Midweek Review

A Bigger Picture: how the Humanities can widen our perspectives

Published

5 years ago

2021/12/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

A scene from the movie, ‘Perfume- The story of a murderer’

by Liyanage Amarakeerthi

(Lecture given at the 18th annual academic sessions of the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists

On 16 December 2021 at Grand Kandyan Hotel, Kandy)

In order to understand life as a whole, one needs to focus on the bigger picture of human affairs- perhaps of forces larger than humans. Our lives are increasingly determined by much larger forces that we might not even perceive in our everyday lives. Within our education system, we have developed numerous subject areas that help us uncover those behind- the scene-forces. As a scholar in the humanities, I have no knowledge in many of those subjects. Even within the humanities, I only have some expertise in literary studies. Since literary studies have always been a richly interdisciplinary field, I may be able to touch on some adjacent fields such as history, philosophy, sociology, and so on. My topic should ideally be ‘how liberal arts can widen our perspectives’ because liberal arts includes humanities, social sciences and some natural sciences, but I decided to stick to the humanities primarily for two reasons: I will be making my points mostly with literary examples, and the term, ‘humanities’ is the term often used in Sri Lanka.

Professor Joseph B. Cuseo and Aaron Thompson in Humanity, Diversity and Liberal Arts Education (2015) describe seven socio-spatial perspectives typically developed in liberal arts teaching: Perspective of family, perspective of community, perspective of society, national perspective, international perspective, global perspective, and perspective of the universe (cosmos).

It is extremely difficult to elaborate on all these perspectives with different examples in short speech. Therefore, I decide to focus on one novel. Its film version might be quite familiar to the psychiatrists and psychologists in the audience. I use the novel and the film in my teaching at University of Peradeniya but not necessarily the same way that I am going to use it today. The novel is Perfume, the the film has the same name.

It is the story of Grenouille, illegitimate son of a female fish seller in the 18th century France. Even when he is born, his mother is selling fish. The new born is left on a heap of fish guts, – perhaps most disgusting and unhealth environment for a child to be born in. His mother does not want to raise him, and she could not afford to. He is left alone to die there on the heap of fish waste so that garbage collectors will put away the dead child fish guts in the evening.

The author of the novel, Patrick Suskind, explains the situation in a beautifully-crafted paragraph:

Here, then, on the most putrid spot in the whole kingdom, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born on the 17th July, 1738. It was one of the hottest days of the year. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard, squeezing its putrefying vapour, a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn, out in to the nearby alleys. When the labour pains began, Grenouille’s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers, scaling whiting that she had just gutted. The fish, ostensibly, taken that very morning from the Seine, already stank so vilely that the smell masked the odour of corpses. Grenouille’s mother, however, perceived the odour neither of the fish nor of the corpses, for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled, besides which her belly hurt and the pain deadened all susceptibility to sensate impressions. She only wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible. It was her fifth (p.5)”

She expects the new born to die there in the heap of fish guts. In the evening, a carter would come and pick up the garbage and drop them on the grave yard or to the river. Then, all her responsibilities will be over. She is still in her twenties.

Dangers of limitless love

But her fifth child does not bring her good luck; Grenouille does not die there. The mother is taken into custody and is accused of killing her previous babies and of attempting to kill the new born. She is decapitated in public. Grenouille grows up in orphanages to become one of the gruesome serial killers in history. But he is not a killer. He becomes one of the most skilled perfumers; he has an acute sense of smell; in some beautiful virgins he finds magically captivating fragrance. He develops the arts and science of extracting that fragrance from those young women’s hair, pubic hair, skin, and so on. By the time he was done perfecting the most fragrant perfume in history, he had killed twenty-five young women. The perfume is so captivating that it can enable people to engaged in acts of limitless love. Limitless love is so dangerous that a group of people madly intoxicated by the smell of the magical perfume, kills Grenouille alive. He literally vanishes from the earth.

None of us has extreme lives of this kind: But the point of narrative art is to intensify human experience and get us to reflect on. Story of this young man is illustrative of many of the perspectives I want to speak of during this speech.

Family determines who we eventually become. Familial impact on us takes place at many levels. Perfume demonstrates that Grenouille’s search for this magical fragrant emanating from some beautiful women, is in a way his desire to regain the warmth of his own mother – a pleasurable warmth he never experienced. His desire for those young women is a sublimated form of hating them. As the fantastic perfume he creates is capable making people engaged in mythical acts of love turns into extreme form of violence, his love for those young women leads to the most gruesome murder of them. Unimaginably violent acts on those bodies such as peeling their skins, are performed in a clinically scientific detachment.

Perfume is a work of art not a scientific treatise on how family or the lack of it shapes one’s character. Thus, the novel does not claim that any illegitimate son, who is forced to grow up without his mother, will certainly end up being a serial killer. Works of art provide us with frameworks for further contemplation not exact mathematical formulas.

