Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

On Collective Humanity: Remembering Black July


MAATRAM-07/31/2018

“If the majority thinks that a minority community is posing a threat to them or are developing in a manner that creates fear among them, then it is a problem for the majority.”
In this interview, documentary film-maker T Jeyaraj comments on the formation of nationalist movements that resulted in violence in July 1983. He draws parallels to recent riots in March, where Buddhists targeted the Muslim community.
He also draws attention to recent news reports of the leopard-killing in Kilinochchi and the way it was reported by certain media as indicative of cruelty and inhumanity, while the inhumanity displayed in 1983, 2009 and during the riots in Digana and Ampara in 2018 remains unexamined.
This video interview is part of an ongoing series by Maatram reflecting on Black July.
To view more content marking 35 years since Black July, click here.

‘Criminal liability cannot be avoided by private arrangement’

Jaffna UNP MP’s call for reviving LTTE: 


06 Ms.Vijayakala Maheswaran-  Women̢۪s Affairs

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By Shamindra Ferdinando-July 31, 2018, 11:53 pm

Criminal liability couldn’t be avoided by ‘private arrangement’ under any circumstances, top constitutional lawyer Manohara de Silva PC said yesterday.

There was inordinate delay on the part of the Attorney General in dealing with Jaffna District UNP MP and former State Minister for Child Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran over her July 2 call for revival of the LTTE, De Silva said.

The previous government brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009.

The President’s Counsel said so when The Island asked him whether legal action was needed to be taken against the lawmaker in the wake of the UNP promising further disciplinary action in addition to Maheswaran’s resignation from her ministerial post.

Manohara de Silva said that the media, too, was responsible to a certain extent for its ‘poor’ reportage of the developments following Mrs. Maheswaran’s controversial speech at the Weerasingham Hall, Jaffna in the presence of several serving politicians, including Foreign Minister and former Attorney General Tilak Marapana and Public Administration Minister Vajira Abeywardena.

De Silva said that Mrs. Maheswaran quit her portfolio on July 5 following the uproar in parliament while Speaker Karu Jayasuriya sought the Attorney General’s opinion.

"Let me explain. The UNP taking action against Mrs. Maheswaran is an internal matter. But, such action cannot justify the Attorney General neglecting his responsibilities," De Silva said.

Asked whether the Attorney General had to file an indictment in accordance with Article 157 A against Mrs Maheswaran within a stipulated time frame, the President’s Counsel said: "No specific time but within reasonable time."

The senior attorney at law pointed out that a month had lapsed since Mrs. Maheswaran threw her weight behind the LTTE rump. Commenting on Speaker Jayasuriya seeking Attorney General’s opinion on Mrs. Maheswaran’ s statement, the President’s Counsel said the Attorney General could act on his own.

Vijayakala successfully contested the Jaffna electoral District on the UNP ticket after the LTTE assassinated her husband MP T. Maheswaran on January 1, 2008, at Kotahena.

Maheswaran’s LTTE assassin was sentenced to death by Colombo High Court Judge Sunil Rajapaksha on Aug 27, 2012.

Asked whether the Joint Opposition or some nationalist organization could intervene in this matter, Manohara de Silva said now that the Attorney General had refrained from acting in this regard, the Court of Appeal could be moved by anyone.

The Attorney General could be made to fulfill his obligations by filing a writ of mandamus, he said.

The constitutional lawyer pointed out that in accordance with Article 157 A, even indirectly supporting secession was also an indictable offence.

The police could not take action as only the Attorney had the power to indict a person.

The President’s Counsel recently told The Island that as there was sufficient evidence that the primary objective of the LTTE was to divide the country on ethnic lines, reviving the terrorist group therefore amounted to encouraging terrorism.

He said that the government and the Opposition ignored previous attempts by Mrs. Maheswaran to incite people. In Dec 2017, the then State Minister alleged in Jaffna that 200,000 Tamils had been massacred along with their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the final phase of the war in 2009. Such a claim was meant to influence the Tamil electorate at Feb 10, 2018 Local Government polls, the National Joint Committee member said, asserting the battle among Tamil politicians shouldn’t be at Sri Lanka’s expense.

