Midweek Review

Why bring science into Buddhist discourse?

Published

2 years ago

2024/03/20

by Geewananda Gunawardana, Ph.D.

A flurry of newspaper articles on Buddhism and Science appearing in recent times suggests an apparent interest in seeing the religion from a distinct perspective. However, if the intention of such commentaries is to find affirmation of Buddhist concepts based on science, to gain a deeper understanding of complex phenomena using science, or merely to impress the reader is not clear from these writings. Western scholars have been on a mission to evaluate the scientific validity of Buddhism for over 150 years.

Exploration of this vast literature shows that Buddha Dhamma, does not need any affirmation as it is ahead of modern science. In a world dominated by science, the pragmatic purpose of comparing Buddhism and science is to use the current scientific knowledge to relate or interpret hard to grasp phenomena that are transmitted to us in a language that went extinct hundreds of years ago. And thereby dispel any misconceptions and mysticism surrounding Buddha Dhamma.

The traditionalists insist that science and religions are incompatible, and comparisons are meaningless. They are right; a religion, by definition, is based on a belief system, not amenable to science. However, as Buddhism, which is a religion by any standards, and Dhamma are two different things (see Buddhism Sans Rituals, The Island, 19 Dec 2023), there should be no such obstacle to mixing the latter with science. The goal of this write up is to explore the utility of using science to understand the complex phenomenon of Dukkha, which is central to Buddha Dhamma.

According to literature, Prince Siddhartha was well educated in traditional academic disciplines befitting a royal, including the Vedas and Upanishads. Later, he studied the teachings of six other thought leaders who opposed the Brahminic tradition. He was not satisfied with the dualistic nature and the reliance on mysterious or metaphysical entities such as atman, soul, svabhava, Brahma, and gods in the explanation of life and liberation in all religious traditions. He went on his own and discovered the middle way and the principle of Codependent Genesis (paticcasamupada) in repudiation of those existing views.

Another way to describe the goal of Buddha Dhamma is to “see things as they have become” (yathabhutha nanadassana) or understand the nature of the universe and the humans’ place in it, without subscribing to superhuman powers or mysticism (Kalupahana 1992). This is the same goal that science strives to achieve.

Early Buddhits theory and knowledge

According to the early Buddhist theory, knowledge depends on perception, inference, and, to a certain extent, pragmatism; therefore, Buddha is considered an empiricist (Jayatileke 1963). The Buddhist empiricism is experiential while science depends on experimentation. The Buddhist theory also emphasizes that there are limits to human perception and inference. It is this inherent limitation in understanding the universe that causes human affliction to mysticism. What follows is a scientific exploration of these limitations and their consequences.

The analysis of human psychology forms a major part of Dhamma. Whereas scientific understanding lags the Buddhist theory in some respects as scientific investigation of mind did not begin until the late 19th century. It was considered a metaphysical phenomenon not amenable to science. However, recent scientific findings are in remarkable concordance with Buddhist interpretations.

I will discuss what science knows about perception using human vision as an example and compare it with the Buddhist version. However, it should be noted that accurate translation of Pali words used in Dhamma into English can be difficult. For example, Vinnana is translated as consciousness, which is defined as the state of being awake and aware of one’s surroundings. On the other hand, eighty-nine classes of vinnana are described in the Pali canon. However, both Buddhist and scientific descriptions of the process of perception are remarkably similar.

Nobody would argue that a rainbow has colors. It may come as a surprise, but neither the rainbow nor the light that causes that phenomenon has any colors; color is a mental construct. Electromagnetic radiation consists of waves, and they are characterized by wavelengths, frequencies, and energy, but color is not among their properties. The human eye is sensitive to about 0.0035% of electromagnetic radiation only, and this fraction, ranging from 380 to 750 nanometers, is referred to as the visible spectrum. (See diagram 1)

The retina of the human eye has two types of photoreceptors responsible for vision: cone cells and rod cells. There are three types of cone cells that are sensitive to long, medium, and short wavelength light. The rod cells are sensitive to light, darkness, and motion. For example, when sunlight, which consists of the entire spectrum, falls on a rose, except for the radiation ranging from 620 to 750 nm wavelength, all visible light is absorbed by pigments present in the petals. The light that was not absorbed is reflected. When this reflected light reaches the cone cells on the retina of the eye, they undergo chemical changes and generate an electrical signal. This process of sensation is identified as Vedana in Pali.

The signal generated is transmitted to the brain through neurons, a special type of cell that makes up the nervous system. The neurons form chains or networks by connecting with each other through structures known as synapses (see illustration). These connections can be opened and closed by changing the chemistry at the junctions, and thereby controlling the flow of the electrical signal. In fact, which is how the signal is processed in the brain. Buddha called the organ (Indiya) that performs these functions the mind (manas), the sixth sense faculty, and the perception of the electrochemical signal form the eye at the brain is called Sanna. (See diagram 2)

Complex phenomenon

What happens next is complex: first, all the information contained in that signal is saved as a neural map constructed using synaptic connections, akin to a three-dimensional QR code. If this is the first time someone, say a toddler, sees a rose, the signal received from the eye, or the neuronal map formed have no meanings on their own. It is a set of data that is enough to recreate the same sensation in her mind. However, if an adult around her explained to her that it was a “rose” and its color is “red,” that information received from the auditory signals coming from the ear are also saved as neural maps.

The brain constantly scans these maps in the background, just like the autonomous beating of the heart. And this activity enables the brain to collate the information received from all sensory organs and constructs a meaningful mental image: what is seen is a “red rose.” This process of cognizing is called Mental Formations (Sankhara). This is the activity that leads to mental processes, or volitions (karma), which precede actions.

Next time when light having 620 to 750 nm wavelength reflected from any object falls on the child’s eyes, and the signal reaches the brain, the brain notes that there is a neural map already saved, containing the same data, and that sensation is named ‘red.’ As a result, the brain re-cognizes the new sensation as red, and the child may be able to express her perception verbally using this convention. If the child were not taught that this sensation is called red, the concept of redness would not exist in her mind. In other words, nowhere in this entire process does an actual thing called “red” exist, not in the light or on the rose. The concept of red is a mere mental construct.

The brain sits in a dark sealed chamber with no access to the outside world. Therefore, our perception of the world is a mental construct based on the signals sent to it by the sensory organs. All sensory information is processed by the brain in the same way. As a result, just like there is no color in light, there is no sound in disturbances of air, no smell in perfumes, or sweetness in sugar. They are all mental constructs. It goes for touch as well. The enormous repulsion between the electrons on the atoms on our fingertips and whatever object we wish to touch, does not let them make contact no matter how hard we try. What we feel is the force of that repulsion. Therefore, we cannot know how something feels to the touch. It is difficult to come to terms with but the entire world as we experience it is a mental construct.

Skepticism

Despite the skepticism among some religious groups, the theory of evolution remains the best explanation of the anatomy and molecular biology of living organisms. According to this theory, our sensory organs are evolved for the sole purpose of survival under changing conditions, but not for understanding the universe. Not only they are unable to see or feel the reality, but they also have major inherent limitations. For example, we cannot see things that are too small or too far and cannot feel electromagnetic radiation outside of the visible range. Even though the skies are filled with all manners of radiation, we would not know their presence without radios, TVs, or infrared cameras.

Before the scientific revolution, humans attributed unseen things to superpowers: infectious diseases, for example, were considered caused by unhappy spirits, and appeasing them with prayer, offerings, and sacrifices were believed to be the answer. The germ theory changed all that. Science and technology helped us overcome some of the limitations of our sensory system: the microscope, telescope, and spectrometers are some examples. Even with tremendous technological advancements, there are more unknowns about us and the universe. About 95% of the universe is estimated to be made up of dark matter and dark energy, but science does not know much about them.

Science acknowledges that we do not know much, and technological advancement is the way to expand our knowledge. But science does not advocate attributing unknowns to mysticism or superpowers and returning to prayer, rituals, or sacrifices as our ancestors did. Over two and a half millennia ago, Buddha taught the same thing: there is no mysterious entities or superpowers that can save or harm humans, and the human mind can be developed to better understand the nature and the humans’ place in it, or to “see things as they have become.” According to the teaching, seeing that at the highest level is nibbana.

