It is with great sadness I am sharing the news received a few hours ago that our colleague W. S. de Silva is no more.
His leg was amputated because of severe diabetes just a few days ago. He has succumbed finally to the complications arising from the amputation of his leg. He was 76 years old at the time of his passing.
WS entered Royal College in 1960. He came from Maris Stella Primary School. Very soon became a live wire in class. He was good in his studies. He used to be in the top layer of the class in studies alongside Sunil Bastian, Kekulawela and Ajita Wijesundere, among others.
In retrospect it must be said that Ajita Wijesundere carried all the Class
Prizes from the Lower kindergarten class under Ms. Peiris to the final year class in the RPS under Mr. H. P. Jayewardene (1959). The only other student who matched that excellent record was the redoubtable Diyanath Samarasinghe, later Professor of Psychiatry.
In 1961, I befriended WS in the Sinhala Medium class, which had the likes of Anura Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremasinghe, C.R. de Silva ( Bulla),Malik Samarawickreme, R. J. de Silva, R.S.I. de Silva, Pemraj Gonsalkorale, Vijitha Kuruwita, Neraj Perera, among others. Our teachers were TDSA Dissanayake, Upali Attanayake, Rev. Kahaduwe Chandrajoti, and M.B.H. Wariyapola ( Geography teacher). I was appointed as the Class Monitor by T. D.S.A. Dissanayake after coming first in a General Knowledge contest.
The best two students in that class were W.S. de Silva and Vijitha Kuruwita. Both were seated next to each other. I have a photo memory of the seating arrangements of that class and thereby able to recall to this day who was seated where in the class.
It was in that year 1961 in the Class 2E ( Class Master was RIT Alles) next to the Little Theatre ( which was managed by Mr. E. F. C. Pereira) that a famous debate took place. The topic of the debate was ‘Which system was more suitable – Socialism or Capitalism for Sri Lanka’.
The Moderator was Mr. Upali Attanayake. The participants in the debate were as follows:
Capitalism
Vijitha Kuruwita ( leader)
Anura Bandaranaike
Ranil Wickremesinghe
Socialism
W.S. de Silva (leader)
C.R. de Silva
Senaka Weeraratna
It attracted a fair amount of interest from other batches as well. Rev. Chandrajoti also attended the debate as a guest. W. S.de Silva delivered a memorable speech on the merits of Socialism. Anura Bandaranaike tilted for capitalism despite her mother Mrs. Srima Bandaranaike( being the Prime Minister) pursuing a policy of Socialism for the country.
W.S. had a famous brother called W.P. (Padmal) de Silva, (22nd August, 1944–25th November, 2007) who later became a Professor of Psychology at the University of Peradeniya. He also taught at King’s College, London. He won many prizes at the school prize giving.
Our paths went in different directions after 1961. W.S. also played in House Cricket . He was a fast bowler. Played in Lunch Interval Cricket with Gusto. He was a terror with his fast bowling.
WS was a member of the Senior School Sinhala Debating team.
WS became the Hostel Head Prefect in the third term of 1967 succeeding KK Amaradasa. He was also appointed a School Prefect the following year in 1968. School prefectship was a honour bestowed on only about 10 students per year and WS had that honour . A title which resonated in mercantile firms at the time. They preferred the high achievers in school including perfects
when recruiting junior executives immediately after school.
In adult life W.S. de Silva became a teacher of English and the Principal, while based in Sri Lanka, of an International School i.e., York international Schools.
He was also an Editor of several volumes of a book carrying biographical sketches of notable people in Sri Lanka’s history.
Sri Lankan voters have excelled in the art of changing governments in executioner style, which they did in many elections including that of 1977,1994, 2015, 2019 and, of course, 2024. They did so, giving massive majorities to parties in opposition that had only a few seats, because the preceding governments were so unpopular. It invariably was a negative vote, not a positive vote-endorsing policies, if any, of the incoming governments, the last election being no exception. NPP, contesting under the compass symbol, was essentially a revamp of the JVP and their main strategy, devoid of any specific policies, was throwing mud at opponents and promising a transparent, corruption free government. They made numerous promises on the hoof. Have they stood up to the challenges?
What the vast majority of the public wanted was a significant reduction in the cost of living, which has spiralled out of control due to the misdeeds of the many preceding regimes, resulting in near starvation for many. The NPP promised to renegotiate the deal with the IMF to give relief to the masses but soon found, to their dismay, that it was a non-starter. Of course, the supporters portrayed it as a display of pragmatism! They promised that the price of fuel could be slashed overnight as it was jacked up by the commission earned by the previous minister who was accused of earning over Rs 100 for every litre! It has not happened and the previous minister has not received the apology he deserves. The cost of living remains unbearable and all that the government continues to do effectively is slinging mud at opponents.
To the credit of the NPP government, financial corruption has not set in, but it cannot be forgotten that most previous governments, too, started this way, corruption setting in later in the cycle of government. However, corruption in other forms persist contrary to the promises made. Had the government sacked the former speaker, the moment he could not justify the claimed PhD, it could have claimed high ground and demonstrated that it would not tolerate corruption in any form. For some reason, unknown to the public, he seems to have a strong hold on the party and he seems indispensable!
As for bringing to justice those previously corrupt, only baby steps have been taken. During the election campaigns AKD promised to get Arjun Mahendran from Singapore within 24 hours of his election and now they are blaming the Singapore government! It looks as if promises were made without any idea as to the practicality of implementation. According to social media posts circulated, the list of assets held by Rajapaksas would have made them richer than Elon Musk! A lady lawyer who described in detail, during the election campaign, the wealth amassed in Uganda by Rajapaksas admitted, after her election, that there was no basis. Her justification was that the NPP government ensured free speech; even to tell lies as the truth.” Government media spokesman has just admitted that she lied about the cost of new year text messages sent by previous presidents and she remains an ‘honourable’ MP!
As far as transparency is concerned, Compass is directionless. MoUs/Pacts signed with India, during the recent visit of PM Modi shines bright with opaqueness! After giving various excuses previously, including that those interested could obtain details by making requests under the Right to Information Act, the official cabinet spokesman’s latest is that it needs the permission of India to release details. This makes one wonder whether there is a lot to hide or it may be that, de facto, we are already under the central government of India and that AKD is just the Chief Minister of the 29th state!
Whilst accusing the predecessors of misuse of power, the NPP does the same thing. AKD’s statements that he would be scrutinizing allocation of funds to local bodies, if opposition parties are elected, surely is an indirect threat to voters. Perhaps, it is not an election offence as the Elections Commission has not taken any action despite complaints!
Whether the exposition of the Tooth Relic, which was done in a mighty hurry, to coincide with the mini-election campaign would backfire remains to be seen. As it was done in a hurry, there was no proper planning and even the basic amenities were not provided to the thousands who queued for days. AKD, as usual, was quick with a political gesture by the unplanned visit meeting those in the queue. What he and his government should have done is proper planning but, instead, government supporters are inundating social media blaming the public for bad behaviour!
To cap this all is the biggest faux pas of all; naming the mastermind of the Easter Sunday attack. AKD built up expectations, and the nation was waiting for the exposure on 21 April, which never materialised. His acolytes are doling out excuses. Dr Nalinda Jayatissa was as evasive as possible during his post-cabinet meeting briefing. Perhaps, there is no mastermind other than those identified by all previous investigations including that by the FBI. All that the president did was handing over the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report to the CID. The acting IGP appointed a committee of three to study, but the next day a fourth person was added, a person who is named as one of those who did not act on intelligence received!
Perhaps, as an attempt to give credence to the allegations made in the Channel 4 programme, Pillayan was arrested. Though it was on a different offence, the alleged abduction of the former chancellor of the Eastern University, Minister Wijepala had the audacity to state in the parliament otherwise. Pillayan has been detained under the PTA, which the NPP promised to abolish! The worst is the campaign of character assassination of Udaya Gammanpila who has decided to represent Pillayan. Dr Jayatissa, who has never practised his profession, took exception that Gammanpila, who has not practiced as a lawyer, is representing Pillayan. Gammanpila has corrected him by listing the cases he had been involved in. In any case, Gammanpila need not be in court but get a set of lawyers to defend, if and when, a case is filed. It begs clarification, the ministerial comment that Gammanpila should be ashamed to represent Pillayan! Has the government already decided the guilt of Pillayan?
Compass has lost direction, indeed, and far too soon!
Colombo, May 5 (Daily Mirror) – Sri Lanka’s main election monitoring body, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL), has requested the Election Commission to inquire into the complaint that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya violated election laws by asking her party’s supporters to campaign even during the silent period.
PAFFREL has written to Election Commission Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake in this regard.
We have monitored that Prime Minister Amarasuriya has made a remark which could be seen as encouraging her supporters to engage in campaign even after the silent period from May 3 2025. The Premier’s remark is an act of encouraging her supporters to violate electoral law while she has neglected the law herself,” PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hetiarachchi said in his letter.
The academic activities of 11 students of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka have been suspended over the death of a student allegedly due to ragging, the police said.
It was reported that the students include the four third year students arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday (04).
