‘This vessel, and two other vessels were invited, I repeat it, invited by the Sri Lankan side to come here,’ says Iranian Ambassador to Colombo Alireza Delkhosh
ISTANBUL
The Iranian warship attacked by the US earlier this month was sailing at the invitation of Sri Lanka, said Alireza Delkhosh, Iranian ambassador to the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, on Monday.
The IRS Dena was not ready for war and it was not here for war. It was not here for conflict,” Delkhosh said, according to a video record of his news conference held in Colombo.
It was participating in a peaceful exercise in India and during its presence there, this vessel, and two other vessels were invited, I repeat it, invited by the Sri Lankan side to come here,” he said.
And when they were here, they didn’t receive any alert in advance from the United States. They attacked… without any alert,” he added.
A US submarine attacked the Iranian warship IRIS Dena on March 4 in waters off India, killing 104 sailors and wounding 32 others, who were rescued by the joint forces of Sri Lanka.
Days later, Sri Lanka evacuated 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel, IRIS Bushehr, after the ship requested assistance from Colombo.
Both Iranian vessels were returning from the Milan Peace 2026 naval drills in India.
According to the Iranian ambassador, several other people on board were not from the army. They were… (a) music band,” he said.
Delkhosh said that during the exercise in India, the Sri Lankan navy commander invited” the Iranian navy vessels for a friendly visit.
All three of them,” he said.
One went to the Indian coast, and two of them came here. Dena was attacked, and Bushehr is here,” he said.
He said that Tehran is working on taking the remaining personnel in Sri Lanka “to their country and their family as soon as possible.”
Earlier this month, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said Tehran had requested on Feb. 28 that three Iranian ships in the region dock at Indian ports.
New Delhi granted permission, and the crew of the final one, IRIS Lavan, docked in the southern Kochi port.
Regional escalation has continued to flare since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing over 1,300 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as locations in Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and infrastructure damage and disrupting aviation and global markets.
The Iranian ambassador Delkhosh also said that Tehran will provide oil supplies to Colombo if demanded.
“Sri Lanka is our friend country,” Delkhosh told reporters, adding that the Strait of Hormuz “is not closed to our friend(ly) countries’ vessels.”
Tehran is currently controlling the critical waterway through which most of the energy supplies from the Middle East go to Asian nations.
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The first labour migrants from Sri Lanka have arrived in Russia, with some already reporting unpaid wages, as Moscow looks to South Asia to address a deepening workforce shortage, TASS reported on March 24.
Russia’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Levan Dzhagaryan, told the agency that the arrivals so far involved only small groups and that there were no grounds to expect a mass influx in the near term.
He said organisational difficulties and problems encountered by the first arrivals were dampening enthusiasm among potential migrants.
Some of the Sri Lankan workers had not been paid in the Pskov region, Dzhagaryan said, without providing further details.
Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Moscow, Shobini Gunasekera, had previously said her country was ready to send both skilled and unskilled workers to Russia, citing their adaptability, capacity for integration and strong work ethic.
She described the Russian labour market as a promising area for bilateral cooperation, particularly given Russia’s workforce deficit.
Russia’s labour shortfall spans multiple sectors. Accounts Chamber auditor Elena Boytsova previously reported a shortage of around 12,000 specialists in construction and road maintenance alone.
Recruitment agencies have recorded growing hiring of workers from Africa and Asia, including India, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Experts said Sri Lanka could become one of several new labour sources for Russia as traditional migration flows from Central Asia come under pressure. The Sri Lankan ambassador first raised the prospect of expanded worker migration in December 2025.
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Sri Lanka’s latest fuel price revision, which saw prices rise by around 25% on average, ranks among the highest increases compared to many Asian and global peers, reflecting the sharp impact of global oil market pressures.
The revision, announced on Sunday, pushed up key fuel categories significantly. Auto diesel rose 26.1% from Rs. 303 to Rs. 382 per litre, while super diesel increased 25.5% from Rs. 353 to Rs. 443. Petrol 92 octane went up 25.6% from Rs. 317 to Rs. 398, and petrol 95 octane rose 24.7% from Rs. 365 to Rs. 455 per litre. Kerosene recorded the highest increase of 30.8%, rising from Rs. 195 to Rs. 255 per litre.
Among Asian countries, only a few recorded higher increases than Sri Lanka. Myanmar saw petrol prices rise by approximately 30%, while Bhutan reported sharp hikes, with diesel increasing by 54% and petrol by 34%,” Economic analysts said.
However, several countries reported more moderate adjustments. Vietnam recorded a 20% increase in petrol and 34% in diesel, while Malaysia saw petrol prices rise between 18%–22% and diesel between 20%–26%. In the Maldives, petrol increased by 18.6% and diesel by 26%, while Pakistan and Singapore both recorded around 20% increases for fuel.
Other countries experienced comparatively smaller increases. Japan reported petrol price increases of around 18%, while South Korea saw petrol rise by over 12% and diesel by more than 20%. In Nepal, petrol prices rose 8.3% and diesel 6.1%, while Thailand recorded marginal increases of 1% to 2%. Afghanistan saw fuel prices rise by about 5%.”
Outside Asia, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and South Africa reported petrol price increases in the range of 7% to 8%, while diesel rose between 13%–20%.
Notably, China and India have largely held retail fuel prices steady in recent weeks, with India limiting increases to premium fuel categories while keeping regular petrol and diesel prices unchanged.
The comparison highlights that Sri Lanka’s latest fuel price hike is among the steepest in the region, adding pressure on consumers and businesses already grappling with rising living and operating costs.”
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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 15-21 March 2026
The USA is waging war on the world, and demanding their allies, pitbulls, poodles and puppets, fall in line. US Secretary of State MarcoRubio recently declared at the 62nd Munich Security Conference, billed as the world’s leading forum for international security, that the glory of ‘Western Civilisation’ depended upon a recolonization of the world.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has rejected the accusation that Sri Lanka is an US colony already. With regard to the sinking & drowning of the sailors of an Iranian ship, who had been guests of the Indian government, the Sri Lankan government insists that they were confronted by requests from both sides in the US war on Iran, to enter the country’s waters and airspace. The Sri Lankan government therefore decided to be ‘neutral’. The Iranian government however insists that the Iranian ship had already been invited, but refused entry at the last moment, leaving it open to attack by the USA. This has led to enduring suspicions that there was indeed collusion with the USA, and Sri Lanka is a US colony in everything but name.
Our intellectuals & policy makers are fearful & paralyzed (see ee Focus, Rethinking Underdevelopment). Yet as a great leader once declared: ‘Heaven & earth are in great turmoil; the situation is excellent!’ But excellent for what? To finally get rid of the import-export plantation economy that has ruined Sri Lanka for far too long!
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The laziness & backwardness of the Sinhala worker & Sinhala peasant is a common grumble, mumble & jumble in the media. Both blatantly & subtly, these myths operate behind such tropes as majoritarianism & superstition. And it has a very intriguing history (see ee Focus, SBD de Silva).
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The IMF is in town yet again, bearing ‘tranches’, while their main shareholder, the USA is waging war on West Asia & indirectly on Sri Lanka itself, as West Asia has been made to have an outsize influence on our economy. As we have pointed out before, the US propensity to wage endless wars should be part of the calculus in determining the liability? to pay debts. The moment they wage war, all bets and debts should be off! However, the demand of their many mouthpieces here, the Chambers of Commerce, as well as their economists, is the demand that we keep to the IMF’s prescriptions.
Alongside the IMF’s visit, the lawyers’ Bar Association (BASL) is holding the National Labour Law Symposium 2026, bringing together ‘legal, regulatory & industry leaders’ (see ee Who’s Who?)One of the IMF’s many demands to control the economy is to prevent the organization of labor in the interests of workers & the nation. The first organization to be registered as a union in 1935 was the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC). BASL was set up in 1974. The IMF demand is for flexibility – the right to hire & fire as they please, with labor laws enabling such ‘freedom’. Democracy may exist except at work. And the media coverage in Sri Lanka of the world of labor is typified by such headlines as this:
‘Unions unplug unsuspecting homes, shops’
– Sunday Times, ee Workers
Really? The government has been forced by the IMF to deny electricity to 100,000s of homes. What kind of mentality would formulate such a callous throw-away headline. This Wijewardene-oligarchy-owned rag is speaking of an organization representing the same workers who just gave light to the whole country in dangerous conditions after the devastating cyclone.
Some labor unions can end up being taken over bycompanies or mafia, no doubt, but this is usually done at the behest of a criminal capitalist state & likeminded employers. So where does this slave master & mentality attitude come from?
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Many myths about the Sinhala workers and of the working class generally are spread by the media. And why not? Freedom of the press is for those who own it. The Tamil worker in Tamilnadu has been called lazy, but then they cross the Palk Straits and are suddenly declared industrious when compared to the Sinhala worker?
These myths are traced to the Sinhala worker (who despite creating great monuments such as Ruwanwelisaya in the past) supposedly loathed working on the pristine plantations – perhaps because it was borne out of and transported from the slave culture of the Americas. Such myths of laziness are gaily repeated by academics and economists, many of whom are Sinhala themselves. These fictions have been methodically obliterated (to use a currently too familiar but misused term) by SBD de Silva in his classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment.
The last few chapters of de Silva’s classic that ee have reproduced examine, for instance, the widespread and intricate uses of money by Sinhala men & women. Sinhala people’s lack of understanding of money has been given as a reason for them not enjoying work on plantations. In this ee Focus, SBD de Silva carefully examined ‘the so-called aversion to wage labour among people of precapitalist economies’. He provided extensive examples of Sinhala workers, and the types of work, including the high wages they demanded. Caste was also no barrier to work. They worked if the work was profitable and they were not treated as slaves and cheated of their wages. English employers and their agents on the plantations were wont to indulge in such perfidious ‘American’ practices. Yet de Silva also offered examples of English officials and employers who did not participate in such games.
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The slave mentality promoted by that plantation system of chattel slavery born in the Americas, predominates to this day. It has long been hidden from the world, but now is being brought into the open, and no one offers a better example than the current US Secretary of State – slightly dark and linked to major Miami, Florida drug traffickers. He descends from the kangany (overseers) who best exemplify the system of chattel slavery that has fostered the so-called ‘human resources’ business. The Colombian President Gustavo Preto has named Dubai, Miami & Madrid as the top 3 centres of drug trafficking in the world. Rubio as US Senator represented Florida for 14 years.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is threatening officials of neighbouring Caribbean (West Indian) countries who failed to comply with Washington’s plans to strangle Cuba. A measure of its hysteria, the USA says it will revoke the visas of ‘non-compliant government officials & their immediate families’. 3 leaders have already refused to go along with the US demands. We imagine this threat has been applied and could soon apply to many of Sri Lanka’s ruling classes who stash their children & their wealth in the imperialist centres. In Sri Lanka, former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse was supposedly prevented from visiting his children, and court cases were pursued against relatives.
If adherence to the USA’s imperialist objectives is one of the criteria for travel to the USA, we recall India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s children, such as his son Druva Jaishankar who lives in Washington DC. He is Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America), a public policy thinktank, which regularly pumps anti-China propaganda into the media in Sri Lanka.
Jaishankar Jr helped establish ORF in 2020, partly funded by the Dhirubhai Ambani family, who own the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. Jaishankar Jr also joined a US War Department-linked thinktank Marathon Initiative (MI) to advise US President Donald Trump on his plans for war on China while pushing Europe to fight Russia.
MI is a brainchild of Trump’s earlier Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs, A Wess Mitchell. Mitchell has teamed up with former CIA director William Colby’s grandson Elbridge Colby, now the third-ranking official at the Pentagon, as Trump’s Undersecretary of War for Policy. We recall Colby as wishing to fabricate a ‘counter-hegemonic coalition’ in Asia, against China. Both Mitchell and Colby spend their time ‘sequencing’ world wars – which countries should the US attack first, second, and third, or all at once: Iran, Russia, China (see ee 26 April 2025). In addition to Jaishankar, MI also recruited Admiral Dennis Blair, a former Pacific fleet commander & Director of National Intelligence (2009-10); Thomas de Maizière, German Defense Minister in the Merkel Administration, and 2 first-term Trump appointees.
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‘We depend on imports for over 90%
of our inputs, mostly petroleum-based…
All our raw materials & synthetic rubber
prices have gone up by 50%.’
(see Who’s Who, Imported-Exporters)
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‘The West Asia crisis does not invalidate fossil fuels overnight,
but it exposes the fragility of regimes whose reproduction still
depends heavily on geographically concentrated, geopolitically
vulnerable & thermodynamically mature energy sources.’
– Warwick Powell (ee Economists, West Asia’s Energy Shock)
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It will soon be one year since the US government declared another ‘Liberation Day’ (what happened to July 04?), which asserted their right to impose tariffs on trade ‘partners’, when and how they please. A year later and the USA is waging a genocidal war on Palestine, Iran and Lebanon, and blocking access to the abundant energy sources resources of West Asia. All our fake businessmen (import merchants & moneylenders, really, dressed up in the transvestist drag of high-sounding ‘entrepreneurs’ in coats & ties) are crying fake tears dosed with the real. They all act as if they didn’t know that a made-in-USA armageddon has long been in the making and now is on its way. From tea and garment exporters, tourism operators, to small manufacturers, cultivators, all complaining about their dependence on imports, on West Asian fuels & fertilizers, seem to be acting too shocked.
