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By Mahil Dole Senior Superintendent of Police (Retd.)
In recent weeks Colombo has sought to present itself as a capable host for international tourism and business events. Promotional efforts, including the Sri Lanka MICE Expo, brought together overseas buyers, operators and media to highlight the city’s hotels, convention facilities and professional services. Such initiatives are important for foreign exchange earnings, employment and the country’s reputation. Yet only a short time later, heavy rainfall on Friday, 6 November, brought large parts of the capital and its transport networks close to a standstill. Roads flooded, people attempting to return home for the weekend were delayed for long periods, railway services were disrupted with commuters held on trains for hours, and the National Hospital experienced flooding that raised immediate operational and health concerns. The meteorological background was already known: systems developing in the Bay of Bengal had produced two cyclonic situations within a week, and earlier effects had disrupted upcountry train services through mudslides and falling trees. The contrast is instructive. It shows both the aspirations of the authorities and the continuing gap between those aspirations and the reliability of basic urban systems
Known Weather, Predictable Disruption
The rainfall figures are clear. Colombo received approximately 129 millimetres within a few hours. Some locations recorded more than 100 millimetres in under an hour, and Thimbirigasyaya recorded 146.6 millimetres over twelve hours. The city’s drainage infrastructure was designed for roughly 30 millimetres. The result was widespread inundation of roads in areas including Maradana, Borella and Bambalapitiya, severe traffic congestion, and flooding at the National Hospital. Sections of the Accident and Emergency Department, outpatient areas, radiology, operating theatres and wards were affected; lifts became inoperative; and staff had to manage patient movement under difficult conditions. Reports linked the hospital flooding in part to the condition of the Norris Canal, unauthorised constructions along its banks, and waste disposal practices. These are long-standing issues that have been noted on previous occasions.
The impact extended well beyond vehicles.
Ordinary citizens trying to reach their homes for the weekend found routes blocked or impassable. At the same time, the weather system caused direct disruption to railway traffic. Services came to a standstill in affected sections, leaving passengers on trains for hours. These difficulties occurred against a background in which adverse weather had already been indicated by developments in the Bay of Bengal. The public does not expect perfect conditions in every circumstance. Most people understand the country’s economic constraints and accept that daily affairs will run at a minimum standard of reliability rather than at an ideal maximum.
Social Media, Frustration and the End of the Old Mindset.
What the public no longer accepts is the assumption that temporary disruption will simply be forgotten within a week. That older habit of mind is no longer reliable. Social media now supplies first-hand, real-time information and visual evidence before official explanations or remedies reach the public. The discussion that followed Friday’s events was largely characterised by frustration rather than aggression. People wanted the authorities to be proactive rather than reactive, and they were unconvinced by explanations that appeared to treat known vulnerabilities as unexpected surprises.
Citizens are influenced by what they see and share online. They do not wish to appear ignorant of available forecasts, technology or documented infrastructure weaknesses. Most continue to tolerate shortcomings because they have no practical alternatives and must depend on policymakers for basic services. That dependence is not unlimited. When authorities fail to deliver a minimum standard of resilience, the consequences are visible in many countries: erosion of public confidence, reduced legitimacy, and eventual pressure for change. Sri Lankan institutions would be wise to treat this as a clear warning rather than as temporary noise. The warning is not partisan. It applies to any authority responsible for urban management, transport, health infrastructure and disaster preparedness.
Ongoing Works and the Cost of Delay.
Major drainage and sewerage works are under way in the Kirulapone and Kirula–Narahenpita areas, involving substantial investment and producing prolonged traffic congestion, particularly around Baseline Road and Narahenpita. Officials have cited the complexity of identifying existing underground utilities as a cause of delay. Timelines for full completion stretch into 2027 and 2028. While the long-term necessity of these works is recognised, their slow pace continues to impose daily costs on movement and productivity. Canal-cleaning directives issued earlier in October, calling for completion within two weeks ahead of expected heavier rain, did not prevent the problems that materialised on 6 November. These facts are not offered as accusations against any individual or party. They are observations about the performance of systems that the public must use every day.
From Reactive Meetings to Continuous Management.
The pattern remains largely reactive. A special high-level meeting chaired by the Mayor on 7 November, involving the Colombo Municipal Council and representatives of the police, tri-forces, divisional secretariats, the Governor’s office, the Sri Lanka Land Development Corporation and the Urban Development Authority, is the standard institutional response. It focuses on immediate interventions and longer-term drainage solutions. Such coordination is necessary after an event, yet it does not address why known design limitations, maintenance shortfalls, construction delays and forecastable weather systems continue to produce repeated immobilisation. Modern forecasting, satellite data, sensors, real-time monitoring and integrated early-warning platforms already make many of these events visualizable in advance. Sri Lanka has pilots and announced systems, including anticipatory-action platforms, planned sensor-and-SMS flood warnings for Colombo, and international support for improved forecasting and resilience work on the lower Kelani basin. Local innovation also exists. The principal constraint appears to be institutional habit: the continued tendency to treat vulnerabilities as surprises rather than as permanent operational risks requiring continuous management.
