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Home » ColumnsCDA chairman defends minister’s son; driver made fall guy
An attempt by Coconut Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Keerthi Weerasinghe to defend the son of his boss, State Minister Arundika Fernando, during a news conference ended in total embarrassment as his story fell apart in the face of questions by a journalist. State Minister Fernando’s son is accused of leading a group of men who [...]
Independence Day reflections: The glass is half full, not half empty
Sri Lanka celebrated its 74th Independence Day while going through what is undoubtedly the bleakest period in its post-Independence history. As people struggle to carry on daily, amid milk powder shortages, gas shortages, cement shortages, sky rocketing prices of essential goods, prospects of power cuts and a whole host of other challenges, the temptation is [...]
A less recognised cause of our underdevelopment
Two days ago the country celebrated 74 years since Independence. For most of the country’s 22 million, it was not a day of celebration. They are in severe economic difficulties deprived of the essentials for living and uncertain of their livelihoods. Third World country Popular singer and satirist Sunil Perera, who passed away last year, [...]
Failure to launch
My dear Mother Lanka, I thought of writing to you because you were ‘celebrating’ what we called ‘independence’ just the other day. There was a long ceremony at Independence Square, and watching that, it suddenly made me realise that we are now just one year short of being ‘independent’ for three-quarters of a century. This [...]
Reflections on Sri Lanka’s past kings and present day beggars
It is a paradox without parallel that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa saw fit to invoke the names of Sri Lanka’s great kings and their liberation struggles against ‘foreign invaders’ on this 74th Independence Day while his Government has, through foolhardy economic and political choices, accelerated this nation’s gravest existential crisis since independence Politicians must forsake their [...]
Can pomp and pageantry alone soothe Lanka’s traumatic hour
The people were given a saccharine coated, jasmine scented fast-relief puff of a breather from the suffocating traumas of daily strife when the government went into celebratory mode on Friday, to relive Freedom hour in splendorous style with all the pomp and pageantry it could muster at its command. Under the prayer like theme of [...]
Lanka’s thoughtless Cabinet or one without thinkers
Sometime last November DEW Gunasekera, the leading light in the pro-Moscow Communist Party here and a one-time MP and cabinet minister, made some scathing remarks about Sri Lanka’s current cabinet. He called it the worst cabinet in the parliamentary history of the country. That is more than seven decades of history. He made several other [...]
Public relations blunders cost the government dearly
Questions over Easter Sunday massacre probe likely to become latest addition to Lanka’s woes at UNHRC; Bachelet to seek more funds to extend the term of the ‘war crimes’ secretariat Premier undergoes ‘top secret’ spinal surgery at private hospital amid tight security; contradictory statements by Namal and Chamal Sumanthiran pooh-poohs PTA reforms; TNA partner parties [...]
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