Sri Lanka has a whopping 527 state-owned enterprises[1] (SOEs). The 55 SOEs classified as “strategically important” alone employ 10% of the public sector workforce[2] or about 1.9% of all workers. Such a…
Environmental conservation in Sri Lanka is as challenging as the economy of the country. Environmental degradation is fully supported and carried out with the blessings of corrupt politicians. This has been the…
The sad story of corruption in Sri Lanka stretches far back and, by all accounts, will be stretching far into the future as well. On the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) compiled…
In Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, a god gets turned into a tortoise. Omnia is great god Om’s fief. Everyone worships him there, out of habit or in fear of his human…
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September this year contained several ambitious statements. In particular, the following lines in his speech raised the hopes of…
“We can only shake our heads at how all of us followed this lunatic…” A German general (quoted in Volker Ullrich’s Hitler – Downfall – 1939-45) The first seeds of America’s Afghan…
Not long after the dust had settled following the government’s long war with Tamil separatism and terror, news filtered in of the kidnapping of baby elephants from the wild. Some dry zone national parks…
About 10 days ago, a video surfaced online of an unmasked and ungloved policeman stopping and arresting some men in a trishaw on a road in the dead of night. Among these…
The recent scandals involving sugar and coconut oil should point the country to the dangers of private sector mafias and rent seekers. These are not your typical consumer goods: they are fast…
The Defence Secretary is shocked, outraged, and flummoxed. The National Security Council has discussed the ongoing environmental devastation. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men (airmen too) have been mobilised…
I am going to explain about the Commission on Political Victimisation established by President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Commission was set up to investigate acts of political victimisation faced by Government officers,…
Amnesty International Press Release: The Sri Lankan Government has launched a renewed crackdown on dissent that is severely curtailing civil society freedom and obstructing efforts to deliver justice for conflict-era crimes under…
On 11 February 2010, Pattani Razeek, a former Grama Niladhari (Village Official), a former Managing Trustee of the Community Trust Fund (CTF) and an Executive Committee Member of the Asian Forum for…
When I first heard the phrase “MiG deal” as a kid in 2007, I never expected that less than two years later, the printing of those two words in my father’s newspaper…
Following parliamentary elections, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wasted no time in obtaining cabinet approval and thereafter gazetting the proposed 20th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. Many commentators have noted how…
