Lockdown at Last: Too Little, Too Late?
“The most sacred laws of justice are the laws which guard the life and person of our neighbor.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments After nearly ten months of refusing a lockdown,…
Author: Jude Fernando
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…
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…
Hitler and the LTTE: On Polarisation and Fascism
.—Ven. Vendaruwe Upali Thero (Anunayaka of the Asgiriya Chapter), advising Lt. Col. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the former Secretary of Defense. —Vijayakala Maheswaran, M.P, United National Party. The timing of these two ill-thought-out and…
Racism in Education, Religion and Neoliberalism: Empowering the anti-minority extremists?
Image courtesy The highly-educated and hyper-religious Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is consistently failing to apply inclusive, just, and peaceful approaches to resolving the country’s violent inter-communal clashes. The unfolding narrative…
Sri Lankan Parliament and the UNHRC Resolution: Will Justice Prevail Over Politics?
Picture courtesy Foreign Policy – South Asia. “.” – Arthur Schopenhauer “.” ― Thomas Hardy On October 20, 2015, the Sri Lankan Parliament will debate the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) resolution on…
Why do ‘Hybrids’ oppose the Hybrid Court?
Photo courtesy SBS Sri Lankans as individuals and as members of diverse ethnic groups are cultural, economic, and political hybrids. They are receptive to hybridity in anything and everything they do, without…
Truth and accountability: Corruption, human rights abuses and war crimes
Photo courtesy International Business Times “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a…
An end to culture of retaliation: Transitional justice in Sri Lanka
Photo via Asia News “In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?”—St. Augustine “When will our conscience grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather…
Towards an Inclusive Constitution for Natural Justice
Image from Wall Street Journal The period that we have before us comprises the most motley mixture of crying contradictions: constitutionalists who conspire openly against the constitution; revolutionists who are confessedly constitutional;…
Appointment of the new Chief Justice in Sri Lanka: Resistance should continue
Photo by AFP/ Ishara S. Kodikara, via – (Mathiaparanan Abraham Sumanthiran MP) No self-respecting person with integrity, or a shred of concern for justice should accept the President’s offer to become the…
Impeachment Misadventure and the Advent of the Spring in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Dawn, by AFP “Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.” Epicurus The iniquitous ex parte guilty verdict of…
The Parliamentary Select Committee is a mistrial: Annul the impeachment report
Photo courtesy “Bonaparte throws the whole bourgeois economy into confusion, violates everything that seemed inviolable to the Revolution of 1848, makes some tolerant of revolution and makes others lust for it, and…
Black, Brown, and White Voters Could Think Alike: A Quest for a New Social Contract!
Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP, courtesy Christian Science Monitor Implicit in Mitt Romney’s claim that President Obama won the election with “gifts” to people of color, women, and youth is the idea that…
Reflections on the US Presidential Elections
Photo courtesy BBC The outcome of the United States Presidential elections is too close to call. Yet, three presidential debates reinforced the perception among informed voters that Mitt Romney is both a…