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Home » ColumnsWouldn’t it be better to go now before you are forced out?
My dear Mahinda maama, Although I last wrote to you only a month ago, I thought I must write to you again, not only to wish you for your seventy-third birthday but also to find out what exactly your plans are, after you were given a premature birthday present by Aiyo Sirisena, your friend turned [...]
Probe on alleged plot to throw acid at Speaker
Police are probing an alleged plot to throw acid at Speaker Karu Jayasuriya during the commotion in the well of Parliament on November 16, a top parliamentary source said yesterday. Speaker Jayasuriya was informed of the event and he took additional precautions when he was escorted into the well of the House by a group [...]
Sans a majority, UPFA’s woes continue; resorts to walkout to avert more humiliating defeats
A month after the shock appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena after sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government, the new appointee has failed to show he commands the confidence of the majority in the House. Instead the UPFA group has shied away from facing a vote in the [...]
Has Mahinda lost his Midas touch?
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brazen boast that he had the Midas touch to turn the country’s economy around and turn, through his own personal designer brand of alchemy, Lanka’s copper to gold is, it seems, now in peril of being proved false. Four weeks after he had been surreptitiously sworn in as Lanka’s new Prime [...]
MPs’ antics blacken Sri Lanka’s name
It was still not “Black Friday” here, a day of little significance to those in Sri Lanka. Still, last Thursday, the day before, was black enough for many Sri Lankans who live here and consider Sri Lanka their second home or owe some allegiance to their country of origin. On Thursday, a local TV station, [...]
Political crisis deals severe blow to tourism and foreign exchange earnings
The tourist boom has been busted by the political anarchy. The world’s best tourist destination in 2019 has been transformed into an unsafe one and one of the country’s most important foreign exchange earners has been weakened.The reversal in tourism will impact on the economy adversely. The balance of payments, external reserves, employment and incomes [...]
Sri Lanka’s first ‘government’ that will not participate in Parliament?
Beyond the distasteful power squabbles that presently make up the sum total of Sri Lankan politics or ‘politricks’ as cynics are wont to say, the three men at the core of the crisis undermining the nation’s constitutional text, (viz; Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe) need to realise a basic fact. Their currency of [...]
Political turmoil deepens; battle now between President and Speaker
In exclusive interview, Sirisena reveals details of why he removed Ranil and insists he won’t be reappointed Politically oriented monk and diplomats trying to work out compromise but success is unlikely President also says proper procedure not followed in Parliamentary resolutions; as disputes continue, it may not be a Happy New Year Sri Lanka’s [...]
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