Courtesy The Daily News

The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the findings so far, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.

•     Revenue-based fiscal consolidation and SOE reforms are needed to put Sri Lanka’s high public debt on a downward path, while providing space for critical social and development goals.
•     Efforts to rebuild foreign exchange reserve buffers, supported by a prudent policy mix and exchange rate flexibility, are critical to strengthen resilience to shocks and market confidence.
•     Strengthening institutions and accelerating structural reforms can lay the foundation for strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth in Sri Lanka.

A staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Manuela Goretti visited Colombo during February 14-28, 2019 to resume discussions on the fifth review under Sri Lanka’s economic reform program supported by a three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement. At the end of the visit, Ms. Goretti made the following statement:

The team welcomes the Sri Lankan authorities’ ongoing efforts to bring their economic reform program back on track following the political turmoil of late 2018. The team reached understandings at the staff level with the Sri Lankan authorities on the fifth review and their request to extend the EFF arrangement for an additional year with the remaining disbursements being evenly spread over this period to allow more time for the completion of the economic reform agenda. Subject to the planned submission to Parliament of the 2019 budget consistent with the EFF-supported program, the Board is expected to consider Sri Lanka’s request for completion of the fifth review in May 2019. The authorities are taking steps to complete all the pending actions and structural benchmarks for this review over the next few weeks.

The economy is gradually stabilizing after the weak economic performance in 2018, in the context of external shocks and domestic political uncertainty. Real GDP growth is expected to improve to about 3.5 percent this year, from 3 percent in 2018. Inflation recovered in January and is projected to reach 4.5 percent in 2019. The current account deficit widened to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2018, on the back of higher fuel prices, lower agricultural exports, and a surge in imports of vehicles, but is expected to narrow in 2019 benefiting from the correction in the exchange rate.

Program performance suffered a setback in the second half of 2018, delaying the completion of the fifth review under the IMF-supported program. The primary fiscal surplus fell short of program targets in December, largely due to weak revenues. The foreign exchange reserve target was also missed by a sizable margin, as market pressures from tight global financial conditions were exacerbated by the political crisis in late 2018.

At this difficult juncture, a concerted effort is needed by all stakeholders to preserve the hard-won gains of the economic reform program, support macroeconomic stability, and strengthen the economy’s resilience to shocks, given the high level of public debt and low reserve buffers. The authorities’ unwavering commitment to revive the reform momentum is critical to restore market confidence and meet the large refinancing needs coming due.

Sustained fiscal consolidation through domestic revenue mobilization and prudent spending remains a priority to maintain public debt sustainability. Consistent implementation of the 2018 Inland Revenue Act (IRA) and modernization of the Inland Revenue and Customs departments are needed to achieve this goal. The team welcomed the authorities’ commitment to raise the primary surplus to 1.5 percent of GDP in the 2019 budget. Under the EFF-supported program, greater revenue mobilization is expected to make space for better-targeted social and capital spending, while a more business-friendly tax regime under the IRA can support investment and growth. The team welcomed the authorities’ commitment to put the high public debt on a downward path, bringing the fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of GDP in 2020, in line with the reform program objectives, and 2 percent of GDP over the medium term, by adopting a sound fiscal rule and launching a new medium-term debt strategy.

Renewed efforts to improve transparency, accountability, and cost-efficiency of large state-owned enterprises are needed to help safeguard fiscal sustainability and catch up with delays in reform implementation. The authorities should move forward with plans to bring SriLankan Airlines on a sound commercial and financial footing and complete energy pricing reforms to address rising fiscal risks.

The team supported the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL)’s commitment to rebuild reserve buffers to adequate levels and allow exchange rate flexibility to protect the economy against shocks. The CBSL should continue to maintain a prudent and data-dependent monetary policy, standing ready to tighten policy rates should inflationary pressures re-emerge. The team urged the authorities to finalize the amendments to the Monetary Law Act with a view to strengthen the CBSL’s mandate, decision-making structures, autonomy, accountability, and transparency in the roadmap towards inflation targeting.

Ongoing steps to strengthen financial sector stability, in line with the recommendations of the recent Financial System Stability Review, are welcome. These should include efforts to harmonize the regulatory and supervisory regimes and strengthen the crisis-preparedness toolkit for financial institutions. The CBSL has also made progress in strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism regime.

Structural reforms should continue to support strong and inclusive growth and mitigate the distributional impact of the economic adjustment. Priorities include promoting trade openness and investment, strengthening the governance and anti-corruption framework, encouraging female labor force participation, enhancing social protection and crisis preparedness in response to natural disasters.”

The team met with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, Minister of Finance Samaraweera, State Minister of Finance Wickramaratne, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Coomaraswamy, other public officials, and representatives of the business community, civil society, and international partners.

Courtesy Adaderana

Venerable Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero has been acquitted by the Colombo High Court from the case filed over the alleged possession of an elephant calf.

The Colombo High Court today (01) delivered the verdict in the case filed against the Thero.

The court acquitted the popular Buddhist monk from all charges filed in the case.

The case against Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero was filed by the Attorney General in 2016 for the alleged illegal possession of an elephant calf without a valid permit at the Alan Mathiniyaramaya Temple in Polhengoda.

The two and half year-old elephant calf found illegally kept within the premises of the temple.

කමල් මහේන්ද්‍ර වීරරත්න  උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

එදා මෙදාතුර මේ රට තුළ සිදුවූ “සුවිශාලතම මූල්‍ය වංචාව” හෙවත් “මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපතිවරයාගේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන් හා ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රධානීන්ගේද අනුග්‍රහයෙන් හා ආශීර්වාදයෙන් කොල්ල කෑම” සිදුවී ඉකුත් 27 වැනිදාට හරියට වසර 04ක් සැපිරුණද ඊට වගකිවයුත්තන් හා සෘජුවම මැදිහත්වූ හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා වූ අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ගජමිතුරු අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ද ඇතුළු සියල්ලෝම යෙහෙන් වැජඹෙමින් සිටිති.

මේ කුප්‍රකට මහ “මහ බැංකු කොල්ලය” සිදුවන්නේ 2015 ජනවාරි 08 වැනි දින මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ජනාධිපතිවරයා පරාජය කරමින් රට තුළ යහපාලනයක් ඇතිකරන්නට යැයි කියා බලයට පත්වූ ‘යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව’ බිහිවී නොබෝ දිනකින්ම එනම්, 2015 පෙබරවාරි 27 වැනිදාය.

එය සිදුවන්නේ අපූරු ආකාරයකටය. යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුව බලයට පත්වූ නොපමාවම සිදුවූ අපූරුතම සිදුවීම වූයේ ජනවාරි 08 වැනි දින පැවැත්වූයේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් පමණක් වුවද එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය අනුව ජනාධිපති ධුරයේ සිටි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ වෙනුවට මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන දිවුරුම් දෙන මොහොතේම අලුත් අගමැතිවරයකුද දිවුරුම් දීම සිදු වීමය.

තුනෙන් දෙකක (2/3) බහුතර බලයක් සහිත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් සමඟ මහජන ඡන්දයෙන් තේරී පත්වූ අගමැතිවරයා ලෙස දි.මු. ජයරත්න සිය නිලයේ සිටියදීම අගමැති ධුරය සඳහා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ දිවුරුම් දීම සිදුකෙරේ.
“දින 100ක ආණ්ඩුවක්” නමින් ඔහුගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් වූ ඇමැති මණ්ඩලයක්ද පත්වෙයි.

මේ අල්ල පනල්ලේ එදා සිදුවූ තවත් අපූරුතම සිදුවීමක් මේ “මහ බැංකු කොල්ලය” නාට්‍යයේ පළමු කොටසම මිස. අන් කවරක් හෝ වන්නේදැයි සිතෙන්නේ, මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයාගේ කාර්ය පටිපාටියට ඇතුළත් වන්නාවූ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ විසින් සිය අගමැති ධුරයේ කාර්ය පටිපාටියට ඇතුළත් කර ගැනීමය. ඉනුත් නොනැවතී 2015 පෙබරවාරි මස 20 වැනිදා මහ බැංකු මහ කොල්ලයේ ප්‍රධාන මෙහෙයුම්කරු බවට ජනාධිපති පරීක්ෂණ කොමිසම විසින්ද නම් කොට ඇති සිංගප්පූරු පුරවැසියකු වූ තම ගජමිතුරු අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මෙරටට ගෙන්වා ඔහු මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපතිවරයා කොට ඔහුට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මූල්‍ය පාලනය භාරදීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණය වැටහෙන නිසාය.

ඒ අනුහසින් සිදුවූ ‘බැඳුම්කර මහා මගඩියේ” ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් දිනෙන් දින තවත් වසර 26ක් යනතුරුම පැටව් ගසන “මූල්‍ය පාඩුව” අද වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ ගණන් හිලව් අනුව රුපියල් බිලියන 1000 ද ඉක්මවා ගොස් හමාරය.

බැඳුම්කර විමර්ශන කොමිසම හමුවේ සාක්ෂි දීමට පැමිණි මේ රටේ විගණකාධිපතිවරයා ගාමිණි විජේසිංහ මහතාගෙන් එදා කොමිසමේ සභාපතිවරයා නඟන ලද පැනයකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් ඔහු සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයද මෙහිදී සඳහන් නොකරම බැරිය.

“මෙකී ‘බැඳුම්කර වංචාව’ මඟින් රටට සිදුවන අලාභය කොතෙක්දැ”යි විගණකාධිපතිවරයා වශයෙන් ඔබ ගණනය කර ඇත්දැයි කොමිසමේ සභාපති ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරු කේ.ඒ. වික්‍රමසිරි මහතා විමසා සිටියේය.

“මව්බිම” ප්‍රධාන සිරස්තලයක් යටතේ සිය පාඨක ජනතාවට එදා හෙළි කළ පරිදිම ඔහුගේ පිළිතුර වූයේ “ස්වාමිනී එය ගණනය කළහොත් ලැබෙන පිළිතුරෙහි ඉලක්කම් ප්‍රමාණය ලිවීමට විනිශ්චය ශාලාව තුළ ඇති දැවැන්ත පුළුල් තිරය වුවද ප්‍රමාණවත් නොවනු ඇති” යන්නය.

මේ සා විශාල අලාභයක් රටට සිදුකළ මහ බැංකු අධිපති අගමැති ගජමිතුරු අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් සිංගප්පූරුවේ අපූරුවට යෙහෙන් වැජඹෙද්දී එම කුප්‍රකට සිංගප්පූරුවා මෙරටට ගෙන්වා මහ බැංකුව ඔහුට භාරදුන් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහද අදටත් යෙහෙන් වැජඹෙන්නේ නිකම්ම නොව රටේ අගමැතිකමද කරමින්මය.

එදා මීට වසර 04කට පෙර 2015 පෙබරවාරි 27 වැනිදා පෙරවරු 11.00ට රුපියල් බිලියන 01ක මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසියක් සිදුකරන බවට දැන්වීමක් පළ කළ අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා බැඳුම්කර ටෙන්ඩර්පත් භාරගැනීමේ අවසාන කාලය වූ පෙරවරු 11.00 වෙද්දී නිර්ලජ්ජිත ලෙස එතෙක් මෙතෙක් කිසිදු අධිපතිවරයකු සිදු නොකළ ආකාරයට මහ බැංකුවේ බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසි සිදුකරන රහස්‍ය අංශය වෙත පැමිණෙයි.

එහිදී අංශ භාර නිලධාරිනිය ඇමතූ ඔහු ටෙන්ඩර්පත් භාරගැනීමේ කාලය තවත් මිනිත්තු 10කින් දීර්ඝ කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටියි.

එය එලෙස සිදුවෙද්දී ඔහුගේ දියණියගේ ස්වාමිපුරුෂයා වන අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස් හිමිකාරිත්වය දරන සීමාසහිත පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගමේ ප්‍රධාන විධායකයා වන කසුන් පලිසේන අලුතින් ටෙන්ඩර් පත්‍රයක් භාර දෙමින් රුපියල් බිලියන 10ක බැඳුම්කර මිලදී ගැනීමට ඉදිරිපත් වෙයි.

ටෙන්ඩර්පත් කැඳවන ලද්දේ රුපියල් බිලියන 01කට බැවින් ඒ සඳහා අනෙකුත් ප්‍රාථමික ගැනුුම්කරුවන් තම ටෙන්ඩර්පත් ඉදිරිපත්කොට අවසන්ව තිබියදී මෙලෙස මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයාගේ බෑනා බිලියන 10කටත් එම සමාගම වෙනුවෙන්ම ලංකා බැංකු නියෝජිතයාද තවත් ටෙන්ඩර් පත්‍රයක් තවත් බිලියන 06කටත් ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ අප ඉහතින් සඳහන් කළ පරිදි අධිපතිවරයා විසින් දීර්ඝ කරවන ලද මිනිත්තු 10 ඇතුළතය.

මේ සමගම අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මූල්‍ය මණ්ඩලයටද දැනුම් දෙන්නේ රජයට ඉතා හදිසි අවශ්‍යතාවක් ඇති බැව් අගමැතිවරයා තමාට දැනුම්දී ඇති හෙයින් රුපියල් බිලියන 01 වෙනුවට බිලියන 20ක බැඳුම්කර අලෙවි කිරීමට පියවර ගත යුතු බවයි.

මූල්‍ය මණ්ඩලයේ බහුතරයම එයට විරුද්ධ වෙමින් එමඟින් සිදුවිය හැකි අනර්ථයත් රටේ ආර්ථිකයට එමඟින් සිදුවන බරපතළ හානියත් පෙන්වා දෙන ලද අතර ඒ අනුව බිලියන 20 ප්‍රමාණය බිලියන 10 දක්වා ආපස්සට ගැනීමට හැකිවූ බැව් කොමිසම හමුවේ හෙළි විය.

එපමණක් නොව එදා දිනයේ රටේ පැවැති පොලී අනුපාතය සියයට 9.85ක් වුවද මාමා අනුමත කළ බෑනාගේ ටෙන්ඩර් පතෙහි පොලී අනුපාතය සියයට 12.05ක් වීමද විශේෂයෙන්ම සඳහන් කළ යුතුමය.

කෙසේ වුවද අගමැතිවරයාගේ අවශ්‍යතාව බැව් පෙන්වා දෙමින් එම අනුපාතයට රුපියල් බිලියන 10ක භාණ්ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කර සිය බෑනාගේ සමාගමට අලෙවි කිරීමට අධිපති මාමාට හැකිවිය.

මේ පුවතින් රටම ගිනි ගනිද්දී අගමැතිවරයා ඊට යෙදූ පිළියම වූයේ තමන්ටම හිතවත් තිදෙනකුගෙන් සැදුම්ලත් ‘පිටිපන කමිටුව’ නමින් කමිටුවක් පත්කොට මේ ගැන කරුණු පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීමට නියම කිරීමය.

“හොරාගේ අම්මා හරියටම පේනය කීවාය.” මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා කිසිදු වරදක් හෝ විෂමාචාරයක් සිදුකර නොමැති බව කමිටුව වාර්තා කළේය.

මේ වන විටත් කථානායක ධුරය දැරුවේ චමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතාය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ මෙම ප්‍රශ්නය උද්වේගකාරී ලෙස පැන නැඟෙද්දී ඔහු විසින් ගුණසේකර මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් වූ ඛ්ර්ණීර්ථීඡ් කමිටුවට මේ පිළිබඳව විමර්ශනයක් සිදුකරන ලෙස නියම කළේය.

සියලු පාර්ශ්ව කැඳවමින් පුළුල් විමර්ශනක් සිදුකර එම කමිටුව සිය වාර්තාව එළි දැක්වීමට දින නියම කළේ 2015 ජුනි මස 28 වැනි දිනටය.

“මහ බැංකු මහා මගඩිය” නාටකයේ ඊළඟ “එපිසෝඩය” තිරගත විය. කෝප් වාර්තාව හෙළි දැක්වීමට දෙදිනකට පෙර 2015 ජුනි මස 26 වැනි දින අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හරිමින් කෝප් කමිටුවත් එහි වාර්තාවත් ‘ශූන්‍ය’ කළේය.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්ම වූ ආණ්ඩුවක් 2015 අගෝස්තු මස 17 වැනිදා පැවැති මැතිවරණයෙන් බලයට පත්කිරීමට තරම් රට වැස්සන් අමනෝඥ විය.

ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හඳුන්නෙත්ති මන්ත්‍රිවරයාගේ සභාපතිත්වයෙන් නව කෝප් කමිටුවක් පත් කිරීමට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා පියවර ගත්තේය.

2015 නොවැම්බර් 26 වැනි දින විමර්ශන ආරම්භ කළ හඳුන්නෙත්ති කමිටුවේ වාර්තාව සකස් වෙන්නේ 2016 ඔක්තෝබර් මාසය අවසාන භාගයේදීය.

ඒ අතරතුර අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මාමා සහ අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස් බෑනා කිසිදු බාධාවකින් තොරව සිය කටයුතු දිගටම කරගෙන ගියේ ඉතාමත්ම සැහැල්ලුවෙන්ය.

කොටින්ම කියතොත් 2016 මාර්තු 29 හා 31 දිනයන්හි පවා ඔවුන් රිසි සේ කුප්‍රකට මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසි පවත්වමින් මහජන මුදල් සිත් සේ සූරාකමින් යෙහෙන් වැජඹුණි. සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලේ හා ජාතික ඉතිරි කිරීමේ බැංකුවේත්, විශ්වවිද්‍යාල ප්‍රතිපාදන කොමිෂන් අරමුදලේ හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව තුළ සුරක්ෂාවට තැන්පත්ව තිබූ අනෙකුත් ආයතනවල පොදු මහජනතාවගේ මුදල් කුට්ටිපිටින් කොල්ලකෑවේ කිසිදු හිරිකිතයක් හෝ බියක් සැකක් නොමැතිවය.

2017 ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වැනි දින හඳුන්නෙත්ති කෝප් කමිටුවේ වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් විය. කෝප් කමිටුවේ සාමාජිකයන්ව සිටි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් කමිටු වාර්තාවට අස්සන් තබන ලද්දේ එහි අන්තර්ගත කරුණු හා නිර්දේශ සමඟ එකඟ නොවන බවට පාද සටහන් හෙවත් “ජ්ධධබ ව්ධබඥ” තබමිනි.

2017 ජනවාරි 27 වැනි දින ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් මෙම මහ බැංකු මගඩිය ගැන සොයන්නට ජනාධිපති පරීක්‍ෂණ කොමිෂන් සභාවක් පත් කළේ ඒ අතර තුරය.

2017 ජනවාරි 27 වැනිදා ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පත්කරන ලද ‘බැඳුම්කර විමර්ශන ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාව, ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරුන් වන කේ.ටී. චිත්‍රසිරි හා ප්‍රසන්න ජයවර්ධනද විශ්‍රාමික නියෝජ්‍ය විගණකාධිපතිවරයකු වූ කන්දසාමි වේලුපිල්ලේ යන මහත්වරුන්ගෙන් සමන්විත විය.

එහි වාර්තාව 2017 දෙසැම්බර් මස 30 වැනි දින ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත භාර දුන් අතර එය පිටු 946ක්ද ඇමුණුම් 175 කින්ද තවත් පිටු 206ක ඇමුණුම්වලින්ද යුක්ත විය.

එහෙත් නොකියාම බැරි ඉතාමත්ම වැදගත් කරුණක් වනුයේ එම කොමිෂන් වාර්තාව ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින්ම පමණක් මුද්‍රණය කොට සීමිත පිටපත් ප්‍රමාණයක් නිකුත් කිරීම මඟින් එහි අඩංගු දේ සිංහල හෝ දෙමළ බස වහරන රටේ අති මහත් බහුතරයක් වන ජනතාවගේ ඇස නොගැටෙන්නටත් කන නොවැකෙන්නටත් වික්‍රමසිංහ රජය ඉතා දක්ෂ ලෙස ක්‍රියා කරන ලද බවය.

ඉතාමත්ම අඩු ප්‍රචාරණයක් දෙමින් නිකුත් කළ මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය විමර්ශනය කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම විසින් හෙළිදරව් කළ කරුණු අතර ප්‍රථම වෙන්දේසියේදී පමණක් ක්ෂණිකව රටට අහිමි වූ වළක්වාගත හැකිව තිබූ අලාභය රුපියල් හැට අට කෝටියකට අධික බව(රු. 68,87,62,100)කි.

කොමිසමේ අංක 21 දරන නිර්දේශය මඟින් සඳහන්ව ඇති පරිදි අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්, අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස්, ඔහුගේ පියා වන ජෙෆ්රි ඇලෝසියස්, කසුන් පලිසේන යනාදීන් මෙන්ම මෙම මහා විනාශයට විවිධාකාරයෙන් සම්බන්ධ වී ඇති අයවලුන්ගෙන් අලාභ හා දඩ ලෙස දෙගුණයක් කොට අයකරගත යුතු බවට නිර්දේශ කොට ඇති මුදල් කන්දරාව රුපියල් කෝටි අටසිය පනස් තුනකට ආසන්න වූ (රු. 852,99,64,495යි ශත 61) මුදල මෙන් දෙගුණයකි.

එනම් රුපියල් කෝටි එක්දහස් හත්සිය හයකට ආසන්න වූ (රුපියල් 1705,99,28,991යි ශත 22ක) මුදලකි. බිලියනවලින් ගණනය කළහොත් එම මුදල රුපියල් බිලියන 17 ඉක්මවූවකි. (රු. 17,059,928,991.22කි.)
ඒ සියල්ලත් කඩදාසියේ ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින් මුද්‍රණය වූවා හැර ඉන් එපිටට ගත් කිසිදු ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් වසර 4ක් ගතවන අදටත් ගෙන නැත. ගන්නට සූදානමක්වත් පෙනෙනන්ටද නැත.

එපමණකුදු නොව ජනාධිපති විමර්ශන කොමිෂන් වාර්තාවෙන් ඉතාමත්ම නිරවුල් ලෙසම පැහැදිලිවම ප්‍රකාශ කොට ඇති පරිදි, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වසර ගණනාවකින් නොව දශක ගණනාවකින් ආපස්සට ඇද දමමින් ආර්ථික වශයෙන් අන්ත ප්‍රපාතයකට හෙළා දැමීමට ඉවහල් වූ මෙම කුප්‍රකට මහ දවල් මහ බැංකු මහ කොල්ලය පිළිබඳව සම්පූර්ණ වගකීම ආරෝපණය වනුයේ මහ බැංකුව භාරව ක්‍රියා කළ අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට පමණක් නොවේ.

සැලසුම් සහිතව සිංගප්පූරුවේ සිට ඔහු කඩිමුඩියේම මෙරටට ගෙන්වාගෙන අනියම් ආකාරයෙන් තමාගේ යටතට අත්පත් කරගත් මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති වශයෙන් ඔහු පත් කිරීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ විරෝධය මැද්දේ ක්‍රියා කළ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාටද පමණක්ම නොවේ.

2015 පෙබරවාරි 17දා මෙම ප්‍රථම කුප්‍රකට බැංකු බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය සිදු කරන්නට දෙදිනකට පෙරාතුව හදිස්සියේම මහ බැංකුවට පැමිණ හදිසි රැස්වීමක් කැඳවා රජයට හදිසි මුදල් අවශ්‍යතාවක් ඇති බවට අමුතුම ආකාරයේ දැනුවත් කිරීමකට කටයුතු කළ මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා වූ රවි කරුණානායකත්, මහාමාර්ග ඇමැති කබීර් හෂීම්, ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙළෙඳ කටයුතු හා ආයෝජන ප්‍රවර්ධන ඇමැතිව සිටි මලික් සමරවික්‍රම හා ඇමැති රවුෆ් හකීම් යන ඇමැතිවරුන් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාගේ නියෝජිතයන් වශයෙන් පෙනී සිටිමින් කළ කී දෑ අනුව ඔවුන්ද මේ කුප්‍රකට මහා මූල්‍ය වංචාවේ පූර්ව සැලසුම තුළ සිටි ප්‍රබල ක්‍රියාකාරීන් බැව් අමුතුවෙන් පෙන්වා දිය යුතු නැත.

ඊටද අමතරව මහ බැංකුවේ අතිශය රහස්‍ය තොරතුරු සිය බෑනා වූ අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස්ට ලබා දෙමින් මගඩිය සැලසුම් සහිතව ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට එරෙහිවත්, සිය මාමණ්ඩිය වූ මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයාගේ එකී උදවු උපකාර ඇතිව සුප්‍රසිද්ධියේම බැඳුම්කර මගඩියේ දිගින් දිගටම යෙදෙමින් රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනින් අයුතු ලාභ ලෙස මහජන මුදල් වූ රාජ්‍ය මුදල් කොල්ලකනවා මදිවාට සේවක අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදල ඇතුළු ඉහතින් සඳහන් කොට ඇති ආයතනයන්හි අරමුදල් භාරව සිටි නිලධාරීන් මිලට ගෙන, ඔවුන් හරහා එකී අරමුදල්හි වූ මහජන මුදල් කෝටි ගණනින් තමන්ගේ සාක්කුවට වැටෙන ආකාරයට කටයුතු කළ අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස්ට එරෙහිවත්, මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර මගඩි හරහා රාජ්‍ය මුදල් කොල්ල කෑමට අතහිත දීම වෙනුවෙන් අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස්ගෙන් රුපියල් කෝටි ගණනක් වූ ගාලුමුව‍ෙදාර ඉදිරිපිට පිහිටි අති සුඛෝපභෝගී මහල් නිවාසයක් ලබා ගැනීම හා එහි පවුල පිටින් පදිචිංව සිටීමත් සම්බන්ධයෙන් කොමිසම හමුවේ අනාවරණය වූ කරුණු ප්‍රකාරව අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ දෙපාර්මේන්තුව සිදුකළ විමර්ශනයෙන් කරුණු තහවුරු වීම නිසා වරදකරුවකු බවට තීන්දු වූ මුදල් ඇමැති රවි කරුණානායකට එරෙහිව අල්ලස් හෝ දූෂණ විමර්ශන කොමිසම මඟින් නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරවීමටත්, යනාදී නිර්දේශ කොමිෂන් වාර්තාව මඟින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කොට ඇතත්, ඒ කිසිදු පියවරක් හෝ සෙසු අයට එරෙහිව නීතිපතිවරයා හරහා ස්කන්ධ හා සුරැකුම් ආඥා පනත යටතේ අදාළ නීතිමය පියවර ගැනීමටත්, ශ්‍රී ලංකා දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ අදාළ නීති ප්‍රතිපාදන ඔස්සේ පියවර ගැනීමටත් ජනාධිපති කොමිසම මඟින් කර ඇති නිර්දේශ සහ කිසිවක් වසර 4ක්ම ගතව ඇති මේ මොහොත වනතුරු ඉටුවී නැති බව සඳහන් කළ යුතුමය.

