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පසුගිය 2023 ඹක්තෝම්බර් මස 01වනදා lankaweb.com අඩවියේ පලවූ 

‘බොජ්ජංග තුලින් අත්දකින නිවන හා බොජ්ජංගයෙන් ආදේශවන (replace) වන සමත භාවනාව’ යන ලිපිය තුලින් මෙතෙක් වැසී තිබූ නිවන් මාර්ගය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම විවර විය.

බුදුන්වහන්සේ අපගේ එකම ශාස්තෘන් වහන්සේය. බුද්ධ වචනය හා බුදුන්වහන්සේ දේශනාකල ධර්මය අප වටහාගත යුතු හා පිලිපැදිය යුතු එකම ප්‍රතිපදාවයි.

නිවනට ඇති එකම මාර්ග ලෙස බුදුන්වහන්සේ අපට කියාදෙන්නේ සතර සතිපට්ඨානයයි (ඒකායන මග්ගෝ).

බුදුන්වහන්සේගේ ප්‍රතිඥාව

සතර සතිපට්ඨානයේ ධම්මානුපස්සනාව තුල එන ‘සච්ච පබ්බය’ තුල බුදුන්වහන්සේ අපට ප්‍රතිඥාවක් දෙයි. එනම් යමෙක් සතර සතිපට්ඨානය නිවැරදිව වඩයිනම් (follow correct) හෙතෙම දින 7ක හෝ අවුරැදු 7 ක කාල පරාසයක් තුල නිවන් දකී හෝ අනාගාමි තත්වයට හෝ පත්වේය යන ප්‍රතිඥාවයි. මෙය බුද්ධ වචනයයි.

සතිපට්ඨානය උපරිම වශයෙන් සත් අවුරුද්දක් හෝ වඩන්නා නිවන හෝ අනාගාමි තත්වය හෝ ලැබීමට ජිවිතකාලයක් බලා සිටිය යුතු නැත. හෙතෙමේ මෙම කාල සීමාව තුලම එම තත්වයන් ලබාගනී. 

note: නිවනට පත්වීමට හෝ අනාගාමි වීමට ජීවිතකාලයක් බලා සිටිය යුතුබව (‘මේ ආත්මයේදීම‘ යයි) ත්‍රිපිටක සිංහල පරිවරිතනයෙහි සඳහන් වෙයි. සද්ධර්මය ‘අනාත්ම’  ධර්මයක් බවත් නිවන හෝ අනාගාමි තත්වයන් (states) ලැබීමට ආත්මයක කාලයක් බලාසිටිය යුතු නම් බුදුන්වහන්සේගේ ප්‍රතිඥාව පල රහිත වන බවත් ත්‍රිපිටකය සිංහලට පරිවර්තනය කල අයට අමතක වීදෝයි නොදනිමි.

ඒ නිසා ඔබ සත්වසරක් ගතවීත් නිවන හෝ අනාගාමි තත්වය හෝ ලබා නොමැති නම් ඔබ විසින් කල යුත්තක් ඇත. එනම්:

1. ඔබ විසින් මෙතෙක් අනුගමනය කර ඇත්තේ වැරදි ප්‍රතිපදාවක් බව තේරුම් ගත යුතුය.
2. ඔබ විසින් නිවැරදි ප්‍රතිපදාව සොයා ගත යුතුය.

මෙතෙක් මාර්ගය යයි සිතා ඔබ අනුගමනය කලේ සමත භාවනාව නම් එයින් නිවන ඈත්වීමක් මිස ලඟාවීමක් සිදු නොවන බව පසක්කිරීමට කාලයයි. තාවකාලික ක්‍රියාවක් වන සමතය තුල ආත්ම දෘෂ්ඨිය හෝ ආත්ම සංඥාව හෝ දිය (ක්ෂය) නොවේ.

නිවන් දකින ප්‍රතිපදාව

නිවන් දකින නිවැරදි හා නියත ප්‍රතිපදාව බුදුන්වහන්සේ ධම්මානුපස්සනාවේ බොජ්ජංග පබ්බය තුල පෙන්වාදෙයි. ඔබට හමුවන හා ඔබ පරිහරනය කරන සියල්ල භාහිරයයි. භාහිරය රූප හැඩතලවලට (වර්ණ රූප, ශබ්ද රූප, ආදිය) හා ඒවායින් නිකුත්වන අංශු තරංග (වර්ණ තරංග, ශබ්ද තරංග අදිය) වලට පමනක් සීමා වෙයි. එහි ආශ්වාදයක් හෝ ඇලීමක් හෝ තන්හාවක් ඇතිවීමට දෙයක් නැත. මෙය යථාර්තයයි. 

නමුත් අවිද්‍යාව හා විඤ්ඤාණ මායාව අපට වෙනත්ම ලෝකයක් (භාහිරයක්) මවා පෙන්වන අතර අප එහි සිරවී සිටින්නෙමු.

භාහිරයට ඇලීමක් හෝ ගැටීමක් (රාග ද්වේෂ) නැති, භාහිරය නිසා සිතේ ගින්නක් ඇති නොවන, ‘කම්පා විරහිත’, පූර්ණ සුඤ්ඤත ස්වභාවයට පත්වීම හා එමගින් ඔබ තුල නිරතුරුවම පවතින (inherently) ‘බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය’ (වය) දැක නිවන් දැකීමට ඔබ විසින් ගත යුතු ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයත්, අවශ්‍ය තත්ව සම්පූර්ණවන විට (when conditions are right) නිවන ආයාසයකින් තොරවම (auto) ඔබවෙත ලඟාවන ආකාරයත් බුදුන්වහන්සේ බොජ්ජංග පබ්බය තුල මනාව පෙන්වා දෙයි. 

note: ආනන්ද ස්ථිවිරයන්‍ වහන්සේ නිවන් දැක්කේ ප්‍රථම ධම්ම සංගායනාවට පෙර රාත්‍රියේ නින්දට යන අවස්තාවේදීය. උන්වහන්සේ භෞතික අතහැරීම සපුරා ශාසන ගතවුවෙකි. බුදුන් ඇසුරේ අවුරුදු ගනනාවක් සුඤ්ඤතා අවබෝධය තුල චෛතසික අතහැරීම පුරුදු පුහුනුකල අයෙකි. සුඤ්ඤතා අවබෝධයෙන් අතහැරීම පරිපූර්ණ කර (total mental & physical detachment) පුර්ණ ප්‍රීතියට පත්ව ලැබූ සංසුන්තාවය (calmness) හරහා තමා තුල නිරතුරුවම පවතින බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය මතුකරගත් ආනන්ද ස්ථිවිරයන් වෙත එදින රාත්‍රියේ නිදි යහනට යද්දී ආයාසයකින් තොරවම නිවන ලඟාවිය. අවශ්‍ය තත්වයන් සම්පූර්ණ කල ඔබටද ආයාසයකින් තොරවම නිවන් දැකිය හැකියි.

භාහිරයේ යථාර්තය එනම් අනාත්මීය ස්වභාවය (ඒවායේ දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැති බව)  අවබෝධ කොට භාහිරයෙන් මිදුන තැන ඇතිවන සැහැල්ලුව (කම්පා විරහිත ස්වභාවය – අකම්පිත ස්වභාවය – calmness – පස්සද්දි බොජ්ජංගය) නිවනට දොරටුවයි.

සප්ත බොජ්ජංග

නිවන කරා යන මාර්ගයෙහි පලමුවෙන්ම කලයුතු වන්නේ ‘සිහිය’ පිහිටුවාගැනීමයි  –  යෝනිසෝමනසිකාරය ඇතිකරගැනීමයි (සති බොජ්ජංගය). එනම් යමක් සිහියට හසුවන තත්වය හඳුනාගැනීමයි. සතර සතිපට්ඨානයේ කායානුපස්සනාව හා වේදානුපස්‍සනාව තුලින්‍ කියාදෙන්නේ එම පිලිවෙතයි.

සිතේ ආතතියක් ඇතිකරවන ‘කම්පාවට’ මූලික සාධකය වන්නේ භාහිරය කෙරෙහි ඇතිකරගන්නා ඇලීම හෝ ගැටීම නිසා ඇතිවන ගින්නයි. ගින්නට මුල භාහිරයේ පවතින්නක යථාර්තය (reality) නොදැක ඒවා ආත්මීය (දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් ඇති) ලෙස විඤ්ඤාණ මායාව තුලින් අල්ලා ගැනීමයි. මෙම විඤ්ඤාණ මායාව හොඳින් දැනගැනීම හෙවත් පටිච්චසමුප්පාද ධර්මය නිවැරදිව දැනගැනීම (keen  knowledge of Dhamma) ධම්මවිචය බොජ්ජංගයයි.

මේ ජීවිතයේ සියල්ලම අතහැරීමෙන් හැර වෙනත් කිසිම දෙයකින් ‘පූර්ණ ප්‍රීතිය’ (total happiness – ප්‍රීති බොජ්ජංගය) ලැබිය නොහැකියි. පූර්ණ ප්‍රීතිය ලද සැනින් ආතතිය දුරුවී සිත සංසුන්වෙයි (calmness – පස්සද්දි බොජ්ජංගය). ආතතිය දුරුවී සංසුන්වූ සිත, සිතේ නිරතුරුවම පවත්නා බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය නැතහොත් වය ප්‍රසාද ධාරාව සමඟ ඒකාග්‍රවෙයි (සමාධි බොජ්ජංගය). එම තත්වය දිගටම සක්‍රීයව (keep active) පවත්වාගැනීම උපේක්ෂා බොජ්ජංගය හරහා සිදුවෙයි. එහිදී අවදිවූ බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය අධිගත සමාධිය (නිවන) තෙක් (දක්වා) වර්ධනය වෙයි.

සද්ධර්මය තුල සුඤ්ඤතාවය එනම් භාහිරයේ දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැති ස්වභාවය අවබෝධ කලයුත්තේ ඒවායේ හරයක් වටිනාකමක් නැති බව දැක ‘අතහැරීම’ පිනිසමය. වටිනාකමක් නැති භාහිරය අතහරිනවා මිස බදාගැනීමක් කුමකටද?

විඤ්ඤාණ මායාවට හසුවී ආත්මීයවන භාහිරය අතහැරිය හැක්කේ භාහිරයේ දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැතිබව ‘විදර්ශනාවෙන්’ (විපස්සනාවෙන්) දැකීමෙනි. එතන එතන ඇතිවන අරමුණේ සත්‍යය එනම් දෙයක්‍ යමක් කෙනෙක් නැතිබව දැකීම (අවබෝධය) විපස්සනාවයි.

යථාර්තයක්වූ දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැති ඒ නිසාම වටිනාකමක් නැති භාහිරය චෛතසිකවත් භෞතිකවත් (mental & physical) අතහැරීම පහසුය. යථාර්තය ගැන තරමක හෝ අවබෝධයක් සහිතව සසුන්ගතවන භික්ෂූන්වහන්සේලා භෞතික අතහැරීම සසුන්ගතවන මොහොතේම සාක්ෂාත් කරගනී (acheived).

භාහිරයේ සුඤ්‍ඤත ස්වභාවය එනම් දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් නැති ස්වභාවය නොහොත් යථාර්තය විදර්ශනාවෙන් සිහියට හසුකර ගැනීම චෛතසික අතහැරීමයි. චෛතසික අතහැරීම සම්පූර්ණ කල තැනැත්තා සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය ප්‍රහානය කොට  සෝවාන් තත්වය (state) අත්විදියි. මෙහිදී භාහිරය දකින/විදින අරමුණ උපාදානවීම (බැසගැනීම) ක්‍රමයෙන් දියවී ගොස් භවය සකස්වීම (භාහිරය දෙයක් යමක් කෙනෙක් වන ස්වභාවය) දියවී යයි (උපාදාන පච්චයා භව). භවය සකස් වන ස්වභාවය දියවනවිට භාහිරය දකින විඳින ‘මම’ ද ක්‍රමයෙන් දියවී යයි (භව පච්චයා ජාති). ‘ක්ෂය ධම්මා වය ධම්මා’ ලෙස දහම තුල දැක්වෙන්නේ මෙම සංසිද්ධියයි.

විපස්සනාවෙන් භාහිරයේ පවතින සුඤ්ඤතාවය අවබෝධය තුල චෛතසික අතහැරීම සිදුවන අතර (state of සෝවාන්), දෙවන අදියර වන භෞතික අතහැරීම සම්පූර්ණවීමෙන් නිත්‍ය ආතතියෙන් මිදුන ස්වභාවය තුල ඇතිවන පස්සද්දිය (calmness) හරහා තමා තුල නිරතුරුවම පවකින ‘බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය’ නොහොත් ප්‍රභාශ්වරය අත්විඳිය හැකියි. එවිට ‘ඔබ‘ යථාර්තය එනම් අනාත්මීය භාහිරය (ස්වභාවධර්මය – nature) සමග බද්ධවී නිවන් දකී. නිවනේදී අත්දකින්නේ අනිමිත්ත, අනිදස්සන සමාධියකි. එනම් (සංකාර, විඤ්ඤාණ නැති) ප්‍රභාශ්වරයයි. එවිට භාහිරය දකින්නේ විඳින්නේ (දිට්ඨ සුත මුත විඤ්ඤාත වන්නේ) ස්කන්ධ මට්ටමේ සංවේදක (sensors) වලින් මිස ආයතන මට්ටමේ (නාමරෑප පච්චයා සලායතන) ඇතිවන සලායතන වලින් නොවේ. මෙය විඤ්ඤාණ මායාවට අසුවී උපන්දා සිට මේ මොහොත දක්වා දීර්ඝ කාලයක් උදය (සමුදය) සංඥා ධාරාවේ සිරගතවී භාහිරය සලායතන මට්ටමේ දට්ඨ සුත මුත විඤ්ඤාත ලෙස වින්ඳාට වඩා වෙනස් ස්වභාවයකි. 

මෙසේ අත්දකින නිවන ‘සිහියට’ හසුවෙයි. මෙහිදි ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම සක්‍රිය (activate) වන්නේ ‘සිහිය’ නොව සිහියේම උසස් අවස්තාවක් වන ‘ඤාණ’ හරහා උපදින ‘ප්‍රඥාවයි’.  ඤාණ හා එහි කෙලවර ඇතිවන උසස්ම ඤාණය වන ප්‍රඥාව යනු කෙලෙස් (රාග ද්වේශ මෝහ) ක්‍රමයෙන් දියවනවිට සිහියේ ඇතිවන හිඩස පිරවීමට ‘මතකය’ අසලම විද්‍යාමාන වන්නකි. මේ නිසා බුද්ධ ස්වභාවය, වය – වය ප්‍රසාද ධාරාව, නිවන යන තත්වයන් ඇතිවූ විගසම ප්‍රඥාවට හසුවෙයි.

නිවන නිර්වචනය කල නොහැකි වුවත් එය දැනෙන්නේ වෙනත් මානයකට (different dimension) ඇතුළුවූවාක් මෙනි. ‘ඔබ‘ අනාත්මීය භාහිරය (ස්වභාවධර්මය – nature) හා බද්ධවන අවස්ථාවේ සංවේදක (sensor) මට්ටමෙන් භාහිරය අත්විඳියි (දිට්ඨ සුත මුත විඤ්ඤාතය ස්කන්ධ මට්ටමේ සිදුවෙයි).

ඉහත සඳහන් ක්‍රියාවලිය තිපරිවට්ටයේ පලමුවැන්න වන සත්‍ය ඤාණය තුල දැනුමෙන් වටහාගත යුතුය. ඉන්පසුවයි ප්‍රතිපදාව තුල එය අවබෝධයක් බවට (කෘත්‍ය ඤාණය – තිපරිවට්ටයේ දෙවන අදියර) පරිවර්තනය කරගත හැකිවන්නේ.

ඉදිරි ලිපියකින් සත්‍ය ඤාණය වටහා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරමු.

tgunite@tpg.com.au

තෙරුවන් සරණයි.

තිස්ස ගුණතිලක

2023 ඔක්තොබර් 04 වනදා

By Senaka Weeraratna

This is an updated and edited version of a Public Talk delivered on World Animal Day (October 4, 2015) at the Dharmavijaya Foundation, Colombo.

……………………………………….

New Vision

We need a new vision for this country and its civilizational advancement. 

It must begin in our schools.

The primary purpose of education is to make an individual a better human being, morally speaking. One aspect of that is to develop close contact with nature and appreciate nature. This was how the aim of education was viewed in the past. Today the ethos in the educational system has changed radically. The focus is on preparing students in subjects that will be useful to gain employment. The curriculum is directed towards technical and job-oriented education while neglecting the humanitarian side. It is a lopsided education.  Producing children that have little understanding of life – which was the original and essential purpose of education. An enlightened human being cannot arise purely on the basis of instruction in technical subjects.

Once upon a time, the living world was physically close to human beings. It was rural in outlook and a rural atmosphere enveloped the world. The inhabitants interacted with nature, plants, and animals on a daily basis.  There is a marked shift today. An artificial world has made deep inroads into our lives through new technologies uprooting the child from contact with nature.

There is greatness in the outdoors. 99% of children who live in big cities barely touch base with nature. A Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka in the recent past has been reported to have said that her child saw a frog for the first time only upon their arrival in Sri Lanka.  Those who live in concrete jungles cannot see even the sky properly. But the sky and the heavens above have always been a source of inspiration and awe to humankind. 

