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Home » ColumnsPoliticos play cricket with indigenous people
Compared to the on-going T-20 cricket series, this extravaganza was unmatched.�Some Ministers and Parliamentarians flew by an Air Force helicopter last week. Their mission? A cricket match with the fast vanishing Veddah tribe, now termed as indigenous people. The helicopter was making its landing approach. Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage spotted his Cabinet colleague Dilan Perera [...]
There are no half-hearted dictators
Dictators do not believe in half hearted measures. This is an essential lesson that Sri Lanka is now learning at a painful cost. We were immeasurably too ignorant, too consumed by self interest or too stubborn to realize this until it was too late. Dismal reality of the absence of law This week, as President [...]
Whither judicial independence: JSC expresses concern
Two weeks after polls for the Sabaragamuwa, Eastern and North Central Provincial Councils, the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the main winner, is on a political roller coaster ride with both allies and their own ranks. The rough and tumble centres mainly on the appointment of Chief Ministers and what to give or take from [...]
Govt. proposes, SC disposes Divineguma Bill, for now
The Government‘s attempt to enact the Divineguma Bill was thwarted for now, at least, after Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa announced in Parliament on Tuesday that the Supreme Court has determined the Bill should first get the sanction of the Provincial Councils (PC), before it can become law. Following the announcement, the Speaker referred to the Court’s [...]
Throwing punches but taking none
My Dear Mervyn, I thought I must write to you to congratulate you because this week, you have championed the cause of justice and fair play like no other has ever done in this country before and freed an innocent young man from being punished for a crime that he never committed. I am referring [...]
Proposed all-party council for the East – an opportunity lost?
The guessing game over the question of who would rule the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) came to an end this week with the deal reached between SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem and the UPFA coalition. The SLMC fought the election independent of, and therefore in contest with the UPFA, and ended up being wooed by both [...]
Towards reducing the fiscal deficit
The importance of containing the fiscal deficit and progressively decreasing it to a manageable level is an accepted government policy objective. There is no better expression of this resolve than the Treasury’s reiteration that, despite a fiscal deficit of 4 per cent in the first half of this year, that it would achieve the targeted [...]