Political circus and state paralysis

It’s tragic that for us Sri Lankans, all what democracy means is to cast our vote on dubious promises and then docilely accept whatever crap is thrown at us by those elected until the next round of elections.   

Ranil’s choices

Sri Lankan politics is cheap. The depth of that cheapness is proof in the two stark choices that the people have now been given. One is the return of the old regime with all its nastiness. Forty four per cent of the voters had chosen that. And the other is to continue with the UNP under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose incompetence, should, more than anything else, be blamed for the resurgence of the 

Let the untainted run a caretaker Government

Sadly, our island has in the recent past slid into a flat spin space, wallowing in hatred and revenge, and fear and greed, and a lot of negative energy is dragging our island’s spirit and potential down. It is a real shame that our elected national leaders cannot see the wood from the trees.   

Political impasse needs to be resolved soon

Today’s political crisis in the country is unprecedented. Never in Sri Lanka’s political history has a government in power plunged into crisis just because it was defeated at a local election. The crisis has stemmed from the notion that the joint government formed by the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has no moral right to continue after its defeat at the February 10 local government 

Maldives political crisis moves further away from solution

The political conflict in the Maldives, which came to a head on February 1 with the Supreme Court passing two orders which upset President Abdullah Yameen and made him declare a 15-day State of Emergency on February 5, has only sharpened since then.   

DIGITAL MARKET PLACES IN FEW YEARS Consumerism in the Modern/Digital Age

Marketing is fast changing in the world with modern consumerism in the digital world. Digital market platforms are fast invading the world having currently settled in the west and so called developed world slowly and steadily intruding into the rest of the world including South Asia. Sri 

The need for statesmanship; not party politics - EDITORIAL

One week after the results of the February 10 Local Council elections were announced, tension and uncertainty still prevail amidst much speculation, while President Maithripala Sirisena reflects on the two choices...

Local Government Elections What went wrong?

Local government election results point to a significant setback for the coalition government as a whole. Both the leading parties of the regime have suffered heavily, particularly....

Global shocks

This week’s title is partly borrowed from the Munich Security Report of 2018. The Munich Security Conference since its inception in 2015 has become the key focal point of convergence of global leaders, security....

Northern Elections and Tamil Politics

The Local Government elections have sent tremors through the body politic of Sri Lanka, and the fall out of the shaken Coalition Government is yet to unfold. With the muscular re-emergence of Rajapaksa populism, nationalist....

The Local Poll, the UNP and its future: A plea

The Local Government Polls have just been concluded. First let us congratulate the present government for having successfully introduced a new electoral system which on the face of it seems fair though the number of elected representatives might be excessive and for having ensured the most free and fair elections in Sri Lanka since perhaps the 1960s. With the polls behind us, the weary 

Beyond Party Politics, three crucial issues for Lanka

Whatever the party political changes in the aftermath of the February 10 local council elections, Sri Lanka needs to focus attention on three crucial issues – poverty alleviation, the battle against global warming and a commitment to resolve crises through dialogue without resorting to war or violence.   

Tsunami alert

The Local Government elections concluded a week ago may perhaps remain the only one in our history that created a major crisis in the Central Government. In fact as I wrote in my last Friday column that the fate of Sri Lanka....

What’s behind UNP’s lost Paradise What does mandate mean? Councils or votes?

After the Mahinda Rajapaksa loyalists under a new title, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) winning the highest number of seats in the majority of Local Government bodies, people with various affiliations are heard making....

Country first, despite divisions and disputes - EDITORIAL

We have stressed repeatedly that the February 10 local council election results were largely a shattering protest vote against the National Government for what most of the people see as its failure or slowness to fulfil most of its....

Ranil and Rajapaksa: The difference is how they play the power game

The just ended local council elections remind students of politics of an age-old adage: Politics is a continuous and ruthless struggle for power. Those who understand this often grab political power and stay on in power. Even if they lose, they....

Main outlook of UNP should change

In an interview with Daily Mirror, Public Administration Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara spoke about the future of the government and the United National Party...

The anger of the people has spoken

Whenever I failed to secure the grade or mark I wanted at school, at a term or a monthly test, I used to brood over it for a long, long time, often for hours, sometimes for days. I would first console myself with the fact that there....

Election results leave Govt in disarray

Bitterness between the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that raged in the run up to the local authorities’ elections has now taken a turn for the worse in the aftermath of the shocking electoral defeat at last Saturday’s polls.   

Mandate lost No two words about it

Mahinda Rajapaksa, after losing the presidential election, making his now infamous from-the-window speech blamed it ‘on the Tamils’. It was a crass, knee-jerk conclusion which was racist and a complete disavowal of his own and significant flaws. He has since sobered up. 

Workers on the move; the quest for social justice

While the country awaits the decision of the high-level special committee appointed on Tuesday, to determine the future course of the national unity or consensus government, responsible citizens should also focus attention on the creation of a just and fair society which the current administration pledged to do but has shown little progress.

The Voter: Running round in circles

The citizens of this beautiful Island are past masters in going round in circles; when it comes to governing themselves they display their prowess in this art in no uncertain terms. For example when they voted Sirimavo Bandaranaike

BOND SCAM TO PRISON SCAM

Today we move from the Bond Scam to the Prison Scam. Let’s first ask why they were permitted to walk when so many others were put behind bars. The TV says both Arjun Aloysius and Palisena were remanded and given mats to sleep on.

FULL SPECTRUM REJECTION

We are living in a new country. We just need the Government to catch up with that fact. Mahinda Rajapaksa led a political formation that has emerged as the largest single party in the country, comfortably displacing the UNP.

Justice delayed, justice denied: Verdict from the people’s court

There is a feeling among a section of the public that the law’s delays were one of the reasons for widespread public disapproval, disappointments and even anger which led to a massive protest vote against the government at the February 10 elections to 340 local councils. I

UNP-SLFP must turn searclight inwards

The outcome of last Saturday’s local government elections has naturally prompted the ruling United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to look back and ponder about what went wrong. Already President Maithripala Sirisena and UNP’s General Secretary Kabir Hashim have publicly accepted that something had gone badly wrong. The President said he would take full responsibility for the humiliating 

Battle of Maldives is being fought overseas

The battle for power in the Maldives between the incumbent government led by President Abdulla Yameen and the opposition led by a galaxy of leaders headed by former Presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed, is now being fought overseas, with major Western powers and India on one side supporting Nasheed, and China and Russia backing Yameen.  

The hounding of Udayanga

As campaign rhetoric reached fever-pitch last week in the run-up to the LG elections on Saturday (10), the government stumbled on an unexpected news-nugget to feed its propaganda mill. 

Ranel Wijesinha’s take on LG polls: “Election results eye-opener for both major political parties

The local government election results are a ‘brutal’ eye-opener for the unity government. The need to perform a deep diagnostic of the two major political parties, their structures and relationships with the electorate, whether in Colombo or in Provincial, Urban or Municipal Councils, and the need to re-look at the strategy, structure and performance of the Cabinet and the government itself, is no longer an optional extra but a compel

Post-mortem of an election disaster

It was a spectacularly crushing defeat. Mind boggling as it might have felt at the beginning, now in retrospect, the genesis of this debacle is all too clear. This government, which assumed with a public mandate to govern, simply failed to ‘govern’.