Federalism: Some debates never die
Today, in the wake of recent crossovers by the UNP reformists and the presentation of reports from APRC process, the federal debate has once again taken centre. For many years Federalism has…
Constitutional Reform
“We need a revolution in Sri Lanka!” – A brief chat with Sam de Silva
Photo credit: Nazreen Sansoni “on one level, Sri Lanka needs a revolution to really change what’s going on here. There is such a domination by the powers that be… there needs to…
The Unraveling of Chinthanaya Alliances
The electoral alliances Mahinda Rajapaksa forged to win the presidency are unraveling faster than expected. The relationship with the JHU and the commitment to the unitary state apart, the key personalities associated…
THE CHALLENGE BEFORE THE UNP
Ranil Wickremasinghe made, I think, what he thinks is a speech of statesman-like prophesy, not to mention dignified grace in the face of political cuckoldry, when Parliament reconvened this week following the…
The Sham of Independence Without Human Rights Protection
Two days before our independence tamasha, an event with deep significance and bearing for the independence, integrity and unity of this country took place. It is unfortunately a part of a series…
Denial and polarisation
Originally published in Himal Southasian, February 2007. The undeclared Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka shows no signs of abating. The Ceasefire Agreement, whatever is left of it, is enervated and made…
THE OSLO DECLARATION: REPORTS OF ITS DEATH ARE NOT GREATLY EXAGGERATED
The Morning Leader (31st January 2007) carries a report of the first press conference given yesterday by the Hon. G. L. Peiris M. P., the new Minister of Export Promotion and International…
Myanmar (Burma) luvs Lanka
I don’t know much about Burma, or Myanmar as it’s now known… but according to today’s Daily Mirror: The Myanmar (Burmese) government yesterday assured its support to Sri Lanka in the fight…
SAM THE INIMITABLE
Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P. (TNA/ITAK, Trincomalee District) gave Sri Lankans a wistful and even poignant glimpse of the ghost of parliamentary democracy a fortnight ago, when he delivered an incisive exposition of the…
Crossing over into chaos
That Sri Lanka faces a serious crisis of governance is evinced by the crossing over of 16 of UNP MPs to government ranks in January 2007. Bi-partisanship, once again, fails in Sri…
Insight into Governance from the Arrest that did not happen
The story that the editor of the Sunday Leader was to be arrested on account of that paper’s reportage on the proposed construction of a presidential bunker and the subsequent reportage that…
BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, THE HAPLESS MR. VITHARANA
At the empennage of ghastly and gruesome 2006, the Majority Report of the Experts Panel was dismissed in these pages as inadequate, predictable and hesitant. In the light of what has gone…