By Lahiru Pothmulla Former President and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn-in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the fourth time, before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara this morning. Prime Minister Rajapaksa was sworn in at the auspicious time as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka’s 9th Parliament before the …
By Shamindra Ferdinando Civil society organisation Viyathmaga has emerged as an influential group within the SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) parliamentary group with eight out of nine contestants gaining entry into parliament at the just concluded general election. The SLPP won 145 seats, including 17 National List slots. The parliament comprises 196 elected and 29 …
By Lucien Rajakarunanayake The voters of Sri Lanka have created the new Kingdom, the Rajapaksa Rajya. This is a very rare example of how a democracy can move into a realm ensuring the sovereignty of a single family. It will certainly be recorded in the history books of this era, documenting the vast move from …
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has secured a landslide victory at the 2020 General Election securing a total of 6,853,693 votes, which is a percentage of 59.09%. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) secured a total of 2,771, 984 votes (23.90%). The Jathika Jana Balawegaya or the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) came at third with …
By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s ruling party has won the recently held parliamentary elections, securing a huge majority of 145 seats, just five short of a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Party) was widely expected to win the polls that came nine months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa …
By Meera Srinivasan Polling for Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election concluded on Wednesday with a voter turnout of 71%. The results will be released on Thursday, the Election Commission said. After postponing the elections twice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Sri Lanka became the first South Asian country to hold election months after COVID-19 …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka This column appears on the day after ‘E-Day’. It is a good time to discuss thematic political issues, including those that go beyond the elections. Most pressing are two core issues which I had flagged back in 2013, the answers to which we shall know with the results of this election. Interviewed …
By P.K.Balachandran The Sri Lankan parliamentary elections to be held on August 5 looks like a one-horse race with the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by the redoubtable Rajapaksa brothers on its way to getting a comfortable majority in the House of 225. Partly because of such an expectation or estimation, there is …
Sri Lanka National Debating Team became the first runner-up in the online World Schools Debating Championship 2020, while Canada beat Sri Lanka to win the Championship, in the final held on Sunday. Sri Lanka was also named the best ESL (English as a second language) team. Sri Lanka team’s Shalem Sumanthiran won the seventh place …
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has summoned the newly-elected parliament to meet on August 20, 2020 (Thursday) following the General Election to be held on August 5. The President made this decision under the powers vested in him by the Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Parliamentary Election Act. The Extraordinary Gazette notification announcing the …
by Arjuna Ranawana Sri Lanka’s Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, internationally renowned Human Rights Defender Dr Deepika Udagama has tendered her resignation, a Parliament spokesman said. Director Media of the Parliament Shan Wijetunge told EconomyNext that Udagama’s letter of resignation reached them today and that she will function in her office until September 1. …
By P.K.Balachandran The August 5, 2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections are likely to be a one-horse race with the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) being streets ahead of its rivals in popular estimation. Nevertheless, the election campaigns of the various parties have thrown up key issues which will determine what Sri Lanka will be …
By Meera Srinivasan A week ahead of Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections R.A. Karunavathi, a farmer in Chandana Pokuna village in Polonnaruwa, located in the island’s North Central Province, is looking for a reason to vote. “Why not boycott? We are forced to think like that,” she says, obviously fatigued with polls and politicians. Polonnaruwa district …
M. S. Sellasamy (94), a former Minister and veteran politician and the former General Secretary of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) passed away following a brief illness at his residence in Colombo, yesterday.