Manohara de Silva said that Mrs. Maheswaran’s conduct as a parliamentarian should have been scrutinized long before her July 2 speech. Once she compared President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe with terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran at a government event in the northern province, the President’s Counsel said. Unfortunately, Mrs. Maheswaran escaped disciplinary action thereby paving the way for the ultimate challenge to the government.

Carcinogenic Kumar: Thanks, But No Thanks

logoIn the year 2018, when France has a Macron, Croatia has a Kolinda Grabar and even Pakistan, a country with an estimated literacy rate of just 58%, elected an Imran Khan backed by its army in a moment of dangerous hope, the editor of Colombo Telegraph, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya has shown poor taste in sharing a two year old post from 2017 proposing Kumar Sangakkara for the Presidency of Sri Lanka. This post suggests that Sangakkara is of presidential material based on the fact that he ‘renounced’ the captaincy of the Sri Lanka cricket team. I translate his 2017 Facebook post: “what is needed are leaders who can renounce power. What Sri Lanka lacks is just that. What would happen if someone like Kumar Sangakkara emerges for 2020?”
Dangerous Memes Inflate Dangerous Men
Little does the editor Colombo Telegraph realize the danger of being an originator of a dangerous meme. It is irresponsible for a senior journalist of his political and professional maturity to propagate the myth that Kumar Sangakkara, ex cricket captain of Sri Lanka merits presidential hopes for an array of reasons. This meme has resurfaced with the election of Imran Khan to the premiership of Pakistan after two decades of tireless political activism and investment. The conversation in the media suggests that the presidency of Sri Lanka should be offered on a golden platter to Sangakkara, cricketer and once national icon perhaps the only traits Sangakkara shares with Imran Khan.
Sangakkara is a human embodying the very concepts of sharp and cunning strategy. His fluent ‘accented’ English and pageantry brand of western sophistication that can be aspired to by the common man only in his dreams making him a ‘can-do –no –wrong” gentleman in the eyes of the gullible Sri Lankans. In a country tragically devoid of heroes, even a cricketer playing for millions of rupees as a salary is a savior prince; a messiah; a resurrected Jesus; an unearthed prophet. The pathetic extent of Sri Lankan tradition of persona worship and western sophistication worship is such. 
Love, Sex, Accountability and Transparency
Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lords, popularly considered “the most important speech in cricket history”. During this hall mark speech he stated “accountability and transparency in administration and credibility of conduct were lost in a mad power struggle that would leave Sri Lankan cricket with no clear, consistent administration”.
How sweet? It appears that Sangakkara is a big fan of yahapalana jigsaw pieces such as accountability and transparency. In 2015, an event organizing business called Live Events ‘pretended’ to organize a musical concert titled Love and Sex where Enrique Iglesias was to perform. Live Events, a company formed in the aftermath of Sangakkara’s retirement by himself, Mahela Jayawardena and others executed this event in a fashion amounting to daylight robbery and blatant disregard to any business ethic where the show did not start for over 3 hours and there was gross mismanagement of crowds, ripping off those who paid high prices for tickets .The company owned by Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena was reportedly involved in an estimated 30 million Sri Lankan rupees ($288,123) tax fraud in the form of evaded municipal tax due for this concert to the government. Sangakkara and Jayawardena who command great social and power clout due to their celebrity status wriggled out of this unprecedented entertainment cum business fraud with the following words: “although we know an apology or refund cannot fully satiate your disappointment, we wish to reiterate that we remain fully committed to all of you and our country,” Yeah. Some commitment to the people and the country. Transparency and accountability, anyone? Pity these Sri Lankan who think that such day light fraudsters will take us to a better place. 
Consistent Spokesperson For Cancer Causing Food Industry
From cement, telephone connections, shirts, substandard cars, three wheelers to supermarkets, Sangakkara has been a rampant endorser of goods putting his mouth where money is.