Let me move on to a ‘the perspective of the community.’ A catholic monk named Terrier arranges a wet nurse for the child. Grenouille spends a few months with this extremely religious wet nurse, who believes that the baby is possessed with the devil because he sucks her dry. Yes. The child drinks a lot of breast milk. With his insatiable thirst for breast milk, the wet nurse refuses to keep him at her house. She also believes that the child except for his excrement does not smell at all.

Within this community where Catholic and pagan beliefs shape people’s thinking, the child does not get to develop any motherly attachment to any women. The wet nurse brings the child back to father Terrier and leaves the baby with him. The priest thinks that when a mother breastfeeds a child regularly, the child develops a certain attachment to the mother’s body and gets used to the rhythm of the heartbeat of the mother. This child would never know a mother’s heartbeat. Thus, we can see Grenouille’s character is crucially shaped by his close community.

Then comes the perspective of the society, which invites us to perceive the question at hand within the framework of larger society. Let’s stick to the novel, Perfume. What was the kind of society in which Grenouille lived in? It was 18th century France, fifty years before the French revolution, and it was a country ruled by kings and their regional deputies. The dominant worldview was the religious one. Scientific thought and human reason were still to become the main source of wisdom. Thus, it is no accident that Grenouille’s last and the most precious victim was mythically beautiful Laure, the only daughter of a regional lord. In that sense, the young perfumer’s search for the perfect scent was an individualist attack on a social structure that made him a bastard and an orphan. After all, that is the very society that made his mother kill her babies because she was too poor to raise them. In addition, she was sexually exploited by men in the positions of power in the society. Still in her twenties, her beauty intact, she hoped to find a man to marry, perhaps, aged widower, and settle herself into a better life.

Thus, selling fish is a something temporary for her. But she keeps getting pregnant by men whose names are not revealed to us. Through them she picks up diseases like syphilis as well. What else a poor young woman, living in the most disgusting corner of the city, can do to her newborns other than to hope for their death? The author of the novel situates her character in a larger societal frame and invites us see the bigger picture of life. In teaching a novel like this, insights from history, political science, sociology can be brought in to enrich the discussion.

As Cuseo and Thompson (2015: 15) maintain,” human societies also consist of groups of people stratified into different social classes with unequal amounts of resources and material wealth; those groups occupying lower social strata have less economic resources and social privilege.”(Humanity, Diversity and the Liberal Arts). Grenouille’s birth and death occur in pre-revolution France where social stratification was so pronounced that, in there, many people of the lowest strata lived a subhuman life. It is not surprising that the French word “Grenouille” means ‘the frog.’

Though there are more to be said about the novel, let me leave it that by summarizing my argument so far: the extraordinary life of this young man, Grenouille, can be better understood when he is analyzed through different perspectives such as family, community, and society. In doing so, we not only understand the young man better we also get to look into larger contexts within which human life is shaped.

Other ways of seeing things

Let me now briefly touch on other perspectives the liberal arts education at its best attempts to develop in students. The national perspective is an angle of vision that helps us reflect on how the realities of nationhood, nation state, national boundaries influence our lives. We all are aware of certain realities, obligations, frustrations and so on exist for us just because of the nature of our nation state. We have to live with them by virtue of being citizens of our nation state.

This is the opening sentence of the novel, Perfume, “In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages.” We can immediately see that the writer wants to see the main character’s predicament in ‘France’ in the 18th century. This brings us to the international perspective.

One cannot understand France at the time without understanding how France was connected to a host of other countries even before the French Revolution. A central metaphor of the novel is perfume. Many of the ingredients used to make perfume came through in international naval routes in colonial ships. Phenomenal development of perfume industry in France cannot be understood without referring to colonialism and international trade relations that France had developed with other countries. In addition, some of the girls killed are from Italy. During those days, poor Italian peasants came to France as seasonal workers for harvesting. Moreover, the consumers of those extremely expensive perfume were not just French people. The aristocracy in neighboring countries, perhaps, even in far away countries bought French perfume. Thus, one cannot isolate gruesome murders of one unknown French man, whose name means frog after all, from France’s connections with other countries those days.

I must recall here that I am trying to briefly explain all the perspectives by using a single novel. Still, the novel can be used to explain what we mean by ‘global perspectives.’ It is a quite broader perspective than ‘international’ perspective because it takes into account nearly everything that might have contributed to making a phenomenon. Let’s return to the novel. Grenoulle’s life is connected with so many things other than human affairs such as trade and politics which were discussed earlier. “It extends beyond nations to embrace both human and nonhuman life inhabiting our planet and how these life forms interface with the earth’s natural resources (minerals, air, and water). Human’s share the earth with approximately 10 million animal species and more than 300,000 forms of vegetative life, all of whose needs must be met and balanced to ensure the health and sustainability of our planet” (Cuseo and Thompson, p. 18).

