Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lankan government spend on public health is not the same across the provinces. There is acute discrimination against some provinces. Healthcare cost is measured in per head (per capita) spend so it is a fair and comparable measure. When per head public healthcare cost is compared across the provinces, a terrifying and […]

Dilrook Kannangara The West is in a death spiral. Unable to sustain demographic, military and economic dominance over the rest of the world, the West has resorted to beef up its population with the help of Asians and Africans. A massive push to bring millions of Asians and Africans is underway in many Western nations. […]

Dilrook Kannangara බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථාන පිළිසකර කිරීමට එරෙහිව දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු සහ අනෙකුත් දෙමළ පුද්ගලයන් කල්ලි ගැසී ඇත. ඔවුන්ගේ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් රටේ නීතියට සහ සංහිඳියාවට පටහැනි වෙතත් ඔවුන්ට විරුද්ධව කිසිම දඬුවමක් ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවීම රටේම කරුමයකි. දෙමළ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් පවා අත නොතැබූ කුරුන්දි බෞද්ධ විහාරයේ නටබුන් වැනසීමට තැත්කිරීම සාපරාධී වරදකි. මෙම බෞද්ධ විරෝධයට වක්‍රාකාරයෙන් දායක වන පිළිලයකුත් සිටියි. […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka’s central government long term debt, excluding the debt of government entities, amounts to $84 billion as of 2023. About half of it is foreign debt and the other is domestic debt. After months of negotiations, foreign debt holders agreed to debt restructure. However, holders of domestic debt are dragging their feet […]

Dilrook Kannangara The Vallipuram Inscription or Vallipuram Gold Plate is an important ancient artifact that busted fake homeland claims of a certain ethnic group found. It was unearthed as part of archeological excavations carried out during the British era. It states that the Sinhala Buddhist temple in the area now known as Vallipuram (Veli Pura […]

Dilrook Kannangara There is a concerted attempt to hand over ancient Buddhist shrines to Tamils today including the Kurundi Vihara. If this unfortunate attempt succeeds the fate of those Buddhist shrines will be as catastrophic as the fate of a number of ancient Buddhist shrines in the Eastern and Northern provinces – they have been […]

Dilrook Kannangara For over 50 years since 1947, USA and India didn’t have many things in common in the defence space. There was a time when USA and India were close to war and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program was supported by USA. The current iconic Indian PM was once branded a war criminal” by US […]

Dilrook Kannangara What changed?” demands anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist elements in Sri Lanka when the ICCPR Act is implemented. They have been used to a life of hate speech against Sinhala and Buddhist interests for the past 200 years. Instead of changing to the new world norm of human rights, they blame the Act and live […]

Dilrook Kannangara There is a wrong view in some sections of Sri Lankans that India will never allow an Independent Tamil Eelam as that would trigger separatism in India. This belief cannot be more wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. Both Bangladesh and West Bengal state of India are mostly habituated by Bengali people. […]

Dilrook Kannangara Last year (2022) saw some unprecedented events in Sri Lanka. For the first time in history, a president and a prime minister were removed and replaced without a vote. Although the parliamentary composition remains same, the direction, policies, events, decision-making, priorities and international standing have changed for the better. While some lament their […]

Dilrook Kannangara Those who allege local and foreign conspiracy in 2022 regime change have a responsibility to their people. If their allegations are true, it is a very serious violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, the Constitution (on many counts), the franchise, fundamental rights of individuals, the Penal Code and many other laws. Internationally, it is […]

Dilrook Kannangara India’s sudden interest in Buddhism seems to be driven by militarization than anything noble. India uses Buddhism as a weapon against China, a bargaining tool against Burma and Bhutan and as an extortion tool against Sri Lanka. All this happens while India’s Buddhists endure acute discrimination, marginalization and deprivation. This has many learnings […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka needs anti-terror and anti-subversion laws. Sadly, the seven decades since Independence are dotted with subversion, violence, disruption and terrorism. Current Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) introduced in 1979 has its use but falls short of many security risks the island faces. Parts of it are outdated. Singapore’s Internal Security Act is […]

Dilrook Kannangara A recent book by a parliamentarian equates the events of Aragalaya (2022) in Sri Lanka to Euromaidan uprising (2013) of Ukraine. However, the two are vastly different; in fact, opposed to each other. Most of these claims are unsubstantiated and only based on either hearsay or guesses. Understanding key differences between Euromaidan and […]