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This week’s ee Focus, re-titles the Sunday Observer essay ‘Rethinking Sri Lankan Development After the Neoliberal Order’ by Shiran Illanperuma as ‘Rethinking Underdevelopment in Sri Lanka midst the Latest Capitalist Disorder’. He describes how a ‘neoliberal’ order was built to benefit US capitalists, by pushing loans to bribe countries into ‘opening up’ their economies to control by Wall Street. He traces the tearing up of this order beyond the trade war on China to the 1985 Plaza Accord, which brought French, West German and Japanese industry under greater US control. The USA under capitalism seeks not to repeat history except as farce:
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‘India should understand that we [the US] are not going
to make the same mistakes with India that we made with
China 20 years ago in terms of saying, ‘You will be able
to develop all these markets, & then the next thing we
know, you are beating us in a lot of commercial things.’
– US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau
at India’s 2026 Raisina Dialogue
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Illanperuma also traces the undermining ofimport substitution policy (a dirty word in the capitalist media) and the World Bank’s promotion of the ‘East Asian model’, which would also meet its Nanthikadal in 1997. He also shows how comparing Sri Lanka with Singapore is based on an ignorance of that city-state’s economy, which is fully linked to the US military industrial machine. The major country to escape US dictat has been China, controlling its home market, and there too, local economic hitmen, trying to attack Mao Zedong et al, ignoring the modern industrial foundation established 1949-79.
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As for Sri Lanka, we remain paralysed by an import-export plantation system, denied food & energy security, a paralysis that can only be overcome by a people’s movement that prioritizes economic sovereignty, and will not be diverted by populist diversions such as petty corruption while ignoring the larger depredations of multinational corporations (MNCs) that have larger budgets than most countries (see ee Random Notes, How Multinationals Avoid Taxes).
We always look forward to Ilanperuma’s analyses which succinctly frame the latest challenges faced by the working class & peasantry of Sri Lanka, as well as around the world. Re-titling his essay is because we believe Sri Lanka has been more underdeveloping (as pointed out by SBD de Silva) than ‘developing’ (which appears to be a state in perpetual stasis). We have long pointed to the word ‘development’ as a polite synonym for ‘colonial’ as coined by the MNC Unilever. We also do not accept the word ‘neoliberal’.
As ee noted 2 years ago: ‘Neoliberalism was a term coined by European economists (funded by the Exxon-oil-tax-hideout, the Rockefeller Foundation) who later formed the secretive Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), which has also met in Sri Lanka. These economists warned of an imminent ‘suicide of the West’ – this is a trope reamplified recently by US official Marc Rubio in his white-power speech in Munich). They were deeply concerned about controlling the ‘hordes’ of non-white countries who could take over the United Nations. They wanted to block the rise of a so-called ‘postcolonial world’, especially to maintain white power (protecting settler white South Africa & Zionist Israel being essential) anchored in the North Atlantic aka White Atlantic (buttressed by its military wing, North Atlantic Treaty Organization/ NATO), which now bleeds through US & EU warships into our ocean called Indian’ (see ee, 16 March 2024).
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‘Successful societies are those that master negentropic interventions:
they renew their energy systems, improve the efficiency with which
energy is turned into useful work, & build institutions that keep
the whole metabolic process coherent.’ – Warwick Powell (ee Economists,
Why I Wrote Thermoeconomics in a Time of Monsters)
Negentropic is a word our numerous English professors probably have never heard. Neither had we, until coming to understand that it is the opposite of ‘entropy’ (ie, the opposite of the descent into disorder, the opposite of ‘a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system’s thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system’).
We guess that negentropy, however, maybe a fancy yet intriguing term for what SBD de Silva always referred to as the ability of modern industrialization to make ‘one thing lead to another…’, one product lead to another product, what Karl Marx called ‘capital accumulation’, where we get an unending progression of skills & goods to serve humankind.
This ability is not evident in our underdeveloping economy, based on labor-intensive plantations (still plucking tea by hand) and garments (no pin or needle or fabric made), tourism (most machinery imported), etc. All the talk about AI, etc, concentrates on its ability to dis-employ and harm workers. This is of course claimed as natural, but that is the role of the capitalist mass media. The word ‘negentropy’ of course speaks to the ability of a different society to produce & use the latest goods & services, including AI, etc., to people’s benefit.
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The US Peace Corps was expelled from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon, still under the English) after the attempted 1962 Anglo-US coup d’etat against the world’s 1st woman head of government, Sirimavo Bandaranike. These ‘Corps’ were re-admitted into Sri Lanka in 2024, two years after the aragala putsch in 2022. And since then, they have been giving Sri Lankan youth, ‘English lessons’ in certain strategic areas. Now after over 500 years of invasions, all areas in Sri Lanka are strategic, yet we also wonder about the kind of English they are teaching. Is it Washington Beltway or Manhattan AdLib, Wall Street Wail, or Chicago Boys Bluster, Seattle Boeing or Virginia Spook Speak or Baton Rouge Redneck? Whatever, we twang… knowing their curriculum does not have to underplay such English lessons as Palestine, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, etc. These are meant to be the real English lessons, promoting such variations on the theme, ‘There is no Alternative’, and the older ‘Resistance is Futile’…
For this is one of our problems in learning about the world in English. Every new generation of English readers suffers a minor brain stroke when learning English, when they are forced to deploy certain words that are euphemisms for the white world & the honorary white world, like ‘West’, knowing full well that west to us is mostly southwest India, East Africa, and West Asia, which they insist on still calling like their English forebears – the Middle East. Who knows where that really is, unless Europe is the actual West Asia?
So, the major English language problem is their constant misnaming, and the ‘US Peace Corps’ is yet to really learn real English. US media talk of the ‘Korean War’, ‘Vietnam War’, etc etc, and now they call it the ‘Iran War’. When it is really the ‘US War on Iran’. When forced to admit their active role, they call it the ‘US-Israeli War…’ The truth is that it is not just Trump but an entire mostly invisible ruling class which is behind this war.
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‘The word is that Israel tricked Trump into war with Israel.
& they played a role. But that’s a subtle way of saying
Jews did it. However, this war is about oil & the heads
of the 5 biggest US oil corporations are not Jewish.
They’re WASPS. It’s true. Don’t believe the hype &
get tricked…’ – Communist Party of the USA
The CPUSA is referring to the publicized resignation of Joe Kent, the top US counter-terrorism official in Trump administration who blames Israel for the war on Iran. Many suspect that Kent as a Nazi & a top former CIA employee, who is trying to deflect blame from the US ruling class.
The Nazis saw the US settlers as their older brothers. Further, Miami Cubans don’t make US policy on Cuba. The Tamil diaspora does not make US/Canada/England/EU policy on Sri Lanka. Irish Americans don’t make US policy on Ireland or England, etc. Yet are not all of them very useful tools of the US ruling class?
And so we come to the WASPS – White Anglo-Saxon Protestants – a minority group that never ever get called ethnic… and are not that familiar to the conspiracy theorists of the cyber-universe. Yet all such analysis reduces the complexity of an imperialist ruling class, dominated by monopolies & cartels, to a matter of race, ethnicity, etc. And this is the problem. The last thing, the merchants & moneylenders, agents of multinational corporations who misrule us, wish to do, is name reality correctly. The USA’s current plans are to sequence and synchronize wars against Iran, Russia & China, who they see as the main obstacles to their attempt to reinforce white supremacy. The USA claims they have but a few years before China ‘overtakes’ their capitalist system. ‘Overtakes’ for them is not about advancing people’s livelihoods, but anxiety about military & economic dominance. The USA therefore seeks to pull Sri Lanka into their war on China just as it is pushing Japan, to ignite a war over Taiwan, by provoking China. Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi was hosted in the US White House this week, where the US President reminded her about Japan’s ability to surprise, as in Pearl Harbor, when Japan attacked the USA. Japan has been a colony of the USA for over 80 years, with 45,000 US troops parked there.
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The ghost of DJ Wimalasurendra nowhaunts the nation as never before… Wimalasurendra’s vision to develop hydropower to electrify the whole country over 100 years ago was thwarted & sabotaged by the usual suspects, who now rule over Singapore etc, as once again we are being held hostage by the suppliers of oil, led by the USA who is waging war. There are those who claim that we can be saved by green energy, yet the machineries that enables wind & solar etc, have long been controlled by the same oily MNCs, led by the US Rockefellers. Others claim that China has been able to get out of the grasp of these old pale patent holders. But without any discussion allowed on the role the making of machines plays in an economy, how can we even begin to discuss economic sovereignty?
In the classical tradition of jurisprudence, the Court is not merely a government department; it is the Marketplace of Grievances. It is the only forum where the “Sovereign”—the People—can trade their vulnerabilities for the currency of Justice. Yet, a chilling wind has swept through the corridors of Hulftsdorp. A new “jurisprudence of the threshold” has emerged, where the Leave to Appeal (LA) and Fundamental Rights (FR) applications are being met with mass-scale refusals at the gate.
If the Supreme Court continues to treat “Leave” as a weapon of docket-clearing rather than a filter for justice, it risks transforming from a sanctuary of rights into a mausoleum of silenced pleas.
I. The Usurpation of Sovereignty
Under Article 3 of the Sri Lankan Constitution, sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable. When a citizen files an FR application, they are not asking for a favor; they are exercising their sovereignty. By adopting an attitude of mass refusal at the “Leave to Proceed” stage, the Court is effectively staging a quiet coup against the citizen’s right to be heard. Jurisprudentially, “Leave” was intended to weed out the frivolous, not to provide a shortcut for the Court to avoid complex, politically sensitive, or “inconvenient” litigation. To refuse leave without a reasoned order is to tell the Sovereign that their grievances are not worth the Court’s time.
The Threshold of Exclusion: Devaluing the Currency of Justice
In the architecture of our legal system, the Supreme Court is not a court of “error correction” for every minor factual slip in a lower court; it is the architect of the Law itself. This distinction is maintained through the mechanism of Leave to Appeal (LA). However, what was intended as a filter for quality has become a wall of quantity.
I. The Orthodox Definition: What is a “Substantial Question of Law”?
Traditionally, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has defined a “substantial question of law” (the primary ground for granting leave) as one that possesses three distinct characteristics:
1. Debatability: The question must be “open to argument” and not one that is already settled by a clear line of authority.
2. Materiality: It must have a direct and material bearing on the rights of the parties.
3. Public Importance: It often transcends the immediate dispute to affect the general development of the law.
In the classical view, if a petitioner presents a point that is fairly arguable and has not been definitively put to rest by a Full Bench, the Court is obligated to grant leave. The purpose is to allow the “sovereign” to ventilate a grievance that the existing law has not yet adequately resolved.
II. The Deviation: The Rise of “Threshold Jurisprudence”
The “mass scale refusal” to grant leave observed recently marks a radical departure from this principle. We are witnessing a shift from Substantive Review to Threshold Rejection.
The Court has deviated in three critical ways:
• The Mini-Trial at the Gate: Instead of asking “Is there an arguable point of law?”, the Court is increasingly asking “Does the petitioner deserve to win?” at the very first hearing. By deciding the ultimate merit of the case during a brief “support” session, the Court denies the parties the right to a full hearing, written submissions, and the rigorous scrutiny that a final appeal deserves.
• The Silence of Refusal: Jurisprudential transparency requires that a “Court of Record” gives reasons. The current trend of issuing one-line orders—”Leave is Refused”—without identifying why a question is not “substantial,” creates a black hole in our legal history. It turns the “Marketplace of Grievances” into a “Black Market of Discretion.”
• The Erosion of the “Fit for Review” Standard: Beyond questions of law, the Court has the power to grant leave if a matter is simply “fit for review”—a safety valve for gross injustice. By ignoring this broader mandate in favor of mass dismissals, the Court is signaling that “administrative efficiency” (clearing the docket) has superseded the “ends of justice.”
IV. The “Appalling Vista” of Judicial Silence
The current trend suggests an “appalling vista” (to use Denning’s famous phrase)—a future where the Supreme Court is no longer the “Sentinel on the Qui Vive” but a mere “Gatekeeper of the Status Quo.”
A Supreme Court that refuses to hear its people is a Court that has lost its way. It forgets that its power does not come from the silk robes or the high bench, but from the trust of the man on the street. When that man is turned away at the door, time and time again, he stops looking to the law for solutions. And that is when the social contract truly unravels.
IThe Denning Warning: The “Appalling Vista” of a Closed Court
Lord Denning’s philosophy was rooted in the idea that the court must be the Sentinel. In Gouriet v Union of Post Office Workers, he reminded us that if the law is to be respected, it must be accessible.
“If the gates of the court are closed to the citizen, the law becomes a dead letter. A judge who refuses to hear a case because it is difficult or numerous is a judge who has forgotten that his power is a trust from the People.” By curtailing new actions through mass refusals, the SL Supreme Court is creating what Denning feared: an “Appalling Vista” where the public loses faith in the legal system as a peaceful resolver of conflict. When the “Marketplace of Grievances” is closed to the sovereign citizens, they do not stop having grievances—they simply stop bringing them to the Court.
Restoring the Social Contract
The Supreme Court must recognize that every time it grants leave, it is not “adding to its workload”—it is validating the sovereignty of the citizen. The current “threshold jurisprudence” is a devaluation of the constitutional currency. To restore the marketplace, the Court must return to the “Bold Spirit” of Denning: it must be willing to open the door, hear the argument, and let justice be seen to be done, rather than strangling the plea at the threshold.
The Jurisprudential Verdict
The “Mass Refusal” of leave is not an administrative efficiency; it is a constitutional withdrawal. The Supreme Court must once again become the “Bold Spirit” that Denning championed. It must reopen the marketplace of grievances and remember that its primary duty is not to finish its calendar, but to dispense justice to the Sovereign from whom its very power is derived.
The Recent Trend: From “Sentinel” to “Gatekeeper”
Historically, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court was seen as the “sentinel on the qui vive” (the watchful guardian). However, the recent attitude adopted in 2024–2026 reflects a troubling “jurisprudence of avoidance.”
• Mass Refusal of FRs: Fundamental Rights are the heart of the Constitution. By refusing leave at the threshold, the Court assumes a “pre-trial” certainty that often ignores the nuanced violations of state power.
