Violence cannot be justified, under any circumstances. Therefore, the practice of referring to the JVP bids to topple the governments of the late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike (April 1971) and JRJ and Ranasinghe Premadasa (1987-1990) as southern insurrections should be stopped. The armed forces and police defeated the JVP and LTTE terrorism. Several other Tamil terrorist […]

Ninety seven per cent of the respondents in a survey of Sri Lanka’s PR industry carried out in October by the Asia-Pacific chapter of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), the world’s largest and influential PR body, state that the local PR industry has got competitive over the recent years, with pricing, industry connections […]

Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Uurumaya, MP Udaya Gammanpila, yesterday said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has given a post of Presidential Adviser on Climate Change to Eric Solheim who had been sacked by the UN for wasting funds. Addressing the media in Colombo, Gammanpila said that so-called peace envoy Solheim has re-emerged as the Presidential […]

Print media has retained its supremacy as the most preferred channel among public relations (PR) professionals in Sri Lanka over other channels online, social media, TV/radio, and others, reveals a survey by the Asia Pacific branch of the world’s largest professional PR body- the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA).The survey carried out with the […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has reiterated that a handful of persons who advised President Gotabaya Rajapaksa caused the unprecedented economic meltdown. Sabry has alleged that politicians, officials, public sector as well as the trade unions are responsible for the crisis. The Minister said so in response to ‘Hiru’ anchor Chamuditha Samarawickrema seeking […]

By Shamindra Ferdinanado State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has said that Sri Lanka wouldn’t have ended up being bankrupt if previous governments had adhered to agreements with the International Monetary (IMF). Reiterating that the country is experiencing the worst ever economic crisis, lawmaker Siyambalapitiya warned that the government would be under IMF scrutiny this time [...

Friday 16th September, 2022 The Lotus Tower, one of the Ozymandian projects that the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration launched, plunging the country deeper into debt, has been opened again! It was first opened by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government in September 2019. This time around, the public will be able to visit it, provided of course they buy […]

"But this time, because of this special situation that money can be used to finance the fiscal deficit as well."

That means authorities we should not talk about debt restructuring parameters

Basically there is a limit to what can be shared with the public or parliament

By Ifham Nizam The Ceylon Electricity Board implements most of its power transmission and distribution infrastructure development projects like the construction of new transmission lines, transmission and distribution substations, etc., using loan funds obtained from international lending agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). These ...

… won’t expect miracles from new Prez By Shamindra Ferdinando The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) didn’t expect miracles from UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe but strongly believed he could meet the growing threat posed by fascists, lawmaker Sagara Kariyawasam, General Secretary of the party, said on Monday night. Appearing on ‘Salakuna’ a live political [...

Friday 5th August 2022 Sri Lanka’s struggle to shore up its crumbling economy continues, and there are no signs of promised foreign assistance materialising anytime soon. The Cabinet has just retained the services of some foreign firms for external debt restructuring, which is one of the main conditions for the IMF bailout package. When the […]

The secret vote on the new President as well as the Emergency sharply divided the SLFP. In spite of talks among members of its parliamentary group, the party, led by one-time President Maithripala Sirisena, has not been able to reach a consensus on a strategy to deal with the new President. Of the 14 SLFPers, […]

Newspapers, TV programmes and video presentations have been dealing with the terrible incident that occurred in the premises of the Presidential Secretariat and on the steps leading to it, at predawn on Friday 23 July. Cassandra feels compelled to present her opinion though it is one week from that day. Experts have dissected it and […]

British Politics and Ours Both Sri Lanka and the UK have experienced an unprecedented political upheaval of late. It is interesting that both leaders agreed to resign within a day of each other. Everybody else saw the ‘the end is nigh’ sign for quite a while. They didn’t or didn’t want to see it until […]

By Sanath Nanayakkare There is still possibility for Sri Lanka to arrive at a staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by August 2022 to qualify for an extended fund facility, but the new government will need to demonstrate its ability to implement the required policies within an agreed upon time frame.” the […]

He lost the election, but became the president using the bonus seat.

Being a reader of your esteemed paper for at least 30 years or more, I have always admired your editorials. Firstly, for the erudite language and often the contents. Yet, I could not sometimes help the feeling, ‘what a waste of wonderful talent’. I was thinking, who amongst those you address in your editorials can […]

APPRECIATION By Dr D. CHANDRARATNA The 30year war against the LTTE rebel group will undoubtedly be recorded by future historians as one of the most turbulent periods in the history of our country. Fortunately, it also brought out a group of public intellectuals from within the professions into a non-political arena, to counter the sinister […]