Despite the late start, science is making good inroads to understanding consciousness. What is interesting is that they are discovering that the Buddha was right. For example, one of the problems they have trouble explaining is the “subjective experience.” Buddha had the answer. Buddha explained two more items in the process of human perception: vinnana and nama-rupa. The repository of neural networks representing our experience, or the knowledge base, is referred to as vinnana. It is translated as consciousness, but caution is warranted as the Pali word has broader meanings than the dictionary definition of consciousness.

The other process has to do with the subject object relationship of perception. All objects that are perceived by the sensory organs and the sensory organs themselves, that are made up of matter, are referred to as Form (rupa). Interestingly, mental objects are also added to this group, and the two together are referred to as Name and Form (Nama-rupa).

Human personality

The Buddha explained that the human personality is nothing more than a collection of these material and mental processes that keep the human conscious, and he called it the Five Clinging Aggregates (Panchupadanakkhandha): Form (Rupa), Sensations (Vedana), Perceptions (Sanna), Mental Formations (Sankhara), and ‘Consciousness’ (Vinnana). Science has analyzed these processes down to atomic level and beyond. They are all physio-chemical processes, and there are no mysteries. There are some gaps in our knowledge, especially surrounding consciousness, but our understanding will continue to grow.

Based on this knowledge, it is possible to deduce three features of life: Since these are all processes, they are in a state of constant change, or flux. Buddha had explained this, and he called it anicca. For the same reasons, there cannot be anything permanent, or have any substance associated with life. Any process is dependent on other processes and conditions, and as a result, they are not owned or controlled by an individual or a superpower.

Buddha called this property anatta. That gave the answer to the eternal quest for solving the mystery surrounding the self or athman. The declaration by Buddha that the notions of mine, me, and self are also mere mental constructs, was a first in human history. Therefore, according to Dhamma, the subject-object dilemma of modern science is also a mental construct. A difficult concept to accept due to our evolutionary history.

Human condition

The Buddha described a third quality of life: the human condition, or the life itself. All life processes are in flux, and they are beyond control. The sensory apparatus humans have is inadequate to see the real environment which they must inhabit and navigate. That is the reality of life, the human condition. The Buddha described this imperfect, uncontrolled, and unsatisfactory condition that humans must deal with as dukkha. Sadly, the Pali word dukkha has been misinterpreted as suffering ever since the Westerners encountered the word in the late 17th century. Legend has that a European who learned Sinhala thought the Pali word means the same as the similar sounding Sinhala word. And that translation has stuck.

This misinterpretation gives the impression that Buddhism is a pessimistic tradition. It is far from the truth, if anything, Buddha teaching is realistic (Rahula 1959). The term dukkha includes all human experiences, ranging from mundane happiness of householders to the supramundane happiness experienced by those who enter higher mental states, dhyana, not just the negative ones. Therefore, giving a negative connotation to life, i.e., dukkha, is meaningless. It is life as we know it, and without it, there would be no life. There are several theories of consciousness, and most of them agree that consciousness exists as a continuum.

That is, human consciousness is more advanced than that of animals. Similarly, some humans have more advanced consciousness than the average human. This is a ‘skill’ that can be improved or cultivated by training. In the Fourth Noble Truth, the Buddha described the way to develop the mind to above normal levels. The premise is that those who have developed the mind will better understand dukkha and be able to skillfully navigate it, leading to a happy and harmonious life.

A short article like this cannot provide an adequate interpretation of Dhamma from a science perspective or help comprehend the complex concepts like anicca, dukkha, and anatta. In fact, if one were to endeavor to digest what was discussed here, by most accounts, which would equate to insight meditation. However, it should be possible to see that just like in science, there is no place or need for mystery or belief in the teaching of Buddha (Kalama sutta). Unfortunately, the same mysticism and beliefs that Buddha dispelled two and a half millennia ago have crept back into Buddhism.

It is true that some of it has cultural, artistic, or sentimental values. But if the human affliction for beliefs and mysticism, or the shortcomings in our sensory apparatus, are used to exploit the innocent and waste valuable resources that could be put into better use, that would be an insult to Dhamma, its author, and purveyors. The preferred outcome of comparing Buddhism and science would be to enable science savvy young generations to relate to Buddha Dhamma and prevent falling prey to mysticism.

