The Constitution, the Judiciary, and Citizens
My wife, like many of her fellow citizens these days, has become very interested in learning about our Constitution and its 19th Amendment. She even borrowed from me a copy of the…
Year: 2018
The Violence in Sri Lankan Parliament: A Mirror Image of Our Culture of Violence
“” George Orwell “.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn There is no gainsaying in condemning the current parliamentary violence. Nevertheless, our reactions to such violence—surprise and shock—imply that we think such abhorrent uncivilised behavior is…
Friday Night ‘Special’
Welcome to Lanka who has lost her good reason, Where people must fight in and out of their season. Each one for themselves and not one for the other, Now whom can…
Economic policy-making impacted by grave political instability: Friday Forum
The Friday Forum shares the despair and disgust of most Sri Lankans with recent political events in the country that have now spiraled into a serious impasse in governance. The economic, social…
A Quest For Power: Mahinda, Ranil or Sirisena?
“” (‘The Tempest’) Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe are invoking the notion of the ’will of the people’ to conceal their selfish interests, and their amoral and deracinated feudal elitism. The current…
The Parliament Fair
I went to the Parliament fair, The thugs and the thieves they were there, A big buffoon, in broad daylight at noon, Had taken the Speaker’s Chair. The thugs and the thieves…
#CoupLK: A Timeline
President Maithripala Sirisena’s removal of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointment of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set in motion a chain of events that, right up to the time of writing, have…
Write to the Speaker: Template of letter to report violent MPs
The Parliament of Sri Lanka approved a Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament on 7 March 2018 and adopted it with effect from 15 April 2018. Part VIII of the Code…
Free For All
On November 16, a 3 day long standoff between the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the United National Front, the Tamil National Alliance and the JVP turned violent. In an unprecedented move,…
THE COUP DE GRACE ON THE COUP D’ETAT?
Since 26 October, virtually every gambit and calculation of the instigators of the Sri Lankan constitutional coup have failed. Initially, they relied on the element of surprise to cover up the illegality…
Supreme Court: Freedom’s Last Defense
The constitution is perhaps the most read official document in Sri Lanka today. Subjected to selective reading, a few of its words and sentences have been gaining some strange interpretations. Amidst an…
Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole: The Election Commission Believes the President Violated the Constitution
All three members of Sri Lanka’s Election Commission (EC) believe that President Maithripala Sirisena violated the constitution when he issued a Proclamation to dissolve Parliament and called for elections, according to Professor…
Multiple Legal Challenges to Presidential Proclamation on Dissolving Parliament
At least 10 petitions challenging the Presidential proclamation to dissolve Parliament and call for general elections were filed before the Supreme Court on November 12. Among the respondents were political parties, members…
On Interpretation of the Constitution: Statement by 75 Lawyers, Academics
We the undersigned, note with concern, the methods by which the Constitution of Sri Lanka is being interpreted to justify the appointment of a purported Prime Minister on the 26th of October,…
The Dissolution of Parliament in the Constitution of Sri Lanka
Further exacerbating the constitutional crisis that he precipitated a fortnight ago, President Sirisena issued a proclamation purporting to dissolve Parliament on 9thNovember 2018. Having prorogued Parliament and then lost the gamble to…