President and UNP cannot divorce each other

Needless to say that President Maithripala Sirisena’s reported emotional speech to the Cabinet ?and walk out from the meeting on Tuesday was the most serious manifestation of the strained relationship between the two partners of the government, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).   

The trumpet has sounded, world democracy at stake

Tomorrow Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, a country founded on the principles of freedom and equality, will be completing one year in office. Has the world become a better place under his stewardship? The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.

"Sri Lanka has been named as a high risk country for investment"

Joint Opposition MP Bandula Gunawardane speaking to Dailymirror about the implications of ?the controversial bond scam and the seriousness of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s allegation regarding similar frauds in the past.

CENTRAL BANK BONDS AND POLITICAL BOMBSHELL!

The lender of last resort - The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is under heavy fire now, due to the release of extracts of the report on the Bond Commission appointed by the head of state. Further it is turning out to be a hot political issue, as one of the leading and popular TV channels in the country, has very vigorously launched a 

Once dry-parched land in Batticaloa is now home to a state-of-the art university

A few years ago, it was a landmass, located near the border of Polonnaruwa district in Batticaloa only and left for herds of cattle to graze. If not for such livestock in their hundreds and thousands sniffing the ground fodder in this parched terrain, the land did not serve any productive purpose. In stark contrast with the past , the 

Resilient systems and a resilient citizenry

We are a resilient nation and I’ve insisted on the point before. Sri Lanka is not a failed state but has signs of failing. That is not new either. The signs have been there at least as long as the moment J.R. Jayewardene introduced the Second Republican Constitution in 1978. Nineteen amendments later, 

Political stability and national unity

The Cabinet’s co-spokesman Rajitha Senaratne insisted yesterday that the National Unity or consensus government would continue whatever happened at the February 10 elections to 341 municipal, urban councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas.  

Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture Power of India is the people of India

The Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture 2017 was held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Colombo on January 15. The lecture was delivered by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law and Justice and Electronics and IT, Government of India on 

Is Bond-scam ‘unbonding’ the Maithri/Ranil bond?

Potent arguments are being exchanged between friends regarding the Bond-scam that has taken the Colombo social circuit by storm; lethal points for both sides are being hurled at each other; yet the evidence shows that the bond between the two protagonists, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime 

FROM HERE TO 2020

So, all roads still lead to 2020. The Feb 10th local election is the most significant of all Sri Lankan elections since 2005.Nov 2005 decided whether we would live like slaves under the scourge of Tamil 

President, the sands of time are running out

President Maithripala Sirisena by seeking a Supreme Court determination has confused the country as to what really his motive was. Firstly, he had made this request to the Supreme Court in the run-up to an election and therefore some leaders of the joint opposition on the premise that he had expected 

Central Bank bond scam was a shock to us all

In an interview with Daily Mirror, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne expressed his views on the bond scam, the President’s term and the way forward for the government. Excerpts: 

‘President isn’t cooperating with the JO’

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris, in an interview with the , spoke about the controversial bond transaction, its implications and the Supreme Court’s opinion on the President’s term. Following are excerpts of the interview done with Prof. Peiris.   

Women’s movements have to be stronger

The upcoming Local Government Election has been a much anticipated event in the local political calendar. In the run up for positions, both known and unknown faces have begun their campaigns abiding to stricter laws than what was seen during the previous regime. With a new electoral system, both citizens and those contesting are expecting further ‘change’. Among those contesting from the Green Party, Rosy Senanayake, former beauty que

Creeping politicization

Last week India witnessed, for the first time in its history, the spectacle of an open and public revolt in its much respected Supreme Court.   

Political hypocrisy and cheap political gimmicks

The failure on our part of the world in adopting commonsensical social reforms has much to do with the political hypocrisy. Competitive politics, of course, mandate that the politicians grasp the public mood, but in our societies, when politicians do that, they often tend to relate to the fringe; the homophobes, puritans, ethnic and religious bigots and when there is none of them, the bottom of the social gutter. (See the types of people who are

Battle against climate change: Lanka needs a statesman

Though the political focus now is on the February 10 elections to local councils the national unity or consensus government needs to concentrate on vital issues such as global warming with latest reports indicating that solar energy could provide the world’s entire fuel requirements for one year instead of depending on the polluting fossil or coal fuels.   

Beyond the personal

The four films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake stand out like zeitgeists of the eighties and the nineties. They reflect what could have been, but was not, a more illustrious, colourful career.

‘Ithin Ayubowan Lakmawuni Garu’
Good bye Honourable Mother Lanka

EDITORIAL

Two hundred and two years ago, on January 25, 1816, when the last monarch of Sri Lanka, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe was deported to India a....

Northern Women and Social Change

Everyday life in the post-war North moves from trouble to trouble, from debt to abuse to violence. Women bear the brunt of this crisis; their labour and....

‘Billions and Billions -Thoughts on Lifeand Death…’ Kawda Hora… Fisticuffs cost 4.5 mn to tax-paye

Reflecting on what had happened, what continues to, and where we are going; where we are heading for - my mind wandered repulsively until it settled on American....

LNG terminal in Colombo Port: Has Japan joined regional game of Chinese chequers?

The visit to Sri Lanka by Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono (Jan 4 – 6) saw governmental confirmation of Sri Lanka’s first Liquefied Natural Gas....

Lasantha Wickrematunga Assassins Must Be Prosecuted Without Delay

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his misguided astrological and numerological wisdom held the seventh presidential elections on January 8th 2015. When the date was announced most people yearning for a regime change in Sri Lanka noted the symbolic significance of January 8th in a different context. It was on January 8th 2009 that Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge , the well known editor of “The Sunday Leader” was brutally assassinate

Torture again and again.

Looking for a good cause for 2018? Something you can do while sitting in your armchair. Something that needs to be done if we are to live in a “clean” planet. Campaigning against torture is what it is. It can be done by e-mail, s-mail, phone, text and petition signing. In the past, water dripping on a stone has worked and can be made to work again.  

For goodness sake, don’t produce a Trump

At meeting after meeting President Maithripala Sirisena is pledging that he wants clean politics in Sri Lanka -- one of the main purposes for which he was elected in 2015 -- and that he would ensure 

Lead by example or leave politics

At a special and controversial session at Parliament on Wednesday, the behaviour of some MPs was disgraceful if not disgusting. 

Protests in Iran: The need for reforms and unity

It is no secret that the United States, still smarting over a series of setbacks the 1979 Iranian revolution has delivered, has a state-funded programme to destabilize Iran.

Is MS in for a second term?

Despite the question remaining as to what prompted President Maithripala Sirisena, as reported by many newspapers, to seek a determination from the Supreme Court as to when his term would expire, it is a valid request, since there is a gray area in the law on the matter.  

Between “Laundromats” and a “Clean house”

The Bond Scam Report isn’t out in the public domain yet. It is supposed to be only in English too.The call for a parliamentary debate on it turned out a big farce. 

Victor and the ‘I Told You So’ hordes

The arrest of singer Victor Ratnayake’s wife for alleged misappropriation of jewellery from a state bank must be a terrible blow to him, and it hasn’t been made any easier by the way the news has been glorified by the media.