‘The Inside Story Of How Maithri Defeated Mahinda’

By Arjuna Seneviratne -March 29, 2015

Arjuna Seneviratne

Review of “Revolution of the Era:The Inside story of how Maithri Defeated Mahinda” by Asoka Abeygunarwardana

How David slew Goliath or how the opposition managed the impossible despite of itself

(The translator’s job is to translate. It is up to others to review a work but in this case, my role as translator and my role as an independent citizen of Sri Lanka got admixed. Here therefore, is the strange phenomenon of a translator actually reviewing a work)

I have never voted in an election despite the fact that it was my right and my franchise to do so. I refrained because I was not entirely convinced of the truthfulness of modern representative democracy when the word Demokratia (demos / kratos) meaning “people’s power” and direct democracy said that any citizen of a nation or community or group who wished to engage it, could participate in government.

People in my country, in general, over the last seven or so decades have rarely if ever had a chance to participate. Their only claim to civic glory was “I voted for this or that government” or “I hate this or that government because I didn’t vote for it”. In each of the dozens of elections hidden behind a much touted, oft misunderstood, definitely popular democratic façade, the new government voted itself in, riding on the short term machinations of a few individuals keenly cognizant of an individual’s worth either as a brand (saleable) or as a commodity (essential). I do not vote because history has shown me that regardless of, despite of, because of, the people’s aspirations of heaven after a given election, the politic has failed people’s power and I am not sufficiently dumb to believe that the next election would be any different from those that preceded it.

Yet, the civic conscious citizenry of the country, whether they vote or not, primarily, keep their ears to the socio-politic, the political-economic and socio-environment baseline and secondarily, look for extraordinarily ordinary fellows (not as in the derogatory way that term is used in these days but rather in terms of brothers) who are smart enough, brave enough and committed enough to engage in demos-kratos for the social, political and environmental benefit of all. They are at best reviled or at worst snuffed. Such is the madness we call this country of ours.Read More

How Sooriya Perera from Texas USA, became multi millionaire over night?

Sunday, 29 March 2015

A Green card migrant from Sri Lanka who worked as a general helper in a Bakery in Texas, USA. Suprisingly,  within the last 24 months  became a US$ millionaire and acquired a net worth of over US$300 million.

According to reports, he is the front man and proxy for Sumal Perera, Sajin Vass Gunawardena and Namal Rajapaksa. He played a very active role in almost all of the Drinking water Projects for the Rural Folk in Sri Lanka that was funded by donor agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nations.

His bankrupt Company in the US Amaresian Group serves as a front for all the illegal money laundering of Sumal Perera, Sajin Vaas Gunawardena and Namal Rajapaksa's shady deals.

Sumal Perera, Sajin Vaas Gunawardena and Namal Rajapaksa used Sooriya Perera to over price the Projects as much as 3000-7000% for NWS&DB Drinking water projects in which He has played a main role in the water project in Weeraketiya, which is currently challanged in commercial high court in Sri Lanka.

Sajin used Sooriya to buy his planes for his Cosmo Aviation and he has three or four more Aircrafts parked in a hanger in Fort Worth, Texas. He is also a close associate of wheeler dealer and racketeer Ishara Nanayakkara and Arjun
Alloysious who is currently under investigations for dealing with the Sri Lanka Bond issue and causing a revenue loss of over Rs 16 Billion that will have to be burdened to the Sri Lankan Public over the ne2t 30 years.

Attached here with his fleet  of vehicles he bought within last one and half years (attached below is a screen shot copied it out from his daughter's faecbook page) "where she says that she is not shy to state as to how successful her dad is" on the money stolen from the Sri Lankan Tax payers. Inform the US
Authorities and the Interpol to carry out an investigation on his ill gotten gains amounting over US$ 300 million.

From a screen shot of his Twitter account, it appears that he has been deeply involved in the CHOGM 2013 scam as well.

Tweets
Sooriya Perera @Sooriya66 * Aug 27

Hi, Do I know you ?

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' class="ProfileTweet-avatar js-action-profile-avatar" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026"> Sooriya Perera @Sooriya66 * 31 Oct 2013

Getting ready for CHOGM. Going to be a hectic week in November.

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Sooriya Perera @Sooriya66 * 14 Aug 2013
2 months in Sri Lanka ends tonight.

