Navy officer who killed 10 students after extortion during Rajapakse murderous decade arrested..!

- Several more arrests imminent

(Lanka-e-News -17.Jan.2017, 10.00AM) In connection with the most ruthless and brutal  multiple murder of 10 students who were abducted and killed after extortion during the despotic corrupt Rajapakse regime , a Navy officer was arrested on 14 th night(Saturday)  by the CID several years after the most gruesome and ghastly   killings. The Navy officer arrested is Lieutenant Commander A. Dhammika . 

During the period 2008 to  2009 , when Vasantha Karannagoda was the Navy Commander , ten children of wealthy families were so murdered most cruelly and heartlessly  . All of them were students who had passed the G.C.E. advanced level and had qualified to enter Universities . They belonged to Sinhala , Tamil and Muslim races and residents of Dehiwala, Mattakuliya and Trincomalee . They were abducted in the white Van by a group and killed after collecting extortion monies. Though there was evidence only  in regard to ten students , in   all 38 children were abducted and killed after committing extortion.

Lanka e news best acclaimed for  most  frank , fearless and forthright reports revealed earlier on  that after the advent of the good governance government ,  black coat , cutthroat minister Wijedasa Rajapakse the villain , and  black coat , parana court , turncoat Sarath N Silva the notorious ex Chief justice were creeping into the Navy chalet in the nights to proffer advice pertaining to the aforementioned criminals.  

In any event ,based on the latest reports reaching Lanka e news , these investigations are almost concluded , and several heavyweights and those who threw their weight about in the Navy are to be arrested in this connection.

The attention of the pro good governance masses is now focused on these  ghastly ruthless multiple murders of children . Therefore , it is the  hope of the pro good governance masses ,  at least  now  the  president who is ‘coughing’ and crawling  on behalf of the security forces who committed  ghastly murders during the Rajapakse murderous and nefarious decade, based on his    ‘ranaviru Unmadhaya ( war hero dementia) will stop his coughing , crawling  and mad obsession.  

For further reading….
A brief account of Vasantha Karannagoda’s student murders and infamous white Van crimes….

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by     (2017-01-17 04:43:02)

Gunaratne’s Road To Nandikadal

By Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan –January 17, 2017

Prof. Charles Sarvan

Book Review – Major General Kamal Gunaratne, Road to Nandikadal: True story of defeating Tamil Tigers, Colombo, 2016.

Epigraph: Those who have power in the present, control the story of the past; and those who control the past, shape the future. ~ (Adapted from Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.)

As readers well know, the word “prejudice” comes from to pre-judge; to judge or form an opinion without first independently examining the evidence. Going by what I had read about this book, I confess I was prejudiced but, having gone through it, my former opinion was confirmed. “Pre-judice” became “post-judice”, an instance of postjudice confirming prejudice. (Or is the latter – consciously or subconsciously – conditioning the former? After all, as Heidegger noted, even objectivity is judged by a subjective self.) To express it bluntly, I think this on several counts is a very poorly produced work. Yet it has proved popular with the first-printing of the English translation being immediately sold out – a reaction not without its significance in what it suggests about the reading-public. In what follows I attempt to explain the grounds for my opinion, fully accepting that it is only one, fallible, “reading”; that others will have different approaches and evaluations: disagreement and the resulting variety of readings are to be welcomed.

To begin with, there are many grammatical mistakes, lapses in expression, not to mention linguistic infelicity. However, the responsibility here is not that of the good Major General but of his translator. No doubt, the work would have benefitted from editorial oversight. (How the text reads in the original ‘Sinhala’, I don’t know.) The author’s excursions into figurative language result in absurd images such as Indian fighter-jets being seen as hooligans raping Sri Lankan airspace: raping airspace? This leads me to another regrettable feature, that of the author’s emotionalism: I could feel hot blood coursing through my body like an electric shock (p. 107). I would have crushed the aircraft and flushed them down the toilet. (Again: flush aircraft down a toilet? It’s ludicrous.) Wasn’t this “a rape of our beloved Motherland”? (p. 108); driving a dagger through the hearts of Buddhists (p. 421) etc. One wonders whether the Major General had in mind a particular segment of Sinhala-readers who would admire and applaud such an inflammatory, vulgar, style. If so, it’s not a compliment to them. His emotionalism leads to an extreme and simplistic contrast between the LTTE (the most brutal terrorists, ruthless, cruel, barbaric murderers, maniacal attackers) and his soldiers who go into battle with a loaded weapon in one hand and a book on human-rights in the other (p. 2), “the finest and most gallant soldiers on earth”. No doubt, there’s loud applause, and the heedlessly galloping Major General needn’t pause to clarify with which other armies, world-wide, the comparison is being made, nor the criteria for his comparative evaluation. Readers are not expected to stop, reflect and scrutinise independently but to be swept along with the tide of high patriotic passion.

To make a minor but not insignificant point, Major General Gunaratne who makes clear his fervent commitment to Buddhism writes: “I lit the traditional oil lamp at an auspicious time given by my wife who had consulted an astrologer” (p. 644). This is nothing but primitive superstition. (“Primitive” is here intended in the sense of “primordial”.) Superstition is the product of human ignorance and fear. In turn, the emotion of fear spawns hatred and cruelty. But Buddhism (besides compassion for all beings) rests on pillars such as rationality and morality. Belief in astrology is ‘primitive’ superstition, part of the weeds, stones and cobwebs the Buddha attempted to clear away. The question prompts itself: Is the Major General a true Buddhist or does he remain a prisoner of superstition, and of empty ritual, however fervent?

But more is at stake here than lapses in language, style, emotionalism and primitive superstition. Nandikadal can be seen as a Mahavamsa of the Eelam War: I use the indefinite article “a” because there must be other Mahavamsa-type works on the war in Sinhala being enthusiastically received. Scholars (most of them Sinhalese) have investigated the Mahavamsa and established that it is an imaginative construct – which Nandikadal surely isn’t. So the comparison I suggest between the ancient and recent text is based on factors such as bias, one-sidedness, anger, hatred and, above all, the effect the work will have on the beliefs and feelings of the populace. Even those who admit that the Mahavamsa is a story are affected by it subconsciously. (Gunaratne refers to Vihara Maha Devi, the mother of King Dutugamunu, as “the greatest heroine in our history”, confident readers know the story and will respond appropriately.) Stories from the Mahavamsa are related to children at home, in school and in the temple. (I recall a Tom Paxton Vietnam ‘protest-song’: “What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?” The son answers he learnt that our government is always right, and that war is good.) The uncritical will read this book, particularly in Sinhala, and will carry its marks on their mind. To use in quite another context words from the poem ‘Missing Dates’ by Ezra Pound, “Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills… / The waste remains, the waste remains and kills”.

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MURDER IS MURDER, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHO COMMITTED THE MURDER, AND WHO IS THE VICTIM – MANOURI MUTTETUWEGAMA

Image:Chairperson of the Consultation Task Force for Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) Manouri Muttetuwegama courtesy GV.

17/01/2017

Interview: Deconstructing the CTF Report by Raisa Wickrematunge/ Groundviews.

Excerpts from an interview with the Chairman of the Consultation Task Force for Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) Manouri Muttetuwegama on their recently released report:

Q: What do you think are the most important points that people should focus on in the recently released Consultation Task Force for Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) report?

MURDER IS MURDER.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

That inconsistency problem

Uditha Devapriya-2017-01-17

If facts exist, factoids shouldn't. If facts stare you in the face, myths shouldn't. Therefore and ideally, if policy is based on facts, that policy should survive regime-change, rhetoric, and of course factoids and myths. No government worth its salt can linger for long with the latter: lies can survive only so far, and as for factoids, the people can't be fooled all the time. Factoring all this, and what do you get? A simple proposition: policy, if it is to remain impenetrable, must be consistent. The only reason why it is not, then, is that there is no policy. Only rudderless, aimless rhetoric.

The government has seen better days. The first week of the New Year did not contain better days. Everything that got muddled, twisted, and contorted, everything that was contradicted ably and efficiently by the Press, can be attributed to the policy trajectory, or the lack thereof, of this government. Ministers are not miracle workers, true. But policies aren't crafted by miracle-workers. They are crafted by realists, hard, uncompromising realists. The problem isn't that we lack these realists among our representatives. The problem is that the realists in those representatives don't come out as often as we wish them to.
Based on the stances that the government took in the past year, we can contend that it remains dangerously unmoored and unchartered. A government that gives even the perception of so being is, it must be said, prone to intrusion. Two years on after the "2015 Revolution" (as its champions are wont to term it, for reasons that warrant another article), we are forced to admit that old wine has survived in new bottles. Again, the main problem is the lack of a policy trajectory.

Policy consistency

Let me explain. In a (liberal) democracy, policy consistency isn't just a sign of integrity. It's also a tool to safeguard those mechanisms that protect it from veering off into a dictatorship. When the government communicates with its people, it's expected to communicate something it does not capitulate on or revise later. When it gives an indication of an incident or a landmark being achieved, it's nominally expected to stick to such a claim without recanting. That is why there is a Cabinet spokesman and that is why ministers deliver speeches at functions and events. That is also why cognizant enough reporters take heed of what they say and note it all down.

Liberal democracies are founded on a curious dichotomy: between absolute democracy and mild authoritarianism. In a country like Sri Lanka, with a history of authoritarian governments and slipshod reforms, you either have cohesive, comprehensive policies to offer to the people, or you market those policies for votes and then, after elections, forget them. Lamentably, we see more of the latter. Even more lamentably, we've seen more of the latter with this regime. For a country that has dallied with both democracy and authoritarianism, this is not a good sign.

Take the Volkswagen fiasco. Consider the facts. According to Michael Dohmen, Deputy Head of the German Embassy, the parties to the contract were the Board of Investment and SENOK Trade Combine. That contract was entered into on 13 August 2015.

That's more than a year ago, during which time Volkswagen was suggested and then abandoned over its emissions scandals. To date, we don't have information about what car brands will be manufactured in Kuliyapitiya or whether the goal of 2, 500 new jobs has been expressly provided for in the contract (it has not, we now know). Who's telling what to whom?

Accountability

Forget that though. Think about the regime's stance on accountability. Mahinda Rajapaksa was notoriously clear on his stance on the matter: no room for foreign mediation. He was not, however, unclear about it. The present regime's claims about foreign mediation, intervention, and of course accountability are far from clear, in comparison. Not only is it unclear, it's also ambivalent. When the President says that there won't be room for foreign judges, when the Cabinet spokesman and the Foreign Minister in turn contradict and then confirm the President's claim, and when the United Nations tweets against the claims of these three people, who are we to believe?

Because these issues don't fall within the purview of legitimate expectations, the government can well contradict its own stances days after they were "made clear" and get away with it. But policies matter. Rhetoric does not. The government, in the New Year at least, is opening itself to the threat of self-annihilation. In military parlance, it is conceding ground to the enemy, an enemy that is (at least now) looking on lazily as the regime slips and contorts itself even more.

In an ideal world, policies wouldn't be subjected to the whims and fancies of individual governments. And yet, they are. This is nothing new to Sri Lanka, or to the world. We see it happening elsewhere. But, even in a context where government policies diverge wildly, we need a foundation on which those very same changes and shifts of policy are based.

Volkswagen fiasco

The biggest problem with the government (I neither subscribe to nor oppose it) is that it's slipshod and notoriously opaque when it comes to policy. The Volkswagen fiasco and the ruckus over the War Crimes Tribunal are only two instances. There are others.

There will be others. Even in a world where elections operate on fact-free premises and assumptions and leaders clinch power through sheer, unsubstantiated rhetoric, we should be worried. The fact that we are no strangers to these divergent policy shifts, the fact that since 1956 we have witnessed governments that have paid scant attention to the need to translate rhetoric to policy, indicates that we aren't headed for better times.

The defeat of the LTTE was a necessary first step to resolving the ethnic issues. The problem with the previous regime was that it never went beyond that first step. The defeat of the plutocracy that (is alleged to have) roosted itself here was a necessary first step to ushering in democracy. The problem with this regime is that it hasn't gone beyond that. Should we be complacent?

No. Should we be worried? No. Should we act? Decidedly. How?

I can't claim to offer a proper solution, but I do know this: the sooner we differentiate calls for reforms from calls for a Rajapaksa Restoration, the better it'll be for all of us. Currently the only voice being raised against the misshapen policies of this regime is that of the Joint Opposition (The Official Opposition, barring the JVP, remains woefully inadequate). Again, we shouldn't be worried: after all the JO has its own share of refined and exceptional politicos. Sycophancy is the one thing we don't see in these politicos, and because of that alone, we shouldn't be worried about the JO's attempts at axing most of the government's ill-conceived policies. This, however, does not forbid criticism.

JO lacks numbers

The JO lacks numbers. It lacks parliamentary power. It needs, in short, a bigger, better, and more pluralistic movement. True, Parliament does not decide on the country's destiny all the time, but in a context where President Maithripala Sirisena seems to have devolved much of his power to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Cabinet, and if we are to start with a cohesive, comprehensive Opposition free of the sycophants who were in power before 2014, we need to aim higher. We need, in short, to couple up with the more tolerant and national-minded sections of the JO, take it away from the crass majoritarianism it still seems to subscribe to, and form a more wholesome movement that is not fact-free. Not impossible, one can reasonably concede.

UDAKDEV1@GMAIL.COM

Regressive Groups Continue To Throw Hurdles At MMDA Reforms

Archaic minded groups continued to be an obstacle by throwing hurdles at the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) reforms, with the Colombo District Masjid Federation (CDMF) carrying out a signature campaign in an effort to hamper the reform process.

January 17, 2017

Last Friday, the CDMF launched a campaign to collect signatures from Muslim men against the reforms process. A letter in Tamil along with a form to list the signatories were circulated across several mosques in Colombo requesting Muslim men who attended Friday Jumma prayers to place their signature in the document which said ‘Please no changes to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act.’

The latest move however comes while a committee tasked with reforming the Act is in the process of finalizing the report which will be submitted to Parliament. “We are still working on it, but we will finalize it soon and the report will be handed over to Parliament,” a member of the committee who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Colombo Telegraph.

The latest impediment led by CDMF has come under heavy criticism, including from Ameer Faaiz, Director – International Affairs of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). “This campaign by this group is a very regressive step. We must acknowledge that MMDA needs to be reformed, if it is to stay on,” he said.

Faaiz told the Colombo Telegraph if such anti-reform attitudes continue, the same people who are against the reforms now will have to face a situation where the entire Act might be at risk of being abolished, if the Act is not allowed to be reformed in a timely manner.

“The State must take ownership, and ensure this law is on par with other laws. There must be equality and it is the responsibility of the State to ensure that equality among all will be enforced,” he said.

Faaiz also highlighted that while there were some theologians who opposed the reforms, there were also quite a number of theologians who had voiced their support to the reforms. He recalled how one theologian had emphasized that age is not only about being physically matured, but one needs to attain a level of understanding where a contract can be understood by someone who is signing it. “Even Muslim countries have progressed and have enforced a minimum age of marriage for females,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Amjad Saleem, who functions as an independent consultant noted that the MMDA was not cast in stone and therefore deserve discussion and reflection. “I think there should be space for improving or making things better given the new context. If there are reforms to be done, then we should embrace it,” he added.

Due to the MMDA of 1951, Muslim women in Sri Lanka are openly discriminated and suffer from laws that deny them equality. The MMDA also offers no constitutional guarantee to safeguards the fundamental rights of equality and non-discrimination of Muslim women.

Late last year, the Sri Lanka Thawheed Jama’ath (SLTJ) led a demonstration in Colombo against the MMDA reforms, demanding that child marriages be allowed. Many studies have also highlighted the ugly sides of the Act including where girls as young as 14 were forced in marriage. The report titled ‘Unequal Citizens: Muslim Women’s Struggle for Justice and Equality in Sri Lanka’ released last year also sheds light to the harrowing experiences Muslim women undergo in the hands of the Quazi court system.

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Drought will leave over 12,000 Kilinochchi families without drinking water

17Jan 2017

Drought in the North has resulted in drinking water shortages for over 12,000 families in Kilinochchi.

Research presented at a political meeting on tackling the ongoing drought, found that around 12,200 families will suffer from a lack of clean, drinking water.

Families in several districts across Kilinochchi lack access to wells and tanks, and also lack the resources to import clean water from other areas.

Continual drought in the North has already resulted in damage to thousands of acres of crop fields across the region.

Related Articles: 

10 January 2017 : North must be declared drought-affected says NPC

30 December 2016 : Sri Lanka may experience the worst drought in four decades

How has the drought affected retailers and farmers in Sri Lanka? 

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

In Sri Lanka, drought is looming into a larger issue as one-third of the population is engaged in agriculture-related activities.

According to the Department of Agriculture, 1.8 million farming households across the island are engaged in paddy cultivation. The prevailing drought has affected majority of these households spread across 13 districts. As a result, thousands of acres of paddy cultivation are on the verge of being destroyed due to lack of sufficient water.

Water, the most important resource essential for humans’ continued existence on Earth, is disappearing from the Earth’s surface. Drought is currently becoming prevalent in many areas across the globe. The current drought in Sri Lanka is considered as the worst since the 1970s.

Businesses underestimate the impacts of drought and consider it as a temporary phenomenon that won’t prevail for longer periods. However, drought is frequently occurring in Sri Lanka with severe and disastrous impacts. Rainfall had become more erratic in recent years with large volumes of rain coming in a short time and with longer periods where there is little or no rain, which creates droughts even though annual rainfall hasn’t diminished.

The Central Bank’s Annual reports for the last five years have highlighted on the ‘adverse and extreme weather’ as the causes to support the poor performance of the agricultural sector which clearly indicates the severity of the issue.

Generally, drought is easily perceived as a climate condition impacting the livelihood of farmers. However, it’s important to note that climate change and the failure of a season doesn’t merely affect the farmer only but also the entire value chain. And it’s only a matter of time until the effects trickle down to impact the other components of the value chain as well.

As the drought persists for longer periods, the activities of the system compromising wholesalers, retailers, middlemen, warehouses, banks, logistics service providers, etc. will be disrupted.

Sales plunge

experienced by retailers

Sithamparapillai Ananthan, owner of a large scale retail shop in Nochchiyagama, says his store had experienced a 15-20% sales plunge over the last month in December, as the customers didn’t have enough cash on hand to purchase as usual.

“Customers with a usual purchase value of Rs.3,000-4,000 have become picky nowadays and are only purchasing the essential items in smaller quantities. As a result the total bill value has dropped to around Rs. 1,000-1,500,” he said.

The retailer further stated: “Food items are moving fast though in smaller quantities, while the other categories such as soft drinks and personal care products are slow moving and are getting piled up in the store rooms and shelves.”

The retailer had to request the distributors to hold back the slow-moving items in order to make room for the fast-moving ones. Retailers are acting cautiously during this uncertain period to prevent unnecessary risks and avoid blocking money and space by stocking slow or non-moving items.

As water runs dry, so

do farmers’ financials

Ranjith Gunawardena, a farmer situated in the Ralapanawa farming village in Nochchiyagama, has spent over Rs. 1.25 lakhs on his five-acre paddy field.  In the event of a good harvest, he would have earned a return of at least Rs. 2.25 lakhs. However, his hopes gave waned over time given the present climate conditions.

Ranjith said: “We were supposed to receive water from the Mahaweli stream. However, we received water only for a day during the last two weeks and it’s insufficient to save the paddy.”

The farmer’s financial worries are further intensified with lack of funds to settle the lease payment for his tractor, which is due following the cultivation of the paddy.

Nevertheless, Ranjith had wisely invested efforts to cultivate pumpkin on his two-and-a-half-acre land along with the paddy cultivation. He has managed to save the pumpkin crops by pumping water from the well, even though it’s an expensive process and would thin his margins.

“We are lucky as there is adequate ground water unlike the other dry zone areas where the ground water is drained and crops are already dead,” said Ranjith worriedly.

Failed crops and decline in purchasing power 

“Last time when we had a good harvest, I earned about two to three lakhs and was able to adequately spend whenever I visited town. In addition to that, I was also able to complete the construction of the front yard and bathroom and also saved some money which was used for paddy preparation this time,” he said.

However, during this harvest, his cash flow is severely affected which has impacted the spending pattern. The farmer’s food reserves have also been used up and he had not been to the town for the entire month.

Farmers generally doesn’t have adequate savings and are forced to use up food reserves, whilst others depend on borrowings or take up non-agricultural related employment.

Need to implement mitigation strategies

 

With appropriate contingency plans in place at the right time, the adverse impacts could well have been minimised, if not eliminated.

One way of bridging the gap between the potential yield and actual yield would be to replace the drought susceptible varieties with relatively resistant/tolerant varieties to sustain overall production. The Department of Agriculture has mentioned that the farmers have remained ignorant despite their warning early in the season itself.

The majority of the small farmers in the country blindly believe in rainfall during the farm operations. Therefore it is essential to adequately educate the dos and don’ts during the occurrence of a drought based on the value additions provided by the weather data.

Corporate institutions and masters of effective communication could aid in developing communication strategies partnering with the Government. Creating awareness and preparedness could be a valuable Corporate Sustainable Responsibility if well utilised.

The valuable lessons learned from this season should be used as guide to prevent repeated losses in the future.

(The writer is a market research professional, specialising in the demand-side estimation and segmenting consumers. He can be reached via haran5555@gmail.com.)

Federal Court upholds deportation of Tamil Tigers fundraiser who has fought to stay in Canada for 22 years

Manickavasagam Suresh in 2005

Stewart Bell | January 16, 2017

TORONTO — An alleged fundraiser for Tamil rebels who has been fighting deportation from Canada for more than two decades has lost a key court battle after a federal judge dismissed his appeal.

The Federal Court upheld the deportation of Manickavasagam Suresh on the grounds he was a member of a terrorist organization and that he was complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The evidence “adequately supported” the Immigration and Refugee Board’s finding that Suresh was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, Justice Richard Mosley wrote in his ruling.

The judge also found reasonable the IRB’s finding that Suresh was “a dedicated supporter who voluntarily worked on behalf of the LTTE and willingly followed the direction of the organization’s leadership.”

The Tigers were separatist guerrillas who fought for independence for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority. In addition to fighting a ground war, they conducted numerous political assassinations and bombings.

In 1990, Suresh was allegedly sent to Toronto by the LTTE to help run the group’s front organization, the World Tamil Movement, serving as its co-ordinator. But he was arrested in 1995 as a security risk.

Photo by Stewart BellRCMP search the World Tamil Movement office in Toronto in April, 2006.

Initially, Canadian authorities tried to deport him under a security certificate, which was upheld by the Federal Court. He fought the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled he could face torture if returned to his home country.

But the government continued to quietly push for his removal and in 2008, immigration officials drafted a report alleging he was inadmissible to Canada due to his membership in the WTM and his complicity in war crimes.

Following a hearing, the IRB ordered his deportation in 2015. The 40-page decision dismissing his appeal of that ruling was handed down on Jan. 10 but as of Monday had not yet been posted on the Federal Court website.

The Tamil Tigers ran a lucrative fundraising operation in Toronto and Montreal until the WTM’s offices were raided by the RCMP in 2006. Among other things, the searches turned up appeals for money to buy weapons.

The WTM was placed on Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist groups in 2008. In 2009, the Tamil rebels were defeated by Sri Lankan government forces, which have themselves been accused of committing war crimes during the lengthy conflict.

National Post

An open letter to minister Akila regarding the 1st year school admission of national schools

by A Professional

(Lanka-e-News 18.Jan.2017, 3.30AM) After a long time, I heard a good news that Grade -I admission lists are suspended in some of the prestigious national schools  and investigations are being held to inquire the  legitimacy of the applicants. I who had the chance to study in one of these prestigious national schools in this country, not by forging documents by my parents, but by my skills at fifth standard scholarship examination in good old 80's, remember the glorious days we spent in our school times. We were proud of our school and the envy at the eye of others who could not enter these schools. We cheered in big matches and boasted about our teams. But after entering the University, I understood that name of the school was next to nothing. 

While thanking the Minister of Education for the bold and unprecedented action taken to curb the school admission mafia, I as a professional wish to bring into Hon. Minister's attention the following facts. I am not a good writer at any rate, I should humbly first admit.

Most of these prestigious national schools in this country were modeled  in the model of colonial England in the 19th century. This is true for even the Buddhist schools where only the religion was different. The schools at the colonial England were pay levying schools where parents had to pay for the education and the maintenance of their children. We can see most of our prestigious national schools are residential, meaning that they targeted the intelligent students all over the country and not a privileged group in the vicinity of the school. We have to rethink whether this vision is there anymore and these prestigious schools have become a property of some privileged group in Colombo. 

How can the proximity to the school be a qualification to enter that school at the first place? This is a clear human rights violation as the government is not able to provide high quality schools to the whole citizenry. Therefore the very notion of considering the proximity as a qualification to enter a prestigious school is wrong and discriminatory. 

Why all these prestigious schools were made national schools? The point is that if a provincial council passes a law that they will only admit the students of their province to these prestigious schools, then it will deprive the students of other provinces enjoying the opportunity of studying in these schools. It shall be noted that these popular schools are concentrated into few provinces namely Western, Central, Southern and Northern.  Making these schools national schools means that these schools are national assets and not even the provincial council can intervene in their affairs. While the situation is such, how fair is it to give the residents of the proximity of these schools to enter their children to these schools.

There is another basis apart from the proximity and that is old student basis. That means if your father or mother was an old student of a prestigious school, you automatically inherit the right to enter that school. This is okay if you are paying that school and the school is a private property. Because at the colonial times the character of a student was very important and the school management boards did not hesitate to admit a student whose father or mother was known to them. But the situation has changed and now all the government schools, including these prestigious schools are maintained with the tax payers' money. Then how can somebody inherit the right to enter a prestigious government institution just because his father or mother was there few years back? I must admit that old student basis is also discriminatory and it looks at the students with prejudice. It should not be practiced in a democratic country like ours.

Then, what about the opportunity government servants get to admit their children to Grade-I of a prestigious school, after a transfer. This is another discriminatory practice since the colonial times. One has to understand the root of this practice out of the frame. At the time of the British Empire, government servants were considered as collaborators of the Empire. We very rarely use the word 'collaborator' in this country. After the second world war the word 'collaborator' was practically obscene in France as these were the people who cooperated with the occupying Germans. But in this country the collaborators were always the esteemed people since we did not have an independence struggle at all. So the colonial government gave all benefits to these 'collaborators' like school admissions, pensions, official residences etc. Should we continue that practice anymore? It is now our very own government and not an occupying power. Collaborating with the government is not a choice against your locals but your duty and responsibility. So this ugly practice of giving preference to the children of government servants who have got transfers should be discontinued. We saw some ugly episodes of misusing this privilege few months back.

In order to see the graveness of these irresponsible practices like considering the proximity to school, old student basis and government transfer etc, let me cite and example. What if government decides tomorrow that the admission to University of  Colombo is based on these criteria without considering the Advanced Level Results. Remember both University of Colombo and any prestigious school in Colombo are government educational institutions maintained by tax payers' money. 

Therefore, Hon. Minister, I as a Professional propose following measures to solve this problem once and for all to curb the ugly mafia of Grade-I school admission;

As an immediate measure, do not register any student for Grade-I under name of any school. Register them under the Department of Education instead. Consider a prestigious school X. Proximity, government transfer etc can be considered for its Grade-I admission. But students are registered under the Department of Education and do not have the right to use the prestigious name of school. Later at Grade-V, they also have to face the Fifth Standard Scholarship Examination and their place in School-X will only be secured if their marks are up to the cut off marks of School-X in that examination. Otherwise, they will lose the chance to study in that school and have to get another school as per their preference and marks. 

Year by year, admission to the Grade-I of these schools can be stopped and the primary section can be cancelled in 5 years, making these schools only available to the students with highest marks of the fifth standard scholarship examination.

