Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka reveres the Mahāvamsa as its foundational chronicle — and rightly so. Without it, much of our early history would be lost to time or victim of fake narratives as seen in the present. Yet reverence must never replace reasoning. Respect must not suspend inquiry— especially when the figure at the heart of the story, Prince Vijaya, appears at the intersection of myth, politics, and symbolic storytelling.

One figure sits at the heart of our origin story:

Prince Vijaya — the supposed founder of the Sinhala people.

And yet, when we examine this story carefully, profound questions emerges:

• Did Vijaya exist?
• Was he truly a prince?
• Where are the Indian texts to support that his father ruled as a king
• Where is his administration recorded?
• And crucially, how does this narrative align with the historical fact that Buddhism, which the Mahāvamsa itself frames as the civilizational anchor, only arrived in Sri Lanka centuries later around 247 BCE with Mahinda, nearly 300 years after Vijaya’s supposed landing in 543 BCE?
• This raises the question: was the story of Vijaya retroactively constructed to link indigenous kingship to Buddhist legitimacy?

What if Vijaya never existed — not as a real historical person, but only as a necessary political idea?

How could Vijaya have found” the Sinhalese when there is no evidence of Sinhalese communities, language or culture where he came from.

So he has no lineage to the Sinhalese.

This is not an attack on the Mahāvamsa. It is a deeper reading of it

If the story of Vijaya was symbolic, does this mean the Sinhalese people themselves only began with Buddhism?

Far from it.

Archaeology, anthropology, and early chronicles show that the Sinhalese — as a distinct population with language, culture, and social organization — existed centuries before the arrival of Buddhism.

Understanding this is crucial: it establishes the continuity and sovereignty of the people independent of any mythical founder.

Some may next ask:

how do we know these communities were ‘Sinhalese’?

While the term ‘Sinhalese’ as an ethnic label comes later, archaeology, language evolution, and cultural continuity clearly link these pre-Buddhist populations to the ancestors of the modern Sinhalese.

Practices such as irrigation, weaving, local governance, and settlement continuity indicate a population evolving not imported from elsewhere.

Buddhism later codified and expanded their social and religious framework, but it did not create the people themselves. The Sinhalese people already existed.

Thus, even if Vijaya was never a historical figure, the Sinhalese people already existed as a thriving population, managing land, producing culture, and forming local governance.

Kuveni, weaving and ruling her territory, embodies the complexity and sophistication of pre-Buddhist Sri Lankan civilization.

Another critical point emerges when we consider Kuveni.

If she was the ruling queen of her territory, this implies there was no male founder or dynastic father figure to anchor the Sinhalese lineage.

Could this absence have been a reason for creating Vijaya?

By inventing a male prince from India, the Mahāvamsa could provide:

• A patriarchal founder to legitimize kingship in a male-centric royal framework
• A symbolic connection to North Indian Aryan-Buddhist lineage
• A narrative that aligns the founding of the Sinhalese people with religious milestones like the Buddha’s Parinirvana.

In this sense, Vijaya may have been less a historical person and more a literary and political construct, designed to reconcile the reality of female leadership with the need for a male dynastic narrative.

While some may argue that Kuweni was not a direct genealogical ancestor of the Sinhalese, Kuveni represents the indigenous population from which the Sinhalese later emerged, inheriting their social organization, agricultural practices, and cultural skills.

Kuveni’s story illustrates that the Sinhalese did not need a foreign prince to become a people; their civilization evolved naturally, and Buddhism later became a civilizational anchor, solidifying but not creating their identity.

Kuveni, as a ruler and organizer, had children — yet their line fades from the chronicles. We need to understand that there are likely to have been leaders before her who are now lost to history.

The Mahāvamsa, however, chooses to spotlight Vijaya and his symbolic descendants. This suggests that the chroniclers were more interested in crafting a political and religious narrative than preserving local genealogies that existed before Kuweni.

The Sinhalese people, and their civilization, existed long before any legendary prince.

If the people already had governance, trade, agriculture, and social cohesion, why was Vijaya introduced?

Perhaps not to found a people, but to create a narrative anchor linking indigenous kingship to Buddhist legitimacy — a literary tool, not a historical necessity.

The civilization that existed before so-called Vijaya’s arrival

1. Archaeology

Settlements at Anuradhapura, Aligala, Mantai, and other prehistoric sites show continuous human habitation from >125,000 years ago.

Iron tools, farming implements, and early urban planning predate Vijaya by centuries.

Megalithic culture (dolmens, stone burial sites) indicates social hierarchy and organized communities.

1. Language and Culture

Sinhala language evolved from Prakrit, likely influenced by northern India, but local forms were already developing before widespread Buddhist influence.

Oral traditions, weaving practices (Kuveni), and local governance indicate organized social structures.

1. Early Political Structures

Before Buddhism, there were local chieftains and tribal leaders (like Kuveni) who managed land, agriculture, and trade — showing political continuity.

These communities had territorial and cultural cohesion, which later Buddhist kingship codified, but did not invent.

The Thousand-Year Silence

According to the Mahāvamsa, Vijaya landed in Sri Lanka around 543 BCE.
But the Mahāvamsa itself was composed around the 5th century CE.

That is a time gap of nearly 1,000 years — plenty of time for oral legend, political need, and symbolic storytelling to crystalize into the ‘perfect prince’ narrative.

There are:

• No contemporary inscriptions
• No archaeological records
• No Indian chronicles
• No foreign accounts
• No material evidence

to independently verify Vijaya’s existence or even that of his father or forefathers.

For comparison:

• We possess inscriptions, coins, trade records, and archaeological remains for rulers who lived hundreds of years later, yet not a single contemporary trace of Vijaya exists.
• How did the name Vijaya” travel unbroken across a millennium of oral memory — in a pre-print, pre-archive world — without distortion, duplication, or transformation?

That alone should make us pause and wonder.

Could it be that the name Vijaya” was created or selected to serve a political purpose centuries later, rather than faithfully transmitted from history?

With the manner stories are churned in the present – we cannot rule out this possibility, can we?

We need a eureka moment!

The story of Vijaya is almost too perfect.

• He is the son of a lion-slayer — a universal heroic archetype.
• His name, Vijaya, literally means victory”.
• He arrives on the exact day of the Buddha’s Parinirvana — a deeply symbolic alignment. (ironically compared to the manner Prabakaran created the TNT on the same day as Sri Lanka’s Republican Constitution – 22 May 1972)
• His landing marks the birth of kingship, civilization, and order.
• Just as modern political actors sometimes use symbolic dates or acts to create legitimacy, the Mahāvamsa may have used Vijaya as a retroactive symbol, aligning the founding of kingship with cosmic or religious milestones rather than recording a literal historical event

We must be wise enough to fit the puzzle together critically, using evidence and logic, and not dismiss ancient documents merely to serve modern narratives or ideological agendas.

Vijaya’s landing is meant to mark the birth of kingship, civilization, and order — a classic marker of foundation myth rather than messy human history.

Every detail aligns with symbolic timing and moral-political messaging, suggesting careful design.

Every civilization has them:

• Rome had Romulus
• Persia had heroic progenitors
• India had divine lineages
• China had Yellow Emperors

Sri Lanka, too, needed a sacred beginning.

— was the story of Vijaya a created one to fit this purpose?

The Political need for Vijaya

By the 5th century CE, Sri Lanka had become a Buddhist theocratic state.

Kingship needed:

• Sacred legitimacy
• Moral authority
• Civilizational pedigree
• Connection to the Buddha’s world

Notice the gap:

Vijaya is placed centuries before Buddhism actually arrived (3rd century BCE). Could this timing have been deliberate — a way to retroactively link indigenous kingship to Buddhist cosmology?

Why did the author of the Mahavamsa omit, the indigenous reality of Kuveni, her people, and the generations before and after her was already fully organized, culturally rich, and politically functional. They had agriculture, weaving, trade, irrigation systems, and social hierarchy — a civilization capable of sustaining itself.

So why were they not fully represented in the Mahāvamsa as the true originators of the Sinhalese?

Is it because the chroniclers needed a symbolic ancestor to sanctify kingship, unify the narrative, and align the story with religious and cosmic milestones — rather than merely recording the historical, indigenous continuity that already existed?

Fascinating thoughts!

We must also ask: who wrote the Mahāvamsa, and why?

Was it purely a monk’s personal record, or was it composed under royal direction to serve a political and religious agenda? Likely both.

The chronicler curated events, selected which stories to highlight, and shaped narratives — like that of Vijaya — to legitimize kingship, reinforce Buddhist authority, and create an unbroken civilizational pedigree.

Recognizing this intent allows us to read the text critically: not as literal history, but as a carefully crafted moral and political narrative but not to dismiss or disregard it.

Vijaya solves multiple political problems at once:

• He provides a founder king
• He links Sri Lanka to North Indian Aryan-Buddhist lineage
• He sanctifies territory
• He establishes divine timing
• He constructs an unbroken royal genealogy

In short:

Vijaya solves multiple political problems at once, not necessarily by existing as a real person, but by providing a symbolic anchor for the state.

In short: Vijaya is the perfect political ancestor — designed, not discovered

Which raises the unsettling question:

Was Vijaya discovered — or designed?

What If Vijaya is a Name, not a Man?

What if Vijaya” was not a person, but a title?

Across ancient civilizations, founders are often named:

• The Victor”
• The Conqueror”
• The Chosen”
• The First”

Vijaya” fits perfectly into this pattern.

Rather than a historical prince, Vijaya may represent the moment when local leadership was reorganized into a centralized Buddhist kingship model.

In other words:

Could Vijaya” version have been used to symbolize a political transformation, rather than any physical arrival.

The Deeper Question we avoid asking

If Vijaya did not arrive from India, then something more profound emerges:

Sri Lanka’s civilization was already flourishing: human settlements, agriculture, iron technology, and urban planning long predated Vijaya.

These are facts that no one can deny & is backed by evidence.

Archaeology already supports this:

• Continuous human settlement for over 125,000 years
• Advanced irrigation systems
• Iron technology
• Urban planning
• Megalithic cultures predating Vijaya by centuries

Kuveni, weaving, ruling, and managing her polity, embodies the reality of local agency, social organization, and an active civilization — demonstrated that governance, technology, and culture did not require imported legitimacy or foreign founders.

These two facts by themselves underlines that the Mahāvamsa story may not have reported a historical arrival, but crafted a moral-political origin myth.

So why insert an external founder?

Because civilizations once believed that greatness must come from elsewhere.

But what if Sri Lanka’s greatness rose from within?

Rethinking Origins is not Rejection — it is Maturity – It is what we need to regain our lost pride.

To question Vijaya is not to reject the Mahāvamsa.

It is to read it intelligently — as a civilizational text, not a literal historical record — and certainly not as an opportunity for foreign-funded NGOs, activists, or ideologues to exploit it to cast doubt on Sri Lanka’s indigenous heritage or political agency.

The Mahāvamsa preserved:

• Royal chronologies
• Political transitions
• Religious developments
• Cultural memory

This is a far cry from histories that rely only on myths.

Mature civilizations do not fear questioning their beginnings.

They refine them.

Perhaps the most revolutionary shift in Sri Lankan thinking would be this:

THE SINHALESE do not descend from Vijaya.

Vijaya may have been invented, but the people were real.
Vijaya descends from us — as a story created to explain who we already were.

And when a civilization begins to see itself not as imported, but as indigenously evolved, something profound happens:

It stops looking outward for validation, and begins standing firmly on its own soil.

The most revolutionary shift in Sri Lankan historical thinking is to recognize that the Sinhalese do not descend from Vijaya; rather, the story of Vijaya descends from the people themselves.

By seeing the origins of governance, culture, and civilization as indigenously evolved, we reclaim our own and understand Sri Lanka’s history as continuous, self-legitimizing, and independent — a narrative that no foreign script or retrofitted legend can overwrite

This is the moment to rethink the very roots of our national imagination

I am not a historian or archaeologist.

This article does not claim to rewrite history, but to ask practical, evidence-based questions about the story of Vijaya and the origins of the Sinhalese people.

I invite scholars, historians, and archaeologists who maintain that the Sinhalese descend from Vijaya to present contemporary evidence — inscriptions, coins, archaeological findings, or historical texts — that can independently verify his existence.

Until such evidence is produced, it is reasonable to consider that the Mahāvamsa may have crafted Vijaya as a symbolic ancestor, while the Sinhalese civilization and identity evolved indigenously, long before any mythological arrival.

Let this serve as an invitation for serious scholarly debate, not a dismissal of cultural memory.

Shenali D Waduge

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The term Genocide”  was invented by  the lawyer Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew. The word came into use after the  wholesale massacre of Jews in World War II. I  The word  was recognized in the  Nuremberg  trials  which  took place at the end of World War II.

 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,   (Genocide Convention )  was ratified in 1948.   The Genocide Convention has been accepted by 153 States , including Sri Lanka .Signatories  to the Convention are obliged  to  pass domestic legislation  on Genocide but   Genocide is  considered a part of international law and  is  binding  on all  States, whether or not they have ratified the  Convention. 

Genocide Convention  defines genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

Those charged with genocide must be tried either in international court or where the act of genocide took place. Genocides of Rwanda  and Cambodia   were heard by   ad hoc tribunals in Tanzania and Cambodia respectively.

Genocide  is included in the  Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It  is  extremely hard to prove Genocide  in the international courts  because  international courts have set the standard of proof  very  high.  International  Court of Justice  wants  conclusive evidence that there was a special intent” to commit genocide. There must be evidence of  the specific intent to destroy  the whole group. International  Court of Justice  has not found  any country guilty of genocide. It  said that  Croatia  and  Bosnia   failed to prove that Serbia had committed genocide against them .

Sri Lanka government has    challenged the use of the word Genocide for the Eelam war. The term has specific legal connotations, and the United Nations, which has codified the concept of ‘genocide’, has never used it in relation to the Sri Lankan conflict, nor has the term been used by any of the UN’s subsidiary bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council,  for  Sri Lanka . The so-called allegation of a genocide in Sri Lanka is a fabrication and is not substantiated by any responsible authority, nationally or internationally.[1]

The Paranagama Commission (2015) stated firmly that after many months of investigation and after consulting top legal experts, it had concluded that there is no     evidence to support the charge of Genocide. The Paranagama Commission rejected the suggestion that civilians were targeted by the Sri Lanka Army as part of an alleged genocidal plan.

 William Schabas, a leading authority on genocide and international criminal law,  was on a panel of inquiry set up by   Public Interest Advocacy Centre , an NGO in Australia , to assess the final stage of  Eelam War IV. He reviewed reports of United Nations investigations and  those of major international human rights  NGOs about the events and found no evidence  that the Government of Sri Lanka intended to destroy the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

WikiLeaks revealed a US dispatch that quoted ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia Jacques de Maio as having told US Ambassador in Geneva  that though there had been serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, there was no genocide.

Census data  indicates that between 1981 and 2001 (the period of the war) there was a substantial increase in the Tamil population in the Sinhalese-majority areas due to the migration of Tamils from the North-East to that area. Such a movement of Tamils could not have occurred if the Tamils were being subject to genocide.[2]

The Census and Statistics Department  carried out  an Enumeration of Vital Events” census in the Northern Province  in 2011 on the deaths occurred in the five districts of Northern Province for the last four years of the conflict ending May 2009.[3]

The five districts of the Province recorded 22,239 deaths due to all causes during the period 2005-2009 and over half of those, 11,172 were in 2009. In 2009, a total of 7,934 died due to ‘other deaths’ and 2,523 died natural deaths.[4]The field data collection was carried out by Tamil government employees serving in the Northern Province.[5]

 In addition there  are several common sense arguments against the charge of Genocide in the Eelam war. Throughout the 30-year civil war, the government  provided food and medicines to the  north and east, it kept the  health and education services going, paid the salaries of teachers and doctors. In the final stage of the war, security forces rescued approximately 350,000 Tamils  who ran to them  for shelter from the war zone.  

