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WARTIME IN SRI LANKA

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CHAPTER 11

The wheels of the vehicles of war with which Nazism [was] halted came from the latex of rubber trees collected on thousands of rubber estates in Ceylon. The millions of cups of tea that cheered troops on freezing battlements [came from] our plantations… When we talk of aid to developing countries… let us… remember that small countries like Ceylon helped Britain, the United States… and Russia when they were most in need of aid.

(Oliver Goonetilleke, as quoted in Jeffries,1969, p.63)

NU and State-run Industries A more confident NU returned to Sri Lanka in December 1939. Already the only qualified economist in government service, he now had expertise in the new field of business administration, along with an enhanced worldview from his year abroad. His value as an officer in the government had vastly increased, and his career would soon reach a new launching point – in 1942 – when Sri Lanka was beginning to mobilize for war. Wartime called for the marshalling of clear thinkers and effective administrators, persons with good judgment, unafraid to take quick decisions amid crisis conditions. NU had all these qualities in full measure. His discipline and organizing capacity equipped him to deal with the challenges presented by wartime emergencies. During this period, NU would be called upon to fill several posts linked to wartime contingencies.

Upon his return from London, NU resumed his position as Commercial Assistant in the Department of Commerce and Industries, and continued in this post for another three years with greater responsibilities. The government had sent NU to London for training in business administration primarily because it wanted to give “a lead to private enterprise by starting certain state-aided concerns on commercial lines” (J.C.W. Rock, in N.U. Jayawardena Personal Files, emphasis added). This policy was given further impetus as wartime created shortages of materials and goods, especially those required for the shipping of exports.

NU was placed in charge of the Model Coir Yarn Factory, which was the first commercial factory established by the Department of Commerce and Industries. According to NU, this was the first occasion he had of applying the knowledge acquired from his training in London. As NU explained:

In the space of 2 months work, engaged mostly part-time, I was able to reorganize the factory, introduce an efficient system of production control, execute a successful sales programme, and convert the factory from a loss to a profit-earning basis. (N.U. Jayawardena Personal Files)

NU applied for the post of Assistant Director (Factories) in December 1943.( A job application in his Personal Files shows that NU applied for this post. However, he did not take it up. There are no records to show whether this was because he was not selected, or because he was selected and decided against taking up the post. ) After having observed at first hand the latest production techniques used in British factories, NU would have been eager to apply the management principles he had studied and witnessed abroad.

The responsibility of organizing the sales section of the Department of Commerce and Industries was also entrusted to NU. This section was established to market the Department-run factories’ products, which were sold through a sales outlet on Chatham Street, known as the Marketing Department. Products are still sold under the Marketing Department’s “MD” label, though the operation was privatized some time ago.

Although NU was involved in the running of the government’s first factory, and later in the marketing of goods produced by the various government-run factories, the experience demonstrated to him the pitfalls of state involvement in industry, stemming from political expediency as well as from leaving decision-making to inexperienced and impractical civil servants. Years later, he would draw on this experience on many occasions when stating his aversion to state enterprises. He had particularly sarcastic words for D.H. Balfour, the Ministry Secretary whom he termed as “an infectiously imaginative civil servant… [graduating] from Cambridge, specializing in Chemistry, and now turned industrial entrepreneur,” whom NU noted, “displayed enthusiasm but less business judgment.” Balfour had set up a cement factory in Kankesanturai, a chemical factory in Paranathan, a paper factory in Valachchenai, a plywood factory in Galle, a steel factory in the suburbs of Colombo and a ceramics factory in Negombo, and an ilmenite factory in the Eastern Province, some of which were in some state of survival even in the 1980s. NU further noted that many of the factories set up by the government were located in the electorates of influential politicians (de Zoysa manuscript, p. 12).

NU during this time also served as the editor of the Ceylon Trade Journal, published by the Department of Commerce and Industries based on the work of the Commercial Intelligence Department. His involvement in other areas began to branch out. In November 1940, he was appointed to serve as Secretary to the Ceylon Delegation at the Eastern War Materials Conference, which was held over the course of a month in New Delhi.

