Monday 29 November 2010

Welcome to President H.E. Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan – a true friend of Sri Lanka.InfoLanka News Room: Sri Lanka news updates



While we say good by to Mr. S.M.Krishna the External Affairs Minister of India, it is a pleasure to Welcome His Excellency Mr.Asif Ali Zardari the President of Pakistan. Pakistan will always have a special place in the hearts of Sri Lankans, and will remain a true friend of Sri Lanka. Pakistan Stood by us through out that recent dark period of Sri Lanka under the threat of terrorism.

India’s relation with Sri Lanka was never cordial or sincere. India always had an ulterior motive in its “friendship”. Even before terrorism India, “…..keeping with the doctrine of Panikkar promulgated before Independence and which wanted Sri Lanka to be part of India together with chauvinist South Indian Tamils who had once wanted a separate Dravidistan had begun arming all our separatist groups.” **

India commenced the terrorism in Sri Lanka, and during the course of the terrorist insurgency continued “ aiding and abetting” terrorists in Sri Lanka.

When Prabhakaran and his terrorists were cornered by the Sri Lanka Government Forces,
When , “…….We were about to defeat them in Vadamarachchi. Prabahakaran was about to be captured when the Indians whisked Prabahakaran out of danger in a helicopter. Falsely claiming a humanitarian disaster, the Indians crossed our borders, now in a direct act of invasion. Initially they sent a convoy of ships which was intercepted by our Navy and turned back. Immediately, India called our ambassador in New Delhi and warned that if food parcels that it planned to be air dropped on Jaffna were hindered, there would be a full-scale military invasion of Sri Lanka. Soon gunboats were parked outside Colombo Harbour in a classic display of what in the 19th century was called gunboat diplomacy. “ **

This resulted in Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi forcing the hands of JR Jayawardhana to sign the 13th Amendment.

“This foreign imposed 13th Amendment was also a replay of what has been called the Monroe Doctrine whereby the US was to be the sole arbiter in the Americas. Indians were to call their incursion into Sri Lanka as its new Indira Doctrine (after Indira Gandhi) paralleling the colonial attitudes of the Monroe Doctrine. It was also reminiscent of the 1815 defeat of Sri Lankan sovereignty and the 1818 Treaty that followed, done under British guns. A subsequent OPA study a few years ago showed that the 13th Amendment resulted in a total waste of money. Like we rejected the 1818 British treaty brought under British guns, we should now reject outright the 13th Amendment brought under Indian guns -on the same grounds.” **

Now that the terrorism is over and with foresight and determination our present governing political leaders , have been able to break through financial red tapes to raise Sri Lanka from the status of a developing country to a Middle Income level, with the help of China, Iran, and other friendly Nations , India comes to our country not so much as a friend but as a new politically developing Nation to overseer and out manoeuvre Chin’s influence in Sri Lanka and spy on the activities of China .

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna in opening the Consulate in Hambantota had said; “ ….. that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has plans for developing Hambanthota and its environs as a major regional hub and naturally, India when it had decided to open a Consulate in the South, chose Hambanthota”.

The Minister said India is optimistic of the future of the region and the inauguration of the Consulate General in Hambanthota is intended to build on India's linkages with the region in the field of trade and commerce, investments, culture and tourism. “

India’s interest in Sri Lanka now is its own self interest. It is more keen in helping in the development of North and East of Sri Lanka rather than the rest of the country, and therefore the bulk of its aid goes to the North and East. There is a motive for that.
India is giving aid to satisfy the interest of Tamil Nadu, and force the Government of Sri Lanka to stop the Sinhala community settling down in the area to seal its Unitary State and prevent any future attempt for India to have a permanent stake in North and East of Sri Lanka as a separate Eelam State .

Unlike China which has given us more assistance and constructed Harbours and Air ports for a real development of Sri Lanka, India gives nothing for independent development of Sri Lanka but only those necessary assistance to retain its hold in Sri Lanka.

The Indian Minister S.M.Krishna had recalled to take credit that when tsunami struck Sri Lanka India was the first to come to Sri Lanka's assistance.

His reminder that the relations between India and Sri Lanka are multifaceted and historical and that Sri Lanka derive the full benefit of the proximity and exploited the full potential of their friendship and cooperation, does not make Sri Lanka forget India’s questionable role during the military operations against terrorists.

India was more interested in keeping the Tamil Nadu happy by interfering with its high-handedness. India once refused to provide transport to our soldiers when they were under siege by the terrorists, refused to sell us offensive weapons, and objected to our purchase of arms and ammunitions from China.

Even if Pakistan will not give us any aid Pakistan unlike India will always remain a faithful friend of Sri Lanka. Pakistan was always ready to help us when ever we were in need of help in the past, whereas India let us down on several occasions, and sold us outmoded radar detectors which enabled the terrorists to fly over Colombo to bomb the air port.

**(Susantha Goonatilake on Lessons:| Past, present and possible futures to Lankaweb on 26.11.10)

Friday 26 November 2010

SLFP or UPFA should start a Grama Charika to counter UNP misinformation campaign in their Grama Charika.


UNP is carrying on a world wide misinformation campaign against the Government of Sri Lanka abroad and locally in a much publicised Grama Charika . The UNP leader uses his official position as the Leader of the Opposition to meet the political leaders of the Western countries, to discredit and paint the picture of Sri Lanka as an undemocratic country with a President who withholds the freedom of the people.
In Sri Lanka other UNP politicians lead by the Karu Jayasooriya, Sajith Premadasa, and Mangala Samaraweera are carrying on a similar misinformation campaign diminishing the important dynamic development projects of the government, high lighting the rising prices of commodities. And unsubstantiated accusations of corruption, and diverting public money for the comfort and wealth of a family neglecting the welfare of the people and the country.

While people in the villages are confounded by the UNP misinformation, the SLFP and the UPFA MPs and Ministers are blissfully happy in their comfort of being members of a popular Government expecting people to withstand the compelling misinformation they are being battered with, to keep supporting the government. If SLFP and the UPFA do nothing about it leaving the field free for the UNP and the JVP to carry on their mischievous antigovernment campaign the people are bound sooner or later to react against the government.

All activities of the government both positive and negative aspects of them are brought to the people living in Colombo and suburban areas through the written , audio and other media. But the people in the villages are not aware of them and they could easily be duped by anti government campaigns unless the government keeps them informed of why and what of the different actions taken by the government.

If not there is enough material for the UNP to feed the news hungry villagers to be disillusion with the government. For instance the Government has to explain to the ordinary people why it had been necessary to have a cabinet of 60 Ministers, and why Rauf Hakeem who had signed a MoU with Prabhakaran had been Appointed as the Minister of Justice, and why people who had openly supported the cause of the terrorists appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Cultural Affairs Ministry.

The Government wanted a two third majority to make amendments to the Constitution and not to make a Cabinet of 62 Ministers and an equal number or more Deputy Ministers.

It was the Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers who liberated North and East from the ruthless terrorism. If there were to be another resurgence of terrorism it is again these Sinhala Buddhist Youth from the villages of Sri Lanka who will be fighting to liberate the areas and keep Sri Lanka a Unitary Sovereign State. Therefore it is these villages from where the soldiers had come that should be the first to be informed of the activities of the government.

The Government has a greater duty to improve villages in the South of Sri Lanka where the Sinhala Buddhist Heroes were born and will be born in the future. There should be Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers in the North and East and they should be provided with land and houses to live with their families among the Tamils and the Muslims as it is happening in the South. The Government should inform these people what the government proposes to do for them, to improve their conditions of living.

People also ask why the Catholic Church is allowed to have an important place in the North and East ?

There should be more temples and Buddhist priests in the North and East.

