Features

Do we deserve uninterrupted electricity?

Published

4 years ago

2022/01/30

By Sanjeewa Jayaweera

The day starts with friends calling and asking, “Machan, any power cuts today?” The main item of news on television is also of possible power cuts. Even overseas television stations carry news about possible power cuts in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, a potential power cut of even one hour is viewed with trepidation.

Despite the issue of power cuts being of great importance to the public and being constantly in the news, none of us knows what the future holds. No one seems to know what needs to be done, and it seems a case of postponing the inevitable by a few days.

The energy minister Udaya Gammanpila has pronounced that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) should pay US dollars to purchase fuel from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). The Power Minister Gamini Lokuge replied that the CEB does not recover their dues from customers in USD. For once, both are correct! The shortage of foreign exchange in the country is why the CPC cannot source diesel and furnace oil in the quantities required by the CEB while ensuring adequate supply for transportation and the use of industries. The CEB is also correct in saying that they don’t collect their dues in USD. Let alone dollars; they can not even collect all their dues in rupees as approximately Rs. 45 billion are in arrears from the customers.

As is the norm, the opposition parties and various trade union leaders come out with their vituperative comments, none of which are helpful to resolve the current problem. The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers, who are game for industrial action at the drop of a hat, have gone to the extent of announcing the power cut schedule, which I would think is the prerogative of the senior management of the CEB.

Recently, on the “Mawatha” programme broadcasted by Sirasa TV, an insightful discussion ensued about the current power crises. Dr Tilak Siyamabalapitya (TS), an electrical power expert, raised some pertinent issues. He commented that the electricity tariff has not been changed since 2014 and that the customers are charged an average of Rs. 16 per unit when the cost of generating a unit was as much as Rs. 24. The net result is that the CEB has accumulated losses of over Rs. 400 billion. He posed a question to the Chairman of Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Janaka Ratnayake (JR), a fellow panelist, as to why the tariff had not been increased despite the PUC being legally empowered to do so. Unfortunately, JR, an entrepreneur who understands income statements, balance sheets, cash flows and return on investments, did not provide an adequate response other than to say that they have now proposed an increase in the tariff. A case of closing the stable door after the horse had bolted.

I am sure the PUC has refrained from increasing the tariff only because successive governments would have instructed them not to do so. Unfortunately, governments that we have elected since independence have inculcated in the people a culture of okkoma nikang – everything free. Due to this, governments shy away from taking decisions on pricing utilities and commodities based on the concept of “cost plus profit.” There is no other explanation for why the electricity tariff has remained unchanged for seven years and why the CEB has accumulated losses over Rs. 400 billion with the CPC not far behind. There is no commercial sense in selling an item below cost. The irony of the strategy is that even the poor are subsidizing the well-off, who are the biggest consumers. The losses are funded by money printed debt and palmed off to the next generation.

TS also lamented how in 2015, the GOSL decided to cancel the Coal Power Plant to be built in Sampur, for which incidentally the MOU for the first 500 MW phase was signed on December 26, 2006. So, after procrastinating for 10 long years, the project was canceled. He stated that no government should change the first four years of the long-term power generation plan of 20 years submitted by the CEB and approved by the PUC. It seems the current long term power generation plan is also in limbo as the target for renewable energy by 2030 is still under discussion despite two years having elapsed.

About a decade ago, I used to visit India regularly and particularly in the summer months, when power cuts extending to over six hours was the norm. This has been the case even in Pakistan and Bangladesh. I came across a news report dated June 24 2015, filed by Rajiv Biswas about the power crisis in Pakistan. “Pakistan has been in an energy crisis for some years. The current shortfall in power generated is estimated at 5,500 Megawatts, with electricity production of 15,500 MW compared with demand of around 21,000 MW. As a result, there is significant electricity load shedding being implemented across Pakistan in both urban and rural areas. Pakistan has been facing a power crisis for some years already due to a combination of factors, including low electricity tariffs due to subsidies, which resulted in accumulated losses for the electricity generators, as well as inadequate investment in new power generation capacity and high transmission losses due to poor infrastructure as well as theft of electricity. The long periods of load shedding each day have resulted in a lack of electricity supply, sometimes for over 12 hours per day. Years of neglect and lack of reform of the power industry have contributed significantly to its deteriorating financial position. A key constraint was the slow progress in undertaking pricing reforms for energy tariffs, which have contributed to the financial problems of the electricity-generating companies. The ongoing power crisis has severely impacted upon the industry and transport sectors in recent years, as power shortages have had a crippling effect on industrial production.”

If one is to insert the word Sri Lanka to replace Pakistan, the above paragraph would be a carbon copy of what an analyst would write about the power crisis in our country. The only difference is that in Sri Lanka, the government instructed the CEB to run generators operating on diesel and furnace oil to bridge the shortfall. The decision was made even though it was the most expensive power generation method. There was no attempt even to impose a surcharge to recover the additional cost. The logic behind the proverb “Cut your coat according to your cloth” has escaped both our politicians and the voters.

In The Island of January 27, 2022, a report filed by S. Venkatnarayan is captioned, “Indian Supreme Court issues notice on political parties’ promises of ‘irrational freebies’ before elections. It is not my intention to delve into the reasons for the Supreme Court to have sought responses from the Union Government and the Election Commission of India. We, too in our country, have been seduced and fallen for various “freebies” promised by political parties leading up to elections. Many of them have remained only as promises. I still remember as a 10-year-old being fascinated by the election promise of Mrs Bandaranaike in 1970 of an extra measure of free rice, which she promised to even bring from the moon!

Given that in July 1969, I had listened over the radio of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, it was not too difficult for a 10-year-old boy to believe that promise! Unfortunately, many decades later, despite many lessons, many of us still believe what politicians promise. Based on news reports, the inducement is now primarily a bottle of arrack or a few roofing sheets! I was a bit taken aback recently when viewing a short video interview of Sir John Kotelawela in 1959 when he said, “our people want money for jam”.

In my view, the comment made by Minister Gammanpila that it is best to suffer a 90-minute power cut now than four hours in April is the most sensible of the options. When there is a limitation of resources, there needs to be a list of priorities and winners and losers in that context. The opposition parties must also educate the public that these measures are required. I know I am “whistling in the dark”, but we need to live in hope.

If Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have had to endure daily power cuts over six hours, Sri Lankans need to grit their teeth and stomach the inconvenience. A panellist on the “Mawatha” programme mentioned how in 1974, even in Great Britain, the government had to introduce a three-day working week, closure of all television stations by 10.30 p.m. and children had to study by candlelight due to power cuts. For a country that had been a colonial power for centuries, it would have been difficult to stomach such living conditions. However, to their credit, they gritted their teeth, accepted the new norm, and worked through in search of better times. We, too in Sri Lanka, need to do the same and be pragmatic of our conundrum.

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Features

Political violence stalking Trump administration

Published

8 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

A scene that unfolded during the shooting incident at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington. (BBC)

It would not be particularly revelatory to say that the US is plagued by ‘gun violence’. It is a deeply entrenched and widespread malaise that has come in tandem with the relative ease with which firearms could be acquired and owned by sections of the US public, besides other causes.

However, a third apparent attempt on the life of US President Donald Trump in around two and a half years is both thought-provoking and unsettling for the defenders of democracy. After all, whatever its short comings the US remains the world’s most vibrant democracy and in fact the ‘mightiest’ one. And the US must remain a foremost democracy for the purpose of balancing and offsetting the growing power of authoritarian states in the global power system, who are no friends of genuine representational governance.

Therefore, the recent breaching of the security cordon surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington at which President Trump and his inner Cabinet were present, by an apparently ‘Lone Wolf’ gunman, besides raising issues relating to the reliability of the security measures deployed for the President, indicates a notable spike in anti-VVIP political violence in particular in the US. It is a pointer to a strong and widespread emergence of anti-democratic forces which seem to be gaining in virulence and destructiveness.

