By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka prior to the formation of the people’s revolutionary government of late Prime Minister Mr. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike in 1956 was more or less a community of serfdom depending entirely on the handouts from the rich traders/merchants, or from the landowners in the agricultural areas, or from the rich families in the fishing areas or from the owners of large herds of animal husbandry. An ordinary Muslim was voiceless and they had to dutifully oblige the master if they were to stay on their vocation and sustain their families. Due to these pathetic slavish status Muslims were forced to support and vote for the United National Party (UNP) of the elites, as dictated by their masters at times of election.

A notice calling for the formation of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party on 2nd September, 1951 was issued with the signatures of 44 eminent personalities of that time, which included persons of all religions and all races. Among the 44 signatories were 5 Muslims and 3 Tamils. The Muslim signatories were Dr. Badiuddin Mahmoud, Haji A.T.Kareem, A.M.Marker, C.A.S.Marikkar, and A.C.Marikkar.

Over 10,000 persons, a massive crowd at that time, heeded this call and converged at the Town Hall premises for the formation of the new Party. At this convention the naming of the new party as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party was proposed by the late Mr. H.Sri Nissanka and it was seconded by the late Dr. Badi-ud-din Mahmoud, who was elected as a Co-Secretary.

Education for the children of the poor Muslims at that time was mainly confined to the schools known as Government Tamil Schools most of which except in main towns had classes only upto 5th or 8th Standard. While the rich Muslims, whose children were educated in leading schools in Colombo and other places, resented the children of their servants acquiring higher education, the teachers in the so-called Government Tamil Schools, who were overwhelmingly Tamils discouraged these poor students pursuing even basic education. Elders relate that most of these teachers used to tell the students that as invariably they will be going to work in shops (or get involved in other labour related works) it would be sufficient if they learn to write something, read a few lines, and count 5 and 5 as 10. Even the far and few Muslim teachers, who belonged to the rich families and served in these schools held similar views and possessed the same attitude. The mosques were also managed by the rich families in the relevant areas.

The first major change made by the first purely Sri Lankan oriented government of 1956 as opposed to the proxy-British UNP governments for the emancipation of Muslims in Sri Lanka was to make a complete change of the teaching staff in schools where majority of students were Muslims. These schools were named as Muslim Schools and Muslim youth who possessed a minimum qualification of having passed SSC were appointed as Teachers to these schools, disregarding their age requirement. There was an acute shortage of Muslim youths with SSC passed qualifications at that time, and it is said by many that in the years of 1958, 1959 and early sixties, Muslim youth got their teaching appointments, even without submitting formal applications, along with their SSC passes, and even before attaining the required minimum age of 18 years.

Although ethnic based schools should not be encouraged and all children of an area should have the right to receive education in the school of that particular area the   establishment of Muslim Schools was a need of the era at that time in order to make a mass educational revolution in the Muslim community. This was a giant step taken by Bandaranaike government to emancipate the Muslim community and liberate them from the bondage to Mudalalis and open a new vista for Muslim children to pursue higher education. It was a well known fact that there were many villages and towns at that time without a single Muslim graduate, without a single Muslim Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant or even a middle ranking government servant.

This massive teaching employment drive initiated by the Bandaranaike government, produced at least one teacher in each Muslim family, and completely changed the changed the educationally backward Muslim society into an educated Muslim polity. It is the children of this new generation of Muslims that occupy seats of employment today in many fields including those in the professional fields and even in Foreign Missions.

It was the SLFP that legitimized the rights of Muslim girls to wear a school dress in conformity to their religious norms even in non-Muslim schools. While the pro_UNP Western countries were not permitting Muslims girls to wear Hijab in schools the SLFP led government in addition to providing school uniforms to Muslim girls studying in government schools also took action to provide Hijabs to Muslim girls annually.

The Endowment Board known as Waqf Board was created to administer the affairs of mosques thereby providing the opportunity for the commoners to participate in the affairs of administering the mosques, and making them qualified to receive government assistance. Relaying the Azan call for the five obligatory prayers using loudspeakers from mosques throughout the island was permitted.

A Special Unit known as Muslim Service was created in the then Radio Ceylon solely dedicated for the Muslims to broadcast religious and cultural programmes and enlighten the Muslims with religious knowledge, their cultural values, and educate them about the affairs of fellow Muslims in other countries. Creation of this Unit helped Muslims to listen to whole night broadcast of religious programmes on special days such as Lailathul Qadr (the blessed night in the month of Ramadan) and listen to whole day programmes on Eid and other significant days, in addition to daily night and morning programmes.

A new set of teachers known as Maulavi Teachers, similar to teachers of other religions was appointed to teach religion to Muslim students even in non-Muslim schools. Two hours permission was given  for Muslim public servants to attend Ju mma Prayers on Fridays.. Days prominent for Muslims were included in the list of Public Holidays.

In the international arena too, the SLFP governments espoused the cause of Muslims and Muslim countries. During the Suez Canal War in 1958 the late Prime Minister Mr. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike solidly stood supporting the steps taken by President Gamal Abdul Nasser of United Arab Republic (currently Egypt), to nationalise the Suez Canal. Historical records reveal that the late Prime Minister Mr. Bandaranaike speaking at the United Nations not only vehemently condemned the invasion of Egypt by the western imperialist forces together with Isreal but also threatened even to send the armed forces of Sri Lanka to fight these Imperialists along with the Egyptian and Arab armies. Not even the Muslim countries outside the Middle East region had the courage to support President Nasser in this manner.

It was the government of late Prime Minister Mr. Bandaranaike that appointed a Muslim as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The UNP which fools the Muslims in every election to get their votes and provide them nothing in return is yet to appoint a Muslim to such a prestigious position.

In the olden days Labour Ministry was the insignificant Ministry in the whole Cabinet. The UNP governments always kept this Ministry reserved for Muslims as nothing could be done to serve the community through this Ministry. It was the Bandaranaike government that nullified this discrimination and appointed Mr. C.A.S.Marikkar to the prestigious position of Minister of Post and Telecommunications.

Also the Bandaranaike government has the credit of appointing for the first time a Muslim as the Speaker of Parliament. The late Mr. H.S.Ismail was appointed as the Speaker of Parliament although he was not elected to Parliament as an SLFP MP.

The second structural change in the life of Sri Lankan Muslims and enormous service to the community took place during the reign of the late Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who dearly valued cordial relationships with Middle Eastern and Muslim countries all over the world. It was in gratitude to her cordial relationship that President Nasser sent several oil shipments to Sri Lanka when western countries imposed sanctions on oil supplies to Sri Lanka following the bold step taken by her to nationalise the oil companies in Sri Lanka and establish the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. In gratitude to this friendly gesture, Mrs. Bandaranaike declared one week’s mourning on the death of President Nasser’s funeral proceedings were broadcast live through SLBC. Such a respect to President Nasser’s funeral was not accorded even in several Middle East and Muslim countries.

The late Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike was the only non-Muslim world leader who severed Diplomatic relationship with Israel, for invading Arab countries and occupying their territory following the 1967 war.

When Mrs. Bandaranaike made arrangements to host the 5^th Non-Aligned Summit in Sri Lanka, the UNP and its media not only condemned her decision but also slandered many Muslim leaders who were scheduled to attend. The Summit, however, provided the opportunity for the leaders and Heads of State of almost all Muslim countries to visit our motherland and obtain a first hand knowledge about the country, about the Muslims in this country, and also to interact with them. In spite of UNP’s criticism and vilification the Summit opened a new vista for Muslims and other Sri Lankans to find employment, particularly in the Middle East countries.

Thus began the era of foreign employment for Sri Lankans and it has now become the leading source of foreign exchange earning for Sri Lanka, and a means of alleviating poverty throughout the country. People who went for employment in the Middle East countries in the early phase recall that the general public in the Middle East were not aware of the existence of a country called Sri Lanka and they knew Sri Lanka only as Madam Bandaranaike country.

Under the UNP governments from 1977 to 1994 Muslims faced many hardships and the UNP Ministers and MPs numbering 11 persons were utterly powerless to do anything to help the Muslims. If it was not for the Middle East employment avenue opened up by Mrs. Bandaranaike the pathetic situation Sri Lankan Muslims would have faced is horrific even to imagine it.

During this Adarmishta period of 18 years Sri Lankan Muslims living in the North and East and in the districts of Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Puttalam were continuously subjected to LTTE atrocities. Unable to withstand these atrocities when a delegation of Muslims led by Dr. Badi-ud-din Mahmoud met President J.R.Jayawardene, to request him to provide protection to Muslims, they were bluntly asked to meet the LTTE leadership and sort out their problems. Ultimately they were compelled to go to Chennai, South India, meet the LTTE leadership and negotiate an agreement under which LTTE promised to desist from harming the Muslims. This agreement however was implemented by the LTTE only in the breach.

In the Eastern Province, when the atrocities of Tamil terrorist elements against the Muslims, particularly by the LTTE continued to increase and when more than 500 houses were set on fire by the LTTE in Kalmunai, Sainthamaruthu and Maruthamunai areas within two or three days and the Muslim leaders in the then ruling party failed to press the JR Jayewardene government to act, in order to bring peace to the area,

The massacres of Muslims by the LTTE which started in the latter part of the J.R.Jayawardene government increased to a horrendous level during the Premadasa administration. In the Kattankudy massacre carried out on 3rd August 1990, Muslims who were performing Isha Prayers were sprayed with bullets and 103 Muslims got killed on the sport and 71 were injured and most of them died subsequently.  Premadasa government which was having a honeymoon with the tiger terrorists feasting them at Hilton Hotel, Colombo did not take any action against these massacres or provide adequate protection to the Muslims. Even the families and the widows of the dead were not compensated. Similar massacres continued in several places of the Eastern Province.

In October 1990 Muslims of all the five districts of the Northern Province, Mannar, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, were given notice by the LTTE ordering them to leave the Northern Province within 24 hours. The UNP government of President Premadasa did not take any preventive action to protect these Muslims amounting to nearly 100,000 persons. Ultimately the LTTE forcibly chased them out from their traditional habitats where they used to live for centuries. In this world’s worst ethnic cleansing episode the victimised Muslims were not allowed to take any of their belongings except for whatever the dress they were wearing at that time. Even the ear-rings worn by women and children were forcibly removed. A father who had a child of less than one year explaining the ordeal they underwent told a newspaper that the tiger terrorists did not even allow him to take the partly used milk food packet he was carrying to feed his baby.

The UNP government of President Premadasa, in which the anti-Muslim UNP leader Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe was a top ranking Minister, did not care to provide some decent shelters to these victimised Muslims. They were forced to put up their own cadjan  shelters in the coconut lands in places like Ismail Puram, Kalpitty, Palavi, Madurankuliya etc, in the Puttalam District, and several other areas in Kurunegala and Anuradhapura districts, and languish as refugees in their own country living in cadjan huts without any basic amenities for almost two decades.

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. 

According to Freud meditation is a reaction formation of omnipotence to infantile helplessness. As described by Alexander (1931)   meditation is a “libidinal, narcissistic turning of the urge for knowing inward, a sort of artificial schizophrenia with complete withdrawal of libidinal interest from the outside world.  Kris (1963) viewed meditation as a transitory regressive state that is conducive to the expression of hidden memories, fear love and anger. Shafii (1973) illustrated meditation as a temporary and controlled regression to the preverbal level and meditation returns the individual to the earliest fixation points and permits re-experiencing of traumas of the separation-individuation phase on a non-verbal level.

Carl Gustav Jung was the first major psychologist to explore fully the relation between Buddhist meditation and the Western notion of the unconscious (Welwood, 1977). Jung’s fateful meeting with Richard Wilhelm in 1929 has helped to build a bridge of depth psychological understanding between the East and the West (Ma, 2005). Jung believed in the fulfillment of individual wholeness or self-realization (Moacanin, 1986). Jung spoke of active imagination and believed that it can serve as a bridge between the conscious “ego” and the unconscious. In 1939 Jung wrote …. the meditation on the syllables of the mantra leads to identification with the highest Self. Jung claimed that Eastern higher consciousness is characterized by a nebulous state of non‐intentionality (Zhu, 2009). The transcendent function (unification of archetypal opposites) which Jung described could be the end result of the meditative mind.

Psychoanalysis and meditation compensate for the other’s blind spots (Rubin, 2016).  Within psychoanalysis, meditation has traditionally been associated with a search for the resurrection of infantile ‘primary narcissism’ (Epstein, 1990).

Phenomenologically meditation is a practice that could be meant as mind focalization on objects, body feelings, emotions and thoughts (Bianco, et al., 2016). Psychoanalysis is primarily a psychology of the unconscious. Meditation may also permit deepened access to the unconscious (Bogart, 1991).  Meditation deals mainly with the training and observation of consciousness and observes the mind in great detail on a moment-to-moment level (Falkenström, 2003). The goal of psychoanalysis is to acquire self-understanding and knowledge of the sources of anxiety (Satsangi, 2013) and the goal of meditation is to go beyond the mind and to foster well-being.

For Freud free association is the fundamental rule” of psychoanalysis. According to some experts during meditation auto-catharsis- a form of free-association occurs.  The meditator observes free associated thoughts, feelings, and fantasies silently.  Meditation facilitates self-observation. Both meditation and free association involve self-observation. Self-observation refers to observations and reflections about the self in the present moment (Falkenström, 2012).

The unconscious has played an important explanatory role in transpersonal psychology (Welwood, 1977).  Freud’s topographical model is used to stress that the psychoanalytic unconscious can be understood only in relation to theories of consciousness and wishing (Opatow , 1997). The fundamental proposition of psychoanalysis is that all mental processes are in themselves unconscious (Solms ,1997). Meditation can also bring about “descendence” of consciousness, thus increasing access to the unconscious (Bogart, 1991).  The aim of Zen is, rather, the breaking-up of the very dualistic structure of consciousness-and-unconsciousness (DeMartino, 1961).

According to Freud in each individual there is a coherent organization of mental processes. Meditation uses mental processes to influence physical functioning and promote health. According to object relations theory, the major cause of psychopathology is the lack of a sense of self, caused by failures in establishing a cohesive, integrated self, resulting in an inability to feel real  correspondingly  Buddhist meditation is focused upon seeing through the illusory construction of the self (Bogart , 1991).

In 1912 Freud delineated the ideal state of mind for therapists to listen, what he called “evenly hovering” or “evenly suspended attention which is an accessible state of mind that could be similar to meditative mind (Rubin, 2009).  Meditative mind can achieve the highest level of consciousness.

Meditation is a multidimensional phenomenon and meditation can make a significant contribution to the deep transformation of personality sought in psychotherapy (Bogart, 1991). Meditation may lead to “transcendence,” the experience of going beyond one’s habitual perceptions or conceptions of self and world, culminating in peak experiences such as samadhi, satori, or enlightenment (Noble, 1987).

The main goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to bring unconscious material into consciousness and enhance the functioning of the ego. Mindfulness   is a method of using the ego to observe its own manifestations (Epstein, 1988).

Meditation promotes egolessness and dissolves ego.  The Jungian term “psychic death” is a synonym for “ego death (Ventegodt & Merrick 2003 ). Ego death is a “complete loss of subjective self-identity (Jonson, 2008). Zen meditation practice is said to lead to ego-death (Safran, 2012). According to Nichtern (2011) egolessness is not a product – it is a discovery. As described by Park (2006) meditation is learning how to die by learning to “forget” the sense of self.

Aape Aththo – Hela Family

As we look to the future and focus on our sovereignty, peace and prosperity, we must not ignore the big picture of the world we live in. In the 21st century, the Indian Ocean will be the center stage for neocolonialists as they jostle to secure resources, trade deals and geopolitical assets to enhance their dominance.

Caught in the middle in a strategic location, is our island nation.

Professing a self-styled moral authority by preaching democracy and human rights on the one hand; and simultaneously supporting numerous corrupt, undemocratic regimes on the other hand, the neocolonialists are set to repeat their age-old tactic of ‘divide and conquer’. They will use their state run media to defame our democratically elected leaders and undermine the sovereignty of the Hela Nation. When their overt tactics fail to produce a favourable result, the neocolonialists will fly below the radar and enter into trade deals that exclude their competitors from engaging in fair trade with us.

In this new century, we need a new way of engagement. We need a new doctrine to protect and safeguard what we value (our security, sovereignty, culture, resources, economy, peace and prosperity) from the neocolonialists who have little or no respect for it.

This new way of engagement is the Hela Doctrine.

The Hela doctrine of supreme sovereignty, non-alignment and fair trade.

The first aspect of this doctrine is sovereignty. Our sovereignty is paramount to us. The doctrine of supreme sovereignty calls for a new constitution (see: www.heladiva.net) to strengthen our democracy against corruptible forces. An important aspect of our sovereignty is the re-establishment of the original identity of our island (Heladiva) and that of our people (The Hela), which was soiled and eroded by past colonialism.

The second aspect is non-alignment. Our prosperity and security cannot be achieved by exclusively aligning with EURASIA allies or NATO allies or any other. Non-alignment is the wise middle path to economic prosperity and security.

The third aspect is fair trade (not ‘free trade’). Fair trade means the equitable free movement of excess goods, services, capital and labour. If any trade causes impoverishment to any community on the island then it is an unfair trade. Fair trade also means respecting the values and the people of our nation. In this 21st century, we will choose not to trade with countries that ‘verbally bash’ our democracy or cause insult to the sovereignty of our nation. We will choose not to trade with countries that covertly or overtly work to destabilise our Hela democracy.

This is the Hela doctrine of supreme sovereignty, non-alignment and fair trade.

We now call upon our elected leaders to adopt the noble Hela doctrine of Supreme sovereignty, Non-alignment and Fair trade.

Aape Aththo – Hela Family

www.heladiva.net

Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL)

Public Lecture

The Illustrated Mahāvaṃsa: Paintings from a 12^th Century Myanmar Temple”

 by

Dr. Hema Goonatilake

 On

Monday 28^th January 2019 at 5.00 p.m.

at the 

Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium

No. 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 07

ALL ARE WELCOME

When Myanmar got her independence, the first country she wanted to have foreign relations was Sri Lanka. The reason for this friendship from Myanmar was a 1000-year-old relationship with Sri Lanka as had cultivated several other countries in South East Asia. This relationship not only introduced Buddhism from Sri Lanka to these countries but also the art of historical writings. All the Chronicles of South East Asia are modelled after the Mahāvaṃsa and incorporates parts of the Mahāvaṃsa. Consequently, heroes of the Mahāvaṃsa like Dutu Gemunu are hero figures in the region. Rajakumar the grandson of the founder of the Pagan Empire and the builder of the 12^thcentury Myankabau temple painted on the temple walls major events, as recorded in the Mahāvaṃsa. The present illustrated lecture depicts these paintings and is a result of 10 years research on South East Asia by the speaker.

Dr Sarah Obeysekera Meditator

Whole Sri Lanka should start practicing meditation like Maithree and Ranil and develop Metta and Karuna.

We see MAITHREE following principles of Buddha , foster compassion by taking opposition members to Thailand and try to show that he has no hatred and ill will.

Today we saw him accompanying SB and DJ to Singapore who hated him for dumping MR after a sumptuous  hopper breakfast .

Then again we see  that RW visiting.  Weerakatiya to be with his arch enemy ,none other than MR in his son’s matromonial ceremony who tried to send a rocket and end up in Kilimanjaro  in Tanzania to propose to his fiancee

We were wonderiing whether lack of oxygen in the air was affected his rational thinking  when he proposed ( I am joking as men get married without thinking what lies ahead)

One day Rohitha ‘s newly wedded wife may say “leave me alone ,I need space ”

Then  he can say OK ,

I will send a rocket for you to go to space!

Our farmers are lamenting about FALL ARMY WORM destroying the crop when WW claim that it is a CIA plot.

One leader is having fun in SANTOSA island and the other “not so leader” in WEERAKAIYA dancing Baila ,and we citizens are fighting with Fall Army pest and Diaspora in two fronts to save our Brigadier from going  to guillotine for a mere gesture of cutting throat ( with his index finger )  of the head of a poor Tamil freedom fighter in front  of Sri Lankan Embassy in UK.

This is not only a resplendent Island but also a country full of surprises called “SO !  SRILANKA”which is our new moto of Ministry of Tourism

Dr Sarah Obeysekera

Meditator

 Somaweera Sirisinghe of Auckland, New Zealand

The issue of dual citizenship held by politicians arose recently in Australia and in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka an MP’s election was declared void due to the person being a citizen of another country as well. Then stories of others of same genre were coming out of the woodworks.

We have to note here that no one have been forced to obtain citizenship of another country. They seem to have obtained it on their own volition for their own benefit and then sought the advantages of the Dual Citizenship” allowed by Sri Lanka Citizenship Law. Many other Asian countries including India do not have dual citizenships.

Affected Sri Lankan politicians were seen rushing in search of solutions and some even ventured to give interpretations not only to the Sri Lanka’s law but to the laws of the other countries and reportedly some have managed to remove this debilitation.

Is it such an easy thing to do? Legal minds may differ in their opinions because there are some gray areas. Perhaps it may even require judicial interpretation or subsidiary legislation!

According Sri Lanka’s citizenship law a person ceases to be a citizen once he becomes a citizen of another country. However, the provisions for dual citizenship” allow a person who fulfills the set of requirements specified in the law to either retain or resume his Sri Lankan citizenship. Thereafter she/he is considered as a person with dual citizenship and the Sri Lankan Passport issued to her/him contains an endorsement to this effect and proceeds to name the other country of citizenship.

What happens when a person with dual citizenship causes to withdraw or relinquish his/her citizenship of the other country? Logically he may be left with one citizenship but the legal status that he has retained or resumed Sri Lankan citizenship through dual citizenship process” remains intact. Does the ditching of the citizenship of the other country legally bring him back to the pristine Sri Lanka citizenship he held previous to his foreign domicile?

Lanka Lead News

වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර මන්ත්‍රීවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිදු කළ කතාවක් දැඩි අවදානයට ලක්ව තිබේ.

පසුගිය 22 පැවැති පාර්ලිමේන්තු සැසියේදි වාසුදේව නානායක්කාර මන්ත්‍රීවරයා බටලන්ද කොමිෂන් සභාව සහ බැඳුම්කර කොමිෂන් සභාව පිළිබඳ අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම මෙලෙසින් කතාබහට ලක්ව තිබේ.

එහිදි මන්ත්‍රීවරයා අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාට ප්‍රකාශ කළේ දැන් ඔබට ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ මෙරටින් පැන යාම පමණක් වන බවයි.

ඒ අවස්ථාවේම කෙටි පිළිතුරක් ලබාදුන් අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා අසුනෙන් නැගිට සභාගැබෙන් පිටව ගියබවද වාර්තාවේ.

https://youtu.be/TefQi_TNrKY

Courtesy Adaderana

A motion has been filed with the Colombo Magistrate’s Court today requesting the court to name Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Nandalal Weerasinghe and former Deputy Governor Ananda Silva as suspects in the bond scam case.

The motion was filed by the attorney representing the owner of Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Mr Arjun Aloysius, who is named as the second accused of the case pertaining to the controversial Central Bank treasury bond issuance.

When the case was taken up for hearing today (24) before Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne, the attorney appearing on behalf of Aloysius claimed that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which investigated the bond issuance in its recommendation had stated that Senior Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe and retired Deputy Governor Ananda Silva are responsible for the incident.

The defence lawyer further argued that even a statement given by the Auditor general in connection with the investigation had directly implicated them both in the bond scam.

He also charged that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is avoiding from naming these two individuals as suspects and arresting them. He requested the court to issue directive to name them as suspects in the case.

The magistrate stated that request will have to be considered when the investigative officers are also present and therefore informed Aloysius’ lawyers to present this when the case is taken up once again on February 25.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, January 24 (newsin.asia): In July 2017 the Sri Lankan government renewed, for another ten years, the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with the United States Department of Defense. ACSA allows the exchange of supply and services, training of staff and humanitarian aid in disaster situations between the two countries.

