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“If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
Perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
Ajith Samaranayake left us 20 years ago. He had by then spent over thirty years as a journalist, having carved a niche for himself as one of this Island’s most perceptive and talented writers. He had been news reporter, feature writer, literary critic and editor at two of the country’s premier houses of journalism: Lake House and the Upali Group.
On the day of his passing, the BBC reported his death saying: senior journalist and campaigner for press freedom, Ajith Samaranayake passed away on Wednesday. Ajith was a journalist who had inspired a generation of journalists in Sri Lanka.
Ajith will be remembered not only as an outstanding and respected journalist who was self-effacing, unpretentious and devoid both of ambition or rancour. He belonged to a long line of exemplary English language journalists, giants of the past like H.A.J. Hullugalle, Jayantha Padmanabha, Tarzie Vittachi, Denzil Peiris and Mervyn de Silva, who had made their mark in the world of English journalism before him.
Ajith grew up in Kandy where his father was a lawyer and where he had his education at the distinguished Public School, Trinity College. He was therefore exposed to a very bourgeois, Western social environment. But rather than being overwhelmed by it, rather than being intellectually circumscribed by it, he absorbed all that was good and wholesome in that tradition including its values, literature and philosophy, and became richer for it.
He ensured that he was equally familiar with and immersed in his own Sinhala culture, literature and traditions and conversant with both classical Sinhala writing and thought, as well as contemporary Sinhala works. It was this remarkable background that made his thinking and writing profound, profuse and precise.
While still a schoolboy, he cultivated both an inquiring and a critical mind resulting in a social conscience and a critical political awareness of the world around him that marked him as an outsider. One who was willing to think, and think critically for himself and thus critique and question the norms and values, the ethics and mores of the world around him. And at this young age, still a student, he began writing for publication and contributing to The Nation a radical Colombo English weekly.
His bilingual fluency and his social conscience enabled him to cross linguistic, racial and social barriers and thereby be a force and advocate for reflection, enlightenment and understanding. This was his mission, to use language to build bridges and be an advocate for understanding and inclusiveness.
He was more than a well-read literary critic or a well-informed journalist, he was a writer with a purpose. A commitment that sprang from a deep understanding of our traditional culture and way of life; while also drawing on all that was positive and constructive in the world beyond.
Thank you, Ajith. We are richer because of your presence in our lives.
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Historical truth, democratic accountability and the lessons we must learn
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Wewage Don Helena Dep Weerasinghe was born in 1864 at Waragoda, Kelaniya, and married to Muhandiram Don Philip Tudugala Wijewardene of Tudugala, Kalutara on 1st September 1880, at the Christ Church Cathedral, Mutuwal. Don Philip was a well known timber merchant.
This marriage marked the beginning of a new era of the Wijewardene family, which had its roots in Sedawatte.
Don Philip and Helena had nine children: seven boys and two girls. They were DON PHILIP ALEXANDER, AGNES HELEN, DON LOUIS, DON RICHARD, DON EDMUND, LIZZIE HARRIET, DON CHARLES, DON WALTER AND DON ALBERT.
Helena’s son DON RICHARD popularly known as DR was the founder of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd (ANCL). He named his newspaper office in Fort after his mother’s name ‘Wewage’, presently known as ‘Lake House’. After the Government took over the newspapers, DR’s son Ranjith Wijewardene founded Wijeya Newspapers which now publishes ‘Sunday Times’, ‘Lankadeepa’ and ‘Daily Mirror’. DR Wijewardene’s grandsons are Ranil Wickramasinghe, former President of Sri Lanka, and Ruwan Wijewardene, former State Minister of Defence.
Helena’s eldest daughter, Agne Helen’s son, Junius Richard (JR) Jayewardene became the first Executive President of Sri Lanka in 1978.
After her marriage to Don Philip, Helena with the family visited the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya on a full moon day in 1880 for worship. This visit marked a new chapter in the history of the temple. On this day, when she walked into the Viharaya to offer flowers at the Buddha statue, her feet sank into the mud on the then unpaved floor. This incident made her sad about the dilapidated state of the temple that existed at that time. She therefore decided then and there to restore the temple and make it worthy of being a place of worship.
