By Dr. Susantha Goonatilake In a article a few days ago, Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan, a Consultant for the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), had written on early Buddhist links between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. She, I believe, is the wife of Chandrahasan, a son of Chelvanayakam, founder of the Federal Party and […]

By Susantha Goonatilake In 1993 with the Khmer Rouge still partly operational, my wife went to Cambodia on behalf of the UN, in charge of the UN women’s projects there, women were the majority after the Pol Pot war. I remember at the time that visitors to Angkor Wat were scarce, probably around 15,000. And […]

By Susantha Goonatilake A few days ago China’s President Xi Jinping visited the UK. And the British media reportedthat the British leaders and itsestablishment: groveled , kowtowed” (dana gahala vandinawa, on bended knee), the USAlost its best friend to its rival”, the 19th century Chinese humiliation by the British was now reversed” and China was […]

ආචාර්ය සුසන්ත ගුණතිලක අතීතයේ ජනාධිපති ඡන්දවලදී මෙන් නොව මෑතකදී අනුරාධපුරයේ පවත්වන ලද එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සංධාන රැස්වීමේද ලංගම බස්වලින්් පාක‍ෂිකයන් ඇදීමක් දක්නට නොවීය. එසේ වුවද මහ නුවර පවත්වන ලද යූඇන්පී රැස්වීමට පැමිණි සිටි පිරිසට වඩා සංධාන රැස්වීමට පැමිණි පිරිස අති මහත් විය. මෙම සිද්ධිය වූයේ මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන තෙවරක්ම තමාගේ පක‍ෂයට ද්‍රෝහි වීමෙන් පසුව තමා අවලංගු […]

Susantha Goonatilake The recent UPFA Anuradapura meeting did not see hundreds of CTB buses transporting supporters as were the case in the presidential election. But the crowds appeared bigger and were definitely larger than the UNP meeting in Kandy. And this was after Sirisena had backstabbed his own party three times, in the process becoming […]

By Susantha Goonatilake I cannot quite remember when I first met S L Gunasekara. As I recall,it was a few decades ago at an embassy cocktail party, at a time when heads like me of scientific associations were also invited. He recalled his correct stand at the Thimpu talks which I had dismissed as Indian […]

Susantha Goonatilake In 2013, the Royal Asiatic Society RASSL (of which I am the current president) awarded its gold medal” to Father Dr. Vito Perniola. Although he was proficient in several fields, our main consideration was his 19 volume documentation on the history of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. To indicate a Buddhist appreciation […]

Susantha Goonatilake A window on the state of our foreign relations thinking is provided by several recent meetings. This take reflecting my own interests is a rather personal and selective account. Let me begin with New Delhi where TNA representatives who had earlier fronted for the Hitlerite LTTE, met Indian Prime Minister Modi and her […]

Susantha Goonatilake When Dr. Ananda Guruge died several days ago, the Buddhist revival of Sri Lanka which he chronicled, and its international spread were reaching the desired effects in the West. Beginning in the 1950’s, yoga started to take hold among the white middle classes in the West to become today a key element of […]

Susantha Goonatilake The USA had refused to give Modi a visa. And after Modi’svictory,Obama changed his colours and invited Modi to visit the US.It was like “kissing the hand that cannot be cut.” The visa ban was on allegations of religious intolerance and specifically the Gujarat riots on which courts found Modi not guilty. US, […]

By Susantha Goonatilake The Indian elections are now on. And they might have repercussions on Sri Lanka. India is the only country that after Independence has interfered directly in Sri Lanka. This was with a Congress government training and arming around one dozen Tamil groups. Since 1989 that is for nearly 25 years India has […]

Susantha Goonatilake It was not the much touted diaspora, but local Northern Tamils that voted massively for the TNA. The parallel was not tomachinations of a diasporabut moreto the beginning of a possible-Phoney War-.‚  The-PhoneyWar-was the early period in World War IIwhen both sides had prepared for war but was not actuallyfighting. It seems that […]

Susantha Goonatilake- Courtesy The Daily News It was not the much touted diaspora, but local Northern Tamils that voted massively for the TNA. The parallel was not to machinations of a diaspora but more to the beginning of a possible -Phoney War-. The -Phoney War- was the early period in World War II when both […]

By Susantha Goonatilake That ƒ¢¢”š¬…”gentlemanƒ¢¢”š¬‚, wanted to marry Navi Pillay. This would not even fit in to the category of ƒ¢¢”š¬…”beauty and the beastƒ¢¢”š¬‚ because she definitely is not a beauty. But the ƒ¢¢”š¬…”beastƒ¢¢”š¬‚ part ƒ¢¢”š¬- I will let you decide that. But into our problems,she has definitely married most acutely. Navi Pillayas part of […]

By Susantha Goonatilake ƒ”š‚ Western observers at the time were appalled on the so-called Indian Accord which brought the 13th Amendment. The Wall Street Journal called India “A rogue elephant trampling upon its neighbors”ƒ”š‚. The British Guardian said: “India’s pact with Sri Lanka is the most infamous contract imposed on a small country – short of […]

By Susantha Goonatilake ƒ”š‚ Surprisingly, last week’s funeral of once LSSP stalwart,Hector Abhayavardhana at Kanatte was poorly attended -only at the most a few dozen at cremation.His life and death was a mirror for our times. Born Christian and presumed to be against conventional beliefs, he was cremated after pansakula at his house,the relative told me. […]

Dr. Susantha Goonatilake ƒ”š‚ The over 200 page statement of failure on the Norwegian attack on Sri Lankan sovereignty in its faulty “Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009″ is a document on lessons we should learn. It was but a culmination of the 500-year attempt by the West to dominate […]

Susantha Goonatilake Ph.D.-written submission to LLRC ƒ”š‚ I am going to begin this submission by two preambles: one on my motivation and secondly, on a background as to who the Sinhalese, and Tamils are, the two major presumed actors. I am currently among others, the President of the 166 year old Royal Asiatic Society and was […]

Susantha Goonatilake ƒ”š‚ Malcolm Ranjith, the faithful disciple of the Pope and his new Cardinal has made two wrong submissions to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). One was falsely blaming the adoption of Sinhala as the medium of Government and second, asserting that there are exclusively “Tamil Only” Northern and Eastern Provinces to which […]