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Home » ColumnsGovt. accused of recognising Junta in Myanmar
A motley crowd led by onetime presidential candidate Siritunga Jayasuriya staged a protest last Tuesday outside the Myanmar Embassy at Flower Road in Colombo. Their aim was to condemn the military coup d’etat in Myanmar (former Burma) on February 1. Troops captured power and arrested Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi whose National [...]
Lot of sound and fury over CoI final report on Easter Sunday attacks
There was plenty of finger pointing between the Government and the Opposition as the Parliamentary debate on the final report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks began on Wednesday. Government MPs appealed for patience and made assurances that all those responsible will be punished. Opposition MPs meanwhile, questioned the Government’s [...]
Celebrating the silver anniversary of our greatest cricketing win
My dear Arjuna, Aravinda and the World Cup winning cricket team, I thought of writing to you this week because in just three days you would be celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of your famous victory in Lahore. I know it is an occasion to be proud of but at this time, it is difficult to [...]
Signs of politicisation impeding probes into Easter Sunday attacks
The whole country is of one mind in wanting investigators to identify the mastermind(s) behind the Easter Sunday attacks and ensure that they are produced before the Courts and punished. Not only the Roman Catholic community which bore the brunt of the attacks nor the Muslim community on whom the responsibility is sought to be [...]
Increasing exports vital to improve balance of payments and foreign reserves
The expectation of a loan of US$ 500 million and a currency swap of US$ one billion from the People’s Republic of China are the immediate relief to the country’s perilous state of external finances. These will strengthen the reserves, enhance the confidence in the country’s capacity to meet this year’s foreign debt obligations and [...]
The stirring of the Rajapaksa heartland in protest and lessons well learnt
‘Get out Russia, get out China’ said the placards of Civil Disobedience activists in Myanmar as they continued to defy the crackdown by the junta. A deadly death count with more than fifty men, women and children mowed down by security forces and counting, has not deterred Myanmar’s professionals from joining the protest movement; ‘our [...]
Blowing hot, blowing cold on Easter Sunday’s bomb report
The final report of the Presidential Commission on the Easter Sunday bombings may be another cross Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith will have to bear in his relentless quest to bring justice to his Catholic flock who suffered the brunt of Muslim extremist violence two years ago. Even before the report was handed over to him, he [...]
Who says things are all bad here
Social media is to blame. It is they who fire all the verbal cannon balls at the government, we are told. It targets the uniformed kind who has replaced the suit and tie wearing gentlemen that sat behind those plush desks and wrote learned missives that many of the political bigwigs did not understand. No [...]
UK and core group wrap up tough resolution on SL
Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa will fly to Bangladesh on Friday Dhaka will support Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council Group of SLPP MPs ask the Premier to remove Minister Weerawansa President tells ex-councillors, PC polls will be held and confirms he met Election Commission members The Government’s incredulously flawed initiatives at the UN Human [...]
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