කිවයුතු හා ලිවිය යුතු තවත් පිටු 60-70ක් වුවද නිමවිය නොහැකි කරුණු මේ මහා මූල්‍ය මගඩියක් වන රජයේම අනුග්‍රහයෙන් ලොව සිදුව ඇති බවට වාර්තා වූ එකම භාණ්ඩාගාර කොල්ලය හෙවත් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා විසින්ම රටේ අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ගේද ආශීර්වාදය හා අනුග්‍රහය ඇතිව සිදුකරන ලද මහ දවල් මහ බැංකු මහ කොල්ලය ගැන අප සතුව ඇතත්, ඒ සියල්ලට තිත තබමින් ජනපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන විසින් මේ මහ බැංකු මහ කොල්ලයේ සිවු වන සංවත්සරය සමරමින් (2019 පෙබරවාරි 27දා) සිදුකළ අපූරු ප්‍රකාශයේ කොටසකින් ලිපිය නිමා කරමි.

“අවුරුදු 4කුත් ගත වෙලත් තවමත් මේ මහ බැංකු හොරුන් අල්ලා දඬුවම් දෙන්නට බැරි වෙලා තිබෙනවා. කොහොමද ඒක කරන්නේ ආණ්ඩුව කරන්නෙත් ඒගොල්ලම නම් ඒක වෙන්නේ නෑ. ඒක සිද්ධ වෙන්න නම් මේ ආණ්ඩුව වෙනස් වෙන්න ඕනෑ.”

By Pradeep Prasanna Samarakoon Courtesy The Island

March 1, 2019, 10:59 pm

Joint Opposition member Gamini Lokuge, MP said, yesterday, that State Minister Ranjan Ramanayake’s allegations that some MPs were addicted to cocaine was a stage-managed act to distract public attention from the bond scams and other such issues.

Lokuge said that it was four years since the bond scam had been carried out, but the government had failed to arrest the main suspect, Arjuna Mahendran. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had got Ramanayake to make the cocaine allegation as a red herring.

The ruling party MPs didn’t talk about the long overdue Provincial Council elections, the development work in the country had come to a standstill and the masses were having a difficult time owing to the spiraling cost of living and the situation was bound to worsen so long as the present regime was in power, he said.

Courtesy RT

https://youtu.be/rt7ufWjVYRg

By Charles S.Perera

Suren Raghavan, immediately after being appointed as the Governor of Northern Province announced  that he is against Buddhisisation of the North.

Well he is not alone, there are many more Tamil politicians still with their Dravidian instincts like that of  animals, such as the TNA MP the Christian Tamil Sumandiran, who wants to distance Tamils and Jaffna Tamils from the teachings of  the Compassionate  Buddha.

But this stupid statement coming from a Governor of a Province is not tolerable. A Governor is the representative of the President of Sri Lanka in the respective Province. He should be the uniting force that brings the people-the Communities in to the national fold. He should be a symbol of unity in the Province to bring the people  together, not to separate them.

The Governor Suren Raghavn has a Doctorate  in Federalism, that does not put him into the category of an intellectual, as much as Wignesvaran, who had spent all his professional life as a Judge dealing with thieves and criminals who have rubbed off their  evil thinking  to Wignesvaran.

Therefore these ignorant morons have no minds to think positively and constructively. They do not know what a priviledge it is to live  in the land sanctified   by the visit of the Compassionate  Buddha long before the Dravidians had even heard of Jaffna- Jaffna -the land of the Nagas.

These unfortunate Tamils are ignorant that today  learned men all over the world- academicians, scientists and psychiatrists  are awakening to the teachings of the  Buddha, and accepting the teachings and setting up temples and Buddhist Centres of Buddhist Studies in USA,  Europe and in far away Africa.

Suren Raghavan when he is planning to stop Buddhisisation of  Jaffna, a group of savage Dravidians in Mulathivu occupied the Mulathivu Nayaru Khandha Ancient Buddhist Temple on the Pongal day, threatened the resident monk Venerable Kolamba Medalankara Kiththi Nayaka thero and dug a foundatiuon for a Kovil in the Temple premises. In which century are they ? Are  there  civilised people living in the North?

http://divaina.com/sunday/index.php/visheshanga1/7975-2019-01-17-09-04-54

It is interesting in this context to see what is happening in Portugal. A Portuguese man who is ordained  as a  Buddhist Monk Ajhan Dhammiko,  understanding the great teachings of the Buddha, considering that the Portuguese had  wronged the Sri Lankans by converting them to Christianity, has built  a Buddhist Monastery  called Sumedharama which  spreads out over 25 acres of land in Lisbon, wants to compensate Sri Lanka  for the wrongs done to the people of Sri Lanka by the Portuguese, by spreading the teachings of Buddha in Portugal.

But this uninformed ignorant Raghavan  speaks of Buddhism as a plague with which he does not want to infect his people in the North. Raghavan is also a Christian with a special devotion to Jesus , who according to some historians was in India,  and was  perhaps a disciple of the Buddha. Is Suren Raghavan a civilised man ?

It is not strange that Sri Lankan Tamil politicians have an aversion to Buddha and his teachings, as  their mental development has still not gone beyond their ancestral Dravidian instinct to understand the greatness of the teachings of the Buddha. Hence they rejects Buddhism  as a blind man kicks a jewel he steps on while walking, not knowing what it is.

Therefore Raghavan as much as other anti Buddhists Tamils amoung the TNA MPs having the same Dravidian Genes still do not know the value of the Buddha and his teachings. They prefer the blood soaked floors of Kali Temples, to a clean peaceful simplicity of a Buddhist temple.

Having primitive Dravidian genes is not a disease or an unsurmountable handicap, but the Tamil politicians thrive living with this  undeveloped mindsets and do not allow the poor Tamils to rise above these ethnic handicaps. These Tamils activists be they TNA politicians or of other political or non political groups are all the same.

Therefore, it is best that the Sinhala people who wants a true unity with the Tamil Community think even for an instance they have found hope for such a unity in  Arun of the AAWA Group, because it was evident from the interview with him carried out by the Derana TV that he is a big farce, a trickster, he is not  different from the Tamil politicians from the North or the Tamils of the diaspora..

The ordinary Tamils are beautiful people. We know many like Muralitharan, Kanthar Balanathan , and  Dr. Nadesan from Australia who are wonderful people who like to have close contact with Sinhala people and even accept and respect Buddhism. ( I have visited Jaffna where I met my friend Radha Manohar , and his family and friends who received  me with sincere affection. I do not want to hurt their sensitivity by any of what I have written against the Tamil Politicians and their ilk).

The ordinary Tamil people in the North  cannot be ruled out as anti Sinhala Buddhists. It is the Tamil politicians of the TNA who keep the ordinary Tamil people from demonstrating  their affection to the Sinhala people.

It was seen recently where the villagers of Visvamaduma in Jaffna gathered to bid farewell to Colonel Ratnapriya Bandu who was leaving the Military Camp on transfer. The people surrounded him weeping and lamenting. They garlanded him and held onto him as he was one of their beloved elder relative.  Suren Raghavan should goto Visvamaduva and ask the villagers what was the reason for them to show such warm affection to that Sinhala Military officer.

The politically motivated Tamils are ready to reproach  and accuse the Sinhala political leaders and the Afrmy, but none comes forward to speak gratefully of them, who had helped the ordinary Tamil people to live peacefully and in security having saved them from the clutches of terrorism.

It is not too late for Governor Raghavan  to learn a little about the teachings of the  Buddha if he wants  to be a suitable man to be the Governor of the Northern Province.

During the time of the Most Compassionate Buddha in India there were 62 different philosophies in the North of India . The South was where the Dravidians had been chased   by the advancing Aryans.  The Dravidians or the Tamils had more primitive religious worships and it was later that a cannibalised  form of  Hinduism came to be practiced; prominent amoung them the worship of  Goddess Kali. 

There is no mention of the Buddha Visiting South India.  Even today the Tamils,  except the Dalits,   have not accepted the teachings of the Buddha. The Tamils of Jaffna do not seem to know that the Compassionate Buddha had visited Jaffna.

They prefer their primitive religious practicesn and  insult and despise the great teachings with which they have been priviledged to live side by side. Even though the decorated Mandapas of  Hindu Temple in  North India are beautifully crafted, the Gopurams of  Hindu Kovils in South India and in Sri Lanka are ugly and frightful with large eyed, big bellied, large breasted fantasy figures of Yakshas and Yakshanis.

There were very few Buddhist in South India when Venerable Buddhaghosa was engaged to translate into Pali the commentaries to the teachings of the Buddha made in Sinhala by great Buddhist monks  and perhaps Noble Arahaths. 

That was perhaps a mistake done by Venerable Revata Maha Thero of Mahavihara. Perhaps Venerable Buddhaghosa did a good translation of those Commentaries and prepared the Visuddhimagga. But no one could  verify what he had included in it and what he had not. 

Venerable Buddhaghiosa before he became a Buddhist monk, was a South Indian Hindu who was learned in the Vedic literature, therefore there is no doubt that he had  included in Visuddhimagga his own Hindu views as for instances the 40 objects of meditation which had not been mentioned by the Buddha in his discourses such as Maha Satipatthana Sutta.

All the Commentaries  in Sinhala had been handed over to Venerable Buddhaghosa giving him a carte blanche  for their translation. Mahavihara Bikkhus had trusted him and no one had even been given to assist him. Therefore it is questionable whether Ven. Buddhagosa read and understood correctly the Sinhala commentaries.

There is no way to verify the correctness  of the Pali text of Ven. Buddhaghosa by comparing it to the original Sinhala commentaries as it is said that Venerable Buddhaghosa after writing the Visuddhimagga burnt all Sinhala commentaries that had been handed over to him, without leaving any trace of them.  That was a great act of betrayal as those original commentaries were of immense importance. 

That is how South Indian mentality worked even at that time.  Destruction of Buddhism is in the genes of the Tamils. Venerable Buddhaghosa  should have respected the ancient Sinhala Commentaries and handed them  back to Mahavihara. But he probably wanted credit for himself for what is  written in  the Visuddhimagga..

But these present day assailants of Buddhism do not understand that it is Buddhism that Identifies Sri Lanka.  Suren Raghavan says that the terrorist war was a one-sided victory. All victories are one sided and there is nothing intellectual about his pronouncement.  He calls the present situation a period of victors justice” Perhaps the appointment of  Suren Raghavan was another attempt in reconciliation which has badly  misfired. It is better that a Sinhala Buddhist is appointed as the Governor of the Northern Province and remove Suren Raghavan as he is a misfit as a Governor of the Nothern Province .

The ordinary Tamils in the North and East will certainly prefer to have a Sinhala Buddhist as their Governor as they can expect justice and a fair deal from a Sinhala Buddhist Governor. It is only the extremist Tamil politicians that would  protest against a Sinhala Buddhist as a Governor in the North or East.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

With the elevation of Tamil to a national language in the 1978 Constitution, Tamil became entrenched in Sri Lanka in two important sectors, ‘education’ and ‘employment.’

EDUCATION.

Tamil became a compulsory subject   in Sinhala medium schools. The Education Department issued a circular making Tamil compulsory for all schools from year 2000. It was compulsory from Grade 1 to Grade 9 but could be dropped at O level. School children have responded well. There are ‘Tamil days’ in the schools.  In 2016 the all island Tamil language day   organized by the Ministry of Education was held at Dharmaraja College, Kandy.

Tamil was readily accepted as a subject in the ‘South’ too. In 1999 the Matara district office of Department of Education launched a programme to teach Tamil language in all the Sinhala medium schools in Matara District under the Swedish Aid programme.   Before   that, Ilma College, Kotuwegoda, Matara had taught Sinhala, Tamil and English in 1998.  In 2017 over 1,500 students in Matara had completed the Tamil proficiency course conducted by two NGOs, Samadhi Foundation and Dakuna Educational Institute.

But there was a snag. There was a serious dearth of teachers for teaching Tamil in secondary schools. Principals of schools in the Hambantota district complained in 2018 that there are no teachers for Tamil language in their schools, although the teaching of the language has been made compulsory. As a result, Tamil language tuition teachers are charging exorbitant rates from students.

With the elevation of Tamil to a national language, the Tamil medium school in the up-country tea plantation sector got a new lease of life. In the 1990s the  Plantation Schools Education Development Programme ( PSEDP) was  launched by the Ministry of Education with Swedish aid ( SIDA).The project covered Badulla, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, Kalutara, Colombo  (Hanwella) and Galle districts. New Tamil medium estate schools came up in Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Walapane, and Kotmale. By 1997 Rs. 286 million from SIDA and              Rs 300 million from Sri Lanka government had been spent on estate schools.

However, in 1999 Minister Arumugam Thondaman complained that there was only one Tamil school in Deniyaya. There was a shortage of teachers too. The Sri Pada Collage of Education had been set up in 1986, with German aid, to train Tamil medium teachers for estate schools. 1377 teachers were posted to estate sector schools from 1994, but there was still a notable shortage in 1999.  Thondaman wanted a further 10,000 teachers in the estate schools.

It is unlikely that Tamil was made compulsory in University, but in 2000, Sabaragamuwa University had a compulsory Tamil paper. DEW Gunasekera said in 2008, that the Higher Education Ministry has agreed to start Tamil and Sinhala classes in the Universities.

EMPLOYMENT

The Tamil language also bounced into the government sector. Circulars went out to say that under the new language policy all state employees were required to attain proficiency in the ‘second language’ within the first five years of employment. This meant that Sinhala speaking Government servants had to compulsorily acquire knowledge of Tamil within five years.

Accordingly, the Official Languages Department began language training in 1992.The Department said that as at 2003, the department had trained 7290 public servants in elementary Tamil and 527 in higher Tamil as well as 1183 in elementary Sinhala and 95 in higher Sinhala. Language training programmes were also conducted by a number of public institutions   in 1998 NAITA inaugurated Tamil classes for officials.

A study of the language proficiency of public service employees conducted by the Department of Official Languages , (probably around 1998),  showed that out of the 3,500 employees in government ministries, 3,368 were proficient in Sinhala, 1,015 in English but only 119 in Tamil.

However, there has been some interest in learning Tamil.  The media reported in 2010 that Central Bank employees have shown keen interest in learning Tamil. They have to undergo 108 hours of training in both speaking and writing skills before they sit for the written and oral examinations conducted by the Department of Official Language, said the media.

Circulars were issued from time to time regarding language proficiency in employment. The circular presently in force is Public Administration Circular 07/2007. Public Administration Circular 07/2007 stated that all new public service recruits after July 1. 2007 must compulsorily acquire a sufficient level of proficiency in the national language other than their mother tongue, within five years. This meant that Tamil was compulsory for Sinhala speaking recruits to the Public Service with effect from 01 July 2007.

This 2007 circular divided the Public Service into three segments for assessing language proficiency, Management, Middle and Lower grades.  Three categories of bilingual proficiency were also identified,  (i) basic conversational skills with minimal reading and writing ability particularly for government officers directly dealing with public enquiries as well as the police and health services (ii) higher level of conversation and ability to correspond (reading and writing skills) and  (iii) sufficient ability to read, analyze and draft reports in that second official language. Employees were  to be tested at these three levels.

The 2007 circular stated that the training  would be conducted by the Official Languages Department. Training could be done by other state, private or non-governmental institutions too,  but on syllabi prepared by the Official Languages Department and the examination will also be conducted by the Official Languages Department. The proficiency exam tested both written and oral skills.  The Official Language Department  will hold assessment tests every five years and those who pass them will get an additional salary increment, continued the circular.

Financial incentives  were in place earlier too, but these were  enhanced in the 2007 circular. There would be a lump sum payment of  Rs15 000, Rs20 000 or Rs25 000  depending on the  level of proficiency gained,  in addition to a monthly allowance equivalent to an increment. Increments of officers who do not attain the level of proficiency stipulated will be deferred till they  satisfy the requirement.

Public administration appears to have   done its work very thoroughly. It had even prepared a template to help decide the level of language proficiency of a particular group of officers who did not come under an earlier circular. ( Public Administration Circular Letter 01/2014 )

But there was  criticism. The PA Circular No. 7 of 2007 relating to the requirement of obtaining competence in other languages for confirmation does not prescribe any effective sanction for non fulfillment of the requirements ,said Dew Gunasekera. Those who  do not obtain the required level of competence within the prescribed period must be discontinued until they obtain the necessary proficiency within a further stipulated period. If they fail to  do so they should not be permitted to join the public service.

The first proficiency exam was held around April 2008. 5000 or so candidates sat for Tamil language and 1700 sat for Sinhala language tests from the North and East Provinces. However, employees  seem  have been slow to pick up Tamil, for in 2016, Government employees were given a grace period in which to acquire competency in Tamil. They were given time till June 30, 2016. Since this was not sufficient, the grace period was extended  to December 31, 2016 ( Public Administration Circular No. 01/2014 (1) and  Public Administration Circular  dated January 14, 2016).

The Official Languages  Commission  had no illusions about the task  conferred on them. They pointed  out, without hesitation, the difficulties of turning the government sector into a bilingual service ,    considering the scale of the undertaking.  Over 90 percent of public employees are mono-lingual Sinhala speakers. Therefore around 40 percent would require proficiency in a second official language to perform their duties consistent with the official language policy. Since the degree of proficiency needed in Tamil, varied according to tasks and roles, the Commission suggested a calibrated approach .Public servants with greater contact with Tamil speakers should  be the first group to undergo training.

The Official Language Commissions   recommended in 2005 that the language policy be implemented over 15 years , in three stages of five years each.  One-third of public servants would be bilingual at the end of the first phase, two-thirds by the end of the second; and by the end of the third stage, the entire public administrative service would be bilingual.

But every five years some 20 percent of all public servants vacate their posts through retirement, resignation, and  illness. They are replaced by new hands needing training. At the end of the envisaged fifteen years therefore  only 40 percent of the original cadre will remain. By then it was best to recruit those who already know Tamil.

Other problems relating to  converting the public sector into Tamil speaking  were discussed. The training of public servants, in  the second language is a time consuming exercise, said the Official Language Commission in 2008. According to our estimates even if this policy is faithfully carried out it would take a minimum of twenty years to build a public service in which all are bilingually proficient. May be in about 10 years a dent can be made, the Commission concluded.

The Official Language Department  was also not very  encouraging. It said that that trying to compel all State workers to learn a second language, through the Department has  not  been successful.  The   Research Unit of the Department  analyzed the proficiency exam results after each round of exams. The  findings for 2017 showed that just two per cent of candidates scored over 75 marks in the second language in 2015 and 2016. Some 60 per cent who passed had obtained around 40 marks, which was the minimum score. This score is wholly inadequate for productive work. Efficient service can be expected only from the two percent that scored 75 marks or over.

Most who follow language classes do so with the sole purpose of passing the exams,” said Official Languages Commissioner. Their interest in the language wanes rapidly after the exam. It was  therefore pointless” to try and train all Government officials in a second official language. the  Department  recommended that  State sponsored language education be given  only to employees who show  a genuine interest in learning the language and who also  show interest in the culture of the ethnic group to which that language belongs.

The Tamil lobby agreed. Most public sector workers with second language proficiency certificates  do not speak, write nor understand the  language they studied. The lobby alleged that some State employees were using ‘dubious means’ to obtain second language proficiency certificates  to obtain promotions and incentive payments.

The government , egged on by the Tamil language lobby, kept on trying to improve matters. Official language Minister Mano Ganeshan told Parliament in 2016  that his ministry had prepared a cabinet paper to make the Tamil language compulsory for recruitment into the public service.  Another Cabinet paper has been submitted  in 2017  where those with bilingual abilities would be given extra marks at recruitment interviews in the state services.

Salaries and promotions were to be tied to language proficiency. Government  servants with fluency in Tamil and Sinhala will get salary increments, the media reported in 2010.  The financial incentives  were to be increased in 2008, on a sliding scale of Rs500 to Rs1000 to Rs2000 per month – depending on level of qualification.

Devanesan Nesiah said  in 2012 that  In order to motivate officers to gain proficiency in all three languages, a new incentive scheme consisting of fixed sums , should be introduced on passing the relevant examinations and a monthly allowance for using the additional language in day to day work. The incentive allowance must be paid only to those officers who work, in addition to their normal duties, in a language other than their first language. There should be a strict check on this payment and appropriate norms should be established. Those who draw the monthly allowance should be available for posting outstation as required. There should be periodic monitoring. Due consideration should be  given to second and third language competency. There should be    special grades created for public employees with higher and advanced levels of proficiency in both the second official language and the link language said the Tamil lobby.

TAMIL OFFICERS

Despite the language training given to government employees, there was a chronic shortage of Tamil speaking cadres. There was crippling shortage of Tamil speaking officers in public administration  despite the fact that eleven years had passed since Tamil was also made an official language, said Nesiah.

The Department of Motor Traffic, in  1998 had a staff of 400.  There were only 8 who could work in Tamil. In Colombo Municipal Council  in 2008 or so, not even 1% of the total staff was  Tamil proficient, though  31% (200,000 people) in the area were Tamils and 25% (165,000 people) were Tamil speaking  Muslims.  In Trincomalee, of 418 public employees, 190 were proficient in Sinhala and 269 in Tamil. In Badulla,   of 947 employees, 941 were proficient in Sinhala and 37 in Tamil. 

No notice appeared to have been taken of the ethnic composition of the various districts when recruitments and postings were done. The Official Languages Commission should, before postings are made, Identify the Departments and the Service Grades that need fresh recruitment of Tamil speaking officers  This Identification may be done by the Ministry of Public Administration in consultation with the Official Languages Commission . The Ministry of Public Administration should  then post the officers according to the needs of each Department.

In  1998 P.P. Devaraj asked in Parliament about   the lack of adequate Tamil speaking staff, such as clerks, translators, typists and stenographers. He was told that action was being taken to fill vacancies in the cadre for Tamil typists and Stenographers. There was a dearth of translators.

The Tamil lobby said it was the duty of the government  to appoint Tamil· staff according to a_ prescribed quota. “Or at least a public relations officer , who is conversant  in English, Tamil and Sinhala who can help ” people not conversant in Sinhala.” All offices should have a minimum of 10% Tamils speaking officers going up to      50% where Tamil is predominant. This issue would have been solved if recruitment has been in terms of ‘proportional recruitment’ said Nesiah.

In this situation, the obvious solution was to enroll Tamil officers,  to deal with Tamil clients. The Official Language Commission  had in 2005 proposed an increase in the intake of Tamil speaking public officers so as to satisfactorily reflect their number in the population. I am seeking approval from the Cabinet to employ retired Tamil public servants to each government department and ministry as a transitional measure in order to attend to correspondence with the Tamil speaking public, said Dew Gunasekera in 2008.  Official Languages Commission could seek government approval for the special recruitment of Tamil speaking cadres and additional posts  be  created for the purpose, suggested Nesiah  in 2012.

TRANSLATION SERVICE

When a bilingual language policy is inflicted on a monolingual population,  a good translation service is essential. There was instead a serious shortage of Tamil translators   in government departments ,such as the Department of Registration of Persons.

In June 2005 there were only 166 translators in all-island government service. Of this number, 108 could translate from Sinhala to English, 44 from Sinhala to Tamil and 14 from Tamil to English.  IN 2017,  the approved number of translators for 49 ministries was 94 and the available number of translators was 61. It is estimated that a further 62 translators are required for the smooth provision of services, said Centre for Policy Alternatives.

There was a dearth of qualified personnel who could be recruited as translators or interpreters. Majority of those who applied for such positions did not have sufficient competency in  two languages. When 400 posts of ‘apprentice translator’ were created in 2000, only 240 persons accepted appointments and of this number only 150 remained. Low pay and low status contributed to under-recruitment of cadre and high turnover, said B Shanthakumar.

The government  offered inducements. The government said that  payments for translators or translations can be based either on the number of words of the document to be translated or on the translated document. (Public Administration Circular 12/2003 (11).

The government also said that officers performing as translators, without any disturbance to the duties of their respective institutions and subject to the approval of the head of the respective department; have the ability to engage in translation work of other government institutions and are thus entitled to receive any respective payment as per the provisions provided in public administration circular No. 12/2003. (Public Administration Circular Letter 04/2012)

The Official Language Commission  also struggled with the issue of translators. The Commission had initially proposed the abolition of the present Translators Service and its replacement by two separate institutions: the Government Translators Service and Government Interpreters Service.

Subsequently, in  2006 the Commission revised its view and suggested the creation of a single ‘National Translation Centre’ modeled on the Canadian Bureau of Translations for provision of both translation and interpretation.  The Centre would also compile glossaries including development of new terminologies and the development of a database of useful words and terms for translations. The Centre was initially mooted to be a unit within the Official Languages Department and subsequently a separate institution.

The Commission also proposed that universities take over the   task of   providing translators and interpreters for the public sector, graduating at least 200 translators and 200 interpreters each year, prioritizing translation and interpretation between official languages. In addition to diploma and postgraduate courses, it is recommended that degree level courses be initiated but emphasizing vocational rather than academic skills. There is no indication that  the Universities accepted this, but In 1998 Kelaniya University  had a NORAD programme to train undergraduates in  Tamil as a second language , to be appointed as translators in different  government departments .

The process of translation  also came under scrutiny.  Up to now, the government had concentrated on the translation of documents from English into the official languages and vice versa,  but not between the official languages. Now   Sinhala to Tamil translations have become necessary. This will not be easy.

Tamil and Sinhala belong to two different language  families with different language structures. And this makes translation  complicated.  The Sinhala subject verb agreements is not found in Tamil. There are hardly any words in Tamil that sound familiar to Sinhala speakers either. There is ‘kakkam’ for ‘crow’ which could be a borrowing from Sinhala.  But salt is ‘uppu’ in Tamil ‘lunu’ in Sinhala.   Water is ‘tanni’ in Tamil and ‘vatura’ in Sinhala. There is ‘thangachchi’ and ‘nangi,’ ‘paal ‘and ‘kiri’, ‘enna’ and ‘what’,   ‘ontu,’ ‘rentu’ and ‘eka’  ‘deka’.

The scarcity of competent interpreters is even greater than that of translators. The Commission suggested  the recruitment of university graduates, qualified in one of the three languages, to be trained as interpreters for a further two years. The government also had the responsibility to provide the necessary equipment for transcription and simultaneous interpretation.

The attitudes towards the Language policy are defective, said the Tamil lobby. There has been a widespread failure to implement Tamil as an official language.  There is a lack of will and commitment to ensure implementation  of the Tamil Language as an official language of the country, though it was recognized to be so in 1987.

The absence of political will and hostility or disinterest on the part of the bureaucracy has hindered the enforcement of Tamil as an official language, as has the absence of any compelling reason for Sinhala-speakers to become proficient in a language spoken by linguistic minorities and unimportant to political, economic and social power.

There is  a lack of sensitivity, amongst a majority of government  officers, to recognize and respect the linguistic rights of the people whose mother tongue is Tamil but who are citizens of this country. Little notice was taken of the two ‘new’ official languages , Tamil and English.