If 40,000 were killed at Nanthikadal in the last weeks of Eelam War IV, where are the bodies? If genocide of 40,000 occurred in the last weeks of Eelam IV, mass graves of 40,000 killed must emerge in that locality. Lastly, Ceylon Tamils are resident in all 9 provinces of Sri Lanka. For genocide  to take place the government of Sri Lanka must  go from province to province on a killing mission.( continued)

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[1] https://www.dailynews.lk/2024/08/16/local/610161/foreign-minister-summons-canadian-hc-to-register-sls-objections-on-construction-of-a-tamil-genocide-monument-in-canada/#google_vignette

[2] https://island.lk/ontarios-bill-104-tamil-genocide-education-or-miseducation-week/

[3]https://www.statistics.gov.lk/Resource/en/Population/Vital_Statistics/EVE2011_FinalReport.pdf

[4]  27.2.22 https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/enumeration-vital-events-2011-%E2%80%90-northern-province-sri-lanka

[5] island 7.2.22 p 1   .

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Tamil Separatist Movement has successfully embedded the notion of  Tamil Genocide  in Canada, starting with  the Legislative assembly of Ontario. Tamil diaspora has a presence in this Assembly and a  private member’s bill (Bill 104)  by  Vijay Thanigasalam [1] In May 2021, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario unanimously passed   Bill 104  and  created the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act (TGEWA).

The stated purpose of the Bill is to, a) designate the week following May 18 each year as ‘Tamil Genocide Education Week’ and b) educate Ontarians about ‘Tamil Genocide and other genocides that have occurred in world history.’

The Legislative Assembly  designated the week of May 18 each year as Tamil Genocide Education Week in Ontario,[2] where Ontarians are encouraged to educate themselves about  Tamil genocide and other genocides that have occurred in world history.”[3] In 2022 five Ontario school boards  introduced Tamil Genocide Education Week .[4]

Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition took the matter  to court, led by Dr Neville Hewage.  They said that the main purpose  of the Act was to declare a genocide”.  They pointed out that  it was impossible to educate about a genocide that has not yet been declared, [5]  that no Tamil genocide has been recognized in Sri Lanka under international law  and that the Provincial government of  Ontario  did not have the authority to adopt the term genocide” .[6] For a full account of this case see Reports of Cases Determined in Ontario Courtshttps://digital.ontarioreports.ca/ontarioreports/20241206/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=2027067#articleId2027067

Justice Akbarali  who heard the case said she was not going to decide whether it was wise for the Ontario Legislature to pass the TGEWA. That responsibility lies with the Legislature. The court heard evidence from dueling witnesses   whether or not there was Genocide of the Tamils in the Sri Lankan civil war. She decided that TGEWA is to educate the public about  Tamil genocide,  caused by the government of Sri Lanka. This is similar to legislation  on the Holocaust,  and it fits with the Canadian provincial education policy  on international aspects of world wars or any other international conflict.[7]( see below)

The Sinhala groups failed to get   provincial and federal courts to strike down the legislation. But there was one gain at the Ontario Appeal Court. The Appeal Court of Ontario found that Bill 104 has no educational purposes.it said that Bill 104 cannot be used for the purpose of education in Ontario. It can be used for self-awareness and commemorative purposes only.[8]

 The Sri Lanka Canada Association of Brampton  finally  went to Supreme Court asking that  the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act be repealed. The Supreme Court of Canada   dismissed the appeal. Tamil Separatist Movement  was triumphant. The Supreme Court’s decision marks the final legal obstacle in Canada  against Bill 104,  said the Tamil Separatist Movement .This legal victory comes at a time when Tamils globally are intensifying calls for international accountability and justice for war crimes and genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state, said Tamil Guardian.[9]

The Tamil Separatist Movement did not find it easy to win  the appeal , despite the fact that  there were 237,890  Tamil immigrants  against    a mere 30,000 Sinhalese  living in Canada. They admitted that they had to work hard to win the  case.

Tamil Separatist Movement  said  that  the Tamil Canadian community, backed by over 60 organizations, and the  tireless efforts   of Tamil youth helped  them to win. Over $100,000 was raised  for the purpose. Ontario’s legal community, including prominent Tamil lawyers, played a key role .[10]The law firm Goldblattparners were the interveners on behalf of National Council of Canadian Tamils. .[11]  

The main Tamil organizations active in  the matter were the National Council of Canadian Tamils, the Canadian Tamil Academy, the Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance  and the Tamil Rights Group..[12] it was noted later that  National Council of Canadian Tamils  was listed as terrorist organization under United Nations Security Council resolutions 1373. [13]

Sri Lankan government  objected, soon after the law was enacted.  Sri Lanka’s foreign minister met with the High Commissioner of Canada to Sri Lanka  to convey Sri Lanka’s opposition to the Act.  Canadian embassy in Sri Lanka  stated that under Canada’s federal system, provincial and municipal governments can pass their own laws but their decisions  do not represent  government policy.. Canada’s Official position as stated in 2021   is that the Government of Canada has not  found evidence of Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka.[14]

Canada’s  Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development  of Canada in a Diplomatic Note dated 7 th April 2021 responding to a clarification  had stated that the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development clarify Canada’s official position with regard to allegations of genocide in Sri Lanka, the department can officially confirm that the Government of Canada has not made a finding that there was genocide in Sri Lanka. [15]

On February 5, 2022, the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa issued a press release saying there is absolutely no evidence to suggest any act and/or intent of the spurious allegations of genocide” during the military engagement with the LTTE. Neither was there a pattern of events even to suggest genocide”. [16]

Tamil Separatist Movement  wanted a national declaration of Genocide. The Ontario  Assembly  was a  provincial body, it did not   carry the same weight as a national  body.On 18 May 2022, the Canadian House of Commons adopted, without opposition ,a motion introduced by  Gary Anandasangaree,[17] MP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, Ontario . The motion was introduced on the 13^th anniversary of the ‘Mullavaikkal genocide’[18]

The motion states  “this House acknowledges the Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and recognizes May 18th of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”.[19]Canada was the first national Parliament in the world to recognize May 18th of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, noted critics.  MPs who spoke in support, acknowledged that they had to please their Tamil constituents. Ontario has one of the largest concentrations of Tamils, mainly in Toronto, and the Tamil youth were very insistent on  this motion, they said.[20] 

There was another petition,( e5058) initiated by Nirujan Gnanagunalan.. The petition requested that Canada should refer Sri Lanka to the International Court of Justice to investigate the alleged Tamil genocide. Ontario Centre for Policy Research  informed  Canada’s  Minister of Foreign Affairs that the petition had no legal basis and  no action should be taken.[21]Canada’s House of Commons  turned it down.

 Sri Lanka protested.[22] Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Ottawa   issued a statement ‘Refuting the allegation of ‘Tamil Genocide’ in the final phase of the conflict in Sri Lanka .[23] In Colombo  the government was told that  MP Gary Anandasangaree’s private member’s motion regarding the Tamil genocide is non-binding, non-legislative,and does not reflect Canada’s Official foreign policy.[24]

The fact that  ‘Tamil genocide’ in Sri Lanka has been recognized by the Canadian national legislature carries international implications. recognition by the national legislature of a foreign county that genocide is taking place in Sri Lanka has very serious consequences to this country, said Darshan Weerasekera.

The House of Commons, Canada,  represents the entire people of Canada, not different interest groups. So, such a body has now placed on record that conditions exist in Sri Lanka for the Tamils to arguably invoke a right to self-determination under international law. It sets a precedent for other countries to also adopt motions or even resolutions unilaterally alleging Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka with scant regard for the truth.

The Canadian legislature has failed to submit their allegations to any international forum whatsoever and give Sri Lanka a chance to respond. .The national legislature of a country should not get a free pass to flout international law at will. If the national legislatures of other countries also start adopting motions alleging ‘Tamil genocide’ with scant regard to the facts, it would pose a danger not just to Sri Lanka but to all countries facing the threat of separatism. It is in the interest of Sri Lankans as well as all friends of international law to vigorously challenge this Act and prevent it from setting a precedent , concluded Darshan.[25]

 Following on the House of Commons decision, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau   issued statements  on May 18^th  2023, and May 18^th  2024, recognizing  Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. In 2025 Prime Minister Mark Carney  did the same.[26]

Colombo objected to all three statements .Colombo   condemned  the unfounded allegations by Prime Minister  Trudeau  and his outrageous claim of genocide” pertaining to the past conflict in Sri Lanka.it was politically motivated and purely for domestic political consumption in Canada..[27] For the statement objecting to the speech in 2023    see https://www.lankamission.org/index.php/archives/8-news/79-other-statements/3423-sri-lanka-rejects-the-reference-to-tamil-genocide-remembrance-day-by-the-canadian-prime-minister.html

The media reported that  in Canada an application was brought  against Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for judicial review, challenging his message on Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, issued on May 18, 2023. The primary intention of this Application is to obtain a legal position regarding the alleged Tamil genocide, whether the  Prime Minister  declared or recognized it. Federal Court,  said that  there was no such declaration or recognition of Tamil genocide. Trudeau’s statement and MP Anandasangaree’s motion arenon-binding and, therefore, have no legal impact on Canada’s official position . which is,  no Genocide in Sri Lanka. Federal Court  rejected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement,  and said there was no Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka.[28]

In 2025 Brampton City Council declared November 21 2025  as Tamil Eelam National Flag Day”, with Mayor Patrick Brown issuing a proclamation. The proclamation reads: On this day, the Tamil Eelam National Flag is ceremonially hoisted, and a series of events and workshops are held to honour the resistance against genocide, while fostering a dialogue on Tamil history, culture and identity.”[29]

 In May 2025, City of Toronto approved a motion to build a Tamil genocide monument. The motion has requested the city to identify a site in the City of Toronto Park in Scarborough to house the monument under the provisions of the City’s Public Art and Monument Donations Policy. Toronto  had  a vibrant and thriving Tamil community, located primarily in Scarborough. the motion seeks to follow in the footsteps of other levels of government and jurisdictions by recognising the Tamil Genocide.” [30]

A Tamil Genocide Monument, dedicated to the victims and survivors of the  final phase of the  Eelam war IV, was inaugurated in Chinguacousy Park , Brampton, Canada on May 10 2025. The monument is a  4.8-metre tall stainless steel structure featuring an outline of the historic homeland of Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The design is a book shaped structure symbolizing educating the history of the Tamil genocide with a map of Tamil Eelam that signifies the ancestral Tamil homeland. The nine panels, which symbolise the nine districts of the North-East,  details the acts of genocide perpetrated by Sri Lanka since 1948.[31]    The National Council of Canadian Tamils will have ownership of the monument and will be responsible for maintaining it. [32]

This monument, in my view ,is not a monument to genocide, it is a monument to   Eelam. It is intended to influence those visiting Brampton’s  Chinguacousy Park   to  believe in an  Eelam in far away Sri Lanka .

After a three-year delay, the Tamil Genocide Memorial, meant to honor lives lost in the Sri Lankan civil war, was unveiled in Brampton Saturday night to the sound of applause, cheers and cannons of confetti, reported the media.[33]

The opening ceremony was attended by Tamil activists and politicians, including Mayor of Brampton Patrick Brown. The National Council of Canadian Tamils  thanked Brampton Council for their unanimous support” in building the monument.

The inspiration for the memorial came after the Mullivaikkal memorial at Jaffna University, which was erected in 2019 to honour the Tamil lives lost in the genocide, was bulldozed by Sri Lanka’s authorities. This act of destruction led to widespread outrage within the Tamil homeland and globally. Backed by city leaders, two local organisations, the Brampton Tamil Association and Brampton Tamil Seniors Association, joined hands to spearhead the project.

Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, said that the monument serves as a “powerful symbol that ensures that our history will never be erased. “We remember May 2009, we remember the No Fire Zones being shelled, we remember the devastation of the bombardment of cluster bombs and chemical bombs being used against Tamil people,” “We remember the 169,796 people who are unaccounted for to this day. We will never forget that.”[34]

it later transpired that Rudrakumaran ( TGTE) and W. Wigneswaran, former Chief Minister of Northern Province had written to the Brampton Mayor offering business support in return for setting up a Tamil Genocide Monument   [35]

Sri Lanka had repeatedly complained to the Canadian High Commission in Colombo  regarding this monument.  Sri Lanka urged the Federal Government of Canada to intervene and prevent this regrettable initiative by the Brampton City Council[36]

Thushara Rodrigo, Sri Lanka Consular General in Toronto, sent a letter  to the Mayor, objecting to the monument, outlining the negative impacts on the Sri Lankan community in installing a Tamil Genocide Monument..[37] Those supporting the project declared this to be foreign interference.” [38] 

Legal proceedings were  started  against the  monument. Applicants alleged that the City of Brampton violated their Charter Rights and Freedoms, the Constitution Act of 1867, and the Ontario Municipal Act, 2001.[39]

 Opposition to the monument is continuing. General Secretary of the Sinhaladeepa National Front (Canada), Jayantha Liyanage, said  in February 2026, that a request had been made to the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, seeking the removal of the Tamil Genocide Monument constructed in the city of Brampton, Canada.[40] ( continued)

---

[1] https://colombogazette.com/2022/06/29/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week/

[2] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/case-dismissed-canadas-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-tamil-genocide-education-week-act

[3] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week-sinhalese-challenge-fails

[4] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/canadas-parliament-recognises-tamil-genocide-landmark-motion

[5] https://digital.ontarioreports.ca/ontarioreports/20241206/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=2027067#articleId2027067

[6] https://colombogazette.com/2022/06/29/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week/

[7] Justice Akbarali said the recognition of a Tamil genocide is in service of(i) educating the public about the Tamil genocide, and about other genocides, including the need to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the future;(ii) allowing non-Tamil Ontarians the opportunity to better understand their Tamil neighbors, and Tamil youth to better understand their families, community and history; and(iii) through education, helping to create the conditions for Tamil Ontarians to share their stories and begin to heal from the trauma and inter-generational trauma https://colombogazette.com/2022/06/29/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week/

[8]   https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[9] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/case-dismissed-canadas-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-tamil-genocide-education-week-act

[10] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/case-dismissed-canadas-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-tamil-genocide-education-week-act

[11] https://colombogazette.com/2022/06/29/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week/

[12] https://digital.ontarioreports.ca/ontarioreports/20241206/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=2027067#articleId2027067

[13] https://policy-research.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/5-Letter-to-Joly-from-OCPR.pdf

[14] . https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[15] island 7.2.22 p 1  

[16] https://mfa.gov.lk/en/tamil-genocide-sl/

[17]  https://island.lk/international-law-implications-of-canadian-parliaments-motion-on-tamil-genocide/ 25.11.22

[18] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/canadas-parliament-recognises-tamil-genocide-landmark-motion

[19] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/ontario-court-upholds-tamil-genocide-education-week-sinhalese-challenge-fails

[20] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/canadas-parliament-recognises-tamil-genocide-landmark-motion

[21]   https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[22] https://mfa.gov.lk/en/slrejects

[23] island 7.2.22 p 1    .