Meanwhile, four more students of the Sabaragamuwa University have surrendered to the Samanalawewa Police and have been handed over to the CID for questioning, Sri Lanka Police added.
There have been several geopolitical developments in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian origin wife, Usha and their children to India in April and the staging of terror attacks on tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which were instantly blamed on Pakistan. The same week there was a huge blast in Iran’s port Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf that opens into the Indian Ocean.
Earlier in the month there were reports of the return of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), operatives to the Bangram Air Base in Afghanistan. This was reportedly in consultation with erstwhile proxy, the Taliban.
President Trump had stated that former President Biden made a mistake abandoning Bangram Base during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan given its infrastructure investments and proximity to China’s missile sites, not to mention Russia.
The Easter week attacks in Kashmir were similar to those of the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 in Sri Lanka, mysteriously claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). These also targeted tourists, as well as, churches and a Chinese research mission in the Seas of Sri Lanka– in a Hybrid operation.
Following, the attacks in Kashmir which killed 26 people, the global corporate media propaganda machine echoed the moment of America’s Global War on Terror”.
BlackRock partner, India’s Adani owned NDTV was full of India’s War on Terror” moment, echoing rhetoric after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks; cheerleading a hard military response and possible war with Pakistan. This would of course destabilize South Asia, one of the world’s most impoverished regions, despite the Indian growth story economic hype. A war between the nuclear armed neighbors would moreover further weaponize religious diaspora networks and destabilize historically multi-religious South Asia.
What of India’s Push to be a Peace-Maker drawing on Spiritual Traditions?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent push to be a global peace-maker in the Russia-Ukraine war, leveraging India’s spiritual traditions of Ahimsa (non-violence) in the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu Yogic and Ghandian legacies, appeared forgotten. Rather, there was rush to deliver collective punishment to Pakistan’s farmers by withholding Indus Valley Waters, affecting food security, by putting on hold the treaty for sharing of water resources. India and Pakistan were in any case a single country until the retreating British Raj Partitioned India in 1947, as it did Cyprus, Ireland, Palestine and other places as part of its Exit Strategy. Was this in order to retain British imperial and corporate economic and security interests, a different kind of GLADIO-style stay behind operation in the Jewel of the Crown” of a lost Empire?
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Indian State’s response to the attack in Pahalgam has been the metering out of collective punishment in lieu of a measured, calibrated and targeted response. In addition to holding in abeyance the Indus Water treaty there has been a destruction of the homes of purported terrorists for the collective punishment of their kin. Is India drawn into the I2U2 mimicking the Israeli barbarism of collective punishment in the occupied Palestine’s West Bank and Gaza Strip and forgetting Ahimsa?
Diaspora Wags the Dog”: Weaponizing Religion for a new Cold War
The no doubt heinous false flag attacks on tourists in Pahalgam were clearly staged to elicit an over-reaction from the Modi regime and lock the two neighbours into a downward spiral, and de-stabilize the South Asian region. There was an out pouring of sympathy from Western capitals to support India’s ‘war on terror’ and promote ‘intelligence sharing’ and arms sales.
It is now clear that Indian Diaspora groups in North America are being harnessed to wag the dog” so to speak and lure India into the US military business industrial complex and NATO War Machine. This, along with the QUAD (the collective of Australia, Japan USA, India) and I2U2 (the collective of Israel, India, United Arab Emirates and USA), in the Western Indian Ocean, set up to target China.
Although the Indian Ocean was declared a Zone of Peace on the initiative of the third world at the United Nations in 1971 at the height of the first Cold War it has become highly militarized. Nuclear armed US planes were recently sent to the Diego Garcia military base.
Bringing India into America’s new Cold War on China would also break the BRICS and Global South unity, perceived as a threat to the hegemony of the US dollar and the existing global trade and financial system.
Working with the Indian Diaspora in North America to draw India seems to be a bi-partisan agreement for Washington’s Republican and Democrat Uni-party.
Was the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance with his Indian origin wife and children dressed in Desi garb just days before the Kashmir, Pahalgam attacks a coincidence? Tulsi Gabbard, head of US National Security Agency is a Hindu as is Kash Patel who is the head of the FBI. Kamala Harris the Former Vice President, and Presidential hopeful also had some South Indian roots.
Is the Indian diaspora being used to draw Mother India which had stood with Palestine during the hey days of Non-Alignment, to partner with Zionist Israel, which ironically, also works with Saudi Arabian Petrodollars to promote the Muslim Fundamentalist (Muslim Zionist?) Wahabi- Salafi- Islamist –ISIS, ISIL, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Tariq Islam, Towheed Jamat, Lashkar-e-Taiba, their off-shoots and Islamist terror networks around the world?
Fighting ‘God-less Communists’ and Independence Movements with Religion
Claiming to fight God-less Communists” during the Cold War against the Soviet Union the United States and its European allies weaponized religion, seen as a conservative force in the Third World. This to buffer against de-colonization and national Independence movements sweeping across Asia and Africa after the end of World War 2. National Independence and liberation movements were often Communist or Socialist in nature.
Simultaneously, ethno-religious proxy wars were promoted to deflect full independence for colonized peoples, and retain the economic and security interests of retreating European empires, or transfer them to the rising American empire. This was clearly evident in the so-called ethic conflict” in geostrategic Sri Lanka.
All ‘world religions’ are politically constituted and hence more or less weaponized. Islam is by far the Most Weaponized religion on the planet. That is, excepting Southeast Asian Islam, which is softer and culturally diverse, given proximity to polytheistic Buddhist and Hindu cultural traditions. This is demonstrated in the Indonesian State’s Constitutional commitment to Pancha Sila.
During the Cold War, Muslim networks were used at the handmaiden and cat’s paw of the Evangelical Christian Zionist empire to stage violence and destabilize multi-religious countries in Asia and Africa. There was also a concerted attempt to weaponize Buddhism as documented in an excellent book Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America’s Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia”, albeit with less than spectacular results.
As academics like Dianne Kirby have shown, in Cold War USA, evangelical Christian and the Jewish diaspora networks, particularly, Zionism and the Chabad movement helped fund and underwrite settler colonialism in Palestine. Simultaneously, Muslims were used as the handmaiden and cat’s paw to stage violence in the interest of the US Empire and Israel around the world, with the support of Evangelical Christian Zionist groups. This included the radicalization of minority Muslim Chechens in Russia and the Uyghurs in China.
There is of course a long tradition of Israeli security agencies, Shin Bet and MOSSAD working to weaponized religions in Palestine in order to promote settler colonialism. The Arab dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) is the most violent place on the planet. At this time, there appears to be a staging of the long promised Biblical End times prophesy in Palestine, a blood soaked passion play replete with famine, disease and fire for Evangelical Christian Zionists and the return of the (anti)Christ? Or, is it just the End Times of an Empire?
The Head of the Snake of Islamist Terror and the US Military Business Industrial Complex
The head of the snake of Islamist Terror around the world was Saudi Arabia that during the Cold War spread Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam in cooperation with the CIA and Mossad also targeting Persian/ Iranian Shia Islam which had a more spiritual orientation. The Ayatollahs in Teheran had after all thrown out the US-backed Shah of Iran and nationalized its oil wells.
Saudi Arabia’s pole position in Islam as the county of the holy site of Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet, and its Petrodollars enabled the spread of Wahabi-Salafi fundamentalist Islam throughout the Muslim world. This was in exchange for regime protection for the house of Saud. The US has massive bases in the Kingdom.
Of course NATO’s Turkey and other neighbors of Palestine which are complicit in the on-going genocide there, along with the UAE, Qatar, Egypt etc. helped. Some were subject to blowback from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Once the Soviet Union, Red Peril and the Cold War ended in 1991, Islamist Terror became America’s official new enemy. The’ Global war on terror” after the World Trade Center attacks were staged purportedly by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida enabled perpetuating the US military business industrial complex with a new Islamist enemy.
It is worth recalling here that President Dwight Eisenhower had warned the American people about the threat posed by the US military business industrial complex in his farewell address to the nation. And sure enough, President John F. Kennedy who wanted to draw down the US war machine in Vietnam was assassinated a couple of years later in 1963 reportedly in an internal covert operation.
The covert links between Zionist-Evangelical Christianity and Islamist Wahabi groups that go back to the Cold War weaponization of Islam also to fight Russia in Afghanistan may partly explain why the Arab dominated Middle East and North Africa (MENA Region), is the most violent part of world at this time. Muslim communities and networks around the world were weaponized and used for terror while, others turned a blind eye, to on-going radicalization particularly via the internet, social media and On-line religiosity. As Yasha Levine has detailed in his book, the Internet was a military invention for surveillance and control rather than to promote Democracy.[i]
Ironically, Prime Minister Modi was in Saudi Arabia when the attacks happened in Pahalagam, Kashmir, and he cut short his visit to the Kingdom to return to Delhi.
In the wake of the attacks, the global corporate media echo chamber seemed taken with the prospect of a war between nuclear armed India and Pakistan. Although Pakistan had long been a ‘Garrison State’ with its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), being well oiled by the CIA and funded by Saudi Arabia, it was painted as a proxy of China in the media.
