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එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය විසින් අද දිනයේ කොලඹ ගාළු මුවදොරදී ‘යුක්තියේ ජයග්රහණය’ ජනරැළිය පවත්වන ලදී.
විශාල ජන සහභාගීත්වයකින් යුතුව පවත්වන ලද එම ජනරැළියේ ගුවන් ඡයාරූප හෝ වීඩියෝ දර්ශණ සොයා ගැනීම ඉතා අපහසු තත්වයේ පවතී.
මේ වන විට සමාජ ජලායන්හි පලව ඇති පින්තූර හා වීඩියෝ දර්ශණ පිහිලයක් මෙහි දැක්වෙයි.
එජාප කථිකයන් කියා සිටියේ අද දිනයේ ගාළු මුවදොරට ලක්ෂ ගණනක ජනකායක් පැමිණි බවය.
Most of the UNPers had insisted that the new Cabinet should be confined to 30 Ministers, UNP MP Eran Wickrmaratne said yesterday.
Mr Wickramaratne told journalists that many UNPers had insisted that new Cabinet should be confined only to 30 members to be in line with the wish of the people, that corruption and wastage of the Government should be stopped.
Referring to a document that is being circulated in social media claiming it to be a list of Cabinet Members, Mr Wickramaratne said many had prepared lists claiming them to be the new Cabinet.
A new Cabinet would be appointed within the next 48 hours,” he said yesterday.
Asked whether any SLFPers would be accommodated in the Cabinet, he said discussions were under way with some SLFPers but UNP had insisted that those who participated in the Constitutional coup should not be given Ministerial portfolios.
He said that talks were underway to bring in a Vote on Account (VoA) in a few days’ time so that economic stability would be restored.
Referring to a question as to how President Maithripala Sirisena appointed UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister after stating that he would not appoint Mr Wickremesinghe even if all 225 members of Parliament told him to do so, the UNP MP said President Sirisena had later decided to abide with the country’s Constitution.
Mr Wickramaratne, who responded to a question as to whether it had been computed that country had lost Rs. 22 billion as a result of the political uncertainty, he said that losses were incurred as a result of the interest rate hike.
Former SLFP Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara today said the President had requested the 21 SLFP Parliamentarians to sit in the opposition bench when they attend the parliament session.
He said the President had made this request from all SLFP MPs during a meeting with the President last evening.
Meanwhile, Parliamentarian Nishantha Muthuhettigama said that they had decided to carry out the task of opposition MPs in Parliament without accepting any Ministerial posts.
“MPs have decided to not to extend their support to the present UNF Government”, he said.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror MP Chandima Weerakkody said none of the SLFP MPs would join the UNF government whose prime aim is to destroy the country.
He said none of the MPs except MPs Piyasena Gamage, A. H. M. Fowzie and Manusha Nanayakkara would join the UNF.
No one would join the UNF government following the remarks made by the President during his address to the SLFP MPs, MP Weerakkody said.
The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion – Frederick Douglass -American Author
Around two centuries ago our ancestors launched a heroic struggle against the mighty British Empire in an uprising in order to gain freedom from British colonial rule. Reminiscences of that struggle still haunt the minds of patriotic Sri Lankans. As quoted by J.B. Muller in his dissertation ‘Anglophiles, Eurocentric Arrogance and Reality’ –The Island 5 November, 2010 Samuel P. Huntington had stated quite correctly: ‘The West won the world not by superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organised violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.’ The British who have now assumed the role of great human rights defender along with United States supported by the United Nations Human Rights Commission accusing Sri Lanka of alleged human rights abuses during last stages of ethnic conflict when the LTTE was vanquished by heroic Sri Lankan armed forces, conveniently forget, great human rights abuses committed by them in the colonies that they were administering.
Sometime ago there were media reports that British parliamentarians have called on their government to boycott that year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka due to alleged human rights violations. To remind the British of their past actions in Sri Lanka consider what J.B. Muller states in the dissertation quoted at the outset referring to the General Order issued in 1818 during the British Colonial Rule in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to put down the rebellion in Uva-Vellassa as follows: Kill every man, woman and child including the babes suckling at their mother’s breast. Destroy all dwelling houses. Burn all crops. Cut down all fruit trees. Slaughter all cattle; take what meat is necessary to feed the troops and burn the rest. Destroy all reservoirs, canals and channels.
Poison the wells. Lay waste utterly the countryside denying any relief whatsoever to the rebels.” Muller further states: This order was carried out, laying waste Uva and Vellassa, a destruction from which it is yet to fully recover.” British writers commented that every tree from Ratnapura to Badulla was devastated; there were hung bodies of rotting human beings that gave off a revolting stench. The word ‘genocide’ was coined in the 1940’s meaning the wiping out of a people, but if this wasn’t genocide then, what is?” This is the manner in which the British who have now become human rights crusaders against Sri Lanka dealt with a rebellion by the Ceylonese people at that time.
The British should first establish a Committee of Inquiry to investigate their own vicious scorched earth policy they used to put down rebellions in the colonies in the British Commonwealth and human rights violations committed by the British troops under the General Order given in 1818 and historical evidence available on the devastation they caused in 1818 (200 years ago) in Uva Wellassa during the rebellion. Wellassa (Wellakshaya in Sinhala) was composed of hundred thousand paddy fields yielding a substantial crop, which has not yet recovered from the scorched earth policy of the British. If the proponents of the Channel 4 video were present at that time they could have recorded horrific scenes of babes suckling at their mother’s breast being snatched by British soldiers and their throats being slit in the presence of their wailing mothers, who were then shot.
Setting fire to acres and acres of golden paddy fields resplendent with crops resulting in the wanton destruction of the fruits of hard labour of the poor Sri Lankan farmers all of whom were killed then would have met the eyes of the Channel 4 team. The strategy of destroying the food supply of the civilian population in an area of conflict has been banned under Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The British invaded this peaceful little island, known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean and robbed it of all its wealth in the form of tea, rubber, coconuts and coffee. They improved the infrastructure in the form of roads, railways and so forth, not for the love of the local population but to improve the economy for their own benefit.
In conclusion, the Sri Lankan Government should establish a Commission of Inquiry into the human rights violations and economic devastation caused in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, during British Colonial Rule and based upon findings of such an inquiry call upon the Government of the United Kingdom to pay suitable compensation for those atrocities committed by the British during their rule. The British, with their dubious history on protection of human rights should leave other Sovereign Nations in the World to find their own solutions to any human rights violations in their lands.
(The writer is an Attorney-at-Law with LLB, LLM, MPhil.(Colombo)keerthisinghel@yahoo.co.uk)
Last week’s political developments revealed the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome of two leading minor parties in the country, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). These two parties have mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
After extending support to Ranil Wickremesinghe, to show that he commands majority in Parliament, the TNA has forfeited its claim to be a party in the Opposition. Thus, TNA Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan can no longer claim to hold the post of Opposition Leader. All the TNA MPs, barring Shivashakthi Anandan, who abstained, voted for Wickremesinghe, backing a UNP-sponsored Motion of Confidence.
After August 2015 General Elections, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya appointed Sampanthan as Opposition Leader, although the TNA only had 16 MPs in the House. The claim of a 50-strong Joint Opposition was ignored, because JO MPs were recognized as members of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), and the remaining 45 MPs were with the Government.
When its membership increased to 70, with several other UPFA members crossing over to the JO, it had staked claims again to be the main opposition. The JO also argued that the TNA was purely a regional party, which only represented the Tamil community, and it could in no way be representative of the national electorate as a whole. These arguments were not taken into consideration, as the UPFA was considered to be a major partner in the Government, despite a vast majority of members sitting in the Opposition.
According to the Speaker’s logic, if the UPFA leaves the Government, there is no reason whatsoever not to recognize the UPFA as the largest party in the Opposition.
The TNA is using the current political developments to its advantage, with its dual principle of supporting Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNF, while keeping the position of Opposition Leader within the party. The TNA is aware that there is no possibility for the party to be the main opposition, when there are almost two equally balanced national parties in the forefront. In 1977, Appapillai Amirthalingam became the first Tamil Opposition Leader, because the SLFP was wiped out in an election held under the first-past-the-post system. Now, with the proportional representation system, it is impossible to wipe out one of the national parties in an election.
JVP’s deviation
The JVP too has deviated from the position of anti-capitalist (read) anti-UNP, and became the most trusted supporter of Ranil Wickremesinghe.
While voting with the UNP in all the No-Confidence Motions against the Government, the JVP suddenly found that the party cadres, especially the young radicals were not happy about the pro-UNP stance of the Marxist party. As there is a good possibility of JVP cadres crossing over to the more radical Forward Party (Peratugami), the JVP now wants to attack the UNP too, at least in public.
JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake decided to attack the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament for the ills of the country. This came within days of extending fullest support to the UNP at Parliamentary No-Confidence Motions.
In a sudden change of heart, Dissanayake claimed that his party did not care who the Prime Minister was, but was troubled about the unconstitutional method used to get rid of Wickremesinghe and appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Prime Minister post will be held by a person from either of the main camps, the UNP or the UPFA. Whoever that person would be, we are sure that person cannot do much for the betterment of this country,” the JVP Leader said.
Without giving a chance to explain the policies of the new Prime Minister, the JVP Leader jumped to the conclusion that this person will not be able to come up with a new plan to initiate a good political culture, or a good economic policy for this country. We do not have faith in any person from either side.”
The position of Opposition Leader is not the only issue to be solved. It is the duty of everybody to think of the country, and the people, and find an amicable settlement to the current political crisis. In this connection, the Organization of Professional Associations (OPA) has taken an initiative. It has appealed to the warring parties to bury the hatchet and spare a thought for the people. Issuing a statement, it has prevailed on all political parties and politicians, legislators, and the Executive the need to uphold the spirit of democracy. Pointing out the ongoing political impasse between the Legislature and the Executive, it urged all parties to the current crisis to resolve their differences through consensus, without resorting to violence.
The OPA views with deep concern, the effects this impasse has on the economy, and urges that the socio-economic fabric of society is not irreparably damaged.
Ending impasse
One of the main requirements to end this impasse is to hold an election, either Provincial Council elections or a national referendum, so that the people would indicate the general lines of electoral trends, as it is not easy to gauge the exact political balance of forces. It is not yet clear whether the electorate will opt for an overwhelming shift in favour of Rajapaksa. An election will indicate a clear political picture. Most preferable would be a general election, but the issue cannot be revived because of the Supreme Court verdict that the Parliament cannot be dissolved until completion of four and a half years, or if such a request is supported by two-thirds of MPs, which is highly unlikely. The democratic people of Sri Lanka hope that the UNP and JVP will not change their minds about supporting a parliamentary motion on dissolution of Parliament, and conducting general elections. Unless the MPs decide in favour of an election, the political crisis is likely to continue until the end of the five-year term in August/September 2020, or at least until completion of four and a half years in April 2020, when the President can dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections.
රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති ලෙස දිවරුම් දීමෙන් පසු ජනාධිපති මෛත්රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඔවුන් ඉදිරියේදී දැඩි විවේචනාත්මක අදහස් දැක්වීමක් සිදු කලේය.
පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 225ම පක්ෂ වුවත් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති නොකරන බවට තමන් විසින් කරන ලද මුල් ප්රකාශයේ තව දුරටත් සිටින බවත් එය තම පුද්ගලික අදහස වුවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්රදායට හා ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයට ගරු කරමින් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති ලෙස පත් කල බවද ජනාධිපතිවරයා එහිදී සදහන් කලේය.
මහ බැංකු බැදුම්කර වංචාව ගැනද දැඩි දොස් පැවරීමක් ජනාධීපතිවරයා විසින් සිදු කලේ නව අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු එජාප නියෝජිතයන් ඉදිරියේදීමය.
ජනාධිපති මෛත්රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් සිදු කරන ලද සම්පූර්ණ අදහස් පල කිරීම මෙසේය.
2015 ජනවාරි 08 වනදා ජනාධිපතිවරණය, එම අභියෝගාත්මක මැතිවරණ ව්යාපාරය තුළ ලැබු විශිෂ්ට ජනතා ජයග්රහණය. ඒ ජයග්රහණය තුළ රටේ ජනතාව බලාපොරොත්තු වූ ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණු හා ප්රාර්ථනාවන් සහ සිතුම් පැතුම් රාශියක් තිබුණා.
වසර හතරකට ආසන්න කාලයක් ඉක්ම යමින් තිබෙන මේ අවස්ථාවේ ප්රධාන වශයෙන්ම පසුගිය කාලය තුළ අපි රජයක් විදියට ලබාගත් ජයග්රහණ හා කරපු ඉතිහාසයට එක්වන හොද වැඩ කොටස් රාශියක් තිබෙනවා වගේම ඉතාමත් අවැඩදායක වූ, අසුභ වූත් අවිචාර වූත් සිදුවීම් රාශියක් සිද්ධ වුණා. මෙතනදී මූලික වශයෙන්ම ඒ ප්රාර්ථනාවන් ඉෂ්ට කිරීම පිළිබදව අපි සතුටුවෙනවා වගේම රටේ ජනතාව සමග අපිට එකතු වෙන්න වෙනවා අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වූ තැනට රට අපට ගෙනියන්න නොලැබීම පිලිබඳව. ඒ තත්ත්වය ඉදිරියට මම දන්නේ නැහැ කොතෙක් දුරට සාර්ථකව ඉෂ්ට කර ගන්න පුළුවන් වෙයි ද කියලා.
2015 ජයග්රහණයෙන් පස්සේ අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලය තෝරන අවස්ථාවේ ඉදලම මම ඔබට ප්රකාශ කර ඇති පරිදි අපේ මැතිවරණ ප්රකාශයේ ප්රතිඥාවන් කඩවුණා. විද්යාත්මක පදනමෙන් අමාත්යාංශ වෙන්කළයුතුයි කියලා මැතිවරණ ප්රකාශයේ තිබුණා. විශේෂඥ කණ්ඩායමක් පත්කරලා ඒ කටයුතු කරගෙන ගිහින් තිබුණා. නමුත් මම දන්න විදියට ඒ ලිපි ගොනුවවත් බැලුව ද කියලා මම දන්නේ නැහැ.
එදා මෙදා කාලය තුළ සිදුවූ සිදුවීම්වදී ප්රධාන වශයෙන්ම අපි බලාපොරොත්තු නොවූ ඉතාමත් අයහපත් තත්ත්වයන් රාශියකුත් ගොඩනැගුණා. යහපත් දේවල් ගත්තහම රටේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය ස්ථාපිත කිරීම, ජනතාවගේ නිදහස, 19 වන සංශෝධනය, ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා පිහිටුවීම, 19 වන සංශෝධනය මම දකින්නේ ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා පිහිටුවීම තුළ ඇති වූ ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්රගතියක් විදියට විතරයි. අනිත් පැත්ත මම අද දකින්නේ විශාල දේශපාලන ආරවුලක් විදියටයි. ඒ වගේම 19 වන සංශෝධනයෙන් ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා පත් කිරීමේදී වගේම රටේ අනිත් තනතුරුවලට පත් කිරීමේ දී ව්යවස්ථාසභාව කෙතෙක් දුරට අපක්ෂපාතී වුණා ද, සාධාරණ වුණා ද කියන කාරණය මටනම් ප්රශ්නයක්. අද අගවිනිසුරුගේ ඉදලා, නීතිපති, පොලිස්පති ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා මේ සියල්ල පත් කරන්නේ ව්යවස්ථාදායක සභාව. මම දැක්ක ප්රධාන දේ තමයි ව්යවස්දායකසභාව තුළ අධිකරණයට පත්කිරීම් කිරිමේ දී අධිකරණයේ ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ විනිශ්චයකාරවරුන්ගේ නම් ඉදිරිපත් කළහම ඒවා ප්රතික්ෂේප වුණා.
අධිකරණ ක්ෂ්ත්රයේ විනිශ්චයකාවරු පිරිසක් අතරේ මට චෝදනාවක් තිබෙනවා මේ ජ්යෙෂ්ඨත්වය අනුව ඒ අයට මම පත්වීම් ලබා දේන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. මම පැහැදිළිව කියන්න ඕන ඒ චෝදනාවට ලක්වී තිබෙන සෑම නමක්ම මම ව්යවස්ථා සභාවට යවලා තිබෙනවා. ව්යවස්ථා සභාව ඒවා ප්රතික්ෂේප කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ තුළ අධිකරණයේ ක්ෂේත්රයේ ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ විනිශ්චයකාර ධූර දරන අයට අසාධාරණයක් සිද්ධ වෙලා තිබෙනවා. ඒ නිසා විනිශ්චයකාරවරු පත් කිරීමේ ව්යවස්ථා සභාව අනුගමනය කරන ක්රියා පිළිවෙත කොතෙක් දුරට අපක්ෂපාතිද, මධ්යස්ථ ද කියන ප්රශ්නය පැන නැගිලා තිබෙනවා.
අපි මුහුණ දුන් ඉතාම කටුක අත්දැකීම් ගත්තහම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයාගේ ආණ්ඩුව පරාජය කරලා රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයෙක් පළමු වතාවට පරාජය කරලා හැට දෙලක්ෂ පනස්දහසක ජනතාව මාව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස පත්කර ගත්තේ විශේෂයෙන්ම එදා ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ තිබුණ බරපතළ වැරදි නිසා. ඒ තුළ මූලිකම දේ තමයි දූෂණය සහ වංචාව, එතකොට දූෂණයට සහ වංචාවට විරුද්ධව ජනතාව ජනතාවාදී ආණ්ඩුවක් පත්කරගත්තහම තමන්ගේ ඡන්දයෙන් මාස තුනක් යන්න කළින් ඇති වූ මහ බැංකු මහා මංකොල්ලය, 2015 වසරේ අවස්ථා දෙකක දී වාර්තා වූ සිද්ධින් අනුව අපි දූෂණයට විරුද්ධව ගෙනගිය සටන සම්පුර්ණයෙන් දූෂිත කළා. එය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් ජනතාවගේ ප්රාර්ථනාවන් සහ අපේක්ෂාවන් සුණු විසුණු කරලා තිබෙනවා. යහපාලන දේශපාලන සංකල්පය විනාශ කරලා තිබෙනවා.
මම අද උදේත් දුරකථනයෙන් මහබැංකු අධිපතිවරයාට කතා කරලා ඇහුවා ජනාධිපති කොමිසම් සභාව විසින් නිර්දේශ කරන ලද නිර්දේශ තුළ ප්රධාන නිර්දේශයක් වූ වෝහාරික විගණනය අද වෙනකන් කරලා තියෙනව ද කියලා. අද වෙනකන් එය කෙරිලා නැහැ. ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාව පැහැදිළිව කියනවා.
මහ බැංකු මංකොල්ලයේ ජනතාවගේ මුදල්වල මූල්ය වටිනාකම තවම මෙතකැයි කියා සීමාවක් කිව නොහැක. මෙය අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් සිදු වී ඇත. වාර්තාවේ තිබෙනවා.
එතකොට ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයන් මට පහුගිය සතියෙත් මේ පිළිබඳ සාකච්ඡාවක දී කිව්වා වසර ගණනාවක් පුරා සිදුව ඇති මේ මහා මංකොල්ලය බිලියන් දාහකට එහා කියලා කිව්වා. අද වෙනකන් කිසිම විගණනයකින් කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තාව අනුව සොයාගෙන නැති මුදල් කන්දරාවක්. එතකොට මේ ප්රශ්නයේ දී පැහැදිළිව ගරු රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ අගමැතිතුමා දන්නවා,අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්රන් මහතා පත් කරන අවස්ථාවේ මම දැඩි ලෙස විරුද්ධ වුණා. නමුත් මාව ජනාධිපති විදියට පත්කරලා සතියක් වගේ කාලයක් තුළ මම කළගුණ දන්නා කෙනෙක් විදියට රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා සමග මට කිසිදු ගැටුමක් අවශ්ය නැති නිසා එතුමාගේ දැඩි ඉල්ලීමට මම අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්රන් පත් කළා. ඒක මගේ පත්වීමක්. ඒ නිසා මටත් චෝදනාවක් ආවා එහි වගකීම මමත් භාරගත යුතුයි කියලා. එසේ වූ අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්රන් මහතාගේ ක්රියාකාරිත්වය තුළ මේ සිදුවීම් සිදුවෙලා රට තුළ මහා ගින්නක් වගේ ඇතිවුණා. විශාල උණුසුමක් වුණා. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්රන් මහතා අදත් නැහැ. ඔහු අල්ලා ගැනීම පිළිබඳව වැඩපිළිවෙළක් හරියට ක්රියාත්මක වුණේ නැහැ. මේ මංකොල්ලය පිළිබඳව ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාවට සහයෝගය දුන්න ද, අපරාධ පරික්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරින්ට සහ අනිත් නිලධාරින්ට තර්ජන ආවා, ඒ අයට බලපෑම් ඇති වුණා. ඒ අයට විරුද්ධව පරික්ෂණ පැවැත්වුවා.