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene On the eve of a General Election that promises to be (ominously) portentous for Sri Lanka, the inglorious jostles with the plainly ridiculous. Incredulous attempts to deflect responsibility A prominent criminal investigator long in the crosshairs of this Government and once in the forefront of majorly controversial cases ranging from massive …
By Gamini Weerakoon (Gamini Weerakoon is former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and Consulting Editor of the Sunday Leader) Politicians and lovers have a common failing: Politicians fighting for survival at elections and lovers during ecstatic moments make rash promises which they haven’t the foggiest notion about fulfilling when the time comes. Lankan …
By P.K.Balachandran The Hindu epic Ramayana has had the unusual function of providing rallying points for two contradictory and clashing nationalisms, namely, Hindu-Indian nationalism in India, and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka. While the Hindutvic forces in India have been assiduously turning the Ramayana and its protagonist, Rama, into a rallying point against Indian …
From Meera Srinivasan in Jaffna As Sri Lanka gears up for the August 5 parliamentary election, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — the main grouping representing minority Tamils living in north and east — is facing its biggest test yet in its constituency, since the war ended a decade ago. Though the Tamils have repeatedly …
By Prof.S.Ratnajeevan H.Hoole (The writer is a member of the Elections Commission. The opinion expressed is his own and not necessarily reflective of the Commission) EDR Jaffna The Election Dispute Resolution Unit under the Election Commission (EC) is key to conducting clean elections. I believe it is to gain control of the unit that the …
By Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy (written for the 21st Death Anniversary of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam) This is the time to remember Neelan and Sithie Tiruchelvam. Along with Kumari Jayawardena, their living rooms were spaces where scholars and activists from all over Sri Lanka, South Asia and the world came to think, discuss, break bread and just …
by Zacki Jabbar Former Prime Minister and leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe is hoping there will be a high voter turnout at the forthcoming general election, which, he believes, will prove advantageous to the UNP. “The higher the number of votes cast, the better for the UNP,” Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The …
( Text of a Media Release Issued by the ” FRIDAY FORUM” on 29th July, 2020 Under the Heading “VOTING IN THE ELECTIONS 2020: FOR PUBLIC OR RULERS’ WELFARE?) On August 5th 2020, we as citizens will choose the people who may join the President in governing this country for the next five years, if …
By Shekhar Gupta The coronavirus pandemic has also unleashed a rash of viral memes. My favourite is one which has a patient asking a doctor when he thinks the scourge will end. “I don’t know,” says the doctor. “I am not a journalist.” It is with that sobering thought that I dare to wade into …
The Sri Lankan government should end the targeted arrests, intimidation and threats against the lives and physical security of lawyers, activists, human rights defenders and journalists, 10 international human rights organizations said today. A campaign of fear has intensified since the 2019 presidential election, and has cast a shadow over the 2020 parliamentary election campaign. …
By Asiri Fernando The United National Party (UNP) yesterday expelled 115 members, after its Working Committee affirmed a pervious decision to terminate the membership of those who sought nominations from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) for the upcoming General Elections. UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said the Working Committee which met yesterday decided to …
By Ranga Jayasuriya Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the fellow travellers of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) are asking for a two-thirds majority in the general election. For what? They want to abolish the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, one of the few progressive constitutional provisions to be adopted in the independent history. (It …
By Prof.S.Ratnajeevan H.Hoole (The writer is a member of the Elections Commission. The opinion expressed is his own and not necessarily reflective of the Commission.) Old and new attitude to laws The old style of election management is to use the army to scare voters from areas not friendly to the Government. Chamal Rajapaksa brought …
By Tisaranee Gunasekara This week, 27 years ago, Sri Lanka was burning. During Black July, Sinhala mobs murdered not just Tamil men, women and children; they also killed prospects of peace and stability. They torched not just Tamil property, but also to prospects of economic development. Black July was the darkest episode in the post-Independent …
By Gamini Weerakoon (Gamini Weerakoon is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and Consulting Editor of the Sunday Leader) War is a continuation of politics by other means’ is a saying of a Prussian general, Karl Von Clausewitz around two centuries ago. In recent times in this country, the use of this …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene There is a measure of dreadfully coincidental irony in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa determining this week that Sri Lanka’s pre-colonial Antiquities Ordinance must be amended in order to reverse ‘destruction caused to antiquities’ following a meeting held by his Buddhist Advisory Council even as public outrage grew over a 13th century ‘Kings …
