New Year Reflections

As 2019 winds down and the democratic space quickly closes around us, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year and the monumental human rights challenges ahead.

A DECADE ENDS; ANOTHER BEGINS

As we end one decade and begin another, our thoughts go back in retrospect to the one just gone, and also to the one ahead, wondering what fate has in store for us.

Disaster management agencies play catch up on social media

Fifteen years ago, I woke up on the day after Christmas to something that I was never prepared for. A phone call from a relative was my first alert to get to the coast.

2020 – The decade for conscious living and a year for tolerance

A new decade has dawned. Just like the one that passed and the one before, the fate of the third decade of the new millennium also remains unpredictable.

Reining in private buses

Transport Services Management and Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera had said last week that loud songs and improper video clips would be banned from being played on radios and TVs in private buses from January 1 (Tomorrow). Citing that the songs played at high volume irk the commuters, he had stated that classical songs with proper videos would be distributed among the

Dangerous ethnic politics in monopolising the national anthem

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election to the highest political office in the land without the help of the Tamil voters. But on the day of swearing-in, he pledged to be the president of all citizens of the country. His first mo

Law Makers turned Lawbreakers?

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya justifies his move in visiting Patali Champika Ranawaka MP, in remand prison. Speaker’s media unit issued a statement in this regard. Friday’s Daily Mirror reported that Speaker would not dispute the arrest of MP on a legal basis.

Sumanthiran’s disservice to Tamils

I take exception to an observation by Mr M. A. Sumanthiran PC in an article titled, “Legal challenges faced by the Federal party in its 70-year history,” Daily Mirror, 27 December 2019.) He says that in the said case....

2019 a year of shock, disappointment and silver lining - EDITORIAL

In a day’s time we will be ringing out the year 2019, and dawning the year 2020. It’s a good time to look back in 2019. A year which dawned with great expectancy that in the aftermath of the 2018 October drama...

Revisiting our education, life skills

Addressing newspaper editors and managers of electronic media recently, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa emphasised on the provision of job-oriented training to improve job opportunities for our youth.

Singing national anthem in Sinhala and Tamil languages

The news item appearing in Dailymirror last week was like a bolt out of the blue. It said the national anthem would be sung in Sinhala language only at the forthcoming celebratory event of Sri Lanka or Ceylon gaining full independence from the United Kingdom in 1948. The practice adopted since 2016 of singing the anthem in Tamil too would not be followed. This is what the news item penned by Sandun A. Jayasekera said:

So many children crying, ‘I am nobody’s child’

As we today mark Holy Innocents Day, when Judea’s wicked King Herod slaughtered Bethlehem’s infants because he was jealous and feared that the King of Kings had been born there, we need to reflect on the plight of hundreds of millions of children today affected by war, violence, famine, homelessness, child abuse and other crimes. Religious leaders have told us that anyone who causes harm to a child should be thrown into the deepest ocean with a m

The Tamil problem can’t be resolved either way, but can be managed

It seems that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa intends to replace power devolution, a persistent Tamil demand, with development.

Embracing 2020 with MCC

There were interesting memes on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement making rounds after the election. One said, when a Pohottuwa supporter was asked what MCC was, the answer had been Maliban Cream Crackers.

Tsunami A lost opportunity by Tamils for peacemaking

Yesterday, more than 250,000 people in 14 countries including Sri Lanka, who perished in the 2004 tsunami catastrophe which is considered as the deadliest of its kind in recorded history, were commemorated by their family members and others alike.

Let’s Avert clash of cultures and religions - EDITORIAL

As we spend the last few days of the remaining year in reflective thought all who can hear the sound of their breathing can consider themselves as ‘winners’. However painful it is to revisit the past....

BRI media network for peace and development

Last week, journalists from several countries gathered in Islamabad to exchange ideas on a Belt-and-Road media network. Such a network, as envisioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping, had a soft launch in Beijing in April this year.

Extremist elements and twists in faith

Sri Lanka is a nation that gives generously to the needy during times of trouble and when there are catastrophes. When donating people haven’t bothered about cast, race and religion. We saw the same support and empathy showed towards the Christian community when they were recovering from the Easter Sunday bombings.

President seeks departure from traditional path

More than one month into office, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is knocking his Government into shape. Gotabaya continuing to appoint the heads of the statutory boards that oversee the implementation of his plans underscores the fact that things are on track in keeping with his wishes.

Christmas: When God’s love flows to us through Jesus

We dedicate this column to all Christians in Sri Lanka as they join more than two billion Christians around the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago when Caesar Augustus was the Emperor of Rome, which held sway over the land. Jesus at his birth was ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger because there was no place in the Inn’.

Recruitment conundrum Loyalty and competence are not coterminous

Few appointments to State institutions escape criticism. This is natural in a country where meritocracy spices rhetoric but rarely gets inscribed in recruitment processes. It is not easy for the right person to be placed in the right position even when there’s no political involvement.

Let’s remember that Christ is the reason for this season!

2000 years ago, God the Father sent a Gift of Love to this world. This precious gift was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Thus it was that the powerlessness of God was manifested in that infant child, His son, whom He sent to demonstrate to the world the powerfulness of His love. If ever there was an opportunity for God to enact His plan with a majestic

Christmas: The parable of the fourth wise man

Christmas today marks the birth of Christ Jesus but it needs to go far beyond a birthday party or a family reunion because this historic event is a manifestation of God’s unending, unfailing, unlimited and unmerited love for people of all races and religions throughout the world. Freely as we receive this divine, merciful, compassionate, and ever-forgiving love freely we need to

Wish for a White Christmas after a Black Easter….

I wish all our readers a Merry Christmas: to those who believe that Jesus Christ is their saviour, the joy of the news of salvation from death and darkness and deliverance into eternal life and to others, well, the peace, Joy and reconciliation that the Christmas message brings.

Year-end political review Some were true to their conscience!

Politically it was a happening year for Sri Lanka with political bunglings by the Yahapalana regime ending up with a regime change just before the dawn of another year.

Healthcare for all; vital investment in humanity

Sri Lanka is honoured that one of modern medicine’s prophets Prof. Senaka Bibile in 1970 promoted the principle of providing quality medicines for all at affordable prices. This was part of the plan he drew up with the then communist party leader Dr. S. A. Wickremesinghe to provide quality medicine at a price that even poor and middle class people could afford, as a vital part of the universal health coverage. Unfortunately the then United State’

Time to pave the way for more women in political arena

Fourteen years before the foundingof the United Nations Charter (1945) included a provision for equality between men and women, the establishment of universal adult suffrage in Sri Lanka gave our women the right to vote on the same basis as men. It was just three years after women in Great Britain and slightly more than a decade after women in the United States obtained this right.

I stand up for one country one law - Anuradha Yahampath-

Newly appointed eastern province governor Anuradha Yahampath, in her maiden newspaper interview, spells out her plan for the job. She used to work for the nationalist movement that advocated candidacy for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Three Tsunami disasters Work of Divine?

“Day after Tomorrow”, the blockbuster Hollywood film was enacted in a real life drama on 26/12, fifteen years ago when giant tidal waves lashed 3/4th of the island’s coast plunging into a crisis of unprecedented nature reminding one of the legendary Viharamaha...

Christmas - A time for Remembrance - EDITORIAL

In three days time; on December 25 to be precise, all over the world, Christians and others of different faith, will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ whom Christians believe is the son of God.