There is also a lack of commitment on the part of authorities to take effective steps to ensure that all the people enjoy their linguistic rights. The Government and the Ministries under the Government  have failed to provide the  necessary financial and other resources needed for the effective implementation of the Official Languages Policy. The availability of finances and cadre positions is inadequate,  certainly,  but even the available funds have not been sought and obtained for the implementation of the Official Language Policy.

There is a definite lack of interest amongst the  majority  Sinhalese to learn the Tamil language as a second or third language. As they can function in their offices with their present language ability, they do not see the necessity, urgent or otherwise, to learn the Tamil language or even the English language. Even officers who had passed Tamil proficiency examinations and drawn incentive allowances appeared to be mostly unable to work in Tamil, particularly in relation to correspondence.

There is a prejudice against Tamil, said the Tamil lobby. That is not surprising. Tamil is not a national language, or an  international language  and it is not cultural or commercially important. The majority of Sinhalese are reluctant in speak in  Tamil. Some  public servants feel that learning Tamil as a second language is demeaning. They do not see why they should learn it when it is not of any real or substantial help to them. They  would  prefer to study Hindi, French , German , Russian or Japanese.

On the other hand, observed the Tamil lobby, there is also a general reluctance on the part of Tamils and Tamil speaking people to use their own language for communication and transaction of business with government institutions. It is felt that the use of Tamil in communicating with these offices will result in bias against them and would also lead to delays in getting their work done. They are willing to get someone else to write for them or transact business for them in Sinhala in order to expedite matters.

The Tamils generally resign themselves to the use of either English or Sinhala in order to communicate their needs and interests effectively.  Tamil speakers when possible will write official communications in Sinhala, fearing that use of Tamil will delay or deny them a response. This has reduced the pressure on public officers to provide a bilingual service. (Continued)

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

(Former Vice President of the SLFP Central Committee of Matara Electorate)

Matara electorate was a caste based electorate as majority of its voters belonged to several pockets of Durawe caste people.  Amidst JVP mayhem in the area in 1980s one Mr. Wijesiri whose father was a lorry owner had voluntarily established over 75 SLFP branch organizations throughout the electorate and was anticipating to become the SLFP candidature for the 1989 elections and he had the support of Mr. Mahinda Wijesekera who was the SLFP organiser for the adjoining Devinuwara and besides that he had done SLFP organisation work throughout the district.

It was in this background Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike sent Mr. Mangala Samaraweera to the electorate as the co-organiser for the Matara electorate.  She has told people close to her that Anura Bandaranaike brought to her a male prostitute (pirimi wesiyak) to be appointed as the organiser for Matara electorate but she appointed him as a co-organiser as his father was a notorious leader of the Pihi Party (back-stabbing party) cabal.

When he came to the electorate he did not have any mode of transport except a ‘flying pigeon’ bicycle and the party supporters provided vehicles for him to visit distant areas of the electorate.  The next election happened to be a district-wise election and he had a biggest disadvantage being belonging to the Durawe caste which was a minority caste in the district coming after the Goigama and Karawe castes and the voters of Matara district being very much concerned about the caste of the candidates. Madam Bandaranaike having a good knowledge about these problems assigned Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa of the adjoining Hambantota district to spend some of  his time taking Mangala to his mother’s relations in the Matara district and canvass for him.  Mr. Mahinda’s mother was a belonged to a very popular Goigama family in the Matara district.  It was due to this assistance Mangala was able to become one of the three SLFP winners of the district and Mangala’s mother told this writer that if it was not for Mr. Mahinda’s help Mangala would not have won in the 1989 election.

Organisation of SLFP in the Matara district as a whole was carried out by M/s. Mahinda Wijesekera and Ariya Bulegoda who was the Hakmana electorate organisor and Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa also assisting them whenever it was required.  To tell the truth there was no contribution from Mangala in the district’s party organisation activities and he only conv enient advantage from others labour.

When S.B.Dissanayake, Mahinda Wijesekera and several others left the Chandrika government having been unable to remain further in that government which had ruined the country at that time plunging the country into minus economic growth and having made utter blunders in the war front, addressing a Rupavahini interview Mangala said that the SLFP is a party of the people in the villages and the people in the villages are people who are very much grateful and who never shit on theplat they have taken meals.

What this bicycle politico did for the SLFP was the same thing he articulated above. He was totally ungrateful to the party and joined the UNP under Ranil’s leadership who was belittled by himself promoting the slogan that Ranilata Bae” (Ranil cannot do).

When came to Matara he came as almost a pauper and we had to visit rich people in Matara town seeking for donations for his election campaign in 1989. Anyone who had visited his house in Walpola at that time would have seen that it was a house without basic furniture.   After he became the Minister telecommunications, and his aunt (father’s own sister who was married to the swimmer Anandan of Velvetithurai) became his Private Secretary there were speculation that he was involved inj LTTE money laundering activities.

Whether these speculations were true or not he now owns a multi roomed palatial mansion in Panadura facing Bolgoda Lake and another multi-roomed Guest House in Nakulugamuwa facing the beach closer to Hambantota border.  Also he spends millions of rupees for elections and two attempts made by him to become first beating Buddhika Pathirana failed because of caste restraints.

This guy is also an utterly jealous fellow and despite their assistance to him he also in collaboration with the old hag Chandrika attempted to restrict political forward marches and dent the popularity of M/s.Mahinda Rajapaksa and Mahinda Wijesekera.  He attempted to restrict Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa by confining him to regional politics by nominating him for thr Southern Chgief Minister post and obstructed Mr. Mahinda Wijesekera even getting a post of a Deputy minister at least although people in the area expected that he will get the post of the Minister of Fisheries.

He is a staunch agnostic and I have never seen him visiting the nearby temples or the famous Bodhiya in Matara.  He is a strong anti-religious person and when the Buddhist Commission Report was released dueing Chandrika’s time he was highly critical of this report saying that it should dumped into the waste basked and in protest of this statement there were many Bodhi Poojas including at the Matara Bodhiya.  In a recent statement he has stated that until the time we abasndon the special place that had been given to Buddhism the problems facing this country cannot be solved.

Following his sell out to Tamil racist in 2013 through the Regime Change Singapore agreement to introduce a federal constitution to Sri Lanka immediately after thid government came to power this Tamil servile Quisling shamelessly so-sponsored the American initiated resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, the resolution No. 30/1, which is considered as the worst ever agreement signed against Sri Lanka. This despicable act deserves him to be execvuted in compliance with the punishment meted out to criminals and traitors by our ancient Kings.

As I have written many things about this bicycle politico in my previous articles, I would like to focus your attention to the 30^th anniversary of his entry to politics which he is reported to have arranged  to hold on the 28^th of this month.  It is sad to note that he has become so politically powerless to hold this function in Matara at least in gratitude to the people who elevated him from the status of a bicycle politico to a lingerie designer Finance Minister.

Now we find that this ungrateful bicycle politico has kicked the ladder (the people of Matara) that helped him to climb up in politics and is to hold the 30^th anniversary of his political life in a grand function at BMICH with the participation of the notorious enemy of developing independent nations Samantha Power as the Chief Guest.   She isa scornful American war mongering b—-(my apologies for the harsh reference) who was the 28^th Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations

 C. Wijeyawickrema

(A respected journalist, DBS Jeyaraj, operating from Canada, makes suggestions from time to time on how to solve the ‘Tamil issue’ in Sri Lanka. Jeyaraj presents himself as a Tamil Moderate. If you just take R Premadasa’s (and now Ranil W’s) servant cum master Paskaralingam as a test case, no sane person could believe that there are Tamil moderate souls in Sri Lanka, meaning Tamils who will refuse a Tamil state with a UNO flag, if it is possible within their life time. Jeyaraj revolves around the ‘F’ solution, just like Anandasangaree’s ‘Indian F” solution in the past. But is he willing to come out of the Tamil homeland in east myth of SJV Chevanayagam? During Mrs. Chandrika’s package deal days, Neelan Thiruchelvam, a symbol of Tamil Moderatism, did not want to accept the Pondicheri model (other ethnic enclaves within) as a compromise to mono-ethnic Tamil N-E region. He did not want a moth-eaten like Tamil homeland.

Jeyarj’s latest proposal (February 25, 2019, Daily Mirror), this time promoting a Supreme Court three-judge decision dated August 4, 2017, on a thesis that federalism is not separatism,” needs a critical analysis, because the judges’ illogical thesis was based on their lack of knowledge in history and geography of the island and their poor understanding of local and world politics and geopolitics.

Before that, readers need to be aware of a previous attempt made by Jeyaraj and a reply sent to him requesting him (dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com) to print it on his website so that his readers get an opportunity to see the other side of the story. If Jeyaraj is sincere in his quest for a peaceful Sri Lanka unbroken, I cannot understand why he is afraid of a dialogue. Fortunately, that reply was printed on Lankaweb on February 13, 2014).

=======================

Mr. DBS Jeyaraj under the title, Sixty-six Years of Independent Sri Lanka and the Tamil State of Mind,” (6 February 2014) on his own website, an essay that he says was, an updated version of the DBS Jeyaraj Column article that appeared in the Daily Mirror of February 2nd 2013, appeals moderate Sinhala and Tamil people to find a third way to live amicably in the island of Sri Lanka. DBSJ says there are three schools of thought clashing, hegemonism, secessionism and pluralism… the Sinhala hardliners want Sinhala-Buddhist domination. They see this country as theirs alone. Others are excluded or reduced to subservient status in this ‘Chinthana.’….the Tamil hardliners want a separate state for the north-east known as Tamil Eelam. Just as Sinhala hawks say Sri Lanka is for the Sinhalese, these Tamil hawks say Tamil Eelam is for the Tamils…”  …..A state for the dominant ethnicity within, excludes by definition, other ethnicities living within these real or imaginary borders. Both these ideas have brought about disunity, violence and destruction. The nation bled profusely, and the country diminished drastically.

The third idea is that of establishing an egalitarian and plural society where all children of this country can live together in amity and fraternity. It incorporates a vision where no one will claim superior rights on the basis of belonging to the majority race/religion or claim exclusive rights to their historic habitat…..Power will not be confined to Colombo but shared with the periphery. All people regardless of race, religion, caste or creed will have their say and a role to play…”

Tamil Obama

Lakshman Kadiragamar’s and Jeyaraj Fernando Pullai’s funerals showed that a Tamil Obama in Sri Lanka is not an impossible idea. Both of them were given Buddhist funeral rites by monks came from all over the island despite the fact that they both were Christians by birth. Take Arun Tambimuttu’s case. What Sinhala Buddhist voter will not vote for him as he is not telling anything different from what the Bodu Bala Sena has been telling for the past two years? Except for a few adjustments needed DBSJ is advocating a position that I have been writing for the past 15 years or so. Sri Lanka has a third way, if it can get rid of the two political camps under SLFP and UNP. These two parties destroyed Sri Lanka, so said the monks Ven. Walpola Rahula and Ven. Balangoda Anandamaitreeya. The third way is based on reasonableness which is also the Buddhist way.  This must be the way that two Indian ex-presidents meant when they said that solutions to world’s problems could be found from Buddhism.”

The Tamil state of mind that DBSJ presented was based on facts he considered true and relevant. There are other facts that one can list which would modify what DBSJ used to interpret his side of the story of Sinhala-Tamil drama. Suffice it to say that the black-white ruling class in Sri Lanka converted a Buddhist-Christian clash into a Sinhala-Tamil clash so that the black-whites could thrive while the country goes down. Local black-whites are supported by global black-whites who use R2P, HR, pluralism and Interfaith as tools of exploitation. Living in peace with minority communities should not make a majority a minority, and if pluralism means that, then pluralism will not work. As the army commander Sarath Fonseka once clarified, Sri Lanka is the country of the Sinhala Buddhists. Minorities could live with equal rights and equal opportunities, but they cannot make unreasonable demands.” This is a good Buddhist approach.

For example, a pluralism pioneer France is however, not ready to deny that France is the country of the French, just like Norway is not ready to deny that Norway is the homeland of the Norwegians. Pluralism should mean a majority allowing a minority to live with equal rights and equal opportunities like the majority and no discrimination based on religion or language. But this had to be governed by the doctrine of reasonableness. A Muslim woman should not expect a right to cover her face with only two hole and walk in public street in a crime-filled, bomb-carrying country because that is not reasonable. Same way a national anthem or a national flag is a symbol that cannot be dismembered with translations. The Indian national anthem cannot be sung in Tamil or Telegu. Then it is not a national anthem. The Indian national flag has a Buddhist symbol and not a cross or a crescent moon. Hindus, Muslims and Christians cannot modify it.

Sri Lanka’s two problems

Sri Lanka has two problems created by the black-white politicians of green, red and blue colors. One is mismanagement of economy, or their inability to change the colonial economic system. In 1948 there was a majority and a minority. That was Sinhala and Tamil-speaking majority and an English-speaking minority. Then there was a rich Colombo crowd and the poor villagers. The 1962 coup represented the minority. 1971 JVP insurrection represented the majority. Rather than learning lessons from these, the politicians who came to power tried to keep in power by dismembering constitutions at first, and changing constitutions, and changing parliamentary to executive presidency thinking that they outsmarted the opponents. Today the country is in a big mess, because these changes gave rise to an evil triangle, the politician, officer and the NGO.

The other is the ethnic problem. There are two aspects to this. First is the fear of Sinhala people that Tamil Nad will grab Sri Lanka. Statement by SJV Chelvanayagam, GG Ponnambalam created this fear which during Dudley Senanayaka’s time came as DMK threat in immigration and Indian Tamil areas in upcountry. 1976 Vaddukoddai resolution and the behavior of the leader of the opposition Amirthalingam added more fear and then came Prabhakaran. Today the fear is even worse with western white countries trying to break the country into two. Then we have the second aspect, Tamil political leaders looking for recognition for them, and in that process creating a thing called; Tamils have aspirations. Tamil politicians living in Colombo talk about it. Whatever its origin, one has to accept that they need a reasonable geographical area for them to promote these aspirations. When Ven. Maduluwave Sobhitha asked Kumar Ponnambalam to name any item that the Sinhalese have but Tamils do not, he thought for a while and said, Tamils have aspirations.” Tamils have a source region just 22 miles of shallow sea away. The only real estate for the 16 million Sinhala people in a 6 billion world is this tiny island.

The reasonable solution to this ethnic problem is to remove Sinhala fear and to allow fairly reasonable geographical areas for the Tamils to engage in their aspirations. One immediate requirement is that Sinhala and Tamil should be taught to school children from grade three. If a solution to these two needs could also handle the first problem of mismanagement so much the better. If the solution also takes care of the ecological problems and global warming related environmental threats, then it will be perfect. If it could be in agreement with Buddhist and Hindu principles people will be happy.

I presented such a solution for consideration by LLRC and when I read between the lines of LLRC report I see it written there. The problem was that Lalith Weeratunga who was asked to examine it did not see it in the LLRC report or in the documents forwarded to him by me directly and indirectly. Instead a Divi Neguma thing came, and Geneva March 2014 is a direct result of this bad behavior of the top government officer. If Sri Lanka is to remain as one country, if Sri Lanka wants to come out of mismanagement and does not want to get labeled as a corrupt, crime-ridden land, I think it had to follow a solution like what I have suggested.

Here is the solution in brief:

1.Demarcate GSN units in Sri Lanka as lowest level ecological units.

Rpremdasa increased them from 4,000 to 14,000, god only knows why. But following the trinity of village-water tank-temple in ancient Sri Lanka, an ecology/hydrology-based GSN unit is an innocent/pragmatic gift that rulers can grant to people. Engineer D.L.O Mendis recently documented that this kind of eco villages were part of both Jaffna and dry zone farming communities.

2. Empower a ten-member committee elected on non-political party basis to run the basic daily affairs of the unit (if one unit is too small due to geographical reasons then combine them as needed. This should not surprise anybody as under the Gami Diriya program this method of empowerment has been in practice, yes despite the anger and jealousy of local and national politician crooks.

3.Because Sri Lanka has 103 river basins, use these GSN units to create Seven River Basin Regions for Sri Lanka.  See the map attached. This map has seven units so that Jaffna region gets one large basin area for them to feel that there is territory for aspirations to grow.

This division gives a sea face to each region, all of equal size and most importantly, because it is language-blind, western white countries or Tamil Nad or Prabhakaran remnants in New York or London cannot talk of a homeland based on the eastern province. That takes away the fear of Sinhala people.

At GSN level there will be so many Tamil units, Muslim units and mixed units who can also think of aspirations at that level. The beauty is that no one unit can become a threat to another unit. They will learn to respect others because, if one unit acts selfishly then the other units will also act selfishly, and both will be in trouble.

4. When one looks at problems of living that people are facing today, they are not big complex problems.  How to dispose garbage, how to control Dengue, water supply, water pollution, basic health and basic education, how to get a birth certificate, how to prevent GSN asking bribes or school principal asking sex bribe; these can be easily and effectively handled at the local level. This way 70% of peoples’ basic issues can be transferred to local units, which is what people want, empowerment, not devolution of powers to provincial politicians.  13A method has proven to be a disaster with sex and beauty has become now the hot selling item for council candidacy.
5. Because the basic unit is an ecological/hydrological unit they can be combined to represent an electorate or district-size units before becoming one of the Seven River Basins. Thus, this horizontal division can go upward administratively with representatives sitting at a separate national body.
6. What should be done at the national/central government level to allow minority participation, if more is needed than what is proposed by item 5, such as a new constitution for the country, this GSN system can remain intact, without political interferences.

I hope DBSJ print this essay on his website.

Seven River Basins

Yalpanam Raja Rata Dambadeni Mahaveli Deegavaapi Kelani Ruhunu (Compare this map with the nine-province map which cuts all major rivers into artificial pieces).

Cwije77@outlook.com

Open letter to the Ambassadors/ Permanent Representatives of 48 Member States of the Human Rights Council From Global Sri Lankan Forum Executive Committee.

Dear Sirs,

Appoint a commission to investigate wrong doing in OISL report in Sri Lanka

There exists a threat to the world peace and security by the Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 by giving impunity to the terrorism, by not defining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organization and by not asking an international criminal investigation for the perpetrators of financing terrorism in Sri Lanka. The Human Rights Council did not respect and fulfill his obligations to the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and most importantly the right to life.

In the United Nations ”Security Council Resolution 1315”  dated 14^th  August 2000, in the preamble paragraph no. 5 on Sierra Leone, it is written that:

Recalling that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General appended to his signature             of the Lomé Agreement a statement that the United Nations holds the understanding that the amnesty provisions of the Agreement shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against           humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

The Human Rights Council Resolution no. 25/1 of 9^th April 2014, Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka”, in paragraph 9, defined the situation of the past armed conflict in Sri Lanka as combat terrorism”.

OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) which was formed by the Human Rights Council Resolution 25/1 had changed the definition of the past armed conflict without any explanation and authority from the Human Rights Council from combat terrorism” to an internal armed conflict” in his report in paragraph 1141.

In paragraphs 168 and 661 of the OISL report, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was defined as a non-state armed group but not as a terrorist organization even if in the report accepted war crimes and crimes against humanity of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LLTE) were well written such as:

Expelling Muslim and Sinhalese communities, conducting assassinations and attacks on civilian targets, unlawful killings, abduction and forced recruitment, recruitment of children and use in hostilities, impact of hostilities on civilians and civilian objects, control of movement, denial of humanitarian assistances.”

OISL report also had created a paper so-called genocide in Sri Lanka by the breach of the Guidance and Practice of the Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law” (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/CoI_Guidance_and_Practice.pdf).

The OISL report used religious discrimination by using a suspicious religious source for the base as the proof of the so-called paper work genocide without taking into account of the United Nations bodies’ reports in Sri Lanka. To protect the honor, pride and the prestige of the Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a special investigation should be open for the reporters of the OISL report. Any breach of the Guidance and Practice of the Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law” by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, staff can never be under the immunities for the reporters to protect the United Nations.

The Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 must be defined as an international wrongful act of an international organization. The international community has an obligation not to recognize as lawful the Resolution 30/1 unless the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is to be defined as terrorist and an international criminal investigation for the perpetrators of financing terrorism in Sri Lanka to be opened by the Human Rights Council with a new resolution.

It is an erga omnes partes responsibility not only to the today’s or future governments of Sri Lanka but as well to the international community as a whole to not to recognize as lawful the Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 to protect right to life, the raison d’être of the United Nations as well should ask a special investigation for the reporters of the OISL report from the Human Rights Council on the following matters:

1. Any breach of the Guidance and Practice of the Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law” by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, staff,
2. Giving impunity to the terrorism, by not defining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organization vide the Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1,
3. On what basis that OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) which was formed by the Human Rights Council Resolution 25/1 had changed the definition of the past armed conflict without any explanation and authority from the Human Rights Council from combat terrorism” to an internal armed conflict” in his report in paragraph 1141.

We highly appreciated if Your Excellency raise this matter at the UNHRC General Assembly and requested form a Special Commission  investigate above issue and correct them if that is found incorrect.

You may communicate with Mr. Eric Makawitage, the President of GSLF- Switzerland. His contact no is 0041 78 709 33 48 and email is makawe@bluewin.ch.

Yasas Dharmadasa
Hon. Secretary  for Ex. Comm                       

Eric Makawitage
President, GSLF- Swizerland

Senaka Rajapaksha
President, GSLF- Poland                                

 Harsha Perera
President, GSLF- Australia                                                                                

Lalith Premalal
President, GSLF- Ireland  

Prasanga Jayamanna
President, GSLF- United Kingdom                     

කේ.ඞී. ලාල්කාන්ත  සභාපති  ජාතික වෘත්තීය සමිති මධ්‍යස්ථානය

ගුරු අයිතීන් දිනා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් ලංකා ගුරු සේවා සංගමය සංවිධානය කළ උද්ඝෝෂණයට ඉසුරුපාය අසලදී අද දින ම්ලේච්ඡු පොලිස් ප‍්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කර ඇති අතර එම ප‍්‍රහාරය ජාතික වෘත්තීය සමිති මධ්‍යස්ථාය ලෙස අප පිළිකුලෙන් යුතුව හෙළා දකින්නෙමු.
එම ප‍්‍රහාරයෙන් ගුරුවරුන් පිරිසක් තුවාල ලබා ඇති අතර අසාධ්‍ය තත්වයේ වූ ගුරුවරයෙකු කොළඹ ජාතික රෝහලට ඇතුළත් කොට ඇත.
තමන්ගේ අයිතීන් වෙනුවෙන් පමණක් නොව අනාගත දරු පරපුරේ අභිවෘද්ධිය උදෙසා ඔවුන් යහපත් පුරවැසියන් කිරීම අරමුණු කරගත් ඉතා වැදගත් භූමිකාවකට පණ පොවන ගුරුවරු හට පොලීසිය ලවා එල්ල කරන ලද මෙම ප‍්‍රහාරය මගිින් තහවුරු වන්නේ ආණ්ඩුව අයිතීන් ඉල්ලා සටන් කරන ජනතාවට සලකනු ලබන්නේ කෙසේද යන්නයි. සංවිධානය වීමේ සහ අදහස් ප‍්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ අයිතිය රටේ මූලික නීතියක් පවා තහවුරු කර තිබියදී මේ ආකාරයට පාලකයන් කටයුතු කිරීම නින්දා සහගතය.
වසර ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ තම ඉල්ලීම් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුව අවධානය නොකළ බැවින් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය ඉදිරිපිටට පැමිණ තම ගැටලූවලට විසඳුම් ලබන ලෙස බලකරමින් පවත්වන ලද මෙම උද්ඝෝෂණය ගුරුවරුන්ගේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී අයිතියක් බව අපි පිළිගනිමු. එම නිසා එම ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී අයිතියට අත තැබීමට පාලකයකුට ඉඩක් නැති බව අවධාරණය කරන අප මෙම ප‍්‍රහාරය වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ අනාගත ක‍්‍රියාකාරීත්වය පිළිබඳව පණිවුඩයක් ලෙස අප සලකන්නෙමු. එබැවින් මෙම මර්දනකාරී ක‍්‍රියා පිළිවෙත වහාම අකුලාගන්නා ලෙසට ආණ්ඩුවට බලකරන අතර ජනතාවගේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී අයිතිය උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කරන්නේ නම් වැඩකරන ජනතාව ප‍්‍රමුඛ පොදු ජනතාවගේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී අයිතිය ආරක්‍ෂා කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව ගත හැකි ඉහළම ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ග ගන්නා බවද අවධාරණය කිරීමට කැමැත්තෙමි. රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහලාගේ සහ අකිල විරාජ්ලාගේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී භාවිතාව පිළිබඳ රටේ සමස්ත ගුරු පරපුර අවධියෙන් සිටිය යුතු බවද අප මෙහිදී අවධාරණය කරන්නෙමු.
මෙයට, විශ්වාසී

අද ( 28) දින මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවට සහභාගි වූ නියෝජිතයින් 

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කනක හේරත් මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ජානක වක්කුමුර මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කනක හේරත් මහතා

පහුගිය කාලයේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ඇතුළු පක්ෂවල පුලුල් සන්ධානයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡා වුනා. ඊයේ වෙනකොට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුනෙන් මේ සාකච්ඡා සදහා අපේ පක්ෂයේ සභාපති මහාචාර්ය ජි. එල්. පීරිස් මහතා, හිටපු අමාත්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩලස් අලහප්පරෙුම මහතාත්, ජ්‍යෙස්ඨ කතිකාචාර්ය ජගත් වැල්ලවත්ත මහතාත් පත්කරලා තියෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය ගෙදර යවන වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සදහා පුලුල් සන්ධානයක අවහ්‍යතාවය  අද තිබෙනවා. ඉතිහාසයේ සිද්ධවුනු වැරදි නැවතත් සිදුනොවන ආකාරයෙන් සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ප්‍රමුඛත්වයෙන් තියලා මෙම සන්ධානය ගොඩ නගන්න කියලා අපි සාකච්ඡාවලට සම්බන්ධ වෙන සියලු දෙනාගෙන් විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමක් කරනවා. පසුගිය වසරේ 19 වෙනි සංශෝධනය ගෙන විට අපි ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය ලෙස ඊට විරැද්ධත්වය ප්‍රකාශ කළා. විධායක ජනාධිපතිධූරය අහෝසි කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙනුත් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ වැඩිදෙනෙක් සිටින්නේ විරුද්ධවයි. විධායක ජනාධිපතික්‍රමය අහෝසි කිරීමේ වැඩ පිළිවෙල සම්බන්ධයෙන් නැවත සලකා බලන්න කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා. හැමදාම එකට හිටපු ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ කණ්ඩාඩායම තුළ භේදයක්තිබුනේ නැහැ. අපිව මර්ධනය කරද්දිත් අපි කණෟඩායමක් ලෙස ඊට මුහුණ දුන්නා. ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විධායක ජනාධිපතිධූරය අහෝසි කරන 20 වැනි සංශෝධනය ඉදිරිපත් කරලා අපේ කණ්ඩායම කැඩීමයි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්නේ. අද වෙද්දි එජාපයේ නායකයෝම කියනවා එහි ඉන්න ලොම් හැලුනු නායකයින්ට ජනධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වෙලා ජය ගන්න බැරි බව. ජවිපේ නායකයෝ එජාපයට තවත් කඩේ යන්න බැරි බව දන්නවා.  දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාට ජයගන්න බැරි බව දන්නවා. ඒකනිසයි ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ කණෟඩායම බේද කරන්න උත්සාහ කරන්නේ. මේක තමයි මේ අයගේ උපාය මාර්ගය.