මම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා අග්රාමාත්යවරයා ලෙස පත් කළේ ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදා. ඊට දවස් හතරකට කළින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළ මහබැංකු මංකොල්ලයේ වැරදිකරුවන්ට දඩුවම් පැමිණිම අවශ්යයි කියලා නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව නිර්දේශ කළ අල්ලස් හා දුෂණ කොමිෂන් සභා සංශෝධන පනත වචන කිහිපයක් සංශෝධනය කරන්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යවලා මාස 05 කට වැඩිය මේක කබඞ් ඇතුලේ තිබුණා. මම මේ ගැන අවස්ථා කිහියක් තළතා අතුකෝරළ ඇමතිණියට කිව්වා එතුමිය අධිකරණ ඇමතිණි නිසා. කිරිඅල්ල ඇමිතිතුමාට කිව්වා. කිරිඇල්ල ඇමතිතුමා කියලා බොහොම අමාරුවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළා. නමුත් අවසානයේ දින නියමයක් නැතිව එම සංශෝධනය කල් දැම්මා. දැන් ඒ කල්දැමීම තුළ ඒ පනත සංශෝධනය වෙන්නේ නැහැ. අවුරුදු 15 කට 20 කටවත් මේ බිලියන් දාහකට වැඩියි කියන මහ මංකොල්ලයේ පරික්ෂණය කෙරෙන්නේ නැහැ. වැරදිකරුවන්ට දඩුවම් ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. මුදල් අය කර ගැනීමට හැකි වන්නේ නැහැ. මේ ප්රශ්නය අදත් බරපතළයි.
ඒ වගේම අමාත්ය මණ්ඩලයේ තීරණයක් අනුව ආරම්භ කළ සී.සී.එම් එක. ප්රශ්න රාශියක් ඇති වුණා. ඒ තුළ ගැටුම් රාශියක් ඇතිවුණා. ඇත්තටම කියනවනම් මම අගමැතිතුමාට කොච්චර කළගුණ සැළකුවා ද කියන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ බලතළත් අගමැතිතුමා අරගෙන ක්රියාකළා. මම ඒවා ගැන ඇහුවේ නැහැ. රාජ්ය නායකයන් සමග ගනුදෙනුවලදී, ජාත්යන්තර ගිවිසුම්වල දී ඒ ආකාරයට එතුමා කටයුතු කළා. 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයෙන් අගමැතිවරයාට හිමි නැති බලතළ රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහත්තයා ක්රියාත්මක කළා. මම ඒත් නිහඩව හිටියා කළගුණ දන්න මිනිහෙක් විදියට. සිංගප්පුරු ගිවිසුම පිළිබඳව මම කොමිෂන් සභාවක් පත් කළා. එහි නිර්දේශ මට පසුගිය සතියේ ලැබුණා. එම නිර්දේශවල සදහන් වෙනවා මෙම ගිවිසුමේදී වැරදි රාශියක් සිදු වෙලා තිබෙන බව. මම ඒක දීර්ඝව පැහැදිළි කරන්නේ නැහැ මේ වෙලාවේ. විශේෂයෙන් එහි එක් ඡේදයක සඳහන් වෙනවා ඊට අදාළ නියෝජිත ආයතන, වෙලෙද, වරාය, කර්මාන්ත, මුදල් ඇතුළු අදාළ අමාත්යාංශ ඒ ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කිරීමට ඒ නිර්දේශ ගතයුතු ආයතන රාශියකින් ඒ නිර්දේශය ලබාගෙන නැතිකම කර තිබෙන බරපතළ වැරුද්දක් ලෙස මෙම වාර්තාවේ පෙන්වා දෙනවා. ඒ නිසා සිංගප්පුරු නිදහස් වෙළෙඳ ගිවිසුම බරපතළ ප්රශ්නයක් වෙලා තිබෙනවා. මගේ අදහස එය රජයේ මැදිහත්වීම තුළ තාවකාලිකව නැවතිය යුතුයි කියන එක. ඊට සංශෝධන කළයුතු වෙනවා. ඒ සංශෝධනවලදී මම දන්නේ නැහැ තවත් විශේෂඥයෝ යොදවලා සම්පූර්ණයෙන් මේ ගිවිසුම ඉවත් කරනව ද, සංශෝධන සහිතව කළහැකි ද කියන එක නීති විශාරදයන්ගේ සහ ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයන්ගේ උපදෙස් අනුව කළයුතු කාර්යයන් විදියටයි මම දකින්නේ. ඒ නිසා මේ තත්ත්වයන් වලදී ඉතා පැහැදිළිව සඳහන් කරන්නට ඕන මම මේ කියපු කරනු පිළිබඳ සැලකිල්ල යොමු කිරීමේදී අපි මේ අත්දැකිම් සමග ඉදිරියට වැඩකරන ක්රමය කොහොමද නිරවුල් කරගන්නේ කියන කාරණාව. මේ පිළිබද ඇතිවූ මතභේදවල දී ව්යවස්ථාදායකය සහ විධායකය මේ ගනුදෙනුව බේරගත්තනම් අපිට සති 07 ක කාලයක් යන්නේ නැහැ මේ ප්රශ්නය විසදගන්න.
ඒ මොකද මම සතුටු වෙනවා, මම ඔබතුමන්ලාට සියලු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයන්ට, ගරු කථානායකතුමාට, මම ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙනවා මෙම ගැටලුව නිරවුල් කර ගැනීමට කැදවූ සෑම සාකච්ඡාවකදීම තමුන්නාන්සේලා සහභාගී වුණා. මේ කාර්යාලයට ආවා. ඒ වගේම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා ඇතුළු ඒ කණ්ඩායම්, ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය, පොදු ජන පෙරමුණ ඒ හැම කෙනෙක්ම ආවා.
ද්රවිඩ ජාතික සන්ධානය, එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණේ සහෝදර පක්ෂ නායකයෝ ඒ සියලුදෙනා ඉතා විශිෂ්ට සහයෝගයක් දැක්වුවා. ඒක ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදී රටක තිබෙන සුහදකාමී වාතාවරණයක ඉතාමත් වැදගත් ලක්ෂණයක් විදියට මම සළකන්නේ. වේදිකාවල මහපාරේ මොනව කියාගත්තත් මනුෂ්යකමක් ඇතිවුණා එකට වාඩිවෙලා ඒ ප්රශ්න විසදා ගැනීමේ. නමුත් අපි අසමත් වුණා විධායකය සහ ව්යවස්ථාදයකය අතර ඒ ප්රශ්නය බේරගන්න. ඒ නිසා අධිකරණයට ගියා. අධිකරණයේදී දුන්න තීන්දුවේ දී මහජනතාව මොනවද කියන්නේ, නීති විශාරදයින් මේ ගැන මොනවද කියන්නේ, මම කියන්න ඕන මේ ගැසට් නිවේදන සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇතැම් අය කරන විග්රහ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීම, වාර අවසන් කිරීම, අගමැති පත් කිරීම, ඉවත් කිරීම මේවා පිළිබඳව මම පිළිබඳව කරන විවේචනවල දී ඉතාම ළදරු ස්වභාවයේ විවේචන තමයි කරන්නේ. ඒ මොකද මම නීතඥයෙක් නොවන බව රටම දන්නවා. මම ඒ ගැසට් නිවේදනය නිකුත් කළේ මගේ තනි කැමැත්තට නෙවේ. මීට සම්බන්ධවූණා ජනාධිපති නිතිඥවරු, මීට සම්බන්ධ වුණා රටේ ඉහළම නිති විශාරදයින්. ඒ අය සාකච්ඡා කරලා තමයි ඔය ගැසට් නිවේදන සියල්ල සකස් කළේ.
එහෙම නැතිව ළදරුවෝ කරපු වැඩක් නොවේ, මෙහිදී හොදම උදාහරණය තමයි අධිකරණයේ මේ නඩු විභාගවන අවස්ථාවේ මාගේ පාර්ශ්වය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි නීතිඥයින්, මම ඒ අයට ස්තූතිවන්ත වෙනවා. ඒ අය මේ රටේ ඉහළම පෙළේ නීති විශාරදයින්. මම ගැසට් නිවේදන නිකුත් කිරීමේ දී ඔය කියන විදියට ළදරු වැඩක් කරලා තිබුණනම්, බාල වැඩක් කරලා තිබුණානම් මගේ පැත්තෙන් පෙනී සිටි එම නීති විශාරදයින් ඊට ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ නැහැ.
විශේෂයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරුවා හැරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබතුමන්ලා සටන් ව්යාපාරය ගෙන ගියේ ඡන්දයක් එපා කියලා, උසාවි ගියේ ඡන්දයක් එපා කියලා. නමුත් මේ අර්බුදයේදී මේ දූෂිත වී තිබෙන පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවලා අලුත් පිරිසිදු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් තෝරා පත් කරගන්න ජනතාවට අවශ්යයි කියලා ජනමතයක් ඇතිවුණා. ඒක එක්සත් ජාතික පාක්ෂිකයෝ තුළත් ඇතිවුණා මම දන්නවා. ඒ අයත් කිව්වා අපෙත් ඉන්නවා වැරදි කරන අය ඒ අය ගෙදර යවන්න මැතිවරණයක් තමයි ඕන කියලා.
අධිකරණ තීන්දුව තුළ ජනතාව කියන්නේ ප්රශ්නය විසදන්න හොදම මග මේ දූෂිත පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරලා අලුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් පත් කරන්න අපට අවස්ථාව තිබුණා. ඒක නැතුවි ගියා අධිකරණ තීන්දුවෙන්. ජනතාවගේ ඡන්ද බලය නැතිවුණා අධිකරණ තින්දුවෙන් කියලා ජනතාව කියන්නේ, මම නෙවේ කියන්නේ, මම මේ සියලුදෙනාගෙන් අදහස් විමසනවා, ආගමික පූජකවරු, විද්වතුන් අහනවා. එතකොට බහුතර මතය අදත් අධිකරණ තීන්දුව කිසේ වෙතත් ඡන්දයක් දුන්නනම් හොදයි කියන එක තමයි ජනතාවගේ මතය. මන්ත්රීවරු 122 ක් අත්සන් කරලා අධිකරණයට දුන්නේ ඡන්දයක් එපා කියන ඉල්ලීමයි. ඉතින් මේ තත්ත්වයන් සැලකිල්ලට ගත්තහම මම මේ කරුණු පිළිබඳව කතා කළේ අපි මේ පසුබිම් සමග අතීතයේ අත්දැකීම් සමග අනාගතය කොහොමද හදාගන්නේ කියන ප්රශ්නය තුළයි.
ඒ සමගම මම තමුන්නාන්සේලාට තව දෙයක් කියන්න ඕන. පහුගිය අවුරුදු හතරකට ආසන්න කාලය තුළ මේ දූෂණය වංචාව නැති කිරීමේ දී කාරණාවලදී මම කිව්වා මම හැමදාම කියන දෙයක් තියෙනවා විවිධ සමාජ බලවේගයන් රටේ තිබෙනවා, ආගමික බලවේග භාෂාව පිලිබඳ බලවේග, ඒ සිරිත් විරිත්, සම්ප්රදායන්, සංස්කෘතින් මේ පිළිබඳව අපේ රටේ තිබෙන බලවේග ඉතා ශක්තිමත් සහ පුළුල්. බොහෝ වෙලාවට රටේ ආණ්ඩු හදන්නේ ආණ්ඩු පෙරළන්නේ දේශපාලන මතයට වඩා මේ සංස්කෘතික බලවේග. මම බොහොම පැහැදිලිව පහුගිය කාලවලදී කිව්වා භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේලාට නඩු පැවරීමේදී මේ අලි ඇතුන් පිළිබඳ ප්රශ්නයේ දී පෙරහැරවල්වලට අලි නැහැ කියලා අලි ඉන්න දේවාල විහාර විතරක් නෙවේ, ඒක පුළුල් සමාජබෞද්ධාගමික, සංස්කෘතික විරෝධයක් දැඩි ලෙස ආවා. එතකොට මම බොහොම පැහැදිළිව කිව්වා මේ අලි ඇතුන් නිදහස් කරමු. මේකේ නිත්යානුකූල තත්ත්වය බලමු. එක දිගට භික්ෂුන් වහන්සේලා සිරභාරයට ගන්න මේ වැඬේ කරන්න එපා. මේ අලි ප්රශ්නයට කියලා. ඒ තුළ මුළු භික්ෂු සමාජය අපට නැතිව ගියා.
ඒ වගේම තමයි මම පැහැදිළිව කියන්න ඕන. ත්රිවිධ හමුදාව අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම, යුද්ධයක් කරපු රටක යුද ජයග්රහණය ලබාදීලා ම්ලේච්ඡ ත්රස්තවාදී ව්යාපාරයක් නැති කරපු අපේ රණිවිරුවෝ හිරේ දාන්න එපා කියන එක මම නිතරම කියපු දෙයක්. ඒත් ඇහුවේ නැහැ.
අද ජාත්යන්තරය කියන විදියට අපේ හමුදාවන්ට දඩුවම් කරන්න ඕන, හැබැයි අපේ හමුදාව විනාශ කරපු ප්රභාකරන්ගේ මිනිස්සුන්ට දඩුවම් නැහැ, ඒ මිනිස්සු ලෝකයේ රටවල්වල ඉන්නවා. එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ එකේ ප්රබලයෝ, විදේශ රටවල ඉන්නවා. එතකොට ඔය කියන ජාත්යන්තරය අපිට තමවි ඇගිල්ල දික් කරන්නේ ඔක්කේම කරන්නේ, හමුදාවට විරුද්ධව පරීක්ෂණ පවත්වන්න කියලා. මානව හිමිකම් කැඩුවා, ජාත්යන්තර යුද නීති කැඩුවා කියලා අපිට තමයි චෝදනා කරන්නේ. එතකොට අපේ ත්රිවිධ හමුදාව, පොලිසිය, සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ සිට සිවිල් ජනතාව ලක්ෂයක් විතර මැරුවා. එතකොට අද ජීවතුන් අතර ලෝකයේ රටවල්වල සැගවිලා ඉන්න මිනිස්සු ලංකාණ්ඩුවට සැගවිලා ඉන්න අය මේ රටට ගෙනල්ලා දඩුවම් දීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක් කොහෙද තියෙන්නේ, ජාත්යන්තරයෙන් එහෙම දෙයක් කතා කරන්නෙත් නැහැ, අපේ රටෙ ඇතුළෙන් කතා කරන්නෙත් නැහැ. හමුදාවට දඩුවම් දෙනවනම් ඒ අයටත් දඩුවම් දෙන්න ඕන. එහෙම නැත්නම් දෙගොල්ලන්ටම දඩුවම් අයින් කරගෙන එකඟතාවකට එන්න ඕන. මෙහිදී ඉතා පැහැදිලිව මම දරණ මතය තමයි එහෙම නැත්නම් ඔක්කොටම නඩු දාන්න ඕන, එහෙමත් නැත්නම් ජාත්යන්තරයත් එක්ක කතා කරලා හමුදාවල් නිදහස් කරගන්න ඕන. දැන් ද්රවිඩ සිරකාරයෝ නිදහස් කරන්න කියන ඉල්ලීම තිබෙනවා. අපි සාකච්චා කිහිපයක් පැවැත්වුවා. ද්රවිඩ සිරකරුවන් නිදහස් කරනවනම් අපේ හමුදාවන්වලට විරුද්ධව දැන් පහුගිය අවුරුදු ගානේ නොයෙකුත් නඩුවලින් සියලුදෙනා නිදහස් කරන්න ඕන. ඒක තමයි සාධාරණත්වය.
මේ ප්රශ්නයත් එක්ක අතිවූ කරුණු කාරණාවලදී තමුන්නාන්සේලාගේ කතිකයෝ කිව්වා මාව ගඩාෆි වගේ ඇදගෙන ගිහින් මරන්නේ කියලා, ඒ වගේම ඇතැම් මන්ත්රිවරු කිව්වා, මහගහ සේකර මාවතේ මගේ ගේ ගිනි තියලා, කුඩු කරලා මාවයි, දරුවොයි මරලා දානවා කිව්වා. තමුන්නාන්සේලා එක්ක ප්රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡා තියපු එන්ජීඕ කාරයෝ එහෙම කිව්වා. ඇයි එහෙම කියන්නේ, මේ රටේ කිසිම රාජ්ය නායකයෙකුට එහෙම කියලා නැහැ. දැඩි පාලකයෙක් විදියට සමාජය කතාකරන ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහත්තයාගේ කාලේ මේ රටේ ප්රශ්න ගණනාවක් වුණා. ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධන ආණ්ඩුවට විරුද්ධව කතා කරලා මම හිරේ ගිය කෙනෙක්.
ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධනට එහෙම කිව්වේ නැහැ. ප්රේමදාස මහත්තයට කිව්වේ නැහැ. චන්ද්රකා බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණියට විරුද්ධව රටේ කොච්චර දේවල් සිද්ධ වුණාද, කවුරුත් එහෙම කිව්වේ නැහැ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයට කවුරුත් කිව්වේ නැහැ ගඩාෆි වගේ ඇදගෙන යනවා කියලා. මට එහෙම කිව්වේ එහෙම කළානම් මම නිශ්ශබ්දව බලාගෙන ඉන්න මිනිහෙක් නිසා. ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධනගේ ඉදලා හිටපු නායකයන්ට එහෙම කිව්වනම් ඒ කිසිවෙක් ඉතිරිවෙන්නේ නැහැ. හැබැයි දන්නවා මම වගේ මිනිහෙක් ගේ ගිනි තියන්නත් පුළුවන්. ගඩාෆි වගේ මාව ඇදගෙන යන්නත් පුළුවන් කියලා දන්නවා.
ඒක මගේ ප්රතිපත්තිය සහ දර්ශනය තුළ රටේ යහපත් සමාජයක මිනිස්සු හොද පැත්තට යනවා වගේම අපරාධකාරයෝ, පාතලයෝ, මිලේච්ඡ පිරිස ඒ ප්රකාශ කළේ ඒ නිසා. මාව ඝාතනය කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්රණය ගැන මම දැක්කේ නැහැ තමුන්නාන්සේලා කිසි තැනක මේ වගේ ප්රශ්නයක් තියෙනවා කියලා කියනවා. ඒක ඔප්පුවෙලා නෙවේ, නමුත් ඒකට කරුණු කාරණා රාශියක් තියෙනවා. දැන් මේ දිනවල මගේ භාරයේ පොලිසිය තිබුණු නිසා ඒ ප්රශ්නවල ලොකු ප්රගතියක් තියෙනවා. නමුත් අවාසනාව කියන්නේ රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයා ඝාතනය කිරීම පිළිබඳ කුමන්ත්රණය අධිකරණයේ විභාගවන වෙලාවේ පහුගිය නඩු දිනයේ අපරාධ පරික්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ එක්කෙනෙක්වත් නැහැ.
මේ ගැසට් නිවේදන ගැහුවේ නීති විශාරදයන්ගේ උපදෙස් අනුව ඉතාමත් සද් භාවයෙන් මම මේක කළේ. ඉතාමත් යහපත් චේතනාවෙන් කළේ. ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කළයුතුයි කියන අපවිත්ර චේතනාවකින් කරලා නැහැ. රට තුළ බරපතළ දේශපාලන අර්බුදයක් ඇතිවුණා. ඒක විසදාගැනීමට හොදම ක්රමය ඡන්දයකට යාමයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මේ ලියුම අත්සන් කළේ මන්ත්රිවරු 122 යි. මේ රටේ ලක්ෂ 155 ක ඡන්ද දායකයින් ඉන්නවා. මේ ලක්ෂ 155 ක් ඡන්ද දායකයින්ට බලය දෙන්න මම ගැසට් නිවේදනය ගැහුවේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉන්න 122 කට වැඩිය මේ ලක්ෂ 155 ඡන්දය තමයි ජනතා පරමාධිපත්ය තීරණාත්මක සාධකය සාක්ෂිය සහ රට වගේම ලෝකය පිළිගත යුතු වෙන්නේ කියලා. ඒ නිසයි මම එතනට ගියේ. බොහොම පැහැදිළි පිරිසිදු චේතනාව තුළ මම කරපු දේවල්වලට මට දඩුවම් දෙනවානම්, මඩ දඩුවම් දෙනවනම් දෝෂාභියෝග ගෙනවනම් ඒක වෙනම කාරණයක්.