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Sooriya Perera @Sooriya66 * 6 Aug 2013

In srilanka

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Sooriya Perera

President, Amerasian Corp

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

International Trade and Development

     Current
    1.        Amerasian Corp

     Education
    1.        Acme School Of Aeronautics

Experience
PresidentAmerasian Corp
January 2002 - Present (13 years 3 months)

Forcus on full turnkey Infrastructure Development projects . Funding and Business Partnership specialist.

ChairmanAmerasian Engineering and Consulting January 2002 - Present (13 years 3 months)

Consulting services to Multi National Engineering and Construction Companies for Infrastructure Projects in Sri Lanka.

ChairmanAmerasian Tours Private Limited
January 2002 - Present (13 years 3 months)Colombo Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Inbound tour operators.

ChairmanAmerasian International
January 1995 - Present (20 years 3 months)

Manufacturing of Home Decor for International Market.

ChairmanAmerasian Private Limited
January 1995 - Present (20 years 3 months)

Distributor for Capitol Goods in Sri Lanka. Import, Supply and servcing of Machinery. Brand development.

Amerasian Corporation
Company Description

Company Background & Description

Revenue: $1 mil. - $5 mil.
Employees: 5 - 10

Industry:  Custom Software & Technical Consulting ,Software

Company Description: Amerasian together with sister company Jalaya Networks Inc [www.jalayanetworks.com ] is a leading global provider of innovative engineering services and leading edge advanced software solutions to the Telecom industry. The group of companies started Operations in 2014 , and has been experiencing an impressive sustained high growth ever since. Amerasian provides professional IT manpower recruitment and placement services to corporate customers on a permanent or contract basis. Our contract placement ranges from one month to one year.

What’s up MR’s sleeve?

Editorial-March 29, 2015, 9:21 pm 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, while he was ensconced in power, thought his predecessor Chandrika Kumaratunga would dree her weird in retirement without troubling him. He did not know her. She bode her time and made a stunning comeback by engineering his downfall. He did now know what hit him! President Maithiripala Sirisena, having defeated Rajapaksa in January thought the latter would resign himself to his fate. He, too, thought wrong. His predecessor has bounced back to worry him.

Mahinda is now becoming a movement as in his Opposition days. For the first time in several years he is seriously engaged in politics at the grassroots level the way he did while the SLFP was in total disarray from 1977 to 1994. If he had done so during his second term, he would have won the Jan. 08 presidential election easily. Veteran leftist D. E. W. Gunasekera, who objected to President Rajapaksa’s decision to go for a snap presidential election, pointed out that the latter had not carried out a serious political campaign for years. The President had been only opening development projects, making public speeches, carrying babies and kissing them instead of mobilizing the grassroots of the SLFP, Gunasekera argued.

It is popularly said that when politicians have brains they have no power and when they have power they have no brains—mole thiyanakota bale ne, bale thiyanakota mole ne. Having lost power, Rajapaksa seems to have adopted a bottom-up approach in a bid to reassert himself in the party. He has targeted the base of the party pyramid by winning over a host of SLFP local government members and provincial councillors besides more than two dozen MPs of the party. President Sirisena has consolidated his power at the apex.

It is too early to say whether Rajapaksa’s strategy will help him become the UPFA’s prime ministerial candidate, but he has succeeded in unsettling his political enemies within and outside the SLFP. His campaign has rattled the new government so much that it has already appointed 77 ministers including 26 SLFPers, who lucked out recently. Speculation is rife in political circles that 10 more senior SLFP MPs who have sided with Rajapaksa will be bribed with ministerial portfolios in the wake of last week’s successful Bring Back Mahinda rally in Ratnapura. It was attended by more than 25 SLFP parliamentarians and over 400 local government and provincial council members in spite of a party order that they boycott pro-Mahinda rallies. At this rate by the time the government’s 100-day programme comes to an end, the country is likely to have more than 100 ministers!

Rajapaksa is not so naïve as to expect to be fielded at the next general election as the UPFA’s prime ministerial candidate. President Sirisena, not wanting to be in the same predicament as the proverbial Arab who shared his tent with a camel only to sleep under the stars in the end, is sure to resist his predecessor’s efforts to contest the parliamentary polls on the UPFA ticket. Kumaratunga, too, will do everything in her power to scuttle her bête noire’s plan. They may seek to expand the Cabinet further to let more and more SLFP MPs savour power in what is being described as a national government and postpone the general election in the hope that Rajapaksa’s campaign will run out of steam with the passage of time.

