KAMALIKA  PIERIS

Revised 20.6.19

HEALTH

We start with Sunshine stories”. Here they are:

• European standard hospitals will be established in Hambantota, Panadura, Dambulla, Matale and Embilipitiya with German, Netherlands and French aid.
• New accident wards are to be established in 24 General Hospitals and Teaching Hospitals located island wide.
•  A total of 48 blood transfusion centres have already been established island wide.
• A  clinical wastage recycling project, spending Rs. 2600 million will  be launched.
• A foreign company will invest in E-Health system and issue E-Health cards for Sri Lankans .the company will include all State hospitals in the E-Health system. It has provided E-Health cards for 40 million people in Andhra Pradesh in India.

The country’s health care system will be digitized via an E-Health policy. According to the E-Health policy, all citizens will be issued E-Health Cards which will record their health conditions so that any doctor can have history of their patients. The E-Health System will be introduced to 45 Hospitals in the next two years 2018-19 .it is to be expanded to 300 hospitals following the initial implementation.

• The government is to launch a project to manufacture a key ingredient in medical products using liters of blood plasma daily unused in the country. We will have a joint project with United States of America and India to produce certain ingredients which are very important in some medical products. When we export blood plasma, these countries manufacture these ingredients and export them back to our country for very high prices. With this new project, we will receive a quantity of these products for our local use.

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In 2017, The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) urged  the Health ministry to appoint a suitable officer to the post of Director General of   Health services. This is the apex position in the health services and the post has been vacant for nearly one year now with an acting DGHS.

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In 2018 The GMOA asked the Health Ministry to fill the 148 Deputy Director posts which had fallen vacant instead of creating  ‘Acting Deputy Directors’. There were 180 Deputy Director posts in the country and 148 of them were vacant. the vacancies had been advertised about one year back. But, no attempt had been made to fill them. Medical Superintendents in Base hospitals, Deputy Directors in all major hospitals, Deputy Regional Directors come under the category of Deputy Director. State-run hospitals are facing a crisis due to the delays in appointments. 

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In 2018 the Government Medical Officers’ Association  warned it would resort to a strike if the North Central Provincial Council attempted to bring doctors serving in the province under the Provincial health service. North Central Province (NCP) had, in a letter, informed the Provincial Director Health Services that the Council had taken a decision to absorb doctors under its purview. GMOA said doctors belonged to the All-Island service.

The doctors had also wanted to take up with the Governor NCP several other issues including Indian medical officers conducting mobile clinics in the East, the misuse of World Bank funds and the delay in paying doctors’ overtime. A group of GMOA representatives in the East who attempted to take up those issues at a meeting with Governor on March 29 had been threatened.

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Puttalam nurses staged a demonstration in March 2018 saying that they had worked in Puttalam for nine years and had got transfer orders but the hospital is not letting them go.

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Doctors protested in 2018 against an appointment of a second vascular surgeon to the Ragama Teaching Hospital (Colombo North Teaching Hospital) from outside the annual transfer list. The surgeon involved was sent to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital in 2016.Two years later a special position had been created for a second vascular surgeon at Colombo North Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Ragama and this surgeon appointed to it, in violation of the annual transfer list. Doctors allege that the second position had been created to accommodate this particular surgeon. Director of the Ragama hospital told the Director General Health Services, that two vascular specialists are not required in his hospital as the hospital doesn’t have a specialized unit for vascular surgery.

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The post of the Chief Epidemiologist was always held by a qualified epidemiologist but a doctor without the required medical knowledge  was   appointed to this position in 2017. Protests were made by the GMOA, former Chief Epidemiologists, current Epidemiologists and senior academics.

Chief Epidemiologist, Dr. Paba Palihawadana, sought and obtained no-pay leave from the Health Ministry to join the UN service for one year, in 2017. While she was on no-pay leave, another senior public health specialist of the Epidemiology Unit acted for the Chief Epidemiologist. However, when Dr. Palihawadana reported back for duty as Chief Epidemiologist on January 1, 2018, she found that another person had been appointed to the post.

Dr. A.  Dissanayake was appointed as Chief Epidemiologist on December 19, 2017, There was an advertisement, I applied and I was selected,” he said, pointing out that the appointment was made by the Public Service Commission in accordance with the prevailing medical minutes. Dr. Dissanayake said he had headed the National Blood Transfusion Service for several years.  Before that he was Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) in Kalutara, where he was handling everything”. The medical profession did not agree. They said Dr D. did not have the necessary qualifications.  He had a M.Sc in Medical Administration.”

According to  circular No. 02-132/2000 dated September 26, 2000, the Chief Epidemiologist should be a Board certified Consultant in Community Medicine with work experience in epidemiology,. These criteria are also included in the Medical Services Minute of 2014. All Consultants attached to the Epidemiology Unit have these qualifications and field experience in epidemiology-related activities.

The Epidemiology Unit is responsible for controlling communicable diseases. If there is a major outbreak of a communicable disease, the Epidemiology Unit, will not be able to handle the crisis with a non-technical head without a background in epidemiology, Sri Lanka’s much-commended public health system would crash with the next outbreak of disease.

All epidemiological-related activities — which include communicable disease control and the immunization programme – are coordinated and implemented through Regional Epidemiologists based at district-level. When the Regional Epidemiologists need any technical input, it has to be provided by the Chief Epidemiologist. the Chief Epidemiologist has to provide technical advice and guidance to these Consultants. The doctors will not be ready to follow the medical instructions given by a doctor who does not have the requisite knowledge. That is why we think that the current Chief Epidemiologist cannot handle the job,”

Doctors pointed out that a non-technical doctor  had been appointed to head the Dengue Control Programme. He had abandoned” his post during the height of the dengue epidemic in 2017. The main reason for influenza reaching the epidemic level in the Southern Province is the appointment of a  doctor without the relevant medical knowledge to the post of Chief Epidemiologist, said the GMOA in May 2018.

The influenza started to spread in the Southern Province one month ago, but nothing was done to control it, The Chief Epidemiologist kept mum. Now it is up to the parents and the school authorities to control the outbreak and prevent it from spreading all over the country.  The Epidemiology Unit and the Chief Epidemiologist is not ready to face any possible disease outbreak that could occur as a result of the present floods, either.

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Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Namal Gamage has decided, in July 2018, to stop performing surgeries as the air-conditioner at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital was not functioning. There were around 3,000 heart patients waiting to undergo heart surgery at the hospital. Although a number of requests had been made for repairing the central air-conditioning system, no action had been taken, The patients also made the same request to the authorities.

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The Health Ministry said in 2017 it would make use of theatres at private hospitals to perform cardiac and eye surgeries to clear waiting lists at government hospitals. The surgeons and staff would be from the government and private sectors.  Health Ministry would meet the cost. The private hospitals  have submitted their charges for each surgery and the time table during which the operations could be performed. The Private Sector Regulatory Authority would study the report and come up with an action plan.

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The Emergency medical Service system of the country will soon be strengthened with eight Airbus Helicopters and 28 state-of-the-art emergency vehicles, said the Ministry in 2017. Steiger Foundation of Germany will provide 24 helicopters, 1,025 ambulances and 24 emergency vehicles. Helicopters will be  useful addition to the system,  considering   road traffic congestion . Sometimes ambulances could not travel through roads due to traffic congestion.

The government  announced that it has decided to continue with Sri Lanka’s pioneering  Pre Hospital Emergency Care Ambulance Service, Suwasariya, launched with Indian financial backing  in 2016. the free ambulance services now operating in Western and Southern Provinces will be expanded covering the entire country by  2018. Joint Opposition pointed out in Parliament  that  it was the ambulance service in the hospitals which should be expanded.

The Indian firm GVK EMRI LANKA operated the free ambulance  service through a Public-Private Partnership with the Ministry of Health,. The operation is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, round the clock service, the Control Centre received over 322,000 calls and has served over 32,000 cases, out of which, cardio, trauma, and stroke were the major cases.

In a Memorandum to the Cabinet of Ministers, Wickremesinghe had said that the Pre Hospital Emergency Care Ambulance Service, which was launched in the Western and Southern Provinces with GVK EMRI Lanka Limited and assistance of the Indian Government on July 29, 2016 had by April 2017, responded to 236,000 calls with an average responding time of 12.52 minutes and transported 130 to 135 patients daily.

In a ‘letter to the editor’ which was supposedly to praise a hospital ward, ‘Concerned woman’ heaped praise on the Indian ambulance service which she said was excellent. The service included a  doctor, a nurse and nurse aide. They were trained in India,  including  the driver. They knew emergency medical action. they were considerate and capable. They helped revive her husband with emergency first aid. All this at no cost thanks to the present government, she said.

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Health Ministry has. in 2018,  outsourced the laundry services of hospitals in the Western Province to an Indian Company, complained Government Medical Officers’ Association  . The GMOA wanted this outsourcing of the laundry in government hospitals to an Indian Company, stopped.

The Ministry said that the new  laundry  service would be provided  by the Sri Lankan affiliate of India’s Sugram Hospital Solutions, which is engaged in laundry services at several hospitals worldwide, The service is a Board of Investment (BOI) project under the Build, Operate, & Transfer (BOT) method with a  USD 4 7.5 million investment. The government does not bear any expenses for the project. Constructing  of  buildings and installing required machinery, will be done at the expense of the investors, After 15 years the project, with up to date technology will be transferred to the Ministry of Health. More than 300 unemployed youths will be given employment.

Under the project, the garments used by the patients and staff during the surgical procedures will be sterilized using modern methods, washed and ironed, sealed in protective covers, and transported to the hospitals in sterilized trucks. The Ministry of Health will spend less than the cost incurred by the hospitals on local laundry services at present.

 The Ministry said doctors in Western Province had complained about the local providers who were engaged in the laundry service for the hospitals in the Western Province. They were using substandard materials for sterilization,  they were not sterilizing, there was  delay in providing cleaned laundry to hospitals during rainy season,  and the possible spread of skin related diseases due to incomplete cleaning also, white-colored bed linen are brownish. They were washed with water from the Beira Lake.

GMOA replied that the local agencies involved in washing hospital linen had been registered with and certified by the Health Ministry after calling for tenders. They were experienced and met the required standards. The charge that Beira Lake water was used for washing hospital linen was incorrect. GMOA wanted to know whether cleaner water was to be brought from India or whether linen was to be sent to India to be washed and brought back to Sri Lanka.

This was yet another instance of Sri Lankan politicians acting as agents of foreign countries. They were selling government institutions and services to foreign companies, said GMOA.   GMOA had warned that the Economic and Technology Corporation Agreement (ETCA) would threaten the services and professions in Sri Lanka. Now, it seems that not even small enterprises and family trade would be safe with ECTA,  said GMOA. This project has no relevance to ETCA, replied the Ministry.

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there were 13 local drug manufacturers who locally produce 82 items for the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation, said the Ministry at a media briefing in 2017. Ten more local manufacturers producing 40 more items will join the local drug manufacturing in the near future. a total of 38 agreements have been signed between the government and the local drug manufacturers to produce drugs in Sri Lanka .Sri Lanka has already begun local drug production at two factories situated in Kandy and Horana.

Sri Lanka expects to produce 80% of its drug requirements by the end of 2018, which will save USD 400 million plus annually which the government spends for drug importation. Accordingly, the importation of all drugs which can be produced locally, will be stopped by the end of 2018.

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The State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPMC) and Pharma Zone (Pvt) Ltd entered into an agreement in January 2018, to build the first ever exclusive pharmaceutical manufacturing zone (Pharma Zone) of Sri Lanka. It will be located on 50 acres in Welipenna, Kalutara district at an investment of over US $ 10 million. to be.

The Pharma Zone is a BOI approved company whose principals are the Sultan of Johor and Patrick Lim Soo Kit, a leading Malaysian entrepreneur. This is a 100 % Malaysian investment and it underlines the high regard that the Sultan and the people of Johor for Sri Lanka, said the Ministry.

The Zone will be run and administered by Pharma Zone, headed by Patrick Lim Soo Kit, while the SPMC along with the Ministry of Health will set the standards and monitor quality. Electricity, water, road infrastructure, security, waste water management,  will l be provided to the companies operating within the Zone. it is the intention of Pharma Zone to attract overseas investors to set up operations within the Zone as well. “We will be marketing Pharma Zone regionally,” said Lim.

Pharma Zone will facilitate the local pharmaceutical manufacturers with sufficient land for manufacturing plants and basic infrastructure facilities for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. So that the government can achieve its target of localising production of essential pharmaceutical items to a value of US$100 million. with the completion of the Pharma Zone, envisaged to be in operation within one year, the country’s dependency on imported drugs will soon become a thing of the past, said the Ministry.

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 In 2017 the Health Ministry announced an exclusive agreement between the government and the staff of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to grant a staggering 55 per cent salary increase to the lowest paid employees and 41 per cent pay hike to their highest paid counterparts. This  salary increase had been granted due to an impressive profit of Rs 1,800 earned by the SPC . it would be effective from July 1, 2017 to June 6, 2020.

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Hospitals do not have adequate drugs to treat cancer patients and are not sure when the drugs will arrive critics said in January 2019. This is due to the delay in appointments to tender boards. That is turn is due to vetting process by the committees appointed by the President. The Boards cannot function until persons are formally appointments to tender boards. the Medical Supplies Division  of the Health Ministry and the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) responsible for supplying the required medicines confirmed that delays in appointing tender boards and the release of payments to suppliers had adversely affected the supplies.

 The resulting delays in completing tender processes has  particularly affected the purchase of vital drugs for cancer patients.. medical authorities have been forced to defer treatment of cancer patients throughout the country. the country’s main Cancer Hospital, ‘Apeksha’ in Maharagama  was forced to tell patients to come back later for treatment or advise them to by the medicine from private pharmacies. Hundreds of patients have already been turned away, reported the media.

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in September 2018,  Health Ministry officials said that a crisis is looming in the health sector due to the Treasury not releasing more than Rs 20 billion to settle bills for essential items, including medicines,  it is the first time such a large amount has been outstanding. Of this, Rs 10 billion is owed to the Health Ministry. Another Rs 10 billion is due to the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) which has not been paid up to five months for production of essential medicines. Arrears to the tune of Rs 450 million are owed to one supplier.

The SPMC takes out loans to manufacture close to 200 pharmaceuticals. When Treasury reimbursement is delayed, it is forced to reduce the quantity of drugs it produces or cease manufacturing completely. This is because it costs money to import the raw material required to make the medicines in Sri Lanka. All these medicines are for Government hospitals,” said the official. If the outstanding amounts are not settled soon, manufacturers will refuse to provide medicines, plunging the free health service into crisis.”. There is also no money to advertise tenders, meaning those that are in the pipeline will be delayed.

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 In 2017 Yahapalana government   purchased two clinically untested cancer drugs  Trastuzumab and Bevazizumab, produced and imported from Russia. In 2016, 25 oncologists wrote to the Health Ministry advising it not to import these two  drugs.   The drugs were of low quality and were not used even in Russia. Their price was higher than other drugs which have US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) approval.

The drug was hurriedly registered in the NMRA    and tenders called. There were no Oncologists in the technical committee which approved the tender. The tender was floated by the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPCSL). (Tender No. LP/MSD/CPU – DHS/RQ/016/018). The five shortlisted bidders submitted quotations for Rs. 64,700, Rs. 93,950, Rs. 109,000, Rs. 135,900 and Rs. 190,000 per vial, respectively. The second highest bidder wasawarded thetender, despite a substantial price difference of Rs. 39 million for the whole stock of 557 vials.

The company which submitted the lowest bid wrote to the authorities, complaining about the unjust manner in which it was elbowed out and the tender awarded to the second highest bidder. The lowest bidder  said that he too was able to supply 100 vials ex stock (with three vials free of charge) and the balance within 14 working days on receipt of the confirmed order.

A second purchase  order was placed on October 3, 2017 with the local supplier for another 2,500 vials of Trastuzumab at a staggering cost of Rs. 360,250,000, despite a competitor offering a time-tested, FDA approved product, at a competitive price. The move to purchase another 2,500 vials of a product which has generated much controversy is beyond belief, said critics. Somebody is making a big kill on the bid. Otherwise, why opt for a higher price when a better, time-tested drug is on offer.

After the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and Chamal Rajapaksa as Health Minister,  in October 2018, the SPC had ordered a better and cheaper drug, but when a court order preventing the Prime Minister and the Cabinet from functioning was made, the SPC  cancelled the order and again ordered the Russian drug.

The SPC bought 557 vials from this company at the second highest bid price of Rs. 135,900 each at a total cost of more than Rs. 75 million. The lowest bidder had offered the stock for Rs. 36.37 million which meant that the government had spent an additional Rs. 39 million. analysts said this was done to prevent losses to the local importer of this drug.  The importer was holding large stocks of this very expensive drug. It had known that the Ministry  will definitely purchase the drug from them. These three purchases have resulted in a colossal loss of more than Rs. 108 million to the country, said critics.

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The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed by the President to investigate and inquire into serious acts of fraud, corruption, and the abuse of power, state resources and privileges by the   present the government,  issued summons on the current and former chairmen of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA).This was regarding the import of the Russian-made cancer drug Herticad by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) for the Maharagama Cancer Hospital.This drug is deemed to be of an inferior quality, and can only be used on patients with stage two cancer.

SPC had decided to import a drug that couldn’t be used for all stages of the disease in spite of paying such a high price for it. Furthermore this drug lacked the approval of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Medcines Agency (EMA).Several Oncologists in the country had objected to the use of this drug said the Attorney General’s department .

Those summoned before the Commission stated that Government hospitals do not have proper supplementary medicines that are used with chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer patients. Currently Sri Lankan government hospitals only had the drug, Herticad and that it was not suitable for treating early stage breast cancer patients. “Herticad is good for treating patients with advance cancer.

Herticad saw clinical practice in Russia, where the drug originates, only in March 2016. The NMRA had registered the drug in Sri Lanka in February 2016.The reasons given was that NMRA only registers drugs and the decision to import them or not is decided by a tender committee.

Herticad was introduced in 2016 by the Ministry of Health that insisted that the drug is a cheaper alternative to Herceptin. However oncologists have been critical of the drug stating that 80% of Sri Lankan breast cancer patients are detected at an early stage and that Herticad is not suitable for treating them.

the oncologists on the tender committee, objected to Herticad stating that by allowing this drug, NMRA has failed to follow guidelines set by WHO and European Medicines Regulatory Authority. ‘This product is not suitable to be used for adjunct use (during early stages of cancer.

A number of oncologists have written to the Ministry of Health about the dangers of Herticad. But the response from the Ministry has not been positive. Four oncologists had to face a disciplinary inquiry due to their objections to using Herticad. “The inquirer wasn’t even a technical person. When oncologists had sent letters complaining about it to the Ministry it has responded by saying that this is the only drug available and that they better use it,”

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From the time Yahapalana government took power,  the GMOA has been actively opposing  the government  on economic issues such as ECTA. They  antagonized the government and the government  retaliated . In November 2016, the tyres of cars belonging to doctors has been deflated at the Ministry. Doctors at Kandy, Kurunegala and Matara had suspended work for four hours as protest.  

There were several disagreements between the doctors and the  Health Ministry. GMOA said government has cut down vehicle permits, their children were not given good schools when transfers were made and did not grant schools to their children  when they returned from abroad, Government said schools had been given. Doctors said , no. Not all children had  got schools. only     20 out of 138 children had got schools. Doctors were contemplating trade union action

doctors also complained of an inordinate delay in the implementation of enhanced transport allowance as well as the amendments in respect of duty free vehicle scheme. They objected to the  way they were taxed in Budget 2017. they  staged a lunch hour protest demanding that the government solve several issues of the Budget 2017. Western province doctors would stop private practice for a day, against the budget proposal to tax government employees  private practice. 

Association of Medical Specialists said in June  2018 they would refrain from private practice  in protest over the new tax policy for doctors All specialists doctors will strike if the discussion with the Finance Minister fails. Yahapalana gave in and said they would give the disturbance, availability and transport allowance. and allowances will be increased. Also doctors  private practice will not be subject to tax.

In 2017, the Ministry said that GMOA was preventing  the routine transfers. GMO said that was nonsense. The GMOA has always participated in the transfer process for years and it is only  in 2017 that GMOA has clashed like this with the Health ministry. The ministry has still not got the transfer list ready,  they said. The list should have been published in December last year and by now the doctors would have been in their new stations.  

EDUCATION

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) said in 2018 that though around 7,500 candidates qualified for promotions, only 700 were promoted Principals. That is due to a circular issued by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2015, that all teachers to be eligible for the Principal’s post should have a Simple Pass in Sinhala or Tamil at their Ordinary Level (O/L) exam. A Sinhala medium teacher have a Pass in the Tamil Language, while a Tamil medium teacher have a pass in the Sinhala Language.  Of those eligible for promotion to the Principal grade, only 4% possess Language proficiency.

This has resulted in about 4,000 Grade 2 teachers and 3,500 Grade 3 teachers stagnating without their due promotions. Minister Mano Ganeshan   granted a solution by diluting the clause, stating that teachers over 50 year of age, instead of the Pass at O/L, could follow a 100-hours course in Tamil/Sinhala, to qualify for promotions. However, the Ministry has this concession and granted promotions only to those candidates with Passes in Sinhala/Tamil in their O/Ls.

The Ceylon Teachers Unions stated that teachers in class III and II unable to acquire proficiency    in Sinhala and Tamil are stagnating in their grades and unable to get promotion. According to   Public Administration circular 1/2007 all officers recruited to the public service and provincial PS  should acquire proficiency in the other official language within a period of 5 years of their recruitment. This includes a pass in S or T at O level, and speech test.

When the matter came up in 2017, they granted concession to all teachers who had reached the age of 50, they were allowed to follow 100 hours of Sinhala or Tamil course conducted by the Ministry of National Integration and Official languages. However government failed to extend this concession in 2018 and 2019 which resulted in several teachers retiring without achieving class I status, and have gone on pension without this.

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The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) charged that the Education Ministry, which failed to distribute free copies of the Teacher’s Guide Book for the Year 4 syllabus, is now selling the books to teachers. The syllabus for Year 4 had changed, and teachers were inconvenienced as there was no guide. The Education Publications Department (EPD), which is responsible for distribution, was now selling the Guide at Rs545 a copy and teachers serving Year 4 classroom had to buy them. The Teacher’s Guide Book for Year 13 has also not been distributed for the last six years. Stalin pointed out that the Advanced Level syllabus was changed in 2012. The National Institute of Education was releasing the syllabus in sections to teachers via the internet.

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In May 2019, Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal by the Minister of Education, to purchase 160,000 laptops to develop IT facilities in secondary schools across the country. A previous attempt by the Minister to purchase Tab computers in 2017 for AL students and teachers had created controversy. Presidential Commission investigating frauds under the Current Administration found that Education Ministry officials had inflated the number of AL students and teachers eligible for Tab computers in 2017, in the first estimate officials stated that 113,340 students, 2820 principals and 5000 teachers were eligible to receive Tabs. These numbers were gathered from a census of schools conducted in 2016. A later estimate, three months after the first, stated that 159,786 students, 2820 principals and 31,459 teachers were eligible to receive Tabs.

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Cabinet approval was obtained in January 2019 to appoint 3,850 Sports Instructors to schools island wide. salaries are to be paid by the Central Government, a training programme was to be arranged for those selected, and the chosen would be individuals who had proved their sports abilities at provincial or national levels. 850 individuals were already selected and awaiting appointments said Yahapalana.

Ceylon Teachers Services Union is opposing this.  When there are vacancies for some 4,000 Sports Teachers, why is the government trying to introduce Sports Instructors instead, asked the teachers. The Ministry was trying to provide employment to party loyalists. Due to this, persons who had no sports qualifications had been selected.

Ceylon Teachers Services Union is also opposing the government’s decision to recruit Sports Instructors to government schools in violation of the Teacher Service Minutes. TSM requires candidates appointed to the teaching post have sports qualifications in one of five National Colleges of Education (NCOE). Sports Instructors can be selected from NCOE graduates and the Sabaragamuwa University. The NCOE at Vavuniya and Batticaloa conducts Diploma courses for Sports Instructors in Tamil, and Bandarawela, Ruwanpura and Milwela NCOE conduct Diploma courses in Sinhala. The Sabaragamuwa University conducts degree programmes in Sports Training. Instead, there were moves to recruit persons with GCE Ordinary Level qualifications with a sports background.  Further these instructors are not teachers and have no responsibility towards students.