In this novel, the central character is presented as someone much closer to nature than culture. Hence, the name ‘frog.’ He is born on a heap of fish guts, and in that sense too, he is nearly an amphibian. Later in his life, he spends seven years like an animal in a forest cave separated from human civilization. This is how the author explains the Grenouille’s life in that forest. “He also ate dry lichen and grass-berries. Such a diet, although totally unacceptable by bourgeoises standards, did not disgust him in the least. ” During those, seven years of hibernation or the forest-life, he is portrayed as a part of the larger nature of the planet earth. He is an insignificant and a seemingly innocent part of nature itself. But this very man, after being discovered again by the representatives of human civilization and taken into to the city, begins his adventure of murdering twenty odd young women and perfecting the most fragrant perfume in the world- in fact a perfume that can generate the perfect love.

Let me quickly jump into the last perspective, cosmos. This is a wonderful novel in establishing the fact that man, even the central character, Paris, France or the earth, are not entities that stand in themselves. Here, we are not alone. We are part of larger universe; solar systems, milky ways and so on. No wonder that in the middle ages, astronomy was included in liberal arts. Not only that different entities in the universe are inherently connected to one another, we humans keep looking into what is out there. Just last month, scientists claimed that the moon’s top layer of soil contained oxygen that could sustain 8 billion human lives for more than one hundred thousand years.

Here in the novel, Perfume, the unknown, the unseen, the extra-terrestrial, the cosmic, is always present; and every key incident in the novel seems mysterious connected to something else, and to long chain of ‘something-elses’, some of which might extend as far as the heavens. If it is not the heavens, it is the nature, the Nature with a big N. Let me quote a couple of sentences where a certain character’s disappearance is described: “…The last was seen of him was his silhouette: hands lifted ecstatically to heaven and voice raised in song, he disappeared into the blizzard… [They did not find any trace of him] “no clothes, no body parts, no bones…”(Pp. 187-8).

In this speech, I wanted to show that in order to get at some understanding of Grenouille’s life to one has to enter his story from multiple perspectives. Among other things, liberal arts education aspires to cultivate skills in creatively using these perspectives in students. The life of the young man in the novel is an extreme case and the lives of many of us are not nearly as dramatic, tragic or gruesome. Yet, the intellectual training that we develop by trying to understand his life from multiple perspectives can carry over into our real lives. Even the most insignificant lives or phenomenon exists in complex networks of relations. My speech today hopefully contained some insights that could motivate the psychiatrists here in the audience to reflect on the need of situating their ‘subjects’ in a bigger picture. I hope with much that you will never have to treat a serial killer, any killer for that matter. But the seven perspectives I explained above might suggest that you are more than likely to meet some versions of Grenouille- human beings trying to perfect formulas for producing perfect love in an extremely imperfect world.

(Amarakeerthi is professor of Sinhala, University of Peradeniya)

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Midweek Review

Unexpected focus on ‘pieces of tin’ worn by military men

Published

5 hours ago

2026/07/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Maj. Lalith Jayasinghe with Kaushalya on his wedding day. Jayasinghe, receipient of Sri Lanka's highest military honour, has been credited with unprecedented raids behind the enemy lines. He died in late November, 2008, in the Vanni east.

Second Lieutenant S.U. Aladeniya, the first recipient of the Parama Weera Vibhushanaya, died fighting the LTTE in the second week of July, 1990. The young commanding officer of the isolated Kokavil Army detachment refused an opportunity to leave his wounded colleagues. Instead, he chose to set an extraordinary example. The fate of the Kokavil detachment, as well as the unprecedented military debacle that forced the Army to vacate the Kandy–Jaffna A9 road, north of Vavuniya, in 1990, happened due to the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s folly. Premadasa trusted the LTTE to such an extent, he ordered several hundred police officers, in the East, to surrender to appease the LTTE. The rest is history.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris recently questioned in court as to why retired Air Force officer Shantha Jayathilake appeared in court wearing armed forces medals.

The highly decorated war hero Flight Lieutenant Jayathilake represented himself under Section 260 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the trial of Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay, the alleged mastermind of the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

During his submission, Dileepa Pieris looked at the medals worn by the retired officer and said: “He comes wearing pieces of tin.”

When Jayathilake objected to the ASG’s remark, Magistrate Pasan Amarasena warned the ex-officer not to interrupt proceedings. Then Peiris said that he couldn’t see Jayathilake’s medals properly. Jayathilake is the recipient of Weewa Wickrema Vibhushanaya (WWV), the second highest gallantry medal awarded to Sri Lankan military. The PWV is the highest gallantry decoration that can be received by a living military man. Jayathilake who joined the Air Force in 1989 at the height of the JVP-led insurgency, retired in 1999, and was also the recipient of the Rana Sura Padakkama (RSP).

