Columns
Home » ColumnsEC raises fee by 1300% for election result broadcast; media outlets up in arms
The Election Commission (EC) and the Broadcaster’s Guild of Sri Lanka (BGSL) have locked horns after the EC decided to raise the fees it would levy from media institutions to release official results of the 2025 local government elections. The new fee structure requires a single media institution to pay Rs. 8 million if it [...]
Big brother comes to visit
My dear Narendra Modi, I thought of writing to you while you are visiting us, enjoying the generous hospitality being dished out to you. People have been quick to call your visit a ‘historic’ one. They say that about anyone who visits from your land, but I do think your visit is at least an [...]
Focusing on national priorities imperative for transforming the country
The government must be focused on the formidable challenges of forging national unity, eradicating corruption and achieving economic growth, as we discussed in last Sunday’s column. These nation-building tasks are inextricably intertwined, inter-connected and interwoven formidable challenges. The government’s distraction from them owing to political diversions would be a serious setback to the country’s future. [...]
Trump victimhood; a ‘tariff tale’ too tall to swallow?
It is a travesty of the so-called international rules based order when old rich men (and rich countries) somehow pass themselves off as ‘victims’ of supposed international trade ‘imbalances’, wreaking global havoc at their will and fancy. A ‘Wonderland’ tariff punishment Brutally put, the President of the United States Donald Trump engaged in a classically [...]
Government must seek IMF assistance to reverse reciprocal tariff imposed by US
The United States’ imposition of a 44% reciprocal tariff on Sri Lankan exports comes at a critical juncture for the country grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades. This move strikes at the heart of Sri Lanka’s IMF-supported recovery framework, undermining both economic stabilisation and long-term structural reform efforts. Under the IMF programme, Sri [...]
Welcome to Rilaw Island
Abiding by the Gandhian yardstick, the humane plan to catch and settle Kandyan rilaws on a paradise isle in the middle of Randenigala reservoir India’s greatest son of the 20th century, Mohandas Gandhi, wrote, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.” Well, Lanka [...]
If that is not sheer genius, what is?
Like the renowned Socrates, who gathered a vast array of thinkers to debate the issues of the day, Gotabaya Rajapaksa rounded up his Viyathmagarians with great aplomb, thinking he could show brother Mahinda, a small-time lawyer, his governance skills. That was not all Gota, as he was called in his brief stay in the president’s [...]
With good, bad and a few elements of ugly, NPP wagon chugs on
Ruling party campaign in full swing; aims to secure larger victory in local council polls Airbus bribery case suspect Kapila Chandrasena spotted golfing in Colombo; questions over efficacy of law enforcement in notifying Immigration officials Government’s economic recovery efforts hit hardest by Trump’s massive tariffs imposed on Lanka; multiple strategies are studied to minimise impact [...]
Read More