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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

By Rohana R. Wasala (continued from August 23, 2021) Sri Lanka and supranationalism Every Sri Lankan government since independence has acted on the tacit understanding that, while remaining politically independent of India without being overawed by its size or strength, Sri Lanka should maintain friendly relations with its big northern neighbour at all times. But […]

By Rohana R. Wasala Definitions I would be the last to use the words ‘nation’ and ‘race’ interchangeably in the modern Sri Lankan context as some appear to do nowadays. There was a time in the past when in most countries, the two words could be used as synonyms. Each state was formed by a […]

By Rohana R. Wasala It is always in season for old men to learn. -Aeschylus, Greek playwright of the 5th Century BCE Partly to our dismay, gerontocracy has shownIts withered hands of a wizened old wizardBehind the recent cabinet reshuffle, muddle or mess,Moving ministers like pieces on a chessboard, changing,The configuration of portfolios, like pawns […]

By Rohana R. Wasala I have always strongly endorsed the necessity for actors to possess a reasonable degree of social responsibility. The actor who is adored by millions of people owes something to the society, which has given him an elevated and highly respected position. Dilip Kumar  Dilip Kumar was born in Peshawar (which is […]

By Rohana R. Wasala It was recently reported in the media that Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (Retd) Sarath Weerasekera had said that all young persons above the age of 18 years should be given military training in order to inculcate disciplinary values in them. He was speaking at the opening of a new police […]