Dilrook Kannangara Many nations including Sri Lanka face a hunger problem. Instead of looking for easy ways out, blaming this and that and finding faults with everything suggested, nothing much happens in Sri Lanka. Various types of beans grow in all parts of the island. Beans can be grown in a small garden. Almost all […]

Dilrook Kannangara The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was introduced in 1979 for very good reasons. Acts of terrorism was on the rise including the bombing of the Air Ceylon passenger plane by Tamil terrorists in 1978, attacks on banks and killing of politicians and police officers in the north. As visible around the world, […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka’s current taxation system is only focused on taxing income and consumption. How about wealth? Sri Lanka has a horrible disparity between the top 1% and the bottom 50%. The top 1% (about 200,000 people) owns 32% of the wealth while the bottom 50% (over 11 million people) owns just 3.7% of […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka’s governance cost doubled since the introduction of provincial councils in 1988. A new layer was introduced to governance which was never needed. A white elephant. Instead of one minister of education, health, etc. now we have 10 of them; 9 from provincial councils. Corruption, waste, etc. also doubled. Tax collection had […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka has an estimated 6.3 million individuals suffering hunger. World Food Program (WFP) distributes money to a selected crowd, mostly based on ethnicity. The north, east and Nuwara Eliya districts are the biggest recipients of WFP’s food aid. However, these areas have only a small population of hungry people. Other areas have […]

Dilrook Kannangara Having read an interesting article by Garvin Karunaratne prompted me to write this to bring to attention real issues of today that were disregarded in it. In short, if a separate state or states are declared in the northern and eastern provinces, they will be rich and developed countries in a generation thanks […]

Dilrook Kannangara IMF help is getting delayed and delayed. So many rounds of negotiations have been held but Sri Lanka is yet to see the money. Even if IMF help comes, it will be a loan which will have to be repaid with interest just like other loans. Since all economic powers have to approve […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in not unique. Other countries have been in it and some are currently in it too. Economics is all about trade-offs. One basic premise of economics is that resources are limited but needs and wants are unlimited. The way to succeed economically is to manage needs and wants (not […]

Dilrook Kannangara අරගලකාරයන්ගේ ප්‍රධාන ආහාරය බුරියානි. ඔවුන්ට බුරියානි සපයන්නන් ඔවුන්ව නටවන සෙයක් පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ. වෙසක් මාසේ නම වෙනිදා සිදුවීම් පිටුපස විශාල බුරියානි කාරයන් ප්‍රතිශතයක් සිටින බව ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අත් අඩංගුවට ගත් 2,400 ඉක්මවූ අයගේ නම් වලින් පෙනේ. වෙනස්ව කිවහොත් මිනී මැරීම, ගෙවල් ගිනි තැබීම, අරගලය වෙනුවෙන් මැර ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කිරීම, කොළඹ පාතාලය ප්‍රතිප්‍රහාර සඳහා කැඳවීම […]

Dilrook Kannangara Complete bunkum! W R is a pro-Indian. He is distracting people from the Indian takeover of SL’s petroleum sector (IOC), Trinco oil tank farm and the land, Colombo Port East terminal, etc. None of these bring dollars but takes out SL’s dollars. There is no foreign loan on Hambantota port. Colombo south port […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka is in a foreign exchange crisis. It has short term and long-term reasons. In 1977 when the economy was opened, it was done in a haphazard way. Due to those deficiencies the nation faces many nasty consequences. A powerful, wealthy, criminal and anti-national import mafia has been created. They import anything […]

Dilrook Kannangara There are usual protests and disruption by the disruptive cabal against the progressive Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Bill. These are the elements that always disrupt Sri Lanka’s progress and hinder equal rights to citizens. They rely on twisted logic that free education” equals only government provided education and no other education”. Free education […]

Dilrook Kannangara Information on the Easter Sunday attack tickles in slowly. Based on available information, the radical group members that carried out the attack had agreed not to attack Sinhalese, especially Buddhists when some of them had suggested otherwise. Going by this decision, they avoided Sinhalese in their attacks except on the occasion of the […]

Dilrook Kannangara UNHRC voting clearly showed Sri Lanka’s friends and enemies (and the in-betweens). Although India abstained from voting, India fully supported the anti-Sri Lanka resolution. Sadly, some enemies are key export destinations (and import origins) of Sri Lankan produce (and Sri Lanka’s imports) which can become a future threat. While it is only the […]

Dilrook Kannangara This was why India abstained from voting. UNHRC will turn to India with the same set of demands very soon and India is keen to avoid an embarrassing situation by being party to it. https://undocs.org/A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 The paragraph about devolution of political authority must have sent a chill down India for sure. India revoked […]

