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Home » ColumnsLanka to set up regional maritime rescue coordinating centre
President Maithripala Sirisena who says “Sri Lanka has embarked on a broad initiative” to establish the country as a “premier maritime nation” wants to set up a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Colombo. In his capacity as the Minister of Defence, he has told the Cabinet that the purpose of such a centre is [...]
Lobby: JO haggling for time closes House early for New Year
What was to have been a day-long Parliamentary debate on the Resolution on Sri Lanka, adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) came to an abrupt end on Thursday, with both Speaker Karu Jayasuirya and Govt. members losing patience with members of the Joint Opposition Group (JOG) demanding they be allocated more time [...]
After New Year, Government to tackle crucial economic issues
PM says MoU with India essential for development and to allay concerns about China’s role More issues over Hambantota port deal, Cabinet approval given but talks continue and signing further delayed  Ranil insists debt servicing a priority; IMF says Lanka doing well on fiscal matters but other benchmarks still to be achieved By Our Political [...]
Fielding the same candidate later
My dear SB, I thought I should write to you after hearing about how you had already declared that Maithri would be the candidate from the Blue party at the next election to choose the big boss. I was shocked and surprised to hear that because if it was so, I thought it should be [...]
Balance of payments difficulties reflect structural weaknesses
The current crisis in the balance of payments and the low external reserves of the country are symptomatic of fundamental weaknesses in the structure and performance of the economy over a period of time. Balance of payments crises will continue to recur if bold decisions are not taken to remedy the fundamental weaknesses in the [...]
Parliamentary oversight committees cannot replace public scrutiny
Should Sri Lanka have to continually contend with two extremes of rule? Must her unfortunate citizenry always be driven to either an elitist and mostly incompetent clique or, (on the other hand), a crowd of corrupt and communalistic villains peddling a poisonous cocktail of hatred? A ruinous pattern of law reform I may be blamed [...]
It is the media stupid
Politicians and others in search of a scapegoat to cover their blatant abuse of power, privilege and deplorable conduct find the media a convenient peg on which to hang their dirty linen. This is not a recent phenomenon. But it is increasingly becoming a major tool in today’s blame game. Nor is it a game [...]
Time to treat GMOA brass for acute SAITM paranoia
Haven’t the doctors belonging to the GMOA anything else better to do than solely think of SAITM? In these last two months they have been acting weird. They seem to think, breathe, eat, drink and do nothing else but brood over SAITM as if possessed by some devil who has cast an evil spell on [...]