By Kelum Bandara Amid speculation of a Cabinet reshuffle, UNP sources said yesterday party leader and Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe had informed President Maithripala Sirisena and former president Chandrika Kumaratunga that the portfolios assigned to the UNP should not be changed. In such a scenario, any reshuffle, will only apply to portfolios held by Sri …
The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tami-majority Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, has said that the time is not far off when the Tamils will ask the Sri Lankan army, navy and air force, to quit the province. Addressing the public gathered in Mulliwaikkal in the Northern Province on Thursday to commemorate the “genocide” which took place …
Minister of National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages Mano Ganesan has posted the following tweets on his twitter about his “Meeting” with Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Mano Ganesan has tweeted as follows about his meeting with Ven Gnanasara Thero- @BBS chief @gnanasaraven walked into my ministry impatiently & noisy …
Town Hall and Viharamahadevi Park turned into a mini-battlefield yesterday when the police attempted to prevent the Inter-University Students’ Federation protest approaching the University Grants Commission, with over 21 students admitted to hospital and another 10 arrested following the clash. The IUSF was protesting the Government’s inaction on their demand to take the controversial private …
By S.S. Selvanayagam The Supreme Court yesterday (17) re-fixed for support on 12 July the petition filed by retired Army Officer and former Southern Provincial Councillor Ajith Prasanna challenging the appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as a Member of Parliament. The bench comprised Chief Justice Priyasath Dep and Justices Sisira J. De Abrew and …
By Shamindra Ferdinando Two rebel SLFP/UPFA North Central Provincial Councillors who switched their allegiance to President Maithripala Sirisena have been appointed ministers. Sarath Illangasinghe and Sampath Sri Nilantha have succeeded H. B. Semasinghe and R. M. P. B. Ratnayake. SLFP sources told The Island new appointments were meant to strengthen the group loyal to President …
By Bandula Jayasekara (Ernest Corea, one of Sri Lanka’s most distinguished journalists and diplomats, died on May 11, 2017 after a long illness) On December 13, 2005 the highly respected former Editor in Chief of The Ceylon Daily News (1966- 1970) and a former High Commissioner to Ottawa and former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Washington …
Continue reading ‘Ernest Corea – Editor, Diplomat par Excellence – A Humble Tribute’ »
By Shamindra Ferdinando Indian Premier Narendra Modi declared in Colombo on Friday (May 12) that the biggest challenge to sustainable world peace today might not be necessarily from conflict between the nation states. Addressing international Vesak Day celebrations, at the BMICH, Modi asserted: “It is from the mindsets, thought streams, entities and instruments rooted in …
Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s Security Concerns and Interests are Different of that of India’ »
By P.K.Balachandran India appears to be in the process of re-shaping and re-orienting its policy on the Sri Lankan ethnic question once again. This was evident during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to Sri Lanka from May 11 to 12, Modi found time for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a group …
by Shamindra Ferdinando One of the rebel SLFP North Central Provincial Councillors, Susil Gunaratne, has switched his allegiance to President Maithripala Sirisena within hours of signing an affidavit requesting the immediate removal of Chief Minister S. M. Peshala Jayaratne Bandara, a staunch Sirisena loyalist. The rebel group comprising 17 members loyal to former President Mahinda …
By Professor Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka (Emeritus Professor ( University of Peradeniya ) It is to be hoped that the government will treat Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith’s recent call for retrogressive anti conversion legislation with the contempt it deserves. It is a foolish and dangerous attempt to revive a defunct proposal that was thankfully shelved some years …
By Ayesha Zuhair It was a rousing welcome befitting a celebrity. Tamils of recent Indian origin lined the streets of Dickoya in Sri Lanka’s central hills on Friday (12 May) to catch a glimpse of that Indian tea boy who rose to become the Prime Minister of ‘Mother India’ to almost all of them. ption, …
Continue reading ‘Narendra Modi’s Hill Country Visit Brings Joy to Tamils of Recent Indian Origin’ »
By P.K.Balachandran By spurning China’s invitation to be part of the multi-billion dollar, multi-continental One Belt One Road (OBOR) project on an issue of “sovereignty” India has completely isolated itself from Asia, and even its immediate neighborhood, South Asia, over which it claims exclusive influenceAll countries of South Asia, except India’s fiefdom of Bhutan, attended …