Buddhist Economics

There has to be a greater public debate on our true destiny.  The uncritical copying of structures more suitable for other cultures and the development of concrete jungles that we see in Southeast Asia at the cost of a green tree-based environment is not the best answer to Sri Lanka’s social and economic problems. Bigger is not always better. Small is beautiful said Dr. E.F. Schumacher advocating small appropriate technologies that can empower people more.  Schumacher propounded a philosophy of  “enoughness”, appreciating both human needs, limitations, and appropriate use of technology. It grew out of his study of village-based economics in Burma, which he subsequently named ‘Buddhist Economics’.

Humanitarian Education 

To break or arrest this trend of producing children who have little empathy for nature, animals, and even other human beings, a new system of education has arisen. It is called Humanitarian Education.  Animal Protection Education is a part of Humanitarian education. Taiwan is one region in the world that has successfully introduced Animal Protection Education into schools. We also see that happening in some parts of India such as Gujarat.

Primary School Education in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka in our Primary schools from Grades 1 – 5, four main subjects are taught, namely

1) Maths

2) Languages

3) Environment Related Activities (ERA)

4) Religion

ERA has 12 themes integrated into it, such as Safety, Transport, Family, and Natural environment including animals.

Dept of Education

The Dept of Education in the foreseeable future must incorporate animal protection education through the adoption of a number of strategies:

a) The core aim must be to help develop concern for animal rights and welfare in lesson planning for children.

b) Research shows a vicious cycle of violence. The child who abuses animals in the home environment is likely to be a bully at school, beat family members or spouses, and even commit crimes in society.

c) Teenage children who are abused by elders in turn abuse companion animals and other animals.

Therefore the Dept. of Education must:

i) develop an environment in schools to promote teachers’ and children’s understanding of the meaning of animal protection and help them recognize the interdependence and intersubjective relationship among human beings, animals, and mother nature.

ii) help programs that lead children to establish positive relationships with animals and strengthen their ability to empathize with animals.

iii) promote the concept of respect and affection for animals and their habitats and generate humane and caring values and the power to act

iv) If students are made to understand that animals like humans also have the ability to feel pain, they can then develop the endearing traits of benevolence and sympathy.

v) Advocacy of Animal Protection Ideas – Today’s Children will become the future leaders of Sri Lanka. Schools must develop programs that will encourage children and teenagers to become a conduit in conveying the ideas of animal protection to the public which will in turn help them to gain the ability to interact with people and develop effective communication skills.

vi) Schools must help children and their teachers understand the unpalatable truth behind animal shows and Zoos (which in reality are animal prisons though euphemistically called Zoos) and empower them to think critically and engage in resolute action including even refusing to visit a Zoo as a place for enjoyment and merry-making. Children must be taught to emphasize and speak on behalf of caged animals in Zoos who have been given a punitive life sentence without committing an offense.  Our children should be encouraged to share their birthday treats with animals and birds including zoo and stray animals among others. 

Furthermore, our children must be reminded of the Buddha’s words quoted in the Dhammapada:

He who does not inflict injury on beings, whether feeble or strong, does not kill nor cause to kill, him I call a Brahmana.”

vii) Sri Lanka is a country with a lot of wildlife.  It is the human being who is encroaching into the natural habitats of our elephants. Their territory is getting reduced by the day. We are invading their territory without an iota of guilt feeling or wrongdoing. Our pre-colonial Kings assigned special reserves for wildlife. King Devanampiyatissa established the world’s first wildlife sanctuary at Mihintale after his encounter with Arahant Mahinda in the 3rd century.   

Last week in Sri Lanka ( late September 2023) eleven elephants were reported to have died in train-related accidents. This is shameful for the country. Still, no effective plan to prevent or avoid train accidents with elephants is in sight. The elephants have a right to live in their natural habitats undisturbed by human encroachment. This is a message that children must carry with them to prevent further aggravation of the human–elephant conflict.

vii) Teachers must be trained to provide children with opportunities to choose a set of values different from mainstream values. Allow children to have lifestyle options such as avoiding products that are basically slaughter products or combined with slaughter products e.g. furs, animal skins, reduce meat consumption and choose a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Meat is a product of a huge injustice caused to animals. We prematurely end their natural span of life and then rob their body parts for our use and consumption. No amount of religious script-based excuses or defense can hide this shameful bitter truth. Yet the majority of people in our society carry on life as if no wrong has been done to others and then deliver lectures on Human Rights based on hypocrisy and double standards. Legal education is complicit in this intellectual fraud because it remains silent and tongue-tied in areas where there should be outspokenness and vocal challenge. 

James Cameron, famed director of ‘Titanic’ and well-known climate change activist, has a message for the masses: go vegan to fight climate change.

Cameron, who has been vegan for four years, has said in a recent interview with the Fortune Magazine as follows:

[T]he thing that became abundantly clear to us when we met with the experts who are working in nutrition and energy sustainability and climate change is that we can’t actually meet our emission goals if we don’t address animal agriculture, and that’s the thing that’s been left out of the conversation.

This message is crucial because many people who care about the environment still have no idea that raising animals for food is so incredibly destructive.”

Consider some of these facts:

•             It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce just one pound of beef

•             80 percent of land deforested in the Amazon is for raising cattle

•             Factory farms grossly contaminate rivers and groundwater

Future Plan

We must initiate a campaign to promote animal protection education and see it take root in our system of school education.

A unique program operating in schools in Israel has found that animal welfare education leads to a host of other benefits including sensitivity to the needs of others, personal responsibility, and prevention of violence. In respect to primary school education, young children particularly up to the age of seven years are recognized for being receptive towards forming positive attitudes to animal welfare that will carry them through to adulthood.

We must remember that children are generally very receptive, their minds are inquiring and active and they have huge supplies of natural enthusiasm. The messages they receive at school run deep. A caring child will turn out to be a caring adult. Schools must establish Animal Protection Clubs or Associations. These clubs will serve as a platform for students to exchange resources, share information, discuss issues, and make animal protection plans more practical and local.

‘ Animal Law ’must be introduced as part of legal studies in secondary schools and tertiary education i.e. Law Faculty. 

The study of philosophy both Eastern and Western must be re-introduced into our educational system with a view to expanding the intellectual horizons of our school and university students.

People in Sri Lanka in the pre-colonial era were called Arya Sinhala or Aryavansa – noble race by fellow Asians because of our animal-friendly cultural heritage and compassion towards animals.

The ultimate civilizational goal should be to build a caring and compassionate society in Sri Lanka and achieve peaceful co–existence between man and animal. We can then become a true role model for the world like Bhutan has become with respect to the preservation of its rich natural environment.

Animal Welfare Bill

The Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission in 2006, was a comprehensive document. Upon enactment, it was felt that it would set the standard for other countries, particularly in Asia to adopt. Unfortunately, the Bill has had an uneasy ride over the last 17 years largely owing to the opposition of people with vested interests.

It has reappeared in a new incarnation in the year 2022 as a Bill of Parliament with many of the outstanding features that made the 2006 draft Animal Welfare Bill admirable and highly valued, discarded. Today, the Bill (2022 Version) is at the penultimate stage of its passage. Some of the content is draconian. It has fallen short in critical areas vis-à-vis the original Animal Welfare Bill of 2006. The potential of creating room for possible committing of greater harm to a wider number of animals through misinterpretation and misconstruction of words, though not conceived at the time of drafting, is very high and alarming.

The moral challenge for the people of Sri Lanka is to either give effect to the long-suppressed voice of the voiceless animals via an effective piece of Animal Welfare legislation or accommodate the demands of those who see animals in an entirely different light i.e., as fit only for abuse and exploitation for profit, and thereby belying the noble purpose of the Animal Welfare Bill.

Senaka Weeraratna

Sarath Wijesinghe (President’s Counsel, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel, Solicitor in England and Wales, President Ambassador’s forum)

Tourism and Cricket

They say Sri Lanka is famous both for tourism and cricket. Propagation of tourism is a necessity for the country want of tourists for the most needed foreign currency and income for the country from the industry which brings fame, income and many other benefits. Sri Lanka is a taylor made compact nation for tourism with all ingredients to be a leader on tourism  a stated by  Marco Polo  in 13^th century , that it is the best compact island in the world of its size with all ingredients intact to be a beautiful tourist/travellers destination, visited by many from time immemorial due to strategic position geographically on the famous sea route on the silk route used by many including ‘Fa Hian’ who visited Ceylon in 410 AD/CE and many others who voyaged for trade and other purposes. Amongst many Sri Lanka is known and famous for Golden beaches, rising waves, misty mountains, mighty elephants, rare leopards of its kind only found in Sri Lanka in abundance, giant Wales, majestic past, lovely tea, golden beaches, spicey food, oldest cities, wild life watching and hospitality Sri Lanka is famous for. Cricket was  introduced to Sri Lanka via Britain dominated in 1815 as and gained independence on 1948 as a free nation which became  famous as a cricketing nation having won the world cup which is a rare distinction in 1995/6  with flying colours. Cricket is a most famous sport played in Sri Lanka starting and promoting with school cricket which is famous among the nation enjoyed by all equally sponsored by the media. South Asian countries are dedicated and immersed on cricket as much as the other commonwealth countries and the latest is the emergence of new cricketing nations from other parts of the world. BCCSL Cricket  control body in Sri Lanka with links and supervision of the mother council is the governing body set up on 5^th september1832 is a rich and powerful controlling  body on the sport rooted in schools and villages with lot of controversies and publicity is indirectly supervised by the Minister of sport carefully interacting with the cricket board the cricket unions and the people who are very vociferous and inquisitive as a popular game  on the management of cricket in Sri Lanka. Cricket and tourism needs a new face of life and innovative changes in order to derive the maximum use of the hidden and unexplored treasures for the benefit of the country in larger scale as both sports and the industry are money spinners if wisely managed maintaining international standards though sorry no note both cricket and tourism is not properly managed and made us of for the maximum benefit for the nation.

Five Billion visited Sri Lanka

5 billion tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2021, ranking 4^th out of South Asian group and 74 out of 141 countries ranking 180 th in the world. Tourism contributes 12.6 for the GDP, and the 3^rd largest income only next to income from remittances abroad by employed overseas. Tourism was picking up at a fast rate that was retarded by the war that has lasted 26years, Covid19, Easter bombing in 2019 and the economic crisis that engulfed the nation with deep financial showdown. Yet Sri Lanka emerged victorious may be due to the natural beauty and famous places of interest to visit with the beauty and climatic conditions. Hospitality is the other part of the coin and a necessity for the promotion of tourism. Sri Lankans are a hospitable natin the country is full of places on hospitability such as reputed hotels and different kind of eating places including Sri Lankan dishes which are common.

 Cricket is the most popular game

Cricket is the most popular game in Sri Lanka South Asia and the commonwealth headed by the Britain. It is a money spinner for Sri Lanka that earned 6.3 billion around the world cup she won and from other tournaments prior to and after and continues to be a sport and a source of income. Prudential cup also known as the world cup is held every four years take place at the host nations with the supervision of the governing body established after the Australia England test match in 1877 and subsequent developments that progressed on the regulatory powers by the governing body of the sport which is a money making and powerful body with enormous regulatory powers. Enormous sums are earned from cricket but it is generated via the Cricket Board with strict supervision of the world body with no control from the host country which is a safety net to avoid bribery and corruption, yet the reports are the cricket board  as corrupt as any other government enterprise that are known and famous for bribery and corruption which is the topics for news very often on the media. The world cup victory for Sri Lanka in many was such as image building the country is needed badly due to anti Sri Lanka propaganda by anti-Sri Lankan groups and international organizations and to invite investors to the country in need of most needed foreign currency to meet the economic crisis possible due to management of the economy by governance of all sides. Sri Lanka earned 6.3 billion USD the highest income so far expecting more from forthcoming games and competitions in addition to the amounts anticipated from sale of tickets, rights, sponsorships, media and many other which are substantial sums on Sri Lankan standards.

Third large income earner

Sri Lanka Tourism is the third large income earner to the nation only next to the income from foreign employment. Can Sri meet the target of one million tourists in 2023 is a very ambitious expectation that is possible to achieve provided no unexpected local or world disaster sets in such as Tsunami or Covid 19 which is unlikely take place when Sri Lanka’s optimism is on the rise to achieve ambitious target of 1.5 million per year with the rise of tourism by 19%, with 130904 tourists from Russia,  from UK 67691 from Germany 44725  China followed by many other nations yet in need of more publicity for the sport which is controversial due to financial irregularities by the crick administration in Sri Lanka. Yet Sri Lanka is lagging behind the tourist nations for want of more hi end tourists in search of much needed foreign currency and local income too at this financial crisis. Cricket has and will attract attention of the world on Sri Lanka that may directly and indirectly help to promote the tourist and hospitality industries. Sri Lanka reached to be the runners up at the Asian Cup on cricket that gave a boost and publicity to Sri Lanka on cricket with a ripple effect on tourism and hospitality with a substantial income to the country, and the cricket fans and the country is awaiting for the forthcoming world cup with high hopes with the current improvements on the sport.

Sri Lanka is famous for cricket tourism Cinnamon and Tea

Sri Lanka is famous for cricket, tourism, hospitality, tea, cinnamon, and places of historical importance and all these work together world be a strong force to help each other. Sri Lanka proved herself a cricketing nations by winning the world cup and successfully aiming at it continuously awaiting for the forthcoming world cup. Sri Lanka is considered to be most tasty and leader on production now only second to Kenya yet maintains herself a a nation of tea. Sri Lankan cinnamon is the best in the world as it is Sri Lankan climate and the soil is the ideal for cinnamon as pronounced by specialists, and the demand for Sri Lankan cinnamon world over is high. It is a pity that Sri Lanka is not making use of the 40 Embassies, High Commissions Consular offices non-resident Embassy outlets and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a Minister and a Deputy maintained with enormous cost for the portion propagation of our cricket, tourism, hospitality industry cinnamon tea and Sri Lanka with the respective host countries with a plan of action with the Sri Lankan communities willing to cooperate with the  embassy using embassies as vehicles outlets and centres. Cricket is a money spinner for the players, cricket administration and all those connected to cricket as it is supervised and managed by the world cricket body which is a private entity performing independently independent of any state of international organisation, though there is a minister of sports on all sprots activities with limited powers to act intervene or interfere on ricket administration.

Income from tourism

Money earned from tourism could be around 6.3 billion per year at the rate of 834,59 per year and USD 633.8 earned from cricket are substantial sums in terms of the difficulties during the crisis and what is more important is the waste and bribery and inefficiency in both sectors and the potential to earn more with innovative novel methods that has been overlooked is noteworthy to mention. The income could be increased if managed and improved professionally and with well planned programmes  for both areas which are money spinners if managed and improved properly with care and dedication. As mentioned often they say tourism is booming rapidly today with hopes on future improvements keeping the pace with the competitors in the industry managing their industry better on world standards. Cinnamon and Tea re other resources not properly tapped and improved to get the maximum use to assist the ailing economy.  Tea was introduces during the end of Dutch rule the foreigners improved for their benefit disturbing the local living with nature and improving the local economy and health by introducing bread culture instead of health red rice which has been the stable food with local vegetables and fruits in abundance, and started importing all kinds of food from abroad. Tea known as black largest exporter in 1995,  is produced from the tea plant known as ‘Camillea Sinesis’ which generally grows in hilly mountainous elevations which consists so 2% of the EDP and reputation as best tea in the world as the 4^th largest tea exporter and competing with Kenya to be a largest producer in the world, currewntly23% world exporter. It is Henry ‘Randaph’ who is considered for a pioneer of tea to Sri Lanka for the benefit of the foreign powers led to clearing of forest mountains and destabilised the environment and climatic conditions reducing the forest density leading to drastic consequences. Tea is mainly exported to Soviet Russia, UAE, Syria, Turkey, UK, EU, Japan and many other. There is a Tea Research Institute and many sales outlets worldwide world over with minimum assistance from the forty Embassies  High Commissions and outlets with enormous potential to promote cricket, tourism, tea, cinnamon and generally Sri Lanka and her image which is badly in need due to the current economic crisis the country is going through. Cinnamon was introduces on 14^th to 15^th century to Sri Lanka first  by Portuguese and then by Dutch now leading the world market as expensive and precious spice used in the world and dominating 90% world market mainly to Mexico Peru and many other. One million are employed directly and indirectly on tea industry and plantations with a grave shortages for cinnamon as it is also an specialised industry as tea.

Money spinners

Both cricket and tourism are money spinners with networks of expansion via clubs, stadiums schools many other networks and outlets. UAE is not a cricketing nation, yet it brings lot of revenue to the host country and the players, who become millionaire overnight as in football in the category of world’s richest. Both are money spinners obtaining the maximum use I other countries but Sri Lanka which is unfortunate. World cup of cricket is due which is a main opportunity to generate some income with a boom on tourism, now and in anticipation of a better regimes on tourism and cricket. Sri Lanka is famous for tourism cricket, cinnamon, tea, and hospitality and it is time to strengthen the network of embassies to derive the maximum benefit in order to ease the difficulties going through the economic front.

Prime Minister’s Media Division

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, while thanking the Asian Development Bank for the assistance provided to agriculture, rural small and medium sectors and other development projects, urged the regional funding agency to initiate new projects on areas such as renewable energy, digitalization, and public transport systems, especially the railways.

He said this when ADB Country Director Takafumi Kadono called on him at the Prime Minister’s Office in Colombo today (October 3). The Prime Minister thanked the ADB for extending support to Sri Lanka for economic stabilization after the unprecedented economic crisis.

Mr Takafumi Kadono briefed the Prime Minister about the ADB’s mid-term and long-term projects for economic progress and infrastructure development. The ongoing projects cover areas such as strengthening public financial management and governance, foster private sector development and improve access to public services and deepen inclusion, social protection, equitable access, health, climate and agriculture modernization.

He said that ADB Governing Board Members will arrive in Sri Lanka to study the progress of projects and to inquire into the areas of future projects, for which the Prime Minister’s proposals for new projects could be considered.

Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake and ADB Deputy Country Director Utsav Kumar were also present at the discussion. 

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D.

බල පෙරනිමිති පෙරමඟ නැකතටත් වැඩී.”  සැළලිහිණි සංදේශය

මෙම ලිපි මාලාව ලිවීමට මට සිතුනේ ලාල් කාන්ත හා සේපාල් අමරසිංහ යන පංචස්කන්ධ දෙක එකතුව ඥානසාර හිමියන්ට හා පිරිත් නූලට කල අවඥාව නිසාය. ඉන් පසුව සේපාල් ඇමෙරිකාවේ ඔරිගන් ජනපදයේ සිටි රාජනීස් නම් හින්දු පූජකයා (දාර්ශනිකයා?) මෙන් හිස තොප්පියකින් වසාගෙන, JVP එකට සම්බන්ධව සිටි වාරණ ආනන්ද ජයකොඩි සමඟ පරණ් JVP කතා පටිගත කරමින් සිටී. ඔහු සමඟ තරඟයකට මෙන් උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල JVP අතීත කතා එලිදක්වන වැඩ සටහනක් ආරම්භකර ඇතිසේ පෙනේ. කල්යානන්ද පෙරේරා  සම්ඟ ඔහුගේ ප්‍රථම සාකච්චාව සිදුවිය.

(636) විජේවීර නටන්න එපා කිව්වට සකබර්ග් නටෝල ගත්තා! – YouTube

1977 අගදී බෞද්ධ දර්ශණ මහාචාර්ය W.S. කරුණාරත්න යොදවා ගෙන චන්ද රැස්වීම් වලදී “ධර්මිෂ්ට සමාජයක්” ගැන රටට බණ දෙසවූ JRJ, බලයට ආ වහාම ලංගම බස් හා බස් හෝල්ට් වලට කොළ පාට තීන්ත ගෑව්වේය. මෙම තීන්ත සෙල්ලම රටට අත්වන්නට යන ඉරණම පිළිඹඳ අශුභ නිමිත්තක් නොවේදැයි සිතී 1978 මුලදී මම රටෙන් පිටවුනෙමි.  බලය ලැබුනහොත් මාලිමාව පරයා සීනුව හඞ නගාවිද ?  යනුවෙන්  වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග ලියන්නේද මෙවැනි අශුභ නිමිත්තක් ගැනයයි මට සිතේ (ලංකාවෙබ්, 9/21/2023). එය වලක්වා ගැනීමට සත්‍යවශයෙන්ම ක්‍රියාකිරීම JVP නායකයින්ගේ වගකීමය.

සිංහල බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතියට අනුගතවීමට JVP විසින් ගන්නේ ව්‍යාජ උත්සාහයක්ද කියා සිතෙන්නේ ඥානසාර හිමි හා පිරිත් ජවනිකාවෙන් පමණක් නොවේ. 1971 හා 1988/89 කාලවල සිදුවූ ව්‍යසන වලදී ගම් නියම් ගම් වල JVP කාරයින් අශිෂ්ට ලෙස හැසුරුණේය, නිරාපරදේ මිනිස් ඝාතන කලේය. අමානුෂික ලෙස ඔවුන්ගේ මෙම හැසිරීම නිසා ආණ්ඩුව හා අනිකුත් සන්නධ කල්ලි විසින් කල මනුෂ්‍ය ඝාතන පවා ඔවුන්ගේ ගිණුමට බැරවිය. ධර්මන් වික්‍රමරත්න වාර්තා කල අන්දමට හාමුදුරුවරුන් 800 ක් පමණද ඊට ඇතුලත්විය. ඉහතින් දැක්වෙන බස් හෝල්ට් එක මෙන්ම ජ්Vප් පෝස්ටර් එකක් ඇලවීමේදී ඊට විරුද්ධවූ පුද්ගලයාට ගමේ ජ් කාරයෙක් කල තර්ජනයද අති භයානකය. මෙවැනි සිදුවීම්වලදී ජ්ව්ප් නායකයින්

LankaWeb – ‘88-89 අමුඩ ගස්සලා හන්දිවල වෙඩි තිවුවේ උඹලා වගේ අයට..’- ජවිපෙ මන්ත‍්‍රීගේ හඬ පටයක් සමාජ ජාලවල  (2023/10/2)

JVP එකට ලැබී ඇති ඓතිහාසික අවස්ථාව

1935 ට කලින් සිටම මාක්ස්වාදීන් විසින් ගෙනගිය, සාදුකින් පෙලෙනවුන් ... අන්තිම සටනට සැරසියව්… යන බංගවේවා බෙරපදය වෙනුවට දැන් 2023 අගදීවත් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයට අනුගතව ක්‍රියා කලොත් JVP එකට ලංකාවේ පොල්පොට්ලා නොව හෝචිමින්ලා වීමට අවස්ථාවක් උදාවී ඇත.

දුප්පත්කම නමැති මඳුරුවල

දුප්පත්කම ලෝකයේ හැමදාම තිබෙනවායයි ජේසුතුමා කිව්වේය. බඩගින්නේ ඉන්න අයෙකුට බණ දේශනා නොකරණ ලෙස බුදුදහමේ  කියවේ. ආහාර, බිය, නින්ද හා කාමාශාව  සතුන්ට හා මිනිසුන්ට පොදුයයි සංස්කෘත ශ්ලෝකයක සඳහන්ය. මෑත කාලයේ මැස්ලෝගේ hierarchy of (human) needs යනුද මේ කතාවමය. කාල්මාක්ස්ලා දුප්පත්කම අල්ලා ගත්තේ ශ්‍රමය සූරාකෑමේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස දෑකැත්තෙන් හා මිටියෙනි (මේ දෙක කකුල් ලෙස යොදා බස් හෝල්ට් එකක් හැඳීමෙන් මහජනයාට ලෝකල් JVP නායකයින් දෙන්නේ අශුභ පණිවිඩයකි). පන්ති සටන එයට පිළිතුර විය. ලංකාවේ පක්ෂ දේශපාලන කළුසුද්දන් විසින් 1930 ස් ගණන්වල සිටම මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගෙනගිය අවපාලනය (mismanagement) නිසා  ලංකාවේ වාමාංශික පක්ෂවලට වගකීමක් හෝ වගවීමක් හෝ නැතිව ඔහේ පිණුම් ගැසීමට හැකිතරම්  සමාජ විරෝධී මඳුරු වලවල් දිගින් දිගටම ජඹුරුවී විශාලවී ගියේය.  

අතීත කතා අමතකකර ගෝල්පේස් කුමන්ත්‍රණය ගැන සිතුවොත් ඊට UNP පවා හොරෙන් සහභාගීවුවත්, පසුව JVP එක එහි කොඩිය අල්ලාගෙන ඉදිරියට යන්නට උත්සාහ කලේය. රටපුරාම ගෙවල් ගිනිතබන්නට සමත්වූ ඔවුන්, හොරුන්ගෙන් පිරි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අල්ලා ගිනි තබන්නට ඉදිරිපත්විය. පාඨලී චම්පික රණවකට අනුව, ලාල්කාන්ත, සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙති හා බිමල් රත්නායක මීට මුල් වුනත් අන්තිමට හිරේට ගත්තේ පැතුම් කර්නර් නම් පංචස්කන්ධය පමණය. ඒ කාලයේ සිටම LSSP කාරයින් මැයි දින පෙලපාලි ගියේ <පාර්ලිමේන්තුව–කතා සාප්පුව> කියමින්ය. 

ඉන්දියාවේ නිදහස් සටනේ පෙරමුණට ගොස් හිරේ ගිය උඩකැන්දවල සිරි සරණංකර හිමි, ඒ කාලයේ දුටුගැමුණු මහරජතුමා ගඩොල් මෝඩයෙක් යයි කියූ තරුණ මාක්වාදීන්ව නොමඟ යැවුවාද කියාත් මට වරෙක සිතේ. බුදු දහමේ හේතු ඵලවාදය හා කර්මය නමැති සංකල්පය පටලවා ගැනීම නිසා සමාජයේ පැවති කුල භේදය නිකාය වශයෙන් සංඝ සංස්ථාවටද රිංගීම  විග්‍රහ කරදීමට වත් මේ හාමුදුරුවරු අසමත්විය.

ගෝඨාභය ජනාධිපතිට සිදුවූ අලකලංචිය ඉදිරියේ රටේ නැතත් පිටරට  ඒජන්තලා (ඇමෙරිකාව, ඉන්දියාව යනාදී) ජයගත්තේ, ලෝකයේ ගිනස් වාර්තා වලිනුත් ඔබ්බට යන අද්භූතජනක විකෘතිවීමක්වූ රනිල් ජනාධිපති වීමෙන්ය. මේ නිසා උදාවී ඇති ව්‍යාකූල, අශීලාචාර, අඥාන ක්‍රියාකලාපය රටතුලට UNO-R2P හමුදා ගෙන්වා ගැනීමේ උපක්‍රමයක් වෙන්නටද පුළුවන.  රටතුල ශක්තිමත් සංවිධාන ජාලාවක් ගොඩනඟා ගෙන සිටින JVP එක සීනුව ලකුණත් (දෑකැත්ත- මිටිය වෙනුවට), මාලිමාව යනුවෙන් එයට බාහිර පිරිසකුත් ඈඳාගෙන, 1977 දී JRJ කලා මෙන්, අන්දමන්දව නන්නත්තාරව හා අන්ධව  සිටින චන්ද දායක රැල්ලක් මතින්, <බලය> අල්ලා ගැනීමේ අවසාන සටනක් සඳහා වලිකමින් සිටී. මෙවරවත් බැරිවුනොත් රට අතහැර යනවා යයි සමහර JVP නායකයින් කියන්නේ ඒ නිසා විය යුතුය.

වියත් මග හා මාලිමාව

JVP එකà සීනුව හාà මාලිමාව වීම එක අතකින් බලනවිට 1971, 1988/9 මාක්ස්වාදී පාපකර්ම මහජනයාට අමතක කරවීමේ උත්සාහයක්ය.  මෙම දේශපාලන ප්ලෑන  සමාන කල හැක්කේ ගොඨාභය ආරම්භකල වියත් මග සංකල්පය සමඟය.  එහෙත් එය ඔහුටම විපත් මගක් විය. මාලිමා සළකුණ හරහා පරණ JVP එක ලබාගන්නට යන අළුත් ප්‍රවේශය වන්නේ වියත් මගට සමාන වන ආකාරයේ රතු කමිස අඳින්නේ නැති, මීට පෙර JVP සාමාජිකයින් නොවූ, පෙලපාලි නොගිය, විශ්‍රාමිකයින් වැනි බාහිර පංචස්කන්ධ වේදිකාවට නග්ගා ගැනීමය. එසේ නමුත් 2022 රටපුරා ගෙවල් ගිනි තැබීම, පොලොන්නරු  පැත්තේ අහිංසක මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙක් ගම්පහදී ගසා මැරීම, කුමාර වෙල්ගමව මරන්නට සැදීම හා අළුතෙන්ම දෑකැති-මිටි බස් හෝල්ට් එකෙන් පෙන්වන්නේ විනයක්, සදාචාරයක් නැති පිරිසක් රටපුරා JVP නම කැතකරමින් සිටින බවය. JVP බලයට ආවොත් ගම්මට්ටමෙන් රට පුරා ඇතිවිය හැකි පහරදීම්, පලිගැනීම් පිළිඹඳ ඉඟියක්ය. 

මීටත් වඩා බරපතල වන්නේ වෛද්‍ය රුවන් ජයතුංග විසින් ලංකාවෙබ් වෙබ් අඩවියට ලියූ ලිපියකින් පෙන්වා දුන් පරිදි ඔහු යම් පැහැදිලිකර ගැනීමක් සඳහා ගුවන් හමුදාවේ හුටපු නිලධාරී සම්පත් තුය්යකොන්ත ගෙන් විමසුමක් කල විට ඔහුට ලැබුණ සවුත්තු ප්‍රතිචාරයය. අතීතයේ සුසිල් සිරිවර්ධන/සුනිලා අබේසේකරලාට බෙදු හැන්දෙන්ම (ඔවුන් හා මතභේද හටගත් විට ඔවුන්  CIA ඒජන්තලා යයි හංවඩු ගැසීම) මේ අළුත් මාලිමා සාමාජිකයින්ටද බෙදේවිදැයි ඔහු අනුමාන කරයි. අනිත් කරුණ නම් විශ්‍රාමික යුදහමුදා පිරිස් කෙරෙහි JVP වේදිකාව දක්වන අසීමිත කෑදරකමය.

LankaWeb – බලය ලැබුනහොත් මාලිමාව පරයා සීනුව හඞ නගාවිද ?    (2023/9/20)

චම්පික රණවකට තිබෙන්නේත් සීනුව හා මාලිමාව එකක් නොව  වෙනස් දෙකක් නොවේද යන භීතියමය.

lanka C news | මාලිමාව දින්නොත් ආයෙ ලංකාවෙ ඡන්ද නෑ.. තනි කොමියුනිස්ට් පාලයයක් විතරයි.. එක්සත් ජනරජ පෙරමුණේ නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක (September 13, 2023, lanka C news)

මෙවැනි අය මාලිමාවට එන්නේ රටෙ සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් කිරීමේ අවංක චේතනාවෙන්ද යන ප්‍රශ්ණයක් මතුවීම සාධාරණ නොවේද? අනාගත JVP ආණ්ඩුවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් රටේ පවතින බයට තවත් නිදසුනක් වෛද්‍ය උපුල් විජයවර්ධන සපයයි. ඔහුට අනුව දොස්තරලා හා අනිකුත් වෘත්තිකයින් පවුල් පිටින් රට හැර යෑමට එක හේතුවක් නම් 1988/9 කාලයේ JVP මැරයින් විසින් ඈත පලාත්වල දොස්තරලා වැනි අයට දුන් භීතිය නැවතත් ඒවිය යන සැකයය.

 Fear of JVP regime: Is it reason for brain drain? – The Island      (2023/8/24)

<බෞද්ධවීමට> JVP ගන්නා උත්සාහ

සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස, රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ (හා දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන පවා) තමන් සාසන මාමක බෞද්ධයින් යයි පෙන්වීමට අළුතින්ම කියන කරණ දේ ගැන පසුගිය ලිපියේ සඳහන් කලෙමි.  “ලාංකේය සමාජ විප්ලවය සඳහා මාක්ස්වාදය සහ බුදු දහම අතර පාලමක්” යන මැයෙන් රුහුණු විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ විශ්‍රාමික මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය විලේගොඩ අරියදේව හිමිගේ දෙසුම (July 25, 2023) අනුගමණය කරමින් දර්ශනවාදී/මතවාදීමය පරිණාමයක් වෙනුවට අනිකුත් බොරුකාර පක්ෂ දේශපාලක කළුසුද්දන් මෙන් JVP නායකයින්ද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදීත්, පිට වේදිකාවලදීත් තමන් හා බුද්ධාගම අතර ඇති <ඥාති සම්බන්ධය> හුවා දක්වනු දක්නට ලැබේ. රනිල් සමඟ තරඟයට මෙන් බෞද්ධ සූත්‍ර පද කියවීම, කුඩාකාලයේ දහම් පාසැල් යෑම, බෞද්ධ සමිතිවල සිටීම යනාදිය සඳහන් කිරීම නිදසුන්ය. 

ලාල් කාන්ත විසින් රටේ හැම කොටසක්ම, සංස්කෘති අංශයක්ම,  සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ් එක සඳහා එකතුකරගත යුතුයයි කියන්නේද නව මාලිමා දේශපාලන ප්‍රවේශයට අනුව විය යුතුය. පෙරටුගාමී පක්ෂයේ පුබුදු ජාගොඩ වැනි අය එලිපිටම කුරුන්දු විහාරයේ ප්‍රශ්ණය බෞද්ධ ජාතිවාදය යයි කියද්දී, සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද පදනමේ වැදගත්කම ලාල් කාන්තලා වටහාගෙන සිටී. තමන්ට නැති බලයක් පාවිච්චිකර අමාරුවේ වැටුන, කලක සිට ඔහු මානසික ආභාධයකට බෙහෙත් ගන්නවා යයි ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ පොලිසියට වාර්තාකර තිබියදීත්, ජාගොඩ හා අචලා නම් ලෝයර් නෝනා රටින් පැනගිය මුලතිව් මහේස්ත්‍රාත් වෙනුවෙන් ගොන් ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත්කිරීම විහිළුවකි. මහේස්ත්‍රාත් කියූ බොරු දැන් එලිවීද ඇත,  LankaWeb – මුලතිව් මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයාගේ ඉල්ලා අස්වීමේ ලිපියේ ඇත්ත කතාව (2023/10/1)

<බුද්ධ දර්ශණයෙන් රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට මඟ> යනුවෙන් (මාවත–සිරස, News 1st) හඳුන්නෙත්ති හා භික්ෂුන් පිරිසක් පැවත්වූ යූටියුබ් වැඩසටහන, බෞද්ධවීමට JVP ගන්නා උත්සාහයේ තරම පෙන්වයි. එසේ වෙතත් පානදුරේ ලාල් ඇතුළු JVP සඳහා කඩේ යන පිරිස් කියනදේ හා වාග් ව්‍යවහාරය ඉතාමත් අශිෂ්ටය. සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ JVP ගෙනයන ප්‍රචාරක කණ්ඩායම් අනාගත JVP ආණ්ඩුවකින් බලාපොරොත්තු වියහැකි හැසිරීම එලිදරව් කරයි.  චමීර පෙරේරා, ලෝයර් මනෝජ් වැනි නම්ද මීටම අයත්ය. ඒ අස්සේ ටියුලින් සිල්වා අවුකන බුදුපිළිමයට එසේ කියන්නේ <අව්ව කන > නිසායයි සොයාගෙන ඇත!

