Category: Breaking News

The Chinese Government is to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to improve the communication facilities for the Police.

As part of the Chinese grant, a widely used communication facility known as TETRA — Terrestrial Trunked Radio — will be provided to the Police to improve communication between senior officers and police stations. It also provides for tabs to support the body cameras which will be initially available for police stations in the Western Province where a base station will be set up.

The grant will be officially provided when the Chinese State Councillor and Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe visits Sri Lanka later this month.

The TETRA Communication system will also be initially available in the Western Province where the Inspector General will be able to address separate groups such as Deputy Inspectors General and officers in charge of police stations.

However, it was not clear how the Police would expand the use of the particular network to the rest of the country.

The Chinese capital widely uses this network and it is the biggest city-wide TETRA network in the world that serves 110,000 authority users in Beijing.

The Beijing Government Shared Radio Network, also called the “Beijing JustTop TETRA Network”, is the largest digital trunked network in Asia and the biggest city-wide TETRA network in the world.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity professionals have expressed concerns over the system. This is because of the lack of a dedicated institutional cybersecurity agency in the country to validate these types of devices for their security vulnerabilities before using them in critical sectors such as the Police.

The Sunday Times learns there are no such institutions in the country as of now to verify whether these types of devices carry any pre-patched data for transmission or consist of privacy issues that would make the process vulnerable.

These moves come as a Government-appointed Committee is looking into the modernisation and digitalisation of activities of the Police. Five Deputy Inspectors General, representatives of the Finance Ministry and the Legal Draftsman are members of the committee.

The committee is due to submit its recommendations in 45 days.

The plan will include establishing a traffic control system and an upgraded CCTV system among others.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told the Sunday Times that the visiting Chinese Defence Minister would meet President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa during a two-day visit.

This is the second-highest level visit to be undertaken by a Chinese official to Sri Lanka following senior Chinese diplomat, Yang Jiechi’s visit in October last year, after the change of government in 2019.

This week the Sri Lankan government entered into an agreement with the China Development Bank for a financing facility of USD 500 million.

Several pertinent questions posed by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) experts’ panel, to the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, that manufactured the Sinopharm vaccine, were not answered, the final review report of the independent experts’ panel on the vaccine stated.

The independent experts’ panel comprising Dr. Rajiva de Silva, Prof. Neelika Malewige, Prof. Arunasalam Pathmeswaran, Dr. Ananda Wijewickrema, Dr. Kanthi Nanayakkara, Prof. Channa Ranasinhe,

Dr. Hasitha Tissera and Dr. Lak Kumar Fernando, in the report dated 17 March 2021, said the NMRA requested data on both 1 March and 15 March.

However, the data provided by the manufacturer was not sufficient to decide on immunogenicity, safety and efficacy of the vaccine and therefore, they recommend not using the vaccine until more information was made available and evaluated, the experts’ panel said.

However, the Health Ministry sacked seven of the NMRA Board members over ‘not approving’ the vaccine. They were Dr. Palitha Abeykoon (Chairman of NMRA), Chamindika Herath (Lawyer), Harshana Karunaratna (Accountant), Dr. Kapila Ranasinghe (PhD Management), Dr. Asita de Silva, Dr. Nethushi Samarasinghe, Dr. Lak Kumar Fernando and they were replaced by a team led by a medical practitioner and not one of medical eminence, as required based on the NMRA Act.

The termination letter issued to all seven members had no specific reason given but that the ‘Health Ministry has decided to reform the NMRA and appoint new members to the Board and that the team was terminated’.

Out of the 11 questions posed to Sinopharm by the experts’ panel, seven (7) were left unanswered by the Chinese company.

Questions such as efficacy data in the 60-year-old age group, the sample size inadequate to draw conclusions, whether anyone with comorbidities had been included in the trial, safety data of phase three of the vaccine, side effects observed, whether anyone developed allergies or anaphylaxis, ingredients in the vaccine, whether it has BSA or FBS since vero cells are known to be grown in FBS, the number of persons included in the analysis of immunogenicity, number of persons from all age groups were not given answered by the manufacturer.

Furthermore, the manufacturer has not provided follow up data after the interim analysis of phase 3 data presented until 31 October 2020.

The answer to the question “Neutralising antibody levels in those below 60 years of age in comparison to younger individuals,” the manufacturer had not responded other than ‘Seroconversion rates of 18-59 and below 60 provided but not the neutralising antibody levels,” the review report said.

Lack of answers from the Sinhopharm companies led the expert panel to halt the use of the vaccine.

One of the terminated members said, “I was removed because State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana thought I am an obstacle to get the Sinopharm approved in a hurry. It is his initiative. Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi just had to send me the letter as she only has the power to do it. She was asked to do so by Secretary to the President P. B. Jayasundera on the request by of State Minister Jayasumana.

In the meantime the Chinese diplomatic circle has questioned the NMRA for delaying the Sinopharm jab that is only administered to the Chinese workers living in Sri Lanka currently.

They said Sinopharm made a special arrangement and provided most detailed documents about its BBIBP-CorV COVID-19 vaccine to the medicine regulator, including seven pages of Vaccine Introduction and 54 pages of International Summary Report of the Phase 3 Clinical Trial.

They also told Ceylon Today until Thursday (15), the population vaccinated in Chinese Mainland has passed 175.6 million.

They also claimed that on 31 March, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) of the WHO said that Sinopharm and Sinovac have presented data on their COVID-19 vaccines indicating levels of efficacy and safety compatible with those required by the World Health Organization.

But the WHO in Colombo said that the dossiers are being reviewed for the Moderna, Gamaleya, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and others are in discussions with the WHO prequalification team for data submission to the WHO.

Ven. Muruttetuwe Ananda thera has reportedly informed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa that president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had blamed the thera during a telephone conversation.

Sources say Ven, Ananda Thera has explained the incident to Premier Rajapaksa in a telephone call yesterday.

At the time, the premier was staying at his Carlton Residence in Tangalle.

When told about the incident, Premier Rajapaksa has requested the thera not to be panicked about it and that he would come to Colombo on Saturday and would come to the Abhayaramaya Temple to meet the thera.Ven. Muruttetuwe Ananda thera told a press briefing on Friday he the Buddhist monks do not hesitate to stand against if anyone tries to misuse the power against democracy.

The thera also said the Buddhist monks would raise their voice against anyone who attempts deliberately to amend the country’s laws.”Attempts are made to silence us., But, these monks who hails from the Kudapola, Wariyapola and Gunananda thero generations will not bow down to any threats,”

Former Chairman of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Venerable Omalpe Sobitha Thera says they vehemently oppose the move to establish a state of another country within Sri Lanka.

Omalpe Sobitha Thera noted that all factions should rally together to thwart the attempts made by the government to make Sri Lanka a Chinese colony.

The Thera noted that the country faced a 30-year-old conflict to liberate the country from separatists who waged war to capture a part of Sri Lanka.

Omalpe Sobitha Thera noted that now a similar attempt is being made through other means, without an armed struggle.

The Thera noted that the bill if passed, will result in Sri Lanka losing control of a 1,115-acre plot of land to China.

Omalpe Sobitha Thera questioned as to whether the public representatives are aware of the consequences of the Bill and whether they are willing to be a party to moves to hand over a region of the country to China.

Omalpe Sobitha Thera stressed that the President and the government have been appointed to govern the country only for a brief period, and they have no right to hand over certain parts of Sri Lanka to foreign powers.

Venerable Omalpe Sobitha Thera noted that they will strongly oppose any moves to grant powers to other countries to govern any part of Sri Lanka.

The JVP says a public referendum must be held in order to approve the proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill.

Speaking during a media briefing in Colombo today, Leader of the JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said several clauses that challenge the country’s sovereignty have been included in the proposed bill.

Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake pointed out that the Board of Investment is an independent body that could oversee such investment projects.

Therefore, the JVP leader questioned why the government could not go through the BOI and needed to appoint a separate commission for Port City Activities and tax concessions.

He questioned why it would not be included as a part of the Local Authorities framework, and why salaries would be paid in foreign currency, why duties would be taxes would be levied when moving purchases out of the region and why would investors be given tax exemptions.

Therefore, the JVP leader accused the Chinese of trying to invade trade in Sri Lanka through long-term plans.

He stressed that the Port City Commission Bill must not be passed in parliament without seeking public opinion through a referendum.

MP Dissanayake explained that to be a patriot simply does not mean one will kiss the land he was born in.

Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake pointed out that Sri Lanka has become a beggar’s nation which has to plead for loans from foreign nations as the country has been blacklisted on the international markets.

Therefore, MP Dissanayake claimed China is brokering a deal to disburse loans, only if Sri Lanka gives the Port City to them, and also provides three islands in the North to build power plants.

He also claimed India followed the same strategy to invade local resources within the port. The JVP leader said Sri Lanka had no option but to agree to terms and plead for loans from China.