The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Columns

Political Column

Govt.'s economic woes worsen but Opposition woefully ineffective

He read out to his ministers the contents in Sinhala without identifying the writer. The recipients were the writer's sister and brother-in-law. He had thanked them as well as their children for helping him during the April 2010 parliamentary elections. Whilst the couple helped in many ways, the children had taken the trouble to write addresses on envelopes mailed to electors. The writer had regretted he had still not been able to find jobs for the children.

5th Column

Ways and means of fooling the masses!

My dear Hosni Mubarak,

I know that this advice comes too late for you and you have fled from your presidency now, but I thought I should still write to you even if it is only to tell you where you went wrong.

The Economic Analysis

Prioritising social protection without sacrificing economic growth

At times of national crisis such as this, the government’s economic policies and administration must focus on ensuring that those affected have adequate food; their destroyed dwellings are repaired and restored; likely epidemics in the aftermath of the floods are minimised; the livelihoods of the people affected are restored and the damaged infrastructure is repaired.

Lobby

Emergency: What’s the point?

The continuation of the state of emergency does not augur well for democracy in the country. The argument that the extra powers are needed to maintain law and order in the country almost sounds comical given some of the incidents of the past two weeks.

Focus on Rights

The faults lie in our political leaders

There is an artfully embroidered line of reasoning advanced by some that Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry went wrong in the past due to the faults of those Commissions themselves. Consequently, as this reasoning appears to suggest, if a particular Commission of Inquiry (say, for example of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation) functioned perfectly well, that would be reason enough to believe it would lead to fruitful results. We could then rest complacent that we have done our civic duty.

Talk at the Cafe Spectator

Chaos at CPA regional meeting

The opening ceremony of the 3rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Asia Regional Conference held at the Hilton Hotel in Colombo yesterday where the Speaker of the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) Meira Kumar was the guest of honour was a nightmare not only for journalists but also for invitees.

From the sidelines

Shangri La – for whose benefit?

The government’s sale of several acres of land currently occupied by the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters across the road from the Galle Face Green to a foreign hotel venture has not aroused much debate in either media or Opposition circles, as might have been expected.

Column By Gomin Dayasiri

Not issued with this week