Columns
Home » ColumnsDiscontent brews among tea exporters hit by double whammy
Many in the tea industry, including some players, are openly unhappy with recent government policy decisions, which they suspect would threaten the sustainability of the industry in the long term. The major concern is the chemical fertiliser ban which has already forced farmers across the country to take to the streets in recent weeks to [...]
Policy changes vital for export growth in a challenging environment
“Export or perish.” Never has this economic advice been more relevant and appropriate to Sri Lanka than today. Challenging environment Amidst the raging spread of COVID-19 and the extended lockdown, the Government is doing its best to ensure that the country’s export capacity is not hampered. However, a sustainable growth in exports requires a change [...]
Sri Lanka’s ‘singer of conscience’ who listened to cries from the Vanni to Katuwapitiya
There is a side dish of grim humour to the assertion made by nationalist monk, Ven Omalpe Sobitha this Saturday that the Roman Catholic Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith was fully justified in appealing to the ‘international community’ for justice, which the Government has failed to deliver for victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday jihadist attacks. Recognising [...]
Will the grass be greener on the other side of 75?
My dear Green Man and the ‘leftover’ Greens, I thought I must write to you when I heard that the Green party ‘celebrated’ their 75th anniversary. There was hardly a noise made about it, except a speech by the Green Man, which was also only an online affair – and you got away by saying [...]
Emerging dark clouds threaten national unity
At a time when national unity is the need of the hour for the country to face the twin challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s economic down turn, the actions of a few pose a serious threat to communal harmony. At a time when every section of the citizenry is required to contribute [...]
Emergency regulations: What a price to pay for sugar and rice!
An Emergency declared to curb a “food mafia,” or further strengthen militarisation and authoritarianism? Those were the arguments made by government and opposition MPs respectively as Parliament this week debated President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s August 30 Proclamation of Emergency Regulations declared with regard to supply of essential food items. The Emergency Regulations gazetted under the Public [...]
Grim vistas of poverty and shortages loom for Lanka
If the motley cheer squad of Government MPs and supporters had waited eagerly for Basil Rajapaksa to weave a rosy tale of economic boom for Lanka in his maiden address to Parliament as Finance Minister on Wednesday, they were in for a nasty shock. Instead of kindling hope that the promised vision of prosperity and [...]
Dirty tricks that debase media
A few days back, I received an email with a couple of pictures attached. At first glance it was clear this was a concocted ‘news’ item supposedly from the BBC. It had the BBC’s signature masthead. In almost six decades in journalism, I am quite used to receiving false and even unverifiable information. But this [...]
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 [...]
Crucial time for Govt. as UNHRC sessions begin tomorrow
Commissioner to initiate a powerful new accountability process to collect, analyse and preserve evidence of war crimes for future prosecution Council will also discuss Special Rapporteur’s report prepared after his visit to Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Peiris reassures civil society groups that national issues will be dealt with in a collective manner Central Bank’s new [...]
Read More