Soon after the British Partition of India in 1948 as part of its Exit Strategy to continue to dominate the South Asia region, Pakistan was turned into a CIA Garrison State while India allied with the Soviet Union/Russia. The region has been kept in turmoil ever since– as a Cold War proxy war site. This also explains the lack of progress in the SAARC in contrast with Southeast Asia’s ASEAN.
It is increasingly clear that under Trump, the US is now focusing on China and trying to isolate it from Russia (Ukraine Peace deal), and correct the mistake that Biden made of pushing Russia into China’s arms, while trying to break BRICS by courting India. After the Pahalgam attacks, there were Hollywood inspired dreams voiced on Social media of India’s Akand Barath, breaking up Pakistan, and partitioning Baluchistan given the new Chinese built Gwadar Port. The CIA had deemed the latter one of the String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean, along with Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port which was hit by the Indian Ocean post-Christmas day Tsunami in 2004.
If the US, its European Union partners and their proxies in Asia and Africa succeed though a strategy of hybrid maritime and staged terror attacks in drawing India into its security architecture, this would challenge the rise of the BRICS. Global South cooperation threatens US dollar hegemony and the global financial system at this time. Fragmenting BRICS would also put an end to the Rise of Asia and the Asian Century.
At this time a new ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between the two dominant religions of Asia– Buddhism and Islam in order to crash the Asian Century seems to be in the making, amid the staging of Evangelical Christian End Times’ in Palestine.
The new Clash of Civilizations” between Islam and the polytheistic Hindu and Buddhist religious formations of Asia, was signaled back in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the 6th century giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan on the ancient Silk Route in Afghanistan, in time for the 9/11 attacks on the WTC. These events inaugurated and legitimized America’s ‘Global War on Islamist Terror’ and resonated in Myanmar. Rohingya refugee trafficking across the Indian Ocean Theravada Buddhist world has been ongoing to ferment tensions.
Whither India’s ‘Neighborhood First” policy?
Over the past three years there were US-backed regime change operations in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 2022 when the popular democratically elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted and imprisoned and Pakistan de-stabilized, India, the South Asian regional hegemon, looked on. Khan accused Donald Lu then Secretary of South Asia of spearheading the regime change in collusion with elements in the Pakistani establishment.
The same year, India capitalized on the US National Endowment for Democracy and Soros Foundation-funded, social media coordinated Aragalaya protest chaos operation to stage regime change and Sovereign Default in Sri Lanka. As South Asia’s wealthiest country was implausibly declared Bankrupt’ overnight due to a purported lack of US dollars to enable the IMF to upend its economic sovereignty, India played the supporting role of good neighbor to the rescue.
However, last year in August India lost a close ally who had just won the national elections, in Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Bangladesh to another US-back regime change in South Asia.
Indeed, the Modi government’s policy of self-interest sans principled Foreign Policy seem to belie proclamations of the ‘neighbourhood first”, and have paid diminishing returns in the face of America’s over the horizon (OTH), operations and aspiration for Full Spectrum Dominance in South Asia.
Is it becoming increasingly difficult for India to ‘run with the hare and hunt with the hounds’? The destabilization that OTH protests curated via remote social media platforms for regime change and staged economic crises have rendered South Asia including India poorer. The case of ASEAN shows clearly that countries develop only when their neighbors are stable and developing too.
Increasingly, India’s growth story hype is belied by the reality of poverty due to external destabilization and staged OTH crises across South Asia. It may be time to fully embrace the BRICS and Global South in the Asian 21st Century. Otherwise, India may help normalize the Abraham Accords and the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that would legitimize a brutal new world order” across the Indian Ocean World, which is entirely contrary to Hindu-Buddhist-Jain traditions of Ahimsa and peace-making.
Finally, it is high time for a global movement to shut down the 750 environment-polluting US military bases around the world, particularly those in the Indian Ocean, which should be again declared a ‘Zone of Peace’ in keeping with Principles of Non-Alignment.
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 27 April – 03 May 2025
*
‘This is why Harry Dexter White of the US Treasury
fought so hard at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference
to have the 2 institutions headquartered in Washington.’
*
After the shutting down of USAID and the US withdrawal from the WHO (World Health Organization), there was much headlined chatter that the US government would move to shutter (or at least shut up) the IMF & World Bank. Well, there’s no such fire to such pipe-dreams – just smoke. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared that the ‘return on investment’ from their terrible twins, is unparalleled. Unlike in the UN and other such multilateral institutions, the US government has ‘effective veto power‘ over the WB & IMF, making them ‘efficient tools of US foreign & economic policy’, as Zambia’s Grieve Chelwa highlights (see ee Focus). And Bessent wants to ensure they keep promoting US interests ‘at the expense of the rest of the world’, with his boss Mr Trump cluck-cluck-clucking that we all pay even more for our own further entrapment.
As for those who believe all of this gushes from the brains of Bessent & his darling US President Don Trump, we now are told that Mr Trump’s ‘change of mind’ on his tariffs – calling for a 90-day pause – was ‘prompted’ by the tweeting of Bill Ackman, CEO of hedgefund Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman apparently moves markets with his statements… and rewrites politician’s policy statements. We learn that US policy is made by such bankers as Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Ken Griffin (Citadel), and Ackman (see ee Quotes, Flattering Trump).
These bankers are at least the more-public faces of those capitalists who decide economic shifts and shapes. They also own mega media conglomerates. Ackman owns Universal Music Group Inc, who for example wasted young people’s time by promoting a ‘feud’ between rappers Kendrick & Drake – both of whom are owned by Universal Music. The same goes for ‘feuding’ politicians & parties? Maybe the NPP should have met Bill, Jamie & Ken, instead of wasting time hankering after Don, JD or Kristalina at last week’s IMF & WB annual meeting in Washington? Instead, we’re told the NPP delegation met with a Mormon missionary & a fake blonde Texan queer (see ee Who’s Who).
And speaking of ‘feuds’, see ee Random Notes for an excerpt of Sena Thoradeniya’s stalking of the itinerary of twisted sister Julie Chung, the US Envoy, as she sets about attempting to promote a highland Eelam aka Malayagam…
*
• All such fragmenting fissiparousness is being turbo-charged by a backward multinational-corporation-run economy. Perhaps the media in Sri Lanka should be renamed The Import-Export Daily News, The Import-Export Sunday Times, The Import-Export Island, The I-E Morning, The I-E MTV… 99.99% of economic commentary in the media promotes the export game. And this is not new. The colonial economy was/is a classic import-export plantation economy, and see how it still runs, like the 3 Blind Mice of English rhyme. And even so-called ‘local’ companies should be prefixed with Import-Export: Import-Export Keells, Import-Export Hayleys, I-E Maharajah’s etc.
*
‘Before the advent of the English, the economy of
the coastal districts & parts of the interior which
had passed under European rule, had already lost to a
great extent its old localized & self-sufficient character
& had become linked through extensive external trade
with European commercial capital.’
– ‘The Program for Ceylon’, 1946
*
• The world is divided into at least three parts: the imperialist countries of Europe, the settler states of the genocidal colonies ‘of new settlement’ (USA, Canada, Australia, etc), and such expatriate-dominated non-settler colonies as Sri Lanka, according to ee‘s muse, SBD de Silva (see ee Focus). However, if you really wish to see the differences between countries, de Silva suggests, we should look at countries like South Africa & the Congo where there are/were both settlers & expatriates:
*
‘In South Africa, the expatriate investors were confined
mainly to mining & foreign trade; but the shift to
agriculture & manufacturing which was to transform
the economy was brought about by the settlers.’
*
Indeed, as de Silva eloquently asserted, ‘The metropolitan-based commercial bourgeoisie were wholly export oriented and concerned with already existing markets, whereas the settlers relied on the home market. The stimulus to industrialization came largely from the settlers.’ And now we are reminded again, why England’s Unilever & the USA’s Exxon & the Anglo-US CTC are still allowed to monopolize Sri Lanka’s home market. And how they enable the news to hide how they actually keep stealing from us – contrary to the prompted ravings of Mr Trump…
*
• Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance & Justice MUM Ali Sabry goes on & on in a prolix 5-part series in The Island newspaper, on the USA’s tariff hoopla. It is only at the very end that he struggles to say it is the US that is robbing Sri Lanka, not the other way around, but then only feebly:
‘Take Sri Lanka, while it may appear to run a surplus
in goods trade with the USA, that surplus is more than
sovereign debt owed to institutions like the IMF &
World Bank, whose returns flow back to major
shareholders, including the USA… Sri Lanka is
taking part in a(n)… economic relationship that
is already tilted toward the US economy.’ – Ali Sabry,
see ee Economists, Trump tariffs, world trade, Parts I-V
*
Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram (see eeEconomists) is much more explicit than Sabry: Trump Wants the World to Subsidize US Empire. US President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran’s A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System told the Hudson Institute, a thinktank funded by media czar Rupert Murdoch who controls Fox News, Wall Street Journal etc:
‘US military spending provides the world a ‘security umbrella’ that others should
also pay for. Second, the US issues the dollar & Treasury bonds, the main reserve
assets for the liquidity of the international monetary & financial system. Miran
seems blissfully unaware of longstanding complaints of the USA’s ‘exorbitant
privilege’. The dollar’s reserve currency status has provided seigniorage income to
the US while Treasury bond sales have long financed US debt at very low cost.’
