Oh! M'y God !! What has Yahapalanaya done to Sri Lanka.

What has become of Sri Lanka we had  the day before 8^th January,2015 ? What has the change to Yahapalanaya  meant to my poor Lanka?

The people have gained nothing since the change over from the Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse  to the government of President Maithripala Sirisena  pretentiously called  Yahapalanaya, but the Parliamentarians have got much. Most of them are plush , taken more weight, and ply in expensive limousines. They talk a lot but work a little , and pretends to be doing a lot.

The Yahapalanaya that came with a streamlined 100 day programme has ended up with no programme.  The stalwarts of the Yahapalanaya were Ranil Wickramasinghe and his UNP buddies. They thought that once they are in power the West will land here bringing  with them the much wanted US dollars, British sterling pounds and German marks and they can turn their back to China which would be an added incentive for the West to dump their monies the more here to invest in every industry under the sun.

Ranil Wickramasinghe  told China that Sri Lanka can do without them. Ranil Wickramasinghe and his predominantly UNP Government  told China that they  do not want China to go ahead with the  Colombo Port City, as it has been planned badly.

They put in place a master planner Champika Ranawaka to  re build the Colombo City with a larger land area. Ravi Karunanayake an experienced money handler who occupied the  money deposited with him by Raja Rajaratnam imprisoned in USA, was made the Minister of Finance. He thought he was turning out the best budget Sri Lanka ever had. But it soon fizzled out to be a “no-budget” being passed, re cast and re-passed  in Parliament several times and still with lot of un patched  “holes”. But yet the West named him the best Finance Minister in Asia.

Ranil Wickramasinghe appointed his prized genius Mangala Samaraweera as the Foreign Minister  to rope in the West to make Sri Lanka a “Singapore”, as  he had already recruited a Singapore Banking genius to come with his magic wand to make the Sri Lanka Central Bank “ lay golden eggs”.

Mangala Samaraweera the “prodigy” trusted to make miracles was to use his charm to win over the West at the snap of a finger.

Mangala Samaraweera went to Geneva without hesitation and sponsored  along with America the worst resolution USA had brought against Sri Lanka to take the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to a tribunal charged for war crimes, which had been long delayed due to lack of enthusiasm of the Previous Mahinda Rajapakse Government to allow  USA to pass such a resolution. Yahapalanaya sponsored that resolution hoping that the West in recognition would send hordes of investors to Sri Lanka to invest in development projects.

Having not received any encouraging signals from the West for the development of Sri Lanka other than lot of applause for following democracy to the letter and taking care of the interests of the minority Tamils, the Yahapalanaya Leadership thought that they may probe the possibility of turning to  Japan as an alternative investor for the development of Sri Lanka. But Japan  after giving Ranil Wickramasinghe an honorary degree, seems to have gone silent on investing on any development project of value  in Sri Lanka.

Now Yahapalanaya is like the cat that evacuated his bowels  on the rock. It has no idea as to what it should do next,  to make good the change it  promised to the people after defeating the  previous government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Yahapalanaya then did what  some dogs do. A dog tries to bark away a bigger dog, and when the bigger dog shows his teeth and the claws  the aggressive small dog runs away, and later, on second thought, hides its tail between its legs  and crawls back to the stronger dog that chased him away.

Yahapalanaya that belittled and insulted China, stopping it from continuing with the Port City project for which the President of China Xi Jinping himself came to Sri Lanka to  lay the foundation stone, is now going back to China seeking their help. Yahapalanaya has at last realised that it  is only China that still helps the  developing countries  and not the rich Western friends of whom the Yahapalanaya spoke so highly and depended on making the people of Sri Lanka understand that they made  a better choice in  replacing the previous regime of Mahinda Rajapakse.

It is time that the Yahapalanaya  now learns from its mistakes and understand that President Mahinda Rajapakse was after all  a good man who did not take revenge by taking up the Batalanda file to punish Ranil Wickramasinghe or the Waters Edge Land  Transaction to embarrass and bring disrepute to Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Now these Yahapalana “Cats “ having done  what they should not have done on the rock  are glum faced without a clue as to what to do next. Not having received the expected response from the Western investors, or those from Japan, Ranil Wickramasinghe has turned in a big way to India.

But India is not ready to  aid Sri Lanka for its Buddhist or Ashokan connection, but the Indian Prime Minster knowing the failure of the Yahapalanaya of Sri Lanka to have attracted investors from the West, from Japan and from China knows that it has no alternative  now but to accept what ever is offered by India.  India however knows that what little they would give they will take back with  multiple interest for the benefit of India.

They invited the Prime Minister Modi of India to inaugurate the UN Wesak Day in Sri Lanka. But Modi made it an occasion to lecture on importance of India for Sri Lanka’s security, and that the population of Sri Lanka is an indivisible part of the 1.25 billion Indians in the neighbourhood.

It is not a good prospect as Sri Lanka cannot depend on India for security, as we saw it when Sri Lanka was engaged in  military operations to eliminate terrorism. India was not very dependable then as the  80 million Tamils at India’s southern tip dictated  Indian Central Government’s stand on the question of terrorism in Sri Lanka. Therefore can we again trust India for Sri Lanka’s security ?

India has a pressing unemployment problem.  Hence India is all out to sign the ETCA as it would be a solution  for its unemployment problem. India would like to annex the North of Sri Lanka and send  excessive Tamil population to North, and for that a Hanuman bridge and a railway to Trincomalee, would provide a passage for illegal immigrants coming  from India.

Yahapalanay Government is being fooled by every one- the West wanted a regime change in Sri Lanka and now that it has happened the West will pay only lip service without binding them selves  for any sort of long term  engagement to develop Sri Lanka. India needs Sri Lanka to solve at least some of  its unsolved social  problems of its 1.25 billion population.

Modi had said  that India  would  build houses for the State Tamils and the Tamils of the North. That would give  Sri Lanka a  greater headache with the Tamils building a  greater  allegiance to India above that of Sri Lanka. That would be a wastage of all those concessions made to Tamils for reconciliation.