හෘදය ශාක්ෂිය

රට හැර යාමට පෙර (තාවකාලිකව?) ලඟදී සුදත්ත තිලකසිරිට නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු පැවසුවේ අනුර කුමාර හා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස යනු හෘදය ශාක්ෂියක් නැති පුද්ගලයින් බවය. මෙය ඩබල් ගේම් කාරයින්ව හඳුන්වන තවත් විධියකි. දෙබිඩි පිලිවෙතක් කියන්නේද මෙයටය. එය දේශපාලකයින්ගේ වංක කමය. අවංක හා අවස්ථාවාදී නොවූ දේශපාලකයින් ලංකාවේ නැත. දැනටමත් JVP නායකයින් අනිකුත් පක්ෂ නායකයින් මෙන්ම ලිස්සායාමේ, ෂේප්වීමේ අවස්ථා සහිතය. IMF සම්බන්ධයෙන් දැන්  නලින් ජයතිස්ස කියන්නේ රනිල් හෝ සජිත්ලා කියන කතාවමය. හැම දෙනාටම නීතිය ක්‍රියාවට යෙදවීම ගැන සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති පැවසුවේ තමන් බලයට ආවිට හොරුන්ට දඬුවම් කරනවා යනුවෙන් අදහස් කරන්නේ මහා පරිමාණ හොරකම් මිස දුප්පත්කම නිසා  ගමක සිදුවන සුළු හොරකම් නොවන  බවය! යමෙකුගේ (ගෙවල් දොරවල්–ඉඩකඩම්) දේපල ආණ්ඩුවට ගන්නවා යන භීතිය ගැන අනුර කුමාර කියා සිටියේ තමන් දේපල විකුණන ආයතනයක් නොවේය යන්නය. මේවා චන්ද බලාගෙන කරණ අනවශ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශණ පමණි. මෙවැනි කතා සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස වැනි අයෙකුගෙන් මිස JVP නායකයින්ගෙන් බලාපොරොත්තු නොවේ.

JVP/NPP පිරිසට රාජ්‍ය බලයට මැදිහත් වීමට ලැබී ඇති අවස්ථාව, රනිල්-පොහොට්ටු පාලනයක් යටතේ රටම විනාශවී යෑමේ අනතුරකින් බේරා ගැනීම සඳහා හරවා ගත හැකි මඟ නම් සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති විසින් අපට පවසන <බුද්ධ දර්ශණයෙන් රාජ්‍ය පාලනයට මඟ> යන ක්‍රමවේදයය. මෙම ලිපියේ මීලඟ කොටසින් එය සළකා බැලේ.

රටකැබලි නොකර සිස්ටම් චේන්ජ්කිරීම   (බුදුදහම හා ජන සභා සංකල්පය)

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island 

Top Opposition spokesperson Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday (02) said that the government should take full responsibility for the suspension of USD 2.9 bn IMF bailout over Sri Lanka’s failure to achieve the anticipated revenue mobilisation.

The former External Affairs Minister found fault with the government for tax concessions granted to investors and the failure on its part to collect taxes, in spite of reaching an agreement with the IMF in that regard.

Referring to the declaration made by IMF delegation head Peter Breuer that the second tranche of about $330m would be delayed pending Staff-Level Agreement, Prof. Peiris pointed out that Sri Lanka and the lending agency had reached a staff-level agreement in early September last year.

Sri Lanka received the first tranche of USD 330 mn in the third week of March this year in terms of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), spread over a period of four years.

While pointing out that revenue mobilisation had improved, the IMF said revenue was expected to fall short of initial projections by nearly 15 percent by the end of this year.

Addressing the media at the Nawala Office of Nidahasa Jathika Sabhawa, Prof. Peiris said that though the government tried to put on a brave face, the consequences of the indefinite delay could be quite catastrophic. He said the suspension of the programme could undermine debt restructuring talks with external creditors, governments, lending agencies and the commercial market.

Prof. Peiris said that the suspension of the programme, just after the release of the first tranche, was a matter for serious concern as the unexpected development could cause further erosion of investors’ confidence in the Sri Lankan economy.

Sri Lanka has obtained IMF assistance on 16 occasions.

Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Economic and Physical Plans Mahindananda Aluthgamage on Sunday told The Island the country was paying a very heavy price for the failure on the part of the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise Department to collect the due taxes. Alleging that unpaid income taxes alone, over the past 15 years, amounted to a staggering Rs 904 bn, whereas revenue collecting authorities so far managed to collect Rs 1,643 bn though they were given a target of Rs. 3,101 bn for this year.

Prof. Peiris said that corruption in the public sector procurement process undermined the economic recovery process. The government defeated the Opposition moved no-confidence motion against Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella over corruption in the public health sector, Prof. Peiris said, asserting that the IMF must be aware of how the government encouraged waste, corruption, irregularities and mismanagement.

Prof. Peiris urged the government to take tangible measures to address the concerns of the IMF. Unfortunately, the government sought to deceive the public by claiming that the process was on track and would proceed following staff-level agreement, he said. He asked whether the government wanted the people to believe there would be staff-level agreements before the release of each tranche.

Prof. Peiris said that the government should correctly identify the warning issued by the IMF. It would be the responsibility of the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government to take remedial measures without further delay.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A total of USD 56 billion has been parked abroad by powerful persons during the past few years, Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapaksha informed Parliament today.

A sum of USD 9 billion has been parked this year alone,” the Minister said.

 I propose a special motion to order these persons to bring back their money which is parked abroad. There are some secretaries of some MPs who have parked more than USD 150 million each,” the Minister revealed.

It will be possible to settle all debts which Sri Lanka owes other nations if these parked funds are brought back,” he added.

Also he slammed the Constitutional Council for its alleged failure to nominate members to the Bribery Commission.

The Constitutional Council is bound to send in its nominees to the Bribery Commission to the President as per the newly enacted Anti-Corruption Bill. 

There is an error in the legislation where the word ‘Constitutional Board’ is mentioned instead of Constitutional Council in some areas. However, the correct wording is mentioned in the section where the appointment of members to the Bribery Commission is stipulated. Therefore there is no reason for the Constitutional Council to send in its nominees to the Bribery Commission. Are the members of the Constitutional Council asleep?” he questioned while highlighting that he would mobilise the people against the Constitutional Council.

The Constitutional Council is headed by the Speaker, while it comprises the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and their nominees, while there are three members from civil society. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The government has informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the tax percentages can not be increased further at this juncture as requested and that the government was expecting to initiate discussions to request the IMF to reconsider its request, Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said today.

He told Parliament that the IMF informed the government that tax revenue should be increased to some extent by the end of the first quarter of next year.

The Minister said if the tax revenue is to be increased, the tax percentage will have to be increased and that the government has informed the IMF that people cannot be burdened with more taxes at this juncture.

The Minister said this clarifying matters raised by the Opposition MPs that the IMF’s second tranche is delayed as the government has failed to fulfil the conditions of the IMF.

“It is not an issue of not implementing the IMF conditions. The IMF is expecting Sri Lanka to obtain tax revenue to a certain target by the end of the first quarter next year. We have to increase the existing tax percentage to meet that tax revenue targets. We informed the IMF that the government is not in a position to further burden the people with taxes. The IMF stresses the need to increase tax revenue,” he said.

The Minister said the next round of discussions with the IMF is to request them to reconsider their request on increasing tax revenue.(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The proposed cable car line from Nanu Oya to Nuwara Eliya has been halted as a certain Forest Department official was refusing to grant permission to release 150 perches on the Kikiliyamana mountain without any reason, a government MP revealed today.

Parliamentarian Madura Vithanage told Parliament that the project is unable to be implemented due to this reason even though two Cabinet papers have been presented on the matter in 2018 and 2021.

The MP said the particular Forest Department official has continued to refuse permission to release the required plot of land citing that it is a highly sensitive zone. 

“I have noticed that telephone towers have been set up in the mountain after clearing a vast area of the forest cover,” he said.

He said he studied the project report of the company and realised that the project had been prepared properly so as to protect the environment as well.

He said the project is an investment of USD 55 million and that halting such investments is a huge loss to the country. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While condemning the statement by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Bimal Ratnayake, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera said today that the JVP is engaging in actions that are detrimental to the country by brainwashing young people.

Addressing the media, he said the ongoing detrimental process by the JVP of brainwashing the young generation is similar to the destruction done by Zaharan.

Bimal Ratnayake has claimed that the BBS and the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jama’ath (SLTJ) were formed in 2012 with the support of the army intelligence units, who support the Rajapaksas, and under one DIG. He claimed that those organizations were paid by the army’s intelligence. He also claimed that Zaharan acted after the BBS issued the OK pass.

“The young generation used to accept these kinds of statements as they were clueless about past activities. The JVP does not have an ideology, and they do not try to understand the things we expose. We saw who was organized by the JVP during the Aragalaya,” the Thera said.

These brainwashing activities lead to people killing each other, and spreading these ideologies on social media has become a threat to the entire Buddhist community, the thera. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Social media regulation could be an inevitable scenario as the countries in the globe envisage signing an international convention on the same, President Ranil Wickremesinghe stressed.

The remark from the President came hours after the Online Safety Bill was presented to Parliament. The Bill was presented to the House this morning.

Many countries in the world are having a dialogue on signing an international convention on regulating social media as of today. Therefore the choice before social media users in Sri Lanka is whether to abide by some international law or to go along with local laws,” the President said at the launch of the book Edmondge Paththara Viplawaya (Edmond’s Newspaper Revolution) at the Presidential Secretariat.    

The President assured some tax concessions for raw materials used in the print media. 

We will look at the possibility of reducing some taxes,” he said in response to a request by veteran journalist Upali Tennekoon who made the keynote address at the event.

Meanwhile, the Opposition raised questions on the Online Safety Bill in Parliament when it was presented by Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles.

Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella questioned why the Minister of Public Security presented the legislation as the subject of media is handled by another Minister.

Sri Lanka could face resistance internationally because of this legislation as the country is already accused of violating rights,” Kiriella said.

Meanwhile, a crosstalk flared up between Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapaksa and MP G.L. Peiris on the date which the period given to file objections begins. 

The 14-day period given to file objections before courts usually begins from the date on which the Bill is entered in the Order Book. This particular Bill came in the order book on September 27. Therefore, seven days of the 14 day period have already gone. This is not a healthy situation,” Professor Peiris said. The Deputy Speaker who responded said the 14 day period begins from the day the Bill is presented to the House as per Section 121 of the Constitution.

However, Professor Peiris said he would not accept that stance and said he would file legal action against the Bill before the Supreme Court. Minister Alles who joined in the crosstalk said the Bill was originally proposed way back in 2016 during the Yahapalana government.  (Yohan Perera)

Courtesy Adaderana

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, during an interview with an international broadcaster based in Germany, slammed the allegations levelled in the documentary aired by British television network Channel 4 with regard to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Wickremesinghe stressed that the Sri Lankan government would not carry out an international inquiry on any issue, including the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

On September 06, Channel 4 aired a controversial documentary containing startling accusations relating to the bombings on Easter Sunday 2019 which targeted several Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. The carnage claimed the lives of more than 260 people and left hundreds of others wounded.

Channel 4’s latest ‘Dispatches’ investigation titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings’ is a nearly 50-minute-long video with serious, yet straightforward allegations about the attacks. It was based on the testimonies of high-placed whistleblowers who alleged that senior governmental officials were complicit in this heinous act.

Speaking to Martin Gak from the German state-owned international broadcaster Deutsche Welle during his Berlin visit, the Sri Lankan leader said a few people may have asked for an international probe, but the parliament has not. Further, referring to an FBI report, Wickremesinghe said No one outside was involved [in the attack].”

Clearly peeved when inquired about Channel 4’s allegations in its documentary, Wickremesinghe accused the host of putting the British television network on a pedestal and treating its report as the gospel truth”.

Wickremesinghe said he has appointed a committee comprising a judge, a well-known former air force commander and a renowned lawyer to look into these accusations.

When the host cast doubt about this committee having teeth enough to do anything and inquired about the Sri Lankan Catholic Church seeking for an independent investigation into the carnage, the Sri Lankan president lashed out at him saying, You have no right to ask me this question.”

Interrupting the questions multiple times and losing his cool, Wickremesinghe went on to accuse the host of trying to corner” him and denigrating the incumbent government for not doing anything”.

Courtesy Adaderana

The World Bank revised up its forecasts for Sri Lanka’s economy on Tuesday, noting the crisis-hit nation had made strides in reducing inflation and had benefited from tourism revenue as well as an appreciation in its currency.

The bank now expects the economy to expand 1.7% in 2024, up from an earlier forecast of 1%. It also said the economy is likely to shrink 3.8% this year, less than its earlier prediction of a 4.2% contraction.

In the last six months, Sri Lanka has seen runaway inflation drop to 1.3% in September, its currency appreciate by about 12% and foreign exchange reserves improve. It has also benefited from an increase in remittances.

But the World Bank also noted Sri Lanka’s outlook was still clouded by significant uncertainty and there were downside risks.

Growth prospects will depend on progress with debt restructuring as well as continued implementation of growth enhancing structural reforms,” Richard Walker, a World Bank senior economist told a media briefing.

We see further monetary loosening and potential exchange rate pressures, which could counter this downward inflationary trend,” he added.

Sri Lanka struck an agreement for a $2.9 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in March but a potential shortfall in government revenue has meant that a second tranche of funds from the package may be delayed.

In contrast to the World Bank, Sri Lanka’s central bank has predicted a milder 2% contraction this year and growth of 3.3% in 2024. The economy shrunk 7.8% in 2022.

For South Asia as a whole, the global lender predicts growth of 5.8%, led by India which is seen expanding 6.3% in fiscal 2023/24.

But it added that regional growth was still slower than its pre-pandemic pace.

While South Asia is making steady progress, most countries in the region are not growing fast enough to reach high-income thresholds within a generation,” Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia said in a statement.

Source – Reuters
–Agencies

Shenali D Waduge

The Indo Lanka Accord proposes an interim-arrangement administrative system by merging North & East provinces & a referendum in the East one year after signing the agreement to continue merger or not (catch was the inclusion of the postponement clause by the President of SL). The Accord does not refer to administrative system for any of the other provinces nor devolution nor the need to amend the constitution. If so, wo proposed 13^th amendment, who drafted it & who wanted to get it passed by Sri Lanka’s Parliament? These are questions that should be asked even after 36years especially those peddling the we cannot anger India” we have to comply with India” sing song.  If 13th a was drafted by Sri Lanka & 13tha is not mentioned in the Indo-Lanka Accord it means Sri Lanka has every right to repeal it in toto.

TULF’s letter to the Indian PM on 28 October 1987 days before the 2 Bills were passed in Sri Lanka’s Parliament on 14 Nov 1987.

• TULF disagreed with both Bills (13^th amendment & PC Council) Sampanthan was one of the 3 signatories of this letter.
• The key point from this letter is that both Bills were not drafted by India & as per TULF letter India had not even seen the draft & it had been gazetted without showing India. If 13^th amendment was drafting by Sri Lanka (wonder who) then India has no say in deciding whether Sri Lanka keeps or removes 13^th
• TULF concludes their letter by requesting the Indian PM to ask Sri Lankan President not to proceed with the 2 Bills until the issues highlighted in letter are resolved.
• If 13^th a was drafted by Sri Lanka & 13^tha is not mentioned in the Indo-Lanka Accord it means Sri Lanka has every right to repeal it in toto.

28 Oct 1987 – TULF’s letter to PM Rajiv Gandhi provides a clue to the evolution of 13amendment. Note this letter is written after TULF has read the contents of the 2 Bills.

https://sangam.org/letter-pm-rajiv-gandhi-tulf-13th-amendment (letter signed by R Sampanthan / M. Sivasithamparam & A Amirthalingam – only Sampanthan is alive)

• TULF claims disappointment in the 13^th amendment Bill & PC Council Bill
• TULF claims both Bills do not meet aspirations of the Tamil people” (why is TNA & Sampanthan now demanding full implementation when he signed a letter to Indian PM saying both do not meet Tamil aspirations?)
• TULF claims it cannot recommend the contents of these Bills to the Tamil people”
• TULF claims that the 13^tha and PC are being foisted on us without any Indian expert playing a part in the drafting” (do we take this to mean that 13a & PC were drafted by Sri Lanka & not India – if so India has no stake in it at all, and no one needs to play the scare tactics)
• That India was not aware of draft is further strengthened as a TULF delegation went to meet President JR on 29 Sep 1987 to make a formal request to show the draft to India.
• TULF admits that the Bills were gazetted without being made available to India.

TULF on North East Merger

• That PM Rajiv had to persuade President JR to agree to one administrative unit merging North & East with one PC, one Governor, one Chief Minister & one Board of Ministers & its continuance subject to referendum on or before 31 Dec 1988 with the catch of postponement by the President.
• The setting up of the single administrative unit to be done by executive act by the President in the form of a proclamation which can be revoked (therefore there was no requirement for any amendment to the Constitution to merge NE) – This seriously questions why 13^th amendment & PC Bill was introduced at all if the NE temporary merger was to be done by Presidential Proclamation.

