Features
March Troubles Beckon as White Vans Return
by Rajan Philips
The SLPP’s election fireworks in Anuradhapura may have perished instantly in the Sacred City’s ancient lakes. But political moves and counter moves are emerging independent and regardless of local government elections being held or not held in the near future. New developments are being reported both within the governing (SLPP/SLPFA) alliance and outside it, as well as independent of the government and on behalf of the government. There are four potentially significant developments that have been and are being reported in the media:
1) Shifting political alliances both within the governing alliance and among opposition parties.
2) An ‘all-party’ initiative in parliament to persuade the government to take steps for restructuring debt payments to tide over the country’s critical foreign exchange shortage.
3) The sudden and shocking return of White Vans in Colombo even as the government is trying to improve its human rights image in time for the March UNHRC sessions in Geneva, and while the Catholic Church is threatening to ‘go global’ in its search for justice for the victims of 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.
4) Foreign Minister GL Pieris’s unusually expansive interview to The Indian Express, during his recent visit to India, and his exclusive interview with S. Venkat Narayan, Sunday Island’s Special Correspondent in New Delhi.
Shifting Political Alliances
On Thursday, February 17, the Daily Mirror reported what would appear to be very consequential shifts occurring within the political alliances that underpin the current composition of MPs in parliament. According to the Daily Mirror, twelve of the political parties who are now part of the SLPP/SLPFA alliance and all of whom were left out of the of SLPPs’ family rally in Anuradhapura, are expected to announce in early March the formation of a new alliance, while remaining part of the SLPP-led government.
The leading lights of the new alliance will be Ministers Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila and Vasudeva Nanayakkara, as well as the Chairmen of the three crucial parliamentary committees – Tissa Vitarana (Committee on Public Accounts – COPA), Charitha Hearth (Committee on Public Expenditure – COPE) and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa (Committee on Public Finance – COPF). The new alliance is expected to include a few SLFPers as well, two of whom are also committee chairs.
What will the group’s ministerial troika (Wimal/Gamanpila/Vasu) do? Will they quit cabinet, or stay on as ministers until the President shows them the door? Giving up their cabinet positions may mitigate their political culpability until now, while getting fired will not improve their already tarnished political credibility for the future.
The formation of this alliance will not result in the government losing its current parliamentary majority, but it could take away the government’s two-thirds majority which will be required to effect constitutional changes. The President and the SLPP could just ignore the group, forego the craving for two-thirds majority, and give up on going ahead with constitutional changes. That in itself will be a positive outcome for the country. The country will be spared the agony of going through an ‘organic’ constitution after the disaster over organic fertilizer!
The new alliance could also bring pressure on the President and the government to undertake basic remedial measures that are desperately needed to tide over the country’s current financial and food crises. But there is nothing automatic about the effectiveness of this group in influencing policy or changing government direction. And its effectiveness will be limited unless the group is prepared to work with opposition MPs and parties, as well as more constructive SLPP MPs, on specific issues that are now critical to the country.
Principled cross-floor collaboration can serve two purposes. One, acting as the legislative branch of government, parliament could take independent positions on critical issues to countermand mistaken presidential actions and provide alternative routes for the country’s government. As a consequence of this, parliament can establish its constitutional role in the presidential system without being a mere rubber stamp to the president.
Many have commented on President (G) Rajapaksa’s rootlessness in political parties as a source of weakness for his presidency. Conversely, it could be argued that the deep rootedness of previous presidents in their parties (except Sirisena, who was neither here nor there as President) was a source of weakness for the legislative branch. Shouldn’t parliament use the present opportunity to restore its constitutional role and function?
The Daily Mirror news story also reveals shifting alliances within the opposition in parliament. Of special note are reported discussions involving Champika Ranawaka, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and parliamentarian Kumara Welgama. A coming together of upstart ambition and decadent frustrations, to paraphrase the inimitable turn of phrase of Doric de Souza! Where and how far this convergence will carry, it is not worth a second of speculation. What is pertinent is that Champika’s overtures to Ranil are reportedly the result of Sajith Premadasa’s failure to respond to Mr. Ranawaka’s request for deputy leadership in the SJB.
Mr. Ranawaka apparently is not the only one feeling unrequited in the SJB. “Minority parties” affiliated with the SJB are also reportedly disappointed that Mr. Premadasa is not heeding their calls for formalizing a broad alliance where ‘minority parties’ can maintain their identities. If Sajith Premadasa is reluctant to go into broad alliances, it may be due to his own insecurity and there are also reports about other prominent and young UNP-defectors who too are not very pleased with the leadership and the insulated inner circles of Premadasa the Younger. But I am trying to get to a different point here.
