Features
HOTEL SCHOOL NOSTALGIA LIVES ON… – Part 21

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
The 50th Anniversary of CHSGA
On October 16, 2021 I attended another annual general meeting (AGM) of the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association (CHSGA). This week, both CHSGA and I celebrated 50 years in hospitality. As a Past President of CHSGA (1985-1986) I am proud of the work done by all my 27 predecessors and the current executive committee, which includes many of my past students of the Ceylon Hotel School (CHS). They have taken the association to new heights of professionalism, efficiency and innovation.
Usually, the CHSGA AGM is a three-day event of professional, social and fellowship celebrations. Due to the pandemic, we had to settle for less via Zoom; but the show went on. Considering the humble beginnings of CHSGA in 1971 at the CHS hostel with fewer than 50 members, it is impressive that CHSGA now has over 1,200 professional members and is going from strength to strength.
Like many other hospitality institutions, CHSGA is affected by the pandemic. However, its commitment to professional development of its members through centres for excellence and support to the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) and students continues commendably. CHSHA due to previous fund-raising efforts and projects such as the Hotel Show, continues to be financially sound.
A nostalgic interview
On October 17, 2021, the 3,550-member strong (from over 100-countries) Global Hospitality Forum (GHF) hosted its first-ever online Q&A session. It was organized with the assistance from the International Tourism Volunteers Association (ITVA). I interviewed a CHS graduate of the first batch (1966-1969), who taught me hospitality 50 years ago. As a former student of Mr. Rohan De Silva Jayasundara, it was indeed nostalgic and an honour for me to do this interview. With a view of inspiring the audience, I asked of series of questions about my lecturer’s amazing career in hospitality education in seven countries. Listening to this legend in International Hospitality Education talk about his career in Sri Lanka, West Germany, Brunei, Australia, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, and Marshall Islands was a rare opportunity.
For the benefit of those who missed the webinar, the organizers will post its video clip on Facebook pages of GHF and ITVA. Encouraged with its popularity, it was decided to hold such online Q&A sessions with hospitality legends (with over 50 years’ experience in distinguished careers), every month. On November 14, the Global Hospitality Forum’s Q&A session will be with Mahinda Ratnayake who as General Manager, opened the first ever five-star resort in Sri Lanka in 1982 – Triton Hotel. These sessions are open for anyone interested, free of charge.
Interviews at Hotel Lanka Oberoi
In 1974 I did well at my first interview for a post of chef de partie at Hotel Lanka Oberoi which was getting ready to open the largest hotel in Sri Lanka. After the interview I was short listed for a kitchen practical test held at Hotel Renuka where the Executive Chef of Lanka Oberoi and his senior brigade stayed during the hotel’s pre-opening stage. The practical test was to prepare a full meal from a surprise menu given to the finalists five minutes before its commencement. I thought I did well but was not chosen. Later, I heard that the successful candidate was Das Perumpaladas, the Executive Chef of Hotel Renuka and a graduate of the CHS, three years my senior. I realized that they valued his executive chef experience in a small three-star hotel gained over three years.
A week later I was called for two more interviews – one of them at Hotel Lanka Oberoi. The other was at the head office of Whittall Boustead Ltd./Ceylon Holiday Resorts, the owners of my favourite, Bentota Beach and its sister hotel, Coral Gardens. At Hotel Lanka Oberoi I was interviewed by Mr. Joe Madawela, the charismatic Personnel Manager, who was in charge of hiring over 600 employees for the hotel opening. He told me that although I did not make it as a chef de partie, I would be a good candidate for a post such as a bar supervisor. He also told me that if I do well there, I may get an opportunity in a couple of years to be further trained at the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in India for two years. That was the key to become a hotel manager within this regional hotel chain. I agreed to think about it and get back within a week if I was interested.
Eleven years later, I met Joe for the second time. In 1985, he was managing the Queens Hotel in Kandy on a secondment from Hotel Lanka Oberoi. I was then the General Manager of the two largest hotels of John Keells Group – The Lodge and The Village, Habarana. I was also the Founding President of Rajarata Hotels Association (North Central Province). The hoteliers in Kandy were thinking of forming a similar association and sought my advice. To advise them and share our best practices from the NCP, I made a couple of trips to Kandy. I enjoyed chatting with Joe during one of those visits. He had a remarkable memory and narrated details of my interview with him 11 years earlier saying he was disappointed that I did not take his offer in 1974 as he thought that I would have done well with Oberoi. Four years later in 1989, I finally accepted an ‘expatriate contract’ offer from the Oberoi Group and became the Food and Beverage Manager of Hotel Babylon Oberoi in Baghdad, Iraq. Of the ten managers who reported to me, half were graduates of the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in India.