Senior President’s Counsel Maithree Gunaratne, who represented Sallay in court, said: “The problem is not with your eyes, but with the red-tinted glasses you are wearing. You wore blue-tinted glasses for a while, and now you wear red-tinted glasses, so the gallantry medals, earned with blood, sweat, and tears for the country, look like pieces of tin to you”

Gunaratne requested that Pieris’s comments on the ex-officer be formally recorded in court records. This happened in the Fort Magistrate’s court on 2 July, 2026. The court proceedings caused controversy with various interested parties expressing differing views on Jayathilake wearing medals to a courtroom.

Some found fault with him for wearing medals while others strongly backed him. The issue at hand received social media attention. Obviously some sought political advantage at the expense of the government and the Attorney General’s Department. Others lambasted the former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Chief Sallay (2029-2024) for causing unnecessary developments. However, the gallantry medals worn by military, both officers and men, cannot be ridiculed by anyone, regardless of his/her position in the society. Gallantry medals remind the country of immense and untold sacrifices made by the military, during the war, and any attempt to dilute them should be strongly opposed.

Those who silently backed or publicly take action against war-winning Army Chief General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka, in 2010, after his defeat at the 2010 January presidential election, shouldn’t see the incident at the Fort Magistrate court as an opportunity.

Although Sri Lanka has been deeply divided over investigations into the conduct of armed forces during the war and after, no issue caused controversy like the arrest of Sallay, a post-war head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) over the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. Sallay served as the Director of State Intelligence Service (SIS) from 2019 to 2024 before President Anura Kumara Dissanayake replaced him. Perhaps President Gotabaya Rajapaksa shouldn’t have brought Sallay as Director, SIS, contrary to the practice of SIS always being headed by a senior police officer or he was quite right in bringing in a serving military officer with a proven intelligence track record, knowing the shameful behaviour of responsible top police officers in the run up to the Easter Sunday suicide attacks, despite there having been adequate advance intelligence warnings to prevent them.

The intervention made by the retired Air Force officer triggered an unexpected reaction from the Attorney General’s top representative and the subsequent continuing controversy influenced The Island to discuss the awarding of gallantry medals, namely Parama Weera Vibhushanaya (PWV), the highest, followed by Weera Wickrema Vibhushanaya (WWV), Rana Wickrema Padakkama (RWP) and Rana Sura Padakkama (RSP). The fourth medal, Weeradhara Vibhushanaya, is awarded for bravery, regardless of the risks to one’s own life, but for voluntary interventions outside the battlefield.

Bravery of an exceptional kind

During the war, Sri Lanka awarded 32 PVWs posthumously. The Army, Navy and Air Force shared 29, 2 and 1, respectively. The PVW is awarded to all ranks of armed forces, both regular and volunteer, for individual acts of bravery in the face of enemy, disregarding the risks to one’s own life. Of the 32 recipients of the PVW, the extraordinary case of Maj. J.A.L. Jayasinghe (Lalith Jayasinghe), posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, captured unprecedented public attention.

On many occasions, PWVs were awarded posthumously for sacrifices made in defensive action, while the armed forces were responding to enemy action. However, Lalith had initiated action deep within the enemy-held territory and his efforts reflected the overall military strategy.

The 29 recipients consisted of 27 Army: Second Lieutenant S.U Aladeniya, Lance Corporal (LC) Y.G.G. Kularatne (Hasalaka Gamini), Second Lt. K.W.T. Nishshanka, Staff Sgt. H.P.B. Gunasekera, LC W.I.M. Seneviratne, Lt. Col. A.F Lafir, Capt. G.S. Jayanath, Maj. J.A.L. Jayasinghe, Maj. K.A. Gamage, Capt. U.G.A.S. Samaranayake, H.G.M.K.I. Megawarna, Sgt H.G.S. Bandara, Corporal P.N. Suranga, Corporal P.M.N. Pushpakumara, Corporal D.N\M.S. Chandrasiri Bandara, LC K. Chandana, Private R.M.D.M. Ratnayake, LC A.M.M.P. Abeysinghe, recruit A.M.B.H.G. Abeyratne Banda, private T.G.R. Dayananda, Lt. P.N. Punsiri, Second Lt W.D. Jayathilake, Sgt. K.G.N.L.R. Perera, Corporal K.P.D.T. Gunasekera, LC H.A. Nilantha Kumara, LC S.V.A.M. Pushpamal. Navy: Lt. J.L.D.S. Wijetunga, Petty Officer K.G. Shantha and Air Force: Squadron Leader T.D.S. Silvapulle.

