Midweek Review

A triumph that can never be forgotten

Published

7 months ago

2025/10/8

Army flags displayed at Ruwanweli Seya on 26 September. The inaugural ceremony was held on 26 September at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, Anuradhapura, under the patronage of Lieutenant General Lasantha Rodrigo, Commander of the Army.

The Army’s transformation from largely a ceremonial role to a fighting force cannot be examined without taking into consideration the ongoing controversy over the alleged involvement of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. Every effort should be made to ascertain the truth and punish those responsible in case the then Brigadier Suresh Sally, who had not been with DMI at the time of the near simultaneous suicide attacks, and stationed in our mission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, engineered the project to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory at the presidential election as asserted by their enemies. Sally, who later served as the head of State Intelligence Service during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as the President has successfully disputed the primary allegation that he secretly left Malaysia to meet the Easter Sunday suicide squad at a coconut estate in the Puttalam district. Sally’s case is just another example the Army failed as an institution to address issues thereby leaving individual officers to fight their own battles. The recent harassment of retired Maj. Gen. Kithsiri Ekanayake by the Beliatta Police on the false charge of killing a woman to secure a buried treasure in the deep South is another example of utterly unfair and irresponsible action by our law enforcement.

The country’s rightfully proud Army celebrates its 76th anniversary in October this year with some of its illustrious officers placed under a cloud with regard to their conduct during the war by those who cannot stomach their dream victory over the LTTE, achieved despite various attempts made by powerful Western nations to deny us that worthy triumph over the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation, even acknowledged by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation. Successive governments, including the war-winning Mahinda Rajapaksa administration, failed to address accountability issues properly, especially in the face of even powerful international bodies, like the UNHCR, blindly towing the Western line to hound us, thereby creating an environment conducive for those seeking to target military and political leaders.

The war-winning Army never really pushed governments to take up the accountability issues seriously though the matter had been taken up occasionally. The military’s situation is summed up by Tennyson’s epic poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” in the lines, “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die”. Annual celebrations and religious events hadn’t been able to cover up the pathetic failure on the part of the Army to set the record straight.

No one has explained the crisis experienced by the Army better than Gajaba Regiment veteran Chagie Gallage. Having retired on 31 August, 2018, Gallage, in his farewell speech, delivered a week later at Gajaba home, at Saliyapura, Anuradhapura, highlighted his predicament as well as those of his colleagues.

Speaking on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Gajaba Regiment, the strategist declared: “Gajaba was engraved in golden letters of the annals of the history of the Sri Lanka Army, if not in the history of Sri Lanka … and I’m certain it will never to be reversed by any. So, I’m happy to be retired being a tiny particle of that proud chapter of history, though designated as a ‘War Criminal.”

Among those who had been present at that occasion was the then Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva set to become the Commander in the following year. Shavendra Silva, also of the celebrated Gajaba Regiment, was sanctioned two years later after he succeeded Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanaayke. The UK sanctioned him in April this year.

Gallage was responding to Australia denying him visa for a visit between December 2016 and January 2017. Australia found fault with Gallage for commanding the 59 Division from 07 May, 2009 to 20 July, 2009. Throughout the war against the LTTE, in both the Northern and Eastern theatres, Gallage played a critical and exceptional role, including at the Anandapura battle in the first week of April 2009 that crippled the LTTE’s conventional fighting capacity.

The combined armed forces brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009. But for want of a cohesive strategy, the Army, Navy and Air Force never took a joint stand. Unprecedented political upheaval caused by war-winning Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka challenging Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential election wrong footed the armed forces. That, too, undermined the overall defence against war crimes accusations. The now-defunct The Sunday Leader exploited Fonseka in an interview. Having accused Fonseka of killing The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, the paper quoted the Sinha Regiment veteran as having said the 58 Division carried out field executions. By then, the Rajapaksas had exacerbated the situation by dismissing 35 senior officers as alleged by Fonseka at a public meeting in Matara on 05 October. The Rajapaksas owed the country an apology for the way they arrested Fonseka on the night of 08 February, 2010, by soldiers who stormed his political office at 1/3 Rajakeeya Mawatha (formerly Reid Avenue) near Royal College, in Colombo 7. On the eve of the Army’s 76th anniversary, the best ever Army commander launched a scathing attack on the Rajapaksas, alleging the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa of treachery. (See Fonseka’s Matara speech on page 1 of this edition).

