By Charles S.Perera

There is a serious political and a social problem in Sri Lanka that hampers the democratic process , which lies in the question of democratic legitimacy of  judicial reviews affecting the governance of the people. The US Constitution makes a point  in stating that, it is the people that should decide  how they are governed and the Constitutional norms that their society holds . The Judiciary having this power is illegitimate…….”.

In an interesting  research article- a thesis on Judicial Dictatorship: Potential Institutionalisation of the Constitutional Review Process  by Stephen Cranney  of the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington  states  We the People.” One of the most emotion evoking and potentially over used statements has found its way to the center of many democracy-based arguments in constitutional analysis. But if the ‘people’ are center to democracy and the social contract that democracy constructs, then how is it that their voice has become irrelevant?”

https://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/4625/thesis.pdf?sequence=2

This  is very relevant to the surprising judgment of two courts in Sri Lanka, an Appeal Court and the Supreme Court  delivered  in interpreting the relevant sections of the Constitution of Sri Lanka with regard to the decision taken by the President of Sri Lanka in a political imbroglio , to  dissolve the Parliament and go to the people for an election.

The decisions of both the Appeal Court and the SC on the issues could be interpreted as judicial errors,  and the interim order issued by the Appeal Court to  stop the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers functioning until the Appeal Court takes a decision,  an enormous Judicial error, perhaps a first in the world.

As it was stated at the beginning there is a serious political and a social problem in Sri Lanka with the people divided into  ordinary people largely Sinhala Buddhists ,and another English Educated mainly Colombian  high society. The latter group has a following  of  the people depending on the rich and powerful and drawing their strength from them. Those were the people who were  seen recently  filling the Galle Face Green  for a gathering called for by the high society politicians .

Mahinda Rajapakse and now  Maithripala Sirisena belong to the ordinary Sinhala Buddhist population, and trusted, accepted, and loved by them.

The high Society consisting more of the Judiciary, Company Directors , Doctors Engineers, Christians, Evangelists,and the English educated Colombians tend to shun Mahinda Rajapakse  and now  Maithripalan Sirisena. They  have confidence  on the political class led by Ranil Wickramasinghe , the UNP and their allied political parties  belonging  to the high society, and their dependents. So are the  JVP  calling itself a Marist Party is perhaps trying to reach the high and powerful, while Sumanthiran of the TNA wants a federal constitution and the Eelam, and the rest of the Tamil and Muslim MPs are more keen following the rich and well to do in their sense as that helps their business sense.

Therefore there is the  question where lies and who promotes the  democratic legitimacy of the people. Mahinda Rajapakse and his Ministers when they were sworn in on 26 Ocober,2018 was not seeking to take vengeance from his political enemies but keen in making the people benefit from their forming a government to give the people as much relief as possible.

But it is the contrary  when Ranil Wickramasinghe  brings his Kiriellas, Ajith Pereras Champikas, Rajithas , Sarath Fosekas, Harin , and their partners in the JVP, to take over the government. It is for them  to take vengeance and take their political enemies  to courts and prisons , making their lives miserable, rather than find means to give relief to the people as Mahinda Rajapakse did during the short time he was Prime Minister.

In the light of this high society UNP and the political partners who seems to care less for  the people other than to get them to participate in manifestations and fill the grounds where they gather to shout their hatred of Mahinda Rajapakse and President Sirisena. But some how in this political jamboree the Judiciary also seem to play their part along with Ranil and the high society politicians.

Sri Lanka’s Judicial Independence is strange to tell the least. It is certainly independent of the Executive, but not completely independent of the  Legislature  with an evident support for   the right wing  legislators.  It is certainly independent of the people,  unconcerned about their suffering due to political mismanagement of the country by the right wing politicians of the Legislature, that was seen by the Appeal Court making an interim order suspending the functions of the social wing Prime Minister and his Cabinet thus denying the little relief the people were to receive.

The President of Sri Lanka and the Parliamentarians are elected by the people and the people have confidence  in them. However, they are able to show their preference  between  the high society  politicians led by Ranil Wickramasinghe and his political partners,   and the Socialist politicians  led by Mahinda Rajapakse and his parties supported by the President only at an election , but the SC denied them that democratic right ruling that the President cannot dissolve the Parliament for four and a half years.

The two wings of the judiciary  the Appeal Court and the SC seem in my opinion  keen in putting the  Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and President Sirisena, in their place making them understand that the Judiciary is above both of them, and they- the Judiciary have become a deciding factor and it is there with them  that the power lies.   Strangely the Judiciary can exercise this super power of theirs  when a Constitutional review is demanded from them.

A Constitutional Review is defined as the inquiry and decision of whether a piece of legislation is consistent with a constitutional norms”.

There are critical studies made on using the Judiciary with no political or democratic legitimacy as  the ultimate resort  to make Constitutional reviews. The article referred to above on Judicial Dictatorship, argues as follows:

This power given to the courts, of the judicial review of legislation, involves a group of people who seemingly enjoy no political legitimacy and certainly no democratic legitimacy to impose their preferences on citizens generally. The judiciary’s decisions work to thwart policies of the democratic branches of government. The individuals who strike down the legislation are both unelected and unaccountable. What they are effectively doing is invalidating democratically adopted laws.The question must be asked of how this role can be justified in a system that is based on the view that policy and value choices are for the elected and politically responsible institutions.”

This paper argues that the underutilized organ of the executive can be employed to legitimise and solve many of the issues surrounding the constitutional review power that currently lies with the courts.

The paper proposes three review mechanisms. Firstly, an executive override of judicial decisions, where the executive branch can return a piece of legislation that has been struck down to legal effectiveness. Secondly, a veto of constitutionally consequential legislation, where the executive can render a piece of legislation legally ineffective, coupled with an inability for a legislative override. Lastly, an executive mandate for judicial intervention, where the executive informs the judiciary which pieces of legislation can potentially be struck down. The paper expands of these descriptions, discussing potential problems that these methods face before finally defending one decision-making process. By this, the paper aims to satisfactorily create a stable and democratically legitimate constitutional review procedure.

However, it appears correct that  using the Judiciary for  a Constitutional review is un-acceptable in terms of democratic legitimacy of a Judicial decision on a matter concerning the Constitution, as the Judiciary consists of men who are not elected by the people and unaccountable for their decision.

A  future Government should reconsider the question of Judicial independence, specially of its role in  Constitutional reviews in the interest of the people and the country. This is very important  specially  in the case of Sri Lanka a Sinhala Buddhist Country with a culture as old as its history.  It would not therefore be wrong to include in the Constitution that the Chief Justice should be a Sinhala Buddhist.

That would avoid the danger of electing some one like the retired Judge Wignesvaran as Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.  It is not being extra nationalist, but when we see the role that is being played by the TNA MP Sumanthiran and Sampanthan with regard to writing  a new Constitution and JVP wanting to have the President of the Country elected  by the Parliament, the Sinhalese- the majority should remember that they have a responsibility to perpetuate both the  Sinhala Buddhist Culture and  its Buddhist  religious background for the future generation of Sinhala Buddhists,  as Sri Lanka is the only Country they have, which they can call their own. 

We welcome Tamils and Muslims to be part of it without forgetting what Sri Lanka is and what it has given to all minority Communities that lived with the Sinhala  for thousands of years.

ITAK is the main constituent party of the TNA & a key party promoting a new constitution & attempting to abolish the Executive Presidency. ITAK though formed in 1949 has a history of demands made for a separate state though shrouding its objectives by calling itself the Federal Party. ITAK has also openly endorsed either directly or through its alliance the TNA pro-LTTE sentiments. We quote these to showcase the dangers of allowing parties that have not relinquished their separatist notions or hide them in nicely camouflaged democratic terminology are being allowed to separate Sri Lanka.

What readers need to understand is that the Tamil Only Nation that the Tamil political leadership was politically trying to achieve & that which LTTE tried to achieve militarily is one & the same.

ITAK’s claim that it was formed because of Sinhala discrimination is nullified because

1. ITAK was formed in 1949 months after independence via dominion status to then Ceylon
2. Head of State in Ceylon remained the Queen till 1972.
3. Final judicial verdicts were also given by the Supreme Court in UK until 1972.
4. Any grievance Tamils claim was caused by British & not Sinhalese as administration of the island was in foreign hands from 1505 to 1948 (443 years) and then from 1948 to 1972 (as a dominion where Queen still remained Head of State)
5. Direct Sinhala majority rule can be claimed ONLY from 1972 onwards (just 46 years)
6. The creation of Tamil New Tigers by Prabakaran in 1972 & rechristening it LTTE in 1976 also nullifies false notion that LTTE was created in response to July1983 riots.

1951 – ITAK defined for the first time at its 1^st annual convention what constituted a Tamil Nation declaring it to be the Tamil speaking people in Ceylon constitute a ‘nation distinct from that of the Sinhalese by every fundamental test of nationhood” http://tnapolitics.org/?page_id=80

1956 August 19 –  ITAK summoned national convention in Trincomalee on passing resolution:

• the replacement of the present pernicious constitution by a rational and democratic constitution based on the federal principle and the establishment of one or more Tamil linguistic state or states incorporating all geographically contiguous areas in which the Tamil speaking people are numerically in a majority as federating unit or units enjoying the widest autonomous and residuary powers consistent with the unity and external security of Ceylon”

• The restoration of the Tamil language to its rightful place enjoying the absolute parity of status with Sinhalese as an official language of the country”

• The repeal of the present citizenship laws and the enactment in their place of laws recognizing the right to full citizenship on the basis of a simple test of residence for all persons who have made this country their home”

• The immediate cessation of colonization of the traditional Tamil speaking areas with Sinhalese people”

1957 January 19 – ITAK carries out anti-Sri campaign tarring cars that bore vehicle number plate SRI” – what is important to note is that the counter campaigns started ONLY AFTER ITAK action.  

1957 – ITAK calls for action against Ministers from South visiting North & East. Ministers Dahanayake & Marikkar were attacked in Batticoloa. MP Siriwardena on a mail train to Jaffna blocked.

1972 – ACTC and ITAK combined to make TUF which became TULF in 1976.

1975 February – ITAK leader Chelvanayagam winning the by-election for Kankasanthurai declared I will to announce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam Nation should exercise the sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free”.

1976 May 14^th – TULF’s Vaddukoddai Resolution had 5 objectives

• State of Tamil Eelam to consist of North & Eastern provinces to all Tamil speaking people
• Constitution of Tamil Eelam based on principles of decentralization. No foremost place to any religion or territorial community.
• Tamil Eelam will assure equal status to all
• Tamil Eelam will be a secular state with equal protection to all religions
• Tamil will be language of the State but Sinhala speaking minority can educate and transact in Sinhala subject to reciprocity of Tamil speaking minority in Sinhala state.

If demand was for equal language rights –why make Tamil the official language of the State of Tamil Eelam?

Pro-LTTE statements

ITAK remembers the ‘Tamil youth who sacrificed their lives in armed struggle’ (Sampanthan’s speech at the 14th Annual ITAK convention in 2012 Batticoloa) – the only Tamil youth who sacrificed their lives in armed struggle were the LTTE!

Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, which has become the political symbol of the Tamil Nation” – Sambanthan Speech at ITAK 14^th Convention 2012

‘Tamil United Liberation Front, of which our party was a member took the historical decision to establish the separate government of Tamil Eelam in 1976’ – Sambanthan at ITAK convention 2014

Pro-LTTE Election Manifestos

TNA manifesto 2001

recognition of the inalienable right of self-determination of the Tamil nation.”

The immediate commencement of the process of negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with international third party involvement.”

Tamil organizations got together and resolved on May 14, 1976 to establish a sovereign independent Tamil Eelam based on our inalienable right to self-determination.”

TNA manifesto 2004

Independent Thamil Eelam received its mandate as a result of the overwhelming support given to the TULF by the Tamil speaking people of NorthEast in the general elections of July 1977”

Sinhala nation should accept ISGA document put forward by the LTTE which contains excellent proposals”

The LTTE has for the past two years put up with the violent, surly behaviour of the armed forces without impairing the conditions for peace and observing the cease-fire and acting steadfastly and firmly towards the path of peace. Hence, the international community should create the environment by removing the restrictions put in place by certain countries on the LTTE, the authentic sole representatives of the Tamil people, so that they could, with authority, dignity and with equal status conduct talks with the government of Sri Lanka.”

Accepting LTTE’s leadership as the national leadership of the Tamil Eelam Tamils and the Liberation Tigers as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people, let us devote our full cooperation for the ideals of the Liberation Tigers’ struggle with honesty and steadfastness. Let us endeavour determinedly, collectively as one group, one nation, one country, transcending race and religious differences, under the leadership of the LTTE for a life of liberty, honor and justice for the Tamil people. Let us work side by side with the LTTE, who are fighting for the protection and autonomous life of the Tamil speaking people, for the political initiatives under their leadership.”

TNA manifesto 2010

ITAK and the other Tamil parties came together under a banner called Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), and in 1976 passed a resolution calling for a restoration of our lost sovereignty in the background of the continued denial of the right of the Tamil People to self -determination”

Tamil People are entitled to the right of self-determination”

Devolution of powers should be over land, law and order, socioeconomic development including health and education, resources and fiscal powers”

Direct foreign investment in the North and East will be facilitated”

legitimate and inalienable right of the Tamil Speaking Peoples to charter their own destiny in the areas historically inhabited by them within a united country.”

TNA manifesto for 2013 NPC elections

Tamil People are entitled to the right to self-determination”

Power sharing arrangements must be established in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Provinces based on a Federal structure, in a manner also acceptable to the Tamil Speaking Muslim people”

TNA manifesto for 2013 NPC elections

https://www.facebook.com/118282528507832/videos/554160994919981/UzpfSTExODI4MjUyODUwNzgzMjpWSzo1NTQxNjA5OTQ5MTk5ODE/ (Sumanthiran’s explanation of what the plan is should make people open their eyes better)

Devolution of power on the basis of shared sovereignty shall necessarily be over land, law and order, socio-economic development including health and education, resources and fiscal powers”

TNA 2015 manifesto

our right to determine our destiny to ensure self-government in the Tamil Speaking North-East of the country within a united and undivided Sri Lanka.”

Tamil Speaking Northern and Eastern provinces is the historical habitation of the Tamil People and the Tamil Speaking Peoples”

Tamil People are entitled to the right to self-determination in keeping with United Nations International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which Sri Lanka has accepted and acceded to”

Devolution of power on the basis of shared sovereignty shall be over land, law and order, enforcement of the law so as to ensure the safety and security of the Tamil People, socio-economic development including inter-alia health, education, higher and vocational education, agriculture, fisheries, industries, livestock development, cultural affairs, mustering of resources, both domestic and foreign and fiscal powers.” (basically means running a separate state)

meaningful de-militarization resulting in the return to the pre-war situation as it existed in 1983 before the commencement of hostilities by the removal of armed forces, military apparatuses and High Security/Restricted Zones from the Northern and Eastern Provinces.”    

And what are LTTE demands

Thimpu Principles – demands made by LTTE delegation in 1985

1. recognition of the Tamils of Ceylon as a nation
2. recognition of the existence of an identified homeland for the Tamils of Ceylon
3. recognition of the right of self-determination of the Tamil nation
4. recognition of the right to citizenship and the fundamental rights of all Tamils of Ceylon

Note: Term Ceylon Tamils came to be used only after 1911 prior Tamils were known and referred to as Malabars by Portuguese, Dutch and British. Malabars are from India and have no right to seek self-determination in Sri Lanka while Ceylon Tamils earlier known as Malabars cannot seek self-determination either!

TNA leader Sambanthan’s 2012 speech made in Batticoloa to the Tamil people is crucial to understand the psyche.

Although the issue at hand is the same, the prevailing conditions are different. The struggle is the same, but the approaches we employ are different. Our aim is the same, but our strategies are different. The players are the same, but the alliances are different. That is the nature of the Tamil people. Although we still have the same aim, the methods we use are now different.”

Sambanthan says the issue (self-determination for Tamils) is the same.

Sambanthan says the struggle (self-determination for Tamils) is the same

Sambanthan says their aims are the same (but strategies are different)

Sambanthan says the players are the same (but alliances are different

Sambanthan ends by saying

That is the nature of the Tamil people. Although we still have the same aim, the methods we use are now different”

Readers should now understand the dangers of abolishing the constitution primarily because it prevents the realization of the aims & objectives of political parties that have been asking for little, expecting more, buying time & people and waiting patiently and propped by international vested parties who see that aim as the perfect means to realize their geopolitical objectives and so promise them their support. But we know from history’s experience that we are likely to not only loose our island, these separatists are likely to be in worse conditions then they claim to be separating from. However, these are experiments or risks we cannot & should not take just to say at the end ‘didn’t we tell you so’ because there will be no means to reverse once the damage is done.

What the Tamil political leadership has been striving for is the same as that which Tamil militant groups took up arms for.

Tamil leaders wanted to rule as kings over their own where caste would prevail, LTTE wanted to do the exact same with the gun but where low castes ruled.

International community are using this as separate state that hold the riches they want to acquire would be easier for them to grasp & control.

Are we then insane to allow these politicians to draft a new constitution, privatize land & abolish the Executive Presidency which are an obstacle for their objectives. Look imagine the damage that these 3 items will result in?

Why are external parties helping this? Certainly not for any love for the minorities. They know a weakened centre, privatizing of land, removal of national army from these new autonomous provinces will make it easier for them to get their dirty hands on the resources (land, ports, harbours, airports, natural resources etc)

Can’t people foresee the lurking dangers?

