We wish our sister paper a happy centenary

Mahinda KULATUNGA

Dinamina, our sister daily newspaper celebrates its centenary today. It was started by the then well-known Sinhala scholar H.S. Perera who was the owner Editor of the newspaper on December 17, 1909.

The newspaper Editorial and offices were at First Cross Street, Colombo and it was printed at the Lankabhimanava Vishrutha press owned by Robert Batuwantudawa.

At that time it became the main organ agitating for independence. The price of Dinamina at the time was three cents.

The founder Editor of the newspaper H.S. Perera died on December 14, 1914 and D.R. Wijewardene who was one of the national leaders of the independence struggle bought Dinamina and continued it giving it a facelift.

D.R. Wijewardene bought a land in Colombo and built Lake House and started many other newspapers including the Daily News but it became popularly known as Dinamina Kantoruva - the offices of Dinamina. The name for Dinamina - meaning daily gem - was the coinage of the famous oriental and Buddhist scholar, the Most Ven. Ratamalane Dharmarama Thera. Among those who had encouraged and assisted this newspaper were the national leader Sir D.B. Jayatilleke and D.R. Wijewardene.

During the past 100 years, Dinamina had always stood for independence, national resurgence and in more recent times as a trail blazer in publishing news and views to support humanitarian operations against LTTE terrorism.