Sri Lanka After Geneva: Quo Vadis?
Yet another resolution on Sri Lanka has passed in the UN Human Rights Council, 20 member states voting for it, seven against and 20 abstaining. This resolution will facilitate the continuation of…
Author: Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
Governance in Sri Lanka: We Must Not Miss This Opportunity
The situation in the country is one of dynamism as well as stalemate. Dynamism on account of the determination, creativity and resilience of the Gotagogama demonstrators, the extension of their efforts to…
The Geneva Mess
The farcical arithmetic of the regime and its apparatchiks notwithstanding- that the abstentions should be counted as support for the regime and the majority of the world’s population is with it –…
Sri Lanka at 73 – Reaching Out to Liechtenstein!
“I was fascinated with the theme that we must make it happen together, which was perhaps said a countless number of times during your presentation. But Sri Lanka has a problem. We are…
Needed: A Foreign Policy Beyond the Shackles of Necessity
Within weeks of each other, the Chinese Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State visited Sri Lanka, underscoring our importance in the geostrategic struggle for power in the Indian Ocean or…
The Significance of 1983
I was a PhD student in London when the carnage of July 1983 erupted and thank God for the bravery and foresight of my mother and sister, my family was saved from…
Government without Parliament and Government by the Military?
Photo courtesy The distinguishing feature of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and indeed, at the same time the cause for concern with regard to him, is that he was never elected to any office until…
Easter Sunday Savagery: The Unanswered Questions
Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP via Al Jazeera Whilst the security operations continue, it is time for the committee set up by the president and indeed the rest of us, to consider the…
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE: WHERE ARE THE CHAMPIONS?
Image courtesy TJ Sri Lanka There is no getting away from the issue of international participation in the accountability mechanism, specifically that of foreign judges. The 2015 Geneva resolution co-sponsored by the…
A Fifty of a Hundred Days to Few, or too Many?
Image courtesy A former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson made the oft- quoted remark that a week is a long time in politics. What then of fifty days, not to mention a…
The Contest
Photo via wx135 The announcement that Maithripala Sirisena, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Minister of Health in the Rajapaksa regime is to be The Common Candidate of…
Engaging with Civil Society
Photo courtesy Recently, the media reported that the Defence Secretary held a meeting in the Defence Ministry with a number of NGOs who had worked with the GOSL and the Commonwealth Foundation…
The Advisory Council of Experts: A council, a council, my kingdom for a council?
Photo by REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte via Malaysian Insider Some observations are in order on the President’s appointment of an international panel of experts to advise the Commission on Disappearances. The Commission comprising Maxwell Paranagama,…
The President and his apparatchiks: Loving children most, their toys even more?
Photo by AP, courtesy The other day, killing time in the airport lounge, I picked up the Sunday Observer. Not something I do on a regular basis, never having been able to…
Sri Lanka: Post-Geneva, Post-Provincial Council Elections
Photograph by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images via Al Jazeera Post- Geneva and post- PC elections, some clarifications are in order because the resolution, locally, came to be obscured by the fog of elections and…