Features

Gamini Dissanayake the man he was and what fired the Mahaweli project

Published

4 years ago

2022/12/18

Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography

Since Gamini played an important role in my career I will reproduce here an essay which was entitled; “Fifty; A Beginning”, that I wrote for a felicitation volume which was published to mark his 50th birthday. When I presented the first copy of this volume to JRJ at Braemar, he looked at the title and said, half in jest “I hope it is not the beginning of the end”. Gamini who joined me for the presentation was not amused.

My article in this volume covers Gamin’s considerable contribution to the development of both politics and economic growth in the country. Unfortunately, a few years after this book was published, he was killed by a suicide bomber of the LTTE. Gamini then was on the campaign trail as a Presidential candidate in 1994. He was becoming more and more confident of winning the top prize.

His death was a personal blow to me because I was one of his chief supporters. I was with him that fatal morning in Kandy addressing propaganda meetings. He wanted me to return with him by helicopter to Colombo for the final meeting at Thotalanga on the out skirts of Colombo. But I had an engagement in my electorate and stayed back to see my father and mother in Nugawela. That was a fateful decision since had I got back in the helicopter to Colombo I would have been with Gamini and most probably have been killed along with him.

This is what I wrote in the felicitation volume:

“My earliest recollections of Gamini go back to Trinity College. I was a part of a group of students in whom our principal Norman Walter reposed great hopes as scholars who would enter the University thereby contradicting the oft stated, and certainly ill-deserved notion, that Trinity mostly produced “flannelled fools and muddied oafs”.

“Some of us would assemble regularly at the Kandy Public Library which had an astonishing range of magazines and books. Then we would spend the evening together, walking round the Kandy Lake debating many of the issues we had read about and needed further discussion. On these walks round the lake we would often encounter the Dissanayake boys playing near their lakefront home.

“I remember Gamini most because he had the habit of probing us, his peers, for new ideas and information when we spoke to him. We had a more mundane reason also for knowing Gamini and his brothers. They were the children of the owner of -Silverdale’, Kandy’s best known cafe. After our long walks we would retire to ‘Silverdale’ for a snack and an iced coffee and envy the Dissanayake boys whom we imagined could tuck in to all that delicious food at will!

“Gamini’s father, Andrew, was a leading citizen of Kandy. He had come down from Kotmale and started several businesses, which proved to be so successful that he was a well recognized Kandyan entrepreneur of his time. He was a very affable and gentle person – characteristics which have been inherited by his eldest son. Dissanayake pere (Snr.) always had time for the people of Kandy. We would see him at public gatherings with a large circle of admirers and friends around him.

“He was involved with the politics of the hill country, of Kandy and the Nuwara Eliya regions in particular. He was the President of the All-Island Local Authorities Association and had come to know, at a personal level, the acknowledged father of local government in Sri Lanka, the charismatic S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

“After the departure of Dudley Senanayake into semi-retirement from national politics many leading Kandyans found no basis for supporting the ruling UNP caucus of the time. Many of them joined Bandaranaike’s SLFP. Andrew Dissanayake was nominated for the Nuwara Eliya constituency by the SLFP in 1956. He won handsomely and was appointed a deputy minister in the Bandaranaike government.

“Unlike many of his party colleagues, and very much like his son Gamini later on, Andrew was devoid of rancour and hatred. He treated all his constituents and parliamentary colleagues with consideration. This civilized approach to politics has obviously had an impact on Gamini who grew up in an atmosphere of political engagement. Many national party leaders would drop in at their home for a meal and Gamni was an avid listener to their political discussions.

“By 1970, Gamini had passed out as an advocate and was busy building a civil practice in the Chambers of Neville Samarakoon, Queen’s Counsel, another distinguished alumnus of Trinity College. The legal milieu in which he moved, Neville Samarakoon and B.J. Fernando in particular, brought him closer to the ruling circles of the UNP and at the age of 27, Gamini was nominated to stand for his father’s old constituency.

“By this time the SLFP had been rent apart by internal quarrels and Andrew, with many of his early SLFP colleagues, had retired from politics in disgust. It is worth recalling that the SLFP led by Mrs. Bandaranaike, was keen to field young Gamini Dissanayake once it became known that he would enter politics. However, it was Dudley Senanayake’s request that prevailed.

“Dudley threw his full support to the young aspirant even though Nuwara Eliya was, at that time, represented by Donald Ranaweera, a UNP Member of Parliament. It was not an easy decision, since the incumbent UNP MP was the publisher of the Times Group of newspapers and an important financier of the party. Ranaweera also had the backing of the Deputy Leader of the party, J R Jayewardene.

“However, Dudley and JRJ finally decided to field Gamini. It turned out that the decision was the right one. Though the UNP, met with a disastrous defeat in 1970, Gamini emerged as a successful candidate. If I remember right, he was the only newcomer to the UNP benches in Parliament that year. The recently formed SLFP government vented its rage on the young MP. It resented the entry of a son of one of its own stalwarts into the ranks of the UNP.

“The SLFP took the defeat of their candidate, William Fernando, Felix Dias Bandaranaike’s protege, as a major affront. Gamini had to face an election petition and a fresh election. He won again which served to enhance his image in the country and reinforce the view that the UNP was getting over its defeat and was on a ‘winning streak’.

“The 1970 to 1977 period was perhaps the best years of the UNP as a mass organization. Though small in numbers in Parliament, UNP MPs challenged the might of the SLFP and was able to outwit and out-maneuver them. Gamini was in the thick of this campaign. He emerged as a front rank speaker and organizer of the Opposition.

“There were three national level speakers of the UNP who went round the country: JRJ, Premadasa and Gamini. He drew large crowds at meetings and became a firm favourite of the party rank and file. Under the leadership of J R Jayewardene, the UNP swept back into power in 1977. They humbled the coalition government of Mrs. Bandaranaike. Gamini’s role in this historic struggle, was recognized by the party when in an internal party poll for its highest executive body, Gamini obtained 110 votes, second only to the veteran R. Premadasa, who polled 118 votes. On the basis of this watershed poll, Gamini emerged as third ranking leader of the UNP, after Jayewardene and Premadasa.

“Accordingly, he was assigned what was to be the most spectacular project of the 1977 UNP government – Mahaweli development. This was in addition to the subjects of Lands and Land development, which were the traditional focus of attention of successive UNP regimes. The Mahaweli project which was just another development programme undertaken by the SLFP, though it was inaugurated during the Dudley Senanayake regime, was expanded into the key lead project of the JRJ government.

“The UNP accelerated the Mahaweli programme which was planned to be completed in 30 years to six on the orders of JRJ. Five major dams – Kotmale, Victoria, Maduru Oya, Randenigala and Rantambe – were constructed with foreign assistance. Three hundred thousand (300,000) acres of land were irrigated and 7,500 megawatts of electrical power was generated through this giant hydro-electrical, agricultural and farmer settlement scheme, the magnitude of which was unprecedented even in Sri Lanka, a country best known for its historic hydraulic civilization.

“As acknowledged by President Jayewardene, the accelerated Mahaweli programme would not have been a reality but for the dedication, skill and perseverance of Gamini Dissanayake. I think it is fair to say that the government itself did not realize the enormity and complexity of this task when it announced the revised Mahaweli scheme.

“At first the World Bank advised against it stating that Sri Lanka did not have the expertise or the resources to undertake this project. After a stormy meeting with World Bank bureaucrats, President Jayewardene requested them to get back to Washington, saying he was going ahead with or without multi-lateral assistance. The World Bank finally relented after JRJ threatened to close down its office in Colombo.

“The Bank, now represented by its sagacious Vice President, David Hopper, undertook to back the project. It was a promise that was faithfully kept by the international community under the umbrella of the World Bank. The reservations of the World Bank were echoed by local critics who said that the accelerated scheme will never become a reality. It is here, I think, that Gamini’s natural leadership qualities, good sense and the ability to get the best out of his staff became crucial to the Mahaweli scheme.

“He did not waste time on getting cheap publicity. His officials know they could debate an issue with him without being publicly humiliated and shunted aside. He backed all his staff who could do a job of work– be they engineers or baas unnhes. He assembled a group of officials who were the envy of the Sri Lankan public service. Most of all they were enthused with the feeling that they were doing a worthwhile, patriotic task and their youthful minister was ‘a co-worker’.

“As a minister, Gamini always had his eye on the ‘grand concept’ of the Mahaweli and did not waste time nitpicking. His management style has always been to carefully select his aides and then let them get on with the task of doing the job. Sri Lankan professionals – engineers, surveyors, accountants, managers and administrators, who since independence had become pawns in political gamesmanship, found that their skills were, at long last, recognized and rewarded. An aspect of the Mahaweli Development Scheme which has not been properly recognized is that it served as a ‘hundred universities’ for engineering and scientific personnel.

