January 11, 2019 · 1:57 pm

Lakshman Gunasekara’s Reflections on the Political Turmoil in Late 2018: Three Essays

Lakshman Gunasekera

ONE. Lakshman Gunasekara: “Politics vs Constitutionalism,” in Horizons, 9 December 2018 …

When the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall (BMICH, what a mouthful) began hosting conferences in those old-fashioned 1970s, we, the ordinary citizens hadn’t a hope of freely strolling into its premises (let alone its halls). One needed a conference invitation to enter the gates and some ‘delegate’ or ‘media’ tag to enter the main hall or ‘committee rooms’ (as they were quaintly termed then). Today, in our lower-middle-income country comfort zone, people are constantly streaming in and out of the BMICH, for weddings, exhibitions, conferences, convocations, concerts and seminars, all at the same time (and I am sure there is romance in those verdant gardens).    Continue reading →

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January 11, 2019 · 1:16 pm

About Mahinda’s Failure and A Mahinda Pronouncement

I = NA deS Amaratunga: “Can Mahinda Rajapaksa reform himself?”  in Island, 10 January 2019

Mahinda Rajapaksa is currently the most popular politician. He earned his popularity by saving the country from certain destruction and then launching a gigantic development drive throughout the country including war ravaged North and East. Yet many were the mistakes and misdeeds which resulted in his unexpected defeat at the presidential election in 2015.

mahinda raja 1

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January 10, 2019 · 2:47 am

The Suntharalingam Family’s Journey: Sri Lanka to Australia

Matthew Westwood, in The Weekend Australian Review,  5-6 January 2019, where the title is  “Counting and Cracking: a family’s journey” … with some snaps and a partial bibliography added by The Editor, Thuppahi

In the complicated and at times bitterly divided history of Sri Lanka in the 20th century, one man’s story may be emblematic of the nation’s changing fortunes. C. Suntharalingam was born in 1895 into a Tamil family, the son of a poor farmer. The boy was a whiz at maths. Sent to a boarding school in Jaffna, he went on to study at the universities of London and Oxford.

Chellappah Suntharalingam

Belvoir’s Eamon Flack  and playwright S. Shakthidaran –Pic Hollie adams

Like other educated Tamils he sought “trousered employment” in the colonial public service. He was called to the bar to practise law and later entered politics, serving a term as minister for trade and commerce in what was then the colonial Ceylonese government. He built a beautiful house in the heart of Colombo on a street with views down to the ocean, and held court on the porch where he discussed politics and affairs of the day. Continue reading →

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January 9, 2019 · 12:50 pm

The Rajapaksa Family’s Symbolic Modalities

Michel Nugawela, in Daily Mirror, 9 January 2019, where the title is  “Symbolic power of Rajapaksa brand” …

 5 =Pope and King’ ideal-leader type worships Sri Lankan ground

 7= Father’s masculine virility and generative capacity

In 1996, a punishing drought crippled hydroelectricity generation and impacted households and industry with gruelling eight-hour blackouts. Thousands of farmers faced crop failure and bankruptcy as Chandrika Kumaratunga limped along without plan or purpose. “Her goals are impeccable but her execution seems faulty,” said the roving American journalist Ron Gluckman, observing that the weather had even turned against “Sri Lanka’s bad-luck president”.

When rains failed

In contrast to Kumaratunga’s lacklustre response, consider Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reaction to the drought of 2012, with his prompt request to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fly the Kapilvastu Relics, believed to be the bone fragments of the Buddha, from India’s National Museum in Delhi to Colombo. The relics, conferred with the status of a head of state according to diplomatic convention, were revered as holy objects of awe by the thousands of faithful Buddhists who lined the streets to view, venerate and seek their intercessory powers for increased rainfall and bountiful harvests.

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January 9, 2019 · 3:14 am

Devanesan Nesiah Chastises President Sirisena by returning his Deshamanya Award

ONE = Yohan Perera and Sheain Fernandopulle: Daily Mirror,  3 January 2019, where the ttite is

Former civil servant Devanesan Nesiah officially returned the “Deshamanya” award conferred to him by President Maithripala Sirisena today.Dr. Nesiah and his daughter handed it over to the Presidential Secretariat last evening. Talking to journalists, Dr. Nesiah said he decided to return the award as he was disappointed with the recent actions of the President which created chaos in the country. Dr Nesiah received the Deshamanya in 2017 at a ceremony held to confer national honours. As per the letter he sent to the President earlier, he said his decision isn’t one that he had taken lightly, or in haste.

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January 8, 2019 · 3:52 pm

Understanding Yes People: Ehemai Hamu!!

Michel Nugawela in Daily FT, 8 January 2019, where the title runs thus “Why followers follow bad leaders” … ….. with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi — who has also deployed images at the end in step with Nugawela’s argument

Maithripala Sirisena. Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ranil Wickremesinghe. We’ve had different leaders with the same unhappy results for decades. At the core of this country’s political gridlock and dysfunction is a failed leadership culture and not a few men jockeying for power. Our existing model of representative leadership and behavioural conduct urgently needs fixing, as does fast tracking the empowerment of a new generation of leaders in the UNP. And yet we often forget that leadership is also a two-part equation. Followers have their own identity, just as leaders have theirs. In fact, Michael Maccoby, a leadership expert who has advised, taught, and studied the leaders of companies and governments in 36 countries, says: “Followers are as powerfully driven to follow as leaders are to lead.”

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January 8, 2019 · 3:04 pm

Galle Fort and Its Literary and Pictorial Fare: A Partial Bibliography

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January 8, 2019 · 10:17 am

Roger Federer’s Profound Grief in Recollection of Peter Carter’s Guiding Hand … Today

ABC News Item, 8 January 2019

Roger Federer has broken down while paying tribute to the deceased Australian coach who he credits with forging the playing technique that took him to 20 grand slam titles.

Key points:

  • Roger Federer says deceased Australian coach Peter Carter played an important role in his younger days
  • Carter died in a car accident while on his honeymoon, a year before Federer won his first major title at Wimbledon
  • Federer, who now has 20 grand slam titles, is looking to win a third-straight Australian Open title in 2019

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January 8, 2019 · 12:03 am

In Memory of Tony Greig

James Mettyear, in The CRICKET MONTHLY of ESPN, 27 December 2018, where the chosen title is “Greigy, Robbo, and me” … with its location here in THUPPAHI rather than in CRICKETIQUE marking my appreciation of Tony Grieg’s key role in the Kerry Packer transformation of the cricketing world as well as his sturdy role in protecting Murali from Cricket Australia’s machinations in 1995- 1998 and thereafter …. about which I will say more soon (in repetition of work already in print) Michael Roberts

The Central Recreation Ground, Hastings was where I first saw Tony Greig. I’d heard a lot about him. My cricket chum’s excited description of his debut innings in county cricket earlier in the 1967 season – 156 with 15 fours and two sixes, including one off Brian Statham, over extra cover – had filled me with wide-eyed awe. But Sussex versus Kent in the County Championship was my first sighting.

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January 7, 2019 · 11:13 pm

“Putting The World To Write” …. in Galle

An INVITATION to a Writing Event with a Title that is Right

Talk, Tea & Book Launch Wednesday January 16th …. 3- 5 pm Jetwing Lighthouse

The first Galle Literary Festival was launched in 2007 amid the chaos of the Civil War. Despite the bitterness of that war, the festival projected the country onto the arts stage as a serious global literary force and attracted many big literary heroes from around the world, which it continues to do, up to this day, where the tenth anniversary is going to be the most exciting festival yet. There is no better location for it to be held in and around the Galle Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site and modern bastion of protection, both physically as in the tsunami of 2004 and ideologically, for all kinds of people from all kinds of religious backgrounds, all working together for the good of the fort, its people and its visitors.

Donald Trump and …

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