Muslim Ministers Deny And Condemn ‘Sri Lankan Islamic Terrorism’ Claim

July 11, 2014 

Grave concerns have been raised over the promotion of unfounded claims concerning Islamic terrorist groups operating on Sri Lankan soil, by five Muslim Ministers through a joint statement issued last night.

AHM Fowzie

The statement that has been signed by five government Ministers including Rauff Hakeem, A. H. M. Fowzie, Rishad Bathiudeen, Basheer Segu Dawood and A L M Athaullah, it has been pointed out that the promotion of such baseless claims is like ‘rubbing salt to a wound’ in the wake of therecent anti-Muslim clashes from which the Muslim community is systematically recovering presently.

The Ministers who have denied and condemned such claims have stated that they are actions of groups with vested interests that wish to see a reemergence of terrorism in Sri Lanka.

They had also stated that it is unfair for the recent arrest of an individual in India under charges of espionage, to be attributed to claims of Islamic extremism raising its head in Sri Lanka.

“We deeply deplore that the recent arrest in India under espionage charges should lend itself to such spurious claims by sections of media and groups,” they have asserted adding that it has led to the further stereotyping of Muslims that operates with a clear mind set of condoning or supporting violence by racist groups.

Furthermore the statement has called upon the national authorities of Sri Lanka to uphold the rule of law without allowing the Muslim community to be demonized as a whole.

Reports of emerging Islamic extremist groups have been publicized recently by several local media outlets in Sri Lanka including the Ceylon Today which was reported by Colombo Telegraph.

Read the full statement here

Plan to bribe monks to make Gota premier

Friday, 11 July 2014 

A plan is underway to convene 5,000 Buddhist monks to Colombo in the last week of August and get them to say that defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa should be made the next prime minister, Temple Trees sources say. Several monks identified as being politically and socially active are to be bribed under this plan, and a sum of Rs. 2.5 billion has already been collected for the purpose, reports say.

Those who have contributed money include Ravi Wijeratne, Dhammika Perera and Dilith Jayaweera, who are also masterminding this plan. They have been able to convince the president that Gotabhaya is the best person to be appointed the premier, as minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is also eyeing the position, is notorious as a corrupt man and is disliked by Sinhala Buddhists.

Gotabhaya has recently held a meeting of his inner circle of supporters at the home of Dilith Jayaweera.

Worried about this development, Basil Rajapaksa has instructed his clique of advisors, including Dhamma Dissanayake, Ranjith Bandara, Willie Gamage and Charitha Herath, to create a public opinion that Gotabhaya is not suitable for politics.

A top official at the Presidential Secretariat has told a friend of his that the president is following a foolish strategy of resolving through family cronyism the political crisis that had been created due to the very same family cronyism.

TNA, diaspora assure support, urge GoSL to reciprocate

*South African led reconciliation process

by Shamindra Ferdinando-July 11, 2014, 8:43 am 

Assuring support for South African reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the UK headquartered Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday stressed that it would be the responsibility of the government of Sri Lanka to ensure the required support for the process.

TNA heavyweight M.A. Sumanthiran said now that a top level South African delegation led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had held discussions with the government as well as the TNA at the highest level, South Africa would have to make the next move.

The TNA delegation that met the visiting delegation included R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and Sumanthiran. Ramaphosa’s team separately met Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and NPC ministers in Jaffna.

Recalling the circumstances leading to Ramaphosa’s visit to Colombo, Sumanthiran told The Island that South Africa was acting on behalf of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Asked to explain, National List MP and attorney-at-law said that President Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo last November had sought South African President Jacob Zuma’s intervention.

Dismissing what he called an attempt by a section of the government to downplay Ramaphosa’s visit, Sumanthiran stressed that the South African Deputy President wasn’t here as a tourist. During Ramaphosa’s less than two-day stay here, Sumanthiran pointed out he met President Rajapaksa, External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as well as two TNA delegations. The South African effort had the blessings of the government, the MP said, expressing confidence that the ruling coalition would make a genuine bid to resolve the national issue.

South African delegation also met Jaffna Security Forces Commander, Major Gen. Udaya Perera.

