Columns
Home » ColumnsEaster Sunday Massacres: 88 volumes of hard copies given to MPs, request for soft copies
After numerous requests by MPs, the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday handed over to Parliament previously withheld volumes of evidence in the final report of the Presidential Commission appointed to investigate the Easter Sunday attacks on April 21 2019. The 88 volumes containing evidence recorded from witnesses were handed over to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena by [...]
No light shed on burning issues despite big din
Amidst a countrywide fuel shortage and daily power cuts lasting over five hours, Parliament echoed with sounds of protests and angry exchanges. Yet, rather than discuss solutions to the crisis, both Government and Opposition MPs kept pointing fingers at each other over the unprecedented economic crisis. On Thursday, SJB MPs wielding placards and battery powered [...]
Only God knows why
My dear Pujith and Hemasiri, I am writing to both of you because you were acquitted of all charges against you with regard to those deadly Easter attacks some three years ago. I am sure you must be very happy about this, but it makes us wonder even more about why those attacks occurred and [...]
Govt. should not be averse to consultation with stakeholders
Compounding the multiple crises in the country today is the confusion within Government ranks and the dissension within the constituent parties of the Government. At times of national crisis (which is what the country is facing today) any sensible government would seek the assistance of the Opposition and other sections of society to devise policies [...]
No prospects or policies for resolving the economic and financial crisis
Much like the COVID pandemic, the economic and financial crisis has come to stay with no resolution of the problem in sight. New normal? Is the new normal one of severe shortages of essential food, medicines, petrol, diesel, power cuts and water shortages? Currency crisis The root of the problem lies in the lack of [...]
The mills of god and the grinding of justice overseas
Of what use are Ministers and the panoply of Government for that matter, if it takes the Executive President clothed in the awful constitutional powers of the Head of State, to advise on minimising of ‘price discrepancies’ regarding the production of raw milk and direct relevant state institutions to ensure supply of ‘grass needed to [...]
Sri Lanka: Waiting for Godot in the Theatre of the Absurd
In the abject manner natives of the British Empire’s far flung islands used to wait for the mothership to arrive bearing the essentials for their survival 200 hundred years ago, the sighting of a fuel ship off Colombo’s coast last Sunday, raised so much excitement that it made the headlines on the national TV’s evening [...]
As Kaputas begin to gather in Geneva
After weeks of laying siege to Ukraine, the Russian leader did to one of the founding socialist republics of the now defunct Soviet Union, what his predecessors did in earlier times to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak invasion I remember distinctly. I was in London when the situation in Prague was on the boil. Like [...]
Sri Lanka facing worst crisis on multiple fronts
Cost of Living soaring and further increase likely with Ukraine war Govt. likely to seek IMF bailout package, but long-procedure may take Lanka to brink of bankruptcy GL to counter report of UN Human Rights Chief; Cardinal meets Pope Francis before meeting Bachelet A meme about the lifestyles of a Sri Lankan, circulated regularly in [...]
Read More