By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Electoral politics has taken a huge leap back into history. King Buvenakhabahu II and the Kingdom of Kurunegala are big players in the politics of 2020, pushing the realities of economic and social hardships of the country and people into a holding bag among the key opposition players. The Pohottuva Players in …
By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya The government’s recent move to do away with an important land circular, announced by the Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Bandula Gunewardena on 02.07.20, has opened up a can or worms that can tunnel into many areas of government policy. Circular 5/2001, issued in August 2001 by the Ministry of Forest Resources and Environment …
By Victor Ivan From 1948 to 1978 Sri Lanka had a parliamentary system of government. A fully-fledged parliamentary system of government on British Westminster model was established by the Soulbury Constitution, which gave Sri Lanka the Dominion status. The position of the Governor General under the Soulbury Constitution and that of the President appointed under …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka Democracy in Sri Lanka came to rest on stable two-party system much before it did in India. When Yahapalanaya distorted that system by hooking the moderate-(statist) nationalist SLFP up with the neoliberal-globalist UNP, a breakaway from the SLFP was inevitable. With the UNP failing to produce an elected leader of the country …
Continue reading ‘SLPP vs SJB: The 2020 election is a Battle Between the Breakaways’ »
By Meera Srinivasan Campaigning for Sri Lanka’s August 5 general elections, the country’s main Tamil party has foregrounded the promise Colombo made to New Delhi on power devolution, the need for greater connectivity to India from the northern Palaly airport, and the need to expedite the return of Sri Lankan refugees living in India. Releasing …
By P.K.Balachandran Sri Lanka’s tiny community of Malays (40,189 as per the 2012 census) had an overwhelmingly dominant position in the island’s military and police in the colonial period, thanks to the trust the Dutch and the British had in this immigrant group in the context of hostility from the indigenous Sinhalese. But come independence …
By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s Civil aviation authority has said it will lead a research project to study the mythological character Ravana’s “aviation routes”. In a recent newspaper advertisement in Sinhala, the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka has sought any relevant documents and literature from the public, asking them to contact an email ID …
Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne yesterday told the CID that it could investigate and institute legal action against journalist Dharisha Bastians if they are able to find evidence that she had sought to obstruct investigations into the alleged Swiss Embassy abduction case. The Colombo Chief Magistrate indicated this after lawyers for Bastians clarified to Court …
By S Ratnajeevan H Hoole We have the police to uphold law and order, and to support democratic institutions. Unfortunately, there are dangerous signs that they, the police, are a tool in the hands of the government in power. It is as sad an indictment as it is ominous to our democracy. There is ample …
By Gamini Weerakoon Higher Education Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena in the current election campaign has been promising to establish so many universities reminiscent of politicians in the past promising to open public toilets in towns where they were addressing political rallies. We have been unable to keep an accurate count of the promised …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene If Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany and the unfolding multiple crises in the United States teach us anything, it is that a country is lost not by a spectacular turn of the coin in a single event but by a series of challenges to the moral resistance of a people, each one …
By Victor Ivan After the Presidential Election, it became evident that there were two centres of power within the ruling party. One power centre was built around President Gotabaya. The other was centred on the President’s brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa The confusion caused by the COVID-19 epidemic has not yet disappeared. In the circumstances, …
By Lucien Rajakarunanayake We have come to the Manifesto stage of the current election campaign. The Samagi Jana Bala Balavegaya and the UNP have now issued their manifestos, on meeting the challenge of the Podujana Peramuna. The Manifesto was a declaration of importance in world and local politics in decades gone by. There was the …
A group of responsible citizens have come together in a citizen’s collective, ‘Nidahasa,’ to upholding and defending Sri Lanka’s most valuable political legacy and hope – democracy. The movement was launched on 8 July in Colombo ahead of Sri Lanka’s crucial elections scheduled in early August. At a press briefing held in Colombo on 15 …
Former Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Shani Abeysekera, who is under suspension from service, yesterday filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court seeking an order reinstating him to his previous position. He cited the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Kamal Gunaratne, Acting Inspector General of Police C.D. …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka An attitude of arrogant myopia; rejection of the outlook of scientific rationality; regarding intelligence-gathering as sufficient and downgrading scientific medical investigation/data collection/analysis (hence the Sri Jayewardenepura pullout); ignoring the Chief Epidemiologist-led, medical specialist-driven, globally acknowledged best practices constituting the managerial model of successful COVID-19 suppression; brusque contradiction of the warnings of the …