There are many parents who have the will and ability to pay for their children's primary education in private schools. But their unwillingness is partly due to fifth standard scholarship examination is not available in private schools. Make fifth standard scholarship examination available to private candidates as well so parents can sit their children to that examination as private candidates and seek government  school admission in Grade-VI. This will largely reduce the burden of government on primary education.

These proposals may not be the best and I am not an expert in education. But I hope these proposals will be given due consideration in forming a fair-for-all education policy in the future

By A Professional

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by     (2017-01-17 22:07:13)

Political furnace heating up once more

BY METHMALIE DISSANAYAKE-2017-01-18

The political furnace is heating up once more with Athuraliye Rathana Thera's decision to remain an independent MP at a juncture when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that he will topple the government in 2017. In an interview with Ceylon Today, JVP Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath commented on the prevailing political situation and noted that the government has been rendered unstable in the last two years and that the Thera's decision to function as an independent MP only aggravates the situation.

Excerpts follow:
Q: What can you say about Athuraliye Rathana Thera's decision to be an independent MP?

A: Athuraliye Rathana thera acted independent for a long time. Therefore, the news did not bring any surprise to us. The only difference is that the thera is not a part of this government now. But we should not forget, it was he, who came to the Parliament from the UNP national list. He also supported to establish the national government which now is creating chaos among the citizenry. He should have thought about the consequences of forming a government such as this. Now it is too late because this government is dragging the entire country and the people into a grave crisis.

Q: Are there any other MPs who wish to break away from the government?

A: That we do not know. But, this current situation is a normal thing in any country, which has an unstable political environment. When a government becomes weak, its members tend to desert the 'sinking ship'. This is what is happening in the country at the moment. We assume that more situations like Rathana thera's decision to act as an independent MP could be seen in the future.

Q: Going by this decision, some people may question whether the government is stable. Do you have any views on the matter?

A: The UNP and the SLFP did not have a mandate to form a joint government. People did not give them power to do so. These two parties formed this government against the people's mandate. Now look at what has happened? Due to that decision political stability of the country is in danger now. They gave thousands of promises to the people, yet have failed to fulfil even one of them in a proper manner. Under their control, now the economy is in a total mess.

Q: Is it possible to overthrow the government, as the Joint Oppositions wants to do?

A: We do not see such possibility at the moment. There are three more years for the next election and the President cannot dissolve this Parliament. Therefore, we think the government will remain as this until 2020, even though it is a total failure and it will not do any good to the country. The UNP and the SLFP is proving again and again that they cannot guide the country in the correct path. They have no objectives; they have no goals for that. We even cannot see a genuine intention to develop the country from them.

Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Joint Opposition are the ones who keep on saying that they will topple the government. But we do not see a way it can happen right now.

Q: Some people claim that the JVP only talks about corruption of the Rajapaksa era

A: They will not say that if they listen to us properly. I think the Joint Opposition wants us to shut our mouths on the corruption they did together. They like to see that happen. That is why they point their fingers at us by making such false allegations. But we do not see any fair reason as to why we should not talk about the misdeeds and corruptions done by Rajapaksas. Because they stole State money and misused State properties with the collaboration of some MPs who are now members of the Joint Opposition. Revealing the truth about them is absolutely necessary because such people should be punished according to the law.
But, this government is not any different. They also are 'big thieves' like the people of former government. Therefore, we, as the JVP, criticize both these governments when there is a necessity. We never keep our mouths shut while witnessing the harm they are doing to this country.

It was us who raised voice against the Central Bank bond scam. It was us who revealed the truth about MPs who take State vehicles in an inappropriate manner. If they now accuse us saying that we do not act, they are mistaken and they do not listen to us properly.

We have a bond with the people in this country. Therefore, we never support any government to steal and misuse State money and State properties which originally belonged to the citizenry.

Q: The National Audit Bill is one promise made by the government. Its introduction keeps on getting delayed. What are your comments on that?

A: The government appointed the Audit Commission but has failed to pass the New National Audit Bill. This is completely a joke because the commission cannot be operated without empowering the Bill. Passing the National Audit Bill is a promise the government gave to the people from the 100-day-programme of this government. Now, almost two years have gone and yet they are struggling to fulfil that promise.

We know that several attempts are being made to weaken the draft of the Audit Bill. This Bill is intended to make the Parliament's authority stronger over the public funds. Moreover, it will give more powers to the Auditor General. But now, there are several ministers and MPs who do not wish to see that happen. They are attempting to remove many of the most-important provisions from the Bill. That is why the task of passing this Bill takes months and months.

We should say that the act is of no use without those provisions. Removing them will make the bill weaker. So the bill should be passed along with those phrases. If the government fails to do it, then it betrays and disappoints people who placed their trust upon it.

