Features

More on Premadasa years: pro-poor policies, garment factories, Janasaviya and housing

Published

6 months ago

2025/08/24

Thilina Walpola

President Premadasa with Ranjan Wijeratne

Good friend, bad enemy, feud with Ariyaratne

(Excerpted from vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)

Premadasa then unleashed his prodigious energy to make dramatic changes in the country’s economy. He looked on economic development as a part of his bigger vision to ensure “growth with equity”. While the JRJ administration followed a classical pattern of investment fueled by urbanization which made the GDP of Western province much higher than that of the outlier provinces, Premadasa was a proponent of the concept of all round growth as a way of catering to the poorer segments of society.

I remember studying some World Bank reports with Wickreme Weerasooria, who was the Secretary of the Planning Ministry, which drew attention to the abysmal poverty of the estate population and the people of Hambantota, Monaragala and Mannar in relation to the poverty levels prevalent in the other districts. Accordingly rural development projects were launched with Norwegian aid in the Hambantota, Monaragala and Mannar districts, but that was insufficient to make a dent on the problems there. It was Premadasa who had the vision to undertake poverty alleviation urgently and devote his proverbial energy to obtain dramatic results. His approach was three pronged; Janasaviya, the 300 garment factory programme and meaningful administrative reforms at village level. All three have stood the test of time and marks a change in the rural landscape.

Garment factories

JRJ pioneered the setting up of investment zones under the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC which later became the Board of Investments or BOI) on the basis of “plug and play” manufacturing, beginning with the Katunayake Free Trade Zone [FTZ]. He introduced the concept of value addition to an economy which was based on export of unprocessed agricultural commodities namely tea, coconut, rubber and cinnamon.

The global economy was undergoing change with production being outsourced to select developing countries. That was much cheaper than producing them at home in the west. Hong Kong and Singapore were the trendsetters of this transformation by manufacturing light industrial products with their easy credit, reliable freight business, cheap labour, work ethic and good links to the markets of rich countries.

Among these products was garments which saw increasing demand in the west with its growing prosperity and emergence of a large middle class within a consumer society. Premadasa deserves credit for immediately recognizing the potential of this trend to further his target of “growth with equity”. As regards the genesis of this all important industry in Sri Lanka, I was told that Premadasa on a visit to Hong Kong was entertained by a Muslim gem merchant who lived there coordinating the sales of gems from his family company. This gem merchant had given Premadasa a tour of the business district and the manufacturing zone of sweated trades, especially the garment factories in Kowloon.

Premadasa immediately saw the potential of this industry and persuaded some of his friends in the local tailoring establishment to enter the garment manufacturing business. Another fortuitous circumstance helped in making this move an instant success. The garment industry worked on the basis of “quotas” allocated by the buyers. The Hong Kong quotas were already full and it took little to persuade some big foreign manufacturers to relocate in Sri Lanka and utilize the quotas that were granted to us.

In fact it is said that at first many foreign exporters only changed their labels to say “Made in Sri Lanka” and shipped their products from their Hong Kong factories to Europe and the US. But this could not go on for long and they soon relocated here and set up factories in our FTZs and outside. This project was personally driven by the President and the facilities like allocation of land, electricity, water and banking facilities were provided in record time which led to favourable responses from large scale buyers like Marks and Spencer and Walmart. This in turn led to the ambitious 300 garment factory program which revolutionized garment manufacturing in South Asia.

The President insisted on locating factories in the hinterland and employing rural .women. This was probably the best attempt to develop our rural areas and also empower women in a practical attempt at poverty alleviation. After decades of”handouts”, which were crippling rural initiatives, new garment industries brought prosperity to distant villages. “The quota system” was adjusted to give more orders to factories in the periphery as against lower allocations for the big cities. Even critics were constrained to admit that standards of living among rural women had improved.

The President gleefully spoke of the jewelry shops that were springing up near the factories and the small gold chains on the necks of working girls who had never before possessed anything of value. These developments drew the envy of rival politicians who wished that they, had first thought of this idea. Lalith Athulathmudali said sarcastically that “our girls are forced to stitch “Jangi” [underwear] for white women” forgetting the fact that his own electorate Ratmalana was the centre of the countries “rag trade” and that this trade was, for the first time, providing employment to a large swathe of semi urban women who had earlier been helpless, unemployed and brutalized.

Janasaviya

Like the garment factories another innovation of the President was the poverty amelioration program named Janasaviya. Conceptualized by a group of his officials, Janasaviya was aimed at providing basic food support to families below the poverty line. Recipients were selected at public sittings and time was given for objections since the local bureaucracy was notoriously corrupt and could be influenced to leave out the deserving and include those with power. Even so the criticism was made that selections were biased in favour of the party in power.

It was one of the earliest attempts at poverty reduction and was taken as a model by many developing countries. Janasaviya, unlike its heavily politicized successors under the SLFP, envisaged the recipients donating their labour for community development projects in the relevant villages. The construction and maintenance of public works was entrusted to Janasaviya recipients because many studies had shown that a village labour force was capable of generating productivity as a basic input in rural development.

Recipients were expected to donate their labour on village works for three days a week in exchange for a basket of goods. During this period the utility of “Shramadana” as a practical economic resource in developing countries was promoted by Gandhian development theorists, including the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka. However Premadasa engaged himself in an epic confrontation with AT Ariyaratne, the leader of the local Sarvodaya movement. Since I was a friend of Ariyaratne, having helped him to overcome the hostility of Felix Bandaranaike during the Sirimavo regime, I became privy to the reasons for the enemity of these two stalwarts of village development.

Partly due to the link up with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation of Germany that I facilitated, Sarvodaya became rich and began to branch out to ventures designed to ensure its sustainability. Among these ventures was the setting up of a well equipped printing press which was located in Ratmalana. It boasted of the latest German printing technology and Ariyaratne’s rather permissive management style was replaced by a profit oriented trained printer who oversaw this venture. One far reaching decision was to undertake the printing of the “Ravaya” newspaper which had transformed itself from a tabloid to a broadsheet in keeping with its growing popularity.

Ravaya was a progressive newspaper usually critical of the government and was edited by Victor Ivan – a former JVP leader who had been imprisoned after the failure of the 1971 insurrection. He had joined the LSSP after his release but was better known as a lucid writer, defender of human rights and generally an anti-establishment figure. When he began to criticize the Premadasa administration and its leader he put himself on the cross-hairs of the new President’s ire. He blamed Ariyaratne for printing Ravaya in his press and broke off the friendship he had enjoyed with the Sarvodaya chief when he was in the opposition.

To make matters worse Ravaya promoted Lalith and Gamini in their conflict with Premadasa and encouraged internal criticism of the Presidents authoritarian ways. But the main reason for the Premadasa-Ariyaratne conflict was the “inside information” that was leaked to the former during the Presidential election. The secret was that the Sarvodaya Press was printing posters for Mrs. B – which her rival Premadasa took to be a great betrayal by his erstwhile friend. Ari told me that indeed the poster was printed as alleged but that it was a commercial transaction which had been undertaken by his printing manager without consulting him.

A characteristic of Premadasa was that while he had deep friendships any betrayal by a friend resulted in an unending vendetta. He did not believe in “forgive and forget”. The full force of the President’s fury was then visited on Ariyaratne. Ari told me that he had been earmarked for assassination by the Premadasa mafia and that he had a narrow shave when he was targeted at a meeting in Kegalle. Whether this was true or whether it was only a symptom of a paranoia which seemed to afflict the Sarvodaya chief, I had no way of knowing.

I had read that President Richard Nixon too had a similar unforgiving nature. Nixon maintained an “enemies list” and spent time in harassing them ultimately leading to a “break in” to their offices which set in train a set of events which finally led to his resignation. Premadasa too was alleged to have established the “Lawrence mafia” (Lawrence was a retired DIG loyal to Premadasa) which “tailed” his enemies with a view to eliminating them.

Later on I will narrate the famous “Buultjens abduction” case which was used by Premadasa, ably assisted by Ravi Jayewardene, JRJs son, to engineer the arrest of Gamini Dissanayake on charges of kidnapping as a part of his vendetta with his erstwhile colleague. In an attempt to implicate Lalith and Gamini he set up a Commission of Inquiry on their relations with Israel. On public platforms he subtly suggested that Lalith was an Israeli agent because he had taught law at a University in Jerusalem. The Commission found no evidence of such a complicity though it highlighted the purchase of large caches of Israeli weapons for the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Housing

Even as a member of Dudley Senanayake’s cabinet, Premadasa had paid special attention to the problem of housing. As a MP for Colombo Central, where housing is a major problem, he had set about tackling this problem with his usual gusto. In a sense he was competing with his political rival Pieter Keuneman who also, under the Sirimavo administration, concentrated on urban housing. Pieter however, in keeping with his communist ideology, brought legislation to change ownership from urban landlords to long time residents. He also restricted the space of new houses to 2,500 square feet each leading to the construction of smaller houses on smaller extents of land [a minimum of six perches per house] by local architects.

However laudable these objectives may have been it led to a virtual halt to housing construction. Premadasa on the other hand was more realistic and attempted to increase the housing stock. His signature achievement was the development of the Maligawatte housing scheme for which I, and a team from the then Information department undertook the publicity programme under the heading of “a city within a city”. It was hailed by Dudley Senanayake and the UNP, which thanks to Premadasa, earned plaudits as the party of low cost housing.

He also encouraged rural housing under Janasaviya and the new local government structures that he created. Bradman Weerakoon has described how the PM had the “chutzpah” to get housing as a priority of the UN by promoting a resolution calling for a “Year of Housing”. As Bradman says no one could stop him once Premadasa made up his mind.

Local government

From the time he became a municipal councilor R. Premadasa was very interested in local government. In his first assignment as a deputy minister he chose the portfolio of local government under minister Tiruchelvam. He once told me that SWRD Bandaranaike could form his own party because he had an island wide network of Mayors, Urban Council Chairmen and local government representatives who could not be bought over by DS Senanayake. This was long before Premadasa himself set up his “Purawesi Peramuna” which could be transformed into a political party if the UNP did not give him his due place.

One reason why he was not enamored of the Indo-Lanka agreement was its emphasis on establishing Provincial Councils. He did not welcome the establishment of a second tier between the centre and the village council or the “Pradeshiya Sabha”. He proposed wide ranging reforms to the existing Gam Sabhawa or Village Council system of local government. He amalgamated the Village Councils in an electorate so that the boundaries of the newly established “Pradeshiya Sabha”would coincide with that of the electorate. This made it possible for greater financial resources to be allocated to that entity.

The management structure was also changed to bring in public officials as administrative secretaries of the Pradeshiya Sabhas. These changes were welcomed as forward looking and capable of promoting rapid growth at village level. Premadasa believed that decentralization of key state powers to the periphery would also defuse the call for more powers to a new entity like Provincial Councils. He feared that some PCs would encourage the “homelands” concept of the TULF.

Today this three tier administrative structure has been criticized as leading to a dysfunctional bureaucratization which is top heavy. It has produced a large number of ignorant local government representatives who are a drain on national resources. The best example of this anarchy is that the Janasaviya programme which was meant to contribute to cheap labour for village works have been superseded by village level councilors who have become small time contractors swallowing up the funds for roads, culverts, bridges etc., with no quality and financial control. Such project funding has led to the corruption which marks local government administration today.

Hubris

The first few years of the Premadasa regime were a security nightmare. The JVP and its military arm shut down the country at will. However the government fought back amidst many complaints of human rights violations. The security forces employed brutal means to attack the JVP, especially after purported threats to the families of army officers. The JVP politbureau went into hiding but the Ops Combine systematically tracked them down and by 1990 Wijeweera himself was arrested and killed.

But civil society led by journalists associations – many of centre leftist persuasion – carried out a campaign asking for the observation of human rights standards and punishment for those who had blatantly violated them. Many innocent people who were caught in the cross fire between the JVP and the security forces paid with their lives. Left wing tabloids like Yukthiya – which was funded by international NGOs and Ravaya, both edited by ex-JVP combatants, were highly critical of Premadasa and the state apparatus.

While senior SLFPers flirted with the President, younger members like Mangala Samaraweera and Mahinda Rajapaksa spearheaded the formation of a “Mothers Front”. The Opposition preferred to take cover under these organizations rather than confront Premadasa because they themselves were victims of the JVP’s extermination machine. It was an exceptionally trying time and the President whose trait was not to brook any challenge was criticized by the international media and civil society for his intransigence.

