BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

When I was talking to many Sri Lankan people who are living in overseas and in Sri Lanka, they clearly expressed that the country is in a dogmatic situation, that unable to identify the priorities. Politic in Sri Lanka has given priorities for talking rubbish points of Machiavellian practices of political parties with a view to covering up major economic issues of the country. Sri Lanka has serious fundamental economic problems, which should be solved by effective measures with a strong policy monitoring process.  When we observe the past policy implementation process since independence, it seems that people of Sri Lanka have caught to a trap in which nature is for talking on unnecessary politic without identifying the priorities and politicians in the country use the unnecessary politic for their survival.

Last Sunday I read a highly interested and significant interview with Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa in web page www.lankacnews.com. I really appreciate the vision of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa toward the future of Sri Lanka. He has a clear vision and policy directions what should do to uplift the economic, social, political, cultural and technological status of the country.  I cannot assess how far Sri Lankans understand his vision and mission.  Historically, Gotabaya was the youngest of three brothers Sangatissa, Sanga bodhi, and Gotabaya, who was also the Grandfather of King Dutugemunu, but he was a cunning strategist and we are not concerned about the past family matters.  Current Gotabaya is living human with an active vision.  Sri Lankans must read this interview and understand what is needed to the country.

Economic development and growth must be the priority of Sri Lanka than any other issues.  The government, media, people and various agencies working in the country need to give priority for requirements of economic development and growth-related policies and how they could be effectively used in the country.  If they seem to be failed, what is an essential remedy to work policy with a view to achieving targets.

In many democratic countries, it appears that politicians use unnecessary issues to cover up the failures, Republic issue in Australia, Brexit issue in the UK are some examples.  When Marxist political parties such as JVP, LSSP, and CP were playing politics with trade unions and lower income earners in the country, Mr. J.R. Jayewardene identified the major economic issues in the country and introduced market economic policy, which positively impact on the rural economy giving a right price to their products and services and accelerated economic development through integrated district development, accelerated Mahaweli project and many others.  He clearly identified that authoritative leadership (executive presidency) will be useful to tackle many problems of the country.  He identified divisive, selfish and harmful attitudes of Tamil politicians and understood that Sinhala population of Sri Lanka would be increased to 80% of the total and the north and east should not be merged restricting Sinhala population moving to the east where more lands are available to absorb increasing Sinhala population.

Mr. Premadasa as president faced to twofold terrorism, one from LTTE in the North and JVP from the south.  While facing to terrorism, he had a priority to eliminate poverty at rural level and identified two vital strategies, one was providing financial support for poor to survive and expanding economic activities in rural areas for income redistribution and balanced growth.  Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga had not specific priories rather than an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the war situation, however, her Western align mentality was not in success to identify the right strategy for economic development and growth.  As an executive president, she was reluctant to sacrifice the authoritative political power and to remove economic disparities between rural and urban Sri Lanka.

Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa gave priorities to eliminate was highly successful and was active in upgrading rural infrastructure and empowering regional people through effective policies to skilling the nation.  Despite his positive policy actions, he was unable to work for wiping out corruptions originated since the 1970s and broadened during the wartime.  As a result, he was unpopular in urban and semi-urban areas and had some difficulties identifying priorities in post-war situation.

Yahapalanaya misjudged the society and associated with people, who were behind unrealistic Marxist ideology who were failed in politics and lived in rhetorical utopian Marxist State in the market system generated in the liberal democratic environment and secretly involved in mega corruption deals creating massive problems for economic development and growth.  They attempted to concentrate on unnecessary issues such as making new constitution but fully ignored the eliminating the major constraint to build the national integration by possible discrimination among communities and making a cultural design for the country.  The cultural design is the strategic secret of Western countries to unit nations and stimulates economic development and growth.  Yahapalanaya through constitutional amendments destroyed the abilities of Mr. Sirisena and the environment created by so-called Yahapalanaya prevented giving priorities for economic development and growth and modernization as Mr. Sirisena had to give the role to the parliament which consists of members lacking knowledge, skills, experience, qualities, but with desires of undue enrichment.  At last Mr. Sirisena identified problems, it was late.

People who learned Japanese economic history know that attitudes of people on modernization contributed to building a strong Japan.  During the Tokugawa period people were ready to sacrifice and Meiji restoration established the idea of modernization and changed the attitudes of people and Mr Isaku Sato gave authoritative political leadership for economic development and growth.

To give priorities for economic development and growth, Sri Lanka needs an authoritative political leadership with a clear vision. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has excellent ideas and vision for modernization and growth.  His idea must go to people at the regional level.

Buddhism and Sanga have monumental strength in Sri Lanka, which should be used to achieve economic development and growth with developing the vision of modernization with people of Sri Lanka.

By Charles S.Perera

The Maha Sangha Rathnaya of the three Nikaya, the Majority of the Sinhala Buddhists and according to Bishop Rev. Malcolm Ranjith the Catholics of Sri Lanka do not want a new Constitution. Then who is it who wants a Constitution for Sri Lanka ?

Of all things that have to be done in Sri Lanka- Sri Lanka which is on the verge of facing an enormous  economic, social and political calamity which would erupt to blow up the very existence of Sri Lanka, and the worst natural disasters one following the other such as the severe droughts,  several floods that ruined the country and left people dead and homeless,  and today  which it faces the worst of all disasters  the  fall army worm which is spreading fast  destroying all agricultural plants from corn to rice, and perhaps attack the tea plantations as well, why a new Constitution ?

However,  Ranil Wickramasinghe like Nero  who played his violin while Rome was burning, seems to be unaffected  by all the dangers  the country is facing, and averse to opposition raised by the venerable Monks and reverend  Bishop, seems to be  going ahead unconcerned with his effort to realise  his Presidential dream by giving a Federal Constitution written and approved by Sumanthiran and his lawyers  of the Tamil Diaspora.

Abraham Sumanthiran of TNA, who is taking a greater interest in passing the new Constitution for the benefit of the Tamils is  in fact not even a real Hindu Tamil, but a low caste Christian Tamil. It is said that only  the low caste Tamils became Christians as they were not even allowed to go to a Hindu Kovil or recite Sanscrit Slokas.

It is  all these half Tamils that wants Sri Lanka divided.  Chelvanayagam who proposed Federalism was a Christian too.  And the present Governor of Northern Province Suren Raghaven who is against Buddhisisation (as he calls) of North is also a Christian.  Wignesvaran the mad reired Judge is however living with bats in his belfry.  But the Sri Lanka Judges are however seem to be influenced by Christianity and Evangelical Church of America which is behind Ranil Wickramasinghe  and Rosy Senanayake.

Perhaps  even those  judges who denied the people of Sri Lanka their democratic right of using their vote at an election to change the disaster of being ruled by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe  also belonged, if not influenced by the Evengelical Churches in Colombo , helped Ranil to get re appointed as the Prime Minister.

A new Constitution is not essential for Sri Lanka specially under the Primiership of Ranil Wickramasinghe, who has proved himself to the people of Sri Lanka, as the most unreliable , untrustworthy politician who had thrice  in recent time taken  measures on his own to ruin Sri Lanka.

The first was as the Prime Minister of President Chandrika Kumaratunga when he signed  the CFA with the terrorist leader Prabhakaran, mediated by Solheim of Norway which allowed the terrorists to have  in the  North  areas under their control, allowing them to visit any part of the country, provided they did not carry guns ,  but not allowing any Government Official to enter the territories under the control of the terrorists.

The second betrayal of Sri Lanka was as the Prime Minister under President Maithripala Sirisena when he allowed a non citizen to be appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank and through him robbed Billions of rupees  from the Central Bank under a Bond scam.

The third betrayal is getting the Sri Lanka judiciary to stop the dissolution of Parliament  and got himself reappointed as the Prime Minister now  making all efforts to pass a Constitution prepared by the pro terrorists Tamils selling the rights of the Sinhala Buddhist majority of the Country for ever. Ranil Wickramasinghe as Prime Minister is helping Sumanthiran and Sambandan of  TNA to fulfil the dream of Prabhakaran.

A  Constitution of a Country is written by its indigenous majority population. No country gets its minority Community to write a Constitution for the Nation.

More over in the present exercise of preparing a new Constitution, Ranil’s government is not a popular government of the people elected by them, but a government usurped from the rightful people by a judicial manoeuvre. Therefore it  has no moral or legal right to prepare a Constitution for the Country.

Furthermore, the persons involved in writing the so called Constitution for the country are not trust worthy individuals. They are all in some way or other people with a criminal background. Ranil Wikramasinghe had been accused for maintaining torture camps in Batalanda, Lal Wijenayake  has also an  immoral past  it seems having copied at an examination and expelled from the examination hall, and Abraham Sumanthiran is an imposter, not being  a full fledged Tamil , as he is a Christian and his allegiance is not to the Hindu Religion of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, but to a foreign religion.   

Therefore they are all morally and legally unsuitable  dishonest people to write any document that decides on the future of  Sri Lanka with its long history and  its Sinhala Buddhist Culture, let alone writing a Constitution.

The 1978 Constitution lasted through out the worst period of terrorism in Sri Lanka and as the fear of a resurgence of terrorism is still not over, it is important to keep the Executive powers of the President,  though the fear of such powers in the hands of a man like Ranil Wickramasinghe  would be catastrophic. But the chances of his becoming a President of Sri Lanka is very little indeed.

Even the Government of the Prime Minister Ranil W is not  from recently elected MPs by the people, and the popularity of RanilW is reduced to a very small percentage of Colombians, the Muslims and Tamils. The  greater majority of the Sinhala Buddhists, and the Venerable Buddhist Monks are definitely against Ranil Wickramasinghe’s political leadership.

Therefore there attempt to present a Constitution in any form to the Parliament is questionable, and should be rejected by the Parliamentarians of all sides. The TNA the JVP and people like Champika, Kiriella, Muhabir Rahuman, Marikkar, and other UNP seniors and back benchers will want a new Constitution  but that is comparatively a small percentage of the population.

It is strange that,  it is the  political parties unpopular with the people at the moment that is presenting  a Constitutional to the Parliament . The TNA is not representative of the greater part of the country.  The JVP which has no popular following in the country and cannot get more than three or four MPs elected at a General election. They want  drastic changes to the present Constitution by introducing a 20^th Amendment.

These must be rejected as efforts by  unpopular political parties to create anarchy and through that to seize power if possible. The Parliamentarians of the left  and other well wishers of Sri Lanka should be alert  not to keep these trouble shooter of the UNP, TNA and JVP from engaging  foreign forces  to  intervene to divide the country. That seems to be the aim of the reactionary forces lead by UNP, TNA and JVP.

Prime Minister Ranil W, keeps lying to the public. Even after having presented a document which is apparently a Draft Constitution, RanilW says it is not a Constitution. But Sumanthiran says that the Constitution could be passed within a month as there is nothing to write as the document presented to the Parliament is in a Constitution format and it could be passed as it is (Hiru TV Salakuna 21 January,2019). Now who tells lies Ranil or Sumanthiran.

A new Constitution if ever to be written again should be written by the Sinhala Buddhists. The Tamil politicians should not have a say in the writing of it. Even the British when they wrote Constitutions for Sri Lanka gave the rightful place to Buddhism and foresaw to keep  unitary status of the Island.

The Tamils are not intelligent like the Black American minority in America or the Algerian , Vietnamien, and African minorities  in France. The Tamils have a savage Dravidian back ground ( with their traditional  worship of their Gods by hanging themselves in hooks  or rolling on the ground , and walk on fire ),  therefore more civilised rituals and Communal relationships cannot even be imagined by Sumanthirams, Sambandans, Senathirajans, Wigneswarans,  or Raghavans.  They will never create peace and harmony in Sri Lanka always wanting to be different.

Far too many concessions have been given to the Tamil by way of reconciliation, while the Tamil politicians have given nothing in return by way of appreciation  for the concessions that had been extended to them. Is it to satisfy such an ungrateful Community represented by these monstrous  Sumanthiran, Sambanthan, Senathirajans, Wigneswaran etc. that a new Constitution has to be passed  ?

The Secretary of Defence Hemasiri Fernando says that 11 Military Personnel are to be tried for war crimes  to please the Diaspora who would not thereafter  complain any more that no action had been taken against Military personal who had been accused for criminal offences.

This has to stop.  In Afghanistan a group of American Soldiers killed Afghan Civilians just to cut off their fingers which they were collecting as souvenirs. No action were known to have been taken against these soldiers to please any one. The terrorists war is over , during terrorism many atrocities were committed  by the terrorists.

The armed forces did not commit any murder,  outside the military operations for the elimination of terrorism, there may have been killings which had not been accounted for. But it is time to forget that dark period of our history, and continue to live.  The Tamils can never be satisfied they will cry foul for ever, handing over their lamentations to the generations that follow.

The Tamils have made a profession of crying. In Kandyan homes I have heard that  they employed Tamil women to cry in homes when there was a death in the family, the Tamil women wail when ever people come  to pay their respect to the dead.

The Members of the Parliament if they have any patriotism towards Sri Lanka should reject the presentation of a Constitution or any thing that has any relation to a Constitution as a Draft, or a document in the initial stage of preparation of a Constitution.  The right thinking Parliamentarians with any intelligence should fall in line with the Parliamentary Opposition to get rid of  the government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe supported by the TNA,JVP etc.

Sri Lanka does not want Ranil Wickramasinghe or any likes of him forming a Government to rule this Country.

C.Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

Introduction

[six lawyers= AG/DSG+2 AC judges +Magistrate+ Senior St. Co.+ private attorney monk= Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasaara]

Inspire public trust and confidence”

Nobody disputes the motto of the Supreme Court (SC) and the Court of Appeal (CA) copied above, which is applicable universally to any court of law in the world. The question, however, is that judges entrusted with this noble task are mere mortals, not saints. For example, a recent case handled by these two courts in Sri Lanka did not make lot of people (specially Sinhala Buddhist) comfortable. The decision given by CA on the contempt of (Homagama magistrate) court case against the BBS leader Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasara (GG) is laden with several minor (factual) and two major (legal) problems. Subsequently, the petition submitted to the SC seeking its permission to make an appeal was dismissed by it in a very unfortunate manner, reminding one the famous rule of natural justice, not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.” One of the judges who disallowed the petition was an active opponent of BBS in the recent past when he was an officer of the (publicly anti-BBS), Sri Lanka Bar Association.

In America, there are hundreds of law school law journals, in which one can find essays critically analyzing court decisions. Such scholarly work helps everybody, including the judges. In USA, continuing education is mandatory for judges.  I do not know if Sri Lanka has law journals or if there are any good faith efforts by legal professionals to dissect court decisions. For such service one does not even have to be a lawyer. If democracy requires voters to be vigilant, an intelligence check on judges’ decision-making process is a healthy sign of a people-centered judicial system.

Today, we see only one such effort from an applied law (efficacy of law) perspective. Public interest lawyer Nagananda Kodituwakku has challenged former CJs, SC judges, AG’s Dept., and Bar Association officers for improper and unprofessional behavior. He is not afraid of contempt of court threats, but other lawyers are afraid to sit next to him at SC proceedings because they fear such ‘bad association’ could affect their pocket book sooner or later when they appear with their clients. Ravaya’s Victor Ivan has written a courageous (documentary) book, the silence of the court,” which disclosed antics of the legal establishment from lower to the highest level. Then there are examples of rash outbursts by juvenile politicians, who spoil the cake. There is no question that some of our courts of law are under severe stress, partly due to their own misbehavior. Only one name, Victor Tennekoon, former CJ, left his job with his and his court’s dignity intact.

I began to write this essay, long before the political crisis started after, the October 26, 2018 bombing of his yahapalana prison by prisoner Maithripala Sirisena himself, which dragged both SC and CA into dirty political arena. What this means is that courts are compelled to weigh political facts (not law) and make subjective judgements on whether the president acted fairly and not arbitrarily. Inherent in this task is the reality that one side to the dispute will be unhappy and angry with the judges! Despite these darker clouds on the horizon, I think what I wanted to write must proceed because it is an important story the country should not forget.

Background to BBS case

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”- Shakespeare

A discussion of background information relating to this case is helpful in our task of analyzing the decision of CA in its objective and subjective context. Many statements in the judgement reveal the judges’ personal ‘bias’ (prejudice) against the accused in his role as the leader of BBS. The behavior of the AG’s dept. during yahapalana years, has given people an impression that it is a politically bias agency operating against the Buddhist monks targeting those who are actively engaged in socio-political problems created by the politician class (black-whites). It looks like that the anti-Buddhist arrogance of this agency is contagious, going against the Sinhala Buddhist heritage in the island. For example, in the case that sent Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasaara to jail, the public record of the Court of Appeal, mentions AG as Hon. AG,” and Ven. Gnanasaara (GG) just as Galabodaatte Gnanasaara.” Why did it not cite GG as Ven. GG?” (or at least as monk GG). Is this a trivial matter? I do not think so. Do they treat other religious clergy the same disrespectful way, in the rare case of one of them become an accused? (rarely, because they do not fight publicly on social issues).

How does this attitude operate at the street-level or one step above? On 19th November 2018, at the old parliament building, a small group of monks came to hand over a petition to president Sirisena appealing him to pardon Ven. GG. A man from president’s office came out and told the monks that they could see the president at the end of December! After this crazy response, the police used tear gas and water canon to disperse the crowd. Later, at a meeting arranged by Tilanga Sumathipala, the president apologized to the monks, and said that he was not informed of the monks’ arrival to hand over the petition. Neither was he consulted by the police before using tear gas against the monks. How shoddily some officers of the government (judges and/or court clerks, civil officers, police officers in this case) treat the monkhood in the country is evident without doubt. The monks experience more than other sections, the dirty side of suddage nithiya.

Balu kuudu (dog cages) and AG’s Dept.

Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka said recently (Oct. 2, 2018) that the AG’s Dept. and the police intentionally fabricated a false case against Ven. Ganansara. The public record is that the officers of the Bar Association also hated BBS. In fact, the latest news (Oct. 5) is that SC judge Prasanna Jayawardena (with Nalin Perera agreeing and Eva Wanasundara opposing) who decided against Ven. G’s appeal was an ardent ‘enemy’ of BBS when he was VP of the Bar Association. This is against the principles of natural justice. He should have recused from hearing this appeal. More importantly, unless a full bench of SC is activated, BBS case now has no judicial option, despite the fact courts only implement the judicial power of the people of Sri Lanka.

Monks and laymen are careful not to add the courts into this allegation. Their formula is perhaps based on what Mrs. Chandrika said some time back that balu sena will be put in balu kuudu (dogs and dog cages).” As discussed later in this essay, if the AG’s Dept. studied the facts of the case carefully using the video clip evidence, the CA would not have made the two fatal errors in its judgement that I have found.  AG’s Dept. should have advised the court not to proceed with the case. But this was a case of lawyers from different state entities working in collaboration to fix from their perspective, a notorious monk, and their biased minds must have missed the legal theories supporting the monk. It also depends on how these lawyers as citizens of this country view, sometimes critical, role monks have played in the 2500-year old history of this island. The history records how a king of Kandy wanted to kill Weilivita Sri Saranaka Sangaraja for opposing and agitating for his ouster. A person who has no knowledge of the Sinhala Buddhist heritage cannot appreciate the roles played by monks such as Migettuwatte Gunanada, Gangodawila Soma or presently, Ven. GG.

It is no secret that ever since BBS started (May 2012) its militant Buddhist movement (militant in Gandhian and MLK (USA) sense), not just anti-Buddhists but the entire black-white political establishment in the country, including the officers of the Bar Association, hated it, and wanted to ‘kill” it just like somebody killed (December 2003), the previous Buddhist awakening started by the late Ven. Gangodawila Soma. Ven. Soma got trapped due to his human weakness (a desire to get a worthless Ph.D., secretly arranged, via a Sinhala Christian Russian agent), and the whole country knew very well that enemies are waiting in the dark to get Ven. Gnanasara ‘trapped,’ sooner than later. The monk himself knew about this danger and of late acted cautiously both as a private individual and as the BBS leader, but tear drops fell on his arm from one of the helpless soldiers worshipping him after the Homagama magistrate re-remanded them on war crimes charges, the monk’s heart melted taking momentary control over his brain!