A shift toward proactive standards would require practical changes that can be pursued without prejudice to any particular political authority. Drainage design capacity needs to be updated to reflect observed rainfall intensities rather than the outdated 30-millimetre benchmark. Canal and drain maintenance should move from episodic directives to scheduled, audited, year-round practice, with clear accountability for encroachments and illegal dumping. Critical sites such as the National Hospital require dedicated resilience measures that are tested before the next heavy rain. Major construction projects need tighter timelines, better traffic mitigation and transparent communication so that interim disruption is minimised. Railway and road networks should incorporate weather-linked contingency protocols so that commuters are not left stranded for hours when Bay of Bengal systems are already developing. Predictive modelling should be linked to pre-positioned resources, public alerts and inter-agency drills, not merely to post-event meetings.
The observations in this column arise directly from the events of Friday and from the public discussion that followed on social media. They are offered in a spirit that is assertive about the need for improvement yet measured and diplomatic in its address to the authorities. The public is prepared to accept the constraints of the present economic situation. It is not prepared to accept repeated failure to apply available knowledge and technology in advance of known risks. The contrast between carefully staged promotional activity and a capital brought close to a standstill, roads flooded, hospital compromised, trains halted, people unable to reach home, is not merely ironic. It is a practical measure of the distance still to be closed.
Both promotion and infrastructure are required. What is no longer sustainable is the assumption that promotional success, or public patience, can rest on systems that fail under rainfall intensities the country already experiences and that social media will document in real time. The meeting of 7 November can address the immediate water. Building the capacity and discipline that reduce the likelihood of the next standstill requires a different pace and a different mindset, one that recognises that the old expectation of issues being forgotten within a week has itself come to an end. Authorities that act on this warning in good time will strengthen both the resilience of the city and the confidence of the citizens who depend on it.
( This analysis is offered in the interest of national security, institutional reform and public safety)
The writer is a retired Senior Superintendent of Police, former head of the counter terrorism desk at the state intelligence service, a former member of the Sri Lanka Wakfs Board, and the author of “Security Beyond Enforcement: Practical Approaches for a Safer Nation” (2026). [email protected]
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With the Republican Party losing its clout in the US Congress in the wake of the recent midterm election setback the power balance in West Asia could very well be tilting against the US-Israel combine for the first time in decades. In all probability the Republican administration would from now on be challenged to initiate a policy reset in the region that is more amenable to Iran considering that the latter has emerged in a somewhat commanding position from the ongoing political and military turmoil in the region.
So powerful is Iran currently that it has unilaterally set out some seven conditions to the US to bring the conflict in West Asia within manageable limits. At present it is unclear whether the conditions are receiving the undivided attention of the US, given that the central Republican administration is in an effort to pull itself together and act with a degree of policy coherence in the aftermath of the recent polls debacle.
However, the Republican centre would have no choice but to concede some of the key Iranian demands in consideration of the ‘cost of living shock’ that the war in the region has administered to the average US consumer. Provided relief is quickly delivered to the consuming public, the chances are that the Trump administration would continue to witness a slide in its popularity and power. We have another reminder here that economics basically drives politics.
From the above viewpoint, conditions 2, 3 and 4, relating to the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iran, the reopening of shipping lanes and the release of frozen Iranian assets could prove vital since they are decisive in not only worsening the material hardships of the Iranian and US publics but also those of the rest of the world. They exercise a direct bearing, therefore, on the political fortunes of the US centre and may need to be met before long.
However, it is to the degree to which the immediate political consequences from the midterm polls are effectively and swiftly managed that the US centre could give the conditions its concerted attention. But the urgency of granting the key demands of Iran would only be increasingly felt in Washington, thereby denying it the ability to deal with the foreign policy issues at hand with greater ease and freedom of deliberation. That is, Iran would be acting and even negotiating with the US from what could be seen as a position of strength.
It is possible that the Trump administration is biding its time at the moment until ground conditions stabilize and greater policy clarity could be achieved on what needs to be done going forward, but a revival of military strikes on Iran could prove both politically and economically most costly. The administration would be acting in some of the US’ best interests by choosing its policy courses with utmost circumspection.