Some of his own party members who had lost out in his energetic reorganization of the UNP, were not averse to leaking information to embarrass him. There was, as a result, a siege mentality in the country. The opposition to him among the urban elite grew while the majority of the populace was still in a state of shock due to the unceasing violence and disruptions unleashed by the LTTE and the JVP. The best indication of this transformation of the personality of President Premadasa came in the form of a statement by his secretary Wijedasa who said that “his temperament was much better as Prime Minister than President” [Lankadeepa of August 22, 2023]

All this was to come to a head in an unprecedented Impeachment motion in Parliament and its political consequences which we will describe in the next chapter.

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Features

More state support needed for marginalised communities

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/13

Thilina Walpola

A landslide in the Central Province

Message from Malaiyaha Tamil community to govt:

Insights from SSA Cyclone Ditwah Survey

When climate disasters strike, they don’t affect everyone equally. Marginalised communities typically face worse outcomes, and Cyclone Ditwah is no exception. Especially in a context where normalcy is far from “normal”, the idea of returning to normalcy or restoring a life of normalcy makes very little sense.

The island-wide survey (https://ssalanka.org/reports/) conducted by the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA), between early to mid-January on Cyclone Ditwah shows stark regional disparities in how satisfied or dissatisfied people were with the government’s response. While national satisfaction levels were relatively high in most provinces, the Central Province tells a different story.

Only 35.2% of Central Province residents reported that they were satisfied with early warning and evacuation measures, compared to 52.2% nationally. The gap continues across every measure: just 52.9% were satisfied with immediate rescue and emergency response, compared with the national figure of 74.6%. Satisfaction with relief distribution in the Central Province is 51.9% while the national figure stands at 73.1%. The figures for restoration of water, electricity, and roads are at a low 45.9% in the central province compared to the 70.9% in national figures. Similarly, the satisfaction level for recovery and rebuilding support is 48.7% in the Central Province, while the national figure is 67.0%.

A deeper analysis of the SSA data on public perceptions reveals something important: these lower satisfaction rates came primarily from the Malaiyaha Tamil population. Their experience differed not just from other provinces, but also from other ethnic groups living in the Central Province itself.

The Malaiyaha Tamil community’s vulnerability didn’t start with the cyclone. Their vulnerability is a historically and structurally pre-determined process of exclusion and marginalisation. Brought to Sri Lanka during British rule to work for the empire’s plantation economies, they have faced long-term economic exploitation and have repeatedly been denied access to state support and social welfare systems. Most estate residents still live in ‘line rooms’ and have no rights to the land they cultivate and live on. The community continues to be governed by an outdated estate management system that acts as a barrier to accessing public and municipal services such as road repair, water, electricity and other basic infrastructures available to other citizens.

As far as access to improved water sources is concerned, the Sri Lanka Demographic Health Survey (2016) shows that 57% of estate sector households don’t have access to improved water sources, while more than 90% of households in urban and rural areas do. With regard to the level of poverty, as the Department of Census and Statistics (2019) data reveals, the estate sector where most Malaiyaha Tamils live had a poverty headcount index of 33.8%; more than double the national rate of 14.3%. These statistics highlight key indicators of the systemic discrimination faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community.

Some crucial observations from the SSA data collectors who enumerated responses from estate residents in the survey reveal the specific challenges faced by the Malaiyaha Tamils, particularly in their efforts to seek state support for compensation and reconstruction.

First, the Central Province experienced not just flooding but also the highest number of landslides in the island. As a result, some residents in the region lost entire homes, access roadways, and other basic infrastructures. The loss of lives, livelihoods and land was at a higher intensity compared to the provinces not located in the hills. Most importantly, the Malaiyaha Tamil community’s pre-existing grievances made them even more vulnerable and the government’s job of reparation and restitution more complex.

Early warnings hadn’t reached many areas. Some data collectors said they themselves never heard any warnings in estate areas, while others mentioned that early warnings were issued but didn’t reach some segments of the community. According to the resident data collectors, the police announcements reached only as far as the sections where they were able to drive their vehicles to, and there were many estate roads that were not motorable. When warnings did filter through to remote locations, they often came by word of mouth and information was distorted along the way. Once the disaster hit, things got worse: roads were blocked, electricity went out, mobile networks failed and people were cut off completely.