By Rathindra Kuruwita Last week has been eventful. And I was conflicted on whether to write about the Sri Lankan visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, more specifically his attitude and signalling during his visit to Dickoya, home to a large concentration of Indian origin Tamils or about China’s One Belt – One Road …
By Ranga Jayasuriya During the last weekend, President Xi Jinping unveiled his pet project, presented in a rather confusing jargon, ‘One Belt One Road’, in Beijing. The next door communist neighbour, North Korea in a quirky brotherly fashion greeted the guests with fireworks. Test firing a missile, which it boasted as capable of carrying a …
By Shamindra Ferdinando North Central Governor P. B. Dissanayake yesterday declined a request by a group of provincial Councillors loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to replace Chief Minister of the North Central Province S.M. Peshala Jayaratne Bandara with S.M. Ranjith. Of the 22 member UPFA group, 17 have backed the rebel move. The UPFA-run …
By Chitra Weerarathne A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court yesterday by a majority decision granted leave to appeal with the Application of Appeal filed by Geetha Kumarasinghe against the Court of Appeal judgement of Jan. 31, 2017. The Supreme Court extended the interim relief granted earlier in favour of the appellant Kumarasinghe. The interim …
BY DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA As the Indian TV station WION’s program ‘Gravitas’ correctly reported, “Modi Reshapes Sri Lanka Policy”. What a reshaping it was and what a shape it has now taken! It has to be analyzed in all its dimensions and implications. Though my old teacher of international relations, Prof Shelton Kodikara, would surely …
By Dr. A.S.Chandrabose (Dr. A. S. Chandrabose is a Senior Lecturer in Social Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka) Introduction However, housing crisis (comprising backlogs, evictions, removals and inadequate housing, amongst others) is still a reality in the country. South Africa is still faced with a “critical nationwide housing backlog.” 5 In June …
Continue reading ‘House Ownership for Plantation Workers in Sri Lanka’ »
BY Suhasini Haidar For the past four decades, terrorism has been an important factor in India’s foreign policy. Long before the 9/11 attacks spurred the United States into announcing a “global war on terror”, India was fighting its own battles: in Kashmir and Punjab, and with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam both internally, as …
By the “Sunday Times ” Political Editor President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe decided on Friday night that the much-talked-of Cabinet reshuffle will take place upon the latter’s return from China. The meeting came just ahead of the Premier travelling to the airport to board a Singapore-bound flight en route to Beijing. President …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene Only the naïve would believe the rosily repeated plea by the European Union (EU) that ‘the implementation of twenty seven international conventions is the only criterion for regaining’ the GSP Plus trade facility for Sri Lanka. Posing infinitely greater harm Repetition does not make what is false, true though this is …
In his speech welcoming the Indian Prime Minister, Minister of National Co-existence, Dialogue and Official Languages, Mano Ganeshan stated that the people assembled to hear him speak were the most recent segment of people to arrive from India in the 1800s. “But our loyalty to our Motherland Sri Lanka, is not a divided loyalty,” he …
By Namini Wijedasa “India beats in your hearts,” visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared to jubilant Sri Lankans at the Norwood grounds on Friday, moments after declaring open a multi-specialty hospital in Dickoya built with Indian funds. Alluding to them as “Indian-origin diaspora”, Mr Modi told the estimated 30,000-strong crowd that their progress was India’s …
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of his humble beginnings as a tea boy (Chai Boy) when he addressed tens of thousands of tea plantation workers of recent Indian origin at Norwood in the Nuwara Eliya district Friday. Becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the tea growing central region of Sri Lanka, Modi …
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal unseating Geetha Kumarasinghe could lead to a major shift in the balance of power with the United People’s Freedom Alliance possibly losing at least 11 seats in the 225-member parliament. The May 3 decision of the court held that Kumarasinghe, a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and Switzerland, was unqualified …
By P.K.Balachandran The visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday played the “ancient Buddhist link” card with aplomb in a bid to give a firm historical and cultural foundation to his plea that Sri Lanka should accept India as a reliable development partner, Glorifying the teachings of the Buddha and pointing out their relevance …
By DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Prime Minister Modi’s two day visit to Sri Lanka was supposed to be non-political. Yet, in his address to the International Vesak Conference at the BMICH, he laid out the Modi doctrine for Indo-Lankan relations and more especially for Sri Lanka. His message was hardly non-political, or purely cultural and civilizational, …
By P.K.Balachandran After having run into difficulties with the Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East over issues of devolution of power, alleged human rights violations during Eelam War IV, and post-war economic development, the government of India is now turning its attention away from the North-East Tamils to the Tamils of Indian Origin …
In a “very friendly and cordial” half an hour’s meeting here late on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa completely skipped politics and spoke about forging close economic relations between the two countries, a well-placed source said. Contrary expectations, Rajapaksa did not voice any concerns about the recent …
On May 1, while thousands gathered at Sri Lanka’s Galle Face Green, to attend the May Day rally organised by forces loyal to Mahinda Rajapakse, one of the former President’s closes aides made a controversial call. He took to the microphone and urged the public to raise black flags when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi …
Claiming India’s commitment to Sri Lanka’s economic prosperity, visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday stressed that whether it was on land or in the waters of the Indian Ocean, the security of India and Sri Lanka was indivisible. Modi declared that his conversations with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had reinforced India’s …
by A Special Correspondent Galle district parliamentarian Geetha Kumarasinghe was recently declared to be disqualified from being a member of parliament by the Court of Appeal on the basis of a provision introduced to the Constitution via the 19th Amendment, disqualifying dual citizens from becoming MPs. This provision was tagged on to Article 91, which …
By Mahinda P. LiyanageGalle Southern Provincial Councilor Jayantha Jayaweera told the media that he was going to initiate legal action in the Court of Appeal challenging the legal validity of the entire list of candidates who contested the 2015 Parliamentary election under the United People’s Freedom Alliance ticket inconsideration of the legal postulations following the …
By Lakmal Sooriyagoda The Supreme Court today issued an Interim Order until May 15, staying the operation of the judgment made by Court of Appeal which declared that Geetha Kumarasinghe disqualified as Member of Parliament and thus not entitled to hold this office. However, President’s Counsel J.C. Weliamuna appearing on behalf of two Galle district …
By Philip Fernando Ernest Corea, one of Sri Lanka’s distinguished newspaper editors and accomplished diplomats passed away yesterday in USA after a long bout with diabetes. He was editor of The Daily News and Sunday Observer and later headed the embassies in Canada and USA. He was awarded the Deshabandu Class 1 National Day honour …
Continue reading ‘Ernest Corea, Distinguished Editor and Esteemed Diplomat Passed Away’ »
The European Union has formally restored the GSP+ concessions to Sri Lanka seven years after key beneficiary access to the country’s biggest export market was suspended. The Government’s Information Department said last night that the European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Council had approved GSP plus for Sri Lanka. The Department said the EU approval completes …
Sri Lanka has rejected China’s request to dock one of its submarines in Colombo this month, given “India’s concerns,” said a government official. Sri Lanka last allowed a Chinese submarine to dock in the capital of Colombo in October 2014, a move that triggered fierce opposition from its northern neighbour India, which worries about growing …
In an unscheduled, late night meeting, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Thursday May 11th 2017 The meeting was at the ex-president’s request, Indian High Commisioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu told reporters here. The meeting comes ten days after a parliamentarian close to Mr. …
By Meera Srinivasan Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Colombo on Thursday evening on a two-day visit to participate in the UN Vesak Day celebrations, amid elaborate security arrangements. While New Delhi and Colombo have termed the visit as primarily a “religious” engagement, while emphasising that no agreements will be signed, Prime Minister Modi on …
By Shamindra Ferdinando The Joint Opposition on Tuesday (May 9) strongly denied that it had purposely voted for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, knowing that the Rajapaksa brothers, Basil and Gotabhaya would be debarred from contesting future elections. The 19th Amendment debarred Sri Lankans holding dual citizenship from contesting polls. Parliament adopted the new …
By P.K.Balachandran On his first visit to Sri Lanka in March 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a South Asian icon to be looked up to and emulated. His rise from being a humble tea boy to be the Prime Minister of a gigantic country like India, was the stuff of dreams and a …
by Shamindra Ferdinando The Joint Opposition yesterday accused Parliament of depriving actress turned UPFA MP Geetha Kumarasinghe of her Galle District parliamentary seat at the behest of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. The JO flayed the government and the parliament for acting hurriedly to oust an elected MP loyal to former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda …
By Annie Gowen Members of a Hindu far-right organization called Arogya Bharati say they are working with expectant couples in the country to produce “customized” babies, who, they hope, will be taller, fairer and smarter than other babies, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper. The group’s health officials claimed that their program …
By Thilanka Kanakarathna Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and the Secretary General of Parliament had been forced to annul the MP post of Geetha Kumarasinghe, the Joint Opposition yesterday alleged. Addressing a press briefing, MP Wasudeva Nanayakkara said the JO has no doubt that Ms. Kumarasinghe’s removal was a result of a political revenge and alleged that …
by Chitra Weerarathne UPFA Parliamentarian for Galle district Geetha Kumarasinghe, yesterday, filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against a recent Court of Appeal judgement, which disqualified her from holding office as a Member of Parliament on the grounds that she was a dual citizen at the time of handing over nominations. Some residents of …
By Chaturanga Pradeep UPFA General Secretary and Minister, Mahinda Amaraweera said today he would nominate former minister Piyasena Gamage to fill the vacancy created by former MP Geetha Kumarasinghe being disqualified. He said this while responding to a question asked by a journalist at the weekly Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) media briefing.
Secretary-General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake has informed the Chairman of the Election Commission that the MP post of UPFA Galle district Parliamentarian Geetha Kumarasinghe has been annulled in line with the Court of Appeal verdict. The Court of Appeal on Wednesday (3) ruled that Ms. Kumarasinghe was disqualified to be a Member of Parliament on …
By Shamindra Ferdinando Following the Court of Appeal disqualifying UPFA MP Geetha Kumarasinghe to be a member of parliament due to her dual citizenship the Joint Opposition member Udaya Gammanpila has requested Controller of Immigration and Emigration to name all those MPs with dual citizenship. UPFA MP and Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Gammanpila has sought …
By Meera Srinivasan It is not just New Delhi or Washington that is worried about Colombo’s proposed deal to sell a deep-sea port in Hambantota to a Chinese company. Sri Lanka’s port authority has “fundamental concerns” over the proposed deal, its Chairman Dammika Ranatunga said. While the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) appreciates the importance …
By Aruni Mallawaarachchi Joint Opposition MP Geetha Kumarasinghe says defeated politician Piyasena Gamage wants to pull her down. “He was behind all this. He is waiting eagerly to occupy my seat in Parliament,” she said. Excerpts: Q: What will happen next? A: I am waiting until I am delivered justice. I am a strong woman. …
Former Army Major – General Kamal Gunaratne is under investigation over the murder of an employee at the Sri Lankan embassy in Brazil, foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera told parliament today.Gunaratne, who was sent to Brazil as deputy ambassador by then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, murdered an embassy employee Nimal Rupasinghe with the support of two …
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera revealed that the Island nations’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s spouse Shiranthi Rajapaksa, had spent Euros amounting to 25 million Sri Lankan rupees to watch Vesak from the Presidential Suite of the King George V hotel in Paris and for a quick luxury limousine ride to Lourdes for a Catholic …
The Court of Appeal yesterday issued summons on the President of the Government Medical Officers’ Association Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya to appear before the court on May 22 and show cause as to why he should not be punished for contempt of the Court of Appeal for having caused an affront to the dignity of the …
The president of Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya while leading an Island wide Govt doctors strike that affected the treatment of patients in the Island has been minting money by engaging in channelled practice seeing patients at a private hospital while the strike was on. While numerous people from the poorer sections …