Lecturing at University

In 1941, NU at age 33, the self-taught student of economics, became the teacher, when he was appointed visiting lecturer for the diploma course in Economics at the University College, Colombo. He gave lectures on Sri Lankan trade, commerce, industry and transport. The professor of Economics at that time was B.B. Das Gupta under whom NU had served earlier on the Banking Commission in 1934. In spite of his busy schedule, NU would have readily welcomed this opportunity, which brought him into contact with the intellectual community.

NU would have no doubt taught many future academics and public servants of Sri Lanka. Das Gupta commented favourably on NU’s contribution as a lecturer, noting that NU’s “official work… kept him in constant touch with economic problems,” adding that he was “a wide reader and balanced thinker.” NU’s association with the university exposed him to a different milieu, where intellectual discourse and access to a library of scholarly books were some of the advantages. S.A. Pakeman, Professor of History and Economics and acting Principal of the University College at the time, praised NU’s lectures as “most stimulating and valuable” (N.U. Jayawardena Personal Files). NU would have felt some sense of achievement when, a few years later, he was requested by the University College of Ceylon to set and be co-examiner of the two question papers in Economics for entry into the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service – of which he was never a member.

It is hard to imagine where NU found the time and energy tofulfil his diverse responsibilities, such as organizing factories and sales sections, editing a journal, preparing lectures, setting papers on Economics, and teaching. The war years were a frantically busy and tense period with its recurring crises, when many demands would be made on NU’s expertise in a variety of areas.

Wartime Sri Lanka

World War II reached Asia’s doorstep in July 1941, when the Japanese entered the conflict, by launching a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. The Japanese forces made speedy advances spreading their grip in every corner of Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Burma (now Myanmar) and Singapore. After the fall of Singapore, it was inevitable that Sri Lanka, too, would soon be targeted by the Japanese.

In January 1942, Sri Lanka was put on a war footing, and Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief. A Civil Defence Department was also established. Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke (OEG), who had already established his credentials as Auditor General, was appointed Civil Defence Commissioner. Ivor Jennings, newly arrived on the island, served as OEG’s deputy.

The city and country had to be prepared for any contingency. Staff had to be quickly recruited, fire-fighting and emergency workers trained and equipped, and food provisions and distribution systems established. Fire gaps, wardens’ posts, trenches, shelters and water tanks were constructed; buildings protected by sandbags, and emergency kitchens and hospitals had to be set up to prepare the city in the event of bombing. An Air Raid Precautions (ARP) unit was formed to mobilize local leaders to act as wardens of civil defence. The department recruited 4,000 regular defence workers and 64,000 men and women part-time volunteers, who were “most of the more prominent leaders from Dondra Head to Point Pedro” (Jennings, 2005, p.126). Another task of the Civil Defence Department was to prevent the spreading of rumours and panic, and the leaking of information to the enemy. Posters reminding citizens that, “careless talk costs lives” were displayed throughout the city. Hoarding by black-marketeers was another serious problem of that period of shortages and rationing.

For those living in Colombo along and other parts of the country,there were many hardships, including food shortages, blackouts, and regular air-raid drills. Due to the shortage of rice, alternative forms of grain, such as bhajiri from India had to be imported and popularized. (A network of co-operative stores helped in the distribution of bhajiri and other rationed goods. The Communist Party, which supported the war effort, joined in supervising the distribution of food. Hedi Keuneman (Viennese wife of CP leader Pieter Keuneman) wrote: “I remember this as perhaps the most satisfying work I did because it made a genuine contribution to help the local population to get a fair supply of foodstuffs with their coupons.

Loading tea crates for shipment

The chief enemies were the blackmarketeers, and I remember arriving at our Co-op very early, long before opening time every morning, in order to prevent illegal black market dealings in food” (personal communication to K. Jayawardena, December 1990). One Sri Lankan recalled Hedi and Pieter Keuneman, surrounded by a crowd outside the main railway station of Colombo, when they were promoting alternative cereals to rice as a part of the war effort: It was not the usual pavement astrologer, musician or the snake-bite specialist, but a diminutive lady clad in a cheap cotton sari and… a tall young man in shirt and shorts. They were serving a steaming cereal to the people around them… I was simply thrilled and spent a considerable length of time watching the humanitarian drama.” (G. Nanayakkara, Sunday Island, 20 Jan. 1991) According to an eyewitness account of Hyacinth Mahendrarajah, who as a young girl lived through this time:

The cost of living rocketed sky-high. Food was scarce as no ships called at Colombo, which was normally an important port of call in the East. Ships were being bombed before they reached the various ports. This resulted

in a struggle to exist on a ‘meal a day’ that consisted mainly of yams and vegetables grown in the countryside.