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/03/08/if-ltte-tna-demands-are-the-same-why-is-sri-lanka-government-agreeing-to-implement-them/

http://www.sinhalanet.net/are-the-demands-of-itak-tulf-tna-ltte-ltte-fronts-india-one-the-same

Courtesy Adaderana

Director (Operations) of the Anti-Corruption Force Namal Kumara has revealed another voice clip to the media today (20).

Convening a press conference in Mahawewa area, he pointed out that following the submission of resignation letter of Mahinda Rajapaksa from the premiership MP Nalin Bandara had alleged that the VIP assassination plot was feigned.

Namal Kumamra further commented that he is ready to face any investigation carried out in this regard.

Meanwhile, MP Nalin Bandara had stated that further investigations would reveal the true nature of Namal Kumara.

Sri Lanka’s legitimate Cabinet of Ministers was sworn in on the morning of today 20 December-but with a twist!

According to some MPs who were sworn in as Ministers this morning, their swearing in event was not what they expected.

Usually the swearing in takes place when everyone who has been summoned is seated together and names of Ministers to be are called one by one -in the presence of all the new Cabinet Ministers.

However, today Sri Lankan President Sirisena took a different beat. In that, all the Ministers to be” were kept out of President’s office room and in the hallway, and thereafter one by one were individually called in and handed over his Ministerial appointment.

No Minister was aware what he would get until he saw the letter of appointment. Neither were they aware of the portfolio any other Minister would get -until everyone individually returned to their respective offices from the President’s office and switched on their TV news.

There was no group photo of the new Cabinet nor the usual tea party/refreshments served.

It is also now learnt that many Ministers sworn in were given a strong dressing down by the President, reminding their past misdeeds and performance issues” before finally he signed and handed over their appointment letters.

Not surprisingly, many newly appointed Ministers were seen wearing a shocked face” as they were leaving the Presidential Secretariat after receiving their letters-an otherwise supposedly a happy event.!

– Asian Tribune –

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, December 19 (newsin.asia): Ironically, the reinstatement of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka following the Supreme Court’s order negating a Presidential gazette dissolving parliament, has intensified and not mitigated the political conflict in the country. With Sirisena in alliance with the Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa, the conflict is set to continue as vigorously as before.

The standoff between President Maithripala Sirisena and  Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is continuing with the President piling accusation after accusation on Wickremesinghe even after the latter’s reinstatement.  On his part, Wickremesinghe has initiated, through the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a parliamentary move to abolish the Executive Presidency which he believes Sirisena is misusing for self-aggrandizement.

The JVP, which had moved the 20 th.Amendment earlier in May to abolish the Executive Presidency but had failed to achive the objective, on Tuesday moved an adjournment motion in parliament to discuss and vote on the abolition of the Executive President.

Wickremesinghe has urged all MPs to support it. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) have supported the move to abolish the Executive Presidency and establish a Westminster style parliamentary democracy.

But Sirisena is keen on retaining the Executive Presidency and using its powers purportedly to save the country from the right wing and pro-Western policies of Wickremesinghe and his cohorts.

And in this, he has the support of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the current Leader of the Opposition and the de-facto leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). He believes that Sri Lanka can progress economically and defend itself against internal and external threats, only fi there is a single, highly empowered leader.

In a formal statement, Rajapaksa has accued Wickremesinghe of getting into an agreement with the TNA to present a new constitution which will divide the country into nine semi-independent federal units”. He also accused Wickremesinghe of of planning to barter away national assets to foreign countries.

On his part, President Sirisena said that the Wickremesinghe government should be prevented from releasing suspected Tamil terrorists unless cases against Lankan military personnel are also dropped simultaneously.

The TNA has been pressing Wickremesinghe to release what it calls Tamil political prisoners” but these are seen as terrorists” by the mainstream Sinahelse majoritarian parties.

Sirisena has called for zero tolerance of the government’s alleged bid to sell off assets like the Trincomalee Oil Tanks, the Mattala airport and the East Terminal in Colombo port to foreign parties. These assets were to be operated as joint ventures with Indian entities, but these schemes were thwarted by President Sirisena who had dubbed them sinful”.

Earlier, the President had said that his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) will function as an opposition party along with Rajapaksa’s  SLPP and its allies in the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

However, to the President’s dismay, three SLFP MPs,Wikemuni de Zoysa, Lakshman Seneviratne and Indika Bandaranayake,  crossed over. Three more, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Duminda Dissanayake and Faizser Musthapha, are likely to follow suit in the guise of bringing stability to the country.”

In retaliation, the President warned that he will use his power as Executive President to deny sanction for their inclusion in the Council of Ministers.

But Wickremesinghe’s United National Front (UNF) pointed out that the constitution very clearly says that the President shall” appoint ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister. The President can decide, on his own, only the departments assigned to ministers.

There is also a move in the UNF to deny the President portfolios. Prior to the reinstatement of Wickremesinghe, President Sirisena held the portfolios of Defense, Mahaweli Development, Environement and Reconciliation. The UNF now says that as per the constitution, the President can only preside over meetings of the Council of Ministers.

This is a major challenge to Sirisena, as previously, all Executive Presidents had held cabinets posts with Defense being considered mandatory. And Sirisena has plans to use the Executive Presidency to thwart all anti-national and sinful” policies and actions of the corrupt” Wickremesinghe regime. Denial of cabint portfoios will cripple him.

In his meeting with the UNF, the President said that the Constitutional Council set up under the 19 th. Amendment of 2015 to appoint top official personnel, had rejected names of senior judges he had recommended, and appointed juniors.

On the multi-bilion rupee 2015 Central Bank bonds scam, Sirisena said that he found out from the Governor of the bank that it is yet to start a forensic audit of the trasactions related to the scam recommended by the Presidential Commission.

Sirisena said that over the last fifteen to twenty years, the Central Bank had been robbed of LKR 1000 billion. The Wickremesinghe government had failed to arrest the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran despite being indicted by a Presidential Commission.

An amendment to the Bribery and Corruption Commission Act was proposed in 2017, but it gathered dust despite repeated reminders sent to the Minister of Justice. Finally, it was presented to parliament. But debate on it was postponed indefinitely.

The debate will never take place and the Central Bank robbery that cost billions of rupees for over 15 or 20 years will not be investigated and the guilty are not going to be punished. Money cannot be recovered,”  Sirisena told stunned UNF MPs.

On the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Sirisena said that the Presidential Commission he had appointed found that it  was entered into without the concurrence of relevant agencies such as trade, ports, industry and finance. The pact  should either be amended or thrown out, the President said.

He had asked government not to imprison soldiers who had defeated terrorism but this request was ignored.

International forces are pointing accusing fingers at Sri Lanka for violating human rights but they allow Tamil Tigers to roam around freely in the world though the Tigers had killed more than 100,000 Lankan military personnel. If the members of our security forces are to be punished, they (the Tamil Tigers) should also be punished. If not, both sides should agree to cancel these punishments,” Sirisena said.

On the release of Tamil prisoners,  who the Tamils think are political persons but the government thinks are militants, the President said: If the Tamil prisoners are to be freed, then our soldiers should also be freed from different court cases that have been filed against them. That is justice.”

On the alleged threat to his life from some members of the Wickremesinghe government, Sirisena said: During the recent incidents (political crisis), your platform speakers said that I will be dragged and murdered like Gaddafi. Some of your MPs said I will be burnt in my own house with my family. The NGO operatives who were holding press conferences also said so.”.

But I did not see anyone of you make a statement about the conspiracy to assassinate me. The conspiracy has not yet been proven, but it has certain details should be clearly addressed. Since the police are running under me these days, there is a big progress in these issues.”

Yet the biggest regret is that when the murder conspiracy against the President of the country was taken up in the courts, there was not a single person of the Criminal Investigations Department to be found in the premises,” Sirisena noted.

Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa Conflict

Meanwhile, a gigantic conflict is brewing between Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the opposition stalwart Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Wickremesinghe has declared that he will start a broad-based movement to abolish the Executive Presidency. He said that he is in talks with the TNA for a political solution in which all ethnic communities can live in harmony  within a Unitary State.”

But Rajapaksa is campaigning for the strenghthening of the Executive Presidency and has dubbed Wickremesinghe’s plan to bring about a new constitution as divisive and anti-national.” He has charged that Wickremesinghe has accepted the TNA’s demand for the division of the country into nine semi-independent federal units.”

Besides, Rajapaksa is demanding snap elections to settle all issues with the peoples’ mandate. President Sirisena is fully with him on this, having said that he prefers the verdict of 15 million voters of Sri Lanka as opposed to the will of just 122 MPs.

Therefore, Sri Lanka is now divided into two camps: One is the leftist-nationalist combine led by Sirisena and Rajapaksa; and the other is the UNF which os led by right-wing, internationalist and pro-Western United National Party (UNP) led by Wickremesinghe.

These two will fight it out in the coming provincial, Presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019-2020.

(The featured imagea at the top shows President Sirisena with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe)

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

යුනෙස්කෝ ලෝක උරුම තෙත් කලාපීය වැසි වනාන්තරයක් වන සිංහරාජ රක්ෂියේ කලවාන, කුඩව පිවිසුමේ සිට සංචාරය සඳහා පැමිණෙන සංචාරකයින් ගමන් කරනුයේ වන බිම හරහා වැටී ඇති අඩි පාරෙනි. මෙම ගමන් මාර්ගයේ ප්‍රවේශ පත්‍ර පරීක්ෂා කරන ස්ථානයක් ඇති අතර එම ස්ථානයෙන් ප්‍රවේශ පත්‍ර පරීක්ෂා කර ගමන් කල යුතුව ඇත.

දින කීපයක සිට මේ වන විටත් මෙම අඩි පාරේ දොරන ඇල්ල පිහිටි ස්ථානයේ  සිට ප්‍රවේශ පත්‍ර පරීක්ෂා කරන ස්ථානය දක්වා ඇති අඩි පාර  පාගමනින් ගමන් ගන්නා සංචාරකයන්ගේ පහසුව වෙනුවෙන් යැයි පවසා වන සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මගින් ජේ සී.බී යන්ත්‍ර යොදා වාහන ගමන් කිරීමට හැකිවන අයුරින් ඉන්ටර්ලොක් ගල් යොදා මාර්ගය සැකසීම සඳහා පුළුල් කරමින් පවතී. එය සිංහරාජ රක්ෂිතයට කරන්නා වූ දැඩි හානියක ආරම්භයකි. මෙම අඩිපාරට අමතරව ප්‍රවේශ පත්‍ර පරීක්ෂා කරන ස්ථානයට වාහන ගමන් කිරීමට මාටින් ලොජ් වෙත වැටුනු පිටකැලේ මාර්ගය ඇති අතර එසේ තිබියදී වාහන ගමන් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පරිධි මෙම මාර්ගය පූළුල් කිරීම විශාල ගැටළුවක්ව පවතී.

මෙම යෝජිත කිලෝ මීටර 1.2 පමන වන මාර්ගය පිළිබඳ වන සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් විමසන කල පවසන්නේ පාගමනින් ගමන් ගන්නා සංචාරකයන් හට පහසුව සැලසීම සඳහා මෙම මාර්ගය ඉදි කරන බවත් කිසිසේත් සංචාරකයන්ගේ වාහන මෙම මාර්ගයේ ගමන් කිරීමට ඉඩ නොදෙන බවත්ය. එසේ නම් පාගමනින් ගමන් ගන්නා සංචාරකයන් හට මෙවැනි විශාල මාර්ගයකින් ඇති වන පහසුව කුමක්ද? ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම මෙම මාර්ගය තනන්නේ පාගමනින් ගමන් ගන්නා සංචාරකයන්ගේ පහසුව සඳහාද යන වග එම කාරනා මගින් ඇති වන මූලික ගැටලුවයි.

වන රක්ෂිතය අභ්‍යන්තරයේ දැකිය නොහැකි කුරුළු විශේෂ නැරඹීමට මෙම අඩිපාර සංචාරකයන් සඳහා ප්‍රචලිත ස්ථානයකි. එමෙන්ම සර්ප විශේෂ, කෘමි විශේෂ, කටුසු විශේෂ, ගොළුබෙලි විශේෂ බහුලව දැක ගැනීමට හැකියාව ඇති අතර නෙලූ, මීවන ඇතුළු ශාක විශේෂ ගණනාවක් මෙම අඩි පාර දෙපසින් දැක ගැනීමට හැකියාව ලැබේ. මේ අසලින් කුඩා දිය ඇලි කීපයක්ම ගලා බසී. මෙම අඩි පාර ජේ සී.බී යන්ත්‍ර යොදා ගනිමින් පළල් කිරීම දිය ඇලි, ශාක , සතුන් සහ සංචාරකයන්ට කරන්නා වූ විශාල හානියකි. එමෙන්ම මෙම මාර්ගය ඉදි කොට වාහන ගමනා ගමනය කිරීම ආරම්භ උවහොත් වාහන මගින් පිටවන දුම් නිසාවෙන් වාතය දූෂණය වී සිතා ගත නොහැකි විනාශ කාරී තත්වයකට සිංහාරාජ වන බිම පත් විය හැක. සංචාරකයන්ට පහසුවක් කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම අඩි පාර දෙපස ඇති අලංකාරවත් ජෛව විවිධත්වය නැරඹීමට ඇති අවස්ථාව අහිමි කිරීමක් ලෙස මෙම ක්‍රියාවලිය දැකිය හැකිය. එමෙන්ම පසු ගිය කාලයේ මෙම අඩි පාරේ එක් ස්ථානයක් නාය යැමට ලක් වූ අතර එම ස්ථානය ජේ සී.බී යන්ත්‍ර යොදා පස් කැපීම තවත් විශාල නාය යෑමකට අත වැනීමකි. සංචාරකයන්ගේ පහසුව සඳහා අවශ්‍යම වන්නේයැයි සිතෙනවානම් යන්ත්‍ර සූත්‍ර භාවිතයෙන් තොරව මිනිස් ශ්‍රමය පමණක් භාවිත කරමින් ඉන්ටර්ලොක් ගල් භාවිත නොකට ස්භාවික ගල් යොදා ගනිමින් අඩි හතරක පමණ පුළුල් මාර්ගයක් සැකසීම ප්‍රමාණවත්ය.

පසු ගිය කලායේ සිංහරාජ රක්ෂිතය තුළ මාර්ග ඉදිකරමින් ජීප් රථ සේවාවක් ආරම්භ කිරීමට උත්සහ ගත් අතර පරිසරවේදීන්ගේ දැඩි බලපෑම් මත එය නතර විය. නැවත මෙලෙස අනවශ්‍ය අයුරින් මාර්ග සකස් කරනුයේ එම ජිප් රථ සේවාව හොර රහසේ නැවත ආරම්භ කිරීමට දැයි සැකයක්ද පවතී. සංචාරකයන්ගේ පහසුව සඳහා  හදිසි අවස්ථාවක වාහන ගමන් කිරීම සඳහා දැනටමත් පවතින මාර්ගයක් වන පිට කැලේ මාර්ගය ප්‍රමාණවත් වන අතර එම මාර්ගය තවත් පිළිසකර කර භාවිත නොකර ජේ සී.බී යන්ත්‍ර යොදාගෙන වන බිමට විශාල හානියක් සිදු කරමින් කරන්නා වූ මෙම ක්‍රියාවලිය අදූරදර්ෂී ක්‍රියාවකි. මෙම මාර්ගය ඉදිකිරීම මෙම ව්‍යාපෘති පද්ධතියේ ප්‍රථම අදියර වන අතර තවත් බොහෝ ඉදිකිරීම් වනාන්තරය තුළ ඉදි කිරීමට නියමිතව ඇති බව අපට සැල වී ඇති අතර ඔවුන් මෙම මාර්ගයද ඉදි කරන්නේ එම ඉදි කිරීම් සඳහා භාන්ඩ ප්‍රවාහනයට බව සැලවී ඇත. සිංහරාජ වන බිමට පැමිණෙන දේශිය විදේශිය සංචාරකයන් හට ආහාර ගැනීමට ස්ථානයක් සහ වැසිකිලි පහසුකම් නොමැති අතර සංචාරකයන්ගේ පහසුව තකා එවැනි අඩුපාඩු ඉදිකර දීම වෙනුවට රක්ෂිත භුමිය වීනාශ කිරීම ලෝක උරුම වනාන්තරයකට කිසිසේත් උචිත ක්‍රියවක් නොවන අතර වනාන්තර රැකීමට සිටිනා වන සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙසේ විනාශ කාරී ක්‍රියාවලීන් සිදු කරන්නේ ඇයි දැයි සොයා බලා මේ පිලීබඳව කඩිනම් ක්‍රියා මාර්ගයක්  ගන්නා ලෙස වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය අදාල බලධාරීන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

මේ පිළිබඳ වැඩිදුර තොරතුරු  0777771348 (ජයන්ත විජේසිංහ, කැඳවුම්කරු, වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය) ඇමතීමෙන් ලබාගත හැක.

ජේ සී.බී යන්ත්‍ර යොදා ගනිමින් සිදු කරන්නා ක්‍රියාවලියේ ඡායාරූප සහ වීඩියෝ දර්ශණ ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා වනාන්තරයට ඇතුළු වීමට අවසර නොමැති විය.

