Features

Writing the Soulbury Constitution

Published

3 years ago

2023/04/30

Thilina Walpola

The first Cabinet of independent Ceylon with Lord Soulbury

Excerpted from A Cabinet Secretary’s Memoirs by BP Peiris

It was war time. Villavarayan was Legal Draftsman, H. N. G Fernando second in command and I next. Constitutional reforms were in the air and D.S. Senanayake and Governor Caldecott were in correspondence with the Colonial Office in London regarding the grant of Independence to Ceylon. The Colonial Office would not hear of drafting constitutions while they were in the midst of a war and told D.S. bluntly that they had no draftsmen to spare.

D.S. had told them that he had draftsmen in Ceylon and would have the draft Order in Council prepared. And so it was agreed with peace on both sides. It is not necessary here to refer to the correspondence between the Governor and the Secretary of State for the Colonies which has already been published in the Sessional Papers of Government.

Villavarayan was expecting, as was his right, to be asked at any time, to begin the drafting of the Constitution. He had given up reading his Greek and Latin and was looking into treaties on constitutional Law and Cabinet Government. D.S. in the meantime, having told the Colonial Office that he would produce the goods, was putting the Criminal Investigation Department behind every draftsman to enable him to decide which man should be entrusted with the drafting and could be trusted to keep the drafting a top secret.

I heard this later from Sir Charles Collins who was, at that time Adviser to the Government on Administrative Changes. The Police dossier, I am told, ran something like this:

Villavarayan – Classics man from Oxford.

Fernando – Oxford and Orient Club

Peiris – No Clubs

Abeysundera – One-time Private Secretary to D.S.

Namasivayam – Oxford, Grandson of Arunachalam

De Silva – Son of Geo De Silva, Member, State Council

Mahadeva – Grandson of Ramanthan

I was also told that D.S. was reluctant to entrust the drafting to a clubman or a Tamil.One day, Legal Secretary Nihill summoned me and said that he had been instructed by the Colonial Office to draft the Constitution. He could not do it personally as he was not a draftsman. He asked me whether I was willing to undertake the task. I agreed provided I was relieved of all other work, in which case, I suggested he should speak to Villavarayan.

As he was about to take up the telephone, I got up to leave and he beckoned me to be seated. “It will be easier and less embarrassing”, he said. Villavarayan was reluctant to release me in view of the work I had in hand, and Nihill told him that this was a decision by D.S. and that this work was far more important and far more urgent than any major Bill. Villavarayan was forced to agree to my immediate release and I was gazetted as an Assistant to the Legal Secretary.

D.S. had asked that I be warned that if one line of what I was drafting leaked out, I would be “hanged by the neck.” Nihill asked me to lock up even my blotting paper whenever I left my room and gave me the key of his safe. I started drafting – Clifford Pereira’s (lawyer/astrologer consulted by Peiris) fifth correct forecast!

My instructions were quite clear. I was to keep strictly within the “documents in the case”. These were the documents usually known as the Ministers’ Draft, the Report of the Soulbury Commission, and the White Paper embodying the decisions of His Majesty’s Government as an officer on special duty in the Legal Secretary’s Department. I had nothing to do with the other matters that department normally dealt with.

In these circumstances, and in view of other distractions like the telephone, I asked Nihill whether it was necessary that the drafting should be done in the office. He said he didn’t care where I did the drafting. He wanted the draft as quickly as possible. My study at home now became my office and, about once in every two weeks, I came from Panadura to Hultsdorp to look up necessary references in the library. The fact that I was drafting the Constitution was kept secret by my colleagues.

I had undertaken responsible work and I had to be careful. Many were the times I drafted a clause and tore it up. In the face of D.S.’s threat to hang me, I was unable to consult any of my colleagues when I was in a drafting difficulty. I had to rely on myself. There was no one I could take into my confidence. I struggled alone, sometimes tearing sheet after sheet of foolscap.

Many small but difficult points arose for consideration. The Ministers’ Draft, which had been prepared by Sir Ivor Jennings, was in a most confusing form as a draft and, although it contained all the essential points, had to be entirely redrafted. It had to be divided into Parts, each Part coming into operation on a different day.