The issues raised by the attack are in the main for the US’ political Right and its supporters. They have smugly and complacently stood by while the extremists in their midst have taken centre stage and begun to dictate the course of Right wing politics. It is the political culture bred by them that leads to ‘Lone Wolf’ gunmen, for instance, who see themselves as being repressed or victimized, taking the law into their own hands, so to speak, and perpetrating ‘revenge attacks’ on the state and society.

A disproportionate degree of attention has been paid particularly internationally to Donald Trump’s personality and his eccentricities but such political persons cannot be divorced from the political culture in which they originate and have their being. That is, “structural” questions matter. Put simply, Donald Trump is a ‘true son’ of the Far Right, his principal support base. The issues raised are therefore for the President as well as his supporters of the Right.

We are obliged to respect the choices of the voting public but in the case of Trump’s election to the highest public position in the US, this columnist is inclined to see in those sections that voted for Trump blind followers of the latter who cared not for their candidate’s suitability, in every relevant respect, and therefore acted irrationally. It would seem that the Right in the US wanted their candidate to win by ‘hook or by crook’ and exercise power on their behalf.

By making the above observations this columnist does not intend to imply that voting publics everywhere in the world of democracy cast their vote sensibly. In the case of Sri Lanka, for example, the question could be raised whether the voters of the country used their vote sensibly when voting into office the majority of Executive Presidents and other persons holding high public office. The obvious answer is ‘no’ and this should lead to a wider public discussion on the dire need for thoroughgoing voter education. The issue is a ‘huge’ one that needs to be addressed in the appropriate forums and is beyond the scope of this column.

Looking back it could be said that the actions of Trump and his die-hard support base led to the Rule of Law in the US being undermined as perhaps never before in modern times. A shaming moment in this connection was the protest march, virtually motivated by Trump, of his supporters to the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, with the aim of scuttling the presidential poll result of that year. Much violence and unruly behaviour, as known, was let loose. This amounted to denigrating the democratic process and encouraging the violent take over of the state.

In a public address, prior to the unruly conduct of his supporters, Trump is on record as blaring forth the following: ‘We won this election and we won by a landslide’, ‘We will stop the steal’, ‘We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen’, ‘If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’

It is plain to see that such inflammatory utterances could lead impressionable minds in particular to revolt violently. Besides, they should have led the more rationally inclined to wonder whether their candidate was the most suitable person to hold the office of President.

Unfortunately, the latter process was not to be and the question could be raised whether the US is in the ‘safest pair of hands’. Needless to say, as events have revealed, Donald Trump is proving to be one of the most erratic heads of state the US has ever had.

However, the latest attempt on the life of President Trump suggests that considerable damage has been done to the democratic integrity of the US and none other than the President himself has to take on himself a considerable proportion of the blame for such degeneration, besides the US’ Far Right. They could be said to be ‘reaping the whirlwind.’

It is a time for soul-searching by the US Right. The political Right has the right to exist, so the speak, in a functional democracy but it needs to take cognizance of how its political culture is affecting the democratic integrity or health of the US. Ironically, the repressive and chauvinistic politics advocated by it is having the effect of activating counter-violence of the most murderous kind, as was witnessed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Continued repressive politics could only produce more such incidents that could be self-defeating for the US.

Some past US Presidents were assassinated but the present political violence in the country brings into focus as perhaps never before the role that an anti-democratic political culture could play in unraveling the gains that the US has made over the decades. A duty is cast on pro-democracy forces to work collectively towards protecting the democratic integrity and strength of the US.

Features

22nd Anniversary Gala …action-packed event

Published

8 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

The Skyliners: Shanaka Viswakula (bass), Mario Ranasuriya (lead guitar), Daryl D'Souza (keyboards) and Kushmin Balasuriya (drums)

The Editor-in-Chief of The Sri Lankan Anchorman, a Toronto-based monthly, celebrating Sri Lankan community life in Canada, is none other than veteran Sri Lankan journalist Dirk Tissera, who moved to Canada in 1997. His wife, Michelle, whom he calls his “tower of strength”, is the Design Editor.

