It was fairly clear even before yesterday’s debate that the Prime Minister would not easily be defeated on the no-confidence motion, given the configuration of party representation in the current Parliament. The…
Photo courtesy UN Aids A quiet revolution is taking place in the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep that only a few close observers have so far noticed. During the…
Photo AP Photo/Sujeewa Kumar via The phrase ‘regime-change’ is often used to describe the dramatic result of the presidential election on 8th January 2015, both in the sense of a democratic change of…
Photo via News First The Sri Lankan constitutional reform process has been ebbing and flowing, but in recent weeks, the promise of 8th January seemed to be more ebbing than flowing in…
Photo courtesy Maithripala Sirisena website “” – Edmund Burke (1790) With just over a month after the installation of the new government and its commencement of the 100-day reform process, the situation…
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Guardian “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu In his first trip abroad to India, the new Foreign Minister has stated that…
Photo courtesy The Business Times If there was a central plank to the common opposition platform in the presidential election, it was about what to do with the executive presidential system in…
Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images, via Huffington Post According to President Maithripala Sirisena’s timetable for his 100-day reform programme, the Standing Orders of Parliament are to be amended on 20th January to…
Cartoon by Awantha Artigala via Sri Lanka 16 days Chapter 11 of the common opposition candidate’s presidential election manifesto is devoted to media freedom. Among other things, it includes simple commitments such…
Photo courtesy Asian Tribune Among the countless blows struck by the Rajapaksa regime against the Rule of Law over the last decade, perhaps the most egregious was the illegal impeachment of Chief…
Image courtesy Newsfirst In the flood of commentary that has followed the former Chief Justice Sarath Silva’s public intervention regarding the potential illegality of President Rajapaksa seeking a third term, many have…
Photo by AFP courtesy Asia One Amidst strong indications following the Uva provincial election result that a panicked regime is planning an early presidential election, there has been a vigorous debate in…
Image by AFP’s Ishara Kodikara courtesy Foreign Correspondents Association Sri Lanka There was a remarkable image in the news recently. It was from the meeting of the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera’s National…
Image from YouTube video Dr Dayan Jayatilleka’s book, , now in its second revised edition of 2014, is one of the few book-length attempts by a Sri Lankan scholar to make sense…
[Photo credit: The Empire Youth Annual, 1952] “For centuries the Sinhalese and the Tamils have lived together in peace and amity. We have been governed by their kings and they by ours…
