What Mahinda Rajapaksa as President did to the other political parties is boomeranging now on his own party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). During his heyday he, using both the carrot and the stick, broke other parties and those who defected to Rajapaksa’s party said that they were joining hands with Rajapaksa to strengthen his hands to win the separatist war.
The presidential elections are on the way, and the much-needed alternatives to the current economic trajectory are nowhere in sight. While Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis since independence, this historic election is yet to put forward an economic program for recovery. Instead, the opposition political candidates in the running to win the elections, are reluctant to take on the IMF programme that suffocates working people with sever
President Ranil Wickremesinghe was cruelly bamboozled by the Rajapaksas early this week. The incumbent president was given false promises that the Medamulana clan-led “pohottuwa”party was firmly behind him in his bid to contest the forthcoming presidential poll.
The National Peace Council of Sri Lanka released the following statement pertaining to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena stating that the Supreme Court cannot change approval granted by Constitutional Council to appoint current IGP.
Today, we begin August and for those who wish to know, this month was first called Sextilis – a Latin word for “sixth”, as it was the sixth month of the Roman year. When the emperor Augustus Caesar was in power, however, he wished to have a month named after himself.
Monday night, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) finally parted ways with Ranil Wickremesinghe, announcing plans to field its own candidate at the presidential election. The move effectively split the Pohottuwa and saw President Wickremesinghe affiliated SLPP MPs, 11 of them, leaving the party’s central committee meeting and assembling at the UNP headquarters to endorse the candidacy of Wickremesinghe.
Two years ago, the last ten days of July saw a brutal crackdown of a public uprising that craved a system change following an unprecedented economic meltdown that irreparably ruined the life of over half of the populace while turning that of another huge segment of the society upside down.
For decades, Sri Lanka’s State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have been plagued by inefficiency, corruption, and a lack of transparency. Apart from the burden on the public purse, the consequences for citizens have included substandard medicines to exploding gas cylinders. Over the past twenty years vested interests have mushroomed around SOEs.
With the Election Commission scheduled to announce any time now the date for the Presidential Election, political parties are expressing various views on forming different alliances, with President Ranil Wickremesinghe being at the centre of attention and being attacked by rival parties.
In our country, politicians their hangers-on and even members of the clergy seemingly enjoy impunity for the commission of crime and/or instigation of the same. Their actions committed in broad daylight and under the full glare of media coverage, paint our country in a bleak light.
Twenty years ago, as a budding journalist, fresh out of university and covering the then peace process, I had the fortune to be exposed to, and to some extent ‘indoctrinated’ by the grand promise of multiculturalism, often through seminars and study tours organised by the Scandinavian good Samaritans who had been facilitating the peace process.
Tourist arrivals surpass 63,000 in first half of October
EDB gets new chief
Colombo welcomes Cinnamon Life
New Board of Directors appointed for SriLankan Airlines
Easter attack: controversy swirls further high
Catholic Church rebuffs Gammanpila’s allegations
Easter Sunday attack: Ravi Seneviratne’s name implicated
SL unveils new ’P’ series passport with enhanced security features