• The LA Bottleneck: Leave to Appeal is intended to ensure only cases with a “substantial question of law” proceed. However, when this is used as a tool for “docket clearing,” the Provincial High Courts and the Court of Appeal effectively become the final arbiters, despite the Supreme Court’s constitutional role as the final court of record.
Conclusion
The Supreme Court must remember that every “Refusal to Grant Leave” is not just a procedural order; it is a rejection of a sovereign citizen’s plea. To keep the marketplace of grievances healthy, the Court must return to being “Bold Spirits.” As Denning would argue, it is better for the Court to hear a difficult case and find no merit than to refuse to hear it and leave a potential injustice to fester.
Chinese contributions to the spread of Buddhism were instrumental in transforming it from a regional Indian tradition into a dominant world religion. China served as the primary “mother culture” for Buddhism in East Asia, developing unique schools, massive scripture canons, and a network of pilgrims that exported the faith across the continent. Contributions Within China China’s primary role was the Sinification of Buddhism—adapting Indian concepts to fit Chinese culture, which facilitated its local acceptance. Imperial Patronage: Multiple dynasties, notably the Sui and Tang, established Buddhism as a state religion. Emperors like Wu Zetian and Emperor Ming (of Han legend) funded monasteries and supported the faith’s integration into political life. Massive Translation Projects: Figures like Kumarajiva (4th century) and Xuanzang (7th century) translated thousands of Indian texts into Chinese. These translations replaced Sanskrit as the primary medium for Buddhist study in East Asia. Cultural Synthesis: To make foreign concepts accessible, Chinese Buddhists used Daoist and Confucian terminology (e.g., using “immortality” for nirvana). Indigenous Schools: China developed original Buddhist traditions that did not exist in India, such as Chan (Zen), Pure Land, and Tiantai. Pure Land eventually became the most popular form of Buddhism in the region Contributions Outside China China acted as a central hub from which Buddhism radiated to neighboring nations. Transmission to East Asia: Korea: Buddhism reached the Korean peninsula in the 4th century via Chinese monks and official diplomatic missions. Japan: In the 6th century, Chinese-inspired Buddhism was transmitted from Korea to Japan, later followed by direct missions of Chinese monks and Japanese students returning from China with new schools like Tendai and Vajrayana. Vietnam: Northern Vietnam adopted Chinese Mahayana traditions and the Chinese
Buddhist canon during centuries of cultural interaction. Standardization of the Canon: The Chinese Buddhist Canon (Dazangjing) became the official scripture for all of East Asia, ensuring a unified philosophical foundation for practitioners in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
Diplomatic Tool: Buddhism was used as a “soft power” tool in diplomacy. For example, Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty through her marriage to King Songtsen Gampo. is credited with helping introduce Buddhism to Tibet Pilgrimage & Records: Chinese pilgrims like Faxian and Xuanzang provided the most detailed historical records of Buddhism in India and Central Asia, which served as “study guides” for later generations of Buddhists across Asia.
see also AI Overview Chinese contributions to Buddhism involved transforming it into a uniquely Sinicized religion, facilitating its spread via the Silk Road and maritime routes. Key contributions included massive translation projects, scholarly commentary, creating indigenous schools like Chan, and exporting this developed Mahayana tradition to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Key Contributions Within China Translation and Synthesis: Chinese monks and scholars translated countless Sanskrit texts into Chinese, overcoming language barriers and creating a “linguistic breakthrough”. Figures like Dao’an (4th century) organized these translations and compiled the first catalogues, facilitating organized study. Sinicization of Buddhism: Buddhism was integrated with local philosophies like Daoism and Confucianism, making it more accessible to the Chinese populace. This led to the development of uniquely Chinese traditions, such as Chan (Zen), Pure Land, and Tiantai Buddhism. Establishment of Institutions: By the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism flourished with imperial support, establishing monasteries that served as educational and religious centers. Role of Monastic Scholars: Chinese pilgrims like Xuanzang (629-645 AD) traveled to India to bring back authentic texts and relics, which helped standardize Buddhist doctrines in China. Contribution to the Spread Outside China Transmission to East Asia: China served as the primary conduit for the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The Chinese Buddhist canon, which included translated texts and Chinese commentaries, became the standard in these regions. The Silk Road and Sea Routes: Buddhist monks utilized the extensive trade networks established during the Han Dynasty, sharing Buddhism with traders and neighboring regions. Modern Global Expansion: Contemporary Chinese Buddhism, including organizations like Fo Guang Shan and Tzu Chi founded by Chinese monks/nuns, has spread to various parts of the world, serving millions of practitioners globally. Key Figures Dao’an (312–385): Initiated key projects in organizing translations and establishing monastic order, forming the foundation of Chinese Buddhism. Xuanzang (602–664): Travelled to India and brought back over 650 texts, significantly advancing the study of Buddhist scripture. Kumarajiva (344–413): A Kuchean monk whose translated work in China was essential for the spread of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia.
The latest salvo from Mr Donald Trump and the response from Iran poses a catastrophic aftermath for the whole world. Individuals are powerless in this situation and it appears neither the UN or any world leader is able to do anything to cool tempers of both sides.
Donald Trump – US will ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if Strait of Hormuz not open before 48-hour deadline
Iran – ‘‘If Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the United States and the (Israeli) regime in the region will be targeted,’‘ a spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the body overseeing Iranian military operations, said in a statement reported by Fars News Agency
It is time, sadly long overdue but better late than never, for Australia to take the leadership along with as many key world leaders as possible to basically call for AN IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE by the parties to this unwanted conflict, the USA, Israel and Iran. Along with this call, Australia should propose that finding a pathway to end the conflict should be handed over to the Secretary General of the UN. It is time that introducing some semblance of order, and a negotiated solution to conflict is handed back to the UN. Countries like China, Russia, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the European Union, UK, Japan, as a minimum, should back this proposal and empower the UN to commence discussions on ways and means to find a way to end this conflict.
If nothing is done at this juncture, the repercussions for the whole world will be massive and perhaps even irreversible.
There is a choice, Mr Albanese. Do nothing and let the world destroy itself or do something and show you had the guts and the foresight to do your part to even be the last bastion in a world that is disappearing in front of our eyes.
As individuals we are powerless. You as the Prime Minister of Australia has some voice in the world. You must use it. If do not do so now, there may not be anyone to hear your voice.
Kind regards
Raj Gonsalkorale
P O Box 4, Annandale NSW 2038
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Sri Lanka has, over the decades, stood at the crossroads of opportunity and indecision—nowhere more evident than in the development trajectory of Trincomalee.
Blessed with one of the finest natural harbors in the world, Trincomalee should by now have evolved into a regional energy and maritime hub. Instead, it remains a case study in missed opportunities, fragmented policy decisions, and inconsistent governance.
Historically, several strategic industrial ventures were established under circumstances that raise important governance questions.
When land and operational space were allocated to major players such as Tokyo Cement and later Prima for milling operations, these were reportedly done without competitive tender processes.
While these investments did contribute to industrial activity, the absence of transparent procurement mechanisms has long-term implications for public trust and value optimization.
Similarly, arrangements in the maritime sector have also drawn scrutiny.
There are growing concerns that certain contractual frameworks—particularly those related to port services such as pilotage of bulk carriers—may not fully reflect the revenue potential due to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
If true, this represents not just a financial loss, but a systemic weakness in negotiating and structuring national asset utilization.
The energy sector presents an even more complex narrative. The entry of the Indian Oil Corporation into Sri Lanka during a politically sensitive period brought much-needed investment in petroleum infrastructure.
However, it is widely believed that clauses embedded within these agreements have had long-term strategic implications. Specifically, provisions that may require external concurrence for future energy projects could limit Sri Lanka’s autonomy in developing its own energy assets—particularly in Trincomalee, where vast tank farm potential remains underutilized.
Today, a different but equally challenging barrier has emerged. Regulatory institutions, including the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, are increasingly citing environmental concerns as grounds for delaying or blocking new development initiatives.
While environmental stewardship is essential, it must not become a blanket constraint that stifles strategic national development. What is required is a balanced, transparent, and science-based framework that enables sustainable growth rather than administrative stagnation.
This brings us to the present moment—a critical inflection point.
With shifting global trade patterns, evolving energy logistics, and increased demand for offshore support hubs, Sri Lanka has a narrow but real window of opportunity.
Trincomalee, by virtue of its depth, location, and historical infrastructure, is uniquely positioned to emerge as a regional offshore hub catering to energy, logistics, and maritime services.
To realize this vision, a paradigm shift in approach is necessary.
Rather than waiting for traditional, often slow-moving procurement processes, the government should actively encourage unsolicited proposals from credible international and local investors.
Such proposals, when evaluated under a robust and transparent framework, can unlock innovation, capital, and speed—three elements that Sri Lanka urgently needs.
However, this must not be a return to opaque deal-making. A well-defined policy for unsolicited proposals should include:
Competitive benchmarking mechanisms
Independent technical and financial evaluation
Clear environmental compliance standards
Transparent disclosure and public accountability
The objective should be to combine the agility of private sector initiative with the safeguards of public sector oversight.
Trincomalee’s development is not merely a regional issue—it is a national imperative. In an era where maritime geopolitics and energy security are increasingly intertwined, Sri Lanka cannot afford to remain a passive observer.
The choice is stark: continue along a path of hesitation and lost opportunity, or decisively position Trincomalee as a cornerstone of the Indian Ocean economy.
The time to act is now.
Regards
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
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The false narrative of the Buddha being born in Sri Lanka will cause irreparable harm to the integrity of Buddhism, unnecessarily create division, and most importantly undermine the saddha ( faith and trust) in the credibility of the life story of the Buddha and eventually damage the Buddha Sasana.
AI Overview
The assertion that the Buddha was born in Sri Lanka is considered a false narrative by mainstream historians, archaeologists, and the global Buddhist community, who widely recognize Lumbini, Nepal—part of the ancient Indian subcontinent—as the true birthplace
. Proponents of this view argue that such claims are harmful, creating unnecessary conflict and undermining the credibility of the life story of the Buddha.
Impact on Buddhism and the Buddha Sasana
Undermining Saddha (Faith): Spreading unsubstantiated myths, such as “Sinhalizing” or ‘ nationalizing’ the Buddha, can lead to doubts about the historical authenticity of Buddhist scriptures, ultimately weakening the faith and trust (saddha) of followers.
Creating Division and Conflict: This narrative has been described as a “canard” that promotes schisms within the Buddhist community and encourages “super-nationalism” over genuine spiritual practice.
Distortion of History: Experts warn that ignoring the extensive archaeological evidence—such as the Ashoka Pillar in Lumbini and various ancient Pali sources—to promote a local origin myth disrupts the established historical foundations of Buddhism.
Political Motivation: Observers suggest this narrative is often pushed by groups with political or ideological agendas rather than historical accuracy, which can create unnecessary social and political tension, and schisms within the Buddhist followers.
Historical Consensus on the Birthplace
Lumbini, Nepal: The consensus, backed by UNESCO and archaeological findings, is that Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini, Nepal, in 623 BCE, and later attained Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in India.
Archaeological Evidence: The Ashoka Pillar, erected around 249 BCE, explicitly marks the spot in Lumbini as the Buddha’s birthplace.
The “Jambudvipa” Argument: Some proponents of the Sri Lankan birth theory misinterpret Jambudvipa (the ancient name for the Indian subcontinent) as a term for ancient Sri Lanka, a claim rejected by specialists.
While Historical chronicles (like the Mahavamsa) record that the Buddha visited the island three times, this is distinct from being born there, and the visits themselves are treated as historical events that occurred after his enlightenment in India.
Source: AI Overview
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On February 13th, 1835, in the small Indian village of Qadian, Punjab, India, a man named Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born. He belonged to a well-known and noble family.
All religions contain prophecies that foretell the advent of a special individual, who will come as a reformer in the latter days. In Islam, Muslims await a promised Mahdi and Messiah. The advent of the Promised Messiah was prophesized by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) himself. According to a tradition, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was sitting among his companions, two verses from Holy Qur’an (Surah al Jum’uah) were revealed, it reads:
He it is Who has raised among the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves who recites unto them His Signs, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and Wisdom though before that they were in manifest error; And He will raise him among others of them who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (62: Verse 3.4).
One of the companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) questioned to who this verse relates to, and the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) replied while putting his hand on Salman– A Companion, (a Persian man),
If faith were to go up to the Pleiades, a man from among these would surely find it.” (Bukhari).
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam) is that Promised Reformer of the later age.
Starting from his childhood, the Promised Messiah’s unusual interest in religion was noticed by many, including his father, who nicknamed him ’Maseetar’ meaning ‘one who spends most of his time in a mosque observing prayer’.
At an early age, he began to receive revelations from God, as well as visions and true dreams. In the years 1864 or 1865, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, had a vision where he saw the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH). This verified further, that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, had a strong connection with the Holy Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH). Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was shown that he would have a fruitful spiritual future.
The Promised Messiah’s father wanted for his son to pursue government service, which would allow him a handsome means to support his family financially. However, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, felt his time pursuing his worldly occupation was like a prison sentence” as he was deeply attached to spirituality and enhancing his religious knowledge. Therefore, during his spare time, he continued to study the Holy Qur’an, and always strove to serve humanity, often helping those who were in need. He also spent his time debating with Christian missionaries who lived in his neighborhood, defending his beloved faith, Islam.
The June of 1876 was a tragic time for the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, as his father passed away. Earlier, on the same day, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, had received a revelation from God revealing about his father’s death. The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, was quite saddened by the death, and was worried about the troubles his family would now face, with limited financial means. However, since Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was an individual loved by God, Allah Almighty sent another revelation,
Is Allah not sufficient for his servant?” (Holy Qur’an: 39:37).