The government might even be compelled to resort to repressive measures, out of desperation, to keep Rajapaksa at bay. Hostile action will only give him an excuse to challenge Sirisena more vigorously in the coming months and field a separate team at the next parliamentary polls and shift the blame for jeopardising the party unity to the new leadership which is honeymooning with the UNP much to the consternation of the SLFP’s rank and file. The next Parliament is likely to be hung with each party with a considerable number of MPs wielding enormous bargaining power.

Drug dependents crying out for rehab centres and counsellors

By Nadia Fazlulhaq-Sunday, March 29, 2015

Many of the nearly 300,000 drug dependents, mostly young and male, yearn to get their lives back, but there is a shortage of full-time counsellors and rehabilitation centres within the community and in prisons.

Drug Dependents Crying Out for Rehab Centres and Counsellors by Thavam Ratna

Sumal Perera's links to the UNP

Sunday, 29 March 2015

Super rich businessman Sumal Perera who built a business empire during Chandrika's presidency using Ronnie Peiris further extended his empire during President Rajapakse's tenure extending his business empire to luxury car imports and importing cattle.

It is alleged now that Sumal had close contacts with a prominent UNP stalwart to keep the UNP at bay. At the beginning of Rajapakse Presidency Sumal Perera kept very close links with the UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema.

He then got close to Ajith Dias the current Sri Lankan Airlines Chairman and used him as his middle man. It is alleged that Sumal Perera secretly met the UNP leadership during the last Presidential election and gave the UNP a handsome contribution.   

When it got really difficult with all the exposures in the social sites after the election Sumal Perera called on Ajith Dias to take him to the Prime Minister to ensure he was not targeted for attack. It is alleged that Sumal Perera met with the Prime Minister a week ago with the help of Sri Lanka Chairman Ajith Dias and further support was promised to the Prime Minister and the UNP. Sri Lankan Airlines under Ajith Dias continues to buy millions of bottles of Access water.

The current government is certainly losing its popularity by simply refusing to act against those corrupt individuals like Sumal, Thirukumar Nadesen and Jehan Amaratunga and protecting people like Governor Mahendran from prosecution, forcing decent people to court and bribery commission for justice.

Good governance activist

Mihin Lanka: ‘Singapore Shoplifter’ Capt. Jayakody Investigates ‘Documents Leak’

March 29, 2015

Capt. Druvi Perera the questionable holder of the Chief Operations Officer (COO) title of Sri Lankan Airlines and who also oversees the flight operational functions of the country’s low cost budget carrier Mihin Lanka, has ordered the Director Flight Operations (DFO) Capt. Pujitha Jayakody to initiate a probe and ‘catch the culprit’ who leaked vital letters to ‘Colombo Telegraph’.

Captain Pujitha Jayakody (with beer in hand) loves hanging out with ‘Yahapalanaya’ big boys now. This is one of his proud Facebook postings where he was at seen at the Royal / Thomian ‘Big Match’ hob knobbing Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha De Silva.

The COO Capt. Perera appears to be following the idiom ‘set a thief to catch a thief’ almost literally to the word, as the former Sri Lankan Airline’s Manager Flight Operations Captain Pujitha Jayakody (DFO) of the budget carrier now, was made infamous for his apprehension by the Singaporean Police on the 2nd of May 1990, when he was embarrassingly caught ‘shop lifting’ in the ‘Lion City”.

In all his travels since then, a visit to that lovely city is been avoided due to a pending court case and his possible arrest on arrival.

“Is not this then the reason why Capt. Jayakody was always sent to other countries and cities such as Frankfurt, whilst his colleagues were sent to Singapore for their bi-annual ‘Simulator Checks’ incurring a considerable amount of money to the company over the last 26 years?” asked one of his colleagues.

This makes one now realize that these were the unnecessary and insurmountable costs accumulating over the years that eventually caused the airline to be milked dry over a period of time.

The copy of the telex sent by Air Lanka’s ground staff in Singapore informing of captain Pujitha Jayakody’s apprehension by local Police for shop lifting.

