KAMALIKA PIERIS Premadasa won his seat at the General election of 1970, without any difficulty. In 1970, Premadasa had built five pre- fabricated houses and one community hall in every district, said Evans Cooray. Mayors and chairmen of local bodies were invited to Temple Trees and their views were obtained. The UNP victory at the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised.12.5.23 Ryp Van Winkle ( Sunday Times) wrote to JR Jayewardene in February 2023.  My dear JR, I thought I must write to you, though it has been over a quarter of a century since you left us, because your name is being mentioned frequently these days. That is after your nephew began […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The middle class, fed up of the shortages of the Sirimavo government, hailed the arrival of JR. They welcomed his appointment as head of state. They became disillusioned later, but his core group of admirers did not desert him. JR handled the transition from a controlled economy to a more open one with […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JR’s role in creating an all powerful President,  bringing in a highly defective Constitution in 1978, his introduction of Proportional Representation, the Manape,   the National list and Bonus seats, which  allowed defeated candidate to sit in Parliament ,  the Open Economy, the Indo Lanka accord which gave the Trincomalee tank farm to India,  […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  JR made a huge change to Sri Lanka‘s economy by ‘liberalizing’ the economy. That was in 1977, but JR’s economic policy is remembered   today as well, with deep feeling. His policy is   blamed for the current economic collapse and JR is criticized all over again. Sri Lanka had liberalized too soon, said critics. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS There were several other rigged elections in JR’s time. The Referendum was not the only one.   JR had intervened in the Jaffna District Development Councils elections held on June 4, 1981.  This was the first election to take place under Proportional Representation. Officials selected by the Commissioner of Elections were replaced by nominees […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS This essay contains observations, on the rule of President JR Jayewardene, many of them first hand, made by V.P. Vittachi and Sarath Amunugama with additional information from Jayatissa Bandaragoda. All three had served in the Ceylon Civil Service and held high positions in the state administration. V.P. Vittachi joined the Ceylon Civil Service […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka celebrated its 50 anniversary, by publishing, History of surgical services in Sri Lanka from the earliest times to 2021.”  The title itself shows that the College recognizes the existence of   a surgical service in the island, before the arrival of modern surgery.  The book does not […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The History of Surgery published by the College of Surgeon of Sri Lanka (2022) has   provided a very positive picture of the role of our general surgeons. The first surgeons in the island were General Surgeons” who were expected to   deal with all surgical cases that came their way.  All surgical operations were […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Surgical specialties were introduced to the state health sector in the late 1950s. The General Hospital Colombo was the first to get permanent special units, such as a thoracic unit, observed History of Surgery. But some specialties were started in the provincial hospitals as well.  Doctors who had trained in specialized surgery abroad […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The first contemporary monograph on western medicine in Sri Lanka was C.G Uragoda’s History of medicine in Sri Lanka from the earliest times to 1948, issued as the centenary publication of the Sri Lanka Medical Association in 1987. It recorded the   development of western medicine during the Portuguese, Dutch and British occupation and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  The History of surgery in Sri Lanka published by the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka contains surgical information which will be greatly valued by the surgeons. But the book also contains information which will appeal to those interested in the history of medicine.  The book is a gold mine of medical biography. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The book Archive of memory, reflections on 70 years of independence” curated by Malathi de Alwis and Hasini Haputhanthri was published in 2019 by HistoricalDialogue.lk.(ISBN 978-642-5313-00-6) There was also a traveling exhibition which displayed the same objects and text given in this book. The book and exhibition seem to have been planned together, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Sinhalese, the Buddhists and the Sri Lanka Army are presented in an unflattering, negative manner in the book ‘Archive of memory.’ The episode ‘Beef lamprais’ is on Buddhism.” The    narrator who lived in Kalutara, says we ate beef every day though we were Buddhist, so did the rest.  The majority in Kalutara […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Lastly,  Archive of Memory looked at  the Eelam War. There is a brief reference to LTTE activity. Two narrators recall LTTE bombs, one  at No Limit, Nugegoda on November 27, 2007 and the explosion at  Katunayake airport on 24.7 2001. In ‘Chain and bangles’ we are told of LTTE attacks on Sinhala villages. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Pediatrician Manouri Senanayake researched into child hood and child care in ancient Lanka for her book titled Pediatrics and child care in Sri Lanka” (2007).  She found that the ancient literature yielded some information about childhood in ancient Sri Lanka.  Literary works emphasis the mother’s affection for her child. Childhood in ancient Sri […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS C.G. Uragoda continuing his account of ‘Medicine under Sri Lankan kings”, observed that the ancient records confirmed the existence of hospitals in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.  The only hospital for the laity which had been identified   in Anuradhapura at the time was the one found near Thuparama, probably dated to Kassapa IV. Udaya 1 […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Western medicine as we know it today was introduced to the island by the British. The western tradition did not recognize the Asian systems of medicine and most local doctors trained in western medicine avoided non western medicine. In 1858 Dr. W.C Ondaatje   wrote on the empiricism of Singhalese doctors and the advantage […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS KS Sivakumaran in his book Sri Lankan Tamil literature and culture” (2019) wrote of the evolution of an indigenous Tamil literature of Sri Lanka.    Prior to this, in 2015, the Annasi and Kadalagotu festival”   had a session Tamil footprint in Sri Lanka literature”, focusing on Tamil writers writing in Sri Lanka. In 1990, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Human Rights have taken root in Sri Lanka and are peddled by Human Rights devotees with great enthusiasm and little critical inquiry. When I suggested that a mentally retarded girl, who had been successfully integrated into the community, should be sterilized, I received the reply ‘but that is a Right. ’ Human Rights […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The UN Human Rights declaration has evoked a range of attitudes from uncritical admiration to utter contempt. Admirers of Human Rights praise them extravagantly. Human Rights are the inalienable fundamental rights which a person is entitled to simply because he/she is a human being. They are universal in the sense of being applicable […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka Foundation held a seminar titled Seminar on Religious and Cultural traditions of Human Rights in Sri Lanka”, probably    in 1981. The Foundation had organized three live-in seminars, with participation of Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, Catholic and Christian groups. The final reports of these groups were published in Religion and Culture in the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS China has also joined in the discussion on human rights. The first ‘South-South Human Rights Forum’ was held in Beijing on the 7th and 8th of December 2017. The forum was jointly sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  In my view firstly, the UN Declaration of Human Rights resembles Aesop’s story of the father taking the donkey to market. Secondly, the statements lacked amplification. The Rights were left up in the air. Thirdly, the Declaration made sweeping statements on matters which sometimes humans cannot control, such as the right to life. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ( UDHR)was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) In 1946, UN had   wanted  a declaration that would guarantee the rights of  individuals,  because the UN Charter only dealt with the rights of sovereign states.  UN […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The singing of the national anthem in Tamil has led to two opposite reactions, for and against. There is also a conciliatory approach which said the Tamil version, could be sung in Tamil, in Tamil majority population area but when it comes to state and national functions it must be sung in Sinhala. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka Thaaye, the Tamil version of the Sri Lankan national anthem, is an exact translation of Sri Lanka Matha and is sung to the same tune, observed DBS Jeyaraj. Sri Lanka’s national anthem sings of patriotic praise to the country alone and not to any race, religion, caste, creed or community. Hence, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS This essay gives a quick resume of the story of Sri Lanka‘s national anthem and then records the developments up to 2021 regarding the Tamil version. A ‘national anthem’ is a western invention of the 18th century. European countries acquired ‘national anthems’ during this period. The British national anthem simply asked God to […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The ‘Tamil inscription’ in the Trilingual slab found in Galle, given by China,  has been greeted with great joy by the Tamil Separatist Movement, saying that it shows the  importance of the  Tamil  language  in International relations and International trade. Unfortunately the inscription is not in Tamil. This Trilingual slab was discovered in […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ceylon history was introduced as a subject to schools during the British period. Initially, pupils were only taught European history, and, as one commentator observed, pupils left school with the notion that ‘our ancestors were barbarians’.  Ceylon history should be introduced, it was suggested, so that pupils would be in a position to […]