1977න් පස්සේ බහුතරයක් ඇතිව ආණ්ඩු පිහිටවලා තියෙන්නේ අවස්ථා දෙකකදි පමණයි. 1989 හා 2010දියි. එවැනි තත්ත්වයකින් රට පාලනය වුනේ විධායක ජනාධිපති බලතල සහිතවයි. 2004 බලයට පත්වෙලා එදා කතානායකවරයෙක් තෝරා ගන්න හැකියාවක් ඒ රජයට තිබුනේ නැහැ. එහෙම වෙලත් යුද්ධය ජයගන්න මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට හැකිවුනා වගේම එදා රජය ස්ථිර රජයක් ලෙස කටයුතු කළා. 19 වැනි සං‌ශෝධනය ගෙනඒම තුළින්මවිධායකය ව්‍යව්සථාදායකය අධීකර ණය අතර අවුල් ඇති වෙලා. ජනාධීපතිවරයාට මැතිවරණයක් තියන්න බැරි තත්ත්වයක්, කොමිෂන් සබා පිස්සුවෙන් වගේ කටයුතු කරන තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වෙලා. ජනාධිපතිතුමා කියන විදියට එතුමාට බැදුම්කර හොරුන්ව අල්ල ගන්නවත් බැරි තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවෙලා තියෙන්නේ. ජනාධිපතිධූරය නැති වුන දවසට ජනාධිවරයා රූකඩයක් වෙනවා. ජනාධිපතිවරයා පළාත්වලට පත්කරන ආන්ඩුකාරවරයා ජනාධීපතිවරයා හා සමානම රූකඩයක් බවට පත්වෙනවා. අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ කියනවා 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය නිසාලු මාකදුරේ මදූෂ්ව ඇල්ලුවේ. පෙබරවාරි 04 වැනිදා අපි නිදහස සමරනවා වගේ පෙබරවාරි 27 වැනිදාට ජනතාව මහ බැංකු මංකොල්ලය සමරනවා. 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය ගෙනත් මදූෂ්ව අල්ලගන්න පුලුවන් වුනාට අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ව අල්ලගන්න තවම බැරිවුනාද කියලා අපි අගමැතිවරයාගෙන් අහනවා. මේ රජය මහා බැංකුමංකොල්ලය හා සමාන මංකොල්ලයක් තමයි ඊ.ටී.අයි මංකොල්ලයත්. මේ නිසා ජනතාව විශාල ගැටලුවකට මුහුණ දීලා ඉන්න නිසා කඩිනමින් විසදුමක් දෙන්න කියලා අපි ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂමෙන් ඇමරිකාව ඉවත් වුනත් ඇමරිකාව එක්ක අත් වැල් බැදගෙන වාර්තාව දුන්න ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයට එයින් ඉවත් වෙන්න බැහැ. හරියට නිවට කරණවෑමියා දැකලා එලුවෝ රැවුල් කපන්න ඇහුවා වගේ. පහුගිය දවස්වල ඉන්දියාවෙන් ගිහින් පකිස්ථානයේ බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාරයක් සිදුකරනවා. අපේ රටේ එහෙම දෙයක් වුනානම් අපේ රටේ ඉන්න නායකයෝ රණවිරැවන්ව අරන් ගිහින් භාරදෙයි. ජිනීවා සමුලුවට ගිහින් රට පාවා දුන්නේ මංගල සමරවිර ඇමැතිවරයායි. ජෝන් අමරතුංග මහතාගේ වසර 40 දේශපාලන ජිවිතය සැමරුවේ කාදිනල්තුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්. මේ විදියට මංගල සමරවිර ඇමැතිවරයාගේ 30 වසරක දේශපාලන ජිවිතය සමරන්නත් සූදානම් වෙනවා. ඔහු අපේ රණවිරුවන් දංගඩෙියට ගෙනියන්න හදන සමන්තා පවර්ස් කියන කාන්තාවගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයනේ තමයි සමරන්න හදන්නේ.  මංගල සමරවිරට ඡන්දය දුන්න අයත් මෙවැන්නෙක් අපේ නායකයා කර ගැනිම ගැන දුක්විය යුතුයි. 

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා රන්ජන් රාමනායකට පක්ෂය ආරක්ෂාවන පරිදි කටයුතු කරන්නයි කියලා තියෙනවා. මේක තමයි ඇත්ත. මොන හොරකම වුනත් අවසානයේදී සියලු දෙනා නිර්දෝෂී වෙනවා. අද වෙද්දි කොකේන් කමිටුවෙන් සියලු දෙනා නිර්දෝෂී කරලා. එදා අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ව නිර්දෝශ කළා වගේමයි.

කෑගල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ 2001 සිට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන වත්මන් රාජ්‍ය ඇමැතිවරයෙක්ට මාවනැල්ල ආසනයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න කියලා එක්මසත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ සභාපතිවරයා බලපැම් කරනවා. දේශපාලන නායකයෝ කිසිකෙනෙක්ට මාවනැල්ලෙන් කෑගල්ලෙන් නැගිටින්න බැරිවුනා. දේශපාලනයෙන් ඉදිරියට යන්නේනැතිව කකුලෙන් අදින එජාප පාක්ෂිකයින්ට අපිත් එක්ක අත්වැල් බාදගන්නයි කියලා ආරාධනා කරනවා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ජානක වක්කුඹුර මහතා මේ ආන්ඩුව කමිටු කිහිපයක් පත් කරලා තියෙනවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ හැසිරිම සම්බන්ධයෙනුත් කමිටුවක් පත්කරලා තියෙනවා. රන්ජන් රාමනායක ඇමැතිවරයාගේ හැසීර්ම සම්බන්දයෙන් බලන්න. පළමුවෙන් කිව්වා කැබිනට් ඇමැතිවරු කොකේන් ගහනවාකිව්වා. ඊට පස්සෙ පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ දෙගොල්ලොම කියලා. ඊටත් පස්සේ කිව්වා හිටපු ඇමැතිවරු කියලා. වැඩිපුරම ඉන්නේ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ අයලු. කිසිම ඇමැතිවරයෙක් නැහැකිව්වත් අපිට දැන් ඒකත් පිළිගන්න වෙලා. රන්ජන් රාමනායක කියපු දේ දැන් කමිටුවෙන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප වෙලා. කතානායකවරයාගේ වගකිම මන්ත්‍රීවරු 225 දෙනා වෙනුවෙන් විශේෂ කමිටුවක් පත්කරලා, රන්ජන් රාමනායකගේ හඩපට ටික අරගෙන ගෙන රන්ජන් රාමනායකට විරුද්ධව පරික්ෂණයක් කරලා දඩුවම් කිරිමයි. මුලු ලෝකෙටම කෙකේන් ගහන අය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉන්නවා කියපු මොහුට විරුද්ධව දඩුවම් දෙන්න අවශ්‍යයි. එජාපයේ කමිටුවක් පත්කරලා ඔවුන් නිදහස් කියලා වැඩක් නැහැ. මේ සිද්ධිය ලොකෙට ගිහින් ඉවරයි. හරියට පරික්ෂණයක් කරලා දඩුවම්කළ යුතුයි. ආන්ඩුව ඇතුලෙන් හොක්කට ගහනවා කියපුවාම කියපු දේ වෙනස් වෙනවා.

අපි මේ කමිටුවල දේවල් පිලිගන්නේ නැහැ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කමිටුවක්පත්කරලා ඒකේ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ සියලු දෙනාම ඉන්නවාලු. එතන ගහගත්ත එජාප පිරිස කමිටුවෙන් ඉවත් කරලා. දුලිප් වෙදආරච්චි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සරම උස්සලා පෙන්නුවා. ඒකපාර්ලිමේන්තුවට අපහාසයක් නෙවෙයිද. ඒකාබද්ධවිපක්ෂයේ අයට විතරක් පරීක්ෂණ කරන්නේ නැතිව සියලු දෙනාට එරෙහිව පියවර ගන්න අවහ්‍යයි.

මහ බැංකු හොරකම අගමැතිවරයා සුද්ධ කළා. දැන් ජනාධිපතිතුමාකියනවා මේ ආන්ඩුව ඉන්න කල් බැදුම්කර හොරුන්ට දඩුවම් දෙන්න බැහැලු. ඒකියන්නේ හොරුටික ඉන්නේ ආන්ඩුවේ. ඒක නිසයි අපි කියන්නේ ඇත්ත හොරුන්ට දඩුවම් දෙන්න මේ ආන්ඩුව‌ෙ ගදර යවන්න කියලා. පහුගිය කාලේ විවිධ සංවිධාන තිබුනා. ඒ අය මේසම්බන්ධයෙන් වචනයක් කියන්නේ නැහැ.මේ ආන්ඩුව තියෙනකල් මහ බැංකු හොරුන්ට දඩුවම් දෙන්න බැහැ. මොවුන් ගෙදර යවලා සැබෑ හොරුන්ට දඩුවම් දෙන්න එකතු වෙන්න.

මුල්‍ය අපරාධ ක‌ොට්ඨාශය නීති විරෝධීව හැදුවේ ඒකාබද්ධවිපක්ෂයට දඩුවම් දෙන්න. එහි ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයා විශ්‍රාම යද්දි කියනවා එතුමා චූදිතයින්ට තොරතුරු දුන්න බව. අපි මෙය කිව්වේ වේලාසන. මේක ආන්ඩුවේ වුවමනාවන් ඉෂ්ඨ කරන තැනක් වෙලා තිබුනා. මේකත් පොලීසිය. මේ පොලීසය මගින් ආණ්ඩුව කලේ මර්ධනය. ගාල්ල සිද්ධිය අපේ කාලයේ වුනානම් පොලිස්පති අයින් වෙන්න කියනවා. අපේ කාලයේ පොලිස්පතිතුමා ඉල්ලා අස්විමක්වුනා.

මධ්‍යෙයෙන් ගාල්ලේ සිද්ධිය හෙලිනොකලා නම් දරුවෝ වෙනුවෙන් කවුරුත් ඉදිරිපත් නොවුනානම් මේ සිද්ධිය යටපත් වෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මාධ්‍යයට අපි ස්තූති වන්ත වෙනවා. පොලීසිය වැරැද්දක් කළාම අයිතිකාරයෙක් නැහැ. මේ ආන්ඩුව මර්දන කාරිව මිනිස්සු බයකරන වැඩපිළිවෙලක් ගෙනියන්නේ ඡන්දයක් ළග නිසයි. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට පෙර නව ආන්ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සම්මත කරන්න බැහැ. ආන්ඩුවට තියෙන්නේ 103යි. විධායක ජනාධිපතිකම අහෝසි කරන්නේ ජනාමත විචාරණයකින්. ඒ නිසා කෙරෙන්නේ නැති දේවල් කතා නොකර කරන්න තියෙන දේ කරමු. ආන්ඩුව පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණය තියන්නේ නැහැ. එන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරණය. එතෙක් ආන්ඩුව අල්ලා ගෙන යාමයි කරන්නේ. ඒ නිසා ආන්ඩුව ගෙදර යවන්න එකතු වෙන්න කියලා අපි විපක්ෂයේ සියලු දෙනාට කියනවා. ආන්ඩුවෙන් රුපියල් 1000 අරන් දෙනවා කියපු දිගම්බරන් අතුලු කට්ටිය ඒක අරන් දුන්නාද. හැමදාම කදුකරයේ මිනිස්සු රවටනවා. දැන් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න කියලා අපි ඒ අයට කියනවා. ඔය ඇමැතිවරුන්ට ඔ්නේ රගපාන්න විතරයි. මේ අය 1000 අරන් දෙන්නෙත් නැහැ. ඇමැතිකම් අත අරින්නෙත් නැහැ.

ලංගම පාඩු ලබන ආයතනයක් වෙලා. සුදුස්සාට සුදුසු තැන දෙන්න අවශයයි. අලුතින් ආන්ඩුව පත්වුනාට පස්සේ හැම ඩිපොවෙම අයට උසස්විම දෙනවා. රස්සාවෙන් දොට්ට දාපු අයට පත්වීමත් එක්ක උසස්වීම් දෙනවා. දැන් ලංගම බස් රථ රාශියක් දුවන්නේ නැහැ. අද කළවානේ ඩිපොවේ පඩි ගෙවා ගන්න බැහැ. ආදායම පක්ෂ 7ක් විතර තිබුණ එක ලක්ෂ 4ට අඩුවෙලා. බස් පාරේ දිව්වේ නැත්නම් ආදායමක් නැහැ. එජාප පාක්ෂිකයාට සලකනවා කිව්වානේ. දැන් මේකරන්නේ ඒක තමයි. නිත්‍යාණූකූලව උසස්වීම් දෙන්න අවශ්‍ය අයට උසස්වීම් දුන්නට කමක් නැහැ. වහාම පරික්ෂණයක් කරලා සුදුසු අයට පත්විම් දෙන්න කියලා අපි ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

මේ අයවැයෙන් කිසිවක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න එපා. ගල් වැලි සියලු දේ වැඩි වෙලා. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ගෙයක් හදන්න බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තියන් හිටපු අය ගේ බලාපොරොත්තු නැතිවෙලා. මේ අයවැයෙන් ආන්ඩුව ගෙදර යවමු කියලා අපි සියලු දෙනාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කාංචන විජේසේකර මහතා

න්‍යස්ටික බලවතුන් දෙදෙනෙක් වෙන දකුණු ආසියානු කලාපෙය් ඉන්දියාව හා පකිස්ථානය අතර ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇතිවෙලා. අපි සිවිල් යුද්ධයක අත් දැකීම් විදලා තියෙනවා. මේ රට වල් දෙක අතර යුද්ධයක් ඇති වුනොත් අපිටත් එහි ප්‍රථිපල භුක්ති විදින්න වෙනවා. මේ ආන්ඩුව මත්තල ගුවන් තොටුපල ඉන්දියාවට දෙන්න හැදුවා. ඉන්දියාව චිනය ඇමරිකාව අතර තියෙන බල අරගලයේ ප්‍රතිඵල අපිට භුක්ති විදින්න  වෙන බව අපි එදා කිව්වා. මත්තල ගුවන් තොටුපල ඉන්දියාවට දීමේ කටයුතු වේගවත් කරන්න සූදානමක් තියෙනවා නම් මේ අවස්ථාව ඊට යොදා ගෙන න්‍යෂ්ඨික පොරයෝ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් බවට අපේ රට පත්කරන්න එපා කියලා අපි ආන්ඩුවෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

මහ බැංකු වංචාවට අවුරුදු 4යි. ජනාධිපති කොමිෂමේ වාර්තාව පිට වෙලත් වසරක්. බැදුම්කර විවාදය තාවකාලිකව තරක කරලත් වසරක් වෙනවා. විවාදය නතර වුන තැන ඉදන් අරඹන්න. අයවැයෙන් පසු පළමු සතියේස මේ වාර්තාව විවාදයටගන්න. මේ වාර්තවේ පිටුගණනාවක් අතුදහන් බවට චෝදනාවක් තියෙනවා. ඒ පිටු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවටඉදිරිපත් කරන්න කියලා අපි ඉ්ලලා සිටිනවා. අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට ආරක්ෂාව දුන්නේ ගඅහමැතිවරයා. විදේශ ගමන් බලපත්‍රය අහෝසිකරලා හෝ ඔහු මෙරට රදවා ගන්න පියවර නොගත්ත නිසා දැන් ඔහු විදෙස්ගත වෙලා තියෙනවා.

ජවිපෙන් මහ බැංකු වංචාව ගැන අගමැතිවරයාට චෝදනා කරනවා. මෙවැනි අගමැතිවරයෙක් ඉන්න බව දැනගෙන අගමැතිවරයාට එරෙහි විශෟවාසභංග යෝජනවාට අත්සන් කලේ නැහැ. ආන්ඩුව වෙනස් වුනාම නැවතත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පත් කරන්න කියලා දුවන් ගියේ විජිත හේරත් මන්ත්‍රීවරයා. දූසිතයින් ආරක්ෂා කරන්නේ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණයි.

අද ජිවන වියදම වැඩිවෙලා. ත්‍රස්තවාදින් මහ බැංකුවට කළ ප්‍රහාරයෙන් ජිව.ත 91ක් අපිට අහිමි වුනා. මේ ආන්ඩුවෙන් වුනප්‍රහාරයෙන් සෑමපුරවැසියෙක්ම වසර 30ක් යනතුරු ණයකාරයෝ වෙලා. පහුගිය ැයවැයෙන් වගේම මේ අයවැයෙනුත් විවිධ යෝජනා එයි. 2018 වසරේ අයවැයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරපු යෝජනා කීයද ඉටුකලේ. සිමෙන්තිවල වැඩි කරපු මුදල අඩු කරන්න තඅසාහයක් ගනියි.  මේ සියලු දේ කරන්නේ මැතිවරණයක් ඉලක්ක කරගෙන. බැදුම්කර චූදිතයින් අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඒ මුදල් පියවා ගන්නේ නැත්නම් මේ කිසිම පොරොන්දුවක් යථාර්ථයක් වෙන්නේ නැහැ.

මංගල සමරවිර ඇමැතිවරයාගේ 30 වසරක දේශපාලන ජීවිතයට සුබ පතනවා. එතුමා පහුගිය කාලයේ ගත්ත තින්දු තීරණ දිහා බලද්දි බරපතල කලු පැල්ලමක් එල්ල වන තැනක් තියෙනවා. 2015 දි ඇමරිකානු තානාපතිවරිය සමන්තා පවර් එක්ක යෝජනාවක් ගෙනාවා. මේක අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයට හෝ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගෙනාවේ නැහැ. අද වෙද්දි ඇමරිකාව මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයෙන් ඉවත් වෙලා. ඒනිසා ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙනුත් ආන්ඩුවෙනුත් අපි ඉල්ලීමක් කරලා තියෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ සැසිවාරයේදී ලිඛිත ඉල්ලීමක් කරන්න මේ යෝජනාවෙන් ලංකාව පාර්ශවකාරයෙක් විදියටඉල්ලා අස්වෙනබවට. මංගල සමරවීරටත් පුලුවන් සමන්තා පවර් ඉදිරියේ ඒ සම යෝජනාව ඉවත් කරන බව හෝ එතුමාගේ කතාවේදි කළ හැකියි.

විධායක ජනාධිපතිධූරය ඉවත්කිරිමේ යෝජනාවක් ඇවිත් තියෙනවා. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට අදාලව ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ නිර්වචනය ක් තියෙනවා. ඒ අනුව ඊළග ජනාධිපතිවරණය දෙසැම්බර් 09ත් නොවැම්බර් 09ත් අතර පැවැත්විය යුතුයි. ඔක්තෝම්බර් 05 වැනිදා වෙද්දි ජනාධිපතිවරණය කැදවීමේනිවේදනය නිකුත් කළ යුතුයි. ඔක්තෝම්බර් 05 සිට නොවැම්බර් 05 දක්වා නාමයෝජනා කැදවන්න අවශ්‍යයි. ජනාධිපතිවරණය අහෝසිකිරීමේ යෝජනාව ගේන්නෙත් මැතිවරණය කල් දා ගන්නයි. මේක ප්‍රායෝගික නැති හිස් යෝජනාවක්. මෙහෙම යෝජනාවක් ගේනවා නම් ඇත්තටම කොකේන් ගහපු කෙනෙක්. විධායක ජනාධිපතික්‍රමය අහෝසි කිරිම ගැන අපිට සාකච්ඡා කරන්න පුලුවන්. මේ ආන්ඩුවට ඒ ගැන සාකච්ඡාවක් කරන්න ජන වරමක් නැහැ. අලුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවකදී අපි මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡා කරමු. අපි විපක්ෂයේ කණෟඩායමක් විදියට හිතන්නේ විධායක ජනාධිපතිධූරය අහෝසි කිරීමට විරුද්ධවයි ඡන්දය දෙන්නේ. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනයකරන අයගෙන් සියයට 90ට වැඩි පිරිසක් මේ යෝජනාව මේ මොහොතේ ගෙනාවොත් පරාජය කරන්න සූදානම්.

ඩි. වි චානක මන්ත්‍රීවරයොගේ වාහනයට අනිතික දෙයක් දමන්න ගිය බවට පැමිණිලි ඉදිරිපත් වෙනවා. විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට මෙවැනි අවධානමක් තියෙන නිසා ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන්නයි ඒ පැමිනිල්ලෙන් ඉල්ලා තිබුනා.

මිට මාස කිහිපයක පෙර සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස නිවාස අරමුදලේ මුදල් මගින් තමන්ගේ ප්‍රතිරුපය නංවා ගැනීමට කරන දේවල් සම්බන්ධයෙන් එලිවුනා. ඒ එලි කිරිම කිරීමෙන් පසුව චානක මන්ත්‍රීවරයා මත්කුඩු වලට සම්බන්ධබව හැගෙන පුකාශයක් සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස කලා. මේ නිසා අපිට සැකයක් තියෙනවා. නිතීඥවරු කණ්ඩායමක් පසුගිය දවස්වල සිදුවුන ඝාතන සම්බන්ධයෙන් චානක මන්තී්‍රවරයා සම්බන්ධයි කියන්න උත්සාහ කරනවා. ඒ මාධ්‍ය හමුව පැවැත්වෙන්නෙ ්සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස ඇමැතිවරයා වෙනුවෙනුයි. චානක මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ඉලක්ක කරගෙන කිසියම් වැඩපිළීවෙලක් දියත් වෙන බවයි පෙන්නේ. ඒනිසා විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කරන්න. මේ විදියට චෝදනා එල්ල කරලා විපක්ෂයෙ දේශපාලනයින් දඩයම් කරන්න හදන්නේ. මන්ත්‍රිවරු 54ක් කළහකාරි ලෙස හැසිරැනු බවට චෝදනා එල්ල වුනා. එහි එජාප මන්ත්‍රීවරු එක්කෙනයි. කතානායකවරයාගේ බෑනාමයි එතුමගේ පිටුපස්සේ හිටියේ. හරින් ප්‍රනාන්දුත් අපි දැක්කා. එජාපයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු20ට වැඩි පිරිසක් කතානායක පුටුව අසලට ආවා. බෑනා පුටුව අසලට එනවා දැක්කේ නැද්ද. පිහි අරන් ආවා දැක්කේ නැද්ද. මේක ඒකපාර්ශ්වික වාර්තාවක්. නැවතත් කමිටුවක් පත්කරලා ස්වාධින පරික්ෂණයක් කරන්නයි කියලා අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – ඔබලාගේ ආන්ඩුවකදි මහ බැංකු බැදුම්කර සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනවාද

අපේ ආන්ඩුවකදි පලමු කාර්යය විදියටමහ බැංකු මංකොල්ලය ගැන චෝදාන ලැබු සියලු දෙනා නිතිය හමුවට ගේනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ පුතාගේ මගුල් ගෙදර යනවා. නිතිය කියාත්මක වෙයිද

කාංචන විජේසේකර – අපිත් මගුල් දගදර හිටියා. ඔය කියන කෙනා දැක්කේ නැහැ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාත් මගුල් ගෙදර ආවා. අපේ රජයක් සමයේ නිතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවෙයි කියලා අපි හිතන්නේ නැහැ. නමුත් එවැනි දෙයක් නොවුනොත් අපි තරුණ මන්ත්‍රිවරු විදියට ආන්ඩුව පොළඹවන නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන තැනට

මාධ්‍ය – පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ අපේක්ෂකයෙක් මැතිවරණයට ගේන්න පුලුවන්ද

කාංචන විජේසේකර – ස්ථිර වශයෙන්ම අපේ ජනාධිපතිවරණ අපේක්ෂකයෙක් ගේනවා. ජලස් අලහප්පෙරුම මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයනේ කමිටුවක් පත්කරලා තියෙනවා. අපේ බහුතරයක මතය වෙලා තියෙන්නේ පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ අපේක්ෂකයෙක් පොහොට්ටුව ලකුණින් ඉදිරිපත්විය යුතු බවයි.

මාධ්‍ය – පුලුල් සන්ධානයේදී ශ්‍රිලනීප අපේක්ෂකයෙක් අවොත්

කාංචන විජේසේකර – පුලුල් සන්ධානයේ වැඩි බලයක් පොදුජන පෙරමුණට හිමිවිය යුතුයි. අද පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවලින් ,පළාත් සභාවල වගේම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය තියෙන්නේ පොදුජන පෙරමුණට. අපි ඉතිහාසයේ සන්ධාන දැකලා තියෙනවානේ. එජනිස ප්‍රධාන පාර්ශවකරු වුනෙත්, පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ ප්‍රධාන පාර්ශ්වකරු වුනෙත් ශ්‍රීලනීපය. අපේක්ෂකයා ඉදිරිපත් වුනේ ශ්‍රීලනිපයෙන්. ඒ වගේ දැන් ගොඩ නැගෙන පුලුල් සන්ධානය ඇතුලේ අපේක්ෂකයා තේරීමේ කටයුත්ත භාරවෙන්නේ පොදුජන පෙරමුණට.

මාධ්‍ය – පොදුජන පෙරමුණට ඒ අවස්ථාව ලැබුනේ නැත්නම්

කාංචන ජයසේකර – ඒක ඒ වෙලාවට බලමු

මාධ්‍ය – බැදුම්කර හොරුන්ගේ ලයිස්තුව තියෙන්නේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා ළගනේ.

කාංචන ජයසේකර – ඒක අපිටත් ගැටලුවක්. අපිත් කියන්නේ හංගල තියෙන ලයිස්තුව එළියට දාන්න කියලයි. කතානායකවරයාට ලේඛණය ලැබුනේ නැහැලු. පිටු ගානක් අඩු බව හෙළි වෙලා තියෙන්නේ. කවුරු හංගගෙන ඉන්න කෙනා එලි කරන්න අවශ්‍යයි.

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The 19th Amendment led to the setting up of the following independent Commissions with the stated objective of depoliticising the conduct of the day-to-day affairs of the government.

The Election Commission

The Public Service Commission

The National Police Commission

The Audit Service Commission

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption

The Finance Commission

The Delimitation Commission

The National Procurement Commission.

Article 41B (6) of the present Constitution, as amended by the 19th Amendment, states that all these commissions other than the Election Commission, shall be responsible and answerable to Parliament. Thus, according to Article 41B (6), which appears in Chapter 7 of the Constitution dealing specifically with the Constitutional Council, the Elections Commission will be the only independent Commission that will NOT be responsible to Parliament.

