The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), as many legal experts have already argued, can be more dangerous than the draconian Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA). The legal reasons are now well…
These could be the last days of the Nineteenth Amendment. If not of its entirety, at least of a part of it, even a substantial part of it. The message that the…
Photo courtesy Getty via The Easter-Sunday attacks have changed a lot of things in Sri Lanka. It proved, if proof was indeed required, the sheer inefficiency of the present government. Some of…
The local government election of 10 February 2018 marked a triumphant return of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Though the polls were meant to elect representatives for local government bodies (the lowest tier…
Photography by James Morgan has continued to be a necessary space for discussing the cold peace that arrived with the conclusion of the war in May 2009. It was only in late-2009…
Troubled by the burgeoning demands for accountability, the erstwhile Rajapaksa-government developed a homogenous narrative about how to respond to the cries of the war’s victims for truth and justice. Promoted as a…
Photo courtesy Militarily demolished in May 2009, Tamil nationalism’s struggle has been a daunting one in post-war Sri Lanka. With the death of one of the most admired leaders within the Tamil…
Photo via Bloomberg With days turning into weeks and weeks into months, President Maithripala Sirisena appeared to have realized that power is ultimately the primary concern of politics and political leadership. What…
Photograph via VOA News It had to happen that way, and the break was only possible with a serious split within the regime. The moment had come for members of the SLFP…
Review of Harshan Kumarasingham’s A Political Legacy of the British Empire In our long discussions about Sri Lanka’s post-independence political history, India’s large shadow falls inevitably upon us, bringing with it a…
Anagarika Dharmapala, Letter of 15th June, 1915 (in A. Guruge, ed, (1991), p. 540-541 The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and its many monks take their ‘professional’ duty – the promotion of Sinhala…
Photo via Ministry of Mass Media and Information “The sovereignty of Sri Lanka is very much intact. And we want it to remain intact. We are Sri Lankans… And we don’t want…
Photo courtesy The marauding Buddhist monks, who appear to be tied to a long political leash, have run out of control. They need to be stopped. But it is equally necessary to…
Image courtesy AFP The TNA has swept the polls in the North. More importantly, the Tamil people have voted courageously, convincingly, and clearly. It was an expected outcome, but as President Rajapaksa…
Photo courtesy When regimes are dictatorial and dangerous, alternative forces which promise a better society and future do tend to be taken seriously by the people. This, quite simply, is because the…
