Features

Barometer confirms window for political settlement

Published

7 months ago

2025/10/28

Once again, Sri Lanka is at a crossroads. After decades of missed opportunities and delayed reforms, the conditions are there for a lasting political resolution of the ethnic conflict. The NPP government has the chance to resolve the country’s longest and most divisive conflict through Sri Lankan institutions, on its own terms. The government holds a two-thirds majority in parliament that allows it to amend the constitution and introduce the reforms that past governments promised but failed to deliver. It came to power on the back of a popular demand for system change, and the public expectation that followed that election was not for minor adjustments but for a deep restructuring of the state. The opposition is neither strong nor dominated by the racist and extremist voices that in the past sabotaged every attempt at reconciliation.

The danger is that, as Shakespeare pointed out, time does not wait. Internationally, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has provided it space to resolve issues domestically. The latest resolution on Sri Lanka gives the country two more years to fulfil its commitments to accountability, truth-seeking, and reparations. The resolution explicitly acknowledges that national mechanisms can address these issues, de-emphasising the need for an international process. It is a kind of diplomatic reprieve that the world is willing to let Sri Lanka find its own way but also the right way. On the other hand, if nothing tangible happens within the next two years, the international mood could shift sharply. The next UNHRC resolution may be stronger and demand direct intervention or international mechanisms once again to deal with internal matters.

The recently released Sri Lanka Barometer 2025, a project sponsored by the European Union and the German government (www.srilankabarometer.lk), adds weight to the need for urgency. Conducted countrywide, it offers an empirically grounded picture of reconciliation in this time of political transition. Its findings show both danger and possibility. According to the survey findings, political trust is lowest in the Northern and Eastern provinces compared with the other seven provinces. It showed that political trust has risen nationally from 5.9 (2023) to 6.9 (2025), the highest since 2020. However, trust declined in both the Northern and Eastern provinces, falling to 6.5 and 6.2 respectively in 2025 down from 6.9 and 6.5 in 2023. Respondents in the north and east reported persistent feelings of marginalisation and unfulfilled justice. Many expressed the view that promises made by successive governments have not been translated into action, and that the lack of provincial council elections has left them without a political voice.

Positive Findings

On the positive side, the survey identifies a broad national openness to reconciliation amid change. The research finds that a majority of Sri Lankans across ethnic and religious lines believe reconciliation is possible if it is linked to visible improvements in governance, justice, and livelihoods. Equally significant is the expanding civic space for reconciliation under the present government. Local civil society organisations, community leaders, and youth groups are participating more actively in dialogue and advocacy than in previous years. The survey also showed that people are increasingly willing to join reconciliation-related activities when these are led by credible local actors rather than by partisan or external ones. Despite the decline in trust levels in the North and East, people in these two provinces reported the highest level of confidence in their own ability to engage politically, suggesting strong civic motivation and agency at community level. The national average was 6.7 (up from 6.1 in 2023) but in the Northern and Eastern provinces the score was 7.2. The report states “The highest levels of internal political efficacy in 2025 are recorded in the Northern and Eastern Provinces (with mean scores of 7.2), which may be linked to the higher-than-average active citizenship observed in these regions.” This demonstrates that a bottom-up approach can succeed if matched by political leadership from above.

The message from the Barometer is there is still space for reconciliation, but it is narrowing. The Barometer shows a national rise in trust and optimism, but a clear divergence in the North and East, where trust and responsiveness are eroding, although civic confidence and participation remain strong there. This suggests that the public in war-affected areas continues to believe in change but not yet in the state’s will or capacity to deliver it. The longer justice and devolution are delayed, the harder it becomes to sustain public trust. When grievances are left unaddressed, they are easily exploited by extremist actors on all sides. The voice of frustration and demand for justice comes not only from the north and east but also from ethnic and religious minority communities across the country. From Kattankudy to Katuwapitiya, from Valvettithurai to Digana where communities continue to seek truth and accountability. The continued delay in addressing these grievances deepens distrust in institutions and erodes faith in the rule of law.

