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Chanaka Bandarage We need dollars; pretty desperately. The government does not seem to have any idea of earning new dollars. We are US$100 billion in debt (one of the highest per capita debt ratios in the world). And, we are bankrupt. The economy is stagnated. The cost of living is sky rocketing. The youth and the middle aged are leaving the country in doves. They are our workforce. The country’s citizens have not seen a new car for 5 years. Even poor African countries import

Chanaka Bandarage Despite unfair criticism by vested/cynical interest groups, the NPP is poised to record a win on 14 November 2024. The indications are that it will not be a massive victory. If the NPP obtains less than 113 seats, they will be compelled to form a coalition government -most probably with the TNA. This is a dangerous situation – TNA is a racist political party. Thus, the Electorate must ensure that at least 113 NPP MPs are sent to the parliament. Should the N

Chanaka Bandarage Sri Lankan Airlines in a 5-minute advertisement is currently promoting ‘Ramayana Trail’ in India. This video has gone viral on India’s social media. In the advertisement, a grandmother is seen narrating the Hindu epic to her grandson where she states that the Ramayana is real. Even the Archaeological Survey of India through an affidavit in the Indian Supreme Court stated that there is no historical and scientific evidence to establish the existence of Lor

Chanaka Bandarage The essence of democracy is that representatives are elected by the people. If those who are rejected by the public in the election are later allowed to sit as MPs in the parliament through the National List, that will be directly in conflict with the concept of democracy. Effectively, it is making a mockery of our democracy. People did not vote for them because they did not like them. Sometimes, people wanted to punish them. Once people have stated ‘No’, t

Chanaka Bandarage The fact that we now have a fine government (at least uncorrupt), many have the unrealistic expectation that we will soon become a developed nation. Sri Lanka is a 3rd world country; a chronic one. Before becoming a 1st world country (eg. Singapore), we have to pass the 2nd world stage (eg. Malaysia). Surely AKD and his Ministers/MPs will do their best to make Sri Lanka a clean, prosperous country. They are a highly disciplined, hardworking and corruption

Chanaka Bandarage For most areas, monkeys are a relatively new problem. In the last 30 years, lots of deforestation happened. Some forests like Suriyawewa, Lunugamwehara are now extinct. Even the Sinharaja forest is under serious threat. The degradation and fragmentation of the animal habitats is very real. Owing to building walking tracks in Bellanwila, Pillawa areas the monkeys who were in those woodlands migrated to thick urban settlements in Boralesgamuwa, Piliyandala e

Chanaka Bandarage In Europe, politicians including Prime Ministers cycle to work. In Japan, pretty much everyone (rich, poor) cycles. In Netherlands, bicycle is the main and most important mode of transport. In Sri Lanka, cyclists are shamed. Here, cycling is considered a symbol of poverty, We still foolishly regard that bicycle is the poor man’s vehicle. Everyone dreams of travelling in a car – even short distances. When we own a Maruti or a Wagon R; we are not satisfied. We

Chanaka Bandarage The debate on abolishing the Executive Presidency has come to light again. This is good. True we have a new President, elected by the majority vote. But this does not negate the long felt need of abolishing the Executive Presidency. Since 1978, incompetent, fraudulent, sometimes violent, visionless Presidents have come and gone. They used the excessive power available to them to the maximum and destroyed this country. This could be repeated. We must leave a

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය තමන්වහන්සේ විසින් පන්සලේදී ගැට ගැසූ පිරිත් නූල එක් දේශපාලනඥයෙක් පන්සල් භූමියේදීම ගලවා දමා ඉවත්කර පන්සලෙන් නික්ම ගිය බව රජරට එයිතීහාසික විහාරස්ථානයක විහාරාධිපති හිමි නමක් මෑතකදී පැවසුහ. එකී දේශපාලනඥයා එවැනි සිද්ධියක් සිදු නොවූ බව තරයේ කියා සිටියේය. මෙහිදී කවුරුන් සත්‍යය පවසන්නේදැයි අප නොදනිමු. එය මේ ලිපියට අදාළ නොවේ. නමුත්, එවන් සිද්ධියක් ඇත්තට සිදුවී නම්, එම දේශපාලනඥයා සිදු කර ඇත්තේ ගතානුගතිකත්වය, සම්ප්‍රදාය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමක්ද? අ

Chanaka Bandarage At the moment at least 60 elephants are stranded in Oya Madu area including in the NLDB farm. These elephants are the subjects of a drive from Thalawa, Galgamuwa, Thambuththegama areas. To please the villagers in those areas, the authorities chased them out of those areas. They consist of mainly female elephants that live in herds with calves. They are so precious. We must protect them at every cost. The Wildlife officials state that they are repatriating

Chanaka Bandarage At the moment at least 60 elephants are stranded in Oya Madu area including in the NLDB farm. These elephants are the subjects of a drive from Thalawa, Galgamuwa, Thambuththegama areas. To please the villagers in those areas, the authorities chased them out of those areas. They consist of mainly female elephants that live in herds with calves. They are so precious. We must protect them at every cost. The Wildlife officials state that they are repatriating

Chanaka Bandarage If the intention of the program is to make Sri Lanka clean it is a fantastic idea. Sri Lanka is perhaps the cleanest country in South Asia, but it is one of the dirtiest in South East Asia (Sri Lanka can also be categorised as part of South East Asia). The problem is that through this program the government seems trying to achieve all or most of its policy objectives – social, environmental, economic, ethical etc. The 3 main elements of the program are: ‘Soc

Chanaka Bandarage Being submissive in a foreign land is the worst quality that a nation’s leader could have. In the Group Photos of the 1949 and 1951 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings held in the UK, Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) Prime Minister DS Senanayake was afforded a front row seat. Along with the Queen, he sat with the UK, Australian and Indian Prime Ministers. South African, New Zealand, Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) and the few other leaders were in the back row. In the

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ බොරු කියන්නාට වෙනත් කළ නොහැකි වරදක් නැතැයි කියති. එසේම එක් බොරුවක් වැසීමට බොරු 10ක් කියන්න සිදු වේයයි කියති. මියගිය කාටර් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ජනතාවට බොරු නොකීවේය. තමන් ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් ජයගත් පසු විධායක ජනාධිපතිධුරය අහෝසි කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන්නේ යයි පැවසූ අපේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරුන් 5ක් ඇත (1994 පසු). අප ඔවුනට චන්දය දුනිමු. නමුත්, දුන් පොරොන්දුව ඔවුන් ඉෂ්ට නොකළහ. අසීමිත වූ ජනාධිපති බලය පාවිච්චි කර, රට විනාශ කර, දැන් ඔවුන් හොඳ විශ්‍රාම සුවයෙන් පසුවෙත්. මේ අය චේතනාවෙන්ම, අසද්

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ රජය විසින් කළ යුතුව තිබුනේ රොහීන්ග්‍යයන් ආ විගස ඔවුන්ව ඔවුන්ගේ රටට (මියන්මාරයට) ආපසු පිටත් කර හැරීමයි. රටට ආදරය කරන, දූරදර්ශී රජයක් විසින් ක්ෂණිකව ගත යුතුව තිබු පියවරකි ඒ. රටට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය ඇතැම් තීරණ සැනෙකින්, ඉතා බුද්ධිමත්ව ගැනිය යුතුය. දක්ෂ නායකත්වය යනු එයයි. දක්ෂ නායකයාට ඉතා පුළුල් පරාසයක් පෙනේ. ඔහුට/ඇයට ඇත්තේ ඉතා හොඳ දුරදක්නා නුවණකි; රටට පන මෙන් ආදරය කරයි. නායකත්වයට පළපුරුද්ද (experience) අවශ්‍යය යයි කියන්නේ මේ නිසාය. මියන්මාරය අපට ඉතා හිතවත්, ගුණ ගරුක බෞද්ධ

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ දියුණු රටවල් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට සුවිශේෂ වරප්‍රාසද දී ඔවුන්ව ඉමහත් ගෞරවයෙන් බලා ගනී. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස ජපානය ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට දේවත්වයෙන් හා සමාන ලෙස සළකයි. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව ඔවුන්ට විවිධාකාර විශේෂ සහණ සළසයි – අඩු බස් ගාස්තු, අඩු මිලට බෙහෙත් සහ රජයේ අඩු කුලී නිවාස. අපේ රජයන් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට සැලකීම, ඔවුන්ට ගරු කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය ගැන සැළකිලිමත් නොවේ (මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට රුපියල් ලක්ෂ 15ක තැන්පතුවක් සඳහා 15% පොලියක් ගෙවූ බව කාරුණිකව අමතක කළ යුත

Chanaka Bandarage Governments in the past – from Dudley Senanayake (1965 – 1970) to Gotabhaya Rajapaksha (2019 – 2022) introduced National Programs of gigantic nature. All of them ended in failure. Why? They failed to carry people with them. One program that was successful to an extent was Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike’s ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ (1972 – 1976). That government somewhat forcibly enforced the Program on people. School children played a prominent role in it – activel

Chanaka Bandarage The late Minister Gamini Dissanayke In the early 1990s stated that considering the number of professionals and technicians that Australia has absorbed into their country from Sri Lanka, what Sri Lanka has offered to Australia’s economic development far outweighs the amount of aid/assistance that Australia has given to Sri Lanka. He was spot on. There is an enormous brain drain from 3rd world countries like Sri Lanka to the 1st world. Almost all developed cou

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ අත්තිවාරමක් (foundation) තිබෙන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිංහලයන්ට අමතරව ද්‍රවිඩ, මුස්ලිම්, බර්ගර්, ආදිවාසින් (මොවුන් සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගේම කොටසක් වැනි වෙති), මැලේ ආදීහු ජීවත් වෙති. ඔවුන් සියල්ල මෙහි ජීවත් විය යුතුය. එහි කිසිදු ප්‍රශ්ණනයක් නොමැත. අප සියළු දෙනාම ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝය. ද්‍රවිඩ ජාතිකයෙකුට කිලිනොච්චි අත් හැර ගම්පහ පදිංචි වීමට හැකියාවක් ඇත. මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයෙකුට අක්කරෙයිපත්තු අත්හැර තංගල්ලේ පදිංචි විය හැක. නමුත්, ගම්පහ හෝ තංගල්ලේ වෙසෙන සිංහලයෙකුට කිලිනොච්චි හෝ අ

Chanaka Bandarage Bogaswewa is a rural village in Vavuniya District. During the war time, it was categorized as a ‘marginal village’. The villagers are subsistence farmers who eke out a living from the small amount of arable land that is available. Due to the recent drought, farmers have suffered a lot. When all Tamil schools in the surrounds have Math teachers, Bogaswaewa Maha Vidyalaya that only has Sinhala students has functioned without an O’L Math teacher for few years