The tension of imminent attack by the Japanese also created some anxiety, as Hyacinth further recounts:

At school they dug trenches for the children to go into, for protection during an air raid. We were given instructions on air raid precautions and whenever the siren sounded we had to observe them. These were carried out frequently to help us remember exactly what to do in the event of a genuine air raid. ( Mahendraraja, Hyacinth, Schoolgirl’s Memories in Ceylon, WW2 People’s War – An archive of World War II memories – public writings gathered by the BBC, entry contributed on 9 July 2004, http://www.bbc. co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c54629/)

NU’s daughter Neiliya, who was a small child at that time, also recalls the air raid drills: “When the air raid sirens went off, both my brothers and myself had to run with our pillows to the dining room table under which our mats were laid” (Neiliya Perera, 2006).

The Japanese Attack on Sri Lanka

When the Japanese finally did attack Sri Lanka, the government was not caught completely off-guard – they had received advance notification that a fleet of Japanese ships was advancing southeast of Devundara, from a patrolling British pilot who had been able to radio news back to base before his plane was shot down. According to OEG’s account, the island was “wide open for attack” since “our own military resources were negligible… to meet an invasion” (Jeffries, 1969, p.58).

On Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, the attack on Sri Lanka began. A fleet of Japanese aircraft raided Colombo, targeting the harbour and Ratmalana airport, followed by an attack on Trincomalee harbour. In both attacks, only a few ships were destroyed, and there were relatively few civilian casualties. ( In Colombo there had been 85 civilian casualties, about 50 of which were patients who were killed in the bombing of the Angoda Mental Hospital, which the Japanese had mistaken for a power station.

Two ships in the harbour – a destroyer and an armed merchant vessel – and two cruisers at sea were sunk. The harbour engineering workshops were severely damaged as well. One bomb fell in the Pettah on a Muslim hotel, completely destroying it. It opened a road in the Pettah known as “Oeeji’s Way” (Jeffries, 1969, pp.53- 54; and Jennings, 2005, p.130). In the Trincomalee attack, the HMS Hermes and two tankers were sunk, and the harbour installations and wharf were badly damaged (Jennings, 2005, p.132). The attack on Colombo, which was short but intense, turned the city into a ghost town overnight. Jennings described the panic:

As soon as the raid ended, a procession of cars… started moving out of Colombo by all the main roads… Those who had bullock carts piled up their baggage, packed in their families, (others carried) their worldly goods upon their heads. One-third of the population of Colombo left the city that day, some back to their villages but many knew not whither. (Jennings, 2005, p.131)

The evacuation caused more problems than the bombing. Apart from the serious shortage of food, there was a breakdown in distribution, as many shopkeepers had fled the city. Much of the local labour force necessary to carry out essential services, too, had disappeared. OEG managed to avert a crisis when he ordered the closed shops to be opened and “called out the whole staff of the Audit Department and put them to serve in boutiques” (ibid, p.131). NU, like many government servants, sent his family off to the countryside for a short period during this time, but himself stayed back in the city. His daughter Neiliya recalls being sent off to Koskandawela, a village in Gampaha, with her mother and two brothers, to live with a family who were known to her mother’s parents and that NU would visit them on weekends.

Accounts from this period reveal how close Sri Lanka came to being captured by the Japanese. It was a combination of luck and circumstances that saved Sri Lanka – Winston Churchill would later famously remark that the attack on Sri Lanka had been his “most

dangerous moment.” ( An account of the attack on Sri Lanka is given in a book entitled, Most Dangerous Moment: Japanese Assault on Ceylon, 1942, Mayflower (Sept. 1979), by Michael Tomlinson.) Although we know with hindsight that the Japanese had been halted in their advance and would not return to attempt further assaults on the island, at the time this was far from certain. ( Only 25 aircraft fighters were still serviceable the day after the attack on Sri Lanka, and only 4 were still

serviceable after the attack a few days later on Trincomalee (Jennings, 2005, p.133). Several fortunate circumstances averted disaster, including the fact that

the Japanese fleet did not have enough fuel to prolong the attack and had to return to Singapore for refuelling (Jeffries, p.58; and Jennings, 2005, pp.128-30).