Although Jayasinghe paid the supreme sacrifice, while serving the Special Forces, he had been a proud member of the Gemunu Watch (GW). GW veteran Maj. Gen. K.B. Egodawele in his Hewayekuge Mathaka Satahan (Memories of a soldier), first launched in 2012, declared that Jayasinghe had been among four GW personnel, namely Captain U.G.A.S. Samaranayake, Captain H.P.M.K. Meghawardena and Corporal D.M.A.M. Pushpakumara to receive the PWV, posthumously.

All of them received the highest gallantry award for actions on the Vanni east region during Eelam War IV (2006 August to 2009 May).

Jayasinghe’s wife Kaushalya accepted the PVW on 19 May, 2012, at the annual Victory Day parade. Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne read the awardee’s official citation. Kaushalya had been five months pregnant at the time Jayasinghe mounted a raid deep inside the LTTE-held territory in the Vanni east region. Gunaratne, the wartime General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the 53 Division declared that Jayasinghe had been in command of an LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol)/Deep Penetration Unit tasked to eliminate LTTE leaders. That unit had moved about 40 kms into the enemy held territory in Oddusuddan and was positioned alongside the Mankulam-Oddusuddan road to kill LTTE leaders, on 26 November, 2008.

Suddenly, Jayasinghe had fallen sick but joined other members of the LLRP to fight the enemy after fierce fighting erupted between the two sides. In spite of having an opportunity to retreat, Jayasinghe, hero of many previous battles, suffered grievous injuries during the battle and succumbed to his injuries.

Jayasinghe had been an extraordinary soldier and was the recipient of the second highest gallantry medal, WWV, on three or four occasions. In one such occasion, Jayasinghe had received two WWVs at one ceremony and recalled retired Maj. Gen. Dhammi Hewage, who received the RSP at the same event. Hewage spoke admirably about what he called high risk and extraordinary LRRP operations undertaken by Jayasinghe over a period of time. Let me give you an opportunity to know more about Hewage whose no holds barred examination of the Army during the war received public attention ( https://island.lk/a-special-forces-officers-narrative/)

Those who risked their lives to earn battlefield recognition played a significant role in transforming the armed forces, particularly the Army. Gallantry medals had been earned by armed forces officers and men in various circumstances but the deadly LRRP strikes, deep within the LTTE held territory, made quite a difference in the overall direction of the war. Those who operated in enemy territory in a way functioned as suicide cadres/units as the probability of them being intercepted by the LTTE was very high. But, regardless of severe risks, they ventured out of government-held areas to infiltrate deep inside enemy held territory to carry out operations. The LRRP team, led by Jayasinghe, is a case in point.

Clandestine operations received public attention in the run-up to the 2001 December parliamentary election when UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe all of a sudden alleged that the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) was planning to assassinate him. Within weeks after the UNP victory at the parliamentary election, the UNP unleashed the police on the DMI. The police raided the DMI safe house at Millennium City, Athurugiriya. In spite of Army Chief, the late Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle, personally assuring the UNP that there was absolutely no basis for such claims, Wickremesinghe was not prepared to change his political strategy. He gave Minister John Amaratunga in charge of police the go ahead for planned action.

The January 2, 2002, raid led to the arrest of Captain Mohamed Nilam, Staff Sgt. P. Ananda Udulagama, Staff Sergeant I. Edirisinghe Jayamanne, Corporal H.M. Nissanka Herath, Lance Corporal H. Mohamed Hilmy and an LTTE operative identified as Niyaz/Subashkaran. Others involved in that particular operation had been living in the East and were called into join operations, depending on the requirement. On the instructions of Lt. Gen. Balagalle, those tasked with carrying out attacks on selected targets received the opportunity to train under Special Forces instructors from Maduru Oya. They underwent training at the Panaluwa Test Firing Range, where firing special weapons was a key element in the training schedule.

In a bid to ensure secrecy, those operatives mostly operated on their own, and had their own arsenal, which included a range of weapons, including claymore mines. In fact, those involved in such operations functioned on a need-to-know basis. Even senior DMI officials, as well as the Army top brass, except a few, hadn’t been aware of what was going on. Even the then powerful Deputy Defence Minister, the late Anuruddha Ratwatte, hadn’t been told of the Millennium City safe-house, though he knew of the ongoing hits behind enemy lines.

Shortly after the exposure of the DMI operation, Balagalle met Premier Wickremesinghe to explain the secret operations undertaken against the LTTE. The Army chief had been accompanied by officials, including Hendarawithana, while one-time Attorney General Tilak Marapana, National List MP holding the Defence portfolio, and Minister Milinda Moragoda, too, were present.

