Rejection of the Clan and the Dawn of a New Era!
Photography via Yahoo News A dark cloud hanging over the sky in the tiny Island of Sri Lanka has started to move away into the Indian Ocean after the defeat of Rajapakse…
Author: Dr. Siri Gamage
The Moment, Opportunity and the Possibility for Change
Photo via The Republic Square The moment and opportunity have arrived! Sri Lankans are going to the polling booths across the country on this 8th day of January 2015 to elect their…
Presidential Election 2015: Projection of Probable Results
Photograph via Colombo Gazette Further to the initial forecast I made in my previous article (, 1st January 2015), in this article I make several projections about the possible result in the forthcoming…
2015 Presidential Election in Sri Lanka: An Initial Forecast
Photograph Colombo Gazette As we approach the final week of campaigning for the Presidential election, the political messages of both coalitions are becoming clearer. So are the strategies of both coalitions and…
Thuggery (Chandikama) as a Method of Intimidation, Bullying and Harassment in the South
Image courtesy Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) Use of thugs ‘chandiyas’ or ‘marayas’ by those in authority has its roots in the colonial period. Later, Sinhalese politicians adopted this method in…
Crossover Politics, Political Class and the Craving for Positions (tanaturu)
Photo courtesy Thailand News At present there is much drama regarding the cross overs from the ruling coalition to the opposition and vice versa on the political stage. On one hand these…
Development, Moral Order and Power-Money Politics: Critical Thoughts
Photo courtesy Marvellous Sri Lanka Interesting arguments and counter arguments emerge from the political stage in Sri Lanka these days as the campaigning for the Presidential election heats up. Political leaders on…
Collective awakenings and watershed changes in society: Are they in the offing?
Photo courtesy Asian Tribune When the Berlin Wall fell as a result of continuous and determined efforts of the people of then East Germany, and the Perestroika initiated by Gorbechev, it was…
Synthetic development, commodification of the body and the vote under neo-liberal economic policies: Where to now?
Photo credit Marvellous Sri Lanka In modern day governance, there are certain principles that peace-loving people expect the rulers to implement. One of them is accountability. Accountability for the actions, expenditure, decisions,…
Imbalance of power between the Executive and the Legislature, Constitutional Dilemmas and the Need for a Community-Oriented Model
Photo courtesy Wikipedia For a society to function smoothly, there has to be a commonly agreed framework of governance. This framework defines and specifies the way those who are elected to govern…
The conflict between Israel and Gaza: Silence of UN and US led world
Photography via Slate On again and off again ceasefires, rocket launches, bombings and killings involving Israel and Gaza dominate television news at this time. When the indirect talks between the two sides…
A systems approach based on a rights framework for the governance of Sri Lanka
Photo via FT.lk I read the article titled 05/09/2014) by Dayapala Thiranagama with interest. It looks at the construction of Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy model, strengths and weaknesses of RHP, and the weaknesses…
Cultural Domination and Subordination among the Sinhalese: Colonialism, Resistance, Religion and Critical Discourse
Image from Rough Guides In my previous two articles I discussed Caste and Class domination and subordination. In this article, I am looking closely at cultural domination in the context of post-independent…
The ‘Post-colonial Grip’ and ‘Class Domination’: Sinhalese Upper and Middle Classes
At a time where there is much discussion on how the Western powers are dominating the world, in particular the global South including countries such as Sri Lanka, it is important to…
Complexities of Sinhalese Ethnicity and Community: Caste, Kinship and Religion
Image courtesy Karava of Sri Lanka Due to the war with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam for over three decades in Sri Lanka, the attention of many including academics, journalists, foreign observers…