Madhu is well known for its Catholic Church. There should also be a Sinhala Buddhist settlement in the area, with their Temple. It was the Sinhala Buddhist soldiers who repaired the Church that was damaged by the terrorists. If in the future a necessity of protection of the Church arises, it is again the Sinhala Buddhist Soldiers who will be called.

The Prime Minister has the important Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs, therefore he should immediately start reforming the system of Education of the Buddhist Monks and re-establish Pirivena system of Education as the Buddhist Monks are getting away from piety , and from the expected norm of behaviour of Buddhist monks.

The people in the villages are concerned about their religion, and want its development and not its decadence. There is a project afoot to print the Tripitaka in Sinhala and English for free distribution. It is a wastage of money , what is necessary is to have an Order of learned Buddhist Monks who knows the Tri Pitaka and able to explain it to the people.

Sacred Areas like Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Kandy, Badulla, Mayangane etc. should be declared sacred areas of Buddhist worship, and building of Catholic Churches, Mosques and Hindu Kovils should be disallowed.

If the Reformation of the Buddha Sasana in Sri Lanka is not taken up soon the Principle religions in Sri Lanka will turn out to be the Catholism with a Cardinal now appointed to just 7 percent of the population.

The Popes offer of a Cardinal to Sri Lanka would have been a way of thanking the Sri Lanka Catholic Church for its stand by the terrorists, and an inducement for it to continue in its effort to provide a Tamil homeland, in the North and East.

The Catholic Church depends on the third world countries for its “existence”. Its popularity had fallen from 40 percent in 2006 to 27 percent in 2010. In Germany only one person in six says he believes in God. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has to increase the number of believers in Sri Lanka, that is the cardinal task given to him.

The Sri Lankan villagers also question why the Asgiri Malawatte Mahanayake theros are not looking after the affairs of the Sangha , instead of concerning themselves with the affairs of the Governments and the appointment of Ministers.

If the Government will not look into these affairs with which the ordinary people in the villages are preoccupied, the UNP and JVP will both have enough “ammunition” to set up villagers against the Government.

The Villagers may also ask what benefits they get from the government, which has increased the salaries of the government servants by 5 percent , with University Professors getting even higher increases of salaries. They question whether the Budget is meant for the rich, with prices of motor vehicles reduced, and Tax concession given to enterprises. The villagers would like to have an explanation.

Therefore the SLFP and UPFA should meet the people at village level, like the UNP is doing with its anti government campaign with their Grama Charika, and explain to them what benefits the villagers could expect from the Government..

The Government has only the Daily News as the press media to defend it and carry out pro-government propaganda. Even in the Internet there is only the Lankaweb as a non governmental website that supports the President and his government while there are hundreds of anti government websites, with Sri Lanka Guardian Website comparing the President to “Hitler”.

Another point that interests the villagers is that all good Schools are in Colombo , and Kandy. The schools in the villages have not been provided with all facilities, and there are no qualified teacher and the teachers are poorly paid.

Even the children from poor families trained under the “infamous” Tharuna Aruna are not provided with appropriate employment. Most of these Tharuna Aruna graduates are working as Clerks in School. They are disillusioned, and these are people who will be attracted to the UNP and JVP misinformation campaign.

The UNP MP Wijayadasa Rajapakse is critical of the appointment of Senior Ministers. Ravi Karunanayake had visited the prisoners Sarath Fonseka and Udul Premaratne, and spoke of his concern with their condition of living in prisons to discredit government, as if the government is responsible for the judicial action that had been taken against them.

Ravi Karunanayake who speaks against the government had not been an example of honesty during his Ministerial Office in the UNF Government. This man who criticises not only the Government but also the Armed Forces ridiculing the military operations against terrorism ,should be investigated for his corrupt transactions as a Minister of the UNF Government of Ranil Wickramasinghe. These facts should be explained to the villagers who are after all the deciding voters of any election.

Karu Jayasuriya a leader of the UNP Grama Charika Misinformation Campaign also speaks of the corruption of public enterprises. He was also in Ranil Wickramasinghe’s, UNF government which did nothing correctly, and suddenly these UNP MPs think they have the panacea for all ills which they did not have when they were in power.

It is time that the SLFP and the UPFA wake up to start their own Grama Charika, without allowing the UNP to go to villages to give misinformation to the people to put the peasants too against the government.

It is a duty of the Government to go to the people and inform them of the actions the government is taking, and why things are not as expected and how the government is proposing to give relief to the ordinary people, and reduce their financial and social burdens.

Friday 19 November 2010

We Wish President Mahinda Rajapakse, happiness and the blessings of the Triple Gem.


On the 19 November 2005, Sri Lanka was blessed by a political leader of character, determination, sincere, and devoted to the service of his people and his country.
Thanks to that day, thanks to the people who voted for that man at that historic Presidential Elections we are today a free people, without fear, without shrinking from the shame of being helpless for thirty years.

We need not bow low in gratitude to the rich and the powerful nations, who we feared to antagonise even in the face of the worst enemy threatening our independence, preparing to break away our territories to set up an Eelam State for the Tamils, lest the rich and the powerful would deny us the means for our existence, withdraw aid for food , refuse sale of wheat flour, or even refuse GSP+ which helped us to provide employment to our poor youth from villages.
But the man the people elected on the 19 November,2005 who became our President took away from us our fears and shame, and being small and insignificant, and gave us pride, strength, and hope to rise above our defects to face a brighter future.

If on that day he was not elected as our President, and if another man- without character or determination, insincere and egoist, weak and unintelligent, not devoted to the people or the country, but devoted to himself and his ambition, at the call of the rich and powerful Nations, were elected, what would it have been ?

If that were to have happened, we would have still been today a poor nation dependent on the rich and the powerful west, happy with the aid they ladled , and the GSP+ they handed out, yet in fear of exploding bombs, massacre of young and old , men, women and children, with a powerful group of terrorists in the North and the East.

But today, having appointed that Great Leader Mahinda Rajapakse as our President, we are not only a free nation , but also it has given freedom for the UNP and JVP to criticise the President and his government, lead manifestations against the President and call him all bad names, curse him and ask for more money to eat more, as if that is all that we have to do.

The President also gave freedom for the websites, such as the TamilNet, Ground View, Sri Lanka Guardian, for the News papers like Sunday Leader, Daily Mirror, Lakbima, for the Foreign News Agencies like the BBC, Reuters, AFN , for the other activists the Human Rights watch, Amnesty International , UN Chief Banki Moon, and his HRC Navi Pillai and even Mangala Samaraweera, Ravi Jayasuriya, and a whole string of others to criticise the government, throw bricks and bats, never bouquets and flowers, accuse the president for all ills under the sun , without a word of appreciation for bringing Sri Lanka to a free, really Independent Nation, acclaimed as being the fast developing nation within a short period of five years.
To that President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse we send our flowers and bouquets, good wishes and prayers, thanking him for being our President, for giving us his brother Gotabhaya as the Defence Secretary.

We want him as our President for a long time to come, to enable him to make our country a Nation of a united communities.

While thanking him for raising Sri Lanka to a Nation of a Middle level income, we wish him the blessings of the triple Gem to be healthy, happy and to have the courage to develop our Nation further to make it an example for other developing Nations to rise above the status of development taking Sri Lanka as a model, and leave being just a small satellite orbiting round the rich arrogant west –the International Community.
We pray that everyone with an iota of patriotism within him or her for our dear motherland, rally round the President Mahinda Rajapakse physically or mentally to shield him against the evil forces far and near, to enable him to make a success of his projects for the development of Sri Lanka.

Monday 15 November 2010

The Crusade of MalcolmR, should be a Crusade for Reconciliation.

In a previous article it was pointed out why it was important to make the Independence from colonialism meaningful by raising the National Status of Sri Lanka , with one language, one flag, one national anthem, and one official religion as any Nation any where in the World.

