One cannot eat Liberal Democracy

Anti- corruption is only selectively campaigned in Colombo circles. The Rs.23.5 million a month rent paid for the DPJ Tower’ that still remains unoccupied for nearly two years and the alledged underhand Mega Spectrum deal that....

Battle for local councils, let clean politics win

With the main political parties intensifying their campaign for the February 10 local council elections which will clearly show the mood and pulse of the people, President Maithripala Sirisena -- party politics apart -- appears to be going all out in his battle for clean politics.   

Tangible Intangible vs Realities, myths of development strategies followed by UNP, SLFP regimes sinc

It is election time once again… the ears of the voters will be overloaded with promises and promises. This is not an unusual feature in the South Asian political culture. Sri Lanka having had the luxury of receiving the universal adult franchise long before its independence in 1931 - the very first nation in South Asia - has shown a remarkable progress in upholding the democratic norms and institutions.

Bond scam: Dominant topic at election campaign

As the campaign trail for the local government polls reaches full swing, the controversial bond transaction of the Central Bank has become the dominant topic for all the major political forces in the contest. Right at the beginning of the election period, President Maithripala Sirisena kept the ball rolling in this regard as he made a televised statement outlining the recommendations of the Presidential Commission on the bond scam which caused

The visually impaired to boycott elections

The Collective of Unemployed Visually impaired Persons says that past Governments have disregarded demands put forward by it since 2013 to provide employment to those visually impaired

Your choice: Get drunk or be sober in this Kakistocrazy

There’s a word in Sinhala that is widely used for which there is no English equivalent. ‘Pevunaa’ is a word used by those who drink, mostly. Those who almost drowned also use the word to indicate that a certain amount of water was swallowed, clearly without intention to do so.   

The mess and muddle in school admissions

? Another provincial politician has been accused of making a teacher kneel at his feet and apologize, but unlike the first incident, the politician has this time been compelled to resign from one of his portfolios.

Extraordinary Enticement of Executive Office

Now that the Supreme Court has made a determination on the referral by President Maithripala Sirisena as to whether his term of office is five years or six years, any ‘confusion’ that may have arisen in his mind must have been removed.

Sujeewa Senasinghe and Marikkar Just shut up!

Engaging in vituperative brinksmanship, at best, is amateurish. At worst, it is outright self-destructive and defeats the very purpose of your existence.

Statement issued by Women Action Network (WAN) on attacks on women candidates Women at war Violence

A woman candidate who was involved in election campaign activities in the Wellawaya area of Moneragala District has been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition after she was brutally attacked.

Here comes Padmavat, the love of premiers and anathema to others

Thursday January 25 is surely a much awaited day for the United National Party.   

Primordial identities subvert constitutional rights in young democracies

Assertion of caste, regional, ethnic, religious and national identities are characteristic of new democracies, as groups previously lacking consciousness wake up to their identity and seek a place in the sun. The opening up of the power structure by the establishment of democratic institutions and the institution of elections helps mobilize there entities which had been inchoate and dormant.  

NJO objects favours granted to alcohol industry

The National Joint Committee strongly objects to the Fnance Minister’s decision in reducing the price of beer by introduction of new taxation scheme for this alcoholic beverage. This decision has already increased the beer consumption especially among the youth of our nation within the past one month. 

After War Ends: A Road to national reconciliation

The three decade-long armed conflict in Sri Lanka had ended with the defeat of LTTE in May 2009. Many initiatives taken by the post-war Sri Lankan governments have not yielded any national reconciliation, in fact the divergent interests among various social, economic and political groups and increased social fragmentation have terrified the social cohesion and the 

Yahapalanaya dogged by tit-for-tat mudslinging

Elections in this country are acrimonious. And it does not take an astrologer to predict that the unity government would never be the same if the current trend of mutual recrimination continues. As if recent verbal barbs directed against each other by the lower-rungs of the two main constituent parties of the government are not good enough, President Maithripala Sirisena himself has joined the fray. 

Korea, between the devil and the deep sea

The Korean people are probably one of the most unfortunate people on earth. Today the US -a country half a world away from the Korean....

Counting in LGBT

A news article published a few weeks ago, ran a headline stating that the “Gay population in Sri Lanka now tops 7,500,” maintaining there were only 7,500 Gay....

Priests, doctors and the State: The agony of the masses

Media headlines in recent months in Sri Lanka have concentrated heavily on the political role of Buddhist monks, agitations of government medical officers....

Prelude to nuke winter?

France and Germany are celebrating the 55th Anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, though not much discussed currently, this treaty was a symbol of....

The poor woman who put Hissene Habre in jail

Hissene Habre, the brutal former dictator of Chad, became the first Head of State to be convicted of rape, and that was based on the testimony of Khadidja Zidane, a poor, illiterate woman who feared Habre even after he fled the country 25 years ago.  

Democracy on the run?

Is democracy in decline? If you talk about the quality of democracy the answer is clearly yes. The US, the world’s first and most important democracy- although at the beginning a limited democracy for white men only- is in trouble. President Donald Trump has brought old problems to the surface- 

Rest guilty of dereliction

Out of 225 MPs that included the nine rejects and dozens of Ministers, only six were present for the scheduled seven-hour session of the Constituent Assembly that met three weeks ago under the auspicious of its Chairman, to debate the long awaited proposals of the Interim Committee.  

‘Fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’; danger to democracy

As United States President Donald Trump today completes his first year in office -- which many analysts describe as a reign of dangerous chaos and unpredictability -- a senior Senator of his own Republican Party last Wednesday made a historic speech which many compared to the famous, “I have a dream” oration of Martin Luther King Junior.  

Presidency – Parliament and political garbage

The Bond Commission (PCoI) Report that led to many political frictions is now out in the public domain in the English language only.

Overloaded ass, prosecute the plunderers

Even in the basically democratic world, it is widely admitted that the law is an ass, it later became a rich person’s ass and now it is an overloaded ass.   

Open more avenues in education for school leavers Can we be more practical with the university syste

The results of the GCE A/L exams have brought successes and victories to hard working students, especially to those from the outstations and rural areas.

President and UNP cannot divorce each other

Needless to say that President Maithripala Sirisena’s reported emotional speech to the Cabinet ?and walk out from the meeting on Tuesday was the most serious manifestation of the strained relationship between the two partners of the government, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).   

The trumpet has sounded, world democracy at stake

Tomorrow Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, a country founded on the principles of freedom and equality, will be completing one year in office. Has the world become a better place under his stewardship? The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.

CENTRAL BANK BONDS AND POLITICAL BOMBSHELL!

The lender of last resort - The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is under heavy fire now, due to the release of extracts of the report on the Bond Commission appointed by the head of state. Further it is turning out to be a hot political issue, as one of the leading and popular TV channels in the country, has very vigorously launched a 

Once dry-parched land in Batticaloa is now home to a state-of-the art university

A few years ago, it was a landmass, located near the border of Polonnaruwa district in Batticaloa only and left for herds of cattle to graze. If not for such livestock in their hundreds and thousands sniffing the ground fodder in this parched terrain, the land did not serve any productive purpose. In stark contrast with the past , the