The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Columns

Political Column

"Sir mama deshapalanayen samuganna yanawa. Mama theeranayak gannawa adha," (Sir, I am going to say farewell to politics. I will make a decision today), the caller said. Jayasuriya, who had been speaking to him almost every day in the past weeks, even meeting him once, offered advice. The acting UNP leader said that in politics there were occasions for frustration, but that should not be a reason to quit politics. He asked him to be patient. With the conversation over, Jayasuriya drove off to take part in a UNP protest campaign in Alutgama against the 'rising cost of living'.

5th Column

Floundering in a sea of indecision!

My dear Seeni Bola,

I thought I must write to you now because you seem to be in the news again-although I am not sure whether any publicity is good publicity in this instance.

The Economic Analysis

Resolute actions needed to achieve targets

Targets and objectives are important. This is so in all human endeavours and especially so in economic planning and policy. However mistaking targets for achievements have been a regular feature of the country’s economic experience. Targets could be taken seriously only when strategies to achieve them are designed and consistent policies adopted to ensure their achievements. In as far as the record goes the country has experienced a series of economic targets that have not been realized.

Lobby

Not Issued with this week

Focus on Rights

Rendering the law irrelevant in Sri Lanka?

This reaction is not unjustifiable. The court is a forum to which any sane person not occupied with the law as a profession or as a necessary litigant would be dragged to, literally kicking and screaming. Though the idea of the law is to ensure justice and though reams of learned treatises and writings have dwelt on precisely why the law should be fair and even handed in its operation, this appealing injunction is very often only limited to theory.

Talk at the Cafe Spectator

Not Issued with this week