Put back missing chairs and stop the APC musical chairs game!
For all intents and purposes, the All Party Conference (APC), has been a waste of time by playing for time, all the time. Periodic boycotts and exits of parties based on their…
Year: 2008
A brief note on the attack on J.C. Weliamuna
by R.M.B. Senanayake The attack on the human rights lawyer Weliamuna in the night where he is living with two small children show that danger is not far away from all citizens…
A short note from the Vanni
By Witness I traveled to the Vanni on 17th September, with the hope of getting a lorry load of foodstuff from Vavuniya to Vanni, but it was impossible, as the Killinochchhi Government…
Email and content sharing upgrades on Groundviews
is pleased to announce improvements to its back-end email subscription service. You can now enter any email address and have new articles emailed to you, in full, as soon as they are…
Media ‘Sakvithis’ in the dock in Sri Lanka?
In the past week, the name ‘Sakvithi’ has been causing ripples in Sri Lankan society and creating numerous news headlines — for all the wrong reasons. Sakvithi Ranasinghe, a populist tutor of…
Education, Citizenship and Development
Siri Hettige Professor of Sociology University of Colombo Education is recognized the world over as a means of achieving wider social and economic objectives. Modern education systems are designed in such a…
Corruption in the Education sector
People don’t realize that there is as much corruption in the private education sector as in the public sector for the corrupt counter party that offers the bribe or corrupt payment is…
Is Sri Lanka China’s Georgia?
Seven years after 9/11, we’re world orders. And winds of systemic change grip all nooks of the globe: the overstretch of America, geopolitical quicksand which is the Middle East, the benign growth…
Remembering A J Gunawardana: A creative public intellectual
September 2008 marks 10 years since the sudden death of Dr Ariyasena Jayasekera (A J) Gunawardana, an outstanding university teacher, writer/journalist, cinema personality and art critic. When he failed to regain consciousness…
Dhamma or Violence in Sri Lanka
A few weeks ago while in the Uda Walawe area I met an opposition party MP who had come to help in the provincial election campaign for the local candidates. As I…
Corporate Scandals with Impunity
One of our top listed companies which was picked for a top award by a Business Magazine was recently faulted by the Supreme Court in the case filed by Mr Vasudeva Nanayakkara…
Hearts and Minds: the forced exit of humanitarian agencies from the Vanni in Sri Lanka
The day before yesterday, the government of Sri Lanka ordered all humanitarian organisations to cease all operations and remove all personnel (except Vanni residents) and assets from the LTTE controlled part of…
The Politics of Winning in the Vanni
Fascists launch a final surge before they lose wars. The Kamikaze pilots were a last card against the US fleet. The Nazis developed the Tiger tank, launched the V-1 and V-2 rockets…
Women and politics in Sri Lanka: The challenges to meaningful participation
In an earlier article on titled ‘Half a Democracy‘,  the author referred to the virtual absence of women in political institutions in Sri Lanka, and their resultant inability to define politics and…
Understanding electoral results in Sri Lanka: Beyond winners and losers
Introduction The United People’s Freedom Party (UPFA) claimed its second consecutive provincial electoral victory on the 24th of August by winning a clear majority of seats in the North Central and Sabaragamuwa…