*
Indeed, Trump’s Rumpelstiltskin fussing & stamping about is not new. The English Chancellor of the Exchequer (later PM) Benjamin Disraeli in 1852 declared: These wretched colonies… are a millstone round our necks.” But he was referring to the North American settler colonies, who the English claimed should pay for wars, just as Trump now wants Europe & its settler colonies plus their non-settler colonies to do. But few explain as SBD de Silva has done that imperialist exploitation of our economies is much more pernicious than just taxes & terror:
‘The conglomerates can defend their interests abroad (without colonialism
based on conquest of territory), for the reason that they can control activities
by their monopoly of technology & markets. First, a good portion of their
income is in the form of technological rents, royalties, licensing rights,
technical assistance fees, etc. The technology is rarely transferred, and its
diffusion outside the orbit of such corporations is rigidly controlled. When
deprived of this technology & marketing know-how, the natural resources &
cheapened labour of the host countries become idle assets at least in the short run.’
– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, 1982
*
• With all this talk about corruption, we wonder why US-occupied Korea ‘granted’ US$8.5 million to ‘automate Colombo municipality revenue systems‘ while the country is just about to hold local elections? Meanwhile, Japan too has funded a 137million-yen ‘Project for Promoting Economic Governance through Anti-Corruption Policy Support’. Will the Japanese yen (JP¥) now investigate the Korean won (₩)? Keep smoking! ee continues therefore examining the US model of ‘the general prostitution of civic ideals’, through Gustave Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall. This ee Focus records how by 1820, ‘manhood suffrage‘ had dominated Tammany’s political posturing. Another demand was the abolition of the law for imprisonment of debtors. Tammany claimed to represent ‘the farmer, the independent blacksmith, the shoemaker with an apprentice or 2’, who all had the vote if propertied, yet it remained an envious ‘middle-class’ institution. They coerced and bribed lawmakers into passing bank charters and franchises, even while publicly promoting the abolition of speculation and banks. See also how the bankers who had promoted the genocidal General Andrew Jackson (one of Mr Trump’s idols) for President, the banks then arrayed the ‘combined power of the propertied classes’ against the ‘laborers, mechanics, farmers & producing classes’ to bring him down.
*
• May is a month of memories. There was May Day, which contrary to the perennial media bad-mouthing, is still heartily celebrated (even if only permitted in some hearts) around the world (as Labor Day, it’s a 5-day official holiday in China). May is indeed a month of action & memories. May 4th recalls the youth movement in China in 1919 against the imperialist decision to cede former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan, which led to the formation of the Communist Party of China (CPC). May 5th is the 50th anniversary of the victory of Vietnam over the US-led imperialists (France, Japan, Canada, etc., were also actively complicit). May 9th recalls the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany (who was backed at first by England, USA, France, etc.) in World War II. And since the USA always relies on its standard shystering ‘art of the deal’, threatening war, here & there & everywhere & all at once, we need to also recall the Communist Manifesto:
‘Bourgeois & Proletarians! –
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles. Freeman & slave, patrician & plebeian, lord & serf,
guild-master & journeyman, in a word, oppressor & oppressed,
stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an
uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time
ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large,
or in the common ruinof the contending classes.
– Karl Marx & Fredrick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848
Pathfinder Foundation hosted a high-level delegation from the China Centre for South Asian Studies of Sichuan University at its headquarters in Peliyagoda. The Foundation’s association with Sichuan University dates back to 2017, when the two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation and joint studies. Both parties met once again to evaluate the progress of the MoU renewed in November 2023 and discuss opportunities for enhanced collaboration between the two institutions.
The delegation was led by Prof. DING Zhongyi, Dean of the School of International Studies and Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies. Chief Expert and Vice Director of the Center, Prof. (Ms.) QIU Yonghui, Associate Professors Ms. XIAO Jianmei and Ms. LIU Siwei comprised the delegation that attended the meeting with the Pathfinder team of experts.
During the meeting, both sides discussed several important proposals, including strengthening relations between the two institutions, leveraging China’s economic power, critically exploring the successes and failures of the BRI, and the idea to hold a series of events in Colombo, bringing in scholars from the region. Development, economic empowerment, and maritime trade were three subject areas identified for further consideration in conferences and joint publications.
Pathfinder Foundation also briefed the delegation on its continued relationship with China vis-à-vis joint programs, visits by Chinese organisations, and close association with the Chinese Embassy in Colombo. The Foundation will host another delegation from Shanghai this month, representing the Office of the Counsellor of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.
Colombo, May 3 (Daily Mirror) – The government is facing a dilemma as it must either increase the power tariff or face a delay in receiving the fifth tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement signed with the IMF, United National Party (UNP) National Organiser Sagala Ratnayake said yesterday.
He said Sri Lanka breached the EFF agreement it signed with the IMF by reducing the power tariff in February this year, creating a problematic situation.
Mr. Ratnayake told a media briefing that Sri Lanka has reached a staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the EFF agreement, but approval from the IMF’s Executive Board is still pending. The staff-level agreement is subject to IMF Executive Board approval, contingent on (i) the implementation of prior actions relating to restoring electricity cost-recovery pricing and ensuring the proper function of the automatic electricity price adjustment mechanism, and (ii) the completion of the financing assurances review,” Mr. Ratnayake said, quoting the release issued by the IMF.
The economic reforms programme during the tenure of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was based on two key factors. One was the set of conditions Sri Lanka agreed to under the EFF agreement, and the other was the set of reforms undertaken independently by the Sri Lankan government. Sri Lanka agreed to implement a power tariff mechanism, under which a cost-reflective power tariff review must be undertaken every six months,” he added. However, the Sri Lankan government reduced the power tariff in February this year, resulting in the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) incurring a loss of Rs. 11.3 billion.
The government will have to increase the power tariff to obtain the fifth tranche under the EFF agreement, as per the IMF release. Industries will be affected if the government increases power tariffs to recover costs,” he said. Mr. Ratnayake added that the Sri Lankan government should issue a clear statement on this situation.
Colombo, May 2 (Daily Mirror) – President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has urged trade unions not to take to the streets, in protest for petty demands and has called on them to change their old attitudes.
In his May Day speech, President Dissanatake said that the NPP as a political force, has given up perks and privileges entitled to them through the constitution, gazettes and circulars.
“We urge trade unions to shed their old attitudes. Do not fight even for petty things. We, as a political force, have given up perks and privileges entitled to us through the constitution, gazettes and circulars. Let us have some time. You don’t have to take to the street and force us. We are a political force that feel your heartbeat and aspirations,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa claims that Sri Lanka’s debt repayment in 2028 is at risk, given the current state of the country’s economy.
Speaking during TV Derana’s current affairs programme 360°”, he alleged that the previous government, led by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, agreed to initiate the debt repayment process in 2028—despite the possibility of obtaining an extension until 2033—in order to use it as a campaign point for the 2024 Presidential Election.
But it brought no benefit to the country or its people,” he added.
Furthermore, the Opposition Leader criticized the current administration for failing to renegotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
If we are unable to begin debt repayments by 2028, we will have to undergo another restructuring,” the leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) stressed.
We warned early on what would happen to the country. Now I say this again—Sri Lanka is at risk when it comes to initiating debt repayments,” he noted.
Responding to a question on whether he would take over the presidency if the current government fails before the end of its term, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa asserted that he would not accept the presidency without a public mandate.
Premadasa, who emphasized that he declined the presidency in 2022 when the then government collapsed due to his personal policy of not assuming power without a mandate, stated that this policy remains unchanged.
Let’s assume I took over the presidency. How could I even pass the Budget without a majority in Parliament?” he questioned.
1. Fairy mistress”, wicked witch or monster-mother? Different types of magical femininity?
In summary, we state that US Ambassador Julie Chung is a master in Public Diplomacy”, euphemism for espionage, information gathering, psychological warfare and propaganda, reaching out to targeted sectors, using persuasion or soft power”, establishing and maintaining personal contacts and alliances, advocating democracy, freedom, human rights, shared goals, and engaging in many cultural interventions, regarded as weapons of advocacy”.
Mostly nobodies were brought to the table of high politics, given photo opportunities with her which were distinct from working through formal diplomatic channels. Outreach”, greater social inclusion”, coalition building” were Chung’s beautiful words, a symphony of elegance. Contacts were cultivated and friendships pursued with the objective of influencing the team nexus into favourable actions, in other words getting it to refrain from actions that may be unfavourable to the US interests.
Is Chung the fairy mistress”, showing different types of magical femininity? Fairy lover, wicked witch or monster-mother, a magical woman? When she meets with locals for us it is like reading genre fiction; that readers will always know something about the sort of text they are about to read; they come equipped with anticipation as informed, expectant readers. So, we know looking at the people she meets with what sort of a text we are about to read in her X messages!
2. How Julie Chung sponsored USAID projects
In this third part of our essay we discuss how Julie Chung sponsored USAID projects and promoted LGBTIQ activities in Sri Lanka. Actions carried out by her predecessors in connection with these two acts were omitted for obvious reasons.