This assurance filled the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, with contentment that Allah Almighty would always provide for him. In 1868 or 1869, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, received the revelation,
Thy God is well pleased with what thou hast done. He will bless thee greatly, so much so that Kings shall seek blessing from your garments.”
This seemed a strange revelation at the time–why would kings seek blessings from the clothes of someone hardly known outside this small remote village in India? But, history bears witness that this revelation became reality, as the legacy of the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, unfolded and reached people from all over the world, from all walks of life, rich and poor, till today.
The flow of revelations and visions continued, until in 1882 he received the revelation which made it clear that he, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was to be the appointed one, the one commissioned by God to serve His cause; he was the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.
In January of 1886, he received a prophecy that foretold of a handsome and spiritually purified son, who would be born to the Promised Messiah, peace be on him. This prophecy was followed by one other. The second prophecy specified the context within which the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, would be granted his promised son. Both of these prophecies were indeed fulfilled on the 12th of January, 1889 when God blessed the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, with a son who was named Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad. This Promised Son also became the second Khalifa (Caliph) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam.
In 1889 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, received the Divine revelation:
When thou hast determined, put thine trust in Allah. And build the Ark under Our eyes, as commanded by our revelation. Verily, those who swear allegiance to thee indeed swear allegiance to Allah. The hand of Allah is over their hand.”
After this revelation Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, published a public announcement that read:
‘I have been ordained to announce that those who are seekers after truth should swear allegiance to me so that they may be enabled to find a way to the true faith, true purity and the love of God.’
The call for Initiation or Bai’at” was answered immediately by those who had already recognized that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was indeed the Promised Messiah, and was appointed by God Almighty himself. The first Initiation ceremony took place in Ludhiana, India, on 23rd March 1889, laying the foundation for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Hazrat Maulvi Nurudin (r.a.) became the first person to be initiated at his hand.
Saturday 23rd March 1889 was the momentous day when Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him,, accepted the hands of forty faithful servants in allegiance to the Ten Conditions of Bai’at (initiation) and founded the community which he called ‘The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’.
The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, took this oath of allegiance at the house of a spiritual preceptor Hazrat Sufi Ahmad Jan in the city of Ludhiana (Punjab, India). As stated, Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Noor al-Din (r.a.) was the first person to have the honor of taking the first Bai’at. This was a revolutionary yet a very modest beginning to a new chapter in the history of Islam.
In 1891 in Qadian, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, received repeated revelations that Jesus, peace be on him, of Nazareth, in whose second advent both the Muslims and Christians believed, had died a natural death and that what was meant by his second advent was that a person should appear in the spirit of Jesus and that he himself was that person, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.
After writing over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivering hundreds of lectures, and engaging in scores of public debates, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, passed away on May 26, 1908. Yet his legacy as the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to prevail throughout the world today. He was a man, deeply in love with and treaded on the footsteps of his beloved master, Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH), with every breath of his life. He was man beloved by Allah Almighty, and was vouchsafed a revelation, Kings shall seek blessing from your garments”, which rings true to this very day.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that God sent Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed, and restore morality, justice, and peace. He reformed Muslims of fanatical beliefs and practices by vigorously championing Islam’s true teachings. He also recognized the noble teachings of the great religious founders and saints, including Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Guru Nanak, and explained how their original teachings converge into true Islam.
Today, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the world’s largest Islamic community under one Divinely appointed leader (Fifth Khalifa), His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) (born 1950). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spans over 200 nations with membership exceeding tens of millions.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the leading Islamic community to categorically reject terrorism. Over a century ago, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him emphatically declared that the Jihad by sword” has no place in Islam. He instead taught Muslims to follow the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) example and defend Islam with a bloodless, intellectual Jihad of the pen” Accordingly, as stated, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad penned over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivered hundreds of lectures, and engaged in scores of public debates. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to use education to peacefully reform Muslims and revive Islam worldwide.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad reminded Muslims of God’s promise to safeguard Islam through Khilafat (the spiritual institution of successorship to prophethood). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that only Islamic khilafat can peacefully unite humanity. Five Khalifas have succeeded Mirza Ghulam Ahmad since his demise.
The current Khalifa Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) resides in the United Kingdom and serves as the community’s spiritual and administrative Head. Under the leadership of khilafat, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has built thousands of mosques, hundreds of schools, and number of hospitals. It has translated the Holy Qur’an into 76 languages including Sinhala.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community propagates Islam’s true teachings of peace and tolerance through a 24-hour satellite television channel (Muslim TV Ahmadiyya international), the Internet (www.alislam.org), and print (Islam International Publications). It stands at the forefront of disaster relief worldwide through Humanity First, a non-profit charity.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the only Islamic Community to endorse the separation of mosque and state. Despite facing bitter faith-based persecution in some Muslim majority nations, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to advocate for universal human rights for all religious and other persecuted minorities. It likewise invests heavily in women’s equality, education, and empowerment programs. Its members are among the most law-abiding, educated, and engaged Muslims in the world.
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Though our resplendent island is blessed with ample water casading over valley and dale and wind blowing me off on my many minor irrigation inspections in the Districts of Kegalla, Nuw
ara Eliya and Kandy the coal and oil lobby has been so strong, that the attempt by a few of us to emphasize the power that lies in water and wind has taken us nowhere.
I have been among the few administrators who have written on the power that lies in the wind and water.
It is now the time to write again hoping that the present situation of hostility between the USA and Iran which has set the price of oil beyond our reach, will make some one in authority to listen to my true story.
To deal with the Power of Water , a number of our old tea estates used the power of water to run their tea processing machines. My own uncle owned Janet Valley Estate in Gampola and used the power of water from a small stream to run his tea factory. Some Seventy years ago I tried to convince him that what he had to do to get more power was to marshall the water in the stream to provide more power. I was no engineer, only an administrator and I failed to convince him. That attempt of mine was when I served in Nuwara Eliya in the mid Fifties. The Electicity Board convinced him and he gave up using water for power and instead turned to the Electricity Board.
Some eight years later I met my uncle again and he was then manhandled by the Electricity Board by shooting up the price of the power they supplied and my uncle told me that he should have listened to me.
We have now gone climes- myself moving out of Sri Lanka living in London, the USA, Bangladesh and in those years my uncle has passed away and now a foreign man from Europe had leased out the tea factory and is marshalling the water to provide more power, and I have not been there for some three years and I am certain that this foreign leaseholder is now providing electricity from that stream and is selling the power to people, and mind you the profit so derived from the Gampola water is fritted away to a bank overseas- somewhere in Europe.
Our Gampola water had become dollars and is sent abroad as earnings.
Sri Lanka is the net user. This is a true story.
My estimate is that the USA will bully Iran and they will fight for long and had I been in my shoes as an administrator I could have convinced the authorities to get down to make electricity from water and use that power instead of using coal and oil.
Though old if called upon, I can spearhead to commence a programme to make power from water and hand it over in a year to our young administrators to continue.
The Youth Self Employment Programme I established in Bangladesh in 1982, where I worked for two years as a Consultant has grown strong and has guided millions to be self employed. This Programme is now being administered by members of the Bangladesh Administrative Service.
Garvin Karunaratne
formerly of the Admnistrative Service,last working as the GA at Matara
Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by about 25% for the second time in a week as the Gulf conflict disrupts global oil supplies via the Strait of Hormuz.
The Sri Lankan government on Sunday raised fuel prices by around 25 per cent, the second such increase in a week amid the West Asia conflict.
The step comes in the backdrop of the joint US-Israel strikes against Iran and the retaliation by the Islamic nation that has spread to the entire Gulf region. It has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important choke point for the world’s energy supplies.
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Sinopec revised its fuel prices, effective midnight today (22).
The price of a litre of Octane 95 Petrol is increased by Rs. 122 to Rs. 487, and Super Diesel by Rs. 219 to Rs. 573, higher than the prices set by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
The prices of Octane 92 Petrol and Auto Diesel are maintained at CPC prices, at Rs. 398 and Auto Diesel at Rs. 382.
Donald Trump – US will ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if Strait of Hormuz are not open before the 48-hour deadline
Iran – ‘‘If Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the United States and the (Israeli) regime in the region will be targeted,’‘ a spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the body overseeing Iranian military operations, said in a statement reported by Fars News Agency
The catastrophe before the entire world is evident if the above threats are carried out by the USA and Iran. Food insecurity will spread throughout the world and the most vulnerable will be the poorer countries of the world like Sri Lanka.
Amongst many challenges facing Sri Lanka from the conflict in the Middle East, even prior to the above threats, is the country’s food security and the impact on export income from plantation industry crops like Tea, Rubber and Coconut. From the context of the conflict, besides logistics issues arising from challenges to transportation into and out of the country, central to the production of all agricultural products, is the impact arising from shortage of chemical fertiliser and the cost of fertiliser. While longer term strategic options have to considered relating to fertiliser, the current dependency on chemical fertiliser as an essential food” for agricultural crops (food and plantation industry crops) is inescapable and unless this food is provided, there will be mass shortages of food for the people. Impact on the plantation industry will result in drop in production and drop in export income for the country.
Based on data (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service) from previous disruptions (such as the 2021 import ban) and current 2026 economic projections, it has been reported that a serious supply chain disruption of inorganic fertiliser would likely cost Sri Lanka between $700 million and $1 billion per year in direct agricultural losses.
This estimate is primarily driven by the high cost of food imports and the impact on the tea sector and other plantation crops.
Estimated Breakdown of Costs
Lost Export Revenue (Tea): $425 million. Historical data from the World Bank and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shows that fertiliser shortages caused an 18% to 30% drop in tea production, resulting in roughly $425 million in lost foreign exchange earnings.
Food Security & Import Substitution (Rice): $200M – $300M+. While Sri Lanka typically produces enough rice to be self-sufficient, a severe fertiliser shortage can cause yields to drop by 32% to 40%. This forces the government to spend hundreds of millions in foreign currency to import rice, which is far more expensive than importing the fertiliser itself.
Other Plantation Crops: $100M – $150M. Shortages hit rubber and coconut sectors heavily, which combined earn over $1.5 billion annually. A 10%–20% decline in these sectors adds significantly to the total economic burden.
While the government is very likely looking into these issues and discussing how best to mitigate the impact of likely production and transportation challenges, the writer wishes to suggest that in view of the criticality of the twin issues involved which will impact on food availability for the people, and on the governments foreign exchange income, the government elevates the coordination and management of this challenge to a high level Agricultural Command Centre (ACC) reporting direct to the President.
Establishing such a centre vested with the necessary executive power is a practical and effective way to move beyond policy wish lists into execution. To be effective in the Sri Lankan context, this body must sit above the individual ministries, and relevant ministries should work closely with this Unit which will be like a war room dealing with food security and the impact of the Mid East crisis on sectors that are dependent on imported chemical fertiliser.
A very important area that the ACC should be tasked with is to ensure government subsidies (already roughly $300M–$400M annually) are provided to keep prices stable for farmers as a huge rise in production costs could further exacerbate the crisis if farmers cease producing food crops. The government will have to increase its subsidy allocations and manage this exercise in consultation with the Finance Ministry.
Why a war Room?
In the agricultural sector, a food crisis and a drop in production of export-based plantations is a crisis that could hurt the country in the immediate and the long term. Tackling this crisis is not about appointing committees and having talkfests. It requires immediate action. Traditional ministerial approaches led by laid back bureaucrats is not the way to address a crisis of this nature. It needs an approach akin to a war room that is a, dedicated, centralized entity that is used for high level planning and collaboration, and rapid decision-making. Originating in military strategy, the concept is now commonly used in business for crisis management, project launches, or complex operational problem-solving. A war room as proposed will be making quick decisions, ensuring decisions are acted upon and monitoring and reporting on progress made. An entity armed with sufficient executive powers to give directions to ministries will provide avenues to fast-track crucial decisions. Hence a war room.
What does data show?
Data shows that the ongoing Middle East conflict has introduced new supply costs as of March 2026:
Urea prices jumped roughly 50% (from $482 to $720/t) in just three weeks. The amount spent in 2025 is reported as around USD 200 million. Given the price hike and the likelihood of further price hikes, the cost to import the same quantity will be at least double this amount, ie USD 400 million. Sri Lanka imports bulk of its requirements from China which has a coal-based manufacturing methodology which is not directly impacted by the mid-east crisis. However, as reported by Reuters, it has triggered a significant shift in China‘s urea strategy, primarily causing a halt in exports rather than a drop in domestic production. It has moved to restrict shipments to protect its own food security and domestic prices as global fertilizer markets destabilize. Although China’s urea is mostly coal-based, the Middle East crisis impacts production costs and raw material availability indirectly:
Energy Costs: Rising global oil and natural gas prices, driven by the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have increased the operational and production costs for all fertilizers.
Sulphur Squeeze: China is heavily dependent on the Middle East for sulphur (importing roughly half its 9.6 million ton requirements from the region in 2025). While primarily used for phosphates, the extreme price volatility and supply risk for sulphur have forced China to “conserve” energy and resources across its entire chemical sector.
LNG Imports: China gets roughly 25%–30% of its LNG from the Middle East. Disruptions in these flows strain gas-based urea plants, particularly in southwest China.
Shipping & Freight Surcharges: Disrupted routes have increased transport costs by approximately 35%, directly raising the retail price for Sri Lankan farmers.
Impact on food production, Tea and Plantation Sectors
Rice (Paddy): Previous shortages of inorganic fertiliser led to a 40% to 53% drop in rice production, forcing Sri Lanka to spend hundreds of millions on imports to ensure food security.
Vegetables and Other Crops: Production of vegetables and cash crops like bananas and maize crashed by 50% to 70% during previous input shortages.