For example, one Part come into operation on the date on which the Order in Council was published in the Gazette, another, on a date to be appointed by the Governor being a date not earlier than nine months from the date of publication of the Order, another on an appointed date not later than the date on which the names of members elected to the first House of Representatives were published in the Gazette, and another on the date of the first meeting of the House.

The Royal Power of Veto with regard to Bills had not been exercised in the United Kingdom since the days of Queen Anne, but the Power, though not exercised, was in every Dominion Constitution. Should I go outside my instructions and include it? I decided to do so, but at the final revision, D.S. with his horse sense said “Why should we include a Power which has not been exercised” and deleted it.

And now, after months of dreary but interesting work, the draft was coming to an end. When it was completed, I borrowed a typewriter and typed three copies of it. I am no typist and all the work was done with one finger of each hand. This was a slow and painful business which took me a very long time as the draft went into 52 pages of foolscap. The spacing was sometimes wrong; the alignment of the paragraphs was not always correct; there was much miss-typing, but the typing at last came to an end and I was happy.

Apart from the difficulties of drafting, I had to contend with other difficulties. I was drafting at Panadura in wartime and my petrol ration for an Austin Eight was two gallons a month. Telegrams were still going between Nihill and the Colonial Office over the drafting and, one night, I was asked to come at once to the Galle Face Hotel where Nihill was staying, as an urgent telegram had come from the Secretary of State.

I told him I was unable to come as I had no petrol in my tank and there was no train which I could use. When I met him the next day., he thought it preposterous that I should be given only two gallons of petrol a month and wrote, with his own hand, a letter to the Petrol Controller saying that I was engaged on matters of high state which could not be disclosed and asking that I be given all the petrol I needed.

This was too precious a letter for me to part with and I held on to it for the duration of the war. Armed with a copy, I went to see the Controller. I have spoken earlier about courtesy in high places, for example, among the Supreme Court Judges. Now, to my surprise, I came across a small man in boots that were too big for him. On the way to the general office, I passed three notices which said prominently in red “No interviews today” and entered a working room presided over by the person I thought was the Office Assistant.

I saw a man walking among the clerks’ desks smoking a cigarette but he took no notice of me. I kept standing at a table until, at last, he came to me and said rudely “No interviews”. I asked him whether he was the Office Assistant and he repeated what he had said earlier. I repeated my question a little louder and he answered “Yes” in a very superior voice.

Speaking staccato, I said “If you are, read this. Here’s a copy for your file. I want the original. Send me twenty-five gallons’ coupons to the Legal Secretary’s Office” and left. Why cannot public servants be courteous when courtesy costs nothing? I have noticed that it is always the small man, promoted, who tries to throw his weight about. The big men are there because they are big and they know the rules.

I informed Nihill and Drayton that I had completed the draft. They were both happy and requested me to come to Nuwara Eliya in a few day’s time with five copies of the draft. I was asked not to stay at any hotel as I was carrying secret papers. I told Nihill that I had only three copies of the draft, that I had typed them myself and that it was impossible, within the time allowed, to type the two extra copies required.

Drayton was surprised when he heard that I had typed the draft myself. He said that typing was not my job and asked the Civil Defence Commissioner, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, to give me immediately a confidential stenographer-typist who could be entrusted with a most secret job. O.E.G., ever ready to help, sent me his own man, Basil A. R. Candappa and, with Candappa at my house typing till four in the morning, we produced the required number of copies in time. The two extra copies were intended for D.S. and Jennings who were in the background.

When I had the five copies, I sent the following note to Drayton as Nihill had suddenly gone to England for a couple of days for consultations:

C. S.

On Mr Nihill’s instructions five copies of the draft Order-in Council have been typed. Mr Nihill left with me the annexed note re distribution of copies and asked me to hand all the copies to you.