By Austin Fernando With the General Election campaign warming up, reference is made to the 19th Amendment (19A) in positive and negative forms. The positive form was highlighted recently by the civil society actors, supporting the 19A. The negativity of the 19A is highlighted mostly by Government politicians led by the Prime Minister (PM). The …
It is astonishing how rapidly the pandemic has spread, despite all the efforts to stop it. On February 1st, the day covid-19 first appeared on our front cover, the World Health Organisation counted 2,115 new cases. On June 28th its daily tally reached 190,000. That day as many new cases were notched up every 90 …
By Meera Srinivasan With the campaign for Sri Lanka’s August general election heating up, India and its role in resolving the lingering national question have begun figuring prominently in the election discourse, especially in the Tamil-majority north and east. Addressing a recent public meeting, the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) former parliamentarian S. Shritharan said: “India …
By Prof. Tissa Vitarana President Gotabhaya Rajapakse had requested the Cabinet of Ministers to submit their opinions on the Prof.Lalithasiri Gunaruwan Report on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement with the USA. This has now been extended for a further two weeks. Though not a Cabinet Minister, but as the leader of the Lanka Sama …
By Meera Srinivasan The Election Commission of Sri Lanka is “closely monitoring” the situation following a recent spike in coronavirus cases, and “hopes and prays” that the general election — that was postponed earlier — could be conducted on August 5 as scheduled, its Chairman said. Postal voting for the island nation’s parliamentary election began …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene From a photojournalist being frogmarched by a suspect cop implicated in Sri Lanka’s 2012 Welikada prison massacre in the very premises of the High Court this Friday as aghast bystanders scuttled out of the way to lawyers being obstructed by members of the Special Task Force (STF) from conducting confidential consultations …
By Prof. S.Ratnajeevan H.Hoole (The writer is a member of the Elections Commission. The opinion expressed is his own and not necessarily reflective of the Commission) Elections are soon due in the Syrian Arab Republic, Sri Lanka, Belarus, Montenegro, Iran and New Zealand. From responses solicited by ACE, the Electoral Knowledge Network (with several heavy-weight …
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham Many of Sri Lanka’s Leftist leaders began their political life in the early part of the last century with the laudable intention of bringing about radical changes in the politics of the country. But within two decades, they had become prisoners of the very past they were trying to break out of. …
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Quite recently in a town in Germany—significantly in what used to be West Germany, not formerly communist-run East Germany—a statue of Lenin was erected after a court battle, and made world news. Having been a bit of a Lenin buff myself it reminded me of a Lenin quote which ran “…one …
By Neil Perera (former Honorary Secretary BCCSL and Manager of several Sri Lanka Cricket teams) The outburst of Mahindananda Aluthgamage, about alleged match fixing in the 2011 Cricket World Cup final, has received wide publicity in the sporting world, so much so that an article has appeared in a newspaper of a relatively unknown cricket …
By Arjuna Ranawana A Nationalist organisation is saying that if President Gotabaya Rajapaksa signs the controversial Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) he will “be committing political suicide.” Addressing a press conference in Colombo, on Tuesday, July 7, the General Secretary of the Patriotic National Movement Dr Wasantha Bandara said it is clear the President will not …
By Dinasena Rathugamage The bomb which exploded prematurely in a house at Iyakkachchi, Kilinochchi, on Saturday, was to be taken among other things to Mullaithivu for a clandestine operation to mark the Black Tiger day, which fell on Sunday, according to police. The first Black Tiger, Vallipuram Vasanthan, drove a small truck laden with explosives …
By Col R Hariharan Election contretemps The much debated and delayed Sri Lanka parliamentary election is now scheduled to be held on August 5. After missing two dates set earlier for the election, after the disposal of eight fundamental rights cases, the Election Commission (EC) announcement came with a lot of conditions on conduct of …
Wading into the issue of the East Container Terminal (ECT), President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday appointed a five-member committee to examine and report on how to develop both the State-run Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and the new ECT of the Colombo Port. The committee is headed by Ministry of Ports and Shipping Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne, Ministry …
(Text of a media release issued on July 5th 2020 by the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa under the heading “SJB a cat’s paw of communalistic political parties”) The leader of the newly formed Samagi Jana Balawegaya was the UNP presidential candidate in 2019. The manifesto that Sajith Premadasa issued for the presidential election titled in …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene What does the summoning of Sri Lanka’s celebrated cricketers to appear before a special investigation committee of the Ministry of Sports tasked to inquire into a wild allegation by a former Sports Minister that the 2011 ICC Word Cup cricket final was ‘fixed’ have in common with the ad hoc appointments …
