Intended to allow intellectuals and distinguished public figures to enter parliament, the National List is now nothing more than a back door through which party stooges are able to worm their way into parliament.
By R. Wijewardene
Artists, intellectuals, professionals, distinguished civil servants, representatives from minority and underprivileged groups, are some of the people [...]
By Rohan Samarajiva
Last December, as the presidential election campaign was heating up, I had to ponder the meaning of elections in Sri Lanka. A Burmese graduate student from the National University of Singapore had come to study with me. She was stunned by the plethora of graphic advertisements on display. They have no elections in [...]
By Priyanee Wijesekera _ Retired Secretary General of Parliament
Following the parliamentary election to be held on April 8, the first task of the new House would be to elect its Speaker. In Sri Lanka the Speaker is the third citizen in the national protocol list and the most important person in parliament. However successive speakers [...]
By Kusal Perera
There is little doubt the war crimes issue would have any impact on this parliamentary election. The April 8 election has nothing serious on its platforms. It’s all about athletes, film stars, cricketers, journalists and also lumpens, and more about these “wonderful” personalities.
What is nevertheless important is how the Rajapaksas would avoid facing [...]
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema _ Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
In the months following the end of the war the government has launched what has been described as the largest development drive in the country’s history.
In every part of the country new roads, power plants, ports and airports are rising out of the dust. The cost [...]
By Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham
On March 8, the Stree Kamkaru Madyasthanaya, or Women’s Center, held a ceremony to open a new office at its main headquarters in Ekala. The organisation was founded 28 years ago to serve workers in Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zones, and now maintains offices in Ekala, Katunayake, Biyagama and Koggala. The organisation emerged [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
“The heretic, the enemy of society, will always be there, so that he can be defeated and humiliated over again…. The espionage, the betrayals, the arrests, the tortures, the executions, the disappearances will never cease. It will be a world of terror as much as a world of triumph.” — Orwell (Nineteen [...]
This refers to the article titled “More Free Rides: Sri Lankan Media And Journalistic Sloth” by Mr. Emil van der Poorten in The Sunday Leader of 7th March 2010. This article contains a number of grossly inaccurate statement and distortions that needs to be corrected, not for my sake but for the sake of the [...]
By Kusal Perera
There is bound to be a turn-around in political positions in the weeks to come, for sure. Not in terms of political cross-overs as such, but on political compromises, despite seemingly opposing positions on election platforms. The compromise would come with the presidential proclamation to reconvene the now technically absent parliament. The dissolved [...]
By Tisaranee Gunasekera
“Fashion me now a man such as princes commonly are, a man ignorant of the laws, almost an enemy of the public welfare, intent upon private gain…a hater of liberty and truth…measuring all things by his own desire and profit… Then put on him a golden chain….set on him a crown adorned with [...]
