The low down of the low-and-odour government

Law and Order. This seems to be the one thing that the yahapalana government has cottoned onto in the aftermath of the election rout. And I don’t mean that in a good way.   

Be eco-friendly citizens: Don’t use plastics

Most of us have a tendency if not a temptation to prefer what is easy and comfortable. Opting for plastics is one of these dangers. We need to become aware of the catastrophic effects of plastic and the throw-away culture whereby we just discard plastic cups and straws, bottles, bags and other items without using biodegradable items or going through of giving the plastic items for recycling.   

Inhibitions on the Way forward for Govt

The routine discussion of papers went on as usual during the first half of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the first time after the reshuffle on Sunday. But the second half, meant for the discussion of currently important matters, turned out to be stormy as President Maithripala Sirisena, backed by some Cabinet Ministers, showered criticism on the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.&nb

WERE LESSONS LEARNED...? WE WONDER... by THE VOICE

The Election Results should have wiped the complacency off their faces, but it seems that lessons are never learned. At a Press Conference on Friday, Feb 16 evening, our illustrious Prime Minister said he would not resign but continue to function according to the provisions of the Constitution. Be that as it may Ravi, the prime mover and shaker in the ongoing drama, claims that the “Unity Govt. of Jan 8, Will Continue Further.”

Let us work together in harmony

Religious, political and other leaders who met at the Ampara District Secretariat yesterday demanded that tough action be taken against those involved in the communal and religious tension that erupted in this eastern town on Monday night, with attacks on a place of worship and business houses. 

SLOW DEATH OF YAHAPALANAYA & THE BIRTH OF ALT-SOMETHING

With the election result, the Yahapalana coalition Government is like a predator with a poison arrow embedded in its flesh, which has lurched into a quagmire. The end may be a long-drawn and painful process lasting 500 days, but it will neither exit the mire nor recover from the wound.  

Govt. must rise and shine to grassroots’ wakeup call

Sri Lanka has many firsts to its credit, not all are plus points though. It seems to be a world’s first that an attempt was made to oust a Prime Minister, also from his leadership of the UNP on the results of a Local Government Elections.

WHAT’S UP: Aftermath of a Local Election

Southerners uplifted the 44%(+) Man‘s non – governance’ regime and lowered the ‘no governance’ peg fixed on the Colombo Lad’s 32% (+) vote, taught a lesson to a fiddling government; restoring the status quo to its origin – a process tha tleft the nation on a ‘nowhere’ platform.   

Does the Cabinet reshuffle serve any purpose?

Even Cabinet ministers, leave alone ordinary government supporters will be unable to explain Sunday’s Cabinet. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa seems to have viewed it from a common man’s perspective when he described it to journalists in Kandy as a pointless reshuffle. With news that another Cabinet change involving the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) ministers is in the offing, it is not clear as to why the government resorted to a

Why wasn’t Sarath Fonseka appointed law and order minister ?

The latest Cabinet reshuffle was a disappointment. Even some UNP parliamentarians have gone on record calling it a ‘joke’, others mutter the same in private. If anything at all, this is another proof of how indecisive President Maithripala Sirisena has become. He is being dragged here and there by his Maharaja advisers, who are preoccupied with discrediting the UNP leadership and SLFP heavyweights, who even after coming in a distant t

Fallout of political instability in Sri Lanka

Colombo, February 26: Good international relations are founded on political and economic stability in the countries concerned. If there is policy confusion and policy paralysis in a country, foreign investors’ interest in it tends to wane. And the confidence of foreign Governments about entering into economic and political agreements with that country begins to wear thin.  

Sri Lankan politics needs a feminine touch

A woman’s role in Sri Lankan politics is yet to be cemented despite all the assurances given that female representation would be increased in Local Government (LG) bodies.   

Cabinet reshuffle: would it be a beginning of a new Yahapalanaya? - EDITORIAL

After about two weeks of a political melodrama - filled with tension and turmoil or even elements from a detective fiction novel - the drama came to a climax yesterday with...

