Collective Effort to Eradicate Poverty

With Sri Lanka’s 2024 budget being approved by Parliament yesterday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to give approval to its second tranche of a USD 3 billion bailout package, after which the country’s economy is likely to stabilize. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has handled the economic crisis with skill, but the Government of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is badly split with different fractions expressing different vi

The Battle Between The Savage Mentality Of Regimes And Human Rights

The world is celebrating 75 years of human rights at this point of time, and its timely to look back and reflect on how Sri Lanka has fared in a subject which promises a better and righteous society. From the time Sri Lanka received independence from the British, many avenues were opened for the downtrodden masses to educate themselves and hold high positions in society and even in government establishments. Before that such positions and the be

The VAT Hike, Political Parties, The IMF And COL - EDITORIAL

On Sunday, Parliament approved the Value Added Tax (VAT) Amendment Bill at a time most of our citizens are struggling to provide their families with three square meals a day. We also know the bill....

Sri Lanka Can Set Up A PMC That Could Rival Wagner. Why Not Do That?

Last week, three ex-Sri Lankan military personnel were killed in a Russian attack while serving with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. The trio were undertaking a rescue operation ahead of the forward....

It Is Up To The People Now, To Rectify The Situation

Parliament sessions on Sunday had to be adjourned for Monday for want of quorum, while the Value Added Tax (VAT) Amendment Bill was being debated. Interestingly, only 18 out of 225 members elected by the people to represent them were present at the time of adjournment, even after the quorum bell was rung. 207 members had absented themselves. Parliamentary quorum is just 20 members. The VAT Amendment Bill that was to be passed on Sunday is meant

Privatization of Militaries Opens Doors for Soldiers of Fortune

In these days of economic downturns and rising unemployment, it is not surprising that Sri Lankans and Nepalese with a military background are finding jobs in their line of expertise in the Russo-Ukrainian war theatre. While retired Sri Lankan military men are finding opportunities in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion (UFL), the Nepalese are heading for Russia to serve as auxiliaries in the armed forces of that country. The recruitment of foreigners

Saturday’s Islandwide Blackout - Sabotage Or Incompetence? - EDITORIAL

Shortly after 17:00hrs on Saturday, the lights went out in Lanka. At first most people felt it was a localised power failure. Shortly...

A Leadership Change In NPP or SJB Could Shift Final Outcome

The stakeholders and the media have reacted strongly to some uncertain or ambiguous poll data. In matters as critical as gauging...

SC Ruling Vs MR’s Ruling

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been taking every possible effort to minimize the effects of the Supreme Court ruling on November 14 against him, two of his brothers and officials loyal to them, pronouncing that they were responsible for the economic crisis which the country is still reeling from.

2024 Is Election Year, It is No Win -Win Situation - EDITORIAL

The next year for us Lankan’s is an election year. Whom are we going to elect as President? Our country is going through one of the most traumatic periods in its history. Irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity, large sections of the public have been pushed into poverty.

Taxing the Poor to Reward the Rentiers

Sri Lanka’s 2024 budget, touted as “revolutionary,” punishes the poor with sky-rocketing indirect taxes to reward owners of government debt, by allocating the largest share of expenditure on domestic interest payments and servicing International Sovereign Bonds.

Generating business ideas and travelling by SLTB bus! - EDITORIAL

Two English speaking youth (in their early twenties) made a journey to Malabe in the same Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) maintained bus that this writer was travelling in the other day. Their pronunciation....

Gaza crisis: Where are the Arabs?

With Israel continuing its genocidal war and the Arab and Islamic countries rueing their handicap to militarily challenge Israel, Gaza appears as ground zero of the apocalypse. In this genocide....

The Commercialisation of Christmas

In commercial terms, the Christmas season is on going with bargain sales and shopping sprees mainly by Christians who stand indicted of commercialising Christmas. To encourage Christians to mark Christmas in an austere manner and in the spirit of the Sinhala word “Alpechchathawa” (“w,afmaÉP;dj”) or a simple and humble lifestyle, we would like our readers to contemplate on what we call the Parable of the Fourth Wise Man. The Parable of the Fourth

Gender-Based Budgeting for 2024: More Tokenism or True Commitment?

