Editorial

A.T. Ariyaratne: Death of a colossus

Published

2 years ago

2024/04/21

The death last week of Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, who founded and led the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka after a long life of 92 years, has robbed the country of a colossus of his generation. His own name, as well as that of the organization he created is very well known to everybody in all homes across the length and breadth of the country. A small made, soft spoken personality with a shock of white hair and an ever present smile, he had a face that could best be described by the Sinhala word seedevi with all its many connotations. It reflected his inner calm, non-violent disposition and Gandhian values. The origin of the name Sarvodaya can be traced to Sanskrit roots – sarva (all) and udaya (uplift). Mahatma Gandhi, whose footsteps Ariyaratne sought to follow, saw it as “uplift for all.”

Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne was a teacher at Nalanda College, Colombo, when he founded Sarvodaya in 1958. He had taken a group of 40 schoolboys and 12 teachers from Nalanda to Kathaluwa, a Rodiya village of outcasts and beggars to help uplift conditions of people living there. From that small acorn, a mighty oak grew. By 1972, the growing demands of the fledgling organization compelled his retirement from the teaching profession and devote himself full time to the Sarvodaya Shramadana, a self-governance movement which among other things provides comprehensive development and conflict resolution programs to villages.The Internet says that as of 2006, “Sarvodaya staff people were active in 15,000 of 38,000 villages in Sri Lanka.” The organization estimated 11 million individual beneficiaries and financial reserves ran at Rs. 1.6 billion in that year.

Although well funded Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind and the Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) Red Cross have been around longer than Sarvodaya, the latter arguably became one of the best funded, if not the best funded NGO in the country. Ariyaratne’s commitment and simplicity impressed the donor community which staunchly supported his movement that grew exponentially from its grassroot begining. Obviously, the organization necessarily had to present professionally produced project proposals to donors and satisfy them that their money was well spent.

During the course of time, the needed skills and capacity to run an organization as big as Sarvodaya had become was acquired. The consciousness that donor support will not continue to flow forever necessitated the setting up income generating ventures, recruiting needed personnel and adequately remunerating them within a framework of relatively modestly paid grassroots workers. Balancing an equation such as this would have been no easy task but the organization appears to have succeeded in achieving its objective.

Sarvodaya’s presence in villages countrywide and the work it was doing made it a formidable political force. Rightly or wrongly it was rumoured at one time that Ariyaratne planned to run for the presidency. President Premadasa in 1990 set up a seven-member Commission of Inquiry (COI) including two retired Supreme Court judges (one of them headed the commission) and five other eminent persons to investigate NGOs and a variety of connected matters. This COI was assisted by counsel from the Attorney General’s Department and included a police investigation unit. It was widely perceived that Sarvodaya was specially targeted and the organization was compelled to pour resources and energy to defend itself. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) commented adversely on the methods adopted at the COI. Nothing eventually came out of the investigation.

Ariyaratne was awarded the country’s highest national award of Sri Lanka Abhimana by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2007. This award can be held by only five living persons at any time. Since he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 1969, awards and accolades have been poured on him from all corners of the globe. He was also nominated for a Nobel Prize. The esteem in which he is held was demonstrated by the state funeral accorded to him at Independence Square.

Letters to the Editor

We publish today two letters to the editor casting a light on the state of our nation. One of them written by an occasional contributor to our columns, pays a rare tribute to a public official. The writer lost a son at far away Buttala in what he has described as “unknown circumstances.” This resulted in a “somewhat complicated procedure entailing an exhumation, cremation and deposition of ashes.” Since the postmortem could not definitely establish the cause of death except for some extraneous substance found in his stomach, the coroner ordered that he be buried for at least three years and if necessary cremated thereafter.

The burial was in the Anglican section of Kanatte. The family being Buddhist wished a cremation at the end of the three years and the deposition of the ashes in the family vault in the Buddhist section. The letter writer has highly commended the Cemetery Manager for the assistance rendered. In a country where the norm is dissatisfaction about shoddy services from public and local government employees, it is heartening that there are exceptions to the ‘can’t care less’ attitude of many public servants and there are people who are willing to go public with commendations for exceptional services received.

The second letter was from a young Lankan who with her Dutch partner was on what she has called a safari to Yala. Their vehicle had hit a stray dog on the road and the driver wanted to proceed on their way as this was not an unusual occurrence. His passengers would have none of it and made him turn back to the dog lying with a broken pelvis on the roadside. They sought and obtained veterinary assistance and plan to take the animal back with them to the Netherlands where they have two other rescued dogs. The compassion demonstrated to an injured animal was truly heartwarming.

