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May Day hijacked by politicians

Workers of the world – or at least in Sri Lanka – ‘Divide’. The rallying call of the International Workers, from the barricades as they romantically say, for workers of the world to ‘Unite’ is now a thing of the past. The interests of the working class have been submerged by the interests of the [...]

Putting the houses in order

Our Political Editor deals on this page with the state of confusion within the National Government on the issue of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and like the VAT itself, the confusion has been passed on to the people. Such confusion has become the hallmark of the UNP-SLFP coalition Government. It also betrays the competitive [...]

The economic heat is on

The heat is indeed unbearable, but the suffering multitude will know that, at least by Vesak next month, the weather will be kinder. Whether the people will be able to look with similar anticipation on the economic front is doubtful. Many know, with the ending of the Avurudu season, hard times are ahead. The Finance [...]

Historic victory for investigative journalism

The world was shaken up this week with the leaks of the ‘Panama Papers’ exposing the financial shenanigans of world leaders, past and present. They showed how such leaders of men, women and nations and their business side-kicks hid their embezzled wealth in tax havens around the world and thereby avoided paying taxes in their [...]

Cash-strapped Govt. turns to China

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa once told the then Indian High Commissioner, who complained to him that the contract for the extension of the Colombo harbour had been given to China, not to worry too much as the next extension contract would be given to India. That was his simplistic ‘Non Aligned’ policy of balancing the [...]

Terrorism: End the duplicity

Europe is reeling under yet another terrorist attack on one of its capitals; its cities are locked down and on high alert. All Sri Lanka can say is “we’ve been there before; we’ve seen it all”. We know the pain and anguish law-abiding peace-loving citizens are going through in those countries. Even across the Atlantic, [...]

Darkness at noon

A fortnight ago, we mentioned in this space how farmers accustomed to a fertilizer subsidy would resist its withdrawal even if it came packaged differently. Similarly, this country, now accustomed to uninterrupted power supply, considered a privilege in countries in this part of the world, went ballistic this week when plunged into the third major [...]

Important role for oversight committees

The Parliamentary Oversight Committees began their work this week, but alas, it was not a very auspicious start. Many Members of Parliament did not attend the inaugural meeting. Long advocated by the Prime Minister as what he calls turning the whole Parliament into a Government, the scheme is an extension to the National Government now [...]

He came, he saw, he conjured

Foreign experts, they used to say, were persons who came to the country to find out, and left before they were found out. Foreign correspondents were known as “Running Johns” or “Running Janes” as the case may be, for the ‘in-out’ reporting they would do from the world’s hot-spots. One recalls these jibes of the [...]

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