Q: What is your opinion on the incidents regarding the Hambantota port?

A: The people cast votes for these authorities to see a developed country by managing the resources we have in an effective manner. However, this government is selling and sacrificing the most important resources that belong to the people. How can a government sell almost all the national treasures and then develop a country? That does not make any sense.
It is not a sound economic plan for a country to sell lands and national assets to other countries by just showing debt numbers of previous regimes. This path the government has taken cannot be justified by any means.

The JVP urges the government to stop this immediately. The government should stop selling the Hambantota Port to China. They should stop selling our lands to China. They will receive money by selling them now, but generations and generations will have to suffer because of stupid decisions like that.

As a political party and trade union movement we will begin a firm struggle against government's policy of selling and sacrificing country's resources.

Q: The government has warned of a rice shortage. How did this happen?

A: I remember the Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake once saying that there was no need to cultivate paddy in Sri Lanka. He said it is more profitable to import rice rather than manufacturing rice inside the country. Then, the Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake, I think for the first time in the history, said that 100,000 acres will be withdrawn from the paddy cultivation. I don't think any other agriculture minister in the world would say something like that. But again, we cannot expect any better than that from a government like this.

However, now the situation has changed. Same people who said that there was no need to cultivate paddy inside the country are now making decisions to import rice from south Asian countries. I think that these kinds of fiascos can only happen in Sri Lanka.
Moreover, now they say the country is in a rice crisis due to the drought. The Finance Ministry says that the country could be faced with a famine. What they suggest to people is consume sweet potato and manioc leaves as a solution. The government has failed to provide food to the people. This is a shame.

The government should take the entire responsibility for this situation. If they had a proper management plan to handle this, such a situation would not have arisen. If they had taken the necessary action, the people would not have needed to buy a kg of rice for Rs 90. This is a mafia the authorities have created with the coalition of rice mill owners.

Q: What can you say about the dispute regarding Wilpattu National Park?

A: There are several Muslim families who had abodes in that area before. Therefore, the government should solve their land and housing problem first. As we know, before the war some families lived near the Wilpaththu reservation, like in Kallaru. They have their lands in the area. So there is a genuine problem there and the government must come up with a proper solution. Instead of doing so, the government is shifting all the blame to minister Rishad Bathiudeen and is talking and doing nonsense. It is originally they who created this problem. But it seems that they do not want to solve it.

Q: What is your opinion about the current situation of national security?

A: We cannot see any immediate threat to national security right now. But we can see racism spreading among the communities in the country like wildfire. The communities refuse to trust each other and the suspicion about other communities is growing. In North, Chief Minister Wigneswaran makes claims which are harmful to the peace and harmony. Just like that, in the South, 'Rajapaksa and the clan' trying to divide ethnic communities by spreading lies.

Q: What steps can be taken by the government to control this situation?

A: These people are not capable of giving a permanent solution for the ethnic problem of the country. Both the UNP and the SLFP could not do it nor does the Joint Government.

What both these parties did is the same. Every time when they wanted to gain power they used racism to do so. That is what they did every time. They will do it even in the future too.

Highways minister, come & see the magic – this is how highways are built speedily!

Jan 17, 2017

Sri Lanka’s highways minister Lakshman Kiriella once said that work on the Kandy highway project could not be launched due to the absence of an auspicious time. He said that roads would definitely be developed in the new year that has dawned. He barely managed to lay the foundation before the end of January for the project to widen the stretch of road between Orugodawatte Junction and Ambatale on Colombo-Ratnapura low level road to four lanes.

Since he holds the respected position of leader of the House in the ‘Yahapaalana’ government and makes such contributions to national development, minister Kiriella should watch the video given below without fail. It is not difficult to understand that the incident taking place in this video did not happen in Sri Lanka. That is because such things could seem like magic as long as leaders like Kiriella rule this country. This happened in Australia. Highways are under construction in the massive desert-like landscape of Australia. In that task, idiotic questions like which ministry will have to pass the funding for rural development do not arise. That is why these highways are being constructed speedily.

This highway is under construction at Western Australia’s Moora area, as a road link to the area’s airstrip to be used in an emergency. First, the road is firmed properly and then bitumen is laid, followed by a layer of pebbles. The road is dead straight and there are no twists. The length of the road is 4.9 km. Australia took only two days to build it at a cost of 443,000 Australian dollars. An Australian dollar fetches 113 Sri Lankan rupees. At that rate, Australia spent 50,059,000 Sri Lankan rupees to build a 4.9 km of highway. No auspicious time was considered, but the road was completed in two days. Here in Sri Lanka, we are now waiting not two days, but two years, for development. Should anything else be said about development in Sri Lanka? We are told that highways were built with gold previously. But, citizens are asking as to why highways are not being built at least by gold now!!!

So, minister Kiriella, come and see the magic – click the video below