Meanwhile, it should not come as a surprise if the US is compelled to seriously consider a policy reset towards Israel as well. It is not the case that the US would be substantially downgrading its alliance with Israel in the days ahead but it is possible that there would be reduced financial and material backing by the US for Israel. After all, the US ‘purse’ is beginning to ‘pinch’ and the affordability of US financial assistance could emerge as a major worry.
In fact there has reportedly been an effort to scale down US assistance to a degree. Whether this would seriously undermine the US-Israel alliance is yet to be seen but the development could point to possible future strains that could stringently test the alliance.
It does not follow from the foregoing that Israel would be seeing a steady diminishing of its military power to the degree to which the US cuts down on its assistance. This is unlikely to be because Israel has proved more or less self-sufficient in most respects in the past. But the perception could gain ground among Israel’s enemies in the Arab world in particular that she would be weakened militarily in the absence of continued and substantial US help. This again is primarily a matter for the future.
However, a development of note in Israeli politics at present is the possibility of opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot forming the next government in Israel. He has reportedly been called upon by the Israeli President to do so. If this comes to pass we would have in Israel a more centrist coalition government that could prove less militaristic and less religiously hard line than the Netanyahu regime.
One message that the foregoing development conveys is that the Eisenkot regime could prove more amenable to negotiations in sorting out the Middle East tangle. President Trump is unlikely to easily hear of negotiations but an incoming Democratic Party controlled Congress is likely to. Such an administration could bring pressure on Trump to consider negotiations and political solutions to the outstanding issues in West Asia. Hopefully this opening for progressive change would be seized by the Democrats and sustainably followed through in the days ahead.
An incoming Democratic Party-dominated Congress would need to work on several fronts if it is to prove sensitive to the US public’s aspirations. It would need to end all forms of conflict and war in the Middle East, cut down on needless defense spending and invigorate the weak domestic economy. There is no getting away from the need for a two-state solution in West Asia. The recent mid-term polls results amply prove that these are main among the US public’s needs.
However, incoming more democracy-friendly administrations would also need to call on Israel’s neighbours, including Iran, to cooperate in finding peaceful, negotiated solutions to the problems that have been bloodily tearing the region apart. It will need to be impressed on these neighbours that Israel would not be negotiating from a position of weakness. It is simply that diplomatic, equitable solutions would do everyone concerned good.
Iran’s first demand calls for an ‘end to hostilities on all fronts’; including Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. This is the way forward, but Iran needs to be asked to do more than what is seen as its part to end hostilities. It should not only down arms against Israel but prove its sincerity by recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
The nuclear option, meanwhile, needs to be shelved by all concerned. It needs to be perceived by all that unending war leads to the eventual annihilation of all.
“Pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart.” Robert F. Kennedy borrowed these words from Aeschylus on the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, speaking to a stunned crowd in Indianapolis. Two months later he was murdered himself.
I thought of that line in Washington, thirty-two years after my father, Ossie Abeyagoonasekera, was assassinated in Sri Lanka on 9 November 1994. At my book launch at the National Press Club, I met Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Kennedy’s eldest daughter. She spoke of losing her father at sixteen. I was sixteen when I lost mine. Our fathers belonged to different nations and traditions, yet violence left us the same inheritance: the knowledge that one moment can divide a life into everything before and everything after.
Some losses are not healed by time. Time only teaches us to carry them.
The assassin believes he has settled something. He kills a man to silence an argument and let fear decide the future. But the dead go on asking the questions the living would rather avoid.
My father’s question has not aged: how free is Sri Lanka to decide its own future? I believe the answer lies in two places at once, in how we deal with the world’s great powers and in how we treat our own citizens. A country cannot be sovereign abroad and fearful at home.
He led a small party in an age of executive presidents, ideological quarrels and armed insurgency. After his close friend Vijaya Kumaratunga was assassinated in 1988, he assumed leadership of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, which would lose 117 of its members to political violence. He stayed.
In 1986 he travelled to Jaffna with Vijaya to speak with the LTTE, when dialogue itself could be called betrayal. Years later, a former LTTE member told me my father had earned their trust. The irony is unbearable, and I will not soften it: the organisation with which he sought peace carried out the bombing that ended his life.
He did not oppose his country. He opposed the injustice that threatened it. In 1982 he challenged President J. R. Jayewardene with a symbolic rice-ration-book campaign. In Welikada prison he corresponded with Nelson Mandela, who encouraged his struggle. And he supported his opponents’ policies whenever they served ordinary citizens. Loyalty to a party, he understood, is not loyalty to a nation.
