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Home » ColumnsFCID hunts for former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s chief of staff
The Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) is on the lookout for Gamini Sedara Senarath, Chief of Staff of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and three others over a string of alleged fraudulent acts. The three others are Piyadasa Kudabalage, Neil Bandara Hapuwinne and Mohan de Alwis. FCID detectives said yesterday that the four were evading [...]
Local polls: SLFP going it alone despite risky prospects
Reunion moves falter, Senaratne proposes UNP-SLFP joint bid as ‘trial balloon’ but Sirisena faction not interested President softens stance in taking tough action against Rajapaksa loyalists, while Ranil warns he won’t tolerate ginger groups Any prospects for immediate re-unity between feuding factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) appeared dim on Friday but seemingly [...]
Funnily enough, it’s not you they are after
My dear Geetha, I thought I must write to you when I heard that a decision has been taken to disqualify you from being in Parliament. That will be the final decision on this matter, because it is the highest court in the land which has delivered the verdict. You must be extremely disappointed to [...]
Vision 2025: From a diagnosis to removing constraints to economic growth
Removing a number of constraints to economic growth is imperative to achieve rapid economic growth. Vision 2025 recognises that there are numerous constraints that must be removed to achieve economic growth. These include the reduction of fiscal deficits to achieve macroeconomic stability, reforms in trade regulations, change in labour laws, the improvement in the quality [...]
Tensions unravelling across the reform road-map
There appears to be a brisk uptick in the tone of visiting European lawmakers to Sri Lanka this week as compared to their sojourns last year. Has realism dawned, too little, too late? In November 2016, the delegation of the European Parliament departed the shores of the country saying that they were ‘pleased and impressed’ [...]
Geetha’s Swiss choc turns bitter in the Supreme Court’s alpine air
Geetha Kumarasinghe’s Swiss dairy milk chocolate refused to melt in her mouth this Thursday but turned hard and bitter when the Supreme Court held that her dual Swiss citizenship rendered her ineligible to be a member of Lanka’s Parliament. Ever since she was first elected to Parliament in August 2015 — coming one before the [...]
Looking a gift horse in the throat
As children we often heard our elders using a Sinhala saying “koheda yanne, malle pol.” Though its meaning eluded us at the time in later years it became much more meaningful, especially as we started listening to politicians yelping at each other in argument. Reading a statement from the Foreign Ministry the other day in [...]