In a proposal to the Sri Lankan cabinet in 2017, President Maithripala Sirisena pointed out that the ACSA would help improve global ties, and given the global security situation, should be renewed. I would create an opportunity for the promotion of new technological, training and development opportunities, he added.

According to Lankan defense analysts, the US recently sought from Sri Lanka, an enlargement of the scope of ACSA to include more departments of the US government. Right now only the Department of Defense is involved.

The original ACSA was signed by in 2007 by the Mahinda Rajapaksa government during Eelam War IV, the final phase in the war against Tamil separatists.

On-Going Exercise

On January 21 this year, as part of ACSA, the U.S. Navy started performing a transfer operation to move cargo between planes at Bandaranaike International Airport. The operation will last till January 29.

A press release from the US embassy said on Wednesday, that this exercise is part of a larger temporary cargo transfer initiative that promotes Sri Lanka’s efforts to become a regional hub for logistics and commerce.”

The January transfers will contribute approximately 25 million Sri Lankan Rupees to the country’s economy.”

This is the third iteration of the temporary cargo transfer initiative. It follows two successful transfers that took place in August 2018 at Bandaranaike International Airport and Trincomalee and in December 2018 at Bandaranaike International Airport,” the release said.

Stressing the operation’s role in Sri Lanka’s development, U.S. Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz, said: Sri Lanka’s leaders have outlined their vision for the country’s regional engagement that reflects its location at the nexus of the Indo-Pacific and seizes the opportunities that this unique position presents.”

We are happy to support this vision through a range of mutually beneficial initiatives, such as contracting Sri Lankan services and goods to support U.S. military and commercial vessels that often transit the Indo-Pacific’s busy sea lanes,” she added.

Only Non-lethal Cargo

Under the initiative, several U.S. naval aircraft are scheduled to land and depart from the commercial airport, bringing in a variety of non-lethal supplies, the embassy release said.

The supplies will be transferred between planes and then flown to the U.S.S. John C. Stennis at sea. Supplies may include personal mail for sailors, paper goods, spare parts and tools, and other items.”

No cargo, military equipment, or personnel associated with this initiative will remain in Sri Lanka after the completion of the cargo transfer,” the embassy release clarified.

Security Cooperation

U.S.-Sri Lanka security cooperation encompasses a variety of joint exercises and training that has developed the skills and interoperability of both countries. This cooperation was designed by both countries to address our mutual security interests, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and maritime domain awareness,” the release added.

Lankan Fears

However, critics of ACSA make three points against ACSA.

First, the US will be the principal beneficiary, or perhaps the only beneficiary, in an ACSA with a small and weak country like Sri Lanka.

Though the facilities offered are mutual, only the US will be using them, with Sri Lanka getting paid for the provision of services. Sri Lanka will have no opportunity to use reciprocal facilities in US ports.

Secondly, while ACSA talks of access only for non-lethal cargo, even access for non-lethal cargo can be useful in the case of an armed conflict. Further, the line between lethal and non-lethal cargo is very thin and almost indistinguishable.

Thirdly, Sri Lanka will, may willy nilly, be drawn into a military conflict between the US and an other country in the Indian Ocean or the Far East given the fact that the US, India, Australia and Japan are arming up to face a perceived threat from resurgent China.

Writing in Daily Mirror in 2017 (when ACSA was renewed by Sri Lanka) commentator Lasanda Kurukulasooriya quoted a 2004 Position Paper on ACSA by two US military officers to say that in addition to host nation supplies and services, ACSA can give US access to basing and infrastructure necessary for force projection in and through the USPACOM (US Pacific Command) area of responsibility.”

Presented to the US War College in Pennsylvania, the Position Paper titled: United States Security Strategy for the Asia-Pacific Region,” refers to the military benefits of ACSA that give vital access to other countries’ infrastructure and other facilities during a time of conflict.

Kurukulasooriya quotes Sri Lankan leftist leader Prof.Tissa Vitharana as saying: The alliance which we are forming with the US endangers national sovereignty and independence.”

Apart from frequent visits by US warships, joint exercises with Sri Lankan naval personnel are taking place, Prof. Vitharana said and added that statements from US officials revealed their interest in setting up a base in Trincomalee.

Vitharana said further confirmation that the government is moving in the direction of making Sri Lanka a part of the military machine formed by the US to control the world” could be seen in Premier Wickremesinghe’s statement in April 2016.

Addressing a commissioning parade at the Naval Academy in Trincomalee, Wickremesinghe said that the Sri Lankan armed forces would have to protect the Indian Ocean from the Maldives to the Straits of Malacca.”

To make this possible, the Premier pledged to buy more ships and weapons.

Prof. Vitharana pointed to the irony of suggesting such a course of action at a time when the country was deeply indebted, having sought $1.5 billion from the IMF with the entire attendant conditions for neo-liberal changes that would enable US exploitation of the Lankan economy.”

This situation is fraught with danger he said, though nobody is talking about it.

The Americans and Indians would be in Trincomalee, while the Chinese will be in Hambantota.

Although the Lankan government says ‘no military use’ of its ports would be allowed, Prof. Vitharana warned that if a military confrontation broke out in the South China Sea, for example, Sri Lanka could get unnecessarily caught up in a big power conflict.

(The featured image at the top shows USS Anchorage at the Trincomalee harbor)

lanka C news

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාගේ බාල පුත් රෝහිත රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා අද දිනයේ විවාහ දිවියට එළැඹුනේය.

වීරකැටියේදී පැවත්වෙන මෙම මංගල උත්සවය සදහා දේශපාලන නායකයන්, ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් ඇතුළු බොහෝ දෙනෙකු සහභාගී වී සිටිති.

මේ විවාහය සදහා කිසිදු ආකාරයක මත්පැන් සැපයීමක් සිදු නොකෙරෙන රණවරා, බෙලිමල්, දිවුල් යුෂ අමුත්තන්ට බීම සහා ලබා දෙයි.

ආහාර සදහා ලබා දෙන්නේ දේශීය ගැමි ආහාර පමණක් වන අතර ඒවා සකසන්නේ අසල්වැසි පවුල් විසිනි. කිසිදු මස් මාංශ වර්ගයක් ආහාර සදහා එක් කර නැත.

මැදමුලන ගම්මානයටම මෙම විවාහයේ ආරාධනා කර ඇත.

තරු හෝටල් සම්ප‍්‍රදායෙන් බැහැරව පැවැත්වෙන මෙම උත්සවය වැවක් ආසන්නයේ පිහිටි භූමි ප‍්‍රදේශක සංවිධානය කර ඇත.

රෝහිත රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාගේ මනාලිය වූයේ ටට්යානා ලිවේරා ජයරත්නයි.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The essay is not a comprehensive study on caste in Jaffna. It is a cluster of observations on caste in Jaffna collected while researching on the Tamil Separatist Movement. Those who write on Jaffna’s greatness, it’s wonderful culture, its need for a separate state have remained silent on the subject of caste in Jaffna, but caste oppression has now come to be discussed in the media.

I looked at the writings of A.L.Basham and Andre Beteille to see what they say about caste in Tamilnadu. I did so because the Jaffna Tamil” is a product of South India, not Sri Lanka.  The label ‘Ceylon Tamil’ is a bogus label created by the British.  A.L.Basham observed that in India, Tamils were mostly Sudra, a few were Brahmin.   Basham in his book ‘The wonder that was India’ has this to say about caste in Tamilnadu:

Early Tamil literature gives no evidence of caste, but the development of a more complex political and economic structure produced a system in some ways more rigid than that of the North. By the Cola period an important feature of South Indian caste structure had appeared, and this has survived to the present day.

In the Dravidian country groups claiming to be Kshatriyas were few, other than the ruling families, and Vaisyas were equally rare.’ Nearly the whole of the population were Brahmans, Sudras or Untouchables.

The Sudra castes, which formed the mass of the people, were divided into two great caste groups, known as the right and left hands. On the right are the trading castes, some weaving castes, musicians, potters, washermen, barbers, and most of the cultivating and labouring castes. On the left are various castes of craftsmen, such as weavers and leather workers, cowherds, and some cultivating castes.” (Wonder that was India)

There are no high caste Tamils in Sri Lanka said Izeth Hussein. There are very few Brahmins in Jaffna, agreed Jayaweera. The Jaffna Tamil immigrated into Jaffna during the Dutch occupation.    These Tamil emigrants were landless agricultural laborers brought in by the Dutch to work the tobacco plantations in the north.  It is most unlikely that they would have belonged to the Brahmin caste. They would have belonged to the Sudra group.

1. Sooriasegaram (2017) says,” In Ceylon there is a very small community of Brahmans and practically all of them are attached to temples, either as priests or as assistants. Unlike the Brahmins in India, they are not highly educated, few have received a good secondary school education.

Some say that the Ceylon Brahmins are not really Brahmin, continued Sooriasegaram. To cross the sea is one way to lose caste, and it is thought that no high caste Brahman from India would have crossed the sea to Ceylon. This means that the Brahmans who are presently attached to temples in Ceylon are from another caste.

There was also the opposite opinion. Bala Tampoe (b 1922) had told Malinda Seneviratne, in an interview that his family belonged to the Jaffna aristocracy and there were even claims that they were connected to Sankili the last Tamil king of Jaffna. Their ancestral home was located opposite the palace at Nallur and was called Sangili thoppe or Sangili garden.

My great, great grandfather was the first Hindu convert to Christianity in Jaffna. Tampoe’s father, a coconut planter in Jaffna, was arrogant, he used to ride horses and carried a whip with him and when he went by car if the road was blocked by cattle or people he would toot his horn and after passing the place would stop take out his whip and lash out at the herdsman or whoever was blocking his path.

Neville Jayaweera, who was   Government Agent in Jaffna 1963-1966, found that the Jaffna Tamil community was ‘highly fragmented by caste’. In Tamilnadu and Jaffna there is a caste consciousness that cannot be equalled anywhere else in the world, announced Jayaweera.

There is an almost impenetrable caste barrier into Vellala and non Vellala, he exclaimed. Even among the Diaspora” abroad the high caste Tamils do not mix with the low caste Tamils.  Rajan Hoole said that the Tamils were a ‘caste ridden entity’. The   standard question asked when one Tamil met another Tamil, what is your village?” That was to find out the caste.

The top caste in Jaffna today is the Vellala, announced Jayaweera. The Vellalas are a unique Tamil social formation peculiar only to Sri Lanka, he observed. In Tamilnadu there is no indigenous concentration of Vellala of any political consequence.

Andre Beteille, who did fieldwork in Sripuram in Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, in the 1960s, described the Vellala in Sripuram as peasantry. The Vellala are the cultivating caste par excellence in Tamilnadu, he said. (Caste, Class and Power 1965).    Nalin de Silva added to this.  There is a caste called Vellala in Natal in South Africa, he said. These Vellala are the agricultural labourers who migrated to South Africa from India during British rule. It would have been the same with those who came here for tobacco cultivation in Dutch times.

S.R.N. Hoole said, ‘except for the Vellala themselves, all others agree that the Jaffna Tamils are mostly Sudra. Almost everyone in Jaffna tries to pass off as Vellala, Hoole added. Tamils themselves think that unless he is Vellala he is worth nothing, said Hoole. ’ P.G Veerasingham said that Vellala in Jaffna is a mixture of several castes. Castes such as Kallar, Kayavar, and Ahampady became Vellala over time. (Tales of an Enchanted Boyhood, Alupola to Jaffna 1940-1960)”  

The Vellala appear to have entrenched themselves as the top caste during Dutch times. There was a tremendous growth of Vellala in the Dutch Census, observed S.R.N. Hoole. But the present day Vellala  rose due to  calculated patronage of the British, who gave them access to government jobs, ownership of land in Jaffna and elsewhere in the north,

Among the Vellalas themselves there are many sub-divisions, some of which are regarded as higher than others. The Vellalas of Paloli (Point Pedro), Karativu and Arali for instance, are regarded as pure ‘Blue’ Vellalas, and they lay claim to a respect which no one will dispute, said Sooriasegaram.  There were rankings between the Vellala, agreed Vimala Ganeshananthan. Emily Ganesan     however, dismissed the matter. ‘Why fuss over whether this or that is the higher Vellala, when the Vellala belong to the Sudras. They were not high caste like Brahmins’, she said. (The Yaal players)

In Jaffna, the Vellala were the dominant caste.  They go as the superior class, said Jayaweera.  They are the sole power within Jaffna Tamil society.  Akalya Francisglain observed that Jaffna Tamil literature and the arts tended to pass off Vellala culture as synonymous with Tamil Jaffna culture, since Vellala culture was the dominant one. The Vellala speak a distinctive Vellala Tamil.

The Vellala were about 35% of the Tamil population in Jaffna, but they own about 95% of the land and hold all the economic, social and cultural power, declared Jayaweera. ‘The rest of the Jaffna society, i.e. 65% were lumped together as low caste or pariahs and lived on the margins of Tamil society as faceless persons.’

The Vellala controlled the rights to land and water. They controlled wells and rituals in temples. They were also a closed economic class, owning most of the lands and exercising total control over the economy and politics.

The Vellala were a formidable power group as well. All the Tamils in national politics were Vellala, observed Jayaweera. The Tamil DROs in the 1960s were all from the Vellala caste as well. Almost all the Tamils who entered the university were from the Vellala caste with a sprinkling of the Karayiar caste, said Sebastian Ramalingam. All The Tamil journalists were Vellala.

There were also the non-Vellalas. They were necessary. They did the menial jobs. According to Simon Casie Chetty (1807-1860) there were 152 non Vellala castes in Jaffna.  Emily Ganesan (b 1903) recalled that she was told that there were 24 main castes but many subdivisions within each. Each caste had their separate wells.

Each caste, such as goldsmith, carpenters, potters, had its own strip of land. These strips of land had no interaction.  These various lanes in the Karainagar Island were well known to the LTTE, she added, but were a stumbling bloc for the army. The LTTE negotiated the lanes easily as they knew them but the army followed them, lost their way and ran into a blank fence. The barbers and washer men who worked for the Vellala lived in their compound and worked only for them.

Low castes that came to her grandfather’s house, sat on a low seat. The lowest caste would drag a palmyrah frond to indicate that he was approaching.  The high caste person then moved to the opposite side.  Caste was ever important in marriage and guests of the wedding. In Karainagar, nobody forgot or was allowed to forget his or her caste, she said.

Among the less-privileged castes, Koviyar and Karaiyar were favoured by Vellala community. Unlike the other less-privileged castes, they did not face serious problems, said P.J.Antony. However, Ralph Pieris told me, with a wide smile, that a Tamil colleague, Vellala of course, had told him, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, You Sinhalese don’t know how to keep the Karava caste down, we in Jaffna know how.”

Though Tamils converted to Christianity their caste system remained and Church had no alternative but to recognize the caste system. The caste system was accepted by the Church, and caste became a basic qualification for ordination, said Rasalingam. The Christians whom Jayaweera had consulted in 1960s such as Bishop Kulendran and Puisne Judge H.W. Tambiah said caste system was evil but conformed to it willingly and wouldn’t violate its boundaries.

The missionaries were forced to accept caste distinctions. Uduvil Girls School in Jaffna Initially had girls from lower castes, such as Koviah and Pandarama.Koviah are household cooks equal to the Vellala and Pandaram are temple cooks. Uduvil also offered equal seating to all, in a single dining hall, when serving meals. Uduvil was the first school to voluntarily offer this. Before that, the oppressed castes whether students or parents, had to sit out of the way, separately when eating. But Vellala parents objects to their daughters eating with other castes.

In 1826 the Mission decided to accept only girls of good caste, who had some property, who would be a suitable match for the Christian boys.  The Batticotta School boarding was only for Vellala, but day students were a mixture of Vellala and lower castes, who sat on the ground in school and in church too. The Catholic churches in Jaffna did not permit women to cover their heads with a veil.

Caste oppression continued without hindrance in Jaffna    P.J. Antony (b. probably 1935   ) after my father’s death, my mother worked as a daily-wage labourer to raise me. When she approached some Catholic priests, they asked my mother why I could not be trained in my father’s profession. Upper-caste people thought education was not meant for minority Tamils. Downtrodden castes could not send their children to fee-levying schools due to poverty.

I was a victim of caste discrimination when I was 13 years old in Jaffna, said Antony. I was assaulted by upper-caste students at the Christian school I attended. I cannot forget that incident – even now.

Minority Tamils were not allowed to eat food in the company of upper-caste people. They could not go inside tea shops. Tea was given in rusty tin containers and soda bottles. They were asked to sit on an empty sack spread on the floor when they were given food in shops. This custom existed in the 1960s even in places like Subash Café, P.J. Antony said.

Sebastian Rasalingam (b. 1930s) said having come from a depressed caste and group in the in 1930 s in Jaffna, I know the vicious character of caste, maintained by violence as well. ’ When I was growing up in Jaffna, the lower caste Tamil could not go on buses or attend schools. Their very presence was ‘polluting’. In my young days I sat on the class room floor or carried a low stool from class to class as only the high caste could sit on chairs. The treated me and another child like me as excreta and punished us for daring to be there.

When I moved to Hatton and later to Colombo, in the late 1950s, I found a very different world, continued Rasalingam. My wife and I Found that our work mates, mostly Sinhalese would actually” sit with us and shared a cup of tea. We found that we could go to night schools and study without being threatened, beaten up or go and borrow books and do thing that would bring swift retribution back in the north.  Our dwelling would have been torched and our women raped with impunity.

Caste discrimination in Jaffna is not something of the past it exists with equal ugliness today .   The alleged “discrimination of Tamils by the Sinhalese” was nothing compared to the discrimination of the Tamils by the upper castes of the Tamils themselves, concluded Sebastian Rasalingam, writing from Canada in 2012.

Ananda Dharmapala   said ‘I was born an untouchable in Hindu Jaffna. I had no water to drink because the so called high caste Hindus, denied drinking water to me from the wells. The untouchable wells had run dry. I came to the south, took a Sinhala name and embraced Buddhism. It is possible that a large percent of Tamils became Sinhalese in the past. It is natural because they have joined a better society.’ ( Island 1.5.2004 p 9).

A.C.B. Pethiyagoda who had studied in Jaffna College in 1949 said there was a strong caste system at the time. When he was studying in Jaffna College, he was invited by a friend to coffee at one of the tea kiosks outside the school. The shop owner had asked in Tamil what caste Pethiyagoda was and on being told he was of ‘royalty’ had given him the drink in a glass tumbler. Otherwise it would have been a tin mug and a bench outside the boutique.

Neville Jayaweera discovered caste oppression in Jaffna when he was sent there as Government Agent. He was shocked. There was a deep caste divide in the north    he exclaimed. The low castes were a deeply oppressed, degraded group. Jayaweera called it ‘an appalling tragedy’. Jayaweera described the Jaffna Tamil underclass as it was in the 1960s when I discovered it’.

Anyone born Non-Vellala was frozen in his particular station, whether fishing or tree climbing or whatever. They were tied to their villages and their occupations. They could not reside outside their villages. They could not drink at the village well nor use any other public amenity outside their own villages. They could not wear jewellery, ride in carriages nor use drums at any ceremony. The non Vellalas owned little or no land.

They did not have access to high caste temples owned and managed by Brahmins or Vellala and they did to have access to Hindu schools or higher education. This was breached when the missionaries came, much to the consternation of Hindu leaders. They were not allowed into the premises occupied by the Vellala except for doing the tasks they were born to do. They dared not marry anyone form the Vellala caste, When they died they could not be cremated or buried on land reserved for the Vellalas. It was an oppressive system as bad as that in India, concluded Jayaweera.

In the 1930s and 1940s, minority-Tamil women were not allowed to wear sari blouses, recalled Antony. They had to raise the piece of cloth they wore so as to cover their breasts. The upper-caste people also barred minority-Tamil men from wearing the  Vetti, added P.J.Antony.

‘Every leading Hindu citizen of Jaffna whom I consulted’ had said that the whole caste system including denial of access to temples was deeply embedded in the Hindu religion and any attempt to change will not only be resisted but be treated as sacrilege said Jayaweera.  The Jaffna Tamils Christians consulted by Jayaweera also indicated that they too conformed to caste willingly and would not violate its boundaries.

Lalin Fernando, a senior army officer, who was in charge of the army units in Jaffna also said that Jaffna was very caste conscious. When the army first moved there, in 1961, low cast women were not allowed to wear jackets with their saris.  They were prohibited from bathing at wells of the high caste, they were also excluded from certain temples and they could not sit in buses. He recalled that in 1981 Hindu temples refused to take in the displaced Tamils due to caste.

Engineer M.Sooriasegaram , who lives in Jaffna, writing   in 2017,  stated that the   caste system is still practiced in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is a living cancer within the Tamil community. The high caste is the ruling caste in the Northern Province. All other castes have been discriminated and downtrodden in a wide variety of ways , socially, economically and in many other ways. They have been kept out of temples,  eating  places such as restaurants. Serving tea and food took place in separate low quality designated vessels in a very humiliating manner, concluded Sooriasegaram .

H.L.D Mahindapala pointed out in 2012 that low caste Hindus could not enter high caste Hindu temples in Jaffna. They could not bury their dead according to Hindu rights.  High caste would not let low caste drink from their wells.

The non-Vellala castes tried to improve their position, through ‘peaceful demonstrations’. The Minority Tamils Maha Sabha was established in 1941 with the view to winning the rights of the downtrodden castes, said P.J.Antony. Thiruvalluvar Council, Arunthathiyar Association, Toddy Tappers’ Union and the Washermen’s Union also put forward their demands, continued S.K.Senthivel. The Minority Tamils Council and the Communist Party took the initiative in the matter. But they did not put forward a comprehensive set of rights or launch a firm struggle for the rights, said Senthivel.

In the 1940s the  two most  visible  forms of oppression  was non- access into Hindu temples and tea shops. Low castes were not allowed to enter tea shops  and were served tea in broken bottles or rusted tumblers.  Minority Tamils Maha Sabha organized protests and temple-entry campaigns. These had some success.

Some temples were opened amicably. by 1958, three of the major temples of Jaffna, Nallur Murugan, Vanar Panani Sivan and Yal Perumal temples threw their doors open to the  non[Vellalas. ‘This was a major feat to have achieved without violence – the upper caste management of these temples were progressive for their time – but various other temples had to have their doors broken forcibly over the next decade, before temple entry could take place,’ said Senthivel.

‘As a result of severe pressure’, continued Senthivel,   in the 1950s , certain tea shops in Jaffna agreed to serve all castes from the same vessels. The V.S.S.K. café became the first restaurant to open its doors wide to everyone. Apart from  opening up temples and tea-shops however, progress in other areas of caste oppression continued to be slow.

The MEP government of 1956, led by SWRD Bandaranaike, took note of caste oppression. When the buses were nationalized, the CTB buses allowed anyone to go on them.  That angered the high caste Tamils.

The MEP government  passed the Prevention of Social disabilities Act 21 of 1957 amended later  by Act 18 of 1971.  This Act made Imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of their caste to be an offence.

It said any person who imposes any social disability on any other person by reason of such other person’s caste shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years with or without a fine not exceeding three thousand rupees”.

Where an offence under this Act is committed on, or in relation to, any premises where any business is carried on under the authority of a licence and the person who is the proprietor or the manager of such business is convicted of such offence, the court may, in addition to any other punishment it may lawfully impose cancel such licence”.

The Non-Vellalas would have  got much encouragement and support from this Act. ‘In the 1960s there was a change of attitude’ said Senthivel. ‘A mostly non-violent movement which has put up with violence from the dominant castes for decades finally decided to retaliate. They took up arms and forced their way into resisting temples and eateries until nearly all these establishments opened their doors.’