Drayton minuted back: My dear Peiris,

Thank you. I have distributed accordingly. A good piece of work I think and now for the Elections O in C:

Yours sincerely

Robert Drayton

On Nihill’s return, I reported at Nuwara Eliya. Drayton and Nihill were at the Lodge. I was at Lakshmi Mahal, the residence of Mr Walter Salgado of Panadura, a fully furnished luxurious place with grand piano, which he was kind enough to place at my disposal.

My hours of work at the Lodge were from 9 a.m. till 7 p.m. with a break of one hour for lunch before which gin was served. At about 6 p.m. the whisky came round. My one regret was that when at last our labours had come to an end and I invited Drayton and Nihill over to my place for a drink, Drayton very politely refused saying that they should not put me to any trouble. Drayton scrutinized my draft with a magnifying glass and found few faults. Nihill, not having been a draftsman, was more or less silent unless a matter of law was being discussed.

After the whisky, with my papers in my bag, I used to drive to the Public Service Club as I was mentally tired and wished to have a game of billiards. When I reached the Club, I gave my bag to the Bar keeper to be locked up. My name was then put on the billiards board as a player waiting for a game. All the members of the Club knew that I was engaged in some official work – what the nature of the work was they did not know.

And, although my game was about midnight, each game being of half an hour’s duration, the members were kind enough to accommodate me. As soon as the first after my arrival was over, one of them who was down to play the next game would invite me to take his place, and this happened night after night, with the result that I was able to get back home for an early dinner and bed and be fresh for the next day’s drafting.

There was only one unfortunate incident – the club sponger. The membership consisted mainly of clerks but there was one ‘Staff Officer’ who played bridge and not billiards, and the bridge section was on the other side of the Bar. He had the knack and the habit of coming into the billiards section with an empty glass in his hand just at the moment when a round of drinks was about to be ordered. How he timed his visit was never found out and the poor, foolish clerks, in ordering the next round of drinks, which they could afford with difficulty, would include the staff officer.

The high-up would then collect his glass and return to the bridge room; and this process was repeated three or four times a day. I noticed this technique about my third day at the club and asked the clerks whether the old boy ever stood them a drink, His salary was five or six times theirs, and they said “Never”. I said “Watch it, chaps, next round” and held a pow-wow with the bar keeper. It happened as I expected; he came and stood, empty glass in hand.

From the high bench I raised my hand and the bar keeper brought a tray of drinks for everyone in the room, less one. Someone asked whose round of drinks this was and was told “Mr Peiris”. The tray was taken round and, when it came to serving the Staff Officer, the Bar Keeper skipped him. He went back to the bridge room and was not seen in the billiards section thereafter. I received the grateful thanks of the others for helping them to get rid of a pest.

The draft as finally approved by Drayton and Nihill had now to be submitted to D.S. who was being advised by Jennings. These secret meetings were held at Temple Trees which was not then what it is now. Jennings has related this part of the story elsewhere. We were all seated round a small oval dining room table and D.S., with Jennings to assist him went through the entire Order in Council clause by clause.

At times, D.S. was so suspicious about some phraseology that I had used that Drayton, Nihill and I felt that we were suspected of ‘cooking up’ the draft to give effect to some secret instructions received by Nihill from the Secretary of State. The fact was that the three of us were, strictly, agents for His Majesty’s Government while Jennings was agent for D.S. Whenever there was a slight difference of opinion among the lawyers on a question of legal interpretation, was it not natural for the layman D.S. to feel that his agent’s interpretation was the correct one?

There was no love lost between the two European officials, on the one hand, and the Vice-Chancellor, on the other. The native officials appeared to be there, like an air-cushion, to soften the blows. When after thrust and counter-thrust, complete agreement was reached by both parties, Candappa again typed the final wax sheets. This was necessary because, I believe, the Colonial Office required 15 copies.

The 52 wax sheets had to be carefully checked before they could be rolled off the machine, and that was a task I couldn’t handle single-handed.

Some outsider had to be taken into my confidence (there had been no leak and my neck was still intact) and that outsider had to be a person who was very good in his English, who was unlikely to go to a club and blab, and who, above all, had not the slightest interest in anything political. There was only one such I could think of – my friend Alexis Roberts who figures prominently in these Memoirs.