by C.A.Chandraprema As the parliamentary election campaign gathers momentum, candidates belonging to all political parties are chafing under the Elections Commission’s decision to implement the 1981 elections law to the letter. At this moment, the rule that all candidates are most annoyed with is their inability to display their number so that voters will know …
by Imesh Ranasinghe The probe into whether the 2011 Cricket World Cup final was fixed so that Sri Lanka would lose launched by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Ministry of Sports is over. The head of the Chief of the SIU SSP Jagath Fonseka has told Media that the statements of cricketers who …
by Rex Clementine Hours after Sri Lanka Police announced that they were discontinuing an investigation that the 2011 Cricket World Cup final was fixed, the International Cricket Council issued a statement saying that they had no reason to believe that the final was corrupt or did not feel the need to initiate an inquiry. Police …
By Meera Srinivasan and T.K. Rohit Sri Lanka has raised surveillance along its northern coast, following reports of some Sri Lankan refugees in India attempting to return by boats following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, authorities in Tamil Nadu denied any large-scale attempts by refugees to leave the country illegally. “We have alerted …
By Samanth Subramanian There’s a video of the exact moment Inshaf Ibrahim decided to abandon his life as a rich young man and turn into a mass murderer. In one sense, he had made up his mind weeks earlier, which was why he was loitering in the Cinnamon Grand hotel’s breakfast buffet on Easter Sunday …
Continue reading ‘Ilham and Inshaf: Why Did The Ibrahim Brothers Become Suicide Bombers?’ »
Renewing his pledges to address issues in the North, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the Government will set up a mechanism to increase investment in the Northern Province to improve living standards in area and support communities still struggling to overcome the impact of the conflict. The Prime Minister expressed these views during a …
The UN Core Group on Sri Lanka yesterday called on Sri Lanka to ensure that the country’s democratic space remains open and accountable, and called for detentions and arrests to follow due process and be compliant with international norms and universal rights. UK International Ambassador for Human Rights Rita French delivered this statement on behalf …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka The regime’s promises and claims of “putting professional expertise first” is belied by the fact that having placed ex-military brass is in charge of everything from archaeology to agriculture, not to mention virtue—matters in which they have no particular expertise—President Gotabaya Rajapaksa delivered a parade-ground dressing down on prime time TV to …
By S.Ratnajeevan H. Hoole Our main job on the Election Commission is to uphold election laws and conduct free and fair elections. Of necessity, this involves interdicting election law violations, usually by powerful politicians. Politicians promote the fiction that when they violate the law, we must not name them; that naming them is to violate …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka Birth Centenary of “Comrade Shan On July 3rd A political personality must be judged against the backdrop of his/her own time but also viewed with the benefit of hindsight so as to ascertain the more lasting relevance of his/her effort. So it is with Nagalingam Sanmugathasan, better known as N. Sanmugathasan and …
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday urged Sri Lankans not to get distracted by minor issues overblown by the opposition like Karuna Amman’s campaign claim that he killed thousands of soldiers in one night at Elephant Pass, but to have the broader picture in mind when it cause to politics. “If we are able to distinguish …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene Governance in Sri Lanka today is transitioning from a constitutional (albeit flawed) system of checks and balances to tugs of war between competing political power centres that are constrained not by the Constitution or statute but by the sheer praxis of force. In that unseemly struggle over which looms the spectre …
By Lucien Rajakarunanayake The restrictions of Covid-19 have not removed the enthusiasm of the General Election, with statements by non-leader candidates drawing more attention than huge crowds at meetings or the distribution of goodies among voters. Karuna Amman and Harin Fernando are the main players in the current political drama. The Elections Commission has controlled …
By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya Former minister Mangala Samaraweera’s decision not to contest the upcoming parliamentary election, despite his name being on the candidates list, is unlikely to have been an arbitrary one. Samaraweera is not the type of politician to fade into oblivion simply based on the chance that he may lose. An advocate of far-reaching …
by C.A. Chandraprema An issue that this writer has been highlighting in this newspaper from time to time for the past several years has now finally come home to roost and how! Today it has become a national issue affecting the candidates of all political parties in the country. This Parliamentary election will have to …
by Prof. Savitri Goonesekere During the last few weeks, the media has paid a great deal of attention to fundamental rights cases filed in our Supreme Court. The electronic media, typically expressed half-truths or incorrect information on what these cases were about. Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, opposition parties who should have been concerned with …
Milinda Moragoda, Founder of the Pathfinder Foundation and former Cabinet Minister, called on political parties to clearly state their positions on the Provincial Council system in their policy platforms for the forthcoming general elections. He urges parties to consider repealing the 13th Amendment, thereby abolishing the Provincial Council system. Moragoda reiterated his earlier proposal that …
Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayaka said in open court that officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had attempted to show photographs of Hejaaz Hizbullah at his chambers prior to the recording of statements from two children. When the matter was taken up before Dissanayake on 24 June, he told Hizbullah’s lawyers that prior to the …
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka It was hardly a textbook example of the “correct handling of contradictions” (Mao). Future historians may conclude that the achievable dream of the 21st century as an Asian Age in a multipolar world order, died in mid-June 2020 in the Himalayas, in the Galwan valley in Ladakh. The ferocious and lamentable …
(Text of a Media Communique Released by the Human Rights Watch of a Joint Statement Issued by the Amnesty International,Committee to Protect Journalists, Front Line Defenders. Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders on behalf of Beleaguered Sri Lankan Senior Journalist Dharisha Bastians) The Sri Lankan authorities should stop targeting, intimidating, and harassing journalist and …
By Krishantha Prasad Cooray “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You can take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”_ — Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela was a rare leader. It would be hard …
By Meera Srinivasan As investigators in Sri Lanka move into the “final stages” of the probe into the April 2019 Easter terror bombings, concerns over apparent lack of adherence to due process have risen from several quarters. Sri Lanka police recently said they are about to conclude investigations of the deadly serial bombings that claimed …
Sri Lanka’s ex-Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera has come out to defend the central bank after it was slammed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for inaction saying a credit guarantee scheme is needed to help move loans. Ironically Samaraweera’s economic program was hit by monetary instability in 2018 triggered by pro-cyclical rate cuts and liquidity injections which …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene If President Gotabaya Rajapaksa can be so bold as to set up institutions running parallel to constitutional bodies situated in his Presidential Secretariat, the consequential question arises as to what need is there of a Constitution for Sri Lanka? Duplication of constitutional institutions This query becomes pertinent in regard to the …
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham COVID-19, the pandemic that is claiming lives all over the world, has thrown global politics into disarray, crafting a new normal in which nothing will be the way it was. Political scholars are writing extensively on the challenges that will characterize the post-pandemic world order. This is the time for international cooperation …
By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s probe into the April 2019 Easter terror bombings is in its “final stages”, authorities have said, while raising suspicion that the suicide bombers were funded by “two foreign outfits”. The Colombo Crime Division, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID), who are investigating the attacks of last …
By Dr.Sarath Amunugama I thought of writing this note as I am one of the few survivors from the halcyon days of the nineteen seventies when Father Ernest Poruthota nurtured a small group of young middle class urbanites who were breaking into the hitherto exclusive preserves of Sinhala theatre and film. Many of these young …
Continue reading ‘Father Ernest Poruthota Was the Patron Saint of Sinhala Theatre and Film.’ »
by R. B. Wijesinha (Jnr.) Had Bertie Wijesinha been alive on May 24, he would have been 100 years old. Sadly, he fell just short of his century. This year is also the 25th anniversary of the passing of his great friend, teammate and fellow commentator, Lucien de Zoysa. Four years older than Bertie, their …
by C. A. Chandraprema If Sri Lanka’s own experience is anything to go by, the chaos reigning on the streets of the USA should ensure the re-election of President Donald Trump at the presidential elections later this year. In 1988, Prime Minister R. Premadasa’s victory at the presidential elections of that year was more or …
The National People’s Power (NPP) yesterday, expressed grave concern regarding the appointment of a series of Presidential Task Forces (PTFs) by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in recent times. Issuing a press release the NPP stated that PTFs posed a significant threat to democracy in Sri Lanka and pledged to resist such attempts to bypass mandated, established …
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has in a speech called on all candidates to be mindful of the election related guidelines issued by the health authorities and also to conduct an environmentally friendly and exemplary election campaign. The following is the text of the PM’s speech: After the Presidential election of 16 November 2019, we will …
By Victor Ivan The decision reached by Mangala Samaraweera who is considered a colourful, controversial, daring and creative political figure in the old or the traditional political landscape of Sri Lanka, which is currently on the verge of decay and death, to abandon the course of traditional politics and choose to tread on an alternative …
By Keith Jones The most serious border clash between Indian and Chinese troops since the two countries fought a brief border war in 1962 has reportedly resulted in dozens of fatalities. Fighting erupted Monday night in the Galwan Valley, one of at least four places along the disputed Sino-Indian border where troops have been arrayed …
