Do presidential aspirants know what POVERTY is?

Presidential aspirants from all shades and shapes on political and apolitical platforms promise a ‘Prosperous, corruption-free Sri Lanka’ when elected. That is the most common single slogan, all have accepted without contradictions and deviations.

Breakthrough in Muslim matrimonial law reforms

Finally, after more than sixty years of efforts by various Muslim groups, Sri Lankan Muslims have arrived at an agreement to amend certain clauses of the law that governs matters pertaining to their marriage and divorce.

LET’S PROMOTE RELIGIOUS HARMONY - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka’s present generation, comprising the young, must continue with the habit of promoting cultural harmony. The present generation, specially schoolchildren and undergraduates, are seen moving freely with fellow students who belong to different cultures and religions.

Would Gota phobia infect Mahinda too?

The name Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been pestering and annoying the ruling party for a long time; the unexplained procrastination of naming the obvious choice by the brother is puzzling.

The voter lost in a political quagmire

Sri Lankans are talking about the absence of elections in the country, but no one is taking to the street in protest of voters being denied of using their franchise.

UNP,SLPP to thwart President’s PC Polls move

President Maithripala Sirisena is a politician who springs surprises. He sometimes stuns the entire country with his political steps. He took the entire country by surprise when he brought about a regime change last year through the new Government he installed, which lasted for just 52 days. The President is now purported to have planned to make a reference to the Supreme

The ‘National Question’ in a lumpenized nation

Ideological battles are often marked by a deliberate misnaming of things. One could argue that perspective prompts different kinds of definitions, labels and elaboration, of course, but these choices are not always innocent. Some are used so often that they become entities which allow anyone to read them any which way they like. Sometimes, over-use and even the affirmation

Don’t waste time confessing the sins of others`

It now seems that President Maithripala Sirisena is having second thoughts on writing to the Supreme Court for a determination on whether his term of office begins on January 9, 2015, the day on which he was sworn-in or on May 15, 2015, the day on which the Speaker gave his assent to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Karu vs. Sajith… UNP’s power struggle is now in the open

The power struggle in the United National Party (UNP) is now in the open. Candidature for the forthcoming Presidential Elections is at stake. In fact, this time those stakes are quite high. Sajith Premadasa is making a bid through his surrogates. Unfortunately for him, those surrogates are from the UNP itself. No outsider has voiced his or her consent for Premadasa’s tender.

CONGRUENCE OR INCONGRUENCE??

The very large billboard that does not fail to attract attention says “I LOVE MY COUNTRY, BUT I AM ASHAMED OF THE GOVERNMENT!” The saying is so true!!! To make a good impression, we, meaning all of us from the President down, must live according to what we speak and speak according to the way we live!!! We should actually practise what we preach so

Digilantes come of age

Some people tend to be more expressive online, depending on the situation. They tend to let out their emotions in ways they probably would not offline. Last week a former colleague of mine faced this situation. Marianne David was very expressive in why she did not support efforts to make traffic-clogged, sometimes suffocating Colombo free of cars.

A leap forward in long due MMDA reforms - EDITORIAL

Muslim political and religious leaders must be commended and encouraged for agreeing finally after ten long years of deliberations on the reformation of the Muslim Marriages and Divorce Act (MMDA) in spite of the agreed reforms being far short of national standards. UPFA MP Faiszer Mustapha has told media that the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice has been tasked with

Beware of 73 mn jobless youth bombs

Political, religious, business and other leaders, when tackling vital issues ranging from education to the economy and climate-change, need to give top priority to the young generation and generations to come. Though it is often quoted it is worth saying again that while politicians work for the next election, statesmen or stateswomen work for the next generation. As the Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunbe

UNP’s Candidate Confusion Who is the better candidate for the UNP? Sajith or Karu

The United National Party is in a predicament. Contest for its candidacy for the Presidential Election is becoming a freak show. If this sorry state of affair persists, already existing differences within the party will loom large and the UNP will lose the election even before it begins. The ambiguit

AFTERMATH OF BOMB BLAST: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE ?