How 13^th Amendment & PC Bill included devolution to ALL PROVINCES 

• Topic discussed before signing of Indo Lanka Accord in July/Aug 1986 between GoSL & TULF. TULF claims GoSL agreed that Governor would be ceremonial head & legislative powers to be near absolute (this is unconstitutional)
• TULF claims that parties to the negotiations re devolution believed legislative & executive powers to be similar to that in an Indian state.
• The reference to Provincial Councils” (plural) denotes that the inclusions of PCs stemmed from GoSL/TULF discussions and not Indo-Lanka Accord.

Executive Power in the Provinces

• Powers of President retained by Governor in accordance with Article 4(b) exercised on Presidents direction.
• GoSL indicated number of ministers of the province should not exceed 1/3 of total number of members
• North Eastern Province to have 71 members (the letter does not mention other provinces)
• TULF wanted not more than 1/5 of total number of members.
• TULF claims Ministers are restricted to 4

List of Subjects

• TULF wanted the list to conform to Indian pattern
• TULF claims the concurrent list is loaded, provincial list reduced
• TULF claims Fisheries other than beyond Territorial Waters, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Industries, Redemarcation including creation of Districts, Assistant Government Agents divisions, and Grama Sevaka Divisions, restoration, reconstruction of destroyed towns, villages, properties, compensation or relief to persons who have sustained loss or damage, palmyrah plantation and palmyrah industry, coconut plantation and industry related thereto, the ownership, management and control of state-owned industrial enterprises within the province dependant wholly or mainly on raw materials found in the province (recommended by the Political Parties Conference), Co-operative Banks, Prisons, Provincial Public Service, Provincial Public Services Commission, Local Government Service, Inquiries, Surveys and Statistics for any of the purposes in the Provincial List and such others have not been included in the Provincial List
• TULF claims powers of PC for Education are substantially curtailed even in secondary education.
• TULF claims both Concurrent & Reserve List minimizes scope & content of Councils power.

Land & Land Settlement

• TULF claims that as per Appendix II is worse than Appendix attached to proposals on 23 Sept 1986 (before signing of the Indo Lanka Accord)
• TULF disagrees to include State Land in Reserve List
• TULF disagrees to State Land vested in the Republic & the power of President to dispose of Land
• TULF claims Province has no right to use of State land though it is a devolved subject
• TULF claims province is restricted to administer & control land made available to it
• TULF claims that it is the prerogative of the President to dispose State Land to a citizen or organization according to laws
• TULF says the Cumulative Entitlement of the Tamil speaking people in schemes under the Mahaweli Project in the Eastern Province has failed as Appendix II has not been incorporated to Annexure on settlement in Eastern province under Mahaweli Project.
• TULF states that though land is a devolved subject, Central Govt has dominant power over State Land
• TULF also claims that there is ‘continued colonization of the Northern & Eastern provinces with members of the majority community” (what about Tamils migrating outside of N & E – is this not colonization?)

Trincomalee Port

• Ports has been included to Reserve List & Trincomalee comes under central control. Annexure C (finalized in 1984) says A Port Authority under the Central Govt will be set up for administering the Trincomalee Port & Habor. The area which will come under the administration of the Port Authority as well as the powers to be assigned to it will be further discussed” TULF had raised objection to this.

(Trinco Port is only referred in the exchange of letters between President JR & PM Rajiv & not in the Indo Lanka Accord – but 13a had been discussed before the Accord)

• TULF claims Annexure C was finalized in 1984 & an extent of 5150 acres of land around the Trincomalee Port was vested in the Port Authority. TULF claims this could create a new town with racial overtones & cause conflict seen by recruitment to port since 1983)

Provincial Public Service

• Provincial Public Service & Provincial Public Service Commission is included in draft Bill contrary to the draft proposals amending constitution on 23 Sept 1986.
• Appointment, Transfer, Dismissal, Disciplinary control of Provincial Public Servants vested with Governor subject to presidential directors is not what TULF proposed under provisions of Article 55 which vests above with the Cabinet of Ministers.
• TULF claims the subjects of the Provincial Public Service & Provincial Public Service Commission are omitted from the Provincial List & the Provincial Board of Ministers have no control over their functions.
• TULF claims that the chapter pertaining to PCs enables Parliament & the Executive to circumvent the exercise of powers conferred on the province.

Tamil as Official Language

• TULF claims that clause 2 of 13a that makes Tamil an Official Language is nullified in Paragraph (4) which states Parliament shall by law provide for the implementation of the provisions of this Chapter”.
• TULF claims that the Constitution provides the manner of use for Sinhala Language which is not so for Tamil
• TULF claims there are other matters & therefore requests the Indian PM to ask President Jayawardena NOT TO PROCEED WITH THE TWO BILLS IN PARLIAMENT IN THE PRESENT FORM TILL THE MATTERS REFERRED ARE DISCUSSED & RESOLVED TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE TAMIL PEOPLE”.

It is time we start asking questions and getting proper answers

Shenali D Waduge

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

This is a letter I wrote to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the present President,  in 2006 from Texas USA, when I was holidaying at my younger daughter Achala when he was the Defense Secretary in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government requesting him to take immediate safety measures against a possible LTTE attack on the Kotmale dam. (to which I never got a reply as usual).

The Kotmale dam

The Kotmale dam 87.m high (285 ft) and 600 m long, constructed across the Kotmale Oya a left bank tributary of Mahaweliganga. at 703 m msl (2306 ft) in the central hill country of Sri Lanka. It has a storage capacity of 800 000m2 (28,000,000 cu ft) at spill level. It was constructed against the advice of eminent Geologists like late Prof of Geology, P.W Withanage University of Sri Lanka, as it is identified as a geologically unstable region constituted with characteristic crystalline lime stones.

                                                             Map 1

Extreme caution has to be taken not to upset physical equilibrium set by nature by constructing large reservoirs like Kotmale reservoir on these watersheds at such a high elevation. Because one day if there is going to be a dam breach at this level, at spill level, carrying a 285 feet high 28,000,000 cu ft of water either due to natural causes or manmade actions like a LTTE terrorist attack, the resulting downstream disaster would be extremely high and unimaginable, considering the elevation of the  location (2306 ft msl) of this dam in relation to the densely populated downstream settlement, the height and the enormous volume of water in the reservoir at spill level, 28,000,000 cu ft and the relative cumulative gravitational force the flood will acquire as it role down roaring over the hills and valleys will be definitely beyond human imagination. If a breach takes place this could be ranked as the world’s most disastrous dam breach tragedy in history. This danger becomes all the more serious in view of the relative location of the reservoir at very high level, the abrupt drop in the elevation and the peculiar radial geomorphological lay out of the Island in relation to the location of the Kotmale reservoir as shown in the map1.

Under these circumstances if the dam breaches due to any reason the enormous volume of water that it empties will roar down the precipice of Kotmale Oya will be extremely devastative with its thundering high tide pouring in to Mahaweli. First it will scoop out Gampola and  Gelioya towns  together with the rich Kandyan agricultural villages on either side of Mahaweli and once it reaches Peradeniya it will get split in to three massive floods, one turning left at Peradeniya. and another urning right at Getambe while the main flood will go down Mahaweli up to Katugagastota, where it will again bifurcate in to two, the left flood will force up Pingaoya and go towards Matale and the main one, erasing Katugastoa, sweeping Polgolla barrage will surge  in to Victoria reservoir. The third flood that will takes its course along the Peradeniya Kandy road and then scooping Kandy town  and pouring  in to Victoria  Reservoir over Buwelikada gap taking a part of Udawatta kele together with the debris of the historic Mahanwara Town together with the Temple of the Tooth with all its sacred and mundane treasures  to be deposited in the depth of the Indian Ocean.This will then join the flood coming down Polgolla and   together it will get reinforced with the Victoria waters (722,000.000 m2)_ and then

                                   VICTORIA DAM                                                               

burst in to Randenigala (647,000,000 cu ft) and finally collecting 361,446 Cu ft of Rantembe with the debris of all the Dams will end up in the Eastern Sea with all what this mighty surge will scoop out from the Eastern province and what it has already collected from either side of the Mahaweli river from Kotmale downward, say up to about hundreds of feet on either side up to end of Rantembe, the last reservoir on the Mahaweli, carving out a huge canyon up to the sea. You can just imagine the thrust of the total volume of water that will scoop out almost 2/3 of the Eastern Province in an open funnel shape cavity in to the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile the one that go down the Kumbiyangoda precipice will scoop out the Matale town, empties the Nalanda Reservoir and the Moragakha kanda, with its 521,000,000 m3 and will erase what is left out by the   main flood that comes down the main Mahaweli and also that is surging in to the eastern flat land at its bend near old Minipe anicut site. The Matale Moragahakanda flood will take the balance of the eastern Province to the Indian Ocean, with the Polonnaruwa town and all the sacred treasures standing in the Polonnaruwa kingdom along with the waters of the Parakrama Samudra(112,500 acre feet).

Finally, the flood that go across Kiribath kumbura and Kadugannava down the precipice to Mavanella will scoop out the areas on either side of the Ma Oya from there onwards and empties in to the Indian Ocean on the western side of the Island around Negambo.

Now you will see how Sri Lanka will end up in three huge permanent canyons like scars from Kotmale to the Indian ocean on either sides of the central axis running north from the central hill country, dividing the Sinhale in to three parts (remnants of the old 3 Sinhale with a major part  of the Malayarata} like a huge canyon of the Colarado canyon  type   with a central axis starting at Kotmale in the Central hill country of Sri Lanka. 

 I also suggest that you have a look at the disasters caused by similar dam breaches that have taken place in other countries.to imagine how such dam breaches have affected human life in those countries. For example, dam breach studies in countries like USA, (the johnston town flood 1989), Italy, (Vaiont Dam 1963) and India, (Tiwari Dam failure in Maharastra) to understand the national danger I am talking about in this paper.

If this breach takes place I think it could be the worst dam breach in the world in known history, forming a huge canyon looking like a fork with 3 prongs with its handle in the south that had erased a whole civilization that was  the ancient Kandyan Kingdom.

                                                                                        MAP 2                                

                                      GRAPHIC IMAGINATION of  man made SRI LANKAN CANYONS                               

                                                   Sudath Gunasekara

It is in this backdrop Mr Gotahbhaya that I appeal to you to take the maximum precautionary action in time to prevent this historic national catastrophe.

Any delay on your part as Defense Secretary to take adequate precautionary measures will put the blame squarely on you for outright negligence, if the Kotmale dam breaks due to an attack by the LTTE.

I only hope by providence of God, they will not attack it. Let us all pray for it

PS: I am writing this note almost 16 years after I addressed this note to Gotabhaya in 2006. I am very happy that no disaster has happened so far thanks God. I warn authorities that they should not take things for grant and rest asleep. A disaster as predicted can take place at any moment in view of its location in a limestone region, particularly at such height in the center of Sri Lanka with the enormous volume of water stored in the reservoir.

Therefore, I plead to the authorities in charge of the DAM to keep a 24 hours vigil on the changes taking place so that you can take timely action at least to mitigate the scale of the disaster that might occur one day.

epilogue

Under the Mahaweli Development Project Kotmale flooded nearly 4000 ha of fertile land in the Mahaweli upper catchment, which included about 600 ha of paddy fields and has directly affected 3056 traditional Sinhala families with a legacy of a rich traditional culture who were involuntarily evacuated from their ancestral lands whose ancestors had been living there from the early Christian times, if not earlier.

Of them 1722 families were moved to downstream areas in the Dry Zone and 1334 families, which were said to be resettled in 17 settlements around the reservoir

The evacuation of such a large number of Sinhala people from an agriculturally rich historic settlement in the heartland of the nation where there is a large concentration of Indian Tamil population invariably leads to weakening the power of the native Sinhala population in the region, which will have serious political repercussions in future.

Thus, considering the immediate and long term economic, and demographic losses to a nation that is impossible to be quantified and the impending disaster for the whole nation as forecasted above, I hold the view that the construction of Kotmale dam was an unpardonable historic political blunder.

Valeria Vegh Weis

Abstract

This article addresses the origins of the term lawfare, as well as different definitions developed in the Global North and the Global South while proposing a conceptualization linked to the particularities of this socio-legal phenomenon in Latin America. Focusing on the cases of Brazil and Argentina the article deploys the notions of psychological, judicial and media warfare to analyze the different dimensions that an analysis of lawfare opens in relation to democracy, the penal system, and mainstream media.

The article also explores different dimensions of lawfare and a notion in Spanish with the potential to replace the anglicism: dripping coup (golpe por goteo). Finally, the article proposes different measures to counteract lawfare in the judicial, educational, media, and social spheres. In particular, the conclusions refer to the relevance of social movements in what can be conceptualized as a cautionary popular criminology”.

In Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and many other countries of the Patria Grande, the word lawfare” is heard daily – in the media, as well as in the speeches of political leaders – concerning cases of corruption involving progressive political leaders and discussed in key electoral moments.

The term was coined twenty years ago in the Global North (Dunlap, 2001), but it was in the mid-2010s that it started to be broadly deployed in Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil, the term appeared in the public discourse in 2014, when criminal charges were brought against former President and then presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula” da Silva. He was accused of receiving an apartment as part of bribes in return for awarding contracts to specific construction corporations in a case that also implicated many other politicians and members of the state-owned oil company Petrobras. Lula ended up in pre-trial detention and was banned from competing in the national elections (Limongi, 2021). In Argentina, the first case labelled as lawfare occurred in 2016 and involved the then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accused of manipulating the price of the dólar futuro” (future dolar) – an estimated price of how much a dollar would cost in relation to the local currency- in detriment of the Central Bank reserves (SAIJ, 2021). Cristina Fernández de Kirchner explicitly used the term lawfare when declaring in another case against her under charges of corruption in the adjudication of public work (el País, 2019).

In line with Lula and many other centre-left political leaders in the Latin-American region, Fernández de Kirchner described lawfare as the mechanism through which certain sectors of the judiciary, the mainstream media, and the opposition manipulate criminal cases based on corruption charges to delegitimize and ban progressive leaders from democratic politics. In contrast, part of the judiciary, the mainstream media, and politicians from the establishment argue that the notion of lawfare is deployed by progressive politicians to delegitimize serious criminal investigations aimed at ending corruption in the region (La Nación, 2020).

Amid these conflictive positions, the definition of lawfare is far from clear: What are its main features? Where does the term come from? Why even use an anglicism in Latin America? Is it a new phenomenon? Is it a negative one? If yes, how can it be fought?

Are corruption and related allegations being weaponized to break trust among citizens and leaders by external actors and forces for their Geopolitical Economic gain in Sri Lanka?

Is Lawfare, a form of hybrid (economic) warfare, enabled by Foreign Aid donors to the legal and judicial sector being used to destabilize countries, while promoting Disinformation and protests that shut down national economies and debt trap countries, also to destroy progressive leaders in the Global South—as happened to Brazil’s President Lula?

The Full article is available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14624745221116348

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14624745221116348

Shenali D Waduge

Who else is planning to do a Hamsa? Hamsa wanted asylum, C4 needed to boost revenue, West/UN needed a topic to politicize, foreign funded NGOs needed a topic for survival & funding & a bunch of others needed a reason to cover their guilty conscience regarding knowing but not doing anything to prevent Easter Sunday. These ingredients mashed together produced what was promised to be a sensational documentary that was all about weakening & demoralizing the armed forces & intelligence of Sri Lanka by targeting a key official. That drama became a washout when the directors themselves admitted they had no evidence. Quite a number including the UNHRC must render their apologies but to divert that we have another asylum seeker – this time it’s a magistrate. Another minority member claiming to be under death threats. This is getting really interesting.

This particular magistrate is having a bevy of cases against his biased judgements pending hearing and isnt it timely that he should wish to dart off before he is exposed. How artful it has become to cook up ‘death threats’ share a few posts on social media, engage a few foreign funded NGOs to do the publicity and it’s a piece of cake to carry out a campaign demonising the Sinhalese. There are veterans at this game.

The Western nations, themselves in economic decline, having subjected their citizens to shoulder an useless war in Ukraine, are already at the receiving end of verbal displeasure as Trudeau himself found out recently. Not too many Europeans & Americans are happy with immigrants nowadays. Therefore, western embassies may well have to think twice about accepting crocodile tear asylum seekers to their climes, though of course they do perform well after training to appear in the halls of the UN/UNHRC and deliver deadly statements against their motherland.

But shouldn’t these Western embassies wonder why these asylum seekers do not seek asylum in India or go to Tamil Nadu that is always wailing for their brothers & sisters in Sri Lanka? Why is it that the asylum seekers only want to go to UK, Europe, US, Canada or Australia? Is this question not asked by the western governments?

The problem with the Western governments, their media & the locals they fund is that what is presented to them as news” is false data, fake history and distortions aligned to their political agendas. At some point in time these tales backfire as C4 found out recently. You can repeat the truth but a lie has to be sustained and more often than not one lie leads to another and then it gets out of hand when the liars compete with each other!

The news accounts of some of the cases the judge in question has presided over is full of falsehood. This is no time to be giving history lessons but ignoring historical facts is where the judge has erred. The defense of this is the current theatrics. What is the defense for denying & ordering police to prevent worshipping of flowers that it contravenes existing orders, in a land where Buddhism is state religion? Magistrates are meant to go by the law not play politics.

While the gist of the issue is to harp upon the fact that he is threatened because he is a Tamil, his claim that the AG asked him to reverse his judgement conveniently omits to mention that the AG is himself a Tamil. Then there is another facebook post by a journalist in Norway, also a Tamil, actually finding fault with the judge in question for cooking up a complaint against him & the colossal amount of money he ended up having to pay. These are not plus points to this grievance asylum case!