There was a march against caste oppression on 21st October 1966. The march was led by political leaders N. Shanmugathasan, K.A. Subramaniam and V.A. Kandasamy. The march started from Chunnakam and ended in a mass rally at the Jaffna maidan. The march was joined by nearly all castes of the Tamil community, recalled P.J. Antony.  Many of the leaders were beaten up and jailed. Nevertheless, a consciousness had arisen – both in the minds of the anti-casteists as well as the casteists they were addressing – that caste oppression would no longer be acceptable or unchallenged.  It was a historic march by thousands of men and women protesting caste oppression.

By mid 1967, café entry and temple-entry struggles had started. There was direct confrontation.  The café entry confrontation in Changanaie resulted in one death. After Changanai, there were confrontations in cafes in Chavakachcheri, Kodikamam, Acchuveli, Karaveddy, Nelliyadi, Urumpirai, Maruthanarmadam, Chunnakam, Kankesanthurai, Tellippalai, Chitthankeni and Vaddukkoddai,

In Changanai, Kodikamam, Manduvil, Acchuveli, Karaveddy, Kanpollai and Nelliyadi the confrontations became clashes that went on for years.  In Changanai it went on for three years. ‘Up to fifteen militants at the forefront of the struggle became martyrs to the struggle’, said Senthival. Many were imprisoned and tortured in police stations. Many were seriously wounded. At the same time high caste fanatics were also attacked and killed. Many women were at the forefront of struggle, he said.

The battle to gain entry to high case Hindu temples intensified in the 1960s. Jayaweera, as GA Jaffna in the 1960s recorded that there was conflict between the Brahmin and Vellala owned temple authorities on one side and the non Vellala castes on the other. The MPs of the districts and the  14 DROs did nothing to help the non-Vellalas.  The non- Vellalas came to   Jayaweera,  but Jayaweera could not help.

The Vellalas strongly resisted opening their Hindu temples to the low castes. The 1957 Act helped but there were many loopholes in this act when it was implemented for the first time. Taking advantage of these loopholes, the Vellalas continued to prevent minority Tamils from entering the Hindu kovils in Jaffna.

The non-Vellalas did not give up. Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, the most renowned temple in the North, was opened but ‘only under intense pressure. It was the same at Amman temple in Mattvil the Selvacchannathi temple at Thondamanaru and the Azhvar temple in Vallipuram.

The struggle to enter the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple, one of the major temples in the north, went on for three years. During the period the temple remained closed. In  early 1968   non-Vellalas mainly Pallar and Nalavar stormed Maviddapuram temple and staged a non-violent protest outside the temple gates but were met with violence from a group of “high” caste Hindus.

In June 1968  they  tried again and were successful. C Suntheralingam  who was one of the temple authorities had stood at the entrance to the temple flailing his walking stick over his head, and threatening anyone who came within striking distance. Suntheralingam was prosecuted under the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act and fined Rs. 50 by the Supreme Court.

Request to the police to ensure the participation of minority Tamils in pujas and festivals held in Hindu kovils were ignored before 1971. We hardly got the support of the police before 1971 when the Act was amended, said Antony. Once the Prevention of Social Disabilities Act  was amended in 1971, the police, had to support the organisers of temple-entry campaigns.  They could no longer connive with the upper caste or remain inactive. Superintendent of Police, Jaffna, rendered his fullest cooperation to us.  Assistant Superintendent of Police, Kankesanthurai, ordered the trustees of the Variyavalavu Pillayar Kovil in Thunnalai to open the temple to minority Tamils in the presence of some members of the Maha Sabha recalled Antony.  ( continued)

පරිවර්තනය කළේ ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

චං ත්සුවෝ කියලා කියන්නේ කුං ගුරුතුමා ගේ ගුරුකුලයට අයිති පඬිවරයෙක්. පරිපාලන කටයුතුවලට නිලධාරීන් බඳවාගන්න අධිරාජ්‍යය විභාගයත් ඔහු සමත්වුනා. විභාගයේ ප‍්‍රතිඵල ලබාගත්තට පස්සේ දවසක ඔහු අගනුවරට දකුණින් තිබුණු පළාතක පාරක් දිගේ අශ්වයෙක් පිටින් යමින් හිටියා. එහෙම යන අතරමග දී ඔහු වයස්ගත පුද්ගලයෙක්ව දැක්කා. ඒ පුද්ගලයා හිටියේ සුදු කකුල් තියෙන අළු පාට බූරුවෙක්ගේ පිටේ නැගලා. මුව හමින් හදපු කර මල්ලක් ඒ මහල්ලා එල්ලගෙන හිටියා. ඒ මහල්ලා බොහොම සරල ඇඳුමක් ඇඳගෙනයි හිටියේ. හැබැයි ඒ පුද්ගලයා තමන්ගේ ජීවිතයෙන් තෘප්තියට පැමිණිච්ච බවක් තමයි පෙන්නුම් කළේ.

චං පඬිවරයාට ඒ මහල්ලා ගැන ලොකු පැහැදීමක් ඇති වුනා. මහල්ලත් එක්ක කතා කළා නම් හොඳයි කියලා ඔහුට හිතුනා. ඒ හින්දා ඔහු මහල්ලාගෙන් ඇහුවා ”ඔබතුමා කොහේ ඉඳලා ද එන්නේ?” කියලා. චං පඬිවරයා දිහා බලලා හිනාවක් පෑවත් මහල්ලා උත්තරයක් දුන්නේ නෑ. ඒ හින්දා පඬිවරයා තව වතාවක් කලින් ප්‍රශ්නය ම ඇහුවා. ඒක අහපු ගමන් තමන්ට හුඟක් තරහ ගිය බවක් මහල්ලා පෙන්නුවා. ”උඹ මොන තරම් වැඩකට නැති මිනිහෙක් ද? උඹ කොහොම ද මගෙන් ඔය විදිහට ප‍්‍රශ්න අහන්නේ? කාගේ හරි සල්ලි හොරකම් කරගෙන පැනලා යන හොරෙක් කියලා හිතාගෙන ද උඹ ඔහොම මගෙන් අහන්නේ? එහෙම නැතිනම්, උඹේ රාජකාරිය පාරේ යන එවුන්ගෙන් කොහෙද යන්නේ, කොහේ ඉඳල ද එන්නේ කියලා අහන එක ද?” කියලා මහල්ලා තරහෙන් කියාගෙන කියාගෙන ගියා.

”නෑ. නෑ… බැලූ බැල්මට මට හිතෙන්නේ ඔබතුමා බොහොම දැනුම් තේරුම් තියෙන කෙනෙක් කියලා. මම කැමැතියි ඔබතුමාගේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙක් වෙන්න. ඒ හින්දයි මම එහෙම ඇහුවේ. මට සමාවෙන්න” කියලා චං බොහොම බැගෑපත් විදිහට කිව්වා.

”මම හිතන්නේ නෑ උඹට උගන්නන්න තරම් දෙයක් මම දන්නවා කියලා. මම ගොඩක් කල් ජීවත් වෙච්ච නිකම් ම නිකම් නාකි මිනිහෙක් විතරයි. මට හිතන්නේ මගේ වැරහැලි දිහා බලලා, මගේ වැදගම්මකට නැතිකම දැකලා උඹ මට ඔච්චම් කරනවා කියලා.” එහෙම කියපු මහල්ලා බූරුවට කසයෙන් පාරක් ගැහුවා. බූරුවා හැල්මේ දුවන්න පටන්ගත්තා.

චං පඬිවරයත් තමන්ගේ අශ්වයාට කකුලෙන් ඇනලා මහල්ලා පස්සෙන් යන්න පටන්ගත්තා. එදා රෑ ඒ දෙන්න ම එක ම නවාතැනක ලැඟුම්ගත්තා. මහල්ලා ඉක්මනින් ම නිදාගන්න ලෑස්තිවුනා. ඔහු තමන්ගේ මුව හම් කරමල්ල කොට්ටයක් විදිහට ඔලූවට යටින් තියාගත්තා. ඒත් චං පඬිවරයාට හිතුනා දවසේ මහන්සිය යන්නත් එක්ක පොඩි අඩියක් ගැහුවා නම් හොඳයි කියලා. ඔහු ටිකක් චකිතයෙන් වගේ මහල්ලාටත් ආරාධනා කරලා ඇහුවා තමන් එක්ක හවුල් වෙන්න පුළුවන් ද කියලා. ඒ කියන පමාවෙන් මහල්ලා නැගිට්ටා. සද්දෙන් හිනාවුනා. ”ඔන්න ඕක තමයි මම වැඩියෙන් ම කැමැති දේ. මට පුදුමයි. උඹ කොහොම ද ඒක දැනගත්තේ?” කියලා කියාගෙන මහල්ලා චං පඬිවරයා ළඟට කිට්ටුවුනා.

රහමෙර කටගාන්න, කටගාන්න මහල්ලාගේ දරදඬුකමත් ටිකෙන් ටික නැතිවෙලා යන්න පටන්ගත්තා. ඒ වග චං පඬිවරයටත් තේරුණා. ඉතින් අවස්ථාවෙන් ප‍්‍රයෝජනයක් ඇරගෙන ඔහු මෙහෙම කිව්වා. ”මම තරුණයි. මෝඩයි. ඔබතුමාට පුළුවන් ද මගේ මොළේ ටිකක් පාදන්න? මම කැමැතියි ලෝකෙ ගැන මොනවා හරි ටිකක් දැනගන්න.”

”මම දැකලා තියෙන්නේ ලියං, ඡන්, සුයි, ථං රාජ වංශ බලයට එන එකයි ඒවා පිරිහෙන එකයි විතරයි. ඒ හැම එකක් ම දැන් ඉතිහාස පොත්වලට එකතුවෙලා. මං ගැන විතරක් යමක් කියන්න මට පුළුවන්. ඒ කතාව උඹට වැඩක් වෙයි ද කියලා කියන්න බෑ” කියලා මහල්ලා උත්තර දුන්නා.

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(පාඨකයන්ගේ දැනුමට සටහනක්: චීනයේ ලියං යුගය තිබුණේ ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 502 ඉඳලා ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 557 වෙන කල්. ඊට පස්සේ ආවේ ඡන් යුගය. ඒ, ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 557 ඉඳලා ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 589 වෙන කල්. සුයි යුගය පැවැතුනේ ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 581 ඉඳලා ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 618 වෙන කල්. ථං යුගය පැවැතුනේ ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 618 ඉඳලා ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 907 වෙන කල්. ඒ කියන්නේ, මේ මහල්ලා කියන විදිහට එයා අවුරුදු 400 කට වැඩි කාලයක් තිස්සේ වෙච්ච දේවල් දැකලා තියෙනවා. මේ කතාවට අදාළ හින්දා තව කාරණයක් දෙකක් කියන්න ඕන. එකක් තමයි උතුරු චෝ වංශ පාලන කාලය. ඒ පාලනය තිබුණේ ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 557 ඉඳලා ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 581 වෙන කල්. උතුරු චෝ, ලියං, ඡන් කියන පාලන අයිති වුනේ චීනයේ තිබුණු උතුරු සහ දකුණු කියන රාජ්‍ය යුග කාලයට. ඒ, චීන මිනිස්සු වෙන වෙනම පාලන ප්‍රදේශ හදාගෙන කා කොටාගත්ත කාලයක්. සුයි අධිරාජ්‍යය පිහිටුවලා චීනය නැවතත් එක්සේසත් කළා. ථං යුගය කියලා කියන්නේ චීන ඉතිහාසයේ ස්වර්ණමය පාලන කාලය කියලා කියන්න පුළුවන්).

අපි ආයෙත් මහල්ලාට සවන්දෙමු.

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උතුරු චෝ වංශ පාලනේ තියෙන කාලේ මම ජීවත්වුනේ ඡී කෝරළේ. මගේ නම ශන් ත්සුං. වයස අවුරුදු 18 ක් වෙද්දි මම හමුදාවට බැඳුනා. ලියං වංශයේ යුවාන් අධිරාජ්‍යයා අල්ලගෙන හිටපු චිංචෝ නගරයට අපේ හමුදාව පහරදුන්නා. අපි ඒ නගරය අල්ලගත්තා. ඊට පස්සේ මගේ සෙන්පතිතුමාට පැවරුනේ අපේ ජයග‍්‍රාහී හමුදාව උතුරට මෙහෙයවන වැඩේ.

එදා රෑ මම හීනයක් දැක්කා. නිල් පාට ලෝගු ඇඳගත්ත මිනිස්සු දෙන්නෙක් මට ඇහෙන්න පද තේරවිල්ලක් කිව්වා. ඒ දෙන්නා කිව්වේ මොන හරුපයක් ද කියලා මට තේරුණේ නෑ. මම උදේ පාන්දරින් ම නැගිටලා හීන තෝරන්නෙක් හොයාගෙන ගියා. ඒ මනුස්සයා කියපු විදිහට හුඟක් කල් ජීවත්වෙන්න ඕනකමක් මට තියෙනවා නම් මම ඒ නගරයේ ම නැවතිලා ඉන්න ඕන. ඉක්මනින් මැරෙන්න මොකාද කැමැති? ඉතින් මම ඒ උපදේශය පිළි ඇරගෙන මගේ අණදෙන නිලධාරියාට කන්නලව් කරලා ඒ නගරයේ ම නවතින්න අවසර ඉල්ලුවා. ඉතින් ඒ නගරයේ ම නවතින්න කියලා මගේ අණදෙන නිලධාරියා මට අවසර දුන්නා. එතුමා මාව නගරාරක්ෂක බල ඇණියට අනුයුක්ත කළා.

මම ආයෙත් හීන තෝරන්නා හම්බවෙන්න ගියා. නගරයේ ම ඉන්න අවසර ගත්තා කියලා මම ඒ මනුස්සයාට කිව්වා. ඒත් හුඟක් කල් ජීවත්වෙන්න ඒක උදව් වෙයි කියලා විශ්වාසයක් නම් මට තිබුණේ නෑ.

මම කියපු කතාව අහපු හීන තෝරන්නා මට මගේ කලින් ආත්මේ ගැන විස්තරයක් කියන්න පටන්ගත්තා. මම ඊට කලින් ජීවත්වෙලා ඉඳලා තියෙන්නේ ත්ස-ථුං කෝරළේ. ඒ කාලේ මගේ නම ෂ්‍යුඑ චුන්චෝ.

ඒ දවස්වල මම බෙහෙත් ඖෂධයක් පාවිච්චි කරන්නත් තාඕ සූත‍්‍ර, පොත්පත් කියවන්නත් පුරුදුවෙලා ඉඳලා තියෙනවා. පස්සේ කාලෙක මම හුන්-කිං කියන පර්වතය පාමුල ජීවත්වෙන්න ගිහිල්ලා. ඒක කොක්කු ලගින පර්වතයක්. වසන්ත කාලේ දී මම ඒ පර්වතය පාමුල අතු පැලක් අටවගත්තා. ගේ වටේට මල් වැව්වා. වත්ත වටේට උණ ගස් හිටෙව්වා.

අටවැනි චන්ද්‍ර මාසේ පුර පසලොස්වක දවසේ රෑ මම බෙහෙත් ඖෂධය බීලා එළිමහනේ වැතිරිලා හිටියා. මම හුඟක් සංතෝෂෙන් හිටියේ. ඒක හරි ම සුන්දර රාත‍්‍රියක්. මම සිවුරුහන් බෑවා. හඬ නගා සද්ද කළා. මම මගේ හිතේ තිබුණු දේවල් කියාගෙන යන්න පටන්ගත්තා. ”ගිහි ජීවිතේ අත ඇරියාට පස්සේ මම කොච්චර නම් කැපකිරීම් කරලා තියෙනවා ද? මම උත්තරීතර බලාපොරොත්තු ගොඩාක් තියාගෙන මේ ජීවිතේ පටන්ගත්තේ. ඒත් මාත් එක්ක ගැවසෙන්න පුළුවන් උත්තරීතර කෙනෙක් අද වෙනකල් මං ළඟට ඇවිල්ලා නෑ. ඇයි ඇත්තට ම මෙහෙම වෙන්නේ?” කියලා මම සද්දෙන් ඇහුවා.

ඒ එක්කම එක සැරේ ම මට සද්දයක් ඇහෙන්න පටන්ගත්තා. ඒ මොකක් හරි රථයක් එන සද්දයක්. හැබැයි ඒ සද්දේ ඇහුණේ මගේ කන අස්සෙන්. කිසිම හේතුවක් නැතුව එහෙම සද්දයක් ඇහුනා. ඒත් එක්කම මට නිදිමතකුත් ඇතිවුනා. මම පැදුරේ ඇලවුනා.

මගේ ඔළුව පැදුරේ ගෑවෙන කොට ම සිද්ද වුනේ හරිම පුදුමාකාර දෙයක්. පුංචි කරත්තයක්. ඔව්, අඟල් දෙකක් විතර උස ඇති පුංචි කරත්තයක්, රතුපාට රෝද තියෙන, කළුපාට අඹරාවක් තියෙන, කුරුඳු පොතුවල පාට වස්සෙක් ඇද ගෙන ආපු පුංචි කරත්තයක් මගේ කනින් එළියට ආවා. කියන්නත් පුදුමයි. මගේ කනින් එළියට එන්න කරත්තෙට කිසිම අමාරුවක් තිබුණේ නෑ. ඒක හරිම ලේසියෙන් මගේ කනින් එළියට ආවා. හරියට මහ පාරක යනවා වගේ.

ඒ කරත්තේ උඩ පුංචි මිනිස්සු දෙන්නෙක් හිටියා. ඒ දෙන්නා ඇඳගෙන හිටියේ නිල් පාට ලෝගු දෙකක්. ඔළුවේ කොළ පාට තලප්පාවක් බැඳගෙන හිටියා. ආ … ඔව්. රියැදුරෙකුත් හිටියා. අර දෙන්නා හිටියේ අත් වැටට හේත්තු වෙලා. කරත්තේ කනෙන් එළියට ආවාට පස්සේ ඒක නවත්තන්න කියලා ඒ දෙන්නා රියැදුරාට කිව්වා.

දෙන්නා ම කරත්තෙන් බැස්සා. තමන් දෙව් ලෝ රාජධානියේ නියෝජිතයෝ කියලා ඒ දෙන්නා තමන්ව අඳුන්නලා දුන්නා. ඒ ගොල්ලෝ ඇවිල්ලා හිටියේ මගේ සිවුරුහන් හඬ ඇහිච්ච හින්දා. හඳ එළියේ ඉඳගෙන නගපු හඬ ඒ අය හුඟක් ඉහළින් අගය කළා. ඒ අයට ඕන වුනා මාත් එක්ක කතාකරන්න.

”ඔය දෙන්නා ආවේ මගේ කන ඇතුළේ ඉඳලා. එහෙම නම් කොහොම ද දෙව් ලෝ රාජධානියේ ඉඳලා ආවා කියලා කියන්නේ?” කියලා මම පුදුමයෙන් වගේ ඇහුවා. ඇත්තෙන් ම පුදුම නො වී ඉන්න තරම් හේතුවක් මට තිබුණේ නෑ.

”දෙව් ලෝ රාජධානිය තියෙන්නේ අපේ කනේ. කවුද කිව්වේ ඒක ඔබේ කනේ තියෙනවා කියලා?” ඒ දෙන්නා උත්තර දුන්නා.

”ඔය දෙන්නාගේ උස අඟලක් තරම්වත් නෑ. එහෙව් එකේ ඕගොල්ලන්ගේ කන ඇතුළේ රාජධානියක් තියෙන්න ඉඩක් කොහෙද තියෙන්නේ? හොඳයි අපි කියමු කියපු දේ ඇත්ත කියලා. එහෙම නම් ඒ ලෝකේ මිනිස්සු මැක්කන්ටත් වඩා පුංචි එවුන් වෙන්න ඕන” කියලා මම සරදමට වගේ හිනාවුනා.

”ඇත්තම කියනවා නම් අපේ ලෝක දෙකේ ඔය කියන තරම් වෙනසක් නෑ. ඔබට අපිව විශ්වාස නැතිනම් ඇවිල්ලා බලන්න. ඔබේ ඇස් දෙකෙන් ම බලාගන්න. වාසනාව තියෙනවා නම් ඔබට පුළුවන් අපේ රාජධානියේ සදාකාලිකව ම ඉන්න. එතකොට ඔබට පුළුවන් මේ ඉපදෙන මැරෙන චක‍්‍රයෙන් මිදෙන්න” කියලා එතකොට ඒ දෙන්නා කිව්වා.

ඊට පස්සේ ඒ දෙන්නගෙන් කෙනෙක් තමන්ගේ කන මගේ පැත්තට ඇල කළා. මම එබිලා බැලූවා. මම දැක්කා ගස්. මම දැක්කා මල්. මම දැක්කා ගෙවල්. එකක් දෙකක් නෙවෙයි. මහ ගොඩක්. දඟර ගැහිච්ච ගංගා, මහ විශාල කඳු පංති ඈතට විහිදිලා තිබුණා. මම හුඟක් ළං වෙලා ඒවා දිහා බැලූවා. හුඟාක් ළං වුනා. මට මාව ම පාලනය කරගන්න බැරිවුනා. මම ඒ කන ඇතුළට වැටුණා.

මම හිටියේ මහා නගරයක් මැද්දේ. නගරයේ ප‍්‍රාකාරය හුඟක් උසයි. වීදි පළලයි. ඉද්ද ගැහුවා වගේ කෙළින්. මොන පැත්තට යන්න ද කියලා හිතාගන්න බැරිව ඉන්න කොට අර දෙන්නා මගේ දෙපැත්තෙන් හිටගත්තා. ඒ ගොල්ලො කිව්වා තමන්ගේ රට මගේ රට තරම් ම විශාලයි කියලා. ඒක බොරුවක් නෙවෙයි. මම ඒක මගේ ඇස් දෙකින් ම දැක්කා!

ඒ අයගේ රටට ආපු හින්දා මට මහා ෂුවන්චන් රජතුමාව හම්බවෙන්න වෙනවා කියලා ඒ දෙන්නා මට කිව්වා. ෂුවන්චන් රජතුමා ජීවත්වුනේ රත්තරන් මාළිගාවක. දොරවල්වලටයි ජනෙල්වලටයි දාලා තිබුණේ මුතු වැල්වලින් වියපු තිර. මහා ශාලාවක් මැද්දේ එතුමා වාඩිවෙලා හිටියා. රෝස පාට වළාකුළුවලට උඩින් පායලා තියෙන ඉර හඳ රූපවලින් එතුමාගේ ලෝගුව ගෙත්තම් කරලා සරසලා තිබුණා. පැළඳගෙන හිටපු ඔටුන්න හුඟක් උස එකක්. හරිතමිණිවලින් කරවපු පබලූවලින් ඒක වටේට ම සරසලා තිබුණා. නෑඹුල් පිරිමි ළමයි හතර දෙනෙක් උන්වහන්සේගේ දෙපැත්තෙන් හිටගෙන හිටියා.

මාව එක්කර ගෙන ගිය දෙන්න රජතුමා ඉස්සරහා දණ නමස්කාර කළා. ඇස් බිමට කරගත්තා.

උස හිස්වැස්මක් පැළඳගත්ත, කොළ පාට ලෝගුවක් ඇඳගෙන හිටිය නිලධාරියෙක් ලේඛනයක් අතේ තියාගෙන හිටියා. අර දෙන්න කරපු විදිහට ම මමත් රජතුමාට දණ නමස්කාර කළා ම ඒ නිලධාරියා තමන් අතේ තිබුණු ආඥාව කියවන්න පටන්ගත්තා. ඒ කියපු විදිහට මාව ලේකම් මිටිය භාර මහ ලේකම් විදිහට පත් කරලා!

