“Not only our actions, but also our inactions, become our destiny.”
Heinrich Zimmer (The King and the Corpse)

Mohamad Suhail was arrested twice in one day, first under normal law, then under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The first ‘crime’ of this 21-year-old student was walking down the road outside the Chabad House in Dehiwala. The Chabad House (a religio-political-social institution belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement, a Jewish-fundamentalist sect – think of Bodu Bala Sena with way more brains and cash), reportedly an illegal construction, continues to thrive under the benign gaze of law enforcement officers. Yet the same law enforcement officers arrested Mr. Suhail, a Lankan citizen, for being near a structure built to serve Israeli tourists.

Since Mr. Suhail’s real ‘crime’ would have earned them a magisterial reprimand, Dehiwala police accused him of not having an identity card. The magistrate refused to remand him and released him, pointing out that being in a public space without an identity card was no crime. Case closed. Or so it seemed.

Mr. Suhail went home to Mawanella with his father that evening. In the night, a team from the Dehiwala police went to his home and arrested him again under the PTA, effectively preventing the magistrate from giving him bail. His ‘crime’ this time was having anti-Israel posts on his social media.

That was 24 October 2024. He spent the next eight months and three weeks in remand prison. He would have vegetated behind bars for many more months, or even years, had not his incarceration made it to the news in June 2025, resulting in an outcry.

This week, the police informed the court that Mr. Suhail can be released on bail since he had committed no wrongdoing under the PTA. Incomprehensibly, despite this total lack of evidence, the case against him is to continue. Even harder to comprehend is the reason for his arrest. After all, being critical of Israel (or of any other country including Sri Lanka) is not a crime even under normal law let alone the PTA.

Mr Suhail’s case could have been regarded as an isolated incident had it not been for the arrest in March 2025 of 22-year-old Mohamad Rusdi. He too was detained under the PTA for the ‘crime’ of being anti-Israel. In his case too, the police failed to find any ‘evidence’ – other than his opposition to the Gaza genocide. He too was released on bail, because the state wants to maintain the case against him.

The two cases, taken together, prove how easily, how dangerously the PTA can be abused, how it can be used to persecute innocents on the most ludicrous of pretexts. If this practice of arresting Lankans for being anti-Israel is given a pass, what will the authorities do next? Arrest Lankans for laughing at Donald Trump, ridiculing Narendra Modi or mocking Xi Jinping? How about the ‘terrorist’ crime of disrespecting the Pakistani flag, Maldivian national flower or Nepal’s national anthem?

After all, had we been told one year ago that a Lankan can be detained under the PTA for being critical of Israel, wouldn’t we have dismissed it as an April Fool’s joke?

The conclusion is terrifyingly obvious: any act, however ordinary or innocuous, can be deemed terrorism under the PTA and anyone, however innocent, a terrorist.

Initially, the victims would be non-Sinhalese since in Sri Lanka terror mostly meant and means Tamil or Muslim. But eventually, it will be the turn of any Sinhalese the government of the day has a problem with. It is not hard to envisage NPP/JVP leaders being detained under the PTA by a future Namal Rajapaksa dispensation, maybe for the crime of threatening the president’s second cousin! After all, the NPP/JVP in government has set a new record in abusing the PTA, making it easier for its successor to sink to even more abysmal depths.

The PTA has been in existence for 46 years. In that time, it failed to prevent the phenomenal growth of the LTTE, the Eelam War, the Second JVP insurgency, and the Easter Sunday massacre. Despite these monumental failures, it thrives and will continue to thrive because every government feels the need for it, feels safer, more potent for it, sees it as a protector of last resort, not of the country or the people but of its own power.

Regarding the PTA as a talisman against political opposition, public discontent, and electoral failure is a mistake every government makes and no government learns from.

PTA: an anatomy of failure

Not every promise is made equal. Some can be ignored without major consequences. Breaking others herald disaster.

