RANJITH SOYSA

Of late, some of the members of Sinhala community are receiving step motherly treatment from the racist Tamil politicians as well as the local administrations and in some instances from the  Police services too. The discriminatory policies impacting Sinhala villagers in Kokkilai bay area and Divulapthana in the East are being discussed regularly in the social media but unfortunately have failed to attract the attention of the main print and electronic media.

The Sinhala villagers living in Kokklai bay area having settled in these locations after the racial disturbances about 70 years ago still are not recognized by the local administration as some of them do not have the right to vote and many of them are living in lands with temporary permits even though they have fulfilled the conditions of permanent residency in the districts, The racist politicians have been interfering and influencing the district administrations to continue the unfortunate situation in which the Sinhala villagers are treated differently to all others living in the area. It is indeed unfair to refuse to provide them with basic human rights when the Government is bending over backwards to claim ownership of the concept of reconciliation.

Similarly, some of the Sinhala villages, in the East are targeted by the big business minded and racist Tamil politicians in the attempts to drive away the peasant Sinhala settlers who have been again living in these area for more than 70 years after they were at the receiving end of LTTE terror groups and having forced to leave their traditional villages. Suddenly, the regional administration under the cover of clearing Mahaveli land area began to engage in a process of ethnic cleansing by opening the agricultural plots of the farmers for thousands of cattle. While vast land area is developed by big land owners of Tamil origin they are compelling the Sinhala small landowners to handover their small plots to the cattle! The village, Digampthana is a classic example in which villagers are fighting for their very existence.

We have noted that the President and his political followers are attempting to strike a deal with Tamil expatriates with the expectation of investment capital and their obvious preference at this stage is not the basic HR of the poor Sinhala villagers in the North and the East. BUT we warn the Government that their policy of appeasement of the racist Tamil politics at the expense of basic HR of the beleaguered Sinhala poor people is to break out of bounds.

RANJITH SOYSA

Chanaka Bandarage

Open up Expressways for Most Traffic

Last week, it took a friend of mine 4 ½ hours to reach the Negambo’s Kochcchikade bridge from Colombo. This is insane. He said there was bumper to bumper traffic all throughout. At the same time the Katunayake Expressway – built after spending billions of rupees, had been empty.

This is also the case in  Galle /Hambanthota Expressway. Basically, it is empty – very few vehicles ply on it; especially beyond Mathara until Mattala. But the Galle Road is always chockablock full, up to the Benthota Bridge (and sometimes beyond).

Only about 20% of the country’s population – those who own a car/vehicle reap the benefit of the Expressways. A few luxury buses (who charge a higher fare) are allowed to carry passengers on Expressways; meaning the poor who does intercity travel on ordinary buses are excluded from using the Expressways.

Motorcycles (including scooters), three wheelers and InterCity Buses comprise more than 60% of Sri Lanka’s registered motorised vehicles.  These three categories are excluded from the Expressways.

The fact that Sri Lanka’s Expressways are confined only to high income earners is a clear anomaly.

This is discriminatory – all people are paying off the massive foreign debts borrowed to build the Expressways.

In the night, the Expressways are like ghost towns, they are totally empty. This is not so in developed countries. They are busy all the time.

Surely, the volume of traffic on our Expressways is insufficient.

Thus, the revenue that the government receives from them is less.

On the other hand, the roads that feed the Expressways (ie, High Level Road, Galle Road, Kandy Road, Old (Avissawella) Road, Negambo Road etc) are  jam-packed with vehicles especially with three wheelers, motorbikes and InterCity buses (poor man’s vehicles).  They should be allowed to ply on the Expressways.

Yes, Expressways must be opened up for these vehicles (the 3 categories mentioned in the above paragraph).

This could be carefully done as a Pilot Project for 3 months. If successful, the arrangement should be made permanent.

Allowing three wheelers, motorbikes and InterCity buses to ply on the expressways mean the Expressways will receive sufficient volume of vehicles. Not a single vehicle has been imported to the country in 3 years. So, there is relatively less vehicles on our roads now. But, once the import restriction is lifted, new vehicles will flow in. 

The system suggested herein is healthy for the government coffers, as due to it the Expressways will start receiving massive new revenue. Most importantly, this will be a major solution to the country’s nightmarish traffic problem. The traffic on the main arterial roads will be significantly reduced.

True some of the poor man’s vehicles may not be able to travel at the maximum speed of 100 km per hour, but do we really need to maintain such a high-speed limit? The most important issues are the cutting down of vehicular traffic on main roads and utilising Expressways to their maximum potential.  

In Sri Lanka, we are a small nation. It is possible to reach any destination by road within a relatively short period (say 4 -6 hours). Like other countries we do not travel thousands of kms in one trip.

Rather than the speed, having a smooth flow of traffic on Expressways is the most important factor. 

Because there are no traffic lights on Expressways, all the vehicles would travel smoothly on them – not at the current high speed though, but at a moderate speed.

Say, a maximum speed limit of  50 km per hour is set for three wheelers and scooters, and  70 km per hour for all other vehicles; we would be able to create a Win/Win situation.

During very busy periods (April New Year, Christmas holidays) the three wheelers and motorbikes could largely be confined to the left lane only or their access to the Expressways could be  totally curtailed.

Some may laugh at this proposition – that to allow motorcycles, 3 wheelers and inter city buses to ply on Expressways; only a bald, brave, visionary leader would embark on such a move. Lee Kwan Yu was not scared to ban chewing gum in Singapore (to maintain clean streets and public transport).

Of course car owners (especially the rich) will strongly oppose this suggestion – as they would not be able to drive at breakneck speed, and that they will have to share the Expressways with poor man’s vehicles.

Due to bumper to bumper traffic in all other roads, everyone suffers significantly currently.

A good leader will take decisions considering the best interests of the country.

In regards to Australia and New Zealand, motorcycles and intercity buses are allowed to run on their Expressways and they do not have three wheelers. Even push cyclists, huge container lorries are allowed on their Expressways. These two countries have only banned certain land vehicles (like tractors) and pedestrians from entering the expressways. Their Expressways are always busy (24/7) and earn terrific incomes for the governments.  The situation in most western countries is similar. They build their highways for all peoples, not just to a privileged few.

Light Rail

There is the talk that the government is again keen on building the Light Rail system from Malabe to Fort via Borella (Stage 1).  For this, they are seeking funds from Japan. It is possible that Japan may approve a soft loan.

True, this route has massive vehicular traffic. In any busy time, it takes about 10 – 15 minutes for a vehicle on Cotta Road side to cross Borella junction and reach Maradana Road side. Anyone would agree that this is insane.

It is also true that Light Rail can travel uninterruptedly above the ground; but that does not mean that it can solve Colombo’s traffic problem.

Light Rail has failed to solve traffic problems in Bangkok, Kuala Lampur and Tunis.

Parts of Malabe to Fort  roads are very narrow, especially in Cotta Road; the writer believes that Light Rail in some areas will run single track on both ways, for example around the Ayurveda junction and Welikada flyover. Then, this would significantly reduce the number of Light Rail cars that can be operated. This means Light Rail will not be able to cater to a very large number of people.

Light Rail intends to acquire lots of land, including private land; but these are highly congested areas. And, they are very valuable land.  The owners will no doubt put up stern fights against the acquisitions. Simply, there is hardly any privately owned space available in Stage 1 level for specific road widening.

As there will be lots of underground digging involved, it will take a long time to complete Stage 1. Those who reside in those areas will suffer significantly until the work is fully completed.

Proponents of Light Rail say that private car users will start using it; hence Colombo’s vehicular traffic will be reduced. It is difficult to agree with this. Empirical evidence suggests that those who are addicted to cars will continue to use them; they will not give up the addiction easily. The same rationale applies to motorcycle/scooter riders.

No doubt, Light Rail will have passengers, but they would not be much. Majority of them will be existing bus commuters; not the car and motorbike drivers.

What Light Rail would do is to take over some of the existing bus loads (in this Pilot Project route, about 95% is private buses, SLCTB is only about 5%). This means if Light Rail is to reduce Colombo’s traffic, that would only be in relation to reducing some bus operations. Is it worth spending such a lot of money then?

The writer invites readers to examine carefully  – should we improve the existing public bus and rail transport system or create the Light Rail?

All would agree that the first proposition is good and will save us lots of money.

This question compels us to examine Sri Lanka’s especially Colombo’s omnibus transport system:

To improve the bus transport, the government must take full charge of the operations. Currently private bus operators run the show.

In Colombo there are hardly any SLCTB buses being run. All the lucrative routes like 102, 103, 138, 154, 177 are in the hands of the public bus operators. Basically they have a larger say in determining the number of buses running on routes, issuing route permits, time keeping and preparing bus timetables.

The private bus operators want to make maximum profits. They would not like more buses on the routes. Fewer buses mean more opportunity to sardine-pack. Then, of course, more money for them.

Sadly this is what is happening today. The politicians may not know this reality, as they travel in luxury surrounded by bodyguarded vehicles.

The politicians ‘fly’ on our roads bypassing all traffic, sometimes even using Police sirens.

Basically, the private bus operators have the complete freehand to do whatever they want; the authorities keep a blind eye.

The private bus operators detest SLTB buses running in their routes. As there are less passengers, they do not want to run buses in the night, say after 730 pm,. This has also adversely affected the economy.

This is also the main reason why there are less people on streets at night. Sri Lankan cities have little night life, and this is one main reason for same. Not everyone has money to travel in three wheelers and taxis.

What a good, caring government must do is rather than spending billions of public funds on a seemingly useless Light Rail project, to improve the SLTB/private bus network, and also the trains. Rather than rickety old buses that run on lorry chassis, comfortable, automatic, A/C, buses must be introduced (like in Singapore and Kuala Lampur). 

In peak hours Paris/London/Melbourne, a suburban train leaves in every 2  5 minutes. There, people travel in comfort; most of the time they have a seat. In peak hours at Fort Station, a train leaves on the main/coastal lines in every 30 – 40 minutes. Hence, the enormously jampacked trains. About 65% of our commuters travel standing.

Why cannot the CGR introduce additional trains at peak hours?

This is not a big task (they want to see people suffering?).

To streamline the omnibus transport, the power and control that the private bus operations currently have must be taken away from them. It must firmly be in the  hands of the government.

In the current context, this is very difficult to achieve. Why? Because we do not have leaders who genuinely love the masses. Most of them are in the private bus owners’ payroll.

As stated before, we have narrow roads/streets in Sri Lanka, especially in Colombo. Most were built during the colonial period. The buses that we have are very large. They are too big for the roads/streets. That is the main reason for huge traffic jams and the large number of road accidents. The buses use loud horns unnecessarily. The Police does not take action.

The authorities must consider introducing smaller buses, like 26/18 seater buses, in some routes.  This will be in addition to the existing big buses. A blend of big and small buses is the best way forward. Small buses are ideal for night time transport (then, the 103 Fort to Borella, 138 Fort to Homagama can be able to run until midnight). 

Sri Lanka is one country where public transport is run solely based on profitability. This problem arose as a result privatising the public transport (in early 1980s).

They say that Mr MH Mohomed killed the CTB.

Public transport must be people focused. This is how they are run in developed countries.

Buses must be freely available at all times.

During CTB days buses were run until late nights regardless of whether there were passengers or not. There were 930 pm movies in cinema halls those days.  This is because there were CTB buses available for people to commute after watching late night movies.

The rule of thumb is that when a bus (or a train) is run regularly for a long period of time, even if it is in the night, that route will start picking passengers. Eventually there will be sufficient people to travel even late night.

What is required is strictly adhearing to the timetable.

As they can be jampacked, private bus operators like big buses. They are money making machines.

Their only focus is to increase passenger numbers. They pay scant regard to passenger interests/comforts. The fact that they cause huge delays to passengers is immaterial to them.  They know there is no one to check/complain to.

Private buses (not SLTB) when running, remain stationary at bus halts for extra-ordinarily long times. See this example:

The writer was informed by a bus commuter that her 178 private bus from Narahenpita to Mattakkuliya stops and wait at some bus halts for over 10 minutes. In Kosgashandiya, it stays stationary for about 15 minutes to pick commuters. This means the whole journey which should take about 45 minutes could take about 90 minutes.

As they have no other alternative, people have become used to this rort. People suffer in silence. The massive time wastages adversely affect the economy too.

Due to lack of sunlight the ground underneath the Light Rail concrete slab is always dark; also that valuable area is unproductive (note areas under Colombo flyovers – Dematagoda, Nugegoda, Dehiwala; under the Katunayake expressway in Ragama; under the Light Rail tracks in Bangkok/Tunis). Light Rail introduces a new darkness to the environment; the brightness in the townships will end.

Light Rail will not solve Colombo’s appalling traffic problem. The only solution is to where possible widen existing roads, build new roads (underground/overhead roads/flyovers should be considered), ban parking on main roads (build multistorey/underground car parks) and significantly improve the passenger bus/rail transport (encourage as much as possible people to give up cars/motorbikes). As indicated before, introduction of small buses, in addition to existing large buses, is a must. Any opposition by private bus operators must be disregarded.

Metro as opposed to Light Rail:

Instead of Light Rail, an underground Metro rail system like in New Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Kyiv is ideal for Colombo (why drive a Maruti when the opportunity provides for a BMW).

The advantage of Metros is that they are linked with the existing railway system. The writer believes that a complete/very comprehensive  underground Metro rail project in Colombo will be about 20 times more expensive than the full Light Rail project. But, in the long run it is much better.

Meticulous digging of the surface to create a very elaborate underground Metro network is a humongous job.

The writer believes that electrifying our existing railway network is more important than Light Rail (at least from Fort to Polgahawela and Fort to Panadura). Since Independence, governments have indicated this but no one had the audacity to undertake it. The benefits of train electrification are enormous. In South Asia, only India has electric trains. 

End

In summary, rather than Light Rail, the government should utilise money to improve the existing public transport system. Light Rail cannot stop Colombo’s traffic problem.  An underground Metro is much better.

At the moment our bus/train services are appalling. Just like in the 1970s and 80s, people are still traveling in jampacked, old buses/trains. Some people die after falling off the footboards.

These are hallmarks of a chronic 3^rd world society.

There is no incentive for vehicle owners to switch to public transport.

The public transport commuters undergo untold hardships; an increasing number of them are women. They still suffer sexual harassment in jampacked buses and trains. Special buses and train compartments must be allocated for female commuters.

MIKE WHITNEY 

Yemen has said it would stop the blockade of Israel-bound ships as soon as sufficient food, water and medicine are allowed to enter Gaza. Guess that’s asking too much.” Elizabeth Murray@elizabethmurra

Yemen’s Houthi militia has shown how a small army can take on the American Empire and win. They have shown how courage, resolve and commitment to principle can act as a force-multiplier allowing a much weaker military to ‘punch above its weight’. They’ve also shown that a few well-placed missiles in key locations on the world’s most critical shipping lanes, can send tremors across the global economy and shake the rules-based order” to its foundations. In short, the Houthis have shown that David can bring down Goliath without breaking a sweat, provided that David maintains his perch along the Bab-al-Mandab Strait.

Here’s what’s going on: The Houthis occupy an area along the narrowest part of the Red Sea that is the most important shipping corridor in the world. It is responsible for 12% of international trade and almost one-third of global container traffic.” When the movement of ships is disrupted along this waterway, insurance premiums skyrocket, prices on retail merchandise rise, and oil prices go through the roof. That is why western powers are committed to keeping these shipping lanes open at all times whatever the cost. Here’s some background from CNN:

Full Report

The Houthis Have Biden By the Shorthairs, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review

Hint: it has to do with imperialism. BT’s Kei Pritsker explains the crucial role Israel plays in US domination of the Middle East and geopolitics.

Anup Sinha -a security and strategic affairs researcher and freelance columnist

The upcoming national election is now a hot topic in Bangladesh. There is no end to people’s enthusiasm around the upcoming 12th National Assembly elections which is scheduled to held on January 7, 2024. Out of the 44 parties registered in the Election Commission, 27 parties are participating in the elections this time. The participation of 27 parties actually implies a participatory, competitive and contested election. There is no pressure, many parties have come to the polls with independent decisions. It is clear that the 12th National Assembly elections will become competitive and contested. Already there are candidates of 27 registered parties including Awami League, Jatiya Party and many independent candidates in 300 seats. Therefore, it is visible that there is no shortage of people’s enthusiasm around the elections. In 300 seats, the total number of candidates from various parties and independents stands at 1,896. Trinamool BNP and BNM are in the election. Meanwhile, multiple independent candidates are electing in all the constituencies.

The Election Commission is preparing to complete the polls properly to fulfill the country’s constitutional obligation. The President has authorized the deployment of the army to conduct the elections in a peaceful manner. Already 66 returning officers and 592 assistant returning officers have been appointed. Voting will be held in about 42,000 centers. The EC has also finalized the constituency wise voter list.

This election is significant for several reasons. The 12th National Assembly election is adding a different dimension to the scenario of various incidents and dramas. Since the exercise of suffrage is essential to the institutionalization of democracy and constitutions, without elections there is no transition to a modern welfare state. So common people participate in voting, making the election competitive and competitive is now everyone’s goal. People of the country will participate in this election spontaneously. The election is going through all obstacles. That’s the big thing. That’s why, upcoming 7 January 2024 national election crucial to democratic development in Bangladesh.

By nature, Bengalis are a celebratory nation, so there is no end to the enthusiasm of this nation even around elections. Elections are also important for the development and progress of the country. In this case, the decision to boycott the election is considered against the country and the people. It is regrettable that not only boycotts, but also resort to arson-murder-killing-terror and anarchy to prevent elections.

We have seen police killings in broad daylight on highways, burning of passenger buses, which is never acceptable in a civilized society. But BNP continues to wreak havoc with this sudden demand. Their demand is the so-called caretaker government. But the Supreme Court of the country struck down the caretaker government with the consent of the Fifteenth Amendment (May 10, 2011) and all major parties.

Now there is no option to opt through the caretaker government structure for constitutional obligations. Because it will weaken the obligation of the constitution. Therefore, where the entire nation is moving forward along the election roadmap, BNP is gradually falling behind and becoming isolated. The general population is peaceful, they do not like anything destructive. Therefore, the weapon of strike blockade has also become blunt.

Analyzing the history, it can be seen that the election has acted as an indicator of national awakening and directional change of this country. For example, the victory of Haque-Bhasani-Suhrawardy in the ‘United Front’ elections of 1954 was a blow against the Pakistani colonial regime.

Bengali self-identity played a role as a regulator of identification and individual identification. The participation and absolute victory of Bangladesh Awami League under the leadership of Bangabandhu in the 1970 elections prepared the direct stage for the liberation war.

Victory in the 1970 elections under the leadership of Bangabandhu could not be called a separatist movement by the outside world. Therefore, this boycott of BNP cannot be accepted as a wise decision.

The world is playing another geopolitical game with the upcoming elections. The US is brazenly interfering in our elections. This unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of an independent and sovereign state cannot be accepted in any way. America is threatening sanctions with baseless fanciful allegations of subtle rigging. But we are an independent sovereign nation. This is our freedom that we got in exchange for the blood of 3 million martyrs. We are not beholden to anyone; we will make our own decisions.

Our country will not run according to the prescription of any foreign power. The government system will change as per rules. We have a constitution, on the basis of which the country will move forward. Bangladesh is now moving forward along the development roadmap.

We are transitioning from a low-income country to a middle-income country. Sheikh Hasina announced the outline of Smart Bangladesh by 2041. Bangladesh is going to reach the level of a developed country by 2039.

The next election will surely be meaningful. The people of the country will exercise their right to vote by removing all obstacles, the elections will be fair and participatory. The continuity of the country’s constitution and democracy will remain intact. This is desirable.

Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in food. Garments and manpower sector are increasing foreign exchange earnings. Bangladesh ranks second in shrimp export in the world. Also, another sector of Bangladesh’s foreign exchange earnings is peacekeeping missions.

The gradual development and achievement of Bangladesh is the reason for the burning of some-anti liberation forces. So, these anti-development forces want to take Bangladesh backward. They have not brought any welfare to this country and will not bring it in the future. People of the country need to be careful and aware about them.

The progress that Bangladesh has made is evident in terms of visible development. We have built Padma Setu with our own money. Besides, metro rail in Dhaka, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman tunnel, railway line up to Cox’s Bazar, elevated expressway etc. are unique achievements of the government.

Payra seaport, Matarbari power plant, Rampal power plant and many more mega projects are waiting for inauguration in near future. These achievements are the product of good governance. On the other hand, the government has provided electricity to the rural areas of the country.

The country is gradually moving towards digitalization. The labor market export rate is increasing day by day. allowance, widow allowance etc. Housing is ensured for every homeless citizen through Asharyan scheme. In order to continue these developments, it is essential to maintain continuity in the governance of the country.

Some opposition coalitions know that they cannot come to power through normal constitutional processes, so they want to destabilize the country by resorting to subterfuge. They are muddying the waters to come to power through the back door.

By boycotting the 2014 elections, BNP has become isolated from the people. This time, the plan to boycott the election will take BNP further away from the people. Mandates are a natural way to change power, but some opposition coalitions seek to manipulate elections through so-called caretaker governments to come to power.

In the past we have seen elections through four caretaker government systems, is it 100% neutral? No one can be impartial except the mentally retarded. Elections under a caretaker government are not guaranteed to be 100% neutral.

Incidentally, where there is an Election Commission, why the question of a caretaker government arises – in the United States of America or India, no one disagrees with the change of power with the Election Commission, there is no question. So why do we talk so much?

The real thing is the practice and implementation of democracy. Don’t they want our society to become more civilized and sophisticated according to the rules of democracy?

And there are examples of elections without some opposition parties in various countries in Asia and Africa. And here independent candidates with 27 parties are also a force. So, the next election will surely be meaningful. The people of the country will exercise their right to vote by removing all obstacles, the elections will be fair and participatory. The continuity of the country’s constitution and democracy will remain intact. This is desirable.

Even in the midst of various problems and crises, including arson, the country will move forward by arranging this inclusive the election. All concerned must behave responsibly so that the elections to be held on 7 January 2024 can be free, fair and impartial. A fair election can give a new direction to the nation. Prevention of corruption, increasing absolute tolerance, practicing democracy, strengthening the electoral system, accountable public administration, effective parliament – above all, the new government should focus on fulfilling the public expectations.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Wijeyadasa pushes for suspension of Parate executions:

‘Country paying heavy price for not having proper tax regime, favourable treatment to some’

Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, has assured the local business community, troubled by parate executions, that laws will be brought in to regulate the practice. The Justice Minister said he would work with Health Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana to convince the Cabinet-of-Ministers to change the law.

 The assurance was given at a meeting held at the Jasmin Hall, BMICH, where the former President of the Bar Association explained how the law meant to recover unpaid loans and interest thereon was brazenly abused.

 The gathering was told that approximately 1,400 businesses were already in distress, especially in Colombo, due to the one-sided swift action taken by banks to recover unpaid loans by seizing and auctioning mortgaged properties without taking into consideration the political-economic-social crisis caused by the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis.

 Minister Rajapakse said that either the existing law, the Banking Act no 30 of 1988, had to be overhauled or a new Act introduced to prevent the further deterioration of the economy.

 Parate execution can be carried out only by the licensed commercial banks of Sri Lanka.

Following Dr. Rajapakse’s declaration, the Sri Lanka Banks Association (SLBA) stressed that the banks exercised what the Association called their legally-enshrined right to parate execution as a last resort. The Association declared that the overarching objective was to protect depositors’ funds that had been lent to borrowers.

 The Association emphasised that the parate execution remedy is aimed at recovering mortgaged assets from willful defaulters and businesses that were no longer viable.

 The SLBA, which represents all the licensed banks in the country, pointed out that banks have extended moratoriums on debt repayment for a long period exceeding 48 months in some cases, and that in instances of willful default by borrowers, the banks owe a duty to their depositors’ whose funds are at risk, to recover the debts overdue and minimize the losses on loans granted.

Legal sources pointed out that the association never bothered to issue statements when huge amounts of money recklessly lent and overdue from top end borrowers were written off as bad debts.

 Minister Rajapakse told Friday’s meeting that before the change of government, in 1977, only the Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and State Mortgage and Investment Bank were empowered to carry out parate executions. However, subsequently private banks and financial institutions, having made representations to the then President, secured parliamentary approval to join the club.

 The government disregarded the concerns expressed by the Bar Association at that time, the Justice Minister said, alleging there had been many instances of misuse at the expense of the clients experiencing financial difficulties.

 Valuable properties that had been seized under parate execution  had been bought for a song and then sold keeping a huge profit margin, the Justice Minister said, asserting that a deeply flawed law caused injustice.

 Dr. Rajapakse warned unless the continuing manipulation of the law wasn’t stopped through an amendment to the existing Act or by introducing a new Act, the banks, too, would have to face far reaching consequences. The significant depletion of industrial and commercial borrowers under the dire current circumstances and significant weakening of the client base as a whole could have a negative impact on the entire banking system, the Justice Minister warned.

 The President’s Counsel also questioned ‘irrevocable power of attorney’ that lenders obtain from borrowers over mortgaged properties while declaring his intention to bring in necessary amendments to restore public confidence in the system. The Minister pointed out that the ‘irrevocable power of attorney’ couldn’t be done away with. This is wrong and not practiced anywhere in the world,” the outspoken Minister said.

 The government couldn’t forget that a section of the business community had been subjected to such unfair practices at a time the people were burdened with taxes and faced further increased levies, such as VAT from January 1, 2024. How could one do business under such difficult circumstances, the Dr. Rajapakse asked?

 The MP, who had first entered Parliament, back in 2004, on the then PA National List, found fault with successive governments for failing to adopt a proper tax policy. Declaring that once adopted a particular tax regime should be in place for at least a decade, lawmaker Rajapakse pointed out how the country suffered for want of proper tax strategy.

 The Minister told The Island that the way governments had handled the economy was questionable and those responsible owed the country an explanation and apology. Dr. Rajapakse questioned the utter failure on the part of the Central Bank to recover the loans granted to various failed finance companies. I raised this issue in Parliament recently but unfortunately those responsible are yet to take tangible measures in this regard,” Dr. Rajapakse said.

 Referring to a declaration he made in Parliament on November 15, this year, Dr. Rajapakse said that Mercantile Credit, one of the beneficiaries of government grants, was yet to pay back Rs. 30,000 million it owed to the Central Bank.

 The Minister said so during the debate on the Second Reading of Budget 2024.

 It is a massive borrowing by a single entity that is more than what his Ministry’s vote amounts to,” Dr. Rajapakse said. Those behind the scheme hadn’t been punished, the Minister charged.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Kandy, Dec 24 (Daily Mirror)- A suspected Covid-19 death was reported from the National Hospital in Kandy yesterday (23).

According to sources, the victim is a 65-year-old man from the Atgala area of Gampola.

The individual was initially admitted with breathing difficulties and a lung infection, and a post-mortem PCR test confirmed his Covid-19 infection, according to sources from National Hospital, Kandy.

This incident marks a notable event as it is reported after a considerable period of relative calm since the conclusion of the Ccvid-19 pandemic. 

Meanwhile, Prof. Chandima Jeewandara, Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, recently said that with the uptick of cases of influenza-like illnesses in Sri Lanka, JN.1 — an Omicron sub-lineage may be seen in the community.

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka received over 1.4 million tourists by the end of the third week of December, the latest statistics released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) show.

The SLTDA weekly report on tourist arrivals released on Saturday shows that 1,404,998 tourists have arrived by Dec. 21, 2023.

According to the report, 128,047 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka between Dec. 1 and Dec. 21.

In 2022, Sri Lanka only received 719,978 tourists for the whole year, the SLTDA data showed.

India, Russia, Britain, Germany, Australia, and China are among the top source markets in December.

Tourism is one of Sri Lanka’s top foreign revenue generators. In late November, the government waived visa fees for nationals from China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan to boost tourism in the coming season.

Source: Xinhua

Courtesy Adaderana

Sri Lanka Police together with the Police Special Task Force (STF) has arrested over 13,000 suspects over drugs related crimes since the launch of ‘Operation Yukthiya’ on 17 December up to now, the police said.

Police Media Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa stated that accordingly, a total of 13,666 individuals were arrested for drugs related crimes while 1,097 of them have been sent for rehabilitation.

මෑත කාලයේ හමු වූ විශාලතම ගංජා වගාව ”තාත්තයි පුතයි, කිසිම රැකියාවක් කරන්නෙ නෑ සර්…’

Courtesy Hiru News

The Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, highlighted the significant improvement in the country’s foreign reserves under the leadership of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. According to Minister Nanayakkara, the foreign reserve was depleted when the current government assumed office, but it has successfully rebounded, reaching a noteworthy USD 3.6 billion.

>Minister Nanayakkara underscored the challenges faced by the government in making decisions that resonate with the public, emphasizing that the pursuit of popular choices often led to setbacks for the nation. He pointed out that despite the inherent difficulties, the government has managed to overcome obstacles and steer the country towards economic stability.

The minister’s remarks were made during the “Collective Path to a Stable Country “media briefing held at the Presidential Media Centre today (22).