කහ පාට කබා ඇඳගෙන හිටපු මිනිස්සු හතර දෙනෙක් මාව මගේ කාර්යාලයට එක්කර ගෙන ගියා. ඒත් එතෙන්ට ගිය ගමන් ම මට තේරුණා ඒ ලේකම් මිටි ලියලා තියෙන්නේ මහ අමුතු ම භාෂාවකින් කියලා. ඒ එක අකුරක්වත් මට තේරුණේ නෑ. මම මාසයක් ම එතෙන්ට ආවා ගියා. ඒත් කවුරුවත් මාව හම්බවෙන්න ආවේ නෑ. මට කරන්න වැඩක් තිබුණෙත් නෑ.

හැබැයි මට හිතෙන්නේ මොකක් ද, ඒක හිතුණු ගමන් ම මගේ සේවකයෝ ඒ දේ මගේ ළඟට ම ගෙනැල්ලා දුන්නා. මට ඒ ගැන වචනයක්වත් කියන්න ඉඩක් ලැබුණේ නෑ. මට ඕන හැම දෙයක් ම අඩුවක් නැතුව මට ලැබුණා. මට උවමනා දේ ගැන හිතන එක විතරයි මම කළේ.

දවස ගානේ මෙහෙම නිකම් ඉන්න කොට මට මහා කම්මැලිකමක් දැනුණා. කම්මැලිකම යන්නත් එක්ක නගරයේ තිබුණු උස කුළුණකට නගින්න ඕන කියලා මම තීරණය කළා. ඒකට නගින්න පඩිපෙළකුත් තිබුණා. මම ඒ කුළුණ උඩට ම නැග්ගා. ඒක මහ විශාල නගරයක්. හරිම සජීවියි. මිනිස්සු උද්‍යෝගයෙන් එදිනෙදා වැඩවල නිරතවෙනවා. එක එක විදිහේ රථ වාහන වීදි දිගේ දුවනවා. පොඩි එවුන් සෙල්ලම් කරනවා. හරිම උණුසුම් දර්ශනයක්. මට මගේ ගෙදර මතක්වුනා. ඒ හැඟීම මගේ හිතට කවියක් ගෙන එන්න තරම් ප‍්‍රබල එකක් වුනා.

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මේ තුඟු කුළුණ මත සිට – නෙත් හෙළන මා හට

හැ‍ඟෙයි – මේ මගේ නිවහන නොවන වග!

කඩදාසියක කුරුටු ගාපු ඒ කවිය පස්සේ වෙලාවක අර දෙන්නට – ඒ කියන්නේ මාව මේ රාජධානියට එක්කර ගෙන ආපු දෙන්නට; මම පෙන්නුවා. ඒක දැක්කම ඒ දෙන්නා කෝපයෙන් උමතු වුනා. ස්වභාවයෙන් ම මගේ හිත අශුද්ධ අශෝභන දේවල්වලින් කෙලෙසිලා කියලා ඒ දෙන්නා මොර දුන්නා. මාව තමන්ගේ රාජධානියට ගෙනාපු එක ඒ අය කරපු වැරැද්දක් කියලාත් ඒ දෙන්නා කිව්වා. මම ලෞකික ආශාවලින් මිදිච්ච මිනිහෙක් කියලා හිතපු එකේ වැරැද්ද ගැන ඒ දෙන්නා කම්පා වුනා. මම තාමත් ලෞකික දේවල් ගැන හිතන පහත් මිනිහෙක්!

ඒ දෙන්නා මාව ඒ අයගේ ලෝකෙන් එලෙව්වා. එතකොට ම, මට තේරුනා මගේ කකුල් දෙක පොළොවේ වදින බවක්. මම ඉක්මනින් හැරිලා බැලූවා. එතකොට තමයි දැක්කේ මම ඒ පුද්ගලයාගේ කනින් එළියට වැටිච්ච බව. මම ආයෙත් මගේ අතු පැළ ඉස්සරහ මිදුලේ ඉන්න බව. මම ආයෙත් බැලූවා. ඒ දෙන්නා අතුරුදහන් වෙලා. යන්න ගිහිල්ලා.

මම ඉක්මනින් ගමට ගිහින් මිනිස්සුන්ට කතා කළා. ඒ අය පුදුමවෙලා වගේ මගේ දිහා බැලූවා. මම ෂුඑ චුන්චෝ කියලා ඒ අයට කිව්වා. ඒ අය කිව්වා මම ගමෙන් යන්න ගිහිල්ලා අවුරුදු හත – අටකටත් වැඩියි කියලා. ඒත් මට නම් හිතුනේ මම ගමෙන් ගිහිල්ලා මාසෙකට දෙකකට වැඩිය නෑ කියලා. මම මගේ ගමට ආගන්තුකයෙක්. මට එතැන තැනක් නෑ. ඉතින් මොහොතකට පස්සේ මම මියගියා. ශන් ත්සුං විදිහට මම ආයෙත් ඉපැදුනා.

ඊට පස්සේ හීන තෝරන්නා තමන් ගැන මාත් එක්ක කිව්වා. එතුමා කියපු විදිහට එයා වෙන කවුරුවත් නෙවෙයි. එතුමා මගේ කනින් ආපු අර දෙන්නගෙන් එක්කෙනෙක්!

මම මගේ කලින් ජීවිතයේ දී තාඕ හොයාගන්න සෑහෙන්න කැපවෙච්ච හින්දා තමයි දෙව් ලෝ රාජධානියට යන්න අවස්ථාවක් මට ලැබිලා තියෙන්නේ. ඒත් ලෞකික ආශාවල්, ලෞකික මුල් මුළුමනින් ම උගුල්ලලා තිබ්බ නැති හින්දා මට අමරණීය වෙන්න බැරිවෙලා. ඒත් මම කරපු කැපකිරීම් හින්දා, දරපු උත්සාහය අසීමිත හින්දා අවුරුදු දාහක කාලයක් සාමයෙන් ජීවත්වෙන වාසනාව මට උරුමවෙලා තියෙනවා කියලා එතුමා මට කිව්වා.

මේ විස්තරේ කියපු හීන තෝරන්නා එයා ගේ කට ඇතුළෙන් අඩියක් විතර දිග සේද පටියක් ඇදලා ගත්තා. ඒකේ මොනවා හරි අකුරු ගොඩක්, රූප ගොඩක් ලියලා තිබ්බා. එයා ඒක මට දුන්නා. ඒක දීලා එයා මට කිව්වා ඒක ගිලින්න කියලා. එතුමා කියපු විදිහට මම ඒක ගිල්ලා. ඊට පස්සේ තමයි එයා තමන් කවුද කියලා මට කිව්වේ.

ඊට පස්සේ ඒ හීන තෝරන්නා අතුරුදහන් වුනා.

එදා ඉඳලා මේ වෙනකොට අවුරුද හාරසීයකටත් වඩා ගතවෙලා. මට කවදාවත් ලෙඩක් හැදිලා නෑ. මම කොච්චර නම් දුර ඇවිදලා තියෙනවා ද. හැම පූජනීය කන්දකට ම මම ගිහිල්ලා තියෙනවා. හුඟක් පුදුම දේවල් මම දැකලා තියෙනවා. ඒ හැම එකක් ගැන ම මම ලියලාත් තියෙනවා. ඒ ලියපු ඒවා තමයි මගේ මේ මල්ලේ තියෙන්නේ.

මහල්ලා මුව හම් මල්ල ඇරියා. ඒකෙන් ඇරගෙන බොහොම තදට ඔතලා තිබ්බ සේද ලූලි දෙකක් චං පඬිවරයාට පෙන්නුවා. ඒවගේ ලියලා තිබ්බ අකුරු හරි ම පුංචියි. කියවන්න අමාරුයි. ඒකෙන් පාඨයක් දෙකක් කියවන්න කියලා පඬිවරයා මහල්ලගෙන් ඉල්ලූවා. මහල්ලා කියවන්න පටන්ගත්තා. හරි පුදුමාකාර විස්තර!

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ඒ විස්තර අහපු චං පඬිතුමා බොහොම සතුටින් නින්දට ගියා. පහුවදා උදේ පාන්දරින් ම එතුමා නැගිට්ටා. ඒත් ඒ වෙනකොට මහල්ලා යන්න ගිහින්!

එයින් දවස් කීපයකට පස්සේ භෂ්ම නිම්නයේ දී කෙනෙක්ට මහල්ලා හම්බවෙලා තියෙනවා. චං පඬිවරයා මතක් කරපු බවකුත් මහල්ලා ඒ පුද්ගලයාට කියලා තියෙනවා. ඒ ආරංචිය ලැබිච්ච ගමන් ම තමන්ගේ අශ්වයා පිටට නැග්ග චං පඬිවරයා භෂ්ම නිම්නය පැත්තට පිම්මේ යන්න පටන්ගත්තා. එතුමා මොහොතක්වත් පමා වුනේ නෑ. ඒත්, ඔහුට මහල්ලා ව හම්බවුනේ නෑ.

පරිවර්තනය කළේ

ආචාර්ය වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

(මේ කතාව උපුටාගත්තේ ”ථැයි පිං යුගයේ වාර්තාවලින් උපුටාගත් කතා සංග‍්‍රහය” කියන චීන පොතෙන්. ථැයි පිං කියලා කියන්නේ උතුරු සුං අධිරාජ්‍ය යුගයට අයිති කාලයක්. හරියටම කියනවා නම් ක්‍රිස්තු වර්ෂ 976 ඉඳලා 984 දක්වා වූ කාලය. ඒ වාර්තාවල මේ විදිහේ කතා හත්දාහක් විතර ඇතුළත් වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඉඩ ලැබෙන විදිහට ඉදිරියේ දී ඒ පොතින් උපුටාගත්ත තවත් කතාවක් දෙකක් කියන්න උත්සාහ කරන්නම්)

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ විපක්‍ෂ නායක

පසුගියදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදක සභාව ඉදිරියේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක කෙටුම්පතක් හැටියට සකස් කර තිබූ පිටු 187ක වර්ථාවක් අගමැතිවරයා සභාගත කළේය. ඉන් පසු ‘ව්‍යවස්ථාවකුත් නෑ ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතකුත් නෑ’ කියමින් ඔහු රට වටේ යන ආකාරය අපි දුටුවෙමු. එවැන්නක් කියන අතරම අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් යටතේ ලංකාව බෙදිය නොහැකි එක්සත් රටක් හැටියට පවතින බවත්,  බුදු දහමට තිබුණු තැන වෙනස් නොවන බවත්, අගමැතිවරයාත්, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ වෙනත් ඇමතිවරුත් කියයි. රටේ පවතින කෘෂිකාර්මික පළිබෝධ උවදුරත්, ණය උගුල ඇතුලු අනේකවිධ අර්බුධ මධ්‍යයේ නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෙරෙන මේ හොරගල් ඇහිලීම ගැන අපි කවුරුත් අවධානයෙන් සිටිය යුතුය.

වර්ථමාන පාලකයන් 2015 බලයට පැමිණෙන විට ජනතාවට දුන් ව්‍යවස්ථාමය පොරොන්දු දෙක වූයේ විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමය අහෝසි කිරීමත්, ස්ථාවර පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආණ්ඩු පිහිටුවීමට හැකිවෙන ආකාරයට මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය සංශෝධනය කිරීමත් පමණි. විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමය අහෝසි කිරීමට මේ කෙටුම්තේ විධිවිධාන තිබේ.  අපි එයට විරුද්ධ නොවෙමු. නමුත් මෙහි යෝජනා කර තිබෙන නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය 2017 දී පලාත් පාලන ආයතන හා පලාත්සභා වලට හඳුන්වාදුන් ආකාරයේ ‘පූර්ණ සමානුපාතික’ මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයකි. ඒ මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය ගෙන ඒමට 2017 කටයුතු කළ අයම දැන් එය ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කර ඇත. ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩු ඇතිවෙන ආකාරයට මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කිරීමට  නම් හඳුන්වා දිය යුත්තේ දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් පිහිටවනු ලැබූ පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාවෙන් යෝජනා කළ 70% ක් කේවල ආසන හා 30% ක් සමානුපාතික ක්‍රමයට මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් තෝරා පත් කෙරෙන ‘දෙමුහුන්’ ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයයි. එම පාර්ලිමේන්තු තේරීම් කාරක සභාව ඒ දෙමුහුන් මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය යෝජනා කලේ, 2002 සිට 2007 දක්වා එජාප සහ එජනිස ආණ්ඩු දෙකක් යටතේ අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් මුලුල්ලේ කරනු ලැබූ  අධ්‍යනයකින් පසුවය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව දරුණු ලෙස දුර්වල කර පලාත් ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයන් විශාල වශයෙන් බලවත් කිරීමට අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ යෝජනා ඇත. පලාත් සභා වලට අයිති විශයන් ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් නීති සෑදීමට  නම් හැම පලාත් සභාවක්ම එයට එකඟ විය යුතු වේ. එක පළාත් සභාවක් හෝ එම නීතියට  විරුද්ධ වුවහොත් එය සම්මත කිරීමට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලය මෙන්ම ජනමතවිචාරණයක්ද අවශ්‍ය වේ. නමුත් ඒ ආකාරයට සම්මත කරනු ලැබූ නීතියක් වුවද ඕනෑම පලාත් සභාවකට ඕනෑම වෙලාවක සරළ බහුතරයකින් සම්මත කරන පනතකින් අහෝසි කර දැමිය හැක (කෙටුම්පතේ 132 ඡේදය). පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බලය ඒ ආකාරයට සීමා කළ විට ඒකීය රාජ්‍ය ෆෙඩරල් රාජ්‍යයක් බවට පරිවර්තනය  වේ. අපි එයට සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විරුද්ධ  වෙමු.

සමගාමී ලැයිස්තුවට අයිති විෂයන් ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නීති සෑදීමට නම්  සියලුම පළාත් සභාවල එකඟත්වය ලබාගත යුතු වේ (134 ඡන්දය). එවන් එකඟතාවයක් ලබාගන්නවාද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන තීරණය කිරීමට වත්මන් ව්‍යවස්ථාව යටතේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට හිමි බලය එයින් අහෝසි වෙනු ඇත. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් නීතියක් සම්මත කළ පසුත් අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් පිහිටු වීමට යෝජනා කර තිබෙන ව්‍යවස්ථාමය උසාවියට ඒ නීතිය අවලංගු කළ හැක. එයින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බලය තවත් හීන වේ (182-ඇ සහ 185 ඡේද). මේ ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ පලාත් සභා බලතල ලැයිස්තුවක් ගැනත් සමගාමී බලතල ලැයිස්තුවක් ගැනත් මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවේ බලතල ලැයිතුවක් ගැනත් සඳහන් වුවද ඒ ලැයිස්තු අපේ වර්ථමාන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ තිබෙන ලැයිස්තුද නැත්නම් වෙනස් ඒවාද යන්න සඳහන් කර නැත.

මේ අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතත් සමඟ කිසිඳු ප්‍රයෝජනයක් නැති තොරතුරු අඩංගු ලියවිලි මිටි ගණන් සභාගත කෙරුවද වැදගත්ම කාරණයක් වන මේ බලතල ලැයිස්තු ඉදිරිපත් කර නැත. අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා යෝජනා වලට අනුව, මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවේ නියෝජිතයා වන ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාට පලාතේ මහ ඇමති යටතේ කටයුතු කිරීමට සිදුවේ. වත්මන් ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ විධිවිධාන වලට හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස්ව පළාතේ විධායක බලය ඇත්තේ මහ ඇමතිවරයාට මිස ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාට නොවන බවට සඳහන්ව තිබීමෙන්ද මේ යෝජනාවල ෆෙඩරල්වාදී නැඹුරුව තවත් පැහැදිලි වේ (242 ඡේදය).

පොලිස් සේවය ජාතික පොලිස් සේවයක් සහ පලාත්බද  පොලිස් සේවාවන් 09 කට කඩා ඒ හැම එකටම වෙන වෙනම පොලිස් කොමිසම් ඇති කිරීමටත් මෙහි විධි විධාන ඇත. ජාතික පොලිස් සේවයට අයිති වන්නේ රාජ්‍ය විරෝධී කටයුතු,  මැතිවරණ සම්බන්ධ වැරදි, හොර මුදල් අච්චු ගැසීම වැනි නම්කරනු ලැබු කාරණා  කිහිපයක් පමණි.  අනෙක් සියලුම එදිනෙදා පොලිස් කටයුතු, එනම්  අපරාධ, වංචා, මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය, රථ වාහන, මහජන සාමය වැනි කරුණු අයිති වන්නේ පලාත්බද පොලීසි වලටය. (254, 259, හා 284 වෙනි ඡේද) මේ ආකාරයට පොලීසිය කොටස් කිහිපයකට  කැඩීමෙන්පමණක් මේ රට ඉවර කර දැමිය හැක. 13 වෙනි සංශෝධනයේ කුමක්  තිබුණත් අවුරුදු 30ක් මුලුල්ලේ කිසිම ආණ්ඩුවක් පොලීසිය කෑලි දහයකට වෙන් නොකලේ ඒ නිසාය.

අලුත් යෝජනා යටතේ, වර්ථමානයේ මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවට අයත් විෂයන් සඳහා භාවිතා වෙන ඉඩම් හැරුණු විට සෙසු සියලුම රජයේ ඉඩම් අයත් වන්නේ පලාත් සභාවලටය. මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවට එවන් රජයේ ඉඩමක් අවශ්‍ය වුවහොත්, එය අදාළ පළාත් සභාවෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිය හැක. පලාත් සභාව ඒ ඉඩම නොදී සිටියහොත් එම දුක් ගැනවිල්ල ත්‍රිපුද්ගල බේරුම් කරන කමිටුවකට යොමු වේ. එම කමිටුවේ තීන්දුව ගැන සෑහීමකට පත්නොවන්නේ නම් මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවට ව්‍යවස්ථාමය උසාවියට ඒ ඉඩම ඉල්ලා පෙත්සමක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැක.  ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාවට සම්බන්ධ කාරණයකට මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුව රජයේ ඉඩමක් පවරාගත්තත් අදාල පලාත් සභාවට ව්‍යවස්ථාමය අධිකරණය වෙත ඒ පවරා ගැනීමට විරුද්ධව පෙත්සමක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැක (302, 307 සහ 308 ඡේද).

අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා යෝජනා වලට අනුව මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවෙන් හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශ කළත් එයට විරුද්ධව අධිකරණයට පෙත්සම් ඉදිරිපත් කර වාරණයක් ලබාගත හැක. මාස තුනකට වැඩි කාලයකට නැත්නම් දින 180 ක කාලයක් ඇතුළත දින 90 කට වඩා හදිසි නීති තත්වයක් පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට නම් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් අවශ්‍ය වේ (290-5, 291- ඈ, 292 ඡේද). එයින් ප්‍රායෝගිකව සිද්ධවන්නේ හදිසි තත්වයකටවත් මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවට සුදුසු ආකාරයට ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීමට නොහැකි වීමයි. හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමක් යනු විධායකයේ ක්‍රියාවකි. එවන් කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණයට කටයුතු කිරීමට නොහැක. හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට එරෙහිව වාරණයක් ලබාගත හැකිනම්, හදිසි නීතිය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමෙන්ද පලක් නැත.

උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පළාත් ඒකාබද්ධ කිරීමට හඳුන්වා දී ඇති විධිවිධාන (237-3 ඡේදය), වර්ථමානයේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට හිමි ව්‍යවස්ථාව සම්බන්ධ අධිකරණ බලය වෙනම ව්‍යවස්ථාමය අධිකරණයකට පැවරීම (181 සිට 191 දක්වා ඡේද) ඇතුලු තවත් ගැටලු ගණනාවක්ම ඇත. 1983 හයවන සංශෝධනයෙන් වත්මන් ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 7 වෙනි උපලේඛණය හැටියට ඇතුළත් කරන ලද බෙඳුම්වාදයට එරෙහි විශේෂ ප්‍රතිඥාව අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ පෙනෙන්නට නැත. මෙහිදී අප සඳහන් කර ඇත්තේ අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ අපට එකඟ විය නොහැකි විධිවිධාන කිහිපයක් පමණක් බව සැලකිය යුතුය.

මේ ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ පැහැදිලි රටාවක් පෙනෙන්ට තිබේ. එමඟින්  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවත් මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවත් හැකි තරම් දුර්වල කරනු ලැබේ. පලාත් සභා හැකි තරම් බල සම්පන්න කරනු ලැබේ. ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන් මහ ඇමතිවරුන්ට යටත්කරනු ලැබේ. සෑම පලාත් සභාවකටම වෙන වෙනම සන්නද්ධ පොලිස් සේවාවන් ඇති කරනු ලැබේ. පලාත් සභා වලට අයත් බලතල මොනවාද, මධ්‍යම ආණ්ඩුවට අයත් බලතල මොනවාද යන්න දැන්මම ප්‍රකාශයට පත් නොකර, පසුව නියම කර ගැනීමට  ඉඩ ඉතුරු කරනු ලැබේ. අවශ්‍ය අවස්ථාවල හදිසි නීතියවත් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට බැරි තත්වයක් ඇති කරනු ලැබේ. මේ සියල්ලම කුමණ අරමුණකින් කරනවාද යන්න කාටත් පැහැදිලි විය යුතුය.

අද රට පාලනය කරන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ හා දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය ඇතුලු හවුල නීති සම්පාදනය කිරීමේදී දක්වා ඇති වංචා සහගත ප්‍රවේශය නිසා ආණ්ඩුව කෙරෙහි ජනතා විශ්වාසය බරපතල ලෙස පලුදු වී ඇත. ඔවුන් ජනතාවත් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයත් නොමඟ හැරීම සඳහාම 19 වන සංශෝධනය තුළින් හිස් වගන්ති ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ඇතුළත් කළ ආකාරය කවුරුත් දනී.  සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනත් කාරණා සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් කර  තිබුණු පනත් කෙටුම්පත් දෙකකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කාරක සභා අවස්ථාවේදී ගෙන එනු ලැබූ සංශෝධන වලින් පලාත් පාලන මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයත් පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයත් පස්සා දොරින් වෙනස් කළ ආකාරය කවුරුත් දනී. 2016 අගෝස්තු මාසයේදී විවාදයක්වත්, හරිහමන් ඡන්දයක්වත් නොපවත්වා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ගාලගෝට්ටියක් මැද මේ ආණ්ඩුව අතුරුදහන් වූවන්ගේ කාර්යාල පනත සම්මත කරගත්හැටි කවුරුත් දනී.

මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ  කපටිකම් වලට සීමාවක් නැත. ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පත ඉදිරිපත් කළ පසු ඔවුන්  කතා කරන්නේ බුද්ධාගමට හිමි තැන ගැනත් ‘ඒකීය’ යන වචනය ගැනත් පමණය. අපට ලබා දී ඇති කෙටුම්පතේ මේ කාරණා දෙකම සම්බන්ධයෙන් විකල්ප වගන්ති යෝජනා කර ඇත. අප මෙතනදී පරීක්‍ෂාකාරී විය යුතුය. බෙදුම්වාදීන්ටයි ෆෙඩරල්වාදීන්ටයි වැදගත් වන්නේ නමවත්, වචනයවත් නොවේ. ඔවුනට අවශ්‍ය දේ ලැබෙනවා නම්, නම කුමක් වුවත් ඔවුනට ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැත. මේ පිරිස සැබවින්ම ඉලක්ක කරගෙන සිටින්නේ ඒකීය කියන වචනයවත් බුදු දහමවත් නොවේය. රටේ ඒකීය භාවය ගැනත් බුදු දහම ගැනත් ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන විකල්ප වගන්ති කේවල් කිරීමේ උපක්‍රමයක් ලෙස ඔවුන් විසින්ම  ඉල්ලා අස් කරගෙන බොරු නම්‍යශීලී බවක් පෙන්වා මේ ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතේ හරය වෙන ෆෙඩරල් පාලන ක්‍රමය දිනා ගැනීමට ඔවුන්  උත්සාහ කිරීමට ඉඩ ඇත.