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වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නෝ සංවිධානය

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister and the leader of UNP has expressed at the victory rally held in Galle Face ground that he will form a new political front, which predominantly focus on abolishing the executive presidency with a view to transforming the political system to a parliamentary democracy with a cabinet government. The motive of Mr Wickremasinghe is, in fact, honestly to abolish the executive presidency or to coverup his weaknesses and failures in governing the country during the yahapalana regime aiming at re-electing in the next election, is quite difficult to understand. Politically, Mr Wickremasinghe experience and performance were a massive failure during the yahapalana regime as he was leading to destroy the unity and the economy allowing for massive corruptions done by his friends and colleague and the association with TNA which has prime aim to divide the country. He also ruined the entire rural economy, which is the heart of the country.  In fact, people of Sri Lanka do not want revisiting old political slogans such as abolishing executive presidency, but they want re-establishing the destroyed economy and making justice punishing to corrupt friends of Mr Wickremasinghe who robbed the country. People also want political stability like traditional kings, in the system cantered the authority to a head of state elected by the vote of people.

The executive presidency, which is inaudibly like traditional rule of Kings and Mr JR Jayewardene had clearly explained that why Sri Lanka wanted an executive presidential system to the country (Please read the book, Jayewardene of Sri Lank – A Political Biography by K.M. De Silva and Howard Wiggins).  When presidential system was commenced in 1978, people of the country was annoyed with the so-called democratic cabinet government, which was a ground of jokers. The executive president who is elected by the votes of people reflect the sovereignty and firm decision-making power to the country.

During the time of Mr J.R. Jayewardene, many economic decisions were made for the country and supported to uplift the rural economy empowering poor people as the new economic system gave a price to each product and service of regional Sri Lanka. Mr Premadasa as executive president further made decisions for the empowerment of rural people and Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike as executive president attempted to change her own political party from traditional socialism to liberal system and withdrew the power of the Prime Minister when he was attempted to tactical strategies that were vicious to the country.  Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa as an executive president like J.R. Jayewardene used the system to eliminate terrorism as well vicious dividing elements of the country and opened the way for economic policy implementation and a balanced growth between rural and urban areas. Mr Rajapaksa never allowed to divide the country.  Mr. Maithripala Sirisena as an Executive President effectively worked to defeat the separatism disguisedly work with UNP and control external conspiracies that were harmful to unity of Sri Lanka.

Executive presidency seems that it is a necessary evil to the country. The parliament in Sri Lanka is the most disgusted place to people and many people in the country state that MPs are like frogs jumping one side to other accepting bribes. They are elected to the parliament from the free votes of people and after the election, they do horse trading or relegate to tendering the status of them for the highest bidders. The quality of MPs is like a frog living in a well, many of them have no good education, skills and experience.  The cabinet of the government also consist of MPs selected from the frogs of the parliament.  In this environment, Mr Wickremasinghe’s alternative strategy is to abolish the executive presidency and releasing frogs to a pool allowing them to play.  These types of policies do not want Sri Lankans and with these policies there is no doubt that Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe will be achieved nothing at the next general election or the presidential election.

The desire of Sri Lankans is not to creating a misguided Orumiththa Nadu, but a strong unitary state, which cannot be divided the country and support the building integrity of the nation. This will be ensured only with an executive presidency but not with a pool of progs.  I don’t think that people of Sri Lanka can be misled second time. Now people are vigilante on what is Wickremasinghe planning to do. No leader in the world attempt go against the wish of the own people.

Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe has already left the Temple Tree to his house.  It means that he has already accepted the defeat at the next general election. However, people of Sri Lanka have no clear understanding of the consequences of a new constitution, which mainly focus to divide the power to provinces with a unification of the North and East.  The system of the devolution of power also confirm that the central government has no authority to put hand on provincial governments affairs. This means the proposed constitution is to divide the country beyond a federal system and it is surely a dividing the country.   When the new situation achieved through new constitution, foreign forces can use Sri Lanka with the support of North and East government to establish their ports and airports and sometimes they can use Sri Lanka for their weapon testing and even nuclear testing purposes. The people of Sri Lanka have no clear understanding about this and Mr Wickramasinghe secretly works out with Western forces.  When there is an executive president, vicious strategy could be securitized by the executive presidential system and that is why Sri Lanka should not be abolished the executive presidential system.

There are tremendous problems with the 19^th amendment to the constitution.  According to current experience of the country, although various committees established in terms of the 19^th amendment, they are not working well and the system of appointing members to the committees are subject to political preferences and ruling party can influence the committee. The best example is the election committee, which failed to conduct elections on time in the country.  The postponing was UNP tactical strategy and the election commission has supported to vicious elements of UNP.  The audit committee has failed to conduct a forensic audit in relation to Central Bank Bond Scam and there are many failures in the committee system.

When there is an executive president in the country, the president can order the committee to impartially work.

Therefore, executive presidency will bring many benefits to Sri Lanka and it shouldn’t be abolished.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Part 1.

President Sirisena speaking to the Sri Lanka Foreign Correspondents’ Association (FCA) at his official residence in Colombo on 26.11.18 said that the political unrest that occurred in the country after October 26 is not something sudden. The removal of Wickremesinghe was a result of several incidents that stretched over a long period of time. The President reiterated that he would never reappoint Ranil Wickremesinghe to the post of Prime Minister.

Following is the full text of President Sirisena’s speech: The appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and removal of Ranil Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister. This was not a sudden occurrence. It was the result of several incidents that stretched over a long period of time. I assumed duties as President on January 9, 2015. Immediately afterwards, Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed Prime Minister even though he had only 41 members of Parliament. This had done after removing D.M. Jayaratne from the post of Prime Minister when he had 162 members out of a total membership of 225 in Parliament. I offered Ranil Wickremesinghe all facilities and privileges to enable him to function as Prime Minister. (Daily News 27.11.18 p 2)

Within the first week itself, namely, the third week in January 2015, a disagreement occurred between the two of us about our work plan. It was about the appointment of a Cabinet of Ministers. My election manifesto clearly stated that according to the Yahapalana concept, a Cabinet of Ministers would be appointed according to a scientific basis.

The speech continued, This was in keeping with a report formulated by a three-member committee of university dons chaired by Prof. Hettige. I gave this report to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and said Ministers should be appointed according to it. But Wickremesinghe ignored it and divided subjects between Ministers in an arbitrary manner. An example was the Higher Education and Highways Ministry. When I visited foreign countries within the first year of office and held discussions at diplomatic level to reach development agreements, they questioned me as to whether Higher Education and Highways were in tandem.

Sirisena continued,” From 1947 state banks had functioned under the purview of the Finance Minister. For the first time in history, Wickremesinghe took state banks away from this Finance Ministry. The Central Bank had always been under the Finance Minister. But the Prime Minister took the Central Bank under his wing. Then the Cultural Ministry was bifurcated and one of its sections was created as Internal Affairs and Wayamba Development. Certain institutions were linked to the Education Ministry. Ministers were not divided in a scientific basis. This was the first clash.

Then came the appointment of the Central Bank Governor. When he proposed the name of Arjuna Mahendran, I told him that Mahendran was not a Sri Lanka resident. But as Economic Policy and Planning Minister, Wickremesinghe insisted on appointing Arjuna Mahendran and pleaded with me to appoint him as Central Bank Governor. Finally I acceded to his request and appointed Arjuna Mahendran as Governor against my wish.

But as you know, just three months after I became President and he became Prime Minister, the first Central Bank fraud occurred and it was a grave one. Another Central Bank fraud occurred just three months afterwards. A Presidential Commission was appointed to look into it and evidence was heard. Arjuna Mahendran is the first defendant in this case and he is in hiding today. Ranil Wickremesinghe knows Mahendran’s whereabouts, because he was his good friend. An international warrant has been issued for Mahendran’s arrest. Wickremesinghe did not show any interest in getting Mahendran to surrender to court.

This was the biggest and the largest robbery of state funds which led to mass protests. It was to calm down the situation that I appointed a Presidential Commission to probe the Central Bank bond scam. When protests against the bond scam heightened, the Central Bank’s functions got disrupted. Arjuna Mahendran, instead of resigning from the post, went on leave. Around 8 am in the morning, I spoke to a Central Bank Deputy Governor and said I will come over around 10 am. When I got ready to visit the Central Bank, an employee informed me that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had arrived to see me. Wickremesinghe never visited me unannounced. But on this day I saw that he was restless and under deep mental stress.

I asked him why he had come suddenly. Then he asked me whether I was going to the Central Bank. I told him I had decided to go there to calm down the situation since the employees there were unsettled. As I got down from my car near the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran, who was on leave, came and received me with a sheaf of betel leaves. I didn’t not care about it because Mahendran was an accused by then. When I moved a few feet forward, I came across Ranil Wickremesinghe. He must have got Mahendran to come and receive me. I spoke to the Central Bank staff and told them to be calm and start work, promising an investigation to settle all problems.

Sirisena continued, I hope to appoint a Presidential Commission to probe fraud and corruption committed during the government from 2015 to October 25, 2018, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister. More startling facts may emerge when it starts investigations. Another extremely corrupt deal of recent times was the EAP transaction relating to Swarnawahini which belonged to the Central Bank. Ranil Wickremesinghe without informing the Cabinet called for tenders through his economic management committee to sell EAP (Private) Ltd.

Sirisena said, “The highest bidders were local businessmen who quoted US dollars 65 million and 70 million. But EAP Ltd was sold to a Singaporean company for US dollars 35 million incurring a large loss to the government. Large sums were given as pay offs to several local politicians. The Hilton transaction was another corrupt deal.  Then the proposed Lands (Special Provisions) Act and the Land Bank were not approved by the Cabinet. I halted both because they were against indigenous principles.

Sirisena said, The situation became more serious when the alleged plot to assassinate me came to light. The individual who gave the information also submitted a tape. The informant also named a Cabinet Minister. The IGP before conducting any investigation said the allegation was suspicious. Two months had passed after beginning an investigation into the plot, but to date Ranil Wickremesinghe has not asked me anything about it. Social media networks friendly with the Prime Minister were ridiculing this alleged plot as a mere comedy. Against such a background I could not move forward with Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister.

Sirisena concluded, Appointing a new Prime Minister, removal of the former Prime Minister, dissolution of Parliament, proroguing of Parliament, and dissolution of the Cabinet of Ministers have all been done in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution. All these actions have not been challenged in court except the dissolution of Parliament. I will never appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister again in my whole life. I have told them not to bring Ranil Wickremesinghe to me along with them even if they show a majority because I will never reappoint him. This is not a personal clash, but a clash of principles. As I see it, Ranil Wickremesinghe does not seem to love his country. He loves neo-liberalism.  (end of speech)

Part 2

The appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister was completely legal. That is why Ranil Wickremasinghe did not challenge the appointment in court. The appointment was  greatly welcomed by the public. Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council says he was in Anuradhapura in November 2018. The manager of the hotel he stayed in had told him, when asked, that the people were happy that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had been shown the door and they were also happy that former president Rajapaksa had been appointed in his place. During his brief time in office, the highly experienced Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cabinet took decisions which  helped the public such as the reduction of fuel price.

Following is the text of the speech delivered by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Prime Minister’s Office:”What we did on the 26th of October was to form an interim government that would have lasted only until the conclusion of the general election that has already been declared, but temporarily put on hold by the courts. We never had any intention of running an administration through the government that has been formed at present. The whole country can see that only a few members of the Joint Opposition hold office in this government. That is because this is only an interim arrangement. I have been stressing ever since I took oaths as Prime Minister that our foremost aim was to go for an election in order to establish a stable government. However the objective of the other side is to revive the previous government and to rule the country for as long as possible without holding any election at all. That is the reason for the present political situation. (Island 26.11.18 p 4)

“Some people ask me why I accepted office when there was less than 18 months to go for the next elections. I have heard members of the UNP saying that if I had been patient for another 18 months, I could have won the ensuing election with a two thirds majority. We did not form a government to continuously administer the country but to hold a general election. The President explained in his address to the nation that he appointed me as the Prime Minister only after things reached a stage where he had absolutely no other option. When the government is entrusted to me in such circumstances, I cannot in all fairness, shun the responsibility. This was not a question of political power. The fate of our country and the future of our younger generation were at stake.

“Furthermore if after everything was said and done, it was still we who would have to assume that responsibility anyway, there was much to be said for assuming office before further damage was inflicted upon the country. The President dissolved Parliament and paved the way for a general election. But the UNP filed action in courts and got the elections put off. If things had gone according to the gazette notification issued by the President, by now the elections authorities would have started accepting nominations. The UNP will continue to engage in disruptive activates until the Supreme Court decides whether anyone’s fundamental rights had been infringed by the declaration of a general election.

“The former finance minister claims that the economy is on a downward trend because of the change of government. The President invited me to take over the government precisely because of the collapse of the economy during the previous government. In such circumstances, what any democratic country would do is to hold a general election and have a new government elected to power. Because the President was in our government he knows how we handled difficult situations. We managed to find the money to fight the war. We managed to complete a large number of major development projects that no previous government had been able to get off the ground. We did not allow the people to feel the effects of the 2007 world food crisis. Even though the worst global economic recession since the 1930s took place in 2008, the people of Sri Lanka were not even aware that there was such a worldwide recession.

Even though the world prices of crude oil rose to levels never seen before or since during those years, we managed to minimize the fallout from the global oil crisis as well. Within a period of nine years, my government increased the US Dollar per capita income of the country threefold. The average economic growth rate during those years was 7.4%. The exchange rate was Rs. 131 to the US Dollar. The debt to GDP ratio was 70%. On the 9th January 2015 we handed over to the new UNP government an economically stable country. Four years later however the country is now in a perilous state. The most serious aspect of the economic crisis facing this country today is the foreign currency debt burden.

When I assumed office as President for the first time in 2005, there was a war in the country. However the economy was not in such a bad state as it is now. At that time too, the debt to GDP ratio was 90% but the proportion of foreign currency debt was not as high as at present. I made it a point to inform the people from time to time in writing, of the foreign currency loans that the UNP government was taking through various sources such as Sri Lanka Development Bonds, Sovereign Bonds, Syndicated Loans, Currency swaps etc., because I knew that once we were back in power, this debt burden would be the biggest problem that we would have to face. Within a period of about three and a half years, the Yahapalana government had taken a total of more than UDS 20.7 billion in foreign currency loans alone. Due to this debt burden, it will take a while to turn things around. It should be plain to everyone that those who are trying to revive the previous government and rule without holding elections, are incapable of turning this country around. It was they who destroyed the stable economy that we had created. This is why they are so reluctant to hold elections.

“In 2006, after the war with the LTTE resumed, the people of this country, the trade unions, consumers, professionals, businessmen and all sections of the population made it a point to refrain from doing anything that would disrupt the war effort. It is because of that public support that we were able to end the war that no one else was able to bring to an end. I wish to request the people to extend to us the kind of support they gave us during the war, in order to get this country out of the economic crisis it is now in. This is the last opportunity we have. If our effort fails, this country will end up like Greece.

“We will have to work on the assumption that there is a situation of national calamity with regard to the economy. We will have to put a stop to burdening the people with taxes on the one hand and then spending lavish amounts on importing vehicles for ministers, spending money on ceremonies and excessive amounts on foreign travel as the UNP government was wont to do. I have to make it clear that after the next general elections, we will have to appoint a suitable number of ministers so as to be able to have a stable government. Before everything else, this country has to have a stable government. However that new government will have to keep expenditure under strict control.

“The President and the people of this country know that only we can extricate this country from the crisis it is in. After we assumed power in November 2005, we had to face many challenges. When we obtained a loan of USD 500 million from the HSBC in 2007 at the height of the war, the UNP surrounded the bank and told them not to give us that loan and if they did, the money would not be repaid under a UNP government. In April 2009 when the war was in its final stages, an IMF loan to which were entitled as a member state was delayed.

“At that stage, I spoke to a friendly Middle Eastern country and obtained a pledge of USD 500 million and we were able to work around that obstacle. Soon afterwards, Prabhakaran died, the IMF released the loan and we never had to take the USD 500 million that had been pledged by the friendly Middle Eastern country. The former finance minister says that the credit ratings agency Moodys has downgraded Sri Lanka. It would have been surprising if they didn’t. In 2015 when we handed the country over to the UNP, all those ratings were going up. They started coming down only after 2015.  “I have to say that there is a subtle political element in these ratings as well. In 2009, immediately after the war when our credit ratings should have gone up, we were downgraded. But the markets had complete confidence in our government and no one took any notice of the downgrade.

The President entrusted the country to us because he knows that we have the capacity to meet such challenges as well. The UNP too is well aware of that fact – which is why they speak to foreign journalists and diplomats on a daily basis in a campaign to convince the outside world that it is undemocratic to hold a general election. They know that if a general election is held and a government led by us comes into power, we will solve all these problems. The government that we will form together with the President will be a powerful and people oriented government.

“It is now barely a month since the change of government on 26 October. What we have now is only an interim government. When a downward trend manifests itself, it is difficult to turn things around in a month or two. As the general election which would have enabled the people to elect a stable government has been delayed, it will take some time for a stable government to be formed. During this interim period, I request the people to stand by us and to participate in the effort to restore economic stability to this country. The people will remember that during our period of rule between 2006 and 2014, we took every measure possible to avoid imposing heavy burdens on the people. This is why we reduced the price of fuel and some essential foodstuffs soon after assuming office on October 26. We reintroduced the fertilizer subsidy and reduced taxes on agricultural incomes so as to reduce the burden on the people and to increase production.

“The people living in this country are aware of the difference in the situation that prevailed before 2015 and after 2015. The Cabinet Spokesman of the previous government has publicly stated on numerous occasions that in 2015, the people had not voted for a change of government due to any lack of food and clothing. He said that the people voted for a change in 2015 for the sake of democracy. But after that change of government, the people ended up without democracy, without the right to vote and without food and clothing as well. Is that not what happened? The endeavour that we are engaged in now is Sri Lanka’s last chance to come out of the crisis it is in. Let us all join hands to defeat the forces that seek to destroy this country by perpetuating their rule without holding elections.” (end of statement)

Part 3

The Yahapalana puppet regime, received another shock when in November 2018, President Sirisena dissolved Parliament and set a date for a general election in January 2019. But to Yahapalana’s great relief, Supreme Court declared in its judgment of December 2018 that this action was irregular. Yahapalana government could continue. Mahinda Rajapaksa must resign.

Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from the post of Prime Minister. He did so with unexpected aplomb, before television cameras. This shows that at long last, the Rajapaksa group has become image conscious and media savvy. The resignation was choreographed. The sangha chanted pirit. There was also a blessing by a Hindu religious person and an Islam religious person, followed by a speech on the lawn with Rajapaksa showing greater confidence and poise than  before.

The media reported, ‘On Saturday morning, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa recorded a speech to the nation announcing his resignation from the position of Prime Minister on the lawn of his residence in the presence of a crowd of SLPP and UPFA politicians. The video and the text of the speech were released to the press immediately under the title “Our pledge to the people.”

Here is a full translation of his resignation speech. Today however, I wish to speak on the political implications of not being able to hold the general election that had already been declared. We are now in direct confrontation with a group of political parties that have continuously engaged in various subterfuges to avoid facing elections. When this group of political parties tried to get the local government elections postponed indefinitely by petitioning courts over the delimitation of wards, we were able to hold the local government election only because the Chairman of the Elections Commission intervened and declared that he would hold elections at least in respect of the local government institutions that had no delimitation issues pending before courts. If not for that intervention, the people would not have got even the local government election. (Sunday Island  16.12.18 p 5)

Elections to Provincial Councils have been delayed by more than one year and three months, but no one has an inkling of when those long overdue elections will be held. The law has been manipulated in such a way that those elections will be put off indefinitely. In September 2017, when the Attorney General said that a two thirds majority will be necessary to pass the law designed to postpone the Provincial Council elections, the then government kept Parliament going till night time and with great effort, mustered the necessary number of MPs to get the law passed. So desperate were they, that when some smaller political parties said they would not vote for the law unless the proportional representation quota was increased from 40% to 50%, the government agreed to that demand in the corridors of Parliament so as to get the required number of votes. They had to perform demeaning contortions to get the provincial council elections postponed.

It was only on 12 December when a resolution was passed expressing confidence in Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and requesting that he be appointed Prime Minister that the people of the country were able to see the real state of things. A total of 117 MPs voted calling for Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe to be appointed as Prime Minister. Fourteen of those votes belong to the TNA. So what has actually happened here is that the UNP which has a minority of 103 seats, has been taken hostage by the TNA. If they do not adhere to the diktat of the TNA, the UNP minority can lose their parliamentary majority at any moment. The TNA now holds the remote control in Parliament.

On 12 December, even before the Supreme Court judgement was delivered, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke in Parliament about bringing in a new constitution. This new constitution has already been drafted and published in the newspapers as well. Under the provisions of that draft constitution, this country will be divided into nine semi-independent federal units. The new constitution will also abolish the executive presidency which means that the presidential election that is due before the 9th December 2019 will not have to be held. The new constitution will also change the system of electing MPs to Parliament which means that the parliamentary election due in 2020 can also be postponed citing delimitation issues the same way that the provincial council elections have been put off indefinitely. That is what they are now preparing for.

After we formed a government on 26 October, the President declared a general election. When I was sworn in as Prime Minister on 26 October that was to form an interim government that would last only for about two months until the conclusion of the general election which was scheduled for the 5th January 2019. A President cannot stand by and do nothing when the whole country was facing destruction at the hands of the people running the government. When the main opposition force which is in effect the alternative government is invited to form an interim government that will last until the conclusion of a general election, such a request cannot be turned down either. Furthermore, a minority government would more than suffice to run things till the conclusion of a general election.

What we are confronted with now, is an attempt to rule the country without holding any kind of election. Since a general election can no longer be held, we cannot implement any of the measures we had planned to take to prevent this country from becoming another Greece. The UNP government borrowed 20.7 billion US Dollars in foreign currency loans alone within a period of three and a half years, and we have no idea as to how much more they will borrow in the coming months. The UNP brought our economy to the brink of collapse through such foreign currency borrowings. Even though some have expressed the view that it will be possible to minimize the damage done by the UNP because the President is no longer with them, we must realize that there is much that the UNP-TNA coalition can do without informing the President.

We should bear in mind that back in 2002, the then UNP government signed a cease-fire agreement with the LTTE without informing President Chandrika Kumaratunga. After the 26th October, we were able to reduce the pressure on the people by bringing down the price of fuel and some essential food items and restoring the distribution of school uniform material. We restored the fertilizer subsidy and reduced income taxes on agricultural incomes to encourage agricultural production. We were also able to take certain measures to address the concerns of  young professionals in this country over the Sri Lanka – Singapore Free Trade Agreement entered into by the previous government. Even though a general election will not be held, it must be said that the events that took place after the 26th of October have benefitted the public in other ways.

 The most important thing that happened during this period was that the two thirds majority in Parliament that was available to the UNP to be used at will, is now no longer available to them. Therefore it is now possible to prevent the passage of the new constitution that has been drafted by the same individuals who turned this country into an ungovernable mess through the 19th Amendment. Furthermore it has now become possible to end the totalitarian system that prevailed in Parliament over the past four years, with partners of the government taking over the position of opposition leader and chief opposition whip and masquerading as the opposition while supporting the government. As a result of that dangerous perversion, the Constitutional Council which recommends candidates for appointment to high office, was made up of representatives of one political persuasion. Consequently all appointees to high office over the past four years belonged to the same group. The whole country is now suffering the consequences of that situation.

 Since I have no intention of remaining as Prime Minister without a general election being held, and in order to not hamper the President in any way, I will resign from the position of Prime Minister and make way for the President to form a new government. When I was sworn in as Prime Minister, on 26 October, a feeling of optimism swept through the country. The All Share Price Index which had declined after 2015, suddenly picked up on expectations of a change of government. The LMD-Nielson Business Confidence Index recorded the sharpest increase after 2015 in November 2018. Despite the political turmoil in the country after 26 October, tourist arrivals had increased by 16% in November 2018 when compared with the same period in 2017. Those trends which took place despite the political instability in the country after 26 October are a clear indication of what the people’s hopes and aspirations are.

The change of government that the people expected has now had to be put off. But the people will definitely get the change they desire. No one can prevent that. The coming together of the Joint Opposition and the SLFP group that was in the government has now created a power block that commands around 54% of the vote base. To this will have to be added the votes of our allied political parties in the North and East and the hill country. What is now gathering against the enemies of the country is a country wide political force that no one can stop. Our main aim in the immediate future will be to hold the Provincial Council elections which have already been delayed by more than one year and three months. The main challenge facing us in the interval between now and the formation of a people’s government will be to minimize the damage that can be done by the destructive forces that are now seeking restoration to their former positions. There is no doubt at all that the people who stood by us since 2015, will continue to support us in the future as well. We will bring the forces opposed to the country down to their knees by organising the people. ( end of speech)

Part 4

After Rajapaksa resigned, a chastened Ranil Wickremasinghe took office  once again as Prime Minister on  15.12.18.   The event was not open to the media. But something far more interesting happened after the swearing in.

President Sirisena sat the UNP group down and made a lengthy speech in which he repeated all the charges he had made against Ranil Wickremasinghe at a Pohottu function. He said so in the hearing of Ranil Wickremasinghe. He even said he was going to write a book and put into it all the things that Ranil Wickremasinghe had done. The camera focused on Ranil Wickremasinghe face at this point. Ranil grimaced. The UNP group listened to this  speech silently, with long faces, but did not dare walk out. The event was  videoed and  televised .  The cameras were ready. This meeting is, in my view, a rather unique occurrence  . It may qualify for a Guinness record.  Has such a thing happened anywhere else.

Here is the President’s speech in full.  The source is https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/12/17/sirisena-says-itll-be-very-hard-to-go-on-a-collective-journey-with-a-corrupt-unp/

The January 08, 2015 Presidential election was an extraordinary people’s victory achieved through a challenging election campaign. In that victory, the people of the country had many of their hopes and expectations. As of now, with the completion of almost four years, we have had several achievements as a government that have a significant place in history. At the same time, there were many disastrous acts, corruption and disturbing incidents as well. We are pleased that we fulfill some of the aspirations of the people during this period. At the same time we could not take the country to the level the people expected us to take. Now, I do not know how far we will be able to achieve those expectations.

From the date of the victory of 2015 election, the promises of our election manifesto have floundered since the date of the swearing-in of the Cabinet of Ministers. According to our Election Manifesto, ministries had to be allocated on a scientific basis. Not only that, a team of experts had been appointed for that responsibility and necessary document was prepared. But, I do not know, if that document was even looked at.

In the past, most of us have witnessed most unfortunate situations. When it comes to progressive results, I see the establishment of democracy in the country and the freedom of the people, the 19th amendment and the establishment of independent commissions. I see only those steps as progress in the country. On the other side, today I only see a huge political crisis. It is uncertain to me whether the appointment of independent commissions and selection of some persons to positions under the 19^th Amendment to Constitution were done impartially. The Constitution Council has to appoint the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the Inspector General Police. The main thing I noticed was when the names of senior most judges were submitted for the judiciary appointments, they were rejected.

There is an allegation among the judges in the judiciary service that I do not give appointments in accordance with seniority. I should clearly state that I have sent every single name of those who level those charges against me, but the Constitutional Council has rejected those names. In that situation, there has been injustice to those who hold seniority in the field of judiciary. Therefore, the question arises as to how impartial the Constitutional Council has been when appointing of Judges.

As a result of the previous government’s serious misdeeds President Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated, which was the first time a President was defeated, and I was elected as the President by 6,250,000 people voting for me. What was opposed in the previous government was corruption and fraud. But the new people’s government that was elected by the people, plundered the Central Bank within three months. In the two cases reported in 2015, our fight against corruption was destroyed. So, Yahapalana (good governance) political concept has been destroyed. The citizen’s Yahapalana (good governance) expectation has been destroyed.

I spoke to the Central Bank Governor this morning by telephone and asked him as to where was the Forensic Audit, which was a major recommendation made by the Presidential Commission. Until today nothing has been done. As such the total financial loss to the Central Bank robbery cannot be estimated. The Commission Report says this fraud has happened over several years.

Then, economic experts told me about this last week and told me that this massive robbery had been over Rs 1,000 billion for many years. And, in this issue, Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe clearly knows that I was opposed to the appointment of Mr. Arjuna Mahendran. But, I did not want any conflict with Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and I appointed Mr. Arjuna Mahendran because of his strongest demand. Therefore, I too came under the allegation that I should take the responsibility. The fraud that has taken place under Mr. Arjuna Mahendran has ignited the country like a wildfire. Mr. Arjuna Mahendran is missing today. The plan for his arrest was not implemented properly. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and other officials who assisted the Presidential Commission on Central Bank robbery were threatened. There were pressures and some of the officials came under various investigations.

On 26th October, I appointed Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister. Four days before that an amendment to the Bribery and Corruption Commission Act was presented to Parliament in order to punish the suspects who plundered the Central Bank. This was recommended by the Attorney General’s Department but the proposed Amendment, which was first sent last year was in a cupboard for more than five months. I reminded about this to the Minister of Justice Thalatha Atukorale and Minister Kiriella several times. Finally, with great difficulty, I could get Minister Kiriella to submit it to Parliament. But eventually, the debate on its amendment was postponed indefinitely. Because of this delay, the Act could not be changed. Now it will not happen and the Central Bank robbery that cost billions of rupees for over 15 or 20 years will not be investigated and the guilty are not being punished. Money cannot be recovered. This is a serious issue today.

‘The CCEM that was established with a decision of the Cabinet. However, the CCEM has led to the rise of many issues. In reality, I have been too grateful to the Prime Minister, that he actually enjoyed the powers of the President. I did not ask about his conduct. He acted in this same manner in dealings with international leaders and trade agreements. Mr. Wickremasinghe sued powers that he had not been vested with by the 19^th Amendment.  But I waited patiently as a man with gratitude. I appointed a Commission on the Singapore trade agreement. I received its recommendations last week. According to that, there are lot of weaknesses. I am not going to explain them in detail at this moment. Particularly, in one paragraph mentions how the agreement has been entered into without concurrence of relevant agencies such as trade, ports, industry and finance. Therefore, the Singapore trade agreement is a major problem today. I suppose is that it should be suspended temporarily by government .I am not sure if this agreements needs to be amended or completely revoked after seeking the opinion of experts. We must be correct in the future.

I must tell you another matter. Within the past four years, in matters of eradicating bribery and corruption, I told, and as I always said there are certain very strong and powerful forces related to religion, customs, language etc. Mostly, it is those cultural forces, than political forces, that make or break governments. I clearly pointed out in the recent past in the matter regarding filing cases against Bikkhus need to be done carefully. There were no elephants for the Perahera from temples or Dewala and that amounted to a huge socio-religious and cultural resistance over this. As such, I asked to study the legality and release the elephants. Over this issue, we lost the whole Bhikkhu community.

I must also clearly mention about imprisoning the members of the Tri forces. I asked not to imprison our soldiers who have fought in battles and defeated terrorism; but nobody listened to me. Today, they ask us to punish our soldiers, from all over the world, yet there are  no punishments for the people of Prabhakaran who have destroyed our country. Even today, there are bigger hands of L.T.T.E. freely roaming around in the world. The same international forces point fingers at us, but they are the ones who committed all these wrongdoings. But they still demand conducting enquires against our forces. They accuse us of violating human rights and international laws.

But , they killed nearly one lakh members of our tri-forces, police, civil security forces as well as a President of this country. So where is a programme to find and bring to justice those who have committed all these gross violations and now hiding in various parts of the world? The international community is silent about it. Not even anyone in the country talks about it.  If the members of our security forces are to be punished, they should also be punished. If not, both sides should agree to remove those punishments. Here, I clearly hold a firm idea that the forces should be freed after discussing with the international community. There is a request that Tamil prisoners should be released. We held several discussions. If the Tamil prisoners are to be freed, then our soldiers too.

During the recent incidents, your debaters said that I will be dragged and be murdered like Kaddafi. Some of your MPs said, I will be also burned in my own house with my family. The NGO operatives who were holding press conferences also said so. Why do they say that? No state leader in this country had been called like this. There were severe issues in the country during the tenure of President J.R. Jayawardena who was considered as a very strict ruler. I was imprisoned since I spoke against J.R. Jayawardhana’s government.

Even J.R.Jayawardena was not addressed like this; President Premadasa was not called like this. How many misdeeds were committed against Chandrika Bandaranaike? Nobody talked to them like that. Nobody said Mahinda Rajapaksa will be dragged like Gaddafi. I was called like that since I am the only person who would silently watch upon such acts. If the former leaders including J.R. were called upon like that nobody will be able to save their lives. But they know that the house of a man like me could be burnt down and person like me could be dragged liked that.

Just as there are good people, there are criminals and underworld gangs. It was those evil forces that made those barbaric pronouncements. I did not see anyone of you make a statement about the conspiracy to assassinate me. The conspiracy has not yet been proven, but it has certain details that should be clearly addressed. Since the police are running under me these days, there is a big progress in these issues. Yet the biggest misery is that the murder conspiracy against the President of the country was taken up in the courts, there was no single person of the Criminal Investigations Department to be found in the premises.

When I issued some gazette notifications recently, I did so with the advice of expert lawyers and constitutional experts. All what I did was done with utmost good faith. I didn’t do any of those acts with any malefic thought or with an intention of violating the constitution. The country was in a huge political turmoil. The best solution to solve the problem was to enter in to an election. It was only 122 members of Parliament who signed this letter. But there are 155 lakhs of voters in this country. I know the power of all these 15.5 million voters is much stronger than 122 members of the Parliament. That is why I reached that decision. If I am to be punished for such pure intentions or if an impeachment is to be brought against me, then it is a different issue.

Nevertheless, the truth will be written in the history as words carved in stone. Even though the courts delivered such a judgment, my intention was to empower the 15.5 million people eligible to vote. I know the citizens of this country are stronger than the number of 122 Parliamentarians, who refused an election. Hence, I have no worry about giving any punishment to me. I am a person who has been nearly killed five to six times in my political career. First, I was almost killed in 71, when the Principal of my school gave my name to the authorities, even though I have no connection with JVP, they labeled me as Che Guevara follower, and after beating me, they put me in the Batticaloa Prison. That was the first instance when God saved me.

When all these started in 1971, I was only 19 years of age. At present my age is 67 years. Since the age of 19, I have been living with a bonus opportunity. It is God who has saved me five times. Thus, persons who wish to assassinate me like Gaddafi can fulfill their wish. I have no objection to that. I will not take action to shoot them by deploying the Army and S.T.F. I will remain silent at any time if such an incident occurred. I will open the gate when I get to know that they are coming for me. I will order the Army and S.T.F to leave the place. I will clearly state all, including the NGO persons and all your MPs who threatened to kill me to come and kill me and set fire on me and my house.

