Courtesy Ceylon Today The former Director of the Audit Department of the Central Bank (CB) Deepa Seneviratne says that following an order issued by former CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran, the management of the Central Bank was forced to approve a sum of Rs 10 billion, which was put out as collateral for the sale of […]

Rajiva Wijesinha I returned from Azerbaijan on 23 June and had to go that morning to Parliament for a COPE meeting. The report on the Bond scam was being drafted, and it was clear that it would show that Arjuna Mahendran had interfered egregiously with bond placements to the great detriment of the economy. The Opposition […]

By Rohana R. Wasala (A sequel to ‘Jousting with the JO: Let the real opposition do its duty to the country’/March 3, 2017) In two articles written to The Island roughly within a year, namely, ‘A long view of constitution making’ with the subtitle ‘The things people first wrote down’ (The Island/January 24, 2016) and […]

Shenali D Waduge  N Q Dias was referred to as Sri Lanka’s Clausewitz. He was the most powerful public servant serving as Permanent Secretary for Defense plus Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government of 1960-65. Having read Panikkar Doctrine he was apprehensive of India’s designs on Sri Lanka. His anticipation of the […]

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge The American novelist Ernest Hemingway is considered as the greatest writer of the 20th century. Hemingway explored universal themes such as life, love and death.  His name was a synonym for an approach to life characterized by action, courage, physical prowess, stamina, violence, independence, and above all “grace under pressure (Yalom & Yalom, 1971). Hemingway brought […]

මනෝප‍්‍රිය ගුණසේකර  උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකාදීප බැදුම්කර නිකුතුවට ඉදිරිපත් වු රුපියල් බිලියන 10 ක ලංසුවට අනුමැතිය දෙන ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහෙන්ද්‍රන් මහතා කළ නියෝගය හේතුවෙන් එම ලංසුවට අනුමැතිය දීමට සිදුවුණ බව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ සංඛ්‍යා දත්ත දෙපාර්තමෙන්තුවේ හිටපු අධිකාරී දීපා කාන්ති සෙනෙවිරත්න මහත්මිය හෙළි කළාය. කරන්නට වෙන දෙයක් නොමැති හෙයින් […]

Dr Sarah Obeysekera Quote Concerned about public discontent over the delivery of services, the Government is undertaking an immediate review of public sector staff in government offices. Unquote I have a story to tell about this, It is also concerning the attitude and the performance of Private and Public Sector Employees and well as employers […]

Adaderana The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Monday alleged Arjun Aloysius, the son-in-law of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, of attempting to siphon off money that he allegedly earned through illegal means. PHU leader Udaya Gammanpila made the observation at a press conference held in Colombo. We doubt whether he allegedly attempts to siphon off […]

By Binoy Suriyaarachchi Courtesy Adaderana March 6, 2017  04:27 pm The Secretary of Socialist People’s Front Monday charged that the government has failed to uphold law and order in the country. Raja Kollure, General Secretary of Socialist People’s Front made the observation while speaking to reporters at a press conference held in Colombo. Citing the recent incidents […]

And they ask why a tender procedure wasn’t followed to hire BNS – Gotabaya

Archaeological site in Madirigiriya in danger? මැදිරිගිරිය වටදාගෙය පිහිටි රක්ෂිතයේ පස් ජාවාරමක්… උකුසු ඇසට හසු වෙයි.

The National Freedom Front (NFF) accused the government of double standards on Sunday after the Foreign Minister sought more time to ‘meet the goals’ at the U.N. human rights session began in Geneva earlier this week. ජීනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය ආණ්ඩුවේ කණ අතගාන ගමන් කම්මුල් පාරකුත් ගහලා 13 වැනි සංශෝධනය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම බලාත්මක කිරීම සහ නව […]

Over 2000 officials have been questioned by FCID so far – MR රාජ්‍ය සේවකයා සද්භාවයෙන් කරන කිසි දෙයක් වැරදි නෑ

EDITORIAL Courtesy The Daily Mirror Officially Sri Lanka today is in a situation best described by the Sinhala idiom ‘Girayata ahuwechcha puwak gediya wage’ –a Catch-22 situation- a paradoxical situation from which there is hardly any chance of escape. The country faces an almost insurmountable foreign exchange and external debt repayment crisis; a problem of finding […]

Djsources breakingnewsgh.com Muslim parents demanded the abolition of pork in all the school canteens of a Montreal suburb. The mayor of the Montreal suburb of Dorval has refused, and the town-clerk sent a note to all parents to explain why. Here’s that note: Muslims must understand that they have to adapt to Canada and Quebec, its […]

