Category: News

Some of the employees of the Parliamentary Home Administration Department have been harassed by some bosses

Parliamentary Secretary General Advocate Kushani Rohanadeera said that if it is confirmed that any officer or group has committed such an offense during the investigation regarding the alleged sexual harassment, strict action will be taken against them.

She also mentioned that the committee appointed regarding this incident is conducting the investigations impartially.

She also mentioned that a committee consisting of three senior officers has been appointed to investigate the reports published in the media on and around July 30, 2023 about the Housekeeping Division of the Parliament.

The Secretary General said that an officer who has been accused in connection with the incident has been suspended and the parliamentary staff members have the opportunity to meet the relevant committee members in person or via telephone or e-mail to inform them about the relevant matters.

They further mentioned that an internal circular has informed that in addition to the relevant committee members, the General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary of the Parliament can also submit information regarding those matters.

(lankadeepa.lk)

Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP), an opposition alliance dominated by the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has rejected calls for an alliance with other opposition parties.

JVP frontliner K D Lal Kantha said speaking at an event on Wednesday August 16 that his party does not want to form alliances with what he called “rotting” parties.

“We’re getting suggestions these days, asking we can team up with the SJB or with Dullas or with this one or that one to kick Ranil out. No, we can’t,” he said.

Lal Kantha was referring to the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and former minister turned “independent” MP Dullas Alahapperuma, among others.

“You can’t do this by forming an alliance with rotting parties. So there will be no such alliances,” he declared.

Lal Kantha’s statement comes in the wake of an opinion survey for July that showed NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has seen a dip in his net favourability rating with opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa making a marginal gain while President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s rating stayed static.

A Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) polling by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) showed that the net favourability rating of Dissanayake fell 15 points to -44 points in July while Premadasa’s favourability rating increased 4 points to -44 points. President Wickremasinghe’s favourability rating remained the same (-52) .

Favourability estimates for each month are based on 100–400 interviews conducted during that month and during a few weeks before and afterwards to ensure a minimum set of responses, the IHP said in a statement. The July 2023 estimates are based on 367 (Premadasa), 309 (Dissanayake), 367 (Wickremasinghe), and 154 (former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa) interviews.

“We have noted that some members of the public misunderstand media reporting of these numbers. Negative scores, i.e., a net favourability rating of less than zero, mean that the individual or institution is unpopular. Only positive scores, i.e., net favourability is more than zero, mean that the individual or institution is popular on average,” the IHP said.

A spokesperson for IHP, explained that SLOTS asks if respondents have a favourable or unfavourable opinion for a list of politicians. The list of politicians is not limited to Dissanayek, Premadasa, Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa but is randomised and respondents are asked only about a few politicians to reduce the burden on the respondents. All respondents are not asked about all the politicians tracked by SLOTS. Therefore sample size differs for each politician for each month, the spokesperson said.

We also vary the probabilities that specific politicians are asked about to reflect relative priority, they added.

Don’t the Sinhalese people know about the Buddhist monks in the North-East seizing the traditional lands of the Tamils and setting up Buddhist temples against the law? So far no Sinhalese public has condemned the injustice being done in Tamil Pradesh in the name of Buddhism. There is no news about this in the Sinhala and English media.

Sinhala and English media only highlight the illegal activities of Buddhist monks or court injunctions against the activities of Buddhist monks. In other words, those news are based on the tone that Buddhist priests and Buddhism have no place in Tamil areas.

Why are Buddhist temples and Buddha statues in Tamil territories where Buddhist Sinhalese people do not live? Where are the funds for building Buddhist temples coming from amid the current economic crisis?

It is clear that all these are planned and directed with the aim of eliminating the theory of the homeland of the Tamils and establishing the entire island of Sri Lanka as a Buddhist Sinhalese territory.

The Thirty Years War is the main reason for the current economic decline. Sinhala politicians understand this. But instead of telling the truth to the Sinhalese people, they are inciting racism. Production should be increased and the export economy should improve.

International Monetary Fund loans and aid from the US, India, and China governments alone are not enough to build Sri Lanka’s economy. It will plunge Sri Lanka into irretrievable debt.

Therefore, through the permanent political solution that Elam Tamils want, the natural resources in the North East should be developed and the productive economy should be increased.

Thirty years of continuous war made it convenient for the Sinhalese rulers to engage in corruption and abuse of power. Even after May 2009, corruption continues in other forms. Sinhalese people should understand this.

But the mainstream Sinhala English media and Sinhala politicians do not reveal the facts to the Sinhala people.

Some Sinhala and English news websites are revealing the fact that the non-presentation of a permanent political solution to the ethnic problem is the cause of all the current crises in Sri Lanka.