“Except for Minister Moragoda, the others obviously didn’t realise what we were doing. They acted as if we were conspiring to do away with the political leadership so as to undermine the Norwegian initiative,” a source familiar with the dynamics of the project said. “We quickly realised we were up against a government, which simply wanted to negotiate a deal with the LTTE at any cost. The LTTE and the Norwegians exploited the situation to the hilt.”

Success in the East

Hitting the enemy in the area under its control had been Balagalle’s idea. The DMI hadn’t been successful in its first and the second attempts to take two specific targets. The targeted area had been Batticaloa south and the first and the second operations were mounted on 18 July 2001 and 12 September 2001. But both actions went awry and the targeted men identified as Jim Kelly (commander of Jeyanthan regiment) and Jeevan escaped death.

But, they succeeded on 17 September 2001. Operatives carried out a successful attack on ‘Major’ Mano Master, who was at that time in charge of the communications network in the Ampara-Batticaloa area.

But immediately after the UNP’s victory, the government terminated all such operations. The treacherous government betrayed those who risked their lives for the country. Ex-LTTEers and others who worked for the Army were exposed and the LTTE hunted them down. Scores of men were killed. Some were tortured and killed.

Apart from Mano Master, the secret raids claimed the lives of Batticaloa District Intelligence Head Lt. Col Nizam and Capt. Thevathasan.

Among those killed in the north were LTTE Air Wing Head Col. Shankar (Vaithilingam Sornalingam) and Sea Tiger Deputy Commander Lt. Col Kangai Amaran.

S.P. Thamilselvan, his Deputy Major S. Thangan, Vavuniya Special Commander Col. Jeyam and Deputy Military Chief Col. Balraj were believed to have been targeted in the North but escaped. In the East, among those who escaped targeted killings, were Col. Karuna, Karikalan, Jim Kelly and Intelligence Chief Lt. Col. Ramanan.

In spite of the LTTEers, particularly its leaders on a heightened state of alert, the Army ambushed Karikalan’s vehicle on 18 October, 2001. The destruction of the vehicle fuelled speculation of Karikalan’s demise, with a section of the media reporting him killed in a special operation. Shortly before the attack on Karikalan’s vehicle, the Army intercepted a radio conversation between Karikalan and his wife, a medical doctor by profession, serving in the Northern Province. “She simply begged him to leave Batticaloa and take refuge in the North to avoid the Army’s deep penetration operations,” a source familiar with LRRP operations told the writer many years ago.

The Army struck again on 26 November, 2001. ‘Major’ Swarnaseelan and ‘Captain’ Devadas were eliminated in the Pulipanjikkal area. It was the last operation before the December 5 General Election.

The UNP terminated the operation. But, the Army revived the strategy after the eruption of hostilities in 2005.

It would be pertinent to mention that hit and run attacks, deep within the LTTE held territory, troubled them to such an extent, they took up the issue with Norway. Fearing a relentless campaign, the LTTE got Norway to include LRRP operations in their negotiations, leading to a one-sided Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed in February 2002 by the Wickremesinghe regime. That CFA revealed the existence of a secret Army project to target the LTTE in their own area. The CFA called for termination of LRRP operations.

Three PVWs

Lieutenant J.L.D.S. Wijetunga was the first Navy recipient of the Parama Weera Vibhushanaya (PWV), Sri Lanka’s highest gallantry award given posthumously. Wijetunga, Commanding Officer of the Israeli built Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC), maneuvered his vessel to intercept an explosives-laden Sea Tiger suicide boat approaching a troop transport ship off Point Pedro on 30 March, 1996. Wijetunga, in spite of knowing his action was suicidal, went ahead with the risky maneuver that saved the lives of a large contingent of off duty servicemen on their way to Trincomalee from Kankesanthurai (KKS).

The Navy earned its second PWV on 1 November, 2008, off Point Pedro, during the Eelam war IV. A Petty Officer of elite Special Boat Squadron K.G. Shantha rammed an explosives-laden Sea Tiger suicide craft with his Arrow boat (Z-142 ). Shantha and his three SBS colleagues were blasted to smithereens, though their action saved an Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) carrying a dozen SBS personnel.

Wing Commander T.D.S. Silvapulle received the nation’s highest gallantry award PWV for attacking Sea Tiger boats firing at Army defences south-east of Elephant Pass on 19 December, 1999. Silvapulle, flying a Mi 24 helicopter gunship in adverse weather conditions, regardless of the threat posed by surface-to-air missiles, engaged the enemy craft. Silvapulle compelled the enemy to flee but was hit during the confrontation. His individual act of gallantry was recognized in 2012, four years after the eradication of the LTTE. The then President Mahinda Rajapaksa conferred the PWV at a ceremony held on 19 May, 2012. Maj. Lalith Jayasinghe received his PWV at the same ceremony.

