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Home » ColumnsWhy Mervyn did not go to the CPA dinner
The weekly Cabinet meeting was advanced to 5 p.m. last Wednesday. This was because President Mahinda Rajapaksa was hosting a gala dinner for delegates of the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) meeting that ended on Friday. There was some distraction to an otherwise routine session where ministers were rushing through Cabinet Papers. They were also [...]
Much hangs in the balance over hung council in East
The results of Last Saturday’s polls for three Provincial Councils were on a predictable note enabling the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to capture the majority of seats. Victory was most convincing in the Sinhala-majority Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provinces. The UPFA garnered about 60 per cent of the votes compared to more than [...]
The king and his tainted jesters
My Dear Mahinda maama, I thought I must write to you again to congratulate you on yet another election victory in Sabaragamuwa, Rajarata and the East although I heard that they are still haggling over who will control the East and Rauff is trying to strike a hard bargain. I must admit it is a [...]
Are we heading towards a balance of payments crisis?
Last year’s massive trade deficit of US$ 9.8 billion led the country to a serious balance of payments crisis. Indications are that this year’s trade deficit would exceed it, unless some drastic measures are taken or there is an unexpected favourable upturn in the global economy. With only three and a half months to the [...]
Sri Lankan legal experts say Nasheed resigned under duress
A team of Sri Lankan lawyers has produced a scathing critique of the Report of the Maldivian Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI), which claimed that the ousting of former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed was ‘not a coup.’ The Legal Review of the Maldivian report by President’s Counsel and former Attorney General Shibly Aziz and Attorneys-at-Law [...]
Readying the hangman’s noose
It is a profound paradox of sorts that while Sri Lankans fight to save a hapless Sri Lankan housemaid from public execution in Saudi Arabia, this government itself is readying the hangman’s noose for implementation of the death penalty after more than two and a half decades of being a de facto abolitionist country. No [...]