Features

Fulfilment of Aragalaya at presidential election

Published

2 years ago

2024/09/24

Sahan Weerasooriya

President Dissanayake

by Jehan Perera

The extraordinary events that took place during 2022 have reached their denouement at the recently concluded presidential election. The Aragalaya protests that lasted for over three months in the middle of 2022 that were spearheaded by youth and became a mighty protest movement by tens of thousands of people from all walks of life and all parts of the country finally drove the then president and government from power. But as the president and government they forced out had more than two years of their terms remaining, being elected in 2019 and 2020 respectively, the protestors could only force the government to resign. They could not replace it with a government of their choice until elections were due again, which happened on September 21.

Now, in another extraordinary turn of events, the Sri Lankan people have elected a new president with a democratic mandate that comes from having won the presidential election of 2024. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake comes from outside the mainstream political parties that have dominated Sri Lanka’s political life from the very dawn of Independence from colonial rule in 1948. More than any other candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayake represented the spirit of the Aragalaya protest movement of 2022 which called for “system change” and for new faces in politics. Underlying both these demands was the conviction that the Augean Stables of corrupt government needed to be cleansed.

The victory of NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake is a testament to the strength of Sri Lankan democracy that has given space to all those who wish to contest democratic politics to come to the fore. At the last presidential election in 2019, President Dissanayake was able to obtain only three percent of the popular vote. This time around, contesting a field of 38 candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa he was able to garner 43 percent of the vote in the first count. Although needing to go to a second count due to his inability to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, he was a comfortable winner by more than a million votes.

TWIN DEMANDS

There were two special features that paved the way for President Dissanayake’s extraordinary rise to become the president and head of state of the country. The first was the economic collapse that the country experienced in March 2022 when it ran out of foreign exchange and was forced to declare international bankruptcy. The sufferings of the people, which included shortages of medicines and cooking gas, kilometer long lines of every sort of vehicle outside of petrol stations and sky high prices led to the crystallisation of two key demands—for system change that would rid the country of its entrenched corruption and for new faces in the political arena.

The protest movement was able to force President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government to resign. But they could not replace him with a person of their choice. Instead it was President Ranil Wickremesinghe, elected by parliament, who replaced him. The new president did not conform to the Aragalaya’s two main demands. Instead he was successful in halting the country’s economic plunge and restoring economic stability while also ensuring that the external manifestations of the protest movement was suppressed. There was neither system change nor was there a significant change in the faces in government. Most of them remained, and along with them the corruption that the protest movement and virtually the entire country believed was rampant, which continued as before.

The steep rise in the support for the JVP of which President Dissanayake has been the longtime leader and the NPP which is a newer and more broad-based grouping reflects the popular desire for system change and for new faces in politics. The largest bloc of voters at the presidential elections have seen in President Dissanayake the best hope that the unfulfilled demands of the Aragalaya protests will be met. However, the challenges facing the new president will be formidable. The economy continues to be vulnerable. The government’s expenditures continue to outstrip its earnings despite the moratorium on the repayment of most of the outstanding international debt till 2028. But the expectations of the general population will be high that the new president, with his commitment to the masses of people, and to change, will be able to turn the situation around and make their lives better in the not too distant future.

STRENGTH NEEDED

The challenge to the new president will be compounded by the resistance that is likely to be generated through attempts to change the prevailing system. Corruption and abuse of power has become part and parcel of the government, state and society, and at every level, and attempts to change them will invariably generate both open and hidden resistance. Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States (1829-37) said that “Society is a mule, not a horse. If pressed too hard, it will throw off its rider.” This metaphor emphasises the idea that societal change should not be forced too quickly, or it may react unpredictably, resisting or rejecting such pressure. There is also the need to build broad based support for the changes at every level, including at the party political level.

The new president also needs to keep in mind that more than half of the electorate did not vote for him and the views and apprehensions of that sector of society too need to be considered. This would be particularly true of the ethnic and religious minorities. It is observable that the areas in which President Dissanayake was not able to secure a preponderance of the vote were those areas in which the ethnic and religious minorities predominated. The memory of the JVP’s role in opposing the 13th Amendment at the time of its inception in 1987, the continued antipathy to the devolution of power, the reluctance to accept that ethnic and religious identities require their own space and autonomy are issues that will need to be dealt with consultatively rather than through a single formula approach.

Since 2014 when he became the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been one of the most articulate and intelligent critics of policies put forward by governments and rival political parties, speaking in simple and clear language, and giving support where needed. When he gave constructive support to the efforts of the government during the period 2015-2019 and opposed the constitutional coup of 2019, he was even referred to as the “red elephant” that bracketed him with the green elephant symbol of then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political party. This is the background and the strength he will need to utilise to win the trust of both the people who did not vote for him and his political rivals “to build a thriving nation and beautiful life.” Ensuring the inclusion of minorities in this vision, and on the ground, would be of significance if the one country they speak of is to be realised.

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Features

Political violence stalking Trump administration

Published

10 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

10 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

10 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.