Sri Lankans, whatever one might say to the contrary, rarely look beyond their collective noses when it comes to matters of the state. The ‘island mentality’ rules and everyone is quite happy to keep it that way.
For instance, when elections draw near – an event never far off in this land of elections, elections and [...]
This coming week will see an interesting occurrence. It will be recalled that shortly after dissolution of parliament on February 9 the security provided to MPs was withdrawn. This however only affected the opposition MPs as all the government MPs save two or three happen to be a minister of some sort and hence “entitled” [...]
Mainstream news media feature on a daily basis incidents of bribery, corruption, and, of course, outright robbery. These media channels bring to the public domain the corruption that goes on in government. All this over the years, however, has had a negative effect – it has conditioned the public mind to believe that robbery by [...]
Beginning today Sri Lankans count down three eventful months ahead of them culminating in the third week of May.
A month from now we Sri Lankans will know what the dreaded Ides of March has in store for the country with the two main parties hell bent on winning the forthcoming general election.
Exactly two months from [...]
The term ‘national security’ was liberally used throughout the duration of the war to give a vestige of due process to many an indiscretion of the government as it went about its authoritarian ways. Many an excess of the government especially when it came to stifling dissent and silencing the opposition was clothed in the [...]
About this time every year for the past 62 years it is customary for politicians participating at Independence Day commemoration ceremonies to speak of our glorious past and what a great people we have been for thousands of years. It was no different in Kandy last week, with ‘King Reincarnate’ President Rajapaksa in his Independence [...]
And so Mahinda Rajapaksa has got the mandate he sought – a second term, amidst allegations of hi-tech rigging. This columnist feels Rajapaksa may be a tad disappointed that he could not get into the “60s” as his predecessor Chandrika Kumaratunga did in 1994 (63%). Sixteen years later, having actually delivered the peace Chandrika promised [...]