He lived at Auburnside at Dehiwala by the sea. On a full-moon night I took my wax sheets and went to him with a bottle of whisky. Stretched out on the lawn on a tarpaulin and cushions, the sea breeze keeping us cool and the whisky keeping us warm, he read the fifty-two pages of manuscript slowly with the aid of a reading lamp on a very long lead, while I kept my eyes glued on the wax sheets. The reading went on till four in the morning, with frequent intermissions, when we felt we had to wet the whistle if we were to survive.

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Features

Beyond traditional jobs: Why Sri Lanka needs to facilitate the gig economy

Published

1 day ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Image courtesy Oxford University

by Kapila Chinthaka Premarathne
Head of the Department of Agricultural Systems and a Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Agriculture,
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Beyond the Graduate Unemployment Number

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery has improved macroeconomic stability, but youth unemployment remains a significant labour-market concern. Around 43% of Sri Lankan youth aged 15–24 with postsecondary education are unemployed, the highest among the Asian economies compared in the IMF analysis, compared with about 36% in Bangladesh and 13.2% in Thailand. This reflects a problem of skills mismatches and the difficulty of connecting higher education with changing labour-market demand. The concern goes beyond unemployment itself. Sri Lanka has invested heavily in educating its younger population, yet the conventional labour market is not creating enough opportunities to convert these qualifications into income. Many young people possess degrees, technical knowledge and growing digital familiarity, but remain outside formal employment because suitable jobs may not exist in the right place, at the right time or under conditions compatible with their circumstances. This makes it necessary to think beyond traditional employment models and explore new ways of connecting Sri Lanka’s educated youth with economic opportunities.

This is where Sri Lanka needs to reconsider how it understands employment

Employment has traditionally been viewed through the employer–employee relationship, with qualifications leading to a formal job and regular salary. While this model remains important, digital platforms are creating new ways to generate income, allowing individuals to work for multiple clients across geographical boundaries without permanent employment. Sri Lanka therefore needs to look beyond simply creating conventional jobs and consider whether it is building the conditions for its educated population to participate in the growing global market for digital services.

The Opportunity of the Gig Economy

The gig economy extends far beyond ride-hailing and delivery services. Digital platforms increasingly connect skilled individuals with opportunities in software development, design, accounting, data analysis, digital marketing, translation, online education, research and consultancy. This is particularly relevant to Sri Lanka, where a highly educated population faces a relatively limited domestic market for specialised skills. Digital platforms can overcome geographical constraints by connecting Sri Lankan workers directly with international clients.

As highlighted in my previous LSE South Asia article on women and the gig economy, such work should not replace formal employment but can create additional income opportunities when supported by appropriate skills, digital infrastructure, training and institutional support. A skilled person in Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Batticaloa or Monaragala could potentially serve clients in London, Melbourne or Dubai without first relocating to Colombo. This makes the gig economy relevant not only to employment but also to Sri Lanka’s emerging digital services-export strategy.

A Digitally Familiar Generation

Sri Lanka’s younger generation is growing up with smartphones, social media, online learning, digital applications and digital financial services, giving them a level of digital familiarity that previous generations did not have. However, digital familiarity does not automatically translate into digital employability. The challenge is to transform everyday digital use into productive skills such as data analysis, artificial intelligence, software development, digital marketing, financial analysis and online professional services.

Sri Lanka therefore needs to move young people from being consumers of digital services to producers of digital value. Universities, vocational institutions and training providers can play an important role in converting existing digital familiarity into marketable skills that connect young people with both domestic and international opportunities. This is increasingly important as technological change and AI reshape labour markets and intensify the need for skills that match emerging forms of work.

The Gender Dimension

The gig economy may be particularly relevant to women, who often face barriers to conventional employment arising from childcare, eldercare, mobility, social expectations and rigid working arrangements. For mothers and women living outside major urban centres, fixed working hours and daily commuting can make formal employment difficult even when suitable jobs exist.

