History of Royal College in 1932 is ‘born again’
Yomal Senerath-Yapa, in Sunday Times, 11 August 2019
A reprint of “The History of Royal College”, a 1932 biography of the school authored by students, was launched at the BMICH yesterday in an event organised by the Royal College 1960 Group, in association with the Royal College Union.
Head of the Project Team Senaka Weeraratna hands over a copy of the second edition of the 1932 publication to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Royal College Principal B.A. Abeyratna stands by. Former Royal rugby football captain and coach U.L. Kaluarachchi made the keynote address at yesterday’s launch. Dr. Ajit Wijesundera and Mr. Vajira Gunawardene were the other members of the Project Team.
Lakshman Kadirgamar’s Legacy
H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, in Sunday Times, 11 August 2019, where the title is “Lakshman Kadirgamar: The Legacy of an Icon”
Fourteen years ago this month, a suspected LTTE assassin snuffed out the life of Sri Lanka’s best known and widely admired Foreign Minister — Lakshman Kadirgamar. The media reported recently that authorities in Germany had arrested a suspect connected to this crime. This news brings into sharp relief the sorry state of accountability in our country. Even after fourteen long years, we have not yet been able to conclusively investigate and prosecute a single offender involved in this ghastly act of terror. Much else has happened though.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Addressing the Issues of the Dr Shafi Shahabdeen Case
Malinda Seneviratne, in Daily Mirror, 4 July 2019, where the title runs “Dr Shafi Sahabdeen and the proportionality of communalism”
In Praise of the Sematha Sevana Housing Programme
Luckvijaya Sagara Palansuriya, in Island, 10 August 2019
The ‘Semata Sevana’ (Shelter for All) National Housing Development Programme is a development programme that is providing housing facilities for all communities in the society of this country. This development process is a programme delivering the benefits of housing and settlement development not only to the people of the South but also to the people of the North and the Plantation Sector.
Sajith Premadasa visiting a model village
Clobbering Rajiv Gandhi as Chastisement in 1987: A Guti Dheema
Michael Roberts
When Vijithamuni Rohana de Silva upended military discipline and attempted to clobber the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the head as the latter was inspecting a guard of honour on 30th July 1987, he was indulging in an act of chastisement – a guti dheema in Sinhala parlance. As such, in my tendentious elaboration, Rohana de Silva was administering a medicinal pill in the vocabulary of archaic Sinhala – a vocabulary that has resonances within the term beheth guliya. [1]
The emphasis on guti dheema was a conjecture I presented way back in 2002.[2] In my reading now, one that Retd Commodore Somasiri Devendra does not share, the intricate details provided recently by Retd Lt KH Perera confirm this set of musings.
Indo-Lanka Accord about to be signed on 29th July 1987
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, Eelam, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes
A Naval Rating’s Assault on Rajiv Gandhi, 30 July 1987: Detailed Account
Retd. Lt. KH Perera’s Account of the Background, Circumstances and Immediate Aftermath of the Assault on Rajiv Gandhi, on 30th July 1987
Preamble: Via mediation by Rtd Commodore Somasiri Devendra,[1] Michael Roberts visited Retd Lt. KH Perera’s house at Boralasgamuwa on Thursday 25th July 2019 in the company of Devendra. Retd Lt Perera responded readily to the questions presented about the attempt to clobber the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when he was inspecting a naval guard of honour gathered in front of the President’s House outside the Post Office in the Fort of Colombo on 30th July 1987. As Master Chief Petty Officer, KH Perera was in command of the naval ratings mustered for this important state occasion. The details elicited during our discussion and compiled here with aid from Somasiri Devendra are of considerable importance and cannot be overestimated. Continue reading
Naayakayo Koheydha! Rudderless Drift in Sri Lanka
Rajeewa Jayaweera, in Island, 5 August 2019, with this title “Leadership vacuum in Sri Lanka”
Imran Khan (IK), 67 years old Prime Minister of Pakistan, hails from an upper-middle-class Pashtun family in Lahore and is a graduate of Keble College, Oxford. He captained the national cricket team on the single occasion his country won the Cricket World Cup in 1992. Aged 39, IK took the winning last wicket. A philanthropist, he raised funds for two state of the art hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar. He also served as Chancellor of the University of Bradford from 2004 to 2014. Pakistan Threek-e-Insaf (PTI or Pakistan Movement for Justice) was founded by IK in April 1996. He led PTI to victory in the 2018 general election and was elected as Prime Minister on August 17, 2018.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, democratic measures, economic processes, foreign policy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
2000-Year Old Buddhist Scroll from Gandhara Now in Public Domain
Allen Kim of CNN, in https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/29/world/gandhara-scroll-buddhism-trnd/index.html
The Library of Congress made public a rare 2,000-year-old text of early Buddhism on Monday, and it offers a glimpse into early Buddhist history during its formative years. The scroll originated in Gandhara, an ancient Buddhist region in northern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Only a few hundred Gandharan manuscripts are known to scholars worldwide, and each is vital to understanding the early development of Buddhist literature. For instance, using linguistic analysis, scholars study these manuscripts to chart the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia.
