The National People’s Power (NPP) has released a series of Tamil-language campaign songs for the upcoming local government elections, embracing rhetoric and imagery closely associated with Tamil nationalism and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The campaign, aimed at boosting electoral performance in the Tamil North-East, has raised questions over the sincerity of the party’s political stance.
One of the songs, circulated by NPP’s Jaffna Member of Parliament Ilankumaran on Facebook, pledges the construction of a bronze statue in Valvettithurai to honour LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The lyrics the song are as below:
O land that yearned for valour, O soil where Tamil pride has flourished, The land where History was born And gave the nation its noble leader (Prabhakaran)— In the name of Veluppillai Parvathy Ammal, A new harbour shall rise, And it shall echo our history for a hundred years. The principles of the national peoples power and those of the Tamil national leader are one and the same. A bronze statue of the Tamil national leader Shall stand in the land of his birth. We shall build a memorial hall, And install the bronze effigy, And move the first resolution in the city’s urban council. Across all regions, The Maveerar thuyilumillam shall be rebuilt and preserved— A duty to be borne by the councils.
No matter how many years may pass, The identity of the Tamil people shall endure; And the national party shall uphold it.
The song also promises to rename Nallur’s Sankiliyan Park as ‘Kittu Park’ – a reference to senior LTTE commander Sathasivam Krishnakumar – and to build a memorial hall and landing pad dedicated to Prabhakaran’s parents, Velupillai and Parvathyamma.
Another song, reportedly created for the Karaithuraipattu Pradeshiya Sabha in Mullaitivu, compares the left-wing ideology of the NPP with that of Prabhakaran, vowing that each Pradeshiya Sabha will support the reconstruction and upkeep of LTTE cemeteries.
The song’s lyrics state:
The ideology of the Tamil national leader is communism. The ideology of the National People’s Party is also communism. Let us unite under one shared vision.
A total of 28 such songs have been produced and shared across NPP-affiliated social media platforms, including official district-level pages.
Critics have lambasted the NPP, traditionally a southern-based leftist party with no historical alignment to Tamil nationalism, for what they describe as opportunistic mimicry.
These songs reveal the extent to which Tamil nationalist sentiments have taken root,” noted one activist in Jaffna. Southern parties cannot remain electorally relevant in the North-East without adopting this language.”
Indeed, despite its vocal opposition in the past to Tamil self-determination and its alignment with Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarian narratives, the NPP now appears to be leveraging the imagery of LTTE leaders and invoking the memory of the Tamil armed struggle to win support. Photographs of Prabhakaran’s former residence, footage of Maaveerar Naal commemorations, and emotionally charged references to the LTTE’s martyrs” feature prominently in the music videos.
The strategy has drawn criticism from Tamils who accuse the NPP of hypocrisy. This is a party that has remained silent on the continued occupation of Tamil lands and the denial of justice for genocide,” said one campaigner. Now they’re trying to use our martyrs and our history as campaign material?”
Observers have noted that the NPP’s sudden turn to Tamil nationalist rhetoric is not isolated, but part of a broader political pattern in which southern parties attempt to rebrand themselves during elections in the North-East. However, critics warn that such performative gestures, have been made without concrete commitments to accountability, demilitarisation, or self-determination.
Sri Lanka’s public road transport has long been a menace on the roads. For decades, citizens have endured the daily trauma of riding in filthy, overcrowded, and dangerously maintained buses, often driven by men who appear to treat roads like racetracks. Public transport, instead of being a symbol of convenience and safety, has mutated into a moving hazard. What’s worse is the widespread sense of impunity that emboldens such behaviour.
Passengers are neither treated with dignity nor transported with care. Many are forced to cling to handrails for dear life, endure ear-splitting music, and inhale noxious exhaust fumes. Add to that the daily reports of reckless overtaking, red-light jumping, and frequent collisions, and it becomes painfully clear: the system is broken.
The Sri Lanka Police, tasked with upholding road safety, appears more interested in extracting bribes than enforcing the law. Traffic violations go unchecked, and in the rare event that a serious accident draws media attention, the response is disturbingly performative. Politicians visit the site, make teary-eyed statements, and promise inquiries that fade with the next news cycle. But systemic change? Nowhere in sight.
The reason for this inaction lies, in part, in political cowardice. Public transport unions—particularly those tied to the state-run Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB)—wield disproportionate influence. Governments fear their backlash, especially in election years, and as a result, accountability is postponed indefinitely.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Imagine a policy where a driver’s license is directly tied to vehicle insurance premiums. If you’re a repeat offender, your insurance cost skyrockets—not just for you, but also for the employer who hired you. This economic disincentive could force bus owners and transport companies to think twice before hiring reckless drivers. After all, a high-risk driver becomes a financial liability.
But for this to work, the government must enforce it across the board, especially within its fleet. If the SLTB refuses to comply, it will render the initiative toothless. Without parity between the private and public sectors, there can be no sustainable reform.
The challenge before us is not technical but political and cultural. We must create a system where safety is incentivized and recklessness is punished. People, too, have a role to play. Civic activism, consumer pressure, and consistent media coverage can shame authorities into action. Riders must be encouraged to report misconduct, and technology can assist: GPS tracking, speed governors, and public dashboards for complaints could usher in transparency.
So, what can people do to enter this sector and be part of the change?
Young entrepreneurs with a vision for safe, efficient travel should be supported to start model transport services. With government grants or low-interest loans, they could introduce a new class of commuter services—clean, punctual, and professionally managed. Technology platforms can help connect these services with the public, bypassing the chaos of bus stands and rogue operators.
In the end, this isn’t just a battle for better buses—it’s a battle for our collective dignity and safety. It’s time we stopped normalizing death and disorder on our roads. Until someone dares to tame the beasts, we will all remain at their mercy.
Colombo, May 11 (Daily Mirror) – The Media Division of the Ministry of Energy has rejected reports circulating in the media regarding the resignation of CEB Chairman Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya.
A senior official from the Ministry said that the Chairman had submitted a letter to the President informing him of his leave, as he plans to travel abroad for personal reasons.
“There is no truth in the media reports suggesting the resignation of the CEB Chairman,” the official added.
Dr. Siyambalapitiya was appointed as the CEB Chairman on September 26 last year under the NPP government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya has handed in his letter of resignation.
It is reported that he submitted his resignation letter to Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody last Friday, and accordingly, it has been accepted by the Subject Minister.
Dr. Siyambalapitiya was appointed to the post on September 26, 2024.
Before you study the economics, study the economists!”
e-Con e-News 04-10 May 2025
The French warship Beautemps-Beaupré has just barged into Colombo – so far from gay Paree and le port de Marseille. And while India (using French & US weaponry) and Pakistan (using US, Chinese & Swedish materiel) indulge in target practice on live civilians and others, Sri Lanka’s government has bravely declared it shall not allow the country to be used as a base in regional or global wars. Yet, as noble declarations go, the JVP-led NPP government’s recent dramatic pivot towards India, contradicts the JVP leader’s previous pronouncements, that such military pacts (as newly signed with India) would cripple our ‘freedom to freely move our hands & legs’!
This is Sri Lanka’s first such agreement with a foreign powersince the Anglo-Ceylonese Defence Agreement signed with England, due to post-1947 fears of Indian invasion, with the English clinging on to Trincomalee and Katunayake. The JVP has always viewed India as a ‘sub-imperialist’ power. With the threat of such a pact dragging us into the USA-led Quad’s warmongering against China, Rathindra Kuruwita suggests it would have been far wiser for Sri Lanka to push for a regional security agreement ‘instead of signing a security pact that makes the country seem likea satrapy of India‘. Also, a trilateral MoU with India, Sri Lanka & United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ‘develop’ Trincomalee into an ‘Energy Hub’, involves the English-built oil tank farm, now partially run by state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). ‘The English Raj considered a foothold in Trincomalee harbor vital for Indian defence, a doctrine that the Indian republic has inherited.’
The JVP ‘risks becoming the very thing it once rose up against; a facilitator of foreign entrenchment on Sri Lankan soil’ (see ee Focus), Meanwhile, the recent local elections saw the People’s Struggle Alliance, which includes JVP-breakaway Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) which vehemently opposes the Indian pact, secure 16 seats for the first time: Kegalle, Baddegama, Karandeniya, Kalutara, Karuwalagaswewa, Seruwila, Uva-Paranagama, Nuwara Eliya, Hingurakgoda, Ibbagamuwa, Matugama, Walallawita, Ukuwela, Raththota, Kegalle, and Aranayaka Pradeshiya Sabhas.
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• The untimely demise of a young University professor, and an outpouring of grief in social media & news columns, provides an opening for an intriguing investigation into the birthing and nurturing of an anti-jathikathva (anti-national) gang of scholars. The US Embassy’s troll farms and message-multiplier bots had started to ‘trend’ these so-called ‘intellectuals’ during the 2nd term of President Mahinda Rajapakse, 2010-15, soon after the terrorist war ended in 2009. Visakha Dharmahewa & Aravi Hettiarachchi (D&H) in ‘The Anti-National Deliberation Front’ (see ee Focus), call it a concerted coup by the imperialist countries ‘to co-opt emerging Sinhala thinkers against Sinhala nationalists’, to ridicule the role of Anagarika Dharmapala (exiled), Kumaratunga Munidasa (defamed), and SWRD Bandaranaike (assassinated), and also Gunadasa Amarasekara, Nalin de Silva, Susantha Goonetilleke, etc.
D&H also name the latest batch of young recruits funded by the US State Department. D&H however fail to note the corollary funding of anti-Marxist-Leninist ideologies among certain Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist organizations that stretches back to the 1950s and even before. Though D&H perceptively link, how US Colonel Henry Olcott & his theosophist gang, sought to mystify rather than enhance the science ofSinhala Buddhism. Olcott set the foundation for Dharmapala’s eventual isolation, hounding and exile. Latter-day Olcottians have sought to deny any link between scientific socialism and Buddhism. Yet there are connexions aplenty. Nonetheless D&H’s efforts are pathbreaking for they not only name the poseurs & fake scholars, but also go on to describe the role played by foreign funders, such as Germany, of NGOs that have led to the proliferation of IMF-linked economists, and such centres for so-called poverty alleviation and not poverty elimination – alternatives that oppose any alteration by the ‘natives’, and only promote colonial has-beens and further splintering prescriptions.