It has become very fashionable for the minority to cry foul & claim ethnic” discrimination if they are found fault for anything. The message being conveyed is that they can do any wrong & get away because they are Tamil! The law of the land cannot apply to them and the moment they are questioned they go tapping at embassy doors, shedding crocodile tears & then claiming asylum, while the West is happy to use the case, print it to paper & use it as diplomatic demarches against Sri Lanka.

This ugly practice needs to stop. If the judge has received threats, he must produce evidence & present these in a form of a complaint lodged to the police. In the meanwhile, he must be ready to face the complaints against him for biased judgements that have been filed. His judgements have been challenged at a higher court, which is the legal & accepted norm. He cannot take offence over that.

However, if the embassies set precedents by giving asylum to anyone creating a Hamsa like drama, their embassy doors will be pretty busy and with long queues & more fairytales.

Maybe its better for all the bad applese to leave, anyways

Shenali D Waduge

by Dr. Harsha Perera

                                             Prof. A.D.T.E. Perera
Prof. A.D.T.E. Perera, eminent scholar of Buddhist Art and Archeology, passed away on 2023.09.16. at the age of 87 years.  

A.D.T.E. Perera was born on 1936.04.29 at the Sarikkamulla village, Panadura in Sri Lanka. His father was D.B. Perera, a planter, and his mother was Perl Danthanarayana.

Perera had his primary and secondary school education at St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, and attended Sunday school (Daham Pasela) which was close to his house. It was at an impressive age and at this venue i.e., Sri Taksala Vidyalaya, that Perera was able to form a close bond with a well-known archaeologist and scholar monk Ven. Medauyangoda Wemalakirthi Thero, who resided at a nearby temple named ‘Sirinandana Pirivena’.

University of Peradeniya

In the late 1950s Perera gained entry to the University of Peradeniya. He studied Pali, Sanskrit, and Buddhist philosophy for a Bachelor’s degree in Arts. He was in the last batch of students of Prof. Senarath Paranavitana, who served as the Professor of Archeology at the University of Ceylon from 1957 to 1961.

Upon leaving the University in 1962 Perera served as a teacher at both the St. Sebastian College and Sri Taksala Vidyalaya for a short period of time. Thereafter he worked as a Press Officer for a limited period and also as a Deputy Editor of the ‘Ceylon Daly News’, during the era of Esmond Wickremesinghe.

He obtained his Master’s Degree from the University of Kelaniya and the DLitt degree (Doctor of Letters) from the Malwatte Chapter of the Siam Nikaya.

His scholarly interests in Buddhism led him to establish contact with Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa Thero, then Head of the ‘Odey Pansala’ at Maradana. Also known as Sri Lanka Vidyalaya. He did some lecturing at this temple cum school.

In the mid-1960s Perera married Sujatha Perera, whom he had first met at the Sri Taksala Vidyalaya.

Assistant Editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism

During the 1960s Perera had a rapid rise in his career when he was appointed as an Assistant Editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism with the approval of Prof. Gunapala Malalasekara who was the Chief Editor.  The Office was based at the Peradeniya University. During the 1970s A.D.T.E. Perera’s articles were published in English and Sinhala newspapers on topics relating to Archeology and Buddhist Art. He delivered lectures at the National Museum, the Royal Asiatic Society, and the YMBA. He also took part in a Radio Ceylon program moderated by LucienBulathsinhala, a reputed playwright, author, and stage drama producer. Perera’s writings dealt with concepts underlying Asanagara, Sandakada Pahana, and the rock carvings at Isurumuniya and Sigiriya, etc.

He drew wide public attention with his pronouncements based on pioneering research that Sigiriya was built by the legendary King Ravana whose name finds mention in the Hindu Sanskrit epic ‘Ramayana’. Arthur C. Clarke, the world-renowned Science fiction writer, upon reading the writings of A.D.T.E. Perera obtained some ideas from Perera for his popular television series ‘Mysterious World’. Their friendship continued since then.

Australian National University (ANU)

In 1979 Perera travelled to Canberra, Australia with his family to pursue post-graduate studies at the Australian National University (ANU) under the supervision of Prof. A.L. Basham. He submitted his thesis entitled ‘Evolution of Buddha Image’. He was asked to re-submit it with corrections after he returned to Sri Lanka. He was caught up with the work in Sri Lanka to spare time for revising and resubmitting his thesis to ANU.  During his stay in Canberra, he delivered Guest Lectures at the ANU and attended several international conferences held in Australia.  

In the early 1980s upon returning to Sri Lanka, Perera participated at various International Conferences held in Nepal, India, Hong Kong, etc.

‘World of Buddhism’ Journal

In 1984 A.D.T.E. Perera co–founded the international Buddhist journal ‘World of Buddhism’ together with the famous monk Venerable Mapalagama Wipulasara Maha Thera (1925 – 2000), who was both an Artist and Sculptor (primarily Buddha statues).   He continued with the ‘World of Buddhism’ Journal as the Editor until his wife passed away in 2012. It was an indefatigable effort on his part to create Buddhist Opinion via this Journal.  

Prof. Perera’s articles were regularly published in various international journals such as ‘East and West’ in Rome, ‘Studies in Indo – Asian Art and Culture, New Delhi, and CHISSAN, Tokyo, and also in Magazines the Buddhist’, ‘World Buddhism’, and newspapers e.g., Sunday Observer, Daily News, Island, etc.

In the 1990s his path crossed that of the well-regarded Scholar monk and the First Chancellor of the University of Ruhuna, Ven. (Prof.) Paravahera Pannaseeha Mahanayaka Thero, who resided at the Padanaga Viharaya, Maradana. It was a propitious meeting. Favourable for in-depth Buddhist scholarly work.

‘Buddhism in Ancient Arabia and Israel’

Thereafter both scholars began to work and conduct research jointly on esoteric topics. Through intense research, they were able to discover that Buddhism was the earliest religion in the Arabian region. This finding caused a sensation in academia. In 2013, A.D.T.E. Perera’s book named ‘Buddhism in Ancient Arabia and Israel’ won the Buddhist literary award in 2014. It was later translated into Sinhala.

Perera also kept close contact with leaders of other religions. In the late 80s, he visited the Ambassador College, U.S.A, founded by Herman W. Armstrong, on the invitation of the late. Dr. Hoeh of California and delivered several Lectures at this institution. In the 1990s he also delivered several talks at the Sai Baba Center at Barnes Place, Colombo 07, and visited Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India, the residence of Sai Sathya Baba in 1992.  

In the early 90s, A.D.T.E. Perera was appointed as an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico, USA. There too he continued his scholarly work.

Upon returning to the Island in the late 90s he joined the ‘Island’ newspaper as a Deputy Editor and in addition, he served as an Editor of the Etymological Sinhala English Dictionary with the collaboration of Dr. Saddhamangala Karunarathna, former Commissioner of Archaeology (1979 – 1983).

All Buddhist Congress of Democrats

In 2000 A.D.T.E. Perera founded a Buddhist organization named ‘All Buddhist Congress of Democrats’, (‘ABCD’) at the Padanagara Viharaya, Maradana.  

Here is a news report published in the ‘Asian Tribune’ (now defunct) on the 10^th of December 2002.
http://asiantribune.com/news/2002/12/10/establish-national-museum-honour-heroes-buddhist-revival-lanka

‘ Establish a National Museum to honour heroes of the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka

At a public seminar sponsored by the All Buddhist Congress of Democrats on the topic ‘Sinhalayo — The Great Heroic Nation Nurtured by the Sinhala Bhikkhu Fraternity’ and held on November 18, 2002, at the J. R. Jayewardene Cultural Centre, Colombo, the following Resolution was adopted unanimously:

“Considering the courageous role patriotic elements have played in the revival and restoration of Buddhism in the face of a ruthless policy of discrimination and suppression on the part of the Western Christian colonial powers, and considering the undying debt of this nation to remember the heroic struggle of the Bhikkhu fraternity and supportive laity to protect and preserve the Buddha Dhamma in its pristine form,

This House resolves to call on the Govt. of Sri Lanka to establish a National Museum dedicated to honouring the heroes of the Buddhist revival whose valiant efforts against the dark forces of Western colonialism and bigotry, helped to safeguard and sustain Buddhism for the benefit of countless numbers of future generations.”

The resolution was proposed by Senaka Weeraratna and seconded by Professor A. D. T. E. Perera.

Most Ven. Aggamahapanditha Madihe Pannasiha Mahanayaka Thera presided at the Meeting.

Ven. Bellana Sri Gnanawimala Mahanayake Thera, Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka Nayake Thera, Dr. P. R. Anthonis, the well-known surgeon, Dr. Harischandra Wijetunga, Kalasuri Arisen Ahubudu and Professor A. D. T. E. Perera, Hony. Secretary of   the All Buddhist Congress of Democrats, addressed the meeting.’

Courtesy: Asian Tribune

Olcott Gunasekera

Olcott Gunasekera (the founder and President of the Dharmavijaya Foundation, founded in 1977 and now known as Ven. Vajiraramaye Ñãnãsiha Thero) made the following observation:

There are many noble Resolutions like this but have not materialized. The recommendations of the Buddha Sasana Commission of 2002, the 20 Point Action Plan of the 2600 Sambuddhatva Jayanthi, and the ten-year programme handed to His Excellency at the end of the term of office of the Sambuddhatva Jayanti Presidential Committee are recent events. There are resolutions passed by the Buddhist Leaders’ International Conference held in 1982 and the International Buddhist Conference sponsored for the first time by the State in 1998. There are enough warnings given by the members of the Maha Sangha, and especially Ven. Madihe Pannasiha Mahanayaka Thera. Buddhists seem to be taken for granted and their tolerance is misused by all governments. The Buddhist leadership has to think of a way out of this impasse.”

Professor Perera delivered monthly lectures under the auspices of the All Buddhist Congress of Democrats, (‘ABCD’) at several temples, in Bambalapitiya and elsewhere. In 2004 the Annual General Meeting of the ABCD was held at the J.R. Jayewardene Cultural Centre, Colombo 7, and awards were handed over to the eminent surgeon, Deshamanya Dr. P. R. Anthonis and Ven. (Dr.) Telagapatha Dammakirthi Thero, in recognition of their services to the wellbeing of the community.

Prof. Perera performed an immense service at the Buddhist Cultural Centre (BCC) at Nadimala, Dehiwala on the invitation of Ven. Kirama Wimalajhoti Thera. There he translated several books into English namely Buddhavamsa-aṭṭhakathā (also known as The Lineage of Buddhas) (in 2011), Chriyapitaka Atthakatha, Vimanavatthy Aṭṭhakathāand Jataka Aṭṭhakathā.

German Dharmaduta Society

Prof. Perera also served as the Vice – President of the German Dharmaduta Society which maintains the Berlin Vihara in Germany and visited Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya (all three institutions of which were founded by Asoka Weeraratna later known as Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti Thero).

Professor Perera leaves behind a son and daughter. The son Dr. Harsha Perera, Attorney at Law, is a famous writer and scholar, while the daughter Priyanwada Perera is a science graduate teacher. His wife the late Mrs. Sujatha Perera, who gained her Master’s degree, passed away in 2012.

Professor A.D.T.E. Perera spent his entire life devoted to the cause of both the nation i.e., Sri Lanka, and the Religion i.e., Buddhism. He supported the idea of ‘Rata, Jathiya, Agama’ with great conviction. His services are unparalleled.   

May he attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana.

Dr. Harsha Perera

Garvin Karunaratne  former GA Matara 

Despite my repeated writings  highlighting what has happened to the Dry Zone tanks, the life blood of the people, no action has been taken and today- 2023, there is no proper method of distributing water. 
This is a matter of great urgency that needs the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture. In entire Sri Lanka today the tanks are neglected and before long we will face starvation, as it is the Dry Zone that is our granary. May this plea reach the ears of our leaders

May my publication in 2017 get some attention from the Government authorities. 

Garvin Karunaratne
former GA Matara 
2/10/2023

Mahinda Gunasekera

His Excellency, Ranil Wickremasinghe
President of Sri Lanka

Your Excellency,

I would like to draw your attention to the annexed article written by Shenali Waduge pointing out the invalidity of the Indo-Lanka Accord and the implementation of the 13th Amendment creating Provincial Councils is null and void for the same reasons.

We too have on numerous occasions brought to the notice of the highest in the land the fact that this statute altering the pattern of governance in the country was taken up and passed in parliament without reference of such an important package of  laws for public consultation.  Even the government party which had a 5/6th majority resorted to use unorthodox methods to force a favourable vote through threats of presenting ‘letters of resignation’ previously obtained from the MPs to terminate their term of election to parliament.  In fact they were held in confinement in hotels and bussed into parliament like shackled prisoners to cast their vote in favour of the Indian imposed constitutional amendment.

Your recent efforts to win the consent of the political party leaders for implementation of the 13th Amendment in full, including Land and Police Powers is a misplaced decision, as firstly the consent of the people needs to be obtained prior to parliamentary action.

If you wish to decide on its validity and needs as determined by the public, it must be referred to a national referendum where the people may express their opinion on it.

You are no doubt aware that it is referred to as a white elephant eating into the public purse the limited funds available to the state.  On receipt of the decision of the public, you may proceed to either revoke the 13th Amendment or fully implement it with the consent of the people.  The Provincial Councils could be replaced with

10 Multi-District

Councils with the Premiers and Provincial Ministers being replaced by an Executive Chaiman and Executive Committee Members together with designated powers instead of devolved powers.

There is also the risk of either the northern or Eastern Provincial Councils breaking away to form a separate state towards which a three decade war was instituted by the militant Tamil groups designated as terrorist movements which even resorted to suicide terrorism.

You are also aware that several of the political parties representing the Tamils including the TNA accepted the LTTE as the sole leader of the Tamils, and continue to uphold the activities of the LTTE and the views of the former terror leaders.

You and your government should ensure that without trying to win over the party leaders and grant further rights to an invalid statute, at least now, you have a public discussion and act in accordance with the public viewpoint which was not done in the first instance.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera

Encl. Article by Shenali Waduge re Indo-Lanka Accord

Nimal Samarasinghe

This rejoinder sent to Sunday Island to articles appeared there criticizing changes post 56 was not published.

The articles on English language in your Sunday issues are intriguing.

Today I play a senior professional role in my occupation in the kingdom of the English.

I obtained a credit pass at my English O/L and the required level at the ILETS.

However my entire education was in Sinhala up until entry to the University.

Though I had some initial difficulty that was overcome by the necessary application.

I am correct if I say I owe my current position to the post 56 changes brought into education.

I found it much easier to have my primary and secondary education in my mother tongue that was our only line of communication in the family at home.

By the time you come to Uni education you have developed the skill set needed to tackle any such challenge.

Do not forget many students have to learn a foreign language during their overseas Uni course.

If that the case why not English for us, I wonder.

Wales have a population around three million.

Many schools  teach primarily in Welsh particularly where many people speak Welsh everyday

though London is only a couple of hundred miles away by road.

Sign boards are in most places in both languages.

Those who point Sinhala is used only by a miniscule of world population should see the patriotic aspiration of a much smaller nation just on the borders of London. 

Don’t we have that ourselves?

The English education was not available to the vast majority in the country.

The change in language policy while English continued to be taught enabled the youth in the remote areas of the country to enter the universities correcting a social anomaly.

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

• Devotees gather at Aluthgama Kande Vihara to pay homage to the Sacred Omniscient Relics of Deegawapiya Stupa and the Crest-Gem

The exposition of the Sacred Omniscient Relics of Deegawapiya Stupa and the Crest-Gem takes place at the Kande Vihara today (Oct. 2) for public veneration. Afterwards, the revered articles will move in a religious procession to Waskaduwa Rajaguru Sri Subhuthi Viharaya, tomorrow (Oct. 3).

The relics unearthed from the Deegawapiya sacred site during the excavations as well as the Crest Gem embedded with precious stones will be in exposition for public veneration at Waskaduwa Rajaguru Sri Subhuthi Viharaya during the next two consecutive days (Oct. 3 and 4).

Further, arrangements have been made for the exposition of these revered articles at the Kahawa Sri Samarasinhamathindraramaya on October 5 and Baddegama Sri Wijayawardhanaramaya on October 6. Devotees are invited to witness and worship the Sacred Omniscient Relics and Crest-Gem. They also have the opportunity to support this meritorious act by making financial contributions to the restoration project

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

• All government agencies are geared in all respects to face the prevailing adverse weather condition

All government agencies  are geared in all respects to face the prevailing adverse weather condition around the country, the State Minister of Defence Hon. Pramitha Bandara Thennakoon said in a news brief  held at the State Ministry in Colombo today (Oct 02).

All amenities have so far been provided at 07 disaster relief centres for 267 victims from 66 disaster-affected households, with the assistance of district secretaries, divisional secretaries and other relevant officials from Galle and Matara districts.

Required funds have been allocated for twenty three (23) districts as a quick response. Arrangements will be initiated to allocate required funds from the treasury to compensate the damages occurred to houses due to adverse weather.

One sluice gate each of Kukuleganga and Polgolla reservoirs has been opened so far. Therefore, the residents of the low-lying areas near the reservoirs are warned to be alert. Flood warnings have been issued for the river basins of Attanagalu Oya, Ging Ganga and Nilwala Ganga and the sub-basin of Kalu Ganga. Therefore, Motorists passing through those areas are informed to take special care in case of sudden floods.

Apart from this, level 2 Landslide warnings have been issued for the Divisional Secretariats, such as Neluwa in Galle District, Ingiriya in Kalutara District, Pasbage in Kandy District, Pitabeddara and Kotapola in Matara District, Kalawana, Aheliyagoda, Ayagama, Palmadulla, Nivithigala, Kiriella, Ratnapura, Alapatha and Kuruwita in Ratnapura District by the National Building Research Organization (NBRO).