The betrayal of the armed forces in October, 2015, at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, by the treacherous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime, underscored the mentality of those who wielded political power. The calling of gallantry medals ‘pieces of tin’ reminded the country of the pathetic and disgraceful state of affairs.

Midweek Review

Poor, little upper-middle income country

Published

5 hours ago

2026/07/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

“Sri Lanka has been ranked among the least happy countries in the latest World Happiness Report 2026…standing alongside Ethiopia”- The Sunday Island March 2026

Sri Lanka was officially declared an Upper-Middle Income country by the World Bank in July 2026, regaining the classification it had in 2019.

On the 30th of June, the IMF delegation meeting the President at the Presidential Secretariat praised the government: “…IMF praised the government’s economic programme and noted that Sri Lanka has made greater progress than many other countries implementing IMF-supported programmes. The delegation commended the government for maintaining macroeconomic stability despite a series of external shocks and for remaining firmly committed to its reform agenda…” (Presidential Media Division, 30 June 2026)

Meanwhile, a UN-backed World Happiness Report 2026 compiled by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, ranked Sri Lanka 134th out of 147 nations. A daily newspaper which ran the story on the 19th of March 2026, added that the report showed that “Sri Lanka has slipped one place from its 133rd ranking in 2025, now standing alongside Ethiopia. The country also trails behind its South Asian neighbours, with India ranked 116th, Pakistan and Bangladesh positioned significantly higher.”

Good News, Bad News

The Upper-Middle Income classification was declared by the World Bank during the Yahapalana government in July 2019. 6 months later, the Yahapalana government was swept out at elections.

Only 2 years later, in April 2022, the country was declared bankrupt, and by July that year the newly elected President was toppled by a people’s uprising for the first time in the country’s history.

To fill the vacuum, an unlikely combination of an unelected MP from the Opposition who was made President by the Parliament and an unpopular government that had barely survived the uprising, governed the country together. It was massively defeated by the people only 2 years later in 2024, despite ‘stabilising’ the economy.

An Upper-Middle Income status may give the impression of a prosperous people, but prosperous people are not an unhappy people. The World Bank report 2026 (World Bank, Sri Lanka Development Update) notes the anomaly: “the recovery is unfinished and has not translated into widespread improvements in welfare.”

The report adds:

* Real output remains below 2018 levels.

* Although poverty is projected to decline in 2025, it remains double the 2019 levels.

* Vulnerability remains high with an additional 10 percent of the population living just above the poverty line.

* Malnutrition continues to be elevated.

* The labour market recovery is slow with real wages and labor force participation well below 2019 levels.

The World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Brief (October 2025) sheds further light:

* Poverty is projected at 22.3-22.4 percent in 2025 and around 20 percent until 2027 without stronger inclusive growth.

* Real earnings remain below pre-crisis levels.

So, are Top of the Class in the IMF index and almost Bottom of the Class in the Happiness Index related?

As a friend who is a highly-placed economist explained to me, if people are poorer, undernourished, indebted, and insecure after stabilisation, then reserves, inflation, and primary balances alone cannot be relied on to judge the next IMF programme. Sri Lanka needs a national programme whose success metric is household recovery, jobs, nutrition, and productive capacity.

From the praise heaped on the President and this government’s strong leadership by the IMF for their performance thus far, sticking closely to the IMF conditionalities, we can only infer that things for the unhappy citizens will hardly get better as they negotiate the 18th IMF programme.

The AKD administration doesn’t haggle on behalf of the people. They see the rewards of that approach in fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic stability. This however, is not the only kind of stability they have to bear in mind, given recent history.

By the People, But Not for the People?

The new or renewed (from July 2019) ‘Upper-Middle Income’ classification has served to remind people where the government has failed, been weak, as much as where it has been strong and succeeded. The economy in the abstract is better off, but the majority of the people who gave the government a two thirds majority, are much worse off in material reality.

To return to my top economist friend, she explained that Sri Lanka should not reject fiscal discipline, but it must own the design of fiscal adjustment. The country needs a fairer tax mix, better tax administration, public investment discipline, and protection of health, education, nutrition, and climate-resilient infrastructure. Otherwise, fiscal discipline becomes socially brittle and growth-reducing.

The direction she recommended is hardly where the government is heading. The World Bank warns that the on-going reliance on regressive indirect taxes could worsen the poverty outlook, while the primary expenditure ceiling of 13 percent of GDP can constrain public investment and service delivery.

A leading financial daily (6 July) reported that at the CA Sri Lanka’s 5th Annual Economic and Tax Symposium, both the Government’s tax policies and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) “came under sustained criticism from leading private sector tax professionals”. Gajma & Co. Senior Partner N.R. Gajendran argued that “…higher revenues had come largely from imposing a heavier burden on existing taxpayers rather than widening the tax base.”