In addition to those political problems created by India, Yahaplanaya  is on the verge of the sale of Trincomalee oil Tanks, and  the Eastern Terminal of the Colombo Port to India . In the south Yahapalanaya is making arrangements to lease  for twice 90 years, the Magampura Port and 20 thousand acres of land to China.

Yahapalanaya cannot fool the Chinese as by stopping the work of the Colombo Port City , Chinese Companies must have lost considerable amount of money, in stopping work and allowing the machines to rust  and unworkable, and re starting work after a long loss of time. The Yahapalanaya Government had been acting foolishly without any planning from the day one of the election of  Maithriplala Sirisena on the 8^th January, 2015.

The foolish euphoria after the election victory blinded  the yayapalanaya leaders from acting wisely with a planned programme of development. Only thing they thought of doing was a negative programme of  revenge and hatred  to punish the Rajapaksas and all those connected with the previous government. This was not a wise thing to have been undertaken , and the result is an utter political failure.

The end result  is  today Sri Lanka is like a rudderless boat  in a vast rough sea with signs of an on coming storm.

I will vote Emmanuel Macron for President of France

It is not that I agree wit his politics, but I vote gainst the extra nationalist Marine Le Pen from being elected.

Some call Macron the “ambitious man on the move” , an “ anti-System Candidate”, the “maverick centrist outsider” and yet others  call him a political Prince.. If elected at 39 he would be the first youngest elected President in the history of France. He  calls himself a liberal – one who stands for change or reform not abandoning  entirely his Socialist hue. He prides calling himself a  child of Provincial France. He is supported mainly by the young and  the not so young. He is no receipt holder of membership to any political party. He leads his own political  movement- En March.

Macron former investment banker with Rothschild & Co.,  is a stranger to French political system having served only  a short period of counselling economics to President François Holland,and then  as his Minister of Economics for two years.

He is unconventional in all sense and  proved his willingness  to keep his promise against all odds by marrying his former High School professor 24 years his senior. He even joked about his gay tendencies, evoking the surprise of his wife Brigitte as to how he manages it despite her being with him 24 hours of the day.

At the beginning of his odd man Presidential election  campaign the elder political elite did not pay any attention to him, but Macron relentlessly worked on to wriggle himself into the political lime light to give short shivers to serious Presidential candidates to be. His centrist voice finally won and he had qualified for the second run with more chances than Marine Le Pen to finally win the Presidential election.

He is not anti Muslim and does no believe in keeping  closed the European boaders from immigrants. He says anyone should have the right to practice his religion with dignity. He has no sympathy to low wage earners and wishes to reduce some of their welfare benefits. He is business friendly promoting the upper class than the underdog.

I disagree on his foreign policy  which does not differ from  both right and left governments of the past. He is to increase defence spending , which is permissible as far as the protection of France is concerned, but not the use of the military for intervention in foreign lands. There is no need to attack Syria, and the government of its elected President Bashar Al-Assad.

No government in the West has the correct politics to suit the present time. Today there is a mounting  surge of violence in the world  expanding to become ruthless terrorism. Hence the World Governments have to invent strategic politics not to curb terror by terror, but by finding other means to stop the surge and dissuade violence taking the form of  terrorism. 

None of the Western Governments are people friendly. They are more for the upper and business class. It was Francois Mitterand who was the more  popular people friendly French President. More would  have been pleased  to vote for Jean Luc Mèlnanchon who would have been another people friendly President after François Mitterand.

In Syria there was  anti government activities by certain groups which was  immediately taken over by the Western countries to promote a regime change in Syria as they did in Libya, and Sri Lanka as well in 2015. The Russian Government fortunately intervened to protect the elected Bashar Al-Assad whose government  was really attacked by armed Syrian terrorists, which interpretation was refused by the USA and the West for whom the other people’s terrorists are not their terrorists.

That Russian intervention in Syria stopped the escalation of war in that country and the other countries around. It was USA, under George Bush and Barrack Obama, with his “war monger” Hillary Clinton,  which was  out to intervene militarily in foreign countries, to maintain the  leadership of USA in the world. France and the rest of the European countries and Canada joined in with their NATO forces for this world class military assassination of Nations.

The time is now ripe for all Nations of the world to start settling issues in dialogue, as UNO has failed  to accomplish this role.  USA  has also invented Human Rights as a means to interfere in to internal affairs of Sovereign States they consider are  lead by political leaders unfriendly towards the USA and the West.

The   USA intervention in Ukrain was a mistake that lit the fires of dissention amoung the European countries. It is essential that European countries join hands with Russia as a partner. instead of  carrying on a cold with trade blockades. The Governments may disagree but that is no reason why people are made to suffer by imposing trade blockades. Political dissention between countries should be settled by healthy dialogue.

Emmanuel Macron if elected should re think about his political stand  vis-à-vis Russia, and Bashar Al-Assad.  All elected political leaders of all Sovereign states both those of the developed countries and the developing countries should respect  each other, that is the clef to a peaceful world  where people may share each others happiness and prosperity.

Emmanuel Macron should when elected make an effort to revitalise  the UN  as an instrument for world peace, without allowing it to follow the rich USA and the West, to isolate the poor developing nations.   

It is with those thoughts in mind that I will vote for Emmanuel Macron  at the final round of Presidential Election in France.

France which I Love, next to my motherland Sri Lanka

France which was attacked once again by the terrorists for the forth time this year, now lives  in constant fear  not knowing  when and where would be the next attack and how many would be the innocent lives that would be  taken away to satisfy the God of the faith blinded terrorists.  There were 12 terrorists attacks since 2016 which left  89 lives lost and many wounded.

In the face of the rise of nationalism France is gathering forces to burying their political differences to defeat  nationalism at all cost. This should be an example to Sri Lanka in the face of  the threat of Tamil racism which should be barred not by a foolish reconciliation process, but by rejecting the demands  of the Tamils, and  the Sinhala people uniting burying their political differences to protect and secure their religious and cultural heritage.