Digital gig work can provide greater flexibility, allowing women to undertake professional assignments from home or their communities and potentially serve international clients without relocating. As discussed in my earlier LSE South Asia article, this opportunity is most meaningful when supported by digital infrastructure, skills training, virtual work hubs, mentorship and appropriate institutional support. However, flexibility should expand women’s economic choices rather than simply add paid work to existing unpaid household responsibilities.

Pressure on Labour-Market Opportunity

The value of a job cannot be judged by salary alone, as commuting, working hours and household responsibilities can significantly affect its real economic value. Flexible digital work can potentially reduce some of these costs by allowing people to work from home or nearby digital hubs and participate in employment on a part-time or project basis. While gig work cannot solve all household pressures, a more flexible organisation of work can create additional employment opportunities while helping households manage their limited time and resources more effectively.

A Possible Third Option Between Unemployment and Migration

Sri Lanka’s migration and brain-drain concerns highlight the need to explore employment opportunities beyond the domestic labour market. While overseas migration will remain an important individual and economic choice, digital work can provide another pathway by allowing skilled Sri Lankans to serve international clients without physically leaving the country. Software developers, designers, analysts, researchers, translators and consultants can potentially earn from global markets while remaining in Sri Lanka. Digital gig work cannot eliminate migration or reverse brain drain, but it can create an additional option between domestic unemployment and physical migration—working for the world while remaining in Sri Lanka.

Recognising and Making Digital Work Reputable

A major institutional gap is that conventional systems are designed around salaried employment, while a freelancer may earn from multiple clients without a single employer or salary certificate. This can make legitimate digital workers difficult to recognise when they seek loans, leasing, insurance or business finance. Sri Lanka could address this through a voluntary digital-worker or independent-professional registration mechanism, providing a recognised economic identity based on qualifications, verified skills, platform activity and documented income, without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Such recognition should also make digital income bankable. Banks could assess verified platform earnings, bank transactions, contracts, invoices, tax records, savings and repayment history alongside conventional employment documents. A standardised digital income statement could further help workers demonstrate their financial capacity. The key shift is from asking “Who is your employer?” to asking “Can your income be verified and is it sufficiently stable?”. This would allow successful digital workers to build financial credibility and use their earnings to access credit, acquire assets and develop their own businesses.

Digital Payments Are Part of the Labour Market

Access to reliable international payment systems is essential if Sri Lankans are to participate effectively in the global digital economy. Recent developments in PayPal’s local banking arrangements, including its partnerships with Sampath Bank and Commercial Bank, indicate progress in this direction. However, the broader priority should be a regulated and efficient digital-payment ecosystem that allows workers to receive international earnings, transfer them to Sri Lankan bank accounts, document their income and meet relevant financial and tax requirements with minimal friction. International payment infrastructure is therefore not simply a technology issue; it is an essential component of Sri Lanka’s emerging services-export economy.

Building Infrastructure Outside Colombo

Digital familiarity alone is insufficient without reliable internet, electricity, computers, software and suitable working environments, particularly in rural and underserved areas. To ensure that the gig economy supports regional development rather than becoming another Colombo-centred opportunity, Sri Lanka could establish regional digital-work hubs through universities, vocational institutions, libraries and public-private partnerships. These hubs could provide connectivity, equipment, training, mentoring and assistance with platform registration and international payments. If graduates must migrate to Colombo simply to access such infrastructure, the geographical advantage of digital work is significantly reduced.

From Freelancer to Entrepreneur

Gig work should not be viewed as an end in itself. A person may begin with small online assignments, develop regular clients and professional credibility, and eventually establish a small digital enterprise. This creates a potential pathway from graduate to freelancer, professional service provider and entrepreneur, allowing individuals to create markets around their own skills rather than waiting for conventional vacancies. Universities can support this transition by teaching students not only subject knowledge but also portfolio development, market identification, client communication, digital platforms and contract management. A degree demonstrates educational attainment, while a professional portfolio demonstrates what a graduate can offer to the market.