It will takes a long time for the people of Sri Lanka to shed their foreign cultural “skin”, to stand up proudly in their own. Nonetheless, they are doing it gradually and if they continue they will be able to shed themselves completely of the foreign “culture skin” with which they had been wrapped during more than four centuries of colonial rule. But Cardinal Malcolm R is up to his neck in the colonial culture which he upholds , and he will sink into it perhaps with some of those he is inviting to follow him and his “fairy tale” religion.

Reading the Cardinal’s submission to the LLRC, one cannot help feeling that it would be better for him to manage his Church affairs with his new Status as Cardinal instead of poking his nose in to secular matters, to put chaos into an already troubled situation as he himself says , “..Sri Lanka should be a secular democracy….”, .

He should revert to his spiritual vocation, where he may render some service to the 7 percent Catholic population who will listen to his homilies spellbound as he is now the direct descendent of Simon Peter the Apostle- the rock on which the Church had been built.
For the rest of the population the Cardinal is only another Catholic priest in a more decorated cassock, and what he says outside his pulpit are irrelevancies that would only damage the Communal harmony of the country.

If we consider the Buddhist Priests his counterparts, though his opposites in every respect yet give spiritual guidance to a larger percentage of the population, the Cardinal MalcolmR has a lesson to learn from them, if he were to be accepted as a spiritual man by the Sinhala Buddhist population in Sri Lanka.

But if they were to go by what Cardinal Malcolm R submitted to the LLRC, he will be considered by them a terrorist like Prabhakrana, wearing a different dress and instead of bombs and guns using words and speech to the same effect in a different sense.

The Buddhist Priests who did not receive from the Colonial rulers or even the Western governments and the media the same respect and reverence the Catholic Priests received, nonetheless, never complained at any time the exodus of Tamils from the North to south for its more acceptable climate, successful business ventures, or to serve the government.

Most of the Tamils who came to south to do their business or in the service of the Government, rarely brought their families. Thus they avoided social contact with the Sinhala people. Nevertheless, the Sinhala people accepted them and often they were invited to their weddings or funerals. The Buddhists also visited the Hindu temples frequently and attended Saraswathi Pooja or sought the blessings of Gana Deyyo. The Buddhist temples also had Devalayas- the Sanctuaries for Hindu Gods.

The Sinhala in south enjoyed celebrating the Sinhala New Year which was also called the Hindu New year. They exchanged sweet meets in celebrating the New Year. The Sinhala shared - Kawun, Kokis, Asmi and Plantains with Tamil people they had accepted as friends, or acquaintances as shopkeepers, or neighbours, and the Tamils in return shared Wade, Murukku and Kadalai wishing each other a happy new year.

Even the Muslim families were not left out. The Muslims also shared their favourite sweetmeat Watalappan a delicious soft cake with the Sinhala and Tamil neighbours .The Sinhala people thus accepted Tamils and Muslims in harmony without show of any dislike or animosity to them. During Sinhala Tamil disturbances some Sinhala families; sheltered the Tamils in their homes.

It is therefore very “unholy” for a Cardinal recently decorated by the Pope in Vatican, to speak critically of the Sri Lanka Governments for the colonisation schemes, which in his words are:

“….The massive colonization schemes undertaken by successive governments after independence, even if they were well-meant, but which did not necessarily respect the pluralities of the ethnic and religious proportions of the Sri Lankan people served rather as irritants than as catalysts for unity, because they were served as an attempt to a gradual breakdown and erosion of the original cultural make-up of these regions…..”.

That colonization was a necessary beginning for the Sinhala in the South and the Tamils in the north to get to know each other, after nearly five hundred years of separation without having any neighbourly contact with each other. The Yoda Ela Scheme and along with it the settlement of the Sinhala families in the north were the pioneer settlers, who were to build a bridge of unity between the Northern Tamils and the Southern Sinhalese.

To say that the colonization did not respect the ethnic and religious proportion of Sri Lankan people and served as an irritant , is a very unintelligent pronouncement which should not have come from a man who claims to be “ the fountain of divine love”. It is for a person like the Cardinal Malcolm R, a holy man, to speak to the people and to bring harmony among the people without taking sides with one community or another.

Cardinal MalcolmR, should explain to them the value of the mixture of different ethnic groups- all children of God, and not to make it a cause for irritation, but an occasion to weld a viable union of understanding. Those would have been “divine words of love”, like the homilies he makes from the pulpit.

But the following extract from your submission to the LLRC is very damaging to the motherland we love. How can Cardinal MalcolmR speak such idiocy
Cardinal MalcolmR says in his submission to the LLRC that:

“……The massive colonization schemes undertaken by successive governments after independence, ………….did not necessarily respect the pluralities of the ethnic and religious proportions of the Sri Lankan people served rather as irritants than as catalysts for unity, because they were served as an attempt to a gradual breakdown and erosion of the original cultural make-up of these regions.”

In saying that did this man, the Cardinal MalcolmR, consider for one instance whether the more than 55 percent of the Tamil population living in the South resulted in a “…..gradual breakdown and erosion of the original cultural make-up of these regions…” . If he does not know, he should recognise even as late as now, that the Tamil people had been accepted by the Sinhala population in the South and they live cordially well, sharing and respecting each others cultural values.

Normally, these type of statements are such as those quite often alluded to the expatriate Tamils, who had never lived with the Sinhala people to understand them really, except to hark back to the July, 1983 as a manthra, to sow seeds of racial hatred towards the Sinhala.

“Sri Lanka has only recently emerged from a long night of darkness and no sane person would wish to return to a similar nightmare. There is much talk of forces outside the country that are determined to act against the country’s interests. If we allow religious discord to grow, we will only be playing into the hands of those same forces.”

The above comment was taken from elsewhere in the Lankaweb. It is an area in which the Cardinal MalcolmR should act as a catalyst to bring sanity in the minds of those forces outside our country by explaining to them, the necessity to help Sri Lanka to develop as a Nation, without making attempts to destabilise the country.

This as a message he can send to every Church in the world requesting them to inform its congregation. That would be a crusade for reconciliation, and save Sri Lanka from wilful damage.

The catalyst of unity between the people in the North and East and those in the south should be the Catholic Church. The Cardinal Malcolm R should know that better, because if he is a “chosen man” who has real “divine love” within him, he should know that all people irrespective of the ethnic differences are “ the children of God”- for him the Sinhala Buddhists may therefore be the “sheep” that had wandered away:

In the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Matthew 18:12-14, it is said, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth: he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

The parable can of course be interpreted in different ways, but in the context of the situation involved, the nonbelievers-the Sinhala Buddhists, could be the “sheep” to which it refers.

The coming together of people of different ethnicity is a cultural mixture that should be encouraged in the context of the cultures of our different communities in Sri Lanka, specially between the Tamils and the Sinhala.
“It is the foreign culture that had been forced on us for nearly 500 years along with a religion which is in no way related either to the Tamil culture or that of the Sinhala culture that may have eroded the cultural make up of the north and east.

Therefore, “…the erosion of the cultural make up of the north and east by colonisation of the Sinhala in the areas”, is a fallacious statement of the Cardinal MalcolmR to create fear and hatred in the minds of the Tamil people of North and East, against the Sinhala people who may decide to go to those areas to live. And for which they have every right.

Cardinal Malcolm R, says “….We as Christians submit these specific recommendations to this Commission with the fervent hope that they will be considered seriously in order to heal the wounds of a painful conflict which traumatized our homeland for over thirty years, and to lay the foundation for a solid sense of peace and harmony in the future.”

We are afraid that from what we have seen so far in the Cardinal MalcolmR’s submission to LLRC, it is far from being an attempt to”….lay the foundation for a solid sense of peace and harmony in the future..”, but on the other hand it seems to be the same attempt that the terrorists made for 30 years with their guns and bombs to establish their Tamil homeland” , but without the guns and bombs by the Cardinal MalcolmR.