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is “deeply concerned over Cabinet approval for a policy and legal framework relating to the proposed Counter-Terrorism Act”. The TNA says “We have not been consulted on the terms of the draft framework, which has recently appeared in the press and appears to be a Cabinet memorandum approved on 25th …
Popular actress and Galle district MP Geetha Kumarasinghe said yesterday that she would file a case in the Supreme Court against the Appeal Court’s ruling which deprived her from her seat in Parliament. The Court of Appeal yesterday (May 3 2017) ruled that Galle District UPFA Parliamentarian Geetha Kumarasinghe was not entitled to hold the …
By B. Anton Jeyanathan (The writer is a retired Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Police.) The 5th of April dawned and passed without much concern or notice by the majority of the present generation who were born after the 1970′s and 1980′s, as they never experienced the atrocities committed by members of the JVP …
Veteran Tamil film actor Vinu Chakravarthy, who regaled fans with his commanding screen presence in over 1,000 films, including Annamalai and Guru Sishyan, breathed his last on April 27th 2017 evening around 7 pm. He was 71. He was ailing for the past few years. Besides being diabetic, he had high blood pressure. Vinu Chakravarthy …
BY GAGANI WEERAKOON President Maithripala Sirisena appeared to have stirred the hornets’ nest by suggesting a top military post to Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka who is also a Cabinet minister in Maithri-Ranil Unity Government of Yahalapanaya. While factual clarity of this ‘suggestion’ remain unconfirmed with various members of the same Cabinet issuing contradictory remarks, it …
By Paneetha Ameresekere Three things came out of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India last week. Those were India’s concerns over the leasing out of the Hambantota Port to the Chinese in a debt swap, India’s interest in the Trincomalee oil tank farm to counter the Chinese threat and Wickremesinghe’s keenness in getting Indian aid …
By “Sunday Times”Diplomatic Editor Some say India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi neatly cajoled his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe into swinging by New Delhi, making what was to be a private visit to attend a wedding into a one-day ‘working visit’– and then got him entrapped to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Others rubbish …
BY DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA While the Ramayana narrative makes clear that a land link between India and Lanka was of decisive and devastating strategic consequence for the island of Lanka, the Romans and the British made it clear that the building of roadways was an essential part of annexation and empire building. What is true …
In what seemed an otherwise bhai-bhai friendship between the two countries, the sour point was the nagging, continuing issue of poaching in Sri Lankan waters by southern Indian fishermen. The crisis is causing an estimated Rs. Five billion loss annually to Sri Lanka. Premier Modi said on March 13, 2015, addressing Sri Lanka’s Parliament: “The …
If Sri Lankans are wondering how many times Sri Lanka has won approval for a renewed duty concession to the markets of the European Union (EU) under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus, they may be excused. This week, there was another huge hurrah for having defeated the EU parliamentary vote on a resolution …
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene In the chaotic merry-go-round characterizing the drafting of Sri Lanka’s proposed Counter-Terror Act (CTA), the periodic surfacing of one version followed by another has given rise to unexpected horrors. Each time that a new draft emerges or should I rather say, is ‘extracted’ with great pain out of a process gripped …
By Namini Wijedasa The Counter Terrorism Act policy framework approved by the Cabinet this week has reintroduced offences originally listed under “espionage”– whilst merely removing the word “espionage” from the document. As such, the draft makes it an offence to voluntarily engage in any illegal, unlawful or unauthorised act for the purpose of gathering any …
Continue reading ‘New Counter Terrorism Law Undermines Right To Information Law’ »
By Kasun Warakapitiya Foreign workers, both with and without work visas, are arriving in Sri Lanka with the country facing an acute labour shortage, a cabinet minister said yesterday. Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka told the Sunday Times that an estimated 200,000 strong foreign labour force was in Sri Lanka. He said …
By Namini Wijedasa Cabinet approval on a Resettlement Ministry paper to award 6,000 prefabricated houses to the war-affected of the North and East, was held up this week, after President Maithripala Sirisena sought further clarification. Resettlement Minister D.M. Swaminathan has been promoting the initiative of steel giant ArcelorMittal since 2015. Its logistics partner is Kumarca …
