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Last Wednesday’s weekly Cabinet meeting saw some humorous moments after ministers discussed illegal sand mining. Most of them spoke in Sinhala and referred to sand as weli. They were complaining about the environmental damage that was being caused. That prompted President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remark in Sinhala “why don’t we send Weliamuna to sort matters [...]
The Budget was also debated
The Budget debate should be more about economics and less about politics, but as the debate on the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill drew to an end, it was overshadowed by several other issues such as the move to impeach the Chief Justice (CJ), the Welikada prison riots and the lingering questions about the [...]
Petrie report: Diplomatic blunder projects Sri Lanka as a Rwanda
It was a week of more challenges for the UPFA Government both in Sri Lanka and abroad. In Colombo, the official process to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake began on Wednesday. The eleven-member Parliamentary Select Committee chaired by Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa held its first meeting in Parliament. Standing Orders of Parliament prevent reportage of proceedings [...]
Fiscal targets commendable, achievement difficult
The Budget Speech reiterated that this year’s fiscal deficit target of 6.2 per cent of GDP would be achieved and that the government expects to reduce it to 5.8 per cent of GDP in 2013 and bring it down further by 2015. If these targets are achieved, they would bring about economic stability and foster [...]
Drawing back from a ruinous precipice
It did not take much prescience to foretell that parliamentary privilege would be formally wielded to prohibit public discussion of the PSC process with the commencement of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka this week. The Speaker’s warning to party leaders on Friday that matters [...]
Budget blues and Galle Face Green
Mrs. Anumaana has been on the phone these days talking to her friends about a most unlikely subject. This is in the hope of getting them to shed light on something that Sunil keeps talking about that she cannot make head or tail of. What’s this ‘lambo – something’ he goes on and on about, [...]