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Home » ColumnsCambridge bows to Diaspora pressure; Oxford goes ahead with Namal’s address
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) National Organiser and MP Namal Rajapaksa is headed to the United Kingdom despite attempts by some sections of the Tamil diaspora to stop him from addressing the Oxford Union. The Cambridge Union, which had also invited him to address it, yielded to the pressure from diaspora groups and cancelled the [...]
A princely problem
My dear King Charles, I am writing to you at this trying time after your brother Andrew was arrested for alleged ‘misconduct in public office’. I hope you won’t mind me not addressing you as ‘Your Majesty’. We are a republic now and not one of your colonies, though some still wish that power would [...]
Sri Lanka’s economy could face severe external shocks
The Sri Lankan economy could face severe external shocks of higher tariffs, high oil prices and lower remittances. The Sri Lankan economy could be facing these severe external shocks if the tariff wars continue and the West Asian conflict escalates. Higher tariffs on exports to the US, increased prices for oil and other imports, reduced [...]
The Atukorala murder case; why this double faced stand on presidential pardons?
It is doubtful that anyone, including academics and politicians, emotionally calling upon President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to issue a presidential pardon for the twelve accused sentenced to death for the brutal killing of a parliamentarian and his security officer in the thick of the ‘aragalaya’ (peoples’ protest) in 2022, had actually taken the time, trouble [...]
Peace without justice for the Palestinian people and the illusion of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
In Washington last Thursday, a spectacle of geopolitical theatre unfolded that would have made even the most seasoned playwright blush. President Donald Trump, surrounded by a hand-picked assembly of allies and high-rolling developers, inaugurated his much-trumpeted “Board of Peace”. The air was thick with self-congratulation, a televised exercise in ego-massaging that projected a vision of [...]
Not only Justice remains blindfolded but Lanka’s Cabinet Ministers as well
Following the brutal killings of Attorney-at-Law Buddhika Mallawaarachchi and his wife Nisansala last Friday the 13th, the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Rajeev Amarasuriya, issued a statement last Saturday, summoning the membership to a ‘Special General Meeting’ to be held the following day, Sunday the 15th of February. ‘The last time such [...]
Year of the horse-and asses and donkeys too, presumably
This year dawned rather inauspiciously, if one is permitted a euphemism where the cantankerous President Trump is concerned. On January 3, that great man in the sky who believes he rules the world let loose his dogs of war. Just to sum up, he literally stole Venezuela’s ruling president and his wife, probably unaware that [...]
Diplomacy takes centre stage as President meets world leaders in busy week
AKD holds bilateral talks with Modi, Macron, Tobgay and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in New Delhi after meeting IMF chief and British deputy premier here Influential Buddhist monks deliver tough message to President, urging him to discipline his MPs By our Political Desk It was a good week for the government [...]
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