His arrest by the police on that day caused great embarrassment to his colleagues, the airline which then had an image to protect, the country and further it inconvenienced many passengers. There was no captain to pilot the aircraft back home from Singapore leaving all ‘Colombo Bound’ passengers and crew stranded at the Changi International Airport. The entire flight schedule of the airline was affected thereafter due to the knock on affect due to this delay. The entire saga costs the airline and more over the eventual ‘tax payer’ an enormous amount of money.

For Capt. Jayakody’s amazing fortune and absolute good luck, a flower exporter with the identical family name ‘Jayakody’, happened to be married to the country’s former President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s daughter Dulanjali. Rumour has it that it was this other ‘Jayakody’ who intervened on the ‘shop lifter’s behalf and helped to save his job.

Thereafter what left many aviation enthusiasts bemused was as to how Capt. Jayakody managed to ‘fly under the radar’ for many decades, hoodwinking many a President of the caliber of D.B.Wijetunga, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa. This was in spite of a colossal amount of other commonly known unethical practices he had continued to commit over this period.

Here is a copy of the telex sent by the Air Lanka Ground Staff in Singapore to its Head Office in Colombo on the 2^nd of May 1990, nearly 25 years ago, seeking advice due to the unwarranted situation Capt. Jayakody had made everyone face due to his arrest that day.

The direct translation of that relevant telex is as follows:

Ops/Top Urgent

“Attention Duty Officer UL 303 having a slight difficulty due no captain available at the moment having been informed by hotel manager that captain was apprehended by local police for shop lifting. Captain is now under custody of local police. Please advise further action to be taken as soon as possible. Will advise you of outcome Captain Jayakody as soon as we receive news from local police station where captain is refereed to at the moment. Ops Regards MMM”.

Colombo Telegraph is in possession of many other documents pertaining to Capt. Jayakody’s sketchy character. Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Druvi Perera and Pujitha Jayakody for comment.

Somali troops take 'full control' of Mogadishu hotel after al-Shabaab siege

At least 17 people die and dozens more are wounded as military operation ends 12-hour siege that began with suicide bombing

Police officers inspect the front gate of Maka al-Mukarama hotel after the Friday’s suicide bombing, Photograph: Xinhua News Agency/Rex

Associated Press-Saturday 28 March 2015

Somali troops have taken full control of a hotel that extremist gunmen stormed and occupied for more than 12 hours following a suicide bombing. At least 17 people died and dozens were wounded.

The gunfire has stopped and security agents have accessed the whole building, said senior police officer Capt Mohamed Hussein. He had earlier said the gunmen were believed to have occupied the third and fourth floors of the Maka Al-Mukarramah hotel in the capital, Mogadishu.

“The operation has ended we have taken full control of the hotel,” Hussein said.

Hussein said security forces found four more bodies in the hotel on Saturday, plus nine dead on Friday. Four people died in hospital, according to Duniya Mohamed, a doctor at Madina hospital in Mogadishu. Hussein Ali, an official of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said 28 people were wounded.

There was no immediate indication of how many of the dead were attackers, all of whom were killed according to Hussein.

Somalia’s ambassador to Switzerland was among those killed in the attack, said the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaida that has carried out many attacks in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the assault on the hotel, which is popular with Somali government officials and foreigners.

Al-Shabaab controlled much of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011, but was pushed out of the capital and other major cities by African Union (AU) forces.

The attack started around 4pm on Friday when a suicide bomber detonated his car packed with explosives at the gate of the hotel. Gunmen then quickly moved in.

Hours later, the militants were still holed up in the hotel’s dark alleys and rooms. Sporadic gunfire could be heard, but it appeared that the security forces waited until daybreak before trying again to dislodge the militants.

Al-Shabaab routinely carries out suicide bombings, drive-by shootings and other attacks in Mogadishu, the seat of Somalia’s western-backed government – often targeting government troops, politicians and foreigners.

Despite major setbacks in 2014, the group continues to wage a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s government and remains a threat in the east African region.

The group has carried out attacks in neighbouring countries, including Kenya, whose military is part of the AU force bolstering Somalia’s efforts to combat the al-Shabaab insurgency.

In September 2013, the group killed at least 67 people in an assault on the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

The U.S. Is Providing Air Cover for Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq

Iran’s Shiite militias aren’t a whole lot better than the Islamic State.