However, Article 104 B (3) of the Constitution, which was also introduced by the 19th Amendment which falls under Chapter 9 of the Constitution, dealing specifically with the Elections Commission, states as follows: “The (Elections) Commission shall be responsible and answerable to Parliament in accordance with the provisions of the Standing Orders of Parliament for the exercise, performance and discharge of its powers, duties and functions and shall forward to Parliament for each calendar year a report of its activities for such year.”

So, which one of these provisions is true? Is the Elections Commission responsible to Parliament or not? Under Article 41 B (6) the Elections Commission is not responsible to Parliament. Under Article 104 B(3) it is not only responsible to Parliament but also required to report annually to Parliament on its activities. Personally, this writer would prefer 104 B (3) because all Commissions dealing with public affairs should be responsible and answerable to the supreme legislature of this country. If I remember correctly, at the committee stage of the 19th Amendment Bill, Prof. Tissa Vitharana put up a fight to get these Commissions made responsible and answerable to Parliament. However, because of contradictory provisions in the Constitution, today no one knows whether the Elections Commission is responsible to Parliament or not.

When the question of the President’s power to dissolve Parliament went before the Supreme Court, it was held that while Article 33 (2)(c) conferred the power to dissolve Parliament on the President, the manner in which it was supposed to be done was laid out in Article 70(1) and that this was buttressed by the provisions in Article 48(2) which referred only to Article 70(1). If the question of whether the Elections Commission is responsible to Parliament or not goes before the SC, it will not be that easy to solve it. Article 104 B (3) says, ‘It is’, and Article 41 B (6) says ‘It is not’. How is the SC to decide between such provisions, by tossing a coin?

The legality of a legally invalid meeting

Under Article 103 (1) of the Constitution as amended by the 19th Amendment, the Elections Commission consists of three members appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. Article 104 (1) states that the quorum for any meeting of the Commission shall be three members. It is what comes after this that would have many people scratching their heads.

Article 104 (2) (a) states that the Chairman of the Commission shall preside at all meetings of the Commission and in the absence of the Chairman, a member elected by the members present from amongst themselves shall preside. (However, the Chairman is only one of three members on the Elections Commission. Since three members are required for a quorum, If the Chairman is absent, there will be no quorum and a meeting of the Elections Commission cannot be held legally. What then is the point in having a provision in the Constitution saying that in the absence of the Chairman, a member elected by the members present from amongst themselves shall preside at such meeting?

Article 104 (2) (b) states that the decisions of the commission shall be by a majority of the members present and voting and in the event of an equality of votes, the Chairman or the member presiding at the meeting shall have a casting vote. (This is a meaningless provision because if a decision is to be taken by a majority vote, it will always have to be a two to one decision and any talk of a casting vote for the Chairman makes no sense.)

Article 104 (3) has a mind-numbing provision. What it says is that the Elections Commission ‘shall have power to act notwithstanding any vacancy in the membership of the Commission, and no act or proceeding or decision of the Commission shall be invalid or be deemed to be invalid by reason only of such vacancy or any defect in the appointment of a member’. (Can anyone even imagine the implications of such a provision? The Elections Commission consists of only three members and the quorum is three members. No meeting of the Elections Commission can take place legally without the quorum. Yet Article 104 (3) clearly states that the Elections Commission ‘shall have power to act notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership and no act or proceeding or decision of the Commission shall be invalid or be deemed to be invalid by reason only of such vacancy. What Article 104 (3) is saying, in other words, is that an illegal meeting of the Elections Commission without a quorum, will still be legally binding and valid.)

This develops further in Article 104 A (a) and (b) of the Constitution, which states that no court shall have the power or jurisdiction to entertain or hear or decide or call in question on any ground and in any manner whatsoever, any decision, direction or act of the Elections Commission, made or done or purported to have been made or done under the Constitution or under any law relating to the holding of an election or the conduct of a Referendum as the case may be, which decisions, directions or acts shall be final and conclusive; and that no suit or prosecution or other proceeding shall lie against any member or officer of the Commission for any act or thing which in good faith is done or purported to be done by him in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his functions under the Constitution or under any law relating to the holding of an election or the conduct of a Referendum as the case may be.

Under Article 104 A, the only instances in which the Elections Commission can be taken to courts will be over fundamental rights issues under Article 126 of the Constitution, the writ jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal which in the case of the Elections Commission will be exercised by the Supreme Court and not by the Court of Appeal, and with regard to petitions pertaining to the conducting of presidential elections, referendums or appeals relating to election petitions pertaining to parliamentary elections.

Thus, no one knows whether the Elections Commission, which was set up under the 19th Amendment is responsible to Parliament or not. And there is a question mark over the legality of meetings of the Elections Commission when one member is absent. One provision of the Constitution says that such a meeting will not be valid in law while another provision says that such meetings will be fully valid and cannot be called into question in a court of law.

The Elections Commission is arguably the most important of the independent commissions because it presides over the process of electing governments into power. Can any country afford to have such constitutional uncertainties in relation to such a body? But that’s Sri Lanka under the 19 th Amendment.

It’s not surprising that there is much talk of drug addiction and substance abuse among MPs in Parliament. In the opinion of this writer, the first people to be tested for substance abuse should be the drafters of the 19th Amendment and the drafters of the proposed new Constitution.

දෙනගම ධම්මික රණවීර උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

වසර හතරක් තිස්සේ බැඳුම්කර හොරුන්ට දඬුවම් කිරීමට වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව කර අරින නිසා අනාගත ආණ්ඩුවකින් හෝ ඔවුන් හෙළිදරව් කොට දඬුවම් පැමිණවීමට අනිවාර්යයෙන් සිදුකළ යුතු බව ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

ඔහු එම අදහස් පළ කළේ පසුගියදා (25දා) පිටකෝට්ටේ පිහිටි වියත්මඟ කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදීය.

එහිදී නාලක ගොඩහේවා මහතා මෙසේද පැවැසීය.

අද වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකය ඉතාමත් අර්බුද අවස්ථාවකයි තිබෙන්නේ. 2014 වන විට ආසියාවේ චීනයට පමණක් දෙවැනි වූ ආර්ථික වර්ධන වේගයක් තිබූ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අද අවසානය වීමට ඇෆ්ගනිස්තාන ආර්ථික වර්ධන වේගය හා තරග කරනවා.

2014 වන විට තිස් අවුරුදු බැඳුම්කරවල පොලී අනුපාත තිබුණෙ 10%ට වඩා අඩු අගයක. ඒත් 2015 පෙබරවාරි මාසයේ බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසියේදී එය 12.5% දක්වා ඉහළ දැම්මා. ඒ නිසා රටේ සමස්ත පොලී අනුපාතය 3%කින් පමණ ඉහළ ගියා. ඒ වන විට දේශීය රාජ්‍ය ණය රුපියල් ටි්‍රලියන 3.5ක් තිබුණා. ඒ සියල්ලෙන්ම පොලී අනුපාතය ඉහළ ගියා. ඒ නිසා පළමුවන මාසය තුළ පමණක් රුපියල් බිලියන 50ක පමණ පාඩුවක් එනම් කටුනායක අධිවේගී මාර්ගය තැනීමට වැයවූ මුදලට සමාන මුදලක් රටට පාඩු වුණා. ආර්ථිකයට සිදුවූ සමස්ත පාඩුව රුපියල් බිලියන 280ක් පමණ වේ යැයි එම අවස්ථාවේ ගණන් බලා තිබුණා.

රට පුරා බැංකුවල පොලී අනුපාතය වැඩි වීම නිසා ජනතාවට බැංකුවකින්, මූල්‍ය ආයතනයකින් හෝ ලීසිං ආයතනයකින් හෝ ණයක් ගැනීමේදී වැඩි පොලියක් ගෙවන්න සිදු වුණා. මෙහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට ඔවුන්ට තමන් සපයන භාණ්ඩ හා සේවාවල මිල ඉහළ දැමීමට සිදුවීමයි. මෙහි ප්‍රතිඵලය ලෙස ජනතාව අතර මුදල් හිඟයක් ඇති වුණා. මේ අනුව රටේ මුදල් සංසරණය අඩු වුණා. ව්‍යාපාර දුර්වල වුණා.

අනෙක් අතට හොරකම හා ආණ්ඩුව අතර සම්බන්ධකම් තිබුණු නිසා ආයෝජකයන්ගේ විශ්වාසය බිඳ වැටුණා. ඔවුන් කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළෙන් හා මූල්‍ය වෙළෙඳපොළෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ ආයෝජන ඉවත් කර ගන්නට පටන් ගත්තා. ඩොලර් බිලියන ගණන් මේ අනුව රටින් පිට වුණා. එය රුපියලේ අගයට බලපෑවා. ලංකාවේ රුපියල කඩා වැටෙන්න පටන් ගත්තා.

2015 වන විට ආසියාවේ තිබූ ශක්තිමත්ම මුදල් ඒකකයක් වන රුපියල අද ආසියාවේ පමණක් නොවේ මුළු ලෝකයේම දුර්වල මුදල් ඒකකයක් වී අවසන්.

රුපියල කඩා වැටීම වළක්වන්න රජය ආනයන සීමාවන් දමන්නට යෑම නිසා ආනයන ව්‍යාපාර කඩා වැටුණා. ඉන් සිදුවූයේ රේගුව හරහා රජයට ලැබෙමින් තිබූ විශාල ආදායමක් රටට අහිමි වීමයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අජිත් නිවාඩ් කබ්රාල්
ජනාධිපති බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමකින් පවා සාක්ෂි ඉදිරිපත් වී තිබුණත් මහ මොළකරුවන් නිදැල්ලේසිටිනවා. බැඳුම්කර ක්‍රමවේදය වෙනස් කිරීමට අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිට උපදෙස් දුන් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා තවම නිදැල්ලේ ඉන්නවා. මේ රටේ නීතිය පිළිබඳව විශාල කම්පාවකුයි මේ නිසා ඇතිවෙන්නේ.

බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේ සාමාජික විනිසුරුවරයකුගේ දියණියක් අගමැති කාර්යාලයේ වැඩ කළ බව පුවත්පත්වල වාර්තා වී තිබුණා. ප්‍රසන්න ජයවර්ධන නමැති සාමාජික විනිසුරුවරයා කියා තිබුණා තම දියණිය වැඩ කළේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්ති අමාත්‍යාංශයේ කියලා. එම පත්වීම සිදුවී තිබෙන්නේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම වැඩ පටන්ගත් පසුවයි. ළබැඳියාවන් අතර ප්‍රශ්නයක් එහි ඇති වී තිබෙනවා. මේවා හරහා අපට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්න බැහැ යුක්තිය ඉටුවේවි කියලා.

අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ බැඳුම්කර මගඩියට සම්බන්ධ බවට කරුණු 16ක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැකියි.

බැඳුම්කර නිකුත් කරන ක්‍රමවේදය වෙනස් කරන ලෙස අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට කීවේ තමා යැයි ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ පිළිගැනීම මඟින් තහවුරු වන්නේ තාක්ෂණික දැනුමක් නැති අගමැතිවරයා කර ඇත්තේ බලය අයුතු ලෙස භාවිත කිරීමක්. නැඟී එන ජනතා විරෝධය මැඬලීමට එජාප නීතිඥයන් තිදෙනකුගෙන් යුත් කමිටුවක් පත් කිරීම, 2015 මාර්තු 17 අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට සහාය පළ කරමින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කතා කිරීම, කෝප් කමිටුව මහ බැංකු කොල්ලය ගැන සොයා බලන්නට තීරණය කරන විට එහි එක් සාමාජිකයකු ඉවත් කොට සුජීව සේනසිංහ ඊට පත් කිරීම, සුජීව සේනසිංහ ලවා පොතක් ලියවා අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය සාධාරණීකරණය කිරීම, ඩිව් ගුණසේකරගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් යුතු කෝප් කමිටුවේදී එජාප මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් ලවා අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් ආරක්ෂා කරවීම, ඩිව් ගුණසේකර කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට සූදානම් වෙද්දී ජනාධිපති ලවා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමද ඒ අතර ප්‍රබල චෝදනා වෙනවා.

ඊට අමතරව ඩිව් ගුණසේකරගේ කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව මහජනතාවට නිකුත් කිරීම වැළැක්වීමට සුජීව සේනසිංහ ලවා අධිකරණ තීන්දුවක් ගැනීම හා එම තීන්දුව වර්ණනා කිරීම, සුජීව සේනසිංහගේ සභාපතිත්වයෙන් යුතු කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව දුර්වල කිරීමට ෆුට් නෝට් යෙදවීම, මහ බැංකු නිලධාරීන් විසින් ෆුට් නෝට්වලට එරෙහිව ඉදිරිපත් කළ විරෝධතා ඉල්ලා අස්කරගන්නා ලෙස බලපෑම් කිරීම, දෙවැනි වරටත් අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහ බැංකු අධිපති කිරීමට උත්සාහ ගැනීම සහ එය අසාර්ථක වන විට අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට උපදේශක තනතුරක් දීම, ඉන්පසුව මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ උපදේශක තනතුරක් දීමට උත්සාහ ගැනීම එම චෝදනා වෙයි.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

1 Defying the President’s order in sacking him and illegally occupying the Temple Trees there after and thereby misusing State property.

2  Calling for and canvassing international intervention in  the present crisis.

3 Conspiring to overthraw the legitimately appointed Cabinet and the Government by the President, and acting against public interest  and causing political, social and economic  brake down  to the country and thereby causing billions of losses to the country

4 Engaging in conspiracies and coups against the legitimate government, the Head of the State, the people and the country with foreign Diplomats by regularly summoning them to Temple Trees and conspiring with them to overthraw the Government and thereby committing high treason against the State.

5 Engaging in conspiracies to divide the coutry in to ethnic enclaves  such as Tamil  North, East and Central and Muslim south East by enacting a  new Constitution on Nov 6th 2018  that was averted thanks to the swift and timely actions of the President.

6  Signin illegal treaties and agreements with Foreing countries even without Cabinet approval that are detrimental to   national interest, its economy  and security, selling nation’s Ports, Harbours Airports and lands to foreigners.

7Appointing Paskaralingam, a man who was deprived of his civil rights, as Advisor to the Ministry of Finance  and  Arjun Mahendran as another Advisor to the Prime Minister after he was removed as Governor Central Bank

8 Leasing out Hambantota Port for 99 years to China.

9 Acts of treason he has committed against the State as Prime Minister, by conspiring to rob the CB   by getting appointed Arjun Mahendran as the Governor etc inspite of your objections and hiding  him in Singapore after the job was done, and protecteing him without   allowing the authorities to arrest him ( I opine he got him appointed as the Governor knowing very well that  Sri Lankan Government canno get him once he is back in Singapore as Singapore has not sing the exradition documents).

No sooner RW is arrested following chain of reactions will follow.

1The majority  for the Government in Parliament will cease to exist thereafter as the UNP will be  left leaderless

2 Karu Jayasuriya want be able to conduct UNP properganda  work at State expense   under the guise of  conducting sessions in Parliament.

3 Karu J, the UNP Speaker (rather the Speaker for the UNP in  Parliament) who made the Parliament a big joke and a mockery and after that has converted it to a UNP Head quaters, will have to leave as Speaher and give up his ambition to be futrure President and making his son-inlaw the Prime Minister.

4 The UNP will be left leaderless and will run into disarray beyond recovery.

5 Sajith, Navin, Rajitha, Ravi and even Champaka will begin quarrelling for its leadership and it will split in to pieces and that will be the end of the UNP as a political party and it will become a forgotten chapter of the political history of this country therafter unsung and  unwept

6 Whoever wins the leadership of the transitory UNP those disgruntled will join MR’s Government consolidating its majority until the next election comes and even thereafter consolidating  political satability in the country.

7 Political destitutes like the JVP and Hela Urumaya (Champika brand) and cancerous communal  day dreamers who depend on UNP for their survival will disappear in to political wilderness.

8 Thereafter even the Courts will be compelled to accept MR as the legitimate Prime MInister

MR then can go on either until the 4 and ½ year period ban imposed by the 19 A   is complete or in the event of the SC decides dissolution is in order, then he can request the President to issue a new Gazette  fixing the new date for General elections  and go for elections. Then he will definitely get  get the 2/3 in Parliament, if not more so that he will have a strong Government under which he can gor for a new constitution,  incorporating all the aspirations of the Bhumiputras, fully restoring the independence, sovereignty and freedom we lost to the British in 1815.

Whatever election that follows, I can predict the UNP will get routed out like in 1956 . The maximum number of seats it could get will be around 30,  if they limit the number of seats 196 to represent the 196 elctorates (and have the elections on the electoral basis abolishing the proportional and manapa systems),  after abolishing the so-called National list, the heaven  of political ring worms who eat in to the pith of the democratic tree, who  have converted representative democracy in to a big joke in this country.  If the existing preferance system is  abolished and the qualifying percentage is also increased to the original 12 % as it existed before, the Muslim and Tamil who opt to contest alone  might together get about 20  seats  and I can guarentee the anachronistic and politically cancerous JVP  (the Jatiya Vinasa kirime Pakshaya)  will get none.

(I also annex  the first article I posted  on 15.2.2018 under this subject as to  show why I repeatedly  make this request  from the President)

Punish all those who have masterminded the Central Bank gang robbery ASAP.

Posted on February 15th, 2018 (published in Lankaweb)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

15.2.2018.

As I was listening to yesterday’s (14) 7 pm Hiru news bulletin, I saw Dr. P. Mahanamahewa explaining in detail how to deal with Arjuna Mahendaran in case if he does not turn up at the CID Office before the 15th. Today is 15th but still Mahendran, the third accused as I have stated before has not turned up.  Leaving aside the legal intricacies, my question is, are we going to leave it at that and  forget the trilions of immediate losses caused to the country and all the serious  spill over                      effects on the country’s econonomy for decades to come. Suppose he never comes back and escape the Sri Lankan Government, then what next?

If that happens on whom are we going to fix responsibility regarding this mega robbery which has completely ruined a nation with spillover effects on the nation’s ailing economy for decades and generations to come?

How the conspiracy was hatched and carried out AND BY WHOM

The whole country knows it was Ranil Wickramasinha who brought Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka and got him appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank in spite of strong objections raised by the President, as the Head of the State

It was he who went to Singapore and invited him to come offering the Governorship of the CBlong beofore e Presidential election

It was he who got the CB under him as pre-planned from the Finance Ministry.

It was he who took full responsibility for his selection and insisted that Mahendran should be appointed, when the President objected for his request to appoint his buddy

Taking the Central Bank under him from the Finance Ministry was the first step in this mega conspiracy and crime committed by Ranil to ensure that this mega robbery will be carried out to its perfection with impunity.

I have no doubt Ranil did all this knowing that Mahendaran was not even a citizen of this country and therefore he cannot be taken to task by the Government of this country  once he send him out after the job is over. This clearly proves beyond all reasonable doubts that Ranil was the master mind behind the CB scam and he is the man who planned and got it implemented immaculately from the beginning to the end.

Therefore he is definitely the Accused no 1 in this mega robbery.

When the matter was raised in Parliament it was Ranil who defended him in the House on 17th March 2015

It was also Ranil who introduced the new system of Bond auctions as revealed by Arjuna Mahendran before the commission in his evidence

It was also Ranil who got the President to dissolve Parliament in August 2015 a day before the Dew Gunasekara COPE Report was to be presented to Parliament and thereby criminally avoided the Report being debated in Parliament.

(This lapse led to the second Bond Scam the subject of the present debate)

He also appointed his own commission of Party lawyers and got Mahendran exonerated before the President appointed his own Commission

Then he also wanted Mahendran appointed for a Second term which the President refused and got Coomaraswamy appointed  (Even that I dont think has made a     diference    as he is the brother of Radhika Comaraswamy another front line international agitator against the sinhahala Buddhists)

After that Ranil appointed Mahendran to another high post under his Ministry disregarding and ignoring his highly questionable role in the CB scam and also ignoring the President, probably thinking that it was he who got Mr Sirisena elected as the President, which is partly true.

When he was asked to give evidence before the Commission he got the Commissioners to send him a list of questions to be asked AT THE INQUIRY in advance carefully prepared, so that he can come prepared to answer them, perhaps designed to exonerate him.  (This is like the Commissioner of Examinations sending the Question papers to a candidate and accepting his answer scripts at the examiners home and pass him with distinction).

He also got Ravi Karunanayaka the Finance Minister his confidante and Deputy Leader of the UNP to instruct all State Banks to bid at the auction at lower interest rate ( 9.5%) so that Ajun Aloysius, who was perhaps advised in advance either by Mahendran his father-in-law who was living with him in his home  or jointly by Ranil and Mahendran asked  him to quote 12.5 % interest as pre-planned.

He was also responsible for increasing the 10 Billion to 40 Billion as Mahendran has revealed in his evidence before the Commission

It was also he who got Sujiiva Serasinha, the Author of the famous Book on CB SCAM, appointed to the COPE as a member.

 It was  RWwho spear headed the 19th Amendment that reduced the powers of the President including the most crucial one, the power the Presdent       had to dissolve Parliament

It was also he who sent Mahendran to Singapore when dark clouds were gathering over the sky.

(It is beyond comprehension how and why a suspect of such a crime was allowed to leave the country, unless there was some powerful intervention behind it). Ranil should know better than anybody else as to how he left Katunayaka Airport without any problem. Ranil knows better than any if Mahendran is arrested and grilled by the CID and by people like Dappula Livera and Kodagoda he will spill out all the beans and the entire gang of Alibaba and 40 thieves and all others who have jointly conspired, aided and abetted in different ways assigned to them by the leader, like writing books, adding foot notes and those benefitted directly or indirectly will be exposed.

He also has taken full responsibility in Parliament and before the President as well for all actions of Mahendraran which makes him responsible before the law for all crimes Mahendaran  has committed.

In this backdrop I don’t think this man will ever come to Sri Lanka. The perpetrators must have done their homework so that he could be kept in hiding safely forever.

Why can’t the President or law enforcing authorities take action against Ranil taking these commitments as serious crimes he has committed against the State and take action accordingly?

Of cause one could argue that he cannot be treated under that law as he has not duly singed a bond in court to that effect. Can’t it be accepted as a verbal bond under common law interpreting all what he has done as commissions and omissions against public interest?   I am sure what I have said here could be converted to legal jargon to frame the charges

Therefore the citizens of this country who are the owners of the Central Bank should demand the President to at least now arrest the Golden brain, whoever it is, that conspired, planned and executed this crime with a gang of thieves and who is also doing everything he could, under the sun to protect Mahendran his erstwhile friend for nothing but shear political and personal gain. I don’t think anybody needs to name him. The President should know it better than anybody else. So I leave it to him to decide. I do not know whether he will take the correct decision. But as responsible citizens it is our duty by the country and its people to raise these issues for public debate. If he takes the correct decision on this issue at least now I have no doubt that he will at least partially emerge out of the abysmal political mire in to which he has fallen, not because of anybody else’s fault, but only of his own fault and lapses and lack of far sight.  It will also open the doors for an entirely a new political culture in this country, free from corruption and misgovernment, which the people of this country have been desperately dreaming for decades.

As I rate it under these circumstances

The First accused is Ranil Wickramasinha

Second Arjun Mahendran and

Third Ravi Karunanayaka

I leave it to the AG to list the others in order.

The President has to take the lead  in this matter  more than any other as the Head of the State,  in  time as he is also partly responsible for most of these crimes committed by RW. More importantly at least before he is gunned down by these elments going by serious statements issued by  different people, an imminent dager on Presidents life iin the making, with or without foreign intervention Therefore the President must act immediately before RW and his cohort take the lead.

RW should be knowing it better than anybody else that it is he who will get appointed as the President of the country if Maitri is eleminated. So it hangs on as to who will be the first . It is as simple as that. The President should realize this precarious situation at least now and arrest RW immediately and institute legal action against him for the crimes he has already committed against the nation.to prevent this catastrophy.

It is only the direct intervention by the President   that can save the contry from this national disaster.

Those of you who read this will know many more involvements and finer points than I have stated here. I beg your pardon for shortcomings in this note and readers are free to add their own.

Note: The background for his selection as GCB.

Mahendrans are Ranil’s Family friends and strong UNP supporters. Mahendran is also said to be his school mate at Royal. He was appointed to several posts includinf the Sri Lanka  Ayojana Mandalaya,  even in 2001 when Ranil became PM. During that time RW also appointed Charless Mahendran, Ajun’s farther to the UN.  While he was there he is supposed to have given some vital secret information to Ranil bypassing Chandrika, over which Chandrika got damn annoyed and dissolved the Parliament making room for the 2004 General Elections that routed Ranil’s Government and sent him to the opposition.

It is in this back drop one has to understand as to why Ranil brought Mahendran to the Central Bank

9 Responses to Why doesn’t the Government arrest Ranil immediately on the serious findings of the Bond Commission Report in addition to the following unlawful and un-Constitutional actions and crimes”

    Hiranthe Says:

December 12th, 2018 at 7:25 pm

Nothing happens like that in this land Dr. Sudath G.

We were waiting for the publication of the Bond Scam report after declaration by My3. Don’t know what happened to that issue? Already 2 weeks are getting over after that statement of My3.

Was it a drama meant for only misleading public?

    Cerberus Says:

December 12th, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Dr. Sudath Gunasekera, It is strange that the verdict delivered in the Batalanda case to remove Ranil’s civil rights was never implemented. Wonder why? Also, I find it strange that the Bond Commission report found everyone guilty except the man who obviously masterminded the whole operation. Ranil brought Paskaralingam from U.K and appointed him as the head of the Treasury, Ranil brought an alien Arjun Mahendran and appointed him as the Governor of the Central Bank, and yet the Bond Commission finds only Arjun Mahendran and Aloysius and a few others who collected money from Arjun guilty. Yet the UNP Govt investigated MR Govt for three years and even got help from the FBI and CIA to find so-called MR’s billions stashed away in Dubai. They never found anything. Finally in desperation to find something against MR they made such a fuss about MR Govt distributing ‘Sil Redi’ before the election and jailed 70-year-old gentleman Mr. Lalith Weeratunge to 5 years hard labor in jail for this so-called crime even though MR said that Mr. Weeratunge was acting on his orders. Mr. Weeratunge was a Govt servant with impeccable character and morality. It is really true that we are in the Kali Yuga where everything is upside down.

    Caesar Says:

December 12th, 2018 at 10:02 pm

  The Multiparty democracy imposed on us by West is a total failure.    We need a King and Sinhela Legal system to develop and protect our Country, Nation and Buddha Saasana.

Corrupt set of judges who serve the West. India, RAW, CIA, LTTE, UNP, TNA should be wiped out and Kingdom rule is called in, on site execution method is deployed. All traitors go to hell.

There are no other solutions !

Utter waste of time and resources.

Caesar Says:    December 12th, 2018 at 10:12 pm

Ranil and Wife’s religion !

