N.A.de S. Amaratunga The new wealth produced by the world since 2020 has been USD 42 trillion. Two thirds of this huge amount of wealth has gone into the pockets of 1% of  the world population which comprises the billionares of the world. The whole of the rest of the world population, ie 99%, will […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga DSc Tamil is one of the languages in the Dravidian family of languages which include Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and also several minor languages numbering more than twenty. Dravidian languages have been spoken through out India from North to South and East to West for centuries long before the arrival of Aryans. […]

by N.A.de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island The above topic is relevant to all countries experiencing economic crises for IMF and China, it appears are alternative and perhaps competing sources for economic aid and they are both accused of causing debt-traps for the recipient countries. IMF is accused by people like Joseph Stiglitz of manipulating […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga DSc When goons attacked Aragalaya” at GFG one woman activist, an actress I think, shouted at her comrades Polu bima damanda. Passata yanda, bithiyata hettu wenakan yanda” (Drop your sticks. Retreat back up to the wall). That depicts the peacefull face of the Aragalaya”. On another day when a crowd surrounded […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga  DSc TNA leader R.Sampanthan has called for a re-merger of Northern and Eastern Provinces and he has said that the problems Tamils face cannot be solved without the two provinces coming together. Moreover he has raised the matter with the American Ambassador Ms. Teplitz. The Tamil leader may have fired a […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga  TNA has submitted its proposals to the Experts Committee appointed to  draft a new Constitution. What they have asked for is far in excess of the devolution package granted in the 13th Amendment. The powers that are demanded exceeds those granted to the states in India which is a federal country. […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Indian Foreign Minister in his recent visit to Sri Lanka has firmly told the government that the 13th Amendment must be implemented in a united Sri Lanka. Unitary state is not acceptable to India probably because it is not acceptable to TNA and Tamil separatists. India has been reminding our governments when […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga  TNA has submitted its proposals to the Experts Committee appointed to  draft a new Constitution. What they have asked for is far in excess of the devolution package granted in the 13th Amendment. The powers that are demanded exceeds those granted to the states in India which is a federal country. […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga   PhD, DSc  One of the leaders of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya has proposed that the present government, instead of wasting time over drafting a new Constitution and trying to reinvent the wheel. should adopt the draft Constitution that the ‘yahapalana’ government put together which, he says, could not be taken forward […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga DSc Government, it is reported, is thinking of holding PC elections in April next year. It is improbable that either the Covid or the economy would be in a satisfactory situation by April next year to allow elections for an institution that is largely non-essential.  Our economy has recorded negative growth […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga National integration would mean that in a country which is inhabited by several ethnic communities everyone would harbour similar feelings and thinking about matters of national interest like independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty etc. Development of such sentiments cannot be forced on a people. In this regard what the Indian philosopher S. Radhakrishna […]

Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga   DSc Joseph Biden has decisively won the US presidential elections in November 2020 though President Trump also did extremely well getting more than 47% of the popular vote. This indicates towards a politically divided America and that Trumpism, or the nationalism that he gave leadership to, could influence future […]

N.A.de S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island Epithets like Trojan Horse” and Greeks bearing gifts” have been used to refer to offers of assistance by foreign countries to Sri Lanka, when the country is battling a Covid second wave and an economic crisis (The Island 12.10.2020). Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” is an […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga  As discussions on drafting a new constitution gathers momentum the ethnic problem may assume significant importance as it has been an intractable issue in the politics of Sri Lanka. Some political scientists believe that ethnic based conflicts could be resolved by power sharing methods that strengthen democracy (Hartzell CA, 2015) while others […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga A new constitution is being planned and a committee comprised of leading intellectuals has been appointed to draft it. One of the difficult issues the committee would have to grapple with would be the ethnic issue. Several aspects of the ethnic issue may have to be taken into consideration when tackling […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Prof. Gamini Keerawella (GK) in an article titled Genealogy of Concept and Genesis of 13th Amendment” (The Island 16th & 17th Sept. 2020) attempts to show that the 13th A was not something forced on us by India, that it was a concept discussed by political leaders starting before independence and that […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga The 19th A is being replaced by the 20th A and a new constitution is being planned.  A Committee has been appointed for the drafting of a new constitution comprising some of the leading intellectuals in the country. That would be the fourth new constitution for the country since independence. And there […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Our hapless people battered and bruised by four years of ‘yahapalana’ , the two bank robberies, foreign interference, UNHRC Resolutions, separatism, Easter bombs and Covid have finally crawled to polling booths and stuffed the ballot boxes with lotus buds. Even the creators of the lotus bud may have been overwhelmed and shaken […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga TNA leader S.Sampanthan in his letter to the President regarding the Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province makes reference to a statement made by Paul E Peiris about the five Ishwarams of Lord Siva which are to be found  in the coastal regions of Jaffna, Trincomalee, […]

Professor  N.A.de S. Amaratunga  DSc L.C.Arulpragasam’s (LCA) article which appeared in three parts under three titles; Decolonization, Nationalism, the Nation State and Democracy – Part I” (Sunday Island, 14.10.2018), Some Unchronicled Consequences of the Colonial Period – Part II  (Sunday Island, 21.10.2018) and The ‘State Nation’ Versus the ‘Nation State’ ” (Sunday Island, 28.10.2018)   is […]

Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga To understand the nature of the Tamil problem and why it remains apparently unresolved one must examine its history and origin. It has its origin in Tamil separatism which dates back to 1930s. Tamil separatism is a Tamil construct. When independence for Ceylon was being considered by the British […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island The countries which have benefited from Chinese assistance in Asia, Africa and Europe have not suffered a breach of their independence and sovereignty or lost any significant extents of resources. The world economy, international relations, and geopolitics are at present influenced by two strong ideologies; neo-liberalism and nationalism. […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island In the 2500 long history of this country there have been several betrayals that had adversely changed its destiny. Some of them were forced on the rulers and some engineered by them. And some could have been avoided. An act by a ruler that compromises the independence and sovereignty […]

Professor  N. A.de S. Amaratunga As Buddha had seen by experience that life is Anithya, Dukka, Anathma” (impermanent, sorrow, no-self) and as he did not want to believe what he could not perceive with his senses, he had to fight against the two extreme metaphysical views that were present in his time; the theory of  […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga First let us recall what has happened in the last four and a half years so that we know what has to change with the election of a new president.  These last four years have been agonizing for the people of this country. The blows fell incessantly and relentlessly one after […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island We live at a time of unprecedented political turmoil and uncertainty. There is no visible government. The officials are probably running the country, and as there is no political direction the economy is gradually and perceptibly declining, making a huge impact on the lives of the poor people as […]

N. A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island There is a perceived threat of a major intrusion into the country’s sovereignty and the country being turned into a military base for the US, as part of its strategy for dominance in the Indian Ocean. Several agreements with the US and supportive parliamentary acts are said […]

N. A. de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island A high ranking minister has said Sri Lanka is not a Sinhala Buddhist country though the majority belongs to that ethnic-religious community. He may or may not be showing his ignorance and may have been trying merely to attract the non-Sinhala Buddhist voter. Lot of piffle is […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island Presidential system is a burden on the country and its people, and when it is like the present arrangement where the president and the parliament do not see eye to eye, it could be disastrous as being proved now. During the last four and a half years, nothing was […]

N.A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island Bones found in a mass grave in Mannar have been found to be more than 300 years old by a laboratory in Florida, USA. Lord Naseby has called on all the countries sponsoring the Resolution against Sri Lanka to bring down the official figure of deaths during the last […]