Ironically, law recognizes this kind of emotional reaction known as the defense of grave and sudden provocation, but the monk was destined to be disallowed that universal benefit. A judge who understands almost mechanically (like we brake automatically at traffic red lights) the application of this defense in a murder trial, depending on his perceptions and attitudes may not realize the applicability of that defense in the case of a monk devoted his life to protect Sinhala Buddhist lost rights in the country. Even if AG Dept. either forgot or ignored the relevance of this defense to this accused’s case, the judges of CA have a statutory duty to examine the applicability of this defense in mitigating his punishment. The facts in this case would have taken a totally different shade if the accused was given the benefit of this universal defense.

Law is [not] an ass

I read the decision of the Court of Appeal (CA) on this case, and the moment I saw how the case was listed on the CA website, I was greatly perturbed. I found two factual errors made by the two CA judges, that go to the heart of the prosecution’s case. Law is not an ass, but some lawyers and judges make law an ass, because they too are human.  It was only a few days ago that Ms. Sugandhika Fernando revealed that the Bar Association president U. R. de Silva, in his pep talk to a new set of female lawyers preached that they should use one or two of their 64 mayams (feminine tricks?) to get favors (such as early hearing dates for their clients) from judges. What a disgrace to womanhood and to the legal system!

The USAID recently commenced a million-dollar project to ‘modernize’ (to Americanize with its notoriously defective justice system?) the justice system in Sri Lanka. They even gave a separate grant to the SL Bar Association. American help to modernize can mean different things to different people. A coherent, open, responsive and effective justice program (CORE) means what?  Are they giving computers or try to brain-wash targeted personnel? Would they promote legal scholars or lawyers writing critical analyses on court decisions that they think incorrect?

I felt the CA decision was defective, and I think the BBS monk should file a fundamental rights violation case against the CA, because the SC had already refused to give permission to file a normal appeal. I wonder how SC did not see the two glaring errors that I saw in the CA judgement. If a monk like Ven. GG could be treated like this what must be happening to hundreds of others?  Depending on how one looks at the role of BBS as a national movement, one could decide whether the monk is politically guilty or not, but a court of law must be objective and decide cases based on facts, in this case facts are in the public domain.

Naked title

Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Vs.Hon. Attorney General-Hon. P Padman Surasena (P/CA), Shiran Gooneratne (decided on August 8, 2018).”  This is how the Court of Appeal website lists the case against the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) leader Ven. Gnanasara. He was given a punishment of 19 years of rigorous imprisonment for ‘insulting’ the Homagama magistrate Ranga Dissanayake. In another recent case, a complaint by a monk relating to the pollution of Tissawewa, decided on September 4, 2018, the listing style was Venerable Halmillawe Saddhatissa Thero and others Vs R. M. Wanninayake and others-Hon. Mahinda Samayawardhena. (J).” In each case a monk was involved in a public affair. It was not about rape or murder by a monk.  In the first case, what was the reason that the term ‘Hon.’ was used for the legal eagles while the monk’s name was cited nakedly as ‘Galagodaaththe Gnanasara?’ Who made this decision?  Who decides who is a ‘Hon.’? The Hansard is full of ‘Hons.’ But one reason why a monk is addressed as ‘Venerable,’ is because his robe represents part of the Triple Gem in Buddhism.

It was because of this national norm, that in the previous case of monk Vatareka Vijitha, the magistrate did not ask the monk Gnanasara to stand in the accused’s box. On this incident, the lawyer for the monk Vatareka, Maithri Gunaratane, now a new political party leader, complained that the magistrate was violating the human rights of his client by allowing the accused to sit in a separate chair instead of the hira kooduwa!  Another female Tamil magistrate went beyond this, and arranged a chair covered by a white cloth for an accused monk to sit, and there was no objection from the Tamil lawyers.  Thus, reasonable judicial discretion is a prerogative of judges. In this regard, one must note that the Homagama magistrate, used his discretion to report the Ven. Gnanasara to the Court of Appeal, because, he said that he did not have authority to impose a punishment, severe enough, for the criminal offence committed by the monk!

Hon vs. Ven

Coming back to the Hon-Ven issue, only such scenario in the world (if one video tapes the ceremony of how a layman becomes a monk) where a son worships his mother first, and a few minutes later that mother in turn worships her son, is associated with the concept of monkhood in Buddhism, which was above the kingship of Sinhale for 2500 years. The queen of England is below a monk in Buddhist hierarchy of politics. Semantics apart, if Judges are ‘Hon.’ and the AG is ‘Hon.’ irrespective of the fact whether the holders of the respective positions are qualified, honest or moral, the same standard or same courtesy should be applied to the concept of monkhood. Lowering the dignity bestowed upon one concept (the yellow robe), intentionally, inadvertently or due to stupidity or ignorance, automatically lowers the dignity offered to the other (learned counsels wearing a black coat with a pocket on the back) especially, when it happens next to each other in the same sentence.

Judges cannot be immune from the currents and cross currents occurring in Sri Lanka, especially since 1978. The thinking that courts decide cases within the framework of case law and legal case books, was abandoned as far back as in 1954 in the landmark case of Brown Vs. Board of education, when extra-judicial sociological evidence was accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court in overruling its own 70-year old previous decision. Besides, judges are human and can never be objective because everything in this world is relatively linked to a continuum running from subjective to objective. courts need to understand that they are part of the society and bound by the societal norms. If somebody attached to the CA thinks that calling or citing the name of a monk without the traditional honorific is acceptable, he should be required to attend mandatory continuing education classes. It is no different from other incidents such as the title, Budunge Rastiyaduva, or Mrs. Chandrika’s radio drama, Nirvastram Paraman Sukan.

Two Fatal errors

Publicly disrespecting a monk without using the honorific Ven could be an unfortunate attitude of some judges, but it is no reason to suspect the specific intent of the two judges who handled this case. Instead, one must see if there are specific facts which are clearly erroneous. It is now an accepted fact that even an eye witness account could be different from reality. Thus, several persons witnessing an incident could ‘see’ it differently, depending on their status of mind, ideology, perception, angle of vision, distance etc. Referees of football games now use video footage as a recording of absolute truth for instant correction of their mistakes. Placebo effect means mind has controlling power over matter.

Videotaping (and CCTV) technology has become a savior of life and liberty in the modern world. The CA decision states that (1) the monk Gnanasara did not apologize to the magistrate and (2) he called the AG dept lawyer a ‘napunsakaya.’  But the video clip attached prove otherwise.  It shows the monk apologizing to the magistrate not once but twice in no uncertain terms. The intention to insult a court is a deciding element in a contempt of court hearing, and the CA judgement is unacceptable with this contrary, concrete evidence. The derogatory term was used as ‘this napunsaka government,’ and not as ‘this govt lawyer.’

http://lankacnews.com/%e0%b6%a5%e0%b7%8f%e0%b6%ab%e0%b7%8f%e0%b7%83%e0%b7%8f%e0%b6%bb-%e0%b7%84%e0%b7%92%e0%b6%b8%e0%b7%92-19-%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%83%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%9a%e0%b6%a7-%e0%b7%84%e0%b7%92%e0%b6%bb%e0%b7%99%e0%b7%8a/

It is strange why the monk’s lawyers did not present this video tape clip as evidence.  It is also strange why two monks who gave evidence on behalf of the monk said contradictory stories, which the judges used against the accused monk. The evidence used by CA was what the three lawyers said in the court and not the video tape recorded at the scene when it took place.  Lawyers are not supposed to coach prospective witnesses to tell lies, but under an adversarial system of litigation, lawyers have a duty to examine the witnesses in advance, assess them, and decide not to use them if their evidence is going to harm the accused instead of helping hm. The use of such evidence by a court to impute criminal intention is a case of cutting pork on a leg of pork.

Balu Theendu and BBS

When S B Dissanayake was sent to jail for branding SC decisions as balu teendu (decision by dogs?), his intention was crystal clear. He did not apologise. Or, the pending case against Ranjan Ramanayaka for condemning the court system as corrupt, his purpose in doing that is not clear. When Nagananda Kodituwakku goes to SC with briefs against SC judges, Chief Justice or the AG, no one said his purpose was not noble. The way BBS monk was trapped using clause 105 of the constitution is unique. The magistrate Ranga Dissanayake had a dialogue with the monk and the monk accepted his mistake, gave an explanation as to why he had to talk and apologized twice and went on to ask the judge in the Gandhian style to impose appropriate punishment for his behavior. All this is on the video clip. The magistrate could have fined him, imprison him for the day, warn him or sent him to jail for a longer duration. The magistrate was aware that he was dealing not about a solitary monk, but a kind of national entity. He would have settled it in a casual manner, if not for the intervention of the AG dept lawyer Dileepa Peiris and the JVP-connected lawyer Upul Kumarapperuma, who appeared for the wife of an allegedly disappeared person, Ekneligoda.  With their intervention, the magistrate lost his judicial independence and discretion. A minor incident became a national issue.

The facts of the case, the reaction of the magistrate as recorded on the video, do not justify his subsequent opinion, that the monk should be punished severely, and for that purpose monk’s behavior should be reported to CA, because he has no power to impose a punishment like 19 years of rigorous imprisonment. In S.B. Dissanayake’s case the complaint was by ordinary citizens, perhaps motivated by partisan politics. In BBS case, it was instigated by two biased lawyers who found a golden opportunity to trap the monk for his work in exposing the black-whites’ game. It is clear from the evidence gave by the magistrate that he had to make a case in narrating what had happened, so that he could justify why he wanted to report the incident to CA for severe punishment instead of a lighter punishment that he could have given then and there. The lawyer for the monk argued on this basis, but CA refused to accept it. The million-dollar question is why the court did not see the video clip, which makes court’s position untenable!

Objective/Subjective Test

It is a common belief that a judge usually has an opinion formed already about the case pending before him and gathers facts and evidence that he wants to justify his decision. Often, words and statements in the judgement provide hints as to the way a judge’s mind was working. The following are examples reflective of the subjective nature of the judgement (the statements copied from the judgement are categorized; my comments are in italics below each category).

1. High quality of lawyers as witnesses

[Magistrate] was severely cross examined; [SSC] was severely cross-examined at length; [private attorney] faced continuous questioning by the accused’s attorney.

The judgement states the three lawyers who gave evidence against the monk faced three different levels of testing. What did the judges expect to achieve by these adjectives on cross examination of the witnesses? Did the court mean that the accused’s side faced only mild/soft cross examination ?

Dileepa Peiris and Upul Kumarapperuma corroborated magistrate’s evidence.

The three lawyers who were directly responsible for the filing of the case are not going to do anything different than corroborating!

1. accused corroborated Magistrate’s evidence

accused’s lawyer and his two witnesses denied accused saying impotent but accused admitted it

accused’s two witnesses lied

accused lied

These statements demonstrate that the monk was honest, but his lawyer made some technical errors. For example, no lawyer will use/call witnesses who will put the accused in trouble.  Unless the court is determined to teach a lesson to the accused, these are so trivial in a case like this. This is not a murder trial.

1. accused said magistrate was a good magistrate

why then magistrate gave bad evidence against him?

When AG’s lawyer asked this tricky question, the monk could not give an answer. But CA used it against the monk. This change of magistrate’s mind was due to the two lawyers who influenced the magistrate to act at the time of the incident. The issue was not a good magistrate became a bad magistrate. The issue should be why the monk’s mind changed at that moment. It was his lost of hope for whom he considered as national heroes and sudden loss of his mind and body control, triggered by the tear drops fell on his hand. See how one incident could be twisted to get the outcome one wants!

1. address was not in the form of plea

not a peaceful dialogue

addressed the court in high tone being emotionally aroused

accused tried to intimidate magistrate to reverse his order

this is white man’s law. We do not accept this law. Therefore, give bail to these war heroes

The monk did not intervene when the case was being heard. He did not disrupt that case. He spoke after it was over and the remand prisoners were taken out.  The video clip does not justify, what the court was imagining. Again, was this an incident/offence warranting a rigorous jail term of 19 years? Unlike what S.B. Dissanayaka or Ranjan Ramanayaka said the remark about the white man’s law is a political comment not directed at courts or judges.

1. impotent government’s some officers/impotent officers (obscene words)

sit-down, you, impotent state lawyer (to Dileepa Peiris)

this type of treacherous government officers

The monk was accused of uttering these words. Other than the words directed at Dileepa Peiris, there was no insult to an individual but to the government in general. Napunsakaya in Sinhala usage does not mean impotent in its biological English language meaning, but as one who is a puppet without principles in its sociological context. A barren person is not called a napunsakaya in Sinhala. A man acting like a woman and vice versa is called a napunsakaya. Judges should have obtained experts’ advice in this regard.

http://www.colombotoday.com/54927-23/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwUhCS25hhE

1. JVP connection/protection of Buddhism

AC went on to state that lawyer Kumarapperuma (Ekneligoda’s wife’s lawyer) said that he was not anti-Buddhist and that his links with JVP (he contested 2015 election as a JVP candidate) has nothing to do with the truthfulness of the evidence he gave. He was the only non-state lawyer against the accused. By this statement CA whitewashes Kumarapperuma’s evidence used as another corroboration of magistrate’s evidence.

1. Only lawyers can address the judges in court

CA was clearly erroneous here. Any accused can represent himself in a court of law; Any person can address a court with permission. The accused monk even though he has no direct link with this case was representing the close relatives (their wives) of the remanded war heroes. They went to his temple and begged the monk repetitively to do something for their relatives in remand for months without any charges filed against them. The monk was the only outlet they had to disclose the political nature of the arrests. After all, there are some doubts as to whether Ekneligoda is hiding in Dubai. His disappearance is used for political purposes by a napunsaka government.

Conclusion

Any reasonable person watching the video clip attached cannot help but have doubts about the way the Court of Appeal handled the BBS case, and the harsh punishment given to a public service monk.

The president has referred the appeal for his pardon to AG for advice. An AG’s Dept. who went overboard to fix this monk cannot expect to be impartial in this regard.

Therefore, the lawyers of the monk need to make either a fundamental rights appeal or a fresh appeal to the president to release the monk from prison. There are strong reasons to doubt the legality and reasonableness of the CA decision. (cwije77@outlook.com)

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island

Ref. ‘Saving Sri Lanka!’/The Island/January 17, 2019 by Fr J.C. Pieris. It is a response to certain critical comments that I made in The Island of January 9 on a previous article published in the same paper on January 2 by T.M. Premawardana (translated by Fr Pieris). The Reverend Father cannot disown T.M. Premawardana by saying ‘I am only the translator.’ As can be understood by anyone, he translated the latter’s essay in order to make it available to the English reading public; this was obviously because he accepted Premawardana’s main argument, and thought it to be worthy of being offered to a more global circle of readers than a Sinhala language document would normally attract.

Premawardana’s main thesis, as I understand it, is that uncultured politics (i.e., the sort that involves dishonesty and  rowdyism in the securing and exercise of power) has obstructed the smooth functioning of the democratic system in post-independence Sri Lanka, and that this has impeded the country’s progress; he illustrates it with well known examples, though he betrays some personal bias in the choice of the latter. I set forth in my response article why I disagree with a number of Premawardana’s subsidiary points. Though in that article I described his essay as ‘admirable’, I considered it to be so only within its narrow context: it has undeniable topical relevance. Probably, never since 1948 has power politics in Sri Lanka been so uncultured, so corrupted and so antidemocratic as now.

However, Premawardana’s emphasis, with implicit reference to the present state of affairs, on what all sensible voters have already identified as a chronic evil  in Sri Lankan parliamentary politics, is almost pointless. Harping on that perennial theme will only serve to deflect attention from the most crucial issues that the country is really confronted with at present, which he doesn’t even care to mention.

We need to remember that corrupt politics or rowdy politicking is not the only factor that accounts for bad governance or  the less than desirable rate of growth in Sri Lanka’s national development in every important field. There are more potent matters than ‘uncivilized politics’ (which can some day be fixed within the country independently of foreign interference) that obstruct the country’s forward march towards the evolution of  a secure peaceful society with a tradition of good governance based on democracy, a stronger sense of national identity as Sri Lankans and a healthy economic environment, which incidentally is the ultimate  goal of all Nationalists. Neither Premawardana (‘Who can save Sri Lanka?’) nor Father Pieris (‘Saving Sri Lanka’) talk about the really important factors such as diplomatic and economic pressures exerted on Sri Lanka by Western powers in alliance with India in the interest of their own selfish geopolitical ends in the region. They do this internationally through UN agencies and Tamil expatriates in the West, and locally in Sri Lanka, through the elitist neoliberal UNP, the racist Tamil regional grouping known as the TNA and its opportunistic allies including the mercenary INGOs, and the Marxist millenarianists of the JVP who depend for their token parliamentary survival on their ability to form a partnership with one or the other of the two major parties. At no time before in post-independence Sri Lanka have these multiple forces been so united as they are at present against the nationalist camp spearheaded by the newly formed SLPP.

Father Pieris looks askance at my view that the UNP and the SLFP which ruled the country in turn over the past seven decades of independence actually did much to bring in some positive changes. My opinion is contrary to the oft repeated criticism circulating these days particularly among young media commentators, political analysts and even young politicians that these parties did nothing for the country’s advancement. No one can deny that a larger percentage of ordinary Sri Lankans live in better houses, eat better food, wear better clothes, have access to better education and health facilities, be it public or private, and generally enjoy a better quality of life than they did fifty years ago, though of course, things are not satisfactory enough.

Father Pieris argues that before we ask from whom Sri Lanka has to be saved we need to ask what Sri Lanka has to be saved from. His additional question ‘Who in Sri Lanka has to be saved’ is redundant (However, what he means by this is clear, as explained at the end of this paragraph). Sri Lanka means its geographical territory, people, cultures, resources, history, its status as a sovereign political entity in the comity of nations, etc. all indissolubly integrated into a single organic unit. But the Rev Father’s question implies that in his view only a section of the population is in need of being saved from the present ‘dire straits’, which, I dare say, is a wrong assumption.

Why he disapproves of my generally positive take on the respective national developmental roles played by the UNP and the SLFP (both, of the past), the hallowed memory of whose patriotic pioneers is being disgraced by the characterless clowns that lead them today,  becomes clear in the elaboration that he offers of the questions he asks (‘What Sri Lanka has to be saved from’, and ‘Who in Sri Lanka has to be saved’). There is nothing more than a mere articulation of what he deems to be the most central issue that the country currently faces, or, in fact, has always faced.) In the Rev Father’s opinion, the country must be saved from poverty and an alleged debt burden. Workers (both manual and office/professional), daily wage earners, plantation workers, and women working in the Middle East as housemaids, etc  need to be saved; the rich people, and the powerful and corrupt politicians need not be saved. Strangely, he fails to mention the largest and the most important group of toilers, the peasants of the rural agrarian sector, who are today being virtually abandoned to an orphaned state, caught up in a scheme of attempted neoliberal economic policy revolution, irrespective of its human cost.

To his own question ‘From whom the workers need to be saved’, Father Pieris gives the answer that it is not from China or India or the West, but from the politicians of the UNP and the SLFP. In support of his attribution of culpability to them for corruption he makes a random list of allegations such as those relating to Helping Hambantota, the hedging deal, what he calls Greece bonds, the Avante  Guard affair, and the MIG deal against the leaders of the pre-2015 government (which remain unsubstantiated), to which he adds a single extremely plausible charge against the Yahapalanaya regime the (Central Bank) bond scams (of 2015 and 2016). Father Pieris concludes:

That is why I always said that the two political parties the UNP and the SLFP, are dead and not yet buried. The rotten and stinking two cadavers of the UNP and the SLFP, are full of maggots who call themselves MPs. The two cadavers and the maggots must be buried for good. Only then SL can and will be saved.”