නමුත් සත්යය ගලේ කෙටුව අකුරක් ලෙස ඉතිහාසයේ ලියවෙයි. උසාවිය මෙහෙම තීන්දු දුන්නට මගේ චේතනාව කුමක්ද, ලක්ෂ 155 කට ජනවරම දීම, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඡන්දය එපා කියපු 122 ට වඩා ශක්තිමත් කියා මම දන්නා නිසා.
ඒ නිසා මට ඕනම දඩුවක් දුන්නට ගැටලුවක් නැහැ මම මගේ දේශපාලන ජීවිතය තුළ මම පස් හය සැරයක් මැරණ මිනිහෙක්. මාව ඉස්සෙල්ලා මැරුවේ 71. මාව ජේවිපියට කිසිම සම්බන්ධයක් නැතුව මගේ පාසලේ විදුහල්පතිවරයා මගේ නම දීලා මාව චේගුවේරාකාරයා කියලා මට ගහලා මාව ගෙනිහිල්ලා මඩකලපුවේ හිර ගෙදර හිටියා. ඒ පළවෙනි දෙවියන් වහන්සේ මාව බේරා ගත්ත තැන.
ධම්මෝ හවො රක්ඛති ධම්ම චාරි” මම ධාර්මික ජීවිතයක් පෙර මම ආත්මීය වශයෙන් ධාර්මික ජීවිතයක් පෙර ආත්ම වලත් ගත කරලා ඇති කියලා මම විශ්වාස කරනවා. ඒ නිසා තමා මගේ ජීවිතය බේරිලා තියෙන්නේ කියලා. එල්ටීටී එකෙන් මට පස් සැරයක් ගැහුවා.
ධම්මෝ හවො රක්ඛති ධම්ම චාරි” කිවේ එකයි. මගේ මේ රෝම කූපයකට වත් දැනුනේ නැහැ. ඒ එක ප්රහාරයක්වත් මට ගහන්න එල්ටීටි කාරයෝ වරින් වර අවස්ථා පහේ දීම පොළොන්නරුවේ ඔවුන්ම සයනයිට් කාලා මරුණා. . ඔබට මතක ඇති ඒ මරන්න ආපු එක මිනිසෙක් හිර භාරයේ ඉන්නකොට මම සිරභාරයෙන් ඔහුව නිදහස් කෙරුවා. අවසාන ප්රහාරය මට බොරගැස්ගමුවේ දී. බොරලැස්ගමුවේ ප්රහාරයේ දී අහිංසක මිනිස්සු හතර පස් දෙනෙක් මැරුණා. මගේ ඇගේ රෝම කූපයකටවත් දැනුනේ නැහැ.
අගමැතිතුමාටත්, ඔබතුමාලාටත් මතක ඇති රාජගිරියේ ඇන්.එම් පෙරේරා ප්රතිමාව හන්දියේ දී අපිට ගහපු හැටි අපි හදිසි නීතියට ඡන්දේ දීලා එනකොට එල්ටීටී ඇවිත් පැනලා. මාව එතැනට කොටු වුණා. මගේ නෝනායි, දරුවෝයි ආපු වාහනය එතැන ගෙදරක තිබිලා එල්ටීටීකාරයෝ ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ වාහනයක් අරගෙන පැනලා ගියේ. ඊට පහුවදා මල්වාන පැත්තේ දාලා ගිහින් තිබිලා අහුවුණා. එවැනි අවස්ථා ගණනාවක් තියෙනවා.
එක නිසා මම මේ සියල්ල ගත්තහම 1971 ඉඳලාම එතකොට මගේ වයස අවුරුදු 19 යි. දැන් මගේ වයස 67 ඉවරයි. අවුරුදු 19 ඉඳලාම මම බෝනස් ඉන්නේ. දෙවියන් වහන්සේ මාව අවස්ථා පහක දී බේරලා තියෙන්නේ.
ඒ නිසා මාව ගඩාෆි වගේ ඇදගෙන යන අයට ඇදලා ගෙනිහිල්ලා මරන්න පුළුවන්. ඒක ගැන මගේ කිසිම විරැද්ධත්වයක් නැහැ. ඒ අයට හමුදාව දාලා, එස්ටිඑෆ් දාලා වෙඩි තියන්නේ නැහැ. එහෙම ඕනැ වෙලාවක ඇවිත් වට කරපුවාහම මම නිශ්ශබ්දව ඉන්නවා. එනවයි කියලා දැන ගත්තහම ගෙට්ටුව අරිනවා. ඔය ඉන්න ආරක්ෂක හමුදා, එස්ටීඑෆ් එකටයි සියලු දෙනාට යන්න කියලා කියනවා. ඒ අයට ඇවිල්ලා ගෙදරයි මාවයි ගිනි තියලා මරලා දාලා යන්න කියලා සියලු දෙනාට කියනවා ඔය එන්ජීයෝ කාරයින්ටයි, තමුන්නාන්සේලාගේ ඔය කියපු මන්ත්රීවරුන්ටයි මම බොහොම පැහැදිලිව කියනවා.
ඒක නිසා මේ සියලු දේවල් එක්ක අපි කල්පනා කරන්න ඕනැ මේ අත්දැකිම් එක්ක අපි මොන විදියට දැන් ඉදිරිය පිළිබඳ කරුණු කාරණා සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ කියලා. ඉතින් මේවා එක්ක මේ විදියටම ද මේ ආණ්ඩුව යන්නේ. ඔබතුමලාගේ මේ මන්ත්රීවරුන් මට දුරකතනයෙන් කතා කරලා කියනවා, සමහර අය මට ඊයේ පෙරේදා හමුවෙලා කිව්වා අපි දැන් එකතු වෙලා අපි මෙහෙම ගමනක් යමු කියලා. මේ දේවල් එක්ක මේ ගමන යාම පිළිබඳව මම දකින්නේ නැහැ මොකක්ද සහතිකය කියලා. ඒ නිසාගැටුම් හදාගන්න මට උවමනාවක් නැහැ. මේ ගැටුම හැදෙන්න හැදෙන්න රට වැටෙනවා. මේ දූෂිත තත්ත්වයන් ඉතාමත්ම ප්රබලයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉතාමත් දූෂිත දේශපාලනඥයින් පිරිසක් ඉන්නවා. අපේ කැබ්නට් මණ්ඩලය ගත් විට දූෂිත පිරිසක් ඉන්නවා.අපි බලාපොරොත්තු වෙච්ච රටේ ජනතාවට දුන්න යහපාලන දේශපාලන සංකල්පය අමු අමුවේ දුෂණය කරලා තියෙනවා. මේකට වැරදිකාරයා මම නොවෙයි කියන එක මම පැහැදිලිව කියනවා. මම ඒ පරිත්යාගය කරලා, මගේ සියලු කැපවීම් කරලා තියෙනවා. ඒ සියලු දේවල් විනාශ කළා. ඒ සියලු දේ විනාශ වුණා.
මේ රටේ මට ඡන්දය පාවිච්චි කරපු අති බහුතරයක් නියෝජනය වන ඒ ගෞරවනීය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂිකයෝ ඒ අය දන්නේ නැහැ මේ විදියට මේ විදියට කුණු වෙලා තියෙන, මේ දේශපාලන ඔද්දල් වෙච්ච, ඡාරා ජීර්ණ වෙච්ච මේ දේශපාලන ක්රමයේ අභ්යන්තර තත්ත්වය ඒ අය දන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ අය දන්නවානම් මම හිතන්නේ නැහැ ඔය විදියට කෑගහන්න, පෙළපාලි යන්න, වට කරන්න ඕවාට එකතු වෙයි කියලා.
ඒ නිසා මේ රට ගත් විට අපි කියනවා වාසනාවන්ත රටක් කියලා ඇත්තටම වාසනාවන්ත රටක් තමයි හැබැයි මේ රට ගොඩ ගන්න, හෙට දවස වෙනුවෙන් මේ රටේ දුෂණයෙන් තොර දේශපාලනඥයෝ කී දෙනෙක් ඉන්නවා ද ? දූෂණයෙන් තොර දේශපාලන ව්යාපාරයක් ගොඩනගන්න අවශ්ය පිරිසක් කවුද? අන්න ඒ අයගේ එකාරාශී විමක් තමයි අවශ්ය වෙන්නේ. ඒ තුළ හොඳ රටක් හදන්න, හොඳ සංවර්ධනයක් ගෙනයන්න. දුෂණයෙන් තොර පාලනයක් ගෙනයන්න අපි කතා කරන සම්පුර්ණයෙන් අසාර්ථක වූ යහපාලන දේශපාලන සංකල්පය ඉෂ්ට වෙන්න. මේ විදියට රටට ආදරය කරන, රට ගැන හිතන, රටේ සංස්කෘතික වටිනාකම් දන්න ආගමික ධර්මතාවයන් එක්ක සමාජ හර පද්ධතීන්වලට ගරු කරන ලෝකයේ රටවල් දියුණු වෙලා තියෙන්නේ එහෙමයි. ඒ නිසා මම ඉදිරියේ ප්රශ්නාර්ථයක් තියෙනවා එහෙම රට ගොඩ ගන්න පිරිසක් කෝ කියලා. මේක එක් කෙනෙකුට දෙන්නෙකුට කරන්න බැහැ. මේක හොඳ පිරිසක් ඕනැ. ජනතාවට ඒ නායකත්වය දෙන්න හොඳ පිරිසක් අවශ්යයයි.
ඒක නිසා රටේ ජනතාවට කියන්න තියෙන්නේ මේකයි. කෙනෙක් අහන්න පුළුවන් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහත්තයාට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 225 තිබුණත් අගමැතිකම දෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා මම කිව්වා නේද කියලා දැන් අදින් පස්සේ අහයි. මට සමාජ ජාලා වල ගහයි නොයෙක් දේවල් කියයි නොයෙක් නොයෙක් අපහාස උපහාස කරයි. ඒක මගේ දේශපාලන මතය. මම ඒ මතයේ තිබෙන ප්රබලකම නිසා තමයි මම එහෙම කිව්වේ, 225 ම අත්සන් කලත් මම රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතාට අගමැතිකම දෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා. ඔබතුමාලා එතැන දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ගිහිල්ලා 117 ක් අත්සන් කරලා, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය පෙන්නුවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට කිසිම තැනක ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ නැහැ ජනාධිපතිට යෝජනා කරන්න, නියෝග කරන්න කිසි තැනක මේන්න මෙයා අගමැති විදියට පත් කරන්න කියලා. අධිකරණයටත් බැහැ මම දන්න විදියට අහවල් පුද්ගලයා අගමැති විදියට පත් කරන්න කියලා අධිකරණයටත් ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථාවේ කොහේවත් නීතියේ නැහැ. ඒක බොහෙම පැහැදිලිව තියෙන්නේ විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයාට.
නමුත් මම සදාචාර සම්පන්නව පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්රදාය ගරු කරන කෙනෙක් විදියට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 117 ක් කතානායකතුමාගේ ඡන්දය පෙන්වූ විට රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මැතිතුමාට දෙන්න කියලා ඒ අනුව මම තීන්දු කළා. මම මගේ පෞද්ගලික මතය දේශපාලන මතය 225 ම අත්සන් කලාත් දෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලා, ඒක එහෙමම තමා අදත්. නමුත් පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්රදාය තුළ මම ඒ පාර්ලිමේන්තු සම්ප්රදායට ගරු කරලා, මම තීන්දු කළා අගමැතිකම දිය යුතුයි කියලා. මම මේක දකින්නේ ප්රජාත්රන්ත්රවාදී සමාජයක, සදාචාර සම්පන්න සමාජයක ලක්ෂණයක් විදියට මම දකින්නේ.
Last Thursday, just before the courts closed for Christmas holidays, the Supreme Court, sticking strictly to a legalistic path, put an end to the controversial issue of defining the powers of President Maithripala Sirisena, leaving the nation to wrestle with the bigger problems still awaiting solutions to stabilise the nation. In fact, the grim reality is that the decision of the Supreme has thrown the nation back to square one. If the President agrees to work with Ranil, the nation will be back to another stint of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s rule with all his catchers” returning to lap the cream.
In the meantime, he can now claim Temple Trees” as his legitimate political base. But that was a non-issue in any case, except for him. The nagging overarching question is more serious: what is he going to do with his powers to stay on, thanks to the Supreme Court, during the remaining period of his stewardship? He feels vindicated and strengthened by the Supreme Court decision. But, as things stand now, it is clear, that the more he consolidates his position the more he is likely to take the nation towards confrontation, tensions, uncertainties and instability.
Soon the issues of constitutionality will be forgotten and the usual blame game of party politics will take centre stage. UNP cabinet ministers will trek back to their seats claiming that democracy has being restored. NGOs and the Western embassies will be happy that their apparatchiks are back in the saddle. Paki Saravanamuttu and Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole, two of the petitioners in the case, too will preen smugly broadcasting that their citizenship rights” have been restored. (More about them later.) In short, will the return of Ranil take us out of the mess or drag us deeper into the depths that began with his regime staging biggest bank heist in the history of the nation in 2015 ?
One can also expect the cockiness of the UNPers to rise to a new level. There is no doubt that the UNP’s arrogance and prime minister’s unilateral policy-making” (International Crisis Group report –16/5/2017) will generate more problems than solving the issues that cropped up in the post-Yahapalanaya regime. Besides, the political passions surrounding court case have polarised the nation. Ranil will resume his authoritarian role with a vengeance, tolerating no dissent. As usual he will misread the new situation and act as if he has got a new mandate to do what he wants. This is where he will slip and fall. He did not get a mandate from the Supreme Court to override the President nor to bulldoze his way through. Nor is it a personal victory for him, or an endorsement of his leadership. The Supreme Court decision was a mere legal clarification of the Presidential powers within the Constitution which is expected to return the political conditions to the status that existed before Parliament was dissolved. The final judgement is yet to made by the people. That will come when the election postponed by the Supreme Court will be held in 2020, or whenever.
In essence, what the Supreme Court did was to postpone the election that was gazetted to be held on January 5, 2019. In making its decision Supreme Court did what Ranil has done previously: postpone elections for another date. Postponing elections, under whatever pretext, does not make those evading elections ideal defenders or champions of democracy. His lap dogs in the NGOs, however, want us to believe that democracy is best served by postponing elections. Paki, for instance, asserts that his citizenship rights” have been restored by the Supreme Court postponing the election gazetted by the President. Their latest political theory is tantamount to saying that denying, or postponing, the right to vote is a positive sign of the triumph of democracy. They argued in Court that holding an election before the scheduled time is a denial of their citizenship rights. You begin to wonder whether Paki is just letting off high-pressure hot air from his mouth, hissing like a leaking car tyre, or delirious that the vast majority has been denied their right to express their will through the exercise of universal franchise. He is bound to claim that the postponing elections by the Supreme Court is a great victory for democracy and for his NGO.. Example: Provincial Council elections have been postponed with no dated fixed for it. Has he gone to courts saying that his citizenship rights have been denied by Ranil Wickremesinghe not holding PC elections?
Of course, it is the duty of every citizen to safeguard the rights that come with citizenship. I am glad that two Tamils could go before an all-Sinhala judiciary and win their citizenship rights in the Sinhala Only” state. But what worries me is why these two Tamils, posing as defenders of human rights (Blah! Blah! Blah!) didn’t fight for the citizenship of his fellow-Tamils in the high court of Velupillai Prabhakaran who ran his one-man state with all the legal paraphernalia of courts, police, lawyers, judges, etc. The TNA bigwigs, who are lawyers, also trooped into a Sinhala-Only Court, draped in their black gowns, demanding their rights as citizens of Sri Lanka. But when did the TNA lawyers ever step into one of Prabhakaran’s court challenging the Tamil Pol Pot’s fascist regime that denied the Tamil people their inalienable right to protect their children being forcibly abducted to kill more Tamils than all other forces put together, as stated by S. Chandrahasan, son of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam?
An incorrigible tendency of the Tamil leadership has been to fight for democratic rights in the Sinhala South and defend with their lives the fascist tyranny of Tamil Pol Pots in the North. Democracy in the South and Tamil tyranny in North could never co-exist. One or the other had to go. And all peace-loving democrats should pay homage on their knees to our heroic soldiers who restored democracy for the oppressed, war-ravaged Tamils to enjoy the blessings of peace and freedom once again. The Tamils of the North are able to walk with dignity and respect because 29,000 Sinhala soldiers sacrificed their lives to liberate Jaffna from the Tamil Pol Pot.
I am digressing. Let’s get back Ranil in the post-Supreme Court decision period. Assuming that he has won a great personal victory he will now parade as the new champion of democracy. Just the other day he portrayed himself as the great discoverer of the fact that the Sri Lankan parliament has been governed by the Westminster tradition since 1948. As everyone knows, one of the sacred tenets of the Westminster tradition is for a prime minister, minister, or an MP, caught red handed with corruption, deceit, lying to Parliament, or obstructing or misleading Parliament etc., to resign immediately without even an inquiry. When has Ranil ever followed that exemplary principle? A British Member of Parliament caught with the evidence revealed in the Bond Commission would have been hounded out of Parliament by the unbearable weight of public opinion alone. But his skin is more tough and leathery than that of a buffalo. He has sailed through the rough and tumble of politics by not talking through his mouth but through an aperture in his anatomy which is somewhere below his belt, as stated by his childhood friend. Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Looming large in the days ahead will be his relationship with the President. He will front up as if he has got a legal warrant to extract as much power as he can from the President to push his anti-national agenda. Reconciliation between the two seems unlikely in the immediate future. Plagued by the strained relations both are likely to snipe at each other. Ranil will insist on having his way. At every opportunity his parliamentary manoeuvres will be to fortify and expand his powers. He will pose as a pious pupil of Parliamentary procedure enshrined in the Westminster tradition. His fake commitment to Westminster traditions is exhibited unashamedly in appointing the TNA leader as the Leader of the Opposition who has only 16 MPs in a House of 225. His attempt to get away with lies claiming to be devotee of the Westminster model is childish and stupid.
His main tactic will be to put the blame from now on to the President and Mahinda Rajapakse. But Anura Kumara Dissanayake has nailed this canard in Parliament. In blunt terms he accused Ranil of being responsible for the recent kerfuffle. The newspaper report captures the full extent of Ranil’s responsibility in causing the crisis. It said: The JVP yesterday (12/ 12/ 2018), criticized UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, saying that it was he who created the platform for the political coup by President Maithripala Sirisena and Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Participating in the debate, on the confidence motion in support of Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the current political turmoil was triggered as a result of Wickremesinghe and his Government shifting away from the mandate the public granted them in 2015.
When a new Government was formed in 2015, there was a specialty in it. Several factions contributed to it. But unfortunately, one faction and a group of persons and a single authority started to claim the power. It is the Governing party which holds the responsibility for doing the correct thing.
They are also responsible for not refraining from any wrong doing. But Wickremesinghe did not care about it. He allowed things, which were not supposed to take place, to happen.”
Dissanayake has also blamed the President and Mahinda Rajapakse. But Ranil will be disappointed that he has not being exempted from blame. Also, being the skilled master of cover-ups, he will not accept his share of responsibility. He will come out swinging to confront the President, the opposition and any dissident that would dare to cross his path. He thinks he has risen from the ashes like Phoenix.
One drama of Ranil is over.
What’s the next one?
Will the Western dip-low-mutts be invited by the Speaker to clap for the enactment of Ranil’s next theatrical performance in Parliament?
16.12.2018
It was only 20 days ago on Nov 26, 2018. the patriotic Sinhala Buddhist masses who love their motherland had some relief when Majhinda Rajapaks was sworn in as Prime Minister on the 26th of November as their Messiah (modern Dutugamunu of the Sinhala nation) and they were jubilant and overjoyed as they felt that now they have their leader once again at the steering of the nation. The news of the dessolution of Parliament that followed further overjoyed the people with new hopes and great expectations that they can total anarchy and treacherous misrule under a rogue government headed by a PM who has no love or any feeling for this country or its people but only for political power openly serving the interests of anti national forces both at Home and abroad completly, ignoring the people of this country who voted them in to power.