Ratanapala 5 Mar 2017 In the aftermath of the 1976 Non Aligned Nations Conference in Colombo, one of the ‘distinguished’ attendees Col Gadhafi, gave a radio interview to the local Muslims. (See Radio Ceylon Transcripts of 1976) On this occasion he inquired from them about their demographics in Sri Lanka and gave them the following […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE What’s the difference between this government and the previous one?  Ask some random person on the street and the most likely answer would be ‘nothing’.  That’s a perception of felt benefits.  In fact some might even say ‘this lot is worse’ and if pushed might explain, ‘they said they would be different […]

Sarath Wijesinghe – former Ambassador to Israel and UAE Theme of the year Kidney Disease and Obesity World Kidney Day is celebrating worldwide in order to realise awareness of the amazing Kidney, highlight that diabetics, high blood pressure are key factors on CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) systems of screening all patients, encourages preventive behaviours, Educating […]

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge  A world renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a prison simulation study in 1971 at the Stanford University with his student volunteers. He randomly divided these volunteers into guards and inmates and then placed in a mock prison environment. This study continued for six days and Zimbardo observed radical behavioural changes […]

Courtesy Gulf Times Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has rejected a fresh appeal from the United Nations to allow international judges to investigate alleged war-era atrocities, vowing to not prosecute soldiers. I am not going to allow non-governmental organisations to dictate how to run my government. I will not listen to their calls to prosecute […]

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana March 4, 2017  07:43 pm Former Sri Lankan diplomat Dr Dayan Jayatilleka today charged that Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera that has declared to the entire world that Sri Lanka is a ‘failed state’. The former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN in Geneva was referring to the foreign minister’s recent speech at […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island March 5, 2017, 9:28 pm President Maithripala Sirisena’s election manifesto stated: “I will not touch any Constitutional Articles that could be changed only with the approval of a referendum … Instead of the present autocratic Executive Presidential System I will introduce a Constitutional structure with an Executive that is allied […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island March 5, 2017, 10:04 pm Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says that the country is suffering for want of what he calls workable formula to achieve post-war development objectives. Comparing the period in the aftermath of successful conclusion of the war in May 2009 with that under the current yahapalana administration, […]

Dilrook Kannangara All families of TNA MPs live in Colombo! Their demand for Tamil Eelam is a sham to distract people and terrorise them into extorting more economic benefits and privileges in Colombo and surrounds so that a Colombo-centric Tamil Eelam will become more feasible. Quest for Tamil Eelam was genuine until open war began […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Hambantota port is located on the Southern tip of Sri Lanka. It is ideally located at the intersection of the major international shipping routes.  It is within 10 nautical miles from the world’s busiest maritime lanes.  Approximately 200 to 300 ships sail along this route daily. Experts agree that Hambantota port has the   […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Yahapalana government had its own idiosyncratic approach to Hambantota. Instead of continuing with the project, as it should have done, since Phase 3 was in place, Yahapalana suspended the Hambantota project in January 2015.  Yahapalana announced that the performance of Hambantota port had not been satisfactory. Port operations started in November 2010 and […]

Mahinda Gunasekera His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena,President of Sri Lanka Copy to: Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister ”     ”   Hon. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa, Minister of Justice ”     ”    Hon. Gayantha Karunahilaka, Minister of Information ”      ”   Inspector General of Police, Sri Lanka Your Excellency, Fervent Appeal Made by Sandya Kumari, […]

 by C.A.Chandraprema Mark Fernando’s 1998 judgement to take centre stage New constitution or 20A needed to postpone impending PC elections March 4, 2017, 7:10 pm Not holding the local government elections has become a major part of the survival strategy of this government. While the local government elections have been put off due to complications […]

Editorial Island March 4, 2017, 7:08 pm The advantages of a policy of non-confrontational foreign relations favored by the incumbent rulers against the bang-bang- bang approach of its predecessors was evident at the ongoing UN Human Rights Commission proceedings in Geneva where Sri Lanka did not face canon fire. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and his […]

DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Mr. R. Sampanthan’s 90 minute (written) speech during the recent adjournment debate (Feb 22) on the Constitution was ‘historicist’, in the sense that he invoked a great deal of political history. But his argument was a-historical and illogical. The Tamil nationalists, including Mr. Sampanthan himself spurned the many offers made by successive […]