An Open Letter to President Maithripala Sirisena
Editors Note: 7th November 2018 His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena, President, Sri Lanka. Your Excellency, I write as a loyal citizen of Sri Lanka and a proud recipient of the great titular honour…
Editors Note: 7th November 2018 His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena, President, Sri Lanka. Your Excellency, I write as a loyal citizen of Sri Lanka and a proud recipient of the great titular honour…
Sri Lanka’s politico-constitutional crisis has begun to show signs of deteriorating into an open struggle for state power, ensuing extra-parliamentary causes of action for its resolution. This path to potential violence and…
On November 4, 2018, a group of people gathered at the Liberty roundabout in Kollupitiya. For some, it was their fifth day of standing in protest. Following news that President Maithripala Sirisena…
On October 29th, UNP Member of Parliament and State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene tweeted the following: Offers to party leaders Rs.500 million, ministers Rs 300 million to crossover and support MS and…
Photo via News1st On 4th November 2018, a tweet by Indi Samarajiva noted that the Speaker wouldn’t act to reconvene Parliament. Constitutional expert, Lecturer in Public Law, Edinburgh Law School & Director,…
Photograph courtesy Maithripala Sirisena violates the constitution, stands to destroy democracy itself. Liberals, overwhelmingly Sinhalese, are aggrieved, appalled, aghast. As a minority, I laugh. Not the happy laughter of someone enjoying a…
On October 26, news broke that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had withdrawn from the coalition government. Shortly after, SLPP MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister by President…
There have been intense public debates over the meaning and interpretation of the Constitution, and especially the far-reaching changes introduced by the Nineteenth Amendment in 2015, since the dramatic and ongoing attempt…
When President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on 26th October 2018, and prorogued Parliament until 16th November, he injected new meaning to Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority’s global sales pitch,…
As the term of office of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) concludes this month, Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, elected from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), actually from the Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi…
This brief article seeks to build on what commentators have already contributed regarding the present constitutional crisis, and to suggest responses to several claims which – perhaps – have not been addressed…
What is at stake today is not the future of Ranil Wickremesinghe or the UNP. What is at stake is democracy itself, and its necessary pillars, inviolability of the constitution, rule of…
28th October 2018 We are a group of Sri Lankan students currently pursuing our education overseas. We write today to express our deep concern about Sri Lanka’s ongoing constitutional and political crisis.…
Photo courtesy The Business Times Sri Lanka was plunged into a constitutional crisis on Friday, with the announcement that President Maithripala Sirisena had removed PM Ranil Wickremesinghe from his office, and swore…
TEL AVIV – This summer, Israel passed a controversial new “nation-state law” that asserted that “the right [to exercise] national self-determination” is “unique to the Jewish people” and established Hebrew as Israel’s…