Trail blazer in Lanka’s corporate world

By Janaka Perera

When Europeans and non-Buddhists monopolized top positions in Sri Lanka’s private sector in the British colonial era and the immediate post-independence years, one of the first Sinhala Buddhists to rise to senior executive level in the country’s corporate world – D.S. Bandarage – passed away recently.

He was the son of Bandarage Don Baron Gunawardena a fiery orator and strong advocate of freedom from colonial rule. D.S. Bandarage was this country’s pioneer in personnel management and left a unique body of writing on human resource management in English and Sinhala which adapts western concepts and theories to local circumstances.

By Sebastian Rasalingam, Toronto, Canada.

The historic subjugation of the poor Tamils  by Prabhakaran and the Rich Diaspora Tamils has been brought to an end. Some 300,000 hostages have been freed and are now living in camps for “internally displace persons”(IDPs). I have just recently visited  some of these IDP camps, and I wish to categorically state that the Tamils all over the world must celebrate this moment when we have, with the help of the Rajapaksa government, triumphed over the greatest misfortune that befell the Ilankai Thamils since Independence.

Gen.Fonseka took oaths before the President today as Chief of Defence Staff.

Today President Mahinda Rajapaksha has appointed SL Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka as Chief of Defence Staff. Further, Major General, Jagath Jayasuriya – the former Wanni Security Force Commander has been appointed as the new Commander of the Sri Lanka Army.

Meanwhile, the SL Navy Commander, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda has been appointed as the National Security Adviser to the President Rajapaksha and Rear Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe took oaths before the President as Commander of SL Navy.

Major General G. A. Chandrasiri, Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army and Competent Authority for the Internally Displaced Persons in Northern Province, took oaths as the new Governor of the Northern Province before President Mahinda Rajapaksha today.

The Governor of the Northern Province, Dixon Dela Bandara is believed to be the next Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Maldives.

By Janaka Alahapperuma from London

Festival Of Cricket- London 2009 will be held on (today) Sunday, 12th July, 2009 at the Winchmore Hill Cricket Club Grounds, London N21 3ER. The day’s events commence at 9 am and will end at about 8 pm.

Festival of Cricket (FOC) is prominently known as an event that one can spend a wonderful Summer day with family and friends watching excellent cricketing talent combined with a very enjoyable party atmosphere throughout – Sri Lankan style, with its fair share of cheer, and its music and associated baila singing and dancing, and varieties of Sri Lankan and International food.

By L. Jayasooriya

I quote below directly from the Asian Tribune of 11/07/2009.

“US President Barack Obama has nominated international prosecutor Stephen Rapp to be Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues at the United States State Department.The ambassador heads the Office of War Crimes Issues, directly advises Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world.”

Ambassador Stephen Rapp

Until now I did not know that America has an International Prosecutor. That means the entire world except America and her conjoined allies are not sovereign nations.

America and her allies are singularly responsible for the plundering of Africa, Asia and South America. How about the many nations in Africa and Asia that they de-stabilized and installed puppets resulting in so much of human suffering? How about Pinochet? How about the cold blooded murder of Lumumba? They did not spare even the impoverished nations of the Caribbean where they installed Papa Doc and Baby Doc. How about the massacre of Buddhist monks in Hue when the Pope could have just given the order to Catholic Diem the American puppet to stop slaughtering Buddhist monks? The Pope did nothing of the sort. It is with this background that America and her allies are attempting to show the world that they are a just and fair society and are taking all steps necessary to preserve peace in this world by acting as the self appointed policeman.

By (Rtd. Snr. DIG) Gamini Gunawardane

In an interview given to C. A. Premachandra of The Island of 17th June, this is what Minister Rajitha Senaratne had to say on the question of devolution of police powers: “Minor crimes will be dealt with by provincial police and major crimes and security will be dealt with by the national police. So this is a very practical solution”. This is all that it means to him! And, solution to what?

Even that little he does not know well enough. He does not seem to know that not only minor crime, major crime too is already being investigated by the local police stations under the unitary set up for over the last hundred years. So, his concept of devolution is already in place and more. Also, no security could be effectively done without the co-operation of the local police, by the centre alone. A good example of failure to realize this is the recent security disaster at Godagama in Akuressa Police area.  Security is primarily the responsibility of the local police. The Security Divisions are only providing the expertise and continuity. The lack of this continuity was amply demonstrated in Lahore when the Sri Lanka nearly lost some of its greatest jewels and also the police response at the Mumbai hostage crisis, under devolved policing. So Mr. Senaratne and his colleague Dilan Perera are either kade yanawa  for somebody else or they do not know what they are talking about. A case of fools rushing where angels fear to tread.

AIBA Gold medalist Jayasinghe(left) with Nilanthi & Anusha Kodithuwakku.

Sri Lanka’s Nilmini Jayasinghe (29) won the gold medal in the under 51 kg category at the AIBA International women’s boxing championship held in Petersburg, Russia today after beating her Canadian opponent  at the final.

This is also Jayasinghe’s best performance in an International meet after having earlier clinched a bronze medal at the 2006 Asian Championships in Vietnam. She had also participated in two World Cup tournaments in India (2006) and China (2008) respectively.

By  Ben Silva,UK.

A Promise should be honoured, if  the promise  was made willingly and if all the relevant  information related to the promise was known, at the time the promise was made. With reference to the 13th amendment, it was forced upon us by India, who destabilised  us, by forming and arming LTTE. Any agreement that  has been made under duress  has no legal validity. People can be made to promise various things under gun point, but these.  promises or agreements are not valid. and unenforceable. We have to bear in mind that foreigners would like a divided Sri Lanka as it would enable ‘divide and rule’. Whatever the solution to the ‘ethnic problem’, a hazard identification and a risk analysis has to be carried out before a solution is implemented.  The 13th amendment is simply an expensive division of the country through the back door. Enemies of Sri Lanka will do their best to divide us. We need to remember that   ‘united we stand, divided we fall’. The  Sri Lankan  tax payer has to bear the burden of additional politicians and the bureaucrats. We also have to bear in mind that those countries that support the 13th amendment either created the terrorists or supported the terrorists. Basically the enemies of Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese, support the 13th amendment.. It has to be mentioned that the whole of Sri Lanka was the homeland of the Sinhalese. Implementing the 13th   amendment will legitimise the ethnic cleansing carried out  by Tamils war lords, who destroyed the Sinhala civilisation. A far better solution is to treat all Sri Lankans as members of the same family and have justice and fair play for all. Those who support the 13th  amendment should read up on Sri Lanka’s history and also what happened to ethnic groups such as the Aztecs that could not stand up to foreign pressures.

FOC – 2009 -  NEWS RELEASE

The Festival will be held on  Sunday, 12th July, 2009 at the Winchmore Hill Cricket Club,  Paulin Ground, Ford’s Grove, Winchmore Hill, London N21 3ER.

Please contact Hon. Joint President and Media Co-ordinator, FOC – Brian Ratnayake ( +4477 1023 3469) or Media Team Leader – Ravi Raveendran (+4477 2331 2422), should you need  further information.

Just a few more days for the 21st annual celebration of  the biggest Summer Festival for Sri Lankans in the UK, a place to enjoy watching excellent cricket, with fun and excitement  prevalent at inter-school Big Matches, combined with a very happy party atmosphere throughout the day with Live band music, UK and Sri Lankan trade stalls, International hot food stalls, Beer tent, and children’s entertainment.

In a year that the world is suffering from a severe financial meltdown, Sri Lankan entrepreneurs were brave enough to come back to contribute to the success of FOC 2009.

By C. Wijeyawickrema.

“A Sinhala police officer cried when Tamil IDPs died in the camp.Sinhala doctors cried when a Tamil IDP child died in the camp.”- TNA MP Padmini Sidambaranathan in Parliament on July 7, 2009, she herself crying twice.

Which is the master?

“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” In the case of Sri Lanka, we can ask, “Which came first, Tamil separatism or the Sinhala Official Language Act?” This is a timeless question. The followers of “one language two countries, two languages one country” (the author of this statement later abandoned it) kind of philosophy, then or now, did not bother to ask such non-dialectical questions (In the 1930s and 1940s there was a fear that Sinhala language will have a natural death and there was a group propagating the idea that Sinhala was a Tamil language. However, this “fear” was no reason for the People’s Bank to send a reply to a Tamil student in Sinhala who completed the loan form in English without an English translation. I once had to help one such student to understand what was in the reply. It was stupid and sadistic. The useless officer and the supervisors should have been fired. Just like sending “SRI” number plated CTB busses to Jaffna correct administrative action by the government—one big set of firing—would have stopped lot of sabotaging).