spanned centuries and continents – but recently, the hunt has centred on the Okinawa Islands, which stretch across the East China Sea. Not only do the older inhabitants enjoy the longest life expectancy of anyone on Earth, but the vast majority of those years are lived in remarkably good health too.
Of particular note is the number of people who reach 100 years of life. For every 100,000 inhabitants, Okinawa has 68 centenarians – more than three times the numbers found in US populations of the same size. Even by the standards of Japan, Okinawans are remarkable, with a 40% greater chance of living to 100 than other Japanese people.
Little wonder scientists have spent decades trying to uncover the secrets of the Okinawans’ longevity – in both their genes and their lifestyle. And one of the most exciting factors to have recently caught the scientists’ attention is the peculiarly high ratio of carbohydrates to protein in the Okinawan diet – with a particular abundance of sweet potato as the source of most of their calories.
It is quite the opposite of current popular diets that advocate a high protein, low carb diet,” says Samantha Solon-Biet, who researches nutrition and ageing at the University of Sydney. Despite the popularity of the Atkins and Paleo diets, however, there is minimal evidence that high-protein diets really do bring about long-term benefits.
So could the Okinawan Ratio” – 10:1 carbohydrate to protein – instead be the secret to a long and healthy life? Although it would still be far too early to suggest any lifestyle changes based on these observations, the very latest evidence – from human longitudinal studies and animal trials – suggest the hypothesis is worth serious attention. According to these findings, a low protein, high carbohydrate diet sets off various physiological responses that protect us from various age-related illnesses – including cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. And the Okinawan Ratio may achieve the optimal dietary balance to achieve those effects.
The people of Okinawa remain active and independent into their 90s, and are less likely to develop age-related illnesses (Credit: Getty Images)
Much of this research comes from the Okinawa Centenarian Study (OCS), which has been investigating the health of the ageing population since 1975. The OCS examines inhabitants from across the Okinawa prefecture, which includes more than 150 islands. By 2016, the OCS had examined 1,000 centenarians from the region.
Rather than suffering a prolonged demise, the Okinawan centenarians appeared to have delayed many of the usual effects of ageing, with almost two thirds living independently until the age of 97. This remarkable healthspan” was evident across many age-related diseases. The typical Okinawan centenarian appeared to be free of the typical signs of cardiovascular disease, without the build-up of the hard calcified” plaques around the arteries that can lead to heart failure. Okinawa’s oldest residents also have far lower rates of cancer, diabetes and dementia than other ageing populations.
Genetic jackpot
Given these results, there is little doubt that Okinawa has an exceptional population. But what can explain that extraordinary longevity?
Genetic good fortune could be one important factor. Thanks to the geography of the islands, Okinawa’s populations have spent large chunks of their history in relative isolation, which may has given them a unique genetic profile. Preliminary studies suggest this may include a reduced prevalence of a gene variant – APOE4 – that appears to increase the risk of heart disease and Alzheimer’s. They may also be more likely to carry a protective variant of the FOXO3 gene involved in regulating metabolism and cell growth. This results in a shorter stature but also appears to reduce the risk of various age-related diseases, including cancer.
Even so, it seems unlikely that good genes would fully explain the Okinawans’ longevity, and lifestyle factors will also be important. The OCS has found that Okinawans are less likely to smoke than most populations, and since they worked predominantly in agriculture and fishing, they were also physically active. Their tight-knit communities also help the residents to maintain an active social life into old age. Social connection has also been shown to improve health and longevity by reducing the body’s stress responses to challenging events. (Loneliness, in contrast, has been shown to be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.)
A feeling of social connection can protect your health, while loneliness is thought to be as damaging as smoking 19 cigarettes a day (Credit: Getty Images)
It is the Okinawans’ diet, however, that may have the most potential to change our views on healthy ageing. Unlike the rest of Asia, the Okinawan staple is not rice, but the sweet potato, first introduced in the early 17th Century through trade with the Netherlands. Okinawans also eat an abundance of green and yellow vegetables – such as the bitter melon – and various soy products. Although they do eat pork, fish and other meats, these are typically a small component of their overall consumption, which is mostly plant-based foods.
The traditional Okinawan diet is therefore dense in the essential vitamins and minerals – including anti-oxidants – but also low in calories. Particularly in the past, before fast food entered the islands, the average Okinawan ate around 11% fewer calories than the normal recommended consumption for a healthy adult.
For this reason, some scientists believe that Okinawans offer more evidence for the life-enhancing virtues of a calorie restricted” diet. Since the 1930s, some doctors and scientists have argued that continuously limiting the amount of energy you consume could have many benefits above and beyond weight loss – including a deceleration of the ageing process.
It’s still not clear why a calorie restricted diet would be so beneficial, but there are many potential mechanisms. One possibility is that calorie restriction alters the cell’s energy signalling, so that the body devotes more resources to preservation and maintenance – such as DNA repair – rather than growth and reproduction, while limiting ‘oxidative stress’ caused by the toxic by-products of metabolism that can cause cellular damage.
Sweet potatoes are one of the principle ingredients in traditional Okinawan cuisine (Credit: Alamy)
The benefits of the Okinawan Diet may not end with its calorie restriction.
Although there aren’t yet any controlled clinical trials in humans, Solon-Biet cites epidemiological work across the world that all point to similar conclusions. Other long-lived populations have also been shown to have dietary patterns that include relatively low amounts of protein,” she says. These include the Kitavans, [who live on] a small island in Papua New Guinea, the South American Tsimane people and populations that consume the Mediterranean diet.”
Once again, the exact mechanisms are murky. Like calorie restriction, the low protein diets seem to promote the cell repair and maintenance. Karen Ryan, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, points out that the scarcity of amino acids can encourage cells to recycle old material (rather than synthesising new proteins).
Together, these changes may prevent the ageing-associated accumulation of damaged proteins within cells,” she says. This build-up of damaged proteins may usually be responsible for many diseases, she says – but the regular clean up when we eat a low-protein diet could prevent it.
So should we all start adopting the Okinawan Diet? Not quite. Ryan points to some evidence that low protein intake may limit bodily damage up to the age of 65, but you may then benefit from increasing your protein intake after that point. Optimal nutrition is expected to vary across the life history,” she says. And it’s also worth noting one study, which found that the relative merits of protein and carbohydrates may depend on the protein’s source: a diet higher in plant-based protein appears to be better than a diet rich in meat or dairy, for instance. So the Okinawans may be living longer due to the fact that they are eating (mostly) fruit and vegetables, rather than its high carb, low protein content.
Ultimately, the Okinawans’ health is probably due to a lucky confluence of many factors, Ryan says. And specific interactions among these factors will also be important.” And we may need many more years of research to understand the importance of each of those ingredients before we finally come up with a true recipe for the elixir of youth”.
