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Home » ColumnsOffshore banking centre instead of casino
Along D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha, a large extent of land, earlier earmarked for casinos, will now be the venue for the Colombo International Financial Centre. Such a centre, in terms of legislation to be introduced in Parliament by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, will permit foreign and local banks to operate offshore accounts. The broader outlines of [...]
Economic and fiscal imperatives subordinated to political objectives
The 2016 Budget has to be understood within the current political context and the post independent political milieu of governments pandering to relief measures and welfare expectations of the electorate. Few budgets have eschewed political considerations to pursue crucial changes in economic policies. And these too have adopted devious and deceptive ways to mitigate unpopularity. [...]
The need for ‘hard’ questioning of the state
Even with all the crestfallen realism which now informs the public mood close upon one year into the classic curate’s egg performance of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, there is some cause for optimism. ‘Hard’ questions of democratic governance are forcefully and publicly interrogated as opposed to earlier discussions which took place in elite circles with little [...]
Divisions within divisions in the UPFA and SLFP
President warns of action against those who vote against the Budget, but dissident groups also remain strong while NFF seeks to go it alone Concern over nine military officers meeting Sirisena without informing Army Chief or Defence Secretary – focus was alleged war crimes probe Efficacious new action to combat corruption; several oversight committees to [...]
Don’t worry, you will keep your job
My dear Ravi, I thought I must write to you because you seem to be in the news these days, delivering the first ‘yahapaalanaya’ budget and then getting rewarded with a motion of no-confidence for your efforts. I guess you must be thinking that these days, any publicity is better than no publicity at all! [...]
“No Confidence” against Ravi K. as ’Joint Opposition’ unravels Budget 2016
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayaka has got off to a rather inauspicious start with the presentation of his maiden Budget to Parliament. With the vote on the Second Reading of the Budget still a few days away, the Minister is faced with the rather unusual situation of having a ‘No Confidence’ motion against him, in which [...]
So much of power but so few principles
It has been told a thousand times. A single picture is worth a thousand words. This is not a permanent verity but it is so often true. How true was clearly captured in media photographs of US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power wielding the elle stick in a playing field at a girl’s school in [...]
Lankan maid to be stoned to death for adultery in Arabian nightmare
In a few weeks, if not in a matter of days, a Lankan woman who had been working as housemaid in Saudi Arabia for three years will be dragged out of her Saudi jail and forcibly led to a downtown public square in Riyadh. This is the place commonly known as chop-chop square, where public [...]