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The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) claims politicians are changing the name boards of schools in the Western Province to include their own names, in alleged gratitude for the work they do for the schools. It is claimed Madiwela Sri Rahula Vidyalaya has been renamed Isuru Maha Vidyalaya after Western Province Chief Minister Isuru Devapriya. In a similar move, Provincial Council Chairman Sunil Wijeratne has proposed that Bulugahagoda Maha Vidyalaya in the Gampaha district change its name to Sunil Wijeratne Maha Vidyalaya. Another school, Kiridiwela Sangamitha Balika Vidyalaya, also in the Gampaha district, has a three-storey building named after Provincial Council member Upali Wijeratne.

Chief Minister Devapriya told the Sunday Times he had no hand in the change of name of Madiwela Sri Rahula Vidyalaya to Isuru Maha Vidyalaya and that it was the parents of the school’s pupils who had decided on the move. He said this had been done as a token of appreciation for the work he had done for the school. The school was in a bad state, almost on the verge of closure, and I took it upon me to reconstruct and rejuvenate it,” he said.

.Meanwhile, he noted, this issue was nothing new as a playground in Mirihana had been named Isuru Devapriya Sports Pavilion. Western Province Education Minister Ranjith Somawansa said protocol should be followed in changing names of schools. There was no provision to change the name boards and if at all there were to be a change a school could not be named after a living person, he said. (Sunday Times 7.4.19 p 11).

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The Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate Corruption of the current Administration was informed that there was a misuse of Rs. 2,430 million due to the re-insuring the funds allocated for the ‘Suraksha’ insurance policy for schoolchildren with a reinsurance company in India. Reinsurance is the practice whereby insurers transfer portions of their risk portfolios to other parties by some form of agreement to reduce the likelihood of paying a large obligation resulting from an insurance claim.

 The Ministry spends approximately Rs. 285 million per year on the insurance cover for all students in the country. However, the Ministry obtains public funds amounting to around Rs. 2,700 million for the insurance scheme said   an officer giving evidence before the Commission. He said he was employed at the Health and Nutrition Division of the Education Ministry and the insurance scheme was handled by that division.”We had several discussions with Director of Health and Nutrition Division and Chairman of Suraksha Committee. We pointed out that there was no need to re-insure this with an Indian company. We were told that they were working according to the Minister’s orders. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe when he was Education Minister had submitted a Cabinet paper to establish a fund at the Education Ministry that can re-insure the ‘Suraksha’ insurance scheme.

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The Ministry of Education had made seven appointments to top positions without following proper procedure, They have got covering approval for these appointments from the Education Services Committee of the Public Services Commission, said the Ceylon Teachers Union .These seven positions are Additional Secretary – Establishments, Chief Commissioner of Colleges of Education, Education Director – Technology, Education Director – Research, Education Director – Human Resources, Education Director – Teacher Training Schools and Education Director – Extra Curricular Activities.

However,   nine other top positions have been vacant in the Education Ministry for an extended period of time and that had caused a serious crisis in the education sector. The vacant positions are Director of Sports and Physical Education, Director – Primary Education, Director – Private Schools, Director – Science, Director – Aesthetic Studies, Director – Estate Schools, Director – Languages and Humanities, Director – Teacher Transfers and Director – Informal Education.” these are vital positions and due to this  lapse these sectors not functioning properly,”

these positions have been left vacant to be filled with those who say they have been politically victimized, said the Ceylon Teachers Union. The Yahapalana government has been turning the education sector into a job bank for UNPers. The government has attempted to fill important positions in the Ministry with UNP henchmen who claim that they have been politically victimized. “About two weeks ago they appointed 3,850 sports instructors. They are also appointing a large number of watchers. Last week the Ministry of Education has sent a list of 217 ‘political victims’ to the Public Service Commission seeking permission to give them appointments. Last year the government tried to promote over 1,000 UNP supporters who claimed to have been politically victimized, the Teachers Union complained in May 2019.

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One of the main issues in the education sector was that there were 302 acting principals in national schools. “These appointments were made for the most part by old boys/girls associations and/or regional politicians to exercise control over institutions by having persons dependent on them for survival appointed as acting school heads. In 2012, there were 96 vacancies for principles in National Schools. That number has risen to 302 in2019. In 2017, there was an attempt to select principals but because the process was so corrupt, the Public Services Commission (PSC) canceled the recruitments and asked the Ministry to stick to rules and regulations. Nothing has been done so far.

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Ceylon Teachers Union complained in June 2019 that the Ministry of Education was planning to appoint registrars to all schools with over 1,000 students at a time when there were vacancies for principals in 302 out of 353 national schools. There were 984 schools with over 1,000 students and depending on the number of students in a school, the grades of the Registrars would be determined. schools with over 4,500 students will get Senior Registrars. The work that is to be assigned to the registrars is currently done by vice principals. So, essentially, the Ministry is creating positions in 984 schools to give jobs to UNP henchmen.

The teachers summarized the various grievances, in a statement to the media in June 2019. “The government has been turning education sector into a job bank for UNPers. Such attempts have been ramped up in recent months as national elections were fast approaching. In mid May, the government appointed 3,850 sports instructors, the CTU said.”They are also appointing a large number of watchers. Last week, the Ministry of Education has sent a list of 217 ‘political victims’ to the Public Service Commission seeking permission to employ them. Last year, the government tried to promote over 1,000 UNP supporters who claimed to have been politically victimized. The government has left nine top positions vacant in the Education Ministry for an extended period and that has caused a serious crisis in the education sector and made seven appointments to top positions without following proper procedure. These actions are creating a lot of issues, they said.

Foreword

Ruwan M Jayatunge’s Clinical Meditation is a most ambitious project, providing a broad overview of meditative techniques without sacrificing in-depth analysis.   

There are several challenges involved in describing the value of meditation in clinical practice.  The practice of meditation” encompasses a large and varied field. Much of the published scientific literature is of borderline quality.  Study designs often neglect the heterogeneity of techniques, and at times draw conclusions that are not supported by data.  Even a fundamental definition of the term can be elusive.  Despite these difficulties Dr. Jayatunge has evaluated as comprehensive a list of meditative traditions and techniques as one can expect to find.   

Clinical Meditation identifies a wide variety of practices, including a number of laboratory derived approaches, and describes the historical and cultural milieu from which they have arisen as well as their current status.  The work reflects an admirable job of reviewing the scientific literature ranging across physiological, psychological and therapeutic domains.  Dr. Jayatunge then connects the dots regarding a host of clinical conditions. 

This book is suitable for a wide audience.  Those new to the arena will almost certainly find a place to start regardless of their area of interest.  Experts in the scientific bases and clinical applications of meditation will find in-depth information, a wide spectrum of consideration, and literally hundreds of scientific references.  Clinical Meditation offers a robust and welcome addition to the field. 

Brian Rees MD MPH

Colonel (retired) US Army

Executive Director, TM for Veterans 

Director, Operation Warrior Wellness

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

This essay looks at appointment, promotion, transfers and salaries of teachers and principals during Yahapalana rule.

APPOINTMENTS

In 2017 Education Minister gave 2,000 non-academic appointments at national schools across the country based on political influence without following a proper and transparent recruitment process, said critics. Most of these recruitments are from the Kurunegala district, especially from Kuliyapitiya. These employees do not even obey the Principals and work on their own agendas in schools. This has created a lot of administrative problems at schools. (Daily News 28.9.17 p 9)

***

The Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) was threatening to go on strike in June 2018 in  protest of the Government’s move to absorb unqualified persons into the education sector. CTU said they were against the government’s plan to give appointments and promotions to 1,200 persons without following  the procedures  given by the Public Service Commission . Officers of the Education Ministry ,Examinations Department, Provincial Education Departments and Zonal Education Departments would participate in the strike.

**&
Attempts were made in 2017  to recruit individuals who have not even passed G.C.E.O/L as Sports Instructors. 15,000 prospective candidates were interviewed for 3,000 vacancies for minor staff posts, titled Sports Advisers” for National Schools  by staff who did not  know anything  about the respective sports.Instead of filtering and reducing the numbers for interviews to economize on time, all applicants had been called for interviews. That involved nearly a month’s work for Ministry staff.

PROMOTIONS

In March 2019,  Public Service Commission (PSC) had turned down the list of names submitted by the Ministry of Education to fill the vacancies of Principals in the 302 National schools in the country. They rejected  the selection criteria  used by the Ministry, the irregular marking scheme and the non categorization of schools. In 64 schools only Class I SLEAS officers can be posted, and in 84 schools, Class II SLEAS officers are posted. The PSC wanted the vacancies  re-advertised and filled within three months. The Ministry  however, said on its website  that it had adopted proper procedure.

***

In  May 2018, Ministry of Education decided to grant relief to 1,018 teachers, principals and education administrators  reportedly affected by ‘political victimization’   by promoting them to higher grades.

These   1,018 personnel had been chosen from 14,000 applicants who had experienced political victimization  and placed in a special category  ‘politically victimized persons’. A special Cabinet paper was presented on the matter. ‘They are victims and they have a right to get their grade increase along with salaries,’ said Minister for Education.  ‘We are not actively appointing them, we are only giving them a symbolic grade elevation and granting a salary increase to compensate them’.

A Committee comprising senior officials of the SLEAS and the Government Administrative Service had been appointed to examine the list of names.  Accordingly, 250 Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service (SLEAS ) officers and 800 candidates from the Sri Lanka Principal Service, Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service    and Sri Lanka Teacher Service were recommended for promotions.  The Public Services Commission (PSC), which had approved the decision to promote them,  stated that it had not looked at the personal files of those recommended for promotions. The PSC had only looked at the appeals.

Ceylon Teachers’ Union said it  had no objection to financial compensation, but strongly opposed promotions.  To get promotions or to enter the Education Administrative Service one had to pass examinations. Those selected have not passed the competitive examinations  needed to qualify for the posts. The list contained 27 persons   who have not passed mathematics at the GCE Ordinary Level Examination, which is mandatory and around 115 individuals have disciplinary inquiries pending.  Some of the ‘victims’ lack even the basic qualifications  needed for these posts.

The PSC Act requires that to qualify for promotions, candidates have to sit for examinations held by the PSC. Just because a teacher was transferred due to political reasons, the government could not promote him or her as a Principal, said the unions. It was unfair by the  teachers who went through the rigorous process of selection to see others gain promotion without facing assessment.  An injustice  was caused to those genuinely qualified for the posts.

 The unions  also charged that this was a ruse to promote over 1,000 UNP supporters  using the excuse of  political victimization. The appointments were being granted as political favours rather than as justice for teachers who had genuinely faced victimization.  The Education Minister was providing favours to UNP-affiliated teachers and officials, charged the unions. Several names in the list are there  on the recommendations of politicians. A number of secretaries and other minor officials of the Prime Minister’s Office have also been categorized as political victims. Most of them have not been victimized at all.  Some have  given  flimsy reasons such as their roofs being damaged by Opposition politicians. Past governments tried the same tactics and failed, with cases pending in the courts, said the unions.

The unions asked the Ministry of Education to immediately withdraw the list  of those to be promoted. Minister Kariyawasam said he would not be intimidated by unions and would proceed with the promotions.

The   education unions thereafter engaged in three vigorous protests. They first  had a sick note campaign, with the participation of Educational Administrative Service Trade Union, Teachers Education Association and the Trade Union Alliance of Teachers and Principals. 95% of the Teachers and Principals    went on ‘Sick Leave’. If the Government continues to ignore the demand, the Unions will join for a major strike, which will affect the education programme in schools, they said.

 Nothing happened, so a faction  from the Ceylon Teachers Union, Teachers’ Services Union, Lanka Teacher Services’ Association and Sri Lanka National Principals’ Union went ahead with a  one day token strike on  July 4. 2018    Around 15,000 Principals and 240,000 Teachers participated in the  protest. Schools were partially affected with reduced attendance of teachers and students.   Classes were  deserted and parents came to take the children  home.

Unionists representing the two sides clashed in front of the Education Ministry, engaging in heated arguments and hurling stones and rotten eggs at each other. Principals, education directors and administrative officials were involved in the melee. TV news showed theteachers being shoved about by the police as well. At least one person was injured in the clash. Most of those who opposed unionists protesting against the promotions were assistant secretaries and directors of the Ministry, said  the unions.

“On July 04,2018  we conducted a one-day strike and we gave the government two weeks to reverse its decision, it is a decision  that will destroy the education system. However, almost three weeks have passed and they have done nothing, said the unions. As a result, 300,000 teachers and principals planned to strike on July 26.  Thousands of teachers would gather opposite the Fort railway Station and march to the Presidential Secretariat on July 26 if the government remained intransigent.  They would  hold a mass demonstration along with the strike.

We will be following this up with a boycott of all national examinations, including the upcoming scholarship examinations in August, and the GCE Advanced Level exam. They would not carry out their duties at school examinations either. The unions wrote to zonal and regional education directors, asking them to postpone term tests.  We know that this will inconvenience students but we are doing this to ensure that the education sector is not politicized. We can’t allow people who are not  qualified to hold positions in the education administrative service.

TRANSFERS

Minister of Education  said  that the  teacher transfer policy of the Ministry stipulated that no teacher should be allowed to serve in a school for more than five years. This had not  been implemented for years. ‘I  have decided to implement it ‘, he said. The teachers transfer scheme would be implemented, he   repeated.    

There were mass transfers in January  2016  and teacher transfers continued  in 2017.Teachers were transferred within the Provincial schools system and also from Provincial schools to National schools. There were about 12,000 teachers who had served more than ten years without being transferred, said the Ministry. Some   have  been  in the same school for 17-25 years, and have got awards for their performances, Several of these teachers remain in the same school through political influences, and ‘tend to become corrupt in their comfort zone’. Of these 12,000 teachers,  8,000 were transferred in 2017, while around 2,050 remained, as they have no schools in close proximity to be transferred to..

there was strong opposition to teacher transfers at Ananda College Colombo. students of senior classes staged a protest within the school premises, against the Education Ministry’s move to transfer 40 teachers. Police were  rushed to Ananda. Police stood outside the school premises to face any emergency as students demonstrated, demanding the immediate cancellation of the transfers.

Ceylon Teachers Union  lodged a complaint with Western Province Governor, in September 2017  against discrepancies in the posting of 453 newly appointed teachers to schools in the WP. WP has once again failed to post new recruits to schools with a shortage of teachers,  the union said. Despite the shortage of teachers in the difficult zones, the new teachers are being sent to schools that already have sufficient teachers.

 There are some schools that have a teacher for every 18 students,” the union said. Schools in Colombo North, Kolonnawa and Moratuwa areas are badly in need of teachers. in 2016 too,  they recalled, around 300 teachers were recruited and posted to schools which had an excess of teachers. The transfers are made  according to recommendations by politicians.

 Ceylon Teachers Union  also said that the transfers were not done correctly. Teacher transfers should be conducted according to the 2007/20 teacher transfer policy. This clearly states that such transfers should be handled by duly appointed Transfer Boards, along with representatives of Trade Unions. Yahapalana  had instead given the task to SLEAS officers. 

In 2018, Ministry of Education   decided on a new transfer scheme for Principals of National Schools . Under this scheme, Grades I and II Principals will be transferred every 8 years instead of 10 years, and will affect some 200 Principals of 352 NSs. Teachers in Advanced Level and Ordinary level classes were transferred  under the new program, while those teaching in Grades 6-11, numbering around 3,000  were to follow. In instances where teachers have served for 10 years, but are a year or so away from retirement, they would be allowed to stay on till retirement. Four Education Directors have been appointed to evaluate appeals from teachers with grievances about their transfers. 

Principals of some National Schools  launched a campaign against the scheme, claiming they were being sent to smaller schools. the Ministry said it  was not a demotion for the Principals in larger NSs, it was a method to utilize their services to improve other schools as well. there may be Principals from smaller NSs who could be effective in a large NS, and needs to gain relevant experience. If the scheme is not effected, they will miss out on an opportunity. Some Principals have been serving in NSs for long periods, using political influence and therefore, are reluctant to move away from where they are, said the Ministry. 

All Ceylon Teachers Services Union  said the new programme is not being done in a proper manner. National and Provincial school teachers are being transferred haphazardly, bypassing protocol set out in the National Transfer Policy (NTP), causing much discontentment among those transferred. Some of the transfers have been done in violation of the Service Minute, with no room for appeal.

According to Ministry of Education Circular No. 2007/20, there is a Transfer Board (TB)  to carry out transfers of teachers according to the National Transfer Policy. Teacher transfer process should commence on May 31 of each year and end by November 01.  the TB meets in May and collects details of all teachers serving more than 5 years in National and Provincial schools, applications are called from teachers for transfers in  June and July. Thereafter, the TB meets and decides on those eligible for transfers. Then,  in September  Letters of Transfer are posted. Appeals are entertained in October  and by November 1, Appeal Board decisions are posted.

“However, neither the Ministry of Education and nor the Provincial ministries of education have carried out this process. Instead, they are transferring teachers according to the whims and fancies of officials. This is an injustice to teachers who are awaiting transfers.”  said Ceylon Teachers Union”

 The unions added, there are 97 TBs in the 9 Provinces, whose members are renewed each year. But unfortunately, he said the TB has not been formed for the last 8 years. The TB was abandoned in 2012 and since then, transfers are effected according to the whims and fancies of officials at the top . All transfers are now being done by officials at the Zonal and Inter-Zonal levels without consideration to the NTP.

Teachers claimed that the unlawful transfers by officials victimizes them, causing much hardship and inconvenience in their work life. Some teachers have been transferred to schools 50 km to 60 km away, and into areas without residential facilities. One example is in the Ampara District, where the distance between 2 schools is around 90 km. These transfers create difficulties, due to the long distance they have to travel on a daily basis.

We are not against the transfer of teachers, but we want it done methodically and in a manner they will not be traumatized.”  On some interview Boards, there are candidates contesting the forthcoming elections. Over 170 teachers with political connections had ignored an Education Ministry order  We have written to the Elections Commission of these issues, and will take legal action in this regard,”  said the union

A Committee comprising the Provincial Education Secretary and the Provincial Education Directors was appointed to set up an exchange system enabling teachers to exchange their appointment, to a school located at a convenient distance from their homes. This is the first time an exchange programme among teachers has been put in place, said the Ministry.

SALARIES.

The Ceylon Teachers Union  charged in 2017 that the Western Province  Education Ministry has failed to use up Rs 2,000 million allocated by the line ministry, to pay arrears to teachers and principals in the 11 zones in the province. the new Service Minute of Oct. 23, 2014, recommended that all teachers and principals get their due promotions in retrospectively from 2008, and the salary increments arising from the promotions paid from 2011.Accordingly, the Ministry of Education  sent a sum of Rs 2,000 million in 2015, to the WP Council to effect payment.

The Western Province Education Ministry said his office received the money too early, even before the calculations were made on 37,000 teachers’ and 15,000 principals’ files in the Provincial and National schools in the WP. As they were not ready with the figures, they had to return the money sent to them. now that the calculations have been done, they are now paying the promoted candidates. We are in the process of paying them and will soon pay all of them,” he said. 

***

The Ceylon Teachers Union said the 2018 Budget has been a disappointment, with no solutions for the problems faced by Teachers and Principals in schools. He said there has not been any mention of allocations to pay salary arrears of Teachers and Principals, in keeping with the new Sri Lanka Education Administrative Service Minute.

***

The 2019 budget also makes no mention of salary increments. Over 240,000 teachers from 6,000 schools were planning to go on a sick leave campaign starting 13.3.2019  over the government’s failure to address their salary anomalies which has been unchanged since 1997, unionists said.  They staged a demonstration at Isurupaya demanding that their longstanding salary anomalies be rectified. This was dispersed by the police, using tear gas and water cannon.

The government should be ashamed of itself for creating conditions for  this incident, said the media. There has been a serious lapse on the part of Education Minister and the top bureaucrats of his ministry. They waited till the teachers’ anger spilt over on to the streets, without addressing the issues that made them see red. The irate teachers were left with no alternative but to launch a protest to have their voice heard. the Ministry had, in reply  informed the Teacher Unions that it could not resolve the Teachers’ and Principals’ demands, and the matter would have to be resolved by the Treasury. ( continued)

අද (18) පොදුජන ‌පෙරමුනේ මාධ්‍ය හමුව

අද (18) දින පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවට සහභාගි වූ නියෝජිතයින් 

• පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා 
• පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩී. වී. චානක මහතා 

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා 

සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් ‌වේවා කියලා පළමුවෙන්ම සුබ පතනවා. ‌‌‌මෛත්‍රී රනිල් ආන්ඩුවේ අවසාන සිංහල අවුරුද්ද කරන්න ජනතාව සූදානම්. ජනතාව මත විශාල බදුබර පිඩනයක්ව ‌යොදවපු ‌මේ ආණ්ඩුව  ජාතික මැතිවරණයේදී ‌පොදු ජන ‌පෙරමුණ මුලික කරගනිමින් ජයගන්න අපි සූදානම්. මැයි 01 වැනිදා කම්කරු දිනය සැමරීමේදී ‌පොදුජන ‌පෙරමුනේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් අප්‍රියෙලි මස 26 වැනිදා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ ඉදන් රථ ‌පෙලපාලියකින් ‌කොළඹට එන්න ‌පොදුජන තරුණ ‌පෙරමුණ සූදානම්. ආණ්ඩුවට විරෝධතාවය දක්වන ජනතාව ‌පෙරටු කරගෙන 26 වැනිදා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ ඉදන් අනුරාධපුරයටත්, 27 වැනිදා අනුරාධපුරයේ ඉදන් දඹුල්ල නගරයටත්, 27 වැනිදා දඹුල්ල නගරයේ ඉදන් කුරුණෑගල නගරයටත්, 28 වැනිදා කුරුණැගල සිට දිවුලපිටියටත් , 29 වැනිදා දිවුලපිටියේ සිට ඔරුගොඩවත්ත දක්වාත්, අවසාන දවසේ , ඒ් කියන්නේ මැයි පළවෙනිදා ‌රටපුරා සිට ඒකරාශි ‌වෙන ජනතාව සමග කැම්බල් පිටියට පැමිණ ආන්ඩුවට දැවැන්ත විරෝධතාවයක් දක්වන්න අපි සුදානම්.

ආන්ඩුව ආරම්භ ‌වෙන්නේ විපක්ෂයේ ‌දේශපාලන කණ්ඩායම්ක හා නායකයින් දඩයම් කරමින්. ඒ්ධී සදහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව භාවිතා කරමින් ‌කොමිෂන් සභා පිහිටුවීමේ අරමුණ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඇතුළු නායකයින් නැවත ‌තරග කිරීම වළක්වන්න නීති සම්පාදනය කළා. පළාත් පාලන ආයතන මැතිවරණය වසර ‌දෙකහමාරක් කල් දැම්මා. ස්වාදීනයි කියන ‌මැතිවරණ කොමිෂමට ‌හෝ ජනාධිපතිට අගමැතිට ‌පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ‌හෝ කිසිවෙක්ට පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය පවත්වන දිනය කියන්න බැරි තරමට රට අර්බුදයට පත්වෙලා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඒල්ල වුනු ‌චෝදනා ‌මේ ‌වෙද්දි ඉතා ‌වේගයෙන් ‌ගෝඨාභය රාපක්ෂ මහතාගේ දිසාවට හැරෙමින් තිබෙනවා. ‌මේ කාරණාව ආරම්භ ‌වෙන්නේ 2015 ජනවාරි මාසයේ 15 වැනිදා.ආණ්ඩුව පත්වුනු හැටියේම ජනමාධ්‍ය විෂය භාර ඇමැති විදියට මංගල රාජපක්ෂ මහතා රාජ්‍ය මාධය භාවිතා කරලා පළමුවෙන්ම ‌චෝදනා කලේ ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට. රාජ්‍ය මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රවෘත්තියක්දා වුනේ හමුදා කුමන්ත්‍රණයකින් රට අල්ලන්න ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සුදානම්න ‌වෙනවා කියන ඒකයි. ‌මෙහිදි හිටපු හමුදාපතිවරයාටත්, හිටපු අගවිනිසුරුවරයාට හා හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ‌ලේකම්වරයාටයි ‌මේ ‌චෝදනාව ඒල්ල වුනේ. ඒ් විතරක් ‌නෙවෙයි. යුද හමුදා මුලස්ථානය ඉදිකරන්න ලැබුණු මුදල් පුද්ගලික ගිණුමක බැරකරගෙන  මුදල් වංචාවක් කරන්න සුදානම් ‌වෙනවා කියලත් ‌‌චෝදනා ඒල්ල වුනා.  මහා පරිමාණ වංචා පිළීබද ‌චෝදනා කරලා මුල්‍ය වංචා විමර්ශන ආයතනය නිර්මාණය කරලා ඒහි පළවෙනි නඩුව විදියට ඇවන්ගාඩ් සිද්ධිය විභාග කරනවා. ඒ් විතරක් ‌නෙවෙයි පහුගිය වසරේ එය වි‌‌ශේෂ මහාධිකරණය පිහිටුවලා ඩී. ඒ්. රාජපක්ෂ ‌කවුතුකාගාරය ‌වෙනුවෙන් කරපු කටයුතුවලදි මුදල් පිළීබද අකටයුතුකම් වුනා කියලා නඩු පවරනවා. ඒක්නැලිගොඩ, තාජුඩින් ගාතන සම්බන්ධයෙන් ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා වගකිව යුතු බව කියමින් අනුර ‌සේනානයක හිටපු නියෝජ්‍ය ‌පොලිස්පතිවරයා ,හමුදා බුදධි අංශ නිලධාරින් අත්අඩංගුවට අරන් වසර ‌දෙකක් විතර රදවා ‌ගෙන හිටියා.  ඒ් නිලධාරීන්ගේ ඥාතීන් ඒළියට ඇවිත් කිව්වා හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ‌ලේකම්තුමාගේ නම කිව්වොත් නිදහස් කරනවා කියලත් ‌මේ බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීන්ට බලපැම් කරන බව.‌මෙවැනි අසත්‍ය ‌චෝදනා කරපු අය ‌මෙරට අධීකරණයෙන් කරන්න බැරි වුනු නිසා විදේශීය අධිකරණයකින් හරි දඩුවමක් ‌දෙන්න රාජ්‍ය ‌නොවන සංවිධාන හරහා ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඒරෙහිව නඩු පවරනවා. ‌මේ පිටුපස ඉන්නේ මංගල සමරවිර ඇමැතිවරයා කියලා අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා.

ඒතුමා ඇතුළු කණෟඩායමක් අද ජාත්‍යන්තර අධීකරණවල ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඒරෙහිව නඩු පවරමින් සිටිනවා. 2007 ත්‍රස්ත විමර්ශන ඒ්කකයෙන් අත් අඩංගුවට ගත්ත, වර්තමානයේ කැනේඩියානු පුරවැසිභාවය හිමි, ‌රෝයි මනෝජ් කුමාර් කියන පුද්ගලයෙක් තමයි ඒක සිවිල් නඩුවක් ‌ගොනු කරලා තියෙන්නේ. ‌මොහු ‌මේ නඩුව ‌ගොනු කරන්න ‌පෙර රජයේ ඉහළ ‌පෙලේ නායකයින් කිහිප ‌දෙනෙක් සමග සම්බන්ධකම් පවත්වා තිබෙන බවට අපිට ‌මේ ‌වෙද්දි ‌තොරතුරු ලැබිලා තියෙනවා. සම්බන්ධකම් පැවැත්වුවා පමණක් ‌නොවේ. 2007 දි ‌ලෝකයේ තහනම් සංවිධානයක් වුනු ඒල්. ටි. ටී. ඊයට  අනුබල ‌දෙමින් ඔවුන්ගේ රූපවාහිනි ‌සේවයට අවශ්‍ය ‌රේඩාර් දුරකතන ජංගම දුරකනන, සැටලයිට් ආදිය සැපයූ බව කියමින්, ඒ් උපකරණත් සමගයි අත් අඩංගුවට ගන්නේ. ඔහු ඒ් සියලු ‌ෙචෝදනාවලට වැරදිකරු බව පිළීගැනීමෙන් පසුව දඩයක්ද නියම කිරීමෙන් පසුවයි ‌2010 දී මොහුව පිටුවහල් කරන්නේ. පහුගිය කාලයේ දිගින් දිගටම හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ‌ලේකම්වරයාට එරෙහිව විරුද්ධව ‌‌චෝදනා ඒල්ල කරපු ප්‍රබලයෙක් වුනු සරත් ‌පොන්සේකා සමග ‌මේ ‌රෝයි කියන පුද්ගලයා සිටින ඡායාරූප අපිට ලැබිලා තියෙනවා.  රජයේ ඉහළ නායකයින් සමග කටයුතු කරමින් ‌මේ විදියට නඩු පවරද්දි ‌මේ පිටුපස රජය සිටින බව පැහැදිලියි.  වගේම ‌අපේ රටේ යුද අපරාධ වුනා කියමින් ‌වෙනම රාජ්‍යයක් ‌වෙනුවෙන් ‌පෙනි සිටින හිටපු උතුරේ හිටපු මහ ඇමැතිවරයා ඒක්ක ඉන්න ජායාරූපත් තියෙනවා. ‌මේ රටේ අධිකරණයෙන් දඩුවම් වින්ද,‌ මේ  රටේ පුරවැසිභාවය නැති පුද්ගලයෙක් තමයි ‌මේ විදියට නඩු පවරන්නේ. 2007 වසරේ අත් අඩංගුවට අරගෙන වද හිංසා පැමිනුවා කියලයි ‌මොහු නඩු පවරන්නේ. නමුති ‌මෝහු සියලු වැරදිවලට වැරදිකරු බව පිළිගෙන තිබෙනවා.

නඩු අංක ඒච්. සී. 5017 අංකයෙන් ‌ෙකොළඹ මහා අධීකරණයේ නඩු පවරලා, සියලු වැරදි පිළිගැනිම නිසා ‌මෙරටින් පිටුවහල් කලේ. වසර වයකට පස්සේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයට මාස කිහිපයක් තියෙන අවස්ථාවක, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ හා ජනතාවගේ සහාය ඇත්නම් ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් ‌වෙනවා කියමින් තමන්ගේ ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය අහෝසි කර ගැනීමට ඉදිරිපත් වී සිටින අවස්ථාවක ‌මෙි විදියට නඩු පවරන ඒකෙන් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ ආන්ඩුවේ හස්තයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක ‌වෙනවා කියන ඒකයි.

ආගමන විගමන කටයුතු අමාත්‍යංශය ඉදිරියේදි සරත් ‌පොන්සේකාට ලබාදෙන බවත් මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කරලා තියෙනවා. ‌මේ ‌පෙල ගැසුමේන් ‌පේන්නේ  2015 ජනවාරි 8 වැනිදා සිටම ඔවුන්ගේ අභියෝග හදුනා ‌ගෙන තිබිමයි. ඔවුන් පළමුව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට නැවත තරග කරන්න බැරි ‌වෙන්න නිති පැනෙව්වා. ඉන් පස්සේ ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ, බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ කියන පුද්ගලයින් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන 19 වැනි සං‌‌ශෝධනය යටතේ නීති හැදුවා. නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ ඉලක්ක කරගෙන ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තරග කිරීමේ වයස්සීමාව ‌වෙනස් කළා. අපි අපේ අපෙක්ෂකයා නම් කර නැති තත්ත්වයකත් ආණ්ඩුව ඔවුන්ට ප්‍රබලම අභීයෝගයක් ‌දෙන පුද්ගලයා විදියට ‌ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා හදුනා ‌ගෙන ඔහුට ඒරෙහිව ක්‍රියාත්මක ‌වෙමින් තිබෙනව. ආන්ඩුව යටතෙයි දැන් හැම ‌දෙයක්ම ක්‍රියාත්මක ‌වෙන්නේ. නිතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරමින් අනිසි විදියට රටේ අනාගතය භාරගන්න ඉන්න පුද්ගලයින්ට මඩ ගහන්න එපා කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

දුමින්ද දිසානායක මහතා අලුතෙන් හැදෙමින් තිබෙන සංධානය ගැන අදහස් දක්වලා තිබුණා. ආන්ඩුවට ඒරෙහිව නැගී සිටින බලවේගයක් විදියට ආන්ඩුව ‌පෙරලන්න සූදානම් අයත් ඒක්ක සාකච්ඡා කරන්න සූදානම් බව මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා වගේම බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාත් ප්‍රකාශ කරලා තිබුණා. දුමින්ද දිසානයක මහතා කියලා තිබුණා ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ‌පොහොට්ටුවේ වලිගයක් කරන්න සූදානම් නැහැ කියලා. ඒහෙිම කිව්වට වසර 4ක් තිස්සේ ශ්‍රීලනීපය එජාපයේ අතකොලුවක් කරලා තියෙන්නේ. ශ්‍රීලනිප ප්‍රතිපත්ති යට කරලා එජාපයේ අතකොලුුුුවක් කලේ ඒවකට ජාතික ආන්ඩුව ‌වෙනුවෙන් ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කරලා ශ්‍රීලනීප අපේක්ෂකයා පරාජය කරන්න ඒළියට බැහැපු දුමින්ද දිසානයකලායි. පිරිසක්ත මැවරණයක් ප්‍රකාශ කළ හැටියේම ශ්‍රීලනිපය අත්හැරලා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ නායකත්වයට එකතු ‌වෙන්න සූදානම් ‌වෙනවා. ඒජාපයේ අතකොලුවක් බවට ශ්‍රීලංනා නිදහස් පක්ෂ්යය පත්කරපු අයගෙන් මිදිලා ආණුඩුව පලවා හරින්න ඒකතු ‌වෙන්න කියලා අපි අනෙක් ශ්‍රීලනිප මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩී. වී. චානක මහතා 

නව වසර ජනතාවට සුබ ‌වෙන්නේ ‌කොහොමද කියලා ගැටලුවක් තියෙනවා. රටේ ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන ‌වේගය වැඩි ‌වෙමින් දකුණූ ආසියාවේ ‌වේගයෙන්ම සංවර්ධනය ‌වෙන රට බවට පත්වෙමින් රැකියා ප්‍රශ්නය විසදමින් තියෙද්දි ජනතාවට බිල්ලෝ මවලා ජනතාවට යහපාලනය ලබා ‌දෙනවා කියලා ‌මේ ආන්ඩුව පත්වුනත් ඒදා ඉදලා බඩු මිල වැඩි වුනා. රැකියා ප්‍රශ්නය ආවා. අද ජනතාවට ‌තියෙන ප්‍රශ්න ‌වෙලා තියෙන්නේ විදුලිය යන්න කලින් ඇදුම මැද ගැනිම, වතුර කපන්න කලින් වතුර පුරවා ගැනීම වගේ ‌දේවලුයි. විදුලි අර්බුදය සංවිධානාත්මකව ආන්ඩුව හදපු ඒකක්. රුපියල් 10.50ට විදුලි ඒ්කකයක් ‌දෙන්න සමාගමක් සුදානම් වුනත් ‌කොමිස් නැති නිසා හරවලා යැව්වා. ලංකාවේ ලංකා ට්‍රාන්ස් ‌‌පෝමස්ස් සමාගම රුපියල් 14 ට විදුලි ඒ්කකයක් ‌දෙන්න සූදානම් වුනත් ‌කොමිස් නැති නිසා ඒ්වා හරවලා යැව්වා.

ඒදා කැඩිලා තිබුණ වරායේ තියෙන විදුලිබලාගාරය හදලා දැන් ඒ්කෙන් ‌මෙගා ‌වොට් 60ක් විදුලිය ලැබෙනවා. ඒ්ෂීයන් පවර් ඒකෙන් ‌මෙගා ‌වොට් 60ක් ලැබෙනවා. මාතර මාදුගලින් ‌මෙගාවොට් 20ක් එකතු ‌වෙනවා. ඒ් වගේම හදිසි විදුලිය මෙගා වොට් 100ක් මිලදි ගත්තා. ‌දැන් විදුලි අර්බුදය අවසන් ‌වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

විදුලි අර්බුදය විසදිලා තියෙද්දිත් ‌මේ  අය සංවිධානාත්මකව විදුලි අර්බුදයක්  ‌පෙන්වලා රුපියල් 34ට විදුලි ඒ්කකයක් මිලදි ගන්න සුදනාම් ‌. ‌මේ ‌වෙද්දිත් කල්ලතෝනි විදුලිය ලබා ගැනීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් සිද්ධ ‌වෙනවා. තුර්කි සමාගමකින් ‌මෙගාවොට් 400ක් ගන්න සූදානම් වුනත් ‌මේ ගිවිසුම ජනතාවට ‌හෝ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ නැහැ. ‌මේ සම්බන්ධ සාකච්ඡා වලට විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලයේ කිසිවෙක් සම්බන්ධ කරගෙන නැහැ. ‌මේ විදුලිය සදහා ‌ගෙවන්න ‌වෙන්නේ ‌ඩොලර්වලින්. රැපියල් ‌කෝටි 17500ක් ‌ඩොලර්වලින් ‌ගෙවන්න ‌වෙනවා. ඒදා තිබුනු ඩිසල් මාපියාව නතර කලේ අපේ රජයයි. දැන් නැවතත් ඩිසල් මාපියාවක් හදලා ලංකාවේ ‌ඩොලර්ස් ටික පිටරට යවන කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් සිද්ධ ‌වෙනවා. තව ටික දිනකින් විදුලි බිල වැඩි ‌වෙනවා. ‌කොමිස් මුදල්වලට යටවෙලයි ‌මේ විදියට විදුලිය ගන්න සුදානම් ‌වෙන්නේ.

හම්බන්තොට වරයා, මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපල සුදු අලියෙක් කියවලා ‌පෙන්වන්න හැදුවා. රටක් සංවර්ධනය ‌වෙන ‌කොට අලුතෙන් මාර්ග ගුවන්තොටුපලවල් වරායන් හැදෙනවා. ගිය වසරේ කටුනායක ගුවන්තොටුපල වහපුවාම ගුවන් ‌යානා යැව්වේ මත්තලට. මත්තල ‌නොතිබුනා නම් විශාල මුදලක් අහිමි ‌වෙන්න තිබුනා. ඒ් යානා ඉන්දියාවට ගිහින් නැවත එන්නේ.  හදිසි අවස්ථාවල ‌වෙනදා ගුවන් යානා ගියේ ඉන්දියාවට. දැන් අයහපත් කාලගුණ තත්ත්වයන්වලදි යන්නේ මත්තලට. ‌මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ව්‍යාපෘතිවල ප්‍රතිඵල අද අපිට දකින්න ලැබෙනවා. ආන්ඩුවේ කැබිනට් ඇමැතිවරු ‌වෙලාවකට කියනවා කැබිනට් ඒකේ ඉන්නේ කුඩු කාරයෝ පෝරිසාදයෝ වසලයෝ, පගා කාරයෝ ,කොමිස් කාරයෛා, මන්දබුද්ධිකයෝ කියලා.ඒජාපයේ අයමයි කියන්නේ. ඒ් වගේ අය කැබිනෙට්ටුවේ හිදීමේ ප්‍රතිඵල තමයි අද අපි දකින්නේ. එදා මහ බැංකුව කැඩුවා කියලා අපි කියද්දි ‌මේ අය කිව්වේ ඒහෙම දෙයක් වුනේ නැහැ කියලා. අද ඒ් අයම කියනවා මහ බැංකුව කැඩුවා කියලා. ‌මේ ආන්ඩුව බලයට ඇවිත් ‌දෙයක් කලා නම් ‌හොරකම වංචාව දූෂණය විතරයි.

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

The Ministry of education, under Yahapalana has come in for much criticism. Much time is spent on issues concerning school admissions and administration of national schools, with very little time being available for issues of policy and monitoring of delivery mechanisms and innovations in education and teaching, improving curriculum and examinations, research and development, said critics in 2017.

The  Ministry  of Education is in a state of chaos, said the media in 2017. Important decisions and signing off on urgent programmes and activities are   left dangling  and delayed. There is no delegation of authority.Nominations and approvals for Tender Evaluation Committees are  not done in a time.  Letters and responses to urgent needs take weeks to get signatures and approval. There have been instances where the letters put up for signatures have been lost or misplaced. Sometimes, files get returned without even a comment or signature. Nominations to attend training programmes, workshops and meetings, get approval only at the very last moment. The Ministry of Education   has one of the lowest rates of utilization of funds.  

Athletes of Ratnayake Central College, Walala made a clean sweep when they won the first, second, third and fourth places at the Asian Schools Cross Country Championships in Hong Kong in 2017. This team was refused funds by the Ministry of Education for their trip to Hong Kong. The Sports Ministry provided tickets, but they had to bear other costs.

 The Minister of Education has  insisted on his face appearing on the vouchers given to students to obtain material for school uniforms. And he delayed the printing of textbooks for next year because he wanted a different photograph of himself in the books   said  Rajiva Wijesinha.

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Teachers’ unions took exception to a letter, issued by the Colombo Zonal Education office, in March 2018 instructing Principals of Colombo schools, under the Western Provincial Council, to invite MPs and Provincial Councilors to important school functions and to treat them with ‘due respect.’ Zonal Education Director has sent a letter telling principals that it is the duty of a government official to respect politicians. He has also attached a list of Provincial Councilors who represented Colombo Zonal Education Development Structural Committee.

The Structural Committees, consisting of provincial councillors, had been established in the Western Province, during the tenure of Prasanna Ranatunga as the Chief Minister of the Western Province, 2009-2015.  The Structural Committees that existed in the 11 educational zones in Colombo had significant powers. “They can also influence the appointment of a Principal. We have continuously asked the current administration to disband the Structural Committees. This government came into power, promising to depoliticize the system. But now they are instructing principals to invite politicians to attend school functions and treat them respectfully said the teachers.

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Yahapalana was planning in 2018, to do away with 315 Divisional Educational offices countrywide, replacing them with 200 Zonal Education (ZE) offices. This  came under heavy criticism from the Ceylon Teachers Union  which maintained that, adding more ZE offices to the Education system will not improve it. The 97 ZE offices in service at present, are under performing. Increasing their numbers is not going to improve  efficiency.

 ZE offices are responsible for Principals’ and Teachers’ appointments, transfers, pensions and maintenance of their personal files, but they have not being doing their job efficiently, Teachers and Principals who sought official assistance from the ZE offices, have made several complaints against the service provided. ZE offices need to be streamlined and made efficient, before more ZE offices are added.

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. The Ceylon Teachers Service Union  is opposing a move by the Ministry of Education to have retired officers serve in a committee to look into malpractices of procurements, during the tenure of the Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. CTSU said the function belonged to the Auditors. It is not a function for former officers.  It was also questionable to call in former retired officers including retired audit officers to conduct investigations, and give them allowances and other payments. We believe it may be a move to cover up malpractices or to manipulate the system,” the Union said.

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The government had in December 2017, summoned around 2,000 school principals to Temple Trees to  give money to school libraries.  The government has promised to give a sum of Rs.100,000 to Rs.600,000 to selected schools to replenish their libraries. But they  had failed to hand over the funds. The principals who gathered from across the country went back empty handed and were told that the money would be credited to the School Development Society (SDS) account. Around 25 principals were selected and given token cheques.

The Ceylon Teachers Union  said the principals had travelled long distances to attend the function despite their busy year end schedule but were made to stand out without food or drinks for hours. They assembled early in the morning and were made to stand out for hours before they were taken in. They were also not given a monetary allowance for travelling long distances to attend the event. Eventually  they were handed some guidelines and told that that the money would be credited to the SDS account.This was highly unnecessary they could have done this by sending letters to the principals,”

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The Ministry of Education is responsible for the death of Ambalantota  National School Principal Rohini Kumari Atapattu, during a training programme  organized by the Education Ministry  for Principals,  at the Wayamba Teacher Training Centre, in Wariyapola, Kurunegala  said Ceylon Teachers Union .Rohini( 52), fell from a 40-foot rope ladder she was trying to climb down during the programme.

CTU has demanded to know why such a combat training should be given to school principals.  Also the Ministry has chosen a private company to conduct the training programme.  Who selected this company. Were tenders called and how much has been spent on the programme. The Ministry is trying to make private companies wealthy by putting the lives of principals at risk, The Ministry must immediately conduct an investigation into this death, said CTU. The government officials held responsible for the death had not been made to face any disciplinary inquiries by the Education Ministry the CTU) complained.

 CTU said that this was not an isolated incident; in 2013 Raddolugama Pagnananda Madya Maha Vidyalaya Principal W. A. S. Wickramasinghe died following a stroke while exercising in the morning at the Rantambe Cadet Camp. The Ministry of Education has halted the leadership training programme after the tragic incident.

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The Ceylon Teachers Service Union (CTSU) expressed concern over a Government  proposal to offer loans to A/L candidates to follow Degree courses and join as teachers, on completion of their Degrees. This seems a good proposal to me, but not, it appears, to the teaching profession. This move will lead to teachers with ‘substandard’ Degrees joining the teaching service. There is no guarantee the teacher has a recognized Degree, as Degrees from private institutions too, would be accepted under this scheme,” the union said.   This will also lead to a situation where the 19 National Colleges of Education (NCE) will face the threat of closure, as prospective teachers will look to complete their Degrees from private institutions. The NCEs need to be upgraded and offer Degrees instead of Diplomas.

***&
There are 10,162 schools in the country but there are not enough security officers. Thus most of them can’t obtain leave for months, said  the Educational Non-Academic Employees Union in 2018. Although there should be at least three security officers at 9809 schools, considering the size, most of these schools have one guard. National schools at least need four guards.

The government decided to reduce the service hours of security guards from 12 hours to nine hours in November 2017. This was a step taken to incentivize the guards by giving them access to overtime payments because most of them work 12 hour shifts. However around 10,000 school guards have not been paid their overtime payments.”They can’t even get overtime payments for working on government holidays.

The Union had sent a letter to the Minister of Education explaining the difficulties faced by security officers attached to schools and problems that had arisen after zonal education offices refused to pay overtime payments to them prescribed by the government. There were no security officers for 2000 schools that provincial councils ran. And after dark outsiders use the facilities in these schools for nefarious activities. This is a scary situation but the government doesn’t seem to care.”   ( continued)

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The government was behind the lawsuit filed in a US Court against former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as the plaintiff Roy Manojkumar Samathanam had interacted with higher-ups of the government beforehand, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) alleged today.

Addressing a news briefing, MP Kanchana Wijesekara said that they were in the possession of some photographs in which Mr. Samathanam was seen together with Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and former Northern Province chief minister C.V. Vigneswaran.

“Field Marshal Fonseka was in the forefront of making allegations against Mr. Rajapaksa. It seems that the government is behind the lawsuit as Mr.Samathanam is mingling with government’s stalwarts. Also, he has been spotted together with former chief minister Vigneswaran who lobbied for a separate state by levelling war crime charges against military forces of Sri Lanka,” he said.

The MP said Mr.Samathanam has filed the lawsuit as someone who was found guilty by a Sri Lankan court and has no citizenship in Sri Lanka.

He said they believe that Minister Mangala Samaraweera was also behind the lawsuits filed against Mr. Rajapaksa.

Minister Samaraweera continued to level charges against Mr. Rajapaksa. When the government failed to get false charges proved in local courts, they have decided to use international NGOs to file cases in foreign courts. We believe Minister Samaraweera is behind this,” he said.

At a time when the SLPP has not yet named a presidential candidate, he said the government has identified Mr. Rajapaksa as the one who can pose the biggest challenge to them. “That’s why all these moves against him,” he said. (

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today

Edward Snowden once advised us to shed critical light on a once secret history.” Nonetheless, as he himself experiences, it is a dangerous business. Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, was last week expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy and abducted by London Metropolitan police at the gate of the embassy and is now in danger of extradition to the USA.

The first question that is to be asked is who is Julian Assange (JA) why he was forced to ask for refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was hiding for almost seven years. JA, the founder of WikiLeaks, exposed Western war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revealed some of the lies that George Bush and Tony Blair used to justify mass murder in the two countries. 

In 2010 WikiLeaks released about 470,000 classified military documents concerning the American and British invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. It later released a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified USA diplomatic cables that included inter alia the USA intervention in Sri Lanka.

Question No. 2

Why did the Ecuadorian Embassy that gave refuge to JA for almost seven years decide to expel JA at this juncture from the embassy premises? When Rafael Correa was the President of Ecuador, he adopted an anti-imperialist policy in association with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

 He did not accede to the pressure of the powerful imperialist regime. Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno was different as he capitulated on every issue to US imperialism. 

Thus, Moreno decided to hand over JA to British authority. Moreover, there is an interesting coincidence. The International Monetary Fund has agreed to grant an Extended Fund Facility worth of 4.2 billion dollars to Moreno’s Government. This happened in March 2019. The sell sellout has happened on 11 April 2019. 

If this apparent coincidence demonstrates real global manipulation then we have to conclude that there was a global conspiracy against JA and his work to which I will turn shortly. In this game, IMF is not an innocent partner that is only interested in helping poor countries to overcome their short-term financial issues. 

So one can easily understand as I argued in my last week column why Bolivia had decided to disengage with the IMF.

JA’s wrongdoing

What are the charges against JA? As Diane Abbot a leading personnel of Jeramy Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet put it nicely in her statement at the British Parliament in following words:

On this side of the house, we want to make the point that the reason we are debating Julian Assange this afternoon even though the only charge he may face in this country is in relation to his bail hearings – is entirely to do with the whistleblowing activities of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

 It is this whistleblowing activity into illegal wars, mass murder, murder of civilians and corruption on a grand scale that has put Julian Assange in the crosshairs of the US administration. 

It is for this reason that they have once more issued an extradition warrant against Julian Assange. Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect USA national security, he is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by the USA administrations and their military forces.”

The wrongdoing of JA is not just revealing wrongdoing of the USA and Western powers; it is exposing them and making them available to any interested citizen of the world. 

The States do not wish citizen’s to know what the States are doing behind the back of their citizens and in the name of democracy. What WikiLeaks and JA did is shedding critical lights” on secret engagements of the State and military bureaucracy of the powerful nations. WikiLeaks have made so-called secret knowledge available to anyone with a computer and internet connection. 

How did the US and powerful authorities respond? Tariq Ali has answered this question in the following words: The response of USA institutions has been hysterical and comical. The Library of Congress, blocked Internet access to WikiLeaks. 

The USA National Archives even blocked searches of its own database for the phrase WikiLeaks.” So absurd did the taboo become that, like a dog snapping mindlessly at everything, eventually it found its mark — its own tail”.

What will happen to JA?

The USA has issued once again an extradition warrant against JA. The only punishable act he had done inside the UK was the minor offence of avoidance of being arrested when Swedish Government ordered extradition charge against him. 

However, if in the case of sending him to the US, the US may expand the charge sheet even including treason that carries death penalty or indefinite detention as an enemy combatant” in the US. What does it really mean? The leading first amendment scholars and advocacy groups have warnedthat the charge sheet accusing JA of engaging in criminal theft of so-called USA State secrets implies a direct assault on fundamental press freedoms.

 Although it could have a devastating effect on the basic acts of journalism, it appeared that some yellow journalists believe JA had gone beyond objective journalism in which the journalist should be trained.

It is clear that all these charges signify the power of the state system over an against citizens and their rights. This was succinctly put by Noam Chomsky. He said: The Assange arrest is scandalous in several respects. One of them is just the effort of Governments—and it’s not just the U.S. Government. 

The British are cooperating. Ecuador, of course, is now cooperating. Sweden, before, had cooperated: The efforts to silence a journalist who was producing materials that people in power didn’t want the rascal multitude to know about. 

That’s basically what happened. WikiLeaks was producing things that people ought to know about those in power. People in power don’t like that; therefore we have to silence it. This is the kind of thing, the kind of scandal, that takes place, unfortunately, over and over”.

According to Prof. Chomsky, the JA case reveals a second scandal, namely, the extraterritorial reach of the United States”. The US possesses power and control over other States that have made rights of the people extremely vulnerable.

One thing is clear. The democracy-loving people all over the world should express their solidarity to JA and campaigned against any attempts by the UK Government to extradite him to the US in which he is not a citizen.

The issue of sexual harassment

The JA case has been made complicated by the charges against him over sexual harassment by two Swedish women in 2010. The two cases should be separated in order de-complicate both cases. It does not mean at all to trivialise the sexual harassment charges. An investigation into a rape allegation in Sweden can be brought to Court at any time before the limitation period expires in August 2020. 

Although JA had stated that he was not guilty of these charges, the cases can be investigated if the two women wish to pursue them. However, Sweden should not use these cases against JA’s whistleblowing duty. 

Fortunately, Anna Ardin, one of the women who made allegations against JA was against any effort to link two completely separate cases tweeted on Thursday saying, I would be very surprised and sad if Julian is handed over to the USA”.

Julian Assange deserves our support and solidarity particularly at a time when the US is eyeing on Sri Lanka with the intention of making it a semi-colony of the Western powers. The Julian Assange case is another litmus test to be conducted to diagnose the real nature of USA and UK democracy.

E-mail: sumane_l@yahoo.com

By Frank Vogl Courtesy Ceylon Today

Amidst Trump administration flame-throwing, top experts worry about the ability of the main multilateral institutions safeguarding the global economy.

On the 75th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference that established the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Finance and Development Ministers and Central Bank Governors from across the world are holding their Spring meetings.

In a departure from the business-as-usual thinking of the past, these leaders are becoming increasingly aware that the two ‘Bretton Woods institutions’ may be outdated and in urgent need of major reforms.

This is all the more evident in view of the brutal, head-on attacks by the Trump administration on globalisation.

For all of the current US administration’s constant bluster and endless stream of provocations, there are some very real problems which the world’s multilateral finance, development and trade organisations should urgently respond to.

According to a wide range of leading experts meeting in Washington now, Donald Trump practises a disturbing head-in-the-sand attitude on three of the four dominating threats to global economic stability. These threats are: Cyber-risks to world finance, climate change and corruption.

On the fourth major threat, disregard for global trading rules, Trump relishes in acting as flame-thrower in chief.

Cyber risks rise

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, stresses that making the financial sector fully resilient in the face of mounting cyber attacks is a profound worry.

He and other experts state that it is far from evident that we have got the multilateral organisational structures in place to meet the rising cyber-risk challenges.

Climate change neglect

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is highlighting her environmental concerns. She invited nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough to join her in a public debate.

However, the Fund’s governors have yet to develop a major new IMF initiative in this area, while there are worries that the new World Bank President, David Malpass, a Donald Trump partisan, who has just started his new job, will not make environmental protection central to the Bank’s agenda.

 Time is running out and the scale of the climate challenge to the multilateral organisations is not understood,” argues Andrew Sheng, the former Asian central banker.

He emphasises that this needs to be the dominant issue on the agenda of the multilateral institutions.

Trade power

A key topic at the meetings is the ongoing US -China trade negotiations. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the meetings that President Trump wants fair trade.”

Meanwhile, former Bush administration trade chief Carla Hills argues that what we are actually seeing is the White House promoting managed trade.”

Former WTO appellate judge and US Congressman Jim Bacchus notes that the Trump administration is ignoring international trade laws, which are at the core of the WTO system. Trump is just replacing trade law with raw power.

Both Hills and Bacchus are sceptical if the US Congress will approve Trump’s new trade agreements with Mexico and Canada. They are concerned that the US deal with China will disadvantage many other trading nations and thereby violate WTO laws and rules.  They are also worried about the prospects of new trade negotiations to start soon by the United States with both Japan and the EU.

For Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate former Liberian president (she was the first elected female head of state in Africa), points to another major challenge that has yet to secure a meaningful multilateral response.

Over 60 per cent of the populations of many African countries are under 35 years of age and many of these people do not have good job opportunities. Frustrations may well rise and spill over to challenge governmental systems.

Sirleaf stresses that it is enormously difficult to end decades of corruption, especially in countries emerging from conflict, and create the institutions necessary to stimulate the private sector and job creation. She is one of the few presidents to achieve this.

The World Bank’s answer to bad governance is to strengthen institutional capacities in the governments of developing countries. 

 Nobody disagrees, but the record over the years has not been sufficient to meet the challenges. And, this may be true of many of the current approaches of both the IMF and the World Bank.

It holds true for the private sector as well. On governance, Morgan Stanley’s Clare Woodman notes that banks have to do a lot more to strengthen their conduct and culture. Nobody disagrees.

Chinese challenge

US Treasury Secretary Mnuchen says he welcomes talks now on a new capital increase for the IMF, but points out that the United States will not give up its veto power. 

 The fear expressed by some delegates to these meetings is that this means China will continue to be marginalised in the boards of the IMF/World Bank.  

As a result, China will likely just continue to build its own aid and investment institutions, use them to strengthen its Asian regional and global influence and, in effect, undermine the Bretton Woods sisters in the process.
(The Globalist)

Courtesy Adaderana

The first ever Sri Lankan satellite, RAAVANA-1, was successfully launched into space at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia today (18).

The satellite bordered to the Antares rocket carrying Cygnus cargo spacecraft and it is bound to reach the International Space Station (ISS).

RAAVANA-1 is set to be launched into orbit by the end of May or the outset of June, subsequently, it is expected to orbit the Earth for approximately 15 times per day and its speed is estimated at 7.6 km per second.

RAAVANA-1 is a research satellite built by two Sri Lankan engineers named Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamika, from the University of Peradeniya and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies.

The satellite was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan and is 1,000 cubic cm in size and weighs 1.1 kg.

RAAVANA-1 was officially handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Feb. 18.

The satellite is expected to fulfill five missions including the capturing of pictures of Sri Lanka and its surrounding regions.

The RAAVANA-1 is expected to orbit 400 km away from earth. It will have a minimum lifespan of one and a half years

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, April 17 (newsin.asia) — Several Sri Lankan Airlines flights arriving at Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport on Wednesday, were diverted to a southern airport due to adverse weather, local media reports said.Some of the flights included UL 315, which was arriving from Malaysia, UL 365 arriving from Jakarta and UL 303 arriving from Singapore.The flights were diverted to the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota, in the south, airport officials said as the adverse weather had caused a temporary closure of the runway at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

by Garvin Karunaratne

Message for Sri Lankan readers

Sri Lanka with other Third World countries has achieved a status of high indebtedness due to following the neoliberal policies embedded in the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF. . In that process its assets and riches are being sucked dry by multinationals, International banks  and Developed Countries. Earlier, the countries had established a development infrastructure to bring about production which has been abolished or made defunct by the machinations of the IMF. However details of that development infrastructure can be of use to develop ailing Great Britain. As far as readers in Sri Lanka are concerned this paper discloses the great value of that development infrastructure and the role that it can play again  in rejuvenating the development  of our Motherland, if that were to ever happen.

Lessons for ailing Great Britain from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

by Garvin Karunaratne

Gone are the days when Great Britain ruled the waves. Then it was truly an Empire where the sun never set. Money in gold and pounds sterling flowed from India-  when the East India Company defeated Shiraj Ud Daulah, the ruler of Bengal. the riches that poured to Great Britain were enormous- Pounds 2.7 million to Great Britain and 1.2 million distributed among the officials.. Between 1757 and 1815, 100 million pounds went from India to Great Britain. This was growth for Britain but destitution for India”(From: Karunaratne: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development) The colonies were made to grow coffee,  rubber, tea and other products that were required for the industries in Great Britain and the goods so manufactured were sold back to the people in the colonies. Britain gained from the trade of tea and coffee. That was the principle on which the colonies were run- to keep the colonies clamped  in poverty with the riches accumulated in Great Britain. With the capital so created Great Britain  was able to build up a Social Security System and a first class National Health Service for its people.  The skyscrapers in London and cities like Liverpool were all built on the capital received from the colonies.

Then Great Britain had great politicians- that could rule the waves and also great administrators.  When the people in Sri Lanka rebelled in 1818  a scorched earth policy was put in force- destroy everything, cut off every tree in bearing and shoot to kill every man.  In my living memory- my holidays were spent on Estates owned by British imperial planters. My uncle was a Head Conductor- that was the highest rank a local could aspire to and I have seen the Superintendents at work. They worked with an iron fist- their word was law. Back in the UK too there were great rulers. It is on legend how Sir Winston Churchill acted to win the World War II. Once Great Britain did not have iron to make weapons. Out went the order, remove all iron gates, iron fences in London. That was done overnight. By the time the owners got up the iron was in the smelting pot being turned into weapons.

Sad to say, those days of action are gone. I have been a student at universities in Edinburgh and Manchester and have worked in London, in Manchester and Edinburgh . Today Great Britain is today full of professionals who can talk,  argue,  present facts in a most articulate manner but to get down to action it is NATO- no action talk only.

The Cities, once the doyen of the World, are now riddled with crime. Cressida Dick, The London Police Chief stated that there are “190 gangs fuelling the violent crime wave,” with 123 murders in 2017. As reported in The Telegraph of 20/10/2017, you are six times likely to be burgled in the British Capital than in New York”- both have a population of 8 million. Many are the No Go areas within Cities. This has been caused by the economic downturn- unemployment and also due to cuts in funding for the Police. Half the Police Stations are closed down and the police cadres  reduced.

When the British people voted to leave the EU because they have had enough of playing second fiddle to Germany and France and found that the EU system was only leading the country no where, the US President Trump advised Britain to go it alone- not to go on bended knees to the EU. Instead the Prime Minister Theresa May went for the last two years on bended knees to the Leaders of the EU and got no where.

Wither bound Great Britain?

In my own life as an automobile owner – all my earlier cars were made in Great Britain- a Hillman Minx,  a Humber Hawk, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Morris Oxford. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in the Sixties, Mr Dudley Senanayake used a Humber Hawk. His Humber Hawk was  brand new. On official visits I as the  Commissioner of a District followed his new Humber Hawk in my ten year old Humber Hawk. That Humber Hawk was a dependable, comfortable great car, comparable to any BMW  today. Yet Britain lost its grip on manufacture. Now Britain does not make a single car. The Land Rover and a few other makes are all owned by foreigners. British workmanship has eroded to nothing. Britain has become a nation of talkers. As a Social Worker in Manchester, a Senior Community Worker in Edinburgh and as a Lecturer at Westminster we did well in providing services, but the economy has grounded to a halt. Today building homes and apartments is talked of as development. There is little talk of manufactures.

In 1980, in Edinburgh,   I was  the Senior Community Education Worker  in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh and  the Warden of Clovenstone Community Center. We then had a repertoire of youth and community development programmes. It is a crime ridden no go area today whereas when I was there I could travel all over even at midnight.

Then, I was also supervising a dozen  lads under the Youth Opportunity Programme(YOP) and the Special Temporary Employment {Programme(STEP) of the Manpower Services Commission, the one and only occasion when Britain tried to grapple with unemployment. The lads were to be acclimatized into community work. They acquitted themselves very well, were very useful and I was struck with their ability. They were all school leavers who failed to  enter the portals of higher studies. They were paid a stipend for two years and thereafter got lost.  The only job they found was to join the army and I later found that some lads had become cannon fodder in foreign countries- sent on gory  missions to boast the glory of Great Britain.

The  greatest programmes of the Manpower Services Commission- the YOP and STEP actually took away two of the most formative years of the life of a youth, leaving them nothing other than  to hog the queues of the Social Security System that gave them a meager living grant. I suggested that instead these youths should be guided to follow a special intensive course in a vocation of their choice- where they would be able to work towards making something that was imported. Many are the Colleges of Education  in Edinburgh that excel in providing  vocational and technical education which train youths for  a year and award them a certificate with pomp and pageantry. Left on their own to find a job in a free market economy with imports being the order of the day, they inevitably fail and have to submit to social security grants and end scraping the barrel for life.

My suggestion- and I  wrote two reports  detailing how the youths under the Manpower Service Programmes, instead of being introduced to all and sundry, should instead follow a few tailor made intensive but a short six months’ courses run by Colleges of Education in an area of their choice where they would after a grounding in basic skills and use of machinery identify  saleable items that can be made,  and make such items as a part of their course. Then the Marketing Lecturers, the professional in economics of the Colleges of Education who normally held courses in marketing on a simulated basis  with  paper and pen, chalk  and talk will take charge and get involved in actually  marketing the product made by the youths offering the chance to enable the youth to build up their abilities in the art of marketing. The Vocational Training Units in the Colleges of Education would continue to guide the entrepreneurs till they are a success. My Report was submitted to the Director of Community Education,  the late Peter Williamson, who full of enthusiasm submitted it for approval by the Education Committee of the Lothian Regional Council. It was intensely debated, but the Labour Party stalwarts wanted to put off its implementation till Labour ruled the country. That was the time when the Conservatives ruled for long.. I was given a commendation and that was all. This happened in 1981.  Labour was not elected for  a length of time. When Labour was in power again, close to a decade later,  and I was available in the UK I approached some Labour Councillors, The ones that were supportive of my ideas had left and those in charge were indifferent.

I thought I was wasting my time doing nothing worthwhile and quit to Bangladesh in two years.

Later,  back from Bangladesh, I was a Lecturer at Westminster Adult Education Institute in London- my job was in community education- to assess the needs of the community, draw up courses of study find suitable lecturers and implement them. The Institute had an array of vocational courses – in painting, ceramics, wood work etc and the trainees were trained and for practice purposes they made many a something that were never saleable. I prepared a Report where I urged that the trainees should be be more intensively trained and taught  to make a saleable product . Then the  econ lecturers of the Institute will guide them in the rigours of marketing and ultimately guide the student to become an entrepreneur.  My ideas were booted out  and that idea died a natural death.

Great Britain has in the meantime continued its way down hill.   It is no longer a manufacturing hub. Germany and France have taken over that role. Its main role is to educate others though its famous universities. These universities are more run with money flowing from foreign lands, mainly Third World countries which have been forced by the IMF to liberalize the use of foreign exchange and get into debt in the process of providing funds for educating children in foreign universities.

This liberalization of the use of foreign exchange and taking loans to pay the loans  was the method by which the Third World countries  were  brought into control as “colonies” once again. This story of how the sovereign countries were once again colonized” is detailed in my book: How the IMF Sabotaged the Development of the Third World.(Kindle/Godages)

Now  the Superpowers are fast losing ground.  . .Britain cannot cope with the hordes of EU immigrants from backward EU countries in search of gold-like the story of Dick Whittington. So are also immigrants from African and Asian countries that somehow struggle, come in boats and brave the seas to settle down. The administrative might of Britain is reflected in the fact that almost a million immigrants who were once documented cannot now be traced. Sadly immigration is out of control.

Little do the Superpowers realize that this mountain of immigration as much as two million to Germany, over a million to Great Britain and millions to other European countries and yet continuing was  really the result of the EU, stalwart countries, Great Britain and the USA(the Super Powers) imposing  the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme on the Third World countries, liberalizing the use of foreign exchange, imposing the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF on those countries which  crippled the development causing  abject poverty with a mass of people who cannot find any means of income/employment. It is they that will go to any extent to get to the rich Developed Countries- they are all economic migrants.  This migration will never end.. (See my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternate Programmes of Success.

The  citizens of Great Britain decided to get away from  being a member of the European Union. Having joined later, Britain had to play a second fiddle  to both France and Germany.,  The people had got sick of Britain as a member of the EU because immigrants from the poor countries of Europe have swarmed in droves, enjoying the social security system  the health services, with Britain failing to cope.     Great Britain   voted to leave. Instead of acting on it in a straight forward manner, calling it a day and going it alone as advised by  President Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May went licking the boots of EU leaders to get privileges for Great Britain.. She came   back empty handed, ridiculed and ignored.

Is there a way out. Can Great Britain become great again and it is for this cause  that Lessons from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka become valuable.

Before the IMF purposely made the Third World indebted, these sovereign countries  were in good economic health- managing on a sustainable basis. The countries managed to run with the incoming foreign exchange, carefully handling it with foreign exchange and import controls and executing development programmes to enable  production and poverty alleviation..  The Super Powers  made them indebted by forcing them to liberalize the use of  foreign exchange- import everything, plush cars- live beyond their means and gave them loans at low interest with even periods of no payment- to entice them, leading them to become indebted, These countries were developing their infrastructure to bring about development, alleviating poverty.

There were many successful infrastructure development programmes, all in disarray today and abolished because the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme banned the Public Sector from attending to development tasks. That was to be done by the Private Sector. That paradigm never worked because the Private Sector had as its motto to make profit.  Development of the country was not in their repertoire. Added was the provision that interest rates had to be high- as much as 25%- putting off all entrepreneurs. Imports from the Superpowers poured in  and development was put on the back burner.

There are a host of successful programmes to talk of.  The Agricultural Marketing Programme of Sri Lanka- purchasing produce at high rates- higher prices than what was offered by the traders, direct from producers and selling in the conurbations at low rates, compelling the private sector shop keepers to sell at low prices was an acclaimed success., It arrested inflation. It had a Cannery that produced many items that stalled imports.  There is the Handloom and Powerloom Industry of Sri Lanka and India that saw to make the countries self sufficient in all textiles.  Thre is the Comilla Pprogramme of Rural Development in Bangladesh which brought about full employment and doubled the yield of paddy in Kotwali Thana in the Comilla District of Bangladesh.  There are more such programmes which have become defunct due to the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme.

:Let me detail two such programmes where I myself created and established them as successes.  This is important because none can say that I speak from hearsay- without facts. Here I was in sole charge in the design and implementation and no one can doubt the success recorded.

Onbe such programme is the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh. I left my post in Community Education in Edinburgh to assume duties as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor in Youth Development in Bangladesh. The Ministry had an array of youth activities in social,  and cultural areas and also provided vocational training to 40,000 youths a year in an array of some thirty vocations. It also had the political wing- the Jatito Juba Sangstha. Like in all countries youth work is highly tainted with politics. I was taken all over Bangladesh and became acquainted with the entire works.

An exact replica of the political upheavals that are currently happening in Sri Lanka there were fisticuffs in the Houses of Parliament in Bangladesh and Parliament  had not met for around a year.  The Minister of Youth hosted  a Chinese delegation with pomp and pageantry at a Five Star Hotel in Dhaka and I can remember the Minister singing Amar Desh, Bangladesh” with everyone joining in. The next morning he was arrested.  In another few days the Military took over the country n a bloodless coup d etat .in one night. The Military viewed youth work activities with scorn,  Within a day or two a meeting was held to abolish or scale down youth activities with The Minister for Labour and Manpower Mr Aminul Islam in the chair. He went through the programmes that were being implemented and was very critical. Realizing me as the only outsider he called for my designation  and when told that I was the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry, asked me what contribution I could make for Bangladesh. I responded that with 40,000 youths being trained annually, with   most of them remaining unemployed at the end, we should have a self employment programme  as an integral part of vocational training to guide the trainees to become entrepreneurs The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest administrator in Bangladesh quoted the miserable failure of an ILO attempt to create a self employment programme  a few years earlier and said that I was suggesting something that could  never be achieved. I contested it and said that though the ILO failed I could assure success. My arguments with the Secretary to the Treasury and a few other Secretaries of key Minstries went on for over two hours till the Hon Minister had enough of it and  stopped all of us arguing. He said that I had convinced him and immediately approved my designing and establishing a self employment programme.  The Secretary to the Treasury said that he will not provide any funds to which I replied that I needed no new funds and will manage the additional work within the approved youth budget.  I started training the staff as well as the trainees the very next day. In the next 18 months, before I left I had established training 2000 youths and of my starter youths easily seventy five percent were all successful entrepreneurs.

I  had trained the entire staff of youth workers in economics and in the art of involving youths in self employment- building their abilities and capacity to struggle to become entrepreneurs.. This Programme is today the premier programme of employment creation the world has known and had guided two million youths to become successful entrepreneurs by 2011., This Programme today guides 160,000 youths a year. It is a hard programme that does not provide funds for nothing. It provided training and youth workers- now turned to be economic development  specialists guided them on a daily basis to success.

This was what I had suggested to implement in Edinburgh. Edinburgh’s failure was Bangladesh’s success.  Great Britain could do with a self employment programme on a national basis making what the country needs by marshalling its youths. Unfortunately youth development has been neglected in Great Britain and many cities have youth unemployment at 40%. . The Colleges of Education have talented lecturers and Community Education officials can provide expertise, but unfortunately that was not to  be.

Another true achievement comes from Sri Lanka. It happened when the Ministry of Plan Implementation refused to approve. Import substitution type of  programmes for implementation in my District. As the Commissioner(called Government Agent in Sri Lanka) of the District, I took over the leading school science lab in the evenings for experimenting  to find the art of making crayons. The Leader was my Planning Officer who was a chemistry graduate. We did a myriad of experiments for close upon three months  working locked up in the science lab and found the art of making crayons. ..

With this success I established a Crayon Factory Cooperative Industry at Morawaka in three weeks working day and night with my Planning Officer and a Development Assistant along with a few katcheri officers training youths in the art of making crayons and in quality control. It was a handmade crayon like most Chinese products today.  This Coop Crayon Factory  was a great success and became the flagship project of the Divisional Development Councils Programme , the major success of the 1970-77 Government of Prime Minister Sirimavo.

