By Kalinga Seneviratne 

SYDNEY (IDN) – After a White Australian of Christian background Brenton Tarrant gunned down 50 Muslims praying at a Christchurch mosque on a Friday, it took the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern more than a day to call it a terrorist” act, and when she did so, the mainstream media in Australia and New Zealand quoted Tarrant’s mother as describing him an angelic boy”.

Photo: Governor-General of New Zealand, Dame Patsy Reddy, lays flowers for the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings at Hagley Park on 19 March 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0

Social media users across the world have condemned the Western tabloids’ attempts to humanize the killer, while ignoring those Muslims killed – many of whom had fled such terrorism in their own countries to find refuge in New Zealand. If the killer had a Muslim background, headlines across the world would scream Islamic Terrorism Strikes ‘Peaceful’ New Zealand’ and would have described the killer as an evil” person and a product of a violent religious culture.

This thinking was reflected in a statement released by Australian senator Fraser Anning from Queensland following the Christchurch massacre. He blamed the New Zealand immigration program that allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate” who promote a violent ideology” as the cause of the attack.

He was condemned widely in Australia for spreading such hate speech. But his diatribes distracted attention from the violent nature of Christian identity politics, which the Western media prefer to call far-right”, white supremist” or Neo-Nazi” violence.

They never call it Christian Terrorism” even though using violence to spread or defend Christianity has a long history from the crusades of the 11^th to 13^th centuries, European colonial conquests and to contemporary violence against Muslim communities in Western countries.

Four days after the Christchurch massacre, Australia’s only high-profile Muslim media identity Waleed Aly said on the popular TV Show he hosts ‘The Project’ that he was gutted, scared, overcome with utter hopelessness — but not shocked by extremists’ violence.

He added that some eight years ago the then Shadow Minister for Immigration had suggested at a party room meeting that the opposition should use community concerns that Muslims fail to integrate to Australian society as political strategy. Though he did not name the person, he was referring to the current Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who threatened to sue him for defamation but later withdrew the threat.

Needless to say, similar strategies have been used by mainstream politicians and political parties in the West – the most notable are U.S. President Donald Trump and French opposition figure Marine Le Pen – to drum up political support from their Christian bases. The media tend to use the word race” rather than religion to discuss such issues, even though the word Muslim” refers to a religion rather than a particular race.

Germany hosts the second largest community of Muslims in Europe numbering around 5 million and last year there have been over 570 attacks on Muslims, but, these attackers are always described as ‘far-right” or neo-Nazis” not Christian extremists”.

In June 2018, when nine French men and a woman were charged in a Paris Court for planning to attack veiled women, imams, mosques and halal grocery stores across France, the New York Times (NYT) said the group claimed they were fighting an Islamic peril” but nowhere in the report was the word Christian used, instead they were described as a small right-wing vigilante group”.

In 2005, the popular American Christian televangelist Pat Robertson publicly called on the U.S. government to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He was quoted in NYT as saying it’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop”. Though the newspaper did quote Venezuelan Vice-President Jose Rangel as saying that it is sheer hypocrisy for a nation supposedly fighting terrorism to let a Christian preacher make such a terrorist statement, NYT did not label Robertson as a Christian Terrorist”.

But, in 2013, Time magazine ran a cover story on ‘The Face of Buddhist terror” in Asia referring to how militant monks are fuelling anti-Muslim riots in Asia. But, when Christian evangelical preachers do the same it is not ‘Christian Terror’. Even the Burmese army that attacked Rohingyas were called a Buddhist Army” but NATO jets pounding so-called Islamic terror camps” in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq are not called Christian Armies”. Applying the same logic as for Myanmar it can be said so.

Leave aside the crusades and European colonialism that destroyed the Inca civilization of South America, in the post-war era we have had a whole chain of Christian terror groups that have killed people and bombed communities. There was the Irish Republican Army that almost assassinated British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984. In the 1970s and 1980s they terrorized the UK with bombings and assassinations but they were never called  Catholic Terrorists” just merely IRA.

Between 1987 and 2004, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was involved in a terror campaign to create a Christian state in Uganda ruled according to the Ten Commandments. They killed thousands of people in the process and were described as one of the most ruthless terror groups in the world – even the U.S. State Department declaring them a terrorist organization. In 2005, LRA leaders were charged by the International Criminal Courts for crimes against humanity and war crimes. But, the western media never called them Christian Terrorists” just referred to them as LRA.

There is the infamous Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, which killed 168 people and two white Americans were ultimately convicted for the bombing. The media described them as belonging to a religious cult” or when it became obvious this was Christian they said both were radicalized by a Davidian religious sect” near Waco, Texas – a state well-known as a base of Evangelical Christianity movement that propelled both George W Bush and Donald Trump to the White House.

In China, when two Christian cult members were sentenced to death for murdering a woman at a McDonald’s restaurant, media reporting across Asia referred to them simply as members of a Chinese cult” even though it was stated in the reports that they belong to an underground ‘Church of the All Mighty God” that believes its founder is a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

In the 1980s when the campaign for a separate Khalistan state for Sikhs in India intensified leading to the blowing up of an Air India flight flying between Montreal and London, and the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, these actions were described as Sikh Terrorism” by the western media, even though Sikh militants would like to call themselves the Khalistan Liberation Army”.

In north-east India there is a long simmering terror campaign in Nagaland to create a separate Christian state that has killed over 200,000 people, where the late American Christian evangelist Billy Graham has attracted pop-star status. Nowhere do we hear about Christian terrorists” in Nagaland, but, we hear a lot about the Hindu Saffron Armies”.

When I raised the question of why Turrant is not labeled a ‘Christian Terrorist’ when even his manifesto released on social media had references to threats facing Christianity, a Christian friend of mine in Sydney said: He is not a Christian. Because if one were to hold extreme Christian views, he would be handing out food to the poor.” Well one could make the same argument about the Muslims, Buddhists and the Hindus.

Perhaps the best strategy for the media, at least in Asia, would be to take religion out of reporting terrorism and investigate and analyse more mindfully the socio-economic issues that give rise to such conflicts. If that could be done, different religious movements could come together to help solves the pressing economic, social and environmental problems threatening human civilization, as the core values of all the major religions would entice them to do so. [IDN-InDepthNews – 01 April 2019]

The proposal to establish provincial councils was, apart from JRJs debacle to stay in power with the help of Indians, primarily to solve the problem of people coming to Colombo to get work done which later translated to sharing POWER.

Establishing a PC in Western province had no relevance on this basis. Further provinces close to Colombo and a province like central province had no relevance either.  Added to a financial burden, the low bred lowly educated members of PCs did a greater damage to the fabric of the landscape with illegal nefarious activities such as illegal projects of cutting down forests for re-settlements, building hotels etc. by-passing all established norms of ethical rules and environmental regulations.

What needs to be done is to keep North, East, North Central and Uva provincial councils, which are furthest from Colombo and dissolve the rest.   Future development of the country should be based on 25 districts basis and every district should have major institutions like hospitals, universities, transport hubs, agricultural centers, power distribution etc. etc. named after the specific district. e.g. there will be 25 universities in Sri Lanka once this strategy is undertaken, minimally.   Some districts do have already these institutions and needs to be improved. 

We need to shed tribalism, especially Majority – Minority labelling  and development based on tribalism on ethnic grounds MUST end and call for separation and dissolving of power must end. Our primary goal should be development of Sri Lanka based on one identity as SRI LANKAN.

උපාධිධාරී ජාතික මධ්‍යස්ථානය. National Center ‌for Graduate

සබරගමුව විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ සිසුන් භාෂා හා සමාජ විද්‍යා පීඨවලට සිසුන් බඳවා ගැනීමේ දී සිදුකරන කප්පාදුව නවත්වන ලෙස ආණ්ඩුවට බලකරමින් ඊයේ (03) දින සිදුකරනු ලැබූ සාමාකාමී හා නිරායුධ විරෝධතාවයට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොලීසිය එල්ල කළ ම්ලේච්ඡ හා අමානුෂික ප‍්‍රහාරය දැඩි පිළිකුළෙන් යුතුව හෙලා දකිමු.

මෙවැනි අමානුෂික හා සාහසික ප‍්‍රහාරයන් දියත් කිරීමට පොලීසිය භාරව කටයුතු කරන ගරු ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා නියෝග ක‌ෙලේද නැතිනම් එජාප ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රධානීන්ගේ උවමනාව මත දියත්කළ ප‍්‍රහාරයක්ද යන්න පැහැදිලි නැත. නමුත් අවසානයේ කුමන පන්නයේ ආණ්ඩු හා නායකයින් රට පාලනය කළත් සිසුන් ඇතුළු පොදු ජනතාවට මර්දනය හා මෙවැනි ප‍්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීමේ අඩුවක් හෝ වෙනසක් නොමැති බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය.

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව හා ජනාධිපතිවරයා බලයට පැමිණියේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදයත් යහපාලනයත් ස්ථාපිත කරන බවට ජනවරමක් ලබාගෙනය. නමුත් පොරොන්දු සමාජ ධර්මයන් ක‍්‍රියාවට නංවනවා වෙනුවට දිගින් දිගටම සිදුවනුයේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය, පුද්ගල නිදහස අභියොගයට ලක්කරමින් සිදුකරන ක‍්‍රියාවන්ය.

රට පුරාත්, ලෝකය පුරාත් මානව හිමිකම් හා ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය ඉහලින් කථාකරන මොහොතක ලංකාවේ පාලකයින් හා පොලීසිය මේ ආකාරයෙන් අහිංසක විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන් තමන්ගේ ගැටළුවලට දීර්ඝ කාලයක් තිස්සේ විසඳුමක් නොමැතිකම නිසාම පාරට බැස සාමාකාමීව නිරායුධව විරෝධතාවයන් දක්වද්දී අමානුෂික ලෙස පහර දී මර්ධනය කිරීමට උත්සහ දැරීම ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය බරපතල අනතුරකට ලක්කිරීමකි. ජනතාවගේ ප‍්‍රශ්න වර්ධනය වෙද්දී පාලකයින්ට ඒ සඳහා විසඳුමක් නොමැතිකම නිසාම ඔවුන් තෝරාගන්නේ මර්ධනයේ පාරයි. ඒ සඳහා පවතින නීති ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නොවන තැන නීති පවා සකස් කරගන්නා පාලකයින් මේ වන විට ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී  ඕනෑම පොදුජන ක‍්‍රියාකාරිත්වයක් මර්ධනය කිරීමට හැකිවන පරිදි ප‍්‍රතිත‍්‍රස්ත පනත නීතිගත කරගැනීමට උත්සහ දරනුයේ ද විසඳුම් ලබාදීමට වඩා මර්ධනය ආණ්ඩුවට පහසු යැයි තීරණය කර ඇති නිසාවෙනි. ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව මතුවන  ඕනෑම ජනතා විරෝධයක් දැඩිව මර්ධනය කිරීමට විවිධ අණපනත් ගෙනඒමට උත්සහ කිරීම තුල ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය මරණාසන්න වීමට නියමිතව ඇතියි යන්න තේරුම් ගන්නවා හැර වෙනත් මාවතක් නොමැති බව ආණ්ඩුව පෙන්වමින් සිටී.

ආණ්ඩුවකට රට පාලනය කිරීමේ දී උගතුන් බුද්ධිමතුන් හැමදාමත් ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් වී ඇති බව පැහැදිලිය. පසුගිය 03 වන දින සරසවි සිසු සිසුවියන්ට පොලීසිය අතින් පයින් පහර දෙමින් නැවත නැවත පහර දෙමින් මාරාන්තික ප‍්‍රහාරයක් දියත් කළේ එවැනි උගතුන් බුද්ධිමතුන් සදාකාලිකව ආබාධිතව තැබීමට බව එම දර්ශන පෙළ තුලින් ලෝකයට අනාවරණය වේ.

විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුන්ගේ අධය්‍යාපන හා සුභසාධන ප‍්‍රශ්න විසඳීම සඳහා පාලකයින් වහා පියවර ගතයුතුය. රටේ අධ්‍යාපනයේ ඉහලම අවස්ථාව හිමිකර ගනිමින් විශ්ව විද්‍යාල තුලට ප‍්‍රවේශ වන සිසුන්ට නිදහසේ තම අධ්‍යාපන කටයුතු කරගෙන යාමට අවශ්‍ය යටිතල පහසුකම් හා භෞතික සම්පත් ප‍්‍රමාණවත්ව ලබාදීම ආණ්ඩුවක වගකීම වනු ඇත. සිසුන් මේ දක්වාම වීදි බැස අරගල සිදුකර ඇත්තේ ආණ්ඩු බලය ඉල්ලා හෝ මැති ඇමතිකම් ඉල්ලා හෝ නොවන බව පැහැදිලිය. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන කප්පාදුවට එරෙහිව, මහපොළ ශිෂ්‍යාධාර කප්පාදුවට එරෙහිව, ගොඩනැගිලි පහසුකම් ලබානොදීමට එරෙහිව, නේවාසික, පුස්කතාල, පරිගණක පහසුකම් ප‍්‍රමාණවත් නොවීමට එරෙහිව බව පැහැදිලිය. එවැනි සාධාරණ ඉල්ලීම් සඳහා සිසුන් පාරට බසින විට පොලීසිය යොදවා සිසුන්ගේ ඔළු පලනවා වෙනුවට, අතපය කඩනවා වෙනුවට, ආණ්ඩුව කළයුතුව ඇත්තේ සිසුන් පාරට බසින තත්වයට පරිසරය නිර්මාණය කිරීම වැළැක්වීමයි. එසේ සිදුනොවන්නේ නම් පාලකයින් එහි වගකීම භාරගතයුතු බවත් අවධාරණය කරමු.

එමෙන්ම මෙවැනි අමානුෂික ප‍්‍රහාරයන් ඇතුළු ප‍්‍රජාත්නත‍්‍ර විරෝධි මර්ධනයන් පරාජයට පත්කිරීමට සියළු ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී ප‍්‍රගිතිශීලී බලවේග පෙරමුණ ගතයුතු බවත් අපි වැඩිදුරටත් අවධාරණය කරමු.

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,

චන්දන සූරියආරච්චි

කැඳවුම්කරු

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ මාධ්‍ය හමුව

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී රමේෂ් පතිරණ මහතා

මේ වන විට ලංකාවේ ඇති වෙලා තියෙන ජල විදුලි අර්බුදය හේතුවෙන් රටේ සමස්ත ජනතාවටම ප්‍රශ්න ඇති වෙලා. පහුගිය කාල සීමාවේ ජාතික විදුලි පද්ධතියට අලුතෙන් විදුලි ඒකක එකතු කිරීමේ ක්‍රමවේදයකට ආණ්ඩුව පිවිසියේ නැහැ.දැනට ජාතික අවශ්‍යතාවය ලෙස පවතින දෛනික මෙගා වොට් 2700ක පමණ අවශ්‍යතාවය ජල විදුලිය නිපදවීමට නොහැකිවීම නිසා අර්බුදයකට පත්වෙලා. ලංකාවේ දැනට ජලවිදුලිය ඇතුලුව නිපදවෙන්නේ මෙගාවොට් 4000 පමණ ප්‍රමාණයක්. වර්තමානයේ වියළ කාලගුණ තත්ත්වය නිසා ජල විදුලි අත්පාදනය අඩුවීමෙන් විදුලි ජනනය මෙගා වොට් 2500 පමණ ප්‍රමාණයකට අඩු වෙලා තියෙන්නේ.

විදුලි බල ඉල්ලුම වාර්ෂිකව සියයට හයක් හතක් වැනි ප්‍රමාණයකින් වැඩිවන බව විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලය පුරෝකතනය කර තිබුණත් අපි විශ්වාසකරනවා වාර්ෂීක විදුලි බල ඉල්ලුම ඊට වඩා වැඩියි කියලා. දැන් කාර්යබහුල අවස්ථාවල මෙගාවොට් 750කට වැඩි විදුලි ඉල්ලුමක් මේ රටේ පවතිනවා. මේ විදුලි සැපයුම වෙනුවෙන් ආන්ඩුව සාධණීය මැදිහත්වීමක් නොකිරීමේ වගකීම වත්මන් විදුලුබල ඇමැතිවරයා රජය මෙන්ම මිට පෙර සිටි විදුලි බල ඇමැතිවරයාත් භාරගන්න වෙනවා. අපි 2013නොරොච්චෝලේ විදුලි බලාගාරය ස්ථාපනය කරලා මෙගාවොට් 900 විදුලි ධාරිතාවක් විදුලි බල පද්ධතියට එක් කිරිමට පියවර ගත්තාට පසුව විදුලි බල නිෂ්පාදනය එකතැන පල්වෙමින් තිබෙනව.

විදුලි බල අවශ්‍යතාවය පිළිබදව විදුලි බල ඉංඩිනේරුවන් පෙන්වා දුන්නත් ආන්ඩුව කිසිදු පියවරක් ගත්තේ නැතිව ඉදලා දැන් හදිසි මිලදී ගැනීම් හරහා මෙගාවොට් 100ක් මිලදි ගන්න උත්සාහ දරමින් සිටිනවා. බොරදියේ මාලුබෑමේ තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවෙලා තියෙන්නේ. දැන් තමන්ට කැමැති පුද්ගලයින්ගෙන් විදුලිය මිලදි ගැනීමේ හැකියාව ආන්ඩුවට ලැබෙනවා. මේක සැලසුම්සහගතව කරපු දෙයක් කියලා අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා.

සාම්පූර් බලාගාරය ඉදිකලේ නැහැ. එල්. එන්. ජී. බලාගාරයේ ගැටලුව විසදන්න ආන්ඩුව පියවර ගත්තේ නැහැ. ඒ හරහා විශාල අර්බුදයක් ඇති වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. අදට නිෂ්පාදනය කිරීමට යෝජිත මෙගාවොට් 350ට අමතරව එළැඹෙන වර්ෂයේ තවත් මෙගාවොට් 350ක් පමණ ලංකාවට අවශ්‍ය වෙනවා. මේ රට පෙලන  විදුලිබල සැපයීම අඩාලවීම හේතුවෙන් අපි ආන්ඩුවට යෝජනා කරනවා  එල්. එන්.ජී බලාගාරයේ ටෙන්ඩරය අදාල චීන සමාගමට හෝ ලබාදීලා අනෙක් ටෙන්ඩරයේ පාර්ශ්වකරුවා වන ලක්දනව් සමාගමටත් එම ප්‍රමාණයේම විදුලි බලාගාරයක් හදන්න පහසුකම් සපයන්න කියලා.

සාමාන්‍ය ටෙන්ඩර් පටිපාටිය යටතේ මේ කටයුත්ත කළයුතු වුවත් මේක ජාතික අර්බුදයක් වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. මේ ජාතික අරුබ්දය විසදාගන්න අපිත් දේශපාලන පක්ෂ භේදයකින් තොරව කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි. නැත්නම් අපේ ආන්ඩුවක් පැමිණීමෙන් පසුවත් මේ අරුබුදය විසදා ගන්න බැරි වෙනවා. මෙවැනි බලාගාරයක් හදන්න වසර දෙකහමාරක පමණ කාලයක් ගත වෙනවා. නමුත් ආන්ඩුව භාරගන්න අපිට මේ තත්ත්වය කළමණාකරණය කරගන්න අපහසුවෙනවා.

අද විදුලි බලය නොමැතිවීම හරහා රට අරාජිකයි. මේ දිනවල කොළඹ හා තදාසන්න ප්‍රදේශවලට ජල කප්පදුවක් සිදුවෙනවා. කොළඹ අවට ප්‍රදේශවල සමස්ත ප්‍රජාවටම ජන ජිවිතය පවත්වා ගෙනයාමට බාධාවක් වුනා. ජල සම්පාදනයේ අලුත් වැඩියාව පමණක් නෙවේ. අඹතලේ ප්‍රදේශවලට විදුලි විසන්දිවිමක් වුනාම ඔවුන්ගේ පොම්පාගාර සියල්ල අක්‍රීය වෙනවා. බත්තරමුල්ල ඇතුලු ප්‍රදේශවල තියෙන පීඩන පොම්ප සියල්ල මේ නිසා අකර්මන්‍ය වෙනවා.

ජල සම්පාදන මණ්ඩලය සමග විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලය අවබෝධයකින් කටයුතු කරනවා නම් රටේ ජල සම්පාදනයට බාධා නොවන අකාරයකින් විදුලි කප්පාදුකිරීම කරන්න හැකියාව තියෙනවා. පොම්ප ක්‍රියාකරන ස්ථානවල විදුලිය අත්හිටුවීම වලැක්වීමේ පියවරක් ගන්න තිබුණා. එවැනි සම්බන්ධීකරණයක් නැති නිසා සියලු පොම්පාගාරවල ජල පොම්ප අක්‍රීය වෙනවා. ඒවායේ ජල පීඩනය  යථා තත්ත්වයට පත්වීමත් සමග නැවත විදුලිය අක්‍රීයවීමක් සිද්ධ වෙනවා. ගිය සෙනසුරාදා සිට පැවැතුනු ජල කප්පාදුවෙන් පස්සේ ඊයේ රෑ ඉදලයි කොළඹ ජනතාවට හරියට ජලය ලැබෙන්න ගත්තේ. මේ කෙන් දරුවා පාසල් යවන්න, රාජකාරිවලට යවන්න බැරි වුනා.

ඒ වගේම ජල සම්පාදන මණ්ඩලය සතුව මෙවැනි හදිසි අවශ්‍යතා කළමණාකරණය කිරීමේ පහසුකම් නැති බව අපිට අවබෝධ වුනා. ඔවුන් සතුව ප්‍රමාණවත් බවුසර් තිබුනේ නැහැ. හදිසි අවස්ථාවල පොම්ප සක්‍රීය කරන්න ජෙනරේටර් තිබුණා. ඒවා අක්‍රීය වෙලා තිබුනේ. ඔවුන්ට හදිසි ජෙනරේටර් මිලදී ගෙන තත්ත්වය යථා තත්ත්වයට පත්කරන්න හැකියාවක් තිබුනේ නැහැ. මේ නිසා විදුලිය වගේම ජලයත් නැති වෙලා ජන ජිවිත අඩාල වුනා.  රෝහල්වලට විශාල බලපෑමක් වුනා. ශල්‍යකර්ම කිරීම නතර කරන්න වුනා. ඔසුසල්වල ඔසුතොග නැවත භාවිතා කිරීම අපහසුයි. අඛණ්ඩ උෂ්ණත්වයකින් පවත්වා ගෙන යා යුතු එන්නත් වර්ග තිබෙනවා. සුපර් මාර්කට්වල සිට සෑම ව්‍යවසායයෙක්ටම තමන්ගේ භාණ්ඩ කල්තියා ගැනීමේ ක්‍රමවේද සොයාගන්න සිදුවුනා. සමහරක්විට භාවිතයට නුසුදුසු ආහාර වර්ග පාරිබෝගික ජනතාව අතරට එන්න පුලුවන්. මේ වැනි ජාතික අරුබ්දයකට ආණ්ඩුව සාධනීය මැදිහත්වීමක් නොකරන බව පේනවා. මේ රට ගොඩනැගීමේ ශක්තිය ආන්ඩුවට නැති බව විශ්වාසයි.

ඒනිසා තීරණාත්මක මැතිවරණයකදී ජනාතව නිවැරදි තින්දුවක් ගනියි. මීට වසර 15ට පෙරයි මේ වගේ විදුලි කප්පාදුවක් වුනේ. ඒ කියන්නේ රට ආපස්සටයි ගමන් කරමින් තිබෙන්නේ. හෙට (05) පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තීරණාත්මක දවසක්.