As the first step of the restoration work, she got the floor of the Vihara paved with uniform rock slabs. One slab was inscribed with her initials and the year, ‘H.D.W 1888’. This slab was laid near the main entrance to mark this event. Later, in 1902, she replaced the wooden flower-altar that was in the Viharaya with a better one made of marble.
The restoration work of the temple thus began and continued over many years. In 1927, she laid the foundation stone for the complete restoration of the old Vihara. For this purpose, she brought artisans and sculptors from India and employed architects and artists from Sri Lanka. Her son Don Walter Wijewardene was a tower of strength to her and supported and encouraged her in all her renovation activities of the temple. A new wing was added to the old shrine room along with a central octagonal roof in the Kandyan style. Murals with a new style of delineation and colour were drawn on the walls of the new chambers. The pillars and the ceilings were executed in the traditional style of ancient sculpture. The doors and doorways were engraved with the Kandyan style of ornamental carvings.
Having undertaken the enormous restoration work of the temple over a lengthy period of time, the far-seeing lady turned her attention to the question of the future maintenance of the temple. A paddy field and a coconut plantation covering 250 acres in extent, were donated to the temple and with its annual income a fund called ‘The Kelaniya Kalawewa Trust Fund’ were created. In addition to this, another property, called Uyanwatte, situated at Kelanimulla on the other side of the river, was also gifted to be maintained as a flower garden to supply the daily requirement of flowers for the poojas at the temple.
All lovers of Sinhala art and sculpture, therefore, owe a great debt of honour and gratitude to this gracious lady, Mrs Helena Wijewardene of Sedawatte. Today, because of her magnanimous work the restored Kelani Vihara, the pride of the nation’s heritage, stands as a living monument to her pious zeal and munificence.
After the demise of her husband, Don Philip, in 1903, Helena Wijewardene moved out of Sedawatte and purchased ‘Rickmand House’ on Stuart Place, now known as 44 Galle Road, Colombo 3, where she built the family’s private residence, after demolishing ‘Rickmand House’. The new building was designed by architect Herbert Henry Reid, who later drew up plans for the restoration of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara,
The Wijewardene family – who were the patrons of the Viharaya – named their new villa ‘Sri Ramya’. Mrs Helena Wijewardene was the maternal grandmother of former President JR Jayewardene, who often visited this house during his childhood.
‘Sri Ramya’ was perhaps Sri Lanka’s first private residence, situated by the sea,
Few are aware that it was at ‘Sri Ramya’ the first trial performance of the Kelaniya Temple ‘Duruthu Perahera’ began. The Wijewardene children recall that this early version of the perahera began with them carrying the sacred relic in a small procession out through one gate and returning through the other. Today Helena’s great grandson Dhammika Attygalle is the Chief Basnayake Nilame of the temple.
As the temple’s patrons, the family was entrusted with keeping the holy relic while the Vihara was being restored. A small rear room (above the drive) of ‘Sri Ramya’ was fitted for the purpose with murals by the renowned artist Solis Mendis, who also painted the well-known Kelaniya Temple murals. One mural he painted there in 1930 shows Helena Wijewardene with her sons standing in front of ‘Sri Ramya’.
The first wedding at this villa took place on January 9, 1931, between Helena Wijewardene’s son Don Walter Wijewardene and Anula Kalyani Wijesinghe of Kamburupitiya. They were the parents of business magnate Upali Wijewardene, who was born in this same building. At ‘Sri Ramya,’ Helena saw the birth of four grandchildren: Rukmani Beligammana, daughter of Don Charles, and three children of Don Walter – Anoja Wijesundera, Kalyani Attygalle and Upali Wijewardene.
Helena’s eldest son DON ALEXANDER was the first Ceylonese to purchase and operate a modern Cargo Vessel, the SS ‘Pengely’, which travelled to Europe, Asia and the USA, Helena’s grandson Philip Upali – PUW was the first Sri Lankan to own a private Lear jet and a Bell Ranger Helicopter.