And that is about what seems to be a shared reluctance among Gotabaya/Basil Rajapaksa (SLPP), Sajith Premadasa (SJB) and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (JVP/NPP) to enter broad alliances with other parties. The reluctance might be due to different reasons – arrogance and not having to answer to anyone (Gotabaya/Basil), insecurity (Sajith), and – call it – progressive puritanism (JVP/NPP). But the effect of this shared reluctance would be a major shift in post-presidential electoral politics that needs to be watched as the electoral dynamic unfolds over the next three years. The past alliance champions – Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena are now spent forces with little consequence.
National Unity over National Debt
There is nothing more serious than the national debt burden, and its aggravation of foreign exchange shortages and import capacity limitations. There have been suggestions for negotiating debt payments and calling on the IMF for help. But the government and the Central Bank have done nothing about either suggestion. In the absence of government action, a group of government and opposition MPs have been putting their heads together to urge the government to act promptly on negotiating with the country’s creditors and for approaching the IMF.
TNA’s MA Sumanthiran has been the convenor of these discussions, the second of which was attended by R Sampanthan (TNA), Sajith Premadasa, Dr Harsha de Silva and Eran Wickremaratne (SJB), Rauf Hakim (SLMC), Mano Ganesan (TPA), , Shanakiyan Rasamanikam (TNA), and from the ‘government side’ Charitha Herath (COPE Chair), Tissa Vitarana (COPA Chair) and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa (COPF Chair). Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya attended the second meeting. The first meeting was also attended by Ranil Wickremesinghe and Kabir Hashim (UNP), and Dr Harini Amarasuriya (JVP/NPP).
As reported in the Sunday Island last week, Mr. Sumanthiran has indicated there is agreement in the group that the government should commence renegotiating with creditors before running out of existing foreign reserves and reschedule loan settlements. The group recognized renegotiation as a multi-step process, which could be guided by the experiences of other countries such as Argentina and Uruguay. The purpose of debt negotiations would be to ensure the continuous flow of essential goods and the continued protection of the poor and vulnerable social groups.
Again, there is no indication how far this initiative will go. But this is an instance and an opportunity for parliament to assert itself and literally compensate for the lack of political will on the part of the President and the Minister of Finance. There is another angle to this initiative given the convenor-role of Sumanthiran. It underpins the unifying role of national debt and everything ‘economic’. It also speaks to Mr. Sumanthiran’s role as a parliamentarian and a constitutional lawyer, and his abilities to work across party lines and ethnic boundaries on matters that are of importance to all Sri Lankans. I cannot think of a Tamil parliamentarian before him who would have played such a national role so well while being inflexibly principled on matters affecting the rights and expectations of Tamils as Sri Lankan citizens.
White Vans Return
The most shocking development last week was the return of White Vans after nearly seven years. In the first reported instance, goons in a white van attacked the house of TV journalist Chamuditha Samarawickrema with rocks and faeces and drove away with impunity. In the second instance, Catholic civic activist Shehan Malaka Gamage was arrested and taken way by CID men who too had arrived in a white van. Gamage managed to livestream the arrest on Facebook, calling it abduction, and the publicity forced the CID to produce him in court where the Magistrate released him om bail.
Gamage’s arrest stirred the ire of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who endorsed Gamage’s description that what was done to him was abduction. The Cardinal went on to call it “an uncivilised, thuggish act that should have no place in a democracy.” The Cardinal lambasted the Attorney General who authorized the ‘arrest,’ reminding him that the country’s Attorney General is “a public servant and not a tool of politicians.” According to media reports, the Cardinal also condemned the attack on the residence of journalist Chamuditha Samarawickrama, and “expressed his disbelief that the government would resort to such tactics with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session just days away.”
It is not only the UNHRC that the government will have to worry about for this year’s month of March. Cardinal Ranjith has put the government on notice that Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church is working with the Vatican to help find justice for the victims of the 2019 Easter bombings. The outspoken Cardinal has said that “if we cannot find a solution within the country, we will try going through international organizations.” And that “the government alone must take responsibility for that, because it is the government that has not paid an iota of attention to this.”
The return of the White Van a week after the release of Human Rights and Constitutional Lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah might suggest that the SLPP operatives in the government do not know what they are doing. More sinisterly, the family, the SLPP and the government might be switching sides as they struggle to contain the continuing fallout from the Easter bombings. First they promised retributive justice to Catholics at the expense of the Muslims. Now the SLPP government might be trying to woo the Muslims and abandon the Catholics.
