Bodu Bala Senā and Buddhism’s militant face in Sri Lanka
Image courtesy website One of the first things I had to do in the new year was to firmly remind my (Lankan) Facebook friends to avoid posting or tagging me to any…
Year: 2013
Waking up to migrant employment through Rizana Nafeek
Image via BBC Much is written on Rizana Nafeek’s extremely unfortunate fate in Saudi Arabia (SA). Some written with anger let loose on the government and some on licensed agencies and every…
An unprecedented constitutional crisis in Sri Lanka elicits a yawn
Sri Lanka’s Parliament debated the impeachment of the country’s Chief Justice over two days last week. In the course of these debates, and akin to the critical submissions by him during the…
The Republic at 40: Four decades of constitution (un)making in Sri Lanka
in the book and look at how the process leading to and the substance of the 1972 constitution continues to influence present day constitutional challenges and the timbre of governance. We begin…
The consequences of the Black Friday impeachment will be game changing
Image by AP, courtesy The Hindu The Black Friday impeachment is another shameful day in the history of our country. The absolute majority in parliament obtained through dubious means has been used…
Response to “Racing tanks with Bicycles: A parable of ‘Reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka”
In the wake of a Project where essential school items, bicycles and other items were donated at the Seeniyamottai resettlement village in December 2012, much discussion has taken place in public…
A legal primer: The impeachment of the Chief Justice in Sri Lanka
Photo from MSN News interviewed Luwie Ganeshathasan, a Researcher in the Legal and Constitutional Unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional home of this website), on several key issues arising…
LLRC & the Lessons on Devolution: Sri Lanka’s LLRC Revisited
Learning lessons is a humbling experience. It takes place with the admission that one has made mistakes. Having made them, one feels the adverse consequences; having felt them, one realizes the importance…
The Rajapaksa ‘Sangamaya’: Creating employees and customers of citizens
Image from Lanka Standard The following video features the last couple of a minutes of a longer speech delivered by Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama at the launch of ) on 21st December 2012….
Sri Lanka’s LLRC Timeline: Update 1
In August 2012, visual timeline tracing key events and developments around the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), from its inception to the implementation of its action plan, over the next three…
Impeachment Misadventure and the Advent of the Spring in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Dawn, by AFP “Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.” Epicurus The iniquitous ex parte guilty verdict of…
Action Plans and Information as a Guard Against Inaction: Sri Lanka’s LLRC Revisited
The LLRC Action Plan gives great weight to land questions, which makes a lot of sense. Solving problems relating to land ownership and usage would go a long way towards satisfying personal…
A-Z of Sri Lankan English: X is for extralinguistic communication
Illustrations below by Anura Srinath You have probably seen the YouTube clips of jehanr, which include How to speak Sri Lankan, Shit Sri Lankan mothers say, Apple iYo, etc. Whatever you think…
Bridging Sri Lanka’s Deficit of Hope
The opening scene in the German-Sri Lanka feature film unfolds at a garbage-strewn Colombo street, somewhere in the city’s underbelly. Three young men are putting up political posters, playing hide and seek…
Happy New Year
We wish all our contributors and readers a very happy New Year!