Like the promise the UNP made in its 1977 election manifesto to politically resolve the Tamil ethnic problem.

Armed separatism came into being under the UF government of Sirima Bandaranaike (the LTTE was formed in 1976). But there was still a chance to prevent large scale bloodshed by finding political solutions to the political problems of the Tamil people. This was what the UNP promised do in its election manifesto: “The United National Party accepts the position that there are numerous problems confronting the Tamil-speaking people. The lack of a solution to their problems has made the Tamil-speaking people support even a movement for the creation of a separate state. In the interests of national integration and unity so essential for the economic development of the whole country, the party feels that such problems should be resolved without the loss of time. The party, when it comes to power, will take all possible steps to remedy their grievances in such fields as,

· Education; (2) Colonisation; (3) Use of Tamil language; (4) Employment in the public and semi-public corporations.

We will summon an All-Party Conference as stated earlier and implement its decisions” (emphasis mine).

But once in power with a five-sixth majority, the UNP forgot its promise. Instead of prioritising national integration, J. R. Jayewardene focused on creating an executive presidency thereby concentrating almost all power in his own hands. In the meantime, the virulent outpourings of the likes of Cyril Mathew began to given the government a racist image the UNP didn’t have in opposition.

Less than a month after the election, all hell broke loose.

On 15 August, three policemen on patrol in Jaffna stopped three cyclists. One of the cyclists pulled out a revolver and shot at a policeman. Over the next couple of days, the police went berserk attacking civilians, destroying property and burning the iconic Jaffna market.

On 17 August at 11. 00 am, a radio message was sent from the Jaffna police station to the IGP in Colombo: “Today, four CTB buses have been set on fire. Naga Vihara is under attack. A crowd has gathered at the railway station Jaffna with intention to assault incoming passengers. The situation is deemed serious.” Every word in that message was a lie, but was received as nothing but the truth by many Sinhalese. Soon, anti-Tamil violence exploded in Colombo, regional towns, and in the Plantations. In some parts of the North, Tamils retaliated by attacking Sinhala traders. Violence raged over two weeks. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands displaced, most of them Tamil.

The riots were a warning of the fragility of the situation and the urgent need for a measured political response by the government. Had the Jayewardene administration returned to its election promise, and worked at resolving key Tamil grievances, the war could have been avoided and hundreds of thousands of lives, Tamil, Sinhala, and Muslim, saved. Unfortunately, the government did the opposite; forgetting the political grievances which led to the Eelam demand, it resorted to generalised repression in the North while and trying to surpass the SLFP on the racism scale in the South.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act was born of this mindset. Formulated in 1978 and becoming law in 1979, the PTA made it possible for the authorities to arrest and detain any Tamil on terrorism charges without a shred of evidence.

When the PTA came into being in 1979, the LTTE was capable only of isolated acts of violence. Just four years later, by 1983, despite a severe internal schism, it was able to wipe out an entire army patrol.

A vignette from the deadly Four-Four Bravo operation indicates what the Lankan state and government lost by focusing on repression instead of on winning over ordinary Tamils. The operation was carried out by the crème de la crème of the LTTE, including Vellupillai Prabhakaran. As the group made their way to the selected spot in the Tinnaveli junction, their footfalls attracted the attention of some residents. “The more inquisitive ones peeped out of their windows or balconies. The LTTE had anticipated this. To pass for Sri Lankan troops, Chellakili and Victor barked out orders in Sinhalese. The perennial fear of men in uniform did the trick. The curious onlookers quickly retreated out of sight” (Inside an Elusive Mind – MR Narayan Swami). Had the government adopted an approach of isolating the militants by reaching out to ordinary Tamils, some alarm might have been given and the attack averted, saving countless lives, starting with the 13 soldiers who were to die that night.

Not taking that path would lead to Black July and quarter of a century of war.

Who lied to the President, and why?

Like the UNP in 1977, the NPP/JVP came into office promising to achieve national reconciliation. And, like the UNP, it is failing. The needless and unjust detention of Mohamad Rusdi and Mohamad Suhail under the PTA signals that the current government is headed to an abyss – this time totally of its own making.

In April 2025, President Dissanayake publicly defended the arrest of Mr Rusdi insisting there was ample evidence to justify his detention under the PTA. Later, the police were forced to admit the opposite – there was not an iota of evidence against Mr. Rusdi.

Did the President lie knowingly or was he duped? If he was duped (which seems the more likely possibility since he is yet to show any signs of racism) it would have been by someone he trusts. We do not know who lied to him, but he does. Knowing the identity of the liar, it should be possible for him to figure out the reason for the lie. Was it money (Israel is notorious for bribery) or innate anti-Muslim sentiments? Or, are these arrests false flag operations aimed at whipping up another round of anti-Muslim hysteria?

In August 1977, a generalised pogrom could have been avoided if some police official in Jaffna had not sent that false radio message to the IGP. Who authored it remains a mystery. The why is obvious. That radio message was a false flag operation aimed at setting the country on fire. It was done with malicious intent, and it was done by a supposed guardian of law.

Warned by history, President Dissanayake has a chance to uncover the official/officials responsible for the equation of anti-Israel with terrorism and the consequent abuse of the PTA and bring him/them to justice.

The PTA was born as an anti-Tamil law. Its concept of terror invoked the image of every Tamil, from the politician advocating a separate state to the old woman sweeping the street who knew nothing of a separate state. So, when the LTTE carried out the Four-Four Bravo operation, Sinhala mobs wreaked bloody vengeance on every Tamil they could get hold of.

In 2012, the Rajapaksas, in search of a threat to keep Sinhala-Buddhists cleaved to them, created the Muslim enemy. That image led to the anti-Muslims riots of Aluthgama and Digana, and from thence to the Easter Sunday massacre. The one thing it didn’t do was to make Nilantha Jayawardena, the then head of the SIS, the first top official to receive concrete information about the coming attack do anything to prevent it. By April 21^st, he was in possession of the names of several potential attackers: Mohamed Zaharan, Mohamed Milhan, and Mohamedu Rilwan. If he had moved to arrest even one of these men, the attack might have been prevented. And he could have done so easily, under the normal law or the PTA. Yet he didn’t. As the Supreme Court pointed out, “All this shows that there was so much information that was available before Nilantha Jayawardena…but it cannot be said that Nilantha Jayawardena acted with alacrity and promptitude.”

Had Mr. Jayawardena been a Muslim he would have been accused of helping the terrorists, perhaps even arrested under the PTA. But he is Sinhala and Buddhist, and therefore remains as free as a bird. No wonder the PTA failed miserably in doing what it was created to do – prevent terrorism. But it will survive the NPP/JVP government to be used in an even more surreal and deadly manner under a President Namal Rajapaksa.

The PTA is like the executive presidency, another Ring of Power its current wearer never wants to take off. Today, it is Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Precious. Someday it will be used against him. By the time he realises that, it will be too late, for him, and for ordinary Lankans who can become its victims for any reason or none.

by Tisaranee Gunasekara ✍️

We have little say about restrictions being imposed on us from abroad. Somehow, we have to stand on our feet. In the distant past we did have programs that tackled poverty and enabled people to produce what we need. However today no attempt is being made to help people to become entrepreneurs, to produce what Sri Lanka requires, and in that process earn foreign exchange and also help reduce imports.

This economic demise has been a process that commenced after 1977, when we started following the Structural Adjustment Program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A condition insisted upon was that all development programmes had to be curtailed or abolished. There should be no new programs of development. Truly from 1977 there has not been a single new development program.

All that has been approved are of the Samurdhi and Aswesuma type of making donations to the poor. Departments that dealt with economic development were either abolished or sidelined.

During Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake’s tenure we were self-sufficient in rice. I too played a part in that cultivation programme and have first-hand experience as I served as the Additional Government Agent in Kegalle in 1968 and 1969.

Paddy production is of crucial importance because we have had to import very large quantities of rice almost every year recently, spending a great deal of foreign exchange. Paddy production was handled by the Department of Agriculture for long. They had a full staff at district level, an agricultural instructor with two years training at the divisional level, and at the village level, an agricultural overseer with a year’s training.

That effort was strengthened with the implementation of the Paddy Lands Act by the Agrarian Services Department, which for the first time brought about an elected body of cultivators and land owners that planned paddy production.

In Anuradhapura, we had 296 cultivation committees and there was a staff of three Assistant Commissioners, 10 Divisional Officers and 50 Field Assistants. I can remember meetings of cultivators going on till late in the night and we decided on using certified high yielding seed paddy and the appropriate use of fertilizer. This effort was well organized.

Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake (1965-1970) took over the implementation of paddy production and brought in the Government Agents to lead the programme in each district. The production of paddy had been assessed by the Department of Agriculture. Dudley was not satisfied with that systems and decided that the yield of paddy be estimated by staff officers of departments other than the Department of Agriculture, and also done on a plot identified by random sampling. Thus, the production was correctly estimated. As a result of this effort, we achieved self-sufficiency in rice.

After 1970 the Government Agents were to concentrate on the new programme – the Divisional Development Councils Programme (DDCP) and paddy production was given less emphasis. The system of crop cuttings done by staff officers of department other than the Department of Agriculture was stopped.

The government had from the fifties a paddy purchasing programme where a high price was given to genuine cultivators. This was discontinued. Two more changes took place and the Department of Agrarian Services was more or less abolished and the Agriculture Department paddy production programme was scaled down by President Premadasa promoting all agricultural overseers – numbering some 2,300 – to become Grama Niladharis in 1997.

The work done by agricultural overseers ceased and a few years later a cadre of untrained Yaya Palakas were appointed. Thus, today the paddy production effort is totally unorganized. Many seed farms were privatized and thus no certified seed paddy is available. It is no wonder that we have had to import rice and unless a definite plan to bolster paddy production is built from scratch, Sri Lanka will have to import very large quantities of rice every year.

The introduction of Provincial Councils and devolving agriculture to them has also eaten into efficiency. Earlier a circular by me, when I worked in the Agrarian Services Department, sent by post to all overseers had to be acted upon the next day, after devolving agriculture to the provincial councils the instructions had to be sent via Divisional Ministers of Agriculture.

The production of vegetables and fruit is also unorganized because the Department of Agriculture does not have a field officer – the agricultural overseer – at the village level which it had till 1997.

From the days of World War II, a Marketing Department – a Department for the Development of Agricultural Marketing – was established to help the marketing of agricultural produce. This department was abolished in 1977, with the country implementing the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF.

Today all producers are at the mercy of traders. When the Marketing Department functioned producers could hand over vegetables and fruit to the Marketing Department. Then vegetables and fruit were purchased and sent to Tripoli Market , the headquarters of the program, where goods were sent to some 50 outlets in Colombo for sale at low prices.

This made traders too to sell at low prices if they were to be in business. The aim of the Marketing Department was to offer high prices to producers as well as sell at low prices to city dwellers. The abolition of the Marketing Department happened in 1981. It may be a good idea to reestablish the department

Aswesuma, the poverty alleviation programme of today that gives money to the poor and deprived people, is only a continuation of the Samurdhi and the Janasaviya Programmes of public assistance. Janasaviya included training of beneficiaries to become productive as an integral part. This programme unfortunately folded with the demise of President Premadasa. Samurdhi too made an attempt at training people but the attempt was a failure. If Aswesuma is to be a success it should include a program to train the recipients to become entrepreneurs – thus producing what the country needs.

Sri Lanka is a country blessed with fertile soil and ample regular rainfall, which enables the production of paddy and other crops. We had the organization for handling production, which has been dismantled by reducing the staff of the Department of Agriculture, the almost total abolition of the Department of Agrarian Services and the abolition of the Marketing Department.