Facilitation Must Be Matched by Protection

Promoting the gig economy without appropriate safeguards could simply transfer employment risks from institutions to individuals. Digital workers may face uncertain incomes, weak bargaining power and limited social protection. Sri Lanka should therefore facilitate digital work while also ensuring opportunities for independent workers to build savings, access insurance and participate in portable social-protection mechanisms. Flexibility should create greater economic choice without compromising long-term financial security, particularly for women.

A regional Example from India: Think Globally and act Locally

India provides a useful regional example of how the gig economy can be approached as a policy issue rather than simply as informal or temporary work. NITI Aayog has estimated the size and future employment potential of India’s gig and platform economy and has developed recommendations covering employment generation, skills, financial inclusion and social protection. More importantly, India has begun creating institutional mechanisms around these workers. Its e-Shram portal provides a national database of unorganised workers, including gig and platform workers, creating a recognised identity through which workers can potentially access employment, skills development and social-security services. India has also explored platform-led skills development through skill certificates, skill passports and on-the-job training, while NITI Aayog has proposed cash-flow-based lending models that could allow platform workers to demonstrate creditworthiness through their earnings rather than conventional employment or collateral.

Social protection has also entered the policy framework. India’s Code on Social Security, 2020 formally recognises gig and platform workers and provides a basis for schemes covering areas such as accident insurance, health, maternity, disability and old-age protection. India is still developing and refining these arrangements, and Sri Lanka need not replicate the Indian model.

However, the experience demonstrates an important policy lesson: the gig economy can be supported through a system that identifies workers, develops their skills, makes their income more visible to financial institutions and extends appropriate social protection. Sri Lanka could develop its own simpler framework suited to its smaller economy, beginning with recognising digital workers and building the institutional conditions that allow their skills and earnings to become part of the formal economy.

Rethinking Employment and the Next Opportunity

The 43 percent figure for educated young Sri Lankans should encourage a wider discussion about the changing nature of work. Sri Lanka will continue to need conventional employment through firms, industries, farms, professional organisations and public institutions, but the changing labour market also requires new opportunities to connect educated Sri Lankans with global digital markets. The gig economy can provide an additional pathway to increase female labour-force participation, reduce the pressure for migration and brain drain, and connect Sri Lankan skills with markets beyond geographical boundaries.

This does not require a complicated bureaucracy. It requires recognising legitimate digital workers, facilitating access to international platforms and payment systems, allowing verified digital income to support credit assessment, developing portable social protection, and strengthening digital infrastructure and skills beyond major urban centres. Better data on digital workers would also help policymakers develop evidence-based interventions.

The future of work is therefore not only about creating more jobs, but about creating more ways for Sri Lankans to work, earn and build livelihoods while continuing to live and contribute in Sri Lanka. The gig economy should be recognised as part of an emerging digital labour market and services-export economy, where workers can build professional identities, earn internationally, access finance and eventually develop their own enterprises.

Features

Are religions getting redundant in the modern world?

Published

1 day ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

We are living in an era of astonishingly rapid scientific advancement. From the time Apple launched the ‘iPhone’ in January 2007, the first targeting the mass market, smartphones have taken over the world, making them indispensable. According to the latest statistics, there are around 8.1 billion mobile phones with 7.4 billion active smartphones, for the world population of 8.25 billion. Except for a tiny minority of the very poor, most people have at least one smartphone.

We are now entering the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart robots. Recently, a ‘Chinese’ robot ran 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt! Though Alan Turing proposed the idea of ‘Thinking Machines’ way back in 1950, the real AI boom commenced with the release of the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, by OpenAI in November 2020. Number of technology firms in the US as well as in China have joined the race, China catching up very fast, quite unexpectedly. There is a frenzy at the moment, raising expectations, as the imminent floating of these companies is likely to value the two leaders, OpenAI and Anthropic, trillion dollars each!