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• ee recalls those who opposed the English slicing up of India and the carving out of Pakistan. & recall those prophesies that ‘Partition’ would simply continue the warmongering for the next 100 years. ee would also like to footnote that it was Canada that so helpfully provided uranium to both India and Pakistan to enable their nuclear weapons programs. And now all of them, Canada & the US included, salivate to slice & quarter & dismember, if not annihilate, Sri Lanka as well. Meanwhile, US President Trump kindly reminds us that India and Pakistan (created in 14 August 1947) have been fighting ‘for centuries’. He resounds a good old colonial scripture that our purported differences are primordial and unending, needing the great white father in London or Washington to gather us tendentious natives into his folds…
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• A deadly threat, is how Development Banks (DBs) have always been seen, by the World Bank, IMF and their imperialist sponsors. Any attempt at a real DB has always inspired equally deadly countermeasures: expulsions of cabinet ministers, assassination of a PM, coups, terrorism, etc, subverting the Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon (DFCC) & National Development Bank (NDB), that are now just money lenders to merchants. The prolix Ahilan Kadirigamar, who is now a director of the People’s Bank, suggests the NPP Government ‘is working towards setting up a development bank’, through the National Credit Guarantee Institution (NCGI).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led Structural Adjustment Program, post-1977, ‘drastically changed the structure of our economy with increasing privatisation‘. Kadirgamar grew ‘fascinated by the history of the Japan Development Bank (JDB), and its role in ‘the post-war economic development of Japan’. It inspired his leadership in developing the Northern Co-operative Development Bank (NCDB), a federation of about 1,200 co-operative societies in the Northern Province. Yet there is no mention of any investment in modern machine-making industrialization (the real definition of Karl Marx’s modern capitalism) nor of the role of Jaffna’s dollar (as opposed to the South’s rupee) diaspora, but he provides interesting insight into the history of such banks (see ee Focus).
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• No bodies embody the ‘expatriate’ joie de vivre more than the airs of white denizens at English literary festivals in Galle or Colombo, and the Sri Lankan ‘fliterati’ who seek to mimic them, led by the Borah business memsahib. Such gravitas and profundity they perform. You can see them in their shorts or see-through flimsy cottons, harem pants or salwar khameez, if they have any pale skin or parts half-decent to flaunt – tho most times not – lounging, with AC on at its most comforting adjustments, or fans lazily awhirl, white porcelain cups of steaming tea or coffee sitting untouched before them, apparently squandering money, as the Sinhala saying goes, ‘spending like a white man’. However, SBD de Silva concludes that it is actually a stereotype of the white man (who was more parsimonious than the browner leftovers who now front for them) who have actually dominated Sri Lanka’s economy, and are yet very much different from the white settler-colonials & the genocidal settlers who dominated in other parts of the world, and invested in the modern industrialization of their ‘responsible’ dominions (ee Focus).
ee therefore continues SBD de Silva‘s brilliant exposition of the growth of Sri Lanka’s Import-Export Mafia, excerpting Chapter 4 of his classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. De Silva shows how England has actively prevented industrialization in our countries to this day, while promoting industrialization in other countries. What is amazing is de Silva rarely mentions Sri Lanka in this chapter but looks for antecedents in Africa (both ‘Sub-Sahara’ & ‘Mahgreb’) and the different roles played by white ‘expatriates’ & ‘settlers’ and darker ‘natives’ in the economy, especially in the mixed ‘Settler-Colonies’ of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Congo, and South Africa, as well as Algeria, etc.
The white settlers not only tried to manage the economy ‘independently’ from London & Paris, etc, but they even militarily fought them, whereas the English preferred to hand over our countries to ‘elite’ but totally idiotic native satraps who would continue the import-export plantation fakery. Whereas our pampered economists claim that the divide is between free trade & protection, SBD details the strategic application & removal of tariffs to protect industries, depending on their maturity. Settler governments deployed customs tariffs to ‘promote domestic production rather than as a source of public revenue’. England also chose ‘free trade’ only after it ‘ruled the waves’ and its economy had been advanced beyond agriculture, to industry.
De Silva details how ‘settler agriculture’ which involved ‘prolonged experimentation and research… generated both a European bourgeoisie and a proletariat’, whereas in Sri Lanka the English sought to impoverish peasant production, and promote outdated social relations, which we would have moulted along the way if left to ourselves. ‘The production structures which emerged in the settler colonies had elements of a development policy‘, whereas ‘development‘ in Sri Lanka became a synonym for continued colonial depredation. Imported technologies, roads & railways, etc, then deliberately undermined peasant production. SBD’s fascinating glimpse into the sabotaging of industrialization in Sri Lanka and other nonsettler colonies, exposes a deeply damaging historical process of divide&rule – which prevails to this day, with our policy makers & policy implementers, policy executors & policy enforcers, policy operators or policy administrators, all deaf, dumb, blind & disabled to the real meaning of the need for modern machine-making industrialization.
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• With local elections finally over, after a 7-year hiatus, and the usual whining about ‘election spending’, ee continues the raucous peek into the antics of the early-1800s New York’s Tammany Society – a secret body, that operated the more open Tammany Hall political vote machine. This adaptation from Gustave Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall, suggests that much of the chicanery involved in elections was not just an inheritance from England but involved ‘creative’ innovations. Decisions were made not just by verbal resolutions but by fist & boot. While setting up organizations to oppose banks, they actively promoted their own banks that defrauded people. He shows how candidates were first decided by bankers on Wall Street, with politicians bribed by shares in bank stock, just as opponents were made bankrupt and jailed, and how bankers were taxed less than workers. Any attempts by workers to organize unions were punished and jailed, while enabling ‘the countless combinations of aristocracy; boards of bank & other chartered directories; boards of brokers; boards of trade& commerce; combinations of landlords; coal & wood dealers; monopolists and all those who grasp at everything & produce nothing‘. However, Myers makes no reference to their views on the ‘peculiar’ institution of chattel slavery, or of the genocidal wars on the original people taking place during those decades.
Welcome then to another edition of ee and a glorious Vesak to you, dear readers. May the light of the new moon and our historical & collective intelligence, resistance & resolve, shine brighter, and show us the way forward…
A 15-year-old girl named Amshi—brilliant, talented, and full of promise—is dead. She took her own life after being sexually abused three times by her teacher at Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College in Colombo. Instead of being protected, she was forced to be removed from school by the very principal who should have defended her. Forced into a new school in Kotahena, she then endured repeated public humiliation at a tuition class run by a friend of her abuser. On April 29, 2025, the trauma became unbearable—Amshi ended her life. Her death is not an isolated tragedy but a damning reflection of systemic rot: a school that expelled the victim, an education ministry that acted only after protests, a tuition teacher who abused power, and a society that failed to protect its children. There can be no more Amshi’s. Its time society acted & demanded justice & system changes that punish the abusers & prevents sexual abuse of children.
The incident in brief:
A 15-year-old school girl had been sexually abused by her Maths teacher at her school Ramanathan Hindu Ladies College in October-November 2025.
The school principal had forced her parents to remove her from school
She had been put to a school in Kotahena where she lived.
She was a talented student (academically & extracurricular) from certificates shown by parents.
She attended a popular tuition class. Her teacher was a friend of the teacher who abused her & infront of the tuition class she had been humiliated repeatedly.
The sexual abuse & the humiliation was too much to bear so she took her life on 29 April 2025.
Let’s go through the timeline:
Amshi sexually abused by male teacher in Ramanathan Hindu Ladies School Bambalapitiya in Oct-Nov 2024 (3 times)
8 January 2025 – Bambalapitiya Police arrests teacher, produces him before Magistrate & remands him for 3 days & released him (10 January 2025) on bail with travel ban.
18 January 2025 – Amshi joins Rajeshwari tuition class. It turns out that this tuition class is run by Sivanandarajah a JVP organizer & friend of the teacher who sexually abused Amshi.
29 April 2025 – Amshi takes her life
29-30 April 2025 – Amshi’s parents give statement to Kotahena police
4 May 2025 – Amshi’s parents make a press statement
8 May 2025 – 4 Public Protests a) outside Education Ministry b) outside Bambapalitiya School c) outside tuition class d) outside the home of Amshi demanding justice for Amshi
8 May 2025 – Education Ministry letter calls for explanation from Principal of Bambalapitiya School & transfers the teacher to a school in Puttalam
9 May 2025 – Statement from Police Media Division (very important)
The police statement claims that based on a complaint filed on 8 December 2024 to the Bambalapitiya Police, the alleged teacher had been arrested on 8 January 2025 and produced to the Aluth Kade Court 3 Magistrates Court & had been kept in remand till 10 January 2025 (3 days) & was released on bail with a travel ban. This case is to be taken on 19 May 2025.
Note: the statement does not state who filed complaint to the Bambalapitiya Police. As per MP Mujabur Rahaman, it was the Kotahena Police.
After the child’s death, on 6 May 2025 the Child and Women Abuse Prevention and Investigation Bureau had received a call to their 109 emergency number by a third party informing that the owner of the tuition class the girl attended, had humiliated the girl infront of the class and that together with the sexual abuse was the reason to take her life. Thus the bureau had presented these facts to the Court. The Bureau & the Bambalapitiya police are continuing investigations.
19 May 2025 – teacher accused of sexually abusing Amshi to appear in Court 3 Magistrates Court Aluth Kade
Unanswered questions:
How did the parents come to know about the sexual abuse of their daughter – did Amshi tell them, did a friend tell them & was this told immediately after the abuse? – reports claim she had been sexually abused Oct-Nov 2024, the Opposition Leader mentions 23 October 2024 as first incident.
Did Amshi inform the Principal of the school or a teacher?
When did Amshi’s mother inform the Principal of Bambalapitiya Ramanathan Hindu Ladies School?
What did Principal do after being informed by Amshi’s mother? Why did the Principal not take proper action against the teacher?
When did Principal force Amshi’s parents to remove her from school? Was it after the teacher had been arrested? As per the statement by the Police Media Division dated 9 May 2025, the Bambalapitiya Police had arrested the teacher on 8 January 2025 after a complaint filed on 8 December 2024.
Sivanandarajah who runs the Rajeshwari tuition class in a statement outside CID is a JVP organizer & friend of the teacher who sexually abused Amshi. He is accused of verbally humiliating her in front of other students. An anonymous call made to the Child and Women Abuse Prevention and Investigation Bureau 109 emergency number on 6 May 2025 disclosed these details as another reason for Amshi to take her life. Amshi’s parents in their statements on 29th & 30thApril to the Kotahena police following the death of Amshi on 29th April had also mentioned the Rajeshwari tuition class & the tuition owner.
Sivanandarajah claimed that Amshi joined the tuition class on 18 January 2025 – this was 10 days after the arrest of his friend, the teacher who had abused Amshi. Was this a key reason for him to humiliate Amshi in class?
