By Prof. Sirimevan Colombage Emeritus Professor of Economics, Open University of Sri Lanka May 8, 2018, 12:00 pm Sri Lanka is facing harsh external financing vulnerabilities contrary to the Central Bank’s recent claims that the country’s gross official foreign reserves have risen to the historically highest level of US $ 9.9 billion, reflecting improved economic […]

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana Two officials of the National Housing Development Authority have been interdicted in connection with the incident of an ancient archaeological site being destroyed at Ipalogama, Minister Sajith Premadasa told Ada Derana. He stated that the authority’s Anuradhapura District Manager and a technical officer have been suspended in connection with the incindet. It […]

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය හිටපු උපදේශක/දුෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන ආයෝජකයින්ගෙන් කප්පම් ගැනීම ගැන හොදම සාක්ෂිය ‘ජනාධිපති කාර්ය මණ්ඩල ප්‍ර‍ධානී සහ දැව සංස්ථා සභාපතිගේ කෝටි 10 අල්ලස් කථාවයි.  මෙය හුදෙකලා සිදුවීමක් නොව, ඉතා සැලසුම් සහගත ක්‍රියාවලියකි. ලංකාවේ  දී අත්සන් කරන ආයෝජන ගිවිසුම් ක්‍රියත්මක නොවන්නේ දේශපාලනඥයින්, නිලධාරීන් එක් වී සිදු කරන මෙවැනි කප්පම් ගැනීම් […]

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, Executive Director CaFFE/CHR Unscrupulous state officials and the plight of investors to Sri lanka The arrest of President Sirisena’s Chief of Staff, Dr I.H.K. Mahanama and Chairman of the State Timber Corporation P. Dissanayake while taking a bribe from an Indian investor made headlines last week. As often the case in Sri […]

BY N Sathiya Moorthy Courtesy The Island May 7, 2018, 9:04 pm Reports that President Maithripala Sirisena was surprised at the recent arrest of his chosen Chief of Staff, H M Mahanama, and another senior aide, in a multi-million corruption scandal, should not shock the nation. It has been in the making for long, and in […]

Courtesy The Island May 7, 2018, 11:43 pm The UNP was now eyeing the assets of the Samurdhi Bank greedily after robbing the Central Bank, Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, yesterday, addressing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) May Day rally in Galle. Commenting on President Maithripala Sirisena’s declaration that he would not retire from […]

 lanka C news 2020 වසරේදී තමන් විශ්‍රාම යන්නේ නැති බව ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා සදහන් කරයි. තවත් කල යුතු වැඩ බොහෝ තිබෙන නිසා තමන් විශ‍්‍රාම යන්නේ නැතැයිද ජනාදීපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේය. ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව කියා සිටියේ මඩකලපුවේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මැයි රැළිය අමතමිනි. ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මෙම ප‍්‍රකාශයට ගාල්ලේදී පැවති ඒකාබද්ද මැයි රැළියේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී විමල් වීරවංශ […]

රොමේෂ් ධනුෂ්ක සිල්වා සහ නාලක සංජීව දහනායක උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප ‘ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහත්තයා මඩකළපුවේදී කිව්වා 2020 දී එයා විශ්‍රාම යන්නේ නෑ  කියලා.  එතුමාට එහෙම කියන්නේ නැතිව මේ වෙලාවේ  ශ්‍රි ලංකා නිදහස් පාක්ෂිකයින් රඳවා ගන්න වෙන ක්‍රමයක් නැහැ ‘ යැයි හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය.   ගාල්ල සමනළ ක්‍රීඩාංගණයේදී     පැවැත්වෙන මැයි රැලියේදී හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ […]

උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප ‘ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහත්තයා මොනදේ කිව්වත් කළත් බලයට කෑදරයි. එතුමා කියනවා 2020 දී විශ්‍රාම යන්නේ නෑ කියලා.මෙච්චර කාලයක් කරපු දේවල් මදිද .මේ සේවය නම් තවත් එපා ‘ යැයි  ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණු  ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ටිල්වින් සිල්වා මහතා පැවසීය. කොළඹ බී.ආර්.සී. ක්‍රිඩාංගණයේ පැවැත්වෙන මැයි දින රැලිය අමතමින් ඔහු මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය. වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වු […]

Courtesy The Island President Maithripala Sirisena, yesterday, announced that he would not retire from politics in 2020, as a lot more remained to be done for the country. Addressing the SLFP May Day rally, at Chenkalady, Batticaloa, the President said the country needed many more honest politicians. “The country does not need corrupt politicians. There […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Rajapaksa government did not sit back after winning Eelam War IV in May 2009. They knew the LTTE was waiting to come back. After defeating the LTTE, the army continued to mop up LTTE cells. One group was operating in the eastern jungles at the end of 2009 supported by 50 armed […]