By Meera Srinivasan Forced to shift to online platforms due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sri Lankan educators fear that the uneven access to gadgets and internet connection among students might bring new divides in the country’s free education system. Ever since Sri Lanka reported its first local case of COVID-19 on March 10, public health …
Ahimsa Wickrematunge, the daughter of late journalist and Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, has appealed to the Police Commission to block the appointment of SSP A.R.P.J. Alwis as Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Wickrematunge releasing a statement said that Alwis was ordered to be arrested in connection to her father’s murder and he was unsuited …
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka “Can you gather grapes from thorns or pick figs from thistles?” – Matthew 7:16-20 Tamil politics is devoid of a strategic calculus. While the recent welcome offers to the Prime Minister and the President (in that chronological order) of conditional cooperation by the TNA leader Sampanthan followed by its rising star …
(Text of a letter sent by TNA leader and former Trincomalee District MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the Estabishment of a Presidential Task Force for Archeological Heritage Management in the EASTERN PROVINCE) 15th June 2020 R. SAMPANTHAN LEADER TAMIL NATIONAL ALLIANCE PRESIDENT GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA President Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, Presidential …
By Asiri Fernando The role of the Presidential Task Forces (PTFs) has been misinterpreted by some and there is no provision to bring public officials under the control of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), said Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne. The statement by the Secretary to the MOD comes in the wake …
By T. Farook Thajudeen and Yoshitha Perera The Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne today directed the CID to obtain a report from the Government Analyst on the laptop belonging to journalist Dharisha Bastains had been Tampered The laptop is currently in the custody of the CID in connection with the investigation into the alleged abduction …
By Meera Srinivasan A Sri Lankan journalist attached to the The New York Times has said police recently raided her home and seized her laptop, in connection with the alleged abduction of a Swiss Embassy staffer in Colombo last November. On Monday, Dharisha Bastians, a correspondent for The New York Times and a former editor …
CID officers have searched the Colombo residence of career journalist and former Editor of the State-owned Sunday Observer, Dharisha Bastians, and taken away her computer last week. Bastians, who was forced to leave the country after the change in Government, after her name was dragged into an investigation Involving the alleged abduction of an employee …
by Jehan Perera The signs of elections, and the short term changes that they bring, are upon us today. Posters of candidates are coming up with their party symbols, preference numbers and their vote-catching mottos. Although this is only a caretaker government and hence restricted in its ability to spend state funds and make far …
Continue reading ‘Reliance on military for civil tasks may be popular at this time But unwise’ »
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene To those who scoffed that the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Presidency would not come in with a sweepingly heavy hand after the first few months of sweetness and charm, this frightening moment of the iron hand in the iron glove that Sri Lanka is experiencing at its onset must surely teach otherwise. The …
By Nigel Hatch PC The five Judge Bench of the Supreme Court by its decision on June 2, 2020 speaking through its majority rejected the preliminary objections raised by the Respondents to the maintainability of the several Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions challenging the legality of the presidential proclamation of March 2 dissolving Parliament. A Petition …
Continue reading ‘The Fundamental Rights Petitions Relating to The General Elections’ »
by C.A.Chandraprema The long awaited date of the parliamentary election has been announced and the beleaguered Elections Commission has been able to somewhat vindicate itself. The August 5 date is not too far off nor too close for more accusations to be hurled at the EC. Up to the time of writing, we have not …
Continue reading ‘Political Implications of Elections System Mechanics’ »
(Text of Media Release Issued by the “Friday Forum”on June 11th 2020 Under the Heading ” The Rule of Law and Democratic Governance”) At the Annual National law Conference 2020 organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapakse in the course of his address said, “The time has come for all …
By Lucien Rajakarunanayake How did Sri Lanka get so distant from global realities, so soon? Why is a protest near an embassy of the United States a matter for such concern for the Police to even obtain a court order against, when the whole democratic world is carrying on such protests? One may not be …
By Dr.Radhika Coomaraswamy In the first few days, as America burned, the world looked on amazed and bewildered, wondering what this would mean for the immediate and long-term future. As the protests settled down and drew larger crowds with an overwhelming number of young people, one began to think of other movements in Hong Kong, …
by Dayan Jayatilleka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed a Task Force of the heavy mob, which will press its collective knee into the neck of the new, socially legitimate Parliament that will arise thanks to the Supreme Court judgment which cleared the way for the Election Commission to name a date for voting. Lankans live at …