Features

Who needs the PTA?

Published

1 year ago

2025/07/20

Thilina Walpola

A protest against the PTA. (Picture credit Ada Derana)

“Not only our actions, but also our inactions, become our destiny.”
Heinrich Zimmer (The King and the Corpse)

Mohamad Suhail was arrested twice in one day, first under normal law, then under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The first ‘crime’ of this 21-year-old student was walking down the road outside the Chabad House in Dehiwala. The Chabad House (a religio-political-social institution belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement, a Jewish-fundamentalist sect – think of Bodu Bala Sena with way more brains and cash), reportedly an illegal construction, continues to thrive under the benign gaze of law enforcement officers. Yet the same law enforcement officers arrested Mr. Suhail, a Lankan citizen, for being near a structure built to serve Israeli tourists.

Since Mr. Suhail’s real ‘crime’ would have earned them a magisterial reprimand, Dehiwala police accused him of not having an identity card. The magistrate refused to remand him and released him, pointing out that being in a public space without an identity card was no crime. Case closed. Or so it seemed.

Mr. Suhail went home to Mawanella with his father that evening. In the night, a team from the Dehiwala police went to his home and arrested him again under the PTA, effectively preventing the magistrate from giving him bail. His ‘crime’ this time was having anti-Israel posts on his social media.

That was 24 October 2024. He spent the next eight months and three weeks in remand prison. He would have vegetated behind bars for many more months, or even years, had not his incarceration made it to the news in June 2025, resulting in an outcry.

This week, the police informed the court that Mr. Suhail can be released on bail since he had committed no wrongdoing under the PTA. Incomprehensibly, despite this total lack of evidence, the case against him is to continue. Even harder to comprehend is the reason for his arrest. After all, being critical of Israel (or of any other country including Sri Lanka) is not a crime even under normal law let alone the PTA.

Mr Suhail’s case could have been regarded as an isolated incident had it not been for the arrest in March 2025 of 22-year-old Mohamad Rusdi. He too was detained under the PTA for the ‘crime’ of being anti-Israel. In his case too, the police failed to find any ‘evidence’ – other than his opposition to the Gaza genocide. He too was released on bail, because the state wants to maintain the case against him.

The two cases, taken together, prove how easily, how dangerously the PTA can be abused, how it can be used to persecute innocents on the most ludicrous of pretexts. If this practice of arresting Lankans for being anti-Israel is given a pass, what will the authorities do next? Arrest Lankans for laughing at Donald Trump, ridiculing Narendra Modi or mocking Xi Jinping? How about the ‘terrorist’ crime of disrespecting the Pakistani flag, Maldivian national flower or Nepal’s national anthem?

After all, had we been told one year ago that a Lankan can be detained under the PTA for being critical of Israel, wouldn’t we have dismissed it as an April Fool’s joke?

The conclusion is terrifyingly obvious: any act, however ordinary or innocuous, can be deemed terrorism under the PTA and anyone, however innocent, a terrorist.

Initially, the victims would be non-Sinhalese since in Sri Lanka terror mostly meant and means Tamil or Muslim. But eventually, it will be the turn of any Sinhalese the government of the day has a problem with. It is not hard to envisage NPP/JVP leaders being detained under the PTA by a future Namal Rajapaksa dispensation, maybe for the crime of threatening the president’s second cousin! After all, the NPP/JVP in government has set a new record in abusing the PTA, making it easier for its successor to sink to even more abysmal depths.

The PTA has been in existence for 46 years. In that time, it failed to prevent the phenomenal growth of the LTTE, the Eelam War, the Second JVP insurgency, and the Easter Sunday massacre. Despite these monumental failures, it thrives and will continue to thrive because every government feels the need for it, feels safer, more potent for it, sees it as a protector of last resort, not of the country or the people but of its own power.

Regarding the PTA as a talisman against political opposition, public discontent, and electoral failure is a mistake every government makes and no government learns from.

PTA: an anatomy of failure

Not every promise is made equal. Some can be ignored without major consequences. Breaking others herald disaster.

Like the promise the UNP made in its 1977 election manifesto to politically resolve the Tamil ethnic problem.

