ජානක පෙරෙරා  ජාති භේදයෙන් තොරව, සමාජ මට්ටමින් තොරව අද මෙරට වර්තමාන තරුණ පරපුරේ වැඩි දෙනෙකුගෙන් ඇසුවොත් ඔවුන් කැමති රට හැර ගොස් පිට රට රැකියා කරන්නටය. සමහරු එසේ ගිය පසු නැවත නොඑති.  අද මෙරට ඔවුන්ට පැහැදිලි අනාගතයක් පෙනෙන්නට නැත.     වසර 1980 ‘කළු’ ජූලියේදී බොහෝ දෙමල ජනයා මෙරට හැර ගියේ  මෙරටට නොමැකෙන කළු පැල්ලමක් එකතු කරමිනි. […]

Janaka Perera The Government dragging its feet over paying compensation for road extensions and expressways is causing problems to many people.  Compensation was for residents affected by the Kandy Expressway construction paid only after they staged protests on the road.  The same situation faces residents hit by the Ruwanpura (Ratnapura) Expressway Construction. In Dehiwala people […]

Janaka Perera Courtesy The Daily News It is strange that the 50th death anniversary of Buddhist revivalist L.H. Mettananda went almost unnoticed, even at Ananda College where he was Principal from 1945 to 1953. We wonder whether the present generation of Anandians is even aware of his contributions to the school and Buddhist rights in general. […]

Janaka Perera At a seminar on Foreign Policy and International Law held at the Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) auditorium, Colombo yesterday (October 2, 2017) a member of the audience, Attorney Senaka Weeraratna, called for unity among Asian countries in claiming compensation from Western colonial powers which ravaged Third World nations including Sri Lanka (then […]

Janaka Perera Seventy-eight years ago, Sept 3, 1939, the news of Britain’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany came to Colombo through the wireless from London, shortly before 4.30 p.m. At that moment British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was speaking in London on the declaration heard over the BBC.  The Reuters message flashed all over the world confirming the news […]

By Janaka Perera As Sri Lanka’s Royal College celebrates the 175th anniversary of its founding this year on a grand scale of pomp and pageantry that perhaps no other school in the country can match, it is a moot question to ask whether there are alternate voices from within or outside Royal College, that have […]

By Janaka Perera  L.H. Mettananda : 1945 – 1953, Principal Ananda College The watershed in Sri Lanka’s post – independence period i.e. 1956, which led to the socio-cultural emancipation of the vast majority of the people of this country would not have been possible if not for the invaluable contribution of L.H. Mettananda. Though front […]

Janaka Perera The nine point Mahanuwara Declaration on the United Nations Day of Vesak 2017 may have ended up as an empty vacuous and vague document not worth a second look but for three distinctive commitments which have saved this document from being cast into oblivion. They are as follows: 1.    In realizing the long […]

Janaka Perera  Sri Lanka will be celebrating the 2561st year of Vesak on an international scale starting on May 10.  The question however is whether the organizers and the foreign participants in the event will pay sufficient attention to the facts highlighted in a recent report of the Bangkok-based World Buddhist University (WBU) on the […]

Janaka Perera Seventy five years ago on December 7, 1941 Imperial Japan committed the biggest blunder in her history. It was an attack Washington welcomed but not openly. The Japanese surprise attack on the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii not only caused Tokyo’s disastrous defeat four years later but also brought the United […]

Janaka Perera Beware of Non-Buddhists claiming to protect Buddhism. Beware of Non-Buddhists seeking to identify and define the enemies of Buddhists and Buddhism Beware of Non-Buddhists attempting to create rifts between Buddhists and Hindus and Buddhists and followers of other religions Beware of Non-Buddhists trying to exploit/create disputes between Sri Lanka and neighbouring countries such […]

Janaka Perera The following piece is meant to throw more light on what Shenali D. Waduge’s wrote in her July 31st article titled ‘Time for Pan Asianism: Rise of Asians for Asia & Asia for Asians’. Japan raised the slogan ‘Asia for Asians’ during World War II which ended when the Americans dropped atom bombs […]

Janaka Perera  දියුණු යයි සම්මත බටහිර ජාතියක් සතුන් සමග සංසර්ගයේ යෙදෙන බව අසා තිබේද? එහෙත් එය ඇත්තකි.  ඒ ජාතිය නම් සාමයේ නාමයෙන් අපට දෙමළ කොටින් සමග ‘සහවාසයේ’ යෙදෙන්නට ආරාධනය කල  නෝවීජියානුවන්ය.   මේ බව මුලින්ම හෙලිකලේ ඔස්ලෝ නුවර පලවන The Journal නම් විද්‍යා සඟරාවයි. වසර 28කට පසු  නෝවීජියානු රජය මගින් සතුන් සමග සංසර්ගයේ යෙදීම දෙවන වරටත් 2010 […]

