Beyond Blame: What Easter Sunday Reveals About Sri Lanka’s Security Culture — and What Must Change Now

How intelligence failure was not a lack of information — but a failure of institutional courage.

By Alfie Ameer — Insights by Cognisive Consultants (https://insights.cognisive.co)

There is a detail in retired FBI Special Agent Raj Patel’s account of the Easter Sunday investigation that is difficult to forget. After returning to Los Angeles, Patel placed on his desk a photograph of an 11-year-old boy who died in the blast.

Not a case file.
Not an intelligence summary.
A child’s face.

Because intelligence failure is not theoretical.
It is not abstract.
It is measured in the lives of families who returned home with one seat at the table forever empty.

If Sri Lanka is to speak honestly about Easter Sunday, we must begin there — with the human cost — before political narrative, before institutional defense, before blame.

What the Investigation Actually Revealed

When Patel later spoke publicly, he did not endorse conspiracies, nor did he excuse state failures.
He made a simpler, heavier point:

The warnings were known. The threat was visible.
The system did not act.

This is not a problem of intelligence collection.

It is a problem of intelligence culture.

Sri Lanka did not lack information.
It lacked:

• Shared responsibility
• Inter-agency trust
• A chain of command with authority to act
• A leadership culture that protects decisive action

What failed was not ability — but the machinery that turns information into protection.

The Failure Was Cultural — Not Technical

For decades, Sri Lanka’s intelligence and security environments have been shaped less by doctrine and more by:

• Personal loyalty networks
• Patronage logic
• Institutional competition
• Fear of political consequences

Information becomes leverage, not duty.
Responsibility becomes something to avoid, not carry.
Truth becomes optional, not binding.

This is how a nation can know — and still fail to act.

It is not capacity we lack.
It is institutional courage.

A Rare Example of Preventive Leadership

I recently learned of an initiative proposed by Mr. Mahil Dole, retired Senior Superintendent of Police and former Director of Counter Terrorism at the State Intelligence Service, now serving as a member of the Waqf Board.

He proposes that Trustee Board chairmen of Sri Lanka’s mosques undergo SIS clearance.

This is not surveillance.
This is standard-setting.
This is leadership accountability from within the community.

And crucially:

• It does not target Muslim identity
• It protects community dignity
• It removes internal factionalism and gatekeeping
• It allows capable young leaders to emerge without suppression

This is what preventive counter-radicalization actually looks like:

Not raids.
Not post-tragedy commissions.
Not suspicion.

But fair, transparent, respected leadership in spaces where identity forms.

This is how trust is built.
And trust is the foundation of real national security.

Security is not only the ability to respond to threats.
Security is the presence of systems that prevent them.

What Must Change

For Sri Lanka to avoid repeating Easter Sunday, reform must shift from reaction to structure.

1. Fusion-Based Intelligence Doctrine
   Information held separately is information neutralized.
2. Unambiguous Command Responsibility
   When responsibility is shared by all, it is owned by none.
3. Community-Anchored Identity Resilience
   Terror begins in identity fracture, not ideology.
4. Protection for Early Warning and Whistleblowing
   No system survives if truth is punished.
5. Leadership Training Rooted in Moral Courage
   Authority must be trained, not assumed.

If We Do Not Transform, We Will Repeat

Easter Sunday was not inevitable.
It was preventable.

The intelligence existed.
The warnings existed.
What did not exist was a system willing to act on truth before hindsight forced it upon us.

We honour the victims not by speeches or commemorations —
but by building a nation in which warnings never go unheard again.

The question now is no longer:

“Who is to blame?”

The only question left is:

Will we change?
Or will we mourn again?

About the Author

Alfie Ameer
Writes on leadership psychology, security culture, and the cultural architecture of trust. Founder — Vonfidel Group & Cognisive Consultants. More essays at https://insights.cognisive.co

Originally published at Insights by Cognisive Consultants.
Canonical link:
https://insights-by-cognisive-consultants.ghost.io/beyond-blame-what-easter-sunday-reveals-about-sri-lankas-security-culture-and-what-must-change-now/

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