Author: TELO Admin

An explosion has taken place at a building at Cinnamon Gardens on Reid Avenue, Colombo 7, Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa said.

The explosion took place inside the hotel premises owned by McDonald’s, the fast food company, located on the ground floor of the old Race Course building.

It is suspected that the explosion might have been due to a gas leak and the Colombo Municipal Council Fire Brigade and the police took steps to bring the fire under control, the spokesman said .

Two persons who were at the parking near the building were injured in the incident.

The Government Analyst is to inspect the site to ascertain the cause of the explosion, he further said.

The final encounter of the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Trophy Four-Nation Football Tournament was also played at the Racecourse Grounds in Reid Avenue last night

Being a good leader and maintaining that high quality for half a century is no mean achievement. One must possess effective leadership qualities that helps one achieve higher goals and objectives. This is true of the nonviolent resistance and persistence of Mahatma Gandhi and the magnanimous vision of Nelson Mandela. Our leaders, their policies and their acts are creating history for generations to come.

In his 76 years of life, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has established himself as a national leader and an international statesman of considerable stature. During his 51 year-long political career, he has represented the spirit of an era, the pulse of the nation and the warp and woof of the social, cultural and political fabric of Sri Lanka.

He is known as the ultimate survivor, a political enigma, an ardent nationalist, a champion of the people, protector of the nation, trusted custodian of Buddhism and the guardian of religious freedom of all communities, a human rights activist, and last but not the least, an untiring street-fighter. These are few sobriquets of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who celebrates his 76th birthday on Thursday.

Political career

Mahinda Rajapaksa began his checkered political career on May 27, 1970 as the youngest Parliamentarian. He reached his zenith when he guided the Lankan Armed Forces to end the 30-year-long fight against the brutal terrorist organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 as the President and Supreme Commander of Armed Forces of Sri Lanka.

He entered Parliament at the young age of 24 and served in many capacities over many years. He held several ministries ranging from Labour to Fisheries becoming Prime Minister in 2004. He was elected The fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka in the following year.

Although Rajapaksa was born into a land-holding elite family, he was always very close to the common people irrespective of their creed, caste, religion or social status. His uncle, D. M. Rajapaksa, known as the ‘Lion of Ruhuna’ was a popular political leader of the area. After his demise, Mahinda’s father, D. A. Rajapaksa, served as a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, holding the Beliatta seat from 1947 to 1965. In 1970, Mahinda became Sri Lanka’s youngest-ever Member of Parliament when he was elected to the seat that his father had vacated just five years earlier. Young parliamentarian Mahinda studied law after completion of school studies and received a law degree from Colombo Law College in 1974.

Mahinda’s exceptional characteristic has been the ability to face defeats. After losing his seat in parliament in 1977, he focused on his law career until reentering Parliament in 1989, this time representing the Hambantota district. He was reelected and continued as a Parliamentarian until 2005.

A popular center-left politician, Mahinda was at the forefront as a defender of human rights during the state suppression of a youth rebellion in 1987-90, when Sri Lanka was recognized as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the supporters of youth rebellions. His fight for the rights of the suppressed people stood him in good stead in his political journey throughout.

In the January 2010 presidential election, he got reelected easily, winning 58 percent of the vote. Rajapaksa’s second term saw sustained economic growth. He continued to enjoy the strong support of the large Sinhalese majority in the country. However, his relations with Western countries were strained over Sri Lanka’s refusal to bow down to their call for international investigations of the military’s treatment of Tamils in the last phase of the conflict.

Addressing the United Nations General assembly he said, “Sri Lanka’s Government, at all times responsive to the priorities reflected in domestic public opinion, is engaged in all measures required for meaningful progress in these fields. A significant event in this regard is the opportunity which the people of the Northern Province enjoyed at the elections, to elect their representatives in the Provincial Council. It is a matter of legitimate satisfaction to me that this was made possible after the lapse of almost a quarter of a century. There can be no doubt regarding the crucial importance of this measure in the context of political empowerment and reconciliation. It is clearly the responsibility of the international community to assist with these efforts and to ensure their success for the benefit of all the people of Sri Lanka.”

Without mincing his words, President Mahinda Rajapaksa pointed out that in spite of the visible progress made, and consistent engagement with UN mechanisms, many countries are surprised at the disproportionate emphasis on Sri Lanka, and the unequal treatment through the multilateral framework. The basis for this relentless pursuit was questioned.

“It is my conviction that the UN system should be astute to ensure the consistency of standards applied so that there is no room for suspicion of manipulation of the UN System by interested parties to fulfill their agendas,” he said.

Mahinda Rajapaksa worships the soil of Sri Lanka after winning the war against the LTTE
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Charismatic leader

The emphasis put by Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President of the country in 2012 is equally relevant today. The UN has consistently ensured cooperation between States, and provided a universal platform for discussions on a range of issues, contentious or otherwise. “It is imperative that we jealously protect and abide by the principle of equal treatment of countries, which has been the very basis of this global organization. Be it economic or political issues, equality must form the bedrock of all international interactions,” he said.

The crusade commenced by Mahinda Rajapaksa and the policies outlined by him will continue to guide the nation for years to come. The people’s mandate given at the Presidential Election in November 2019 to his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was another fitting tribute to Mahinda, a leader who has carved a niche for himself in the history of our nation.

Today, as Prime Minister in the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda will no doubt carry forward his mission of ensuring equality and prosperity for all the peoples of Sri Lanka.

Emphasizing this, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a recent speech, stressed his commitment to work with determination and patience to ‘safeguard the Motherland we have built, and take it further to the heights of world-winning achievements’.

“Our future responsibility is to safeguard all those achievements and proceed with the tasks of nation building,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa, the charismatic leader with an ever-growing political appeal.

Zahran Hashim’s ideology was that one of the rewards awaiting those who perform Jihad was 72 virgins in heaven, said Director General of the Institute of National Security Studies Prof. Rohan Gunaratna.

He made this revelation during a televised interview recently.

“Zahran Hashim believed that those who performed Islamic Jihad were entitled to 72 virgins in heaven. He firmly believed that by his attack, he would be able to meet his God in heaven, and would receive pardon for all his wrong doings. This ideology also claimed that 70 members of his family will be entitled to see heaven when they die,” he said.

Gunaratna added that this ideology was taught to the other suicide bombers, who also firmly believed and accepted this ideology.

“The other suicide bombers believed that they would also be doing the right thing by performing Jihad as per Zahran’s teachings,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the video that was recently released, Hashim claimed that the funds used to carry out the attacks were “halal”, Gunaratna explained, and that funding was not provided by non-Muslims or any Government.

“The source of finance for Zahran is from the two sons of the richest spice trader in Sri Lanka. All the ongoing international investigations on the source of funding also show that it came from a company owned by the spice trader’s sons,” Gunaratna mentioned.

With the high cost of manufacturing, supply constraints and no policy direction from Budget 2022, the $ 150-200 million-worth confectionery exporters are looking to move their production to more favourable overseas locations.

Despite having orders, confectionery exporters are finding it extremely difficult to match prices quoted by buyers and be competitive in the international market.

“We agree on orders for two years. Although we have several contracts we cannot be competitive, as raw material prices have gone up by 10-20% just within the past six months. We cannot even renegotiate our prices because there are many players who can supply cheaper. Our export orders are in jeopardy,” Lanka Confectionery Manufacturers Association (LCMA) President S.D. Suriyakumar told the Daily FT.

He noted that the companies would have at least survived with the price increases had there been no shortage of raw material supply and proper policy to encourage exporters more effectively.

“Inputs that have come to the port are delayed with banks not releasing foreign exchange. The process to release goods takes 15-20 days from the port and we have to pay demurrage on top of the delay by banks. The businesses have to bear all the additional cost. We have been supportive to the Government given the pandemic, but it seems the authorities have taken us for granted,” Suriyakumar opined.

He said Budget 2022 was the last hope the industry had but the sector and its contribution to the national economy were ignored, hence disappointing.

At present, companies are exploring opportunities to either get into manufacturing agreements with overseas companies (outsource manufacturing) or set up factories in Southeast Asian countries where policies are more conducive to do business compared to Sri Lanka, he said.

“Prices have gone up in those markets as well, but compared to Sri Lanka they are much less and there is policy consistency and a considerable amount of raw material to manufacture without major price and supply constraints compared to Sri Lanka,” he pointed out.

Confectionery exporters are exploring opportunities in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Suriyakumar also said the exporters in general had been struggling for the past one-and-a-half years to find containers to ship their goods to relevant markets on time.

“We had many discussions with higher authorities of the Government, but to date no tangible solution has been implemented to support exporters – the only significant foreign exchange earners of the economy,” he claimed.

The LCMA President asserted that member companies had invested over Rs. 10 billion to bring in the technology and machinery to produce world-class confectionery products locally, apart from incurring cost on promotion activities to bring the ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ brands to the shelves of the leading supermarkets in European and African countries.

“At the early stage of our export industry, our products were only sold in areas where ethnic groups were residing, but now our products are in leading supermarkets such as Tesco, Lulu and Walmart, to name a few. We export to over 50 countries at present,” he said.

Suriyakumar cautioned that if export companies were to move out of Sri Lanka to other regional countries, it would immediately put 550,000 people out of employment. “There are over 50,000 direct employees and 500,000 people engaged in the confectionery industry. If the larger companies stop plants in Sri Lanka, it will directly impact their livelihood and the economy too will suffer with no foreign exchange inflow,” he warned.

He claimed that the business situation in Sri Lanka was clearly not very conducive for any investor, adding that the economy would further suffer if no proactive measures were taken to protect the few remaining export industries.

“Several confectionery manufactures will stop certain production lines sooner or later considering the high cost and shortage of raw material. This will also reflect in short stocks in the market, closure of factories, slash in employment and allowances and ultimately increase poverty among the society,” he cautioned.

Leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) SJB Parliamentarian Rishad Bathiudeen,who is accused of having an underhand deal with the Government, said he would decide whether his party would support Budget 2022 or not after the party’s Central Committee meets on Sunday (21).

He was speaking at the opening of the children’s playground at the Nirulla Muslim School in Akurana yesterday (18).

Speculation about Bathiudeen having a secret deal with the Rajapaksa Government surfaced with his release from remand prison and his absence in recent protests organised by the SJB. “Our party is not satisfied with this Budget.

But we have not yet decided whether to support the Budget or not. That decision will be taken next Sunday. Our party did not participate in the recent protests by the SJB because we have not yet formed an alliance with Sajith Premadasa. However, we work together as the Opposition. I praised Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament recently, and some people have assumed that we have a deal with the Government. We have no such deal with the Government,” the ACMC Leader said. During the nine years that Mahinda Rajapaksa was President, I worked with that Government. At that time President Rajapaksa and I did a lot of work to develop the North and the East as well as the country.

He has proved to be a good leader who worked for the country. But the present Government has not done anything in the past two years. The only thing that has happened is the economy has collapsed and the country is going backwards,” he added. “It is true that several members of our party supported the Government on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. But this is not the view of our party.

This is the just personal opinion of MPs. Today,some Ministers take to the streets and criticise the Government to the public and the Media but never say a word against the Government in Parliament. We say criticising the Government on the roads should be really done in Parliament. People have now identified the double standards,” he said.

“Anyone one who wants peace, unity and brotherhood in this country would accept giving the leadership of the Presidential Task Force on ‘One Country, One Law’ to Ven. Gnanasara Thera. My view is the same,” Bathiudeen added. “I have something to say to the people of this country. I was imprisoned twice for my innocence.

I was once imprisoned for giving the right to vote to the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who lost their voting rights. The second time I was imprisoned for aiding and abetting terrorism. These are absurd and baseless allegations. I tell the people of this country that the truth will one day prevail,” he said.