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Home » ColumnsJHU, NFF ‘show’ of ‘No Confidence’ sours Govt. victory
By Chandani Kirinde - Lobby Correspondent For a government that enjoys a two-thirds majority in Parliament, its inability to get the support of two of its constituent parties to vote against a no-confidence motion brought by the main opposition UNP, cannot be considered a big blow. However, the show of dissent, even in a small [...]
How burdensome is the country’s increasing indebtedness?
The increasing debt — both domestic and foreign — is a serious economic concern. The current debt position exceeds acknowledged thresholds — the fiscal deficit of 5 per cent of GDP and the debt to GDP ratio of less than 60 per cent of GDP. However Dr. Mohamed Z. M. Aazim, Deputy Superintendent of Public [...]
Resolution in US Congress to punish Lanka’s war criminals
A resolution received by the Congress in Washington DC last Monday calls upon the Obama administration to “place restrictions on the entry to the United States for anyone it identified as responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Sri Lanka. The timing of this strongly worded resolution is significant. Firstly, it comes with [...]
CICA, SAARC and a ‘Modified’ India
As the dust settles after India’s stunning election, the aggressive campaign rhetoric of the triumphant BJP’s prime minister-elect Narendra Modi has been replaced with a distinctly softer tone, one of inclusiveness in respect of India’s diverse population, and of reaching out to neighbours in the region. Modi’s unprecedented invitation to SAARC leaders to attend his [...]
The dying of men and institutions in Sri Lanka
It would be a fair guess to say that not even the most perceptive amongst us could have predicted the extreme degeneration of the police service and most unfortunately, the country’s judicial institution, in post-war Sri Lanka. Taking the road less traversed This week, Ranjith Abeysuriya, a President’s Counsel well worth that honorific title quite [...]
Mr. Health Minister, WHO are your spin doctors?
Not so long ago, a Sri Lankan deputy foreign minister was on a United States International Visitor programme touring that country. He was lucky to get a brief courtesy call on George Bush Snr., then Vice President. He was even luckier when he received an autographed photo of the meeting upon return to Sri Lanka. [...]
From intervention to invitation
My Dear Mahinda maama, I am writing to you because I heard that there are many invitations going around this week making everyone quite uncomfortable, even though you have just returned from China which too sent you an invitation to visit their country. First, there was Modi sending you an invitation from India asking you [...]
Don’t give up the ghost, dawn rainbows back in style
IF Ranil Wickremesinghe can still dream the elusive dream of becoming the president of this country then he and his party must first shed the fatalism they don now and stop projecting the spectre of defeat on their green sleeves as if it were some minted medal of honour in the muddled belief that realism [...]