For instance, the Marketing Department established a canning factory in 1955 and in three years by 1958, we became self-sufficient in all fruit drinks and fruit produce Today, unfortunately we depend on imported fruit and fruit drinks imported from countries ranging from India, Cyprus and the USA. There goes our foreign exchange In dairy produce too we depend on imports. We do not have a real program to develop animal husbandry. We must expand the number of veterinary surgeons and implement a program for people to rear cattle.

In industry too, we were till 1977 having a well-developed programme of handlooms and power looms that enabled us to be self-sufficient in manufacturing textiles. In 1977 we abolished this programme and the Department of Small Industries was totally eliminated. Until 1977, we met all our textile requirements.

Sri Lankans who had migrated to the UK when they visited Sri Lanka on holiday came searching for suiting produced by the Hakmana Powerloom. When they could not find Hakmana suiting in the shops they came to the Hakmana Powerloom and when they found that too difficult, approached me – as the Government Agent who controlled the Powerlooms.

In 1958 I was working in Ambalantota and my duties took me often to Weerawila where during the cropping season the air was full of cotton pollen wafting in the air. Sadly, we gave up cultivating cotton. Three large stores built for collecting cotton were taken over by me for storing paddy. Cotton can be grown in Hambantota and Mannar/Vavuniya areas.

Under the Divisional Development Councils Programme of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1970-1976) we established many small industries all over the island. Special mention is due of the paper making at Kotmale ,and the boat making industry at Matara where we made seagoing boats and sold them to fisheries cooperatives,

At Matara on our own, we established a crayon factory . It took three months for my Planning Officer, Vetus Fernando, a chemistry honours graduate to master the art of making a crayon of a standard equal to Reeves, the best of the day. It took two weeks for Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament for Deniyaya, in his capacity as the President of the Co-op Union to establish a crayon factory under my immediate direction. Within a month crayons made by the Morawaka Cooperative Union were sold islandwide.

Therein lies the path if our Government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is interested in developing industries in Sri Lanka. It is a task that can be easily achieved. We can establish many industries to manufacture some of what we import today.

I can state that Sri Lanka can produce all the rice, maize, fruit and vegetables it requires – all items that can be cultivated and harvested within one year. When I served as Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in Anuradhapura, I asked for approval to produce all the maize Sri Lanka required in one season. We had vibrant cultivation committees to handle that task. Fruits like oranges will require a longer program. Let us not forget that we have a fertile land with ample regular rain.

Let me end with a bit of what I achieved in Bangladesh in creating entrepreneurs. I served there as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor on Youth Development. When General Ershard took over the country it was widely feared that the youth development activities would be abolished. At the final meeting the minister asked for my recommendation. I urged that instead of abolishing the Ministry, the Government should establish a youth employment program.

The Secretary to the Treasury, the highest officer in Bangladesh, said that he would not release any funds because the ILO had failed to do that task at Tangail in the earlier three years. I argued with him – a one to one battle for two hours. The minister stopped us arguing and approved my establishing an employment creation program. This was done in 19 months and that was in 1983.

It is a programme that has by now made over three million youth entrepreneurs. It has been documented in eight pages in the Five-Year Programme of Bangladesh and is continuing.

In 2011,when Milinda Moragoda, who was our High Commissioner in Delhi made a bid for the Mayoralty of Colombo, in his manifesto stated that if elected, he would seek to implement the Youth Self Employment Program of Bangladesh which incidentally was am amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka, Dr Garvin Karunaratne, who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.”(The Nation: 11/9/2011)

I hope I have had the opportunity to awaken our new Government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. (The writer is former Government Agent for Matara)

by Dr. Garvin Karunaratne
garvin.karunaratne@hotmail.com ✍️

A book review
Author – Prof. Nimal Senanayake PhD FRCP, DSc
Reviewer – Prof. N.A. de S. Amaratunga PhD DSc,

Prof. Nimal Senanayake, the eminent neurophysician, in his major project to educate the public on common health problems, has put out another publication, the nineteenth in the series, in easy to understand Sinhala on a subject that baffles us and sometimes causes concern in our minds. This book titled “Sihina”, deals with the mythology, physiology, psychology of dreams and its ramifications. Obviously it would capture the interest of, not only the general public, but also the medical fraternity, particularly, students, psychiatrists, psychologists, sleep specialists and of course the general practitioner who is called upon to manage a wide range of complains.

