by A. Abdul Aziz

23rd  March – Ahmadiyya Founder’s Day

On February 13^th, 1835, in the small Indian village of Qadian, Punjab, India, a man named Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born. He belonged to a well-known and noble family.

All religions contain prophecies that foretell the advent of a special individual, who will come as a reformer in the latter days. In Islam, Muslims await a promised Mahdi and Messiah. The advent of the Promised Messiah was prophesized by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) himself. According to a tradition, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was sitting among his companions, two verses from Holy Qur’an (Surah al Jum’uah) were revealed, it reads:

He it is Who has raised among the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves who recites unto them His Signs, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and Wisdom though before that they were in manifest error; And He will raise him among others of them who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (62: Verse 3.4).

One of the companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) questioned to who this verse relates to, and the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) replied while putting his hand on Salman– A Companion, (a Persian man),

If faith were to go up to the Pleiades, a man from among these would surely find it.” (Bukhari).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam) is that Promised Reformer of the later age.

Starting from his childhood, the Promised Messiah’s unusual interest in religion was noticed by many, including his father, who nicknamed him ’Maseetar’ meaning ‘one who spends most of his time in a mosque observing prayer’.

At an early age, he began to receive revelations from God, as well as visions and true dreams. In the years 1864 or 1865, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, had a vision where he saw the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH). This verified further, that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, had a strong connection with the Holy Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH). Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was shown that he would have a fruitful spiritual future.

The Promised Messiah’s father wanted for his son to pursue government service, which would allow him a handsome means to support his family financially. However, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, felt his time pursuing his worldly occupation was like a prison sentence” as he was deeply attached to spirituality and enhancing his religious knowledge. Therefore, during his spare time, he continued to study the Holy Qur’an, and always strove to serve humanity, often helping those who were in need. He also spent his time debating with Christian missionaries who lived in his neighborhood, defending his beloved faith, Islam.

The June of 1876 was a tragic time for the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, as his father passed away. Earlier, on the same day, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, had received a revelation from God revealing about his father’s death. The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, was quite saddened by the death, and was worried about the troubles his family would now face, with limited financial means.  However, since Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was an individual loved by God, Allah Almighty sent another revelation,

Is Allah not sufficient for his servant?” (Holy Qur’an: 39:37).

This assurance filled the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, with contentment that Allah Almighty would always provide for him. In 1868 or 1869, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, received the revelation,

Thy God is well pleased with what thou hast done. He will bless thee greatly, so much so that Kings shall seek blessing from your garments.”

This seemed a strange revelation at the time–why would kings seek blessings from the clothes of someone hardly known outside this small remote village in India? But, history bears witness that this revelation became reality, as the legacy of the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, unfolded and reached people from all over the world, from all walks of life, rich and poor, till today.

The flow of revelations and visions continued, until in 1882 he received the revelation which made it clear that he, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was to be the appointed one, the one commissioned by God to serve His cause; he was the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.

In January of 1886, he received a prophecy that foretold of a handsome and spiritually purified son, who would be born to the Promised Messiah, peace be on him. This prophecy was followed by one other. The second prophecy specified the context within which the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, would be granted his promised son. Both of these prophecies were indeed fulfilled on the 12^th of January, 1889 when God blessed the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, with a son who was named Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad. This Promised Son also became the second Khalifa (Caliph) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam.

In 1889 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, received the Divine revelation:

When thou hast determined, put thine trust in Allah. And build the Ark under Our eyes, as commanded by our revelation. Verily, those who swear allegiance to thee indeed swear allegiance to Allah. The hand of Allah is over their hand.”

After this revelation Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, published a public announcement that read:

‘I have been ordained to announce that those who are seekers after truth should swear allegiance to me so that they may be enabled to find a way to the true faith, true purity and the love of God.’

The call for Initiation or Bai’at” was answered immediately by those who had already recognized that Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, was indeed the Promised Messiah, and was appointed by God Almighty himself.  The first Initiation ceremony took place in Ludhiana, India, on 23^rd March 1889, laying the foundation for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Hazrat Maulvi Nurudin (r.a.) became the first person to be initiated at his hand.

Saturday 23rd March 1889 was the momentous day when Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him,, accepted the hands of forty faithful servants in allegiance to the Ten Conditions of Bai’at (initiation) and founded the community which he called ‘The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’.

The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, took this oath of allegiance at the house of a spiritual preceptor Hazrat Sufi Ahmad Jan in the city of Ludhiana (Punjab, India). As stated, Hazrat Hakim Maulvi Noor al-Din (r.a.) was the first person to have the honor of taking the first Bai’at. This was a revolutionary  yet a very modest beginning to a new chapter in the history of Islam.

In 1891 in Qadian, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, received repeated revelations that Jesus, peace be on him, of Nazareth, in whose second advent both the Muslims and Christians believed, had died a natural death and that what was meant by his second advent was that a person should appear in the spirit of Jesus and that he himself was that person, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.

After writing over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivering hundreds of lectures, and engaging in scores of public debates, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, passed away on May 26, 1908. Yet his legacy as the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to prevail throughout the world today. He was a man, deeply in love with and treaded on the footsteps of his beloved master, Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH), with every breath of his life. He was man beloved by Allah Almighty, and was vouchsafed a revelation, Kings shall seek blessing from your garments”, which rings true to this very day.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that God sent Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed, and restore morality, justice, and peace. He reformed Muslims of fanatical beliefs and practices by vigorously championing Islam’s true teachings. He also recognized the noble teachings of the great religious founders and saints, including Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Guru Nanak, and explained how their original teachings converge into true Islam.

Today, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the world’s largest Islamic community under one Divinely appointed leader (Fifth Khalifa), His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) (born 1950). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spans over 200 nations with membership exceeding tens of millions.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the leading Islamic community to categorically reject terrorism. Over a century ago, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him emphatically declared that the Jihad by sword” has no place in Islam. He instead taught Muslims to follow the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) example and defend Islam with a bloodless, intellectual Jihad of the pen” Accordingly, as stated, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad penned over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivered hundreds of lectures, and engaged in scores of public debates. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to use education to peacefully reform Muslims and revive Islam worldwide.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad reminded Muslims of God’s promise to safeguard Islam through Khilafat (the spiritual institution of successorship to prophethood). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that only Islamic khilafat can peacefully unite humanity. Five Khalifas have succeeded Mirza Ghulam Ahmad since his demise.

The current Khalifa Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) resides in the United Kingdom and serves as the community’s spiritual and administrative Head. Under the leadership of khilafat, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has built thousands of mosques, hundreds of schools, and number of hospitals. It has translated the Holy Qur’an into 76 languages including Sinhala.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community propagates Islam’s true teachings of peace and tolerance through a 24-hour satellite television channel (Muslim TV Ahmadiyya international), the Internet (www.alislam.org), and print (Islam International Publications). It stands at the forefront of disaster relief worldwide through Humanity First, a non-profit charity.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the only Islamic Community to endorse the separation of mosque and state. Despite facing bitter faith-based persecution in some Muslim majority nations, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community continues to advocate for universal human rights for all religious and other persecuted minorities. It likewise invests heavily in women’s equality, education, and empowerment programs. Its members are among the most law-abiding, educated, and engaged Muslims in the world.

Voice Tube

by Garvin Karunaratne

Though our resplendent island is blessed with ample water casading over valley and dale and wind blowing me off on my many minor irrigation inspections in the Districts of Kegalla, Nuw

ara Eliya and Kandy the coal and oil lobby has been so strong, that the attempt by a few of us to emphasize the power that lies in water and wind has taken us nowhere.

I have been among the few administrators who have written on the power that lies in the wind and water.

It is now the time to write again hoping that the present situation of hostility between the USA and Iran which has set the price of oil beyond our reach, will make some one in authority to listen to my true story.

To deal with the Power of Water , a number of our old tea estates used the power of water to run their tea processing machines. My own uncle owned Janet Valley Estate in Gampola and used the power of water from a small stream to run his tea factory. Some Seventy years ago I tried to convince him that what he had to do to get more power was to marshall the water in the stream to provide more power. I was no engineer, only an administrator and I failed to convince him. That attempt of mine was when I served in Nuwara Eliya in the mid Fifties. The Electicity Board convinced him and he gave up using water for power and instead turned to the Electricity Board.

Some eight years later I met my uncle again and he was then manhandled by the Electricity Board by shooting up the price of the power they supplied and my uncle told me that he should have listened to me.

We have now gone climes- myself moving out of Sri Lanka living in London, the USA, Bangladesh and in those years my uncle has passed away and now a foreign man from Europe had leased out the tea factory and is marshalling the water to provide more power, and I have not been there for some three years and I am certain that this foreign leaseholder is now providing electricity from that stream and is selling the power to people, and mind you the profit so derived from the Gampola water is fritted away to a bank overseas- somewhere in Europe. 

Our Gampola water had become dollars and is sent abroad as earnings.

Sri Lanka is the net user. This is a true story. 

My estimate is that the USA will bully Iran and they will fight for long and had I been in my shoes as an administrator I could have convinced the authorities to get down to make electricity from water and use that power instead of using coal and oil. 

Though old if called upon, I can spearhead to commence a programme to make power from water and hand it over in a year to our young administrators to continue. 

The Youth Self Employment Programme I established in Bangladesh in 1982, where I worked for two years as a Consultant has grown strong and has guided millions to be self employed. This Programme is now being administered by members of the Bangladesh Administrative Service. 

Garvin Karunaratne

formerly of the Admnistrative Service,last working as the GA at Matara

garvin_karunaratne@hotmai.com

Courtesy India Today

Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by about 25% for the second time in a week as the Gulf conflict disrupts global oil supplies via the Strait of Hormuz.

The Sri Lankan government on Sunday raised fuel prices by around 25 per cent, the second such increase in a week amid the West Asia conflict.

The step comes in the backdrop of the joint US-Israel strikes against Iran and the retaliation by the Islamic nation that has spread to the entire Gulf region. It has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important choke point for the world’s energy supplies.

Courtesy Hiru News

Sinopec revised its fuel prices, effective midnight today (22).

The price of a litre of Octane 95 Petrol is increased by Rs. 122 to Rs. 487, and Super Diesel by Rs. 219 to Rs. 573, higher than the prices set by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

The prices of Octane 92 Petrol and Auto Diesel are maintained at CPC prices, at Rs. 398 and Auto Diesel at Rs. 382.

Eddie Invests

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Donald Trump – US will ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if Strait of Hormuz are not open before the 48-hour deadline

Iran – ‘‘If Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the United States and the (Israeli) regime in the region will be targeted,’‘ a spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the body overseeing Iranian military operations, said in a statement reported by Fars News Agency

The catastrophe before the entire world is evident if the above threats are carried out by the USA and Iran. Food insecurity will spread throughout the world and the most vulnerable will be the poorer countries of the world like Sri Lanka.

Amongst many challenges facing Sri Lanka from the conflict in the Middle East, even prior to the above threats, is the country’s food security and the impact on export income from plantation industry crops like Tea, Rubber and Coconut. From the context of the conflict, besides logistics issues arising from challenges to transportation into and out of the country, central to the production of all agricultural products, is the impact arising from shortage of chemical fertiliser and the cost of fertiliser. While longer term strategic options have to considered relating to fertiliser, the current dependency on chemical fertiliser as an essential food” for agricultural crops (food and plantation industry crops) is inescapable and unless this food is provided, there will be mass shortages of food for the people. Impact on the plantation industry will result in drop in production and drop in export income for the country.

Based on data (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service) from previous disruptions (such as the 2021 import ban) and current 2026 economic projections, it has been reported that a serious supply chain disruption of inorganic fertiliser would likely cost Sri Lanka between $700 million and $1 billion per year in direct agricultural losses.

This estimate is primarily driven by the high cost of food imports and the impact on the tea sector and other plantation crops.

Estimated Breakdown of Costs

• Lost Export Revenue (Tea): $425 million. Historical data from the World Bank and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shows that fertiliser shortages caused an 18% to 30% drop in tea production, resulting in roughly $425 million in lost foreign exchange earnings.
• Food Security & Import Substitution (Rice): $200M – $300M+. While Sri Lanka typically produces enough rice to be self-sufficient, a severe fertiliser shortage can cause yields to drop by 32% to 40%. This forces the government to spend hundreds of millions in foreign currency to import rice, which is far more expensive than importing the fertiliser itself.
• Other Plantation Crops: $100M – $150M. Shortages hit rubber and coconut sectors heavily, which combined earn over $1.5 billion annually. A 10%–20% decline in these sectors adds significantly to the total economic burden. 

While the government is very likely looking into these issues and discussing how best to mitigate the impact of likely production and transportation challenges, the writer wishes to suggest that in view of the criticality of the twin issues involved which will impact on food availability for the people, and on the governments foreign exchange income, the government elevates the coordination and management of this challenge to a high level Agricultural Command Centre (ACC)  reporting direct to the President.  

Establishing such a centre vested with the necessary executive power is a practical and effective way to move beyond policy wish lists into execution. To be effective in the Sri Lankan context, this body must sit above the individual ministries, and relevant ministries should work closely with this Unit which will be like a war room dealing with food security and the impact of the Mid East crisis on sectors that are dependent on imported chemical fertiliser.

A very important area that the ACC should be tasked with is to ensure government subsidies (already roughly $300M–$400M annually) are provided to keep prices stable for farmers as a huge rise in production costs could further exacerbate the crisis if farmers cease producing food crops. The government will have to increase its subsidy allocations and manage this exercise in consultation with the Finance Ministry.

Why a war Room?

In the agricultural sector, a food crisis and a drop in production of export-based plantations is a crisis that could hurt the country in the immediate and the long term. Tackling this crisis is not about appointing committees and having talkfests. It requires immediate action. Traditional ministerial approaches led by laid back bureaucrats is not the way to address a crisis of this nature. It needs an approach akin to a war room that is a, dedicated, centralized entity that is used for high level planning and collaboration, and rapid decision-making. Originating in military strategy, the concept is now commonly used in business for crisis management, project launches, or complex operational problem-solving. A war room as proposed will be making quick decisions, ensuring decisions are acted upon and monitoring and reporting on progress made. An entity armed with sufficient executive powers to give directions to ministries will provide avenues to fast-track crucial decisions. Hence a war room.

What does data show?

Data shows that the ongoing Middle East conflict has introduced new supply costs as of March 2026:

1. Urea prices jumped roughly 50% (from $482 to $720/t) in just three weeks. The amount spent in 2025 is reported as around USD 200 million. Given the price hike and the likelihood of further price hikes, the cost to import the same quantity will be at least double this amount, ie USD 400 million. Sri Lanka imports bulk of its requirements from China which has a coal-based manufacturing methodology which is not directly impacted by the mid-east crisis. However, as reported by Reuters, it has triggered a significant shift in China‘s urea strategy, primarily causing a halt in exports rather than a drop in domestic production. It has moved to restrict shipments to protect its own food security and domestic prices as global fertilizer markets destabilize. Although China’s urea is mostly coal-based, the Middle East crisis impacts production costs and raw material availability indirectly: 

Energy Costs: Rising global oil and natural gas prices, driven by the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have increased the operational and production costs for all fertilizers.

Sulphur Squeeze: China is heavily dependent on the Middle East for sulphur (importing roughly half its 9.6 million ton requirements from the region in 2025). While primarily used for phosphates, the extreme price volatility and supply risk for sulphur have forced China to “conserve” energy and resources across its entire chemical sector.

LNG Imports: China gets roughly 25%–30% of its LNG from the Middle East. Disruptions in these flows strain gas-based urea plants, particularly in southwest China. 

• Shipping & Freight Surcharges: Disrupted routes have increased transport costs by approximately 35%, directly raising the retail price for Sri Lankan farmers.
• Impact on food production, Tea and Plantation Sectors

• Rice (Paddy): Previous shortages of inorganic fertiliser led to a 40% to 53% drop in rice production, forcing Sri Lanka to spend hundreds of millions on imports to ensure food security.
• Vegetables and Other Crops: Production of vegetables and cash crops like bananas and maize crashed by 50% to 70% during previous input shortages.
• Production Decline: Past data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) shows that a sudden withdrawal of chemical fertilizers caused tea production to plummet by 18% to 28.7%. Since smallholders produce about 75% of the national tea crop, they are most at risk from price spikes or supply disruptions.
• Export Revenue Risk: Tea brings in over $1 billion annually (roughly 11% of exports); significant shortages could lead to permanent loss of market share to competitors like Kenya and India. 
• Coconut and Rubber: Experts warn that these sectors, which earned $1.5 billion in 2020, would see similar yield plummeting without chemical inputs. 

