By Palitha Ariyarathna

(Source: All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Facebook Page )

2026-2-21

Synopsis  Sri Lanka is a civilizational state — consecrated to the Buddha Sasana for over 2,570 years. From King Pandukabhaya to King Dutugemunu, from Mahiyangana to Anuradhapura, this island was offered to the Buddha. The four Buddhas — Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa, and Gautama — link Lanka to sacred continuity. Colonial powers called it Ceylon, but its true name is Lanka: one, indivisible, eternal. Article 2 declares unity, Article 9 gives Buddhism the foremost place, and the Sixth Amendment rejects separatism. Together, they are the shield of the Constitution, the guardian of the Sasana, and the eternal duty of the nation.

Sri Lanka is not merely a republic born in 1948. It is a civilizational state consecrated to the Buddha Sasana for over 2,570 years. From the arrival of Mahinda Thera, this island was offered as a pujā to the Buddha. Kings such as Pandukabhaya, Devanampiya Tissa, Dutugemunu, Valagamba, Parakramabahu, and Parakramabahu VI reaffirmed this dedication. The Mahavamsa records how rulers saw their authority not as privilege but as guardianship of the Sasana. Therefore, the civilizational rights of this land are native, original, and sacred. They cannot be displaced by temporary politics, foreign agendas, or separatist myths.

From King Pandukabhaya who organized Anuradhapura, to King Devanampiya Tissa who received Mahinda Thera, to King Dutugemunu who fought to protect the Sasana, Sri Lanka’s rulers understood their duty. King Valagamba rebuilt temples after invasions. King Parakramabahu unified the Sangha to restore discipline. Each ruler saw his authority as guardianship, not privilege. The chronicles speak of four Buddhas born in this world: Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa, and Gautama. Each Buddha’s dispensation touched lands across Oja Dveepa, Wara Dveepa, Manda Dveepa, and Sinhala Dveepa, but Sri Lanka was uniquely consecrated to Gautama Buddha’s Sasana. Sacred sites such as Mahiyangana, Thuparama, Ruwanwelisaya, and Sri Maha Bodhi are civilizational anchors linking Sri Lanka to the lineage of the Buddhas. Thus, Ceylon as colonial powers called it is not just geography. It is a sacred trust, a land offered to the Sasana.

The Portuguese came with the cross and the sword. They burned temples, destroyed manuscripts, and forced conversions. Yet the Sasana survived in the villages, protected by monks who carried the Dhamma in their hearts. The Dutch came with Calvinism, restricting Buddhist practice and undermining Kandyan traditions. Yet the Kandyan kings defended the Sasana, showing civilizational resilience. The British came with missionary schools, Christianization, and the destruction of Buddhist education. Yet Anagarika Dharmapala, Olcott, and the Buddhist Theosophical Society revived the Sasana. Article 9 is the fruit of that revival. It is the modern continuation of centuries of resistance.

The LTTE’s separatist war was not a struggle for rights; it was a war against civilizational truth. Prabhakaran’s ideology aimed to erase Sinhala Buddhist presence from the North and East. The LTTE attacked pilgrims, destroyed villages, and assassinated monks. They expelled Muslims from Jaffna, silenced Tamil leaders who opposed them, and terrorized civilians. This was not liberation; it was terrorism. The humanitarian war of the Sri Lankan Army rescued hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians held hostage. The so‑called Eelam country” collapsed under its own falsehood. It was never a nation, never a state, never a civilizational truth. It was a terrorist project, rejected by the Constitution, defeated by the Army, and exposed by scholars.

The Tamil diaspora speaks of Sinhala Buddhists as colonizers, oppressors, and chauvinists. They lobby in foreign capitals, spreading words that erase civilizational truth. Tamil leaders within Sri Lanka call temples in the North and East colonization,” ignoring the chronicles that record ancient viharas in those lands. They demand federalism and power devolution beyond the Constitution. But Article 2 declares Sri Lanka a Unitary State. The Sixth Amendment criminalizes advocacy of secession. No meeting, no resolution, no speech can override this. The fake Eelam concept is not a right; it is a violation.

The diaspora’s revival of the Vaddukoddai Resolution (1976) and the LTTE’s separatist ideology is a direct violation of the Sixth Amendment (1983), which criminalizes advocacy of secession. Every attempt to stage Vaddukoddai‑style meetings in later years, whether through diaspora conferences, Tamil Nadu rhetoric, or separatist protests such as the so‑called Black Day” in February 2026, is illegal in our motherland. These gatherings are not exercises of rights; they are violations of the Constitution and betrayals of civilizational truth.

The book Eelam Exposed by L.K.N. Perera dismantles the myth of Eelam with historical and legal evidence. It reveals the nakedness of Tamil politicians who misled their people with false promises of a separate state. It shows, with rare sources, that the Eelam concept is a fabrication. The chronicles, the foreign accounts, the archaeological record all prove that Sri Lanka is one, indivisible, consecrated to the Sasana. Scholarship and sacrifice together expose separatism as falsehood.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake speaks of protecting Buddhism, yet his earlier rhetoric treated Sinhala Buddhist nationalism as an obstacle. Lal Kantha insulted monks, condemned by the Asgiri Chapter. Harini Amarasuriya misrepresented the LTTE war as mere political gain, ignoring separatist violence. Tilvin Silva guided the JVP with Marxist secularism, yet now speaks of protecting Article 9. Maithripala Sirisena promised protection, yet allowed debates to dilute it. Chandrika Kumaratunga spoke of reconciliation while exploring secular frameworks. Ranil Wickremesinghe reassured Buddhists, yet earlier aligned with donor‑driven reforms. These are not genuine defenses of Buddhism. They are Trojan horses outward gestures for votes, inward concessions to secularism.

No policy builder, politician, or external actor has any lawful right to bypass, dilute, or delete Article 9 — for to do so is not merely a legal violation, but a betrayal of Sri Lanka’s civilizational trust.”-Palitha Ariyarathna

Any attempt to abolish, bypass, or dilute Article 9 is a direct threat to the nation. The Buddha Sasana, and the Dhamma within it, must never be subjected to internal or external manipulation. All parties within the State, and all forces outside it, whether local or foreign, are bound to respect this sacred trust. To interfere with it is to commit an unlawful act, to betray the civilizational foundation, and to violate the rightful inheritance of the Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Upasaka, and Upasika. This inheritance is eternal, and it is non‑negotiable.

Article 9 is eternal. Article 2 declares Sri Lanka a Unitary State. The Sixth Amendment criminalizes separatism. The humanitarian war defeated terrorism. Scholarship exposed the myth. Together they form the shield of the nation. The President must gather all separatist notes, all false demands, and ban them on the spot. For the Constitution itself has spoken: Sri Lanka is one, indivisible, and consecrated to the Sasana. This is the civilizational truth. This is the eternal duty.

After the Maha Sangha Conference, the voices of civilizational guardianship were raised clearly against separatism and falsehood. Yet even in the aftermath, fake Tamil diaspora leaders continued their rhetoric, speaking of Sinhalization” as if the presence of Buddhist temples in the North and East were colonization. These words are not truth; they are violations against history and against the civilizational continuity of the island. The chronicles record ancient viharas and stupas in those lands long before separatist myths were invented. Mahiyangana, Thuparama, Ruwanwelisaya, and countless other shrines testify that the North and East were never alien territories but integral parts of the Sasana’s guardianship. Sinhala Buddhists are not colonizers; they are heirs to a civilizational trust that has lasted for over 2,570 years.

The diaspora’s rhetoric of Sinhalization” is a deliberate distortion, designed to erase the memory of kings who consecrated the island to the Buddha, monks who carried the Dhamma across regions, and people who built temples as acts of devotion. To call this colonization is to deny the Mahavamsa, the Culavamsa, and the Dipavamsa, which record the offering of Lanka to the Sasana. It is to deny archaeology, which proves the presence of Buddhist shrines in the North and East centuries before separatist politics. It is to deny sacrifice, for monks and laypeople alike defended these lands against invasions and terror. Therefore, the Sangha must reject these falsehoods with clarity and strength. The Maha Sangha Conference has already declared unity, and this proclamation stands as the eternal answer: Sri Lanka is one, indivisible, consecrated to the Sasana. No rhetoric of Sinhalization,” no lobbying in foreign capitals, no Trojan horse politics can override this civilizational truth. The Constitution is the shield, the Sangha is the guardian, and the people are the heirs. This is the eternal duty, reaffirmed after the Maha Sangha Conference and carried forward into the future.

Venerable Maha Sangha, your proclamation has reaffirmed the civilizational guardianship of the Sasana and the unity of our nation. To ensure that this truth is not only spiritual but also legally unassailable, it must be harmonized with the supreme law of the Republic. Article 9 of the Constitution is eternal, enshrining the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana. Article 2 declares Sri Lanka a Unitary State, indivisible and sovereign. These provisions are not mere clauses; they are the constitutional covenant that shields the nation. When the civilizational truth of the Sangha is joined with the constitutional authority vested in Articles 9 and 2, no falsehood, no separatist rhetoric, and no distortion of history can lawfully overcome the sovereignty, unity, and indivisibility of Sri Lanka.

This island, once called Lanka, known as Sinhale, later called Ceylon by colonial powers, is not a mere territory. It is the sacred land chosen by the Buddhas, consecrated by kings, protected by monks, and defended by the people. Its civilizational uniqueness is eternal.

By Palitha Ariyarathna

Dilrook Kannangara

Unfortunately, almost all Muslim communities in the world are suffering physical harm for various reasons. Yet there is an oasis for Muslims in Sri Lanka. The land where the first man, Prophet Adam descended, and descended well, according to local Muslims’ beliefs, has nurtured Muslims and awarded them with peace and prosperity when the rest of the world turned hostile.

What happens in the Middle East for the past 70 years is sad. Never-ending wars have plagued the middle east, and their wars will not end anytime soon. Palestine, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, etc. are taking very heavy economic and human losses. At least 5 million Muslims would have been killed in this region for the past 70 years of war. Other forms of violence against Muslims are also at horror levels.

Algeria to Libya and North Africa is another sob story of extreme violence killing over a million Muslims since WW2. Other parts of Africa are no better with extreme violence and counter violence resulting in the deaths of millions of Muslims.

Afghanistan has a legacy of millions of dead in repeated wars.

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is another sorry story. Last 80 years saw the killing of over 3 million Muslims in these countries due to internal strife, terrorism and independence movements. Continuing discrimination against and lynching of Muslims to death in India is commonplace. Similar happenings take place in China and Myanmar.

A large number of Muslims have made their way to developed countries. However, they are denied Muslim laws, Sharia law, multiple marriages and religious practice. They face daily backlash from locals in these countries.

Indonesia, Malaysia and a few central Asian countries with a large Muslim population have so far avoided major military catastrophes, however, plans are underway in western capitals to turn these too into killing fields.

In addition, Indonesia is facing severe natural disasters too frequently. Sitting on what is called ‘the ring of fire’, it is battered by all forms of natural disasters with tens of thousands of casualties. Maldives, though peaceful and prosperous, has its days numbered due to rising sea levels.

In wide contrast Muslims in Sri Lanka thrive with no physical threats whatsoever and good business. Muslims in Sri Lanka must be thankful for their good luck in Sri Lanka. Bringing extremist dogma from warzones into the blessed island will surely end the streak of good luck. Let those dogmatic beliefs perish in the middle east; it is no concern for the islanders; keep Sri Lanka peaceful for all.

Bamo Nouri Courtesy Counterpunch.org

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US and Iranian negotiators met in Geneva earlier this week in what mediators described as the most serious and constructive talks in years. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, spoke publicly of unprecedented openness,” signalling that both sides were exploring creative formulations rather than repeating entrenched positions. Discussions showed flexibility on nuclear limits and sanctions relief, and mediators indicated that a principles agreement could have been reached within days, with detailed verification mechanisms to follow within months.

These were not hollow gestures. Real diplomatic capital was being spent. Iranian officials floated proposals designed to meet US political realities – including potential access to energy sectors and economic cooperation. These were gestures calibrated to allow Donald Trump to present any deal as tougher and more advantageous than the 2015 agreement he withdrew the US from in May 2018. Tehran appeared to understand the optics Washington required, even if contentious issues such as ballistic missiles and regional proxy networks remained outside the immediate framework. Then, in the middle of these talks, the bridge was shattered.

Sensing how close the negotiations were — and how imminent military escalation had become — Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, made an emergency dash to Washington in a last-ditch effort to preserve the diplomatic track.

In an unusually public move for a mediator, he appeared on CBS to outline just how far the talks had progressed. He described a deal that would eliminate Iranian stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, down-blend existing material inside Iran, and allow full verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — with the possibility of US inspectors participating alongside them. Iran, he suggested, would enrich only for civilian purposes. A principles agreement, he indicated, could be signed within days. It was a remarkable disclosure — effectively revealing the contours of a near-breakthrough in an attempt to prevent imminent war.

But rather than allowing diplomacy to conclude, the US and Israel have launched coordinated strikes across Iran. Explosions were reported in Tehran and other cities. Trump announced major combat operations,”, framing them as necessary to eliminate nuclear and missile threats while urging Iranians to seize the moment and overthrow their leadership. Iran responded with missile and drone attacks targeting US bases and allied states across the region.

What is most striking is not merely that diplomacy failed, but that it failed amid visible progress. Mediators were openly discussing a viable framework; both sides had demonstrated flexibility – a pathway to constrain nuclear escalation appeared tangible. Choosing military escalation at that moment undermines the premise that negotiation is a genuine alternative to war. It signals that even active diplomacy offers no guarantee of restraint. Peace was not naïve. It was plausible.

Iran’s approach in Geneva was strategic, not submissive. Proposals involving economic incentives – including energy cooperation – were not unilateral concessions but calculated compromises designed to structure a politically survivable agreement in Washington. The core objective was clear: constrain Iran’s nuclear programme through enforceable limits and intrusive verification, thereby addressing the very proliferation risks that sanctions and threats of force were meant to prevent.

Talks had moved beyond rhetorical posturing toward concrete proposals. For the first time in years, there was credible movement toward stabilising the nuclear issue. By attacking during that negotiation window, Washington and its allies have not only derailed a diplomatic opening but have cast doubt on the durability of American commitments to negotiated solutions. The message to Tehran – and to other adversaries weighing diplomacy – is stark: even when talks appear to work, they can be overtaken by force.

Iran is not Iraq or Libya

Advocates of escalation often invoke Iraq in 2003 or Libya in 2011 as precedents for rapid regime collapse under pressure. Those analogies are misleading. Iraq and Libya were highly personalised systems, overly dependent on narrow patronage networks and individual rulers. Remove the centre, and the structure imploded.

Iran is structurally different. It is not a dynastic dictatorship but an ideologically entrenched state with layered institutions, doctrinal legitimacy and a deeply embedded security apparatus, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Its authority is intertwined with religious, political and strategic narratives cultivated over decades. It has endured sanctions, regional isolation and sustained external pressure without fracturing.

Even a previous US-Israeli campaign in 2025 that lasted 12 days failed to eliminate Tehran’s retaliatory capacity. Far from collapsing, the state absorbed pressure and responded. Hitting such a system with maximum force does not guarantee implosion; it may instead consolidate internal cohesion and reinforce narratives of external aggression that the leadership has long leveraged.

The mirage of regime change

Rhetoric surrounding the strikes has already shifted from tactical objectives to the language of regime change. US and Israeli leaders framed military action not solely as neutralising missile or nuclear capabilities, but as an opportunity for Iranians to overthrow their government. That calculus – regime change by force – is historically fraught with risk.

The Iraq invasion should be a cautionary tale. The US spent more than a decade cultivating multiple Iraqi opposition groups – yet dismantling the centralised state apparatus still produced chaos, insurgency and fragmentation. The vacuum gave rise to extremist organisations such as IS, drawing the US into years of renewed conflict.

Approaching Iran with similar assumptions ignores both its institutional resilience and the complexity of regional geopolitics. Sectarian divisions, entrenched alliances and proxy networks mean that destabilisation in Tehran would not remain contained. It could rapidly spill across borders and harden into prolonged confrontation.

A region wired for escalation

Iran has invested heavily in asymmetric capabilities precisely to deter and complicate external intervention. Its missile, drone and naval systems are embedded along the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint for global energy — and linked into a network of regional allies and militias.

In the current escalation, Tehran has already launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against US military bases and allied territories in the Gulf, hitting locations in Iraq, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (including Abu Dhabi), Kuwait and Qatar in direct response to US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s cities, including Tehran, Qom and Isfahan. Explosions have been reported in Bahrain and the UAE, with at least one confirmed fatality in Abu Dhabi, and several bases housing US personnel have been struck or targeted, underscoring how the conflict has already spread beyond Iran’s borders

A full-scale regional war is now more likely than it was a week ago. Miscalculation could draw multiple states into conflict, inflame sectarian fault lines and disrupt global energy markets. What might have remained a contained nuclear dispute now risks expanding into a wider geopolitical confrontation.

What about Trump’s promise of no more forever wars?

Trump built his political brand opposing endless wars” and criticising the Iraq invasion. America First” promised strategic restraint, hard bargaining and an aversion to open-ended intervention. Escalating militarily at the very moment diplomacy was advancing sits uneasily with that doctrine and revives questions about the true objectives of US strategy in the Middle East.

If a workable nuclear framework was genuinely emerging, abandoning it in favour of escalation invites a deeper question: does sustained tension serve certain strategic preferences more comfortably than durable peace?

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago address announcing the strikes carried unmistakable echoes of George W. Bush before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Military action was framed as reluctant yet necessary – a pre-emptive move to eliminate gathering threats and secure peace through strength. The rhetoric of patience exhausted and danger confronted before it fully materialises closely mirrors the language Bush used to justify the march into Baghdad.