Playing one group against another never works and it always backfires. That has been the story of the entire Rajapaksa power trajectory – its slow rise, sudden peak and the rapid decline. Power not only corrupts and corrupts absolutely, but also comforts the futility of learning nothing and forgetting everything. Of all people, Prof. GL Pieris, easily the most erudite person to be in any Rajapaksa cabinet, gave a demonstration of this during his recent (February 6-8) visit to India.
India – a tried and examined pal
Foreign Minister GL Peiris visited his Indian counterpart Subramanyam Jaishankar in the first week of February. At the end of his visit, the Minister gave an interview to the Indian Express and to the Sunday Island’s Special Correspondent in New Delhi. The latter interview appeared in the Sunday Island last week – in the paper’s print and electronic editions but did not make the cut to the trendy online version. In the Sunday Island interview, Minister Pieris indicated that he had a better understanding of what the people of Jaffna need after spending three days in the peninsula, than any Tamil MP who, according to Pieris, is usually preoccupied with war crimes, which the Minister did not make it a point to deny as he usually does.
The key takeaway from the Sunday Island interview is his refutation of the claim (attributed to ex-Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran) that the proposed new constitution will remove the 13th Amendment and “convert Sri Lanka into a Unitary State instead of a Federal State.” The Minister called the assertion “irresponsible speculation” while not bothering to clarify to the Indian journalist that Sri Lanka is a constitutionally stipulated unitary state. He went on imply the need for patience till the Experts Committee releases its much awaited draft without indulging in “surmises and conjectures.”
In his Indian Express interview (which seems poorly transcribed and was reproduced in the Daily Mirror on February 14), the Minister was categorical that “the 13th Amendment is an integral a part of Sri Lanka’s Constitution of 1978.” Its “primary characteristic,” Pieris said “is a division of powers between the central authorities and the provincial councils.” He rightfully blamed the current suspension of the Provincial Council system on the previous government and the TNA for indefinitely postponing all provincial council elections through legislative inaction by parliament.
Quite apart from the 13th Amendment and Provincial Councils, the Indian Express interview is remarkable for its unusual expansiveness and its glowing allusions to the historical and currently “strategic” linkages between India and its “utmost isle” (Milton), including a potential “financial integration” of the two countries. The Minister described India as “a tried and examined pal that’s all the time there for us.” While admitting to the apparent competitiveness in Sri Lanka’s dealings with India and China, the Minister asserted that “there’s something very particular about Sri Lanka’s relationship with India … a particular high quality about it,” and deemed it “inconceivable that Sri Lanka would (have) allow(ed) our nation for use in opposition to India.”
The Minister identified different economic sectors as underpinning the evolving “strategic relationship” with India. They include ports and harbours, electrical energy, petroleum, tourism, prescription drugs, and of course all the financial credit help which sets up for the “integration of the financial system of India and Sri Lanka” for mutual benefits. If Ranil Wickremasinghe had said half as much, he would have been tattooed and crucified no sooner than he got off the plane at Katunayake. But Pieris may have the Teflon touch as a Rajapaksa Minister.
It could also be that whatever Minister Pieris says in India may be of little consequence for the President or the Prime Minister in Sr Lanka. But that is hardly the way for the government of Sri Lanka to manage its relationship with India. It can get counterproductive when it is apparent that the Sri Lankan government, or Minister Pieris on his own, is trying get New Delhi’s help to deal with UNHRC in Geneva. Besides the UNHRC, there is the EU, and now the Vatican and the whole Holy Catholic See to deal with. Connecting all the external dots internally is the return of the White Van to violate the streets and homes in Colombo. Either the government is inexplicably dumb, or it is assuming that it is cleverer than everyone else in dealing with human rights.
by Jehan Perera
The participation of Deputy Minister of National Integration, Muneer Mulaffar, in a conference on “Building a peaceful pluralistic Sri Lanka through Social Cohesion and Coexistence” organized by the Association of War Affected Women (AWAW), together with other peacebuilding organisations, was the highlight of the event. The Minister spoke eloquently on the government’s commitment to national integration. The event was attended by more than 150 participants, drawn from clergy of all religions, civil society, the academic community and several embassies. The Minister’s participation and speech on the occasion gave two important signals to the participants and the country at large. One message was that the government considered the national reconciliation process to be one that merited its time and effort. The other message was that the task of civil society and citizens was important for the wellbeing of the country.