by Rajan Philips “My legs have carried me for 90 years. Now they have earned their well-deserved rest”, he would tell his visitors at the Jesuit House in Akkara Panaha, Negombo, where he spent the last years of his life confined to his bed and a wheel chair. Now his entire mortal coil has earned …
By P.K.Balachandran India and Sri Lanka have arrived at a compromise on the sensitive and problematic issue of the Trincomalee oil tanks, with both sides climbing down from their earlier positions but gaining some ground at the same time. As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation of Economic Projects signed in New Delhi …
By Gerard D.Muttucumaru What though the spicy breezesBlow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle; Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile – Anglican Bishop Reginald Heber The British gave us a nation that was respected regionally and globally. In an earlier article, I stated that the leading companies in Sri Lanka today bear British names …
Continue reading ‘What Has Happened to Ceylon and to the Ceylonese?’ »
by Emily Jane Fox A group of young boys on bicycles stopped in their tracks outside of a pizza shop as Ivanka Trump drove by in a tan S.U.V., in the middle of a flashing motorcade on her trip to Germany in her new role. Throngs of police officers and Secret Service officers wove through …
By P.K.Balachandran To make up for lost time and avoid delays in the execution of joint projects, India and Sri Lanka have agreed on a tight time table in respect of each of the projects mentioned in the MoU signed in New Delhi on April 25 in the presence of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and …
By K. Ratnayake Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has called upon Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to resign from the government’s ministry and return to the position of army commander. In a bid to “discipline the country,” Fonseka would be head of the country’s three armed forces for two years. Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne announced the …
By Charumini de Silva The Government yesterday expressed confidence that the country will regain the GSP plus trade concession by 15 May and called on the business community to make this a ‘turning point’ in the economy to increase the country’s exports to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio over 100%. “Sri Lanka overcame the biggest …
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday listed a litany of wrongs that President Maithripala Sirisena had committed against the party since becoming its leader and vowed to give leadership to the opposition forces to defeat the ineffective government. He also openly defied the threats made by the SLFP’s current leadership and urged everyone to attend the …
By Ryan Gilbey Robert Jonathan Demme, film director, born 22 February 1944; died 26 April 2017 Jonathan Demme, who has died aged 73 from complications from cancer, rose from his colourful if tawdry beginnings under the aegis of the exploitation maestro Roger Corman to become one of the most eclectic, delightful and original film-makers in …
By Sudha G Tilak. Vinod Khanna, who has died aged 70, belonged to the second wave of Punjabi heroes who ruled Bollywood – known as “Partition Punjabis”. His family hailed from Peshawar in Pakistan and had moved to India in 1947 when the country was divided. The heroes on screen then were all swashbuckling heroes …
By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s north and east shut down on Thursday following a hartal call by protesters demanding an answer from the government to questions about their missing relatives. Shops remained closed all day and transport services were minimal, media reports said. Over the last few months, families have been protesting in different places …
The main left front of the Joint Opposition (JO), the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL), indicated a break with the JO and that they will conduct a separate May Day rally and meeting at the Viharamahadevi Open Air theater on May Day instead of participating in the May Day rally of the JO, which …
By Dr.Rajitha Senaratne (POWER SHARING IN SRI LANKA -S.J.V. Chelvanayagam Memorial lecture– delivered by Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine on 26thApril 2017) When we were political cubs, we knew of Chelvanayagam as one who was the “father” figure of Tamil Nationalism.He was one Tamil political leader who was affectionately called “Thanthai” …
President Maithripala Sirisena today appointed 25 senior lawyers including TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, J. C. Weliamuna, Upul Jayasuriya and Nizam Kariapper as President’s Counsel. A statement from the President’s office said these lawyers were appointed in recognition of their professional integrity and diligence.