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Midweek Review

Aragalaya: GR blames CIA in Asanga Abeyagoonasekera’s explosive narrative

Published

5 days ago

2026/02/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Asanga

Did CIA chief William Burns visit Colombo in Feb 2023? Sri Lanka and the US refrained from formally confirming the visit. The Opposition sought confirmation of the then CIA Chief’s visit to Colombo in terms of the Right to Information Act but the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government sidestepped the query. A former Republican congressman from Texas and Director of National Intelligence (2020–2021) John Ratcliffe succeeded Burns in late January 2025.

On the sheer weight of new evidence presented by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera’s ‘Winds of Change’, readers can get a clear picture of the forces that overthrew President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022.

Even five years after the political upheaval, widely dubbed ‘Aragalaya,’ controversy surrounds the high-profile operation that forced wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to literally run for his dear life.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, formerly of the Army but a novice to party politics, comfortably won the 2019 November presidential election against the backdrop of the Easter Sunday carnage that caused uncertainty and suspicions among communities. The economic crisis, also clandestinely engineered from abroad, firstly by crippling vital worker remittances from abroad, almost from the onset of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency, overwhelmed the government and created the environment conducive for external intervention. Could it have been avoided if the government, that enjoyed a near two-thirds majority in Parliament, sought the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?

The costly and well-funded book project, undertaken at the time Abeyagoonasekera was working on a governance diagnostic report for the IMF, in the wake of the change of government in Sri Lanka, meticulously examined the former Lieutenant Colonel’s ouster, taking into consideration regional as well as global developments. Abeyagoonasekera dealt efficiently and furiously with rapidly changing situations and developments before the unprecedented 03 January, 2026, US raid on Venezuela.

Lt. Col. (retd) Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for some unexplainable reason and a considerable time after the events, has chosen to blame his ouster on the United States. We cannot blame him either, by the way we have seen how other regime changes had been engineered, in our region, by Washington, since and before Gotabaya’s ouster. The accusation is extraordinary as Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his memoirs ‘The conspiracy to oust me from presidency’ refrained from naming the primary conspirator, though he clearly alluded to an international conspiracy.

April 8, 2019 meeting

Launched in March 2024, in the run-up to the presidential election that brought Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) to power, almost in a dream ride, if not for the intervening outside evil actors, ‘The conspiracy to oust me from presidency’ discussed the international conspiracy, but conveniently failed to name the primary conspirator. What made the former President speak so candidly with Abeyagoonasekera, the founding Director-General of the national security think tank, the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSS), under the Ministry of Defence, from 2016 to 2020?

Abeyagoonasekera also served as Executive Director at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (LKI), under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2011–2015), during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as the President. The author, both precisely and furiously, dealt with issues. Readers may find very interesting quotes and they do give a feeling of the author’s general hostility towards the US, India, as well as to the US-India marriage of convenience. Those who sense so may end up thinking ‘Change of Winds’ being supportive of the Chinese strategy. Among the highly sensitive quotes that underlined the Indian approach were attributed to Indian Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra. The author quoted Mitra as having declared: “We need the MRCC centre [Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre], and you cannot give it to another nation.” As pointed out by the author, it was not a request but an order given to Sri Lanka on 8 April, 2019, meant to prevent Sri Lanka from even considering a competing proposal from China. Against that background, the author, who had been present at that meeting at which the Sri Lanka delegation was led by then Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, questioned the failure on the part of the delegations to take up the Easter Sunday attacks. Terrorists struck two weeks later. Implications were telling.

That particular quote reveals the circumstances India and the US operated here. No wonder the incumbent government does not want to discuss the secret defence MoUs it has entered into with India and the US as they would clearly reveal the sellout of our interests.

The following line says a lot about the circumstances under which Gotabaya Rajapaksa was removed: “In Singapore, a senior journalist recounted how Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation was scripted, under duress, at a hotel, facilitated by a foreign motorcade.”

In the first Chapter that incisively dealt with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the author was so lucky to secure an explosive quote from the ousted leader in an exclusive, hitherto unreported, interview in June 2024, a few months after the launch of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s memoirs. The ex-President hadn’t minced his words when he alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) orchestrated his removal. He also claimed that he had been under US surveillance throughout his presidency.