But now the Supreme Court has declared the desoolution of Parliament is unconstitutional and thrown the baby with the clay water pan, both the baby and the clay pan have perished there is no point in trying to recover both. Instead we have to seriously look for a new baby and a new pan nas well. Alass, with this rather curious verdict, the peopel’s joy was short lived and now completely disappeared from the faces of all the people with whom sovereignty is supposed to rest under the Constitution that is supposed to be sacrocent.Who is culpable of this disaster is a moot question. However it must be made very clear that this SC decision affects only the desolurion of Parliament and it does not impinge on the legality of the appointment of the PM or the Cabinet. This point is made very clear from the following decision of the SC on the pettions seeking a Quo Warranto order on the appointment of the PM and the Cabinet.
“The Supreme Court has granted leave to hear the appeal by Mahinda Rajapaksa against the interim order given by the Court of Appeal at the request of 122 MPP purported to be saviours of democracy in this country comprising UNP 102. TNA 14 and JVP 6 and also has rejected to issue a stay order on the interim order restraining Mahinda Rajapaksa from holding office of Prime Minister and his Cabinet from functioning. It has also unanimously ordered the Appeal Court not to hear the petition against Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Cabinet holding office, until the Supreme Court hearing is over. This clearly says that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Cabinet is still leagal and therefore valid and I have no doubt that this is a good news at least for one month for all the patriotiic people of this country who love him “
Under this situation I opine there is no reason for MR to resing leaving the Cabinet dissolved untill the SC court decision on the appeal is given. I think he should have not resinged at least untill the SC ruling is given on this matter as he could have carried on until elections to Parliament are held in case the SC gives a favourable verdict.
However now that he has resigned, there is no point in talking about this postulation or hanging on to it by ordinary mortals like us. Nevertheless, as aperson who knows the crafty and vicious mind of Ranil and proven ability to manure and design underhand treacheries, I am compelled to think that this decision on MR’s part is yet another irrevercible blunder of fareaching political consequences for thim as well as the ountry and the nation. I would compare this with his decision to go for Presidential elections in 2014, two years before the due date and also his decition to hand over the Presidency of the Party to MS in 2015. If I were MR, intead of handing over the leadership I would have sacked MS from the post of Secretary of the party immediately after he decided to contest as the comon candiate under the UNP and retained the leadership of the JO and thereby retained the solid political power of the SLFP as well as the JO. Had that been done MS would never have been able to sack the Secretaries of the SLFP as well as the JO, thereby making him a prisoner in the hands of the UNP making him a lame duck and he could have never been able to appoint Ranil as the PM on Jan 8th 2015. Jn the alternative he would have been compelled to work with a Governemnt headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa as the PM
That would also have avoided the10 billion Feb 2015 Central Bank scam as Ranil would never have been in power to all designings and conspiracies what he did and more over all subsequent ations taken by Ranil’s Government, including the 40 billion second CB scam ib 2016 detrimental to the country would have been avoided. To that extent I hold the view that both MS and MR have to take full responsibility or at least share it equally with Ranil for all damages done to the country by the so-called yahaplanaya Government during the 4 1/2 years including the 2 CB robbery 2016 that destroyed the countrie’s economy with spillover effects for generations to come.
Reverting to MR’s decision to resign why did MR take this illconcieved and hasty decision to me is a big puzzel. I attribute this to three major factors. Firstly it may be that he is fed up with never ending legal harrassings by this Government. Secondly he may have wanted to show the country that he is not power hungry like Ranil and he regards the country first than temporary political power. Lastly he did not have proper advice on the serious and long term political implications of this decision or he did not listned to it, even if it was given, as usual. Nevertheless I apprecite his decision if he ha staken it in consideration of the inconvenience caused to the country and the peole, in keeping with the ageold tradion of our ancient Kings.
It is undoubtedly magnanimous on his part as a true national leader. But this latest decision will tigger off another long chain of another reactions and confusions of unimaginable proportion and unpredictable repercussions for the counhtry for the following reasons.
The purported decsion, if it is true,on the part of the Presdient to allow some SLFP MPP to again join hands with Ranil and form a second second mariage in the guise of a nonnational and anti-national “national Government” will again takes the country back to square no 1. However having listen to the President’s address to Ranil and the UNP hierarchy at the President’s Office on the eve of Ranil’s appointment as today I have my doubts as to whether he will allow any SLFP MP to join the UNP. If they do I suggest he sack them.
Nevertheless one has to bare in mind the following realities as well in the complexities one has to face in the days to come
1The President will now have to again preside over a more hostile and uncorpeartive Cabinet that takes decisions and try do things even without his knowledge.
2 Ranil W has only 102 seats in his UNF including the UNP, Muslim, Estate Tamils and highly undependable peopel like Champika who have their own private agendas and he will not have the majority in Praliament to form a stable Government unless he gets the TNA and JVP to support him. Now that the TNA and JVP have already publicly declared that they will not give their support to Ranil (again not a reliable statement that could change at any time) we shold not forget that both Tamil an dMuslim politicinas are real shylocks who will never support any Government without the exact pound of flesh from the heart.
3The TNA will never give their support unless they get a written promis from Ranil (which he will of cause give as he will never get TNA support without that). If that happens the TNA will lose the Leader of the Opposition Job. If the UNP acceed to their demands of merging the North and the East etc the UNP will be committing political suicide. The Speaker will also have to change his UNP stance (that was there in his head for the past 4 years) and will be compelled to accept the SLPP+SLFP as the true opposition in Parliament.
4 If the President again decides to allow few monkeys from the SLFP to support Ranil once again he will be going back to square no1 by doing which he will be again making the same blunder he did in 2015 by taking 44 JO MPP to support Ranil
I only hope the President will not fall in to the same pit that he voluntarily jumped in 2015.
What ever said and done the Presidents appointment of MR as PM on the 26th has saved the country from the divion of the country in to 9 ethnic divisions with 9 separate Governements by stopping the enactment of a federal Constitution in addition to many more disatrous betrayal that were designed to be effected by the RAail Government before next April.
Let the Guardian Gods of this Island nation give wisdom to stupid politicians to desist from their treacherous moves to destroy this country and the sinhalanation and its 2500 year old pristine civilization.
Religion based political history of North and East indicate that although Sumanthiran belongs to the protestant Christian minority it is believed that he would receive the overwhelming support of the predominantly Hindu electorate of Jaffna. The most famous of Protestant Christian being elected include the co-founder and leader of the Federal Party, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam who won in Kankesanthurai repeatedly in 1947, 1956, 60, 65, 70 and 75. Rajan Selvanayagam in Batticaloa (1970) and Alfred Durayappah in Jaffna (1960) was also protestant Christians though Durayappah later transcended religion and became a Theosophist worshipping at Hindu temples and Buddhist vihares. In recent times T. Kurukularajah a protestant Christian won from the Kilinochchi district at the Northern provincial council elections. Kurukularajah who was the provincial Minister for Education is the son of eminent clergyman Rev. A.C. Thambyrajah who set up the unorthodox Christian institution Navajeevanam”in Murasumottai near Paranthan.
Political analysts commented that the main reason for Christians being elected in Hindu majority areas is since Tamil politics in Sri Lanka has been of a secular nature. Homage is paid to the Thamizh Thaai” or Tamil mother who symbolises Tamil unity regardless of religious differences. The political struggle for Tamil equality in the island has been on ethno-linguist grounds and pro separatist Jeyarj says when mobs attacked Tamils in 1956, 58, 77, 81 and 83 the victims were targeted for being Tamils and not for being Hindus or Christians. Similarly, when bombs and shells rained down on Tamil populated areas they did not differentiate between Hindus and Christians altogether .
This phenomenon of Christians being political leaders in the Tamil community has been remarked upon and questioned. This was particularly so in the case of S.J.V. Chelvanayagam who led Tamil non –violent political resistance for two decades and was revered as Than Thai (Father) Chelva. I t was said that former Prime Minister Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike once wrote to Chelvanayagam and asked him as to what right he had as a Christian to speak for the predominantly Hindu Tamils of the North and East. Chelvanayagam is reported to have responded saying that It is to the credit of the Tamil people that they did not require their leaders to change their religion in order to lead them.”
The reference to changing religion” was a veiled barb at Sinhala leaders like S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and J.R. Jayewardene who were born and baptized as Anglicans but later became Buddhists.
TNA overseas branches in Canada, UK and Australia are also firmly supportive of Sumanthiran’s candidacy. Thus, Sumanthiran’s political opponents and competitors anticipate his victory and are apprehensive.
It is said that under the nre Ranil Wickremasinnghe dispensatiomneither the TNA nor Sumanthiran were willing at this juncture to join a Govt. There is however the probability of the TNA joining a national Government in the near future or after fresh elections and accepting ministerial posts and would depend upon a number of factors and it may be premature to speculate in greater detail on this possibility at this point.
The important thing is to note that anxiety about the TNA establishing greater rapport with the new government and accepting Cabinet posts in the future has reported to have afflicted two components of Tamil society. The major component consists of Tamil extremists and hardliners who do not want any rapprochement or reconciliation. They particularly abhor the prospect of the TNA sharing power at the centre as part of a government. The minor component comprises those who are personally opposed to Sumanthiran and to a lesser extent Sampanthan. Currently there is a convergence of interests between both components and a tactical alliance is reported to have been evolved
The demands for Bifurcation of t5he country were given to Ranil in Writing Says TNA MP Siddarthan Dharmalingam
The genocide of Tamils” resolution drafted and presented by the former Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran was unanimously” passed by the Northern Provincial Council. It is important to note that the genocide resolution has poisoned the cordial climate that prevailed between the Govt and the TNA since the beginning of this year. There were many dimensions to Wigneswaran’s agenda and one such aspect is that of the resolution being a pre-emptive strike to prevent greater co-operation between the TNA and the Government
A further extension of these efforts to pre-empt a Govt-TNA nexus is the recent escalation of attacks on Sumanthiran. One does not know whether Sumanthiran himself is confident about winning an election, but those circles opposed to him seem to be sure that the bespectacled lawyer residing in Wellawatte will win a seat in Jaffna and enter Parliament through the Mun Kathavu” or front door. It is further anticipated that he would be a Cabinet minister after the next elections. This has lent a sense of urgency to the Anti-Sumanthiran camp.
The objective behind the intensified attacks seems to be to increase pressure on Sumanthiran and dissuade him from continuing with politics. By increasing attacks on multiple fronts these elements want to pressurise him into re-thinking his future and reviewing his options. Why should a person with a lucrative legal practice living comfortably in Colombo with his family expose himself continuously to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes” in the form of acts like effigy burning attacks? is the crude logic governing the masterminds behind the demonstrations. The motive behind the malignant attacks is to exert pressure and make Sumanthiran quit politics voluntarily” explains his portage Jryaraj.
A key device in this strategy is the tartarisation” strategy. Sumanthiran is being vilified widely as a thurogi” or traitor. In the bad old days when Veluppillai Prabhakaran and his lethal minions were ruling the Tamil roost the modus operandi adopted was to demonise someone as a traitor and then exterminate him. Mercifully this is no longer an option for the tigers and their fellow travellers because of Mahinda Rajapaksa who bestowed a great gift upon the Tamils by destroying the LTTE militarily in Sri Lanka. ryaraj says in a post-Prabhakaran era the course of action available is not assassination but character assassination. The idea is to kill without killing” by portraying the targeted victim as a traitor. Unable to kill physically, the blood-thirsty fiends satisfy their lust by cremating” portraits and effigies.
Ryaraj asserts that the orchestrated protests against Sampanthan and Sumanthiran therefore should be viewed in this light. Initially the grouse was about attending the Independence Day event. Now it is about the delay” in releasing the UN report on Sri Lanka. Don’t delay” is the demand. Ironically the very same elements who are criticising the TNA for the delay are the same sections who protested the UN probe itself when it was mooted. What a contradiction! Likewise, Wigneswaran says his genocide resolution is to signal the UN not to delay releasing the report. Again, the question is would not investigation into genocide protract UN proceedings further? Faulty logic bordering on political hypocrisy!
If the track record of Tamil politics is any indication, the campaign against Sampanthan and Sumanthiran would keep continuing for a while. ryaraj claims the next phase would be an influx by an assortment of Tamil nationalist patriots” to Geneva demanding speedy justice for the Tamils. In the process more, portraits and effigies of Sampanthan and Sumanthiran may be set on fire in Geneva.
Different aspects of TNA-LTTE treachery and UNP/JVP and Western/Indian cooperation will be continued in a different series. Thank you
The United National Party members who had joined with Mahinda Rajapaksa will not return to the UNP, says former Minister Basil Rajapaksa.
Addressing a public meeting held in Meegoda area, the former Minister said that he is making this comment as a respect to those members.
Furthermore, the rumours which claim that certain members of Sri Lanka Freedom Party would join the government are unwarranted and that most of the MPs have already informed the President and Mahinda Rajapaksa in this regard, Basil Rajapaksa noted.
I have given Premiership to Ranil Wickremesinghe while honouring Parliamentary traditions and democracy,” President Maithripala Sirisena has stated.
He stated this addressing the members of United National Front (UPF) following the swearing-in ceremony of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister this morning (16).
The President stated that his statement on refusing to give premiership to Wickremesinghe even if all 225 in Parliament sign and request him to do so is his personal political opinion and persists to date.
However, he has decided to invite Ranil Wickremesinghe to be appointed the Prime Minister as a leader who honours the Parliament traditions and democracy, President Sirisena further stated.
Reminding that, in accordance with the Constitution, the Parliament or the judiciary do not have the authority to appoint the Premier, President Sirisena stated that he took this decision as the majority of 117 votes in the Parliament has sought Ranil Wickremesinghe to be appointed as the Prime Minister.
There are several arm chair political pundits indirectly expressing happiness on the departure of Mahinda Rajapakse after a very short period in office. These are the same people who advocated that Mahinda was greedy to grab power to escape legal actions against him and his family. If that is the case, why Mahinda gracefully left office, exactly the same way he left office of the President even before the final results were released. These CLAYTON MAHINDA SUPPORTERS are disgruntled JVP and UNP supporters.
In contrast, these arm chair political pundits have not complained even once when Ranil refused to leave Temple Trees after he was sacked from Office. We need to be extremely cautious of these arm chair writers and pundits.
During this short period, Mahinda addressed most pressing question of the farming community by providing fertilizer at Rs 500. The Farming community is jubilant, the result of the decision will increase the production volume in the primary industries and reduce the prices. Similarly, Mahinda dismantled the ad-hoc fuel pricing formula and reduced the fuel prices 3 times within a short period.
Apart from these, he was able to tell TNA that he will never come to terms with them where the ultimate result will be division of the country. Ranil has reconfirmed his previous commitment to divide the country, as disclosed by the former General Secretary of the UNP Mr Tissa Attanayake.
Mahinda displayed that he is now much tougher than last time.
It is now time for the SLPP to continue with the grass root build up, as his most recent decisions had enhanced the value of Mahinda Rajapakse.
A massive campaign must be undertaken to expose any attempts to divide the country by Ranil Wickremasinghe. Ranil will decrease the cost of living to increase his popularity and simultaneously deceive the masses whilst bringing new laws to satisfy the extreme Tamils and Muslims for the division of the country.
Our organization, De Dham Rakno, is a movement of the people of Sri Lanka, that is committed to preserving the sovereignty and the integrity of our country, and the right of all its people to live in peace, equality and harmony across the length and breadth of the island. It is not aligned or affiliated to any political party either directly or indirectly. It spurns foreign funds and is financed purely by the meager contributions of its members and well wishers.
This letter is to express our utmost displeasure over the continuing acts of interference in the internal affairs of our country, by the ambassadors of some Western NATO countries and their allies both in the East and West, riding rough shod over Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, with scant regard to the sensibilities of our people. Some of these ambassadors act in the most despicable and shameless manner, as if Sri Lanka is a colony of the countries they represent. They are not only violating all norms of diplomacy but are also flagrantly abusing our sovereignty.
In the aftermath of the recent ousting of Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe from power, which is purely an internal matter of our country, the role that these ambassadors played in holding discussions with the Hon. Speaker of the house, Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, and persuading the latter to change his earlier position recognizing the appointment of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister by His Excellency the President, in accordance with the powers vested in him by the constitution, amply supports our position stated above. Their over eagerness to reinstall their ally Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister, led them to demean themselves to the level of DPL jokers, when they applauded and rejoiced in the lobby of the parliament, over the declaration made by the Speaker that Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has lost a no confidence motion, that was rushed through parliament without regard to proper procedures. They no doubt consider the occasion as a victory for their joint effort (or conspiracy?) to restore Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe to power.
We could have dismissed their behaviour lightly as arising from a burst of unbridled but crude expression of colonial mentality, if not for the fact that their governments, casting aside international law, jointly endeavour to have their puppets installed and maintained in high offices in countries across the globe. In many a such country, these puppet regimes have readily allowed the wealth of their countries to be stolen by their masters, and further commit their people to serve in proxi wars to oust other legitimate governments that resist the demands of the Western NATO states. But we Sri Lankans do not want such a fate to befall us.
While civil unrest, military power struggles and separatist wars have brought untold suffering to people of nations that have undergone the “regime changes” effected by the NATO states, the wealth of the latter has burgeoned by the sale of armaments to the warring factions. The citizens of NATO states, basking in the comforts of sitting rooms furnished by such ill begotten wealth, are inclined to readily believe the reports churned out by the biased high profile Western media, without going through the trouble to ascertain the truth from alternative sources of information. We believe that if this world is not only to be a safer place for all, but also one where all its inhabitants could satisfy at least their basic needs, the good hearted citizens of NATO states should pay greater attention to the operations let loosed by their leaders, especially in countries that cannot defend themselves. Further, they should bring pressure on their leaders to allow people of other nations to solve their internal political issues of their own accord.
We also take this opportunity to call upon the Indian government, or rather, once again, its good hearted citizens, to examine their country’s foreign policy, especially vis-a-vis its small neighbouring states. We believe that if India is to be the great world leader it has the potential to be, and we sincerely wish it to be so, it should stop playing second fiddle to USA, and seek its position in the world on its own merit. A great country that has produced a Buddha, an Asoka, a Ghandhi and an Ambedkar, should be a beacon of righteousness to the world, rather than one that trains and arms terrorists, promote separatism and indulge in cloak and dagger operations to bully or end governments and leaders of neighbouring states. It should stop its policy of arm twisting smaller neighbours, forcing them to accept trade agreements and investments, that they fear would lead to the economy of the smaller state being swallowed by India, finally leading to its complete annexation, as happened to Sikkim. Such murky unethical stratagem may be in order for one time colonial powers that have killed, raped, enslaved and plundered country after country from the 15 hundreds, but it is certainly anathema to the enlightened, modern and powerful Bharatha we wish it to be as one that protects the smaller states around it from the political machinations of the West, instead of conniving with it.
Leaders and diplomats on the other side of the Palk Straits use hackneyed phrases such as “ancient cultural ties”, “brotherly relations”, “spiritual union”, etc. to assure us how highly they value the special status of relations between our two countries, and consequently, the good intentions of India in its dealings with us. However the general public of Sri Lanka cannot be hoodwinked, for we can never forget, the steps leading to India’s invasion of Sri Lanka in the guise of sending a “peace keeping force”, purportedly to disarm the very same terrorists trained and armed by itself, with the “consent” of the then President of Sri Lanka, who was made to bow down to the Indian Ambassador. We can neither forget how the 13th amendment was forced on the parliament and ratified at the point of a gun instituting provincial councils, that have become the bane of development and harmony among the different races, and hangs like the Sword of Damocles threatening to disintegrate Sri Lanka to nine independent warring states. We can neither forget India’s attempt to establish a separate independent state in the North and East and its setting up of a Tamil National Army in support of it.
Even if we cannot forget India’s past aggression, we can forgive India, if only it is in turn prepared to mend its ways allowing us to solve our problems by ourselves, truly respect our sovereignty, integrity and independence. If India wishes to go further and live up to the claim it makes about the special status it affords our relationship, it can stand by us in resisting the pressure brought on us by the NATO states to carry out their diktats. However what both India and the West should realise are that when they act hand in glove to our detriment, neither can complain if we seek closer ties with other powerful countries in the world to protect our sovereignty.