We have given a detailed account of US dignitaries who visited Sri Lanka since GR came into power and immediately after his ouster in our book Galle Face Protest:Systems Change or Anarchy?” (2023). The list is too long. (Mike Pompeo, US Secretary ofState, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (who was deeply involved in the regime change in Ukraine), Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Amanda Dory, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense,Samantha Power, the Administrator (Head) of USAID , Dustin Shiau, Senior Regional Programme Officer of the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, US National Security Council Senior Director for South Asia, CIA Chief William Joseph Burns (his visit was a closely guarded secret), Jedidiah P. Royal, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs (PDASD) , Tammana Salikuddin, an Indian-American Muslim diplomat, Afreen Akhter, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, (DAS), Major General Peter J. Hronek, Adjutant General for the Montana National Guard, Elizabeth Horst, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) and Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for Pakistan Bureau of South and Central Asian Regions and Robert Kaproth, US Department of the Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Asia, (he visited Sri Lanka earlier with Kelly Keiderling, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, less than ten days before the protesters storming the Presidential Secretariat and the Presidential House).
It should be noted that Elizabeth Horst has been designated as the next American Ambassador to Sri Lanka by the Biden Government.
1. In September 2022, Samantha Power, the Administrator (Head) of USAID visited Sri Lanka; she along with Chung met with a delegation consisting of NPP’s National list MP Harini Amarasuriya, Leader of the Opposition, Dayasiri Jayasekera, Rishard Bathiuddin, Abraham Sumanthiran, Rauf Hakeem and Mano Ganeshan.
2. Chung in 2023met with Sri Lanka’s Multi-party Open Parliamentary Caucus” supported by USAID and NDI.
3. Julie Chung twittered on June 14, 2023: After my visit to Nuwara Eliya last week, we are offering CSOs and individuals a unique opportunity to apply for small grants to serve the Hill Country region. Projects should focus on promotingpeace, democracy, reconciliation & human rights”. She invited applicants aiming a difference in the Hill Country” and distributed USAID funds for them. What difference” did she envisage among the Plantation Tamils? Did she think that there is no peace in the region?
Had she considered the well-being of the impoverished people in the Kandyan countryside who are the real inheritors of the Central Highlands?
4. In August 2023 while visiting Jaffna,Chung met with people engaged in USAID-funded sea weed cultivation.
5. On 21 March 2024 Chung attended Cargills’ launch of EV Charging Stations, through USAID’s partnership with Cargills.
6. At the demise of Sarvodaya leader A.T. Ariyaratna, on 17 April 2024 Chung in her X message said that the USAID has partnered with Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka over many years.
7. On 29, April 2024 Julie Chung met with community workers in Kalapura, from SAFE Foundation and Samadana Society Ltd. supported by USAID Sri Lanka, who are addressing human trafficking” and supporting trafficking victims”, particularly among Malaiyaha Tamil community in Nuwara Eliya.
This was the first time we heard ofhuman trafficking” in Nuwara Eliya and trafficking victims” in Nuwara Eliya. Obviously, a fictitious organization to get USAID funds.
8. On 30, April 2024 Julie Chung and Under Secretary for Trade and AgriculturalAffairs Alexis Taylor visited Nuwara Eliya to meet with dairy farmers assisted by USAID.
9. On 2, May 2024Julie Chung with Wijedasa Rajapaksa, the then Minister of Justice attended a meeting of UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime),donating the Ministry of Justice equipment for virtual courts- 35 video conferencing units, opening new facilities in Angunukolapelessa and Galle.
Despite all the facilities provided for virtual courts, Ganemulla Sanjeewa was gunned down inside a courthouse on 18 February 2025!
10. On 7, May 2024 Chung participated in a Ceylon Chamber of Commerce event, to develop a Climate Action Plan at the Code Red Sri Lanka Climate Summit 2024 organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce with USAID and other partners to create a green economy.”
We are unaware of the green economy” they created together; but aware that the Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, a nominee of Julie Chung appointed as Anura Kumara’s Special Economic Advisor!
11. On 13, June 2024 Chung visited the Centre for Women’s Research to join the then Minister of Energy, USAID and Sling Mobility (a company focused on sustainable EV solutions) to present an international award for innovation to USAID Sri Lanka’s Sri Lanka Energy Project for its work with Sling Mobilityto develop battery swapping stations for e-bikes.
What does Centre for Women’s Research do with e-bikes? What is the current status of e-bikes and battery swapping stations?
12. On 8, July 2024Chung touring Uva Province met with farmers and staff of CAP Ceylon which exports organic – certified products with USAID Sri Lanka support.
13. On 10, July 2024Chung met with IRI Global and USAID Sri Lanka supported Women’s Campaign Academy and Youth Civil League Programme in Badulla. They have promoted civic and voter education in their communities”.
Their voter education” may have influenced sending NPP MPs to the Parliament this time from the so-called Malaiyaha Tamil community.
14. On 26, July 2024Chung joined the Executive Director of Maharajah Food Limited Thavamala Gunanathan to celebrate her achievements; Maharajah Food Limited is supported by USAID.
15. On 4, August 2024Chung was delighted to meet” with US-funded WEConnect Supplier Development Masterclass for women entrepreneurs.
16. On 7, August 2024Chung welcomed USAID’s Assistant Administrator Michael Schiffer who was in Sri Lanka to meet with USAID- Sri Lanka partners, beneficiaries, civil society and government functionaries.
17. On 8, August 2024Chung joined the SAFE Foundation and congratulated youth winners of the art competition to End Human Trafficking through art. It was announced that the USAIDand US support Sri Lanka’s efforts to end human trafficking. Minister Alles was in attendance.
18. Visiting Southern Province from August 14, 2025, on August 16, Chung was in conversation with Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce founded with USAID aid.
19. On the same day she met with representatives of the SAFE Foundation and Prathiba Media Network, grassroot level CSOs and survivors of human trafficking who were working with USAID to combathuman trafficking.
20. On 21, August 2024Chung met with Ali Sabry, the then Foreign Minister and Presidential Advisor on Climate Change along with the US Acting Secretary of State for Oceans, International Environmental and scientific Affairs JenniferLittlejohn. She messaged: We discussed ongoing US support including USAID’s work on power sector reforms and potential collaboration with Smithsonian to protect Sri Lanka’s unique natural resources.”
21. On the same dayChung addressed the Social Change Makers” and Community Leader Shine 50” event supported by USAID in partnership with Echelon Media and Seylan Bank. This provides with information for the collaboration of media and banking sector with the USAID.
22.Chung began a tour in the Northern Province soon after the Presidential Election from 23 October 2024. On 24 she visited Aham” Mental Health and Psychological Support Lab at the University of Jaffna, aided by USAID.
23. On the same day Chung met with Francis Jasmin of NatureWins, a women-owned cashew processing business in Poonaryn aided by USAID.
24. On 25, October 2024 Chung declared open the new Integrated Digital Media Unit at the Harmony Centre, University of Vauniya. Through USAID Sri Lanka’s SCORE activity (Social Cohesion and Reconciliation Activity) the US has provided media and IT equipment to the unit.
25. On 2, December 2024 Chung met with NPP’s Minister of Justice and National Integration and his Deputy, in supporting USAID Sri Lanka’s efforts to strengthensocial cohesion and reconciliation and provided the Ministry with new IT tools.Chung messaged: We are amplifying the impact of USAID ’s SCORE supported training program that have empowered 368 officers across 25 districts since 2022.”
There is ample evidence to confirm that Sri Lanka’ s judicial system is being influenced by the USAID.
26. On 6, December 2024 Chung and US State Assistant Secretary Donald Lu, representing key agencies USAIDand US Treasury met with the new Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka.
27. On the same day Chung, US State Assistant Secretary Donald Lu, US Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Kaproth and Anjali Kaur,USAID DeputyAssistant Administrator met with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
28. On 7, December 2024US delegation from State,USAIDand US Treasury congratulated the President of Sri Lanka and his new administration.
29. On 9, December 2024meeting with the Minister of Energy and Minister of Environment Chung pledged support to the two ministries through USAID.
30. On 11, December 2024meeting with two NPP MPs in Kandy Chung reiterated USAID support.
31. On 30, December 2024Julie Chung was glad to see USAID-Sri Lanka highlighted in The Morning” (newspaper) for the US support for the Pekoe Trail.She on February 1, 2024 hailed Pekoe Trail saying that it was developed with the funding of USAID Sri Lanka and EU.
32. On 7, January 2025Julie Chung with Harini Amarasuriya celebrated the achievements of Sri Lankan women in business”, a collaborative partnership with USAID-Sri Lanka since its inception at the Prathibabhisheka Women Entrepreneurs Awards.
33. On 9, January 2025 NPP’s Minister of Justice and National Integration met with USAID’s Mission Director Gabriel Grau and discussed a variety of issues focusing on the cost to the Sri Lanka’s economy of a judicial system facing a backlog of 1.1 million court cases.” USAID Sri Lanka is helping the judicial system to tackle the issue through US efficient and effective justice action”, Chung messaged.
34. Meeting with the farmers in the NCP on 16 January 2025 Chung said that the US through USAID initiatives provided fertilizer, modernization technology and essential resources to support Sri Lanka’s agriculture, helping farmers recover during the crisis.