The parallel extends beyond tone. Bush cast the Iraq war as liberation as well as disarmament, promising Iraqis freedom from dictatorship. Trump similarly urged Iranians to reclaim their country, implicitly linking force to regime change. In Iraq, that fusion of shock and salvation produced not swift democratic renewal but prolonged instability. The assumption that military force can reorder political systems from the outside has already been tested – and its costs remain visible.

The central challenge now facing the US is not simply Iran’s military capability. It is credibility. Abandoning negotiations mid-course signals that diplomacy can be overridden by force even when progress is visible. That perception will resonate far beyond Tehran.

Peace was never guaranteed. It was limited and imperfect, focused primarily on nuclear constraints rather than human rights or regional proxy networks. But it was plausible – and closer than many assumed. Breaking the bridge while building it does more than halt a single agreement – it risks convincing both sides that negotiation itself is futile.

In that world, trust erodes, deterrence hardens and aggression – not agreement – becomes the default language of international power. What we are witnessing is yet another clear indication that the rules-based order has been consigned to the history books.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bamo Nouri is an Honorary Research Fellow, Department of International Politics, at City, St George’s, University of London.

February 27, 2026

Courtesy: LNW

Sri Lanka’s Parliament has become the latest arena in a growing international conversation on colonial reparations, as the government signals it may seek compensation from Britain for damages inflicted during the colonial era.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed that the issue is under consideration, following calls from Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa to emulate African nations that have formally demanded reparations from former colonial rulers. The move reflects a broader reassessment of colonial history, as nations reassess the long-term economic and human costs of imperialism.

British colonial rule in Sri Lanka reshaped the island’s political economy in ways that continue to influence present-day challenges. While often portrayed as a period of administrative modernization, historians argue that colonial governance prioritized imperial profit over local welfare, producing structural inequalities that persist decades after independence.

The plantation economy introduced by the British transformed Sri Lanka into a mono-crop exporter dependent on tea, rubber, and coffee. This system relied on expropriated land and imported indentured labor, while profits flowed largely to British companies and the imperial treasury. At independence, Sri Lanka inherited an economy highly dependent on volatile global commodity markets, with limited industrial diversification.

Beyond economics, colonial rule involved widespread appropriation of cultural heritage. Archaeological expeditions conducted during the colonial period removed artifacts from ancient kingdoms such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Palm-leaf manuscripts containing Buddhist texts, medical knowledge, and historical chronicles were shipped to British libraries, where many remain inaccessible to Sri Lankan scholars.

The loss of life during colonial suppression campaigns is another unresolved grievance. The brutal response to rebellions in the 19th century, particularly in Uva-Wellassa, is increasingly cited as evidence of crimes that would today constitute violations of international humanitarian norms. Entire communities were displaced, leaders executed, and livelihoods destroyed as part of punitive military operations.

The reparations debate is not without challenges. International law offers limited mechanisms for historical claims, and Britain has previously resisted formal compensation demands, arguing that colonial actions occurred before modern legal frameworks. However, recent precedentssuch as compensation paid to Kenyan victims of colonial-era abuses have strengthened the moral and political case for redress.

Analysts say Sri Lanka’s approach is likely to combine diplomatic engagement, historical documentation, and coordination with other formerly colonized nations. Rather than immediate financial compensation, outcomes could include restitution of cultural property, development partnerships, debt relief, or formal acknowledgements of wrongdoing.

Minister Herath’s statement marks a shift from silence to scrutiny, signaling that Sri Lanka is prepared to revisit its colonial past not merely as history, but as an unresolved political and economic issue with contemporary relevance.

Courtesy: LNW

Shenali D Waduge

In the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terror attacks, intelligence agencies from the United States (FBI), India (RAW), the United Kingdom (Scotland Yard), and Australia (ASIO) conducted extensive investigations into the origins, execution, and failures surrounding the 21 April 2019 massacre.

Their findings revealed beyond doubt that the attacks were executed by Islamist extremists and enabled by catastrophic institutional failure – not by Sri Lankan military intelligence

Yet in 2026, Sri Lanka’s government and police appear determined to publicly ridicule, contradict, and invalidate these foreign intelligence conclusions by arresting individuals never named in any international or domestic reports.

This is no longer merely a domestic legal controversy.

It has become a diplomatic embarrassment for these countries.

What did Foreign Intelligence agencies actually conclude?

Despite differences in intelligence culture and doctrine, all foreign investigations reached the same foundational conclusions:

1. Ideological driver: Islamist extremism

The attacks were driven by:

·      radical Islamist ideology

·      extremist indoctrination

·      international jihadist influence

·      transnational terror coordination

2. Advance warnings were issued

Indian intelligence issued:

·      precise alerts

·      names

·      locations

·      target indicators – weeks before the attack.

3. Catastrophic institutional failure

The massacre was made possible due to lack of:

·      threat assessment after warnings

·      inter-agency coordination

·      political leadership response

·      operational enforcement

4. No evidence of state conspiracy

Not one foreign agency concluded:

·      Sri Lankan intelligence engineered the attack

·      Military intelligence facilitated the attack

·      Any officer directed extremist operations

This is a key observation.

Not a single foreign intelligence or law-enforcement agency — including the FBI, Scotland Yard, Indian NIA, Australian Federal Police or US State Department — has ever named, implied, or suggested any role by Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay or any Sri Lankan intelligence conspiracy in the Easter Sunday attacks.

If FBI + Scotland Yard + NIA + AFP all found Islamist terror networks,
but Sri Lanka alone invents an intelligence conspiracy,

Sri Lanka is effectively ridiculing the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies.

5. Responsibility lay with institutional paralysis – no coordination

The disaster resulted from:

·      political interference

·      command dysfunction

·      bureaucratic paralysis

·      security sector collapse – not intelligence failure.

Nowhere in any foreign assessment does the name of Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay appear.

Yet today, Sri Lanka’s police have arrested him — effectively announcing:

The FBI, RAW, MI6 and ASIO all got it wrong. We alone know the truth.”

Arrest First — Evidence Later: Institutional Humiliation

The farce deepened when police media spokespersons declared following the arrest:

He was arrested due to evidence.”

When journalists asked what that evidence was, the reply was:

We must investigate and find out.”

Sri Lanka has now created a new global standard of criminal procedure:

Arrest first. Look for evidence later.

This is not investigation.

This is institutional humiliation.

And by extension, diplomatic humiliation — because this arrest directly contradicts the findings of multiple foreign intelligence services.

How Governments Quietly Insult Foreign Intelligence Agencies

Diplomatic Fallout: When Intelligence Becomes Diplomacy

Foreign intelligence cooperation is built on trust, confidentiality, and institutional respect. When a host country publicly contradicts, disregards, or ridicules partner intelligence findings, the consequences are immediate and silent:

• Reduction of intelligence-sharing
• Downgrading of threat briefings
• Curtailment of classified cooperation
• Withdrawal of embedded advisory teams
• Strategic distancing by foreign defence missions

This is how nations are quietly isolated inside the global intelligence ecosystem.

No foreign agency will openly protest.
Instead, cooperation is silently reduced — and the country is left blind.

Sri Lanka is now walking directly into this intelligence isolation trap.

Foreign intelligence agencies do not issue findings lightly.

Every conclusion:

·      passes multi-level verification

·      undergoes forensic scrutiny

·      is reviewed through legal, operational and diplomatic filters

When Sri Lanka proceeds to arrest individuals explicitly excluded from those findings, it sends a clear international message:

Your intelligence assessments are irrelevant.”

·      No intelligence service welcomes such public contradiction. It is a slap to their findings.

·      No diplomatic mission tolerates such institutional disrespect.

This path inevitably invites quiet diplomatic pressure — not through statements, but through back-channel consequencesand this means more trouble for Sri Lanka.

Criminalizing Intelligence Tradecraft: Strategic Suicide

Every intelligence agency on earth infiltrates extremist groups.

This includes:

·      CIA

·      MI6

·      Mossad

·      RAW

·      ASIO

They:

·      cultivate informants

·      embed operatives

·      penetrate terror cells

·      manipulate extremist networks

If such infiltration is retroactively criminalized, every intelligence service on earth becomes legally paralysed.

By attempting to criminalize standard intelligence operations and expose the manner they conduct covert operations in a civil court, Sri Lanka is not protecting national security — it is dismantling it.

The Real Failure Identified by Foreign Intelligence

All international investigations converged on one uncomfortable truth:

Sri Lanka’s national security system collapsed after 2015.

This period saw:

·      dismantling of counter-terror units

·      imprisonment of intelligence officers shadowing individuals & extremist groups

·      politicization of police and military command – creating competition & disconnect within units

·      breakdown of inter-agency coordination

Between 2015–2019, extremist networks expanded without meaningful surveillance.

That vacuum — not intelligence complicity — produced Easter Sunday.

Yet instead of confronting this institutional collapse, Sri Lanka now manufactures conspiracies worsening the situation and inviting more trouble by mischief makers who would have studied the vulnerable terrain.

What Is Being Protected?

If guilt is assigned by political convenience rather than evidence, justice ceases to exist.

What replaces it is narrative engineering.

And when a government begins contradicting FBI, RAW, MI6 and Australian intelligence findings — not with evidence, but with theatrics — it publicly exposes institutional collapse.

This path guarantees only one outcome:

·      Sri Lanka will lose the ability to penetrate extremist networks.

·      Every intelligence officer will fear prosecution for doing exactly what intelligence officers worldwide are trained to do.

That guarantees:

·      blind intelligence

·      delayed response

·      weak surveillance

·      increased civilian vulnerability

Which means:

The next attack will find Sri Lanka more defenceless than the last.

A Direct Question to Foreign Missions in Colombo

The diplomatic missions of:

•       United States
• United Kingdom
• India
• Australia

have provided intelligence, forensic assistance, and counter-terror cooperation to Sri Lanka in good faith.

Do these missions now accept that:

·      Their agencies were wrong —
and Sri Lanka’s present police narrative alone is correct?

If not, silence becomes complicity in a judicial farce.

This moment demands quiet diplomatic clarification — not public theatrics — to prevent irreversible damage to Sri Lanka’s intelligence credibility and regional security cooperation.

Sri Lanka sits at a critical maritime and counter-terror crossroads in:

·      Indian Ocean security

·      Maritime jihadist transit routes

·      South Asian extremist financing corridors

·      Indo-Pacific intelligence architecture

Crippling Sri Lanka’s intelligence capacity through politicized prosecutions does not merely weaken Sri Lanka.

It weakens regional counter-terror architecture itself.

This is why the Easter Sunday investigations were supported by:

·      FBI

·      MI6

·      RAW

·      ASIO

Undermining those findings now transforms Sri Lanka from a security partner into a strategic vulnerability.

No responsible foreign mission can remain indifferent to that risk.

Sri Lanka must also decide:
Will it stand with the world’s intelligence community —
or will it continue converting their professional findings into political theatre?

Because a country that mocks foreign intelligence today
will find itself dangerously alone when the next threat emerges.

Shenali D Waduge

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Sri Lanka drugs and medical supplies requirements are met through three sources. The State hospital system is supplied by the State Pharmaceuticals corporation (SPC), and the private sector is supplied by the SPC as well as private importers, and statistics show that the private importer share of total imports is around 60% of the total spend on drugs and medical supplies. Regarding quality assessments of imports, the SPC has a long-established process to check quality compliance according to pharmacopeial standards prior to the importation of drugs. The procedure followed by the private sector is understood to be different, and the responsibility to check quality compliance rests with them with no independent oversight of the process. Although the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) is required legally to provide this oversight, it appears that, this does not happen. This article is about this conundrum. 

The NMRA, established under Act No. 5 of 2015 has an absolute legal mandate for the authority to regulate all aspects of medicines, including quality assurance for both private and public sector imports. While recent procedural updates have transitioned some data collection to digital formats, the legal requirement for ensuring quality compliance remains strictly mandated by law. The question is whether the NMRA is exercising their legal mandate and ensuring the quality of drugs imported and manufactured in Sri Lanka meet the required quality compliance with as per the pharmacopeial specifications under which the drugs are manufactured and registered.

NMRAs activities relating to the private sector imports appear to need more strengthening as per the findings of several independent studies. Intellectual honesty requires acknowledging that there is often a significant “implementation gap” between what an Act of Parliament (like the NMRA Act) commands and what happens in practice. Considering the criticality of quality compliance so that drugs consumed by patients are safe and effective, this article will examine this conundrum later in the document.

Specific Legal Requirements and Authorities

The following sections of the NMRA Act, No. 5 of 2015 and associated regulations explicitly detail the authority’s responsibilities: 

• Mandate to Ensure Quality: Section 3(a) of the Act states the NMRA must “ensure the availability of efficacious, safe and good quality medicines” to the general public.
• Central Regulator Role: Section 3(b) designates the NMRA as the central regulator for all matters connected with registration, licensing, manufacture, and importation.
• Quality Assurance Responsibility: Section 14(c) empowers the authority to regulate the registration, licensing, and importation of medicines to ensure quality standards.
• Verification of Batches: Section 52 specifically prohibits the sale of prescribed medicine unless the batch from which it is taken has been “approved as reliable”.
• Mandatory Technical Reviews: Section 1.3.1 of NMRA procedural documents clarifies that the Medicines Evaluation Committee (MEC) uses registration and certification procedures to carry out technical reviews and surveillance of medicines to ensure quality and safety.
• Post-Marketing Surveillance: The Market Control Division is legally responsible for implementing market surveillance programs to monitor product quality throughout the supply chain and prevent the entry of substandard products. 

Requirements for Importers (Private and Public) – Are these being complied with for all drugs entering the market?

Contrary to the perception that requirements are optional, the NMRA is expected to maintain specific mandatory documentation for all medicinal products entering the market: The question that should be posed here is whether the following is being adhered to and if not why.

• Certificate of Analysis (CoA): For new registration or renewal, manufacturers must provide a Certificate of Analysis of the finished product.
• Evidence of Importation: Under Section 65(d), the NMRA recently mandated that all Market Authorization Holders submit evidence of importation and production for the past two years to ensure continuous availability and compliance.
• Batch-Specific Surveillance: The NMQAL is responsible for analyzing imported medicines at different points in the distribution chain, using samples submitted for registration, complaints, and surveillance from both government and private institutions.
• Manufacturer Compliance: All manufacturers must conform to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which the Act defines as the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Recent Strategic Changes (2024–2026)

It is understood that the NMRA has recently introduced new measures to tighten control over imports, moving away from ad-hoc manual checks to systematic digital tracking:

• Mandatory Labelling: Effective from September 1, 2024, a new labelling requirement (stickers) became compulsory for all batches released to the market to prevent falsified products.
• Digital Data Collection: In early 2024, the NMRA launched a mandatory data collection initiative requiring all local agents and importers to provide accurate information on all medicines imported since January 2023.
• Renewal Grace Period: A six-month grace period starting January 1, 2026, was granted for the renewal of foreign manufacturing premises. Sites for which renewal applications are not submitted will be discontinued. 

While the NMRA reportedly uses risk-based surveillance (testing samples rather than every single unit), they are legally required to verify that every imported product meets defined pharmacopeial or manufacturer specifications before and after it reaches the market. In recent times, various audits and high-level assessments have been done to examine the extent of compliance with the law pertaining to medicinal products The following are noteworthy. They have scrutinized the gap between the NMRA’s legal mandate and its actual performance.

1. Auditor General’s Reports

The Auditor General of Sri Lanka has conducted several performance audits on the NMRA and the pharmaceutical supply chain (notably in 2022 and 2023). Key findings included:

• Backlog in Registration: Audits found that the NMRA had a massive backlog of thousands of applications, leading to “provisional” registrations that bypassed full quality testing.
• The “Waiver of Registration” Crisis: The most significant finding was the overuse of Section 109 of the NMRA Act (Emergency Waivers). Audits revealed that during the 2022–2023 crisis, the NMRA allowed hundreds of drugs to enter the country without the legally required quality checks.
• Failure of the NMQAL: The National Medicines Quality Assurance Laboratory (NMQAL) was found to be under-resourced, testing only a tiny fraction of the thousands of items imported by the private sector.

2. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) Investigations

The Parliamentary Committee (COPE) has summoned the NMRA multiple times between 2023 and 2025. Their assessments revealed:

• Missing Data: A famous investigation into the NMRA Data Deletion incident highlighted that the authority lost critical digital records of importers and quality certificates, making it legally impossible to verify compliance for a period.
• Staffing Shortages: COPE identified that the NMRA lacked the requisite number of Pharmacists and Quality Assessors to monitor the 4,000+ items imported by the private sector.

3. WHO & World Bank “Gaps” Assessments

In preparation for the USD 150 Million PHSEP and the Digital Transformation Project, the World Bank and WHO conducted “Situational Analyses.” They identified:

• Regulatory Capture: Concerns that the private sector’s “product listing” approach allows for brand proliferation without added therapeutic value.
• Information Asymmetry: Because the private sector operates on a “Market Authorization” basis, the NMRA was found to be reactive (testing only after a complaint) rather than proactive.

Why does the NMRA struggle to comply with the law?

Assessments suggest three main reasons for the “non-performance” mentioned:

• Institutional Capacity: The NMRA is required to regulate 4,000+ private items reportedly with a technical staff smaller than that of a single large private hospital.
• Regulatory “Blind Spots”: The law requires quality assurance, but the regulations (the specific rules for how to do it) have not been updated since 2019 to reflect the surge in private imports.
• Budgetary Constraints: Testing a single drug batch at NMQAL is expensive; the NMRA’s fee structure is too low to cover the cost of testing 4,000+ items.

Current Corrective Steps (2025-2026)

To address these audit findings, the following “National Projects” are said to be underway:

• NMRA Act Reform: Discussions are ongoing to amend the Act to make post-market surveillance fees mandatory for private importers to fund their own quality testing.
• Digital NMRA (World Bank Funded): This project aims to automate the verification of Batch Certificates so that no private shipment can be cleared by Customs without a digital link from the NMRA. While this sounds very modernistic, it is important to ascertain the functionality of this procedure and whether in fact it has been implemented and is a mandatory functionality as reported.

CONCLUSION

The Critical Distinction: Law vs. Practice

To ensure a balanced perspective for anyone looking into this, the situation can be summarized as follows:

• The Legal Illusion: On paper, the NMRA is the powerful guardian of quality for all 4,000+ items. The above-mentioned findings seem to indicate that there are gaps in this guardianship, and all drugs do not go through with the mandated procedure. The terms and tenor of this guardianship may have to change as doing post shipment surveillance will be an impossible task for so many items and many imports. Pre shipment surveillance is a more practical option. Quality compliance certification prior to shipment, from the manufacturers own laboratory and also from an independent laboratory, and making the presentation of these documents to Customs in Sri Lanka could be made mandatory.
• The Ground Reality: In practice, the private sector operates with consequential independence arising from   NMRA lacking laboratory facilities to test the thousands of batches arriving for the private market, it therefore acts primarily as a “reactive“ regulator—investigating after a problem is reported—rather than a “proactive“ one that tests every batch before it hits the shelf. Testing every batch before release would be an impractical procedure to follow considering the number of imports and the number of batches imported.
• The SPC Advantage: As noted, the SPC (State) sector has a much tighter net because its procurement is centralized and its contracts specifically mandate testing as a prerequisite for importation. The private sector’s “Market Authorization” model simply does not have an equivalent mandatory “pre-shipment” testing cycle for every individual shipment.

Moving Forward

The NMRAcurrently manages a Market Authorization system for the private sector, which allows for massive brand proliferation (reportedly over 4000 items) as it does not have to comply with a formulary as the SPC which operates on a restrictive formulary (less than 1,000 items). The World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) have identified this lack of a National Private Sector Formulary as a primary driver of both regulatory failure and the high out-of-pocket expenditure for Sri Lankans.

The World Bank’s Proposed “Correction” Strategy

The World Bank has recommended a “tiered” restructuring of the NMRA to shift from being a “passive registrar” to an “active manager.” Key reform recommendations include:

• Establishment of a “Private Sector Essential Medicines List”: The World Bank has pushed for the NMRA to adopt a “Positive List” for the private sector. Instead of registering any brand that meets basic GMP, the NMRA would only prioritize the registration and surveillance of brands that fit into a National Formulary based on therapeutic need, mirroring the Essential Medicines List used in the public sector.

Authors comment – The national formulary is a list of generic items and not a list of items by brand names. It is unlikely and could be regarded unfair (for the would-be importers) for the NMRA to register items by brand names as the therapeutic need cannot be determined by the brand of a product. Therapeutic needs are ascertained based on the pharmacopeial specifications applicable to a generic product. If a particular brand of a generic product includes essential ingredients over and above what is specified in the pharmacopeial specification, then, it could be argued that it is a different generic product, and a question could be asked whether such a product should be included in the formulary or not. In such instances, the decision whether to include or not should be made by a set of independent professionals like pharmacologists.

• Mandatory “Health Technology Assessment” (HTA): The World Bank is funding the integration of HTA units within the Ministry of Health. The recommendation is that no new drug should be registered for the private sector unless it passes an “Economic and Therapeutic Value” test, which would naturally shrink the 4,000-item list over time.

Authors comment – The observations made in respect of the earlier point applies to this as well.

• The “Digital Gatekeeper” (NMRA e-Portal): Recognizing the monitoring challenges mentioned, the Digital Transformation Project is funding a system where the Customs Department and NMRA are linked. If a drug is not on the approved formulary list, it fails to be allowed into the country.

Authors comment – This is a good move provided the listing of items is based on the observations made about the earlier two points and inclusion of items is managed by an independent body of professionals as suggested. and it will be even better if this link can extend to the submission of quality certificates from the manufacturers and an independent authority.

The Reality of Implementation

While these recommendations are on paper, the “expert methodology” for a private formulary , it will face significant pushback from various quarters like the Private Pharmacy Importers’ Association and various chambers of commerce, including some members of the medical profession, who will argue that it restricts consumer choice. The following statement underpins the necessity of finding a solution to ensure that legal and professional guardrails are there to ensure the quality of drugs consumed by the public.

The Audit General’s 2024 report noted that without this “narrowing” of the private sector list, the NMRA will remain legally liable but operationally incapable of ensuring safety.

Senaka Weeraratna

An accountability process for the colonial crimes committed by the three colonial powers namely Portugal, Netherlands and Britain, is warranted through an apology, catharsis, reparations and repatriation of stolen artifacts. Sri Lanka must also demand a part of the total revenue earned by these countries in exhibiting Sri Lankan artifacts in Museums such as the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam and other reputed Museums in other parts of Europe. This is a just and fair demand. An Apology must be particularly directed to the descendants of the Sinhala Buddhist Kandyan people who were singled out as victims of colonial brutalities. These are the descendants of a highly oppressed group of people who were also deprived of their inheritance by the colonial rulers planting thousands of indentured Indian labour of Malabar descent in their traditional homelands without their consent. 19th-century British official documents reveal how the freedom struggles against British colonial rule were suppressed in a most brutal, genocidal manner in one of the darkest pages of European colonial history.

1)     The Government of Sri Lanka must demand from all three colonial powers i.e., Portugal, Netherlands, and Britain:

a) Accountability for crimes committed against both humans and non – humans e.g., the holocaust of elephants in the upcountry, including seeking

a)    Apology and Repentance

b)    Atonement and Remorse

c)     Catharsis

d)     Reparation

e)     Restitutio in Integrum (in Latin this means ‘Restoration’)  

b) Inquire into Colonial Crimes committed by the three Colonial Rulers including Genocidal crimes and wholesale destruction of Buddhist Temples and illegal seizure and occupation of Buddhist Temple lands, and the building of Christian Churches on top of destroyed Temple sites (see the ‘Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon’ by Father Fernao de Queyroz), and the prohibition of the practice of Buddhism.

c) Establish an International Museum dedicated to remembering the freedom struggles of the people of Sri Lanka against Colonial Rule (1505 – 1948). Take a cue from the various Museums found in the African Countries and even closer home in India where the freedom fighters are respectfully remembered and the horror of the colonial crimes are highlighted. 

d) Research and rewrite the narrative surrounding gaining independence taking into consideration both the internal and external factors. The role of the people of Asia who fought against occupation of their lands by Western powers especially during the Second World War and the impact that resistance had on the eventual independence gained by Ceylon in 1948 must be truthfully admitted. The blood shed by the Japanese soldiers plus the soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA) far outweighed any blood sacrifices in Sri Lanka during the Second World War. The last gun fired by the Sinhalese against the British Colonial occupation was in Matale in 1848. Not even a stone was thrown thereafter by any one in this country. Freedom came on a platter to Ceylon in 1948. No Blood Sacrifices to gain independence for Ceylon after 1848. This is the stark truth. Only one freedom fighter of Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) origin stands out alongside world renowned freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, Aung San, U Nu, Sukarno, Mohammed Hatta (Indonesia), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam). His name is Anagarika Dharmapala. 

e) Plan a celebration that gives due place to all those who fought against all three Euro – Christian powers that ruled Ceylon in an unjust way

f) Convene an International Conference on Reparations jointly with former European colonies in Africa, Middle East,  the Caribbean  and Asia.

g) Consider changing the format of Independence Day celebration to exhibit more the historical, cultural, scientific, and Ayurvedic medicines and medical achievements in improving the quality of life, and the creative abilities and contributions of our people in our 2, 500-year history including the names of our freedom fighters i.e., the brave Kings and Queens who fought and protected this land from foreign invasions, and help build the pre-colonial and admirable Buddhist Civilization of Sri Lanka.

h) Form a Reparations Committee and establish an Office of Reparations to negotiate the Historical Demand of the downtrodden people of Ceylon from the former colonial masters during the colonial era (1505 – 1948). 

Senaka Weeraratna

Udaya Gammanpila

Shenali D Waduge

by Shenali Waduge · 27th February 2026

The purpose of this article is not to defend an individual but to defend institutional logic, to decipher what went wrong and by whom, and to prevent judicial manipulation through politicized narrative framing. Even 30 years of LTTE terror and bloodshed did not result in over six reports and Presidential Commissions of Inquiry at taxpayers’ expense, as the Easter Sunday attacks have. Therefore, it is the right of every citizen to question why an attack that clearly reveals failures in monitoring extremist groups and failures in preventive action continues to be dragged through successive inquiries.

MANUFACTURED False Narrative being floated:

Suresh Sallay had contact with Zahran, therefore he enabled the Easter attacks.”

This is strategic deception, built by:

• NGOs
• foreign-linked media
• regime-change actors
• ideological networks
• Islamist lobby groups
• LTTE-linked diaspora activists

Why this narrative is powerful:

Because people do not understand how intelligence agencies work and sensationalized stories are gullible to those ready to believe versions that fit into their line of thinking.

THE MOST CRITICAL FACT : SALLAY’S ACTUAL ROLE IN 2019

In 2019 – Suresh Sallay was NOT:

• SIS Head
• CID Head
• Military intelligence operational commander
• Counter-terror operational authority

He was:

Sri Lanka’s Defence Attaché in Malaysia and thereafter attending Defense Training in India.

Meaning:

• No command authority
• No operational control
• No decision-making authority
• No arrest powers
• No intelligence processing authority
• No domestic intelligence command

This alone collapses allegations that accuse him of instructing military or intel operatives:

• command responsibility
• negligence claims
• operational accountability

Legal liability arises only where formal command authority exists.
Moral speculation cannot replace jurisdictional responsibility.

In criminal law, liability also requires causal proximity and operational linkage.
Without direct command authority, documented instruction, or operational control, attribution collapses as a matter of law — not opinion.

CHAIN OF COMMAND — THE LEGAL FOUNDATION

Only those in the military will know the command chain flow – you cannot ask a man in military uniform to take action unless it comes directly from his superior.

This command chain is not discretionary — it is legally binding, operationally rigid, and universal across professional armed forces.

Stage	Responsible Entity
Data Collection	SIS
Collation & Analysis	SIS / CNI
Threat Assessment	CNI + IGP + Defence Ministry
Operational Decisions	IGP + CID + STF + Tri-Forces
Arrest / Disruption	CID + Police + STF
Tactical Action	Police + Military

Key Principle:

SIS CANNOT ARREST.
SIS CANNOT RAID.
SIS CANNOT DISRUPT.
SIS CAN ONLY INFORM.

So:

If intelligence existed —
Operational failure belongs to ACTION arms, not COLLECTION arms.

THE ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE    

Every intelligence agency in the world:

• infiltrates extremist groups
• runs informants
• cultivates radical assets for data
• embeds operatives
• manipulates extremist cells

This includes:

• CIA
• MI6
• Mossad
• RAW
• ISI
• ASIO
• DGSE
• FSB

Why?

Because:

You cannot neutralize a terror network from the outside.

You must penetrate it from within.

So:

Zahran being previously used as an intelligence asset:

• is NORMAL
• is STANDARD
• is ESSENTIAL
• is UNIVERSAL

Therefore:

Using:

Zahran had intelligence links”

to imply:

Therefore Sallay enabled terrorism”

is:

Either extreme ignorance
Or deliberate psychological manipulation

Intelligence operations do not function through informal influence, but through documented command protocols.

Intelligence agencies monitor threats — they do not pre-emptively arrest without legal mandate.
Criminalizing intelligence monitoring collapses the legal firewall between observation and enforcement.

Any claim of shadow command must be supported by operational orders, written instructions, or recorded communications — none of which exist – this was attempted by Channel 4 using Maulana but that attempt has also failed.

RETURNING TO HISTORICAL CONTEXT — THE LTTE WAR PHASE

During LTTE war:

• Muslims were primary LTTE targets
• Eastern Muslims were:
  • massacred
  • ethnically cleansed
  • terrorized

Therefore:

Military Intelligence:

• actively recruited Muslim informants
• cultivated radical groups
• used Islamist networks to penetrate LTTE cells

So:

Using Muslim extremists as:

• informants
• penetrators
• moles
• assets

was:

STATE NECESSITY, NOT IDEOLOGICAL SYMPATHY

This collapses:

Sallay radicalized Zahran”

No — Sallay’s generation infiltrated extremists to destroy the LTTE.

Why did those who are using the above not raise objection to using Zaharan as an informant against the LTTE then?

There was no operational space for Islamic extremism during LTTE dominance.

Islamic extremism arose thereafter – Zaharan became extremist after falling to ideological influence just like Ibrahim’s 2 well-educated sons and the other 7 suicide bombers.

Intelligence agencies do not disengage from human assets based on future hypothetical misuse.

If this logic were accepted, every intelligence service on earth would be criminally liable for every terror act committed by former informants.

THE 2015 SECURITY COLLAPSE — ROOT CAUSE OF EXTREMIST EXPANSION

After regime change in 2015:

• Counter-terror surveillance units were dismantled
  • Intelligence officers were imprisoned on fabricated charges
  • Intelligence coordination collapsed
  • Sallay was removed from domestic intelligence and posted abroad

As a result:

Systematic monitoring of Islamic extremism ceased.

Between 2015–2019, extremist networks expanded without state surveillance, enabling:

• Radical recruitment
  • Ideological indoctrination
  • Suicide infrastructure development
  • External terror coordination

This vacuum — not intelligence complicity — produced the Easter tragedy.

WHY THIS NARRATIVE IS BEING PUSHED

1. To Deflect Institutional Guilt – to shift blame from operational failures

Failures clearly lie with:
• SIS Director
• CNI
• IGP
• CID leadership
• Defence Secretary
• National Security Council dysfunction

A scapegoat diverts attention from systemic collapse – manufacture a villain.

2. To Bury Foreign Intelligence Inaction

Indian intelligence issued advance warnings. Yet preventive action was not taken.
Blame-shifting avoids confronting this institutional paralysis.

Political interference blocked arrests, delayed raids, and disrupted coordination.

An intelligence conspiracy story buries political accountability.

The Inquiry Reports/Commission of Inquiry clearly shows the top officials knew of an impending attack but had not acted to prevent civilian loss.

Ignoring this fact and trying to pin blame of someone else does not make sense unless the aim is to create a notion that he had instructed all the top officials not to act.

Even to think of such is an institutional absurdity to the entire security apparatus of Sri Lanka.

3️. To protect Political actors

Certain political factions:

• ignored warnings
• blocked arrests
• delayed raids
• interfered in CID operations

So:

Create an intelligence conspiracy story to bury political culpability.

CHANNEL 4 & JUSTICE IMAM REPORT

In September 2023, Channel 4 broadcast a program alleging a grand plot” behind the Easter Sunday attacks, directly implicating Sri Lankan intelligence and floating a politically driven conspiracy theory.

This narrative relied almost entirely on Hamsa Maulana, a politically motivated exile currently residing abroad and seeking asylum. His credibility is undermined by his lack of documentation, inability to testify, and prior political affiliations that suggest a potential agenda. He failed to appear to testify before the Committee when invited.

The subsequently released Justice Imam Committee Report has now comprehensively dismantled this narrative.

Key findings:

• Gen. Suresh Sallaywas not in Sri Lanka at the alleged time of meetings — he was in New Delhi.
• Thecoconut estate meeting described by Hamsa never existed — police confirmed the structures did not exist.
• No evidenceexists of any communication, coordination, or instruction linking Sri Lankan intelligence to the attackers.
• Claims of apolitical motive to reinstall the Rajapaksas were deemed baseless conjecture.
• Hamsa’s testimony was classified as anoutright hoax” and unsupported by any corroboration.

The Committee described Channel 4’s broadcast as yellow journalism”, warning against sensationalist reporting that distorts national security realities and misleads the public.

This matters because the same collapsed narrative framework is now being used to construct the Suresh Sallay conspiracy theory — by deliberately blurring the line between intelligence infiltration and terrorist complicity.

WHY SALLAY IS A PRIME TARGET

Sallay is hated by:

Group	Why
LTTE networks	He crippled LTTE intelligence
Islamist radicals	He penetrated extremist cells
Foreign NGOs	He blocked foreign interference
Regime-change operators	He disrupted destabilization agendas
Media-NGO complex	He obstructed narrative control

So:

Destroying Sallay weakens Sri Lanka’s intelligence spine.

The next favorite argument will be:

Sallay used Zahran to destabilize the government and install Gotabaya.”

No intelligence doctrine — Eastern or Western — contains any operational model that sanctions civilian mass murder for political transition.

1️. Governments collapse from:

• economic mismanagement
• corruption
• governance failure
• weak governments appeasing to all & sundry become easy bait
  Not from terror operations.

2️. Mahinda Rajapaksa fell in 2015 without any terrorism

3️. 2018–2019 government was already collapsing:

• bond scams
• constitutional crisis
• political paralysis
• public anger
• economic stagnation
• local government election results clearly showed the yahapalana govt was on its way out of power.

So:

An Easter Sunday attack was not needed to overthrow that government.

The attempt to link Suresh Sallay to the Easter Sunday attacks is not a pursuit of truth. It is a strategic effort to collapse the distinction between intelligence infiltration and terrorist complicity, thereby criminalizing standard intelligence tradecraft itself.

This narrative is not designed to deliver justice. It is designed to conceal deeper institutional failures, shield political negligence, divert foreign accountability, and cripple Sri Lanka’s national intelligence capacity by demoralizing its armed forces and intelligence services.

At the same time, it dangerously deflects attention from the real and expanding threat — organized Islamic extremism — which continues to exploit political paralysis, institutional fear, and judicial confusion.

If this narrative succeeds, Sri Lanka will no longer be able to penetrate extremist networks, because every intelligence officer will fear future prosecution for doing precisely what intelligence officers are trained to do: cultivate assets, infiltrate hostile groups, and neutralize threats before they mature.

No democracy can survive if intelligence work itself becomes criminalized

That would represent not justice — but strategic self-destruction.