According to Met Department reports, heavy rains are predicted to continue for the following two days. The State Minister of Defence further stated that the Disaster Management Centre, Disaster Relief Service Centre, District Governor’s Offices, Divisional Secretariat Offices, the Armed Forces and the Civil Security Department have been prepared to deal with any emergency situation that may arise in the future

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ලංකා විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලයේ සේවකයෙකුට පුද්ගලයෙකු විසින් මරණ තර්ජනය කරන විඩියෝවක් සමාජ ජාලවල හුවමාරු වෙයි.

මෙම ආරවුල ඇතිව තිබෙන්නේ විදුලි බල මණ්ඩලයට අයත් ගොඩනැගිල්ලක තාප්පයේ පෝස්ටර් ගැසීමට විරුද්ධ වීම නිසාය.

‘පෝස්ටර් ගැලෙවුවොත් බලා ගමු. 88-89 කාලයේ අමුඩ ගස්සලා හන්දි ගාණේ වෙඩි තැබුවේ උඹලා වගේ අයට’ යැයි ද එම පුද්ගලයා තර්ජනය කරයි.

මෙසේ තර්ජනය කරන්නේ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හිටපු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයෙක් යයිද වාර්තාවන්හි සදහන්ය.

වීඩියෝව මෙතනින්…

Courtesy THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

Sri Lanka has confirmed receiving further compensation for pollution from the lost container ship X-Press Pearl, which burned and sunk off Colombo in 2021. Speaking to local media over the weekend, Sri Lankan Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said the interim payment made by the vessel’s insurers would help to cover beach cleanup activities and compensate fishermen affected by the disaster.

Sri Lanka Treasury has received $890,000 and 16 million Sri Lankan rupees (around $49,200 dollars) as interim payment for costs incurred by the Maritime Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) and for the affected fisherfolks,” the Minister said.

Since the disaster happened, Sri Lanka has received payments totaling $7.85 million. Its government received the first payment of $3.6 million in July 2021. Another $1.75 million followed in January 2022, and a third payment of $2.5 million arrived in September.

Sri Lanka initially filed for a compensation claim of $40 million shortly after the vessel sank off Colombo in June 2021. However, a 40-member expert committee convened by MEPA put the price of the environmental disaster at $6.4 billion in an interim report early this year.

On April 25, Sri Lanka announced that it had formally filed legal action before Singapore’s International Commercial Courts (SICC) to claim compensation for the massive environmental damage. At the time of the disaster, X-Press Pearl was registered in Singapore and operated by the container line X-Press Feeders.

The choice of filing suit in Singapore was controversial, as a Singaporean court could limit the total liability of the shipowner to the value of the vessel, about $14 million. If the suit had been filed in Sri Lankan courts, national environmental-protection laws would have applied, and the potential damage claim could have been higher.

In July, a nine-member Sri Lankan delegation led by the Attorney General held meetings in Singapore with lawyers representing X-Press Pearl’s owners and insurers. The discussions centered on compensation claims and expedient removal of the fore section of the vessel’s wreck, which is still submerged offshore Sri Lanka.

X-Press Pearl was carrying 1,486 containers when it caught fire, with eighty-one of those containers labeled hazardous. Some of the cargo included nitric acid, which is blamed as a possible factor for the fire. Over 50 billion plastic pellets that were also onboard leaked, contributing to what has come to be known as the worst marine plastic pollution event in the world.

By Michael Iveson Courtesy The Diplomat

Sri Lanka will not fulfill its renewable energy commitments under current economic conditions. But what if the government could simultaneously tackle its climate, energy, and debt crises?

October 02, 2023

Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently appointed a Green Finance Committee to pioneer a roadmap for sustainable finance and emphasized the need for resource mobilization from multilateral development banks and the private sector to achieve climate change targets. 

As part of Sri Lanka’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), updated in 2021, the government committed to supplying 70 percent of its domestic electricity with renewable energy sources by 2030, with the longer-term goal of achieving a full renewable electricity supply by 2050. However, given the current fiscal constraints imposed by the economic crisis and the scale of investment required to address structural imbalances in the energy sector, it is becoming increasingly challenging to achieve this target. Therefore, policymakers must explore innovative financing solutions to maintain investments in this sector and facilitate the essential green energy transition.

The recent agreement between the governments of Portugal and Cabo Verde signals to Sri Lanka that there may be such a solution. In early 2023, it emerged that Portugal had agreed to forgive a portion of Cabo Verde’s bilateral debt in exchange for commitments to biodiversity conservation and renewable energy development. Although these negotiations are in their early stages, they demonstrate that incentive frameworks exist and that there is an intersection point between debt, climate, and renewable energy priorities.

A debt-for-renewables” swap would reallocate foregone debt repayments toward public sector investments in renewable energy infrastructure and support the diversification of the energy sector. Much like debt-for-nature swaps, a debt-for-renewables” swap would reallocate debt repayments to a more productive sector and generate significant economic multiplier effects as a result of a more reliable, efficient, and autonomous energy sector.

Debt-for-nature swaps enable heavily indebted countries to restructure a portion of their external debt onto more favorable terms in exchange for environmental commitments. This typically involves creditors canceling or reducing unsustainable debt while creating obligations to protect the local environment using freed-up funds. This eliminates the significant opportunity cost of debt repayments by redirecting funds to mutually agreed conservation projects with more concessional repayment terms. 

Servicing foreign debt is incredibly expensive for developing countries not only because of the absolute cost associated with repayments but also due to the significant opportunity costs. Developing countries forgo investments in essential infrastructure, social services, and public investments that have high economic and social returns to service debt obligations without direct economic outcomes. 

In recent years, these opportunity costs have also materialized through environmental challenges and limiting essential investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This new dimension exacerbates the costs of the global debt crisis, as developing countries risk falling into a debt-climate” trap if they are unable to finance climate-resilient investments due to unsustainable debt burdens. Debt-for-nature swaps provide governments with an opportunity to finance investments in climate change adaptation and mitigation without taking on new debt. ADVERTISEMENT

Recent debt-for-nature swaps in Belize and Seychelles primarily targeted marine projects and reallocated funding to long-term biodiversity and conservation projects. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) financed the repurchase of external debt from creditors at a discounted rate and provided more concessional repayment terms, which was combined with a commitment from debtor governments to finance conservation projects using the freed-up funds. 

Belize and Seychelles also leveraged their strong blue tourism sectors to incentivize investors to engage in debt-for-nature swaps, as funding marine conservation preserves natural assets that are vital to ocean tourism. ​​The tourism industry guaranteed a sustainable source of government revenue and assured creditors that debtor governments would be able to service their debt obligations alongside environmental commitments.

The success of debt-for-nature swaps in Belize and Seychelles was driven by already established commitments to marine conservation and the economic multiplier effects associated with fulfilling them. Rather than prioritizing debt relief, debt-distressed governments must identify debt swaps as an instrument to maintain investments in environmental conservation and climate-resilient infrastructure by removing the opportunity costs of debt repayments. Strong, ambitious, and achievable environmental targets give debtor governments credibility to pursue debt-for-nature swaps; without clear targets, they risk overcommitting to environmental obligations and falling short, which could create further debt problems in the long run if commitments are not fulfilled. 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sri Lanka’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) provide a strong foundation for targeted, productive investments and must be leveraged to reassure creditors that a long-term approach to finance is sustainable. At the recent Sustainable Development Forum, Wickremesinghe emphasized the importance of finding resources to achieve the SDGs and combat climate change. Debt swap instruments must play an important role in financing sustainable investments, especially to address some of the pressing challenges in Sri Lanka’s most vulnerable sectors.

Sri Lanka’s Green Energy Transition

Addressing structural imbalances in the domestic electricity sector is vital for both climate targets and economic development. The economic crisis demonstrated Sri Lanka’s unsustainable dependence on fuel imports from abroad (around two-thirds of the national energy supply comes from imported fossil fuels); because Sri Lanka relies so heavily on international markets that trade predominantly in U.S. dollars, foreign exchange reserves are required to purchase fuel. When the government exhausted those reserves, fuel supply was limited, and this posed significant challenges to households and businesses on the island. 

This overdependence on imported fuel is also exacerbated by inadequate energy diversification and a lack of renewable energy infrastructure in Sri Lanka. Between 1991 and 2014, Sri Lanka’s net energy imports as a share of total energy consumption increased from 25 percent to 50 percent, while the share of energy generated by renewable energy sources plummeted from 80 percent to an all-time-low of 45 percent of total final energy consumption in 2016. Sri Lanka has shifted away from domestic hydroelectric power toward fossil fuels in recent decades, which has created a fragile energy sector that is overdependent on imported fossil fuels.

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Unpredictable access to fuel and electricity poses significant challenges for economic development, as energy is essential for businesses and households to function. Creating a more sustainable electricity sector requires significant investment in energy infrastructure to create more energy autonomy, as well as stabilizing and managing the cost of energy in the domestic market. Given that Sri Lanka is not naturally endowed with fossil fuels and other traditional sources of energy, renewable energy infrastructure is essential to build the capacity to supply electricity to the national grid. 

Energy sector diversification must come through a blended finance approach; public investments in domestic energy infrastructure and the establishment of strong regulatory frameworks and governance signals to private investors that the government is committed to its NDCs and will reward private sector involvement in its pursuit of a green transition. 

Swapping Debt for Renewable EnergyADVERTISEMENT

As part of diversifying the energy sector and supplying clean electricity to the national grid, creditors stand to benefit from revenues generated through the sale of electricity and thus secure guaranteed debt repayments in this form. This can make debt servicing more sustainable in the long run as more generous interest rates, longer-term repayment schedules, and improvements in the productive capacity of the economy relieve pressure on the government to overextend itself to service external debt. Much like how tourism taxes and revenues reassured creditors in Belize’s and Seychelles’ debt-for-nature agreements, the Sri Lankan government can leverage revenue shares from renewable energy sales as a guarantee of creditor repayment and thus improve their credibility in the markets.

To maximize the effectiveness of debt swaps, the government must target the domestic energy sector. Structural imbalances at the heart of the energy sector require serious government intervention and a debt-for-renewables” swap provides a unique opportunity to finance essential investments without taking on more debt. A reliable and affordable domestic electricity supply, powered by renewable energy, is an essential component of sustainable economic development and the economic multiplier effects of this approach go far beyond the intersection of debt, climate, and energy priorities.

The Need for Climate Finance

Sri Lanka will not fulfill its renewable energy commitments under current economic conditions. The government must explore innovative solutions to the climate, energy, and debt crises; a debt-for-renewables” swap exists at the intersection of these challenges. The government must establish a coordinated response across ministries to properly evaluate the potential of debt swaps, focusing specifically on sectors with significant economic multiplier effects that offset the transaction costs of such complex negotiations. 

Previous case studies and ongoing negotiations in several highly indebted countries demonstrate that incentive structures exist for such agreements, so Sri Lanka must engage holistically with creditors to explore comprehensive solutions to the ongoing crisis. Debt swap instruments have the potential to unlock funding for renewable energy investments, but the government must establish credibility through strong commitments to its energy sector NDCs. This must be complemented by strong governance and regulatory frameworks that create a more attractive environment for private creditors.

As the government contends with debt and climate crises, climate finance must be at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring processes. However, it must be part of a comprehensive, transparent, and coordinated response from all lenders to create a more sustainable debt structure for economic recovery, without undermining global campaigns for debt justice.

This article is based on a policy brief titled: Debt-for-Renewables’ Swaps: How to Address Climate, Debt and Energy Sector Vulnerabilities in Sri Lanka” published by Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Around fifty percent of the population in this country is contributing at least one rupee to the international Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) diaspora daily, Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) Chairman Gemunu Wijeratne said.

He told the Daily Mirror exclusively that the LTTE and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organisations are currently the most funded organisations.

He said this fact was revealed following an analysis done by him. He said most of the financial companies are run by funds from the LTTE.

They give the collected money to local politicians, government officials and trade unions to depend on them, and it has become a serious problem to the country.

This is not even being investigated into by the police because the police attempts are also being foiled by the LTTE and ISIS.

“That is why there is a huge objection to the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act and to the proposed Broadcasting Regulatory Commission legislation. This is a result the country has faced after the LTTE war, and any war cannot be defeated by just killing people,” Wijeratne said.

Also, he said that he will reveal all the details if anyone gives him a chance. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended sixteen priority actions in its recently released Governance Diagnostic Assessment (GDA) on Sri Lanka to address systematic and severe governance weaknesses and deep-rooted corruption vulnerabilities across State functions in order to unlock the country’s growth potential.

Sri Lanka became the first country in Asia to undergo an IMF governance diagnostic under the global lender’s rescue package. Accordingly, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission undertook a governance diagnostic assessment from the 9th of March to the 31st of March this year.

The technical assistance report released last week revealed widespread corruption vulnerabilities and governance weaknesses originating from ad-hoc tax policy practices, half-baked approaches to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), lack of a robust legal framework and poor processes utilised in SOEs, the absence of public procurement legislation, ad-hoc tax policy practices frequently modifying tax laws, conflict of interest concerns of Central Bank managing EPF and regulating NBIFs, and absence of clear mechanisms for information sharing among tax authorities.

Despite the widespread public outcry leading to mass protests and social unrest last year, the report pointed out that the authorities were yet to take action on recovering stolen funds, while civil society participation remains discouraged.

Current governance arrangements have not established clear standards for permissible official behaviour, acted to deter and sanction transgressions, nor pursued individuals and stolen public funds that have exited the country. Regular civil society participation in oversight and monitoring of government actions is restricted by limited transparency, the lack of platforms for inclusive and participatory governance, and by the broad application of counter-terrorism rules,” it said.

GDA stressed that the impunity for misbehaviour enjoyed by officials continues to undermine trust in the public sector and compounds concerns over limited access to an efficient and rule-based adjudication process for resolving disputes, and hurts the integrity of the judiciary.

Although the new Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) is in force, it noted that key accountability institutions, including the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC), lack both the authority and competency to successfully fulfill their functions.

Improvement brought about by the passage of the ACA needs to be complemented by the drafting and enactment of a modern law on Asset Recovery. Rapid operationalising of the ACA will be critical to address current corruption vulnerabilities associated with the lack of a functional system for receiving, publishing, and reviewing asset declarations by public officials, and procedural and competency issues in the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases,” it added.

Among priority actions, the GDA has recommended the government abolish or suspend the application of the Strategic Development Projects Act until the promulgation of an explicit and transparent process for the evaluation of proposals and costing of investment promotion conditions.

There is no definition of what criteria need to be satisfied for a project to be of strategic relevance, and the revenue forgone from such projects is not systematically contrasted against their potential benefit in a transparent process. Crucially, the Department of Fiscal Policy (DoFP) is not involved in the selection or evaluation of projects, and any data that may exist is not shared with the department. While the specific concessions given to companies benefiting from provisions of the SDP Act differ, the revenue consequences are likely significant,” it pointed out. 

It noted that a holistic, impartial, and transparent analysis is required to decide whether a specific project is viable and whether the potential benefit exceeds its social costs – which include revenue forgone, an increase in administrative costs, market distortions, and potentially perceptions of unfairness.

While the BoI is likely well-positioned to understand the investment potential of specific projects, it lacks an understanding of the wider fiscal framework and budgetary needs which are necessary to evaluate the net social value of a specific project. The DoFP should evaluate and guide the design of all tax incentives, including those based on the SDP Act and the Port City Act,” it added.

The analysis also scrutinized the high corruption vulnerabilities in public procurement due to the absence of a procurement law, which has led to high levels of political engagement in the selection of procurement winners, poor contract management, limited transparency, and a number of other issues. Hence, it has been suggested to enact a Public Procurement Law that reflects international good practice by December next year.

In addition, it was highlighted that the lack of information on beneficial ownership of companies increases the risk of conflicts of interest in the awarding of contracts.

While anti-money laundering mechanisms have the potential to reduce corruption vulnerabilities, the report was critical of current approaches to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), which has largely failed to support effective state action.

Issues in legal definitions and processes to capture and share information on the beneficial ownership of companies have not been addressed, since they were first observed in 2015.

Current practices by financial institutions largely fail to identify suspicious transactions and prevent money laundering. At the same time, weaknesses in the legal framework, problems in domestic cooperation on corruption-related issues between competent authorities, and issues in establishing effective protocols for collaboration with foreign jurisdictions impair sanctioning corrupt officials for money laundering offenses or recovering stolen assets,” it added.

Meanwhile, it also highlighted governance weaknesses associated with increased risks of corruption around Contract Enforcement and Property Rights, which has constrained private sector development.

Multi-year waiting times for the resolution of contract disputes prevent reliance on courts for effective and fair resolution of disputes and encourage disputants to find ways, not always legal, to speed up adjudication. Widespread confusion over the allocation of property rights and the lack of progress in digitizing property records generate extensive long-term legal disputes and similarly promote resort to opaque means to influence the resolution of disputes. 

Corruption risks around state-owned land, estimated at approximately 80 percent of the country, are particularly severe due to the combination of lack of clarity around titles, the absence of a property registry, and ambiguity in processes for the divestiture of state property,” it elaborated.

As a result, it noted that the integrity of the judiciary has eroded over time and private parties have moved to use illicit payments to resolve disputes.

…the strong incentives of private parties to use illicit payments as a way to solve legal problems that have little chance of being resolved in the near term, and have focused attention on the need to strengthen the independence and competency across the legal sector,” it added.

The recommendations are expected to contribute to the formulation of governance and anti-corruption policies and programmes, improvement of the legal and institutional frameworks, as well as governance and anti-corruption reform measures agreed to in the Staff Level Agreement for an Extended Credit Facility Arrangement for Sri Lanka.

As a result, it noted that the integrity of the judiciary has eroded over time and private parties have moved to use illicit payments to resolve disputes.

…the strong incentives of private parties to use illicit payments as a way to solve legal problems that have little chance of being resolved in the near term, and have focused attention on the need to strengthen the independence and competency across the legal sector,” it added.

The recommendations are expected to contribute to the formulation of governance and anti-corruption policies and programmes, improvement of the legal and institutional frameworks, as well as governance and anti-corruption reform measures agreed to in the Staff Level Agreement for an Extended Credit Facility Arrangement for Sri Lanka.

e-Con e-News 24-30 September 2023

Before you study the economics, study the economists!”

‘I was there at Torrington Square when we received Independence.

I watched with contempt our PM arriving there in top hat & tailcoat.

I was there at the Town Hall when Bandaranaike formed his party.

I was on the streets of Kandy cheering away when the ’56 victory

was announced. I was in depths of despair when JR Jayewardene

hoodwinked the entire nation with his Dharmista slogan and pushed

his neoliberal economic policy on us which resulted in 2 insurrections,

one in the South & one in the North.’

– Gunadasa Amarasekera

From Gamanaka Mula to Gamanaka Aga – the Wayward Journey of the Middle Class gathers Gunadasa Amarasekera’s reflections over the last 75 years, in the home, on the street, across the seas, and on the page. As Colombo’s anglomaniacs prepare to launch yet another ‘international’ (minus Sinhala, actually a white) literary farce at a colonial Southern fortress, only open to what the sea drags in, for whom Booker is a delicious prize not another Caribbean (oops, West Indian) slave plantation owner, here is the real story, and it ain’t novel:

     Politics as such has been outlawed from our serious fiction”, Amarasekera declares. He places today’s modern fabling in dire perspective: His novels forecast Sri Lanka’s trajectory into ‘a colony of India or USA or of both!’ It is important to remember, World Bank (and IMF) interference in the world and Sri Lanka precedes and prepares for ‘independence’ (see 10 August 2019, Central Bank Special).

     Here then is 1977 times 10: JR’s media & other strategies, carrot&stick – and more. Such tactics are usually credited to the ‘Old Fox’, yet we know those games too were and are prompted by the USA’s IMF, seeking to bribe and fatten certain fractions.

     Here then is the saga of those who sought a ‘Socialism with Sinhala Buddhist Characteristics’. A tale also of a narrow ‘middle class’ who lost their way on the journey from village to town, to university & abroad. Their attempts to recover their roots & their Buddhist civilization through white foreign-funded institutions returns them as strangers in their own land: Alienated & marooned abroad, then disillusioned at home, a colonial mentality still imprisons them…and not just them.

*

This ee also examines ‘The Common Dream’ of the present President and a secessionist Tamil leadership, forged and massaged by colonialism. A dream that remains unchanged. ee has recalled the international merchants of rice and money who have underwritten this leadership process (see ee 07 July 2021, Maharaja’s MTV, Chettiar Bankers & Killer Import Mafia).

     Some recall ‘Sir’ Ponnambalam Arunachalam’s call to the Ceylon Tamil League in 1922 to propagate ‘precious ideals throughout Ceylon, Southern India and the Tamil Colonies, to promote the union and solidarity of Tamilakam, the Tamil Land…we have been proud to call Tamil Eelam’.

     Kalyananda Thiranagama examines the founding of the ITAK from 1949. Called the Federal Party in English, ‘the name of the Party – Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (or Tamil State Party of Ceylon) itself reflects this dream’ A dream ‘reiterated in various resolutions passed at their conferences and public declarations at different times.’ It is no surprise therefore that the President, most aware of English and its dissembling histories, has spoken of a ‘final solution.’ – a dream to annihilate us all (see ee Focus).

*

• Seeking a real Way Forward, an alarm is being sounded by the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. They point to auguries of ‘an ungovernable state of anarchy’. ‘Rightwing forces will not hesitate to allow extra-legal or even military intervention.’ The CPSL is calling on all ‘progressive, Left & patriotic forces’ to urgently fulfil ‘their historical responsibility’.

     There are organized interests and forces pushing this ‘anarchy.’ Those politicians & thinktanks who have promoted the chaos of further colonial control of the economy, are now acting contrite:

Verité Research Head lambasts Government and IMF

for ‘privatising profits & socialising losses’

Verité, a US-funded thinktank, is now trying to deflect from their former reports promoting Domestic Debt Restructuring (DDR). US Verité were the first to put out a paper on DDR, note astute observers. ‘Now that their own advocacy is coming to bite them in the ass, Verité’s headman De Mel is trying hard, but is yet to reach any clarity such as Marx’:

The only part of the so-called national wealth

that actually enters into the collective possessions

of modern peoples is their national debt.

– Karl Marx, Capital Vol 1

Other US-funded somebodies & nobodies are fiddling the same coy violins as Verité. A future SJB government will ‘refine’ Sri Lanka’s agreement with IMF, promises SJB (actually Trans-UNP!) MP Harsha de Silva. President Ranil Wickremesinghe ‘hints’ that the IMF’s ‘ways of negotiation are old’.

     Those who invited the IMF in, are now backtracking as the people’s anger grows. Having declared a fertile & rich country, bankrupt. Having bankrolled an ‘Aragalaya’ (Rs250billion, the published ‘advertising spend’ by capitalists in 2022? Advertising what??) to drive out a popular government, accusing it of all the old sins of colonialism. After escalating the intrusion of the USA’s economic war machinery (notice the US’s Fitch & S&P’s generous ‘ratings’ on the state of the currency). The World Bank is given headlines for providing more aid (loans?) for ‘welfare’, even as the IMF is throwing even more people out of work! The US is also providing ‘thriposha’ to combat malnutrition. The USA’s World Bank are funding a National Debt Management Centre, etc, even as they provide loans (bribes) to the country’s political mercenaries to pursue their commands.

*

• So-called diasporas, members of a transnational ‘middle-class’ who have helped the colonial master rob their country’s resources, are those given ‘permanent’ residency in those lands.

The feeble response by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Canada’s revelations about India’s assassination of a separatist Khalistani leader in Canada, only exposes how our capitalist leaders have no interest in truly setting the record straight. Certain ‘national questions’ are beggars’ wounds, meant to fester until amputation. Indeed, some warn the Minister not to interfere in Canada’s affairs, even as they observe Canada’s blatant interference in Sri Lanka.

This week also saw revelations of Canada’s role as a haven for Europe’s & Asia’s fascists & terrorists. It is no surprise that both Europe & their white settler states have become a refuge for this world’s contras – their ‘bastard children’ of nondescript shades. Canada’s own great expertise in manufacturing (after decimating) ‘tribes’ & identities, derives from their genocide of the original peoples – which contrary to the Canadian envoy’s utterances gulped by Colombo’s supine media – continues to this day, and has long been a model for the fascists of this world. Canada has also played a lead role in the ousting of such independence leaders as the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba (assassinated), Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah (couped), Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide (kidnapped & couped), etc, etc, and opposed anti-colonial struggles (from Korea to Vietnam, etc).

As for the actual surreal diaspora, the truth of their day-to-day lives, as ultra-exploited & terribly insecure workers, is yet to be exposed…

*

• A recent parliamentary debate on the April 2019 attacks, heard ‘reports that those who were in the Aragalaya… are training militarily in remote locations’.

     At the same time, Madame Julie Chung is seeking to recruit the leadership of sacred Mihintale to lead the ‘Nava Aragalaya’. Those readers who follow the twitterings & other targeted meanderings of the US Envoy across the country, observe Chung met the Mihintale Thera recently. They were spotted ‘seated with… a Galle Face priest who was with Omalpe & the Cardinal’. The Thera is as usual, most honest. A few months ago, the Mihintale Thera justified the entry of the IMF, declaring, ‘It was the IMF that ruled Sri Lanka… there are financial issues in the country…the government needs to take drastic measures to address them.

     These moves make clear that it is the US that is pushing the ‘anarchy’ from the so-called Left and the Right. They have the rock’n’roll for it.

*

No pirates, no digital salesmen: US Envoy Julie Chung also recently met ‘Cyber Security Advisor & Educator’ Asela Waidyalankara – ‘Technocrat, Cyber Security Crusader, Privacy Advocate, Futurist, Techcelerator, Proud Sri Lankan’ – on 27 September 2023. Midst all this hoha about ‘digital economy, disruptive cyber attacks, draft online safety bill’, Chung twittered:

     ‘Had a good chat w Asela Waidyalankara on the latest cybersecurity law & critical ways the USA can further support Sri Lanka’s proactive steps to develop its digital economy & mitigate disruptive cyberattacks. Also discussed concerns & far-reaching implications of the draft Online Safety bill on citizens & tech companies.’

     At the onset of last year’s ‘Aragalaya’, on 9 April 2022 Waidyalankara twittered with a purported photograph of: ‘A high powered Wi-Fi/GSM jammer spotted near Presidential Secretariat’, hinting at covert state surveillance. On 20 April 2022, ‘Anonymous Hacker Collective’ launched cyberattacks ‘against the Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.’ Waidyalankara was quoted as pointing to the ‘incredibly fragile e-Government system’ (see ee Random Notes)…

Contents:

Reviewer –   Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga PhD, DSc

There are two major impressions that the discerning reader will not miss while reading Galle Face Protest: Systems Change or Anarchy? – Politics, Religion & Culture in a Time of Terror”,writtenby Sena Thoradeniya. One is the vast amount of information it carries regarding the machinations that the US imperialists employ when they decide to change the regime of a country of strategic importance, and the other is the dirty face of the two-faced so called Aragalaya”. It is very unfortunate that this book has not received the attention it deserves from those who love this country and who are aware of the peril it faces. The perilous position is due to two reasons; one is the geopolitical importance of the maritime geography of our Island and the other is its history of struggles against imperialism, both very vital considerations for the US. They will leave no stone unturned to defeat the nationalist spirit of the people to gain a foothold on the Island, which is the southernmost land in the strategically important Indian Ocean. This is the reason why the so-called Aragalayists” were encouraged to ridicule our national and religious symbols. If they can destroy the national fervour that is built on Buddhism half their battle is won.

I feel that the book has not received the attention it deserves because the people have not yet recovered sufficiently from the shock, they went through in the last few months. They have lost their nationalist leader in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis and they don’t seem to know what hit them; they don’t know whom or what to believe. This is very unfortunate for this book which is an eye opener; it tells us what really happened and also what may be in store for us if we are not alert and informed of the danger that awaits us. Thoradeniya’s book is a revelation on all these aspects.

The book has a Preface titled, Taking the Lid off the Golden Bowl” by Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera who succinctly tells us about the value of the book. The Introduction, which consists of 43 pages, deals with the conspiracy to oust the President. The role played by the US Ambassador is revealed with great detail and substantiated with evidence. It also talks in a detached way about the obvious mistakes committed by the President on the advice of dubious experts. How the President played into the hands of his adversary is shown clearly. Straight talking Thoradeniya does not spare even the Cardinal; his role is described in clear terms and one wonders about the intentions of the Catholic Church. The author has seen with his own eyes the Mirihana Outrage” which is portrayed as a harbinger of evil to come. The intentions of the so-called Aragalaya” which was supposed to be the epitome of peace was on display, road tarmac on fire, buses on fire, President’s house on siege, under the eyes of the police.

In a chapter titled Who Were Not Afraid of the Galle Face Protesters” Thoradeniya deals with the supporters of the so-called Aragalaya”. According to him there were two groups, local and foreign. This chapter is very important for it reveals the forces behind the phenomenon, some active in the open, others hidden. Some belonged to political parties, others were anti-nationalist elements; they would announce their arrival, shout a few slogans and then would leave the site to dine at the One Galle Face”. Infighting among these groups were not uncommon every day. Thoradeniya lists twenty sub-groups who were involved in the so-called Aragalaya” revealing that they were an assortment of groups with no common doctrine or ideology.

The foreign support that was available to the so-called Aragalaya” is described in the chapter titled US Footprints at the Galle Face Protest Site”. The author makes reference to MP Wimal Weerawansa’s disclosures and Ms Shenali Waduge’s letters published in LankaWeb. The latter’s revelations about the CIA created organisations, International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute and their activities in Sri Lanka form the basis for the discussion in this chapter. Reader is informed of the ramifications and wide networking capabilities of these organisations. Waduge appears to be quite knowledgeable and well informed supported by research publications of repute. How these organisations provide funds, train various groups and NGOs on subversive methods and activities are given in detail. How groups were mobilized using the hashtag called GoGotaHome” and why these placards could not have been the spontaneous outcry of a people deprived of a living but the work of a well-organized, well-funded outfit like the US orgaization Generation Democracy” form compulsive reading.  What these US organizations have achieved in other countries in Latin America and Africa are described to support the contention that US was behind the so-called Aragalaya”.

Author very importantly deals with the culture that was manifest at the Galle Face Protest site in the chapter titled Group Formation and Culture of Galle Face Protesters”. He says that this culture is not going to be a permanent feature of the Sri Lankan main cultural milieu and he has been proved right. He discusses the possible means and causes of formation of this culture. There was no uniformity in this culture, the unifying force being the intention to chase out Gota. There was no leadership or hierarchical organization. There was group rivalry and conflicts among the different groups. The use of filthy language in their banners and placards was a common occurrence which reflected on an uncultured culture”. When they surrounded Ranil Wickremasinghe’s residence the placards that referred to him were utterly filthy reflecting on the lack of culture. Author says the The Galle Face culture was anti-national, anti-Sinhala, anti-Buddhist, Federalist and Ealamist”. The village farmers who were deprived of their living would not stoop so low. Author gives a comprehensive account of the culture or lack of it of the Galle Face Protesters.

Thoradeniya bludgeons the arm-chair critics who theorised on the Galle Face Protest with articles under whimsical titles like Mirihana Moment and Movement” and United We Stand”. A vivid description of the theorist including his pedigree is given leaving no room for mistaking the identity of the theorist. Another such theorist is taken to task, an ex-High Commissioner, who has accused the security forces of setting fire to the bus at Mirihana. Author identifies ten groups of such theorists who attempted to valorise the Galle Face Protesters and he also identifies the commonalities among these theorists. This chapter of the book has some very important facts about the anti-national, misguided, rootless groups who operate under various legends like Kuppi Collective/Talks”.

In the chapter titled Galle Face Protests and how Operation 2.0 was Foiled” the author briefly traces the history of the JVP insurrections and then he clearly explains the strategy of the JVP in hijacking the so-called Aragalaya” and attempting to capture state power. May 9^th was the dress rehearsal for the real revolution” that was to follow. How meticulous preparations were carried out for the arson attacks by the Helmet Brigades” is vividly described. Molotov cocktails were available to be thrown into Prime Minister’s residence; who has the knowhow to make those bombs” the author asks. The reader has memories of the 1971 and 1989 insurrections and he knows. Author explains what 2.0 means, an advancement on 1.0, in other words a bigger event than May 9^th version.

Thoradeniya analyses the failure of the JVP to capitalize on the economic crisis and the resultant suffering of the people. He makes reference to the repeated failures of the JVP in the past. The author gives eight reasons for the failure of the JVP and the main reason is that the JVP has not developed their political links with the masses well enough to succeed in any upheaval they launch. This was evident in all their insurrections and in the attempt to capture power in 2022.

In the chapter titled Ex-President in Retrospect….” the book looks at the reasons for GR’s failure to take action against the protesters who were slandering him in filth, stamp his authority endowed by 6.9 million voters, and chase away the rioters. Dealing with the various theories put forward by various writers the author says he was trapped by the US. On the question whether GR was a dictator the author disagrees saying that GR was a practitioner of abdicracy as opposed to autocracy. Well GR’s term was too short to make a judgement; however, it was evident that he was vacillating in the face of grave provocation and challenge to his authority. His inaction, particularly when Hirunika was protesting and besieging, would have sent wrong signals to all those who were plotting his ouster and also the security forces. The author sympathetically analyses the shortcomings of Gota and answers the question whether GR was a politician. Author asks the question why the security forces on their own initiative did not act against the rioters when the very existence of the state was at risk. Well they finally did act when the Parliament was attacked.  

Author thoughtfully has included a chapter on what protesters and politicians should know about systems, systems theory and types of change. The Marxist view on these matters are dealt in detail. Sacrilegious behaviour of the protesters, insulting Buddhism and its sacred symbols under the very eyes of a prominent Buddhist monk who visited the site regularly should be an eye opener if nothing else is and be aware of the peril the country may face due to the action of these revolutionists” who have attempted to grab state power for the third time.

Thoradeniya in his comprehensive analysis of the Galle Face Protest analyses MP Wimal Weerawansa’s book Nine; The Hidden Story”. Weerawansa’s book reveals lesser known important facts. For instance, the reason why the army trucks parked near the Galle Face Protest site were suddenly moved out. The US Ambassador at this stage of proceedings were calling the shots. She called this book pure fiction.

Thoradeniya draws parallels between the Galle Face Protest and other similar phenomena that took place in foreign lands, in a comparative study, such as the Arab Spring”, Iranian women protesters, Brasilia in Brazil and Andean Mountains in Peru supplying much valuable information to the reader.

All in all Sena Thoradeniya’s book titled, Galle Face Protest; Systems Change or Anarchy? with the cover page depicting a rioter climbing on to the statue of former Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranayake to blind fold him with a black cloth, is indeed a must read for all Sri Lankans who love their country and would rise up against any adversary without hesitation.