Emergency response was slow. Blocked roads meant people could not get to hospitals when they needed urgent care, including pregnant mothers. The difficult terrain and poor road conditions meant rescue teams took much longer to reach affected areas than in other regions.

Relief supplies didn’t reach everyone. The Grama Niladhari divisions in these areas are huge and hard to navigate, making it difficult for Grama Niladharis to reach all places as urgently as needed. Relief workers distributed supplies where vehicles could go, which meant accessible areas got help while remote communities were left out.

Some people didn’t even try to go to safety centres or evacuation shelters set up in local schools because the facilities there were already so poor. The perceptions of people who did go to safety centres, as shown in the provincial data, reveal that satisfaction was low compared to other affected regions of the country. Less than half were satisfied with space and facilities (42.1%) or security and protection (45.0%). Satisfaction was even lower for assistance with lost or damaged documentation (17.9%) and information and support for compensation applications (28.2%). Only 22.5% were satisfied with medical care and health services below most other affected regions.

Restoring services proved nearly impossible in some areas. Road access was the biggest problem. The condition of the roads was already poor even before the cyclone, and some still haven’t been cleared. Recovery is especially difficult because there’s no decent baseline infrastructure to restore, hence you can’t bring roads and other public facilities back to a “good” condition when they were never good, even before the disaster.

Water systems faced their own complications. Many households get water from natural sources or small community projects, and not the centralised state system. These sources are often in the middle of the disaster zone and therefore got contaminated during the floods and landslides.

Long-term recovery remains stalled. Without basic infrastructure, areas that are still hard to reach keep struggling to get the support they need for rebuilding.

Taken together, what do these testaments mean? Disaster response can’t be the same for everyone. The Malaiyaha Tamil community has been double marginalised because they were already living with structural inequalities such as poor infrastructure, geographic isolation, and inadequate services which have been exacerbated by Cyclone Ditwah. An effective and fair disaster response needs to account for these underlying vulnerabilities. It requires interventions tailored to the historical, economic, and infrastructural realities that marginalized communities face every day. On top of that, it highlights the importance of dealing with climate disasters, given the fact that vulnerable communities could face more devastating impacts compared to others.

(Shashik Silva is a researcher with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka)

by Shashik Silva ✍️

Features

Crucial test for religious and ethnic harmony in Bangladesh

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A political protest that led to governmental change in Bangladesh mid last year. (photograph: imago)

Will the Bangladesh parliamentary election bring into being a government that will ensure ethnic and religious harmony in the country? This is the poser on the lips of peace-loving sections in Bangladesh and a principal concern of those outside who mean the country well.

The apprehensions are mainly on the part of religious and ethnic minorities. The parliamentary poll of February 12th is expected to bring into existence a government headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist oriented Jamaat-e-Islami party and this is where the rub is. If these parties win, will it be a case of Bangladesh sliding in the direction of a theocracy or a state where majoritarian chauvinism thrives?

Chief of the Jamaat, Shafiqur Rahman, who was interviewed by sections of the international media recently said that there is no need for minority groups in Bangladesh to have the above fears. He assured, essentially, that the state that will come into being will be equable and inclusive. May it be so, is likely to be the wish of those who cherish a tension-free Bangladesh.

The party that could have posed a challenge to the above parties, the Awami League Party of former Prime Minister Hasina Wased, is out of the running on account of a suspension that was imposed on it by the authorities and the mentioned majoritarian-oriented parties are expected to have it easy at the polls.

A positive that has emerged against the backdrop of the poll is that most ordinary people in Bangladesh, be they Muslim or Hindu, are for communal and religious harmony and it is hoped that this sentiment will strongly prevail, going ahead. Interestingly, most of them were of the view, when interviewed, that it was the politicians who sowed the seeds of discord in the country and this viewpoint is widely shared by publics all over the region in respect of the politicians of their countries.

Some sections of the Jamaat party were of the view that matters with regard to the orientation of governance are best left to the incoming parliament to decide on but such opinions will be cold comfort for minority groups. If the parliamentary majority comes to consist of hard line Islamists, for instance, there is nothing to prevent the country from going in for theocratic governance. Consequently, minority group fears over their safety and protection cannot be prevented from spreading.