SLA targeted

Against the backdrop of the pathetic handling of accountability issues, the UN and countries individually took action. No less a person than Ali Sabry, PC, in his capacity as the Foreign Minister in September 2022, explained the situation when the writer raised the issue at a media briefing, called by the Foreign Ministry to explain the developments with the focus on staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with regard to USD 2.9 bn loan facility and the Geneva sessions.

Sabry declared that the entire fighting divisions, which fought on the Vanni front during Eelam War IV (2006-2009), had been ‘blacklisted’ on the basis of obviously predetermined findings made by the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The failure on the part of Parliament to address accountability is a mystery. However, Parliament, over the years, enacted laws which addressed the concerns of the UN and Western powers with regard to accountability issues. But, never took any meaningful measures to have the unsubstantiated war crimes allegations investigated. Instead, Parliament, in early February 2023, honoured Ban Ki-moon who, in his capacity as the Secretary General of the United Nations, set the stage for the planned attack on Sri Lanka by producing a hatchet report that found fault with the Army by his handpicked panel of experts with no chance given to either the Army or the country to reply.

In spite of wild allegations levelled against our victorious armed forces, as the war was brought to a successful conclusion, the UN had faith in the capabilities of our battle-tested military by continuing to deploy Sri Lankan troops, under its command, in several countries. That is an achievement the country can be proud of. Even during the height of war, the Army remained committed to UN deployments.

It would be pertinent to mention those who commanded the Army, after Fonseka’s retirement (December 6, 2006 to July 15, 2009). Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya (July 15, 2009, to July 31, 2013, Lt. Gen. Daya Ratnayake (August 1, 2013, to February 21, 2015), Lt. Gen. C de Silva (February 22, 2015, to June 26, 2017), Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake (June 27, 2017, to August 18, 2019), Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva (August 19, 2019, to May 31, 2022), Lt. Gen. Vikum Liyanage (June 1, 2022, to December 30, 2024) and the incumbent is Lt. Gen. Lasantha Rodrigo. Of those who commanded fighting Divisions on the northern front, during Eelam War IV, only Shavendra Silva received the opportunity to command the proud Army. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa replaced him with another Gajaba officer Vikum Liyanage soon after 09 May counter violence triggered by the senseless Temple Trees directive to SLPP goons to break up the Galle Face protest. When Galle Face protesters overran the Janadhipathi Mandiraya, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee Colombo, by sea, to Trincomalee, Liyanage had been in command of the Army.

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who picked Fonseka, in consultation with the TNA and the JVP, as the common candidate at the 2010 presidential election, betrayed his own war-winning Army, five years later, when his government treacherously co-sponsored the accountability resolution at the Geneva Human Rights Council. The US Embassy, during Patricia Butenis tenure, played a critical role in the formation of that alliance. The then President Maithripala Sirisena cannot, under any circumstances, absolve himself of culpability for allowing that to happen. President Sirisena assured the Army that he would take remedial measures. But he did nothing. In fact, the US refused to issue a visa to Fonseka who was to accompany Sirisena for the UN General Assembly.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo set the stage for the humiliation of the armed forces. First they cancelled the annual victory day celebrations. There had never been a previous instance of a government here, or in any part of the world, co-sponsoring an accountability resolution against its own Army. The UN led process has reached a crucial stage with the National People’s Power (NPP) government going ahead with plans to establish an independent prosecutor’s office. Among those involved in deliberations in this regard are Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe (Jnr), PC and President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Rajeev Amarasuriya.

Glorious victories

The Army spearheaded combined armed forces campaigns against the JVP insurrection in 1971 and during its second most violent attempt to grab power between1987-1990, and separatist Tamil terrorism. In spite of the JVP receiving some backing from a few soldiers, the Marxist party could never inspire the military. The Army played a significant role in overcoming the JVP challenge during the tenures of President J. R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa. The systematic elimination of the JVP leadership brought the second terror campaign to an end by early 1990. The JVP couldn’t sustain operations after the execution of Rohana Wijeweera within 24 hours after his capture by the Army in the second week of November, 1989. Of the top JVP leadership, only Somawansa Amarasinghe managed to escape those hunting for him. Amarasinghe returned home in late 2001 following 12 years of self-imposed exile. On his return, Amarasinghe profusely thanked India, particularly its intelligence services, for helping him escape.