Daya Wijesinghe 21st of November, 2018
Hony. General Secretary
De Dham Rakno
She achieved high office (Home Secretary) thanks to David Cameron, who failed to gain a majority in Parliament at the 2010 election, in spite of the fact that Labour had been in power since 1997 and that the outgoing prime minister, Gordon Brown, was deeply unpopular. Cameron had to govern in coalition with the Liberals.
Theresa May then became Prime Minister in 2016, after Cameron resigned having been defeated, like her, in the referendum on Brexit. She and her boss had campaigned for Remain.
ALSO ON RT.COM‘Not open for renegotiation’: EU stands by Brexit deal, offers few extra reassurances to MayShe then led her party into a catastrophic election in 2017, in which the Conservatives lost the 20-seat majority they had won in 2015 and ended up nine seats short of a majority. This was in spite of the fact that the Conservatives faced a Labour opposition in deep disarray, with a leader (Jeremy Corbyn) who many had thought was unelectable. Since last year, May has clung on to power only thanks to the support of the Ulster Unionists. Without them, she could not govern.
Theresa May’s latest election, the one held on December 12 by her fellow Conservative Members of Parliament, was also a sort of defeat. True, she won by two-thirds: 200 votes for her, 117 against. But out of the 200 votes there are more than 150 MPs who belong to the government, either as ministers, deputy ministers or private parliamentary secretaries. These people have to vote with the government or they lose their government job and any chance of future preferment. In other words, over half of the Tory backbenchers voted against May.
Moreover, her re-election as leader has not answered any of the questions which led to the vote in the first place, in particular what to do given that there is no majority in the House of Commons for the deal she has agreed with the EU. Indeed, there is no majority in the House of Commons for any option at all. She has led her party and her country into an impasse.
Her only tactic is to turn this weakness into a strength: like Madame de Pompadour, Theresa May says it is either her or chaos. Après moi, le déluge. Unfortunately, the tactic of turning defeat into victory has –as was inevitable– ultimately created the conditions for defeat.
This is because the deal that she has negotiated with the EU creates precisely the conditions which guarantee that her objective of a free trade deal with the EU, first stated in January 2017 and repeated on many subsequent occasions, cannot be achieved. According to the terms of the agreement –which is in fact only an agreement to continue negotiating– Britain and the EU will seek to sign a free trade deal by the end of the transition period in 2020. But the famous ‘Irish border backstop’ ensures that the EU has no interest in agreeing to anything.
ALSO ON RT.COMCorbyn plots no-confidence motion with DUP in May’s Tory govt before Christmas – reportsIf there is no free trade agreement by the end of 2020, according to the terms of the deal she negotiated in November, the whole of the United Kingdom will remain in the EU customs union. It will not be able to leave it until a new agreement is reached. Britain will therefore be in a uniquely weak position and the EU has every interest in getting it there.
London would have to accede to a long shopping list of individual demands from EU states –from the French on fishing, from the Spanish on Gibraltar, and so on– in order to break free from the backstop. It is more difficult to leave the backstop than it is to leave the EU, and May’s deal is therefore the longest suicide note in history.
The fact is that Britain and the EU have been negotiating for two years with radically different objectives. Theresa May does not seem to have realized this. London was trying to have the benefits of EU membership (a free trade agreement) without the costs; Brussels was determined to show that you cannot have the benefits without the costs. London wanted to prosper outside the EU, Brussels is determined to show that you cannot prosper outside the EU, for fear that other EU member states might start trying to follow Britain. Theresa May was determined to succeed whereas the EU’s priority has been to ensure that she fails.
The EU’s strategy has, therefore, been to create a situation in Britain which is untenable, with the openly admitted goal of getting the British, one way or another, to reverse Brexit. This is but a variant of the tactic the EU has deployed many times in the past when it has lost other referendums – in Denmark in 1992, in Ireland in 2001 and 2008, in France and the Netherlands in 2005, and in the Netherlands again in 2016 (in a vote on the Association Agreement with Ukraine which was widely seen as being against the EU in general.)
ALSO ON RT.COMChancellor Hammond labels Rees-Mogg, Boris & co ‘extremists’ as Tory civil war gets uglyOn each occasion, the EU simply decided to ignore the vote; either it pressed ahead with ratification in other states so that the countries in question were forced to vote a second time (Denmark and Ireland) or the same legislation was passed by the political class in their respective national parliaments (France and the Netherlands) and against the people’s wishes. The same thing is now happening against Britain, and we are now witnessing, in real time, a sixth attempt to strangle democracy.
By running down the clock, Prime Minister May hopes that her deal will be accepted as the only way of preventing no deal or no Brexit. That is why it is essential for MPs to adopt the opposite logic from hers and vote for no deal.
Pakistan was once recognized as a unique nation spread over two strategically located Eastern and Western parts, separated by a distance of 1000 kilometers. The binding force that cemented unity and harmony between these two predominantly Muslim nations was ideology of Pakistan. The story of this love between Bengal as Eastern part of Pakistan and Balochistan, North Western Frontier Province, Punjab and Sindh as well Jammu and Kashmir including Northern Areas as West part of Pakistan dates back to the ancient times even older than the times of Prophet of Islam Hazrat Mussa Alhe Salam (Prophet Mosses). The Muslims of these two parts struggled hard under the leadership of father of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to create single sovereign independent Islamic state, which finally came into being on 15 August 1947.
The celebration of 15th August as ‘Independence Day’ faded its colours after the separation of Eastern part as an independent country ‘Bangladesh’ on 16 December 1971. Interestingly, 15th August continued to be celebrated as ‘Independence Day’ by the masses in Bangladesh but the enemies of Pakistan and Bangladesh could not digest it. In a tragic terrorist attack on 15 August 1975, the great Pakistani-Bengali leader Mujibur Rehman was killed along with 26 persons including his wife, brother, three sons, two daughters in law, near relatives and close associates, turning this joyful event as a sad day to recall. One of the surviving two daughters of Shaheed Sheikh Mujibur Rehman is Hasina Wajid, the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
There is no doubt that 16th of December 1971 was the darkest day in the history of Pakistan, which Pakistan observes every year as ‘Day of sorrow and determination to take revenge from our enemies’. On the day Pakistan lost its Eastern part in war with India. For some, the day marks as a day of relief as East Pakistani got rid of some of their grievances but many West Pakistan view the day when they lost everything as their brothers and sisters changed their identities with a heavy heart. Our common enemies could not digest that despite bitter and hard feelings between the former Pakistani nation, Pakistanis still observe 16th December as ‘Day of sorrow and determination to take revenge from our enemies’.
On 16th of December 2014, the enemies of Pakistan and Bangladesh again played with the sentiments of people of both the countries, when they chose the day of 16th of December to carryout terrorist attack on Army Public School, Warsak Road, Peshawar, martyring over 157 and injuring scores of other. Ever since the terrorist attack, the general masses are trying to observe the day associated with terrorist attack on the school. There is no doubt, the terrorist attack in Bangladesh on 15 August 1975 on the ‘Independence Day of Pakistan’ and terrorist attack in Pakistan on 16 December 2014 on the ‘Day of sorrow and determination to take revenge from our enemies’ have been carried out by the same enemies. Both the episodes are sad and those who lost their lives will always be remembered but Pakistani and Bangladeshi nation should never forget 15 August and 16 December as Day of Independence and Day of Sorrow.
කංසා ශාකය නීතිගත කරන ලෙසට අප විසින් රාජ්යයෙන් ඉතා පැහැදිලි ඉල්ලීමක් කර ඇත. මුදල් අමාත්යාංශය විසින් කරන ලද ඉල්ලීමකට අනුව අයවැය යෝජනාවක් ලෙස අප එම යෝජනාවලිය ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලදී. එහි අරමුණ කංසා ජාතික ධනය උපයන ශාකයක් බවට පත්කිරීමයි. රටේ ණය ගෙවා දැමීමට ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයෙක් යෝජනා කිරීම වෙනුවට රටට ධන උපායන මාර්ගයක් අප විසින් ගෙන එයි. එය රටට විශාල විදෙස් විනිමයක් උපයන මිල අධික යෝජනාවකි.
දකුණු ආසියාවේ කංසා නීතිගත කරන පළමු රට බවට පත්වීමට එමගින් ලංකාවට අවස්ථාව උදාවෙයි. මත්පැන් වෙළෙන්දන්, බටහිර ඖෂධ නිෂ්පාදකයින්, වික්ටෝරියානු සදාචාරවාදී වෘත්තිකයන් සමඟ එක්ව මාධ්ය මාෆියාව විසින් කංසාවලට විශාල සමාජ අපකීර්තියක් පටබැඳ ඇති නිසා කංසා පිළිබඳ ජනතා මතය ප්රසිද්ධියේ ප්රකාශ නොවුනත් බහුතරයක් ශ්රී ලාංකික ජනතාව සිටින්නේ කංසා නීතිගත කිරීම අනුමත කරන ස්ථාවරයක බව නොඅනුමානය.
කංසාවලට අදාළ නීතිරීති වෙනස් කිරීමට පැවති රජයන් කිහිපයක් උත්සාහ ගත්තේ ය. නීතිය හා සාමය සුරකින පොලිසියද දැනටමත් ඊට යම් අනුමැතියක් ලබා දී තිබේ. නැත්නම් කංසා භාවිතය නිසා අත්අඩංගුවට පත්වන පිරිස මීට වඩා බොහෝ වැඩි වෙති. අධිකරණය වුවද කංසා ස්වල්පයක් ලග තබා ගැනීමේ වරදට නියම කරන්නෙ සුලු දඩ මුදලකි. ව්යවස්ථාපිත නීතිය අනුගමනය කිරීමට වඩා භාවිත නීතියේ තරමක සහනයක් ලබා දීමට පොලිසියේ සහ අධිකරණයේ නැඹුරුවක් ඇති බව එමගින් තහවුරු වෙයි.
කංසා නීති විරෝධී වුවත් මත් ජාවාරම්කරුවන් කංසා වෙළදාමේ නිරත වන බව නොරහසකි. ඉන්දියානු ධීවරයින් හරහා ලැබෙන කේරල ගංජා ලංකාවේ බහුතර ජනයා අතර ප්රසිද්ධ ය. කංසා බීජ අභිජනනය අතින්ද ඉන්දියාව ඉදිරියට පැමිණ ඇති බව වාර්තා වෙයි. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ කංසා වගාව අනීතිකව පැවතීමෙන් වාසි අත්වන්නේ ඉන්දියාවට ය. ලංකාවේ මුහුදුබඩ ප්රදේශවල කංසා වෙළදාම සිදුකරන්නේ යුරෝපයේ සිට එන සංචාරකයින් ය. පසුගිය පස් වසරක් තිස්සේ අප රාජ්යයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ කංසාවලින් රටට ලැබෙන ආර්ථික වාසි අත්හැර නොදමන ලෙසයි.
වගා බලපත්ර නිකුත් කිරීම මගින් පුද්ගලික අංශයද ඊට දායක කරගත හැකිය. නමුත් ඔවුන් සියල්ල රජයේ නියාමනයට හෝ හවුල්කාරිත්වයට යටත් විය යුතුය. ඊට අමතරව රජයට අයත් කංසා බීජ පර්යේෂණ ආයතන, වගා බිම් හා කංසා ආශ්රිත කර්මාන්ත ආයතන පිහිටුවීමෙහි සිට රාජ්ය ඔසුසැල්වල කංසා අලෙවි කිරීම දක්වා රාජ්ය අංශයට ඊට සෘජුව දායක වියහැකි අවස්ථා අපගේ අයවැය යෝජනාවලියේ පැහැදිලිව අන්තර්ගත කර ඇත. ඉදිරියේ කංසා පිළිබඳ පුලුල් සංවාදයක් ඇති කිරීම අපගේ බලාපොරොත්තුවයි.
POLITICAL PARTIES BASED ON COMMUNITY, RELIGION AND COMMUNAL BASIS HAS TO BE BANNED IN SRI LANKA BY THE MAJORITY SINHALESE COMMUNITY AND NATIONALIST SINHALA FORCES IMMEDIATELY UNDER ANY NEW CONSTITUTION TO BE PRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT. FOR THIS – ALL SINHALA FORCES, INCLUDING THE MAHA SANGHA, THE SLFP, UNP (those who love the maathruboomiya”), JVP AND OTHER PATRIOTIC POLITICAL PARTIES INCLUDING THE SLPP/JO SHOULD GIVE THEIR FULLEST SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. SEVENTY TWO PERCENTAGE (72% ) SINHALA MP’s (voters) CAN EASILY DO THIS. MINORITY REPRESENTATION SHOULD ONLY BE IN THE NATIONAL PARTIES BY MEMBERSHIP AND BY BEING ELECTED FOR OFFICE IN THOSE PARTIES.
THIS IS THE ONLY WAY VOTE BANK CREATION BY MINORITY COMMUNITY POLITICAL LEADERS (THE MUSLIMS AND TAMILS) WHO TRADE THE VOTE BANK FOR SELFISH PERSONAL BENEFITS, FORGOING THE REAL BENEFITS FOR WHICH THE MINORITY GROUPS, ESPECIALLY THE MUSLIM VOTERS CAN BE SURE TO REAP THE TRUE BENEFITS OF THEIR POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS AND INSPIRATIONS, BE MADE POSSIBLE / A REALITY. A good example is the confession made by Rauf Hakeem when Rauf Hakeem admitted that he took money from Mahinda Rajapaksa, then President, to vote in favour of the 18th., Amendment Bill to the constitution on September 8th., 2010. One of the SLMC stalwarts, Segu Dawood exposed this incident and Rauf Hakeem admitted it in public. Browse this web link and learn how this political leader (MP. Rauf Hakeem) got money to vote for the 18th., Amendment in parliament on 8th., September 2010.
http://www.jaffnamuslim.com/2016/07/blog-post_144.html (for Muslim tamil readers).
In 1994, when the SLMC found an opportunity, supported by R. Premadasa to reduce the cut-off point in proportional representation from 12.5 to 5 per cent, in return NOT to field a Muslim candidate as a Presidential candidate, to stop the Muslims voting Premadasa, the SLMC joined the UNP. That was the beginning of the DEMOCRATIC DOWNFALL” of the aspirations and inspiration of the Sri Lanka Muslim community, because the late M.H.M. Ashraf started to trade with the Muslim vote bank to gain POLITICAL POWER IN THE CENTER” and get ministerial and deputy ministerial positions, high government statutory posts, diplomatic posts and many other perks for his stooges/henchaiyas. The SLMC splitting into the All Ceylon Muslim Congress, which became the All Ceylon MAKKAL Congress (Rishad Bathiudeen) and the National Muslim Congress which later became the National Congress (Atthaullah, regional Eastern province Muslim party), began to adopt THIS POLITICAL TRADING OF THE MUSLIM VOTES” and making DEALS” that was of NO BENEFIT, BUT DETRIMENTAL TO THE MUSLIM FACTOR” which were supported by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulema and so-called Muslim Civil Society groups, whose leadership also were given a SHARE” of these SPOILS and BENEFITS”, became the NORM” of the SLMC, ACMC, NATIONAL CONGRES, ACJU, THE NATIONAL SHOORA COUNCIL and the MUSLIM COUNCIL OF SRI LANKA, in the equation of Minority politics in Sri Lanka since 1994/1980. As a result of these deceptions, the Muslims in Sri Lanka do NOT have a voice – a POLITICAL VOICE” for that purpose. The Muslims did not benefit to resolve their economical, employment, development, land education and fundamental rights issues by VOTING the SLMC, ACMC or THE NATIONAL CONGRESS. The Muslims became POLITICAL ORPHANS” in Sri Lanka at last. Today this has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. Not only has it affected the Sri Lanka Muslims, but also PRALALYSED THE DEMOCRATICE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY SINHALA COMMUNITY WHICH IS 72% OF THE NATION TO MAKE ANY DECECIVE POLITICAL CONCLUSSION BENEFICAL TO THEIR AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA” OR TO AMEND / ADJUST THE CONSTITUTION TO THEIR NEEDS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NATION AND OUR MAATHRUBOOMIYA”. The present constitutional conflict in parliament is a reslt of this POLITICAL PLIGHT”, where Democracy is killing Constitutional Democracy”
With the media uncovering the corruption and deception of the Muslim political leaders in recent times and exposing these DECEPTIVE AND HOODWINKING” Muslim politicians and their operating beneficial gangs, the Muslim political culture has begun to change. Today this VOTE BANK TRADING BY MINORITY MUSLIM AND TAMIL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS” has become a MENACE and a SICKNESS in the democratic political process of our country. THIS HAS TO STOP FORTHWITH FOR A HEALTHY POLITICAL PROCESS TO TAKE PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY and the RIGHT for the voters to decide what their communities should do and the majority who are SINHALA VOTERS to decide what is best for the country they should do.
As for the Muslim Minority Community, the fact remains NOW, the Muslim voters are acting on their ownand do NOT wish to be represented by these MUNAAFIKK and DECEPTIVE POLITICIANS”. THE SLMC AND ACMC MP’S SHOULD ALSO ACT ON THEIR OWN NOW, Insha Allah. We Muslims should set an example like our predecessors who TRUSTED” the majority community in the wake of the British trying to delay giving us independence in 1948. The role of Dr. T B Jayah becomes paramount at this moment to recollect, because had he, or the Muslim community, sided with the British at that time, granting of Independence to Ceylon would have been postponed. It is only because the minorities agreed that there was a United Front of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims asking for Independence. But one man was against it. That was G G Ponnambalam who tried to extract his pound of flesh. He said I will sign on the dotted line only if you agree to Fifty Fifty”. That is 50% of the seats for the Sinhalese and 50% for the minorities. Only if you agree to that, he told D S Senanayake, will I support the call for independence. It was at this point that Jayah rejected the ‘fifty fifty’ formula. He said he preferred to work in trust, to work in faith and goodwill with the majority community.Thereby T.B.Jayah totally undercut G G Ponnambalam’s fifty fifty” cry. That was the death knell of Fifty Fifty”. If Jayah joined the fifty fifty” cry at that time, Independence would have been postponed. One has to remember that even the word Sinhala was erased from the political lexicon. S W R D Bandaranaike ditched the idea of the Sinhala Maha Saba and he first joined the UNP and later set up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which too did not have racial connotations. Everybody felt that communal parties were counter-productive. It is time up that a NEW POLITICAL FORCE” that will be honest and sincere that will produce CLEAN” and diligent Muslim Politicians to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH has to RISE”, and this NEW POLITICAL FORCE” has to support the new government of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and the majority Sinhalese citizens notwithstanding the fact that the Tamils of the North and East and the Upcountry Tamils and all minorities should be equally respected, politically, for a better Sri Lanka, God willing, Insha Allah.
15 December 2018
MIKE ADLER
TORONTO. COM
Dear Mike:
Re: Tamil Heritage Month launch reflects pain of Sri Lanka’s war.
With my ongoing interest in this 30 year long Tamil Eelam War in my Homeland,
Sri Lanka, which ended with the last bullet penetrating the forehead of the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on the sandy beach of the Nandikadal lagoon in Mullaitivu, at sundown on 19 May, 2009,, I was intrigued to read your take on it in your article -Tamil Heritage Month launch reflects pain of Sri Lanka’s war.
You know what Mike. After reading it, my stomach made somersaults laughing at it.
That article of yours confirmed one more time that what P.T.Barnum said –There is a Sucker born every minute. That’s a pity. Let me elaborate You (Mike Adler) said – The pain of the war that brought Tamils to Canada still, lingers, nearly 10 years after it ended.”
I (Asoka Weerasinghe) says – That is sad, isn’t it! Makes me ooze crocodile tears for these Tamils. What pain of War”, may I ask you Mike?
The riots that began at sundown on 24 July, 1983, in Colombo, when unfortunately, the Tamils got a heck of a hiding with their shops in flames, and some deaths, and the world’s floodgates were opened asunder to them saying by the bleeding-heart international saviours, Come running to our safe arms”. And so they came in rickety iron-corroding fishing trawlers and planes with some legitimate and others with illegitimate forged passports. It was a million dollar business, The market value for one of these forged passports with entry documents went for Cdn. $25,000 a piece. Ask the Toronto Metro police and they will tell you.
Of the Tamil refugees who came over, the majority, I would classify as ‘Economic Refugees’. If they had wanted to immigrate through the legitimate point system, they wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell to come into Canada. And that’s a FACT, and these Tamils know it. Did I tell you earlier that a Sucker is born every minute! Ummmmmm!!!!! How true, Canada!