Production Decline: Past data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) shows that a sudden withdrawal of chemical fertilizers caused tea production to plummet by 18% to 28.7%. Since smallholders produce about 75% of the national tea crop, they are most at risk from price spikes or supply disruptions.
Export Revenue Risk: Tea brings in over $1 billion annually (roughly 11% of exports); significant shortages could lead to permanent loss of market share to competitors like Kenya and India.
Coconut and Rubber: Experts warn that these sectors, which earned $1.5 billion in 2020, would see similar yield plummeting without chemical inputs.
The proposed Agricultural Command Centre should be tasked with the responsibility of developing a Risk Mitigation Plan within a week of its formation and submitting the plan to the cabinet for approval. Among other key requirements, the plan should includeStatus on the existing fertiliser stocks and any stocks shipped and not received yet.The duration of this stock based on current rates of distribution.Future sources of supply and risks associated with such suppliesEstimates on cost of fertiliser and funding availability Expenditure on current subsidies and estimates on future subsidies and funding availability.Assessment of local transportation challenges and alternate plans for distribution of fertiliser and produce should the fuel situation exacerbate.Alternate plans to address food security should the international energy situation worsens
The APP should also look into ways and means of sourcing more inorganic fertiliser from countries like China and Russia (who supplied around USD 52 million worth in 2024) as well as other sources, considering that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE which supplied around USD 68 million in the same year may be unable to supply in the near future.
Long term measures to address challenges arising from fertiliser and other inputs to the Food and Plantation Sector
While a War room should focus on the immediate crisis and take steps to mitigate it, considering the importance of food security and plantation management in the longer term, and the need to address the key issue of fertiliser that impacts on the entire sector, a suggestion is also made that a ministerial committee headed by the Prime Minister and comprising of the Minister for Agriculture, Minister of Plantation Industries, the Minister of Irrigation and Water Management should be instituted to update the respective ministerial strategic plans ensuring inter dependencies between the activities of each ministry are taken note of in the respective strategic plans.
The policy decision taken to ban the importation of chemical fertilizer in 2021 may have been a sound in principle” strategic decision, but an ill thought of implementation decision. It failed to recognize the need to basically wean the affected plantations away from inorganic fertilizer and the fact that this weaning process is a long-drawn process.
Consequent to the ban, some progress was made in the initial production of organic fertilizer in Sri Lanka. However, by 2025–2026, the sector had contracted with many of these startups failing, leaving only a handful of survivors as farmers reverted to chemical fertilizers due to severe yield losses and food insecurity.
The Middle East crisis has highlighted the strategic importance of a fertiliser industry in Sri Lanka to ensure food security and to support the plantation industry. The high-level ministerial committee mentioned earlier should assess the current status of the industry and develop a long-term strategic plan to make the country self-sufficient in fertiliser. A long-term strategy needs to be developed for a transition to organic fertiliser via a hybrid model. Experts believe the transition period will be 10 to 15 years.
Long term planning is often absent in Sri Lanka due to the constant shift in government priorities toward short-term policies that fit 5-year election cycles over long-term structural planning. Long-term agricultural roadmaps are often viewed by officials as “luxury planning” that can wait until the fiscal deficit is stabilized.
Besides this, fragmentation of agricultural policy in Sri Lanka where it is split across multiple, often competing, entities have contributed to the absence of a mindset to undertake long term planning.The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for policy making on paddy and food crops, and the National Fertiliser Secretariat, The Ministry of Irrigation is responsible for water management, while the Ministry of Plantation Industries is responsible for tea, rubber, and coconut industries. Provincial Councils are responsible for local implementation. Without a single overriding authority or a unified delivery unit to drive the National Agriculture Policy, long term planning initiatives get lost in bureaucratic silos.
The fundamental importance of food security in the country and effective performance of the plantation sector is unquestionable. It is also important for both to have irrigation and water management as a key component of the country’s National Agricultural Policy. This fundamentalism is crucial for immediate planning and execution via the Agriculture Command Centre or long term, strategic planning via the hight level ministerial committee headed by the President. If this fundamentalism is not understood, food insecurity will prevail and export earnings from the plantation industry will dwindle and will not move to an upward trajectory as needed by the country.
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According to Mahavansa, the Great chronical, the Sinhale Kingdom was found in 543 BC by Vijaya, a North Indian Prince. who was banished by his Father King Sinhabahu for his misbehavior with his fellow mates. As such according to Mahavamsa Prince Vijaya is the founder King of Sri Lanka and the Sinhala nation. This was how we were taught in school and even in the University. Also, this was what had been written down practically in every book starting from Mahavamsa the Great Dynasty of the Sinhala nation down to the grade two texts and even going further down to the bed time stories of our mothers and grandmothers prior to our schooling days.
However, in my late 80s, I came across a completely different story on the origin of this Great Dynasty called the Sinhala nation. This is completely a new proposition that the Sinhale was founded by none other than Gautama Budda in his Bodhisathva days, long time before he attained the Buddhahood in the 6th century B.C.
This narrative is found in the preface to a book of protection (Piruwaana Poth vahanse) edited by Ven,Kirama WimalaJothi Thera. (1995) He has mentioned two Sanskrit Buddhist texts Karandavyuha and Divyaavadhaana composed about 2 ½ centuries before the Mahavamsa was composed in the 5th Century CE
According to that narrative his name was Sinhala. He was the son of a rich merchant called Sinha who had come to this country from Western Indus valley area of North Western India, long time prior to the birth of Buddha in the 6th century BC. I am lost to understand as to why the Vamsakatha authors have not mentioned anything about this episode. Was it mere indifference or the intention of eulogizing the Kalinga Dynasty as the founders of this country and the Sinhala nation. This Narrative has to be seriously looked into in depth by archaeologists and historians who are interested in finding out the true founding father of the Sinhala nation, whether he was a notorious Indian prince called Vijaya, who was expelled from the country by his father King Sinhabahu for his misdoings or Gauthama the Buddha himself in one of his previous births in sansaara, as a Boddhisatva who’s name also was Sinhala.
As for me I also prefer this new proposition to be more logical, honorable and proud too for the Sinhala Buddhists. I list the following reasons to strengthen my support of this argument
First of all, the Sinhala nation was named after the founder’s name Sinhala. It is more logical to argue that the ‘nation was named after the name of the founder of that nation. rather than suggesting that a man called Vijaya founded the Sinhala nation and it was so named after his father’s name Sinhabahu. A son who was banished from his Kingdom naming the nation he found in a new country, after his father’s name Sinhabahu” is very unlikely an event.
Second, although the Buddha was born and bred in North India, he loved Sri Lanka more than his country of birth. His first and also the only visit to a foreign country was also to this country in the 9th month after he attained Buddhahood. Not only that he visited this country thrice and has consecrated this whole Island at all these three occasions to the Buddha sasana having placed his sacred footprint on the summit of mount Samanala and sanctifying the whole Island including all the 16 other holy places right round this country.
According to Mahavamsa Lord Buddha even at his last moment, as he was lying on his parinirvaana bed, had directed Sakka the King of Gods to protect Prince Vijaya and his 700 retinue who landed on this Island on that day, as this country will be the only place on earth and his Dhamma will prevail unhindered for another 5000 years to come. As you all know although 2569 years have passed after the Buddhas passing away Sri Lanka has come to stay as the prime seat of his doctrine in the world.
Third, even as a small child in grade 11 way back in 1947 in school, I did not like to be called a descendant coming down from a group of 700 bandits whose heads were half shaven, and banished from India by his father King”, as the teacher told us in class.
As such, as for me, I prefer to accept the second proposition rather than the Vijayan concept on the birth of this country and the Sinhala nation It is an honor- supreme, for all Sinhala Buddhists to say and accept that the Sinhala nation has its origin traced back to, the Bodhisathva, named Sinhala. Therefore, I am convinced that the founder of the Sinhala nation was none other than Gauthama the Buddha in his Bodhisathva days. Because no one can ever imagine to inherit the Buddhist cultural model we find in this country, from a person like Vijaya who was banished by his own father for his misdeeds and landed on the sands of this country by an accident.
Above all isn’t it an honor and a singular privilege as well, to claim that the founder of the Sinhala nation was none other than Gauthama the Buddha. This elevates the Sinhala nation to a unique and a privileged civilization on earth, no other nation can claim. Isn’t ii an honor and a unique privilege too, to be called that we, the Sinhala nation descends from Lord Buddha, the Greatest Teacher of gods and men (satta devamanussanam) ever born on this earth.
However, I leave this debated to be settled by a more eminent and erudite set of scholars, As I am neither a historian or an archaeologist. I only open the door for such a deeper but certainly a worthwhile debate, on the birth of a pristine civilization like that of the Sinhala Buddhist Nation, a glowing crest jewel in human civilization of this earth.
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Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, delivered Eid-Ul-Fitr Sermon on 20th March 2026 at ‘Masjid Mubarak’, Islamabad, Tilford, U.K. at 10.30 GMT (Sri Lankan Time 4 P.M.). It aired LIVE via MTA (Muslim TV Ahmadiyya International), having simultaneous translation in various languages including English, Arabic, Bengali, French and Tamil. The gist of the Sermon as follows
Following the Eid prayer, Hazrat Amirul Momineen (may Allah be his Helper) recited first part of the Arabic Sermon and Surah al-Fatihah, and said:
Today, upon completing the month of Ramadan, we are celebrating Eid. This Eid should be an opportunity to express gratitude to Allah the Almighty for enabling us to fast during this month. Many people were blessed to partake in the Tahajjud and Tarawih prayers. Likewise, to read the Quran on a daily basis and to complete. Additionally, to listen to dars of the Holy Quran, to remember Allah and some were also able to sit i‘tikaf.”
i’tikaaf or e’tikaaf is an Islamic practice in which a person secludes himself or herself in a mosque for a period of time, devoting the days to worship and staying away from worldly affairs. The practice is especially associated with the last ten days of Ramadan, during which the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is reported to have regularly withdrawn into the mosque seeking Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree).[2]
To sit i‘tikaf is possible, Huzooraa said, in countries where we have freedom; however, in countries like Pakistan, Ahmadis are not allowed to openly worship and express their faith. On the contrary, they are prosecuted for doing so. We should pray that such restrictions are lifted and Ahmadis are able to practice their faith openly.
If, during Ramadan, there was no real attention towards these spiritual elements, then for such people, Eid is just a festival where people merely gather together, wearing new clothes, to have a laugh and a good time. However, Eid is not just for this purpose. It is a means of expressing gratitude to Allah the Almighty for enabling us to worship Him and make all these sacrifices.
Ahmadiyya Head said that he hopes most Ahmadis strove to reap the benefits of Ramadan, so that they may have increased in their taqwa (righteousness) worship of Allah the Almighty, and doing good deeds. He said to continue to always pray to Allah the Almighty and ask Him for His help – that just as He allowed us to do good in this month, He may make such deeds a consistent and permanent feature of our lives. In this way, the benefits and blessings will not just be limited to Ramadan but extend to our daily lives.
Ahmadiyya Khalifa said: We recite first chapter of Holy Quran (Surah al-Fatihah) multiple times every single day – in it, we are reminded to strive to worship Him in the best way possible and to fulfil his commandments. In this chapter (surah), the foundational attributes of Allah the Almighty are mentioned. We are taught to be grateful to Him in relation to these attributes. Also, to pray to become a part of those people who attained Allah’s pleasure, and not be like those who incurred His wrath and anger.
In the verse Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help”, Allah the Almighty emphasises that the first step should be from us. We should strive in the way of Allah and try our best to worship Him in the best way possible, but the true power and ability to do so comes from Allah alone.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that the one who takes a step towards Allah, Allah takes two steps towards him, and the one who walks to Allah, Allah runs to him. But we must remember that the first step should always come from us, and we should pray that Allah blesses our efforts. If we want to continue to benefit from the blessings of Ramadan, we must strive to continue our good deeds and pray for Allah’s help.
Ahmadiyya Khalifa said he will present some enlightening points of the Promised Messiah on the verse Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help.”
The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, writes:
In the verse: We worship Thee alone and we implore only Thy help; We worship Thee; takes precedence over: We implore only Thy help; for, man approaches God, the Supreme, in prayer, after having involved all his faculties in the subject matter of the prayer. It would be impertinent and insolent on his part to come to Him without using his faculties and without observing the requirements of the Law of nature. For instance, if a cultivator were to pray to God to bless his field with a plentiful harvest without preparing it and sowing any seed in it, he would be guilty of insolence and mockery. This is what has been called testing and trying God and that is forbidden.
It is, therefore, necessary to employ all one’s faculties before submitting one’s petition and this is the real significance of this prayer. It is necessary that one should first take stock of one’s beliefs and effort. It is the way of God to bring about a desired change through change in the means. He creates some factor which becomes the means of the desired improvement.”
Ahmadiyya Khalifa mentioned that some people question: if prayer exists, what is the point of using means? Addressing this, the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, wrote:
Those who consider that if prayer is available then means become irrelevant should ponder this seriously. They should realise that prayer is in itself a means which activates other means. The precedence of: We worship Thee alone; over: We implore only Thy help; which is a supplication, emphasises this.”
Ahmadiyya Khalifa said that the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, emphasised that man’s effort should never decrease. We should not aim to do good deeds in Ramadan only and think that now it is incumbent upon Allah the Almighty to give us all we want – if not for the rest of our lives, then at least until the next Ramadan. This is an erroneous thought. A true believer must always strive to carry out these good deeds, and only then will they attain the true grace of Allah the Almighty.
Ahmadiyya Khalifa quoted several writings of Promised Messiah on this and explained in depth.
While concluding the sermon Ahmadiyya Supreme Head said that we should all aim to widen the scope of our prayers in this manner, and when this happens, it will create a beautiful atmosphere and society.
It is the desire of opponents and enemies of Islam that Muslims continue to fight with each other – we must unite to escape this. His Holiness said he mentioned this two weeks ago, and that when Muslims do unite, this will be our true Eid.