Taking into consideration all of these incidents, we must seriously think how things will unfold in the future, and how this government will move forward. Some of your MPs over the phone or when they meet me,  said that we must move forward together, but I can’t see what the guarantee for such a collective journey is. I don’t want to create conflicts. At every turn of this conflict, it is the country that will fall back. The prevailing corrupt situation is very strong. There are some extremely corrupt politicians in the Parliament. When we consider our Cabinet there are some corrupted individuals, the promise of good governance, which we gave to our people, has been completely violated. I clearly state that I am not the person who responsible for this calamity. I made all the sacrifices toward achieving good governance; however, all those sacrifices were destroyed.

‘The majority of respectable members of the UNP who voted for me, do not know about this rotten and corrupted political system. If they did, I do not think they will get together in shouting, marching and in other activities.

‘We say that this is a blessed country. Yes, it is truly a blessed country. But, how many politicians are there to build this country, to free this land of corruption? We need the assembly of such politicians to build a better country, and achieve our development goals. We need them to establish an administration free of corruption and to establish good governance which has failed. The countries in the world have developed by respecting their core values and traditions in their respective societies as well as honoring their religious and cultural values. Therefore, there is a question before me as to where such individuals are to take up the responsibility to build this country. This is a task which cannot be done by one person or two, to achieve this target we need a group of leaders to provide leadership to the public.

People may tell that I said that I will not reappoint Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister even if he received  the consent of 225 parliamentarians. The social media will target on me in this regard. That is my political view. I made that statement based on my political view. In this situation all of you went to the Parliament and by signing 117 MPs showed me the majority of the House.  There is no any provision in the constitution that the Parliament could dictate or order the President that a particular person should be appointed as the Prime Minister, for my knowledge event the courts cannot make such an order. That power is clearly vested with the Executive President.

Nevertheless, as a person who values the Parliamentary tradition, when 117 MPs requested to appoint Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, accordingly, I decided to appoint him. My personal and political view, that even the 225 MPs signed to request the appointment of Mr. .Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, I will not appoint him, has not changed and it remains unchanged at present too. But, I respected the Parliamentary tradition and decided that the post of Prime Minister should be given to Mr. Wickremesinghe. I see this as a characteristic of a democratic society as well as a society that values ethics. (end of speech)

This is not a satisfactory record of  President Sirisena’s speech. We  saw this on television. He  said much more and with greater effect. He went on at length about the bond scam and Singapore FTA. He  defended the gazette regarding the  dissolution of Parliament. He said he did not issue this gazette in a thoughtless manner. It was prepared by a group of highly respected lawyers. He only put his signature to it.

Sirisena also gave an interview to Sunday Times in November 2018. Inter alia,  he said that he did not want Arjuna Mahendran as Governor of the Central Bank.  There were others who were more suitable, but Ranil Wickremasinghe insisted and he gave in. Corruption was high in the Ranil Wickremasinghe cabinet and it continued.  I do not want speak at length about it.  One example was the EAP Edirisinghe Group  deal which was given to a foreigner who had quoted much less.  A Sri  Lankan had made a higher bid. It was a corrupt deal. What forced you to take a hurried decision to remove Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister, asked the interviewer. it as the conspiracy to assassinate me and Gotabhaya, replied President. A cabinet minister’s name has transpired.

Part 5

This return to Prime-Minister-hood was  certainly not a triumph for Ranil Wickremasinghe. It was pointedly observed that this was his fifth time as Prime Minister. Pohottuwa said Ranil Wickremasinghe took office three times during the present Yahapalana rule. After the first  swearing in came the first Bank scam, after his second swearing in, came the second Bank scam, and now after the third swearing in,  there may be a third Bank scam.

It was not a triumphant return for Yahapalana either. This was not the great victory for democracy that it was made out to be .Yahapalana still remained an unpopular government which had managed  to prevent an election.  The public wanted an election. Island editorial said, The UNP-led government will not be same again. It is like a weightlifter recovering from a spinal fracture. It is no longer capable of doing what it used to do by mustering a two-thirds majority in Parliament; it, now, has a powerful Opposition and a hostile President to contend with.

Island editorial continued  The UNP’s biggest problem will be that it cannot claim debt servicing as the reason for its inability to grant the public economic relief and carry out development projects. Before Oct. 26, the UNP had the public believe that the Rajapaksas had run away, unable to pay back the loans they had obtained, and it had been burdened with the task of repaying debts. This slogan will no longer be valid in that the Rajapaksas, having formed a government on Oct. 26, undertook to repay the loans. Why didn’t the UNP let them stew in their own juice?

The Sirisena-Rajapaksa government also granted some relief to the public by slashing fuel prices and offered tax cuts and subsidies. Whether those relief measures that administration adopted, out of desperation, to win over the public would have been viable in the long run may be in doubt, but the people will expect the new UNP administration to do likewise. Attempts to reintroduce the fuel pricing mechanism and increase taxes will cause the UNP to lose votes.

Island editorial concluded  The new government will not be able to justify the postponement of the Provincial Council polls further. The SLPP has suffered a political setback due to its undisciplined adventurism, which backfired, and its reunion with President Sirisena and the SLFP rump. But whether the UNP will be able to capitalize on the situation and better its electoral performance remains to be seen. .

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe delivering a brief speech at Temple Trees following his swearing in as Prime Minister. He  stated that their first task will be to bring the country back to normal and establish the status quo. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also said that he is proud how the Supreme Court and Parliament acted when democracy was in jeopardy. The Prime Minister extended his gratitude to the Supreme Court, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Parliament for their steadfastness in protecting democracy in the country.

He said that the first thing they will look to achieve is to restore normalcy in the country and kick start development activities. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe promised to provided better living conditions and a to create a prosperous economy for the people despite the serious economic repercussions that the country had to face due to the political crisis.For three years, our people went through a number of hardships to bring the country to a stable level. When we were about to reap the benefits of these hardships, we were thrown into this conflict situation. However, we promise our people better living conditions soon. Development activities in the country came to a standstill in the last few weeks. This was very unfortunate. All of us want to lead normal lives. We want development,” .Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also extended his gratitude for those who fought relentlessly for the establishment of democracy in the country, including protesters, social activists and UNP supporters who carried the struggle to all parts of the country.

I said on that day our fight was for the sake of democracy; justice; to protect the Constitution; adherence of the rule of Law and civilized and moral conduct of society. And I also said that at the end, we would win the fight.”

There was support from the state owned Daily News . Daily News said, Yesterday marked a Red Letter Day for democracy in this country of 21 million people where the attempts of dark forces of anarchy to trample on the free will of the people were resoundly defeated, restoring their sovereignty and independence.

Daily News of 17.12.18  devoted five pages to him, two full pages of photos of his triumphant return ( p 10, 12 ) and three other pages which praised his return, (p 1,3.5). Daily News on 18.12.18 focused positively on the UNP Galle face rally . it was a  sea of heads Daily News  said, and ran two full pages of photos of it.

Daily News wrote at length on the return of Ranil Wickremasinghe.  It said, the people who cherish democracy owe an eternal debt to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was sworn last morning as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, for walking the gauntlet all the way in achieving for them this victory. Had he baulked at the unequal challenge that confronted him since the day he was illegally deposed as Prime Minister on October 26 and allowed the forces of anarchy to prevail it would certainly have spelt the end to democracy and constitutional rule in Sri Lanka. The true democrat that he was, he fought his way according to the rule book and his unflappable demeanour and composure, amidst heavy odds, should be a lesson for all budding politicians who are wedded to democracy.

Daily News  continued He did not sway from his insistence that he was still the Prime Minister of this country and was the rightful occupant of Temple Trees, knowing full well the might of the military and the police were in the hands of the illegal Government. His implicit faith in the eventual triumph of democracy, no matter what peril it was being subjected to, is also testament to his determination not to allow the vitiation of a system that the people of Sri Lanka had been nurtured on since we gained universal adult franchise in 1935.

Daily News said, To Wickremesinghe also goes the kudos of being the symbolic figure who protected democracy which was being assailed from within the system for the first time in this country. Earlier democracy was under threat from external forces. For the first time in the post-independence history of this country democracy was under siege when two insurgences broke out in 1971 and 1989/90 threatening the system. Both revolts were quelled by the Armed Forces. However, post October 26, democracy was undermined by actors who functioned within the system and had a good chance of success given that the Armed Forces, this time, were under the control of the usurpers. It is in this context that Premier Wickremesinghe’s role assumes historic importance.

Daily News continued  Sri Lankans who cherish democracy should also salute the role played by the Judiciary for rescuing the system from what threatened to be its imminent collapse, through its impartial arbitration of matters that came before it. Their Lordships of both, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, certainly delivered their verdicts in keeping with the Constitutional provisions. The unanimity reached by the seven member Supreme Court Bench that held the dissolution of Parliament illegal left no doubt, whatsoever, in the minds of the public that those responsible had acted outside the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the country.

Daily News concluded It should be a matter for gratification for all that the country’s Judiciary has today asserted its independence, removing all doubts that existed on the impartiality of our courts. For this, the credit should undoubtedly go to the former Yahapalana Government for establishing the Independent Commissions which has ensured that no judicial officer could be subjected to intimidation by the Executive, like in the past. Their Lordships have opened a new chapter in the country’s judicial history that will now restore the confidence of the public in the judiciary that was virtually under siege pre-19A. For this, his name will occupy a prominent place among the pantheon of world figures who made sacrifices, risking their lives, in the endeavour of protecting democracy and freedom for their people.  ( continued)

Ape Kelam අපේ කේලම්

https://www.facebook.com/Apekealam/videos/339038870251744/

ALI SUKHANVER

More war, more injuries, more casualties; what is the future of the war-torn country Afghanistan; certainly there must be an answer to this painful question. Decades have passed but the situation in Afghanistan is still the same. The people of Afghanistan are leading a life full of uncertainty, insecurity and anxiety. A school going Afghan boy would simply remain silent rather dumb if someone asks him what he is going to be when he grows up. The reason behind this silence and dumbness would be nothing but fear of uncertainty. What did the US planners get out of the war in Afghanistan? Did they succeed in winning the hearts of the Afghan people or they succeeded in conquering the Afghan lands; surely they did nothing but wasted a lot of time and a lot of money. The Taliban were the basic target of the US and NATO forces from the day one but the US planners badly failed in ‘crushing’ the Taliban; they even could not make Taliban unpopular in spite of a very well organized media campaign against them. The Taliban are still there, playing a very active role in Afghan politics. Time is strengthening them day by day; their strengthening means defeat of all the forces hostile to them.

We see today US is left with only one option; to bring Taliban to the negotiation-table. A few weeks back General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said talking about the Taliban at a security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, They are not losing right now; I think that is fair to say.”  He further said, While there is no military solution to peace in Afghanistan, Washington and its allies in the NATO military alliance are trying to use all their military, political and economic potentials in a bid to convince the Taliban to come to the negotiation table. The key to success is to combine all the pressure to incentivize the Taliban to negotiate.” It is a very strange contradiction that on one hand Gen. Dunford is claiming that Washington has no military solution to the Afghan problem but on the other hand U.S. President Donald Trump is in favour of designing a strategy for a long-running war which focuses on bringing more troops and use them to force a political resolution to militant groups. Under this new strategy President Trump last year, announced an increase in U.S. troop levels, bringing the total number of foreign foot soldiers in the country to about 14,000.

Efforts for peace-talks and adding more troops to an already war-torn territory; these two actions are going opposite to each other. President Trump must try to convince himself that war is never a solution to conflicting issues. War gives birth to new conflicts. Moreover, at present it is out of question to pressurize the Taliban by sending more troops to Afghanistan because with the passage of time the Taliban have become expert in tackling with the foreign troops. They are now the ‘experienced-targets’. The most feasible way to resolve the Afghanistan issue is to concentrate only on the peace-talks with the Taliban; threatening them with more troops would simply distort the situation.

Recently a report was published on the pages of the Albawaba News with the title ‘U.S Officials Admit Taliban Are Not Losing in Afghanistan. The report said, The Taliban are gaining strength as the Afghan government in Kabul struggles to keep ground. The U.S. government’s overseer for the military push in Afghanistan warned in a report earlier this month that the Taliban had cemented their position by taking control over larger chunks of the country while the Afghan government had seen its control shrink to about 56 percent of the land — down from 72 percent in 2015.”

Contradiction in US’ approach towards the settlement of the Afghan issue is simply adding to the gravity of problem. On one hand the Trump Administration is seeking Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table and on the other hand Pakistan is being continuously blamed for ‘patronizing’ the Taliban. In a recent interview with the ‘Atlantic’ Washington’s envoy to UN, Nikki Haley has repeated allegations against Pakistan. She is the first Indian-American ever appointed to a Cabinet position in any US presidential administration. She said, The US did not need to give money to countries that wish harm to America, go behind its back and try and stop us from doing things.” She further said, The one example I’ll give you is, look at Pakistan. Giving them over a billion dollars, and they continue to harbour terrorists that turn around and kill our soldiers —that’s never okay. We shouldn’t even give them a dollar until they correct it. Use the billion dollars. That’s not a small amount of change.” President Trump is no doubt a very intelligent politician; if he is really serious in finding a solution to the problems in Afghanistan, first of all he will have to do something to stop the blame game against Pakistan.

පුන්සර අමරසිංහ Institute of Law and Politics Scuola Superiore Sant Anna Pisa, Italy

සුපුරුදු ආකාරයටම නිර්මාල් දේවසිරි උත්සහ කර ඇත්තේ ගණනාථ  ඔබේසේකර සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිකචින්තනය   විසංයෝජනයකල බව කියන මුසාව   ඉස්මතු කිරීමටය. කොළඹ සරසවියේ සිසුවෙකු සිටි සමයේ සිට ඔහුගේ මේ කතාන්දරය අසා ඇති මට මෙහි පුදුමයක් නොපෙනේ. දෙසැම්බර 7ත් වෙනිදා නිර්මාල් රන්ජිත් දේවසිරි විසින් රාවය පුවත්පතට “සැබෑ සිංහල ගැමියා දුටු මානව ද්ධ ජාතික චින්තනය අවබෝධ කර ගත්තා ද යන්න පෙන්නවනු ලැබීමය. මෙහිදී නිර්මාල් දේවසිරි මහතා පුන පුනා පෙන්නුම් කරන කාරණයක් නම්  ඔබේසේකර පෙන්වනු ලැබීමට උත්සහ කරන සිංහල බෞද්ධ සමාජය යනු සිංහල නාගරික මද පන්තියේ නිර්මාණයක් යන්න නලින් ද සිල්වා ඇතුළු සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිකවාදීන්ට දැරිය නොහැකි බවය. දේවසිරි මහතා තම ලිපියෙන් මෙසේ කියයි

“මම නම් නලීන් ද සිල්වාගේ ලිපිවලින් ගණනාථව දකිමි. නලීන් මේ වෛර කරන්නේ කුමකටද? යන්න වටහාගත යුතු ය. ගණනාථ මේ කරන්නේ නලීන් ලා වසා දැමීමට හදන සිංහල බෞද්ධයා නිරාවරණය කිරීමයි. නලීන් පවසන්නේ ගණනාථ බටහිරවාදියකු කියාය. එහෙත් මා සිවිද්‍යා ප්‍රාඥයා ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර” යන ශීර්ෂය යටතේ ලියන ලිපිය හරහා උත්සහ ගෙන ඇත්තේ ඔබේසේකර කොතරම් සාර්ථක සහ සියුම් ලෙස සිංහල බෞතන්නේ කතිකාමය තලය විශ්ලේෂණය කළ විට ගණනාථගේ සහ වේදනාව (empathy) එක යොමුකර තිබෙන්නේ පූර්ණ යටත්විජිත සංස්කෘතික සත්වයා    දෙසටය. එසේ අභිමුඛවීමේදී සිංහල බෞද්ධ ගැමියා වෙත ඔහු තම සහ වේදනාව යොමු කරයි. එහෙත් නලීන් ලා ඔහුව බටහිරවාදියකු බව දකින බව පෙනේ. මා සිතන්නේ එයට පටහැනිව නලීන්ලා ධර්මපාලලාගේ මතවාදය ගමන සුරක්ෂිත කරන බවය.”

