Chanaka Bandarage Governments in the past – from Dudley Senanayake (1965 – 1970) to Gotabhaya Rajapaksha (2019 – 2022) introduced National Programs of gigantic nature.  All of them ended in failure. Why? They failed to carry people with them. One program that was successful to an extent was Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike’s ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ දියුණු රටවල් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට සුවිශේෂ වරප්‍රාසද දී ඔවුන්ව ඉමහත්  ගෞරවයෙන් බලා ගනී. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස ජපානය ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට දේවත්වයෙන් හා සමාන ලෙස සළකයි. ඕස්ත්‍රේලියාව ඔවුන්ට විවිධාකාර විශේෂ සහණ සළසයි – අඩු බස් ගාස්තු, අඩු මිලට බෙහෙත් සහ රජයේ අඩු කුලී නිවාස. අපේ රජයන් ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට පුරවැසියන්ට සැලකීම, ඔවුන්ට ගරු කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවය ගැන සැළකිලිමත් නොවේ (මහින්ද […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ රජය විසින් කළ යුතුව තිබුනේ රොහීන්ග්‍යයන් ආ විගස ඔවුන්ව ඔවුන්ගේ රටට (මියන්මාරයට) ආපසු පිටත් කර හැරීමයි. රටට ආදරය කරන, දූරදර්ශී රජයක් විසින් ක්ෂණිකව ගත යුතුව තිබු පියවරකි ඒ. රටට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය ඇතැම් තීරණ සැනෙකින්, ඉතා බුද්ධිමත්ව ගැනිය යුතුය.  දක්ෂ නායකත්වය යනු එයයි. දක්ෂ නායකයාට ඉතා පුළුල් පරාසයක් පෙනේ. ඔහුට/ඇයට ඇත්තේ ඉතා හොඳ දුරදක්නා නුවණකි; […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ බොරු කියන්නාට වෙනත් කළ නොහැකි වරදක් නැතැයි කියති.  එසේම එක්  බොරුවක් වැසීමට බොරු 10ක් කියන්න සිදු වේයයි කියති. මියගිය කාටර් ජනාධිපතිවරයා ජනතාවට බොරු නොකීවේය. තමන් ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් ජයගත් පසු විධායක ජනාධිපතිධුරය අහෝසි කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන්නේ යයි පැවසූ අපේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරුන් 5ක් ඇත (1994 පසු).  අප ඔවුනට චන්දය දුනිමු.  නමුත්, දුන් පොරොන්දුව ඔවුන් ඉෂ්ට නොකළහ. […]

Chanaka Bandarage Being submissive in a foreign land is the worst quality that a nation’s leader could have. In the Group Photos of the 1949 and 1951 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings held in the UK, Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) Prime Minister DS Senanayake was afforded a front row seat. Along with the Queen, he […]

Chanaka Bandarage If the intention of the program is to make Sri Lanka clean it is a fantastic idea. Sri Lanka is perhaps the cleanest country in South Asia, but it is one of the dirtiest in South East Asia (Sri Lanka can also be categorised as part of South East Asia). The problem is […]

Chanaka Bandarage At the moment at least 60 elephants are stranded in Oya Madu area including in the NLDB farm. These elephants are the subjects of a drive from Thalawa, Galgamuwa, Thambuththegama areas. To please the villagers in those areas, the authorities chased them out of those areas.   They consist of mainly female elephants […]

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

Chanaka Bandarage The debate on abolishing the Executive Presidency  has come to light again. This is good. True we have a new President, elected by the majority vote. But this does not negate the long felt need of abolishing the Executive Presidency. Since 1978, incompetent, fraudulent, sometimes violent, visionless Presidents have come and gone. They […]

Chanaka Bandarage In Europe, politicians including Prime Ministers cycle to work. In Japan, pretty much everyone (rich, poor) cycles. In Netherlands, bicycle is the main and most important mode of transport. In Sri Lanka, cyclists are shamed. Here, cycling is considered a symbol of poverty, We still foolishly regard that bicycle is the poor man’s […]

Chanaka Bandarage For most areas, monkeys are a relatively new problem.  In the last 30 years, lots of deforestation  happened. Some forests like Suriyawewa, Lunugamwehara are now extinct. Even the Sinharaja forest is under serious threat. The degradation and fragmentation of the animal habitats is very real. Owing to building walking tracks in Bellanwila, Pillawa […]

Chanaka Bandarage The fact that we now have a fine government (at least uncorrupt), many have the unrealistic expectation that we will soon become a developed nation. Sri Lanka is a  3rd world country; a chronic one. Before becoming a 1st world country (eg. Singapore), we have to pass the 2nd world stage (eg. Malaysia). […]

Chanaka Bandarage The essence of democracy is that representatives are elected by the people. If those who are rejected by the public in the election are later allowed to sit as MPs in the parliament through the National List, that will be directly in conflict with the concept of democracy. Effectively, it is  making a […]

Chanaka Bandarage Sri Lankan Airlines in a 5-minute advertisement  is currently promoting ‘Ramayana Trail’ in India.  This video has gone viral on India’s social media. In the advertisement, a grandmother is seen narrating the Hindu epic to her grandson where she states that the Ramayana is real. Even  the Archaeological Survey of India through an […]

Chanaka Bandarage Despite unfair criticism  by vested/cynical interest groups, the NPP is poised to record a win on 14 November 2024. The indications are that it will not be a massive victory. If the NPP obtains less than 113 seats, they will be compelled to form a coalition government -most probably with the TNA. This […]

Chanaka Bandarage We need dollars; pretty desperately. The government does not seem to have any idea of earning new dollars. We are US$100 billion in debt (one of the highest per capita debt ratios in the world). And, we are bankrupt. The economy is stagnated. The cost of living is sky rocketing. The youth and […]

Chanaka Bandarage It is a great relief that the Arugam Bay attack/incident did not materialize. We have many 9/11s of our own (the 2019 Easter Sunday attack is just one). Would Arugam Bay have become our Bali 2005? (on 1 October 2005, 20 Australians holidaying in Bali were killed by Indonesian terrorists, over 100 were […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ 1960 -70 දශකවල ළමෝ පාසැල් අවසන් වූ පසු ටියුෂන් නොගියාම නොවේ. නමුත්, එකළ එය අද මෙන් පිස්සුවෙන් කල දෙයක් නොවීය.   එකළ, ටියුෂන් නගරබද පාසැල්වලට පමණක් පාහේ සීමාවී තිබුණි. වැඩිමණක් දරුවන් ගියේ ඉංග්‍රීසි, එලකියුෂන්, සංගීත භාණ්ඩ වාදනය වැනි පන්තිවලටය. ගණිතය දුර්වල ළමුන් සඳහා දෙමව්පියන් ළමුන්ව දක්ෂ ගණිත ගුරුවරුන් සොයා යැවිය. එකළ, බොහෝ විට […]

Chanaka Bandarage Congratulations to the NPP government for its decision not to privatize the Sri Lankan Airlines. Only a bold government could make bold decisions! Gota and Ranil were all out to sell it. Of course, they would have sold it for pittance – just like how they sold the Galleface Army Headquarters and the […]

Chanaka Bandarage After the WW II the Western Europe was in utter shambles. Most of the countries were bankrupt. US President Truman introduced the Marshall Plan to develop Western Europe. The US gave them aid in the tune of $ $13.3 billion (equivalent to $173.8 billion in 2024). The biggest beneficiary was the UK (26% […]

Chanaka Bandarage Channel 4 and some influential people with vested interests want to stir the pot. They do not like a calm, settled, prosperous Sri Lanka. Now they try to link politicians, top law enforcement officials with the Easter Sunday attack. For eg. attempt to link the ex-President, Gota with the crime. True, few days […]

Chanaka Bandarage The 2015 – 2019 Maithree/Ranil Government is perhaps the most disastrous and dysfunctional government Sri Lanka has ever had. We must try everything to avoid a similar situation arising in November 2024. Maithree, Leader of the SLFP went on one road; Ranil leader of the UNP went on another. They never went on […]

Chanaka Bandarage Rather than becoming ready to face/control situations, most of the time we  respond/react to them after the event. Owing to this shortcoming, we suffer tremendously.   This is why the perception – Sri Lankans are reactive, not proactive. Let us look at some examples: In 1976, Prabhakaran killed Alfred Duraippah. From 1981 – […]

Chanaka Bandarage This month the IMF came and left. Though much anticipated, we did not receive any benefit from them.  Prior to the Presidential election, the NPP boasted that they will renegotiate better terms and conditions for the country with the IMF. Did the government field its best team to negotiate with the IMF? No. […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ තමන් කවදා හෝ ගම්මුලාදෑනියාව නිල්ගලට ගෙන්වන බවට තිසාහාමි පාරම් බෑවේය. ඔහු කීදේ කළා පමණක් නොව නිල්ගලට පැමිණී රාලහාමිට ඔහු වෙඩි තබා මැරීය. රාලහාමිගේ මිනිය පොලිසියට  රැගෙන යාමට නොහැකි වනසේ තිසාහාමි දින 3ක් එය රැක්කේය. තිසාහාමිට බියේ ඉංග්‍රීසි රජයේ පොලිස් හමුදාව සී සී කඩ දිවුහ. තිසාහාමි සිතා මතා රාලහාමිව මැරුවා නොවේ. තිසාහාමිගේ බෙහෙත් කොටන […]

Chanaka Bandarage On Thursday 3 October 2024, the President addressed top officials of the Agriculture and associated ministries. All the relevant top notches were there. The President mentioned to them that the public has a perception that the public servants are not doing a good job. He mentioned the bribery and corruption problem in a […]

Chanaka Bandarage Clearly,  the volume of traffic on our Expressways is insufficient. Thus, the revenue that the government receives from them is less. Only about 20% of the country’s population – those who own a car/vehicle reap the benefit of the Expressways. A few luxury buses (who charge a higher fare) are allowed to carry […]

Chanaka Bandarage It is refreshing that the Japanese government has announced considering the grant of a soft loan to build the Light Rail system from Malabe to Colombo (Stage 1). Japan made the Light Rail offer to Bangladesh also. But, they requested for a Metro system and received it. An underground Metro rail system like […]

Chanaka Bandarage The government has decided to rebuild the Talaimannar pier. Prima facie, this is good news.   But, is this project a must at this stage? No. The government is faced with a huge balance of payment crisis.  Since becoming elected, its revenue base has not increased by one iota. On the other hand, […]

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ පුරාණ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉතිහාසය/සිංහල බෞද්ධත්වය මහා පරිමාණයෙන් විකෘතියට/අපහාසයට ලක් කරන පිරිසක් දැන් බිහිව සිටී. මේ බොහෝ අය සිංහලයෝමය. මොවුන් රටට (ශ්‍රී ලංකාව), සිංහල ජාතියට/බෞද්ධාගමට ආදරය නොකරන, ඒවා නොසලකා හරින හෝ ඒවා ගැන තරහක් ඇති අයයි. මේ සමහර අයට විදේශ NGO වලින් මුදල් ලැබේ. මේ අයගේ මුළීක යටි අරමුණ මෙය සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් නොවේය, […]