Columns
Home » ColumnsP. B. wants quarterly reports from state agencies: ‘‘This is all. Manage it.’’
“For seventy years we have had deficit budgets except for one or two years. My fundamental question is if a private company ran 70 years like this, it would have got bankrupt, not even in the books as a company but this country has survived. Does it mean it is a sustainable fiscal path? No,” [...]
Protests, poor people’s plight and passports
Verbal battles over the protest organised by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Colombo on Tuesday (16) resulted in heated exchanges between Government and Opposition MPs and dominated proceedings this week during the Second Reading of Budget 2022. SJB MPs were incensed by what they charged were Government’s attempts through the police to intimidate and [...]
A dismal report card
My dear Gota maama, I am writing to you this week to congratulate you on completing two years in the highest office in the land – and probably the toughest job in the country. Many people are complaining, but you shouldn’t be. This is what you wanted to do because you wanted to usher in [...]
Dysfunctional governance directly linked to 20A
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that there is a total breakdown in governance in the country. Notwithstanding the centralisation of power in the office of the Executive Presidency and the Government’s two-third majority in Parliament, there is a sense of chaos in the country in relation to the delivery of basic services expected [...]
Is the 2022 budget a step towards fiscal consolidation?
Reducing the fiscal deficit to five percent of GDP by 2025 is of utmost importance for economic stability and growth. Will the 2022 Budget usher in a process of reducing the fiscal deficit towards that goal? Budget deficit Although, prior to the 2022 Budget, key officials indicated that the fiscal deficit would be brought down [...]
Which comes first, the political chicken or the agitator’s egg?
There is a certain sense of sanctimonious humbuggery on our part when we raise our hands to the heavens to scorn the sight of mass crowds on Colombo’s streets agitating against policies of the Government which have dire impact on Sri Lanka’s poor. Responsibility of the State for unjust policies That too, when remaining (largely) [...]
Grassroots rumblings brought loud and clear to capital ear
This Sunday morn the minister in charge of the police, Sarath Weerasekera, will no doubt be patting himself on the back for a job well done to have deployed his police force and effectively kept the multitudes from thronging the city gates to protest over rising prices and shortages in the country: a country which [...]
Making friends or losing them
Speaking on Basil Rajapaksa’s maiden budget, Trade Minister and cabinet colleague Bandula Gunawardena said the finance minister had done something “that nobody else has done.” That is indeed true. But I seriously doubt Minister Gunawardena and I were on the same wave length, so to speak. I too thought that the fourth Rajapaksa sibling to [...]
Opposition SJB defies ban and holds protest march amid blockade by nervous Govt.
Sajith says police action shows ruling coalition afraid of SJB, vows to form corruption-free administration Panic over fuel shortages points to lack of public trust in ruling coalition; dissent within Govt. grows As Govt. mulls economic bailout, Cabinet divided over IMF option; Vasu against the move; Ranil pushes for it Govt. antagonizes public servants, its [...]
Read More