Sri Lanka Under the Jackboot
The Rajapaksa regime has declared a state of emergency amid ongoing protests including a general strike on May 6. This gives the government drastic powers to crack down on dissidents. The move…
#GoHomeGota
People’s Protest, Public Space and the Public Interest
People’s protests today occupy the public space as the people clamour to create and occupy democratic space. This receives public attention and worries the oppressor. Today’s protests demand change. The sovereignty of…
Proud to be Sri Lankan and a Youth
Groups of people, mostly young, stand in clusters chanting slogans, singing songs, making speeches. Others distribute food – buns, biscuits and fish buns – and others go about collecting litter. Children carry…
Popular Struggles and Education
Following the token general strike last week against the backdrop of the ongoing protests to oust President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s authoritarian regime, a few school principals have been grumbling about students being deprived of…
Why Minorities Must Support the Struggle
The current political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka calls for a new strategy in the political course of the Tamils and other minorities. People have been provoked to revolt against the…
Calling for a System Change from Polarisation to Pluralism
Way ahead of the presidential election of 2019 Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had given enough indication that he was incapacitated, incompetent and illegitimate to establish a democratic government that would safeguard the interests of…
Galle Face Green 2022
This is the green that has seen one world end and another begin many times over many years: a kickstart show in the thirties, sunrise warplanes rebuffed at Easter, bare heads…
Governance in Sri Lanka: We Must Not Miss This Opportunity
The situation in the country is one of dynamism as well as stalemate. Dynamism on account of the determination, creativity and resilience of the Gotagogama demonstrators, the extension of their efforts to…
Nine Out of Ten Sri Lankans Think Rajapaksas Should Leave Politics
The findings of the Centre of Policy Alternatives’ survey of the Confidence in Democratic Governance Index (Wave 2) conducted by Social Indicator (SI) send an unequivocal message to the government that the…
Life After Death of the Rajapaksa Conglomerate
No, they have not been eradicated as yet. But they will; if not this month or even this year then, sadly, in time. The end Mahinda will stop his pathetic posturing and…
A Brief Response to the Current National Crisis – A Way Forward
Sri Lanka is at a crossroad, facing multiple crises, as well as the present impasse of an unwanted Executive with all powers and an inadequate Legislature with little powers. The call of…
Taking the Fight Against Ecocide to the Galle Face Protest
The last two years have witnessed the unparalleled destruction of Sri Lanka’s environment, with more than 1,000 cases of environmental degradation being reported throughout the country. The plundering of natural resources by…
The Curse on Sri Lanka’s Bloodstained Leaders
The Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, knows exactly why most Sri Lankans are living through the worst times ever experienced in recent history. It’s the curse on the bloodstained leaders…
Journalists Rise During Protest Wave
Since late March, spontaneous street protests have been held across Sri Lanka calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and several others from the Rajapaksa…
Going Home after #GoHomeGota
The year is 1990. The regime in power is the UNP, led by President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The opposition MP? Mahinda Rajapaksa. The incident described above formed the basis of a fundamental rights…
