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Home » ColumnsDaunting economic challenges for the new government
Enormous economic challenges confront the coalition government. Facing up to these economic problems after months of political preoccupations and electoral politics is no easy task. It is much more than changing the mindset from electoral politics to economic management as it has to deal with more serious fundamental economic problems than before the elections. A [...]
The importance of not setting ourselves up to fail
This Thursday’s consensus resolution tabled before the United Nations Human Rights Council in relation to Sri Lanka’s war time atrocities has provoked starkly divergent responses in its aftermath. Calling for a more nuanced discussion On the one hand, we have the government patting itself on the back for having successfully negotiated the diluting of the [...]
Consensus on US resolution before UNHRC
Ranil and Mangala hold several rounds of talks with western envoys to finalise new resolution; Lanka’s Geneva envoy reprimanded Resolution encourages Commonwealth or foreign participation Sirisena says there cannot be two Presidents; orders review of security arrangements for Rajapaksas Cabinet committee meets JVP leader, promises effective probe on ten high profile cases Findings that Sri Lankan troops [...]
Domestic recipe, foreign cooks
My dear Mangala, I thought I must write to you even though you are a busy man these days, shuttling between Colombo, Geneva and New York, trying to negotiate a solution to our problems in Geneva where some people are trying to punish us for defeating the Tigers and ending the war six years ago. [...]
In diplomatic Sinhala, German delegate stops media quarrel
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on a visit to Sri Lanka this week, did not know that a member of his entourage was going that extra mile to do public relations. For talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart, the German visitor was due to arrive at the Foreign Ministry. The media were asked to come early [...]
Disruptive politics continue as the flipside of majority of convenience
The opposition within the Opposition got off to a fighting start in Parliament this week, staging a walkout in protest at the manner in which the Government introduced several finance regulations, prompting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to declare, “what we have in the country today is a dictatorial Opposition and democratic government.” It was a [...]
India’s new 5-billion-dollar one-way Hanuman Bridge to Lanka
If the very thought of the ancient mythological Hanuman bridge connecting India with Lanka which enabled Rama to freely walk in and destroy Lanka’s Ravana was not enough to give one the Ramayana creeps, then the new Indian plan to build a 21st century Ram Sethu to Lanka must positively give the island nation the [...]
Time to get the act together even now
Reading about the haps and mishaps in Mother Lanka over the last several weeks I was reminded of Othello’s words to Iago in Shakespeare’s tragic drama. It was perhaps unavoidable these words should come to mind as most media coverage, be it in print or electronic media, revolves round politicians, political doings and political goings-on [...]