Therefore, we come back to the question of just and fair governance and whether Bangladesh’s future rulers could ensure these essential conditions of democratic rule. The latter, it is hoped, will be sufficiently perceptive to ascertain that a Bangladesh rife with religious and ethnic tensions, and therefore unstable, would not be in the interests of Bangladesh and those of the region’s countries.

Unfortunately, politicians region-wide fall for the lure of ethnic, religious and linguistic chauvinism. This happens even in the case of politicians who claim to be democratic in orientation. This fate even befell Bangladesh’s Awami League Party, which claims to be democratic and socialist in general outlook.

We have it on the authority of Taslima Nasrin in her ground-breaking novel, ‘Lajja’, that the Awami Party was not of any substantial help to Bangladesh’s Hindus, for example, when violence was unleashed on them by sections of the majority community. In fact some elements in the Awami Party were found to be siding with the Hindus’ murderous persecutors. Such are the temptations of hard line majoritarianism.

In Sri Lanka’s past numerous have been the occasions when even self-professed Leftists and their parties have conveniently fallen in line with Southern nationalist groups with self-interest in mind. The present NPP government in Sri Lanka has been waxing lyrical about fostering national reconciliation and harmony but it is yet to prove its worthiness on this score in practice. The NPP government remains untested material.

As a first step towards national reconciliation it is hoped that Sri Lanka’s present rulers would learn the Tamil language and address the people of the North and East of the country in Tamil and not Sinhala, which most Tamil-speaking people do not understand. We earnestly await official language reforms which afford to Tamil the dignity it deserves.

An acid test awaits Bangladesh as well on the nation-building front. Not only must all forms of chauvinism be shunned by the incoming rulers but a secular, truly democratic Bangladesh awaits being licked into shape. All identity barriers among people need to be abolished and it is this process that is referred to as nation-building.

On the foreign policy frontier, a task of foremost importance for Bangladesh is the need to build bridges of amity with India. If pragmatism is to rule the roost in foreign policy formulation, Bangladesh would place priority to the overcoming of this challenge. The repatriation to Bangladesh of ex-Prime Minister Hasina could emerge as a steep hurdle to bilateral accord but sagacious diplomacy must be used by Bangladesh to get over the problem.

A reply to N.A. de S. Amaratunga

A response has been penned by N.A. de S. Amaratunga (please see p5 of ‘The Island’ of February 6th) to a previous column by me on ‘ India shaping-up as a Swing State’, published in this newspaper on January 29th , but I remain firmly convinced that India remains a foremost democracy and a Swing State in the making.

If the countries of South Asia are to effectively manage ‘murderous terrorism’, particularly of the separatist kind, then they would do well to adopt to the best of their ability a system of government that provides for power decentralization from the centre to the provinces or periphery, as the case may be. This system has stood India in good stead and ought to prove effective in all other states that have fears of disintegration.

Moreover, power decentralization ensures that all communities within a country enjoy some self-governing rights within an overall unitary governance framework. Such power-sharing is a hallmark of democratic governance.

Features

Celebrating Valentine’s Day …

Published

3 days ago

2026/02/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love, romance, and affection, and this is how some of our well-known personalities plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day – 14th February:

Merlina Fernando (Singer)

Yes, it’s a special day for lovers all over the world and it’s even more special to me because 14th February is the birthday of my husband Suresh, who’s the lead guitarist of my band Mission.

We have planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day and his Birthday together and it will be a wonderful night as always.

We will be having our fans and close friends, on that night, with their loved ones at Highso – City Max hotel Dubai, from 9.00 pm onwards.

Lorensz Francke (Elvis Tribute Artiste)

On Valentine’s Day I will be performing a live concert at a Wealthy Senior Home for Men and Women, and their families will be attending, as well.

I will be performing live with romantic, iconic love songs and my song list would include ‘Can’t Help falling in Love’, ‘Love Me Tender’, ‘Burning Love’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’, ‘The Wonder of You’ and ‘’It’s Now or Never’ to name a few.

To make Valentine’s Day extra special I will give the Home folks red satin scarfs.

Emma Shanaya (Singer)

I plan on spending the day of love with my girls, especially my best friend. I don’t have a romantic Valentine this year but I am thrilled to spend it with the girl that loves me through and through. I’ll be in Colombo and look forward to go to a cute cafe and spend some quality time with my childhood best friend Zulha.