So, it is clear why Father Pieris questions my aforementioned generalization about the past performances of the UNP and the SLFP. But, as I have already suggested that negative estimation, shared particularly by the younger generations, is not correct. The positive achievements made by these parties (committed though they were to opposing political and economic ideologies) despite snags caused due to non-cooperation from certain racist minority politicians and impractical Marxist ideologists out of tune with local cultural attitudes,  are reflected in the general rise in the quality of life enjoyed by ordinary Sri Lankans over the past seven decades (as suggested above), something evident to people who are old enough. It is true that poverty still persists, particularly in the rural areas. All governments since independence have addressed this problem as best they could in their own ways. The ‘debt burden’ need not be made too much of an issue. Governments led by either party in turn have borrowed, both internally and externally. Properly managed borrowing is essential for development work to be financed. Debts incurred by a country should not be criticized as a crime. Most international lending agencies serving Western interests  are actually businesses. They usually lord it over poor countries like ours, imposing conditions that are hard to meet without causing privation among the already suffering poor. That is unfair. They only help the powerful nations of the West to exploit us for their own benefit. The lending agencies do not lend to a country if they decide that it is potentially incapable of repaying the loans.

It is true that certain corrupt politicians in positions of authority at any time can and do indulge in financial misappropriation. However, what usually happens is that allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement, true or false, have become part of the arsenal used by politicians against each other for electioneering purposes. They are apparently not concerned with the elimination of the crime. Ministers and MPs cannot steal without the involvement of civil functionaries. When corruption happens, it is normally the politicians who are charged with or without justification. Hardly anyone talks about the big bureaucrats serving under them, even if they also bear responsibility for the misdemeanours committed. Unless and until this problem is addressed as a national issue through a consensual approach based on a nonpartisan agreement between the government and the opposition (i.e., agreed on by the whole parliament) it will not go away.

Shortcomings of governments must be pointed out. Corruption in high places must be exposed. But they should not be used as red herrings to divert attention from the much more intractable real issues currently before the nation.

Sinharaja Protect Community

Dear Friends

Demonstration for Sinharaja in London. .

we  will stand for a peaceful demonstration on 24 th January 2019 at Old Palace yard at

British Parliament square from 11.00 to 1.30 pm to make aware of ongoing destruction in the Sinharaja forest.

The objectives of the demonstration,

1- Stop the construction of abusive  roads and nature trails inside the Sinharaja Rain Forest

2-Stop relocating the wild elephants from sinharaja rain forest to a elephant holding ground which is not other than a elephant prison

3- protect the wild elephants, leopards and all other wildlife in sinharaja by strict regulations.

4- Halt  and remove   illegal Eco tourist buildings inside the Sinharaja forest

5 Stop commercialisation of sinharaja forest

6- stop the construction of mini hydro electricity power plants inside the Sinharaja forest

we are kindly requesting you to look into this matter and to join to the peaceful demonstration to stop  the destruction of Sinharaja Rain forest in Sri Lanka. Please join with  demonstration. Please check the attachments.

Thanking you

Keerti Hewagoda  , Environmental Activist 07459841598

Dr Chandrika Iriyagolle  07548122521

Mr Kamal Rajapakse 20 87156257

Sinharaja Protect Community

Dr SARATH OBEYSEKERA Boat Builder 

It is almost a year since   National Export Strategy ( NES) was formulated by the incumbent government Boat  Buiding and Nautical Tourism was one of the main items in the agenda in order to reach 4 billion $ target in foreign earnings by 2022.

Ministry of Industries and Ministry of Development Strategies and Economic Development with EDB have not been successful in spearheading development of boat buiding .

Ministry of fisheries which planned to develop multi day fishing vessel concept with additional ice making and cooling facility has not been materialised .

The President has started taking lead in many development areas  forgetting that there are ministers to execute the these targets including NES.

A dynamic task force should be formed to take the lead in development of Boat  Building , fishery sector and Nautical Tourism.

Unless The President does something about this we will never achieve 4 billion $ target

Foot note.

( We have a prime minister who is supposed to have  more powers as per 19th amendment but it looks like that The President is playing the same role before we had 19th Amendment and taking back the power .If he can  execute above task people may reconsider their decision during next election )

උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

මරණ තුනක් මැද පැණි කන තත්ත්වයට වැටී සිටින එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය මුහුණපා සිටින අර්බුද හමුවේ ඉදිරියේදී පැවැත්වෙන ඕනෑම මැතිවරණයකදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අතිවිශිෂ්ට ජයග්‍රහණයක් ලැබීම කිසිවකුටත් වැළැක්විය නොහැකි බව රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිනි පවිත්‍රා වන්නිආරච්චි පැවසුවාය.

පවිත්‍රා වන්නිආරච්චි මහත්මිය එසේ කියාසිටියේ, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ මිනුවන්ගොඩ ආසන බල මණ්ඩල රැස්වීමට උඩුගම්පොළදී එක්වෙමිනි.

වන්නිආරච්චි මහත්මිය මෙසේ පැවැසුවාය.

රවි කරුණානායක කියනවා මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයට මෝස්තරකාරයෙක් දාලා කියලා. රවි – මංගල ගල උඩ සටහනක් තියෙනවා. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ විශාල නායකත්ව අර්බුදයක් තියෙනවා. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ තමන්ගේ ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂක ධුරය රැකගන්න විශාල උත්සාහයක් දරමින් ඉන්නවා. රනිල් – සජිත් ගැටුම බරපතළ තැනකට ඇවිත්.

ජාත්‍යන්තරයටත් මේ අර්බුදය පේනවා. වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුව රට ගෙනියන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා මේ අය බලා ඉන්නවා.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ ආර්ථිකයට පණ පොවාගන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නැහැ.

අපිට උදවු කරන ජාත්‍යන්තර මිතුරන් තරහා කරගත්තා. චීනය තරහා කරගත්තා. ජපානය තරහා කර ගත්තා. රනිල්ට ආර්ථිකය ගොඩනඟන්න බැහැ.

අද රනිල් ටී.එන්.ඒ. එකේ හිරකාරයෙක්. ඊළම ලබා දෙන්න ටී.එන්.ඒ. එකත් එක්ක ගිවිසුම් ගහලා. පසුගියදා අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් ගැන යෝජනාවක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළා. මම දැක්කා මහ නායක හාමුදුරුවන් හම්බ වෙන්න ගිය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ඇමැතිවරුන් කියනවා එහෙම යෝජනාවක් නැහැ කියලා. එහෙම එකක් නැහැ කියන්නේ කොහොමද?

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග

අපිට පක්ෂයක් නැති වෙලාවේ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා නායකත්වය අරගෙන මේ පක්ෂය අපට හදලා දුන්නා. පක්ෂය පිහිටුවලා මාස හයක් හතක් ඇතුළත පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් වෙලා ජයග්‍රහණය කරන්න අපිට හැකි වුණා. ඒ ජයග්‍රහණය නිසා තමයි ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සිද්ධ වුණේ අගමැති ධුරය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ලබාදෙන්න.

අපි පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණය ගැන උදම් අනමින් නිහඬව හිටියොත් අපිටත් වෙන්නේ ඉබ්බා එක්ක රේස් ගිය හාවාට සිද්ධ වෙච්ච දේමයි.

ඒ නිසා අපි මේ අවුරුද්ද ඇතුළත තියෙන මැතිවරණය ජයගන්න තව තවත් උනන්දුවෙන් වැඩ කරමු.

ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

January 22, 2019, 9:20 pm

Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, PC, recently urged Sri Lanka Foreign Service (SLFS) to enhance the country’s image overseas through efficient and effective execution of public diplomacy, utilizing its intrinsic brands such as Buddhism, gems, tea, spices, high-end export products and the warmth of traditional Sri Lankan hospitality.

The retired Attorney General was addressing officers of the 2018 intake of the SLFS at a certificate awarding ceremony on January 11, 2019 at the ministry following the conclusion of a two-week long public diplomacy and media relations training programme jointly organized with the collaboration of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI).

(Standing) Officers of the 2018 intake of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and several mid-level officers serving the Ministry with Minister Tilak Marapana. Seated (L-R) CEO of the Sri Lanka Press Institute Kumar Lopez, Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha, Minister Tilak Marapana, Director General Public Diplomacy and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Saroja Sirisena and Head of the Sri Lanka College of Journalism Shan Wijethunge

One-time TV journalist/anchorman Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha was among those serving and retired SLFS officers present.

The following is the Encyclopedia Britannica definition of Public diplomacy, also called people’s diplomacy: Any of various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign public. Public diplomacy includes all official efforts to convince targeted sectors of foreign opinion to support or tolerate a government’s strategic objectives. Methods include statements by decision makers, purposeful campaigns conducted by government organizations dedicated to public diplomacy, and efforts to persuade international media to portray official policies favourably to foreign audiences.”

The Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued two days after the event stated that such a professional training programme hadn’t been organized before. The ministry certainly owed the public an explanation as to why those who had served the ministry during a turbulent period were denied the required expertise.

The Foreign Ministry statement, dated January 13, 2019, quoted Marapana as having stressed the importance of depicting Sri Lanka as a civilized nation with people full of loving-kindness who feel for each other and an abundance of talent. “That message has to be given loud and clear,” the Minister said. Marapana urged diplomats to be innovative in this image-building exercise and in changing perceptions about Sri Lanka. The Minister asserted that skills in public diplomacy and media relations would be extremely useful in these endeavours.

In the wake of an abortive bid by President Maithripala Sirisena to sack Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka is in deepening turmoil with the UNP still unable to prove its simple majority in parliament, even several weeks after Mahinda Rajapaksa quit the premiership.

Rajapaksa quit the premiership on Dec 15, 2019 soon after the Supreme Court upheld an interim Appeal Court ruling in respect of quo warranto petition filed by 122 lawmakers. The judicial stand humiliated the SLFS. Having had assured foreign governments that President Maithripala Sirisena acted in terms of the Constitution, judicial action stunned the already mauled SLFS. It would be pertinent to mention that Ambassador Aryasinha had to represent the country on more than one occasion at diplomatic functions for want of a legitimate government during the constitutional crisis.

The SLFS cannot depend on public diplomacy or any other specialized programme to save the country if our politicians are determined to ruin the country.

Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy in Nov, 2018 told a P Col (Presidential Commission of Inquiry) that the country was facing a non-virtuous cycle of debt and it was a very fragile situation which could even lead to a debt crisis.

“Of course my colleagues in the debt department have plans and capability to manage it. But it’s the duty of every citizen to act responsibly as regards the government policy,” he told the PCol.

Dr. Coomaraswamy did not mince his words when he emphasized that people should elect MPs who were prudent enough to handle fiscal and monetary matters of the country. “I am not referring to any government, but it’s been the case ever since Independence”, he said.

The CB Governor’s statement, made before the PCol on irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka, couldn’t have been made at a better time for those who hoped for a genuine change in the political environment. Unfortunately, the media, pathetically, failed to provide sufficient coverage to, undoubtedly, the most important statement made by a respected public official, in the recent past, on any issue.

Dr. Coomaraswamy questioned the suitability of people’s representatives in parliament.

In addition to parliament, that can be considered perhaps the most corrupt institution in the country, the Provincial Council and Local Government systems, too, are utterly corrupt.

For want of overall political leadership and political will, the Foreign Ministry, obviously suffered over the years. In fact, all key ministries experienced setbacks and debacles due to the pathetic political leadership during the conflict. Unfortunately, nearly a decade after the conclusion of the war, the country appears to be in a far worse situation with political parties pulling in different directions.

All political parties are too sharply divided over various contentious issues, particularly positions, perks, privileges and opportunities.

Can public diplomacy help Sri Lanka as it struggles to cope up with accountability issues and a weakening national economy?

Sri Lanka faces the Geneva gauntlet in March this year with the UK headquartered Global Tamil Forum (GTF) taking up the appointment of wartime General Officer Commanding (GOC) the celebrated Task Force 1, Shavendra Silva, as Army Chief, of Staff with the international community. Last week, the writer explained how the war winning military suffered as a result of Sri Lanka’s pathetic failure to counter unsubstantiated war crimes allegations.

The failure on the part of the Foreign Ministry to inquire into the Mannar mass graves even after Colombo based diplomats and other foreign representatives visited the site late last year, underscored the need for the powers that be to identify priorities and responsibilities.

Marapana’s return to cabinet

MP Marapana received the foreign ministry portfolio in Aug. 2017, over two years after the last parliamentary election. The UNP with President Sirisena’s approval replaced Assistant Leader of the party, Ravi Karunanayake, who had been embroiled in a kickback controversy over treasury bond scams involving disgraced primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) perpetrated in Feb 2015 and March 2016.

After the change of government in January 2015, Marapana, accommodated on the UNP National List, received the law and order and prisons reforms portfolio. Marapana received the wrath of some of his cabinet colleagues for strongly defending the controversial Avant Garde Maritime Services (AGMS), the lucrative business owned by former Army Commando Major Nissanka Senadhipathy. Marapana resigned the ministerial portfolio in November 2015, though he continued as an ordinary MP.

Marapana should earn the appreciation of the public for unhesitatingly taking a stand on any controversial issue regardless of the consequences. The Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) holds Marapana in high esteem for intervening on its behalf at the time of the Aturugiriya fiasco at the onset of December 2001 UNP-led United National Front (UNF) government.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government pursued the AGMS accused of serious offences, including operating an offshore illegal armoury though it was known that the company had provided security to those vessels operated in high seas threatened by pirates. Another ‘yahapalana’ minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, too, was attacked by his colleagues for throwing his weight behind the AGMS.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakse never ever contemplated giving up the justice ministry though finally the UNPer was removed in August 2017 on the basis that he interfered in investigations. The President’s Counsel was accused of being the guardian angel of wartime Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the target of several investigations.

Ministerial spats, too, inevitably contributed to the deterioration of the administration. A vital arm of the government-the SLFS was also badly affected.

When it transpired before the P CoI on treasury bond scams that Karunanayake benefited from the PTL owner Arjuna Aloysius, the top UNPer was unceremoniously replaced. Marapana re- entered the cabinet at Karunanayake’s expense. No wonder Karunanayake often flays those on the National List, flaying them for being the bane of the party. Karunanayake, who had always led the party from the front will never forgive Marapana. The National List MP recommended that Karunanayake be prevented from exercising his duties and responsibilities as the Assistant Leader of the ruling party. The recommendation obviously infuriated Karunanayake who lashed out at his National List colleague at every available opportunity. Karunanayake has targeted another influential National List colleague on several occasions.

Karunanayake, who held the finance portfolio in the ‘yahapalana’ government at the time of both treasury bond scams, exchanged portfolios with Mangala Samaraweera in May 2017.

President Sirisena moved out Samaraweera, at that time under heavy fire over co-sponsoring the Oct 2015 Geneva Resolution in spite of the then Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva Ambassador Aryasinha opposing the text at the first informal session there.

In spite of the change at the top, the Foreign Ministry followed Samaraweera policies.

The ‘yahapalana’ government was in a mighty hurry to finalize the Geneva Resolution though the accusations directed at the military weren’t proved or at least verified. Sri Lanka never challenged the primary accusation regarding the massacre of 40,000 Tamil civilians on the Vanni east front. The war winning Rajapaksa government simply neglected its responsibility by the armed forces and towards end of its second term, squandered taxpayers money by hiring US and other public relations firms to counter war crimes allegations. In other words, the Rajapaksa administration outsourced the responsibilities of the Foreign Ministry.

The Central Bank, too, played a significant role in the wasteful project meant to influence the US. Having lost the Geneva vote on war crimes thrice during the Rajapaksa administration (second term 2010-2015), Sri Lanka co sponsored an unprecedented resolution against its own in October 2015 under the UNP led ‘yahapalana’ regime.

Sri Lanka created history by being the first country to accept extremely hostile resolution in addition to recommendations meant to undermine the unitary status of the country. Marapana, too, followed the same policies.

Marapana lost the foreign ministry to Dr. Sarath Amunugama in Oct, 2018 though he regained it late Dec 2018 following the judicial intervention forcing the Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine to give up its project.

During the crisis triggered by Wickremesinghe’s sacking, an influential section of the international community openly threw its weight behind the UNP. The diplomatic community went to the extent of visiting the parliament during proceedings held therein. A delegation that included the EU assured Speaker Karu Jayasuriya of its continuous support. Having met the delegation, Speaker Jayasuriya issued a dire warning to Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine.

Those who had backed the US sponsored resolution as part of their overall project to humiliate the Rajapaksa administration are determined on the continuation of the UNP government.

Since those at the helm of political power had caused such vast scale destruction, Marapana should realize that the SLFS can never ever repair damage by adopting public diplomacy strategies alone at this stage. Marapana cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the current state of affairs even if he quits the government now.

Both the Rajapaksa and the current administrations caused havoc by depriving the foreign service of its rightful place. Had the SLFS received its due place and the politicians sought the expertise of the once proud arm of the State, the country could have handled difficult situations much better.

Contentious issues

The Foreign Minister still owed the country an explanation as to how Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Washington Prasad Kariyawasam contributed to TNA heavyweight M.A. Sumanthiran’s strategy meant to promote foreign judges in war crimes investigation mechanism.

The writer firmly believes that foreign judges and other experts should be part of the accountability mechanism to ensure public faith in the system. However, those responsible for the Geneva Resolution should re-examine allegations against the backdrop of revelations made in the House of Commons in Oct 2017.

Lord Naseby, on the basis of wartime dispatches (Jan-May, 2009) from the British High Commission in Colombo countered the primary allegation that the military massacred 40,000 civilians in the final phase of the assault on the Vanni east front. The Conservative Party politician made his declaration on the strength of documents (from the British High Commission in Colombo) obtained from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) with the intervention of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

The British dispatches estimated the maximum number of dead at 8,000. Wartime British Resident Defence Advisor (RDA) in Colombo Lt. Col. Anton Gash on the basis of information available to him from both parties to the conflict placed the number of LTTE dead at one fourth of 8,000. The British assertion tallied with the still confidential UN survey (Aug 2008-May 2009) carried out in the Vanni region with the help of NGOs, INGOs and government officials based there.

The British revelation obviously sent shock waves through the Sri Lanka government. The British, too, were shaken. The British did everything possible to deny Lord Naseby’s request for information from the FCO made on Nov 06, 2014. Had the British made available the required information immediately, the West would have found it difficult to pressure Sri Lanka over a Geneva Resolution. The House of Commons revelation in respect of war crimes in Oct, 2017 underscored the urgent requirement to re-examine the case.

The UN Secretary General’s spokesman, in response to a query from the writer said that Sri Lanka had an opportunity to appeal for re-examination of accusations. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government squandered a valuable opportunity. The Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine, too, did nothing during 50-day premiership of Rajapaksa. Having regained government and formed a new UNP cabinet on Dec 20, 2018, the administration is yet to do anything on the Geneva issue.

Marapana’s appeal to SLFS to protect Sri Lanka’s interests should be examined against the failure on the part of the political leadership to counter Geneva lies, even after the Lord Naseby created an opportunity.

Marapana should explain what he, in his capacity as the Foreign Minister, has done since August 2017 to counter the Geneva project. When the writer sought Foreign Ministry response over 10 days after the Lord Naseby’s Oct 12, 2017 House of Commons revelation, the following response was received from the Foreign Ministry on Oct 27, 2017: “The Government of Sri Lanka remains committed to national processes aimed at realizing the vision of a reconciled, stable, peaceful and prosperous nation.

Engaging in arguments and debates in the international domain over the number of civilians who may have died at a particular time in the country will not help resolve any issues, in a meaningful manner, locally, except a feel good factor for a few individuals who may think that they have won a debate or scored points over someone or the other.”

The writer secured this response through normal procedure without resorting to the Right to Information Act. It would be interesting to know whether the Ministry cleared the above statement with Marapana before sending it to The Island. The public also have a right to know whether the Foreign Ministry consulted the Attorney General, the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters as regards Lord Naseby’s revelation. The writer believed one-time Senior Additional Solicitor General Kapila Waidyaratne who held the post of Secretary Ministry of Defence at that time could have done something. Unfortunately, the former Attorney General (Marapana) and former Senior Additional Solicitor General (Kapila Waidyaratne) failed Sri Lanka.

About six weeks after the House of Commons revelation, Marapana side-stepped the issue in our parliament. Marapana assured parliament on Nov 26, 2017 that Lord Naseby’s statement would be used as ‘an ace’ when the time comes and at the right place.