Selective Justice, Manufactured Villains & the Collapse of Credibility

Every single official report, Presidential Commission, and parliamentary inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks converges on one uncontested fact:

The highest levels of Sri Lanka’s political, police, and intelligence leadership knew an attack was imminent and failed to act.

Yet, instead of enforcing accountability against those explicitly named and indicted by their own admissions, Sri Lanka now witnesses a grotesque inversion of justice:

Those not named are hunted.
Those named are protected.
And those who financed, facilitated, and ideologically nurtured the terrorists quietly walk free.

Nothing illustrates this moral and judicial collapse more starkly than the treatment of the father-in-law of one of the suicide bombers — a man from whose possession large quantities of gold, money, and assets were ceased, only for every single asset to be returned on the very same day of arrest.

This is not justice.
This is institutional mockery of justice.

If intelligence facilitation is to be criminalized, then:

• why are those who financed terror released?
• why are ideological incubators untouched?
• why are political gatekeepers unprosecuted?
• why are intelligence warnings admitted but inaction forgiven?

What moral logic allows gold seized from a terror financier to be returned within hours, while intelligence officers who never commanded operations are dragged through public humiliation becoming an internationalized drama?

What judicial system punishes non-command actors while protecting command authorities?

This selective outrage reveals the truth:

The objective is not accountability.
The objective is narrative engineering.

When guilt is assigned not by evidence but by convenience, justice ceases to exist. What remains is political theatre dressed in legal costume.

The people of Sri Lanka deserve to ask:

If top officials admitted knowledge of an imminent attack and failed to act —
why is that failure forgiven?

If financiers and ideological enablers are released —
why are intelligence officers not named in any reports prosecuted?

And if every report identifies systemic institutional collapse,
why is one individual being manufactured as the villain?

Until these contradictions are answered, every prosecution connected to Easter Sunday stands morally compromised.

This is not justice.
This is strategic scapegoating.

And it will not heal the wounds of the victims.

In fact the people must question those unable to accept the facts and wonder why they too are demanding a manufactured villain to be made guilty?

It will only ensure that the next attack finds Sri Lanka even more blind, more divided, and more defenceless while a demoralized armed force and politicized police will simply wait and watch.

Shenali D Waduge

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

         දින විසි නවයකට පසු භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා සිවුනමක් සහ ගිහි දායකයන් පස් දෙනෙකුට  පසුගිය එකොලොස්වන දා  ත්‍රිකුණාමල මහාධිකරණයෙන් ඇප හිමිවුණි. මෙම නඩුව පවරා ඇත්තේ ත්‍රිකුණාමල වරාය පොලිසිය විසිනි. මෙම ලිඛීත පැමිණිල්ල 2025/11/17 දින වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ නිළධාරී සුන්දරමූර්ති දීපරාජ් විසින්  කර ඇත. ත්‍රිකුණාමල කොටුව පාර ආසන්නයේ වෙරළ පැත්තට වන්නට පිහිටා තිබෙන ඉපැරණි ඓතිහාසික බෝධීය පදනම් කොට ගෙන පැවති බෝධීරාජ විහාරය අරභයා මෙම නඩුකරය ගොනුව පැවතිණ.මෙම විහාරයේ 1951 වසරේ සිට පවත්වාගෙන පැමිණි බෝධීවර්ධන දහම් පාසල නම් වූ ත්‍රිකුණාමල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ පළමුවන බෞද්ධ දහම් පාසල 2004 වසරේ දී සුනාමියෙන් විනාශයට පත් වූ පසු එය නැවත ගොඩ නැන්වෙන්නට මුල් ගල් තැබෙන්නේ 2025/11/16 දිනය.මෙතුවක් කල් ඒ ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට පමා වූයේ ඇයිද යන්න කෙනෙකුට ප්‍රශ්ණයක් විය හැකිය.නමුත් ඊට කාරණා බොහෝය.

      සුනාමියෙන් විපතට පත් දහම් පාසල පවත්වාගෙන පැමිණයේ ත්‍රිකුණාමල සම්බුද්ධ ජයන්ති බෝධී රාජ විහාරයේ විහාරාධිපතිව වැඩ සිටි පූජ්‍ය මිහිඳුපුර මහින්දවංශ නායක හිමියන් විසිනි. උන්වහන්සේ 2021 වසරේ දී අපවත් වන තෙක්ම මෙම දහම්පාසල යළි ගොඩ නැන්වීම පීලිබඳව අප්‍රමාණ වෙහෙසක්  දරා ඇත. 2006/12/27 දින  මෙම ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණයට විරුද්ධත්වයක් නොමැති බව දන්වා වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අතිරේක වැඩබලන අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් අනිල් ප්‍රේමරත්න මහතා විසින් විහාරාධීපති ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ  වෙත යවන ලද ලිපිය අනුව වැඩ ආරම්භ කලද උන්වහන්සේට අලුත් වැඩියා කරගත හැකි වූයේ විනාශ වූ බෝධී ප්‍රාකාරය පමණකි. මෙම ඉඩම පෙර රජය සතු ඉඩමක් විය. එයට පැවති ආණ්ඩු වලින් වාර්ෂික බලපත්‍රයක් පිරිනමා තිබුණි.එම තත්වය තුළ ස්ථීරව මෙම ඉඩමට  අයිතියක් කිව හැකි වන පරිදි උන්වහන්සේ රජය වෙත වරින් වර ඉල්ලීම් කර ඇත. එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් 2008 වසරේ දී සම්බුද්ධ ජයන්ති බෝධි රාජ විහාර භාරකාර මණ්ඩලය වෙත මෙම බෝධිය ඇතුලු ඉඩම හෙක්ටයාර් 0.1012 ප්‍රමාණයක වපසිරිය සහිත බදු කරයක් ලබා දී ඇත. ඉඩමේ අයිතිය තහවුරු වුවද නගර සභාව සහ ත්‍රිකුණාමල දේශපාලන අධිකාරිය දිගින් දිගටම උන්වහන්සේ හට මෙම ඉඳි කිරීම සිදු කරලීමට බාධා පමුණුවා ඇත. වෙරළ කලාපය ලස්සන කිරීමේ අදිටනින් යැයි මෙම ඉඩමද ඇතුළත්ව පයිනස් වගාවක් කරලීමට නගර සභාව කටයුතු කර ඇත.එහෙත් දහම් පාසල ගොඩ නනවන කල්හි ඒ වගාව ඉවත් කරන පොරොන්දුව මතය. මේඅතර පූජ්‍ය මිහිඳු පුර මහින්ද වංශ හිමියන් නැවත ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත කරන ලද ඉල්ලීමක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් 2012 දී බදු කරය අවලංගු කොට පූජා ඔප්පුවක් ලබා දීමේ වැඩ කටයුතු ආරම්භ විය. ඒ අනුව හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ගේ අත්සනින් යුක්තව 2014 වසරේ දී මෙම ඓතිහාසික ඉඩමට පූජා ඔප්පුවක් ලබා දී ඇත.

          2016 වසරේ දී මෙම ඉඩම වෙන් කර ගැනීම පිණිස කටයුතු කරන කල්හි නැවත රාජ්‍ය ආයතන වලින් අවසර ගත යුතු විය. විශේෂයෙන්ම වෙරළ කලාපය ආසන්න සීමාවේ වැඩ කරන හෙයින් බලපත්‍රයක් ගත යුතු විය. එය ද ලැබුණි. වැටද ඉඳි කෙරුණි.මේ කාල වකවානුවෙන් පසු දහම් පාසල නැවත ගොඩ නැන්වීම පිණිස ප්‍රතිපාදන ලබා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළද එය සාර්ථක නොවීය.එය දිනෙන් දින පමා වූ අතර 2021 වසරේ දී නායක හිමියන් අභාවයට පත් විය.පූජ්‍ය මිහිඳුපුර මහින්දවංහ හිමියන්ගේ ශිෂ්‍ය පූජ්‍ය ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ කල්‍යාණවංශතිස්ස හිමියන් විහාරය භාර ගත් පසු විහාරයේ නඩත්තුවද විදුලි බිල් ආදියේ ගෙවීම් කළ නොහැකි තත්වයක් යටතේ 2024 වර්ෂයේ දී වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් අවසර පත්‍රයක් ලබාගෙන සුභ සාධක වෙලෙඳ සලක් එම ඉඩමේ වීවෘත කර දායකයෙකුට ලබා දී ඇත. එම වෙළෙඳ සල පවත්වාගෙන යෑමේ දී ද පෙර පරිදම දේශපාලන අධිකාරියේ බලපෑම් ඇති වූ අතර එහි කළ යම් අතිරේක ඉඳි කිරීමක් නිසාවෙන් වෙරල සංරක්ෂෙණ පනත ක්‍රියාත්මක කර කඩා ඉවත් කරන බවට ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේට ලිපියක් ලැබෙන්නේ 2025 වසරේ දීය.උන් වහන්සේ එම තීරණයට විරුද්ධව අභීයාචනා කළ නමුත් සහනයක් නොලැබුණි . පසුව කොළඹ අභියාචනාධිකරණයේ  තහනම් නියෝගයක් ගැනීමට තීරණය කර අත. ඒ නඩුව තුළ යම් සමථයක් ඇති වන තත්වයක් උදාවුවද එය තවදුරටත් තීන්දු කර නැත.

     මේ අතර මෙම සිද්දිය රටපුරා වේගයෙන් ප්‍රචලිත වීමේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් බෞද්ධයන් ඉදිරිපත්ව දහම් පාසල නැවත ගොඩ නැගීමට උදව් කරන්නට ඉදිරිපත් විය.2025/11/16 දින එයට මුල් ගල් තැබෙන්නේ මේ නිසාය.එම දිනයේම එතනට පොලිසිය ළඟා වන අතර පැමිණිල්ලක් මත පැමිණි වගද ඉඳි කිරීම ඉවත් කර ගන්නා ලෙසටද ඉල්ලා ඇත. නමුත් පැමිණිල්ල පෙන්වා හෝ ඉඳි කිරීම් කැඩීමට ගත් උසාවි තීන්දුවක්ද පෙන්වා දී නොමැත.සැබවින්ම සිදුව පවතින්නේ මෙම ප්‍රදේශය පාලනය කරන ජාතික ජන බලවේගයේ මන්ත්‍රී වරුන් දෙදෙනා ගේ මැදිහත් වීම මත අදාළ වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ නිළධාරියා විසින් වාචිකව පොලිසියට කරුණූ වාර්තා කිරීමයි. පසුව 2025/11/17 දින ලිඛිත පැමිණිල්ලක් සිදු කරන කල්හි බුදු පිළිම වහන්සේ පැහැර ගෙන ගොස් නඩු භාණ්ඩයක් බවට පත් කර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලාට පහර දී රෝහල් ගතව රට පුරා මහත් ආන්දෝලනයක් සිදු වී අවසන්ය.

     අනතුරුව 2026 ජනවාරි මස 14 දින මෙම ගැටුම සම්බන්ධව පොලිසිය පැවරූ නුඩුව උසාවියේ දී කැඳ විණ. එයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද බී වාර්තාව අනුව විහාරාධිපති ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ ඇතුලු එතනට එනම්  2025/11/16 දින වැඩම කරලූ තවත් ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා තුන් නමක්ද දායක සභාවේ සතර දෙනෙකු ද කොළඹ සිට 17 දින පැමිණි දුලාර ගුණතිලක මහතා ද චූදිතයන් ලෙසට නම් කර තිබුණි.දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 146 වගන්තිය අනුව  නීති විරෝධී රැස්වීමක් පවත්වා වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ පනතේ 14(1)වගන්තිය උල්ලංඝණය කල බව ද එහි සඳහන්ය.සැබවින්ම සිදු වූයේ මුල් ගල් තැබීමේ පින්කමකි. එය පොලිසියට නීති විරෝධී රැස්වීමක් වී ඇත. වෙරළ සංරක්ෂණ පනත උල්ලංඝණය කලේ යැයි චෝදනා කරන්නේ නම් එයට වගකිම දැරිය යුත්තේ විහාරාධිපති හිමියන් පමණි.අනෙක් දායක පිරිස බෞද්ධ උපාසක උපාසිකාවන් ලෙසට පැමණී අතර කොළඹ සිට පැමිණී භික්ෂූන් වහ්නසේද ප්‍රදේශයේ තවත් භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා දෙ නමක්ද පැමිණ ඇත්තේ පින්කමට සාභාගි වී  පිරිත් සජ්ජායනය කොට මුල් ගල් තැබීමටය. උන්වහන්සේලාට අමතරව පළාතේ නායක හිමිවරුන් ඇතුලු සියල්ල දහ අට දෙනෙකු  වැඩම කර සිට ඇත.

         පොලිසිය මෙතනදී ක්‍රියාකර ඇත්තේ ස්වභාවික යුක්ති මූලධර්මයන් කඩ කොටය. 16 වන දා සිද්දියට 17 වන ද පැමිණි අයෙකු සම්බන්ධ කර චෝදනා ගොඩ නැගීම පන්සලේ පින්කම නීති විරෝධී රැස්වීමක් ලෙසට උසාවියට වාර්තා කිරීම ලිඛිත පැමිණිල්ලක් හෝ උසාවි නියෝගයක් නොමැතිව බුදු පීළිම වහන්සේ පැහැර ගෙන යෑම මෙම අනීතික ක්‍රියා විය.එතනදී ඇති වූ කලබලයේ දී භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාට පහර දීම සිදු කරන ලද්දේ මන්ද යන්න දන්නේ ඔවුන්මය. අපට පෙනෙන ආකාරයට දේශපාලනඅධිකාරයේ සෘජු මැදිහත් වීම මෙයට සිදු වී ඇත. එක් මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙකුට අවශ්‍ය වී තිබුණේ ජුස් බාර් එක යැයි ප්‍රසිද්ධ සුභ සාධක වෙළඳ සල තමන් ගේ හිතවතෙකුට පවරා දීමටයි. අනෙක් මන්ත්‍රී වරයෙකුට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ පන්සල ඉවත් කර බෝධීය අසල කෝවිලක් ඇටවීමටයි.ඒ සඳහා මීට පෙර වරින් වර ඉල්ලීම් සිදු කර තිබුණි.මෙයට කලින් මේ ප්‍රදේශයේ නීතිය හා සාමය ආරක්ෂා කළ කිසිවෙකු මේ විහාරයට විරුද්ධ නොවීය. 2004 වසරේ මුල් මාසයේ දී දහම් පාසලේ වහළ අලුත් වැඩියා කර ඇස්බැස්ටස් සෙවිළි  තහඩු කර දී ඇත්තේ ද වරාය පොලිසියේ සුභ සාධක අංශයයි. එසේ නම් වර්තමානය තුළ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයෙකු සහ පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයෙකු මුල් වී පොලිස් සාර්ධර්මයන්ද පසෙක ලා නීතිය යුක්තිය අව භාවිතා කලේ මන්ද.සැබවින්ම ඊට හේතුව වන්නේ වර්තමානය තුළ පොලිසිය ඉතා තදින්ම මාලිමාකරණය වීමයි. පොලිස්පතිවරයාගේ සිට පහළටම අඩු වැඩි වශයෙන් එය සිදුව ඇත. ඒ තත්වය තුළ ගොරක දඩමස් කිරීමට දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහය යනුවෙන් ඉංග්‍රීසීන් විසින් නිර්මාණය කළ සීමා මායිම් නැති මාර්ගෝපදේශයක් තිබේ.මෙම නඩුවේ දී මුල් බී වාර්තාවෙන් චෝදනා දෙකක් ද  ඉන්පසු විත්තිකරුවන්ට එරෙහිව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම චෝදනා දහයක්ම ගොනු වන්නේ පොලිස් නිළධාරියෙකුට හිමි වී ඇති මේ වරප්‍රසාදය නිසාය. එය මහජනයා පෙළන ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝණය කරන අවියකි.එය භයානකය. මිනී මැරුමක් බලන්නට ගොස් තිටි තැනත්තෙකුට විරුද්ධව ද මිනී මැරුම් චෝදනා එල්ල කළ හැකිය. 1948 දී අප නිදහස ලැබුවායින්පසු දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයට සහ අපරාධ නඩු විධාන සංග්‍රහයට සංශෝධන ගෙන ආ නුමුත් අර්ථ නිරූපණ සහිත සංශෝධනයක් ඇති නොවීය. අධීකරණ ඇමතිවරයාගේ අවධානය යොමු විය යුත්තේ මහජනයා පෙළන මෙවැනි නීති මූල ධර්මයන් ස්වභාවික යුක්ති මූලධර්මයන්ට සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ගැලපෙන පරිදි වෙනස් කිරීමටයි. ත්‍රිකුණාමල සිද්දියෙන් ලැබිය යුතු යහපත් ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වන්නේ එයයි.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera 

Chairman SLPA 

Dear Dr. Parakram

As Chairman of the Advisory Board appointed to promote the development of Clappenburg Bay — where offshore oil rigs are currently laid up — I wish to bring to your attention several important matters requiring urgent clarification.

Over the past several years, we have worked consistently toward positioning Clappenburg as an offshore engineering and marine services hub. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) itself commissioned and prepared a feasibility report recommending the development of this area for such purposes.

However, recent developments indicate internal resistance to the project, including the assertion that the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has rejected it. I wish to respectfully clarify that I personally met the Chairman of the CEA, who confirmed that the Authority has not rejected the project. As per standard procedure, the CEA would only evaluate and approve an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) once a specific project proposal is submitted by an identified investor.

At present, SLPA appears to be seeking strategic clearance for approximately 500 acres. There also seems to be an unresolved institutional issue between SLPA and the Board of Investment (BOI) regarding jurisdiction and process. While these matters are being deliberated, valuable time is being lost.

