MALINDA SENEVIRATN​E 

If the head of any organisation is a crook, it amounts to a licence for theft down the line, all the way to the bottom. If there’s a crook at any level of an organisation, it implies that the head of that institution is either a crook or is incompetent.  Organization, here, could […]

Malinda Seneviratne Post Independence Sri Lanka. That’s a period of 75 years. Long enough for a decent mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. And the downright scandalous. Now in this long period of time, we’ve had representative democracy. More or less. And we’ve had periods when that what and what it means […]

Malinda Seneviratne ‘ලේ හැලුනේ නෑ, සුද්දා තරහ වුනෙත් නෑ; යන්න ගියෙත් නෑ, නොගිහින් හිටියෙත් නෑ.’  ඒ නන්දා මාලිනී අසූව දශකයේ අග භාගයේ එළිදැක්වූ ‘පවන’ ප්‍රසංගයේ ජනප්‍රිය ගීතයක මතකයේ රැඳුනු වචන කිහිපයක්. මේ ‘නිදසස් බයිලාවට’ සුනිල් ආරියරත්න මෙහෙමත් දෙයක් එකතු කරලා තිබුනා: ‘නෑ බැට කෑවේ නේරු පාටෙල් වාගේ, නෑ දිවි දුන්නේ මහත්මා ගාන්ධි වාගේ.’ නිදහසේ කතාව […]

Malinda Seneviratne #gotagohome අරගලය නොහොත් ගෝටව ගෙදර යැවීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතිය නොහොත් ආදරයේ අරගලය අනන්‍ය වූ ඇතැම් පුද්ගලයින්, සංවිධාන සහ බලවේග මුල සිටම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන අවශ්‍ය යැයි තර්ක කළෝය. ආර්ථික අර්බුදය කෙසේ වෙතත් දේශපාලන අර්බුද වලට දිගු කාලීන විසඳුම එය යැයි ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදී. 1978 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අවුල් දකින්නත් විසඳුම් යෝජනා කරන්නත්, විසඳන්න ඉදිරිපත් වෙන්නත් අර්බුද අවශ්‍ය නොමැති […]

Malinda Seneviratne අසූව දශකයේ ඉංග්‍රීසි රොක් සංගීත ක්ෂේත්‍රය වර්ණවත් කල එක් සංගීත කණ්ඩායමකි ‘ඊගල්ස්’.  ‘හොටෙල් කැලිෆෝනියා’, ‘ඩෙස්පරාඩෝ’, ‘ටේක් ඉට් ඊසි’, ‘ටේක් ඉට් ටු ද ලිමිට්’ වැනි ගීත හරහා ප්‍රසිද්ධියක් ලැබූ මේ කණ්ඩායම එම දශකය තුල ග්‍රැමී සම්මාන 6ක් සහ ඇමරිකානු සංගීත සම්මාන 6ක් දිනා ගත්තේය.  ඉහත සඳහන් ගීත වලට වඩා අඩුවෙන් ජනප්‍රියත්වයක් ලැබු එකකි ‘සෑඩ් […]

Malinda Seneviratne ඒ වන විට ‘භීෂණය’ ජනගත වෙලා තිබුණේ නෑ. ඒත් පෙරනිමිති පහළ වෙමින් තිබුණා. ඒ භීෂණයේ මුල් අවධිය කියල කියන්න පුළුවන්. මතක හැටියට 1988 වසරේ සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ. පාසැල් ශිෂ්‍ය ශිෂ්‍යාවන් සහභාගී වුණ උද්ඝෝෂණයකට පොලිසියෙන් වෙඩි තියල නුගවෙල මාධ්‍ය මහා විද්‍යාලයේ අවුරුදු 15ක සිසුවෙක් මැරුණා. ඒ පිළිබඳව විරෝධය ප්‍රකාශ කරන්න පේරාදෙණිය සරසවියේ ශිෂ්‍යයින් මහනුවර පිකට් […]

Malinda Seneviratne ‘Crisis & Struggle’ is the title of an art exhibition that was recently held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. Sujith Rathnayake, the artist, calls it a visual art attack. Nice line. It is presented by, so the poster claims, ‘Art Gallery of the Galle Face Protest Site.’ Sujith Rathnayake’s stature as an […]

Malinda Seneviratne There are some uncomfortable truths about the 13th Amendment, devolution of power and of course provincial councils. Let’s begin with the here-and-now. Provincial Council elections haven’t been held in years. It is more than 10 years since the Eastern Provincial Council elections were held and more than nine since they were held for […]

Malinda Seneviratne Towards the end of the last millennium with some  countries worrying about glitches associated with Y2K or the year 2000, a magazine, maybe ‘Time’ or ‘Newsweek,’ asked world renowned people a simple question along the following lines: ‘what would make the world a better place in the next millennium?’  Maybe it was ‘next […]

Malinda Seneviratne When the then US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Teresita Currie Schaffer, insisted in the early 1990s that Sri Lanka’s food security lies in the wheat fields of North America, it was obviously a part of a general anti-rice rant with a view to propping the American wheat farmer. This is […]

Malinda Seneviratne [‘The Morning Inspection’ is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Scroll down for previous articles]   Sometime in the year 2003, a bumper harvest saw rice prices plummeting in Sri Lanka severely affecting the […]

Malinda Seneviratne Landmark days, like the 1st of January and, more importantly for us in Sri Lanka, the Aluth Avurudda in the month of Bak (that’s April), are about renewal, discarding of hang-ups and errors, and a fresh page.  We are now done with 2015.  The year 2016 is ours to inhabit, revel in and decorate.  It is ours […]

Malinda Seneviratne We are a few hours away from the year 2013.  The world has not ended and the signs are it will not.  Strangely, the end of the world sometime in late December was the most looked forward to event of the entire year, beating by a fair margin the Olympics, the US Presidential Election and […]

Malinda Seneviratne President Ranil Wickremesinghe has called all parties to get together and solve what he calls the ‘ethnic-problem’ that has remained ‘unresolved’ for decades. Meanwhile, parties that claim to represent ‘Tamil interests’ have put forward a set of demands: a) stop ‘land grabs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces by armed forces the state […]

Malinda Seneviratne Sometime in May 2022, when it was announced that plans were underfoot to hold the delayed parliamentary elections, there was a hue and cry, mostly from the then Opposition. Key leaders of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) argued that elections would worsen the Covid-19 situation. Nothing of the kind happened of course, but […]

Malinda Seneviratne The early versions of Udayasiri Wickramaratne’s celebrated theatrical piece ‘Suddek Oba Amathai (A white man addresses you) contained a short soliloquy, ‘Baya Vunu Minisek Oba Amathai (A scared man addresses you).’ The man was essentially scared of two things: a) that he would speak the truth even when he wanted to deceive, and b) that […]

Malinda Seneviratne Contour makes the bends bends make for pause feet stop and go and heart to footprint returns Roads are either slow or fast depending on road conditions, weather, traffic, the condition of the particular vehicle and the urgency or lack thereof of the person at the wheel. The same road can be fast […]

Malinda Seneviratne Such diversity! Such passion! Such innovation and creativity! Such courage and heroism! Such were and still are the encomiums floating around in mainstream and new media about the Aragalaya. Yes, there was diversity, passion, creativity, innovation and courage. These however do not necessarily constitute good, healthy, wholesome etc. For example, the LTTE, Al […]

Malinda Seneviratne There are two questions. First, does research really matter or rather does research drive decisions when it comes to policy planning? Second, what is the role or research institutes or, put another way, do policy-makers understand the worth of such bodies?   My friend Sugath Kulathunga raised an interesting point recently with regard to […]

Malinda Seneviratne There are rain clouds, not too dark and not threatening.  It might rain later.  There was rain last night.  Tomorrow, there will be other clouds of similar shade.  Non-threatening for a while.  There might be rain.  The city pulsated in rhythms acquired over the years.  In some village in the Dry Zone, there […]

Malinda Seneviratne පින් කෙත හෙළ රන් දෙරණේ යලි උපදින්නට හේතු වාසනා වේවා  There are differences in playing to a full and captive audience in a magnificent theatre, engaging in a light rehearsal at home with table and hand-pumped harmonium or a full rehearsal with an entire orchestra and sophisticated sound system, and in responding to a […]

Malinda Seneviratne A good hearted woman, Barbara Undershaft, devotes all energies to help the poor as a major in the Salvation Army. She sees Andrew, her millionaire father, an arms dealer, as someone who needs to be saved. At one point though, she is forced to accept a large contribution from the errant father to […]

Malinda Seneviratne Rehabilitation is a word that presumes a previous state of perceived acceptance or agreement. Its etymology is interesting and revealing, deriving from re– again” or to turn” and habitare– make fit” which in turn comes from the Latin habilis– easily managed, fit.” In other words, rehabilitation is about restoring someone or something to a previous state; […]

Malinda Seneviratne Yes, we need peace. We need reconciliation. Such needs are the inevitable outcomes of conflict-end. Fixing these to exaggerated grievances and out-of-this-world aspirations and tying it all to a constitutional amendment obtained by a bully is unacceptable. Ridiculous, in fact.  Indra Mani Pandey. Remember the name. He’s India’s Permanent Representative in Geneva. He’s […]

Malinda Seneviratne Rosy is out of order. Colombo’s liberals and leftists are out of order. Democracy-advocating NGO personalities are out of order. Funded Voices, Rent-a-Protest Agitators, Born Again Nazis, Candlelight Ladies, Colombots, Stink Tanks and other Kolombians are out of order. And that’s good, for they reveal themselves when they shout and when they are silent.  […]

Malinda Seneviratne One of the most thorny problems for self-styled liberals in Sri Lanka is that they use the liberal label as though it’s some kind of impenetrable shield, hiding behind which they take on specific enemies in accordance with preferred outcomes. Scratch them and you find some grotesque creatures. You would find colonial remnants, […]

Malinda Seneviratne Sri Lanka is a resilient nation. That’s almost a given. A constant. All talk of peace, human rights, democracy, good governance, reparations  and other such goodies emanating from Washington, London and other empiric capitals are disingenuous and laughable. Constant. Meddling, self-righteous and downright obnoxious North American and European diplomats: well, almost par for […]

Malinda Seneviratne Courtesy Courtesy The Daily Mirror When it comes to fire hoses and falsehoods, the USA would be tough to beat. Chung and Biden ought to know. US Ambassador Julie Chung was spot on. A few days ago, she pointed out, correctly, that ‘fake news – and fake tweets – are a real problem.’ She […]

Malinda Seneviratne In Sri Lanka’s political lexicon there are two terms that have obtained a lot of play over the past 8 years or so: Toyyas and Bayyas. Bayyas are sometimes taken to be Rajapaksa loyalists but the truth of that identity goes beyond that family and could be best understood as a contradistinction of Toyyas. Toyyas are certainly anti-Rakapaksa but that’s not […]

Malinda Seneviratne In his ‘The Ballad of East and West’ Rudyard Kipling put the issue of political geographies in a nutshell.Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat Literally, yes, where one ends the other starts and apart from […]