H. L. D. Mahindapala Each time Ranil Wickremesinghe is faced with a threat to his leadership he comes up with a band aid solution which either postpones his day of reckoning, and / or worsens the situation for the Party, creating internal chaos and bringing it down in the eyes of the people. The latest […]

By H. L. D. Mahindapala Courtesy Ceylon Today The massive swing against the UNP indicates clearly that the nation was biding its time to cut the neck of Ranil’s regime with the sharp edge of their lengthy ballot papers. And they did it in right royal style, peacefully and decisively, leaving no doubt in anyone’s […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Ranil Wickremesinghe reached the peak of his power on January 8, 2015.  Then he was neither the prime minister nor the president. But he  had the power to make things happen. It can be argued that he had the world at his feet because he represented the promising moral force of […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala In watching the video of the launch of the UNP manifesto, one of the factors that surprised me most was the performance of Sajith Premadasa. I had never seen him so stiff in delivering his public speeches. He was speaking more as a ventriloquist than as a fired-up, rabble-rousing politician gesticulating […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Part I The launching of the UNP manifesto in Kandy under the auspices of the UNP’s Kandyan Chief, Lakshman Kiriella, exposed what the UNP has been trying to hide from the public. First, it exposed the entrenched internal split between Sajith Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe. All the signs of the growing […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Victor Ivan, the founder Editor of the popular Ravaya – a Sinhala  tabloid launched particularly to target President Ranasinghe Premadasa with the backing of the Western and Indian embassies and, of course, Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake —  has written an article in the Financial Times (25/10/2019) arguing that Gotabaya Rajapaksa […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Having lost their most powerful bargaining chip at Nandikadal, the Tamil leadership, lured by Ranil Wickremesinghe, embraced Gen Sarath Fonseka, the much-decorated head of the Army who, along with the heads of Navy and the Air force, inflicted the most humiliating defeat on the Tamils. The votes given to Gen. Fonseka […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Any lawyer who has made it to the peak of his profession carries with him the authoritative air of having achieved the highest intellectual capacity to build up a case on hard evidence and presenting it cogently, logically, rationally to persuade his audience, court, forum, etc., of the unshakeable truth on […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala In the past the voters had repeatedly delivered one consistent message to the UNP: Ranil Wickremesinghe, the  Party leader, is not fit to rule the nation. Last Friday in Elpitiya they repeated that message for the umpteenth time. It is a vote of no confidence in Ranil, the permanent loser. Once […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Kusal Perera (KP), a Senior  Journalist writing a Friday Colum to the Daily Mirror and Jehan Perera, CEO of the National Peace Council. are two underdeveloped peas of the same anti-Sinhala-Buddhist pod. They can be categorised as minoritarians because they believe that the most  evil force in Sri Lanka is the […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala The long-drawn and futile battle of Ranil Wickremesinghe to deny Sajith Premadasa, his deputy, the rightful place in the presidential race finally ended yesterday. Ranil fired all his ammunition to eliminate Sajith. But Sajith fought back strategically to outwit Ranil and end the 27-year-old reign of a cardboard leader who led […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala A common snide remark in the days gone by used to say derisively that if there is a traffic jam somewhere there is a cop in the middle of it. It means that an incompetent cop without any sense of direction had caused an unwanted and avoidable problem to the public. […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Anbarasan Ethirajan is a seasoned Correspondent of the BBC who covers Sri Lankan politics from time to time. His latest report is titled Sri Lanka’s Muslim demonised” after Easter bombings. (August 13, 2019 – BBC News). The overall thrust of his latest report is to present the Muslims as victims of […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Though not all the Muslims are perpetrators of violence it is the violence of the few that stain the image of the many. Besides, the experience of Iliyas is only a temporary phase. It takes time to heal. The Sinhalese and the Muslims have come a long way from the riots […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala The shock of the Easter Sunday bomb blasts shattered within minutes the comforting beliefs of a nation that had settled down to recline smugly in peace for generations to come. Lulled by the sense of security that restored confidence in the dawn of a new era at the end of Tamil […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala In its long history the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has come under massive attacks by other religionists on three critical occasions. The first attack was the most horrendous. Sankilli, the illegitimate son of King Pararajasegaram and one of the most cruel rulers of Jaffna, marched down to Mannar on the […]

H.L.D. Mahindapala The first ever persecution of Muslims in Sri Lanka occurred way back in history. It took place in Jaffna, the birth place of hate politics against the other”, which included even the Tamils of the low-castes. Details of Tamil hate politics need a whole book.  This essay is focused on Tamil persecution of […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala The history of terrorism in Sri Lanka reveals a clear pattern. The first to take up arms in the post-Independent era were the misguided Sinhala youth. They were educated youth desperately running in search of a quick solution to establish their classless paradise. Their violence did not take them anywhere. The […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Mangala Samaraweera’s speech apologising to UNHRC High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet was rather difficult to read on my PC because my screen was blurred with his crocodile tears shed for human rights. Simultaneously, his tears were interspersed with scorn and anger against the Sri Lankan delegates who dared to challenge the questionable […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Hate speech comes in various shades of lies. It is the curse that haunts current of global politics. It runs from white supremacists in America to the boot-end of New Zealand. On the way to New Zealand it links up with Tamil supremacists and their NGO agents in Sri Lanka. Some […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala The role of Buddhism with Sri Lankan characteristics (i.e., Sinhala-Buddhism) has been demonised in the post-1956 phase by the (1) pro-separatist lobby, (2) its allies in the NGOs and (3) left-wing academics to such an extent that it is now touted as the key factor that is obstructing democracy, liberalism and […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala This is a critical year for all politicians. With three-tier elections (Provincial, Parliamentary and Presidential) coming round the corner they all need to polish their image to win votes. Ranil Wickremesinghe, in particular, needs to give a spit, polish and shine to his image, which has been badly battered by the […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Ranil Wickremesinghe’s  biggest ever deal in his entire political career, with which he hoped to win the Nobel Peace Prize, was his Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) with Velupillai Prabhakaran. Irrespective of the disastrous consequences of his delusional peace deal, he signed it guaranteeing the handing over of powers and institutions of the […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala And the soothsayers, when they saw the seats prepared, foretold: ‘The earth is occupied by these (bhikkus); they will be lords upon the island.’  – Mahavamsa–IV:53.                                                                                                                     In the opening paragraph Bhikku Mahanama, the Father of Sri Lankan history, makes it clear that he didn’t sit down to write the Mahavamsa […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Undoubtedly, Mahavamsa focuses essentially on the Sinhala-Buddhists. What else could historian Mahanama do writing in the 5th century? What else was there for  him to write about at the time? He couldn’t write about the Tamils because they were not a part of the evolving historical events. Nor had they established […]

H.L. D. Mahindapala Last Thursday, just before the courts closed for Christmas holidays, the Supreme Court, sticking strictly to a legalistic path, put an end to the controversial issue of defining the powers of President Maithripala Sirisena, leaving the nation to wrestle with the bigger problems still awaiting solutions to stabilise the nation.  In fact, […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala A recent photo published in a news paper of a UNP meeting showed Ranil Wickremesinghe presiding, flanked by Sajith Premadasa (on  his right)   and Ravi Karunanayake (on his left). Sajith, of course, had taken  his  rightful place as the  anointed deputy leader of the party. He has proved his loyalty to […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala It is the common practice of politicians of all hues to engage passionately in fear-mongering each time they fall into political crisis.  They would cry from roof tops to inject into the electorate their fears of the world coming to an end should anyone of them lose their seats, or if […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala Leaving aside the legalities, politicalities, Constitutionalities and the complexities of the current imbroglio in which the nation is grounded (temporarily), the underlying issues in the Constitutional crisis can be reduced to one single question: At a time when all three branches of the state are trapped in a deadlock without a […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala  TIME: What was the immediate reason for calling an election? President KUMARATUNGA: I was forced into it by a total breakdown of cohabitation in government. The Prime Minister (Ranil Wickremesinghe) was determined to harass me and chase me out. He has only one obsession: he wants to be the President. And […]