N.A.de S. Amaratunga The 19th A is being replaced by the 20th A and a new constitution is being planned.  A Committee has been appointed for the drafting of a new constitution comprising some of the leading intellectuals in the country. That would be the fourth new constitution for the country since independence. And there […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Our hapless people battered and bruised by four years of ‘yahapalana’ , the two bank robberies, foreign interference, UNHRC Resolutions, separatism, Easter bombs and Covid have finally crawled to polling booths and stuffed the ballot boxes with lotus buds. Even the creators of the lotus bud may have been overwhelmed and shaken […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga TNA leader S.Sampanthan in his letter to the President regarding the Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province makes reference to a statement made by Paul E Peiris about the five Ishwarams of Lord Siva which are to be found  in the coastal regions of Jaffna, Trincomalee, […]

Professor  N.A.de S. Amaratunga  DSc L.C.Arulpragasam’s (LCA) article which appeared in three parts under three titles; Decolonization, Nationalism, the Nation State and Democracy – Part I” (Sunday Island, 14.10.2018), Some Unchronicled Consequences of the Colonial Period – Part II  (Sunday Island, 21.10.2018) and The ‘State Nation’ Versus the ‘Nation State’ ” (Sunday Island, 28.10.2018)   is […]

Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga To understand the nature of the Tamil problem and why it remains apparently unresolved one must examine its history and origin. It has its origin in Tamil separatism which dates back to 1930s. Tamil separatism is a Tamil construct. When independence for Ceylon was being considered by the British […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island The countries which have benefited from Chinese assistance in Asia, Africa and Europe have not suffered a breach of their independence and sovereignty or lost any significant extents of resources. The world economy, international relations, and geopolitics are at present influenced by two strong ideologies; neo-liberalism and nationalism. […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island In the 2500 long history of this country there have been several betrayals that had adversely changed its destiny. Some of them were forced on the rulers and some engineered by them. And some could have been avoided. An act by a ruler that compromises the independence and sovereignty […]

Professor  N. A.de S. Amaratunga As Buddha had seen by experience that life is Anithya, Dukka, Anathma” (impermanent, sorrow, no-self) and as he did not want to believe what he could not perceive with his senses, he had to fight against the two extreme metaphysical views that were present in his time; the theory of  […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga First let us recall what has happened in the last four and a half years so that we know what has to change with the election of a new president.  These last four years have been agonizing for the people of this country. The blows fell incessantly and relentlessly one after […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island We live at a time of unprecedented political turmoil and uncertainty. There is no visible government. The officials are probably running the country, and as there is no political direction the economy is gradually and perceptibly declining, making a huge impact on the lives of the poor people as […]

N. A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island There is a perceived threat of a major intrusion into the country’s sovereignty and the country being turned into a military base for the US, as part of its strategy for dominance in the Indian Ocean. Several agreements with the US and supportive parliamentary acts are said […]

N. A. de S. Amaratunga Courtesy The Island A high ranking minister has said Sri Lanka is not a Sinhala Buddhist country though the majority belongs to that ethnic-religious community. He may or may not be showing his ignorance and may have been trying merely to attract the non-Sinhala Buddhist voter. Lot of piffle is […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island Presidential system is a burden on the country and its people, and when it is like the present arrangement where the president and the parliament do not see eye to eye, it could be disastrous as being proved now. During the last four and a half years, nothing was […]

N.A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island Bones found in a mass grave in Mannar have been found to be more than 300 years old by a laboratory in Florida, USA. Lord Naseby has called on all the countries sponsoring the Resolution against Sri Lanka to bring down the official figure of deaths during the last […]

N.A DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island March 6, 2019, 11:33 pm The burden created by the politicians and politics of all hues has become unbearable for everybody, except the politicians who enjoy life like the proverbial crab in the pot. People irrespective of ethnicity are heavily taxed, not for the purpose of development of the […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Several Provinces have existed without their Councils with no breakdown of essential services to the people for more than one year due to elections not being held. Though it is argued that not holding elections on time is a denial of democratic rights not holding elections for redundant institutions which in fact […]

N.A.DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island December 6, 2018, 9:31 pm UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe says they would agree to hold an election under a legitimate government. But when he had a legitimate government headed by him he did his utmost to postpone the election. Similarly, Anura Kumara Dissanayake shouts from the tree tops that they […]

N. A. DE S. AMARATUNGA If the Constitution is to be sacrosanct, in the first place, it has to be totally free of ambiguity and confusion. The 19th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution appears to be a product of political expedience, rather than something that makes the government more democratic in the service of […]

N. A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island October 2, 2018, 9:41 pm Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has come out strongly against powerful countries with imperial agendas, who use Human Rights as a bludgeon to make poor countries fall in line with their plan for domination of the world. He did not speak against the concept of […]

Book review by Prof. N. A.de S. Amaratunga Author- Gunadasa Amarasekera Publisher- Visadunu Prakashakayo Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera,  poet laureate, who has nothing but contempt for the politics and politicians of this country and who has been exploring our past civilization in an attempt to dig out a suitable remedy for our ills, as revealed in […]

Prof. N.A. de S. Amaratunga    Sri Lankans and people in other Buddhist countries may be interested in understanding the essential difference between Early Buddhism, Theravada and other Buddhist schools. The best way to compare these Buddhist schools is to see how far they tally with  Buddha’s preaching and also how they originated. Soon after Buddha’s […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga What is common between the otherwise poles-apart Lord Naseby and Lieutenant Colonel Rathnapriya Bandu is that both had contributed immensely to the process of reconciliation among communities in this country and debunked the nasty accusation that our armed forces have committed atrocities against Tamil civilians. Both have been ignored by the government […]

Prof. N.A. de S. Amaratunga This government is about the worse we had since independence. There is not a single area where the government has not failed. None of the promises made before the election in 2015  has been fulfilled. Leaving aside those promises what is worse is that the government had failed even to […]

N.A de S. Amaratunga  Title of this letter suggests reconciliation and peace are not complementary to each other but are antagonistic. Usually in most post conflict situations it is not the case and reconciliation paves the way for peace and vise versa. In Sri Lanka, however, when one looks at the process of reconciliation one […]

Prof. N.A.de S. Amaratunga  Constitution making is serious business. Even amendments to it must be made after careful consideration and with consensus among representatives of the people and if possible in consultation with the people. This government formed of an assorted mix of political interests and opportunist groups had not collectively received a mandate to […]

N.A de S. Amaratunga  Sri Lanka is badly in need of a friend. There are big powerful countries, some nearby and others far away, who say they are our friends, but going by what they are doing to us,  if they are our friends we don’t need enemies. We  know that these countries have their […]

N.A. de S. Amaratunga Venerable Vendaruwe Upali Thera the Anunayaka of the Asgiriya Maha Viharaya had  at Gotabaya Rajapakse’s birthday ceremony commented that if some of Gota’s detractors call him a Hitler, so be it as the country needs a strong leader if it is to come out of the rut it has been dragged […]

N.A.de S. Amaratunga Kumar David (KD) in a virulent mood says Gotabaya Rajapakse must be defeated, has to be defeated and can be defeated (Sunday Island, 10.06.2018).  Title of his article is Stop Gotabaya-Rex” which is perhaps to suggest that Gotabaya Rajapakse in his activities resemble the dinosaur named Tyrannosaurus-Rex” or T-Rex for short who […]