BY MICHAEL WEISS, MICHAEL PREGENT-MARCH 28, 2015

American warplanes have begun bombing the Islamic State-held Iraqi city of Tikrit in order to bail out the embattled, stalled ground campaign launched by Baghdad and Tehran two weeks ago. This operation, billed as “revenge” for the Islamic State (IS) massacre of 1,700 Shiite soldiers at Camp Speicher last June, was launched without any consultation with Washington and was meant to be over by now, three weeks after much triumphalism by the Iraqi government about how swiftly the terrorist redoubt in Saddam Hussein’s hometown was going to be retaken.

The U.S. Is Providing Air Cover for Ethnic Cleansing in Iraq.odt by Thavam Ratna

Yemeni warplane fleet destroyed in raids, Saudis say

With his country embattled in conflict, Yemen President Hadi calls the Shiite group, which has taken over large parts of the country, Iranian "puppets." (Reuters)

By Ali al-Mujahed and Hugh Naylor March 29 at 7:29 AM

SANAA, Yemen — The first three days of airstrikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia have destroyed Yemen’s fleet of fighter aircraft and crippled military command centers, dealing a blow to Houthi insurgents, a senior defense official in Riyadh said.
Yemeni Warplane Fleet Destroyed in Raids, Saudis Say by Thavam Ratna

Boko Haram kills six in Nigeria election attack

As Nigerians go to the polls, terror group Boko Haram wages a bloody campaign to disrupt the election - killing six at polling stations and detonating a bomb at a school.

SATURDAY 28 MARCH 2015

Chadian soldiers hold weapons in the recently retaken town of Damasak, Nigeria in March

Islamist Boko Haram insurgents launched two deadly attacks on voters in north east Nigeria on Saturday, while a bomb went off in a school being used as a polling station.
Boko Haram Kills Six in Nigeria Election Attack by Thavam Ratna

A ban that benefits only American oil refiners is under fire

Crude-oil exports-Binning the ban

Mar 28th 2015

INTRODUCED to help enforce price controls in the fuel-hungry 1970s, America’s ban on crude-oil exports was all but forgotten when the economy boomed and imports soared. Now it is in the news again. It keeps American crude, measured by the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, around $10 below the world price (see chart). Cash-strapped oilmen would like to sell their product abroad—just like any other industry—and are lobbying to lift the ban. A study by IHS, a consultancy, says that free trade in crude would boost output, investment, jobs, pay, profits and tax revenues—and GDP by $86 billion. It would not raise petrol prices: these are set in the (freely traded) world market. Most likely they would fall a bit.

Some of these arguments are contradictory. At a Senate hearing last week Jeffrey Warmann of Monroe Energy, speaking on behalf of a lobby group called the CRUDE Coalition, argued that the export ban kept the petrol price low. He also said exports would mean “petroleum products refined in Europe but derived from American crude returning to our shores”—but that would happen only if those products were competitive, and consumers wanted them.But politicians are fearful. Sooner or later, the petrol price will go up again—and anyone who voted to allow precious hydrocarbons to be sold to foreigners will be in the firing line. Supporters of the ban argue that it not only keeps prices low. It protects jobs, and also helps national security, by promoting self-sufficiency.

It is also hard to argue that the ban boosts economic security. It undermines America’s moral authority at the World Trade Organisation, where the administration berates China, for example, for imposing export bans on scarce minerals. American crude-oil exports would also hurt hostile petrostates such as Russia and Iran.

The mood may be shifting against the ban. Some refiners would be sorry to lose their artificially cheap raw materials. But they would accept instead what they call a “comprehensive” policy, meaning laxer rules on renewable fuels, and a change in the Jones Act. This is an even more archaic law which bans foreign ships from carrying cargo between American ports. It delights shipowners and unions, but imposes a hefty cost on anyone wanting to send a tanker from, say, a refinery on the Gulf coast to a port in the north-east.

Politics may trump logic. The administration supports lifting the ban, and so do many in Congress. But each wants the other to take the lead. And Republicans are chary of almost anything done by the executive branch, such as new rules announced last week to restrict fracking on federal land. Nonetheless, the mood at the Senate hearing gave freetraders grounds for optimism. “They were asking questions and listening to the arguments,” says a jaded observer, sounding rather surprised.