UPFA constituent National Freedom Front (NFF) has threatened to quit the government if President Rajapaksa went ahead with the South African project. The NFF also opposed a fresh role for India.

Sumanthiran emphasised that the government should amend its ways to give equal rights to all communities.

UK based GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran said: ""Standing in solidarity with the TNA, GTF is delighted and encouraged by the visit undertaken by such senior level delegation. The combined experience brought in by the delegation among Ebrahim, Ramaphosa, Roelf Mayer and others who in their own capacities had helped shape the constitutional reform in South Africa which now prides itself as a Rainbow Nation, must benefit Sri Lanka if that experience is deployed in the most optimum way."

Emphasizing President Zuma’s keen interest and sincerity, Surendiran said that the GTF hoped that President Rajapaksa would reciprocate equal importance and similar sentiments by showing genuine political will in resolving the most pressing national issue.

Responding to query, Surendiran said that the GTF had engaged South Africa both privately and publicly for four years as well as through close contacts with civil society movements. Surendiran explained the close relationship the GTF had with the ruling ANC and the Tamil Solidarity Movement in South Africa.

The GTF would be delighted to meet Ramaphosa and his delegation in the near future, he said.

Govt. answers JVP queries in P’ment on Ramaphosa’s visit

By Ashwin Hemmathagama-July 11, 2014
Our Lobby Correspondent
The Government yesterday confirmed to Parliament the plan to explore the South African model and to make use of “their Truth and Reconciliation Commission findings” to solve Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue.
In response to a statement made by Opposition Lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the Government confirmed that the recent visit of Deputy President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa was the initial step and that it would continue the process.

Govt. Answers JVP Queries in P’Ment on Ramaphosa’s Visit by Maria Anderson

Report slams British support of Sri Lankan military

11 July 2014
A new report has revealed the extent of British support for Sri Lanka and training of the Sri Lankan military over three decades.

The report, authored by Phil Miller, a researcher with Corporate Watch, details the closeness of the British government’s relationship with the Sri Lankan state, including the deployment of mercenaries, training by British officers of Sri Lankan forces and the supply of weapons throughout the conflict with the Tamils.

Miller’s report shows how “British collusion with Sri Lankan security forces throughout the thirty years of genocidal counter-insurgency warfare” resulted in “Sri Lanka’s brazen mass killings of Tamils on the beaches of Mullivaikal in 2009.”

The British relationship with Sri Lanka during the ceasefire and the subsequent outbreak of hostilities is also examined in the report, which says that Britain “contributed politically and militarily to the break-down of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement, by distorting the balance of power in favour of the Sri Lankan government”.

The report says that the British had a policy of “arming one party in a Ceasefire whilst prosecuting the other”, and highlights the ban on the LTTE and arrests of activists, while arms and other military assistance was given to Sri Lanka.

Britain is also said have used its seat on the UN Security Council to prevent Sri Lanka from being put on their agenda, during the final onslaught on the Vanni in 2009, whilst continuing to provide assistance to Sri Lanka, despite public criticism of the humanitarian crisis.

“The FCO sent a delegation of senior Northern Irish police commanders to Colombo as ‘critical friends’ in February 2009, at a point in the conflict when even hospitals had been shelled by Sri Lankan forces,” the report said.

See full report by Phil Miller here.

See here for Tamil Guardian report from 2001, on British support for Sri Lanka and its training of the notorious Special Task Force.

Britains Dirty War

BBS is an anti-national project aimed at destroying Sinhala-Muslim amity - NSC responds to BBS’s call to ban the Shoora Council

(Lanka-e-News-11.July.2014, 3.30PM) The National Shoora (Consultative) Council (NSC) , a grouping of national level Muslim Organisations, including a cross –section of the community’s intelligentsia and activists is not surprised at the BoduBalaSena’s (BBS) call to ban the NSC. The call exposes the BBS as an anti-national project, dedicated to destroying centuries of peaceful amity and co-existence between the Sinhalese and the Muslims of this country by spreading hate, based on falsehood.

Following its fully paid visit in October 2011 to Norway, a country which nearly succeeded in creating ‘Eelam’ in Sri Lanka, where the BBS met a group from the Tamil diaspora and Islamic-phobic Norwegians, it appears most convincingly, that the BBS has undertaken a dubious contractto spread anti-Muslim venom aimed at destabilizing Sri Lanka through racial conflicts. Western powers behind the Norwegians will benefit in the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka regrettably will have to pay for the crime BBS is perpetrating on the country.

We have not forgotten that the BBS’s first target was the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama (ACJU), the President of which went to the UNHRC in Geneva in March 2012 in defense of the country against the Western sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka. That was a patriotic role of the ACJU notwithstanding the benefits to the Muslims from the resolution. Shockingly, the BBS in an anti-national move, took up the Halal issue, later on, as a pretext to spew insults on the ACJU and the Muslims. The Chambers of Commerce know very well that the Halal Certification benefitted mainly the non- Muslim exporters. BBS side tracked the benefits to the Sinhala exporters and launched an unforgivable attack on the ACJU following the Muslim organisation’s pro- Sri Lankan role in the UNHRC. The BBS’s vituperative attack on the ACJU exposed the anti-national role of the BBS.

Within a month of the ACJU returning from Geneva, the Dambulla Mosque came under ‘death’ threats at a time when the BBS was at its formative stages. Since then, we have seen how the ordinarily harmless Muslims of this country, became the singled out target of an unceasing hate campaign launched by the BBS, from post-Dambulla beginnings down to the Aluthgama mayhem.

Every one of the issues raised by the BBS against the Muslims was false, fabricated or exaggerated.

Violence unleashed in Aluthgama on June 15 and 16 followed directly from the hate speech of the BBS General Secretary. Any law student will know, the speech is a text book case of incitement to violence against the Muslims of Aluthgama and Beruwala. The world knew the truth overnight, without Muslims having to brief anybody.

Did those who incited the crowd at Aluthgama against the Muslims think of the damage to the country and to Buddhism world-wide? Did they not put the millions of Sinhalese sweating in Middle-East Muslim countries to shame? If the hate speeches in Aluthgama and the subsequent destruction which disgraced Sri Lanka across the globe and for which BBS needs to be made accountable, are not anti-national, what then are they?

We have not forgotten, that it was the Muslims of Aluthgama and Beruwala-not the BBS-at the call of the Sheikh of the world famous Buhary Masjid inBeruwala, who gathered in their thousands opposite the US Embassy in Colombo on 15 March 2012 to protest against the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the fact that the resolution would have benefitted the country’s Muslims. On that occasion too, the Muslims acted in the greater national interest of the country sacrificing their communal benefits. Now listen to the speech of the BBS at Aluthgama on Youtubeand tell the country, whether, was it right for a Buddhist monk to have incited the Sinhala youths to destroy the economy and with it the hearts of those very same Muslims of Aluthgama and Beruwala, who protested against the powerful US? If these are not anti-national crimes committed by the BBS, what then are they?

BBS has turned the wheel a full circle, to the detriment of the country! Aluthgama Muslims were entitled to expect the nationalist Buddhist monks to have come to their rescue. But it was the US that made the strongest plea on behalf of the very Muslims who demonstrated against the US. BBS has lost on the good-will that existed between the Sinhala and Muslim communities by its anti-national charade. The US has won them over. Can anyone deny that the BBS is an anti-national project? With the BBS in full charge, Sri Lanka does not need any other enemy!

The NSC is therefore not surprised at the BBS’s request to ban the NSC. We at the NSC will not ask for banning the BBS because we need this dialogue with the people of the country, whose mind the BBS had sought to poison with falsehood. BBS must respond to these questions, without seeking to veil us by banning. We are equally keen that all those responsible for the carnage in Aluthgama must be prosecuted and welcome the positive steps taken by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka to stand for justice for the victims.

NSC is not an NGO. It is a grouping of national level Muslim organisations, a cross-section of the Muslim intelligentsia and activists. It is led by Tariq Mahmud, son of former Minister Dr. Badiuddin Mahmud and comprises several former Ambassadors of Sri Lanka.Muslims, well known professionals, heads of affliated Muslim organisations and activists, all of whom are volunteers who have merged together after the emergence of the BB​​S.

