November 16, 2018 · 11:06 am

The Electoral Foundations of Sri Lanka’s Welfare Achievements

 S W R de A Samarasinghe, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 16 November 2018, where the title is  “Crisis of Governance: Equity and Welfare Implications” .… with the emphasis in red being Sam’s worl and that in other colours being the Editor, Thuppahi’s incusions

Sri Lanka’s current crisis of governance threatens to undermine the country’s democratic tradition of having periodic free and fair elections to choose a government under the provisions of the constitution. I highlight the term “provisions of the constitution” because elections that are held by rulers in an arbitrary manner in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the constitution to suit their own convenience are not democratic. From that perspective, both major political parties in Sri Lanka, UNP and the SLFP (now SLPP), have not been democratic on occasion in the past.

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November 16, 2018 · 5:21 am

Populist Musings from Kusal Perera invokes a Pox on all the Parties

Kusal Perera, in Daily Mirror, 16 November 2018, where the title is “Geopolitics of resolving conflict with a redundant Constitution”

The SC decision has pushed Rajapaksa into back foot defence on a daily basis, reacting to the Wickremesinghe strategy of taking decisions in a Parliament that remains prorogued but accepted by Western interests as Constitutional.  

The Supreme Court (SC) decision to issue a stay order on the Gazette notification dissolving Parliament is given a completely distorted interpretation by Yahapalana Experts, to be in line with the Western power bloc.   Their accredited envoys in Colombo act firmly in legitimising the Government of their choice. On that strength, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya convened the prorogued Parliament, though constitutionally the Speaker has no such power.

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November 16, 2018 · 4:53 am

Amunugama’s Chameleon Faces and Phrases

Sarath De Alwis, in Daily FT, 13 November 2018, where the chosen title is “Untruth is the crisis” …. with highlighting being the hand of The Editor, Thuppahi

Political language, said George Orwell, is designed to make lies sound truthful, murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. 

Dr. Sarath Amunugama is the subject of this essay. In addition to his current incarnation of a politician, he is an erudite scholar, a socio anthropologist of repute. His incisive mind’ has few rivals in the parliament that stands dissolved.  I last met him on 30 November 2015 when he joined Professor Gananatha Obeysekera in celebrating the life and work of Dr. Stanley Thambiah in a panel discussion at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies.  Dr. Amunugama paid a touching tribute to the author who made the penetrative survey of political Buddhism published under the rhetorical title ‘Buddhism betrayed?’
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November 15, 2018 · 2:13 pm

Remembering Darrel Weinman — Surgeon and Doctor Extraordinary

Ranji Wikramanayake, in The Island, 11 November 2018 …. and also inhttps://sixtyfourbatchcolombo.com/2018/11/12/tribute-to-darrel-felix-weinman/

Darrel Weinman attended St. Peter’s College Colombo where he was a brilliant student & excelled at sport. He was the school cricket captain. A few years ago when a mutual friend, Dr.Tony Don Michael passed away, I informed him. He said, “He was my protégé”. Tony played cricket for the school, under Darrel.

He was a good student & I am reliably informed by his classmate (from 2nd year St. Peters ) Dr. Derrick Nugara who graduated with  him, that he qualified with 1st class honours. I didn’t know him as a student as he was a few years senior to me, but in 1957, when he was studying for the primary FRCS, he borrowed a box of pathology slides from me. Needless to say, he passed first & won the Hallet prize. Continue reading →

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November 15, 2018 · 12:46 pm

Game, Set and Eric: Professor Eric Richards, August 1940 – September 2018

Memories of Eric from the Tennis Academia

 ERIC watching the Socceroos at Adelaide Oval

RON SLEE: Eric Richards,  Renaissance man

My first and last encounters with Eric were on a court.  40 years ago at Flinders University, we played squash at lunch time.  Four weeks ago, we played tennis at Eden Hills on Saturday afternoon, just up the road from that Flinders squash court.  Sport kept bringing us together over those four decades.  We enjoyed different sports, but tennis was the enduring one.  Continue reading →

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November 15, 2018 · 7:30 am

A Remarkable Loyalty in the Artistry of Ivor Denis

Tony Donaldson, reproduced here courtesy of CEYLANKAN … and replacing today 25th November 2018 the initial version presented in Thuppahi

Three giants of the Sri Lankan arts world have passed away this year. The visual artist Neville Weereratne died in Melbourne on 3 January 2018, aged 86 (Donaldson, 2018); the visionary filmmaker Lester James Peries died, aged 99, in Colombo on 29 April; and the singer Ivor Denis passed away at his home in Seeduwa on 18 June, aged 86.

 Ivor Denis playing violin

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November 15, 2018 · 6:57 am

Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, Ireland

Area = The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles northeast of the town of Bushmills ….https://www.bing.com/search?q=Giants+Causeway+Northern+Ireland&form=PLLSB1

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November 14, 2018 · 1:49 pm

Tiger Insurgents caught in the Oddusuddan Locality in June 2018

D.B.S. Jeyaraj in Daily Mirror, 30 June 2018, where the title reads “Seizure of Tiger arsenal in North renews fears of an LTTE revival attempt”

The 21km-long Puthukkudiyiruppu-Oddusuddan road progressing through the hinterland of North-Eastern Mullaitivu District, links Puthukkudiyiruppu on the A-35 Paranthan-Mullaitivu highway and Oddusuddan on the A-34 Mankulam-Mullaitivu highway. It was along this road that a trusted deputy of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by the deep penetration squad of the Sri Lankan armed forces on September  26, 2001. Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias “Col” Shankar, the founder-chief of the tiger air wing was killed by a claymore mine hung on a tree as he was driving his two-seater four-wheeler pick-up vehicle alone. The killing transmitted shockwaves amongst LTTE circles as it demonstrated the fact that the armed forces were capable of infiltrating the heartland of tiger-controlled territory and inflicting lethal damage.

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November 14, 2018 · 10:39 am

Goodness Gracious! NGOs in Sri Lanka

Lionel Wijesiri, in Daily News, 12 November 2018, where the title reads   “Are NGOs a force for good?”

Jeevan Thiagarajah’s story titled “Why Indonesia is right to limit NGOs” (Daily News – November 5) has induced me to add few of my own thoughts on the same subject. NGOs are nothing new to us since they have been functioning in Sri Lanka for more than six decades. They are highly complex organisations that a simple man-in-the-street will find it difficult to comprehend. In fact, even the term NGO itself has various interpretations.

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November 14, 2018 · 10:03 am

Cliffhanging Situation Still? …. After Strong Supreme Court Intervention

Sam Samarasinghe, aka SWR de A Samarasinghe,  courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, 14 November 2018,  where the title reads “Pulling Back From The Brink: The Supreme Court Verdict & Its Implications”

Yesterday, November 13 evening, the third branch of government, the Judiciary in the form of the Supreme Court, dealt a blow for Sri Lanka’s fragile democracy when it issued a stay order on dissolving parliament effective until December 07. The Election Commission will suspend all action to hold parliamentary elections on January 5. In doing so the Supreme Court put the country first, as it should. In effect this allows the Speaker to recall parliament. 

“Me First” In sharp contrast, the president, who is the head of the executive branch, has been acting in the last two weeks with impunity, largely in his own self-interest. The legislative branch (parliament) has become an auction house where bribery reigns, cabinet office is available as a bribe for partisan behavior and self comes before country for very many MPs.

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