The proposed Agricultural Command Centre should be tasked with the responsibility of developing a Risk Mitigation Plan within a week of its formation and submitting the plan to the cabinet for approval. Among other key requirements, the plan should include Status on the existing fertiliser stocks and any stocks shipped and not received yet.The duration of this stock based on current rates of distribution.Future sources of supply and risks associated with such suppliesEstimates on cost of fertiliser and funding availability Expenditure on current subsidies and estimates on future subsidies and funding availability.Assessment of local transportation challenges and alternate plans for distribution of fertiliser and produce should the fuel situation exacerbate.Alternate plans to address food security should the international energy situation worsens

The APP should also look into ways and means of sourcing more inorganic fertiliser from countries like China and  Russia (who supplied around USD 52 million worth in 2024) as well as other sources, considering that  Qatar,  Saudi Arabia and the UAE which supplied around USD 68 million in the same year may be unable to supply in the near future.

Long term measures to address challenges arising from fertiliser and other inputs to the Food and Plantation Sector

While a War room should focus on the immediate crisis and take steps to mitigate it, considering the importance of food security and plantation management in the longer term, and the need to address the key issue of fertiliser that impacts on the entire sector, a suggestion is also made that a ministerial committee headed by the Prime Minister and comprising of the Minister for Agriculture, Minister of Plantation Industries, the Minister of Irrigation and Water Management should be instituted to update the respective ministerial strategic plans ensuring inter dependencies between the activities of each ministry are taken note of in the respective strategic plans.

The policy decision taken to ban the importation of chemical fertilizer in 2021 may have been a sound in principle” strategic decision, but an ill thought of implementation decision. It failed to recognize the need to basically wean the affected plantations away from inorganic fertilizer and the fact that this weaning process is a long-drawn process.

Consequent to the ban, some progress was made in the initial production of organic fertilizer in Sri Lanka. However, by 2025–2026, the sector had contracted with many of these startups failing, leaving only a handful of survivors as farmers reverted to chemical fertilizers due to severe yield losses and food insecurity. 

The Middle East crisis has highlighted the strategic importance of a fertiliser industry in Sri Lanka to ensure food security and to support the plantation industry. The high-level ministerial committee mentioned earlier should assess the current status of the industry and develop a long-term strategic plan to make the country self-sufficient in fertiliser. A long-term strategy needs to be developed for a transition to organic fertiliser via a hybrid model. Experts believe the transition period will be 10 to 15 years. 

Long term planning is often absent in Sri Lanka due to the constant shift in government priorities toward short-term policies that fit 5-year election cycles over long-term structural planning. Long-term agricultural roadmaps are often viewed by officials as “luxury planning” that can wait until the fiscal deficit is stabilized.

Besides this, fragmentation of agricultural policy in Sri Lanka where it is split across multiple, often competing, entities have contributed to the absence of a mindset to undertake long term planning.The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for policy making on paddy and food crops, and the National Fertiliser Secretariat, The Ministry of Irrigation is responsible for water management, while the Ministry of Plantation Industries is responsible for tea, rubber, and coconut industries. Provincial Councils are responsible for local implementation. Without a single overriding authority or a unified delivery unit to drive the National Agriculture Policy, long term planning initiatives get lost in bureaucratic silos.

The fundamental importance of food security in the country and effective performance of the plantation sector is unquestionable. It is also important for both to have irrigation and water management as a key component of the country’s National Agricultural Policy. This fundamentalism is crucial for immediate planning and execution via the Agriculture Command Centre or long term, strategic planning via the hight level ministerial committee headed by the President. If this fundamentalism is not understood, food insecurity will prevail and export earnings from the plantation industry will dwindle and will not move to an upward trajectory as needed by the country.

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) 

According to Mahavansa, the Great chronical, the Sinhale Kingdom was found in 543 BC by Vijaya, a North Indian Prince. who was banished by his Father King Sinhabahu for his misbehavior with his fellow mates. As such according to Mahavamsa Prince Vijaya is the founder King of Sri Lanka and the Sinhala nation. This was how we were taught in school and even in the University.  Also, this was what had been written down practically in every book starting from Mahavamsa the Great Dynasty of the Sinhala nation down to the grade two texts and even going further down to the bed time stories of our mothers and grandmothers prior to our schooling days.

However, in my late 80s, I came across a completely different story on the origin of this Great Dynasty called the Sinhala nation. This is completely a new proposition that the Sinhale was founded by none other than Gautama Budda in his Bodhisathva days, long time before he attained the Buddhahood in the 6th century B.C.

This narrative is found in the preface to a book of protection (Piruwaana Poth vahanse) edited by Ven,Kirama WimalaJothi Thera. (1995) He has mentioned two Sanskrit Buddhist texts Karandavyuha and Divyaavadhaana composed about 2 ½ centuries before the Mahavamsa was composed in the 5th Century CE

 According to that narrative his name was Sinhala. He was the son of a rich merchant called Sinha who had come to this country from Western Indus valley area of North Western India, long time prior to the birth of Buddha in the 6th century BC. I am lost to understand as to why the Vamsakatha authors have not mentioned anything about this episode. Was it mere indifference or the intention of eulogizing the Kalinga Dynasty as the founders of this country and the Sinhala nation. This Narrative has to be seriously looked into in depth by archaeologists and historians who are interested in finding out the true founding father of the Sinhala nation, whether he was a notorious Indian prince called Vijaya, who was expelled from the country by his father King Sinhabahu for his misdoings or Gauthama the Buddha himself in one of his previous births in sansaara, as a Boddhisatva who’s name also was Sinhala.

 As for me I also prefer this new proposition to be more logical, honorable and proud too for the Sinhala Buddhists. I list the following reasons to strengthen my support of this argument

First of all, the Sinhala nation was named after the founder’s name Sinhala. It is more logical to argue that the ‘nation was named after the name of the founder of that nation. rather than suggesting that a man called Vijaya founded the Sinhala nation and it was so named after his father’s name Sinhabahu. A son who was banished from his Kingdom naming the nation he found in a new country, after his father’s name Sinhabahu” is very unlikely an event.

Second, although the Buddha was born and bred in North India, he loved Sri Lanka more than his country of birth. His first and also the only visit to a foreign country was also to this country in the 9th month after he attained Buddhahood. Not only that he visited this country thrice and has consecrated this whole Island at all these three occasions to the Buddha sasana having placed his sacred footprint on the summit of mount Samanala and sanctifying the whole Island including all the 16 other holy places right round this country.

According to Mahavamsa Lord Buddha even at his last moment, as he was lying on his parinirvaana bed, had directed Sakka the King of Gods to protect Prince Vijaya and his 700 retinue who landed on this Island on that day, as this country will be the only place on earth and his Dhamma will prevail unhindered for another 5000 years to come. As you all know although 2569 years have passed after the Buddhas passing away Sri Lanka has come to stay as the prime seat of his doctrine in the world.

Third, even as a small child in grade 11 way back in 1947 in school, I did not like to be called a descendant coming down from a group of 700 bandits whose heads were half shaven, and banished from India by his father King”, as the teacher told us in class.

As such, as for me, I prefer to accept the second proposition rather than the Vijayan concept on the birth of this country and the Sinhala nation It is an honor- supreme, for all Sinhala Buddhists to say and accept that the Sinhala nation has its origin traced back to, the Bodhisathva, named Sinhala. Therefore, I am convinced that the founder of the Sinhala nation was none other than Gauthama the Buddha in his Bodhisathva days.  Because no one can ever imagine to inherit the Buddhist cultural model we find in this country, from a person like Vijaya who was banished by his own father for his misdeeds and landed on the sands of this country by an accident.

 Above all isn’t it an honor and a singular privilege as well, to claim that the founder of the Sinhala nation was none other than Gauthama the Buddha. This elevates the Sinhala nation to a unique and a privileged civilization on earth, no other nation can claim. Isn’t ii an honor and a unique privilege too, to be called that we, the Sinhala nation descends from Lord Buddha, the Greatest Teacher of gods and men (satta devamanussanam) ever born on this earth.

However, I leave this debated to be settled by a more eminent and erudite set of scholars, As I am neither a historian or an archaeologist. I only open the door for such a deeper but certainly a worthwhile debate, on the birth of a pristine civilization like that of the Sinhala Buddhist Nation, a glowing crest jewel in human civilization of this earth.

by A. Abdul Aziz

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, delivered Eid-Ul-Fitr Sermon on 20^th March 2026  at ‘Masjid Mubarak’, Islamabad, Tilford, U.K. at 10.30 GMT (Sri Lankan Time 4 P.M.). It aired LIVE via MTA (Muslim TV Ahmadiyya International), having simultaneous translation in various languages including English, Arabic, Bengali, French and Tamil. The gist of the Sermon as follows

Following the Eid prayer, Hazrat Amirul Momineen (may Allah be his Helper) recited first part of the Arabic Sermon and Surah al-Fatihah, and said:

Today, upon completing the month of Ramadan, we are celebrating Eid. This Eid should be an opportunity to express gratitude to Allah the Almighty for enabling us to fast during this month. Many people were blessed to partake in the Tahajjud and Tarawih prayers. Likewise, to read the Quran on a daily basis and to complete. Additionally, to listen to dars of the Holy Quran, to remember Allah and some were also able to sit i‘tikaf.”

i’tikaaf or e’tikaaf is an Islamic practice in which a person secludes himself or herself in a mosque for a period of time, devoting the days to worship and staying away from worldly affairs.   The practice is especially associated with the last ten days of Ramadan, during which the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is reported to have regularly withdrawn into the mosque seeking Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree).^[2]

To sit i‘tikaf is possible, Huzoor^aa said, in countries where we have freedom; however, in countries like Pakistan, Ahmadis are not allowed to openly worship and express their faith. On the contrary, they are prosecuted for doing so. We should pray that such restrictions are lifted and Ahmadis are able to practice their faith openly.

If, during Ramadan, there was no real attention towards these spiritual elements, then for such people, Eid is just a festival where people merely gather together, wearing new clothes, to have a laugh and a good time. However, Eid is not just for this purpose. It is a means of expressing gratitude to Allah the Almighty for enabling us to worship Him and make all these sacrifices.

Ahmadiyya Head said that he hopes most Ahmadis strove to reap the benefits of Ramadan, so that they may have increased in their taqwa (righteousness)  worship of Allah the Almighty, and doing good deeds. He said to continue to always pray to Allah the Almighty and ask Him for His help – that just as He allowed us to do good in this month, He may make such deeds a consistent and permanent feature of our lives. In this way, the benefits and blessings will not just be limited to Ramadan but extend to our daily lives. 

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said: We recite first chapter of Holy Quran (Surah al-Fatihah) multiple times every single day – in it, we are reminded to strive to worship Him in the best way possible and to fulfil his commandments. In this chapter (surah), the foundational attributes of Allah the Almighty are mentioned. We are taught to be grateful to Him in relation to these attributes. Also, to pray to become a part of those people who attained Allah’s pleasure, and not be like those who incurred His wrath and anger.

In the verse Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help”, Allah the Almighty emphasises that the first step should be from us. We should strive in the way of Allah and try our best to worship Him in the best way possible, but the true power and ability to do so comes from Allah alone. 

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that the one who takes a step towards Allah, Allah takes two steps towards him, and the one who walks to Allah, Allah runs to him. But we must remember that the first step should always come from us, and we should pray that Allah blesses our efforts. If we want to continue to benefit from the blessings of Ramadan, we must strive to continue our good deeds and pray for Allah’s help.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said he will present some enlightening points of the Promised Messiah on the verse Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help.”

The Promised Messiah, peace be on him, writes:

In the verse: We worship Thee alone and we implore only Thy help; We worship Thee; takes precedence over: We implore only Thy help; for, man approaches God, the Supreme, in prayer, after having involved all his faculties in the subject matter of the prayer. It would be impertinent and insolent on his part to come to Him without using his faculties and without observing the requirements of the Law of nature. For instance, if a cultivator were to pray to God to bless his field with a plentiful harvest without preparing it and sowing any seed in it, he would be guilty of insolence and mockery. This is what has been called testing and trying God and that is forbidden.

It is, therefore, necessary to employ all one’s faculties before submitting one’s petition and this is the real significance of this prayer. It is necessary that one should first take stock of one’s beliefs and effort. It is the way of God to bring about a desired change through change in the means. He creates some factor which becomes the means of the desired improvement.”

Ahmadiyya Khalifa mentioned that some people question: if prayer exists, what is the point of using means? Addressing this, the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him,  wrote:

Those who consider that if prayer is available then means become irrelevant should ponder this seriously. They should realise that prayer is in itself a means which activates other means. The precedence of: We worship Thee alone; over: We implore only Thy help; which is a supplication, emphasises this.”

Ahmadiyya Khalifa said that the Promised Messiah, peace be on him, emphasised that man’s effort should never decrease. We should not aim to do good deeds in Ramadan only and think that now it is incumbent upon Allah the Almighty to give us all we want – if not for the rest of our lives, then at least until the next Ramadan. This is an erroneous thought. A true believer must always strive to carry out these good deeds, and only then will they attain the true grace of Allah the Almighty.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa quoted several writings of Promised Messiah on this and explained in depth.

While concluding the sermon Ahmadiyya Supreme Head said that we should all aim to widen the scope of our prayers in this manner, and when this happens, it will create a beautiful atmosphere and society.

It is the desire of opponents and enemies of Islam that Muslims continue to fight with each other – we must unite to escape this. His Holiness said he mentioned this two weeks ago, and that when Muslims do unite, this will be our true Eid.

Now we must strive to protect our good deeds even more, instead of becoming complacent and thinking we have done enough. We must ask Allah for help so that Satan never attacks us in such a way, and that no robber may ever take this treasure away from us. If we pray for this and strive to implement this habit of constantly protecting our good deeds, then this will be a successful Eid for us.

In the end, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V^aa said, while we celebrate Eid, we must remember those Muslims who are doing Eid in circumstances where their houses have been destroyed, children have lost parents, parents have lost children, and they are living in constant fear for their lives.

His Holiness prayed that may Allah improve their circumstances and enable them to turn solely to Allah and rely on Him alone, rather than on worldly powers. What is happening in Arab countries today is a result of this reliance on worldly powers. May Allah protect everyone, including the Ahmadis suffering for their faith, from oppression.

His Holiness said we must remember the prayer Thee alone do we worship and Thee alone do we implore for help”. Our true Eid will be when we see the world turning towards monotheism, and towards the message of the Holy Prophet and his servant, the Promised Messiah, peace be on him.

Ahmadiyya Khalifa prayed, May Allah make this Eid blessed, in both a worldly and spiritual sense, and make this Eid truly mubarak (blessed) for us. Amin.

Full Text, visit:  https://www.alhakam.org/eid-ul-fitr-sermon-2026

Senaka Weeraratna

( with assistance from Chat GPT)

The removal of the study of the Humanities i.e., classics, literature and philosophy, from the syllabus of school children in Sri Lanka has destroyed their capacity to think and value thought of different shades , and made them into what Herbert Marcuse has unequivocally described as the ‘One Dimensional Man ‘ – an intellectually stunted individual. 

Critical observers of the Sri Lankan education system argue that the decline of the humanities—specifically

classics, literature, and philosophy—has led to a “one-dimensional” student profile. This shift is often attributed to a transition from holistic, value-based learning toward a “banking model” of education that prioritizes rote memorization, standardized testing, and narrow employability. 

The Shift Toward “One-Dimensionality”

The concept of the “One-Dimensional Man”, formulated by Herbert Marcuse, describes individuals in a society where critical, “negative” thinking is suppressed by a culture of conformity and consumerism. In the context of Sri Lankan education: 

• Commodification of Knowledge: Education is increasingly viewed through a lens of “market demands,” focusing on producing “employable graduates” rather than critical thinkers.
• Loss of Critical Distance: Marcuse argued that the humanities provide a “second dimension”—a space to imagine alternatives to the status quo. Removing these subjects limits students’ ability to transcend their immediate reality and question established systems.
• Standardized Conformity: The current system’s reliance on credentials and job-oriented skills is seen as a form of “repressive” education that stifles independent reasoning and moral discernment. 

Historical Context and Curriculum Changes

Sri Lanka has a long history of classical education, from ancient monastic traditions (Pirivena) teaching Sanskrit, Pali, and philosophy to the colonial-era inclusion of Latin and Greek. 

• Early Legacy: Ancient education focused on religion, literature, and arts, providing a “solid foundation” for systematic thought.
• Modern Reforms: Recent curriculum shifts have moved away from these aesthetic and philosophical subjects. For instance, there were recent concerns regarding the potential removal of traditional aesthetic subjects like art, music, and dancing from the O’ Level syllabus to reduce the subject load.
• Resulting Gaps: Experts note that while quantitative access to education has increased, the quality and depth of critical consciousness have declined, leaving students ill-prepared for complex, 21st-century problem-solving. 

Impacts on Thought and Values

The removal or marginalization of the humanities has specific cognitive and social consequences:

• Diminished Empathy: Literature and classics are foundational for developing empathy and the ability to value “thought of different shades”.
• Lack of Ethical Framework: Philosophy provides a basis for defining objectives and making intentional, rather than reactive, life decisions.
• Rote Learning Dominance: Without the “negative thinking” encouraged by the humanities, students often rely on confirmation bias and over-reliance on authority, hallmarks of Marcuse’s one-dimensional society. 

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AI Overview

The removal of classics, literature, and philosophy from school curricula hampers the development of critical, multi-faceted thinking, creating “One-Dimensional Man” as Herbert Marcuse argued

. This suppression of critical thought leads to a non-critical, conformist society that accepts, rather than questions, prevailing power structures, technology, and consumer culture. 

• Impact on Critical Thinking: Classics, literature, and philosophy foster analytical, ethical, and critical thinking skills essential for a democratic society, argue sources such as UCI School of Humanities and Society for Classical Learning.
• Marcuse’s ‘One-Dimensional Man’: Marcuse argued that industrial societies and high-tech capitalism use a “non-critical” form of thinking, flattening perspectives by integrating people into a one-dimensional mindset, explains ICNS – Instituto de Ciencias de Nutrición y Salud and Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
• Result of Curricular Changes: Removing humanities forces students to view the world through a limited, often technical or utilitarian lens, reducing their ability to conceptualize alternatives or critique society, notes PhilPapers.
• Loss of Diverse Perspectives: Without literature and philosophy, students lose exposure to varied viewpoints and historical perspectives that challenge prevailing, often dominant, ideologies. 

This educational shift promotes social conformity over “negative thinking,” which is crucial for recognizing and opposing oppression, says The Ted K Archive. 

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සේනක වීරරත්න

සේනක වීරරත්න (DRS) සහ මහින්ද විජේසිංහ (තුන්වන විනිසුරු) වැනි ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් නවෝත්පාදකයින්ට සහාය දැක්වීමට දේශපාලනික කැමැත්තක් නොමැතිකම බොහෝ විට ආයතනික නොසලකා හැරීම, දේශීය ක්‍රිකට් බලධාරීන්ගේ "නිහඬ" ආකල්පය සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර ක්‍රිකට් කවුන්සිලයේ (ICC) සංකීර්ණ, නිලධාරිවාදී ස්වභාවයේ එකතුවක් ලෙස සැලකේ. 

 
සහයෝගය නොමැතිකමට ප්‍රධාන සාධකනිවසේදී ආයතනික උදාසීනත්වය: ජාත්‍යන්තර මට්ටමින් මෙම ප්‍රකාශ නිල වශයෙන් ජයග්‍රහණය කිරීමට අපොහොසත් වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිරීක්ෂකයින් සහ උපදේශකයින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් මණ්ඩලය (SLC), ක්‍රීඩා අමාත්‍යාංශය සහ අනුප්‍රාප්තික ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයන් විවේචනය කර ඇත. පිළිගැනීම සඳහා වරින් වර ඉල්ලීම් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇතත්, මෙම නවෝත්පාදනයන් සඳහා නිල ගෞරවය ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා තිරසාර ඉහළ මට්ටමේ රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික හෝ නීතිමය උත්සාහයක් නොමැත.

ගෝලීය බල ගතිකය: ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වැනි කුඩා, සංවර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින ජාතියකින් බිහි වූ දායකත්වයන් පිළිගැනීමට මැලි විය හැකි ධනවත්, බලවත් ක්‍රිකට් මණ්ඩල විසින් ආධිපත්‍යය දරන "පොහොසත් ග්‍රේවි දුම්රියක්" ලෙස ICC බොහෝ විට සැලකේ. සමහර යෝජකයින් යෝජනා කරන්නේ ICC හි බල කොරිඩෝව තුළ මුල් බැසගත් යුරෝ කේන්ද්‍රීය හෝ "සුදු මිනිසා" පක්ෂග්‍රාහීත්වයක් ඇති බවයි.

ICC හි නීතිමය ආරක්ෂාව: ICC ඓතිහාසිකව නීතිමය තර්කනය භාවිතා කරමින් මෙම ප්‍රකාශ ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කර ඇත. නිදසුනක් වශයෙන්, එය සේනක වීරරත්නට දැනුම් දුන්නේ ඔහුගේ "ක්‍රීඩක යොමු කිරීමේ" අදහස පුවත්පත්වල ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමෙන් (1997 සිට), ඔහු රහස්‍යභාවය සඳහා ඔහුගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් අත්හැර ඇති බවයි. වීරරත්නගේ පුළුල් පෙර ප්‍රකාශන නොතකා, තමන්ගේම කමිටු පද්ධතිය ස්වාධීනව සංවර්ධනය කළ බව ICC ද කියා සිටියේය.

දේශීය "අභිමානවත් උපාය මාර්ගයක්" නොමැතිකම: ඔවුන්ගේ බුද්ධිමය "වෙළඳ නාම" ආක්‍රමණශීලී ලෙස අලෙවි කරන ජාතීන් මෙන් නොව (උදා: ලෝක ව්‍යාප්ත වෙබ් සමඟ එක්සත් රාජධානිය), ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මෙම ක්‍රිකට් නවෝත්පාදනයන් එහි ජාතික වෙළඳ නාමයට හෝ සංචාරක රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රිකභාවයට ඒකාබද්ධ කර නොමැත.

නවෝත්පාදකයින්ගේ පැතිකඩ

 සේනක වීරරත්න ("DRS හි පියා"): 1997 දී The Australian පුවත්පතට ලිපියක් යවමින් "ක්‍රීඩක යොමු කිරීමේ" සංකල්පය මුලින්ම යෝජනා කළ නීතිඥයෙකි. සීමිත සමාලෝචන සංඛ්‍යාවක් සහිතව ක්‍රීඩකයින්ට පිටියේ තීරණ තුන්වන විනිසුරුවරයෙකුට අභියාචනා කිරීමට ඉඩ දීම යන ඔහුගේ සංකල්පය නූතන තීරණ සමාලෝචන පද්ධතියේ (DRS) නිශ්චිත පදනමයි.

 මහින්ද විජේසිංහ (තෙවන විනිසුරුගේ පුරෝගාමියා): 1982-1983 දී, පිටියේ විනිසුරුවන් සහ රූපවාහිනී නිරීක්ෂකයින් නරඹන තුන්වන නිලධාරියෙකු අතර දුවද්දී දැවී යාම වැනි සැකයන් ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා "වෝකි-ටෝකි" පද්ධතියක් භාවිතා කිරීමට යෝජනා කළ හිටපු පළමු පන්තියේ ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩකයෙකු සහ ලේඛකයෙකි. 1984 දී ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනය ඔහුගේ යෝජනාව ICC වෙත යොමු කළද, වසර ගණනාවකට පසු 1992 දී ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට පෙර අදහස මුලින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන ලදී.

 පිළිගැනීමේ වත්මන් තත්ත්වය

වර්ධනය වන දේශීය උපදේශනය: ක්‍රීඩකයින්ට පිටියේ දක්ෂතා සඳහා ත්‍යාග පිරිනමන ආකාරයටම, මෙම චින්තකයින්ට ගෞරව කිරීම සඳහා අවම වශයෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ මූලස්ථානයේ සමරු ඵලකයක් ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරන ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා ක්‍රිකට් ආයතනයෙන් ඉල්ලීම් දිගටම පවතී.

 ජාත්‍යන්තර දැනුවත්භාවය: ICC ය ඔවුන්ට නිල වශයෙන් ගෞරවය ලබා දී නොමැති අතර, ජාත්‍යන්තර මාධ්‍ය සහ සමහර ඉන්දීය ක්‍රිකට් විචාරකයින් මෙම ශ්‍රී ලාංකික සම්භවය පිළිගැනීමට පටන් ගෙන තිබේ.

 සේනක වීරරත්න ICC වෙත ඔහුගේ විධිමත් අභියාචනා වලදී භාවිතා කළ නිශ්චිත නීතිමය තර්ක ගැන වැඩි විස්තර දැන ගැනීමට ඔබ කැමතිද?

 
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Sports

Why is there no political will in Sri Lanka to support innovation in Cricket by Sri Lankans who have won world acclaim with their brainchilds such as Player Referral (DRS) by Senaka Weeraratna and Third Umpire by Mahinda Wijesinghe?

AI Overview

The lack of political will to support Sri Lankan cricket innovations, such as the Player Referral (DRS) concept by

Senaka Weeraratna and the Third Umpire by Mahinda Wijesinghe, stems from a bureaucratic failure to recognize indigenous intellectual contributions, prioritization of short-term gains, and administrative detachment from pioneering, non-commercialized ideas. 

Key Reasons for Lack of Support:

• Recognition Challenges: Despite providing evidence of pioneering the Player Referral concept (now DRS), Senaka Weeraratna has struggled to receive formal acknowledgement from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
• Administrative Disconnect: There appears to be a disconnect within Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and relevant authorities regarding the valuation of intellectual property in sports, focusing more on team performance and commercial revenue rather than innovation from individuals.
• Lack of Advocacy: There is a notable absence of sustained political or corporate advocacy to promote these home-grown intellectual concepts on the global stage.
• “Finality of Umpire Decision” Doctrine: The initial reluctance to adopt new technology (DRS) by global cricket authorities meant early proponents faced massive resistance, reducing the likelihood of local political capital being invested in a controversial, initially unpopular concept. 

Despite these hurdles, local supporters have long demanded that Sri Lankan officials support the recognition of these initiatives as indigenous contributions to the sport. 

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see also

The perceived lack of political will to support Sri Lankan cricket innovators like

Senaka Weeraratna

(DRS) and

Mahinda Wijesinghe

(Third Umpire) is often attributed to a combination of institutional neglect, a “laid-back” attitude from local cricket authorities, and the complex, bureaucratic nature of the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

Key Factors for the Lack of Support

• Institutional Apathy at Home: Observers and advocates have criticized the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC), the Ministry of Sports, and successive Sri Lankan governments for failing to officially champion these claims at an international level. While there have been sporadic calls for recognition, there has been no sustained high-level diplomatic or legal effort to secure official credit for these innovations.
• Global Power Dynamics: The ICC is often viewed as a “rich gravy train” dominated by wealthy, powerful cricket boards that may be reluctant to acknowledge groundbreaking contributions from a smaller, developing nation like Sri Lanka. Some proponents suggest an ingrained Euro-centric or “white man” bias in the corridors of power at the ICC.
• ICC’s Legal Defense: The ICC has historically rejected these claims using legalistic logic. For instance, it informed Senaka Weeraratna that by publishing his “Player Referral” idea in newspapers (starting in 1997), he had waived his rights to confidentiality. The ICC also claimed its own committees developed the system independently, despite Weeraratna’s widespread prior publications.
• Lack of Domestic “Pride Strategy”: Unlike nations that aggressively market their intellectual “brands” (e.g., the UK with the World Wide Web), Sri Lanka has not integrated these cricketing innovations into its national brand or tourism diplomacy. 

Profiles of the Innovators

• Senaka Weeraratna (The “Father of DRS”): A lawyer who first proposed the “Player Referral” concept in a letter to The Australian in 1997. His concept—allowing players to appeal on-field decisions to a third umpire with a limited number of reviews—is the exact foundation of the modern Decision Review System (DRS).
• Mahinda Wijesinghe (Pioneer of the Third Umpire): A former first-class cricketer and writer who, in 1982-1983, proposed using a “walkie-talkie” system between on-field umpires and a third official watching TV monitors to clear up doubts like run-outs. While the SLC forwarded his suggestion to the ICC in 1984, the idea was initially rejected before being implemented years later in 1992. 

Current Status of Recognition

• Growing Local Advocacy: There are ongoing calls for SLC to at least display a plaque in their headquarters to honor these thinkers, similar to how players are rewarded for on-field feats.
• International Awareness: While the ICC has not officially credited them, international media and some Indian cricket commentators have begun to acknowledge these Sri Lankan origins. 

Would you like to know more about the specific legal arguments Senaka Weeraratna used in his formal appeals to the ICC?

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See also 

Mahinda Wijesinghe pioneered the use of the Third Umpire but the South Africans obtained ICC recognition in a clear act of unfair play and discrimination against a Sri Lankan

Mahinda Wijesinghe pioneered the use of the Third Umpire but the South Africans obtained ICC recognition in a clear act of unfair play and discrimination against a Sri Lankan

Ministry of Defence  – Media Centre

The Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd.), held a high level meeting with the Hon. Minister of Defense of Japan, Shinjirō Koizumi, at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo on Wednesday (18 Mar).

A high level meeting between Sri Lanka and Japan marked a significant step forward in strengthening bilateral defence cooperation, with a focus on maritime security, disaster management capacity building, and the stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

During the talks the Japanese Defence Minister highlighted the increasing importance of enhanced cooperation between Japan and Sri Lanka in ensuring stability and security within the Indo-Pacific region, particularly under the vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”

In response, Deputy Minister Jayasekara emphasized Sri Lanka’s pivotal geographical position in the Indian Ocean and its vital role in safeguarding regional maritime security. He reiterated Sri Lanka’s strong commitment to further strengthening defence ties with Japan, especially in areas that contribute to regional peace and stability in compliance with the international laws, conventions and diplomacy.

Both sides exchanged views on key regional and global developments, including the evolving situation in the Middle East, and welcomed the steady progress in bilateral defence relations. The Deputy Minister stressed Sri Lanka’s strict neutral and non aligned foreign policy, the commitment to international norms and legal conventions.

Particular attention was drawn to the recent port call of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Destroyer JS Onami to Colombo and the successful conduct of a goodwill naval exercise with the Sri Lanka Navy.

The discussions resulted in a mutual agreement for continuation of the dialog promptly focusing on the enhancement of defence cooperation. Key areas of collaboration include, expanding maritime security cooperation through joint exercises, ship visits, and observer participation in naval programs.

Strengthening capacity building initiatives, particularly in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR). Advancing personnel exchanges, including continued engagement through training opportunities at the National Defense Academy (NDA) of Japan.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister Jayasekara expressed Sri Lanka’s deep appreciation to the Government of Japan for its longstanding support and assistance especially during the recent cyclone ‘Ditwa’. He conveyed gratitude for Japan’s humanitarian aid during past disasters, as well as its continued contributions toward Sri Lanka’s development and resilience.

He also highlighted Japan’s significant role in enhancing Sri Lanka’s maritime and technical capabilities, including the provision of vessels to the Sri Lanka Coast Guard, capacity building assistance, and advanced technological support to the meteorological sector, in the establishment of Doppler RADAR system valued at several billion rupees. Appreciating the ongoing commitment by Japan, he requested additional assistance for capacity building to strengthen weather forecasting capabilities.

සරත් ඔබේසේකර විසින්

ජීවිතයේ එක් අවධියක, ශබ්දය අඩුවී යයි—ලෝකය නිහඬ වන නිසා නොව, අපි එය වෙනස් ලෙස අසා ගැනීමට ඉගෙන ගන්නා නිසාය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේත් විදේශයන්හිත් දැඩි කාර්මික පරිසරයන්හි දශක ගණනක් කාලයක් ගත කළ මගේ ජීවිතය, කාලයකදී නිරන්තර චලනයකින් යුක්ත විය. නාවික යාත්‍රා අංගන, යන්ත්‍ර, කාලසීමා, තීරණ—මේවා මගේ දෛනික ජීවිතයේ කොටසක් විය. ක්‍රියාකාරී වීම ප්‍රමුඛ වූ අතර, සිතීමට කාලය සොයා ගැනීම ලාභයක් විය.

නමුත්, ශරීරය තමන්ගේම ඉතිහාසයක් රැගෙන යයි.

තරුණ කාලයේ, මම ශාරීරික අභියෝග රැසක් උදාවූ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් වලට එක් විය. මොස්කව්හි හිම මත ස්කී ක්‍රීඩාවත්, නෝර්වේ හි කඳු බැස යාමත් එහි උදාහරණ වේ. ඒ අවස්ථාවලදී සිදු වූ කුඩා වැටීම් හෝ ආබාධ, එදා වැදගත් නොවීය. නමුත්, කාලය ගතවීමත් සමඟ, ඒවා හා වයස සමඟ ඇතිවන වෙනස්කම් එකට එකතු වී, ස්පයිනල් ස්ටෙනෝසිස්” ලෙස හඳුන්වන තත්ත්වයක් ඇතිවීමට හේතු වූවා විය හැක.

විශේෂත්වයක් වන්නේ, එහි මුල් ලක්ෂණ මට දැනුනේ ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය අතර නොව, නිශ්ශබ්දතාවයේදීය.

වොර්සෙස්ටර්ෂයර් හි සිදු කළ දින 10ක මෞන භාවනා වැඩසටහනකදී—ඇස් සම්බන්ධ නොවීම, කතා නොකිරීම, දිගු කාලයක් ලෝටස් ආසනයේ හිඳීම වැනි දැඩි විනයක් තිබූ අවස්ථාවක—මට තද සයිටිකා වේදනාවක් ඇති විය. මනස සන්සුන් කිරීමට ගත් උත්සාහයකදී, ශරීරය තම අභ්‍යන්තර ගැටළු පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

වසර කිහිපයකට පසු, නවීන වෛද්‍ය උපකරණ භාවිතයෙන්, පීඩනයට ලක්වූ නාඩී විවෘත කිරීම සිදු කළා. ශාරීරික සැනසීම අපේක්ෂිත දෙයක් විය. නමුත්, එයට අමතරව ලැබුණු දේ වඩාත් විශේෂ විය.

මගේ මනස පැහැදිලි විය.

දිගු කාලයක් පුරා තිබූ අභ්‍යන්තර ශබ්දය” අඩුවී ගියේය. ඒ වෙනුවට, සිතීමට, මතකයන් නැවත සිහිකර ගැනීමට, සහ ලිවීමට අවකාශයක් උදා විය. මම වැඩි වශයෙන් ලියන්නත්, සිතන්නත් ආරම්භ කළෙමි.

මෙවැනි මතකයකින් එකක් මගේ පාසල් කාලයට අයත්ය—කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන සමයේදී, 1966 දී, සිසු විනය” යන මාතෘකාව යටතේ ලියන ලද රචනාවක් සඳහා මට ප්‍රථම ස්ථානය හිමි විය. ඒ සමඟ ලැබුණු Gora නම් කෘතිය, එදා කුඩා සිදුවීමක් වුවත්, අද බලන විට එය මගේ ජීවිතයට බලපා ඇති වැදගත් මොහොතක් ලෙස පෙනේ.

අද, ජීවිතයේ තවත් නිහඬ අවධියක, එම බීජය නැවත මතුවී ඇත.

මෙය පසුබෑමක් නොව, පරිවර්තනයකි—ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වයෙන් අවබෝධයට යන ගමනකි. ක්‍රියාවෙන් නායකත්වය දැක්වීමෙන්, සිතීම මගින් මග පෙන්වීම වෙත පියවරක් ගන්නා අවස්ථාවකි.

අද ලෝකය වේගයෙන්, ශබ්දයෙන් සහ ප්‍රතිචාරයන්ගෙන් පිරී ඇත. එවැනි ලෝකයක, විශේෂයෙන් තරුණ නායකයන් සහ තීරණකරුවන් සඳහා, විනය, ඉවසීම සහ ගැඹුරු සිතුවිල්ල නැවත හඳුනා ගැනීම අත්‍යවශ්‍යය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට අද අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ශක්තිය සහ ආශාව පමණක් නොව, අත්දැකීම් මත ගොඩනගාගත් බුද්ධියදය.

තරුණ පරපුරට අවබෝධ විය යුතු කරුණු:

• විනය යනු සීමාවක් නොව, පදනමකි
• අත්දැකීම යනු පවත්නා වීම පමණක් නොව, ඉගෙනීමකි
• සිතීම යනු නිශ්ක්‍රියතාවක් නොව, දිශානතියකි

අවසන් වශයෙන්, මගේ ගමනෙන් ලබාගත හැකි පාඩම මෙයයි:

සැබෑ පැහැදිලිත්වය ලැබෙන්නේ නිරන්තර චලනයෙන් නොව, නවතිමින්, සිතා බලමින්, අරමුණක් සහිතව ක්‍රියා කිරීමෙන්ය.

Shenali D Waduge

A critical look at the claims following April 2024 when Father Cyril Gamini addressed the media after appearing before the Criminal Investigation Department on 19 April 2024, he presented what he described as 8 facts with sources” relating to the Easter Sunday attacks.

What follows is a systematic evaluation of each claim against known operational facts, intelligence records, and forensic evidence.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1106057787267792  (19 April 2024)

Take away the rhetoric, and what remains?

Not facts.
Not evidence.
But questions—layered upon assumptions, presented to the public as truth.

Let us examine these eight points not emotionally, but logically.

If these are Facts”… Then why are they Questions?

If these are truly facts, then:

• Why is each point framed as a question?
• Why is there no direct attribution?
• Where are the sources he claims to have submitted?

A fact” identifies.
A fact” proves.
A fact” withstands scrutiny.

What we have instead are gaps being presented as conclusions.

If a jacket in Vavunativu Matters… then where is the Connection to Easter Sunday attacks?

If the presence of a jacket near the Vavunativu crime scene is significant—

• How does it identify a mastermind?

If no such connection is established, then:

It is not evidence.
It is distraction – A disconnected clue without linkage to the Easter attacks is not evidence—it is noise.

More importantly, key individuals already identified in investigations are conspicuously absent from these questions.”

Why wasn’t the name of Milhan mentioned – he was the one who killed the 2 policemen on Zaharan’s instructions, the same Milhan who shot & crippled Taslim for pointing the Wanathavilluwa facility (coordinating secretary of Kabir Hashim). Milhan was a member of the military wing of the SL IS branch. By 2018 Milhan was put in charge of a secret investigation group in August 2018 tasked to get location details on Colombo navy headquarters, Police headquarters and police stations across Colombo.

If Zahran needed a Mastermind”… Why was he running a Nationwide Terror Network?

If a hidden mastermind existed, then:

Why was Zahran Hashim already:

• Recruiting
• Training
• Indoctrinating
• Planning
• Coordinating

across multiple districts for years?

Documented Training Footprint (2017–2018)

Evidence shows Zahran personally led or supervised repeated training camps:

• Kattankudy (Eastern Province)
  • indoctrination sessions
  • Weekly IS + Caliphate lectures
• Thashila Holiday Resort (March–May 2018)
  • Multiple camps
• Training on:
  • Explosives
  • Firearms
  • IS ideology
• Shimla area (July–August 2018)
  • 20–40 recruits per session
  • Practical weapons + bomb training
• Nuwara Eliya (October 2018 – Blue Eye Inn)
  • ~20–25 recruits
  • Expansion beyond Eastern Province
• Sippikulama & Wanathawilluwa (2018–2019)
  • Weapons storage
  • Bomb-making
  • Safehouse operations
• Women’s radicalization camp (July 2018)
  • Indoctrinating families of operatives
  • Preparing support ecosystem

These are not the actions of a puppet.
These are the actions of a network builder and operational leader.

Structured Military Wing

Zahran didn’t just preach — he built a hierarchy:

• Milhan→ Military operations, assassinations
• Hasthun→ Master bomb-maker
• Jameel→ ISIS facilitator, recruitment, logistics
• Naufer→ Ideological + digital radicalization

He even created:

• Asecret investigation unit” (Aug 2018)
• Target mapping:
  • Police HQ
  • Navy HQ
  • Colombo infrastructure

Digital Command & Control

Zahran’s control extended online:

• Facebook sermons calling forjihad and killing non-Muslims
• Telegram group:Ansar Khilafah” (~200 members)
• Direct ISIS ideological alignment

From the FBI affidavit:

• members of the group used encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with one another and with ISIS operatives”
• devices… contained communications… linked to ISIS”

This is networked terrorism, not mystery control.

Logical Conclusion

If a man:

• Trains recruits nationwide
• Builds a command structure
• Procures weapons
• Runs indoctrination pipelines
• Coordinates attacks

Then he is not a passive instrument.
He is an operational leader on the ground.

If an Email Address is Key… then who used It?

If a foreign intelligence agency identified an IP address or email linked to Zahran Hashim—how is this important to Father Cyril?

• email proves only one thing: communication existed.
• It does not prove who was behind Easter Sunday attacks

How important is an email to asking questions about why Zaharan was not arrested if even a blue notice by Interpol and arrest by CTID was out from July 2018?

Why not ask about how many videos Zaharan posted on facebook – calling for supporters to attack non-Muslims. Throughout 2019 leading to the Easter Attacks Zaharan had posted that he too would die in the name of jihad. On 10 April 2019, SIS head at the National Security Council meeting had referred to Zaharan’s facebook uploads and his revenge on kafirs. Back in March 2017 Zaharan had posted on his facebook that it was mandatory for Muslims to wage jihad.

Instead of asking an email – why didn’t Father Cyril want to question for how long has Zaharan or radicalism been spreading across Sri Lanka. In early 2016 IS had declared Sri Lanka a part of its caliphate. These are open source facts. JMI and Salafi-Wahhabi entities were openly promoting extremism and exclusivism.

In fact all the Muslim ministers ganged up against then Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakse when he said in Parliament that 32 members of 4 families had gone to Syria to fight for ISIS. The Minister was accused of spreading hate speech when flagging these warning signs. The same bandwagon on Muslim MPs united and resigned when Bathurdeen was arrested following Easter Sunday attacks. Maybe everyone has forgotten these facts?

The FBI agents affidavit also lists how Zaharan & Co directly addresses electronic communications (including email and online messaging) between Zahran Hashim and his network. Zahran and associates communicated through:

• electronic communications, including email accounts, messaging applications, and social media platforms…”
• members of the group used encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with one another and with ISIS operatives.” – what this means is that the communication channel was known, traceable, and ideological (ISIS-linked), not some unidentified external handler using a secret email/IP.”

The affidavit explicitly states Zahran Hashim and others pledged allegiance to ISIS and were in contact with ISIS operatives through electronic means…”

• digital devices recovered… contained communications, videos, and materials linked to ISIS…”

On the issue of accounts (emails/IPs), the affidavit clarifies that:

• accounts used in furtherance of the conspiracy were accessed by members of the group…
• ”forensic work showed devices belonging to the attackers contained login credentials, communications, and records associated with these accounts.”

Meaning:

• The email/IP” issue raised by Cyril Gamini isnot mysterious
• The accounts wereoperated by the attackers themselves or their immediate network

Critically, the affidavit does NOT assume an unknown third-party handler controlling them or a hidden mastermind”.

Pre-attack coordination was via digital means the conspirators coordinated logistics, targets, and preparations through electronic communications…” – there is no trace of any shadow operator.

Yet Father Cyril wants to know Who used the IP/email address that maintained constant contact with Zahran?” – if the emails+accounts were used by Zaharans own network, if communications were ISIS-linked and ideologically driven, if devices recovered contained their own credentials and data are all consistent with terrorist cell communication behavior this mystery email/IP” is a this mystery email/IP” is not supported by the available forensic evidence.

Father Cyril should question the then AG and seek evidence for his grand conspiracy theory.

If Father Cyril is implying Investigations were Misled…then who Benefited?

If the claim that investigations into Vavunativu killings were misdirected does it prove a conspiracy? Or more of institutional failure?

If the State was orchestrating events – why would it mislead itself?

If a Phone call was Received… Then who Called?

If Abdul Latheef Jameel Mohamed received a phone call before his failed attempt—

• Who made the call?
• What was said?
• Where are the call records?

Call Detail Records (CDRs), tower dumps, and device forensics would definitively answer this—have these been presented?

Why not ask who brought Jameel to the hotel? Who provided his suicide kit? Why was he committing suicide?

Exactly who is this Jameel? He was even summoned in April 2018 about propagating IS ideology by the CTID. Jameel had been involved with ISIS since 2014 and established the JMI in 2015. Jameel also had infiltrated the Save the Pearls charity for homeless children with aim to indoctrinate them. Jameel even facilitated recruits to travel to Iraq & Syria to fight for IS. DMI identified him as a religious extremist and placed him under surveillance in December 2016

If Intelligence Officers visited a Suspect’s Home… Then is that Not Their Job?

If intelligence officers visited Jameel’s residence—

• Was he not already a known extremist?
• Was he not under scrutiny?

If security agencies follow suspects:

• That is investigation.
• Not collaboration.

If we criminalize intelligence work, then:

Are we saying security forces must not monitor suspects?

Why should Father Cyril want to have the identities of the intel officers – was this not how the 2002 Millennium City debacle took place when a supposed fake threat on the then PM resulted in divulging the names & details of intel officers that ended up with LTTE killing over 50 of them.

Why should Father Cyril want the names of the intel officers?

If this was a Hidden Conspiracy… Why were there so many Warnings about Zahran?

If the attacks were secretly orchestrated by others—

Why was Zahran repeatedly identified, tracked, and warned about?

The real unanswered question is not who emailed Zahran—but why a known, wanted extremist was not apprehended despite multiple warnings.

Timeline of Ignored Warnings

2014–2016

• Multiple complaints fromSufi groups about Zahran’s extremism
• hate speech, incitement, violence

2016

• Zahran openly:
  • Promotes ISIS
  • Runs Telegram groups
• Intelligence begins monitoring

2017 – Escalation Phase

• March 2017
  • Violent clashes with Sufis
  • Arrests of NTJ members
• June 2017
  • State Intelligence Servicewarns of possible attacks
  • November 2017 (NSC Meeting)
  • Zahran identified as extremist threat

2018 – Operational Build-Up

• INTERPOL Blue Notice issued
• Arrest warrant obtained (CTID)
• Multiple intelligence briefings:
  • Radicalization
  • ISIS links
  • Training camps
• Wanathawilluwa discovery (Jan 2019)
  • Explosives
  • Training evidence

April 2019 – Final Warnings

• 4 April
  • Indian intelligence warns of imminent attack
• 7 April
  • Written intelligence report circulated
• 9–10 April
  • Attack plans discussed internally
• 21 April (morning of attack)
  • Final alert: attacks between 6–10 AM

The Real Question or rather the goal is to claim that someone” in the intel was secretly controlling or facilitating the attacks through intelligence channels.

Let’s break this down to the time of the 2019 attacks.

• The supposed orchestrator or controller” wasnot holding an operational post in Sri Lanka
• The individual wasoutside the country and did not hold a command role
• He hadno access to active intelligence units in the field.

To counter this probably the visit to coconut estate was planted!

However, that has to be proved with flight records, telephone calls – simply appearing on a paid documentary and making allegations with blurred visuals is not evidence.

If an individual is physically removed from operational control, any claim that they were directing attacks domestically becomes operationally impossible.

The next attempt is to float using Informant Theory” – this is where the showing one target church in Katuwapitiya comes to play.

Those making the allegations may have overlooked that the suicide bomber operated from a safehouse close to the Church – so he didn’t need somone from overseas calling to inform an intel informant to provide location.

If intelligence informants were allegedly used to assist attackers:

• Where are thetasking orders?
• Where is anycommunication trail or reporting link?
• Where are theoperational records?

Intelligence operations always leave evidence. Without it, the claim remains pure speculation.

Contradiction in Logic

If the attackers were already under surveillance, and multiple agencies issued repeated warnings about them:

• How could the same system simultaneouslytrack, warn, and allow facilitation?
• The evidence showsmonitoring and warning, not orchestration.

What the Pattern actually Shows

The documented pattern indicates:

• Intelligence awareness
• Warnings issued
• Tracking over time

This is evidence of a failure to act, not evidence of secret orchestration.

Claims of covert facilitation require:

• Operational links
• Verified communications
• Command responsibility

Without these, the allegation collapses under its own weight.

More importantly, none of these secret sensational stories can remove the fact that

IF:

• Zahran was known
• Zahran was tracked
• Zahran was reported repeatedly

THEN:
The pattern points to intelligence failure or non-action
Not proof of a coordinated hidden conspiracy

If the Entire Case Depends on One Man… Then where is his Evidence?

Two of the eight points by Father Cyril rely entirely on claims by Asad Maulana.

So let us ask:

If his claims are true—

• Why did he not testify before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry?
• Why did he not give a statement to the CID?
• Why did he not present sworn evidence?

Instead:

His claims appear in a foreign-funded documentary by a notorious channel.

If a man claims knowledge of mass murder but:

• Does not go to the police
• Does not testify under oath
• Does not submit to cross-examination

Then what is his claim worth? – it is not evidence, testimony but narrative.

And if his claims fall—then points 6 & 7 collapse entirely.

Claims not tested under oath remain allegations—not evidence.

Next Father Cyril wants to know – If Abu Hind” Exists… then does it not Suggest Infiltration?

If there was a figure known as Abu Hind” above Zahran Hashim—

• Who was he?
• Was he an extremist leader?
• Or an infiltrator?

As per Rohan Gunaratna’s book Sri Lanka Easter Sunday massacre since early 2018 a deputy IGP from the intelligence service of Tamil Nadu police, mounted an operation to infiltrate the IS Sri Lanka branch. It was said that undercover officer Abu Hind masqueraded as an IS leader and accessed Zahran through Rilwan”.

If foreign intelligence had penetrated Zaharan’s network it indicates surveillance/infiltration not control by local actors.

Hope that ends Father Cyril’s Abu-Hind conspiracy.

If there was a Mastermind… Where is the Evidence?

After all eight points, one question remains:

• Where is the evidence of planning?
• Where is the proof of financing?
• Where is the chain of command?

No evidentiary chain has been publicly demonstrated linking any alleged mastermind” to operational control of the attackers except clear evidence of Zaharan being in control of the ground operations including training and propaganda.

Years of investigations have already established:

• A radicalized network led by Zahran Hashim
• Links to ISIS ideology
• Local recruitment, training, and execution
• The most important item is that on 29 June 2014 – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leader of ISIS announced a global caliphate and instructed followers to kill non-Muslims in countries where they resided. IS envisaged controlling territories including Sri Lanka by 2020. Sri Lanka was shown on the map as part of the Khorasan province. Zaharan & Co was working towards this goal.

More importantly, the death of Zaharan & Co has not ended that goal.

However, if Father Cyril persists that a different mastermind exists – without asking more questions he must produce the evidence of the mastermind – this evidence must be able to link the mastermind to all of the trainings Zaharan had conducted across Sri Lanka, the social media propaganda that foreign intel has with them, the electronic communication and device details that foreign intel has access to which did not disclose any of the names that Father Cyril & Asad Maulana are implying or any grand conspiracy that the outgoing AG during the Easter Sunday infected the minds of people unwilling to accept raw facts.

Questions Cannot Replace Proof

In law—and in truth:

• Suspicion is not evidence
• Questions are not proof
• Narratives are not facts

If we begin to accept:

• Unverified claims
• Media statements
• Unquestioned assumptions

Then we are no longer seeking truth.

The Real Danger

The real danger is not asking questions.

The real danger is:

• Presenting questions as answers
• Suggesting conclusions without proof
• Turning speculation into accusation

Because once that line is crossed:

Truth becomes optional.
And justice becomes impossible.

If there is evidence—present it.

If there are witnesses—produce them (not fabricating fake evidence – as lies lead to more lies and lies always get caught)

If there is a case—prove it.

But until then:

Eight questions remain exactly what they are.

Mere Questions.

Shenali D Waduge

Dr Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS), Retired Perm Secretary Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayake

It appears that international laws are applicable only to smaller nations and they never cover the crimes committed by the powerful bigger nations. It is simply Kautillya’s Mathsya niyaaya at work that is the smaller fish is always the prey of the Big fish. The naked behavior of ‘BIG” nations proves the same natural law perhaps.

United Nations General Assembly proposal was initiated by Sri Lanka and Tanzania to designate the Indian Ocean as a nuclear-free zone, free from military escalation, foreign bases, and weapons of mass destruction. It aims to preserve regional security and ensure freedom of countries around the Indian Ocean.

In 1964 Cairo Summit NAM meeting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike proposed to the United Nations that the Indian Ocean be declared a Zone of Peace. It was seconded by Julius Nyere President of Tanzania and passed

It was declared by the UN General Assembly on December 16, 1971 (Resolution 2832), aimed at limiting superpower military rivalry, specifically nuclear weapons and military bases, to protect the region’s independence and security. Initiated by Sri Lanka, it seeks to maintain a, peaceful, secure Indian Ocean.

The resolution was passed with 61 votes in favor, zero against, and 55 abstentions, largely because major powers abstained. Even at that meeting Absentees were led by the US.

 The resolution designates the Indian Ocean (including airspace and sea floor) as a zone of peace, calling for the elimination of military bases and weapons of mass destruction belonging to great powers.

 The initiative is designed to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, focusing on international peace and security.

 While consistently reaffirmed by the General Assembly, the implementation has been challenging, with an Ad Hoc Committee established to work on its implementation.

Recent efforts, notably by Sri Lanka, are re-emphasizing the initiative to ensure security, freedom of navigation, and prevent the region from becoming a theater of conflict.

The declaration calls upon all littoral and hinterland states, as well as permanent Security Council members, to negotiate to reduce military presence in the area.

The Indian Ocean has been called a “zone of peace” by littoral states who are concerned about the increased naval activity of the superpowers. But all major powers 1971 resolution US, Uk and France have their base. As of early 2026, the United States, United Kingdom, and France maintain a robust military presence in the Indian Ocean, driven by strategic competition with China, energy security, and regional stability in the Middle East and Africa

 Their interests focus on maintaining freedom of navigation, securing maritime trade routes (especially the Strait of Hormuz and Malacca), and protecting their respective sovereign territories and alliances, often operating under NATO or independent. But in practice they always bypass these interests leaning towards neo colonial agenda reminiscent of the old practice of invasion Conquering, exploiting and keeping under financial and cultural invasion.

All these super power interests in the Indian Ocean go counter to the   1971 Resolution. Although colonial expansion by Europe as it did in the1500 -1900 has come to an end their active military and trade activities together with regime change are still at full swing in this region. A potential threat to the freedom and security of the countries around the Indian m ocean that were under their colonial administration.

This situation has to be arrested as early as possible to protect the security of the smaller and poorer nations and their sea faring interest as equals, as free and sovereign nations irrespective of their size, power or riches, but their human qualities and intellectual achievements and contributions making this world a happy and peaceful place to live without fear, pain and sorrow.

 Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. PhD

The Buddhist Jātaka tales represent a substantial collection of folklore, consisting of 547 poems. Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that these stories were compiled between the 3rd Century B.C. and the 5th Century A.D. As noted by Professor Rhys Davids, the Jātaka tales are among the oldest fables known to us. Jātaka Tales provide deep insights into the human mind, analyzing behavior through a “case method” long before modern Western psychology (Harischandra, 1998).

It is noteworthy that the Buddhist Jātaka tales explore themes of father-son conflict and the Oedipal complex (Jayatunge, 2015). These narratives explore the complexities of familial relationships, highlighting the struggles and tensions that can arise between generations.

The Oedipus complex consists of a configuration of conscious and unconscious desires, affects (love, hate, jealousy, rivalry, admiration, guilt), fantasies, prohibitions, but also relationships and identifications between a child and his parents, mother and father. It involves two forms, positive and negative: the positive one consists of a son’s incestuous desires for his mother, a hostile desire for death, and jealousy and rivalry towards his father. While the negative one consists of a homosexual desire for his father, it also includes a feeling of admiration and a feeling of rivalry, jealousy, and hostile impulses towards his mother. This Oedipus complex should evolve due to the castration threat towards its dissolution and the process of a double identification, male and female, with the parents; for the son, the male identification would be predominant, while for the daughter, the female one would be predominant. Both these identifications will form the core of the child’s superego as the heir of the Oedipus complex and the castration threat.

In Totem and Taboo, Freud argued that this complex was universal, suggesting a shared and psychological blueprint for all humans, regardless of culture. The Oedipus complex is found in ancient fables and myths across many cultures.

The Oedipus complex, a concept originating from Freudian psychoanalysis, can be observed in various narratives within the Buddhist Jātaka Tales.  These tales often explore complex familial relationships and the psychological struggles of individuals, mirroring the themes of desire, conflict, and resolution found in the Oedipus complex. In several Jātaka stories, characters grapple with their relationships to parental figures, revealing deep-seated emotions and conflicts that resonate with the essence of the Oedipus complex.

In the Asilakkhana Jataka, (in Buddhist Jātaka tales), also known as Jataka 126, the narrative unfolds with the birth of a prince, whose arrival is met with foreboding predictions from a seer. The prognosticator ominously foretells that this young royal will one day become a formidable rival to his father, the reigning king. This prophecy instills a deep-seated fear in the king, prompting him to take drastic measures to isolate the prince from any potential threats to his rule. As the story progresses, the prince, driven by ambition and the desire for power, ultimately resorts to treachery, plotting to assassinate his father in a bid to seize the throne. Complicating the dynamics further, the queen, who serves as a maternal figure to the prince, becomes entangled in this web of conflict, highlighting the intricate relationships and moral dilemmas that arise from the pursuit of power and the fear of rivalry within a royal lineage.

The Asilakkhana Jataka and the story of Oedipus Rex share intriguing thematic similarities, particularly in their exploration of fate, identity, and the consequences of one’s actions. In both narratives, the protagonists are confronted with prophecies that dictate their destinies, leading them to a tragic realization of their circumstances. The Asilakkhana Jataka and the story of Oedipus Rex share a fascinating historical connection. However, there is no consensus among historians that they share a common historical origin.

Ethologists and evolutionary psychologists (like Edward O. Wilson) note that in many social species, the “Oedipal” dynamic is a literal reality of survival (Wilson, 1975).  In many monkey species, young males must eventually challenge the dominant “alpha” (often their father) to gain status and reproductive access to females (De Waal, 1982). 

The Thayo Darma Jātakaya, part of the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, explores themes reminiscent of the Oedipal complex within a monkey kingdom. This story narrates a poignant tale of conflict between a father and his son, set against the backdrop of a jungle kingdom ruled by a tyrannical monkey king. This father, driven by a fear of potential threats to his authority, resorts to a brutal practice of mutilating the genitals of male infant monkeys, thereby ensuring that no rival can emerge to challenge his reign. In a further display of dominance, he hoards all the female monkeys for himself, rendering other males impotent and effectively eliminating competition (castration by the father responding to the son’s wish for the father’s death).

However, one male infant monkey manages to escape this grim fate, finding refuge in a secluded part of the jungle where he is nurtured by his mother, who secretly provides for him. This bond fosters a deep emotional attachment, leading the young monkey to harbor resentment towards his father for the cruel actions taken against his kind. As he matures into a formidable adult, the son emerges from his hidden sanctuary, emboldened by his mother’s love and his own desire for justice. In a climactic confrontation, he challenges his father, ultimately overcoming him in a fierce battle, and ascends to the throne as the new king, symbolizing the triumph of resilience and the quest for rightful leadership.

The Thayo Darma Jātakaya can be considered a powerful symbolic narrative of human behavior, specifically focusing on the psychology of jealousy, fear of displacement, and the destructive nature of power. While the Western Freudian model focuses on the son’s desire to displace the father, this Jātaka story expresses the projection of the son’s fear of castration, which is a father’s threat as a punishment for both desires, incestuous with the mother and the death of the father.

Sri Lankan anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere posits that within the Buddhist framework, the Oedipal conflict is frequently resolved when a son chooses to become a monk. This decision to embrace celibacy and renounce familial ties allows the son to symbolically sever his connections to his family role, effectively alleviating the rivalry with the father and the longing for the mother without resorting to physical confrontation (Obeyesekere, 1990).

In the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, the conflict between a son and his father can be reinterpreted as a form of religious virtue. This transformation highlights the potential for personal growth and moral development arising from familial rivalry, suggesting that such struggles may ultimately lead to greater spiritual understanding and enlightenment.

Buddhist Jātaka Tales reinterpret Oedipal desires as expressions of craving and influences from previous lives. These narratives illustrate how such detrimental mental states contribute to a continuous cycle of suffering and unfavorable rebirths.

The primary distinction between the Freudian Oedipal complex and its Buddhist equivalent is found in how each framework addresses the underlying conflict. Freud’s theory is characterized by a tragic and inescapable cycle of violence.  In contrast, the Buddhist Jātaka narratives view conflict as an opportunity for spiritual growth and renunciation, transforming potential turmoil into a path to enlightenment.

 Acknowledgement: Dr. Eric Smadja, Psychiatrist-psychoanalyst (adults and couples) based in Paris, member of the Société psychanalytique de Paris, of the International Psychoanalytical Association; anthropologist, associate member of the American Anthropological Association and member of the Society for Psychological Anthropology.

References

De Waal, F. (1982). Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. Jonathan Cape.

Freud, S. (1910). A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XI (1910): Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Leonardo da Vinci and Other Works (pp. 163–176).

Freud, S. (1913/1950). Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics (J. Strachey, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Harischandra, D. V. J. (1998). Psychiatric Aspects of Jataka Stories.  Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Jayatunge, R. M. (2015). Psychological Aspects of Buddhist Jātaka Stories. Colombo: S. Godage.

Obeyesekere, G. (1990). The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. University of Chicago Press.

Rhys Davids, T. W. (1880). Buddhist Birth Stories; or, Jātaka Tales. The Oldest Collection of Folklore Extant: Being the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā. London: Trübner & Co. Gutenberg.

Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Draft Submitted by:Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Positioning Sri Lanka as a Regional Trade & Services Hub through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Model

1. Background & Rationale

Global economic and geopolitical shifts and looming world war 3 , are resulting in a gradual relocation of trade, logistics, and service sector operations from traditional hubs in the Middle East and other regions.

Sri Lanka, due to its strategic location along major Indian Ocean shipping routes, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this transition.

The development of Colombo Port City and the underutilized potential of Trincomalee present a timely opportunity to reposition the country as a regional hub for industry, trade, and high-value services.

2. Strategic Vision

• Develop Trincomalee as a heavy industrial and energy hub
• Establish Colombo Port City as a Centre of Excellence” for:
  • Financial services
  • Oil & gas support services
  • Maritime and logistics management
  • IT and digital services
• Compete regionally with:
  • Chennai
  • Singapore

3. Policy Alignment

This proposal aligns with:

• National export development strategies
• Investment promotion policies
• Neutral foreign policy direction adopted by the Government under Ranil Wickremesinghe
• Economic recovery and foreign exchange generation priorities

4. Proposal

It is proposed that the Government:

1. Approve in principle the development of a dual-hub strategy:
   • Industrial Hub in Trincomalee
   • Services Hub in Colombo Port City
2. Adopt a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to:
   • Accelerate infrastructure development
   • Attract foreign direct investment (FDI)
   • Ensure efficient management
3. Mandate relevant agencies (EDB, BOI, Port City Commission) to:
   • Promote Sri Lanka as a relocation destination
   • Engage multinational corporations currently based in the Middle East and Asia

5. Immediate Actions Required

• Submission and approval by the Export Development Committee of Ministers (EDCM)
• Establishment of a high-level task force
• Fast-track regulatory approvals and investor facilitation mechanisms
• Launch of an international investment promotion campaign

6. Infrastructure Strategy

A key constraint is the time required for conventional construction.

Therefore, it is proposed to:

• Utilize prefabricated steel structures for rapid deployment
• Partner with international contractors experienced in modular construction
• Enable immediate occupation by global firms

This approach will significantly reduce lead time and capture the current opportunity window.

7. Target Sectors

• Oil & Gas (regional support services)
• Banking & Financial Services
• Maritime & Shipping Services
• Information Technology & Digital Services
• Logistics and Supply Chain Management

8. PPP Framework

The PPP model will include:

• Joint venture structures
• Long-term concessions
• Revenue-sharing mechanisms
• Risk-sharing arrangements between Government and private sector

Minister of finance and Policy Planning 

Concept: Senaka Weeraratna

Content : Chat GPT

https://share.google/aimode/K7j7rlCnYXITu43ve

                                            Artur Schopenhauer 

AI Overview

Admiration for Arthur Schopenhauer’s stance on animal compassion is rooted in his radical rejection of anthropocentrism, his deep empathy for the powerless, and his philosophical argument that kindness toward animals is the ultimate test of human morality. Writing in the 19th century—a time when animal rights were largely ignored—Schopenhauer stated in

The Basis of Morality that “compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man”

Here is why Schopenhauer’s placing of compassion for animals as the defining characteristic of humanity is admirable:

• It Redefines Moral Character: Schopenhauer argued that true morality is not based on reason or intellectual capacity, but on empathy. Because animals are unable to defend themselves or seek justice, he believed that how humans treat them exposes their true, unadorned moral nature.
• A Crucial Rejection of Western “Barbarity”: Schopenhauer harshly criticized the prevailing Western view that animals were merely tools without rights, calling it an “outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity”. His position was ahead of his time, emphasizing that animals are sentient beings driven by a “Will” similar to that of humans.
• The Shared Experience of Suffering: He argued that all living beings share the same “metaphysical will,” leading to a shared existence of suffering. By identifying this unity, he placed animal suffering on the same moral plane as human suffering, recognizing that both deserve compassion.
• Actionable Morality: Schopenhauer believed in a practical, daily ethics where “suffering recognized is suffering reduced”. This philosophy moves beyond theoretical debates about ethics and demands that a “good person” act with compassion toward all living beings.
• Influence of Deeper Wisdom: His focus on animal compassion was strongly influenced by Eastern philosophies, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, which emphasize the “Self” (Atman) being present in all living beings, reflecting his belief in universal empathy. 

Schopenhauer’s legacy is that he transformed animal ethics from a sentimental concern into a necessary foundation for a “good” human being.

……………………………………………………………..

SEE ALSO

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Arthur Schopenhauer

is widely admired for his pioneering stance on animal ethics, specifically for his assertion in his major work, On the Basis of Morality, that “Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man”. Unlike many of his contemporaries who viewed animals as mere “things” or tools for human use, Schopenhauer argued that our treatment of them is a direct reflection of our moral essence. 

His reasons for placing compassion for animals at the center of human morality include:

• Recognition of Shared Suffering: He believed that both humans and animals are manifestations of the same metaphysical “Will” and are therefore subject to the same fundamental experience of suffering and craving.
• Rejection of Rationality as a Moral Barrier: Schopenhauer challenged the Kantian view that only rational beings deserve moral consideration. He argued that the capacity to feel pain, not the ability to reason, is what makes a being worthy of compassion.
• The Ultimate Litmus Test for Character: He saw animals as the most vulnerable “other.” Because they cannot speak or defend themselves, how a person treats an animal reveals their true, unforced moral character—either “goodness of heart” or “moral emptiness”.
• Universal Compassion as the Only Moral Guarantee: He famously stated that “Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality,” suggesting that a moral system that excludes animals is inherently “crude and barbarous”.
• Critique of Human Supremacy: He vehemently opposed religious and philosophical traditions that granted humans “absolute right” over animals, describing the idea that animals were created solely for human use as an “outrageous illusion”. 

Schopenhauer’s personal life mirrored these beliefs; he famously lived with a succession of pet poodles named “Atman” (a Sanskrit term for the “true self”) and reportedly preferred their company to that of humans. 

Sahar TV Clips

by Professor Mahinda Palihawadana, Source: Info Lanka, Published on the Buddhist Channel

The Buddha explains why animal sacrifice is useless and cruel
byu/Firelordozai87 inBuddhism

The Buddha was against animal sacrifice

https://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=8,665,0,0,1,0

Colombo, Sri Lanka — The Buddha was against animal sacrifice. He had to be, for he was staunchly opposed to killing. Killing, not just human beings, but all beings without exception. He expressed the view that it was all beings (sabbe satta/ sabbe bhuutaa) that deserved our compassion.

During the time of the Buddha, many kinds of sacrifices were practised by Brahmins who were the priests of the Vedic religion professed by the upper castes of contemporary Indian society. The Buddha did not see any value in these sacrifices, primarily because they were entirely external rites. If one could speak of a ‘right sacrifice’, it had to be something that was internal or ?spiritual?.

“I lay no wood, Brahmin, for fire on altars
Only within burneth the fire I kindle”

– says the Buddha, mindful of the Brahmins? practice of tending a regular ‘sacred fire’ and pouring oblations into it for the various gods of the Vedic pantheon.

This however was only a relatively harmless, albeit in the eyes of the Buddha useless, activity. The Vedic priests also advocated and performed several types of cruel animal sacrifice such as:

“The sacrifices called the Horse, the Man,
The Peg-thrown Site, the Drink of Victory,
The Bolt Withdrawn – and all the mighty fuss-
Where divers goats and sheep and kine are slain”.

The Buddha rejected all these sacrifices in no uncertain terms. For example, when he was told of a ‘great sacrifice’ that the king of Kosala was about to perform, where 2500 cattle, goats and rams were to be immolated, he declared:

“Never do such a rite as that repair
The noble seers who walk the perfect way.”

And, in one of the Jataka stories (Bhuridatta), the future Buddha is reported to have said:

“If he who kills is counted innocent,
Let Brahmins Brahmins kill.
We see no cattle asking to be slain
That they may gain a new and better life;
Rather they go unwilling to their death
And in vain struggles yield their final breath.
To veil the post, the victim and the blow,
The Brahmins let their choicest rhetoric flow”.

Many times in his discourses the Buddha speaks of four kind of persons – those who (1) torture themselves, (2) torture others, (3) torture both self and others and (4) who do not torture themselves or others. The first are the strict ascetics and the second the butchers, trappers, fishers and robbers. It is however the third group that is of special interest in our context. It includes kings and powerful priests who, on such occasions as the opening of a public building, hold a great ritual, “with the sacrifice of many cattle, goats and rams, with wood-cutting and grass-strewing and with much bullying and hustling of servants and slaves, working in fear of chastisement.”

The Buddha does not approve of the conduct of these three classes. It is the last kind, who do not torture themselves or others, that he admires and they are none other than those who follow a compassionate ethic such as the one the Buddha himself advocated.

A particularly touching discourse of the Buddha on animal sacrifice comes in one of the most ancient Buddhist texts, the Sutta Nipata. Here in a discourse on the ethical conduct fit for a Brahmin (Brahmana-dhammika Sutta), the Buddha speaks respectfully of ancient Brahmins who spurned the taking of life and never allowed their religious rites to be tainted by the killing of animals. But corruption set in and they started the practice of animal sacrifice. When the knife was laid on the neck of cattle, the gods themselves cried out in horror of that crime of ingratitude and insensitivity perpetrated on an animal that was to humans such a faithful worker, such a sustainer of life.

In the piece known as the Discourse with Kutadanta we come across a king?s Brahmin counsellor who is preparing a great animal sacrifice, concerning the right procedures of which he consults the wisdom of the Buddha. T. W. Rhys Davids, the distinguished translator of this text, alerts us to the fact that this would be the last thing that an eminent Brahmin is likely to do – to seek the Buddha?s opinion on how to conduct a sacrifice. So he describes the discourse as a “deliberate fiction full of ironical humour”.

The Buddha tells Kutadanta of a worthy sacrifice held in ancient times under the guidance of a certain enlightened Brahmin counsellor. In this sacrifice no living thing is injured; all the labour is voluntary and the sacrifice is offered not only on behalf of the king, but of all the good.

The Buddha then tells Kutadanta of even better forms of sacrifice. In the course of this discourse, as Mrs C. A. F. Rhys Davids points out (Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, article on Sacrifice/ Buddhist), the stations in the road to the good life – the perfect lay life and the perfect religious life – are set forth as so many degrees of sacrifice, each better than the other. Thus the highest sacrifice is that insight and wisdom which signifies the abandonment of the sense of self – i.e., the sacrifice of ego-centeredness.
It is not a matter for surprise that Buddhism along with Jainism, the other great religion of Ahimsa, as well as several sects of Hinduism, rejected animal sacrifice, although many other religions approved of it to some extent or another. The Buddha in fact was outspoken in his criticism of such entrenched features of the contemporary religious and social scene as sacrificial rituals and the caste system. (His ?detachment? was not indifference or withdrawal of judgement, as has been often misunderstood.

Consider his reply to Potaliya who told him that the best person was one who neither praised the praise-worthy nor blamed the blame-worthy: Far better is the person who speaks in dispraise of the unworthy and in praise of the worthy, saying in due time what is factual and truthful. Anguttara ii 100)

In the modern world, there is a powerful movement which seeks to reduce and eliminate the crimes that are perpetrated on animals and to introduce to the social ethic an element of justice to other sentient beings who share the planet with us humans.

This movement is all the more remarkable in that it reflects an attitudinal shift in the predominantly Christian West which is beginning to see the true nature of the moral evil that the abuse and exploitation of animals is. The fundamental thrust of this movement stems from the realisation that animals are like us when it comes to suffering pain and the prospect of the deprivation of life. It is this very sympathy with the suffering of animals and other sentient beings that is at the core of Buddhist compassion or loving kindness (mettaa). Says a verse in the Dhammapada, the most popular of Buddhist texts:

“All fear the rod
Of death are all scared.
(Understanding others) from one?s own example,
One should neither kill nor cause to kill.”

In the very next verse much the same is said with this addition: ‘For all is life dear’. Here in simple terms is the ?philosophy? behind the Buddhist ethic of Ahimsa: other living beings are like us; we should treat them the way we want to be treated ourselves. This is the spirit behind the first precept which enjoins us neither to kill, nor to encourage killing as clearly explained in the Dhammika Sutta. This is the spirit that prompts the Noble Eightfold Path to forbid the trade in flesh and engaging in fishing, hunting etc. for those who profess to follow that Path. It is the same spirit that projected an ideal of kingship in which the ruler provided defence and protection (rakkhavarana-guttim) not only to the different classes of the human population, but also to birds of the air and beasts of the land (miga-pakkhisu).

The natural corollary of such a teaching in modern parlance is that animals have the same right to life which we humans claim for ourselves. And it is the sensitivity to this right that made Emperor Asoka, whose life was abundantly inspired by the teachings of the Buddha, to promulgate, in the well known Rock Edict I: “Here no animal shall be killed or sacrificed”. This is an outstanding example of an ethical teaching being made the basis for a legal pronouncement. In a somewhat similar vein, as Senaka Weeraratna has pointed out in his paper “The Requirement for New Animal Welfare Legislation in Sri Lanka”, seven states and territories of the modern Republic of India have enacted statutes prohibiting animal sacrifice for the purpose of any religious worship or adoration.

Moreover, according to the Constitution of India, it is a fundamental duty of every citizen to have compassion for living creatures.

The tradition of royal decrees based on the ethic of respect for animal life was also followed in Sri Lanka prior to the advent of colonialism. Consider the MAAGHAATA (Do not kill) proclamations of five kings of Lanka from the first to the eighth century, beginning with Amandagamani Abhaya, which forbade the killing of any living being within the realm. King Vijayabahu I in the 11th century and Parakramabahu the Great in the 12th also made proclamations of protection of wildlife and fishes in the forests and lakes of Sri Lanka. Kirti Sri Nissankamalla, one of the kings who came after Parakramabahu, promulgated a remarkable decree, which he published in six of his famous inscriptions, forbidding the killing of all living beings in the irrigation lakes of the entire country. In his Anuradhapura inscription he decreed that no animals should be killed within seven leagues of the city and induced a certain group of hunters to desist from the trapping of birds. These few instances suffice to give us an idea of the pervasive influence of the Buddhist attitude to animal life in the social and legal history of Sri Lanka.

In conclusion, it is pertinent to ask what has post-independence Sri Lanka done to foster the Ahimsa ethic? Constitutionally and legally, nothing – as far as one can see. As for state intervention in favour of compassion towards animals, the record is equally barren. One among many examples will suffice to underscore this point.

A stark contrast to the respect for animal life shown throughout the history of this country is the present-day encouragement of inland fishing. There can be no doubt that it is the greatest threat to the fabric of the Ahimsa ethic which still prevails to a considerable extent among the village communities of Sri Lanka. The destruction of this ethic will undoubtedly facilitate the subversion of Buddhist values and the conversion of Buddhists to ideologies which are not averse to the killing of animals.

Recent events show that the Sangha hierarchy of Sri Lanka will be as guilty of complicity as the rest of us who stand as silent and helpless onlookers in the face of this onslaught on a humane and compassionate religious ethic which had stood the test of time for twenty five centuries.

Note:

Professor Mahinda Palihawadana was an outstanding Buddhist Scholar and dedicated vegetarian. He served as the President of the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society for a long time. 

Professor Palihawadana was a living embodiment of the vision and mission of the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society, representing years of promoting vegetarianism. Through numerous public talks and publications, he approached vegetarian advocacy with the same depth and scholarly rigor he brought to his academic research

He passed away on June 08, 2025

Stop Home Slaughter in Sri Lanka

The movement to

Stop Home Slaughter (and cattle slaughter more broadly) in Sri Lanka is a prominent animal rights campaign championed by activists including

Senaka Weeraratna

and supported by figures like

Mahinda Palihawadana

. 

The campaign focuses on the ethical, spiritual, and legal implications of animal slaughter, particularly within the context of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist and Hindu heritage. 

Key Advocacy Points

• Moral & Spiritual Grounds: Senaka Weeraratna argues that the “screams of dying animals” are a moral equivalent to human prayers and that justice should extend to all species. He advocates for the “Meatless Sri Lanka” ideal, rooted in the first precept of Buddhism—abstaining from taking life.
• Legal Reform: Weeraratna has been a vocal critic of outdated animal welfare laws. He has lobbied for a comprehensive Animal Welfare Bill to replace the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance of 1907.
• National Ban on Cattle Slaughter: The movement saw a significant milestone when a proposal to ban cattle slaughter in Sri Lanka, submitted by then-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, received cabinet approval in 2020.
• Health and Nutrition: Supporters like Dr. Damayanthi Perera highlights the scientifically proven health benefits of vegetarianism as a secondary justification for ending slaughter practices. 

Prominent Figures

• Senaka Weeraratna: A lawyer and animal rights advocate who has written extensively on the need to reinstate animal rights and stop the brutal treatment of livestock.
• Mahinda Palihawadana: An academic and scholar (former Professor of Sanskrit) known for his contributions to Buddhist philosophy and ethics, often aligning with animal welfare causes in Sri Lanka. 

Would you like more details on the specific legislative progress of the Animal Welfare Bill or information on vegetarianism in Sri Lanka?

https://share.google/aimode/8JRI0OrN46n36wWBJ

AI Overview

While Mahinda Wijesinghe of Sri Lanka is widely acknowledged as the person who conceptualized the third umpire, the system’s official debut is historically linked to South Africa.

Conceptual Origins vs. Official Implementation

• Mahinda Wijesinghe’s Proposal (1982–1984): Wijesinghe first proposed the use of television cameras and a “walkie-talkie” link between on-field umpires and an off-field official in an article for The Island newspaper on October 11, 1982. His concept was formally forwarded by Sri Lanka Cricket to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and discussed at the 1984 ICC AGM.
• Official Debut (1992): The system was first officially implemented in November 1992 during the India vs. South Africa Test series in Durban. Karl Liebenberg served as the first official third umpire, and Sachin Tendulkar became the first player dismissed using the technology. 

Recognition and Controversy

The perception of “unfairness” often stems from the delay in recognizing Wijesinghe’s role:

• Delayed Credit: For years, credit for the “walkie-talkie” link was sometimes attributed to the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) or South Africa for their initiative in the 1992 series.
• Official Acknowledgement: It was only after significant advocacy, including tributes from figures like Christopher Martin-Jenkins (who headlined a 1993 column “Sri Lanka the Third Umpire Pioneers”), that the ICC eventually recognized Wijesinghe as the concept’s rightful owner.
• Broader Claims: Similar disputes exist regarding the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS). Another Sri Lankan, lawyer Senaka Weeraratne, has long sought recognition for pioneering the player referral concept in 1997. 

Source:  AI Overview

https://share.google/aimode/X1Ktb6EMU5SFQA55V

By Sarath Obeysekera

There was a time when life did not come with apps, algorithms, or air-conditioned opinions. It came instead with cabbage.

Not metaphorical cabbage—but real, stubborn, Soviet cabbage. The kind you harvested yourself whether you were an engineering student, a future military officer, or a confused foreigner wondering how you ended up in a place called Orenburg fixing gas equipment in sub-zero winds.

The University of Life (with Compulsory Farming Minor)

In the days of the Soviet Union, education was not confined to lecture halls. If you didn’t go to university, you went to the military. If you went to university, you still learned military thinking. And regardless of your academic brilliance, at some point you were sent to a kolkhoz—a collective farm—to harvest cabbage, potatoes, or anything else that refused to grow politely on its own.

Imagine today’s students being told:

Before your degree, please report to Monaragala to harvest pumpkins.”

There would be protests on Instagram within minutes.

But back then, nobody protested. You just picked up the cabbage—and perhaps, unknowingly, a work ethic.

Language Lessons, Soviet Style

The Russians had a remarkable way with language. Their vocabulary could be… expressive. Words like blyad and pizda floated around like punctuation marks in a heated conversation.

Yet, the real genius was the supervisor who replaced all profanity with one magical word:

Pamidori!” (Tomatoes!)

Instead of shouting insults, he would roar:

Pamidori! Pamidori!”

And somehow, nobody was offended. Imagine if Sri Lankan traffic police adopted this:

Pamidori! Move your three-wheeler!”

Road rage would disappear overnight.

Cuisine of Champions (and Survivors)

Dinner was simple, predictable, and unforgettable:

• Cabbage (again—inescapable)
• Kalbasa (minced meat sausage, heroic in its greasiness)
• Black bread (dense enough to stop a bullet—or at least a complaint)

And then came the real highlight: vodka.

Not your premium, imported, crystal-bottle variety. No. This was the legendary cheap spirit—sometimes whispered to be distilled from substances that may have once powered machinery.

At 3.62 rubles a bottle, it was less a drink and more a national institution.

To accompany it, there was zakuska—the noble chaser:

• Salted fish
• Pickled tomatoes
• Gherkins that could wake the dead

And in true weekend spirit, there were adventures: catching land-based krevetki (crab-like creatures), boiling them over open fires, and consuming them with enthusiasm that defied hygiene standards.

Hardship Without Misery

Here is the surprising part: people were not miserable.

They worked hard, lived simply, and laughed loudly. There was a sense of shared struggle—an unspoken agreement that life was tough, but it was everyone’s tough.

Compare that to today, where comfort is abundant but contentment is scarce.

What Did We Learn?

Not communism. Not ideology. Not politics.

We learned:

• Discipline without supervision
• Skill through doing, not theorizing
• Respect for labour—whether in a classroom or a cabbage field

And perhaps most importantly, we learned that happiness does not always come from comfort. Sometimes it comes from:

• A shared meal
• A bad joke shouted as Pamidori!”
• A cold night made warm by camaraderie

A Thought for Today’s Sri Lanka

As Sri Lanka debates its future, with movements like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the National People’s Power offering frameworks and theories, one wonders:

Do we have the will to build character along with policy?

Because no system—capitalist, socialist, or otherwise—can succeed without a generation that knows how to work, endure, and laugh at hardship.

You cannot teach resilience in an air-conditioned lecture hall alone.

Sometimes, you need a cabbage field.

---

Final Reflection

From the frozen yards of Orenburg to the structured efficiency of Norway and the polished systems of the United Kingdom, the journey was not just geographic—it was educational.

But the most unforgettable classroom?

A Soviet lorry, a shouting supervisor, a bottle of cheap vodka, and a plate of cabbage.

Pamidori! What an education. 🍅

Opinion by Robert Reich Courtesy The Guardian

Donald Trump is alone.

That’s different from the United States being alone.

We – that is, the vast majority of Americans who were against Trump’s war from the start, and who support Nato and the United Nations charter and the post-second world war system of alliances and rules – are not alone.

Most of the people of the United States stand with most democracies of the world.

Related: Trump wants to strongarm Nato into another Gulf war. Here’s why Europe must resist

When Trump’s call to America’s traditional allies for assistance clearing the strait of Hormuz was rebuffed by those allies, those allies didn’t rebuff the United States. They rebuffed the person in the Oval Office who didn’t even consult them before launching this war.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said his country will never take part in operations to open or liberate the strait of Hormuz in the current context”. (Trump responded, He’ll be out of office very soon.”) Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, said that Canada was not consulted prior to the offensive operation” and has no intention of participating in” it. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said the UK would not be drawn into the wider war”.Recommended video: Trump insists he’s not ‘putting troops anywhere’ in Middle East (Daily Mail)

So, like an angry five-year-old whose friends refuse to come to his party because he shouts at them and never shares his toys, Trump exploded: [W]e no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance – WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea.” He added: In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

May I be so bold as to address myself to America’s allies and friends?

In point of fact, we the people of the United States do need your help.

We need your help fighting the global climate crisis.

We need your help heading off pandemics.

We need your help countering global criminal gangs that are trafficking people and dangerous drugs and weapons.

We need your help fighting global poverty, hunger and disease.

We need your help safeguarding freedom and democracy from authoritarian regimes intent on extinguishing freedom and democracy around the world.

It’s important that you, the citizens of other democracies, know that the vast majority of us – the people of the United States – are embarrassed and offended by the oaf who now occupies the highest office in the United States.

He does not speak for us. He is not making decisions based on our welfare, let alone the wellbeing of the rest of you. Please don’t confuse him with us.

We are trying our best to resist him, contain him, protest against him and remove him from office as quickly as we possibly can.

Thank you for your patience.

• Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK

e-Con e-News

Posted byee ink.March 14, 2026Posted inUncategorizedTags:China, geopolitics, history, India, Jaishankar, pence, politics

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 08-14 March 2026

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‘Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar recognized Hambantota

harbour as a Chinese military facility that underlined an

intimidating foreign military presence in the Indian Ocean’

(see ee Focus, Jaishankar)

The Indian Foreign Minister’s response last week to a planted question by WION‘s Palki Sharma at Delhi’s Raisina Dialogue 2026, diverted to talking about a non-existent Chinese miltary base in Hambantota, to avoid answering more searing questions regarding India (and Sri Lanka’s) knowledge of the USA preparing to attack an Iranian ship in the sea nearby. So-called social media foggery then took over creating further useless fuss over the Sri Lanka Foreign Minister’s presumed inability to answer questions in clear English, diverting more from the Indian Foreign Minister’s outre assertions.

     The Indian government had been the first to be asked to invest in Hambantota harbor & airport, but had refused to help develop the southeast region, because they were prioritizing the arming and promotion of terrorism in Sri Lanka’s north and east at the time, especially to grab Trincomalee port. Sri Lanka’s foreign officials at (and after) the Raisina Dialogue 2026, did not challenge the Indian assertion about a foreign base. Instead media in Sri Lanka focused on the Lanka Foreign Minister’s English. The use of English, rather than speaking in our own language and using translators (as most independent countries do at international fora), is less an issue of linguistic prowess than appearing to be an attempt at furthering ‘strategic ambiguity’ in dealing with current challenges, more contentious than most foreign officials, Oxford-house-trained or not, have ever had to deal with.   

     The US submarine attack led to the mass killing and drowning of cadets (invited as guests to participate in an Indian-led ‘friendly’ international exercise in what India likes to call its backyard). The resulting ecological damage, has not even drawn the criticism of the numerous (US & EU-funded) environmental NGOs – the silence of these ecological lambs, who normally bleat loudly at the slightest slick of oil, is deafening; they who cry about coral reefs, birds & beasts (which get more publicity than our cultivators – see ee Agriculture).

     The renewed US-led colonization project has seen the USA blow up pipelines (Nordstream, etc.) and attempt to grab or hold on to ‘chokepoints’ (Sri Lanka, Diego Garcia, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Malacca, South China Sea, Arctic Sea, Greenland, Panama, Venezuela/Trinidad, etc.) so as to prevent the wider industrialization of our world, let alone the modernization of China, Russia, Africa, and Sri Lanka. Their final dream (or nightmare) may be to grab the labor power and unified market of the now People’s Republic of China, and seek to return China to its pre-Liberation sick-man status.

*

The first illustrious personage to make the claim that Hambantota port was becoming a forward military base for the Chinese Navy was by US President Donald Trump’s first Vice President Mike Pence in 2018. This claim too came as a diversion, for it was made soon after media revealed that Sri Lanka had granted logistic hub status to the USA. To take ‘advantage of a growing naval partnership with Sri Lanka’, the US Navy had first operated the air logistic hub in late August 2018, when the USS Anchorage (LPD 23) visited Trincomalee to support the US Essex Amphibious Ready Group as it transited the western boundary of the 7th Fleet area of operations (See ee December 2018)

‘The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis (CVN 74) established the hub in Sri Lanka to receive support, supplies & services at sea. A C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery aircraft accessed the hub’s strategic location before bringing supplies to the Stennis. ‘The primary purpose of the operation was to provide mission-critical supplies & services to USA Navy ships transiting through and operating in the Indian Ocean… The secondary purpose [was] to demonstrate the US Navy’s ability to establish a temporary logistics hub ashore where no enduring US Navy logistics footprint exists.’ The hub concept enabled the use of an airstrip and storage facilities to receive weapons and other materiel, and ‘move out in various directions in smaller shipments, allowing ships to continue operating at sea by receiving the right material at the right place & time’.

     The revelation about the USA’s ‘hub’ led to great political turmoil: then-President Maithripala Sirisena clashed with then-Premier Wickremasinghe’s attempt to privately partner with US ally, India, to run the East Container Terminal (ECT) of the Colombo harbour. The battle over ownership of the ECT led to the sacking of Wickremesinghe. It was unclear if the UNP had consulted President Sirisena about the setting up of the US logistic hub in Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa, on Dec 16, 2018, warned of the possible implications to Sri Lanka by giving US access to Trincomalee and getting entangled in superpower rivalry. This was soon after Rajapaksa gave up the premiership to enable Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, as ordered by the Supreme Court.

     In March 2007, Sri Lanka had entered into Acquisition & Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with the USA. The then-Defence-Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and then-USA-Ambassador Robert Blake secretly signed the ACSA in Colombo. Left parties at the time condemned the ACSA, both in & outside parliament.

     The agreement, valid for 10 years, was meant to facilitate transfer and exchange of logistics supplies, support and re-fueling services. The ACSA was again officially extended in 2017, but this time, 10 times larger than the 2007 agreement, again secretly. The announcement of the US setting up of a logistic hub in Sri Lanka was meant to hint that this US agenda was proceeding. ACSA is to be re-signed in 2027, and the USA aims to use acquiescence to their war plans, as a precondition for the IMF bailing out the government again, in 2028. In the meantime, the IMF WB keep acting coy, with the Central Bank governor in tow, tail wagging, makes rosy forecasts, while demanding privatization of national resources, knowing their bosses in Washington could wage war anytime, to upend any such forecasts, destroying any such ‘restructuring’, and insisting we have to repay unpayable debts to Wall Street….

The refusal of the 2015-2019 Sirisena government to sign the accompanying SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement), which would allow US boots on Sri Lankan soil, nor to finalize the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) to enable deeper economic penetration, led to his removal and repeated demonization as a rural rube in the English media.
     The Indo-Lanka Defence Forum 2018 edition (Vol 43: 2) dealt with Sri Lanka’s transformation into a global maritime hub, while protesting Chinese ships entering Sri Lanka’s ports – in particular, a submarine Colombo port call in 2014. The ILDF edition described the growing alliance between India & USA, listing major forces’ locations, military exercises & engagements coming under the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) – the USA’s oldest & largest military command. In 2018, the Trump administration renamed the Pacific Command as Indo-Pacific Command to supposedly signal India’s importance to the US military due to US intrusions into the South China Sea.
     The ILDF edition listed India & Sri Lanka as US allies along with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Guam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Thailand, Mongolia, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Tonga, & Mongolia. The one-time Indian High Commissioner in Colombo (1997-2000) and National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon’s memoirs Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy (Oct 2016) indicated that New Delhi (& the USA) wanted the Rajapakses out of power due to their friendly SL-China relations. Menon quipped that Sri Lanka is an ‘aircraft carrier, parked 14 miles off the Indian coast’.
     Ajit Doval, who succeeded Menon as NSA, demanded Gotabhaya Rajapaksa do away with major Chinese-funded operations including the Colombo Port City project. Sri Lanka is yet to inquire into the covert US funding to oust the Rajapakses, despite US Secretary of State John Kerry’s revelation that US$585mn was spent on projects in Nigeria, Myanmar & Sri Lanka to ‘restore democracy’.’ The April 2019 terrorist attacks, which India claimed to have been aware of in advance, were meant to be a warning….

*
‘If the Sinopec refinery was built & operated by now,
during this crisis, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives
& Thailand will be buying petroleum products from
Sri Lanka rather than India. Call me a puppet, but my
opinions are always in national interest of Sri Lanka.’
– Yasiru Ranaraja, Director, Belt&Road Initiative (BRISL, 13 March 2026)

The first roadblock to the Hambantota Port project was placed by England’s P&O, for if Hambantota was developed as a major hub port it would pose a threat to Indian ports, like Mumbai’s Nhava Shiva developed by P&O and now competing with Colombo. England’s colonial Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co, has long controlled shipping in this country (now through their so-called ‘local’ conglomerates, Keells etc), and the role of sludge funders like US BlackRock (which has replaced Goldman Sachs in the anarcho-capitalist pandemonium). A New York Times article by Dharisha Bastians, with background research by Aneesha Guruge of the US NED-funded Verite Institute, provided an extremely biased account of Hambantota port, adding to the US government’s nightmare fantasy about China’s supposed maritime ‘String of Pearls’. Ironically, Hambantota was also claimed as a rival to the Vizhinjam Port, site of the recent nearby international naval exercises in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, after which the US submarine torpedoed Iran’s IRIS Dena.

     Hambantota lies close to one of the biggest trade routes in the world, the east-west main trade flow in the Indian Ocean. Hambantota historically as well as potentially, was & could be, an industrial hub, rebirthing the colonially devastated and underdeveloped southeast hinterland surrounding it. China Merchant Holdings holds a 70% stake in Hambantota port for 99 years, with the remaining shares in the hands of Sri Lanka. It should be noted: ‘Port terminals in New York & Long Beach are managed by Chinese companies. But people do not term Darwin & Long Beach as China’s colonies!’ The agreement between China & Sri Lanka on Hambantota port contains a clause that ‘strictly prohibits’ the Chinese from using the port for military purposes. Between 2009 & May 2018, 422 warships belonging to 27 navies across the world arrived in Lanka’s ports for operational, training & formal visits. India topped the regional list with 83 visits, while Japanese naval ships undertook 69 visits. Ranking way below them, China made 33 visits, Bangladesh had 29 visits, Russia 27, and Pakistan, 24 visits – (As for US & European visits? Not so closely tabulated, perhaps…)

     Ironically, the first practical Hambantota proposal came in a 2002 GoSL report, Regaining Sri Lanka: Vision & Strategy for Accelerated Development, with former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe’s pro-USA UNP in government, but failed to make headway. 23 years later, as the port advances, the Daily Mirror last year noted: ‘If a Chinese oil company comes here, they have higher technologies… Sinopec’s refinery in Sri Lanka places it in direct competition with India’s interests in expanding its role as an energy supplier… Sinopec, the leading Chinese petroleum company that has sought to invest in Sri Lanka, is facing obstacles in pressing ahead with implementation’ – of the Sinopec refinery in progress in Hambantota… It was meant to be part of a proposed major high-tech industrial zone for Sri Lanka’ – a future potential now under US and Indian threat, the threat of a good example!

*

• The long ongoing, blatant (yet mostly surreptitious) suppression of Sri Lanka’s attempts at modern industrialization, let alone the sabotage of our endeavors to attain energy self-sufficiency, have long been the earnest hankering of this newsletter eCon-eNews, which exists as a tribute to the work of SBD de Silva, as well as other industrial trailblazers such as Anagarika Dharmapala & DJ Wimalasurendra.

     As we approach our New Year (2570!), midst the US-led devastation of West Asia (& in the not-so-distant background, the open US strangulation of Cuba) Sri Lanka agonizes once again with the private & foreign control over supplies of energy, beseeching petroleum products from Russia & India (which has been ‘allowed’ by the USA to get oil again from Russia).

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is dead! – This week heard and saw the ‘auspicious’ headlines that 6 new ‘private’ companies have taken over ‘operations of Sri Lanka’s power utility’ (see ee Random Notes), a demand by the US government’s IMF, which no doubt will demand under the table, acquiescence to US corporate control. 

     The recently publicity given to the ability and attempts by US invaders to paralyze power supplies & networks (Venezuela, Cuba, Iran…), before military attack, makes us recall, how in 2023, with a ‘final draft of the new Electricity Act to go before Cabinet in June’, a government under the unelected President Ranil Wickremesinghe, announced:

‘US conglomerate General Electric Co (GE) would set up a modern

Distribution Control Centre for the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) –

‘a Consortium led by GE T&D India Ltd & GE Digital Services Europe’

was contracted to establish a SCADA-supported Distribution Control

Centre for Western Province South. 1) A SCADA (Supervisory Control

& Data Acquisition) System is the heart of an ADMS (Advanced Distribution

Management System). A distribution SCADA system’s primary function is to

support distribution operations through telemetry, alarming, event recording,

& remote control of field equipment… Richardson Projects, as the local partner

of GE, is pleased… Richardson represents ‘a few of the world’s renowned brands,

including but not limited to Eaton – US Sediver – France, Polycab – India, Inael

– Spain, Elcon – Italy, Imefy – Spain, EPE – Malaysia, Hexing – China.‘

(see ee Industry, General Electric)

*

Electricity networks are highly complex and interconnected systems.

Decisions affecting generation, transmission and distribution cannot

be treated purely as administrative or commercial matters.” – ee Industry,

Restructuring the electricity sector must not

compromise grid stability, warns senior engineer

*

Just over 100 years ago, DJ Wimalasurendra had proposed a plan to generate our own energy security through ample hydropower (See ee, 01 Aug 2020, 05 Sep 2020, 19 Jul 2025). His plans were sabotaged by the English colonial government on behalf of what Wimalasurendra himself called the ‘big business’ of Shell & British Petroleum (BP), Boustead Bros & Whitehall Petroleum (now Pearson PLC, with a monopoly over textbooks & examinations etc). We should here recall that British Petroleum’s original name was the Anglo-Persian Oil Co (who along with the USA Rockefeller Exxon Co. have financed the coups and wars against Iran).

*

‘In a series of speeches made at the State Council,

especially during 1933-4, Wimalasurendra identified the

broad alliance that worked against the Hydroelectric Scheme.

He used different names at times to identify this alliance:

‘Big Business’, ‘Oil & Coal Combine’, ‘Almighty Oil Interests’,

‘Big Business & Alien Combines’, ‘Imperialistic Element’,

‘Big Business Element’, ‘Big Business Party’.

– BD Witharana, Negotiating Power & Constructing

the Nation: Engineering in Sri Lanka

*

‘During the advent of the 1^st industrial revolution

Sri Lanka was mostly under the rule of European Colonisers.

In 1815, Sri Lanka was fully conquered by the English Empire.

In fact, at that time, the English industrial policy was to prohibit

any form of industrialisation in any of their colonies, & to use them

only as sources of raw material to fuel up industrialisation in England.

In colonies they built canals & railroads and used steam engines only

to transport raw materials from inner parts of colonies to the seaports.

They set up government institutions that facilitated the extraction of resources

& did not set up complete sets of institutions that were necessary for

industrialisation & promoting economic growth & development within

colonies. Thus, Sri Lanka missed the 1^st industrial revolution.’

–       see ee Economists, HN Thenuwara: SL Should Regain

Missed Industrial Revolutions (cited by WA Wijewardena)

*

• The ancient Sinhala familiarity with money, as described by SBD de Silva, deviates from the idyllic picture of a primitive rustic society untainted by the base metal”. This ee Focus continues Chapter 8 of de Silva’s classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Highland Sinhalé, though under siege for centuries by European invasions, were supported by people outside their territory, especially Sabaragamuwa and Matara. de Silva notes the external trade of the kingdom of Sinhalé was based partly on cash, and notes the money hoards uncovered midst the English conquest. The Sabaragamuwa district, a part of highland Sinhalé and governed by Sinhala law, yet had ‘adopted many of the habits & customs’ of the maritime provinces, riddled as it was with ‘numerous Moor and Chetty traders’. Cinnamon was an important source of foreign currency, and Sinhala were employed to carry cinnamon. Arecanuts, pepper, coffee, cardamoms & wax were secretly traded with Colombo.

     There were several species of coin, and traders were savvy about the purchasing power of the different currencies. The Sinhala declined to accept the official exchange rate. The spy John D’Oyly, who kept abreast of economic dealings, as a sources of intrigue, observed that Sinhala traders were well aware that, ‘the true value of any coin is the quantity of commodities it will purchase’. Local produce was shipped abroad to the Maldives and to Europe, and wealth was amassed by the privileged strata. The wealth of the highland Sinhala upper class was mostly based on a ‘rentier income’, from a variety of landholdings, and tributary payments, usually in cash, made during the Sinhala New Year for the annual renewal of appointments & reappointments & disappointments. There were trading monopolies, and the exchange of expensive gifts. The Sinhala chiefs also made clandestine profits, misappropriating state funds & making improper exactions of money from subordinates, including from collaborators with the English, all carefully observed and used by the spy D’Oyly to compromise highland Sinhala officials in his coup d’etat of 1815…   

*

__________

Contents:

US & India Prepare to Grab Hambantota Port Claiming It’s a Chinese Base

By Sarath Obeysekera

I returned home after years abroad—hardened not by comfort, but by experience.

From the oil fields of Baku, to the frozen gas lines of Orenburg, to the disciplined industrial floors of Moscow, and further west into the offshore precision of Norway and refinery construction in the United Kingdom—the journey had been long, demanding, and deeply educational.

I had seen systems that worked.

I had seen men who respected steel, process, and discipline.

And then—I walked into a Sri Lankan dockyard. As a consultant hired by a original JVP stalwarts who came out of prison and vacant business manager 

The Shock of Reality under state control

It was not a workplace. It was a waiting room.

Workers in slippers.

Cigarettes in one hand, betel in the other.

Groups gathered—not around work, but around time.

Waiting.

Waiting for the lunch packet from the Port kitchen.

Waiting for the day to end.

Waiting, it seemed, for someone else to care.

The yard was cluttered. Tools scattered. Garbage in corners.

There was no urgency. No ownership. No system.

And I was asked to take over—without real authority.

The First Test: A Damaged Ship

The first challenge came quickly—a vessel with a damaged bulbous bow. A serious structural issue. Not cosmetic. Not optional.

This was not the place for guesswork.

I called the welding engineer—a man I had personally trained.

Give me the welding procedure,” I said.

He handed me a scrap of paper.

On it, written casually:

Welding rod size: 10 to 14.”

That was all.

No mention of:

• Steel type
• Heat treatment
• Welding sequence
• Pre-heating
• Post-weld inspection
• Non-destructive testing

Nothing.

This was not a procedure. This was a gamble.

Introducing a Wattoruwa”

That day, the dockyard saw its first real welding procedure.

A proper WPS—what the workers began calling a wattoruwa.”

We documented:

• Material specifications
• Joint preparation
• Welding sequence
• Preheat and interpass temperatures
• Inspection methods

We brought in structure where there was none.

Not ISO 9000. Not international certification.

Just basic engineering discipline.

And it worked.

Resistance from Within

Change is never welcomed by those comfortable in disorder.

The local officers did not like me.

I was seen as:

• Too strict
• Too demanding
• Too foreign-trained”

But I had seen what worked in the Soviet Union system and beyond.

I knew one thing:

Without discipline, there is no industry.

So I pushed.

Not gently—but firmly

Return as CEO: 1994 after another stint in a state corporation  as CEO

Years later, I returned—not as a consultant, but as CEO.

This time, I had authority.

But more importantly, I had unfinished work.

The transformation had begun earlier—but now it had to be completed.

And the first rule was simple:

Discipline Comes First

Before profits.

Before expansion.

Before modernization.

Discipline.

• Workers report on time
• Proper attire
• Clean workspaces
• Defined procedures
• Accountability at every level

Because without discipline, even the best equipment fails.

With discipline, even limited resources can succeed.

A Lasting Legacy

Today, I am told that the dockyard still uses structured welding procedures.

If that is true, then one small wattoruwa” scribbled into existence has lived on.

Not as a document—but as a mindset.

Final Reflection

From cabbage fields in Orenburg to compressor factories and gas pipelines,and offshore yard in Stavsnger Norway  I learned that systems matter.

But more than systems—people must believe in them.

Sri Lanka does not lack intelligence.

It does not lack resources and guidance 

What it often lacks—is discipline.

And discipline is not taught in speeches.

It is enforced in yards, workshops, and daily work.That was my real job. Not managing ships—but rebuilding attitudes.

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels Courtesy The Guardian

Family of then PM, Patrice Lumumba, welcome decision to charge Étienne Davignon as ‘beginning of a reckoning’

Jennifer Rankin in BrusselsTue 17 Mar 2026 18.03 GMTShare

A former Belgian diplomat, 93, should stand trial over alleged complicity in the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of what was then the newly independent Congolese state, a Brussels court has ruled.

Étienne Davignon, the only person still alive among 10 Belgians the Lumumba family accuses of involvement in the killing, is charged with participation in war crimes.

The decision, which follows a surprise referral by the Brussels prosecutor last June, can be appealed against. Davignon, a former vice-president of the European Commission, has denied the charges.

In a statement the Lumumba family welcomed what they called a significant step: For our family, this is not the end of a long fight, it is the beginning of a reckoning that history has long demanded.”

Yema Lumumba, a granddaughter of the assassinated leader, told reporters: The fact that all this time has passed does not mean it is done and we will never get to know the truth. It is also very important for the legal Belgian system to start confronting its own responsibilities regarding what happened during colonial times.”

The decision was also hailed by lawyers for the Lumumba family as setting a historic precedent in criminal justice for crimes allegedly committed under European colonial rule.

If the trial goes ahead, Davignon will be the first Belgian official to face justice over the assassination of Lumumba 65 years ago. In its decision, the court went beyond the prosecutor’s decision, extending the scope of the trial to cover Lumumba’s associates, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, who were murdered alongside him.

Davignon is accused of participating in war crimes on three counts, according to information provided by the court of first instance in Brussels:

• The illegal transfer of Lumumba and his associates from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to Katanga.
• The humiliating and degrading treatment” of the men.
• Depriving them of a fair trial.

This is a historic decision,” Christophe Marchand, a lawyer for the family, said. This decision confirms that the passage of time cannot erase the legal responsibility for the gravest crimes.”

Lumumba, aged 35, was tortured and assassinated by firing squad in January 1961, alongside Okito and Mpolo, two other leading politicians. The murders were carried out by separatists in the Katanga region with the support of Belgian mercenaries.

Davignon had arrived in what was then Belgian Congo as a 28-year-old diplomatic intern on the eve of independence in 1960.

Davignon, who went on to numerous senior political and business roles, was not present for the hearing at the Palais de Justice in Brussels.

Johan Verbist, Davignon’s lawyer, told the Guardian that it was too soon to comment on the decision, but he would now analyse the possibilities for an appeal”.

Verbist rejected claims of war crimes at a hearing behind closed doors in January and argued that reasonable time to judge the case had passed, according to sources cited in Belgian media.

A 2001 parliamentary inquiry concluded that Belgian ministers bore a moral responsibility for the events that led to the Congolese leader’s gruesome death. Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth to the Lumumba family in 2022 that one of the Belgians involved in the killing had kept as a macabre souvenir.

Belgium’s then prime minister, Alexander De Croo, reiterated his country’s moral responsibility” for Lumumba’s murder at a ceremony to mark the return of the tooth.

Belgian ministers, diplomats, officials and officers had perhaps no intention to have Patrice Lumumba assassinated,” he said. No evidence has been found to support this.

But they should have realised that his transfer to Katanga put his life in danger. They should have warned, they should have refused any assistance in transferring Patrice Lumumba to the place where he would be executed. Instead they chose not to see … not to act.”

Lawyers for the Lumumba family believe that if there is no successful appeal a trial could begin in January 2027.

While there have been previous successful reparations claims against former colonial powers, experts who support the Lumumba family believe it will be the first-ever criminal trial against someone who acted for the state over a political murder.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2025, Marchand said the case was unusual among former colonial powers.

There are very few cases where a former colonial state accepts to address the colonial crimes and to consider that they have to be tried in that same colonial state, even if it’s a very long time after,” he said.

by A. Abdul Aziz

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, delivers Eid-Ul-Fitr Sermon today 20^th March 2026  at ‘Masjid Mubarak’, Islamabad, Tilford, U.K. at 10.30 GMT (Sri Lankan Time 4 P.M.). It airs LIVE via MTA (Muslim TV Ahmadiyya International), having simultaneous translation in various languages including English, Arabic, Bengali, French and Tamil.

Eid-ul-Fitr – This religious celebration is observed on the day following the last day of fasting which is observed daily by all able-bodied Muslims from dawn till sunset throughout the Islamic month of Ramazan.

It is a day of much rejoicing and happiness especially by those fortunate persons who observed the fasts and reaped the spiritual fruits of this holy exercise in accordance with the directions of God in the Holy Quran.

Fasting has been prescribed in one form or another by all the revealed religions of the world. The Bible tells us that Prophet David declared ‘I humbled my soul with fasting’ (Psalms 35:13) and we read in the New Testament that ‘the disciples of Jesus and the Pharisees used to fast’ (Mark 2:18). We are also told that ‘Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights’ (Matthew 4:2).

One does not only feel happy on Eid-ul-Fitr because through exercising self-discipline one has successfully complied with the commandment of God to observe the fasts, but also on account of a feeling of spiritual exhilaration which glows within the heart and soul.

No doubt on Eid-ul-Fitr much pleasure is derived from wearing new clothes, meeting friends and relatives and eating specially prepared food. These are all ways of celebrating the occasion. The main event, of course, is the religious service when one offers prayers and listens to the inspirational address of the Imam on relevant matters concerning the significance of the occasion.

As the main purpose of fasting is to develop righteousness and self-purification (Quran 2:186) the most attractive garment one should be wearing is the one mentioned by God in the Holy Quran:

The raiment of righteousness – that is the best. (7:27)

The real food one should be enjoying is the spiritual nourishment acquired during the month of fasting.

Eid-ul-Fitr should remind one of many lessons learned from fasting and which, during the holy month of Ramazan, one should have endeavoured to keep in mind and to have practised.

One of them is the offering of one’s morning (Fajr) prayer before sunrise and also of the offering the efficacious pre-dawn prayer (Tahajjud) which is highly recommended. One realizes that it is not too difficult to arise early and offer these prayers at the proper time. If one can discipline oneself to do so during the month of fasting then it is not impossible to do so during the other months of the year also.

The purpose of taking medicine is to combat and cure an ailing condition and when it takes good effect one wants to maintain one’s improved condition. Likewise when one reduces weight after a course of dieting one wants to maintain one’s lower weight and similarly one wants to maintain one’s improved physical condition after completing a course of exercise.

After completion of the holy month of fasting one is able to gauge one’s improved spiritual condition as a result of one’s devotion, conduct, prayers and divine favours received during that period.

On Eid-ul-Fitr one should reflect one’s condition of spiritual improvement and resolve not to lose what one has gained but rather, not only to maintain it, but press forward to even higher spiritual development through righteous conduct, prayers and seeking the grace of God.

This is the spirit of Eid-ul-Fitr.

MOD  Media Centre

A high level Sri Lankan defence delegation, headed by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Aruna Jayasekara (Retd), commenced a two-day official visit in Japan to participate in the 2^nd Japan–Sri Lanka Defence Dialogue. This important engagement reaffirms the long standing friendship and strategic cooperation between the two nations, particularly in the sphere of defence collaboration and maritime security.

The delegation held a number of high level bilateral meetings throughout its official visit to Japan. The Sri Lankan delegation was warmly received by senior officials of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sri Lanka’s H.E. the Ambassador to Japan, Prof. Janak Kumarasinghe.

The Deputy Minister of Defence met with the Hon. State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Ms. Kunimitsu Ayano, on Tuesday (17 Mar) and outlined the government’s approach to defence reforms, emphasizing efforts to align national security priorities with public aspirations. The Japanese State Minister commended the Government of Sri Lanka’s commitment to promoting good governance, eradicating corruption, upholding the rule of law, and maintaining a rules based international order while adhering to its longstanding non aligned policy. Director level officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also participated in the discussions.

In addition to the engagement with the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister Maj. Gen. Jayasekara (Retd) held a high level meeting on the evening of 17 March with Japanese ministerial level dignitaries, further strengthening bilateral defence ties. The meeting was held with the Hon. State Minister of Defence, Mr. Miyazaki Masahisa, along with the Vice Minister of Defence for International Affairs, Mr. Kano Koji, and the Chief of Staff of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF).

The productive discussions centered on enhancing high level defence cooperation, strengthening maritime security, and advancing capacity building initiatives for Sri Lanka’s defence sector. Matters discussed included cultural exchanges, the enduring friendship fostered through defence diplomacy, and the Official Security Assistance (OSA) program. Special emphasis was placed on joint efforts to combat transnational crimes at sea and develop the capabilities of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard.

The Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy and senior officials from the office of the Deputy Minister of Defence were also in attendance.