Responding to a question raised by Joint Opposition Leader MP Dinesh Gunawardena, as to why Lord Naseby’s statement was not used especially at the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Minister Marapana said that the Government would use Lord Naseby’s statement at an appropriate forum.

Marapana said, “We are not saying that we will not use Lord Naseby’s statement. We certainly will use it at the proper time and at appropriate forums. There may be a time when the UNHRC will ask us to conduct investigations into the allegations of war crimes. We will use this statement when such a time comes. Otherwise, our opponents will find counter arguments so we must use it as an ace.”

MP Gunawardena alleged that the Foreign Ministry had not properly made use of Lord Naseby’s statement which categorically proved that the Sri Lanka security forces did not kill 40,000 civilians in the Northern Province during the final phase of the war.

Sri Lanka is yet to exploit Lord Naseby’s statement 14 months after Marapana’s assurance.

The Joint Opposition/Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna loyal to war winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa, too, should take the blame for the current situation. The JO never really pushed the government over the Geneva issue. The JO never took up the Geneva resolution when Mahinda Rajapaksa functioned as the Prime Minister for 50 days (Oct 26-Dec 15, 2018).

Last week, the writer dealt with the Rajapaksa administration’s failure to address the Geneva issue. The article titled ‘A General’s plight’ discussed how the war winning government neglected its responsibilities.

Perhaps, TNA spokesman Sumanthiran’s declaration in June 2016 in Washington is evidence that the Foreign Ministry fully cooperated with a section of the international community and one-time LTTE’s cat’s paw, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on hybrid war crimes court as recommended in the Geveva Resolution.

Lord Naseby’s challenge couldn’t have taken place at a worse time for those seeking to humiliate Sri Lanka. But, the writer’s understanding is the primary objective of Geneva is not war crimes but creation of an environment here to introduce a new Constitution. (Please refer to the then Human Rights Commissioner Hussein Zeid Raad Al Hussein statement dated June 28, 2016 which can be accessed online)

To be continued on January 23

Courtesy Adaderana

The Financial Crimes investigations Division (FCID) has informed the courts that they are currently investigating into an alleged financial fraud when purchasing Central Bank bonds in 2016.

The investigations are being led regarding an alleged Rs 80 million financial fraud when purchasing Central Bank bonds using funds from Employees’ Provident Fund in 2016.

Lanka Lead News

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කාබනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තය විනාශ කරමින් දිවයින පුරා වසංගතයක් බවට පත්ව ඇති ‘සේනා දළඹුවා’ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවට පැමිණ ඇත්තේ ඉකුත් 2018 වසරේ මෙරටට ගෙන්වූ බඩඉරිඟු බීජත් සමඟ යැයි කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තු අභ්‍යන්තර ආරංචි මාර්ග උපුටා දක්වමින් මුද්‍රිත සහ විද්‍යුත් මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කර තිබේ.

බහු ජාතික සමාගම් තුනක් හරහා මෙරටට බඩඉරිඟු බීජ ගෙන්වනු ලබන අතර ඉන් එක් බහුජාතික සමාගමක් සිය ඒකාධිකාරිය ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා මෙම දළඹු බිත්තර සමඟ බඩඉරිඟු බීජ ගෙන්වා ඇතැයිද මෙම වාර්තා වල දැක්වේ.

එම වසරේ බඩඉරිඟු බීජ මෙටි‍්‍රක් ටොන් 1200 ක් ගෙන්වා ඇති අතර එම අවස්ථාවේ මෙම දළඹු බිත්තර රෝග නිරෝධායන ඒකකයට හසුනොවීම පිළිබඳව බලධාරීන් සොයා බැලිය යුතු බවද සඳහන්.

ගෙන්වන ලද එම බීජවල සාම්පල් පරීක්‍ෂා කිරීමට හැකියාව ඇතැයද එම වාර්තාවේ තවදුරටත් දැක්වේ.

මේ අතර අද(22) ආර්ථික පර්යෝෂණ ආයතනයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්වෙමින් බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතාද මේ පිළිබදන අදහස් දැක්වීය.

Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc (SPUR) MEDIA RELEASE – January 2019

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) joins other nationalist organisations in strongly rejecting the constitutional changes proposed in the report recently tabled at the Constitutional Assembly by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Under those proposals, Sri Lank will be converted from a ‘Unitary State’, which has an internationally recognised meaning, into a deceptively named ‘Aekeeya Rajyaya’ or ‘Orumiththa Nadu’ composed of the Centre and Provinces.   This is a significant deviation from the Tamil term ‘Otriyatchi’ used in the current Unitary constitution.

Furthermore, the Provincial Governments will be granted extensive executive and legislative powers including those on state lands and finance.  The ‘Concurrent List’ will be weakened or entirely eliminated.  The Sri Lanka Police will be split into a National force and nine Provincial forces.  This will not only compromise nationwide operations against terrorism, drug trafficking and major organised crime but will also allow separatist leaders to abuse the Provincial Police for their own purposes, including against the other armed services of Sri Lanka.  Also included are provisions for two or three adjoining Provinces to merge, subject to a referendum held only in those areas.  In addition to disenfranchising the remaining population of Sri Lanka, this would allow the re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces to create a mythical ‘homeland’ as claimed by the Tamil separatist and the pro-LTTE diaspora.

The proposed Second Chamber, largely manned by Provincial Councillors, will further dilute the Unitary status of Sri Lanka by allowing ‘peripheral’ politicians, who have not been elected at a nation-wide election, the virtual power of veto over the Central Legislature.   Partisan representatives, particularly from the ethnic separatist parties, will make the country ungovernable and the passage of legislation a recurring exercise in wheeling and dealing.

At present, the Executive President of Sri Lanka is directly elected by all its citizens regardless of ethnicity, religion or regional interests.   This allows the peoples’ sovereignty over the entire nation to be exercised by the President and through the Provincial Governors, thereby acting as a counterweight to the separatist features of the 13^th Amendment.  However, under the proposed constitution, a titular President is to be ‘appointed’ by a simple majority of the ‘joint chambers’.  As the recent events in the legislature clearly demonstrate, this leaves the appointment highly vulnerable to political manipulation, financial incentives and foreign interference.  In addition, the executive power of the Provinces will be exercised by the Chief Minister and the Board of Ministers, with the Governors being reduced to the status of a mere figureheads.

It should not be forgotten that Sri Lanka was able to withstand a three-decade long campaign separatist terror, which saw large parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces under LTTE control as well as well as a ‘Unilateral Declaration of Independence’ by the Chief Minister of the temporarily merged North-East, due to its strong Central Government and the Executive Presidency.

The draft Parliamentary electoral system is both convoluted and unrepresentative, with many members to be appointed through party lists rather than by the people’s choice.  Apart from being a financial burden due the increased number of legislators, the appeasement of separatist forces is further demonstrated by the allocation of four Parliamentary seats over and above their calculated entitlement to the Northern Province.

Another suggested amendment is to the wording of the article on Religion, which requires ‘The Republic of Sri Lanka to give Buddhism the foremost place.  The objective of this change can be interpreted as an attempt to dilute this obligation of the State towards safeguarding Buddhism.

Not surprisingly, the draft constitutional changes are being strongly supported by the United National Party (which has not put forward any dissenting views or alternatives) as well as the Tamil National Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, with backing from some Non-Government Organisations and foreign powers which seek to weaken the Sri Lankan State.  Fortunately, their attempts to convince the public that Sri Lanka will benefit from this hasty and divisive attempt to alter the nation’s supreme laws is already being challenged by nationalist organisations, professionals as well as leaning Buddhist monks.

In conclusion, SPUR firmly believes that the composition of the current parliament, elected three and a half years ago, no longer represents the will of the people.  The Wickremasinghe regime has become a minority government which needs TNA and/or JVP support for its survival.  Its popularity has hit an all-time low as shown by the local government elections of February 2018.  While it is agreed that constitutional improvements are required, this task should be left to a future parliament that has a mandate based on the proposals presented to the people at a General Election.

Hence, we urge the Joint Opposition, the SLFP as well as the patriotic members of all other parties to oppose any moves to abolish the Executive Presidency and dilute the Unitary status of Sri Lanka.

Dr Dasarath Jayasuriya

(President)

Kanthar Balanathan

 Psychological Profiling of Muslims

Just in a few words, would like to draw attention to the psychological profiling of Muslims and its impact on other people. Muslims are religious fanatics and have a belief that Allah is the greatest of all and time, however, they have their own grave differences, e.g. Sunnies, Shiites and the recent Wahabis given birth in Saudi Arabia strategically prearranged by the British to divide and rule. Of course, they are a good corporative united race as far as they are concerned as Muslims like a family. However, they hate other religious groups and have the principal concept of JIHAD”, to fight against Islam (holy war). In their mind, any other religious group is an enemy of Islam. This is a psychological issue in the minds of the Muslims. Saudis have targeted a few people in SL to promote Wahhabism and populate SL with Wahhabis Muslims.

Muslims, wherever they are, will learn the local language only to integrate and capture power. In SriLanka, Muslims can talk Sinhale in Akuressa, Tamil in Jaffna, Hindi in Delhi, Urdu in Karachi and love to watch Urdu movies. However, internally they have the hatred against all other races. No other religious groups can build their own worship places in the Middle East. However, they think they have the right to build Mosques anywhere, which is the belief of the damn Tamils. Therefore, psychologically the Tamils and the Muslims run parallel with the same mental deficit. Muslims think they have the right to shout via speakers at 5 am about Allah” disturbing everyone. These are a mental weakness of Muslims. If we ask a Muslim scientist or a professional, will he/she agree on these issues?

Muslims have targeted the East as their own state and will be determined to get it. Why are countries like SL afraid of Muslim countries? It’s all because of the petroleum. Wherever Muslims are they have the petroleum under their feet. Of course, that’s why the US is destroying Muslim countries because of Muslims’ rigid concepts and the megalomaniac attitude. Muslims are NOT flexible and it is not a word with meaning in their dictionary. Now the East (Ampara republic), in a few years, Akuressa republic, then Wilpattu republic, then carve out a portion for Oattumadam republic, Mannar republic, and so on. On fifty years or more year horizon, this will happen if SL will not correct their vision through the smart mission.

Whose fault is that?

It is the fault of the Ceylon government, to have allowed differential laws in Ceylon. Muslim Law, Desavalamai, Kandyan, etc. Any country should have one law for the country. For political reasons and cheap votes, the politicians allowed Muslims to marry four wives, which will allow Muslims to proliferate in numbers. How is that polygamy is allowed in Islam? Isn’t that animalism? Only in the jungle animals’ mate with several females. Men or women with the sixth sense should think of the concept. Animals have only five senses and maybe 1% of the sixth sense. Most uneducated or rich Muslims run parallel to animals or possess animal instinct?

The main issue here is that they coagulate in one place and displace all others. Once they settle, they get other Muslims to join them. The village grows and becomes a town, then a city and finally a state/country. This is exactly is happening in France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, and Sydney in Australia. Some European countries will be taken over by Muslims on a twenty-five-year horizon.

Its high time GOSL stand up straight and tell all that SriLanka is a Sinhale Buddhist country and people who want to live must integrate. Democracy applies to all. Some groups cannot destroy the majority of a country. In SriLanka democracy seems to be reversible. A minority party leader becomes the Leader of Opposition (an old folk who cannot stand straight), Muslims holding several portfolios etc.

Let the Muslims and Tamils not hate SriLanka, because SriLanka and the Sinhale people gave life and growth to the damn Muslims and Tamils. Let them realize this fact. We should be grateful not become inimical. Some should know that they cannot hold portfolios if they were in the Middle East.

SRILANKA = ONE NATION, ONE COUNTRY, ONE GOVERNMENT, ONE ATMOSPHERE, ONE LAW TO ALL UNDER ONE CONSTITUTION. 

To be continued in 10

Kosovo was cut up from a balkanised Yugoslavia & given independence in 2008. Kosovo’s status is governed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 which envisages self-government for Kosovo, but acknowledges the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” Kosovo’s status was ONLY INDEPENDENCE. This meets the new ‘indivisible, undivided’ mantra that the TNA & constitutional promoters are chirping. Kosovo is ‘INDEPENDENT” & Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is still ‘sovereign & has territorial integrity” Same arguments will be used in Sri Lanka. Kosovo is the only ‘independent’ state where UN has been administering a territory pursuant to a Security Council resolution. Sri Lanka is likely to be the next if we do not stop this new constitution & this Western military base,

Today, Kosovo is a centre for drugs & prostitution. Only the West is in control of Kosovo. In Sri Lanka’s case ahead of any constitutional changes the US is about to start a military base and you can now understand why the return of the demand to re-merge North & East originates.

The players that promoted to ‘independence’ of Kosovo giving a mono-ethnic separate state are the same using the same arguments for Sri Lanka. Why are Sri Lankans not realising that they are walking into the same trap that Kosovo now finds itself?

The Propaganda Lies – just change the scenario to Sri Lanka

Media was paid to project that Serbs were killing Muslims (Albanians)

Media was paid to project Serbs as murderers and Muslims as innocent victims –

Media was paid to project that Serbs were killing and forcing Muslim Albanians out of their land

Media was paid to project that Albanian Muslims were the overwhelming majority in Kosovo (If Serbia is a legal entity and Kosovo is not, Sri Lanka is a legal entity Eelam is not)

Media together with the West chanted that they tried to win peace, they tried to bring peace, they tried to persuade Milosevic against brutalizing the Albanians but because it did not work they chose ‘independence’. We see how the same chants are taking place against Sri Lanka.

The buzz line used by the US, the EU, the UN, the paid media, paid propagandists was – NEED TO PROTECT MINORITIES (claiming commitment to multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-that….the solution was to divide a nation on ethnic lines… same is taking place in Sri Lanka)

If Kosovo is an example of an ethnic minority grabbing a piece of territory and permitting unrestricted immigration from neighboring states while ethnically cleansing the territory of all other groups and creating an artificial overwhelming ethnic majority to demand an independent state – Sri Lanka’s case appears identical. Tamil terrorists chased out Sinhalese and Muslim from North Sri Lanka to establish an ‘ethnic majority’ status and unrestricted immigration from Tamil Nadu is nothing that India can be happy with for the outcome is a pan-Western state out of both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka’s North. Kosovo Albanians have done what Sri Lankan Tamils are aspiring to do to Sri Lanka assisted by the same Western nations and players. But today Kosovo Albanians are suffering because of their own lies.

Kosovo has hardly a case for independence. Those who live in Kosovo are either Serbs or Albanians. They speak Serbian or Albanian. The Albanians already have a state – Albania. Why should there be 2 states for Albanians.

Global Tamils are 76million. 72million of them live in Tamil Nadu (a State in India defined as State for Tamils – where Tamils are the majority, Tamil is the official language and from where Tamils came to Sri Lanka) Tamils cannot seek a homeland in 2 different countries!

Hypocrisy of West. It grants independence to Kosovo while refusing to recognize Transnistria which declared itself independent from Moldova in 1990 after a referendum with 97.2% voting for independence. US, EU however recognized Montenegro’s independence referendum which hardly had a majority and Montenegrins in Serbia were denied right to vote. US, EU, NATO also opposed independence of South Ossetians from Georgia in 1990 though it has its own language. US, EU and NATO also opposed independence of Nagorno-Karabakh

The most important question is why does US, EU, NATO wish to give Kosovo independence while denying others. The answer is simple.

Kosovo is for the West a hub, it has placed a gigantic military base, Kosovo is a deterrent in case Turkey or Greece proves unreliable. Albanians would simply be cannon fodder for future imperial wars.

Grabbing North & East Sri Lanka for the West is bingo both geopolitically & trade wise.

[Replace Serbs with Sinhalese Buddhists and replace Albanians with Tamils and now Muslims to get a picture of what’s in store for Sri Lanka – Tamils need to then wonder what Albanians actually got]

Some truths people do not know

The International Tribunal discovered just over 2000 dead bodies – Mass graves was what Milosevic was accused of. Genocide is what Serbia was declared guilty of. Does this not show close parallels to the accusations of dead against Sri Lanka? There were no mass dead but there were over 5000 killed by NATO. We know the lies regarding Sri Lanka’s 40,000 dead.

For 3 month’s NATO bombed Serbia and destroyed its infrastructure – buildings, bridges, electricity installations, factories & ‘accidentally’ bombing the Chinese embassy and killing 3 Chinese (US paid $28m in compensation under strong Chinese pressure). NATO used cluster bombs, depleted uranium and cruise missiles for 11 weeks. 372 public industrial facilities NATO destroyed. The NATO bombings also included : bombing Radio Television Serbia killing 16 media workers, cluster bombing of Nis market shredding humans into meat, deliberate targeting of a civilian passenger train, using depleted uranium munitions and targeting petrochemical plants, causing toxic chemical waste to pour into Danube River even bombing Albanian refugees because they were not a number the West wanted to look after.

250,000 Serbs were forcibly driven out of Kosovo as Albanians represented by KLA accompanies by US Special forces killed and chased out the Serbs while NATO remained in barracks (March 2004)

The bombing came with a threat to Serbia – sign the Rambouillet accord or continue to face bombing. The Accord gave provision to US and NATO forces free and unrestricted passage and unimpeded access throughout” all of Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo. Watch out for Ahtisaari suggesting a similar Accord for Sri Lanka as compromise for Sri Lankan leaders not to be taken for war crimes.

Rambouillet Accord gave immunity to invading forces. They were immune from ‘arrest, investigation, detention’ by Yugoslav authorities. They were allowed to occupy and use ‘airports, roads, rails, ports without payment’. All telecommunications and communications were to also be granted to the West. Who took over Madeline Albrights firm The Albright Capital Management Group of which she was head. Kosovo economy was to also function according to free market principles. Milosevic was threatened to sign off Serbia’s sovereign rights. His death has silenced the world from discovering the truth. Will Sri Lanka’s public officials be alert enough to the clauses like to accompany the Pillai investigation obviously on the instructions of Western imperialists?

The US, NATO, European allies became the knights in shining armour given approval to KILL and murder Serbs so that Serbs would not kill Muslim Albanians (what logic)

Martti Ahtisaari the UN special envoy to Kosovo had been paid 40million Euros by the Albanian Mafia to deliver Kosovo independence. German Intelligence has proof but UN never investigated because other skeletons would come out of the dirty closet.

The US built a gigantic military base using engineering skills of Halliburton subsidiary, Brown & Root Services Corp, Camp Bondsteel, covering some 955 acres or 360,000 square meters. The camp also includes a prison. U.S. Army base Camp Bondsteel has been implicated by the Council of Europe as a secret detention and torture facility.

The Kosovo Verification Mission led by William Walker, U.S. ambassador to El Salvador during the 1980s is alleged to have colluded with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) – the biggest lie was the Racak massacre of January 1999 used as an excuse for NATO to bomb Serbia. Clinton allowed Serbia to be bombed by NATO for 78 days in a row.

The Kosovo Liberation Army was trained and armed by the West. Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bisset implicated the CIA, along with the British Special Air Service, Germany’s secret service-the BND-began recruiting Albanian Kosovars in 1996 – the KLA massacres led to Serbian response and gave NATO the chance to intervene and bomb Serbia on March 24, 1999 unauthorized by the UN Security Council. An imaginary genocide was created. Just as the same set of people are creating an imaginary genocide of 40,000 to 125,000 Tamils none of whom they can even name as being killed or even born.

The mass graves in Kosovo eventually numbered 2,788 bodies though media hyped about a genocide. Most of the corpses were Roma or Serbs killed by KLA forces. The same is happening to Sri Lanka. It is just as well we are able to see the parallels.

Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal for Kosovo Independence as UN special envoy of UNSG was delivered after accepting a 40million euro bribe by the Albanian mafia (German intelligence report reveals full details of financial transaction with bank accounts) – Ahtisaari was appointed as ‘EXPERT’ by Navi Pillai to probe Sri Lanka.

The most important take from Kosovo independence was that THERE WAS NO PLAN TO PERMIT ALBANIANS TO CONTROL AND RUN KOSOVO (Sri Lankan Tamils, please note this). What the West & UN did was to appoint an International Civilian Representative (ICR) a position passed amongst imperialists only.

