Is The President Acting “Against The Country”
By R. Sampanthan -June 17, 2014
R Sampanthan MP
I wish to make a statement to place on record the position of the Tamil National Alliance regarding the Motion that has been put forward for debate and related matters of public importance. It is indeed ironic that the government now at this late stage seeks the imprimatur of Parliament for its own dire failings. This government, which has so brazenly turned Parliament into an object of ridicule – by enticing unscrupulous members of the opposition to cross over for personal gain and by providing executive posts to almost half the members of the house – now turns to Parliament on a question of fundamental importance to the country. It is plainly clear to the entire country that this turn to Parliament is nothing but a cheap political sleight of hand, and it is a great misfortune to the people of this country that their government is more interested in playing immature political tricks than in dealing with important matters of national reconciliation and foreign policy with sobriety and wisdom.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva has already announced the country’s “non-cooperation” with the envisaged investigation. What then is the point of this exercise in Parliament? Is the government so insecure with its isolationist policy that it wishes to share the blame with Parliament and use Parliament to rubber stamp the obnoxious pronouncement by the government’s representative abroad?
Are You Perhaps A “Naga?”
By Darshanie Ratnawalli -June 15, 2014
Darshanie Ratnawalli
I had a dream. Professor K. Indrapala was standing before me in a supplicating attitude. I asked him sternly “Are you perhaps a Naga?”, whereupon a bashful, almost hunted look flitted across his face and in the fraction of the second it took me to flick my eyelids over my stern eyes, he turned into a snake and disappeared through a crack in the floor. “Wait a minute”, I said to myself, for I was still in the dream and in the grip of fantastic logic, “that was all wrong! A Naga who has taken human form transforms back on two occasions; neither of which arose just now. Why did he transform?”
Let me explain. My dream was weaved from the Indo Aryan myth pool[i], the Buddhist portion of it. Deep in its most ancient recesses lives a disrobed Buddhist monk, who got himself ordained without disclosing that he was a Naga. He was expelled by the Buddha when disclosure came accidently. His story is told in the Pali Vinaya Pitaka. In his human form, the Naga asked for and received ordination (from the fraternity of monks) with the aim of obtaining a human birth through adherence to the noble precepts. One night in the Jetavana Monastery, when his cell mate had stepped out, the Naga fell asleep. The other monk came back to find the whole cell bulging with snake coils. Later, in front of the customary assembly of monks, Lord Buddha said to the Naga;“Ye Nagas are not capable of spiritual growth in this doctrine and discipline”. After the Naga had gone away, all sad and sorrowful, the Lord declared; “There are two occasions, O Bhikshus, whereon a Naga, having assumed human shape, shewth his true nature; when he hath sexual intercourse with a female of his species, and if he thinketh himself safe from discovery. Let an animal, O Bhikshus, that hath not received the ordination not receive it; if it hath received it, let it be expelled”- (p110/111, Jean Philippe Vogel:1926[ii] –full text). To insure against this contingency an entrant into the Order is asked even today, “Are you perhaps a Naga?”- (p4, M. W. De Visser: 1913[iii] - read page)Read More
