Post-Covid world order: No cure for self-centred power politics

The global war against Covid-19 can be, in a sense, described as World War III. Many believed that World War III would see a nuclear war, but before....

NEC Chairman continuing as one-man commission: Hoole

National Elections Commission (NEC) member Ratnajeevan H. Hoole has not been in good terms with NEC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya....

‘Legally the old parliament can now sit’ - Sumanthiran

The political landscape in Sri Lanka is on the brink of another crisis with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa insisting that he will not reconvene the old Parliament despite strong pressure from the opposition.

There’s no Place like Home

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. -- Thomas Paine

The resurrection and the life

It’s just a year after the Easter Sunday attacks that shocked the nation and took the lives of some 300 Sri Lankans. It was a rude awakening for a nation that truly believed that terrorism was a thing of the past. It reminded everyone that the demise of one kind of terrorism does not mean the end of all terrorism.

Govt, opposition heading for Constitutional showdown

The announcement of a new polling day for the parliamentary elections has now intensified the political debate between the government and the opposition regarding the call for the reconvening of Parliament.

Don’t make Sri Lanka a vulnerable nation

Sri Lankans have got used to living with a lot less. Salary cuts have been announced and even the sick have been made to go into survival mode. Pharmacies are opened only on selected days of the month. People have to toughen up and most importantly if one observes closely there are few or no options to complain about anything.

Why aren’t our children smiling?

Of course it’s difficult to smile often during a pandemic. However, even otherwise our children had not been smiling. They looked very serious, thoughtful and ill-tempered even before the epidemic. This had been the case with both Ge

The curious case of @ChinaEmbSL

On the eve of Avurudu last week, a relatively obscure Twitter account became the focal point in Sri Lanka’s tweets sphere.

Honouring the Victims of April 21, 2019 Through Togetherness & Unity

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks, in which eight IS terrorists senselessly murdered 269 Catholic and Christian worshippers and tourists, shattering our collective sense of unity and togetherness. Fa

Sri Lankan millennial entrepreneurs defy stereotypes

Facebook Cofounder and now President of Social Capital, Chamath Palapithiya is inarguably one of the most famous,

Easter Sunday attacks and their twists and turns

April 21, 2019 or Easter Sunday that year will go down in the history as one of the darkest days that saw a dastardly crime against humanity when terrorists with a Muslim tag killed more than 250 innocent people and wounded hundreds more in three churches and three tourist hotels in Sri Lanka. It was a barbaric attack against human civilization, since the attackers targeted a particular community just because the latter were of a different faith

A year since the Easter Sunday attack; some lessons from the tragedy

A year ago, at 8.25 a.m. on this day, Alawdeen Ahamed Muaath, a 22-year-old law graduate turned suicide terrorist detonated an explosive-filled rucksack amid a throng of Easter Sunday worshipers praying at St Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade. The explosion killed more than 50 people and wounded scores more. Within the next hour, multiple coordinated suicide attacks ripped through the chu

Despite Covid-19, can Sri Lanka conduct safe elections like South Korea?

Sri Lanka’s Election Commission, comprising former Commissioner of Elections Mahinda Deshapriya, retired Legal Draftsman Nalin Abeyesekera PC and Ex-Jaffna.....

Gazetting a date for Polls

Two days ago, the Election Commission Chairman telephoned me to confirm my attendance at the Commission meeting on April 20, 2020, and....

Women bear brunt of COVID-19 pandemic

‘Do not go gentle into that good night - Rage, rage against the dying of the light’ The world as we know it has changed drastically....

United States is dumping WHO - EDITORIAL

The coronavirus or COVID-19, which surfaced in a Chinese seafood and poultry market in December last year, has spread to at least 177 countries.....

COVID-19 signifies both “danger” and “opportunity”

Back in first week of January, many global scientists predicted that the spread of the new COVID-19 or coronavirus in China would reach a turning point by the second or third week of February.

The New Poor

Increasing unemployment following the COVID-19 pandemic will create a new class of poor and the Governments cannot respond the same way they did following the 2007 Great Recession.

Hold tobacco industry accountable for the harm caused by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is still unfortunately under progression. There are limited data with regard to the clinical characteristics of the patients as well as to their prognostic factors.

Status of Parliament and Parliamentary Elections

Former parliamentary Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on April 17 issued a statement outlining the status of Parliament and the parliamentary elections.

After Covid-19, a just and fair society

The world will never be the same again in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic which is believed to be one of the worst international health crises in history. By 2pm yesterday the number of confirmed cases was about 2,186,000, the death toll around 147,000 while more than 553,000 people had recovered. Significantly the worst affected are some of the world’s richest countries including the United States.

Challenging times continue after Easter

This year’s Easter celebrations were put on hold largely because of the on-going Coronavirus and the state declared curfew.

Opposition locked down

The Government has announced that the schools and universities that had been indefinitely closed earlier in view of the COVID-19 pandemic would be reopened on May 11.

When can we return to the streets? - EDITORIAL

The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has given enough indication that it might relax curfew procedures and reopen universities in early May.

Covid-19 pandemic: Democracy’s health at stake

Dictatorship makes democracy advocates sick. Yet, it has come to be accepted as a bitter pill in some societies to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic which is frightening the life out of people worldwide.

14 days at Vanni Quarantine Centre

After spending a wintry fortnight in the UK, we landed in Sri Lanka on the evening of March 16. I was on my way to Heathrow Airport when the news reached me that travellers from the UK would be sent to quarantine centres.

Answering the call of duty The Medical Professionals of Sri Lanka

Take a moment to reflect on how your life has changed since the Covid-19 virus brought our world to a standstill. Our income and economic future have become uncertain. Those of us with children must look after them at home due to school closures. Food, medicine and basic supplies are scarce as we remain cloistered in our homes. The only solace we can find is in the fact that if we stay at home and take the precautions prescribed by public health

The question of representation

Long before the 2019 Presidential Election, stalwarts of the United National Party (UNP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and their closet lackeys painted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a monster. Gotabaya was a Rajapaksa, after all, and Rajapaksas are the villains of the peace, as far as these worthies are concerned. From their point of view, then, it was a valid fear. Except for a few uncomfortable truths which they feign ignorance of, let’s n

Maintain social connectivity amid physical distancing

Whosoever would have ever thought or even dreamt, when we wished each other a happy New Year on January 1 this year, that the Easter celebrations by Christians on April 12 and the National New Year celebrations by Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus on April 13 and 14 would be eclipsed or overshadowed by the hitherto little known virus, now come to be known as the new coronavirus or COVID-19, which had stealthily made its inroads into nearly every