The Army suffered debacles on the northern front due to Premadasa’s reckless political strategies. Debilitating setbacks suffered in the North caused deterioration of security in the East. President Premadasa had been so foolish that he went to the extent of ordering the Army to surrender. If not for the intrepid leadership of Lt. Col Hiran Halangoda, the then Commanding Officer of the first battalion of Gemunu Watch, the East, too, would have been lost. Premadasa actually funded the LTTE to the tune of Rs 125 mn, in addition to providing arms and ammunition. Even after the LTTE murdered several hundred police personnel, who had surrendered to it on the instructions of the President, the funding continued.

Retired Army Commander Daya Ratnayake in his memoirs ‘Sri Lankawe Bedumwadi Thrasthawadaya 1975-2009’ (Separatist Terrorism in Sri Lanka 1975 to 2009) recalled the treacherous actions of the UNP government. What the Army did, at the behest of Premadasa who simply bent backwards to appease the LTTE, was unthinkable.

The then Major Ratnayake had been at the Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH), Colombo, when fighting erupted in the East, in the second week of June, 1990. The author had been the duty officer at the JOH. Ratnayake is, perhaps, one of the few military personnel to observe the then State Defence Minister, late Ranjan Wijeratne, Defence Secretary the late General Cyril Ranatunga, and then IGP, the late Ernest Perera, issuing orders from JOH for the armed forces, and police, to surrender to the LTTE.

Ratnayake named Lt. Colonel Hiran Halangode as the one who refused to heed the treacherous directive issued by the JOH. Sri Lanka never bothered to examine the conduct of political and military leadership during the conflict. Even 17 years after the conclusion of the war, no government took tangible measures to conduct a thorough examination of the conflict.

The political and military leadership should be held responsible for the overall weakening of the armed forces that resulted in the loss of a stretch of road, north of Vavuniya, right up to Elephant Pass, in 1990. That road couldn’t be totally regained in spite of several efforts, including the costly Jayasikurui operation conducted during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure as the President.

Finally, the Army regained that stretch of road in January 2009. That marked the completion of ground operations on the western part of the Vanni as the Army stepped up the offensive on the area east of Kandy-Jaffna A-9 road. Some of the fiercest battles of the Eelam War IV were fought in the Vanni east. Army Headquarters records reveal that as many as 2,400 officers and men perished in the Vanni east theatre where the LTTE mounted several counter attacks and at one point breached the frontline defences in February 2009 and managed to unsettle the Army. But, the Army fought valiantly to turn around the situation. By March 2009, the Army was set for the kill. During the campaign (August 2006 to May 2009) nearly 6,300 made the supreme sacrifice while about 30,000 suffered injuries.

A desperate bid to save LTTE

A few weeks before that, Norway made a desperate bid to save the LTTE. That attempt had been made while the US was exploring the possibility of evacuating the LTTE leadership. The then Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem, in a note dated 16 February, 2009, sent to Basil Rajapaksa, expressed concern over the fate of those trapped on the Vanni east front. Hattrem’s note to Basil Rajapaksa revealed Norway’s serious concern over the LTTE’s refusal to release the civilians. Those who stupidly believed in the LTTE’s capacity to overwhelm the Army on the Vanni east front, were quite shocked when troops forced them to retreat on all fronts.

The following is the Norwegian note, headlined ‘Offer/Proposal to the LTTE’, and personally signed by Ambassador Hattrem:” I refer to our telephone conversation today. The proposal to the LTTE on how to release the civilian population, now trapped in the LTTE controlled area, has been transmitted to the LTTE through several channels. So far, there has been, regrettably, no response from the LTTE and it doesn’t seem to be likely that the LTTE will agree with this in the near future.”

The ICRC recognised the sacrifices made by the Army. But successive governments, as well as the Army Headquarters, lacked prudence to exploit the ICRC’s declaration.

Let me reproduce a secret US cable that was disclosed by WikiLeaks. The cable had been signed by US Ambassador to Geneva, Clint Williamson, on 15 July, 2009. Having met Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia on 09 July, 2009, two months after the end of the war, the Ambassador wrote: “The Army was determined not to let the LTTE escape from its shrinking territory, even though this meant the civilians being kept hostage by the LTTE were at increasing risk. So, de Maio said, while one could safely say that there were ‘serious, widespread violations of IHL,’ by the Sri Lankan forces, it did not amount to genocide. He could cite examples of where the Army had stopped shelling when ICRC informed them it was killing civilians. In fact, the Army actually could have won the military battle faster with higher civilian casualties, yet chosen a slower approach which led to a greater number of Sri Lankan military deaths (emphasis is mine) He concluded, however, by asserting that the GSL failed to recognise its obligation to protect civilians, despite the approach leading to higher military casualties. From his standpoint, a soldier at war should be more likely to die than a civilian.”