Armed separatism came into being under the UF government of Sirima Bandaranaike (the LTTE was formed in 1976). But there was still a chance to prevent large scale bloodshed by finding political solutions to the political problems of the Tamil people. This was what the UNP promised do in its election manifesto: “The United National Party accepts the position that there are numerous problems confronting the Tamil-speaking people. The lack of a solution to their problems has made the Tamil-speaking people support even a movement for the creation of a separate state. In the interests of national integration and unity so essential for the economic development of the whole country, the party feels that such problems should be resolved without the loss of time. The party, when it comes to power, will take all possible steps to remedy their grievances in such fields as,

· Education; (2) Colonisation; (3) Use of Tamil language; (4) Employment in the public and semi-public corporations.

We will summon an All-Party Conference as stated earlier and implement its decisions” (emphasis mine).

But once in power with a five-sixth majority, the UNP forgot its promise. Instead of prioritising national integration, J. R. Jayewardene focused on creating an executive presidency thereby concentrating almost all power in his own hands. In the meantime, the virulent outpourings of the likes of Cyril Mathew began to given the government a racist image the UNP didn’t have in opposition.

Less than a month after the election, all hell broke loose.

On 15 August, three policemen on patrol in Jaffna stopped three cyclists. One of the cyclists pulled out a revolver and shot at a policeman. Over the next couple of days, the police went berserk attacking civilians, destroying property and burning the iconic Jaffna market.

On 17 August at 11. 00 am, a radio message was sent from the Jaffna police station to the IGP in Colombo: “Today, four CTB buses have been set on fire. Naga Vihara is under attack. A crowd has gathered at the railway station Jaffna with intention to assault incoming passengers. The situation is deemed serious.” Every word in that message was a lie, but was received as nothing but the truth by many Sinhalese. Soon, anti-Tamil violence exploded in Colombo, regional towns, and in the Plantations. In some parts of the North, Tamils retaliated by attacking Sinhala traders. Violence raged over two weeks. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands displaced, most of them Tamil.

The riots were a warning of the fragility of the situation and the urgent need for a measured political response by the government. Had the Jayewardene administration returned to its election promise, and worked at resolving key Tamil grievances, the war could have been avoided and hundreds of thousands of lives, Tamil, Sinhala, and Muslim, saved. Unfortunately, the government did the opposite; forgetting the political grievances which led to the Eelam demand, it resorted to generalised repression in the North while and trying to surpass the SLFP on the racism scale in the South.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act was born of this mindset. Formulated in 1978 and becoming law in 1979, the PTA made it possible for the authorities to arrest and detain any Tamil on terrorism charges without a shred of evidence.

When the PTA came into being in 1979, the LTTE was capable only of isolated acts of violence. Just four years later, by 1983, despite a severe internal schism, it was able to wipe out an entire army patrol.

A vignette from the deadly Four-Four Bravo operation indicates what the Lankan state and government lost by focusing on repression instead of on winning over ordinary Tamils. The operation was carried out by the crème de la crème of the LTTE, including Vellupillai Prabhakaran. As the group made their way to the selected spot in the Tinnaveli junction, their footfalls attracted the attention of some residents. “The more inquisitive ones peeped out of their windows or balconies. The LTTE had anticipated this. To pass for Sri Lankan troops, Chellakili and Victor barked out orders in Sinhalese. The perennial fear of men in uniform did the trick. The curious onlookers quickly retreated out of sight” (Inside an Elusive Mind – MR Narayan Swami). Had the government adopted an approach of isolating the militants by reaching out to ordinary Tamils, some alarm might have been given and the attack averted, saving countless lives, starting with the 13 soldiers who were to die that night.

Not taking that path would lead to Black July and quarter of a century of war.

Who lied to the President, and why?

Like the UNP in 1977, the NPP/JVP came into office promising to achieve national reconciliation. And, like the UNP, it is failing. The needless and unjust detention of Mohamad Rusdi and Mohamad Suhail under the PTA signals that the current government is headed to an abyss – this time totally of its own making.

