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Home » ColumnsPort workers on strike: Give me that, give me that, give me that Banana
President’s office orders probe and action against strikers Unrest erupted at the Jaya Container Terminal of the Colombo Port early yesterday after Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) workers went on strike because they were not served the usual banana with their meal. SLPA workers are already incensed over the controversial event hosted this week by [...]
A questionable exit
My dear Chaminda, I am writing to you after having heard that you had taken everyone by surprise by resigning your seat in Parliament this week. In a country where no one retires or steps down even when they are well past their retirement age, but attempts to cling on to power forever, this came [...]
2024 begins with a bang: A shock resignation and host of new bills passed
By Sandun Jayawardana Parliament’s first sitting week in 2024 got off to an explosive start, with a shock resignation and a flurry of legislative activity, as a host of new bills were passed by the legislature through the course of the week. Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Badulla District MP Chaminda Wijesiri announced to the House [...]
Anti narcotics operation: The end cannot justify the means
It is axiomatic that the ends can never justify the means in any course of action however laudable the objective may be. The current operation launched by the Police against the narcotic trade is undoubtedly a course of action that the public would unhesitatingly applaud. However the events that have unfolded during the past few [...]
Economic consequences of the expanding Gaza war
The escalation and expansion of Israel’s war in Gaza and the rerouting of ships along the southern coast of Africa will increase shipping costs by over one hundred percent. International price hikes cause severe hardships for the Sri Lankan economy. Fuel, food, fertiliser, and raw material imports are likely to increase. International supply chains would [...]
‘Old’ Wine in ‘New’ Bottles? – Sri Lanka’s pesky Anti-Terrorism Bill has surfaced again
When Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister calls upon an opposing parliamentary colleague taking issue with the ‘new’ Anti-Terrorism Bill tabled in Parliament this week, to justify where and in what country, anti-terrorism laws are solely dispensed with, he is missing the wood for the trees to put it mildly. The burden of the State The Minister [...]
Death cult leader’s suicide and the advent of Maithree Buddha imposter
Religious weirdoes prowl the bleak Paradise the Gods forsook Perhaps, it’s the poverty, a pathological sense of utter despair prevailing in the land that has made countless Lankans renounce their ancestral faith and blindly follow a crop of religious fakirs, living Buddhas and miracle prophets that have suddenly mushroomed in the island. If that was [...]
Red Sea alert: Standing foreign policy on its head
Was the Sri Lanka government’s decision to throw in its lot with the US-led initiative against the Houthis in the growing conflict in the Red Sea just a knee-jerk reaction or a considered, well-thought-out one? If one might reverse the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’s famous remark at the unveiling of his portrait at the [...]
Ranil to contest presidential election as ‘Grand Alliance’ candidate
UNP inner circle holds two important meetings to draw up campaign strategy Parliament to be prorogued on January 26 and President to address nation at ceremonial opening of Parliament on February 7, not on Independence Day Transparency International urges CIABOC to crack down on corruption now that it has been given wide powers UNHRC expresses [...]
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