Additionally, the EU established a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) Mission. This mission was to help establish – sustainability, accountability, independent judiciary, independent police, independent customs service (remember Kosovo is the drug hub), independence from political interference, rule of law (Navi Pillai has been chorusing these for some time on Sri Lanka) Sri Lanka’s North is also turning into a regular drug transit zone.

Kosovo provides a free market” for 70 percent of Europe’s heroin in addition to human trafficking services, and murder of non-ethnic Albanians remains common

The European Security and Defence Policy Mission was given authority to cover war crimes, terrorism, organized crime, corruption, inter-ethnic crimes, financial/economic crimes were ‘properly prosecuted’ (in other words, only EU, US, NATO and their co-partners could commit crimes any others would face ‘rule of law’)

NATO established the International Military Presence in Kosovo tasked to train Kosovo Security Force

INDEPENDENT KOSOVO has no say in taxation, on foreign policy, security policy, on customs, on law enforcement – What Kosovo got was only the word ‘INDEPENDENT’ of Serbia. (THE SRI LANKAN TAMILS MUST READ AND BEAWARE OF WHAT HAPPENED TO KOSOVO NOT TO BE PARTY TO THE SAME HAPPENING TO SRI LANKA – Sri Lankan Tamils must now begin to ask themselves if they too want only the word ‘independent’ of Sri Lanka while foreign nations and their collaborators run a divided Sri Lanka?) Lets be clear that the locals supporting this endeavor must be promised places within this new arrangement. As people who have no affinity to country, culture, its history or heritage – money talks and money pulls them on board.

Post-Kosovo Independence rule of law (under EU,US, UN, NATO presence and administration) has been plagued with : enforced disappearances, inter-ethnic crime, complaints by relatives of missing and ‘disappeared’ that they have been interviewed too many times by the ‘international police’ with no progress made, trial proceedings conducted in a language not understood by accused or their counsel, no translations only summaries, trials in absentia, use of anonymous witnesses (Refer Amnesty International report). All these things the West demanded of Serbia not to do the West ends up committing in independent Kosovo.

Quotes to watch out for being repeated on Sri Lanka

Richard Holbrooke as saying The recognition of an independent Kosovo and eventual membership in the European Union would be the best way to bring permanent peace and stability to the Balkans.’

In June 2005, Annan appointed Norway’s ambassador to NATO, Kai Aide, to determine if Kosovo has made progress in meeting Western standards on democracy and minority rights to merit a decision on its final status. It was just a sham.

Annan appointed former Finnish President Marti Ahtisaari as his special envoy to lead the negotiations on Kosovo’s final status. Ahtisaari was hardly credible. Chairman of International Crisis Group and Board of Soros Foundation, ICG has been pushing for Kosovo independence (ICG has similar chants on Sri Lanka). On ICG’s boards sits Wesley Clark, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Joschka Fischer, Morton Abramowitz and Samantha Power.

There are more questions we need to start thinking about.

Why didn’t Russia come to Milosevic’s aid?

Why didn’t Russia and China come to Libya’s aid?

Sri Lanka cannot PRESUME China will come to Sri Lanka’s aid unless China’s stake in Sri Lanka is important enough to protect. It is the same logic that is reason why Russia has kept West controlled in Syria.

Countries do not come to Sri Lanka’s aid because they like our leaders, enjoy our hospitality or think Sri Lanka is a lovely country. Countries have interests and securing those interests are what they are concerned about. Our fault has been in not aligning ourselves with proper power blocs. We cannot be a friend to two enemies at the same time. The enemies will eventually gang up against us. We are riding too much on luck.

Our leaders need to realize that there are enemies within giving dangerous advice.

Tamils need to realize that the entire ‘Tamil’ minority concern is just a camouflage to be used to ‘intervene’ in Sri Lanka. Do they wish to play a part is what they now need to ask themselves out loud.

Tamil politicians will jump to play apart because they see only personal benefits and care not for Tamils or the future of Sri Lanka and the same can be said of the other politicians as well too.

As Sri Lankans we must together rise to protect our nation.

Shenali D Waduge

www.shenaliwaduge.com

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

20 January 2019

Hon. Tilak Marapana
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sir Baron Jayathilaka Mawatha
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka

Dear Honourable Minister:

I was intrigued to read the news item Marapana instructs Lankan diplomats to boost image of Sri Lanka overseas” on Monday 14 January, 2019.”

In the body of the news item, it said: Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana has called on Sri Lankan diplomats to boost the image of Sri Lanka overseas through efficient and effective execution of public diplomacy utilising its intrinsic  brands such as Buddhism, gems, tea, spices, high-end export products and the warmth of traditional Sri Lankan Hospitality.”

I understand that all this was said at the certificate awarding ceremony on 11 January to new officers recruited to the Foreign Ministry, after a two week long

Public Diplomacy and Media Relations training program organized by your Ministry.

Let me share my observations with you, Mr. Minister, to be fair to the new recruits who will be handling the Communications country’s image building portfolio which had been tarnished by the Tamil separatist lobby since  June 1983.  And they are still at it, day in and day out.

I am going to be honest and I am going to be blunt and you can take it for whatever it’s worth.  I was invited in 1989 by President Premadasa to help him in these files at the Ottawa High Commission as he realized that it wasn’t adequately accomplishing to his satisfaction by the incumbent officers who play musical chairs coming and going every three years.

I understood well President Premadasa’s concern, as  I as an Ottawan since 1968,  found the performance of the Communication officers at the Mission pathetic.  And we  ‘Sinhalese’ patriots had to fill in the gaps working on our own time, spending our own monies, while most of the Mission’s communication officers were taking the credit riding on our backs, to pick up brownie points to justify their presence at the Mission. There are many incidents that I can quote which I am livid about.

I hasten to add, that I was no friend of President Premadasa, nor a relation of his, nor wanting a job at the Mission to educate my kids in Canada, or earn a wage from thd Sri Lanka Government.  By the time I had that request from President Premadasa, I had never set eyes on him, and was an employee of the  Canadian Federal Government for 20 years as an IS6 grade officer pulling in a decent wage.  He obviously had been briefed by who ever it was, of my aggressive activism as the Chairperson of Project Peace for a United Sri Lanka to guard the good name of my Motherland, Sri Lanka, and went toe-to-toe with the Sri Lanka rubbishing Tamil separatists and the Canadian parliamentarians of the Liberal, Conservative and NDP parties who still  support the cause of a separate Tamil State Eelam.

My partners at Project Peace were two amazing Sinhalese patriots, Asoka Yapa and Harrison Perera, both who were bright clinical debaters, who could articulate well, thread English words into convincing sentences, and both happen to be Christians, who were prepared to hold the hands of a Buddhist, that’s me, to guard the good name of our Motherland, Sri Lanka.  We were brothers-in-arms throughout phone threats by the Tamils to blow us up, and a good section of the Dinner gathering critics of  the Sinhalese community in Ottawa who did not support our stance, but bashed us behind our backs.  There were flies on the walls during these dinner gatherings who sneaked to me later of what went on and what was said,

Like one June 1987 night around 11:00, the phone rings and an agitated female voice said, Asoka, you don’t know me, but  please don’t ask my name but I want to talk to you, or I will not be able to sleep tonight.”

Sorry, Madam, these are not the days for me to talk to phantoms. Please tell me who you are and then we can continue our conversation.”  Finally she obliged.

And she said, I was at a dinner at the home of ?Mr & Mrs. X, and all during the night I saw the dinner party group stabbing you, kicking and quartering you.  The only thing that I didn’t see was them burying you.  All because you are defending Sri Lanka’s good name.   I know you can handle the Tamils, but please be careful of your own people.  They are your enemies.”  That was tough.  I dismissed the crowd at these dinner circles as a bunch of ‘spineless nincompoops who lacked the courage  to confront me face-to face and say to me, Asoka, you are full of shit!”  And I resent intimidation.

After agreeing with the wages, cum housing allowance, cum entertainment allowance, which was still $200 less of the wages I was earning at the federal government, I resigned from the Canadian federal government and reported for duty, on June 1, 1989, at the Mission at 85, Ranged Road in Ottawa  A BIG MISTAKE.  I will come to it later.

And now comes the  appalling, disgusting and shocking state of affairs at the Mission. There were no Benchmarks for me to follow as a Communications Officer to build the image of Sri Lanka. In other words, Mr.Minister, there were sweet ‘F-all’.

No Sri Lankan artifacts, like masks, brass crafts, baticks, 35mm slides, nor a Kodak Carousel to show the slides with a up/down screen, gems, no library, or Sri Lanka flags…..nothing…nothing…nothing, There were sweet buggerall.  I was annoyed since this Mission had been established in 1967, I believe.

My work experience had been in the UK and Canada  and never in Sri Lanka, and I refused to change gears to accommodate the way things were done in Sri Lanka. It certainly didn’t jive with me.  Like playing games of ‘I am a Tin God’, making appointments to meet a client at 9:00 in the morning, and the client happens to be a Torontonian, setting off for the appointment at 4:00 in the morning, to sit on a chair in the reception area at 9:00 in the morning and only to be called to be interviewed at 11:00.  This I thought was not acceptable and unprofessional.

When I was taken to my office which was situated next to the High Commissioner’s Office, I asked the Chief Clerk, Is there a typewriter in the office?”  The answer came back, No, no, Mr. Weerasinghe, you don’t have to type letters, we have a’ Stenographer to type the letters.”   Sorry Karunaratne, I want a typewriter on my desk as that will be my workhorse.  I will type my own letters.”  The following morning there was a brand new electric Brother typewriter on my desk.  And I typed my own letters, 100s and 100s of them every month.

Lucky for President  Premadasa, when he hired me for the job, I came with my personal Museum quality mask collection, puppets, facsimiles of Heritage flags (I am a Museologist, former Head of Thematic Research at the National Museums of Canada: and Head of Exhibits, National  Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa), my political library, my 35mm slides of Sri Lanka and organized carousels for my private presentations with my poetry on Sri Lanka, et cetera.  I had little choice but to use my personal Libraries and artifact collections to get on with my work.  President Premadasa trusted me and expected me to produce.  And so I did.

And here  is what I achieved in Communications during my  5 years to promote the Image of Sri Lanka.

Were the Foreign Ministry personnel helpful so that I could get my job done.  There was ZIP support from your Ministry.  Well I was a pariah in away having taken one of their jobs and would do anything to sabotage my work.  Starting with refusing to provide me with a business card,  I refused to pay for it.  It was a fight between HC Walter Rupesinghe and whoever it was at your Foreign Ministry.    I got the message and it was not going to  be a nice five years but it was not going to phase me out either. They got it wrong.  I was a professional in the field of communications.  Just too bad for them.

They prompted Minister C.V. Gunaratna to question my appointment in parliament.

Pity he wasn’t around when I left the Mission in June 1994, as I would have met him and challenged his questioning in parliament as I was no dodo,  That if he can produce a single career diplomat during the past 20 years who had done an equally good job or  better than what I have done for Sri Lanka, that I would be prepared to give back every cent that I was paid in wages to Sri Lanka’s Treasury.  And if he failed that he should arrange with the Sri Lankan Government to pay me  the rent allowance, may be $2000s a month (in fact it was more than that)  for the five years that I was employed by the Foreign Ministry. And that he do the the simple arithmetic – $2000 x 12 x 5,   That is how much I lost in wages having left the Canadian Federal Government to help President Premadasa in a time of crisis  And I had a mortgage to pay.

1. Between June 1989-May 1994, I had 56 letters out of 64 to Editors on behalf of the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, all vetted by HC Walter

Rupesinghe and HC Walter Fernando published. I did not go through the Foreign Ministry as I wanted the response to go out within 36 hours.  I did not have the time to fart-around, waiting for approved drafts to come from Colombo.  My drafts edited and approved by the HC’s was good enough for me   I had my strategy how to get our letters published The Letters picked up ink in

The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa)

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

The Toronto Star (Toronto)

Surrey North Delta Leader (British Columbia)

The Whig-Standard (Kingston)

Star India Journal (Toronto)

The Island (Sri Lanka)

What was interesting was when the Minister at the Indian High Commission who was responsible for Communications invited me for dinner at the Chateau Laurier one day,  during dinner he asks me, Ashoka, tell me. everytime we open the Ottawa Citizen, letters page, there is a letter from you for the High Commissioner.  We cannot get a single letter published.  How do you do it?”  So I had to tell him and coach him how to go about it.

What was disappointing for me was, since I was not given an entertainment allowance as promised, I couldn’t reciprocate his courtesy.  That Sucked!  So much for being an employee of the Sri Lanka Government.  The worst employer I had in my working career.

2. Participated in the Community Channel TV Shows to promote Sri

           Lanka’s image.

            I scripted and produced nine (9) ‘’SONGS OF LANKA’ for MacLean-Hunter

Cable TV, Ottawa in their Studios.

Highlighted the following in these half-hour shows:

Dancing – Tea Plucker’s Dance

                             Gajaga Vannama

                             Harvest Dance

             Kavi Maduwa

             Sinhala & Tamil New Year

             Kataragama

             Tea and Tea Gardens

             Gem mining

             Gems and Jewellery (Modelled by Ms. Chitranganee Wagiswara,

then First Secretary at the High Commission)

Kolam and Sanni Masks

             Puppetry

             Elephants and its influence on folk art

             Bharata Natyam

             A Muslim Dance

             Elephant Orphans at Pinnawela

             Wesak

             Interviewing Air Commodore Leonard Birchall

             Poetry on Sri Lanka, reading to Primary School

             Children with 35mm slide images, etc.

The children came in school buses with their teachers

to 85 Range Road.  Since I had No entertainment

allowance as promised (That Sucked), I requested HC Rupesinghe to

provide the children with Orange juice and doughnuts.  He very kindly

obliged.  (And you talked of Sri Lankan hospitality.  Hmmm!   That does not

exist  in an environment of cussedness of Tin Gods and Goddess towards

pariahs outside the Career Diplomatic community. I say, Tough-Tiddy, Mr.

Minister.  I don’t buy that rubbish.)

Note that all the artifacts, film clips and video clips were from my personal rich

Library,  The antique Kandyan silver jewellery were from my wife’s collection,

purchased from Sriya and Daya Curio Shop at 493 Peradeniya Road, Kandy.

AS I TOLD YOU EARLIER, THE HIGH COMMISSION IN OTTAWA HAD SWEET BUGGERALL UNTIL 1994 TO PROMOTE SRI LANKA’S IMAGE.  Perhaps it has changed for the better since then.

After seeing the SONGS OF SRI LANKA  half-hour shows on the Community TV

Channel, the Communications Officer for the Malaysian High Commission invited me for lunch  at Haveli Indian Restaurant in downtown Ottawa.  During our meal he exuded how much he enjoyed our Sri Lanka Image promotional Shows, and asked me to walk him through how I produce such a Show,  So I walked him through the time of my scripting, Studio recording  the segments and I being the MC to editing and up to the airing the Show.,  Wow Man, that is too much for me, and I doubt I could handle it”, and he abandoned producing such TV Shows for the Malaysian High Commision.

You know, Mr.Minister, what sucks me most was the inability to reciprocate  the Malaysian diplomat’s courtesy and invite him for a lunch to discuss matters of mutual interests in Communications to promote our countries, without being given an Entertainment Allowance.

3. Participating in public exhibitions to promote the image of Sri Lanka and her good name.

  The Art of Healing: Ritual Masks of Sri Lanka (Canadian Museum of  Civilization, Ottawa) with the  Sanni Mask collection of the Museum and my    private collection.  July 1990 – February 1991.

  Festival of Masks: Sri Lankan ritual Masks (Provincial Museum, Quebec, with my private collection.  (August 1993.)

Sri Lankan-Canadian Writers in English (Provincial Museum, Edmonton,

Alberta.)  (August 1993)  The books came from my personal Literature library.

 Focus on Sri Lanka. (Algonquin College, Ottawa, February 1991).

All artifacts and Sri Lankan posters dry-mounted on gatorfoam were from my  private collection.

 Sri Lankan Heritage (facsimiles) flags, puppets and masks were from my  private collection with well researched labels at National Arts Centre,

Ottawa.  (February 1990).

The Canadiana Fund.  Sri Lanka Kolam Masks from my private collection at The National Gallery of Canada,  (October 1993).

Heritage Flags of Sri Lanka (Facsimiles) from my private collection at Heritage Day, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  (April 1992)

(Mr. Minister, here is an ugly fact about one of your Diplomatic passport carrying Minister Counsellors at the Mission, Weragama, apparently who was responsible for Communications angered me so much that I restrained myself from kicking his raw behind. This Diplomat lacked the sophistication to phone me and ask me, Mister Weerasinghe, I understand you always had Sri Lankan masks exhibited at  public evens and I  cannot find them, do you know where they are?”   I could have told him,

       The reason you couldn’t find them was because all of them belonged to me and were from my private collection and they are with me at home.  If  you wish to borrow them for an event you are most welcome to borrow them as long as you will assure me that you will take good care of them  as they are valued Museum quality pieces and I don’t want them to be  damaged.”

        But do you know what, this rascally Diplomat did?  He spread the word  That  I had removed (stolen) the masks from the Mission.  I am still livid and after 24  years I want to get hold of his collars, shake him like a rag doll until his bones rattle and fall at his feet. So much for the diplomats who are sent to the Mission in Ottawa,

         On 14 February 1997, I sent a letter to HIgh Commissioner Ananda  Goonasekera explaining my anger towards  this Diplomat attaching copies of receipts of my purchases of masks in Sri Lanka going back to Did  I get an acknowledgement for my letter from this senior career diplomat?

         Na! Not a whimper. He had decided to ignore my letter there by covering Diplomat Weragama’s arse,  Too bad as it has left a bitter taste in my tongue for this long. So much for Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry diplomatic  administrative etiquette and courtesy.  Doesn’t say much, does it,   Mr. Minister?

    Public Talks:

Sri Lankan Healing Masks: Delicious Nightmares,  Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa.  Exhibited a few Masks from my private collection with explanatory labels.

Claim for a Separate State for Tamils in Sri Lanka: The Eastern Province

Whose Home Land? – at SLUNA, AGM,  Toronto. This was the basis for an

Editorial in The Ottawa Citizen.  It was claimed by the High Commission that

they were the instigators of the Editorial.  I managed to kill that ‘Brownie Point

notion as they were trying to ride on my (expatriate) back.  Minister, that was

Sick and a loud  No…No. I had sent a copy of my SLUNA-talk to the Editorial Board of the Ottawa Citizen the following day.

 Buddhist Spirituality in Meditation at Sai Baba’s 20th Anniversary

celebrations  in Ottawa.

5,    Show and Tell talks on Sri Lanka to Middle School children in Ottawa’s

             National Capital Region.

I introduced myself as the Communications Officer at the SriLanka High

Commission to the Ottawa Board of Education and the Carleton Board of

  Education and that I was available for a Show and Tell talk on Sri Lanka at

any of  their schools  The response was impressive and I ended up

presenting one-hour talks at 13 local schools.

             All what I requested from the Principals were a VHS player and a Globe.

The VHS Player was to play for them a couple of video recordings  of our

panoramic Sri Lanka, and the other of the Pinnawala elephant orphanage,

which was always a hit.  Both VHS recordings were from my private video

Library as the Mission had sweet buggerall in communication props to

promote beautiful Sri Lanka’s images, Gems, tea gardens, etc,

The Globe was to pinpoint where Ottawa is and tell them how far apart we

live.  That when I get on the plane after dinner at home, I will still be

travelling in the plane and have breakfast in the plane before I get

down at England’s London airport to change into another plane to fly to

Sri Lanka’s airport in Colombo.   So I will be having Lunch in the plane,

and Dinner in the plane, and sleep in the plane, and will be woken up by

the Air-hostess to have breakfast and about another almost two hours

flying I will land in Sri Lanka’s airport.  That is how far we are in Ottawa

from Colombo in Sri Lanka.  It is 32 hours of travelling from door to door.

I used my artifacts, crafts, masks,  gems and jewellery to show and allow

them to touch them.  They are in awe every time I place a sapphire, a ruby

or a moonstone on their palms.

Mr. Minister, I wanted to hand one of our Sri Lanka flags to the Principal of

the school that I gave a talk and requesting the Principal to hang it on

Commonwealth Day.  So I requested the Foreign Ministry to provide me

with a dozen large flags.  My request was ignored. Why should they!   The

exercise for them is to screw Asoka and not help him to be successful in

his assignment.  After all they got Minister C.V, Gunaratne to question my

appointment to the Canadian Mission taking over one of the  career

Diplomat’s jobs.

.

But, Minister, I was asked by President Premadasa to help him in the

Communications portfolio and that is what I was determined to do. And

I was ever so thankful to him for giving me the opportunity to give back

five years of my life to my Motherland who nurtured me for the first 19

years of my life.  I owed it to her.  I just couldn’t turn my back on her,

So I requested my sister to go to Laksala, buy me a dozen large Sri

Lanka  flags and send them over to me.  Thanks to my Sybil akka, she

did,  and they were handed over to Principals at the 13 schools where I

made presentations on Sri Lanka.  The Foreign Ministry’s uncooperative

attitude to sabotage my work, really sucked.  There are many ways to

skin a cat and I wanted to have the last laugh!  It was a mini-war.

6.   Helping Canadian High School Students and one Graduate Student

                   to use SRI LANKA as their country assignments.

                  During the Summer when the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa is on

recess the Junior Commonwealth Conference is held in the Parliament

chambers,   and High school Nominees from each province congregate

there.

1. Three High School students from British Columbia had been assigned

Sri Lanka as the Commonwealth country that they should represent.

They had made an appointment with HC Walter Rupesinghe to meet

with him to get some information about Sri Lanka.  After having a chat

HC Rupesinghe passed them on to me to collect some Tourism

brochures etc.

I asked them and their teacher whether they would like me to coach

them. They jumped at the idea, and so I coached them.

They did so well that they went back home carrying the trophy for the

Best  Country Presentation.  And the country was our Sri Lanka.

As a Thank You, they took me together with their teacher to dinner at

the Chateau Laurier,

1.   A British Graduate student at the Patterson School of International

Studies at Carleton University, contacted me wanting some information

on Sri Lanka. We met and I proposed that if she adopts Sri Lanka as her

Subject country of studies that I will provide all the necessary research

Material  and my writings on the subject from my personal political

Library.   She happily agreed.  The High Commission had sweet

buggerall to provide such research material.  So I, on behalf of the Sri

Lanka High Commission collaborated.

A highlight of this collaboration was when the Graduate student played

a  recorded voice tape to HC Walter Rupesinghe of her seminar on Sri

Lanka, and after  presented the tape to him.  She started the seminar

by introducing herself as I am Walter Rupesinghe, the High

                    Commissioner for Sri Lanka, and I will be making my presentation

                    for my country on…………..”

High Commissioner Rupesinghe was impressed how exact she were

and how well she presented his case for Sri Lanka.  She was given an

A+ for the seminar.

7.  Working with the Parliamentary Spouses Association to produce

                      a video on Sri Lanka to be distributed throughout  Canada’s

                      parliamentary constituency offices to celebrate the Literacy week. 

                      The video was recorded at the High Commision at 85 Range Road

while I  was making a presentation to middle-school children on

Sri Lanka.  The personal letter sent to me by Sue Evans, the

President of the Parliamentary Spouses Association on a paper

with their banner on June 1, 1993, will relate the success of the

effort by the High Commission promoting Sri Lanka’s image. The

letter was hand written.

Dear Mr. Weerasinghe:

                        What a delight it was to be at your presentation on Sri Lanka!  I

                        can hardly wait to see the video tape…we expect it next week.

                        Thank you so much for your enthusiasm for the Literacy Project

                        and for your willingness to become personally involved. It was

                        a pleasure to meet you and join the children in learning about

                        your country.

                        I have always loved poetry – but do not profess the skill to write

1.   After listening to your poems and those of your wife, I was

                       struck by the intimate details conveyed by just a few words of a

                       Poem….

                        On behalf of all our members I want to thank you for supporting

                        this project.

                                                                                   Sgnd. Sue Evans”

8.  University Thesis Adviser

Was adviser to two Masters students at Carleton University.  One on

Anthropological significance on Sri Lankan Masking

                         ceremonies. 

And the other to an International Political Science student on

 Sri Lanka: Aid and Development in today’s political

                         environment.

9. Provided Research materials and my published essays and

                         critical writings from my personal library, to Ph.D., M.A., and    

                         B.A students for their Theses, and Special Term Papers

                         exposing the perspective of Sri Lanka Government’s position in                   

                         the ethnic  crisis. (The High Commission had sweet buggerall

                         to help these students and that is why I used material from my

                         private Library at home.)

Carleton University (Ottawa); Ottawa University (Ottawa); McMaster

University (Hamilton, Ontario); Brock University (St. Catherines,

Ontario);  Brad College (New York, US); University of Windsor

(Windsor, Ontario);  McGill University (Montreal); Concordia

University (Montreal); Simon Fraser University (Burnaby B.C.)

University of Victoria, (Victoria, B.C,); University of British

Columbia (Vancouver, B.C.) and University of Manitoba (Winnipeg,

Manitoba).

10. Canadian National Museum’s Sri Lankan Artifacts

Adviser on cataloguing Sri Lankan artifacts at the Canadian

Museum of Civilization.

11.    Press Releases – 223
12. Sri Lanka News Letters – 53

13,   Information Kits.

When the Foreign Ministry nor the Department of Information

were not providing information kits to be used as tools for

defending Sri Lanka’s good Image, I requested High

Commissioners Walter Rupesinghe and Walter Fernando to find

me funds to produce 100 Information kits ($600 for each title).

I researched, wrote and produced such kits for our

dissemination. among Canadian law-makers and Sri Lanka

watchers who had sold their souls to garner Tamil votes   So

these were Information Kits that I produced for the use by our

High Commissioners  They were professionally produced and

looked attractive with silver coloured information kit folders tied

with green ribbons.

 The Information Kits were:

                               Sri Lanka: Human Rights (July 1991);  Sri Lanka: a Mosaic at

                               a  Glance (January 1992) and Sri Lanka: A Hidden Secret –

                               Quick Facts (January 1994)

And do you know what,Minister?  The smart  Alec Minister

Counsellor who joined the Mission after I left, tried to claim  that

he authored them. What a way to pick up Brownie points for

survival.  I pointed out that he was a liar.

The comment from Mr. Bradman Weerakoon (Adviser on

International Relations to the President), said in a letter to

HE Walter Fernando on 16 March 1994 –    …….. I am sure

                                  Asoka Weerasinghe, your innovative colleague working on

                                  Press relations must have helped in the compilation of

                                  these papers.  They contain authentic, factual matter which

                                  is being used by us at different times. The value of the

                                  information is that it is not long winded, but concise and

                                  focused on the Issues on which people have queries…..”

Minister Marapana, by now you may have realized that requesting the new recruits to the Foreign Ministry to Boost the Image of Sri Lanka overseas through  efficient and effective execution of public diplomacy, utilizing its intrinsic brands such as Buddhism, gems, tea, spices…..” without providing Communication tools,  will go nowhere.  They will be lost.  I have proved to you that communication tools were the reasons for the success in my efforts to Boost the Image of Sri Lanka overseas.” There is no other way unless the career diplomat is innovative and creative.  I challenge anyone to prove at the Foreign Ministry me wrong.

I want you to be fair on these new recruits.They will achieve nothing unless the Government provides them the tools to get on with their jobs  Tourism brochures ain’t enough..

That is  the basic Labour Code.  Give your people the tools and they will get on with their jobs.  I can speak on the pre-1989 Ottawa Mission.  That Mission was a disaster with sweet buggeral to help  a Communications officer to be effective.  I did my job as requested by President Premadasa, as I was willing to make use of my private collection of cultural artifacts and my political and literature libraries and not charge back for the use of my private material and Sri Lanka got a good deal hiring me.  And I believe  I did a fairly reasonable job.   The two High Commissioners, Walter Rupesinghe and Walter Fernando were pleased.

My Political Library and writings were donated, 30 boxes of them, to the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University at Ratmalana, on November 2013.

While I say Boo” to Minister C.V. Gooneratna for questioning my appointment at a senior position at the High Commission in Ottawa, in Parliament and Boo” to those at the Foreign Ministry who prompted him to question my appointment, I am prepared to tell you frankly, that the Sri Lanka Government was the worst employer I worked for.  If I could give a grade between 85 to 95% to all my employers in the UK and Canada, I could only give Sri Lanka measly 35% and nothing more,and that is a failing  Grade.

And Mr. Minister, you could quite happily have a sigh of relief. that  this appointee of President Premadasa’s was a hard worker and that you all got back value from me for every cent you all paid me.  And thank  your God  that I was no thief, a rogue or a pick-pocket picking a poor man’s pocket while doing a job for your Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  as there have been several in your Ministry’s fold.  I am clean.

And before I conclude I want to identify two groups of people to say Thank You for

giving me some faith on Sri Lankan colleagues who I was in contact with while working at the Sri Lanka High Commision in Ottawa, not having worked for a Sri Lankan outfit before.

Firstly, for High Commissioners Walter Rupesinghe and Walter Fernando, who softened my embarrassment for not being provided as promised an entertainment allowance to reciprocate  courtesies of my media and communication contacts and  contacts with diplomats from the Asian Missions like India, Bangladesh and Malaysia who had luncheon and dinner meetings with me and emptied their wallets to pay my bills.

The two High Commissioners  were extremely gracious to invite all my contacts for a dinner at the High Commissioner’s residence, once a year,  and asking me to extend invitations to them for our National Day celebrations.  I am really, really thankful for their sensitivity and sincerity for helping me out.  Two absolute gentlemen that Sri Lanka’s Diplomatic Corp should be proud of.

Secondly, I want to identify three persons two from the Foreign Ministry and the third a President’s appointee, who commanded my respect as working colleagues. They may have  had difficulty in accepting my working etiquette dealing with Canadians and Sri Lankan-Canadians who tried to harm my Mother Lanka, but at the end of the day they knew that my heart was where it rightly belonged in an effort to, guard my Mother Lanka.  And that I was on a Mission – no one, absolutely no one harms my Motherland unfairly.  The three are the late Rodney Vandergert, Chitranganee Wagiswara and Bandula Jayasekera,  I doff my hat to all three of them most affectionately and sincerely.

And to conclude this strange experience working for the Sri Lanka Government’s

Foreign Ministry let me tell you that on my return from lunch on 5th February 1993,  and way to my office High Commissioner Walter Rupesinghe called me in and we had a chat.  He was on his way  back home, to Sri Lanka, after the end of his tour of duty.

He said that he was sorry that I was treated badly by the Sri Lanka Government and that I was out of pocket in wages by thousands of dollars, having left the Federal Government, but I hope this will show you my appreciation for helping me  out and for having a good working relationship”, he said, and handed a piece of paper typed on the High Commision letter head.: It  was dated 5th February 1993 and said:

 Mr. Asoka Weerasinghe functioned as my Media and Communications Director during  my term of service in the High Commission.

      Asoka’s passionate love for Sri Lanka and his superb understanding of our political, economic and social problems, made him admirably suited to promote the Image of the country and to counter the adverse publicity generated by elements hostile to our democratic lway of life and the unitary state.  Asoka carried out these arduous and challenging duties with exemplary enthusiasm and finesse.  He is indeed an asset to the Mission.

      Asoka is an artist, poet and a person of several other intellectual pursuits.  The amalgam of all these attributes, not often found in one person, made him a Media and Communications Director par excellence.

       I wish him well in all his future endevours,

                                                                       Sgnd.  Walter Rupesinghe

                                                                        High Commissioner”

Sincerely

Asoka Weerasinghe

 lanka C news

අද කාලයේ භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේලා හමුවට ගිය විට කියන්නේ බොන්න එපා, සිගරට් බොන්න එපා පුළුවන් තරම් දාන දෙන්න ආදී වශයෙන් බව හිටපු ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද‍්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග මහත්මිය පවසයි.

එනිසා තමන් බණට වැඩිය යන්නෙත් නැතැයිද ඇය කියා සිටියේ උක්සව සභාවක් අමතමිනි.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන්ගේ හැසිරීම ගැනද ඇය එහිදී දැඩි විවේචන එල්ල කලාය.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

Initially all the above three parties were talking very much about what they called the injustices that had been done to the Tamil people in the North and East and added that a new constitution will be introduced to devolve land, Police, administrative, fiscal and other powers to the provinces under the new constitution which is being formulated by Sumanthiran-Jayampathy Wickremaratne duo to redeem the so-called injustices. .  The terrorist grandpa Sambandan and the diaspora proxy Sumanthiran carried out a continuous process of meeting foreign Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Heads of UN organisations and visiting foreign dignitaries and requested them to urge the government to implement this federal and secular constitution before the end of last year.

However, their target misfired owing to the October 26^th Revolution which dismissed  terrorist docile Ranil Wickremasinghe from power by replacing him with motherland friendly the leading patriot and populist Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.  This power change  jolted the constitution dreamers as Sambandan had met Mr. Rajapaksa several times since 2015 January and begged him to extend his support their new constitution or at least remain silent about it enabling to get it approved. Each time Sambandan met Mr. Rajapaksa he has firmly and unswervingly rejected Sambandan’s plea. Undoubted it was the main reason that Sambandan wrote a long letter to President Sirisena (published in Mawbima on 30^th November in full) urging him to re-appoint the government that was in existence in prior to October 26^th and the Parliament has twice passed motions expressing majority confidence in Ranil Wickremasinghe and also stating that his party the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would extend their unstinted support for Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe to function as the Prime Minister once again.

Following his reappointment Ranil once again revived his constitution project in devoted gratitude for Sambandan’s assistance and several delegations of UNP MPs (one of which headed by his cousin earmarked by Wijewardene family to be the future leader of the UNP) to meet the Mahanayake theros of the Tri Nikayas to solicit their expressed or silent support to the so-called constitution and assuring them clauses related to the status of the country and Buddhism will not be changed.  The Mahanayake theros admiringly and upholding their duty to the nation and Buddhism have repeatedly reiterated their stance against the so-called constitution and pointed out that the demand of the people throughout the country is to hold an  early election.

Although Ranil Wickremasinghe and his acolytes in the UNP,  particularly the butterfly clan now deny the existence of the proposed Sumanthiran-Jayampathy constitution its contents seem to be well known to everyone in the country.  According to what that have been published by the print, social and digital media following are some of the features of the said constitution.

• The status of Sri Lanka will be an Orumitta” nadu – a union of different (provincial) administrations.
• Buddhism will be accorded prime place, other religions in the country will also be given equal status;
• Governors of the provinces will not be under the President of the country, but they will be obligatory to the Chief Ministers of the relevant provinces. ;
• People of the provinces can decide on merging with another province;
• Land, Police, administrative, fiscal, educational, health and other powers will be devolved to the provinces;
• There will be 233 members in the Parliament;
• A second chamber (a Senate) will be established;
• The senate will have 55 members consisting 5 members nominated from each province and 10 members nominated by the Parliament;
• All legislations should be approved by the Senate
• Provinces can directly negotiate and approve foreign investments and establishment of foreign aided projects;

Most of these clauses have adapted from U.S based TGTE’s, Transnational Government of  Tamil Ealam’s constitutional charter and from LTTE’s ISGA ( Internal Self Government Authority) which  has been accepted by both Ranil and Chandrika but the implement of which was stalled by accession to power by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005.With all these and some other features in place, how can an ignoramus section of the UNP docile to Ranil Wickremasinghe say that there is no written constitution yet despite Sumanthiran-Jayampathy duo claiming the constitution has been formulated and it needs to be submitted to parliament for approval by 2/3 majority, approved by 150 members. Sumanthiran reiterates that they will get it b approved before 4^th February this year and already 21 SLFP MPs have pledged to support the measure.

It is here that the shameless old hag Victor Ivan’s bandit queen Chandrika is destined to play a major role.  Reports said that she has been paid a huge amount of diaspora funds to get herself involved in the horse trading and it was also mentioned that Sumanthirans 21 SLFP MPS will get Rs. 200 million each.  Recent reports said that Chandrika will join the government as a UNP National List MP and she would get a very powerful Ministerial portfolio, and the UNP National List MP Milroy Fernando is to resign and pave the way for her entry to Parliament.

In addition to this,  it was also reported that a new party named Sri Lanka Progressive Democratic Party (SLPDP) led by her is under formation and the main office bearers of this new party will be – Duminda Dissanayake – Secretary General, Reginald Cooray – Propaganda Secretary, and G.H.Buddadasa, – Treasurer.

It must be reminded that the Sinhalese, Christian and Muslim people of this country cannot expect any services from Chandrika as she made a statement recently regretting for being unable to serve the Tamil people while she was the President and stated that in future she was going to serve for  only the Tamil people as there is more than 200 MPs in the country to serve for the non-Tamil people.  At least the people of the Gampaha district keep this in mind and publicize it when elections come.

The Mahanayake theros, the other Buddhist monks, the other religious prelates, the patriotic masses of all hues devoid of political, ethnic and religious affiliations should be very cautious about this old hag Victor Ivan’s bandit queen’s moves as she would indulge in any shameless and treacherous activities not expected from a woman to prevent Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa regaining power and that is why she had come back to politics since the time of UNP-TNA Singapore agreement in 2013 despite her proclamation to several foreign correspondents that she would never to return to politics in Sri Lanka.

In conclusion it is also pertinent to present  a brief account of the veteran journalist and Sunday Island political columnist C.A.Chandreprema’s (CAC) column dated 20^th January under the title Achieving Tamil Aspirations through Sinhala Leaders” which says that Ranil Wickremasinghe dodging questions raised by the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mahinda  Rajapaksa told the parliament that the opposition and the ‘black media’ was attempting to espouse racism making much criticism about a non-existing constitution.

CAC said that at this point it may be pertinent to inform that the Experts Panel Committee report that was tabled in the form of a draft constitution is the same document that was exclusively reported on and analysed in The Island in eight articles in July/August last year.So how can the doubled tongued Ranil Wickremasinghe and his butterfly coterie deny the existence of a draft constitution?

In conclusion of his long and very informative article CAC states that so long as the TNA persists in this attempt to use Sinhala leaders to achieve Tamil aspirations, they are destined to suffer one disappointment after another. There is nothing called honour among opportunists. He asks how many more of these fiascos can the TNA afford to suffer? He points out that in the   2018 February local government elections, the votes received by the TNA declined by over one half in the Tamil heartlands of the Jaffna and Batticaloa districts. The ITAK and its allies had never suffered such a decline since it was founded in the 1950s. They managed to get a Mayor elected in the Jaffna Municipal Council only with the help of the EPDP.

The behaviour of both Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe should show the TNA that their attempt to use Sinhala leaders to achieve Tamil aspirations is never going to work because after any leader takes the reins of power, all that he will be interested in is to stay there for as long as possible

සාකච්ඡා කළේ: රුවන් ජයවර්ධන

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති යනු පසුගිය කාලය මුළුල්ලේ ම අපේ රටේ ජාතික මතවාදය නියෝජනය කරමින් තමන්ගේ අදහස් නවතම ආකාරයකින් ඉදිරිපත් කළ ‍අයෙකි. ඔහුගේ අදහස් බොහෝ ලෙසින් ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන් හට ලියා දැක්වූයේ දිවයින” පුවත්පත ඔස්සේ ය. එම අදහස්වලින් යම් ප්‍රමාණයක් ගොනුකර ඔහු විසින් ලියාපළ කර ඇති කාවන්තිස්ස වැඩපිළිවෙළ” ග්‍රන්ථය ජනගතකිරීමේ අවස්ථාවක් මෙම අඟහරුවාදා (ජනවාරි 22 වැනි දා) සවස 3.00 ට කොළඹ නව නගර ශාලාවේ දී පැවැත්වේ. පහතින් පළවනුයේ එම ග්‍රන්ථය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සහ අද අප මුහුණ පා සිටින ගැටලු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහු දැක්වූ අදහස් කිහිපයකි.

කාවන්තිස්ස වැඩපිළිවෙළ” කියන මේ පොත මාර්ගයෙන් ඔබ කියන්න උත්සාහකරන්නේ මොකක් ද?