The country would be kept on a war-footing for another three years until the Japanese were defeated in 1945. In spite of the threat of war, these were idyllic days for Neiliya

and her brothers. As she recalls:

It was here [Koskandawela] that we as children discovered the joys of fishing in streams, playing with calves, collecting eggs from chicken coops, playing with goats and their kids. Our whole life and activities centred around a mother who exposed us to all the beautiful things of the world. (Neiliya Perera, 2006)

Their stay in the village seems to have made a lasting impression on the children, for on returning to Colombo and their home in Police Park Avenue, “a single story beautiful colonial house with a large back and front garden,” Neiliya noted that:

The first thing my mother got us was a nanny goat for milk with three little kids and the three of us adopted one each. Then came a stream of animals thereafter – dogs which we had always had, two cows for milk, rabbits in numbers, a series of deer and even a baby bear and over the years we had parrots. One of the parrots called Polly would call out the names of her favourite people: ‘Nimal, Nanna’. The more exotic birds and animals belonged to my brother Nimal, who even today has as his hobby collecting

exotic birds and fish. (ibid)

On the other hand, these years when his young children were growing up were extremely busy ones for NU. Neiliya recounts an anecdote:

My father was as usual always busy at work. My mother was both father and mother… The story goes that my father worked so hard – seven days of the week, that he left home before my second brother Nimal was awake and came home after he was asleep. The most regular male visitor was the postman, and Nimal used to call the postman ‘Daddy.’ (ibid)

Oliver Goonetilleke

It was during wartime when, according to NU, he was “discovered” by Oliver Goonetilleke (OEG). It was upon OEG’s recommendation that he would be seconded to the Department of Commodity Purchase as Deputy Commissioner; and OEG was listed as a referee by NU on a job application in 1943.

OEG was one of the key figures in the colonial administrative service and also dominated the political scene during the war and post-war periods. NU was associated with him when OEG was Civil Defence and Food Commissioner, and would work closely with him as they both moved up the career ladder. There were many parallels in their lives. Oliver Goonetilleke, born in 1892, was the only son amongst the eight children of Alfred Ernest Goonetilleke, a postmaster from Kotte who was a Christian. OEG was educated at Wesley College, Colombo. Journeying by train, he walked to school from the station to save the tramcar fare of 5 cents, as his father was economically hard-pressed. Like NU, he took an external London University degree (BA), and also taught for a time at Wesley College. In 1924, OEG was Assistant Colonial Auditor, a post previously filled by British officials. In 1926 he did a postgraduate course at the London School of Economics, and in 1931 became the Colonial Auditor (renamed Auditor-General), an office he held for 11 years. As OEG’s biographer, Sir Charles Jeffries wrote:

The appointment was acclaimed as a new departure in policy and a new triumph for the Ceylonese people. The satisfaction was justified, for Goonetilleke’s promotion marked the beginning of the end of the traditional assumption that Ceylon, like other colonies, should be staffed, in the higher grades, from the general British Colonial Service. (Jeffries, 1969, p.38)

Although NU worked closely with OEG during the next several years, he would have disagreements with OEG regarding his policy on food subsidies – particularly rice subsidies. NU believed that these should have been gradually reduced following the war and warned OEG about the economic consequences of not doing so; political turmoil would end up being one of the results

(To be continued)

(Excerpted from N.U. JAYAWARDENA The first five decades)

By Kumari Jayawardena and Jennifer Moragoda ✍️


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BRICS upholds inclusive growth; re-affirms South-South cooperation

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2026/09/17

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BRICS political leaders at the 2026 New Delhi summit.(BBC)

A principal highlight of the recently concluded BRICS 2026 summit in New Delhi was the grouping’s unambiguous championing of the empowerment of ordinary people everywhere. This was yet another notable coming together of Southern governments over matters of common concern alright but it was the grouping’s people-oriented thinking that struck the impartial commentator as particularly important this time around.

The latter accent merits underscoring in view of the widespread perception that Southern oriented international organizations, such as the Non-aligned Movement (NAM), have had their day, so to speak. However the BRICS summit not only re-affirmed NAM principles but gave proof of its willingness to complement the main undertakings of NAM. Accordingly, causes such as South-South cooperation, international economic and social equity, multilateralism, international peace and the need to uphold the current UN-centred world order received resounding and fresh emphasis.

Particularly encouraging for those espousing Southern development concerns was the stressing of the historic ‘Bandung Principles’ in the New Delhi Declaration which crowned the summit deliberations. As is known, it was the ‘Bandung Spirit’ of 1955 that paved the way for the establishment of NAM and South-South cooperation in a major way. As such the ‘Spirit’ was primary in helping to reshape international development discourse and in giving it a pro-people bent. That is, development correctly conceived was birthed.

The New Delhi Declaration said in this regard: ‘We recall the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia that proclaimed general principles, including equality, independence, non-intervention and mutual benefit. We stress that the Bandung Spirit serves as a reference in the pursuit of a fairer, more inclusive, and representative multilateral system.’

‘Geopolitics’ was not glossed over or ignored in New Delhi, but it is quite forgotten by some sections of opinion in particularly Sri Lanka that BRICS, while being an important Southern counter-balance in terms of power to the global North is also essentially about international economic growth with equity. The New Delhi summit helped to put right this conceptual imbalance in what groupings such as BRICS ought to be thinking and doing.

Even more precisely, people should be at the heart of development and in the exertions and preoccupations of international organizations claiming to represent the South. Southern governments equipped with economic and military might in particular remain important but it is people’s empowerment that ought to be the overriding consideration.

The latter concerns help stress the cruciality of democratic development since it is the latter that facilitates best the well being of people. Unfortunately, BRICS happens to be top-heavy with authoritarian governments that could deliver economic growth but not equity. It is fully representative, participatory governance that could best deliver to the people their essential needs and not totalitarian governments.

This is a complex dilemma for BRICS. It could be resolved somewhat by admitting more and more pro-people, democratic states into the BRICS fold to counter-balance the power and influence of authoritarian states. At present among the principal BRICS countries it’s only India that meets most of the criteria for democratic development.

Hopefully, more and more Southern democracies would see it fit to join BRICS in consideration of the latter’s potential to be a prime ‘economic powerhouse’ of the world. Equally hopefully, people’s empowerment in the true sense would come to be valued as a crucial merit for BRICS membership. It is relevant to stress that the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of a people is integral to their complete empowerment.

A grave negative fallout from the Trump administration’s current militarism is that more and more states world wide would come to value military heft over people’s empowerment. Consequently, the preference for military power could lead to countries wanting BRICS membership for the wrong reasons. That is, security through collective armed might would come to matter over all else and the world would be rendered an increasingly ‘dangerous place’.

But thinking people would expect from BRICS a more responsible role in world affairs and prefer to have from it inspirational guidance in democratic development, correctly understood.

A commitment by BRICS at the summit of considerable importance to world peace that should not be underplayed is its commitment to the UN system and the strengthening of International Law. The relevant quote from the Declaration spoke of BRICS’ ‘Commitment to strengthening multilateralism and multi-polarity and upholding International Law, including the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations.’

Coming at a time when the UN is seen by some as a spent force, lacking effectiveness, the above endorsement of the UN Charter and International Law is of crucial significance. This amounts to solidly upholding the post World War Two order despite current largely rhetorical assertions that it is fast unraveling.

While UN reform remains a compelling necessity, the endorsement of the UN-centred order holds out the possibility of some of the BRICS heavyweights, who are currently acting in violation of International Law, eventually getting back to conduct that would be more in keeping with the requirements of International Law.

The UN could put these developments to constructive use by redoubling its efforts to work out diplomatic solutions to the current conflicts and wars that are showing no signs of being receptive to fresh peace efforts.

Two of these theatres of conflict are the Middle East and the Ukraine. While the US, Israel, Russia and Iran would need to be engaged by the UN with exceptional persuasive power to sort out the conflicts where they have come to feature directly and indirectly, the relevant BRICS members’ commitments to world peace and multilateralism could be used as instruments of moral pressure perhaps to induce them to get onto the path of peaceful conflict resolution.

The wide consensus among the BRICS powers amounts to their scoring a significant political victory over the US and its allies. Their espousal of international peace and the UN Charter exposes the US as being at cross purposes with peace-oriented and democratic sections world wide. Specifically, the moral and intellectual poverty of the Trump administration is being revealed glaringly.

This does not amount to a condemnation of the people of the US perse. It is just that some of them have voted quite unwisely. As a first step towards correcting this situation they could make good use of the upcoming mid term elections to register their strong disapproval of the Trump administration and the political extremists among the US Right. Course correction is not impossible.

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Not I — We: A new uniform will mean nothing if the person inside it is left behind

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2026/09/17

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by Mahil Dole

Senior Superintendent of Police (Retd.)

Sri Lanka Police has just marked 160 years. The parades were in order. The sentence that should have followed them has not been written with enough force. A police service that is pulled by politics, rewarded for individual glory and tried every night on social media cannot protect a country that is now a maritime hinge for international narcotics and financial crime. The political authority must decide, not in a speech, but in conduct, whether this force belongs to the law or to the loudest faction of the week.

That is not a plea. It is a warning.

The political hierarchy and the police hierarchy now agree that the service needs a new outlook, beginning with the uniform. The cut and the kit are not yet settled. That conversation is overdue. Criminals have moved into containers, encrypted apps and international logistics. An officer equipped for a quieter decade is less able to detect, and less able to come home.

Sophistication of kit is essential. Body-worn cameras, communications and protective equipment that match the threat are not luxuries. They keep a policeman alive.

If the first decision of this compact is only what the officer will wear, the wrapping will be modern and the person untouched. The priority is not a new silhouette. It is a different person inside the uniform.

The officer is a human being

He and she is a product of this complicated society. The fractures that run through the village, the school and the social-media feed run through the recruit. Communal suspicion, religious identity and ethnic memory are not checked at the armoury gate. The question treated as delicate is operational: is this officer mentally geared for ordinary crime and for communal, religious and ethnic conflict?

What is his stand if he belongs to one community and is sent into a dispute involving another? How will the parties look at him? How will the media frame the first photograph? That decides whether a crowd sees the law or “the other side.” We are all Sri Lankans. The sentence is easy on a Police Day banner. It is hard at a junction when rumour is already ahead of the patrol.

Every officer, from constable to gazetted rank, must be trained for these issues as deliberately as for a baton. Not one lecture at Katukurunda: recurring, scenario-based work on mixed neighbourhoods, mixed complainants, and keeping personal faith out of the method of work. The media will hunt the communal angle; parties to a conflict will hunt the ethnic one. The only answer that holds is an officer whose first identity on duty is Sri Lankan and whose first loyalty is the law.

That is “We.” Assuming the uniform dissolves identity is how a single incident becomes a national story.

What they have been is not what they can remain

From the 1866 ordinance this service has been the state’s civilian arm, colonial order-keeping, post-independence law and order, then a wartime partner that buried its dead beside the armed forces. Specialised units were built for terrorism, organised crime and financial intelligence. The same institution was used as a residual army, a political instrument and a promotion marketplace. Loyalty too often attached to a person, not to the law. Easter Sunday made the price visible. So did every file that moved, or stalled, according to who was in office.

A history of sacrifice does not excuse a present of capture. It makes the capture more shameful.

What they are today

On paper the force is large, some 79,000 authorised, 609 stations. On the ground it is thin. More than 4,300 officers have left since 2020. Vacancies exceed 30,000. Shifts of twelve to eighteen hours are still treated as normal. Distress is still logged as discipline rather than welfare. That is waste, not toughness.

Crime has two faces, and both strike national security. Gang violence over narcotics still produces shootings. Sri Lanka also sits on feeder routes moving Afghan and Pakistani product toward other markets. Harbour and high-sea detections in the hundreds of kilograms are no longer rare. Ice hidden in towels at Colombo Port; heroin pulled from multi-day trawlers; scam compounds and frozen assets in the billions of rupees, these are not “ordinary crime.” They buy influence and fund the next consignment.

The third battlefield is information. Reels and anonymous accounts impersonate officers, launder rumour as fact, and reward the man who seeks a following. Inside the service the culture still teaches “I”: my file, my photograph, my briefing. Rank is being treated as a prize. It is a trust.