Minister Manusha Nanayakkara further commented Politicians are often expected to make decisions that resonate with the public, as popular choices tend to garner widespread support. However, there had a pattern of groups including us, protesting against these kinds of popular decisions. But unfortunately, such kind of approaches has led the country into economic turmoil.<br /><br />Even the opposition cannot escape criticism, as they have protested against decisions aimed at national development, dismissing them as mere populism. It is essential to acknowledge that such actions contribute to the country&rsquo;s economic downfall.<br /><br />In our case, when we assumed office, the country faced a severe economic crisis with no foreign reserves. Expatriate workers possessed more assets than the Central Bank&rsquo;s dollar reserves. Despite the challenges, the government successfully increased foreign reserves to USD 3.6 billion, preventing a collapse due to a lack of dollars for imports.<br /><br />Upon taking office, rampant money printing had led to inflation. We addressed this issue and stabilized the exchange rate, reducing the value of the dollar from Rs. 365 to 320. This prevented people from resorting to the black market for foreign currency transactions, ensuring accessibility for education and international transactions.<br /><br />The government also tackled high-interest rates, lowering them from over 25% to a single-digit figure within a year and a half. This allowed the country to secure loans from banks and foster economic growth.<br /><br />In the past, the country experienced negative economic growth, but now we have achieved positive growth. The agriculture, industry and tourism sectors have all seen significant improvements compared to the previous year.<br /><br />Efforts have been made to address public demands for systemic change. Tax collection has been streamlined, ensuring that everyone pays their fair share. Emigrants are also contributing significantly through substantial taxes paid in their host countries. Building a country cannot solely rely on tax concessions, as witnessed in the &lsquo;Samrudhi&rsquo; initiative.<br /><br />The government has initiated operations against the underworld and drug trafficking, although these efforts are criticized as mere media shows. Numerous policy decisions have been implemented to bring about the desired systemic changes. A program emphasizing respect for labour has been launched and the country is undergoing a digital transformation

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 17-23 December 2023

A ‘US Special Representative for Racial Equity & Justice’ was actually allowed to enter Sri Lanka this week to meet with Indian Tamils in the Sinhala highlands stolen for Unilever’s slavish plantations. But not to worry, in the midst of the US mega massmurder in occupied Palestine and in Yemen, the whites are still paying some of us coolies to kneel before sermons on ‘human rights’, corruption (how corrupt is stealing Palestinian land?), carbon footprints & green transitions (how green is a precision bunker-buster?).

     Indeed, this ee Focus also examines the role Special Economic Zones & Free Trade Zones have played in making Sri Lankans accede to ‘excluding or modifying the application of parts of national law in defined geographic areas…’ Welcome to Eelam Plantation-Styleee…

• Vat! What? Whack! – The bribed buffer classes (some call them the ‘middle class’) are sharing memes & videos warning of escalated muggings of decent citizens (returning bags-full from supermarkets), as well as home invasions, car hijackings, etc. Welcome to Pope Gregory’s 2024. Bring on the Year of the Dragon! And on to Buddhist year 2567 in April, and what shall it portend?

     Those aragalists who demanded ‘Go to the IMF, Stupid!’ are seeking asylum perhaps in a US embassy or English High Commission safe house. Electricity hikes, the World Bank’s Government Advisor Shantha Devarajan promises, are to get the air-conditioned ‘rich’ to pay their fair share. Yet, ‘over 500,000 red notices’ have been ‘issued to households’ over late electricity bills (see ee Workers). And then this week, the Central Bank Governor’s speech writers at the IMF office in the Central Bank, made him invoke another dead US President to declare ‘inflation’ as ‘public enemy number one’. He also announced:

*

‘Any future government too has to align itself with the IMF agreement,

if not, it would amount to a breach of agreements

with external & internal creditors, inclusive of the IMF’

Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe

(see ee Economists, Future Governments)

*

The Governor is responding to his critics that a future Sri Lankan government would have to ‘significantly amend’ the new Central Bank Act! This new Act (demanded by the US Congress) aims at preventing any attempt at investment in local industry (see ee Focus). The genie of JR Jayewardene who wished ‘to roll up the electoral map’ must turn on the current Central Bank Governor and his titanic crew.

The dangling of several million dollars by the US-controlled World Bank and ADB, followed Parliament’s decision to increase taxes (aka VAT). The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) this week also eased the selling of national enterprises (SoEs) on a new Catalyst Board (see ee Finance). The supine media plays their part, reporting worker opposition to the sale of national assets, only headlining a demand for bonuses etc. These incentives for US bribes by selling off the country will ensure the ‘manufacture of consent’, and will provoke considerable class warfare as well…

*

• Then-president JR Jayewardene (aka Yankee Dicky) in September 1982 declared in Anuradhapura his intention, ‘To roll up the electoral map of Sri Lanka for 10 years’. Jayewardene was then elected to a fresh 6-year term as President in October 1982. A nonexistent ‘Naxalite’ threat was soon evoked ‘to orchestrate the biggest election fraud – the infamous referendum of 22 December 1982, which introduced unparalleled ‘state sponsored thuggery, hooliganism and mafia-style violence & lawlessness’ (recalled Anura Bandaranaike).

     The UNP-dominated Parliament’s term was due to expire in July 1983. The rest as they say is history. But not quite. It still mocks us in the face. The first time, it launched the horrors of the 30-years’ war, midst the farce of teledramas. This time they are dishing out more of the same.

     The merchant & moneylender ruling class, and its media, are therefore in the process of setting up various oppositions, acceptable and not, to push through their attempt to extend the colonial import-export plantation farce. Who will play the new Naxalites?

     Despite the IMF’s rosy panaceas and bitter elixirs, the whites are escalating genocidal war – this week at the closer mouth of the Red Sea, ignoring Yemen’s right to its waterways – to block our access to fuel (see ee Random Notes). Whatever happened to a ‘free & open Indo-Pacific’? Aney, palayan doh!

     And it is not just hot war but cold war now called hybrid warfare which is being waged on us all.

*

• Can Sun Tzu Rescue Us? asked Nathasha Gunasekera at the recent 13^th World Socialism Forum in Beijing (see ee Focus). Gunasekera suggests, socialism’s biggest challenge now is to formulate ‘a grand strategy’ to restore ‘the sovereignty of nations’. A deepening ‘imperialist assemblage’ [of god? – ee], which hinges on the financialization juggernaut, is deploying hybrid ‘indirect’ warfare – as first detailed by ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu. The future of conflict will be marked by ‘protesters’ & insurgents, as in Syria & the Ukraine, and in the orchestrated nature of the ‘Aragalaya’. In Sri Lanka, imperialist forces have infiltrated ‘intelligence, bureaucracy, academia, military, judiciary, & media’. Civil society organizations and thinktanks, journalists, military service personnel, academics & legal professionals are greased with ‘scholarships, study tours, foreign trips, local trips in exotic destinations, promotions, and even political asylum in worst case scenario’. Such bribes are of course not considered ‘corruption’. Let’s call it ‘Exxon lube’…

*

• Indeed, increased coordination between the US state machinery & their local agents is now more blatant. The US Congress last week approved the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) as part of the annual war budget! Almost simultaneously, the so-called Civil Society Initiative (funded & backed by the most genocidal forces the world has ever seen) ululated calls for ‘the inclusion of IMF identified actions’ on corruption. The IMF should know, they are – with their overpaid economists – one of the most corrupt operations in the world. The CSI Core Group indeed ‘includes’ the usual US-funded NGO suspects (see ee Random Notes).

     Those trying to understand this ‘constitutional reform’ and corruption harangue to explain the economy’s destabilization, can examine it as a continuation of the colonial import-export plantation economy by any means. Look at what the US & EU are doing in the Ukraine, which it has destroyed. The comparison of ‘roadmaps’ is most enlightening (see ee Random Notes).

*

• Who lurks behind the steady stream of exposes of pharmaceutical felonies of substandard medicines? It turns out the target is what remains of the public health system, which like the education system has been a target of a jealous rage by the World Bank & its IFC, and therefore subject to its financial shenanigans.

     This ee therefore continues examination of corporations & their NGOs, charting the corporate coup d’etat to overthrow ‘independent’ governments. Much of this information has been reproducied from Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy, by Claire Provost & Matt Kennard. However, being naif amateurs, rather than stock analysts, we have our own apprehensions about these sources. They refer to free trade zones as having to offer to investors ‘a steady supply of cheap & compliant labour’ for factories. However, for Sri Lanka, this labour is not cheap or readily compliant. They have to be cheapened and repressed to accept. The strategies used to recruit labour have involved extra-legal compunctions such as violence & bribes. The reality is in Sri Lanka, this attack is led by Unilever, one of the largest corporations in the world, which not only has captured our home market, but also controls our media… which aims to keep us stupid…

*

Sri Lanka has 2,600 sq.kms of inland freshwater bodies,

a 1,585km coastal shoreline & 517,000 sq.km

of a maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ),

host to an abundance of seafood, valuable gas, fuel, & minerals

So while the ruling merchant oligarchy accedes to the control of our seas & waterways by the latest avatars of the old colonial powers, ee Focus continues sharing the Communist Party of Sri Lanka’s Alternate Program: this week examining The Blue Economy, pointing out the state should explore industrial opportunities beyond fisheries….

*

Contents:

Hybrid Warfare Rages in Sri Lanka: Will Sun Tzu Help?

Vichara.

During the Budget debate, in his address to the Parliament the President said that the Govt.’s way is the only way. President’s way is the IMF way. But there is another way for the country. It demands a change of direction, a focus on the critical issues, resolution and courage.

The crucial cause of the economic crisis was the perpetual problem of balance of trade and the wanton borrowings to close the balance of payments gap. The ISB loans at exorbitant rates of interest during the Yahapalana government exacerbated the crisis. It was the inadequacy of foreign exchange to meet import costs and loan repayments which in the end bankrupted the country and made the populace suffer untold misery. Sri Lanka conducts its international trade in US dollars and therefore the crisis could be called a dollar crisis.

While the country is undergoing this grave economic crisis it is reported that there is an enormous amount of dollars of export proceeds not repatriated to the country. In an interview with the Aruna News Paper in December 2022, Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Minister of Justice has said inter alia that අපනයන ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ බොහෝ ගණනක් මේ රටේ සල්ලි ඉතාමත් භයානක ලෙස පිටරට රඳවාගෙන එහෙ ව්‍යාපාර කරනවා කියලා. අපේ මිනිස්සු දුක්විඳලා ලේ දහඩිය හෙළලා හම්බකරගත්ත දේපළ පිටරට යවලා පවුල් කීපයක් දෙතුන්දෙනෙක්ගේ සුඛ විහරණය වෙනුවෙන් ඒ සල්ලි එහෙ පාර්ක් කරගෙන ඉන්නවා.සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛන ඇතුව ඉදිරිපත් කළේ ඩොලර් මිලියන පනස්තුනකට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණයක් වංචනිකව රඳවා තබා ගැනීම නිසා තමයි අපේ රටේ විදේශ විනිමය අර්බුදය ආවේ. මුළු විදේශ ණය ගත්තත් ඩොලර් බිලියන පනස්දෙකයිනෙ තියෙන්නෙ. ඊට වැඩි මුදලක් මේ අවුරුදු දොළහෙ රඳවා ගෙන තියෙනවා ඒ අය. මේ අපිට සොයාගත හැකි මුදල පමණයි. නමුත් මගේ තක්සේරුව ඊට වැඩිය දෙගුණයක්. අපේ රටේ අපනයන නීති ඉතාමත් ලිහිල් කර තිබුණා. ඒ වගේම කියන්න ඕන මහ බැංකුව කියන එක අර පිටකොටුවෙ දුම්කොළ කඩයක් තරමටවත් පාලනයක් තිබුණ තැනක් නෙමෙයි.

This scam was the focus of the debate in Parliament on 23.8.23 where Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe repeated that according to a Global Integrity Report during the last 22 years export proceeds that should have been repatriated back to the country but not sent back was USD 53.5 billion.

External debt (public and private) in 2021 was U.S. dollars 54.3 billion.

(IMF Country Report No. 22/91Table 1. Sri Lanka: Selected Economic Indicators, 2019–26

A think tank of the Peradeniya University pointed out that with an expected annualised export income of USD 16.3 billion in 2022 (USD 13.3 billion in merchandise exports and USD 3 billion in services exports) the country was deprived of a staggering USD 6.8 billion in 2022 alone.

Some time back the Governor of the Central Bank appealed to exporters to repatriate export proceeds in full within the stipulated period. He did not want to bring in regulations to force them to do this on the argument that it will deter foreign investment. The Government and the Central Bank have been evasive on why no action is being taken to ensure that this money is not repatriated. They threaten to bring new legislation with heavy penalties to make exporters adhere to the regulations on repatriation of export proceeds.

The real reason why there is no action taken by the government is because of the covenant the government has signed with the IMF. The relevant conditions are in the Attachment I. to the Letter of Intent dated March 6,2023 signed by both President Wickremesinghe and the Governor of the Central Bank Nandalal Weerasinghe. in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, produced at Page 98 of the IMF Staff Report 23/116, it is stipulated at Article 21: 21.

” We will phase out the administrative measures imposed to support the balance of payments, including those introduced on an emergency basis, once conditions allow. These measures include import restrictions, exchange restrictions, multiple currency practices (MCPs), and capital flow management (CFM) measures. While the mentioned import restrictions, exchange restrictions, MCPs and CFMs could help mitigate FX shortages in the near term, we believe they should not be a substitute for the comprehensive policy package and ongoing macroeconomic adjustment. We are committed to phasing these measures out as the balance of payments stabilizes.

To this end, by June 2023, we will prepare a plan for the phased removal of these measures during the program period as we make progress with achieving macroeconomic stability, particularly with respect to the exchange rate, debt sustainability, and financial stability, improved market access.”

Reference foot note 36 of the main CFM measures introduced or tightened in 2020-2022 and currently in force include: (i) a repatriation requirement for exports of goods and services; (ii) a surrender requirement for exporters on proceeds from exports of goods; (iii) a surrender requirement for banks on purchases of export proceeds; (iv) a surrender requirement for banks on purchases of inward worker remittances; (v) suspension of outward remittances on capital transactions; (vi) restrictions on purchases of Sri Lankan ISBs by local banks”.

is incomprehensible why the IMF forced these conditions on the Sri Lanka Government and why the government agreed to them. One can understand the embarrassment in accepting these iniquitous and pro racketeer conditions and the reluctance to reveal them. Was it because if even a part of these funds were repatriated there was no role for the IMF in Sri Lanka? And was the government wanted the IMF in the country to drive it back to neo liberal policies?

Foreign Exchange is a national asset and does not belong as a matter of right to exporters. If one takes the major export of textiles and garments, which earned an export revenue of USD 5.435 billion, in 2021 it consumed roughly USD 3 billion worth on import of raw material. If one adds the consumption by the sector of the value of investment goods to this figure the total consumption of foreign exchange by the Textile and Garments sector would be around 4 billion USD which is 74 % of its export value. The major component of the balance is the contribution by the local workers.

In this context, foreign exchange should be considered public property released on trust to exporters and offenses of foreign exchange of misuse, abuse, fraud and mischief of foreign exchange should be dealt under the Law on Public Property. 

An honest government free of class deals and has the national interest at heart should be prepared to adopt strong measures to confront this problem. These delinquents have had enough time to conform to the regulations which they have flouted with impunity. It is therefore justifiable that they be taken into custody immediately and commence proceedings to confiscate their property and impose the maximum penalties prescribed in the Public Property Act including confiscation of their industries.

The same procedure should be followed with regard to illicit deposits in safe havens abroad. Unlike export proceeds stashed away in foreign countries details of the depositors and amounts are not clearly identified. Therefore, as an incentive an amnesty could be given to them to bring back the funds within a given time and place them in a special deposit in the Central Bank.

Once at least the 50 billion plus US dollars are recovered it could be used to pay off present and future commitments of foreign debts with high rates of interest. The annual saving of around 6 billion USD would provide a much-needed balance in the international trading account.

The 51.3 billion USD loot is only on export proceeds not repatriated. The Global Financial Integrity’s 2021 report had found that Sri Lanka’s importers and exporters are using bogus customs declarations to illegally move billions of US dollars out of the country. The report mentioned that the extent of this swindle amounted to USUSD 36.833 from 2009 to 2017. The plunder had increased from USD 2.650 in 2009 to 5.026 in 2017. If an average of USD 5 billion was spirited away during the next 4 years amounting to another USD20 billion, the total loss from 2009 to 2021 would be USD 50.833 billion. This is the fraud which takes place day by day at the Customs by misinvoicing with the collusion of the banks and Customs officials. MP Champika Ranawaka who had done a study on the issue revealed in the Parliament on 23.8.2023 that the loss on misinvoicing is around 20 percent. On this basis, on the total value of trade from 2018 to 2022 (5Years) of 156 billion USD -the estimated loss for the 5 years at 20% is 31 billion USD or an average loss of 6 billion dollars each year.  

Here again the application of the Public Property Act is appropriate and would bring in quick results. It is also necessary to break up the trade cartels operated by the commodity import mafia in Pettah. The CWE and STC should be reinforced and made to play a more active role in the commodity import trade.

On Trade Misinvoicing it will take some time to trace the culprits and recover the difference. It might new legislation to enable the recovery. However, if the annual leakage of around 5 billion USD is prevented the saving would improve the gap in the trade balance and more dollars could be invested on development.

That is the possible solution to the all-important dollar earnings. There is still the problem of domestic revenue. The troubles with tax collection are well known. The need for digitalization and expansion of the tax base have been repeated interminably. So much of money has been invested in the RAMIS project without much result. Tax revenue should also be considered as Public Property and tax fraud, and tax evasion should be treated under the provisions of the Public Property Act.

It would also be essential to establish special Revenue Courts to expedite decisions on prosecutions.

It is hardly necessary to mention that the menace of drugs, organized crimes and bribery and corruption be wiped out.

Now the unequivocal question is whether there is a pollical leadership in the country sincere and bold enough to follow this alternate path. It will be anathema to the government which is committed to the IMF path. SJB is both for and against the IMF solution.

But this could be the single issue to be adopted by any other political party at the next election.  

Vichara

By Garvin Karunaratne

It all happened in the Bangladesh Secretariat, three days after General Ershard took over the country in a bloodless coup on the 24 th of March 1982. The Minister for Youth Development was clamped in prison and the work of the Ministry was in jeopardy. The third in command, Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam, the Minister for Labour and Manpower evaluated the work done by the Ministry. Suddenly at the close, he realized that I was an outsider and inquired who I was and I was then introduced as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Youth Development.

What can you contribute for Bangladesh”. It was more a military command. I could have spoken in support of the youth training programmes done by the Ministry but decided otherwise. I replied.

I would like you to consider approving a new programme aimed at making the 40,000 youths who are being trained every year to be guided to become self employed.”

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest officer in the land, objected.

The Creation of self employment can never be done. The ILO of the United Nations has just folded up a self employment programme which they have been trying to establish in Tangail, Bangladesh over the past three years with a massive loss. They brought experts from all parts of the world to guide the programme but it was a total failure. The Bangladesh Treasury has no more funds to waste. The ILO are the experts. They hold the last word on employment creation.

I replied that though the ILO failed I had the experience as well as the academic qualifications, which was contested by the Secretary to the Treasury. He was adamant that I would fail. I argued with the Secretary to the Treasury explaining how I had successfully established employment projects in Sri Lanka and how I held the academic qualifications at doctoral level. The heated battle went on for over two hours. The Minister allowed the two of us to argue; he was making notes and finally commanded us to stop.

Are there any development programmes in Bangladesh that train people to become self employed?”

The Secretary to the Treasury replied: None”

How many youths are trained in vocations every year.” The Minister inquired.

The Secretary to the Treasury rattled out the number that were being trained by all Government Departments and it totalled to some two hundred thousand. This included the 40,000 the Ministry of Youth trained a year.

Tell me the number of youths that pass out every year and fail to find either employment or a place for further study and continue being unemployed and destitute, living scraping the barrel for life.”

The Secretary to the Treasury replied. Sir, It is in the millions.”

The Minister without batting an eyelid ordered, staring at me, in my face.

I approve you establishing a self employment programme. Go ahead and show what you can do, which the ILO. failed to do.”

Before I could thank him the Secretary to the Treasury replied;

I will not provide any funds from the Bangladesh Treasury. The failure of the ILO attempt was a massive waste of funds and the Treasury has no more funds to waste.”

I replied even without consulting the two Secretaries of the Ministry with whom I worked, who were present.

I need no new funds. I will find savings within approved youth training programme budgets to hold training sessions. I need approval to divert savings from approved training budgets to create this new programme and approval to alter the remits of officers to include training for self employment.”

The Minister approved my request.

I got cracking with training youth directors and lecturers of training institutes in economics. It included detailed studies on the economy of Bangladesh to identify areas where there was a propensity to create employment in a manner that also helped the economy in terms of production.

We had no funds to offer subsidies of any sort.

Youth Directors were all veteran workers who knew the art of relating to the youth. They moved with the youth and introduced ideas of how the youth could find incomes by rearing chicks and live with the chicks and see them grow. Some youths persuaded their brothers and sisters- even those who had migrated to the UK to help them. Till then they had not known what to with what they had studied in their three months training.

Yousoof Ali, a youth who had been trained did not know what to do with what he had learned and he became a nuisance to his brothers and sisters at home. His elder brother who could not tolerate him even went to the office of the Deputy Director of Youth at Jamalpur and accused the Department of indoctrinating his brother with ideas they could not follow. He even threatened to burn the office down. Instead of reporting to the Police who would have arrested him for public disorder the Deputy Director for Youth Development got in touch with us. I instructed the Deputy Director to somehow placate him and request him to attend our training sessions on self employment with his belligerent brother This was in a weeks’ time. When I marched into the training sessions I was shown his brother who was really breathing fire at us and the Department. Our sessions ran into hours of activity where we inspired the youths to save and commence any enterprises on their own. Some were motivated to even save the small daily stipend we paid for attendance to buy chicks which they could rear and see how the value increased. Our sessions were more inspiring the youth to save and take action to grow something, buy a chick and see it grow. The belligerent brother too joined us in our sessions because we related to them as brothers and sisters, as equals and the brother was so convinced that he immediately coughed up funds for his belligerent brother to buy a cow, ducklings and chicks and rear them. His brother got down to work under our supervision. Ten months later, on a surprise inspection, I met the belligerent lad- he had , 190 layer ducks, one milk cow, 2 goats, earning a net income of Taka 1496 in December1982, all achieved in eight months. Our aim was to make them earn Taka 500 the then salary of a Clerical Officer in the Government Service.

We built up the momentum not by offering money and subsidies, but by relating to them day in and day out. One word of a problem- it could be small farm of a dozen chicks two hundred miles away in an inaccessible village but we were there within hours to share the burden with the youth. We were inspiring the youth to become entrepreneurs and it was never instructing, but in youth work language participating with the youth, make the youth think and act -to educate them informally.

We were building up the abilities and capacities of the youth to become entrepreneurs,perhaps the only such programme the World has known.

It was non formal education in action where officials were never instructors but providers of ideas for the youth to think and become motivated. The staff was totally trained in non formal education methods of inspiring the youths to think and act on their own and become productive.

By the time my service period of two years was over, I had trained officials to continue the employment programme as a youth movement. It really paid high dividends. I last met the Minister Air Vice Marshall Aminul Islam just before I left Bangladesh. My request to him was to make an order that youths on our Youth Development Programme who had within months created incomes and earned more than the tax level should be given a reprieve to be exempt from taxes for a few years. The Minister said he will get that done.

These were the beginings of a youth self employment programme that commencing in 1982 has created over three million youth entrepreneurs within four decades. 1982 to 2022, the only such programme of development the world has known. In a letter to me on June 20, 2005, a full twenty two years after I had established the Self Employment Programme, MrAsafuddowlah, the Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Development wrote:

You will be happy to learn that the Self Employment Programme of the Youth Department has expanded across the country and attained great success. I have not forgotten your valuable contribution to the success of this great programme.”(Muhammed Asafuddowlah: June 20, 2005)

The Fifth Five Year Plan of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh, makes glorious references to this Programme and devotes eight pages to detail its success. It is a Programme that has achieved accolades in all the subsequent Five Year Plans of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh.

It is important to note that for the first four years we had no funds from the Bangladesh Treasury. We found funds through savings in approved training budgets . But once we proved ourselves though hard work in training youths and inspiring them to become productive the Government funded it aided by the IFAD(FAO)

The youth self employment programme became a national programme and many helped. Way back after my work in Bangladesh I was working in Edinburgh. Whenever I went to London I took bulky and heavy dress pattern books which I handed over to Bangladesh Biman to be taken to the poor youth entrepreneurs in dress making at Jamalpur. That was the contribution made by Bangladesh Biman. Once six cows, all what a youth had died. I with Golam Atahar the Director for Livestock marched to the Insurance Corporation of Bangladesh. The two of us held the floor for an hour, In three days the Insurance Corp approved an insurance programme for cattle on our employment programme. I am dead certain that I could not do such things in my own country, Sri Lanka. In Bangladesh, administrators were dedicated and worked unruffled despite odds.

By now(2023)over three million youths have become entrepreneurs on this programme. Many thanks are due to the officers of the Bangladesh Civil Service and officers of the Ministry , trained by me, who carried on the programme initiated by me to achieve to reach the World Stature of today. The Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh is a world class programme that has found a definite place within the sands of time.

It is high time that the Government of Sri Lanka seeks to establish a similar programme to create employment for our youth and also create the production that will allay the economic meltdown of today. Take employment creation out of the vagary of party politics- these are national programmes that have to be invariably supported, despite changes in Governments.

In 2011,when His Excellency Milinda Moragoda, till recently our Ambassador at Delhi made a bid for the Mayorship of Colombo in his Manifesto stated that if elected,  he would seek to implement the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh which incidentally was am amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka, Dr Garvin Karunaratne, who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.”(The Nation: 11/9/2011)

It will be a pleasure to serve my Motherland again and I look forward to establish an employment creation programme if called upon. . It will be done in nineteen months- the exact time I took to establish that Programme in Bangladesh.

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph D Michigan State University, formerly SLAS, GA Matara 1971-1973.

24/12/23, Rajagiriya, Colombo, garvin_karunaratne@hotmail.com

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B., Ph.D

හුනුවටයේ කතාවේදී මෙන් හෝ උණු තෙල් කටාරමේ අත දැමීමෙන් හෝ වෙනුවට යමෙකුගේ අව්‍යාජ, නියම අභ්‍යන්තරය එලියට ඇදගත හැකි උපාය මාර්ගයක් නැද්ද?

හැඳින්වීම

නාගානන්ද කොඩිතුවක්කු මහතා විසින් අනුර කුමාරට (හා අනිත් දේශපාලකයින්ට) නැතැයි පුන පුනා කියන හෘදය ශාක්ෂිය නමැති මිනිස් ගුණය විමසා බැලීමට මට සිතුනේ අනුර විසින් jvp එක ජාතික ජන බලවේගයට (NPP) <අධ්‍යාත්මය> සපයනවා යන ප්‍රකාශණය නිසාය. අධ්‍යාත්මය සපයනවා කියන්නේ යම් දෙයකට ඔක්ෂිජන් සපයනවා වැනි දෙයක් නොවේ. මාක්ස්වාදීන් ලඟ සමහරවිට මානව දයාව කියා ව්‍යවහාරයක් තිබිය හැකිය.

JVP හා බුද්ධාගම යනුවෙන් මා විසින් ලියු ලිපි තුනෙන් පෙන්වා දීමට සිතුවේ සමහර jvp නායකයින් විසින් මෑතක සිට බුද්ධාගම, බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍ය පාලන ප්‍රතිපත්ති යනාදිය ගැන ද සඳහන් කරන්නේ උවිඳු විජේවීර තරුණයා මෙන් බෞද්ධ ආභාෂය නිසාය කියා මට සිතුන නිසාය. එම පක්ෂයට සිංහල බෞද්ධ චන්ද ලබාගැනීමට නම් ඔවුන් විසින් මාක්ස්වාදය අතහැර, ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපතිව අමතක කර, වෙනස් වියයුතු අන්දම පෙන්වා දීමටය.

පසුගියදා සේන තෝරදෙණිය  විසින් ලියන ලද ලිපියේ jvp ගැන සඳහන් කර ඇති තොරතුරු මෙන්ම

LankaWeb – JANUS-FACED JVP: FALSE CONCEPTIONS AND HARINI AMARASURIYA FACTOR   (14/12/23)

අනුර කුමාර විසින් ඔහු සෝමවංශට පසුව jvp නායකයාවී මිහින්තලේ පන්සලට ගියවිට  හාමුදුරුවන් අතට බැන්ඳ පිරිත් නූල පන්සලෙන් එලියට ආ සැණින්ම ගලවා විසිකලා යන ප්‍රවෘතියද, නොබෝදා ලාල් කාන්ත සේපාල් සමඟ එකතුව ඥානසාර හිමියන් ඔහුගේ අතේ බැන්ඳ පිරිත් නූල ගැන අවඥාවෙන් කල සාකච්චාවද, අනිත් බොරු බෞද්ධයින් මෙන් අනුරලාද වංක ගේම්කාරයින් නොවේද යන සැකය වර්ධනය කරලන්නේය. ලාල් කාන්ත නම් අඩුතරමින් එය එක රැයක්වත් අතේ  බැඳගෙන සිටියේය!

