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Home » ColumnsGovt. rides rough shod over Opposition hot air
With two Provincial Council elections scheduled for late March, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) began to turn on the heat on the Government in Parliament, staging a poster-carrying protest on Friday, targeting the administration on corruption, waste and the rising cost of living. The protest caught the few Government members present in the Chamber [...]
Pro-Lanka groups seek free rides to Geneva
Pro-Sri Lanka groups in Europe are set to stage a demonstration outside the Palais des Naciones in Geneva when the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) discusses the third successive resolution to be moved by the United States next month. The slogans are ready and the placards are to be ordered but the sponsors have come [...]
Geneva process moving to new level despite high cost PR campaign
Though in panic mode over the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva next month, there is at least one issue less for the UPFA Government to worry about — the move to form a common opposition front to take it on. “We are not looking for a government change. Nor are we looking for [...]
A red-letter day and those who hold sway
My dear Somey sahodaraya and Anura sahodaraya, I thought of writing to you after hearing the shocking news that there has been a leadership change in the Red party. I must say I was shocked not because of the leadership change but because of the way it had happened.Just think about it: When we woke [...]
Sri Lanka’s damaged mindset this independence day
As empty rhetoric on freedom and rights pervade the air during routine ‘celebrations’ of Sri Lanka’s Independence, the families of slain journalist Mel Gunesekera and undergraduate Lakruwan Ratnayake are mourning the loss of two precious lives. Directly or vicariously, who is responsible for these deaths? To whom should the families go to seek redress? Or [...]
Alternating economic policy regimes since Independence retarded development
Economic policies that alternated between regimes which were market oriented and ones that had much state control of the economy retarded economic development. Changing economic policies created uncertainties and perceptions of risk by investors. Furthermore, the inward looking import substitution policies and state control together with inefficient administration are important factors for slower growth. However, [...]
ICEP’s Sri Lankan war crimes project – a set up?
A ‘new’ report by an Australian law and policy advocacy company has given a turbo boost to the western chorus demanding an international war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka. The International Crimes Evidence Project (ICEP) says that Sri Lankan forces committed ‘the vast majority’ of alleged war crimes during the selected project period of Sept [...]
New chauffeur for JVP jalopy
The younger rises when the old doth retire and, like a fond father handing over the keys of his rickety but beloved jalopy that had exhausted its fuel tank and combusted its cylinders, Somawansa Amarasinghe passes the long burnt out torch to Anura Kumara Dissanayake who pipped the post in a one horse race to [...]