“These `Mahaweli graduates’ of every rank are a tremendous manpower resource. Unfortunately their skills have not been used by our national planners. The decision to accelerate the Mahaweli scheme was perhaps the most effective decision of the Jayewardene regime. This was the peak period of international cooperation. Western regimes were launching their strategy of `rolling back socialism’. Sri Lanka was identified as a lead democratic regime which was turning its back on a controlled economy and switching to market economics. The snag, however, was that the country did not have major development schemes in the pipeline. Donors were ready to support the new government but were demanding realistic and well-designed project proposals.

“The new UNP regime came up with many hare-brained schemes. But the donors were not buying them. It was only the Mahaweli project that could interest the big donors. It was Gamin’s signal contribution that he could rally his engineering, scientific and administrative staff to come up with viable project proposals. He did not rush his staff to produce schemes which would generate cheap publicity for himself. He personally visited donor countries and argued the case for funding.

“On many occasions his detractors, both within and outside his party, would speak about delays in the early phase of the accelerated scheme. As minister in charge, however he knew that the early planning had to be perfect. He defended his planners in Parliament and gave them enough time during the ‘gestation period’ of the new scheme. This strategy paid off. International donors ranging from the USA to the USSR endorsed the Mahaweli scheme.

“The World Bank treated it as one of its `showcase’ projects. It was only after the project was launched that even its detractors realized that the timing of the young minister was near perfect. In real terms, the investment on Mahaweli could never be repeated since inflationary pressures on the world economy during the last decade and the political inwardness of western nations, has totally changed development cooperation patterns in the Third World. There will be no Mahawelis in the future.

“Just as the Mahaweli scheme was a bold initiative in the field of domestic agriculture, Gamini’s short tenure as Minister of Plantation Industries could have led to a rejuvenation of our plantation agriculture. With an intimate knowledge of planting, the socio-economic conditions of the Kandyan peasantry and a wide network of contacts in the tree-crop industry, he was ideally suited to undertake this task. He brought the same enthusiasm to his new Ministry.

“In his usual style he assembled a group of top-level professionals with whom he established a close rapport. Then, he presented a series of proposals which, as in his Mahaweli days, were accepted at all levels including international donor agencies as quite practical. The estate cluster system, decentralization of management, upgrading of professional skills and benefits, estate-village integration and the push for value-added exports and international cooperation among all primary producers, were parts of this landmark development package.

“Another area in which Gamini made a vital contribution was the Indo-Lanka Accord. It is a little-known fact that our highest military leaders requested Gamini to intercede and bring about a settlement in what they called an ‘unwinnable war’. The Generals who made this request were Attygalle, Ranatunga and Seneviratne.

“They first broached this subject with the young minister when he and I were being helicoptered together with them to the President’s House in Kandy for an urgent discussion as the northern war was taking a disastrous turn. After this meeting they flew back to Colombo and continued their plea in Gamini’s home at Alfred House Gardens. Once Gamini was convinced that it was in the national interest to negotiate with India, he set up an informal link-up with Indian policy makers.

“His greatest achievement was the beginning of a dialogue with N Ram, who had been an influential advocate of the Tamil cause. A very close personal relationship followed. While our ineffectual foreign policy establishment fretted and fumed the good relations established among three young people – Rajiv Gandhi, Ram and Gamini – became the basis of an understanding which yielded the dramatic accord of reconciliation.

“President Jayewardene and High Commissioner Dixit who were the principal negotiators could always rely on this groundwork of friendship which for the first time linked the vital triad of Colombo-Delhi-Madras. Gamini’s commitment to a fair and just solution to our ethnic problem was made manifest through his fearless defence of the Accord, when both extremist groups – the LTTE and the JVP – placed him on their ‘hit list’ for not supporting their extremist positions. Gamini is a rare politician totally devoid of racial, religious, and other prejudices.

“During the last four years Gamini has gone through many traumas. But his commitment to politics as the best way of serving the people is constant. Recently, Gamini and I were travelling by car through Dambulla to Anuradhapura. We drove through miles and miles of green paddy fields which were irrigated by Mahaweli waters. We had both known this area earlier as an arid dry zone. We were silent for a long time. Finally, Gamini said quietly, ‘This is what makes politics worthwhile’.”

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Features

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

Published

17 hours 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

17 hours 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

17 hours 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.