නොසල්ඩාල කටවල්

අවුකන බුදුපිළිමයට එසේ කියන්නේ අව්ව කන නිසායයි මිනිසුන් කියනවා යයි ටියුලින් සිල්වා කිව්වේය. බුදුහාමුදුරුවෝ බෝගස වෙනුවට කොස් හෝ දෙල් ගසක් තෝරා ගත්තා නම්  මිනිසුන්ට බඩගින්නේ ඉන්න වෙනවා වැනි අවලං කතාවක් තවත් jvp  කාරයෙක් කිව්වා යයි හිරුණිකා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. තමන් සන්නද්ධ අරගලයකට ගම්මට්ටමින් සංවිධානය වෙමින් සිටිනවා යයි jvp වේදිකාවලින් අසන්නට ලැබේ.

2024 ලංකාව, අනුරලා සජිත්ලා ඩලස්ලා, බැසිල්ලා, චම්පිකලා, දයාසිරිලා, GL පීරිස්ලා, දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනලා වැනි පරණ දේශපාලකයින් අළුත් මුහුණු දමාගෙනත්, තවත් අළුතෙන්ම එන පංචස්කන්ධත් ජවුසම් නටන නාඩගම් පිටියක්වී තිබේ. පරණ පිරිස් කැලි කෑලි වලට කැඩී නන්නත්තාරවී සිටී. මෙම කළුසුද්දන් රංචු කුමණ අංශයකින් බැලුවත් රටට කර ඇත්තේ බලවත් විනාශයකි. දේශපාලනය ජීවිකාව කරගෙන රට සූරාකණ  පවුල් 5,000 ක් පමණ මීට හවුල්ය. මින් පසු එන ඕනෑම චන්දයකදී මේ හැම අපේක්ෂකයෙකුටම සම්පූර්ණ කිරීම සඳහා ප්‍රශ්ණ මාලවක් සකස්කර එය රට පුරා බෙදා හැරිමේ ව්‍යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කළයුතුය. චන්ද හිඟමණේ එනවිට මෙම ප්‍රශ්ණ ඔවුන්ගෙන් ඇසිය යුතුය.

ඉවැන්ජලිකල් ක්‍රිස්තියානි මූලධර්මවාදය

1873 පානදුරා වාදයෙන් බුද්ධාගම කියන්නේ බොරුවක් යන මතවාදය යටපත් වුවත් සුද්දන්ට ගැතිවූ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සිංහල-දෙමළ බලවේගය රට තුල යටත් විජිත යුගයේ පමණක් නොව දැන් 2023 අගදීත් මොරල් රිආමමන්ට්, බෝන් අගේන්, පෙන්තකොස්ත, ජෙහොවාස් විට්නස් යනාදී වශයෙන් ගජරාමෙට විදේශ ඩොලර් සමඟ දිය යටින් හා උඩින් සංවිධානාත්මකව ක්‍රියාත්මකවේ.

වඳුරන්ට දැළිපිහි දීම

ඩොනමෝර් කොමිෂම විසින් ලංකාවේ ජනයාට සර්වජන චන්දබලය දීමට යෝජනා කලවිට කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ නායක A. E. ගුණසිංහ හැරුණුවිට අනිත් සියළුම කළුසුද්දන් එයට විරුද්ධවූයේ එය වඳුරන්ට දැළිපිහි දීමක් වැනියයි පවසමින්ය. දෙමළ වෙල්ලාල මන්ත්‍රීන් උතුරේ පහත් කුල යයි සැළකෙණ අයටත්, මුස්ලිම්වරු ස්ත්‍රීන්ටත් එය දීමට විරුද්ධ විය. එහෙත්, 1931 දී වැඩි චන්දයෙන් හා 1936 දී නිතරඟයෙන්, විශ්‍රාමික දිසාපති H. R. ෆ්‍රීමන් මහතාව  අනුරාධපුරයේ මන්ත්‍රී වශයෙන් පත්කලේ විශේෂයෙන් එහි සිංහල බෞද්ධ ගැමියා ජනයා ඔහුගේ හෘදශාක්ෂිය හඳුනාගෙන තිබූ නිසාය. දකුණේ සිංහල මන්ත්‍රීන් වූයේ ඩොනමෝර් බෞද්ධයින් යයි පසුව හංවඩු ගැසුණු, කැඩිච්ච සිංහල කතාකල, සුද්දන්ට පින්සිදුවන්නට බලය හා ධනය එකතුකරගත් කළු සුද්දන් පිරිසක්ය. CWW කන්නන්ගර, W දහනායක මින් වෙනස්වූ මන්ත්‍රීන් දෙන්නෙක් විය.

1931 න් ආරම්භවූ රාජ්‍ය මන්ත්‍රණ සභා කාලයෙන් පසු දැන් 2023 දෙසැම්බර් වල තිබෙන පාර්ලිමේන්තුව (දියවන්නා හෝටලය) දෙස බලනවිට සිතෙන්නේ එහි ඉන්නේ පිහි නොව කඩු ගත් වඳුරන් රැළක් නොවේද කියාය. මෙම වඳුරන් ආරම්භයේ සිටම රාජ්‍ය මන්ත්‍රණ සභාව දූෂණය කලේය. ඩොනමෝර් ක්‍රමය පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමයක් නොවූ අතර, 1915 සිංහල-මුස්ලිම් ගැටුවේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන්, අමධ්‍යප ව්‍යාපාරය නමැති දේශපාලනය කල අය ඒ වෙනුවට ජනවර්ග වශයෙන් සිතීමට පෙළඹී සිටියේය. 1832 සිටම සුද්දන් විසින් 1931 දක්වාම (communal) ජාතිවාදී නියෝජන ක්‍රමයක් අනුගමනය කරමින් බෙදා පාලනය කිරීමේ උපක්‍රමය උපරිම ලෙස තම වාසිය සඳහා භාවිතා කලා පමණක් නොව, 1924 වනවිට මැනිං ආණ්ඩුකාරයා එලිපිටම සුළු ජනවර්ග කුලප්පු කලේය. G.G. පොන්නම්බලම් 50-50 ඉල්ලුවේ මෙම හයිය/තල්ලුවද නිසාය. ලෝකයේ විසිරී සිටින දෙමළ ප්‍රජාවට UNO දෙමළ කොඩියක් සහිත රටක් ලබා ගැනීම දක්වා ව්‍යාප්තව ඇති දෙමළ ජාතිවාදය ආරම්භවුයේ මැඩ්‍රාස් ප්‍රාන්තයේදී 1917 දීත්, එහි ආභාෂය මත ලංකා කොලනියේදී 1923/4 දීත්ය (පොන්නම්බලම් අරුණාචලම් විසින්).

සිංහල ජාතිකවාදය

මෙහිදී අපට වැදගත්වන කරුණ නම් සිංහල කළු සුද්දන් දෙමළ ජාතිවාදය බෞද්ධ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාව මඟින් මතවාදීව පැරදවීමට නොදැන සිටීමය. ඔවුන් කලේ, සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජාතිකවාදය වෙනුවට, මැත්ප්‍රොපෙසර් සුන්දරලිංගම් ලවා තනිකර සිංහල අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයක් සඳහා සූත්‍රයක් සදවා ගැනීමය. 1910 පමණ සිටම රටේ කෙරුම්කාරයින්ව (කයිවාරුකාරයින්) සිටියේ ඉන්ගිරිස් කතාකරණ ක්‍රිස්තියානි සිංහල පිරිස හා උගත් දෙමළ අය කීපදෙනාදය. ඔවුන්ගේ <නිදහස් සටන> වූයේ සුද්දන්ට හා බර්ගර්ලාට සීමාවූ ආණ්ඩුවේ රක්ෂා ඔවුන්ටද ලබාදෙන ලෙස කල ඉල්ලීමය. ඉන්දියාවේ නිදහස් අරගලයට මුවාවී හිට්ලර්ට, ජපානයට, සුබාස් චන්ද්‍ර බෝෂ්ට පින්සිදුවන්නට ලංකාවේ කළුසුද්දෝ පෙත්සම් මඟින් කොළඹ වසන ඔවුන්ට නිදහස කියන දෙයක් ලබාගත්තේය.

1956 වනවිට සුද්දා හිටියනම් මීට වඩා හොඳයි කියන තරමට මේ කළුසුද්දන් පිරිස රට කා දැම්මේය. සුද්දා කලාටත් වඩා ශූක්ෂම ලෙස මොවුන් රටවැසියා බෙදා පාලනය කලේය. කොල, රතු, නිල් පක්ෂ වශයෙන් ගෙවල්, පවුල්, පන්සල්, ගම් දනව් බෙදීමට පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයා සමත්විය.

නැවෙන් කටට ආර්ථික ක්‍රමය

යටත් විජිත ආර්ථික රටාවෙන් රට ගලවා ගැනීම සඳහා අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා හෝ ඔහු අනුව ගිය කළුකොඳයාවේ ප්‍රඥාශෙඛර නාහිමියන්ගේ අපරාද මර්දන හා ග්‍රාම ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ ව්‍යාපාරයට D.B ජයතිලක, DS සේනානායක, SWRD බණ්ඩාරනායක යන ඇමතිවරු සහයෝගයක් නොදුන්නේ ඔවුන් ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයින්-ඩොනමෝර් බෞද්ධයින් එසේ නැත්නම් ඇල්ලේ ගුණවංශ හාමුදුරුවන් කියන බුදු අම්මෝ නොව ඕ මයි ගෝඩ් බෞද්ධයින් වූ නිසාය (යම් හදිසි ඇබ්බැද්දියකදී කළු සුද්දන්ගේ කටින් ඉබේටම පණින්නේ බුදු අම්මෝ කියා නොවේ). මැලේරියා ප්‍රදේශවලට ලොරිවලින් බඩු ගෙනගිය, දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමාට ගඩොල් මෝඩයෙක් යයි (රුවන්වැලි මහාසෑය සැදූ නිසා) කී සූරියමල් මාක්ස්වාදීන් ගැන කුමණ කතාද?

සම්මුතිවාදය-සභ්‍යත්ව රාජ්‍යය

එංගලන්තයේ පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය හා නියෝජිත මන්ත්‍රී ක්‍රමය පරිනාමය වූයේ රජු හා රදලයින් හා පසුව රජු-රදලයින් හා මහජනයා (වානිජ/නාගරික මහජනයා අතර සිදුවූ දීර්ග අරගලයක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙනි (ඒ රටේ මෙන්ම ඇමෙරිකාවේත් මෙම ක්‍රමය මේ වනවිට බලවත් අර්බුදයකට මුහුණ දෙමින් සිටී). සිංහලේ නම් රටේ පැවතියේ සම්මුතිවාදී පාලන ක්‍රමයකි. එය ගම-වැව-දාගැබ යන සමාජ-දේශපාලන-ආර්ථික ත්‍රිත්වයක් විය. 1505/1551 සිටම මෙම සංකල්පය විදේශ බලවේග තුනකින් එල්ලවු ප්‍රහාරයන්ට ලක්විය. අනිකුත් යටත් විජිත මෙන් නොව මෙම දිවයින එහි ශිෂ්ටාචාරය රැක ගත්තේ  පන්සල හා ගම අතර තිබූ ගහට පොත්ත වැනි බැඳීමත් මුරදේවතා සංකල්පයත් නිසාය. ගම් සභාව තීරණ ගත්තේ හැමදෙනාගේම එකඟතාවය උඩ මිස දෙකට තුනට  බෙදී නොවේ.

කුල භේදය හා මැර බලය

කාරිගේ චැනල් 1 යන යූටියුබ් නාලිකාවේ පෙන්වූ 1936 දැදිගම හා 1985 මුල්ගිරිගල යන චන්ද කොට්ඨාශ දෙකේ  සිදුවූ බිහිසුණු ක්‍රියා 1931 සිට ලංකාවේ දේශපාලනය භාරගත් පිරිස, එංගලන්තයේ පක්ෂ දේශපාලන ක්‍රමය වඳුරන්ට දැළිපිහිදීමක් බවට හරවාගත් බවට උදාහරණ දෙකක් පමණය. දැදිගම ඩඩ්ලි හා මුල්කිරිගල ආනන්ද කුලරත්න දිනුවේ මැර බලයෙන් පමණක් නොවේ. දෙකේම කුලභේදය මතුවුනත්, මුල්කිරිගලදී ජනාධිපති JR විසින් වහුම්පුර කුලයේ එකාට චන්දය දෙන ලෙස චන්ද රැස්වීමේදී ඉල්ලා සිටියේය. 1982 ජනාධිපති චන්දයේදී කොබ්බෑකඩුව අපේක්ෂකයා චන්දය දාන්නට ගියවිට වෙන හොරෙක් එම චන්දය දමා තිබුණි! 1982/12/22 ජනමත විචාරණය ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයේ ගෙල, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය මඟින්ම සිඳ දැමීමකි! චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ සමයේ වයඹ පලාත් සභා වන්දයේදී කාන්තාවක් නිරුවතින් පාරේ ඇදගෙන ගියේය.

ප්‍රජාතන්තර වාදය-ඥාති සංග්‍රහය

1948 වන විට පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය පවුල් බුදල් ක්‍රමයක් බවට පත්වීම ආරම්භවිය. මෙම පක්ෂ දේශපාලනය අන්තිමේදී ගමක, ටවුමක පවුලක්, ගෙයක් තුල පවා බෙදීම් අති කිරීමට හැකිවන සේ බෝකිරීමට කොල, නිල්, රතු පක්ෂ කළුසුද්දන් සමත්විය. ඉතාමත් ස්වල්ප පිරිසක් හැරුනුවිට මේ දේශපාලකයින් තමන්ගේ පුද්ගලික වාසිය මිස රට ගැන සිතුවේ නැත. D.S සේනානායකගේ සිට හැම දෙනාම බැලුවේ තමන්ගේ පුතාට, ඥාතියාට තැනක් හදාදීම ගැනය.

DSS සිට හැම දේශ-පාලකයාමවාගේ අයථා (විෂමාචාර) ක්‍රියාවලට චෝදනා ලැබූ අයය.  තමන්ගේ ගොවිපලේ වැඩට ආණ්ඩුවේ කම්කරුවන් යොදවා ගැනීම ගැන කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමති DSS ට විරුද්ධව, බණ්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ ඥාතියෙක්වූ කෘෂි නිලධාරියා බලධාරීන්ට වාර්තාකර ලොකු කලබගෑනියක් සිදුවූ බව නොදන්නා අය යැස්මින් ගුණරත්න-බණ්ඩාරනායක ගේ රිලටිව් මෙරිට්ස් (1986) යන පොත කියවිය යුතුය.

1947 ව්‍යවස්ථාව

පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයින් විසින් රටට කල අපරාධය ගැන මෙසේ සඳහන් කරන්නේ දැන් 2024 වනවිට ඔවුන්ව විශ්වාස කරන්නේ කෙසේද යන කරුණ ඉස්මතුකර දැක්වීම පිණිසය. ශාස්ත්‍රීය වශයෙන් ගත්තොත් ඔවුන් සුද්දා විසින් ඇතිකරදී ගිය නියෝජිත ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය නමැති පාලන ව්‍යුහය එකින් එක කෙලෙසා දැමුවේය. 1947 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 29 වගන්තිය හා ඊට බාහිරව තිබූ එංගලන්තයේ ප්‍රිවිකවුන්සිලයට ඇපැල් ගැනීමේ රීතිය හැර, එය අදට වුවත් ගැලපේ. ස්වාධීන අධිකරණය, ස්වාධීන රාජ්‍ය සේවය, සෙනේට් සභාව, පත්කල මන්ත්‍රීන් යන බලතුලන ලක්ෂණ එකින් එක පක්ෂ දේශපාලකයා විසින් තම වරිගයාගේ වාසිය තකා විනාශ කලේය (structural democracy).

මෙම ගමනේදී මගේ මතකයට එන එක උදාහරණයක් නම් ජයා පතිරණ නම් SLFP පක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රී (1961-64) හා නීතීඥයාව ෆිලික්ස් ඩයස් විසින් සුප්‍රිම් උසාවියට පත් කිරීමය (1972). අනික නම් 1964 SLFP-LSSP-CP සභාග ආණ්ඩුකාලයේදී ආණ්ඩුවේ රක්ෂාවලට ඉල්ලුම් කිරීමේදී මන්ත්‍රීගෙන්/ පැරදුණ අපේක්ෂකයාගෙන් සහතිකයක් ගෙන ඒමට නියම කිරීමය 1978 දී JR විසින් කලේ බහුභූත, පිස්සු පාලන ව්‍යුහයක් හා සමාජ-ආර්ථික-සදාචාර ඝාතනයක් රටට පැටවීමය. 1978 බහුභූත ව්‍යවස්ථාව JR විසින්ම තම වාසිය සඳහා සංශෝධනය කලේය. ඉන් පසුව ගෙනා 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 යන සංශෝධන වලින් ගම්‍යවන්නේ මෙම කළුසුද්දන්ගේ පාලන ක්‍රමයෙන් රටේ ජනයා ගලවා ගැනීමේ දැඩි අවශ්‍යතාවය.

මේ වනවිට රටේ පැවති භූමිය නියෝජිත ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය (territorial democracy) හෙවත් වැසියාට තමන් කැමති නියෝජිතයෙක් පත්කර ගැනීමට තිබූ අයිතියද විනාශ කර  දමා ඇත.

අවිනිශ්චිත අනාගතය

බොහෝ අය ජනාධිපති සූට් මසමින් සිටියත්, 2024 දී මැතිවරණ පැවත්වේවිද එසේ නැත්නම් UNO සාමහමුදා ගොඩබස්සවා ගනීවිද යනුවෙන් ප්‍රශ්ණ දෙකක් මතුකල හැකිය. ඉදිරි චන්දයකින් කිසිම පක්ෂයකට, සංධානයකට 51% ලබාගන්නට ඉඩක් නැත. 1956 දී මතුවී නැතිවී ගිය සිංහල බෞද්ධ බලවේගය සතුරු ආක්‍රමණවලට ගොඳුරුවී අසරණව සිටී. සෝම හාමුදුරුවන්, මාදුළුවාවේ සෝභිත හිමියන් සැකකටයුතු ලෙස  පරාජයට පත්විය. බොදු බල සේනාවේ ඥානසාර හිමියන්, මූලධර්මවාදී ක්‍රිස්තියානි ආක්‍රමණය, ශාරියා වහාබී ව්‍යාප්තවාදය, ඊළම් පිල්ලිය රාජ්‍ය මර්දන යන්ත්‍රය හා සිංහල බෞද්ධයයි කියාගන්නා සෑම දේශපාලකයෙකුගේම වෛරයට පාත්‍රවී සිටී.   

මුර දේවතා කොටස් අතරමංවීම

ලංකාව ක්‍රිස්තියානි රටක්වී යාමෙන් බේරාගත් පන්සල්/සංඝ සංස්ථාව බලවත් පිරිහීමට ලක්වී ඇත. බුද්ධාගමට වටකරගෙන පහරදීම ඉතාමත් ශූක්ෂම ලෙස සිදුවෙමින් පවතී. අවුරුදු 70 ක්ම බලා සිට බර්ලින් තාප්පය කඩා දැම්මා මෙන් ඩොලර් බලය ගම හා පන්සල අතර තිබූ ගහට පොත්ත වැනි බැඳීම පළුදු කරමින් සිටී. ලංකාවේ මීට සමාන කල හැකි උදාහරණයක් නම් අවුරුදු පනහකටත් වැඩිකාලයක් බලා සිට jvp එක දමණය කර ගැනීමට ඇමෙරිකන් තානාපති කාර්යාලය සමත් වීමය!

කොසොල් රජතුමාගේ සීන සැබෑවීම

විවිධ කුඨ බලවේග විසින් රංජන් රාමනායකව බළල් අතක්සේ යොදා ගනිමින් ආරම්භකල සිවුර බාල්දු කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරය මේ වනවිට උඩුදුවා ගොස් ඇත. තිත්තගල්ලේ හිමි නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ හා D.V. චානකට දෙසූ බණ, බල්ලෙකුට සිවුරක් ඇන්ඳවු සිවුරු හොරා  වෙනුවෙන් වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රතිකාර යෝජනා කරණ සේපාල් අමරසිංහ, නටාෂා නාඩගම, ජෙරොම්ගේ දෙවියා ඔහුව හිරගෙට දැමීම, සෝවාන් සහතික (12-15 ශතවර්ෂවල යුරෝපයේ කතෝලිකයින් ස්වර්ගයට යාමට සල්ලිගෙවා පූජකයාගෙන් ලබාගත් සහතික මෙන් indulgence), රහත්වූ හාමුදුරුවරු යන විපරිනාම ඉදිරියේ ඓතිහාසිකව රට බේරාගත් මුරදේවතාවරුත් අන්ද මන්දව හැසිරෙමින් සිටී. එක් හාමුදුරුවරු පිරිසක් සිය නිකාය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම මිලින්ද මොරගොඩට පවරුවේය. තව හාමුදුරුවරු කීපදෙනක් රනිල් විසින් ත්‍රස්තවාදී ලැයිස්තුවෙන් ඉවත්කල GLF සමඟ ඊළම සඳහා ඉණිමඟක් බඳින හිමාලයා ගිවිසුමක් ගැසුවේය. රනිල් හා ජුලි චුං ප්‍රීතියෙන් පිනා ගියේය.

මේ සියල්ලටමත් වඩා සිදුවූ ප්‍රාතිහාර්යය නම් ආසියාවට ශාරියා පූජකයින් බිහිකිරීමට අරාබි රජෙකුගේ නමින් ආරම්භකල යෝධ ආයතනය ටෙක්නොලොජි  ආයතනයක්වී හාමුදුරුවරුන් දෙන්නෙක් ලවා පිරිත් කියවා ගෙන විවෘත කිරීමය. හිස්බුල්ලා විසින් වෙන කිසිම ආගමික වතාවතක් සිදු  නොකලේ ඔහු ඉන්ටර්ෆේත් ජරමරය (සර්වාගමික) ජරමරය විශ්වාස නොකරණ නිසාය යයි ප්‍රකාශ කලේය!  හිස්බුල්ලා විසින් මඩකලපුවේ මංගලාරාමයේ අම්පිටියේ සුමනරතන හාමුදුරුවන්ට ආරාධනාකලා නම් උන්වහන්සේ අවුරුදු 30 කටත් වැඩි කාලයක් සිංහල ජනයා මුස්ලිම් හා දෙමළ දේශපාලකයින්ගෙන් හා නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් කල ජීවන සටන ජයගත්තා සේ වන්නේය. හිස්බුල්ලා නියම නායකයෙක් වන්නේය. හිස්බුල්ලා තෝරාගත් සිංහල බෞද්ධ උපකුලපතිට එය සිතුනේ නැත,

සිංහල බෞද්ධයින්ට ඉන්නට රටක් නැතිවන තරමට සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයා අතරමංවී සිටී. මෙහි ඉහතින් සටහන් කලේ මෙම අවාසනාවන්ත කතාවේ උදාහරණ කීපයක් පමණය. දැන් අවදානම් ඉරණම ඉදිරියේ මේ සිංහල (බෞද්ධ) යයි කියාගන්නා  කළු සුද්දන් දමණය කිරීමට උපකාරවන ප්‍රශ්ණ පත්තරයක් මීළඟ ලිපියෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරමි.

පර සුද්දා-පර කළු සුද්දා

වංක දේශපාලන කළු බළලුන්ගේ බෙල්ලේ ගෙජ්ජි බැඳීමක් වන මෙම උපක්‍රමය ගැන මට සිතුනේ කාදිනල්තුමා මුස්ලිම්වරු විසින් බයිබල් බෙල්ට් එකේ ඉඩම් අල්ලාගැනීම වලක්වන්නට ගත් සාර්ථක හා අහිංසක උපාය ගැන අසාය. හැම කතෝලික ගෙදරකම ඌරු පැටියෙක් ඇතිකරණ ලෙස කාදිනල්තුමා කල යෝජනාව, පඹයෙක් සදා, එයට සුදුහුනුගා, ගේ ඉදිරිපස තබා, උදේ හවස පර සුද්දා-පරසුද්දා යයි කියමින් පහර ගසන්නට යයි අනාගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා 1930ස් 1940ස් ගණන්වල සිංහල මිනිසුන්ගේ නැතිවීගිය ආත්මාභිමාණය ගොඩනඟන්නට කල ව්‍යාපාරයට සමානය.

රටේ ගම්වල  ඉන්නා බෞද්ධ පවුල් එළදෙනෙක් හදන ගමන් ක්‍රිස්තියානි පවුල් ඌරු පැටියෙක් හැදුවොත් ඉන් ආදායමක්ද ලබාගත හැකිය.

Kaarige Channel Eka | Dharmasri Kariyawasam

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

පොලිසිය විසින් කුඩු අල්ලනවා යැයි සිදු කරමින් අල්ලන්නේ හාල්මැස්සන් යයි පැතිරෙන කතාවේ සත්‍යයක් ඇති බව වැඩ බලන පොලිස්පති දේශබන්දු තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය ඉතාමත් සුළු ප්‍රමාණයක් අතේ තබාගෙන සිටියත් පොලිසියට ඔවුන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට සිදුවන බව ද ඔහු පැවසීය.

අත්අඩංගුවේ සිටින සියලුම දෙනා හාල්මැස්සන් නොවන බවත් තෝරු මෝරුන්ද නොවුනද අතරමැද මාළුවෙකුගේ නමක් සිතාගත හැකි බවද ඔහු සඳහන් කළේය.

මැද ඉන්න මාළුන් අල්ලා ගත්තාට පසු මේ රටට කුඩු ගෙන එන තෝරු මෝරුන් හඳුනාගත හැකි බවද පොලිස්පතිවරයා පැවසීය.

ඒ තෝරු මෝරුන්ට ද අත තියෙන දවස වැඩි ඈතක නැතැයිද හෙතෙම තවදුරටත් කියා සිටියේය.

මිරිහාන ප්‍රදේශයේදී පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් අමතමින් හෙතෙම මෙම අදහස් පළ කරන ලදී.

Courtesy The Island

Dr. Weerasinghe

The government should do more to protect low-income earners, the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Thursday (21) during a televised interview.

He said that during the economic crisis and due to high inflation, a lot of people in the SME sector lost their jobs.

Who were the worst affected people in the country? The poor. In this kind of situation, the government has to look after them. The ability of the government to help through programmes like Aswesuma comes from its tax revenue. This is why tax policy is important,” he said.

He also said the tax net should be expanded to include everyone who can pay taxes.This money can be used on people that need help. He said there should not be any tax exemption to any industrial sector.

Tax policy has to be fair and broad-based. Everyone should pay the 18 percent VAT, except the exporters. When it comes to personal tax, high income earners must pay more. We have an 8.5 million labour force in this country. All taxpayers are less than half a million people,” he said.

There should also be strong institutional reforms to strengthen tax collection, he added.

Dr. Weerasinghe said the current tax rates are high, but the tax collection is still not sufficient. If the tax burden is shared by everyone, the taxes can be brought down, he said.

Tax evasion is a serious issue in this country. Some people pay high taxes, while others evade taxes. We need strong institutional reforms. Inland Revenue, Customs need to be strengthened. Digitalisation and information availability are essential for this,” he said.

People should do fewer transactions using cash and businesses should not be keeping two books, he said.

A lot of businesses keep two books. One for taxes and the other for their operational use. Tax authorities should be able to catch these people.”The Governor said the country is on the right track and the economic recovery process has begun.

Courtesy The Island

Fake Immunoglobulin:

… suspect in touch with Health Ministry since 2013

Keheliya Rambukwella

Environment Minister Keheliya Rambukwella yesterday (22) said that in spite of the then Chief Executive Officer and Director General of National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) declaring that the proprietor of Isolez Biotech Pharma AG Sugath Janaka Fernando alias Aruna Deepthi had failed to meet stringent requirements needed to supply Immunoglobulin vials, the procurement process proceeded, leading to the Health Ministry accepting fake products.

Rambukwella, who is under a cloud over the procurement of fake Immunoglobulin vials, told a hastily arranged briefing at the Government Information Department that Dr. Vijith Gunasekera had made the declaration, in his capacity as CEO and DG, at a regular meeting chaired by him (Rambukwella) to discuss issues relating to the suitability of the tenderer and other procurement issues.

Minister Rambukwella said that he had brought the issue to the notice of the Attorney General after lodging a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on 02 Oct, exactly three weeks before President Ranil Wickremesinghe replaced him with Dr. Ramesh Pathirana as the Health Minister.

Rambukwella received the environment portfolio, previously held by Ahamed Nazeer of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), whose expulsion over switching allegiance to the SLPP at the final vote on the 2022 Budget was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Responding to queries, Minister Rambukwella insisted that he had made no intervention after NMRA challenged the supplier’s suitability. The Island sought an explanation from him as to how he denied any knowledge of the manipulation of the entire process to procure fake Immunoglobulin vials against the backdrop of the then Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandragupta being arrested and remanded in this connection.

