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Home » ColumnsRumblings in Jaffna: War was won, not yet the hearts and minds of the people
Govt. needs to act more pro-actively to maintain normalcy TNA and other parties playing hardline politics while Wigneswaran avoids meetings and plays different card JAFFNA – The crowded restaurant of a luxury hotel in town tells the story of the ever changing social scene nearly six years after the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas. The tables [...]
Grandfather’s tales of error
My Dear Sampanthan seeya, I thought I must write to you because even though there is an election in the entire country it is the battle between the Greens and the Blues that has made the headlines — and what is happening in the North and East hardly gets a mention in the media, probably [...]
Shocking sky-high extravagance: Rajapaksas’ billion-rupee travel bills
Eye-watering amounts of public money have been splurged on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visits abroad, documents obtained by the Sunday Times show. Between 2012 and 2014, the Presidential Secretariat spent Rs. 2,344,228,641.68 (more than Rs. 2 billion) on expenses incurred by Mr. Rajapaksa and his various delegations. The money was routed through the Ministry of [...]
Election promises without pragmatic programmes and finances
The election manifestos of the two main political parties promise a post-election paradise. However the implementation of these promises, especially those of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), would weaken the economy and pave the way towards a financial crisis of Grecian proportions. Once again these manifestos illustrate Lee Kuan Yew’s observation that elections in [...]
Rank absurdities and the absence of principle
Expressing extreme exasperation late this week, a colleague of mine could not contain himself regarding the paucity of ideas emerging from competing candidates in Sri Lanka’s upcoming parliamentary elections. As he reflected, ‘generally, at least during a pre-election period in any country, candidates and parties are compelled to put forward their principles and policies but [...]
Lawyer seeks UN General Assembly justice over “illegal UN resolution on SL”
A Sri Lankan Attorney has written to the United Nations General Assembly alleging that the 2014 UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for an international war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka is illegal, and seeking a venue at the UN where he can have his grievance heard. If he cannot find such a forum he [...]
Assets, liabilities and the moment of truth
So the Elections Commissioner has given the candidates at the August 17 parliamentary polls a couple of more days to submit their assets declarations. It is not due to any special magnanimity on the part of the Commissioner. Apparently it is on an appeal made by political parties that wanted a few more days as [...]
Island reconvicted criminal also aboard rebel hijacked UPFA train
‘Innocent till proven guilty’ sham rogue defence blastedThe United People’s Freedom Alliance’s shocking decision to nominate an island reconvicted criminal as a fit and proper person to contest the forthcoming election was revealed last Thursday by UNP heavyweight John Amaratunga, shattering to smithereens the UPFA facade that whilst nominations would be given to those having [...]