Timing is not right to arrest the Butterfly. International community will explode the news. Lets wait for the Supreme Court decision. Lets not make the Butterfly a HERO. Even if there is a general election, he should not be arrested, instead bring him before CID frequently as possible. Once the Butterfly is defeated, arrest him. Probably, what happened to Buddharakkitha will happen to the Butterfly. Lets wait.    Randeniyage Says:

December 13th, 2018 at 4:50 am

Because Mahinda and Ranil are good friends.

    Charles Says:

December 13th, 2018 at 6:37 am

Sudath Remember I have expressed my doubts about the bona fides of these Judges. They are either from UNP back ground or definitely wants to please the West. They are unpatriotic and distincly against the Ordinary Sinhala attitudes.

It was after working together with Ranil for three and half years that the President said that he would not want to work with Ranil even if the 225 MPs were to sign a petition in favour of Ranil. It is because he knows now through experience to what extent Ranil is a dangerous man. It is still the followers of SLFP,UPFA,SLPP that are quiet and silent while the UNP Bathgottas and foolish JVP which shout and run down the Presidetn and Rajapakses.

Ananda-USA Says:

December 14th, 2018 at 1:07 am

This ENTIRE FIASCO of Mis-Governance shows only ONE THING: That Sri Lanka’s Constitution, AMENDED many times to suit political convenience of unprincipled leaders is NOW UNABLE TO DEFEND & PROTECT Sri Lanka’s National Interests which go ABOVE & BEYOND Democracy” considerations! The CURRENT CONSTITUTION is now an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to Sri Lanka’s VERY SURVIVAL as a Sovereign Nation

The CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS for Sri Lanka’s National INTEGRITY and the SECURITY of its People has been TRADED IN for a watered-down Western Style Democracy that the West DICTATES to preserve their interests while the INALIENABLE RIGHTS of Sri Lankans are FLOUTED by their PAID STOOGES in all 3 branches of Government!

We, the PATRIOTIC CITIZENS of Sri Lanka must TAKE CONTROL of our Motherland before it is LOST FOREVER! We MUST STRENGTTHEN the National Government, and the EXECUTIVE PRESIDENCY FURTHER, while ELIMINATING ALL Sub-National Governments except city, town and village local governments, We must REPEAL both the 19th and 13th Amendments to the Constitution!

We must ELIMINATE the PM’s post as UNNECESSARY and DUPLICATIVE; the Speaker’s post is sufficient to conduct the LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS of the Parliament. The Parliament MUST NOT HAVE ANY EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION ROLE; its business should be SOLELY to LEGISLATE and to Aend as needed ad Approve the BUDGET as presented to it by the EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT in charge of a CABINET of MINISTERS who report SOLELY to him.

If the CURRENT FIASCOO has SHOWN ANYTHING, it is that it is a FATAL MISTAKE to DIVIDE the powers of the EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT between a WEAKEEED PRESIDENT and an EXECUTIVE Prime Minister! That experiment HAS NOW BEEN demonstrably proved to be UNWORKABLE, FLAWED from the VERY START and a NEAR-FATAL DISASTER!

We must HALT the ECTA and Singapore Agreements NOW! We must IMMEDIATELY MOVE to take back ALL STRATEGIC National Assets . like our Ports, Airports, Banks, Hospitals, Teaching Institutions, Highways, Refineries, Factories, Petroleum Tank Farms, Construction Companies, Real Estate, etc. As far as possible, we must award our National Development Contracts to Companies that are owned at least 60% by Sri Lankan citizens.

Sri Lanka’s ENEMIES, both WITHIN and WITHOUT, will be within a STONE’s THROW of achieving their MACHIAVELIAN DESIGNS should Hitapu PARA-GATHI AGA-MATHI Ranil Wikunanasighe, and his SEPARATIST Alies in the TNA and the SLMC cimb back into the SEAT of Power, with the EVER-OPPORTUNISTIC and SUPREMELY UNPATRIOTIC JVP enthusiastically pushing the 20th Amendment to strike the FINAL NAILS into NOW SUPINE Mother Lanka’s heaving BREAST!

I havew said it before, and I will say it again: President Sirisea shhould not back down ONE-INCH; he should SUSPEND the Parliament and SHUT IT DOWN under armed forces protection, DECLARE an EMERGENCY and IMPOSE Martia Law; EXPEL Ranil from the Temple Trees, charge him with Trespassing on Government Property and seek DAMAGES both Real and Punitive; and MOST IMPORTANTLY MOVE to HOLD a GEERAL Parliamentary ELECTION to DETERMINE the WILL of the PEOPLE!

NEVER HAND the Government back to the ACCOMPLISHED CROOKS and TRAITORS of Ranil Baba ad his 40-Thieves without the SUPPPORT of the VOTERS of Sri Lanka!

Cerberus Says:

December 14th, 2018 at 12:38 pm

Agree with ‘Caesar’ that the Multiparty Democracy imposed on us by the West is a total failure. Today, in some of the Middle East countries there are governments with a King like in the olden times or benevolent dictators. So long as these countries toe the Power Bloc lines, they are allowed to govern. If they move away from them, then suddenly they will become the bad people” and will be eliminated. Sri Lanka fought the terror war and managed to do all the development work with help from mainly the Chinese Govt who give help with no strings attached. Yet while some in the West do not like Sri Lanka moving too closely with the East they do not and cannot give us much help at all. As they say in Sinhala බල්ලා පිදුරු කන්නෙත් නැ කන ගොනාට කන්න දෙන්නෙත් නැ”.

Instead of Western-style democracy which does not seem to work well even in the USA or the UK, we might, with some alterations, adopt the Chinese model which appears to work well. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_China

Instead of one King, we could have a Governing body made up of at least 10 senior, educated, well known patriotic leaders, with experience and good character and ethics. We can have elections similar to the local government or the provincial elections and then choose a group of such 10 people who are mature, educated and with good character and morality and form a Council to govern the country along with a Cabinet of Ministers. The Governing Council formed by the UNP was a body with the worst scum bags. As a result unlike the current multi-party system where all the energy is wasted in hot air blasting each other in the Parliament, the group of 10 could work together to solve the problems of the country. We can see how fast China has come up while most of the Western democracies are floundering. India adopted the multi-party system and today they are also floundering. When the colonized countries freed them colonizers left behind a Trojan horse for each country to experiment which was the multi-party democratic system. You can see the net result. Even the Legal bodies appear to have the Western mindset and cannot think in the local context.

The only real leader of proven value who has emerged through it all in the last 15 years is MR. If we look at the parties what have they achieved? The SLFP under SWRD brought the Sinhala language Act overnight which was an impediment for the Sinhala people emerging from nearly 500 yrs of colonization. He also brought in the Tamil Language Act to put Tamil on as a National language. The Tamil and Muslim people were able to get their education in English while the Sinhala students could not. Under Chandrika, the SLFP did not do much since Ranil was the PM. Except for the UNP under JR who launched the Mahaweli project, the free trade zones, etc, and the houses for villagers under Pres Premadasa, after the traitor, Ranil took over the UNP, he did nothing for the country. All the time he was in the Opposition, he went around the world I think at taxpayer cost and kept on bringing the country down where ever he went. It is the same with the JVP who were slaughtered by the UNP. During that time it was MR who went to the UN to plead on behalf of the innocent village youths who were being rounded up and killed by the likes of Ranil and the miserable UNP gang. Yet today the JVP has forgotten the past. At the last election in Jan 2015, Anura Kumara was the most vociferous with absurd lies against MR & his family such the golden horses and fleets of Lamborghini’s. The campaign led by the UNP to win elections through bribery and lies were successful. The people suffered later with the new govt led by Ranil and the UNP in many ways with heavy taxes and cost of living etc and felt so much remorse that they went in busloads to invite MR back to politics.

During MR’s time, he achieved a great deal.. His main task was the elimination of the LTTE after 30 years in spite of the opposition from various foreign countries. He built up the infrastructure all over the country and rebuilt most of the infrastructure that had been destroyed all over the country and mainly in North and East by the LTTE. In spite of all the work done by MR, the Tamils voted against MR. For the last three years, the UNP created a coalition government with the SLFP and nothing was achieved even though a lot of money was borrowed. The Bond scam pulled off by Ranil has cost the country billions. Most of the poor people’s EPF was taken by Ranil’s buddies. The MPs were bribed with tax-free luxury vehicles and given large increases in salaries, plus bonuses & allowances. That is how the infamous 19A was passed. The Speaker during this time did not accept the majority group which was the UPFA as the Opposition instead gave the Opposition party leader post to the TNA which had only 16 seats.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled against Maithri’s dissolution of the Parliament, our people will have to be very vigilant. Ranil and the JVP managed to pass the 19A by trickery and fooling the foolish MPs. Ranil introduced electronic voting in the Parliament which is not used even in the West. They nearly managed to pass the new Constitution which would have broken up the country into 9 pieces as our former Colonizers wanted. It was stopped thanks to MR and the vigilance of the Joint Opposition.

We pray that Ranil does not become the new Prime Minister. We hope that even if he is that he is not allowed to do too much damage. His main policy has been always to destroy the country through crash and sell” and according to the Batalanda report has got killed many Sinhalese youths at the Batalanda torture chambers.

Sudath Gunasekara 

27. 2. 2019.

The decision of the committee on the parliamentary squabble conveyed to the House by the Speaker reminds me of the proverbial Kekille Rajjuruwanage nadu teenduwa. I read Udaya Gammanpila has said it is politically biased. Any pottaya who has seen how the brawl flared and ended up will, I have no doubt, will agree with his comments.

As for me I see a bigger blunder in this whole episode as the inquiring committee has completely failed,   forgotten or deliberately neglected to look in to the main cause behind this incident. In my opinion the main cause of the whole tragedy lies in the hands of the speaker who mismanaged the whole situation right from the beginning to end, as the man in the Chair. Had he acted impartially as the Speaker of the House ‘as a Judge sitting on the bench ’this unfortunate incident would never have happened or at least could have been avoided

Looking at how things have been mismanaged at the Parliament by the Speaker in the past few months openly taking the side of Ranil to protect him and their Government as he thinks, even an uneducated   ordinary person with common sense will know that he is not impartial. And he is compelled to conclude that the main reason behind this sad episode was the dictatorial and biased attitude of the Chair. In spite of this obvious situation the committee decision appears to have completely forgotten the basic principle of cause and effect theory and decided to punish the wrong party. Having seen the episode on the screen many times I don’t for a moment say all what the members involved did were correct. But my observation is that it has exonerated the main culprit, the Speaker. Obviously the main cause of this indecent and uncivilized brawl inside the nation’s lawmaking body which is supposed to be the most august Assembly of the country is the fault of the Speaker, the King in the thrown. When the King paraded the streets naked on the elephant thinking that he is wearing the most valuable clothe in the world woven by his royal weaves in the past(Setambara patasaluwa) only a tiny tot standing naked by the road  side hanging on to his mother’s hand saw the nakedness, but never the King. So it is even true of today, when it comes to power and Kings. On that day the House went down to the level of a fish market or even worse than that, a disgrace to the country as it was televised all over the world. Even that these Kings didn’t notice.

Justice must not only be done but it must also seem to be done. It is only then the ordinary but prudent masses will see it as justice and respect and accept it as true justice. Therefore I think the present decision should be varied. Either punish all from top to bottom including the man who created this scene or decide it inside the House, with an open apology by all responsible and an undertaking to not to repeat this kind of ugly incidents inside the house in future, without leaving it to go down in history as another black mark for this Parliament that has already gone down in books as the most disgraceful one   we ever had in this country.  That is how an ordinary Head Master of a village school would decide, I think.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

             මෙරට දැනට ඉතිරිව පවතින පැරණිතම වංශ කතාව දීප වංශයයි.එයට අමතරව මහාවංශය ථූප වංශය ආදී වංශ කතා මෙන්ම රජාවලිය පූජාවලිය දළදා පූජවලිය රාජාවලිය ආදී ඉතිහාසයට සම්බන්ධ කතා ප්‍රවෘත්ති රාශියක් අප සතුව ඇත්තේය.මහාවංශයට ලියූ මහාවංශ ටීකාව රාජ රත්නාකරය එළු දළදා වංශය දළදා සිරිත ආදී විස්තරාත්මක ග්‍රන්ථ සමූහයකින් නිර්මිත සිංහල බෞද්ධ ඉතිහාසයට රජෙක් නුවූ කාලයක් නැත තරම්ය. ලංකාවේ රාජ නාමාවලිය විස්තර කරමින් රචනා කරන ලද රාජාවලිය මගින් කියැවෙන්නේ ලංකාවේ රාජ වංශය ශ්‍රී වික්‍රම රාජසිංහයන් ගෙන් අවසන් වන බවයි.එහෙත් ඉන් පසුව එංගලන්තයේ පස් වන ජෝර්ජ් රජු ලංකාවේ ද රජු බවට පත් වෙයි.එංගලන්ත කිරීටයෙන් රට නිදහස් වූ පසු ලංකාවට අහිමි වූ සිංහල රාජාවලිය යලි ඇරඹෙන්නට අවශ්‍යව තිබුණි. එහෙත් එය සිදු නුවුණි. ඒ වෙනුවට එංගලන්ත රැජිනට වග කිව හැකි දේශීය අගමැති වරයෙකු රටේ පාලකයා වශයෙන් පත් විය.

        1815 වර්ෂයේ දී උඩරට නිළමේ වරු සහ එංගලන්ත ආණ්ඩුව විසින් අත්සන් කරන ලද ගිවිසුමෙන් සංකේතවත් වූයේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය රජු ලංකාවේ රජු වශයෙන් පිළිගන්නා බවද ඔහු වෙනුවෙන් ලංකාව පාලනය කරලීමට දේශීය ප්‍රභූ පැලැන්තියෙන් පුද්ගලයෙකු පත් විය යුතු බවත්ය. නිසැකවම ඒ තනතුර බලාපොරොත්තු වූයේ ඇහැලේපොල අදිකාරම් තුමාය. නමුත් ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉක්මන් කමත් ලංකාවේ රදළවරුන්ගේ අසමගියත් නිසා දෙපිරිස අතර වූ අසහනය වර්ධනය වී මහා අරලයක් බවට පත් විය. එහි අවසාන ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ ඇහැලේපොල අදිකාරම් තුමා මුරිසියට පිටිවහල් කර ඉංග්‍රිසි ආණ්ඩුකාර වරයෙකු රටේ පාලකයා බවට පත් වීමයි. වර්ෂ 133 කට පසුව ලංකාවේ ප්‍රභූ පැලැන්තිය ඉල්ලූ ස්වදේශ පාලනය ඔවුන්ට ලැබුණි.නමුත් ඔවුහු සාම්ප්‍රදායික උඩරට මුල් ඇඳුමින් සැරසුණ ප්‍රභූ වරු නුවූහ. ටයි කෝට් ටොප් හැටි පැළඳි ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවට සුවච වූ රදළ පැලැන්තියක් වූහ.මේ නිසා 1815 දී අපට අහිමි වූ රාජ්‍ය නායකත්වය ඉන් නොලැබුණි. ලංකාවට නොගැලපෙන පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයත් පක්ෂ ක්‍රමයත් නිසා රටේ ප්‍රධාන බහුතරය දෙකට බෙදුණි. රටේ නායකත්වයට එන අගමැති වරයා එක් මැතිවරණ කොට්ඨාශයක් නියෝජනය කරන පක්ෂ නායකයෙකු බවට පත් විය. එම තත්ත්වය මත ඔහු පෙර රජවරුන් මෙන් බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ ආරක්ෂකයා නොවීය. භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා පිරිසක්  අගමැති ඩී.එස්. සේනානනායක මහතා හමු වූ අවස්ථාවේ ඔහු පවසන ලද්දේ දැන් පුරා විද්‍යාව මගින් අපි කරන්නේ බුද්ධ ශාසනයට අයත් දේ සුරැකීම  නොවේ දැයි ඇසීය. මොකද ඔය තරම් හදිසි යයි ඔහු අසන්නට පෙළ ඹුණේ තමාට ඉහළින් ධවල අධිරාජිනියක් සිටින නිසාය.

     1948 අපට නාමික නිදහසක් ලැබුණේ මේ කරුණු නිසාවෙනි.නමුත් එහි සැබෑ තත්ත්වය වටහා නොගත් දේශීය බලවේග 1952 දී බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා වටා ගොනු වී නව දේශපාලන බලයක් නිර්මාණය කරලන්නට උත්සුක වූයේ නිදහස අපේක්ෂාවෙනි. සිංහලය ට රාජය භාෂා තත්ත්වය ලබා ගැනීම අධ්‍යාපනය නිදහස් කිරීම පුද්ගලික අංශයේ ඒකාධිකාරය බිඳ හෙලමින් සමූපාකාරය ශක්තිමත් කරලීම වතු ජනසතු කිරීම ආදී අරමුණු එවකට විය. මෙම අරමුණු යම් තරමකින් ඉටු කරගන්නට හැකිවුවද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවකට වග කියන අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය වරයෙකුට එම සීමාවෙන් පිට පැනිය නොහැකි විය. හැටේ දශකයේ දී සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් තබන ලද ප්‍රගතිශීලී පියවරයන් සියල්ල එකල ඇයට තිබූ විදේශ සවි ශක්තියෙන් කළ කී දෑ විය. නමුත් සෝවියට් සංගමය දුර්වල වූ විට ඇයගේ බලයත් ක්‍රමානුකූල ලෙසට අව පාතයට ලක් විය.මේ නිසා රටේ සාමය නැති කිරීමට විදේශීය බලවේග විසින් කළ කුමන්ත්‍රණයේ ප්‍රතිපලය වූයේ උතුරේ දෙමළ ජාතිවාදය නව වටයකින් ආරම්භ වීමයි. හැත්තෑව දශකයේ මැතිණිය ගේ බලය දුර්වල කොට ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතා බලයට පත් වූ පසුව ඔහුටද කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදයට මුහුණ දෙන්නට සිදු විය.මේ පීඩනයට සෘජුවම මුහුණ දීමට නම් රටේ විධායකයක් පැවතිය යුතු බවට ජේආර්. විශ්වාසය පළ කලේය. එක් මැතිවරණ කොට්ඨාශයකින් ජයග්‍රහණය කරන පුද්ගලයෙකු රටේ නායකත්වයට පත් වීමට වඩා මුලු රටම එක මැතිවරණ කොට්ඨෘශයක් ලෙසට ගෙන විධාකයක් පත් කර ගැනීමෙන් රට ශක්තිමත් වන බවට ඔහු අවංකවම කල්පනා කරන්නට ඇත. මේ වෑයම මත ඔහුගේ පෞද්ගලික අභිප්‍රායන් තිබුණද පෙර කී අරමුණු මගින් ඔහු මෙහෙයවූ බව කල්පනා කළ හැකිය.නමුත් ඔහුට වැරදුන තැන නම් විධායක බලය සහිතව ඇමරිකන් ගැති ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් අනුගමනය කරමින් විවෘත ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්තීන් මත රට මෙහෙයවීමට වෑයම් කරලීමයි.දේශීය බලවේග ඔහුගෙන් ඈත් වූයේ එබැවිනි.

             කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙරට රාජ්‍ය පාලනය සමග බුද්ධ ශාසනය බැඳී පවතී. විශේෂයෙන්ම රාජ්‍යත්වයට පත් වන්නා දළදා වහන්සේ සමග අවියෝජනීය සම්බන්ධයක් පවත්වාගෙන යා යුතු වෙයි.දළදා භාරකරු වූ කීරවැල්ල පරපුරේ ඇත්තන් අනුමත ඔවුන්ගේ පරපුරේ කුමරියක් අග බිසව බවට පත් විය යුතුය. මේ චාරිත්‍රය විමලධර්මසූරිය රජු දක්වාම අඛණ්ඩව පැවතුණි. නමුත් සෙනරත් රජු ගේ කාලයේ දී දෙනවක මායාදුන්නේ රජු හා ඇති වූ හබය නිසා බොහෝ රාජකීයන් නිලතල හැරදා වන වැදුණි.එමි නිසා සෙනරත් ගේ පුත් දෙවනි රාජසිංහ විසින් කීලරවැල්ලේ ඥාතීන් සතුව තිබූ දළදා භාරකාරත්වය කීරවැල්ල පරපුරට නෑකම් ඇති භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාට පවරා දුනි. වසර දහස් ගණනක් තිස්සේ කිත්සිරිමෙවන් රජ දවස සිට පැවති සම්ප්‍රදායක් මෙලෙස අවසන් විය. එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ ඉන්පසු පැමිණි රජවරු මදුරාපුරයෙන් රාජ කන්‍යාවන් ගෙන ඒමට පෙළඹීමයි.එම නිසා රාජකීයත්වයක් නොමැති වඩුග නායක් පෙළතකට රටේ රජකම හිමි විය. මේ බල අරගලයේ අවසාන ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ 1815 වර්ෂයේ දී  රට ඉංග්‍රීසීන් සතු වීමයි.

     රාජ නීතියෙහි පදනම දශ රාජධර්මයයි.  ලංකාවේ රජ්ජුරුවන් වහන්සේ ගේ තනි කැමැත්තට ඕනෑ වූ දෙයක් කරන්ඩ පුලුවන්ද යන්න ප්‍රශ්ණයක් වශයෙන් ෆැල්ක් ලන්දේසි ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා විමසූ කල්හි එවක සිටි මල්වතු මහ නා හිමියන්  දුන් පිළිතුර මෙසේය. ‘රජ්ජුරුවන් වහන්සේ ලෝක නීතිය යන පුරාතන පැවති නඩු අනඩු සිරිත් චාරිත්‍ර දැනීමද ධර්ම නීතිය යන ආගම පුරාගම දැනීමද යන මෙසේ  මහත් වූ නුවණ ඇති පණ්ඩිත කෙනෙක් ය. තමන්ගේ කැමැත්තට තීන්දු කරන්ඩ පුලුවන් රාජ්ජේ කාරණාවලුත් ඇත. අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයෙන්ද රට වාසීන්ගෙන්ද හොඳ හැටි විචාරා කරන දේත් බොහෝ දේ ඇත.   මේ රාජ නියමයට පදනම් වී ඇත්තේ දශ රාජ ධර්මයයි. එය එම ලියවිල්ලේ සඳහන් කර ඇත්තේ මෙසේය. දන්දීමය සිල් රැකීමය තෑගි දීමය සෘජු භාවය මැදහත් බවය තපස් ඇති බවය. ක්‍රෝධ නොකිරීමය ක්ෂමා වීමය අවිරුද්ධ බවය. දන්දීම නම් ශ්‍රමණ බ්‍රාහ්මණාදීන්ට යාචකයින්ට බත් පිළි ආදිය දීමය. සිල් රැකීම නම් නොකඩ කොට ආගම දැරීමය. ත්‍යාගි බව නම් කෙත්වත් ආදී උතුම් වස්තු දීමය.සෘජු බව නම් සිත වංක චාටු නැති බවය. මැදහත් බව නම් සියල්ලන්ම එකසැටි බවය. තපස් ඇති බව නම් රූප ශබ්දය ගන්ධය රසය ස්පර්ශය යන මෙකී ඇලුම් පසේ පැවති තෘෂ්ණාව මැඩ පැවැත්වීමය. ක්‍රොධ නොකිරිම නම් නිරපරාධ අයට වද නොයෙදීමය. ක්ෂමා වීම නම් නොවිචාරා වරදට නොකිපීමය. අවිරුද්ධ බව නම් සියලු අය විරුද්ද නැති බවය. ’

                 මෙහිදී පැහැදිලිවන්නේ රටේ නිතිය යුක්ති ධර්මය අනුව තීරණයවී ඇති බවයි. පෙර පූර්වාදර්ශ ද ගණන් ගන්නා නමුත් යුක්ති ධර්මය එහිදී ප්‍රධාන බවන බව පැහැදිලිය. රජු දේවත්වයෙන් සැලකීමද බෝසත් ගුණ යෙන් යුතු වීමද කල යුතු බව සම්ප්‍රදායක් විය. නුවර නාථ දේවාලය ඉදිරියේ පැවති රාජ අභිෂේකයේ දී දශ රාජ ධර්මය රකින්නට දිවුරුම් දීමෙන් ඒ බැව් සනාථ වේ. එසේ නොවුනහොත් තමන්ගේ හිස සත්කඩකට පැලේවා යයි ද රජු කියයි. මේ නිසා ලංකාවේ  රාජ්‍යත්වය වනාහි හිතුවක්කාර පාලනයක සංකේතයක් ලෙසට සැලකීම වැරදිය. නමුත් වර්තමාන නියෝජිත ප්‍රජාතන්තුවාදයේ පදනම මත පිහිටවූ විධායක ජනාධිපති තනතුර ඒකාධිපති තනතුරක් ලෙසට කලක් මතවාදයකට ලක් විය.ඒ නිසා එය අහෝසි කරලන්නට ජන මතයක්ද ඇති විය. එහෙත් කොටි සමග පැවති මහා සටනේ දී එම තනතුරේ ආනුභාවයෙන් රටේ සාමය ඇති කරලන්නට සමත් වූ බව කවුරුත් දනී. පෙර පැවති රජ තනතුරම නොවුණද රටේ නායකයෙකු සිටින බව දැනෙන්නේ ජනපති වරයෙකු එම ධූරය හොබවන විටයි.එකම අඩුව නම් වත්මන් ජනපති වරයා සෘජුවම බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ ආරක්ෂකයා දළදා වහන්සේට වග කියන පුද්ගලයා වශයෙන් පෙනී නොසිටීමයි.වර්තමානයේ නැවතත් මෙම තනතුර අහෝසී කරලීමට මතවාදයක් ඇති වෙමින් පවතී. පළාත් සභා අහෝසි කළහොත් එම තනතුර අහෝසි විය යුතු බවද ඇතැමුන් ගේ මතයයි. එහෙත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට වග කියන අගමැති වරයෙකුට ජනතාව ගේ චන්ද කොට්ඨාශයකින් තේරී පත්වන අගමැති වරයෙකුට දළදා වහන්සේට හෝ බුද්ධශාසනයට වග කිව නොහැකිය. එය 1948 වර්ෂයේ සිටම අප අත් දැක ඇත්තෙමු. හම නිසා කුමන හේතුවක් මත වුවද ජනපති තනතුර අහෝසි නොකළ යුතුය. නමුත් එම තනතුර දශරාජ ධර්මයෙන් පාලනය වන දළදා වහන්සේට වග කියන තනතුරක් බවට පත් කරලීමට අපට හැකියාවක් ඇත. ඒ සඳහා අවවාද අනුශාසනා කරලීමට මහා විහාරය ඇතුළු භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාට අවස්ථාව තිබේ.

Palitha Senanayake

M/S Samantha Power

Ex Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights

Of the US National Security Council

Dear madam,

Human Rights Violations by Sri Lankan forces

The greatest friend of TRUTH is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice,
and her constant companion is Humility.”

Considering the damage you have done to this country and its image during your time in office, with allegations of human rights violation by its forces, on evidently inflated statistics, it is indeed unfortunate that we Sri Lankan’s cannot welcome you whole heartedly in to this country for your key note address at Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s political milestone event. However, it is with the fervent understanding that we could sought out facts relating to the conflict that ended 2009 and the events thereafter, that we decided to address this letter to you so that you may view those events in a truer and a more realistic perspective for the benefit of US policy and that of this country.