In May 1934, well-known Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and painter Nanda Lai Bose spent a fortnight at ‘Sri Ramya’ during a visit to Sri Lanka. In 1940 Sir Ivor Jennings called at the villa to meet noted ophthalmologist Dr A F Seneviratne, son-in-law of the elder Wijewardene. On November 10 of the same year, Helena Wijewardene passed away at ‘Sri Ramya’ at the height of World War II.
Helena’s ashes are kept at mausoleum at Madampitiya cemetery.
In 1951, U S Government purchased the ‘Sri Ramya’ for its Embassy and since 1993 it is the American Center and its Library.
The ancestral Sedawatte Walawwa situated at Wellampitiya Road, Kolonnawa now belongs to Helena’s great-grandson Shalitha Wijesundera.
A recent paper published by AI company Anthropic has argued that its chatbot, Claude, has developed basic elements of consciousness similar to those found in human beings. Claude, released in March 2023, handles text, images, advanced data analysis, coding and writing. It is designed to offer more advanced reasoning and greater detail than other chatbots. It is powered by large language models (LLMs).
The paper, published in July 2026 and titled “Global Workspace in Language Models”, claims that Claude has developed a computational network similar to the neural network referred to as the “global workspace” in neuroscience. The researchers have named it J-space, which processes intermediate steps that are not disclosed while generating an output for a prompt. They argue that this network is similar to the neural activity involved in the first stage of consciousness described in the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) of consciousness.
The preliminary mental activity involved in processing an object is called “access consciousness” in GNWT, while the network of neurons involved is called the “global workspace”. A thought about any physical or mental object, when it comes to the attention of the sensory organs or the mind, is supposed to be initially processed in this network, which remains active long enough to keep the object in memory and work on it. It is claimed that the next stage, called “phenomenal consciousness”, allows us to identify and experience the object with hedonic qualities. This stage is influenced by emotions, giving rise to a subjective experience that is also registered in long-term memory. At this stage, more centres in the brain are involved in constructing a series of thoughts about the object, and a response or reaction is determined and carried out.
The authors of the paper investigated the hidden or undisclosed computational steps taken by Claude to arrive at an answer to a prompt and named this process J-space. They claim that it is similar to access consciousness or the global workspace. They also claim that Claude occasionally displayed random words during computation, suggesting the presence of rudimentary hedonic qualities. However, they admit that Claude is not able to experience an object with hedonic qualities and emotions in a manner similar to human consciousness.
Interestingly, the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory of neuroscience runs somewhat parallel to the process of consciousness described in Buddhist Abhidhamma, which was written in the first century B.C. It is complicated to explain this in a short letter. However, the first stage of the thought process, called “ignition” in GNWT, is similar to the first step in the Abhidhamma description, in which an object coming to the attention of the mind triggers consciousness. The mind uses a mental factor called phassa, translated as “contact”, for this “ignition”. The next stage, called access consciousness in GNWT, also runs parallel to the passive stage of cognition described in Abhidhamma. Phenomenal consciousness described in GNWT is explained in Abhidhamma as the active stage, called javana, followed by the reverberation of the initial consciousness process in the mind, known as consequent processes. These processes give rise to comprehensive cognition, including an emotional response and a decision necessary for action. The experience is committed to long-term memory during this phase.
However, contrary to GNWT, according to the Abhidhamma explanation, hedonic aspects are established immediately upon triggering, depending on the object, the circumstances and the species, before the passive phase of cognition, identified as access consciousness in GNWT. For example, a person known to a resident of a house visits for the first time. The pet dog perceives him as a threat and starts barking, while the resident greets him cordially. Consciousness becomes comprehensive and unique to the individual, with emotional influences depending on the subject, during the active phase, identified as phenomenal consciousness in GNWT. Once reassured, the dog starts wagging its tail to show its friendly nature.
In view of this difference, the Buddhist view cannot agree with the claim that what Claude has developed in J-space is similar to the early phase of human consciousness.