An offer from Bentota Beach Hotel
When I went for the interview at Whittall Boustead, I was immediately offered the post of Trainee Executive Chef (number three in the kitchen) at Bentota Beach Hotel. Mr. Gilbert Paranagama, the Director in charge of their two hotels told me that the management of the hotel was impressed with my work during my recent CHS internship. He made a good offer of a 500-rupee salary and free board and lodging at the executive quarters within the hotel. I was very pleased and accepted the offer. He also briefly introduced me to the Company Chairman, Mr. Sanmugam Cumaraswamy, a well-known Chartered Accountant and businessman.
Leaving Colombo
When I gave notice and handed over my resignation from Havelock Tourinn, the General Manager, Mr. C. Nagendra was very disappointed. He was shocked that someone would leave the position assistant manager of a city hotel to become number three chef in a resort hotel. However, having made my career plan, I was convinced that I was making the right move. Leaving Colombo was not easy. It was my birth place and I lived there for the first 20 years of my life. With my career move, and the desire to live in different parts of Sri Lanka, I knew that I would miss my family, friends, Judo club, many social events and entertainment.
I kept in touch with many of my CHS friends now scattered around the country and students from junior CHS batches who were continuing in Colombo. The friendships that commenced in 1971 at CHS, have now continued for over 50 years. Since 2011, I administered a private Facebook group I founded. It is branded as ‘CHS Lord Veterans’, where nearly 100 CHS colleagues who graduated with the original three-year diploma between 1969 and 1976, are connected around the world. The members of this exclusive group regularly share past, present and future posts. Most are retired now and sadly over a dozen have passed away in recent years. Another recent initiative is a WhatsApp group branded as, ‘Seftonites – 66-76’ exclusively for those CHS colleagues who lived in our good old hostel – Sefton, named after an original expatriate faculty member. This WhatsApp group is very active with several general posts and comments every day. The bonding we made at CHS is very special and the CHS nostalgia lives on…
A Brief Romance in Negombo
In between my departure from Colombo and settling in Bentota, I had a free long weekend. I planned to spend it at the Katunayake airport bidding farewell to my CHS batch mate, Neil Maurice who was migrating to Australia. Almost all our batch came to this farewell and we made it a ‘one for the road’ booze party at the airport to the displeasure of the airport security guards. Our ‘Dutch courage’ certainly helped us to bravely ignore them.
After that, I planned to spend two days at Blue Oceanic Hotel in Negombo with two friends. One of my high school mates, Ruvan Samarasinghe (now the Managing Director at Jetwing Hotels) was the Manager of this first hotel built by Mr. Herbert Cooray for his Jetwing Group. One of my batchmates, Sunil Dissanayake (now the CEO of BMICH) was the Front Office Manager. Like all Sri Lankan hoteliers, Ruvan and Dissa were very hospitable. They hosted me generously.
On my first evening at Blue Oceanic, Ruvan invited me for dinner after drinks at the bar. A few young Swedish tourists who were very friendly asked why we were laughing so much and joined our table. A 19-year-old girl, whose nickname was Blondie, asked me, “Chandi, what kind of music is played by the hotel band?” When I told her that it was Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago, she asked me, “Can you dance to this music?” “Yes, I will show you.” I was quick to grab her before my friends got ideas and took her to the dance floor to show her how it’s done. We later went for a long care-free, barefoot beach walk counting fishing boats and the stars on a beautiful moon-lit night.
I met those friendly tourists again the next morning and ended up hanging out with them on the beach the whole day. The next day I had to leave early for Bentota to begin my new job at Bentota Beach Hotel. When I said goodbye, Blondie promised “I will write to you” and did so regularly for the next three years. We became pen pals until she returned to Sri Lanka in 1977 for a three-week holiday in search of her soulmate. Blondie was my first ‘serious’ girlfriend.
Features
First leftist Mayor after NM: SJB, UNP beaten at their own game

What’s in a vote? That which we call a show of hands could still be as concealed as a secret vote. The newly elected Colombo Municipal Council has chosen the NPP’s Vraie Cally Balthazaar as the City’s new Mayor, but on a secret vote and not in an open show of hands. The secret vote route appears to have caused much consternation among the SJB-UNP opposition forces at the Town Hall. The latter openly preferred an open show and are blaming the secret vote for the defeat of their candidate Riza Zarook.
On the face of it, the NPP with 49 of the 117 Councillors has a more legitimate claim to have one of own as Mayor rather than the SJB with 29 Councillors. In what has been described as a “desperate move”, the SJB forged a mayoral united front by fusing its 29 members with the UNP’s 13, the SLPP’s five and the singular member of the People’s Alliance (whoever the PA now is).
The beefed up SJB mayoral front total of 48 was close enough to the NPP’s 49 for claims of legitimacy, and both sides needed the support at least another 11 or 10 from the remaining 20 members to get the required majority of 59 votes. In the secret vote, the NPP’s candidate presumably got 12 of the non-allied votes to get 61 votes in total. The SJB mayoral front got only six for a total 54 votes. Two votes, there’s no certainty as to whose, were rejected.
Would the result have gone the other way if this municipal conclave had decided on an open show instead of papal secrecy? You do not need supernatural powers to determine that. Let alone a clairvoyant like Gota’s Gnanaka! The commonplace supposition would be that a secret vote may have allowed secret transactions to secure support with hidden hands.
But no one is accusing the JVP-NPP of resorting to such time-(dis)honoured tactics perfected for over 75 years by the UNP and later copied by all others, and most vigorously by the Rajapaksas. If I remember right or not mistaken, the Sunday Times Political Editor made the point after the May LG elections that there was no hanky-panky meddling in the elections by the NPP government – unlike (this is my parentheses) all previous governments in all previous elections.
As well, we may turn the question around and ask about the insistence on an open show of hands as against a secret vote. Is it because the SJB is now all for keeping its hands clean and asking others to show their hands of support in the open without receiving undue incentives? OR is it because the SJB and its allies wanted to see in the open which of the NPP councillors, who may have been beneficiaries of earlier incentives, would now betray them and support the NPP candidate?
Put another way, was it a stratagem to ask for a show of hands to see the breach of loyalty in the open in spite of past IOUs? The latter hypothesis has greater credibility because of the blessings given to the SJB alliance by two former presidents representing two fallen political houses.
No matter what happened secretly and how, the eventual victory of Ms. Balthazar as NPP Mayor chalks up a rare non-UNP victory in the history of Colombo Town Hall politics. After independence there have been only two non-UNP Mayors in Colombo. The first came as a progressive breakthrough when NM Perera became Mayor in 1954. The second came as a comical farce in 2006, when Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas, the leader of an independent group put up by the UNP after its botched up list of candidates had been rejected by the Election Commissioner. Ms. Balthazar is also the City’s second female mayor in quick succession after Rosy Senanayake herself an old school UNPer.
In NM’s Footsteps
News commentaries on Ms. Balthazar’s victory have made mention of the fact that she is the first leftist Mayor of Colombo in 70 years. The first and the last leftist Mayor so far has been Dr. NM Perera, the LSSP leader. NM had been a CMC member from July 1948 and became Mayor on 13 August 1954 after the municipal election on 24 July 1954. A New York Times news report called him the world’s first Trotskyite Mayor, a tongue-in-cheek shot that was characteristic of the Cold War era.
An era that the world badly misses now with an unstoppable Netanyahu and TACO (Trump always chickens out) Trump running amok. In this instance, with Middle East burning, Trump has chickened out to the war schemes of Netanyahu.
Back to Colombo of the 1950s, the LSSP fared well in the LG elections of 1954 including Colombo, a number of Urban Councils and many village councils. In Colombo, NM was accompanied by a strong LSSP contingent that included stalwarts like Bernard Soysa Osmund Jayaratne and a well known architect of the era, J. E. Devapura. Some years ago, Stanley Abeynaike recounted the saga of NM’s Mayorship in the Sunday Observer. Last week, Nandana Weerarathne (Nandana Substack) has recalled the old NM story in the current context.
The initiatives that NM spearheaded as Mayor are worthy of emulation even today. The first order of business was ridding Town Hall of bribery and corruption and implementing a purposeful budget. He took on the private omnibus system within Colombo, replacing it by a public trolley-bus service; and started planning a public bus service for the city and suburban travellers in collaboration with the local authorities of Kolonnawa, Wattala, Dehiwela, Mount-Lavinia and Kotte. City cleanup, slum clearance, small housing schemes, upkeep of rental housing neglected by landlords, and transferring ownership of rental housing to tenants after 30 years of occupancy – were among the progressive measures that were rapidly rolled out during NM’s methodical mayorship.