The constructive role of civil society, which was evident at the conference on “Building a peaceful pluralistic Sri Lanka through Social Cohesion and Coexistence” is that civil society can prepare the ground for the government to engage in problem solving. NGOs are able to go to the grassroots and explain to the people the decisions that the government makes in the national interest. The conference, in which Minister Mulaffar participated, was an example as it sought to build on an initiative taken by senior Buddhist monks to break the deadlock with the Tamil Diaspora on the issue of national reconciliation. In April 2023, the two sides met in Nepal where they formulated a set of principles, known today as the Himalaya Declaration, on which national reconciliation could be built.
The statement, prepared by the convenors of the Conference and which was handed over to Minister Mulaffar, summarized the sentiments of religious clergy, civil society and the academic community who had participated in consultations that spanned over a year, and across the country, since the Himalaya Declaration had got publicized. The statement, built on the Himalaya Declaration, comprised five sections, namely, political reforms (with a focus on constitutional reforms), transitional justice (dealing with the past), equal protection and equal rights, Malaiyaha Tamils (with a focus on the historical injustices they had been subjected to which continue to this day) and good governance (rule of law and strengthening state institutions) for a better and more just Sri Lanka.
FURTHER CONSULTATIONS
As a follow up, the convening organisations also intend to have consultations with political parties with a view to building cross party (bipartisan) support to implement the reforms that are agreed to. The long history of failures of successive governments to resolve the ethnic conflict has been due to the negative role that opposition parties have always played to scuttle governmental initiatives to settle the problem. Therefore, the opposition parties need to be brought on board by the government this time and civil society is ready to assist in this task.
At the recently concluded general elections, the government obtained support from the ethnic and religious minorities, comprising Tamils and Muslims in particular. This enabled it to win all over the country, including seven out of the eight districts in the North and East in which the ethnic and religious minorities predominate. At the consultations, the view was expressed that the electorate in the North and East had placed their trust in the government to resolve their problems. This was described by a Jaffna university academic as the people in the North and East wanting the government to solve the problems directly without going through “middlemen”.
However, it is important that Tamils and Muslims should be included in government bodies set up to enact the system change for which the government was elected. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has recently appointed a Presidential Task Force, with the heads of the armed forces and no Tamil or Muslim representation, with the goal “of elevating society to a more advanced status through a social, environmental and ethical awakening”. It consists of 18 members. But absent from the list of members are Muslims or Tamils. Given that Sri Lanka is a multiethnic and multireligious society, their inclusion, too, is necessary so that the task force will get a more rounded view of the problems at hand.
LOOKING FORWARD
The fact that the Tamil and Muslim people want the government to solve their problems without going through intermediaries is due to their loss of faith in the approaches of the traditional Tamil and Muslim political parties. Their problems still remain and they want them solved. The situation of the Malaiyaha Tamils is a relevant example. They were denied their citizenship rights at the dawn of Independence. The Malaiyaha Tamil people continue to suffer from that act of discrimination. They continue to live in line rooms and do not have a home on a piece of land to call their own. The policy decision taken by the previous government to grant them seven perches of land to build their own homes is yet to be operationalized.
The same holds true for the Tamil people of the North and East. Some of them lost their lands to the military many years ago and have yet to get them back. Some of them have lost their children and do not know where they are or what happened to them, even though some of them were handed over to the military by their parents. At a more basic level, the Tamil-speaking people continue to receive official communications from the government in the Sinhala language even though Tamil is also an official language in the Constitution. A more recent, and more volatile, issue is that of ancient religious sites where they feel threatened while others feel unfairly treated.
During the consultations, a view was expressed that the Tamil and Muslim people did not ask the government to do big things but to start with small things. Indeed, the government has given back some private land that was taken over by the military back to their owners. It opened up a road that was closed for over 30 years. It gave the Tamil people the right to memorialize (which was already provided for in law) without facing harassment by the police. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has also affirmed that the government is laying the legal groundwork for the conduct of Provincial Council elections. There is a lot to look forward to. For Sri Lanka to achieve lasting reconciliation, the government needs to ensure that members of all communities are part of its mechanisms that engage in problem solving at all levels of governance.
By Kaushalya Perera
Sri Lankans love their educational qualifications. Qualifications permit envious comparisons of value, similar to the ownership of gold jewellery, an expensive watch or a branded pair of shoes, resulting in exactly the same questions of provenance, worth and authenticity, but from a much higher moral ground.
For the past two weeks we, the people, have watched as allegations that the (now) ex-Speaker’s educational qualifications were faked, proliferated across the news and social media. We waited for him to prove otherwise, all the while observing how his party and his current place of work (the Parliament) seemed to have neither the will nor the means to verify these claims. As I write, the ‘qualifications war’ has turned into an Absurd play.
Why were the ex-Speaker’s qualifications so important?
This is a two-fold problem related to the unhealthy relationship that Sri Lankans have with qualifications, coupled with NPP’s self-branding as a ‘clean’ party.
Let’s take the second part first. One of the NPP’s pledges was that they would give ‘sudussata sudusu thaena’, i.e., appropriate positions to suitable individuals. This was a constant thread of their election rhetoric and it was accepted as a counter to the rampant nepotism and cronyism we have been seeing. After the (ex) Speaker stepped down, the Prime Minister said in Parliament that her Party includes members with no certificates, as well as those with many qualifications; that all are equally valued because her party values all types of knowledge; and that knowledge cannot be understood narrowly.
I fully agree. It is the kind of vision I expect from a Minister of Education. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the NPP knowingly played the qualifications game during their long drawn-out campaign. The JVP’s image—associated in public discourse with ragging, student protests and workers’ strikes—was subsumed into the NPP’s much-vaunted membership of professionals, academics and artists.
And the reason why the ‘qualifications game’ was so effective as election currency is precisely because Sri Lankans value qualifications so highly, in such a problematic way. It provided legitimacy to the NPP’s portrayal of themselves as a party standing against a host of corrupt charlatans.
This brings us to the first part of the problem – our love of qualifications. In the education sectors, we’re all familiar with that little line: ‘A certificate will be provided’, which is included to increase participant numbers. Also familiar are instances of people registering for a specific course disappearing from the actual class and turning up at the ‘certificate-awarding ceremony’. Further, degrees are often demanded in some sectors for jobs that do not require one.
This love of qualifications is not a new phenomenon. In an interesting article, titled ‘The growth of foreign qualification suppliers in Sri Lanka’, published in 2005, Angela W. Little and Jane Evans describe the growth of the ‘qualification marketplace’ in Sri Lanka. They found that advertisements by ‘qualification-suppliers’ in three national newspapers (Sinhala, Tamil and English) grew steeply over three decades, rising from 15 qualification-suppliers in 1965 to 153 in 2000. One can only imagine what a post-2000 study would reveal!
The authors chart the rise of the qualifications industry in parallel with the economic liberalisation and economic growth that occurred post-1980. Though they did not make this link, we can connect this rise to the failure to expand higher and vocational education to a growing population and a fast-changing economy, during two decades of political upheaval. During this period, public funds for education declined, and declined even more sharply post-2000, despite large loans from international financial organisations. This is the context for both the deterioration of public education and the rise of privately-funded education, which is symbolised by the desire for a qualification, rather than an education.
Qualification versus education
Re-creating a society that values learning and education over a certificate of qualification would involve a protracted and difficult journey. It would require a few decades of high quality, widely-accessible education as well as moral re-socialisation: a simple-sounding solution, yet one that is very difficult to initiate and achieve. Indeed, it would be illogical to expect any kind of moral or ethical socialisation from an underfunded and damaged education system, embedded in a decaying society.
The fact remains that the education sector desperately needs actual physical resources. Today, while a small proportion of schools in Sri Lanka contemplate installing computer labs, other schools are deprived of the basics; school meals, electricity, running water, uniforms, chairs, desks and books. We also need more and better paid teachers, plus national regulations and explicit minimum standards for the teaching profession, regardless of whether they are in the state, private or international sectors.
A larger issue that is not discussed is that we actually do not know enough about our own education system. Our attention has for too long been focused on the state education system, resulting in a lack of attention towards other sectors, e.g., early education, private and international education. The education ecosystem in the country needs urgent study, and researchers across disciplines can contribute to this need. And while the education sector has accepted multiple donations and loans, it is not at all clear if these funds are used in a manner that best fits the purpose.
In summary, it is vitally important that the fundamentals must be fixed. But we need to also re-think the way we over-estimate the value of a qualification, as against a wholesome education.
A re-examination of values and ethics
The fact that we value qualifications rather than an education has been apparent for a long time now. The prevalence of forged certificates and honorary doctorates is not the only indicator. Long before ChatGPT arrived, newspapers and social media were advertising ghostwriting services, i.e., the writing of assignments and dissertations for a fee. This is a business that is clearly unethical and must surely be illegal, but it is now so common that both the suppliers and their clients appear to consider it perfectly normal.
We have come to value quantity over quality: two degrees simultaneously, more qualifications, promotions and rankings based on numerical criteria and so on.
Start somewhere
It is obvious that ethics socialisation has not happened through education in Sri Lanka. This is a major problem that has no simple or quick solution. When the Parliament that is supposed to be discussing the interim budget of a financially distressed country spends that time trading accusations with each other about each other’s educational qualifications; when an MP is unable to prove – even after a week – the qualifications he claims to possess and then imagines that it is sufficient to resign from his position but not from his seat in Parliament; when a party that has pledged immediate action on corruption-related issues takes several days to effect a resignation from a powerful position; and when the Prime Minister and Cabinet Spokesperson are angered when questioned about matters of veracity and authenticity – we know we still have a long way to go to re-socialise a population into ethical beliefs and conduct. It is not enough to prevent bribes and reduce wasteful spending. We also need to start looking at providing meaningful and broad-based public education, where learning and integrity go hand in hand.
(Kaushalya Perera teaches at the Department of English, University of Colombo.)
Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.
Several well-known personalities have joined our scene to wish The Island readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Yes, let’s all celebrate this joyous occasion with love in our hearts and let us spread that love in the New Year, too…and beyond.
* Noeline Honter:
Christmas is my favourite time of the year! I simply love the feel of Christmas in the air, the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations, the delicious aroma of the cake baking in the oven, the glittering Christmas tree, yuletide carols and on and on and on. It’s about family and friends.
But, most of all, it’s The Reason for The Season…The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Salvation, Peace, Joy, and Love that He brings. So spread some Love this Christmas, in 2025, and beyond!
My thanks to Ivan for providing me with the opportunity of sharing my wishes with you this Christmas. “And so I’m offering this simple phrase, wishing all my family, friends, fans, and all the kids from one to 92, a Very Merry Christmas, and Peace, Joy and Love in 2025.
* Suzi Fluckiger:
I know lots of folks will be eagerly awaiting Santa’s arrival. Well, if you have been good, Santa will surely say ‘hi’ to you. Merry Christmas to all readers of The Island newspaper; and in the New Year I would like to see everybody brush up their ways and learn to love people and accept them for who they are. We can’t change the world but we can “make it a better place for you and me,” like in ‘Heal The World.’
* Sohan Weerasinghe:
This year Christmas, and the New Year, is going to be amazing!
Record crowds are expected from abroad to celebrate the festive season. Many shows have been planned and most hotels are going out of their way to have fabulous New Year dances.
While enjoying with our friends, relations and fans, do spare a thought for those who are also in need.
Do your utmost to help those people who are in need and make their Christmas and New Year memorable, too. God bless our Sri Lanka.
* Maneka Liyanage:
Christmas is more than just a time for gifts and festivities—it’s about remembering the life of Christ and the teachings He left behind. His message of love, humility, and compassion is needed more than ever in a world plagued by conflict and suffering. This holiday season, may we seek to be instruments of peace, bringing light to those in darkness. Wishing you a blessed Christmas, and a New Year filled with love and hope for all.
* Lorensz Francke:
Greetings from Toronto, Canada. I was on a 16-day vacation in our beautiful island of Sri Lanka and did a couple of performances as well. It was truly memorable and I will be back one day soon. In the meanwhile, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a festive and joyful holiday season…and a Happy New Year 2025.
* Melantha Perera:
Every year I compose a Christmas song and these are a few lines from my Christmas song for this year which will be sung by many friends residing in different parts in the world.
“In this festive season let your love be felt by the needy; it’s our duty to make them smile. That special reason for this season where we all can enjoy in style.”
A blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
* Kay Jay:
Christmas is been celebrated not only by Christians, but by other religious people as well. And Christ means peace, joy and hope, so it’s nice to see the whole world celebrating with joy as they all feel the peace and joy of the Lord Jesus in a spiritual way. I pray for peace and joy to all… this season, and a wonderful New Year to all.
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
* Brian Kerkoven:
In a world full of rejection and hurt, we should be confident and love ourselves for who, and what, we are. Shine brightly for the FESTIVE Season and ALWAYS. Season’s Greetings to everyone.
* Andrea Marr:
Wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and a Bright and Prosperous New Year. The message of Christmas is Love, so let Love be your focus this Christmas.
N U N Mendis appointed Director General of Combined Services
Chaminda Hettiarachchi appointed Director General of Pensions
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