අයවැය තුන්වැනිවර කියැවීමේ ඡන්ද විමසීම පැවැත්වෙනවා. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ අපි සියලුදෙනා අයවැයට විරුද්ධව ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා. ශ්‍රීලනීප අපේ සහෝදරවරු ඔවුන්ගේ ගැටලුව නිරාකරණය කරගෙන ඇති කියලා අපි විශ්වාසකරනවා. අයවැය තුන්වැනි වර කියැවීමේදී මේ අසාර්ථක අයවැයටත් අදූරදර්ශී පාලනයටත් එරෙහිව ඡන්දය දෙයි කියලා අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩී. වී. චානක මහතා

මේ ආන්ඩුව අවුරුදු 4ට ආසන්න කාලය තුල රටෙ සියලුම අංශ විනාශ කරලා ඉවරයි. විවිධ පක්ෂවලින් රට පාලනය කරලා තිබුණත් මේ විදියට රට අගාධයකට ගිය කසිම ආන්ඩුවක් මේ රටේ තිබුලා නැහැ. මේ ආන්ඩුවට සැලැස්මක්, වැඩපිළිවෙලක් නැහැ. හෙට දකින්නේ නැහැ. මිට කලින් තෙල් නැව එනකල් අපිට බලාගෙන ඉන්න වුනා. අද දකුණූ ආසියාවේ පැය 24ම විදුලිය දෙන්න බැරි එකම රට ලංකාවයි. ජනතාවට කියනවා දවල්ට පැය තුනක් සහ රෑට පැයක් විදුලිය කප්පාදු කරනවා කියලා. ඒක අමූලික බොරුවක්. සමහර ප්‍රදේශවලට පැය 6ක් 8ක් විතර විදුලිය කප්පාදු කරනවා. අද රටේ ආර්ථකයට මේක සෑහෙන්න බලපාලා තිබෙනවා. හැම රටකම වාර්ෂීකව විදුලි ඉල්ලුම වැඩිවෙනවා. නමුත් මේ ආන්ඩුවට කිසිම බලාගාරයක් හදාගන්න බැරිවුනා. හම්බන්තොට තිබුන මෙගාවොට් තුනක් විදුලිය නිපදවපු සුළං බලාගාරයත් අද ගලවලා දාලා. වරාය චිනයට දෙන අවස්ථාවේ ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගිවිසුමකට ආවානම් මේ විදුලි කප්පාදුන විනාඩි පහකින් හෝ අඩු කරන්න තිබුණා.

2014 වෙද්දි හම්බන්තොට කර්මාන්තපුරයට එල්. එන්. ජී බලාගාරයක් එනවා. එනර් වර්ල්ඩ් ඉන්ටර්නැෂනල් කියන බලාගාරයෙන් මෙගාවොට් 1200ක් සැපයීමේ හැකියාව තියෙන බලාගාරයක් ආවේ. 2016 වෙද්දි මොගාවොට් 300ක්,2018 වෙද්දි තව 300ක් 2020 වෙද්දි ඉතිරි 600ත් විදියට විදුලි ධාරිතාව සපයන්නයි මේ බලාගාරය ආවේ. නමුත් මේ ආන්ඩුවට කොමිෂ් මුදල ලැබෙන්නේ නැති වුනාම ඒ සමාගම හරවලා යැව්වා. මේ අය බලාපොරොත්තු වුනේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය සමාගම එක්ක ගිවිසුම් ගත වෙන්න. ඒ සමාගමෙන් එක විදුලි ඒකකයක් මිලදී ගන්න නියමිතව තිබුනේ රුපියල් 10.50කට. මේ බලාගාරය හැදුවේ නැති නිසා අද පැය ගණන් විදුලිය කපනවා. මේ වෙද්දි පාවෙනබලාගාර දෙකක් ලංකාවට ඇවිත් තියෙනවා. අපිට මේවායින් විදුලිය ගන්න වෙන්නේ රුපියල් 30 ගානේ. 10.50ට ගන්න ඒකකය 30ට ගන්න වීම නිසා වසරකට රුපියල් කෝටි 4200ක් පාඩු වෙනවා. 2016 වර්ෂයේ සිට අද වෙනකල් වුනු පාඩුව කෝටි 12000ක්. මේක මහ බැංකුවේ වංචාවට ආසන්න පාඩුවක්. එදා මේ එල්. එන්. ජි බලාගාරය ඉදිකරලා තිබුණා නම් අද විදුලි කප්පාදුවකුත් නැහැ. ජනතාවට මීට වඩා සහන මිලකට විදුලිය දෙන්නත් තිබුණා. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ ආන්ඩුව කටයුතු කලේ නැතිව අද වෙද්දි සියලු වැරදි රවි කරුණානයක ඇමැතිවරයා පිටදාන්න අත්සාහ කරනවා.

පහුගිය කාලයේ හැම දේකටම කතා කරපු අජිත් පී. පෙරේරා කොහෙද කියලා දැනගන්න අපි කැමැතියි. එතුමා කිව්වේ ලංකාවට විතරක් නෙවෙයි වැඩි වෙන විදුලිය අපි ඉන්දියාවට දෙනවා කියලයි. සූර්ය බල ශක්තිය ගැන කතා කළා. න්‍යෂ්ඨික බලාගාර ගැන කතා කළා. පුනර්ජනනීය බලශක්තිය ගැන කතා කළා. ද කෝ මේ අජිත් පි. පෙරේරා. පුලුවන්නම් අපිට මේ නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමැතිතුමාව හොයලා දෙන්න.

අයවැය සම්මත කිරීමට නියමිතව තිබුනා. නමුත් අයවැයක් ගැන කිසිම හැගීමක් රටේ නැහැ. ගිය අයවැයෙන් මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශයෙන්ම සියයට 80ක මුදලක් ආපස්සට යනවා. මේ මාස අටකට තියෙන අයවැයෙන් සියයට 90ක් ආපස්සට යන බව නම් විශ්වාසයි. මේ අයැවැය අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම පරාජය කළ යුතුයි. මේ අයවැය ජය ගැනීම ආන්ඩුවට ප්‍රශ්නයක්. මේ වෙද්දි ඡන්දය ගන්න විවිධ සාකච්ඡා තියෙනවා. වරප්‍රසාද, මුදල් ලබා දෙන්න අත්සාහ කරනවා. බැරිම නන් අයවැයට සහභාගි නොවී ඉන්න හරි වරප්‍රසාද දෙන්න හදනවා. ඒ නිසා ඔබගේ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා කටයුතු කරන ආකාරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවබෝධයෙන් ඉන්න.

මලික් සමරවික්‍රම ඇමැතිවරයාගේ වැය ශිර්ෂයට ඡන්දය දෙන්න නොපැමිණි මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට විනය පරික්ෂණ ආරම්භ කර තිබෙනවාලු. එහෙම නම් අපි පරාජය කරපු වැය ශීර්ෂ දෙක සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙවැනි පියවරක් ගත්තේ නැත්තේ ඒ වැය ශිර්ෂ දෙක පරාජය කරන්න ආණ්ඩුවෙනුත් උදව් කරපු නිසාද. මේක තමයි අද ආන්ඩුවේ තත්ත්වය. එජාපයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට තමන්ගේ ඡන්ද අයිතිය පෙන්වන්න ක්‍රමවේදයක් නැහැ. ඒ පිපිරීම වැඩිකල් යන්න පෙර එලියට එනවා. සමහර විට අයවැය ඡන්දයේදී එළියට එන්නත් පුලුවන්. අපි නම් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම මේ අයවැයට විරුද්ධව ඡන්දය දෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – අයවැය පරාජය වුනොත් ආන්ඩුව විසුරුවා හැරීමේ යෝජනාවක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගේන්න සූදානමක් තියෙන බව කියනවා.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – එවැනි යෝජනාවක් සදහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක බහුතරයක් අවශ්‍යයි. අයවැය පරාජයට පත්වුනොත් අලුත් ආන්ඩුවකට ආරාධනා කරන්න ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අවස්ථාව තියෙනවා. එහෙම දෙයක් වුනොත් ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් සලකා බලනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – අයවැය පරාජය කිරීමේ හැකියාවක් සංඛ්‍යාත්මකව තියෙනවාද.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – දැනට ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ අපි සියලු දෙනා, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන මන්ත්‍රීවරු සහ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුනේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු ඔක්කොම 101ක්. දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය හා අනෙකුත් සහාය දක්වන මුස්ලිහම් කොංග්‍රසය වැනි පක්ෂ එකතු වීමේදී ආන්ඩුවේ පිරිස බලාගන්න පුලුවන්. පරාජය වුනු වැයශීර්ෂ දෙකට ආන්ඩුවේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු හිතාමතා සහභාගි නොවුනු බවත් අපිට වාර්තා වුනා. ඒ වගේම අපිත් සමහර මන්ත්‍රීවරු සමග සාකච්ඡා කරනවා. අපි අත්සාහ කරනවා.

 මාධ්‍ය – ඒකියන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ සහාය මේ සදහා අවශ්‍ය වෙනවා .

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – සංඛ්‍යාත්මකව අවශ්‍ය වෙනවා. එජනිස විදියට 95යි. ජවිපේ 6යි. කිහිප දෙනෙක් එකතු වුනොත් පරාජ කරන්න පුලුවන්.

මාධ්‍ය -නමුත් ශ්‍රිලනිපයේ ඉන්න කිහිප දෙනෙක් දැනුත් ඉන්නේ එජාපයේ වගෙයි පේනනේ.

රමේෂී පතිරණ – ඇත්තෙන්ම එවැනි ජුගුප්සාජක තත්ත්වයක් තියෙනවා.ඒ පැත්තේ ඉන්නවා වගේ ඉදලා තීරණාත්මක අවස්ථාවක අපිට සහයෝගය දෙන් ඉඩ තියෙන අයත් ඉන්නවා.

මාධ්‍ය – රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමැතිවරයා කියනවා ඉදිරියේ හැදෙන පුලුල් සංවිධානයට ශ්‍රිලනීපයේ කෙනෙක්ගේ නායකත්වයෙක් පිරිසක් එජාපය වේදිකාවට එන බව. බැලුවම ඒක ඇත්ත වගෙත් පේනවා.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – එතුමා එවැනි දේශපාලන ප්‍රකාශ කොහොමත් කරනවා. පසුගිය ඔක්තෝම්බර් ආන්ඩුවට එකතු වෙන්න හිටපු ප්‍රබල ඇමැතිවරු හිටියා. නම නරක් වුනු අය අරන් ආන්ඩුවක් හදන්න අපිත් අකමැති වුනා. එන්න අහපු අහපු හැම කෙනාම අරගන්න අකමැති වුන නිසයි අපිට 113 හදා ගන්න බැරිවුනේ. අපිත් කැමැති නැහැ එන හැම කෙනාවම ලංකර ගන්න. දේශපාලන වශයෙන් අපිටත් සමහර දේශපාලන නම් ලං කර ගන්න අපිටත් පිළිකුලක් තියෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – අයවැය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රීලනිප හා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අතර සාකච්ඡාවක් තියෙනවා කියලා මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කරනවා.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – ශ්‍රීලනිප හා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අතර සාකච්ඡා අඛණ්ඩව පවතිනවා. අපි විශ්වාස කරනවා ශ්‍රිලනිප මන්ත්‍රීවරු අයවැයට විරුද්ධ වෙයි කියලා.

මාධ්‍ය – අයවැය පරාජය කරගන්න බැරිවුනොත් මොකද කරන්නේ.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – 2019 අපි හදුනාගෙන තියෙන්නේ විජයග්‍රහණයේ වසර විදියටයි. කවුරු එකග නොවුනත් නැතත් කල් තබන්න බැරි මැතිවරණයක් වෙන්නේ ජනාධීපතිවරණය. පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය කල් තියාගන්න පුලුවන්. අපක්‍රම භාවිතා කරලා මහ මැතිවරණ්‍ය කල් තියාගන්නත් පුලුවන්. හැබැයි ජනාධීපතිවරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් එවැනි පියවරක් ගන්න බැහැ. මේ වසරේ ඔක්තෝම්බර් මාසයේ අට වෙනිදායින් පස්සේ කැදවිය යුතුයි. ඒ නිසා අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම මැතිවරණයක් පැවැත්විය යුතුයි. බලය ලබාගැනීමේ කෙටි මාර්ග නැහැ. අපි මැතිවරණයට සුදානම් වෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – 202 ජනාධීපතිවරණ අපේක්ෂකයා අනිවර්යයෙන්ම ශ්‍රීලනිප විය යුතුයි කියලා මහලේකම්වරයා කියනවා.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – ඔවුන් අවසන් මෙහොත දක්වා මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධීපතිවරයාට අපේක්ෂකත්වය දිනාගන්න උත්සාහ කරනවා. මේ වෙනතුරු මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධීපතිවරයා මැතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වෙන බව ප්‍රකාශ කරලා නැහැ. ඒ පක්ෂයේ නියෝජිත මහත්වරුන්ගේ පැත්ත අනුව සාධාරණයි. බලය සමගයි ජනතාව රැදී සටින්නේ. රදවාගැනීම පිණිසත් සත්‍ය ලෙසම නාමයෝජනා ලබා ගැනීමේ උත්සාහයතක් තියෙන්නේ. හැබැයි මහ පොලොවේ සත්‍ය නම් අපි ශ්‍රීලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ විදියට අපේක්ෂකයෙක් ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. එජාපයෙනුත් අපේක්ෂකයෙක් ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි. තුන්වැනි අපේක්ෂකයෙක්ට ඉඩ නැති බව ඉතිහාසය පෙන්වා දිලා තියෙනවා. තුන්වැනි අපේක්ෂකයෙක් විදියට ඇවිත් වැඩිම ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණ්‍යක් අරන් තියෙන්නේ නන්දන ගුණතිලක මහත්තයා. ඒ ඡන්ද තුන්ලක්ෂ පනස්පන්දහසක්. ඊට පසුව රෝහන විජේනවීර මහතා දෙලක්ෂ අසූතුන්දහසක් අරන් තියෙනවා. නන්දන ගුණතිලක මහතා එතරම් ඡන්ද ගත්තේ පක්ෂය හොද තැනක සිටින අවස්ථාවකයි. නැවත වතාවක් බලයට පත් කරන්නේ රටේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයක් ඇති කරපු ආන්ඩුවද රට නිදහස් කරලා සැම අංශයකම ප්‍රවර්ධනයක් ඇති කරපු පැත්තේ කෙනෙක්ද කියලා මේ රටේ ජනතාව තීරණය කරයි.

මාධ්‍ය – අගමැතියවරයා එල්ත එන්. ජී බලාගාරය හම්බන්තොටින් ත්‍රිකුණාමලයට යවනවා.

ඩි. වි. චානක – මේ ආන්ඩුවට ලැබෙන කමිෂන් එක විතරයි අදාලයිත සමහර සමාගම් රටවල් කොමිෂන් දෙන්නේ නැහැ.

රමේෂ් පතිරණ – මේ ආන්ඩුවට විදුලි අර්බුදය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තියෙන්නේ වැසිදෙවියන් යැදීම විතරයි. වැහි නැති හෙණ පහත් වෙයිද කියන්න බැහැ. සැබෑ අර්බුදය හමුවේ බොරදියේ මාලු බාමින් පුද්ගලික හිතවතුන්ගෙන් මිලදි ගන්නයි සූදානම.

මාධ්‍ය – රජයේ ඉඩම් නොවටිනා මුදලකට අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස්ට ලබාදීම ගැන ඔබලා දැනුම්වත්ද

අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් ට රජයේ ඉඩම් නොවටිනා මුදලකට දිම සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපි පරීක්ෂණයක් පවා ඉල්ලා තියෙනවා.අපි ඉදිරියේදී මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වැඩිතොරතුරු ලබා දෙනවා. 

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While claiming that people in rural areas had fallen prey to illegal loan schemes including micro-financing organisations, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa today urged the government to take steps to ban such organisations and to waive off loans obtained by the people from such organisations.

He told parliament that it was important to introduce a micro-finance service at ground level to strengthen the rural economy.

Raising a question under Standing Orders 23/2, he said people including farmers and fisherfolk had mortgaged their property to these organisations and added that they had faced difficulty repaying the loans obtained by them as a result of not getting expected crop due to the prevailing drought.

He said even though the government promised through budget proposals to waive off overdue loans obtained by these innocent people, no step had been taken in that regard so far claiming that the organisations which had lent those loans cannot be identified.

Tharindu Jayewardene and Bingun Menaka Gamage Courtesy The Daily Mirror

• As the first stage of the project to import of dairy cows, 500 and 1500 dairy cows had been imported in 2012
• The estimated cost of this project was 73.95 million US dollars
• The talk of importing 20,000 dairy cows came to the surface again in 2017
• Many dairy cows had contracted the disease called ‘mastitis’

Sometime ago people had the habit of leveling allegations against certain authorities that they were involved in doing ‘ Harak weda’ (things unbecoming of them). This story is about such an act which is unbecoming of humans. Their modus operandi has brought ill fate not only for the Government, but to local investors and a large number of dairy farmers. 

It seems that the discussion about the import of dairy cows with the private sector began in 2006, according to old cabinet papers and other documents. The development of local milk production was mentioned in the Government policies in 2006. 

The ministers who were in charge of this subject during previous governments had presented Cabinet Papers from 2007 to 2017 saying that they had done so with the aim of increasing milk production. Among those ministers were the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former ministers such as C.B. Ratnayaka, Basil Rajapaksa and Thondaman. During these times, newspaper advertisements were also published with regard to the import of dairy cows. In the year 2007, tenders were called for the selection of a contractor for the import of dairy cows. 
However, as the first stage of the project to import of dairy cows, 500 and 1500 dairy cows had been imported in 2012 (March) and 2013 (January) respectively. Those cows had been allocated for three dairy farms, namely Bopaththalawa, Menikpalama and Dayagama. These farms belonged to the National Livestock Development Board. During the second stage, 2495 dairy cows had been imported in 2015 and handed over to NLDB Ridiyagama farm, situated in Hambantota. Dairy cows had been given to Hambantota, a place where the climate is unsuitable to rare diary cows. This decision was also taken without conducting a feasibility study. According to the observations of the Auditor General, the Cabinet Papers presented between 2007 to 2015 were contrary to each other. As a result of these projects, the Government was compelled to sustain a loss and the officials concerned had to face chaotic situations on several occasions. 

Under these circumstances the approval had been given on January 13, 2004 for the Cabinet Paper presented for the import of 20,000 dairy cows and their distribution among the farmers within two years as the third stage of the project. It has been stated in that Cabinet Paper that the discussion had been initiated for obtaining loans from a bank in The Netherlands and the approval had been sought for signing that agreement with the bank concerned by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. According to the Cabinet Paper presented on June 5, 2014 , the estimated cost of this project was 73.95 million US dollars. 

However, this project was stopped on the way as a result of a change of Government in 2015. The present Government came to power in 2015 on the promise that legal steps would be taken against the corruptions and malpractices that took place during the Rajapaksa regime. This project was recommenced despite the fact that some people were of the opinion that the project of importing dairy cows would be stopped halfway, in a bid to find fault with it. 

Cabinet approval 

The talk of importing 20,000 dairy cows came to the surface again in 2017. In March 2017, the Ministry of Rural Economic Development presented a Cabinet Paper for the import of 20,000 dairy cows. The observations of the Finance Minister were taken onto consideration and at the end of April 2017, it received Cabinet approval. There was an agreement for the import of 5000 cows with a private company and the balance 15,000 on the success of the animals. As the first stage of that project, there were plans to import 2000 cows. 

Despite the fact that the contract for the import of cows should be handed over to a contactor found through a genuine tender procedure, what happened was contrary to it. By neglecting the procumbent guidelines in 2007, that is about 10 years ago, the ministry took steps to award the contract to the contractor without calling for tenders. According to the cabinet paper presented on June 5, 2014 regarding the project of importing 20,000 cows, the cows have to be kept in isolated places for a quarantine period of one month under the supervision of a veterinary surgeon. The Cabinet decision was to hand over the second generation of the cows to the farmers without giving the imported animals direct to the farms while keeping them in the government farms. Two newspaper advertisements were published relating to this programme to enable those who are willing to obtain dairy cows to send their applications. Rural Economic Development Ministry published advertisements in January 8, 2017 in English and Tamil languages and January 15, 2017 using the Sinhala language. It had been mentioned in those advertisements that the entrepreneurs who are willing to obtain more than 10 cows should give their proposals with their applications. There was no clear description about the selection of the beneficiaries of the project or the procedure and it has not been included in the advertisements whether the cows were being given free of charge or on subsidy; and there was no mention of the procedure to be followed when sending applications. 

On some of the ministry documents, it has been mentioned that the applicants can register and that 1106 applications had been received. However, it has been proved that 1823 applications had been received according to an audit conducted in this regard. It goes to prove that no proper procedure was followed regarding the receiving of applications. There had been problems regarding the selection of suitable bidders from among the applications. It has been revealed through the ministry sources that those who requested less than 10 cows and the applications sent outside their expected districts had been ignored when it came to selecting the suitable bidders. 

Accordingly, 2500 dairy cows had been imported outside the accepted tender procedure and in May 14, 2017 only 1994 dairy cows were imported. There is no mention of what happened to the balance six cows. Some say that these animals had died in transit. Arrangements had been made to distribute 1911 animals on this day among selected applicants. It had been done violating stipulated conditions. The balance 83 animals had been distributed in June 13, 2017 and July 28, 2017 respectively after keeping them in Menikpalama Farm. The total expenditure incurred in bringing a dairy cow up to the farm with the cost of importing one cow including immunization and the expenses for diagnosing diseases comes to Rs. 520,228.00. Out of this expenditure, Rs.200,000 has been charged from the dairy farmers and the balance was incurred by the Government. Accordingly, the basic expenditure for 1994 dairy cows was about Rs.1030 million. 

Humorous stories

There are many humorous stories regarding the distribution of dairy cows project. One factor is that there was no proper supervision regarding the farms where dairy cows were kept after being imported at a huge cost. It was proved at the time when a group of auditors from the Department of the Auditor General paid a visit to carry out an audit of the farms in October 18, 2017. When the auditors went to a place where 20 cows were said to be housed as mentioned in the list, there was no farm in that address. That was the place where Gannoruwa Veterinary Research Institute was established. 

Many dairy cows had contracted the disease called ‘mastitis’ when they were handed over to the farms. Due to the lapse of failing to take suitable steps to deal with the condition of these animals, when imported to the country, this disease had spread among the other animals. Even though the Government claimed that 15 litres of milk could be obtained per day from a cow, the cows didn’t even produce even a drop of milk. The reason was that their condition was unhealthy. The nipples of a large number of cows given to the farms were dead or inactive. 
These cows are said to have been imported during pregnancy, but they were not pregnant and their fetuses had died due to diarrhea. 

Successful experienced farmers became indebted; owing millions in rupees to others. Several dairy farmers were so much in debt that they had to see their houses being foreclosed. 
The Government did not learn a lesson from it. The ministry set their foot forward and imported 3024 cows during the third stage. The problem grew out of proportion as a result. 

(Courtesy Daily Lankadeepa)

RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Adaderana

he Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) yesterday (1) told the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to take a stand at the final vote of the Budget this week, if they wished to form an alliance with the SLPP in the future.

This was stated by SLPP Chairman, Professor G.L. Peiris at a press conference held at the SLPP headquarters in Battaramulla.

Our third round of talks, to form a joint coalition with the SLFP, will be held just five days after the final vote on the 2019 Budget. The whole point of these talks is to form a massive coalition against the United National Party (UNP). However, the SLFP abstained from voting against the Budget last time, and this has created an atmosphere of mistrust between us. We hope that the SLFP will try to rectify this error by taking a stance this time around. They can either join with us to vote against the Budget, or side with the UNP,” suggested Prof. Peiris.

Courtesy Adaderana

SLFP-affiliated trade unions of SriLankan Airlines today claimed that the government is preparing to sell Sri Lanka’s national carrier to a company which is ‘operating with LTTE funds’.

Representatives of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya – Sri Lankan Airlines, addressing a press conference today, vowed to resort to strict trade union action if the government goes ahead with such a deal.

Chairman of the association, Janaka Wijepathirana, alleged that the relevant Cabinet paper proposing the sale of SriLankan Airlines to a ‘company operating with LTTE funding’ is to be presented to the Cabinet.

He claimed that as the preliminary step towards this, the two most profitable subsidiaries of the airline including SriLankan Catering are to be removed from under SriLankan Airlines and sold to the company in question while the necessary plans have already been drafted.

Representatives of SLFP –affiliated trade union of SriLankan Catering also joined the media briefing.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Supreme Court has declared that the environmental damage caused by the Uthuru Janani thermal power plant in Chunnakam, Jaffna, has violated the fundamental rights of the residents of the area.

The Bench passing the verdict comprised of Justices Priyantha Jayawardena, Prasanna Jayawardena, and L. T. B. Dehideniya.

Accordingly, the court ordered the Northern Power Company Ltd., which operates the power plant, to pay an amount of Rs 20 million for the affected people in compensation.

The Court ordered that the Rs 20 million should be paid off in compensations of maximum Rs 40,000 per affected home and the compensation should be carried out under a committee led by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board.

