The Siege Within: How to Rob a Country and Call It Nation Building

The Siege Within: How to Rob a Country and Call It Nation Building

Leslie Lopez’s The Siege Within isn’t just another retelling of the 1MDB scandal. It’s an unflinching autopsy of Malaysia’s political carcass – a place where stolen billions are treated like family silver and leaders loot with the polite smile of a country club chairman. Lopez, a veteran journalist with the scars to prove it, turns his scalpel on the thick, toxic hide of Malaysian politics to reveal the anatomy of the world’s greatest financial heist. His subject? The rise and fall of Najib Raz


Abbi Kanthasamy

Abbi Kanthasamy

Zanden Jeh: A Sri Lankan Tamil Legacy Faces the Sri Lankan Team

Zanden Jeh: A Sri Lankan Tamil Legacy Faces the Sri Lankan Team

A 21-year-old left-arm spinner of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, Zanden Jeh recently earned his maiden Australia A call-up for the series against Sri Lanka A—facing the land of his heritage at the international level for the first time. Ironically, it’s the same land his father and grandparents narrowly escaped following the brutal anti-Tamil violence of July 1983. The surname “Jeh” is a shortened form of “Jehoratnam,” adopted by the family during their life in the diaspora. Zanden Jeh, who also wor


Sports Desk

Sports Desk

“Sri Lankans Are Hilarious, Creative, Sharp - And We’re Finally Getting to Show That to the World”: Sri Lankan Diaspora Comedian Sath Nadesan Speaks to Jaffna Monitor

“Sri Lankans Are Hilarious, Creative, Sharp - And We’re Finally Getting to Show That to the World”: Sri Lankan Diaspora Comedian Sath Nadesan Speaks to Jaffna Monitor

When you scroll through your social media feed and burst into laughter at the unapologetically absurd sketches of Yeah Mad, chances are you’re catching a punchline from Sath Nadesan. Or rather, Sathya Nadesan—as he was named at birth. Born to a Tamil father, Vasanth Nadesan of Kandy, and a Sinhalese mother, Araliya de Silva of Mount Lavinia, Sath grew up straddling identities in Sri Lanka before making his way to Australia. Today, he’s a Sydney-based stand-up comedian, a full-time cast member o


Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent

"Why Not?" — Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka’s Daredevil Surgeon, Speaks Exclusively to Jaffna Monitor
Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke

"Why Not?" — Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke, Sri Lanka’s Daredevil Surgeon, Speaks Exclusively to Jaffna Monitor

What drives a surgeon born into a well-to-do Colombo family, educated at prestigious schools, and trained in Manchester’s finest hospitals, to choose rural Polonnaruwa as his first consultant posting? For Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke, the answer lies in his daredevil spirit—a trait that has defined his extraordinary four-decade career and continues to shape the man he is today. While most surgeons sought comfortable urban postings, Dr. Goonetilleke made a deliberate choice—to become the sole surgeon


Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent

Lakshman Kadirgamar: An Unlikely Tamil Politician Who Took on the LTTE
Lakshman Kadirgamar

Lakshman Kadirgamar: An Unlikely Tamil Politician Who Took on the LTTE

The only reason the Tamil Tigers managed to assassinate Sri Lanka’s erudite Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is because his inept security didn’t anticipate that a sole sniper would carry out the mission impossible. It was another excellently executed cold-blooded murder that only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could have pulled off, humiliating a seemingly impenetrable security ring which had turned Kadirgamar into Sri Lanka’s third most protected individual. But even as the


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Checkmate in Batumi: Jaffna’s Young Prodigy Takes Bronze on the World Stage
Young prodigy Tharshan Kajishana.

Checkmate in Batumi: Jaffna’s Young Prodigy Takes Bronze on the World Stage

In a remarkable achievement that has electrified Sri Lanka’s chess community, eight-year-old Tharshan Kajishana from Kokuvil Hindu Primary School in Jaffna has secured a bronze medal in the Girls Under-8 category at the FIDE World Cadets Chess Championship 2025, held in Batumi, Georgia. The tournament, hosted from June 22 to July 3 at the luxurious Grand Bellagio Hotel, drew over 300 young chess talents from nearly 40 countries. A Historic Moment for the North Kajishana’s bronze medal was co


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a


Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran