Author Archive for Rohana R. Wasala

TRUE HISTORY OF SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala I concluded a previous article published in Lankaweb on January 28, 2023 (Is recolonisation the final solution II) touching on the deplorable situation that innocent Sri Lankans have been plunged into not only by the current economic crisis but also by the so-called Tamil ethnic problem, both aggravated by unjust direct […]

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MAY THE MOST VENERABLE MAHANAYAKES ADMONISH MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA AS WELL

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Is former prime minister and president, Mahinda Rajapaksa still bluffing? The Most Venerable Mahanayake theras of the Three Nikayas (Siyam, Amarapura and Ramanna) wrote to president Ranil Wickremasinghe admonishing him not to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution two weeks ago, on February 2, as reported in The Island […]

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An open letter to the NPP/JVP:“Don’t saw off the branch you are sitting on!”

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Two stalwarts of the JVP-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, Dr Harini Amarasuriya MP and Mr Tilvin Silva, JVP General Secretary, as reported in the media early February 2023, have made more or less clear the alliance’s stand on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (suggested by […]

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Cynical irony of consecrating the full implementation of the controversial 13A with a special Sacred Tooth Relic exposition

Thursday, February 2nd, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesman and Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran says that his party has decided to boycott the independence day celebrations this year, as reported in The Island of January 31, 2023. Instead, they will declare it a Black Day and commence a movement towards achieving what they call […]

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Is recolonisation the final solution?- II

Saturday, January 28th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Continued from January 26, 2023 To assert, as Mr Sirimanne does, that From ancient times the Northern region in the island was a kingdom occupied by Tamils due to its closeness to South India…….. during the reign of King Elara, a Tamil, there was a war between the Sinhalese and Tamil […]

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Is recolonisation the final solution?

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island First of all, let me express my sincere respects to Mr D.L. Sirimanne, the writer of the interesting article entitled ‘Celebrating 75th Anniversary of Independence’ (The Island/Opinion/January 18, 2023). He struck me as a venerable old man, who, at 103 years of age, still thinks about the welfare […]

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What does Ranil Wickremasinghe have up his sleeve? 

Friday, January 13th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala Whatever it is, equipped with his education, native intelligence and acquired political wisdom, he will be able to hold the country whole until it passes lawfully into the hands of the uncorrupt patriotic young generation that is  waiting in the wings in patient silence (not into those of the ignorant noisy […]

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Rectifying history to vandalize it: Pujya K. Ariyamagga’s pain

Friday, January 6th, 2023

By Rohana R. Wasala A Youtube video (uploaded December 27, 2022) with the alarmist caption බුදුන් ඉපදුණු මේ ලංකාවට සිදු වු අපරාදෙ අපිත් දැන ගනිමුද  (Let’s be aware of the enormity of the injustice perpetrated on Sri Lanka where the Buddha was born) captured my attention this morning (January 1, 2023), both because of the […]

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CLOSURE OF THE MODERN DAY ARHANT CASE? 

Sunday, December 18th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Consequent to Siridhamma Thera’s insulting comments on the Dalada and his critical outbursts against the (in his opinion) foolish relic worshiping lay Buddhists, and  against the Ven. Mahanayakes, the Karaka Sangha Sabha of the Malwatte Chapter to which he belongs wrote to him ordering him to tender a formal apology for […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT –  IV

Saturday, December 17th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala In almost all the videos I watched on the internet, Ven. Samanthabhadra refers to Buddhists he judges to lack the level of intellect that he thinks a rational thinking Buddhist should have, using  very derogatory terms such as fools, donkeys, animals, etc. He has no empathy  for people with perceived weaknesses. […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT – III

Friday, December 16th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Incidentally, disparagement or what appears to be attempted desacralization of the Tooth Relic by various individuals is not new. The famous Colonel Olcott (1832-1907), who greatly contributed to the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and who initiated a school system for the education of the children of Sinhalese Buddhists (something […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN-DAY ARHANT – II

Thursday, December 15th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Ven. Samanthabhadra Thera used to be a very popular preacher in the past as Pitiduwe Siridhamma Himi. He has been claiming for a few years now that he has attained Arahanthood which is the highest stage of spiritual attainment in Buddhism and it is identical to the attainment of the ultimate […]

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THE ENTERPRISING CASE OF A MODERN DAY ARHANT REVISITED 

Wednesday, December 14th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala I wrote a long feature article (entitled ‘Case of a modern day arhant’) in September/October 2017 about a controversial Buddhist monk named Pitiduwe Siridhamma. This person (b. 1975) became a bhikkhu in his mid-twenties, as he claims, on leaving the university with a bachelor’s degree in science. In the course of […]

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Towards a future free from fears of Islamism

Friday, January 7th, 2022

By Rohana R. Wasala Gravitas News (wionews, World is One News) web portal reported Tuesday December 21, 2021: Riyadh holds 4-day EDM carnival”. Commenting on the electronic dance music extravaganza, unprecedented in Saudi Arabia,  the young news anchor  said, The defacto leader of the Islamic World, the Guardian of the two holiest sites in Islam, […]

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COOL debacle in the hands of fools: He laughs best who laughs last!

Friday, December 24th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala (An opinion offered for critical examination) Addressing a gathering of jurists in Sinhala at a function in Colombo, justice minister Ali Sabry said (December 12): To me as minister for justice, and to us all as citizens of this country, people are the most important factor. It is because of them […]

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Down with the 225 who have failed to agree on united response to the Sialkot barbarism!

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala The lesson taught by the failure of our parliament to register a prompt united response of unqualified condemnation against the occurrence of the Sialkot savagery committed in the name of religion should never be forgotten by all patriotic Sri Lankans. My hunch is that ordinary Sri Lankans whose hearts bled for […]

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Gotabaya’s soliloquy before Mare Crisium: Some home truths and simple hints

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet The initial two year period of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential term has been largely […]

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End monkey business now and get serious for once!

Friday, November 5th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala  (Continuation of ‘Don’t forget people who elected you, Mr President!’/November 2, 2021) My gut feeling is that the Presidential Task Force, if it is what I think it is, i.e., a brilliantly thought out ploy with an ulterior motive, is meant to abort the new constitution making project. It was probably […]

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Please don’t forget the people who elected you, Mr President!

Monday, November 1st, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala  A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the […]

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Ali Sabry’s equation: An indication of acrobatics on a high wire?

Wednesday, October 27th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala (The following is only a layman’s personal opinion for what it is worth. It is hoped that it will be read not as an attack on the intrepid and intelligent young Minister of Justice Ali Sabry, but as a due appreciation of the difficulties of the daunting challenge that he has […]

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Put an end to this political nude show by some teachers, medicals, and monks , too!

Monday, October 11th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala This is without prejudice to the honour and dignity of the thousands of our dedicated teachers and doctors, nurses, and other members of the professions mentioned here. Teaching is arguably the noblest of all professions. Religions were founded by ancient sages who claimed to have discovered the ultimate truth about existence […]

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The Yohani phenomenon has opened a window on the little known Sinhala and the Sinhalese

Friday, October 8th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala Sadly, outside Sri Lanka, little known are the Sinhala language and the ethnic community known as the Sinhalese who have spoken it as their native tongue over the millennia. Both have been eclipsed by Sri Lanka’s huge northern neighbour India with its teeming millions speaking diverse languages, with none of which […]

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Yohani, Sri Lanka’s multifaceted ‘Manike’ (Gem), has been snatched by India? Aiyo! BUT, no problem; it is turning out to be all for the best for her and for the country.

Friday, October 1st, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala Sri Lanka is sliding into international fame, perhaps for the first time since the Cricket World Cup win in 1996, but on a much larger scale, due to Yohani’s gradual emergence over the past two or three years, first as a bilingual (Sinhala and English), then as a multilingual, singer and […]

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A response to Dr Tilak Fernando’s ‘Englishman Ordained as an Upasaka’/September 23, 2021

Thursday, September 23rd, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala ‘Englishman Ordained as an Upasaka’ by Dr Tilak Fernando (Lankaweb/September 23, 2021) prompted me to write this response. The Englishmen that the writer mentions as having been impressed by Buddhism are no doubt highly knowledgeable about Buddha Dhamma, because, as he claims, they have read books about the subject. Western scholars […]

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Anagarika Dharmapala’s interactions with Mahatma Gandhi during his struggle to restore India’s Buddhist heritage

Saturday, September 18th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala It seems I was born to restore the Sasana in India. When I started Buddhist work in India, a lot of lay Buddhists as well as Bhikkhus in Ceylon started working against me. They did not accept my advice……… I left Ceylon and went to India to do the work for […]

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Your Excellency President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, please let this be a turning point!

Thursday, September 16th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala When I pen these words, average Sri Lankans are still sleeping. I am ahead of them and awake. That is because of the time zone difference between where I live and Sri Lanka, my country of birth. As usual, as the first thing I do in the morning, particularly these days, […]

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Anagarika Dharmapala: Admirer of ‘Queen Mab’

Thursday, September 16th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala It may look unfashionable or even indecent to write about Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) in these days of ‘reconciliation’ politics. But that is due to the deliberate distortion of facts by vested interests. So I beg my readers’ indulgence. The Anagarika has been consistently misrepresented by antinationalists as a Sinhala supremacist, a […]

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YOUTH AND DISCIPLINE

Thursday, September 9th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala Ref. ‘Compulsory training to instil discipline, not jeopardise freedom of choice’ by Rear Admiral (Rtd) Dr Sarath Weerasekera/The Island/September 4, 2021. It is a response to an earlier opinion article of mine under the title ‘Candour without caution dangerous naivety’ (July 29, 2021). Thank you, Dr Weerasekera, for your lavish compliment […]

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A challenge to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and self respect

Saturday, September 4th, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala A small country like Sri Lanka with no economic or military power has only two things to its credit – sovereignty and self respect. If we lose sovereignty and self respect, we lose everything.” The late Lakshman Kadirgamar, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-2001), quoted in THE CAKE THAT WAS BAKED AT […]

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Racism, Nationalism and Supranationalism – III

Wednesday, September 1st, 2021

By Rohana R. Wasala (continued from August 28, 2021) Misrepresentation and distortion of history by colonialists and separatists The independence or dominion status that Sri Lanka (then Ceylon to foreigners) was granted by the departing British colonials was not more than a hangover from the British imperialism of the previous one and a half centuries […]

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