PM Cannot be removed: 19A Clear and Unambiguous?

Insertion of 6:- A new Article 33[a] in the Constitution says, ‘The following Article is hereby inserted immediately after Article 33, and shall have....

All change in southern Africa

It’s been an odd couple of months for southern Africa. No one predicted last year that in almost the same breath the long-serving dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the super-corrupt president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, would be soon overthrown- and non-violently to boot.

Dual dilemma of Govt.

Local Government Elections were held. The results baffled many a political activist; especially those who were backing the coalition Government consisting of the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The most surprising element of the whole enterprise was the miserable performance of the official SLFP, the political party which had its birth, growth and full fruition during its turbulent journey in the socio-political se

From Eden to hell; The horrors facing children

The legendary leader Nelson Mandela has said there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. Statesman Frederick Douglass has emphasised it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken people, while evangelist Charles R. Swindoll has said each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. They are so loving and lovable because of their innocence and de

DO SOMETHING An immediate lesson for Sri Lanka from Florida

The riveting CNN Town Hall meeting special this week on the High School Massacre in Florida has so much to teach Sri Lankan elected, business and civic leaders, students, teenagers, educators and parents to act TODAY to bring about the changes that were needed yesterday. Who is leading this country today? No one seems to have the answer. They did not have a clear answer even a month ago.

Crisis spontaneous or stage-managed?

The Government and the Opposition wasted a whole fortnight just for their power struggle leaving many Government institutions at a standstill following the February 10 Local Government Elections.

Language and culture; the beauty is in the variety

After more than ten days of panic, tension and ill-educated guesswork, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya declared in Parliament yesterday that the National Government would continue despite the huge protest vote against it at the Local Council elections on February 10. On Wednesday

France and Sri Lanka: The dangers of cohab politics

Sri Lanka’s political crisis following the February 10 local polls election setback for the ruling coalition has brought to surface the vagaries of political cohabitation peculiar to the presidential cum parliamentary governments or hybrid governments.

Talking alternatives outside the circus and clowns

A few days ago I was asked: “What are the biggest takeaways from Sri Lanka’s recent Local Government Elections?”

Buds that (are said) to bloom

A bud is a metaphor and it is one that has naturally led to overuse because the nelum pohottuwa is the party symbol of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). ‘The bud will bloom,’ they said with as much conviction as the rhetoricians of other parties predicted its withering. The results are out but the metaphor-play has not abated.   

LG elections are over; it’s time to learn the lessons

The local government elections of February 10 are over. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa won while the parties in the government lost.   

Dogs Bark but the Caravan Moves...

In response to the clarion call by the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, the nation safeguarded Democracy, in Sri Lanka in January in 2015.  Remarkably UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, pledged his support to the common presidential candidate. Thus, on January 8, 2015, Maithripala Sirisena was elected as President.   

Things seem calm for Govt. but fire simmers underneath

Things looked settled for the national unity government between the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) when President Maithripala Sirisena asked his Ministers not to leave it at this hour. Tension is still simmering, though. Though the government appears to 

Local Government Elections: Why all is not lost

With the Local Government elections done and dusted, many still continue to give their own interpretation of the result, most, based on their political affiliations and in extension of their own agendas, a few in terms of a dispassionate evaluation.

Virtues of mother languages; Don’t turn them into vices

Today is the International Mother Languages Day as declared by the United Nations which, in a statement says, languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and the planet.

WHITHER SRI LANKA

Whither indeed! Where are we going? To gather more BUDS (POHOTTUWAS) or scatter them? You can certainly fool some of the people some of the time, but not ALL the people ALL THE TIME! The answer was inevitable! Did the Government set about correcting any of the discrepancies which had 

Winds of change that rattled Yahapalana structure

These claims remind us of Minister Felix Dais Bandaranaike’s 1962 idea of ‘a bit of totalitarianism’ [a system of Government that is centralised and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the