අද අපි ඉවරයක් නැති ප්‍රශ්නවල පැටලිලා පීඩා විඳින ජාතියක් බවට පත්වෙලා. මේ එක ගැටලුවක්වත් විස‍ෙඳෙන පාටක් නෑ. මෙහෙම වෙලා තියෙන්නේ ඇයි? මට හිතෙන විදිහට මේක පැහැදිළිවම දැනුම සහ ආකල්ප පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නයක්. විභාග මුල් කරගත්ත ප්‍රශ්නවලට උත්තර සපයන අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක් මිසක් ගැටලුවලට විසඳුම් හොයන අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක් අපිට නෑ. ඉතින් අපේ ගැටලු මොනවා ද, ඒ ගැටලුවලට හේතු පාදක වී ඇති කරුණු මොනවා ද, විසඳුම් මොනවා ද, ඒ විසඳුම් කරා යන්න පුළුවන් මාර්ග මොනවා ද කියලා හඳුනාගැනීමක් අපි කරන්නේ නෑ. මේ පොතෙන් මම ඉදිරිපත් කරලා තියෙන්නේ මෙන්න මේ සත්‍යය හතර පිළිබඳ බොහොම කෙටි පැහැදිළිකිරීමක්.

ඇයි ඉතින් මේක කාවන්තිස්ස වැඩපිළිවෙළ” කියලා නම් කළේ?

අද හැමෝ ම උත්සාහකරන්නේ දුටුගැමුණුලා වෙන්න. ඒත් කාවන්තිස්ස රජතුමා හිටියේ නැති නම් අපිට දුටුගැමුණු මහ රජතුමා ලැබෙන්නේ නෑ. කාවන්තිස්ස රජතුමා කරපු දේ ගැන අපි හැමෝ ම දන්නවා. එතුමා බොහොම ඉවසීමෙන් ඉතාමත් ශක්තිමත් හමුදාවක් සංවිධානය කළා. යෝධයෝ හැදුවා. ගොවිතැන් කරවලා හමුදාවලට ඕන කරන කෑම සම්පාදනය කළා. තමන්ට ගෑණු ඇඳුම් එවද්දි පවා ඒ අපහාසවලින් කම්පා නොවී එතුමා ඒ කටයුත්ත කරගෙන ගියා. ඉතින් අද අපිව පීඩාවට පත්කරන ගැටලු විසඳාගන්නත් අපිට ඕන කරන්නේ ඒ විදිහේ හොඳින් සංවිධානය කරපු, විධිමත් වැඩපිළිවෙළක්. මේ පොතෙන් ඒ වැඩේට ඕන කරන මූලික පාඩමක් සපයන්න පුළුවන් වුනා කියලා මට හිතෙනවා.

එතුමා හමුදා හැදුවේ යුද්ධ කරන්න. ඒත් දැන් අපිට තියෙන්නේ සමාජ ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්න ගොඩක්නේ?

ඔව්. එතුමා හමුදා හැදුවේ යුද්ද කරන්න තමයි. හැබැයි අද අපේ තියෙන සමාජ ආර්ථික ප්‍රශ්න විසඳාගන්නත් එක්තරා ආකාරයක යුද්ධයක් අපිට කරන්න වෙලා තියෙනවා කියන එක අපි තේරුම්ගන්න ඕන. මේක එක්තරා ආකාරයක සමාජ යුද්ධයක්. ඒ වගේ ම ආර්ථික යුද්ධයක්. මේක කරන්න බෑ කලබල වෙලා. කලබල වුනොත් උණු කිරිබතක් වුනත් කන්න බෑ. අතයි කටයි දෙක ම පුච්චගන්න වෙනවා. ඉතින් අපිට සමාජ ආර්ථික ක්‍ෂේත්‍රවල හමුදා හදන්න වෙනවා. ඒ ක්‍ෂේත්‍රවල යෝධයෝ හදන්න වෙනවා. මේක හැම ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයකට ම අදාළ කතාවක්. අපිට ආර්ථික යෝධයෝ ඕන. කලා ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ යෝධයෝ ඕන. කෘෂිකර්ම ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ යෝධයෝ ඕන. කර්මාන්ත ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ යෝධයෝ ඕන. ඒ විතරක් නෙවෙයි. අපේ ශාසනයට පවා යෝධයෝ ඕන වෙනවා.

මේ හැම ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයක් ගැන ම ඔබේ පොතෙන් කතාකරනවා?

නැහැ. මම කතාකරන්නේ මූලික කාරණා කිහිපයක් විතරයි. මගේ අවධානය වැඩියෙන් ම යොමුවෙලා තියෙන්නේ සමාජ – ආර්ථික ක්‍ෂේත්‍රවලට. මම ගිහියෙක් හින්දා ශාසනික කරුණු ගැන කියන්න ගියේ නෑ. හැබැයි ආර්ථික කරුණුවලට අදාළ දේවල් ජාතික, ප්‍රාදේශීය විතරක් නෙවෙයි ගම් මට්ටමින් පවා මම සාකච්ඡා කරලා තියෙනවා. අලුත් ආර්ථික ආකෘති ඉදිරිපත් කරලා තියෙනවා. ග්‍රාමීය ආර්ථික කටයුතුවලට අදාළ අධ්‍යාපනික විසඳුම් පවා යෝජනා කරලා තියෙනවා. ජාතික මට්ටමේ අලුත් සංස්කෘතික උත්සව ගැනත් කියලා තියෙනවා. ආර්ථික සම්පත්වල ජනතා අයිතිය පිළිබඳ අලුත් ආකෘතියකුත් ඉදිරිපත් කරලා තියෙනවා.

ඔබේ අදහස් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන්න පුළුවන් කියලා ඔබ හිතනවා ද?

පොතක් ලියලා ප්‍රසිද්ධ කරපු පමණින් මේ අදහස් ක්‍රියාවට නංවන්න පුළුවන් කියලා මම හිතන්නේ නෑ. මේ අදහස් ජනතාව අතරට ගෙනියන්න ඕන ප්‍රායෝගික විදිහට. ඒ හින්දා මම මේ පොත පොත් කඩවල විකුණන්න දාලත් නෑ. අතනින් මෙතනින් පොතක් විකුණුනා කියලා සමාජ මතයක් හැදෙන්නේ නෑ. මේ අදහස් සමාජගත කරන්න ඕන සංවිධානාත්මක ප්‍රායෝගික වැඩපිළිවෙළක් හරහා. ඉතින් දැනට හැදිලා තියෙන විවිධ සමාජ සංවිධාන හඳුනාගෙන ඒ අයත් එක්ක මම මේ අදහස් සමාජයට ගෙනියනවා. මේ වෙනුවෙන් දේශපාලනික සංවිධාන එක්ක වුනත් එකට එකතුවෙලා වැඩකරන්න පුළුවන්.

මේ ඉදිරිපත් කරලා තියෙන්නේ ඔබේ ම අදහස් ද?

එහෙම කියන්න බෑ. අපි අහසින් වැටෙන ඕපපාතික මිනිස්සු නෙවෙයිනේ. මේ සමාජයේ ඉන්න මිනිස්සුන්ගෙන් තමයි අපි වැඩියෙන් ම ඉගෙනගන්නේ. ඒක පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය, විශ්වවිද්‍යාල අධ්‍යාපනය වගේ සීමිත එකක් නෙවෙයි. ඉතින් මේකේ තියෙන සමහර අදහස්වලට පොඩි ළමයි පවා මට ගුරුවරු වෙලා තියෙනවා කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්.

විශේෂයෙන් ම ඔබට ගුරුවරු වුනු පිරිසකුත් ඇතිනේ?

ඔව්. මූලිකව ම ගෙදර පසුබිම, දෙමව්පියෝ අමතක කරන්න බෑ. මම පුංචි කාලේ තාත්තා කියපු කතා අහලා වැලිවලින් රුවන්වැලි සෑය, ජේතවනාරාමය, අභයගිරිය වගේ දාගැබ් හදපු හැටි මට තාමත් මතකයි. ගෙදර පොත පත තිබුණු හින්දා පොඩි කාලේ දී ම ඒවා කියවන්නත් ලැබුණා. වයස අවුරුදු දහයේ දී මහා වංශය පවා කියෙව්වා. මේ විදිහේ අධ්‍යාපනයක් ඉස්කෝලෙන් ලැබෙන්නේ නෑ. ඉතින් වයස අවුරුදු පහළොවක් දාසයක් වෙන කල් ගෙදරින් ලැබිච්ච මේ ආභාෂය අමතක කරන්න බෑ. මට වයස අවුරුදු දාහතරක් පහළොවක් විතර වෙද්දි අපේ ගෙදරට දිවයින” පත්තරේ පටන්ගත්තා. මතක විදිහට 1984 අවුරුද්දේ විතර ඉඳලා. ඉතින් ඔබතුමාලාගේ දිවයින” පත්තරේ පවා මගේ දැනුමත් අදහසුත් පෝෂණය කරපු සරසවියක් කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්.

ඒ කොහොම ද?

මේක මට විතරක් අදාළ කාරණයක් නෙවෙයි. අද මේ රටේ ඉන්න ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන් අතරින් සෑහෙන පිරිසකුත් බිහිවෙලා තියෙන්නේ දිවයින” පත්තරේ මුල් ගෙදර කරගෙන කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්. අපේ ප්‍රශ්න දිහා ජාතික ඇහැකින් බලන්න පුළුවන් ගුරුවරු විශාල පිරිසක් ඔබතුමන්ලාගේ පත්තරෙන් හඳුන්වලා දුන්නා. ඒ අයගේ අදහස් නිතර ම දිවයින” පත්තරේ පළවුනා. ඒ අතර අගමැති අයියා – ඒ කියන්නේ මුදියන්සේ තෙන්නකෝන් මහත්තයා, රත්මලානේ රුහුණු වෙද මහත්තයා, බිංගිරිය දේවගිරි රජමහා විහාරයේ නායක හාමුදුරුවෝ, සූරිය ගුණසේකර මහත්තයා, නලින් ද සිල්වා මහාචාර්යතුමා, ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහත්තයා, ජී අයි ඩී ධර්මසේකර මහත්තයා, ශ්‍රී ජයවර්ධනපුර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ වැඩකරපු එච් ජී චාල්ස් මහත්තයා වගේ සෑහෙන පිරිසක් හිටියා.

මාක්ස්වාදී අදහස් ඔබට බලපෑවේ නැති ද?

නෑ කියලා කියන්න බෑ. ඉස්කෝලේ යන කාලේ ම මම ඔය ලෙනින්ගේ මාක්ස්ගේ සමහර පොත් කියෙව්වා. ඒත් ඒ අදහස් ගැන මට එච්චර ආශාවක් ඇතිවුනේ නෑ. සම සමාජ, කොමියුනිස්ට්, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ වගේ වමේ කියලා හඳුන්වාගන්න පක්‍ෂ ගැන මට කවදාවත් පැහැදීමක් තිබුණේ නෑ. ඒ කොහොම වුනත් ‍ටිකෙන් ටික හරි මාක්ස්වාදී අදහස් ඔළුවට කාන්දුවෙලා නෑ කියලා කියන්න බෑ. මාක්ස්වාදී අදහස් විතරක් නෙවෙයි ලිබියාවේ ගඩාෆි ජමාහිරියා සංකල්පය මුල් කරගෙන ලියපු අදහස් පවා මගේ අදහස් පෝෂණය කරන්න බලපාන්න ඇති කියලා මට හිතෙනවා. ඊට අමතරව මම මහ බැංකුවෙත් අවුරුදු 18 ක් වැඩකරලා තියෙනවානේ. ඉතින් බටහිර ආර්ථික මූලධර්මත් මට බලපාලා තියෙනවා.

එතකොට චීනයේ අත්දැකීම්?

ඔව්. චීන අත්දැකීම් මට බලපෑවා කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්. මම චීන භාෂාව යම් තරමකට ඉගෙනගෙන තියෙනවා. අවුරුදු පහළොවකට වැඩි කාලයක් චීනයේ ඉතිහාසය, සංස්කෘතිය, සමාජ – ආර්ථික කරුණු, දේශපාලනය ගැන හොයලා තියෙනවා. මම මගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධිය ලබාගත්තෙත් චීනයේ සන්නිවේදන විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයෙන්. අවුරුදු හයක් විතර කාලයක් මම චීනයේ ගතකරලා තියෙනවා. ඉතින් ඒ අත්දැකීම් මට බලපෑවා. ඒ විතරක් නෙවෙයි. බටහිර මූලික කරගත්තේ නැති ඇහැකින් ලෝකය දිහා බලන්න පවා ඒ අත්දැකීම් මට උදව්වෙලා තියෙනවා.

චීනයෙන් අපිට අනතුරක් වෙයි කියලා ඔබට හිතෙන්නේ නැති ද?

නෑ. මම එහෙම හිතන්නේ නෑ. චීන මිනිස්සු ඉතිහාසයේ කවදාවත් සංස්කෘතික මිෂනාරි වැඩ, ආගමික මිෂනාරි වැඩ, අධ්‍යාපනික මිෂනාරි වැඩ, දේශපාලනික මිෂනාරි වැඩ කරලා නෑ. එහෙම වැඩ දැන් කරනවා කියලා පේන්නත් නෑ. අපේ දුර්වලකම් හින්දා ඒ අය අපෙන් යම් යම් ආර්ථික ඵල ප්‍රයෝජන ගන්න බවක් නම් බැලූ බැල්මට පේනවා. අපේ දුර්වලකම්වලට අනිත් මිනිස්සුන්ට බැනලා වැඩක් නෑ. අපි මුලින් ම කරන්න ඕන අපේ අඩුපාඩුකම් හදාගන්න එක. එහෙම නැතිව චීන කොළණි, අර කොළණි, මේ කොළණි කතා කිය කියා හිටියා කියලා අපිට සුගතියක් අත්වෙන්නේ නෑ. අද අපිට ඕන අපේ අඩුපාඩු හදාගන්න වැඩපිළිවෙළක්.

ඒ කියන්නේ, කාවන්තිස්ස” වැඩපිළිවෙළක්?

ඔව්. ඒ විදිහේ විධිමත් සහ ශක්තිමත් වැඩපිළිවෙළක්. අනිත් අයගෙනුත් ගන්න පුළුවන් උදව් ඇරගෙන ස්වශක්තියෙන් නැගිටින්න පුළුවන් අපේ ම වැඩපිළිවෙළක්. කාවන්තිස්ස වැඩපිළිවෙළ” පොතේ තියෙන්නේ ඒ වගේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් සඳහා ඕන කරන මාර්ගය පෙන්නලා දෙන මූලික අදහස් කීපයක්.

SENA MAHAWATTE Colombo 5 Courtesy The Island

President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) made it possible for all Sri Lankans to live in safety and peace by totally defeating a ruthless terrorist organization by our valiant security forces a decade ago, in spite of these mighty powers who warned that these ruthless terrorists cannot be defeated, but banned them from their own countries and introduced a Resolution accusing our security forces of all manner of imaginary charges based on a Darusman Report and Channel 4 who never even stepped into Sri Lanka and also cannot be question their findings for 30 years!

During President MR’s government, at a meeting of the UNHRC, where a vote was taken India voting against this US resolution in Geneva said “AN INTRUSIVE APPROACH THAT UNDERMINES NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY IS COUNTER PRODUCTIVE”. But unfortunately, I feel that we did not have the trained minds to make use of the opportunity to get this vengeful resolution based on imaginary assumptions removed from further discussion.

Now that MR is the Leader of the Opposition which in a democracy is a highly recognized Office, I like to suggest that he now uses his Office to save our security forces from this vindictive UNHRC resolution, even though it has been cosponsored by our slavish government.

The sponsor of this vindictive resolution the US has now pulled out from the UNHRC and US Ambassador Nicky Hayley described it as “a Cesspool of political bias and as a hypocritical and self-serving body”. Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapakse, who was deprived in his effort to get a general election, could now devote his efforts to get this damning UNHRC Resolution withdrawn by the sponsors. To successfully achieve this task he will need to get together an effective committee.

The foremost action is to invite Lord Naseby to Chair this committee, who has already” asked the UK and the US to withdraw UN resolution against Lanka” as he has unearthed valuable relevant facts. ( The Island of 10th July 2018).

Wishing you the support of all Sri Lankans that you will succeed in saving the honour of our security forces and also bring about reconciliation of all communities living in Sri Lanka as we have lived for centuries together. But as long as this Resolution remains in the UNHRC, it will be difficult to achieve reconciliation. Then the only way is to leave this stinking cesspool as the sponsor the US has already done calling it a biased cesspool.

By Vishwamithra Courtesy The Daily News

People’s perception matters and it’s not only critical, it’s indispensable

If you’re not branding yourself, you can be sure others do it for you.”~Unknown 

The United National Party (UNP) had a problem with its branding since its earliest days. Being directly and closely identified with the Colombo-based elite usually clad in western suits, foreign-educated, uncomfortable with the vernacular and being confirmed as a political party always backing capitalist economic theories and practices, had been significant and essential elements of the then UNP. These facts are beyond refutation. Furthermore, its leadership from D.S. Senanayake up to J.R. Jayewardene belonged to this exclusive ‘club.’ I have written extensively on this subject, especially on the UNP’s perennial problem of being a ‘slave’ of the Western powers. However, this is more a perception than a fact.

This is where ‘branding’ comes into play. The brand of any product is not what the owner of the product wants it to be; it is what the customer/consumer perceives it to be. This fundamental marketing principle seems to have evaded all the UNP leaders right up to J.R. Jayewardene’s time. Although JR himself had been a woeful victim of this perception problem as far as his own brand was concerned, he managed to put it to rest when he took over the reins of the party. Of all the UNP’s leaders in the fifties, sixties and seventies, JR was portrayed and defined by his political enemies as well as friends as one who was a lackey of the West, who had no empathy for the average man, whose policies and principles were diametrically opposed to those pursued by politicians whose reading of the pulse of the common man was much sharper and more accurate. Nevertheless, before embarking on the making and unmaking of JR’s brand, I hasten to delve into the unmaking of the UNP’s brand in general.

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike began his political career with the Sinhala Maha Sabha. The Sinhala Maha Sabha was a political party in Ceylon founded by Bandaranaike in 1934-35, substantially in order to promote Sinhalese culture and community interests. Nationalistic in its fundamental outlook and approach to resolving issues of the day, the Sinhala Maha Sabha attracted many a member of the locally-educated elites of the time. Having realised that he could not achieve his personal ambition of becoming the Prime Minister through the UNP, SWRD left it in 1951 and formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

If there were one politician who understood the underpinnings of political branding at that time, it was Bandaranaike. He not only knew the UNP’s branding deficiencies, he also understood what the need of the majority was at the time. He also knew that the majority Sinhalese Buddhists in Ceylonin the immediate aftermath of Independence was a largely neglected segment of the population and any emotional appeal to that vast majority, if marketed aggressively well, would be a winning formula. In other words, he created an exclusive brand for his party. From the leader downwards — that is Bandaranaike himself — to the ordinary electorate organiser, every activist and those Buddhist monks who supported the Bandaranaike cause took that brand new ‘brand’ across the country. Sanga, Veda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru became that brand. And that was indeed quite a powerful and unreservedly-emotional appeal.

In order to ‘right the untold wrongs visited upon the overwhelming majority,’ Bandaranaike most lucidly articulated, ‘the country’s political dynamic needs a right about turn.’ By ousting the UNP from power, the majority of the Ceylonese population that consisted of Sinhalese Buddhists who lived in the rural villages could assume a supreme status that they so richly deserved; English-educated and English-speaking Colombo based ‘pukka sahibs’ need to go; commanding heights of the economy must be with the people and in order to achieve that noble goal, all profit-making private business ventures must be nationalised. Caught on the crossroads of the ‘cold war’ between the Western powers led by the United States of America and the Soviet Union-led Eastern European bloc, an appeal to nationalisation of the country’s commanding heights of the economy had increasing charm. Whether Ceylon at the time possessed the administrative and financial wherewithal to run these nationalised institutions was a different matter altogether. Yet the brand that Bandaranaike created endured and it is still relevant today.