JAYASRI

Emma-and-Maneeka

This Valentine’s Day the band JAYASRI we will be really busy; in the morning we will be landing in Sri Lanka, after our Oman Tour; then in the afternoon we are invited as Chief Guests at our Maris Stella College Sports Meet, Negombo, and late night we will be with LineOne band live in Karandeniya Open Air Down South. Everywhere we will be sharing LOVE with the mass crowds.

Kay Jay (Singer)

I will stay at home and cook a lovely meal for lunch, watch some movies, together with Sanjaya, and, maybe we go out for dinner and have a lovely time. Come to think of it, every day is Valentine’s Day for me with Sanjaya Alles.

Maneka Liyanage (Beauty Tips)

On this special day, I celebrate love by spending meaningful time with the people I cherish. I prepare food with love and share meals together, because food made with love brings hearts closer. I enjoy my leisure time with them — talking, laughing, sharing stories, understanding each other, and creating beautiful memories. My wish for this Valentine’s Day is a world without fighting — a world where we love one another like our own beloved, where we do not hurt others, even through a single word or action. Let us choose kindness, patience, and understanding in everything we do.

Janaka Palapathwala (Singer)

Janaka

Valentine’s Day should not be the only day we speak about love.

From the moment we are born into this world, we seek love, first through the very drop of our mother’s milk, then through the boundless care of our Mother and Father, and the embrace of family.

Love is everywhere. All living beings, even plants, respond in affection when they are loved.

As we grow, we learn to love, and to be loved. One day, that love inspires us to build a new family of our own.

Love has no beginning and no end. It flows through every stage of life, timeless, endless, and eternal.

Natasha Rathnayake (Singer)

We don’t have any special plans for Valentine’s Day. When you’ve been in love with the same person for over 25 years, you realise that love isn’t a performance reserved for one calendar date. My husband and I have never been big on public displays, or grand gestures, on 14th February. Our love is expressed quietly and consistently, in ordinary, uncelebrated moments.

With time, you learn that love isn’t about proving anything to the world or buying into a commercialised idea of romance—flowers that wilt, sweets that spike blood sugar, and gifts that impress briefly but add little real value. In today’s society, marketing often pushes the idea that love is proven by how much money you spend, and that buying things is treated as a sign of commitment.

Real love doesn’t need reminders or price tags. It lives in showing up every day, choosing each other on unromantic days, and nurturing the relationship intentionally and without an audience.

This isn’t a judgment on those who enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s simply a personal choice.

Melloney Dassanayake (Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2024)

I truly believe it’s beautiful to have a day specially dedicated to love. But, for me, Valentine’s Day goes far beyond romantic love alone. It celebrates every form of love we hold close to our hearts: the love for family, friends, and that one special person who makes life brighter. While 14th February gives us a moment to pause and celebrate, I always remind myself that love should never be limited to just one day. Every single day should feel like Valentine’s Day – constant reminder to the people we love that they are never alone, that they are valued, and that they matter.

I’m incredibly blessed because, for me, every day feels like Valentine’s Day. My special person makes sure of that through the smallest gestures, the quiet moments, and the simple reminders that love lives in the details. He shows me that it’s the little things that count, and that love doesn’t need grand stages to feel extraordinary. This Valentine’s Day, perfection would be something intimate and meaningful: a cozy picnic in our home garden, surrounded by nature, laughter, and warmth, followed by an abstract drawing session where we let our creativity flow freely. To me, that’s what love is – simple, soulful, expressive, and deeply personal. When love is real, every ordinary moment becomes magical.

Noshin De Silva (Actress)

Valentine’s Day is one of my favourite holidays! I love the décor, the hearts everywhere, the pinks and reds, heart-shaped chocolates, and roses all around. But honestly, I believe every day can be Valentine’s Day.

It doesn’t have to be just about romantic love. It’s a chance to celebrate love in all its forms with friends, family, or even by taking a little time for yourself.

Whether you’re spending the day with someone special or enjoying your own company, it’s a reminder to appreciate meaningful connections, show kindness, and lead with love every day.

And yes, I’m fully on theme this year with heart nail art and heart mehendi design!

Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine’s Day, but, remember, love yourself first, and don’t forget to treat yourself.

Sending my love to all of you.