The government, with its parliamentary majority and its popular mandate, is uniquely placed to reverse this trend. It needs to demonstrate commitment by restoring the democratic process at the provincial level, holding provincial council elections, and ensuring that transitional-justice commitments to missing persons are implemented in a way that people can see and feel. The time to deliver on commitments is now, not later. It would be pertinent to note that majorities and mandates can be fleeting as they were with the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. The government’s current strength will not last indefinitely. Political goodwill erodes quickly when people do not see results. If this moment is allowed to pass, it may not return any time soon.

Lost Opportunities

The history of modern Sri Lanka is one of lost opportunities to address the ethnic conflict that has dogged the country since its Independence. In 1977, President J. R. Jayewardene came to office with a five-sixths parliamentary majority and a manifesto that recognised Tamil grievances. He pledged a roundtable conference to address them but delayed too long. In 2015 the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government started strong, formed a constitutional assembly out of parliament, but then ran out of steam. The question, today, is not whether the present government has the power to act but whether it has the vision, commitment and courage to use it.

At the heart of Sri Lanka’s unresolved conflict lies the question of power-sharing. The 13th Amendment to the constitution, which introduced the provincial council system, remains the most viable basis for a political solution. It offers limited autonomy within a unitary framework, balancing the desire for self-administration in the North and East with the need to maintain the unity of the state. In a recent article, Dr Dayan Jayatilleka has argued that the provincial council system is not simply an Indian construct but an indigenous model that goes back to the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact of 1957 which sought to establish “Regional Councils” (with power to levy taxes). He has also summarised the reason why Sri Lanka needs devolution of power. He writes “We need provincial-level devolution because the reality of the island’s demographic composition and disposition is such that we must either have a level playing-field constitutionally, guaranteeing equality with no built-in privilege for any community (e.g., France, Singapore), or we must share power between the centre and the provinces which contain non-majority constituent communities in compact near-contiguity.” (https://www.ft.lk/columns/Electoral-reactivation-of-provincial-councils-is-an-urgent-systemic-imperative/4-783312)

Sri Lanka stands today at a rare intersection of political will, social expectation, and international opportunity. The people voted for system change. The government has both the power and the legitimacy to deliver. The UNHRC has extended a window for domestic action. Civil society is ready, as the Sri Lanka Barometer confirms, to participate in rebuilding trust. What remains is the political decision to move from intent to implementation. Holding Provincial Council elections, empowering local institutions, acknowledging the suffering of all communities, and demonstrating that justice is for all are steps that can make national reconciliation a reality. The time to act is now, not next year, and certainly not after another round of debates or delays that can drag on for years.

by Jehan Perera

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wasting wars: Some war-displaced people in Lebanon. BBC

It may be some time before the full impact of food inflation is felt in the West. Until such time the world would continue to keep itself in suspense over whether the Trump administration is in earnest when it seeks to convey the impression that it is backing a negotiated solution in West Asia.

As is usually the case, consumer stress would be one of the final determinants of political change. To the degree to which the average US consumer somehow ‘muddles through’ and puts the food on the table, to the same extent would the Republican sections of the US public in particular be tolerant of the Trump administration’s inconsistent handling of the West Asian war and the main issues stemming from it. That is, there would be no grave popular disaffection and a demand for political change in the short term.

However, the indications are that the Trump administration’s support base is suffering some erosion in the wake of the current economic crisis. While reports indicate that Democratic sections are firming-up their opposition to the political centre, Republican support for Trump is also showing signs of waning, we are given to understand.

The above developments are probably why Trump is on record as having given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘dressing down’ recently on his seeming intransigence on the question of giving negotiations a chance in West Asia. The show of displeasure could be really aimed by Trump at containing the impatience of the American public.

However, the current ground situation in the Middle East, particularly the uncontained bloodshed, is likely to impress on the thinking sections of the world that more than temporary political change is needed in West Asia and the US.

A well thought out political solution that addresses all the contentious issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict is what enlightened opinion would demand, and very rightly. Right now, the ‘peace efforts’ initiated by the Trump administration give the impression of being piecemeal solutions at best.

