Government of limited power need not be anaemic government. Assurance that rights are secure tends to diminish fear and jealousy of strong government, and by making us feel safe to live under it makes for its better support.

While we Sri Lankans still continue to postpone the date of the plastic ban, the National Geographic magazine’s June cover continues to inspire millions across the globe to think more seriously of a permanent plastic ban in each and every cou

Prof. Sarath Wijesuriya of the National Movement for Social Justice spoke about the questionable activities of the GMOA as a trade union, President Maithripala Sirisena not honouring his promise to abolish the Executive Presidency and his movement&

Former sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara has run into a storm of controversy after it was revealed in court last week that he accepted a cash cheque of Rs.1 million from a company linked to Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. (PTL), which is implicated in th

A decision by a local bank to suspend two of its employees for commemorating the war dead of the final phase of the Eelam war has now caused a fresh wave of controversy. The ‘disciplinary action’ was purportedly taken after Sinhala nation

Pre-monsoonal rains by May 26 have resulted in 16 deaths and 138,292 persons from 35,129 families being displaced. The monsoon proper has not even commenced, but the number of deaths and displaced continue to rise....

“Let us kill our customers” can be the un-stated marketing objective of only one industry. It is not the arms industry, industries peddling lethal chemicals of many guises or unhealthy food for different manufactured “needs”.

The critical comments made by the Attorney-at-Law Suganthika Fernando on the conduct of a judicial officer and the happenings at Marawila Magistrate’s Court should prompt us to take a realistic and dispassionate look at the whole judicial proce

I recently toured Cairo and was horrified to witness the mountains of plastic garbage stacked on all corners of the streets. In a city that receives less than 4mm of annual rainfall, there is hardly any chance for even biodegradable plastics to fragm

In significant move, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, in parliament yesterday handed over a private members bill or the 20th Amendment calling for the complete abolition of the 40 year executive presidential system

The  of 16th May carried the Report of the Annual Convention of the Viyath Maga written by Lahiru Pothmulla, under the heading “Sri Lanka should seize the 

Can you smell the whiff of smoke? You surely can. But the gunfire? Not yet. But it must start soon if the battle has any chance of success.   President Donald Trump has to be faced 

“Why is today so special?” the driver of the van I was in asked me, and I was stumped. A second later I checked myself; Sri Lankans seem to forget so easily that forgetting the commemoration of the (military) end of the civil war....

Mr. K.K.S. Perera’s article headlined “From Dominion Status to Sovereign Sri Lanka” published on May 22 appears to contain an inaccurate statement regarding the provision relating to Buddhism in the 1972 Constitution. I refer....

Thus far, according to the Meteorology Department, 18 out of the 25 Districts of the country were badly affected by the rains.   The NBRO said nine Districts had extended warnings of landslides and....

On Tuesday, around noon, on the bank of the Kelani River at Kohilawatte, about a hundred people had thronged to see the rising river.  The river had swollen up to the level of the Colombo Ambatale Road.

With about 120,000 people seriously affected by the ongoing floods and landslides, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) and other State institutions say they are providing the relief measures needed by the victims while full-scale....

With the United States scuttling the Iran nuclear deal and casting doubts on a possible détente with North Korea, the time is ripe once again to turn the world’s attention on nuclear disarmament and give the necessary build-up....

Bio- Diversity may be a strange or uncommon word for those concerned mainly about their selfish interests but it is a crisis of life or death for Planet Earth. May 22 was the International Day for Biological Diversity and the United Nations in a st

Minister Mangala Samaraweera, speaking to the media at the Finance Ministry on Tuesday (May 22), stated that knowing well the crimes committed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he is in fact frightened of the former defence secretary. That’s political-s

A momentum has built up in view of the next presidential election though it is not yet around the corner. The recent ‘Viyath Maga’ programme, a confab of intellectuals, business leaders and politicians with a nationalist bent, served as

Colloquial Sinhala is an exotic dialect when phrases are enunciated in the vernacular with the input of a smattering Anglo-Saxon linguistics that, leads to-‘Broken English’. Sounds more the railcar ‘burgher-ism’ than an outp

When a future historian writes the political history of the most obtuse and inept government in postcolonial Sri Lanka, he or she will doubtless identify its most myopic move as the Constitutional prevention of Mahinda Rajapaksa running for Preside

We wonder if even God can help our country now!!! Our island home was a beautiful paradise and its inhabitants were good God-fearing people!!! That was in the time of the benevolent respected leaders, who truly loved this country and its people. Th

If you could take a subway from the suburbs in Boston, where I live, to downtown in 10 minutes, that improves your life over sitting in a traffic jam 

As the daughter and granddaughter of doctors, who were leading doctors of their time, I am ashamed of the way doctors of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) are behaving and have been for some time.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake has called on all concerned not to use war heroes for political propaganda, which of course is a timely advice as almost all parties, especially the two main -- the United National Party (UNP) and t

 Former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa who is responsible for ruining this country by allowing his family relatives and cronies to plunder the country’s economy and allowed former Defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapak

Should we continue to tolerate empty speeches by political leaders who are incapable of delivering and have led this country and the society into chaos and deterioration? In this backdrop ‘The n

Recently, there was a rather ridiculous debate after Minister Rajitha Senaratne, who as the Cabinet Spokesman has a knack for putting his foot in the mouth, equated the JVP to the LTTE. JVP MP Vijitha Herath and Minister Champika Ranawaka objected to