Features

Meet governance challenges with deeds not only words

Published

3 years ago

2023/06/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

Gajendrakumar

By Jehan Perera

The arrest of parliamentarian and leader of the Tamil National People’s Front Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam highlights two areas of particular concern. The first is the high level of surveillance that continues in the former war zones of the north and east. The visitors to those parts of the country would not fail to see the large presence of uniformed personnel in these two provinces, even at tourist sites. They remain as a visible reminder of the unsettled and violent conditions that prevailed since the late 1970s and which ended in May 2009. The failure on the part of the country to overcome the legacy of its violent past despite the passage of 14 eventful years is epitomised by the large spending still taking place on the security forces even in the midst of the general economic collapse.

The latest update by Verite Research has shown that according to the 2023 budget estimates, of the total state salaries, the defence sector claims 48 percent. The military takes up 32 percent of the total payroll expenditure and 16 percent goes for other defence services. According to World Bank (WB) data, the size of Sri Lanka’s armed forces was at its highest between 2017 and 2019 with 317,000 personnel. According to a publication by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), 2021, Sri Lanka’s military force is the 17th highest in the world, exceeding even that of the United Kingdom. The largest contingents of the military would continue to be deployed in the north and the east which provides a fertile ground for anti-government sentiment.

One of the strong public sentiments in the north and the east is that the security forces are involved in various schemes of undermine the Tamil people, including through being supportive of land grabs and encouraging drug addiction in youth. The problem of high levels of drug addiction and criminality are, however, not limited to the north and the east but are to be found in all other parts of the country, especially the capital city of Colombo. Unlike in the north and east, the root of suspicion in the south of the country is that the main problem lies in the venality of all-powerful politicians who may be using the security forces as their tools. It was this sentiment that popularised the widely used slogan during the time of the Aragalaya that all 225 in parliament should go.

COUNTRYWIDE SURVEILLANCE

The incident involving parliamentarian Ponnambalam centres around the issue of surveillance in the north. According the parliamentarian, he was having a meeting with some of his constituents from a sports club numbering about 20 in a public park. When he was talking to them, two unknown men on a motorbike had come, stopped their vehicle 10-15 feet away and, when challenged, declined to provide their identity cards. It later transpired that these were plainclothes policemen who had come to collect intelligence for their reporting purposes. This is a common occurrence in the north and the east, but also takes place in other parts of the country as well, much to the discomfort of participants at those events.

Sri Lanka is unfortunately today a post-war country that has still failed to find a political solution to the war that would address the roots of the conflict. It is also a post-Aragalaya society in which the economy has collapsed and continues to slow down, imposing immense hardships on the general population. Making matters worse is the government’s refusal to conduct elections that would permit the people to express themselves and what they want from their rulers. In these circumstances, surveillance in the north and east also exists in other parts of the country to ensure early warning to the government of potential points of unrest. The difference is that it is more blatant and overt in the north and east. It is unlikely that police intelligence officers would come on their motorbikes to within 10-15 feet of parliamentarians in the south addressing their constituents to eavesdrop on their conversations.

The second issue that arises from parliamentarian Ponnambalam’s arrest was the lack of deference shown to him as an elected member of parliament. It confirms to the Tamil people that the security forces in the north and the east are acting like an “army of occupation.” The incident itself took place in the north where the police wanted him to come and make a statement at the police station. He did not wish to do so on account of his concern that the environment in the police station would be hostile to him, as he had alleged that a gun had been taken out during the altercation in the park. The police had thereafter come to Colombo to where the parliamentarian had returned home, arrested him and taken him all the way back to the north to make a statement and to produce him before the court. An invidious comparison could be drawn between the differential treatment meted out to other parliamentarians in the recent past who have not been treated in a comparably harsh manner by the police despite their provocations.

EQUAL CITIZENSHIP

The strong Tamil nationalist stances the TNPF leader has stood for, including having close links with more hardline sections of the Tamil Diaspora, has estranged him from the south and the Sinhalese polity. The Hindu newspaper reported, “Few MPs from the southern, Sinhala majority areas commented on the development.” However, the manner in which parliamentarian Ponnambalam expressed himself in the Sinhala language at the point of being arrested was an indication of his commitment to fight for justice for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. This should be encouraged and not suppressed. Jaffna parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance M.A. Sumanthiran said in a tweet: “Police insisting that @GGPonnambalam should go to #Maruthankerni today itself to make a statement or threatening to #arrest him is totally #illegal and violates his #privilege as an #MP. He is being prevented from attending the ongoing #Parliament sessions today. #repression.”

The solidarity that TNA spokesperson Sumanthiran showed to a rival Tamil parliamentarian is a positive development. There is a need for unity among Tamil political parties if they are to achieve a reasonable bargaining power in their negotiations with the government. Contradicting Tamil media reports that there had been relatively little support for parliamentarian Ponnambalam from his fellow parliamentarians was the response of Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa to the arrest. He said, “We have differences with the ideology and standpoints of MP Ponnambalam but he is entitled to be treated as any other MP in this House. He was taken into police custody today while he was on his way to attend Parliament. That is illegal as per the law. We urge the government to respect the law. This is an illegal arrest.” The opposition leader demonstrated the spirit of national unity and equal citizenship that is necessary to make Sri Lanka the common home of all communities.

The present period in which President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition leader Premadasa are at the helm of national affairs, though on the opposite sides of parliament, offers the best chance to correct the problems of the past as well as existing problems. With the next session of the UN Human Rights Council set to take place next week in Geneva, President Wickremesinghe summoned a meeting of senior state officials where they discussed a reconciliation action plan. During the meeting the President had instructed the relevant departments to expedite the drafting of legislation necessary for the plan’s implementation. The progress of initiatives within five key areas of legislation, institutional activities, land issues, prisoner release, and power decentralization were also reviewed. So far little has happened on the ground though much has been said in words. The manner in which the government deals with the issue of parliamentarian Ponnambalam’s arrest will be one evidence of change.

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

18 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

18 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

18 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.