I have read with care the open letter addressed to me by Mr Lionel Bopage and Professor Athula Sumathipala, published in The Island on 16 October 2026 under the title “Black July: The Need to Tell the Whole Truth”. I thank them for the seriousness of their contribution and, particularly, for recounting experiences of arrest, detention and political repression that deserve to be heard and examined.
My expression of regret and apology in Parliament concerning Black July was not intended as the conclusion of a conversation about our past. It reflected a conviction that Sri Lanka cannot build genuine national reconciliation by denying the suffering of its citizens or overlooking failures of democratic governance.
Historical truth must not be selective. Equally, an honest record must distinguish established events, personal testimony, contested allegations and legal findings.
Black July and the wider history of democratic rights
The anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was a grave national tragedy. Lives were lost, families were displaced, homes and businesses were destroyed, and confidence in the equal protection of citizenship was deeply damaged. The state had a fundamental duty to protect all citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity, language, religion or political views. The failure to do so demands acknowledgment and enduring lessons.
Black July did not arise in a historical vacuum. I recognise the importance of examining the deprivation of former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s civic rights, the extension of Parliament’s term through the 1982 referendum, the violence associated with the 1981 Jaffna District Development Council elections and the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library, and the detention of opposition figures, including Vijaya Kumaratunga.
These matters raise serious questions about the exercise of executive power, political pluralism, the independence of institutions and the protection of fundamental rights. Our democratic system must be assessed not merely by whether elections were conducted, but by whether citizens and political opponents could exercise their rights freely and safely.
The 1983 JVP proscription and testimony of those affected
The letter draws particular attention to the proscription of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna in July 1983, along with restrictions imposed upon other left-wing organisations. The JVP had participated in electoral politics, including the 1982 presidential election. The reasons advanced for proscription, the available evidence and the treatment of those subsequently detained warrant careful historical and legal examination.
I acknowledge the personal accounts offered by Mr Bopage and Professor Sumathipala and their references to colleagues who were arrested or interrogated. Surviving witnesses should have meaningful opportunities to place their experiences on the historical record. Such testimony must be treated with dignity while remaining subject to fair, evidence-based examination.
The legal proceedings in Mallikarachchi v. Shiva Pasupati, Attorney-General (1985) 1 Sri LR 74 also deserve attention. The Supreme Court addressed procedural and constitutional questions about the respondent and presidential immunity; it did not finally adjudicate the substantive justification for the proscription. It would therefore be wrong to present that judgment as conclusive proof either that the proscription was lawful or that it was unlawful.
No citizen should suffer arbitrary detention, intimidation or punishment merely for expressing political views or participating in legitimate democratic activity. Where state authorities violated these rights, those injustices must be recognised. To those who suffered such violations, I express my profound regret and offer my sincere apology.
At the same time, the rights of political organisations do not excuse violence against civilians. Accountability must apply to both unlawful acts of the state and violence perpetrated by non-state actors, without conflating their different legal obligations.
Understanding youth unrest rather than merely suppressing it
Sri Lanka’s experience of southern youth insurrections, as well as the prolonged conflict in the North and East, demonstrates the costs of political alienation and failures of governance. The episodes were different in their causes and character, and should not be equated. Yet the importance of fair opportunity, responsive public institutions and democratic participation extends across them.
Youth unemployment, unequal access to education and employment, political patronage, regional disparities and distrust of public institutions were among the grievances that deserved serious attention. An effective democratic response cannot rest upon security measures alone; it must address those underlying conditions.
President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s Youth Commission and recruitment reforms
It is important that this fuller historical examination also recognise significant measures initiated by President Ranasinghe Premadasa. On 19 October 1989, he appointed the Presidential Commission on Youth to investigate the causes of youth disquiet, alienation and unrest. Its report in January 1990 identified politicisation and perceptions of abuse of political power as major causes of discontent. The Government publicly accepted the Commission’s 51 proposals in February 1990.
A particularly important administrative measure was Public Administration Circular No. 15/90, issued on 9 March 1990. It required appointments to be free from political patronage and provided that merit should be determined by written examinations or other specified tests, subject to the circular’s remaining provisions. Competitive examinations had existed before 1990; the significance of this measure lay in the broader policy commitment to fairer recruitment across public institutions.
The administration also introduced measures intended to expand young people’s participation in electoral politics, including youth-candidate nomination requirements for local authorities. The Commission and these policy responses belong in any account of the period’s institutional history.
These reforms had limitations. Not all proposals were fully implemented, and the ethnic proportionality provisions included in the recruitment policy later faced constitutional challenge, particularly in relation to promotions. Such limitations deserve recognition alongside the reforms’ stated objectives.
Recognition of reform is not an excuse for human rights abuses. Equally, accountability for abuses should not require us to erase documented efforts to address their underlying causes.
The period of counterinsurgency during which President Premadasa governed also involved grave allegations of disappearance, unlawful killing and other violations, as well as political violence by armed organisations. Those matters must be open to fair and impartial historical scrutiny. Neither a familial relationship nor party affiliation should determine the standards of that scrutiny.
From the Youth Commission to participation after the Aragalaya
The civic protest movement of 2022 arose in circumstances distinct from the insurgencies of earlier decades. Nevertheless, the Aragalaya again demonstrated the importance of listening to young people who feel excluded from decisions affecting their future.
After the Aragalaya , a structured initiative supported by the United Nations Development Programme enabled more than 500 young people, including 263 young women, to be assigned to Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committees covering 17 subject areas. Young representatives were afforded opportunities, under committee procedures, to examine documents, contribute observations and, with permission, ask questions. They did not have voting rights.
This was a meaningful step towards opening Parliament to the next generation. In March 2025, the Tenth Parliament constituted seven Sectoral Oversight Committees rather than the previous 17. Under the NPP Government, the earlier structured programme of youth participation has been completely discontinued in practice.
It is important to be precise: the parliamentary provisions allowing committee chairs to invite youth representatives remain in force, and other youth dialogue initiatives have taken place. Three of the seven committees were allocated Opposition chairmanships. The responsibility to use the available mechanisms to include young people therefore extends across government and opposition alike.
The underlying principle remains: youth participation should be an enduring practice of parliamentary democracy, not a temporary response to public protest or an initiative dependent upon the administration in office.
Shared accountability and meaningful institutional action
Any historical examination must acknowledge victims of ethnic violence, political persecution, insurgency and counterinsurgency without ranking their suffering according to identity or political affiliation. State institutions have duties that armed political movements do not possess, but neither state power nor political grievance legitimises attacks upon innocent people.
I support a credible, impartial and evidence-based process for examining Black July and related violations of fundamental rights. The parliamentary discussion on a Presidential Commission of Inquiry and an alternative parliamentary mechanism has highlighted the need to consider independence, witness participation, access to records, investigative powers, public reporting and the implementation of findings.
There is also a practical question of scope. An inquiry into Black July does not automatically encompass the 1983 proscription of political parties or violations during subsequent conflicts. If these issues are to be examined, their mandates should be explicit and their procedures fair.
Historical acknowledgment must lead to safeguards: independent courts, accountable security institutions, freedom of expression and association, fair public recruitment, genuine parliamentary oversight and opportunities for younger generations to participate in decisions that affect them.
A responsibility to future generations
I thank Mr Bopage and Professor Sumathipala for the contribution they have made to this discussion. I would welcome an opportunity to hear their testimony, together with that of other affected individuals and communities, historians, legal scholars and representatives of civil society.
My apology concerning Black July was an acknowledgment of a profound wrong. It was not a claim that the wrongs of our national history began or ended in July 1983.
We should have the intellectual honesty to recognise policy achievements, the moral courage to acknowledge grave failures, and the institutional resolve to prevent their recurrence. No administration, political party or armed organisation should enjoy immunity from evidence-based examination.
The measure of democratic commitment is not how firmly we defend the rights of those who agree with us, but how consistently we defend the rights of those who do not.
We cannot change the past. We can, however, listen to those who suffered, establish the truth as faithfully as the evidence permits, and build institutions that protect the dignity and equal rights of every Sri Lankan.
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