By Shamindra Ferdinando Former Ceylon Bank Employees Union President and civil society activist Rusiripala Tennakoon yesterday urged the ruling Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition and the Joint Opposition to state their position on alleged moves to impose a staggering 28 per cent tax on Employees Provident Fund (EPF). Pointing out that the JVP, which had worked overtime to …
In the wake of a crippling petroleum strike and a wave of protests against the Government, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne made a shock announcement yesterday that President Maithripala Sirisena had requested wartime army chief Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka to take over the military as commander or Chief of Defence Staff in order to bring …
By Paneetha Ameresekere reporting from New Delhi China ranked high in Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s meeting with Indian Premier Narendra Modi, at Hyderabad House, New Delhi yesterday, official sources who didn’t want to be named told this reporter. Reporters were not allowed to cover these meetings, with opportunities provided only for the taking of photographs and …
By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka “New Silk Road or New Great Game? India Developing New Sri Lanka Port to Combat China” (Wayne Shepard, Forbes, April 21, 2017) “Will they leave?” was the urgent question President Premadasa posed to me after having kept me behind as Varadarajah Perumal and the others left the meeting at Sucharitha in January …
Continue reading ‘Why is Prime Minister Wickremesinghe About to Give Away Trincomalee to India?’ »
Cabinet Co-spokesperson Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said today there was the possibility that Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka would be appointed to a post that would allow him to oversee all of the defense establishments in the country. While the Cabinet Co-spokesperson declined to offer more details on the powers the post would be vested with, he …
By P.K.Balachandran India and Sri Lanka on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “Cooperation in Economic Projects” during the on-going visit of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to India. The MoU envisages joint ventures in several areas of development. Wickremesinghe and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, welcomed the signing of the …
Sri Lanka’s cabinet, on Wednesday granted approval to hand over some elephants from an elephant orphanage in the Central Hills of Pinnawala, to individuals and religious places under definite conditions. The Government Information Department said the maintenance of the present number of 88 elephants in a restricted land area of 30 acres at Pinnawala had …
By Ajith Siriwardana Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne said today the President Maithripala Sirisena requested Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to quit the ministerial portfolio and take up the post of army commander or overall commander for two years to discipline the country. He told the weekly Cabinet briefing that Field Marshal Fonseka was known …
By Ananth Palakidnar Several hundred rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres, both men and women, presently serving in the Civil Security Department (CSD), staged a demonstration yesterday against the handing over of Army-managed agricultural farms and pre-schools to the Northern Provincial Council. The procession of ex-LTTE cadres, which commenced at the Kilinochchi Depot junction, on the A-9 highway, …
by Nirupama Subramanian When the visiting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a working lunch on Wednesday, an agreement for the development of the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm will be the hottest dish on the table. Sri Lankan and Indian government sources said the two sides will finalise an …
BY Suhasini Haidar & Meera Srinivasan Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday for official meetings expected to finalise an MoU on developing energy and infrastructure projects in Trincomalee, as well as fast-tracking negotiations for the upgraded Free Trade Agreement —the ETCA (Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement) — both of …
By Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA The victory in Round One of the French elections and his highly probable election as the new President of France on May 7th, of Emmanuel Macron, the young outsider with a neo-Centrist or ‘Alt-Centrist’ stance, underscores that the global trend goes against conventional, traditional, established Governments and Oppositions, and favors unorthodox, …
By P.K.Balachandran Agitations against major Indian and Chinese projects in Sri Lanka, trigged by a fear of domination by these powers, may adversely affect the investment climate in the island and reduce the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) at a time when Sri Lanka desperately needs FDI to tide over a severe resource crunch. …
By Ranga Jayasuriya The government is reportedly considering bringing garbage disposal under a centralized authority and to legislate a law on garbage recycling. In the meantime, untended rubbish is piling up by the road side. Garbage is not funny business. A year or so back when rubbish piles heaped up in Beirut, the capital of …
