FROM The LTTE TO the KASHMIR ISSUE - EDITORIAL

Tensions between South Asia’s super powers -- India and Pakistan -- are once again on the boil, after a car laden with explosives was detonated by a suicide bomber in Indian-occupied Kashmir, killing 40 Indian paramilitaries.

Irrelevance of the US-Mexican wall

It’s time overdue that the misleading myths on immigration are thrown into the trashcan. They are causing untold damage. The fact is that President Donald Trump’s...

The Politics of Demonizing Federalism and Depicting It as Separatism

The year was 1985. Junius Richard Jayawardene was the Sri Lankan President while Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister of India. The New Delhi facilitated talks between an official Sri Lankan Government delegation and six entities representing the Sri Lankan Tamils were going on in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu during the months of July and August. The Sri Lankan delegation was led by President Jayewardene’s brother H.W. Jayawardene. The Tamil side

CC and President must work together to find a solution

The following is a speech made by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera during the adjournment debate on the Constitutional Council in Parliament on February 21:

A Just Society: Where do we go from here ? - EDITORIAL

“If you want peace and development, work for social justice” is the theme of the United Nations World Social Justice Day which was marked this week. In a statement, the world body says, social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous co-existence within and among nations. “We uphold social justice principles when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we re

More cuts on Ceylonism

Replying to my column last week (“Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Nationalisms”) Dr Dayan Jayatilleka posted the following comment: “Ceylonism did exist and not only as the consciousness of a socioeconomic elite.

I Come from Jaffna

It was in the 1960s that my parents took me to see the play at the then-new Veerasingham Hall in Jaffna. A key attraction was that producer Ernest MacIntyre and his sister Evelyn had been living within a hundred yards of our home down Chemmany Road with....

For whom are the PCs?

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s four-day visit to the North last week seemed to have been aimed at the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, in the light of the plethora of large-scale development projects he announced during the tour.

The Big bad bluff

Passing of the 19th Amendment in the most disgusting manner with unwanted, undemocratic provisions smuggled in was yet hailed as democratic victory highlighting the Constitutional Council (CC) and Independent Commissions.

Let’s be vigilant when we eat out! - EDITORIAL

The Colombo municipal Council (CMC) inspecting eateries in Borella just few days ago, closing down one and filling cases against three leaves room for us to check what we purchase when dining out.

Kashmir crisis explosive: Peace talks urgent

The February 14 attack on an Indian military convoy in the disputed Kashmir region once again underlines the importance of a concerted international effort to find a solution to the seven-decade-old crisis.

PM draws jibes from Tamil politicians After making a call to ‘forgive and forget’ during his tour of

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s call for ‘forgive and forget’ on incidents related to the war drew a jibe from the Tamil politicians.In his remarks made in Jaffna last week, the Prime Minister meant to say that those who committed crimes from both sides- the military and the LTTE- should be forgiven instead of harping on the issue continually with no solution in sight.

A short life on the ‘cocaine throne’

The arrest of Makandure Madush and the revelation of several politicians consuming narcotics underscores the fact that the drug trade in Sri Lanka has deep roots and can’t be eradicated that easily.

So much of narcotics seized: Where do they end up?

Saturday’s Daily Mirror carried an expose headlined, ‘Who was behind the arrest of Makandure Madush’. The article gives a new take on the story that is continuing to create headlines and take centre-stage with startling new revelations on a daily basis about Sri Lanka’s on-going battle against narcotics. It is replete with details as to who played the key role and what took place

Constitutional Council and the poverty of independence, intellect and integrity

Many years ago, before the 17th Amendment was implemented, I ended my weekly column to the Sunday Island newspaper mentioning the number of days since the said amendment was passed and asking why the independent commissions had not been appointed. Around the same time, I pointed to the various flaws of the 17th Amendment and urged lawmakers to correct

Freedom without discipline or discipline without freedom

Freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of worship; these are all enshrined in our Constitution as fundamental rights. No one can take them away; no President, no Prime Minister and no Parliament. The judiciary, the third pillar of government, shall ensure that.

