{"id":108888,"date":"2020-11-21T15:24:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T22:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108888"},"modified":"2020-11-21T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T22:29:08","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c5g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/21\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c5g\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C5f"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

 Here are some activities of the US before and\nafter the Yahapalana puppet government came to power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

American\nBar Association<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Bar Association (ABA) made repeated attempts to register a Branch Association of the ABA in Sri Lanka. The first request was in January 2018.  The Bar Association of Sri Lanka strongly objected. Nowhere in the world will a legal system permit a foreign Bar Association to set up a branch office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an unprecedented request and if allowed will have serious\nconsequences on the independence of the legal profession and   on Sri Lanka\u2019s independence, they said. ABA\nwill start making comments and statements on internal matters and that will\nhave an impact on Sri Lanka\u2018s sovereignty. Also\nwhat will Sri Lanka do if other foreign Bar Associations also ask to set up\noffices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABA then tried to come in as an NGO. ABA made a request to the\nMinistry of Justice, through a local legal firm, asking it to issue a letter to\nregister the ABA here as an NGO. This request was also referred to the BASL\nwhich rejected it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prasad\nKariyawasam <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2019\nit transpired that former Foreign Ministry Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam  had been appointed to Parliament as an\nInternational Affairs adviser to the Speaker. This\nis the first time  in Sri Lanka that a\nSpeaker has had the services of an international affairs advisor, MPs\ncommented. There is no such position  as\nInternational Affairs adviser among the list of officials  in Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya     said USAID is funding different projects\nin  Parliament  through its agent, Development Alternatives  Incorporated . Development\nAlternatives Incorporated is a known CIA front. Its specialty is \u2018democracy\npromotion\u2019  said Kamal\nWickremasinghe.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAI had\ninitially selected Karunathilaka Amunugama, another former Foreign Ministry\nsecretary for the role of adviser, but he had passed away a day before\ncommencing duties.  Kariyawasam was\nappointed as his replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAI had given\nRs. 2,000 million for a programme called Parliamentary Diplomacy\u201d, to foster\nclose relations with other Parliaments worldwide, and also facilitate exchange\nprogrammes for MPs and Parliament staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Kariyawasam  is assisting in this programme, the Speaker\nsaid. He is coordinating the Parliamentary Diplomacy group involving around\n50-60 countries. These programmes  facilitate MPs to travel to foreign countries\nto understand how Parliaments function there. Kariyawasam\nalso  assists me in obtaining scholarships\nfor parliamentarians he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker admitted\nthat Kariyawasam was being paid by Development Alternatives, not by Parliament.\nIn July 2019 Speaker announced that the salary of Prasad Kariyawasam, would be\nmet from Parliament funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prasad\nKariyawasam had  also arranged for\nthe  ambassadors of  the Organization of Islamic Cooperation\nCountries (OIC) to come to Parliament to meet the Speaker. The diplomats\nincluded those from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,\nLibya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and\nTurkey. Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Director of\nMilitary Intelligence were also present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MPs questioned this. The task of summoning\nColombo-based diplomats  is the sole\nresponsibility of the Foreign Minister or his Ministry Secretary. It is also\nthe responsibility of the President or the Prime Minister, particularly during emergencies.\nThe intelligence chief of the country, who knows all the intelligence and\nsecret information, including investigations that are ongoing, was summoned for\nthe meeting, along with the IGP. Summoning the intelligence chief in front of\nforeign envoys has not been done by any other Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker explained<\/strong> I convened\na meeting of envoys of these Muslim countries in Parliament to brief them on\nthe latest situation. The IGP came for this meeting, along with other senior\nofficers. Meeting was to brief the envoys of the Muslim countries and ease\ntheir fears. The meeting was held with good intentions to explain the current\nsituation and give a guarantee on security. There was no leaking of state secrets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would it not\nhave been better to ask the Foreign Ministry to invite  these envoys, countered MPs. This clearly\nshows that Kariyawasam was running a parallel operation, commented the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Peace\nCorps <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2018  \nYahapalana signed an agreement with the US to re-establish a US Peace\nCorps programme in Sri Lanka. The negotiations had started in 2016 . The Peace\nCorps was returning to Sri Lanka after some 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first 25 American Peace Corps Volunteers will arrive in Sri\nLanka in late 2019 and undergo three months of comprehensive cultural, language\nand technical training before they are given their assignments to serve for two\nyears.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Peace Corps evolved from a CIA front known as the\nInternational Voluntary Services   during\npreparations for the war against Vietnam. The US Peace Corps has been expelled\nfrom a number of countries for spying for the CIA, meddling in local politics,\nand running drugs. Indonesia ordered\nthem out in 1965, after 16 months. \nPakistan and India refused to renew approval of Peace Corp projects in\ntheir countries in the early 1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peace Corp\nvolunteers in Sri Lanka will focus on English language education. They will\ncomplement the English teaching programs funded by the U.S. Embassy and the\nU.S. Agency for International Development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will be\ngiven diplomatic privileges. The\nDiplomatic Privileges Act provisions have been invoked  for the Peace Corp and persons performing\nfunctions under contract with the Peace Corps and their dependents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGovernment will provide to the Peace Corps and their families,  the same exemptions with respect to taxes,\nincome, customs duty as provided to  those in the Embassy of the United States in\naccordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has teaching English to Sri Lankan children becomes such an\nurgent priority, asked Kamal Wickremasinghe. Because US wishes to  place \npersons   at grass roots level in Sri Lankan villages,  close to the   2019\nelection, came the reply. <\/em>The return of\nthe controversial US Peace Corps, in 2019 shows Washington\u2019s fears about the\nforthcoming General  and Presidential\nElections, observed Tamara Kunanayagam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working\nGroup on Labor Law Reforms <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

