Value Education and Literature
Editor’s Note: Delivered at the Open University on November 30th 2018 Throughout the world today we bemoan the lack of values. No one quite knows what that means and a good post-modernist…
The Constitutional Coup
An appeal for national stability from religious leaders
Photo courtesy Article 14 This statement is being issued by a multi-religious group of Sri Lankan citizens, including several religious leaders, with no vested interests. We have been compelled to come together…
Constitutions need constitutionalism
In the present constitutional-political crisis, which began in the evening of October 26, 19thAmendment to the 1978 Constitution has come under severe scrutiny. Underlying it is a war of interpretations between two…
Samanalun, Godayas and Our Words
When I first heard the word used, it was not directed at me. And yet, it was. It was so innocuous – someone said that a name for some team we were…
The Removal of the Prime Minister and the Dissolution of Parliament: A Legal Opinion
This legal opinion was prepared by Gehan Gunatilleke, Dinesha Samararatne, Kalana Senaratne and Asanga Welikala in response to a request made by Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne, P.C, Member of Parliament. Since 26th October 2018, Sri Lanka…
Nevertheless, They Persisted
On November 28, a nonpartisan group of women (and a few supportive men) walked from Galle Face Green to the Presidential Secretariat. It was raining heavily, but the group was firm in…
To the President: A request on behalf of the children of Sri Lanka
Mr. President, A single arbitrary and unilateral decision taken by you, on the 26th of October, set in motion a sequence of events that now has thrown an entire country and all…
The Constitution, the Judiciary, and Citizens
My wife, like many of her fellow citizens these days, has become very interested in learning about our Constitution and its 19th Amendment. She even borrowed from me a copy of the…
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…
Friday Night ‘Special’
Welcome to Lanka who has lost her good reason, Where people must fight in and out of their season. Each one for themselves and not one for the other, Now whom can…
Economic policy-making impacted by grave political instability: Friday Forum
The Friday Forum shares the despair and disgust of most Sri Lankans with recent political events in the country that have now spiraled into a serious impasse in governance. The economic, social…
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…
The Parliament Fair
I went to the Parliament fair, The thugs and the thieves they were there, A big buffoon, in broad daylight at noon, Had taken the Speaker’s Chair. The thugs and the thieves…
#CoupLK: A Timeline
President Maithripala Sirisena’s removal of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointment of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set in motion a chain of events that, right up to the time of writing, have…
Write to the Speaker: Template of letter to report violent MPs
The Parliament of Sri Lanka approved a Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament on 7 March 2018 and adopted it with effect from 15 April 2018. Part VIII of the Code…