After President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s castigating of USAID Chung craftily avoided any mention of USAID whenever she met with NPP Ministers.
3. How Julie Chung promoted LGBTIQ activities
Gay Pride Marches were organized in Sri Lanka by US-funded International Republican institute (IRI) in the North of Sri Lanka and in Colombo in 2021.
From the day Chung set foot in Sri Lanka she began her work with the LGBTIQ community in Sri Lanka. Her Twitter messages revealed that she was influencing the Sri Lankan government legalizing homosexuality. A novice SLPP MP Dolawatte on August 24, 2003 handed over a private member’s bill to amend the Penal Code decriminalizing same sex relationships.
There was a strong presence of LGBTIQ activists at the Galle Face Protest Site. On June 11, 2022 a Samanathmatha Piyasa” (Equality Shelter) was opened, displaying a visual of two mature males in a compromising position in front of it.
LGBTIQ activists marched to Galle Face from the Temple Trees precincts on 25, June 2022, transvestites with faces and bodies painted with deconstructed stripes of the transgender pride flag”, women scantily dressed in rainbow colours, paraded and danced to the accompaniment of drum beats and music; others were dressed like models or were in wedding dresses. The placards they carried bore slogans such as: Samnaliyo” (Butterflies), Butterflies are also voters”, F***k gender”, Samarisi Aithiya Suarakimu” (Safeguard equal rights of gays and lesbians), Adarayata Bhedayak Netha” (No barriers to love), Samanaliyanda Puravesiyo” (Butterflies are also citizens), Adaraya tharamahinsaka deyak netha” (Nothing is as innocent as love). There was sporadic bellowing of the common call, Go Gota Home”.
Pride Marchers” performed at the Galle Face open air stage to the accompaniment of singing and drumming, winding up with a woman histrionically falling dead followed by a GotaGo” dirge. They had claimed that the protest was a victorious moment for the growing LGBTQ community”. The most demeaning part was enlisting school going children as performers; some were carrying dolls, signifying children of same sex couples.
For all these activities money was pumped by US-funded NGOs.
A mural called Rapid response Mural”, displaying slogans such as, We are our own leaders”, Fearless take power back” in tri languages, depicting four human figures was commissioned by the Fearless Collective South Asia”.
The artists of the Fearless Community”, an affiliate organization of the AsianFearless Collective”, (funded by the US – based Social Good Fund”) at TheFearless Residency” in Colombo, conducting a workshop, (by the Indian woman Shilo Shiv Suleman, its founder) with the participation of queer community, sex workers, lawyers and the members of their affiliates, We Are From Here Project” of Slave Island and Sisterhood Initiative for Muslim Women in Sri Lanka”, painted Presidential Secretariat engulfed in flames and statues of oppressive leaders” being destroyed.
Chung twittered on 15, May 2023, To honor the #Pride 2023”; I joined members of #slk’s LGBTQI+ communities & allies from across the country to honor the courage of all who have helped us recognize love is love & encouraged usto be our authentic self regardless of gender, sexual orientation or identity”.
The way she phrased it indicates that the event belonged to her, organized by her!
In August 2023 Chung met with Jaffna-based LGBTIQ+ rights activists (Jaffna Pride). She messaged: Inclusivity, diversity & equality are vital for a strong democracy”. Fine elements of a Chung-type democracy!
In her 18 April 2024 X message, she said: Thrilled to see @ EQUAL GROUNDS founder Rosanna Flamer-Caldera on @ Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024! Rosanna’s fearless fight for LGBTQI rights in Sri Lanka is paving the way for a more inclusive World Equality for All. Your courage inspires us all to push for change!”
Fearless fight for LGBTQI rights in Sri Lanka”, more inclusive World Equality for All”, your courage inspires us all”, to push for change” were the sugarcoated words used by Chung, sprinkling sweetness. We may ask: is it a fearless fight”? Does someone need courage” to indulgein such activities? Does that courage inspires” Chung? What change” Chung has pushed” with such inspiration”?
Man or Woman? In the photograph posted with Chung, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera was seen wearing a men’s shirt, a men’s slack, belt and men’s boots.
On 11, June 2024 Julie Chung and DCM (Deputy Chief Mission) Sonnek joined 20th anniversary event organized by EQUAL GROUNDS to celebrate a generation of community work towards inclusion and Pride across Sri Lanka”. Julie’s intentions are clear, to spread Prideacross Sri Lanka”! hung began a tour in the Northern Province soon after the Presidential Election from 23 October 2024. She met with sex workers while visiting the Women’s Histories of Sex Work Exhibition in Jaffna appreciating US support to truth, justice and human rights”.
Conclusion
Chung moved with the cunningness of a modern day D’Oyly, as the conductor of an invisible orchestra. Like an octopus with her countless tendrils she reached out in all directions, roping all into her alluring sphere in a hypnotic trance. Her X messages reveal how she wove conversations with lesser mortals and the Ministers and higher officials respectively that left them spellbound, leaving no room for dissent, making everyone feel seen and recognized. She knew precisely which thread to pull, to drag them into her orbit.
Julie Chung presented her credentials to the then President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on 25, February 2022. Prior to the eruption of protests, she had met with almost all the Ministers, leading politicians in Sri Lanka affiliated to all registered political parties, high ranking military officers, religious dignitaries of all denominations, custodians of Buddhist temples, Hindu shrines, Christian and Catholic churches and mosques. She invited for pow-wows NGO bosses, civil society activists, media personnel, business captains, professionals, academics, scientists, LGBTIQ activists, visual artists, youth leaders, representatives of marginalized communities, war affected and displaced persons, differently able persons, some of them on more than on one occasion. Thus, she rallied a formidable force for any action.
Within a short period of three years Chung accomplished three major triumphs: (1) Ouster of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (2) Bringing NPP into power and (3) Installing Harini Amarasuriya, spokesperson of LGBTIQ community of Sri Lanka as the Prime Minister.
I give you below a list of slogans at the major political parties as stated in the Ada Derana of today (01. 05. 2025.)
Political parties and trade unions across Sri Lanka are commemorating International Labour Day today (May 01) with a series of May Day rallies and parades under various themes
They are given below.
National People’s Power (NPP/JVP) People’s Power Building the Country.”
Samangi Jana Balawegaya (SJB ) Workers’ Power to Win the Country” the
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) We Have Endured the Deception, Let’s Rise Up Now.”
‘Sarvajana Balaya’ alliance: The Worker Towards Entrepreneurship”
Isn’t it very strange that none of the major political parties, has mentioned here or given any reference to the major work force in this country, that is the farmer community that represents nearly 80 % of the total population in the country? Their slogans refer only to workers in factories, the plantation sector, just to make a fool of them just to collect their votes.
This is a very deplorable situation where they completely ignore the sons of the soil in the country side who really keep the nation going, while annually they gather to commemorate something that happened in some other country thousands of miles in 1866 beyond the seas, making use of it for political purposes at home.
At east why can they call it the Govi- Kmkaru and give an indigenous outlook as a mark of respect to our farmers who toil the year round to feed the whole nation.
It is high time that our politicians begin to think inwardly at least now, as it is the farming community in this country, and not the factory workers of Chicago or Birmingham, who really feed the nation and make and unmake the governments of this country.
Let wisdom be dawned to our politicians at least now.
Timothy Snyder (55) maintained interaction with his two children (ten year old son and the younger daughter) while he was in a Florida hospital at the beginning of 2020. No doubt, his wife Marci Shore (53), also teaching history at Yale University then, helped this loving interaction between the father and his children.The children told him about their school work and inquired about his progress towards recovery. Snyder remembers how he kept thinking about his children even in his sickest moments. and finds fault with America for falling short of the standards reached by countries like Austria in infant and child health.
Of course, in fairness to America today (2025), it must be said that children, parents, and their health and welfare, and the family institution are receiving the highest recognition in the country, irrespective of untenable extremes of neoliberalism ideologies like wokeism and related lgbtqa+ and transgender sex change surgery issues, etc., as evident at least in the American domestic political domain. Elon Musk (53), Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump (78), is often seen with his youngest son having a piggyback ride on his busy father’s shoulders even on state occasions; President Trump sometimes proudly shows off his nineteen year old son Barron accompanying him on the stage, the fresh young man stealing the show at his old father’s expense, especially among young voters. The youngish US Vice President J.D. Vance (40) and Usha Vance (39), his wife of Indian origin, were on a four day visit (beginning April 21) to resurgent India recently with their three little children who, innocently unaware of and unconcerned about what was going on around them, endeared Americans to Indians, thereby greatly enhancing the efficacy of their parents’ diplomatic endeavour to strengthen bilateral bonds and economic and security cooperation between the two powerful nations. Musk and Trump are businessmen turned politicians, while the Vances have been lawyers. But all four are normal parents. Cynics might cavil at such ‘childish displays’ as advertising gimmicks for promoting the pro binary sex ideology perspective, where children are insensitively exploited as mascots for their propaganda. But a more sober judgement would be to view such high profile demonstrations as indicating an emergent trend in America towards a return to healthy normalcy in its sex culture where parents with their own children form close knit stable family units that coalesce into a vibrant society.
