How sovereign is Sri Lanka? No state on Earth, including our own Sri Lanka, is completely sovereign within its domain

There are, at present, no threats to Sri Lankan sovereignty in any part of our boundaries; at least, not in the traditional way that “threat” has been defined for most of recent history. Why then are some Sri Lankans, including Opposition politicians and some Buddhist priests so focused on the notion of “sovereignty”? Why has so much been spoken and written about it? What are these “threats” they are talking about?

LIVING RIGHT!

Prestige comes when you feel you have done something well, but Honour comes when others feel you have done something well”!!! This is so relevant in the context of today’s living when we are looking at elections ahead, turmoil in our lives, division among our Heads of State, unsolved murders, conspiracies and drug abuse cases, bond scam perpetrators walking free, it just

Presidential Election: Exercising sovereignty or betting on handpicked horses?

With the entire citizenry kept in suspense as to who would be the main contenders for the much hyped about Presidential Elections after November 2019, the entire political landscape has assumed the shape of big gambling table. It is so as none of the main players in the hunt for Presidency, in terms of parties and alliances, are yet to come up for certain as to who their best

A candidate’s vision cannot be winning polls alone

What is the main criterion of a Presidential candidate? Ask the main political parties in the country that are prepared to field their candidates for the forthcoming Presidential election which is to be held most probably in December this year.

The cost factor of the wet zone reservoirs

The climate forecast projects that the dry zone of Sri Lanka, which receive an annual rainfall of less than seventy-five inches, is to get drier in the years to come. On the other hand, it has already been witnessed that the annual rainfall in the wet zone has been on the rise during the past few years. This means while the dry zone is going to get drier the wet zone is going to be wetter, with more floods, earthslips, epidemics and other related

If UNP can win the presidential election, this is how…

The United National Party (UNP) is heading towards a dangerous internal rupture as the jockeying for the party candidacy at the presidential election is fought ugly along the usual fault lines. During the last ten years, internal fighting in the UNP saw a major crossover and an aborted leadership challenge. The party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe survived both, perhaps at the expense of the electability

Pitfalls on road to Peace in Afghanistan

Both the US and the Taliban are participating in the on-going series of talks in Doha (Qatar) in the hope of arriving at a ceasefire and a settlement which will enable: (1) the holding of intra-Afghan political negotiations for sharing power (2) the withdrawal of US forces from the country by September 1. Other counties like Russia, China an

Revolutionizing agricultural products marketing to help producers and consumers

A silent revolution is now under way in the marketing of agricultural products in the Jaffna District. The system is designed to prevent the merciless exploitation of farmers and consumers by middlemen and brokers, who recklessly rob the farmers misusing their vulnerability. Jaffna farmers are largely small s

Premadasage Putha’ Would Take to Streets, IF… 1988 Struggle to ‘Enter Premadasa’ A ‘Gaja Savi Samajawadi Peramuna’?

After much deliberations and meticulous analysis of Intelligence reports, in 1988, following a hard and painful struggle and out of absolute need for socio-political survival, JR and his coterie reluctantly handed....

WHERE HAVE OUR VALUES GONE?

As I reflect on my youth in an infinitely more genteel era, one wonders where the principles, values and sense of right and wrong that were instilled in us as children have gone? Gratitude, loyalty and other have vanished....

Re-imagining Industrialization: The State and Development Banking

These are times for economic debates as the global economy may again be on the edge of falling into a deep recession. In this context, the recent interventions by Prof. Howard Nicholas in Colombo....

‘Uncle Johnson’ and Boris Johnson’s Brexit partiya - EDITORIAL

In the early 1980s, Sri Lanka’s iconic musical group -‘The ‘Gypsies’- wrote and put to music one of their famous ditty ‘Uncle Jonsonge Jubilee Partiya’. A take-off based on a wedding anniversary celebration....

Will Sajith remain or split from UNP?

There is political excitement in the air in anticipation of the presidential election before year end. Although no dates have been specified, there is much speculation about prospective candidates and their prospects. Among those being spoken of as potential presidential election contenders is Hambantota District Parliamentarian and Cabinet Minister of Housing and Construction Sajith Premadasa who is also the United National Party (UNP) deputy le

Perils of being a woman and a Muslim in Sri Lanka

As Sri Lanka struggles to bind itself together three months after the deadly Easter Sunday attacks, the country’s Muslims continue to face constant scrutiny, with the security apparatus and reactionary forces turning their violent gaze on them.