There have been, of course, numerous initiatives in the past aimed at bringing permanent peace to the Middle East. These failed mainly because they did not address in full the root causes of the conflict.

At bottom the Middle East conflict is mainly about race and religious hate bred by socio-economic and material inequalities. For instance, if the Palestinian people were not displaced and deprived of land occupied by them at the time of the founding of the Israeli state, ethnic enmities would not have grown to the current unmanageable proportions.

When addressing the above questions, though, it must be remembered that the Israelis too were a displaced people who were entitled to land and a state of their own in the Middle East. Basically, out of these seemingly irreconcilable and conflicting demands have grown the Middle East imbroglio.

Middle East peace is considerably about reconciling these demands and arriving at a solution that would ensure the creation of two states that would opt for peaceful co-existence thereafter.

As long as the US does not see the need for a non-partisan solution that addresses the needs of both ethnicities and religions and goes all-out, as it were, to have it implemented, the Middle East would continue to bleed.

However, staunching the blood flow through the creation of two states would be only half the job done, though a very important part of it. More pernicious, pervasive and difficult to remedy are the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatreds that have been unleashed over the decades.

However, if substantial, long-lasting peace is to be fostered in the region the latter ‘demons’ would need to be exorcised from the hearts and minds of the communities concerned. No doubt an uphill task but one that must be undertaken by those who wish the region well.

The UN would need to put its ‘best foot forward’ in such undertakings but it is time that it dawned on the international community and other caring quarters that Middle East peace, and all other such uphill challenges, require proactive peacemaking on the part of all civilized sections for their effective management. That is, public involvement in peacemaking too is a must.

Since hatreds are harboured in the human consciousness the enmities embedded in the latter need to be managed and defused judiciously alongside other undertakings in a peace process. In the case of West Asia, such enmities could be even spread globe-wide besides being multi-dimensional. For instance, it ought to be thought-provoking that Iran is insistent on a peace initiative that would also include Lebanon.

Besides security considerations it is also ethnic and religious affiliations that account for Iran making this demand. For instance, the Shias are a numerically important religious community in Lebanon and they provide a significant number of Hizbollah fighters, who are in a vital sense carrying out a ‘proxy war’ for Iran. It also needs to be factored in that Iran is a Shia-majority country.

Thus trans-border religious affiliations could add to the complexities and enormity of ethno-religious conflicts. However, the task of managing centuries-long enmities needs to be launched and prodded on with by peacemakers since a downing of arms alone would not guarantee substantive peace.

It is not realized sufficiently that the process of ending hatreds begins with mutual apologies by antagonists to a conflict for the harm inflicted on each other. This would be anathema in some ears but there is no getting away from the requirement. It is the vital first step to permanent peace anywhere.

In fact there could be no reconciliation worth speaking of without such mutual apologies. It is a point worth re-iterating in these times when even the government of Sri Lanka is voicing the need for national reconciliation. Well, without the words, ‘I am sorry’, there could be no permanent end to enmities – they would do well to remember.

The above requirements may not go down very well with governments, but they resonate in the hearts and minds of most people, since they are inheritors of religious traditions of some kind.

This is a principal reason why peacemaking works well when publics too are involved in them. The effectiveness of such campaigns increases several fold when they have a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jawaharlal Nehru at their helm. A strong proactive involvement by the public in peace could lead to the emergence of such leaders at some point in these campaigns.

Features

Dialog Brings Sri Lanka’s Largest Digital Vesak Experience to Matara

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

From left to right: Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, and Lasantha Theverapperuma experience the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered VR tours.

Official Digital Partner of the 2026 ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, collaborated with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to bring one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most technologically advanced Vesak experiences to the ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone. The three-day celebration, in Matara attracted more than hundred thousand visitors, who engaged with a series of innovative digital activities powered by Dialog 5G Ultra, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, digital pandols and a Data Dansala. The opening ceremony was attended by Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development and Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs, along with distinguished guests and Dialog’s senior management.