The ousted leader has confidently cleared India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of complicity in the operation. What made him call Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval ‘a good man,’ in response to Abeyagoonasekera’s pointed query. Abeyagoonasekera quoted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as having said: “… he would never do such things.” The ex-President must have some reason to call Doval a good friend, regardless of intense pressure exerted on him and the Mahinda Rajapaksa government by the Indians to do away with large scale Chinese-funded projects. (Doval in late October last year declared “poor governance” was the reason behind uprisings that led to change of governments in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka over the period of past three-and-a-half years. The media quoted Doval as having said, during a function in New Delhi, that democracy and non-institutional methods of regime change in countries, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, created their own set of problems. That was the first time a senior Indian government official made remarks on Nepal’s government change, followed by the Gen Z uprising in early September, 2025.)

Gotabaya Rajapaksa also cleared the Chinese of seeking to oust him. It would be pertinent to mention that China reacted sternly when at the onset of the Gotabaya presidency, the President suggested the need to re-negotiate the Hambantota Port deal.

During the treacherous ‘Yahapalana’ administration (2015 to 2019) Gotabaya Rajapaksa told me how Doval had pressed him to halt not only the Colombo Port City project but to take back Hambantota Port as well. By then, the Chinese had twisted the arms of the Yahapalana leaders Mairthpala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe and secured the Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease in a one-sided USD 1.2 bn deal. The Colombo Port City project, that had been halted by the Yahapalana government, too, was resumed possibly under Chinese threat or for some money incentive.

Once Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, declared, at a hastily arranged media briefing at Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF), that Sri Lanka would be relentlessly targeted as long as the Chinese held the Hambantota Port. The writer was present at that media briefing.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said so in the aftermath of the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage, while disclosing his abortive bid to convince the Yahapalana government to abrogate the Hambantota Port deal. Did the parliamentarian know something we were not aware of? The author’s assessment, regarding the Easter Sunday attacks, based on interviews with Chinese officials and scholars, is frightening and an acknowledgement of a possible Western role in Sri Lanka’s destabilisation plot.

The ousted leader, in his lengthy interview with Abeyagoonasekera, made some attention-grabbing comments on the then US Ambassador here, Julie Chung. The ex-President questioned a particular aspect of Chung’s conduct during the protest campaign but his decision not to reveal it all in his memoirs is a mystery. Perhaps, one of the most thought-provoking queries raised by Abeyagoonasekera is the rationale in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s claim that he didn’t want to suppress the protest campaign by using force against the backdrop of his own declaration that the CIA orchestrated the project.

Author’s foray into parliamentary politics

Gotabaya

For those genuinely interested in post-Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga developments, pertaining to international relations and geopolitics, may peruse ‘Winds of Change’ as the third of a trilogy. ‘Sri Lanka at Crossroads’ (2019) dealt with the Mahinda Rajapaksa period and ‘Conundrum of an Island’ (2021) discussed the treacherous Sirisena–Wickremesinghe alliance. The third in the series examined the end of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s rule and the rise of Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) whom the author described as a Marxist, though this writer is of the view the JVP and NPP leader AKD is not so. AKD has clearly aligned his administration with US-India while trying to sustain existing relationship with China.

Among Asanga Abeyagoonasekera’s other books were ‘Towards a Better World Order’ (2015) and ‘Teardrop Diplomacy: China’s Sri Lanka Foray’ (2023, Bloomsbury).

Had Abeyagoonasekera succeeded in his bid to launch a political career in 2015, the trilogy on Sri Lanka may not have materialised. Abeyagoonasekera contested the Gampaha district at the August 2015 parliamentary election on the UNP ticket but failed to garner sufficient preferences to secure a place in Parliament. That dealt a devastating setback to Abeyagoonasekera’s political ambitions, but the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena administration created the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSS), under the Ministry of Defence, for him. Abeyagoonasekera received the appointment as the founding Director-General of the national security think tank, from 2016 to 2020.

Several persons dealt with ‘Aragalaya’ (the late Prof. Nalin de Silva used to call it (Paragalaya) before Abeyagoonasekera though none of them examined the regional and global contexts so deeply, taking into consideration the relevant developments. Having read Wimal Weerawansa’s (Nine: The hidden story), Sena Thoradeniya’s (Galle Face Protest; Systems Change or Anarchy?). Mahinda Siriwardena’s (Sri Lanka’s Economic Revival – Reflection on the Journey from Crisis to Recovery) and Prof. Sunanda Maddumabandara’s (Aragalaye Balaya), the writer is of the opinion Abeyagoonasekera dealt with the period in question as an incisive insider.

Abeyagoonasekera, as a person who left the country, under duress, in 2021, painted a frightening picture of a country with a small and vulnerable economy trapped in major global rivalries. The former government servant attributed his self–imposed exile to two issues.

The first was the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. Why did the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena government ignore the warning issued by Abeyagoonasekera, in his capacity as DG INSS, in respect of the Easter Sunday bombing campaign? There is absolutely no ambiguity at all in his claim. Abeyagoonasekera insists that he alerted the government four months before the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) bombers struck. The bottom line is that Abeyagoonasekera had issued the warning several weeks before India did but those at the helm of that inept administration chose to turn a blind eye.

The second was the impending economic crisis that engulfed the country in 2022. Abeyagoonasekera is deeply bitter about his arrest on 21 July, 2024, at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) over an alleged IRD –related offence as reported at that time, especially because he was returning home to visit his sick mother.

Asanga’s father Ossie, a member of Parliament and controversial figure, was killed in an LTTE suicide attack at Thotalanga in late Oct. 1994. The Chairman and leader of Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya had been on stage with then UNP presidential election candidate Gamini Dissanayake when the woman suicide cadre blasted herself. The assassination was meant to ensure Kumaratunga’s victory. The LTTE probably felt that it could manipulate Kumaratunga than the experienced Dissanayake who may have had reached some sort of consensus with New Delhi on how to deal with the LTTE.

Let me reproduce a question posed to Asanga Abeyagoonasekera and his response in ‘Winds of Change’ as some may believe that the author is holding something back. “Didn’t they listen?” a US intelligence officer had asked me incredulously after the bombings. Years later, during my role as a technical advisor for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid Sri Lanka’s collapse, the question resurfaced: “How did you foresee the collapse of a powerful regime with a majority in parliament?” My answer remained the same—patterns. Rigorously gathered data and relentless analysis reveal the arcs of history before they unfold.

Perhaps, readers may find what former cashiered Flying Officer Keerthi Ratnayake had to say about ‘Aragalaya’ and related developments (https://island.lk/ex-slaf-officer-sheds-light-on-developments-leading-to-aragalaya/)

Bombshell claim

Essentially, Abeyagoonasekera, on the basis of his exclusive and lengthy interview with former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, confirmed what Wimal Weerawansa and Sena Thoradeniya alleged that the US spearheaded the operation.

But Prof. Maddumabandara, a confidant of first post-Aragalaya President Ranil Wickremesinghe has bared the direct Indian involvement in the regime change operation. In spite of Gotabaya Rajapaksa confidently clearing Indian NSA Doval of complicity in his ouster, Prof. Maddumabandara is on record as having said that the then Indian High Commissioner here Gopal Baglay put pressure on Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to take over the government for an interim period. (https://island.lk/dovals-questionable-regional-stock-taking/)

Obviously, the US and India worked together on the Sri Lanka regime change operation. That is the undeniable truth. India wanted to thwart Wickremesinghe receiving the presidency by bringing in Speaker Abeywardena. That move went awry in spite of some sections of both Buddhist and Catholic clergy throwing their weight behind New Delhi.

The 2022 violent regime change operation cannot be discussed without taking into consideration the US-led project that also involved the UNP, JVP and TNA to engineer retired General Sarath Fonseka’s victory at the 2010 presidential election and their backing for turncoat Maithripala Sirisena at the 2015 presidential election.

The section, titled ‘Echoes of Crisis from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh: South Asia’s Struggle in a Polycrisis’, is riveting and underscores the complexity of the situation and fragility of governments. Executive power and undisputable majorities in Parliament seems irrelevant as external powers intervene thereby making the electoral system redundant.

Having meticulously compared the overthrowing of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Bangladesh’s Premier Sheikh Hasina, the author condemned them for their alleged failures and brutality. Abeyagoonasekera stated: “When the military sides with the protesters, as it did in Sri Lanka and now in Bangladesh, it reveals the rulers’ vulnerabilities.” The author unmercifully chided the former President for seeking refuge in the West while alleging direct CIA role in his ouster. But that may have spared his life. Had he sought a lifeline from the Chinese so late the situation could have taken a turn for worse.

The comment that had been attributed to Gotabaya Rajapaksa seemed to belittle Ranil Wickremesinghe who accepted the challenge of becoming the Premier in May 2022 and then chosen by the ruling SLPP to complete the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s five-year term. Ranil was definitely seen as an opportunistic vulture who backed ‘Aragalaya’ without any qualms till he saw an opening for himself out of the chaos.

On Wickremesinghe’s path

Abeyagoonasekera discussed the joint US-Indian strategy pertaining to Sri Lanka. Whatever the National People’s Power (NPP) and its President say, the current dispensation is continuing Wickremesinghe’s policy as pointed out by the author. In fact, this government appears to be ready even to go beyond Wickremesinghe’s understanding with New Delhi. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence and the selling of the controlling interests of the Colombo Dockyard Limited (CDL) to India, mid last year, must have surprised even those who always pushed for enhanced relations at all levels.

The economic collapse that resulted in political upheaval has given New Delhi the perfect opportunity to consolidate its position here. Uncomplimentary comments on current Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha in ‘Winds of Change’ have to be discussed, paying attention to Sri Lanka’s growing dependence and alleged clandestine activities of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Abeyagoonasekera seemed to have no qualms in referring to RAW’s hand in 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

Overall ‘Winds of Change’ encourages, inspires and confirms suspicions about US and Indian intelligence services and underscores the responsibility of those in power to be extra cautious. But, in the case of smaller and weaker economies, such as Sri Lanka still struggling to overcome the economic crisis, there seems to be no solution. Not only India and the US, the Chinese, too, pursue their agenda here unimpeded. Utilisation of political parties, represented in Parliament, selected individuals, and media, in the Chinese efforts, are obvious. Once parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe raised the Chinese interventions in Sri Lanka. He questioned the Parliament receiving about 240 personal laptops for all parliamentarians and top officials. The then UNPer told the writer his decision not to accept the laptop paid for by China. Perhaps, he is the only Sri Lankan politician to have written a strongly worded letter to Chinese leader Xi warning against high profile Chinese strategy.

Winds of Change
is available at
Vijitha Yapa and Sarasavi

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Midweek Review

Beginning of another ‘White Supremacist’ World Order?

Published

5 days ago

2026/02/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Donald Trump’s complete lack of intelligence, empathy and common sense have become more apparent during the current term of his presidency. Ordinarily, a country’s wish to self-destruct as the United States seemingly does at present, and as the violence against US citizens and immigrants alike at the hands of federal authorities have shown in Minnesota, can be callously considered the business of that country. If the Trumpian imbecility was unfolding in Sri Lanka, anywhere else in South Asia or some other country of the purported Third World, the so-called World Order, led by the United States, would be preaching to us the values of democracy and human rights. But what happens when the actions of a powerful country, such as the United States, engulfs in the ensuing flames the rest of us? Trump and his madness then necessarily become our business, too, because combined with the military and economic power of the United States and its government’s proven lack of empathy for its own people, and the rest of the world, is quite literally a matter of global survival. Besides, one of the ‘positive’ outcomes of the Trumpian madness, as a friend observed recently, is that “he has single-handedly exposed and destroyed the fiction of ‘Western Civilisation’, including the pretenses of Europe.”

It is in this context that the speech delivered by the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, on 20 January, 2026, deserves attention. It was an elegant speech, a slap in the face of Trump and his policies, the articulation of the need for global directional change, all in one. But, pertinently, it was also a speech that did not clearly accept responsibility for the current world (dis)order which Carney says needs to change. The reality of that need, however, was overly reemphasised by Trump himself during his meandering, arrogant and incohesive speech delivered a day later, spanning over one hour.

My interest is in what Carney did not specifically say in his speech: who would constitute the new world order, who would be its leaders and why should we believe it would be any different from the present one?

Speaking in French, Carney observed that he was talking about “a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, where geopolitics, where the large, main power, geopolitics, is submitted to no limits, no constraints.” He was, of course, responding to the vulgar script for global domination put in place by the Trumpian United States, given Trump’s declared interest in seeing Canada as part of the United States, his avarice for Greenland, not to mention his already concluded grab for Venezuelan oil. But within this scenario, bound by ‘no limits’ and ‘no constraints’ he was also talking of Russia and China albeit in a coded language.

He reiterated, “that the other countries, especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states. The power of the less power starts with honesty.”