His travels took him to India, China, the Soviet Union, Libya and Europe. I lived with him in Bonn in 1988–89, as the Berlin Wall approached its fall, and learned that small nations are never alone in history. They are always being looked at by larger ones. Today the Indian Ocean is contested by India, China, the United States and others through security, infrastructure and investment. The danger begins when that competition shapes our domestic choices and the stories citizens tell about their country. A nation loses sovereignty not only when foreign soldiers cross its border, but when its leaders can no longer tell the national interest from someone else’s. Sri Lanka’s task is not to choose between New Delhi, Beijing or Washington. It is to keep the independence to decide what serves its own people.
That independence is tested at home too.
The government promised to repeal oppressive counterterrorism law. In October it tabled the Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill(PSTB) to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Critics point out that it allows detention for up to a year without charge, followed by up to a year of pretrial detention, and that a magistrate cannot overturn a detention order. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has urged the government to withdraw this bill and the Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill, citing the lessons of the old Act.
The Twenty-Second Amendment deserves the same scrutiny. It raises the retirement age of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judges. The government presents it as a way to strengthen judicial independence and clear the backlog of cases. But the Bar Association notes that the sitting Chief Justice would be the first Supreme Court judge to benefit directly, and a UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite has written to the President with serious concerns.
Days ago, Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne, who had asked the President of the Court of Appeal to begin contempt proceedings against the Inspector General of Police for failing to comply with a court order, was transferred to the Judges’ Training Institute with immediate effect.
The state has a duty to protect its people from terrorism and organised crime. But a law must be judged by what it lets a future government do, not by the intentions of the present one. A government elected on the promise of greater freedom owes the public an explanation of why its laws seem to narrow it.
I have now lived more years without my father than with him. In Washington I was returned to the sixteen-year-old who believed death was history’s last word. Time has taught me otherwise. The questions remain, patient and unanswered.
My father believed politics could be an act of love: the difficult kind that demands sacrifice and defends human dignity. As I prepare to launch the Sinhala translation of Winds of Change, I hope more Sri Lankans will read it in their own language and ask these questions for themselves.
My father died believing Sri Lanka could become a more just country. Our duty is to see that it also remains a free one.
The lead up to the festive season is now in full swing with entertainment galore!
In addition to the numerous musical concerts, dances, too, are very much in evidence, and that means we all have a choice!
What is also so special about these dances is that the old boys’ associations of some of the leading schools are in a celebration mood — and this year, De Mazenod College, Kandana, lit up the season in the grandest style!
The De Mazenod College Old Boys’ Association held its annual dinner dance, ‘Luminaria: MazenodiaNite ’26,’ on Saturday, 24 October, 2026.
The “Blue, White & Gold Gala” took place at the Grand Ballroom of Waters Edge, Battaramulla — and what a night it was!
It was a sold-out event and there was fun and excitement right throughout the night. From the moment the doors opened, the ballroom sparkled in blue, white and gold — the colours of Mazenodian pride!
Everyone present had a gala time and guests were heard to say it was a lovely night, meeting up with old friends, lots of laughter, and great memories. Old classmates hugged, teachers were remembered with love, and stories from schooldays flowed like fine wine.
It was truly a night for alumni, family and friends — generations of Mazenodians under one glittering roof.
The crowning of the queen of the night generated lots of excitement, and so did the baila competition.
Niduki Perera was crowned Mazenodian Queen 2026, while the baila competition was won by Ruwantha Cooray and Ranusha Wijesinghe.
Niduki got the nod from the judges as she was charming and strikingly lovely. She did sparkle under the lights — a true queen, graceful, radiant and unforgettable.
Ranusha Wijesinghe and Ruwantha Cooray: Baila champs
Akasha Senavirathne was the 1st Runner-up, while Ranusha Wijesinghe was placed third — a double celebration for Ranusha, who also shone on the dance floor!
According to reports, there was thrill and joy when the baila competition got under way as there was plenty of energy and action on the dance floor, with Ruwantha Cooray and Ranusha Wijesinghe emerging as baila champs. The crowd cheered, clapped and danced along — pure Sri Lankan baila magic!
Guests say it was a night of light, a night of elegance, an unforgettable night.
Musical sets by C-Plus and BLACK, kept the guests dancing until dawn, while renowned compere Faizal Bongso anchored the celebration with his trademark charm and wit.
From slow romantic numbers to foot-tapping baila, from golden oldies to modern hits — the dance floor was never empty!
Numerous alumni batches, including representatives from the 2001 batch, and others celebrating generational Mazenodian spirit, made up this memorable occasion. Fathers and sons, brothers and batchmates — all dancing together as one Mazenodian family.
As the night drew to a close, one thing was clear — ‘Luminaria: MazenodiaNite ’26’ was not just a dinner dance. It was a celebration of friendship, of brotherhood, of memories and of Mazenodian pride.
A night of Light. A night of Love. A night to Remember!
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