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Home » ColumnsPresident Sirisena’s credibility faces tough test
UNP insists on April 23 dissolution of Parliament and elections, but SLFP wants electoral reforms before polls Surprising turn of events at sub-committee meeting as SLFP presents comprehensive document for constitutional reforms Crucial talks tomorrow between two major parties, crisis may erupt if talks fail The Government this week crossed the half way mark of [...]
Oh, what a tangled web you weave!
I thought I must write to you because you are very much in the news these days, be it organising rallies at Nugegoda or attending to your sick ‘haamine’. Whatever people blame you for, I am sure they cannot blame you for not being a source of controversy and sensational headlines! Wimal, we didn’t give [...]
Short-term expediency unavoidable: Long-run economic governance imperative
Much of the criticism of the interim budget has been based on it being a populist budget owing to its price reductions, relief measures, salary increases and some new taxes. The interim budget must be viewed within the context of a political strategy to defeat a regime that was characterised as corrupt and autocratic, and [...]
The police, witness protection and ‘Yahapalanaya’
A most discomfiting sight witnessed in Sri Lanka post the January 2015 ‘yahapalanaya’ elections was this week’s less than coherent public haranguing of the country’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his officers by the new Government’s Public Security Minister John Amaratunga. Lack of political will manifested The general theme appeared to be that government [...]
UNHRC Resolution 25/1 and the new charge of ‘genocide’
In case the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to postpone its report on alleged Sri Lankan war crimes gives the mistaken impression that the movers of the Resolution 25/1 have become more ‘accommodating,’ it would be useful to take a closer look at their reasons for acceding to the request for deferral, and for the [...]
Former VIP MP opens tax files now
This week, a retired Inland Revenue chief, now a consultant to a law firm opened not so long ago by a young VIP lawyer MP under his own name, trudged all the way to the southern town of Matara to open a tax file for the young lawyer — no longer a VIP but an [...]
‘Send in the Clowns’ ruse to gloss crackdown fiasco
All women tend to lie about their age. But not all women get landed in the slammer for it. Sashi’s – or is it Shehasa’s or is it Shirja’s’s — alleged mistake was to have falsified her name and age on documents tendered to obtain a diplomatic passport, an offence which carries a sentence of [...]
Highway to information and diplomatic roadblocks
So the much-wanted Right to Information (R2I) draft bill that was to be presented to parliament on February 20 got stuck somewhere before it could reach that hallowed assembly at Diyawanna Oya. It was the new Media Ministry secretary who said the draft bill would be tabled in parliament on that date. Now it has [...]