The NSC has absolutely no link whatsoever with anyone using the name Shoora elsewhere in the Muslim world. The NSC is funded entirely from the voluntary contributions of its members and affliatedorganisations. We have declined foreign invitations to present our internal issues elsewhere and also offers of foreign funding. We liked to be identified as a traditional self -reliant grouping of volunteers, whose love for the country will always be beyond question. We strongly believe that all these passing problems could be internally resolved, knowing well the depth of good-will that exists amongst all communities in the country.

Tariq Mahmud
President
National Shoora Council

 MP of Sri Lankan government coalition party in fruitful discussions with main opposition 
Fri, Jul 11, 2014, 10:10 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

July 11, Colombo: Athuraliye Rathana Thero, the leader of the Pivithuru Hetak National Movement of Sri Lanka and a parliamentarian of the government coalition party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) said that the discussions his party members had with the opposition United National Party (UNP) was successful.
The monk legislator further stated that the discussions shed a light in the attempt to bring the country into the right path.
Several representatives of the Pivithuru Hetak National Movement participated in the discussions with the UNP held in the party headquarters Sirikotha yesterday.
The document prepared by the movement to initiate a dialogue was the basis for the discussion between the two parties.
UNP leadership council chairman Karu Jayasuriya, MP Wijedasa Rajapakshe and Thilak Marapona participated in the discussions along with the UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Wickremasinghe said at the end of the discussion that an alternative to the executive presidency needed to be discussed.

JHU Criticises Govt Over CID Interrogations Of Aluthgama Speakers

 July 11, 2014

Buddhist hardline group Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has urged the government to use all available diplomatic channels and state media to counter the negative impressions created on Buddhists and Buddhist monks following the anti-Muslim violence in Aluthgama and Beruwala, alleging a campaign is being carried out by several Muslim politicians including Rauff Hakeem to tarnish the Sinhala Buddhist community in Sri Lanka.

Omalpe Sobitha MP

JHU Leader, Buddhist monk Omalpe Sobitha in a letter to the President has heavily criticized the manner in which the government has reacted to the violence that erupted in Aluthgama, claiming the government reactions have in turn fuelled the campaigns launched by Muslim leaders to tarnish the image of Sri Lankan Sinhala Buddhists.

“Dalai Lama recently made a statement on Sri Lankan Buddhists that is completely misleading. What are the measures that have been implemented to counter such damaging statements?” he has questioned.

Sobitha had gone on to accuse Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem of orchestrating a conspiracy that seeks to tarnish the good name of Sinhala Buddhists before the international community by influencing them into believing the unfortunate incidents that occurred in Southern Sri Lanka are influenced by the majority of Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

Furthermore he had accused the government of allowing the investigations on Aluthgama violence to continue in a manner that is partial to the Muslim community.

“The assault of the Buddhist monk by a group of Muslim youth on Poson poya day was an extremely sensitive incident. Still, it has been continuously kept out of media reports and it is very disappointing to see that not a single Muslim politician has come forward to apologize for the assault so far,” he has added.

Sobhitha had also criticized the CID interrogations of speakers who addressed the crowds at the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) rally on June 15 while adding they believe an equally serious probe should be carried into determining which side launched the first attack and on who provided leadership for the Muslims in the areas to organize in order to attack the Buddhists.

Photos around questions I couldn’t answer: Four days after the riots

by Shilpa Samaratunge 

- on 07/11/2014 

At journalism school I was taught to get as close as possible without getting involved. Go in, get the story, don’t become the story, don’t interfere with the story. These rules played like a soundtrack on loop in my mind when I visited Aluthgama and Beruwela, four days after the devastating riots in June 2014.

This short article and the accompanying photos (view all of them in full screen here) are all I can offer the victims of June’s riots, in solidarity and hope that the lives and homes they rebuild will never see this violence again.

Photos Around Questions I Couldn’t Answer Four Days After the Riots by Maria Anderson

Rajarata Uni student’s sathyagraha hut burnt for the third time 

THURSDAY, 10 JULY 2014 

The temporary hut that sheltered Rajarata University student protesters was burnt for the third time early this morning.

Rajarata University Students Federation member Lasantha Priyankara said a group of men came in a van and hurled a bottle of petrel to blaze the hut.

Rajarata Uni Student’s Sathyagraha Hut Burnt for the Third Time by Maria Anderson

Rudrakumaran Announces TGTE New Senators

 July 11, 2014

The Prime Minister of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran has today announced the names of fifteen Senators for the TGTE’s second Parliamentary Session. The Senate serves as the Upper House of TGTE’s Parliament.

Several international dignitaries include: a former US Attorney General, Senior Civil Rights and Human Rights Lawyers from France and Canada, a former Member of European Parliament and a representative from South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Also included are a Sinhalese Physician, Professors, Journalists, Political Leaders, Academics and others from Malaysia, India and several other African, European, Asian and countries in the Americas.

Here is the full list of TGTE’s Senate:

1. Mr. Ramsey Clark: Former US Attorney General: USA

2. Mr. Robert Evans: Former Member of European Parliament: UK

3. Mr. Daniel Mayan: Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM): South Sudan.

4. Dr. Brian Seneviratne: A Sinhalese Physician from Australia.

5. Mr. Roy Chetty: South Africa.

6. Mr. Gilles Piquois: Attorney – at – Law: France.

7. Mr. David Matas: Human Rights Attorney: Canada.

8. Mr. M. Manoharan: Attorney – at – Law and Political leader: Malaysia.

9. Mr. Satya Sivaraman: Journalist: India.

10. Mrs. Usha Sriskandarajah: Writer: Canada.

11. Mr Sathesh Muniyandy: Secretary World Tamil Congress – Malaysia.

12. Dr. Nagalingam Jeyalingam: Founder Illankai Tamil Sangam and former president World Tamil Coordinating Committee: USA.

13. Prof. Mrs. Saraswathi Rajendran: India.

14. Dr. Thani Cheran: First President of World Thamil Organization & former President of the Federation of the Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA): USA.

15. Mr. Rajaratnam Subramaniam: Educator – Canada.

Australian minister under fire for not meeting Tamil groups on Sri Lanka trip

Australia's Minister of Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison speaks at a news conference during his working visit to Malaysia, at the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency office in Putrajaya February 5, 2014.

BY SHIHAR ANEEZ-COLOMBO Thu Jul 10, 2014

(Reuters) - A Tamil group criticised Australia's immigration minister on Thursday for visiting northern Sri Lanka without meeting Tamil leaders, days after Australia returned a boat of asylum seekers, including Tamils, under its hardline border security policy.

Australian Minister Under Fire for Not Meeting Tamil Groups on Sri Lanka Trip by Maria Anderson

Dayasiri’s depression and dementia aggravate: poor innocent youth at Kuliyapitiya bus terminus attacked

(Lanka-e-New-11.July.2014, 3.00PM) Wayambe chief Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who has apparently contracted the fatal rabies disease of the Medamulana Rajapakses , has gone with a gang of goons in as many as three dark tinted vehicles and mercilessly attacked a youth by the name of Leonard who is running a private publicity service at Kuliyapitiya bus stand. This violence had been launched just some moments ago at about 7.00 in the night. 

While Dayasiri was staying back in the tinted vehicle and enjoying the suffering of the youth , his crony and goon Carmen had inflicted the assault. In order to evade the attack , Leonard had sought the help of a police officer , the attackers have pushed aside the officer , and continued the attack unrelentingly chasing after the fleeing Leonard. 

The background to this attack is most strange : Day before yesterday in the debate on the Television participated by Dayasiri, the opposition party member Harin Fernando launched a verbal onslaught on Dayasiri , and when Dayasiri made adverse comments against Lanka e news , the editor of Lanka e news furnished devastating answers subsequently .

Leonard who runs a publicity service at Kuliyapitiya bus terminus and the entire city had publicized as usual this news yesterday morning. Leonard had been running this publicity service for a long time at the Bus terminus and around by announcing the news in the newspapers and websites daily, in the form of verse and songs via small speakers installed in the Kuliyapitiya town . 

It is a pity Dayasiri who after pole vaulting to the MaRa camp for the most selfish self seeking reasons had got infected with the same paranoia and schizophrenia that characterize the Rajapakses , had gone raving mad over the publicity given regarding his violent misconduct during the interval when he appeared for the television debate, Dayasiri had therefore orchestrated this brutal assault on this innocent helpless youth. 

In a number of incidents in the past it was confirmed that Dayasiri is in a demented and depressed condition. This was further illustrated when he barked and ‘bit’ the opposition member who participated in the TV debate , like a rabid dog. If Dayasiri is a man he should have behaved like a provoked man delivering punches , rather he behaved like a wild rabid dog jumping ,barking and biting uncontrollably making a most disgraceful exhibition of himself .

Harin Fernando M.P. had later lamented to a friend of his , who was the victim of the rabid bites of Dayasiri , this is the first time a human being wearing shamelessly a man’s dress bit his chest and tried to eat his chest.

No matter what , though the television channel itself on the day of the incident tried to distort the true scene , it was obvious that it was Dayasiri who rose from his seat first to launch the attack. At the same time it was very clear Arundhika M.P. who is of Dayasiri’s party , not joining to support Dayasiri , perhaps because he knew Dayasiri’s demented and rabid condition , thereby making it very evident that Dayasiri is being shunned by his own party members. 

Perhaps poor Dayasiri’s depressed and demented condition stems from his present precarious and insecure position he has driven himself into , for he is now realizing he is hopelessly lost on both sides- he had lost what he could clung on to securely earlier as well as what he clung on to later with great hopes selfishly though. He is now like Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall with no one around (specially opportunistic MaRa who is noted for dumping after gathering ) to put Humpty together again . 

Dayasiri was involved in a similar disgraceful incident about a month ago. Dayasiri attacked another turncoat like him who defected from the UNP, an ex local body vice chairman of Panduwasnuwara and current member, Nimal Dayananda . Dayasiri while having liquor with Dayananda had entered into a dispute and assaulted Dayananda , although the latter is a much more senior politician ,and who is respected in his area. When Dayananda lodged a complaint with the police , Dayasiri using his influence had suppressed the episode. This was another in the series of incidents that testifies to Dayasiri’s chronic rabid, depressed and demented condition.

Daysiri must thank his stars that he is born in a country like Sri Lanka and he is now a barbaric MaRa group politico where rabies infected members are not only tolerated but allowed to bark together and bite others together to the detriment of the country . In any other civilized country such individuals like Dayasiri would have been admitted to a hospital and given emergency treatment for his rabies , paranoia and schizophrenia for the benefit of the country at large.

Educational Mishaps

 By Rajiva Wijesinha -July 11, 2014

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP

A Presidency Under Threat - Educational Mishaps

Apart from its failure to pursue Reconciliation with determination and coherence, perhaps the saddest failure of the current government has been with regard to Education. When the Cabinet was being formed in 2010, one of the President’s friends who was pressing hard for me to be appointed Minister of Education was told that they had found a brilliant candidate, namely Bandula Gunawardena. I presume his long experience in giving tuition was thought an appropriate qualification.

It was not taken into consideration that his very livelihood had depended on the failure of the education system to provide good teaching. It was not conceivable then, given that he was not likely to disrupt the livelihoods of those who had toiled alongside him in the industry, that he would prioritize the production and employment of more and better teachers. So indeed it proved. The whole approach of the Ministry in the last four years, in line perhaps with the populist rather than productive interpretation of the Mahinda Chintanaya that has dominated government during this period, was to put up larger and more elaborate buildings in select locations.

The purpose of this became clear when I brought up, at the last meeting of the Education Consultative Committee, the waste of resources in the fact that a well equipped computer laboratory had been put up in a school I knew well in a rural area, but it had remained closed for several months. I had been told that this was because the authorities were waiting for a dignitary to open the place.

Bandula confirmed this, and claimed that it was important for the people to know who had provided such a facility. That this was in fact the people, since the building had been put up and equipped through loans which the people would have to repay, was not something that would have occurred to someone who had made his living by giving tuition in Economics. Nor would he have realized that the adulation expressed in speeches at a formal opening would not have a lasting impact compared with the resentment of students, and their parents, who are bright enough to know when something intended to benefit them is being squandered for politicial gain.

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