After his submission on Colonization he goes on to education stating that, …

“……..a system of value education, through the dissemination of religious precepts found in the four major religions practiced in this country , and through the inculcation of values such as tolerance, respect for other's rights, compassion, non-violent communication and non-violent conflict resolution, politics which does not harbour communal hate and a comprehensive programme of life-skills training for children and youth, any future resurgence of hate, division and terror should be effectively prevented….”

The educational system of Sri Lanka cannot be blamed for terrorism or any other type of armed rebellion. There are other factors that draw groups of people to “terrorism” such as being manipulated into religious or political extremism.

Of course a better system of education should be found in separating the education system for lay students from the education system for the monks or other religious orders. In this respect the Catholic Church has its Seminaries, which unfortunately is not the same case with regard to the Buddhist monks, whose monastic-Pirivena education system had been disastrously substituted to admitting Buddhist monks to the Universities. That is a question that should be urgently attended to by the Government and the Nayaka Theros of the Asgiriya and Malwatte.

I agree with the Cardinal Malcolm R, on the subject of legalising gambling- If the Gaming Special Provision Bill recently enacted in the Parliament is to close illegal gambling houses, and attract tourism, it is wrong to have legalised gambling. The tourists coming to Sri Lanka for a Vacation should be given a Sri Lankan experience different from what is already available in the West and provided in their holiday resorts. Illegal gambling houses should be raided by the police, and closed by other legal provisions.

But his submission promoting trilingual education is short sighted, and affects the aspiration of a Sri Lankan Nationhood. The Official language should remain Sinhala. But a student at a pre-university entrance education level, for instance at GCE Ordinary Level, should be allowed to study, or make it obligatory to pass in two languages first the Official Language and the other a language of choice. English should be made the optional language. This should be looked into in depth.

If the problem is communication between the Government and the people and vice-versa , all candidates for Government Service Examinations should be required to pass an examination in Tamil. That would then be a requirement for Sinhala Candidates only.
Official National language should give the sense of belonging to the Nation to which one is born. It should not be accepted as making the person whose mother tongue is different from the Official language a second class citizen. It is the mental attitude that had been created by the self ambitious politicians, media and racist Tamils.

It is here the Catholic Church should move in as a conciliatory factor, to explain and make the Tamil people understand that accepting the Official language is by no means a confiscation of their rights as full citizens of Sri Lanka their motherland..

Then again the Cardinal MalcolmR, comes back to the question of colonization stating:

“It is observed by many that there are attempts made in the Northern & Eastern areas with new settlements to change the demographic situation of the people. This could be a dangerous trend if it is not addressed, unless the people are allowed to move in and move out in the proper way, without any colonization as such with or without the government approval. Because what can happen is, that there can be a psychosis or fear of a cultural invasion of villages and areas of the country considered to be predominantly of one group or the other. This can cause frictions and unnecessary clashes.”

This is an absurdity, just showing to what an extent the Cardinal Malcolm R, had been influenced by the terrorist Prabhakaran’s call for a separate Eelam State, if it is other wise how could he have said:

“,….there can be a psychosis or fear of a cultural invasion of villages and areas of the country considered to be predominantly of one group or the other. This can cause frictions and unnecessary clashes.”.

Here I have to repeat what I had said before, that the 55 percent or more of Tamils living in the South has created an example of harmonious living together with the three main Communities Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. In that situation why cannot we copy this model in the South in the North and the East ?

It should be mentioned that at no stage in the reconciliation process should the July,1983 taken as the point of departure. July 1983 incidents were a prearranged well prepared situation created by an interested India, with its RAW taking over a group of disgruntled youth ( you get them any where, in any country), brain washed them against the Sinhala Governments, and trained them as “terrorists” in a jungle clearing in South India:

“ Indian Prime Minister VP Singh said in front of Jain Commission in Nov. 1996 about the forming LTTE terrorist network 1983. Mr. Singh said,” First batch of training of Sri Lankan Tamil militants was done by India in 1983 under the orders of then Prime Minister (Late) Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The camp was located at Chakrata, Tamil Nadu”
(http://southasian.maktoobblog.com/1638/indian-army-hindu-terrorists-nexus-sinister-fascist-2/)

RAW released these terrorist group in the North, “ The events dubbed Black July began after members of the rebels Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE) organization ambushed a military convoy in the North of Sri Lanka on the evening of July 23, 1983 outside the town of Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka.”(Wikipedia). Thirteen policemen had been assassinated and their fingers cut to remove the rings they were wearing.

This had been planned to instigate the anger of the Sinhala in the south, to make them start a back lash against the Tamils, which would leave a permanent scar in the minds of the Tamil people. The RAW succeeded very well in their sordid manipulation, resulting in the Sinhala people as a whole became to Tamils who left the Island directly from Jaffna, as the racist murderers and Sinhala supremacists, chauvinists and all the rest. That was also a situation for the Tamil politicians and other interested Tamils to ask for separation from the Sinhala racists.

That was all a well planned act which provided the desired results for all anti Sri Lankans, and for them to create what is now called the “ ethnic problem ”. The Communal hatred began in the North where the Cardinal Malcolm R’s Church was very active, and the terrorists at least most of the leaders were Catholic or Christian.

And when the Cardinal speaks of an education system he has to take the responsibility for what he says, as his Church and Christian schools in the North provided the education he pontificates below. Things may have been different if the Catholic Church thought about such an education system thirty years ago:

“Through a system of value education, through the dissemination of religious precepts found in the four major religions practiced in this country , and through the inculcation of values such as tolerance, respect for other's rights, compassion, non-violent communication and non-violent conflict resolution, politics which does not harbour communal hate and a comprehensive programme of life-skills training for children and youth, any future resurgence of hate, division and terror should be effectively prevented.”

However, “ The Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as the Sacrament of Penance, or Penance and Reconciliation) has three elements: conversion, confession and celebration. In it we find God's unconditional forgiveness, and as a result we are called to forgive others.”

Would it therefore, not be timely that instead of talking of separation of the communities, they are brought together forgetting the past applying the “Catholic Sacrement of Reconciliation.” ?

One word in Conclusion. Reconciliation is not separation . It is to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent. Therefore in the process of reconciliation of the Tamils and the Sinhala there should not be conditions , there should not be a political devolution, there should be instead an attempt to reconcile the “hostile” parties, win them over to friendliness, make them become amicable.

Shouldn’t that be the Crusade of the Cardinal MalcolmR ?

Concluded.

Saturday 13 November 2010

The Crusade of Cardinal Malcolm R , a backward march to division and chaos.


The “ Christian fundamental precepts” the Cardinal had presented to the LLRC are not divine revelations. When the Buddha spoke of them in his discourses 2600 years ago they were revolutionary thoughts to an ancient Indian society following a strict Vedic and Hindu caste system, under a feared Monarchy.

a) (fidelity to ) the truth ( sacca)
b) respectful to the human dignity (karuna)
c) the equality of all human beings (metta)
d) well being and development of all segments of society (sabbe satta bhavantusukhitatta),
e) good Governance (dhammappasasana)

The Cradinals “fundamental precepts” were condensed by the Great Buddha into:

"By birth is not one an outcaste,
By birth is not one a brahmin.
By deeds is one an outcaste,
By deeds is one a brahmin "

In Sri Lanka these Buddhist principles were observed by the Sinhala Buddhists. The observance of these principles called “fundamental precepts” by the Cardinal, were neither charity nor maitriya as the Cardinal had emphasised. It was the part of the culture of the people. In a country where a majority was Sinhala and Buddhist, there was lot of tolerance towards foreign religions introduced by the Colonialists, respect to all beings irrespective of their , cast, colour religion, and respect to all living creatures.