National\nLabor Advisory Committee (NLAC) was told in July 2017, that the Government has\ndecided to appoint a Working Group on Labor Law Reforms, in collaboration with\nUSAID. Trade unions  strongly objected\nto  this. Neither the Ministry of\nDevelopment Strategies and International Trade nor USAID has any right to\nintervene in reforming labour laws in Sri Lanka, they said. Labor reform came\nunder the Labour Department and the Ministry of Labor.  There is a well tested tripartite mechanism\nincluding trade unions and employer representation for this purpose. What was the actual intention behind this\nurge to reform labour laws of the country, the trade unions asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Trimble Navigation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government Surveyors\u2019 Association (GSA) said in January 2017,\nthat there was a move to hand over several operations of the Sri Lanka Survey\nDepartment (SLSD), including Land Information System (LIS) and Aerial Survey\nOperations to Trimble Navigation , a US-based  company, \nfor 15 years.  \u2018The required plans\nare already in place to complete the transfer. This may  help to revive the abandoned US Tropical\nForest Act as well said observers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trimble\nNavigation Ltd, a US company, has forwarded a proposal for \u2018Title\/Tenure\nRegularisation and Cadastral Registry Modernisation\u2019 in Sri Lanka. A high level\ncommittee headed by Prime Minister\u2019s senior advisor R. Paskeralingam had\nrecommended this  proposal and the\nCabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM), within the Prime Minister\noffice,  had approved it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Minister for Lands told the Surveyors\nAssociation that the government has decided to implement the proposal and the\nAssociation must support the project. Trimble would work with the Ministry of\nLands to identify 2.5 million state-owned lands and help to give permanent\ntitles to the persons currently occupying these lands. Bim Saviya programme\nlaunched during the previous Rajapaksa regime has become a white elephant. Only 405,000 title deeds were issued from\n2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surveyors\nobserved that the main functions of the Sri Lanka Survey Department, as well as\nits Land Information System (LIS) and Aerial Survey Operations would be vested\nin Trimble for 15 years. Survey\nDepartment staff and resources will also go to Trimble. 400 public surveyors\nand 200 additional private surveyors with crews will serve under Trimble,\nconducting pre-survey, survey and data collection. If Trimble is given the management of Sri\nLanka Survey Department, then Trimble will take control of Sri Lanka\u2019s\nelectronic land register and details of lands. This will be a threat to\ncountry\u2019s national security, said the surveyors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galagodaatte\nGnanasara thera <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before 2012,\nGalagodaatte Gnanasara  thera was\ncompletely unknown to the public, \nsaid  C.A.Chandraprema. He said\nthat even he never knew such a monk existed. When Gnanasara\u2019s name came up for\nthe first time in the anti-Halal campaign of 2013,  journalists \nhad confused him with Gangaramaya\u2019s Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara. That was how\nunknown Gnanasara was at that time, said Chandraprema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the\nmonk was known to the USA. Galagodaatte Gnanasara thera was given  a five- year\nmultiple entry visa  to USA, in 2011,<\/strong> sometime\nafter  he had begun a  campaign of hatred and incitement of\nviolence,<\/strong>\n<\/em>on religious issues. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On what basis\ndid Gnanasara qualify for a five year multiple entry visa to the USA as far\nback as 2011<\/strong> asked\nChandraprema. How is it that the US embassy issued a five-year multiple entry\nvisa to an unknown monk whose only claim to fame at that time was having\npleaded guilty to a change of drunk driving and having disrupted meetings of\nthe Anti-War Front . For a Buddhist monk to plead guilty to a charge of drunk\ndriving was very unusual and was probably the first time that such a thing\noccurred in Sri Lanka\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in 2014\nthe visa was cancelled. The US\nauthorities appear to have panicked that if this monk made another visit to the\nUSA on this visa in the middle of all this controversy, their role in all this\nmayhem would be badly exposed, said Chandraprema. (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS  Here are some activities of the US before and after the Yahapalana puppet government came to power. American Bar Association American Bar Association (ABA) made repeated attempts to register a Branch Association of the ABA in Sri Lanka. The first request was in January 2018.  The Bar Association of Sri Lanka strongly objected. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}