By ECB Wijeyesinghe Canada has given many generous gifts to Sri Lanka, but none more precious than the valiant little woman who, at the turn of the century, settled down here and cast her lot, for better or for worse, with the people of this country. It was, indeed, on an auspicious day that the […]
Dr Nihal Jayawickrama It was fifty years ago, on October 2, 1971, that the Governor-General, William Gopallawa, assented to the Bill that sought to abolish the Senate, the upper chamber of the Parliament of Ceylon. It was an event that was precipitated by the Senators themselves. The Senate was one of the five constitutional safeguards […]
Mudliyar M. Seeman Fernando Sri Chandrasekera, more popularly known in his time, as Singho Appu Baasunnahe, was a man of a humble beginings. By sheer single minded perseverance, he rose from rags to fabulous riches. One of his daughters became the wife of Dr. W. A. de Silva, the national hero and builder of “Sravasti”. And among his grandchildren were Sir Susantha de Fonseka, one time Deputy Speaker of the State Council, Miss Cissy Cooray of Mahila Samithi fame, and Mrs. H. W. Amarasuriya.
Singho Appu Baasunnahe, later to become Mudliyar Sri Chandrasekera, munificent philanthropist, was born in the village of Horetuduwa, in Moratuwa. He began his adult life as a maker of the tea chests. (He was very proud of his humble beginnings, and would recount incidents from his early life with enormous delight.) As his business expanded and the money started coming in, he began to buy land for his requirements of timber for his industry. This was at the time that European planters of the B