Minister Rambukwella pointed out that Dr. Gunasekera was on record as having said that the local supplier used a fake waiver of registration (WoR) containing the forged signature and stamp of NMRA’s CEO. The removed CEO said so in the wake of the Health Sector Emergency Procurement Committee (HSEPC) declaring that it acted on the basis of the registration provided by the supplier.

The arrested Health Secretary Chandragupta, who is also the Chief Accounting Officer of the Health Ministry, functioned as the head of HSEPC. Chandragupta has been remanded till Dec 27 pending investigations. At the time of his arrest, Chandragupta, a Special Grade Officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service, was on retirement. Chandragupta received the appointment as Health Secretary on May 24, 2022, close on the heels of Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa’s resignation.

The CID arrested the 57-year-old proprietor of Isolez Biotech Pharma on Oct 31 for supplying fake Immunoglobulin vials. Minister Rambukwella disclosed that the conman had been in touch with the Health Ministry since 2013 and after he took over he was also approached. The Minister said that he didn’t interfere with NMRA’s process though he forwarded the supplier’s ‘offer’ to the regulatory body.

India has denied supplying the fake Immunoglobulin vials as well as ‘Rituximab’ used to treat certain autoimmune diseases and some types of cancer to Isolez Biotech Pharma AG, thereby contradicting efforts to deceive the public the two medicines were procured under USD 235 mn Indian credit line. The Gujarat-based Indian company that has been named as the manufacturer denounced the Sri Lankan company accusing it of forgery.

The CID arrested Director, Medical Supplies Division, Dr. Kapila Wickremenayake, Assistant Director Devashantha Soloman, Accountant (Supplies) Neran Dhananjaya and the Stock Controller of the Medical Supplies Division, Sujith Kumara, in connection with the high profile scam, on Nov 20, the day Chandragupta retired, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.

Deputy Solicitor General Lakmini Girihagama appearing with Senior State Counsel Heshani Wijesinghe making submissions earlier on the progress of the CID investigations has told the Maligakanda Magistrate Court that prior to the Cabinet decision, taken in October 2022, tenders had been called in September 2022 and the 1st suspect Aruna Deepthi had been selected as the successful tenderer for Human Immunoglobulin and Rituximab.

She said according to Ministry Chief Accountant Savidra Cooray the 1st suspect’s company Isolez Biotech Pharma had requested for payments for Rituximab supplied and the Secretary Health Chandragupta had approved the payment of Rs 107,799,481/= in three payments to the 1st suspect, directing it to be paid on a priority basis.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Dec 22 (Daily Mirror) –  The ‘Yukthiya’ operation, aimed at dismantling the narcotics distribution network, has resulted in the seizure of additional assets worth millions of rupees. 

The Illegal Assets and Properties Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police impounded ill-gotten gains valued at Rs. 134 million, belonging to drug traffickers situated in Galle, Habaraduwa, and Hikkaduwa.

The Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) revealed that the confiscated assets encompass a 45-foot multi-day trawler, a van, an SUV, a four-storied villa, and a three-storied building. 

The operation is part of ongoing efforts by law enforcement to curb the influence and financial strength of drug traffickers, ultimately disrupting their operations.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Operation ‘Yukthiya’, an island-wide crackdown on organized crime and major drug trafficking rings, is ongoing in various parts of the country. Authorities have been successful in apprehending suspects, and there have been significant seizures of properties associated with these illicit activities.

---

Courtesy Adaderana

In continuation of the special island-wide operation ‘Yukthiya’ (Justice) to crack down on narcotics, Sri Lankan security forces have arrested scores of more suspects in a 24-hour mission ending at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday (Dec.23).

The Ministry of Public Security said a total of 1,676 suspects were arrested during this period.

Financial asset investigations have been initiated on 45 suspects and 112 individuals have been sent for rehabilitation. Additionally, detention orders were secured against 119 suspects.

The drugs impounded during the special island-wide operations include:

• 692g of heroin
• 393g of methamphetamine (‘Ice’)
• 42.1kg of Cannabis
• 20,615 narcotic pills 
• 235,680 Cannabis plants
• 534g of Hash
• 11kg of ‘Mawa’

Since the special raids were kicked off under the operation ‘Yukthiya’ on December 17, the security forces personnel have made more than 11,500 arrests and seized large consignments of narcotics.

Meanwhile, the Illegal Assets and Properties Investigation Division of the police have confiscated assets worth millions of rupees belonging to notorious criminal figures and drug traffickers.

Chanaka Bandarage

Impressions

It is good that the government has decided to conduct a study on Edward Henry Pedris, moreover about his tragic death in 1915.  The significance is that this will be done more than 108 years after his death.

Even belatedly, the gruesome and heinous atrocity committed by the British must be exposed.

If the study reveals Pedris’ heroism and the true circumstances of his death, his relatives would receive solace and comfort.

Paradoxically, Edward Henry Pedris is one of Sri Lanka’s least recognized National Heroes. 

True a statue of him was unveiled by the then Prime Minister Premadasa in 1987, and a playground and a stadium were named after him on that same day; very little national level commemoration of this Great hero takes place in the country. There is scant discourse about his heroism among the populous and his brave life story has been taken away from school history books.

Is this because he was never a politician and did his struggles against the British on his own, solitarily? Also, that the Pedris family has not sought publicity about their dead member?

Pedris was only 27 when he died. He was killed (murdered?) by the British Colonial Administration at Welikada Prison, on the charges of High Treason, Attempted Murder, Wounding with intent to Murder and Shop Breaking.

Here is his story:

Edward Henry Pedris was a young man born into an elite Sinhala Buddhist family.  His father, Duenuge Disan Pedris, a native of Galle was a very wealthy businessman, who among other business ventures had shops in Pettah. Pedris was educated at Royal and St Thomas’ colleges. He represented both Royal and St Thomas’ at cricket.  He must be the only person to have represented both schools in Royal- Thomian cricket matches.

Young Pedris was an excellent marksman and he was enlisted as a commissioned officer of the Colombo Town Guard. At the time of his death he held the rank of Captain. Prior to his death he was de-commissioned by the British rule in Sri Lanka.

Pedris excelled in horse riding too. He had a wide knowledge about horses. A Russian Prince from the Tsar dynasty  had presented him a horse named Rally”.  Pedris rode this horse with the composure of a Prince, and the British and their Sinhalese cohorts hated this.

An incident happened on 1 June 1915, near Pedris’ shop in Main Street, Pettah, where a Muslim gang had advanced towards him to attack him or set fire to his shop.  During this time the Sinhala – Muslim riots had erupted in many parts of the country. Pedris had come out of the shop with a gun and had fired six shots into the crowd. No Muslims were killed or injured except the Police Constable Senevirathne who was injured in the head.

There had been absolutely no other involvement of Pedris in the riots though allegations were made in the trial that he had instigated a mob to travel from Peliyagoda to Colombo to attack Muslims.  Pedris in his defence stated that he as a Commissioned Officer settled certain disputes between the Sinhalese and the Muslims.

The riots had been very brutal with over 100 Muslim deaths mainly in Gampola, Kandy and Mathale. The Police and the military had shot dead over 100 Sinhalese who were accused of killing Muslims and looting Muslim shops.

To Pedris’ utter misfortunate during this time he and his family had come to the adverse attention of the British authorities. Pedris had left an arrogant lifestyle and the British and their Sinhalese cohorts fiercely despised him.

Prior to the 1915 incident, there had been several clashes of young Pedris with the British hierarchy. In one incident, at a Cinema Hall a white man had demanded that Pedris gave him his seat.  Pedris had refused and belittled the British saying that he had paid for his seat.

It is fair to infer that news about young Pedris’ arrogance towards the British had reached the top echelons of the British administration, including Governor Sir Robert Chalmers. 

Chalmers, a racist, was an introvert and a recluse.  He was ruthless in eliminating his enemies.  Under his command, Brigadier Malcolm went on a killing spree of Sinhalese in areas where the riots took place – notably in Colombo and the upcountry. 

Chalmers is notorious for taking vengeance from his enemies.

He had a grudge with Anagarika Dharmapala:

Chalmers once invited Dharmapala to attend his office; when Dharmapala visited, Chalmers purposely kept him waiting for more than 2 hours. 

Dharmapala – a firebrand in his own right, was furious. During the meeting Dharmapala complained to Chalmers that he too was a busy man and Chalmers should have stuck with the set time. 

Dharmapala remonstrated that Chalmers deliberately wasted his valuable time and that he had no confidence in Chalmers.  Despite Chalmers’ request to stay, Dharmapala left the office without completing the meeting. 

This was like a slap on Chalmers’ face,  his staff witnessed what happened.  Chalmers never expected  that type of bravery from a Sinhalese; at  that time the whites sometimes considered the locals as a species of sub-human.  

When Dharmapala was imprisoned in 1915 over the Sinhala- Muslim riots, it was done under the direct order by Chalmers.

It was Governor Stubbs who released Dharmapala in early 1920s.

When the riots happened, Dharmapala was not even in Sri Lanka, he was in India.  Until the release, Dharmapala was held under house arrest in Calcutta.  He was the longest held political prisoner over the riots.

The objective was to teach him a lesson – that he should not quarrel with the British hierarchy (Chalmers on this occasion), and that he will curtail his anti-imperialistic struggle/rhetoric against the British (Anagarika Dharmapala is considered Sri Lana’s Mahatma Gandhi).  

In 1915, Chalmers was basically scared that the Sinhalese would use the riots to overthrow the colonial administration. During this time the World War 1 was in full swing. The British suspected that there were prominent Sinhalese businessmen in Colombo who had close trade links with Germans. It was believed that Pedris family was one. 

Over the riots, two of Edward Henry Pedris’ cousins – Albert and Edwin Wijesekera, who were leading businessmen, were taken into custody and imprisoned in Jaffna. 

When the riots occurred, the German cruise ship  ‘Emden’ had berthed in Colombo and Colombo businessmen had conducted trading  with it.

It is believed that Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, the Maha Mudaliyar, father of SWRD Bandaranaike, was not in good terms with the Pedris family and he may have had a part in creating the ill feeling between the British administration and Pedris family.  Except hearsay, there is no concrete evidence to prove this. Bandaranaike was the Chief Advisor and Chief  Native Interpreter to the Governor.  Basically, he held the highest native position under the British administration. Prior to him his uncle had also held the same or similar position for the British administration.

Governor Chalmers and the Inspector General of Police, Herbert Layard Dowbiggin, were adamant that Henry Pedris must die.  They wanted to use Pedris to teach other national leaders a lesson. Pedris was seen as an easy, soft target.

A military court, comprised of three military judges was convened and Pedris was tried on 1 July 1915; a death sentence was passed on him on the same day.  He did not have appeal rights.  A request for clemency was made to King George V by the family and several others but that was rejected.

On 7 July 1915 Pedris was killed by a firing squad. 

Even immediately prior to his death, Pedris showed bravery.   

After he was sentenced to death, he demanded that he should be shot by a Punjabi firing squad, and not by a white British firing squad.  He stated that Punjabi soldiers were Non-Christian and Asian. His request was granted.  A Punjabi firing squad was rushed to Sri Lanka from India.

When blindfold was afforded to him, Pedris rejected it.  He faced death without any fear.  Until he was twice shot to death, he held his head high.

A remarkable incident took place at the time of the execution. The Additional District Judge of  Colombo, Arthur Charles Allnut, a graduate of the Oxford University and a member of the Ceylon Civil Service, had ordered that the 86 Sinhala Buddhist nationalists who were detained in Welikada Prison at that time (over the Sinhala/Muslim riots) should witness the shooting of Pedris.  Thus they were lined up in the verandah outside of the  L-Hall of Welikada Prison, and were compelled to watch Henry Pedris being shot to death.  Among the inmates were DS Senanayake, DR Wijewardane, FR Senanayake, Edwin Wijeyeratne, DB Jayathilaka, Dr Cassius Pereira, Dr WA De Silva, ET De Silva, FR Dias Bandaranaike, Dr CA Hewavitharana (Anagarika Dharmapala’s brother), H Amarasuriya, AH Molamure and AE Goonesinghe.

The cream of the country’s nationalist leaders was arrested. This is evidence that the British were using the Sinhala – Muslim riot as a pretext to punish them.  Furthermore, the immense fear that the British had that attempts may be made during that time to overthrow the regime.

Even a person with no legal knowledge would realise that Pedris had done nothing to commit High Treason.  Basically, he had done no offence to deserve such a harsh punishment – the death sentence.

Pedris was buried in Borella Kanaththa. The father, who owned several burial plots in Borella Cemetery managed to bury him in one of those plots.  The British was unaware of this. Later, the family built a large commemoration plaque in his memory. It is stated that it exists to this day.

Pedris’ father died as an extremely dejected man. His main hope was that his son would take over his vast business empire one day.  That dream was shattered.  He lost his two sons-in laws as they were also incarcerated in Welikada and Jaffna jails. The parents out of their own money built Isipathanarama Viharaya in Colombo 5 (Isipathana Road) and offered it to Maha Sangha. They did many other meritorious  deeds – constructing a Pilgrims Rest in Polonnaruwa was one. The mother, Mallino,  died as a Dasa Sil Upasikawa. In 1920 she gifted valuable land to Mallikarama Temple in Dematagoda. This is a major Buddhist temple in Dematagoda today.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The Tamil Separatist Movement tried to use the laws of the country, to stop Kurundi from blossoming forth as a new venue for   Buddhist pilgrims.  Tamil Separatist Movement filed cases in the Magistrate court and Supreme Court against the archaeological work at Kurundi Vihara.  

 TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran filed a petition in the Supreme Court in August 2021 against the commencement of excavations at the Kurundi Vihara in Mullaitivu, which he called the largest Buddhist shrine in the Northern Province. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister of State Vidura Wickramanayake and Commissioner General of Archaeology Prof. Anura Manatunga were named as respondents.

Following this, the Buddhists also turned to the law. They ignored the Magistrate courts which have no authority to deal with the actions of the Department of Archaeology and focused on the Supreme Court instead. There are several cases pending in Supreme Court, submitted by them.

None of these cases have gone to trial yet. There is nothing in the public domain about them either.  There should be more publicity for these cases. The judgments should be given in the media.  The public should attend the hearings to show support for Kurundi. It will not be difficult to collect a group of Buddhists for this.

The law appears to    favor Kurundi, not the kovil.  The Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978) carries special mention of Buddhism. Clause 9 of the Constitution states:  The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).