නිර්මාල් රංජිත් දේවසිරි මහත් ඉහලින් අගය කරන “ඔබේසේකර විසින් ඉදිරිපත් ගොඩ නගනු ලැබූ ” ප්‍රෝතෙස්තන්ත බුදුදහම ” යන තීසිසය තුලින් ඔබේසේකර  ගොඩනගනු ලබන ප්‍රවාදය හැදෑරීමේදී ඔබේසේකර සබැ ලෙසම මෙරට තුල 19වන සියවසේ අග බාගයේ සිට පැවති දේශීය චින්තන විප්ලවය   සහ බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය වටහා ගැනීමට නොහැකි වූ ආකාරය ස්ථාපනය වෙනු ලැබේ.  ප්‍රෝතෙස්තන්ත බුදුදහම යන සංකල්පය හරහා ඔබේසේකර මතු කරනු ලබන මුලික තර්කයක් නම් මෙරට තුල ඇති වූ බෞද්ධ පුනරුදය බාහිර බලපෑමක් මගින් පැමිණි දෙයක් බවය. ගොම්බ්‍රිච් සහ ඔබේසේකර රචිත “Buddhism Transformed නම් කෘතිය   මගින් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලබන නම් ඕල්කට් සහ බ්ලවස්කි සමග පැමිනි තියෝසොෆිස්ට්වාදීන් විසින් ගෙන එනු ලැබූ ප්‍රොතේස්තන්ත අදහස් අනුව මෙරට තුල බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය ඇති වූ බවය. නමුත් අමතක කල නොහැකි කරුණක් වනාහි ඇමරිකාවේ නිව්යෝර්ක් හි සිටි  ඕල්කට් මෙරටට  පැමියේ මෙරට තුල මිගෙට්ටුවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමි විසින් ක්‍රිස්තියානි පුජකයන් සමග මුහුණට මුහණ කරනු ලැබූ වාදයන්  කියවීමෙන් බවය. බෞද්ධ පුනරුදය ඕලකට් නිර්මාණයක් ලෙස පෙන්වා දීමට උත්සහ ගන්නා  ඔබේසේකර සහ ගොම්රිච් මතු කරන තවත් කරුණක් නම් බෞද්ධ හිමියන් එතෙක් ගත කරමින් සිටි ආරාමික ජිවිතයෙන් බැහැරව ලුතර් විසින් යුරෝපයේ ඇති කල ආගමික පුබුදුව සමග නැගී ආ නිදහස් මතධාරී පුජක පන්තිය මෙන් මෙරට බෞද්ධ බික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා ඕල්කට් ඇති කල ව්‍යාපාරය හරහා සමාජ කටයුතු කිරීමට එක් වූ බවය. නමුත් ඇත්තටම සිදුවූ දෙය නම් බෞද්ධ හිමිවරුන්  සමාජ මෙහෙවරක නිරත වී සිටීම මෙරටට ආගන්තුක නොවීමයි. උදාහරනයක් ලෙස 18වන සියවස තුල වැලිවිට සරණංකර හිමියන් ඇරබූ සිල්වත් සමාජය තුල ද පැවතියේ බෞද්ධ හිමිවරුන් සමාජ ආගමික ව්‍යාපාරක් සදහා මූලික  ලෙස දායක කර ගැනීමේ අරමුණ වේ. ඔබේසේකර  සහ ගොම්බ්‍රිච් ගෙනෙනු ලබන “Protestant Buddhism” තීසිසය මගින් දැඩි ලෙස සාකච්චාවට බදුන් කරන කණ්ඩායමක් නම් බෞද්ධ ස්වාමින්  වහන්සේලාය. වල්පොල රාහුල හිමියන්  රචිත ” Heritage of Bikku නම් කෘතිය සදහා පෙරවදනක් සැපයු ඇමරිකානු විද්වතෙකු වන එඩ්මන්ඩ් පෙරී සදහන් කරන පරිදි බෞද්ධ බික්ෂුන් වහසේලා සමාජ කටයුතු වලින් ඉවත් කර තැබීම යටත්විජිත පාලකයන්ගේ උපාය මාර්ගයක් විය. ඔහු තවදුරත් සදහන් කරන්නේ කතෝලික තාපසාරම වල සිටි බෙනදික්ත නිකායික පුජකයන් මෙන් බෞද්ධ හිමිවරුන් ජනතවගෙන් ඉවත් ව සිටිනු දැකීම යටත්විජිත පාලකයන්ගේ සහ මිෂනාරීන්ගේ මුලික අරමුනක් විය.  ඕල්කට් මෙරට ට පැමිණීමට පෙර සිට බෞද්ධ හිම්වරුන්ට බටහිර නුතනවාදී නිදහස් චින්තනය පිළබද අවබෝදයක් තිබු බව ඔබේසේකර වචනයක් වත් සදහන් නොකරයි. පානදුර වාදය සදහා බුද්ධිමය දායකත්වය දුන් හික්කඩුවේ සුමංගල හිමි ජෝන් ස්ටුවර්ට් මිල් වැනි ලිබරල් චින්තකයන් පිලිබදව හොද අවබෝදයක් තිබුඋගතෙකු බව උන්වහන්සේ පිළබදව තම රචනා වල සදහන් කර ඇති ඩෙන්මාර්ක් ජාතික විද්වතෙකු වන ඔල්ඩෙන්බෙර්ග් සාක්ෂි දරයි. Protestant Buddhism හරහා ඔබේසේකරලා ඉදිරිපත් කරන තවත් කාරණයක් නම් මෙරට සංඝයා     සමාජ සුබසාධන කටයුතු සදහා යොමු වුයේ ඕල්කට් අති කල පුනරුදය  හරහා මෙරට කිතුනු පුජකයන් සහ මිෂනාරි වරුන් විසින් පාසල් , රෝහල් හරහා ගෙනගිය සුබසාධක වැඩපිළිවල කොපි කර  බවයි. නමුත්  ඕල්කට් මෙරටට පැමිණීමට ශතවර්ෂ ගණනාවක සිට බෞද්ධ හිමිවරුන්වෙදකම    වැනි ලෞකික කටයුතු වල නිරත වී සිටි බව ඔබේසේකර තම මතයෙන් සගවා සිටිනු ලබයි.

 ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර සහ රිචර්ඩ් ගොම්රිච් ඉදිරිපත් කල “Protestant Buddhism තීසිසයට පිළිතුරක් ලෙස සුසන්ත ගුණතිලක විසින් රචිත ” Anthropologizing Sri Lanka: A Eurocentric Misadventure” කෘතිය මගින් ඔබේසේකරගේ ඇකඩමික කුහකත්වය මානව එළිදරව් කර තිබේ. උදාහරනයක් ලෙස ඔල්කට් සහ බ්ලැවැස්කි ගේ ආගමනය මෙරට බෞද්ධ නුතනවාදය පටන් ගත් මොහොත බව ඔබේසේකර ඉදිරිපත් කරන කරුණ සදහා ගුණතිලක තම කෘතියෙන් අබියෝගයට ලක් කරනුයේ ඔල්කට් සමග මෙරටට හදුන්වා දුන් තියෝසොෆි ව්‍යාපාරය දේශීය බෞද්ධ චින්තනයක් නොවූ අකරයයත් පසුව අනගාරික ධර්මපාල ඇතුළුඇතුළු බෞද්ධ නායකයන් ඕල්කට් සහ බ්ලවස්කි විසින් ගෙනගිය තියෝසොෆි ව්‍යාපාරය ගුප්ත ආගමික චින්තනයක් මත පදනම් ව තිබුවක් බව තේරුම් ගෙන ඉන් මෙරට බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය ගලවා ගැනීමට කටයුතු කරනු ලැබූ ආකාරය පෙන්වා දීමෙනි.  නිර්මාල් දේවසිරි ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකරයන් දුටුවා කියන දේශීය බෞද්ධ චින්තනය පිළබදව මෙසේ කියයි

“සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිකවාදය දැඩි ප්‍රභූතන්ත්‍රයකි. එය සේවය කරන්නේ යම් ප්‍රභූ පිරිසකගේ පැවැත්ම උදෙසාය. එහෙත් ඒ අතරම එය නියෝජනය කරන පිරිසට තම පොදු ජන භාවය පෙන්වීමට අවශ්‍ය වී තිබේ.”

මෙය නිවැරදි කරුණක් නම් අනගාරික ධර්මපාල කිසිදිනක දේශීය ගම්බද ජනතාව සදහා කාර්මික පුහුණුවීම් වල වැදගත් කම ගැන මතු නොකළ යුතුව තිබුණි. මන්ද දේවසිරි සහ ඔහු සිංහල ගැමියා දුටු සබැ සබැ විද්වතා විද්වතා ලෙස සලකන ඔබේසේකර කියන තර්කය අනුව ධර්මපාල පැමිණි දේශීය නාගරික ධනපති පන්තිය නිසා  ඔහු කිසිදිනක සිංහල ගැමියන් කාර්මික පුහුණුව ලැබීමේ ලැබීමේ  අරමුණ මතු නොකරනු ඇත. එහෙත් ධර්මපාලගේ දැඩි විවේචනයට හසුවුයේ ඔහු නියෝජනය කල දේශීය නාගරික සමාජ කණ්ඩායම් වේ.  වඩාත් සරදම් සහගත තත්වයක් වනුයේ අප අසල්වැසි ඉන්දියාවේ ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරය පවා මුල් වකවානුවේදී ඇනි බෙසන්ට් වැනි තියෝසොෆිවාදීන්ගෙන් පෝෂණය ලැබුවත් කිසි වෙකුත් එය Protestant Freedom Movement ලෙස නම් නොකිරීමයි.

බෞද්ධ චින්තනය පිළබදව ඔබේසේකර ඉදිරිපත් කල තවත් වැරදි මතයන් ඔහු විසින් රචිත “Imagining Karma ” කෘතියේ දක්නට ලැබේ. පුනරුත්පත්තිය පිළබදව බෞද්ධ අදහස්  බටහිර දාර්ශනික අදහස් සහ රතු ඉන්දියානු ජනයා නැවත ඉපදීම විශ්වාස කල ආකාරය පිළබද මානව විද්‍යාත්මක කෘතියක් ලෙස ලියවී ඇති Imagining Karma මගින් බෞද්ධ ඉගැන්වීම් පිළබද වැරදි මතයන් රැසක් ඉදරිපත් කර ඇත. ඔහු තම කෘතියෙන් සදහන්  කරන එක් කරුණක් නම්  අනිත්‍ය සංකල්පය බෞද්ධ චින්තකයන් විස්තර කර ඇත්තේ  කර්මය පිළිබද බෞද්ධ මතවාද පදනම් කර ගෙන බවය. නමුත් නිවැරදි කාරණය නම් බුදුන් තම චින්තනමය චාරිකාව තුල මුලික ස්ථානයක් ලබාදුන්නේ ඇති වීම සහ නැති වීම නම් “වෙනස් වන වන ස්වභාවය අවබෝධ කරගනු ලැබීමටය. බෞද්ධ උගැන්වීම් වල මුලික ලෙස වෙනස් වන ස්වභාවය තනිව වැටහා ගැනීම කර්මය පිළබදව සිතනවාට වඩා  විමුක්තිය ලබා ගැනීමේ මාර්ගයට අවතීර්ණ වු කෙනකුට අවශ්‍ය වේ. බුදුන් තම දේශනා තුල කර්මයේ ස්වභාවය පිලිබදව දිගු අර්ථකතන සැපයුණු නොලැබුවේ එබැවිනි. නමුත් අනිත්‍යතාව”  යන්න තනිකරම බෞද්ධ චින්තනය තුල ගොඩනැගී ඇත්තේ කර්මය යන්න පදනම් කර ගෙන බව ඔබේසේකර විසින් වැරදි ලෙස තම කෘතිය තුලින් දක්වා ඇත. 

ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා මෙරටින් පමණක් නොව සමස්ත ආසියාවෙන්ම තම විෂය අරභයා මතවාද රැසක් බිහි කල මහා චරිතයයක් බවට විවාදයක් නැත. ඔහු විසින් ජේම්ස් කුක් ගේ මරණය සහ හවායි දුපත් වැසියන් කුක් ව දේවත්වයෙන් සැලකීමට පටන් ගැනීම ගැන මාෂල් සහලින්ස් සමග සිදු කල බුද්ධීමය විවාදය හරහා ඔබේසේකර දේශීය දුපත් වැසියන් බටහිර මිනිසුන් සිතු ආකාරයෙන්ම තාර්කිකව සිතා ඇති බව මතයක් ඉදිරිපත් කල අතර එමගින් ඔහු යුරෝපය මුලික කර ගෙන ඇතිව තිබු චින්තනයට (Eurocentricism ) පහර එල්ල කරනු ලැබිය. නමුත් ඔබේසේකර වැරදියට අල්ලා ගනු ලැබූ මෙරට බෞද්ධ පුනර්ජීවනය බාහිර බලපෑමක් මත 19වන සියවසේ අග භාගයේ දී සිදුවූවක් පැහැදිලිව ම බිද දැමිය හැකි තර්කයකි

  නමුත් මෙරටින් එහා සිටින විද්වතුන් සහ මෙරට කොළඹ සරසවියේ සමාජ විද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවත්, ඉතිහාස දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවටත් බුදුදහම මෙරට ජනවාර්ගික හිංසනයට මුලික වූවාය කියන බොරුව සදහා ඇකඩමික මතයක් අවශ්‍ය වූ විට ඔවුන් කෝකටත් බෙහෙත ලෙස යොදා ගන්නේ ඔබේසේකර සහ ගොම්බ්‍රිච් ගෙන ආ “Protestant Buddhism ” තීසිසයයයි. එයට එරහිව ලියන සියලුම සියලුම අනිත් රචකයන් ඔවුන් දකිනු ලබන්නේ ඔබේසේකරගේ ඇකඩමික බස සහ තර්කයන් තේරුම් ගත නොහැකි නාහෙට නාහන ජාතිවාදීන් ලෙසය. නිර්මාල් දේවසිරි රාවයට ලියු ලිපියෙන්  නලින් ද සිල්වාට ඔබේසේකර ව තේරුම් ගත නොහැකි වූ බවට නිගමනය කර ඇත්තේ එම නිසාය.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

 දින පණහක කෙටි ආණ්ඩුවක් අවසන් කොට දැන් තවත් නව ආණ්ඩුවක් පත්ව තිබේ. මේ කාලය තුළ රටේ තිබූ අස්ථාවර බව කාහටත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් විය. නමුත් ආණ්ඩුවක අවිනිශ්චිත බව තිබුණද රාජ්‍යයක් තිබෙන බව ජනතාව අවබෝධ කරගත්හ.  එනම් රජයේ නිළධාරීන් සිය රාජකාරි කටයුතු වල අඛණ්ඩව යෙදීමෙන් රටේ වියවුල් ඇති නොවීමට මග පාදනු ලැබීය.පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්‍රදාය මගින් රට කාබාසිනියා කරන ආකාරය පළමු වරට සංවාදයට ලක් විය.කෙසේ වෙතත් දැන් පත්ව පැමිණි නව රජයේ අගමැති දිව්රුම් දෙන අවස්ථාවේදී ජනපතිවරයා යම් ඓතිහාසික ප්‍රකාශකනයක යෙදුණි.  එවැනි ප්‍රකාශනයක යෙදීමට මේ යුගයේ සිටි කිසිම ජනපතිවරයෙකු සමත් නොවූ බව අවංකව කිව යුතුය. ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය විධාකය සහ අධිකරණ යන බල තුලනය යටතේ ඇති වූ ගැටළුව මැනවින් විග්‍රහ කොට සැකසුණු එම ප්‍රකශනයෙන් ජනතාවට හංගන්නට දෙයක් තිබුණේ නැත. පක්ෂ විපක්ෂ සියළු දෙනාගේම හෙලුව ඉන් ප්‍රදර්ශනය විය. නිදහස ලැබී වසර හැත්තෑවක් ඉක්ම ගොස තිබෙන මේ යුගයේ රට ඉදිරියේ ඇති ප්‍රධාන අභියෝග මෙනවාදැයි මෙම කතාවෙන් හොඳින් ගම්‍ය වේ යැයි සිතමි. සිංහල ජනතාව දෙකට බෙදී සිටීමත් හරි හෝ වැරදි කුමක් වුවත් පක්ෂයේ මතය පිළිගෙන කටයුතු කිරීමත් නිසා රටේ සුලුතරය බොරදියේ මාලු බාන බව ජනතාවට ඒත්තු ගොස් ඇත. මේ සඳහා එකම විකල්පය මහ මැතිවරණය බවට ජනපතිවරයා නැවතත් ඒත්තු ගන්වා තිබේ. මන්ත්‍රී වරුන් 225 දෙනාගේ බලයට හෝ අධිකරණ විනිසුරුවන් ගේ ප්‍රමාණයට වඩා ජනතාව විසින් දෙන තීරණය වැදගත් බව මෙහිදී දැඩිව ඒත්තු ගැන්විණ. නමුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ක්‍රමය මහ මැතිවරණය වැනි දෙයකින් පමණක් මෙම අභියෝග වලට මුහුණ දීමට හැකි වේ දැයි යම් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් මතුව තිබේ. පසු ගිය කාලයේ දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව සහ අධිකරණය හැසිරුණු ආකාරයත් විදේශ තානාපතිවරුන් හැසිරුණු ආකාරයත් දෙස බලන කල්හි රටේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ගැන බරපතල ලෙසට කල්පනා කරලීමේ අවස්ථාව දැන් පැමිණ තිබෙන බව පෙන්වා දිය යුතුය.