The Cardinal does not understand the culture of the Sinhala people, he is brain washed to believe in a God, to extend the God’s love only to the human beings. The Sinhala Buddhists are different , they need not be told of maitriya- the love that comes from within them which they extend to all living beings.

Their love is human love and not an artificial love that Cardinal Malcolm R takes from a God and then extend onlyto the human beings, as his God did not give a soul to other beings. The Cardinal MalcolmR., could have human love and look at human problems and understand them better if he could close the divine eye and refuse the love that comes from a God.

The Sinhala Buddhists even as much as Hindu Tamils have no lesson to take from Catholics, Cardinals or non-Cardinals. Maithriya is a love that has to be cultivated, as human love is mixed with emotions such as anger, jealousy, and hatred.

But Cardinal’s “divine love” should ordinarily be unblemished, therefore, it should not be extended only to one group of people , but all groups of people. Prabhakaran a terrorist was also human and he also had love-a distorted sort of love, which was mixed up with hatred , jealousy and cruelty.
Prabhakaran was ego centric, driven by an uncontrolled attachment (upadana), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha). That is why he wanted a separate Eelam State for Tamils in the North and in the East so that he could have been the Fascist Dictator.

If Cardinal Malcolm Ranjit wants the same political solution for the Tamils in the North and East as that of thalaivar Prabhakaran, then the Cardinal’s “divine love” is drawn from the Sun God-the thalaivar Prabhakaran, it does not come from his Catholic “God head”.

If the errors the Cardinal said committed by all stakeholders are divided into two groups as those committed by the minority communities and those committed by majority. The errors committed against the majority community by the minority communities will tilt to show that the majority community has suffered and continue to suffer more from the “errors” committed by the minority communities.

A political solution is what all local and foreign pundits of Communal reconciliation have to propose for the so called ethnic problem, which they created. The ethnic problem is a myth created in the minds of those who feel separated. The Sinhala people with nearly 75 percent of the population care less whether they are the majority or not.

It is in a way the fault of the Sinhala people. If the Sinhala Buddhists assert their majority-the so called supremacism, like the English in UK, French in France , Italians in Italy, Sri Lanka would be have been a much more developed nation in every respect, and a better place for every body, but saddled with the Tamil ethnic conscious community, on the one hand, and the Muslims Islamic conscious community on the other, Sri Lanka would for ever be poor and dependent, at each others throat, without a National Consciousness.

The Sinhala Buddhists, Cardinal Malcolm R, do not cry out about the fact of their being the majority from roof tops. It is not the ordinary Tamils but the Tamil politicians , separatists elements of the Expatriate Tamil Community, the Catholic Church and the International Community- the trouble shooters all over the world, that hoist the “ethnic problem” and blame the Majority Community to which they attach the appellation “ supremacists’ as an insult, the idea coming from their deranged minds.

Political Solution to the ethnic problem.

The Political solution over which much had been said and written is no solution for Sri Lanka at least after the end of terrorism. We should learn to think differently because things are different now. The Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith should have given more time to think how political solution could solve “the root causes of violent insurrection, ethnic disharmony and suspicion and mistrust between various communities living in this country”. The reasons he gives shows a blurred intelligence in the perception of the situation.

In short, political solution to devolve political power to the Tamil people in the North and East is firstly a separation of the communities in the North and East, from those in the South. Is it such a segregation we want “…. in order to heal the wounds of a painful conflict which traumatized our homeland for over thirty years, and to lay the foundation for a solid sense of peace and harmony in the future…”. If it is such a segregation the Cardinal proposes, it is a strange way of laying a foundation for a solid sense of peace and harmony.

If the Cardinal Malcolm R could turn his divine torch of love in the correct direction he will see with his “divine eye” that for a solid sense of peace and harmony we should bury our “ethnic” differences to mix the communities without barriers of caste, class, communal belonging, and political differences to share with each other the cultural and human riches of the motherland.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s use of words in his submission to LLRC, shows no “divine desire” to unite the communities . He has gone up to the LLRC to place before it proposals to separate the nation, putting the Sinhala and the Tamils apart, not to Unite them into a Nationhood.

His proposals will only fester the ancient wounds of “a painful conflict

“…..causing further disharmony in the future. His choice of words through out his presentation had been with this view to separate the two Communities rather than to unite them. The words like Sinhala dominance, mono-culturalism, majoritarian democracy, used by the Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith are “poisonous” when the need of the day are pious words of reconciliation for unity, peace and harmony.

To analyse the Cardinal Malcolm R’s whole presentation to the LLRC and to point out where he was wrong will take a pretty long article, therefore much has to be left out.

The Sinhala only policy of 1956 should be seen in its correct perspective , not with the jaundiced mind of a virulent separatist. It was Chelvanayagama, GG Ponnambalam and others who put the poison into the minds of the Tamil people against the Sinhala people and then the Government of SWRD Bandaranaiake, which the Cardinal seems to be continuing to do against the present government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Mr.Bandaranaike’s intention was to change the political situation after 8 years of UNP rule to make the Independence from Colonialism more meaningful to the people. He wanted to make Sri Lanka an Independent Nation, with one language, one flag one National Anthem, and an official Religion. That is how it is with every nation in the world, even India followed that principle to accede to Nationhood.

In many Western Countries competence in the language of the country is a requirement to obtain citizenship. Jason Kenny the Minister of Citizenship in Canada “…told reporters that immigration needs an overhaul and a key effort must be to ensure that immigrants and those who want to become new Canadians speak a competent level of French or English….” "All I can say is if someone can't conduct an immigration interview in English or French they don't have basic competences…”

(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/03/20/immigration-language-kenney.html#ixzz15BEvwACF_

Therefore Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s statement that, “…... Sinhala Only policy of 1956 which disregarded the multicultural and pluralistic nature of Sri Lankan society and paved the way for Sinhala dominance and the trend towards mono-culturalism…”, is giving voice to dead Chelvanagama’s and GG Ponnambalam’s Tamil racism.

Malcolm Ranjith’s Statement:
”… Since independence, the gradual entrenchment of majoritarian democracy, where the language and religion of the majority community have been given priority, has increased ethnic tensions and undermined the concept of a truly multi-ethnic, multi-religious, plural society. The Official Languages Act, the introduction of the first Republican Constitution of 1972 and as well as the Constitution of 1978 where the Sinhala Language and Buddhism were given an exalted place in the constitution, were a landmark in the slide towards divisive tendencies in this country.”

This statement by the Cardinal Malcolm R, makes his call , “to lay the foundation for a solid sense of peace and harmony in the future “, a big joke. He appears to be the “Diyasena “ of divisive politics in Sri Lanka.


All Western Nations from whom the Cardinal Malcolm R., takes his Christian cultural inspiration are “multi-ethnic, multi-religious, plural societies “ and they still have one Official Language, one Official religion, one flag and one National Anthem. Does any one complain ?

What really is Cardinal Malcom Ranjith’s problem, and for whom is he batting ?
Buddhism, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, was introduced to Sri Lanka long before the birth of Christ, in the 2nd Centure before the Christian Era during the time of the Sinhala King Devanampiyatissa. Today Buddhism is the religion of more than 70 percent of the population in Sri Lanka, where as the Catholics are only a 7 percent of the population.. The first Catholic Missionaries had come in the 16th Century with the Portuguese invaders.

The Portuguese who conquered Sri Lanka had two objectives in Sri Lanka,(i) to trade, and (ii) to convert the indigenes to Catholic Church, they came with a gun in one hand and the bible in the other as it had been repeated by historians.
Fortunately it was not the Catholic Inquisitions- A former tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church (1232-1820) created to discover and suppress heresy, Where the nonbelievers were burnt at stake- an instrument of execution consisting of a vertical post that a victim is tied to for burning(alive). The history of Inquisition itself puts the Catholic Church to shame.

However, in Sri Lanka, the Portuguese were followed by the Dutch and the English, they all came with their Christian Missionaries to conquer the country and civilise the people by converting the indigenes to Catholicism or broadly Christianity.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the ancestral religion and culture of your great ancestors were stolen by these vagabonds who came from far and gave them in return their “faith” of the invisible God, and in the name of their God they promised you the kingdom of God. They relegated the religion of our people- Buddhism to the back ground, they corrupted our culture,they built their schools to educate the converts in their language , teaching them their history, about their civilization.

I need not repeat the humiliations, massacres of our Buddhist religious leaders and ignominies they had to suffer under these savages , posing as civilised angels of the God come to save the heretics from damnation. Our culture and the religion were corrupted and people were divided into classes . Those who were educated in Missionary Schools found employment in the Colonial establishments.

It was only in the 19th century that a Buddhist revival took place , a movement bugun by the American Buddhist Henry Steel Olcott,

after the great Panadura Debate in 1873 between the Christian Priests and the Buddhist Monks lead by Migettuwatte Gunanada Thero.

When we got our Independence in 1948, our country had changed radically. The Sinhala Buddhist suffered the most as the Colonial rulers always feared the majority in the conquered country as they would be the first to take to an armed rebellion against the conquerors. Therefore they divided the majority by placing the minority or foreigners in important positions in the Colonial government, they humiliated the religion of the Sinhala people.

The Sinhala Buddhists when Sri Lanka got its Independence were in a helpless state. The Independence without giving back to the people what they cherished most , their religion and their dignity, would not have been a justifiable Independence . It was that justice that Mr.SWRD Bandranayake was hoping to give back to the people by making Sri Lanka a meaningful Independent Nation..

Even, then the Catholic Church was very active behind the scene thwarting the Sinhala Buddhists from their effort to make tangible changes to revive their cultural values. This would have gone on and Catholic Action would have succeeded, if not for Mr.H.L.Mettananda who organised the Bauddha Jatika Balavegaya to expose the Catholic Action.

“A significant development during the 1960's was the emergence of the outspoken Mr. L.H. Mettananda and his Bauddha Jatika Balavagaya ( BJB ) which was instrumental in exposing the work of Catholic Action and its control over Sri Lanka's mass media. The seeds for the current Buddhist Revival campaign were laid by Mr. Mettananda who played a singular role in writing the Buddhist Commission Report in 1956. This report had strong impact on political developments in the country at that time.”
(http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items04/220304-5.html)

To be continued ……

Wednesday 10 November 2010

The Catholic Church and the Crusade of Cardinal Malcom Ranjith.



The Catholic Church never stood for patriotism in any country? It is only a papal presence, bereft of attachment to the country where the Church is located. Above all the Catholic Church is not a progressive institution.

On the 24 October, 2010 Young Asia Television interviewed Ms.Sanja Sarnavka of B.a.B.e, Human Rights House, Croatia, who was a representative from Croatia to the International Women’s Rights Activists Asia Pacific and Women and Media Collective Conference held in Colombo. She said that for 40 years the Catholic Church had been kept away by the Communist Regimes in a country which is about 90 percent Catholic. But she said the Catholic Church is active once again, and that it is already too much. In Croatia the Catholic Church even looks down upon women taking to politics and the Catholic Priests go to the Church to tell the people to whom they should vote.

We had the same scenario enacted by the Catholic Action in the 1950s, and now with Malcolm Ranjith back on the scene with the cassock of a Cardinal things seem to be getting worse than it was with Catholic Action.

The Catholic Church had always looked after its own interest from the very early days. The Popes waged wars to impose its “holy” rule. These wars were called “holy wars” in which thousands of non believers were killed.

It did not matter to the Popes how many are killed or who were killed as long as they continued with their Crusades, “ In a.d. 622, Catholics fought and were defeated in a crusade against the Persians and the Jews. Some 60,000 Catholics were killed and 35,000 enslaved. The fall of Jerusalem left the Catholic world shocked and mourning.”

“The Crusades were a series of Roman Catholic “holy” wars to wrest control of the Holy Land from Muslims. They produced some of the bloodiest battles in history. Did you ever wonder how the Catholics reconcile that “holy” slaughter with the Bible, which states, “Thou shalt not kill”? Or how they can read the Sermon on the Mount and still lead the religious world in spilling rivers of blood?

They are called the Christian Crusades. That label itself is a deception. They were primarily Catholic crusades. Other Christian religions have their problems, but let’s not blame them for what the Catholics did—and will do. ”

The Catholic Church will not change. During the World War II the role of the Catholic Church was extremely hypocritical. It never spoke against the holocaust, but kept silent to safeguard the Church from Hitler’s wrath.
“Pope Pius XII's (1876-1958) actions during the Holocaust remain controversial. For much of the war, he maintained a public front of indifference and remained silent while German atrocities were committed. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality, while making statements condemning injustices in general. Privately, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few select officials, encouraging them to help the Jews”.

Some Popes even lead armies to “ righteous” wars: “Pope Urban II unleashed a savage Catholic army and started these later Crusades. This “righteous” army marched 3,000 miles to conquer the Holy Land.

Here is an excerpt from the book Crusades, by Terry Jones and Alan Ereira, which became a bbc television series: “By summoning an army under the banner of the cross, the pope was extending the church’s mantle over all Christendom. This was the idea at the very heart of the revolutionary papacy; in place of separate local churches at the center of discrete communities, there was to be one overarching church, ruled by one overarching pope.”

It is here that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon should appoint a Panel to investigate the killing of perhaps millions of innocent people in the “holy Crusades” of the Catholic Popes for no other reason than not believing in their God.

For the Cardinal Malcolm R, Prabhakaran was the thalaivar -the Sun God, who killed the innocents in his “ holy war” to capture his “ holy land” from the Government of Sri Lanka to establish his homeland. The God is faceless, he can appear any where in any form, perhaps for the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka terrorist Prabhakaran was the “faceless God”. Otherwise we cannot understand the Sri Lanka Catholic Church’s pre-occupation with the terrorists.

There is nothing surprising in Bishop Malcolm Ranjith receiving the “holy ensign” of “Cardinal”. That is his armour to carry his Crusade against the Government of Sri Lanka, to fulfil the terrorist Velupillai Prabhakaran’s unfulfilled dream of setting up the “Tamil Homeland”

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith was ably supported by his “Soldiers” Shamil Perera, Father G.Sigamany, in the “Crusade” of presenting their case on the grievances of minorities to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.

All they said about the changes necessary for the National Reconciliation had been carefully studied to keep the North and East an ethnically pure Tamil territory, and all impediments for a future rising of Tamil terrorism be removed. The Catholic Church and its God have no love to the people or the country, but they have the love for their Church with which they have the privileges that none has in Sri Lanka , including even the Buddhists Monks.

With those privileges Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, begins his Holy war with the blessings of the Pope Benedict XVI.

Sri Lanka has had experience of these Crusades of the Church in late 1950s the Catholic Action was very active not providing spiritual guidance to the people, but to stabilise and strengthen the influence of the Catholic Church in the country by demanding the congregation at Church services to vote for the political party of its choice which was of course the UNP a Political party as reactrionary as the Catholic Church..

The Catholic Church in Kotahena was the Centre for Catholic action. It was said then that any problem regarding an administrative or judicial matter could be solved by merely addressing a note to Holy Mother Mary giving the details of the problem with one’s personal details and put it into the box provided for the purpose, and miraculously, it seems the problems were solved within days or weeks.
The Church, the father mother son and the holy ghost, the confessions, and prayers were all a means to strengthen the voice of the Church, to control, make or unmake governments.