In April 2025, President Dissanayake publicly defended the arrest of Mr Rusdi insisting there was ample evidence to justify his detention under the PTA. Later, the police were forced to admit the opposite – there was not an iota of evidence against Mr. Rusdi.

Did the President lie knowingly or was he duped? If he was duped (which seems the more likely possibility since he is yet to show any signs of racism) it would have been by someone he trusts. We do not know who lied to him, but he does. Knowing the identity of the liar, it should be possible for him to figure out the reason for the lie. Was it money (Israel is notorious for bribery) or innate anti-Muslim sentiments? Or, are these arrests false flag operations aimed at whipping up another round of anti-Muslim hysteria?

In August 1977, a generalised pogrom could have been avoided if some police official in Jaffna had not sent that false radio message to the IGP. Who authored it remains a mystery. The why is obvious. That radio message was a false flag operation aimed at setting the country on fire. It was done with malicious intent, and it was done by a supposed guardian of law.

Warned by history, President Dissanayake has a chance to uncover the official/officials responsible for the equation of anti-Israel with terrorism and the consequent abuse of the PTA and bring him/them to justice.

The PTA was born as an anti-Tamil law. Its concept of terror invoked the image of every Tamil, from the politician advocating a separate state to the old woman sweeping the street who knew nothing of a separate state. So, when the LTTE carried out the Four-Four Bravo operation, Sinhala mobs wreaked bloody vengeance on every Tamil they could get hold of.

In 2012, the Rajapaksas, in search of a threat to keep Sinhala-Buddhists cleaved to them, created the Muslim enemy. That image led to the anti-Muslims riots of Aluthgama and Digana, and from thence to the Easter Sunday massacre. The one thing it didn’t do was to make Nilantha Jayawardena, the then head of the SIS, the first top official to receive concrete information about the coming attack do anything to prevent it. By April 21^st, he was in possession of the names of several potential attackers: Mohamed Zaharan, Mohamed Milhan, and Mohamedu Rilwan. If he had moved to arrest even one of these men, the attack might have been prevented. And he could have done so easily, under the normal law or the PTA. Yet he didn’t. As the Supreme Court pointed out, “All this shows that there was so much information that was available before Nilantha Jayawardena…but it cannot be said that Nilantha Jayawardena acted with alacrity and promptitude.”

Had Mr. Jayawardena been a Muslim he would have been accused of helping the terrorists, perhaps even arrested under the PTA. But he is Sinhala and Buddhist, and therefore remains as free as a bird. No wonder the PTA failed miserably in doing what it was created to do – prevent terrorism. But it will survive the NPP/JVP government to be used in an even more surreal and deadly manner under a President Namal Rajapaksa.

The PTA is like the executive presidency, another Ring of Power its current wearer never wants to take off. Today, it is Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Precious. Someday it will be used against him. By the time he realises that, it will be too late, for him, and for ordinary Lankans who can become its victims for any reason or none.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara ✍️

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Features

Defend civic space upon which peace is built

Published

2 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

by Jehan Perera

International Peace Day was observed on 21 September. It finds Sri Lanka with a genuine achievement to record and a demanding test to meet. The UN’s theme this year was “Invest in Peace: For Everyone, Everywhere, Every Day.” It also honoured the “everyday architects of peace”—people driving local action and building a lasting peace from the ground up. In the 2026 Global Peace Index, Sri Lanka rose 30 places, from 97th to 67th among 163 countries. Over the same period, global peacefulness declined for the twelfth consecutive year to its lowest level since the index began, and South Asia suffered the sharpest regional deterioration. The test is whether the government will protect the civic space in which those architects of peace work.

Sri Lanka’s improvement is real and deserves acknowledgement. In this year’s review, issued a few weeks ago, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights acknowledged progress in the form of action against corruption, arrests and investigations linked to political killings, enforced disappearances and the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, and continued official denunciation of racism. A ranking, however, records conditions at a particular moment. It does not guarantee that they will last. Sustainable peace will depend on three factors. These are whether the government addresses the unresolved causes of conflict, whether it strengthens accountability for past and present abuses, and whether it protects the civic space in which peace is built from below. On the first two the record is incomplete. On the third, the draft NGO law threatens to weaken the very organisations that press for the other two.