He said that “When taxes become excessive and unbearable, and it is not coming from the widening of the base, it is coming from the same taxpayer, it erodes expenditure capabilities, it erodes saving capabilities, and it erodes investment capabilities,” warning that “sustained over-taxation ultimately weakens consumption, investment, and long-term economic growth.”

Sri Lanka has already lost a large number of skilled professionals who migrated in droves in the last two years. Factum reports (April 2026) that the annual departures for foreign employment have hovered above the 310,000 mark. This includes Healthcare Professionals (Doctors, nurses), Academics and Researchers (including 80-90% of State University graduates), Technologists and Engineers.

Will the Lawyers be next? The Island editorial of 6 July 2026 strongly supports the stand that the BASL has taken, (endorsed by the Colombo Law Society, Colombo High Court Lawyers Association, LAWASIA and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association) opposing the government’s effort to move a constitutional amendment to extend the retirement age of judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, denouncing political interference in the judiciary and urging the government to avoid a Zimbabwean crisis.

None of this makes for a happy citizen, stability notwithstanding.

By the People, for the Creditors

So, what of all those promises made with such passion to do better than all previous governments since Independence in 1948?

The World Food Programme has this to report:

* Households unable to meet essential food needs increased from 14 percent in 2024 to 20 percent in 2026.

* If price trends continue, another 1.3 million people could be unable to afford essential food needs, including nearly 300,000 urban poor.

* Child nutrition remains worrying: stunting 10.1 percent, wasting 8.6 percent, and underweight 16.1 percent. (WFP, Food Security Under Pressure)

Economists warn that a programme that ‘stabilises’ the economy while households sell assets, cut food, reduce education and health spending, and slide into coping strategies, i.e., de-stabilises the household economy and lives, will not be socially, politically or developmentally sustainable.

Those who care for the people recommend that Sri Lanka’s own programme must place adaptive social protection, nutrition, and livelihoods at the very centre.

The promised re-negotiation of the 17th IMF package to make the necessary economic recovery less taxing (pun intended) for the people, less painful, and more sustainable overall, never happened. The government acted as if it was elected by the People for the Creditors.

We have been warned that Sri Lanka’s shift toward commercial borrowing and ISBs changed the debt-risk profile, with ISBs carrying high interest rates and short maturities. The government’s promised negotiations didn’t resemble anything like what was expected by the people, and went the way of the ISB holders who celebrated the victory in Canary Wharf toasting our President in absentia.

IMF Country Report No 26/111 indicates that even after restructuring, debt sustainability risks remain high. Public debt is projected at around 100.1 percent of GDP in 2026, with central government gross financing needs at 19.8 percent of GDP.

Economists remind us that Sri Lanka’s recent graduation to the Upper Middle-Income classification means that we will have to pay more in debt repayments as per the macro-linked bond of the debt restructuring settlement with the creditors.

IMF 18, going on 19?

Who’d have thought it? In the last 77 years, the most pro-people, pro-poor administration has certainly not been the AKD government. There were much better ones, even during the 30 year war, when policies were more enlightened and served the people; were undertaken with confidence and determination, and some still continue to provide the foreign exchange to pay for subsequent errors of judgment. And with the courage of their convictions and confidence in their capacity to deliver, those leaders didn’t feel the need to postpone any elections.

Stabilisation was an immediate necessity. But my economist friend spoke for us all when she told me “Sri Lanka cannot stabilise its way to prosperity. It should not risk turning emergency discipline into a permanent development model”.

With the current state of play, is that what we are looking at? There is little evidence that this administration has the capacity to design an independent programme, not subject to the whims and fancies of IFIs, but as my friend put it, “our own programme: fiscally responsible, socially protective, production-oriented, climate-resilient, and politically owned. The IMF can support that programme, but it cannot be the programme.”

An unhappy people is surely as much of an indicator of the real health of the economy, as the Gross National Income per capita calculated in US dollars by the World Bank. A Sunday newspaper quoted a young economist, Rehana Thowfeek, co-founder/director at Arutha Research, who says: “There is no point in celebrating becoming an upper-middle-income country while 1 in 4 of our people is in poverty, two out of every 5 Sri Lankans cannot afford a healthy diet and 1 out of 3 of our children under 5 years is malnourished.”

This is not a situation that should be allowed to prevail by an allegedly pro-people government, or indeed any government that has been granted the privilege to govern, through the people’s vote. The planning, the policy choices are all in the hands of the government. Will they choose a better path?

People are not unhappy because they are too mean to acknowledge what a wonderful job this government is doing, and give praise to this administration like the IMF at the Presidential Secretariat. It is because they are in pain, they are suffering, they are hungry, they cannot pay the bills, and they are looking at a future where none of these things are going away, but is set to get much worse, as the government slouches towards its next IMF programme and the next debt repayment.