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Home » ColumnsColombage in Taliban pow-wow; Colombo in the dark
On July 14, Hafiz Zia Ahmed, Afghanistan’s Taliban administration’s Deputy Spokesman and Assistant Public Relations Director in its Foreign Affairs Ministry tweeted about meetings held between visiting Afghan delegates and Bangladeshi, Singaporean and Sri Lankan diplomats at Jakarta in Indonesia. Accompanying the tweet were photographs, and one of them showed Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Jakarta, [...]
“Not everyone’s business”
My dear Shammi, I am writing to you this week because everyone is talking about you – or rather, what you are alleged to have done – during the T20 World Cup in Australia last year. You say you did nothing wrong, but that hasn’t stopped so many questions being asked about how cricket is [...]
Consensus on 13th Amendment will have to wait another day
The meeting of political parties called last week by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss the way forward vis-a-vis the implementation of the 13th Amendment ended without any conclusion being reached. President Ranil Wickremesinghe himself would not have expected to actually reach a conclusion but rather to sound out the different political parties on what their [...]
Police Abuse in Colombo versus ‘Reconciliation’ in the North?
The ‘arrest’ of a young journalist, Tharindu Uduwaragedera recorded by onlookers this Friday being forcibly dragged out of a three wheeler, grabbed by his hair and roughly manhandled by a posse of police officers before being whisked away in a police vehicle, is a chilling warning to Sri Lanka’s dissenters. Savages in uniform violating the [...]
Road link between Lanka and India, a bridge too far
Lanka can and must have more trade bridges, financial bridges, investment bridges, diplomatic bridges and cultural bridges with our Big Brother India. In fact, the more intangible but solid bridges we build with our closest neighbour, the better it will be economically and diplomatically for the two sovereign countries. But isn’t the plan to build [...]
So once more about that bitter pill
Now that’s a hell of a thing to say, if you will pardon the language. That Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella might think it is a parlour game to play around with medicinal drugs and quibbles with words as he would do on a Scrabble board. They are certainly not the kind of drug that [...]
New behind-the-scenes moves to support the President for next year’s elections
As UNP appoints committees to revive party at grassroots level; broader alliance planned with like-minded parties and groups Lanza’s new party on a mission to win support for Wickremesinghe among SLPP and ‘independent’ MPs Govt. picks IFC to fast-track restructuring of state-owned enterprises; four-tier fee structure agreed upon Aviation Minister presents case for SriLankan Airlines’ privatisation [...]
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