World Media Freedom Index and Sri Lanka - EDITORIAL

Leaders and people of Sri Lanka cannot be content with the country having been ranked 135th among 180 countries in this year’s World Press Freedom index (WPFI) released by the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), one of the premier international organizations acting with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information.

Reviving LRT project makes sense, but Japan’s re-entry is tied to pre-conditions

Reviving the Colombo Light Rail Transport (LRT), abruptly suspended in 2020, makes eminent sense from the transport point of view. But collaborator Japan’s re-entry into the project is tied to tough pre-conditions set by Tokyo, it is reliably learnt.

Genuine multilateralism and diplomacy vs the “rules-based order”

As is traditional, the month of May in Russia is marked by the broad celebrations commemorating the anniversary of the Great Victory.

Churchill & Volunteers Defeated the Only General Strike in the UK

A cunning plan by Winston Churchill and volunteers smartly defeated the first and only General Strike in Britain in May 1926. Churchill....

Coronation : Marrying 1000 years of history with a modern monarchy

The Commonwealth of Nations – of which Sri Lanka has been a loyal member for more than 75 years turned a new page when King Charles III....

Lankan Actor Ramdas gained fame for his “Marikkar” Role

Ramdas, who worked for many years at Colonial Motors in Union Place, used to live in Polhengoda then. He rode a scooter and used to give me a few rides those days. We have enjoyed each other’s company at gatherings hosted by members of the Sri Lankan film fraternity

They forget what they did to us

In the matter of forgetfulness, especially of their blemished past and of their failures, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna seems to be attempting to outsmart President Jayewardene. They too have forgotten that they have been running the country for the past three years and are clueless as to how the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa supported by them collapsed

Contradictions and challenges facing Britains monarchy

Commonwealth. Charles himself will be the oldest monarch to take the British throne as the ceremony unfolds at the Westminster Abbey.

Can Lankans find a new sense of belongingness and possibility? - EDITORIAL

How can Sri Lankans find a new sense of belongingness and possibility in a country full of contradictions? At the time of writing....

Vesak, Nakba and high principles in foreign policy

As the United Nations joins Buddhists the world over to celebrate the thrice-blessed Vesak today, there is much energy in the Buddha’s message for the world body to reinvigorate its commitment to....

Pillars upon which we build civilisations - EDITORIAL

Sri Lanka is a paradise for biodiversity, despite moves that political leaders and business tycoons take to damage this diversity. On May 22, the United Nations marks the International Day for Biological Diversity with the theme being building a shared future for all life. In a statement the UN says As the global community is called to re-examine our relationship to the natural world, one thing is certain; despite all our technological advances w

Charles’ coronation and secularists’ blues

Sunil Ariyaratne who wrote Nanda Malini’s celebrated song ‘Nidahas Baila’ got it all wrong when he claimed that no blood was shed in the struggle for independence from British rule. He claimed that no one was beaten, as Nehru and Patel were in British India and that no lives were sacrificed (as Mahatma Gandhi did).

Unwanted attention

On April 23, a Facebook post was shared by Shiromal Cooray which drew public attention to an incident of sexual harassment.

It’s time to end occupation of Palestine

In November 1947, the United Nations (UN) partitioned Palestine - a decision taken with no support from either the people of

Rajapaksas and false gods: Destroying the country and still hailed as saviours

Rather, some individuals are more culpable for the country’s economic miseries than others. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his extended family did more economic damage to the country than the megalomaniac terrorist Velupillai Prabakaran and Rohana Wijeweera put together

Long Walk: Haymarket-1886 to Colombo 2023: Evolution and Degeneration of Trade Unionism

To commemorate the heroes involved in the 1886 struggle, words stronger than anyone could write are engraved on the Monument....

Are we out of the woods? - EDITORIAL

Exactly a year ago, Sri Lanka was in the midst of an economic cum political crisis with an unprecedented foreign exchange slump having....

Significance of May Day must go beyond worker - EDITORIAL

May Day rallies like in the past, this time too would be heavily politicized. Just the other day there was speculation that the government has initiated moves to ensure district offices countrywide....

May Day after Aragalaya

The Great Revolt in weeks after the May Day in 2022, characterised by the masses taking over the streets in their millions, led to hopes of setting our country on a progressive path. However, despite....

Who’s afraid of the IMF

The details of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding our debt restructuring facility, have finally been made public and the debate in Parliament is ongoing. The persons, who designed the IMF framework at Bretton Woods in 1944, claimed the Fund would be an independent and objective body, subject to broad political constraints and limited by financial resources.

Ranasinghe Premadasa’s rocky road to Presidency

Former President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed 30 years ago on 1 May 1993 at 12. 45 p.m. along with 17 others in a bomb explosion that also injured 38 more persons at the Grandpass Road – Armour Street Junction in Colombo.

Revisiting the Aragalaya

There was a highly tense situation in the country exactly a year ago with hundreds of thousands of people protesting against the Government across the country and especially in a permanent protest site at the Galle Face Green obstructing the main entrance of the Presidential Secretariat.

Can you hear the growling inside children’s stomachs? - EDITORIAL

Schoolchildren going without their mid-day meal and the government announcing that there are no funds to pay suppliers, who provide the food, is a matter of concern. Suppliers providing meals to the schools...

Sudan conflict and the scramble for Africa

Resource-rich, poverty-stricken, and corruption-ridden Sudan is now embroiled in yet another conflict. This time, the country’s military rulers are being challenged by a paramilitary force known as Rapid Support....

ETCA with India: Time to shift focus from Market Integration to Supply Chain Integration

Global supply chains, commonly referred to as Global Value Chains (GVCs) are a complex network of interconnected production stages where different parts and components of a single product are produced in multiple countries before it is assembled into a final product. Prior to the advent of GVCs,

Family virtues will free our country from corruption

The family is the foundation of society and the country. Therefore, the family needs to grow in love, peace and joy, faith and hope, humility and meekness, faithfulness and self-control. This needs to flavoured by the spirit of forgiveness because we know that to err is human, to forgive divine. Therefore, when we forgive seven times or seventy times seven, we become that much more divine.

Politically powerful, professionally lame and utterly cannibalistic

Two incidents last week defined the abysmal unprofessionalism plaguing Sri Lankan media. The publication of the images of a suicide and the allegations of sexual harassment made....

FUTA and taking an education system hostage - EDITORIAL

The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) is up in arms. To emphasize their ‘grievances’ this body, whom ordinary folk would believe to be of intellectual bent, continues delaying the marking...

Blame Game: Who failed the country, who will rescue it?

Listen to any political talk show or a press conference, and you will stumble upon one of the following popular refrains - or all.

Easter Sunday crime probe and transparency

Enmity or at least ill feeling seems to be brewing between the current government and the Catholic Church over the investigations into the attacks carried out by a group of terrorists in the name of Islam on the Easter Sunday (April 21) in 2019.