One of the key attractions at the venue was the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered Virtual Reality (VR) experience, which attracted more than 35,000 participants. The activation enabled devotees to virtually visit and pay homage to sacred Buddhist sites, including the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in India and the Atamasthana in Anuradhapura, directly from the Vesak zone in Matara.

Visitors receive complimentary mobile data through Dialog’s QR-powered Data Dansala.

Dialog also conducted an AI Digital Vesak Greeting Card Competition from 21 May to 01 June 2026, attracting numerous entries from across the country. The shortlisted designs were showcased across 20 large LED screens throughout the venue and across Matara City, and were also made available for download via mobile devices. Further, through the use of AI, traditional Jathaka Katha were reimagined in a digital format, demonstrating how technology can be used to preserve and enhance cultural and religious heritage. Together, these initiatives blended traditional Vesak celebrations with emerging technologies, offering visitors a unique and immersive way to engage with Vesak traditions.

Extending the spirit of Vesak through connectivity, Dialog conducted a special Data Dansala powered by its QR Reload platform, enabling visitors to receive complimentary mobile data by scanning QR codes placed across the venue. In addition to the Matara National Vesak Zone, similar Data Dansala activations were also conducted at the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones in Colombo.Visitors also had the opportunity to create personalised Vesak-themed digital photos through an AI Photo Booth, generating AI-enhanced portraits using their own photographs and adding a contemporary digital element to the Vesak celebrations.

Visitors watch AI-generated Jathaka Katha

Commenting on the initiative, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, said, “The 2026 Dakshina Prabha Vesak Festival marked the first time AI-powered digital innovations were incorporated into a National Vesak Festival in Sri Lanka. Presenting Buddhist stories and teachings through technology created a new and engaging way for visitors to connect with these traditions. We thank Dialog for supporting this initiative and for working closely with us to bring our vision to life. Their contribution played an important role in making this first-of-its-kind event a reality.”

Lasantha Theverapperuma, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Axiata PLC said, “We thank the Government of Sri Lanka for the opportunity to support the 2026 Dakshina Prabha National Vesak Festival and for embracing technology as part of this year’s celebrations. As the Official Digital Partner, we were privileged to contribute through our Dialog 5G Ultra and AI capabilities, creating new ways for visitors to engage with Vesak traditions while preserving their cultural significance for future generations.”

Beyond supporting the National Vesak Zone in Matara, Dialog also enhanced the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones through a range of digital activations during the Vesak season. The company additionally continued its sustainability initiatives, including the Thirasara Aloka Poojawa, which illuminated rural places of worship through solar-powered lighting solutions.

Features

Beauty, elegance and talent…for women

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Universal Woman is an international pageant focused on “beauty, elegance, and talent” for women, positioning itself as a platform to shape global ambassadors. The 2026 edition will be held in Cambodia, and Sri Lanka will be there, as well.

According to reports coming my way, contestants, at the international event, will work with industry trailblazers, under international standards.

Sri Lankan supermodel, runway and pageant trainer Chulpadmendra Kumarapathirana, is the National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026.

With over two decades in the industry, Chula was crowned Miss Sri Lanka 2006, and has since shaped the next generation of titleholders through her Colombo-based Chulpadmendra Catwalk Studio, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading modelling academies.

The team behind Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026

A former host of Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World 2008 and a judge for Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2025, Chula now serves as National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026, leading the franchise’s search for Sri Lanka’s delegate to the international final in Cambodia.

Applications for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 are being taken, via WhatsApp: 077 659 4994, says Chula.

The judging panel for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 includes Senaka De Silva, Pageant Aesthetic Advisor & Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Angela Seneviratne, Caroline Jurie, Rozelle Plunkett, and Suraj Mapa.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 officially began its journey with a first round of auditions, held in Colombo, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in Sri Lanka’s pageant industry.

Launching the first round of auditions

The platform aims to empower women while selecting an intelligent, confident, and inspiring representative to compete at the Universal Woman International Pageant 2026 in Cambodia, this September.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka now moves forward with the vision of creating one of the country’s most prestigious and empowering pageants while preparing to crown a queen who will proudly represent Sri Lanka on the international stage.