Features

Reluctance to hand over power

Published

6 years ago

2020/11/13

Cass has been a couch potato these last ten days with BBC and CNN unspooling the presidential election results in the US of America. A nail-biting cliff hanger – the counting of ballots. Finally, the oldest man to contest the American presidency received the highest number of votes ever, creating double history. As if that were not enough, he selected as running mate an Indian-Jamaican woman, knowing full well that if anything drastic were to happen to him, she would be Prez of the US of A. Further, if he decides not to run for a second term, his present age of 77 being against him, she may become the first woman President – BlackAsian. Ooh La La!

As expected with the man, Trump was his true self: nasty, obstreperous and stubborn. He jumped the gun the day after polls closed and counting had just began with the announcement to all and sundry that he had won and hence further vote counting must stop. And up until the time of writing, Wednesday 11 November, he is limpet-like declaring he remains in the White House and will bring cases of fraud to oust the Prez elect. He has not listened to the insignificant bleating of Melania to throw in the towel and concede victory to Biden, chorusing many others. He has not listened even to his beloved daughter and her husband Kushner, his personal assistant. We will watch the unfolding drama, as Biden starts working on his policy priority number 1: pandemic control and the Hump, sorry, Trump, goes off continuously to play golf. The TIME magazine used its name as part of its current cover title: TIME …To Go.

Messy handing overs in this Paradise

We have had our fair share of refusal of incumbents to vacate the highest post and resorting to abnormal manoeuvres. The worst of the stink was puppeteered by former accused killer of him and enacted solely by President Maitripala Sirisena on October 26, 2018. As usual he bungled badly and brought international scorn on this fair isle.

His UPFA decided under his orders to withdraw from the shaky coalition government. Shortly after, SLPP MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister by President Sirisena. PM Ranil Wickremasinghe refused to vacate his position and Temple Trees. Both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa contended they commanded majority numbers in Parliament. However, before a floor vote could be called, the Prez prorogued Parliament.

So Free Sri Lanka notched another aberrated uniqueness on the international map. The man who was accused of putting him six feet under if he lost, and he betrayed after breaking egg hoppers with, to sneak to enemy lines to be crowned Prez of Sri Lanka, got so buddy that he tried to push the legitimate PM off his chair and install Mahinda R. Rightly Ranil stuck to his seat, with loads loyal to him at Temple Trees. The Speaker, Karu J and judges of the Supreme Court righted wrongs and the country was back to ‘as before’ with the two Heads of the coalition government now with openly drawn daggers. Thrust to greatness in 2015, Sirisena is supposed to have said he would continue addressing Ranil as ‘Sir’ but soon enough was holding a menacing sword in his hand. He nearly dug his political grave in three years. And the great favour he did Mahinda R did not earn him even a Cabinet post this year, though he executed a 360 degree turn in loyalty – his kind.

What we, the proles and plebs of Free Sri Lanka will never forget is the atrociously despicable behaviour of UPFA MPs becoming criminal hooligans in the House by the Diyawanne at the unconstitutional move. Those looking to the welfare of farmers of the land now; industries; highways and holding the Whip; and the woman who attempted to do a sacrificial act of patriotically sailing to sea in a clay pot, behaved the worst. Cass heard that when the Navy and others were striving to push to deeper waters those sharks and dolphins who stranded themselves on our western shores, they – the creatures – mustered last gasps of strength and crawled back to deeper sea. They said, it is imagined, that sonic booms of warships of four nations playing ‘Let’s Pretend War at Sea’ games were a less evil than braving a VIP potted dame.

1950s

Trouble erupted soon after Independence when the PM fell off his horse and died. Governor Lord Soulbury, overlooking the two next most senior: John Kots and SWRDB, appointed Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister on March 26, 1952. Kotelawala flew to his retreat in Kent to sulk but not before penning the scathing Premier Stakes. And SWRD walked in revenge across the old Parliament aisle and formed a new Party – the SLFP. As an aside Cass says sadly that both Parties seem to be annihilated by human hands. The Green Elephant is down on his knees, shorn of power, long life and solidity; and the Blue Party floundering, its wings clipped by Pohottuwa. From 2015 to 2019 the wrestling started early with Sirisena getting hoity toity and power hungry and Ranil becoming more stubborn and intolerable.

Dudley S was PM from 1952 to 53 after which he called a general election. He was greatly troubled and both physically and mentally affected by the hartal of 1953. Crafty Sir Oliver Goonetilake, Gov Gen, negotiated peace between the two men: Dudley and John. Being gentlemen of the old school, and yes, patriots too, they made up and Dudley promoted John Kotelawala as P M. They say Dudley S was too humane, weak in other words. Allowance has to be made for a health condition from birth – stomach complaint which flared up when stressed. Sirimavo Bandaranaike entered the political arena as the Weeping Widow and ended quite the only man in her Cabinet. But she became intolerant of criticism; nationalized Lake House and lost her earlier halo. Elections were due in 1974 but she clung on for more than two years. Crushed by JRJ’s landslide, she however clung on as leader of her Party and when daughter Chandrika became Prez was brought in as PM, a completely lame one. It was rumoured that visiting chief guest Prince Charles left the 4 February Independence parade grounds early as he preferred to be whisked to Jaffna rather than sit through proceedings near a silent PM with a stiff neck, a half disabled Defence Secy and a fainting IGP! D B Wijetunge had power thrust on him by the evil of the LTTE assassination of Prez Premadasa on May 1 1993. He was by far the most accommodating politician, and yes, gracious. The moment the UNP lost the November 1994 election, although Ranil W could have cobbled a coalition government under Prez Wijetunge, he opted to hand over power to CBK and moved out of President’s House, not summarily like W Dahanayake giving up premiership and travelling by train home to Galle with one little suitcase. Dubbed Dearly Beloved, the short lived Prez retired gracefully to his home in Pilimatalawa near Kandy.

The longest standee in the political wings, J R Jayawardene, was, notwithstanding his cunning, a statesman. He pushed Ceylon out of economic doldrums by opening up the country and recognised ability and nurtured it; not annihilating it as some others were wont to do. Thus the meteoric rise of young Gamini D and Lalith A. Most vilify JRJ for his pot/ lamp referendum on December 22 1982. Cass for one, who wholeheartedly voted for a continuation of the 1976 UNP government, was surprised at how friends of hers were so angry about the unconstitutionality of it. Cass believed JRJ wanted to proceed on his development plans with no interruption of a general election, which of course the UNP would have won but depleted of the majority of 1976. JRJ was another statesman to admire as regards his willing retirement in 1989.

The last reluctant man in power to leave it and the hot seat is Mahinda Rajapakss following his loss to Sirisena in 2015.

Remembered is his helicopter descent to his Medamulane home, (but not to obscurity as later events proved), and standing within a window frame to address a miniscule of plebs who were gathered to welcome him.

Turmoil, turmoil, trouble, bubble. We have certainly not seen the last of limpet Heads masquerading as statesmen. The main question is when will Trump go – permanently lumbering to his golf course and business tricks!

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

6 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

6 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

6 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.