What holds Sri Lanka back from a higher place are the same things that fed the war at home and also feed international conflict that rages elsewhere in the world. These are racism or ethnic nationalism that is narrow-focused, corruption and lawlessness. Equality, accountability and the rule of law are their remedies. The present government has committed itself to these, and is a significant improvement over governments of the recent past. But these pillars are not held up by governments alone. Peace is made in villages, workplaces and university campuses. It is made by families who insist on the truth about their disappeared, by journalists and lawyers who expose abuse, and by community organisations that bring Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese into practical cooperation.

Unfinished Work

The UN High Commissioner’s report to the current Human Rights Council session, covering October 2025 to July 2026, shows how much remains to be done. The Prevention of Terrorism Act is still being applied, producing arbitrary arrests and long detention without charge. The report calls for a moratorium pending repeal and for the release of long-term detainees. Military-occupied land has not been released, memorialisation lacks support, and tensions over land and religious sites persist. The Batticaloa district illustrates how such problems endure. In the past three years, two Presidents, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, have visited and instructed that the dispute over grazing land in Mailaththamadu and Mathavanai be resolved. It is a dispute between Tamil cattle farmers and outside Sinhala cultivators, and it has not been resolved. When two Presidents issue instructions and nothing changes, the fault lies in the machinery of State. An unresolved dispute does not stand still. It hardens into the next grievance.

Accountability shows the same pattern. The report documents torture and deaths in custody, and surveillance and intimidation of activists, journalists and civil society. Serious cases remain stalled for years, among them the killing of seventeen aid workers of Action Contre la Faim in Muttur two decades ago. Sharper still is the case of the Eastern University refugee camp at Vantharamoolai, where in 1990 the army took away 158 persons in a single day. They were never seen again. The camp’s officer-in-charge, Dr T. Jayasingam, later Vice Chancellor of the university, identified the officers responsible. More than three decades on, those officers have not been questioned. These cases are still remembered because families, survivors and independent witnesses have refused to let them be forgotten. Meanwhile several commissions of inquiry have completed their investigations but nothing further has happened.

What South Africa, Argentina and other post-conflict societies have found indispensable are four pillars of what is called “Transitional Justice” which are truth, accountability, reparations and non-recurrence. In Sri Lanka’s circumstances, truth means credible, independent investigation of what happened to the disappeared, and support for memorialisation. Accountability means prosecuting Muttur, Vantharamoolai and comparable cases, and removing credibly accused persons from senior office. Reparations mean compensation for victims and the return of military-held land. Non-recurrence means repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, releasing those held under it in the meantime, and resolving local disputes such as Mailaththamadu before delay hardens them. A country that buries its past does not escape it. The past returns in the next generation.

Civil Society

It is against this background that the draft NGO law is most troubling. The proposed legislation contains sweeping provisions for State oversight and control of civil society organisations. Among these are enforcing a licensing requirement on NGOs, which is to be renewed every three years, and severe penalties for not submitting reports on time, or for spending on emergency flood relief (for instance) when the NGOs mandate is peacebuilding (as an example) with possible sanctions including deregistration and having to shut down. Civil society groups have warned that it would confer excessive discretion over their registration and operations. Officials in Sri Lanka have abused such powers in the past. Additional power without effective checks invites further abuse. Sound regulation would have clear criteria for registration, an independent registrar and a right of appeal to the courts. What cannot be justified is a regime in which registration becomes a licence to be withheld from organisations that scrutinise policy, expose abuses or advocate for the rights of citizens.

Democracy is based on checks and balances. Those who press for accountability are part of those checks. The contradiction is plain. A government that has pledged accountability, equality and the rule of law ought not to be preparing to weaken the very organisations that press for their fulfilment. The organisations most exposed are those working on disappearances, land, memorialisation and reconciliation in the North and East, where the State’s record is weakest and the need for independent witnesses greatest. Silencing them would not remove the grievances they document. It would remove the channel through which those grievances are addressed peacefully. The government appears to be relenting, which is welcome, but a pause is not a withdrawal. The bill should be withdrawn and any replacement drafted in genuine consultation with those it would govern.