MP Mujabur Rahman on 9 May in Parliament claims that the tuition teacher’s house has been given 8man police protection – how true is this & on what grounds is he been given protection by the Govt?
MP Mujabur Rahman also states that the girl was examined by the GMOA who confirmed sexual abuse & informed the Kotahena police who had informed the Bambalapitiya police to take necessary action. The MP does not mention dates. But for GMOA to examine Amshi, for the Kotahena police to be informed & Kotahena police to file complaint on 8 December 2024 & ask Bambalapitiya Police to inquire – the GMOA checkup has to have taken place in December 2024, which resulted in the eventual arrest of the teacher on 8 January 2025.
MP Mujabur also stated in Parliament that it was only AFTER the joint protests that the Education Ministry took action against the teacher by transferring him.
The Education Ministry is calling for explanation from the Principal 9 days after the death of Amshi.
The Education Ministry is transferring the teacher who sexually abused Amshi to another school in Puttalam fully aware of the sexual crime he is accused of by sending him to another school where innocent children may be likely prey. Additionally, the Education Ministry was transferring him fully aware that the Bambapalitiya Police had arrested him on 8 January 2025, kept him in remand for 3 days & his case was to be taken up at Court 3 Magistrates Court, Aluth Kade on 19 May 2025.
The PM says an investigation has been launched – when, by whom, with what mandate?
The PM says no one knows what has happened” the police statement is very clear about the crime & GMOA has confirmed it.
The PM even gives the wrong age for Amshi – claiming her to be 13 when she was 15.
The PM has to admit that action against the Principal & the teacher took place by her & his Ministry ONLY 9 days after Amshi’s death.
There is little that needs to be said about the Women’s Minister Paulraj who has absolutely no empathy for a child who took her life because of sexual abuse & public bullying, even demanding that Amshi’s parents need to come to her feet to meet her.
Several crimes have been committed. The guilty must be legally punished & socially shunned.
Criminal Prosecution for Sexual Abuse – Penal Code
Abetment of suicide – as teachers / tuition teachers actions led to her suicide
Investigation & arrest & judicial proceedings – case is ongoing
Crucial role of NCPA – to protect the child’s rights even though she is no more.
Civil suit – family can file civil suit for damages against teacher (legal fraternity must come forward to offer free service for this & consider this as a civic duty)
Institutional accountability – hold the Principal to account & anyone else involved who knew & did nothing. Legal action for negligence & dereliction of duty, failure to protect a child, failure to act on knowledge of abuse which has jail term & fine. If evidence shows the principal covered up or discouraged reporting the principal should be charged as an accessory.
Action against tuition teacher (friend of abuser) – committing psychological cruelty to the child, humiliating a minor especially a sexual abuse survivor is a crime (penal code) & has jail term & fine. If the humiliation contributed to the suicide he can be further charged.
If any others are found guilty of aiding & abetting the teacher abuser of tuition teacher, police must investigate & arrest & prosecute all involved. The Women & Children’s Bureau, the NCPA must take a lead in using Amshi’s case to severely punish the guilty so that it serves as a future deterrent to sexual predators of what is going to be in store for them if they can’t keep their sexual organs in place without harming a child.
Recent legal proceedings – Kalutara, tuition teacher arrested for sexually abusing multiple school girls, wife discovered videos on laptop & reported to police.
It is reported that a number of leading countries including the USA and India want to wrest control of our graphite. I have read somewhere that our graphite is of superb quality- something like the best in the World.. Because we are buried in the quagmire of debt and hold a failed economy it is likely that we sell our family silver for a song. Our treacherous leaders are selling everything for a song. I hope they do realize what they are doing to Mother Lanka. Anyone in power should know to be patriots.
It is perhaps unfortunate that I was the Government Agent at Matara and not the GA at Kegalla when we implemented the Divisional Development Councils Programme because had I been in Kegalla we would today be producing all our pencils.
The DDCP gave us administrators a framework to establish industries and in Matara I did establish a Crayon Factory that within the small space of a year did make crayons and sold it islandwide,
We actually did not know how to make a crayon. But I had a chemistry graduate as my Planning Officer and I decided to convince Vetus Fernando that he should put his knowledge of chemistry to the test and find the art of making a crayon. We also roped in the science teachers at Rahula College Matara and my wife was one of them. I convinced Vetus that he should have a try. Once he agreed I authorized the purchase of some ingredients from some Rural Development funds- I had no authority to do this but for the sake of Mother Lanka we administrators had got used to the art of bending rules. We decided that we start experiments at my Residency and we met and made a few experiments but realized that we had to get more equipment to conduct experiments. I approached the Principal of Rahula College Mr Ariyawansa and he readily approved.
From that day, Vetus helped by the science teachers was conducting experiments at the science lab from six to midnight every day. We really got nowhere even after a full two months.
Then Vetus got a brainwave to contact his Professors who had graduated him a year earlier. I approved the mission and Vetus went to the Chemistry Department at the University of Colombo. Vetus said that the science lab at the University had some special machinery that could help. On the fourth day Vetus came back, a broken down man with a tale of woe- that he had begged help from all the lecturers and professors who had taught him but that had said that they had no time- they were busy in lectures and making answer scripts.
It was a bolt from the blue and we were dumbstruck. But my team of katcheri officers and I were not going to take it lying down. We recommenced experiments at the Rahula College science lab again at six in the evening to midnight and in a month Vetus found the art of making a good crayon. That month, on most nights I too was there and we even sang songs to keep going when every night we did fail. Finally one night we did succeed and I sat with Vetus and did final experiments to make the crayon as fine as Reeves Crayons- the best of the day.
The next question was how to make crayons. I could have easily summoned Harischandra the business magnate and given him the recipe and he would have jumped at the idea. But that would not be us. It had to be us and racking our brains I decided that it should be a cooperative. Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament for Deniyaya was the President of the Morawak Korale Cooperative Union and I had been struck with the fact that Sumanapala was a go getter who was dependable- a man from the South who could even take fire under the water, as the saving goes. I summoned Sunapala and asked him whether he would like to undertake to set up a crayon factory and he readily agreed. As the GA I controlled vast funds but every fund had a specification that it had to be used for a specific purpose and I could face censure. However Sumanapala too held funds in the Cooperative Union but he had no authority to use any of it for some experiments. Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake had gazetted all, Government Agents as Deputy Directors of Cooperatives for the purpose of the paddy production programme,
I usurped the right to authorize Sumanapala to use cooperative funds for the purpose of establishing a crayon factory.
The very next day Vetus and I accompanied by half a dozen officers moved to Morawaka where we started training youths to make crayons. It was a 24 hour operation a few of us snatching a few hours sleep on a chair while others worked. Sumanapala was everywhere. In the second week we got printed labels, pasted them and packets of ten filled two large rooms. It was a great success.
Then to acquire legitimacy Sumane and I took samples to the Minister of Industries who was so taken up with the quality that he agreed to open sales in three days. We rushed back and made arrangement and Coop Crayon was sold in Matara Colombo and over the entire island.
We were purchasing dyes in the open market at high prices as the Small Industries Department refused to give us an allocation of forex to import dyes. We heard that the Controller of Imports was about to authorize the import of crayons and we moved in. We showed Coop crayon to Harry Guneratne who wanted us to obtain the approval of Minister Illangaratne. The Minister was highly taken up with the product that he approved us a fat allocation and even got me to agree that I will open a crayon factory at Kolonnawa. He ordered the stop of all imports.
That was all in 1973 and Coop Crayon held till 1978 when imports were fully allowed and Coop Crayon a well establish industry was closed down to satisfy IMF conditions.
This is not a fable but something we did in 1973.
Over to our new leader President Dissanayake: We did it once and can do it again.
Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien also known as Ven Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata
The American Vietnamese Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien also known as Ven Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata is seen greeting President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Conference Hall in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) where President Anura Kumara Dissanayake delivered the key note address reaffirming longstanding Buddhist ties between the two countries. He was the Chief Guest honouring a joint invitation extended by the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha and the Government of Vietnam on the occasion of the celebrations of UN Day of Vesak 2025 in Vietnam on May 06, 2025.
Biographical sketch Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien is a dedicated and entrepreneurial Buddhist . She was born in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam and entered the USA with her parents as a child. She succeeded in life with dignity and beauty. She commenced demonstrating her cultural pride in 1986 in Kansas and won the Traditional Vietnamese Dress Award. In 2012 she won the USA Miss Asia International Competition honoring the beauty, talent, wisdom and traditional cultural values of thousands of competitors from 58 countries.
Furthermore, during this period, she displayed her amazing creativity and enterprise by founding international cosmetics companies like EV Princess, BL Miracle, and Herbs EV, that distributed products to 15 nations, as well as, beauty salons. Her success as a Woman Entrepreneur earned her the respect of American Presidents namely George W. Bush and Barack Obama who both invited her to events at the White House.
Additionally, she established the Bich Lien Charity Foundation to empower the Vietnamese people in both the USA and Vietnam who are facing a multitude of problems such as hunger, poverty, and other difficulties.
in the midst of her glittering success it dawned on her to see the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings and the three characteristics (ti-lakkhaṇa) that apply to all existence in Samsāra.
In February of 2015 Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata made a bold and courageous decision in the tradition of the great Buddhist Nuns beginning with Mahapajapati Gotami (foster mother and aunt of the Buddha), to go forth (Pabajja ) as a Buddhist Bhikkhuni. She made a profound statement that day:
“All the glories of the world cannot compare to the wonderful Dharma which uniquely brings true happiness to our lives.”
Bhiksuni Bich Lien visited Sri Lanka to pursue her education in the Dhamma and after 4 years of persevering research and writing she obtained her Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Kelaniya, and thus becoming first Vietnamese-American and the first Bhikkhuni on the island of Sri Lanka to do so.
She has served Buddhism notably by founding the Lotus International Meditation Center in southern California and acting as the Senior Advisor and Director of International Affairs at Minh Dang Quang Temple in Los Angeles, California.
She established and serves as the President and Director of the International Buddhist Bhikkhuni Congregation. Irrespective of consideration of race or nationality, she promoted connectivity using the digital option to connect young nuns around the world with each other, so that they may speak to each other and share their knowledge and experience about monastic life. It held its first meeting in 2020.
Her resolve is to have the proceeds of the continued business success applied’ to non-profit community events. Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien walks with vision and determination on the path to enlightenment – along the Bodhisattva Path.