This was the genesis of the ‘common man’s party.’ Bandaranaike and his SLFP’s not only went to great lengths to spread this new narrative as a party and the sole representative of the Sinhalese Buddhists; they also took care of the adverse narrative in respect of their main political rival UNP’s brand. Backed by the leftwing political parties at the time, Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) led by Dr. N.M. Perera, Communist Party (CP) led by Dr. S.A. Wickramasinghe and Viplavakari Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP), later Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) led by Phillip Gunawardana, the campaign to malign the image of the UNP, the Bandaranaike stalwarts went to work. They were successful up until 1977.

1977 was a different year. A watershed in Sri  Lanka’s politics, the unprecedented victory in 1977 for the UNP was no accident. The subjective appeal that the Bandaranaike-led coalition of the centre-left failed to change the objective conditions in the country; the common man’s misery continued and worsened by the year; the sugar-coated slogans lost their meaning and the common man’s party became an uncommon political entity governed by one single family deeply entrenched in the vested interests of a bygone era of feudalism. SWRD’s widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, by sheer strength of her personality, transformed that common man’s party into a party of intense corruption whose sole purpose was to enrich her family both politically and otherwise. Aided and abetted by another Bandaranaike, namely Felix Dias, Sirimavo and her SLFP presided over the affairs of the common man’s party. They crushed the foundations laid down by its founders.

J.R. Jayewardene was one politician who understood these contradictions within the SLFP and its phoney brand of the common man’s party. After taking over the helm of the UNP 1973, JR transformed his party not overnight, but over a period of 3 to 4 years; he changed the objective conditions that surrounded his party; he transformed the party of the rich into a party of the educated rural youth who appealed to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in the country. And he facilitated the rise of Ranasinghe Premadasa, a déclassé representative, a real common man to the helm of the party. It is not an exaggeration to surmise that Ranasinghe Premadasa would never have become the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the phoney ‘common man’s party’.

In addition to Premadasa, leaders of the stature of Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali, Nissanka Wijeratne, all educated and well-informed men of the day, rendered their time, energy and know-how to the party’s transformation from that of an uncommon man’s party into one that deeply cared about the common man. It is this UNP that Ranil Wickremesinghe, the current supremo, took over the leadership of. The UNP has not recovered from the serious setback it has suffered ever since the departure of Premadasa, Gamini and Lalith. Once again the top leadership of the UNP has become an exclusive club. It consists of some Colombo-based pseudo-intellectuals whose socio-political goals are far too divorced from those of the majority in the country. Yet the second tier of the UNP looks promising, Karu Jayasuriya, Sajith Premadasa and Navin Dissanayake. But unfortunately, the country does not see the UNP as the party of theirs; it is still portrayed as the party of Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ‘exclusive club.’ What needs to happen in order to change this adverse brand-effect of the UNP? One doesn’t have to look elsewhere. The talent, energy and motivation are all richly present within the UNP itself. When the presidential elections were called by Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015, there was one person in the UNP who could have delivered the same or even better result that Maithripala Sirisena was successful in delivering and that was Karu Jayasuriya. Why on earth Ranil refrained from consenting to Karu Jayasuriya’s nomination is a mystery.

A strong sense of security is a quality of a consummate leader. Ranasinghe Premadasa did not have that sense. That was why he resorted to the ugly means of preventing Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali from gaining popularity among the masses. It was J.R. Jayewardene who was quintessentially secure in his position. When men and women of puny stature are invariably drawn inwards in order to secure themselves, strong ones look outwards to draw better talent to enrich the party and enhance its image. That is precisely the fundamental difference between a leader like JR and Premadasa. Ranil Wickremesinghe has fallen into the Premadasa category.

If the United National Party is intent on being victorious at the forthcoming presidential elections, it has to change its brand. The people’s perception matters and it’s not only critical, it’s indispensable. Ranil Wickremesinghe has only one choice, he has no second option. And the one way in which he can change the brand of the party he says he loves so much is by nominating a new face for the forthcoming presidential elections. And he has to announce it now. Each day he waits without doing it is costing his party dearly.
The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com

List of Journalists , Eminent Lawyers , Students killed by UNP !

https://youtu.be/sfpQpHRcRCM

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, January 19 (The Citizen): Sri Lanka’s premier Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), is caught in a cleft stick.

On the one hand, it has to cooperate with and need be prop up the United National Front (UNF) government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Tamils see Wickremesinghe as being sympathetic to their interests and concerns in contrast to opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is seen as being anti-Tamil”. The TNA has to do the utmost to keep Rajapaksa away from power.

But the TNA needs Rajapaksa’s Joint Opposition Group and President Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to get the two thirds majority necessary to get a new pro-Tamil constitution passed by parliament. The challenge is to oppose Rajapaksa and yet get his support for a new constitution.

Dire Political Necessity

The TNA’s political future, indeed its very existence, depends on what it does at this juncture when the constitution-making process has reached a critical stage and political opinion is still very sharply divided on it.

The opposition led by Rajapaksa has virtually declared war on the attempt to change the constitution. Sirisena’s SLFP is not enthusiastic about it. The silence of Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (SLFP) is ominous, though leader Wickremesinghe himself is in favor of a new constitution.

In fact, the TNA had a hard time getting Wickremesinghe to table the draft constitution approved by the Steering Committee.

It had to use the recent constitutional crisis to force him to agree.

Constitutional Crisis Offered Opportunity

The bargain was struck during the October-November 2018 constitutional crisis which was triggered by the unconstitutional ouster of Wickremesinghe from the Lankan Premiership on October 26 by President Sirisena.

In a swift and secret move, Sirisena had replaced Wickremesinghe by Rajapaksa, triggering an outrage throughout the democratic world.

The 50-day crisis put Sri Lanka in sixes and sevens, but threw up a great political opportunity for the TNA, not just to get the constitution making process resumed, but to arrest its own declining electoral prospects in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The TNA, with its 16 MPs (later down to 14), played a critical role in ensuring the survival of the Wickremesinghe regime. But for its staunch support, and the critical role played by Jaffna district TNA MP, M.A.Sumanthiran, the newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa would have succeeded in engineering the defection of enough UNF MPs to consolidate his ill-gotten position.

According to President Sirisena himself, MPs were offered up to Rs.500 million to defect. About 45 UNF MPs were seriously considering crossing over to Rajapaksa’s side. But when they learnt that the TNA and the Muslim parties had committed themselves to remaining with Wickremesinghe, they developed cold feet and banished all thought of defecting.

They stayed put in the UNF, thus preventing Rajapaksa from getting the required majority support in parliament to remain in office.

The Bargain

However, the TNA did not support Wickremesinghe blindly. It bargained hard to get a political deal which will help shore up its political fortunes in the Tamil speaking North and East.

The TNA’s stock there had declined noticeably since the 2013 provincial and 2015 parliamentary elections. Its performance in the February 2018 local bodies’ elections was disappointing to say the least.

The TNA could not deliver on its election promises to the Tamils about finding a political solution to the Tamil question and ensuring war-time accountability issues.

The TNA-led Northern Provincial Council had failed to ensure any economic development despite the allocation of hundreds of millions of rupees by the government in Colombo. Large amounts of funds allocated by the Central government were returned unused.

In its negotiations with Wickremesinghe and his lieutenants during the constitutional crisis, the TNA demanded that the draft constitution giving wide powers to the provinces which had been cleared by the Steering Committee, should be tabled in parliament as a priority, so that the constitution is passed before the next parliamentary elections in August 2020.

The TNA also demanded that its MPs should be involved in the Central government’s economic development schemes in the Tamil areas in the North and East.

This was considered to be of utmost importance because people had been complaining of the top down” approach adopted by Colombo in designing and executing development projects in the North and East.

The TNA wanted Wickremesinghe to give these assurances in writing in the form of an MoU. But Wickremesinghe sensed a political danger in doing that. However, he verbally assured that TNA MPs will be coopted in the developmental process and that he will table a draft constitution in parliament before Sri Lanka’s independence day on February 4, 2019.

On becoming Prime Minister again, thanks to the Supreme Court, Wickremesinghe did place the Experts’ Committee’s report on the constitution. But he took the precaution of denying that it was a draft constitution” in order not to give the document any finality.

On its part, the TNA let it be known that the Wickremesinghe government will consult it on all matters relating to the North and East.

Deal Runs Into Storm

But both the placing of the draft” constitution on the table of the House and the understanding about consulting the TNA on North-East issues have run into a storm.

The main opposition Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), led by the Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa, opposed it both tooth and nail.

Rajapaksa has dubbed the draft constitution as a scheme to divide Sri Lanka into nine semi-independent provinces”. His party leaders have said that the main demand of the Tamils is not a new a constitution with greater devolution of power, but economic development and social welfare.

The SLPP also believes that a new constitution is not needed and that amending the present one from time to time will suffice. And if a new constitution is indeed necessary, it should be made an issue in the coming parliamentary elections so that the people of Sri Lanka have a say.

On the issue of involving the TNA in designing and executing development schemes in the Tamil areas, the SLPP’s view is that the main purpose of the scheme is not to help the people but to help the TNA refurbish its jaded image among the Tamils of the North and East and garner votes in the coming elections.

(The featured image at the top shows the Tamil National Alliance’s top leaders, M.A.Sumanthiran, R.Sampanthan and Mavai Senathirajah)

By Manolo B. Jara Courtesy Gulf Today

MANILA: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday invited Philippine drug war experts to visit his country and share their experiences with their counterparts apparently to help them in their own campaign against drugs.

I would like to invite some experts from your side to visit Sri Lanka when possible. My government will make all the necessary arrangements,” Sirisena told officers when he visited the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in surburban Quezon City, Metro Manila.

The experiences you have gained and the knowledge that you can share with Sri Lanka,” he said, will be highly instrumental in our fight against drugs.” Director General Oscar Albayalde, the PNP chief, later confirmed Sirisena’s invitation during his visit to the police headquarters where he was given a briefing on the country’s violent war on illegal drugs launched by President Rodrigo Rody” Duterte in June 2016.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also reported that the PNP visit marked the last of Sirena’s five-day visit state to the Philippines which ended on Saturday and where he and Duterte witnessed at Malacanang Palace the signing of five agreements, among others, on defence, education, tourism and people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

But more than that, Sirisena created a stir when he called Duterte’s war on drugs an example to the world.” During a state dinner at Malacanang hosted by Duterte in his honour late on Wednesday night, the visiting leader said Sri Lanka should follow the Philippines crackdown on narcotics to address its own drug problem.

Excellency, the war against crime and drugs carried out by you is an example to the whole world and personally to me. Drug menace is rampant in my country and I feel that we should follow in your footsteps to control this hazard,” Sirisena said in his toast.

By Nalini SivathasanBBC Asian Network

London, Paris, Milan, New York… it has been a frantic January for model Jeenu Mahadevan, as he flies around the world for Men’s Fashion Week.

“There’s no such thing as downtime in Fashion Week, it’s just chaos for three weeks straight,” he tells the BBC.

Since the 20-year old made his international debut in 2017 in Paris, his profile has skyrocketed.

He’s modelled for fashion powerhouses including Versace, Givenchy Alexander McQueen and Burberry.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionJeenu Mahadevan modelling for Givenchy as part of Paris Fashion Week

Not bad for someone who was discovered on a bus home in Oslo in March 2016.

“It was weird because this lady was just staring at me for like three stops straight – I had no idea what was going on, and I thought it was a joke to begin with.”

He says that modelling had never been an option for him – he was planning a career in computer science or astrophysics. But the fashion world had other ideas.

“I always get told that I look like Indian royalty and people think I look majestic – obviously I don’t!”

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Jeenu is Norwegian with Sri Lankan heritage. He joins only a few models of South Asian origin, including Neelam Gill and Lakshmi Menon, to break into the global fashion scene.

“I felt so out of place the first few times, because there’s a bunch of white people, there’s a few black people, and you have me. And I just felt like I stood out everywhere I go, and not necessarily in a good way.”

For Jeenu the process was more isolating because of criticism from his own Asian community. He says he has faced colourism – prejudice against people who have a darker skin tone.

In Asia, fair complexion is considered superior – most Indian models and Bollywood stars are light-skinned, and some even appear in adverts backing skin-lightening products.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Jeenu says that this preference for light skin is also common among Asians who have moved abroad.

“Most of the negative feedback I got in the beginning was from Indians – many Indian people thought that a dark-skinned guy shouldn’t necessarily be in fashion.”

Even his fellow Sri Lankans doubted his career choice.

“My parents were a bit hesitant at first because they thought no one would consider me model material. But now obviously they’re fine with that.”

Jeenu says the Asian community’s attempt to combat colourism has been glacial compared to the fashion world, where the appointment of Edward Enninful as British Vogue editor in 2017, and the presence of supermodels like Eunice Olumide have shaken up the industry.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

“I think Europe now has a different view of fashion and beauty than people in India, Sri Lanka… most of the support I’ve got has been from European brands.”

Jeenu says that despite criticism from some in his community, he has received personal messages from young, dark-skinned Asians who have been inspired by him.

“I was one of the first few dark-skinned guys. And now you see that every time there’s a new Asian guy joining the industry, they know of me and they’re always like ‘Wow you’re famous’.”

Jeenu hopes other Asians – dark-skinned or not – will pursue modelling.

“The more the world progresses, the more ethnicities you’ll see in fashion. Now it’s South Asia’s turn to break into fashion.”

By Zhang Hongpei Source:Global Times Published: 2019/1/20 22:18:41

China, India and Japan co-participation to benefit Sri Lanka econom

As the China-invested Colombo Port City project has completed its land reclamation, a milestone in the progress of the project, Chinese analysts said on Sunday that it is set to become a template for investment in South Asia under the Belt and Roadinitiative (BRI) if it develops smoothly.

A ceremony held on Wednesday in Sri Lanka’s capital marked the reclamation of 269 hectares of land from the ocean, and the last four state-of-the-art dredgers used for the sand mining operation left the project site, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

The process also showcased China’s high-standard technology in land reclamation represented by dredgers such as “Jun Yang 1” and “Wan Qing Sha” operated by CCCC Guangzhou Dredging Co.

The four big dredgers including “Jun Yang 1” and “Wan Qing Sha,” with a total value of $400 million, started reclamation work simultaneously in June last year.

Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said China’s technology in land reclamation is currently leading the world with strong hardware.

“The completion of the first phase of the Colombo Port City project is very significant since it lays a solid foundation for further construction,” Zhao told the Global Times on Sunday.

Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan said at the event that “269 hectares of land were completely formed, ahead of schedule. This shows that the friendship between China and Sri Lanka has a long history and is worth more than the value of the investment,” according to the Xinhua report.

The ambassador added that the Colombo Port City had created more than 4,000 jobs so far for local people, benefiting thousands of Sri Lankan families.

The port city, built on the reclaimed land, will accommodate 200,000 residents. It will have apartments, hotels, offices, malls and exhibition centers, and it will also provide 80,000 new jobs. It is expected to become Colombo’s central business district by 2030, media reports have said.

The mega Colombo Port City project, with initial investment of $1.4 billion, is being jointly developed by the Sri Lanka government and China’s CHEC Port City Colombo under the BRI. It is by far the largest foreign direct investment project in Sri Lanka.

Long Xingchun, a visiting senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, told the Global Times that the project will bring huge benefits to Sri Lanka’s economic development and improvement of the city’s image, which will directly help it in attracting foreign capital.

“The Port City project has witnessed the down-to-earth efforts of China and Sri Lanka. If it proceeds smoothly, it will become the best case or template for other countries to invest there,” Zhao said.

However, Zhao noted that it’s imperative for Sri Lanka to improve its business environment, which is relatively less attractive compared with other South Asian countries like India due to its limited domestic market.

In addition to the Port City project, China has also invested in other infrastructure facilities. In November, a liquefied petroleum gas terminal in the Hambantota Port in the south of Sri Lanka came to mechanical completion. It was built by a subsidiary of State-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

In 2017, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and China Merchants Port Holdings signed an agreement to co-run the Hambantota Port.

As China’s footprint is expanding in the South Asian country, a key node along the Maritime Silk Road of the BRI, other countries such as India and Japan have also adjusted their plans in Sri Lanka.

India had been pushing Sri Lanka for an estimated $1 billion contract for a second foreign-operated container terminal in Colombo, Reuters reported in November last year.

For Japan, which is also increasing its port development activities in Sri Lanka, it is possible that China and Japan will reach a consensus in third-market investment in nations like Sri Lanka, which would be helpful to mitigate tensions from such major countries as the US, Zhao remarked.

“If foreign enterprises from China, India or Japan can forge beneficial cooperation or competition in Sri Lanka, it will greatly benefit the country’s economic development and also dispel doubts over China’s engagement,” Long noted.

Courtesy Morning Star

Activists warn the true nature of the Thatcher government’s collusion with Sri Lanka may never be known

RITAIN’S Foreign Office is being accused of shredding history” after it admitted to destroying nearly 400 diplomatic files from the start of a Tamil uprising in Sri Lanka.

Margaret Thatcher’s government armed Sri Lankan forces against left-wing Tamil independence fighters, but activists including superstar M.I.A. are now warning the full extent of this deadly collusion may never come to light.

The Foreign Office has shredded nearly twice as many files on the conflict than it previously admitted, a freedom of information request by the Morning Star has found.

Last year the department said it had destroyed 195 files from the late 1970s, when MI5 and SAS personnel advised Sri Lankan spies and commandos how to counter Tamil guerillas.

The Star can now reveal that diplomats shredded another 177 files from the early 1980s, bringing the total to 372.

Only lists of file names survive, many of them relating to arms sales.

Last night the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) condemned the destruction, saying the Foreign Office cannot be allowed to erase its complicity” in Sri Lanka’s war crimes.

CAAT spokesman Andrew Smith said: The conflict in Sri Lanka had devastating consequences, and killed tens of thousands of people.

Britain’s role in the war might be embarrassing for the government, but if there is to be justice and accountability it needs to be fully exposed and understood.”

As well as arming Sri Lanka’s right-wing president throughout the 1980s, Britain also advised the country’s top brass.

The Star can reveal that Sri Lanka’s defence secretary General Attygalle made a secret visit to Belfast in 1984, just weeks after his forces massacred Tamil civilians.

The general dined with the head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and discussed counter-insurgency tactics used in the Troubles.

The full details of this covert liaison may never be known as the Foreign Office has shredded a file from that year titled Sri Lanka interest [sic] in Northern Ireland as a military problem.”

All government departments are supposed to preserve historic files and make them available to the public at the National Archives after 30 years, but the Foreign Office has repeatedly destroyed documents before they are due to be declassified.

The Morning Star has found that the Sri Lanka records were destroyed in 2014, just weeks after the Foreign Office apologised to top historians for burning files about Britain’s abuse of Mau Mau anti-colonial activists in Kenya.

We can also reveal that diplomats have now drawn up secret plans to destroy a further 40 files on Sri Lanka dating from the mid-1980s.

These files contain details about political asylum applications, training of Sri Lankan forces in Britain and nine volumes on arms sales.

Dr Rachel Seoighe, a Sri Lanka expert at Kent University, is trying to rescue the remaining files from government shredders.

Dr Seoighe warned: The destruction of files is happening on an even larger scale than initially thought. They are shredding history.”

So far, diplomats have rejected her freedom of information requests to declassify the surviving files, forcing her to appeal to the Information Commissioner watchdog.

She told the Star: The British government’s role in the conflict, particularly in arming and training the Sri Lankan forces, is not yet fully understood. That’s why its eagerness to destroy files from that period is suspect and concerning.

We cannot allow for a rewriting of history through this selective destruction of documents.”

Last night, British Tamil activists also condemned the destruction. Vairamuttu Varadakumar, executive secretary of the Tamil Information Centre in London, is understood to be seeking urgent legal advice.

Pioneering Tamil superstar M.I.A. said Western powers supported Sri Lanka’s atrocious armed actions against the Tamil people and their political struggle for equality and self-determination.”

She told the Star: This support naturally includes erasing and rewriting history.”

Socialist group Tamil Solidarity said it was appalled” by the scale of the shredding. Its international co-ordinator TU Senan asked: what’s the British government trying to hide?”

The Foreign Office told the Star it was not able to comment until later on tomorrow.