The protection of the  religious and cultural heritage of the majority Sinhala  would naturally be the protection of the rights , religions and the cultures of the minorities. 

The Tamils have no specials rights over and above the Sinhala and Muslim people.  The Tamils of yesterday and today are responsible for suffering of the people of Sri Lanka through a ruthless terrorism. Therefore today the Sri Lanka Tamils have to learn to live with the Sinhala and Muslims sharing their rights and priviledges., without making absurd demands for reconciliation and a separate identity.

France paid homage to the Police officer who was assassinated by the Islamist terrorists  on the 22 of April, 2017 wounding two others . The whole of France wept this horrific terrorist attack, which reminded me of  not one, such murder , but massacres  of police officers military officers soldiers and innocent civilians  in thousands  every now and then for thirty years by ruthless Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka, which these French people and the French Government did not morn.

The French Government then instead of condemning that terrorism in Sri Lanka sought to defend and even save the terrorists when the government was carrying out a successful military operation to eliminate terrorists.

Bernard Kushner the Foreign Minister of France  went along with  David Miliband the Foreign Minister of UK to Sri Lanka to demand the Government of Sri Lanka to stop military operation against terrorists. 

The Sri Lanka terrorists  were not terrorists for France then, as they were not a threat to France, UK , USA or other European countries.

Therefore I wondered whether Sri Lanka should sympathise with France as those terrorists  of France are still not a threat to Sri Lanka. 

But Sri Lanka, unlike France USA and the other Europeans feel sad for the  French Families which  lost their near and dear ones through this detestable inhuman terrorism,  as the people of Sri Lanka knows well, having suffered themselves through terrorism ,  the suffering of the French people in the face of Islamist terrorism.

But neither France, USA and other Europeans who now go through the Same terrorism that Sri Lanka went through for years,  still defend the terrorists in Sri Lanka passing resolutions in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva accusing the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes in eliminating terrorism,  and forcing Sri Lanka to give political concessions to Tamils in Sri Lanka who still sympathises with the terrorists who came from their community and accuse the Sinhala Armed Forces  that saved them _the Tamils and Muslims from that long and ruthless terrorism in Sri Lanka.

French people and the French Government  which morn the deaths of their police officers and innocent civilians   through Islamist  terrorism,  and live with the fear of further terrorist attacks, have still not learnt their lessons to understand that terrorists anywhere out side France  are also terrorists,  even if those terrorists elsewhere are no threat to them. The French Government  gives priority to  political interest,  than sharing  humanism and sympathy with those people elsewhere in other countries suffering from same type of terrorism with a difference.

France, USA and the rest of the Europeans in their political ambitions try their utmost to keep at bay the development of non-Western countries , and change regimes taking the side of the terrorists in those countries,  against the elected  political leaders who seek to develop their countries to give their people a decent and a respectable standard of living and take them out of poverty in to prosperity.

This is what is happening in Syria today, and what happened in Libya , and Iraq yesterday. In Syria as it was in Libya, the terrorists  have taken up arms against the government  of the elected President Bashar Al-Assad, but the French Government as well as the rest of the West prefer to call them rebels  to serve their political purpose to change the regime in Syria.

French Foreign Minister  Jean-Marc Ayrault said yesterday the 25^th  April, 2017, that he has proof that the Chemicals with which the Syrian  people were attacked recently was produced by  the Syrian Government of Bashir Al-Assad. This is history repeating itself. The West and USA would do anything to change the regimes in  the middle East and this was the same assurance that Jean –Marc Ayrault gives to-day, that  the former Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair  gave as an excuse to attack Iraq.

Bashar Al-Assad had not attacked his own people with Chemicals,  as much as Sadam Hussain had not stock piled Weapons of Mass Destruction as Tony Blair  then assured.  It is a ruse using the Syrian terrorists to attack Al-Assad.

French Government and its allies do not still realise that it is themselves who have created the terrorists who attack them now. It is the terrorists of Iraq and Libya who France and its allies called rebels,  who are now the Islamist terrorists attacking France, and the rest of the European Countries.

It is only Russia that is realistic and calls the terrorists , terrorists. Russia defends Syria against terrorism,  while France and its allies attack Syria in defence of terrorism.

France and its allies do not accept the leadership China and Russia. The governments and the people of developing countries accept the leadership of China and Russia. This is the reason for the regime change policy of the West.

In Sri Lanka the French and its allies helped to change the regime of President Mahinda Rajapakse, and installed a government obedient to the West.  But that change has brought untold suffering to the people of Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lanka which was a fast developing country two and a half years ago is today falling into the abyss of underdevelopment and poverty. And further reconciliation with Tamils will be the end of a united Sri Lanka, and the end of a prestigious religion Buddhism a unique philosophy that would  be the saving grace of the World.

But unfortunately France,  that I love next to my motherland Sri Lanka, is about to elect a President who has the same mentality of the Previous President- anti Russian and anti Bashir Al-Assad Government in Syria, or an ultra nationalist  which would be Chaos.

The West is doomed, as there is terrorism on  one side, antagonism towards  China and Russia, on the other , and a desire to change regimes of developing countries to maintain a pseudo leadership in the world. The only way to rise above this is to promote dialogue  amoung  nations and build trust and friendship.

The Institution which is able to ensure this desired change is the UNO, which unfortunately does not exist today  as it was meant to be.

Reconciliation with Tamils is a never ending exercise

Part I

A people's Leader Patrice Lumumba Assassinated by American CIA

Reconciliation with Tamils is a never ending exercise. It is the story of the Arab and the Camel, at least the Camel would have been satisfied occupying the whole tent.  But the Tamils are worse than the Camel, give them all and they will still want more. They will invent  things they would like to have, when they have been given everything.

They refused to accept the Mahavansa, they invented their own history.  The old wizened ungrateful Tamil man, who lived with the Sinhala, studied with the Sinhala, played with the Sinhala, ate the same ration of the Sinhala , got his sons marry Sinhala, went onto  invent the story of genocide committed  by the Sinhala against the Tamil since the Independence !!