If we continue to delay implementation pending resolution of inter-agency matters, the opportunity to develop this high-value offshore hub may be lost entirely. Furthermore, given the strategic importance of Trincomalee Harbour, prolonged inaction may invite external pressures or proposals that may not align fully with Sri Lanka’s long-term national interest.

I respectfully request that this matter be reviewed at the highest level, including consultation with the Planning Division, in order to establish a clear institutional pathway and move the project toward implementation without further delay.

With kind regards,

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera 

Sahar TV Clips

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Sri Lanka’s recent history of corporate collapses — particularly in civil construction and marine engineering — raises uncomfortable but unavoidable questions.

Why do once-celebrated conglomerates, entrusted with billion-rupee public projects, end up under restructuring or liquidation?

Why do banks absorb massive losses while corporate leaders often appear insulated?

And why does the cycle repeat?

The answers lie not merely in financial miscalculation — but in the dangerous intersection between corporate ambition and political patronage.

The Infrastructure–Political Nexus

Infrastructure in Sri Lanka has long been politically powerful:

• Highways
• Ports
• Marine facilities
• Irrigation systems
• Urban megaprojects

These projects carry enormous budgets and discretionary authority. Where discretion is high and transparency is weak, corruption risk rises.

Across developing economies, a familiar pattern emerges:

1. Corporate heads cultivate political proximity.
2. Politicians influence project allocation.
3. Contracts are accelerated or expanded.
4. Banks extend credit based on project visibility.
5. Cash flows depend on uninterrupted political goodwill.

When political leadership changes, so does protection.

And when protection disappears, financial fragility is exposed.

The Culture of Kickbacks

It is an open secret in many emerging economies that some infrastructure contracts carry informal facilitation expectations.”

Whether labeled as commissions, consultancy fees, or political contributions, such arrangements distort pricing structures and inflate project costs.

The consequences are severe:

• Projects become overpriced.
• Debt burdens increase.
• Companies overextend.
• Banks finance inflated valuations.

When economic downturns occur, inflated structures collapse first.

Corruption is not merely immoral — it is financially destabilizing.

Offshore Asset Diversification: A Governance Red Flag

Another troubling pattern frequently observed in emerging markets is the quiet externalization of wealth.

When corporate leaders accumulate substantial assets abroad — often through layered ownership structures — questions arise:

• Was wealth accumulation proportional to declared earnings?
• Were related-party transactions properly disclosed?
• Were shareholder interests protected?

The issue is not foreign investment itself. It is opacity.

When companies enter liquidation while executives retain private offshore assets, public trust erodes dramatically.

This perception — whether legally proven or not — damages the credibility of the entire corporate sector.

Banks as Silent Enablers?

Large lending institutions, including People’s Bank and Commercial Bank of Ceylon, have historically financed infrastructure expansion.

Key questions must be asked:

• Were loans stress-tested against political risk?
• Were related-party exposures fully transparent?
• Did concentration risk exceed prudential thresholds?
• Were independent risk committees empowered to override political pressure?

When politically connected conglomerates receive disproportionate credit exposure, systemic risk builds quietly.

Liquidation Is Not an Accident

The fact that several civil and marine engineering firms now operate under liquidators or court-supervised restructuring is not random.

Liquidation is typically the end-stage of:

• Excessive leverage
• Poor governance
• Cash-flow mismatches
• Political overexposure
• Weak regulatory oversight

If corruption or kickback cultures were embedded in project allocation, liquidation becomes almost inevitable once economic stress tests the system.

The National Cost

Corporate collapse does not punish only executives.

It affects:

• Employees
• Subcontractors
• Pension funds
• Bank depositors
• Taxpayers

When banks restructure bad loans, the public indirectly absorbs the cost.Corruption in infrastructure is therefore not a private crime.

It is a public tax.

The Reform Imperative

If Sri Lanka is serious about rebuilding investor confidence, several steps are essential:

1. Mandatory forensic audits for large public contractors.
2. Public disclosure of beneficial ownership structures.
3. Strict enforcement of related-party transaction rules.
4. Transparent digital procurement systems.
5. Political finance reform to reduce hidden commissions.”
6. Independent oversight insulated from ministerial interference.

Most importantly, asset declaration regimes must extend beyond politicians to include directors of major state-dependent contractors.

Transparency must be universal — not selective.

Conclusion

Sri Lanka cannot afford another cycle of:

Political proximity → Contract expansion → Debt accumulation → Collapse → Public loss.

If corruption and kickbacks distort the corporate sector, the entire economic system weakens.

The fall of major civil and marine engineering conglomerates should not be viewed as isolated business failures. They are warning signals about governance, accountability, and political culture.

Until transparency replaces patronage, liquidation will remain the final chapter of many ambitious corporate stories.

And the bill will continue to be paid by the nation.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Courtesy The Maritime Executive, 

[By: Indian Register of Shipping]

Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) crossed a significant milestone with the launch of its first defence-export project – a Floating Dry Dock (FDD) being constructed for the Sri Lanka Navy at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL).

The Chief Guest at the launching ceremony, held on 19 February 2026 at GSL, was Rear Admiral MDK Wijewardana of the Sri Lanka Navy. Senior officials from the shipyard and IRS were also present. The project represents a landmark achievement in IRS’s expanding defence portfolio and underscores India’s growing role as a trusted maritime partner in the Indian Ocean Region.

The Floating Dry Dock, designed and built to meet the operational requirements of the Sri Lanka Navy, will significantly enhance their in-country ship repair and maintenance capabilities. The dock will support underwater repair, and maintenance of a large range of naval vessels, thereby improving operational readiness and self-reliance. IRS has been closely associated with the project, providing classification services and technical oversight in accordance with its Rules and standards.

The successful launch of the Floating Dry Dock stands as a testament to the strong partnership between IRS, Goa Shipyard Limited, and the Sri Lanka Navy. It also aligns with broader efforts to promote indigenous shipbuilding, enhance defence exports, and advance India’s position as a global maritime hub.

This launch marks a historic milestone for IRS as our first defence export project” said Cdr KK Dhawan, Head Defence at IRS. It reflects the trust placed in Indian shipbuilding and classification capabilities and demonstrates our commitment to supporting friendly foreign navies with robust, reliable and globally benchmarked technical standards. We are proud to contribute to strengthening maritime cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.”

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay (Retd.)

---

There is growing realisation that the allegations made by Azad Maulana would be worthless in practical terms in a court of law until and unless Azad Maulana himself backs it up by testifying himself in a Sri Lankan tribunal and being cross examined by lawyers. He could even do this from afar by electronic methods too

Let me begin this article with an apology and explanation to readers. This week’s column should have been the second and final part of last week’s article (‘Is JVP Gen-Sec Tilvin, the power behind President Dissanayake’s throne?’). However this week’s column would be about the sensational arrest and detention of former Intelligence chief Major General Suresh Sallay. The Tilvin Silva article will be published next week.

Former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and ex-chief of Military Intelligence, Major General Suresh Sallay (Retd.) was arrested by a special team of police officers from the  Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Peliyagoda at 8.10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. Provisions of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) were invoked to detain him for questioning for a 72 hour period. Thereafter he may be either released or held further for a period of 90 days on a detention order under the PTA.

Meera Srinivasan, the Colombo Correspondent of ‘The Hindu’, quoted an unnamed senior official who stated that the arrest was made under the PTA based on adequate evidence” and described it as a major breakthrough”in the on going investigation into the dastardly Easter Sunday attacks.

Three churches and four hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa were attacked  in the morning of  April 21, 2019 (Easter Sunday) by suicide bombers belonging to an Islamic radical group. 270 persons including 45 foreign nationals were killed and over 500 injured in the attacks.

Media briefing

According to newspaper reports, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of the Legal Division, Jaliya Senaratne speaking at a special media briefing said that since Sallay has been arrested under the provisions of the PTA, he could be held for 72 hours (three days) for questioning. Thereafter, based on the evidence, steps can be taken to obtain a detention order, and that legal provisions exist for this purpose,” he added. Senaratne also said the public will be informed in due course about the facts that they need to know regarding Sallay’s arrest.

The Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province, Sajeewa Medawatte, also addressing the same press conference, stated that Sallay was arrested based on evidence related to the 2019 Easter attacks bombings. Medawatte further mentioned that a lengthy investigation needs to be conducted in this regard and that more information will be revealed in due course. 

He also noted that it is difficult to disclose further information within a few hours and emphasised that the Police have carried out their duties properly. Responding to journalists’ questions about allegations that a campaign has been launched against the Police for arresting Sallay without properly disclosing the reason, he stated that if the arrest had not been made, there would have been a campaign against the Police for failing to act. Medawatte further said that during further  interrogation of Sallay, information about the mastermind behind the 2019 Easter attacks may be uncovered.

One of the key promises made by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was to carry out a full investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks. The arrest of Suresh Sallay is the first high profile arrest of a defence official  after President Dissanayake became President in September 2024. The arrest of a former intelligence chief in connection with the Easter bombings has received wide coverage in the national and international media.

High-ranking positions

Major General Sallay (Retd.) has held several high-ranking positions within Sri Lanka’s security and diplomatic spheres in a career spanning more than three decades. 1987: Joined the Sri Lanka Army (Infantry and Signals). 2006-2009: First Secretary, Sri Lankan Embassy in Paris. 2012-2016: Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) 2016-2018: Minister Counsellor, Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia. 2019 (Jan.-Nov.): Student, National Defence College, New Delhi 2019–2024: Director, State Intelligence Service (SIS). Following his removal as SIS chief in late 2024, Sallay joined the Pathfinder Foundation, a prominent think tank  in a senior capacity.

‘Channel 4’ TV

This writer is not aware of the  available evidence in the hands of the Police or  whether ‘new’ evidence has been acquired concerning Suresh Sallay’s alleged involvement in the Easter attacks. However the alleged involvement of Sallay was first made in the public domain by  Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana in a ‘Channel 4’ TV programme. Azad Maulana was formerly a close aide of TMVP leader and former Eastern Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan.

The chief allegation by Azad Maulana regarding Suresh Sallay was that he had got him (Azad Maulana) to arrange a meeting between the head of the National Thowheed Jamath head and chief suicide bomber Zahran Hashim and Suresh Sallay in the Puttalam District. Suresh Sallay responded then to this by proving that he was in Malaysia at the time this alleged meeting took place. Sallay also stated that he was in New Delhi when the Easter bombings occurred.

Interaction

To strike a personal note, I have never met Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay. However I did interact with him by electronic mail and telephone from Canada in early 2014 when Sallay was head of Military Intelligence. This was to get some information for a series of articles about an aborted attempt to revive the LTTE. Sallay was very frank and forthright in disclosing details.  My impression of Suresh Sallay through that brief long-distance interaction was that he was an efficient, capable and knowledgeable intelligence chief.

It is against this backdrop that this column focuses on the arrest of Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay and his alleged connection to the April 2019 bombings with emphasis on the allegations made by Azad Maulana. I shall re-visit the past with the aid of some earlier writings of mine in this respect.

Conspiracy theories

The coordinated suicide bomber attacks by a group of misguided Muslim zealots against three churches and four luxury hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on Easter Sunday (21 April) in 2019 brought in its wake several conspiracy theories. Chief among these was the one which suspected that an official or officials of Sri Lanka’s intelligence services had manipulated the Muslim youths into launching the attacks with the objective of facilitating the return to power of former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President. This conspiracy theory received a tremendous boost in 2023 when Britain’s ‘Channel 4’ TV aired the documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings’ in its ‘Dispatches’ programme on Tuesday September 5, 2023. Tamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puligal (TMVP) leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyaan’s former secretary and ex-TMVP spokesperson Mohammed Milhilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana was the whistleblower who made the controversial disclosures.

The documentary aired on ‘Dispatches’ by ‘Channel 4’ on September 5 titled Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings, was screened by the Universal Human Rights Council (UHRC) on the evening of Thursday, September 21, 2023 in Geneva. The venue was the Octagon Campus 2, Chemin du Pavillon 1218 Grand Saconne. 

Azad Maulana’s statementThere was a discussion after the screening. Prior to the discussion, copies of a detailed statement issued by Azad Maulana were distributed to those present. Azad Maulana who was not present physically answered questions via video link later. The statement issued by Azad Maulana was a clarification and amplification of the comments made by him in the documentary. The information he divulged in the film was placed in perspective by providing more details in the statement. Here are some relevant excerpts:

Relevant excerpts: 

On 21 April 2019 on Easter Sunday a terror attack killed 269 persons including 45 children, and 40 foreigners and injured more than 500 others. Only when the media revealed the identity of the suicide bombers after the attack did I realise that I had strong evidence about the masterminds and other perpetrators and also the motivation for this terror attack. I have in no way been involved in preparing or carrying out these terrible and devastating attacks.” 

Following the defeat of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government in 2015, Pillaiyaan was arrested and imprisoned in the Batticaloa prison under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in connection with the murder of former Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham, who was shot dead on the Christmas Day of 2005 at the St. Mary’s Cathedral, Batticaloa.”

As a Secretary to Pillaiyaan, the court had granted me permission, along with his lawyers, to meet Pillaiyaan to discuss legal matters. During a visit in September 2017, Pillaiyaan told me that some Muslim prisoners from Kattankudy were with him in the same cell. A father, his son and six others had been remanded for extremist activities and attacks on another Muslim group in Kattankudy. They were from an organisation called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).” 

On Pillaiyaan’s request, I met Sainy Moulavi. Later, Pillaiyaan asked me to contact the Military Intelligence (MI) to arrange funds for these prisoners’ relatives to pay their bail. They were released on October 24, 2017. At the end of January 2018, Pillaiyaan told me to arrange a secret meeting between Suresh Sallay, who was then a Brigadier, and Sainy Moulavi’s group. Pillaiyaan said that Suresh Sallay would inform me about the meeting place and time.”

A few days later Suresh Sallay contacted me and asked me to request Sainy Moulavi to come to the Puttalam Vanaththavillu area. The next day I travelled with an MI officer from Colombo to Puttalam, Sainy Moulavi’s group came from Kurunegala. Pillaiyaan advised us not to use my own vehicle or driver for this meeting and said that the transport would be facilitated by the MI.” 

The meeting took place in early February 2018 at a large coconut farm of 50 to 60 acres, located outside of Puttalam. Suresh Sallay arrived in a grey colour Toyota car with a driver. Sainy Moulavi arrived 30 minutes later with a group of six persons in a white van. Sainy Moulavi introduced his elder brother Moulavi Zaharan as the leader of the group. The meeting lasted for more than two hours. I did not participate in the meeting but waited outside.” 

After the meeting, I travelled to Batticaloa and on the next day updated Pillaiyaan about the meeting. Pillaiyaan said that Suresh Sallay had a big plan and a deal with Zahran’s group like the one with TMVP. He told me to keep the information about this meeting secret and to assist if they asked for any help. Besides the meeting with Sainy Moulavi in prison in September 2017, I met Zahran and his group only one time in February 2018 during the meeting with Suresh Sallay. Apart from this, I had no connection or relationship with them. I was not aware of their terrorist intent or plan until after the terror attack.” 

On Easter Sunday, 21st April 2019, Suresh Sallay contacted me at around 7 a.m. and told me to go immediately to the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo, to pick up a person who was waiting there and take the person’s phone. I told him that I was currently in Batticaloa and not in Colombo.” 

About an hour after this conversation, simultaneous terrorist attacks took place across the country. Immediately after the attacks Pillaiyaan sent a message through a prison guard and asked me to meet him urgently. When I saw him in prison at about 11 a.m. on Easter Sunday he told me that the mastermind behind the Easter attack was Suresh Sallay and that he had assumed that an attack like this would happen.” 

He asked me to call Sainy Moulavi to find out, there was, however, no response. It was only because of media reports in the evening that I realised that the participants in the meeting that I had organised at the request of Pillaiyan were indeed suicide bombers involved in the Easter attack.”

Through the President’s Investigation Commission and the inquiries of the CID I also learned that the person whom Suresh Sallay had wanted me to meet was Jameel, the bomber who had been tasked to carry out a suicide attack at the Taj Samudra Hotel but then, in a last-minute change of plans, left the Taj and later exploded himself in a small hotel in Dehiwala.”

Political asylum

After fleeing from Sri Lanka via India  to Europe, Azad Maulana  applied for political asylum in Switzerland. Thereafter he went to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and made a detailed statement to a panel from the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability project. He took five days to testify. 

Apart from the OHCHR, Maulana has also made statements to several other human rights organisations and international NGOs. It could be seen therefore that Azad Maulana has the capacity and potential to provide much information regarding April 21, 2019 attacks. 

At the same time there is growing realisation that the allegations made by Azad Maulana would be worthless in practical terms in a court of law until and unless Azad Maulana himself backs it up by testifying himself in a Sri Lankan tribunal and being cross examined by lawyers. He could even do this from afar by electronic methods too. 

Maulana’s reluctance

The problem was Azad Maulana’s reluctance to cooperate with the Sri Lankan judicial system alone. He was willing to testify only before an independent international investigation. The statements made by Azad Maulana on ‘Channel 4’ and at a public meeting in Geneva indicated this state of mind.This is what Azad Maulana  said: As a witness to the planning of several terrorist attacks, political assassinations and kidnappings in Sri Lanka, I am willing to testify in investigations into these crimes. I do not believe, however, that the authorities in Sri Lanka have an interest in revealing the truth. I will therefore only bear witness before an international independent investigation.”

The key question therefore is whether Azad Maulana has  now changed his mind and is prepared to testify in open court. Has the advent of a new JVP-led NPP Government headed by President Dissanayake  resulted in Maulana cooperating with the investigation?  If so has this enabled Sri Lankan sleuths to gain more information about the Eastern bombings?

Pillaiyaan

Furthermore TMVP leader Pillaiyaan too has been detained under the PTA since April 2025. Media reports have stated that he is being interrogated about the April bombings. Has that interrogation yielded information leading to Suresh Sallay’s arrest? We do not know at this juncture and have to wait for the Police to reveal more details at the appropriate time as promised by senior DIG’s at the media conference.

However it must be emphasised that all allegations made by Azad Maulana are yet to be verified and authenticated. Moreover, they have been denied as falsehoods by those whom the allegations were levelled against especially Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay.

Conjecture and inference

The primary charge made against Sallay by Maulana hinges around an alleged meeting at Karadippooval in Puttalam between the intelligence chief and Zahran Hashim the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) leader and livewire behind the Easter bombings.Maulana’s allegation is essentially conjecture and inference based on that meeting.

However, it must be said in fairness to Suresh Sallay that he has denied being in Sri Lanka at the time of the  purported meeting. Has the Police received further information on this matter now? Will the  arrest,detention and interrogation of Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay lead to a breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into the April 2019 Bombings?

(D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com) 

Courtesy Adaderana

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa says the government must reveal the truth to the country regarding the alleged mastermind behind the substandard coal fraud.

He made these remarks today after meeting Ven. Wilanagama Chandrarathana Thero at the Sri Hewasingharama Temple in Aranayake, Kegalle, and addressing the media thereafter.

Premadasa stated that there are serious issues concerning the quality of coal currently being imported, as well as problems related to the quantity and delays in shipments. 

He alleged that these issues stem from an inefficient, irregular, and failed procurement process adopted in purchasing coal, claiming that a fraudulent scheme had operated to import substandard coal.

He further noted that although Sri Lanka requires 36 coal shipments annually, only 11 high-quality Russian shipments had been received, while the remaining 25 shipments were imported through a separate tender process. Of the 10 shipments brought in under that process, nine have reportedly been proven to be substandard, he claimed.

The Opposition Leader pointed out that emergency purchases are made when the required quantity and standard of coal are not received on time, adding that such emergency procurement methods could result in significant financial losses to the country, the public, and electricity consumers.

He also stated that as it takes around 40 days for a coal shipment to arrive in the country, the relevant tender has been implemented between April 20 and May 15. 

He alleged that the government has placed orders for five additional ships during this period due to the poor quality of previously imported coal.

Premadasa further claimed that the nine coal shipments imported by the government are incapable of generating 300 megawatts of electricity, stressing that a large-scale fraud has taken place as a result of the substandard coal imports, causing substantial losses to the country, the public, and the government.

He further added that the government must disclose who the masterminds behind the alleged coal fraud are, reveal the full truth, and clarify what action will be taken against those responsible.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has obtained a 90-day detention order to question former state intelligence chief Major General (Retd) Suresh Sallay, the police said. 

Former Head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay was arrested on Wednesday (25) morning by CID officers in connection with the investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks. 

Police said he was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA) based on evidence related to the 2019 Easter Attacks Bombings.

Coordinated suicide bombings carried out by a group of Islamic extremists led by Zahran Hashim on April 21, 2019, targeted eight locations including churches and hotels, killing at least 273 people.

Following the bombings, a number of investigations were launched including probes by a Parliamentary Select Committee and a Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

Based on the findings from those investigations, indictments were filed before a permanent three-judge bench of the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar against 25 accused, including Naufar Moulavi, over alleged direct links to the terror group. The trial is currently being heard on a daily basis.

Amid continued allegations by various parties that there was a political hand behind the attacks, investigations were expedited following appointment of the new government.

Controversy also intensified after the British television network Channel 4 aired a documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings: Dispatches”, which alleged that a meeting involving Maj. Gen. Sallay and members of the Thowheed Jamath organization discussed creating instability in the country to facilitate the return to power of the Rajapaksas. The allegations were linked to claims made by Azad Maulana, a former media spokesman for Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who is currently seeking political asylum in Switzerland.

The CID had also informed the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on several occasions about a confidential investigation being conducted into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Shenali D Waduge

On 21 April 2019, Sri Lanka was struck by coordinated suicide bombings targeting three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 270 people and injuring around 500. The attackers were linked to National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), an extremist group previously under the radar of Sri Lankan security services. Intelligence warnings of an imminent attack — including specific threats to churches and the Indian High Commission — were reportedly issued in the weeks before the incident but were not acted upon effectively.

This systemic failure would become central to every major inquiry that followed — including the Parliamentary Select Committee Report (PSC, 2019) and the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI, 2021) — and eventually the De Alwis Committee Report (2024).

The De Alwis Committee & Its Mandate

https://srilankabrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/A-N-J-DE-ALWIS-report-.pdf

https://www.shenaliwaduge.com/easter-sunday-attacks-justice-de-alwis-report-sept-2024/ (Committee Findings & Recommendations)

In June 2024, then President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a three‑member inquiry committee chaired by retired High Court Judge A.N.J. de Alwis. Its brief was narrower than earlier inquiries:

To explore specific actions and measures taken by the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Chief of National Intelligence (CNI), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and other relevant authorities on prior information or intelligence relating to the impending attack on 21 April 2019; and to assess the adequacy of those actions”

(Direct from report text under Chapter 2: Mandates of Inquiry.)

The committee received documents including the Final Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (31 January 2021) for reference and began hearing evidence on 3 July 2024, concluding on 2 September 2024.

However, the government did not officially publish the De Alwis Report.

It was leaked publicly in October 2024 by former MP Udaya Gammanpila, who held a press briefing and released it because official channels withheld it.

Reported Quotes & Expanded Findings from the Leak

Because the government never officially published the full text, journalists and researchers have relied on the leaked copy and excerpts cited in media.

Intelligence Dissemination by the Director, SIS (Nilantha Jayawardena)

From report text:

• The Director, SIS received intelligence on 4 April 2019from his Indian counterpart regarding attacks by members of NTJ, including threats against churches and the Indian High Commission.”

• He disseminated the WhatsApp message and a written report to the Secretary, Ministry of Defence, SDIG‑CID, CNI and IGP.” (the names of those who held these positions are given below)

Abbreviation / Role	Person at the Time
Secretary, Ministry of Defence	P. B. Jayasundara – Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and former Treasury Secretary
SDIG – CID (Senior Deputy Inspector General, Criminal Investigation Department)	Ravi Seneviratne – Senior DIG overseeing CID
CNI (Chief of National Intelligence)	Sisira Mendis – Head of National Intelligence (coordinating intelligence from SIS, police, and military)
IGP (Inspector General of Police)	Pujith Jayasundara – Head of the Sri Lanka Police Service

The report notes that he even identified a dry‑run motorbike explosion on 16 April 2019 and shared this with senior police officials.

Committee Finding: (He = Nilantha Jayawardena Head of SIS) (former President = Maithripala Sirisena)

He had considered his role being fulfilled upon disseminating the information… However, he had not been able to inform the former President regarding the impending attack… He had not shared the information with the Tri‑forces … he failed to exercise caution by sharing the information which would have assisted a more cohesive investigation…”

Committee Recommendation (quoted):

The Committee recommends that the Director, SIS should be prosecuted under a suitable provision in the Penal Code by the relevant authority.”

The Chief of National Intelligence (CNI)

From the report:

The CNI was informed of intelligence but did not check his mobile on 20 April 2019, allegedly because it was kept in his car, and he accompanied his wife to church on 21 April — even though credible warnings existed”

Committee Conclusion:

The CNI … failed to take adequate measures and/or steps to disseminate the information as well as take steps to monitor and follow up on the intelligence.”

Committee Recommendation:

Criminal action should be instituted against him for negligence under suitable provisions in the Penal Code.”

The Secretary, Ministry of Defence

From report text:

Though he acknowledged seeing intelligence on 20 April 2019 and instructed the IGP to take action, he failed to convene the NSC or alert the President”

Committee Finding:

The lack of seriousness given to the information is attributable for not taking steps to inform the president regarding the developments… The Secretary had failed to take diligent action regarding the attacks and his conduct had not been adequate.”

Committee Recommendation:

The Committee recommends that the former Secretary, MoD should be prosecuted under suitable provisions in the Penal Code for negligence.”

The Inspector General of Police (IGP)

From report text:

The IGP had been aware of prior extremist incidents involving Zahran and associates. Official letters and WhatsApp warnings were received but he waited to assemble a special team rather than issuing a nationwide alert.”

Committee Finding (direct):

Although the former IGP mentioned there was a rift with the former President, this does not justify complete disregard of the intelligence… The lackadaisical approach ultimately resulted in missing reports until after the incident.”

Committee Recommendation:

The Committee recommends that the former IGP should be indicted under relevant provisions of the Penal Code.”

Other Police Officials

The report goes on to assess dozens of mid‑level police officers — from SDIGs to DIGs, SSPs, OICs and ASPs — and found that many received intelligence instructions but failed to ensure coordinated security measures or take proactive steps.

Examples of direct findings include:

• Multiple officers received instructions to tighten security, but no special measures were taken to strengthen security around churches.”
• In several cases, officers failed to follow upon written directives or simply went on leave despite imminent threat notifications.

Committee Recommendations for these ranks repeatedly included:

He should be prosecuted for negligence under suitable provisions of the Penal Code by the relevant authority.”

Finding on President Maithripala Sirisena

The report states explicitly:

The Committee observed that the aforesaid intelligence had not reached President Maithripala Sirisena. As such the Committee decided that it was beyond their mandate to consider culpability regarding his conduct… However, the Committee is mindful that his actions overall had contributed to the deterioration of security in the country…”

So although the report declined to assign direct legal responsibility due to its limited mandate, it recognized a structural failure in how the intelligence apparatus was positioned under executive command.

The Importance of the Leak

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) Report (2019) identified systemic intelligence failures, including that SIS did not effectively share external warnings. It noted:

Intelligence information received indicated that the Indian High Commission was targeted, yet proper dissemination was not made by the SIS.”

By contrast, the De Alwis leaked findings go further by assigning specific actions (or inaction), timelines, and responsible officials — something the PSC report did not do in named terms.

From Systemic Failure to Personal Accountability

The De Alwis report — through its own words — found repeatedly that:

• Actions and measures taken by senior officials were inadequate…”
  …failure to take diligent action…”
  …conduct had not been adequate…”
  …crimes of negligence should be prosecuted…”

These repeated findings represent a shift away from institutional critique to personal accountability.

Udaya Gammanpila’s Role and Concerns

Udaya Gammanpila publicly released the report and consistently argued:

• The public has the right to see official inquiries conducted in their name.
• If the government refuses to release these reports, he will.
• He promoted the finding that criminal cases should be filed against at least 17 officialsfor negligence — a claim derived from the report’s own recommendations.

Gammanpila’s actions turned the document from a confidential government briefing into a public discourse on accountability.

Why the Leak Matters Today

1. Complements the PSC Findings
   Where the PSC spoke in general systemic terms, the De Alwis leak names who— and how — they allegedly failed.

2. Highlights Withheld Accountability
   Despite these clear recommendations for prosecution, major prosecutions have not been launched— feeding ongoing public frustration.

3. Pushes Debate to Legal Accountability
   The report itself recommended criminal prosecution under the Penal Code — not just policy reform — bridging inquiry outcomes with real legal consequences.
4. Connects with Ongoing Terror Probes
   Recent high‑profile arrest (2026) of a former intelligence chief not holding position during the attacks signify that unresolved inquiry findings continue to shape law enforcement action.

What the De Alwis Leak Reported

Aspect	What the Report Says (Leaked Text)
Intelligence Warning	SIS informed SDIG Ravi Seneviratne on 9 April 2019… warning letter remained unopened.”
Repeated Alerts Ignored	Multiple alerts on extremist activity, including NTJ dry‑run evidence and church threats.
Inadequate Measures by SIS	He had not shared information with the Tri‑forces… actions were inadequate.”
Inadequate Action by CNI	Failed to disseminate and follow up on intelligence.”
Inadequate Actions by IGP	Lackadaisical approach… failed to prevent or mitigate the attacks.”
Recommendations	Criminal prosecution should be instituted under Penal Code provisions.”
No Official Publication	Government withheld report — leaked by Udaya Gammanpila.

The leaked De Alwis Committee Report is significant because it:

• Names specific individuals and datestied to intelligence failures;
• Quotes authoritative findingsof inadequate intelligence action;
• Directly recommends criminal prosecutionfor negligence;
• Casts new light on previously known inquiry gaps;
• Continues to shape legal, political, and public debates about accountability for one of Sri Lanka’s worst terror tragedies.

1️. State Intelligence Service (SIS)

• Mandate:Collect, analyze, and report intelligence on internal and external threats to national security.
• Authority:Advisory only — cannot arrest, detain, or execute operations.
• Output:Reports, alerts, and recommendations to enforcement authorities (e.g., IGP, CNI, Defence Secretary).

2. Chief of National Intelligence (CNI)

• Mandate:Coordinate all national intelligence agencies, consolidate intelligence, advise top government leadership.
• Authority:Coordination and recommendation — cannot implement operations.

3️. Inspector General of Police (IGP)

• Mandate:Head of all police forces; responsible for public safety, law enforcement, and operational decisions.
• Authority:Can order investigations, raids, arrests, and preventive actions.

4️. Senior DIG – CID

• Mandate:Lead Criminal Investigation Department; investigate crimes, coordinate with intelligence, execute preventive and legal measures.
• Authority:Directs CID officers; implements operational actions based on intelligence.

5️. Secretary, Ministry of Defence

• Mandate:Oversee national defence and coordinate security policy; ensure agencies implement government security directives.
• Authority:Administrative and strategic approval — can authorize police/military action but does not execute investigations personally.

6️. Military Units

• Mandate:National defence and emergency support.
• Authority:Only acts when formally deployed by Defence Ministry or requested by law enforcement.

Key Distinction:

• Collection & Reporting:SIS, CNI → cannot act operationally
• Action & Enforcement:IGP, SDIG/CID, Ministry of Defence, Military → responsible for preventive action

This makes it crystal clear: negligence in responding to warnings is on the enforcement chain, not the intelligence collectors.

Accountability must follow Authority

The De Alwis Committee Report, when read alongside the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) Report and the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), leads to one unavoidable conclusion: the Easter Sunday tragedy was not the result of intelligence failure, but of institutional paralysis and executive breakdown in the enforcement chain.

The evidence clearly establishes that actionable intelligence was received, documented, and disseminated through formal channels. The failure occurred after dissemination, within the agencies vested with legal authority to act — namely the Ministry of Defence, the Chief of National Intelligence, and the Sri Lanka Police hierarchy.

The Committee’s own findings demonstrate that:

• The State Intelligence Service (SIS) fulfilled its statutory role by collecting and transmitting intelligence.
• The Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) failed to coordinate, monitor, and escalate urgent threat warnings.
• The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence failed to activate the National Security Council or issue emergency security directives.
• The Inspector General of Police and senior police command failed to execute preventive security measures despite repeated alerts.

These failures were not abstract administrative lapses.

They constituted criminal negligence, as explicitly identified by the Committee, warranting prosecution under relevant provisions of the Penal Code.

Yet, nearly years after the attacks, systemic accountability remains absent, while selective legal action risks distorting the true chain of responsibility.

The deliberate withholding of the De Alwis Committee Report, followed by its public leak, underscores a deeper institutional reluctance to confront where real authority — and therefore real liability — resided on the eve of the attacks.

Transparency was not denied due to national security concerns, but because the findings directly implicated senior decision-makers within the enforcement and executive command structure.

For justice to be meaningful, accountability must follow authority, not convenience.

Failure to uphold this principle:

• Weakens public trust,
• Undermines national security credibility,
• Distorts future counter-terrorism policy,
• And leaves the country vulnerable to repeat failures.

True justice for the victims of Easter Sunday does not lie in symbolic prosecutions or political scapegoating. It lies in faithfully implementing the findings of Sri Lanka’s own official inquiries, without fear, favour, or selective omission.

Until that occurs, the Easter Sunday tragedy will remain not only a story of terror, but of unresolved state failure.

Shenali D Waduge

Chandre Dharmawardana

If it was a bird’s foot, (as said by some writers – who are they?), why was it called “Sigiriya” and identified all along the centuries with a lion foot?

There is great readiness among some  recent writers to downplay their heritage in the name of “reconciliation”, and even claim Sigiriya to be a Chola monument built by the ruler “Kasi-Appan”?

 A well known Peradeniya historian ignored everything in Sigiri Griffiti (written in 8th century Sinhala, and some of it by pilgrims from Valikkamam of the North, but not a word of Tamil in Sigiri Griffiti). He  claimed that Sinhala was a language that started in the middle ages. The claims that the lion claws may be “Garunda” claws, or “Griffin Claws” as in Greek symbolism,  do not fit in with known iconography.

: The design of the paws aligns with other ancient Sinhalese lion sculptures, which often used stylized, powerful claws to symbolize royal authority.  

The Chulawamsa explicitly mentions the LionGate. It records that King Kashyapa (477–495 CE) built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion on a small plateau about halfway up the side of the rock.

The chronicle explains that the name of the site, Sīnhāgiri (Lion Rock), is directly derived from this monumental structure.

While only the massive brick and plaster paws remain today, the text implies a more complete figure; historians believe visitors originally entered the summit through the lion’s mouth.

Purpose of the Site: The Culavamsa describes Sigiriya as a royal capital and palace built by Kashyapa to serve as an impregnable stronghold after he seized the throne from his father.

It records that King Kashyapa (477–495 CE) chose the site specifically for its natural defenses. : The text describes the construction of moats and ramparts surrounding the rock to further secure it.

UNESCO World Heritage Designation: UNESCO officially recognizes the site as an “ancient rock fortress” and a “fortified city,” noting it as one of the best-preserved examples of ancient urban planning in Asia.

Military Features: Documentation by 19th-century British explorers and contemporary archaeologists highlights defensive elements such as elevated pathways, guarded gateways (the Lion Gate), and massive walls.

National Geographic and Academic Sources: These documents refer to it as a “sky fortress” or “royal stronghold,” emphasizing its role as a defensive seat of power during Kashyapa’s 18-year reign.

 It is further noted that after Kashyapa’s death, the site was abandoned as a capital and given to the Buddhist monk community, serving as a monastery until the 14th century. 

However, it seemed to have been a Mahayana forest hermitage before King Kasyapa’s redoing of the rock, and this was taken in isolation by Rajah de Silva to make his claim in trying to create a new hypothesis countering the views of HCP Bell and Senerath Paranavitana.

The Reality is, BOTH views are correct and they apply to a site that evolved with time. This has been emphasized by modern writers like Tudor de Silva and Senaka Bandaranayake. Originally, it was a Mahayana Hermitage. King Kashyapa took it over, and it became a pleasure palace of a king in a safe location  as stated by the Pali Chronicles;  this view is supported overwhelmingly by the archeological and epigraphic evidence.

Chandre Dharmawardana

On Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 12:01:00 a.m. EST, Yahoo <sriyanjanaka@yahoo.com> wrote:

There’s a controversy about the lion’s foot at the entrance. Some say it is a huge bird’s foot. 

In any case, it was never a fortress, contrary to what was previously claimed.

On Wednesday, 25 February 2026 at 09:26:36 pm GMT+5:30, Chandre dharma-wardana <chandre.dharma@yahoo.ca> wrote:

Raja de Silva claimed that Sigiriya was a mahayana Vihara and Not a place of a King. He claimed that the Sirigi Apsara were paintings of Mahayana Godess Tara, based on iocongraphic details and also based on the chemistry of the paint and what had been used in Ajantha. Rajah argued that the very plain “Asana” on the top were medidation seats.

However, modern excavations have found more sumptious

quaters even in the upper areas.

Paranavitana and others (HCP Bell) had argued that the hugh Lion-foot entrence (the lon symobol was a Royal emblem), the complex of pleasure gardens, pumped water systems and sumptious living areas at lower lowel did not indicated monstic living. Also, the Chulawamsa clearly states what it was used for.

The Raja de Silva view did not agree with what could be gleaned from the “sigiri Griffit” either.

The more modern view is that Sigiriya was BOTH a Mahayana temple AND a kings pleasure palce. In pre-Kasyapa times, sigirya was a Vihara. Kasyapa took it over and converted it to a pleasure palace.   

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 08:28:26 a.m. EST, Yahoo <sriyanjanaka@yahoo.com> wrote:

ඔව් මේ කතාව මම අහල, කියවල තියෙනව.

එතුමාගේ නිගමනය නිවැරදියි.    

 එතුමන්ට නිවන් සැප ලැබේවා 

On Wednesday, 25 February 2026 at 05:32:06 pm GMT+5:30, Daya Ranasinghe <daya.ranasing7@gmail.com> wrote:

                                               සීගිරියේ රාජා ද සිල්වා

                                              අරුණ –  කතුවැකිය  25/02/2026

තමන් සිය මුළු කාලයම දේශපාලනයට කැපකිරීම නිසා කවදාවත් සීගිරිය නගින්නටවත් ඉස්පාසුවක් ලැබුණේ නැතැයි කලකට පෙර වතාවක් විමල් වීරවංශ ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කිව්වේය. අපේ මිනිස්සුන්ට පුරුදු හඳ පෙන්වූ විට ඇඟිල්ල දිහා බැලීම නිසා මේ කතාවෙන් කථකයා රටේ හාස්‍යයට ලක්වූ බව අපට මතකය. එහෙත් සීගිරිය යනු අපේ රටේ ඕනෑම කෙනෙක් ජීවිතයේ එක වතාවක්වත් යායුතු තැනකැයි යන්නද ඔහුගේ කතාවෙන් කියවුණු බව රටට ග්‍රහණය වූ⁣යේ නැත.

එබඳු තැනක් වූ සීගිරිය ගැන කතා කරන විට කතා නොකරම බැරි සීගිරි බිතුසිතුවම්, මතු පරම්පරාවන්ටද දැකගත හැකිවන ලෙස රැකදීමට ඉමහත් දායකත්වයක් දැක්වූ දැවැන්තයෙක් පෙබරවාරි 22 වැනිදා මිය ගියේය. ඒ මියෙන විට අවුරුදු එකසිය එකක් පිරී සිටි කුරුකුලසූරිය පටබැඳිගේ ශ්‍රී රාජේන්ද්‍ර හේමපාල නොහොත් ආචාර්ය රාජා ද සිල්වාය. ලංකා විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයෙන් හා ලන්ඩන් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයෙන් රසායන විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ B.Sc උපාධිධරයකු හා ඔක්ස්ෆර්ඩ් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ D.Phil උපාධිධරයකු වූ රාජා ද සිල්වා සහකාර කොමසාරිස්වරයෙකු හැටියට පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට බැඳුණේ 1949 දීය. 1967 සිට වසර එකොළහක් පුරාවිද්‍යා කොමසාරිස්ව සිටි ඔහු ඒ තනතුරට පත්වීමට ටික දිනකට කලින් අපේ රටේ මහා විනාශයක් සිදු වූ⁣යේය. ඒ 1967 ඔක්තෝබර් 14 වැනිදා රාත්‍රියේ කවුරුන් හෝ විසින් සීගිරි බිතුසිතුවම්වල කොළ පාට තීන්ත වර්ගයක් උළා තිබීමයි. ඒ පිළිබඳ අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු කිරීමට පැවරුණේ අපේ කථානායකයාටය.

ඒ සඳහා අපේ රටට එවකට නොතිබුණු තාක්ෂණික දැනුමක් අවශ්‍ය බව ඔහු විසින් වාර්තා කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව යුනෙස්කෝ සංවිධානයේ හා ස්මිත්සෝන් ආයතනයේ අනුග්‍රහයෙන් ඉතාලි ජාතික විද්‍යාඥයෙකු වූ ආචාර්ය ලුසියානෝ මරන්සි මෙහි පැමි⁣ණියේය. මුල් චිත්‍රවලට හානි නොවන පරිද්දෙන් උළා තිබූ තීන්ත ඉවත් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය තාක්ෂණික උපදෙස් ලබාදුන් ඔහු සති කිහිපයකින් පෙරළා සිය රට ගියේය. ඉන් ඔබ්බට බිතුසිතුවම් ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණය කිරීමේ කාර්යභාරය අපේ මිනිහාට පැවරුණු අතර චිත්‍ර දෙකක් හැර ඉතිරි සියල්ල යථා තත්ත්වයට ගෙන ඒමට ඔහු ඇතුළු පිරිසට හැකි විය. ඉන් අවුරුදු හැටකට පසු සීගිරි නැග බිතු සිතුවම් නරඹන පිරිස් නොදන්නේ වුවද ඔවුන්⁣ට අද ඒ මහඟු අවස්ථාව ලැබී ඇත්තේ ලුසියානෝ මරන්සි හා රාජා ද සිල්වා ඇතුළු ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ කණ්ඩායමේ උත්සාහයෙනි.

සීගිරිය හා රාජා ද සිල්වාගේ සම්බන්ධය එතැනින් කෙළවර වන්නේ නැත. සීගිරිය යනු පළමුවැනි කාශ්‍යපගේ රාජධානිය බවත්, සීගිරි බිතුසිතුවම්වල සිටින්නේ ඔහුගේ බිසෝවරුන් බවත් යන මහාවංශකරුවාගේ මතය ඔහු ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළේය. අපේ රටේ සිටි අනෙකුත් පුරාවිද්‍යා කොමසාරිස්වරුන් මහාවංශ මතයට විරුද්ධව නොගියද රාජා ද සිල්වා සහකාර කොමසාරිස්වරයෙකුව සිටියදීද සිය ප්‍රධානීන්ගේ අදහසට එකඟ නොවූයේය. ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ සීගිරිය යනු කාශ්‍යප රජුගේ අනුග්‍රහය ලැබූ මහායාන ආශ්‍රමයක් බවය. සීගිරි බිතුසිතුවම්වල සිටින්නේ කාශ්‍යපගේ බිසෝවරුන් නොව මහායානිකයන්ගේ දේවතාවියක හැටියට සැලකෙන තාරා දේවී බව ඔහුගේ අදහස විය. තාරා දේවියගේ එක වැනි රූප ගණනාවක් දකින්නට සැලැස්වීමෙන් දකින්නන්ට ශ්‍රද්ධාව ඇති කිරීම මේ බිතුසිතුවම්වල අරමුණ බව ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. කාශ්‍යප රාජ්‍ය සමයෙන් ශතවර්ෂ හතකට පසු රචනා කෙරුණු මහාවංසය මහාවිහාරවාසී ථෙරවාද භික්ෂුවක විසින් ලියන ලද්දක් බැවින් එහි කරුණු විකෘති වී ලියවී ඇති බව ඔහුගේ අදහස විය. අදටත් රටේ ප්‍රචලිතව පවතින්නේ මහාවංස කර්තෘවරයාගේ මතය වුවද කරුණු කාරණා සහිතව රාජා ද සිල්වා විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද අදහස කිසිවෙකු විසින් මේ වන තෙක් නිෂ්ප්‍රභ කෙරීද නැත.

සීගිරිය හා පුරාවිද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ රාජා ද සිල්වාගේ සම්බන්ධය ගැන ලියන්නට බොහෝදේ ඇතත්⁣ මෙතැන ඊට නොතැනය. එහෙත් මිථ්‍යාවට විරුද්ධව ඔහු එකලාව නැගී සිටි අවස්ථාවක් ගැන නම් සඳහන් නොකරම බැරිය. ඒ රාජ්‍ය අනුග්‍රහය ඇතිව දුටුගැමුණු රජුගේ භෂ්මාවශේෂ ප්‍රදර්ශනයක් රට පුරා ගෙන යන්නට කෙරුණු සූදානමක් ඔහු වළක්වාලීමය. ඒ අඟුරු ගොඩක් මිස අනෙකක් නොවේ යැයි රාජා ද සිල්වා තරයේ කියා සිටි හෙයින් ප්‍රදර්ශනය නතර කර ඒ පරීක්ෂණය සඳහා ප්‍රංශයට යවන ලදී. එහෙත් එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය කවදාවත් ප්‍රසිද්ධ කෙරුණේ නැත.

සීගිරිය සමග ඔහුගේ තිබුණු බැඳීම කොතෙක්දැයි කියතොත් ඔහු නිවාඩු කාලය ගෙවීම සඳහා සීගිරිය පෙනෙන මානයේ කුඩා නිවෙසක්ද තනාගෙන තිබුණේය. ඔහුට අවුරුදු සියයක් පිරුණු අවස්ථාවේ ඔහුගේ ඥාතිවරියක වන මහාචාර්ය සාවිත්‍රි කුමාර් ද සිල්වා මෙසේ ලියා තිබුණාය. “කාශ්‍යපගේ පියා වූ ධාතුසේන කලාවැව පෙන්වා මේ මාගේ ධනයයි කීවා සේ, රාජා ද සිල්වාටද ඔහුගේ ධනය වූ⁣යේ සීගිරියයි”          =======================   

History Undug

Long before modern hospitals and surgical science, ancient Sri Lanka developed one of the world’s most advanced medical systems. This documentary explores the Mihintale Hospital Complex, believed to be the oldest known hospital in the world, revealing how advanced healthcare, surgery, pharmacology, and public medicine existed over 1,000 years ago. We also uncover the remarkable story of King Buddhadasa, the legendary physician-king who personally performed complex surgeries, treated animals, wrote advanced medical texts, and created a nationwide healthcare system built on compassion and scientific understanding. Through archaeology, ancient texts, and historical evidence, this film reveals a forgotten medical civilization that challenges everything we think we know about ancient science.

BY J.A.A.S. Ranasinghe

26 Feb 2026 |

The shipbuilding sector is vital to the global economy, influencing international trade, transportation, and defense. As global trade and the need for energy-efficient vessels rise, these nations are set to expand their influence. Their success hinges on advanced technology, skilled labour, and a dedication to innovation, keeping them competitive in a fast-paced market.

The US shipbuilding industry requires about 200,000 to 250,000 additional maritime workers in critical occupations, such as welding, fabricating, soldering, and front-line management, to satisfy the demand over the next decade. If the demand for ships increases, the labour gap will be even wider.  

Nations excelling in these areas capture a larger share of the global market. For instance, China has become a dominant force, using Government subsidies and strategic initiatives to increase its capacity. This has lowered production costs and enhanced its global competitiveness. South Korea and Japan have focused on advanced technologies and high-value vessels like liquefied natural gas carriers and cruise ships. Their expertise and reputation for quality have kept them strong in the global market. Japan’s success hinges on the efficiency, quality and specialised vessels.

US Naval and commercial shipbuilding expertise

The US boasts a long-standing tradition in naval and commercial shipbuilding. American shipyards are pivotal in bolstering the nation’s maritime defense and economic vitality. They excel in crafting a diverse range of vessels, from cutting-edge aircraft carriers and submarines to massive commercial ships like tankers and container vessels. Shipbuilding in the US supports around 110,000 jobs nationwide and adds Dollars ($) 37.3 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) annually. The country boasts 154 private shipyards actively engaged in construction, spread across 29 States and the US Virgin Islands. Moreover, over 300 shipyards focus on repairs, capable of constructing ships, even if not currently doing so.

The US is known for its excellence in naval and commercial shipbuilding. American shipyards are equipped with advanced technology and skilled workforces. They focus on complex projects, such as aircraft carriers, submarines, and large commercial ships like tankers and container vessels. Yet, its dominance over the years has seen a gradual decline, mainly due to the paucity of skilled labour due to massive retirement.

Building the future workforce for US shipbuilding

A veteran chief executive officer of the shipbuilding and repair industry and a former Managing Director of the Colombo Dockyard, Dr. Sarath Obeysekera says  the US is confronted with a huge shortage of skilled labour such as welders, fabricators, pipe fitters, electricians, naval architects, outfitters, and planners. The resultant situation is clear in that the US which enjoyed a five per cent share in global shipbuilding has now plummeted to barely 0.25%.

This scenario creates an uncomfortable truth: the US cannot rebuild the globally competitive shipbuilding industry relying solely on its domestic labour pool in that demographics, skills mismatches and lifestyle expectations make that mathematically improbable. 

Key opportunities for SL

Undoubtedly, the recession of the US shipbuilding industries has opened a myriad of opportunities for Sri Lanka to develop its shipbuilding industry, vocational training (VT) institutes and universities, job opportunities for skilled labour, the generation of foreign exchange, the building of collaboration with the universities and the VT centres, the training of skilled manpower, the revision of training modules, new institutional arrangements, etc. 

The question is whether the proposed remedies — reassessing vocational, maritime and nautical education, creating new maritime academies, and modest private-sector incentives — are anywhere near sufficient.

Strategic export of skilled labour 

The crisis in the US shipbuilding industry has created an extraordinary, time-sensitive demand for skilled maritime and industrial labour. Sri Lanka is uniquely positioned to respond due to its long maritime tradition, English proficiency, and existing vocational infrastructure. However, without State-led coordination, this opportunity will be lost to competing labour-supplying nations. The export of ship engineers, marine engineers, skilled welders, fabricators, ship fitters, marine engineers, and naval architects must be treated as a strategic foreign exchange industry, not an ad-hoc migration exercise. Government-to-Government agreements, led by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, with defined skill categories, certification standards, numbers, and timelines is a key priority area in this direction.

Foreign Affairs Ministry as an economic enabler

The Ministry must move beyond traditional diplomacy and assume the role of an economic and labour-market negotiator. By entering into bilateral memorandums of understanding (MOUs) directly with major US shipyards and the relevant US authorities, Sri Lanka can secure predictable overseas employment pipelines, protect worker rights and wage standards, and align domestic training systems with the international demand. Establishing a high-level private-sector–led advisory board to guide negotiations, skill forecasting, and international benchmarking is again a key priority area.

New institutional arrangement for the VT sector

The Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) currently operates as a regulatory body focused on compliance rather than national manpower planning. This is a fundamental misalignment. With nearly half of Sri Lanka’s youth excluded from university education, the TEVC should function as the country’s primary engine for skills-based social mobility.  Hence, a radical shift from institution accreditation to labour-market-driven training and from passive regulation to proactive workforce development is thoroughly advocated.

 Urgent overhaul of the VT architecture

Sri Lanka’s VT system is structurally incapable of responding quickly to global labour shocks. Fragmented authority, limited Ministerial empowerment, and bureaucratic inertia have rendered the system reactive rather than strategic and pragmatic. The VT function must be elevated in status and authority, with clear accountability for outcomes such as the numbers trained, the employability rates, and the foreign exchange generated.  

Currently, the VT aspect comes under a Deputy Minister and he should be given more powers to build up a strong VT sector. The present institutional arrangement is woefully not efficient and dynamic. 

The mere proposal for the establishment of an advisory board exclusively for the welding vocational sector has been relegated to the backseat for the last few months despite repeated requests being made and the publication of numerous paper articles. This is a case in point. Whilst the Industry Ministry has established 26 sectorial advisory councils, the Vocational Education Ministry’s reticence raises many eyebrows. A question to be raised is whether the VT sector has declined and deteriorated or whether it has been allowed to collapse.

The TVEC that comes under the purview of the Vocational Education Ministry has been in a complacent mood despite the enormity of issues coming with the vocational industry sector. Recently, the Chamber of the Construction Industry sought the intervention of the Government to import masons, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. The construction industry is severely handicapped in the context of the cyclonic damages. Another disturbing factor is the local manufacturing sector today is surviving because of the immigrant Indian welders. According to a survey, only 5% of the students who followed welding courses at VT centres get qualified when their competency standards are screened by the foreign job companies. 

VT centres have failed to enroll children of Samurdhi recipient families for their vocational programs despite the fact he Samurdhi Department releases a grant of Rs. 50,000 (in selected programs up to Rs. 100,000) for each student.  These specific instances are only the tip of the iceberg and they speak volumes of the pathetic situation of the vocational sector. 

Sri Lanka’s dependence on foreign welders and skilled construction workers is a policy failure, not a labour-market inevitability. The current situation — where industries survive on imported skills while local youth remain unemployed — represents a structural contradiction that erodes national resilience. There has to be a strategic objective to achieve self-sufficiency in critical trades while exporting surplus high-value skill.

Integrating the SLBFE and TVEC 

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the TVEC have a cardinal duty to generate foreign exchange by providing skilled labour to foreign countries. The SLBFE and the TVEC operate with overlapping mandates but without strategic direction and coordination. This institutional fragmentation results in poor utilisation, weak and missed opportunities. This integration is essential if Sri Lanka is to respond credibly to the US shipbuilding crises.

Universities as future shipbuilding talent incubators

Across the US, maritime organisations and educational institutions have long provided future nautical workers, including engineers, naval architects, and shipyard managers required to plan, supervise, and perform complex shipbuilding work. In light of the US dilemma, the time has come for the Sri Lankan universities and VT institutions to design and formulate appropriate courses for the benefit of the students and the country.

Sri Lankan universities – particularly technology faculties are underutilised in national workforce planning. By embedding shipbuilding, marine systems, welding technology and production engineering modules in to the degree and diploma programs, universities and vocational institutions can directly support the global labour demand while upgrading the country’s human capital  

Conclusion

The US shipbuilding dilemma is not merely an external crisis – it is a stress test of Sri Lanka’s institutional readiness. Without decisive reforms in governance, VT and foreign labour diplomacy, this opportunity will pass, leaving structural weaknesses intact. With political will, inter-agency coordination and private sector engagement, Sri Lanka can convert this moment into sustained foreign exchange inflows, youth employment at scale and long-term industrial upgrading.

The writer is a productivity and management consultant

——–

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication

Dilrook Kannangara

Sri Lanka concludes another cricket tournament that won’t be missed. As usual fans are angry and want wholesale changes from players to coaches, selectors to the administration. However, none of that can fix Sri Lanka cricket because the problem is far deeper than that. Things have changed from the era of 1970s to 1990s.

Blaming the conduct of players and others is misplaced. Best players in the world are not ranked by their conduct outside the field. Commercialization though is partly to be blamed, has affected all countries and Sri Lanka is not alone.

When cricket was riding high in the 1980s and 1990s there were a number of additional challenges including political considerations, absurd considerations in cricket clubs when choosing players, ethnic tensions and war that shut out a large section of the potential talent pool. Technology was far behind than now. After the South Africa tour in 1982 Sri Lanka lost the largest number of players in its history in a moment. But there was sufficient available talent to overcome those obstacles.

Economic Reasons

In the 1970s to 1990s economically capable families encouraged their sport-savvy children to play cricket. Not anymore. Since the 1990s they encourage their children to take up rugby, swimming and other sports. This has collapsed the depth of talent Sri Lanka has in the cricketing space. Unlike in the past, a significant percentage of students today study at international schools. Cricket is not the most popular extra-curricular activity or the fancy sport there. In fact, cricket takes a back seat. Private local schools and top government schools in cities have also changed. Rugby and other sports have taken over the limelight from cricket.

Club and mercantile matches do not attract the crowds they used to attract. As a result, sponsorships and patronage by businesses have dropped. In contrast, other sports get far more enthusiasm especially from well-to-do crowds.

Another reason is the economic collapse of Sri Lanka relative to other countries since 2010 which has driven students generally away from sport and seriously affected nutrition. Since 2012 Sri Lanka is ranked the second worst nation in malnutrition rate among under-fives in Asia. This is taking a toll on productivity, strength and development. Weakened sports persons cannot compete against well-nourished competitors. India has come a long way in improving overall nutrition of its population thanks to rapid development.

A comparison of total weight of the Sri Lankan team and teams from other countries, and, even between Sri Lankan team of the golden era and today will be telling evidence of the impact of nutrition in this cohort of sportsmen.

Social Reasons

An increasing number of people are aware of skin damage and the potential for skin cancer due to long exposure to sunlight. It has a social element in a society where fairer skin colour is preferred, and also a health element. Indoor facilities are inadequate and climatic conditions don’t help either.

Coupled with economic and social preferences that tend to impact youngsters more than others, the attractiveness of cricket and cricketers has drastically reduced over the years. The number of capable players who could be pooled to draw out from has reduced. SLC has to make do with available talent from a smaller cricketing talent pool. Meanwhile the economic and social attractiveness of rugby, swimming, squash, soccer, etc. has grown.

Conclusion

Considering broader structural changes in the society and the economy, cricket fans should lower their expectations. Exceptions are possible but infrequent. There comes a time when everything falls into place. But these are exceptions. Those good times cannot be sustained. The best of times of Sri Lanka cricket seems to be behind us. It is nobody’s fault. It’s what the society in general wants. The society can change its preferences and that will change the fortunes of the game, but it takes time.

Richard D. Wolff Courtesy Counterpunch.org

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The SCOTUS rejection of Trump’s tariffs changes little. The empire’s decline persists, and with it, its extension to the US economy as a whole. And it will continue whether or not Trump finds another law to use to justify tariffs (at higher, lower, or the same levels as now) and whether or not SCOTUS invalidates it. The tariffs of 2025 exposed the basic decline situation, including some of the costs of having denied and kicked that problem down the road so many times. The SCOTUS decision merely quibbles about the tariffs’ legal justification. Nor is that surprising given the GOP’s domination of SCOTUS. The class that has long dominated the GOP – employers – has always hated and opposed taxes. And tariffs are taxes that fall chiefly on US employers who buy imported inputs and may or may not be able to pass them on to retail consumers.

A deep ignorance is attached to Trump’s imposing a tariff regime in which he irregularly raised, lowered, suspended, and re-imposed tariffs. Such a regime imposed uncertainty by wrapping it around each tariff. That made it irrational for any CEO to take the steps the tariffs were intended to induce. Why spend millions, lose time, and risk a relocation to adjust to a tariff that might be higher or lower or disappear before, during, or shortly after your move? It was much safer for the CEO’s company and for the CEO’s personal career to stay put. Wait and see and conserve resources became corporate watchwords. Manufacturing jobs in the US across the first year of Trump’s second presidency thus fell by over 70,000.

If Trump finds another law to use to justify his tariffs, old or new, it will surely be tested, and the eventual SCOTUS decision may well be the same. Enhanced uncertainty dogs whatever tariffs Trump attempts. If instead he demands congressional action, traditional GOP hostility to taxes there makes it quite likely to suffer the same defeat that SCOTUS just rendered. As uncertainty now hovers over Trump’s use of executive orders, it becomes clear that Trump’s tariff regime took him deep into a dead end.

He could, of course, simply ignore domestic laws, the Congress that writes them, and the courts that are supposed to enforce them. He did that originally by imposing the tariffs via executive order before the SCOTUS decision, and he can continue to do so afterward. Is that not likewise the approach presented by the US government’s summary execution of over 135 persons in boats in international waters (Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean)? The president’s labeling of them as narco-terrorists” and combatants” in a drug war” is an even thinner rationale than what was offered to support tariffs in 2025. Disregarding existing international and domestic laws has become a source of pride. Trump, Vance, and Rubio have rechristened that disregard as the long-overdue emergence of an America First commitment, from subordination to an old rules-based order.” During that order, we are asked to believe that trading partners, allies and friends” exploited and humiliated the US. Trump, Vance, and Rubio will now stop all that. Perhaps they borrowed the concept of a period of sustained humiliation used by Xi Jinping for China before 1949, a far more apt usage of the term.

Ignoring laws, too, in the context of a declining empire and economy, only exacerbates uncertainties. They will produce policy failures and reversals in 2026 similar to those the Trump regime suffered in 2025. Already well underway, the decline sweeps away the few obstacles still in its path. Its economic, political, and cultural power already reduced, a desperate US turns on its erstwhile allies, semi-colonies, and remaining trading partners seeking tribute to offset its decline. Only its global military power seems still formidable. Yet there too, the Russian-Chinese alliance and its BRICS allies are catching up quickly.

The last piece of the puzzle, entitled How will all this end?” concerns domestic conditions in the US. The decline appears to stem from deepening social divisions. Earlier, when less developed, divisions were papered over by the relatively untroubled oscillation between traditional Democrats and Republicans. Now they have become extremely aggravated, producing Trump and his MAGA base. Both of them, in turn, provoke ever more divisions. They battle Republicans decried as RINOs, but also Democratic centrists, Democratic progressives, and those they denounce synonymously as socialists, Marxists, terrorists, radical leftists, anarchists, communists, and so on. Meanwhile, the rest of the world reacts to the trade and tariff wars by retaliating against specific groups inside the US (farmers, energy producers, alcohol exporters, winter wheat importers, and so on). Those groups turn against specific tariffs. From there, it is a short step to questioning the entire global strategy, etc. Trump’s domestic support erodes.

Lastly, there are the self-inflicted wounds of mass disaffection. The ICEcapades in Minneapolis strengthened animosity toward Trump’s government around the immigration issue and how to deal with it. Trump’s transparent efforts to keep the public from knowing the full extent of his (and his friends’ and colleagues’) involvement with Jeffrey Epstein’s horrors are crumpling support.  Least recognized but perhaps most important is the growing awareness among all employees – but especially at all government levels – that Trump’s policies threaten jobs. Their unions are striking, and the total US unionized labor force grew by 500,000 in 2025. When several unions joined the people of Minneapolis in organizing effective, mass opposition to ICE, a coalition undertook a renewal that can change US politics.

An old debate stresses that both objective” and subjective” conditions must be ripe for revolution to be possible. Empire decline, now abetted by self-isolating economic, political, and cultural policies, is maturing the objective conditions. Subjectively, denial of the decline as official policy in both major parties combines with the demonization of scapegoats (first immigrants, then the expanding numbers of Americans who oppose scapegoating them). What results are fast-deepening social divisions across the US? Ever more of the population senses deepening social problems. Ever more of that population sees mounting failure of dominant political parties and institutions to solve those problems. The need for basic social change becomes urgent.

Richard Wolff is the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan and Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens. He is founder of Democracy at Work.

The Mahavamsa

https://share.google/aimode/59EP5UjiM89yn9tDn

(“Great Chronicle”) is one of the world’s most significant and longest unbroken historical records, chronicling over 2,500 years of Sri Lankan history. Written as an epic poem in the Pali language, it is recognized for initiating a mature historiographic tradition in South Asia.

Key Significance and Legacy

• Global Recognition: In 2023, the Mahavamsa was officially inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register, cementing its status as a piece of globally important documentary heritage.
• Historical Accuracy: While it contains legendary and religious elements, its descriptions of ancient cities, kings, and engineering marvels like Ruwanwelisaya have been repeatedly verified by archaeological excavations in both Sri Lanka and India.
• South Asian Linkages: The text is an indispensable source for dating the Indian Emperor Ashoka and the rise of Buddhism as a world religion, providing crucial historical synchronicity with the era of Alexander the Great.
• Living Document: Originally composed by the monk Mahanama in the 5th or 6th century CE, the chronicle was extended by successive authors in works known as the Culavamsa, continuing the record up until the British takeover in 1815.
• Literary Achievement: It is considered the most important epic poem in Pali. Its elegant verse was designed for memorization, allowing the history to survive even if physical manuscripts were lost. 
• Structure of the Chronicle
• Mahavamsa (Part I): Covers the period from 543 BCE (the arrival of Prince Vijaya) to 361 CE (the reign of King Mahasena).
• Culavamsa (Lesser Chronicle): Continues the record from the 4th century CE through the medieval period and ends with the British occupation in 1815.
• Modern Extensions: Some scholars and monks have added later chapters to bring the record into the 20th century. 

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir

Trump’s rhetoric and policies on immigration and citizenship consistently elevate white, especially European, migrants while targeting non-white communities for exclusion, removal, or diminished political power. His efforts collectively push a racial hierarchy embedded in state policy. Framed as security,” merit,” or rule of law,” these measures function to narrow the American electorate and safeguard long-term white Republican dominance. A historical and civil rights-informed assessment of Trump’s record characterizes his immigration agenda—Muslim bans, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) terminations, birthright citizenship attacks, and selective refugee admissions—as advancing a racialized vision of US society.

His slogan, Make America Great Again,” coined to portray himself as the great savior of America, is being used to promote a white supremacist agenda, reflecting the views and desires of the majority of white conservative Republicans. As a deceitful, vindictive, narcissistic, divisive, self-aggrandizing, unpredictable, racist and authoritarian, he is the perfect conduit to implement it. Indeed, white supremacists cannot achieve their ultimate goal with a president who fully adheres to the rule of law and his oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution.

Trump fits the bill. As early as 1973, the Justice Department sued Trump Management for systematically denying apartments to Black and Puerto Rican renters; FBI files document instructions to mislead Black applicants on availability and price, reinforcing racial exclusion in housing.

Trump needs MAGA to realize his authoritarian ambitions, and MAGA needs him to prevent what it perceives as fateful developments that America is poised to face in less than two decades, which explains why MAGA sticks to Trump.

Rooted in MAGA’s concerns is the fear that, in less than 20 years, white Americans will become a minority, and it would be nearly impossible for the Republicans to win either the electoral college or the popular vote to win a presidential election. Census-based projections show that non-Hispanic whites are expected to fall below 50 percent of the US population around the mid 2040s, with minorities driving virtually all population growth. These projections, widely circulated in conservative media and politics, have fueled anxieties about losing white, and implicitly Republican, political dominance.

To prevent the prospect of non-whites becoming a majority, Trump and his MAGA operatives are scheming and taking concrete action, while he is still in power, to advance their cause. The notion that such a campaign may not succeed, and that it runs counter to every provision of the US Constitution, is of no concern to them. Trump is charging full speed ahead, believing, as is customary for him, that, regardless of all odds, he will succeed and that this will be his legacy.

The following demonstrates how systematic and barefaced he is in implementing his agenda.

                In an Oval Office immigration meeting, Trump asked why the US should take people from shithole countries” like Haiti and African nations and said the US should instead bring in more immigrants from Norway, demonstrating his desire to stop the flow of non-white immigrants and deport existing ones. He further demanded that Haitians be excluded from any immigration deal, directly targeting a predominantly Black population for exclusion.     Once he assumed office, Trump issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship, especially for US-born children of undocumented immigrants (overwhelmingly Black and Latino), completely violating the 14th Amendment.                 Trump signed Executive Order 13769 during his first term, banning entry for nationals of seven predominantly Muslim countries and halting Syrian refugee resettlement, codifying religion- and race-based discrimination.          The first Trump administration moved to terminate TPS for immigrants from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, and Honduras, disproportionately affecting long-settled, non-white communities from Latin America and Africa. This list expanded in his second term, predominantly affecting further Latin American and African immigrants.                Trump publicly expressed special concern for white farmers in South Africa, directing the State Department to study land and farm seizures and large-scale killing of farmers,” aligning himself with a white genocide narrative to justify white refugee admissions. He allowed nearly 60 white Afrikaner farmers to resettle in the US as refugees, favoring a specifically white population. Trump told four US congresswomen of color to go back” to the crime-infested” countries they came from (three of whom were born in the US), weaponizing a classic racist taunt against elected women challenging his MAGA agenda. Regardless of how many immigrants Trump deports and how far he will go to manipulate elections, he will still be unable to change the ultimate outcome that, in 20 years, non-white Americans will be the majority. Hispanic and Black Americans’ fertility and birth rates are higher than those of non-Hispanic whites, whose fertility is below replacement.  Deportations or voter manipulation cannot reverse aging white cohorts, lower white fertility, and ongoing diversity among US-born youth.

The real awakening of the hard-core white supremacists came when Obama was elected president in 2008. Trump was quick to capitalize on Obama’s rise to power, prompting him to a significant degree to run for president in 2015. His campaign slogan, Make America Great Again,” meant exactly that: America cannot be a great country if it is to be governed by a non-white American. Thus, for MAGA’s hard-core white supremacists, it is a do-or-die battle. They will go to any length and take any measure, however sinister, unconventional, or even illegal, to prevent non-white Americans from rising to power.

So long as Trump is in power, it can be expected that this ‘battle’ for the survival of white rule in America will become ever nastier and even more violent. The Democrats cannot reverse MAGA’s course alone. They must be joined by many patriotic Republicans who see the writing on the wall.  Many will put country before party, knowing that in trying to prevent the inevitable, they would plunge America into a social turmoil unseen since the Civil War.

Time is of the essence. If there is a moment in time when patriots—Democrats and Republicans—must unite to safeguard America’s democracy and ensure the enduring strength of the republic, that moment is now.

____________

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.alon@alonben-meir.com

Courtesy Hiru News

Former Member of Parliament Sarath Weerasekara stated that the arrest of retired Major General Suresh Sallay, former head of the State Intelligence Service, is a calculated move to mislead the public.

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo, he claimed the arrest serves as a deceptive measure intended to appease the Cardinal, the Catholic Church, and the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks while diverting public attention.

He further noted that even the Police Media Unit appeared to lack clarity regarding the specific grounds for the retired officer’s arrest.

The former MP addressed allegations made by Azad Maulana, the former media secretary to Pillayan, in a Channel 4 documentary.

Maulana claimed Sallay met with ringleader Zahran Hashim in 2018 to discuss creating instability to favor Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential bid.

Weerasekara dismissed these as false statements from a channel he described as consistently anti-military, suggesting this narrative likely prompted the arrest.

He highlighted that Sallay served at the Sri Lanka High Commission in Malaysia from December 2016 to December 2018 and attended the National Defence College in India throughout 2019.

He argued that Sallay was not in the country during the periods the alleged meetings occurred and questioned how such a meeting could be possible.

Additionally, he cited Pillayan’s assertions that Azad Maulana fled the country to seek political asylum and pointed to Maulana’s links with a doctor who treated Zahran’s brother after a pre-attack accidental explosion as a reason for their current absence from the country.

Karma