Snyder recounts how well he and his wife Marci were treated as first-time parents in a public hospital in Vienna in Austria, where their son was born in 2009. They had to pay hardly anything by way of hospital fees. The Snyders ‘experienced a sense of what good health care felt like from inside: intimate and inexpensive’. Marci was given a ‘mother-child passport’, which was recognized at health facilities throughout Austria. When she entered any hospital or doctor’s office, she was asked to show the ‘passport’. The doctor or the nurse didn’t look at a screen to identify the mother and her child.
In Austria, according to Snyder, pregnant mothers close to delivery time are asked to come to the maternity hospital at water breaking (i.e., when the amniotic sac covering the foetus breaks) or when contractions occur at 20 minute intervals. In America, they are asked to wait longer until the contractions are only three or four minutes apart. So in America, deliveries sometimes happen in the back seat of a car, putting both the babies and the mothers in danger. In Austria, again, the mother and the baby have to stay in hospital for 96 hours (4 days) after delivery, allowing time for the baby to have a good start, and for the mother to learn to breastfeed. The difference between America and Austria in this respect, Snyder says, is one between a logic of profit and a logic of life.
Even the general public in Austria are helpful towards parents with children. The institutions that helped the Snyders (as first-time parents) ‘from the public hospital to the public kindergarten to the public transport were an infrastructure of solidarity that helped people together, making them feel that at the end of the day they were not alone’, whereas in America, ‘birth is where our story about freedom dies. We never talk about how bringing new life into the world makes heroic individualism impossible’. (That is, doing everything alone, with little outside help, preserving one’s autonomy, is not possible in the real world)
This applies to children in their formative years, as well. A piece of wisdom Snyder offers is that ‘to be free involves having a sense of one’s own interests and of what one needs to fulfill them. Thinking about the constraints of life under pressure requires an ability to experience, name and regulate emotions’. But this freedom cannot be gained without help. That is the paradox of freedom as Snyder calls it; no one is free without help
Snyder distils into his critique of the unsatisfactoriness of the American healthcare system an important insight in respect of early childhood care: it is that ‘how children are treated when they are very young profoundly affects how they will live the rest of their lives. That is perhaps the most important thing that scientists have to teach us about health and freedom today’. Speech, thought and will emerge as infants and toddlers interact with other people. ‘We learn as very small children, if we ever learn, to recover from disappointment and to delay pleasure. …what allows these capacities to develop are relationships, play and choices’.
Snyder points out that providing good healthcare facilities for children leads eventually to a lower crime rate, functional democracy, and efficiency in decision making. He feels that emotional regulation is overlooked in America. There is no sufficient focus on the relationship between parents and children. The regrettable lapses in American health care affects children more negatively than for adults. Parents need to relate to their children in ways that promote their optimal physical, mental and ethical development is part of a good healthcare system. Healthy interaction between parents and children is of vital importance for the education of children. Probably, the situation in Sri Lanka may not be better than in America in view of, among other things, the economic hardships that parents inevitably have to face.
Children and young adults, particularly in suburban and rural areas, are a threatened species. Apart from the economic difficulties that their parents experience, restricting their ability to meet the cost of augmenting the education that the state provides free of charge, non-urban Sri Lankan children often suffer due to a lack of basic infrastructure facilities like good transport, proper school buildings, modern libraries and adequately equipped labs, internet facilities and easy accessibility to local and foreign online sources of learning and research.
Lesson 3: The truth will set us free
After a procedure done on his liver in the emergency room of an American hospital on December 29, 2019, Timothy Snyder was admitted to a room, where he spent the last days of the year and the first days of the next ‘raging and contemplating’. He had to share that room with a Chinese man with a number of afflictions. The Chinese didn’t know any English. So, a lot of ‘personal and medical information was communicated loudly, slowly and repeatedly’. The Chinese was senior to Snyder by fourteen years; he was in withdrawal from nicotine smoking and alcohol drinking after five decades of daily consumption of the two intoxicants. The two became mutually accommodating friends.
But Snyder suffered a lung infection due to close contact with the Chinese, who had himself succumbed to illness caused by a parasite ingested while eating raw fish on a previous visit to China, but got well later. However, Snyder recovered and left the hospital, after exchanging farewell messages with the friendly Chinese, who had to stay on further in hospital.
The latter, Snyder says, is an example of two ways that medicine can get to the truth: thinking along with the patient, focusing on their story, and searching for information through tests. His conclusion is that in early 2020, the federal government failed Americans in both ways. There was no sensible discussion of the history of pandemics, and no procedure to test for the new coronavirus. The sections of the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security meant to deal with epidemics, as well as a special unit in the Agency for International Development meant to predict epidemics had been disbanded. American health experts had been called back from the rest of the world. The last officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assigned to China had been recalled to the US in July 2019, a few months before the epidemic broke out.
President Trump had overseen budget cuts for institutions looking after public health. The US surgeon general sang in a tweet on February 1, 2020: ‘Roses are red/Violets are blue/Risk is low for #coronavirus/But high for the flu’. Nero was fiddling while Rome was burning! As the year began, Americans were denied the basic knowledge necessary for making independent decisions of their own. President showed little anxiety about the steadily growing threat of the coronavirus. ‘It is going to disappear…like a miracle’. In effect they were creating a ‘news desert’. The media kept silent about the spreading pollution. Google and FB don’t carry news. They only raked in advertising revenues as usual.
But the disease was transmitted rapidly across the counties . The Covid death toll rose in leaps and bounds. ‘The seven American counties with the most Covid deaths would now rank among the top twenty countries. These are simple facts’. Snyder observes: ‘Since the truth sets you free, the people who oppress you resist the truth’. Historian Snyder refers to why British people have unkind memories of prime minister Neville Chamberlain because he tried to please the public in 1938 by falsely asserting that there was no need to go to war against Hitler. Winston Churchill earned their love and honour for having told them the unpleasant truth that they had to make war on the Nazi leader to stop him.
Snyder remembers reading (J.R.R. Tolkien’s) The Lord of the Rings to his son and daughter before he became ill. In that story Gandalf the wizard is a noble character with great power. He tells truths that people don’t want to hear. He is usually disliked as a bearer of bad news, and his advice is ignored. Although Gandalf is powerful, he cannot save the world by himself. He needs to build up a coalition by convincing others of the reality of a threat; but they won’t listen to him. Instead, out of ignorance, they look for an excuse for submission.That is human nature, but no way to be free. In frustration, Gandalf finally retorts that without knowledge, freedom has no chance.
Lesson 4: Doctors should be in charge
Snyder’s unexpected midnight admission to a hospital in Florida and two days stay there coincided with his mother’s birthday that year. So, he was unable to be with her on the occasion. The attention he got from the doctors was hurried and seemingly perfunctory, and it was hardly face-to-face. The longest time of fifteen minutes he saw a doctor was over Skype with a neurologist. Snyder thinks that the problem is not that doctors do not want to work with patients. They do work really hard, as people saw during the pandemic, risking their own health and even their lives in order to save others’ lives. The problem, according to Snyder, is that they have no say in what happens around them, but waste their time and energy pacifying greater powers. In America, doctors no longer have the authority that patients expect and need from them.
Readers, please remember that this was five years ago. The situation in America may have improved since, especially after the coronavirus pandemic took its toll and departed. The alleged mercenary bias of the American healthcare system largely caused by the profiteering Big Pharma, the insensitivity of the colluding political authorities, and the misinformation pedalled by the media (particularly digital) that Snyder sharply criticizes in this book may have eased, too.
However, a little reflection will convince the intelligent readers that Timothy Snyder’s Four Lessons have great relevance to certain aspects of the deplorable situation in Sri Lanka today. This ad hoc review of mine of Snyder’s book, if read with a ‘comparative research’ oriented mind, will make the book look like a mirror held up to the prevailing reality there.
N.B.: I have used a paperback edition of the book in my possession, issued by The Bodley Head, London, in 2020, in which year Snyder’s book containing his cogent case and powerful appeal for redress was first published.
Many people shy away from discussing politics. It’s seen as messy, divisive, or even dangerous. But whether we like it or not, nearly everything in life — our pensions, healthcare, cost of living, security, and dignity — eventually boils down to politics.
And politics, when stripped of its rhetoric and drama, is just a numbers game. Whoever holds the larger number wins. That’s how decisions are made. That’s who calls the shots.
We seniors often feel powerless, sidelined, or ignored. But here’s the overlooked truth: we have the numbers too. The real question is, how do we harness this strength for our common good?
Protest Isn’t the Only Way
Street protests, rallies, and sit-ins are one way to show dissatisfaction. But let’s be realistic —they’re not ideal for us.
Age brings not just wisdom but also physical limitations. Harsh weather, the threat of unruly mobs, or politically motivated police crackdowns — none of these are risks we should be taking. It’s simply not worth it.
Yet, there is a more effective and far safer way to make our voices heard — one that can send a louder message than any street protest.
The Power of the Ballot—Make It Count
The upcoming mini-election is our moment. Use your vote — not to support a party, but to oppose the current rulers and their affiliated groups. Cast it strategically, not emotionally.
Encourage your children to do the same — for your sake, if not for theirs. If your grandchildren are of voting age, educate them on how this simple act can shift the ground beneath the political landscape.
Don’t sit this one out. Don’t let your vote go to waste. Every vote against the status quo becomes part of a message too loud to ignore.
When the results are analysed—and they will be — the ruling party and the opposition alike will start noticing us. That’s when real conversations begin. That’s when real power shifts.
Let’s be part of that change. Quietly. Strategically. Collectively.
The tense situation taking shape in the Indian sub-continent will have adverse
repercussions in the region unless India and Pakistan can consider reaching a peaceful solution to the issues arising from the massacre of 26 mostly Indian tourists in Kashmir by a group of armed men said to have a link to Pakistan. Pakistan rejects the claim. Both India and Pakistan meantime have taken a series of actions against each other enhancing the fears of a full-scale war in the sub-continent.
Both countries have suspended diplomatic relations with each other and have ordered the return of their citizens to the country of origin. India issued a statement that it would suspend participation in the Simla agreement in the critical Indus water treaty with Pakistan. Pakistan reacted promptly and warned India that any disruption of water supply would be considered an act of war” and it will take required steps to respond with full force.
Both countries are proceeding ahead in an aggressive manner which can lead to a bigger conflict creating issues for the sub-continent as a whole and the neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka,
As we have signed secret defence agreements with India some are speculating that Sri Lanka too will have to play a role in helping India in this conflict. The Sri Lankan government is continuing to ignore the fair request made by responsible citizens to publish the contents of the agreements so that people can voice their democratic views and. also if necessary seek legal redress against the contents in the agreements, if the sovereign rights of the country and the people are violated.
As the country will be dragged into a conflict between two of our friendly neighbours. Sri Lankan President should now disclose to the public the contents of the agreements and take steps to inform the PM of India that Sri Lanka does not want to be a party to a tussle between two friendly countries but can act as a mediator to settle the issue peacefully.
Let us re-tread the path followed by our former Prime Minister Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayake in helping India and Pakistan to mend the fence peacefully without shedding blood.
The passing of Pope Francis means two Christian denominations are without a leader right now – the Anglicans, where Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, resigned some months ago, and the Roman Catholics, who lost their pontiff earlier today. (Statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury”, www.archbishopofcanterbury.org, 12 November 2024)
At a time when leadership crisis is one of, if not the most, concerning issues facing the world, this is undoubtedly a challenging time for the Vatican. Realising how vital the matter of religious leadership is, we hope they will be able to successfully navigate through the procedures and protocols of choosing their leader.
Through the example of its leaders, the Ahmadiyya community knows that, despite religious differences, one can still wish well for people of other faiths on a humanitarian plane. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa, the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, wrote a letter to Pope Francis when he assumed the office of papacy back in 2013. In a detailed letter, he wrote:
I hope and pray that in the forthcoming era the Pope uses his influence to develop peace and harmony in the world. There is a great need to join together upon our common teachings and particularly upon the Unity of God.” (World Muslim Leader congratulates Pope Francis and Catholic Church”, www.pressahmadiyya.com, 14 March 2013)
This is in line with the Quranic teaching of calling the ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book) to common grounds to resolve mutual conflicts and misunderstandings. (Surah Aal-e-`Imran, Ch.3: V.65)
In the same letter, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa referred to what he had written to Pope Francis’ predecessor:
In my letter to [Pope Benedict XVI] I also requested him to use his great influence to bring the people of the world together towards peace, reconciliation and mutual understanding and to strive to prevent the world from destruction. I send the same message to the new Pope as well.” (World Muslim Leader congratulates Pope Francis and Catholic Church”, www.pressahmadiyya.com, 14 March 2013)
In the autumn of 2022, two Ahmadi missionaries had a private audience with Pope Francis. One of them, Marwan Gill, wrote in his report for Al Hakam:
Ahmadi Muslim missionaries meet Pope Francis, who pays homage to Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa
After giving [the Pope] a detailed background of our Jamaat, we introduced to him the magnificent work of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa as a worldwide ambassador of peace. We presented the Pope with an Italian translation of the book World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace. We also presented him with the letter that Hazrat Khaliftul Masih Vaa had specifically written for this audience. The Pope received the letter with great respect and acknowledged gratitude for this gesture of Huzooraa.” (Ahmadi Muslim missionaries meet Pope Francis, who pays homage to Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad”, www.alhakam.org, 4 November 2022)
Left: Letter of Hazrat Khaliftul Masih Vaa specifically written for this occasion. Right: Pope Francis’ personal response to Huzooraa
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa had previously written a special message for Pope Benedict XVI, delivered to him personally by Mohammad Sharif Odeh, the president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in the Holy Land. Part of the message read:
It is with regret that if we now observe the current circumstances of the world closely, we find that the foundation for another world war has already been laid. As a consequence of so many countries having nuclear weapons, grudges and enmities are increasing and the world sits on the precipice of destruction. I believe it is essential, that we urgently increase our efforts to save the world from this destruction. There is an urgent need for mankind to recognise its Creator as this is the only guarantor for the survival of humanity.”(World Muslim leader sends Message of Peace to Pope Benedict”, www.ahmadiyyauk.org, 1 January 2012)
In the messages above, we see that Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa, introducing the emphasis on societal peace, invited the Pope, leader of around one billion people around the world, to play his role in global peacebuilding through the common grounds of major world faiths.
Going just over a hundred years back in history, we see that such efforts by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community remained an integral part of its peacebuilding campaign, highlighting a rich legacy for interfaith harmony in the light of Islamic teachings.
En route to England in 1924, the second head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra stopped over in Rome. While there, he expressed his desire to meet Pope Pius XI. The request was declined, stating that, owing to the refurbishment of the papal offices underway, such a meeting was not possible.
Press reporters, by the likes of La Tribuna, interviewed Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmadra and asked about what he had intended to do during the meeting, had it taken place. He replied by saying that since the Pope is a noble man, he would have offered the Pope a gift befitting his status and position – the gift of an invitation to Islamic teachings.
Letter from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to the Pope in 1924 | Vatican Archive
This meeting, however, could not take place, but the message must have reached the Pope through the press.
Going even further back, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas of Qadian, had invited Queen Victoria, the then head of the Church of England, to the message of Islam. He urged her to organise a conference of world religions in London, the heart of the British Empire, where all faiths could present their teachings in their true form – a dire need at a time when interfaith conflicts had left all religions mystified through the fog of propaganda, slander, and misinformation.
The Star of the Empress
The conference could not happen before 1924 when the then head of the Ahmadiyya community, Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmadaa travelled all the way from India to London with the message of Ahmadiyyat, the true Islam”.
Similarly, Justin Welby, the (now former) Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaa at the London secretariat of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Vaa in October 2017.
We wish that the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church around the world are able to choose a leader who can lead them through the most challenging times – challenging not only for both the denominations but the world at large.
We end this piece with a hope and prayer that world faiths can soon come together under one banner and strive for global peace and harmony – a call made by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih Vaa.
Colombo, May 2 (Daily Mirror) – China is among the countries which are ready to help Sri Lanka join the BRICS coalition in the future, a bloc with economies which account for an estimated 37.3% of global gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity, Daily Mirror learns.
Sri Lanka, at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October, last year, placed on record its request to join the bloc. However, Sri Lanka’s application will be considered later since BRICS has no plan for expansion at the moment
On October 2024 the BRICS which is the acronym for its five original members —Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—welcomed into their bloc Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In January 2025, Indonesia became the bloc’s tenth member.
Brazil is the current chair of BRICS. The goals of BRICS under Brazilian presidency are facilitating trade and investment: promoting economic integration through the development of efficient payment systems, regulating artificial intelligence: promoting inclusive and responsible AI governance for development purposes, tackling climate change: improving financing mechanisms to support global efforts in coordination with the COP30 climate summit (also taking place in Brazil in November), cooperation in the field of public health: strengthening cooperation projects between member countries with a focus on improving public health systems: institutional development.
Earlier, Russia expressed support for Sri Lanka to join BRICS in the future. After that, India also announced that it will consider support for Sri Lanka when new members are welcomed into the bloc.
However, under the current global developments, BRICS is in fresh conflict with the United States since President Donald Trump has warned that BRICS countries attempting to replace the dollar as a trading currency would face 100 percent tariffs on their trade with his country. The threat comes in the wake of attempts by the countries in the bloc to replace the US currency. Sri Lanka is now in negotiation with the US to get redress from the reciprocal tariffs.
පසුගිය දා ශ්රී ලංකාවට පැමැණි ඉන්දීය අග්රාමාත්ය නරේන්ද්ර මෝදි ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ජනාධිපති අනුර කුමාර මහතාව වැළඳ ගනිමින් සිදුකළ ජවනිකාව නිවැරදිව වටහාගත යුතු බවත්, ඉන්දියානු සටකපට ව්යාපෘතිය හඳුනා ගැනීමට නොහැකි තරම් බුද්ධි හීනයන් නොවිය යුතු බවත් මහාචාර්ය පූජ්ය මැදගොඩ අභයතිස්ස හිමියන් පවසති.