Madush is the Tip the iceberg looks nothing like him

Hardly had the smoke of the gun salutes fired on February 4 settled, when we received news of the arrest of Makandure Madush with 40 of his entourage in Dubai. On Independence Day, we sing eulogies to those who fought against the British and other white colonists who subjugated us. We pay tribute to our soldiers who sacrificed life and limb to save the motherland from that evil demig

REAL LEADERS

Reading newspapers fuels my thoughts and perusing pictures catches my eye! My first question then is WHY? Why can’t our leaders be ‘real leaders’ like most of them in every other part of the world? Memory takes me back to a particular picture of the then President Obama and Laotian President Vorachit inspecting a guard of honour holding their own umbrellas. Yes, there were no sycophants or military guards rushing to hold their umbrellas; no, they

Fifteen years of Jathika Hela Urumaya - EDITORIAL

In May 2009, when the nation was celebrating the war victory over the LTTE, the key government ally nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) had a crucial meeting. It was to discuss what the party would do next. After all the purpose of floating an all monks’ party had been achieved. The war has been won. Though ‘Dharma Rajya’ had been the more pronounced goal of the party its immediate aim was to create a context that would see an all-out war agai

Private education may wipe out State education

Joint Opposition front-liner Dr Bandula Gunawardena has protested against the purported decision by the Government to permit private schools to open five branches, each claiming that the decision would be detrimental to the free education.’

President’s anti-narcotic campaign long overdue, but the style is too simplistic

President Maithripala Sirisena genuinely or otherwise seems to share the rightful sense of urgency to combat the drug menace in this country. If he is genuine, he would be the first national leader who understood the gravity of the problem, and sought decisively to act upon it. Perhaps the only other leader, who grappled the extent of the challenge was Ranjan Wijeratna, who as the de-facto defence minister in 1988-89, liquidated the Colombo under

The power and the glory of Mahavamsa

Undoubtedly, Mahavamsa focuses essentially on the Sinhala-Buddhists. What else could historian Mahanama do writing in the 5th century? What else was there for him to write about at the time? He couldn’t write about the Tamils because they were not a part of the evolving historical eve

How Jaffna Hindus met challenge of European missionaries

With the advent of European power in Ceylon in the 16th Century, the Hndus of Jaffna began to face religious annihilation. The Portuguese and the Dutch were hell bent on converting them to Christianity – the Portuguese to Roman Catholicism and the Dutch to Protestatism. The British, with the help of American missionaries also tried, but in a different way, with education and job offers, not

Oh, the times we live! - EDITORIAL

On Friday, US President Donald Trump declared a state of national emergency in the United States. The president is in search of a means to provide himself with funds to construct a 230-mile long wall between the US and Mexico.

Generational Challenges of Northern Reconstruction

A decade after the war, the North continues to be mired in a social and economic crisis, with little light at the end of the tunnel. The liberals address this crisis by increasingly resorting to attitudinal, behavioural and cultural explanations.

Race for AI dominance heats up

Last Monday President Trump signed an executive order titled ‘Maintaining American leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI)’. This new policy is based on five main principles, first of which firmly outlines....

IPC’s Decriminalizing Section 377: India’s LGBTIQ community feel victorious yet?

Five months after Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was decriminalised, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) community still feels the stigma and discrimination lurking around.

Green Fashion: imagine and act naturally

This week, the United Nations  marked the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with the theme being “Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Growth.”According to the UN, Science and gender equality are vital for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   

Nigeria’s election today

Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year.     

Madush Underworld and free market economy

The arrest in Dubai of Makandure Madush and a few others wanted here in Sri Lanka for drug trafficking and murder, first made stories in media giving credit to different persons for the “meticulously planned” arrest.