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US to ‘support Sri Lanka fulfill UN resolution’

Home
31Jul 2018
The United States said it will continue to “support Sri Lanka as it fulfills its commitments” to a United Nations resolution calling for an accountability mechanism with foreign judges to examine violations of international law committed during the armed conflict.
US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Robert Hilton met with the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, where he “assured” him of the continued US support to fulfill the resolution.
“Assured Chief Minister Wigneswaran that the U.S. continues to support #SriLanka as it fulfills its commitments under #UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 (2015) and 34/1 (2017),” tweeted Mr Hilton. 
“These commitments facilitate Sri Lanka’s expanded relationship with the U.S. and many others nations.”
Earlier this month the outgoing US Ambassador told the Tamil National Alliance that the UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability and transitional justice would remain a basis for the relationship between Sri Lanka and the USA,
Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena has repeatedly spoken out against allowing foreign judges into the country to partake in an accountability mechanism – a key component of the 2017 UN Human Rights resolution. Despite this military relations between the two governments have grown.

Need for a democratic political culture

A group of politicians overthrown by the voters with their cohorts seem to scramble through the present political arena of the country crafting their strategies to grab the power in the forthcoming elections, be it the presidential elections or elections for the provincial councils.

We the general public have got to be politically conscious of their manoeuvres, for their detrimental nature can drag the country into the abysmal depths of chauvinism and anarchy. This must be said because the about-face of the political landscape of the country is more than the indiscipline of expected democratic political culture. The harder truth is that many politicians have no productive options except pouring eloquence on building political images.

Admittedly, this stubborn reality has to be done away with if a coherent democratic political culture is to be firmly established to steer the country out of this stenching political bog. What I mean by a democratic political culture is the genuine political will of both politicians and the people as the basic requirement for democracy to flourish. In a democratic political culture, particularly men or women who lead political parties are not worshipped as idols but they are open to public scrutiny and criticism. To our dismay, what is happening today is not taking ardent efforts or taking appropriate decisions for nation building but venerating their own political leader as a god given personality heaping all the virtues on him as the only saviour of the country. These cohorts act almost impulsively not to speak out about political issues that impact the good governance and development process of the country, but to idolize their leader as the best political figure. In a way, they bring out this hazard for achieving their own political elements, for it is quite clear, many of them will be dumped into the political dustbin by the people if they do not hang themselves onto the colours of their leaders.

Chauvinism

The dirtiest and worst strategy a politician can adapt to get him hooked to the power is to run on the wheel of chauvinism. Some garrulous and unself-conscious politicians who describe themselves as the political whiz kids of the day seem to go to the wilderness of chauvinism merely to evoke emotions among the people depicting a picture that the country is on the verge of being engulfed in flames of yet another internecine war.

There is a high price to pay if we emotionally involve the people in such notions that can kindle their emotions particularly when it comes to the topic of national security and integrity. Therefore, any utterances made towards chauvinism are likely to be fraught with the risk of dragging the country to the shimmers of the turmoil of ethnic disharmony. Elimination and annihilation of any views pertaining to chauvinistic politics must be one of the priorities of the genuine peace loving politicians and the members of the civil society.

Concerted efforts

It is high time we brought in consensus among all the politicians of various hues and all the communities to lay down a common framework for a democratic political culture that will pave the way for establishing a new society to work for the common goal of nation-building without being trapped in communal politics.

Any attempts that deter such a move by any politician or an individual must be looked down upon. Politicians should not degrade themselves to such situations for running on the wave of communal politics for selfishly achieving their personal political goals. It is the responsibility of the existing government to initiate on a campaign with the full cooperation of the other political parties to have a very compressive discussion for the stipulation of the fundamentals of such a framework that can be accepted and followed by all the political parties of the country.

What is badly needed in the post-war period of the country is to work for creating a democratic political culture that can take firm roots in the Sri Lankan society and it will then leave no room for communal tension and disharmony between the ethnic groups. Though attempts have been made by the governments for constructing a bridge for national integration, they have not so far been able to create a conducive political culture where all the masses of the country irrespective of the ethnic group and religious faiths become committed to being active members striving to build a Sri Lankan society.

Voters’ responsibility

It has been a common phenomenon in the Sri Lankan political scenario that the majority of the voters are blindly glued to their respective political parties or allies. They are not used to critically looking into the policies of their political parties and then to decide on the political party to be brought into power. If a stalwart of their political party commits a heinous crime and is convicted by a court, what the voters do is to make big efforts to find excuses to wash him or her of the wrongdoing merely for the sake of winning the elections. Yet what should be the primary duty of the voters in a democratic political culture? Whatever they do or any decisions they take must be to protect the democratic culture.\

If a politician of his party behaves in an undemocratic manner, it is the duty of the voter to reject him even though he is a big personality. But, our political culture does not seem to have grown to such heights. The main repercussion of this situation has therefore been to persistently strengthen the decaying and rotten values that hamper the process of building a democratic political culture for the country.

Tragic story of betrayal of a dignified service

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” ~Aung San Suu Kyi

2018-08-01

eylon Civil Service, later transformed into Sri Lanka Administrative Service, has been a dignified public service.‘It functioned as part of the executive administration of the country in various degrees until Ceylon gained self-rule in 1948. Until it was abolished on 1 May 1963 it functioned as the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supported the Government of Ceylon’ (Source: Wikipedia).
Among the great men who peopled this strikingly distinct public service were Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam (The first Ceylonese Civil Servant), Shirley Amarasinghe, Raju Coomaraswamy, Sir Richard Aluvihare, M J Perera, G V P Samarasinghe, Bradman Weerakoon, M D D Peiris and Mahi Wickremaratne.

"Yet, Lalith Weeratunga’s assertions that the Rajapaksa Family is the sole political entity that could serve the needs of the people of Sri Lanka are a gross abuse of his office as a senior member of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS)."

Outside the Civil Service per se, there were some outstanding public servants, who contributed immensely to the enrichment of the public life of the nation. Amongst them were Dr Wickrema Weerasooria, Lal Jayawardene and Warnasena Rasaputra.
All these gentlemen were not devoid of politics. They certainly would have had their personal political thinking and even might have had their personal biases right throughout their careers.
Yet, they did not go before the television cameras and openly canvass public opinion on behalf of their masters.
That is the legacy, in addition to their splendid work as public servants, which they left behind- a total apolitical demeanour before the public.
How does a political bearing of a public servant, especially during the time of an election, matter and how does that particular behaviour colour the public service as a whole?

That is the question each public servant in the country is faced with today and what Lalith Weeratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Secretary during the eight years of their power, did during those vile years and what he is portraying himself to be is laughable.
Today Lalith Weeratunga is an alleged offender.
The allegation that he was one of the key people in the alleged abuse of State money for the purchase of the infamous Sil Redi in order to sway the voters of Sinhalese Buddhist ilk is a formidable one.

How he would be plotting to extricate himself in courts of law is another matter altogether.
Yet, Lalith Weeratunga’s assertions that the Rajapaksa Family is the sole political entity that could serve the needs of the people of Sri Lanka are a gross abuse of his office as a senior member Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS).
After being a direct beneficiary of the Rajapaksa rule and presiding over a public service that was subjected to total apathy and subservience to one single family rule, Weeratunga now resorts to justifying the rule of the Rajapaksas on grounds of speedy action and decision-making processes that were present during that time.
After being the most dominant public servant during the Rajapaksa regime, the inevitable message sent down the well-structured layers of the SLAS is one of ‘It’s okay to look the other way when politicians resort to looting the Government coffers’.

The grave damage  caused to the once-dignified SLAS is incredible. What is even more injurious is what he has chosen to do after his retirement from serving the Rajapaksa family instead of the country.
Whatever Weeratunga’s defence his lawyers are contemplating, his association with Mahinda Rajapaksa from the outset of the Helping Hambantota fiasco (From which Mahinda Rajapaksa was acquitted by the then Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, whose political allegiances continue to change as the country’s un-forecastable weather), has been solid and unbreakable. Nevertheless, Sarath N. Silva later apologized to the people of Sri Lanka for rendering a ‘wrong’ decision in the Helping Hambantota case.

"The allegation that he was one of the key people in the alleged abuse of State money for the purchase of the infamous of Sil Redi in order to sway the voters of Sinhalese Buddhist ilk is a formidable one."

Rajapaksas have a very obscure and indefinable relationship with facts.
Having been comforted by the luxuries of absolute power from 2005 to 2014, they are still living in that exalted cocoon from which they seem utterly uncomfortable to come out.
This happens to all dictatorial leaders.
Chanakya, the sage of the ancient world said that ‘the ultimate goal of all rulers should be to make their subjects free of fear’. The Rajapaksas have done the exact opposite.
Having installed his own brother in the Ministry of Defence as its administrative and financial head, Mahinda Rajapaksa unleashed some of the worst and atrocious forces against the people who chose to defy them.

Lalith Weeratunga was indeed an integral part of that wheel of fear and terror. A complete public servant like M D D Peiris who was one time Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike would have shuddered and handed his resignation if he were asked to look the other way.
Speaking of a public service of the past is utterly useless unless one needs to see where some constructive changes could be introduced and implemented. That public service is gone and is a derelict of the dead past.
The current crop of public servants who are dominating the upper echelons of SLAS might not be unrelenting in carrying out the government policies, but their commitment and allegiance to facts, accountability and transparency seem to have fallen by the wayside.
If there were one person who could be singularly responsible for such a sharp fall in the public service in Sri Lanka, it was Lalith Weeratunga.
His close relationship with Mahinda Rajapaksa made his visibility to the public even more distinct.
Lalith Weeratunga appeared on television and other radio talk shows during the last Presidential Election campaign.

"After being the most dominant public servant during the Rajapaksa regime ..Weeratunga’s demeanour reveals a picture that ‘it’s okay to look the other way when politicians resort to looting the Government coffers’."


They are indeed inexcusable. No public servant has done before and no public servant has done since.
Secretary to the President is an apolitical job. He may have his own personal political allegiances and likes. Yet, those who are chosen to that service, Sri Lanka Administrative Service, are deemed to have ridden themselves of that political garb when they execute government policies.
It is one thing to implement policies and programmes dictated by the Cabinet of Ministers who are politicians but to openly exhibit undiluted bias and prejudices towards a political vision is no embellishment to his professional career.
The writer has chosen a quotation from Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic new leader of Myanmar.
She couldn’t have been more correct. The loss of power for Mahinda Rajapaksa was deeply felt by his immediate family and close cohorts. Lalith Weeratunga belongs to the latter category- close cohorts.

That loss of power and a faint hope of regaining that power could be all-consuming. There is no aphrodisiac more powerful than power, so said Henry Kissinger. That love of power has turned into a lust; that lust is driving them into a corner, not of reflection on their mistakes and erroneous decisions; it has turned their attention to a more immediate need- how to regain that power.
In that pursuit of lust, they are trying to legitimize and validate their wrongful decisions not in the way a scientist trying to rectify an entry of wrong facts into a scientific formula but as a hungry predator pursuing a helpless and unarmed prey running for its life. That is the tragic story of a dignified service to which Lalith Weeratunga belongs.


The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com

Gota’s conspiracy hatched in Vihara: his ‘military junta’ to create an LTTE ‘ghost’ under guise of searching for buried LTTE weapons !