With the committee stage debates on Budget 2024 still ongoing, our interest has been piqued by a term that has gained relatively little attention since it was mentioned in the Budget Speech presented on 13 November 2023: “Gender-Based Budgeting”. Gender-Based Budgeting or Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) makes sense, from a social justice perspective and a sustainable growth perspective. However, given the government’s track record with GRB, t

Disability rights: the sri lanka context

This article is based on an address delivered by Rajeev Amarasuriya in the Session on Disability Rights at the 36th LAWASIA Conference held in Bengaluru, India recently. The world as we know it has been on a pathway towards development, to make the lives of the people who live in it easier, efficient and convenient. It is not only the standard of life which is continually sought to be increased but also the quality and value of life, which is wh

Most Ven. Mataramba Hemarathana An epitome of friendliness and compassion

Born on September 17, 1947 at Mataramba, a lush village in the District of Galle as the fifth sibling in a family of six children and having received his primary education at Malcom Vidyalaya Yatagala, the Ven. Hemarathana entered the Buddha Sasana on April 5th, 1956 under the guidance of veteran prelate Ven. Kalahe Gunarathana. Yatagala Maha Pirivena, which was one of the most reputed seats of learning in Southern Sri Lanka, which produced world

JVP’s Chances at the Presidency

Two weeks back, crisis-hit Argentina elected a far-right outsider as the President, ending nearly eight decades of dominance of the mainstream right and left in the politics of South America’s...

‘New York Times’, ‘Straits Times’ and Challenges to Democracy - EDITORIAL

The New York Times is one of the USA’s most popular news sites. The newspaper’s print version remains the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States, and is known for its hard-hitting....

Indian State elections: Modi reads the minds of North Indian voters correctly

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose mascot is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has swept three of the five States which went to the polls recently. The results of the elections, except....

Sri Lanka’s Carbon Credits Landscape and Carbon Crediting Scheme

In Sri Lanka, the Carbon Crediting Scheme (SLCCS) is a national offset scheme established to support local clean projects to benefit from climate finance for Greenhouse Gas emission (GHG) reduction. This scheme is developed with well-defined provisions to enhance credibility, transparency and quality of emission reduction in Sri Lanka. In an era, where vast opportunities are growing for low-cost GHG reduction projects, SLCCS enables it to bring

Commemoration of war dead and national integration

As alerted by some foreign intelligence agencies a few days ago, a person identified as Dwaraka, the daughter of the slain leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabhakaran appeared on a Europe-based website last Monday (November 27) and made a speech, marking the outfit’s Maveerar Naal (Great Heroes’ Day). The intelligence agencies had told that Dwaraka’s image had been created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to sh

North-South Fisher Resistance and Working People’s Politics

What becomes of a people who are not just abandoned but willfully dispossessed by the state using the crisis as an opportunity? How do the people respond when political parties hardly see their suffering, and their trade unions are for the most part muted? These are questions we are confronted with as one of the most regressive budgets is about to be passed by an illegitimate Parliament. The implications of Budget 2024 are far reaching.

Will debt restructuring efforts flounder on rampant corruption? - EDITORIAL

In April 2022, our country declared it would be defaulting on its external debt of $51 billion. A result of domestic economic mismanagement and a drop in foreign currency reserves. In turn this led to shortages....

“Minister on thy journey back to the pavilion”

Cricket still takes up valuable Parliamentary time. Before we delve into today’s main topic, let’s spare a few lines for the ‘Game.’The legendary Dr. W.G. Grace was known for his remarkable....

Dismantling the bridle on the executive

A Fundamental Rights Petition has been filed on Tuesday before the Supreme Court seeking an order suspending the implementation of a decision taken by the Constitutional Council (CC) calling for a report from the Chief Justice regarding certain Judges of the Court of Appeal.

Christmas is around the corner - EDITORIAL

The month of Christmas is already upon us. In another 21 days we - the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the war-affected and those who inflict war on helpless people - will all in our own way be ‘celebrating’ the festival of Christmas.

The Cost of Maintaining an Officer decorated with Medals - EDITORIAL

A long wait by the people to know who would be their next Inspector General of Police (IGP) came to an end when the Executive appointed Deshabandu Tennakoon as the Acting IGP on November....

Kissinger, power politics and Israel’s war on Gaza

In Israel’s Gaza carnage and its militarism, Henry Kissinger, who passed away yesterday at the age of 100, comes alive in one form or another. Hamas’ “open act of aggression” must....

Sri Lankan citizens or world citizens?

In Sri Lanka we have people who cannot change when they live here in this island. Many among them who immigrate make the necessary changes when they fly overseas for employment. Suddenly, those who were proud to be Sri Lankan and cherished the islanders’ way of life embrace other cultures and even adapt to changes in climate and different cuisine. Most importantly they become ‘world citizens’! The question posed by critics is whether these immigr