I can go on with other programmes of success but will confine myself to these  for now.

Great Britain with its excellence in expertise in Universities and Colleges of Education can easily take on the mantle to get the youths in training to get down to production and to guide them till they are successful. In the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, the premier employment creation programme the world has known the basis was that the lecturers who train the youth  will also guide them if they are willing to venture out to make things for sale. To my own knowledge the Lecturers at Colleges of Education in Edinburgh as well as at Westminister do have the ability to guide their students to become entrepreneurs. I am doubly certain of this fact. The science laboratories in Colleges of Education are far more equipped that the Science lab that I used to find the art of making crayons.  It follows that the Colleges of Education can easily find the method of manufacturing imported items and get going with establishing production cooperatives manned by youths working under the guidance of the Lecturers.

It is necessary  to detail  another essential factor in the task of employment creation. . In Edinburgh, the most successful manufacturing industry was Edinburgh Crystal, a cut glass crystal manufacturer  at Peniquik. Established as far back as 1867, it was a show piece of Scottish workmanship. In 2006, Edinburgh Crystal was purchased lock stock and barrel by Waterford Wedgewood, another Crystal Manufacturer from out of Scotland who inherited its sales, but stopped the Edinburgh Factory. Its trained workforce of some one hundred or more were cast on the heap of the unemployed. On my numerous visits to Edinburgh Crystal I had seen the craftsmen at work. They were really skilled workmen who had been at the task for a large number of years. I consider the closure of such a vibrant and successful manufacturing industry as a national disaster.

On my inquiries I found that Edinburgh Crystal was an industry that was very hale and hearty. It was very profitable and that was the very reason why another multinational had its eyes on it. It was success for the intruder, but a great loss for Scotland.

A similar loss happened in Canada. That was Blue Mountain Pottery of Ontario beginning in 1953. Its animal figurines, vases and jugs etc adorned the show cases at Harrods and Selfridges. Though it was a profitable concern the owners were not satisfied with the profit and closed it down in 2004. I happened to visit it at its closure and spoke to the workers who were being laid out. They were  a hundred or more craftsmen destined to the scrap heap of unemployment though their products have today become well priced collectors items.. This was a great loss for Canada as Blue Mountain had finalized a rare process of fineness in pottery  which could have taken on like the  world famous Lladro of Spain.

The closure of Edinburgh Crystal and Blue Mountain Pottery, both extremely successful enterprises also brings to light the ills of the private sector. In neoliberal economics which UK follows. It has to be understood that the motto of the Private Sector is to make a profit and the development of the country comes second. That is what happened to Edinburgh Crystal. For systematic development of a lasting nature the Private Sector has to be guided by the State. It is the State that is interested in development. The State has to harness the Private Sector for development.

The answer lies in community cooperatives where the workers as well as communities tie up to establish and run manufacturing industries. Here with success the venture stays in the place of origin providing work for the people and the enterprise can be developed. It will not fall a prey to venture capitalists that may acquire and close it down.

In any attempt to bring about employment creation, it is also necessary to plan for the emergence of cooperatives where the community too will be involved as much as the youth of that community will be the workers. Then the industry that is created will have a community base where members of that community will take the lead to work with the workers to ensure success in manufacture and sales. This is found necessary because even worker cooperatives with success on their hands can  move from their area to areas of affluence leaving the area where they emerged.  In this task a major role has to be played by  Community Education as well as by Colleges of Education.

Then the emergence of successful cooperative entrepreneurs can also be assured of support from the community. In WesterHailes if by any chance my suggestions of 1980 had been approved to make entrepreneurs out of the youths in training, able experienced community members were always willing to offer a hand to make them a success. Then once an industry is established it will be the guarded treasure of the community.

An important aspect re cooperatives is that the profits go to the cooperative  and the cooperative workers. The funds in the cooperative are for future development of the cooperative enterprise. The current Model of enterprise development in the capitalist world is the public company, where the capital is provided by nonworking investors who hold shares and  the payment they expect is in the dividends. In the cooperative model there is no profit for non working shareholders.  And the total income is for the development of the enterprise. This is an important factor because in any new enterprise profit margins have to be kept low at the initial stages. Thus in  new enterprise development it is only the cooperative model that can be expected to hold water.

It was the cooperative enterprise model that was followed by Third World countries. In the cooperative model profit making is not the aim. Instead the aim is the development of the country, the creation of employment and bringing about production causing national development.

In development the private sector has to be harnessed for the achievement of development goals. In this connection a further  lesson can be quoted from Sri Lanka. In the Fifties and Sixties the Green Revolution was taking place apace in Sri Lanka and  the country did not have the capacity to mill the paddy to rice. The Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing that handled rice milling imported a few rice mills and installed them at vantage places in the producing areas. Next the Department drafted plans for the establishment of small scale rice mills and called for applications from investors.. The machinery that had to be imported was detailed and the Structures and buildings that had to be built like floor space for the machinery and drying floors were detailed. The private sector entrepreneurs were offered an allocation of foreign exchange to import the machinery. At this time foreign exchange allocations were required for imports. An investor  could come forward and was guided in the investment. I happened to be in charge of the Southern Province and many millers who came forward had to abide by the rules in installation. I supervised the rice mills being installed. The rice miller was given an allocation of paddy on a weekly basis for milling for which he got paid. This was a great success and overnight we built up a capacity to mill the paddy.

This details the  strategy for the State to play a major role in development, harnessing the investors in the country.  This leadership is essential as otherwise individual investors will not find the backing to forge ahead. 

It is also necessary that the different areas in Great Britain do decide on the  engines of growth, depending on available resources.  To start with Great Britain can be divided into England, Wales and Scotland and a group of experts covering industry, community work, engineering and education should undertake to arrive at the engines of growth for the area. For instance in Scotland, Wales and certain areas in England, tourism is an engine of growth. Accomodation has to be made available at reasonable rates. The equal of Premier Inn and Travelodge have to be opened in areas where  there are glorious views. There has to be parking places where tourists can park their vehicles and enjoy the scenery.  Further there have to be facilities provided to motorists to rent recreation vehicles, motor caravans, motor homes to tour the area. The services of institutions like the Caravan Club  with their caravan parks etc  can be enlisted. In every area a group comprising a few  community members, a civil  engineer, a representative of the Caravan Club a representative of the College of Education in the area could draw up what infrastructure has to be provided to encourage tourism.  Similar details have to be worked out on an area basis. Perhaps the City and Regional Councils  can take on this task  of development. 

Creating entrepreneurs out of the cadres that are being trained at Colleges of Education all over the UK be it at Wester Hailes or at Westminster and an attempt to establish Community cooperatives out of the trained with community expertise also playing a role perhaps is a path that can usher economic development, a long felt need.

The question of finding finance   crops up. It is my contention that money can be printed. A major drawback  if the created funds are from print, lies in the idea that this procedure can lead to inflation. Inflation has always to be avoided. It is the experience of the author that funds have to be used on a strict basis. There should not be free grants. Inflation can arise only when money is poured in freely.

An attempt should also be made to find savings in approved budgets. In the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh, designed and implemented by me, the most successful employment creation programme the world has known where two million youths were guided to be entrepreneurs by 2011,  the entire expenditure in the first five years was met from savings in approved budgets. The tasks were done by revising the remits of officers, making the lecturers who handled vocational training also handle the task of guiding the trained to become entrepreneurs. This is really feasible.

 In the suggestion I had made to redesign the training programmes of the Manpower Services Commission in Edinburgh,  the extra work in guiding the enterprises would have been undertaken by the staff of the Community Education Service as well as the Colleges of Education in addition to their duties.  It is my experience in handling development work in four countries including Britain, that when something worthwhile is being attempted officialdom in allied institutions willingly handle the new tasks. They are a patriotic lot and patriotism has to be harnessed for development goals to become a reality. 

Such an attempt will bring about production, will reduce imports and  equip Great Britain to face the problems that it will have to face from a departure from the EU.

Leaving the EU alone, such an attempt at employment creation will also put Great Britain on a path to become the manufacturing hub of the world, which it actually was in the last century.

It is my sincere contention that instead of pleading  and begging from the Garniers and  Merkels, an attempt should be made to revive the British economy and things will then move in the right direction.

May this Paper be debated and the ideas suggested be changed as appropriate and developed on to enable the creation of a sustainable economy. Let me hope this could commence in a few areas  like Edinburgh or London or where there will be interested officers in Colleges of Education or Universities.

To my thinking therein lies the path for Great Britain to be great again.

Garvin Karunaratne.

M.A. Sri Lanka, M.Ed Manchester, M.Phil Edinburgh, Ph.D.Michigan State University

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

SMART EDUCATION”

In April 2017 65 schools in the Western Province  were converted into ‘Smart Schools’ capable of deploying digital learning protocols. The project was  led by Guru.lk, Sri Lanka’s leading eLearning portal. The company collaborated with Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Microsoft Sri Lanka and the Western Province Education Ministry over a six month period to complete the project.

The objective of the project was to expose traditional classroom based teachers and students to the latest digital based learning technology and systems. This would enable students to make the best use of    the tablet computers which the Ministry planned to introduced to the government schools system.

The project involved providing the schools with content to use on computers, a learning management system, Microsoft Office 365 licenses and technical support. It included training more than 1,000 teachers in the use of the necessary hardware and software. Many of the teachers trained for this smart schools program became capable of creating digital content themselves for the purpose of teaching their students.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon supported the project by funding the creation of the ‘Sipnena’ website registered under the .lk and .com domains, and hosted free on guru.lk servers.
.The website offers students free access to content carefully selected to support their educational needs in line with local curricula, via more than 170 IT labs donated by the Commercial Bank to schools around the country.

The Commercial Bank made substantial investments to develop lessons for all subjects in the GCE Advanced Level Mathematics and Bio Science streams and for Grade 10 Mathematics, Science and English. The Bank also made investments to create an online Maths Lab, Mathematics Revision lessons and even a section dedicated to vocational training.

Microsoft Sri Lanka provided its world class software free of charge and also invested in teacher training for the project. Guru.lk and its owning company Headstart Ltd. provided the student Learning Management System free of charge provided content, conducted teacher training and coordinated the implementation of the project. The company was also responsible for monitoring progress and activation at ground level in the 65 schools in the Western Province.

Headstart Ltd the company that owns Guru.lk was a tech start-up with a project named ‘Vidunena’ under which the GCE A/L Science curriculum was provided to schools in an E Learning format, through an ICTA grant. It had been developing content for the ICTA/Ministry of Education on school curricula since 2009. The company  owned the largest E Learning content portal www.guru.lk in Sri Lanka with more than 235,000 learners and 1,000 plus lessons to choose from. The content knowledge pool included university academics, teachers, business leaders, corporate trainers and soft skills trainers, and is the largest such education-related talent pool in Sri Lanka. 

In  July 2017.Microsoft invited Guru.lk, to present a case study  on the project to Microsoft country representatives from the Asia Pacific region, Microsoft education partners and officials from Microsoft’s head office in USA. Hasitha Dela, CEO of Headstart Ltd said in his presentation, that the project was completed in record time despite Sri Lanka’s digital literacy rate being just 26% .The project include schools of varying sizes, standards and locations. Teacher competitions were held and each teacher achievement was rewarded with Microsoft badges which enabled them to compete with regional countries. Sri Lankan teachers have earned more than 12,000 Microsoft badges, one of highest figures for countries in the Asia Pacific region.

***

Sri Lanka’s first cloud-based Smart Classroom was set up in January 2017, at the Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte Maha Vidyalaya. Seventeen students  participated in the pilot project. Lessons were conducted in the English medium and the students  used tablet computers instead of textbooks for interactive learning. The individual tabs will mirror lessons from a large screen computer that replaces the blackboard as a teaching guide.

The first grade-wide deployment of Smart Classrooms    was thereafter  set up at the same school, Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte Boys School on February 2019.  These are not just classrooms with Smart Boards. They use an intuitive learning platform connecting teachers and students. These Smart Classrooms are powered by XOLO Smart Classroom platform developed and managed by CodeGen .

***

The Ministry of Education  then embarked on a plan to establish Smart Classrooms for 342 schools. The progamme was first launched with 42 schools in 2016, 150 in stage II and 150 schools in the last phase in 2018. Altogether, 50,000 students  benefited, at a cost of Rs 1,000 million, for the purchase of tabs, laptops and infrastructure facilities. Schools needed access to basic facilities such as electricity and Internet. As facilities to other schools improved, the Ministry would provide  Smart Classroom facilities to other schools as well.

The Ministry embarked on a pilot project to  give free tablets to Advanced Level students and teachers in government schools. Yahapalana earlier planned to lease laptops from the private sector, which would be responsible for maintenance and repairs. Then they found that it was cheaper for the Ministry to purchase and supply Laptops.

Laptops would be purchase under a 3-year guarantee and the total project cost was estimated at Rs 12 billion, with which they could purchase around 160,000 Laptops, while repairs and maintenance were estimated at Rs 400 million. An estimated Rs 597.6 million  was  allocated for the project, under which 628 schools were to be provided with 14,230 Laptops. The Ministry will    provide laptops to selected schools in difficult areas as well. Schools that do not have electricity will have to get the laptops charged elsewhere. 

***

 In 2018,  Yahapalana  approved a proposal to raise a US$ 56.9 million loan for the establishment of a National Centre for Creating E-Learning Resources, for teaching through Computers. Under the plan the Ministry of Education would formalize applying Information Technology  in Schools. The proposal is to provide Computers and Accessories to all Regional Computer Resources Centers, construct 2 Provincial IT Educational Centers associated with Addalachchena and Nilwala National Colleges of Education, and establish a National Level Software & Computer Application Design Center at Narangallawaththa, Kurunegala. The money  will be raised from the Economic Development Cooperative Fund and the Abu Dhabi Fund, through the Korean Import Export Bank.

***

The Ministry has given instructions to weed the school libraries. The Ministry of Education  said that, in order to introduce digital and electronic Libraries into schools, weeding/discarding was necessary. Books printed over 20 years ago, highly academic material not suitable for schoolchildren, books that undermines national unity, containing outdated and misleading information, old annual reports and newspapers, books not used by students, are instructed to be removed immediately from school Libraries,

A circular has been issued including weeding instructions to all provincial and Zonal Directors of Education, school Principals, Principals of Teacher Training Colleges and National Education Colleges.. The Principal must appoint a 5-11-member committee to work with the school librarian/library committee. The committee will prepare a weeding list, make submissions/recommendations, indicating items for weeding, and finally decide on the removal.

Materials to be removed should be exhibited within the school premises, followed by an open negotiation with representatives from teaching staff, parent’s committee and students. Among those to be considered before weeding are dictionaries and encyclopedias, if the existing version is more than 20 years old, Central Bank annual reports and Budget proposals, subject books for Mathematics, Science and Technology, readers demand and preference, cost effectiveness of rebinding, availability of substitute material and conserving books with a historical or cultural value.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

When JR Jayewardene was President,  government decided to assist certain  Christian  schools which, having decided to   become private schools in 1960,  were now in financial difficulties.  A category called Government-approved Private Schools was created.  The government provided school uniforms and textbooks to the 80 Government-approved Private schools. 36 schools were given money to pay teachers’ salaries. The UNP government of the time was restoring ‘assisted school system’ which was eliminated in the 1960  ‘take over of schools ‘. Thanks to this new plan, some  Christian schools, moved out of the state sector and went  private. St Anthony’s College, Kandy was one of them, I think.

Yahapalana government  decided to  further extend this. In 2019, Yahapalana announced that  it intends to provide assistance to 13 more unaided Private schools, after  they were converted into Government-assisted Private schools,  following Education Ministry criteria. Yahapalana would pay teachers salaries to 13 private schools that do not currently receive assistance from the government. 381 teachers at these schools would be paid a colossal sum of Rs. 160 million a year.

The 13 schools  are Sri Sumeda Vidyalaya, Gampaha, Bolawalana Ave Maria Vidyalaya, Negombo, Nalanda Buddhist Vidyalaya, Kundasale, Suradithika Balika Vidyalaya Paiyagala, Siri Sumana Buddhist Vidyalaya Biyagama, N.C.E.F. Buddhist Vidyalaya, Mulleriya, Minerva Vidyalaya, Matara, Sri Rahula, Anuradhapura, Sinhala Buddhist Vidyalaya, Matale, Western Province Jaya Indrasiri Vidyalaya, Pitakotte, Mahamvenawa Buddhist Vidyalaya, Kurunegala and Vidyani Vidyalaya, Kelaniya. The Ceylon Teachers Union said  this was an additional burden for the cash-strapped Education Ministry and the money could be better used to upgrade and provide facilities for schools in rural areas.

 In 2018 Cabinet  approved a government proposal to allow popular semi-government schools to establish branches across the country..A total of 36 popular semi-government schools including St Peter’s, St Joseph’s College and Wesley College in Colombo, Maris Stella College and Loyola College in Negombo, Holy Cross College, Kalutara and Christ King College, Pannipitiya are allowed to build five branches each around the country, according to cabinet paper No. 18/0850/742/017 of April 26, 2018. By 2019, these schools had established nine branches in Negombo, Wattala, Katunayake, Bopitiya and Kalutara. Ceylon Teachers Union said allowing popular schools to build branches across the country would result in the  closure of  several existing schools.

FREE TEXT BOOKS

In 2018,  Yahapalana  had printed only a fraction of the free textbooks books needed for schools. The total requirement of textbooks for 2018  was over 41 million and Rs 4.385 billion was allocated. However they  printed just over 28 million (28, 210, 600) books. This  resulted in a severe shortage of text books . Teachers too are affected by the situation as the number of textbooks needed for the teachers has not been included in the printed textbooks.

out of the 28 million books that were printed, the government had printed 8,802,100 new books for Grade 1- 4, 6,432,000 new books for Grade 09 and 2,630,000 work new books, these had to be printed due to syllabus change. Students from Grade 6 to Grade 9 had been told to re-use about previously used books .  Some students were receiving new books while others were told to re-use the old books.

Most of the old books could not  be reused because  they were not in good condition.   They were  torn, damaged and written all over. Students who received these old books are now buying new ones. The past few weeks saw hundreds of parents standing in queues at the Education Publications Department bookshops, to buy  the books., complained Ceylon Teachers Union. The Ministry had created an artificial shortage  to make students buy the books. This has ensured that a large number of students are buying books from the Department.

In 2017 Yahapalana had started printing prices at the back of each textbook. The reason for printing the book price, the teachers unions were told was to show the students the value of books they were getting for free. This was not accepted. This was a move to reduce expenditure on free education, encourage the purchase of books and initiate a voucher system for textbooks similar to that for uniform material.

The Commissioner of General Education Publications, blamed the Government Press, which had delayed the matter,  due to the printing of election poll cards and the Bond Commission report. This  explanation  was  not accepted. School textbooks need to be given out before the school holidays and are  printed  much earlier. About 97% of school textbooks are printed by 26 private sector printers.  Education Publications Department advertised on January 30, 2018 calling for tenders for the printing of extra textbooks.

UNIFORMS

Yahapalana  had earlier decided to issue vouchers instead of material for school uniforms. This was heavily criticized.There has been criticism from various parties about the Voucher system, for school uniforms, but we have decided not to withdraw the scheme, said the Ministry. The Ministry  decided to continue with the Voucher system, despite protests, but will consider increasing the payment for material.  The scheme cannot be changed immediately, as it would take time to order the material and  issue it. There would  also be problems regarding storage, transportation, administrative, additional staff for distribution, the possibility of low quality material reaching the market and irregularities of tenders.

SURAKSHA

 In 2017 the Cabinet approved a proposal to introduce an insurance scheme, for all school children between the ages of 5 and 19 years  in both government and private school students,   at a cost of Rs. 2700 million to the government.   Around 4.5 million schoolchildren from all walks of life studying in government, private and international schools as well as student priests in Pirivenas are covered under this scheme. This scheme, named Suraksha commenced on 2.10.17 . The scheme  was facilitated by Sri Lanka Insurance, which offers the service through its extensive network of 150 branches island-wide.

Suraksha consists of three main areas – Health Insurance, Personal Accident Insurance and Special Benefits .The insurance cover includes surgical and hospitalization benefits of Rs. 200,000 per annum as well as outdoor patients’ benefits worth Rs. 10,000 for seven selected ailments. Further, there is a personal accident insurance benefit provided to both student and parents – Rs. 100,000 to be paid upon the sudden accidental death of the student as well as a cover worth Rs. 100,000 in the event of a total permanent disability and Rs. 50,000 to be paid upon partial permanent disability of the student.

The scheme also covers parents’ accidental death where a sum of Rs. 75,000 is paid to the student for such losses. Suraksha beneficiaries are also entitled to additional benefits such as discounts on hospitalization, consultants’ fees, etc.

 The scheme was successful, said the media. By May 2018 the government has paid Rs. 89 million in claims to 8,870 people said Daily News   over 1,600 claims were already paid by Sri Lanka Insurance said Island. The insurer has received over 4,300 insurance claims from schoolchildren during the last four months..

Several success stories  of Suraksha were given in the media. A school girl needed Rs 2.5 million for a spine operation at a private hospital. Her father found out about the scheme and applied for it. Within two to three days I was able to get Rs. 100,000. Though the cost was not recovered 100 percent, it was something.” A schoolboy got dengue twice, The first time, Suraksha helped meet part of the hospital bill, and the second time, we were able to recover the whole amount through Suraksha,” the father said

B.A. Rupika’s  husband in Wattemulla met with an accident and passed away. She is now the sole breadwinner in her family. As she struggled to make ends meet, her child’s school informed her that she could apply for a claim through Suraksha. The claim took 1.5 months, but she was able to get Rs. 75,000 for the death of her husband, It helped me a lot,” she said.

 One parent, Senadeera,  said that many  parents were reluctant to claim through Suraksha because either way they would have to foot the initial amount on their own and only later get it reimbursed. Many people cannot afford to put up that initial sum.

There must be a direct payment scheme where the insurance covers the cost without us having to pay it first. If you connect the hospitals directly to the insurance company, many more people will make claims.” Though government hospitals are meant to be free, in reality healthcare is not. There are many expenses people have to bear, from costs in care to tests, he added.

Also, there were many delays when applying for claims, especially when it was applied through a branch office of Sri Lanka Insurance, The first time we applied, we did so through the Kaduwela branch and we had to follow up so many times, because they told us that the claim has to be sent to their head office to be processed. The second time around, it took less time because we knew the system and applied directly at their head office,’  said Senadeera

He further asked that the amount given per day to the child admitted at a government hospital be increased. This scheme is most helpful to parents who can’t afford healthcare. So Rs. 1,000 per day is not enough, it should be more.”

The level of awareness about Suraksha  varies in schools. Some schools are doing a good job whilst others are not interested,” A parent found out that her child’s school had not registered with Sri Lanka Insurance, when she called them up to ask whether her child was eligible for the scheme. The school just sent us a leaflet about it once, but thereafter they did not collect my son’s information or tell us how we could apply for it,” she said.

Also though they had applied for the scheme, at first they were not aware of what exactly it covered. Admission charges to private hospitals are not covered. It is only when the child is going to be discharged that they tell us what is covered and what is not. They should inform the parents about this at the start,”  she observed. This is a  common problem with all  types of insurance.

 The Education Ministry said they had conducted an awareness programme for schools on December 7, 2017. They were having discussions with Sri Lanka Insurance to have more awareness programmes conducted in schools.  The Ministry has also asked whether the Insurance Corporation can look at a scheme to directly connect their services with the hospitals. We were hoping that at least some hospitals could be selected to do this at the start and later it could be expanded to all others,” said the Ministry. Sri Lanka Insurance is yet to agree to the proposal they said in 2018.

In 2019, the picture  changed. The   agreement with Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) expired on November 30, 2018. The SLIC has paid only Rs 450 million as claims, while the total amount insured was Rs 2,700 million. Around 4,000 claims from schoolchildren, received by the Ministry under the Suraksha insurance scheme, remain unpaid, said the Ceylon Teachers Union  in 2019. The paperwork for the claimants was done  by the teachers. The children were automatically registered under Suraksha, but the responsibility of collecting the student’s information and registering them with the scheme and making parents aware of the benefits has been delegated to the school authorities by the Education Ministry.