Perhaps, Army Headquarters never realised the importance of ICRC’s declaration. Maybe no one in command really wanted to take it up with the political leadership.

A former colleague of mine, now overseas, in response to a recent article, under the Midweek series, pointed out how President Mahinda Rajapaksa contributed to the developing Geneva situation by not implementing Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations. He emphasised that it wouldn’t be fair to always allege external conspiracies and interventions, the TNA and Tamil Diaspora for pushing for war crimes investigations, when the President himself failed in his responsibility. The writer fully appreciates that opinion. The former President owed the country an explanation as his failure obviously made things difficult for the war-winning Army.

Sri Lanka never wanted to set the record straight. Successive governments played politics with the issue. In fact, war crimes narratives collapsed on the day the TNA declared its support for General Fonseka’s candidature at the 2010 presidential election and the Tamil electorate overwhelmingly voted for him. Fonseka won all predominantly Tamil-speaking electoral districts in the Northern and Eastern provinces though the rest of the country overwhelmingly rejected him. Fonseka lost by a staggering 1.8 mn votes. That defeat actually ended opportunities for him to advance his political career though once UNP leader Wickremesinghe, for reasons best known to him, accommodated Fonseka in his Yahapalana Cabinet-of-Ministers (2015-2019). That happened because M.K.D.S. Gunawardena, appointed to Parliament, passed away suddenly.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

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Midweek Review

Squeaky clean image of JVP in tatters

Published

3 days ago

2026/04/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

During the recent debate on the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody, Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) Batticaloa District lawmaker, Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam, warned that the next NCM would be moved against Fisheries Minister Ramalingham Chandrasekaran. Rasamanickam accused the National List member of corruption, a charge vehemently denied by the NPPer. The NPP/JVP needs to initiate an internal inquiry before corruption allegations overwhelm the party that received the full advantage of Aragalaya to transform the outfit from just a three-member parliamentary group, in 2024, to a staggering 159, a year later. The UNP and SLFP led alliances were dealt harshly by the electorates for want of action to curb corruption. Today, the UNP and SLFP are not represented in Parliament, while the SLPP, that secured 145 seats at the 2020 general election, was reduced to just three with its parliamentary group leader Namal Rajapaksa entering Parliament through the National List. Rajapaksa junior obviously feared to face the Hambantota electorate at the last general election. That is the undeniable truth.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The ongoing controversy over Agriculture, Lands, Irrigation and Livestock Minister K.D. Lal Kantha’s three-storeyed luxury house has intensified pressure on the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) government struggling to cope-up with the devastating coal scam, blamed on Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody forcing him to resign.

Jayakody, one of those who financed the NPP/JVP campaign in the run-up to the 2024 national polls ,resigned on 17 April, along with Prof. Udayanga Hemapala, Secretary to the Energy Ministry. Their resignations happened eight months after the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), a breakaway faction of the JVP, revealed the alleged coal scam. The Lal Kantha affair received significant public attention though the primary issue at hand is the massive coal scam that ripped through the government.

Jayakody will continue as a National List member of the ruling party. The NPP/JVP won an unprecedented 159 seats, including 18 National List slots at the November 2024 parliamentary elections.

The Opposition dismissed government claims that the resignations were meant to facilitate the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the procurement of coal, since the commissioning of the country’s only coal-fired power plant during the onset of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term. In the wake of the much delayed resignations, NPP/JVP heavyweight Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, addressing the media at the Information Department, pathetically vouched for Jayakody’s integrity.

Let us discuss the accusations directed at Lal Kantha who had served the SLFP-led Cabinet for a short period, years ago, in terms of an agreement between the SLFP and the JVP. Lal Kantha had never been accused of corruption and was, in fact, one of those lawmakers who raised the issue both in and outside Parliament. Political parties may have forgotten that the UNP got rid of Lacille de Silva, Director General of Administration, Parliament, during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s premiership, in the 2001-2003 period, alleging he passed on information to Lal Kantha to attack the government.

The NPP Executive Committee member, as well as JVP politburo and Central Committee heavyweight, has publicly defended his right to own a luxury house amidst a section of the social media pushing for police investigation into the lawmaker’s wealth.

Unlike the owner/owners of the mysterious Malwana mansion, built on a 16-acre land overlooking the Kelani river, Lal Kantha didn’t try to disclaim the house ownership at Jusse Road, Welivita, in the Kaduwela area. The Malwana house was built towards the end of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as the President. The hullabaloo over the ownership of the Malwana mansion, and construction costs, dominated the 2015 presidential election campaign. On the basis of the Malwana mansion, the UNP and the JVP built a strong case against the Rajapaksas, accusing the family of corruption.