The Supreme Court further noted that, only after complying with the accepted environmental conditions, the company will be allowed to operate the power plant again.

The Supreme Court passed this verdict regarding a petition filed by the Chairman of the Center for Environment and Nature Study, Dr. Ravindra Kariyawasam.

The petitioner charges that the waste, oil, and grease disposed of by the power plant contaminate the well water on the adjacent land.

The petition has been filed seeking a court order that this has violated the fundamental rights of the residents in the area.

In 2015, the Supreme Court had passed a prohibition order preventing the power plant from operating.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 6.4.19

This essay deals with the continuing story of USA, its allies and Yahapalana.   Activities are presented in inventory form.

 STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT

Sunday Times stated in January 2019 that Sri Lankans are blissfully unaware that agreements have been signed with an important foreign government without proper consultation or studying the implication involved.  One agreement gives the defence forces of that powerful country legitimate access to Sri Lanka. Parliament has not been told about these defense deals.  Only cursory cabinet approval has been granted.  Sunday Times has seen the lengthy renewed document signed on behalf of the country. If the previous agreement ran to a few pages this one is a thick volume, each section defines a particular arrangement. Its far reaching implication will be felt only as time goes by and the provisions take effect one by one.

The Sunday Times is obviously referring to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) Sri Lanka has signed with USA. In February 2019 JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake told Parliament that a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the USA   has been signed. This would have an adverse impact on the country’s sovereignty. 

He related the history of the agreement. On March 05th, 2007 the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) had been signed between the US and Sri Lanka allowing US forces to utilize various facilities in Sri Lanka such as ports, airports, communication facilities etc.”This agreement was signed by the then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the US Ambassador Robert O. Blake. That pact, as far as we know, said Bimal, was never presented to the Cabinet or Parliament. To our knowledge it was secretly signed and both parties were US citizens. Thereafter, we brought up the issue in Parliament for months, asking the then government to reveal details of this agreement to Parliament. After six months in 2007, July a section of the agreement was tabled in Parliament but several of the annexes were not included.

The expiration of the term of the pact, Acquisition and Cross-Services Agreement” (ACSA) ended on  March 5, 2017,”  said the JVP . The Agreement says that it could be extended for a further ten year period by mutual consent of the two governments.We learnt that the government had already held many discussions with a focus to giving its consent to the Agreement’s continuation,” he said.We have reasons to believe that the present government too would follow the example of the previous regime and give its consent for the continuation of this Agreement secretly,” he stated.We seriously ask the government to stay away from this defence pact which was signed under the previous government without the approval of Parliament. It holds no advantage for the country. Nevertheless, it will bring harmful consequences to the country in the course of time,” he said.

According to the Agreement, both countries are bound to provide facilities such as logistics, land, fuel and other facilities to defence personnel, aircraft and vessels,” he said.Sri Lanka is unlikely to engage in wars, but the US is. Hence the Agreement has no impact in terms of Sri Lanka’s disposition. Should the US engage in a military mission in the region, we are bound to provide the US with land, fuelling, ammunition and other hardware,” he explained.We vehemently opposed this Agreement which was signed during the time of the previous government, because of its seriousness in terms of possibilities that could engender regional discord, said JVP in March 2017.

The JVP then moved on to the present agreement.  On 4 August 2017 they signed the ACSA agreement again, Bimal Ratnayake said. The President has signed this agreement without any time frame. The armed forces representatives warned that this agreement is inimical to the country, but the President as the head of defence, did not heed their opinion.  This treacherous agreement jeopardizes the country’s security and sovereignty. There is a clause in the agreement that either party can pull out, having given six months notice, but we all know that getting out of these agreements is not so easy, said Bimal.

“Now, the government is trying to sign a new agreement with the USA called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). Discussions are now underway, continued Bimal Ratnayake. “Reading out sections of the agreement Ratnayake said: “In terms of the proposed agreement prepared after a several rounds of talks between the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US mission in Colombo, it has been proposed that US personnel be accorded the privileges, exemptions and immunity equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic missions under the Vienna Convention.

The US personnel may enter and exit Sri Lanka with US. identification and with collective movement or individual travel orders; that Sri Lanka shall accept as valid all professional licenses issued by the United States, its political subdivisions, or States thereof to US. “Further US military personnel would be allowed to wear the US military uniform Sri Lanka and carry their weapons, Ratnayake said.  

“The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the particular importance of disciplinary control by US Armed Forces authorities over U.S. personnel and, therefore, authorizes the Government of the United States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel while in Sri Lanka, Which means they will not come under the law of this country. So, no matter what they do here, we will not be able to take any action against them, Ratnayake said. Requesting that the full text of the ACSA agreement be presented to parliament, he called for a parliamentary debate on the SOFA agreement before it was inked. (Sunday Times 25.2.19)

LOGISTICS HUB”

The media reported in December 2018 that US has now has established a logistics hub in Sri Lanka to help provide supplies and services to ships at sea. The Logistics Hub, established on a temporary basis, provides logistics support to U.S. Navy ships operating in the Indian Ocean. It involves the use of a Sri Lanka airport and storage facilities for large-scale shipments.  Items will thereafter be sent out to ships at sea. The supplies will be sent first to aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Trincomalee, for distribution to the ships, said the US statement on the matter.

The primary purpose of the Logistics Hub is to provide mission-critical supplies and services to U.S. Navy ships operating in the Indian Ocean.  The Hub would also be used to provide logistics support during humanitarian and disaster relief missions (HADR). The US statement also noted that this logistics hub in Sri Lanka will demonstrate the U.S. Navy’s ability to establish a temporary logistics hub in a country which did not have a previous connection to the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy has begun a temporary cargo transfer initiative that promotes Sri Lanka’s efforts to become a regional hub for logistics and commerce, reported the media in January 2019.  The first two transfers were in August 2018 at Bandaranaike International Airport and Trincomalee and in December 2018 at Bandaranaike International Airport.” The third was in January 2019.

US announced that “From January 21 to 29, 2019 the U.S. Navy will perform a transfer operation to move cargo between planes at Bandaranaike International Airport .This is part of a larger temporary cargo transfer initiative that promotes Sri Lanka’s efforts to become a regional hub for logistics and commerce.  The January transfers will contribute approximately 25 million Sri Lankan Rupees to the country’s economy. 

“Under the initiative, several U.S. naval aircraft are scheduled to land and depart from the commercial airport, bringing in a variety of non-lethal supplies.  The supplies will be transferred between planes and then flown to the ship U.S.S. John C. Stennis” at sea.  Supplies may include personal mail for sailors, paper goods, spare parts and tools, and other items.  No cargo, military equipment, or personnel associated with this initiative will remain in Sri Lanka after the completion of the cargo transfer.”

The January transfer was photographed by the media. Our pictures show supplies being loaded to a US aircraft to be taken from the Bandaranaike International Airport to the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis which is in International waters off Sri Lanka, said Sunday Times. The cargo was brought to the BIA by a US military cargo plane from Bahrain. 

Lasanda Kurukulasuriya commented at length on the matter. In December, 2018 the world’s superpower pulled off a heist in terms of extending its military footprint in Sri Lanka and, by extension, in the Indian Ocean, she said.

Between 24– 29 January, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet for a second time carried out what it called a ‘temporary cargo transfer initiative’ in Sri Lanka using the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), to move supplies on to the US aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis, located off Sri Lankan waters.

 During the previous December operation involving the same aircraft carrier, the US had set up what it called a ‘logistics hub’ in Sri Lanka “to receive support, supplies and services” for US Navy ships operating in the Indian Ocean. The BIA was used for US military planes to bring in supplies, and for aircraft aboard the John C Stennis to fly in, load, and ferry them back.

The planes that gained entry to Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), which is a commercial airport, were military craft. They do not come under Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It remains unclear whose jurisdiction these military craft would come under, while in Sri Lankan airspace and on Sri Lankan soil. Asked if the CAA had any role in the operation, Director General of Civil Aviation said “The Defence Ministry informed us that they had granted approval for the operation.” The CAA had nothing to do with military craft and has no control in this regard. Military related matters were totally under government control and public accountability too was government’s responsibility, he said.

Sri Lanka Customs, Police and Military have no power to inspect the cargo, observed Lasanda. There is no information on whether duties or charges are levied for services. A US embassy statement says “Supplies may include personal mail for sailors, paper goods, spare parts and tools, and other items,” which sounds innocuous enough. But the next sentence says: “No cargo, military equipment, or personnel associated with this initiative will remain in Sri Lanka after the completion of the cargo transfer.” Why would military equipment or personnel be mentioned here, unless there is a possibility that they could be part of such transfers. Also who would adjudicate if an accident or crime involving US aircraft or personnel takes place causing death or injury to Sri Lankans, or damage to property, asked Lasanda.

Lasanda noted that the embassy tried to present this activity as a series of commercial transactions” that promotes Sri Lanka’s efforts to become a regional hub for logistics and commerce” (embassy news release). In a statement on the Sri Lanka cargo transfer operation the 7th Fleet’s Logistics Readiness Cell chief Lt. Austin Gage hinted at such an approach when he said: “We are generating standard operating procedures to optimize our supply chain to be more agile and mobile and utilize strategic locations in the Indian Ocean.”

Another US statement however has reportedly described the facility as a “military logistics hub,”   showing that Sri Lanka is being used for military purposes. Washington-based Daya Gamage in an Asian Tribune report of 31.01.19 quotes a  Jan. 23rd statement issued by the US mission in Colombo saying: “The United States Navy is doing a cargo transfer operation at Sri Lanka’s main international airport under a plan to use the island’s location to make it a MILITARY LOGISTICS HUB” (emphasis added).The US statements have been careful to avoid mentioning where, off Sri  Lanka  waters, the aircraft carrier was anchored, and where the military logistics hub is physically located. But local media reports point to Trincomalee. This new arrangement between the US and Sri Lanka is military in its stated objective of servicing US naval craft in the Indian Ocean.

Nowadays the US strategy is not to establish full-blown, costly military bases overseas but to use the ‘Lily-pad’ concept, whereby it increases its force deployment globally, but with a smaller footprint, observed Lasanda. Lily pad” is more nimble when it comes to moving equipment and personnel to where they are required in a contingency. The Lily-pad approach involves bilateral arrangements with strategically located states, sometimes called ‘Status of Forces Agreements.’

The rights sought to be secured through such ‘Status of Forces agreements usually include, access to facilities free of charge, right to own and operate telecommunication systems and use radio spectrum, waiver of claims for damages and losses including death to personnel both military and civilian, disputes to be settled by consultation between parties and not through referral to any national or international court. The Maldives refused to sign such an agreement with the US, concluded Lasanda.

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY’S INDO-PACIFIC ENDEAVOUR 2019  

Australia and her allies Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom have increased their military-to-military cooperation with Sri Lanka after 2015, reported the media. Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper acknowledged Sri Lanka’s location on a vital maritime corridor in the Indian Ocean,

Sri Lanka was an important strategic node in the Indian Ocean region, a major area of interest for the Royal Australian Navy. Sri Lanka’s location on a vital maritime corridor in the Indian Ocean has seen Australia gradually increase defence cooperation,” the White Paper noted. High profile Australian Defence Force officers have attended a string of Sri Lankan defence seminars and discussions in the last few years.

The Royal Australian Navy annually conducts a multilateral defence cooperation exercise,  known as Indo-Pacific Endeavour with the objective of helping regional security and stability. In 2019,  for Indo-Pacific Endeavour1,000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel  participated in a series of  activities and military training exercises during port visits in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam  in Sri Lanka both Colombo and Trincomalee harbors were included in the exercise.

A Joint task force of 1,000 Australian Defence Forces (ADF) personnel consisting of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel arrived for this program in Sri Lanka. Four Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Canberra, Success, Newcastle, and Parramatta arrived. HMAS Success was a replenishment oil tanker, HMAS Parramatta was a frigate. HMAS Canberra and HMAS Newcastle arrived at the port of Colombo while HMAS Success and HMAS Parramatta entered the port of Trincomalee. A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) was also scheduled to visit Mattala International Airport as part of the joint exercise.

The 230.9m long and 7.9m wide HMAS Canberra, has a displacement of 27500 tons and a crew of 483 officers and sailors onboard. HMAS Newcastle  has a displacement of 4200 tons and a crew of 205 officers and sailors onboard, is 138.1m long and 7.9m in width. HMAS Success, is 157.2m in length and 8.4m in width and has a displacement of 17900 tons with a crew of 178 officers and sailors onboard. HMAS Parramatta which has a displacement of 3900 tons and a crew of 190 officers and sailors onboard, is 118m long and 6.2m in width.

ADF personnel and their Sri Lankan counterparts engaged in several training exercises and activities aimed at improving cooperation and familiarity between the armed forces of the two nations and exploring opportunities to further promote regional stability.  Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) and Maritime Surveillance were key areas.  Other areas included helicopter exchange operations, Maritime domain awareness activities. In Trincomalee  the  activity  focused on Navy-to-Navy engagement between the two countries,” concentrating  on inter-operability. The ADF  delegation also visited several Sri Lankan military training establishments  including the Kukule Ganga Peace Operations Training Centre.  There were o Sports events between  the two groups and  a Tri Forces Band performance with Australian Defense Force Band.

This is our first stop in the IPE 2019 mission. it is an important stop given the history Sri Lanka holds in the Indian Ocean in the present time and, I believe, the future,” said Commander of the Joint Task Force. He expressed Australia’s desire to be part of Sri Lanka’s involvement in the Indian Ocean. . We would like Sri Lanka to have us as a strategic partner in the Indian Ocean,” he stated.

JAPAN-SRI  LANKA PARTNERSHIP

Both Japan and the US,  saw Sri Lanka as of great importance in the overall Indo-Pacific strategy, after Yahapalana government took power. Kentaro Sonoura,  Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan, visited  Sri Lanka in  February 2019.”  Before that, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera visited  in August 2018, the first Japanese defense minister to visit Sri Lanka.

Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kazuyuki Nakane, also visited in August 2018, and further consolidated  the ‘Comprehensive Partnership’ between the two countries. The first such post-World War II Japan-Sri Lanka agreement was reached in early October 2015,. The far reaching agreement came into being, following Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s three-day visit to Japan, in October 2015, on the invitation extended by Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe. The joint declaration, issued at the end of the visit, dealt with the Japan-Sri Lanka naval cooperation among other issues. Abe and Wickremesinghe agreed on close military cooperation between the two countries, particularly on maritime security, including port calls by the vessels of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF).

Japan has  singled out Trincomalee as one of three in the Indian Ocean to be developed as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “free and open Indo-Pacific strategy.” The other two are Myanmar’s Dawei and Bangladesh’s Matarbari. Interestingly, Japan praised Sri Lanka for co-sponsoring the Oct 2015 Geneva Resolution. In fact, all Co-Chairs appreciate Sri Lanka co-sponsoring a Resolution against its own interests, at heavy political expense, back at home, observed Shamindra Ferdinando. 

OFFICE OF RESIDENT DEFENCE ADVISOR, BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION, COLOMBO 

The UK has again set up an Office of Resident Defence Advisor at the British High Commission, Colombo after a lapse of ten years, reported the media in 2019. The UK suspended defence relations with Sri Lanka during the tail end of the second term of Rajapaksa administration over accountability issues.

Since we announced the re-establishment of defence relations in 2015, a Non-Resident Defence Advisor based in New Delhi has managed our defence relationship with Sri Lanka, said  the  High Commission in January 2019. Changing this to a resident position enables us to work more closely with Sri Lanka on defence issues as a Commonwealth partner and friend; to support the Sri Lankan armed forces as they work towards modernization and reform; and help them to play a positive role in fulfilling Sri Lanka’s commitments to the UN Human Rights Council.”

MODERNISING LEGAL  SYSTEM.

USAID is   working with the Justice Ministry, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), the Legal Aid Commission (LAC), provincial bar associations, educational and research institutions, and key NGOs towards  modernizing Sri Lanka’s judicial system, said USAID in 2018.   This  will  improve the quality of the profession and deliver a justice system fit for the future”.  This is handled by the USAID Coherent, Open, Responsive, And Effective Justice Programme (CORE Justice. USAID  is  funding several   other projects, to the tune of more than Rs. 4.5 billion  for youth employment, rule of law and reconciliation.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE, MISSING PERSONS

In 2018   Washington,  decided to  allocate USD 35 million to Sri Lanka , exclusively  for programmes relating to the identification and resolution of cases of missing persons  and certain transitional justice mechanisms.

These include repealing laws that do not comply with international standards for arrest and detention by security forces, investigating allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture, supporting a justice mechanism as identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and returning military-occupied lands in war-affected areas to their original owners. In addition, the US government called for substantially reducing the presence of the armed forces in former conflict zones” and restructuring the military for a peacetime role that aids in reconciliation. The bill also states that USD 500,000 in military assistance can only be used in humanitarian and disaster response preparedness and maritime security.

AMERICAN CORNER

The US embassy has launched a new American Corner at the Matara Chamber of Commerce and Industry   in March 2019. This Corner fulfills a longtime dream to offer Southern Province youth more connections to U.S. culture said the ambassador. The Centre offers courses in entrepreneurship, coding, English  also  a3D printing service.  We have a wonderful library of books that will help students who want to study in the USA. We also offer educational advice services for Sri  Lanka  students who might want to pursue a degree in America.  We hope they will also learn about the United States, America and the American people at this centre.  Membership, programs, and courses are all free of charge.

RENOVATION OF SCHOOLS IN NORTH AND EAST

 U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) renovated  schools in north and east. They  renovated two schools in Nintavur and Soodaikkudah.   Al Mazhar Girls High School  got 12 classrooms, a 35,000-liter rainwater harvesting system, and 17 additional bathroom stalls.  Soodaikkudah School,  got five new classrooms and a 35,000-liter rainwater harvesting system. The classroom building incorporates an emergency shelter on the top floor, providing a safe location for local families in the event of a natural disaster. There was also a new handicap-accessible toilet block with ten stalls. INDOPACOM also  gave Hindu Ladies’ College, Jaffna a newly refurbished building

NDOPACOM  renovated two schools in the Eastern Province. Kavathamunai al-Ameen school saw the renovation of a classroom building and the construction of an emergency kitchen, 10,000 liter rainwater harvesting system, and ahandicap-accessible bathroom.  Abdul Cader school  project renovated a classroom building and constructed an emergency kitchen, 10,000 liter rainwater harvesting system, and a handicap-accessible bathroom.  ( Continued)

Book Review: By Maximus Jayantha Anandappa (Sydney, Australia)

The recipient of the prestigious Swarna Pusthaka Award for the best novel in 2018, Saman Wickramaarachchi’s Appachchi Avith” (titled Name of the Father” in English) has been commended as an unqualified success in the Sinhala social and print media which had prompted me to pen my comments on the book.

To me as a whole the novel is fundamentally flawed, too contrived and unconvincing with little literary merit to speak of, or to savour.  In keeping with what appears to be the contemporary norm, written in vernacular Sinhala, I found the book to be easy light reading and generally jejune (partly due to the quality of the language and partly due to the lack of sincerity of the novelist and his superficial level of observation).  As soon as finished reading the book, I was struck by this involuntary thought: If this work can win a major award as the best novel and also receive high ‘critical acclaim’ from the literary fraternity, the contemporary Sinhala literature and criticism is in dire straits and in a serious crisis”.

The author has stated that his narration is a hybrid of hypothesis (theory) and fiction (niyaaya ha prabandaya: න්යාය හා ප්රබන්ධය) a technique though may be a novelty to the Sinhala reader, has been recently used by few others in overseas.  This particular technique which is being promoted as its innovative strength has led to multiple weaknesses and limitations.  (It may be worthwhile to recount that Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1862-69) with its narration interspersed with a long chapter on military theory and author’s views on history as an epilogue is possibly an early precursor to this technique)

I will expound on that point later, but to start with, whether this book can qualify as a full length novel is debatable.  This should qualify more as a novella or a long short story.  If printed on the standard A5 size paper with standard margins, Appachchi Avith” is likely to be a slim book of 115-120 pages.  On a smaller 4.75 inch x 7 inch paper, with generous margins and white spaces and a larger font this runs to 223 pages.  I would not bicker with the length so much if the content has substance and literary merit.  I can only assume that the judging panel was not unfair by other novelists when picking Appachchi Avith” as the best novel in spite of its short length, obvious faults and the pretentious shallow nature.  Having not read the other novels shortlisted I cannot comment on these.

The Modern and the Postmodern Novel

Admittedly the writer has made a conscious attempt to emulate the genre of the modern or the postmodern novel and adapt a new narrative technique for his discourse.  Hence it may be relevant at the outset to briefly look at some features or aspects of the modern or the postmodern novel as a means to provide a framework to critique.

Modernist literature is characterised by a conscious effort to break away from the traditional way of writing which includes a clear beginning, middle and an end (or an introduction, the conflict and the resolution).  Historically the third-person omniscient perspective has been the most commonly used in narrative writing: it is seen in countless classics by those 19^th century masters including the works of Dickens, Turgenev, Tolstoy and George Eliot to mention a few.  An omniscient narrator will present an all-encompassing point of view, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of his story from his inner eye including what each of the characters is thinking and feeling and how should be acting in a situation.  The omniscient writer ideally is a great psychologist like a Tolstoy, a Dostoevsky or a Flaubert with an unfailing insight to his characters, so that the characters can be presented to us with unerring vividness as if they are real life characters.  The ever reliable omniscient narrator will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the truthfulness or the objective of the plot or the realization of his themes is not compromised.

Pioneers of the modern novel can be traced to the likes of Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dolloway-1925 To the Lighthouse -1927), James Joyce (Ulysses -1922) and Franz Kafka with some important precursors being Dostoevsky and Conrad.  The postmodern novel which starts in around early 1950’s after the outbreak of the 2nd World War is virtually an extension of the modern novel (Source: Wikipedia).

The modern or the postmodern novelist has been looking for more flexibility on his role.  Critics generally agree that the modern and the postmodern novel can be characterized by reliance on narrative techniques involving fragmentation, paradox, an unreliable narrator; rejection of the rigid boundaries between high and low art, lack of clarity in the way characters behave, use of irony satire and metaphor.

Stream of Consciousness is a new narrative voice used by some modern novelists- notable early exponents being Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust.  Stream of consciousness– loosely comparable to an internal monologue can be described as a literary style in which a character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by narrative description or conventional dialogue.

Themes of the Novel

Appachchi Avith is a clear attempt to break away from the third person omniscient narration- the novelist has leant to a large extent on the Stream of Consciousness as a literary style or a narrative technique.

Let us now move on to critically looking at Appachchi Avith”. The novel is underpinned by two interdependent themes.  According to the author, the primary or the central theme is derived from a concept the French psychologist Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) presented (in mid1950’s) to cover the role of Father in the Symbolic order which he termed The Name of the Father” from which the English title of the book is derived.  This concept (though downplayed by Lacan himself later) describes the influence of cultural and social law within the family associated with the actual figure of the Father.  Taking Name of the Father” as a signifier Lacan postulated Father as a symbolic function to which all group or community members are subject to, a community or a family cannot function without the influence of the Father who can be the Real, Symbolic or an Imaginary Father. 

The other theme of the novel is a study of a paranoid / schizophrenic / psychotic government official and his interaction with his family and the workplace.

The storyline can be summarised as follows:  Nissanka Senadheera the protagonist is a senior executive officer in public service and is married to Sumali whom he had met whilst studying in the same university.  They have a 10 year old daughter, Sumudu.  Sumali works in a bank.  Nissanka’s manager is Nihal Samaradivakara who is about to retire from service which will open the door for Nissanka, his next promotion as the director.  With a humble beginning Nissanka have been raised in a dysfunctional family headed by a drunkard father with loose morals.  Though the medical doctors (surprisingly) fail in clinical diagnosis and declare him as a normal” person, Nissanka suffers from paranoia / schizophrenia/psychosis but is blissfully ignorant of his condition.  Nissanka imagines that his infirm ageing” father had come back to live in his household again.  He is obsessed with communicating” secretly with the father endlessly.  His father in fact had died sometime back and all these encounters are hallucinations in his schizophrenic mind.  In all these imaginary dialogues/ monologues, with his patronizing ways it is the Father who has the first and the last say in keeping with Lacan’s concept.  He is virtually possessed” by his father.  Unable to cope with the husband’s highly irrational behaviour, Sumali leaves him, taking away the daughter with her.  Highlighted by irregular attendance, negligence of duties with very serious lapses, his behaviour in office is equally absurd.  Culmination of this story is that Nissanka kills his wife and daughter by slitting their throat after preplanning murder.

The novel unfolds roughly in three parts.  It opens in a courthouse with statements of three key witnesses after the double murder had been committed.  Through the statements of their inquisitive neighbour Hilda Gunawardena (the first to visit the murder scene), Sumali’s father and Samaradivakara, Nissanka’s manager who is the head of a government department, the reader is presented with some key points of the storyline and how the characters notably the protagonist should be perceived.  Once the testimonial of the three witnesses is over, the author moves on to the second part presenting pages and pages of monologue / dialogue Nissanka is having with his (non-existing) father and other fantasies or hallucinations caused by his paranoid / schizophrenic / psychotic mental state.  With these discourses the reader is provided with an insight to the character of Nissanka, his relationship with his father, mother, school teachers, his father’s past, university life, his wife and child, workplace relationships and his (imagined) amorous adventures. 

In the final concluding part the writer brings the reader back to the courthouse where the lawyer (or the novelist) presents his argument in defence of the accused (Nissanka)- the argument in fact is a lecture to the (ignorant) Judge on the psychological theories the writer is attempting to expound.  This is intended to be the hypothetical or the theoretical part of the book that would explain the enigmatic behaviour of the protagonist.  Reminiscent of the final courthouse scene in Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho (in which a psychiatrist explains why the protagonist having killed his mother out of jealousy and mummifies the corpse), the final courthouse scene in Appachchi Avith is the least convincing part of the book.  Meant to shed light on the enigmatic behaviour of Nissanka, it exposes writer’s bankruptcy or the superficiality of his approach.  The lecture to the Judge is limited to providing fleeting reference to the likes of Kafka, Lacan and Freud and their work.  In the course of presenting his case of the defence, the lawyer even offers his own whimsical psychological explanation on Michael Jackson’s appearance and why he bleached his skin which is contrary to what the autopsy revealed after Jackson died.  In the end the defence lawyer urges the Jury to, instead of acquitting the accused, to declare that he is mentally deranged. 

Fundamental Flaw

The writer has committed a serious mistake in combining two starkly different psychological themes- both (Name of the Father and paranoia/ schizophrenia/ psychosis) warranting serious reflective analysis- but neither been addressed seriously enough.  His lack of serious intent was evident throughout his narration.  It looked as if the novelist was hell-bent to produce a book with certain features of the modern novel and use vernacular language to make it marketable and readable.  Nissanka was used as his mouthpiece.

Lacan’s Name of the Father concept is an untested theory but paranoia/ schizophrenia / psychosis are not mere concepts- they are malaises that can be medically described, diagnosed and treated to a large extent.  The writer seems only to have a superficial grasp of paranoia and schizophrenia- a major social malaise that needs serious and sympathetic attention. (There is evidence that at least 0.3 – 0.7% of the population suffers with schizophrenia).  In a country such as Sri Lanka, with the majority labelling anyone even with the slightest mental health issue as social outcasts or mentally deranged, Wickramaarachchi should have demonstrated more responsibility and maturity when dealing with a theme involving mental health.  The triumphant indictment at the end of the novel that Nissanka should be declared as a mentally deranged person, illustrates the novelist’s insensitive and unsympathetic attitude towards mental health issues.

Given that schizophrenic patients are likely to be subjected to hallucinations, the writer’s primary interest in Nissanka has been to use him merely as a vehicle to present his concept on Name of the Father through his schizophrenic hallucinations.  Trying to validate Lacan’s Name of the Father concept through the eyes of a schizophrenic patient was possibly a deliberate ploy, as it gives the writer the freedom to create a fanciful storyline replete with juicy incidents or tales (such as Nissanka’s father eloping with his mother, Nissanka’s amorous adventures etc) to cater for the popular taste.

When embarking on this novel, if the intention of the writer was to educate the Sinhala reader (who cannot read English) on psychological concepts such as Oedipus complex, the Primordial father, Name of the Father formulated by the likes of Freud and Lacan, it is a positive move that is commendable but the writer should take upon such a task seriously and with sincerity.  Sketchy references in the final courthouse scene to the works of Freud, Lacan, Muriel Gardiner, Paul Schreber et al and the creative fiction of Kafka sounded more like a pretentious apology or a camouflage for his deficiencies- adding nothing to the narrative.  His interpretation on Michael Jackson’s skin colour is not only an irrelevant digression from the storyline but is a misrepresentation as the autopsy proved that Jackson suffered from a skin condition known as vitiligo.

I am not challenging the writer’s freedom for artistic expression, but he is guilty of trivialising the mental health of his hapless protagonist Nissanka who needs a sympathetic study.  As an artist the writer ought to have shown more sensibility and discipline and certainly a better appreciation of mental health issues.  In the end he has produced a book which looks very phoney and fake and I am amazed how such a work could bag a major literary award.  On the other hand where the standards of art had plummeted down to an unprecedented level, it is not fair to expect fictional writing to stand tall in exception.  Sign of the times, perhaps.

Maximus Jayantha Anandappa (Sydney)

anandappaj@yahoo.com.au

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

ඉන්ටෙල් ඉන්ටනැෂනල් සමාගම විසින් පවත්වන විද්‍යාව සහ ඉංජිනේරු භාවිතය පිළිබඳ ඉන්ටෙල් ජාත්‍යන්තර සමුළුව සඳහා නොයෙකුත් රටවල නව නිර්මාණ කරුවන් සාභාගි වෙති. 2008 වසරේ සිට ලංකාවේ නව නිපැයුම් හපනුන් ද මෙම තරඟයට එක්ව සිටිති. එහිදී වැදගත්ම කරුණ වූයේ එක් වර්ෂයක් ඇරුණු කොට සෑම වර්ෂයකම ලංකාවට ජයග්‍රහණයක් අත් කර දීමට හැකිවීමයි. 2019 වසරේ දී මෙම තරඟයට රටවල් හැත්තෑපහක් පමණ සාභාගිවනු ඇතැයි අපෙක්ෂා කෙරේ. මැයි මස දොලොස්වනදා සිට දාහත්වනදා දක්වා ඇමරිකාවේ අරිසෝනා ප්‍රාන්තයේ ෆීන්ක්ස් හිදී පැවැත්වෙන මෙම තරඟයට ලංකාවෙන් සිසුන් කණ්ඩායම් තුනක් සභාගි වෙයි. නව නිපැයුම් වලින් මුල් තැන් ගත් සිසුන් දෙදෙනෙක්ද පර්යේෂණ මගින් සොයා ගත් කරුණු සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන ජයග්‍රහණය ලැබූ තිදෙනෙක්ද මේ අතර වෙයිගමෙම ලිපියට පාදක වනුයේ කළුතර ඥානෝදය විදුහලේ සිසුන් තිදෙනෙකු අම්ල වැසි සහ වී වර්ග පිළිබඳ කරන ලද පර්යේෂණයයි

අම්ල වැසි වැටීම නූතන ලෝකයේ කාර්මික විප්ලවයේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙසට සැලකෙයි. අධික ලෙසට පොසිල ඉන්ධන භාවිතා කිරීම නිසා වායුගෝලීය උෂ්ණත්වය ඉහළට යෑම ඕසෝන් වියන සිදුරු වීම යන කාරණා මේවාට හේතු වන බව සොයා ගෙන තිබේ. අම්ල වැසි වැටීම නිසා බරපතල හානි සිදු වන්නේ කෘෂිකර්මය ජීවනෝපාය කරගත් ජනතාවටයි. ඔවුන්ගේ භෝග වගාවන් අසාර්ථක වීම පැළවීමේ ප්‍රතිශතයන් අඩු වීම මෙන්ම නව කෘමි ගහනයන් ඇකි වීම වැනි විපත් වලට මෙහිදී මුහුණ දෙන්නට වන බව ට පූර්ව කථනයක් සිදු වී තිබේ. කළුතර ඥනෝදය විදුහලේ දොලොස්වන වසරේ ඉගෙනුම ලබන සිසුන් තිදෙනෙකු තම පර්යේෂණයට බඳුන් කර ගන්නේ මෙම අභීයෝගයයි. ඒ සඳහා ඔවුහු දැනට ලංකාවේ බහුලව වගා කරන වී වර්ග කීපයක් මෙන්ම පාරම්පරිකව වගා කළ වී වර්ග කීපයක් අධ්‍යනයට බසුන් කළහ. එයට හේතුව ලංකවේ ප්‍රධාන ආහාරය වන සහල් නිෂ්පාදනය බිඳු වැටුණහොත් ඒ මගින් වන හානිය සුළු පටු නොවන බැවිනි.
මෙම පර්යෙෂණය සඳහා අනුග්‍රහය දකවීමට පහතරට තෙත්කලාපීය වී පර්යේෂණානය වන බෝඹුවල පර්යේෂණායතනයේ විද්‍යාඥයන් ඉදිරිපත් වීම සැබවීන්ම මෙම සිසුන්ට බලවත් සවියක් වූ බව කිව යුතුය. එහි අධ්‍යක්ෂිකා දීපිකා වීරසිංහ මහත්මිය මේ සඳහා සෘජු සහාය පළ කරමින් අවශ්‍ය වී වර්ග සැපයීමට උනන්දු වී තිබේ. මෙම ජාත්‍යන්තර තරඟයට සිසුන් තෝරා යැවීමේදී ලංකාව පුරා විසිරී සිටින පුංචි විද්‍යාඥයන් අතර තරඟ වට කීපයක් පවත්වයි. එම තරඟ සංවිධානය කරනු ලබන්නේ ජාතික විද්‍යාපදනමේ විද්‍යාව ප්‍රචලිත කිරීමේ අංශයයි. එසේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉංජිනේරු ආයතනය සහ ඉන්ටෙල් සමාගමද මෙයට සාභාගි වේ. තරඟ වට කීපයක් පවත්වා එහිදී දස්කම් දක්වන සිසුන් අවසානයේදී ජගත් තරඟයට සුදුසුකම් ලබති. මෙවර මේ සඳහා සුදුසුකම් ලැබ තිඛෙන්නේ කළුතර ඥානෝදය විදුහලේ රංසික සෙනෙවිරත්න චනුත් දෙනුවන් සහ සචින් රවිනාත් යන තිදෙනාය. ඔවුහු ලෝකයේ අම්ල වැසි පිළිබඳ වර්තමානයේ පවතින අභියෝගයන් මුලින්ම අධ්‍යනය කළ බව එම විදුහලේ විද්‍යා උපදේශිකා විනීතා පෙරේරා මහත්මිය පැවසිය . විශේෂයෙන්ම පුත්තලම් දිස්ත්‍රික්කය තුළ මේ වනවිටත් අම්ල වැසි වාර්තා වීම නිසා ඉදිරියේදී රට විශාල අභියෝයන්ට මුහුණ දෙන බව මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡාවට ලක් වී තිබේ. ඇගේ මග පෙන්වීම අනුව කේගඩීගඑන්ග උඩවත්ත විද්‍යා ආචාරිණියගේ මෙහෙයවීම මත මේ සිසුන් තිදෙන රසායනාගාරය තුළ පර්යේෂණ ආරම්බ කර තිබේ.
වගා කරන වී වර්ගයන්හි පැළවීමේ ප්‍රතිශතය සාමාන්‍ය යෙන් සියයට අසූපහ ඉක්ම විය යුතුය. මෙහිදී ආම්ල ද්‍රාවණ කීපයක නියැදි සමග තනුක ජල ද්‍රවණයක් ද යොදා ගනිමින් වී වර්ග හයක පැළවීමේ ප්‍රතිශයතය ගණනය කර ඇත. මේ සඳහා භාවිතා කර තිබෙන්නේ බීගඩබ්ග 272 6බී බී.ඩබ් 372 බී. ඩබ් 367 යන අභිජනන වී වර්ගත් රන්තවාලු හේරත් බණ්ඩා සහ සුවඳ සම්බා යන දේශීය ප්‍ර භේද තුනය. මෙම පර්ය්ෂණය අවසානයේ වූ නිගමනය වනුයේ සුවඳ සම්බා සහ හෙරත් බණ්ඩා යන දේශීය වී වර්ග දෙක ඉතා හොඳ පැලවීමේ ශක්තියකින් ක්‍රියාකළ බවයි. රන්තවාලු යන දේශිය වී වර්ගයත් 272 6 බී. යන දෙමුහුන් වර්ගයත් ඉතා අඩු පැළවීමේ ප්‍රතිශතයක් වාර්තා කළ බවද අනෙක් වර්ග තුනම පැළවීම සිදු නොවී තිබූ ආකාරයද මෙහිදී නිරීක්ෂණය වී තිබේ.
මිනිස් මැදිහත් වීමක් නොමැතිව වසර දහස් ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ රටේ භූගෝලීය වටපිටාවට අනුව නිර්මාණය වූ දේශිය වී ප්‍ර භේදයන් ආම්ලික තාවයට ඔරොත්තු දීම පුදුමයක් නම් නොවේ. විශේෂයෙන්ම බස්නාහිර තෙත් කලාපයේ වර්ධනය වූ වර්ග යකඩ මළ විසවීම ලවණ තාවය ගංවතුරාව වැනි ස්වභාවික සහ දේශගුණික විපරීතතාවයන්ට නිතරම මුහුණ දුන් වර්ගයන් වෙති. නමුත් මිනිස් මැදිහත් වීමකින් නිර්මාණය වූ අනෙකුත් වර්ග ඔරොත්තු නොදීම පිළිබදව මෙහිදී පර්යේෂකයන් නැවත වරක් සොයා බැලිය යුතු බවටද මෙම පර්යේසණය විසින් පෙන්වා දී තිබේ. මිනිස් මැදිහත්වීමකදී නිතරම අඩු ප්‍රතිශක්තිකරණයක් ජනිත වන අතර අස්වනු වැඩි කර ගැනීමේ ප්‍රවණතාවය මත ලෙ රෝග නොසලකා හැර තිබේ. එම නිසා විශාල වශයෙන් වස විස යොදන්නටද සිදුව ඇතගකොළඹ නාලන්ද විදුහලේ සිසුවෙකුද දේශීය වී වර්ග මගින් දියවැඩියා පාලනය කර ගැනීම ගැන පර්යේෂණයක් කොට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන බව මෙම තරඟය සංවිධානය කළ ජාතික විද්‍යා පදනමේ විද්‍යාව ප්‍රචලිත කිරීමේ අංශ ප්‍රධානී ආචාර්ය පී ආර්එම්පී ඩිල්රුක්ෂි මහත්මිය පැවසීය. ජාතික විද්‍යා පදනමේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් මහචාර්ය ආනන්ද ජයවර්ධන මහතා ගේ පූර්ණ අධීක්ෂණය යටතේ මෙම තරඟයන් සංවිධානය කළ බවද ඇය පැවසීය.
මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

I am writing this snippet to elaborate how Sri Lankan Have failed to win the heart of customers making them Cool.”

I have a generator which is being serviced by a Company with Cool Air . I called the company mobile number found in the website and the person who picked up the phone was none other than the Managing Director/CEO  of the company.

This Company has an annual contract with me to service the Generator throughout the year .

I introduced myself and inquired whether a technician can visit my house to fit an Automatic Changeover switch to my generator so that I do not have to go to the generator to put off when CEB power returns.

Before I completed my request the CEO of the company refused to help citing that he is very busy and he cannot attend to any inquiry .I told him that it is very unbecoming for a CEO to have that approach.

He got further annoyed and abused me with words I do not know what type of a Doctor you bloody are and I am not going to do anything !

Well same day I went to Kaduwela Pradesheeya Sabha with my wife to inquire why her pension is not paid to the bank from August 2018.

A stark difference of behaviour pattern was observed between the state officials and the CEO of the Cool Air Company ,All female officers were polite ,accepted the form signed by the area Gramasevaka and informed her with a smile that she well get pension  with arrears with  May 2019 payment .

We were returning home with a smile and my wife who overheard my outburst with the Private Sector CEO and said that times are changing .

Public sector is becoming more and more customer orientated and told me to discontinue my contract with Cool Air . Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva

A study of the health effects of marine plastic pollution and micro-plastics is important for strengthening national and global initiatives to combat plastic pollution of our oceans”, stressed Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, addressing an interactive Panel Discussion held at the Graduate Institute of Geneva as part of the Geneva Sustainability Week.

At the interactive Panel Discussion ‘Our Plastic Future: Can the Oceans Survive?’ where a number of participants actively engaged, Ambassador Azeez elaborated Sri Lanka’s efforts and commitment towards achieving effective and non-discriminatory global environmental governance, highlighting further the measures taken by Sri Lanka in this context, including at the recently concluded Fourth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi.

Sri Lanka’s strategic path for sustainability 2030 has, as its central focus, environmentally sound development activities, complemented by international assistance including technical assistance and sharing of know-how”, he added.

Ambassador Azeez also highlighted the constructive role and contribution that Sri Lanka has made, over decades, to matters of multilateral concern impacting the nature and the environment, referring specifically to the leadership given by Sri Lanka in areas such as the Law of the Sea and innovative initiatives taken in relation to biodiversity, transboundary movement of hazardous waste and trade in endangered species.

He also drew the attention of the audience to substantive arrangements that are underway to host the 18^th Conference of Parties to the the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in Colombo, from 23 May to 3 June 2019.  

 by Lucy Patchett in Ethics, Supply chain, Sustainability  Courtesy  cips.org

Sri Lankan tea plantations in the central highland district of Nuwara Eliya are being investigated by the Rainforest Alliance and the Fairtrade Foundation for abusing labour workers rights and breaching ethical label standards.

Investigations are underway, confirmed The Rainforest Alliance and the Fairtrade Foundation, and said that if plantations are found to be in violation of the ethical label’s standards their certification will be suspended or cancelled.

The action follows reveleations by the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) that plantation workers wages were deducted without consent, and workers were paid an average of $1.54 daily after debt repayments, salary advances, and fees. On average, 74% wage deductions were made at Fairtrade-certified states, and 65% of wages were taken from workers at Rainforest Alliance-certified estates, according to the TRF .

Giri Kadurugamuwa, Sri Lankan consulting programme co-ordinator for the Rainforest Alliance, told SM: The Rainforest Alliance is currently working with the authorised certification body responsible for the audits of these estates (NEPCon). Once these investigative audits conclude we will post the results online.”

A spokesperson from Fairtrade International told SM: Fairtrade believes that all farmers and workers deserve to earn a decent living for what they produce. We are conducting a review of our tea standard this year and have also commissioned a living wage benchmark for Sri Lanka. Defining what a living wage would be in the region is urgently needed to bring stakeholders to the table to work towards more sustainable livelihoods for tea workers.”

The TRF investigated tea estates across the central district, and gathered seventeen worker payslips from nine Rainforest-certified tea estates, six of which were certified by Fairtrade.

Estate managers and workers revealed to the TRF that quota policies were implemented across the tea estates sanctioning workers by halving daily wages when they picked less than 18kg a day or arrived fifteen minutes late, according to TRF report. The deductions were in direct violation of labour laws, TRF said.

Tea giants, Unilever and Tetley (owned by Tata Global beverages), have also issued investigations to follow up on the findings, according to TRF. Transparency in the two company’s supply chains increased after their suppliers were made public after pressure from the Who picked my tea?” campaign by Traidcraft Exchange, following a similar investigation that revealed poor working conditions in certified and uncertified plantations in India.

A spokesperson from The Rainforest Alliance added: The Rainforest Alliance is continuously working to improve its certification programme. We have recently taken steps to increase the assurance mechanisms of audits including increased and regular unannounced audits. We are currently developing a new certification program and standard (following our recent merger with UTZ) which will be published later this year.”

Exclusive by Lorna Knowles, ABC Investigations and Siobhan Heanue, South Asia correspondent Courtesy ABC News

PHOTO: Cows on Lammermoor Estate in Sri Lanka were part of the Australian export program. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)RELATED STORY: Aus jerseys hand-picked for Sri Lanka

Hundreds of Australian and New Zealand cattle have died in a Federal Government-backed export deal with Sri Lanka, which local farmers say has left them broke, and in some cases, suicidal.

Key points:

• About 500 Australian and New Zealand dairy cows have died after being shipped to Sri Lanka
• The scheme was underwritten by an Australian Government loan of $100 million
• The Sri Lankan auditor-general says the cows aren’t thriving because of climatic conditions and disease, and the scheme should be shut down

Farmers and animal rights groups, as well as Sri Lanka’s own auditor-general, want the export project stopped because they say it is poorly planned and inhumane.

The scheme was devised to improve the supply of fresh milk in Sri Lanka and reduce the country’s reliance on expensive, imported powdered milk.

Angry Sri Lankan farmers have told the ABC the “high-yielding, pregnant dairy cows” they were promised were overpriced, unhealthy and infertile.

They said 10 per cent of the 5,000 cattle imported so far had died and many were diseased.Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au

But Wellard, the West Australian live export company contracted to ship the cows to Sri Lanka and help establish the dairy farms, said the mortality rate was closer to 9 per cent but overall the scheme was a success.

The company said only a “handful” of the 68 farmers selected to receive the cattle had experienced problems because they had ignored herd management advice.

PHOTO: One farmer said 180 calves born to cows in the program died. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

‘I have a cemetery, not a farm’

The ABC has been contacted by multiple farmers, as well as the Ceylon Cattle Farmers Federation, to raise concerns about the scheme.

Amal Suriyage, who bought 200 cows last year, said the animals were in poor condition when they arrived in December.

“My staff said it looks like they have not come from Australia. Looks like they come from Ethiopia,” Mr Suriyage said.

PHOTO: Amal Suriyage owns a dairy farm in Lammermoor Estate in Hapugastenne 48 miles from Kandy in central Sri Lanka. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

He said he lost about 160 cows on his Lammermoor Estate dairy farm, and another 180 calves.

He said he would be forced to cull the remaining 40 cows because some had the highly contagious disease Mycoplasma bovis.

“What I have now are carcasses of those dead cows and calves. I think I have a cemetery, not a farm anymore,” he said.

“I feel ashamed to even mention that a country like Australia got involved in this mess.”

PHOTO: One of Mr Suriyage’s cows is buried on the farm. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

Sri Lankan business consultant Mohammed Mausook Riyal told the ABC the cows were the wrong breed for the climate, making them susceptible to disease, and farmers could not make a profit because of poor milk yield and low conception rates.

Some farmers were suicidal because they mortgaged their assets to buy the cows and now the banks were foreclosing on their properties, Mr Mohammed said.

He said each cow cost almost double what it was worth, with investors paying 200,000 Sri Lankan rupees (A$1,620) instead of 120,000 Sri Lankan rupees (A$974) per cow.

PHOTO: About 160 cows on Lammermoor Estate have died. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

“Farmers were told each cow would produce 20 litres per day when they are only producing 10-15 litres per day,” Mr Mohammed said.

He said the milk was selling for less than promised, and a special imported feed the cows needed turned out to cost more than double what they were told it would.

He spoke of one farmer who committed suicide.

“All of them have lost their dreams,” he said.

“They do not know their next step in life. They have lost everything.”

PHOTO: The surviving cattle on Lammermoor Estate will be euthanased. (ABC News Siobhan Heanue)

Cattle inspected by vets, pregnant when they left: Wellard

Wellard executive chairman John Klepec said climatic conditions in Sri Lanka were not dissimilar to other tropical areas where dairy programs had been successfully implemented.

“I’ve been to one personally myself where the output of the dairy cattle are double what we experience here in Australia,” Mr Klepec said.

He said the animals were inspected by Australian and New Zealand vets before export, and Sri Lankan vets certified them as disease-free when they were delivered.

“They were all passed fit for purpose, and in terms of the pregnancy issue, all the dairy heifers were signed off as pregnant when they went onto the ship,” Mr Klepec said.

“What happens post delivery of the cattle is subject to the farm management. Poor farm management practices will produce poor outcomes.”

He said a small “recalcitrant” group of farmers had refused to follow the advice.

PHOTO: Lammermoor Estate dairy farm manager Malik Gunasekaran with one of the cows that will be euthanased. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

“The specific mortality rate that you’re referring to on that particular farm … accounts for the large amount of abnormal deaths that occurred on the second shipment,” Mr Klepec said.

“We’re proud to be involved in a program that delivers the human welfare outcome that this program has to date — 84 million litres of milk has been produced.”

Under the deal, Wellard was contracted to import 20,000 dairy cows to Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2019.

It has already shipped 5,000 and is planning to ship the remaining 15,000 in the next 12 months.

Under the terms of the project, underwritten by the Australian Government’s export credit agency, EFIC, Wellard was required to provide Sri Lankan farmers with facilities, training and veterinary support.

In a statement, EFIC said it provided a credit facility to the Sri Lankan Government to fund the purchase of dairy cattle, but had no relationship with the individual farmers who purchased the cattle.

“EFIC provided the facility after the transaction was deemed to meet the necessary International Finance Corporation’s Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines,” the statement said.

“The cattle were also inspected and certified by Australian authorities and accepted by veterinarians from the Sri Lankan Government before departure.

“The Sri Lankan Government has responsibility for the program after the cattle arrive in Sri Lanka.”

Sri Lankan auditor-general calls for program halt

PHOTO: Animals Australia says no more Australian cows should be shipped to Sri Lanka under this program. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

The Ceylon Cattle Farmers Federation said farmers received no training or workshops and only received a small leaflet without any technical advice.

In a damning report published in May, Sri Lankan auditor-general Gamini Wijesinghe described the project as an “unbearable burden to the Government”, and said project planners had misled farmers, who had suffered “financial difficulty and mental distress”.

Mr Wijesinghe found imported dairy cows were not suited to the dry conditions in rural Sri Lanka.

He said their life spans were short, their fertility rate low and they were highly vulnerable to disease.

The report said many cows and calves had died, were diseased or were languishing in poor conditions.

Mr Wijesinghe noted that as far back as 2008, the Sri Lankan Planning Department found that imported cows were “climatically unfit” for Sri Lanka.

PHOTO: Tim Vasudeva from Animals Australia wants the export program halted. (ABC News: Jeremy Story Carter)

Animals Australia spokesman Tim Vasudeva said the scheme must be stopped.

“It’s been, from what we can see, a fairly unmitigated disaster from a human and animal welfare perspective,” Mr Vasudeva said.

Mr Vasudeva said the situation highlighted the need for changes to welfare standards for live export cattle.

“We do have formal frameworks for the export of cattle for slaughter, but not for dairy and breeder cattle,” he said.

“So basically that means those welfare protections just aren’t there.”

The Ceylon Cattle Farmers Association also wants the scheme stopped and farmers to be given refunds and reimbursed for their losses.

PHOTO: Lammermoor Estate dairy farm manager Malik Gunasekaran with one of his cows. (ABC News: Siobhan Heanue)

Topics: livestock, rural, dairy-production, sri-lanka, australia

Courtesy Miami Herald COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

Amnesty International urged Sri Lanka Wednesday to halt plans to resume executions after more than four decades, saying capital punishment will not end drug-related crimes.

The statement by the rights group came two days after Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena announced that dates have been set for the country’s first executions in 43 years amid rising alarm over drug-related crimes.

Authorities have intensified a crackdown on narcotics to deter smugglers from using the Indian Ocean island nation as a transit point for distribution in the region.

Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director of Amnesty International, said there is no perfect criminal justice system and the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated.

Courtesy China.org.cn

The Sri Lanka Army on Wednesday said it would hold the largest ever military exercise in July to coincide with 10 years since the end of the island’s 30-year civil conflict between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

In a statement, the army said the month-long military exercise will begin on July 1, with the participation of over 5,000 soldiers.

The program titled, “Exercise — Western Shield,” will extend from Mannar, in the north to Puttalam, in the north western province, including Kalpitiya, Wilpattu National Park, Mavillu and Thabbowa Forest Reserves and the Western Coastal Belt.

The exercise will provide the opportunity for army trainees to march through those areas which are not usually accessible to others except for forest conservation authorities, the army said.

The army further said that army personnel would also be trained to stay well-attuned, refreshed and upgraded to meet with any future warfare threat.

“‘Exercise — Western Shield’, the biggest ever infantry training module, will make a milestone in the army history,” the army said.

by Shashi Tharoor Courtesy RT

Screenshot from film Gandhi (1982); Director Richard Attenborough; International Film Investors; National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC); Goldcrest Films International; Indo-British; Carolina Bank

The centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is the right occasion for Britain to apologise for the evils of colonialism.

Two years ago, on the UK publication of my book Inglorious Empire: What The British Did to India, I took the unusual step of demanding an apology from Britain to India. I even suggested the time and place – the centenary, on April 13, 2019, of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. This single event was in many ways emblematic of the worst of the Raj”, the British Empire in India.

The background to the massacre lay in the British betrayal of promises to reward India for its services in the First World War. After making enormous sacrifices, and an immense contribution in men and materiel, blood and treasure, to the British war effort, Indian leaders expected to be rewarded with some measure of self-government. Those hopes were belied.

When protests broke out, the British responded with force. They arrested nationalist leaders in the city of Amritsar and opened fire on protestors, killing ten. In the riot that ensued, five Englishmen were killed and an Englishwoman assaulted (though she was rescued, and carried to safety, by Indians). Brigadier General Reginald Dyer was sent to Amritsar to restore order; he forbade demonstrations or processions, or even gathering in groups of more than three.

British colonial troops in Amritsar © Global Look Press / imago stock&people

The thousands of people who had gathered in the walled garden of Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate the major religious festival of Baisakhi were unaware of this order. Dyer did not seek to find out what they were doing. He took a detachment of soldiers in armoured cars, equipped with machine-guns, and without ordering the crowd to disperse or issuing so much as a warning, ordered his troops to open fire from close quarters. They used 1,650 rounds, killed at least 379 people (the number the British were prepared to admit to; the Indian figures are considerably higher) and wounded 1,137. Barely a bullet, Dyer noted with satisfaction, was wasted.

Dyer did not order his men to fire in the air, or at the feet of their targets. They fired, on his orders, into the chests, the faces, and the wombs of the unarmed, screaming, defenceless crowd. After it was over, he refused permission for families to tend to the dead and the dying, leaving them to rot for hours in the hot sun, and inflicted numerous other humiliations on Indians, from forcing them to crawl on their bellies on a street, where an Englishwoman had been assaulted (and beating them with rifle butts if they lifted their heads), to pettier indignities like confiscating electric fans from their homes.

Dyer never showed the slightest remorse or self-doubt.

This was a rebel meeting,” he claimed, an act of defiance of his authority that had to be punished. It was no longer a question of merely dispersing the crowd” but one of producing a ‘moral effect’ that would ensure the Indians’ submission. He noted that he had personally directed the firing towards the five narrow exits because that was where the crowd was most dense:the targets,” he declared, were good.”

Screenshot from film Gandhi (1982); Director Richard Attenborough; International Film Investors; National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC); Goldcrest Films International; Indo-British; Carolina Bank

News of Dyer’s barbarism was suppressed by the British for six months, and when outrage at reports of his excesses mounted, an attempt was made to whitewash his sins by an official commission of enquiry, which only found him guilty of ‘grave error’. Finally, as details emerged of the horror, Dyer was relieved of his command and censured by the House of Commons, but promptly exonerated by the House of Lords and allowed to retire. Rudyard Kipling, the flatulent poetic voice of British imperialism, hailed him as ‘The Man Who Saved India’.

Even this did not strike his fellow Britons as adequate recompense for his glorious act of mass murder. They ran a public campaign for funds to honour his cruelty and collected the quite stupendous sum of £26,317, 1s 10d, worth over a quarter of a million pounds today. It was presented to him together with a jewelled sword of honour.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was no act of insane frenzy but a conscious, deliberate imposition of colonial will. Dyer was an efficient killer rather than a crazed maniac; his was merely the evil of the unimaginative, the brutality of the military bureaucrat. But his action that Baisakhi day came to symbolize the evil of the system on whose behalf, and in whose defence, he was acting.

Indian visitors look towards the bullet-pocked wall at the historical Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar © AFP / NARINDER NANU

Everything about the incident – the betrayal of promises made to India, the cruelty of the killings, the brutality and racism that followed, the self-justification, exoneration and reward – collectively symbolized everything that was wrong about the Raj.

It represented the worst that colonialism could become, and by letting it occur, the British crossed that point of no return that exists only in the minds of men – that point which, in any unequal relationship, both ruler and subject must instinctively respect if their relationship is to survive.

The massacre made Indians out of millions of people who had not thought consciously of their political identity before that grim Sunday. It turned loyalists into nationalists and constitutionalists into agitators, led the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore to return his knighthood and a host of Indian appointees to British offices to turn in their commissions.

And above all it entrenched in Mahatma Gandhi a firm and unshakable faith in the moral righteousness of the cause of Indian independence from an empire he saw as irremediably evil, even satanic.

© AFP / DOUGLAS E. CURRAN

It is getting late for atonement, but not too late. Neither the Queen nor Theresa May were alive when the atrocity was committed, and certainly no British government of 2019 bears a shred of responsibility for that tragedy, but the nation that once allowed it to happen should atone for its past sins.

That is what German Chancellor Willy Brandt did by going onto his knees in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970, even though as a Social Democrat he was himself a victim of Nazi persecution and innocent of any complicity in it. It is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised in 2016 on behalf of Canada for the actions of his country’s authorities a century earlier in denying permission for the Indian immigrants on the Komagata Maru to land in Vancouver, thereby sending many of them to their deaths.

Brandt’s and Trudeau’s gracious apologies need to find their British echo. Former Prime Minister David Cameron’s rather mealy-mouthed description of the massacre in 2013 as a deeply shameful event” is hardly an apology. Nor is the ceremonial visit to the site in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, who merely left their signatures in the visitors’ book, without even a redeeming comment.

My call is for a British minister or a member of the Royal Family to find the heart, and the spirit, to get on his or her knees at Jallianwala Bagh in 2019 and apologise to the Indian people for the unforgivable massacre that was perpetrated at that site a century earlier. Along with such an apology, the British could start teaching unromanticized colonial history in their schools and decolonise their museums, which are full of looted artefacts from other countries.

READ MORE: ‘Temples to colonial theft’: Western museums should return looted artifacts to where they belong

The British public is woefully ignorant of the realities of the British empire, and what it meant to its subject peoples. These Brexit days have rekindled in the UK a yearning for the Raj, in gauzy romanticised television soap operas and overblown fantasies about reviving the Empire as an alternative to Europe. If British schoolchildren can learn how those dreams of the English turned out to be nightmares for their subject peoples, true atonement – of the purely moral kind, involving a serious consideration of historical responsibility rather than mere admission of guilt – might be achieved. An apology for, and at, Jallianwala Bagh would be the best place to start, and its centenary the best time to do so.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor

Dr. Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, author, and former international civil servant

 lanka C news

‘නිකන් පලයන් යකෝ යන්න පර බල්ලා’ යැයි කියමින් රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යවසාය, කන්ද උඩරට උරුමය සහ මහනුවර සංවර්ධන ඇමැති ලක්ෂ්මන් කිරිඇල්ල මහතා විසින් භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමකට ඉතා පහත් ලෙස බැණ වැදීමක් සිදු කර තිබේ.

මෙම බැනවැදීම් සිදුකරන ලද්දේ ගම්පොල නාවලපිටිය මාර්ගය අවහිර කරමින් සිදුකරන ලද උද්ඝෝෂණයකදී එහි සිටි භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේ නමක් ඇමතිවරයාට ගත් දුරකථන ඇමතුමක දීය.

මාර්ගයක් පිළිසකර කර දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලමින් මෙම විරෝධතාවය පැවැත්වූ අතර ඊට විශාල සංඛ්‍යාවක් ජනතාව ද එක්ව සිටිය අතර භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාද පිරිසක් එක්ව සිටියහ.

ඉන් එක් භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමකට ඇමතිවරයා විසින් මෙසේ බැණ වැදුණේය.

ඇමතිවරයා විසින් මෙසේ බැන වැදීමෙන් පසු එහි සිටි සෙසු භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා මෙන්ම ජනතාව ද කෝපයට පත්ව ඊට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වනු ලැබීය.

‘ජනප‍්‍රසාදිනී’ යන ගෞරව නාමය ඇමති ලක්ෂ්මන් කිරිඇල්ල මහතාට ලබා දුන්නේ මහා සංඝ රත්නය විසින් බවද ‘පර බල්ලා’ යයි ඇමතිවරයාගෙන් බැනුම් ඇසූ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේ විසින් එහිදී සිහිපත් කරනු ලැබීය.

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කථිකාචාර්ය  මාවතගම පේමානන්ද හිමි,  ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ මහාචාර්ය ඊ. ඒ. වික්‍රමසිංහ  ශ්‍රී ලංකා බෞද්ධ හා පාලි විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

නිවන් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට උපකාරී වන එකම දහම බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ විසින් දේශනා කොට වදාළ ශ්‍රී සද්ධර්මය බව සැබැවි. එය වසර දෙදහස්‌ හයසියයකටත් අධික කාලයක්‌ ලොව පුරා පැවති සහ දැනටත් පවතින අනාගතයට ද වලංගු වන ඒකායන ධර්ම මාර්ගය යි. එය අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුත්තක්‌ නො වේ. බුදුදහම පහළ වූයේ දඹදිව වුවත් එම දහම සමස්‌ත ලෝකයටම සාධාරණ ධර්මතාවෙන් යුක්‌ත වූවකි.

 මීවනපලානේ හිමියන් බුදුන් වදාළ ධර්මය බුද්ධාගම හා බුද්ධ ධර්මය යනුවෙන් වෙන් වෙන් ව දක්‌වා ඇතත් ඒ දෙක පැහැදිලිව විස්‌තර කර නැත. එහිමියන් කර ඇති විස්‌තරයෙන් පවා ප්‍රකට වන්නේ උන්වහන්සේ ඒ ගැන කියන්නට ගොස්‌ වල්මත් වූ සෙයකි. වර්තමානයේ දේශීය හා දේශාන්තරික බෞද්ධ සමාජය තුළ ප්‍රචාරයට පත්ව ඇති බුද්ධාගම සහ බුද්ධ ධර්මය නම් වූ පොදු ව්‍යවහාරයන් ඉලක්‌ක කොට ගන්නා ඉහත නම සඳහන් ලේඛකයා එකිනෙකට පරස්‌පර හිතලු ජාලයක පැටලී ඇති බව ප්‍රකට කෙරෙන කරුණු රැසක්‌ එම කෘතියේ ඇතුළත් වේ. මේ ඊට කදිම නිදසුන් දෙකකි.

 බුද්ධ ධර්මයෙහි එකම විශේෂත්වය වන්නේ මේ ධර්මය තම තමන්ම මනස මෙහෙයවා ස්‌වභාව ධර්මයේ පැවැත්ම පිළිබ`දව විද්‍යාත්මක සත්‍යය ප්‍රඥාවෙන්ම තේරුම් ගතයුතු වීමයි. ඒ විශේෂත්වය නිසාම ප්‍රඥාවෙන්ම දැරිය යුතු විද්‍යාත්මක වූ නිසාම මේ උතුම් ධර්මයට බුද්ධ ධර්මය යන නම ලැබුණි. 

 (8 පිටුව)

 බුද්ධාගම හා බුද්ධ ධර්මය යනු එකක්‌ම නොවේ. මේ දෙකෙහි වෙනස නිවැරදි ලෙසත් බුද්ධියෙන් යුතුවත් වටහා ගැනීම නිවන් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට උපකාර වේ. උපතින්ම බෞද්ධයකු ලෙස බුද්ධාගම උරුමයෙන් අදහන කෙනෙකුට මේ දෙකෙහි වෙනසක්‌ ඇති බවක්‌ තේරුම් ගැනීම ද තරමක්‌ අපහසු දෙයකි. 

 (9 පිටුව)

 බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ ස්‌වකීය ධර්මය අවබෝධ කරගත හැක්‌කේ ප්‍රඥාවන්තයන්ට මිස අප්‍රාඥයන්ට හෙවත් අනුවණයන්ට නොවන බව දේශනා කර ඇත්තේ මෙසේ යි.

 ”පඤ්ඤවතෝ අයං ධම්මෝ නායං ධම්මෝ දුප්පඤ්ඤස්‌ස්‌’

 (මනි. අනුරුද්ධසුත්ත)

 එලෙස බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ දේශනා කර තිබිය දීත් මීවනපලානේ හිමියන් තම කෘතියේ දක්‌වා ඇති ඉහත ඡේද දෙකින් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට අපේක්‌ෂා කළේ කුමක්‌ දැයි අපට පමණක්‌ නොව සිංහල බස දත් සතිමත් කිසිවකුට නොවැටහේ. ඊට හේතුව ත්‍රිපිටක ධර්මය පිළිබ`ද මූලික දැනුමක්‌වත් උන්වහන්සේ තුළ නොමැති වීම හා බුද්ධ ධර්මය පිළිබ`දව ඇති දැනුම ද අවුල් සහගත තත්ත්වයක පැවැතීම බව ඕනෑම අයෙකුට වැටහෙනු ඇත.

 සැබැවින්ම ඉහත දැක්‌වූ බුද්ධාගම සහ බුද්ධ ධර්මය යන ව්‍යවහාර දෙකින් බුදුදහම නිරූපණය වන්නේ කුමකින් ද බුදුදහම සඳහා නිවැරදිම ව්‍යවහාරය බුද්ධාගම ද? නැතහොත් බුද්ධ ධර්මය ද? යන්න විචාරයට ලක්‌ කිරීමට ගෙන ඇති තැත මෙකල එම දහම සොයායන අයට විඩා ඇති කරවන්නක්‌ මිස ප්‍රායෝගික වටිනාකමක්‌ හෝ ආධ්‍යාත්මික සංවර්ධනයට උපකාරී වන කිසියම් ශාස්‌ත්‍රීය අගයක්‌ ඇති කාර්යයක්‌ හෝ නොවේ. කෙසේ වෙතත් ඉහත ලේඛකයා මහත් ගෞරවයෙන් යුතුව එය නවතම සොයා ගැනීමක්‌ ලෙසින් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට උත්සාහයක්‌ ගෙන ඇති සෙයක්‌ හැඟෙන හෙයින් ලේඛකයාගේම එකිනෙකට පරස්‌පර ඒකාබද්ධතාවෙන් තොර කරුණු ද ගෙන හැර දක්‌වමින් සමාලෝචනයක යෙදීම මෙම ලිපියෙන් සිදු කෙරේ. පළමුවෙන්ම පැවසිය යුත්තේ ඉහත නම සඳහන් ලේඛකයා දක්‌වා ඇති පරිදි බුද්ධාගම නම් වූ ව්‍යවහාරය තථාගතයන් වහන්සේගේ දේශනාව හැඳින්වීම සඳහා ත්‍රිපිටක සාහිත්‍යයේ යෙදී නැති බවයි. තථාගතයන් වහන්සේගේ ඉගැන්වීම් හැඳින්වීම සඳහා ත්‍රිපිටක ධර්මයෙහි බෙහෙවින්ම යෙදී ඇත්තේ ‘ධම්ම’ (සංස්‌කෘත( ධර්මය) යන ව්‍යවහාරය යි. එයට අමතරව ‘පාවචන’ (අතීතසත්ථුකං පාවචනං නත්ථි නො සත්ථාති – දීනි. මහාපරිනිබ්බාණසුත්ත, VRI. 2.115; PTS. 2.154; එවමෙව භොතො ගොතමස්‌ස පාවචනං අපගතසාඛාපලාසං අපගතතචපපටිකං අපගතඵෙග්ගුකං සුද්ධං සාරෙ පතිට්‌ඨිතං, මනි. අග්ගිවච්ඡසුත්ත, VRI. 2.166; PTS. 1.488| යනාදී) යන්න ද යෙදී ඇත. ‘සත්ථුසාසන’ (අච්ඡරියං ආවුසො අබ්භුතං ආවුසො යථා තං සුතවතා සාවකෙන සම්මදෙව සත්ථුසාසනං ආජානන්තෙන….., මනි. රථවිනීතසුත්ත, VRI.
 1.208; PTS. 1.150; ඨානං ඛො පනෙතං භික්‌ඛවෙ විඡ්ජති යං ඉධෙකච්චො මොඝපුරිසො අවිද්වා අවිඡ්ජාගතො තණ්‌හාධිපතෙයෙHන චෙතසා සත්ථුසාසනං අතිධාවිතබ්බං මඤ්ඤෙයH. – සනි. ඛන්ධසංයුත්ත, VRI. 2.92; PTS.
 3.103; යනාදි) යන්න ද තථාගතයන් වහන්සේ විසින් තම දේශනා හැඳින්වීම සඳහා යොදා ඇත. නවාංග ශාස්‌තෘ ශාසනය වශයෙන් විග්‍රහ වන තැන් විමසීමෙන් ද ඒ බව ප්‍රකට වේ. එසේම ‘බුද්ධ ධම්ම’ (තදාපි තං බුද්ධධම්මං සරිත්වා අනුබූහයිං, ආහරිස්‌සාමි තං ධම්මං යං මය්හං අභිපත්ථිතං. – ඛුනි. බුද්ධවංසපාළි, VRI. 2.318; PTS. 26), ‘බුද්ධවෙද’ (එකමන්තං නිසීදිත්වා බ්‍රාහ්මණො මන්තපාරගූ, බුද්ධවෙදං ගවෙසන්තො ඤාණෙ චිත්තං පසාදයිං. – ඛුනි. අපදානපාළි, VRI. 1.169; PTS. 1.166)” ‘ජිනවචන’ කෙවලං සුතමෙවෙතං මයා තස්‌සෙව පන භගවතො වචනන්ති “පෙන්තො අත්තානං පරිමොචෙති සත්ථාරං අපදිසති ජිනවචනං අප්පෙති ධම්මනෙත්තිං පතිට්‌ඨාපෙති. – දීනිඅ. මූලපරියාය සුත්තවණ්‌ණනා, VRI. 1.9; PTS. 1.7)) යනාදී අන්වර්ථ ව්‍යවහාර ද ත්‍රිපිටක සාහිත්‍යයෙහි දක්‌නා ලැබේ. ඒ අතර ‘බුද්ධධම්ම’ යන්නෙන් ‘බුදු බව ඇති කරන දහම’ නොහොත් ‘පාරමිතා ධර්ම’ අදහස්‌ කෙරෙන බැව් අටුවාව දක්‌වයි(

 “බුද්ධධම්මන්ති බුද්ධභාවකරං ධම්මං, පාරමීධම්මන්ති අත්ථො.”

 (ඛුනිඅ. රේවතබුද්ධවංසවණ්‌ණනා, VRI. 188; PTS. 165)

 තමන් වහන්සේගේ ඇවෑමෙන් සංඝ ශාසනය පාලනය කරනු පිණිස නායකයකු පත් කරන ලෙස භාග්‍යවතුන් වහන්සේට ආනන්ද හිමියන් දන්වා සිටි අවස්‌ථාවේදී උන් වහන්සේ දේශනා කොට ඇත්තේ මෙසේ ය(

 “යො වො ආනන්ද මයා ධම්මො ච විනයො ච දෙසිතො පඤ්ඤත්තො ච සො වො මමච්චයෙන සත්ථා”

 (දීනි. මහාපරිනිබ්බාණසුත්ත, VRI. 2.115; PTS. 2.154)

 එහි අරුත වන්නේ ආනන්දය, මා විසින් ඔබට දෙසන ලද යම් දහමක්‌ ඇත්තේ ද, පනවන ලද යම් විනයක්‌ ඇත්තේ ද එය ම මාගේ ඇවෑමෙන් ඔබගේ ශාස්‌තෘ වන්නේ ය කියා යි. එමඟින් බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ දේශනා සියල්ල ධර්මය වශයෙන් ද පැනවීම් සියල්ල විනය වශයෙන් ද ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇති බව ප්‍රකට වෙයි. එසේම ධර්ම ශබ්දය විවිධාර්ථ සහිතව භාවිත කළ යුතු ව්‍යවහාරයක්‌ බව ත්‍රිපිටක සාහිත්‍යයෙන් මෙන්ම කෝෂ ග්‍රන්ථවලින් ද පැහැදිලි වෙයි(

 “ධම්මො සභාවෙ පරියත්තිපඤ්ඤෙ

 ඤායෙසු සච්චප්පකතීසු පුඤ්ඤෙ

 ඤෙයෙH ගුණාචාරසමාධිසූපි

 නිස්‌සත්තතාපත්තිසු කාරණාදො”

 (අභිධා, 784 ගාථාව)

 එම ගාථාවෙන් ධම්ම ශබ්දයෙහි ස්‌වභාව, පර්යාප්ති, ප්‍රඥා, න්‍යාය, සත්‍ය, ප්‍රකෘති, පුණ්‍ය, ඥේය, ගුණ, ආචාර, සමාධි, නිඃසත්ත්ව, ආපත්ති, කාල යනාදී වශයෙන් අර්ථ තුදුසක්‌ (14) ගෙන දෙයි. ඒ අතර ඇති ධම්ම ශබ්දයේ එක්‌ අර්ථයක්‌ වන පර්යාප්ති යන්නෙන් තථාගතයන් වහන්සේගේ දේශනාව නම් වූ අරුත ගම්‍ය කෙරෙයි. 

