Columns
Home » ColumnsIs there fresh thinking on economic policies?
Are the recent changes in fertiliser import policies signs of fresh thinking on economic policies? The decision to import chemical fertilisers for tea, chemicals for fertilisers and an unlimited amount of rice imports is perhaps a tacit admission of the faulty policies adopted by the Government and an indication of a change in policies. Fresh [...]
Cabraal dodges IMF bouncers at international forum
Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal is currently on a tour of West Asia, meeting Central Bank officials among others to secure additional financial arrangements to the country’s depleted reserves. By September, forex reserves had fallen to USD 2.5 billion from USD 3.9 billion in August. He repeatedly dodged questions from the international financial journalists [...]
SJB sows slogans in support of farmers’ fertiliser protests
The Parliamentary Chamber on Friday morning echoed with slogans denouncing the Government’s handling of the fertiliser crisis, as Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) members held a protest demanding that measures be taken to resolve the prevailing fertiliser crisis. Many SJB MPs carried placards with slogans attacking the Government over the self-inflicted crisis. Earlier taking up the [...]
Cardinal sins and vague words
Your Eminence, I thought I should write to you again this week, only because you have been making some controversial statements over the past few days. Though it can be argued that you are not really revealing anything that we didn’t already know, your words are still generating news headlines. As you know, these are [...]
Mega corruption stealing resources from the poor
The revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative journalists in what is now known as the Pandora Papers have once again caused the spotlight to fall on corruption in Sri Lanka. The Thalagodapitiya Commission appointed by the S. W. R.D Bandaranaike Government in 1959 found several of its own parliamentarians guilty of Bribery. Compared to [...]
A ‘charade of justice’ under cover of ‘modernizing laws’?
Under cover of a seductively glittering propaganda blitz that laws are being ‘modernized,’ is the Government ferociously bent on a pursuit of turning even the remnants of Sri Lanka’s civil liberties safeguards on its unsteady constitutional head? Withdrawals of indictments and privileging the police This is a question that legitimately arises in the wake of [...]
Schools rest on volcano of brimming discontent
Lanka’s primary schools are set to open tomorrow thus ending the long dark abysmal night which has blighted the nation’s seed to blossom and stunted their academic advancement. But while classrooms will once more come to life, lit with children’s laughter and smiles, the entire structure of education sits grimly on a volcano of discontent, [...]
Defiant MPs refuse to let democracy die
The stabbing to death earlier this month of much-loved Sir David Amess, a true representative of the people and an MP for 38 years, has only hardened the resolve of British parliamentarians not to succumb to death threats and physical assaults. They have refused to call off what is called here constituency “surgeries” where MPs [...]
Farmers on the streets – not in their fields; teachers on the streets – not in their classrooms
Not only Agriculture Minister, but President also coming under attack from farmers demanding chemical fertiliser Teachers decide to report to work, while vowing to continue their protests until the salary anomaly issue is addressed Last year, soon after Sri Lanka emerged from successfully containing its first wave of COVID-19 with minimal loss of life, President [...]
Read More