Dilrook Kannangara Reconciliation and accountability. These are the two words the international community imposed on Sri Lanka since it defeated Tamil terrorists in 2009. However, it was a one-way street; or, two one-way streets. Only Sri Lanka had to do reconciliation while Tamils always torpedoed it. Only Sri Lanka was pushed for accountability while Tamils […]

Dilrook Kannangara Sri Lanka’s stand against UNHRC’s intrusive resolution against the island nation on war crimes matters is commendable. The government of President HE Gotabaya Rajapaksa has so far taken a bold stand on the matter forcing the Core Group to revise their resolution again and again trying to appease Sri Lanka. Yet, Sri Lanka […]

Dilrook Kannangara Government revenue as a percentage of GDP has steadily fallen down over the past three decades to close to 11%. The government has to prove all services it provides and repay loans and interest from this revenue. Debt repayment and interest expenses alone equals total government revenue. For the rest of government expenses, […]

Dilrook Kannangara Compared to Sinhala JVP and Tamil LTTE caused death tolls, Muslims have been the most peaceful community. I was both amused and appalled when a powerful Muslim MP said Muslim youth will take up weapons if they are not allowed burial of COVID-19 dead. TNA as expected echoed this very same sentiment which […]

Dilrook Kannangara Whenever the nation faces a dire situation, the majority goes to the forefront to save the nation, put up with inconveniences and difficulties, willingly makes sacrifices and co-operates with the government in power. But the minorities always pull from the foot with petty tribal thinking. Sri Lankan minorities, as a community, have never […]

Dilrook Kannangara  Summary: At Least 40% of Chinese Loans to Sri Lanka Had Immediate Economic Benefits to Sri Lanka Private Sector All Chinese loans to Sri Lanka are for the construction of valuable physical assets. Even if only 40% of those projects are given to Lankan organisations and individuals, that is highly profitable. In other […]

Dilrook Kannangara Unfortunately for India, PM Modi follows the outdated approach of using Tamil problems as a negotiation tool with Sri Lanka. It never worked and does not work today. Tamil interests are neither in Sri Lanka’s nor India’s favour. Rajiv Gandhi did manage to gain some temporary leverage in 1985 and 1987 at a […]

Dilrook Kannangara Since 13A was imposed on Sri Lanka by India in 1987 with the help of gunboats, an invasive Indian army and Indian sponsored Hindu terrorist groups, a number of progressive laws and constitutional amendments have been blocked as they were inconsistent with the provisions of 13A. Divi Neguma is one such attempt to […]

Dilrook Kannangara The anti-Rajapaksa camp has a distinct advantage at presidential elections than in parliamentary elections. On the other hand, the Rajapaksa camp has a clear advantage in parliamentary elections than at presidential elections. Given this fact, it is unwise the empower the president at the expense of the PM. What should happen is the […]

Dilrook Kannangara USA has announced economic sanctions on a number of Chinese companies and other companies that deal with them. Among them are Chinese companies involved in the Port City, Hambantota Port and Mattala Airport. This is obviously a US attack on China’s one belt one road” initiative. The impact on Sri Lanka will be […]

Dilrook Kannangara It is pointless responding to CV Wigneswaran who seems to find relief in false beliefs to comfort the sad realization that Tamils do not have a nation of their own. Craving for a nation of their own is just and fair. But it must not be on someone else’s land. His claims are […]

Dilrook Kannangara Another way to look at the MCC is to consider how USA helped Sri Lanka progress towards its development goals in the past 200 years of close relationship” between the two countries. Can anyone name a port, airport, any major road or bridge, conference hall, power station, a dam or irrigation scheme, boat […]

Dilrook Kannangara India imposed 13A to the Constitution in 1987 at the height of the Cold War. 13A is living testament that Sri Lanka’s non-aligned” policy failed (and the same policy of India failed too!). The northern and eastern provinces were merged and India appointed all councilors for the North in 1988. Only councilors for […]

Dilrook Kannangara It is obvious the present Constitution is a mess (in local proverbial terms a salad mix of a lunatic – pissige palaa malla”). It contains many contradictory provisions that often require court interpretation. The country cannot move forward without a seamless Constitution that ties back to history, leverages the present and envisions a […]

Dilrook Kannangara At long last Mangala Samaraweera has decided to end politics. Assuming it is true, a wise decision, albeit too late. Mangala was a regressive force in Lankan politics contributing nothing much positively. He earned the wrath of the people in whatever ministerial portfolio he held – media, construction, foreign, finance, etc. He played […]