The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Columns

Political Column

The political hat-trick came within 15 months after he convincingly won the Presidential election in January last year. Then he led his United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to an unprecedented victory at the April 2010 parliamentary elections. Now he has capped it all by securing over four fifths of the 234 local authorities that went to polls.

5th Column

The air’s blue and the world’s my oyster!

Thaaththa,” Bindu Udagedera asked, “what do you think of the contest?”
“I think it is progressing reasonably well,” Bindu’s father Percy said, “we have made the quarter finals now, haven’t we?”
“What quarter finals are you referring to?” Bindu was puzzled.

The Economic Analysis

Financing economic infrastructure for Lanka’s development

The development of economic and social infrastructure is vital for rapid economic development. Inadequate infrastructure has been a serious bottleneck for the country’s economic development. This was made dramatically clear when the country’s economy was seriously jeopardised by the energy crisis in the mid nineties. The energy crisis affected industrial production adversely to such an extent that the country’s economic growth was negative.

Lobby

Not Issued with this week

Focus on Rights

Living in clover

Many may sing hosannas to the gods following a little celebrated local government poll in which the ruling party claimed a victory which was hailed by their supporters and media propagandists in familiarly superlative if now slightly wearying terms. But surely did an election claim such little interest among the general public in recent times as did this one?

Talk at the Cafe Spectator

Blake says he's not a revolutionary

It was a politically stimulating interaction at New York's Asia Society last week. The discussion focused primarily on the economic and political future of post-conflict Sri Lanka. The two speakers were Robert Blake, former U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and now Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, and Dr. Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

From the sidelines

Do we want law breakers as law makers?

The UPFA’s predictable victory in the local government electioan, while it represents a decisive result, needs to be weighed against many negatives that have come to light throughout the campaigning period up to and including Election Day. Most obvious was the violence. Less obvious are the qualitative aspects of that violence, the profile of its perpetrators and the changing picture that emerges, of the electoral struggle.