The container that became a campaign

Late August 2026, officers opened containers at the Colombo International Container Terminal and recovered some 463 to 472 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, concealed in towels, originating from Pakistan and valued in the billions of rupees. Suspects including foreign nationals were arrested. The United States DEA publicly associated itself with the intelligence. The criminal case sits with the Central Crime Investigation Bureau.

That is a success. It should have been protected as a success.

Instead, an internal process review, ordered by the Inspector General into how information moved between bureaux, was translated on social media into another story: that the IGP and Senior DIG Ranmal Kodituwakku were being “chambered” over the detection. An Opposition MP warned, correctly, that putting the officers who delivered the raid under a public microscope will teach the service the wrong lesson.

State the distinction without apology. A criminal file is about the network and the money. A process file is about timelines and chain of custody. A blog is neither. Collapsing a Senior DIG’s recorded statement into “the hierarchy is in the dock” is not accountability. It is a gift to those who packed the towels. After a half-tonne interdiction, a process review is normal; leaking it as a morality play is not. Complete the inquiry on the record. If negligence is found, deal with it. If not, say so. Half-spoken files let rumour colonise the institution.

Training, technology and a mind that can bear the load

The IGP and the hierarchy must stop treating training as a calendar ornament. Immediate programmes are required, not next year’s paper.

First

, the evolving issues: communal and religious tension, narrative operations, child and women protection, financial and cyber crime, harbour interdiction, the law of arrest.

Second

, the technologies: digital evidence, data protection under the Personal Data Protection Act, disciplined open-source work, body-worn cameras that protect the public and officers alike.

Third

, mental health as operational infrastructure, counselling an Inspector can use without becoming a Legal Division case, and early recognition of burnout before it becomes a headline.

Incentives must follow: allowances for certified competencies, promotion credit for courses applied, not for attendance photographs. Asking for sophistication at the port with no path to acquire it is theatre.

A new uniform that can carry a camera, worn by an officer unprepared for the society he polices, is a costume. The station, the cell, the unseen hour Look next at where this officer lives and works. Many stations are old, congested and unhygienic. Living standards on duty are low. You cannot demand a different person in the uniform and house him as if he were expendable.

Cells are a particular failure of command. Too many sit out of sight of the men on duty. They are dilapidated. What happens inside goes unnoticed until a death, an assault or an escape. That is a design of our own buildings, not a secret of the underworld. A cell that cannot be seen cannot be defended in court or in conscience. Refurbish, fix sightlines, monitor what the Constitution requires, and treat an escape as a failure of supervision before it becomes a press note.

These are not welfare extras. They are the conditions under which evidence is kept, suspects are held, and officers decide whether the job is still worth the family cost.

The health of the officer is the health of the public

One of the first duties of the hierarchy is the health of the policeman and his family. A sick officer with a sick child is not “uncommitted.” He is a risk to himself, to the next raid, and to the citizen at the counter. Police hospitals are few. Officers in rural stations cannot reach them in time. The IGP should not wait for a building programme. Speak to the health authorities now. Arrange priority access for officers and their families at government hospitals. Dedicated wards or reserved beds are not a privilege class. They are the minimum owed to people sent into harm, and into other people’s crises, at every hour.

Good health is a good mind. A good mind is good care for the people. No uniform compensates for an officer who has not slept, has not been treated, and cannot reach a Police hospital.

What they must be tomorrow

The country does not need more decoration. It needs a service the public can approach without fear and that no politician can casually redirect: intelligence-led against networks that threaten the state; digitally capable and legally bounded; trained for communal heat as well as narcotics; housed and treated as human beings; collectively minded. We hold the ground, not I cleared the file.

The constable at the junction and the analyst tracing a hawala chain are the same institution. National security is not a specialist’s private property.

To the policymakers and the political authority

You have agreed with the Police hierarchy on a new outlook. Use it for more than cloth.

Independence is not the IGP’s personal autonomy. It is the institution’s ability to apply the law without fear or favour, and still answer to the law. You cannot have that and also have a Police summoned, transferred or publicly undermined according to the needs of the week.

Appointment and removal of the Inspector General must remain a process, not patronage. The National Police Commission must exercise its powers over promotions, transfers and discipline without being hectored from the gallery. Cabinet sets policy and budget. It does not choose Tuesday’s suspect. Comment from the House on the guilt of named officers while a file is open is not oversight. It is interference under another name.

If you want an apolitical Police, stop using internal inquiry as a factional weapon and social media as a substitute bench. Different treatment of files is the old disease. Naming it only when the officer is someone you dislike is the same disease.

Then fund what a new uniform implies: immediate training, habitable stations, cells that can be seen, and a health arrangement with the Ministry of Health that does not leave a rural sergeant’s family outside the gate. Announcing kit and withholding living conditions is not reform. It is dressing the service for a photograph.

The public has a part. Distinguish error from crime. Cooperate with the officer who is fair; demand consequences where he is not. In conflict, look at the uniform as the law, not as a census of name, faith or village. Do not outsource judgement to an anonymous account.

The stand It is not I. It should be We.

A new uniform will not make an officer Sri Lankan. Training, health, housing, an apolitical file, and a command that treats him as a human being might. A service that thinks in individual glory will be outrun by networks that think in systems. A political class that thinks in capture will keep receiving detections and wondering why the pipeline never closes. A country that argues about the cloth while the person inside it is exhausted, untrained for communal fire, and unseen in a dilapidated cell block is not preparing for tomorrow. It is rearranging the wardrobe.

The law cannot serve two masters. Neither can the uniform, old or new.

(This analysis is offered in the interest of national security, institutional reform, and public safety)

Mahil Dole, SSP (Retd.), served as Deputy Director in charge of the Counter-Terrorism Desk of the State Intelligence Service and later as Intelligence Coordinator to the Inspector General of Police. He is a former Member of the Sri Lanka Wakfs Board and author of Security Beyond Enforcement: Practical Approaches for a Safer Nation. Email – mahildole54@gmail.com

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The Miss World 2026 scene …

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2026/09/17

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History was made under the lights on 05th September, as Joheirry Mola Dominguez, of the Dominican Republic, was crowned Miss World 2026 by outgoing queen Suchata Chuangsri of Thailand at April 2nd Square in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

It is only the second Miss World title for the Dominican Republic; 44 years after Mariasela Álvarez’s win in 1982. Reports described it as an “emotional and historic moment” for the nation.

Joheirry, 24, beat 110 other delegates to take the crown.

A dedicated educator and community advocate, she holds a degree in Business Management and Administration from Universidad Iberoamericana. She is Founder and President of “Voices of Tomorrow”, an initiative expanding access to English education for children in vulnerable communities. She also teaches Literature and Social Studies in English, and works as a correspondent for Univision New York’s Ventana a Quisqueya.

Her advocacy won hearts

It was her advocacy that won hearts.

“My Beauty With a Purpose is to take English programmes to kids in vulnerable communities,”

she said at the Grand Final. “Because I believe that when they know this language, the opportunities, the doors that can open to their life, it’s huge. English is a tool that will stay with them and benefit them for the rest of their lives.”

Spain’s Elisabeth Reynés finished 1st Runner-Up, while Malaysia’s Taanusiya Chetty, also winner of Beauty With a Purpose, took 2nd Runner-Up.

The Top 6 included Vietnam’s Le Nguyen Bao Ngoc, Eritrea’s Snit Habteab, and South Africa’s Romanda Hombir.

The 75th Anniversary edition, hosted for the first time in Vietnam, was a spectacle before 20,000 spectators. Staged on a 110+ meter outdoor platform by Nha Trang beach, the square was lit up with huge LED screens and high-power sound.

Even heavy rain during the Americas & Caribbean segment couldn’t dampen spirits. Umbrellas and raincoats popped up and the show resumed 15 minutes later. Nobody left. That’s dedication.

With 111 ambassadors, cultural dances, ao dai performances, and the seaside backdrop, officials called it a celebration of beauty, talent, confidence, and social responsibility.

With 20,000 people, rain or shine, screaming, cheering, live-streaming, waving flags… it was, indeed, pure Miss World magic.

For Sri Lanka, Prathibha Liyanaarachchi did not make the Top 40 at the 73rd Miss World Festival, but she reached the finalist stages of four fast-track events — Top Model, Talent, Sports, and Beauty With a Purpose.

Miss World magic: The square was lit up with huge LED screens and high-power sound

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