[24]  https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[25] darshan Weerasekera https://island.lk/international-law-implications-of-canadian-parliaments-motion-on-tamil-genocide/ 25.11.22

[26] For 2023 statement see https://www.om.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2023/05/18/statement-prime-minister-first-tamil-genocide-remembrance-day.[26]

For 2024 see https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2024/05/18/statement-prime-minister-trudeau-on-tamil-genocide-remembrance-day

 For 2025 see https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2025/05/18/statement-prime-minister-carney-mark-tamil-genocide-remembrance-day

[27] https://www.sundaytimes.lk/230521/news/sl-slams-trudeau-for-outrageous-claim-520724.html

[28] https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/03/31/the-supreme-court-does-not-further-inquire-about-tamil-genocide-in-sri-lanka-and-the-bill-104-tamil-genocide-education-week-act-tgewa-is-not-within-provincial-jurisdiction-education-under-canada/

[29] https://www.sundaytimes.lk/251123/columns/northern-governor-slams-officials-ngos-for-failure-to-uplift-people-622128.html

[30] https://island.lk/canada-to-build-second-tamil-genocide-monument/

[31] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/tamil-genocide-monument-inaugurated-brampton

[32] https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/tamil-genocide-memorial-unveiled-in-brampton-after-years-long-wait/ar-AA1EzwXP

[33] https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/tamil-genocide-memorial-unveiled-in-brampton-after-years-long-wait/ar-AA1EzwXP

[34] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/tamil-genocide-monument-inaugurated-brampton

[35]   https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[36]  https://island.lk/foreign-minister-summons-canadian-hc-over-genocide-monument/

https://www.dailynews.lk/2024/08/16/local/610161/foreign-minister-summons-canadian-hc-to-register-sls-objections-on-construction-of-a-tamil-genocide-monument-in-canada/#google_vignette

[37]   https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

[38] https://ceylontoday.lk/2025/09/16/canada-rejects-tamil-genocide-a-landmark-ruling-for-sri-lanka/

The Supreme Court does not further inquire about Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka, and the Bill 104 Tamil Genocide Education Week Act (TGEWA) is not within provincial Jurisdiction Education under Canada’s Constitution Act s. 93

[39] https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/03/31/the-supreme-court-does-not-further-inquire-about-tamil-genocide-in-sri-lanka-and-the-bill-104-tamil-genocide-education-week-act-tgewa-is-not-within-provincial-jurisdiction-education-under-canada/

[40]   https://asianmirror.lk/news/12431/request-made-to-canada-to-remove-tamil-genocide-monument-in-brampton/

National Development Bank PLC

Highlights

• Profit after taxes reach an all-time high of LKR 11.0 billion (2024: LKR 9.0 billion). Excluding the one-off impact of the ISB debt-restructure in 2024, which represents close to a two-fold growth on a comparable basis

• Net loans and deposits expand by 26.7% and 10.4% respectively on a normalised basis, outperforming industry averages on an all currency basis across both local currency and foreign currency

• Credit granted to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises expands by over 25.0% showcasing the Bank’s continued commitment to support the country’s economic revival

• Full year ROE and ROA (pre-tax) improves to 13.5% and 2.5%, respectively, supported by strong momentum in the second half of 2025, where ROE and ROA was at 16.4% and 2.8% respectively for the period

• Growth driven primarily by core banking operations

• FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

National Development Bank PLC (hereinafter ‘the Bank’) announced its results for the financial year ended December 31, 2025 to the Colombo Stock Exchange recently. Full year results tabled by the Bank showcase a strong growth across all business lines with Net Banking Revenue increasing by a 45.2% on a comparable basis. Like most other peers, the Bank’s 2024 financial performance was positively impacted following the successful conclusion of the ISB debt restructure with a one-off impact on interest income, fee income and net impairments amounting to LKR 1.4 billion, LKR 0.7 billion and LKR 9.4 billion, respectively for the said year.

• Fund based income

Net interest income (NII), which accounts for close to 75.0% of Bank’s total operating income, grew by 6.5% on a normalised basis. Despite pressure on interest-earning assets arising from the lower interest rate environment, the Bank’s disciplined margin management helped stabilise Net Interest Margin (NIM) at 4.0% for the year. On a comparable basis, excluding one-off exceptional items, NIM stood at 4.2%, compared to 4.3% for both scenarios in 2024. By the end of the year, the Bank had close to LKR 29.3 billion in Loans and Deposits under a special arrangement with its customer(s) with a netting-off feature (end 2024: LKR 19.6 billion).

• Non-fund based income

Net fee and commission income reached LKR 8.1 billion for the year – representing a growth of 14.3% from LKR 7.1 billion in 2024 excluding ISB restructuring related fees. Key growth drivers for the current year were trade finance, credit and lending, digital banking and credit and debit cards.

• Credit and operating costs

Credit costs for the year amounted to LKR 5.7 billion, reflecting a substantial reduction of 57.1% compared to LKR 13.2 billion in 2024, a testament to the Bank’s strong credit underwriting practices and focused efforts on collections and recoveries. The Bank’s success on account of the latter is best reflected in notably improved stage 2 and 3 loan stock which stood at 7.9% and 10.8% respectively at end 2025 as compared with 16.6% and 14.0% at end 2024. Stage 3 provision coverage also saw further improvement to 59.1% from 54.5% during 2024 showcasing the Bank’s prudent management of credit risk.

Operating expenses closed at LKR 19.0 billion for the year, marking a 13.1% YoY increase. This increase was primarily driven by routine staff-related increments and necessary market realignments, along with higher investments in IT infrastructure and business development undertaken during the year.

• Investor key performance indicators

Return on average equity (ROE) was 13.5% – improved notably when compared with 12.2% in 2024 on an all-inclusive basis and 7.7% excluding the one-off income reported from the ISB debt restructure. Looking at the second half of 2025 alone, ROE was close to 16.4% indicating strong improvement from the first half of the year. Similarly, the Bank’s pre-tax return on average assets was 2.5% for the full year and 2.8% for the second half of 2025 (2024: with and without ISB one-off gains 3.1% and 1.5%, respectively).

Earnings per share was LKR 25.90 for the full year 2025 as compared with LKR 21.25 in 2024 on as is basis and LKR 13.30 excluding the impact of the ISB debt restructure. Group level ROEs and EPS, respectively, were 13.6% (2024: 12.5%) and LKR 27.83 (2024: LKR 23.05). Net asset value per share was LKR 201.51 (2024: LKR 186.91) and compared with a closing share price of LKR 141.25, which posted a 24.7% appreciation since end 2024. Group Net asset value per share was LKR 215.45 (2024: LKR 199.13).

• FINANCIAL POSITION

By year-end, the Bank’s total deposits increased to LKR 707.2 billion, reflecting an 11.9% growth from LKR 631.7 billion at end-2024. Meanwhile, net loans expanded more strongly to LKR 593.6 billion, marking a 28.8% increase from LKR 460.7 billion in the previous year.

However, excluding transactions of a one-off and special nature, this represented a normalised absolute net growth of 26.7% and 10.4% over end 2024, respectively. The Bank’s CASA ratio on a normalised basis stood at 23.9% by year end 2025 having improved from 22.5% at end 2024 in line with the Bank’s ongoing efforts to improve its low cost funding from current levels.

• LIQUIDITY AND SOLVENCY

Liquidity levels also remained strong with the Bank’s Liquidity coverage ratios, across both Rupee and All currency, closing at 257.3% and 208.5%, respectively at end 2025 (end 2024: 358.1% and 308.3%) while the Net stable funding ratio was 129.7% (end 2024: 152.4%) – all of which were well above the minimum regulatory requirements of 100.0% and comparing well with industry averages. The Bank’s solvency levels as measured by CET1/ Tier I and Total CAR were 12.4% and 15.9%, respectively representing more than adequate buffers over its regulatory minimums (2024: 13.7% and 19.1%).

Commenting on the financial results of the Bank for the financial year 2025, the Bank’s Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kelum Edirisinghe, stated:

We are very pleased with the Bank’s performance during the year. This achievement is not the end result of one-off gains but purely the outcome of focused execution in our fundamental banking businesses, disciplined credit growth, prudent risk management, a strong deposit franchise, sustained net interest margins, and the continuing efforts to improve our overall operating efficiencies on a consistent basis. Our core banking operations have performed exceptionally well, despite the pressure stemming from lower interest rates, reinforcing the sustainability and quality of our earnings.

Importantly, this performance also equally reflects the trust our customers place in us and the dedication of our employees who strive to deliver excellence every day. Their commitment has strengthened our franchise and deepened relationships across retail, SME, and corporate banking segments. Amongst others, one of our standout achievements during the year was the strong growth reported in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loan book, which grew by over 25.0% year-on-year, clear evidence of our deep and ongoing commitment to advancing the SME sector, a critical engine of national economic growth. This performance is both a milestone and a reflection of the strength of our foundation and our trajectory, plans and ambitions going forward.

While we celebrate these results, we remain focused on our future. Our 2030 strategy aims to further strengthen our core banking operations, enhance digital capabilities, optimise cost efficiency, and grow responsibly. We are confident that the momentum generated this year positions us for sustained long-term value creation.

I take the opportunity to thank the Chairman and the Board of Directors for their unwavering guidance and strategic foresight, to my senior leadership team for their relentless drive and commitment and to our staff at all levels for their hard work and dedication – if not for which none of this is possible.I wish to also extend my gratitude to all our stakeholders including our Regulators, Customers, and Shareholders for their continued trust and confidence placed in us. Your collaboration and confidence will enable NDB to innovate, grow, and create long lasting value for the benefit of its stakeholders and the nation. We look forward to the future with a great degree of hope and optimism!

Gamini Goonetilleke

The first mortar screamed just after dawn on 10 June 1990. It tore through the coral-stone ramparts of Jaffna fort, the blast rattling every window in the city. Inside the pentagonal walls, 130 men- soldiers of the Sinha Regiment and young police recruits- looked at one another and knew: this was no skirmish. This was a siege.

For 107 days, the old Portuguese-Dutch-British fortress became the eye of a storm that swallowed the peninsula, Outside, LTTE snipers hid in the public library, mortars thundered from behind the post office, and a home-built monster called the Pasilan 2000 prowled the streets. Inside, the defenders rationed rice, drank brackish well water, and buried their dead between crumbling colonial walls.

LTTE Invention – Pasilan 2000

I wasn’t behind those ramparts, but I treated the men who were there. At Palaly Base Hospital, we waited for helicopters that came in low over the lagoon, carrying boys with limbs shredded by shrapnel and policeman who hadn’t seen their families in hundred days.

Walk today along those same ramparts. Beneath the grass lie the bunkers where men prayed, the corners where fourteen soldiers were buried, and the echoes of a siege that still whispers through Jaffna’s wind.

Jaffna Fort: The Fortress That Became a Battlefield

Jaffna Fort stands as one of Sri Lanka’s most imposing reminders of the island’s turbulent past. Situated on fifty-five acres in the heart of Jaffna city and overlooking the shallow lagoon, its massive coral and stone ramparts dominate the landscape. The pentagonal, star-shaped design reflects seventeenth-century European coastal fortification principles, while the complex once housed administrative buildings, barracks, chapels, warehouses, and defensive bastions.

Built in 1618 by the Portuguese under Phillipe de Oliveira to consolidate control over the peninsula, the fort later fell to the Dutch East India Company in 1658. The Dutch expanded and strengthened it, transforming the site into a major centre of administration, trade, and defence. In 1795, the United Kingdom assumed control, and the fort subsequently served as a military base, logistics hub, and medical facility. After independence in 1948, it remained an important garrison of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

For decades the structure existed largely as a historical monument. However, the outbreak of civil war in the early 1980s turned it into a heavily militarised stronghold. Between 1983 and 1995 the fort witnessed repeated battles, sieges, and changes of control. The 107-day siege from June to September 1990, fought between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, became particularly significant. It highlighted the strategic and symbolic value of the fort, the resilience of the besieged garrison, and the broader military and political realities of the conflict in northern Sri Lanka.

This essay explores the context, course, and implications of that siege within the wider trajectory of the war

Symbolic Value to Both Sides

During the civil war, the fort assumed enormous symbolic importance. For the Sri Lankan state, retaining control over Jaffna Fort demonstrated governmental authority in the Tamil-majority North. The national flag flying above its ramparts signified sovereignty in an area increasingly contested by separatist forces.

For the LTTE, capturing the fort meant much more than holding territory. It represented psychological victory, control of the heart of Jaffna city, and a step toward legitimizing their claim of liberation.” Thus, when battle finally engulfed the fort, both sides fought with extraordinary determination.

Several Key Dates, Framed the Events Leading to the 1990 Siege:

Sri Lanka’s civil war escalated dramatically after the events of 23 July 1983, when a landmine attack in Jaffna triggered nationwide anti-Tamil riots known as Black July, pushing the country into full-scale conflict. The Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 brought the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka on 30 July, leading soon after to Operation Pawan on 10 October 1987, a major and bloody confrontation with the LTTE in Jaffna. After a controversial mission marked by heavy casualties and political tension, the IPKF completely withdrew by the end of March 1990, creating a power vacuum in the North. A tenuous ceasefire from March to June 1990 collapsed as trust eroded and both sides quietly prepared for renewed hostilities, culminating in police personnel retreating to the fortified Jaffna Fort on 8–9 June amid escalating threats. Full-scale fighting exploded on 10 June 1990, marking the start of Eelam War II and setting the immediate conditions for the impending siege of Jaffna Fort.

Preparation for Battle after the Departure of the IPKF

During the Indian intervention (1987–1990), both the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE underwent dramatic expansion. The Sri Lankan military modernized rapidly, increasing manpower, acquiring new weapon systems, and receiving training in counter-insurgency tactics. Simultaneously, the LTTE gained extensive experience confronting a large conventional army and emerged from the conflict more confident, organized, and battle-hardened.

By the time the IPKF withdrew, both sides had renewed their focus on strategic targets. The Jaffna Fort became an obvious flashpoint, being centrally located and easily identifiable from any direction in the city.

LTTE Deployment and Preparations

During the ceasefire period, the LTTE carefully positioned itself for a large-scale assault. Fighters occupied or fortified major buildings surrounding the fort, including the Telecommunication Department building, the Jaffna Public Library, the Post Office, Duraiappa Stadium, Regal Theatre, and several adjoining streets and houses.

The group consisting of both male and female LTTE fighters constructed robust underground bunkers, dug trenches, and concealed heavy weapons. Anti-aircraft guns were moved into place to threaten helicopter-borne resupply. Simultaneously, Palaly Military Base—the lifeline of the peninsula—was surrounded to impede troop movement and logistical support. The LTTE understood that if they captured Jaffna Fort, they could isolate large segments of government control and dramatically weaken state presence in the peninsula.

Composition of the Fort Garrison

When fighting broke out in June 1990, approximately 200 personnel were stationed inside the fort. Of these, 84 belonged to the Sixth Battalion of the Sinha Regiment, and the rest comprised young policemen, many newly trained and on their first major posting. A sizable number hailed from the Eastern Province. Their lack of combat experience would later magnify the difficulties of resisting a seasoned and well-armed insurgency.

Among them were two policemen described here under pseudonyms—Omar and Abdullah—whose injuries and survival would not only become emblematic of the siege’s human cost but were also able to provide me with an eye witness account of the siege after their miraculous recovery from serious injury.

