By Gamini Weerakoon
A fundamental reason for the decline in political standards and democratic values since the ’60s has been the ability of political parties that win large majorities to bamboozle the people to think that they and their political principles are infallible and that is the only way to a political nirvana. We have had [...]
By Raisa Wickrematunge
Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to elect a female president, making it a pioneer, in a sense, for women’s rights. Since then, women have played a role in politics which cannot be discounted. Now, with General Sarath Fonseka incarcerated, there is a chance that Anoma Fonseka might do the same.
Whispers [...]
By Izeth Hussain
I read Lakruwan de Silva’s article “The Sinhala Caste Equation And The Fonseka Arrest” in The Sunday Leader of February 14 with exceptional interest, for the reason that it focuses on the more or less taboo subject of caste in Sri Lankan politics. It comes out with details, concrete particulars that is to [...]
By Ashok K. Mehta
Sri Lanka is in a royal mess just 10 months after a brilliant but brutal military campaign which vanquished the deadly Tigers fighting for a Tamil Eelam. Rather than consolidating peace, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, spurred by his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the powerful Defence Secretary and former Colonel, has got embroiled in an [...]
By Michael Hardy
When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice in Through The Looking Glass, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Today, the word democracy is used so frequently in so many different ways that it seems to have lost any inherent meaning. Woodrow Wilson famously [...]
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
An issue given much prominence during the recently concluded presidential election in garnering the support of the Tamil population in the north and east, the High Security Zones (HSZs), continue to remain leaving thousands of people displaced while creating many socio-economic issues. The HSZs have left 125,000-130,000 civilians displaced and unable to [...]
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
Hot on the heels of the presidential election, the country’s political circles are busy discussing the formation of alliances and fronts to contest the general election. Political sources have predicted that a general election will be called after the dissolution of parliament some time this week.
The opposition parties are looking at several [...]
By Raisa Wickrematunge
A city in lockdown. A scarred cityscape. A country in chaos. That’s what comes to mind when you think of the phrase “a state of emergency.” Yet chaotic as our island is, we are an island at peace. So why are we still being governed by Emergency Regulations? “A state of emergency is [...]
By Ranee Mohamed Photos by Asoka Fernando
Sandhya Eknaligoda and her sons, aged 15 and 13, look out onto the pathway of their humble home. Their minds are laden with sadness and their eyes are filled with unshed tears. But it isn’t the massive monthly payment installments on the house of approximately Rs. 35,000 that are [...]
By Cassandra Mascarenhas
In a controversial turn of events, access to several independent news websites, namely Lankaenews, Lankanewsweb, Infolanka and Sri Lanka Guardian were restricted on the day of the presidential election last week and the day subsequent to it. This follows the establishment of a special unit by the government in an attempt to monitor [...]
