Columns
Home » Columns‘‘Don’t feed politics into the numbers’’: parties wrangle over what election statistics really mean
By Sandun Jayawardana The national significance of the 2025 local government elections results was the dominant topic in Parliament this week, with government and opposition MPs offering up vastly different interpretations of what the results mean. The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) was keen to hammer home the point that it had won the largest [...]
Buddha relic in Viet Nam: AKD missed paying homage despite being nearby
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was honoured by an invitation to be the chief guest at the United Nations Vesak Day celebrations in Viet Nam earlier in the week. For some reason, though, he and his delegation missed paying homage to the sacred Buddha relic presently in the custody of the Maha Bodhi Society of India [...]
A waning star
My dear Anura sahodaraya, I thought of writing to you when you are analysing the results of last week’s local government polls, though you must be really tired after criss-crossing the country campaigning, rushing off to Vietnam and then returning on a special flight – which you were keen to tell us was arranged by [...]
Expectations of good governance by local councils amid economic challenges
There are expectations of good governance by the newly elected local councillors. Meanwhile, the government is facing formidable and unexpected economic threats due to tariffs imposed by the US and the likely recessionary conditions. Economic challenges Resolving the economic challenges is formidable. The government fulfilling its promises to usher in a rich and prosperous country [...]
Follies of the government, buffoonery by the opposition
Hearing Sri Lanka’s opposition parties in the South jubilantly crowing about a ‘win’ in Thursday’s local government elections, one would think that a magnificent feat had been accomplished on its part in reducing votes cast for the ruling National Peoples’ Party (NPP). Stinging lessons for the Government and the Opposition That is far from the [...]
To rid the seed incessant death All exulted Siddhartha’s advent
SUNDAY PUNCH VESAK FOCUS ON SIDDHARTHA’S BIRTH Morning has broken. The dawn, the world and the heavens had for epochs been waiting to break, has, finally, come to pass. On a Vesak full moon day in the far-off northern plains of India over twenty-five centuries ago, the rising sun sheds its tender early morn light [...]
Local Council polls: Will the Govt. heed the warning in the voters’ verdict?
Though the ruling NPP won a majority of councils, a steep decline is seen in its rural strongholds Failure to bring the corrupt to justice and reveal the masterminds of the Easter Sunday attacks is cited as a main reason for the decline in support In the north-east, ITAK and Tamil parties regain support In [...]
Read More