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 ov

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 elem

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 br

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 w

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.

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 Feb

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 gove

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

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 o

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.   

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

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 simme

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

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 im

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 correctin

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 

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.   

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 ot

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 nati

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 t

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.&

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

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 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....

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....

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 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 e

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 cr

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....

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....