Dark Side of Bureaucratic Red Tape

Nobody seems to have cared when State Minister Palitha Range Bandara said at a public meeting that the Anamaduwa Technical College became a reality after he used his pistol to obtain the funds. It indicates how serious the bureaucratic red tape is in getting things done in the country.   

Where is this government taking the country ?

Sri Lankan politics is becoming increasingly acrimonious, yet again. There is a deepening polarization among the UNP and President Maithripala Sirisena on the one hand and the Yahapalanaya Government as a whole and the emboldened Rajapaksa acolytes of the joint opposition on the other hand. The President is openly undermining the Prime Minister. Now that he has implied his plans to run for the presidential election in 2020, this tenuous relations

Low intelligence and communal riots

After the March mayhem of ethnic violence, Sri Lankans need to search deeply within what actually went wrong. I came across a publication done by Richard Lynn, a British Professor of Psychology, and Tatu Vanhanen, a Finnish Professor of Political Science, who conducted IQ studies in more than 80 countries. This was carried out from 2002 to 2006.   

Sri Lankan Politics ... Scramble for Power and the Bane of the People

The great bane of many third-world countries looms in the craftily orchestrated dramas of greed and struggle for power in the political arena. Formerly Ceylon, beginning from 1956 and now Sri Lanka, in the course of the last four decades or so, has provided an ideal oasis for power-hungry politicians to play their astute games and political trickery at the expense of often misinterpreting peoples choices and oppressing them with their high-flown

Icy Indo-Maldivian relations haw with geo-political changes

Relations between India and the Maldives, which became particularly frosty after the ascent to power of the tough and pro-Chinese politician Abdulla Yameen in 2013, now appear to be thawing.   

Lessons of the Iran Nuclear Deal - EDITORIAL

In what can only be described as sheer arrogance, on Tuesday May 9, US President Donald Trump announced he was unilaterally withdrawing the US from the international treaty commonly known as the ‘Iran Nuclear Agreement’ or...

Commonwealth values an enigma in Sri Lanka

At the end of the 19th Century the British Empire controlled one fifth of the world. Under their reigns they introduced laws that to date criminalize same-sex conduct in thirty six of the 53 countries in the Commonwealth, introducing centuries...

SLFP’s role in East - Reconciliation: 50 years apart

At a meeting of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Central Committee chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena, a decision was taken to hold its May Day rally this year in Batticaloa, in the Eastern Province on May 7. A committee headed...

Revised Ministerial Portfolios on the Scientific Method

The Daily Mirror of May 2 reported that 18 Ministers were sworn in by the President, following a revision of the Cabinet. The Government or more specifically the President declared that the new revision of the Cabinet, ‘‘this time....

US Senate mustn’t allow torturer to become CIA boss

In Charles Dickens’s novel “A Tale of Two Cities”, set during the French revolution of 1789, he draws the character of Madame Defarge. She along with other members of the Tricoteuse, the knitting women, perch every day next to the guillotine, knitting into hats and socks the names of those to be executed, while watching the upper aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie being dispatched to their death one by one. They were regarded as

Mother’s Day, the Bottle vs the Breast

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and the aim is to pay tribute both to the miracle of birth and to the special woman who performed that miracle: Our mother.   

New Judicature Act gives fresh hope for justice

History tells us that in a democratic society, justice delayed is justice denied. We also know that justice hurried could turn out to be justice miscarried or buried. Therefore, as in so many vital areas, a reasonable solution lies in the middle path. 

Trump’s Iran deal pullout and the dangers ahead

The United States President Donald Trump’s much-anticipated withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal -- also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – has exposed his insensitivity to world peace and nuclear nonproliferation and contributed to an escalation in the multiple conflicts ripping the Middle East apart.  No sooner the US pulled out of the Iran accord than clashes erupted between Israel and Iran.

President’s blurred mission beyond 2020

President Maithripala Sirisena had declared that he would not retire from politics in 2020 as he had to complete his mission to serve the people and the country beyond 2020.

Lack of ‘Common sense’ in Colombo politics

In one of the media outlets where “yellow journalism” is the ‘rule’ and the ‘norm’ both, a media employee told the nation a few days ago that in Sri Lanka “Corruption” is the major problem.

let’s not foget The introverted child - EDITORIAL

With never ending monthly tests, term tests, government tests and tuition classes that run up to late evenings the life of a child in Sri Lanka has turned out to be quite torturous. Pushed by parents, teachers and societal expectations....

And it all began with ‘Sinhala Only’ ok?

The root cause. People like to throw that phrase around when talking about problems and their resolutions. It’s a decent enough proposition, the assumption being that if root causes are identified and fixed, not only will....

WHY THE FEAR AND WHEN CAN WE EXPECT ANSWERS ?

The Cabinet has been shuffled and reshuffled but no one is happy! The burning question is why are they so afraid to give Law and Order to Sarath Fonseka? Let’s take a look at the President’s Chief of Staff facing violent....

ASSAULTS OF TOURISTS DEALT WITH FAST UNLIKE IN THE PAST

It was most welcome that the incident of a Dutch tourist assaulted by 16 people on the beach in Mirissa was dealt with fast with all culprits arrested. When an incident of rape and murder happened during the past....

Duplicate-Mahinda is not the answer… UNP needs a winning ‘unifier’

In order to defeat the Mahinda Rajapaksa juggernaut, there is one thing the United National Party (UNP) should not do – field a ‘Duplicate Mahinda.’ What is the Mahinda Rajapaksa-candidature looking like? In an election campaign, the one thing one must pay most attention to is the basic brand 

UNP CRISIS, SLFP REBELLION, TNA THREAT

What happens when the protracted crisis of a political party which is in government, coincides with a dramatically mounting economic crisis? The UNP is the country’s second oldest political party. 

New Battle to win hearts and minds of people

After the prorogation of parliament on April 12, a new session was ceremonially inaugurated yesterday with a confident President Maithripala Sirisena making a policy statement in which he outlined the important achievements of the coalition government 

Lets hope for a result -oriented policy statement

The policy statement scheduled to be made by President Maithripala Sirisena today only fulfils a tradition. Had it been like the one made by the head of the state in the past the Opposition would have made a big fuss

New light on last stages of the war Michael Roberts unpacks the ‘ Gash Files ’

A speech by Michael Morris, Baron Naseby, during a debate in the British parliament made news in Sri Lanka last October on account of the testimony he provided relating to the last stages of Sri Lanka’s 30-year war. L

May Days and Mayhem

A few days into the month of May, the country is further polarized and in disarray. The internationally recognized May Day itself was officially postponed in Sri Lanka from May 1 to May 7. And May 1 was marked by yet another cabinet reshuffle worsening the persisting confusion and lack of any initiative 

Minorities in the SAARC region

In December this year SAARC -South Asia Association for Regional Co-operation- which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal, will celebrate the 33rd year of its founding. 

Shelter for homeless and jobs for youth; Premadasa’s utmost legacy

Twenty five years ago, on May Day in 1993, President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was 68, was marching in a procession at the UNP May Day rally along Armour Street-Grand Pass Junction around 12.45 pm. The assassin suicide bomber, 

Lessons from a Sino-Indian Rapprochement

Global media attention was fixed on a rare and unprecedented meeting of the two leaders of North and South Korea, the images of the two leaders holding and shaking hands reached millions of viewers across legacy and social media platforms across the globe.

Trump believes Iran is building a nuclear bomb

The next few days are fraught with danger. One of the most momentous decisions of the century is about to be made. Will President Donald Trump certify or not that Iran is honouring the agreement made with the US and the other permanent members of the UN Security Council to end its nuclear enrichment research, which some observers argued (but not the CIA) was leading to an Iranian nuclear bomb?   

Top Officials Arrested; Good Governance at last

The yahapalana government has often been widely criticised for going slow if not having back door deals in cases relating to large scale bribery, corruption or fraud by politicians and top officials. But the government got a major boost on Wednesday when two top officials were arrested by the Commission Investigating Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).