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There has been for some time now confusion over how one should spell the surname of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. There was no clarity over if the name should be spelt as Dissanayake or as Disanayaka, the latter being the one given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the President’s Media Division has been alternating between both the spellings.

Last week the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva, which sent the comments of the Government of Sri Lanka on the advance version of the comprehensive report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, had to clearly state how the name should be written. “The name of H.E. the President should be corrected as ‘Anura Kumara Disanayaka’,” the comments sent to the OHCHR said. In the final versions of their report, the spelling was changed to the one sent by the Government but the confusion no doubt continues with different government agencies using different spellings.

Nvbro Julorteue (c), representative from the Philippines Pic by L B Senaratne

The centre of attraction

The 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum, held from September 6 to 13 in Polgolla, Kandy, brought together representatives from social movements and organisations worldwide to advance concrete actions and strengthen their collective struggle for systemic transformation.

Among the 600 strong delegates in attendance,
it was the presence of the representative of the Philippine Negritos (indigenous peoples), Nvbro Julorteue, that caught the attention of many. He added colour and attraction to the unique event.

Wijeweera’s portrait raises a query: What about Prabhakaran?

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva was in Jaffna last Sunday—a day ahead of the start of the UN sessions where Sri Lanka was listed on the agenda—to declare open a library at the district party office. The library will be open for public use as well.

The hastily set-up library consists mostly of Tamil translations of Soviet-era publications, including old Communism-related books. The party officials said they look forward to expanding the library with 4000 books and digital space to facilitate e-learning capabilities among youths in the region.

One retired government official who was in the audience was heard telling his colleague about the relevance of some of these books on the Russian Empire and Soviet Communism.

On his part, his colleague pointed to the portraits of party ideologues, including its founder Rohana Wijeweera, hanging in the background and asked, since LTTE leader Prabhakaran also took violent means against the state to reach his goal unsuccessfully, whether the JVP-NPP government would allow public display of the LTTE leader’s portraits in public.

There was no response from his friend as both moved towards the exit.

Taste of Sri Lanka: Australian High Commissioner in a tuk-tuk

Aussie envoy doing it in Lankan style

Australia’s new High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Matthew Duckworth, was off to a flying start by taking a tuk-tuk ride through the streets
of Colombo.

The new Aussie envoy in Colombo was introduced in multimedia content, where the High Commissioner was seen getting into a tuk-tuk to check out Australian-imported lentils in the Pettah market, visiting the Colombo port and Australian knowledge-sharing facilities available in Colombo and, of course, playing cricket with an Australian jersey.

“We all know nothing brings Australians and Sri Lankans together like beating India in cricket! Am I allowed to say that?” asked the High Commissioner to his colleague as the reel went along, to be followed by an edit to say, ‘bring two countries for a good, friendly cricket game”.

Finally, the High Commissioner checked out a nearby eatery for breakfast, where he had dhal, coconut rotti, red rice and curry. Before he tasted them, he was seen making sure the lentils were imported from Australia, and once tasted, he declared ‘harima rahai’ (very tasty)

Delhi University all set to confer an honorary doctorate on Harini

The Delhi University (DU) is preparing to confer an honorary doctorate on Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Dr Harini Amarasuriya, a Hindu College alumna, during her upcoming visit to India in mid-October, according to official documents reviewed by The Indian Express.

A notice issued on September 8 by the Registrar of Delhi University has called for a meeting of the Academic Council on Thursday to consider a letter from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The letter requested that DU organise a special convocation in coordination with Hindu College, The Indian Express newspaper reported.

The agenda of the meeting is to make plans to confer an honorary doctorate on Dr Amarasuriya “under the provisions of Statute 16 of the Statutes of the University” during her visit.

“…the forthcoming visit to India of the Prime minister…is expected to be in India around 17-18 October 2025,” said a letter by the MEA addressed to the Ministry of Education.

The letter highlights Dr Amarasuriya’s academic ties to Delhi, noting that she completed her undergraduate degree in sociology from Hindu College between 1991 and 1994 on an MEA-sponsored scholarship.

The Indian newspaper quoted Hindu College Principal Anju Srivastava stating that both the university and the college had received official communication with regard to the special convocation. Mr Srivastava added that “there are plans of conferring the honorary doctorate in mid-October.

The documents also state that the Prime Minister’s Office has already been consulted and has given its go-ahead for the ceremony. The MEA has also asked DU to share a brief for the proposed event.

Contradictory statements on suicide figures

Police Media Spokesman ASP F.U. Wootler seems to have double standards when it comes to statistics on suicide in Sri Lanka. It has been observed that a curious contradiction in the ASP’s statements has arisen, raising questions about transparency and accountability.

A few weeks back when the Sunday Times enquired about the unavailability of suicide statistics on the police website, he said that the statistics were deliberately made unavailable due to the sensitivity of the requested information: a move he suggested was a conscious decision to handle such sensitive figures with care.

However, on September 10 at an event marking World Suicide Prevention Day, ASP Wootler said that the website is not updated due to “unresolved issues with the website during the Corona period” but assured that updated data would be released soon.

Addressing an event organised by the government-approved charity organisation, Sri Lanka Sumithrayo, he added that the police were unsure whether the deaths were a result of suicide or Covid-19.

Senthil’s Nepal ordeal

For the South Asian region, this week’s youth protest in Nepal, the torching of the Supreme Court and the Parliament, and the forcing of the unseating of the government with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli fleeing the country and his ministers being lynched by mobs, came as a shock to many.

Amidst all this chaos, former Governor of Eastern Province Senthil Thondaman was staying in Kathmandu on a private visit. His hotel was not spared by violent protesters on Tuesday. However, he managed to return to India safely once airlines resumed operations.

Later, he shared a brief post on his Facebook page detailing what it was like to be on a foreign land that is under chaos.

“Hotels looted and burnt by mobs, people running for life, no police force nor military in action Had to face / face-to-face the mob. Survival was a million-dollar question.

“On God’s Grace Good deeds you do return to you at the time of need,

“Karma works even in the middle of a burning Hotel in Kathmandu,” the post reads.

Struck off the Hansard but already in the public domain

Anger among MPs of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) over the refusal by Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne to entertain their No-Confidence Motion (NCM) on Deputy Defence Minister Major General (Rtd.) Aruna Jayasekera continued to boil over into heated verbal clashes between them and Government MPs this week.

Tempers over the matter flared yet again on Thursday when, during heated arguments between members, Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake made what were alleged to be derogatory remarks directed towards the opposition. Furious opposition MPs demanded that he withdraw the comment and apologise. Speaker Wickramaratne stated he will order the offending remark to be stricken off the Hansard.

But such are the perils of the digital age that Mr. Rathnayake’s offending remark, and opposition MPs’ comments repeatedly referring to it, had already been carried on Parliament’s live feed. What was worse, they were then replayed repeatedly during television news coverage. The offending remark may be stricken off the Hansard, but it is very much out in the public domain.