New Redemptorist Missionary Community at Hewadiwela
The Redemptorist Congregation of priests and brothers in Sri Lanka, celebrated a new missionary presence and outreach on Sunday, July 12, by accepting pastoral responsibility for the parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Hewadiwela in the Diocese of Ratnapura. In the presence of a large gathering of local people, Most Rev Cletus Perera, [...]
Democracy and decency
LONDON – We have long been dangerously slow to recognise, let alone resist, the undermining of liberal democracies by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s post-KGB thugocracy and China’s more economically successful version of aggressive Leninism. I saw the Russian side of the problem up close when I was the European Union’s commissioner for external affairs from [...]
Will Sri Lanka end up as a stratocracy like Myanmar?
War is a continuation of politics by other means’ is a saying of a Prussian general, Karl Von Clausewitz around two centuries ago. In recent times in this country, the use of this Prussian military and political wisdom is observed in the reverse. Politics, it appears, continues to be subject in multiple ways from the [...]
Police indiscipline and Police bashing
The Defence Secretary, the Attorney General and Cabinet Ministers are heard these days vociferously bashing the Police, alleging corruption and inefficiency. Surely, police officers are human beings, and they cannot be transformed to become ideal police officers by waving the word ‘Police’ as if the mere word ‘Police’ is a magic wand. It is vetting [...]
Remembering Lakshman Kadirgamar
As we near the end of July, I cannot help musing that next month will mark 15 years since Lakshman Kadirgamar, one of the most distinguished and able persons to fulfil the role of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister was cruelly assassinated by the LTTE on August 12, 2005 in his own house in Bullers Lane [...]