Supporter of the Berlin Vihara Bhikkhuni Elizabeth Sujata ( also known by her Vietnamese name Bhiksuni Dr. Bich Lien) is a strong supporter of the Berlin Vihara in Germany. She financed the publication of the Book ‘ 100 years – Das Buddhistiche Haus ‘ published by the German Dharmaduta Society ( Vijitha Yapa bookshop) and which was launched at the ‘ Temple Trees’ on August 3rd, 2024 under the patronage of Prime Minister Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena and in the presence of the German Ambassador Dr. Felix Neumann and a large gathering of 600 invited guests. She also attended the 100 anniversary celebrations held in Berlin ( Das Buddhistische Haus and Zehlendorf Community Centre in Berlin) on August 3 – 4, 2024.
Recently Ven. Elizabeth Sujata Bhikkhuni donated a sum of US Dollars 5, 000 to the fund organized by the Europe based Sri Lanka Bhikshu Sangamaya for the purpose of rehabilitation and reconstruction of Myanmar devastated by the recent earthquake.
Here is the full report of the event
A sum of Rs. 3.1 million collected by the Sri Lanka Bhikkshu Sangamaya in Europe for the rehabilitation of the victims of the recent Earthquake in Myanmar was handed over on behalf of the Sri Lanka Bhikkshu Sangamaya in Europe by Ven. Pelane Dhamma Kusala Thero, Resident Monk of the Berlin Buddhist Vihara ( Das Buddhistiche Haus in Berlin – Frohnau), to Ven. Kumarasiddhi Thero (Burmese monk) representing the Myanmar ( Burmese) Bhikkshu fraternity living in Sri Lanka, at a new Buddhist Temple (in formation) in Madapatha under the watch of Ven Dhamma Kusala. This money will be utilized for the rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in Myanmar, which is one of the oldest Theravada Buddhist countries in the world alongside Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Members of the Myanmar Embassy in Sri Lanka and Representatives of the German Dharmaduta Society were present on this occasion to witness this meritorious deed.
Two young lives lost—one a university student, the other a schoolgirl in Kotahena. These are not isolated tragedies. They are searing warnings that Sri Lankan society is spiraling into a moral crisis. A breakdown is underway—of values, of accountability, of conscience. Behind every funeral lies a failing: in our families, our schools, our media, and our government.
This is a call to all Sri Lankans. Not tomorrow. Now.
Children today are raised in a digital jungle where morality is mocked, innocence is monetized, and decency is dismissed as outdated. Global platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook operate with one goal: profit. Their algorithms are built not for protection, but for addiction. And our children are the casualties.
Sexualized content, gender confusion, disrespect for elders and teachers, distorted ideas of love and identity—this is the daily digital dose of Sri Lankan children. With just a click, they are pulled into a world that devalues their innocence and glorifies chaos.
The media, both local and global, are guilty, without a doubt. They glorify rebellion and sell immorality as freedom. They sensationalize trauma, often revictimizing girls already crushed by abuse. They ignore responsibility, forsake ethical journalism, and leave society to bleed & then relay this to viewers as sensational breaking” news. Shameful.
We demand
Strict legal action against media houses and platforms that expose children to inappropriate content.
A regulatory framework that forces online platforms to implement mandatory filtering and restrict age-inappropriate content.
Penalties for broadcasters and internet providers that fail to protect minors, including those offering free data during late-night hours—when children are most vulnerable.
Collapse of Family and Educational Authority
The family was once the moral nucleus of Sri Lankan society. Today, it’s mocked as old-fashioned,” dismantled by foreign ideologies that encourage children to question even their own biological reality.
When discipline disappears from the home, when schools focus only on grades but ignore values, children grow up emotionally vacant, mentally fragile, and morally adrift. They become easy prey—trapped in a world of digital deception, identity confusion, and emotional exploitation.
We must
Reclaim traditional family values rooted in respect, modesty, and discipline.
Equip parents to understand the threats of the digital world and teach them to safeguard their children.
Empower schools to become sanctuaries of learning and character-building, not just exam factories.
Institutional Abuse and Systemic Failure
No Government. No Minister can be allowed to shrug the issue aside.
They are elected by the people to solve the problems of the people not to provide security for the abusers.
What is more tragic than a predator in a place of trust?
Schools and universities, once bastions of learning and protection, now house teachers and lecturers accused of demanding sexual favors, ignoring bullying, and punishing victims instead of perpetrators.
In the Kotahena case, instead of being suspended, the accused teacher was simply transferred. Why should grieving parents have to beg for justice? Why does accountability require a public outcry before action is taken?
Do people need to protest for action to be taken & justice to happen?
We demand
Immediate suspension of any educator or authority figure accused of abuse, pending investigation
Swift, transparent disciplinary inquiries and criminal prosecutions when necessary.
Nationwide training for teachers on ethical conduct, student mental health, and child protection laws. The child & parent must know the law but they must also be taught there are duties to uphold too.
Strengthen and Enforce Child Protection Laws
Sri Lanka’s child protection laws are outdated and dangerously out of step with the digital world. Children are being exploited while laws remain paralyzed. The nation has failed its most vulnerable.
We demand:
Updated legislation that criminalizes the distribution of sexual content to minors and severely penalizes violators.
Cybercrime and Child Protection Units, capable of monitoring and responding in real time.
A national child-safety surveillance mechanism involving government, civil society, and trained parents.
A private member’s bill that attempted to remove vital protective sections of the Penal Code (365 and 365A) was supported by individuals and organizations who should have defended children, not endangered them. This betrayal cannot go unanswered.
Those that supported the petition to repeal the clauses on homosexuality & sex with children under 16 included:
Founder & Executive Director – Child Protection Force & 3 key officers / President of Stop Child Cruelty Trust, member of Child Protection Alliance, member of Family Planning Association & advisor Save the Children, a Child health expert, Executive Director of Women in Need who was also Chairman Police Commission, 16 lawyers, 4 medical practitioners, 4 LGBTQIA activists, 10 from the media industry, 9 from the banking & financial industry, 18 from the business community, 9 so-called professionals, 9 youths, 6 NGO activists, 3 retired government servants.
Is there really hope for the children of Sri Lanka when so-called educated” want to remove the safety measures in place to protect children?
Education Reform Rooted in Morality and Mental Health
Sex education in Sri Lanka must protect, not confuse. It must not be hijacked by ideologies that promote identity experimentation in children. Instead, it should teach self-respect, boundaries, and protection against abuse.
Schools lack trained counselors, moral education, and leadership rooted in values. A generation is growing up emotionally broken—burdened by cyberbullying, peer pressure, exposure to adult content, and an identity crisis. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are the symptoms of a system in decay.
We demand
Mandatory inclusion of ethics, emotional intelligence, and respect-based education across all schools.
Compulsory training for teachers on child psychology and social media manipulation.
A trained school counselor in every institution—someone who advocates for the child, not just occupies a position.
Religious and Community Leadership Must Rise
Religious institutions cannot remain silent. They must reclaim their historical role in moral leadership, become watchdogs for societal degradation, and speak with wisdom, urgency, and compassion.
We call on all religious and cultural leaders to:
Raise their voice against harmful media content and moral erosion.
Lead community outreach and education on parenting, digital dangers, and child protection.
National Call to Action
Let the deaths of the campus student and Kotahena schoolgirl not be just another breaking news. No mother carries a child for nine months to bury them in a coffin. These tragedies must shake us to our core and spur immediate, collective action.
We demand a 24/7 national child protection hotline, monitored, resourced, and publicized.
We demand that perpetrators—whether in homes, schools, or online—be held legally accountable without delay.
We demand that this government, all political parties, civil institutions, religious leaders, media professionals, and educators rise together to protect Sri Lanka’s future—our children.
Suicide is a psychiatric emergency and needs immediate intervention. It has been recognized as a major health problem and a leading cause of death worldwide. Suicide does not occur in a vacuum; it’s a fatal outcry and a highly complex and multifaceted phenomenon.
Suicide is the most severe and final manifestation of psychological pain (Rahman et al., 2010). Suicide is a social malady with far-reaching impact. Suicide is defined as an act of intentionally terminating one’s own life (Nock et al., 2008). The National Institute of Mental Health defines suicide as a death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior. Suicides result from the complex interaction of many factors (O’Connor et al., 2014).
Suicidal behavior has a unique trajectory and the behavior pattern is clearly in the medical domain. Suicidal behavior encompasses a spectrum of behavior from suicide attempt and preparatory behaviors to completed suicide. Suicide behavior disorder (SBD) was introduced in DSM-5 as a disorder for further consideration and potential acceptance into the diagnostic system. Many mental health clinicians recognize suicidal behavior as an independent construct.
According to the French sociologist Emile Durkheim, the term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result. For Emile Durkheim suicide is not a personal act. He believed that the more socially integrated and connected a person is, the less likely he or she is to commit suicide. Durkheim identifies four different types of suicide which are egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide.
Psychodynamics of the pathway to suicide is complex. According to Menninger (1938) suicide is caused by unconscious drives. Depression, psychic pain, impulsiveness, anger, anxiety, despair, loneliness, panic, violence, revenge, and a host of other factors are acting in a complex and almost infinite combination to produce the catastrophic behavior and it leads to suicide (Gibbons, 2024). Some experts propose the relationship between attachment styles and suicide ideation. Silva Filho and team (2023) highlight that disruptive attachments are related to emotional dysregulation and mental disorders throughout life.
Suicide and suicidal behavior have become a public health concern in Sri Lanka. The suicide rate in Sri Lanka in 2022 was 27 per 100 000 and 5 per 100 000, in males and females, respectively, with an overall suicide rate of 15 per 100 000 populations. However, incidence of suicide is underreported in Sri Lanka due to legal and stigma-associated factors. According to the World Health Organization-based statistics, suicide occurs in approximately 16.7 per 100,000 persons per year and is the 14th-leading cause of death worldwide.
For the development of suicide risk, biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors have been identified (Turecki, et al., 2019). The link between suicide and mental disorders is well established. There is a correlation between suicidality and psychopathology (Gvion &Apter, 2011). Psychopathology, biological vulnerability, family characteristics, and stressful life events play a key role in suicidal behaviors. The most common psychiatric conditions associated with suicide or serious suicide attempts are mood disorders, but personality disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia are also frequently associated with suicidal behavior. (Sher,2004). Other risk factors such as unemployment, marital disruptions and financial crises also play a crucial role.
Suicides have a rippling effect. As described by Pirkis and Nordentoft (2011), media reporting of suicide can influence suicide rates. According to the social learning theory one person’s suicide can influence another’s suicidal behavior. The aftermath of suicide touches the lives of family and friends of the victim. The ripple effect can impact individuals and their families and friends. The ripple effect can extend to something known as “vicarious suicidality”. The evidence suggests that suicidal behavior is contagious” (Gould & Lake 2013).