Now we must strive to protect our good deeds even more, instead of becoming complacent and thinking we have done enough. We must ask Allah for help so that Satan never attacks us in such a way, and that no robber may ever take this treasure away from us. If we pray for this and strive to implement this habit of constantly protecting our good deeds, then this will be a successful Eid for us.
In the end, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa said, while we celebrate Eid, we must remember those Muslims who are doing Eid in circumstances where their houses have been destroyed, children have lost parents, parents have lost children, and they are living in constant fear for their lives.
His Holiness prayed that may Allah improve their circumstances and enable them to turn solely to Allah and rely on Him alone, rather than on worldly powers. What is happening in Arab countries today is a result of this reliance on worldly powers. May Allah protect everyone, including the Ahmadis suffering for their faith, from oppression.
His Holiness said we must remember the prayer Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help”. Our true Eid will be when we see the world turning towards monotheism, and towards the message of the Holy Prophet and his servant, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.
Ahmadiyya Khalifa prayed, May Allah make this Eid blessed, in both a worldly and spiritual sense, and make this Eid truly mubarak (blessed) for us. Amin.
The removal of the study of the Humanities i.e., classics, literature and philosophy, from the syllabus of school children in Sri Lanka has destroyed their capacity to think and value thought of different shades , and made them into what Herbert Marcuse has unequivocally described as the ‘One Dimensional Man ‘ – an intellectually stunted individual.
Critical observers of the Sri Lankan education system argue that the decline of the humanities—specifically
classics, literature, and philosophy—has led to a “one-dimensional” student profile. This shift is often attributed to a transition from holistic, value-based learning toward a “banking model” of education that prioritizes rote memorization, standardized testing, and narrow employability.
The Shift Toward “One-Dimensionality”
The concept of the “One-Dimensional Man”, formulated by Herbert Marcuse, describes individuals in a society where critical, “negative” thinking is suppressed by a culture of conformity and consumerism. In the context of Sri Lankan education:
Commodification of Knowledge: Education is increasingly viewed through a lens of “market demands,” focusing on producing “employable graduates” rather than critical thinkers.
Loss of Critical Distance: Marcuse argued that the humanities provide a “second dimension”—a space to imagine alternatives to the status quo. Removing these subjects limits students’ ability to transcend their immediate reality and question established systems.
Standardized Conformity: The current system’s reliance on credentials and job-oriented skills is seen as a form of “repressive” education that stifles independent reasoning and moral discernment.
Historical Context and Curriculum Changes
Sri Lanka has a long history of classical education, from ancient monastic traditions (Pirivena) teaching Sanskrit, Pali, and philosophy to the colonial-era inclusion of Latin and Greek.
Early Legacy: Ancient education focused on religion, literature, and arts, providing a “solid foundation” for systematic thought.
Modern Reforms: Recent curriculum shifts have moved away from these aesthetic and philosophical subjects. For instance, there were recent concerns regarding the potential removal of traditional aesthetic subjects like art, music, and dancing from the O’ Level syllabus to reduce the subject load.
Resulting Gaps: Experts note that while quantitative access to education has increased, the quality and depth of critical consciousness have declined, leaving students ill-prepared for complex, 21st-century problem-solving.
Impacts on Thought and Values
The removal or marginalization of the humanities has specific cognitive and social consequences:
Diminished Empathy: Literature and classics are foundational for developing empathy and the ability to value “thought of different shades”.
Lack of Ethical Framework: Philosophy provides a basis for defining objectives and making intentional, rather than reactive, life decisions.
Rote Learning Dominance: Without the “negative thinking” encouraged by the humanities, students often rely on confirmation bias and over-reliance on authority, hallmarks of Marcuse’s one-dimensional society.
The removal of classics, literature, and philosophy from school curricula hampers the development of critical, multi-faceted thinking, creating “One-Dimensional Man” as Herbert Marcuse argued
. This suppression of critical thought leads to a non-critical, conformist society that accepts, rather than questions, prevailing power structures, technology, and consumer culture.
Impact on Critical Thinking: Classics, literature, and philosophy foster analytical, ethical, and critical thinking skills essential for a democratic society, argue sources such as UCI School of Humanities and Society for Classical Learning.
Result of Curricular Changes: Removing humanities forces students to view the world through a limited, often technical or utilitarian lens, reducing their ability to conceptualize alternatives or critique society, notes PhilPapers.
Loss of Diverse Perspectives: Without literature and philosophy, students lose exposure to varied viewpoints and historical perspectives that challenge prevailing, often dominant, ideologies.
This educational shift promotes social conformity over “negative thinking,” which is crucial for recognizing and opposing oppression, says The Ted K Archive.
Why is there no political will in Sri Lanka to support innovation in Cricket by Sri Lankans who have won world acclaim with their brainchilds such as Player Referral (DRS) by Senaka Weeraratna and Third Umpire by Mahinda Wijesinghe?
AI Overview
The lack of political will to support Sri Lankan cricket innovations, such as the Player Referral (DRS) concept by
Senaka Weeraratna and the Third Umpire by Mahinda Wijesinghe, stems from a bureaucratic failure to recognize indigenous intellectual contributions, prioritization of short-term gains, and administrative detachment from pioneering, non-commercialized ideas.
Key Reasons for Lack of Support:
Recognition Challenges: Despite providing evidence of pioneering the Player Referral concept (now DRS), Senaka Weeraratna has struggled to receive formal acknowledgement from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Administrative Disconnect: There appears to be a disconnect within Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and relevant authorities regarding the valuation of intellectual property in sports, focusing more on team performance and commercial revenue rather than innovation from individuals.
Lack of Advocacy: There is a notable absence of sustained political or corporate advocacy to promote these home-grown intellectual concepts on the global stage.
“Finality of Umpire Decision” Doctrine: The initial reluctance to adopt new technology (DRS) by global cricket authorities meant early proponents faced massive resistance, reducing the likelihood of local political capital being invested in a controversial, initially unpopular concept.
Despite these hurdles, local supporters have long demanded that Sri Lankan officials support the recognition of these initiatives as indigenous contributions to the sport.
The perceived lack of political will to support Sri Lankan cricket innovators like
Senaka Weeraratna
(DRS) and
Mahinda Wijesinghe
(Third Umpire) is often attributed to a combination of institutional neglect, a “laid-back” attitude from local cricket authorities, and the complex, bureaucratic nature of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Key Factors for the Lack of Support
Institutional Apathy at Home: Observers and advocates have criticized the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), the Ministry of Sports, and successive Sri Lankan governments for failing to officially champion these claims at an international level. While there have been sporadic calls for recognition, there has been no sustained high-level diplomatic or legal effort to secure official credit for these innovations.
Global Power Dynamics: The ICC is often viewed as a “rich gravy train” dominated by wealthy, powerful cricket boards that may be reluctant to acknowledge groundbreaking contributions from a smaller, developing nation like Sri Lanka. Some proponents suggest an ingrained Euro-centric or “white man” bias in the corridors of power at the ICC.
ICC’s Legal Defense: The ICC has historically rejected these claims using legalistic logic. For instance, it informed Senaka Weeraratna that by publishing his “Player Referral” idea in newspapers (starting in 1997), he had waived his rights to confidentiality. The ICC also claimed its own committees developed the system independently, despite Weeraratna’s widespread prior publications.
Lack of Domestic “Pride Strategy”: Unlike nations that aggressively market their intellectual “brands” (e.g., the UK with the World Wide Web), Sri Lanka has not integrated these cricketing innovations into its national brand or tourism diplomacy.
Profiles of the Innovators
Senaka Weeraratna (The “Father of DRS”): A lawyer who first proposed the “Player Referral” concept in a letter to The Australian in 1997. His concept—allowing players to appeal on-field decisions to a third umpire with a limited number of reviews—is the exact foundation of the modern Decision Review System (DRS).
Mahinda Wijesinghe (Pioneer of the Third Umpire): A former first-class cricketer and writer who, in 1982-1983, proposed using a “walkie-talkie” system between on-field umpires and a third official watching TV monitors to clear up doubts like run-outs. While the SLC forwarded his suggestion to the ICC in 1984, the idea was initially rejected before being implemented years later in 1992.
Current Status of Recognition
Growing Local Advocacy: There are ongoing calls for SLC to at least display a plaque in their headquarters to honor these thinkers, similar to how players are rewarded for on-field feats.
International Awareness: While the ICC has not officially credited them, international media and some Indian cricket commentators have begun to acknowledge these Sri Lankan origins.
Would you like to know more about the specific legal arguments Senaka Weeraratna used in his formal appeals to the ICC?
Mahinda Wijesinghe pioneered the use of the Third Umpire but the South Africans obtained ICC recognition in a clear act of unfair play and discrimination against a Sri Lankan
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The Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd.), held a high level meeting with the Hon. Minister of Defense of Japan, Shinjirō Koizumi, at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo on Wednesday (18 Mar).
A high level meeting between Sri Lanka and Japan marked a significant step forward in strengthening bilateral defence cooperation, with a focus on maritime security, disaster management capacity building, and the stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
During the talks the Japanese Defence Minister highlighted the increasing importance of enhanced cooperation between Japan and Sri Lanka in ensuring stability and security within the Indo-Pacific region, particularly under the vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
In response, Deputy Minister Jayasekara emphasized Sri Lanka’s pivotal geographical position in the Indian Ocean and its vital role in safeguarding regional maritime security. He reiterated Sri Lanka’s strong commitment to further strengthening defence ties with Japan, especially in areas that contribute to regional peace and stability in compliance with the international laws, conventions and diplomacy.
Both sides exchanged views on key regional and global developments, including the evolving situation in the Middle East, and welcomed the steady progress in bilateral defence relations. The Deputy Minister stressed Sri Lanka’s strict neutral and non aligned foreign policy, the commitment to international norms and legal conventions.
Particular attention was drawn to the recent port call of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Destroyer JS Onami to Colombo and the successful conduct of a goodwill naval exercise with the Sri Lanka Navy.
The discussions resulted in a mutual agreement for continuation of the dialog promptly focusing on the enhancement of defence cooperation. Key areas of collaboration include, expanding maritime security cooperation through joint exercises, ship visits, and observer participation in naval programs.
Strengthening capacity building initiatives, particularly in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR). Advancing personnel exchanges, including continued engagement through training opportunities at the National Defense Academy (NDA) of Japan.
During the meeting, Deputy Minister Jayasekara expressed Sri Lanka’s deep appreciation to the Government of Japan for its longstanding support and assistance especially during the recent cyclone ‘Ditwa’. He conveyed gratitude for Japan’s humanitarian aid during past disasters, as well as its continued contributions toward Sri Lanka’s development and resilience.
He also highlighted Japan’s significant role in enhancing Sri Lanka’s maritime and technical capabilities, including the provision of vessels to the Sri Lanka Coast Guard, capacity building assistance, and advanced technological support to the meteorological sector, in the establishment of Doppler RADAR system valued at several billion rupees. Appreciating the ongoing commitment by Japan, he requested additional assistance for capacity building to strengthen weather forecasting capabilities.
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A critical look at the claims following April 2024 when Father Cyril Gamini addressed the media after appearing before the Criminal Investigation Department on 19 April 2024, he presented what he described as 8 facts with sources” relating to the Easter Sunday attacks.
What follows is a systematic evaluation of each claim against known operational facts, intelligence records, and forensic evidence.
Not facts. Not evidence. But questions—layered upon assumptions, presented to the public as truth.
Let us examine these eight points not emotionally, but logically.
If these are Facts”… Then why are they Questions?
If these are truly facts, then:
Why is each point framed as a question?
Why is there no direct attribution?
Where are the sources he claims to have submitted?
A fact” identifies. A fact” proves. A fact” withstands scrutiny.
What we have instead are gaps being presented as conclusions.
If a jacket in Vavunativu Matters… then where is the Connection to Easter Sunday attacks?
If the presence of a jacket near the Vavunativu crime scene is significant—
How does it identify a mastermind?
If no such connection is established, then:
It is not evidence. It is distraction – A disconnected clue without linkage to the Easter attacks is not evidence—it is noise.
More importantly, key individuals already identified in investigations are conspicuously absent from these questions.”
Why wasn’t the name of Milhan mentioned – he was the one who killed the 2 policemen on Zaharan’s instructions, the same Milhan who shot & crippled Taslim for pointing the Wanathavilluwa facility (coordinating secretary of Kabir Hashim). Milhan was a member of the military wing of the SL IS branch. By 2018 Milhan was put in charge of a secret investigation group in August 2018 tasked to get location details on Colombo navy headquarters, Police headquarters and police stations across Colombo.
If Zahran needed a Mastermind”… Why was he running a Nationwide Terror Network?
If a hidden mastermind existed, then:
Why was Zahran Hashim already:
Recruiting
Training
Indoctrinating
Planning
Coordinating
across multiple districts for years?
Documented Training Footprint (2017–2018)
Evidence shows Zahran personally led or supervised repeated training camps:
Kattankudy (Eastern Province)
indoctrination sessions
Weekly IS + Caliphate lectures
Thashila Holiday Resort (March–May 2018)
Multiple camps
Training on:
Explosives
Firearms
IS ideology
Shimla area (July–August 2018)
20–40 recruits per session
Practical weapons + bomb training
Nuwara Eliya (October 2018 – Blue Eye Inn)
~20–25 recruits
Expansion beyond Eastern Province
Sippikulama & Wanathawilluwa (2018–2019)
Weapons storage
Bomb-making
Safehouse operations
Women’s radicalization camp (July 2018)
Indoctrinating families of operatives
Preparing support ecosystem
These are not the actions of a puppet. These are the actions of a network builder and operational leader.
Structured Military Wing
Zahran didn’t just preach — he built a hierarchy:
Milhan→ Military operations, assassinations
Hasthun→ Master bomb-maker
Jameel→ ISIS facilitator, recruitment, logistics
Naufer→ Ideological + digital radicalization
He even created:
Asecret investigation unit” (Aug 2018)
Target mapping:
Police HQ
Navy HQ
Colombo infrastructure
Digital Command & Control
Zahran’s control extended online:
Facebook sermons calling forjihad and killing non-Muslims
Telegram group:Ansar Khilafah” (~200 members)
Direct ISIS ideological alignment
From the FBI affidavit:
members of the group used encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with one another and with ISIS operatives”
devices… contained communications… linked to ISIS”
This is networked terrorism, not mystery control.
Logical Conclusion
If a man:
Trains recruits nationwide
Builds a command structure
Procures weapons
Runs indoctrination pipelines
Coordinates attacks
Then he is not a passive instrument. He is an operational leader on the ground.
If an Email Address is Key… then who used It?
If a foreign intelligence agency identified an IP address or email linked to Zahran Hashim—how is this important to Father Cyril?
email proves only one thing: communication existed.
It does not prove who was behind Easter Sunday attacks
How important is an email to asking questions about why Zaharan was not arrested if even a blue notice by Interpol and arrest by CTID was out from July 2018?
Why not ask about how many videos Zaharan posted on facebook – calling for supporters to attack non-Muslims. Throughout 2019 leading to the Easter Attacks Zaharan had posted that he too would die in the name of jihad. On 10 April 2019, SIS head at the National Security Council meeting had referred to Zaharan’s facebook uploads and his revenge on kafirs. Back in March 2017 Zaharan had posted on his facebook that it was mandatory for Muslims to wage jihad.
Instead of asking an email – why didn’t Father Cyril want to question for how long has Zaharan or radicalism been spreading across Sri Lanka. In early 2016 IS had declared Sri Lanka a part of its caliphate. These are open source facts. JMI and Salafi-Wahhabi entities were openly promoting extremism and exclusivism.
In fact all the Muslim ministers ganged up against then Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakse when he said in Parliament that 32 members of 4 families had gone to Syria to fight for ISIS. The Minister was accused of spreading hate speech when flagging these warning signs. The same bandwagon on Muslim MPs united and resigned when Bathurdeen was arrested following Easter Sunday attacks. Maybe everyone has forgotten these facts?
The FBI agents affidavit also lists how Zaharan & Co directly addresses electronic communications (including email and online messaging) between Zahran Hashim and his network. Zahran and associates communicated through:
electronic communications, including email accounts, messaging applications, and social media platforms…”
members of the group used encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with one another and with ISIS operatives.” – what this means is that the communication channel was known, traceable, and ideological (ISIS-linked), not some unidentified external handler using a secret email/IP.”
The affidavit explicitly states Zahran Hashim and others pledged allegiance to ISIS and were in contact with ISIS operatives through electronic means…”
digital devices recovered… contained communications, videos, and materials linked to ISIS…”
On the issue of accounts (emails/IPs), the affidavit clarifies that:
accounts used in furtherance of the conspiracy were accessed by members of the group…
”forensic work showed devices belonging to the attackers contained login credentials, communications, and records associated with these accounts.”
Meaning:
The email/IP” issue raised by Cyril Gamini isnot mysterious
The accounts wereoperated by the attackers themselves or their immediate network
Critically, the affidavit does NOT assume an unknown third-party handler controlling them or a hidden mastermind”.
Pre-attack coordination was via digital means the conspirators coordinated logistics, targets, and preparations through electronic communications…” – there is no trace of any shadow operator.
Yet Father Cyril wants to know Who used the IP/email address that maintained constant contact with Zahran?” – if the emails+accounts were used by Zaharans own network, if communications were ISIS-linked and ideologically driven, if devices recovered contained their own credentials and data are all consistent with terrorist cell communication behavior this mystery email/IP” is a this mystery email/IP” is not supported by the available forensic evidence.
Father Cyril should question the then AG and seek evidence for his grand conspiracy theory.
If Father Cyril is implying Investigations were Misled…then who Benefited?
If the claim that investigations into Vavunativu killings were misdirected does it prove a conspiracy? Or more of institutional failure?
If the State was orchestrating events – why would it mislead itself?
If a Phone call was Received… Then who Called?
If Abdul Latheef Jameel Mohamed received a phone call before his failed attempt—
Who made the call?
What was said?
Where are the call records?
Call Detail Records (CDRs), tower dumps, and device forensics would definitively answer this—have these been presented?
Why not ask who brought Jameel to the hotel? Who provided his suicide kit? Why was he committing suicide?
Exactly who is this Jameel? He was even summoned in April 2018 about propagating IS ideology by the CTID. Jameel had been involved with ISIS since 2014 and established the JMI in 2015. Jameel also had infiltrated the Save the Pearls charity for homeless children with aim to indoctrinate them. Jameel even facilitated recruits to travel to Iraq & Syria to fight for IS. DMI identified him as a religious extremist and placed him under surveillance in December 2016
If Intelligence Officers visited a Suspect’s Home… Then is that Not Their Job?
If intelligence officers visited Jameel’s residence—
Was he not already a known extremist?
Was he not under scrutiny?
If security agencies follow suspects:
That is investigation.
Not collaboration.
If we criminalize intelligence work, then:
Are we saying security forces must not monitor suspects?
Why should Father Cyril want to have the identities of the intel officers – was this not how the 2002 Millennium City debacle took place when a supposed fake threat on the then PM resulted in divulging the names & details of intel officers that ended up with LTTE killing over 50 of them.
Why should Father Cyril want the names of the intel officers?
If this was a Hidden Conspiracy… Why were there so many Warnings about Zahran?
If the attacks were secretly orchestrated by others—
Why was Zahran repeatedly identified, tracked, and warned about?
The real unanswered question is not who emailed Zahran—but why a known, wanted extremist was not apprehended despite multiple warnings.
Timeline of Ignored Warnings
2014–2016
Multiple complaints fromSufi groups about Zahran’s extremism
hate speech, incitement, violence
2016
Zahran openly:
Promotes ISIS
Runs Telegram groups
Intelligence begins monitoring
2017 – Escalation Phase
March 2017
Violent clashes with Sufis
Arrests of NTJ members
June 2017
State Intelligence Servicewarns of possible attacks
November 2017 (NSC Meeting)
Zahran identified as extremist threat
2018 – Operational Build-Up
INTERPOL Blue Notice issued
Arrest warrant obtained (CTID)
Multiple intelligence briefings:
Radicalization
ISIS links
Training camps
Wanathawilluwa discovery (Jan 2019)
Explosives
Training evidence
April 2019 – Final Warnings
4 April
Indian intelligence warns of imminent attack
7 April
Written intelligence report circulated
9–10 April
Attack plans discussed internally
21 April (morning of attack)
Final alert: attacks between 6–10 AM
The Real Question or rather the goal is to claim that someone” in the intel was secretly controlling or facilitating the attacks through intelligence channels.
Let’s break this down to the time of the 2019 attacks.
The supposed orchestrator or controller” wasnot holding an operational post in Sri Lanka
The individual wasoutside the country and did not hold a command role
He hadno access to active intelligence units in the field.
To counter this probably the visit to coconut estate was planted!
However, that has to be proved with flight records, telephone calls – simply appearing on a paid documentary and making allegations with blurred visuals is not evidence.
If an individual is physically removed from operational control, any claim that they were directing attacks domestically becomes operationally impossible.
The next attempt is to float using Informant Theory” – this is where the showing one target church in Katuwapitiya comes to play.
Those making the allegations may have overlooked that the suicide bomber operated from a safehouse close to the Church – so he didn’t need somone from overseas calling to inform an intel informant to provide location.
If intelligence informants were allegedly used to assist attackers:
Where are thetasking orders?
Where is anycommunication trail or reporting link?
Where are theoperational records?
Intelligence operations always leave evidence. Without it, the claim remains pure speculation.
Contradiction in Logic
If the attackers were already under surveillance, and multiple agencies issued repeated warnings about them:
How could the same system simultaneouslytrack, warn, and allow facilitation?
The evidence showsmonitoring and warning, not orchestration.
What the Pattern actually Shows
The documented pattern indicates:
Intelligence awareness
Warnings issued
Tracking over time
This is evidence of a failure to act, not evidence of secret orchestration.
Claims of covert facilitation require:
Operational links
Verified communications
Command responsibility
Without these, the allegation collapses under its own weight.
More importantly, none of these secret sensational stories can remove the fact that
IF:
Zahran was known
Zahran was tracked
Zahran was reported repeatedly
THEN: The pattern points to intelligence failure or non-action Not proof of a coordinated hidden conspiracy
If the Entire Case Depends on One Man… Then where is his Evidence?
Two of the eight points by Father Cyril rely entirely on claims by Asad Maulana.
So let us ask:
If his claims are true—
Why did he not testify before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry?
Why did he not give a statement to the CID?
Why did he not present sworn evidence?
Instead:
His claims appear in a foreign-funded documentary by a notorious channel.
If a man claims knowledge of mass murder but:
Does not go to the police
Does not testify under oath
Does not submit to cross-examination
Then what is his claim worth? – it is not evidence, testimony but narrative.
And if his claims fall—then points 6 & 7 collapse entirely.
Claims not tested under oath remain allegations—not evidence.
Next Father Cyril wants to know – If Abu Hind” Exists… then does it not Suggest Infiltration?
If there was a figure known as Abu Hind” above Zahran Hashim—
Who was he?
Was he an extremist leader?
Or an infiltrator?
As per Rohan Gunaratna’s book Sri Lanka Easter Sunday massacre since early 2018 a deputy IGP from the intelligence service of Tamil Nadu police, mounted an operation to infiltrate the IS Sri Lanka branch. It was said that undercover officer Abu Hind masqueraded as an IS leader and accessed Zahran through Rilwan”.
If foreign intelligence had penetrated Zaharan’s network it indicates surveillance/infiltration not control by local actors.
Hope that ends Father Cyril’s Abu-Hind conspiracy.
If there was a Mastermind… Where is the Evidence?
After all eight points, one question remains:
Where is the evidence of planning?
Where is the proof of financing?
Where is the chain of command?
No evidentiary chain has been publicly demonstrated linking any alleged mastermind” to operational control of the attackers except clear evidence of Zaharan being in control of the ground operations including training and propaganda.
Years of investigations have already established:
A radicalized network led by Zahran Hashim
Links to ISIS ideology
Local recruitment, training, and execution
The most important item is that on 29 June 2014 – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leader of ISIS announced a global caliphate and instructed followers to kill non-Muslims in countries where they resided. IS envisaged controlling territories including Sri Lanka by 2020. Sri Lanka was shown on the map as part of the Khorasan province. Zaharan & Co was working towards this goal.
More importantly, the death of Zaharan & Co has not ended that goal.
However, if Father Cyril persists that a different mastermind exists – without asking more questions he must produce the evidence of the mastermind – this evidence must be able to link the mastermind to all of the trainings Zaharan had conducted across Sri Lanka, the social media propaganda that foreign intel has with them, the electronic communication and device details that foreign intel has access to which did not disclose any of the names that Father Cyril & Asad Maulana are implying or any grand conspiracy that the outgoing AG during the Easter Sunday infected the minds of people unwilling to accept raw facts.
Questions Cannot Replace Proof
In law—and in truth:
Suspicion is not evidence
Questions are not proof
Narratives are not facts
If we begin to accept:
Unverified claims
Media statements
Unquestioned assumptions
Then we are no longer seeking truth.
The Real Danger
The real danger is not asking questions.
The real danger is:
Presenting questions as answers
Suggesting conclusions without proof
Turning speculation into accusation
Because once that line is crossed:
Truth becomes optional. And justice becomes impossible.
If there is evidence—present it.
If there are witnesses—produce them (not fabricating fake evidence – as lies lead to more lies and lies always get caught)
If there is a case—prove it.
But until then:
Eight questions remain exactly what they are.
Mere Questions.
Shenali D Waduge
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Dr Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS), Retired Perm Secretary Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayake
It appears that international laws are applicable only to smaller nations and they never cover the crimes committed by the powerful bigger nations. It is simply Kautillya’s Mathsya niyaaya at work that is the smaller fish is always the prey of the Big fish. The naked behavior of ‘BIG” nations proves the same natural law perhaps.
United Nations General Assembly proposal was initiated by Sri Lanka and Tanzania to designate the Indian Ocean as a nuclear-free zone, free from military escalation, foreign bases, and weapons of mass destruction. It aims to preserve regional security and ensure freedom of countries around the Indian Ocean.
In 1964 Cairo Summit NAM meeting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike proposed to the United Nations that the Indian Ocean be declared a Zone of Peace. It was seconded by Julius Nyere President of Tanzania and passed
It was declared by the UN General Assembly on December 16, 1971 (Resolution 2832), aimed at limiting superpower military rivalry, specifically nuclear weapons and military bases, to protect the region’s independence and security. Initiated by Sri Lanka, it seeks to maintain a, peaceful, secure Indian Ocean.
The resolution was passed with 61 votes in favor, zero against, and 55 abstentions, largely because major powers abstained. Even at that meeting Absentees were led by the US.
The resolution designates the Indian Ocean (including airspace and sea floor) as a zone of peace, calling for the elimination of military bases and weapons of mass destruction belonging to great powers.
The initiative is designed to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, focusing on international peace and security.
While consistently reaffirmed by the General Assembly, the implementation has been challenging, with an Ad Hoc Committee established to work on its implementation.
Recent efforts, notably by Sri Lanka, are re-emphasizing the initiative to ensure security, freedom of navigation, and prevent the region from becoming a theater of conflict.
The declaration calls upon all littoral and hinterland states, as well as permanent Security Council members, to negotiate to reduce military presence in the area.
The Indian Ocean has been called a “zone of peace” by littoral states who are concerned about the increased naval activity of the superpowers. But all major powers 1971 resolution US, Uk and France have their base. As of early 2026, the United States, United Kingdom, and France maintain a robust military presence in the Indian Ocean, driven by strategic competition with China, energy security, and regional stability in the Middle East and Africa
Their interests focus on maintaining freedom of navigation, securing maritime trade routes (especially the Strait of Hormuz and Malacca), and protecting their respective sovereign territories and alliances, often operating under NATO or independent. But in practice they always bypass these interests leaning towards neo colonial agenda reminiscent of the old practice of invasion Conquering, exploiting and keeping under financial and cultural invasion.
All these super power interests in the Indian Ocean go counter to the 1971 Resolution. Although colonial expansion by Europe as it did in the1500 -1900 has come to an end their active military and trade activities together with regime change are still at full swing in this region. A potential threat to the freedom and security of the countries around the Indian m ocean that were under their colonial administration.
This situation has to be arrested as early as possible to protect the security of the smaller and poorer nations and their sea faring interest as equals, as free and sovereign nations irrespective of their size, power or riches, but their human qualities and intellectual achievements and contributions making this world a happy and peaceful place to live without fear, pain and sorrow.
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The Buddhist Jātaka tales represent a substantial collection of folklore, consisting of 547 poems. Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that these stories were compiled between the 3rd Century B.C. and the 5th Century A.D. As noted by Professor Rhys Davids, the Jātaka tales are among the oldest fables known to us. Jātaka Tales provide deep insights into the human mind, analyzing behavior through a “case method” long before modern Western psychology (Harischandra, 1998).
It is noteworthy that the Buddhist Jātaka tales explore themes of father-son conflict and the Oedipal complex (Jayatunge, 2015). These narratives explore the complexities of familial relationships, highlighting the struggles and tensions that can arise between generations.
The Oedipus complex consists of a configuration of conscious and unconscious desires, affects (love, hate, jealousy, rivalry, admiration, guilt), fantasies, prohibitions, but also relationships and identifications between a child and his parents, mother and father. It involves two forms, positive and negative: the positive one consists of a son’s incestuous desires for his mother, a hostile desire for death, and jealousy and rivalry towards his father. While the negative one consists of a homosexual desire for his father, it also includes a feeling of admiration and a feeling of rivalry, jealousy, and hostile impulses towards his mother. This Oedipus complex should evolve due to the castration threat towards its dissolution and the process of a double identification, male and female, with the parents; for the son, the male identification would be predominant, while for the daughter, the female one would be predominant. Both these identifications will form the core of the child’s superego as the heir of the Oedipus complex and the castration threat.
In Totem and Taboo, Freud argued that this complex was universal, suggesting a shared and psychological blueprint for all humans, regardless of culture. The Oedipus complex is found in ancient fables and myths across many cultures.
The Oedipus complex, a concept originating from Freudian psychoanalysis, can be observed in various narratives within the Buddhist Jātaka Tales. These tales often explore complex familial relationships and the psychological struggles of individuals, mirroring the themes of desire, conflict, and resolution found in the Oedipus complex. In several Jātaka stories, characters grapple with their relationships to parental figures, revealing deep-seated emotions and conflicts that resonate with the essence of the Oedipus complex.
In the Asilakkhana Jataka, (in Buddhist Jātaka tales), also known as Jataka 126, the narrative unfolds with the birth of a prince, whose arrival is met with foreboding predictions from a seer. The prognosticator ominously foretells that this young royal will one day become a formidable rival to his father, the reigning king. This prophecy instills a deep-seated fear in the king, prompting him to take drastic measures to isolate the prince from any potential threats to his rule. As the story progresses, the prince, driven by ambition and the desire for power, ultimately resorts to treachery, plotting to assassinate his father in a bid to seize the throne. Complicating the dynamics further, the queen, who serves as a maternal figure to the prince, becomes entangled in this web of conflict, highlighting the intricate relationships and moral dilemmas that arise from the pursuit of power and the fear of rivalry within a royal lineage.
The Asilakkhana Jataka and the story of Oedipus Rex share intriguing thematic similarities, particularly in their exploration of fate, identity, and the consequences of one’s actions. In both narratives, the protagonists are confronted with prophecies that dictate their destinies, leading them to a tragic realization of their circumstances. The Asilakkhana Jataka and the story of Oedipus Rex share a fascinating historical connection. However, there is no consensus among historians that they share a common historical origin.
Ethologists and evolutionary psychologists (like Edward O. Wilson) note that in many social species, the “Oedipal” dynamic is a literal reality of survival (Wilson, 1975). In many monkey species, young males must eventually challenge the dominant “alpha” (often their father) to gain status and reproductive access to females (De Waal, 1982).
The Thayo Darma Jātakaya, part of the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, explores themes reminiscent of the Oedipal complex within a monkey kingdom. This story narrates a poignant tale of conflict between a father and his son, set against the backdrop of a jungle kingdom ruled by a tyrannical monkey king. This father, driven by a fear of potential threats to his authority, resorts to a brutal practice of mutilating the genitals of male infant monkeys, thereby ensuring that no rival can emerge to challenge his reign. In a further display of dominance, he hoards all the female monkeys for himself, rendering other males impotent and effectively eliminating competition (castration by the father responding to the son’s wish for the father’s death).
However, one male infant monkey manages to escape this grim fate, finding refuge in a secluded part of the jungle where he is nurtured by his mother, who secretly provides for him. This bond fosters a deep emotional attachment, leading the young monkey to harbor resentment towards his father for the cruel actions taken against his kind. As he matures into a formidable adult, the son emerges from his hidden sanctuary, emboldened by his mother’s love and his own desire for justice. In a climactic confrontation, he challenges his father, ultimately overcoming him in a fierce battle, and ascends to the throne as the new king, symbolizing the triumph of resilience and the quest for rightful leadership.
The Thayo Darma Jātakaya can be considered a powerful symbolic narrative of human behavior, specifically focusing on the psychology of jealousy, fear of displacement, and the destructive nature of power. While the Western Freudian model focuses on the son’s desire to displace the father, this Jātaka story expresses the projection of the son’s fear of castration, which is a father’s threat as a punishment for both desires, incestuous with the mother and the death of the father.
Sri Lankan anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere posits that within the Buddhist framework, the Oedipal conflict is frequently resolved when a son chooses to become a monk. This decision to embrace celibacy and renounce familial ties allows the son to symbolically sever his connections to his family role, effectively alleviating the rivalry with the father and the longing for the mother without resorting to physical confrontation (Obeyesekere, 1990).
In the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, the conflict between a son and his father can be reinterpreted as a form of religious virtue. This transformation highlights the potential for personal growth and moral development arising from familial rivalry, suggesting that such struggles may ultimately lead to greater spiritual understanding and enlightenment.
Buddhist Jātaka Tales reinterpret Oedipal desires as expressions of craving and influences from previous lives. These narratives illustrate how such detrimental mental states contribute to a continuous cycle of suffering and unfavorable rebirths.
The primary distinction between the Freudian Oedipal complex and its Buddhist equivalent is found in how each framework addresses the underlying conflict. Freud’s theory is characterized by a tragic and inescapable cycle of violence. In contrast, the Buddhist Jātaka narratives view conflict as an opportunity for spiritual growth and renunciation, transforming potential turmoil into a path to enlightenment.
Acknowledgement: Dr. Eric Smadja, Psychiatrist-psychoanalyst (adults and couples) based in Paris, member of the Société psychanalytique de Paris, of the International Psychoanalytical Association; anthropologist, associate member of the American Anthropological Association and member of the Society for Psychological Anthropology.
References
De Waal, F. (1982). Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. Jonathan Cape.
Freud, S. (1910). A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XI (1910): Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Leonardo da Vinci and Other Works (pp. 163–176).
Freud, S. (1913/1950). Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics (J. Strachey, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company.
Harischandra, D. V. J. (1998). Psychiatric Aspects of Jataka Stories. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Jayatunge, R. M. (2015). Psychological Aspects of Buddhist Jātaka Stories. Colombo: S. Godage.
Obeyesekere, G. (1990). The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. University of Chicago Press.
Rhys Davids, T. W. (1880). Buddhist Birth Stories; or, Jātaka Tales. The Oldest Collection of Folklore Extant: Being the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā. London: Trübner & Co. Gutenberg.
Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
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Positioning Sri Lanka as a Regional Trade & Services Hub through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Model
1. Background & Rationale
Global economic and geopolitical shifts and looming world war 3 , are resulting in a gradual relocation of trade, logistics, and service sector operations from traditional hubs in the Middle East and other regions.
Sri Lanka, due to its strategic location along major Indian Ocean shipping routes, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this transition.
The development of Colombo Port City and the underutilized potential of Trincomalee present a timely opportunity to reposition the country as a regional hub for industry, trade, and high-value services.
2. Strategic Vision
Develop Trincomalee as a heavy industrial and energy hub
Establish Colombo Port City as a Centre of Excellence” for:
Financial services
Oil & gas support services
Maritime and logistics management
IT and digital services
Compete regionally with:
Chennai
Singapore
3. Policy Alignment
This proposal aligns with:
National export development strategies
Investment promotion policies
Neutral foreign policy direction adopted by the Government under Ranil Wickremesinghe
Economic recovery and foreign exchange generation priorities
4. Proposal
It is proposed that the Government:
Approve in principle the development of a dual-hub strategy:
Industrial Hub in Trincomalee
Services Hub in Colombo Port City
Adopt a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to:
Accelerate infrastructure development
Attract foreign direct investment (FDI)
Ensure efficient management
Mandate relevant agencies (EDB, BOI, Port City Commission) to:
Promote Sri Lanka as a relocation destination
Engage multinational corporations currently based in the Middle East and Asia
5. Immediate Actions Required
Submission and approval by the Export Development Committee of Ministers (EDCM)
Establishment of a high-level task force
Fast-track regulatory approvals and investor facilitation mechanisms
Launch of an international investment promotion campaign
6. Infrastructure Strategy
A key constraint is the time required for conventional construction.
Therefore, it is proposed to:
Utilize prefabricated steel structures for rapid deployment
Partner with international contractors experienced in modular construction
Enable immediate occupation by global firms
This approach will significantly reduce lead time and capture the current opportunity window.
7. Target Sectors
Oil & Gas (regional support services)
Banking & Financial Services
Maritime & Shipping Services
Information Technology & Digital Services
Logistics and Supply Chain Management
8. PPP Framework
The PPP model will include:
Joint venture structures
Long-term concessions
Revenue-sharing mechanisms
Risk-sharing arrangements between Government and private sector
Admiration for Arthur Schopenhauer’s stance on animal compassion is rooted in his radical rejection of anthropocentrism, his deep empathy for the powerless, and his philosophical argument that kindness toward animals is the ultimate test of human morality. Writing in the 19th century—a time when animal rights were largely ignored—Schopenhauer stated in
The Basis of Morality that “compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man”
Here is why Schopenhauer’s placing of compassion for animals as the defining characteristic of humanity is admirable:
It Redefines Moral Character: Schopenhauer argued that true morality is not based on reason or intellectual capacity, but on empathy. Because animals are unable to defend themselves or seek justice, he believed that how humans treat them exposes their true, unadorned moral nature.
A Crucial Rejection of Western “Barbarity”: Schopenhauer harshly criticized the prevailing Western view that animals were merely tools without rights, calling it an “outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity”. His position was ahead of his time, emphasizing that animals are sentient beings driven by a “Will” similar to that of humans.
The Shared Experience of Suffering: He argued that all living beings share the same “metaphysical will,” leading to a shared existence of suffering. By identifying this unity, he placed animal suffering on the same moral plane as human suffering, recognizing that both deserve compassion.
Actionable Morality: Schopenhauer believed in a practical, daily ethics where “suffering recognized is suffering reduced”. This philosophy moves beyond theoretical debates about ethics and demands that a “good person” act with compassion toward all living beings.
Influence of Deeper Wisdom: His focus on animal compassion was strongly influenced by Eastern philosophies, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, which emphasize the “Self” (Atman) being present in all living beings, reflecting his belief in universal empathy.
Schopenhauer’s legacy is that he transformed animal ethics from a sentimental concern into a necessary foundation for a “good” human being.
is widely admired for his pioneering stance on animal ethics, specifically for his assertion in his major work, On the Basis of Morality, that “Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man”. Unlike many of his contemporaries who viewed animals as mere “things” or tools for human use, Schopenhauer argued that our treatment of them is a direct reflection of our moral essence.
His reasons for placing compassion for animals at the center of human morality include:
Recognition of Shared Suffering: He believed that both humans and animals are manifestations of the same metaphysical “Will” and are therefore subject to the same fundamental experience of suffering and craving.
Rejection of Rationality as a Moral Barrier: Schopenhauer challenged the Kantian view that only rational beings deserve moral consideration. He argued that the capacity to feel pain, not the ability to reason, is what makes a being worthy of compassion.
The Ultimate Litmus Test for Character: He saw animals as the most vulnerable “other.” Because they cannot speak or defend themselves, how a person treats an animal reveals their true, unforced moral character—either “goodness of heart” or “moral emptiness”.
Universal Compassion as the Only Moral Guarantee: He famously stated that “Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality,” suggesting that a moral system that excludes animals is inherently “crude and barbarous”.
Critique of Human Supremacy: He vehemently opposed religious and philosophical traditions that granted humans “absolute right” over animals, describing the idea that animals were created solely for human use as an “outrageous illusion”.
Schopenhauer’s personal life mirrored these beliefs; he famously lived with a succession of pet poodles named “Atman” (a Sanskrit term for the “true self”) and reportedly preferred their company to that of humans.
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