However, trouble is brewing in the AI field. On top of the concerns raised by environmentalists regarding the huge power drain by AI centres, there are recent reports of some AI models hacking independently into other systems, without human input. Worse still, a senior researcher at Anthropic, who has previously worked for OpenAI as well, resigned in early September on ethical grounds stating that the way the two companies are fast-tracking AI poses an existential threat to humanity. Surprisingly, instead of a rebuttal the head of Anthropic supported his view, soon joined by three more heads of leading AI developers. Whilst they agreed on slowing progress, President Trump has claimed that slowing is totally unnecessary as long as a super intelligent President like himself is at the helm! There does not seem to be an end to Trump’s grandiosity! He was joined by Tony Blair. In contrast, King Charles held a summit with representatives of all AI developers to find a way AI could be developed without a threat to humanity. That is how wise leaders act!

Less sophisticated AI tools are already in widespread use and installed in computers, laptops and smartphones. Some of us are using these automatically. However, the more advanced AI tools like ChatGPT can change even reality. For instance, AI can generate videos hardly distinguishable from real ones. What you enjoy watching on YouTube may be just the creations of AI! Some people use AI to write articles; only a few of them admit that they do so. Very soon we may be reading stories AI creates and listening to music, courtesy of AI. Technology seems to be fast becoming the new religion? Or, will the existential threat move us more towards religion?

Religion, perhaps, is as old as humanity itself; various belief systems evolving and disappearing coupled with the fortunes of the associated civilizations. Just like AI, religion is also a creation of the human mind which our ancestors did to explain many phenomena which appeared, at that time, to be supernatural. Starting with Animism, perceiving the divine in the natural world around, humans went on to Polytheism, believing in many gods like in Hinduism, culminating in the concept of Monotheism.

World’s oldest religion, Hinduism, still in wide practice, is devoid of a founder or a single text. The earliest scriptures, Rigveda, is considered to be around 3,500 years old but archaeologists have discovered symbols of importance to Hinduism as far back as 7,000 BCE. Though it is considered to be Polytheistic, it can be argued that it was the precursor of Monotheism, the concept of a creator God, as Brahma was the creator in the triad, Trimurti, Vishnu being the preserver and Shiva being the destroyer. It seems to be a sensible balancing act; create, destroy and repair with improvements.

It is pretty obvious that as science expands, the importance of religion contracts but it is hardly likely religions would be totally redundant. We have no choice as to which family we are born to and that invariably determines what your religion would be, if any. Religion is the first brainwashing a child encounters and most remain in the same faith, often trying to defend even the indefensible, but some change through conviction or conversion due to one of many reasons. Further, religious rituals have social values and religious practices often come to one’s solace at times of distress. Therefore, many will continue with the religion they were born to but with declining enthusiasm, at times. However, some religions seem to be facing problems like falling attendances in places of worship. With education and tech savviness expanding, one would expect the youth to be less enthusiastic about religion but the converse is true in some religions, some youth becoming very militant unfortunately.

While most religions make you subservient to a supernatural power, the Buddha was wise and bold enough to remove those shackles. He proclaimed that one’s destiny is in one’s own hands. However, many Buddhists appear to attach greater significance to rituals than to practising the Dhamma.

Buddhism as a religion may become less relevant as the frontiers of science expands but the Buddha Dhamma, especially Abhidhamma and Vipassana, would receive increasing recognition, the Buddha remaining an authority on consciousness and the mind.

Scientific progress should be for the betterment of society but AI developers are taking huge risks, taking massive loans threatening the world economy, for one aim: profit! Some do not seem to care even if their actions pose an existential threat to humanity.

Perhaps, if the Four Sublime Attitudes (Sathara Brahma Vihara) expounded by the Buddha; loving kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), empathetic joy (Muditha) and equanimity (Upekkha) are adopted as universal values, the world would become a safer place to live in, with or without AI.

Features

‘The Bullet that Missed’

Published

1 day ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Tales of Mystery and Suspense 21

by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Another book that is part of a series, today—one that is fun without the brooding concentration on criminality in different forms that marks the Rebus novels. This one about the Thursday Murder Club, is a romp as its two predecessors were interspersed with deaths and what might be deaths.

The Bullet that Missed

begins with a meeting with the presenter of ‘South East Tonight’, a programme about the area, in which Coopers Chase is situated. The meeting is held because the club has decided to look into the murder of the producer’s assistant, Bethany Waites, whose car was found at the bottom of a cliff ten years ago. There was blood in it, but the body was never found.

Or, rather, the book begins with an account of Bethany Waites deciding, on the night she vanished, to meet someone in connection with a case of massive fraud that she had been investigating, after sending the producer, Mike Waghorn, a message that she had found new evidence though he had no idea what it was. The night she died, she sent him another message: “I don’t say this often enough, but thank you.”

CCTV cameras showed her leaving her place, but then the vehicle vanished, before being sighted near the cliff, with two people in it. Investigation of the fraud had led to the imprisonment of a woman, Heather Garbutt, though it proved impossible to pin anything on Jack Mason, the mastermind for whom she had worked.

The Club conducts investigations on several fronts, including through Connie Johnson, the drug dealer they had helped imprison in the earlier book. The psychiatrist Ibrahim, the most respectable member of the Club, interviews her in an attempt to get her to find out more from Heather, who is in the same prison as she. They also investigate the CCTV record of the night Bethany vanished, and deduce that she went to an apartment block and exited from its other side, and that is why she was not seen leaving the town. But some time had elapsed between her being seen in the town and then on the cliff.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been kidnapped, along with her husband, and taken to a house in Staffordshire, where she is told by a man called the Viking that she must kill a former KGB agent now in London, who has a profitable career in money laundering. The Viking tells her he will inform Viktor that she was responsible for stealing the diamonds, the story of which is told in the previous Murder Club Mystery, and Viktor will then kill her.

Elizabeth, who has an affair with Viktor, knows he will not kill her, but when the Viking says he will also send Viktor a picture of Joyce, she decides she must act, and goes to see Viktor, and fires when she gets him in the bathroom. But, of course, she fired into the ceiling, and Viktor is then taken to Coopers Chase, to stay with Joyce until they have dealt with the Viking. And Viktor then enjoys the camaraderie of the retirement home so much that he wonders whether he too should settle there.

Elizabeth does trace the Viking, or rather her husband does, for he has noticed rare books on the shelves in his library, and an antiquarian book dealer friend managed to find out who bought them. But before they could confront him, he comes to Coopers Chase, for he has seen the bullet hole in the bathroom of Viktor’s flat and realized he was fooled.

But he cannot bring himself to kill Joyce straight away, and she knocks him out with a drug in a cup of tea. When he meets Viktor, they both decide to fall in with the plans of the Club.

Before this, Heather has been found dead in her cell, with a note saying that ‘they’ were going to kill her, and only Connie could help. Before that she had admitted that she was frightened to name the man behind the fraud. Jack Mason said the same, after Ron had won his confidence. The Club had deduced by then that the body was buried in the garden of Heather’s house which Jack had bought, after she had been jailed, and digging reveals a gun and money, but no body. Jack tells them that the mastermind had said that Bethany was buried with a bullet with his DNA on it.

The Club is now working with the Chief Constable of Kent, Andrew Everton, who writes thrillers himself, but in the form of e-books. He is in search of a publisher, and delighted when Mike Waghorn puts him on his programme, as is Donna, who is substituted at the last minute for Chris.

The Club finds out whom Bethany visited in the apartment block—Mike’s assistant Pauline, who tells them later what she and Bethany had been doing. But this is after the man behind the fraud has been unmasked up in the house in Staffordshire, where he was trying to hire the Viking and Viktor to find the money that he had stashed away, using accounts that he could no longer trace. He has also confessed to murdering Bethany, hoping this will persuade the two money launderers to help him, but it turns out that he did not do this. Nor did he kill Heather, the incriminating note having been placed in her room by Connie, who decided that Heather’s suicide should be treated as murder so that the person who had been blackmailing her should be found out.

It was Jack Mason’s murder that was brought home to the crook. It turns out that Bethany, her appearance altered by Pauline, has vanished, to a new life in Dubai, where she has taken control of the missing millions. She has gone there because the threat, she received through the bullet she was looking at in the preamble, was to Mike and she wanted him out of danger.

Yet another whimsical conclusion to a whimsical book with enough loose ends left hanging for another sequel.