According to reports coming my way, the paper has turned out to be extremely popular in Toronto.

In fact, The Sri Lankan Anchorman won a press award in Toronto for excellence in editorial content and visual presentation.

However, the buzz in the air in Canada, right now, is The Sri Lankan Anchorman’s 22nd Anniversary Gala, to be held on Friday, 12 June, 2026, at the J&J Swagat Banquet Convention Centre, in Toronto.

An action-packed programme has been put together for the night, featuring some of the very best artistes in the Toronto scene.

The Skylines, who are classified as ‘the local musical band in Toronto’, will headline the event.

Dirk Tissera and wife Michelle: Supporting Sri Lanka-Canada community events, in Toronto, since launching The Anchorman
in 2002

They have performed and backed many legendary Sri Lanka singers.

According to Dirk, The Skylines can belt out a rhythm with gusto … be it Western, Sinhala or Tamil hits.

Also adding sparkle to the evening will be the legendary Fahmy Nazick, who, with his smooth and velvety vocals, will have the crowd on the floor.

Fahmy who was a household name, back in Sri Lanka, will be flying down from Virginia, USA.

He has captivated audiences in Sri Lanka, the Middle East and North America, and this will be his fourth visit to Toronto – back by popular demand,

Cherry DeLuna, who is described by Dirk as a powerhouse, also makes her appearance on stage and is all set to stir up the tempo with her cool and easy delivery.

“She’s got a great voice and vocal range that has captivated audiences out here”, says Dirk.

Chamil Welikala, said to be one of the hottest DJs in town, will be spinning his magic … in English, Sinhala, Tamil and Latin.

Both Jive and Baila competitions are on the cards among many other surprises on the night of 12 June.

This is The Anchorman’s fifth annual dance in a row – starting from 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 – and both Dirk and Michelle, and The Anchorman, have always produced elegant social events in Toronto.

“We intend to knock this one out of the park,” the duo says, adding that Western music and Sinhala and Tamil songs is something they’ve always delivered and the crowd loves it.

“We have always supported Sri Lanka-Canada community events, in Toronto, since launching The Anchorman, in 2002, and we intend to keep it that way.”

No doubt, there will be a large crowd of Sri Lankans, from all communities, turning up, on 12 June, to support Dirk, Michelle and The Anchorman.

Features

Face Pack for Radiant Skin

Published

8 hours ago

2026/04/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

* Apple and Orange:

Blend a few apple and orange pieces together. Add to it a pinch of turmeric and one tablespoon of honey. Apply it to the face and neck and rinse off after 30 minutes. This face pack is suitable for all skin types.

According to experts, apple is one of the best fruits for your skin health with Vitamin A, B complex and Vitamin C and minerals, while, with the orange peel, excessive oil secretion can be easily balanced.

* Mango and Curd:

Ripe mango pulp, mixed with curd, can be rubbed directly onto the skin to remove dirt and cleanse clogged pores. Rinse off after a few minutes.

Yes, of course, mango is a tasty and delicious fruit and this is the mango season in our part of the world, and it has extra-ordinary benefits to skin health. Vitamins C and E in mangoes protect the skin from the UV rays of the sun and promotes cell regeneration. It also promotes skin elasticity and fights skin dullness and acne, while curd, in combination, further adds to it.

* Grapes and Kiwi:

Take a handful of grapes and make a pulp of it. Simultaneously, take one kiwi fruit and mash it after peeling its skin. Now mix them and add some yoghurt to it. Apply it on your face for few minutes and wash it off.

Here again experts say that kiwi is the best nutrient-rich fruit with high vitamin C, minerals, Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E, while grapes contain flavonoids, which is an antioxidant that protects the skin from free radical damage. This homemade face pack acts as a natural cleanser and slows down the ageing process.