By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya Since their visit to India at the invitation of the Indian government in February, leaders of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People’s Power coalition have become the poster-boys and girls of a complicated Sri Lankan political landscape, in a pre-election period. The once-marginal parliamentary group’s leader is now viewed as a potential […]

By Rathindra Kuruwita A National People’s Power (NPP) administration will not do anything that will undermine Indian security, but it will maintain economic and political relations with China, the NPP delegation to India told Indian officials, JVP/NPP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in an interview with Sirasa TV, on Thursday (15). In his first interview […]

In actual fact the foundation for the current economic chaos was laid under the Yahapalana rule when they borrowed as much as USD 12 billion from the international bond market, at high interest rates, with them not even undertaking any developmental works, like the Rajapaksas, or, for that matter, any worthwhile economic activity. We certainly […]

Yahapalana Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s plea for Indian funding to develop Elapathagama in the memory of the late Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera remains a mystery. In terms of an agreement signed on 14 July, 2017, India provided Sri Lankan Rs 300 mn to develop Elapathagama in the Anuradhapura district. The late Sobitha Thera, a controversial character, spearheaded […]

Through the eyes of Sena Thoradeniya: Sena Thoradeniya discussed successful US operations here taking into similar interventions in the past and present. The examination of the Egyptian and Iranian scenarios is surely useful. Those genuinely concerned about what went wrong for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who didn’t really receive the backing of any section of the international […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) recently launched an inquiry into what it called a state of anarchy prevailing in the country. An Independent Commission set up by ACBC has initiated a comprehensive probe in a bid to establish the circumstances leading to the eruption of public protests against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and […]

By Austin Fernando I am proud that I have served all Executive Presidents of Sri Lanka from Presidents JR Jayewardene to Gotabaya Rajapaksa at some stage or another. I may be the only public ‘officer’ to have done so. With Mahinda Rajapaksa, it was secondary, but I was his ‘lifesaver’ along with Ranil Wickremesinghe. (See […]

A dramatic global theatre jam   By Nirasha Piyawadani Pinnawala Adramatist who has rendered yeoman service to the promotion of local stage drama, M. Shafeer, has a cherished wish and that is to be able to hold an international drama festival in Sri Lanka. Our protagonist M. Safeer, strove to make this dream a reality and thanks to his untiring efforts the first ever international drama festival in...

Sarath Fonseka was found guilty on the first charge in an indictment filed in the High Court of Colombo, consequent to an article carried in The Sunday Leader on December 13 2009 -  front page under the caption “Gota Ordered Them To Be Shot - Gen. Sarath Fonseka.” The case was heard at a Trial-at-Bar before ...

OCTOBER 17, 2011: Status: Not Free Legal Environment: 23 Political Environment: 30 Economic Environment: 18 Total Score: 71 Despite the end of the government’s long-running war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group in May 2009, media freedom remained restricted in Sri Lanka, with journalists subject to myriad forms of legal harassment and physical intimidation. Altho...

By Tisaranee Gunasekara "….too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a...

by Harim Peiris Last week Sri Lanka commemorated her 63rd anniversary of freedom from colonial rule and Sri Lankans rightly celebrated the achievement of our political independence and democratic rights as a free and sovereign nation. That freedom and sovereignty...

Lasantha’s Killers Still Walk Free By Frederica Jansz A year ago, a high profile investigation into the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and the attacks on Editors Upali Tennekoon, Keith Noyahr and Namal Perera got underway as senior sleuths attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Terrorist Investigations Department (TID) sifted through a smattering ...

by Dr.Vickramahu Karunaratne I came back from England on November 7, Tuesday. I was warned by friends that I could get arrested by the Mahinda regime. But the ruler had a better arrangement set for me. I was not disturbed...

While The Sunday Leader is encouraged to see WikiLeaks picking up where the Western media fell off, we wonder where the leakers are in our own island. America, the country exposed by the latest leaks, is already one of the most transparent in the world. What of Sri Lanka, where so much goes on behind ...