But all those initiatives of NM riled up the landlords and the private bus owners, and through them the entire UNP government of Prime Minister Kotelawala. Sir John and his cabal were not going to let NM to be the Mayor of Colombo’s even as the country was heading to the general election in 1956. A conspiracy was hatched, and a resolution was passed at an emergency UNP meeting at Sri Kotha, the UNP headquarters, “to remove the Colombo Mayor, Dr. NM Perera.” Even the courts got in on the act to facilitate a resolution at Council against NM as Mayor.
When the resolution to remove NM as Mayor finally came to the floor, Bernard Soysa, Osmund Jayaratne and JE Devapura took turns speaking for hours on end against the resolution. They were hoping to run the clock until the Supreme Court ruling came. But to no avail, and the resolution was passed on October 1st, 1955 by a majority of two votes. One of them was the Communist Party’s Kotahena Member Anthony Marcellus who was brought over to the UNP to vote against NM. Orchestrating the moves was R. Premadasa (father of the current SJB leader) who was brought from outside to oversee matters inside, replacing then Deputy Mayor T. Rudra, who was obliged to resign. All of that in time for the April 1956 election that the UNP lost anyway.
Even the 2006 election of Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas, a political nondescript, as mayor, was the result of the backfiring of a UNP plan to prevent Vasudeva Nanayakkara, another LSSPer, from becoming Mayor. The UNP even got the better of Milinda Moragoda, one time Wickremesinghe confidant, when he chose to make a run for the Mayorship with the support of the Rajapaksas in 2011. UNP fielded its own candidate, AJM Muzammil, who defeated Moragoda and stayed on as Mayor until Rosie Senanayake succeeded him as the next, and now likely the last, UNP Mayor.
So, one can imagine the consternation of Ranil Wickremesinghe in seeing even the last bastion of the UNP’s power legacy being taken away by the upstart NPP. After 1977, through constitutional chicanery and electoral subterfuge the UNP established its supremacy at all levels of government and in all elections. After Chandrika Kumaratunga’s spectacular victories in 1994, the UNP’s electoral superstructure has been steadily dismantled and the only elected body that has survived this debacle is the Colombo Municipality. Until now, that is.
And all of this has been on Ranil Wickremesinghe’s watch. He has been quintessentially a Colombo politician, albeit with an elitist base like JR Jayewardene, unlike the likes of Pieter Keuneman, Bernard Soysa or R. Premadasa who reached out to a broader cross-section of people in the City. Losing Colombo would be the bitterest pill to swallow.
If you are inclined to feel sorry for Mr. Wickremesinghe, save yourself some space to feel good about the future of the City and even the country. Leaving Colombo in the hands of an opportunistically cobbled up SJB-UNP-SLPP alliance would have been both an insult and an injury. The NPP deserved to have one from its ranks as Mayor and it has beaten the UNP in its own game to seal its victory. But having won to govern, will the NPP govern to win – again? That is the question.
by Rajan Philips ✍️
Features
Criminalise war and work tirelessly for peace: Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

Soon to be 100-years ( July 10 th 1925) the two times former Prime Minister of Malaysia’s advice to the world is to “Criminalize War” and work tirelessly for peace.
Q: What is the secret to your healthy happy life?
A: People ask me that question all the time and I say I think its just my good luck. If I have suffered from some kind of fatal disease like cancer, of course life would be different.
I have had heart attacks, and both times I had open heart surgery, but nowadays they don’t open your heart. They use stents. I survived and I recovered and I was able to function. After that I am more careful with what I eat. I keep my weight steady. I do not increase my weight.
In this world, food is the problem. On the one hand you have people who are obese and on the other hand, we have a world that is starving. So, I avoid being obese and eat only very little every day.
Q: What is your advice to the younger generation?
A: My advice is to be active. Active means not only physically active. The brain is an amazing muscle. You need to use it every single day. If you see weight lifters, they have big muscles because they do exercise, You must not become sedentary. Brain must be constantly exercised.
Q: Now that you have retired, what is your day like?
A: I want to take it easy, but most of the time, I come to work almost daily. Usually, people try to retire at 55 or 56. But they must not do that. I keep my body and mind active all the time. I still read, write and do whatever is needed of me.
Q: About the world and with all that is going on around us, what would your advice be to all nations, specially to the nations that are at war?
A: When I stepped down from being Prime Minister, I started a movement to ‘Criminalize War” to make war a crime. There was some support, it took a long time. I believe that any conflict should be resolved. Not through killing each other. You should resolve conflicts through peaceful means like negotiations. That is what we practice here. We are a multinational country, normally there would be many conflicts, but we do not have war in Malaysia. We sit down and talk.
Q: If you had one more opportunity to be Prime Minister of Malaysia, what would you do differently this time?
A: When I stepped down after 22 years, there was still a lot of things to be done. These 22 years were a time of very high tension that came from developed countries. So, at that time, I had to know how things should be done and when things should be done. When I stepped down, unfortunately, my successors were focused on other things. In fact, making money became their priority, so the focus on the country, diminished.
Q: What is the one thing you would like to see happen in your country or in the world as a whole?
A: There are developed countries and there are under developed countries. We want to be a developed country. Developed countries have many assets. For example, economically our people have a fairly good life, our people are involved in activities that contribute to the wellbeing of each other and to other nations. Countries need to help each other, for example in the sciences. There are many areas of research that still need to be done. I would like to see developed countries, reach out to developing countries and form healthy alliances to make each other prosperous.
I have lived a fruitful life. I am happy and I wish to see all nations prosperous and live in peace.
Anusha Rayen, Freenlance Journalist (Formerly ‘The Island Newspaper’ staff member & Parliament reporter) sits for an exclusive interview with former PM of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Puthrajaya.
Features
Price of Netanyahu’s Iran Offensive

That was brutal, and predicated on years of fabricated deceit. But that is how power operates. Netanyahu is not acting in isolation; he was ushered into this calamity with calculated endorsement from the West. For both Iran and Israel, this is a zero-sum confrontation—a tragic entanglement where ancient antagonisms, contemporary geopolitics, and enduring colonial residues violently intersect. What is most intellectually arresting is the glaring paradox Western powers routinely embrace. When Netanyahu launches a premeditated and unlawful assault on Iran, it is euphemistically labelled as a measure of self-defence. Yet when Vladimir Putin deploys forces into Ukraine, the West decries it as an unprovoked invasion. This hypocrisy in moral reasoning illustrates the incoherence of Western ethical frameworks—marked by selective outrage, selective jurisprudence, and selective memory.
Netanyahu is actively courting American bombardment of Tehran, even venturing so far as to suggest the types of ordnance most suitable for maximum devastation. Trump, meanwhile, hesitates—not over Iran’s fate, but because the ensuing ramifications will inevitably encircle him. This cynical arithmetic typifies the geopolitical stage on which empires perform their cruelties. A week has now passed since Netanyahu’s incursion into Iran—a deliberate campaign tacitly sanctioned by the United States and its constellation of affluent allies, whose modern prosperity is inseparable from centuries of extraction and systemic plunder. War, whether desirable or not, remains the central mechanism by which empires assert dominion, redraw territories, and dismantle resistance. Israel’s open defiance of international law—manifest in its missile barrage on Iranian soil—lays bare an unsettling truth: if global powers truly revered international legal norms, Netanyahu’s actions would face unequivocal denunciation. Instead, one could argue—chillingly—that he affirms history’s most ominous prophecies.
Western media, complicit in sanitising this act of aggression, frames it as an “unprecedented” strike—yet again resorting to euphemism to mask illegality. This was not an improvisational operation; it was the culmination of extensive clandestine preparation by Netanyahu and his ultranationalist Orthodox coalition. Israel’s intelligence apparatus has, over decades, embedded itself within the architecture of Iranian society, executing key figures and orchestrating strategic assassinations. The latest Friday strikes were not merely military engagements—they constituted a coordinated political decapitation, targeting senior officials central to the Iranian state.
Iranian society today endures compounded crises. Their tenacity and national pride remain steadfast, yet they are economically suffocated by Western sanctions, which have induced runaway inflation and scarcity. From first-hand experience in Tehran, Iranians are not consumed by a siege mentality; rather, they display a cautious hospitality that, once trust is earned, transforms into deep generosity—qualities starkly misrepresented in Western discourse. In contrast, Israelis are socialised into a perpetual state of existential fear. “Security” is not merely policy—it is a psychological infrastructure, permeating every aspect of public and private life. Israel’s economy thrives not only through sanctioned trade but through its robust arms industry and cyber-warfare enterprises, often exported under the guise of national expertise. This divergence in societal conditioning is critical: it reflects distinct historical wounds and geopolitical compulsions.
To grasp Israel’s war on Iran, one must situate it within the long arc of Western imperial entrenchment in West Asia. This history is punctuated by covert operations, artificial borders, and a strategy of managed chaos. The 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran—toppling the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstating the autocratic Shah—is emblematic of this trajectory. For decades, Western powers suppressed indigenous sovereignty while installing compliant strongmen. The 1979 Islamic Revolution was not merely theological upheaval; it was a radical assertion of national agency forged in the crucible of sustained foreign domination. In the revolution’s wake, Iranian society was reconstituted through a deep-rooted collectivism and assertive nationalism that continues to shape its resistance against external coercion.
Viewed through this prism, Netanyahu’s tenure may be remembered as one of the most corrosive in Israel’s history. By fusing religious chauvinism with militaristic expansionism, he has eviscerated Israel’s democratic ethos, transforming “security” into a tool of territorial expropriation and systemic Palestinian disenfranchisement. His escalation against Iran is not merely a tactical error; it is an incitement to regional disintegration. Framed as a crusade for “unconditional surrender,” his belligerence risks igniting a broader conflagration whose consequences will inevitably recoil upon Israel itself. Netanyahu, then, appears less as a strategist than as a provocateur, recklessly agitating the region’s deepest historical and sectarian fissures.
According to Haaretz, an independent Israeli media outlet operating despite a severely censored and often propagandistic Israeli media environment, several prominent progressive Jewish groups were notably absent from the so-called “joint unity statement” backing Israel’s strikes on Iran. These groups contend that while Iran should not acquire nuclear weapons, military action will at best delay the threat and more likely strengthen hardliners. They argue that diplomacy, not bombs, has proven effective in preventing nuclear proliferation—revealing significant divisions within the Jewish community over Netanyahu’s war.
Meanwhile, a report in the Financial Times captures the civil dimension of this confrontation. Despite sustained bombardment, millions of Iranians remain in Tehran. “Trump and Netanyahu say ‘evacuate’ as if they care about our health. How can a city of 10 million evacuate? My husband and I are not going to pave the ground for them. Let them kill us,” Shirin, a private sector employee told the newspaper. Their refusal to flee is not naïveté—it is a visceral affirmation of identity and resistance. The Iranian public consciousness, hardened by decades of war, sanctions, and subterfuge, manifests a collective defiance often misread in the West. The state’s nationalist discourse resonates beyond clerical authority; it channels a cultural memory of resistance against imperial intrusion.
Moreover, the disproportionate risk to civilians is staggering. Israeli operations ostensibly targeting senior military personnel inevitably endanger entire urban populations, as these individuals live and operate within densely populated civilian zones. The echoes of Israel’s operations in Lebanon—where missile strikes against Hezbollah figures claimed high civilian casualties—are unmistakable. The Iranian Health Ministry’s figure of nearly 1,500 casualties reveals the raw human cost beneath the rhetoric of strategic necessity.
This episode also exposes the profound hypocrisy embedded in Western narratives on nuclear proliferation. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly found no conclusive evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon systematically. Yet, Western powers wield this unverified threat as a pretext for military aggression. The contradictory statements from US officials—from intelligence directors denying Iran’s weaponisation efforts to presidents asserting Tehran is “very close” to the bomb—reflect a politicisation of intelligence designed to justify interventionism.
History has shown the futility of liberal interventionist fantasies: that democracy can be air-dropped or imposed through market restructuring. The Arab Spring, once heralded as a democratic revival, instead expedited the collapse of fragile states and exacerbated regional instability. The supposed liberal order in West Asia has devolved into a transactional, militarised regime wherein peace is manufactured, not cultivated.
Netanyahu’s war on Iran is not an anomaly—it is the terminal result of accumulated imperial failures, ideological rigidity, and historical amnesia. It confirms a grim axiom: when utopias collapse, it is always the powerless who bleed. His offensive, cloaked in the pieties of national security, belongs to a longer, darker chronicle—one whose conclusion will define the fate of West Asia and the very contours of justice in our century.
by Nilantha Ilangamuwa ✍️
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