The scheme has come to a halt in 2019 and the claims  put on hold,  due to a deadlock between the Ministry and the Presidential Secretariat, over the selection of the Insurance company. The Allianz Co. was initially awarded the contract,  they had made the best offer, but Sri Lanka Insurance appealed to the Presidential Secretariat Appeal Board. The Appeal Board decided that the Allianz . should be awarded the contract, but Presidential Secretariat directed the Ministry to halt the issue of the contract. objections were also raised by trade unions against awarding the deal to a foreign company.

Thereafter, no directive has been issued about the contract, thereby putting the entire project on hold, reported the media. Students who relied on the insurance scheme and entered hospitals or proceeded with medical treatment, have been affected.

the best course of action is for the Ministry to scrap the Insurance scheme and instead, establish an office which will make payments for the claims, said the Ceylon Teachers Union.  Then the government could save money and use it for the development of schools providing good buildings, water and other facilities. Alternatively, the funds could be used to establish children’s hospitals with all facilities.

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA)   also  urged the Government to reconsider the  proposal to introduce a health insurance scheme for all school children on the grounds that it lacked consultation with key stakeholders and impacted on the current free health service. Neither the Ministry of Health nor professional medical bodies have been engaged in planning or implementing the insurance scheme, which will have wide-ranging implications for the health sector.

while there already is a free national health service,  what is the justification for a new insurance scheme for school-going children, SLMA asked. This is an age group that generally requires very little curative care. If at all, this health insurance scheme should target children with critical and chronic illnesses. SLMA said. The major health issues afflicting the school-going population such as malnutrition, obesity, unhealthy eating patterns, insufficient physical activity, exam stress and broader mental health concerns will not be addressed by this insurance scheme.

The SLMA said the Government should direct funds set aside for the proposed new scheme  toward strengthening primary care. Developing a strong primary care system, encompassing preventive and curative services, will be beneficial to all Sri Lankans, including school-going children,” SLMA said. ( CONTINUED)

By Ifham Nizam Courtesy The Island

The government would go ahead with the proposed plan 2019 to establish 2700 MW of fossil fuel fired power stations by year 2020, a senior ministry official said.

Ministry Secretary Dr. Suren Batagoda said that there would be 300 MW new LNG Combined cycle at Kerawalapitya by WindForce Consortium, 300 MW new LNG Combined cycle Kerawalapitiya by Lakdanavi 300 MW new LNG Combined cycle plant at Kerawalapitiya with India, 300 MW new LNG Combined cycle at Kerawalapitiya with Japan, 300 MW new LNG Combined cycle at Hambanthota with China 300 MW new Coal power plant at Norochcholai and 300 MW new additional Coal plant at Norochcholai 600 MW new Coal power plant at Trincomalee. They would be given top priority considering country’s energy needs.

The Ministry is also planning to generate 750 MW of wind power in Mannar, Punarin and Siyambalanduwa and 1000 MW of solar power by 2025.

Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Executive Director, Hemantha Withanage told The Island 1200MW of coal power plants could not be endorsed due to their adverse impact on the enviornment.

He also said that the country’s first coal-fired power plant at Norochcholai – plant 1 and 2 -operated without equipment to remove toxic Sulphur dioxide.

CEJ/IPEN research in late 2018 found that some women at child bearing age living around the Puttalam lagoon had very high levels of Mercury as high as 15 ppm -Parts Per Million in their hair.

Norochcholai coal power plant operated without an Environmental Protection License for the last two years and that was an insult to the Northwestern Provincial Environmental Authority and the Central Environmental Authority, he said.

“The government taxes even motorcycles for their carbon emission and also conducts emission tests on vehicles, failed to monitor and regulate the huge emission coming from this 900 MW dirty coal-fired power plant,” he added.

Withanage also said Minisater Karunanayake had forgotten that Sri Lanka had promised to reduce 4% of the Green House gas emission from the energy sector under the Nationally Determined Contribution submitted to the UNFCCC in 2018 and, instead it will increase SGHG emission by more than 30%.

The Hindu Business Line

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena being received by TTD authorities on his arrival at Tirumala on Tuesday, April 16, 2019.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena arrived here on Tuesday to offer prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara near here, a temple official said.

Accompanied by his wife Jayanthi Pushpa Kumari and other family members and Lankan officials, Sirisena landed at Renigunta airport, 20 km from here, at noon.

Amid tight security, he reached the hills by road, the official told PTI.

The president would take part in the ‘Suprabhatha’ ritual and offer prayers to the presiding deity of Lord Venkateswara in the early hours Wednesday, the official added.

USA TODAY

Sri Lanka aims to boost its tourism efforts by giving away free visas to travelers from more than 30 countries. 

The small island nation off southern India will offer the promotion starting May 1 to travelers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, according to Lonely Planet and The Independent. 

The average U.S. tourist stands to save between $20 and $40 in visa fees, Lonely Planet says. 

The free-visa period initially will run for six months to help bolster tourism during the off-peak season – the Yala monsoon runs from May to August – but if successful, Sri Lanka may extend the free visas to tourists from other countries or make the arrangement permanent. 

Sri Lanka saw 2.1 million tourists in 2017, according to the nation’s Tourism Development Authority. Tourism numbers have been on the upswing since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.  

Ada Derana

Courtesy Adaderana

A speeding Canter truck has run over an Army checkpoint at Vattapalai Junction in Mullaitivu, killing a soldier and injuring another, stated Sri Lanka Army Media Division.

The truck had been traveling towards Nadunkarni Junction from Mullaitivu when the driver of the truck had lost control of the vehicle due to the high speed, revealed police investigations.

The accident which had occurred at around 5.30 this afternoon (16) had resulted in the death of soldier H. P. S. Pathirana, serving attached to the 6th Sri Lanka Military Police under the Sri Lanka army. He had been admitted to the Mullaitivu Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Staff Sergeant S.D.R. Dissanayake, also serving 6th Sri Lanka Military Police, was injured in the accident and is currently receiving treatment at the same hospital.

Mulliaveli Police are conducting further investigations on the matter.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Candidature for the next presidential election has become a complex problem to all political parties in Sri Lanka as the party politics in the country has become corrupt, undercutting and involved in many disguise cunning practices.  It is a nature not only in Sri Lanka, but also in other democratic countries in the world. In USA political parties are given more than one-year time to select the next presidential candidate and the process is democratically designed to elect the candidate from the votes of party members. This procedure is to give people opportunities to consider broader spectrum of views in relation to policies, past behaviour of candidates and many other areas. It is an exemplary procedure for Sri Lanka to adapt in the process of selecting a presidential candidate.  In Sri Lanka the general practice was the leader of a major political party has been supposed, to select as the candidate for the presidential election.  This system had a possibility to continuing, but Mr. J.R. Jayawardena’s astute action after 1978 has radically changed the implied practice.

The UNP government elected in 1977 had a hidden intention to destroy the opposition SLFP and the easy way to do it was working against civil abilities of Mrs Sirimao Bandaranaike, whose behaviour had been subject to severe criticism of the right-wing as her government nationalised lands, newspaper organizations and some privately-owned companies.  The result of the civil disabilities case against Mrs Sirimao Bandaranaike and Mr Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike was creating serious problems to the leadership of SLFP.  Since then the issue of the candidature for the presidential election was arose and now, we can see that the problem is continuing without abiding rule or tradition.

The 19^th amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka was a complex constitutional provision and when it was passed by the parliament, general public and the members of the parliament and the president had no idea or clear understanding of the hidden intention of the constitutional provision, now it has clearly revealed or come to light that hidden focus of the 19^th amendment was to taking revenge from the Rajapaksa family, but it was not to re-establish the good governance and democracy in the country.  There may had some democratic and good governance features, despite such good aspects, the manipulators of the 19^th amendment was to take revenge from the Rajapaksa family. The greedy people of NGOs and rejected members of Marxist political parties associated with the good governance movement, most probably gaining financial incentives (bribery) and with a view to gaining the political popularity of the Rajapaksa family to them. In fact, what happened was gaining unpopularity of the movement as yahapalana advocates in the country did not expect and they were not happened in the history.

However, people have realised the truth and now it is obvious from the actions of breakdown yahapalana politicians that the use of the candidature for the next presidential election as a talking point to coverup the corruptions in the regime. The dismissal of the aspirer candidature of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has become a failed strategy of yahapana advocates and the real experience in Sri Lanka has come to light Mr. Rajapaksa would be the strong candidate to attract votes of people without political, racial, religious and any other differences.

The incidents reported during the past several weeks and the return of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Sri Lanka as planned and his reception by people at Katunayake Airport has strongly confirmed the candidature of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa by people, despite political engineering of some political parties or personnel to disgrace Mr. Rajapaksa.  The vital fact about this short term experience is that Sri Lankans must not get deceived to fabrications in internet programs and it is a lesson to internet programs such as Facebook, utube and others to strict or restrict information publish about Sri Lanka as some people of the country use these internet programs to destroy the credibility of such programs.

Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has strong respect from people in Sri Lanka and overseas as he had not associated with lower grade politics to gain political advantages. He won the hearts of people by his work related to military and civil work.  He has rich experience in military and civil work and has proven that he will be the choice of people without political difference.

Now, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has an opportunity to openly talk to people and tell that I will be a candidate for the next presidential election and address all political parties to give support without any difference. This is required because about 25% of floating votes of UNP is willing to support Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa as he is a firmed candidate with policy making abilities and positively considering issues in Sri Lanka to take forward consistent with modernization.  Other potential candidates cannot openly talk to people as they have no knowledge, experience, skills and attributes like Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and people have no trust on them.

Statistically based on the census of 2012, 28.7% of voters in Sri Lanka are in Western Province, 12.6% in Central Province, 12.2% in Southern Province and 11.7% in North Western and 34.8% live in other provinces.  This means that Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa must focus on his campaign mainly in these provinces and reasonably convincing campaign should go to other provinces.  He must be with a uniform message that his priority is people to give equality without racial, religious and divisional differences.

Racial mix of voters are 74.9% Sinhala while 11.2% Sri Lankan Tamils, 4.2% Indian Tamils and 9.3% Sri Lankan Muslims.  Mr Rajapaksa needs attracting 80% of Sinhala votes, 6% of Lanka Tamil votes, 2 % Indian Tamil votes and 6% of Muslim votes to show a great victory of presidential election in the history. To attract such a huge vote base need giving a promise to create an equality to all races and religions with modernization, would be the strategy. The current government cannot do it because they are in the power, but they have not done it. The heavy weights of the current government have engaged in serious corrupt work creating tremendous problems to people.  How can trust a regime that mislead people again?

Sri Lanka’s population consists of 70.1% Buddhist, 12.6% Hindu and 9.7% Muslim and 7.6% other religions such as Christians and other.  If Mr Rajapaksa attracts 60% of Buddhist votes, 6% Hindu votes, 6% of Muslim votes and 5% Christian votes, it would be the greatest victory in the history.  This situation could be achieved only by giving equality to each religion and promising to make necessary legal provisions for anti-discrimination.  People in Sri Lanka needs to say we are Sri Lankans with different faces, but our aim is to construct the country to liveable place to everybody.

The statistics clearly indicates that Mr Rajapaksa’s policy must concentrate on the unity and a united Sri Lanka with equality for people in all races, castes and religions. This is the environment that we can observe in Western countries and Mr. Rajapaksa should promise to make legal provisions to eliminate discrimination.  The yahapalana regime has failed to enact laws to prevent discrimination because the main partner of the yahapalana regime, TNA did not agree with elimination of discrimination as they wanted to continue caste and religious differences in the country, with caste dictions TNA wants to establish power in Tamil dominating areas.

The reconciliation process was an essential role after ending the LTTE war, however, it did not effectively work and the reconciliation process under the yahapalana regime was a cheated activity of some members of the government that supported to gain financial advantages to selected people and it was not supported to a really established reconciliation between Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim communities.  Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa needs to initiate a true reconciliation process, which heals wounds between all three communities and it shouldn’t be a process attracting money to pockets of operators of the reconciliation process.

Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa should give strong economic policy focus to achieve per capita income of US $ 15000 in 2030, US$ 150 billion foreign reserves, stability of currency unit in domestic and foreign terms, a government budget surplus, positive outcomes in the balance of payment and a sustainable economic growth more than 8% rate.  Mr. Rajapaksa must be able to give leadership to maintain a balanced foreign policy reconciling India and China and attract foreign direct investments from all countries especially from USA, China, India, Japan, Korea, Middle East, EU and other countries.  When the economy is recording a higher rate of growth, debt is not an issue but the country needs to maintain total government debt at 60% of GDP.  The internal economic policy stress to balanced growth with a balance urbanization, which would create a large volume of employment opportunities and absorb local people to jobs, it is an essentially needed policy correction and reforming education and training for local people for employment-oriented education.  Mr. Rajapaksa has already talked about modernization like in Japan.

He must be vigilance on his own supporters and many of his supporters may have dishonest intention and corrupt elements. Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa did a good job for the country but it was outweighed by the malice propaganda and animosity of people with him.  Now those people are with Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe, Mr. Sajith Premadasa and Mr Karu Jayasuriya and any other potential candidate for the next presidential election. The crisis in UNP is how to find a right candidate with excellent experience in military and civil service.  People of Sri Lanka are knowledgeable and they don’t consider that playing cricket is the best qualification for the presidential candidate.            

By Garvin Karunaratne

Two years have passed and the meetotamulla garbage mountains are yet intact. 

Many attempts have been made at clearing but none have so far worked.

Two years ago I suggested that it be used as compost on coconut estates.

To me that seems the easiest solution and done in rupees and we do not need foreign exchange. If only it had been approved the garbage mountain would have vanished.

I enclose my earlier paper for kind consideration

Man Made Tragedies: The Garbage : Is there a way out.

Posted on May 16th, 2017

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D. Michigan State University Former Government Agent, Matara District.

12/5/2017

The Garbage Disaster

The garbage pile at Meetotamulla erupted, took the lives of 32 or more and we are in complacency- now, we are talking. There are piles of Garbage at various places and some authorities state that they will not explode.  I am certain that those authorities were well aware of the Meetotamulla Pile before it erupted.

There are accepted methods of turning the garbage into power, and these are being looked into but it  will definitely take time. In the manner we now act, it may take a few years to have those systems going.

In the meantime the piles that are already there are dangers and what about the daily intake of garbage, we do not know where to dump it!.

I managed my family farm- a small coconut acreage for five years and took great pains to dig trenches and fill them with dried leaves and foliage turning them into compost to be nutrients. Today in the heart of London my home garbage is buried and we apply a chemical powder to enhance the process of the garbage becoming compost. We collect the dried leaves and make compost- it takes a year or so and that too with adding chemicals.

Man Made Tragedies: The Garbage : Is there a way out.

RANJITH SOYSA

Julain Assange who revealed sordid aspects of West ‘s diplomacy including on the ‘war on terrorism’ in keeping with the principles of investigative journalism is hounded by the British Police. If not for Assange and his indefatigable production of Wikileaks many political and diplomatic sins committed by the leading Western ‘democracies ‘ would have been remained as ‘rational’ and right decisions.

He commenced working on Wikileaks in 2006 creating a web-based ‘dead letter box’ for would be leaks. He was shifting from place to place in handling Wikileaks. Not only the numbers killed butmany other issues such as torture carried out by the US ,the British and the allied forces came to the light because of Wikileaks. The total number killed between 2004 and 2009  in Iraq were revealed factually as 109,032 by Wikileaks and was also reported that the US High Command refused to look into the reports of torture undertaken by the allied fores, Even little known stories of the British and the US exchange of messages on Sri Lanka’s war against Tamil Tigers are also reported in the Wikileaks. The detailed story of the expulsion of the natives from the Chagos islands too became known only thanks to Wikileaks.

Asssange was born in Townswille, Australia in 1971. Another, well known political commentator, John Pilger states ” The action of the British Police in literally dragging Julian Assange from the Eduadorean emassay and SMASHING INTERNATIONAL LAW by the Ecuadorean regime in permitting this barbarity are CRIMES AGAINST MOST BASIC NATURAL JUSTICE. This is a warning to all journalists.

RANJITH SOYSA

By Derrick Broze SOURCE: THEMINDUNLEASHED.COM

The U.S. government is still afraid to reveal the full extent of torture used on terror suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks, but do the American people even care anymore?

A recent report by The New York Times explores the case of Majid Khan, a prisoner of the United States who plead guilty to being a courier for Al Qaeda. Khan is a Pakistani citizen who spent seven years in Baltimore before being kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2003, where he faced various forms of torture. Since Khan’s first court appearance in 2003, the U.S. government has sought to keep the details of his torture secret.

The Times reports:

Seven years ago, when a former C.I.A. prisoner, Majid Khan, pleaded guilty at Guantánamo to being a courier for Al Qaeda, his lawyers were warned that any mention of the word torture” would lead a court security officer to trigger a mute button so the public, listening on a 40-second delay, would not hear it.

This week the question of his treatment was front and center, this time in a pre-sentencing hearing. Mr. Khan’s lawyers asked a military judge on Monday to order prosecutors to produce evidence and witnesses about the secret prison network where the intelligence agency kept Mr. Khan incommunicado from March 2003 to September 2006.”

Khan’s case is only the latest in a battle between attorneys defending accused terrorists and both the CIA and the U.S. military. While th military now allows torture to be discussed without the 40-second delay, the battle now centers on how torture evidence can be gathered and whether or not it can be used in military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The prosecutors cannot legally use evidence obtained via torture in the military court, but they are still reluctant to allow the details of the torture to become public. Khan’s attorneys are seeking data related to his torture so they may show his sentencing jury what exactly he was forced to endure.

During the Obama administration, some details of Mr. Khan’s torture at the hands of the CIA were made public. These include being beaten, hung naked without food for three days, kept in the dark for months on end, submerged into a tub of ice and water, and perhaps, most disturbing, being subjected to rectal feeding.” As part of that process, the CIA shoved a blended mix of pasta, sauce, nuts, raisins, and hummus up Khan’s rectum after he went on a hunger strike. Khan’s lawyer David Nevin said the term rectal feeding, or rectal rehydration, is a polite way of saying rape with the insertion of a foreign object into the rectum.”

The Times reports that Khan has agreed to a plea agreement and could be sentenced to 25 years. With credit for time served he could be released by 2037. Still, despite the potential plea deal, the military has prevented Khan’s attorneys from contacting former employees of the CIA black sites where Khan and other suspected terrorists have been held over the last two decades. The CIA has fought to keep secret the names of the employees and the locations of these black sites.

As we approach yet another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the American people remain clueless as to the full extent of the torture, kidnapping, and killing carried out in the name of avenging those killed on September 11, 2001. Even worse, the psychologists who helped develop these sickening programs have been allowed to go free under secret deals. If the world is ever to heal from the tragedy of the 9/11 terror attacks, we must know the truth about what happened that day and we must know the truth about how the U.S. government and intelligence agencies violated international law when they chose to employ brutal, sick, and twisted methods of torture. Without these truths, the American people are simply living a lie.

Dilrook Kannangara

Team Sri Lanka should play the following squad for the WC2019 to achieve best outcomes.

Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Sandun Weerakkody, Kusal Perera, Upul Tharanga, Dasun Shanaka, Dinesh Chandimal, Kusal Mendis, Thisara Perera, Milinda Siriwardana, Asela Gunaratne, Dhananjaya de Silva, Ashan Priyanjan, Shehan Madushanka, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Isuru Udana, Shaminda Eranga and Wanindu Hasaranga.

This is based on batting efficacy (strike rate times average) and bowling effectiveness (economy rate times wicket taking average).

Wanindu Hasaranga is an exception. Although his performance does not warrant a place for him in the squad, his exceptional ability to give the ball a good spin is considered given dead pitches for spinners where World Cup matches are played. Other interesting selections include Shehan Madushanka who is an interesting fast bowler. Isuru Udana has not played enough matches. However, he has displayed a fighting spirit not found in many Sri Lankan players. He is also a moderate all rounder.

Sandun Weerakkody is a wicket keeper batsman who can be accommodated at a different fielding position given his good and fast batting. His batting is better than Dinesh Chandimal.

Lahiru and Jeffrey cannot make it to the team given their poor performance overall. However, if some of the players listed above are not going to be available, they can make it to the squad. Dilruwan Perera who is a Test player may be included in the squad in place of Amila Aponsu.

The format this year requires the team to make it to the top four to get ahead. There is no quarter final. That is a daunting task for Team Sri Lanka which currently ranks at the eighth position (may slip to the ninth position). There is no point playing slow batters as the Team is going to lose matches anyway if fast scoring batters fail. Net Run Rate cannot bring us within the top four. Only match winnings can bring us to the top four. Therefore, no harm in losing some matches badly as long as we win other matches. However, over the years, Cricket Sri Lanka failed to unearth many fast scoring batsmen. Focus was on the batting average and most finds are unsuitable for the ODI format. Unfortunately we have to play them as better talent is unavailable.

Matthews should not be made captain as he has not been successful. Malinga is the only current World Cup (T20I) winning captain but some senior players are not very receptive to his leadership. A tough decision must be taken on the choice of captain. However, bringing Dimuth into the ODI squad for his great captaincy skills is unwise as he has no place in the ODI squad.

Batting order must change. The crucial number three position must not go to Kusal Mendis who is a slow batter. Matthews and Thisara and Isuru must play higher up in the order where they can blossom without the added pressure of running out of balls. This is what worked for WC1996. Tharanga should also play down the batting order. Often times these slow batters cause the required rate to go up and the difficult task falls on latter batsmen who are also burdened with the ball. Contribution of Kusal Mendis and Tharanga is only in the batting department. As specialized batsmen they must be able to handle pressure down the order. Otherwise they are best kept out of the team.

A total of 300 runs is the norm today and mathematically it is a certainty that if a team loses if it makes up of batsmen with far less than 100% strike rate. 

Given the long and grueling format, it is a good idea to financially assist wives and girl friends of players to get there and be with them. This can be done by limiting administration officials and their family members. They don’t play matches and they need not be in England.

As a realist with an umbrella at hand, WC2019 will be an affair to forget for Team Sri Lanka fans. However, making the most of it should be the focus this time. Take each match as a winnable game and let the numbers do the trick.

By: PTI |Courtesy Financial Express

Riyadh and Kathmandu are two upcoming international destinations for the airline.

SpiceJet will launch direct flights from Mumbai to seven international destinations, including Colombo, Jeddah, Dhaka, Riyadh and Hong Kong. Direct flights would also be operated from Mumbai to Bangkok and Kathmandu.

The no-frills airline would start the services from the end of May. In a release on Monday, the carrier said it would be the first Indian budget carrier to launch daily direct flights on the Mumbai-Colombo, Mumbai-Dhaka, Mumbai-Riyadh, Mumbai-Hong Kong and Mumbai-Kathmandu sectors. Boeing 737 NG aircraft would be deployed in the new routes.

We are delighted to connect a large number of popular international destinations from Mumbai, a city that has always been a key and integral part of our network,” SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said. Riyadh and Kathmandu are two upcoming international destinations of the airline. The airline already operates flights to Colombo from Chennai and Madurai, Dhaka from Kolkata, Dubai from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Amritsar, Jaipur and Madurai, Hong Kong from Delhi and Jeddah from Hyderabad besides an upcoming flight from Kozhikode,” the release said.

Courtesy joe.co.uk

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to a banned terrorist organisation

Police arrested four men on suspicion of belonging to a banned terror group after they arrived in the UK at Luton airport from Sri Lanka.

They arrived on Wednesday night and were taken into custody before being questioned at a police station in Bedfordshire.

All four are Sri Lankan nationals and were detained under the terrorism act.

Scotland Yard said: “Police at the airport were made aware of the men the next day, Thursday 11 April and subsequently stopped them under schedule seven of the Terrorism Act 2000.”

The men are yet to be identified as they have not been charged.

The only Sri Lankan organisation on the government’s list of proscribed terror groups are the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, described as”a terrorist group fighting for a separate Tamil state in the North and East of Sri Lanka” and listed in 2001.

Police inquiries are ongoing.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse has created his own political platform providing  a nation friendly economic and socially cohesive vision to integrate all ethnic groups of the island.  He has clearly identified to distance himself from the free-flow open market economy.  Instead, he is committed to provide leadership to accelerate investing capacity of local entrepreneurs  for  all goods and services which can be locally manufactured, instead of importing.     It is in this context local manufacturers will be provided further assistance by means of technological transfer from advanced industrial nations, taking into consideration opportunity costs.