Who could disagree with Carney? His words are a refreshing whiff of fresh air in the intellectual wasteland that is the Trumpian Oval Office and the current world order it prevails over. But where has been the ‘honesty’ of the less powerful in the specific situation where he equates Canada itself within this spectrum? He tells us that “the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”

That is stating the obvious. We have known this for decades by experience. Long before Canada’s relative silence with regard to Trump’s and US’ facilitation of the assault on Palestine and the massacre of its people, and the US President’s economic grab in Venezuela and the kidnapping of that country’s President and his wife, Canada’s own chorus in the world order that Carney now critiques has been embellished by silence or – even worse – by chords written by the global dominance orchestra of the United States.

He says the fading of the rules-based order has occurred because of the “strong tendency for countries to go along, to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety.” Canada fits this description better than most other nations I can think of. But would Canada, along with other nations among the silent majority within the ‘intermediate powers’ take the responsibility for the mess in the world precisely that silence has directly led to creating? Who will pay for the pain many nations have endured in the prevailing world order? Will Canada lead the way in the new world order in doing this?

Carney further articulates that “for decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.”

But this is not true, is it? Countries like Canada prospered not merely because of the stability of rules of the world order, but because they opted for silence when they should not have. The rupture and the chaos in the world order Carney now critiques and is insanely led by Trump today is not merely the latter’s creation. It has been co-authored for decades by countries such as Canada, France, the United Kingdom to mention just a few who also regularly chant the twin-mantras of human rights and democracy. Trump is merely the latest and the most vocal proponent of the nastiness of that World Order.

It is not that Carney is unaware of this unpleasant reality. He accepts that “the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”

While Canada seems to be coming to terms with this reality only now, countries like Sri Lanka and others in similarly disempowered positions in this world order have experienced this for decades, because, as I have outlined earlier, Canada et al have been complicit sustainers of the now demonised and demonic world order.

It is not that I disagree with the basic description Carney has painted of the status of the world. But from personal experience and from the perspective of a citizen from a powerless country, I simply do not trust those who preach ‘the gospel of the good’ not as a matter of principle, but only when the going gets tough for them.

At this rather late stage, Carney says, Canada is “amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture.” Unfortunately, we, the people of countries who had to dance to the tunes of the world order led by the First World, have heard it for years, with no one listening to us when our discomforts were articulated. Now, Carney wants ‘middle powers’ or ‘intermediate powers’ within which he also locates Canada, “to live the truth?” For him, the truth means “naming reality” as it exists; “acting consistently” towards all in the world; “applying the same standards to allies and rivals” and “building what we claim to believe in, rather than waiting for the old order to be restored.” This appears to be the operational mantra for the new world order he is envisioning in which he sees Canada as a legitimate leader merely due to its late wakeup call.

He goes on to give a list of things Canada has done locally and globally and concludes by saying, “we have a recognition of what’s happening and a determination to act accordingly. We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is.” He goes on to say Canada also has “the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.” He notes this is “Canada’s path. We choose it openly and confidently, and it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.” Quite simply, this a leadership pitch for a new world order with Canada at its helm.

Without being overly cynical, this sounds very familiar, not too dissimilar to what USAID and Voice of America preached to the world; not too dissimilar to what the propaganda arms of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party used to preach in our own languages when we were growing up. It is difficult to buy this argument and accept Canadian and middle country leadership for the new world order when they have been consistently part of the problem of the old one and its excuses for institutionalised double standards practiced by international organisations such as the likes of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other hegemonic entities that have catered to the whims of that world order.

As far as Canada is concerned, it is evident that it has suddenly woken up only due to an existential threat at home projected from across its southern border and Trump’s threats against the Danish territory of Greenland. When Gaza was battered, and Venezuela was raped, there was no audible clarion call. Therefore, there is no real desire for democracy or human rights in its true form, but a convenient and strategic interest in creating a new ‘white supremacist’ world order in the same persona as before, but this time led by a new white warrior instead. The rest of us would be mere followers, nodding our heads as expected as was the case before.

As the 20th century American standup comedian Lenny Bruce once said, “never trust a preacher with more than two suits.” Mr. Carney, Canada along with the so-called middle powers and the lapsed colonialists have way more than two suits, and we have seen them all.