Many catastrophes have followed in the wake of the Easter Sunday blasts, resulting in some positive, some negative thinking. Most people with the right values, abhor the attacks on innocent people and boycott of their companies, shops and so on. It is up to each one of us to explain the unfairness and injustice of this attitude to as many people as we can; to influence their thinking and correct them if they think these are right. The most impor

SL becoming potential cyber attack target by terror groups ?

The repression of insurgency and terrorism are hard to achieve, yet what is even more difficult is the containment and sustainability of the victories. In Sri Lankan context, in 2009 Sri Lankan government claimed an emphatic victory by defeating the LTTE who were engaged in a 30-year conflict with the Government. That victory had been sustained over the ten years that passed. The deadly multiple terrorist attack on Easter Sunday (21/4), believed

Countering violent extremism in Sri Lanka: A primer

Nearly three months since the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, the forward strategies and policies of preventing future terror attacks are lost in fierce political debates, elections buildup and conspiracy theories which are further.....

Economic nationalism and the Presidential Election

The Presidential Election later this year is going to bring out the worst of politics. The Easter Attacks and their fallout have set the stage for chauvinist and xenophobic politics. Anti-Muslim discourses long in the making are now being spread like wildfire.

People’s Supremacy and 19th Amendment

The supremacy of the people stands as the cornerstone of any democracy and the Constitution of Sri Lanka states in its 1st Chapter that ‘In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the people’.

Nelson Mandela the leader who inspired a nation and the world - EDITORIAL

On July 18 this year, the world remembers one of its famous sons, South Africa’s -Nelson Mandela- the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), who from his youth, embraced the fight against the system of Apartheid.

How LTTE murdered senior Tamil leader Amirthalingam 30 years ago…

The cruelly tragic killing of five Tamil students by members of the security forces thirteen years ago in the Trincomalee town was revisited in these columns last week. This week’s column seeks to revive memories about a murder most foul perpetrated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Colombo exactly thirty years ago. It was on the fateful day of July 13, 1989 that foremost Sri Lankan Tamil political leader and former opposition lea

Looking ahead: Prospects for 2020

The next President will be constitutionally weak – which means it doesn’t matter who succeeds the constitutionally weak President we have already. The UNP’s strategy, given this, is to field a candidate who will gain legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate it has never really pandered to: the Sinhala Buddhist peasantry. The Sinhala Buddhist bourgeoisie will also throw its weight behind him, as will the minorities, including the Muslims, who have

President’s latest attempt to extend his tenure

President Maithripala Sirisena seems to be a good news maker. He always thinks differently and is always in the news. According to media reports last week, he was planning to get his term extended up to May next year and in the previous week he wanted to scrap the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. A week before that he wanted to hang four people convicted for drug related offences and days prior to that he wanted to hold a referendum to seek th

Foreign policy and the doctrine of ‘conceding walkovers’

Sri Lanka has a severe human resources problem. That’s stating the obvious. Forget bad planning, the absence of an occupational classification, assessment of needs and charting of future requirements in terms of a reasonable view of how things economic and social would unfold; we lost several hundred thousand people over the past 30 years and even if just 1% of the number warranted the tag ‘talented’ it is a massive loss. Had ‘they’ been around,

Presidential Problem

President Maithripala Sirisena after assuming office in 2015said that he would be in the office only once and that he would not contest another Presidential election. He readily agreed to reduce the tenure of the President from.....

Open Challenge to all aspiring Presidential Candidates

There are many who aspire to be the next President in a few more months. While main political parties are desperate in deciding who their presidential candidate should be and in what political alliance....

In search of a leader to lift the nation - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka’s voters have in the past ended up with leaders whom they don’t eventually want. This is because the majority of the people don’t really know what they want in life. In the past the public, who made up the majority.....

Disaster militarism and proposed US deals with Lanka

We hear these days much about the competition for military dominance in the Indian Ocean region, where Sri Lanka has emerged strategically the most important location -- with military analysts describing it as a potential permanent aircraft carrier.

US - CHINA increase wooing Sri Lanka

Given its strategic position in the Indian Ocean astride major trade arteries, Sri Lanka has become a place being wooed by the world powers in pursuit of their security and commercial interests in an integrated global system.

In a world of fakes!

The talk in the political circles these days is about party candidates for the upcoming presidential elections. None of the popular parties from the favourites to the ones that will ‘also run in the race’ has declared its representatives.