By Tejshree Thapa (The writer is a senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.) The refrain I heard over and over again, travelling through Sri Lanka’s southern Sinhala belt, was this: “Politicians rise on the bodies of our dead children.” Parent after parent, across political divides, repeated this phrase. Politicians, they said, promise justice and …
By Frances Bulathsinghala Concealed from privileged city dwellers, tucked away from posh tourist resorts and invisible to policy makers are the rubbish dumps in the cities of South Asia. But the thick wall of apathy cracked on April 14 when a 300 ft high mountain of garbage, allowed to build up for years in the …
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) trade unionists last night decided to call off their strike which had crippled fuel distribution throughout the country. Their decision to abandon trade union action came following an assurance given by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he would not enter into an agreement with India on the Trincomalee Oil Tank …
By Norman Palihawadane Health Minister and Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne yesterday said that the government had the power to dump garbage at any location found suitable for the purpose and none could oppose that action. Commenting on Colombo Bishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith’s warning to the government not to use police and security forces against the …
by Norman Palihawadane Bishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has said it will be counterproductive for a government to use police and military personnel to force the public to allow the dumping of garbage in their environs, he said.
By P.K.Balachandran A scientific study of garbage disposal in Colombo done by EML Consultants Pivate Ltd.,for the Central Environment Authority (CEA) had concluded that sanitary land filling would be the only practical way of disposing Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Colombo, the Ministry’s former Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said here on Thursday. Speaking to Daily Express, …
by Jeremy Luedi Increased international interest in the Indian Ocean comes at a convenient time for Sri Lanka, as the country continues to recoup after the end of its decades-long civil war which ended in 2009. The island nation is being courted (and courting in turn) by various major powers, each seeking a stake in …
Continue reading ‘China,India and Japan in Great Game of Competing for the Harbours of Sri Lanka.’ »
By Sachin Parashar NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka may find it difficult to wriggle out of China’s clutches because of the massive debt it owes to Beijing but to balance things out, it is now set to allow India to jointly develop the Trincomalee port in northeastern part of the country. Diplomatic sources said Sri Lanka …
By Manekshaw The civilians in Mullaitivu have launched a protest against the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) expanding its presence in the Mullaitivu District by acquiring nearly 617 acres for the expansion of the Navy presence in the Mullaitivu District. The civilian protest is led by the Wanni Electoral District, Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian, Dr. S. …
By Meera Srinivasan Although New Delhi and Colombo have expressed satisfaction over recent bilateral talks on the Palk Bay fishing conflict, northern Sri Lankan fishermen say a much-needed long-term solution remains elusive. Following resistance from the fisherfolk and some efforts taken by the two governments, the number of Indian trawlers coming into Sri Lankan waters …
BY SANJA DE SILVA JAYATILLEKA The dreadful tragedy of Meethotamulla has shocked even those who usually go about minding their own business, to spin around and look back at what could possibly have led to such needless waste of human lives. In a country that faced frequent terrorist violence in its main streets for decades …
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — In the ruins of a tropical hideaway where jetsetters once sipped rum under the Caribbean sun, the abandoned children tried to make a life for themselves. They begged and scavenged for food, but they never could scrape together enough to beat back the hunger, until the U.N. peacekeepers moved in a …
By P.K.Balachandran The landslide disaster at Meetotamulla within Colombo city limits last Friday, in which a 300 ft high mountain of garbage came down on hapless slum dwellers killing 26 and wrecking 84 houses fully and 36 partially, could have been averted if steps had been taken to remove the dump even as late as …
By Shamindra Ferdinando The Collective of Civil Society Organizations has urged the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration to inquire into war crimes allegations in accordance with Geneva Resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by the government. Addressing the media at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR), Maradana on Tuesday (April 18), Akalanka Hettiarachchi (Aluth Parapura) emphasized that all those who …