LTTE Fires the First Shots

On 10 June 1990, LTTE units opened fire on the fort. The following day, a large explosive charge detonated close to the lagoon-side entrance, shattering wooden gates but failing to breach defensive positions. Intense small-arms fire raked the walls, and sporadic mortar bombardment continued for days. As snipers moved into adjacent buildings, the garrison found itself under constant threat. Attempts by the military to break the siege began almost immediately.

Operation Eagle 1 – 3 July 1990

In early July, the Sri Lanka Air Force initiated a daring aerial resupply mission. A Bell 212 helicopter gunship, flying under heavy fire, landed on the narrow road outside the fort near the lagoon—the only possible landing zone. Supplies, ammunition, and additional weapons were rapidly unloaded, while injured personnel were evacuated.

Close air support from other Bell 212 gunships armed with .50-caliber machine guns and rockets, as well as bombing runs by SIAI-Marchetti jets, helped suppress LTTE fire long enough for the helicopter to escape safely. This operation temporarily bolstered morale, but the respite was brief.

Deteriorating Conditions within the Fort

As weeks passed, conditions inside the fort worsened dramatically. Ammunition stocks dwindled. Food supplies were nearly exhausted. Water and electricity supply were cut. Only a single well within the fort provided brackish, salty water. Medical supplies were nonexistent. The daily diet consisted of rice and lentils, cooked over makeshift fires. When those ran out, soldiers resorted to eating fish caught from the moat.

Injured personnel were kept in bunkers to avoid further harm, but without antibiotics, dressings, saline, or transfusion facilities, wounds became infected. Fourteen soldiers eventually died from injuries that would otherwise have been survivable. They were buried within the compound.

Air-dropped supplies often missed their target, landing in LTTE territory or the lagoon. Rice bags that did reach the interior burst open on impact, became contaminated with debris, and scattered across the fort floor. One policeman recalled, It was stinking to glory,” describing decaying bodies, shrapnel-embedded walls, and filth.

Improvised Weapons: Pasilan 2000 and Baba Mortar

The LTTE employed grim ingenuity in weaponry. Two notable systems included the Pasilan 2000 – a large mortar launched from a modified tractor, devastating at close range and Baba mortars – improvised heavy-caliber launchers designed to lob explosive payloads irregularly but effectively. Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were also fired repeatedly. Although inaccurate, their psychological impact was severe.

Air Force Bombardment of LTTE Positions

Recognizing the severity of the situation, the Sri Lanka Air Force launched systematic bombardment of suspected LTTE positions. Helicopter gunships, light fighters, and transport aircraft modified to drop improvised 200kg barrel bombs” targeted buildings surrounding the fort. Artillery fire from land and naval assets further intensified.

Much of central Jaffna was reduced to rubble. Civilian casualties likely occurred in significant numbers, though precise figures remain unknown. Paradoxically, LTTE fighters benefited from deep underground bunkers, while the open interior of the fort made its defenders vulnerable to falling debris and shockwaves—even from friendly fire. Several soldiers suffered injuries from their own side’s ordnance.

Meanwhile, wounded LTTE cadres were treated openly at Jaffna General Hospital, funded by the state—a surreal and troubling paradox of war.

A Suicidal Offensive by Female Cadres

On 5 August 1990, the LTTE launched a bold infantry assault on the fort’s entrance. This attack was led by an all-female unit commanded by the cadre known as Lt. Sangitha.” During this intense battle, four female fighters, including the commander, were killed. Their action showcased the LTTE’s willingness to deploy women in frontline combat and suicide missions—an unusual feature among insurgencies worldwide. Although repelled, the attack further strained the fort’s defenders, who had to expend precious ammunition.

Medical Duty at Palaly Base Hospital

During this period, simultaneous fighting erupted around Palaly Army Camp. On 23 August 1990, a civilian surgical team—including an anaesthetist and assistant doctor—was flown to Palaly aboard a Y-8 transport aircraft. The mission was to strengthen the surgical team already there to treat casualties arriving from across the peninsula, including from Jaffna Fort. The medical officers worked around the clock with limited facilities, witnessing firsthand the grim toll of the siege.

Injuries to Policemen Inside the Fort

On 25 August, a mortar blast struck the entrance to the fort, killing one policeman instantly and severely wounding Omar. A large section of his left buttock was torn away. Bleeding heavily and terrified, he believed he was facing certain death. As a devout Muslim, he recited the Holy Quran while comrades wrapped him in cloth and carried him to a bunker.

Helicopter evacuation that evening proved impossible due to enemy fire. He remained untreated for nearly 48 hours. Another policeman, Abdullah, had already waited two weeks with a chest wound from shrapnel, blood accumulating dangerously in his pleural cavity—an injury ordinarily fatal without drainage. Both men desperately needed evacuation.

Operation Eagle 2 – 26 August 1990

On 26 August, the Air Force launched another daring rescue attempt. Flying low over the lagoon to avoid radar and gunfire, a helicopter gunship briefly hovered near the fort’s entrance. There was no possibility of landing. Under sustained covering fire, troops hoisted and pushed the wounded inside the aircraft.

As the helicopter climbed, the door gunner held on to the casualties with one hand while firing with the other. Hot spent shells rained onto their bodies, adding burns to their existing injuries. The helicopter landed on Mandativu Island, where preliminary first aid was administered before transferring both casualties to Palaly Hospital by ambulance. Against all odds, they had survived.

Emergency Treatment at Palaly Hospital

At the hospital, Abdullah received the following treatment. A rubber tube was inserted to the chest to drain the blood in the chest cavity. Intravenous fluid, antibiotics were administered followed by blood transfusion.

                         A Victim Being Treated at the Palaly Hospital for a Chest injury

Omar required urgent debridement of gangrenous tissue on his buttocks, blood transfusion, and strong antibiotics to control infection. After five days, both men were stable enough to be flown to Colombo aboard a Y-12 transport plane. The patients and the attending surgeon lay on the floor of the aircraft during the flight—a testament to wartime improvisation.

Further treatment at the Military Hospital and Colombo General Hospital resulted in full recovery.

Continuation of the Battle

Meanwhile, conditions inside the fort deteriorated further. Ammunition was nearly exhausted, food was scarce, and morale sank. Outside, LTTE forces tightened their ring around the compound. As collapse appeared imminent, the Sri Lankan military planned a massive combined assault to break the siege.

Massive Counter-Operation from Mandativu Island

On 13 September 1990, approximately 4,000 soldiers launched an amphibious operation from Mandativu Island, supported by naval gunboats and Air Force aircraft. Artillery thundered from both land and sea. Civilian areas around Jaffna city shook under relentless bombardment.

As troops attempted to land across the lagoon, LTTE fighters entrenched along the coastline poured fire into approaching craft, destroying several vessels and killing numerous soldiers. A SIAI-Marchetti bomber was shot down over the water, its wreckage visible for days.

Mounting casualties forced suspension of the offensive. The trapped garrison was once again isolated.

Withdrawal from Jaffna Fort

By late September 1990, the government concluded that further attempts to hold the fort would result in unnecessary loss of life. On 26 September, the order was given to withdraw. This coincided with the LTTE commemoration of Thileepan’s death anniversary.

Before evacuating, troops destroyed weapons, ammunition stockpiles, and vehicles to prevent capture. The surviving soldiers slipped out under cover of darkness.

For the LTTE, raising the Tamil Eelam” flag over the fort was a moment of immense symbolic triumph. They held the fort for nearly five years.

Recapture During Operation Riviresa (1995)

In late 1995, Sri Lankan forces mounted their largest offensive of the war: Operation Riviresa (Sunshine”). After fifty days of intense fighting, government troops re-entered Jaffna city. On 5 December 1995, the national flag was once again hoisted atop the battered ramparts of Jaffna Fort.

The pendulum had swung back.

Legacy and Aftermath

The siege left deep scars. Buildings inside the fort were extensively damaged. Vast areas of Jaffna town were reduced to rubble. Civilian displacement continued for years. Psychological trauma affected soldiers and civilians alike.

Today, the fort has been partially restored as a historical monument. Visitors walk across the same ramparts once struck by artillery, unaware that beneath their feet lie remnants of bunkers, graves, and battle debris.

Conclusion

The siege of Jaffna Fort in 1990 represents one of the most dramatic episodes of Sri Lanka’s civil war. It encapsulates many of the conflict’s defining features. intense competition for symbolic space, improvisation from both sides, enormous human suffering, blurred lines between soldiers and civilians.

The stubborn defense mounted by a small, under-resourced garrison demonstrated remarkable endurance. Equally, the LTTE’s determination to capture the fort reflected their broader strategy of staged territorial legitimacy.

Ultimately, the fort’s repeated change of hands—Portuguese to Dutch, Dutch to British, British to Sri Lankan state, Sri Lankan state to LTTE, and back again—reflects the shifting tides of history in the Jaffna peninsula. Today, its walls stand silent, bearing witness to centuries of conflict.

However, beyond strategic analyses and tactical evaluations, the siege reminds us of something more enduring: the human dimension of war. The surgeon, the anaesthetist, the young policemen on their first posting, the female cadre leading a suicidal charge—all were bound together in the crucible of Jaffna’s entropy.

In hindsight, the fort’s battered ramparts offer not only a military lesson but also a solemn plea for peace. When seen not as a fortress but as a monument to resilience, loss, and recovery, Jaffna Fort becomes more than a relic—it becomes part of Sri Lanka’s collective memory.

Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke, FRCS is a senior consultant surgeon from Sri Lanka with over four decades of distinguished service. His career spans a wide range of hospitals across the country, including extended service in conflict-affected zones during Sri Lanka’s civil war, where he gained extensive experience in managing complex battle-related injuries. He is a Past President of The College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the author of three books: In the Line of Duty: the life and times of a surgeon in war and peace”, The Extra Mile: a surgeon’s experiences”, The Healing Cut: extraordinary surgical triumphs”.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb. 25 (Daily Mirror) – Former Minister Ali Sabry has expressed concern over the arrest of former State Intelligence Chief Suresh Sallay, describing it as a troubling development for the Sri Lanka Army and its Intelligence Corps.

In a statement posted on social media, Sabry said the arrest of Major General Sallay—an officer he noted was associated with operations that dismantled the LTTE’s intelligence network and targeted senior leadership figures including Tamilchelvan, as well as efforts linked to the apprehension of Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP)—raises serious concerns about the direction of the national discourse.

“These were officers who once placed their lives on the line to protect the nation during its most dangerous years. Today, many feel that those same individuals are being drawn into a political battlefield shaped less by evidence and more by competing narratives. Accountability under the law is essential in any democracy, but it must be pursued with fairness, restraint, and respect for institutional integrity.

The Easter Sunday tragedy deserved a professional, evidence based inquiry focused on justice for victims and national security. Instead, what we increasingly witness is the transformation of a complex investigation into a public spectacle. International cooperation, including the extensive involvement of the FBI and U.S. authorities, has already taken place with investigations, prosecutions, and assistance provided. When even external partners indicate that further probes may not yield meaningful new outcomes, continuing to weaponise the issue for partisan gain risks damaging Sri Lanka’s credibility and long-term security interests.

National security institutions cannot become collateral damage in political contests. Undermining officers who once safeguarded the country may offer temporary political advantage, but it weakens morale within the armed forces and sends a troubling signal to those tasked with protecting the nation.

Sri Lanka must pursue truth and justice, but through law, evidence, and responsible leadership, not through theatrics designed to mislead or divide. History will judge not only those who served in difficult times, but also those who chose to politicise matters that demanded unity and maturity,” Sabry said.

Courtesy Daily Mirror

Colombo, Feb. 25 (Daily Mirror) – The Colombo High Court today ordered that Daisy Forrest, the grandmother of Yoshitha Rajapaksa, be released from the case filed against her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara today presented to court a special psychiatric report obtained through the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer to determine whether the accused, Daisy Forrest, was mentally fit to stand trial. He informed the court that medical recommendations had concluded that the accused was not in a suitable mental condition to face trial.

Courtesy HiruNews

රාජ්‍ය බුද්ධි සේවයේ හිටපු ප්‍රධානී, විශ්‍රාමික මේජර් ජෙනරල් සුරේෂ් සලේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් ජාත්‍යන්තර ත්‍රස්තවාදය සහ ආරක්ෂාව පිළිබඳ විශේෂඥයෙකු වන මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න සඳහන් කර ඇත්තේ මෙම අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම දේශපාලනික ක්‍රියාවලියක් ලෙස පෙනෙන බවයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වඩාත්ම ගෞරවනීය ජාතික ආරක්ෂක වෘත්තිකයෙකු වන ජෙනරාල් සුරේෂ් සලේ මුළු ජීවිතයම ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා කැප කළ අයෙක් බවයි ඔහු සඳහන් කරන්නේ

ජෙනරාල් සලේ කිසිදු වරදක් කළ අයෙකු නොවන අතර 2019 වසරේ සිදු වූ පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරයට ද ඔහුගේ කිසිදු සම්බන්ධයක් නොමැති බව මහාචාර්යවරයා පවසනවා.

ප්‍රහාරය සිදුවන අවස්ථාවේ මැලේසියාවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ කොමසාරිස් කාර්යාලයේ සේවය කරමින් සිටි සුරේෂ් සලේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් සිදුකළ කටයුත්තක් ලෙස පෙනී යන බවයි මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න වැඩි දුරටත් පවසන්නේ.

මේ අනුව පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරයට හේතු වූ නොසැලකිලිමත්කම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සුරේෂ් සලේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම පිටුපස සිටින අය ගැනද විමර්ශනය කළ යුතු බවද ඔහු පවසනවා.

ජෙනරාල් සලෙයි අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම කණ්ඩායම් දෙකක් විසින් සමරන බව පෙන්වා දෙන ඔහු පවසන්නේ ඉන් පළමු කණ්ඩායම පාස්කු ඉරිදා සංහාරය සිදු කළ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් සහ අන්තවාදීන් බවත්, දෙවැනි කණ්ඩායම පාස්කු සංහාරය පිළිබඳ ව්‍යාජ ආඛ්‍යාන සහ කුමන්ත්‍රණ න්‍යායන් ගොතමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආරක්ෂක හමුදාවන්ට දොස් පවරන දේශපාලන රැඩිකල්වාදීන් බවයි.

මහාචාර්යවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් පවසන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පාස්කු ඉරිදා සංහාරය – ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රජාවට පාඩම්” යන ග්‍රන්ථයේ කතුවරයා ලෙස තමා එම ප්‍රහාරය පිළිබඳව ගැඹුරින් විමර්ශනය කර අපරාධකරුවන් හඳුනාගෙන ඇති බවයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නායකයින් ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව සමඟ සෙල්ලම් නොකළ යුතු බවත් ජාතියක් සුරක්ෂිත කිරීම සඳහා ද්විපාර්ශ්වික ප්‍රවේශයක් තිබිය යුතු බවත් පෙන්වා දෙන මහාචාර්ය රොහාන් ගුණරත්න පවසන්නේ පරිණත පාලනයක ස්වභාවය එය බවයි.