The Catholic action were very active not only within the Catholic Churches but out side in Government Departments and in the public sector.
“The Press Commission Report (1964) of Mr. Justice K.D. de Silva, makes glaring references to the work of Catholic Action in the media and its control of leading newspapers in the country. The BJB presented invaluable evidence to the Press Commission on Catholic Action. Catholic Action was behind the failed Catholic Army Officers Coup in 1962 to overthrow the legitimately elected government of Mrs. Bandaranayaka.

The Catholic Action worked in a subtle way without attracting attention of the public. It was thanks to late Mr.H.L.Mettananda and the Bauddha Janatha Balavegaya that the Catholic Action was exposed.

“A significant development during the 1960's was the emergence of the outspoken Mr. L.H. Mettananda and his Bauddha Jatika Balavagaya ( BJB ) which was instrumental in exposing the work of Catholic Action and its control over Sri Lanka's mass media. The seeds for the current Buddhist Revival campaign were laid by Mr. Mettananda who played a singular role in writing the Buddhist Commission Report in 1956. This report had strong impact on political developments in the country at that time. “

Unfortunately the Catholic Church has this time come out publicly in its crusade to divide the country and the people as, the President Mahinda Rajapakse gave in too much of leeway for the Catholic Church to interfere into the affairs of the country.
“Catholic Action which remained dormant until 1977 raised its head again, and has been a key player in the moves to create religious and communal tension in Sri Lanka by playing one community against the other (against the so - called ' majoritarianism ' of the Sinhala Buddhists). Most Sinhala Buddhists are aware that the Marga Institute, National Peace Council, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Caritas, Opus Dei, are all leading Christian NGOs working under the direction of Catholic Action.”

Catholic Church did not only get involved in reactionary politics in Sri Lanka but Pope John Paul II also issued strictures against Buddhism.

“But Pope John Paul II threw water on that fire in 1994’s Crossing the Threshold of Hope with comments regarding Buddhism that received a good amount of press at the time (and also a lot of debate). In his comments, our late pontiff really didn’t pull any punches, calling Buddhism “in large measure an ‘atheistic’ system’.” He pulled the carpet out from under comparisons to Catholicism by pointing out that the ultimate end of man for Christians is union with God, while for Buddhists it is Nirvana (complete detachment, or a state of nothingness).” (http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/20722/)

In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul asserts that "the 'enlightenment' experienced by the Buddha comes down to the conviction that the world is bad, that it is the source of evil and suffering for man" (p.85). No doubt the fact that the book consistently encloses the word "enlightenment" in quotation marks already suggests that the Pope's attitude to Buddhism is not an appreciative one. This suggestion is confirmed by his manner of characterizing the content of the enlightenment, which reduces the Buddha's great awakening beneath the Bodhi tree to a caricature. (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_30.html)

The Catholic Clergy , who are intelligent people, know of the non-existence of a God, but they have to keep up the lie to perpetuate the kingdom of the God, as the believers have been duped to accept it. The people who have blindly adhered to it, making use of their blind attachment to its faith for various reasons political power, financial welfare and social recognition and so forth , uses that spiritual identity to maintain a privileged position in the Christian societies the world over.

“These apparent similarities led to heightened Catholic interest in Buddhism with the rise of the New Age movement in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Some imagined that Buddhism had many new insights to offer to Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular due to their supposed compatibilities.”

“Interestingly, some critics of the Pope’s remarks stated with vigor that Buddhism is not “atheistic”. Counter attacks varied. One Buddhist commented in rebuttal that followers of Buddha believe that he was the “teacher of gods and men”, and that some Buddhists believe in multiple deities or spirits that look after the affairs of both men and nature. Others pointed out that certain teachings of Buddha specifically point to an uncreated being without which nothing would be in existence.

Please note that though these arguments object to the Pope’s characterization of Buddhism, they in fact do nothing to bring it closer to Catholicism”.
(http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/20722/)
This is the Background of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka which pretends to work for the poor but in fact feathering it own nest so to say.

Some say “the good Cardinal has his own reasons for the statements he made…” We are sure he has some reason , we only hope they aren’t sinister….
What can the Cardinal if he is a real patriot of Sri Lanka, besides his Crusade for the holy Church, could do for the progress and development of our mother land ?

Monday 1 November 2010

The Economist is the latest recruit for “Sri Lanka Bashing” with: Rajapakse’s big cover up._Young lovers and naked women had better watch out “ .




The article of The Economist dated 28 October,2010, may have been written by an expatriate Tamil or some one bought by the expatriate Tamils. In either case the person who wrote that article is certainly not cultivated, but lewd.

However, The Economist which is supposed to be a serious journal that does not indulge in slander or defamation, seems to have fallen into the category of a cheap Western gossip magazine, casting aspersions , with intention to discredit the good President of Sri Lanka, and his government.

Barely clad women, be it frescoes on stone walls or in real life situations do not receive either humour or disapproval, neither by the President nor by the people of Sri Lanka. The barely clad women drawn on stone walls about 500 years ago fall into a different category, from photos of bare legged women as objects in advertisements influenced by the West, pasted on street walls.

The paintings of barely clad women on the Stone wall at Sigiriya are not appreciated for their nudity which perhaps excite the libido of the correspondent of The Economist, but these precious old paintings are respected and looked at for the beauty of their execution and appreciation of the ancient artists who had enlivened the bare stone wall with their artistic talents.

It was not an uncommon sight in old days in Sri Lanka to see women with uncovered upper bodies- like in Africa or Latin America. Those women in our cultures did not provoke humour or receive disapproval , because they were a symbol of motherhood, that inspired respect, rather than arouse vulgar carnal desire.

If it has changed it may be the result of the advent of the Western culture into ours that has backslid respect for motherhood in our society, by daring to use an image of a barely clad woman showing her bare legs on a poster of publicity to attract attention to an object on sale. It is in order to stop such degeneration of accepted social values that the President and the government have started a campaign against indecency in posters for publicity.

We in Sri Lanka have had appreciably good moral values, which have been unfortunately vulgarised since coming in contact with Western values.

In the West with pornography, Xfilms, pedophile, incest, child abuse, naked or half naked dancers, images of women as a sex symbol used for publicity, have caused a moral degeneration despite pretentious Christian high morals, yet they see the chip in the others eyes without seeing the log in their own eyes.

Isn’t that what The Economist is exactly doing ? Isn’t that moral degeneration in the West a lesson for our President to take precautions to avoid such a deterioration of moral values taking place in Sri Lanka as well ?

Therefore, it is justifiable that the President Mahinda Rajapakse is bringing legislation against display of obscenity in public places. It is not to please the West or The Economist that we should give into practices considered immoral or indecent turning a blind eye to such contemptible acts, that are ruining the Western Society. The Catholic Church is facing charges of child abuse. There is incest and child abuse on the increase in the West though they try to pontificate to us sitting on their imaginary high horses.

The US Justice Department recently issued a statement that 239 000 minors who are runaway youths or thrown out of their homes and living in streets are victims of prostitution net woks in the United States . The Catholic Church , the Churches of which Duleep de Chikera is a member are absent in America to aid these young minors caught in prostitution, and others victims of human trafficking.

The US Justice Department says that the resources needed for girls found on the street – such as accommodation, medical attention and therapies – are not available when they are brought before the courts, and a number of cases of Mexican or Central American women deceived or kidnapped and brought to the United States, are forced to work in the sex industry.

These are the matters that The Economist should write about, because prostitution and drug trafficking in the West are economic issues. Sri Lanka after elimination of terrorism is trying to develop the country without sacrificing its cultural and moral values. Therefore, The Economist cannot discredit the government of Sri Lanka which is making an effort to remove false moral values incompatible with our own culture, that continue to be forced on us by the West.

Many film producers in the West invariably include one or two crude sex scenes into their films to make the film popular. In the West the nudity of a woman and sex are both lucrative commodities. But our cultural values have still not fallen so low, therefore, what ever The Economist says about it, it is very much appreciable that the President of Sri Lanka is taking necessary actions against such base immorality creeping into the Sri Lankan business advertising community.

