Parliamentary election 2020 and date of summoning of the new parliament
Photo by AP via ABC News I refer to the ’s two pieces yesterday on the same topic. I am in “Lockdown” in Jaffna and write on my own as a Member…
Politics and Governance
Pardoning Sunil – A response
Two significant incidents took place on 26 March 2020. Sri Lanka recorded 102 confirmed Covid-19 patients; and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon to Sunil Rathnayake, former Army Staff Sergeant and…
Justice in the Time of a Pandemic
‘What physicians say about consumptive illness is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognised…
Trusting Decrees, Sri Lankan Style
Image courtesy AFP/Times of India quoted police spokesman S P Jaliya Senaratne as saying. Senarante I congratulate you. Your diction is pithy, succinct, commendable on all counts. And how sweeping you…
The Colombo Declaration
Image Samya Arif/Medium Read the full article on The Hindu. Click here to access the full text of the Colombo Declaration, an excerpt of which is below: Whereas on the occasion of…
‘Me, the people’
Image courtesy ‘Hope in Darkness ‘- Leonard Cohen When ‘we the people’ is replaced with ‘me the people’ there is no denying that democracy is in grave jeopardy. Autocratic governance is…
Launch of Frames of Power: Citizen modelling perceptions of Sri Lanka’s constitution
Building on the critically acclaimed Corridors of Power project, Frames of Power is a pioneering & unique web platform for citizens to visually model & compare perceptions of constitutional power. Democratic by design,…
For a political-economic understanding of land conflicts in Eastern Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy When talking about conflicts around land in eastern Sri Lanka, explanations based on ethnic identity spring to mind. Sri Lanka’s ethnic majority, for example, is seen as having the right…
10 Years After the War: A Reminiscence
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from violent conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than on May 18. Often, what we see,…
Ekneligoda disappearance – 10 years struggle for truth and justice
Photo by Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP via Today, 10th January 2020, is 10 years since the disappearance of journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda. It also marks 10 years of struggle for truth and justice…
Be still and nourish freedom: A Reflection
With Freedom (Independence) Day in sight we should be reflecting on how best our freedom gained, is to be consolidated and what new freedoms are to be secured. As change occurs, our…
The work begins
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via Yahoo! News “If we lift the hideous rags of History, we find this: hierarchy versus equality and order versus liberty.” – Éric Vuillard (The Order Of…
10 Years After the War: Violence in a Time of Peace
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than on May 18. Often, what we see, read…
The Return
Photo courtesy the President’s Twitter account “As if our democracy was nothing but a short-lived dream,” says Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa in her new documentary dealing with the slow unravelling of democracy…
The Ethno-Economics of Majoritarianism: Notes on Conflict and Gotabaya’s Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Tribune.lk In the aftermath of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election victory, a number of competing narratives have emerged offering differing explanations of how we arrived at this result. The prevailing liberal account,…