          යහපාලන රජය පත්ව වසර තුනහමාරක් ගත වූ අවස්ථාව වන විට එම රජය කුමක්දැයි බහුතර ජනතාව හොඳින් දැන ගත්හ.එම නිසා පසුගිය පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේදී ආණ්ඩුව කෙරෙහි වූ අප්‍රසාදය විශාල වශයෙන් පළ කරන්නට ඔවුන් නොපැකිලුණහ. මේ වාසිය උකහා ගනු ලැබූයේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ඇතුළු ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයයි. ඔවුහු ද පසුගිය කාලයේ සටන් වල නිමග්න ව සිටියද යහපාලන රජයේ යම් තීරණාත්මක වැරදි තීරණයන් හිදී එක්කෝ නිශ්ශබ්දව සිටියහ. නැතහොත් සහාය දුන්හ. රණවිරුවන්ට විරුද්ධව ජාත්‍යන්තර පනත් සම්මත කරන කල්හි වැඩි බරක් නොයොදා නිහඩව සිටීම නිසා විශාල හානියක් අද සිදු වී තිබේ. දහනව වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන සිදු කරන අවස්ථාවේ දී සරත් වීරසේකර මහතා හැර අනෙක් සියළු දෙනම එයට පක්ෂව චන්දය භාවිතා කළහ. ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා තොරතුරු දැන ගැනීමේ පනත ආදී කරුණු වල සාධාරණත්වය උදෙසා මේ කැමැත්ත ප්‍රකාශ කළ බව ඒත්තු ගැන්විණ. එහෙත් ඒ එල්ලය පිට දමා 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාව විකෘති කරලීමට ගත් උත්සාහය පරාජය කිරීමට ඔවුන්ට නොහැකි විය. ජනමත විචාරණයකට ගොසින් කළ යුතු සංශෝධන පවා ඇති කරන්නට ගත් වෑයම සහ ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රෝඩාතන්ත්‍රවාදය අද වන විට කවුරුත් තේරුම්  ඇත.මේ අවස්ථාවේදී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය විශාල උගුලක පැටළුණ බව පැහැදිලිය . අද වන විට ව්‍යවස්ථා දායක සභාවේ තත්ත්වයත් පළාත් සභා සීමා නීරණ වල විකෘතියක්ද ඇති බව පැවසීමට ඔවුන්ට සිදුව තිබේ. අගමැති වරයා මුළු පාර්ලිමෙන්තුවම එක මිටට ගෙන නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් කෙටුම්පත් කිරීමට අර අදින කල්හි ඒ උගුලටද ඔවුන් අසුවුණ හැටි අපට හොඳ හැටි මතකය. මේ නිසා ඔවුන් කළ වැරදි බූමරංගයක් ලෙසට ඔවුන් කරා පැමිණීම ගැන පුදුමය පළ කළ යුතු නැත.

         ජනාධිපතිවරයා වර්තමාන අගමැතිවරයා ඉදිරියේ කළ සමස්ත ප්‍රකාශයේ හරය නම්  යහපාලන සංකල්ප අමු අමුවේ උල්ලංඝණය කරමින් හිතුවක් කාර ලෙසට කටයුතු කිරීමට අගමැති උත්සාහ කළ බවයි.. ඇතැම් විට ජනපතිවරයාගේ බලතලද භාවිතා කළ බව පැවසීම මුසාවක් නොවේ. එසේම මේ රටේ තිබෙන ශක්තිමත් සංස්කෘතික සම්ප්‍රදායන්ට පහර ගැසීමට චේතනාන්විතව කළ සියළු දේ ජනපතිවරයා හොඳින් දැන සිටි බව කතාවෙන් පැහැදිලි විය.එහෙත් ඔහු මෙම කතාවේ දී නොකියන්ට පරිස්සම් වූ එක කාරණයක් විය. එය නම් නව ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවසථාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කොට උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිරට ස්වයංපාලනයක් ලබා දීමට කරන ලද වෑයමයි. මෙම කාරණය පසුගිය වසර තුන පුරාවටම ලංකාවේ ජාතික බලවේග මගින් ජනතාව ඉදිරියේ සාකච්ඡාවට බඳුන් කළහ. එම ව්‍යවස්ථා යෝජනා  මහජන අදහස් වාර්තා අතුරු කමිටු වාර්තා සියල්ල විශාලේෂණයකළ ඔවුහු ඉතා පැහැදිලිව රට ඉදිරියේ ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියේ   විදේශ න්‍යාය පත්‍රයට සහ දෙමළ ඩයස්පෝරාවේ පදයට ආණ්ඩුව නටන බවයි. . දෙමළ ඩයම්පොරාව විසින් මුදුල් දී මිළට ගන්නා ලද මෙරට මන්ත්‍රී වරු නිළධාරීන් ගැන මේ කාලයේ දී හොඳින් හොළිදරව් විය.සිංගප්පූරුවට ගොසින් රෝ සංවිධානයෙන් මුදල් ගත ඇමැතිවරු ගැනද සවිස්තර වාර්තා තවමත් හොළිදරව් නොවී පවතී. මංගල සමරවීර මහතා විසින් සම එකඟතාවය දක්වා අත්සන් කළ ජිනීවා 30/1 යෝජනාව නිසා මෙරට රණ විරුවන්ට එරෙහිව යුධ අපරාධ ගොනු කිරීමට විශාල ඉඩකඩක් විවිර විය. රණ විරුවන් සිර ගත කෙරුණි. උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිර තිබෙන හමුදා කඳවුරු අනවශ්‍ය ආකාරයට ඉවත් කෙරුණි. පුරාවිද්‍යා සිද්ධස්ථාන ඩෝසර කෙරුණි. උතුර නැගෙනහිර ප්‍රදේශ වල අවතැන් වූ සිංහලයන්ට ඉඩම් නොලැබුණි. මේ සියළ කරුණු යහපාලන හෙඩ්මාස්ටර් නොදන්නවා නොවේ. ඔහු ඒවාට නියඬව සිටි බවද සියල්ල දැන ගත්තේ පත්තරෙන් බවටද ප්‍රකාශ වුණි.විජයකලා වැනි මන්ත්‍රීවරියන් හුරතල් කිරීම දක්වා මෙම නාඩගම දිග හැරුණි.එවැනි තත්ත්වයක් දක්වා යහපාලන සංහිඳියාව රෝල් වී ගියද මේ අතේ රෝල වර්තමාන අගමැතිවරයාට එල්ල කරන කාල බෝම්මබයක් බවට පත් කරන්නට ජනපතිවරයා උත්සාහ ගත් බව පෙනේ.

      වත්මන් අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ චේතනාන්විතවම සිංහල සංස්කෘතියට වෛරකරන්නෙකි. ඔහු දොන් ජුවන් කෙනෙකු බවට චම්පික ඇමතිවරයාගෙන්ම වරක් බෞතීස්ම ලැබූවෙකි. එසේම ඔහු ඔස්ලෝ සම්මුතිය පිළිගන්නෙකි. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් වැඩ කරන්නෙකි. ඔහු ජනතාවට එකක් කියා සංහිඳියාව උදෙසා වෙන දෙයක් කරන පුද්ගලයෙකු නොවේ. තානාපතිවරුන් විදේශ ඇමැති වරුන් ඔහු පසු පස්සේ පැමිණ ඔහුට අත දෙන්නේ පස්සෙන් සිටින්නේ බටහිරයන්ට අවශ්‍ය දේ ඔහු කරන බැවිනි. එහි විවාදයක් නැත. එහෙත් ජනපතිවරයා සිය සැර වදන් වලින් නොකියන දේ නම් මේ රට බෙදීම පිළිබඳ තිබෙන සැබෑ සත්‍යයයි. පසුගියදා ජාතික සංවිධාන කීපයක නියෝජිතයන් ඔහු හමු වීමට ගොස් ඇති අවස්ථාවේදී මෙම ප්‍රශ්ණය ඉස්මතු කරණු ලැබිණ. එහිදී ඔහු පවසා ඇත්තේ දෙමළ ජනතාවට යම් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් ඇති බැවින් යමක් ඔවුන්ට ලැබිය යුතු බවයි. එසේම පසුගිය කාලය පුරාවටම දෙමළ ජනතාවට සිංහලයන් ගේ හිරිහැර සිදු වූ බවද ඔහු පවසා තිබේ. මේවා අමූලික මුසාවන්ය. උතුර නැගනහිර සැබෑ ඉතිහාසය ගැන ඇති වූ සංවාදයට දැන් දශක තුනක් ගත්ව තිබේ. දෙමළ අභිලාශය ඊලාම් සංකල්ප පට්ට ගසා තිබේ. එසේ තිබියදීත් බොරු සංහිඳියාව වෙනුවෙන් දෙමළ අභිලාශ කතා කරන්නා වංචනිකයෙකි. මේ ප්‍රකාශ තුළ යම් දෙශපාලන අවශ්‍යතා තිබුණද ඒ මගින් ජාතික අභිලාශ දුර්වල කරණු නොහේ. එම නිසා අදට අවශ්‍යව තිබෙන්නේ ජාතික නායකයෙකු මිස දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයෙකු( හෙඩ් මාස්ටර් කෙනෙකු) නොවන බව ජනතාව ඉදිරියේ පසක් කළ යුතුය. . එම තත්ත්වය මත දේශපාලන හෙඩ්මාස්ටර් වරයෙකු වේවැල අතට ගෙන  කළ ප්‍රකාශය ගැන අප එතරම් උදම් ඇනිය යුතු නොවේ. සිංහලයා පරාජයට පත් වන්නේ උගුල් වලට වැටීමෙනි. එසේත් නැතිනම් නිදා වැටීමෙනි. ඉදිරියේදී හෙඩ් මාස්ටර් යටතේ තානාපති පාස්ටර් යම් තරමකින් දමනය වනු ඇත. එහෙත් නූතන අරිට්ට කී වෙණ්ඩු ගේ දෙමළ සන්ධානයත් රතු අලි පැටව් නාමධාරී ලිබරල් පැංචන් රැළත් දත් විලිස්සාගෙන උගුල් අදින්නට මාන බලමින් සිටින බව තේරුම් ගත යුතුය.එහිදී මාස්ටර් සහ පාස්ටර් ගේ අඩු තැන් මැනවින් වටහා ගෙන කටයුතු නොකළහොත් ජාතික බලවේග නැවතත් පරාජයට පත් වනවා නිසැකය..

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

චාල්ස්.එස් පෙරේරා විසින්.

දැන්  ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූන  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයටත්  ත්‍රස්තවාදයටත් වඩා විනාෂකාරී පක්ෂයක්.  මුන්ට දැන් ඉන්දියාවත් අධාරදෙනබව ආරන්චිවෙනවා.  මුන් ලේ උනුවුන තරුණ දේශපාලඥගයෝ  පිරිසක් ඔවූන්ට මුහුකුරාගිය දේශපාලන දැනුමක් නැ.  ඔවුන් හය  දෙනෙක් පාර්ලිමෙන්තුවෙ ඉදං කරන  විනාශය අතිමහත්. මෙවිධියට ගියොත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවක් හොයාගන්නවත් බැරිවෙයි.
 ලංකා සමසමාජ පක්ෂය  වැනි පෙර තිබුනු මාර්ක්ස්වාදී පක්ෂ මේ විදියට අන්තොනොමතික තේරුමක් නැති දේශපාලනයක් කලේ නැ. 

ප්‍රන්සයටත් අද වෙලා තියෙන්නේ මේ වැරැද්ද දේශපාලන අත්දැකීම්වලින් තොර මුහුකුරාගුය නුවනක් නැති හෙයින් අද ප්‍රන්සය අකර්මන්යවෙලා. කවරදාකවත් සිදුවුනුදෙයක් නොවේ.
 ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූන ත් මේ දේමයි ලංකාවට කරන්න හදන්නෙත්. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයයි දේමල සන්ධානයයි  මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලන පක්ෂයි ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූනයි එක්ව   ගෙන යන මේ රට බෙදා නැති කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියට විරුද්ධව හැම සිංහල බෞද්ධයෙක්ම නැගී සිටින්න අවශ්‍යයි.
මේවුන් ගෙනයන්නේ වයිරී දේශපාලනයක් මුන් කතාකරන කොට මුන්ගේ මුහුනුවල මනුස්සකමක් පේනවද? අනුර  විජිත හේරත් බිමල්  මජුබර් රහමන්  මරික්කාර් හෂීම්  මුන් රටේ සංස්කෘතියට බෞද්ධකමට සින්හලකමට විරුද්ධ  එවුන්.

දෙමල සන්ධානයේ සුමන්දිරන් එක්ක පෙළපාලි යන ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූනේ  මුන් පහුගිය දවස්වල විශ්වාෂ භංග යෝජනාවක් ගෙනල්ල කල විගඩම දැක්කාද. කවුද මේවා අනුමතකරන්නේ ?  මුන් නිසා අද රටේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර වාදය අක්රියවෙලා.  ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය චන්ද බලය ලැබෙන්නේ නැ,  ඒ ගැන ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූනේ උන්ට උවමනාවක් නැ. අවශ්‍ය නැති පෙඩරල් ව්‍යවස්ථාව ගැන මුන් කතා කරනවාද?
අද එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය ඔවුන්ගේ විදේශ බලවේගත් එක්ක කරන කුමන්ත්‍රණයෙන් ගෙන යනවා  ලංකාවේ හැම අංශයක්ම ක්‍රියා විරහිත වෙලා. ප්‍රජාතන්තවාදය වල දාල,  විනිශ්චයකාරයන් ඇතුළු අධිකරණය   බලවත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධී බලවේගයක් වශයෙන් මතුවෙලා.

 අධිකරණයෙ ආඥා දායකත්වයක් ඉස්මතුවෙලා තියෙනවා (judicial dictatorship). මෙකටවිරුද්ධව නැගී හිටින්න පුළුවන් විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකුට පමණයි . ඒකත් මේ ජනතා වීමුක්ති පෙරමූනේ මළ හැත්ත 20 වන සංශෝධනයක් ගෙනත්  උන්ගේ  විනාශකාරී ප්‍රජාතන්ත වාදයට විරුද්ධ  ක්‍රියා පරිපාටිය ගෙනියනවා.

 20 වන සංශෝධනයක්  කියල එකක් විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමය නැති කරන්න  ගෙන්න හදනවා. මේක හොඳට  බලන් ඉඳල පාරලිමේන්තුවේ ඉදිරිපත්කරන්න ඉඩ තියන්නනම් එපා.  මේක ඉන්දියාවේ අවෂ්‍ය තාවයක් සඳහා ගෙන යන කුමන්ත්‍රණයක්.

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The whole purpose of making it virtually impossible to dissolve Parliament until the lapse of a period of four and a half years was a knee-jerk reaction to the dissolution of Parliament in 2004 by Chandrika Kumaratunga, who sent the UNP into the political wilderness for over a decade. While the recent Supreme Court decision shows that the UNP has succeeded in achieving its objective, the wisdom of what it did through the 19th Amendment needs to be called into question. What is surprising is that there would be so-called ‘constitutional experts’ who would seek to insert such an ill-thought out provision into the Constitution without giving any thought to the practical aspects of running a government.

Under the present provisions of the Constitution, as confirmed recently by the Supreme Court, Parliament cannot under any circumstances be dissolved before the lapse of four and a half years. Article 48(2) of the Constitution after the 19th Amendment states that if Parliament rejects the Statement of Government Policy or the Appropriation Bill or passes a vote of no-confidence in the Government, the Cabinet of Ministers shall stand dissolved, and the President shall, appoint a new Prime Minister, and a new Cabinet. Those who introduced this provision to the Constitution for some reason do not seem to have realised that contrary to the objectives of the 19th Amendment which was ostensibly brought to reduce the powers of the executive presidency, what has now happened is that the executive president has now been strengthened immeasurably and he has been vested with powers that J. R. Jayewardene never even thought of.

Under the provisions of the present law, the executive president can give a portfolio to any one of the 225 Members of Parliament. In the event an incumbent government loses the vote on the budget, the vote on the statement of government policy or loses a vote of no confidence, that means that the group that earlier had the majority in Parliament, no longer has that majority to be able to run the country. In such a situation, more often than not, there will not be any single group that can command a majority in Parliament. Under such circumstances, before the introduction of the 19th Amendment, Parliament would have been dissolved and the people given the opportunity to elect a new government. However in circumstances where Parliament cannot be dissolved, the responsibility for forming a new government will fall entirely on the shoulders of the President. He will have no option but to take a few MPs from one party, a few more from another party and somehow cobble together a majority even if he has to appoint all 113 MPs needed to maintain a bare majority as Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

The telling off of the century

The only reason why President Sirisena has not had to do that in the present instance is that the UNP government has got the backing of the TNA to be able to have a majority in Parliament and in any case, the UNP government that was in power before October 26th did not lose a vote on the budget, a vote on the statement of government policy or a vote of no-confidence motion. So, in this instance, the UNP has a majority in Parliament and that majority was able to prevail upon the President to appoint as Prime Minister the person they wanted appointed to that job. President Sirisena has now done that. But to think that they have brought the President under their control would be a bad mistake.

Last Sunday, President Sirisena appointed Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister, then got all of the UNP stalwarts who had come to witness the swearing in, seated around a table and proceeded to give them the kind of telling off that no Prime Minister has ever had to stomach immediately after being sworn in.

The video of that telling off went viral on the internet and that was the first taste that the UNP got of what life was going to be like under a hostile President. There will be worse to follow. Under the provisions of the 19th Amendment, the President can only if he sees fit, consult the Prime Minister, in determining the number of Ministers and the assignment of subjects and functions to such Ministers. Even though the President is mandatorily required to consult the Prime Minister in appointing MPs as Ministers, the President may at any time change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Furthermore, according to the provisions of the 19th Amendment the President is not only the head of the state and the executive, but also the head of the government and the head of the Cabinet as well. Thus, whether we like it or not, he will be compelled to shape the government according to his wishes. The reason why that parting of ways of October 26 took place was because the President had not sought to assert himself earlier. He watched the doings of the UNP as a passive partner in the government and over a period of time resentment built up. There were periodic outbursts as when he instituted a Commission of Inquiry to probe the Central Bank bond scam and disbanded the UNP’s economic affairs committee but his role and the role of the large number of UPFA Parliamentarians that he had within the government was mostly passive at least as far as policy making was concerned.

Remember what happened to Justice K. Sripavan?

