Special Article

Vasudeva Nanayakkara Finds a New Government to Defend
Vasudeva Nanayakkara with Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya at the launch of Rathuwevi Mihimadala, a book based on his life, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo on Aug. 28, 2026.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara Finds a New Government to Defend

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —Vasudeva Nanayakkara, a former cabinet minister who spent nearly two decades defending the Rajapaksas, has now rallied to the defence of Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power government, pledging to protect it against an alleged conspiracy by wealthy and “reactionary” forces angered by its crackdown on crime and the illegal flight of money overseas. "We will take every necessary step to defeat the conspiracies being carried out against the National People's Power government an
Special Article September 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
From Monument to Movement: Why the Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre Needs India’s Direct Stewardship

From Monument to Movement: Why the Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre Needs India’s Direct Stewardship

When a government builds a bridge, the measure of its generosity is not the span of the arch but the lives it connects. By that measure, the Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre — an eleven-storey edifice standing at the waterfront of Jaffna, conceived and constructed as a government-to-government gesture of friendship between India and Sri Lanka — is among the most consequential gifts this province has ever received. This is my third submission on the subject. As Governor of the Northern Province, I
May 2026 OP-ED
Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja
The Batalanda Report Was Tabled. A Year Later, Justice Was Not

The Batalanda Report Was Tabled. A Year Later, Justice Was Not

COLOMBO — One year after Sri Lanka’s Attorney General received the Batalanda Commission report — detailing torture chambers, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during the government’s suppression of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection — no one has been charged, no prosecutorial update has been issued, and the parliamentary debate that was promised has yet to be scheduled. The silence that has followed, political analysts say, reflects not only legal complexity but a
April 2026 JM Exclusive
Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent
The Shepherd's Flock: Protecting the Human Rights of the Public Servant

The Shepherd's Flock: Protecting the Human Rights of the Public Servant

By: Jeevan Thiagarajah At the heart of a functioning democracy lies a profound paradox: the public servant is both an instrument of the state and a citizen entitled to the full protection of the Constitution. Their service conditions — carefully stipulated by the Public Service Commission and relevant regulations — are not mere administrative guidelines. They are guarantees of dignity. Courts and tribunals have repeatedly reinforced this principle: a person does not surrender their fundamental
April 2026 Guest Column
Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja
“We Are Being Discriminated”: Hill Country Tamils Accuse Sri Lankan State

“We Are Being Discriminated”: Hill Country Tamils Accuse Sri Lankan State

By: M.R. Narayan Swamy Hundreds of thousands of Tamils living in Sri Lanka’s prosperous tea estates want justice and quicker rehabilitation after suffering the worst of deaths and destruction in a catastrophic cyclone that ravaged the island nation in late November. A prominent MP and leader of the hill country, or “Malaiyaha,” Tamils—who are of Indian origin—has accused the government of President Anura Dissanayake, whom he otherwise counts as a friend, of discriminating against Tamil workers
January 2026 Special Article
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
What Sri Lanka and Gaza Teach Us About the Futility of Armed Struggle

What Sri Lanka and Gaza Teach Us About the Futility of Armed Struggle

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is temporary; the evil it does is permanent”. Mahatma Gandhi Times of war create the illusion that only force can resolve irreconcilable differences. Some social theorists even justify the inevitability of violence in achieving social change on the basis that groups in power rarely relinquish that privilege voluntarily. In this context, the armed conflicts that plagued Sri Lanka for three decades and continue to unfold in Gaza
Guest Column Special Article
Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan
Peace Road to Jaffna: The 2002 A9 Odyssey

Peace Road to Jaffna: The 2002 A9 Odyssey

By air, by sea, and now—after almost two decades—by land. My journeys to Jaffna had always been shaped by the shifting tides of Sri Lanka’s civil war. I had flown many times into the heavily fortified Palaly Base Hospital to treat injured soldiers. I had sailed across the uncertain seas in 1994 with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to assist the medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, in completing the final examination for the medical degree (MBBS-
December 2025 Special Article
Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke

Dr. Gamini Goonetilleke
Why Hamas Is Like the LTTE — Yet Unlike the LTTE

Why Hamas Is Like the LTTE — Yet Unlike the LTTE

When two hijacked planes tore into the World Trade Centre in New York, causing the iconic buildings to collapse with hundreds of casualties, an Indian friend remarked even before it was known who the mass murderers were: “This could have been done only by the Al Qaeda or the LTTE.” Osama bin Laden, of course, proudly claimed responsibility for the horrific deed. But the fact that someone thought the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could have carried out the history-changing terror attac
December 2025 Special Article
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy