by Lucian Arulpragasam, Colombo Telegraph, March 15, 2023 Lucian Arulpragasam Our Genetic Commonalities It has been proved by DNA studies conducted by Professor Kamani Thennekoon and others (cited in her article dated Feb. 2019 in The Island) that: “Most DNA studies comparing both the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils show no large genetic difference, suggesting that both populations… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
IMF Approves Sri Lanka’s $2.9bn Bailout
by Agence-France Press in The Guardian, UK, March 20, 2023 President vows to get economy back on track through ‘prudent fiscal management and ambitious reform agenda’ The International Monetary Fund has approved Sri Lanka’s request for a $2.9bn bailout, raising hopes for an easing of its economic crisis. The IMF’s board confirmed it had signed… Read more »
The Politics Behind the CIA Controversy in Sri Lanka
by A. Jathindra, Eurasia Review, USA, March 16, 2023 Blaming foreign conspiracies engineered by the CIA, RAW and MI6 is commonplace in local politics. The nationalists in the Sinhala and Tamil camps invoke this trite trick when they find themselves with something of a hot potato. On Feb 22, former SLPP mouthpiece and leader of… Read more »
The Elusive Political Solution in Sri Lanka
by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, India, March 9, 2023, undated March 10 Early February, a group of saffron-clad Buddhist monks gathered near the Sri Lankan Parliament and burnt a copy of the 13th Amendment. They were registering their rage and protest after President Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed to implement the law in full. He had… Read more »
HCHR on Sri Lanka
by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, March 7, 2023 Global update: High Commissioner outlines concerns in over 40 countries In Sri Lanka, debilitating debt, and economic crisis, have sharply restricted people’s access to fundamental economic and social rights. Recovery policies will need to redress inequalities, and invest in social… Read more »
A Soldier’s Dream
by A. Nillanthan, March 4, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with some improvement by the Editor.] The soldier said on the last day that Buddha had appeared in a dream to him in a army camp in Nilavara on the island of Sri Lanka. As Rauf Hakeem once said, the statues… Read more »
It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the “Indigenous”
by Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, February 20, 2023 Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who did come first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the concept escape its colonial past? The term was shaped by social-evolutionist thinking; white settlers used it to designate the “primitive” other. Podcast… Read more »
Elite Capture and Corruption of Security Sectors
by United States Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, February 17, 2023 Executive Summary Closing the Effectiveness Gap The objective of US security sector assistance is to help build effective, accountable, responsive, transparent, and legitimate security sectors in partner nations to address common security risks. Such action ultimately benefits US national interests, as when the United… Read more »
No Power Cuts and No Elections?
by A, Nillanthan, February 25, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with some improvement by the Editor.] The power cuts have been stopped since the 16th, but the electricity bill has increased by 66 percent. What does the government want to convey to the people through this? Stopping power cuts means you… Read more »
Essense of Entrepreneurship
by Raj Rajaratnam, Jaffna, January 14, 2023
Sri Lanka’s Duplicity on Promises to India
by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam via EINPresswire, New York, January 26, 2023 “History Repeats Itself First as a Tragedy, then as a Farce”. “Indo-Lanka Accord and Implementation of the 36 years old 13th Amendment.” Indo-Lanka Accord Gives India the Legal Authority to Intervene.” — V. Rudrakumaran NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, January 26, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/… Read more »
India’s Timely Help Ensured Sri Lanka’s Economic Survival during Crisis
:Sri Lankan envoy Moragoda by Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu, Chennai, January 26, 2023 India’s support to Sri Lanka during its economic crisis, that External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar underlined during his visit to Colombo last week has opened a new chapter in ties between the neighbours, says Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda…. Read more »
Reviving the Northern Economy in Sri Lanka
Speech made by Dr. Indrajit Coomarasamy Colombo, January 21, 2023 [Speech in English with an introduction in Tamil]
Thirteen Again?
by A. Nillanthan, Uthayan, Jaffna, January 29, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with some improvement by the Editor.] “This will not divide the country. According to the decision of the five-judge panel, especially regarding the 13th amendment, we are in a unitary state. I agree with power sharing. The provincial councils… Read more »
UPR Report on Sri Lanka
by UNHRC Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, February 1, 2023. Report presented to 53rd session of UNHRC, June 2023 G2303666.pdf (un.org) Video of Sri Lanka’s review, February 1, 2023 – Sri Lanka Review – 42nd Session of Universal Periodic Review | UN Web TV Video of adoption of the UPR report February 3,… Read more »
Sri Lanka Is Calm Again. That Doesn’t Mean Things Are Any Better
After an economic collapse and political upheaval, Sri Lankans have become resigned to leaner meals and reduced horizons. by Mujib Mashal & Skandha Gunasekara, New York Times, January 31, 2023 Reporting from Ibbagamuwa, in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province, and Colombo, the capital. On the surface, calm has returned to Sri Lanka since the South… Read more »
Spotlight on Puttalam
Aussie company buys Lankan ilmenite deposit for a pittance by Daily Mirror, Colombo, December 20,2022 The Sri Lanka Cement Corporation owned factories in Kankesanthurai, Puttalam and Galle. The factories in Puttalam and Galle were sold in 1993. The factory in Kankesanthurai didn’t operate due to the war. Although the Puttalam Cement Factory was sold the… Read more »
Is the Fish Thawed But Not in Yet the Pan?
by A. Nillanthan, January 15, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with some improvement by the Editor.] A nation is a great mass of people. Nationalism is the gathering of a mass of people. National politics is the method of a government to gather a mass of people. If we think on… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Failed Peace Process and the Continuing Challenge of Ethno-territorial Cleavages
by Asanga Welikala, p.255-274 in’Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions,’ Oxford University Press, March 12 2019 Sri Lanka’s failed peace process and the continuing challenge of ethno-territorial cleavages Welikala 2019 Abstract This chapter examines why the peace process in Sri Lanka failed to find a constitutional settlement for the country’s ethno-territorial cleavage, and even enthroned… Read more »
The Sri Lankan Conception of the Unitary State
Theory, practice and history by Asanga Welikala, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, June 2016 CPA-Working-Paper-1 Concluding Remarks In the years after the brutal denouement of the civil war, there was no progress with regard to reforms towards a reconciliatory and inclusive constitutional settlement for Sri Lanka. If anything, the post-war realignment of politics was in the… Read more »