Rights of the Girl Child and Women

The UNICEF World Children’s Report 2017 reveals that globally, more than 12 million girls marry below the age of 18 every year. An estimated 200,000 children in the United States were married between 2000 to 2015, according to ABC News. The UNICEF report on children in Sri Lanka showed 2% of children married before the age of 15 and 12% were married at 18 years of age between 2010 - 2017.

Can Jaffna survive without 5G technology? - EDITORIAL

A recent story where some Jaffna residents opposed the work of a company to set up the infrastructure and provide 5G technology exposed the backward thinking of a section of these northerners.

Lessons for Lankan Muslims in India’s criminalisation of triple talaq

Presidential Elections Why Tamils must use their votes wisely

As Sri Lankans ready themselves for the much awaited Presidential Elections one of the minority communities, the Tamils, are left wondering as to what their future in the island would be. Former Northern Province Council member M.K Sivajilingam has said that Tamils would abstain from voting for a Sinhalese leader from the south. These utterances are a clear indication

August begins today Await two crucial political happenings !

Strategies work in politics. But, the same strategy is unlikely to work twice. It will yield on the first occasion, but not on the next. Ahead of the Presidential Elections, the two main political forces are now occupied with strategizing for the purpose of mustering more than 50 percent of votes to be polled at the presidential elections.

A POLITICAL READING OF THE US AMBASSADOR’S ANGST

US Ambassador Aliana Teplitz is agitated. The lady is in a hurry. She has written to President Maithripala Sirisena seeking his intervention to ensure Cabinet approves the proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact agreement between the two countries.

Don’t Dump Others Garbage in Sri Lanka - EDITORIAL

We have at times heard the phrase, ‘When the shit hits the fan’ meaning when things we never heard of thus far suddenly coming out into the public domain. We are now facing such a situation when literally the muck belonging to other countries has been surreptitiously unloaded on Sri Lanka and its people.

Enlarging cabinet, an outrageous attempt by ruling party - EDITORIAL

It is said that the government is planning to enlarge the Cabinet again from the current 30 to 48 and increase the number of non-Cabinet ministers to 45, on the basis of the ruling United National Party (UNP) having formed a National Government. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman Prof. G.L Peiris said on Monday that Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella

Human trafficking and its relevance to Sri Lanka

In 2013, the UN member states adopted a resolution which designated July 30 as World Day against Trafficking in Persons. The declaration of such a day was necessary to ‘raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights’.

The search begins for the ideal leader

The sun seems to be shining on the Sri Lankan voters after a long period of uncertainty. There was a time when it looked like that no political party was interested in elections and the country would drag on like a ship without a destination.

Mahinda Rajapaksa: sculptor of a brutal political architecture

Mahinda Rajapaksa is an extraordinary individual. His passion for power seems to have overrun all plausible limits; his determination to cling on to something that is very tangible that comes in the guise of sheer ‘power’ saw to it that his political journey never came to an unforeseen halt. After entering Parliament in 1970 at a very tender age, thanks mainly to the ‘Blue Wave’

THE GREAT OPPRESSION:

With apologies to John Steinbeck, I’d like to begin with a quote from his famous book ‘THE GRAPES OF WRATH” “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for the Great Depression,” in our case, not the Great Depression, but the ‘The Great Oppression’ countless ‘Tags of Shame’ will not serve to bring to book those responsible here!!! They

Patriotic trolling

Patriotic trolling, sounds a bit odd, but it is a very real, very common phenomenon. The last example from Sri Lanka was not so long ago. A woman complains on Facebook and Twitter that she would not support the car-free day, simply because she feels not being secure from the misogynistic public behaviour without the privacy of a car.

Modern slavery: Human beings in the marketplace

Last week the world was plunged into shock when it heard the news that dozens of bodies had been recovered from the Mediterranean Sea, a day after the shipwreck that caused the deaths of up to 150 migrants. Eyewitnesses described harrowing scenes in the sea, in what a senior United Nations official called it “the worst Mediterranean tragedy” this year. Fishermen told AFP they saw bodies as they

Minimum education qualification for politicians?

These days, there is a rather peculiar interest in the educational qualifications of the prospective contenders for the forthcoming presidential election. Minister Champika Ranawaka, an Engineering graduate from Moratuwa university has said the UNP would field a candidate who has ‘ passed the GCE ordinary level, Advanced levels, and a university degree’. Last week, Minister Ravi Karunanayake challenged the UNP presidential hopeful Sajith Premad

China’s Defence White Paper: soft on, hard on

In its ‘White Paper on Defence’ released last week, China has listed the principal defence and security issues facing the country. Surprisingly, the bor