Investment in peace as called for by the UN in its International Peace Day theme implies commitment over time, with returns that come slowly. Sri Lanka’s 30-place rise on the Global Peace Index is a first dividend and nothing more. It can be built upon only if the government matches its commitments with action: withdrawing or fundamentally redrafting the NGO law, repealing or suspending the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and bringing Muttur, Vantharamoolai and Mailaththamadu to resolution. A higher place in a global index is not a certificate of success. Sri Lanka’s higher ranking is an encouraging start, but it will endure only if the space in which citizens speak, question and organise is protected. Peace is built from below, and a government that is serious about it will treat civil society as a partner rather than a threat.

Features

Africa is buying: Sri Lanka must start selling

Published

2 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

A call to Sri Lankan exporters and agencies: Can Sri Lanka compete with China and India in Africa?

By Kana V. Kananathan
Former Ambassador

Sri Lanka has spent decades concentrating its exports on traditional markets in Europe, North America and Asia. Yet across the Indian Ocean lies a rapidly expanding market that remains significantly underdeveloped by Sri Lankan exporters: Africa.

The opportunity is not theoretical. Sri Lanka already exports packaging, textiles, rubber products, pharmaceuticals, paper, machinery and electrical goods to African markets. The question is whether these modest beginnings can be transformed into a serious export strategy—and whether Sri Lanka can compete against the enormous commercial presence of China and India.

The answer is yes—but Sri Lanka must compete differently.

Kenya: Gateway to East Africa

Kenya should be the starting point.

Sri Lanka exported approximately US$32.08 million to Kenya in 2025, while importing US$11.41 million. But US$32 million is tiny compared with the opportunity: Kenya imported more than US$24 billion in 2025. Even a 1% share of that market would represent nearly US$240 million in annual exports.

And the commercial base already exists. Sri Lanka’s 2025 exports to Kenya included approximately US$9.99 million in paper and paperboard products, US$9.73 million in knitted fabrics, US$3.64 million in pharmaceuticals, US$1.24 million in rubber products and US$1.20 million in machinery.

Kenya’s import structure is equally revealing. In the third quarter of 2025, industrial supplies represented 34.4% of imports, machinery and capital equipment 19.2%, food and beverages 9.0%, and consumer goods 7.3%. The opportunity for Sri Lanka, therefore, extends well beyond consumer goods—we can become a supplier to African industry.

But competition is fierce. Asia supplied around 70% of Kenya’s imports in 2025, with imports from China rising 16.5% and those from India 11.3%.

Sri Lanka cannot challenge China and India across every product category. Nor should it try. We must target sectors where quality, specialisation, reliability, technical capability, smaller production runs and flexibility matter more than simply offering the lowest price.

Where Can Sri Lanka Compete?

Packaging is an obvious starting point. Cartons, boxes, bags and labels are already among Sri Lanka’s exports to Kenya. Importantly, some Sri Lankan companies operating in Kenya are themselves importing these products from Sri Lanka. The market already exists; the challenge is to scale it.

As Africa’s food-processing, pharmaceutical, apparel and consumer-goods industries expand, demand for sophisticated packaging will grow with them. Sri Lanka already possesses the manufacturing capability and industry experience to capture a larger share.

Industrial rubber products, tyres, gloves and specialised rubber components offer another opportunity where Sri Lanka has established manufacturing expertise.

The apparel supply chain is equally promising. Rather than competing directly with African garment factories, Sri Lanka can supply fabrics, elastics, labels, packaging and specialised textile inputs.

Some Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing and export companies already established in Kenya, Togo, Ghana and Ethiopia are importing several of these inputs from Sri Lanka. The supply chain, therefore, already exists. The next step is to move beyond supplying Sri Lankan-owned factories and become a competitive input supplier to the wider African apparel industry.

Other sectors deserving systematic market development include pharmaceuticals and medical consumables, processed foods, biscuits and confectionery, coconut products, cinnamon and spices, electrical products and cables, industrial chemicals, ceramics, light engineering, agricultural equipment and food-processing machinery.