The Economist is quite aware, that the West is trying to discredit the Government of Sri Lanka in every way possible since the Government Forces eliminated the terrorists. The reasons adduced for this change of attitude of the West is that there is lot of money in any sort of “publicity” against Sri Lanka-UK Channel 4, Washington Post, Human Rights Watch, and many more have cashed in, and there seems to be more awaiting for those who are ready to play the “ game of Sri Lanka bashing”.

Therefore, it may not be incorrect to assume that The Economist is also in the game, queuing up to receive generous distributions from the coffers of the former terrorists, now in the hands of the pro-terrorist Expatriate Tamil groups in UK, and USA.

Lot of countries in Africa and Latin America were simple, sane, civilised and contended before they were conquered by the nations of the West with their Christian Morality.

To these hitherto unspoilt, un sullied countries of Latin America the Spanish conquerors issued a Requerimiento , a proclamation to Native Americans, before conquest:

"We ask and require you to acknowledge the church as the ruler and superior of the whole world and the high priest called pope and in his name the king of Spain as lords of this land. If you submit we shall receive you in all love and charity and shall leave you, your wives and children and your lands free without servitude, but if you do not submit we shall powerfully enter into your country and shall make war against you, we shall take you and your wives and your children and shall make slaves of them and we shall take away your goods and shall do you all the harm and damage we can."

African Continent and India, China, Vientnam, Sri Lanka etc., suffered the same fate under other European conquerors, though there were no Requerimientos. Since they introduced us to their Christian civilisation things were never the same. These conquerors did not only steal our faith, and mutilated our cultures with the introduction of their own Christian culture, but also infested us with maladies hitherto unknown to us.

“Thus the large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced novel germs to the indigenous people of the Americas. Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) swept ahead of initial European contact, killing between 10 million and 20 million people, up to 95% of the indigenous population of the Americas. The cultural and political instability attending these losses appears to have been of substantial aid in the efforts of various colonists to seize the great wealth in land and resources of which indigenous societies had customarily made use.

Such diseases yielded human mortality of an unquestionably enormous gravity and scale – and this has profoundly confused efforts to determine its full extent with any true precision. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary tremendously.” (Wikipedia)

Syphilis and gonorrhoea were brought to America and then to Africa by the Western conquerors. The colonised countries in Asia were not an exception. In Sri Lanka not only deadly viruses, but also the religion, culture and the living conditions of the people were contaminated by the “viruses “ of morality, religion and the education that the Western colonialists brought with them.

Those “cultural and moral” viruses that have taken root in our society have to be eliminated to give new ( or to bring back the old) moral and cultural values, but elimination of the false values introduced to us by the West is not as easy as it was to eliminate terrorism. It is therefore appreciable that the President of Sri Lanka is, at least now taking necessary steps to cleanse our society, of the impurities of Western culture that had been forced upon us.

The West cannot always be trusted to do what is good to our country or our people therefore the Government of Sri Lanka has to be vigilant.

The Economist is an example of causing intentional damage to the image of our country and the aspiration of our people, who have begun to make an effort to free themselves from these fragments of colonialism still hovering over them. The Economist is inventing situations to discredit our saviors , benefactors, and heroes to dominate us and stop our development .

And besides that, there are other dangers that need careful investigation.

The following is from an article in AllAfrica.Com (http://allafrica.com/stories/200907270648.html), written by Dr.Sam Okuonzi:

“However, the theory that cannot be discounted or disproved is that HIV was manufactured in a US military lab by American and British doctors.It is alleged that local western doctors based in Africa were recruited to spread AIDS to Africans.
In Uganda, a local British surgeon based at Mulago Hospital, was said to be administering the virus to Ugandans. He was thrown out of the country in 1987. “

How about that The Economist- the moralist that is critical of our President- who is trying to clear the poisonous atmosphere left behind by white benefactors?

Those historic events that preceded our governments after independence from the colonialists, are more in line with The Economist’s investigating correspondent, who dared to write the article to discredit the President of Sri Lanka Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Economist, should listen to our own people speaking from our own country rather than what is being prompted to The Economist by people who are strangers to our country and our culture.

This is what Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, writing to the Lankaweb, says in an article,
“ Decency-What a price ?”. She is not a Sinhala Buddhist which is the target of foreign media, but a patriotic Sri Lankan.

“..Recently there had been some efforts to bring abut a little decency into our decadent society by our president. I would like to draw his attention to a serious breach of decency in our society.

Wherever there is a function often there will be some scantily clad lady dancers inaugurating it. Unlike those days where there was elegance and beauty combined with decency in the dances, most of these functions nowadays consist of young girls dressed in what can be termed as an excuse for a dress, consisting often merely part of a bra and a low hipped thigh hugging transparent dress and the dance consisting of just some vulgar suggestive gyrations. Some troops just keep changing their dresses, each more revealing than the earlier ones and doing the same gyrations in the name of dances.”

The Economist, does not leave with its scornful criticism of the Sri Lanka President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse’s campaign against indecent publicity posters, but goes beyond to the campaign of stopping cuddling and kissing couples in public places which The Economist calls real life lewdness.

These are again the influence of Western culture through films, and electronic media. It is better such behaviour is checked as one does not know to where such “innocent” escapades may lead. The Economist cannot be unaware that in the West, children leave their homes, to be independent of parental control before they are even majors.

Drug addiction , and sexual impropriety among the youth are problems that concern the political and religious leaders of the West, though The Economist, is being critical of what our President is doing with regard to the same problem, though it is still not as acute as it is in the West.

Often in the West these youth lost to their parents become victims of rapists and psychopaths who pursue young women, and children, in parks and lonely stretches of roads, sometimes leaving behind their victims as cold corpses.

Therefore the campaign against “real life lewdness” as The Economist calls it, of the President of Sri Lanka is meaningful and should be appreciated, not treating it with the sarcastic lightness in which The Economist treats it in its very undignified article not worthy of a journal which seems to be respectable only in its title.

These actions of our President may even help the West to put right corrupted sexual practices, and for other developing countries to help the youth to be more caring of their parents, and pursue activities more useful and helpful to the society.
Love and sex have their proper place and time, without having to seek such gratification in public places, in parks , behind trees and bushes.

The Economist , if it is on a moralising campaign , there is much work to be done in the West where The Economist is published. It is better, if The Economist as a journal on economy is seeking other fields for its investigations remain in its own home ground., the culture of which The Economist understands, more than that of the far away Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has a predominantly Buddhist culture and the actions of the President Mahinda Rajapakse to prevent the deterioration of our cultural, religious and social values will be backed not only by the Buddhist Priests, but also by the other religious leaders and people- be they communal wise Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim- who understand the values we uphold in Sri Lanka.

The Economist- what have your really against Sri Lanka, be frank - if being frank is really in your vocabulary ?

We may not be able to recover Sri Lanka’s cultural purity, which existed before any of the Western conquerors laid their dirtied soles on this blessed land of ours, but nevertheless it is worthwhile trying to bring back at least a fair amount of those values to make Sri Lanka a truly unique Nation of all the communities it harbours. And that The Economist, is what our President Mahinda Rajapakse is making an effort to do….and that you will find difficult to understand being a stranger to our cultural perspectives.

The Economist, please do not be misled by a handful of people ganging together to pay you to publish articles in your once “respected” journal to discredit Sri Lanka, because they are outsiders- mostly expatriate Tamils, and not speaking even for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka there are economists and students of economy, who would like to read your magazine but who may be dissuaded because of these anti Sri Lanka articles you had been writing to discredit the President, who is respected and admired by a larger majority of the people of Sri Lanka.

Please believe me I know better, there was never as good a President before him, and there may not be another for quite some time after him.