විශේෂයෙන්ම මහා සංඝරත්නය මේ උප්පරවැට්ටි ගැන අවබෝධයෙන් සිටිය යුතු යැයි මම ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. වර්ථමාන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ බුද්ධාගමට මුල් තැන දී තිබියදීත්, මේ ආණ්ඩුව භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේලාව මර්ධනය කළ ආකාරය අපි දුටුවෙමු. මේ නිසා ඒකීය ලේබලය එළෙසම තිබියදී ඔවුන්ට රට ෆෙඩරල් කළ හැක. මේ රටේ දමිළ ජනතාවගෙන් බහුතරය ජීවත් වන්නේ උතුරු නැගෙනහිර පලාත් වලින් පිටය. මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගෙන් අති බහුතරය ජීවත් වන්නේ නැගෙනහිර පළාතෙන් පිටය. මේ වගේ රටකට අලුත් ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සෑදිය යුත්තේ ඒ යතාර්ථයත් හිතේ තබාගෙනය.

වර්ථමාන ආණ්ඩුව ගෙනවිත් තිබෙන මේ ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පතට විරුද්ධ වීම යනු සියලුම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන වලට විරුද්ධ වීම නොවන බවද අපි පැහැදිලිව කිව යුතුය. වර්තමාන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පුලුල් වෙනස්කම් සිඳු විය යුතු බව අපි පිළිගනිමු. 19 වෙනි සංශෝධනය නිසා පමණක් මොන තරම් අවුලක් ඇති වී තිබෙනවාද? ඇතැම් දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂවලට තිබෙන බෙදුම්වාදී නැත්නම් ෆෙඩරල්වාදී අදහස් අපි ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කරන අතරම ඒ ඒ ප්‍රාදේශීය ජන සමාජයන් වලට යම් කිසි ජාතික රාමුවක් තුළ තමන්ගේ කටයුතු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියා කිරීමට හැකියාවක් තිබිය යුතු බවත් අපි පිළිගනිමු. ඊලඟ ජාතික ඡන්දයේදී ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපේම යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ජනතාවගෙන් වරමක් ලබාගැනීමට අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු. අපගේ එම උත්සාහයට සහයෝගය දෙන මෙන් මම ජනතාවගෙන් මෙන්ම සියලුම දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ වලින්ද මේ අවස්ථාවේදී ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

විපක්‍ෂ නායක

MEDIA RELEASE  Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition

At the recent meeting of the Constitutional Assembly, the Prime Minister tabled a 187 page report prepared in the form of a draft constitution. Thereafter the PM has been going around the country claiming that there is no constitution or even the draft of a constitution. At the same time we also hear the Prime Minister and other members of the UNP stating that under the proposed new constitution, Sri Lanka will remain an ‘indivisible’ and ‘united’ country and that Buddhism will not be denied the special place it has hitherto had. The people should be mindful about  these moves being made to promote a new constitution in the midst of multiple crises including an unprecedented pest invasion in the agricultural sector and a looming debt crisis.

When the present rulers came into power in 2015, the only constitutional agenda they had was to abolish the executive presidency and to change the system of elections so as to ensure stable parliamentary governments. The draft constitution does have provisions to abolish the executive presidency, which we will not oppose. However, the new system of elections that has been proposed is another ‘pure proportional representation’ system like the systems that were introduced at the local government and provincial council levels in 2017 with disastrous results. Even those who voted for that elections system in 2017 now want it scrapped. If the system of elections is to be changed so as to ensure stable governments, what should be introduced is the hybrid 70%-30% ‘first past the post/proportional representation’ system proposed by the Parliamentary Select Committee headed by Mr. Dinesh Gunawardene after years of careful study from 2002 to 2007 under both UNP and UPFA governments.

The draft constitution seeks to weaken Parliament and immeasurably strengthen the provincial legislatures. If Parliament is to enact a law on a matter on the provincial councils list without the express agreement of each and every provincial council, that law would have to be passed with a two thirds majority by Parliament and also approved at a referendum. Even a law on a provincial council subject passed in this manner can be vitiated by a statute passed by a provincial council with a simple majority (Clause 132 in the draft constitution). Such limitations imposed on the legislative power of Parliament is the turning point at which the unitary state becomes a federal state. We are resolutely opposed to such a change. Parliament can make laws on matters coming under the concurrent list only with the approval of all provincial councils (Clause 134). Thus the discretion that Parliament has under the present Constitution to decide whether to consult the provincial councils or not, is to be done away with.  The legislative power of Parliament is to be further weakened by giving the proposed constitutional court the power to review laws that have been passed by Parliament (Clauses 182-c and 185).

Even though the draft constitution refers to a provincial council list, a concurrent list and a reserved list it has not been stated anywhere whether these lists are the same as those in the present Constitution or not. Although reams of useless information are being tabled in the Constitutional Assembly, some of the most essential information such as the content of these lists, is missing. The federalist tilt in the proposed draft becomes obvious when the Governor – the main representative of the central government in the provinces is placed under the chief minister. The executive power of the province is to be vested in the Chief Minister and not the Governor in complete contradiction to the provisions of the present Constitution (Clause 242).

The police force will be broken up into a national police force and nine separate provincial police forces each with its own Police Commission. The national police force is to have jurisdiction only over a limited number of specified offences, such as offences against the state, election offences and currency related offences etc. The provincial police will have effective charge of all day to day police work pertaining to crime, fraud, narcotics, traffic, public order etc. (Clauses 254, 259, and 284). This country can be destroyed simply by breaking up the police force into 10 separate police forces in the manner proposed. This is why no government in the past 30 years, broke up the police force regardless of the provisions in the 13^thAmendment.

Under the new constitutional proposals, the central government will have control over state land used for subjects pertaining to the national list or the concurrent list at the commencement of the Constitution. The provincial councils are to have authority over all other state land within their borders. If the central government requires state land in a province for any purpose, they may address a request to the provincial administration and if the latter does not comply, the dispute will be referred for arbitration to a three member tribunal. If the central government is not satisfied with the arbitration ruling, they can petition the constitutional court. The central government cannot unilaterally acquire state land in a province even for a national security related purpose as the provincial council can petition the constitutional court against such an acquisition (Clauses 302, 307 and 308).

Under the proposed new constitution the declaration of a state of emergency by the central government is to be made subject to judicial review by the constitutional court. A state of emergency may continue in excess of three months or a period of more than 90 days within a 180 day period only if it is approved by two-thirds of the Members of Parliament (Clauses 290-5, 291-d and 292). What this means in practice is that the central government will not be able to respond adequately to an emergency. The declaration of an emergency is an executive action and the judiciary is not competent to deal with such matters. In any case, if a stay order can be obtained against a declaration of emergency, there will be little point in declaring a state of emergency. There are many other issues as well such as the provision to merge the northern and eastern provinces (Clause 237-3) and the creation of a constitutional court to exercise the constitutional jurisdiction currently exercised by the Supreme Court (Clauses 181 to 191).

The special oath against separatism in the present Seventh Schedule introduced by the 6^th Amendment of 1983 is not to be seen in the draft constitution.  It should be noted that what has been mentioned here are only a few of the provisions in the proposed draft constitution that we are unable to agree to. A certain pattern can be discerned here. The Parliament and the central government is to be weakened and the provincial councils strengthened immeasurably, the governors are to be made subordinate to the chief ministers, separate armed police forces are to be established for each province and the question of subjects allocated to the provinces and the central government is to be kept open to be filled in later. The declaration of a state of emergency when necessary is also to be made virtually impossible. Where all this is leading should be obvious to everybody.

The UNP, TNA and JVP have forfeited the trust of the people due to the manner in which they practiced dissimulation and deception in the law making process. The way the 19^th Amendment was passed with dummy provisions inserted solely to mislead the public and the Supreme Court, the way they changed the local government and provincial councils election laws through the back door by introducing committee stage amendments to Bills gazetted for completely different purposes, and the manner in which the Office of Missing Persons Act was bulldozed through in August 2016 without a debate or a proper vote in the midst of a melee in Parliament are all cases in point.

There is no limit to the perfidy of this government. After putting forward the draft constitution, members of the government have been speaking only of two issues – the place accorded to Buddhism and the term ‘unitary’. In the draft that has been circulated to all MPs, there are several alternative formulations proposed for the provisions relating to the place accorded to Buddhism and the question of the unitary state. The separatists and federalists have no interest in names or words. So long as they get what they want, they do not care by what name it is called. Their real target is not the status of Buddhism or the word ‘unitary’. There is a very real possibility that they will back down from the alternative formulations they have proposed with regard to the status of Buddhism and the term ‘unitary’ as a bargaining strategy in order to win the real federalist demands which is the essence of the new draft constitution.

The venerable Maha Sangha in particular should be mindful of the possibility of such manoeuvres. Even though the present Constitution accords the foremost place to Buddhism, we have seen the manner in which the present government persecuted the Maha Sangha. So there is a very real possibility that this country will be turned into a federal state while still retaining the unitary label. The majority of the Tamil people in this country permanently reside outside the northern and eastern provinces. The vast majority of the Muslims reside permanently outside the eastern province. Such realities should be kept in mind when promulgating a new constitution.

Opposing the draft constitution put forward by the present government does not mean that we as the opposition are slamming the door shut on constitutional reform. We acknowledge that extensive reform of the present constitution is necessary. The 19^th Amendment alone has created a great deal of confusion that needs to be put right. Though we reject the separatist/federalist aspirations of some political parties, we acknowledge that local communities need to be empowered to look after their own affairs within a certain national framework. We will be putting forward our own proposals at the next national election to seek a direct mandate from the people for constitutional reform. I call upon the people and all political parties to support our endeavor because that will be the only real opportunity available to effect constitutional reform in this country.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Leader of the Opposition

සමන් ගමගේ

බල්ලගේ වැඬේ බූරුවා කරනවා යැයි ලෙසින් වූ වටිනා උපමා කතාවක් අපේ ජනවහරේ තිබේ. යමෙකු කළ යුතු සහ එසේ කරන්නට හැකියාව ඇති කාර්යයක් කිසිදු වගකීමක් සහ හැකියාවක් නැති තවෙකකු ඉදිරිපත්වී කරන්නට යන කල සහ වගකීම් විරහිතව වහසිබස් ප‍්‍රකාශ කරනවිට අපේ ජනතාව අතීතයේ මෙන්ම අදත් මේ කතාව සිහිපත් කළේ උපහාසය මුසු පිළිකුලෙන් යුතුවය.
 
 ශී‍්‍ර ලාංකීය ජනවහරේ දකින්නට ඇති අපේ මුතුන් මිත්තන්ගේ නිර්මාණාත්මක හැකියාව එසේ වෙද්දී ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතා කොළඹ නාලන්දා විද්‍යාලයේ පැවති උත්සවයකට සහභාගි වෙමින් වගකීම් විරහිත අලජ්ජී ප‍්‍රකාශයක්කර කරන අයුරු පෙරේදා (21 වැනිදා* විකාශය වූ විද්‍යුත් මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රවෘත්ති තුළින් අපි දුටුවෙමු.
 
 එය මෙරට ප‍්‍රධානතම බෞද්ධ පාසලක් වන කොළඹ නාලන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ උත්සවයක පැවති වැදගත් සභාවකි. එම සභාව ඉදිරියට පැමිණ ඉතාම නොවැදගත් ලෙස හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මේ කතාව කරද්දී ඔහු ඇත්තටම මේ රටේ ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්දැයි බරපතළ ගැටලූවක් අපට ඉබේටම මතුවිය. 
 
 අප දන්නා තරමින් නම් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු යනු ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා ප‍්‍රජාතාන්ති‍්‍රක සමාජවාදී ජනරජයේ ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයාය. එහෙත් ඔහු මෙහිදී සභාව අමතා කතා කරද්දී වේලූපිල්ලේ ප‍්‍රභාකරන්ගේ අවසානයෙන් පසු රුද්‍රකුමාරන්ලා, එම්මානුවෙල්ලා ඇතුළු කොටි ඩයස්පෝරවේ කෙරුමන් එකතුවී රටින් පිටත පිහිටුවාගත් ඡුායා ඊළාම් රාජ්‍යයේ කෙරුමන්ට ආවඩන අයුරුක්ද පෙනෙන්නට තිබිණි.
 
 හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතා මෙහිදී කළ කතාව වූයේ කුමක්ද? එය දැන් මුළු රටේම ජනතාව දැන සිටිති. එහෙත් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දුට කරන උපහාරයක් ලෙස ඒ කතාවෙන් වැදගත්ම කොටස ගෙන අපි එය මෙහි පළ කරන්නෙමු. ඔහු ඒ කොටස කීවේ මෙසේය.
 
 ‘කවුරුහරි යුද්දෙට සම්බන්ධ වෙලා ඉ`දලා ගමට ඇවිත් මිනී මැරුවා නම් එයාට රණවිරුවා කියන්න බැහැ. එයාට කියන්නේ මිනීමරුවා කියලා. එයාව අපි ලංකාවේ වලංගු නීතිය යටතේ අධිකරණයට ගෙනැල්ලා උපරිම ද`ඩුවම් දියයුතුයි. අපි දැන් ඒවගේ කි‍්‍රයාමාර්ග ගනිමින් යනවා. විශේෂයෙන්ම තව සුමාන දෙකකින් ලංකාවේ සිදුවෙච්ච ඉතාම භිහිසුණු ම්ලේච්ඡු මිනිමරුමකට සම්බන්ධ හමුදා පුද්ගලයන් එකොළොස් දෙනකුට අපි නඩු පවරනවා. 
 
 ඒ වගේම අපි එදාට අභියෝග කරනවා ඩයස්පෝරා එකට, උඹලට තිබෙනවා නම් මේ වගේ ඔප්පු කරන්න පුළුවන් සාධක ඇති තව මිනීමැරුම් අපට දෙන්න කියල. අපි ඒවත් විභාග කරලා ද`ඩුවම් දෙනවා..’
 
 හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු කියන මේ කතාව අනුව අපට පමණක් නොව මුළු රටටම මතුවන තවත් ප‍්‍රශ්න ගණනාවක්ම ඇත. ඒ අතරින් මුලින්ම අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ ඔහු කියන මේ ඔප්පු කරන්නට පුළුවන් හමුදා පුද්ගලයන් එකොළොස්දෙනකු සම්බන්ධ මිනීමැරුම කුමක්ද යන්නය. 
 
 හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු යනු විශ‍්‍රාමික විනිසුරුවරයකු නොවේ. එවැන්නකුට වුවද නඩුවක් විභාග කරන්නට පෙර එය ඔප්පු කළ හැකිද නැතිද යන්න ප‍්‍රකාශ කිරීම ඉතා අසීරු කාර්යයකි. ඒ තත්ත්වය තුළ ඔහු ඔප්පු කරන්නට පුළුවන් නඩුවක් ගැන කීමෙන් අපට නම් ඇතිවූයේ ඉස්සර විනෝද සමයේ සිටි ඇනස්ලි, බර්ටි, සැමුවෙල් අතරින් නිතර පව්ඩර් නාගෙන ර`ගපෑ සුපිරි විහිළුකාරයකු වූ බර්ටි ගුණතිලක කොට කලිසම පිටින් මගදී හමුවූවාක් වැනි හැ`ගීමකි.
 
 අනේ හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහත්තයෝ. ඔබ කියන පරිදි විභාග කිරීමට පෙර ඔප්පුකරන්නට පුළුවන් යැයි පූර්ව නිගමනයකට ආ හැකි නඩු තිබෙන්නේ කොහිද? වගකිවයුතු රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරියකු ලෙස රටට සාමය ගෙන දෙන්නට දිවිහිමියෙන් කැපවූ රණවිරුවන් එකොළොස් දෙනකු පිළිබද ඔබ මෙවන් බොළද ප‍්‍රකාශයක් කරනු ලැබුවේ කාගේ වුවමනාවටද?
 
 මේ කතාව ඇසූ කල අපිට දැනුණේ කලකට පෙර පොලිස්පතිවරයා නීතිය නවන්නට සැරසුනාක් මෙන් දැන් ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දුත් නීතිය නවන්නට යන්නේදැයි කියාය. ඇතැම්විට ලබන මාර්තු මාසයේ ස්විට්සර්ලන්තයේදී ජිනීවා කෝළම යළි ඇරඹීමට නියමිත නිසා හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු ජාත්‍යන්තරය පිනවීම පිණිස එකී රණවිරුවන් දංගෙඩියට යැවීමේ සැලසුමකට අනුව මේ ප‍්‍රකාශය කළාදැයි අපි නොදනිමු. එය අපට නොවැටහෙන්නකි. මේ ප‍්‍රකාශයේ ඇති සැගවුණ අරුත දන්නේද හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දුමය.
 
 ඔප්පු කරන්නට හැකියැයි ඔහු කියන මේ නඩුව වන්නේ වැල්ලවත්තේදී තරුණයන් පස්දෙනකු දෙනකු ඇතුළු පුද්ගලයන් එකොළොස් දෙනකු පැහැරගත්තේ යැයි කියමින් නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි බළකායේ රණවිරුවන් පිරිසකට එරෙහිව චෝදනා එල්ලවී තිබෙන සිද්ධිය ය. හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතා මෙන් නොව, අප එසේ පූර්ව නිගමනයකට පැමිණියේ සාධක ඇතිවය. හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතා නාලන්ද විදුහලේදී මෙකී ප‍්‍රකාශය කිරීමෙන් පසු ඊයේ (22 වැනිදා* අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව නොහොත් සීඅයිඞීය තුළින් ලබාගත් පුවතක් ලෙස ඇතැම් මාධ්‍ය ඒ බව වාර්තා කර තිබෙනු අපි දුටුවෙමු. 
 
 මෙකී පුද්ගලයක් එකොළොස් දෙනකු පැහැරගෙන ගියේ යැයි කියන සිද්ධියේ මූලික නඩු විභාගය සිදු කෙරුණේ කොළඹ කොටුව මහෙස්ත‍්‍රාත්වරයා ඉදිරියේදීය. එය මුල සිටම අපේ අවධානයට ලක්වූවක්ද විය. මේ විමර්ශනය කරනු ලැබුවේ 2015 යහපාලන දේදුණු විප්ලවයෙන් පසු කූඨප්ප‍්‍රාප්තියට පැමිණි සීඅයිඞීයේ සමූහ මංකොල්ල විමර්ශන අංශය මගිනි. එහිදී සිදුවූ දේද බොහෝය.
 
 වරක් අධිකරණය වෙත පැමිණ පැමිණිල්ලේ සාක්ෂිකරුවකු බවට සීඅයිඞීය කී විජයකාන්තන් නමැති පුනරුත්ථාපනය වූ හිටපු එල්ටීටීඊ ත‍්‍රස්තවාදියකු සීඅයිඞීයේ සමුහ මංකොල්ල විමර්ශන අංශයේ නිලධාරීන් තමන් නොමග යවා බලෙන් සාක්ෂි ගත්තේ යැයි අධීකරණය හමුවේ පැවසීය. 
 
 එය ඉතාම බරපතළ කරුණක් වුවද මේ දක්වාම ඒ පිළිබද විමර්ශනයක් නම් සිදුවූයේ නැත. ඒ අතරේ මේ සිද්ධියේ තවත් චූදිතයකු වූ නාවික හමුදා බුද්ධි බළකායේ ලූතිනන් කමාණ්ඩර් ප‍්‍රසාද් චන්ද හෙට්ටිආරච්චි තුළින් නේවි සම්පත් කෙනකු මවන්නටද සීඅයිඞීය දැඩි උත්සාහයක් ගත්තේය. එහෙත් ඇතැම් සත්‍යවාදී මාධ්‍ය අවදියෙන් සිටි නිසා සීඅයිඞීයේ ඒ උත්සාහය ද ව්‍යර්ථ විය. 
 
 එකී මූලික විභාගයට අදාළ වැල්වත්තේදී තරුණයන් පස්දෙනකු පැහැරගත්තේ යැයි කියන සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිටපු නාවික හමුදාපති අද්මිරාල් වසන්ත කරන්නාගොඩ කළ පැමිණිල්ලකට අනුව මුලින්ම චෝදනා එල්ල වූයේ හිටපු නාවික හමුදා නිලධාරී නිලන්ත සම්පත් මුණසිංහ ඇතුළු පුද්ගලයන් සිව්දෙනකුට එරෙහිවය. අපේ මතකයේ හැටියට ඒ ඉකුත් 2008 වසරේදී පමණය.
 
 ඒ අනුව සීඅයිඞීය සිදු කළ මේ විමර්ශනයට දැනට ගතවී ඇති කාලය වසර දහයකි. වසර දහයක් පුරා සිදු කෙරුණු මෙය ආරම්භයේදී නිලන්ත සම්පත් මුණසිංහ ඇතුළු සිව්දෙනා සිද්ධියට සම්බන්ධ බවට අධිකරණයට කරුණු වාර්තා කිරීමටද සිඅයිඞීය කටයුතු කර තිබිණි. 
 
 එසේ තිබියදී රට වෙනුවෙන් උපරිමය සිදුකළ තවත් නාවික බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් හත්දෙනකුට චෝදනා එල්ල කරමින් සීඅයීඞීය මෙකී විමර්ශනයට නව මුහුණුවරක් දෙන්නේ ඉකුත් 2015 වසරේ සිදුවූ දේදුණු විප්ලවයත් සමගිනි. එහිදී එකී බුද්ධි නිලධාරීන් හත්දෙනාට චෝදනා එල්ල වන්නේ සම්පත් මුණසිංහ ඇතුළු මුල් චූදිතයන් සහ වෙළගෙදර නමැති නාවික නිලධාරියකු කියන ප‍්‍රකාශ මත පදනම්වය.
 
 එසේ කරන්නට යෑමේදී මේ විමර්ශනය පුරා සීඅයිඞීය සිදු කළ උපහාසාත්මක දේද බොහෝ විය. නාලන්දයේදී කී පරිදි හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතා රණවිරුවන් පිරිසකට මිනීමරුවන් කියමින් නඩු පවරා ඔප්පු කරන්නට යන්නේ මේ කියන සිද්ධිය ය.
 
 මේ වන විට මෙකී විමර්ශනයේ සියලූ වාර්තා නීතිපතිවරයා වෙත යොමුකර අවසන්ව ඇත. ඒ අනුව සහ රටේ සම්මත කි‍්‍රයාදාමය පරිදි දැන් මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් චූදිතයන්ට එරෙහිව මහාධිකරණය හමුවේ නඩු පවරන්නේ නම් එය සිදු කළ යුතුව ඇත්තේ නීතිපතිවරයා විසිනි. 
 
 එසේ නම් තව සති දෙකකින් ම්ලේච්ඡු සහ බිහිසුණු ඝාතනයකට සම්බන්ධ වූ හමුදා පුද්ගලයන් එකොළොස් දෙනකුට නඩු පවරන්නේ යැයි කියමින් මෙකී රණවිරුවන්ට නඩු විභාගයකටත් පෙර ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියේ මිනීමරු ලේබලය අලවන්නට හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දුට ඇති අයිතිය කුමක්ද? එසේම නඩු පැවරිය යුත්තේ නීතිපතිවරයා නම් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු තව සති දෙකකින් නඩු පවරන බව කියන්නේ මොන පදනමකින්ද? 
 
 ඔහුගේ අලජ්ජී ප‍්‍රකාශය ඇසෙන කල්හි අපට බලූ බූරු කතාව මතක් වූයේ මේ නිසාය. ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයා ලෙස හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතාට පැවරී ඇති වගකීම වන්නේ ති‍්‍රවිධ හමුදාව ඇතුළු පොලිසියේ ඉහළ පරිපාලනය අධීක්‍ෂණය කරමින් ජාතික ආරක්‍ෂාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡුා පැවත්වෙන ආරක්‍ෂක මණ්ඩල රැුස්වීම වැනිදේට දායකත්වය ලබාදී රටේ ආරක්‍ෂක ඇමැතිවරයා වන සේනාධිනායක ජනාධිපති මෛති‍්‍රපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට අමාත්‍යාංශයේ කටයුතු කරගෙන යෑම සදහා සහාය දැක්වීමය. 
 
 එසේ නොමැතිව නීතිපතිවරයාගේ කටයුතුවලට මැදිහත්වී රූලෙන් පිට යෑමට හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මහතාට වෘත්තීයමය වගකීමක් නැත. ඔහු එසේ කිරීම සදාචාරාත්මකද නැත. 
 
 නාලන්ද විදුහලේදී කළ කතාවේදී ඔප්පු කරන්නට පුළුවන් තවත් මිනීමරුම් තිබේනම් ලබාදෙන ලෙස ඩයස්පෝරාවෙන් කාරුණික ඉල්ලීමක් කරමින් අන්තිම දීන තත්ත්වයට ඇද වැටෙන්නටද ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් හේමසිරි ප‍්‍රනාන්දු කි‍්‍රයා කළේය. මේ හමුවේ ඔහුගෙන් අවසන් වශයෙන් අහන්නට අපට එකම එක ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් ඇත.
 
 අනේ මහත්තයෝ, ඇත්තටම ඔබ වැඩකරන්නේ ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාවේ හයවන විධායක ජනාධිපති වූ මෛති‍්‍රපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට සහ මේ රටට ද? නැතහොත් රුද්‍රකුමාරන් රජකරන එල්ටීටීඊයේ ඡායා ඊළමටද? 
 
 සමන් ගමගේ

Courtesy Adaderana

Seven students from South Eastern University have been arrested for posting photographs of themselves standing on the ruins if ancient Kiralagala stupa, the Police Spokesperson stated.

A group of youths had recently taken photographs of themselves while standing on the ruins of Kiralagala stupa in Horowpathana and posted them on social media.

The Buddhist Information Centre had, yesterday (22), lodged a complaint at the Police Headquarters seeking an investigation into the incident and penalization of the youths responsible for behaving in this manner at an archaeological site.

Speaking to Ada Derana, the Director General of Archaeology P. B. Mandawala stated that the subject minister has given instructions to strictly enforce the law on the suspects.

The Kiralagala stupa, located in Horowpathana on the Anuradhapura-Trincomalee road, is said to have been built during 4th or 5th century AD.

In an inscription by King Bhatikabhaya Tissa, this stupa is referred to as ‘Dapathakara Vehera’.

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada

Sri Lanka has now woken up to the fact that the armyworm caterpillar, known locally as the Senaa caterpillar, has arrived in Sri Lanka and begun its march of devastation. This is what is known as a Grey Rhino” event – that is, an event whose coming  is  obvious but totally ignored because the attention is directed elsewhere. The armyworm arrived in Africa  by 2015-16  and  landed in India in 2016-17. It was obvious that  other neighbouring countries will follow suite.

However, in Sri Lanka scientific agriculture had been hijacked out of the agricultural and environmental scientists, and taken into the hands of  NGOs  and political ideologues.  They usually begin their Manthra by quoting what Rachel Carson wrote in the early 1970s in regard to the  consequences of the overuse of DDT in USA. They push for traditional agriculture” without any pesticides or even fertilizers.  They want traditional” gourmet seeds that yield only one tonne per hectare in six months, instead of the  hybrid seeds  popular with the common farmer that yield 5 tons per hectare in  four months!

Cutting out pesticides  is as naive as claiming that the nation does not need an army or police because we have universal Compassion” to all being and this should protect us from all evil. In reality, such extremes do not work, and the practicable alternative is the middle path”. Instead, an extreme position was thrust on the Sri Lankan Government. It adopted a toxin-Free Nation” policy and banned the well-known herbicide, glyphoste in 2015. Even a few parts of it per billion parts of water (or soil) was claimed to cause chronic kidney disease – a claim with no scientific support. Today we know, thanks to the work of scientists in Peradeniya and the Kidney specialists of the Kandy Hospital, that the disease is cause by consuming hard (kivul”) well water contaminated by fluoride of geological origin.

Once such a climate of opinion is created by powerful political monks and organs of the Presidential secretariat like the SEMA (“Strategic Enterprise Management Agency”) no agricultural scientists can have the courage  to ask for stocking up  the necessary pesticides and propose a program of anticipatory pest control. The political  thrust  is to get rid of all toxins (agrochemicals)  and use traditional solutions. Those invoke Kema”, Manthra”, traditional herbs like Madurutalaa”, plants like  Kohomba (Azadirachta indica) , and using   biodynamic and telluric forces” to fight pests. Rudof Steiner, the father of Western-style  organic Farming” was a great believer in telluric forces”. Our  Colombo elites have uncritically lapped it all up and become warriors of the local  Green movement”.

The attitude that prevails today, and the attempt to link all this with a moral imperative is seen in the propaganda put out by the SEMA project where toxin-free farming is attached to morality (the project has now been abandoned, after much damage).  One may find in the social media  (e.g.,facebook), a short film by Nalaka Wijerathne, and other similar clips. It may or may not be connected with SEMA, but it displays the level of public mis-information and naivety that drives the vasha-visha nathi ratak (toxin-free nation)” type of campaigns.

https://www.facebook.com/1580534728845852/videos/504838610005991/UzpfSTEwMDAwNDU3NjkyMDE5MDpWSzo1NjUyMDA1NTA2MjQwNDI/

An elderly  farmer is shown to go to a stream, where he encounters a little boy fishing. He condemns the boy as a sinner”,  and washes out a 5-litre container that may be used for spraying pesticides.  The farmer returns to his home. A short while later the boy passes by the farmer’s house and gives him some fish. The farmer asks, do you want some money for the fish”? The boy says, No, it was you who killed them”.

The implications and messages conveyed here are multiple.  (i) Farmers are uneducated and do not know how to handle agrochemicals. (ii) The small amount of agrochemical residues that were in the container when added to the  river water were enough to kill the fish. (iii) So, if the fish are killed, you too will get sick by using this stuff in growing food.  All three items are actually grossly incorrect. Another subtle put down is the suggestion that farmers, having to  kill pests (be they Kapra Beetles or Army worms) are adharmishta” sinners.

Farmers have a fair understanding of agrochemicals, but they may misuse them, just as people misuse  medication  The release of agrochemicals should be done as with  pharmacy products, with an agricultural technician  writing the prescription” for each farm. Farmers do not wash their pesticide containers  in streams. Even if they did, a small amount of  glyphosate  in the tank (say 10 millilitres), when added to the river, gets diluted extensively, and also rapidly react with the green plants and algae and get  destroyed. To claim that fish would be killed within a short time, as depicted by the film is complete nonsense. Claims of increased deformed births, mutations etc., in the NCP made by Ven. Ratana in a TV interview (AdaDerana, April 2018)  are totally unsubstantiated and agree with the level of  mutations expected from cosmic and other radiation falling naturally on the earth.  A truly large chemical spill  is needed for killing the fish. However, small amounts added regularly over a long time need  to be tightly controlled, and this is why  the sale of agrochemicals should be monitored just as with pharmaceuticals. The precautionary principle consists in control and constraint, and not in banning and banishing.

Similarly, a recent press scare claimed that   common herbs like Gotukola”, Mukunuwenna” are laced with traces of insecticides and are too dangerous to eat. This  was  entirely unfounded as the writer confused maximum allowed  levels for good farming practice  with thresholds for health risks (see:

Toxic cocktail of myth and truth

http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/11/07/features/167704/toxic-cocktail-myth-and-truth

.  The amounts found are so small that you have to eat several kilograms of the herbs everyday, perhaps for a decade, for any type of chronic illness to set in.

Today, even DDT has been re-approved by the WHO (since 2006, after much research) for domestic use.  Far more advanced knowledge of pesticides, sustainable agriculture, and biotechnology  at the molecular level are in our hands. Minimal but optimal  use of fertilizers and herbicides by using crop rotation, no-tillage farming to cut down erosion,  and soil analysis to control agrochemical inputs etc ., are routine.     Instead, in Sri Lanka we have wealthy  Colombo-based groups who push for traditional agriculture devoid of any pesticides and even discourage the use of fertilizers. Their justification is multi-pronged:  heroic opposition to multinationals”,  unfounded fear of toxins in the food , and grand claims of  Sri Lanka being the  granary of the East” when it used  traditional agriculture. So,  we should revert back to traditional agriculture!.  They  are simple solution to a complex problem, like the five lessons of the JVP of the 1970s.

According to the Bible, Egypt was the granary of the world (Genesis 41), and  most ancient nations have such claims. Mesopotamia was claimed to be the granary of the world known to the Romans.  Sanskrit texts claim that Saptha Sindhu (today’s Panjab) was the granary of  Jambu Dveepa.  According to our Chronicles, Lanka exported rice on a number of occasions. But the Chronicles themselves,  and the records of rings in old tree trunks reveal a series of famines, pestilences  etc., that ravaged S-E Asia regularly. However,  most people have only heard of the Baeminitiyaa  Saaya”, a historic famine so severe that even the upper classes and monks had no food, and began to perish. Hence the surviving monks decided to write down the Buddha’s word, held by oral tradition up till then, on ola leaves at the Alu Vihara temple (1st Century BCE)..

Prof. Siriweera of the Rajarata University has researched and written about the precarious nature of food availability in Sri Lanka in medieval and ancient times. Even if traditional agriculture  sustained a small population (less than that of Colombo today), it  cannot even marginally meet  today’s  needs. The world’s output of organic” agriculture remains below 2% and increasing it even by 10-fold is a challenge and creates a two-tier food system.
(https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/moving-from-conventional-farming-to-organic-farming-jumping-from-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire)

We should remember that in recent times, the Soviet Union and also China tried out ideologically driven Marxist” agriculture, and produced record famines and much human suffering. China exported rice to Sri Lanka in the middle of a famine in China, hoping to be noted when China was just an international underdog. So, the occasional export of grain does not make a country a granary of the region even for that period!

අද (23) දින මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවට සහභාගි වූ නියෝජිතයින්

• පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී්‍ර මොහාන් සිල්වා මහතා
• හිටපු මධ්‍යම පළාත්සභා මන්තී්‍ර ප්‍රමිත බණ්ඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී්‍ර විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා

අම්පාර දිස්තී්‍රක්කයේ කල්මුනේට මුලික රෝහල් හයක් තියෙනවා. මොනරාගලට තියෙන්නේ තුනයි. පහුගිය දවසක සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමැතිතුමා ගිලන් රථ ඛෙදාහැරීමක් කළා. එයින් ගිලන් රථ දෙකක් සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයාගේ කොට්ඨාශය වුනු අම්පාරේ නින්දවූර් රෝහලට දුන්නා. දිස්ති්‍රක් රෝහල හා මූලික රෝහල කියලා එකම රෝහල වර්ගීකරණ දෙකක් යටතේ සදහන් කරලා තමයි මේ ගිලන් රථ දෙක අරන් තියෙන්නේ. මිට පෙර ඕස්ටේ්‍රලියෙන් ඛෙන්ස් ගිලන් රථයක් මේ රෝහලට දීලා තියෙනවා. නමුත් අම්පාරේ තොට්ටම, අඹගහවෙල රෝහල් සහ ඈත එපිට පිටිසර රෝහල්වල ගිලන් රථ නැහැ. මේ අය තමන්ගේ තැන්වලට ගිලන් රථ ඛෙදා ගන්නවා. නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ මඩකලපුව, කල්මුනේ , අම්පාර මහ රෝහල්වලට එම්. ආර්. අයි. ස්කෑන් යන්ත්‍රයක් නැහැ. 2014 ස්කෑන් යන්ත්‍රයක් තිබුණා. දැන් නුවරට ගේන්න ඕනේ. නුවරට ඇවිත් මාස දෙකක් විතර ඉන්න ඕනේ ස්කෑන් එක කරගන්න. රටට සෞඛ්‍ය ගැන මහා පම්පොරි ගහන සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමැතිතුමාට නැගෙනහිර මහරෝහල් ගණනාවකට එම්. ආර්. අයි ස්කෑනර් යන්ත්‍රයක් දි ගන්න බැරිවුනා. අපේ මිනිස්සු හුන්නස්ගිරි කන්දේ , මුතියංගනයේදී, බිබිලේදී මැරෙනවා. එහෙම වෙන්නේ ස්කැනර් යන්ත්‍රයක් නැති නිසා. ඒ වුනාට සුවපති.

සේනා දළඹුවා හොයා ගත්තේ අම්පාරේ මගේ කොට්ඨාශය වන දමන කොට්ඨාශයෙන්. එක දිගට කන්න තුනක් නියගයෙන් විනාශවුනු මිනිස්සු තමන්ගේ කණකර උගස් තියලා මේ පාර කන්නය වගා කළා. දැන් සේනා ඇවිත් වගාව විනාශ කළා. නිය`ගයෙන් වගා විනාශ වෙන වෙලාවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී මේ ගැන ඇහුවම අගමැතිතුමා නැගිටලා කෝට්බෑයේ අත් දෙක දාගෙන කිව්වා රාජපක්ෂ කාලේ වගේ නෙවෙයි එක්කෙනෙකුට රුපියල් 8000 ගානේ දෙනවා කියලා. සත පහක් දුන්නේ නැහැ. තවත් කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමැති කෙනෙක් කිව්වා කෝටි පහකට ලංකාවේ වගාබිම් රක්ෂණය කරලා තියෙන නිසා රුපියල් 40000 රක්ෂණයක් දෙන බවක්. ෂත පහක් නොලැබුණු ගොවියෝ ඉන්නවා. මේ පාර වැස්ස ලැබුනට සේනා දළඹුවා ඇවිත් වගාව විනාශ කරලා. මේ මිනිස්සු ජිවත් වෙන්නේ කොහොමද? දුර්භික්ෂයක් ඇති වෙනවා. අපේ ආණAඩුව කාලයේ මේ ගොවින් ගෙවල් දොරවල් හදාගෙන ට්‍රැක්ටරයක් ගත්තා. බයිසිකලයක් ගත්ත දියුණු වුනා. දැන් ඒ හැම දෙයක්ම විකුණගෙන කන තත්ත්වයකට පත්වෙලා. පොළොන්නරුවේ, අම්පාරේ, මොනරාගල ජාතියේ බඩගින්න නිවපු ගොවියා අද බඩගින්නේ. ඊයෙත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදි කිව්වා එක්කෙනෙකුට රුපියල් 40000ක් දෙනවා කියලා. ගල් බැලෙන බින්න ඔය කියන්නේ. මේ තරම් ප්‍රශ්න මැද්දේ ආණAඩුව ආනAඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව කියන වචන ගොඩක් දෙනවා. මේ රටේ සංස්කෘතියේ ගොවිතැන විනාශ වුනාම රටම බඩගින්නේ. ඒ මිනිස්සුන්ගේ ඡ්න්දයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආපු ගොවියෙක් විදියට මං ඒ මිනිස්සුන්ගේ දුක ස්පර්ශ කරනවා. ඒ දුක් අදෝනාව මේආන්ඩුවට ඇහෙන්නේ නැහැ කටේ බුලත්විට තියෙන අපි කතා කළාට මේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට ඒවා ඇහෙන්නේ නැහැ. එයාලාට ඇහෙන්නේ සුදුනෝනලා මහත්තුරු කියන දේවල්. මේක ඛේදවාචකයක්. අසරණ මිනිස්සු වෙනුවෙන් හඩක් නැහැ. මම ඔට්ටු තියනවා ශය කියන 40000 නම් ගොවියාට දෙන්නේ නැහැ. ගොවි ජනතාවයි අපියි රවට්ටන එකයි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කියන පච සාප්පුවේ කෙරෙන්නේ. ලිච්චවී රජදරුවෝ පච සාප්පුවේ කියන ගජබින්නාලංකාර අපි ඕනේ තරම් අහලා තියෙනවා.

හිටපු පලාත් සභා මන්තී්‍ර ප්‍රමිත බණAඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා

13 වැනි ආණAඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ 154 ඊ අනුව මේ වනවිට පළාත් සභා හයක කාලය අවසන් . ආණ්ඩුකාරවරු ලේකම්වරු ඇතුලූ නිලධාරින් තමයි පළාත් සබා වල වැඩ කරන්නේ. පළාත් සභාවේ මුල්‍ය පාලනය වියයුත්තේ 1947 අංක 2 දරන පනතට යටත්වයි. කවදාහරි දවසක ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන්ටත් ප්‍රධාන ලේකම්වරුන්ටත් එෆ්. සී. අයි. ඩි යන්න වෙනවා ඒක වළක්වන්න බැහැ. පළාත් සබාවේමුදල් පළාත් ෂාබ අරමුදලට බැර වෙන්න ඕනේ. මේ මුදල් වියදම් කරන්න පළාත් ප්‍රධාන ඇමැතිවරයා යටතේ අධිකාරී බලපතක් නිකුත් කළ යුතුයි. මහ ඇමැතිවරයාට මේ අධිකාරි බලපත්‍රය නිකුත් කළ හැක්කේ විසර්ජන පනත් කෙටුම්පත අනුවයි.පළාත් සභාවේ අනුමැතිය නොමැතිව පොදු කාරණා සදහා පළාත් සභාවේ මුදල් වියදම් කිරිම නිතියට පටහැනියි. ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූල නොවන විදියට නිති විරෝධිවෙ කරෙන මේ පළාත් සභා පරිපාලනයට කවදා හරි කාට හරි වගකියන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා.
නලින් බන්ඩාර ළගදි කිව්වා ජනාධිපතිවරණය පළමුව තියන්න ඕනේ කියලා. පළාත් සභා හයේ පරිපාලනය කඩා වැටිලා ආණAඩුකාරවරුන්ට හිතු මතේ තීරණ ගන්න බලයක් ව්‍යවස්ථාවවෙන් දිලා නැහැ. ඉදිරි ෂතියේදී අපි පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණයේ පිහිට පතනවා. දඹුල්ලේ කන්න තුනක් වැස්ස නැතිව හිටපු ගොවියා අද තවත් අසරණ වොල. ගොවියාට ගොවිකම එපා කරන වැඩපිළීවෙලක් ආණAඩුව ගත්ත දවසේ ඉදන් කි්‍රයාත්මක කරපු මේ ආණAඩුව වෙලාවට පොහොරටිකවත් දුන්නේ නැහැ. ගොවියා ගොවිතැන එපා වෙලා ගොවිතැන අතඅරින තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වෙලා. අලූත් පරම්පරාවේ අය දුක් විදලා ගොවිතැන් කරන්න කැමැති නැහැ. මේ රජය ගොවිතැනි්න් මිනිස්සු දුරස් කරලා. උග්‍ර ධනවාදී දක්ෂීණාංශික ආර්ථීක ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් ගෙනියන මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඔවුන්ගේ පරමාර්ථය ඉෂ්ඨ කරගන්න ගොවියාට මේ විදියට ගොවිතැන එපා කරවන්නේ.

ශී්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ පාලන ලේකම්, හිටපු පළාත්සභා මන්තී්‍ර රේණුක පෙරේරා මහතා

රට දැවැන්ත අර්බුදයකට මුහුණදී ඇති අවස්ථාවක මාධ්‍යවේදින් රටේ ජනතාව නිවැරදි දිසාවට ගෙනියන්න කැපවෙමින් සිටීම අපි අගය කරනවා. පහුගිය වකවානුවල සිද්ධවුනු හැමදේකදීම, රටේ ජනතාවට මොකක්හෝ බොරුවක් කියලා ම`ග හරින්න ආණAඩුව සූක්ෂ්මව කටයුතු කළා. මහබැංකු වංචාව ගැන දැන් කතාවක් ඇත්තේම නැහැ. ජනාධිපතිතුමා කිව්වා මහබැංකු වංචාව පිළිබ`ද වාර්තාවේ භාෂා පරිවර්ථනය කරලා නැති කොටස් පරිවර්තනය කරලා එළිදක්වනවා කිව්වා. අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා ජනවාරි වෙන්න කළින් මහ බැංකු වාර්තාව එළියට එයි කියලා. ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන්, සේනා දැළඹුවාගෙන් වෙන්නේ මේ දේවල් යට වෙන එක. නමුත් ජනතාවගේ මුලික ප්‍රශ්න ගැන කිසිම කතාවක් නැහැ. හාල් කිලෝව රුපියල් 100ට ඉහළ ගිහින්. එළවලූ මිල වැඩිවෙලා. කිරිපිටි රුපියල් 170කින් වැඩි කරන්න ඉල්ලීම් කරනවා. වරායට ගෙනාපු කිරිපිටි ටික රේගුවෙන් නිදහස් කර ගන්නේ නැහැ. මේ නිසා කොයි මොහොතක හෝ කිරිපිටි හි`ගයකට මුහුණ දෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. රජයට කැමැත්තෙන් හෝ අකමැත්තෙන් කිරිපිටි රුපියල් 170කින් වැඩි කරන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. නැත්නම් රජය බද් ධඉවත් කරලා කිරිපිටි මිල වැඩිවිම පාලනය කරන්න වෙනවා.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාගේ මන්තී්‍රධූරය අධිකරණ ඉදිරියේ අභියෝගයට ලක්වෙලා තියෙනවා. අධීකරණය මුලික විභාගය ස`දහා 31 වැනිදා දක්වා අධීකරණයකල් තිබ්බා. රාජිත සේනාරත්න ඇමැතිවරයාගේ මන්තී්‍රධූරය අහෝසිකරන්න එදා දුන්න අධිකරණ තීන්දුවට අනුව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාට මේ මන්ත්‍රීධූරය දරන්න පුලූවන්කමක් නැති බවයි නිතීඥවරු විශAවාස කරන්නේ. රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා මන්තී්‍රවරයෙක් විදියට සිටියදී එතුමා කොටස්කරුවෙක් වෙන සමාගමකින් ගුවන් හමුදාවට භාණ්ඩ සැපයිම කියන චෝදනාව මත අධිකරණය රාජිත සේනාරත්න පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්තී්‍රධූරයට නුසුදුස්සෙක් කියලා නම් කලේ. ඒ පදනමින්ම ලංකා බැංකුව මහජන බැංකව කියන රාජ්‍ය ආයතනවලට ලේක්හවුස් පි්‍රන්ටර්ස් කියන ආයතතනයෙන් චෙක්පත් මුද්‍රණය කර තිඛෙන්නේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ඒ සමාගමේ කොටස්කරුවෙක්ව සිටියදියි. ලාභ ඉපයීමේ චේතනාවෙන් රජයේ අගමැතිවරයා ලෙස සිටිමින් කළ මේ කි්‍රයාව ගැනයි නිතිඥවරු එදාට අධිකරණයේ කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පිළිබදව තියෙන කිසිදු වංචාවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙතෙක් ඉදිරි පියවර අරන් නැහැ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහ බැංකු වංචාවට සෘජුව සම්බන්ධ බව කවුරුත් පිළිගන්නවා. මේ සිද්ධීය වි ෂතියක් යන්න කළින් කොළඹ මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධීකරණයේ නඩුපැවරුනේ මම. ඒ නඩුව විභාග ඛරන්න තින්දු කරලා සිතාසි නිකුත් කරන්න අධිකරණය තින්දු කළා. ඒ අවස්ථාවේ අල්ලස් දෙපාර්ත මේන්තුව මෝසමක් මගින් අධිකරණයට කිව්වා, අල්ලස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව පැමිණිල්ල ගැන 80% විභාග කර අවසන්. නඩු පැවරීමට සියල්ල සූදානම් කර තියෙන අවස්ථාවක මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විවෘත අධිකරණයේ විභාගයක් පැවැත්වීම බාධාවක් බවත් කිව්වා. මහ බැංකු නියෝජ්‍ය අධීපති (නීති) ඒ වෙලාවේ ඉදිරිපත් වෙලා කිව්වා මේ සිද්ධිය විවෘථ අධිකරණ්‍යක විභාග විම රටේ ආර්ථීකයට බලපාන බව. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විවෘත අධීකරණයේ කටයුතු නොකරන ලෙෂ අධිකරණයෙන් ඔවුන් ඉල්ලා සිටි නිසා මම පැමිණිල්ල ඉල්ලා අස්කරගත්තා. අල්ලස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව 80% පැමිණිල්ල විභාග කර අවසන් කියලා සදහන් කරලා අවුරුදු 4ක් වෙනවා. මෙතෙක් නඩු පවරලා නැහැ.ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තාවක් තිබුණා කියලා නඩු පැවරිමම් වෙන්නේ නැහැ. මේ රටේ ආර්ථීකය විනාශ කරපු මහ බැංකු වංචාව ගැන අවශ්‍ය කඩිනම් කි්‍රයාමාර්ග ගන්න කියලා අපි රජයට බලකරනවා. එදා ඩොලරයට අපි ගෙව්වේ රුපියල් 131යි. අද අපි රුපියල් 185ක් ගෙවනවා. රජය ලබා ගෙන ඇති ණය මුදල්වල සෑම රුපියල් 100ටම රුපියල් 54 බැගින් එකතු වෙලා ණය ඉහළ යනවා. මේ රටේ ආර්ථීකයට වුනු හානියේ ප්‍රතිඵල තමයි කිරිපිටි, ගෑස් මිල, වගේ දේවල් වැඩිවීම.අද ජනතාවගේ කරමත සියලූ බර වැටෙමින් තිඛෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – ණය අරන් තියෙන්නේ පහුගිය ආණ්ඩුවෙන් කියලා තමයි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා කියන්නේ.

