{"id":120872,"date":"2021-12-03T18:13:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T01:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120872"},"modified":"2021-12-03T18:13:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T01:13:58","slug":"%e0%b6%a9%e0%b6%9c%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%bd%e0%b7%83%e0%b7%8a-%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%92%e0%b6%9a%e0%b7%8a%e2%80%8d%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%b8%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%ad%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%b1-%e0%b6%b8%e0%b7%84%e0%b6%ad%e0%b7%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/03\/%e0%b6%a9%e0%b6%9c%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%bd%e0%b7%83%e0%b7%8a-%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%92%e0%b6%9a%e0%b7%8a%e2%80%8d%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%b8%e0%b6%bb%e0%b6%ad%e0%b7%8a%e0%b6%b1-%e0%b6%b8%e0%b7%84%e0%b6%ad%e0%b7%8f\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0da9\u0d9c\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dc3\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0db8\u0dbb\u0dad\u0dca\u0db1 \u0db8\u0dc4\u0dad\u0dcf"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>I am very sad to hear of the passing of Douglas\nWickremeratne. He was in touch with me by forwarding posts until the last. I\nused to reciprocate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has a huge claim for gratitude of Sri Lanka and it&#8217;s\npatriotic people for the stand he took in 1983 when he alone stood up to fight\nthe disinformation campaign of the country&#8217;s detractors in London. His brave\nstand triggered others to come out in support of national unity, territorial\nintegrity and an undivided Sri Lanka. He gave leadership to this cause&nbsp;\nparticularly among Overseas Sri Lankans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Melbourne, we formed the Overseas Sri Lankans&#8217;\nOrganization for National Unity (OSLONU) under the leadership of Professor C.G.\nWeeramantry who was the first President of OSLONU. Dr. Ranjith Hettiarachi and\nH.L.D. Mahindapala were the Joint Secretaries. It grew into a sizeable body to\ncounter anti &#8211; Sri Lanka propaganda world wide. We used to liaise constantly\nwith Douglas Wickremeratne. Even the Govt. of Sri Lanka gave him top\nrecognition and VIP treatment whenever he visited Sri Lanka at that time.\nBecause he was performing better than any of our diplomats stationed\noverseas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is a real hero by any definition. He is an old Anandian\nwith a firm commitment to the &#8216; Rata, Jathiya, Agama&#8217;. A person of great moral\ncourage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He deserves a National Salute because such people are rare.\nA man with a back bone and spine is not easy to find.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The adage &#8216; Come the hour, Come the man&#8217; is strikingly\nillustrated in the manner of Douglas Wickremeratne stepping forward to defend\nSri Lanka in the hallowed portals of elite British institutions and\nUniversities, and convince others of the lesser heard side of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May Sri Lanka and the Govt. of Sri Lanka find the strength\nto show remembrance and gratitude at a public level to this great national\nHero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In sorrow<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SJNHALA SANGAMAYA A brief history of work\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/maD7TTH9H58?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Various Interviews dating from 1983 by Douglas Wickramaratne\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OpqvuZLlgs0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption> Various Interviews dating from 1983 by Douglas Wickramaratne <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senaka Weeraratna I am very sad to hear of the passing of Douglas Wickremeratne. He was in touch with me by forwarding posts until the last. I used to reciprocate.&nbsp; He has a huge claim for gratitude of Sri Lanka and it&#8217;s patriotic people for the stand he took in 1983 when he alone stood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}