Certain Sinhala academics and some Sinhala alternative media have condemned the aggressive activities of the Buddhist clergy. However, they are a very small proportion of the total Sinhalese population of the island of Sri Lanka, so it will not be enough to create a proper understanding among the entire Sinhalese population.

Many Sinhalese politicians do not want to speak against Buddhist priests. In particular, the government has remained silent on Buddhistization. Many Tamil parliamentarians are accusing the Sri Lankan parliament that the government, especially the Sinhalese politicians, is behind these activities.

But they blame the government and the Sri Lankan army and maintain relations with the government through the back door. On the contrary, none of the Tamil parliamentarians are ready to take to the streets and fight. Addressing parliament with heroic fervor. But the Tamil parties are not ready to conduct continuous moral struggles in a democratic way.

The Sinhalese settlements that started in 1949 with the Kalloya Settlement Project in the Eastern Province of Amparai district continue to this day in the North East.

The project was somewhat hampered by the intervening thirty years of armed conflict. But since May 2009, today fourteen years of rapid and well-planned Sinhalese settlements are taking place.

The American and Indian governments, which provided arms and financial aid to the Sri Lankan government during the war, do not ask for justifications about this to date. The Chinese government does not need to seek justice from the Sri Lankan government regarding the Elam Tamils.

America and India have been giving full cooperation to the Sri Lankan government even after May 2009, showing and pretending to support the Elam Tamils. But the Chinese government has not lied about supporting the Elam Tamils and has been giving cooperation only to the Sri Lankan government very honestly.

The biggest concern of the Tamils is that the Tamil National Parties have not devised any mechanism to gain the political emancipation of the Elam Tamils using the contemporary geopolitical economic interests and rivalries of the dominant countries.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Minister Late Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lankan Ambassador to India Milinda Moragoda, Sri Lankan Ambassador to America Mahinda Samarasinghe, and Professor G.L Peiris are the best diplomats for the Sinhalese people.

Regardless of the parties they belong to, they act with one voice in matters related to the political liberation of Elam Tamils In other words, they are working very subtly in maintaining Sri Lankan Unitary State to strengthen Sri Lankan nationality.

But Tamils do not have good diplomats like them. They claim to be Tamil political representatives and only pay more attention to electoral politics.

Like the Sinhalese political parties, they should form a mechanism and engage in activities related to political emancipation and Tamils homeland development of the Elam Tamils with a united voice. But Tamils do not seem to have any such processes.

On the contrary, they are only devising election strategies to increase the number of members for their respective parties in the next parliamentary elections.

It is different that the Tamil people did not accept the Thirteenth Amendment Act as a political solution to the ethnic crisis. But the funny thing here is that many Sinhalese politicians do not want to fully implement even the Thirteenth Amendment.

It is a well-known fact that there is no place for economic progress and peace on the island of Sri Lanka until the Sinhalese politicians are freed from the Buddhist Mahavamsa mentality.

There is no alternative that the Sinhalese people can understand what is happening in the North East if the truth is expressed in a non-racist manner

*A. Nixon Senior Journalist, Lecturer in Media (Former president of Tamil Media Alliance)

The Jordanian Army arrested seven Sri Lankans who had attempted to illegally enter Israel on Wednesday morning (16), the Arab News reported.

Jordanian army said the seven were arrested by border forces and handed over to the relevant authorities.

The source further said that the armed forces will deal firmly with infiltration or smuggling attempts to protect the borders and national security.

The Jordanian-Israeli border has witnessed instances of infiltration in previous years by people coming from Africa, Asia and Turkey to seek employment in Israel.

Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake has invited qualified persons for the appointment of President’s Counsels for 2022/2023 in accordance with Article 33 (e) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The guidelines for application, qualifications, and criteria are outlined in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 2255/24 of November 24, 2021.

Applicants should:

Be qualified Attorneys-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
Demonstrate eminence in the legal field with high professional standards.
Show active engagement in advocacy or law advancement within Sri Lanka.
Exhibit exceptional expertise in law, domestically or internationally.
Possess an untarnished character and uphold the Constitution.
Maintain the Rule of Law and Judicial Independence.
Have no history of disciplinary actions, misconduct, or contempt of court.
Maintain good financial standing and a minimum five-year tax registration.
Hold additional qualifications such as legal publications, presentations, further studies, teaching, or training.
Have at least twenty (20) years of Supreme Court practice, with exceptions for fifteen (15) years under special circumstances.
Not be a Notary Public or influence the application process.
The office of the President said, if any applicant has furnished false information in the application or submitted forged documents or suppressed information, the said application will ipso facto be rejected.

The duly completed written applications adhering to the specimen application, along with the certified copies of the relevant documents, should be sent by registered post, addressed to the Secretary to the President, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo 01 to reach on or before August 25, 2023.

Applications can be downloaded via www.presidentsoffice.gov.lk