Anonymous author. (This article has been circulated by an Anonymous author….clearly fearing repercussions against his/her person. It is very interesting and factually accurate in terms of sociological and legislative aspects and the lack of resistance to the 1956 Sinhala Only Act, but intense resistance again the Social Disabilities Act of 1957—————-PLEASE READ:) The Tamil caste […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Exactly one year ago, just after the Joint Opposition picked up the gauntlet thrown by the Yahapalana Government (that of filling Galle Face Green on May Day) and put up an unprecedented show of force, I posted the following comment on Facebook: චැලේන්ජ් එකක් අවශ්‍ය නම් මෙන්න: එජාපයේ හෝ ජවිපෙ හෝ ශ්‍රීලංනිපයේ […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE The word on the street thanks to President Maithripala Sirisena is ‘science’. The cabinet reshuffle, Sirisena said, would be done scientifically this time. He went on to say that he had discussed (presumably scientifically) about it and made changes. He implies that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe submitted to the power of his […]

Malinda Seneviratne First they offer help and then they enslave ‘First they had the book and we had the land. Then they said close your eyes, let us pray”. When we opened our eyes, we had the book and they had the land.’ — Bishop Desmond Tutu on the relationship between invader and missionary in […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island May 7, 2018, 12:29 pm Former Kegalle District JVP MP Anuruddha Polgampola, who was compelled to resign, in Sept, 2008 for allegedly helping a person enter Japan, posing as his assistant, was appointed Chairman of the State Timber Corporation (STC) by President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday (May 4). The appointment […]

RAJEEWA JAYAWEERA Courtesy The Island May 6, 2018, 10:48 pm In the wake of President’s Chief of Staff and Chairman State Timber Corporation being nabbed by Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) in a five-star hotel car park, accepting Rs. 20 million as part of a bribe from an Indian businessman, local media […]

Yohan Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today said the Samurdhi Bank would be soon brought under the control of the Central Bank. All banks except the Samurdhi Bank are monitored by the Central Bank,” he said at the UNP May Day rally held today at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Even the EPF is […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The Supreme Council of Maha Sanga of Sri Lanka has demanded that  Executive Presidency of Sri Lanka should not be abolished  and the proposed 20 Amendment must be withdrawn.  In previous occasions,  on key issues Malwatte Maha NayakeThero disagreed with the rest.  But on this issue of proposed 20th Amendment, […]

ECONOMYNEXT – May 5, 2018, 7:45 pm The arrest of the President’s Chief of Staff while allegedly accepting a 20 million bribe may have seriously damaged Maithripala Sirisena ’s image and weakened his position within the tenuous coalition. Sirisena was reportedly visibly shaken when a senior aide told him on Thursday that his Chief of […]

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi he journeyed to the nooks and crannies of the country preaching bana or delivering dharma deshana, a grim reality hit him hard. With age making them feeble and frail, monks who had followed in the footsteps of Lord Buddha, renouncing all that was worldly including their relatives, faced absolute neglect. These were […]

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka will sign agreements with French oil and gas major Total and a subsidiary of U.S. firm Schlumberger for a seismic study off its east coast to evaluate any prospective oil resources, a top official said on Friday. Vajira Dassanayake, the director general at Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat (PRDS), said a […]

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s state-run investment body has approved a $500 million liquefied natural gas plant by China Machinery Engineering Corp near a Chinese-controlled port and industrial zone, the development strategies minister said on Friday. The state-run Board of Investment has approved investment projects worth $1 billion in the first quarter, Malik Samarawickrama said, […]

Sudath Gunasekara 5.5.2018 Why don’t you say your development projects have already born fruits to the whole nation in a right royal manner long time ago with the Central Bank robbery led by your able leadership. People know it is sweet for you but utterly sour for them, though, you don’t realize it as a […]

By Udaya P Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today It was pointed out in the previous column that allegations against the Executive Presidency are baseless. We posed five questions to the anti-executive Presidency camp. Before discussing any further, let us revisit those five questions. If the Executive Presidency is dictatorial, why has it become the most popular governing […]

by Rajeewa Jayaweera Courtesy The Island President Sirisena met with British Peer Lord Naseby during his recent visit to attend CHOGM in the UK. In October 2017, Naseby, after appealing to the British Information Commissioner, obtain 39 pages of highly redacted confidential dispatches from the British High Commission in Colombo during the last stages of the […]

Courtesy The Island May 5, 2018, 7:46 pm The head of the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) reaches the mandatory retirement age of 60 next week with attempts to extend his services despite legal obstacles, official sources said. Senior Deputy Inspector-General Ravi Waidyalankara submitted his papers to retire on his 60th birthday on May 14, […]

Rajan Philips Courtesy The Island May 5, 2018, 12:00 pm For starters today, I was planning this secular prayer: Let us first say thanks for small mercies – for keeping Ravi Karunanayake out of the cabinet in last Tuesday’s reshuffle. Two days later the thunderbolt struck –the President’s Chief of Staff and the Timber Corporation Chairman […]