As usual Nimal is spectacular in the very begining, he creates a vivid picture of Greek mythology that involves the God responsible for the overseeing of dreams, Hypnos, who grants the sleeper’s wishes and also gives messages on important matters. The book makes reference to other philosophies and religions, including Buddhism, which have metaphysical notions about dreams. The importance of the psychology of dreams is highlighted by this historical sojourn.

A very significant section is the description of the work of eminent psychiatrist and philosopher Sigmund Freud who resorted to psychoanalysis of dreams of his patients to arrive at a diagnosis. Freud has said “dreams are the Royal road to the unconscious” and he held that dreams reflected on the unfulfilled sexual desires. Senanayake further makes reference to another psychiatrist and philosopher Carl Jung a student of Freud but who had different views on dreams. Several other scientists who had different ideas are presented in order to show the relevance of dreams.

Now the author turns his attention to an aspect that is very important, abnormalities in sleep. Narcolepsy is due to the disturbence of the sleep-awake cycle that may lead to abnormalities in the nervous system causing a need for excesive sleep. Though the affected person sleeps a lot he lacks sound sleep and may suffer from sleep deprivation. Another symptom these people may have is abnormal dream pattern. Other features are muscle weakness and halucinations. Author carefully supplies a description of each of these features and a scientific explanation for their occurence. This information could be very useful to students as well as practitioners.

The differentiation of dream and hallucination also could be of value to the practitioner and student. Examples of types of halucinations are given. Further the description of supersticious believes and the way they could affect the mind and sleep could be relevant. As usual the author makes the narrative interesting by reference to great writers who have made use of such believes the theme of their suspense filled stories. He has chosen Guy de Maupassant’s famous novel Horla, which shows how an apparently contented but lonely individual feels the presence of a mysterious being in the vicinity when he is about to fall asleep. This is not a dream but a halucination.

.The so called ‘nightmare’ is explained with clarity that Senanayake characteristically achieves with economy of words. The word mare which now a days referes to a female horse in the medieval times meant a female demon who climbs on top of you and presses on your chest making breathing difficult ! That is the origin of the word ‘nightmare. The importance of this experience is that it could indicate an underlying ailment such as depression, schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder which may occure after a severe mental shock. Certain drugs and alcohol too could be a cause. Avoiding going early to bed due to the fear of nightmares itself could make the condition worse. The author gives a list of remedial measures in a comprehensive manner.

Talking during sleep is explained and remedies are discussed. A worse condition could be sleep walking, this happens due to an attempt to wake up from deep sleep and end up trapped between sleep and awake states. Walking happens in sleep ! However the eyes are open and vission is clear, sleep walker may even run ! Or even drive a vehicle ! Commit murder ! Author in his characteristic manner tells us about famous poets and novelists who have employed sleep walking to convey strong emotion in their great works. Shakespere’s Macbeth is an excellent example.

Sometimes dreams could be the harbinger of great events of the future, author gives examples, Mark Twain sees in a dream his brothers death, Abraham Lincoln his own funeral. Author makes reference to several dreams and paranormal coincidences related to the Titanic ship disaster. Finally Senanayake discusses the possibilty of creating dreams and video recording them and mentions the progress made regarding this very interesting development.

Prof Nimal senanayake in this thin volume has managed tell us everything we must know about dreams. The book is packed with useful information ranging from history to science of dreams. And dreams of elation and pathos.