If there is one question that troubles many rights activists in Sri Lanka today, it is the current political instability within the coalition Government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena government…
Image courtesy Is the (‘good governance’) regime jointly led President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe slowly abandoning its political reform commitments made during the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2015? Are the…
Featured image courtesy Al Jazeera Good Governance is a key challenge Sri Lanka has faced and spectacularly failed to deliver for most of its modern history. This challenge is not only about…
Two years in to , cracks have appeared in the historic nuptial that took place in January 2015 between the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the United National Front for Good Governance…
Today marks the second anniversary of the victory of Maithripala Sirisena as the President of Sri Lanka at the 8th January 2015 Sri Lankan Presidential Election. And the second anniversary of the…
Featured image courtesy the Huffington Post “It’s all about conventional wisdom: The powers that be decide early on who is going to win, and they don’t want their narrative disturbed.”- Koenen The…
Two things trouble and pain me. The Mullivaikkal “remembrance” on 18 May, of the dead and missing people due to war, whose families are still agitating to know the “truth” and want…
Featured image courtesy IndiaTimes In ‘’, his long piece on the Obama Presidency, Jeffery Goldberg writes that Mr. Obama, reflecting on his failures in the Middle East, privately laments, “if only everyone could…
Featured image courtesy Sanka Vidanagama, Getty images When I entered the Ministry of External Affairs to get my education certificates validated, I was pleasantly surprised to see the orderly queue the crowd…
A song posted on the You Tube comparing President Maithripala Sirisena with ancient kings of Pollonnaruwa gave rise to a storm of social-media protests and was removed within hours. Parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra…
Featured image courtesy Youtube On January 8, 2015, thousands flocked to Independence Square to watch Maithripala Sirisena take his Presidential vows. With his promise to promote or ‘good governance’ the atmosphere was…
Featured image courtesy Newsfirst. Leonard Cohen[1] Giuseppe di Lampedusa[2] The genesis of this paper was a recent trip we took to Lanka as election observers for the August parliamentary elections. During the…
Picture courtesy Colombo Gazette “Want to buy some illusions, Slightly used, second hand? They were lovely illusions, Reaching high, built on sand….” (Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair) “After emergency laws are…
Image courtesy A former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson made the oft- quoted remark that a week is a long time in politics. What then of fifty days, not to mention a…
Image courtesy Maithripala Sirisena website It’s now 50 days since Sri Lanka’s new President took oaths on 9th January 2015. This is an attempt to reflect on the first 50 days of…