It intrigues me as to why these Tamils who landed in the West, like Canada, US, UK, France, Germany and Norway, etc., thumbed their noses at their legitimate Motherland, Tamil Nadu, in South India, where 80-million of their kith and kin live, when flying over or sailing by it to the western lands in rickety Fishing Trawlers. And, of course, no sooner these Convention Refugees get their landed status/permanent residency and the Canadian Passport, they are on the first flight to Sri Lanka, from where they ran away from saying that they were persecuted and discriminated. Go figure that one out, Mike!
Even prior to getting their Canadian passports, these Convention Tamil refugees came to the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa in their thousands every October, November and December, with telegrams in their hands from Sri lanka, saying: Father dying of cancer, come home immediately. Or Mother dying of cancer, come home immediately.”
Mike, How do you know” you may ask me. That is a fair question. I know it as I had a stint as a senior locally recruited officer, and had to deal with these Tamil refugees, when the First Secretary was not available. I did tell these Tamil refugees, however, that I was amazed that every October , November and December there is a Cancer epidemic in Sri Lanka which afflicts only the Tamil parents and not a single Sinhalese, Muslim or Burgher parent. That was how it was between 1989 and 1994 when I was employed at the Sri Lanka High Commision in Ottawa. Whoopee do…what a fraudulent hoot! Did I not tell you that there seems to be a Sucker born every minute, and Canada was certainly prone to that notion. What a hoot!
Mike you said, The pain of the war……..” Do you know who had suffered the pain most? Between 1971 and 1981, much earlier than when the riots happened, were my people, the Sinhalese, when 27,000 of them who had been living in the North for generations, were threatened, terrorised and kicked out by the separatist Tamils. A Classroom Textbook example of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’. Did you know that? Did these Tamils tell you you that? Of course, not. How could they in case they would be painted as a bunch of crafty liars who wanted to find greener pastures away from home, where the roads were paved with gold, and earn a welfare cheque in Canadian dollars which most of them would earn more in Sri Lankan rupees a month than what they earned in Sri Lanka. Aren’t they a bunch of lucky people. Luckier than the Tamils who stayed back, as they couldn’t afford a plane ticket or pay the owner of a rickety corroding fishing trawler to be sailed over to western shores. The June 1983 riots in Colombo were a God’s send for these refugee Tamils,
These Tamils were ethnic cleansing maestros” which was the genesis of them creating a Powder Keg which was waiting to go off anytime. It happened on 24 July 1983 with a bang, fire and smoke.
Here is a short menu of their ‘ethnic cleansing’ acts of the Sinhalese majority, but there are more items.
Your article of the Tamil pain, does not tell your readers the truth. And that is unfair on my people, the Sri Lankan-Sinhalese Canadians, and I am one of them. And I resent it.
Mike you sid, The pain of War……..” And I ask you What pain of War?” You have missed a Fact about this War. This war was fought by two conventional Armies. One was the separatist Tamil Tiger terrorists who were fighting to create a mono-ethnic, separate Tamil racist state, Eelam, carved out of 33% of productive real estate in the North and East of the island bordered by 60% of the coastline for 12.6% of the Tamil population, The other was the Sri Lanka army who had been trained to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of that democratic island nation, Sri Lanka, which also happened to be my Motherland.
You give the impression that the Tamils are in pain”, and not the Sinhalese whose soldiers and innocent civilians were killed in the thousands and that those who won the war, are still celebrating lighting the skies with fireworks and partying eating strings of Tamil Nadu Masala Wade with a fried shrimp curled on the top, and drinking coconut shells filled with Jaffna toddy. That is poppycock, Mike. That is Bull. Give me a break. Every soldier and innocent Sinhalese killed too were God’s children and had a mother, father and siblings like those of the Tamils who got killed in this unnecessary war. After 10 years of ending the Sinhalese are still grieving and in pain as those Tamils you have portrayed in your article. These chest thumping Mothers are still crying. And that is no Fairy Tale So let’s cut out this crap, Mike. Let’s be honest and lets portray the true picture of what it is after 10 years of ending the war in both communities, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Anything else would be fraudulent journalism which is not worth two prairie straws waving in the summer wind.
I notice in your article, the photos of the second generation Tamil youngsters used as pawns by the adult Tamils reflecting their celebratory-pain.
I wish they would have the courage to tell their Amma” (Mother) and Appa (Father). Listen, we know that you are angry with the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, and your dream is to have your own separate, racist Tamil state, Eelam, but keep us out of it. We are here as Canadians, and some of us were born here, and we don’t want to get involved in your sxxt” and you can stew in it but don’t pull us into the pot.
If not for the riots of July 1983, we wouldn’t have been here, and so Thank You God for that happening.
Amma, Appa so please let us live in Canada as Canadians and get on with our lives. If you hate the Sinhale, so be it as it is not our problem, but don’t brainwash us to be hateful towards them, either. Dinesh an Sriyani, both Sinhalese are in my Class, and they are good friends of mine. And I want to continue being their friends, and they are good youngsters.
So please…please leave us alone.”
Mike, there is a Sinhalese-Canadian community in Toronto. Meet them and have a dialogue with them. They are a decent and an honest community. Give it a try and you will see the other side of the coin and how different it is as you have been preached by the separatist Tamil Eelamists in Toronto, feeding you with their Kilinochchi-Fairy Tales., You won’t regret it.
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)
The Canada based pro separatist scribe D.B.S.Jeyaraj who writes long articles to Daily Mirror run by Ranil Wickremasinghe’s family and who has gained much experience in promoting the Tamil separatist objectives on the sly has said that Sammbamdan (the terrorist grandpa) and diaspora bank rolled Sumanthiran have been accused of harming the Tamil cause by attending the February 4th freedom day event as Thurogigal” or Traitors and a vicious and venomous campaign is being orchestrated against both of them. As per the views of the Sri Lankan patriots the act of both these terrorists were only an eye wash instigated by western diplomatic groups and Indian hegemonizes to pose it as their genuine wish and thereby promote the constitution ghost.
The article was full of hidden objectives to promote the separatist goal brief of extracts of the said article are given below with appropriate counter comments from the Sri Lankan patriots who can easily understand the direction the cattle is trying to take when it turns its head and the Sri Lankans have experienced this kind of gimmick when megalomaniac Prabhakaran was ruling the roost.
To justify the hidden objective of promoting the activities being carried out by the terrorist duo Jayaram says that the past weeks have seen a barrage of articles critical of both in newspapers and websites published by LTTE remnants in the Global Tamil Diaspora, Radio and TV Stations run by LTTE and pro-LTTE elements and constant propagation of derogatory views on the internet. He says that these internet warriors too are on the warpath against the terrorist duo. If Jaqyaraj and his ilk believe that with this kind of negative comments against the terrorist duo they can promote their constitution and other separatist objective, they are grossly mistaken.
Let us join hands against the Separatist Elephant-Tiger Alliance
As it was pointed out in a previous article of mine, the Sri Lankan patriots suspect that this deliberately organised and purported anti Sumanthiran activities seems to have been organised to facilitate his migration to either UNP or to the camp of JEPPOs and the attempt to migrate to UNP has already become successful and he has now gained the authority to dictate terms to the senior vice President of that party Lakshman Kiriella and participate in internal party meetings while the so-called party stalwarts remain dumb founded.
In February 21st a demonstration was held in Jaffna for the ostensible purpose of drawing attention to the plight of disappeared and missing persons. After engaging in protest opposite the Jaffna central bus stand, the demonstrators went in procession via Hospital road and Kankesanthurai (KKS) road to the memorial constructed for the persons killed during the International Tamil Research Conference on January 10th, 1974. Youths also shouted out slogans against Sampanthan and Sumanthiran while proceeding, leaving most onlookers puzzled as to how those slogans would draw attention towards the plight of the disappeared.
Northern Provincial councillor Ananthy Sasitharan the wife of senior tiger leader Ezhilan” addressing the gathering said t that people desperate over the plight of their missing family members had got emotionally agitated and spontaneously engaged in the burning Sumanthiran‘s effigy and so suddenly .
Ananth’s blatant untruths were immediately refuted by the council’s deputy chairman Anton Jeyanathan. He responded to Ananthy angrily by asking her if the act was spontaneous then how was the effigy created beforehand and brought to the venue in, her vehicle?” Jeyanathan elected from Mullaitheevu district went on to describe Sumanthiran as a Mandaikkaai” which colloquially means brainy person. He also shot down Ananthy’s explanation about the spontaneous anger of the families of the disappeared and missing and queried Why should the family members burn Sumanthiran’s effigy to protest their relatives taken by the army”? Jeyanathan silenced Ananthy by posing a counter question Whose effigy can the families of those taken by the tigers burn”? This struck home as Ananthy’s husband Ezhilan is accused of conscripting youths on a large scale. ( Jeyaraj in has in earlier articles has vividly exposed the human rights violations and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Ezhilan).
Jeyaraj further stated that when Ananthy was struck dumb by Jeyanathan’s angry outburst, another provincial councillor tried to enter the fray. This was none other than Kandiah Sarweswaran the brother of TN A spokesperson and Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader Premachandran alias Suresh. Northern Provincial Council chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam who was presiding, had refused to let Sarweswaran speak. Sivagnanam forced an end to the discussion in the council about the effigy burning incident by his ruling.
Jeyaraj explained though the furore subsided at the council it is doubtful as to whether the controversy would simply peter out. He said the related London antics by the pseudo-nationalists can be dismissed as the work of the Tamil lunatic fringe, but the r role played by TNA elements in attacking Sampanthan and Sumanthiran in Sri Lanka cannot be ignored. The central committee of the IlankaiThamil ArasuKatchi (ITAK) which is the chief constituent of the TNA met in Vavuniya and have discussed necessarily follow up action.
Jeyaraj further states that it is certainly a fact that the TNA clique consisting of people like TNA parliamentarian Suresh” Premachandran, Provincial Councillors M.K. Sivajilingam, Ananthy Sasitharan, K Gajatheeban, ITAK senior vice president Prof.S.K. Sittampalam and ITAK youth front leader V.S. Sivakaran are engaged in this type of politics. It is aided and supplemented by outside elements like Ex-MPs Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Selvarajah Gajendran of the TNPF and Kumaravadivel Guruparan the livewire behind the Tamil Civil Society Forum. Many of these malcontents maintain links to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) elements abroad and a recruit to these ranks is the ambitious former Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran who is working to his own agenda He says that Wigneswaran is the latest Darling of the Diaspora after the ill-advised genocide” resolution adopt by the NPC.
These opposing” sections are always on the look-out to find fault and embarrass the TNA particularly its leadership. Sumanthiran has said that he had been singled out specifically because he is the most articulate TNA parliamentarian. He is widely accepted by some pro separatist Southern politicians nationally as well as leaders and officials internationally. Sumanthiran is the most trusted and able deputy of the terrorist grandpa Sampanthan and in recent times Sumanthiran has been playing a constructive role in Tamil political affairs. In a blend of public advocacy along with quiet diplomacy the TNA national list MP has been rendering yeoman service to his community. In many instances those who want to weaken Sampanthan use Sumanthiran as a target. The idea is to cripple Sampanthan politically by undermining Sumanthiran.
Sumanthiran’s political role has been appreciated and praised by many but it has also led to some resentment` in certain circles within and outside the TNA. Jeyaraj comments that a mong the TNA parliamentarians of today, Sumanthiran is the only MP who has had no interaction with any of the Tamil militant groups including the LTTE prior to his entering politics. Though born at the McLeod Hospital in Inuvil, Jaffna, he grew up in Colombo studying at Royal College. The protégé of Sumanthiran , the pro separatist Jeyaraj says Smitherman was aloof from active politics, practising law in Colombo until invited by Sampanthan to join the TNA. He was appointed national list MP in 2010 by Sampanthan despite Emeritus Professor Stamata also staking his claim. Sittampalam has not forgiven the Sampanthan-Sumanthiran duo since then.
Tamil detractors of Sumanthiran particularly those in the Diaspora use the handle of national list MP to insult and belittle him. Since he was not elected to Parliament directly, Sumanthiran is described as someone who entered Parliament through the Pin Kathavu” or back door. Therefore, argue his Diaspora critics, Sumanthiran is a second-class MP and has no moral right to do whatever he is doing. This description of backdoor MP has absolutely no basis either legally, morally or practically as national list MP seats are allocated on the basis of votes polled by each party.
A peculiar feature of Sri Lankan Tamil politics is the usage of backdoor MP” to demean those parliamentarians nominated from the national list. Sinhala, Up- Country Tamil or Muslim politics does not have this attribute. National list MPs are not called backdoor MP’s by their rivals or critics. Only Sri Lankan Tamils have this tendency. This practice began with the introduction of the current system in 1989. The man responsible for this phrase was former North-eastern Chief Minister Annamalai Varatharajapperumaal. When veteran TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam was nominated as national list MP in 1989, Varatharajapperumaal criticised it and dubbed Amirthalingam’s entry as having been done through the backdoor.
The term backdoor MP has been bandied about in Tamil politics ever since. Those nominated on the national list with LTTE blessings like Joseph Prarajasingham. M.K. Eelaventhan, S.Thurairatnasingham etc were not called backdoor MPs derisively. But those Tamil national list MPs such as Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam and M.A. Sumanthiran whom tiger elements do not favour have been described as such.
The current Parliament has many national list MPs like Eran Wickremaratne, Dr. Harsha de Silva , D.M. Swaminathan, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, M.T. Hasen Ali, Muthu Sivalingam etc. None of them are called backdoor MPs by their critics. However, in the case of Sumanthiran, his detractors particularly the feline affiliates take relish in describing him so.
Defending Sumanthiran his corotege Jeyaraj says that another avenue of attack is to refer to his Colombo background. Sumanthiran is called a Kozhumbuth Thamizhan” or Colombo Tamil. Therefore, he cannot speak for the Tamils of the North and East is the argument. The funny thing is that these jokers do not use the same argument against Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam who was born and bred in Colombo. Only Sumanthiran is attacked as a Colombo Tamil simply because he does not pander to the whims and fancies of tiger elements and LTTE
The highly personalised attacks against Sumanthiran have escalated in recent times. There is perhaps an ulterior motive in such escalation according to TNA circles. Since the attacks against Sumanthiran are on the basis that he is a national list MP from Colombo a decision has been taken by the TNA hierarchy to field him as a candidate at the next Parliamentary elections. Though ITAK branches from Mullaitheevu, Amparai and Trincomalee districts wanted Sumanthiran to contest from their respective districts, TNA leader Sampanthan had been of the view that Sumanthiran should enter Parliament as an elected MP from Jaffna district where his roots are from.
(To be continued)
ලංකාව විසින් මෙතෙක් බිහි කර තිබෙන විශිෂ්ටතම මනෝ විද්යාඥයා පද්මාල් ද සිල්වා මහතාය. ඔහු මනෝ විද්යාඥ ස්ටැන්ලි රැක්මන් , මනෝ විද්යාඥ විලියම් යූල් වැනි පතාකයන් ගේ ගෞරවයට ලක් වූ පුද්ගලයෙකි. එහෙත් වරක් මා ඉදිරියේ එක් මනෝ වෛද්යවරියක් පද්මාල් ද සිල්වා මහතා උපහාසයට ලක් කලේ ඔහුගේ ප්රථම උපාධිය සිංහල සහ බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය බව කියමිනි.නමුත් ඇය නොදැන සිටි එක් කරුණක් නම් පද්මාල් ද සිල්වා මහතාව වඩාත් යහපත් මිනිසෙකු බවට පත් කලේ මේ සිංහල සහ බෞද්ධ දර්ශනය යන විශයන් බවයි. පද්මාල් ද සිල්වා ලංකාවට පැමිණි අවස්ථා වලදී මා හමු වීම සඳහා යුද හමුදා රෝහලටද පැමිණීමට පුරුදුව සිටියේය. රෝගීන් සඳහා මනෝ ප්රතිකාරයේදී එතුමා මට ගුරුහරුකම් ද දුන්නේය.
පද්මාල් යනු පේරාදෙනිය විසින් බිහි කරන ලද අන්තර්ජාතික කීර්තියට පත් වූ අතිජාත පුත්රයෙකි. ඔහු ඉතා යහ ගුණ ඇති මිනිසෙකි. මා වැනි කනිෂ්ඨ පුද්ගලයන්ට අත හිත දුන්නේය. මම පරියේෂණ පත්රිකා ලිවීම ඉගෙන ගත්තේ ඔහුගෙනි. ඔහු මට ගුරුවරයෙකු මෙන්ම පහන් ටැඹක් විය. ඔහුගේ අකල් මරණය විශාල පාඩුවකි. මා විසින් ලියන ලද PTSD Sri Lankan Experience පොත මා විසින් පුදන ලද්දේ ඔහුටය. ඔහු බටහිර දැණුම සහ පෙරදිග දැණුම අතර පාළමක් විය. පරළ වූ යකදුරෙකු මෙන් බටහිර විද්යාවට තිස් තුන් පැයේ බනින නලීන් ද සිල්වාට මඟ හැරුනේ මේ පාලමයි. පේරාදෙනිය විශ්ව විද්යාලය මුළු ලෝකයක් ගරු කල ලංකාව විසින් මෙතෙක් බිහි කර තිබෙන විශිෂ්ටතම මනෝ විද්යාඥයාට මීට වඩා බුහුමනක් කළ යුතුය.
Most venerable members of the Maha Sangha, Clergymen of all religions, Members of Parliament, Ministers, and dear friends,
The Supreme Court has delivered a judgement against the holding of the general election that had already been declared. Since that judgement is a long and complicated document, I will study it carefully and in due course express my views on the constitutional impact it will have on the functioning of the parliamentary system of government in this country. 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.
Elections to provincial councils have been delayed by more than one year and three months, but no one has any 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.
The people have now been deprived of the general election that had already been declared. After the President dissolved Parliament on 9 November, the political parties opposed to the election petitioned courts and obtained a stay order on the dissolution and with the cooperation of the UNP Speaker, they engaged in various activities to demonstrate that they had a majority in Parliament. But it was only on 12 December when a resolution was passed expressing confidence in Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe 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 Wickremasinghe to be appointed as Prime Minister. Fourteen of those votes belong to the TNA. Even though the TNA also requested that Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe be appointed Prime Minister, on the same day, TNA Parliamentarian Mavei Senathirajah made a special statement in parliament on behalf of the TNA saying that though they voted for Mr Wickrermasinghe to become Prime Minister, they would not join the government and would remain in the opposition. 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 Wickremasinghe 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.
The UNP-UPFA coalition that had been formed under Articles 46(4) and 46(5) of the Constitution relating to ‘national governments’, fell apart when the UPFA left the coalition on October 26. Thereafter, a number of UNP parliamentarians joined us and we became the largest group in Parliament. After the general elections of 1994, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2015, it was always the largest group in Parliament that was invited to form the government as no party obtained a clear majority. In all those instances, the government was formed first, and the working majorities were obtained later.
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 sheduled 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. We appreciate the difficult and bold decision that the President made on October 26.
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. All that money was borrowed for consumption. We borrowed money to develop the country and that development is visible. But the UNP borrowed money only for consumption. Even though some have expressed the view that it will be possible to minimise the damage done by the UNP because the President is no longer with them, we must realise 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. We suspended the excessive taxes imposed by the previous government. We also managed to prevent several local industries from closing down. 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.
After the February 10 local government election, our aim was to have a general election held. 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-Nielsen 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 minimise 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.
May the blessings of the Tripple Gem be upon you,
God bless you.
අතිපූජනීය මහා සංඝරත්නයෙන් අවසරයි, සියලු ආගම්වල පූජකතුමනි, මැති ඇමතිවරුණි, මිත්රවරුනි, හිතවතුනි,
අපි කැදවලා තිබුණු මහ මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීමට විරුද්ධව ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීන්දුවක් දීලා තියෙනවා. ඒ නඩු තීන්දුව ඉතාමාත්ම දීර්ඝ හා සංකීර්ණ ලියවිල්ලක් නිසා එය හදාරා බලා, ඒකෙන් ව්යවස්ථාමය වශයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු ආණ්ඩුක්රමයක් පවත්වාගෙන යෑමට ඇතිවෙන බලපෑම ගැන අපි පසුව විග්රහයක් කරන්න බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. අපි මේ අවස්ථාවේදී කතා කරන්නෙ කැඳවපු මහ මැතිවරණය පවත්වන්න බැරි නිසා ඇතිවෙන දේශපාලාන තත්වය ගැනයි. අපිට අද හැප්පෙන්න වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ, දිගින් දිගටම මැතිවරණ මඟහරින්න නොයෙක් උප්පරවැට්ටි යොදන දේශපාලන පක්ෂ එකතුවක් එක්ක. පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව පලාත් පාලන ඡන්දය අවුරුදු තුනක් ප්රමාද කරලා දින නියමයක් නැතුවම ඒ ඡන්දය කල්දාගන්න උසාවි යන්න හදනකොට, නඩු නැති පලාත් පාලන ආයතන වලට හෝ ඡන්දයක් පවත්වන බව මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපතිවරයා කියපු නිසා තමයි ජනතාවට ඒ ඡන්දයවත් ලැබුණෙ. නැත්නම් ඒකත් නෑ.