 ධම්ම ශබ්දය විවිධ අර්ථයන්ගෙන් යුක්‌ත වන බව ත්‍රිපිටකාගත කරුණු ආශ්‍රයෙන් ද දැක්‌විය හැක. “ධම්මනියාමතා” “ධම්මතා” ආදිය නිතර භාවිත වන්නකි. එහිදී ධම්මනියාමතා වශයෙන් දක්‌වන්නේ කවරක්‌ ද යන්න විග්‍රහ කොට ගත යුතු ය(

 “උප්පාදා වා තථාගතානං අනුප්පාදා වා තථාගතානං ඨිතාව සා ධාතු ධම්මට්‌ඨිතිතා ධම්මනියාමතා ඉදප්පච්චයතා”

 (සනි. පච්චයසුත්ත, 40 පිටු( VRI. 1.24, PTS. 2.25)

 එහි අර්ථය මෙසේ ය. තථාගතයන් වහන්සේලා ලොව පහළ වූ කල්හිත්, තථාගතයන් වහන්සේලා ලොව පහළ නොවූ කල්හිත් ධර්මයන්ගේ පැවැත්ම, ධම්ම නියාමතාව හා පටිච්චසමුප්පන්න බව පවතින්නේම ය යනු යි. එය ස්‌වභාව නීතිය පදනම් කොට දක්‌වන ලද්දකි. සියලු කල්හි ලොව පවත්නා ස්‌වභාව නීතිය නම් මේ පටිච්චසමුප්පාදයම ය. එහි “ධම්මනියාමතාව යනුවෙන් එය දක්‌වා ඇත. යම් යම් පුද්ගලයන්ගේ ආවේණික ස්‌වභාවයන් පාදක කොට ගෙන “ධම්මතා” යන්න ව්‍යවහාර වී ඇත. එයට නිදසුන් පහත පරිදි දත යුතු ය(

 “ධම්මතා එසා භික්‌ඛවෙ, යදා බොධිසත්තො මාතුකුච්හං ඔක්‌කන්තො හොති, න බොධිසත්තමාතා කොචිදෙව ආබාධො උප්පඡ්ජති.”

 (දීනි. මහාපදානසුත්ත, 18 පිටු( VRI. 2.10, PTS. 2.12)

 මෙයින් දැක්‌වෙන්නේ යම් අවස්‌ථාවක බෝධිසත්ත්වයන් මව්කුස පිළිසිඳ ගනියි ද එතැන් සිට බෝසත් මවට කිසිදු ආබාධයක්‌ හට නොගන්නා බව යි. එය ධම්මතාවකි. මේ සඳහා තවත් නිදසුන් අංගුත්තර නිකායේ අට්‌ඨක නිපාතයේ භූමිචාල සූත්‍රය අධ්‍යයනයෙන් ද වටහා ගත හැකි වෙයි. 

 බුද්ධ ධර්මය යන්න නිවැරදි වචනය සහ බුද්ධාගම යනු තථාගත ධර්මය ප්‍රකාශ නොවන කරුණක්‌ වශයෙන් දක්‌වමින් තම අඥාන ස්‌වභාවයම ප්‍රකට කරන මේ හිමියන් තමා පූර්වයෙන් දක්‌වා ඇති කරුණ සහ පසුව කරන ප්‍රකාශය කුමක්‌ ද යන්න පිළිබඳව පවා සිහි නුවණ ගලපා ගත නොහැකි පුද්ගලයකු බව ඉහත දක්‌වන ලද උන් වහන්සේගේම උක්‌ත ග්‍රනAථයෙහි ඇතුළත් පහත දැක්‌වෙන ප්‍රකාශය මඟින්ම තහවුරු කොටගත හැකි ය.

 “බුද්ධාගම ද ඒ උතුම් ධර්මයම පදනම් කොටගෙන කලින් කලට ජනප්‍රිය වූ ආගම් සංකල්පයන් ද එකතු කරගෙන, පොදු ජනයාගේ සිත් ගන්නා ලෙසින්, ගරු බුහුමන් ලබන්නට හැකි පරිදි, භක්‌තියෙන් අදහන්නට සුදුසු පරිදි සකස්‌ කරගත් ආගමකි. එවැනි වූ බුද්ධාගම මිහිඳු හිමියන් ලංකාවට ගෙන ආ දින පටන් අද දක්‌වාම විවිධ වෙනස්‌කම්වලට භාජනය විය. බෙදීම්වලට හා විපරිණාමයවීම්වලට ද ලක්‌විය. ඒ අනුවම අද පවතින බුද්ධාගම ද තව නොබෝ කලකින්ම වෙනස්‌ වී, විපරිණාමයට පත්වීම කාටවත් නැවැත්විය නොහැකි දෙයකි(

 පරම පවිත්‍ර බුද්ධ ධර්මය කිසිම ආකාරයකින් කිසිම දවසක එවැනි වෙනස්‌කම්වලට විපරිණාමවලට භාජනය වන එකක්‌ නොවේ.”

 (9 පිටුව)

 බුද්ධාගම ජනප්‍රිය සංකල්පවලින් සකස්‌ කර ගත් එකක්‌ බව දක්‌වන මේ හිමියන් එම බුද්ධාගම ම මිහිඳු හිමියන් විසින් ලංකාවට ගෙන ආ බව, ”එවැනි වූ බුද්ධාගම මිහිඳු හිමියන්” ආදී ප්‍රකාශයෙන් දක්‌වා ඇත. එහිදී පුදුමයට කරුණක්‌ නම් මේ හිමියන් පවසන පරිදි මිහිඳු මහරහතන් වහන්සේටත් විශාල වැරදීමක්‌ සිදු වී ඇත. එනම් සත්‍යය වන පරම පවිත්‍ර බුද්ධ ධර්මය අතහැර මිහිඳු හිමියන් බුද්ධාගම ලංකාවට ගෙනැවිත් ඇති බව යි. සත්‍යය හා අසත්‍යය පිළිබඳ මනා අවබෝධයක්‌ ඇති රහතන් වහන්සේලා මුලා වන ස්‌වභාවයකින් යුක්‌ත පිරිසක්‌ නොවන බව දත යුතු ය. රාග, ද්වේෂ, මෝහ දුරු කොට අර්හත්වයට පත් රහතන් වහන්සේලා මුලා වන ස්‌වභාවය දුරු කොට ඇත්තාහ. මේ හිමියන් ප්‍රකාශ කරන පරිදි මිහිඳු මහරහතන් වහන්සේට බුද්ධාගම සහ බුද්ධ ධර්මය වෙන් කොට හඳුනාගත නොහැකි වී ජනප්‍රිය ආගම් සංකල්ප එකතු කොට සකසා ගත් බුද්ධාගම ලංකාවට ගෙනැවිත් ඇත. එමඟින් මිහිඳු මහරහතන් වහන්සේත් අඥානයකු බව ප්‍රකට කරන්නට තරම් මේ හිමියන් උත්සාහ දරා ඇති බව පෙනේ. එයින් තමා පමණක්‌ නිවැරදි ධර්මය දේශනා කරන බවත් අන් සියලු දෙනා මෝඩයන් බවත් මේ හිමියන් තම ශ්‍රාවකයන්ට හඟවන්නට උත්සාහ දරා ඇත. තමා පවසන්නේ කුමක්‌ ද යන්න පවා නොදැන වචන තුළ මුලා වී ඇති මේ හිමියන් අර්ථ ශූන්‍ය වචන භාවිත කරමින් මහත් අවුලක්‌ ඇති කොට ඇති බව මේ ප්‍රකාශ අධ්‍යයනයෙන් මනාව පැහැදිලි වේ. “මෝඝ පුරුෂ” යන වචනය තථාගතයන් වහන්සේ විසින් භාවිත කොට ඇත්තේ මෙවැනි පුද්ගලයන් උදෙසා ය. ඔවුහු කිසිදා සත්‍යය තේරුම් ගන්නට සමර්ථ නොවෙති. මේ හිමියන් ද එවැනි තත්ත්වයට පත්ව ඇති බව උක්‌ත කරුණු අනුසාරයෙන් ප්‍රකට වෙයි.

 ධර්මය පිළිබඳ කිසිදු පැහැදිලි අවබෝධයක්‌ මේ හිමියන් තුළ නොමැති බව උක්‌ත ග්‍රන්ථයෙහි සඳහන් පහත ප්‍රකාශයෙන් ද ප්‍රකට කොට ගත හැකි ය(

 “විඤ්ඤාණ ශක්‌තියෙන්ම උපත ලබන, ජීවත්වන හැම කෙනෙක්‌ම තම මනසේ ශක්‌තීන්ම දියුණු කරගෙන, විඤ්ඤාණ ශක්‌තියම පිරිසිදු චිත්ත ශක්‌තියක්‌ බවට ද ශුද්ධ පවිත්‍ර කරගැනීම මේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති මාර්ගය යි. එය තමන් විසින්ම තමා සඳහාම අනුගමනය කළ යුතු ය.”

 (11 පිටුව)

 ධර්මය පිළිබඳ සාමාන්‍ය හෝ දැනීමක්‌ නොමැතිව සිදුකර ඇති ඉහත ප්‍රකාශය අවුල් ජාලයකි. එහි දැක්‌වෙන පදයන් විමසීමෙන් ඒවා එකිනෙකට සම්බන්ධයක්‌ නැති සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අසත්‍ය වූ ධර්ම විරෝධී ප්‍රකාශ බව පැවසිය යුතු ය. ඒ එක්‌ එක්‌ පද ගෙන පිරික්‌සීමෙන් ඒ බව ප්‍රකට කර ගත හැකි ය. 

 “විඤ්ඤාණ ශක්‌තියෙන්ම උපත ලබන…” යනුවෙන් මෙහි දැක්‌වෙන ආරම්භක පදය ම සාවද්‍ය බව දත යුතු ය. සත්ත්වයා උපත ලබනුයේ විඤ්ඤාණ ශක්‌තියකින් යෑයි තථාගත ධර්මය තුළ කරුණු විග්‍රහ කොට නොමැත. සත්ත්වයා සුගති දුගති ආදි ඒ ඒ භවයන්හි ප්‍රතිසන්ධිය ලබනුයේ කර්ම ශක්‌තියෙන් බව ප්‍රකට කරන සාධක ත්‍රිපිටකය ඔස්‌සේ දැක්‌විය හැකි ය( 

 “උපධිං පටිච්ච දුක්‌ඛමිදං සම්භොති

 සබ්බූපාදානක්‌ඛයා නJථි දුක්‌ඛස්‌ස සම්භවො,

 ලොකමිමං පස්‌ස පුථූ

 අවිඡ්ජාය පරෙතා භූතා භූතරතා,

 භවා අපරිමුත්තා.”

 (ඛුනි, උදාන පාලි, ලෝකාවලෝකනසුත්ත, 194 පිටු.)

 එම පාලි ගාථාවෙහි අදහස වන්නේ,

 “උපධිප්‍රත්‍යයයෙන් මේ දුක්‌ හටගනී. සියලු උපාදානයන්ගේ ක්‌ෂයෙන් දුක්‌ හටගැන්ම නො වේ. මේ බොහෝ වූ ලොව බලව. අවිද්‍යාවෙන් මඩනා ලද, කර්මක්‌ලේශයන්ගෙන් උපන්, අන් සතුන් කෙරෙහි තෘෂ්ණායෙන් ඇලුණු සත්ත්වයෝ භවයෙන් නොමිදුණෝ ය” යනු යි.

 මෙහිදී ඉතා පැහැදිලිවම සත්ත්වයන් කර්මක්‌ලේශයන්ගෙන් උපත ලබන බව දක්‌වා ඇත. මේ හිමියන් පවසන කරුණු අසත්‍ය බව ඒ කරුණු අනුව ප්‍රකට වේ. සත්aත්වයාගේ ප්‍රතිසන්ධිය සඳහා පාදක වන්නේ කර්මය යි. එම කර්මය ජනක කර්මය යනුවෙන් හැඳින්වේ. පූර්ව භවයෙහි මරණාසන්න අවස්‌ථාවේ අරමුණු වන කර්ම, කර්ම නිමිත්ත, ගති නිමිත්ත ආදි එකක්‌ අනුව අනතුරු භවයෙහි ප්‍රතිසන්ධිය සිදුවන බව දත යුතුය. එසේම මේ හිමියන් පවසන තවත් කරුණක්‌ නම් සත්ත්වයා විඤ්ඤාණ ශක්‌තියෙන්ම ජීවත් වන බව යි. නමුත් ධර්මය තුළ විග්‍රහ වන කරුණු අනුව විමසීමේදී එය ද සාවද්‍ය ප්‍රකාශයක්‌ බව දත හැකි වනු ඇත. 

 සත්ත්වයාට ප්‍රතිසන්ධියට සේම එම ප්‍රතිසන්ධිය ලැබූ භවයෙහි ජීවත් වීමට ද ප්‍රබල වශයෙන්ම පාදක වන්නේ ඔහුගේ කර්මය යි. අංගුත්තර නිකායේ තික නිපාතයේ දී “කම්මං ඛෙත්තං, විඤ්ඤාණං බීජං…” ආදී වශයෙන් දක්‌වන කරුණු අනුව මෙය තේරුම් ගත හැකි ය. කර්මය ක්‌ෂේත්‍රය වශයෙන් දක්‌වා ඇත. එහි රෝපණය වන බීජය නම් ප්‍රතිසන්ධි විඤ්ඤාණය යි. ඒ සඳහා ද පාදක වන්නේ කර්මය යි. ප්‍රතිසන්ධිය සඳහා සේම ජීවත් වන අවස්‌ථාවේ ද කර්මය ඉදිරිපත් වන ආකාරය විවිධ ප්‍රභේදයන්ට අනුරූපීව ධර්මය තුළ කරුණු විග්‍රහ කොට ඇත. ජනක කර්ම, උපස්‌aතම්භක කර්ම, උපපීඩක කර්ම, උපඝාතක කර්ම ආදිය ද ඒ සඳහා නිදසුන් වශයෙන් ගත යුතු ය. එසේම ගති සම්පත්ති, උපධි සම්පත්ති, කාල සම්පත්ති, පයෝග සම්පත්ති, ගති විපත්ති, උපධි විපත්ති, කාල විපත්ති, පයෝග විපත්ති ආදී කර්ම විග්‍රහයන් ඔස්‌සේ ද සත්ත්වයාගේ උපතට සහ එහි පැවැත්මට කර්මය කවර කවර අයුරින් උපනිශ්‍රය වන්නේ ද යන්න කර්මය විග්‍රහ කොට ඇති ආකාරයෙන් අවබෝධ කිරීමෙන් පැහැදිලි වේ.

 මෙහිදී අවබොAධ කොට ගත යුතු මූලික කරුණ වන්නේ ධර්මය තුළ විග්‍රහ වන කරුණු නිසි ආකාරයෙන් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට තරම් මේ හිමියන්ට ප්‍රඥාවක්‌ තිබේ ද යන්න යි. ප්‍රඥාවක්‌ නොමැති තැනැත්තාට කර්මය වැනි ගැඹුරු කරුණු තුළ පවත්නා හේතු ඵල සබඳතාව අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට නොහැකි වේ. විශේෂයෙන්ම අභිධර්මය පිළිබඳ නිරවුල් අවබෝධයක්‌ පවත්නා තැනැත්තාම ධර්ම කරුණු නිවැරදිව වටහා ගැනීමට සහ අන්‍යයන්ට තේරුම් කර දීමට සමත් වේ. ඒ බව අත්ථසාලිනී අට්‌ඨකථාවේ මෙසේ දක්‌වා ඇත.

 “ආභිධම්මිකභික්‌ඛූ යෙව කිර ධම්මකîකා නාම, අවසෙසා ධම්මං කථෙන්තාපි න ධම්මකථිකා. කස්‌මා? තෙහි ධම්මං කථෙන්තා කම්මන්තරං විපාකන්තරං රූපාරූපපරිච්ඡෙදං ධම්මන්තරං ආලොලෙත්වා කථෙන්ති. ආභිධම්මිකා පන ධම්මන්තරං න ආලොලෙන්ති. තස්‌මා ආභිධම්මිකො භික්‌ඛු ධම්මං කථෙතු වා මා වා පුච්හතකාලෙ පන කථෙස්‌සතීති සො යෙව ධම්මකථිකො නාම හොති.”

 (ධසඅ. අත්ථසාලිනී, VRI. 31, PTS. 29)

 මෙහිදී දක්‌වා ඇත්තේ ‘ආභිධර්මික භික්‌ෂූන්ම ධර්මකථිකයන් වන බව යි. අන්‍යයන් ධර්ම දේශනා කළ ද ධර්මකථිකයෝ නො වෙති. ඒ කවරක්‌ නිසා ද යත්? ඔවුන් ධර්ම දේශනා කරන්නේ නම් එහි දී එක්‌ කර්මයක්‌ තවත් කර්මයක්‌ හා අවුල් කොට ද එක්‌ විපාකයක්‌ තවත් විපාකයක්‌ හා අවුල් කොට ද රූපාරූප දෙක අවුල් කොට ද එක්‌ ධර්මයක්‌ තවත් ධර්මයක්‌ හා අවුල් කොට ද ධර්මය දේශනා කරන බැවිනි. ආභිධර්මික භික්‌ෂූහු වනාහී එසේ ධර්මය අවුල් නො කරති. එසේ හෙයින් අභිධර්මය දන්නා භික්‌ෂුව ධර්මය දේශනා කළ ද දේශනා නොකළ ද යමෙකු ඇසූ විට ධර්ම කරුණු නොවරදවා කියන හෙයින් එම භික්‌ෂූහු ඒකාන්තයෙන්ම ධර්මකථිකයෝ නම් වෙති’ යනුවෙන් මෙහිදී දක්‌වා ඇත.  

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Hate speech comes in various shades of lies. It is the curse that haunts current of global politics. It runs from white supremacists in America to the boot-end of New Zealand. On the way to New Zealand it links up with Tamil supremacists and their NGO agents in Sri Lanka. Some lies are blunt like the Tamil extremists who passed a resolution in the Northern Provincial Council branding the democratically elected states since independence (1948) as instruments of Sinhala genocidal criminals. This is not only a lie that contradicts historical facts but also hate speech coming from the highest level of Tamil politics. It is a prime example of distorting history to demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists as the implacable and inveterate enemies of the Tamils.

History, however, tells a different tale. History says that (1) practically all elected states, with one or two exceptions, consisted of Cabinet ministers drawn from the minority communities and were supported by one or the other leaders of minority parties, including G. G. Ponnambalam and S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and (2) of the 71 years of independence, Jaffna and some adjacent parts of the nation were under Tamil Pol Potist gun of Velupillai Prabhakaran for 34 years. So on the norm of collective responsibility, if the democratically elected states were guilty of genocidal acts then the responsibility should be shared by a collective of all community leaders and just not the Sinhala leaders.

History also tells us that the Sinhala state” (Tamil terminology to denigrate the democratically elected state as a racist instrument) cannot be held responsible for the genocidal killings of Tamils by Tamils when North was under the rule of Velupillai Prabhakaran.  He began his career by assassinating an unarmed Tamil civilian, Alfred Duraiyappah, the Mayor of Jaffna, on July 27, 1975 for not toeing the mono-ethnic extremism that rejected pluralism, liberalism and democratic politics. Duraiyappah was also the Jaffna organiser of the SLFP. Tamils who advocated diversity, pluralism and liberalism were gunned down without mercy. This was the only way that Prabhakaran could maintain his myth of being the sole representative of the Tamils”. His Pol Potist cult was based on mono-ethnic extremism rejecting peaceful co-existence with the other”.

Hating the other” –- even a dissident Tamil –- was the unrelenting tactic that determined and sustained the intransigent politics of Prabhakaran. It was his bitter anti-other” politics, legitimised by the Tamil supremacist ideology contained in the Vadukoddai Resolution (1976) , that satiated the Tamil appetite for violence against the other” – i.e, Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamil dissidents etc. His ruthless tactic of killing the other” made him the most hero-worshipped icon in the Tamil culture of hate. He like Sankili, who massacred 600 Tamil Catholics on the Christmas’ eve of 1544 for owing allegiance to the King of Portugal, demanded total obedience to his will. Prabhakaran inherited the Sankili culture of killing dissident Tamils and the other”. And he took to the Sankili culture as if was his mother’s milk. His sole weapon to impose his fascist will was to kill Tamils who refused to pay homage to him. And the more he killed the more the elated Tamils rushed to fund his violence.

He never stopped killing as long as he was alive. It stopped only on May 19, 2009 when his body was found floating in Nandikadal. He ended his futile war by shooting and bombing the Tamil civilians running away from him seeking shelter in the camps opened up by the Security Forces. So for 34 years – from the first shot fired by Prabhakaran to assassinate Alfred Duraiyappah (1975) to the last shots fired at Tamil civilians fleeing the futile Vadukoddai War (2009) – peninsular politics slipped from the hands of the traditional leaders which consisted exclusively of Saivite Jaffna Vellalas (SJVs) and fell into the grip of gun-toting Tamil Pol Potists. The elitist SJVs embraced the new breed of Pol Potists lovingly as their boys”. Reason: the SJVs had pushed mono-ethnic politics to the extreme end and they had nowhere to go except to the boys” who were urged to take the guns to achieve the elusive Eelam. The boys” were the SJVs last hope. They were waiting in the wings hoping that the children of their Vadukoddai Resolution would wrest Tamil Eelam from the hated Sinhalese and deliver it into their hands,

Hate politics inculcated into the minds of the Tamils took an unexpected turn when the boys” first turned their guns against the fathers of the Vadukoddai Resolution. Thanthai” (Father) S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, who went through every word of the Resolution and endorsed it, escaped the wrath of Prabhakaran only because he died before the boys” got fully organised with the power of the gun. But Thanthai’s” successor, Appapillai Amirthalingam was gunned down in his home in Colombo. The militarised gun culture of Jaffna reduced the Tamils to be obedient worshippers of Prabhakaran. His killings surpassed even that of his guru Sankili. S. C. Chandrahasan, son of S.J. V. Chelvanayakam, is on record saying that Prabhakaran had killed more Tamils than the others put together.

This was confirmed by V. Ananadasangaree, Leader of the TULF, who repeated Chandrahasan’s statement and added that the Tamils were given the democratic right to protest when Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike opened the Jaffna University but he can’t even step into Jaffna under their liberator” Prabhakaran. He wiped out the entire Tamil leadership of Jaffna to make him the sole representative of the Tamils”.  So who has been the genocidal killer of Tamils? Clearly history debunks the toxic anti-Sinhala-Buddhist propagandists who are bent on deifying the most bestial killer of Tamils, beating even Sankili.

Coincidentally, with the rise of Tamil Pol Potism came the Vadukoddai Resolution which was passed unanimously by the Jaffna Tamil leadership aimed at three main objectives: (1). declaring war to achieve Eelam by denouncing non-violent politics in the democratic mainstream; (2) endorsing the weaponising of peninsular politics and (3) the militarisation of Tamil youth, mostly the poor low-castes as the privileged SJV youth were sent overseas. The new breed of low-castes tasted power for the first time with the kalashnikov in their hands. The rest, of course, is history.  

The war-mongering Vadukoddai Resolution provided the necessary ideological justifications to accelerate and sustain Prabhakaran’s brutal violence which was waged against anyone who opposed him, including the Tamils and the Indians who gave him succour. He never stopped killing Tamils even in his last days. He ended his futile war by shooting and bombing the Tamil civilians running away from him seeking shelter with the Security Forces. In short, he began and ended his career by killing Tamils. The guns fell silent on May 19, 2009 when his body was found floating in the Nandikadal Lagoon.

So for 34 years – from the first shot fired at Alfred Duraiyappah to the last shots fired at Tamil civilians fleeing from his failed state   – the gun-culture of Prabhakaran ruled Jaffna and the Tamils in general. He rejected the international and national peace deals without providing any alternative to restore peace, security or Eelam to the Tamils. He, along with the Tamil leadership that legitimised violence in the Vadukoddai Resolution, has to bear the responsibility of waging a war that took the Tamils only into the muddy depths of Nandikadal. It was futile war driven by his bloated and insane ego that led the Tamils into a dead-end. So who has been the genocidal killer of Tamils?

It is against this background that Jehan Perera’s statement accusing the majority” (he means Sinhala-Buddhists) of not creating a culture of pluralism, diversity and liberalism should be tested. The acid test is recorded in history. It says that the majority” fought the longest war in Asia within a democratic framework, however fragile it may have been. The Sinhala state” provided security to the Tamil MPs and other Tamils hunted by Prabhakaran. The Tamil MPs were given the democratic right to oppose the Sinhala state”. David Feng, an official of the UNICEF, commented that Sri Lanka is the only state that supplied medicine, food, welfare and non-military essentials, including payments to pensioners and government servants, to those living in a territory held by the enemies of the state. Besides, President Chandrika Kumaratunga offered the North and the East to Prabhakaran for him to run it for ten years without an election. Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the notorious Ceasefire Agreement virtually handing over the North and the East to Prabhakaran. The list is unending. Despite this historical evidence Jehan Perera joins the Tamil hate-mongers to demonise the South.

The North and the South consist of two distinct cultures. The Northern culture consisted of a closed society ruled by feudal Hindu casteist hierarchy which first morphed into anti-Sinhala-Buddhist racist and later, in the post-Vadukoddai period, into Pol Potist fascism. The Southern culture consists of an open society that embraced the diverse ideologies shipped from the West. Both cultures were staring in the face of Jehan Perera for him to evaluate fairly. And yet he writes that there is no diversity, pluralism, liberalism in the South. There are two possible explanations that could account for this conclusion: either 1. he is nuts or 2. he is lying through his teeth.

Denying realities and distorting history is another form of hate speech.  Jehan Perera’s career in the NGOs has been quite transparent. His mission has been to give respectability and validity to the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist propaganda manufactured by the Tamil lobby. In his article in The Island (11/2/2019) he recycles the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist narrative of the Chief Minister of Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, dressed up in NGO clichés. Though the NGOs and the Tamil extremists come from two different ends of the political spectrum they both have one common aim: demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists to gain maximum political mileage both at home and abroad.

In the case of the Chief Minister of Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, it is predictable that he would engage in crude anti-Sinhala-Buddhist narratives because he has to survive in an electorate that responds only to mono-ethnic extremism that is structured to exclude non-Tamils. But Jehan Perera claims that he is working for a plural vision of society”. If so, why is he regurgitating the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist narrative that was first launched by G. G. Ponnambalam in 1939 in Navalapitiya with the sole intention of promoting divisive mono-ethnic extremism of peninsular politics? Ponnambalam’s attack on Sinhala-Buddhists and the Mahavamsa sparked off the first North-South communal riots. The anti-Sinhala-Buddhist narrative of Northern politics has not deviated one micro-mini atom from the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist version manufactured by Ponnambalam in 1939. In fact it intensified in the subsequent decades to meet the demands of increased anti-Sinhala-Buddhist propaganda pushing federalism in the forties, separatism in the fifties and finally Tamil Pol Potism in the seventies.

To check whether the majority” (Sinhala-Buddhists) is what Jehan Perera says they are I double-checked with Malinda Seneviratne, a leading political commentator, to find out whether any of the Southern Provincial Councils – institutions of the majority” whom Jehan Perera loves to hate — has passed a similar resolution branding the Tamil Pol Potists as genocidal killers”. He said NO”. This is one simple example of the differences between the two polities of the North and the South. Though the lunatic fringe in the South did run berserk from time to time, provoked by the irrational extremism of Northern bigots, the Sinhala-Buddhists, by and large, had maintained a tolerant, pluralistic and diverse culture throughout their history.

Fake theorists like Jehan Perera blame the Mahavamsa mentality” without knowing that nowhere in the Mahavamsa is it stated that our island is for the Sinhala ethnics only. It states categorically that our island is (to be made) a fit dwelling place for men”(MV -1:43) – i.e., for all men irrespective of race, caste or creed. The Mahavamsa mentality” is inclusive, pluralistic, diverse and liberal for peaceful coexistence – all of which are fundamental principles which flow from the compassionate teachings of the Buddha. It is this Mahavamsa mentality” that made the South a democratic and open society.

There isn’t a better political text in Sri Lanka to pursue the vision of pluralism” (JP’s phrase) than the Mahavamsa which has defined pluralism” and diversity” by stating clearly that the mission of the state is to make our island a fit dwelling for men.” The Mahavamsa mentality”, in its essence, is an unambiguous concept defined to create a benevolent, tolerant, and liberal state, with justice to foe and friend alike. But to Jehan Perera there is no pluralism, diversity and liberalism in the South, implying in the same breath that the Tamils could find these values only in the haven of Jaffna, if they are given their exaggerated political demands. He ignores the historical fact that the casteist SJVs and subsequently Pol Potist Prabhkaran never gave the Tamil Thurumbars, the lowest caste, their God-given right to walk in sunlight (by the SJVs), or the democratic right to dissent (by Prabhakaran).

Denying the visible historical realities, Jehan Perera continues to operate on the basis of delusional and fake theories. He continues to regurgitate Wigneswaran’s hate politics in NGO patois. Isn’t the hate-mongering, mono-ethnic extremism and consistent intransigence of Jaffna politics, refusing to accept pluralism, diversity, liberalism and peaceful co-existence the root cause of evil since independence?

He claims to be a product of the Harvard University. But one thing that the Harvard University has not taught him is that in a conflict in which two or more parties are involved there is no validity in blaming only one party. Blaming one party (in this instance the Sinhala-Buddhist alone) is like listening intently for the missing sound of a clap with one hand. The Zen Buddhist disciple who was asked to explore by his Master the meaning of this koan would have been awakened by the emptiness and the meaninglessness of the sound of one hand. I hope that one day Jehan Perera too would wake up to the enlightened reality of knowing that he can’t attain the political nirvana he hopes to achieve if he keeps blaming only the Sinhala-Buddhists with politicised accusations manufactured by tendentious Tamils.

(To be continued).

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara President Senior Citizens Movement Mahanuwara.

Posted on July 6th, 2010

This is an article published on 7.7.2010 in Lankaweb resubmitted for publication as it is more relevant and timely than ever before, in view of the ongoing and unending harassment deployed towards this country by the UNO and its other agencies like the UNCHR and Human Watch after reading the beautiful analysis of UNO by By Shenali Waduge under” Cut the crap UN – your foreign Missions have failed, your tribunals are dead ducks & UN is corrupt & biased, Posted on March 31st, 2019 in Lankaweb.

 In this backdrop I reiterate and emphasize the urgent need for such new world organization as suggested above first to ascertain our independence and second to isolate these blood thirsty colonial parasites who have, invaded plundered. Destabilizes and destroyed the whole world for over a period of seven centuries and still struggling to maintain their past hegemony.

Last year I wrote on the need for an independent Afro-Asian UNO in view of the anti-Asian and anti-African attitude of the UNO under its present dominance  by the western powers and their allies. Now with the final appointment of a Committee by its Secretary General under the pressure from these powers isn’t it clear that the need for such organization has become more crucial. I reiterate the urgent need for such a new world organization to protect Asian and African countries from western harassing and also to address the needs of the Afro-Asian countries. 

I reproduce what I wrote last year below. I would like to add only one comment regarding the role of Japan and South Korea to this article. These two countries which are pro-American at present I think should now adopt a pro-Asian attitude to common regional problems.

My sympathies with Ban Moon the present Secretary General though represents an Asian country is struggling to gain a second term by representing the western interests. Today he acts only a puppet in the hands of   his religious convictions, personal greed for the second term. It is a tragedy that he does not realize that and thereby he is going against one of his Asian Nation State. His religious conviction, the influence of his church and personal greed for the second term and perhaps the benefits he may be getting from the Tamil Diaspora may have made him to forget the Sri Lankan government’s support he got last time to gain this position. Had the Sri Lankan Government supported Jayantha Danpala things would have been different.

My article of 27.9.2009.

Going by how things are been currently manipulated at the UNO by the West and its allies and how shabbily and discriminately Asian countries like ours are treated, I fully endorse L. Jayasooriya’s proposition (Asian Tribune) that we must look for an alternative Asian  (or Afro-Asian) UNO in place of the present disintegrating (politically, Economically and culturally) West dominated neocolonial exploiter gang dancing to the tune of USA in order to destabilize and pauperize the small countries who are trying to rise from the abysmal depths in to which these very colonial powers have driven us from the beginning of the 16th century.  The UNO today has forgotten its Charter and has got reduced to a United Neo-colonial Outfit of the west”. The main aim of these ex-colonial exploiters is to keep these Afro-Asian countries in eternal poverty entrenched in political disarray and ethnic wars so that they could sell their arms and all other industrial stuff including outdated technology and continue their neo- colonial exploitation in order to perpetuate their hegemony and prosperity.

However they little realize that their days of supremacy in all aspects, such as economic, military and intellectual are a thing of the past; at least the journey to that destination has already begun with the election of Obama as the President of the United States of America. As Samuel Huntington, the renowned Harvard professor, has very aptly pointed out in his The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order” (1997) the Euro-American face of Western affluence and political influence, universality of the western culture and the beliefs are no more tenable. Today it is false, immoral and dangerous to have such a view as he says. America today is a disparate nation, whereas countries like Sri Lanka are not. This is what unfortunately the west has failed to understand. They have become the victims of their affluence which is a direct product of colonial exploitation. Rejection of the western creed and civilization as Huntington has argued means the end of the USA. It also means effectively the end of western civilization. Like all other world civilizations today the western civilization has entered in to the stage of internal decay and therefore it is marching towards the grand finale of its end in the same manner other past word civilizations like the Greek, Roman and Ottoman etc did. What is more is now it is universally accepted that tomorrow once again, as it had been in the golden past, belongs to the East and not to the West.

In this backdrop it is high time that these western powers at least now renounce their assumed supremacy mentality and learn to treat all nations as equals, irrespective of their geographical size and economic power. I am making this comment especially in the context of the current attitude of the west towards my own country particularly after the Sri Lanka government has successfully defeated the LTTE terrorist outfit after 30 long years of suffering and destruction.

The whole world knows how the western camp and even India were instrumental in training and arming the LTTE to destabilize this little Island, the Home of Theravada Buddhism and the Land of the Sinhala people for the past 2500 years. But thanks to the Present President and his able team led by the Secretary Defense and the Heads of the three forces with Sarath Fonseka in command, we were fortunately able to defeat all those diabolical conspiracies. By doing that I think Sri Lanka has achieved a historic victory. Both in its scale and military ramifications and also external involvements, this was the biggest and the most difficult war ever fought on Sri Lankan soils. What everybody thought unwinnable the Sri Lankan government has won and set an example to the whole world for which they have to be thankful to this little Island nation. Because it has set the modus operandi as to how terrorists should be eliminated. In the aftermath of the war it should be the duty and the obligation of the entire world in the name of world peace and humanity to help Sri Lanka to raise its head out of thirty years of destruction and devastation left by these terrorists and re-emerge as a politically and economically stable state. The whole world also should help Sri Lanka to trace the remaining remnants of LTTE and eliminate them not only to complete the mission carried out by Sri Lanka but also to free the whole world from terrorism. Instead of intimidating this little Island the west should help to complete the wonderful job the Sri Lankan government has done in defeating the LTTE. The burden is more so, on the part of those western countries such as the United Kingdom who are directly as well as indirectly responsible for this unfortunate situation in countries like Sri Lanka. Although the LTTE has been physically defeated on Sri Lankan soils we have to remember that it’s widely spread tentacles both at home and over the globe are still not dead.

Now let us see what some of these countries are doing instead and how they behave nakedly again to destabilize this Island Nation to fulfill their own agendas, completely ignoring the independence, sovereignty and the democratic right to manage our own affairs. The major issues they are gunning at are the question of IDPs, violation of human rights, so-called excesses in the concluded war against LTTE terrorism, freedom of the press and a political solution to the so-called ethnic problem that exist only in their own minds.  See the blatant duplicity  of USA policy  compared with  what the ‘Bush Doctrine stated in 2001 that it would not distinguish between terrorist organizations and nations or governments that harbor them”  The problem here is the tiny Sri Lankan government  has done in two and half years what these major powers could not do for decades. I know it is a shame on them as it was acknowledged even by the New York Times.

They also must now be trying to take revenge for not conceding to their pressure to save Pirapahan and his lieutenants at the last moment.  When they did so, they little realized that they are interfering with the independence and sovereignty of an independent nation and also with the mandated right of the government of Sri Lanka to conduct its internal governance according to the will of its own people. It is true that there are international conventions and treaties governing certain actions of individual nations but you can’t have one criterion for America and its allies and another for smaller countries like Sri Lanka. What the Sri Lankan government has done is it has put an end to an internal terrorist movement that was pestering its very existence for nearly 30 long years, internationalized and supported by these very forces now again trying to give a new lease of life to LTTE under different names like human rights and war crimes.  I also must say that we as a member of the UNO have not violated any principle enshrined in the UN Charter either.

On the other hand what moral right do they have to advice us on matters like human rights and excesses of war etc when they are the real culprits who have done worst things in other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam? I am sure how suspects are treated in Guantanamo has no conceivable parallels Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government is only trying to rehabilitate those victimized by the LTTE. Of cause in the process the legitimate government of the country also has to weed out the LTTE elements who take cover under the IDP flag with the intention of regrouping and reorganizing in the future.

According to New York Times/The Nation, US $ 800 billion have been spent on the Iraq war.  130,000 US troupes (in addition to other European carders and 75 US bases are involved; 14040 journalists and 600,000 civilians have been so far killed; there are 5 million IDPS suffering 70 % of whom do  not have even adequate water. The Iraq war began in March 2003. In Afghanistan they started the war in 2001 and an equal number if not more people have been killed. What right do they have severally and jointly to invade those countries and kill their people in tens of thousands. Are they not war crimes? Why didn’t Banki Moon take action against such gross violations? Have they not violated human rights in a global scale? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black, though we cannot be categorized as a kettle for the simple reason that we have not violated any such human right, as we were only defending the country against an internationally manipulated terrorist outfit which has waged a brutal war to destroy this country? We also have not invaded someone else’s country as they have done. Was it not the USA who trained and financed Al-Queda against Russia in Afghanistan and finally got the retribution with enhanced interest when they attacked the World Trade Centre on 1.11.2001?

Similarly was it not the UK who provided a heaven for global terrorism by accommodating Al-Queda and LTTE Head Quarters in London even after they have been named and banned as terrorist organizations.

Shenali Waduge recently has lucidly exposed UKs involvement in global terrorist activities under ‘Has not Britain been sponsoring terror?

(Wed, 2009-09-23) I reproduce the whole thing here because it is so interesting to get a clear idea of their duplicity. I do so for the benefit of those who may have not read this in view of its importance as an invaluable source of information.

I quote,

‘It was in 2000, that the Editors of Executive Intelligence Review requested the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to review the British Government’s role in supporting international terrorism ”…” this request came largely on the grounds of the British Government asking for the safe passage of Ahmed Omar Sheikh to Britain claiming that they would not prosecute him despite him being sentenced in India for 5 years in 1998.

If the US feels that Britain has been sponsoring international terrorism it has only to enforce the Congressional acts and it is interesting to know why Britain escapes investigation but then who said the US has a clean record where funding international terrorism remains a hot topic. When G8 nations account for over 90% of manufacture and sale of arms we need not look very far for the culprits and source for where terrorists get their arms and weapons from. Of course the funds used largely arise from drug trade and other illicit activity for which again these powerful states are in a position to dislodge, if they have the will to do so and relieve the world of all the scrooges that prevail.

Let’s take a few examples ”…” In 1996, the US military base in Saudi Arabia was bombed killing 19 US soldiers, M Massari, Head of London-based Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights promised more such strikes yet the British Government granted Massari exceptional leave” (4 year refugee permit) to remain in Britain. Massari is closely attached to Osama bin Laden as well and would anyone be surprised that he continues to maintain a residence in wealthy Wembly and London, London also happens to be the head quarters of Bin Laden’s Advise and Reform Commission. Then, again the LTTE’s headquarters was also in the UK and LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham and wife were openly canvassing for the LTTE terror movement without any problems by the UK Government.

Also that same year, a former British M15 officer (David Shayler) admitted that British Security Services financed £100,000 to a London based Islamic terrorist group to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi.

Would it not be correct to assume that it was because the British Government had funded terrorist activity that in 1997 a Tory MP, Nigel Waterson felt the need to introduce legislation (Conspiracy and Incitement bill) to ban foreign terrorists from operating on British soil? This bill came soon after the scandal over Britain providing safe haven for Massari. However, Labor MR George Galloway blocked the bill by claiming that the Bill will change political asylum in this country in a profound and dangerous way. It will change a state of affairs that has existed since Napoleon’s time”¦.We are all in favor of controlling terrorism in Britain. Surely not a single honorable Member has any truck with terrorism here, but we are talking about terrorism in other countries”¦the bill will criminalize such people, even though they have not broken any law in Britain or caused any harm to the Queen’s peace in her realm”.

 A year later, we can recall the massacre of tourists in Egypt where 62 died perpetrated by Gamaa al-Islamiya whose leaders have been provided political asylum in Britain and calls for extradition by Egyptian authorities even summoning the British Ambassador and demanding that Britain stop providing safe haven to terrorists””¦even going so far as to say that Egypt identified Britain as the main center for radical plotting assassinations”. Egypt did not stop there”¦they even opened a State Information Service (Call to Combat Terrorism) on the country’s official website & listed some of the wasted masterminds of terrorism who are currently enjoying secure and convenient asylum in some world capitals”.

Of the 14 listed wanted” men linked to the Luxor massacre the top 7 were domiciled in London. What about the US terror list released in 1996 with 30 Foreign Terrorist Organizations banned from operating on US soil also finds 6 groups all headquartered in London including Sri Lanka’s LTTE ”…” the others include Al-Jihad (Egypt), Hamas, Armed Islamic Group, Kurdish Workers Party & the Islamic Group. The UK was to go a step further in 1997 by granting permission to Abel Abdel Majid and Adel Tawfiq al-Sirri of the Islamic Group to open fund raising & media offices in London under International Bureau for the Defense of the Egyptian People.

This was despite Majid being implicated in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The Algerian Armed Islamic Group responsible for the assassination of Algerian President Mohamed Boudiaf in 1992 not surprisingly also has its head quarters in London. The US FBI identifies the LTTE as the world’s most deadliest terrorist organization but it too has been holding its international secretariat in London since 1984 openly canvassing its cause as well as illicitly raising funds and smear campaigns against a democratic Government. Most of the orders for assassinations are delivered via London. So when London-based terrorist groups plans and launches operations to destabilize countries we should not be in the least surprised.

This happened to Yemen in 1998 but the Yemeni authorities were faulted when several of the kidnapped foreigners got killed in the rescue operation. The Yemeni authorities were however immediate in their response by sending back British Scotland Yard officials who had been called to investigate and even went so far as to withdraw its application for British Commonwealth membership.

The connection to Britain by internationally established terror groups is when locating its international bases which all happen to be in London. Egypt, Israel (UK response to accusation of Hamas involvement in several attacks on Israeli’s ”…””We have seen no proof to support allegations that funds raised by the Hamas, in the UK are used directly in support of terrorist acts elsewhere”), France (Armed Islamic Group’s ordered a terror war against France), Algeria, Peru (demanded extradition of Adolfo Hector Olaechea but refused by British authorities), Turkey, Germany (following PKK leader Apo Ocalan calling for the assassination of German Chancellor Kohl) and India following the hijacking of Indian Airlines in 1999.

The accusations against Britain from foreign Governments finally got media attention with the Daily Telegraph in 1999 claiming Britain is now an international center for Islamic militancy on a huge scale”¦and the capital is the home to a bewildering variety of radical Islamic fundamentalist movements, many of which make no secret of their commitments to violence and terrorism”.

Thus, we can safely conclude that terrorists from Britain emerge in every hotbed of terrorist extremism around the world and therefore should we also conclude that the terror taking place in these countries is perhaps by no accident? This then implies that fundamentalist extremism in the case of the Islamic terrorists and the separatist agenda in the case of LTTE is part and parcel of British policy linked with charities” that raise and fund terror campaigns. These accusations against Britain has been documented by a British think tank called Policy Exchange where it cites how the Labor Party and the Foreign Service have promoted radical Islamic terrorism even ensuring that extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK. Yet, the Muslim community in Britain comprises Muslims from Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and India and not so much from Saudi Arabia. So why the British legal system protects the Anglo-Saudi financing of terror and why should British intelligence collaborate with terrorists and their recruiters?

Abu Qatada, a notorious Al-Qaeda operative in London was granted asylum in 1994 ”…” the Times of London exposed Qatada as being a M15 double agent in 2004- these dealings obviously to ensure that while terror may be unleashed in other quarters Britain remains untouched or undamaged”¦then what happened in 2005? Britain may have wanted terrorists not to bite the hand that fed them but what if they come home to roost? The irony in the aftermath of the attacks on Britain was that while the entire British police were out chasing for the culprits the British Secret Service was all out to hide them! This obviously equates to mean that despite the anti-terror hype and the counter-terror collaborations the Brits have an ugly habit of providing safe havens for terrorists in Britain.

Therefore, it would be no exaggeration when we say that the world’s most feared terrorists are all creations of the intelligence services of Governments who have directed their emergence into society as toys to instill terror. The CIA created Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda, the CIA and German intelligence (BND) trained the Kosovo Liberation Army (supported by Al Qaeda) in the 1990s (Balkans) to support NATO’s war effort against Yugoslavia. A Report published in 1999 by the US defense intelligence agency (DIA) that MI6 was asked to arrange training for the KLA ”…” this training was sub-contracted to 2 British private security firms who began trained from bases in Northern Albania. So much so for these passionate and patriotic calls to end terrorism.

So if we are alarmed to hear that virtuous Britain has been creating and harboring terrorists we should not be surprised to hear Britain’s complicity in torture. The surprise is meritorious in the light of these very officials demanding Sri Lanka to be investigated for war crimes, human rights violations, denied concessions while these very nations are deeply involved in rendition of suspects to unknown destinations and countries to be tortured and abused with no care for their human rights and has the UN Secretary General been the least concerned” about these goings on or has the UN Special Rappateur Prof. Alston ever picked up US, UK and its allies for their HR abuses? What have they done about the British territory of Diego Garcia being used for rendition of suspected terrorists? The British however continue to deny these allegations even though former SAS officers like Ben Griffin (2006) revealed that Iraqi’s and Afghans had been captured by British and US Special Forces and rendered to prisons where they faced torture. We are unaware of any individuals originally detained by UK authorities and subsequently rendered by the USA” ”…” Kim Howells, December 2005 (response to parliamentary question)

However David Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary admitted that 2 CIA aircrafts transporting abducted prisoners landed in UK in 2002 for refueling en route to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The admission also recalls Lord Gilbert’s comments (of UK role in Kosovo) in the House of Commons that the Rambouillet terms offered to the Yugoslav delegation had been absolutely intolerable” and designed to provoke war.

The 1994 public inquiry presided by Lord Justice Scott revealed the illegal British arms sales to Iraq ”…” this could not have taken place without the explicit approvals of top political figures, very senior civil servants from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defense and the Dept of Trade and Industry ”…” in sum the top echelons of the British Government.

Going back to 1965-66 if we recall the blood bath that brought Gen Suharto to power in Indonesia, the scale of British complicity will emerge. The Labor Government under Harold Wilson supplied logistics and intelligence, warships to support Suharto and close upon a million perished as a result of Britain. Documents are to also reveal how Britain acted to ensure that millions perished in Rwanda and ensured through its diplomatic weight that the UN did not use words like genocide”. Therefore, Genocide” and other rants attributed to UN emissaries are obviously with the explicit nods by powerful nations.

The UN too has a Consolidated List ”…” the list includes many for plotting to blow up passenger airlines, bomb US embassies, assassinate foreign dignitaries and they are all British citizens residing in different parts of the UK. David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: It’s quite outrageous for these people to carry on living here, many of them on benefits. The Home Secretary should have the right to either lock them up or throw them out of the country, but for that to happen requires a change in the Human Rights Act.”

With the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdel al-Megrahi by British authorities’ fresh allegations against the British Govt surfaced. The US Govt was outraged by the manner Megrahi was welcomed in Libya by Muammar Gaddafi.

Therefore, we can assume that the US and UK do not see eye to eye all the time and it is extremely clear that the British Governments have been applying secret services for their own benefits. With at small terrorist listing it is no surprise that London is the home to most of the world’s deadliest terrorists and London is also the base for the offices of these terror groups.

We were told that there is a war on terror” ”…” unfortunately, we do not know against whom. Is it because nations like the UK and US prefers to have an almost invisible” enemy giving them a carte blanche to descend upon nations. What these powerful western nations call terrorism may be an inevitable response to this injustice & certainly not when the maxim followed is one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”.

Virtuous Britain will be smothered with embarrassment when the lists of its links to terror, assassination bids of heads of states, establishing of puppet leaders for pro-Western Governments emerges and well aware of the crimes” injustices” human rights” violations Britain has been committing over the years Miliband or any other Brutish should dare not point fingers without getting their act in order first.

The Western block must understand that the their hegemony and dominance are not eternal and they are also undergoing drastic changes as any other phenomena as it had been aptly demonstrated over the recent past with increasing financial crises, unprecedented unemployment, deficit budgets and falling economic growth etc. As such the dominance of the present core states in the west and their allies both in the world economy and the political arena is now in the decline. No one can stop this trend as it is only the natural repetition of the evolutionary process in world history. Therefore as Huntington has warned the present ”Core States” should at least now face this reality and abstain from intervention in internal conflicts in other civilizations. They should also get rid of their dominant mentality and admit that the world is multinational and multicultural and renounce universalism. They also should realize that all nations, irrespective of their geographical size, as much as the individuals do in modern society where there are no slaves and masters, have equal status. The other thing is today the world is so interdependent and become so small no country, however big it may be, can behave like a Trojan horse or a bull in a china shop. No one should be surprised if the next war would be a one between this world and another? Therefore these so-called present day core states should adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude regarding the independence and the right to manage their own matters without bullying the smaller nations like us and blatantly interfering with their internal matters.

Finally this is the best message I would like to give to all western countries and their allies in the south eastern corner of the globe and who are unnecessarily interfering with the internal matters of Sri Lanka. If this nuisance is not going to stop forthwith we have only one option that is to get in to an Afrp-Asian UNO, a new alliance with China and Russia block, as Professor L. Jayasooriya has pointed out.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ

ගම සමග පිළිසදරක් වැඩසටහනේ තුන්වැනි අධියර අප්‍රියෙල් 02 වැනිදා සිට ජුනි මස 01 වැනිදා දක්වා පැවැත්වෙයි. ඒ අනුව දින 60කින් රට පුරා ගම සමග පිළීසදරක් මැයෙන් රැස්වීම් 25000ක් පැවැත්වීමට නියමිතව ඇත.

ඔබේම මව්බිම ඔබේම අදහස් ඇසුරින් ගොඩනගමු තේමාව යටතේ ගම සමග පිළිසදරක් වැඩසටහන අධීයර තුනක් යටතේ සංවිධානය කර ඇති අතර මේ වන විට එහි අධියට

දෙකක් සාර්ථකව අවසන් කර තිබේ. ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රමුඛ නව රජයක් පත්වීමෙන් පසුව ක්‍රියාත්මක කෙරෙන ප්‍රතිපත්ති මාලාව සකස් කිරීම සදහා ජනතාවගේ අදහස් විමසීමේ අරමුණින් මෙම වැඩසටහන දියත් කෙරේ.

තුන්වැනි අධියර සම්බන්ධයෙන් පක්ෂ ක්‍රියාකාරිකයින් දැනුම්වත් කිරීමේ රැස්වීම් මාලාවක් මේ දිනවල ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ පක්ෂ මූලස්ථානයේ පැවැත්වෙයි. ඒ අනුව අද (02) පක්ෂයේ පළාත් පාලන සංසදය, පළාත් සභා සංසදය දැනුම්වත් කිරීම සිදුවූ අතර හෙට (03) පක්ෂයේ උපාධීධාරී සංගමය , පෙරපාසල් සංවිධානය, භික්ෂු සංවිධානය, ඉංජිනේරු සංවිධානය, නිතීඥ සංවිධානය හා ධීවර සංවිධානය,විශ්‍රාමික සංවිධානය, සාම විනිසුරු සංවිධානය, ජ්‍යේෂ්ඨ පුරවැසි සංවිධානය, දේශීය වෛද්‍ය සංවිධානය, ස්වේච්ඡා සංවිධාන නියෝජිත සංසදය, ඉදිකිරිම් ශිල්පීන් සංවිධානය, සංස්කෘතික කළා සංවිධානය, නිවේදක ශිල්පීන් සංවිධානය, සමුපකාර මහ සභා නියෝජිත සංවිධානය, සමුපකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරුන්ගේ සංවිධානය, කාන්තා සංවිධානය, තරුණ සංවිධානය සහ වෘත්තීය සමිති මධ්‍යස්ථානය  දැනුම්වත් කිරීමට නියමිතය.

Courtesy Proactive Investors Australia

Results and details of analyses will be released in June 2019.

The Mannar deposit is on a sand island in the dry northwest of Sri Lanka

Titanium Sands Ltd (ASX:TSL) is preparing to upgrade resources at the Mannar Island Heavy Mineral Sands Project in northwest Sri Lanka incorporating results from resource infill and extension drilling.

A further 802 drill holes have been completed in the ongoing resource infill program.

The latest drilling has reduced the nominal resource pattern down to 200 metres by 50 metres from 400 metres by 50 metres over 90% of the resource envelope.

53.08 million tonne resource

Mannar Island hosts an inferred resource of 53.08 million tonnes at 6.66% THM, which includes 3.21% ilmenite, 0.59% leucoxene, 0.14% rutile and 0.15% zircon.

The company expects that the infill drilling will upgrade the resource and resource extension drilling will add to the total.

Further drilling is planned to begin in June targeting potential resource extensions with the resource update expected in July-August.

Dominated by ilmenite and leucoxene

Mannar’s heavy mineral assemblage is dominated by ilmenite and higher value leucoxene with even higher value rutile and zircon also present in minor concentrations.

The heavy mineral deposit is on a 25-kilometre-long by 5-kilometre-wide sand island.

New rig acquired

A reverse circulation/aircore drilling rig has been acquired by the company and is being modified to an optimal configuration for the Mannar Island project.

This rig and a full suite of spares and drilling equipment is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka in mid-May.

The rig will supplement the shallow drilling being carried out by the company’s local shell auger teams.

It is small enough to be tractor mounted enabling it to efficiently traverse the sands of Mannar Island. It has depth and penetration capabilities well in excess of what local conditions require.

A local drilling team will be trained by an experienced mineral sands driller over the course of this year’s drilling programs.

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By Nayanjot Lahiri Courtesy quasrtz

I first set my eyes on the gopuram (entrance towers of temples built in the southern Indian style) of the Vallipuram Vishnu temple on a warm Sunday morning in early March. Named after the nearby village, the temple complex looks like a small oasis among the surrounding sand dunes, which are dotted with clumps of grass and coconut trees. The dunes continue till the coast that fringes the northernmost part of the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. The temple is, in fact, not far from where the Palk Strait and the Bay of Bengal meet. This sangam of sorts—where the shallow coral reefs of the Strait end abruptly, and the deep waters of the Bay take over—is stunning. It is unlike what lies across the waters in Kanyakumari, where the crush of crowds makes the experience of being at the southern edge of India entirely underwhelming.

Choosing to visit Vallipuram on a Sunday was intentional. My Jaffna mentor and guide, Professor Krishnarajah Selliah of the University of Jaffna, recommended the day since it is usually on Sundays that hordes of worshippers congregate at the historic Vishnu shrine. Ratna Raman, an old friend and travelling companion, is a temple-going Tamilian like Selliah and she too thought Sunday worked best.

My own interest in Sri Lanka had nothing to do with visiting historic Hindu temples. My goal was to survey the visible markers of Buddhism in the region, particularly those related to a famous Buddhist family from India. I wanted to look at how memories of King Ashoka persisted on the island, largely through two of his children – Mahinda and Sanghamitta – who had travelled to Sri Lanka and made it their home. Those two are perhaps the most celebrated ancient Indians – apart from the Buddha himself – that Tamraparni (as Sri Lanka was called at the time) fondly remembered.

Since they were ordained Buddhists, the honorific prefixes Maha-Thera and Theri were added to their names, Maha” alluding to Mahinda’s greatness as a preacher monk. They arrived in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE – the brother came first and was followed by his sister. Mahinda, it is believed, converted King Devanampiya Tissa, along with several others, to Buddhism, while Sanghamitta carried a branch from the original Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya in Bihar and began a Bhikkhuni order in Tissa’s kingdom.

While there are still questions over the veracity of this story, what matters from the modern-day perspective is that there exists a transregional sacred geography around the siblings. Places across different parts of the island – from Jaffna to Mihintale and Anuradhapura – form part of pilgrim trails where Buddhist worshippers continue to remember Mahinda and Sanghamitta and offer obeisance to their memory. They include brick stupas in which their physical remains were entombed, larger-than-life paintings and images of Sanghamittha and Mahinda and the blest Bodhi tree.

So what does Vallipuram have to do with the search for the siblings?

According to Sri Lanka’s Mahavamsa, a chronicle from around 5th century CE, Sanghamitta landed at a place on the Jaffna coast called Jambukola Patuna, several kilometres north of Jaffna town. As the chronicle goes, the king of men” Devanampiya Tissa himself came to receive the king of trees” and its bearer. A temple was built there by the king to mark the occasion. Today though, there is nothing visibly ancient there. Its visible heritage is a modern fabrication in the form of a stupa, statues of Sanghamitta, paintings that pictorially narrate her landing, and even boats that prompt visitors to imagine how the daughter of India’s most famous Buddhist ruler arrived in the land of Sri Lanka’s first Buddhist king.

The question arises: are there any traces of ancient Buddhism in Jaffna? If yes, then they are one way of providing a historical frame for the Mahavamsa narrative.

The Vallipuram temple area, as it happens, is home to relics with unmistakable Buddhist affiliations. One of these is a 2nd century CE gold plaque that is now in the Colombo National Museum. Its four lines attest to a Buddhist temple called Piyanguka being built by a minister of a king. A Buddhist stone image that was found here may have been part of that temple. The image can no longer be seen in Sri Lanka because in 1906, the Buddha was presented by the British governor to the king of Thailand.

Diverse strands

The Buddhists were not the first to inhabit the strip of land where the Vishnu temple stands today. Before them, there were people who constructed megalithic burials. One such early grave yielded a pot in a cist and pottery, including black and red ware that were found strewn beyond the burial as well. Sacred places across the world are frequently marked by religious structures of different faiths that appear in the excavated strata as successive overlays or sometimes standing adjacent to each other. So it is unsurprising that an ancient burial site became the place where a Buddhist vihara was set up, followed by the construction of a Vishnu temple in the 13th century CE. In fact, it was these Buddhist connections of the Vallipuram complex that had brought us to the temple that Sunday.

The temple is approached through a towering gopuram. I was keen to go through it as quickly as possible to reach the spot from where the Buddhist gold plaque had been recovered. But Selliah insisted that we pause at the gopuram and scrutinise it minutely. And with good reason. While the gateway bore much that was similar to others that front Vishnu temples – especially its pyramid-like structure decorated with various Vishnus, his avatars, and musicians, apsaras, animals and holy men – it was also unique. Amidst this crowd of colourful divine and living beings, one thing stood out for its sheer incongruity: an image of Mahatma Gandhi. Though he had been unassumingly integrated into the temple architecture, what made him stick out was the fact that he graced a gopuram.

Gandhi was easily recognisable because of his trademark dhoti, glasses and bald pate. Muscular legs and an animated expression on his face gave him a youthful appearance. He had a stick in one hand and what appeared to be a newspaper in the other. His shawl was missing, and instead the tiranga was wrapped around his shoulders. He appeared to be looking down gingerly, almost suggesting that he was worried by the height at which he stood.

Why the Mahatma?

For all its idiosyncrasies, it is this image of Gandhi that makes the Vallipuram gopuram arrestingly novel. I wondered whether the Mahatma occupying the same space as ancient gods was entirely unusual or if it was part of a larger phenomenon. After all, Tamil Nadu’s J Jayalalithaa was sometimes represented as a goddess, with giant cut-outs that showed a halo around her head or were propped against an even larger gopuram. Still, Gandhi’s representation at Vallipuram is different. Unlike the Vishnu avatars on the gopuram, he does not wear a crown or ornaments. He is shown as a human, not a god.

Was Gandhi’s depiction inspired by the fact that he was born in a Vaishnava family? This seemed unlikely since there was nothing about Gandhi’s appearance that alluded to either his religion or his caste. He was shown, as he had chosen to appear later in his life, in minimal clothing. The national flag as his shawl, I imagine, was inserted as a device to remind viewers that this man was the maker of modern India.

A more probable context that helps frame Gandhi’s presence could be the fact that he spent some weeks in Sri Lanka in November 1927. His indefatigable secretary Mahadev Desai’s book With Gandhiji in Ceylon provides a day-to-day account of those weeks, and from it, we learn that he spoke at several public meetings in Jaffna.

Some of what he said would have displeased Buddhists and Hindus equally. He described the Buddha as a Hindu amongst Hindus” and stated that Hindu culture included Buddhist culture”. He urged Tamilian upper castes to get rid of untouchability, exhorting them to open the doors of their temples to excluded brethren and abolish the institution of Devadasis. It is no wonder that the labour class of Sri Lanka saw Gandhi as their saviour. In his book, Desai recounts the conversations that he had with labourers who had come to see Gandhi in Hatton.

I met groups of them trying to get a glimpse of Gandhiji above the vast sea of human heads surging before them.

‘Why have you come here’ I asked.

A woman who was angered at the absurdity of the question answered with a counter question: ‘Tell me why you have come.’

Another meanwhile took up the conversation and said: ‘Don’t you know? We have come to see our god.’”

Gandhi in the house of the gods that they worshipped would certainly have made eminent sense to them.

But the gopuram was not made in the aftermath of Gandhi’s visit to Jaffna. Its foundation was laid in 1983 and it was completed by 1990. This was a brutal time in the history of Sri Lanka and, to me, it was ironic that a man who personified non-violence was integrated into a historic Tamil shrine in the stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at the bloody height of the civil war.

The Mahatma is known to have detested the idea of statues being made of him, but if showcasing a man of peace at a time of violence is what the designer of the gopuram had in mind, Gandhi may well have approved of this one.

This piece was first published on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments atideas.india@qz.com.

Millions of people are suffering and most are blaming the government for the current four-hour daily power cuts in most parts of the country. Difficult times or times of struggle are widely known to be the time when we should deeply ponder on what we have done or fail to do as responsible eco-friendly citizens in this era of global warming and climate change.   

For instance Pope Francis has called on world religious leaders to come together for this battle against global warming and climate change because it is not only a personal or economic issue but an important part of our spirituality. This is also connected to poverty alleviation because it is the poverty-stricken and marginalised people who suffer the most from the climate change consequences including floods and droughts, cyclones and extreme weather conditions in Sri Lanka’s hottest days where people are virtually drinking sweat.

For the past few decades Sri Lanka has been depending far too much on hydroelectric power. We need to remember a famous saying about King Parakrama Bahu the Great (1153-1186), who is still remembered as the mastermind of the Parakrama Samudra. He said not a single drop of rain should reach the sea without people making use of it. 

To make this a reality we built more than 10,000 ‘wewas’ which are widely admired as marvels of ancient engineering. They have several layers and are built in such a way that during the rainy season, excess water is collected in these wewas to be used in times of drought. Down the centuries these wewas were neglected because the colonial powers which invaded Sri Lanka and even some Sri Lankan leaders who thought their modern ideas were better. 

In 2006, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) — which then had about 40 seats in Parliament and several portfolios in the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration — drew up plans to renovate some 10,000 wewas. The party started doing so but it pulled out of the government after a dispute on the proposed Post Tsunami Relief Operation with the LTTE. 

With the JVP pulling out of the government, the wewa restoration project was also dropped and we see the consequences today. The levels in the hydro power reservoirs have dropped so low, that we no longer can depend on them to meet a country’s electricity need. 

During the past 20 years, the ruling parties worked out an alternative energy source. One of the major projects was the Norachcholai coal power plant. Religious leaders and other area residents protested that it would have serious environmental consequences. 

It is strange that China, which no longer built coal power plants in that vast country, pushed hard for the Norachcholai project. Housing Construction and Cultural Affairs Minister Sajith Premadasa last week said the Norachcholai coal power plant was breaking down so often because it was riddled with kickbacks and corruptions with VIP politicians and others getting rich through a second rate project and millions of people are suffering the consequences now.   

If the wewas were masterpieces of ancient engineering, then it is widely alleged that the Ceylon Electricity Board engineers — not all — but some of them have become generator businessmen and want to sell power to the CEB at a high rate. So the projects for solar energy, wind energy and other alternative energy sources have virtually suffered a blackout blow and worse still millions of innocent people are suffering because of it.   

We hope this dark era will end and the government will use modern technology to consolidate alternative sources of energy so that we could move from darkness to light.

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Hambantota oil refinery project was not a genuine investment but is an attempt at money laundering to bring down money earned illegally through the Central Bank bond scam, UPFA MP Shehan Semasinghe said yesterday.

He told parliament that Transparency International had also cast aspersions with regard to a money laundering attempt behind this project.

The MP said this project was only meant to mark the Prime Minister’s birthday and it was not a genuine investment.

He told parliament that even the investor had made an announcement that it will take another year to finalize the project with Oman saying it had not taken a decision on investing in Sri Lanka on a oil refinery project.

“We wonder how the Omani oil minister was brought here for the launching of the project and deceive the people,” the MP said.

He said according to the laws of Sri Lanka, a company needs to produce audit reports of three years to obtain the bunkering report and added that the said investor ‘Silver Park’ had been established only two years ago.

Minister Malik Samarawickrame rejected allegations of money laundering and said the money was coming through banking sources and there was no room for such activities. 

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) probing allegations of large scale corruption under the current government instructed the police unit attached thereto to investigate an attempt to intimidate witness Amal Suriyage of the Lammermoor Estate in Maskeliya by some officials of the Ministry of Rural Economic development and the Foresight Engineering Pvt. Ltd, the local agent for Wellard Rural Exports Pvt. Ltd., Australia.

Suriyage is giving evidence on the questionable import of high-yielding cows in 2017; the Ministry of Rural Economic development signed an agreement to import 20,000 cows from Wellard Rural Exports Pvt. Ltd., Australia. Suriyage and a number of dairy farmers have made startling revelations about the quality of the imported cows.

Suriyage was giving evidence before the commission, yesterday, when he was informed that 12 persons, including four from the ministry and seven from Foresight Engineering, had forcibly entered the farm, inspected the premises and taken footage of the farm a few hours earlier. A supervisor of the farm informed Suriyage that the veterinary officer for Maskeliya, Dr. Suresh Kumar had led the team. Kumar later told Suriyage that the Ministry officials had informed him that they were acting on the instructions of Minister, P. Harrison.

Suriyage told the PCoI that officers from Foresight Engineering had entered the farm illegally on a number occasions. “They are trying to silence me. We have instructed our workers not to allow people without permission, but, yesterday, they opened the gate because Kumar was with the group. Nimal Perera, Media Officer of the ministry was also with those who entered the farm. So it’s obvious that they are not there to treat the animals. I ask the commission to protect me from attempts made by the government to intimidate me.”

Additional Solicitor General (ASG,) Ayesha Jinasena, who led the evidence, requested the commission to act according to the powers vested in it under the Commission of Inquiry Act and Assistance to and Protection of Victims’ of Crime and Witnesses Act and ensure the security of the Witness.

Chairman of PCoI retired Supreme Court Judge Upali Abeyratne said that it seemed that the ministry officials and those from Foresight Engineering Pvt. Ltd were attempting to intimidate their witness. “Therefore we order the Police Unit attached to the PCoI to start an investigation within the day into this incident. We also order the secretary of the commission to inform the National Authority for The Protection of Victims of Crimes and Witnesses about what has transpired,” Abeyratne said.

Earlier it was revealed that a number of cows procured by Lammermoor Estate as a part of the subsidised scheme had a number of diseases that were not found in Sri Lanka and Suriyage had to treat them with expensive medicine.

Suriyage, who started giving evidence, last week, said that the government had distributed 3,030 substandard imported Australian cows among 46 investors and dairy farmers who had taken part in a subsidised scheme to introduce high-yielding imported cows, in 2017. He said that the Ministry of Rural Economy had informed the investors that those pregnant cows would produce 20 litres of milk a day on average and had advised some of the investors, who were already raising cows to get rid of the Sri Lankan cows that they already had. The investors paid Rs. 200,000 per cow and the government contributed Rs. 265,000. A number of cows had died, while a number of calves had been aborted or were stillborn, Suriyage said.

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

A pril 2, 2019, 9:32 pm

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, MP, yesterday said that they were ready for talks with political parties represented in parliament, including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a bid to thwart attempts to bring in controversial counter terrorism law targeting legitimate political opposition.

Rajapaksa alleged that the proposed law meant to replace the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in accordance with current dispensation’s understanding with Western powers, threatened civil liberties.

A top UPFA team comprising former President Rajapaksa and lawmakers, Keheliya Rambukwella and Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Prof. G.L. Peiris addressed a spate of contentious issues at a media briefing with representatives of English print media at the Opposition Leader’s Office.

MP Rajapaksa declared his readiness to discuss the new law with Opposition political parties in response to The Island query whether the UPFA with over 90 members would explore the possibility of thwarting required simple majority required for the passage of the proposed bill with the support of the TNA and the JVP.

The TNA and the JVP parliamentary groups comprises 16 and 6 lawmakers, respectively.

Kandy District MP Rambukwella pointed out that though some political parties opposed the proposed law, their leaders were either members of the UNF government or worked with the UNP.

Having dealt with the serious dangers posed by the proposed law, Prof. Peiris warned that their failure to defeat the UNP move would swiftly transform the country into a ‘police state.

The former Law Professor said that the Supreme Court had ruled that some sections of the proposed law couldn’t be accepted unless endorsed by a two-thirds majority and a referendum.

Responding to a query raised by The Island, Messrs Rajapaksa and Peiris said that once those provisions subjected to a two-thirds majority and referendum were left out, the new law could be endorsed by a simple majority. The former External Affairs Minister explained how the new law could empower the police at the expense of basic civil liberties at a time the country was heading towards large scale public protests.

Prof. Peiris discussed how the new law could authorize law enforcement authorities to take measures in terms of the PTA acceptable only under an Emergency Rule.

Responding to another query by The Island, MP Rajapaksa said that the controversial proposal had received government approval before the constitutional change of the government in late Oct last year.

The media was told the matter was being discussed at the relevant Parliamentary Oversight Committee chaired by MP Mayantha Dissanayake. The UPFA was represented there by Joint Opposition Leader in Parliament Dinesh Gunawardena.

Rajapaksa and Prof. Peiris said that Sri Lanka could not amend or replace laws to appease a section of the international community. The former Colombo University Law Professor described the move to replace the PTA as one such instance.

The SLPP Chairman explained how the new law could be used to suppress trade unions, civil society groups as well as the media. Prof. Peiris pointed out that definitions of word ‘terrorism’ in Section 3 was meant to stamp down legitimate opposition with those found guilty facing up to 20 years RI.

He explained how in terms of Section 84, ministers received authority to issue directives in respect of prohibitions on entry, taking photographs or making video recordings. In addition to that, Section 82 allowed Ministers to impose restrictions on movement outside one’s home, movements within the country, moving outside the normal route to and from work place, association with persons listed in the order and engaging in ‘specified activities.’

Prof. Peiris also faulted the media for not closely following the proposed law. According to him, the top management of media organizations as well as partners were liable for alleged violations. The proposed law threatened the post-war civil society as it prevailed over all other written laws in the event of inconsistency with any other law, he said.

At the onset of the briefing, Prof. Peiris lambasted the government for inclusion of specific safeguard to protect those taken in on terrorism charges. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the IGP had to be promptly informed of those taken in on terrorism charges to guarantee their safety and security whereas political opponents received far harsher treatment, Prof. Peiris said.

MP Rajapaksa criticized the conduct of the four-party TNA. The TNA never really raised its voice against the inordinate delay in having Provincial Council polls, Rajapaksa said, claiming that his government cleared the way for the TNA to return to democratic politics by eradicating terrorism nearly a decade ago.