හැමදාම ඔහො කියනවා.සියලූ රාජ්‍ය නායකයෝ රටේ අවශ්‍යතාවය අනුව ණය අරන් තියෙනවා. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා රට භාර ගෙන නික්ම යනතෙක් ඊට පෙර රජයන් ගත් සියලූ ණය ගෙවන්න අදෝනා තිබ්බේ නැහැ.රාජ්‍ය නායකයෝ ණය අරන් තියෙන්නේ රටේ සංවර්ධනයට. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ පාලන කාලයේ ගත්ත ටි්‍රලියන 5ට කරපු දෙයක් නැහැ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා ගත්ත දේවල් අත දිග ඇරලා පෙන්නන්න පුලූවන්. ඩොලරය තවම නතර වෙන බවක් පෙන්නේ නැහැ. වැරදි කළමණාකරණය නිසා මේ සියල්ල වුනු බවයි මහ බැංකු අධිපති කිව්වේ. සැබැ පිළිතුරු හොයන්න ඕනේ. නැත්නම් තමන්ට කරන්න බැරිනම් ජනතාවට කැමැති ආණAඩුවක් පිහිටුවා ගන්න අවස්ථාව දෙන්න ඕනේ.

මාධ්‍ය – ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නැතිකමින් නේද මේ සියල්ල සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ?

රේණුක පෙරේරා – ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක ප්‍රශ්නයක් නෙවෙයි මේ තියෙන්නේ.මේ රජය ණය ගත්තේ මොකටද? වෙන රජයන් ණය ගත්තේ ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් යටතේ අධ්‍යාපනයට, ප5වාහනයට, මහාමාර්ගවලට.

මාධ්‍ය – ආණAඩු වෙනස් වෙද්දි ක්‍රමවේදයන් වෙනස් වෙනවා.

රේණුක පෙරේරා- හැමෝම එහෙම කරන්නේ නැහැ.වෙනත් රජයන් අධිවේගී මාර්ග සැළසුම් කළා. නමුත් කි්‍රයාත්මක වුනේ නැහැ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා ඊළ`ග පියවර විදියට අධිවේගී මාර්ග ඉදිකළා. මේ ආණAඩුව ආපු ගමන් කලේ පෝර්ට් සිටි නතර කළා. වෙන නම්දාලා ඒ පොර්ට් සිටියම කළා. කැළනි පාලමේ මාර්ග හයක අලූත් පාලමක් ඉදිවෙනවා. ඒක මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සමයේ සැලසුම් කරලා නිර්මාණය කලේ. ඒක තමයි ඔය පා. ච රණවක කිව්වේ මහා ලොකු පාරවල් දෙකක් පෝර්ට් සිටියට එනවා කියාලා. තමන් ඇමැතිවරයා නිසා උප්පැන්න දෙන්න හැදුවට ඒක එයාගේ පාලමක් නෙවෙයි. ඔරුගොඩවත්තේ නිවාසවල පදිංචිකරුවන් ඉවත් කිරීමේ, වන්දි දීම් සාකච්ඡාවලට පවා මම සම්බන්ධවුනා. මේක දවසින් දෙකෙක් වුන දෙයක් නෙවෙයි. කුමන රජයක් කළත් රජයේ කාලය අවසන් වුනාම ඊළ`ගට පත්වෙන රජය ඉතිරි වැඩටික ඉදිරියට කරගෙන යන්න ඕනේ. මාලඹේ ඉදලා මොනෝරේල් යන්න තිබුණා. ඒක නොකර වැලිකඩ හන්දියේ ගුවන් පාලමක් ගැහුවා. මාර්ග තදබදයවත් අවසන් වෙලා නැහැ. දැන් ආයේ වෙනත් මාර්ගයක් සැලසුම් කරනවා. කොළඹ නගරය, ශී්‍ර ජයවර්ධනපුර පරිපාලන නගරය සැලසුම් කරලා තිබුනේ. ඒවා කි්‍රයාත්මක නොකිරිමයි සිද්ධ වුනේ. හෝමාගම මාකුඹුරේ දැවැන්ත පර්යන්තයක් ඉදිවෙනවා. දුරගමන් සේවා බස් රථ සියල්ල එතනටයි එන්නේ. ඊළගට රාගමට දුම්රියත් එක්ක බද්ධ කරපු මාර්ගයක් හදන්න තිබුණා. අනික මොරටුව.මේ විදියේ දැවැන්ත සැලසුමක් තියෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – කාගෙද සැලැස්ම

රේණුක පෙරේරා – ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන මහත්තයා තමයි කොළම නගරය වාණ්ජ නගරයකරලා ශී්‍ර ජයවර්ධනපුර පරිපාලන නගරය කලේ.එතන ඉදන් රජයේ නිලධාරින් සියලූ සැළසුම් කරනවා. රජය ඒ සදහා ප්‍රතිපාදන සොයා දීලා කඩිනමින් ඉදිකිරිම් කරනවා. ඒ සදහා අවශ්‍ය සියලූ පහසුකම් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය සැපයුවා. මොනෝ රේල් එක කළානම් මේ වෙද්දි අවසානයි. චිනයද ජපානයද මේක කරන්නේ කියන ප්‍රශ්නය විතරයි තිබුනේ. ගාලූ පාරේ එන රාජ්‍ය සේවකයෝ සියලූ දෙනා කොල්ලූපිටියෙන් බැහැලා පෞද්ගලික වාහනවලින් එන්නේ. ඒ මිනිස්සු ප්‍රවාහනය ස`දහා සෑහෙන වියදමක් දරනවා. රටේ සංවර්ධනය අක්‍රමවත් කරලා හිතුවක්කාර පාලනයක් ගෙනයන මේ ආණ්ඩුව වෙනස් කළයුතුමයි.

මාධ්‍ය – මීළගට තියෙන්නේ මොන මැතිවරණයද?

රේනුක පෙරේරා – මැතිවරණ කොමිෂමේ සාකච්ඡාවේදි සභාපතිතුමා කිව්වා ඔක්තෝම්බර් 20 එතුමාට තියෙන අවසන් දිනය කිව්වා.

මාධ්‍ය – විමල් විරවංශ උයද ගම්මන්පිල වගේ අය කියන්නේ ශී්‍ර ලංකා නිදහස ්පක්සයත් එක්ක එකතු වෙලා ගමනක් යන්න අවශය බවයි. ඔබේ මතය කුමක්ද?

රේණුක පෙරේරා – සියලූ බලවේග රට ගොඩනැ`ගීම ස`දහා එකතු වෙනවානම් අපි කැමැතියි. රටේ සමස්ත ප්‍රශ්න ස`දහා පිළිතුරු සොයන්න පුලූවන් පාලනයක් බිහිකිරීමයි පොදුජන පෙරමුනේ අරමුණ. අපි පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ආන්ඩුව හදන්නේ ඡන්දය දිනන්න විතරක් නෙවෙයි ඡන්දෙ දිනලා ඊට පස්සේ රට දියුණු කිරිමටත් එක්කයි. පුද්ගල සාධනය මත ප්‍රතිපත්ති යට ගහන්න බැහැ. ශී්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ නිර්මාණය කලේම සාර්ථක මිනිසුන් ලවා සාර්ථක ගමනක් ඉදිරි අවුරුදු 10 යන්නයි. මැතිවරන වෙලාවට අපි ඒ සියලූ දේ ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා. ලබන මාසේ අපි ජනතාව අතරට යමින් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගමත් සමග කතා කරලා ගම්වල පොදුප්‍රශ්න විමසලා ඒ සදහා ප්‍රතිපත්ති සකස් කරන්න. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට අපිට තව මාස අටක් තියෙනවා. අපි ඊට කළින් පළාත්සභා මැතිවරණය බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. බලයඛෙදන්න කතා කරන මේ මිනිස්සු ඛෙදලා තියෙන බලය ජනතාවට දෙන්නේ නැහැ. තව බලතල ඉල්ලන්නේ මොනවා කරන්නද? ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන්ද මේ කතා කරන්නේ.

මාධ්‍ය – සන්ධානගත වුනොත් මෛතී්‍රපාල සිරිසේන මහත්තයාද ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා වෙන්නේ

රේණුක පෙරේරා – ජනාධිපතිවරණයක් ප්‍රකාශයට පත්කළාම අපේ සහෝදර දේශපාලන පක්ෂත් එක්ක සාකච්ඡා කරලා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා රටට ප්‍රකාශයක් කරනවා කවුද අපේක්ෂකයා කියන දේ. රට ගොඩගන්න පුලූවන්රට සංවර්ධනය කරන්න පුලූවන් නායකයෙක් මිසක් අසාර්ථක පුද්ගලයෝ කාවවත් අපි බලයට ගේන්නේ නැහැ.

මාධ්‍ය – සේනා දළඹු හානිය මොනවගේද ඔබේ පළාතේ?

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – අම්පාරේ බඩඉරිගුවලට තමයි මේ වුවදුර වැඩි. බඩ ඉරිගු කරල එන්න කළින් කරටියේ ඉන්නවා. කිරි වදින කරටියටත් යනවා. බිත්තර දහස් ගානක් දානවා. දවසකට දාන බිත්තර ගාන බැලූවම සේනා දළඹුවා පරදන වේගයක් තාක්ෂණයක් තවම තිරණය වෙලා නැහැ. දැන් බඩ ඉරිගු නෙළලා අවසන් වෙන්න ළගයි. තක්සේරු කරලා වන්දි දෙන්නේ කොහොමද? වැව්වල වතුර තියෙන නිසා ඊළග කන්නය වගා කරන්න වතුර දීලා වගා කරන්න ධෛර්යයක් දෙන්න ඕනේ. ණයගත්ත මිනිස්සුන්ගේ ජිවිත ඒ ණයෙන් වෙලා ගෙන. මිනිස්සු මේ ඉන්නවා මේ අතුරුදහන් වෙනවා. ණය ගෙවන්න බැරිව පැනලා යනවා. අපේ තරුණ පරම්පරාව කී දාහක් රටින් යනවාද?

මාධ්‍ය – දයාගමගේ ඇමැතිවරයා ඉන්නෙත් ඔබේ දිස්ති්‍රක්කයේ නේද?

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – දයා ගමගේ මහත්තයා එක්ක පුද්ගලික ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ. අයවැය ලේඛණයෙන් මහඔය ආර්ථීක කළාපයක් හදනවා කියලා බුලත් විට කඩයක්වත් දැම්මේ නැහැ. 2014 කොටස් වෙලෙද පොලේ දෛනික පිරිවැටුප මිලියන 1468යි. දැන් මිලියන 68යි’. ආර්ථීක වර්ධන වේගය 3. 1ට බැහැලා. ලෝකයේ ආයෝජනයට අනතුරුදායකම රට ලංකාව කියලා කියනවා. මොකක්ද ආර්ථීකයේ වර්ධනය වුනේ.වි නි්සාපදනය 46%කින් අඩුවුනා.

මාධ්‍ය – සේනා දළඹුවා බඩ ඉරිගුවලින් ආවා කියන්නේ ලංකාවට ඉඩ ඉරිගු ගෙන්වනවා කියන එකනේ?

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – 2005 ලංකාවේ බඩඉරිගු නිෂ්පාදනය වාර්ෂිකව මෙටි්‍රක් ටොන් 34000යි. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා යනකොට වාර්ෂිකව මෙටි්‍රක් ටොන් 264000යි. රටේ බීජ නිෂ්පාදනය කළා. බටහිර වාණිජ නිෂAපාදනයක් කළා. පොහොර නියගය ආණAඩුවේ අනුග්‍රහය පිළිබද ප්‍රශ්න නිසා ජනතාව වගාවෙන් ඉවත් වුනා. වගාවෙන් 30%ක් සත්තුන්ගෙන් හානි වෙනවා. මගේ ඉඩමේ මෑ කරලක් තියාගන්න බැහැ මොනරු ඇවිත් කනවා. රටක් ගොඩ නගන්නේ කෙසේද? දැන් රටේ දුර්භික්ෂයක්. මොන තාක්ෂනික විප්ලවයක් තිබුණත් අපේ මිනිස්සු ජිවත් වෙන්නේ කෘෂිකර්මය හරහා. දෙහි වගාව තිබුණ කියලා දෙහි කෑල්ලක් රට යනවවාද? නැගෙනහිර ගව සම්පතක් හිටියට කිරිපිටි කම්හලක් හැදුවද? පහුගිය කාලයේ ආර්ථීකයේ තියෙන්නේ පහලට ඒමක්. ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ 2015 නතර කරපු බුල්ඩෝසරය තවම පණ ගන්වලා නැහැ. එහෙමනම් මොනවාද වඑර්ධනය වුනේ. හොරකම , දූෂණය,

මාධ්‍ය – ලංකාවේ ශාඛ නිරෝධායන පනත් තිබුණත් මේවා වෙන්නේ කොහොමද?

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හුළගින් කියනාව. බහුජාතික සමාගම් බෝ කළා කියනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – දැන් එළවලූ වලටත් දළඹු හානිය ඇවිත්’.

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – මම මෙය දකින්නේ ජාතික විපතක් විදියට. අපේ සහාය දෙන්න සම්පූර්ණ සහාය දෙනවා.

මාධ්‍ය – පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී කළඹල වුන අවස්ථාවේ සුමන්දිරන්ගේ කි්‍රයාකළාපය ගැන මොකද හිතෙන්නේ.

විමලවීර දිසානායක මහතා – මන්තී්‍රවරයෙකුට ලඝු කරන්න එපා. නිල නොවන අගමැතිවරයා. විනිසුරන් පිරිසක් එක්ක පින්තූරයක් ගත්ත එකකුත් තිබුණා. එලෙෂ පෙනි සිටියා නම් අහෝ ඛේදයකි. ඉරකි. තිතකි. හුගක් දේවල ප්‍රධාන නලූවා සුමන්දිරන්. ආණAඩුවේපැවැත්ම තීරණය කරන සර්ව බලධාරියා. සියල්ල හසුරුවන්න එහෙට මෙහෙට යනවා. ඉගි කරනවා. එතුමා හැම තැනම ඉන්නවා.හුළ`ග වගේ.

• ආ
හිටපු මධ්‍යම පළාත්සභා මන්තී්‍ර ප්‍රමිත බණ්ඩාර තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා

We finally have an opposition that doesn’t support the government in power. However, this Opposition has a major role to play. Sadly, 10 years after the victory over terrorism, that too Sri Lanka being the only military to defeat an internationally banned terrorist movement, we are still struggling to sift the lies from the truth & propaganda. Some hard questions need to now be put on the table for those making the allegations to answer.

Pre-LTTE defeat

• Sri Lanka’s conflict is TERRORIST not ETHNIC and this needs to be clearly articulated across the international community & UN

• Sri Lanka’s military defeated LTTE Terrorists & not Tamils. LTTE terrorists were all Tamil but ALL Tamils were not LTTE Terrorists. Those that materially supported LTTE included Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese, foreigners, UN, INGOs/NGOs & even diplomats.

• LTTE began its killing spree in 1975 when it assassinated the Mayor of Jaffna – Alfred Duraiappah (a Tamil) LTTE next targeted Tamil policemen on duty to scare them from joining the public service. LTTE thereafter began attacking Sri Lanka Army & then civilians, politicians, public servants, clergy, principals – anyone who went against them including Tamils & including own combatants.

• LTTE did not take up arms because of 1983 July riots because Prabakaran first formed Tamil New Tigers in 1972 which later was rechristened LTTE in 1976 (Prabakaran took up arms a decade before 1983 riots)

• Another false propaganda is that July 1983 riots was an ‘ethnic’ riot by Sinhalese against Tamils – this is totally wrong as Sinhalese saved their Tamil friends & neighbors. The attacks were committed by the then UNP Govt using their thugs that comprised Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims who were only bothered to attack & loot homes. Moreover, the then UNP Govt ensured their rich Tamil friends were free from any attack.

• When LTTE began attacking villages, killing villagers, chasing them from their homes, shooting at unarmed civilians worshipping, cutting pregnant mothers & babies, planting bombs on roads to kill innocent civilian passengers – where were the entities screaming ‘accountability’ when LTTE was getting defeated. Why did they not stop LTTE terror that raged for 30 years unabated?

• What did the international community do against LTTE for kidnapping Tamil children & turning them into child soldiers apart from writing reports & issuing statistics? Were any resolutions passed to take action for these crimes that denied children their right to be with their parents, right to education, right to peace & more over why did the international authorities not take action against the very foreign woman now living happily in UK who trained these children to kill & to also commit suicide by biting a cyanide capsule? Many have logged complaints against her with the UK Metropolitan Police – why is there no investigation launched against her even? LTTE remains banned in the UK?

• LTTE is banned in the very countries that LTTE fronts are openly operating in. The bans by these countries specifically mentions material support & when Sri Lanka banned 16 LTTE fronts incorporating UNSC Resolution 1373 in April 2014 why have these foreign countries not even launched their own investigations as they have ample evidence when TRO was banned for channeling funds to LTTE & many of the Tamils involved in this operation are connected to the LTTE fronts that have been named & banned. How is it that these very entities are now openly holding events even inside UK Parliament and are frequent visitors to the UN & UNHRC?

During military / humanitarian operations

• The decision to militarily defeat the LTTE came not suddenly or impulsively. Sri Lanka suffered 30 years of gruesome terror – all that the international community gave was an official statement of condolence after each LTTE suicide/assassination attack. Over 5 peace talks, ceasefires, negotiations in Sri Lanka & overseas were held since 1985 and each of these occasions was used by LTTE to regroup, rearm & re-strategize. It was the LTTE that prevented water supply to farmers in the East (Mavil Aru) that led to LTTE’s demise by committing a war crime in denial of water.

• From the liberation of the East to the eventual Wanni operation, the Sri Lankan Government, Armed Forces heads & all others regularly kept the foreign governments/envoys briefed through Consultative Committee meetings held twice a week. If any alarming news had reached the foreign envoys/NGO heads etc this was the forum to bring questions to & seek answers from the Sri Lankan top level heads who were attending these sessions. Minutes of these meetings did not disclose any such concerns regarding violations of IHL or even human rights abuses. These sessions even provided details of food, medicines etc sent to the conflict areas by the Govt. There are even records of Sri Lankan Forces being praised for their conduct. These are all evidence to completely negate the false allegations that have leveled against Sri Lanka’s troops.

• From the food convoys sent with the knowledge of ICRC, WFP and others – it was very clear & visible that Sri Lanka was engaged in a military operation while also taking the greatest of care to send essentials to the People knowing the LTTE was keeping them as hostages/human shields and were taking these provisions to be given to LTTE combatants & their families.

• That Sri Lanka Armed Forces rescued close to 300,000 Tamils is evidence enough that people who did not wish to be with LTTE were saved & brought to safety by the armed forces. There are enough evidence including UN & foreign envoy statements pleading LTTE not to shoot unarmed civilians & to release them and some of the rescued themselves declared LTTE were firing at them.

• That close to 12,000 LTTE combatants in civilian clothing surrendered to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces is another proof that none of these combatants ‘disappeared’ as is being alleged. Of this 584 child soldiers were even given a Presidential amnesty & thereafter these children studied & are now in some form of livelihood. We recall fondly the singing sensation Gokulan. Would these children have this new lease on life if they remained in LTTE.

• Let the Opposition point out clearly at NO POINT since the military onslaught against LTTE did the present Govt including the TNA take the side of the Tamil people held by LTTE. No statements were issued to release them & not a single relief item was even collected to be sent to these people even as a humanitarian gesture by TNA & their supporters either. Not a single humanitarian relief item even came from LTTE fronts to these Tamil civilians.

• Every IDP acceptance unit set up had female soldiers & soldiers competent in speaking in Tamil. IDP centres given the scale & magnitude of the relief operations were well within reasonable acceptance and with time government facilitated with state banks, training for children, play set up for kids etc.

Post-LTTE defeat

• On 19 May 2009 LTTE ground fighting leadership was defeated & the country was rid of bombs, suicide missions and assassinations that was part & parcel of life for 30 years.

• LTTE kitty was such that it could afford to relay propaganda presenting a false notion that told enough became accepted as truth as the Sri Lankan Government lacked the will to counter & nip the lies in the bud.

• The themes that had been promoted since 1980s have been discrimination by Sinhalese against Tamils, examples of 3 riots, a Tamil homeland, genocide & war crimes – all of which are now blowing up in their face given the challenges that are surfacing

• Discrimination allegation – while empty allegations have been made there is stoic silence when hard facts with names are presented on the numbers of Tamils holding public & private sector positions, the ownership of private enterprises, the businesses etc that the Tamils operate in Sri Lanka. Question that those making allegations cannot answer is what are the discriminations that are exclusive to ONLY Tamils that other citizens do not suffer

• Tamil Homeland – when self-determination claims first started in Tamil Nadu the question never answered is did Tamils evolve in Sri Lanka or Tamil Nadu, without answering this the same ethnic group cannot claim 2 separate states in 2 different countries.

• Ethnic cleansing / Genocide/War Crimes – ethnic cleansing was when LTTE chased out Sinhalese & Muslims from North to claim Tamil Only territory – no one has helped these people return to their original habitats. Genocide claims fall flat when statistics showcase Tamil population increase – how can there be genocide if Tamil population is increasing (fundamental fact) / war crimes – the international terrorist experts in their reports clearly reveal that LTTE was at fault for using Tamil civilians as hostage/human shields and firing at the enemy from civilian enclosure. No conflict is without some form of irregularities – no soldier can defend himself while engaging in hostilities keeping Geneva Convention book and referring how to fire! He would be dead meat by then! Anyone plucking laws from these international laws must be a little practical. It is not that LTTE has ever fought a clean war – how about the innumerable crimes LTTE has committed since 1980s – why is there no international attention or accountability for these? There cannot be RESTORATIVE JUSTICE for LTTE and RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE for a National Army that was ONLY doing its duty by the Nation & its citizens.