Sri Lanka is a rich island, with vast untapped economic resources.  Projects such as Tyre, Steel, Engineering, Textile, Ceramics, Paper, Hardware, Mineral Sands, Cement, Timber were commissioned to kick start the economy, which filters to benefit directly and indirectly to the rest of the areas of economy. 

Sri Lankan economy is stagnating  or gradually moving backwards at the moment.  The taxation system is being changed in an ad-hoc manner, tax revenue is declining and at the same time tax revenue is  directed for consumption instead of capital investment. 

No short and medium term tax incentives are given to local entrepreneurs.  The financial institutions are reluctant to release long term loans to private sector, as local businessmen are unable to investing in modern technology to upgrade or replace existing plant and machinery. As a consequence their Business Plans fail to meet the required standards of Due diligence Tests.

During last four years, we have been pushed to those issues which further divided the nation instead of integrating.  Our current inefficient rulers with no positive action plan were pampered by Groups and Nations thus successfully elevated ethnic issues above economic and social issues. 

GR is the overwhelming future leader for Sri Lanka and Asia to change the direction and overall the economy.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Among certain segments of Colombo urban middle class, Mahinda Rajapaksa emerged as the most controversial and most hated ruler in post independent Sri Lanka, said Kusal Perera.  Yet in suburban and rural Sinhala south he ‘carried his charm over ordinary Sinhala people’ and polled a massive 5.78 million votes in 2015. How did he grow into this larger than life icon in Sinhala politics.

Kusal Perera in his book Rajapaksa the Sinhala selfie” tells us how. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s grandfather, Rajapaksalage Don Davith, originally from Halgahapotha in present Embilipitiya area, was vidane arachchi of Ihala Welikada korale now known as Giruwa Pattu. He married into the Weerakoon Ratnayake clan of Getamanna, Beliatta. This was a linking of two petty village nobilities.   Rajapaksa family was a landowning one with paddy fields and coconut plantations.

Don David Rajapaksa’s son Don Mathew Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa uncle, was elected to the Hambantota seat in the State Council in 1936. Don Mathew died in 1945 and at the resulting by-election his brother D.A. (Don Alwin) Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s father, was elected without a contest.D.A. Rajapaksa was thereafter elected MP for Beliatta in the 1947 General election. D.A. Rajapaksa was associated wih SWRD Bandaranaike when the SLFP was formed in 1951. DA was     a ‘quiet and unseen character’ in SLFP politics, said Kusal Perera.

 DA’s son Mahinda Rajapaksa is the third in a family of seven. He grew up in Medamulana, a hamlet in Weeraketiya, in the Matara district. He   attended Richmond College, Nalanda College and Thurstan College from where he did his O” levels and left school. ‘He was a popular youth idling in Colombo with many friends to roam with,’ said Kusal.

A relative who was the Registrar at Sri Jayewardenepura University took him in as a library assistant there. The JVP was firmly installed in that university. Mahinda knew this group, whowere also from villages in the south. According to Kusal Perera, Rajapaksa had participated in trade union work. He was made the Branch secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile Union. ( Kusal Perera p 15)

D.A. Rajapaksa , Mahinda’s father died in 1967.  Prime Minister Sirimavo  Bandaranaike,  attending the three months dane,  offered the now vacant post of SLFP  party organizer in Beliatte to the sons. Chamal was employed so their mother suggested that it be given to Mahinda. In 1968 Mahinda Rajapaksa took over his father’s position as the SLFP organizer. He was barely 21.  ‘Politics was nothing new to the Rajapaksas and to Mahinda’, observed Kusal.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was thereafter elected to Parliament in 1970 on the SLFP ticket,  as the youngest Member of Parliament, at just 24. He was carefully watched by his mother as he prepared for the 1970 election, said Kusal. Mahinda’s mother  had been the wife of a  rural politician and knew the culture.  She told Mahinda  not to drink in his new job.

While in Parliament, Mahinda , probably for the first  and last time in his life,  turned seriously to studies. He studied law at the Sri Lanka Law College and took oaths as an attorney-at-law in November 1977.  It appears that Mahinda Rajapaksa   has pursued a legal practice  running parallel to his politics.  We did not know this.

Throughout his parliamentary career, except for the period from 1994–2001 when he was a minister, he continued his law practice in Tangalle, said Wikipedia.  He  appeared in the Magistrates courts in Embilipitiya, Hambantota and Tangalle. He was in  close touch wih Colombo  lawyers such as CR de Silva and  Tivanka Wickremasinghe, said Kusal Perera. Mahinda had a  very close   personal relationship with Tivanka and often sought  advice for his own cases.

  In 1977 Mahinda Rajapaksa lost his Beliatta seat in the landslide defeat of the SLFP.  But by this time, according to Kusal,  Rajapaksa  had    cultivated  ‘for himself , a social space among influential personalities in Colombo as  an outgoing , young, friendly figure”. Till 1989, Rajapaksa was an obscure politician in the south, engaging in his law practice, said Kusal.

In 1983 Rajapaksa married the very pretty Shiranthi Wickremasinghe. She has been Miss Sri Lanka in 1973. Rajapaksa has been blessed with a happy marriage and a stable family life. When he took oaths as Prime Minister in 2004, the media commented on the demeanor of his three sons, who were very young at the time. The media said that they did not even know that Mahinda Rajapaksa had  three sons until the sons made an appearance at the father’s swearing in. At Rajapaksa first swearing in as President,  his wife and sons stood quietly as he signed and promptly returned to their seats as instructed.

In 1989, Rajapaksa was elected to Parliament to represent Hambantota District.  He started to develop contacts in Colombo. In the early 1990s Rajapaksa was making late night stopovers at different places In Colombo to meet different persons not necessarily directly involved in politics, said Kusal. At Sravasthi Rajapaksa met both government and opposition politicians. He mixed with politicians ‘of difference hues.’ He had a good rapport with the Communist Party politicians but not with the LSSP, said Kusal. He  also  met loyal SLFP business men.    

1991 and 1992 were important and successful years for Mahinda Rajapaksa as an Opposition MP, said Kusal Perera. They were the years that established Mahinda as a national political leader, within anti-UNP politics. He was sought after by numerous groups and trade unions to campaign against the Premadasa government. In the process, Rajapaksa was dragged into issues he was not familiar with but was compelled to take on, such as privatization of public enterprises, cost of living, inflation.  This would have been a  valuable learning experience for him.

He was not a very articulate speaker In Parliament, but  he was  a very provocative anti –Premadasa presence in the Opposition, said Kusal.  He obtained information from varied sources. Editor of Desathiya  ‘dropped in’ to give Mahinda some information for his speech in parliament on the    budget debate of 1992. He had very good rapport with journalists, and they gave good coverage to his outbursts in Parliament.

In 1992 Rajapaksa launched a very successful ‘Pada Yatra’ from Colombo to Kataragama. At Kataragama people had come the previous night and had camped along the route. A Saaravita betel seller who travelled the whole length of the Pada yathra from day one, gave Rs 200 for the Pada Yathra and went away saying he would pray for Mahinda mahattaya.

The ‘Kurahan satakaya’ which his uncle, D.M. Rajapaksa had introduced into politics,   was first worn by Mahinda  Rajapaksa at the Pada Yathra. ‘Kurahan satakaya’ was an earthy brown shawl  worn by Rajapaksa’s uncle D. M. Rajapaksa, State Councilor for Hambantota in the 1930s, to represent  the kurakkan cultivated by the people of his area.

This Pada Yathra energized the SLFP and the anti UNP voter.  it  transformed  Rajapaksa from a provincial leader to a national leader. Mahinda after Pada Yathra was a crowd puller in high demand at election rallies in all provinces.’ Rajapaksa followed up the  Pada Yathra with a successful Jana Gosha at Lipton square in Colombo.

The 1990s was period of conflict in the SLFP. The disagreements between Sirimavo, Chandrika and Anura helped Mahinda Rajapaksa. It ‘gave  him a leap within the party as one who strived to keep the party together ‘The southern SLFP voter looked towards Mahinda in the absence of leadership from  the Bandaranaikes.

By 1994 Rajapaksa had ‘his presence felt very much in the south’ and was certain of returning to Parliament as a formidable cabinet minister if the SLFP won. The SLFP won  and in 1994 Rajapaksa was appointed Minister of Labor. Rajapaksa proved ‘a very charming negotiator in handling labor disputes’ and a popular labor minister both among the trade unionists and the employers.’ He initiated a National Workers Charter.  He had EPF under him. He was also picking up ideas that could make him a popular minister among the public, added Kusal.

In 1997, following a cabinet reshuffle, his portfolio was changed to Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. He immediately set about using the Fisheries portfolio for his populist politics, said Kusal. He refused the position of General Secretary of SLFP saying it would make him a peon delivering statements of Chandrika. He focused instead on the Maha sangha. He was ‘working stealthily toward winning over the leading Buddhist monks,’ said Kusal.

In 2000, President Kumaratunga mooted a new Constitution, greatly influenced by Neelan Thiruchelvam, and promoting power sharing and devolution. It raised much concern among the Sinhalese.  The Maha sangha were getting ready to object to the draft.  According to Kusal, Rajapaksa led the opposition to this draft constitution. The draft was withdrawn and Rajapaksa‘s stature grew. ‘Within the Sinhala Buddhist psyche in the SLFP, both within and without the Parliament, Rajapaksa  was looked for as their leader” said Kusal.

 In 2001, Rajapaksa became Leader of the Opposition.  But he was not much in the spotlight, said Kusal. He was cultivating an image as a moderate Sinhala leader. SLFP was at the time in disarray under Chandrika. Mahinda played a very calculated game, neither supporting nor disturbing, said Kusal.  Mahinda stayed firmly with the SLFP. 

By 2004 the ‘Sinhala factor’ had got a new southern twist. Sinhala leadership should come from the south. The Sinhala business and trader community of the south  wanted this. This helped Rajapaksa stake a claim for the Prime Minister ship, said Kusal. After the Parliamentary Elections of 2004 Rajapaksa was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 13th Prime Minister.

He was President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015.  He definitely made a lasting contribution to the country.  He ended the Eelam war, initiated and completed many major infrastructure projects. Rajapaksa was defeated in the  premature  Presidential elections called by Rajapaksa in 2015. The western powers which  were responsible for this defeat were relieved, they thought that was the end of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers.

Then something unexpected happened. The public wanted Rajapaksa back.   Rajapaksa ‘s popularity grew  by leaps and bounds after his defeat, totally eclipsing the  position of Sirisena, Chandrika or Ranil. His admirers were  no longer  confined to the rural south. The urban elites also  recognized  his contribution.  A new political party,  created around  Mahinda Rajapaksa came into being in 2018, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna,  also known as  Pohottuwa.  Rajapaksa now had his very own political party.

The attitude towards Rajapaksa is ambivalent. He gets many  left handed compliments. D.B. Wijetunge did not create a heroic role around himself  with celebration and public speeches. when he  cleared the east, said Kusal Perera. Sri Lanka would have become another Iraq or Libya since MR had antagonized US, UK and EU said  S.B.Dissanayake. SB conceded that  Rajapaksa  was a great leader. ‘He ended terrorism and developed the economy between 2005 and 2010,  then went berserk.’

It must be admitted that there was  the usual political influence during Rajapaksa rule. I was told of certain appointments to a bank, (I think it was Bank of Ceylon),  where a set of new recruits had been interviewed and selected. Then a young member of the Rajapaksa family, ( name withheld) had turned up, ordered that the full  list be discarded and  his nominees be appointed.   On a visit to Anuradhapura ,  the young taxi driver who took us around said that he had been selected after interview for a particular position, They heard nothing thereafter, and on making inquires found that the project had already started  with a new set of appointees. ‘I  voted for Hansaya’ he said.

There are too many buildings carrying his name, said critics.  There is the  Mahinda Rajapaksa Port  at Magampura ,  Rajapaksa International Airport, Mattala  and the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium. This is sneered at as egoistical and low. But Sri Lanka also has Senanayake Samudra ( DS Senanayake) Bandaranaike international airport, Katunayake, ( SWRD) Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall ( Sirimavo). The profusion of ‘Mahinda Rajapaksa ‘ buildings is because  he completed more major  projects, in a very short time,  than all the other heads of state put together.

Rajapaksa’s success as a  statesman has not been  studied   academically,  ( it is too soon for this, anyway)  largely because in  elite circles he is seen as  a country bumpkin, an ignorant fellow, a  corrupt rogue,  incapable of delivering anything effectively, much less run a country. On the other hand,  the real corrupt rogues, suave, elite, westernized,  as well as politicians who for years have acted as agents of western countries, are  lovingly presented as  cultured, honest, statesmen who should be admired.

Here are some of  the qualities that made Rajapaksa  successful. Rajapaksa had the ability to   handpick suitable people. He brought  in Palitha Kohona, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, 2006 to 2009. Kohona, who had a  doctorate  from University of Cambridge,  was  at the time Chief of the United Nations Treaty Section in New York. Earlier Kohona had worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia.  Kohona therefore had academic standing and international exposure. When interviewed   via satellite, Kohona once told BBC interviewer Stephen Sackur not to interrupt him till he, Kohona, finished  answering Sackur’s question. Sackur shut up.

Rajapaksa also  received much support from within his own family. His brothers, Chamal, Gotabhaya and Basil also participated in  government . They were members of Parliament, not by appointment but through popular elections. They made positive contributions. This is something very rare and should be recognized as such. It may be a world record.

Basil was considered a fine organizer, who improved Gampaha. Chamal was   a good Speaker of Parliament  ,and Gotabhaya is much admired for his military and civilian work. All the new foreign investments established in Colombo were Gotabhaya’s achievements, said Rohana Wasala. Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct in Colombo is a flourishing modern shopping centre today.” People ran to Gotabhaya whenever they  had a problem. One example was the  ancient boat  found at Godawaya.  it  was going  on yet  another journey. This time to a western country.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was interviewed by the New Indian Express in 2018. Tell me about your two brothers ,Mahinda and Basil, who served as advisor to Mahinda when he was President. How often do you talk to each other? What is the secret behind this relatively tussle-free relationship in power, the interviewer asked. We always work as a team replied Gotabhaya. We think about the country. During the war,we used to interact more often. This unity comes from our earlier days, what our father  taught us.

Rajapaksa interviewed by Island was also asked the same question. What is the role of  your two brothers Gotabhaya and Basil in your political and personal life. Rajapaksa replied “Ours has always been a very united family. Gotabhaya and Basil came from overseas to help me in my presidential election campaign in 2005 and on my request, they both stayed back to help me administer the country. I did not get them involved in my government simply because they were my brothers, but because they had abilities that the country could use. I think they both proved themselves in the tasks they undertook. Both have made their mark. We have never had any falling out among ourselves.  After I lost power in January 2015, both have faced persecution by this government.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, it appears, actually knows what is going on.  Nahil Wijesooriya said in interview, Interestingly, one day I met President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had come to the Inter Continental hotel for a wedding or conference and was coming out of the lift. He said I heard you are trying to sell the hotel, don’t do it, in another three months the price will go through the roof.” I took his advice – the war was over – and I made a packet. best Investment advice I have ever received! Puts my stock and bank advisers in the shade!”

Rajapaksa ‘s public relations is excellent. We last saw this at his son, Rohitha’s wedding. The wedding ceremony, which was attended by everybody who is somebody in Sri Lanka and the people of the area, had an estimated guest count of well over 5,000 — easily the largest in the past many decades, reported the media.  Rajapaksa had  invited a member of every household from the village. An emissary of his went from house to house to invite them. There was  also a separate enclosure for the drivers bringing in the guests.  The buffet tables for them had  the same  food as in the main hall. (Concluded)

Sugath Samrasinghe             

Pray why? May I ask? What wrong has Gotabhaya done to the TNA and the Tamil people?

It was the  LTTE that terrorized the Tamil people into submission for 30 years ironically claiming to fight for a Tamil cause. Most able and rich Tamils left the country and sought refuge in Western countries. Many others escaped to Colombo and other areas in the South. The LTTE then cleansed the Northern Province of the Sinhalese and the Muslims. They brought untold suffering to the Muslims and Sinhalese in the Eastern Province. It is said that more Tamils died at the hands of the LTTE than in the confrontations with the three Forces put together.

And what did Gothabhaya do?   He finished this 30 years old war with the LTTE. He thereby prevented Tamil children being snatched away from their parents and thrown into the jungles as cannon fodder, with a cyanide capsule hanging from their necks. The Tamil children are now happily back in schools; their parents no doubt are relived. Young Tamil women returned home from their jungle hideouts, to be married and running their homes.

On conclusion of the war, Gota had 285,000 Tamil civilians rescued from the clutches of the LTTE and had them accommodated in the IDP camps, had them sheltered, clothed, fed, treated for illnesses and; thereafter moved in due course to their homes. All this was done without an iota of assistance from the TNA or other Tamil political parties, other than alleging that security forces had killed civilians.

In addition, Gota had picked up 12000 ex LTTE combatants, had them rehabilitated and released to society. He had the Northern area de-mined, removing the land mines laid by the LTTE, and rendered those areas safe and habitable for civilians          

Gota has retrieved TNA’s self-respect from humiliation, being forced to acknowledge that LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamils and being told that TNA was the mouthpiece of the LTTE. They are now in a bargaining position with the present government on their own right. Is this not due to the effort of defeating the LTTE?

The defeat of the LTTE triggered off the return of train service to Jaffna beyond Vavuniya, electricity and telecommunications restored. In short, normal life denied to the Northern and Eastern Provinces now resumed throbbing with activity despite whatever other shortcomings. Political freedom was restored by holding Provincial Council elections. It is not easy to put back what was lost for 30 years; and TNA has not helped speeding this up other than raising some parochial political issues.

That government next embarked on the re-development tasks of the two Provinces when they were defeated at elections.  The situation does not seem to have improved significantly since then. Thus, the Tamil people and the TNA have evidently gained much from Gotabaya’s efforts, though they may not acknowledge it for whatever reasons.

Sritharan MP is said to have told the journalists that Gota had killed thousands of Tamil civilians. Then how come he saved over 285,000 civilians from the battle front? Incidentally, what were those people doing on the battle front? Who brought them there and why?

Besides, in 1988-90 we had the 2^nd JVP armed insurrection in the Southern parts of this country. The then UNP government put it down ruthlessly killing thousands including the top notches of the JVP. But no body claimed that the government had killed the Sinhala youth? It appeared that almost everybody in Sinhala society that those who sought to fight the government with arms had to be put down using force. In such circumtances, why is the TNA saying that Gothabhaya killed Tamil civilians? What about the Sinhala villagers slaughtered by the LTTE in the Dollar Farm and Kent Farm, a busload of Buddhist monks at Aranthalawa and villaggers of Kebithigollewa etc. who had nothing to do with the war over which even the UNHRC appear to be unconcerned?               

A census carried out by the government shortly after the war, through Tamil government officials had revealed that some 7000 odd people had died during the period under review and that included those who died of natural causes too. The figures given by the UN officials embedded in the war zone during this time too is reported to have come up with a similar number of deaths. Then the confidential reports sent by Lt. Col. Anton Gash then attached to the British High Commission had also come up with a similar figure, with a further rider that a good portion of these deaths were of LTTE combatants and that many LTTE cadres in the last stages were in civilian clothes. He is also reported to have remarked that if the Forces were not concerned for civilian deaths the final stages could have been finished much earlier. There is also photographic evidence that many Tamil civilians were killed by LTTE in their desperation to prevent them from crossing over to the government forces for protection, during the last days of the war               

There is also independent evidence that food and drugs were constantly supplied to civilians in the battle zone regularly under the supervision of and monitored by a panel of observers including the US Ambassador, Robert Blake. There is also pictorial evidence showing how the soldiers, both men and women helped Tamil civilians to cross over to government side safety. We saw some soldiers carrying both disabled and old women physically to safety. Where else have we ever seen this kind of thing in battle fronts?    

Besides all this, one would wonder how the forces were able to defeat LTTE in battle, by killing civilians as alleged!? Then they will still be left with the LTTE combatants to deal with? Also then who killed those 28000 odd soldiers and maimed so many others in the last battles?

If Gota could achieve all this successfully, couldn’t one surmise that he is a capable person who might be able to rescue this country from its present state of disaster?  We know that this country during the last 70 odd years has been struggling to find their way, fumbling and groping in the dark, not knowing in which direction to move forward. This man says that he is not a politician but says he is willing to try his hand at it. He does not seem to have much political baggage to shed unlike the predecessors whom we have had before and have now. His track record seems satisfactory, at least better than some contenders in the field. Of course we live in a corrupt country. We know that it is difficult for anyone to turn it around in the short run. We also know that power is intoxicating. Subject to all those realities, he too may fail after moving some distance. But even now we are going round and round in the same place! So why not the TNA too give him a fair chance?

Of course, the worst case scenario is that, being human he too may fail.  If he does fail we could throw him as we did with Mahinda R!

Sugath Samrasinghe             

තරංග රත්නවීර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

කොළඹ වරාය මෙරට ප‍්‍රධානතම ආර්ථික මර්මස්ථානයකි. ආනයන, අපනයන භාණ්ඩ වෙළෙඳාම සහ භාණ්ඩ හුවමාරුව සිදු කෙරෙන මෙරට ප‍්‍රධාන නාවික තොටුපළය. එමෙන්ම ඉන්දියන් සාගරයේ සුවිශේෂී ස්ථානයක පිහිටා ඇති කොළඹ වරාය භාණ්ඩ ප‍්‍රති අපනයනය කිරීම සඳහා ලෝකයේ විවිධ රටවල් බහුලව භාවිත කරනු ලැබේ. එහෙයින් කොළඹ වරාය අතිශය කර්යබහුල ස්ථානයකි. විවිධ අවශ්‍යතා සඳහා දිනකට පුද්ගලයන් තිස්පන්දහසකට වැඩි පිරිසක් පැමිණෙන බවත් දෛනිකව වාහන දසදහසකට වැඩි ප‍්‍රමාණයක් පැමිණෙන බවත් වාර්තා වේ.

රටක මෙවැනි ආර්ථික මර්මස්ථානයක් ආරක්‍ෂා කරගැනීම අතිශය වගකීම් සහගත කර්යභාරයකි. විශේෂයෙන්ම පැවති ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී යුද සමයේ එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. යේ ප‍්‍රධාන ඉලක්කයන් අතර කොළඹ වරාය ඉදිරියෙන් තිබිණි. සැහැල්ලූ ගුවන් යානාවලින් (කුරුම්බැට්ටි මැෂින්* සහ මුහුදෙන් මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝට්ටුවලින් පැමිණි කොටි ත‍්‍රස්තවාදීන් කොළඹ වරායට පහරදීමට උත්සාහ කළ අවස්ථා රැුසකි. එහෙත් ඒ සියලූ ත‍්‍රස්ත ප‍්‍රයත්නයන් දුර්දර්ශී යුද සෙන්පතියන් හමුවේ ව්‍යර්ථ විය. පැවති යුද ගිනියමේ කොළඹ වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව සුරක්‍ෂිතව පවත්වාගෙන ගිය ආකාරය ගැන එවකට හිටපු බටහිර නාවික ප‍්‍රදේශය භාර ආඥාපති රියර් අද්මිරාල් ආනන්ද පීරිස් අපට කීවේය. 

ඔහු හිටපු නාවික ප‍්‍රදේශයන් භාර ආඥාපතිවරයෙක් මෙන්ම සිවිල් ආරක්‍ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ හිටපු අධ්‍යක්‍ෂවරයෙකි. ත‍්‍රස්තවාදී යුද්ධයෙන් රට මුදාගැනීමට දිවි හිමියෙන් කැප වී සේවය කළ රණවිරුවෙකි. යුද ගිනි නිවී ගිය රටේ පන්සල් හාරසීයක් නැවත පිළිසකර කිරීමට මෙන්ම අලූතින් ගොඩනැඟීමට නායකත්වය ලබාදුන් පින්සාර නිලධාරියෙකි. දැන් විශ‍්‍රාම සුවයෙන් සැඳෑ සමය ගත කරන ආනන්ද පීරිස් මහතා අතිශය වගකීම් සහගතව සිදු කළ මේ හෙළිදරව්ව අපගේ වචනයෙන් කියනවාට වඩා ඔහුගේම වචනවලින් ඇසීම ඔබට වඩාත් සංවේදීවනු ඇත. මෙතැන් සිට පෙළගැසෙන්නේ හිටපු බටහිර නාවික ප‍්‍රදේශය භාර ආඥාපති ආනන්ද පිරීස් කියන ඒ කතාවය. 