අද වන විට පලාත් සභා ඡන්ද අවුරුද්දයි මාස තුනක් විතර ප්රමාදයි, නමුත් ඒ ඡන්දය පවත්වන දවසක් ගැන හෝඩුවාවක්වත් නෑ. ඒ ඡන්ද දින නියමයක් නැතුව කල් යන විදියට නීතියෙන් ගැටගහලා තියෙන්නෙ. 2017 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේදී පලාත් සභා ඡන්දය කල් දාගන්න ගෙනාපු පනත සම්මත කරන්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලයක් ඕන කියලා නීතිපතිවරයා කිවුවාම රෑ වෙනකම් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇදගෙන ගිහිල්ලා කොහොම හරි මන්ත්රීවරුන් එකතුකරගෙන, සමානුපාතික නියෝජන ප්රතිශතය 40% ඉඳලා 50% දක්වා වැඩි කලේ නැතිනම් ඒකට ඡන්දය නොදෙන බව සමහර පොඩි දේශපාලන පක්ෂ කිවුවාම ඒකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කොරිඩෝරියේ හිටගෙනම එකඟ වෙලා, ගහන්න තියෙන කරනම් සේරම ගහලා තමයි ඒගොල්ලෝ පලාත් සභා ඡන්ද කල්දාගත්තෙ.
කැදවපු මහ මැතිවරණයත් දැන් ජනතාවට අහිමි වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ. ජනාධිපතිවරයා නොවැම්බර් 09 පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරෙවුවට පස්සෙ, මැතිවරණ පවත්වනවට විරුද්ධ හවුල උසාවි ගිහිල්ලා තාවකාලික වාරණ නියෝගයක් අරගෙන යූ.එන්.පී කතානායකවරයාගේ සහයෝගයෙන්, විසුරුවල තිබුණු පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නැවත කැඳවල පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය ඒගොල්ලන්ට තියෙනවයි කියලා පෙන්වන්න නොයෙක් ක්රියාකාරකම් වල යෙදුනා. නමුත් මෙතන ඇත්තටම වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ මොනවද කියලා ජනතාවට හරියටම පෙනුණෙ දෙසැම්බර් 12 වෙනිදා රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති හැටියට පත් කරන්න කියලා යෝජනාවක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සම්මත කරපු දවසෙයි.
රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහතා අගමැති කරන්න කියලා ඡන්ද 117 ක් ලැබුණා. ඒකෙන් 14 ක් ටී.එන්.ඒ ඡන්ද. ටී.එන්.ඒ එකෙන් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහත්තයා අගමැති කරන්න කියලා ඡන්දය දුන්නට, මාවෙයි සේනාතිරාජා මන්ත්රීවරයා ටී.එන්.ඒ එක වෙනුවෙන් විශේෂ ප්රකාශයක් කරලා කිවුවා, ටී.එන්.ඒ එක රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහත්තයට අගමැති වෙන්න ඡන්දය දුන්ට ඒගොල්ලො ආණ්ඩුවට එක් වෙන්නෙ නැති බවත්, දිගටම විපක්ෂයේ ඉන්න බවත්. ඉතින් මෙතන වෙලා තියෙන්නෙ මන්ත්රීවරුන් 103 ක් ඉන්න යූ.එන්.පී සුළුතරය ටී.එන්.ඒ එක විසින් ප්රාණ ඇපයට අරගෙන තියෙන එකයි. ටී.එන්.ඒ එක කියන විදියට රට පාලනය කලේ නැතිනම් ඕනම මොහොතක යූ.එන්.පී සුළුතරයට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය නැති වෙන්න පුලුවන්. ටී.එන්.ඒ එකේ අතට තමයි රිමෝට් එක ගිහිල්ලා තියෙන්නෙ.
නඩු තීන්දුව එන්නත් කලින් රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ මහත්තයා දෙසැම්බර් 12 වෙනිදා, අලුත් ව්යවස්ථාවක් ගෙන එන එක ගැන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කතා කලා. මේ අලුත් ව්යවස්ථා කෙටුම්පත සකස් කරලා මාධ්යයේ පලවෙලත් ඉවරයි. ඒ ව්යවස්ථාවෙන් මේ රට අර්ධ-ස්වාධීන ෆෙඩරල් ප්රාන්ත රාජ්ය නවයකට කඩන්නයි සූදානම් කරලා තියෙන්නෙ. ඒකෙන් කරන්න ඉන්න තව දෙයක් තමයි විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්රමය අහෝසි කරන එක. එතකොට 2019 දෙසැම්බර් 9 වෙනිදාට ඉස්සෙල්ලා නියමිත ජනාධිපතිවරණය පවත්වන්න වෙන්නෙ නෑ. ඒ වගේම ඒ ව්යවස්ථාවෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණ ක්රමයත් වෙනස් වෙනවා. එතකොට පලාත් සභා ඡන්ද කල්දාල තියෙන විදියටම සීමා නීර්ණ ප්රශ්න මතුකරලා දින නියමයක් නැතුව 2020 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිරවණයත් කල් දාගන්න පුලුවන්. ඒකට තමයි මේ සැරසෙන්නෙ.
ආණ්ඩුවෙ හිටපු එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධාන පාර්ශවය ඉවත් වුණු නිසා, ‘ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවක්’ හැටියට ව්යවස්ථාවේ 46(4) සහ 46(5) වගන්ති වල විශේෂ විධිවිධාන යටතේ පිහිටුවලා තිබ්බ ඒ ආණ්ඩුව ඉබේම බිඳ වැටුණා. ඊට පස්සෙ, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ මන්ත්රීවරුන් ගණනාවකුත් එකතුවීම නිසා මා නායකත්වය දෙන කණ්ඩායම පර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විශාලම කණ්ඩායම බවට පත්වුණා. 1994, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2015 සියලුම මහමැතිවරණ වලින් පස්සෙ ආණ්ඩු පිහිටුවන්න ආරාධනා ලැබුණෙ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පැහැදිලි බහුතරයක් නැති වුණත්, විශාලම මන්ත්රීවරුන් කණ්ඩායමටයි. කලින් ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවලා, පස්සෙ තමයි ඒ හැම අවස්ථාවකම බහුතරය හදාගත්තෙ.
අපි ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදා ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටෙවුවට පස්සෙ ජනාධිපතිතුමා මහ මැතිවරණයක් කැදෙවුවා. මම ඔක්තෝබර් මාසේ 26 වෙනිද අගමැති හැටියට දිවුරුම් දුන්නෙ වැඩිම වුනොත් ජනවාරි 5 වෙනිදට නියම කරලා තිබුණු මහ මැතිවරණය ඉවර වෙනකම් මාස දෙකක් වගේ කාලයකට අන්තර්කාලීන පාලනයක් ගෙනයන්න විතරයි. බලා සිටියදී රට විනාශ මුඛයට යනතෙක් ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකුට නිකම් ඉන්න බෑ. මහ මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වන තුරු අන්තර්කාලීන ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවන්න ආරාධනය කරන කොට, ඒ ආරාධනය විකල්ප ආණ්ඩුව හැටියට ස්ථානගතවෙලා ඉන්න බලවේගයට ප්රතික්ෂේප කරන්නත් බෑ. ඒ වගේම, මහ මැතිරණයක් අවසන් වෙනකන් මාස දෙකක් වගේ කාලයකට රට ගෙනයන්න සුලුතර ආණ්ඩුවක් හොදටම ප්රමාණවත්. ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදා ගත්ත ඒ එඩිතර තීන්දුව අපි විශේෂයෙන්ම අගය කරන බව කියන්න ඕන.
නමුත් ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදයින් පස්සෙ මෙහෙ වුණේ වෙනත් දෙයක්. කොහොමහරි මොනම මැතිවරණයක්වත් නැතුව ඉදිරියට යන වැඩපිළිවෙල තමයි දැන් ක්රියාත්මක වෙන්නෙ. දැන් මහ මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වන්න බැරි නිසා, මේ රට ආර්ථික පරිහානිය තුළින් තවත් ග්රීසියක් වීම වලක්වන්න අපි ගන්න හිටිය පියවර මොනවත් දැන් ක්රියාත්මක කරන්න බෑ. අවරුදු තුන හමාරක් තුළ ඇමරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 20.7 ක් විදෙස් විනිමය ණය විතරක් ගත්ත යූ.එන්.පී එක, ඉදිරි කාලයේදී තව කොයිතරම් ණය ගනීවිදැයි අපි දන්නෙ නෑ. ඒගොල්ලො ණය ගත්තෙ පරිභෝජනයට. අපි ණය ගත්තෙ රට සංවර්ධනය කරන්න. පාරේ යනකොට පේනන තියෙනවා ඒ සංවර්ධනය. නමුත් මේ අය ණය ගත්තෙ පරිභෝජනයට විතරයි. ඔය ණය ගැනිල්ලෙන් තමයි ඒගොල්ලො අපේ ආර්ථිකය විනාශ මුඛයට ගෙනාවෙ. දැන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ අලුත් යූ.එන්.පී – ටී.එන්.ඒ හවුල සමඟ නොසිටින නිසා ඔවුන් කරන විනාශයෙන් යම් ප්රමාණයක් හෝ පාලනය කර ගැනීමට හැකි වෙයි කියලා හිතන්න පුලුවන් වුණත්, ජනාධිපතිවරයාටත් නොදන්වා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය හා දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය ප්රමුඛ මේ හවුලට කරන්න පුලුවන් ගොඩක් දේවල් තියෙනවා.
2002 දී එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය හා කොටි සංවිධානය අතර සටන් විරාම ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කළෙත් එකල ජනාධිපතිනි චන්ද්රිකා කුමාරතුංග දැණුවත් නොකර බවත් අප මතක තබාගන්න ඕන. ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදයින් පස්සෙ අපිට පුලුවන් වුණා පීඩනයට පත්වෙලා ඉන්න ජනතාවට ඉන්ධන මිල අඩුකරලා, අත්යාවශ්ය ආහාර ද්රව්ය කිහිපයක මිල අඩු කරලා, පොහොර සහනාධාරය හා පාසල් නිල ඇඳුම් යලිත් ස්ථාපිත කරලා, කෘෂිකාර්මික ක්ෂේත්රයේ ආදායම්, බදු වලින් නිදහස් කරලා ජනතාවට යම් සහනයක් ලබලා දෙන අතරම විශේෂයෙන්ම කෘෂිකාර්මික නිෂ්පාදනය දිරිගන්වන්න. මේ කාලය තුළ රටේ තරුණ වෘත්තික ප්රජාව අතර විශාල නොසන්සුන්තාවයකට තුඩු දීලා තිබ්බ පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුවේ ශ්රී ලංකා – සිංගප්පූරු වෙළඳ ගිවිසුම ගැන යම් පියවර ගන්නත් පුලුවන් වුණා. පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුවේ බදු දඩයමත් අපි නැවැත්තුවා. වැසී යෑමට නියමිතව තිබුණු දේශීය කර්මාන්ත රාශියකුත් අපි බේර ගත්තා. බලාපොරොත්තු වූ මහ මැතිවරණය නොලැබුනත්, ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදා පටන්ගත්ත ඒ ක්රියාදාමයෙන් ඒ වගේ වෙනත් ප්රයෝජන කිහිපයක් ජනතාවට ලැබිලා තියෙන බවත් කියන්න ඕන.
මේ කාලය තුළ සිද්ධ වුණු වැදගත්ම දේ තමයි පසුගිය වකවානුව පුරාම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ උවමනා එපාකම් අනුව හැසිරවීමට හැකි වුණ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකේ බලය නැති වීම. 19 වන සංශෝධනය ගෙනල්ලා මුලු රටම අවුල් ජාලාවක් බවට පත්කරපු පිරිස විසින්ම කෙටුම්පත් කරපු නව ව්යවස්ථාව සම්මත කරන එක එයින් වලක්වාගන්න පුලුවන් වෙනවා. ඒ වගේම ආණ්ඩු පක්ෂයේම පිරිසක් විපක්ෂයේ ඉන්න බව පෙන්වමින් විපක්ෂනායක කමත් විපක්ෂයේ ප්රධාන සංවිධායක කමත් තමන් සතු කරගෙන අවුරුදු 4 කට ආසන්න කාලයක් මුලුල්ලේ ගෙනගිය ඒ නඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ, බඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ අධිපතිවාදය අවසන් කිරීමට දැන් මඟ පෑදිලා තියෙනවා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තිබුණු ඒ විකෘතිය නිසා රටේ සියලුම ඉහල පත්වීම් වලට පුද්ගලයන් නිර්දේශ කරන ව්යවස්ථාදායක සභාවේ සිටියේ එකම දේශපාලන ප්රවාහයක අය පමණයි. මේ නිසා රටේ සියලුම වැදගත් තනතුරු වලට පසුගිය අවුරුදු හතර මුලුල්ලේ පත් වුණේ 2015 දී ඒ දේශපාලන ප්රවාහයේ හිටපු අය විතරයි. මේ භයානක විකෘතියේ ප්රතිපල අද මුලු රටම අත් විදිමින් ඉන්නවා.
පෙබරවාරි 10 වෙනිදා පලාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් පස්සේ අපේ අරමුණ වුණේ ජනතාවට මහ මැතිවරණයක් ලබා දීමයි. මහ මැතිවරණයක් නොමැතිව අගමැති ධූරයක් දැරීමට මගේ කිසිදු බලාපොරොත්තුක් නොමැති නිසාත්, තීන්දු තීරණ ගැනීමේදී ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අවහිරයක් නොවීම සඳහාත්, මම අගමැති ධූරයෙන් ඉවත් වෙලා, අලුත් ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවන්න ජනාධිපතිතුමාට ඉඩ ලබලා දෙනවා. ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වනදා මා අගමැති වනවාත් සමඟම මුලු රට පුරාම නව බලාපොරොත්තු සහගත පිබිඳීමක් ඇති වුණා. 2015 න් පස්සෙ කඩාවැටිල තිබ්බ කොටස් වෙළඳපොල නැවතත් පිබිදුනා. 2015 න් පස්සෙ, එල්.එම්.ඩී. – නීල්සන් ව්යාපාර විශ්වාසනීයත්ව දර්ශකයේ” වැඩිම ඉහල යෑම ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදායින් පස්සෙ අපි දුටුවා. රටේ ආණ්ඩුවක් නැති තත්වයක් නිර්මාණය වුණාම විදේශීය සංචාරකයන්ගේ පැමිණීම අඩු වුණත්, 2017 නොවැම්බර් මාසයට වඩා, 2018 නොවැම්බර් මාසයේ සංචාරකයන්ගේ පැමිණීම 16% කින් වැඩි වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වෙනිදයින් පස්සෙ, දේශපාලන අස්ථාවර භාවයත් නොතකා ඇති වුණ ඒ ප්රවනතා නිසා මේ රටේ ජනතාවගේ බලාපොරොත්තුව කුමක්දැයි අපි කාටත් පැහැදිලි වුණා.
මහජනතාව අපේක්ෂා කළ ආණ්ඩු වෙනස සාක්ෂාත් කර ගැනීම දැන් කල් ගිහිල්ලා තියෙනවා. නමුත් අවසානයේදී ජනතාවට ඒ වෙනස අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ලැබෙනවා. ඒක වලක්වන්න කාටවත් බෑ. ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයත් ආණ්ඩුවේ සිටි ශ්රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ පාර්ෂවයත් එකට ගත්තාම දැනටම රටේ ඡන්ද වලින් 54% ක් පමණ නියෝජනය වන ඉතාමත්ම ප්රබල දේශපාලන බල කඳවුරක් දැන් නිර්මාණය වෙලා තියෙනවා. ඒකට අපි එක්ක දැනටමත් ඉන්න, ඡන්ද පදනමක් තියෙන, උතුරු නැගෙනහිර හා කදුරට පක්ෂ ගණනාවකුත් එකතු වෙනවා. ඉස්සරහට මේ රටට එරෙහි බලවේග වලට විරුද්ධව එන්නෙ, කිසිවෙකුටත් නවත්තන්න බැරි දීප ව්යාප්ත දේශපාලන බලවේගයක්. ඉදිරි කාලයේදී අපේ ප්රධානම ඉලක්කය වන්නේ, දැනටමත් අවුරුද්දකුත් මාස තුනක් පමණ ප්රමාද වෙලා තියෙන පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණය පවත්වා ගැනීමයි. දැන් නැවතත් රටේ සුක්කානම අතට ගැනීමට මාන බලමින් ඉන්න මේ විනාශකාරී බලවේගය ඉදිරියේදී කරන හානිය හැකිතාක් දුරට අවම කිරීම අලුත් ජනතාවාදී ආණ්ඩුවක් බිහිවෙන තුරු මේ සන්ක්රාන්ති කාලය තුළ අප ඉදිරියේ ඇති ප්රධානම අභියෝගයයි. 2015 ඉඳලම අපි සමඟ නොසැලී සිටි ජනතාව ඉදිරියේදීත් අපි සමඟ රට බේරාගැනීමේ මෙහෙයුමට එක්වන බවට මට කිසිම සැකයක් නෑ. අපි ජනතාව සංවිධානය කරලා රටට එරෙහි ඒ දුර්දාන්ත බලවේගය දමනය කරනවා.
ඔබ සැමට තෙරුවන් සරණයි, දෙවි පිහිටයි
I do not agree with his theory .He talks about the fact that ,we have to accept who we are and find indigenous development strategy ? and that we do not need Globalization I would like to ask him to name a country which has developed so far after world war 2 which has been following democratic principles .Take Iran ,Iraq,Saudi Arabia,China ,Oman ,even Maldives .Have they not been run by Authoritarian Dictators who put country in forefront ?
Singapore developed because Lee Kwan Yew was a dictator who knew the priorities .Our country has a prosperous past and unprecedented development few centuries back .British came and force Democracy to our country which was the bane .
http://www.ft.lk/article/595546/Why-Sri-Lanka-will-never-be-Singaporewww.ft.lk
We need a dictator who should identify the path for development and forcibly implement .He talks about sustainability in Food Supply,. A Ruler can impose strict rules in developing agriculture .When you drive along Southern Highway you could see land mass with plenty of water which can be forced-developed .We pass by and keep telling that what a beautiful sight with no clue that it is a gold mine
Many areas in the country are abandoned and scrupulous land sales companies are blocking out lands and making money .A good ruler can impose strict restrictions and force cultivation or even get Israelis to develop the lands !
There are much shallow sea front Jaffna Peninsular ,which are not harvested Can a dictator recognize the potential and force marine aqua culture development ?
All other proposals in his article are valid, what we lack is a Forced –Implementer. I know by experience that Vision of Lew Kwan Yew is what we need,
We need a Benevolent sane Dictator
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
The dissolution of parliament by a gazette notification of the president was not in terms of the constitution, was determined by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka When carefully reading two judgements it is quite clear that judges decided purely based on the literal meaning the clauses of the constitution and they have not considered any other points in addition to the literal meaning. According to judgements of the courts in the world we can see that various factors are considered by the courts making judgment, but they are not relevant to this judgment and all parties in Sri Lanka accepted the decision.
Many weaknesses of the constitution of Sri Lanka have identified and some of them are discussed in political and non-political platforms. Resolving such problems should be done by a future government as the current political parties in the parliament have no mandate to do it.
Politicians, academics, public and interested parties in Sri Lanka or overseas need to understand some significant points which affect Sri Lanka’s politics. The major point is the demographic changes in the country and the impact of such changes to politics in Sri Lanka.