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Editorial

Jekylls and Hydes

Published

13 hours ago

2025/12/29

Sahan Weerasooriya

Monday 29th December, 2025

Sri Lankan politicians love the media dearly and take up the cudgels for the rights of journalists when they are out of power. The JVP/NPP leaders also defended the media to the hilt while they were languishing in the Opposition. Jekylls become Hydes after being ensconced in power, with the media exposing their failures and malpractices. Those who can, do; those who cannot, attack the media, one may say of the governments in this country, with apologies to Bernard Shaw.

The JVP-led NPP government, angered by bad press, is all out to intimidate the media it cannot control. Previous governments had the police on a string and used them to attack and harass independent journalists. The incumbent administration has gone a step further; the police have reportedly written to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), asking for action against Hiru TV for what they describe as broadcasting unverified, misleading news. Thus, the government has used the police to give Hiru a choice between toeing the official line and losing its licence. Thankfully, its efforts have run into stiff resistance, with media institutions and various associations circling the wagons around Hiru.

If the government thinks Hiru or any other media institution disseminates false information to the detriment of its interests, legal avenues are available for it to seek redress. The police must not be used as a political tool to intimidate the media.

Among the current defenders of the media are the SLPP, the UNP, the SLFP, etc. Their leaders are shedding copious tears for Hiru. But it was while the UNP and SLPP leaders were in power that the suppression of media freedom and violence against journalists became institutionalised for all intents and purposes. UNP governments not only throttled media freedom but also murdered journalists. SLFP regimes had media institutions attacked and journalists killed. An SLFP-led government, with the current SLPP leaders at the helm, had media institutions torched and journalists abducted, assaulted and murdered. These sinners currently in the political wilderness are condemning other sinners in power for suppressing media freedom.

The government deserves the bad press it gets. The police have been reduced to a mere appendage of the JVP/NPP. Two of the NPP’s Retired Police Collective members, namely former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne and former SSP Shani Abeysekera, have been appointed Secretary to the Public Security Ministry and CID Director, respectively. Absurd claims the police make in defence of the government remind us of Matilda, whose dreadful lies made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes.

When the police were asked why NPP MP Asoka Ranwala had not been subjected to a breathalyser test immediately after a recent road accident he caused, they had the chutzpah to claim they had run out of test kits. They transferred two of their officers over the incident to enable the government to save face. They arrested one of their own men assaulted by an NPP MP following a recent police raid on a cannabis cultivation in Suriyakanda. Acting just like legendary King Kekille, they let the MP off the hook and arrested the policeman, who was bailed out; they went on to suspend him from service. A few months ago, they unashamedly sided with a group of JVP cadres who stormed a Frontline Socialist Party office in Yakkala and forcibly occupied it. They go out of their way to ensure that the arrests of drug dealers with links to the Opposition get maximum possible publicity, but they do their best to keep the media in the dark when narcotics dealers with ruling party connections are taken into custody. They crack down on Opposition politicians and activists but steer clear of government members and their supporters. The despicable manner in which they are doing political work for the government reminds us of the Gestapo. Now, they are zeroing in on Hiru TV at the behest of their political masters for exposing their sordid actions.

The only way the NPP government can overcome problems and challenges on the political front and shore up its crumbling image is to mend its ways and fulfil its election pledges while taking action against its errant members who have brought it into disrepute and turned public opinion against it. Shooting the messenger is not the way to set about the task.

Editorial

Executive brinkmanship

Published

2 days ago

2025/12/28

Thilina Walpola

Pressure is mounting on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to ensure that an Auditor General is appointed without further delay. But he has remained unmoved. He is determined to wear down the Constitutional Council (CC) and appoint one of his party loyalists as Auditor General. The CC has rejected his nominees—and rightly so; they are not eligible. Former Executive Presidents went all out to railroad the CC into rubber-stamping their decisions. They had no qualms about doing so while claiming to uphold the independence of the public service. President Dissanayake has failed to be different. His refusal to compromise amounts to brinkmanship; he is waiting until the CC blinks.