Any visitor to this country today will observe that Colombo has a few high rises and its infrastructure has tremendously improved and continue to do so, vis a vis the situation pre- 2009. The country as a whole, has recorded gains in every sphere including improved tourist arrivals, a new and better road network, new investments and in general buoyancy of life all-round. If it is the North and the East (for whose rights the LTTE claimed they were fighting) you are concerned about; the life is bubbling again in those areas with schools functioning, business and industry thriving, new buildings coming up and most importantly it has been possible to elect representatives to local governing councils after 34 years. There are no child soldiers, deserted and bullet ridden houses, cemeteries for heroes and suicide bombers stalking freely.

Therefore, any well-wisher of the country in particular and a humanitarian in general would welcome the present situation of hope and peace in Sri Lanka as against the sheer hopelessness and misery that existed before. Realistically, had the LTTE not been eliminated in 2009 it would have accounted for well over another 30,000- 40,000 Sri Lankan lives during the period 2009-2019 continuing with that situation where human rights accountability of the country in general would have been blurred and very casual. Thus, it is in this present context of things that we have to perceive all these allegations made against the anti-terrorist operation of the forces as vengeful and is smacking of an ulterior motive, especially when the statistics backed to make those allegations are based on the claims made by those very organisations that funded and propagated the LTTE during the thirty + years of its operations. This is particularly of significance to this whole issue because the LTTE survived for 34 years as the best organized and the most ruthless terrorist group in the world (your State department report in 2001), particularly due to the nurturing it received in the hands of its funding and propaganda/ lobbying wings that are alive and active even today.   To be realistic, the devious methods, modus-operands and subtle propaganda of this Diaspora groups have been relentless, purposeful and irresistible to the international compared to the successive SL Government that lacked a clear cut policy on terrorist funding and control.

The bone of contention of these human rights allegations against the Sri Lankan force is the deaths of 40, 000 civilians who are alleged to have perished during the last phase of this conflict when the LTTE surrounded its armed operations with human shields. This figure is primarily based on the Dharusman report that concluded its findings based on the evidence submitted by the propagandist of the LTTE devoid of exercising an iota of an acceptable method of verification. What intrigue us here is that why you and the international community should base their findings on this Dharusman report which was merely a report called by the then UN General Secretary for his personal purposes, compiled by questionable persons and based on one-sided evidence, when first-hand information was available to you and the others of the international community through their Defence attaché of the respective embassies.

Lord Naseby, a member of the British House of Lords, in his findings on the casualties during the last phase of the conflict had revealed to the British Parliament that both the US and the British Defence attaché’s had documented deaths between 7000 to 8000 persons( including the non- uniformed cadres of the LTTE) during the subject period an therefore the 40,000 deaths claimed by the Dharusman report is not tenable. Further, the Sri Lankan Government in the face of these allegations in the international forums commissioned its Department of Census and statistics to carry out a detail assignment to ascertain the number of deaths that had happened during the subject period. This assignment demographically covered the entire northern and the Eastern provinces, with each GS division by operatives of those provinces ( Grama sevakas, School teachers and other Government servants). This information was then collated and compiled and made in to a report as is done normally by the department for all other areas of the country. This report too surmised that the number of missing persons (presumed dead as claimed by family members and by Grama Sevakas) is in the region of 8,000 persons. This report incidentally, was the result of the verified information submitted by the Grama Sevakas (the village level administrative officer) of the areas that the Dharusman report claimed provided them with second or third hand information to their report.  Therefore it now appears that the dead according to the Dharusman report is far in excess of those who ever lived in those areas.

What makes these allegations really prejudicial is, when those have to be viewed in the light of how the LTTE conducted its operations and propaganda revolving around civilians for 30 years and also in the light of the international law that makes human shields of military targets by terrorist operatives culpable.

In addition to all this it is reliably learnt that the American State department  on Human rights headed by you in consultation with Messrs Richard Armitage, US Deputy Secretary of State and Messrs Roberto Blake, US Under Secretary for South Asian affairs,  wanted the anti- terrorist drive of the Sri Lankan Government suspended as far back as February 2009 and when the Sri Lankan government did not acced to your request you had a meeting in the State Department with those two offices and decided to bring War Crimes charges against Sri Lanka.  We are in possession of proof to prove this point and therefore it now appears that this Human rights violations have been charges concocted even before the time these violations were said to have been committed, as a punishment for the Sri Lankan Government for not obeying your orders.

There is something that is definitely paradoxical with regard to the advocacy and practice in human rights by the US State department as we could observe from their conduct in world affairs. Colossal mistakes have been made in this regard by the US in recent times, during your tenure, in Syria and in Yemen where the consequences have far outweighed the declared good intentions. Sir Winston Churchill was on record making the statement that, ‘You can expect the Americans to do what is right in world affairs after they have exhausted all other avenues available’.  This seemingly tenable comment could be attributed, partly to the fact that there is an inherent egoistic element of being the only super power in the world and partly due to the propaganda campaigns and lobbying conducted by interest elements directed at the US to achieve their questionable ends. Whichever the case it is in the case of Sri Lankan forces, the present stance taken by US will not auger well against elimination or terrorism, for the Sri Lankan forces and for the US policy.

The recent US ambassador to UN Ms Nikkei Hailey left her seat recently at the UNHRC calling it a ‘Cesspit of political bias’.  We Sri Lankans couldn’t agree more with her on that but however the irony is, when US’s own activities have contributed to make it what she correctly opined it to be.

With best regards

Yours sincerely

Palitha Senanayake

 lanka C news

ඊ.ටී.අයි. ගනුදෙනුව පූර්ණ විනිවිදභාවයකින් තොර, අවශ්‍ය කිසිදු විශ්ලේෂණයක් නිසියාකාරයෙන් සිදු නොවූ ගනුදෙනුවක් හෙයින් එම ගනුදෙනුව නවතා දැමීමට සිදුවන බව ප්‍රකාශ කරමින් ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඊයේ (26දා) ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාව රැස්වූ අවස්ථාවේදී එම තීන්දුවට හවුල් වූ ආර්ථික සභාවේ සියලු දෙනා දැඩි ලෙස දෝෂ දර්ශනයට ලක් කොට තිබේ.

එහිදී ගැනුම්කාර සමාගම වන පෙටිගෝ කියන ආයතනය කුමක්ද? මේ ආයතනය ගැන සෙව්වේ නැද්ද? සෙව්වේ නැත්තේ ඇයි? සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජාට මේක දෙන්න තීරණය කළේ කොහොමද? ඔහු ගැන නොසොයා මේ ගනුදෙනුව සිදුකළේ ඇයි? රටේ මිනිසුන්ගේ සල්ලි නේද? මේ වගේ ආයෝජනය කරලා තියෙන්නේ. අලිරාජලාට මේ ගනුදෙනුව කරන්න සල්ලි කොහෙන්ද කියලා සොයා බැලුවේ නැත්තේ ඇයි? යනාදී වශයෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිදු කළ දීර්ඝ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම් හමුවේ එහි සාමාජිකයන් නිරුත්තර වී තිබේ.

එහිදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා ආර්ථික සභාව හමුවේ කියා ඇත්තේ කිසිදු සොයා බැලීමකින් තොරව මෙවැනි ඩීල් ස¼දහා එළැඹීම ගැටලුවක් බවත් මෙසේ යන්නට හැරියහොත් මෙය රටටම බලපාන ප්‍රශ්නයක් වනු ඇති බවත්ය.

ගැනුම්කාර විදේශීය සමාගම එම ගනුදෙනුව ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 60කට සිදුකිරීමට එකඟ වෙද්දී දේශීය සමාගම එය ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 61කට මිලදී ගැනීමට එකඟ වී තිබෙනවා නේද? යනුවෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමේදී අදාළ පාර්ශ්ව එවැනි දේශීය සමාගමක් ඉදිරිපත් නොවූ බව පවසා තිබේ.

එහිදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ සම්බන්ධව දීර්ඝව ප්‍රශ්න කරමින් විමසා ඇත්තේ එම දේශීය සමාගමට කිසිදු දැනුවත් කිරීමක් හෝ නොකරමින් එම ගනුදෙනුව ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 75කට විදේශීය සමාගමක් වෙත පැවැරුවේ කෙසේ ද යන්න ගැනය. එහිදීද ආර්ථික සභාවේ සියලු දෙනා නිරුත්තර වී තිබේ.

එසේම එම ගනුදෙනුවේදී ආයෝජනය කළ යුතු ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 12 සම්බන්ධවත් පෙබරවාරි 22 වන විට ගෙවිය යුතුව පවතින ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 16ක මුදල සම්බන්ධවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිදු කළ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම්වලදී අදාළ පාර්ශ්වවලට නිහඬ වීම හැර අන් විකල්පයක් නොවී තිබේ.

එසේම පසුගිය පෙබරවාරි 22 වැනිදා (සිකුරාදා) ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව ස්වර්ණමහල් ෆයිනෑන්ෂියල් සර්විසස් පෞද්ගලික සමාගම මිලට ගත යුතු නැති බව දන්වා සුභාෂ්කරන් අලිරාජාට ලිපියක් යොමු කළේ ඇයි ද යන්න ජනාධිපතිවරයා එහිදී ප්‍රශ්න කර ඇති අතර එහිදී ද අදාළ පාර්ශ්වයන්ට නිහඬ වීම හැර අන් විකල්පයක් තිබී නැත.

මහ බැංකුව තැන්පත්කරුවන්ගේ දෘෂ්ටි කෝණයෙන් බලන්නේ නම් ස්වර්ණමහල් ෆයිනෑන්ෂියල් සර්විසස් සමාගම ඔවුන් අදාළ ගනුදෙනුවෙන් ඉවත් කර ගැනීමට කටයුතු කිරීම අතරම විශාල පරස්පරතාවක් පවතී.

එයින් පෙනී යන්නේ මහ බැංකුව මේ ගනුදෙනුව දෙස බලා ඇත්තේ තැන්පත්කරුවන්ගේ දෘෂ්ටිකෝණයෙන් නොව වෙනත් කෝණයකින් බවයි.

මේ අතර එදිරිසිංහ ට්‍රස්ට් ඉන්වෙස්ට්මන් ETI ආයතනයේ තැන්පත්කරුවන්ට කඩිනමින් සහන සැලැසීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව ඊයේ (26දා) පැවැති ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේදී ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් අවධාරණය කළ බව ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය අංශය නිකුත් කළ නිවේදනයක දැක්වේ.

ඊ.ටී.අයි. මූල්‍ය සමාගමේ වත්කම් අලෙවි කිරීමේ ගනුදෙනුව පිළිබඳ ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේ විශේෂ අවධානය යොමු කර ඇති අතර එම ගනුදෙනුව සලකා බැලූ ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාව විසින් ඒ සඳහා වූ නිර්දේශද ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති බවත් 2015 – 2018 කාලය තුළ දේශීය සමාගම් 2ක් සහ විදේශ සමාගමක් ඊ.ටී.අයි. සමාගම මිලදී ගැනීමට කැමැත්ත පළ කර ඇති නමුත් දේශීය සමාගම් සමඟ ප්‍රමාණවත් තරම් පාරදෘශ්‍යභාවයකින් කටයුතු කර තිබේ ද යන්න පිළිබ¼ද අපැහැදිලි බවත් ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේ අවධානයට ලක්වී ඇති බව ගනුදෙනුවේදී තැන්පත්කරුවන්ට ගෙවීම් සඳහා උපරිම මුදලක් ලබා ගැනීම පිණිස නිසි කේවල් කිරීමක් සිදු කළේ ද යන්න අපැහැදිලි බවත් එහිදී විශේෂයෙන් අවධානයට ලක් වූ බවත් ජනාධිපති මාධ්‍ය අංශය නිවේදනය සඳහන්ය.

තවද ඉදිරිපත් වූ එම සමාගම් 3ටම ලන්සු තැබීම සඳහා සමාන අවස්ථාවන් ලබා දුන්නේද යන්න අවිනිශ්චිත බවට ද ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේ නිරීක්‍ෂණයට ලක් වී ඇත.

අදාළ තැන්පත්කරුවන්ට සහන සැලසීම සඳහා එම සමාගමේ වත්කම් අලෙවි කිරීමේ ගනුදෙනුවක් ද මේ වන විට සිදුවන අතර එම ගනුදෙනුව පිළිබඳ මෙහිදී විමර්ශනයට ලක් වී ඇති බවද මේ වන විට ඊ.ටී.අයි. සමාගමේ තැන්පත්වලින් 20%ක් නැවත එම තැන්පත් කරුවන්ට ලබා දී තිබෙන බව ද තවත් 10%ක් නුදුරේදීම ලබා දිය හැකි වන බවටත් අපේක්‍ෂා කරන බව ද මහ බැංකුවේ අදහස වී තිබේ යැයි ද නිවේදනයේ දැක්වේ.

මේ අවස්ථාවට පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක, රාජිත සේනාරත්න, අර්ජුන රණතුංග, රිෂාඩ් බදුර්දීන්, දයා ගමගේ යන ඇමැතිවරු ද ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේ මහ ලේකම් මහාචාර්ය ලලිත් සමරකෝන්, මහ බැංකු අධිපති ආචාර්ය ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි මහත්වරුන් ඇතුළු පිරිසක් ද සහභාගි වී තිබේ.

ඊයේ (26දා) ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේදී මෙවැනි වාතාවරණයක් උද්ගත වෙද්දී පසුගිය වකවානුවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව ඊ.ටී.අයි. ගනුදෙනුව සම්බන්ධව විටින් විට මාධ්‍ය නිවේදන නිකුත් කරමින් පැවැසුවේ එම ගනුදෙනුව ඊ.ටී.අයි. ෆිනෑන්ස් ලිමිටඩ් ආයතනය සහ ගැනුම්කරුවන් අතර පවතින ගනුදෙනුවක් බවය. එසේ නම් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිදුකළ ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම්වලදී ජාතික ආර්ථික සභාවේ ඊට අදාළ සාමාජිකයන් නිරුත්තර වීම තුළ ඇත්තේ සැබෑ තත්ත්වය ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව වසන් කිරීමේ යථාර්ථය නොවේද?

එසේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව දිගින් දිගටම නිකුත් කළ නිවේදනවල සඳහන් කළේ ඔවුන් තැන්පත්කරුවන්ගේ දෘෂ්ටි කෝණයෙන් බලා මීට මැදිහත් වූ බවයි.

එය එසේ වූවා නම් අද වන විටත් මේ ගනුදෙනුව හරහා තැන්පත්කරුවන්ටම පමණක් ගැටලුවලට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවන්නේ කෙසේද?

මේ අතර ස්වර්ණමහල් ෆයිනෑන්ෂියල් සර්විසස් සමාගම මිලට ගත යුතු නැතැයි පවසා අලිරාජාට මහ බැංකුව ලිපියක් යැවූයේ ඇයිද යන්න බරපතළ ගැටලුවකි.

මහ බැංකුව 22දා මාධ්‍ය වෙත නිවේදනයක් එවමින් සිදු කළ පැහැදිලි කිරීමකදී පවසා ඇත්තේ එම ගැනුම්කාර සමාගම එක්සත් ජනපද ඩොලර් මිලියන 16ක මුදල 2018/10/25 වන දින මෙරට බැංකුවකට එවන ලද නමුත් මේ ගනුදෙනුව ගැන පැවැති අපැහැදිලි තත්ත්වයක් නිසා එම මුදල් ආපසු ගෙන්වා ගත් බවයි. එහෙත් එම මුදල මේ මස අවසන් වීමට පෙර නැවත එවීමට කටයුතු කරන බව දැනුම් දී ඇති බවද මහ බැංකුව එම පැහැදිලි කිරීමෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබිණි.

මේ සමාගම ගෙවිය යුතු මුදල් ගෙවීම පමා වීමට වක්‍රාකාරයෙන් මෙසේ සුදු හුනු ගෑමට පෙලඹෙන මහ බැංකුවට අද පෙබරවාරි 27 එනම් පෙබරවාරි මස අවසන් වීමට තව ඇත්තේ එක් දිනයක් බව අපි සිහිපත් කරන්නෙමු. මේ ගනුදෙනුව දෙස බැලීමේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව නිතරම ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 05ක් සඟවා ගෙවීමට පවතින්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 16ක් බව සඳහන් කළ අතර අප වෙත හෙළි වී ඇති තොරතුරු අනුව මේ ගනුදෙනුවට අදාළ ඩොලර් මිලියන 05ක මුදලක් මෙරට පිරිසක් අතර බෙදී ගොස් ඇති බව වාර්තා වේ.

එම ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 05න් ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 03ක මුදලක් ටොරින්ටන් ප්‍රදේශය ආශ්‍රිතව පදිංචි විශ්‍රාමික ප්‍රබල දේශපාලන චරිතයක් අතට පත්ව ඇති බවද හෙළි වී තිබේ.

ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 54ක් ගෙවීමෙන් පසුව එම ගැනුම්කාර සමාගම ගෙවිය යුතුව පවතින්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 16ක මුදලක් බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව පවසන අතරම එවැනි ගෙවීමක් කිරීමට තිබියදීම ඊ.ටී.අයි. ෆිනෑන්ස් සමාගමේ වත්කම් එම ගැනුම්කාර සමාගමට පවරා දී තිබේ. එහිදී එම වත්කම්වලින් උපයන මුදලින් ගෙවිය යුතු මුදල පියවීමට එම සමාගමට ඉඩ හසර වෙන්කරමින් ඔවුන් කෙරෙහි පවතින ළබැඳියාවේ ප්‍රමාණය සමාජයට මහ බැංකුව හෙළි කර තිබේ.

– mawbima

 ජයකාන්ත ලියනගේ lanka C news

දකුණු පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාගේ නියෝගයකට අනුව දරුවකු පාසලට ඇතුලත් කර නොගත් ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාවට වහාම ක්‍රීයාත්මක වන පරිදි දඩුවම් ස්ථාන මාරුවක් ලබා දී තිබෙන බව ගාල්ල කළාප අධ්‍යාපන කාර්යාලයට සම්බන්ධ ආරංචි මාර්ග සදහන් කරයි.

පන්තිකාමරයක සිටිය යුතු උපරිම ශිෂ්‍ය සංඛ්‍යාය ඉක්මවා සිසුන් බදවා ගැනීමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් තිබිය දී අධ්‍යාපන චක්‍රලේඛන උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් ගාල්ල ප්‍රදේශයේ ජනප්‍රියක පාසලකට ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාගේ රියදුරකුගේ දියණියක් මෙසේ ඇතුලත් කර ගැනීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරිම හේතුවෙන් ස්ථාන මාරුව ලබා දී තිබෙන බව දැන ගන්නට තිබේ.

ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකා එස් පි චන්ද්‍රවතී මහත්මියට ගාල්ල කලාපයේ සිට තංගල්ල කලාපයට  මෙම ස්ථාන මාරුව ලබා දී තිබේ. ඇය 2018 පෙබරවාරි 08 අම්බලන්ගොඩ කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව ලෙස සේවය කරමින් සිටිය දී  ගාල්ල අධ්‍යාපන කලාපයට ස්ථාන මාරුකර වසරක් ඉක්ම යෑමට මත්තෙන් මෙම ස්ථාන මාරුව ලබා දී තිබේ.

ගාල්ල, අනුලාදේවි බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයට සිය රියදුරකුගේ දරුවකු ඇතුලත් කර ගන්නා ලෙස දකුණූ පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා එම විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිනියට අවස්ථා කිහිපයක දීම දුරකථනයෙන් බලපෑම් කර ඇති බවත් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ චක්‍රලේඛනය අනුව කිසි සේත්ම එවැනි කටයුත්තක් තමන්ට සිදුකල නොහැකි බව විදුහල්පතිවරිය ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාට පවසා ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරියද දැනුවත් කර ඇත.

ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාගේ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරිමට හේතු වශයෙන් විදුහල්පතිවරිය ඔහුට පවසා ඇත්තේ අදාල ශ්‍රේණියට කිසිසේත්ම දරුවකු ඇතුලත් කර ගැනිමට නොහැකි බවයි. 10 වන ශ්‍රේණියේ කාණ්ඩ පන්ති කාමර 05 ක් තිබෙන බවත් එම සෑම පන්තියකම දරුවන් 52 බැගින් සිටින බවද ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාට විදුහල්පතිනිය පවසා ඇත.

පසුව ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාවටද මෙම දැනුම් දීම ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා විසින් කර තිබෙන අතර කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂිකාව, ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාටද මෙම තත්ත්වය දැනුම් දී ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කර ඇත. ඊට ටික දිනකට පසු ගාල්ල කළාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂවරිය තංගල්ල කොට්ඨාශයට ස්ථාන මාරු කරමින්  මෙම ස්ථාන මාරුව ලැබී ඇති අතර ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාගේ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීම මෙයට හේතු වී ඇතැයි ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන කාර්යාල සේවක සේවිකාවෝ ප්‍රකාශ කරති.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දකුණූ පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතාගෙන් කල විමසීමේදී මෙසේ පැවසීය.

ඔය කියන කාරණාව සම්පුර්ණ ඇත්ත. මම නියෝගයක් දුන්න එම පාසලට දරුවකු ඇතුලත් කර ගන්න කියල. ඊට හේතු රැසක් තිබෙනවා. එකක් තමයි, සීමාව ඉක්මවා පන්තිවලට දරුවන් ඇතුලත් කර ගැනිම බරපතල වරදක්. එවැනි වැරදි කරපු විදුහල්පතිනියට තවත් එක් සිසුවියක් ඇතුලත් කර ගැනිම සුඑ දෙයක්. ඒකයි මම බලපෑම් කලේ. එහෙම කලේ ජාතික ප්‍රතිප්තතියක් අනුව පන්තිකමරයක සිටිය යුතු සිසු දරු දැරියන් සංඛ්‍යාවේ සීමාව නියමිත ලෙස පවත්වාගෙන යාමට අවවාදයක් ලෙසයි. ඒවත් මාධ්‍යයෙන් හෙලි විය යුතුමයි. ඔය කියන පාසලේ විදුහල්පතිනියට මම අවස්ථා කිහිපයකදී ම කිව්ව මේ දරුව පාසලට ඇතුලත් කර ගන්න කියලා. එයා හැමදාම කලේ මුදලට දරුවන් ඇතුලත් කර ගැනිම. ඒ නිසා තමයි අල්ලස් දැලට කොටුවෙලා ඇයට නීතිය ඉදිරියටත් යන්නට සිදු වුණේ.

මෙම දරුවා එම පාසලට ඇතුලත් කර ගැනිම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරිම සහ විදුහල්පතිනියගේ ක්‍රියා කලාපය ගැන කියන්න මා ගාල්ල  කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව සහ පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම් ඇතුලු නිලධාරින් පිරිසක් මගේ කාර්යාලයට ගෙන්වාගෙන සියලු විස්තර පැවසුවා. පසුව කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව හරහා විදුහල්පතිනියට දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ලබා දී එම දරුවා ඇතුලත් කර ගන්නට කීවා. දරුවා සමඟ දරුවාගේ පියා ගියවිට තමුසෙ ආණ්ඩුකාරයා හමුවෙලා ඉහලින් දරුවෝ පාසලට දාගන්නයි, හදන්නෙ. අද නම් හමුවෙන්න බැහැ, දවස් දෙකකට පස්සෙ එන්නැයි සැරෙන් කියල එදා  ඒ තාත්තා ආපහු  එවල තිබුණා.

පන්තියක සිටිය යුතු සිසු දරුවන් සංඛ්‍යාව ගැන මා හොදින් දැනගෙන හිටියා. ඒ පාසලේ හැම පන්තියකම දරුවන් 50 කට වැඩි පිරිසක් අදටත් ඉන්නවා. ඒ වැඩිපුර ගන්න දරුවන් හැම කෙනාගෙන්ම මුදල් අරගෙන තිබෙන බව අධ්‍යාපන  නිලධාරින්ට මා කරුණු පහදා දුන්නා. මේ වැඬේ කරන්න අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්ට පැවරීමෙන් පසු ලේකම්වරයා හා පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකවරයා එම පාසලට යවා විදුහල්පතිනියට බලකර පන්තියේ නාමලේඛනයට එම ළමයාගේ නම ඇතුලත් කර සිසුවිය පාසලට ඇතුලත් කිරීමට දකුණූ පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා හැටියට මට සිදුවුනා. ඒකයි  ඇත්ත කතාව.

ඒක බලය අනිසි ලෙස පාවිච්චි කිරිමක් නොව, සිසු දරුවන් පාසලකට ඇතුලත් කර ගන්නා සීමාව ඉක්මවා කටයුතු කිරීමට පියවර ගත් විදුහල්පතිනියට පාඩමක් උගන්වා සෙසු විදුහල්පතිවරුන්ටත් එම පාසල්වල කටයුතු කරන ආකාරය ගැන තමන් හොද අවබෝධයකින් සිටින බවට උදාහරණයක් ලෙස පෙන්විමට මෙම පියවර ගත්තා යැයි කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පැවසීය.

විශේෂයෙන්ම තමන්ගේ වගකීමෙන් බැහැර වෙන්නට කිසිම නිලධාරිනියකුට බැහැ. හරියට ඒ වගකීම ඉටු කලානම් ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව ඒ ගැන දැන ගෙන ඉන්න ඕනෑ. ඔය කියන පාසලේ 10 වන ශ්‍රේණියේ එක් පන්තිකාමරයක සිසුවියන් 50 කට වැඩිය ඉන්න නිසයි, මම කිව්වේ තවත් ළමයෙක් ඇතුලත් කර ගන්න කියල. මේ දුර්වලකම් එක්කෙනෙකුගේ පිට පටවල වගකීමෙන් බැහැර වෙන්න බෑ කියල ගාල්ලේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව දැනගන්න ඕනෑ. තමන්ගෙ වගකීම නිසි ලෙස ඉටුකර නැති බව මේ කාරණාවෙන් පැහැදිලි නේද ?

ගාල්ල කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාව දක්ෂ නිලධාරිනියක්. ඒක මම හොදින් දන්නවා. අම්බලන්ගොඩ කලාපයේ ඉතා දක්ෂ ලෙස පරිපාලන කටයුතු කරල දරුවන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපන මට්ටම මෙන්ම ගුරු තුලන පරිපාලන මෙන්ම විශ්‍රාම ලේඛන වැටුප් වර්ධන නිසි ලෙස කඩිනමින් සකස් කරපු දක්ෂ නිලධාරිනියක් බව මම හොදින් දන්නවා. මෙතුමියට ස්ථාන මාරුවක් දීම  හෝ නොදීම පලාත් අධ්‍යාපන දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ වැඩක්. මා මේකට කිසිම සම්බන්ධයක් නැතැයි ද ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා වැඩි දුරටත් සදහන් කළේය.