It would be of pivotal importance that the JVP backed Maithripala Sirisena’s 2015 presidential polls candidature. The campaign was built on an anti-corruption platform that earned the appreciation of the public who disregarded the unprecedented development work successfully carried out by the Rajapaksas, while also fighting a war to defeat the most ruthless terrorist organisation that was out to break up the country.

During a US-India backed violent protest campaign, in March-July 2022, an organised gang set the stately Malwana mansion ablaze. The general consensus was that the Malwana mansion belonged to Basil Rajapakasa, though he vehemently denied having anything to do with it.

Yahapalana Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, is on record as having declared that the Malwana mansion would be renovated and used to accommodate a state institution. Lal Kantha’s newly acquired wealth has to be examined and discussed, taking into consideration his long standing claim that as a fulltime member of the JVP he entirely depended on his wife’s monthly salary and help provided by friends and associates. If that was the case, Lal Kantha couldn’t have ended up among the richest group of politicians, within less than two years after the last presidential election, held in September 2024.

Lal Kantha couldn’t have been unaware of the possibility of the Opposition, particularly the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), attacking him and the NPP/JVP over his Kaduwela house. Responding to critics, the Anuradhapura District lawmaker has claimed, on YouTube, that he sold a property he owned in Anuradhapura and used that money to acquire the Jusse Road land.

The outspoken Minister is also on record as having said that the existence of his new house, to which he moved in late 2024, was disclosed by him. However, incisive Youtuber Dharma Sri Kariyawasam has claimed that he made the revelation on 01 October, 2025, while another You-Tuber, Abeetha Edirisinghe, rammed up pressure on the NPP by lodging a complaint with the police, via the special number 1818. Edirisinghe’s SL Leaders YouTube posted a video of him lodging the complaint.

What made the complaint really interesting was Edirisinghe’s declaration based on ‘Dark Room’ YouTube allegations that wealthy businessman Nissanka Senadhipathi, who had been one of the closest associates of the Rajapaksas, provided the wherewithal required to acquire land, build and then furnish the Jusse Road mansion. Defending his position, Lal Kantha claimed that he acquired a piano for his daughter, about 15 years ago, while declaring he enjoyed the capacity to raise large sums of funds if necessary. A smiling Lal Kantha explained how he could effortlessly collect Rs 500,000 each from 100 associates/friends. Programmes posted by Dharma Sri Kariyawasam and Abeetha Edirisinghe are must-watch for those genuinely interested in knowing the explosive story, from different angles.

Close on the heels of debates on Lal Kantha’s mansion, the media reported the Minister’s last available asset declaration, sent to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), dealt with over Rs 80 mn worth of property, vehicles and gold, etc. The JVP heavyweight’s annual income has stunned even the staunchest supporters of the ruling party. Lal Kantha, through his lawyer, demanded Rs 10 bn in damages from ‘Hiru’ for wrongly estimating his properties, etc., at Rs 460 mn.

Both Dharma Sri Kariyawasam and Abeetha Edirisinghe propagated that police wanted the public to complain to special the number 1818, created to accept such complaints in case they felt suspicious about newly acquired property, regardless of who owned them.

Unexpected disclosure of Lal Kantha’s unprecedented wealth obviously stunned the public who genuinely believed in the unshakable NPP/JVP stand on corruption. Lal Kantha, who had joined the JVP in 1982, before becoming a full time member, in 1987, had no qualms in defending his new lifestyle, having repeatedly and bitterly complained about the difficulties experienced by him and his family.

In his defence, Lal Kantha emphasised that he hadn’t been accused of robbing the taxpayer or public sector corruption. However, the NPP/JVP all-out attack on all previous governments, over waste, corruption, irregularities and mismanagement, and branding all their MPs corrupt, cannot adopt such a stance. The Kaduwela mansion has sent shockwaves through the electorate. Dharma Sri Kariyawasam, in his response to Lal Kantha, repeatedly stressed that his wealth was being questioned by those who exercised their franchise in support of the NPP/JVP at the national elections and Local Government polls, in 2025.

Growing public resentment over what various interested parties, including the NPP/JVP called ill-gotten wealth of members and henchmen of previous governments fuelled Aragalaya (31 March-14 July 2022). Those who set houses and other property, belonging to various then government politicians and their associates ablaze, operated on the presumption that they were beneficiaries of ill-gotten wealth. The NPP/JVP powered the campaign, alongside the breakaway JVP faction, styled as Peratugami Pakshaya (Frontline Socialist Party) as well as the UNP.