LEN logo(Lanka e News -31.July.2018, 11.45PM) The search  for the arms and gold  hidden by the LTTE which is being  carried out by digging at various places. Though nothing was found these  operations are well planned and conducted by the pensioned military major General junta who are now  moving heaven and earth to propel Gotabaya to power.
During the initial stages  following the good  governance government coming into power , based on  spurious information employing various individuals searches for  weapons and gold  of the LTTE were conducted in the North. It is specially noteworthy , this is now a futile  routine operation so much so it is being carried out weekly.
The latest of this series of  excavation  was that conducted in the Ammankulam tank , Nallur , Jaffna on the 29 th by the security division on the information received that there was a large quantity of LTTE weapons there. However nothing was found. The previous week another search was conducted in the Maniyathottam tank in Jaffna town , based on information received that an LTTE plastic  barrel of war equipment was thrown into  that tank . There too nothing suspicious was found.
There is a  most perplexing side to  this racket : This area was captured by the army in 1996 during the period when Ratwatte was the defense minister , and not after the war was won in 2009.  The information which was not  received  during the 19 years -from  1996 until 2015 that is until  the Rajapakses were thrown out lock ,stock and barrel from power , is most intriguingly being received only now.  When it was  probed who these informants are ,…… That was the time Gotabaya had fled to America in fear of the war to work in Seven Eleven shops.
Following the conclusion of the war in 2009, five international organizations including Dash, Hello Trust , Sharp, as well as the SL army cleared the entire war zone - North and East of the claymore mines , killer bombs, tank destruction bombs  which were buried by the LTTE  , and now there remains only a small 27 kilometers area to be cleared. According to that team , the entire area can be cleared and completed by 2020.
While this is the true position , every week digging is being done  in vain for  hidden weapons despite the fact  the team which was digging in search of bombs hidden  one inch beneath could not find.  In the end nothing is found . Yet no punishment has still been meted to any informant who is providing false tip offs.
Discovering two bombs buried  in the zone where a war raged for  30 years is understandable.  .  Bombs which were left behind during the second world war are still being found in Europe.
Nevertheless , one need not be a war specialist to realize it is a waste of time,  money  and a direct  sabotage activity , to go on excavating  the tanks based on mere  spurious information , only to finally conclude  , nothing could be found.

The masterminds behind the search  for LTTE weapons inspired by bogus tip offs ..

The masterminds behind these sabotage stupid activities are none other than the retired  ‘ military junta’ of Gotabaya.
Gota’s ‘military junta’ is conducting these excavations employing their henchmen giving massive media publicity only  to  instill the fear  in the minds of  the people that ‘the  LTTE is rearing its head again’. The other lie they are propagating simultaneously is , the forces will be  evacuated from  the north.  The army commander of the north in response to that recently said , no camp of the forces will be withdrawn , neither are the forces going to be trimmed down  in the north.
Gota’s ‘military junta’ has formed a new organization under the name ‘ Hela Jathika Bala Muluwa’ . The meeting of this  group which was  held at Sambudhaloka Vihare , Lotus Road , Fort on the 3 rd, was joined in by retired major general Kamal Gunaratne alias Handikadal Kamal ,retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera , former air force commander Roshan Gunatileke and Elle Gunawansa Thera a notorious  culprit who is accused of collecting large sums of cash  from the Chinese , and was exposed  openly by New York Times.
This abominable group at the meeting discussed how to use the LTTE  ‘ghost’ to achieve their deadly and despicable goals , and the excavation  of tanks for LTTE weapons drama is an outcome  of the conspiracy hatched at the discussions.
Another retired major General W.A.R.Soysa , a former Petroleum Corporation Chairman  had also newly joined the ‘military junta’ . Under the name of ‘Ranaviru power for a united country’ he has originated another ‘creation’

Military Junta has already made Gota the president !

The military junta has planned and plotted  not only to topple the good governance government but even to crush the Lotus Bud  opposition , with a view to reinforce its own strength. Nevertheless , the Lotus Bud leaders Basil , Welgama and Vasu who are working  within the Democratic framework have started their campaign overtly and openly against the pressures exerted by the ‘military junta’.
‘From that side , a Prabhakaran is being demanded, from the South a Hitler is being demanded. Then where is the country headed ? In that event can the people live?  Can you sleep? Welgama openly questioned.  Vasu too  pointed out in public ‘ it is the need of the retired military officers to  form a military government’  .
It is a pity the ‘military junta’ that shows  no concern for national interests  has made Gota the ‘president’ already. They are even treating   the Rajapakse’ s MPs with disdain. While a former deputy minister was seated in the front row at Hotel Shangrila recently  when Gota delivered a lecture , the members of the junta told him to take a seat  in the rear row , and offered his seat to a former chief of the forces. The deputy minister who was enraged by this had remarked , ‘ if these fellows are like this even before seizing power , how will it be if they come to power?’
The major generals – the chiefs of Gota’s military junta treating the lower rank officers  and clashes resulting thereby have also become a common scene . These military junta members accustomed to their characteristic swelled headed ways disregard the lower officers. Consequently one major is already disillusioned with the military junta of Gota.
We can only say one thing about Gota’s journey ‘ he arrived too early’