‘‘2006 අවුරුද්දට කලින් මම හිටියේ දකුණේ ප‍්‍රදේශ භාර නාවික ආඥාපති විදිහට. අවසාන සටන පටන් ගන්න ඔන්න, මෙන්න තියලා එවකට හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයාගෙන් මාව කොළඹට ඉල්ලලා තිබුණා. ඒ අවසරයෙන් 2006 අවුරුද්දේ බටහිර ප‍්‍රදේශය භාර නාවික ආඥාපතිවරයා විදිහට මම පත්වෙලා ආවා…’’

‘‘දකුණේ වගේ නෙමෙයි, බටහිර නාවික ප‍්‍රදේශය භාරව කටයුතු කිරීම වගකීම වැඩියි. විශේෂයෙන්ම කොළඹ වරාය. රටේ ප‍්‍රධාන ආර්ථික මර්මස්ථානය. වරායට එන නෞකාවකට පහර දුන්නොත් සේරම ඉවරයි… නැව් එන්නෙ නැතිව මුළු ආර්ථිකයම කඩා වැටෙනවා. යුද්ධය නිකංම නතර වෙනවා. එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ ය යුද්ධය දිනුවා වගේ වෙනවා. ඔය කාලේ එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සංවිධානයත් පුහුණුකිරීම්, අභ්‍යාස කටයුතු වැඩි කරලා, ඉන්ධන, කෑම වර්ග එකතු කිරීම බහුලව සිදු කරන ගමන් රට පුරා යොදවා තිබුණු ඔත්තුකරුවන් ප‍්‍රමාණයත් වැඩි කරගෙන යන බව බුද්ධි තොරතුරුවලින් අනාවරණය වෙලා තිබුණා. දුර්දර්ශීව වැඩ කරපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්තුමා කොළඹ නගරය සහ වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව වැඩි කරන්න කියලා එවකට හිටපු හමුදාපතිවරුන්ට උපදෙස් දීලා තිබුණා…’’

‘‘ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයාගේ උපදෙස් පිට කොළඹ නගරය සහ වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව සඳහා කළුතර, මතුගම, හොරණ, අවිස්සාවේල්ල, කෑගල්ල, කුරුණෑගල, හලාවත දක්වා සමස්ත ප‍්‍රදේශයම ආවරණය වන පරිදි විශේෂ ආරක්‍ෂක වැඩපිළිවෙළක් දියත් කළා. සෑම සතියකම සඳුදා බස්නාහිර පළාතේ ආරක්‍ෂක අංශ භාර අණදෙන නිලධාරිවරු සහ පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරුන් සමඟ ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයා විශේෂ සාකච්ඡුාවක් පැවැත්වුවා. සමහර රැුස්වීම් උදේ 9.00 ට ආරම්භ කරලා සවස හතර, පහ වෙනකම් පැවැත්වෙච්ච අවස්ථා තිබුණා. ඒ හැරුණුකොට සෑම මාසයකම ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා හමුදාපතිවරුන්ගෙන් තොරව පළාත් භාර හමුදා නායකයන් සමඟ ප‍්‍රදේශයේ ආරක්‍ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡුා කළා. පසුව ආරක්‍ෂක කමිටුව රැුස් කරලා එම 

රැුස්වීමේදී ඉදිරිපත් වෙච්ච ගැටලූ සාකච්ඡුා කරලා විසඳුම් ලබාදුන්නා. ඒ වගේම සමහර අවස්ථාවල ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයා කෙළින්ම මට කතා කරලා වරාය ආරක්‍ෂක කටයුතු ගැන සාකච්ඡුා කළා. ආරක්‍ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පිරිස් බලය, අවි ආයුධ ඉල්ලන පමණින් දුන්නා. ඒත් කොළඹ වරායට ආරක්‍ෂාව ලබාදීම අතිශය අසීරු කටයුත්තක් වුණා. මුහුද, ගොඩබිම, ගුවන තුන් තැනම දවසේ පැය විසිහතර පුරාම සෝදිසි කරන්න වුණා…’’

‘‘වරායට නෞකා ඇතුළු වන දොරටු දෙකයි. වරායට ගොඩබිමින් වාහන ඇතුළුවන දොරටු නවයක් තියෙනවා. අන්තිම දොරටුව තියෙන්නෙ මට්ටක්කුලියේ. කොළඹ කොටුව, පිටකොටුව, කොටහේන, මට්ටක්කුලිය සහ මෝදර ප‍්‍රදේශවලට දිවෙන ප‍්‍රධාන මාර්ග වගේම අතුරු මාර්ග රැසක් තියෙනවා. කොළඹ නගරයට එකතු වන වැසි ජලය පිට කරන්න විවිධ ප‍්‍රමාණයේ උමං මාර්ග දහනවයක් තියෙනවා. සමහරක් උමං මාර්ග කෙනෙකුට හිටගෙන ඇවිදගෙන යන්න පුළුවන් තරම් විශාලයි. ඒ වගේම දිනපතා විශාල නෞකා ප‍්‍රමාණයක් කොළඹ වරායට ඇතුළු වෙනවා. කොළඹ වරාය අවට මුහුදේ විශාල බෝට්ටු ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ධීවර කර්මාන්තයේ යෙදෙනවා. වරාය ආසන්නයේ මෝදර ධීවර වරායට දේශීය මෙන්ම විදේශීය ධීවර යාත‍්‍රා විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් එනවා. කැලණි ගෙඟ් මෝයකට පිහිටලා තියෙන්නෙත් කොළඹ වරාය ආසන්නයේ. මේ හේතු නිසා කොළඹ වරායට ආරක්‍ෂාව සැලසීම සංකීර්ණ කටයුත්තක් වුණා. එතකොට වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාවට හිටියේ දාහක්් වගේ පිරිසක්. ප‍්‍රථමයෙන් මම පිරිස් බලය වැඩි කළා. දෙවනුව වරායට ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීමට ඇති ප‍්‍රධාන ඉලක්ක හඳුනාගෙන ඒවා වසා දැම්මා…’’

‘‘මරාගෙන මැරෙන යාත‍්‍රා, ප‍්‍රහාරක යාත‍්‍රා, වෙළෙඳ නෞකා ලෙස පැමිණ ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීම, වරායට එන තෙල්, ගෑස් හෝ වෙනත් අන්තරායකර ද්‍රව්‍ය රැගෙන එන යාත‍්‍රා පැහැරගෙන යෑම, සැහැල්ලූ ගුවන් යානාවලින් පැමිණ බෝම්බ හෙලීම, ගොඩබිම මාර්ග ඔස්සේ පැමිණ ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීමට ඇති සියලූ තැන් හඳුනාගෙන ආවරණය කළා. වරාය අවට ආරක්‍ෂිත කලාපය කොටස් හයකට බෙදලා ආරක්‍ෂිත රැකවල් දැඩි කළා. වරායට නෞකා ඇතුළු කරන දොරටු දෙකෙන් උතුරු දොරටුව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වසා දැමුවා. ඒ විතරක් නෙමෙයි ඒ දොරටුවේ ආරක්‍ෂාවට දවසේ පැය විසිහතර පුරාම නාවික යාත‍්‍රා කිහිපයක් යෙදෙව්වා. වරාය ආසන්නයේ මුහුද ආරක්‍ෂිත කලාපයක් කරලා ඩෝරා යාත‍්‍රා ඇතුළු ප‍්‍රහාරක යාත‍්‍රා ගණනාවක් යෙදෙව්වා. එම අධි ආරක්‍ෂිත කලාපයේ ධීවර කර්මාන්තයේ යෙදීම සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම තහනම් කළා. එම මුහුදු සීමාවේ ධීවර කටයුතුවල යෙදුණු ධීවර පවුල්වලට සෑම මාසයකම වියළි සලාකයක් ලබා දුන්නා. මෝදර වරායට එන යන සියලූ ධීවර බෝට්ටු පරීක්‍ෂා කළා. පානදුරේ සිට මීගමුව දක්වා මුහුදේ ධීවර කර්මාන්තයේ යෙදෙන සියලූ යාත‍්‍රා නාවික හමුදා මුරපොළකට වාර්තා කරලා පරීක්‍ෂා කළාට පස්සෙ තමයි, කර්මාන්තයේ යෙදෙන්න පුළුවන්. නැවත ගොඩබිමට යනකොටත් නවික හමුදා මුරපොළකට වාර්තා කරලා පරීක්‍ෂා කළාට පස්සේ තමයි පිටත් වෙන්න අවසර දුන්නේ. කැලණි ගෙඟ් වතුර බහින මෝයකට ළඟට මුරපොළක් දැම්මා. පානදුරේ මෝයකට ළඟ මුරපොළක් දැම්මා. බේරේ වැවේ වතුර මුහුදට එකතු වෙන තැනට මුරපොළක් දැම්මා. කොළඹ වැසි ජලය බහින සියලූ උමං මාර්ගවල කටවල් කම්බි දැලකින් ආවරණය කරලා උමඟ පේන විදිහට ලොකු ෆ්ලෑෂර් ලයිට් දාලා ?, දවල් දෙකේම ආරක්‍ෂාවට ඒ ස්ථානවල නිලධාරියෙක් තිබ්බා…’’

‘‘වරාය තුළ අනුඛණ්ඩ හයක් පිිහිටුවා ස්ථිර ලෙස භට පිරිස් ස්ථානගත කළා. යුද හමුදා අනුඛණ්ඩයක් වරාය තුළ ආරම්භ කළා. ගුවන් හමුදා භට පිරිස් වරාය තුළ ආරක්‍ෂක රාජකාරිවලට යොදාගත්තා. වරාය වටා ගුවන් නාශක අවි සීයක් විතර ස්ථානගත කළා. යුද හමුදාවට අයත් බර අවි කිහිපයක්ම වරාය වටා ස්ථානගත කළා. පානදුරේ ඉඳලා මීගමුව දක්වා නාවික අනුඛණ්ඩ අටක් ස්ථාපිත කළා. උස්වැටකෙයියාව ප‍්‍රදේශයේ නාවික කඳවුරක් ආරම්භ කළා. ගුවන් යානා පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීම සඳහා විශේෂිත රේඩාර් සවි කළා. වරායට ගොඩබිමින් ඇතුළු වන දොරටු නවයෙන් තුනක් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වහලා දැම්මා. දිවා, 

? වරාය වටා මීටර් සීයෙන්, සීය නාවික භටයන් ස්ථානගත කළා. මුහුදෙන් එන යාත‍්‍රා නිරීක්‍ෂණය කිරීමට පානදුරේ සිට මීගමුව දක්වා ගොඩබිම සහ මුහුදේ නාවික යාත‍්‍රා තුළ අධි තාක්‍ෂණික රේඩාර් යන්ත‍්‍ර විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයක් සවි කළා. දිය යටින් පැමිණෙන කිමිදුම්කරුවන් නිරීක්‍ෂණයට සෝනාර් යන්ත‍්‍ර මෙන්ම ඔවුන් විනාශ කරන බෝම්බ සහිත නාවික යාත‍්‍රා ස්ථානගත කළා…’’

‘‘වරායට පැමිණෙන සහ පිට වන නෞකා ආරක්‍ෂිතව රැුගෙන යෑමට නියමුවන්ගේ සහායකයන් ලෙස නාවික හමුදා භටයින් යොමු කළා. ඉන්දියාවේ තූත්තුකුඩි වරායේ ඉඳලා කොළඹ වරායට එන පාරම්පරික රුවල් වෙළෙඳ නැව් පැය විසිහතරක් තබාගෙන විශේෂ පරීක්‍ෂාවකට ලක් කළා. වරාය අවට නැංගුරම්ලා සිටින නෞකාවලට ආරක්‍ෂාව වැඩි කළා. වරායට පැමිණෙන ගෑස්, තෙල් ගොඩබෑම සිදු කළේ දිවා කාලයේ විතරයි. ඒ කටයුත්ත සිදු කළෙත් අධි ආරක්‍ෂිත රැුකවල් යටතේ. ධීවරයන් විදිහට වෙස් වලාගත් නාවික භටයින් ධීවර කර්මාන්තයේ යෙදෙන මුවාවෙන් පානදුරේ සිට මීගමුවට යන තෙක් වරාය අවට මුහුදේ සෝදිසි කටයුතු සිදු කළා. සිවිල් පුද්ගලයන් මෙන් වරාය තුළ වගේම අවට ප‍්‍රදේශවල බුද්ධි අංශ නිලධාරීන් යෙදෙව්වා. අවශ්‍ය රාජකාරිවලට අවසර ලත් වාහන විතරයි, වරායට ඇතුළු කළේ. සෙසු සියලූ වාහන හරවලා යැව්වා. අවසර නොගෙන පැමිණි ප‍්‍රභූ වාහනත් හරවලා යැව්වා. එක් අවස්ථාවක අවසරයෙන් තොරව චන්ද්‍රිකා මැතිනිය ඇවිත් අංක එක දොරටුවේ ආරක්‍ෂාවට හිටිය නිලධාරීන් වාහනය ඇතුළු කරලා තිබුණේ නෑ. පස්සෙ ඒ සිද්ධිය ලොකු කතාන්දරයක් වුණා. ඒත් ඒ සිද්ධියට මුහුණ දුන් නාවික භටයව මම බේරගත්තා…’’

‘‘කොටුව, මෝදර දක්වා පාමුර සංචාර අඛණ්ඩව ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කළා. එම ප‍්‍රදේශවල සෝදිසි කටයුතුවලට යතුරුපැදි මුර සංචාරයක් ආරම්භ කළා. ඊට අමතරව ත‍්‍රිරෝදකරුවන් මුවාවෙන් නාවික භටයන් සෝදිසි මෙහෙයුම්වල යෙදෙව්වා. හැමදාම ?ට වරාය අවට කොළඹ නගරයේ සියලූම ලොජ් සෝදිසි කළා. හඳුනාගත් සැකකටයුතු පුද්ගලයන් ප‍්‍රශ්න කරලා ඔවුන්ගේ ගම්වලට පිටත් කර හැරියා…’’

‘‘වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැන සොයාබැලීමට පෙර දැනුම්දීමකින් තොරව සතියට දින දෙකක් නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයා වරාය වටා රාත‍්‍රි සංචාරයක නිරත වුණා. මම හැමදාම රාත‍්‍රියට හිටි හැටියේ වරාය තුළ මෙන්ම අවට සංචාරය කළා. ගෙදර ඉඳලා ඒ රාජකාරිය කරන්න බැරි නිසා බටහිර ප‍්‍රදේශය භාර නාවික ආඥාපති විදිහට වැඩ භාරගත්ත දවසේ ඉඳලා මම ගෙදර ගියේ නෑ. අන්තිමේ මගේ බිරිඳයි, දරුවො තුන්දෙනාවයි මගේ නිල කාමරයේම නතර කර ගත්තා. පුංචි කාමරයක ලොකු පුතාලා තුන්දෙනෙක් එක්ක ජීවත් වෙන්න අසීරු වුණා. පස්දෙනෙකුට නිදාගන්නවත් කාමරය ඉඩ මදි. ඒත් වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව ගැන හිතලා ඒ කැපකිරීම අපි කළා. හැමදාම උදේ නවයට සියලූ අණදෙන නිලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කිරීමක් කළා. වරාය ආරක්‍ෂක නිලධාරීන්, පොලිසිය සහ වරාය සේවකයින් සමඟ සතියකට දෙවරක් පුහුණු වැඩමුළු පැවැත්වුවා. ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්තුමාගේ, නාවික හමුදාපතිවරයාගේ දැනුවත්වීම මත සැකකටයුතු යාත‍්‍රාවක්, ගුවන් යානයක් දුටු සැණින් ප‍්‍රහාරදීමට ආරක්‍ෂක නිලධාරීන්ට උපදෙස් දීලා තිබුණා…’’ 

‘‘අවට ප‍්‍රදේශවාසීන් දැනුවත් කරලා ඔවුන්ගේ උපරිම සහයෝගය මත හැකි උපරිමයෙන් වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව තර කර තියෙද්දීත් එක දවසක් ?ක වරාය පැත්තට කුරුම්බැට්ටි මැෂිමක් එනවා රේඩාර්වලට වැදිලා තිබුණා. මමත් රේඩාර්වලින් දැක්කා. මීගමුව පැත්තෙන් එනකොටම ප‍්‍රහාර දෙන්න කියලා මම නියෝග කළා. මල් වෙඩි වරුෂාවක් වගේ වෙඩි උණ්ට අහසට විදිනකොට වත්තලට මඳක් එපිටින් යානය හැරිලා ගෙනාව බෝම්බ තැන, තැන හලාගෙන ගිහින් තිබුණා. එදා කොටි ඇවිත් තියෙන්නෙ වරායට ගහන්නම තමයි. ඊට පස්සෙ 2007 ජනවාරි 28 වැනිදා මරාගෙන මැරෙන කොටි යාත‍්‍රා හතරකින් වරායට ප‍්‍රහාර දෙන්න ආවා. පාන්දර හතරට විතර දෙහිවල පැත්තෙන් එනකොටම කොල්ලූපිටියේ මුහුද අයිනේ උස කුළුණේ හිටපු නාවික භටයෙක් යාත‍්‍රා හතර දැකලා තියෙනවා. ඒ මොහොතේම නාවික භටයා ප‍්‍රහාර දීලා. ඊට පස්සෙ අනිත් සියලූ මුරපොළවලින් ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කරලා. මුහුදේ තිබුණු ඩෝරා යාත‍්‍රාවලිනුත් 

ගැහුවා. ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහත්තයා සිද්ධිය බලාගෙන ඉඳලා මට කතා කරලා ‘ආනන්ද මොකද තත්ත්වය…’ කියලා ඇහුවා…’’

‘බොහෝ දුරට තත්ත්ව පාලනය වෙලා ඉවරයි…‘ කියලා මම කියනකොට ගෝඨාභය සර් කියනවා ආනන්ද පරිස්සමින් ගොඩබිමින් ඇටෑක් එන්න පුළුවන්…’ කියලා. ඒ කියනකොටත් මම අවශ්‍ය සියලූ තැන්වල ආරක්‍ෂාව තර කරලා ඉවරයි. පැය දෙකක් විතර ප‍්‍රහාරදීම සිද්ධ වුණා. අන්තිමේ එක යාත‍්‍රාවක් ගිහින් නැවක හප්පලා පොඩි හානියක් කළා. අනිත් යාත‍්‍රා තුනෙන් දෙකක් අපි ගහනකොට විනාශ වෙලා තිබුණා. එකක් උන්ම විනාශ කරගෙන තිබුණා…’’

‘‘පැය දෙකක් විතර මෙහෙයුම ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වුණා. හතට විතර මම ඇවිත් මහන්සියට ඇලවුණා. ඒ කාලය තුළ ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්තුමා කොටි යාත‍්‍රාව මුලින්ම දැකපු නාවික භටය හමුවෙලා පෞද්ගලිකව ස්තූති කරලා තිබුණා. ඒ දිරිගැන්වීම තමයි අපිව ශක්තිමත් කළේ. යුද්ධය දිනන්න ප‍්‍රධාන හේතුවත් ඒකම තමයි…’‘ ආනන්ද පිරීස් දීර්ඝ කතාවකින් පසු අසුන මත හරිබැරි ගැසිණි. ඒ සමඟ යුද ගිනියමේ වරායේ ආරක්‍ෂාව සුරක්‍ෂිත කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුමේ කතාවේ ද අවසාන විය.

ආනන්ද පීරිස්ට තවත් අභියෝගයක් පැවරිණි. ඒ නැගෙනහිර ප‍්‍රදේශයන් භාර නාවික ආඥාපතිවරයා ලෙස වැඩ භාරගැනීමය. තවත් දිනක නැගෙනහිර මුහුදේ සිදු කළ වික‍්‍රමයන් 

ගැන කතා කිරීමේ අදහසින් අපි ඒ සොඳුරු කැදැල්ලෙන් සමුගත්තෙමු.

තරංග රත්නවීර

Nawagamu Deshabandu

Recently media reported that the government was considering to lower interest rates for business persons borrowing money from the banks. During this elections year, many politicians are talking about negatives of their political adversaries. But only few are brave enough to put forward a carefully written policies and plans to improve our economy.

What is needed is not only lowering interests for borrowing but also facilities for selling products on line for all Sri Lankans who intend to do business online.  Many Sri Lankans have talents and abilities to make all kind products, but they are very unfortunate in not being able to accept on line payments mainly due to our decades old financial mechanisms and procedures in the Central Bank. Because of this, very popular companies such as PayPal and Payoneer among others which facilitate International financial transactions cannot allow any Sri Lankan citizen transfer money person to person.

Besides this Individual entrepreneurs cannot afford to accept credit cards due to high cost charged by Sri Lankan banks when setting up an account which can accept credit card payments.

Our economy can be improved through tourism. Individual entrepreneurs offering services, such as small scale apartment or villa holders are unable to accept credit cards.

Many politicians and presidential hopefuls talk about big things such as making Colombo a Financial hub in the South East Asia, but it seems like no one has any solid plan to upgrade Central Bank financial mechanisms so that it will suit the standard international mechanism and procedures. Besides, the central bank has been inundated or implicit with corrupt deals, for example, bond scams and bankrupted financial deals such as ETI.

It is very essential that we have a strong financial mechanism to lift the economic and personal lives of all Sri Lankans through international business activities. Our politicians at present or in the past have failed to understand this. It can create many job opportunities for many people.  But, however many of our politicians have improved their skills on cheating and fooling us with mega talks and stealing money for themselves by under hand black money deals. We are a country that goes back!

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE

While government whistleblowers and subversive journalists languish in prison or are on the run, state crimes — especially those perpetrated by western governments and high officials — not only go unpunished but don’t even warrant investigation apparently. International Criminal Court judges ruled on Friday to reject a request by the court’s prosecutor to investigate possible war crimes by the US-led coalition during the war in Afghanistan.

The ICC judge claimed a lack of evidence and a poor outlook for state cooperation — the latter reason essentially meaning the US and UK have already condemned the prospect of opening such an investigation.

The ICC had previously vowed to continue to operate “undeterred” by any US threat of punitive action against the ICC when it first considered examining allegations that US personnel committed war crimes, including instances of unlawful detention and torture of Afghans, as well as killing of civilians. The window of time ICC prosecutors considered for their investigation ran from May 2003, within the opening years of the US occupation, to 2017.

The chamber hereby decides that an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan at this stage would not serve the interests of justice and accordingly rejects the request,” the judges said in their decision, as cited by Reuters. But the obvious first question is: whose interests are being served here?

The ruling to reject inquiry into any misconduct by US or allied coalition personnel continued: Notwithstanding the fact all the relevant requirements are met as regards both jurisdiction and admissibility, the current circumstances of the situation in Afghanistan are such as to make the prospects for a successful investigation and prosecution extremely limited,” the judges stated.

Reuters cited an ICC court expert to note this essentially means the United States will never be investigated by these standards:

Kevin Jon Heller, associate professor of International Criminal law at Amsterdam University, said the decision appeared to impose significant hurdles on any case before the ICC in terms of the chances of a successful prosecution.

If these are the criteria they are never going to open an investigation”, he said.

Last month the US threatened to revoke visas for members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague should they so much as investigate any criminal actions of American military personnel. The United States has never been a member of the ICC and considers it without authority over matters related to Americans or allies conducting joint operations.

Direct US threats work wonders apparently… case closed:

The Hill✔@thehill

Sec. Mike Pompeo: “I’m announcing a policy of US visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of US personnel. This includes persons who take or have taken action to request or further such an investigation.” http://hill.cm/hUeep4w 367:01 PM – Mar 15, 201988 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a scathing rebuke on March 15 following initial ICC statements that the world court would look investigate US crimes in Afghanistan, and as pressure also mounted for the court to bring cases against Israel for human rights crimes against Palestinians. We are determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation,” Pompeo said at the time.

Pompeo also went to far as to specifically address ICC members and employees: If you are responsible for the proposed ICC investigation of U.S. personnel in connection with the situation in Afghanistan, you should not assume that you still have or will get a visa or will be permitted to enter the United States,” he said during the March statements.

He also warned about potential economic sanctions against member and host nations “if the ICC does not change its course.”

But Friday’s bombshell decision to close the door on any ICC case brought against western coalition forces in Afghanistan was perhaps to be expected, as the pattern has long been of only third world, African, and Balkan warlords actually being brought to justice at the Hague, and never western officials.