• 3 days after the conclusion of the conflict the UNSG arrived in Sri Lanka & toured the conflict areas – had their been mass graves newly dug he & everyone on that helicopter ride should have seen it as the final battle was fought in open terrain. They did not report any such newly dug graves. The US satellite pictures also revealed 3 graves none of which could even hold 40,000 the minimum figure that has been flogged over the years.

• Let us presume the allegation of 40,000 – but then where are their names, why have families not logged police complaints at least declaring them missing? Why have families not logged their names with the Presidential Commission appointed – only 5000 missing soldier names were given out of a total 19,000.

• As for the allegations – anyone making allegations need to show how many Tamils LTTE killed, how many Tamils Sri Lankan Armed Forces killed, how many were actually ‘civilians’ how many ‘civilians’ died engaged in hostilities, how many of these civilians belonged to LTTE’s civilian armed force, how many LTTE combatants died in civilian clothing… without answering any of the above questions how can every death be credited to only the Sri Lankan Army?

• Who are bringing the allegations – the allegations are being made by 3^rd parties / 4^th parties or LTTE connected groups & individuals. The foreigners making the allegations too are regular attendees to these pro-LTTE events – this showcases their bias. Similar foreign MPs making the allegations are also regular visitors to pro-LTTE events and rely on Tamil vote banks & funding for their election propaganda. All these should be investigated by these foreign countries as LTTE remains banned in their countries – let us not forget that it is their citizens who are victims of various illegal acts that pro-LTTE sources are engaged in – credit card scams, human smuggling, prostitution, money laundering etc

Questioning the legality of the UNHRC Resolutions

• When the National Army defeated LTTE on 19 May 2009, 17 nations led by Germany asked for a special session in the UNHRC to discuss whether GOSL committed crimes during the last phase of the war. However, a counter resolution was presented congratulating Sri Lanka for ending terror and it was adopted as more nations supported it than the earlier resolution chiding Sri Lanka.

• It was after this resolution that UNSG chose to appoint a personally commissioned panel

• All of the UN Resolutions, UNHRC Investigations and every demarche issued against Sri Lanka has used as a basis the 3 member panel report that Ban Ki Moon assigned as a personal initiative to brief him of the final phase of Sri Lanka’s conflict. This personally assigned report, packed in questionable statements & conclusions was never tabled in the UNHRC for the GOSL to officially reply, it was never officially tabled in the UNGA or UNSC – the report was only leaked to public and thereafter everyone is using this as a basis to level unsubstantiated allegations against a country & its national army.

• The personally commissioned Ban Ki Moon report was INDIRECTLY submitted to the UNHRC in 2011 and this became the basis for the first Resolution against Sri Lanka in February 2012 & passed in March 2012. Every March has been a month for resolutions against Sri Lanka annually (2012. 2013, 2014, 2015 with the bizarre co-sponsoring)

• In 2014 Resolution 25/1 authorized an investigation by the UNHRC (OISL) which ended in March 2015. Citizens of Sri Lanka never had a chance to counter the allegations made. It was obvious that the objective was to present a case that system crimes via chain of command was committed. They were not interested in individual crimes. The report covered 4 IHL crimes and 4 human rights charges – the GOSL without assessing its credibility or truth went & co-sponsored the controversial resolution (30/1). Was the co-sponsorship with the mandate of the President & with the knowledge of Parliament or was it simply on the acceptance by the then foreign minister. The Opposition should officially demand an investigation into the legality of co-sponsoring 301/ as a priority.

• What about the 6 reports by the International Terrorist experts led by late Sir Desmond de Silva? These were individuals who were experts in terrorist laws & had stood on various tribunals. Their reports concluded that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces did not commit war crimes as was alleged. Sri Lanka’s Opposition must renew calls for the UN to take up these reports & insist that the GOSL table them officially.

• The procedural lapses & violations committed by the UNHRC needs to be taken up at diplomatic level by the Opposition appraising diplomats & Sri Lanka-friendly nations of the violations & illegalities that have taken place. These are precedents that are likely to affect other nations as well. Therefore, Sri Lanka must rally nations against the interference by UN & UNHRC on internal affairs of sovereign states violating the UN Charter & mandates of bodies in the UN. It is noteworthy that a procedural complaint petition has been filed in the UNHRC and thus far over 6 months now it has not been dismissed giving hope that the UNHRC is perhaps worried about the validity of the legally raised questions against its handling of resolutions and allegations against a UN member state.

• Let us also not forget that the main sponsor of the 3 UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka – the US left the UNHRC accusing it of being a ‘cesspool of political bias’. The allegation adds meat to our claims that UNHRC has been treating Sri Lanka unfairly & with bias. The very country that calls UNHRC a cesspool of political bias has brought 3 resolutions against Sri Lanka & that should reveal the status of these resolutions so why would Sri Lanka wish to co-sponsor it?

Therefore, Mahinda Rajapakse as Opposition Leader must lead the crusade to champion the truth and defend Sri Lanka’s National Army from a biased & compromised international mechanism out to safeguard the terror entity that they used for geopolitical gain by insisting on retributive justice for the National Army & restorative justice for LTTE.

The Opposition must demand a fresh look at all allegations made since 2009 and all crimes committed since 1970s from the emergence of terror in Sri Lanka, who funded & who provided material support & every crime committed since.

Shenali D Waduge

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s  biggest ever deal in his entire political career, with which he hoped to win the Nobel Peace Prize, was his Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) with Velupillai Prabhakaran. Irrespective of the disastrous consequences of his delusional peace deal, he signed it guaranteeing the handing over of powers and institutions of the Centre to make Prabhakaran the king of his Eelam state, which has been renamed now as Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu”.  (Please note, Ranil and Sampanthan of TNA have dropped Eelam, for the moment, to market Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” as a toothless, powerless, non-federal provincial council in the new Draft Constitution drawn up by Ranil’s expert nominee Jayampathy Wickremaratne and R. Sampanthan’s expert nominee, Abraham Sumanthiram). If Ranil’s deal with Prabhakaran went through, with the full blessings of the international community, Sri Lanka would have been divided into two by now. Fortunately for Sri Lankans, Prabhakaran scuttled it by running rings round Ranil and throwing  him like a rotten banana under the wheels of a ten on truck.

Now he is at it again. What Ranil failed to achieve in the CFA he is now hoping to achieve through the new Draft Constitution by creating Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu”. In the CFA, thanks to Prabhakaran,  he failed to give all the powers and institutions contained in the Constitution to the Eelamists. Now he proposes to create Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu consisting of the institutions of the Centre and of the provinces which shall exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution’’.  This is worse than exchanging hotu ghani” with kahi ghani”.

His pathetic attempts at constitution-making, has confirmed that he has  neither the vision nor the political nous to find a way out of the mess in which he is in. The creation of Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu is a move which no one except the reincarnated avatars of Prabhakaran, the neo-colonial NGOs, and Ranil want. Of late, the Jaathiya Vanasana Peramuna (JVP) too has joined them. That is another story for another day.  But Ranil’s constitution-making is not a strategic move to save the nation. It is patently a desperate move to keep the TNA votes in Parliament on his side to fill the numerical gap that props him up as Prime Minister. The TNA has the numbers to pull the rug under him and topple him. So he has no compunction in selling the nation and its heritage for a fistful of votes.

His Draft Constitution, drawn up to appease his Tamil vote bank, has all the hall marks of his failed CFA written by anti-national agents abroad.  The CFA was drafted to appease the insatiable political appetites of Tamil extremism. The latest constitutional draft is a rewrite of the CFA aimed at dismantling the nation. Take for instance Article 2 which is a straightforward, well- defined statement, with no ambiguity leading to controversial interpretations. It states: “The Republic of Sri Lanka is a Unitary State”. Period. The operative phrase is Unitary State”. In a Unitary State” there can be no division of power. Or devolution of powers from the Centre.  In a unitary state” there is only one source of power and that is the Centre. Power allocated to all three branches of the state – the legislature, executive and the judiciary — flows from this definition.

In political science unitary state” is the antithesis of devolution of power in any form, starting from federalism. This explains why the powers devolved to the provinces under Indo-Ceylon Agreement are under the supervision and control of the Centre. For instance, the Governor, the judiciary and the Police derive their power from the Centre. Centralizing powers of the state is the fundamental requirement of a unitary state. This is the essence of a unitary state”.

In the Draft Constitution presented to Parliament by Ranil the supremacy of the Centre encapsulated in the English phrase Unitary State” is taken away and replaced with a vernacular terminology purporting to be same. This is a deliberate attempt by Ranil and his ministers to deceive and lie to make the people believe that it has the same meaning as the Unitary State”. Incidentally, he and his deceiving ministers dodge responsibility by attributing the making of the Draft Constitution to a committee of experts and proclaim that nothing has been changed. Then what made his experts remove the phrase Unitary State” and decide to vest the institutions and powers of the Constitution / Centre in the proposed Orumitta (Tamil ) Nadu?  Though they say that nothing has changed the critical phrase unitary state” has been removed and substituted with aekiya rajyaya/orumitta nadu” with one aim: to hand over powers of the Centre to Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu”.  There are also two other reasons for using the vernacular: 1.there is no synonym in English to replace the term unitary state” and (2) to anesthetize the electorate with lies and lull them into a sense of security in the hope of winning their votes in the coming elections.

The original text was simple and short. It said: “The Republic of Sri Lanka is a Unitary State”. But Ranil’s draft says that Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu ….. shall exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution / (Centre)’’. Well, if Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu can exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution (i.e., the Centre) ’’ what more do the mono-ethnic extremists of the North need to run their separate state? As usual Ranil’s smart tactics have pushed him into a corner from which he cannot get out. The experts’ report reflect his hidden political agenda. In his heart of hearts he is for handing over the institutions and powers of the Centre to Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu”. But that is a suicidal course of action that will guarantee his defeat in the coming elections. For his survival in Parliament he has to offer R. Sampanthan and Abraham Sumanthiram what Prabhakaran could not get with his entire might. So he is struggling to market  Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” as the benign alternative to Unitary State. This. in short, is verbal gimmicry to mislead the people.  To make it worse,  Ranil and his parroting ministers go round saying that the unitary state” remains unchanged. If he knows his political science Ranil  should know that in a unitary state” the provinces cannot exercise the powers of the Constitution” which is the Centre of the nation.

By definition, it would be ultra vires in a unitary state” for the provinces to exercise the powers of the Centre. It is also a legal and political contradiction for the provinces to be on par with the centre in a unitary state. It is the incontrovertible logic contained in the meaning of unitary state” that forced Abraham Sumanthiram and Jayamapthy Wickremaratne, the UNP nominee in the Expert Committee,  to drop the all-important phrase of unitary state”. Only by targeting unitary state” can they devolve powers and allow the provinces to exercise the powers of the Centre”. Not knowing how to overcome the restraining definition in the English term unitary state” the experts were aiming to get round it by substituting the vernacular aekiya rajyaya/orumitta nadu”. So they decided to hide behind the vernacular  which can be left vague without the same connotation as the unitary state”.

What is more, the Draft Constitution goes further to define its ultimate political goal by defining orumitta nadu” as a political instrument consisting of the institutions of the Centre and of the provinces which shall exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution’’. This opens up legal space for the Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu to exercise powers of running institutions like the police, judiciary, gubernatorial, and other administrative units which can defy the Centre by asserting its own rights as an independent state. The cutting and chopping in the new Draft is to provide legal space for Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu to run a state within a state, before it moves to the next level of a separate state.

The new phraseology legitimises the foundations for federalism/separatism by another name: Orumitta Nadu”.  Ironically, Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” will be a mono-ethnic unitary state which shall exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution – i.e., the Centre. The overall objective of peninsular politics historically has been to establish a Tamil unitary state. This will be achieved if Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” is established. It will reign supreme in the North and the East with untrammelled powers embedded in the critical administrative institutions, free from any interventions from the Centre.  Arming the Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu with the institutions and powers of the Centre will enable it to go as far as the border of having a considerable degree of legitimacy and power to sever links with the Centre and declare unilateral independence at a time of their choosing. All what they will have to do is sever links and ask India recognise the Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” as an independent state. And if at that time Ranil happens to be the President he will fold his arms and announce on TV that it is perfectly acceptable because that Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” is only stretch of useless sea sand covering only two thirds of the nation’s coastline! Remember how he pooh-poohed the capture of Toppigala as the acquisition of a useless piece of rock!

The removal of the phrase unitary state” and replacing it with orumitta nadu” is the most divisive move to break-up the nation not only on ethnic lines but also on regional lines in the south. The right to exercise powers of the Centre can split the south into independent political units. Demarcating and devolving the powers of the Centre to the periphery is like scooping the innards of a wood apple and devouring it, until there is nothing left in the empty, outer shell.  This would be the beginning of legalising the borders that would separate the north from the south as two separate entities. It is like sitting on the branch and severing it from the main tree. Or to be more realistic, imagine, for instance, the Centre run by Mahinda Rajapakse  and eight other independent provinces run by Ranil Wickremesinghe! This is a recipe for chaos, not for peace and progress.

From the time S. J. V.  Chelvanayakam launched his separatist politics, disguised as federalism, the sole aim of separatists / federalists has been to dismantle the unitary State” for them to grab as much power as they can from the Centre. The North-South inter-ethnic relations had gone from bad to worse fundamentally on this issue of power-sharing. Therefore, removing the phrase unitary state” is in effect to remove Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” from the Centre. This is the meaning and purpose of the Draft Constitution. The new draft is a decisive victory for Chelvanayakam. Ranil has made his dream come true. It has given in to all of Chelvanayakam’s demands. If implemented it can  exercise (all) powers as laid down in the Constitution’’. And since the Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu is due to inherit the institutions and the powers of the Centre under the Draft Constitution it would facilitate the laying the foundations for separate units of power which can act independently of the Centre as in a federated structure. In other words, the Draft Constitution defines and legitimises the division and the handing over of powers from the ”indivisible” Centre to the peripheral provinces which is the basic meaning of federalism.

It should also be noted that all power in a state is exercised through institutions. So when the Centre which was vested with all powers hands over power to institutions in Orimuttu (Tamil) Nadu it surrenders the unitary powers it had earlier, thereby dividing the nation into separate and independent centres of power. Geographical boundaries of the provinces are merely a peripheral delineation of the territorial limits of power of each province. What is most material is the power vested in the institutions through which the provinces can defy the Centre and assert its independence.

The decisive means of dividing the nation is by derogating the power vested in the Centre and handing it over to provinces. The revised Article 2 does just that: divide the nation into nine centres of power which the Centre cannot oversee or control. The critical legal and political force will be with the institutions of the provinces which shall exercise powers as laid down in the Constitution’’(meaning the Centre).   And once Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu inherits the powers and the institutions in the Constitution not even the judiciary can change those powers. The next step will be for Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu to break away under one or the other pretext.

The removal of the phrase the Unitary State”, therefore, is a legal and political necessity to provide Orumitta (Tamil) Nadu” with powers to act independently of the Centre. Ranil proclaims that as Buddhists the Opposition should not go round temples telling lies about the proposed Draft. But, as shown above, his Draft Constitution is wrapped in deception and lies.

As they say in Sinhalese: Miniha, kolay wahala gahan-die hadan-nay, nay-the?”

By Camelia Nathaniel/Daily News

On Monday(21), the Sri Lanka Army released 1,201.88 acres of Army-used state and private lands in the North with no impact for national security, in a ceremony in Mullaitivu presided over by Maithripala Sirisena.

The release of this acreage of land includes 972 acres of state land in Kilinochchi, 120 acres of state land in Mullaitivu where the Army has been running farms, 46.11 acres of state land in Jaffna and the Vanni and 63.77 acres of private land in Jaffna and the Vanni.

The ceremony to release the scheduled total of 1201.88 acreages, including Nachchikuda, Vellankulam and Udayarkattukulam Army farms was coordinated by the Security Force Headquarters – Mullaitivu, Northern Governor’s Office, District Secretariat, respective Divisional Secretariats and the Army Directorate of Quartering and Real Estate.

The Army, in a media release, said the release of lands in the North with no impact for national security was part of its continuing effort to honor the pledge it has given to the Presidential Task Force.

The process to release Northern and Eastern lands, belonging to civilians and the state that bear no impact on national security needs, began last year in earnest, following a Presidential direction. Army Commander, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, promptly responded and instructed his officers accordingly to abide by the Presidential directive with the objective of further promoting gestures of goodwill and reconciliation

Releasing of land is one of the main areas in the reconciliation process and the military is in the process of releasing the lands held under them since the end of the war.

However, some of these lands which have been converted to farms, providing employment to many rehabilitated ex-LTTE members and civilians alike, pose an array of other issues if released without a proper plan.

During a visit to Jaffna, Killinochchi and Mullaitivu last week, the Daily News visited several of these farms and spoke to these workers. One might expect to see them elated regarding the releasing of lands held by the military, as it is a demand that Tamils have been wanting over the past 10 years. But, on the contrary, almost all of the Tamil workers employed at these farms were worried and unhappy about these farmlands being released as these farms are their bread and butter.

No farm, no income

As for 26-year-old S. Damayanthi, a resident of Ganesapuram, Vellankulam, she has been working on the farm for the past four-and-a-half years. She had joined the farm with the first 25 recruits and has been working there to date.

When we joined, there were only a few females, but today there are 10 females and 21 males. We have to tend to the vegetables, and during the cashew season, we have to pick the cashew. We pick over 300 kg of cashew per day during the season. Each of us is given different duties. We grow pumpkin, beans and other vegetables here too. The farm spans around 600 acres. For me, I live nearly two kilometres away from the farm and it is easy for me to travel here.”

However, when asked what she would do once the farm was handed over, she simply looked at us blankly and added, I don’t know what we would do if we don’t have work at the farm. I earn around Rs. 52,000 per month and this is a very good salary for us. I don’t think anyone else would pay us this salary if we were to seek employment elsewhere.”

Niluka, who is an injured ex-LTTE member, had lost a leg during the war and now, an artificial leg supports her as she gets about her work. Most of us employed here are recruited by the Army to work in these farms and are paid by the Army. I was in Kandy during the war and I came to Killinochchi to see my sister when the LTTE took me away. After the war, I was rehabilitated and thereafter I started my life. Now, both my husband and I are employed at this farm and we take home a good salary.”

For many of these workers employed at the Vellankulam farm, the war had devastated their lives and they had nothing but the clothes on their back when it was over. Hence, while for the rest of the country, the end of the war meant they could get back to their lives, for those directly affected, it is a long struggle to rebuild their lives once again from scratch.

Therefore, many of these farm workers have obtained loans for constructing their houses and purchasing necessities to get their lives back on track. According to some of these workers, they have to pay as much as Rs. 25,000 as repayment for their loans. With the salaries they receive by working in these farms, they are able to manage their loans and they are quite content as they no longer have to beg or be dependent on anyone for their survival. Moreover, many of these farm workers live in the vicinity of the farms making it easier for them to work in the farms and keep an eye on their children as well.

Why hand over the farms?

According to the Army’s Agriculture Director Brigadier Gunaratne, the Army had three farms operating under them, providing employment to around 117 Tamil workers, both rehabilitated ex-LTTE members and civilians. The farms are in Vellankulam, Udayarkattukulam and Nachcchikuda. However, with the handing over of these farmlands, the Army had retained 100 acres at the Vellankulam farm, handing over the balance 500 acres. Now all 117 workers are accommodated at the Vellankulam farm of 100 acres.

The farm administrators revealed that this farm generates around Rs. 20 million in profit, which in turn is used for the welfare of the workers. However, now, with the absorbing of the additional displaced workers on the farm which has shrunk from 600 acres to a mere 100 acres, it is natural that these workers are worried about their future and financial security.

Many of them are also disgruntled that the government and their Tamil politicians had not consulted them and found out their views regarding the handing over of these farms. Many of them claim that the Tamil politicians keep harping on specific areas like a ‘beggar’s wound’ in order to please the international community and keep the Tamils in the North in a pathetic state for their own advantage. For the Army, these farmlands are part of their assigned duties and once their term is done, they move on and they do not depend on them. But, for those who are employed here, it is a matter of life and death.

If this farm is given up, we might have to move to the Kandakadu farm and if that happens, I might have to leave just like many of us, and then we don’t know what to do. We can’t travel far because our children are here. Our politicians should have thought of these problems that we face before this decision was taken,” said Niluka.

Vijendran Geethika (27) had been a child soldier in the LTTE and was thereafter rehabilitated. She had married and after having three children, found out that her husband was married previously. His wife came and fought with us and took him away. Now I take care of my children and my mother with the wages I earn by working on the farm. It is easier for me to work here as I can also keep an eye on my children. But, if I have to move to another farm far from here, it will be difficult for me to manage my work and my family. Even if I find other work, I will never be able to find a job that would pay me this salary. For many of us, we are even contemplating committing suicide if we cannot pay our debts and we can’t find work. My children are seven and three years and the first are twins. How can I leave them and move? We don’t know what the politicians and other higher-ups have decided, but eventually all we know is that we are the ones who would have to suffer,” she said.

Rajive Ghandi, Jeromeson, Manivanan, Sri Kala, Padmajayanthini and Maniwanan work at the Udayarkattukulam farm, which is also scheduled to be handed over by the Army. They too have the same fear and uncertainty as those in the Vellankulam farm and fear the loss of their source of income. All these farm workers were recruited to work on these farms on the promise that they would have their jobs throughout their service period. However, now they face an uncertain future, as they do not know what would happen once they lose these farms. However, there is no clear decision as to what the land would be used for thereafter.

Future of thefarms uncertain

The Udayarkattukulam farm is around 120 acres in extent, and there are around 50 Tamil farm workers employed here, who claim that they have worked happily at the farm all these years, but now their entire future is again shrouded in uncertainty.

The Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake said these farms would be released as per the government direction, but would do his best to address the grievances of these workers and continue to provide them employment. We will not put any of them out of work and will take all measures to keep them employed,” he assured.

Governor’s Assurance

Having met most of the farm hands, the Governor of the Northern Province Dr.Suren Raghavan had got a firsthand account of the grievances faced by these farm workers. He assured that he would look into all legalities and ensure they continue to work at their current farms and take all measures to ensure their lives are not disrupted.

My proposal is that these farmlands could be converted into cooperative societies and I need to look at the legalities in either the short-term or long-term leasing of these farms to the same people who were operating it thus far. Then these workers can continue the farms and their lifestyle, but with some measure of government supervision and control. That supervision can either be done by the Agriculture Ministry of the Northern Province or some of these workers who are there. Some of these workers have close ties with the state as they have been rehabilitated. But, I intend to look into each of these cases individually and tailor-make the mechanism within the Constitution and the applicable laws. My proposal most probably would be to have them work their farmer-owned cooperative farmlands. This way they would not have to be moved elsewhere and their lives would not be disrupted. However, they need to have a reporting mechanism,” he said.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, Jan 23 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has reiterated his government’s decision to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers including those who are already facing the death sentence in prisons, a statement from his office said here Wednesday.

1971 වසරේදී තමන් පොලිසියෙන් වෙඩි තබා මරා දැමීමට නියම කරන ලද්දෙක් බව ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පවසයි.

චේගුවේරා කල්ලියේ සාමාජිකයන් යයි තමන් අත්අඩංගුව ගෙන දැඩි ලෙස වද දුන් බවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා කීය.

පසුව පොලොන්නරුවේ කනත්තට ගෙන ගොස් වෙඩි තබා මරා දැමීමට ඔන්න මෙන්න තිබියදී ඉෂ්ඨ දේවතාවන් විසින් තමන් බේරාගත්තේ යයිද ජනාධිපතිවරයා සදහන් කලේය.

කොළඹදී පැවති උත්සව අවස්ථාවක් අමතමින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙම අදහස් පල කලේය.

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 )