-By a special correspondent-

-Translated by Jeff-
---------------------------
by     (2018-07-31 22:09:49)

This Is The Most Spineless Cabinet I’ve Been Part Of: Mangala

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Mangala Samaraweera
Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera in the course of a heated argument with Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne said that the current cabinet is the weakest he has ever been a part of.
The argument took place during the cabinet meeting this morning (July 31) when Senaratne sought Cabinet to approve a salary hike for railway workers.
Senaratne, who had along with Minister of Science, Technology, Research, Skills Development and Vocational Training Sarath Amunugama, met with striking railway workers yesterday, had promised to move Cabinet to meet their demands.
Samaraweera however had objected, pointing out that the Treasury as well as the President had agreed to streamline salary increments so that salary hikes will be uniform across sectors in accordance to a single formula. He pointed out further that ad hoc decisions on salaries could prompt other sectors to make similar demands.
Samaraweera insisted that a country cannot be governed in this manner.
Although the issue does not come under Senaratne’s ministerial purview, he continued to urge cabinet to give into the striking workers. Amunugama meanwhile argued that if the strike action is not dealt with there could be serious repercussions, especially for Advances Level students who are due to sit the examination in August.

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The missing ingredient in Sri Lankan classrooms: Uncertainty




 Wednesday, 1 August 2018

logoWhen perusing the prevailing dynamics of the Sri Lankan education system, I have observed that uncertainty is commonly considered antithetical to the objectives of education. Teachers and students intend to make learning rapid, convenient and free from ambiguity.

The exam-oriented teaching techniques in our country provides zero opportunities for students to experience uncertainty in classrooms. This approach is propelling students to memorise the syllabus where he or she could predict the exam questions, which ultimately hinders their thinking capabilities to handle turbulent situations.

Overview

What would be the outcome if we invited uncertainty into our classrooms and are we ready to do so? This question remains challenging because we detest uncertainty. It’s uncomfortable. In typical classrooms, lecturers frequently replace uncertainty with over-planned learning experiences. The lecturers would define the issues the students will solve, how they should solve them and would even shed light on the desired outcomes.


These types of learning experiences do not expose students to engage with uncertainty. It is a need of the hour to inject minute doses of uncertainty into classroom lessons daily as it engages students at the “analysis and above levels”. This would force the students to analyse what they know and what they don’t and to arrive at a decision about what needs to be done.

Error-facilitated learning

When students are inquired, students generate answers, concepts, ideas, etc. During the process, students are apt to make mistakes. When they are engrossed in uncertainty due to their incorrect answers, they are better seasoned to effectively encode and remember the accurate information.

Accommodating for confusion allows students to disrupt their beliefs whilst creating new paradigms of thinking which would be difficult to inculcate otherwise.

Accepting uncertainty

as an opportunity

A strong belief amongst many local and private institutes in Sri Lanka is that uncertainty fuels curricular chaos. As a result, the teachers are justified in attempting to eliminate it.

A sure-fire approach to iron out this resistance towards uncertainty, is through injecting ‘positive uncertainty’ into classroom sessions by providing opportunities for students to engage with the unknowns of a challenge in a well-structured environment.

For example, when students initiate their own methods of solving a given problem, teachers can inform in advance about key limitations, the key expectations of the problem and how additional assistance could be obtained if needed.

Although it is not clear during this phase as to how best the problem could be solved, students would still receive the direction to steer the doubts and confusions associated with the problem in an attempt to solve it on their own yet surrounded by ambiguity.

Focus on the ‘why’

Asking ‘why’ questions directly pilot students to move away from merely reading questions, which in most of the cases require to repeat back facts or summarised answers from the text. Much more holistically, ‘why’ questions can yield and spur dynamic thinking and critical discussions.

