Editorial
Home » EditorialGive citizens RTI now
Over the years, politicians have uniformly driven Sri Lankans to the polls without first guaranteeing their right to information. This glaring and unacceptable anomaly has meant that generations of citizens have cast their vote at successive elections on the basis of pledges and promises, with only passing knowledge about how their country is run. The [...]
This crucial election, make it “genuine”
Tomorrow, Monday December 8, the Elections Commissioner will accept nominations for a virtual mid-term Presidential election scheduled for a month hence. The country will then see more of the same or more of the same. The UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights states; “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority [...]
SAARC: China offers a way forward
Pakistan set the Chinese cat among the South Asian canaries this week in the foothills of the Himalayas. Instead of cooperation, the 18th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit that concluded on Thursday was a theatre for geopolitical games with India rising up as a bulwark to stop China’s bid to expand its [...]
Have fixed day for elections
A Presidential proclamation has been made this week calling for a Presidential election which will be held on January 8, 2015. There is great debate on the eligibility of the incumbent President contesting a third consecutive time. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court opinion giving the predictable thumbs up for the President to contest, the intention of the [...]
Holes in the Budget
And so, the 2015 Budget was passed by a two-thirds majority as expected, while the committee stage debate on the various ministry votes continues. However, did the Budget lack credibility, and was public accountability of public finances and its prioritisation of expenditure questionable? It contained much of the broken promises of last year in what [...]
The hills are alive with the sound of landslides
The drought came first, heaping untold misery upon man and beast. The deluge followed and, with it, a sweeping landslide. A succession of environmental disasters in recent years has proved that Sri Lanka remains ill-equipped to mitigate threats and save precious lives. If anything, the country is racing towards bigger catastrophes. The Koslanda landslide on [...]