Dilrook Kannangara Major problems, ailments and disasters brew slowly. There are unmissable signs of impending danger that are often disregarded for convenience. At other times humans simply do not want to hear them as they have enough on their plate. They wish the problems will go away or find an easy scapegoat. These are the […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sadly the nation has been pushed to a corner without many options. Who did it is a bygone debate now as time is running out. Sri Lanka needs a surviving mechanism. Without it the island nation will totally capitulate to the New Great Game. Those who dream about utopian options that does not […]

Dilrook Kannangara Selling state enterprises is not the right thing to do. If Sweden, Singapore and even Sri Lanka before 1972 could do it, state business undertakings can profit and run efficiently. However, the current state of affairs surrounding state businesses is pathetic and they cannot be salvaged. On top of that Sri Lanka is […]

Dilrook Kannangara As if economic crises are not enough, the nation has to deal with never-ending strikes by teachers at various levels of teaching and exam marking and a worsening lack of doctors and other professionals. Both these are tied to long term economic instability. The nation needs a steady flow of professionals for its […]

Dilrook Kannangara Even a schoolkid who has studied Year 11 Commerce would tell you that the Central Bank must be independent of the government. And that’s how it is around the world. However, Sri Lanka does not follow the rest of the world. Well established norms are questioned, challenged and changed in Sri Lanka to […]

Dilrook Kannangara JVP was the last of the Sinhala political parties to accept 13A and provincial councils in 1999. By then UNP, SLMP, SLMC, EPRLF, SLFP and PA had succumbed to the 13A honeypot. It was a wise decision of the JVP to at last embrace the inevitable. 13A has no benefits for the nation; […]

Dilrook Kannangara There is a silly trend of glorifying and romanticizing the pre-Independence era. Those who do so have no idea how things were then. Although Sri Lanka is in a dire economic and political situation today, some matters are better than then. Yes; there are things that are worse today. Sri Lankans are utterly […]

Dilrook Kannangara In 1971 there were more than 20,000 ethnic Sinhalas were living in the Jaffna District alone. None of them lived on rent. They had their own properties as with everyone else in Jaffna. However, after the TULF election win in July 1977, Tamils attacked Sinhala people in the north during Black August 1977, […]

Dilrook Kannangara If functioning well, the gem industry has the highest local value addition of all exports. Unlike garments, EPZs and tea, the gem industry does not have imported raw materials. There is no requirement for foreign investments as locals are capable of investing with required machinery and expertise. In other words, the net export […]

Dilrook Kannangara Replacing provincial councils with District councils worsens the problems of separatism, corruption and waste. It must never be attempted. If provincial councils are bad, the system must be retracted. Replacing it with a worse system is unwise (Mahadenamutta could not have done it better in the case of palm sugar cubes). There are […]

Dilrook Kannangara A social media activist has lost his bearings and ventured into the territory of hate speech. Calling politically active Buddhist monks by insulting names is fair game as they have entered the political fray. However, religious symbols are beyond political insults. Associating a religious symbol with a sexual object is an offence and […]

Dilrook Kannangara At last the government is doing something about the ice mafia. It is a very lucrative industry and the mafia is fighting back. The mafia cannot fight the police or the STF directly as they know it will be their end. Instead they agitate sections of the people to support them and save […]

Dilrook Kannangara Tamil-only political parties rarely vote in favour of the national budget. When they do it raises many questions. At least one TNA MP has said he supports the 2023 budget to help resolve problems affecting Tamil people and to meet Tamil aspirations. Looks like the 2023 budget has replaced the LTTE which stood […]

Dilrook Kannangara Amidst the economic crisis racist politics has raised its ugly head once again. Instead of addressing the problems of 22 million people, tribal politicians want special treatment for their tribe of 3.5 million people. In order to perform their extortion racket, they are still using the ethnic problem begging bowl. The so-called ethnic […]

Dilrook Kannangara This year’s Olcott Speech at Ananda College by Thilan Wijesinghe was a refreshing presentation of what went wrong with the Sri Lankan economy. It was an apt topic given the fact that the school had produced many winners who decorated the nation with prestige and who saved the nation when under threat. The […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka is in a NATO debt trap. Over 50% of Sri Lanka’s external debt was raised in the US and European NATO nations. Another 12% is held by another key US military ally in Asia. Altogether they hold over 62% of Sri Lanka’s external debt. Having trapped Sri Lanka into a perpetual […]