The NPP’s election manifesto, A Thriving Nation: A Beautiful Life, attributes the deterioration of the public service to ‘political appointments’ and state workers making political decisions. Among the steps the NPP has promised to take to straighten up the public service are ‘merit-based appointments and promotions’. This principle has fallen by the wayside where the question of appointing the Auditor General is concerned.

The government should take cognisance of the possible negative effects of the prolonged delay in appointing the Auditor General during a period of disaster response and international relief and rebuilding support.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has called upon President Dissanayake to appoint a person with proven competence, integrity, and independence, who commands wide acceptance as Auditor General forthwith. It has stressed the need to appoint a nonpartisan professional as the Auditor General to safeguard the integrity of the National Audit Office and inspire the confidence of both citizens and international partners in the financial governance of the State.

Transparency International Sri Lanka, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the other good governance activists, too, have faulted President Dissanayake and his government for the inordinate delay in appointing the Auditor General. They are of the view that a strong, independent Auditor General enables Parliament and the public to scrutinise government expenditure, identify irregularities, prevent misuse of funds, and ensure that those entrusted with public resources are held to account. The delay in appointing the Auditor General has weakened the effectiveness, authority, and the independence of the entire public audit system and created space for inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption, they have noted. The situation will take a turn for the worse if the government succeeds in having one of its cronies appointed Auditor General.

The government is apparently playing a waiting game in the hope that the reconstitution of the CC due next year will provide a window of opportunity for it to appoint one of its loyalists as Auditor General.

Why the government is so desperate to place a malleable person at the helm of the National Audit Office is not hard to understand. If it succeeds in its endeavour, the next Auditor General will be beholden to the JVP/NPP. When an ineligible person is elevated to a high post, he or she naturally becomes subservient to the appointing authority. Such officials go out of their way to safeguard the interests of their political masters in case of irregularities involving state funds and other accountability issues.

A protracted delay in appointing the Auditor General or the appointment of a government supporter to that post will increase the risk of mismanagement of state funds and corruption, lead to the erosion of public trust and confidence in the National Audit Office, undermine legislative oversight and impair fiscal discipline. Most of all, the government’s failure to appoint a competent, independent person of integrity as Auditor General will diminish donor confidence especially at a time when the country is seeking disaster relief funds from the international community. There is no way the government can justify its refusal to appoint the current Acting Auditor General as the head of the supreme audit institution. He is obviously the most eligible candidate.

Editorial

Selective transparency

Published

3 days ago

2025/12/27

Thilina Walpola

Saturday 27th December, 2025

The NPP government has released a cordial diplomatic letter from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and gained a great deal of publicity for it as part of a propaganda campaign to boost Dissanayake’s image. Such moves are not uncommon in politics, especially in the developing world, where the heads of powerful states are deified and their visits, invitations and letters are flaunted as achievements of the leaders of smaller nations. However, the release of PM Modi’s letter to President Dissanayake is counterproductive, for it makes one wonder why the government has not made public the MoUs it has signed with India?

PM Modi’s Sri Lanka visit in April 2025 saw the signing of seven MoUs (or pacts as claimed in some quarters) between New Delhi and Colombo. Prominent among them are the MoUs/pacts on the implementation of HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current) Interconnection for import/export of power, cooperation among the governments of India, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates on developing Trincomalee as an energy hub, and defence cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.

The NPP government has violated one of the fundamental tenets of good governance––transparency; there has been no transparency about the aforesaid MoUs or pacts, especially the one on defence cooperation. They cannot be disclosed without India’s consent, the government has said. This is a very lame excuse. The JVP/NPP seems to have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the public, who made its meteoric rise to power.

When the JVP/NPP was in opposition, it would flay the previous governments for signing vital MoUs and pacts without transparency. But it has kept even Parliament in the dark about the MoUs/pacts in question.

Ironically, the JVP, which resorted to mindless violence in a bid to scuttle the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987, has sought to justify the inking of an MoU/pact on defence cooperation between Sri Lanka and India and keeping it under wraps, about three and a half decades later. The signing of that particular defence MoU/pact marked the JVP’s biggest-ever Machiavellian U-turn. How would the JVP have reacted if a previous government had entered into MoUs with India and kept them secret? It opposed the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India tooth and nail, didn’t it?

Whenever one sees the aforesaid letter doing the rounds in the digital space, one remembers the MoUs/pacts shrouded in secrecy, which have exposed the pusillanimity of the NPP government, whose leaders cannot so much as disclose their contents without India’s consent.