As uncertainty is an integral element of the ‘why’ question, this approach encourages students to engage in deeper and abstract thinking whilst submerging them to tackle turmoil.

The way forward

As Sri Lanka enters an extremely competitive international environment with a strategic intent of transforming the country into a modern economy, producing a well-rounded workforce embedded with market oriented skills is of paramount importance.

Sri Lankan students should be placed in a state of limbo with their beliefs whilst assisting them to fester in the uncertainty of their knowledge. This approach facilitates a journey towards better learning and to the breeding of strategic thinkers.

We need to ask ourselves: Have we socialised our students into the belief that uncertainty is bad? If so, our future workforce would avoid taking risks and struggle in handling turbulence.

(The writer possesses over four years of lecturing experience for professional as well as academic qualifications affiliated with several local and foreign institutes. He is a MBA holder from the Postgraduate Institute of Management – University of Sri Jayewardenepura.) 










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Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 09:21 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

July 31, Colombo: Sri Lanka Police have yesterday arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of selling drugs to two British rugby players, who died in Colombo in May due to the use of contaminated heroin.


The Colombo Fort Magistrate today remanded the suspect, A. Senarath Premathilaka De Silva, a resident of Wellawatte until August 10

Two of the team of 22 British Rugby players arrived in Sri Lanka on 10th May to participate in a friendly Rugby tournament suddenly died after developing breathing difficulties.

The two players, 26-year-old Tom Betty and 25-year-old Thomas Howard have developed breathing difficulties after they visited a night club in Kollupitiya on 12th May. Thomas Howard died shortly after they were admitted to a private hospital in Colombo on the 13th while Betty died on the 15th.

The Colombo Fort Magistrate Court has ruled that the deaths were caused by the use of contaminated heroin.


The Fort Police earlier arrested a three-wheeler driver who drove the rugby players to purchase the drugs.

Fate of the disabled and carer


2018-08-01
A 67-year-old mother was reported to have murdered her 45-year-old disabled daughter after decades of torment. The crumbling shack where these two lived was displayed in ‘Lankadeepa’ newspaper on July 21. Her husband had left the family when marital issues related to a disabled child emerged. Rather than stoning the sinner, I would prefer to analyze the caregiver’s anguish in a social setup where disabled are shunned.  

Sri Lanka has many disability acts, but none practical. To make matters worse, “owning” a disabled child is attributed to previous sins committed by the parents by certain religious fractions. Hence, social stigma in bringing up a handicapped person is automatically created. In the above scenario, the 67-year-old mother might have attempted with all her might to care for her adult paralyzed daughter. Imagine moving and handling an adult patient by a weary old woman for four decades. Playing the role of the caregiver while trying to make ends meet. At the end the carer might have realised that she could not move any further.   

I see disabled patients and devastated families on a daily basis. Rehabilitation is not always possible as we fail at the point of social integration of the handicapped. Sri Lanka lacks a proper mechanism of financing a disabled patient. The allowance provided after many obstacles is barely adequate for even transportation.   
I was once in charge of a small spinal injury rehabilitation hospital in Pompaimadu, in Vavuniya district. We had patients from all walks of life, starting from ex-military cadres to traffic accident victims. Searching for employment opportunities was a failure, as even when generous employers offered jobs, disability/ wheelchair access at work places were an issue.   

Northern province alone is said to have more than 40,000 disabled people. Imagine a world class garment factory fully managed by the disabled in the north. This would be an international hit. The efficacy of the disabled patients would be more than a paid garment factory worker, if properly motivated.   
Sri Lanka needs to first of all accept the disabled. Community based rehabilitation does not cost if the citizens are ready to accept them. Making use of their capabilities would be the second step. Certain research shows that the commonest cause of death of a wheelchair bound patient is suicide.The average age of suicide is 50. This happens when the last few people who actually cared for the disabled, usually their parents die. We live in a country where compassion towards all living beings is preached via all forms of media. Yet Sri Lankans aren’t still prepared to walk their talk and make a change in the attitude towards disabled.