SL Leaders

Udaya Gammanpila

German Dharmaduta Society

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many German intellectuals and seekers viewed British

occupied Ceylon  (modern-day Sri Lanka) as the “Mecca of Buddhism”. This fascination was driven by several key factors: 

• Purity of Doctrine: German scholars, influenced by the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer and Hermann Oldenberg, believed Ceylon preserved the “purest” form of Theravada Buddhism and the original Pali Canon.
• Ven. Nyanatiloka
• The Island Hermitage at Polgasduwa: Founded in 1911 by the German monk (born Anton Gueth), the Island Hermitage became the primary center for German-Buddhist migration and study.
• Intellectual Infrastructure: Germany was home to pioneering Buddhist scholarship, with professorial chairs for Pali and Sinhalese established at Universities like Berlin and Heidelberg by the mid-19th century.
• Ven. Nyanaponika , a German-born monk who became a leading authority on Theravada, solidified the spiritual bridge between the two nations.
• Leading Personalities: Figures like Dr. Paul Dahlke , who founded Das Buddhistische Haus in Berlin, and
• the German Dharmaduta Society, founded by Asoka Weeraratna in 1952, continued this legacy by sending Buddhist missions from Sri Lanka to Germany to satisfy a “spiritual hunger” in the post-war era.
• Das Buddhistische Haus celebrated its 100th anniversary (1924 – 2024) on a grand scale in both Sri Lanka and Germany. 
• In Sri Lanka, the celebrations were conducted at Temple Trees (Official Residence of the Prime Minister ) on August 03, 2024 with full State Patronage. Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena, Prime Minister was the Chief Guest and Dr. Felix Neumann, Ambassador of Germany was the Guest of Honour, both of whom spoke at the function which had a large gathering comprising over 620 persons including over 70 Buddhist monks, foreign envoys representing China(Ambassador  Qi Zhenhong), European Union ( Ambassador Ms. Carmen Moreno), New Zealand ( High Commissioner  David Pine), India ( Deputy High Commissioner Dr. 
•  Satyanjal Pandey), Vietnam (Deputy Ambassador Le Van Huong), and several other distinguished Guests including the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. A large number of school children from across the country were also present. Ven. Olande Ananda Thero spoke of his visits to Das Buddhistische Haus in the 1980s and thereafter, and its influence and the support it gives to the maintenance of Buddhism in Germany.  Venerable Panadure Chandaratana Thero, the Deputy Abbot of the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Monastery administered Pansil and delivered a short Anusasnava. General Sardha Abeyratne( President of the German Dharmaduta Society) delivered the vote of thanks. 
• In Germany the Celebrations were conducted at Das Buddhistisches Haus (Open Day for Visitors) spread over two days, August 3-4, 2024. An Exhibition about the history, founders and mission of DBH was held.  The festivities ended with an International Buddhist Conference held at Zehlendorf Community Hall, Berlin on August 04, 2024. The keynote speaker was Professor (Dr.) Martin Baumann, (Professor for the study of religions at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland).  He obtained his Ph.D. with a thesis on the history of Buddhism in Germany (1993). He concluded his keynote address by specifically naming Dr. Paul Dahlke as the Pioneer and Asoka Weeraratna as the Saviour of Das Buddhistische Haus. 
• A noteworthy feature of the celebrations was the issue of a Commemorative Postage Stamp in Sri Lanka and the release of a Book titled ‘ 100 years Das Buddhistische Haus’.  The architect of this rare volume was a German national, Dr. Winfrid Liebrich who served as the Chief Editor together with Senaka Weeraratna and Tissa Weeraratna as Co – Editors. This volume was released in both Colombo and Berlin during the celebrations. The publication was financed by a Vietnamese born Philanthropic Buddhist Nun. 
• Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata is also known by her Vietnamese name,

Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien. A former beauty queen ordained in 2006, she is recognized for supporting the Berlin Vihara and several other meritorious projects in Sri Lanka.

• Dr. Winfrid Liebrich was also instrumental in releasing a Book in German to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of DBH. Its title ‘100 Jahre gelebter und gelehrter Buddhismus im Buddhistischen Haus Berlin-Frohnau’. Edited by Dr. Winfrid Liebrich, Senaka Weeraratna, Tissa Weeraratna

Tectum, 1. Edition 2024, 380 Pages. Book Review –    ‘Insights into the beginnings of Buddhism in Germany’ 

• https://www.sundaytimes.lk/251102/plus/insights-into-the-beginnings-of-buddhism-in-germany-618192.html

• Ven. Pelane Dhamma Kusala Thera based at Das Buddhistische Haus together with Mr. Tissa Weeraratna (Manager, DBH) played a pivotal role in organizing and co – ordinating the preparatory activities spread over a year. They were supported by the staff of the Embassy of Sri Lanka led by the Ambassador Ms. Varuni Mutukumarana, Members of the Sri Lanka Association of Berlin e.V. (Mr. Lankananda Perera), Mr. Tobias Siesmayer ( Präsident, Buddhistisches Haus Förderverein e.V.), and several other volunteers and patrons of Das Buddhistisches Haus.
• Over 40 leading Buddhist Monks drawn from Buddhist Temples across Europe and beyond attended the Conference, alongside prominent academics and dignitaries comprising the Ambassador Varuni Mutukumarana (Sri Lanka), Thai Ambassador Nadhavathna Krishnamra and his wife, and envoys from India, Pakistan, Cambodia, and several other Buddhist countries. Several monks delivered talks on the significance of the event and the leading role that Das Buddhistische Haus has played as the seat of Theravada Buddhism in Germany and other western countries, with growing emphasis in its aims on Mindfulness and Meditation. Mr. Lankananda Perera compered the whole proceedings. 

German Dharmaduta Society

National Development Bank PLC

NDB Bank recently spearheaded a large-scale environmental clean-up initiative at the Negombo Lagoon, reinforcing its long-term commitment to environmental sustainability through its ongoing Adopt a Lagoon” programme in partnership with Clean Ocean Force .

The initiative brought together over 200 participants, including NDB Bank staff volunteers, the Hon. Mayor and representatives of the Negombo Municipal Council, the Sri Vimukthi Women Association, the Negombo Divisional Secretariat, the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management (CCD), the Sri Lanka Air Force, and the Sri Lanka Police Environmental Division. United by a shared mission to protect and preserve one of Sri Lanka’s most sensitive coastal ecosystems, the collective effort stood as a powerful example of a Public-Private-People Partnership (PPPP) in action.

During the clean-up, teams cleared lagoon edges and surrounding mangrove islands, removing more than 3,000 kilograms of non-biodegradable waste from the fragile environment. The collected waste included 359 kg of PET bottles, 514 kg of glass, and over 2,300 kg of mixed waste comprising polythene, yogurt cups, rigifoam, food wrappers, e-waste, and metal. Approximately 50–60% of the mixed waste will be directed to the Kerawalapitiya Waste-to-Energy Power Plant, while PET bottles will be sent for recycling, ensuring responsible post-collection waste management.

The Negombo Lagoon, a shallow basin estuary connected to the ocean by a single narrow channel, plays a vital ecological and economic role in Sri Lanka’s coastal landscape. Despite its biodiversity and importance to surrounding communities, it remains highly vulnerable to pollution and environmental degradation. Cleaning and maintaining the lagoon is therefore critical not only for environmental conservation, but also for public health, fisheries, tourism, and local livelihoods.

Through its Adopt a Lagoon” programme, NDB Bank is committed to supporting continuous, structured clean-up operations to create sustained environmental impact rather than one-off interventions. By working closely with local authorities, environmental agencies, community groups, and volunteers, the Bank ensures that conservation efforts translate into long-term ecological resilience.

Commenting on the initiative, Lasantha Dasanayaka – Vice President, Human Resources stated, At NDB, sustainability is embedded in our corporate philosophy. Protecting ecosystems such as the Negombo Lagoon is not only an environmental responsibility but a national imperative. By fostering collaboration across public institutions, private sector stakeholders, and community groups, we are creating meaningful, measurable change that will benefit future generations.”

As the Bank continues to integrate environmental stewardship into its broader ESG agenda, initiatives such as the Negombo Lagoon clean-up reflect the Bank’s enduring commitment to empowering communities while safeguarding Sri Lanka’s natural heritage.

NDB Bank is the fourth-largest listed commercial bank in Sri Lanka. NDB was named Sri Lanka’s Best Digital Bank for SMEs at Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2025 and was awarded awards Domestic Retail Bank of the Year – Sri Lanka and Islamic Banking Initiative of the Year – Sri Lanka at the Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards 2025. NDB is the parent company of the NDB Group, comprising capital market subsidiary companies, together forming a unique banking and capital market services group. The Bank is committed to empowering the nation and its people through meaningful financial and advisory services powered by digital banking solutions.

Courtesy:  AI Overview

https://share.google/aimode/ULnAIYYnmjZK0eOd1

AI Overview

Demographic shifts are placing Islam on a trajectory to potentially become the world’s most populous religion by the end of the 21st century

. Current data from Pew Research Center suggests that while the world is adjusting, significant social and political challenges remain. 

Global Growth and Parity

• Rapid Expansion: The global Muslim population is projected to grow by 73% between 2010 and 2050, compared to a 35% increase for Christians.
• Near Parity by 2050: By mid-century, Muslims are expected to reach near parity with Christians, with each group making up roughly 30-31% of the global population.
• Drivers: This growth is primarily fueled by a younger median age (24 vs. 30 for the global average) and higher fertility rates (3.1 children per woman vs. 2.5 globally). 

Shifts in Non-Muslim Countries

• Sweden

Europe: The Muslim share of Europe’s population is projected to rise from roughly 6% in 2010 to 10% by 2050. In high-migration scenarios, some countries like could see shares reach as high as 30%.

• United States

: Islam is expected to surpass Judaism as the second-largest religion in the U.S. by 2050.

• India

: Despite remaining a Hindu-majority nation,India is projected to have the largest Muslim population in the world by 2050, surpassing Indonesia.. 

Readiness and Challenges

• Social Friction: Research indicates that in some Western societies, information about these demographic shifts can increase perceptions of threat and negative sentiments among majority groups.
• Political Response: Some experts argue that short electoral cycles in Western democracies may prevent governments from effectively addressing the long-term social and political implications of these shifts.
• Economic Opportunity: Conversely, the “youth dividend” in Muslim-majority regions offers a massive potential for labor and innovation, provided there is adequate investment in education and development.
• Changing Majorities: Countries like the

United Kingdom

,

France

, and the

Netherlands

are projected to no longer have a Christian majority by 2050, though the largest single group in some may be the “religiously unaffiliated”

Courtesy:  AI Overview

e-Con e-News

blog: https://eesrilanka.wordpress.com

Before you study the economics, study the economists!”

e-Con e-News 15-21 February 2026

The capitalist media keeps saying that the Jeffrey Epstein exposé is the ‘worst sex abuse scandal in US history’. Really? Strange then, how very few corporate ‘executives’ in the US seem to have been indicted for these crimes. But, but… ‘the worst’?  The USA (& their European sponsors) has been waging genocidal wars from their very birth, involving all manner of abuse & mutilation & desecration of bodies, alive & dead. Scalping was an English invention for acounting purposes. And several US states were involved in the business of slave breeding (to supply the southern US plantations), which involved the systematic organization of rape, of women & children. The US government’s own disclosures at the recent Munich Conference in Europe make it plain that they aim to keep waging war on our countries (see ee Quotes, Rubio). They insist they have nothing to be ashamed of – which is why they’re better called the United States of Amnesia. So what exactly is the media diverting from?

     The headlined arrest (& immediate release) of an Englishman named Andrew (formerly known as their Prince) diverts from the depredations of his older brother Charles (now known as their King, parading as a heterosexual in a ‘marriage blanc’, i.e., in holy matrimony for show), whose relatives & ‘peers’ (‘Lord’ Louis Mountbatten, etc) were well known for their outré sexual proclivities in ‘their’ colonies & other resorts around the world. Less publicized are the actions of Epstein’s financier Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret, a top brand, related to a ‘leading’ rag trader in Sri Lanka, the Brandix Group.

     The English Queen Victoria’s real ‘secret’ were the lengths that history books have gone, to hide the immense famines her majesty’s government policies engendered around the world to institutionalize the great divergence (between ‘east’ and ‘west’, or ‘north’ and ‘south’ or whatever euphemisms one uses to contrast oppressor and oppressed, exploiter and exploited). There is more written about her Belgian first cousin ‘King’ Leopold’s depredations in the Congo, but more important is Leopold’s sponsor, the plantation owner William Lever, who originated what is now the multinational, Unilever).

     The media in Sri Lanka seems to have rather too quickly shrugged off further investigation into the Epstein-Wexner link involving our merchants, especially since these are employers of large numbers of young women & men (see ee Random Notes). The media claim instead there is little in the infamous Epstein’s files relating to the predilections of this country’s ‘private’ sector. Perhaps they have been too busy facilitating (lubricating?) our links to the ‘leading’ importers & exporters of this world, who are afforded a type of princely teflon treatment in the media. Organized crime is apparently just the province of rube villagers, whose village names are prefixed onto their gang monikers.

     The arrival in Sri Lanka this week of England’s Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy, amidst all the hyper judicial frippery in England, any questions about those matters, were diplomatically avoided by our local ‘free media’. He was, we are told, here to ‘reinforce investor confidence’. This ‘Afro-Saxon’ of Guyanese origin, has supposedly been a veritable ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ in pursuing accusations of ‘war crimes’ against Sri Lanka’s armed forces personnel, rather than England’s own international war crimes recent & historic (see ee Quotes). This same gentleman recently cut off journalists’ digital access to English court records. ‘English media are kept ignorant of most trials, and only certain trials are publicized’ (see last week’s ee). So now we know only certain criminals get chosen to be perp-walked before flashing cameras – for English justice is a staged script of a different literary genre.

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The head of the USA’s International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, also arrived in Sri Lanka from 16^–18^th February. Then the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Steve Koehler arrived from the 19^th-21^st. It was then announced, ‘A Sri Lankan-made food & travel series will premiere [on Feb 20^th] across South Asia on National Geographic – a platform synonymous with global storytelling.’Platform? They’ve long been much more than a magazine – linked to US Naval Intelligence, using ‘exotic’ stories, ‘nature’, ‘anthropology’, etc., as a cover (‘Have camera, will travel! Bang! Bang!’). All these characters, from IMF to Navy, are now to be followed by the USA’s Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Sri Lanka) hosting ‘its flagship CEO Forum 2026’. ‘Accelerating Sri Lanka’s Rebuild’ on 25 February (see ee Who’s Who), which will ‘bring together over 250 C-level executives, policymakers, development partners, & global thought leaders’. Whoa! Rebuild, indeed (like Gaza!). And so begins a season ushering in our own April new year, preceded by Ramadan and Lent and the start of the Chinese zodiac’s New Year of the Horse.

     So, is this all ‘strategic sequencing’? We may be forgiven for likening this trail of visitors to another episode in the US foreign policy version of their World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where one hulking grappler follows another into a blood and tomato-sauce-encrusted ring to battle another grappler – tag wrestling, which usually ends in a free-for-all. IMF Georgieva’s visit was set to coincide with ‘the 75^th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s IMF membership & the 75^th anniversary of Central Bank of Sri Lanka’. Well, how auspicious is this! Does she do this with every country? That’s a huge travel bill!

     The IMF head’s arrival was heralded with the usual blizzard of adulatory (more accurately: ‘obsequious’ aka ‘ass-kissing’) news items. She is quoted uttering various jargons & indices, arranging photo-ops with hostage children whose names are not given. Her meeting with the country’s President was described as a ‘rare high-level engagement’. The news headlines began with her hailing their IMF program as a ‘success story’ (talk about MPHOT – Monkey Praising Her Own Tail?), and as she exited, the stories were back to the old whining about Sri Lanka’s need to sell more national assets (privatization!) & weaken labour laws (‘flexibility’!), more ‘discipline’, etc. 

     Amidst the swishing of her invisible fiscal whip (try not to picture: the Central Bank governor happily bending over, with his pants down?), the US Pacific Commander then arrived, bedecked in white uniform, shirt pocket bespeckled with colored ribbons (we imagine as souvenirs for bombing fishing boats! Oh wait, there was a story this week about another ‘drug-trafficking boat’ with 11 un-named ‘male narco-terrorists’ being bombed both in the Caribbean & ‘Eastern Pacific’, wherever that is). The news blizzard accompanying Georgieva was reduced to a flurry with the Navy Commander’s clipped verbiage. He chirped about‘shared values’ and then it was quickly back to those euphemisms (Ahem! Ahem!) about ‘transnational threats’ & ‘defence’. Having changed the title of its military department from the Department of Defense to Department of War, it follows that whenever the US speaks of ‘defense’, they mean war! And we must assume by ‘transnational’ he doesn’t mean the dangers posed by transnational or multinational corporations (MNCs) like Rockefeller’s Exxon or Citibank… or Unilever!

     This US Navy Commander apparently even ‘commanded’ news items – the Wijeya Group’s Daily Mirror just reproduced the US embassy’s press release as a DM news story: ‘The US Pacific Fleet – the largest naval fleet command in the world – operates across half the globe, protecting vital sea lanes and connecting partners throughout the Indo-Pacific.’ OK! Then this item (minus quote marks) parading as ‘news’, referred to ‘our confidence’… ‘our partners’ and claimed his ‘second visit… underscores our shared long-term commitment to a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific’. ‘Our’ may refer to the Daily Mirror & the US government. Really! Does the local media charge ad rates for such reprints? They’d be really rich if they did. Well, they probably do, but it is undeclared.

     In the background, in other BBC news item parading as ‘international news’, we heard the head of Koehler’s government, President Don Trump, cursing the English government for ‘leasing’ from Mauritius, the island Diego Garcia, on which the US has a military base. There is no mention that England just leased Diego Garcia again to the USA for 100 years. England claims the ‘lease’ from Mauritius is for ‘legal’ reasons. Is this what ‘free & open’ means? Behind all this ‘free & open’ chatter, is the gathering yet again of another killer US fleet to bomb Iran, including from Diego Garcia. Midst all this we assume the next US envoy to Sri Lanka, Eric Meyer, much heralded but not arrived yet, will show up at Kollupitiya Junction in a puff of smoke, with archangels or B52s adding to the divine spectacle of gloom, doom and boom (for more, see ee Sovereignty).

     There is much evidence to suggest that a more horrific spectacle will be staged to divert us from their ‘always dying yet still not dead’ capitalism. It is long past its ‘expiry date’. The Indian Coast Guard has also joined in their game, and deployed ‘55 ships & 10-12 aircraft for round-the-clock surveillance in its maritime zones’ (which apparently includes us), and seized ‘Iran-linked US-sanctioned tankers’. While there are many headlines to praise India’s largess towards our country, none of these Indian coast guard vessels seem to be able to apprehend the piratical Indian fishing & other fleets that keep robbing Sri Lanka of its marine resources.

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‘More than one million households have

 been pushed off the electrical grid.’

• Not everyone is amused: ‘A bitter irony’ is how the Yukthi Collective greeted the IMF head’s visit, while calling for ‘debt suspension’ instead of mere tinkering (see ee Focus). Georgieva has apparently promised to build ‘a more resilient future’. The IMF’s 61 years in Sri Lanka have, instead, says Yukthi, ‘eroded resilience, dismantled state capacity, and locked the country into a debt-dependent future’. Yukthi catalogues a litany of further deadly measures, the IMF is demanding to be enacted. Yukthi says the IMF policies ‘ensure the next crisis is already in motion’. The IMF has directed investment away from health & education, for which Sri Lanka has so far been famous for. Instead, the IMF has prioritized paying off Wall Street! While the IMF & World Bank cry about the cyclone, the government is only allowed to dedicate a fraction of its budget to relief. And so-called green bonds & blue bonds turn out to be mere financial chicanery.

     Yukthi calls for the ‘auditing for illegitimate debt, curbing illicit financial flows, and closing tax loopholes for the corporate sector’. They say the ‘best sympathy’ Kristalina Georgieva can give the people of Sri Lanka is for the IMF to take its hands off our future. By the way, the Yukthi polemic was carried in the Financial Times, but somehow did not feature in their online columns section. Ahem!

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‘If you look at Sri Lanka’s debt crisis…

it is not because of China or India or Japan.

The main culprits are the [ISB] bond markets…’

‘There is a lot of financing for green energy. But

Often… a lot of that is ‘green washing’…’

(see ee Focus)

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Also in this ee Focus, the economist Ahilan Kadirgamar insists in The Daily Mirror, that we ‘Don’t Count on the IMF or World Bank’. Kadirgamar details how the global order (imperialism?) has undermined our state institutions, turning them into puppets of the private sector. Isn’t this the very epitome of ‘corruption’? He details the various ‘crises’ – 1997, 2008, etc. – caused by the ‘global system of free trade, & the free flow of finance’. ‘Half of the countries in the developing [sic!] world, are facing some kind of debt problem.’ With all these ’restructurings’, the Sri Lankan economy will in 2034 go back to the lower poverty levels of 2017-18! Instead of rebuilding the historic irrigation system, or the public transportation system (The media, beholden to the private car import mafia, is also not decrying the shocking fact that the Colombo-Kandy railway, a commuter & tourism lifeline, may not be repaired til year end!  Instead, the government is importing luxuries, including more cars! He also points to how the burden of rectifying so-called climate change has been cast onto our shoulders. Our debts are mostly paying off bonds to Wall Street, and our ‘total interest payment is almost equal to the principal!’

     Liberals want Sri Lanka’s unjustly calculated debt to take capricious ‘climate change’ into account. The merchants & moneylenders wish to game the climate into the equation with their fake green & blue bonds. But what about global warring & global whitening? Their arbitrary wars & sanctions have made an import-export dependent economy subject to the whims of imperialism. Should these events too be calculated into the mix, of who really owes who?

     One other matter: Kadirgamar implies that the first international sovereign bond (ISB) was taken during Mahinda Rajapakse’s reign. This is true, but most ISBs were post-2017, during the reign of the US-funded Yahapalana regime. He uses this to argue that the second wave of liberalization happened under Mahinda. No, after JR in 1977, the second wave began in 1994 under President CB Kumaratunga. Among the liberal economists it is widely recognized that the ‘liberalization’ process actually stalled under MR! Perhaps it is this, more than the ending of the war, that incurred the wrath of the merchant media against the Rajapakses,

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• After decades of over-the-top threats and rhetoric to impose ‘free trade’ on our countries, the hysteric protectionist policies pursued by the imperialist powers today, resemble those of the 1930s during ‘depression’, especially with regard to ‘raw materials’. Witness the recent ‘Buy European Only’ policy (see ee Quotes). Back then too, between their world wars, they began to systematically cut off supplies, even to each other. This was evident in the battles between England, which controlled production of raw rubber, and US manufacturers using rubber.

     Such matters are discussed in ee’s conclusion of Chapter 7 of SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Focusing on ‘Plantations & their Metropolitan Orientation’, de Silva also discusses the impact of technological improvements such as the substitution of inorganic materials, reducing the need for organic goods supplied by plantation economies. This matter of substitution by multinational corporations should concern us greatly as they are now removing their fingerprints from directly administering plantations (in terms of labor & environmental impact & responsibility, in particular) and microfinance, etc.

     The other important insight in this SBD de Silva excerpt is: There are 2 kinds of technological improvements: those that ‘raise the yield per hectare without a basic change in capital-labour ratios or in the organic composition of capital … The 2nd type of improvement is the substitution of capital for labour, with a concomitant rise in labour productivity and a decline in the unit cost of output… Such technology is characteristic of production in the developed economies, both in manufacturing industry & in agriculture, and it differs qualitatively from that adopted by the plantations’ (see ee Focus).

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• The Wijeya Group’s Financial Times (FT) published a column, ‘Environmental Impact Quotient of Pesticides: Catalyst for sustainable agricultural futures’, on 20 February, by Professor Buddhi Marambe, who FT describes as ‘attached to the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya’. However, Marambe is also a director of the English multinational ICI, known as CIC in Sri Lanka, which has more than anyone drenched this country in dangerous chemistries. Should not this crucial information on his ‘private’ affiliations be included in his attached biography with the article? Only listed as Professor, working in a state-funded university, may suggest he is speaking on behalf of the public good. Let it be recalled, Marambe, on behalf of chemical importers like ICI-CIC, also led the assault on & the sabotage of the attempts by the Gotabaya Rajapakse government to introduce ‘organic’ fertilizer, half-baked & ill-conceived a policy though it may have been. Next time a beloved, relative or friend falls ill, gets a malignant cancer, it may behoove the media owners to reflect on such subterfuge practised by those who sometimes claim to be guardians of the public right to know. Jayavayvaa!

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Contents:

IMF Head Visits to Inspect the Damage It’s Doing to Sri Lanka; US Pacific Commander Visits Too – What Outrages Await Us?

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge 

The shocking murder of former Sri Lankan parliamentarian Amarakirthi Athukorala, along with his security officer, during ARAGALAYA in 2022,  raises profound questions regarding human behaviour and the darker aspects of human nature. According to the reports, the mob attacked the two men with poles and clubs. The post-mortem examination revealed that MP Athukorala died from multiple injuries, severe fractures, and internal bleeding. This tragic incident was not perpetrated by professional assassins but rather by ordinary individuals. In light of this tragic event, it is imperative to pose a critical question. What drives an average individual to commit murder? 

During ARAGALAYA, we observed that certain radical politicians, celebrities, intellectuals from universities, community leaders, and even some members of the clergy not only endorsed violence but also subtly encouraged the public to target those they deemed enemies of the people. This prompts us to an important inquiry: what led ordinary civilians to engage in such acts of brutality?

Reflecting on our recent history reveals a series of shocking incidents, including brutal acts of violence perpetrated by ordinary individuals. One particularly shocking event occurred in 1956 during the racial riots in Panadura, where a Hindu Poosari was tragically burned alive by a mob. This act of savagery was not carried out by seasoned criminals but rather by everyday people who succumbed to the chaos and hatred of the moment. 

In 1971, Rohana Wijewwera led an uprising and formed a group of child soldiers known as RATHU GATAV, or Red Youngsters. During the peak of this rebellion, a gruesome incident occurred involving a 16-year-old student from Tholangamuwa Madya Maha Vidyalaya, who brutally murdered an elderly man named Pabilis from the Kegalle District. The young school boy first struck the victim’s head with a mamotee before burying him alive. Analyzing this incident, we ought to question how a schoolboy could exhibit such brutal behaviour.

On August 28, 1977, in Vavunikulam a group of 20 to 25 Tamils attacked a lorry transporting 15 Sinhalese fishermen and a police constable who had returned to collect their belongings. This violent incident resulted in the deaths of five fishermen and the constable, with their bodies later found inside the burned lorry. It is important to note that those responsible for this act were not the members of the LTTE but were Tamil civilians.

In 1983, a group of Lumpenproletariat in Wellawatta poured petrol onto a vehicle and ignited it during racial riots, resulting in the tragic deaths of several passengers who were trapped inside and burned alive. Notably, the individuals responsible for this heinous act had no prior history of barbarous violence. Some of them were street vendors.

During the Eelam war, a group of child soldiers from the LTTE launched an attack on a Sinhala village, murdering unarmed civilians. In a particularly horrific act, infants were brutally killed by the child soldiers, holding the babies by their legs and striking their heads against a wall. Many of these young child soldiers were schoolboys who had been indoctrinated into the ideology of Prabhakaran’s racial separation.

This raises the question: how did these everyday people become capable of such abominable acts? The phenomenon of group dynamics/mob mentality plays a crucial role in this transformation, as it can strip away individual moral compasses and replace them with a collective impulse that often leads to violence and chaos.

In moments of heightened emotion and group dynamics, individuals may find themselves swept up in a tide of aggression, abandoning their personal ethics in favour of the group’s actions. This unsettling reality compels us to examine the underlying psychological mechanisms that can turn ordinary citizens into participants in brutality, challenging our understanding of morality and the potential for savagery that exists within us all. This aspect was particularly significant in the case of Amarakirthi Athukorala.

The primary process that facilitates this transformation is deindividuation, a state where individuals lose their sense of self-awareness and personal responsibility while immersed in a group. Being part of a large crowd creates a “veil of anonymity”. Individuals feel their personal identity is hidden, which reduces their fear of negative consequences or judgment, emboldening them to break social norms they would normally follow alone. 

Diffusion of Responsibility is another key factor. In a mob, the feeling of personal responsibility for an act is shared across the entire group. Emotions such as rage, fear, and excitement spread rapidly through a group, often bypassing rational thought. This “contagion” can create a hypnotic state or a crowd frenzy, in which individuals mimic the aggressive behaviours they observe.  

Dehumanization of the Victim make easy for them to unleash violence against them.  Mobs often justify violence by placing the victim “outside” the community’s moral boundaries. By labelling a target as an enemy or a “criminal,” the group neutralizes normal moral restraints against harming others. Group Norms and Peer Pressure too affect the mob mentality. 

Upon the announcement of the verdict in the case of Amarakirthi Athukorala and the murder of his bodyguards, many of the twelve convicted individuals were overcome with emotion, breaking into tears and wailing as the death sentences were pronounced. Some of the defendants protested loudly, asserting that they were innocent bystanders caught up in the chaos of the crowd. No one accepted accountability for the situation.

We will now examine the dynamics involved in mob violence. Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon, a French polymath, indicated that crowds lose their personality and adopt a “collective mind” characterized by anonymity, contagion, and suggestibility. He believed that the dynamics of group behaviour can lead to a significant alteration in personal judgment and decision-making, often overriding individual rationality in favour of the prevailing sentiments of the crowd. 

In his influential work, The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, the English neurosurgeon Wilfred Trotter provides a profound analysis of how collective psychology can overshadow individual ethical principles. Trotter argues that when individuals become part of a crowd, their personal moral compass is often diminished, leading to behaviours that may contradict their own values. 

In 1922, Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of a “herd instinct,” which describes a psychological phenomenon where individuals tend to follow a leader or a collective group without critical examination or skepticism.

Freud’s concept of the “herd instinct” provides a compelling framework for understanding the psychological underpinnings of mob violence. This instinct refers to the innate tendency of individuals to conform to the behaviours and emotions of a larger group, often leading to a loss of personal identity and moral judgment. In a mob setting, individuals may feel a sense of anonymity and diminished personal responsibility, which can result in aggressive and irrational behaviour that they might not exhibit in isolation. The collective energy of the group can amplify emotions such as fear, anger, or excitement, creating a volatile environment where rational thought is overshadowed by primal instincts.

Despite the existence of various theories, an elusive element remains linked to group violence. Based on my discussions with the esteemed Stanford Professor Philip Zimbardo, I encountered a different perspective. He emphasizes the Lucifer Effect, which illustrates how ordinary individuals, typically seen as good, can become agents of evil when subjected to particular situational and systemic influences. Zimbardo defines deindividuation as a state where individuals lose their sense of personal identity and self-awareness within a group.

Our final task – how do we prevent mob mentality and turning ordinary people into perpetrators of violence? Preventing mob mentality and the radicalization of everyday people requires a multi-layered approach that addresses individual psychology, group dynamics, and systemic failures. Its important to educate people about how they are carried away by mass hysteria in mob events. One critical objective is to dismantle the prevailing “culture of impunity” that frequently encourages mob behaviour. Also its important to be proactive bystanders who involve standing up for victims and confronting aggressive behaviour instead of succumbing to group mentality.

සමායෝජක වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන

2026.02.21 “ජාත්‍යන්තර මව් භාෂා දිනය වෙනුවෙන් වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන විසින් පවත්වන පවත්වන ලද නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහනේදි
කැළණිය විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ සංස්කෘත අධ්‍යානාංශයේ මහාචාර්ය පූජ්‍ය ඉඳුරාගාරේ ධම්මරතන හිමි, 
නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන මහතා සහ නීතීඥ අජිත් බන්දුල මහතා කොළඹ මහජන පුස්තකාලයේ ප්‍රවේශාගාරයේදී දේශන පැවැත්වීමට සහභාගී වූ අතර එම නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහනේ සජීවී විකාශයේ පටිගත දර්ශන සඳහා පහත අන්තර්ජාල සැබැඳිවලින් යොමු වන්න.

අදාල කරගත් මාතෘකා

1. 1978 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ (සිංහල) සහ ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා පිටපතේ තිබෙන භාෂා වෙනස්කම්

2. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 83.ආ (සිංහල)/ 83.b (ඉංග්‍රීසි) ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ වෙනසක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපති ජනාධිපති ලේකම්ට කළ දැනුම් දීම

3. විවෘත අධිකරණයේදී විනිසුරු ලබා දෙන නියෝග, පාර්ශවයන් කියන කරුණු ලඝු ලේඛිකාව සටහන් නොකරන්නේනම් කළ යුත්තේ කුමක්ද?

4. නඩුවක පාර්ශවයක් නොවන අයෙක්ට නඩුවකට මැදිහත්වීමට ඇති නීතිමය ප්‍රතිපාදන

5. නොදන්නා භාෂාවකින් ඇති අධිකරණ නීති කෘත්‍යන් සිංහල හෝ දෙමළ භාෂාවෙන් ලබා ගන්නේ කෙසේද?

විවේකයට පෙර
https://www.youtube.com/live/hkOJGl13FOE?si=VTWcK0Jusias9GcV

විවේකයෙන් පසු
https://www.youtube.com/live/ss_-DL68_Lo?si=Xb7s8_olllzmddAO

ඉදිරි නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන 2026 මාර්තු 15 (ඉරිදා) පෙ.ව. 9ට
කොළඹ මහජන පුස්තකාල වායුසමණය කළ සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේදී පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත අතර, එයට සහභාගීවන අයට සහතිකයක්/ නීති සටහන් / දිවා ආහාරය ලබා දෙයි.

මාධ්‍ය – සිංහල / ආසන සීමිතයි

(නීතීඥයන්ට / නීති ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට / අධිකරණ රෙජිස්ට්‍රාර්
කාර්යාල වල සේවය කරන අයට / විශ්ව විද්‍යාල
ශිෂ්‍යයන්ට / නීති ක්‍රියාකාරකයන්ට / පොලිසියේ සහ
සන්නද්ධ හමුදා සාමාජිකයන්ට ප්‍රමුඛත්වය දෙනු ලැබේ. )

අන්තර්ගතය

1. පනත් කෙටුම්පතකට එරෙහිව
ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩු පවරන ආකාරය

2. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 83. (ආ) ඡේදය සහ එහි ඉංග්‍රීසි ඡේදයේ (83.b) ඡේදයේ භාෂා පාඨ අතර ඇති වෙනස්කම් නිවැරදි කිරීමට 2025 දී මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ සභාපති ජනාධිපති ලේකම්ට දැනුම් දීම තුළ ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණය සහ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණය වසර 6 කින් වන ආකාරය

3. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 9වන
උපලේඛනයේ 1වන ලැයිස්තුවේ ( පළාත්
සභා ලැයිස්තුවේ) විෂයන් ඉවත් වන ලෙස / පරිච්චින්න වන ලෙස 1972 අංක 7 දරන ගෙවල් කුලී පනත ඉවත් කිරීමේ පනත් කෙටුම්පත පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට එද්දී පළාත් සභා ප්‍රේමින් නෛතික විරෝධය නොදැක්වීම තුළ පළාත් සභා නෛතිකව බිඳවැටීම

4. සේපාල ඒකනායක “අලිතාලියා” ගුවන් යානා පැහැර ගැනීම, අතීතයට බලපාන නීති පැනවීම, ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 105.4 අනුව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පිහිටුවන බුද්ධ සාසන උත්තරීතර අධිකරණය සහ විහාරස්ථාන නඩු කටයුතු සම්බන්ධ මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට අධිකරණ බලය අහිමි වීම.

5. ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මුල් වරට සිරදඬුවීම නියම කරන තැනැත්තන්ට සිවිල් හා දේශපාලනික අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබද ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුතිය පනතේ (ICCPR) හිමි විය යුතු අභියාවනා අවස්ථාව ලබා ගන්නේ කෙසේද?

වැඩි විස්තර ස‍ඳහා සමායෝජක වෛද්‍ය තිලක පද්මා සුබසිංහ අනුස්මරණ නීති අධ්‍යාපන වැඩසටහන – දුරකථන 0712063394

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

New Ports Authority chairman may have a daunting task to suppress bureaucracy in the Port 

Port authority  deployed ADB  Asiandevelopment Bank to carry  out  a master plan to develop .Trincomalee Harbour

So far no action had been taken implement the ADB suggested proposals 

Recent submission  by EDB to obtain green light to develop offshore industry in Clapoenburg area of Trincomalee harbour was not supported by SLPA  citing  rejection by CEA

This issue has surfaced when EDB presented the proposal to EDCM   ( Export Development Committee of Ministers)

CEA does not reject s proposal until an EIA is submitted

Why port is not supportive 

IAsian Development Bank prepared or funded a Master Plan for Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) for Trincomalee:

• A Master Plan is a strategic document

• It identifies long-term development zones

• It does not automatically trigger implementation

Very often:

• Plans are prepared

• Approved at concept level

• Then shelved due to political or institutional changes

This is unfortunately common in Sri Lanka.

On the CEA Argument

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA):

• Does not reject a project before an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is formally submitted.

• Normally issues:

• Terms of Reference (ToR)

• Requires Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) or EIA

• Then evaluates based on data

So if SLPA says: CEA rejected it”

Without a formal EIA process,

that statement is procedurally weak

Possible Reasons SLPA Is Not Supportive

A  .Institutional Risk Aversion

Offshore industry is:

• Capital intensive

• Politically sensitive

• Environmentally scrutinized

SLPA may prefer conventional port activities over offshore engineering hubs.

B. Control Over Strategic Assets

Trincomalee is:

• Geopolitically sensitive

• Monitored by defence and foreign stakeholders

Large offshore industrial proposals may require:

• Cabinet approval

• Defence clearance

• Strategic review

SLPA may not want to trigger that complexity.

C. Inter-Agency Rivalry

You mentioned EDB submission.

The Sri Lanka Export Development Board promoting a project inside SLPA-controlled land can create:

• Jurisdictional tension

• Who leads?” conflicts

• Turf protection behaviour

This is common in multi-agency systems.

D. Fear of Environmental Controversy

Past controversies involving CEA decisions (especially high-profile officers) may make SLPA cautious.

They may be using:

CEA issue” as a safe administrative shield.

E. Lack of Political Directive

LIn Sri Lanka, major port developments move only when:

• There is strong Cabinet-level direction

• Or Treasury/Presidential push

Without that, institutions tend to stall.

Strategic Observation (Important)

ADB advisory board have long experience in:

• Offshore

• Shipbuilding

• Welding industry

• Marine infrastructure

Trincomalee offshore engineering hub is high-value FDI, not a low-value cargo expansion.

If SLPA does not see:

• Immediate revenue

• Or direct control

They may not prioritize it.

what  Can Be Done Strategically

Instead of confronting SLPA, one could:

1. Request written clarification:

• Has CEA officially rejected?

• Was ToR issued?

• Was EIA submitted?

2. Escalate to:

• Ministry of Ports

• Ministry of Industries

• National Planning Department

3. Frame project as:

• National energy security

• Offshore wind / oil & gas servicing

• Defence logistics support

That changes narrative.

This issue is administrative, not environmental.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

නොරොච්චෝල ලක්විජය බලාගාරය සඳහා මෙරටට ගෙන්වන ලද මුල් ගල්අඟුරු නැව් හයේම අඩංගු ගල්අඟුරු, අනුමත ටෙන්ඩර් ප්‍රමිතීන්ට වඩා බෙහෙවින් පහත් මට්ටමක පවතින බව රසායනාගාර වාර්තා මගින් තහවුරු වී ඇතැයි බලශක්ති විශේෂඥ විදුර රලපනාව මහතා පවසයි.

අදාළ ටෙන්ඩර් කොන්දේසි අනුව ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ යුතු මට්ටමේ (Reject levels) පවතින ගල්අඟුරු මෙලෙස දිගින් දිගටම බලාගාරය වෙත භාරගෙන ඇති බව හෙළිදරව් වී තිබේ. 

රලපනාව මහතා පෙන්වා දෙන පරිදි, ගල්අඟුරු ප්‍රමිතිය මැන බලන ප්‍රධාන පරාමිතීන් තුනම මෙම නැව් හයේදී අසමත් වී ඇත.  

ටෙන්ඩර් කොන්දේසි අනුව මෙය 5900 kCal/kg ට වඩා වැඩි විය යුතුය. නමුත් වාර්තා වලට අනුව නැව් හයේම වාර්තා වී ඇත්තේ 5078 kCal/kg සිට 5689 kCal/kg දක්වා වූ ඉතා අඩු අගයන්ය. 

අවම වශයෙන් 25% ක මට්ටමක පැවතිය යුතු වුවද, පරීක්ෂාවට ලක් කළ නැව් හයේම එම අගය 22% ත් 25.4% ත් අතර පරාසයක පවතී. 

උපරිම සීමාව 16% ලෙස නියම කර තිබුණද, මෙම ගල්අඟුරු වල අළු ප්‍රමාණය 21% සිට 26.9% දක්වා ඉතා ඉහළ මට්ටමක පවතී.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

• If you look at Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, I have argued it is not because of China or India or Japan. The main culprit are the bond markets
• The IMF programme puts a lot of constraints on spending
• The Rajapaksas might have thought they can play China against India, but that doesn’t work
• There is a lot of financing for green energy. But often, I would say a lot of that is ‘green washing’

As a response to Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, saying, while on a visit to Sri Lanka, as to how government discussions with the IMF can help recover from the impact of Cyclone Ditwah-which had disastrous effect on ailing economy- internationally renowned political economist and senior academic Ahilan Kadirgamar is of the view that this country cannot count on either IMF or the World Bank. Despite Georgieva’s assertion that economically devastated Sri Lanka can count on the support of the Washington based international organization with the assurance that Sri Lanka’s arrangement with the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility is not rigid—it can and will be adapted to the new post-Ditwah reality, the economist is of the view that Sri Lanka needs a comprehensive plan to fight the present and future shocks. A Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Jaffna, Ahilan holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and a Master of Arts in Economics from the New School for Social Research. He is also a member of the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs). 

Excerpts of an interview Kadirgamar had with the Daily Mirror: 

• And the way forward I would suggest we have to start with where we are most vulnerable that is with the food and agriculture systems. We have to strengthen it because you have to feed your people. I think it was the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw who said Every country is only three meals away from a revolution”
• The World Bank and IMF were also supported by the Americans. I’m not sure what Mr. Trump would do to them next year or the year after. So don’t count on them being around for the long haul
• We know that we should be building a different kind of economy and a different kind of infrastructure. Because who gets affected by these crises? It’s not the wealthy people in this country. The economic crisis also, who got affected? Ordinary workers, farmers and fisher folk. Their incomes are still low, but their cost of living has gone up

QShould a nation have expected a disaster like this at any point by any country like Sri Lanka?

Now, if we look at the global situation, I would say over the past 4-5 decades, we are faced with two major challenges. One is how our global order has changed due to what we call neoliberalism. It is a project which undermined our state institutions, dependent completely on the market and the private sector. And what we have seen around the world is repeated crisis.

 Now, Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to liberalise its economy, with the so-called open economy reforms under J R Jayewardene. But many countries followed in the 1980s, India by 1991, and since then we are seeing repeated crisis around the world. In the 1980s, the Latin American countries went into a crisis.

In the late 1990s, East Asia crisis, where Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia were severely affected. And then in the late 2000s, in 2008, the North Atlantic crisis, where Western countries experienced a financial crisis. So, the global system of free trade, and the free flow of finance, has made every country extremely vulnerable. In some cases a debt related problem and sometimes a trade related shock!

And of course, we have over last four years been in a deep economic crisis. From 2020 the COVID pandemic and then the economic collapse in 2022, which is also a debt crisis. And not only Sri Lanka, about half of the countries in the developing world, are facing some kind of debt problem. 

So, on the one hand, we have this kind of very fragile economic systems around the world with the onslaught of what we call neoliberal reforms. And neoliberalism really is, ultimately, a class project. It’s a class project of finance capital. Because who gains, even though a lot of destruction, a lot of crisis, some people are making huge amounts of wealth. Mainly using finance. So, money is making money. But actual production is not happening. People are not benefiting.

QWhen you say crisis, it could be war, disaster, anything? 

I’m focusing mostly on economic crisis. But sometimes economic problems also aggravate wars and other social disasters.  So, with economic policies, we have to think about how the global order has changed, how capitalism has changed in the last four to five decades. Now, another big problem we have been facing during the last many decades is climate change, which is also man-made in the sense from the impact of the industrial revolution.

We have been destroying our environment and we are facing the consequences. Now, in 2016-17, we faced a drought. Almost every year we are having some floods. But sometimes, like this time, it’s maybe once in a 100 years or once in a 500 years type of massive cyclone. And it’s very hard to prepare for such a big, once in a many century, event.

 But we know that these kinds of crises are happening and they are going to happen again. So, we need to both rethink the economic order and approach both globally and in our country.

We need to change what I would call the built environment. That is  the kind of infrastructure that we build, the kind of financial system that we have. So, both in terms of the economic system and in terms of our built environment, we have to change.

And I think now we’ve been through both types of crises. We’ve been through an economic crisis and now a climate-oriented crisis. So, we really should rethink where we want our country to go. What kind of system we want to build. I see this as much bigger than even the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s challenge. I’m saying this is a national challenge for all of us. This is something we have to think about for the next generations.

So, the causes of what has happened now, I don’t trace it to one year’s preparedness or even three years. We know that we should be building a different kind of economy and a different kind of infrastructure. Because who gets affected by these crises? It’s not the wealthy people in this country. The economic crisis also, who got affected? Ordinary workers, farmers and fisher folk. Their incomes are still low, but their cost of living has gone up.

 Malnutrition is on the rise. Even according to the World Bank, poverty has more than doubled. The World Bank says we will only return to pre-crisis poverty level, say the poverty level in 2017-18, only in 2034. So, we’ve lost two decades in terms of poverty alleviation. Our GDP growth according to the World Bank, we will only go back to the same size of our GDP that we were in 2018, only in 2026. Almost a decade, no growth.

 Whereas a developing country in that period, I would say, should have grown by 50 or 60%. If you take China, they doubled their GDP in that time frame, that is when they were going through their high growth period. So, this is a huge loss. This has to be a wake-up call that we need to change our economic system.

Also, who are the people who have been most affected by this climate shock? It is the Malaiyaha Tamil people and the working class. Of course, everybody gets affected, but now even the Malaiyaha Tamils children’s future is going to be affected.

So, this is should make us rethink how we should be building and whatever investment that we can make. Should we be building big highways for the tourists and the wealthy to travel on? Or should we be building rural roads, public transport systems? Should we be rehabilitating our tanks and ponds which can absorb this kind of flooding? 

QAnd we should have been concerned about the environment as well. Isn’t it?

Environment and again, I don’t see environment as separate from people.  It is very much intertwined. I’ll give you an example. Now, one serious concern we have is, of course, globally they have set certain benchmarks. The climate crisis is caused by the western countries and their industrialization. But they of course put the pressure on countries like us (Sri Lanka) to make the changes to reach certain targets.

 So, Sri Lanka is to have 30% forest coverage, because that will reduce greenhouse gases.

 Now, what has happened? As a country, should we blindly consider such targets? And they may even give us some so-called incentives to get into green energy.  There is a lot of financing for green energy. But often, I would say a lot of that is ‘green washing’. 

So what happened? Here is a concrete example I can give you. If you take the Mullaitivu district, after the war, Mullaitivu district’s forest coverage has gone up from something like 34% to 72%. 

 Now, the government, the Wildlife Department, Forest Department have taken steps and gazetted forests, just using satellite imagest. Now, there were villages there, there were tanks there, there were people living there before the war. They were displaced. So, there has been some overgrowth.  Now, people can’t resume their agriculture there. But why did the previous government push for that? This all happened after the war from 2012 onwards. This is so we can reach that 30% forest coverage national target. But then, who is getting affected? It is the farmers, fisher folk and ordinary people. So, we have to be concerned about the environment, we have to reduce pollution, we have to and all that is good.

But we have to realize that the environment is there for the people and people’s livelihoods are also important. So again, the most marginal people, the farmers and so on, were asked to pay the cost. Why aren’t we reducing the number of private vehicles on the road? Why don’t we build a better public transport system? That is also environmentally friendly. We should be investing in bus transport and railway transport. But that we are not doing enough of. So, the environment has to be thought in, along with people’s lives and livelihoods. 

QAnd you said about green washing. Can you please explain?

So, now there is all kinds of talk, right? Now they say, billions of dollars is not enough to address environmental challenges. We need trillions of dollars. And that is the global discourse. And they say, that this trillions of dollars, governments cannot supply. But that we can get it from the private markets and capital markets. Now, if you look at Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, I have argued it is not because of China or India or Japan. The main culprits are the bond markets. Sri Lanka started floating what is called international sovereign bonds. Starting in 2007 and by the time we defaulted, about 52% of our debt was commercial debts and commercial borrowings. Not bilateral borrowing or multilateral borrowing, but all kinds of commercial borrowing of which 40% amounted to these international sovereign bonds. 

They charge very high interest. They charge, Sri Lanka high interest for these, and these are 10-year bonds. Sometimes 6%, 7%, it even went up to 9%.  Now, if you do the compound interest on a 10-year bond, 6, 7%, the total interest payment is almost equal to the principal.

We will never get such returns. Our GDP growth is 3%, 5%, but we are borrowing in dollars for 6%, 7%, 8%. So, obviously, we are going to default because of those private actors and their extraction, that’s the power of finance. They proved large loans and they extract huge profits. 

QWhen we come to the disaster, do we have an estimate of what is the cost this recent disaster?

A: It’s hard to say.  Now, I think the government is working with the World Bank assessment of 4.1 billion US dollars of the destruction. And how much investment will be necessary and what different donors can contribute. 

My opinion is, we would need a few trillion rupees in investment. What does few trillion rupees mean? Now, our GDP is about 35 trillion rupees. So, when we say a few trillion rupees, it is about 5 to 10 percent of our GDP in investment. Anyway that investment was necessary to even get out of the economic crisis. But we were not doing that the last few years. Why? Because of the IMF programme, because the IMF programme puts a lot of constraints on spending. So, now our economy has been hammered by the economic crisis. We have not recovered. 

 And, you know, John Maynard Keynes, the famous economist was a crucial thinker of this idea of why governments need to spend after a crisis, because only if the government start spending, the demand will be created for the private sector to come in. 

QCan we get support from the international agencies for this kind of projects as well? 

We can and we should. But, now they don’t give grants. The World Bank and IMF now only provide  commercial interest loans.  Not concessionary loans. Now we are considered a middle-income country. 

The IMF says they will have a special fund for 200 million US Dollars. The World Bank has said, and World Bank ADB together, something like another 200 or 250 million US Dollars. Let’s say if you put all of it together, 500 million US Dollars, it’s only 150 billion rupees.  Now, as I mentioned, we need trillions of rupees. 

 The government, has put forward a proposal for an additional 500 billion rupees. So, if you compare it with the 150 billion, that 500 billion is more than thrice. I would say, the government has to take the responsibility because we don’t need US Dollars to build rural roads. We can do it with rupees.

They say you can’t spend more than about 12.8% of GDP. Now, 12.8% of GDP is hardly enough to just pay our salaries. So, then there’s no investment. Right? So, that is a big constraint for us, but the government has to figure out a way. In my view, in a crisis like this, we can’t be listening to the IMF.  Our people are most important. So, the government, if necessary, has to say, no, we are going to have to spend and the IMF can decide if they want to keep the IMF programme or not. 

 But there are, again, another problem. The Central Bank has kept our interest rates very high. Policy rate at 7.75%.  Last year, our inflation was negative, minus 4%. Now, it is coming to a little above zero. So, they should be bringing down the interest rates. Because if they bring down the interest rates only, banks will lend at lower interest rates. Then, private actors will borrow and invest. If you keep interest rates so high, by the time an enterprise goes and borrows from a bank, it will be like 11-12%.  Now, the government has said 9% for lending as a cap, but then what will happen if banks just won’t lend.  Because at 9%, if they can earn almost the same amount in treasury bonds, why do they need to take the risk to lend to a business? There is risk, right? But if you put in a treasury bond, it is safe.

So, this is a trap that we are in. So, the Central Bank needs to bring the interest rates down.

In my view, this government soon or later has to change the Central Bank Act and the Public Finance Management Act. They have the two thirds majority in the parliament they can very easily do that. Of course when they do that the IMF won’t be happy, but that is the reality. These laws were rushed through by an unelected President and an undemocratic Government before the NPP Government assumed power. Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Rajapaksas passed these laws to keep the IMF and the World Bank happy. Now we have to undo all the damage if we as a country are going to move forward. There are powerful countries, and there are vulnerable countries like ours, and the powerful dictate to us what to do through the IMF and institutions like the World Bank. But we have to take the responsibility, and there may be political costs, but that is a reality of the system. 

And the way forward I would suggest we have to start with where we are most vulnerable that is with the food and agriculture systems. We have to strengthen it because you have to feed your people. I think it was the great British playwright George Bernard Shaw who said Every country is only three meals away from a revolution”. If you don’t have food on the table you don’t care which government is there! So we have to focus on our food system and agriculture. You know, during the last 40-50 years with neo-liberalism, they said if you can’t produce something you can get it from the global market cheaper. So what was present in the 1970s called the import substitution became a bad word. You can export as much as you want and you can import what you need. But in the 1930s when the global system was going through a major crisis, the great depression even John Maynard Keynes, he is not a Marxist, he is the one who set the system for the global order. It is in his vision that the World Bank and the IMF were started. Anyway, amidst the depression he said every country should focus on self-sufficiency. 

You see we have destroyed all our systems. So we need strong food systems, and agriculture systems. We need self-sufficiency, or I would say an import substitution programme, and then we need a proper financial system. Not a financial system that is going into villages giving micro finance and extracting what little people are producing. But a financial system that will support a production economy with development banks. Our commercial banks should be given proper directions. But everybody is thinking about profits. Over the last year, all our commercial banks are making record profits. The economy is not recovering but the banking sector is making huge profits and why? Because the interest rates are high. 

Lot of diseases surface because people are experiencing malnutrition. That’s why I said every crisis affects the marginalised and in our case marginalised is bottom 60 percent of our population. 

So we need to change the strategy. The Noble prize winning economist Prof. Amartya Sen said ‘Famines are not caused by scarcity, famines are caused by lack of democracy’.  I think the government should learn from that. Unless our economic policies are democratically decided in terms of what people’s needs are that is what can lead us into even more serious crisis. Listening to the technocrats from the IMF and the World Bank; that is not democracy. That is the Washington perspective. We need to listen to the people. This government has got a huge mandate from the people and they have to do what the people need, so that we don’t end up in famines, and we don’t end up in crisis that cripples our people. 

QWhat about the imports and how are we doing right now?

We need to prioritise our imports and have a control over our imports. If there’s an external trade shock like what Mr. Trump suddenly said, 44% or 20%, and you know next month he might wake up and now decide on something else, we have to manage our import bill. 

QWhen you say prioritising imports now, for example a huge rush to get new vehicles. Are these priorities?

In my view this government’s move to import vehicles was a bad idea. I think we have to save every dollar of foreign exchange possible because we know there will be more shocks. There are certain things we can produce more. We need machinery that makes sense. If we need certain transport facilities for public transport we need to import them, but we shouldn’t be importing luxury vehicles for the country’s wealthy.

Q Our economy is so vulnerable that once it rained and there’s another landslide happening so it’s very uncertain how our economy is going forward.  We don’t have excess budgets in our hands. How can we come out of this difficult situation? 

I think it’s very important that we have a long-term vision and work backwards, knowing that there will be many shocks. We can’t be reactive.  Right now, for example, I would say our higher education system has really declined because successive governments have not invested in the education system. Sri Lanka has one of the lowest investment in education.  We’ve been down to I think 1.3% now it’s about 2% of GDP.  This is how much the government is investing in the education system. This government has said that they will work towards 6% of GDP target. Now I know that in the next five years, 6% is difficult, but how about10 years. What I mean by working back is that right now we don’t have excess funds, but the government owns land,  the government owns buildings, some of them are sitting idle. They can contribute that to the education system in the form of assets; they might have some excess transport facilities they can use that in rural areas to transport children.  So we have to be creative. 

Q: As an economist what should be our targets for this year and the next year, 2027?

I think 2026 has to be a year of recovery and reconstruction. I don’t think we can just suddenly rebuild, but it should be our priority. We should have as much funds as possible. Now in 2027 March, the IMF programme comes to an end.  And at least by then we have to have a strategy. Now how are we going to move forward after that? We can’t wait till 2027. 

We have to start now. Borrowing in the capital markets is a dead end, interest rates are going to be so high, so we have to find other financing options. We should be able to live within our means in terms of our balance of payments, but internally we have to use all our resources. 

Having said that I am very concerned about two things; one, globally as we are seeing racism is on the rise, and tensions all over with wars. Every country is now for itself, and the global order itself I would say is unravelling. 

The World Trade Organization, which was what the Americans, were championing. Now Mr. Trump has killed it. Now this idea of free trade, it’s become a joke.  

The World Bank and IMF were also supported by the Americans. I’m not sure what Mr. Trump would do to them next year or the year after. So don’t count on them being around for the long haul.  So we have to understand the global order is changing and we have to prepare for that, we have to be very clear about having a non-aligned policy. We cannot get caught in these tussles because a small country like ours will always be the loser. 

The Rajapaksas might have thought they can play China against India, but that doesn’t work. So we have to realise it is very dangerous times and the global order itself is unraveling. 

The second concern I have is when these kinds of crises happen, internally also all kinds of nasty chauvinist forces emerge from all sections of society, it can be Sinhala, it can be Tamil. 

They will see this as an opportunity to deflect people to polarise communities because they want to make political capital, so we have to be very careful, and we have to you know build stronger relations between communities. 

We have to support each other we have to look out for the most marginalised communities. My real concern is that you know after 200 years, the people who built the wealth of this country, the Malaiyaha people, they have been the most affected by this crisis again. So I think we have to have a special programme to support them and to support the next generation of them in terms of education employment, building housing and giving them their land rights. This crisis is again a wake-up call. 

These climate shocks also affect the most marginalised people and we should ensure that they don’t have to keep facing these kinds of crisis. 

QYou mentioned how the Rajapaksas were playing against the India and China.  So as a sovereign country where should we stand because we need China, India, Japan and US. So where should we place ourself?

I think we should stay very principled and say our policy is non-alignment. We are not going to align with anyone. We will work with everyone, but we will also work in a very principled way. 

If an unfair project for Sri Lanka is being pushed on us we have to say sorry we can’t take this; it’s not because you are China or India. 

We won’t accept projects that undermine our country because in these kinds of times that will also happen. 

These powerful actors will use this as an opportunity, when our country is vulnerable to push their interests. So we have to be politically strong. For all this we have to stand on strong principles of democracy.

Courtesy Adaderana

Arab and Muslim governments have condemned remarks made by the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel would be justified in taking over a vast stretch of the Middle East on Biblical grounds.

In an interview with conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee was asked whether Israel had a right to an area which the host said was, according to the Bible, essentially the entire Middle East”.

The ambassador said it would be fine if it took it all”. But he added Israel was not seeking to do so, rather it is asking to at least take the land that they now occupy” and protect its people.

In a joint statement, more than a dozen governments including Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates called the comments dangerous and inflammatory”, and a threat to efforts to end the war in Gaza.

In the interview, released on Friday, Carlson pressed the ambassador on his interpretation of a Bible verse which the host claimed suggested Israel had a right to the land between the River Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.

Huckabee said it would be a big piece of land” but stressed that I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today”.

He later added: They’re not asking to go back to take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them.”

He also said his earlier remark that Israel could take it all” had been somewhat hyperbolic”.

Following the interview’s release, the UAE’s foreign ministry released the statement on behalf of various governments and other actors expressing strong condemnation and profound concern” regarding the comments.

The statement said Huckabee had indicated that it would be acceptable for Israel to exercise control over territories belonging to Arab states, including the occupied West Bank”.

It said the remarks violated international law and directly contradicted US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, including efforts to create a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement that ensures the Palestinian people have their own independent state”.

The statement continued: The ministries reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands.”

They reiterated their firm rejection of any attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip, their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and their categorical rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states.”

The statement said it was signed by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and the State of Palestine, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Huckabee has frequently expressed his support for Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, contradicting decades of US policy.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state – during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The settlements are illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2024.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that the court had made a decision of lies” and insisted that the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land”.

Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent military offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Source: BBC

– Agencies

Courtesy Adaderana

A lawyer who was arrested by the Keselwatta Police while allegedly using crystal methamphetamine (commonly known as Ice”) in a dark and abandoned building in the Sanchiarachchi Watta area of Keselwatta, has been remanded until February 26 after being produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court.

The suspect was found in possession of 130 milligrams of ice, various utensils used in the consumption of ‘Ice’, and a lawyer’s identity card.

Based on information received, a team including the OIC of the Keselwatta Police Crime Division had entered the dark, deserted building and searched it where they found the suspect using ‘Ice’. 

Police say that upon examining the lawyer’s identity card in the suspect’s possession, it was revealed that he was an individual who had taken the oath of office as a lawyer in 1996, and that investigations revealed that he was a practicing lawyer at the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court and the High Court.

The arrested suspect is a 54-year-old resident of Saranankara Road, Kalubowila.

රජය රටේ අනන්‍ය ලක්ෂණ නොසලකා හැරීම අදියර 2 –
ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ භාෂා වෙනස්කම් 2026.02.21 ජාත්‍යන්තර මව් භාෂා දින නීතීඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන