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Home » ColumnsCovid alarm at highest circles of Govt., as Bandula tests positive
Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena’s announcement on Friday evening that he had tested positive for COVID-19 set off alarm bells in the highest circles of the government, given that he had attended the same day the COVID Task Force meeting chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and attended by many senior ministers and officials. Several of his [...]
Just when we needed you most…
My dear Mangala, I am saddened by your sudden farewell. Always controversial, your departure was also controversial. After speculation that you passed away, we were told that this was not true and that reports of your death were exaggerated. Then you were suddenly taken ill and passed away. The virus has now taken three prominent [...]
How Sri Lanka’s militarised covid policy led to a dreadful humpty-dumpty fall
As much this millennium’s devastating global pandemic has brought deaths, destruction of livelihoods and mindless misery to millions across borders, there is a harsh mirror that it holds up to us. Political braggadocio and military might does not stop this virus; sensible public health leadership does. It is as simple as that. Heedless and needless [...]
Addressing fundamental economic issues is imperative
The country is facing a plethora of economic problems. The one most discussed of these has been the critically low level of the country’s foreign currency reserves. This has drawn the most attention as the import of essential items is being restricted and the day-to-day life of the people is increasingly burdened by scarcities and [...]
His liberal creed ruled supreme, and outsoared mundane politics
AFTER COVID TRAUMA, HEART ATTACK CLAIMS OUTSPOKEN STATESMAN’S LIFE Nation grieves death of Mangala Samaraweera at the age of 65 Through the hurly-burly of Lanka’s dirty politics, Mangala Samaraweera’s innocence blazed forth to ensure he remained possessed of the soul of an artist, whose sensitive nature rebelled against injustice in whatever breed and degree, wherever [...]
Will September be the cruellest month
It is unbelievable but true. When the Political Editor of this newspaper wrote two weeks ago of bodies of Corona-victims piling up in morgues, some of them stacked in container trucks, while crematoriums were working late into the night, one refused to accept that this was Sri Lanka. But truth, it has been said, is [...]
Oil prices: No short-term solutions in Gammanpila’s booklet
Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila in preparation to face the No -Confidence Motion against him by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya had prepared the groundwork for the challenge by publishing a 56-page booklet called the ‘Indana Mila Sanshodanaye Eththa Kathawa‘ or the ‘True story of the fuel price revision’. Minister Gammanpila circulated the booklet not only among [...]
How will the economic crisis be resolved?
Everyone is aware that the country is in an economic crisis. Especially that we are facing a severe crisis in foreign finances. Low foreign reserves have to meet foreign debt repayment obligations and pay for essential imports. When and how will the Government resolve the crisis in external finances? Problems compounded The difficulties in external [...]
Farmers’ goosebumps as fields go cold turkey
If expectations had been raised to fever pitch among farmers that Basil Rajapaksa’s return to Lanka last month to assume the nation’s financial reins would see reversed a presidential ban on chemical fertiliser, they were swiftly flayed when the Government’s media division announced two weeks ago that the new Minister of Finance had no intention [...]
Opposition gets kicked in its butt
These days when allusions to military doings of one sort or the other seem quite au fait, a reference to the charge of the Light Brigade is quite in place surely. Especially so if it refers to the ill-conceived and thoughtless actions of the SJB-led opposition that charged at the solid phalanx of the government [...]
The very great harm of the PTA and lessons from history
To a protesting (Sinhalese) Stalin, (or for that matter, a Marx or Lenin), who is released along with comrades following public outrage and street anger after unjustifiable detention by the police using Sri Lanka’s covid-19 health protocols, there are a hundred others who languish in squalid detention under the country’s savagely inhumane anti-terrorism laws. Health [...]
SJB, UNP leaders pow- wow in the making?
Nuwara Eliya Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Palani Thigambaram has been missing from Parliament in recent months. It turned out that he had been abroad on a personal visit and on three-months leave from sittings. He returned to the country early this month and attended a meeting at Sirikota, headquarters of the United National Party [...]
How will the economic crisis be resolved?
The country is in a multiplicity of inter-related and intertwined crises and widespread social upheavals. Apart from solutions to the specific grievances, drastic changes in economic policies are required to ensure financial and economic stability. Social unrest Protests and social upheavals due to severe economic difficulties, unavailability of fertiliser, protests against the charging of fees [...]
On militarised universities and a government’s harebrained folly
Friday (July 16th) was an eventful day for Sri Lanka. Just as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was holding forth to obediently head-nodding members of the Maha Sangha comprising the Government’s Buddhist Advisory Council gathered at the Presidential Secretariat, on his firm intent to proceed with enactment of the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Bill before Parliament, students [...]
Litro Gas fiasco yet to be resolved
It is both inconceivable and incomprehensible that laws are applied selectively in a democratic society where the Constitution itself postulates that all are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law. When such selective application applies to individuals the norms of justice stand violated. When such violations relate to larger [...]
Government hoping for near normalcy by September amid multitude of challenges
Plans to vaccinate all under 30 within next 75 days; military playing key role in battle against pandemic Basil moves fast into forefront of policy making and diplomacy; meets top envoys for a balancing act vis-à-vis China Govt. throws full weight behind Gammanpila as he faces no-confidence motion next week; Cabinet reshuffle put on hold [...]
Saving the gentleman’s game
My dear Namal baby, I thought I should write to you because everyone is concerned about something that is very near and dear to most of us and they are relying on you to ensure that it stays that way. No, I am not thinking of the ‘Royal family’ of which you are the Crown [...]
Govt’s ‘Aloysius Special’ poured back to the bottle
A whopping one for the road was offered on the house by the Excise Department two weeks ago to ‘bond scam’ first accused Arjun Aloysius to help the fallen financial magnate revive his ailing liquor firm W.M. Mendis & Company Ltd and get his arrack distillery back on the production line. The deal done with [...]
Course correction on the cards
Cometh the miracle man: Accolades and bouquets from members and supporters of the party that the new finance minister put together from scratch continue. Like the three “Wise Men” who followed the star to Bethlehem, envoys from countries near and far have trekked to the Finance Ministry to meet the man tasked with uplifting the [...]
Proactive professionalism the need of the hour as public unease on the rise
Foreign Ministry slow in handling Sri Lanka’s response to tough resolution in the US Congress Has the Ministry outsourced policymaking to the Pathfinder Foundation? Cardinal launches his strongest attack on the Govt; calls for course correction before further damage is done to the country Medical specialists say death toll and casualty figures are underreported in [...]
Waiting for that second opinion
My dear Sudarshini, It is not often that I write to two doctors in two weeks, but I had to write to you this week, after writing to Doctor Padeniya last week. That is because these are difficult times when medical issues have brought the country a standstill, and you are one of the many [...]
Promoting organic agriculture: Repercussions of the fertiliser ban
The Government’s decision to ban chemical fertiliser and pesticides immediately to promote a green agriculture in the island has serious repercussions on the economy and livelihoods of people. The Government should consider the economic consequences of banning chemical fertilisers immediately and adopt a phased introduction of organic agriculture on scientific principles. Economic consequences An immediate [...]
Use electoral reforms at local government level to promote national unity
Sri Lanka was one of the earliest countries to be granted universal franchise. Since 1931 all citizens above the age of 21, (and since 1959 all those above the age of 18)have got accustomed to electing their representatives to the different arms of government at periodic elections. With the voters’ willingness to defeat incumbent governments [...]
Sri Lanka’s version of Dante’s inferno and the ruination of this land
As the stricken X-Press Pearl lays waste to Sri Lanka’s marine environment including one hundred and twenty five kilometres of prized coastline from Chilaw and Negombo to Bentota and Galle in a veritable modern replay of Dante’s Inferno, is there enough money to calculate as fair compensation? Will no one punish these wastrels? The country [...]
Lanka: The burning pearl
A raging inferno at sea and disaster clusters on land: Has all hell simultaneously broken loose in Paradise? It seems as though this once thrice blessed nation has been rendered bereft of its four guardian deities and left, naked and bare, to the mercy of incessant calamities to strike at will with wanton impudence. Such [...]
It is madder than you think
As though Sri Lanka’s Government did not have multiple problems in its hands that appear to be getting more complex by the day, there enters a ship into our territorial waters. That is not surprising, for Colombo Port accommodates many from different parts of the world, even a suddenly surfacing Chinese submarine as happened in [...]
Lockdown not properly imposed; COVID-19 casualty figures hit highest levels; Govt. gripped by tough challenges
President furious over letter sent by ten alliance party leaders; warns that they could be sacked from Cabinet Doctors say Covid strategy seriously flawed and lockdown a token measure to please the Mahanayakes Cost of living hits staggering heights; dhal Rs. 245, sugar Rs. 240 a kilogram SLFP faces identity crisis; considers move to forge [...]
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