Ranwala and others

Against the backdrop of Auditor General Samudrika Jayarathne’s devastating report on coal procurement for the 2025/2026 period and Lal Kantha’s declaration that he owned a three-storeyed house, the resignation of Asoka Ranwala, as the Speaker of Parliament, over his failure to prove his declared academic qualifications seemed uncalled for. Jayarathne signed that report on behalf of the National Audit Office (NAO).

The Gampaha District MP resigned on 13 December, 2024, just 22 days after being appointed the Speaker. The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) relentlessly attacked Ranwala over his fabricated or unverified educational qualifications, specifically a Ph.D. from a Japanese university and a degree from the University of Moratuwa.

The NPP/JVP tried to defend Ranwala but quickly succumbed to SJB pressure. We never managed to establish whether Ranwala resigned on his own accord or the NPP/JVP asked him to resign to save the party. Similarly, the resignations of Energy Minister Jayakody and Prof. Hemapala, who cut a sorry figure before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) recently, must have been demanded by the ruling party. Had the NPP bosses acted prudently, much earlier, after he was indicted before the Colombo High Court on a previous corruption case, they could have easily asked Jayakody to resign his ministerial portfolio before the Parliament debated the no-confidence motion against him.

Another case that really embarrassed the ruling party was accusations directed at Dr. Jagath Wickremeratne, who succeeded Ranwala as House Speaker. The Polonnaruwa District MP was the next to face fire, following a dispute with the Deputy Secretary General of Parliament Chaminda Kularatne who is also the Chief of Staff of the House. Kularatne hit back hard after Parliament sacked him over alleged irregularities. In a petition, dated 2 February, 2026, sent to CIABOC, Kularatne disclosed the circumstances the Speaker reacted angrily after he brought to the NPPer’s notice illegal actions and corruption, as well as his (Kularatne) recommendation in his capacity as the Right to Information (RTI) officer, to release certain information sought by civil society activists. Kularatne further claimed that the situation deteriorated further over an incident that happened on 18 June, 2025, or a date closer to that date, in the room where Speaker Wickremeratne had his lunch. Kularatne refrained from revealing the incident.

There hadn’t been a previous instance of a senior parliamentary official moving the CIABOC against the Speaker. The allegations directed at the Speaker, in respect of abuse of vehicles, taking two fuel allowances, misuse of equipment belonging to the Media Unit of Parliament, inadequate payment for lunch obtained for Chameera Gallage, Speaker’s private secretary, who had lunch with him, illegal payments made to retired Ministry Additional Secretary S.K. Liyanage, who was appointed to inquire into Kularatne’s conduct, suppression of release of information in terms of RTI, and uncalled for interventions in administration.

Kularatne’s complaint to the CIABOC failed to result in an expeditious inquiry, though a complaint lodged against a sacked parliamentary official appeared to have received much more attention. The NPP has responded cautiously to Kularatne vs Wickremeratne battle as pressure mounted on the ruling party over the coal scam that threatened to cause further increase in already unbearable electricity tariffs. The Auditor General’s report, in no uncertain terms, has implicated the Energy Ministry and Lanka Coal Company in the sordid operation that resulted in low-grade coal ending up at the Lakvijaya coal-fired power plant that earlier met about 30 to 40% percent of the country’s power requirements at essentially low cost, barring hydroelectricity.

The report declared that the term tender for the supply of coal was awarded to Trident Champhar, an Indian company that hadn’t been registered at the time it bid for Sri Lanka’s largest tender and procedures in respect of loading and unloading the cargo. To make matters worse, Minister Jayakody, who had been implicated in the coal scam, was recently indicted on corruption charges in the High Court of Colombo. There hadn’t been a previous instance of a sitting member of the Cabinet being indicted for corruption. Therefore, the NPP government cannot be happy over its steamroller majority in Parliament having defeated the no-confidence motion moved against Jayakody who remained confident in the parliamentary group’s support at the behest of the top party leadership.

The NPP/JVP finds itself in an extremely embarrassing and pitiful situation over the coal scam. The damning report issued by the Auditor General pertaining to the coal scam has to be examined taking into consideration the failure on the part of the government and the Constitutional Council to reach a consensus on filling the vacant Auditor General’s post in 2025. The post of Auditor General remained vacant from early April 2025 to early February 2026.