If the president had actually been driving policy as his titles of head of state, head of the executive, head of the government and head of the Cabinet would suggest, there would have been no break up on October 26. This time, because the President has had to reappoint Wickremesinghe under protest, and the two will be compelled under the Constitution to continue together for at least one year and three months, the President will have to do whatever is necessary to browbeat, whip or flog that government into the shape he desires. The President is the head of the Cabinet and the head of the government. Therefore anything that the UNP does will also be his responsibility. Between 9 January 2015 and 26 October 2018, the people of this country did hold President Sirisena to be responsible for everything that was happening in the country.

Even though President Sirisena tried to distance himself from the doings of the UNP led government during the Feb. 10 local government elections, the people did not accept the President’s platform rhetoric. Now once again, if he plays a passive role in government letting the UNP do just as they please while he retains the titles of head of government and head of Cabinet, that will be the end of his political career. Thus, the exigencies of politics will compel him to stamp his imprimateur on the government that he is now in the process of forming with the UNP. Even after the President broke up with the UNP on 26 October and then lashed out at the UNP, many speakers of the UNP began saying that the President cannot escape blame for all that happened after 9 January 2015, because he too was part of the government and the Cabinet which makes collective decisions.

It must also be remembered that some time ago, the former Chief Justice K. Sripavan was given the impression by the then President of the Bar Association Geoffrey Alagaratnam that the Bar Association was recommending the appointment of a member of the private bar one R. Kannan as a High Court judge. When Kannan was appointed as a High Court judge there was an outcry against it from the career judges at the District Judge level who were waiting promotion. At that point the BASL issued a letter saying that no decision had been made by the BASL that Kannan should be appointed as a High Court Judge and it turned out that the president of the BASL had been canvassing for Kannan in his private capacity. What had happened in fact was that Alagaratnam had misled the Chief Justice and the members of the Judicial Services Commission.

By that time Kannan had already been appointed as a judge. Later, instead of apologizing to Justice Sripavan for having led him up the garden path, Alagaratnam had the temerity to say that the former Chief Justice should have exercised ‘due diligence’ in appointing Kannan as HC Judge. That is to say that if the CJ had been taken for a ride, the CJ was at fault. That was yahapalana morality at its best. Most normal, non-yahapalana types would think that the Chief Justice of the country should be able to have implicit faith in the President of the Bar Association and to accept his word without further scrutiny. These are the types that President Sirisena now has to contend with. So if he does not want to become another Sripavan, President Sirisena will have to whip the UNP government (both figuratively and literally) into a shape that is acceptable to him as the head of the government and the head of the Cabinet.

So Sri Lanka!

If President Sirisena does not do that, he will have only himself to blame when he has to share the responsibility for what happens in the country in the next one year and three months. The mighty harangue that President Sirisena started his new journey last Sunday shows that he is in fact acutely aware of this unwanted and unsought responsibility that has been thrust upon him by the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court. The President has now been burdened with not only having to tolerate and coexist with a political party and individuals that he detests but even to function as their leader and to take collective responsibility for their doings! At least in this case, he was lucky to some extent because there was a readymade majority which he could appoint as a government and he did not have to exert himself to cobble together a majority to form a government.

However, if President Sirisena had found himself in a situation like that which President Chandrika Kumaratunga found herself, in 2001, he would have had to offer various inducements to reluctant MPs to join his government because the Constitution placed the responsibility of forming new governments and continuing until it was possible to dissolve Parliament on his shoulders. This writer has been saying, since the time this controversy broke out, that the power of dissolution is an integral part of the parliamentary system and that no Parliamentary form of government can be expected to run successfully without being able to dissolve parliament when the Parliamentary government can no longer command a majority.

However, the drafters of the 19th Amendment seem to have thought that the way to prevent a hostile President from dissolving parliament on a whim was to turn the MPs who aspire to form a government into prisoners of that same President. As former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has pointed out in his speech on 2 December, there is no legislature in the world with the sole exception of Norway which cannot be dissolved even if the incumbent government loses a vote on the budget, the vote on the statement of government policy or a no-confidence motion. Over the next one year and three months, the UNP and all of us Sri Lankans are going to learn the hard way why the power of dissolution was always an integral part of the Parliamentary tradition.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has not been stripped of his membership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) though he obtained Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) membership recently, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) said yesterday.

Addressing a press briefing, PHU leader Udaya Gammanpila said there was speculation that Mr. Rajapaksa could not be given leadership in the opposition as he held SLPP membership.

According to sources, we got to know that Mr. Rajapaksa has received SLPP membership. However, it is MP Basil Rajapaksa who knows whether or not Mahinda Rajapaksa was given SLPP membership. MR has neither been expelled from the SLFP nor from the SLFP advisory post. Hence, he is eligible to hold the opposition leader’s post,” Gammanpila said. 

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriiwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed the UNF parliamentary group that the Cabinet will have to be limited to 30 ministers and that some will have to voluntarily give up aspirations of holding posts.

This was mentioned by MP Mano Ganesan on his twitter message. “Myself and Rishard Bathiudeen will stay out of the cabinet if Mr. Wickremesinghe so wished,” he said.

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) today countered the argument raised by the government and TNA that newly-appointed Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajappaksa and the others who had obtained SLPP membership, said Mr. Rajapaksa could hold the post because the group he belongs to is the second largest in the House.

UPFA MP Susil Premajayantha said the UPFA which is the largest group in the opposition is eligible to hold the opposition leader’s Post.

There are six parties in the House and UPFA which is one of them holds the most number of seats in the opposition. Therefore the Speaker is right to have named Mr. Rajapaksa as the Leader of the Opposition,” he said.

UPFA MP Dinesh Gunawardene said the Speaker cannot change the decision he had made now as he had conveyed his decision to the international community including the International Parliamentary Union (IPU).

He asked the Speaker whether General Secretaries of the UPFA and the SLFP had informed him about any decision to take action against these who had obtained SLPP membership.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Maithripala Sirisena has said that if anyone goes beyond the decision of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), they will not be given any ministerial posts, according to MP Shantha Bandara.

MP Bandara stated that the SLFP Central Committee also agreed with this.

He stated this following the SLFP Central Committee meeting held earlier today (18).

Bandara stated that the President took the decision considering the request of the majority of SLFP parliamentarians.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Current political crisis in Sri Lanka clearly indicates that although Sinhala community is the majority citizens in Sri Lanka, minority groups are playing politics with them in the parliament. Although the Sinhala community is the majority of Population (Nearly 80%), they cannot discriminate the minority, who have equal human rights. The operation of politics in Sri Lanka through a democratic parliament has not made justice to minority through a strong anti-discrimination legislation with a view to ensuring human rights of them like in other countries.  The purpose of Yahapalana government was to pass essential laws to eliminate discrimination to enable the minority to practice equal human rights, it was not happened during more than three and a half years of the yahapalana regime.

As soon as the Yahapalana government elected in 2015, they submitted a bill to the parliament to legislate anti-discrimination practice in the country, the bill was withdrawn by the government without explaining the reasons to public. Many academics told me that the withdrawal of anti-discrimination bill was happened as Tamil parties wanted to do it because they will have no opportunities to discriminate their own people using caste dictions with the operation of anti-discrimination legislation.  Why UNP the majority in the Yahapalan regime agreed with minority parties in the country when the universal human rights were going to legalise for minority practice? Could UNP Justify their behaviour?

If this was openly happening in the country, so-called democratic advisors of the country as well as outside forces remained silent. The civil society activists were silent on this matter.  It clearly seems that democratic advice and practice are cheating in the country than really respecting to the human rights.  All religions practice in Sri Lanka recognize the equality of human and the requirement of human rights in the country. Playing politics using minority and respecting human rights are different matters.  Lord Buddha clearly preached that nobody will be a noble person or lower caste person by birth, but actions of people would be the criterion determine to it.

The real experience in Sri Lanka clearly indicates that minority political parties in Sri Lanka want to play politics for individual survival, specially to obtain various benefits through parliament privileges, but not to ensure the hopes of elected people of them to the parliament.

The majority citizens or Sinhala community needs understanding that they cannot discriminate minority who have equal rights like them.  If this matter openly works in Sri Lanka there wouldn’t be an opportunity to outsiders to put hands on the matters of Sri Lanka and then it will be honest politics in the country based on economic issues and matters such as corruptions to be eliminated.

One of the serious matters I observed in minority politics was that they never openly talk on major corruptions such as Central Bank Bond scam and others as minority people also involved in serious wrong doing.  As human being majority as well, minority cannot do wrong things, it doesn’t mean that because of the wrong doer is a person belong to minority community, he or she should be free.  As a human being a person belong to a majority community or minority community the wrong doer is equally responsible for the criminal works.

According to my experience in Sri Lanka, I worked in a major government bank in managerial level and conducted audit work with the World Banking consulting group and found that minority people involved in serious corruption work, which led to nearly insolvent the bank and the government had to recapitalize the bank making a serious pressure to the government budget process. The people involved in this corrupt practice were same people involved in Central Bank bond scam.

ගීතාංජන

ජනාධිපතිතුමා එජාප ප්‍රධානීන් අමතා  කල කතාව නැරඹුවෙමි. එවැනි ත්‍රිලක් මට ලබන්නට හැකි වුයේ හුඟ කලෙකිනි.

එම කතාව ඇසූ විට මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපති තුමා කෙරෙහි මාතුල මෙතෙක් නොතිබූ ගරුත්වයක් ඇති විය. සැබවින්ම එය අතිශය  ධෛර්‍යය  සම්පන්න කතාවකි. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා දිව විකාගෙන ඉතා අපහසුවෙන් මෙන්, Mr. Bean ගේ මූණ දාගෙන එම සම්පුර්ණ කතාව  අසා ගෙන සිටි බව පෙනිණි. මා පසුවූයේ රනිල් මහතා දැන් නැගිට එතනින්  යයිද, දැන් නැගිට යයිද කියා විමසිල්ලෙනි. එතැන සිටි අය  අතර පහසුවෙන් සිටිබවක් පෙනුනේ සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා සහ නවීන් දිසානායක මහතා ය. අන් අය  ආපු එක මෝඩකමක් ලෙස සිතමින්දෝ එහෙට ඇඹරෙමින් මෙහෙට ඇඹරෙමින් කරකියාගත හැකි දෙයක් නොමැතිව කසාය බිව් ගොළුවන් සේ අසරණව සිටියහ.

මෙය ඓතිහාසික වශයෙන් වැදගත් කතාවක් වන්නේ, ජනමාද්‍යය ඉදිරිපිට මෙවන් දෘඪ විවේචනයක් වෙනත් කිසිම ජනාධිපති කෙනෙකු විසින් මීට පෙර කිසිදාක කර නැති නිසාවෙනි. රනිල්වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාද මෙවැනි විවේචනයක් කිසිදාක මෙවැනි ආකාරයෙන් විඳ දරාගෙන නැතුවාට කිසිදු සැකයක් නොමැත. එමෙන්ම, මෙයින් හෙළිවන අනෙක් කරුණ නම්, යලි පිහිටුවන ලද එජාප රජය මලගිය පරානයක්සේ කිසිවක් කරගත නොහැකි රජයක්වන බවට අනාවැකියක්ද මෙයින්ප්‍රකාශ වීමය. අනෙක්  කරුණ නම් ජධිපති සහ අගමැතිට එකට වැඩ කල නොහැකි බව ජනාධිපති විසින් නැවතත් ඉතා අවධාරණයෙන් පැහැදිලිව ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමය. ඔවුන්අතර ඇති බව ජනාධිපති ප්‍රකාශ කල විභේදනය තවමත් එසේම පවතින බවට ඔහු නැවතත් අවධාරණය කළේය.

මෙහිදී ජනාධිපති තුමා විසින් එලිදක්වන ලද එක කරුණක්වූ තමාට එල්ල කරන ලද මරණ තර්ජනය පිළිබඳව, එනම් ගඩාෆිව මෙන් මරාදමනවා යයි තර්ජනය කිරීම පිළිබඳව කිව යුත්තේ මෙයයි. වෙනත් රටකදී එවැනි ඝාතන තර්ජනයක් යම් පුද්ගලයෙ එම රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා වෙතඑල්ල කළහොත් අදාළ ආයතන විසින් එවන් අය නීතිය ඉදිරියට පමුණුවා දඬුවම් දෙන බවය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේදී එවන් ප්‍රතිපල අත් නොවන්නේ මන්ද යන්න ප්‍රෙහෙලිකාවකි.

එම ඝාතන තර්ජනයට ප්‍රතිචාර වශයෙන් ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන මහතා කීවේ ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම අපට අදහා ගතනොහැකි, අප කිසිසේත්ම නොසිතූදෙයකි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මෙතෙක් පාලනය කල කිසිදු රාජ්‍ය නායකයෙකුට එල්ල  නොකළ මෙම තර්ජනය නොබියව NGO මැරයින් සහ UNP ආණ්ඩුව තුල සිටින මිනීමරුරැල විසින් ඔහුට එල්ල කලේ සැබවින්ම ඔවුනට තමාව මරා දැමීමට හැකි  කම තිබෙන නිසා යයි ඔහුකීවේය.

මෙයින් හෙළිවන කරුණ නම්, ඉතාම නීච සහ දෘඪ පන්තිභේදයකට නතුවී තිබෙන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික සමාජ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය තුල, සිරිසේන මහතාට කොළඹ පාලක පන්තියයයි කියාගන්න පක්ෂයේ ආරක්ෂාවක් නොමැති බව ඔහු තේරුම්ගෙන තිබෙන බවය. එමෙන්ම සියලු දේශපාලන ඝාතන වලට අවශ්‍ය විශේෂඥභාවය තිබෙන්නේ, බණ්ඩාරනායක පවා ඝාතනය කල  කොළඹුන්ගේ මිනීමරු පන්තියට බවත්, අනෙක් විශේෂඥභාවය ඇති කණ්ඩායම් දෙකවන ජවිපෙ හා LTTE එකද අද කොළඹුන්ගේ මිනීමරු පන්තියේ, එනම් එජාපයේ ඔඩොක්කුවේ සිටින නිසා ඔහුට ඒ තර්ජනය තදින්ම ඇති බවත් ඔහු හොඳින් වටහාගෙන තිබෙන බවය. කෙසේවුවද ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන මහතා වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ මුහුණටම තම විවේචනය එල්ල කරන්නේ මෙම යතාර්ථය දැන දැනය. එය ගරු කලයුතු ධෛර්‍යය සම්පන්නකතාවක් වන්නේ එනිසාය. ජනාධිපති තුමාගේ එම කතාවේ කිසියම්අධිෂ්ඨාන පුර්වක බවෙක පෙර නිමිත්තක් අපට පෙනිණි.

සිරිසේන මහතා පැමිණෙන්නේ ගැමි පදනමකිනි. ඔහු ඉතාම සාමාන්‍ය මිනිසෙකු බව කිහිප වතාවක්ම ඔහුගේ කතාවලින් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. මෙවර ඔහුගේ කතාවෙන් ඔහු තමා පන්තිමය වශයෙන් අනාරික්ෂිත තත්වයක සිටින බව අවධාරණය කොට රටට  ප්‍රකාශකිරීම සැබවින්ම ජනතාවගේ හදවතට කල ප්‍රබල  ආමන්ත්‍රණයක් බව මට හැඟී  යැමට හේතු වුයේ, මෙතෙක් කල් සිරිසේන මහතාට පතුරු යනකල් බැණ බැණ සිටි මගේ බිරිඳ එක වරම මේකතාව අසා අනේ පව් නේද   කියා මගෙන් ඇසීමනිසාය.

අනතුරුව NGO සමාජයවිවේචනය කල ජනාධිපති තුමාරටේ සංස්කෘතියට විරුද්ධව ක්‍රියා කිරීම ගැන දැඩි සේ විවේචනය එල්ල කළේය. හමුදාවට සහ සංඝ සමාජයටකල හිරිහැර හෙලා දැක්කේය. මෙම සමස්ත කතාව දුටු මට සිතුනේ ඉදරි කාලයතුල හොඳ හොඳ දේවල් අපට බලාගත හැකි වන බවය.

Shenali Waduge‎ to Saving Sri Lanka

Who are these jokers drafting a new constitution that is NOT FEDERAL BUT CONFEDERAL where the Centre is basically PERMANENTLY ceding powers to the provinces.

What kind of sick arrangement is this … all to satisfy some murderers who killed for 30 years & now putting their political wing to finally separate the country… just how dare the UNP even think of putting forward a constitution of this nature…

Courtesy BBC

Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a motion of no confidence in Theresa May, after she said MPs would not vote on her Brexit deal until the week of 14 January.

The PM had delayed the vote from last week, admitting she was set to lose.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn said on Monday it was unacceptable for MPs to wait a month to vote, adding the PM had led the UK into a “national crisis”.

But No 10 sources told the BBC the government would not make time for the no-confidence vote.

Ministers would not “go along with silly political games”, they added.

Mr Corbyn tabled the motion calling on MPs to declare they have “no confidence in the prime minister due to her failure to allow the House of Commons to have a meaningful vote straight away” on the Brexit deal.

The motion focuses on Mrs May personally, rather than the government.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the motion could have been embarrassing for Mrs May, but as things stood, ministers would not allow time for it to be debated.

She said No 10 had effectively “batted the ball back to Labour to see if they have the guts” to call for a vote of no confidence in the government as a whole.

This is the right opposite of what has happened in Sri Lanka where speaker has taken a unilateral decision to debate it and take a vote on it within a period of few minutes.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia