Divaina Online

By Garvin Karunaratne

The IMF was the international organization by which the United Nations at its inception intended to organize and bring about development of the economies of the World .This did really happen till 1977 when under the Washington Consensus World Bank chief McNamara, and President Ronald Regan took over world development and altered the course of Third World countries tobring them under the control of the USA.

This was done in the most dubious manner by making the vibrant and self reliant countries to fall into debt. When the countries got independence none of the countries were in debt. They were all having vibrant economies and managing their economies with great care, collecting carefully every dollar that was earned mainly by exports and managing all foreign expenses . All countries were run with the locally printed funds. As a senior member of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service I was in charge of a minor section of this massive task. In 1955 to 1967 I was in charge of paddy production. In 1970 I was in charge of providing foreign exchange to local small industrialists. In 1971-1973 as the GA at Matara I wasn charge of all development in a District. The economy was run entirely controlled and there were no foreign exchange offered to anyone travelling abroad for education or fun and jaunts. The economy could not face such fun and frolics. Foreign exchange,carefully collected from exports etc. was spent to import essentials. When I resigned from the Administrative Service and went abroad I was not given a single penny. We were that strict.

When the oil shieks increased the price of oil threefold in the early Seventies and countries went hat in hand to the IMF asking for funds to meet their foreign expenses the Authorities insisted that the countries had to agree to certain conditions:

The policies that were imposed comprised liberalizing the use of foreign exchange(earlier, foreign exchange was very carefully handled-controlled used only for essential supplies), taking the control of foreign exchange out of the hands of the Government; instead it was to function as decided by the Market forces of supply and demand- the banks deciding the exchange rate as opposed to the Government deciding the exchange rate. This led to the devaluation of the local currency. The use of foreign exchange was liberalized allowing anyone to use for any purpose. The Public Sector was not allowed to handle any commercial activities and the commercial infrastructure that brought about development was closed down through abolition or privatization. Imports were liberalized to help the country to obtain anything. Subsidies so far offered to bring about development were abolished.

(From my book: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development)

These conditions were imposed on Sri Lanka in August 1977 and have continued to be imposed firmly till today,

As a result the value of the local rupee has fallen from Rs 12.00 per US $ in 1997 to as much as Rs 300.00 today.

The result., a country that did not owe a dime to anyone when Premier Sirimavo handed over the country to President Jayawardena in 1970 has today been reduced to have a foreign debt of over $ 100 billion. When Presidet Gotabhaya was forced out of office barely two year ago the foreign debt was only $ 56 billion. Under President Ranil, in less than two years our foreign debt has increased from $ 56 billion to $ 91 billion Today the foreign debt is far far higher.

Perhaps as an administrator who has once tackled the economy for seventeen years and has made it work in the interest of the people, bringing training, employment and incomes to them, and also involving them by training etc to make what the Nation needs most today- to make items that are imported, I could state that what is required today is a massive effort of the Government to train people and get them into the production mode and for the country to enable less imports. This will create employment- incomes for the workers and also save foreign exchange. This is an idea for kind consideration.

Let us get into specific tasks that were achieved

In 1970-1977 the Divisional Secretary at Kotmale collected all the waste paper from Government Offices, rolled up his sleeves and with the youth in Kotmale established a paper and Cardboard Making Center, It was a great success. Do we have any such programme today? No. Now we burn waste paper and sometmes pay to get rid of it.

In Matara as the Government Agent I directed the DDCProgramme to manufacturing what we have to import. We established a Boat Making factory that made seagoing fishing boats, done in two months. It was acclaimed a success. The Ministry did not want to approve any more.

Then entirely on my own I established Coop Crayon- making crayons. The art of making crayons was unearthed by no other than my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando, a chemistry grad locked up within the four walls of the science lab at Rahula College Matara for three months every evening. He and Development Assistant Dayananda Paliakkara and the member of parliament for Deniyaya Sumanapala Dahanayake, in his capacity as the President of the Morawaka Cooperatives established CoopCrayon, under my gaze- done within two days- a 24 hour a day process- which made fine crayons which were sold islandwide by the Morawaka Cooperatives. Mind you, we did make crayons that were equal to Reeces Crayons, the best of the day. When Sumanapala and I showed the crayons to Minister Illangaratne he shouted in joy, summoned the Controller for Imports and prohibited the import of crayons.

I have written again and again about what we did achieve in the Divisional Development Councils Programme of the Sirimavo days, The leader Professor HAdeS Gunasekera is sadly not among us today. Sumanapala Dahanayake has also left us.

However stalvarts Vetus Fernando, and Daya Paliakkara are among us. They are in the last band of stalvarts who established industries as since 1977 we abolished all development tasks- employment creation as ordered by the IMF and confined all administrators to the barracks. Since then, Hundreds of officers are now being paid and they have found some work to attend to.

Instead of getting into a learned discourse of writing it may be worth for our Government to round up officers who did attend to create employment before the IMF took over in 1977. A few of them are Vetus Fernando and Daya Paliakkara of Matara, and other officers who handled the Divisional DevelopmentProgramme in other Districts may also be among the living to initially guide us.. The Divisional Secretary of Pata Hevaheta who had a project of making greeting cards out of Alimana recently and others who may yet be alive may please be found and charged to immediately organize and implement a development programme to make what we import.

That is the only way ahead.

I may also mention what I achieved in the two years I was a the Commonwealth consultant in Bangladesh.

The pilot project for youth self employment implemented by me was adopted as a full fledged programme. The members of the elite Bangladesh elite Civil Service trained by me continued the programme- the 3 Residential Training Centers were increased to 64 and the Bangladesh Five Year Plan of 1997-2002 had a target to train 160,000 youths a year. The Government of Bangladesh reported to the 34 th Session of the IFAD(FAO)( one of the funders) that two million youths have been self employed.

It is my recommendation that we have to get cracking on employment creation programmes and also make what we import. We will alleviate poverty by creating employment and also make what we import. We need very little money as the staff that did attend to development tasks are available doing something they have found to do today.

Garvin Karunaratne garvin_karunaratne @ hotmail.com

FORMER Government Agent, Matara 1971-1973.

LATER Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Government of Bangladesh, where I designed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme which is yet going strong having so far created over three million youth entrepreneurs., now being implemented by members of the elite Bangladesh Civil Service trained by me.

18-02-2026

garvin_karunaratne @hotmail.com

Shenali D Waduge

British Entry into Sri Lanka — Strategic Context (1795–1796)

The British did not enter Sri Lanka as liberators or protectors of indigenous sovereignty.

They entered as a hostile imperial power exploiting European war dynamics, seeking to:

• Eliminate Dutch colonial presence
  • Capture the Indian Ocean trade corridor
  • Secure naval dominance between India and the East
  • Integrate Sri Lanka into the British Indian imperial system

Their arrival was imperial expansion, not humanitarian intervention.

Geopolitical Catalyst

Britain entered Sri Lanka during the Napoleonic Wars, when:
• The Netherlands fell under French control (1795)
• Dutch colonies became legitimate British military targets

Thus, British occupation of Dutch Ceylon was a strategic imperial maneuver, not a bilateral transition.

British Military Entry — (1795–1796)

Mode of Entry: Naval-military occupation with Indian colonial regiments

Troop Composition:

British forces were predominantly Indian colonial soldiers, not British nationals.

• Madras Presidency sepoy regiments
  • South Indian auxiliary battalions
  • British officer command
  • Indian logistical and infantry backbone

Landing Points:

• Trincomalee
  • Batticaloa
  • Jaffna
  • Mannar
  • Colombo

This constituted a foreign Indian military occupation of Sri Lankan territory under British command.

How many of these Indian military personnel actually returned to India?

Indian Auxiliary Forces — Demographic & Military Engineering

Composition:

British forces included:
• Tamil sepoys
• Telugu soldiers
• Malay regiments
• South Indian logistical units

Estimated Numbers:

Across 1796–1815, over tens of thousands Indian troops rotated through Ceylon under British service.

Settlement Pattern:

• Many remained post-service
  • Some were granted land
  • Others entered colonial administration
  • Military encampments became permanent settlements

This created new demographic concentrations, particularly in:
• Jaffna
• Trincomalee
• Colombo
• Batticaloa

This accelerated South Indian demographic infusion, especially in the North & East.

British Capture of Dutch Ceylon (1796)

Combatants:

British Indian Army + Royal Navy
vs
Dutch colonial forces

Outcome:

• Minimal resistance
  • Dutch capitulation
  • Transfer of coastal Ceylon to British control

Significance:

• British replaced Dutch as colonial rulers
  • Ceylon absorbed into British Indian imperial system
  • Local sovereignty remained unrecognized

British Military Campaigns against Indigenous Sinhalese Resistance (1796–1818)

British conquest of Sri Lanka did not end in 1796.

The interior Kandyan Kingdom and rural Sinhalese population mounted sustained armed resistance for over two decades.

1) First Kandyan War (1803)

Combatants:
British Indian Army
vs
Kandyan Kingdom forces

Outcome:
→ Decisive Kandyan Victory

Details:
• Entire British garrison in Kandy annihilated
• British commanders Major Davie & Captain Rumley killed
• British forces ambushed during retreat
• Over 1,500 British–Indian troops eliminated

Significance:
• Proved British vulnerability inland
• Demonstrated Sinhalese guerrilla superiority
• Delayed British conquest by over a decade

This was one of the worst British defeats in South Asia.

2) Kandyan Convention War & Betrayal (1815)

Unable to defeat Kandyan resistance militarily, the British shifted to:

• Elite bribery
  • Court intrigue
  • Internal sabotage
  • Religious manipulation
  • Minority patronage
  • Psychological warfare

This culminated in elite betrayal, not military conquest.

3) Uva–Wellassa Rebellion (1817–1818) — British Colonial Genocide

Mass national uprising by Kandyan peasantry.

British Response:
• Scorched earth warfare
• Village annihilation
• Mass executions
• Agricultural extermination
• Starvation strategy

Governor Robert Brownrigg’s Proclamation (1818):

All lands in Uva and Wellassa are hereby confiscated to the Crown. Any person giving shelter or food to rebels shall be executed.”

British Actions:
• Entire villages burnt
• Paddy fields destroyed
• Food sources eliminated
• Civilians executed
• Children orphaned
• Monks killed
• Temples destroyed

Outcome:
• Tens of thousands killed
• Kandyan civilization militarily shattered
• Traditional leadership eliminated
• Permanent British dominance achieved

This constitutes one of the earliest genocidal counter-insurgency campaigns in South Asia.

Kandyan Kingdom — British Strategy of Deception & Subversion (1796–1815)

Initial British Stand:

Publicly recognized Kandyan sovereignty.

Actual British Objective:

→ Absorb Kandyan Kingdom
→ Eliminate last indigenous monarchy
→ Achieve total territorial control

Strategy:

• Diplomatic manipulation
  • Court intrigue
  • Elite bribery
  • Internal destabilization
  • Religious manipulation
  • Minority patronage

The Role of John D’Oyly (Colonial Administrator & Translator)

Critical for his linguistic and cultural infiltration. He mastered the Sinhala language, Kandyan court etiquette and indigenous political customs, enabling him to:

• Gain the personal trust of Kandyan chiefs
  • Penetrate royal court communications
  • Manipulate diplomatic negotiations
  • Misrepresent British intentions
  • Engineer internal elite defections

As official translator, advisor, and intermediary, D’Oyly functioned not merely as a linguist, but as a strategic psychological operator, shaping perceptions inside the Kandyan court while covertly advancing British objectives.

His linguistic fluency allowed the British to:
→ Bypass cultural barriers
→ Exploit elite rivalries
→ Feed misinformation
→ Orchestrate court intrigue
→ Manufacture elite consent

This strategic linguistic deception directly enabled the betrayal of Kandyan sovereignty, culminating in the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

If not for D’Oyly’s linguistic infiltration & political manipulation, British annexation of the Kandyan Kingdom would have faced greater resistance – even failure.

The Kandyan Convention (1815) — Treaty of Betrayal

What Was Promised:

• Protection of Buddhism – which remained official on paper & has continued post-independence
  • Protection of Kandyan customs
  • Respect for Sinhala monarchy traditions

What Was Executed:

• Immediate abolition of monarchy
  • Transfer of sovereignty to British Crown
  • Rapid erosion of Kandyan authority – Kandyan lands, temple lands,
  • Administrative centralization – subtle dismantling of the Sinhala power base & manipulating minorities by giving them greater power & opportunities.

Strategic Reality:

This was a sovereignty transfer treaty signed under coercion, deception, and elite collaboration.

Historical Verdict:

The Kandyan Convention represents Sri Lanka’s greatest political betrayal, not voluntary unification.

Uva–Wellassa Rebellion (1817–1818) — British Counter-Insurgency Genocide

Nature:

Indigenous national rebellion against British rule.

British Response:

• Scorched earth warfare
  • Mass executions
  • Village destruction
  • Crop annihilation
  • Population displacement

Outcome:

• Tens of thousands killed
  • Kandyan peasantry decimated
  • Traditional leadership destroyed

Significance:

This permanently broke Sinhala military resistance and consolidated British control.

British Racial Engineering — Census, Identity & Divide-and-Rule

Introduction of Race-Based Census (1824 onwards)

British administration introduced racial classification, dividing society into:

• Sinhalese
  • Tamils – initially kept Malabar name
  • Moors
  • Burghers
  • Malays
  • Europeans

This created racial consciousness where none existed institutionally before.

Invention of Ceylon Tamil” — 1911 Census Engineering

The British created the category Ceylon Tamil” in the 1911 census, separating:

• Locally born Malabars
  from
  • Indian migrant labor

Strategic Purpose:

• Manufacture permanent minority identity
  • Facilitate communal political representation
  • Enable divide-and-rule governance
  • Create demographic leverage against Sinhala majority

This identity did not exist prior to 1911.

British Plantation Economy — Massive Indian Labor Importation

Commodities:

• Coffee
  • Tea
  • Rubber

Labor Policy:

British imported over 1 million Indian Tamil laborers into Sri Lanka between 1820–1930.

Impact:

• Permanent demographic shift
  • Creation of politically exploitable labor class
  • Strategic population engineering

This was the largest organized demographic manipulation in Sri Lankan history.

British Settler Colonialism — Indian Military & Labor Demographic Engineering

The British did not merely rule Sri Lanka — they repopulated it strategically.

1. A) Military Settler Colonization

Between 1796–1815:
• Over tens of thousands Indian sepoy soldiers rotated through Sri Lanka
• Large numbers remained
• Many received:
– Land
– Colonial employment
– Permanent settlement rights

Locations:
• Jaffna
• Trincomalee
• Batticaloa
• Colombo

This created permanent Indian-origin demographic enclaves.

1. B) Plantation Labor Importation — Largest Demographic Engineering in Sri Lankan History

Between 1820–1930, Britain imported over 1 million Indian Tamil laborers.

Purpose:
• Coffee
• Tea
• Rubber plantations

Effects:
• Artificial population explosion
• Creation of permanent stateless labor class
• Strategic ethnic balancing
• Long-term political leverage

This was organized demographic engineering, not labor necessity.

First Colonial Schools in Sri Lanka  

The first colonial schools in Sri Lanka were Portuguese missionary institutions established from 1518 onwards, designed exclusively for religious conversion and colonial administration, not for public education — systematically dismantling Sri Lanka’s pre-existing Buddhist education civilization.

1518 — Seminary of St. Paul, Colombo (Franciscans & Jesuits)
Colombo Fort
Target group: to train priests, translators & loyal colonial agents.
• Catholic clergy trainees
• Converted coastal elites
• Orphans taken into church custody
• Colonial interpreters & clerks

1544 — Mission Schools, Mannar – Franciscan missionaries
Mannar Island
Target group: to support mass Catholic conversions
• Converted pearl-diving fishing communities
• South Indian Christian settlers
• Local converts

1619 — Jesuit College, Jaffna – Portuguese Jesuits
Jaffna Fort
Target group: to consolidate religious authority in the North
• Converted Malabars
• Local elites
• Church trainees

1658 — Dutch Reformed Church Schools (Post-Portuguese Period)

Dutch East India Company (VOC) + Dutch Reformed Church
Colombo, Galle, Jaffna, Mannar, Negombo
Target group: to enforce Calvanist Protestant conversion
• Converted locals
• Clerks
• Translators
• Colonial administrators

Christian registration became mandatory for government employment.

1734 — Jaffna Seminary (Dutch Calvinist Training School)

Dutch Reformed Church
Jaffna
Target group: to institutionalise Protestant indoctrination & create loyal colonial service elites in the North
• Local Christian converts
• Future clerks, catechists, teachers

1816 — Jaffna Central School (American Ceylon Mission)

American Congregational missionaries
Jaffna
Target group: to create English-educated Christian elites for colonial bureaucracy & missionary expansion
• Tamil-speaking elites
• Mission converts
• Emerging colonial intermediary class

1835 — Colombo Academy (Later Royal College)

British Colonial Government
Colombo
Target group: to train English-speaking bureaucratic elites loyal to British governance.
• Elite colonial administrators
• Local aristocracy
• Mission-trained students

Education before Colonials arrived

Before Portuguese arrival (1505), Sri Lanka already possessed:

• Pirivena universities
  • Monastic education networks
  • Royal scholarship traditions
  • Village temple education
  • High literacy through Buddhist education

Colonial schooling replaced indigenous education — it did not introduce education.

British Education System — Missionary Capture of Knowledge

Dutch Period:

• No public education system
  • Only clerical instruction

British Innovation:

• Missionary education system
  • English language monopoly
  • Christian schooling dominance

Schools:

• Anglican
  • Methodist
  • Catholic
  • American Ceylon Mission

Targeting Strategy:

Missionaries focused heavily on:
• Jaffna peninsula
• Coastal Tamil settlements

This created an English-educated Tamil elite class.

Missionary Education as a Political Weapon

British missionary education was not neutral learning.

Its objectives:
• Cultural conversion
• Identity reprogramming
• Elite fabrication
• Loyalty engineering

Missionary schools deliberately focused on:
• Jaffna peninsula
• Tamil coastal zones

Intentionally Neglected:
• Kandyan interior
• Sinhala rural regions

Result:
→ Artificial English-educated Tamil elite
→ Bureaucratic domination
→ Structural imbalance

This was intentional demographic elite creation, not coincidence.

Employment Engineering — Minority Over-Representation

Because:
• Missionary schools were concentrated in Tamil regions
• English became administrative language only for the converted

The British systematically favored English-educated Tamils for government employment.

Result:

By early 1900s:
• Tamils disproportionately dominated:
– Clerical service
– Railways
– Postal service
– Teaching
– Judiciary
– Medical services

This structural employment imbalance planted seeds for:
→ Majority resentment
→ Communal competition
→ Political ethnic mobilization

British Favoritism — Documentary Evidence

British Colonial Secretary Sir Hugh Cleghorn (1799):

The Tamils are more industrious, obedient and suitable for clerical employment than the Sinhalese.”

Governor Emerson Tennent (1859):

The Tamil possesses habits more suitable for administrative employment than the Sinhalese.”

This racialized favoritism:
• Directed recruitment
• Guided promotions
• Controlled bureaucratic entry

Thus, employment imbalance was colonially engineered, not merit-based.

British Land, Titles & Elite Fabrication

The British:
• Created Mudaliyar class
• Distributed land grants
• Issued colonial honorary titles
• Elevated minority elites

This:
• Destroyed indigenous leadership hierarchy
• Manufactured colonial loyalist elites
• Fragmented Sinhala social authority

British Land Confiscation & Buddhist Civilizational Destruction

Wasteland Ordinance (1840)

This law authorized the British Crown to confiscate all lands without Western-style ownership documentation.

Reality:
Sinhalese land ownership was:
– Customary
– Communal
– Temple-administered
– Oral-tradition based

British Classification:
→ Unoccupied”
→ Crown property”

Outcome:
• Massive land seizures
• Buddhist temple lands confiscated
• Kandyan peasantry dispossessed
• Plantation capitalism installed

Over 80% of Kandyan lands were seized under this ordinance.

Buddhist Institutional Destruction

British systematically:
• Confiscated temple lands
• Removed royal patronage
• Abolished sangha tax exemptions
• Destroyed monastic education systems

This:
→ Bankrupted temples
→ Collapsed pirivena education
→ Crippled Buddhist civilization

British Political Engineering — Communal Representation System

British Manufacture of Communal Politics

British introduced:

• Racial seat allocation
  • Minority quotas
  • Communal electorates/representation

Purpose:
→ Prevent Sinhala political consolidation
→ Maintain imperial control
→ Ensure permanent fragmentation

This institutionalized:
→ Ethnicity as political currency & encouraged competitive communal mobilization

This culminated in converted Tamil elites believing them to be superior to the Sinhalese majority & advanced to making the infamous 50-50 Demand for Power Sharing when at the time this demand was made, the Indian imported plantation Tamils exceeded to so-called 1911 Ceylon Tamil” numerically.

British Strategic Divide & Rule Architecture

Tool	Function
Census	Racial classification
Education	Minority elite creation
Employment	Structural imbalance
Migration	Demographic engineering
Titles	Elite fabrication
Law	Institutional fragmentation
Politics	Communal mobilization

Strategic Outcome of British Rule

By 1948, the British had:

• Destroyed indigenous sovereignty
  • Imported massive foreign populations
  • Institutionalized racial identity
  • Politicized ethnicity
  • Engineered minority leverage
  • Laid foundation for separatist ideology

The above came as a result of policies and actions taken by the 3 colonial occupiers:

Portuguese → Racial labeling + religious destruction
Dutch → Legal segregation + ethnic codification
British → Racial politics + demographic engineering + separatist mobilization

How the colonials transformed our people!

• Education → Elite creation
• Employment → Power consolidation
• Land → Civilizational destruction
• Politics → Long-term ethnic conflict engineering

Sri Lanka’s ethnic divisions, communal politics, and separatist ideologies are:

Not ancient
Not organic
Not civilizational
But deliberate colonial constructions engineered for imperial control.

There were no historically documented Tamil settlements in Sri Lanka’s Northern regions prior to established Sinhalese habitation. Tamil presence emerged primarily through periodic South Indian invasions, temporary military occupations, mercantile movements, and later colonial-sponsored demographic transfers. These migrations did not constitute indigenous settlement but were externally driven population movements, often serving political, military, and colonial administrative agendas.

Throughout Sri Lanka’s recorded history, every major external threat to the island’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and civilizational continuity was resisted primarily through the sacrifice of the Sinhalese majority, who repeatedly shed blood, surrendered livelihoods, and endured destruction in defense of the land and the Buddhist civilization they had built.

The enduring evidence of this legacy remains embedded in the island’s irrigation systems, ancient cities, monasteries, fortifications, inscriptions and agrarian infrastructure, which collectively predate and outscale the structures erected under foreign or invading rule. These civilizational monuments testify to indigenous statecraft, scientific planning, hydraulic engineering, and spiritual governance, distinguishing native Sinhala-Buddhist construction from military, mercantile, and extractive structures imposed by invaders and colonizers.

Colonial rule institutionalized divide-and-rule policies that deliberately dismantled the civilizational authority of the Sinhala Buddhist majority, while artificially elevating minority groups through preferential access to education, employment, land grants, and administrative power. This engineered imbalance systematically displaced the indigenous custodians of the island’s Buddhist civilization, resulting in 443 years of continuous political, cultural, economic, and religious marginalization of Sinhala Buddhists — a historical injustice that remains largely erased from mainstream discourse.

This engineered imbalance systematically displaced the indigenous custodians of the island’s Buddhist civilization, resulting in 443 years of continuous political, cultural, economic, and religious marginalization of Sinhala Buddhists — a historical injustice that remains largely erased from mainstream discourse.

Every measured attempt to correct these structural distortions has been immediately reframed as ethnic discrimination, weaponizing selective human-rights narratives to manufacture grievance, inflame division, and suppress legitimate national rectification. As a result, the Sinhala Buddhist majority — the original architects, defenders, and preservers of Sri Lanka’s civilization — have been conditioned to feel morally restrained from asserting their rightful place, while coordinated internal and external campaigns persistently obstruct efforts toward historical correction, cultural restoration, and sovereign continuity.

As a result, the Sinhala Buddhist majority — the original architects of Sri Lanka’s civilization — have been conditioned to feel morally restrained from asserting their rightful place, while international and domestic campaigns persistently obstruct efforts toward historical correction, cultural restoration, and civilizational continuity.

Shenali D Waduge

Concept : Senaka Weeraratna

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Content:  AI Overview

Shell-shocked horse in Stalingrad 

Soldier about to execute his horse in the middle of the Battle of Stalingrad

Forgotten Saddles: A Silent Tribute to Romania’s Fallen War Horses
This haunting image captures a desolate field strewn with abandoned saddles and cavalry equipment—once belonging to the Romanian forces during World War II’s infamous Battle of Stalingrad.

Over 6 million horses were deployed on the Eastern Front during the war. These animals carried men, supplies, and artillery across harsh, unforgiving terrain. In the snow-choked steppes of Stalingrad, many perished—abandoned, starved, wounded, or captured in the fury of retreat.

This image isn’t just about equipment left behind. It’s a solemn reminder of the forgotten lives—human and equine—that were sacrificed in one of history’s most brutal campaigns.

Dead Horses at Battle of Stalingrad

The siege of Stalingrad is often remembered through the lens of human statistics—the millions of lives lost and the turning tide of World War II. Yet, your focus on the horses brings to light a profound and often overlooked tragedy of war: the silent suffering of animals conscripted into human conflicts they cannot understand.

At Stalingrad, horses were not just transport; they were the backbone of the logistical machine. When the encirclement tightened and supplies vanished, these loyal creatures faced a fate that was indeed “unspeakable.” 

The Silent Sacrifice

The scale of the equine tragedy at Stalingrad is staggering. While the German 6th Army began the campaign with tens of thousands of horses, by the end of the winter, almost none remained. 

• Exposure: They stood in sub-zero temperatures without blankets or shelter, their coats freezing to the ground.
• Starvation: With no fodder available, horses were reduced to eating the manes and tails of one another, or even wood and frozen earth.
• The Final Utility: As the famine peaked for the soldiers, the horses were slaughtered for food. In many cases, they were kept alive as long as possible simply because “meat on the hoof” didn’t spoil in the cold. 

A Requiem in Spirit

To offer a form of “posthumous justice” is to acknowledge their innocence. Unlike the soldiers, who were bound by ideology or duty, the horses were bound only by their nature—a willingness to serve until their hearts or bodies failed. 

“The horse is the only animal that does not have a voice to scream in pain, yet its eyes carry the weight of the entire world’s suffering.”

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Why This Matters Today

Remembering the horses of Stalingrad serves as a vital reminder of our ethical debt to the natural world. It challenges the “anthropocentric” view of history, reminding us that:

1. Innocence is absolute: Animals are the ultimate non-combatants.
2. Loyalty deserves protection: The horses worked until they collapsed, demonstrating a level of devotion that was met with the most brutal of ends.
3. Humanity is measured by empathy: Recognizing the “unspeakable” ways they died is an act of reclaiming our own humanity. 

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Justice for the fallen horses of the Volga cannot be found in monuments of stone, but in the act of remembering—ensuring that when we speak of the horrors of war, we do not leave out the four-legged souls who suffered alongside us.

………………………………..

AI Overview 

The sentiment regarding a requiem for the thousands of horses that suffered brutal deaths at the Battle of Stalingrad is a powerful reflection of their immense and often overlooked sacrifice during World War II. An estimated

52,000 horses were lost by German forces alone at Stalingrad, primarily due to starvation, exhaustion, and the extreme cold. 

The Plight of Horses at Stalingrad

• Logistical Necessity: Both the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army relied heavily on horses for transport and artillery, especially on the Eastern Front where poor roads, mud, and heavy snow hampered motorized vehicles.
• Brutal Conditions: The horses faced the same horrific conditions as the soldiers, including shellfire, disease, starvation, and the brutal Russian winter. A lack of fodder was a constant issue, with supply trains prioritizing ammunition and weapons over animal feed.
• Desperation and Starvation: During the Soviet encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, the situation became so desperate that many horses were slaughtered for food. Accounts mention abandoned saddles and piles of hooves as grim evidence of the famine and total collapse of logistics.
• Unchosen Sacrifice: Unlike human soldiers, the horses had no choice in their involvement, making their suffering a particularly poignant aspect of the war’s tragedy. Many soldiers developed deep bonds with their horses, often weeping for their fallen animal companions. 

Commemoration and Remembrance

The idea of a requiem speaks to a desire for posthumous recognition of these “silent soldiers”. While formal musical requiems specifically for the horses of Stalingrad may not exist, there are broader efforts to remember the millions of animals that died in various conflicts. 

• The Animals in War Memorial in Hyde Park, London, is a notable monument honoring the sacrifices of all animals in war.
• Many individuals and groups on social media platforms like Facebook and in online forums advocate for broader recognition, often using symbols like the purple poppy, to ensure the contributions and suffering of war animals are not forgotten. 

Your suggestion highlights the profound impact these animals had on human lives and the shared desire to express our humanity by acknowledging the suffering of all innocent victims of conflict.

Courtesy:  AI Overview

MTA News

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel, Solicitor in England and Wales, President Ambassador’s Forum UK/SL

Most Powerful Tool on the Universe

   Education is the most powerful tool in life where the human is what they are today by the development of the mind from the powerful tool Education” with the experiences in life which is flexible, available free in Sri Lanka unlike many countries, powerful and could be converted to the development and also destruction of the humanity if misused. Education is not only what you learn from schools by books based on the education systems but what you learn and acquire from home, environment and leaders of the society culture and religions. It is a combination of practical experience, tests, experiences, research, critical thinking and collection of data by books today and by elders learned and other means in the past. In the past in our part of the world education is held in highest esteem where ‘ Kings ‘ sent future leaders to ‘’Disapamok’’- famous and leading teachers in the past of high reputes where  Kings sent children for education who are versatile  teachers who taught everything is life under one roof and teachers such as ‘Aristotal’  has the group of students arrived far away and the standard of education had been so high that  their teachings are used even in current education modules and systems  despite the developments of modern education techniques and knowledge. We are on the door steps of ‘’Artificial Intelligence’’ and about to start the era of artificial and machine intelligence in place of human intelligence which is supreme as mentioned by ‘Dhammapada’  which cannot be cloned. With artificial intelligence on education developments and tests on innovations to make the life easier for the future. Governments are planning to explore the university resources on the most powerful tool on scientific advancements towards more developed and advanced universe headed by mother earth. Education is not confined to schools’ technical colleges or Universities, though they are centers of education with libraries and laboratories  Villages in Sri Lanka in the past Ayurvada medicine which is historical and to be considered scientific  is taught by ‘’Vedamahattaya’’ through  trainees or family members over  thousands of years proved to be effective over generations  followed by other trades and teachers and ‘Pirivana education  conduct in  temples conducted education  using varied techniques, and education treated with the highest esteem by the community as passport to power and success.

Knowledge includes reading writing and skills

It is mentioned that knowledge includes reading, writing, and skills including critical thinking developed by educationists and thinkers thousands of years ago in order to  prevent injustices, Human and other rights enjoyed by the animal kingdom including human of all ages, are part of education recognized by UNESCO with guidelines to protect the han race, and the world preserving the heritage, environment, and education is considered the passport to development and future to be as a foundation for the unknown future to restructure. Education is preparing for tomorrow with the young generation  is prepared today to the next generation by spending a fair portion of the national economy carefully and scientifically developing and arming and aiming the next generation with knowledge in the right direction with right teachers and right curriculum giving power and authority to those in charge of education to be used n the right direction. In fact it is the most difficult task to find the right teachers, right  education and right political and conceptual leadership in the most complex and demanding society with high expectations, by the citizen learned vis internet freely available and in Sri Lanka with the density of 110% mobile penetration which is a double-edged sward to the community mostly the children open to be misused when there is no supervision. This is rereleased in the west and now restrictions are introduced on the young on the use of the mobiles and internet.

The teaching techniques in some universities in Sri Lanka currently is dictating prepared lectures   to students is a failed system where the student solely depend on the lectures and research  based knowledge depending on lecturers turn to be faikers in the society expecting governments to providing employment and unfortunately based on subjects chosedd they can fit in to be teachers clerks but not productive cotizend in the development of the nation. In Israela every citizen is an innovater or entrapraner with basic education and due to the successful education schemes and modules they excels in life elevation the nation though small a world poer and exporter of fruits and vegetables with shortage of water they make on desalination of sea water, which is s a part of education

Centes of Education

Education is centralized in many centers including Universities, Libraries technical institutions and homes where parents structure the education at early age to be improved by the teachers who are professionally qualified for the job.  

Education and Education Reforms in a country

Education and reforms are a part of the same coin and reforms are a necessity in any nation as knowledge is changing fast for good at a rapid pace of any country through the young generation developing the knowledge with modern technology, they are conversant with which is inevitable in the modern developed and complicated soci and entrtapraner oety with high density of penetration of IT and access to internet freely  to every member of the family, yet the young has to be handled carefully as it is easily inflammable for good and bad with minimum diversions especially when they are computer and IT conversant as taking place today, thereby some countries have denied access of internet and Mobily to a certain section of young and even the food pattern is carefully monitored. Restrictions are made on food to prevent junk food and not to operate junk food shops in the vicinity of educational institutes.

Modules and Educational reforms in Sri Lanka

There appear to be differences of opinion on modules – that is the future proposals of teaching techniques to students by experts on education with policy directions of the governance after extensive researches and dialogues with policy decisions as to how the nation will be structured to face the future challenges with future leaders who will take over rains in the near future. Thee are schools of thoughts that the governance and officials entrusted with the job has not done a proper research and amassment thereby the student was about have access to a site which encourages certain sexual orientations directly of indirectly which is illegal and immoral. There appear to be no arbitrators as both sides have stuct to guns on the openion which has lead to unpleasant everybody with stalling the reform process for which Millon shave been already spent from the government funds which are not easily available.

New Trends in the West to be careful on future generation to be traditional and cultured with the family

Bad news from the west on young of crime and mass shootings by Yong and crime connected to sex. Module that is been introduced is imported from Uuiten Kingdom which is not being used in the school curriculum which has modelled carefully after extensive research by Educationists in Europe, which is scientific  and employment oriented with advanced social backgrounds giving emphasis to misleading the students on misuse and overuse of mobile and computers, which are gradually restricted to the students in including food habits with  Junk full  curtailed in the school diet and banning Junk food stalls near schools in UK and Europe. This shows how carefully the children are protected in other parts of the world especially in Europe.

Controversial Link on finding New Friends on similar orientations which is withdrawn due to mass agitation against

Controversial Link

The controversial link about to be introduced in the English Modul in Sri Lanka the governance states said to be a coup by some senior members of the education ministry/department who are under interdiction on allegation of a coup and malpractices on inserting a controversial module into the English curriculum in a module form to   6^th standard  stuents  in Sri Lanka  which is a serious allegation in deed has no place in the parallel module in UK of meeting friends online. It is stated the link is removed but all the rest is removed is not a solution as it is a requirement to revisit and re research the project depeloped after spending millions of rupees by the Education ministry/department.

As mentioned before our future generation should be properly groomed, trained and educated to take over the future on behalf of the citizen and education reforms is the machinery for the grouming process and all possible precautions should be taken. One complaint is that no pepper, plan, research, or preparation has been taken and it appears nobody is aware of the  real experts and planners of the operation except one government office who is picked up by the team f investigators as one who has proposed the inappropriate sex link on sexual orientation of similsr sex which is accepted by some countries when Sri Lanka has made it a criminal offence.

Powerful but may be a dangerous and destructive tool if misused

It may be a lethal tool if misplaced and go to the hans of destructive minds and it is the very reason that the natin and governance has to be careful in education policies and eforms the other countries are extremely careful about.