Sri Lanka should also look beyond physical goods. IT, fintech, banking technology, engineering, healthcare, hospitality management and professional services largely escape the freight disadvantage confronting merchandise exports.

The Tariff Problem Can Become an Opportunity

Market access cannot be discussed without tariffs.The East African Community applies a Common External Tariff with bands of 0%, 10%, 25% and 35%, while certain sensitive products attract still higher protection. Simply filling containers in Colombo with finished consumer goods will therefore not always be commercially competitive.

But that obstacle points towards a bigger opportunity: manufacture in Africa.

Sri Lankan businesses could export intermediate materials while undertaking final assembly, manufacturing, processing or packaging in Kenya. Packaging companies could establish converting plants; electrical manufacturers could assemble locally; pharmaceutical companies could explore manufacturing or packaging partnerships; and food companies could undertake final processing closer to consumers.

Kenya would then become more than an export destination. It could become Sri Lanka’s manufacturing and distribution gateway into East and Central Africa.

With the East African Community now comprising eight partner states and extending geographically from the Indian Ocean towards the Atlantic, establishing a regional presence is increasingly more important than viewing each African country in isolation.

West Africa Cannot Be Ignored

Sri Lanka simultaneously needs a West African strategy.

Ghana offers potential as an English-speaking commercial gateway and host of the AfCFTA Secretariat. Nigeria, with its enormous population and consumer economy, should be approached as a major market in its own right, despite its greater regulatory, currency and operational complexity.

ECOWAS tariff bands of 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 35% again make product selection critical. Sri Lanka should concentrate on products with sufficient differentiation and margins to absorb freight, tariffs and distributor costs.

Pharmaceuticals demonstrate both the opportunity and the challenge. Nigeria imported approximately US$766 million in pharmaceuticals in 2025, with India supplying roughly US$394 million and China US$131 million. Ghana imported approximately US$301 million, with India supplying about US$140 million.

Sri Lanka cannot simply offer another generic product and expect to beat India on price. We must identify specialised products, reliable supply arrangements, partnerships and, where commercially justified, local production or packaging.

Stop Promoting Sectors—Identify Products

Sri Lanka now needs an Africa Export Opportunity Study based on individual products, not broad sectors.

The Export Development Board, Foreign Ministry, chambers and private sector should jointly identify 15–20 priority products. For each product, Sri Lanka should calculate the HS code, African annual import demand, principal suppliers, Chinese and Indian market shares, applicable duties, freight from Colombo, regulatory requirements, distributor margins and final landed price.

That will tell us where Sri Lanka genuinely has a competitive advantage.

The Commercial Test

Before spending resources promoting a product, apply one simple test:

African import demand + Sri Lankan production capability + tariff + freight + distributor margin + regulatory cost = final landed competitiveness against China, India and local African production.

Only products that pass this test should receive concentrated export-promotion resources.

This would move Sri Lanka away from exhibitions, delegations and general discussions towards what ultimately matters: specific products, specific buyers, specific distributors and actual export orders.

Give Our Missions Targets

Commercial diplomacy must become results-driven. The Government should set clear annual trade and investment targets for every Sri Lankan mission in Africa.

Missions should be evaluated not merely on diplomatic activity, but on buyers and distributors identified, business introductions made, investments facilitated, market barriers resolved and measurable exports generated.

In a competitive Africa, our missions must become active economic frontlines not merely diplomatic outposts.

A practical strategy could operate through three commercial gateways: Nairobi for East and Central Africa, Accra for selected West African markets and Lagos for Nigeria.

Sri Lanka’s total exports of goods and services reached approximately US$17.25 billion in 2025. Capturing even a small additional share of Africa’s enormous import market could, therefore, make a meaningful contribution to export earnings, investment and foreign-exchange generation.

Africa Will Not Wait

Sri Lankan exporters must stop looking at Africa as a distant or difficult market and start treating it as a strategic growth market.

We cannot compete with China and India on scale, but we can compete on quality, specialisation, flexibility and reliability. Exporters must identify country-specific opportunities, establish strong local distributors, build partnerships with African businesses and use Sri Lankan companies already operating on the continent as gateways into regional supply chains.