The census report of Sri Lanka in 2012 indicate that the population of Sri Lanka consist of 74.90% Sinhala, 15.27% Tamil, 9.30%% Muslim and 0.19% are others. These statistics strongly confirm that Sinhala people of Sri Lanka has the supreme power in politics and if they are united, no domestic or outside force could defeat the political unity of Sri Lanka and they will decide the political power of the country. The next important point is that same census report indicates that the population of Sri Lanka comprise of 70.10% are Buddhists, 12.58% are Hindus, 9.66% are Muslim, 7.62%, Christian, and 0.03% are others most probably they might be secular people or other religion like Bahai faith or without belonging to any religious community.
These statistics further confirm that the political power of the country is with Sinhala Buddhists and if any political party goes against the wishes of Sinhala Buddhist community, such political party could be survived in the country.
The unity of Sinhala people is the most significant factor to defeat any forces against Sri Lanka and the next census, which is due in 2022 will show further different result that the population of Sri Lanka will be consisted of 80% Sinhala and the Tamil population will be declined to less than 10% and more than 75% of the population will be Sinhala Buddhist giving absolute power in politics to Sinhala Buddhist. The unity of Sinhala Buddhist will determine the political power of the country. In Sri Lanka, there is a higher trend to reducing Tamil population as they are massively migrating to other countries and many Tamil women marry with Sinhala male and integrate to Sinhala population. Current Tamil can do nothing to change this trend.
However, the majority of Sinhala Buddhists have divided according to political parties and if this situation changes, foreign forces must listen to Sinhala Buddhist first.
The other vital point is that with a less than 10% of population, Tamil in Sri Lanka needs to learn how to live with Sinhala people. In Western countries such as UK, USA, France, Germany, Australia and others do not ready change their constitution because less than 10% of population from other countries. The governments of those countries have passed anti-discrimination legislation and all need to integrate with majority of population.
Working against this truth is a self casuistically work. Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka attempt to manipulate many things against Sinhala majority and some edacious Sinhala politicians, civil society people have caught to Tamil propaganda and vicious actions.
A Gamarala and his family were locked up in their home surrounded by Alibaba and 40 thieves coming from the cavern under temple trees and making impossible demands. The Gamarala sent a message to Maha Danamutta asking for a solution and liberate him and his family. Maha Danamutta and his goloyo said they want time to receive visitors and count what they receive before they find a solution to liberate the Gamarala and his family. In the mean time Alibaba and his 40 thieves were making Gamaralas life miserable.
Maha Danamutta took his own time looked into the books as even the judges always read most of the old judicial decision of Kakille Rajjuruvo and more those of Maha Danamutta. Maha Danamutta considered the case of the Goat’s head stuck in a pot and how wise was his solution. But that entails cutting the heads of Gamarala and all his family.
Then Maha Danamutta thought that he would go on his elephant to meet the Gamarala and discuss the matter, but then he may have to get Gamarala to break the wall in front to allow him and his elephant to go inside, but thought otherwise as he thought that it may cause damage to him and his Goloys, and thought of other solutions.
Maha Danamutta discussed long with his Goloyo Polbamoona, Kotukithaiah, Indikatu Pancha, Rabboda Aiya and Puvak Badilla they had all their ideas which Maha Danamutta took into consideration. Polbamoona spoke up suggesting a long lockup of Gamarala and his family for four and half years, which by then would tire Alibaba and 40 thieves and stop bothering Gamarala and his family any more. Maha Danamutta was pleased and clapped his hand in approval of his practical suggestion, and said so be it.
Like wise the SC after long and deep consideration came to the conclusion that the dissolution of Parliament by the President by Gazette Notification was un-Constitutional and that the President could dissolve the parliament if he wants only after four and half years . That was a dumb solution as in any case the Parliament ceases its term of office in four and a half years.
What a great judicial ruling which even Mahadanamutta would have been put to shame ?
In Europe there are long Tunnels one such long tunnel is the Tunnel of Frejus which connects France and Italy. It is 12895 meters long. These tunnels have at regular intervals on either side small doors marked Sortie or Exit. If there is a train catching fire in the middle of the tunnel (as it once happened) the tunnel will be gutted with fire and smoke and these small exit doors are used to evacuate the passengers from the trains out of danger from fire and smoke..
Like wise in the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka despite its short comings or if any ambitious fool were to introduce an Amendment such as 19A, and find the country in a political impasse, the Constitution has provided means to overcome the difficulty( like the Exit Doors inside tunnels).
Hence when Article 70 of the Constitution prohibits the President from dissolution of the Parliament for any reason before four and a half years even if the President is confronted with a serious political impasse, the 1978 Constitution fortunately provides Article 33 which permits the President to dissolve the Parliament before the period specified under Article 70.
This provision had been overlooked by our great judicial minds of the SC in their verdict pronounced with pomp and glory” on the 13 December,2018 coming close to Maha Danamutta’s solution.
The Judges are not there merely to interpret the Constitution, but also examine the reasons behind legal issue in question such as why the President used one Article of the Constitution, without referring to the other which restricts his actions. There is some thing called cause and effect which the Judges should examine. The Judges are not mere technical robots, but human beings with a mind to be used when necessary to understand the whole of a political problem which is in question and now under their judicial examination.
In applying their commonsense, apart from legal arguments, they should have examined the cause that led the President to resort to article 33 to dissolve the parliament by Gazette Notification despite the prohibition at article 70, which he would have certainly read and understood, if not him personally at least by those who advised him on the issue.
That was the cause , now the reason was, after working with Ranil Wickramasinghe as Prime Minister on whom he had placed all his confidence , he realised that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is not the man he had accepted him to be. When the UPFA Ministers left the Yahapalanaya Government the Cabinet was automatically dissolved under the relevant Article 42 of Constitution. Then the President had to appoint another Prime Minister and he did so under Article 46.
That was the back ground which the five Judges of the SC had not examined. That is a serious lapse on their part.
There is another case being examined by the Supreme Courts with regard to the appointment of the new Prime Minister and a cabinet of Ministers . There too the Judges should not rest after interpreting the relevant Articles of the Constitution, because the law is not for the President and the Parliamentarians, but the law is primarily for the people.
Therefore the Judges should also examine the cause that led to the appointment of a new Prime Minister and his Cabinet. And also observe what had been the need of the hour.
Was it to leave the people stranded without a government functioning and their daily needs unfulfilled and country being pushed into anarchic with a disposed Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe not seeing reason acting undemocratically and without moral decency ?
And in the meantime, the JVP, making use of the situation to fulfil their own ambitious scheme of passing an Article 20A to the Constitution, and TNA asking for more conditions suitable to making the North and East an Eelam State.
Let the people be proud of an independent judiciary not independent from the people , but independent in taking judicial decisions for the benefit of the people as true patriots besides being judges and lawyers.
The drama is over! At the end, the protagonist, Ms. Democracy is left in the middle of the stage stark naked. Now, the wolves who striped her, celebrate her ugly nudity in rejoice chanting a different variant of ‘MANGALA’ SUTHRA,’ the cunning sutra that is used to destroy the autonomy of the people of Sri Lanka. Hello! welcome to the ‘strip club’ at the Temple Trees!
All three branches of our democracy have failed to standby the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka. All three branches, the knights who supposed to safeguard the autonomous-will of the people, have defeated them in cohort. Who is standing victorious now? MONEY!!!! Who has the power to throws such vast quantities of money lavishly to mess with third world sovereignty? External powers! Westminster style Parliamentary Democracy had gone to dogs not just yesterday, but at the very inception of the very idea of it.
It has been proved time and time again that in this era of trans national corporations’ global capitalism, democracy anywhere in the world has become a farce, it has become a mockery. Especially in the third world, there is nothing called sovereignty in the political vocabulary anymore. The only sovereignty that is left in this late stage of globalist capitalism is the sovereignty of Trans National Corporations’ money power; the sovereignty of destroying nation states in the world through it. In fact, if there is even a recidue of a ‘thing’ called sovereignty is existing in the third-world, then global capitalism cannot function freely. So, we must understand that the archenemy of globalist capitalism is sovereignty of the nation state in the third-world. It was hidden until now. But now it has been open to everyone to see that Westminster style Parliamentary system is vulnerable for the manipulation of global capitalism. It is vulnerable to money power. Money power is the time-tested tool of global capitalism. It is not the sovereignty of the people’s will.
It is the sovereignty of ‘BRIBERY’ stupid!!!!”
Lessens we learned from current crisis is astonishing. We learned that Executive presidency is the only way to safeguard the sovereignty of the third world nation state. Westminster style parliamentary democracy is too weak to resist the assaults and ambush of internal and external threats and manipulations. We definitely need a strong executive presidency is the greatest lesson we have learned today.
The old fox JRJ did not intend to create an executive presidency to form a steady government to resist the instability that comes from external powers like today. Because in his time, Trans National Corporations’ Globalization’ as a concept was not fully functioning in global arena with all its global institutions like today. His intention was to create a government, and an executive branch with a steady function with all available tools of resistance to the threat coming from the parliamentary system itself in the Westminster model. (Now we understand the reason why he kept the authority to appoint CJ in his hand.) At that time, he thought the culprit that was threatening the system was the traditional left in the parliament and outside it. But today there is no so-called ‘traditional left,’ left in the parliament or in the political arena that is functioning outside effectively. The only group that pretend to be left is the JVP, but they also have become specific variety of villains playing for the tune of above said Trans National Corporations’ agenda of destroying the nation state of Sri Lanka. Today time has changed. Instead of the traditional left, it is the Trans National Corporations money power and the western manipulations that threaten the autonomy of the people of Sri Lanka. They have stolen our sovereign right to determine our fate from the backdoor even without our notice
The way Anura Kumara Disanayaka speaks regarding current crisis today in public is sickening and an utter disgrace to this party that had some reputation for safe guarding the national interests in the past. Now the JVP has lost its head. Today it is running around like a headless donkey leaving feces continually discharging from its bowels allover, after sensing that they have lost the confidence of the people.
Mark these words folks! It is written on the wall! If the things continue in the same way, in ten or twenty years of time, people of Sri Lanka will mourn on streets like Palestinians for losing their country. By then, it will be too late; and there won’t be anyone to accept the blame for all the stupid betrayals they have committed today for selfish reasons to create such situation tomorrow. I wonder if Ranil or Anura Kumara will accept the responsibility for it at that point of history.
Oh’ Sri Lanka!…O’ Sri Lanka!!
The only lawmaker to vote against the 19th Amendment to the Constitution retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, yesterday, said that those who hailed the new law as panacea owed an explanation to the country.
Former Digamadulla District MP Weerasekera said so when The Island asked him as to why he voted against the 19th Amendment in spite of President Maithripala Sirisena personally appealing for unanimous support to pass it from the SLFP-led UPFA parliamentary grouping comprising nearly 150 members.
Former Navy Chief of Staff Weerasekera said that the 19th Amendment was enacted on April 28, 2015 during the much-touted 100-day yahapalana programme.
Having served the Navy for over three decades, Weerasekera retired in 2006 at the onset of Eelam war IV. Weerasekera entered parliament on the UPFA ticket at the April 2010 parliamentary polls.
In the third reading of the 19th Amendment, 212 lawmakers voted for the Amendment whereas Weerasekara voted against it. JVP MP Ajith Kumara abstained while ten skipped the sittings on that day. Of those who had skipped sittings three lawmakers voted for the second reading of the amendmeBasil Rajapaksa, Premalal Jayasekera, Janaka Priyantha Bandara, Dr. Jagath Balasuriya, Keheliya Rambukwella, Ven. Ellawela Medhananda and Susantha Punchinilame skipped the session.
Weerasekera said that having won the presidency, Maithripala Sirisena replaced Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne with UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, in spite of the latter’s group comprising mere 42 MPs. Wickremesinghe’s minority government couldn’t have undertaken a task as big as enacting far reaching piece of legislation without the backing of the SLFP-led UPFA. “The SLFP parliamentary group alone consisted of 126 members,” Weerasekera said, adding that they shouldn’t have accepted the 19th Amendment under any circumstances.
The Island sought Weerasekera’s views on the 19th Amendment in the wake of a fuller bench of the Supreme Court declaring Nov 09, 2018 dissolution of parliament unconstitutional. The declaration was made in terms of the 19th Amendment.Weerasekera pointed out that the UPFA foolishly extended its support to enact a law meant to weaken the executive presidency several weeks after the UNP perpetrated the first ever treasury bond scam involving the Central Bank and primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries Limited.
Weerasekera said that of nearly 150 UPFA MPs about half strongly opposed the 19th Amendment. “We were determined and felt confident in thwarting the UNP project. In fact, 19th Amendment was meant to play a vital role in weakening Sri Lanka’s unitary status. Unfortunately, UPFA didn’t realize the danger.”
On the day before the 19th was to be taken up in parliament, 67 lawmakers had met at the residence of Prof. G.L. Peiris to adopt a common stand against the UNP led project. Weerasekera said that he was among those who decided on that night the 19th Amendment shouldn’t be allowed to become reality. “We needed just eight more votes to deprive the UNP of required two-thirds majority to enact the new law. We really believed the UNP plan could be derailed. We could have convinced some of those on the fence to switch allegiance to anti-19 A group.”
Weerasekera recalled how the situation dramatically changed soon after SLFP leader Sirisena threw his presidential weight behind the 19 A project. President Sirisena, having arrived in parliament on April 28, 2015 called a meeting with the UPFA group. “President Sirisena reminded us of him not receiving our support at the presidential election. He urged our group to vote for 19th Amendment,” Weerasekera said. The naval veteran said that President Sirisena explained that a unanimous approval of the 19th Amendment would be considered a vote for him, Weerasekera said.
Weerasekera emphasized that in spite of President Sirisena’s call he was not convinced and expressed his concerned openly. Unfortunately, President Sirisena’s move swiftly swayed the parliamentary group and soon the UNP had the required support. Responding to another query, Weerasekera said that though the UPFA managed to dilute the 19th Amendment to a certain extent, Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling proved beyond doubt the devastating power of that piece of legislation.
Weerasekera asserted that irreparable damage had been caused to country the by way of the 19th Amendment. The 20th Amendment proposed by the JVP was meant to achieve what the UNP and its allies couldn’t achieve through the implementation of the 19th Amendment.
Weerasekera alleged that the 19th Amendment targeted the Rajapaksa family. Those who felt scared of facing the electorate brought the 19th Amendment to deprive war winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa of an opportunity to contest presidential election. The president’s brothers, Godthaab and Basin were disqualified on the basis of their dual citizenship whereas his son, Namal too faced the same issue.Asked whether he felt betrayed by his own party, Weerasekera said that the Constitutional Council was especially created to weaken the presidency. Weerasekera said that at the time the 19th Amendment came into being in late April 2015, he never thought Tamil National Alliance (TNA), one time LTTE’s cat’s paw was going to secure the Opposition Leader’s Office. “The majority of people are not aware of the composition of the CC and how it could undermine the executive presidency,” Weerasekera said.
Weerasekera appreciated President Sirisena’s move to appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister at the expense of Wickremesinghe. Had Wickremesinghe been allowed to continue, the UNP would have brought in the new Constitution as directed by Geneva- based United Nations Human Rights Council in mid 2016.The naval veteran urged all political parties to review their stand on national issues and take tangible measures to rectify mistakes.
The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) made it clear yesterday (12) that they would not function as a part of a United National Front (UNF) Government and that they would continue to be seated in the Opposition.
However, the Party extended its support to the restoration of a Government led by the UNF as it existed prior to 26 October, Parliamentarian Mavai Senadhiraja, making a statement in Parliament on behalf of the ITAK and the TNA, said.
The House on the same day passed a motion supporting UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to act as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by 117 votes. The TNA voted in favour of the motion.
Speaking further, Senadhiraja noted that the Party had sent a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena on 29 November with the signatures of 14 MPs explaining its stance regarding the current political turmoil. They would continue to act according to the facts mentioned in that letter, he added.
The TNA in the letter had noted that to ensure that an MP is able to command the confidence of the Parliament as the Prime Minister, the ITAK will support the restoration of a Government headed by the UNF as it existed prior to 26 October.
We will also support the appointment of a nominee of the UNF who in the opinion of you is able to command the confidence of the Parliament as the Premier. The inability of the MP who was appointed as the Prime Minister, to prove that the Parliament has confidence in him, as the Prime Minister and the votes of No Confidence passed against him, pertaining to his claim to be the Prime Minister, have created a controversy in the country as to whether the country is without a Prime Minister, a Cabinet of Ministers and a lawfully constituted Government for more than a month. We respectfully submit that this situation should not continue. The view of the majority of the MPs on the issue of whether the said MP commands the confidence of Parliament to be the Prime Minister has been negative and has been demonstrated beyond doubt,” the letter said.
Currently, the UNF has only 103 seats in the House and needs to have 10 more seats to form a Government on its own.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to resign from the Premiership in order to ensure stability of the country, according to MP Namal Rajapaksa.
In a twitter message, he said that Rajapaksa will step down tomorrow following an address to the nation.
The MP further said that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) along with the former President, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and other will work to form a broader coalition with President Maithripala Sirisena.
To ensure stability of the nation, Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to resign from the Premiership tomorrow after an address to the nation. The SLPP with Frm President, SLFP & others will now work to form a broader political coalition with President Sirisena,” Namal Rajapaksa tweeted.
In commemoration of the Birth Centenary of Asoka Weeraratna (Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti Thera), who played a pioneering role in the dissemination of Buddhism in post – war Germany by establishing the Berlin Buddhist Vihara in 1957, the Philatelic Bureau of Sri Lanka’s Department of Post, released a Commemorative Postage stamp in the denomination of Rs. 15.00 and a Special Commemorative Cover at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo on December 12, 2018.
Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thero, in a keynote address, drew attention to the period of time when he was closely associated with Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti Thero, to put a stop to State patronage of the Inland Fisheries scheme (in the late 1980s). Ven. Sobitha said that though Ven. Dhammanissanti was a forest dwelling monk, he was not oblivious to the happenings in the world outside. He was prepared to come forward to protect the Buddha Sasana if the need arose. Ven. Dhammanissanti was alarmed when he came to know that the then Government of Sri Lanka had begun encouraging people to breed fish in home garden ponds, and kill and eat them for almost every meal, in clear violation of fundamental Buddhist tenets. Realizing the danger to the Buddha Sasana and the sanctity of the First Precept, if this state policy became firmly entrenched, Ven. Dhammanissanti began a public campaign with the support of Buddhist monks including the Maha Nayakas of the three Nikayas, and the laity to oppose these plans. With growing support from the Buddhist public Ven. Dhammanissanti, was finally able to convince President R. Premadasa of the folly of these policies encouraging Buddhists to adopt wrong livelihoods in infringement of Panchseela (Five Precepts) and the long term adverse consequences to the Buddhist respect for the sanctity of life. It was also a clear violation of Article 9 of the Constitution which mandates the State to protect and foster Buddhism. The final result was that President Premadasa withdrew state sponsorship of inland fisheries.
Ven. Sobitha further said that Ven. Dhammanissanti had committed his entire life for the cause of Buddhism and its uplift and therefore was suitably qualified for the high honour of being named and recognized as the ‘Deveni Dharmapala’ (second Anagarika Dharmapala). His life was an inspiration to all Buddhists, Ven. Sobitha concluded.
Mr. Jagath Sumathipala, President of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, said that Asoka Weeraratna will be gratefully remembered as a Buddhist National Hero who had made a significant contribution to the uplift of the Buddha Sasana in a challenging period of time in the last century, at the forthcoming celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ACBC in year 2019.
The commemorative event was provided with musical entertainment by the children of the Sri Bodhiraja Children’s Home in Embilipitiya. They sang both Viridu and group songs in praise of Asoka Weeraratna (Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti) particularly focused on his role in propagating Buddhism in Europe and safeguarding the Buddha Sasana from being undermined by State economic policies.
A Video Documentary on the role played by Asoka Weeraratna and the German Dhramaduta Society in engaging in Buddhist activities in Germany to this day was screened.
Buddhist Monks namely Ven. Dikwelle Seelasumana (who had served for nearly a decade at the Berlin Vihara in Germany) and Ven. Rambukkana Dhammavasa (resident monk at the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya founded by Asoka Weeraratna) delivered sermons.
Professor Jayasiri Lankage (President, German Dharmaduta Society), Harsha Gunasena ( President, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakkshana Mandalaya), Senaka Weeraratna (Hony. Secretary, German Dharmaduta Society), and Dr. Manel Lakdivdas (former President, German Dharmaduta Society) also spoke. Hemantha Ranavaka (Secretary, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakkshana Mandalaya) was the compere of the day’s proceedings.
German Dharmaduta Society
December 14, 2018
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