Role of NAO

The NAO functions as an independent body answerable to Parliament. The recent NAO report that dealt with coal procurement exposed the utterly corrupt system in place, regardless of assurances given by the government. The report proved that irregularities can be perpetrated and corrupt practices continued, regardless of assurances given by the current dispensation.

Over the past several years, tangible measures were taken to strengthen the NAO. Parliament certified the National Audit (Amendment) Act, No. 19 of 2025 on 22 September, 2025. That act introduced reforms meant to enhance public sector accountability, enforce audit findings, and streamline the surcharge process. The no nonsense report proved that in spite of interference and undue influence exerted on the NAO, those responsible did their job without fear or favour.

SJB lawmaker Mujibur Rahman, during the debate on the no-confidence motion against Minister Jayakody, alleged in Parliament that COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) Chairman Dr. Nishantha Samaraweera directly intervened when the NAO was in the process of finalising the report. The former UNPer called for an investigation to establish whether the Galle District NPP MP visited the NAO on several days to meet those handling the investigation.

We are not aware whether the COPE Chief, who called for the NAO to inquire into allegations in respect of coal procurement, visited the NAO.

However, the NAO report on the coal scam, now available online for all to study, underscores the pivotal importance of the anti-corruption fight.

In September 2025, the SJB asked the CIABOC to probe how some NPP/JVP Ministers amassed so much property. The SJB raised the issue with the focus on Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe (like Lal Kantha, he, too, represents the Anuradhapura District) amassed Rs 275 mn. The SJB’s complaint to CIABOC sought investigations on Ministers Sunil Handunetti, Bimal Rathnayake, Dr. Nalinda Jayathissa and Kumara Jayakody, and Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala.

Lal Kantha, who has now acknowledged having as much as Rs 80 mn worth property, was not among the lawmakers targeted by the SJB. Having falsely propagated an anti-corruption campaign to deceive the public, the NPP/JVP stand literally exposed before the public. The coal scam and Lal Kantha fiasco have caused irreparable damage to such an extent, their anti-corruption campaigns may not carry any weight with the public at future elections.

Midweek Review

Some languages confine you; some languages free you

Published

3 days ago

2026/04/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

‘… where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; ….

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward….into ever-widening thought and action…’

With wide apologies, I am going to put snatches of that poem into more dreary uses, though not quite desert sand.

What are those narrow domestic walls which break up the world into fragments? Languages.

Amiya reads the Gitanjali but does not read the Tirukkural. Hong Li reads Kong Fut Ze’s Analects but not Plato’s Republic. Paul reads Miton’s Paradise Lost but not Njal Saga. Sarath Kumara reads Wickremasinghe’s satva santatitya but not Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Ngidi does not read Thomas Picketty’s Capital in the 20th Century or Anthony Atkinson’s Inequality at all. Hirono uses Large Language Models to do homework but Rasolomanana has not seen a computer. And so on and so forth. The world is broken into fragments by languages, but not by languages alone. The daughter of a rich black man living in Howard County in Maryland goes to Stanford but a brown dweller in Dharavi cannot enter Jawaharlal Nehru University. The lesson is that it is not only languages or orthodoxies that break up the world into ‘fragments’ but also many other barriers, about one of which Tagore sang.

Language is a marvellous ‘invention’ of nature well cultivated by humans. No other species has the faculty to use language to know. Ludwig Wittgenstein expressed it epigrammatically, ‘whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’ It is language that carries forth knowledge. It is not only language that carries forth knowledge: mathematics, in its own right, is a powerful carrier of knowledge. One can write something simple like if x-y=0, then x=y, as well as whole pages of complex and complicated arguments using mathematical notations. Mathematics may and often does write nature and about nature; it also writes about things that exist only in the mind. That is not different from languages: heaven and Vishnu exist in some minds but not in others or elsewhere. Galileo Galilei learnt ‘Nature is an open book but it is written in mathematics’. Much of nature is a closed book to those to whom mathematics is alien territory. But today, I am interested in how some languages ‘break the world into fragments by domestic walls’, while a few others fly about regardless. When a team from India played cricket with a team from Pakistan a few weeks back, the commentary was broadcast in India in 14 languages and in Nigeria national news is read in several languages. That same game of cricket also was broadcast to the rest of the world in one language: English.

When and how do some languages come to ‘lead the mind forward into ever widening thought and action’? The transformation occurs when users of one language become conquerors and rulers of peoples using other languages and when the users of a language become generators of new knowledge which are eagerly sought after by users of other languages. Greek, Latin and Arabic contributed mightily to the vocabulary of modern Western European languages. When new ideas in law, government, philosophy, medicine and science had to be expressed, they went to Greek, Latin or Arabic. Consequently, you will bump into Greek terms the moment you begin thinking about those disciplines. The serious study of Greek was introduced to England by Erasmus (of Rotterdam) about 1500 AC. The use of Latin began with the Roman Empire but took on new functions when Latin became the vehicle carrying Christianity east and north (of Europe) and elsewhere later. Until about the 18th century AC Latin was the language of learning in most of Europe. At its inception, Manchester Grammar School was a Latin school and the Boston Latin School which started in 1635 still thrives in that name. The two medieval universities in England were mostly seminaries teaching in Latin well into the 19th century. A wide swathe of languages is written with the Latin alphabet: European languages from the Black Sea to the Atlantic and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, America from Canada to Chile, sub-Saharan Africa including Togo, and Indonesian, Malaysian and several others. The exodus of Jewish, Arabic and other scholars, after the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottomans, brought Greek and Arabic to Western Europe including England. From about the 14 to the 18th century, European indigenous vernaculars grew to be carriers of new knowledge, especially in sciences. Luther’s reformation and the development of German had much in common. Gutenberg’s new printing press (1450 AC) helped the growth of European vernaculars and the spread of reformed Christianity.

Four western European languages stood out as both conquerors and carriers of new knowledge: Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. Arabic performed the same function from about 800 AC to the 13 AC when that language carried a new religion and new knowledge in mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Arabic replaced the indigenous languages in the entire Maghreb. The language of governance and learning from Mexico south to Chile is Spanish with Brazil using Portuguese and are collectively called Latin America, because Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian are Romance or Latin Languages. French is the language of governance and learning in several parts of West Africa. English was a phenomenon in itself. It destroyed the use of hundreds of languages in North America. It conquered almost half the world and English is the language of governance and higher education in a good part of the land it once ruled. As a language carrying new knowledge, English excels all others. As the collapse of four European empires, including the Ottoman, went on from about 1915 to about 1960, English, which produced new knowledge faster than any other, began to break ‘domestic walls’, the world over. China, which had little love for the English-speaking world, had millions of its citizens schooled in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia during the last 30 years and continues to do so, to date. In contrast, during that time how many rushed to Niger to learn Fulfulde or to Lanka to study Sinhala? The prominence of English was promoted by two other processes: one was translation into English of major works in other languages and the other the growth of a class of indigenous writers and readers in the conqueror’s language. One reads Oblomov, Gilgamesh and, indeed, Gitanjali translated into English. India now probably has more readers in English than any other single country. Persons in Western African countries have crafted in French and English, masterpieces in fiction, poetry and drama. Modern European languages have been both conquerors’ languages and carriers of new knowledge.

Several people recently have written in The Island and in Lankadeepa about the importance of using the ‘mother tongue’. They have stressed the importance of the ‘mother tongue’ in creative writing. As with observations regarding empirical phenomena, it is necessary to test those generalisations against reality. Samskrt is a language not entirely unfamiliar to many in this land. Samskrt was nobody’s mother tongue. (After all, it is deva bhaashitam.) There is not a shred of evidence that Kalidasa’s mother talked to him in Samskrt. But Kalidasa wrote rtusmahara and shakuntalam.. The vedas and upanishads were first spoken and later written in samskrt. Pali is nobody’s mother tongue but Theravada writings are almost entirely in that language. Isaac Newton wrote Principia Mathematica in Latin; we have no evidence that baby Isaac babbled in Latin. Paul Dirac wrote about particle physics in mathematics rather than in his father’s beloved French. Leopold Senghor’s mother tongue was not French nor Chinua Achebe’s English. More casually, check your own libraries. I had a collection of about 2,300 books until last year. There weren’t even 200 written in Sinhala and that 200 included editions of works from the 13th century. Check how many books written in Sinhala and English you bought in the last two years. There were far too many writers and scientists who brought forth highly acclaimed work in languages other than their mother tongue, contradicting the argument that the mother tongue was essential or even desirable for original work, in science or in literature.

Most languages ‘break the world into narrow fragments’. A few coagulate them into large masses: 900 million people speak Mandarin and 325 million, Bengali. A half dozen bind themselves together speaking a conqueror’s language. Four languages stand out as having ‘led the ‘mind forward into ever-widening thought and action’: Greek, Latin, Arabic and English. English, so far, is unrivalled.

by Usvatte-aratchi