Where freight and tariffs weaken competitiveness, businesses must be prepared to move towards local assembly, joint ventures and manufacturing in Africa. Exporters cannot do it alone. They need aggressive, measurable and results-driven commercial diplomacy from Sri Lanka’s missions.

Africa is buying. Its markets are being captured now. Sri Lanka must stop watching from the sidelines. We must enter, compete, build our presence and secure our share.

(Ambassador Kana Kananathan is a businessman, Diplomat, lobbyist and an expert in African affairs, with over four decades of experience on the African continent. A long-time resident of Africa, he served as Sri Lanka’s envoy to Uganda and Kenya, with concurrent accreditation to 22 African Nations, and was the permanent representative to UN Habitat and UN environmental Programme. Over the years, he has been the Elections Monitor across the continent, working closely with African governments, and built enduring partnerships with African leaders. He also served as Economic and Investments Advisor to former President Professor Alpha Condé of the Republic of Guinea)

Features

Memories and Midnight Magic: Recipe for a perfect 31st Night dance

Published

2 hours ago

2026/09/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

The heart of a great 31st Night dance is memory, and memories come rushing back when those 70s, 80s and 90s golden oldies begin to play — those timeless tunes that make revellers, young and old, rush to the floor and dance the night away.

A perfect 31st Night is not just a party. It is a journey. A journey through time.

The music should flow like a love story. Start slow, start soft. Let couples glide into a waltz for romance. Let the floor come alive with a twist, a rock ‘n’ roll, a jive. Let nostalgia build with beautiful sing-along oldies generally associated with a New Year’s Eve dance.

This is the art that many of our entertainers seem to have forgotten.

The final hour, before midnight, is sacred. It should be collective energy at its peak. The entire crowd, on the dance floor, linking arms, swaying together, singing, at the top of their voices, those sing-along favourites.

Yes, I’m referring to those immortal, nostalgic favourites that unite the world: ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’ ‘Roll Out The Barrel,’ ‘Celebration,’ ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain,’ ‘Happy Days Are Here Again,’ and so many more.

One wonders if some of our modern entertainers have even heard of these nostalgia anthems that traditionally lead up to the dawning of the New Year! This is not just music; this is ritual.

Then comes THE moment: Lights dim. Music pauses. A hush falls. The countdown begins — 10, 9, 8… — hugs, wishes, tears of joy, and then … ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ Hands crossed, voices united, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new. That moment makes or breaks the night.

Here is the truth that many genuine 31st Night revellers feel but hesitate to say — an overdose of baila music at New Year’s Eve events is NOT welcome.

Of course, baila is required. Baila is our Sri Lankan heartbeat! But a 31st Night dance is for everyone.

When it’s ONLY baila, the twist and rock n’ roll lovers, the waltz kings and queens feel left out. And they are the very people who MADE nostalgia! They are the die-hard revellers who have kept the 31st Night spirit alive for decades.

A family mentioned to me that they went along with friends for a 31st Night dance, in the city, to usher in 2026, and were thoroughly disappointed with the setup.

The bands in attendance, they said, failed to generate the excitement generally associated with a 31st Night event.

If given a free hand, the music at certain Colombo venues will be mostly baila, and that is going to disappoint many. Some are already worried that it will be just a baila scene this year, as well.

A memorable 31st Night respects all rhythms … yes, a waltz for romance, a twist and rock n’ roll for that 60s magic, a cha-cha, a slow foxtrot, and then the baila, after the countdown anthem.

That balance is what makes it inclusive, classy, and truly fun-filled.

Organisers, especially in Colombo, should keep this in mind: let it be 70% nostalgia – Western, and 30% baila, with the last hour left for pure baila madness, after the New Year is in!

Organisers must work out the programme for their 31st Night and instruct the entertainers to follow those instructions. The band should not dictate the night; the spirit of nostalgia should.

This New Year, let’s give Colombo what it truly wants — memories, midnight magic, and music for every soul on the floor.

Let’s dance into 2027 with class.