Suicide is preventable and preventing requires strategies at all levels of society with a comprehensive public health approach. Promoting mental health education and de-stigmatisation efforts are highly essential. Suicide prevention is an emotive, complex goal for clinicians and health systems (Larkin et al., 2023).
Clinical suicidology” emphasizing suicide risk assessment, treatment, training, and the management of suicide-related liability. For there to be suicidal behavior there needs to be an established intent to die and a measurable medical lethality associated with the behavior (Silverman,2006). Clinical suicidology identifies suicide an act with a fatal outcome which the deceased, knowing or expecting a potentially fatal outcome, has initiated and carried out with the purpose of bringing about wanted changes (DeLeo et al., 2004).
Psychotherapeutic, pharmacological, or neuromodulatory treatments of mental disorders can often prevent suicidal behavior (Turecki et al., 2016). antidepressants are widely used in suicide prevention pharmacotherapy. For psychotherapeutic methods mental health clinicians recommend dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive therapy prolonged grief therapy and attachment based family therapy.
Implementing effective public health programs, promote wellness and removing stigma around suicide related behaviors can reduce the risk of suicide contagion. Furthermore, identifying risk factors and recognizing the warning signs for suicide can help prevent suicide. Media reporting on suicide can affect suicidal behavior and responsible reporting help prevent the suicide contagion effect. There should be a comprehensive national strategy to prevent suicide.
(Dr. Neil Fernando is a consultant Psychiatrist and Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge is a Clinical Psychologist)
References
De Leo, D., & Spathonis, K. (2004). Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour in Late Life. Suicidal Behaviour: Theories and Research Findings.
Gibbons, R. (2024). Understanding the psychodynamics of the pathway to suicide. International Review of Psychiatry, 36(4-5), 508–516.
Gould, M., & Lake, A. M. (2013). The contagion of suicide behavior: Impact of media reporting on suicide. Forum on Global Violence Prevention: Based on Global Health Institute of Medicine, National Research Council: Washington DC: ational Academics Press.
Gvion Y, Apter A. Aggression, impulsivity and suicide behavior: a review of the literature. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2011;15:93-112.
Larkin C, Arensman E, Boudreaux ED. Preventing Suicide in Health Systems: How Can Implementation Science Help? Arch Suicide Res. 2023 Oct-Dec;27(4):1147-1162. doi: 10.1080/13811118.2022.2131490. Epub 2022 Oct 20. PMID: 36267036
Nock MK, Borges G, Bromet EJ, Alonso J, Angermeyer M, Beautrais A, et al. Cross-national prevalence and risk factors for suicidal ideation, plans and attempts. Br J Psychiatry. 2008;192:98-105.
O’Connor RC, Nock MK. The psychology of suicidal behaviour. Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Jun;1(1):73-85. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)70222-6. Epub 2014 Jun 4. PMID: 26360404.
Pirkis J, Nordentoft M. Media influences on suicide and attempted suicide. In: O’Connor RC, Platt S, Gordon J, editors. International handbook of suicide prevention: research, policy and practice. Chichester; Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons; 2011. pp. 531–44.
Rahman B., Shirin V ., Mitra. N (2010). The relationship between attachment styles and suicide ideation: the study of Turkmen students, Iran, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 5, Pages 1190-1194, ISSN 1877-0428,
Sher,L.(2004). Preventing suicide, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 97, Issue 10 Pages 677–680, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hch106
Silva Filho OCD, Avanci JQ, Pires TO, de Vasconcellos Carvalhaes Oliveira R, Assis SG. Attachment, suicidal behavior, and self-harm in childhood and adolescence: a study of a cohort of Brazilian schoolchildren. BMC Pediatr. 2023 Aug 17;23(1):403. doi: 10.1186/s12887-023-04215-7. PMID: 37592202; PMCID: PMC10433545.
Silverman. M.M. (2006). The Language of Suicidology.Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2006 Oct;36(5):519-32.
The UK and the US have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries.
President Donald Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods entering the US.
But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK’s exports, including cars, steel and aluminium.
Here’s an at-a-glance look at what’s in the deal.
This isn’t a trade deal
Trump declared on social media this announcement would be a “major trade deal” – it’s not.
He does not have the authority to sign the type of free-trade agreement India and the UK finalised earlier this week – this lies with Congress.
Congress would need to approve a trade agreement, which would take longer than the 90-day pause in place on some of Trump’s tariffs.
This is an agreement which has reversed or cut some of those tariffs on specific goods.
It is only the bare bones of a narrow agreement, there will be months of negotiations and legal paperwork to follow.
Car tariffs cut to 10%
Trump had placed import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US on top of the existing 2.5%.
This has been cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of cars the UK exported last year.
But any cars exported above that quota will be subject to a 27.5% import tax.
Cars are the UK’s biggest export to the US – worth about £9bn last year.
Jaguar Land Rover, which exports almost a quarter of its cars to the US, said the deal “secures greater certainty for our sector”.
But car industry leaders have told the BBC the quota could effectively put a ceiling on the number they can export competitively.
The UK currently imposes a 10% levy on US car imports, but it is not clear if there is any change to this.
The US has previously demanded the tax be cut to 2.5%, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves had indicated she is open to such a cut.
Trump also announced that Rolls-Royce engines and plane parts will be able to be exported from the UK to the US tariff-free.
No tariffs on steel and aluminium
A 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports into the US that came into effect in March has been scrapped.
This is good news for firms such as British Steel which was brought under government control as it struggled to stay operational.
However, the White House said it would impose a quota on the “most favoured nation rates for UK steel and aluminium and certain derivative steel and aluminium products.”
It is currently unclear how much of these products the UK will be able to export to the US under this quota system without paying more.
It is also unclear whether the scrapping of tariffs will apply to steel derivative products and whether only steel melted and poured in the UK will benefit.
The UK exports a relatively small amount of steel and aluminium to the US, about £700m in total.
However, the tariffs also cover products made with steel and aluminium, including things such as gym equipment, furniture and machinery.
These are worth much more, about £2.2bn, or about 5% of UK exports to the US last year.
Industry body Steel UK said there were “a number hoops to jump through before the UK steel sector can see the benefits of this deal”.
It said firms needed to know what supply chain conditions need to be met, what the quotas are and when they take effect.
Pharmaceuticals still the big unknown
What will be agreed on pharmaceuticals is still unknown with the UK saying work would continue on this and the remaining reciprocal tariffs.
The US said both countries would “promptly negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals”.
Pharmaceuticals are a major export for the UK when it comes to US trade – last year sales of these products were worth £6.6bn making it the UK’s second-biggest export to the US.
It’s also America’s fourth biggest export to the UK, valued at £4bn last year.
Most countries, including the US, imposed few or no tariffs on finished drugs, as part of an agreement aimed at keeping medicines affordable.
The president has not announced any trade restrictions on medicines yet.
There was no change to the UK’s 2% digital services tax in this deal and it appears to be a sticking point.
Businesses that run social media, search engines or online marketplaces have to pay it if they receive more than £500m in global revenues and £25m from UK users annually.
But this threshold is easily met by US tech giants like Meta, Google, Apple.
The UK reportedly netted nearly £360m from American tech firms via the tax in its first year.
The UK government said it had “agreed to work on a digital trade deal”.
But the US government said it was “disappointed that the UK was unwilling to agree to fully address the tax.
“It is discriminatory, unjustified, and should be removed promptly,” it said.
No drop to food standards
US beef exports to the UK had been subject to a 20% tariff within a quota of 1,000 metric tons. The UK has scrapped this tariff and raised the quota to 13,000 metric tonnes, according to the White House document.
In return, the UK has been given the same quota at a lower rate in line with other countries.
Many American farmers use growth hormones as a standard part of their beef production, something that was banned in the UK and the European Union in the 1980s.
The US has previously pushed for a relaxation of rules for its agricultural products, including beef from cattle that have been given growth hormones.
This is an area where the UK has chosen alignment with EU – and the forthcoming “Brexit reset” with the EU – over the US.
The tariff on ethanol coming into the UK from the US has also been scrapped.
The National Farmers Union said the inclusion of “a significant volume of bioethanol [a renewable fuel made from crops] in the deal raises concerns for British arable farmers”.
The quotation “Missing the wood for the trees” means being unable to see the whole picture or larger context because one is fixated on minor details or individual components. It suggests a lack of perspective and an inability to understand the bigger picture due to being too focused on the small parts. This catchy phrase originated as part of the works of John Heywood, an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs, circa 1546. It is an idiom used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. (https://www.cmfgroup.com/blog/ healthcare-professionals/sometimes-we-cannot-see-the-forest-for-the-trees/#:~:text=This%20catchy%20phrase%20 originated%20as,the%20situation%20as%20a%20whole)
However, local government elections in fact must be about the small parts that constitute the whole. It must be about local issues and which party or individual at grass roots level is close to the people and can work with the people to attend to matters at local level. It is a misplaced assumption and a misguided promotion that local government elections are about national issues, and they are a like a referendum on a party in power at national level. As much as a wood would be barren if there are no trees in it, a country would be similarly barren if it does not have a strong, participative local government that represents the people at grass roots level. A strong local government system should be the backbone of a country’s political system, but not necessarily constituted as a partisan political system as would be mentioned later in this article.
Perhaps the staging of local government elections should precede a national general election if a bottom-up approach is to replace the bottom down approach that the country has experienced for many decades. While there are some issues that are essentially national in nature like defence and foreign policy, taxation and major infra structure developments, policies pertaining to many other areas need to consider local situations, wider consultations with people, and national policy formulation linked to such grassroots participation on local issues.
While a governing party, in this instance the NPP, would have strived to bask in the glory of their presidential and general election successes and win the local government election on the strength of those successes, such a line of thought would not have been necessarily the best outcome for the local government bodies and the people at grassroots level. At such a level what matters is the record of efficiency and the effectiveness of those who have been members of local government bodies and those who are aspiring to be members and who have their ears to the ground their eyes on the people in towns and villages in local government areas. In this context, people would be the best judges as to who should represent them at local government level on matters that are essentially local in nature. Success at presidential or general elections should not automatically translate into success at local government level, unless those contesting could demonstrate they are well across local issues and are able to offer solutions for such local issues.
Many analysts, and of course opposition politicians have seized on the drop in votes for the NPP at the May 6th local government election. Reportedly only about 60 percent of the 17.14 million electorate turned out to vote on Tuesday, down from nearly 70 percent in the November general election and 80 percent in the September presidential vote. While voter fatigue after two major elections could well be one reason for the drop in vote, as far as the governing party is concerned, which more or less campaigned on the strength and success of the two preceding national elections, their own supporters may have been lulled into thinking that local government elections do not count for much since presidential and general election powers were with them. Some may have opined that promises made have not been delivered and decided not to vote although the NPP government has been in power for less than 6 months and the national budget passed only in April this year.
The line of thought that a government at national level should have control over local government entities simply because of such power, without a focus on local issues and how to address them, is a line of thought that does not produce optimum democratic outcomes for the people at grass roots level. In fact, the results of the May 6th election, with many local bodies requiring coalitions of some sort, either multi-party, or with independents, to be able to govern the local body has restored a welcome degree of democracy that is a good for the country.
However, this gain will be negated if the Opposition political parties desire to group together is only to cause embarrassment to the NPP national government and thwart their programs and activities at Presidential and National Parliament level using local bodies as platforms for their political and personal gain and not for the sake of the people at local government level.
Ideally, elections at local government level should be nonpartisan to the extent possible, as at this level, governance is more about operational issues that impact on people at this level than about policy formulation on national issues. Avenues to make local government entity elections based on electing independents of proven capability rather than electing representatives of national political parties to local government entities should be seriously considered by the people. Political divisions at this level further alienate people from each other based on the political labels they carry. Minimising such divisions and taking the path of aggregation rather than segregation is a system change that needs to be considered by all political parties.
One can only hope that all political parties will grasp the opportunity now to govern with a difference and govern for the well-being of the people belonging to their local government entities rather than using the entities as platforms to further their political ambitions.
If people at grass root level, as constituents of local government entities are independent minded, they will be better able to view national policy formulation from a more constructive point of view and consider policies offered by political parties at national level with much less bias and more from the perspective of what policies are best for the country rather than for any political party. Outcomes for the country will decidedly be better if partisan political divisions begin and end at national level and divisions even at this level are based on policy differences, not personal or other pseudo differences, and their ability to plan and incorporate their policy action plans, as strategic plans in their manifestos. Hopefully this would create a pathway to end the NATO syndrome of No Action, Talk Only, as manifestos would then become part of the accountability process at national level should a particular political party win a general election.
Irrespective of which party or political grouping is running local government entities, they all must subscribe to accountability policies legislated by the National Parliament to ensure uniformity of accountability policies across all local government entities. While programs and priorities of local government entities may vary, accountability policies pertaining to programs should not vary as fundamentally, all programs of entities are financed by the people and therefore accountability to the people via national legislation considered as a moral and legal necessity.
Several local government entities have been accused of waste, bribery and corruption from time to time and there appears to be a need to review existing accountability policies and processes and fill any voids with the appropriate legislation to strengthen them and hold all local government entity expenditure accountable to the people. Legislation should provide for enforcing strict punishment for those found guilty of violation of the law and misappropriation of funds.
The wood
As noted earlier, the wood” in the context of this article is the political structure at national level comprising of an Executive Presidency, a Parliament, a government which enjoys the majority support in Parliament, and an Opposition, or as one might say, an alternate government in waiting, all of whom are responsible for national policy development. Ideally, each of these entities should be elected by the people based on the policies they offered to the people at an election. In this context, the Opposition has a role and a responsibility to make sure the government complies with their manifesto that was offered as a policy composite to the people but has even a more important role in offering their alternate policy options as per their own manifesto and any new ideas and proposals as constructive alternate options to government actions. This might be asking for too much from Sri Lankan Opposition parties who have habitually just criticised governments rather than offering alternate constructive options for consideration by governments.
The role and responsibilities of provincial authorities who in a way are neither the wood or the trees, will have to be reviewed and their form, substance and responsibilities clarified.
The provincial councils were established consequent to the provincial council’s act of 1987 at the behest of India as a means of appeasement to wean the LTTE from their separatist agenda. The LTTE rejected the provincial council system, and so did the Tamil political parties. The act provides for activities that are to be managed by provincial councils, activities that are within the province of the national government, and activities that are to be jointly administered. Overall, provincial councils have functioned more as administrative centres rather than as political centres. It appears that a significant amount of duplication of administrative activities occur due to the lack of clarity and direction on the national government’s role and that of provincial councils Their future and their future role needs to be reviewed, and a decision taken whether they belong to the wood or are part of the trees. On the face of it, it does appear that they have a role in a devolved administrative system but not in a devolved political system
The NPP government included the introduction of a new Constitution in their manifesto, and it is hoped that wide consultations and reviews will occur of all political institutions at all levels and findings and suggestions will be considered when drafting a new Constitution.
Look, at the haphazard way Radcliffe, a British Lord said to have had no previous experience in boundary making, unscientifically divided British India in to India and two Pakistans (West and East) in 1947. This division was deliberately done to perpetuate Indian (Hindus) and Pakistan (Muslims) wars indefinitely in keeping with the avowed British colonial policy of divide and rule to perpetuate the British empire where the sun will never set.
It was the same policy they adopted in Dividing Sri Lanka, the land of the Sinhala people for 2500 years into two countries, with two nations Sinhalese and Tamils- (who were Malabar Tamil slaves first brought by the Dutch in the late 18th century and thereafter by the British, first to settle in the North and East and much later after 1840 to work on the Coffee and Tea plantations in the hill country (after 1870s) as the proud native Kandyan Sinhalese refused to work for the British. They used the Cleghorn minute 1799 to the first British Governor Fredrik North who was in charge of the Maritime provinces of this Island acquired from the Dutch in 1797. This minute had artificially divided the country as follows.
All that land north of Puttalama going right round the country up to Walave Gannga in the South, including the present NCP (Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts) down the coastal low lands up to Walave leaving only the central hill country and a narrow stretch of land abutting it to the Sinhalese. Fortunately, after the Panaduraa waadaya by Mohottivatte Gunanandha Thera, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts were taken out of this dream Tamil Land and created the NCP (new Province) in 1873 The Malaba Tamil coolies were Gazette as Ceylon Tamils in 1901 by Arunachalam Ramanadan the first Sri Lankan Civil Servant created by the British. He was a grandson of Arunachalam grandson of a Malaba cooli toilet cleaner of the then governor. Now you can see how these British conspired to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom that ruled the whole Island named as TUN Sinhale for 2500 years, that stood in par with all the ancient world civilizations like the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Indian and Chinese.
The latest attempts made by them as you know are the formation of the Tamil EELAM in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces for which the road map was laid down in 1987 by the Rajive /JR Accord of 29th July and the more recent attempt to create a Malayanadu for the 1.2 estate Tami coolies again brought and planted right at the center of this country including the CP, UVA. and Sabaragamuwa Provinces with all abutting areas where tea and rubber are grown. This includes parts of the SP, WP, and the NWP as well.
I am struggling very hard to avert this disaster. I only hope that I will live at least another 10 years to complete this project. I still have a distant hope that it could be definitely done as I strongly believe that with the blessings of the Triple gem and guardian gods lead by Vishnu will protect this land of the Sinhalese Buddhists, as it had been the only land on this earth that was thrice visited and thrice blessed by the Lord Buddha. This was also the first and the only foreign country to which the Buddha had visited, blessed, marked 16 sacred places on its ground and protected the whole Island by circumambulating it thrice as the epic Mahavamsa has recorded. Lord Buddha also has predicted, at his passing away bed that his doctrine will remain here for the next 5000 years. In view of all these miracles this land of the Sinhalese had been named as the Land of the Buddha.” Therefore, I strongly believe that this land of the Sinhalese can never be concurred by any enemy in its totality including the land, the Sinhala nation and the Buddhist civilization. That is why it has stood the test of time from 18 invasions from South India from the 2nd century BC up to date, including the most powerful four colonial invasions of Portugues, French, Dutch and the British with all their super fire power that captured the whole world , and annihilated all the older civilizations in both Americas, Australia and New Zeeland and finally the last attempt by the LTTE which was called the most powerful and dangerous terrorist outfit with their own Naval, Air and Ground power in addition to money and the open support given by India with logistic support, military training and financial support openly given coupled with political support by the Government of Rajiv Ghandhi.
Coming back to Radcliffe,
The Radcliffe Line was the boundary drawn during the Partition of India in 1947 to divide the provinces of Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan. It was established by the Punjab and Bengal Boundary Commissions, with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as the chairman of the Punjab Boundary Commission. This line resulted in the division of culturally close areas and triggered massive human migrations.
Although their Language English has assumed global recognition and the sad legacy of dividing the whole world in to an eternal never ending conflict Zone, I think, will last forever. If I were entrusted with the demarcation of boundaries for India and Pakistan, I would have simply drawn the dividing lines along the crest line of the mountains that divide the two watersheds of the Indus and Ganges so that it will last, perhaps forever, using the Buddhis theory of resolving problems of this sort. During the Buddha’s time, a conflict arose between the Sakya and Koliya clans over the sharing of water from the Rohini River. The clans, who lived on opposite banks of the river, faced a drought, leading to suspicion and conflict over water access for their crops. The Buddha intervened and helped resolve the dispute through a peaceful resolution, emphasizing the importance of shared resources and avoiding violence.
This is why I blame the Church driven, power and riches hungry Colonial British for dividing the whole world in to an eternally warring battle field on ethnic and religious conflicts, hoping to perpetuate the British Commonwealth of Nations where the sun will never set as they once said.
The final solution for all worldly and thereafter rests in the Buddhist teaching and no other. Let us cross our fingers and wait till 2050 and see how Sir Arthar Clerk’s prophecy on Buddhism becoming the only religion that will survive thereafter, while all other s based on a divine origin will disappear from this world. (Please see DEEP RANGE Arther Clerk)
Patriotic National Movement, Global Sri Lanka Forum, Swadeshika Jathika Viyaparaya and Thunhela Jathika Viyaparaya have filed a petition, requesting the Supreme Court to prevent the implementation the seven Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by India and Sri Lanka during Indian Premier Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Colombo.
Challenging constitutionality of the seven MoUs finalised on April 07, 2025, in terms of Article 126 read with Article 17 of the Constitution, the petitioners, Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, Dr. Wasantha Bandara, Shyamendra Wickremarachchi, Chaminda Priyadarshana, Dr. Asoka Indrajith Kamaladasa and Ballanthudawa Achchige Nuwan Chamara Indunil asserted that the implementation of MoUs would violate the sovereignty of the people—including their economic sovereignty and right to governance—as well as the independence of Sri Lanka as a free state and nation.
They also warned that the MoUs violated the constitutional rights of the people, rule of law suppressed and annihilated as well the national security and placed the sovereignty of the country at risk.
The petitioners also informed the Supreme Court that they, together with several other patriotic activists, on May 02, 2025, handed over a letter to the Indian High Commission in Colombo to be forwarded to Premier Modi protesting the signing of the MoUs. According to the petition, copy of that letter has been submitted to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The MoUs covered implementation of HVDC interconnection for import/export of power, cooperation in the field of sharing successful digital solutions implemented at population scale for digital transformation, development of Trincomalee as an energy hub, defence cooperation, multi-sectoral grant assistance for Eastern Province, cooperation in the field of health and Medicine and cooperation between the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission and National Medicines Regulatory Authority.
Among the 29 respondents were members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, secretaries to the relevant ministries complicit in the issue at hand, Cabinet Secretary and the Attorney General.
Alleging that the government suppressed the MoUs thereby deprived the right of the people as well as MPs to know the truth, petitioners complained that Cabinet spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa failed to answer specific questions (1) whether the government had right to amend the clauses of MoUs if they were found to be adverse and detrimental to the interest of Sri Lanka and (2) whether the government agreed, under the defence cooperation agreement with India, that Chinese vessels would not be allowed in Sri Lankan waters?
The petition listed the violation of the Constitution as well as domestic and international laws. Under this heading, the petition dealt with what it called threat to energy and data sovereignty.
Addressing the energy sovereignty of the people and energy security of the country, the petition stated that the ultimate impact of implementation of the intended objectives of the said MOUs would be subjecting Sri Lanka’s connectivity and supply of electricity to the arbitrary decision-making authority of India which may lead the country to experience conditions similar to those recently experienced by the people of Bangladesh and Pakistan consequent to abrupt and arbitrary disconnection of electricity and water supplies respectively.
Declaring that data sovereignty of the people is a prime responsibility of the State, the petition asserted that it was the duty of the state to protect and safeguard to prevent foreign entities, States and individuals from having access to personal information, bio-data, bio matrix data of the natives and State secrets and in the event of failure of the state to provide such protection and security it would endanger the national security including the health and economic security of the people; such move would also discourage the foreign investors for the reason that data fed to local systems would not be secured. (SF)
The Maldives has banned Israeli passport holders from entering its territory, the president’s office said on Wednesday, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu ratified an amendment to the country’s immigration law after it was passed by parliament on Tuesday, a statement from his office said.
The amendment introduces a new provision to the Immigration Act, expressly prohibiting the entry of visitors with Israeli passports into the Maldives, it added.
The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” the statement said.
The Israeli foreign ministry and the country’s consular office in Colombo did not respond to requests for comment.
Israel has consistently rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that prompted the war.
South Africa has brought a case against it at the UN’s International Court of Justice and Amnesty International accused it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a report last December, charges it has denied.
Maldives’ Muizzu initially made the call to ban Israeli passport holders in June 2024 after a cabinet recommendation, which prompted the Israeli foreign ministry to recommend that its citizens avoid the archipelago famous for its pristine beaches and plush resorts.
Tourism is a major driver of the Maldives economy, accounting for about 21% of its GDP and earning $5.6 billion in 2024, according to government data. The island nation is expecting earnings of about $5 billion this year.
Sotheby’s has postponed its sale of jewels linked to the physical remains of the Buddha after a legal threat from India and moral questions about the sale of religious antiquities.
The Piprahwa gems have spent most of the past century in a private family collection after being unearthed in 1898 by a British estate manager.
The relics were found buried with what was believed to be bone fragments and ash of the Buddha.
The collection was set to be sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Wednesday, until New Delhi threatened Sotheby’s with legal action if it did not call off the sale.
India argued that the auction of the gems, which were expected to fetch $20 million, “violates Indian and international laws as well as UN conventions”.
In a statement to the ABC, Sotheby’s confirmed that the auction had been called off.
“In light of the matters raised by the Government of India and with the agreement of the consignors, the auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha, scheduled for 7th May, has been postponed,” they said.
“This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate.”
What are the Piprahwa gems?
The Piprahwa gems, made up of thousands of pieces of topaz, pearls, rubies, sapphires and gold sheets, were excavated in 1898 by British estate manager William Claxton Peppé.
William Claxton Peppe unearthed the gems in 1898. (Supplied: Peppé family/The Piprahwa Project)
He unearthed the jewels and what are believed to be remains of the Buddha from inside a funeral chamber, known as a stupa, in present-day Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
The relics were inscribed and consecrated about 2,000 years ago, during the Mauryan Empire.
Experts agree that the items are linked to both the Buddha’s Sakya clan and Buddhists worldwide.
When they were unearthed in 1898, the bones and ash found were separated from the jewels, before being gifted by the British colonial government in India to the King of Siam — modern-day Thailand.
He then distributed some of the bones and ash to Buddhist centres across Asia, including in Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, where they continue to be venerated.
The rest of the hoard was taken to the colonial museum in Kolkata, before a portion was granted back to the Peppé family.
In the cover image Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, abbreviated NSF Diego Garcia, is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius. Africa), from which US Air Force can use to target Iran
The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Links to Gospa News articles have been added by our Editorial Staff
There have been several geopolitical developments in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian origin wife, Usha and their children to India in April and terror attacks on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which were blamed on Pakistan. The same week there was a huge blast in Iran’s port Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf that opens into the Indian Ocean.
President Trump had stated that former President Biden made a mistake abandoning Bangram Base during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan given its infrastructure investments and proximity to China’s missile sites, not to mention Russia.
The Easter week attacks in Kashmir were similar to those of the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 in Sri Lanka, mysteriously claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These also targeted tourists, as well as, churches and a Chinese research mission in the Seas of Sri Lanka– in a Hybrid operation.
Following, the attacks in Kashmir which killed 26 people, the global corporate media propaganda machine echoed the moment of America’s Global War on Terror”.
India’s Adani owned NDTV was full of India’s War on Terror” moment, echoing rhetoric after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks; cheerleading a hard military response and possible war with Pakistan. This would of course destabilize South Asia, one of the world’s most impoverished regions, despite the Indian growth story economic hype. A war between the nuclear armed neighbors would moreover further weaponize religious diaspora networks and destabilize historically multi-religious South Asia.
What of India’s Push to be a Peace-Maker drawing on Spiritual Traditions?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent push to be a global peace-maker in the Russia-Ukraine war, leveraging India’s spiritual traditions of Ahimsa (non-violence) in the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu Yogic and Ghandian legacies, appeared forgotten.
Rather, there was rush to deliver collective punishment to Pakistan’s farmers by withholding Indus Valley Waters, affecting food security, by putting on hold the treaty for sharing of water resources. India and Pakistan were in any case a single country until the retreating British Raj Partitioned India in 1947, as it did Cyprus, Ireland, Palestine and other places as part of its Exit Strategy. Was this in order to retain British imperial and corporate economic and security interests, a different kind of GLADIO-style stay behind operation in the Jewel of the Crown” of a lost Empire?
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Indian State’s response to the attack in Pahalgam has been the metering out of collective punishment in lieu of a measured, calibrated and targeted response. In addition to holding in abeyance the Indus Water treaty there has been a destruction of the homes of purported terrorists for the collective punishment of their kin. Is India drawn into the I2U2 mimicking the Israeli barbarism of collective punishment in the occupied Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip and forgetting Ahimsa?
Diaspora Wags the Dog”: Weaponizing Religion for a new Cold War
It is now increasingly clear that along with the QUAD (the collective of Australia, Japan USA, India) and I2U2 (the collective of Israel, India, United Arab Emirates and USA), in the Western Indian Ocean, set up to target China, the Indian Diaspora in the US are being harnessed to wag the dog” so to speak and lure India into the US military business industrial complex and NATO War Machine.
Although the Indian Ocean was declared a Zone of Peace on the initiative of the third world at the United Nations in 1971 at the height of the first Cold War it has become highly militarized.
Bringing India into America’s new Cold War on China would also break the BRICS and Global South unity, perceived as a threat to the hegemony of the US dollar and the existing global trade and financial system.
Working with the Indian Diaspora in North America to draw India seems to be a bi-partisan agreement for Washington’s Republican and Democrat Uni-party.
Was the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance with his Indian origin wife and children dressed in Desi garb just days before the Kashmir, Pahalgam attacks a coincidence? Tulsi Gabbard, head of US National Security Agency is a Hindu as is Kash Patel who is the head of the FBI. Kamala Harris the Former Vice President, and Presidential hopeful also had some South Indian roots.
Is the Indian diaspora being used to draw India which had stood with Palestine during the hey days of Non-Alignment, to partner with Zionist Israel, which ironically, also works with Saudi Arabian Petrodollars to promote the Muslim Fundamentalist (Muslim Zionist?) Wahabi- Salafi- Islamist –ISIS, ISIL, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Tariq Islam, Towheed Jamat, Lashkar-e-Taiba, off shoots and Islamist terror networks around the world?
Fighting ‘God-less Communists’ and Independence Movements with Religion
Claiming to fight God-less Communists” during the Cold War against Soviet Russia the United States and its European allies weaponized religion, seen as a conservative forces in the Third World, This to buffer against de-colonization and national Independence movements seeping across Asia and Africa after the end of World War 2. National liberation movements were often Communist or Socialist in nature.
Internal ethno-religious proxy wars were promoted in the post-colony to deflect de-colonization and independence struggles and retain the economic and security interests of retreating European empires, or transfer them to the rising American empire.
All ‘world religions’ are politically constituted and hence more or less weaponized, Islam is by far the Most Weaponized religion on the planet. That is, excepting Southeast Asian Islam, which is softer and culturally diverse, given proximity to polytheistic Buddhist and Hindu cultural traditions. This is demonstrated in the Indonesian State’s Constitutional commitment to Pancha Sila.
During the Cold War, Muslim networks were used at the handmaiden and cat’s paw of the Evangelical Christian Zionist empire to stage violence and destabilize multi-religious countries in Asia and Africa. There was also a concerted attempt to weaponize Buddhism as documented in an excellent book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia”, albeit with less than spectacular results.
As academics like Diane Kirby have shown, in Cold War USA, evangelical Christian and the Jewish diaspora networks, particularly, Zionism and the Chabad movement helped fund and underwrite settler colonialism in Palestine. Simultaneously, Muslims were used as the handmaiden and cat’s paw to stage violence in the interest of the US Empire and Israel around the world, with the support of Evangelical Christian Zionist groups. There is of course a long tradition of Israeli security agencies, Shin Bet and MOSSAD working to weaponized religions in Palestine in order to promote settler colonialism.
The Head of the Snake of Islamist Terror and the US Military Business Industrial Complex
The head of the snake of Islamist Terror around the world was Saudi Arabia that during the Cold War spread Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam in cooperation with the CIA and Mossad also targeting Persian/ Iranian Shia Islam which had a more spiritual orientation. The Ayatollahs in Teheran had after all thrown out the US-backed Shah of Iran and nationalized its oil wells.
Saudi Arabia’s pole position in Islam as the county of the holy site of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet, and its Petrodollars enabled the spread of Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam throughout the Muslim world. This was in exchange for regime protection for the house of Saud. The US has massive bases in the Kingdom.
Once the Soviet Union, Red Peril and the Cold War ended in 1991, Islamist Terror became America’s official new enemy. The’ Global war on terror” after the World Trade Center attacks were staged purportedly by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida enabled perpetuating the US military business industrial complex with a new Islamist enemy.
It is worth recalling here that President Dwight Eisenhower had warned the American people about the threat posed by the US military business industrial complex in his farewell address to the nation. And sure enough, President John F. Kennedy who wanted to draw down the US war machine in Vietnam was assassinated a couple of years later in 1963 reportedly in an internal covert operation.
The covert links between Zionist-Evangelical Christianity and Islamist Wahabi groups that go back to the Cold War weaponization of Islam also to fight Russia in Afghanistan may partly explain why the Muslim dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region), is the most violent part of world at this time. Muslim communities and networks around the world were weaponized and used for terror while, others turned a blind eye, to on-going radicalization particularly via the internet, social media and On-line religiosity. As Yasha Levine has detailed in his book, the Internet was a military invention for surveillance and control rather than to promote Democracy.
Staging a Clash of Civilizations” between Buddhism and Islam to destroy Asia?
Ironically, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks happened in Pahalagam, Kashmir, and he cut short his visit to the Kingdom to return to Delhi.
In the wake of the attacks, the global corporate media echo chamber seemed taken with the prospect of a war between nuclear armed India and Pakistan. Although Pakistan had long been a ‘Garrison State’ with its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), being well oiled by the CIA and funded by Saudi Arabia, it was painted as a proxy of China in the media.
Soon after the British Partition of India in 1948 as part of its Exit Strategy to continue to dominate the South Asia region, Pakistan was turned into a CIA Garrison State while India allied with the Soviet Union/Russia. The region has been kept in turmoil ever since– as a Cold War proxy war site. This also explains the lack of progress in the SAARC in contrast with Southeast Asia’s ASEAN.
It is increasingly clear that under Trump, the US is now focusing on China and trying to isolate it from Russia (Ukraine Peace deal), and correct the mistake that Biden made of pushing Russia into China’s arms, while trying to break BRICS by courting India. After the Pahalgam attacks, there were Hollywood inspired dreams voiced on Social media of India’s Akand Barath, breaking up Pakistan, and partitioning Baluchistan given the new Chinese built Gwadar Port, which the CIA had deemed one of the String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean.
If the US and its proxies succeed though a strategy of hybrid maritime and staged terror attacks in drawing India into its security architecture, this would challenge the rise of the BRICS and Global South cooperation which threatens US dollar hegemony. This would also put an end to the Rise of Asia and the Asian Century.
At this time there are on-going attempts to stage a new ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between the two great religious communities in Asia, Buddhism and Islam in order to crash the Asian Century. This was signaled back in 2001 with the Taliban blowing up the ancient 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan on the Silk Route in Afghanistan– prior to the 9/11 attacks on the WTC to inaugurate and legitimize America’s ‘Global War on Islamist Terror’ and is also evident in Myanmar with the Rohingya refugees and human trafficking issue.
Whither India’s ‘Neighborhood First” policy?
Over the past three years there were US-backed regime change operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 2022 when the popular democratically elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted and imprisoned and Pakistan de-stabilized, India, the South Asian regional hegemon, looked on. Khan accused Donald Lu then Secretary of South Asia of spearheading the regime change in collusion with elements in the Pakistani establishment.
The same year, India capitalized on the US National Endowment for Democracy and Soros Foundation-funded, social media coordinated Aragalaya protest chaos operation to stage regime change and Sovereign Default in Sri Lanka. As South Asia’s wealthiest country was implausibly declared Bankrupt’ overnight due to a purported lack of US dollars to enable the IMF to upend its economic sovereignty, India played the supporting role of good neighbor to the rescue.
However, last year in August India lost a close ally who had just won the national elections, in Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Bangladesh to another US-back regime change in South Asia.
Indeed, the Modi government’s policy of self-interest sans principled Foreign Policy seem to belie proclamations of the ‘neighbourhood first”, and have paid diminishing returns in the face of America’s over the horizon (OTH), operations and aspiration for Full Spectrum Dominance in South Asia.
Is it becoming increasingly difficult for India to ‘run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’? The destabilization that OTH protests curated via remote social media platforms for regime change and staged economic crises have rendered South Asia including India poorer. The case of ASEAN shows clearly that countries develop only when their neighbors are stable and developing too.
Increasingly, India’s growth story hype is belied by the reality of poverty due to external destabilization and staged OTH crises across South Asia. It may be time to fully embrace the BRICS and Global South in the Asian 21st Century. Otherwise, India may help normalize the Abraham Accords and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that would legitimize a brutal new world order” across the Indian Ocean World, which is entirely contrary to Hindu-Buddhist-Jain traditions of Ahimsa and peace-making.
The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Links to Gospa News articles have been added by our Editorial Staff
Colombo, May 8 (Daily Mirror) – A Fundamental Rights petition has been filed before the Supreme Court, seeking an order to invalidate the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) recently signed between Sri Lanka and India.
A group of petitioners, including Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara, filed this petition, naming Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, members of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Attorney General, and several others as respondents.
Seven MoUs between India and Sri Lanka, covering several key sectors, were exchanged on April 5 at the Presidential Secretariat in the presence of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The petitioners alleged that the recently signed MoUs are contrary to the Constitution of Sri Lanka as well as international laws.
They further stated that the public has not yet been informed about the contents of these MoUs, which constitutes a violation of the people’s Constitutional rights.
The petitioners claimed that the agreements undermine Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that the government’s decision to sign them without presenting them to Parliament is unlawful.
The petitioners are requesting the Supreme Court to rule that their fundamental rights have been violated and to issue an interim order preventing the implementation of the said agreements.
Health authorities have sounded the alarm over the growing burden of Thalassemia in Sri Lanka, with thousands of children affected and hundreds of thousands unknowingly carrying the gene for the disorder.
Thalassemia is a hereditary blood disorder that affects the body’s ability to produce healthy red blood cells
Speaking at a press conference held in conjunction with World Thalassemia Day, Specialist Dr. Samiddhi Samarakoon, Director of the Non-communicable Diseases Unit, revealed that 40 to 50 newborns are diagnosed with the condition each year in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Samarakoon also disclosed that approximately 500,000 people in the country are carriers of one of the defective genes responsible for the disorder, highlighting the urgent need for increased awareness and preventive strategies.
World Thalassemia Day, observed annually on May 8, is being marked this year under the theme *Together for Thalassaemia: Uniting Communities, Prioritizing Patients.”
Sri Lanka’s government has recorded a significant budget deficit of Rs. 498.28 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Financial Performance Statement submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Financial Performance Statement is presented periodically to the Cabinet in line with Section 53 (1) of the Public Finance Management Act, No. 44 of 2024.
The report, covering the period from January 1 to March 31, 2025, details that total revenue amounted to Rs. 1,064.66 billion, while total expenditure reached Rs. 1,562.94 billion. The figures include cumulative income and spending across all Special Expenditure Units, Ministries, Departments, and District Secretariats.
Breakdown of expenditure: Recurring Expenditure: Rs. 1,226.55 billion Capital Expenditure (including government loan repayments): Rs. 336.39 billion
The Financial Performance Statement was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers in accordance with the legal requirement to present quarterly fiscal data within 45 days of the end of each quarter.
The government will not allow any faction to use Sri Lanka’s airspace or the country’s territory to attack another nation, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa stated when questioned on the stance of the government pertaining to India, Pakistan tensions.
Speaking during the weekly Cabinet media briefing today (08), Minister Jayatissa said Sri Lanka will always reject all forms of terrorism and stand for regional peace.
Commenting on the developments along the borders of India and Pakistan, the Minister said the government is taking note of the updates given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister Nalinda Jayatissa stressed that Sri Lanka will not get involved in geopolitical issues within the Indian Ocean and said the government will continue its ‘non-aligned’ policy.
The Cabinet Spokesman said the government will extend its support to all antiterrorism operations since it gives great importance to the safety and security of the people of the region.
Sri Lanka maintains cordial diplomatic ties with both India and Pakistan, the Minister added.
In a dramatic overnight operation on Tuesday (06), India said it launched missile and air strikes on nine sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, targeting what it called militant positions based on credible intelligence”.
The strikes which lasted just 25 minutes sent shockwaves through the region, with residents jolted awake by thunderous explosions.
Pakistan said only six locations were hit and claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and a drone – a claim India has not confirmed.
Islamabad said 26 people were killed and 46 injured in Indian air strikes and shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, India’s army reported that 10 civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling on its side of the de facto border.
This sharp escalation comes after last month’s deadly militant attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, pushing tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to dangerous new heights.
India says it has clear evidence linking Pakistan-based terrorists and external actors to the attack – a claim Pakistan flatly denies. Islamabad has also pointed out that India has not offered any evidence to support its claim.
මනුකා විජේසිංහ ශ්රී ලංකාවේ උපත ලද අතර රංගශිල්පිනියක ලෙස සිය වෘත්තිය ජීවිතය ඇරඹු ඇය ඇමෙරිකාවේ මායින් සරසවියේ දී නාට්යකලාව වැඩිදුරටත් හදාරා ඇත. දැනට ජර්මනියේ පදිංචිව සිටින ඇය Mad Cow, Flight 582 to Zurich, Marital Disadventure,The Affair, My Way, Karma වැනි නාට්ය කෘතින් ගණනාවක් නිර්මාණය කර තිබේ. මනුකා 1994 දී Silhouettes for Justice නමින් කාව්ය සංග්රහයක් පළ කළාය. ඇය විසින් රචිත නවකථා වන්නේ Monsoons and Potholes, Theravada Man, Sinhala Only,Like Moths To A Flame යන කෘතින්ය. හෝමියෝපති වෛද්යවරියකද ලෙස කටයුතු කරන ඇය පසුගිය කොවිඩ්-19 ආඛ්යානය සහ සෞඛ්ය බලධාරින් විසින් අනුගමනය කළ ක්රියාමාර්ග විවේචනයට ලක් කර ඇත.