Education and educated in Sri Lanka

Literary rate is high and the world recognized Sri Lanka is an educated nation with educated citizens excels worldwide due to free education nnd the efforts of all parents to educate the future leaders with the power known as education. Edutain plays a main role in other sectors such as econiomy, development, crime prevention, forwign elation and all areas needs education and educated to deal with based on good education Sri  Lanka is  rich and competent with the educated young who are eerily Waiting and parents are spending the last cent investing on education on the children  which is a good and sensible invest on the children and the entire nation we love somuch and aspire to be the best in all areas with the help of proper education to all including young an for a bright future os our blessed nation for  situated in the best destination not exploited unfortunately as the education in this area too have not been exploited by the governances.

Solution to the Issue

It is appropriate to give new directions to the same group entructed the project to revisit and prepare a home grown muddle instead of the one imported bodily from United Kingdom and go beck to Dr C W W Kannangara principles applied in central colleges thay have been proved sacksful and give the right place to English to practical and spoken English rather than grammer only as English educaton was modelled by British was to teach grammar as they are conversant of spoken and practical English. Passport to success on Education today is English as academics and professionals switch to after school and university education reaching international level. Even  in the legal field though courts are functioning in Sinhala ans Tamil the Supreme Court Judgment are still deleverd in English, with all reference materials are only in English. Therefore special emphasis should be given to Englich as a link, academic, higher and professional medium

No limits or boundaries

Artificial intelligence has no limits of boundaries as it is ever grgrowing due to experiments and developments that are taking evewry second in all fields, mostly on medicine as it eals on the body and mind. Therefore nations allocate countless funds of funds for education as the return of the proceeds of eucatio too is countless. There fore countries do not hesitate to spend on education knowing the future benefits and returns are defenit to the world in all spheres. Parents invest on educating children as it is the best investion that will definitely could reap the harvest with pleasure and benefits to the family an the country.

English education especially spoken English as a powerful tool in education

AI and modern techniques on Education

Artificial Intelligence is mesne knowledge that is created by the power of education of the human being still unable to overpower the natural power of the brain by mechanizes giving considerable positive results such as digitalization improved Robots, and many inventions in place of human brain and human labor srill AI is unable to override. It will take lot more time to create a cat or a dog to identify with the senses and instinct in the body. Scientists work round the clock to achieve the objects and we have to patiently wait for the future to decide. Now developments are many on Uber unmanned circuses on digitalization and other miraculous achievements are signs of future achievements based on power of education and experiments by the man with the help of the brain which is the most powerful and miraculous instrument on the globe.

English Education modules and higher education

English is a main tool to explore education and it is easy to master English spoken and written with tools such as AI and internet that is used as servants to the human who has equipped the advanced stages of mind with development of the mind which is supreme. Therefore the young must be determined to improve their skills with language skills to explore the world of education to help themselves and the others who needs the assistance of the educated to improve themselves. Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel wijesinghesarath05@gmail.com 0094766530166

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

———————————- රට බෙදන්න පැකේජ් ගෙනා ජී එල් එක්කද අපේකම රකින්නේ .රනිල් සජිත් දෙන්නම කොටි මර්ධනයට විරුද්ධවත් කෙනෙහිලිකම් කල උන් .අපේකම රකින්න නම් එකතුවන්න සින්හලදේශයේ සංස්කෘතියේ ප්‍රධාන සංරචකය සිංහල බෞද්ධ බව පිළිගන්න උන් එක්ක. ආණ්ඩුව පලවා හරින්න නම් මොකා වුනත් නරක නෑ .–

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

ඝාතනයට ලක් වූ නීතිඥවරයා අපරාධකරුවන්ට පෙනී සිටි අයෙකු ලෙස හංවඩු ගසමින් එම ඝාතනය සාධාරණීකරණය කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරන අධිකරණ අමාත්‍යවරයා ද මීට පෙර නීතිඥයෙකු ලෙස අපරාධකරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටි අයෙකු බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජාතික සංවිධායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවසීය.

මෑතකදී සිදු වූ නීතිඥ ඝාතනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් රජය දක්වන ප්‍රතිචාරය විවේචනය කළ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා, විෂය භාර අමාත්‍යවරයා සහ රජයේ වගකිවයුත්තන් එම ඝාතනයට ලක්වූ පුද්ගලයා “අපරාධකරුවන්ගේ නීතිඥයෙකු” ලෙස හැඳින්වීම නීති වෘත්තියට කරන නිග්‍රහයක් බව පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. 

“අධිකරණ ඇමතිවරයාත් වෘත්තියෙන් නීතිඥයෙක්. එතුමාත් අතීතයේදී අපරාධකරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිට තිබෙනවා. එහෙනම් එතුමාත් අපරාධකරුවන්ගේ නීතිඥයෙක්ද?” යනුවෙන් නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සභාවේදී ප්‍රශ්න කළේය. 

ඕනෑම පුද්ගලයෙකුට නීති සහාය ලබා ගැනීමට අයිතියක් ඇති බවත්, නීතිඥවරයෙකු තම වෘත්තීය කටයුතු කිරීම මත ඉලක්ක කිරීම හෝ ඝාතන සාධාරණීකරණය කිරීම පිළිගත නොහැකි බවත් ඔහු අවධාරණය කළේය.

රටේ සිදුවන ඇතැම් සංවිධානාත්මක අපරාධ පිටුපස වර්තමාන රජයේ දේශපාලන හස්තයක් පවතින්නේ දැයි සැකයක් පවතින බව පැවසූ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා, මෙම අපරාධකරුවන් පාලනය වන්නේ ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලයෙන්, අගමැති කාර්යාලයෙන් හෝ පැලවත්තෙන්ද යන්න ජනතාවට ප්‍රහේලිකාවක් වී ඇතැයි සඳහන් කළේය.

වරායෙන් මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය සහිත කන්ටේනර් නිදහස් කිරීමේ සිද්ධියක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් රජයෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළ මන්ත්‍රීවරයා, ලිඛිත අවසරයකින් තොරව මෙවැනි දෑ වරායෙන් පිටතට යා නොහැකි බවත්, ඒ සඳහා අවසර දුන් බලධාරියා කවුද යන්න හෙළි කළ යුතු බවත් පැවසීය. මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය මර්දනය කරනවා වෙනුවට රජය මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය ජාවාරම්කරුවන්ට වක්‍රව උදව් කරන්නේද යන්න ඔහු ප්‍රශ්න කළේය.

වගා හානි සඳහා ගොවීන්ට ලබා දුන් වන්දි චෙක්පත් අගරු වීම සහ වී මිලදී ගැනීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය අසාර්ථක වීම හරහා රජය ගොවි ජනතාව අසරණ කර ඇති බවත්, වෘත්තීය සමිති මර්දනය සඳහා රණවිරුවන් යොදා ගැනීම රණවිරු ගෞරවයට හානියක් බවත් මන්ත්‍රීවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

රජය වෛරී දේශපාලනය පසෙකලා, නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය සුරකිමින් රටේ ජනතාවගේ ආරක්ෂාව තහවුරු කිරීමට වහාම පියවර ගත යුතු බව නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා සිය කතාව අවසන් කරමින් කියා සිටියේය.

Courtesy Adaderana

Former Deputy Secretary General of Parliament, Chaminda Kularatne, has filed a writ petition before the Court of Appeal, seeking to nullify the decision to interdict him from duty without a fair inquiry, a reporter said.

The Speaker of Parliament, the Secretary General of Parliament, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the House and Minister Bimal Rathnayake, and 14 others have been named as respondents in the petition.

The petitioner claims that, while serving as the Deputy Secretary General of Parliament, he was suspended from duty, with effect from January 23, 2026. 

Kularatne further stated that a charge sheet was issued against him on February 2, and he has strongly denied all allegations included in the charge sheet.

Accordingly, the petitioner has requested the Court of Appeal to issue a writ petition to nullify both the letter of suspension issued against him and the charge sheet.

In addition, he has sought an interim injunction preventing disciplinary action being taken against him on the basis of what he describes as an illegal charge sheet.

Attorney-at-Law Rukshan Senadheera and President’s Counsel Sanjeeva Jayawardena had appeared on behalf of the petitioner, Chaminda Kularatne.

Kularatne was suspended from his duties with effect from January 23. The decision to suspend him was taken by the Parliament Staff Advisory Committee (SAC), chaired by Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne. 

The suspension is reportedly linked to alleged irregularities relating to Kularatne’s appointment to the position.

On February 2, the suspended Deputy Secretary General of Parliament and Chief of Staff filed a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), alleging corruption by Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne. 

In his complaint, Kularatne accused the Speaker of several violations, including the use of official vehicles beyond the entitled limit, the alleged unlawful receipt of two fuel allowances, and the use of two official residences.

Subsequently, on February 5, SJB MP Harshana Rajakaruna informed Parliament that the Speaker’s Private Secretary had sent a letter to the Secretary-General of Parliament seeking information related to the complaint.

On February 11, a group of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Members of Parliament lodged a complaint with the Bribery Commission, alleging that the Private Secretary to the Speaker was acting in a manner that interfered with investigations into a complaint previously filed against the Speaker of Parliament.

In their complaint, the SJB MPs stated that the Speaker’s Private Secretary had informed the Secretary-General of Parliament to submit a report to the Speaker regarding matters raised in the earlier complaint.

Courtesy Hiru News

Russian investors are ready to put money into Sri Lanka, but what to invest in—and where—remains a challenge.

This was highlighted by Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Levan Dzhagaryan during a media briefing at the Embassy in Colombo today.

The briefing touched on multiple issues, including Russia’s long-discussed proposal to construct a nuclear power plant in the country.

On the nuclear project, Ambassador Dzhagaryan noted:

I raised this issue about the nuclear power plant from the very beginning, and I met with Minister of Energy Jayakody, presented him a letter from the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, and received no answer. Please raise this question to your authorities.”

While there are ideas for economic cooperation between Russia and Sri Lanka, the Ambassador stressed that several barriers remain.

We had some ideas, some proposals, but we understand that it is a problem for your side because of sanctions. In our cooperation with other countries like Vietnam, Iran, and some other countries, we use our national currency, the Russian Rouble. It’s very popular. In our trade, for example, with some countries, such as China, we mainly use the Chinese yuan or the Russian Rouble. But with your country, it’s impossible. We have no project with Sri Lanka and just… once again because of sanctions. I was even proposing to implement the Russian payment system. We have a card system, MIR, but it’s impossible because all countries that will use this system will be subjected to secondary sanctions. Economic cooperation—no idea so far.”

The Ambassador also addressed the issue of Russian investment inflows into Sri Lanka.

No investments as far as I know, because if it comes from the private sector, it’s up to them. We’re ready to invest, but no projects. And to be frank, some ambassadors were concerned about the atmosphere and the investment climate in Sri Lanka. I read some articles by a former Japanese ambassador, by other ambassadors, that the climate isn’t very easy to invest here because of some problems.”

The briefing underscores the potential for Russian investment in Sri Lanka, but also the significant hurdles—sanctions, payment limitations, and the broader investment climate—that need to be addressed before concrete projects can move forward.

Jinath Premaratne

Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Mahanuwaara 17.02.2026.

I would like to draw the immediate attention of my readers to the following news item appearing in today’s Lankaweb.

දෙමල ඊළම පිහිටුවීම සඳහා වන දෙමළ ඊළාම් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ සභාව ඉකුත් 14 දා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ දී පිහිටුවා තිබේ.

දෙමළ කතා කරන ජනතාව සඳහා වෙනම රටක් හෙවත් ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය වෙනුවෙන් සියලු දෙමළ ජනයා පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බව එහිදි ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

වෙනම ඊළාම් රාජ්‍යයක් වෙනුවෙන් සකස් කළ වඩුක්කොඩ්ඩෙයි සම්මුතියට මේ වසරේ මැයි 14 වැනිදා ට වසර 50 ක් පිරෙන අතර ඊට සමගාමීව 14 දා  ත්‍රිකුණාමලය J7 vila resort හීදී ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ මෙම ප්‍රඥප්තිය සකස් කරනු ලැබීය.

ඒ සඳහා ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිසාව භාර රදගුරු ක්‍රිස්ටි නොයෙල් එම්මානුවෙල්, වේලන් සාමි, අගස්යර් අදිගරාජ්, ශ්‍රී ඥානේස්වරන්, පිලිප් මුරුගයියා, සෙබස්තියන් දේවි, ලවකුසරාසා, අලගරාජා මදන්, අමරතන් අමලනායගි යන අය ද එක්ව සිටියහ”.

The Government should immediately arrest the following persons and charge them for mutiny and treason and whatever other crimes the government deems relevant,   under the provisions of the 6th Amendment in the Constitution and take appropriate action against them for misusing their religious positions for instigating the innocent and peace-loving Tamil people to organize and rise against the democratically elected government and conspiring against the State by trying to rouse the innocent Tamil people against the Bhumi puthra Sinhala Buddhists in this country and destabilizing the peaceful coexistence between the Sinhalese and the minority communities for millennia  in the past..

Also, they should be reported to their religious hierarchy for suitable action against them for misusing their religious positions to rouse the ordinary Tamil people against the government.

It is high time that the Government go in to action immediately and put an end to this nonsense.

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිඥ සමන් ගලප්පත්ති

නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනය කිරීමත් ඉන් පසුව කිසිදු විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව ඔහුට පාතාල ලේබලය ඇලවීමත් පිළිබඳ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා විසින් දැරිය යුතුය. ඔහු සිය අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ වගකීම දැරීමට අසමත්වීම සමබන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගත යුතු අතර, ඔහුට වහා ඉල්ලා අස්වන ලෙස බල කරනු ලබන බව නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින්  Free Lawyers සංවිධානය පවසයි.

Free Lawyers සංවිධානය නිකුත් කළ සම්පූර්ණ නිවේදනය පහතින් දැක්වේ.

කොළඹ අකුරේගොඩ අධි ආරක්ෂක කලාපයේ ආරක්ෂ හමුදා මුලස්ථානය අසල දී  නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනයට ලක්වීමත්, කිසිදු විධිමත් විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව  ඝාතන  වගකීම පාතාල කණ්ඩායමක් වෙත පැවරීමත් සම්බන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගෙන මහජන ආරක්ෂක සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තු කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා වහාම ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතුය.

ලංකාව නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍ය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන රාජ්‍යයකි. නීතිඥවරයෙකු යනු යුක්තිය පසඳලීම සඳහා අධිකරණයට සහාය වන නිලධාරියෙකි. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා මගින් නීතිඥ වෘත්තියට නිල පිළිගැනීමක් ලබා දී ඇත.    නීතිඥවරයෙකුට මරණ බියෙන් තොරව නිදහසේ සිය වෘත්තීය කර ගෙන යාමට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම සැලසීම රාජ්‍යයේ වගකීමකි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ශ්‍රෙෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නීතිඥවරුන්ට ‘පාතලයේ නීතිඥවරුන්’ ලෙස හංවඩු ගැසීමට කිසිදු අයිතියක් ආන්ඩුවට හෝ පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට හෝ වෙනත් පාර්ශවයකට නැත. සිය වෘත්තියේ ‍නියැලීම හේතුවෙන් ඝාතනයට ලක්වීමෙන් පසුව ඔහුගේ ආත්ම ගෞරවය විනාශ කිරීමට රජයේ මැදිහත්වීම පිළිබඳ පූර්ණ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය අ ආනන්ද විජේපාල ආමත්‍යවරයා විසින් දැරිය යුතුව ඇත.

පොලීසිය විසින් ඝාතනයෙන් කෙටි වේළාවක් තුල සුදානම් කර තිබූ ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු කළේ ද? එහි පදනම හා අවශ්‍යතාවය කුමක්ද යන්නත්, පොලීසිය විසින් වැරදි තොරතුරු සමාජ ගත කර තිබේද යන්නත් විමර්ශනයට ලක් විය යුතුය.

නීතිඥ ප්‍රජාවට සිය පවුලේ සමාජිකයින්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව ගැන ද සැලකියමත් වීමට නව තත්වය යටතේ සිදුවී ඇත.  මෙය යුධ ගැටුම් පැවති සමයේ දී හෝ නොතිබූ බියකරු තත්වයකි.  

නීති වෘත්තිය පදනම් වන්නේ නිර්දෝෂීභාවයේ පූර්ව නිගමනය, සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකට පුරවැසියකු සතු අයිතිය, සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයකින් තොරව යමෙකුට දඬුවම් නොකිරීමට රාජ්‍යයට ඇති වගකීම මතය.  රජයත් අමාත්‍යවරයාත් මේ සියලු පදනම් විනාශ කරමින් ඇත.  රජය සාධාරණ නඩු විභාගයක් සඳහා වන අයිතිය නොතකා කටයුතු කිරීම හේතුවෙන් මේ වන විට අර්බුද ගණනාවක් ගොඩනැගෙමින් ඇත.  නීතිඥවරුන්ට හා විනිසුරුවරුන්ට  එහි පීඩාව හොඳින් දැනේ.

නීතිඥ බුද්ධික මල්ලවාරච්චි සහ ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ ඝාතනය කිරීමත් ඉන් පසුව කිසිදු විමර්ශනයකින් තොරව ඔහුට පාතාල ලේබලය ඇලවීමත් පිළිබඳ වගකීම අමාත්‍ය ආනන්ද විජේපාල මහතා විසින් දැරිය යුතුය. ඔහු සිය අමාත්‍ය ධූරයේ වගකීම දැරීමට අසමත්වීම සමබන්ධයෙන් වගකීම බාරගත යුතු අතර, ඔහුට වහා ඉල්ලා අස්වන ලෙස මෙයින් බල කරනු ලැබේ.

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ මෛත්‍රී ගුණරත්න ( 0777900000)                              

ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිඥ සමන් ගලප්පත්ති

SEPAL – short clips

Chula Adikari

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

දෙමල ඊළම පිහිටුවීම සඳහා වන දෙමළ ඊළාම් අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබඳ සභාව ඉකුත් 14 දා ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ දී පිහිටුවා තිබේ.

දෙමළ කතා කරන ජනතාව සඳහා වෙනම රටක් හෙවත් ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය වෙනුවෙන් සියලු දෙමළ ජනයා පෙනී සිටිය යුතු බව එහිදි ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

වෙනම ඊළාම් රාජ්‍යයක් වෙනුවෙන් සකස් කළ වඩුක්කොඩ්ඩෙයි සම්මුතියට මේ වසරේ මැයි 14 වැනිදා ට වසර 50 ක් පිරෙන අතර ඊට සමගාමීව 14 දා  ත්‍රිකුණාමලය J7 vila resort හීදී ස්වයං නීර්ණ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ මෙම ප්‍රඥප්තිය සකස් කරනු ලැබීය.

ඒ සඳහා ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිසාව භාර රදගුරු ක්‍රිස්ටි නොයෙල් එම්මානුවෙල්, වේලන් සාමි, අගස්යර් අදිගරාජ්, ශ්‍රී ඥානේස්වරන්, පිලිප් මුරුගයියා, සෙබස්තියන් දේවි, ලවකුසරාසා, අලගරාජා මදන්, අමරතන් අමලනායගි යන අය ද එක්ව සිටියහ.

XpressJobs

Colombo, Sri Lanka — This Women’s Day, XpressJobs is proud to collaborate with John Keells Stock Brokers to create impact beyond celebration through the #SHEinvests initiative, designed to educate, engage, and empower women with the knowledge and confidence to achieve financial independence.

As part of this initiative, XpressJobs clients will have the exclusive opportunity to host a Financial Literacy Session for their female employees throughout the month of March. The program aims to equip women with practical financial knowledge, build confidence in managing money, and encourage informed investment decisions for long-term security.

The one-hour interactive session, conducted by experts from John Keells Stock Brokers, will cover key areas including money management techniques, savings vs. investments, types of investments, equity investing, investment analysis tools, decision-making criteria, and how to begin investing.

Commenting on the initiative, Nithila Talgaswatte, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of John Keells Stock Brokers, stated: Financial independence is a powerful enabler for women. Through #SHEinvests, we aim to break barriers and create access to knowledge that helps women make confident financial decisions for themselves and their futures.”

Dr. Oshadie Korale (Co-Founder/ COO) of XpressJobs shared her perspective from a women’s empowerment lens:  As women, we are often encouraged to earn, but not always taught how to grow and manage our wealth. This initiative is about changing that narrative. When women understand money, they gain confidence, independence, and a stronger voice in shaping their lives and careers. That’s the kind of impact we want to create this Women’s Day.”

By offering organizations a meaningful way to mark Women’s Day, the initiative moves beyond symbolic gestures to deliver real value and lasting impact for women in the workplace. Participating organizations will also receive social media recognition, with highlights shared across XpressJobs and John Keells Stock Brokers platforms.

The life story of  Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

From layman to  monk

The life story of  Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

Now his message touches thousands of people in USA

Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra

, also known as Sư Tuệ Nhân, is the Deputy Abbot of the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He had a career as a Motorola engineer and holds an Information Technology degree from the University of Texas at Arlington before becoming a monk. 

As Deputy Abbot since 2013, he started the Dhammacetiya Project to build a stupa complex for preserving Buddhist scriptures and founded the Hương Tư Charity Foundation, which engages in humanitarian efforts globally. 

Ven. Paññākāra is recognized for the Walk for Peace, a 2,300-mile pilgrimage from Texas to Washington, D.C., starting October 26, 2025. The walk was inspired by global suffering and depression after the COVID-19 pandemic. He completed the journey in February 2026 at the Washington National Cathedral, accompanied by other monks and a dog named Aloka.

Ceylon Room

Dilith Jayaweera

Vantage with Palki Sharma

e-Con e-News

blog: https://eesrilanka.wordpress.com

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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

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e-Con e-News 08-14 February 2026

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How the English colonial government imposed compound interest on Sri Lanka, & how this enabled the wholesale ‘legal’ robbery of land from rural Sinhala people – is a most fascinating tale. This ee newsletter’s muse, SBD de Silva, started to relate this story to us, before he passed away in 2018. We are sad to say we should have hounded him further on this subject but failed to do so. Certain reasons of mortality and other urgencies intervened, plus his heroic stubbornness to stick to whatever his intellectual priorities were at a time when his mortal days were limiting his earthly focus, held us back.

     The more humane Sinhala tradition, he recalled, was of charging simple interest on debts, which meant if you could not repay a loan on time, you could pay later without being entangled into greater bondage, and lifetime and next-life vassalage, while losing your land and means of production. But the English would not have it under their rule. And why would they! It is therefore no wonder the English bestowed upon the country & its economy, the most impoverished peasantry in Asia.

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Compound (verb) – 1) make up (a composite whole);

constitute; mix or combine; calculate (interest)

on previously accumulated interest.

2) make (something bad) worse;

intensify the negative aspects of…

– Oxford English Dictionary

*

Did the English government machinery (corrupt officials, judiciary) in the Eastern Province conspire with Muslim traders to enforce compound interest? SBD wished us to pursue this research, warning that the subject was fraught, for we had to ensure we did not encourage solely communal interpretations. For behind this thorny trap crouches the colonial master in subterfuge, who has other deeper aims in mind. We did try to pursue this matter with various social scientists and lawyers as he asked us to do, but to no avail. As SBD noted, social science has become a big business, and our intellects have more interest (moreover a compound interest) in other trivialities, than the political economy of entrapment & mass murder.

*

‘Microfinance companies & moneylenders…

have dispossessed over 2.8 million women

of their gold, household assets & savings.’

*

We recalled SBD’s insights while reading Amali Wedagedera’s recent essay, ‘The Regulatory Assault on Community Credit’ (see ee Focus). Wedagedera points to the ‘acute agrarian debt crisis’ and wonders why access to finance has become a ‘market-driven privilege’. Governments, she records, have been ‘allies of big finance in jettisoning people’s right to organise community credit’, with the legal machinery in tow. Yet, is this new?

‘By 2021, over 200 women had committed

suicide due to unpayable debt.’

Wedagedera’s immediate target is the new Microfinance & Credit Regulatory Authority Bill. She says it ‘functions as a legal enclosure, denying age-old community practices for creating & controlling credit.’ How old are these practices? She does not say. But, it turns out this recent legislative Bill has been stipulated by a $200mn Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan!

‘It is ironic that a Government in debt distress

uses an ADB loan to undermine the very

foundation of community resilience.’

Again, not new. The ADB, the IMF, the World Bank, operate in not-so-mysterious ways, their not-so-miraculous shylocksmithery to perform. Indeed the media report that banks have been accumulating billions at the expense of everybody else, even while they sing the joys of ‘small’ (MSMEs, etc) business, which they are bankrupting:

In the 2023-4 financial year, total banking sector profits

before tax have recorded an estimated Rs762bn

Indeed, the Central Bank governor, who is eager to play the role of ‘optimist conjuror’, pumps out anodynes for the optics – ‘the operation is a great success’, while the merchants and their chartered accountants declare their performances in glowing superlatives, extolling their ‘transparency’, ‘accountability’, ‘governance’, ‘sustainability’, ‘integrity’, ‘excellence’, ‘trust’ and ‘innovation’ (see ee Who’s Who, Tax Evasion Mafia Awards). Other less-publicized reports diagnose, ‘The patient is almost dead’!

     Wedagedera also exposes the pernicious role played by the so-called Credit Information Bureau (CRIB), whose ‘credit histories’ seek to entrap over 90% of low-income people (who have no steady formal income). CRIB is targeting mutual aid & women’s societies. Rather than elaborating on our own traditions of collective control, such as ‘a fistful of rice’, which she curiously limits to ‘more than 30 years’, Wedagedera upholds ‘the right of communities to collectively organise credit’ in the 2018 UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants & Others Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), & other UN declarations, which ‘recognise communal rights to land, seeds, & financial self-determination’. The UN itself needs some spinal instrument to ensure its right to determine its own fate, rather than being a toothless tool of the imperialist countries.

     Wedagedera exposes the real aim of the international financial institutions: to dismantle communal rights, which are ‘the last bastion of resilience against a predatory economic order’. There is a need to also link this to the overall impoverishment of the cultivator, the prevention of monetization and commercialization of harvests, and the consequent obstruction of rural industrialization and the role played by Anglo-American (US & Canadian) and European ‘development banks’ who are fronts for their industrial conglomerates, and hide behind ‘local’ finance companies that claim to be Sri Lankan.

*

After pursuing a ship across 2 oceans and 10,000s of miles, the USA’s Indo-Pacific Command intercepted & boarded the Suezmax tanker Aquila II in the Indian Ocean by Sri Lanka on 9 February, unreported by media in Sri Lanka. The vessel was carrying ~700,000 barrels of crude oil from the Caribbean. The US has already seized 5 other tankers in 8 weeks. The stolen oil will be sold under a program the US has branded the ‘Great Energy Deal.’

     Last week, the US got a Panama court to snatch back Panama’s ports from their HK-owned operators: CK Hutchison has had a signed, paid-up contract for over28 years, a pact recently renewed. This eviction ruling comes after the US government declared they would send in armed troops to grab the Panama Canal (see ee Random Notes).

     This week, a US-linked medium reported that the Singapore government (within which Rockefeller’s Exxon is a major ‘influencer’) is calling for more control over the Malacca Straits. So is it only a matter of time before the US, with India wagging its tail behind, demands further control over Sri Lanka.

The‘Straits of Malacca & Singapore handle approximately

one-third of global traded goods & more than 80,000 vessel

transits annually, making them an unavoidable gateway

between the Indian Ocean & South China Sea.’

– ee Sovereignty, Singapore Calls for Global Action

as Shadow Fleet Pressures Strategic Straits

*

The imperialist media is thus pushing ‘for the [further] militarization of the Quad states – US, Japan, Australia & India – against China & Russia in the Indian & Pacific Oceans, and the Straits of Malacca connecting them’. All of this perhaps leads up to what the new US ambassador to Sri Lanka Eric Meyer (pronounced ‘meeya’, like retail gangster Meyer Lansky) meant when he told their Senate in December 2025, ‘Sri Lanka’s strategic location makes it a focal point for US efforts to promote a free & open Indo-Pacific…’

     And so it has come to pass, though we know not for how long, scurrying about like pissu kumbi on hyper methamphetamines, the USA & its killer poodles (England, EU, Japan, et al) are casing the oceans, enacting their frenetic dance of death, by bombing defenceless fishing boats & pirating flagged ships. They claim they are hunting down drug dealers & ‘rogue’ oil tankers across the world, even as they are stealing oil from Venezuela & Iraq & Syria, denying oil to Cuba to strangle it, and threatening ‘oil-rich’ Iran with annihilation. We are being provided with free & expensive lessons in real time – ‘coming to you live’ – politricks.

     The English and their Indian merchant sects turned the Indian Ocean into a massive maritime route for the most lucrative commerce of the 19^th century: the English opium trade enforced on China by war. The USA now, seemingly ready to spark another more worldly & deadlier war, seeks to deny fuel to China, to thwart that East Asian country’s longer-term industrialization as well as obstruct Russia from selling oil, even while imposing more expensive US-sourced oil on our countries, seeking to stick their fingers on the triggers of gas pumps. As we have noted before, these policies do not emanate solely from the brow of any orange clown, but from the studious intent of the North Atlantic’s ruling capitalist classes, led by the such luminaries as Rockefeller’s Exxon corporation.  

*

ee continues our perennial call for the modern (machine-making-machine) industrialization of our country. We reproduce an essay which goes to great lengths to show how & why manufacturing is the only way for Sri Lanka to transform its economy. However, the deadly (some may call it farcical) scenarios we witness today on the high seas, shows that it is not enough to elucidate the need for modern industrialization, but also expose who or what is preventing the obvious route our economy should take, and why & how they keep sabotaging these plans, and how we may overcome them?

*

‘Services are not a derived activity any more, they are not add-ons

to agriculture & industry. They are the glue that binds them.’

– University of Peradeniya Senior Professor of Economics

OG Dayaratna-Banda (ee Economists, Prof Indraratna Oration)

*

‘Why Developing Countries Can’t Skip Industrialization’ is the main ee Focus this week, by Jostein Hauge. The many dizzying panaceas prescribed, and the fleeting fashions paraded by economists on their academic and media catwalks, seek to bypass the fundamental need for manufacturing. Indeed, these economists in the merchant media are ‘hired gunmen’ or ‘hitmen’ of the merchant cabal. The good professor Dayaratne-Banda mentions the glue but dares not elaborate on the word ‘manufacture’, let alone highlight modern (machine-making-machine) industrial production. Like others, he instead promotes services, exports, etc., etc. Hauge however describes the unique qualities of manufacture (mechanization & chemical processing, ‘one product leading to another’, innovation) and lists the countries that have transformed themselves, especially China & Vietnam. Importantly, he counters the current fears spread by capitalists that automation automatically leads to job losses. He takes on bugaboos about China crowding out other countries’ industrialization. He also lists the decline experienced by those countries, which have been deindustrialized.

     Haugeis a Cambridge professor of development who sometimes loosely uses indicators like ‘growth’ and terms such as ‘development’ (a term created by Unilever as a polite euphemism for ‘colonial’) and ‘job creation’. ‘Growth’ for what? SBD de Silva would ask, and what kind of jobs? Hauge is also a big fan of ‘exports’ leading to innovation.

     We recall Marx’s emphasis that modern industrialization is not handicraft or manufacture (assembly) but machine making machines. Someone should tell Cambridge, andeven better, tell our Colombo professors & columnists (of the 5^th variety) that the overwhelming priority for imperialism is the prevention of industrialization. Which reminds that this week saw yet another chapter in the US drama being enacted in North Africa’s Libya, with the son of previously (2011) murdered Muammar Qaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi also being murdered. And here are his last words:

‘For the people whom you said they were martyred in 2011,

was it for this? Is it that we can’t dig a well in Sirte without the

permission of the Turks, the US Ambassador, English Ambassador,

& French Ambassador? Why didn’t you say that you wanted all

of this from the beginning without the 1,000s being killed &

the 500 billion that Libya wasted, and all this destruction resulting

in orphans and widows.’– Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi’s Last Message:

Another Tale of Imperialist Treason

*

‘There is in capitalism an immanent tendency to stifle,

suffocate & push back the full realization of the

developmental potential of rival capitalisms.’

– SBD De Silva

*

The mercenary preoccupations of ‘celebrated’ economists in the perpetual, daily & weekly news media can be understood more clearly by reading ee’s muse, SBD de Silva, and his 1982 classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. We continue Chapter 7, ‘Plantations & their Metropolitan Orientation’. He begins by pointing out that: ‘the dominance of merchant capital and the export-import bias were common to all countries of the periphery’. Merchant capital’s domination over absentee production capital enabled it to grab much of the surplus value from production, export & import in plantation economies, first implanted in Southern Europe & the Mediterranean, then the Americas (including the Caribbean) and Asia.

An official inquiry in Sri Lanka in 1923 reported that

the standard of food consumption among plantation

labour ‘compare [&] favourably with the jail diet’

‘With the plantations, the Europeans began to organize production overseas’, and this involved active underdevelopment of non-settler colonies, ensuring their clear divergence from the industrialized economies. Underdeveloped countries had to rely on more shipping, produce more valuable goods and consume more imported manufactures. Settler colonies, however, competed with England and produced their own substitutes, including modern technologies.

     Meanwhile, plantation economies, were forcibly turned into markets for manufactured goods, and this complemented the rise of industrial capitalism in Europe, which lived off the processing of raw materials from non-settler colonies. Plantations also precluded high wage levels, and higher productivity, and depended on their super-exploitation and oppression, reducing the incomes of all workers in the society. England also prevented the export of raw materials from their non-settler colonies to other countries to prevent development of local processing technologies, and thus increased political control. So much for free trade.

     Meanwhile, the purposeful ignorance of reality & history, leads to misuse of such terms as plantations & planters as symbols of status:

*

‘The plantation was not a feudal remnant but a highly rationalized system

of labor extraction. Enslaved people were measured, monitored, disciplined

& coerced with extraordinary precision. Output quotas, time discipline,

surveillance & punishment were not incidental features of slavery; they were

its operational logic. Long before the factory perfected these techniques

under the guise of free labor, the plantation had already demonstrated how

human beings could be transformed into units of productive capacity,

driven beyond endurance in the name of profit.’

(see ee Quotes)

*

Such deliberate ignorance leads to exaggerations of what English justice is all about. England, this week, announced, that it cutting off journalist access to English court records. English media are kept ignorant of most trials, and only certain trials are publicized (see ee Quotes, English Delay Justice). Court records are however one of the main ‘public’ sources of real data, as they can reveal information otherwise encrypted, disguised or concealed, especially when big thieves fight each other, the truth can emerge. There are therefore different categories of news, with most real news hidden away. ee News is largely a festeringgarbage dump of the weekly public news in English, mostly written about Sri Lanka – but it is also strewn with a few real jewels & some rare ‘found art’.

*

We recalled this week, certain key words such as ‘class’, ‘political organizations’, and political parties:

• Marx on Class – ‘In 18^th Brumaire (Sect VII) Marx gave this negative definition of a fully constituted class: ‘In so far as millions of families live under economic conditions of existence that separate their mode of life, their interests & their culture from those of the other classes, and put them in hostile opposition to the latter, they form a class. In so far as there is merely a local interconnection among these smallholding peasants, and the identity of their interests begets no community, no national bond, & no political organization among them, they do not form a class’.’ – Tom Bottommore, Dictionary of Marxist Thought, 1991

*

• In Class, for Class – ‘Economic conditions had in the first place transformed the mass of the people into workers. The domination of capital created the common situation & common interests of this class. Thus, this mass is already a class in relation to capital, but not yet a class for itself. In the struggle, of which we have only indicated a few phases, this mass unites and forms itself into a class for itself. The interests which it defends become class interests.’ – Karl Marx, Poverty of Philosophy, Ch2, Sect5

*

• Early English Class Organizations – ‘On March 27, 1846 [2 years before the English genocide in Sri Lanka – ee], the House of Commons voted to repeal the Corn Laws by a vote of 327 to 229. The repeal of the import duties on corn (meaning cereals including wheat, oats, barley) was one of the most significant economic events of the 19^th century… The Anti-Corn Law League was the most advanced political organization that England had ever seen… The League was administered from its headquarters in Newall’s Buildings in Manchester, where a large staff was separated into a number of departments – the League Council, a cashier’s office, a publication office, and an electoral office being the most important. The League’s activities were highly centralized. All but the most routine expenditures were authorized by a vote of the League Council. The League employed over 800 people in 1843 engaged solely in the publication & distribution of tracts. Also, numerous salaried lecturers were employed who addressed mass meetings. The League substantially subsidized a number of newspapers in order to assure favorable reporting & editorials. Most important were the League’s extensive electoral activities. The legal qualification for voting was simply the presence of a man’s name on the electoral register, reflecting the appropriate property-owning qualification. The League devoted enormous efforts & funds both to challenging the voting qualifications of protectionists and to padding the registers with the names of League members by purchasing qualification. In short, the League functioned as a highly efficient, well financed, & pragmatic political organization.’ – ‘Ideology, Interest Groups, & the Repeal of the Corn Laws’, Gary M Anderson & Robert D Tollison

*

• Marx Teaches Us to Value: When Thieves Fight – ‘The time just before the repeal of the Corn Laws threw new light on the condition of the agricultural laborers. On the one hand, it was to the interest of the middle-class agitators to prove how little the Corn Laws protected the actual producers of the corn. On the other hand, the industrial bourgeoisie foamed with sullen rage at the denunciations of the factory system by the landed aristocracy, at the pretended sympathy with the woes of the factory operatives, of those utterly corrupt, heartless & genteel loafers, and at their diplomatic zeal for factory legislation.

     It is an old English proverb that when thieves fall out, honest men come by their own, and, in fact, the noisy, passionate quarrel between the 2 fractions of the ruling class about the question, which of the 2 exploited the laborers the more shamefully, was on each hand the midwife of the truth. Earl Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, was commander-in-chief in the aristocratic, philanthropic, anti-factory campaign. He was, therefore, in 1845, a favorite subject in the revelations of the Morning Chronicle on the condition of the agricultural laborers. This journal, then the most important Liberal organ, sent special commissioners into the agricultural districts, who did not content themselves with mere general descriptions & statistics, but published the names both of the laboring families examined and of their landlords. The following list gives the wages paid in 3 villages in the neighborhood of Blanford, Wimbourne, and Poole. The villages are the property of Mr G. Bankes and of the Earl of Shaftesbury. It will be noted that, just like Bankes, this low church pope, this head of English pietists, pockets a great part of the miserable wages of the laborers under the pretext of house-rent.

     The repeal of the Corn Laws gave a marvelous impulse most extensive scale, new methods of stall-feeding, and of the artificial cultivation of green crops, introduction of mechanical manuring apparatus, new treatment of clay soils, increased use of numeral manures, employment of the steam-engine, and of all kinds of new machinery, more intensive cultivation generally, characterized this epoch. Mr Pusey, Chairman of the Royal Agricultural Society, declares that the (relative) expenses of farming have been reduced nearly one half by the introduction of new machinery.’ (Marx, Capital, Vol 1, Chapter 25)

*

_________

Contents:

US Threatens to Grab Malacca Straits – Is Sri Lanka Next?

Shenali D Waduge

While the world debates the dangerous outcomes of ‘digital education,’ in Sri Lanka a silent campaign is underway. Educationists, policymakers, and self-proclaimed experts—often in partnership with international agencies including the UN—are promoting a plan that will digitalize the learning of 4 million Sri Lankan children. But whose interests are truly being served? Are these so-called educationists genuinely safeguarding the nation’s future, or are they conduits for foreign agendas seeking to reshape the identity, culture, and values of Sri Lankan youth?

Evidence now confirms what society is experiencing. A 2026 scientific assessment presented to the U.S. Congress by neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath confirms something unprecedented in modern history: Gen Z is the first generation to perform worse cognitively and academically than their parents. This assessment was presented before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, based on cross-national longitudinal cognitive testing data covering over 80 countries, making it one of the most comprehensive global analyses of generational cognitive performance ever conducted.

According to Horvath’s testimony, Gen Z underperforms across:

• attention
• memory
• literacy
• numeracy
• executive function
• general IQ

His research across 80 countries shows a clear trend:

When digital technology becomes dominant in classrooms, cognitive performance declines”.

This mistake is exactly what Sri Lanka’s education ministry is proposing to do starting April 2026.

If Sri Lanka proceeds down this path, it risks institutionalizing the same cognitive decline now documented across Western education systems, repeating their mistakes instead of learning from their failures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd-_VDYit3U – Doctor Jared Cooney Horvath on How Screen Time Hurts Kids’ Cognitive Development. Sri Lanka’s education ministry must listen to this especially parents.

https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/us-news/gen-z-the-first-generation-officially-dubbed-dumber-than-the-last

The core cause:

• excessive screen exposure + technology-mediated learning replacing deep human-led learning.

This is not opinion.

This is neuroscience and global academic data.

THIS CONFIRMS A DEEPER CIVILIZATIONAL CRISIS

Gen Z is the first generation since standardized cognitive testing began in the 1800s to perform worse than their parents

Declines were recorded in:

• Attention
• Memory
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Executive function
• General IQ

The primary cause identified:

Overexposure to digital technology in education + algorithm-driven learning environments

This scientific finding perfectly aligns with what we are witnessing socially, psychologically, emotionally, and culturally:

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath: Even in schools, it doesn’t matter what the size of the screen is…and it doesn’t matter who bought it…All of these things are also going to hurt learning, which in turn are going to hurt our kids’ cognitive development.”

Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/program/senate…

This testimony directly challenges the global push especially by the UN to introduce digitize classrooms under the false promise of modernization.

The study of 80 nations shows, that early digital immersion weakens learning, memory consolidation, and impacts long-term intellectual development.

https://thefederalist.com/2026/02/13/gen-z-is-dumber-thanks-to-adults-saturating-their-lives-with-screens

For the first time in modern history, a generation is showing visible decline in:

They were born into:

• hyper-technology
• ideological overload
• identity crisis
• dopamine-driven digital ecosystems
• entitlement culture – right-oriented
• collapsing family authority & declining morals/values of young parents

The result is:

• anxiety
• depression
• identity confusion
• social anger
• protest addiction
• emotional fragility

This is civilizational failure, not generational failure.

WHAT THE ANCIENTS BUILT — AND WHY IT LASTED

Ancient civilizations across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe built societies on:

• duty before rights
• discipline before comfort
• wisdom before information
• family before state
• identity before ideology
• morality before law

They understood a fundamental truth:

• Strong individuals create strong families.
• Strong families create strong societies.
• Strong societies create lasting civilizations.

This truth is being systematically broken

They mastered:

• irrigation
• mathematics
• astronomy
• medicine
• governance
• architecture
• philosophy
• education

But not before they mastered the human mind.

They knew:

Civilization collapses not when technology fails,
but when character, discipline, and identity collapse.

These are qualities we see lacking in Gen Z today. It is no fault of theirs, it is because the educational system, university apparatus and even society has moved away from these value-based criteria.

Media and communication channels have much to shoulder blame.

They used their  power of reach to misinform – misguide and misdirect people.

WHAT WE HAVE TODAY — AND WHY IT IS FAILING

We have:

• Artificial Intelligence without human wisdom
• biotechnology
• infinite data
• instant communication

Yet we also have:

• record anxiety
• rising depression
• identity chaos
• collapsing family structures
• emotional immaturity
• ideological extremism

We built smart machines — but made weaker humans.

That is not progress.
That is civilizational imbalance.

TECHNOLOGY WITHOUT HUMANITY IS WORTHLESS

This is not an anti-technology argument — it is a pro-human argument.

Dr. Horvath’s research proves:

Technology does not elevate human intelligence.
When misused, it degrades cognitive development.

Technology was meant to:

• strengthen thinking
• deepen learning
• enhance relationships
• increase productivity

Instead, it:

• replaced thinking
• shortened attention spans
• rewired dopamine systems
• weakened memory
• replaced human interaction

Gen Z became the first generation raised inside algorithms.

Technology did not adapt to them.
Their brains adapted to technology.

This produced:

• shallow thinking
• emotional volatility
• impulse-driven behavior
• poor resilience
• fragile attention
• Inability to critically assess and analyse – often resulting in going with the flow/trend

Smart tech + weak humans = civilizational suicide.

History shows that civilizations collapse not from lack of innovation, but from erosion of human discipline, character, and moral coherence.

IDENTITY ENGINEERING: THE MOST DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT OF OUR AGE

For all of history, civilizations understood:

• Sex is biological.
• Gender expression is cultural.
• Identity is anchored in reality.

Today, global ideological movements seek to:

• blur biological sex
• destabilize natural identity
• normalize identity confusion
• replace biology with ideology

This is presented as freedom.

But psychologically, it creates:

• confusion
• anxiety
• instability
• emotional distress

Instead of teaching children:

You are complete as you are,

they are taught:

You must question your own biology.

This destabilizes the deepest foundation of mental health — identity certainty, feeling sense of belonging and they are led to paths that will destroy them – physically & psychologically.

No society can maintain psychological stability when it systematically teaches children to distrust their own biology.

CHILDHOOD MEDICALIZATION: WHEN ACTIVISM BECOMES INDUSTRY

Children naturally experience:

• emotional turbulence
• identity questioning
• body discomfort during puberty – hormonal changes
• psychological exploration

These phases were once guided by:

• parental wisdom
• patience
• maturity
• cultural stability

Today, ideology increasingly:

• labels confusion
• medicalizes development
• politicizes identity
• introduces irreversible interventions

This creates:

• lifelong medical dependency
• irreversible biological changes
• psychological regret
• emotional trauma

When pharmaceutical systems, surgical industries, media sensationalism, corporate branding, and ideological activism merge, children and childhood becomes a marketplace.

This is not compassion.
This is institutionalized recklessness – targeting the child.

Future generations will judge this era not by its technological achievements, but by how recklessly it experimented on children in the name of ideology and profit.

CLASSROOM IDEOLOGY: CSE & IDENTITY POLITICS IN EDUCATION

Schools once existed to teach:

• literacy
• logic
• discipline
• ethics
• critical thinking

Now, classrooms increasingly transmit:

• identity ideology
• sexual frameworks
• political activism
• emotional validation culture

This:

• confuses childhood development
• destabilizes identity formation
• weakens parental authority
• politicizes education

Education must build minds — not manufacture identities.

The role of education is intellectual empowerment, not psychological engineering.

The adults too are now targets.

DEI & CORPORATE IDEOLOGY: CONTROL THROUGH COMPLIANCE

DEI frameworks increasingly:

• enforce ideological conformity
• silence biological discussion
• punish dissent
• override scientific debate

This transforms:

• workplaces into ideological zones
• corporations into moral police
• society into psychological control systems

True inclusion respects:

• diversity of thought
• scientific inquiry
• open debate

Not ideological obedience.

A society that silences biological and scientific truth destroys its own capacity for rational governance.

THE DESTRUCTION OF FEMININITY & MASCULINITY

Masculinity built:

• courage
• leadership
• protection
• sacrifice
• resilience

Femininity built:

• emotional intelligence
• compassion
• nurturing
• stability
• moral grounding

Civilizations flourished because both worked together. Complimented each other. Today, it has been made fashionable to compete against each other.

Today, ideology:

• attacks masculinity – attempts to neutralize masculine traits
• destabilizes femininity – attempts to remove the softer side of the female
• encourages biological rejection
• reframes natural roles as oppression – attempts to relocate women out of the home.

This creates:

• confused boys
• insecure girls
• unstable families
• fragile societies

A civilization that erases sexual identity erases its own foundation.

When natural human complementarity is replaced by ideological conflict, family stability collapses, and social fragmentation accelerates.

FROM DUTY TO ENTITLEMENT: HOW CHARACTER COLLAPSED

Ancient societies taught:

• duty before rights
• responsibility before privilege
• restraint before freedom

Modern culture teaches:

• rights before duty
• entitlement before effort
• validation before discipline

This reversal produced:

• grievance culture
• protest addiction
• anger escalation
• street violence
• chronic dissatisfaction – always blaming others not shortcomings of oneself.

When people believe:

• Society owes me,

but never ask:

• What do I owe society? frustration becomes inevitable.

That frustration explodes into:

• protests
• riots
• confrontation
• destruction

WHY GEN Z IS PROTESTING MORE THAN ANY GENERATION

Because they were raised on:

• entitlement
• emotional indulgence
• ideological grievance
• instant gratification

Not on:

• resilience
• discipline
• responsibility
• effort

When expectations are infinite and responsibility is zero, anger becomes unavoidable.

The so-called youth-led” protests in Nepal, Bangladesh even Sri Lanka show how shortsighted their reactions are – destroying what the taxpayers eventually have to pay to rebuild, taking more loans, paying more interest when most of them don’t even have a job to take accountability themselves for the destruction they caused. Would any employer wish to employ reactionary-destructive youth?

Economic development requires stable, disciplined, accountable youth — not emotionally volatile ideological activists.

THE COLLAPSE OF FAMILY AUTHORITY

Parents once shaped children.

Now:

• social media shapes children
• influencers replace parents
• ideology replaces tradition
• algorithms replace wisdom
• Bills are being brought to punish the teachers and parents!

Family authority collapsed.
Children destabilized.
Social order weakened.

No civilization survives when the family collapses.

Every major civilizational collapse in history — Roman, Greek, Persian, Mayan — was preceded by family disintegration, moral erosion, and identity destabilization.

This is why pro-life must never be compromised.

WHY GEN Z FAILED WHERE THEIR PARENTS DID NOT

Not because Gen Z is weak —
but because their psychological environment was corrupted.

Their parents grew up with:

• discipline
• limits
• struggle
• responsibility

Gen Z grew up with:

• unlimited stimulation
• emotional overvalidation
• identity confusion
• ideological saturation

This destroyed:

• patience
• resilience
• emotional strength
• mental discipline

THE CIVILIZATIONAL RESET WE NEED

We must return to fundamentals.

Back to:

• duty before rights
• discipline before indulgence
• family before ideology
• biology before politics
• wisdom before information
• humanity before technology

This is not regression.
This is civilizational survival.

THE CORE CIVILIZATIONAL TRUTH

Technology cannot save a civilization that has lost its soul.
Ideology cannot replace biological reality.
Rights cannot replace responsibility.
Progress cannot erase wisdom.

Our ancestors built civilizations that lasted centuries.
We are building systems that may not survive decades.

Gen Z is not broken.

The civilization shaping them is.

And unless we restore:

• discipline
• identity clarity
• parental authority
• wisdom-based education
• moral grounding
• human-centered technology

we will not raise stronger generations —
we will accelerate civilizational collapse.

Before Sri Lanka entrusts its children to a digital classroom designed abroad, we must question the authority of those promoting it. Education is not merely about technology—it is about identity, history, heritage, values, and sovereignty. The push for digital education, disguised as progress, risks turning millions of young minds into passive recipients of foreign narratives. The politicians and so-called educationists championing this rollout must be held accountable: for every child, every lesson, every byte delivered under this scheme could reshape the soul of a nation into a generation severed from its roots, its culture, and its critical thinking, molding children into obedient consumers of globalized agendas rather than proud inheritors and defenders of Sri Lanka’s identity and heritage.

Shenali D Waduge

Shenali D Waduge

Since March 1997, Senaka Weeraratna has waged one of the most persistent, solitary intellectual justice campaigns in modern sport — appealing locally and internationally for recognition as the author of the ‘Player – Referral’ system, today globally known as the Decision Review System (DRS). It began with a letter to the ‘Australian’ (National Newspaper of Australia) dated March 25, 1997. First adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2008 as the Decision Review System (DRS), it replaced the “umpire’s decision is final” rule with a system allowing players to challenge on-field calls using technology.

For nearly three decades, his appeals crossed continents, institutions, cricket boards, editors, officials, and administrators. They were supported by documented evidence, first publication records, and formal submissions. Yet, despite the strength of the claim and the clarity of proof, institutional silence prevailed.

As a result, a revolutionary idea that transformed cricket adjudication forever — restoring fairness, accuracy, and justice — was allowed to circulate globally without its creator receiving an iota of rightful recognition or due compensation in the royalties.

This silence did not arise from absence of merit. It arose from institutional inertia, personal jealousy, and systemic resistance to acknowledging authorship outside traditional Western power centres. In South Asian terms, this can only be described as eersiyaawa” — envy-driven obstruction, a cultural malaise that prevents collective advancement by suppressing individual excellence.

As a result, a revolutionary idea that transformed cricket adjudication forever — restoring fairness, accuracy, and justice — was allowed to circulate globally without its creator receiving rightful recognition. Even umpires have failed to acknowledge its merit.

A lone struggle against institutional walls

Weeraratna’s campaign was extraordinary not only for its intellectual depth, but for its longevity and moral clarity. Alone, without institutional backing, he wrote to cricket boards, journalists, administrators, lawyers, international bodies, and governments. His writings appeared in leading international newspapers, and formal representations were submitted to Sri Lanka Cricket and the ICC.

Yet decision-makers remained unmoved. Sympathy replaced action. Praise replaced recognition. Polite acknowledgement replaced justice. Even 

This reveals a deeper problem: the inability of institutions to honour intellectual originality when it originates from outside entrenched power structures.

Why this moment is different — and urgent

Today, Senaka Weeraratna approaches 80 years of age.

The world of cricket, meanwhile, is undergoing a profound power shift:

·      South Asia now dominates global cricket revenues

·      Asian audiences drive broadcast markets

·      Asian teams define competitive standards

·      Asian players dominate performance metrics

Cricket’s economic, cultural, and moral centre of gravity has shifted East.

Yet intellectual recognition remains locked in old colonial hierarchies.

This contradiction can no longer be sustained.

From a Sri Lankan claim to a South Asian responsibility

This is no longer a private grievance or a national claim.

It is now a South Asian civilisational responsibility.

South Asia must spearhead this recognition because:

·      The innovation originated here

·      The beneficiaries are global

·      The denial reflects historical power imbalance

·      The silence enables continued intellectual marginalisation

To allow this injustice to persist is to accept a subordinate intellectual identity, where South Asian innovation is consumed but not credited.

Why recognition matters beyond One Man

This campaign is not about personal glorification.

It is about:

·      Restoring truth to cricket history

·      Correcting global intellectual records

·      Establishing ethical norms of authorship

·      Ensuring future Asian innovators are not erased

If Senaka Weeraratna’s authorship is denied despite documented evidence and international publication, what hope remains for the next South Asian innovator?

The DRS was not merely a technical adjustment.

It was a moral innovation — introducing justice, accountability, and transparency into a sport governed for over a century by unchallengeable authority.

This ethical architecture originated in Sri Lanka, from a legal mind trained in justice, fairness, and moral responsibility.

To deny that origin is to deny cricket’s own ethical foundation.

A Call to South Asian Leaders

This moment demands leadership.

Political leaders, cricket boards, legal communities, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal must now jointly act.

They must:

·      Demand formal ICC recognition

·      Insist on historical correction

·      Mobilize public opinion

·      Restore intellectual justice

Time must not be allowed to become another instrument of denial.

History Still Awaits Correction

Almost three decades ago, one Sri Lankan gave cricket its most transformative innovation which is now used across all sports.

Today, almost three decades later, South Asia must give him what institutions denied — truth, recognition, and justice.

If South Asia cannot protect its own intellectual pioneers, it forfeits its moral right to global leadership in cricket.

The time for hesitation is over.

The time for collective action is now.

Shenali D Waduge

Submitted by: Sarath Obeysekera Chairman / Marine & Offshore Engineering Specialist EDB Advisory Board Member

Strategic Inclusion of Trincomalee Offshore Engineering & Marine Hub in the National Export Development Plan (2025–2029)

Submitted by:

Sarath Obeysekera

Chairman / Marine & Offshore Engineering Specialist

EDB Advisory Board Member

To:

Hon. Minister of Industries

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

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1. Purpose

This paper seeks to highlight a critical strategic omission in the draft National Export Development Plan (NEDP 2025–2029):

The absence of a clearly defined high-value offshore engineering and marine industrial development strategy centered in Trincomalee, specifically the proposed development of the Clappenburg area as an Offshore Engineering Hub.

This project has the potential to:

• Attract substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
• Reverse brain drain
• Position Sri Lanka as an Indian Ocean offshore engineering center
• Generate high-value export earnings
• Support energy security and maritime industrialization

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2. Strategic Gap in the NEDP

The NEDP identifies:

• Marine-based industries (including boatbuilding)
• Logistics and transshipment development
• Port-led industrial growth
• Knowledge-intensive exports
• FDI-linked export expansion

However, it does not explicitly address:

• Offshore oil & gas engineering services
• Offshore renewable energy fabrication
• FPSO conversion and repair
• Subsea engineering services
• Offshore rig repair and marine heavy engineering

While Sri Lanka Ports Authority and port expansion initiatives are mentioned, there is no targeted strategy to leverage Trincomalee’s natural deep-water advantage for high-value offshore engineering activities.

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3. Why Trincomalee is Strategically Unique

3.1 Natural Deep-Water Advantage

Trincomalee Harbour is one of the finest natural deep-water harbours in the world. It offers:

• Deep draft suitable for offshore rigs and heavy marine structures
• Calm waters ideal for fabrication and floating dock operations
• Large available land bank for industrial estate development
• Strategic proximity to Bay of Bengal energy routes

Unlike Colombo, which is primarily a transshipment hub, Trincomalee can become a production-based maritime industrial cluster.

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4. Proposed Development: Clappenburg Offshore Engineering Hub

The proposal submitted through the EDB Advisory Board recommends:

Development of Clappenburg Area as:

• Offshore fabrication yard
• Rig repair and refurbishment center
• Subsea structure manufacturing facility
• Offshore renewable (wind) foundation fabrication base
• LNG and marine energy service zone

This aligns directly with:

• NEDP Strategic Objective 1 (Logistics & Hub Operations)
• Strategic Objective 3 (Export-oriented FDI)
• Strategic Objective 6 (Skills & Innovation)

Yet it remains unrecognized as a national flagship project.

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5. Economic Impact Potential

5.1 Foreign Direct Investment

High-value offshore engineering projects typically attract:

• USD 200–500 million initial FDI
• Technology transfer partnerships
• Global EPC contractor participation

Countries such as:

• Singapore
• Vietnam
• Malaysia

have leveraged offshore engineering to move from low-value manufacturing to high-value marine industrialization.

Sri Lanka can follow a similar pathway.

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5.2 Brain Drain Reversal

Sri Lanka produces:

• Naval architects
• Marine engineers
• Welding technologists
• Offshore structural engineers
• NDT specialists

Many migrate due to lack of high-value domestic projects.

Establishing an offshore engineering hub would:

• Retain skilled engineers
• Create high-paying technical jobs
• Encourage diaspora return
• Strengthen NVQ and TVET marine specialization

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5.3 Export Revenue

Offshore engineering services generate:

• Project-based USD inflows
• Long-term service contracts
• Regional Bay of Bengal energy support services

This aligns with NEDP’s goal of reaching USD 36 billion exports by 2030.

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6. Geopolitical and Strategic Relevance

The Bay of Bengal is emerging as a major energy and maritime zone.

India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and ASEAN countries are expanding:

• Offshore gas exploration
• Floating LNG
• Offshore wind

Sri Lanka must strategically position Trincomalee before regional competitors dominate this niche.

Failure to act will leave Sri Lanka limited to low-margin transshipment activities.

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7. Policy Recommendations

1. Immediate Inclusion in NEDP

Explicitly identify:

Trincomalee Offshore Engineering & Marine Industrial Hub” as a flagship project.

2. Call for International RFP

Through EDB and BOI, issue a global RFP for:

• Strategic marine engineering partners
• Offshore yard developers
• Energy EPC firms

3. Establish Special Marine SEZ

Designate Clappenburg as:

• Marine & Offshore SEZ
• With tax and duty facilitation
• Simplified customs regime
• Fast-track approvals

4. Institutional Coordination

Create a Joint Task Force involving:

• Ministry of Industries
• EDB
• BOI
• SLPA
• Ministry of Energy

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8. Conclusion

The NEDP rightly emphasizes logistics, digital exports, and diversification. However, it underestimates Sri Lanka’s potential to move into high-value offshore engineering and marine heavy industry.

Developing Clappenburg in Trincomalee is not merely a regional development project.