Resilient systems and a resilient citizenry

We are a resilient nation and I’ve insisted on the point before. Sri Lanka is not a failed state but has signs of failing. That is not new either. The signs have been there at least as long as the moment J.R. Jayewardene introduced the Second Republican Constitution in 1978. Nineteen amendments later, 

Political stability and national unity

The Cabinet’s co-spokesman Rajitha Senaratne insisted yesterday that the National Unity or consensus government would continue whatever happened at the February 10 elections to 341 municipal, urban councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas.  

Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture Power of India is the people of India

The Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture 2017 was held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Colombo on January 15. The lecture was delivered by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law and Justice and Electronics and IT, Government of India on 

Is Bond-scam ‘unbonding’ the Maithri/Ranil bond?

Potent arguments are being exchanged between friends regarding the Bond-scam that has taken the Colombo social circuit by storm; lethal points for both sides are being hurled at each other; yet the evidence shows that the bond between the two protagonists, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime 

FROM HERE TO 2020

So, all roads still lead to 2020. The Feb 10th local election is the most significant of all Sri Lankan elections since 2005.Nov 2005 decided whether we would live like slaves under the scourge of Tamil 

President, the sands of time are running out

President Maithripala Sirisena by seeking a Supreme Court determination has confused the country as to what really his motive was. Firstly, he had made this request to the Supreme Court in the run-up to an election and therefore some leaders of the joint opposition on the premise that he had expected 

Creeping politicization

Last week India witnessed, for the first time in its history, the spectacle of an open and public revolt in its much respected Supreme Court.   

Political hypocrisy and cheap political gimmicks

The failure on our part of the world in adopting commonsensical social reforms has much to do with the political hypocrisy. Competitive politics, of course, mandate that the politicians grasp the public mood, but in our societies, when politicians do that, they often tend to relate to the fringe; the homophobes, puritans, ethnic and religious bigots and when there is none of them, the bottom of the social gutter. (See the types of people who are

Battle against climate change: Lanka needs a statesman

Though the political focus now is on the February 10 elections to local councils the national unity or consensus government needs to concentrate on vital issues such as global warming with latest reports indicating that solar energy could provide the world’s entire fuel requirements for one year instead of depending on the polluting fossil or coal fuels.   

Beyond the personal

The four films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake stand out like zeitgeists of the eighties and the nineties. They reflect what could have been, but was not, a more illustrious, colourful career.

‘Ithin Ayubowan Lakmawuni Garu’
Good bye Honourable Mother Lanka

EDITORIAL

Two hundred and two years ago, on January 25, 1816, when the last monarch of Sri Lanka, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe was deported to India a....

Northern Women and Social Change

Everyday life in the post-war North moves from trouble to trouble, from debt to abuse to violence. Women bear the brunt of this crisis; their labour and....

‘Billions and Billions -Thoughts on Lifeand Death…’ Kawda Hora… Fisticuffs cost 4.5 mn to tax-paye

Reflecting on what had happened, what continues to, and where we are going; where we are heading for - my mind wandered repulsively until it settled on American....

LNG terminal in Colombo Port: Has Japan joined regional game of Chinese chequers?

The visit to Sri Lanka by Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono (Jan 4 – 6) saw governmental confirmation of Sri Lanka’s first Liquefied Natural Gas....

Torture again and again.

Looking for a good cause for 2018? Something you can do while sitting in your armchair. Something that needs to be done if we are to live in a “clean” planet. Campaigning against torture is what it is. It can be done by e-mail, s-mail, phone, text and petition signing. In the past, water dripping on a stone has worked and can be made to work again.  

For goodness sake, don’t produce a Trump

At meeting after meeting President Maithripala Sirisena is pledging that he wants clean politics in Sri Lanka -- one of the main purposes for which he was elected in 2015 -- and that he would ensure 

Lead by example or leave politics

At a special and controversial session at Parliament on Wednesday, the behaviour of some MPs was disgraceful if not disgusting. 

Protests in Iran: The need for reforms and unity

It is no secret that the United States, still smarting over a series of setbacks the 1979 Iranian revolution has delivered, has a state-funded programme to destabilize Iran.

Is MS in for a second term?

Despite the question remaining as to what prompted President Maithripala Sirisena, as reported by many newspapers, to seek a determination from the Supreme Court as to when his term would expire, it is a valid request, since there is a gray area in the law on the matter.  

Between “Laundromats” and a “Clean house”

The Bond Scam Report isn’t out in the public domain yet. It is supposed to be only in English too.The call for a parliamentary debate on it turned out a big farce. 

Victor and the ‘I Told You So’ hordes

The arrest of singer Victor Ratnayake’s wife for alleged misappropriation of jewellery from a state bank must be a terrible blow to him, and it hasn’t been made any easier by the way the news has been glorified by the media.  

WHERE EVERY PROSPECT PLEASES AND ONLY MAN IS VILE

These words were written by no less a personality than the late Bishop Heber, hundreds of years ago, about our country - then it was Ceylon - a much more musical sounding name than its present one, Sri Lanka. The words ring true today, when the cruelty of man to man continues unabated in a myriad 

Respect nature and it will bear fruit

In the United States East Coast, tomorrow is likely to be the coldest night with temperatures plunging to about 40 degrees below zero. Though President Donald Trump -- whose mental fitness to rule the world’s most powerful country is being widely questioned -- still claims that climate change is largely a hoax made in China.   

Japan courts Sri Lanka maritime order in Indian Ocean

Sri Lanka’s strategic location, astride the main shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, has kept in the gaze of the world powers more and more. The latest example of such attention turned out to be the 

Pots, kettles and an all-black political system

Dulles Alahapperuma, having first entered Parliament in 1994 and having retained his seat in the General Election in 2000 surprising decided not to contest in 2001. He had his reasons. His argument was that he was ‘too white’ to be in Parliament.   

From rule of Monarchs to Tyranny of Political Party Rule

I refer to the article under the heading by the Columnist Vishwamithra in the Daily Mirror of January 3. It is a true and objective analysis of the state of affairs and the degradation of the Sri Lankan Nation during the 60 years period, since gaining Independence.

Bond-scam probe is turning democracy into ‘demo-crazy’…

One can examine the Bond-scam report and arrive at conclusions after such a close perusal in two diametrically opposed lights. 1. In the context of the current political environment, its apparent findings and President Maithripala Sirisena’s interpretations of the findings and his vicarious intentions of 

Election Culture: A frontal assault on civilized society

Now that the local government elections are on the cards, at long last the entire society is about to be exposed to the perilous elements of electioneering ,the way it is done in Sri Lanka. Despite the delight and relief that the right of the citizen to express his voice through ballet has been secured, one feels 

Bond Issues ; The Plunder must stop now

With the principle of openness, transparency and accountability working as it should, parliament will meet in a special session today to debate the nearly 1400-page report and recommendations of the Presidential Commission which probed the Central Bank bond issues from February 2015 to March 2016.   

Three years of Yahapalanaya: Some progress but corruption must stop

Yesterday, January 8, was an important day in Sri Lanka’s history. It was on January 2015, that in a dramatic and unexpected people’s revolution, President Maithripala Sirisena and his rainbow coalition came to office promising what was described as a ‘Maithri Yahapalanaya’.