Elections Are the Only Way Forward
Verité Research The young Sri Lankan cricket team has done the impossible and beaten the powerful Australian cricket team several times in the shorter formats of the game, giving Sri Lankans some…
Author: Harim Peiris
Need for Parallel Political and Economic Reforms
There is a fallacy being promoted by the reconstituted Rajapaksa regime that political reforms such as the proposed 21st Amendment are not really necessary or at least have already occurred through the change…
The Inverted October Coup
The president of Sri Lanka, sensing the serious frustration of the electorate at non-performance, sacks his prime minister and swears in another prime minister. The former prime minister was reinstated but even…
The Need of the Hour: A Nelson Mandela
Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown requires urgent remedial measures and the political impasse created by a president and his administration, which both refuse to either take responsibility or credibly effect corrective policy measures,…
A Divided Government Loses its Two Thirds Majority
Last week witnessed the coming to the fore of the deep divisions within the governing alliance as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked two Cabinet Ministers, Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpilla, and laid bare…
The PTA and Defending the Human Rights of a Sovereign People
The onset of the bi-annual sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in which Sri Lanka features prominently on the agenda through UNHRC Resolution 46/1, contributes to several local activities.…
Catholic Church Demands Justice for Easter Sunday Attacks
The latest drama in the long running saga of the Easter Sunday bombings was the sudden arrest by the CID and subsequent release by the Magistrate’s Court of social activist and Easter…
All Shock and No Therapy for Hapless Population
Guardian A nation was promised vistas of prosperity and splendor and about 6.9 million voters opted for it, subsequently providing a two third parliamentary majority to implement the vision. A little over…
Failing to Defend the Indefensible in Geneva
Currently as the UN General Assembly (UNGA) sessions proceed in New York, the real action is at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, where the conduct of the Sri Lankan…
A Cabinet Reshuffle for a Much Needed Course Correction
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, approximately a third of the way into his term of office, carried out the most significant mid term cabinet reshuffle in recent Sri Lankan political history. The closest in…
Internal Dissent and Increasing Opposition to the Port City Bill
Aluth avurudu is generally a relaxed period in the country where most people spend time with family following various traditions. But the SLPP/Rajapaksa Administration upended this situation and in the pre-avurudu period…
SJB Charts a Clear Alternative National Security Policy
Subsequent to the recent release of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Attacks and after the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva had passed a resolution…
Changing the Human Rights Discourse
As the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) winds its way in Geneva, it is now almost certain that the country specific resolution on Sri Lanka, presented by the…
Mike Pompeo Seeks to Stop Sri Lanka’s Slide to China
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was in Sri Lanka last week as part of his Asian tour that included regional power India as well as the Maldives. Coincidently his visit came…
The Continuing October Revolutions in Sri Lanka
“October Revolution” is a term that used to gladden the hearts of Communist stalwarts the world over, our own left parties included. It was the occasion, more than a century ago, when…