 In 1994, Supreme Court expanded on what is meant by Buddha Sasana”. The Supreme Court in SC Determination 1/94 (1994) held that  The expression ‘Buddha Sasana’ is wider than ‘Buddhism’ and includes the entireestablishment together with objects and places of religious practices and worship of Buddhists”. The term Buddha Sasana could be extended to include Maha Sangha, archaeological sites, villages, lands and the properties feeding Buddhist temples and vihara. Supreme Court also said that it is mandatory for the country to be under the authority of a central Government in order to give full effect to Article 9. [1] Kurundi vihara has been declared a registered temple by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana.

Buddhist ruins considered to be of archaeological value are governed by the Antiquities Ordinance No 9 of 1940, amended by Act no 24 of 1998 and Act no 12 of 2005. There are several clauses in the Antiquities Ordinance which can be used against the so-called Kovil at Kurundi. The Antiquities Ordinance says:

Clause 33.  The Director-General of Archaeology may- (a) with the approval of the Land Commissioner, or (b) if approval is refused by the Land Commissioner, with the approval of the Minister to whom the subject of State lands is for the time being assigned, declare, by notification published in the Gazette, any specified area of that land to be an archaeological reserve for the purposes of this Ordinance

Clause 31. Any person who- (a) willfully destroys, injures, defaces or tampers with any protected monument or any ancient monument on State land; or (b) does in, upon, to, near or in respect of any ancient monument which is held sacred or in veneration by any class of persons, any act which wounds or offends or is likely to wound or offend the religious susceptibilities of the class of persons by whom such ancient monument is held sacred or in veneration, shall be guilty of an offence and shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other written law, be liable on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate to a fine not less than fifty thousand rupees and not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not less than two years and not exceeding five years or to both such fine and imprisonment

Clause 34. Every person (other than the Director-General of Archaeology, or a person acting under and in accordance with his directions) who- (a) clears or breaks up for cultivation or cultivates any part of an archaeological reserve, or (b) erects any building or structure upon any such reserve, or (c) fells or otherwise destroys any tree standing on any such reserve, or [ 5, 12 of 2005] (d) otherwise encroaches on any such reserve, shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, be liable to a fine not less than one thousand rupees and not exceeding five thousand rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding three months or to both such fine and imprisonment, and the Magistrate may, in addition to passing any such sentence, make order that such person shall be forthwith ejected from such reserve

Clause 15C. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, No. 15 of 1979 or any other written law, no person charged with, or accused of an offence under this Ordinance shall be released on bail. 

P.N. Mandawela, former Director of Archaeology, speaking at a discussion on Kurundi  said that when the Department of Archaeology   wishes to declare any area as an archaeology reserve, the Department must first obtain the consent of the Land Commission, and then it must issue a Gazette declaring that land to be an archaeology reserve. The reserve thereafter belongs permanently to the state. There is no provision in the law to give it back.

An archaeological reserve is a protected area.  A person can enter an archaeology reserve only with the permission of the Director of Archaeology .It is a   criminal offence to enter, to destroy the artifacts and structures or even cut down a tree on that site, said   Mandawela  

The administration of an archaeology reserve falls within the purview of the Central Government and not the Provincial government.  This is stated in the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution.

An archaeology reserve needs a buffer zone beyond the boundary. The Antiquities Ordinance does not have provision for a buffer zone but there is provision for a buffer zone in the law relating to Monuments. A group of buildings, like at Kurundi, can also be classed as a Monument. Director, Archaeology has the   authority to control activity in the buffer zone. It is now time to declare the buffer zone for Kurundi said Archaeology Department officials. Once that it done, the Department can issue regulations for the entire area.  (Continued)

---

[1] https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/The-Significance-of-Article-of-the-Constitution-Should-or-could-it-be-removed-/172-140765

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The West passed its first regulation on religious sites in 1935. World War I was over and World War II was looming. The Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments, known as the Roerich Pact, was signed by the states of the Pan-American Union in 1935.

Article 1 of the 1935 Roerich Pact says the historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions shall be considered as neutral and as such respected and protected by belligerents. The same respect and protection shall be accorded to the historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions in time of peace as well as in war.

The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is the main international instrument for the protection of cultural property during armed conflicts.  Cultural property includes museums, libraries, archives, archaeological sites and monuments, both religious and secular.

The Hague Convention is about   cultural property in time of war, but it can be extended to times of peace as well. It is absurd to suggest that religious sites must be protected in war so that they can be destroyed when peace comes.

The Hague regulations were revised in later years.  Article 53 of Geneva Protocol 1 (1977) prohibited any hostile act directly against historical monuments, works of art or places of worship.  Protocol 2   demanded that inventories of cultural sites be prepared during peace time. Also a competent authority responsible for the safeguarding of cultural property be set up.

The revised   Hague regulations also stipulated respect for cultural property. Countries should not permit any form of theft, pillage, misappropriation or any acts of vandalism directed against cultural property. They must refrain from reprisals as well.

The international community decided that an intentional attack on a place of worship or cultural property may be considered a war crime.  The agency assigned to judge war crimes is the International Criminal Court, Hague.

TheInternational Criminal Court, Hague has jurisdiction over war crimes committed against cultural property in international and non-international armed conflict. The first prosecution under this statute was for destroying   sacred mausoleums at Timbuktu,   Mali in 2012.

 The Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted by the UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, Rome, 17 July 1998, said: Pursuant to Article 8(2) (b) (ix) and (e) (iv) of the 1998 ICC Statute, intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, or  historic monuments … constitutes a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts.

The UN is mainly interested in the religious rights of minorities and religious discrimination against a religious group but in the process religious sites also get a mention. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) enshrines the right to manifest religion or belief in a community with others, including in worship.  And this included the building of places of worship.

Article 4 of ICCPR says all States should take measures to combat religious intolerance in legislation and all aspects of life including civil, economic, political, social and cultural life. Article 6 indicates that freedom of religion includes the freedom to establish and maintain places   of worship. States must ensure that religious places, sites, shrines, and other symbols are fully respected and protected, including when vulnerable to desecration or destruction.

UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief(1981) Article 4: All States should take measures to combat religious intolerance in legislation and all aspects of life including civil, economic, political, social and cultural life.Article 6: The right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief includes specific freedoms, beginning with the freedom to worship or assemble.

UN Resolution 55/254 of 31 May 2001, entitled Protection of religious sites”, says that religious sites are representative of the history, social fabric and traditions of people and should be fully respected as such. The Resolution condemns all acts or threats of violence, destruction, damage or endangerment, directed   against religious sites. (Clause 1)

On 21 January 2021 the UN passed Resolution 75/258: Promoting a culture of peace and tolerance to safeguard religious sites A/RES/75/258.   This resolution condemnsall acts or threats of violence, destruction, damage or endangerment, directed against religious sites and denounces any moves to obliterate or forcibly convert any religious site. (Continued)

Colonel Douglas MacGregor and Stephen Gardner update on the Russia Ukraine war news as well as the Israel Gaza situation. They discussed various geopolitical issues in the current global landscape. Ukrainian President Zelensky’s claims that Putin and Russia could be behind attacks on Israel raise questions about the motivation behind these statements—whether to demonize Putin, shift attention to Ukraine, or hold any truth. Despite millions of Ukrainians fleeing, and 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured, Zelensky remains confident in winning the war against Putin, prompting speculation about his true beliefs or potential use of acting skills. Concerns about NATO’s influence on Zelensky’s decisions arise, particularly in the context of ongoing war dynamics. General Michael Flynn’s prior investigation into military money laundering, coupled with the Pentagon’s admission of an inability to account for $3 trillion, raises questions about financial transparency in military operations. Zelensky’s claims of multiple assassination attempts and statements about Ukraine’s right to take out Putin are scrutinized for their accuracy and potential impact on the conflict. The escalation of drone attacks on Kiev by Russia prompts considerations about the frequency of capital attacks in ongoing conflicts and the potential motivations behind such actions. The aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel raises concerns about increased threats to US military bases worldwide as the Israel-Gaza situation persists. Saudi Arabia’s warning to wake up the Middle East against Israel if attacks continue is evaluated for its credibility and potential consequences. Retired Army Colonel Karl Nell’s call for transparency in government, CIA, and UFO programs adds an unconventional dimension to the conversation, questioning the existence of secret knowledge and off-world technology. The age of military leadership comes under scrutiny as the discussion shifts to the potential risks of an 81-year-old commander in chief leading the military. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement on hostage negotiations prompts inquiries into the participants and negotiation terms. Senator Lindsay Graham’s aggressive stance on attacking Iran and supporting Israel raises concerns about his influence on military decisions and the potential for a larger Middle East war due to Israel’s actions in Gaza. SEO keywords in this video: Colonel Douglas MacGregor, Zelensky, Putin, Ukraine, NATO, General Michael Flynn, money laundering, Pentagon, assassination attempts, Russia, drone attacks, Kiev, US military, Israel-Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Retired Army Colonel Karl Nell, government transparency, CIA, UFO programs, off-world technology, age of military leadership, Benjamin Netanyahu, hostage negotiations, Senator Lindsay Graham, Iran, Middle East war, global geopolitics, military influence, financial transparency, war dynamics, global conflicts, October 7 attack, geopolitical issues, international relations, secret knowledge, military bases, crisis management, political statements, conflict resolution, international negotiations, Col. Douglas Macgregor, Stephen Gardner, Israel, Russia, Arabs, Allahu Akbar, Hamas, sleeper cells, Belarus, Ukraine, war, stalemate, Putin, health, propaganda, contacts, military intelligence, Janet Yellen, fund wars, fake money, IDF, ground attack, diplomacy, Turkey, Jordan, Zelenskyy, ally, danger, fighter jet, China, international waters, provoke, Persian Gulf, oil, protect, intimidate, Israel, Gaza City, hostages, land war, hot war, United States, Middle East, attack on Israel, Qatar, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, intelligence background, globalism, 9/11, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, sleeper cells, illegal crossings, border security, religious fever, free borders, Henry Kissinger, Southern border, immigration, variants of COVID, screening for ideas, George W. Bush, cold-blooded killers, negotiation with terrorists, former President, National Security, News Nation, Criminal Justice, TikTok, Instagram, The Unexpected Spy, correspondent, adjunct professor, Texas Christian University, counterterrorism, US terrorists list, policy decisions, invasion, property rights, human safety, ownership, former FBI agent, former CIA operative, hot war in the Middle East, Palestinian rallies, globalism and world commerce, international relations, negotiation with terrorist organizations, national security threats

Mazen Canada

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The relics unearthed from the Deegawapiya site during the excavations and the Crest-Gem, which are in exposition around the island to provide the devotees with an opportunity to pay their homage will be brought to ‘Sri Sumana Saman Dewalaya’, Rathnapura on Sunday (Dec 24).

The devotees have the opportunity to worship the Sacred Omniscient Relics and Crest-Gem at ‘Sri Sumana Saman Dewalaya’, Rathnapura on December 24, 25 and 26. Subsequently, the procession carrying the ‘Crest-Gem’ and ‘Sacred Omniscient Relics’ is scheduled to arrive at ‘Vidyawardhanaramaya’, Kuruwita on 27.

Eventually, arrangements have been made for the exposition of these revered articles at ‘Vidyawardhanaramaya’, Kuruwita on December 27 and 28 and at ‘Madarasingharamaya, Eheliyagoda on 29 and 30.

Further, the devotees have the opportunity to support this meritorious act by making financial contributions to the restoration project while worshipping the Sacred Omniscient Relics and Crest-Gem of the Deegawapiya Stupa.

Manusha Media

කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට වසර සියයක් සම්පූර්ණවීම නිමිත්තෙන් නිකුත් කරන ලද සියවස් සමරු මුද්දරය ඊයේ (21) එළි දක්වනු ලැබූ අතර එහි පළමු මුද්දරය හා මුල් දින කවරය කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා විසින් 1994 වසරේ සිය 2000 වසර දක්වා කම්කරු ඇමැතිවරයා වශයෙන් කටයුතු කළ හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා වෙත ප්‍රදානය කරනු ලැබුවේය.

කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට වසර සියයක් සම්පූර්ණවීම නිමිත්තෙන් පාසල් මට්ටමින් මුද්දර නිර්මාණ තරගයක්  පවත්වා තිබූ අතර එම තරගයෙන් ජයගත් හොරණ තක්ෂිලා මධ්‍ය විද්‍යාලයේ පී.ජී.ඩී. අදීෂා සෙව්නුලි දියණියගේ නිර්මාණය මුද්දරය සදහා යොදාගෙන තිබුණි. එහි දෙවැනි ස්ථානය දිනාගත් එම විද්‍යාලයේම සෙනුලි බිහන්ගා විජේසේකර දියණියගේ නිර්මාණය මුල් දින කවරය ලෙස යොදාගෙන තිබුණි.

මෙරට කම්කරු ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ප්‍රගමනය උදෙසා කටයුතු කළ සියලු දෙනා වෙනුවෙන් මෙම මුද්දරය සහ මුල් දින කවරය නිකුත් කරන බව කම්කරු හා විදේශ රැකියා අමාත්‍ය මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා මෙහිදී සදහන් කළේය.

කම්කරු දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට වසර 101ක් ගතවීමට පෙර නව රැකි රක්ෂා පනත ගෙන එමින් මෙරට කම්කරු ක්ෂේත්‍රය උඩු යටිකුරු කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන බවත්, මෙතෙක් කම්කරු ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ පැවති අඩුපාඩු සියල්ලටම විසදුමක් සහ ශ්‍රමයට නිසි ගරුත්වයක් ලබාදීමට නව රැකි රක්ෂා පනත මගින් අවකාශය උදාවන බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා පැවසුවේය.

නූතන වැඩ ලෝකයට ගැලෙපන ශ්‍රමිකයින් නිර්මාණය වන, ව්‍යවසායකයින් හා ආයෝජනවලට හිතකරවීමත් සමග ශ්‍රමිකයින් ආරක්ෂා කරන හා ඔවුන්ගේ සමාජ සුබසාධනය පුළුල් කරන යුගයකට ගමන් කරමින් සිටින බවද, නව රැකි රක්ෂා පනත මගින් දියුණු රටක් බිහි කිීමේ මූලික පියවර තබන බවද අමාත්‍යවරයා කීවේය. ඒ සදහා සියලු දෙනාගේම සහායද අමාත්‍යවරයා ඉල්ලා සිටියේය.

මෙම අවස්ථාවට එක්ව සිටින හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා කම්කරු ප්‍රඥප්තිය ගෙන ඒම නිසාම ඇමැතිධූරයෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට ලක්වූ දක්ෂ නායකයෙක් බවද ලාබාලම කම්කරු ඇමැතිවරයා ලෙස ඔහු තැබූ වාර්තාව තමන් විසින් බිද දමා ඇති බවද වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ මනුෂ නානායක්කාර මහතා පැවසුවේය.