SIRIMAVO: A REVIEW
, edited by Tissa Jayatilaka, is the commemorative volume published by the Bandaranaike Museum Committee to mark fifty years since Mrs. Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike’s first accession to power on 21st July…
Constitutional Reform
Democracy in Sri Lanka: Ideas and responses
In March 2010, launched a unique initiative online to ascertain what citizens perceived and accepted as democracy in Sri Lanka. To date, 74 people have submitted 42 ideas and cast 596 votes, but what do YOU think?…
It is ubiquitous Februaries, not that unique Leninist October that counts
Photo courtesy Al Jazeera. Taken on 11 February 2011, Al Jazeera notes that a crowd of thousands marched back toward Tahrir Square from the presidential palace, young men sprinted along the streets…
THE NEED TO ENERGISE CIVIL SOCIETY
Note: The Editors of received via email the text of this speech delivered by Jayantha Dhanapala at the Citizen’s Movement for Good Governance on the 9th of February 2011. I begin by…
Lanka’s Left, the State and the Present as History
Photo credit: The notion of the present as history is of course borrowed from Paul Sweezy’s 1953 book by this title which adopts the standpoint of presenting the present as an ongoing…
Democratic Debates in 2011
I am not aware of another county in the UN’s 200 odd membership that debates on its national anthem some 62 years after independence from colonial rule. Since we all agree that…
Whose reality in Sri Lanka?
No one will deny that Sri Lanka has experienced dramatic changes over the past 18 months. The military defeat of the LTTE came as a surprise to many defence and security analysts,…
Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Second-Term: A New Beginning?
When the LTTE showed, consistently and convincingly, that it did not understand the language of ‘peace’, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, correctly, turned to a language that the LTTE understood well; ‘war’. All other…
“Chiran Jayathu” – “Aayubowewa”
Let all as citizens comprising the civil society of Sri Lanka, join together in unison and with one voice, in response to the earnest appeal made by Renton de Alwis in “Back…
The Cost of Defying Political Authority
Reams have been written on the two main topics widely discussed in Sri Lanka today. One is the fate of the army commander who chose to defy the authority of the Rajapakse…
Why women in politics always matters: A conversation with Chulani Kodikara
Chulani Kodikara has written five articles for , a compelling essay written for the special edition on the end of war, has at the time of writing only generated around 450 pageviews,…
Allergy to analysis and historical amnesia in Sri Lanka
The trouble with Sri Lankan political and civil society is that everyone’s an amateur psychologist. Instead of listening to or reading what someone says and treating it on its merits, the name…
A Brief Commentary and Table on the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010
By Bhavani Fonseka, Supipi Jayawardena and Mirak Raheem October 2010 The Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill 2010 (Bill) proposes a series of changes to the laws relating to the election of local…
Inquiry into a Sri Lankan Man’s Stolen Bicycle
On a beautiful late summer day, the eighth of September 2010 to be precise, outside the railway station in the historic university city of Bridgetown, England, I found this Sri Lankan chap,…
In conversation with Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne
Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne is a President’s Counsel in Sri Lanka and has also served with the Sri Lankan government in various capacities as Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and…