The Tamils in the North may have suffered under terrorism perhaps more than the Sinhala in the South. They may not have had  normal lives, if they understand what are normal lives. They lived in fear not knowing  when their children would be forcibly taken away either to be terrorist fighters or live bombs. They had to pay what little they earn to terrorist money collectors. They may not have had the time to have their meals in peace and quiet, not knowing when the terrorists would force themselves into their houses.

But yet today they seem to have forgotten all their nightmarish lives, and call for the blood of those Sinhala Soldiers who risked their own lives to  gave them a new life term, taking them away from the hell hole of suffering they were living in under the ruthless terrorists, to peace and security. Ever since the destructive Sirisena-Ranil-Chandrika Yahapalanaya the Tamils have all their idiosyncrasies satisfied.

There seems to have no end to their desires and the most incompetent unintelligent Yahapalanaya  led by Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickramasinghe and Chandrika give into  even the most  insignificant  demands of the Tamils without any reflexion as to what an extent and for how long, they could  go on  satisfying the Tamils .  

The worse is  that the Yahapalanaya Government  accommodates all demands of the Tamils over and above those of the Sinhala Majority Community without giving a thought  to the Sinhala majority community who also have their grievances. The  Yahapalanay it appears conveniently sets aside the demands of the Sinhala majority Community,  as pampering to the Tamils  is more important  as it is the means to win over the Western Governments and their continued existence in power until 2020 and more.

Yesterday Nobert Lammert the Speaker of the Parliament of Germany had said , “ the January,8^th  2015 verdict of the people of Sri Lanka has brought in a new orientation to the country, as the government has taken effective steps to strengthen democracy and improve human rights  and reconciliation.”

Does this mean any thing to the people on the streets of Sri Lanka ? Do they want Democracy or reconciliation  or an affordable cost of living ?

The desire of the most hypocrite Governments of the West is to create the difference of haves and have nots amoung countries and keep the undeveloped poor countries  poor have nots, while allowing  the rich  the Western countries –the haves, to lord over the poor have nots.  That is the sort of decadent  democracy they want in Sri Lanka.

The moment there is a political leader  from  one of the developing countries rise up and call for freedom, civic and political rights away from Western influence, the rich Western countries pounce upon him using their secret services CIA,MI and now the Indian RAW, to stop his call for freedom and independence from the West to be heard by the masses.

This happened in Iran where Mossadeq th edemocratically elected  Prime Minister of Iran  was ousted by American CIA Operations in 1950. A similar operation  by the American CIA in Guatamala in 1950 ousted its elected President Jacobo Arbenz. In 1973 Salvador Allende the elected President of Chile was ousted by an American CIA Operation .  The first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo Patrice Lumumba was murdered by the CIA Secret Service in 1961. They were all leaders of the people who wanted to develop their countries independently from Western interference.

Similarly  in 2015  in Sri Lanka a similar operation led by CIA, British MI and Indian RAW ousted a people’s President Mahinda Rajapakse who wanted to develop Sri Lanka independently from Western interference. History is repeating itself. The West wants to keep the developing countries poor and dependent on the West.

The west continues to  buy the local politicians that are willing to stooge for them by giving them various incentives such as invitations to the White House in America or Buckingham Palace in UK. They give awards to the journalists and politicians from minority Communities  such as Mano Ganeshan, or political activists like Pakiasothi Saravanamuttu.

Even the  Finance Minister-Ravi Karunanayake  who is detested by the people of the  country is  given a best Finance Minister in Asia award. All that is to keep their stooges loyal to them and attract the naive. Even Eknaligoda’s Wife had been made an International Woman of Courage.

The West will not waste their money funding any development projects in developing countries, but buy few individuals  who have some influence amoung the people to stooge for them and become their informants, agents. Ranil Wickramasinghe , Chandrika Kumaratunga , Mangala Samaraweera are certainly in the pay of the Western political mafia.

UNO was established by its founding fathers to stop wars and political conflicts between countries. But today UNO has been completely taken over by the Western Political Mafia. UNO is no more an independent Organisation it has become  an agent of the Rich Western Countries and work according to their Agenda. It started falling into the Western trap since Kofi Annan and it was  completely taken over by the West when it came under Ban Ki Moon. The Human Rights was since taken over by the UN first as a Commission and subsequently as a Human Rights Council in 2006.

West did not like the election of Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka  because he is in the line of the great political leaders of the calibre of Mossadeq of Iran, Jacobo Arbenz of Guatamala, Salvador Allende of Chile, Lumumba of Congo, Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba. These are leaders who did not seek dependence under Western political leaders, but sought to develop their  countries independently respecting the countries social, cultural  and religious values.

When Mahinda Rajapaks’s election as President of Sri Lanka was announced the Western media called  him a “hawkish President”. Western  anti-Sri Lanka campaign began since then. The West took on board the Tamil Diaspora residing in their countries to enhance their anti Sri Lanka activities. The West believed that the Terrorists in Sri Lanka would be able to divide the country and helped the terrorists, by  demanding Sri Lanka Government not to resort to a military solution but to a political solution.

Terrorism is the greatest ill from which a country could suffer. But as the terrorists in Sri Lanka did not attack Western Countries and their interests,  the Sri Lank terrorists  were  not treated as such by the West.

Any wise, democratic and a humanist country would have applauded Sri Lanka for elimination of terrorism single handed. But it was not to be so. Instead USA with its allies brought resolutions against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council  in Geneva for violation of human rights in the course of the elimination of terrorism. Accusing the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for War Crimes !!

This is the culture the west had created in classifying countries as  haves and have-nots . Haves can commit any crime but will not be criminalised by their acts. but the have- nots( the poor developing countries) may kill in defence and for that  they will be declared criminals by the rich Western Countries –the haves.

The armed forces of   USA, UK, France and Germany   kill large numbers of civilians in their hunt for terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc., but those deliberate acts of  civilian murder are not even taken in to consideration by the UN Human Rights Councils, or numerous Human Rights activists.

Hence Sri Lanka did not only suffer under terrorism for 30 long years,  but when terrorism was finally eliminated the world Haves - the West are terrorising Sri Lanka accusing  its Armed Forces  for  war crimes.

Now Sri Lanka has not only got to reconcile with an unreconcilable Tamil Community, prevent damage being caused to its environment and forest reserves by the  Muslim Community  setting up  new Muslim settlements, but also prove to the UN Human rights Council that its Armed Forces did not Commit war crimes.

This Yahapalanaya Government stooging to the West has accepted that the Sri Lanka Armed Forces should be adjudged by a tribunal proposed by the UN Human Rights Council. And continues to accommodated continuous demands by the Tamils for an IMAGINED reconciliation.

Should Sri Lanka continue to give into the West and the Tamil Diaspora, and make our Armed Forces face a tribunal accused for  War crimes, and accept  further the demands of the Local Tamil politicians for devolution of power, and write a new Constitution to please the Tamils ?

The answer should be NO….

To be continued………

The Greatest Circus in Town –the Circus of Bond Scam, and Sirisena’s Commisions.

Now its two years since the greatest Bank Robbery in Sri Lanka –the Bond Scam was committed. Two COPE reports were out confirming the theft and showing where the  smell had taken them to. The thief  every one in Sri Lanka is quite aware of  is still unharmed living  a comfortable  respectable life working as the adviser to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, proving without doubt that they are bound to each other  more than ever before by the robbery they committed together.

When the facts are so evident, if the Prime Minister  has any respect to democracy he should  resign from his office of Prime Minister and give himself up together with Arjun Manoharan one as the instigator and the other as the perpetrator.

When the whole country knows how the Bond Scam took place and who are primarily responsible, the President Maithripala Sirisena has no courage either  to ask his Prime Minister to resign, or ask him to have Arjun Mahendran arrested by the infamous FCID. 

Sirisena instead waits two COPE reports and two years to pass before he appoints a Commission of Investigation.  One may rightly ask why the hell did  Sirisena wait two years before he  appointed a Commission to Investigate on the Bond Scam ?  Having had  appointed the Investigation Commission what is the guarantee Maithripala Sirisena will take action on the Commission report ?

But it did not take such a long time for Sirisena to dissolve the Parliament to avoid  DEW Goonesakra from presenting his COPE report to the Parliament. It also did not take long time for Sirisena to connive with Ranil Wickramasinghe to arrest Wimal Weerawansa and ask his favourite judge to put him in jail.

It also did not take long for Sirisena to dismiss the General Secretaries of SLFP and UPFA and appoint two new Secretaries and announce that even if Mahinda Rajapakse were to win the general  elections he will not be made the Prime Minister.  Maithripala Sirisena thinks that people of Sri Lanka are all  fools, and would give party allegiance and confidence, friendly trust, and affection , if someone were to  propose highlife and a high position. No all Sri Lankans are not  back stabbers.

Sirisena is politically married to Ranil Wickramasinghe and he will never allow Ranil to resign. Ranil Wickramasinghe is the support on whom Maithripala Sirisena keeps his hold. Without him he will crash. Ranil Wickramasinghe  does not want to waste the precious time he has to ruin Sri Lanka as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka giving into Sirisena’s pathetic call of order.  Sirisena  had been wanting to reshuffle the Cabinet, but Ranil wants nothing of it. Ranil is not only ruining Sri Lanka but also ruining his own party the UNP, proposing to elect Sarath Fonseka as the Assistant leader of the UNP.

Will the UNP wakeup to throw its leader out ?

In the meantime the Bond Scam Circus is in full swing, despite the fear of the witnesses to give evidence through fear of Yahapalanaya revengeful tactics. Ranil Wickramasinghe  may be readying himself to pounce upon the courageous witnesses from the Central Banka any time to force them to withdraw their evidence or go backtrack  on them for the benefit of the thief, as the Bond Scam had been a pre-arranged affair to benefit the empty treasury of the  UNP.

The Chief Minister of the Western Province  Isura Devapriya had on 30 March,2017,  blamed the IGP for not providing protection to those witnesses giving evidence before the presidential Commission.

Has  Maithripala Sirisena as the President the power to step in and stop this  Bond Scam Circus now ?

He should have done it long time ago without waiting two years to wake up.  The Governor of the Central Bank is also a public officer  therefore under the Administrative Regulations when he is suspected to have committed an illegal act in the  performance of his duties he should have been interdicted from service, before charges are framed against him.

But in the case of this individual –Arjun Mahendran, he has been given more responsibility and provided gainful employment. Why cannot the President if he has any power,  to at least now have the miscreant interdicted, and his passport impounded ?

While the Presidential Commission is sitting other matters  pertaining to the Bond Scam are coming to light. Now it has been reported that EPF had incurred a loss of Rupees Nine and a Half Billion because of the Bond Scam, while the Perpetual treasuries has got a benefit of  Thirteen Billion Rupees.

The Central Bank it appears could have burrowed One Billion rupees from the EPF without selling the famous Bonds and avoided the lost to the Central Bank.

But what we cannot understand is how was it that the three man Committee appointed by the Prime Minister immediately after the Bond Scam on 27 February,2015  reported that no irregularity has taken place and no blame could be placed on the  Governor of the Central Bank ? 

What did they investigate and how did they made their investigations  ?  The three men who were lawyers attached to the Sirikotha should be held responsible for making a wrong report and  debarred from practicing law.

As the profit of Thirteen Billion Rupees had been earned by the Perpetual Treasuries on questionable terms, the Government should confiscate the amount at least  until the end of the investigations by the Presidential Commission. It is a matter for the Chairman of the Commission to Order.  If not the President Maithripala Sirisena should issue instructions to the Chairman of the Commission to do so.

Some such decision should be taken to stop the Perpetual Treasuries from using this ill earned  Thirteen Billion Rupees as it has been announced that the Government is allowing the Perpetual Treasuries to open a Distillery in the East. Maithripala Sirisena who pretends to be a Buddhist cannot let these rougues open a Distillery in Buddhist Sri Lanka, and that too with the ill earned money causing a loss of Nine and a Half Billion Rupees to the Employees Provident Fund.

Most surprisingly the recently Highly Recognised Asia’s Best Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has not deemed it fit to tax the Perpetual Treasuries for its Distillery and waived a tax of  Four Billion Rupees.

All this while they claim that the Government has a huge debt  to pay which had been caused by the previous government. Who are these Yahapalanaya Circus Band trying to fool ?

Isn’t it  time that Maithripala Sirisena stops for a while his speech making and look seriously as to what his Prime Minister is actually up to  and take corrective  action. But his moments are limited.

Maithripala Sirisena wanted to reshuffle the Cabinet of Ministers before he left to meet President Putting in Russia. Then he said he would attend to a change of Ministers on his return from Russhia, and now he says he will look into it after the new year. Will it ever happen ?

However,  we see some already lining up for different Ministries –Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe is hoping to get the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  In preparing his claim for   Mahinda Samarasinghe praises Maithripala Sirisena as a person invited by all foreign  countries and, says  that Sri Lanka is no more a subservient country thanks to Maithripala Sirsena.

But the fact is that President Sirisena is being invited everywhere in East and West Europe, but Sri Lanka is soon going  to face bankruptcy , unless Maithripala Sirisena wakes up and  shows the door to his Prme Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and appoints an able man as the Minister of Finance.

Maithripala Sirisena should also leave aside things which are not urgent now such as the writing of a New Constitution, giving more concessions to Tamils on account of reconciliation and stop the Muslim Ministers from going ahead with forest clearing for  Muslim Settlements

President Maithripala Sirisena should also instruct his Prime Minster to take a court order to stop the Perpetual Treasuries from carrying on its business. Its  Bank accounts should be  blocked. Their investment for the construction of the  Distilleries and the launching of a News Paper in Sri Lanka should also be stayed  until the end of the sittings of the Presidential Commission of Investigation on  the Bond Scam.

 

A reply to Asanga Abeyagoonasekara’s Forcast 2017:Sri Lanka.

Asanga Abeyagoonasekara, a young Sri Lankan intellectual  writing to Daily FT of the 24^th February,2017 , began his article,  Forcast 2017:Sri Lanka,  as follows:

“It was less than half a million votes that restored democratic order in Sri Lanka and set the nation in the correct direction three years ago. 8 January 2015 saw the dawn of good governance locally and a recalibration of the island’s foreign policy. ”

The writer being an employee of the government has closed his eyes to reality and wrote an article to mislead the people comparing the previous government undemocratic and worthless to the present government democratic and promising. This first  statement of his article summerises  his whole article and  replying to it alone would be a reply to the sum total of his article.

What is this democracy Asanga A,  is referring to  ? Since when had it been displaced to be restored on the 8^th January,2015 ? Sri Lanka had  democratic governments since Indepence. The ordinary people of Sri Lanka has not seen this shift of democracy as they understand it, but  whatever be the democracy this intellectual refers to, the ordinary people do  see  a change in their lives since this fateful day- the 8 January,2015, unable to make both ends meet, having lost the previous  comfort of living. They see themselves being dragged into economic difficulties due to arbitrary decisions of an unconcerned government, as against the people friendly democracy they had enjoyed before 8^th January,2015,  what they have now is a lopsided democracy.

For them the word Yahapalanaya means restraint, hardship. The new Government that replaced the former on the 8 January,2015 has taken away what  they enjoyed  before. They enjoyed a high standard of living. There were pipe water and electricity. Every house hold had at least a portable telephone. They were earning satisfactorily well to  have enough food to eat. Even in the distant villages their children had schools with facilities to study sciences,  and  Information Technology. There were well equipped hospitals. Most of them had televisions, refrigerators, gaz cookers. New highways had been built, and carpeted and concrete roads extending to villages  had come up every where in Sri Lanka. That was a much needed facet of development that had been neglected  until the election of Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka.

The period  from 9^th May,2009 to 8^th January,2015 was the Golden period of the history of Sri Lanka. The terrorism had ended and along with it the thirty years of suffering had come to an end . The fear of death with which the people of Sri Lanka got up every morning was a fading   memory, peace and security have replaced fear and uncertainty of life. The country was united under one flag,  and  sang one national Anthem . The people from Jaffna  to southern most corner of Sri Lanka, and from West to East were at last  able to  breath the fresh  air of peace and freedom.

Only the Countries of the West with their dear Tamil diaspora was not happy. It is  USA with Hillary Clinton, Robert Blake, Atul Keshup, and Samantha Power, UNO with Navy Pillai, Ban Ki Moon and Zeid Al Hussein, and the European countries that started its campaign to re establish terrorism in Sri Lanka.

It is only the English educated well to do Society from which the Asanga Abeyagunasekara comes from  that hails  the  political change of the 8^th January,2015, and praises the correct direction that the country is being forced to take. The ordinary people see the so called correct direction to which the nation has been set is not for progress and development but for utter disaster which began with the greatest  Central Bank Bond Scam never heard before in the history of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Then still going along with the first sentence of the article by this  writer  educated in the civilised West, he says  the dawn of this government is also the dawn of the recalibration of the Island’s foreign policy. The dawn of this government has spelt utter disaster which the writer refuses to see for some good reasons of his own. But with regard to recalibration  of the Island’s foreign policy does he mean that this government has established relations with the civilized West, leaving out  the dangerous and less civilised nations like China , Russia , Iran and some African States with which the previous government had close diplomatic relations ?

But with this recalibration  what has Sri Lanka gained from the friendly Western Nations the Yahapalanaya flaunts to have made close political relations ? Have the friendly west financed  one development project ? China which contributed largely for the development of Sri Lanka under the previous regime was treated disrespectfully by the Yahapalanaya Government.

The Chinese work sites like the Colombo port city were temporarily suspended which caused the laying off of thousands of workers, and considerable damage to machinery. That  recalibration of the foreign policy was  to please the new found Western friends, but having failed to have received the expected investments from the West Yahapalana  again recalibrated its foreign policy pleading the return of China to restart work on the suspended sites.

Sri Lanka has two categories of people, those that are the ordinary genuine Sri Lankans outside the towns who are simple patriotic people, and the other the English Educated more egoist people. Amoung the latter there may of course  be some  patriots who are able to evaluate good and bad without putting one’s own self interest into it.

These young and old English educated  Sri Lankan Pandits, hail the political change that took place on the 8^th January,2015. And after two years of non contribution to progress and development of Sri Lanka, going on a spree of vengeance arresting members of the previous government and their supporters on shameless accusations which are incomparable to large scale thefts by the Yahapalanaya stakeholders.

Every thing the Yahapalanaya government had promised and undertaken are utter disasters starting from the Bond Scam, to the Budget, opening foreign factories  to assemble cars, sponsoring the USA resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva. But as positive contributions they speak of freedom of expression, freedom to criticize the government, absence of white vans etc. But have the poor people suffering from the economic burden cast upon them benefitted from these pseudo positive aspects they shout from roof tops ?

It is an absurd exercise trying to compare the previous government with the Yahapalanaya Government, or condemn the previous government  for theft and corruption. The Previous Government of Mahinda Rajapakse was different  in all respects to Yahapalanaya government.  The tremendous work undertaken and completed by the previous government are visible witnesses. It is evident from what is left for us to see that the previous government  had used the loans they had taken for the benefit of the country and the people.

Furthermore, the President Mahinda Rajapakse took over his office when Sri Lanka was under attack by ruthless terrorism which was considered  undefeatable  by the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka. But Mahinda Rajapakse was not a man to accept defeat that easily. Hence he organised methodically how he was going to attend to different formidable problems he was faced with.

He had to settle terrorism before every thing else. Fortunately his brother had been an Army Officer now in retirement. He requested his brother to stand with him to see an end to terrorism. He could leave it safely in his hand, while he looked after the political fall out. He prepared a meticulous Chintanaya according to which he handled the rest of the problems.

He had to have trusted persons to hand over responsibilities for various tasks. He used his brothers for the purpose there was no problem in that as long as they did the work allotted to them. He had to have lot of money to go ahead with his plans. India would not even sell arms and ammunitions. He had to turn to China and Pakistan for help, as the West was more sympathetic to the terrorists and would not help Sri Lanka to end terrorism.

Hillary Clinton even advised IMF not to release the loans it had promised. EU stopped the GPS plus, and refused to buy the fish quota. The oil prices were on the increase. These were the problems  President Mahinda Rajapakse was faced with at the time he was President. The Yahapalanaya government has no such problems. But their problems came from mismanagement, with wrong people in the wrong place.

The American Ambassadors insisted that he should find a political solution without resorting to a military solution. But Mahinda Rajapakse knew what he had to do.  It is not true that President Mahinda Rajapaksa robbed government funds or that he was corrupt. His determination was to end terrorism and bring peace and security to Sri Lanka and in doing that he could not resort to any corrupt practices.  If he did that he would not have succeeded in ending terrorism and develop the country as he did.

But why did  the English educated  class in Sri Lanka supported a change of Government on the 8^th January,2015 ?

Of course India and the West was behind it all. However, the English Educated Class wanted a change  not because they believed in  Maithripala Sirisena to make a difference from what it had been under Mahinda Rajapakse, but because they  believed  Ranil Wickramasinghe as the  Prime Minister , an English educated  more acceptable democrat  would leave aside the Chinese  camp to take  Sri Lanka back  into the fold of the West. It was the Western culture that they wanted to get mixed with.

Those who accuse President Mahinda Rajapakse for corruption which has not been proved,  forget that the  present Prime Minister is nonetheless under the shadow of the Batalanda  torture camp. 

Of course the West calls the President Mahinda Rajapakse hawkish  and the English educated Colombians are ready to accept that, though he has become a father figure to the ordinary masses. President Mahinda Rajapakse’s defeat at the Presidential election of 2015 was assured by getting the Tamil and Muslim minorities to vote overwhelmingly against him.  

Is that the  restoration of democracy, the dawn of good governance locally and a recalibration of the Island’s foreign policy. This is stated as if democracy did not exist in Sri Lanka?

Asanga Abeyagoonasekara says that the draconian 18^th Amendment to the Sri Lanka Constitution was scrapped by an (extra)ordinary man who took on the challenge to topple the existing Government.

There was nothing (extra) ordinary about what this man did to topple the government. It was the result of a conspiracy hatched with forces within and without to change a strong government, and oust a strong political leader to facilitate matters for the USA and the West to have a hold on Sri Lanka which was becoming dangerous to the Western plan,  with Sri Lanka’s close relation with China, and the backing of Russia a defiant member of the UN Security Council.

However draconian it may have been the 18th Amendment was an important legislature for a government that had just come out of a ruthless terrorism. The country would not be out of the danger of a resurgence of it once again.  Therefore protective measures had to be taken. The country , the army and the people were too tired to be alert to any sign of dangers all the time.  Hence the need for the President Mahinda Rajapakse to have  more time to complete what he had begun, and  assure the  security and protection of the country and the people, and take the country  forward, in order to develop it to be in par with any developed country in the world.

That is why Mahind Rajapakse wanted to be the President of Sri Lanka for a further period. The Executive powers of the President are still an important tool? President Mahinda Rajapakse used the executive powers of his office intelligently and never abused it.  His adversaries accuse him as authoritarian, but I think taking into consideration the situation at the time when he became the President, a certain amount of the use of authority was imperative.  

With the passing of the 19^th Amendment, Sri Lanka is now  in a dilemma unable to dissolve the  Parliament until it runs its full term. But this Yahapalana government had the privilege before passing the 19^th Amendment to  dissolve the Parliament  to prevent the  presentation of the Dew Goonasekara’s COPE Report on the Central Bank Bond Scam.

The shift from an established zone of comfort and influence has plunged Sri Lanka into an insurmountable financial disaster. If we continue this absurd “good governance” with its new methods of fighting corruption where will Sri Lanka end.

Yahapalanaya Government’s attempt to harness  Western financial genius for an economic development away from China failed. The appointment of a new Governor to the Central Bank too has failed to reverse  the down word trend of the economy. We are left with the memory of a visit by George Soros, and shared insights of Prof. Riccardo Hausmanns from Harvard University. How that would help Sri Lanka only Asanga Abeyagoonasekara may know.

Asanga A admits that the  bipartisan Unity Government “ failed to deliver on  many promises.” He  says that the effort  to work together  with differences must be appreciated. But is that what the people want ? The people want solutions for their day to day problems, they do not care  whether it be a technocratic rule by technical experts if not by their elected representatives. They want results, not experiments carried out by two political parties with opposite ideologies  trying hard to work together..

President Sirisena’s third year

We cannot clap our hands for providing media freedom when problems facing the people remain unsolved. But does media freedom really exist under Yahapalanaya? We have seen how the media personal were ridiculed by the Prime Minister in the Parliament. At least one journalist had been dismissed from services in a well known TV  Station on government pressure.

Gonawila Sunil the criminal gang leader was a one time body guard of Ranil Wickramasinghe. President Mahinda Rajapakse had no such underworld connections to criminalise his government accusing him for killing journalists.  There had been killings and disappearances  of journalists during UNP Governments before, but we cannot put such killings at the door step of the Presidents. If that is so we can point our finger at the President Sirisena for Kotahena shooting etc.

With regard to improvement in  human rights situation Asanga A. claims, the recalibration of foreign relations  has not benefitted Sri Lanka against accusation of continued allegation of violation of human rights  at the Geneva Human Rights Council and by Yasmin Sooka. USA has not made any favourable  statement with regard to their resolution against Sri Lanka and the hybrid court proposed by Zeid Al-Hussein.

The Yahapalanaya Government looks for models outside to develop Sri Lanka, where as President Mahinda Rajapakse  wanted Sri Lanka to be a model  for  other developing countries.  Nigerian and Kenyan Presidents showed interest in the development process  that had been undertaken by  the then President under his Mahinda Chintanaya..

The expression of the  intention of President Sirisena to make 2017 the year to eradicate poverty is  brave, but to what extent is it possible, when whole of Sri Lanka is descending towards  being once again a poverty stricken third world country ?

Sri Lanka and the New World Order

Asanga A, quotes Prof.Indra de Soyza, who predicts that Sri Lanka’s strategic position  is likely to be of great political interest to great powers that will be tempted to meddle in the internal politics of Sri Lanka…….”  The prediction apart the reality today is that Sri Lanka  is no more a Sovereign State, being  constantly interfered into  by UN and Western countries demanding  to make various sacrifices for the  pseudo  reconciliation with the Tamil community. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs has not contributed to discourage the  Western countries from interfering into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. He even sponsored  the USA resolution against Sri Lanka !!!

Challenges in 2017

Asanaga Abeyagoonasekara  says, in 2017 the nation will face three key challenges, but makes no suggestion to meet those challenges, probably as he knows that Sri Lanka is already outside the threshold of financial recovery. Bond Scam will continue to haunt the Government until the end of its term without finding any solution to recover the loss, despite the investigations by Commissions. No one who benefitted from the Scam would want to return the booty. Therefore the government led by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe will keep on using all their tactics to shield the thieves, until the Bond Scam will be yet another forgotten episode.

Then the debt crisis, which is the  result of  financial mismanagement and the wrong   decisions taken  when the Yahapalanaya came to power on the 8 January,2015, to take vengeance from Mahinda Rajapakse, rather than govern the country in the interest of the country and the people. 

If at the out set the Government had decided  not to make changes  in the development projects, appointed an experienced senior  member of the Central Bank as its Governor , and appointed a more qualified  person out side UNP as the Finance Minister, the financial situation today would have been much more different. Even now if the government were to cut down on unnecessary expenses, and resort to a more simple life style , the Country could still be saved from suffering the same fate of Greece.

Human Rights issue has become more crucial. It was the making of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. A good Foreign Minister who is sure of himself and presents the matter correctly may still reverse the situation in our favour. Minister Mangala Samaraweera makes the situation worse with his secret meetings with the Global Tamil Forum and the Tamil Diaspora. The solution is in Sri Lanka and not with  the Tamil diaspora.

If the government continues with the Present Foreign Minister there will be more allegations coming from out side,  of torture, rape etc. against the Armed Forces.

Asanga A, goes on to speak of a third challenge the Local Government Election and a new Constitution.  This government had been in place for the last two years but as in January,2015 it  still keeps putting the blame for what they have failed to do, on the previous government of Mahinda Rajapakse, without doing  any thing positive. As in the case of the Bond issue where it tries to cover up the “theft”. It tries also to cover up the governments inability to have done any thing positive by putting the blame on the previous Government and the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Yahapalanaya Government  giving on a 99 year lease 15,000 acres of prime land in Hambantot along with the Mattala Airport is the result of Yahapalanaya government’s lack of foresight  in suspending the work of the Port City in Colombo and thereby antagonising the Chinese Government. Asanga A says that the project is moving forward despite the protest. It is an  ill conceived projects which should be withdrawn.

President Mahinda Rajapakse was democratic, he did not postpone elections. Even the election in the Northern Province was held under  President Rajapakse even when he  knew very  well that the TNA will win it . But this Yahapalanaya Government most undemocratically denies the people the much needed Local Government Elections.

Sri Lanka does not want a new Constitution now. That is also a project that should be rejected in the interest of the country and the people.

The Government continues to do enormous blunders, and at the end where will it leave Sri Lanka. Asanga Abeyagoonesekara, it is time you revisit your article to give this government better advice, without praising it for the sake of praising.