The Economics of Democracy
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…
Sri Lanka
Investigations politicised and turned into merry-go-rounds
Photo courtesy LankaPage Reported Daily FT (15 October). Almost 03 weeks ago on September 23 too an investigating team visited Rajapaksa’s residence and recorded a statement on a petition the PRECIFAC had…
Re-Imposing the Death Penalty
Picture courtesy Vice News Violent crimes, rape and murder seem to be on the increase. Public outrage is understandable. But the demand – “Impose the death penalty with immediate effect” is equally outrageous. …
Petition against UN Panel’s report on accountability: Opposing what exactly?
The report on accountability produced by the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General hasn’t yet officially released it to the public domain. What little is known of its contents comes from…
Paper: The incredible story of Uthayan in Jaffna
How does a taxi driver take the sick to the hospital when there’s no fuel around? How does a newspaper publish news of bombs and deaths without newsprint? And how does a…
Colombo’s iconic Castle Hotel: A photo portrait from Moving Images
Moving Images is a series of stunning short-form documentary and narrated photographic portraits on facets of life in post-war Sri Lanka. The latest addition looks at the iconic Castle Hotel in Slave…
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke, 1795 As I sit on the steps leading down to the garden from…
Behind the IMF bail-out and the state of the Sri Lankan economy with Harsha de Silva
An interview with eminent economist Harsha de Silva on the context leading up to and the fall out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out package and the general state of the…
Interview with Udaya Gammanpila, Legal Advisor, JHU
I interviewed Udaya Gammanpila, the Legal Advisor to the Jathika Hala Urumaya (JHU) and erstwhile Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA). Udaya is now a candidate from the Colombo District for…
Responding to criticism on human rights: A case of ante-natal stress disorder?
My critique of the Ministry of Human Right’s report on its preparations on a future National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) has drawn the kind of contumacious response from one ‘Trigger Happy’ (hereinafter ‘Trigger’), which in Sheridan’s England may have resulted in a dual at Putney. That may not be perhaps the wisest thing to do with someone calling himself trigger happy, and indeed, is no insurance against his retention of the recently advertised ‘White Van Pest Control’ service, but some aspects of his overeager and substantively superficial intervention require rebuttal.
The farcical ‘National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’ in Sri Lanka
Exactly a year ago today, a week before the Royal-Thomian, the journalist J.S. Tissainayagam went into the TID to enquire after his friends who had been taken in for questioning the previous…
None Other Than Mahinda Rajapaksha!
Lasantha Wickrematunga faced his last moments at an unusual time at an unusual place. From the moment he left home the day he was murdered, he was aware that he was being…
Interview with Kumaravadivel Guruparan, a Sri Lankan Youth Activist
Interview with K. Guruparan, a well known Sri Lankan Youth Activist. Guru is a student at the Faculty of Law University of Colombo and the Founder of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament…
American People Make History, Can We Sri Lankans Ever?
Muttukrishna Sarvananthan  In April 2008 I met an American national in Colombo who works for the World Bank in Washington, DC. At that time both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were…
Ridicule and reality: SCOPP, War and Peace in Sri Lanka
Sunit Bagree, October 2008 Whenever the government and security forces have faced criticism in relation to Sri Lanka’€™s armed conflict, the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) has always been swift…