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Home » ColumnsHouse unites on ‘Missing Persons’ Bill facilitating ‘Certificates of Absence’
By Chandani Kirinde- Lobby Correspondent The Government this week moved a step further in its efforts to provide relief to loved ones of thousands of persons reported missing in the country, as a result of the conflict which took place in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, or its aftermath as well, due to subversive activities, [...]
Envoy offers ‘spending money’ to two VIP politicians
One would have thought it was only the rich Arab sheikhs who distributed hundred dollar bills to the needy when in Sri Lanka. Much the same way political campaigners handed down handbills. These scenes play out now and then when tourists from West Asia visit resorts in the south. Some visit mosques in the vicinity [...]
Lucky we didn’t dance to your tune
My dear Ban Ki Moon, I thought I must write to you when I heard that you would be visiting us again this week after seven long years, especially since there has been a lot of talk about how the United Nations has been dealing with our country after the end of the war, what [...]
Government’s first year political achievements and economic disappointments
Assessments of the new government that came to power a little over a year ago have been mostly those of disappointment and disillusionment. However a balanced assessment of the first year’s performance is that there have been considerable improvements in political freedoms and governance, but inadequate achievements on the economic front. The disappointment of its [...]
Cheers in Colombo, apathy in Jaffna
The contradiction was clear if not absurd. Even at the very moment in time that I was being sent unsolicited messages by Colombo’s non-governmental ‘twitterati’ delighting in self-congratulatory chest-thumping over the turbulent passing of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Bill, that euphoria was distinctly missing in the Northern peninsula, among the very people for [...]
Cultivation of good qualities, the need of the hour
We sometimes are led to believe that the behaviour of people living under planetary influence is the cause of bad events that take place. Recently there were reports to say that there are more than twenty planets similar to the earth. The learned however, have given us details about the ill effects that occur due [...]
JO rebels impaled upon the Swords of Secrets
Maithripala unsheathes his Excalibur to counter Mahinda’s Damocles NOVEMBER 2014. In that winter of his reign as Lanka’s self-acclaimed king, Mahinda Rajapaksa felt the first harsh gust of cold wind threaten the family tree: and saw, in that season of his decline, the first ominous signs of the birds that had swarmed round the fruitful [...]
The makings of a Mandela
It was the Golden Jubilee of LAWASIA. For four days in August this august body consisting of some of Asia’s legal glitterati met at the BMICH to celebrate the anniversary. It was indeed a memorable occasion. But the opening was somewhat marred by faux pas. Overawed perhaps by the importance of the occasion and perhaps [...]
SLFP split at hand;Sirisena holds urgent talks with CBK and party seniors
Former President Rajapaksa says his loyalists unhappy to attend next Sunday’s party convention in Kurunegala, but large crowds to be transported SLFP ministers insist on major changes to VAT, more consultations before finality is reached Cabinet approves Rs 166 million for Secretariat Co-ordinating the Reconciliation Mechanism (SCRM); Tittawella, Dayananda to head it. By Our Political [...]