Embracing 2020 with MCC

There were interesting memes on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement making rounds after the election. One said, when a Pohottuwa supporter was asked what MCC was, the answer had been Maliban Cream Crackers.

Tsunami A lost opportunity by Tamils for peacemaking

Yesterday, more than 250,000 people in 14 countries including Sri Lanka, who perished in the 2004 tsunami catastrophe which is considered as the deadliest of its kind in recorded history, were commemorated by their family members and others alike.

Let’s Avert clash of cultures and religions - EDITORIAL

As we spend the last few days of the remaining year in reflective thought all who can hear the sound of their breathing can consider themselves as ‘winners’. However painful it is to revisit the past....

BRI media network for peace and development

Last week, journalists from several countries gathered in Islamabad to exchange ideas on a Belt-and-Road media network. Such a network, as envisioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping, had a soft launch in Beijing in April this year.

Extremist elements and twists in faith

Sri Lanka is a nation that gives generously to the needy during times of trouble and when there are catastrophes. When donating people haven’t bothered about cast, race and religion. We saw the same support and empathy showed towards the Christian community when they were recovering from the Easter Sunday bombings.

President seeks departure from traditional path

More than one month into office, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is knocking his Government into shape. Gotabaya continuing to appoint the heads of the statutory boards that oversee the implementation of his plans underscores the fact that things are on track in keeping with his wishes.

Christmas: When God’s love flows to us through Jesus

We dedicate this column to all Christians in Sri Lanka as they join more than two billion Christians around the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago when Caesar Augustus was the Emperor of Rome, which held sway over the land. Jesus at his birth was ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger because there was no place in the Inn’.

Recruitment conundrum Loyalty and competence are not coterminous

Few appointments to State institutions escape criticism. This is natural in a country where meritocracy spices rhetoric but rarely gets inscribed in recruitment processes. It is not easy for the right person to be placed in the right position even when there’s no political involvement.

Let’s remember that Christ is the reason for this season!

2000 years ago, God the Father sent a Gift of Love to this world. This precious gift was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Thus it was that the powerlessness of God was manifested in that infant child, His son, whom He sent to demonstrate to the world the powerfulness of His love. If ever there was an opportunity for God to enact His plan with a majestic

Christmas: The parable of the fourth wise man

Christmas today marks the birth of Christ Jesus but it needs to go far beyond a birthday party or a family reunion because this historic event is a manifestation of God’s unending, unfailing, unlimited and unmerited love for people of all races and religions throughout the world. Freely as we receive this divine, merciful, compassionate, and ever-forgiving love freely we need to

Wish for a White Christmas after a Black Easter….

I wish all our readers a Merry Christmas: to those who believe that Jesus Christ is their saviour, the joy of the news of salvation from death and darkness and deliverance into eternal life and to others, well, the peace, Joy and reconciliation that the Christmas message brings.

Year-end political review Some were true to their conscience!

Politically it was a happening year for Sri Lanka with political bunglings by the Yahapalana regime ending up with a regime change just before the dawn of another year.

Healthcare for all; vital investment in humanity

Sri Lanka is honoured that one of modern medicine’s prophets Prof. Senaka Bibile in 1970 promoted the principle of providing quality medicines for all at affordable prices. This was part of the plan he drew up with the then communist party leader Dr. S. A. Wickremesinghe to provide quality medicine at a price that even poor and middle class people could afford, as a vital part of the universal health coverage. Unfortunately the then United State’

Time to pave the way for more women in political arena

Fourteen years before the foundingof the United Nations Charter (1945) included a provision for equality between men and women, the establishment of universal adult suffrage in Sri Lanka gave our women the right to vote on the same basis as men. It was just three years after women in Great Britain and slightly more than a decade after women in the United States obtained this right.

I stand up for one country one law - Anuradha Yahampath-

Newly appointed eastern province governor Anuradha Yahampath, in her maiden newspaper interview, spells out her plan for the job. She used to work for the nationalist movement that advocated candidacy for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Three Tsunami disasters Work of Divine?

“Day after Tomorrow”, the blockbuster Hollywood film was enacted in a real life drama on 26/12, fifteen years ago when giant tidal waves lashed 3/4th of the island’s coast plunging into a crisis of unprecedented nature reminding one of the legendary Viharamaha...

Christmas - A time for Remembrance - EDITORIAL

In three days time; on December 25 to be precise, all over the world, Christians and others of different faith, will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ whom Christians believe is the son of God.

Eliminating Corruption

Developing countries are currently experiencing many problems, including climate change, corruption, drug abuse and addiction, and road accidents. We all have to pay great attention to handle these potentially catastrophic problems.

Dawn of Ceylon independence and birth of Tamil Federal Party

December 18, 1949 was a red letter day in the political history of Sri Lankan Tamils known as “Ilangaith Thamizhar” in their mother tongue. On that day, a group of sixty Tamils including two parliamentarians and two senators launched a new political party with the avowed goal of establishing an autonomous State for Tamil-speaking people of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) within a united island. The new party was named in Tamil as “Illankai T

Solidarity for poverty eradication

Amid intensified moves to consolidate an inter-religious solidarity alliance to bring about a just society, lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, the United Nations yesterday marked the International Human Solidarity Day.

Crisis of the new left and the new left intelligentsia

The JVP which received the support of literary critics, artists, intellectuals, and activists this year has lost the support it desperately needs now: that of the people. The shrinkage has in one sense been inevitable, partly because of the JVP and partly because of electoral forces outside the control of the JVP. Within a political framework like the one we have in Sri Lanka, to hope for a party like the JVP to secure second place is indeed wish

Street art that’s infectious !

The new trend to beautify Colombo has attracted both bouquets and brickbats. There is new found purpose in these creations which have come up largely in the Colombo and Kandy city limits. These artists seem to have the will, skill and spending power as they go on decorating the walls of cities. The new culture which is breeding is a little too hot to handle. Why? There are two reasons for th

Sri Lanka in the polity of Nations

With the inauguration of the new President, the seventh Executive in Sri Lanka, many legitimate concerns as well as disturbing questions and issues are being raised vis-s-vis our foreign policy. On the one hand, though a very tiny tear-drop island in the Indian ocean, we live today in a global village, where all countries in many ways are inter-connected, finding themselves drawn invariably into a large net-work of inter-active relationships in o

Can the President replace devolution with development?

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s recent statements that he would replace devolution with development as a solution to the problems facing the Tamils in the Northern and Eastern Provinces might run counter to his wishes to win over the Tamil people. It also counteracts with the pledges made by his brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to Tamils prior to the presidential poll.

Nobel Peace Prize and Identity Politics

Two Nobel Peace Prize laureates have thus far disappointed me to the core. First was Barack Obama. Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to him was shockingly surprising. Swearing in as the 44th President of the US on January 20, 2009, he wasn’t in the White House for even 10 months when on October 9 he was decided for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among people.” That h

Will the fate that befell SLFP befall the UNP?

When Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa hurried home after his defeat after the 2015 Presidential polls, his supporters crowded around his residence in Medamulana and urged him to make a comeback to politics. He listened to the call and abandoned plans of retirement from politics. After a couple of years, a new party called ‘Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)’

Time to get public service ethics right

There is a general perception that ethical standards in Sri Lankan public service are in serious decline. This raises the question about the cost of misconduct on the part of those who have been entrusted with guarding public interest and resources. These costs include the losses in trust and confidence in public institutions and losses in precious resources which were meant

The new populism is to resist populism and populists

A general election will be held soon. That much is certain. Indeed, if not for the term-related clause in the 19th Amendment Parliament would be dissolved by now. This Parliament feels old. Older than a little over four years. Those of the UNP (United National Party) and the SLFP

Are we doing enough to save Mother Earth ? - EDITORIAL

We focus today on 16-year-old Swedish Environmental Activist, Greta Thunberg, who was featured on the Time’s cover page of May 27, 2019, as the ‘Teenager on Strike for the Planet’ and currently on the cover page of Time magazine as the ‘2019 Person of the Year’, an honour that US President Donald Trump is nown to have coveted for himself.

Was Ranil the only cause for UNP defeat?

“In my previous column I emphasised the need for any political party, if it were to be successful, to name its candidate well ahead of time. However, I do repeat my argument so that its appeal to the reader is surpassed by its urgency to the one leader who has shown some remarkable ability to keep ahead of his followers by avoiding doing just that. The need to retain the