Janaka Perera A group calling itself Vavuniya Citizens Group is planning to erect a memorial minaret at Mullivayikal for what it calls victims of ‘Tamil killing.’   The term almost sounds like successive Sri Lankan governments were – as a matter of state policy – engaged in hunting members of this community over the years as […]

Janaka Perera It is amusing to see ‘Comrade’ Surendra Ajith Rupesinghe pontificating on Constitutional reforms after years of supporting LTTE separatism in Sri Lanka and abroad.  To him the Tigers were a political organization that represented the national-democratic aspirations of a nation”. Like hell! We suppose he is still a Tiger sympathizer because he has […]

Janaka Perera This relates to the January 27th article titled ‘Coup attempt that nearly ignited a religious war’ in the Lanka Web of January 27.  Since a reader in his comment on the piece has apparently misunderstood what I wrote I need to clarify the point I made on the Indian Army. There is no […]

Janaka Perera The first ever attempt to overthrow a legally elected government in post independence Sri Lanka was made 54 years ago on January 27.   The conspirators were a group of military and police officers that belonged to a generation, which was virtually alienated from Sri Lanka’s history and traditions.  Their objective was to turn […]

Janaka Perera The recent suicide of a Tamil teenager, Senthuran Rajeswaran, demanding the release of LTTE detainees is a perfect example of how Sri Lanka has spoilt the military over the Tigers. Both the previous and present governments should share the blame for this unfortunate state of affairs. Among the first things the Western Allies […]

Janaka Perera Two Asian countries with which Sri Lanka has strong relations are now at logger heads. The possibility of it leading to a proxy war in the South China Sea (SCS) cannot be ruled out unless the tension building up in the region can be defused. The SCS is one of the world’s most […]

By Janaka Perera Has anyone heard of a country after militarily crushing a vicious terrorist outfit trying to seek ‘peace and understanding’ with the unrepentant supporters of the very same group? Well, there is one country, the ‘Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.’ Its current cowardly rulers, in an absurd gesture of ‘goodwill’ are reportedly […]

By Janaka Perera Without question the August 17 Parliamentary Election is going to be a most crucial one for Sri Lanka. The decision the majority of the voters take on Monday is bound to have the strongest impact on the Sinhalas, more than any other community.  Never before in recent years have they been so […]

By Janaka Perera From the end of April through this month the world including Sri Lanka observed anniversaries marking the end of several armed conflicts – Vietnam War (April 30), fighting in the European Theatre of World War II (May 8) and the LTTE’s separatist insurgency (May 19). Some ‘pundits’ in SL however were unhappy […]

Janaka Perera _______________________________________________ People who were educated in British schools and who were taught European history and geography, neglecting native history and geography cannot see the true value of their country’s past which they view with the eyes of the foreigners.” – Ivan Minayev _______________________________________________ While Sri Lanka and many other predominantly Buddhist countries celebrate […]

By Janaka Perera April 30th marks the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Vietnam, a country with which Sri Lanka has developed strong ties during the past five decades. The press in this country like newspapers elsewhere gave wide publicity to the fall of the U.S.-backed puppet regime in what was then South Vietnam and […]

By Janaka Perera April 9th this year marks the 73rd Anniversary of the World War II Japanese air raid on Trincomalee, four days after they bombed Colombo and suburbs.  Although many articles have been written about the two raids, hardly any of them have touched on the real reasons that prevented a Japanese occupation of […]

Janaka Perera Is the Government planning to release the Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya in Jaffna to the private individuals or companies, instead of giving bit back to the Sinhala children and their teachers who have been compelled to do their studies in Anuradhapura and Kurunegala among other places? This issue has surfaced in the light of […]

By Janaka Perera We are deeply grateful to expatriate Sri Lankans in Australia for facilitating the grant of a fully equipped Cardiac Catheter Laboratory to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital” Health and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said at the opening of the first Angiography Unit at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital, last week (April 02) Dr. […]

By Janaka Perera April is the month when flowers bloom in Nuwara Eliya.  It has also been a month when guns boomed and bombs exploded and of ‘revolution.’    All of them occurred on a 5th of April within a span of 29 years. The first of these was the Japanese air raid over Colombo in […]

By Janaka Perera The National Joint Committee on Tuesday, February 24 called for an immediate abrogation of the 13th Amendment which India imposed on Sri Lanka 28 years ago. Participating in the media briefing held at the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Hall, Colombo were Attorney Manohara R. de Silva PC, Venerable Bengamuwe Nalaka Thera (Secretary, […]

By Janaka Perera Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake recently raiding a Buddhist Meditation Centre at Kadawatha raises two serious issues – one legal and the other ethical. Can a politician enter the premises of a religious or commercial establishment on the pretext of searching it (with or without the police) without a court order?  Should not […]