මේ දක්ෂ නිලධාරිනියට ස්ථාන මාරුවක් ලැබෙන්නේ දුර්වලතා බොහොමයක් ඇති අධ්‍යාපන කලාපයකට. ඒකෙ තිබෙන පාසල්වල වැඩ කටයුතු බොහොමයක් අඩාල වෙලා. පරිපාලන කටයුතු ශක්තිමත්ව කරගෙන යන්න දක්ෂ නිලධාරිනියක් ලෙස තංගල්ල කලාපයට දැනට ගාල්ලේ සිටින මෙම  කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්‍ෂිකාවට ස්ථාන මාරුවක් ලබා දීමේ අසාධාරණයක් නැති බවද දකුණු පළාත් ආණ්ඩුකාර කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා සදහන් කළේය.

Sri Lanka NGO News

According to the sources from the regional education office, the regional Director of Education of Galle has been transferred with immediate effect by the Governor of the Southern Province, for refusing to accept his  undue influence to get his driver’s daughter admitted to the school.

It has been revealed that a daughter of the Governor’s driver was refused admission to a popular school in Galle due to possible violation of educational circulars which limits the maximum number of students in the class. Despite,  the anti-corruption kingpin who became a Southern Governor was still insisting on accepting the child to the school.

Consequently. the Galle Regional  Director of Education, Sajith Chandrawathi was transferred from the Galle district to the Tangalle district within a year since she was appointed to the Galle Education district only  on February 08, 2018,

The Report says many occasions the governor had been trying to influence the Principal of the school over the phone and exerted undue pressure to get his driver’s daughter admitted to the school but the Principal has point blankly refused his request on the basis of the circular issued by the department of education which limits the maximum number of students to 52 for each class.

In response to a query the Southern Province Governor Keerthi Tennakoon, said this allegation is totally true. I ordered that the child should  be admitted to the school. There are many reasons. One is that it is a serious mistake to include children in excess of the limit. But once the limit  is exceeded inclusion of one more student to such a class is not a wrongdoing. That’s why I pressed.

By: Paul Goble Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 16 Issue: 26

One of Vladimir Putin’s earliest proposed mega-projects—first announced on September 12, 2000—calls for the creation of a North-South transportation corridor linking Russia with the Caspian littoral states, including Iran, as well as India and Sri Lanka. Such a transit network would permit these countries to bypass the Suez Canal on the way to Europe and could become the basis for expanded Russian influence in Central and South Asia. But over the intervening 18 years, this project, like many others championed by Putin, has remained largely unfulfilled. The stumbling blocks to its realizations have included conflicts of interest among the countries it intends to unite along with the failure to complete a central link for this corridor—the railway line from Russia through Azerbaijan to Iran. Furthermore, it has been overshadowed by simultaneous efforts (Russian, Chinese and European) to develop an East-West corridor between the Pacific Rim states and Europe.

Nonetheless, there are now signs that Moscow may be once again turning to this project and that it is finding a more positive response among the other countries that would have to be involved if it is to become a success. First of all, the agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea by its littoral states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran), signed last year, has reduced many of the tensions that existed among them and made possible an expansion of Russian influence not only on the sea itself but also in the coastal countries. In turn, this has opened the way for greater cooperation between Moscow, Ashgabat, Baku and Tehran in particular for developing rail and highways that could support a North-South corridor (Politexpert.net, February 23, 2019; Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com and, December 5, 2018).

Moreover, Western sanctions on Russia—and China’s unwillingness to challenge many of them—have made trade and expanded political relations with other outcast countries like Iran even more important to Moscow. As a result, Tehran is now seeking $5 billion in credits from Moscow to develop its links to Russia’s proposed corridor, a request that Russia appears likely to meet (Moscow-baku.ru, February 20, 2019). One indication of this new tilt to the south is that the North-South corridor is now being listed as one of the 13 top priorities of the Russian government, a dramatic change from most of the last decade, when it was not mentioned at all (Moskovsky Komsomoloets, February 24).

And perhaps most importantly, as far as Russia’s policies are concerned, Moscow is showing that it views the North-South corridor as integral to its involvement in the East-West one. Not only could the former be used as an extension of the latter, but such a combined approach gives the Russian authorities more options and leverage in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Notably, these two Caspian countries are heavily invested in East–West oil and natural gas flows that Europe is interested in; but those flows could turn more in Russia’s direction if the North-South corridor becomes a reality. And if those Caspian-basin energy exports increasingly start passing via Russian territory, this would allow Moscow to undercut the West’s influence in these two countries as well as other parts of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Toward that goal, Russia—with Turkmenistan’s now-enthusiastic support—is actively promoting the first Caspian economic forum to be held in Ashgabat in August. The event is slated to focus on the development of transportation networks through and around the Caspian, including not just the East-West transit of hydrocarbons but the North-South corridor. The latter, importantly, will carry many other types of goods between these countries and Russia, thus helping Moscow to maintain or even expand its influence in the region (Trend.az, February 26).

All this has led Russian commentators to suggest that the completion of the North-South corridor is likely to be fast tracked in the coming months and reemerge as an important part of Russia’s geo-economic and geopolitical policies (Casp-geo.ru, February 22). But the proximate cause of this boomlet” of attention may not be from the above-mentioned trends, all of which have been the subject of off-and-on discussions in Moscow and the capitals along the North-South route. Rather it is due to the increased attention this development is now receiving from another quarter—India. In early February, Indian media reported that Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding with Moscow to put the development of infrastructure for the North-South corridor on an accelerated basis, with India providing much of the funding (India Times, February 5).

That would give India certain advantages relative to its competitor China and might even shift the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean littoral. Iran has already reacted: A week ago, its parliament voted to expand cooperation with Russia in a variety of areas, including nuclear energy, railroads and highways, pipelines and its Caspian port of Enzeli. All these transit links and strategic infrastructure elements can help push forward the completion of the long-talked-about North-South corridor project (Iran.ru, February 19).

Of course, given how many players are involved, the difficulties of reaching agreements among them and then implementing those agreements, the possibility remains that all of this will fall apart before it is realized. But there is enough movement now, after a long period of neglect, that none of the major powers can afford to ignore the chance that the North-South corridor will be completed at last, with all the economic and political consequences that could have (see EDM, April 24, 2017; August 1, 2017; November 9, 2017).

President tells why Bond Scam perpetrators can’t be punished (English)

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka plans to issue free visa for several selected countries in a bid to attract tourists while this proposal has received Cabinet approval.

The government says that it has been observed that there is a significant drop in tourist arrivals during the period from April to October compared to other months of the year.

However, Sri Lanka is planning on attracting more Buddhist tourists as there are a host of religious and cultural events such as Vesak and Poson festivals as well as Esala Perahera during the period from May to August.

Buddhist countries such as Thailand use a similar method in order to attract Buddhist tourists, the statement said.

Considering this situation, it was proposed to issue visas free of charge for tourists from Thailand for a period of 6 months from April 01, 2019 aimed at increasing the number of arrivals within this period.

Minister of Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs John Amaratunga had presented a proposal to also provide this facility to tourists from countries of the EU, the UK, Australia, South Korea, Canada, USA, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.

The proposal has been granted approval by the Cabinet of Ministers.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 13.3.19

A huge government apparatus has been created to deliver the Tamil language to a reluctant and disinterested population.  An Official Languages Commission was established in 1991 by the Official Languages Commission Act No. 18 of 1991.  The Commission is composed of six members, of whom only the Chairman serves in a full-time capacity.  The Commissioner of the Official Languages Department is Secretary to the Commission.

The Commission has four objectives. The first objective is to recommend principles of policy on the use of the official languages and to monitor and supervise compliance with the provisions of the Constitution on language in Chapter IV of the 1978 Constitution. Secondly, to take all such actions and measures as are necessary to use the official languages (Sinhala and Tamil) and the link language (English) in accordance with the spirit and intent of Chapter IV. Thirdly to promote the appreciation of the official languages in regard to their status, equality and right of use (i.e. awareness creation). Fourthly, to conduct investigations in regard to complaints on violations of language rights and take remedial action.

The Commission can do ‘all such other things’ necessary for the attainment of the objectives of the Commission. This includes initiating reviews of any regulations, directives, or administrative practices which affect the language policy and commissioning studies and policy papers.

The Department of Official Languages, established in 1956 to implement the Official Language Act No.33 of 1956.  was thereafter given the task of implementing the 1978 language policy. The Commissioner of Official Languages is the   head of the Department. The Department had to improve the language skills of government servants, provide translation services to the government, and compile glossaries, language textbooks and dictionaries. A Language School was set up in 1998 in the Department with Norwegian Aid, in conjunction with the National Integration Project of the Ministry of Justice. This school was to conduct advanced courses in English, Tamil and Sinhala. However, in October 1998 the Department advertised recruitment for the advanced English/Tamil courses only.

Around 2008, the Official Languages Commission had recommended   restructuring the Official Languages Department to become primary institution for accelerated language training of public officers. The Department should henceforth have four main tasks, i. language training in Sinhala, Tamil and English ii. training in languages of smaller linguistic minorities such as Malay and Malayalam, and languages useful for employment inside and outside of Sri Lanka iii. official translations and iv. compilation of glossaries directly related to law and public administration. the Department should become a statutory institution enjoying a degree of autonomy from government and be recast as a national languages institution. It  should also be the designated authority  for of glossaries, dictionaries and standardization of terminology.

National Institute of Language Education and Training (NILET) was established by Act No 26 of 2007 to help implement the Trilingual Policy, by training language teachers to teach Sinhala/ Tamil/ English languages.  The Institute conducts teacher training courses, island wide. A residential institute for language training was set up in Agalawatte for training trainers and creating trilingual public officers. This Training Centre had a 250   seat auditorium, a language lab for 30, and a hostel for 60.

The Institute offers certificate and Diploma courses on teaching the second language. It has drawn up syllabuses for teaching Sinhala, Tamil, English.  Special programs and training courses for public officers were drawn up, including part time and short term 12 day training courses. The Institute broadcasts Language Training programs on 08 radio channels. It also conducts language training courses in Sinhala, Tamil and English for translators, interpreters and stenographers.

The Official Languages Commission, The Department of Official Languages and National Institute of Language Education and Training are today under the Ministry of National integration and Official languages .

This Ministry is busily at work, to create a trilingual society in Sri Lanka .The annual report for 2016 records its activities. To start with, this Ministry has a ‘Policy Development Division’ which is engaged in   formulating language policies. These policies are intended to create the necessary environment for bilingualisation of the public service, to empower the public with regard to implementation of the Official Languages Policy and to   establish a positive mindset among the public on popularizing and promotion of languages.

Bilingual Facilitation Cells have been set up in all 72 bilingual Divisional Secretariats in order to provide a service to the public in the language of their preference.  There is also a Trilingual dictionary which is online.

The Ministry has also initiated ‘Language Plans.’  Work has started on language plans of the following five Ministries, Justice, Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media, Home Affairs, Public Administration and Management, Law and Order and Prison Reforms. Language plans are also in preparation for 24 District Secretariats. Model language plans and trained language plan officers are available for this task.

The Ministry has initiated Awareness creation programmes” for Government institutions, to create awareness of the Official Languages Policy and the services offered by the Ministry. These programmes were intended to create awareness about the responsibility of public officers in implementing the official language policy. The legal aspect was not forgotten.

They were made aware of the circulars related to the Official Languages Policy, their       responsibility in defending the language rights of public. The problems these officers faced in implementing the Official Languages Policy were discussed and solutions provided. Specific awareness creation programmes were provided for public officers in identified fields. Awareness creation programmes were held in 18 DS areas in 2016.

Language Promotion Circles” were established by the Official Languages Commission in order to create a trilingual public service in Sri Lanka by developing the knowledge, attitudes and understanding of school children regarding the language policy. Ministry of Education issued Circular No. 01/2015 with regard establishment of Language Promotion Circles in schools. In terms of this circular, schools have to carry out specific activities such as displaying all boards within school in trilingual, preparing invitation for ceremonies in trilingual. Commission expects to establish Language Promotion Circles in the schools Island wide.

The Official Languages Department continues to train and examine public officers. In 2016, training programmes were provided at  the Divisional Secretariats of  Arachchikattuwa, Aturaliya, Badulla,Elpitiya, Gampaha, Gampola, Kebithigollewa, Kegalle, Kurunegala,  onaragala,Nochchyagama,Ratnapura,Ruwanwella,Tamankaduwa, Tawalama,  Ukuluwa and Welikanda. Also Polonnaruwa general Hospital. The courses were all for Tamil language.

The Official Language Department conducts written and oral tests for language proficiency of government servants. The result sheet is made available. Listening tests via modern facilities were conducted in the office premises. Oral tests, based on the results of the listening tests, have been held at provincial level.

10,000 Spoken Tamil Books and 5000 Written Tamil Books were printed in2016. 5000 Tamil Books –Level I and 9775 Tamil Books –level II were also printed for the Language Proficiency Examination for Government Servants. As well as 8 textbooks for Sinhala and Tamil Language learning in schools.

In order to give a helping hand in writing official letters in the government institutions, a book called Rajakari Lipi Sampaadanayata Athwelak” has been published giving the mistakes that should be avoided in writing official letters.

There is a special focus on Police and railway officers. Police officers were given awareness programmes. A four day’s training course ws given for 35 announcers in the Department of Railway.  Complaints have been received from time to time by Official Languages Commission that the announcements are not done in trilingual and therefore a training course on trilingual announcements was conducted after having several discussions with officers in the Department of Railway.

Language audits are conducted by the Official Languages Commission to   see whether the language provisions are carried out by bilingual Divisional Secretariats and Police Stations. The objective was to support the language rights of public via proper implementation of the Official Languages Policy in Government institutions. In these language audits,  the use of official languages is physically checked and recommendations with regard to non-compliancesare issued to the  head of the institution and a follow up done. Forty four language audits were conducted by Official Languages Commission in 2016. 16 DS and14 police stations were examined.

The Language audit looked at the following to see whether the trilingual policy as followed:  i. All boards displayed for public within premises of the institution (name boards, information boards, instruction board) ii. All documents used for public service iii.Awareness with regard to the official languages policy iv.  Communication ability of officers v. Sinhala/Tamil language training courses vi. Language proficiency of officers vii.Special matters relevant to the institution (E.g.: recording complaints at Police Stations, issuing certificates in official languages at the office of Births/Marriages/Deaths Registrar).

Official Languages Commission was also expected to investigate public complaints; this was one of its ‘key tasks.’ One hundred thirty three complaints were received by Commission in 2016. The annual report gave two examples.  A complaint received with regard to the name boards pertain torules of lanes displayed for public by Colombo Traffic Police Division were only in Sinhala and English languages and this was inquired from the Inspector General of Police. The relevant boards have been prepared in trilingual and displayed for public. Spellings of the digital name board in Colombo Fort Railway station were incorrect and it has been corrected.  (continued)

By Chandre Dharmawardana

Some  technicians dressed like surgeons in an operating theater are working in a vast tower sealed from the environment. It is full of hydroponic shelves, lights, pumps and small robots  controlled by  clusters of computers. This is  ultra high-tech  agriculture (UHTA). We are in a modern agro-factory tower that has replaced the farm with its soil, pests, pesticides, droughts and floods. Inspired by space agro-technology, it has no soil. It  uses  95% LESS WATER than conventional high-intensity agriculture (HIA) popularized by the Green Revolution”.

This is not science fiction (see figure).  Such  commercial UHT plants supply the markets since 2004 in New Jersy, USA. Similar agro-plants are being set up right inside city centers, within minutes to local markets, cutting transportation and warehousing.

When low-intensity agriculture (LIA), e.g.,organic agriculture (OA) or traditional agriculture  had reached the end of their tether, and when the world was at the brink of huge famines, HIA with its green revolution rescued the world. Now the green revolution itself is old technology, and a new UHT revolution is dawning, not only to feed the humans, but also to rescue the threat to the environment caused by the phenomenal  human assault on the ecosystem.

AVERTING THE HUMAN-MADE MASS EXTINCTION.

In a previous article (Lankaweb: https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2019/02/19/how-a-menaced-humanity-facing-a-threatened-environment-turns-to-ludicrous-remedies/ or Island 19-02-2019) we examined how a menaced humanity facing a threatened environment foolishly  turns to ludicrous remedies based on going back to an imagined glorious past of plenty”  using  traditional farming or organic agriculture. In reality, such technologies failed to feed the masses even in ancient times, when the populations were small.   In Sri Lanka, even if all the tea, rubber and coconut lands could be converted to paddy fields, the Organic Agriculture harvests would still leave 75% of Sri Lankans starving.

Populations in developing countries increased by a factor of five since WWII, vastly encroaching  wilderness habitat and  triggering a man-made mass extinction of species, further aggravated by agrochemical overuse. In this they merely joined the developed countries that pushed the industrial revolution using the wealth created  by slavery that set up  vast monoculture of crops that assaulted  the ecosystem.

In Sri Lanka, some 600K hectares are under tea cultivation, (http://www.statistics.gov.lk/agriculture/tea/all.pdf),  about 600K under paddy,, and another 600K are used for rubber and coconut taken together. Forest cover had taken devastating hits with each giant irrigation and ‘colonization’ scheme starting from GalOya. The destruction of  Sri Lankan wild elephants by their loss of  habitat due to these ‘colonization schemes’ is merely the tip of the iceberg. Similarly, Europe is reeling from a rapid and disastrous loss of species,  wild bees and other pollinating insects. This is  mainly due to habitat loss and possibly to  increased use of pesticides like neo-nicotinoids.

Given the magnitude of the problem, it is imperative to reclaim the wilderness habitat for Nature. The HIA-green-revolution  enabled us to use 1/5th the land and water for feeding compared to traditional agriculture (enabling us to feed fives times many mouths).  The new UHTA is already capable of reducing  the needed land extend to a mere 1/500 of HIA, and 1/2500 of organic agriculture.  All the 600,000 hectare of paddy can be eventually reduced to 1200 hectares of  grow towers.   All the tea plantations can be eventually replaced by  a few hundred grow towers clustered around an airport for direct export. All the tea land can be returned to jungle.

Grow-towers are cut of from the environment and cause no negative effects. As the amounts of light, humidity and temperature inside the agro-towers  are internally controlled, weather and seasons are irrelevant to its agriculture. Pests or weeds cannot enter the structure; so no pesticides are used. While conventional agriculture (CA) has an output of 5-10 times that of  organic agriculture (OA), experimental UHT plants have achieved 400 times more output than CA and perhaps 2000-3000  times more harvest than OA for the same amount of water and land use. These bumper harvests ensure competitive prices. The  products grown without soil are cleaner than from OA crops that  bio-accumulate toxins usually present in most soils.

Phenomics is the study of all observable characteristics of an organism. These characteristics (phenotypes) associated with a plant, such as the chemistry, color, genetic code, size, and so on. At AeroFarms Dr. April Caroll  determines growth  algorithms for plants growing  under computer control. These farmers – the likes of Dr Caroll  form  a  team of high-tech scientists drawn from artificial intelligence to molecular biology and plant physiology.

While some 400 plant types have been successfully tested, one may ask, how can you grow fruits and plants which need pollination?  While the green-revolution HIA used hybrid seeds, today we can redesign  whole plants and insects. Captive bumble bees and other pollinator insects, genetically modified or  not, may be used inside dedicated grow towers to pollinate tomatoes or blue berries. The possibilities are endless.

Nevertheless, many intermediate models that straddle the full indoor growth towers and the high-tech outdoor farms will be the norm for a decade. French vineyards are already experimenting with drone-controlled robotic farming. The robots are like little rovers designed for the exploration of Mars, equipped with sensors that  test the soil nutrients,  microorganisms  etc. at each plant  and spurt out the optimal amounts of moisture, salts, pesticides, or organic matter as needed. Such vineyards, controlled by artificial-intelligence algorithms based on phenomics  use less than a hundredth of  the agrochemicals usually employed.  These outdoor farms need to get away from being single-crop monocultures.

STUMBLING BLOCKS.

However, there are significant stumbling blocks to adopting UHTA.

1. Public Fear of agri-foods.

The public is frightened by technology.  Modern Luddites have re-named the foods from biotechnology and genetic engineering to be Frankenfoods”. In India where the green-revolution took successful root, Vanadana Shiva and her likes have become street-heroes fighting” agrochemical multinationals and GM foods. They  prevented the introduction of golden rice”, a rice that  carries a Vitamin -A gene from carrots, thereby preventing blindness among millions who take simple rice diets. Golden rice was not made by multinationals, but by Indian scientists  using minimal genetic manipulation. And yet  false propaganda against it succeeded. A public that has been happily eating North American GM soya for decades banned GM golden rice!

In Sri Lanka,  France or California we have a glyphosate saga” illustrating how  public fear translates into irrational actions against a very safe herbicide. It is probably the only substance whose safety has been checked continuously and rigorously for roughly a quarter century on nearly 90,000 members of farming communities (US govt. Health study, Andreotti et al., 2017). These farmers  used glyphosate intensely, and without adverse health effects when compared to the general public.

The public is completely lacking in a quantitative sense of the order of magnitude of hazards and healh risks. For instance, French consumers refuse to believe that the alcohol in wine is a WHO-classified class-I toxin. It is  present at 10% level, but legislate against glyphosate  present at 0.0000001% level! Glyhosate is only a class-II (PROBABLE) hazard similar to that of desinfectant soaps, while class-I toxins like alcohol  are  CERTAIN  hazards..

However, when famine looms near,  as it must when current agricultural technology gets over-whelmed, such public opposition will evaporate. Politicians will rally to it,  and the new designer crops and UHTA will find its place just as the green-revolution-HIA was accepted by India against the opposition of many local lobbies.

1. Increased Energy Needs.

Another big hurdle that UHT agriculture will face is its energy needs. While increased-efficiency solar panels will help, the environmentally cleanest and cheapest source is  from new  nuclear plants. Conventional nuclear reactors cost  $7 billion or more.  But modern mini-reactors with little or no moving parts are much cheaper and meet high standards of safety (Science, vol. 363, issue 6429, p 806, 2019).  Nuclear is already the largest source of zero-carbon energy in the Western world, and the second-largest source worldwide (after hydro-power). Developing nuclear power is essential to avert global warming and also to power new UHT agricultural systems.  Besides the existing 450 reactors, some 70 new nuclear plants are under construction, mostly in China.

The public fears nuclear energy, but a comparison of the death-print” from different energy sources shows it  to be the safest although a high hazard. The death-print” is the number of people killed per unit of energy (say, per trillion kWH). Coal is the worst, and nuclear is  the best even after including the death toll from uranium mining and all accidents and not just the spectacular ones like Fukushima.  Using WHO and other data, the death-print figures are:  coal (170,000), oil (36,000), Biomass (24,000), Natural gas (4,000), hydro (1,400), solar (440),  and nuclear (90).

A major problem for the nuclear industry is its  hazardous radio-active waste products. These contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The lasting solution to this is the BREEDER reactor.  These  burn nuclear waste to produce a final non-radioactive product like lead. France was the initial leader, but its socialist government shut the research decades ago, under pressure from the anti-nuclear Green lobby. Today, only five or six are operating: three in Russia, one each in China, India and USA.

These  4^th generation  nuclear reactor are economical, safe,  produces negligible waste matter, terrorist proof and avoid nuclear proliferation. The present author favours the duel-fluid reactor (DFR) designs (see Figure) where the nuclear fuel is input as a molten salt, while the coolant is a liquid metal (e.g., lead). Such reactors using thorium is an attractive possibility for  Sri Lanka that  has thorium-rich monozite sands. After the initial start up, depending on neutron economy and fuel mixture, DFR will produce its own fissile fuel!

The needed technology can be transferred to Sri Lanka  via a  partner nation. In comparison, oil exploration in the Palk Straits is very disadvantageous to a small country not only because of irreparable oil-spill accidents, but also because oil  is a magnet for powerful countries that subjugate small countries for their oil. We see this in the Middle East, Nigeria and Latin America.

1. Fear of loss of employment.

Each wave of technology, especially in labour intensive sectors like agriculture poses the specter of unemployment. But as jobs disappear, many new jobs are created, although at a higher technical level.  Productive societies can afford to pay a universal basic salary to everyone irrespective of employment, as envisaged in some rich Nordic countries.

IMMEDIATE STEPS TO AVERT ECOLOGICAL DISASTER.

While cutting-edge energy and agricultural solutions are being implemented,  immediate steps to avert tragedy are also needed. We cannot go back to traditional farming, or to cherished  Gama-Weva-Pansala” (Village-Reservoir-Temple ) aka Panchayat” models because such models imply massive habitat encroachment and low prosperity.

Some essential steps to be immediately implemented are:

1. Reduction of habitat loss and diversification of monocultures.

Protecting biodiversity requires  preventing  habitat loss and giving land back to nature.  All homesteads, farmers and plantations should convert 10-15% of their land  to manged  wilderness.  Wilderness belts should be linked to larger conservation  areas. Highways need  underpasses for  animal crossings, linking ecological areas.  Low-intensity farmland should be returned to jungle. Urban sprawl should be shrunk into dense high-rise living.

2. Facing climate change

If  governments execute the minimum proposals of  climate summits, there is indeed a chance to avert famines, inundations by the sea,  irreversible damage to the ice caps, Himalayas and  environmental hot spots.  Moving away from meat, diary, and organic foods is essential for the reduction of green house gases. The production of meat or milk needs much pasture lands, water, and release greenhouse gases (GG). Organic farming increases GG  and causes soil erosion.

Air travel produces a lot of garbage, unrecyclable plastic  and  GG. Air transport should be replaced by ultra-fast electric trains moving close to supersonic speeds.

3. Recycling to reduce environmental impact, & educating the public.

Burning of plastics and  toxic garbage etc have to be controlled, and proper waste management and clean air and water management  should be a top priority. Education  about ecosystems should begin in schools itself, but it run the risk of hijacking by lobby groups (like Organic food  vendors), NGOs pushing some agenda, and even politically powerful Psychics peddling, say, God Natha. Hence curricula needs  tight control  by  academic and professional bodies.

4. Alternative energies.

The shift away from fossil fuels to alternatives, boosting nuclear energy are a must. Irrigation projects with no concern for the total ecology should be stopped. Solar panels and wind turbines should not compete with the habitat for flora and fauna.

5. Maximum use of modern agriculture and biotechnology.

Scientific agriculture drawing from the very frontier of knowledge, and not going back to the past is essential to minimize the use of land and water.  Unwanted entry of agrochemicals into the eco-sphere should be controlled using WHO guidelines. Where there is doubt about safety, the precautionary principle of constraint and control” rather than the method of ban and banish”, should be used.

6. Enforcement of environmental legislation.

In Sri Lanka there are strict environmental laws. Unfortunately, they seem to be  quite irrelevant to all sorts of  favoured companies or individuals  backed by politicians. So the rule of law must be enforced.

In conclusion,  optimism, cutting-edge technology based on good science, and the fight against fake science are the essential winning factor in  the battle to safeguard the ecosystem