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Home » ColumnsDebate on 2nd reading of budget sees sparring over people-friendly vs IMF-friendly
By Sandun Jayawardana Is Budget 2025 a revolutionary people-friendly budget, or a mere continuation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aligned policies of the previous government? Government and opposition MPs offered vastly different interpretations of the National People’s Power (NPP) government’s first full budget as the debate on Budget 2025’s Second Reading got underway this [...]
Clips that go around come around to haunt the speakers
In the age of social media, comments by public figures made in the past can always come back to haunt them at a later date. This has already been the case with the Deputy Defence Minister, retired Major General Aruna Jayasekara. In the aftermath of the most recent shootings, a clip that went viral on [...]
Courting trouble
My dear Namal baby, I thought I must write to you, even though it is only three weeks since I wrote to Mahinda maama. That is because you seem to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. You are seen meeting American ambassadors while also being accused of misappropriating millions and cheating at [...]
Budget 2025: Formidable challenge of containing the fiscal deficit while increasing expenditure
The 2025 budget presented by the president last Monday sought to give relief to lower-income earners and the poor, contain the fiscal deficit, achieve economic stability, and promote economic growth. Each of these objectives is difficult to achieve in the current financial bind; achieving all of them would be a formidable achievement. Significance The significance [...]
Nonchalant courthouse murder awakens ghastly memories of Easter Sunday attacks
Explaining themselves in a hastily summoned press conference this Saturday (February 22nd 2025), the heads of Sri Lanka’s defence, public security and police command hierarchies offered ludicrously poor justifications for the spike in gangland wars during the past week, including the shooting of a ‘mafia don’ seemingly on the orders of a rival inside a [...]
Gang warfare and spate of killings highlight need to urgently curb the spread of narcotics trade
The recent shooting of suspect Ganemulla Sanjeewa within the precincts of the Magistrates Court of Colombo serves as a stark reminder of the escalating crime wave gripping the nation. The audacity of carrying out a killing in a highly secured environment underscores a dangerous shift in criminal behavior and a broader erosion of the rule [...]
Public security outraged as mob suspect’s shot dead in court dock
Little does underworld figure Ganemulle Sanjeewa realise, as he steps down from the prison’s Black Maria at the entrance of Hulftsdorp’s Chief Magistrate Court to walk with prison guards toward Court No. 5, that they will be the last mortal steps he will be taking on earth. As blindfolded Justicia takes her due place on [...]
Contract killers and the rise of planned death traps
It was a rather chilly late spring night in 1971 in Chicago as I walked down Division Street, one of the city’s most notorious streets where gangsterism seemed to be the prevailing occupation. Gang warfare was not dead even then, though many people were. Just over five years earlier, riots and clashes broke out between [...]
National security under siege: Unravelling the law-and-order breakdown
The dramatic killing of Ganemulla Sanjeewa inside a magistrate’s court bares police shortcomings in addressing security concerns amid soaring gun violence Govt.’s well-meaning measures stymied or cancelled by bungling in appointments to police top posts Serving and retired senior police officers call for a proactive approach rather than being reactive to revamp the force Questions [...]
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