Year: 2022

US, EU urges Sri Lankan political parties to cooperate and work quickly to achieve political and economic stability The European Union (EU) and the US on Sunday urged Sri Lanka’s political fraternity to cooperate, focus and work quickly’ to achieve a peaceful, democratic and orderly transition amid the island nation’s worst economic and political crisis in decades. On July 9, thousands of irate anti-government protesters stormed the official residence of embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and forced him to offer his resignation on July 13. A mob also torched the private…

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‘Curfews, curbs on social media won’t help’ By Shamindra Ferdinando Former Communist Party General Secretary D.E.W. Gunasekera yesterday (08) said that the country was in such a precarious situation that the government had to quit forthwith to pave the way for a genuine all-party government.Such an arrangement was a prerequisite to restore political stability urgently required to achieve economic recovery, the veteran politician said. At a Gathering of Opposition political forces in Colombo, he said was a manifestation of growing opposition to Gotabaya –Ranil administration. The former Minister emphasised that…

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Radical change in political culture vital for transformation – Anura Kumara Dissanayake It is much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism – Slavoj Zizek Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s quotation is quite apt to the situation in the country right now where the whole system collapsed before our eyes overnight. Yet who is modest enough to make the paradigm shift for a radical change against the corrupt, blood-sucking system is questionable. The National People’s Power led by the…

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India, US, Japan play significant role in SL (By sulochana ramiah mohan, Ceylon Today) The US Biden Administration has demonstrated a keen interest in Sri Lanka of late. With the arrival of the new US Ambassador, Julie Chung, who came during the worst financial crisis since Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka is seeing the three Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) countries comprising India, the US, and Japan (Australia expressed security concerns only on the illegal migration of Sri Lankans to Australia by boat) come in to play a significant role in Sri…

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Making the 22nd Amendment true to the President’s 11 May commitment (Daily FT 4th July 2022 – Prof Rohan Samarajiva) In his address to the nation on 11 May, the President committed to “enact a Constitutional Amendment that would restore the substance of the 19th Amendment” (my translation from the video record, because this speech is missing from the President’s websites).1  By this time, he had seen the steadfastness of the Aragalaya and the nationwide support they had. It is reasonable to assume that former Finance Minister Sabry had briefed…

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Harsha says IMF cannot provide a loan if creditors discussions fail  (the Morning. 1-07-2022) By Imesh Ranasinghe  The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) hands are tied over helping help Sri Lanka, as it is unable to provide financing until the country comes to an agreement with its creditors, Opposition MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said. Speaking to reporters yesterday (30), he said that even though Sri Lanka had sought help from the IMF 16 times earlier, about four or five programmes have been abandoned midway. “However, this time it’s different from…

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US offers Rs 7b more to feed 800,000 children for 15 months Sunday Times 3-07-2022 By Kapila Bandara   More than 800,000 children and 27,000 pregnant and lactating women in Sri Lanka will get essential nutrition over the next 15 months through US$20 million (Rs 7.16 billion) more funding announced by the United States this week. The funds will go to support a school nutrition program. Farmers are also being supported to help improve food production in a country driven to unsustainable debt from a borrowing binge since 2007 by Mahinda…

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SJB renews call for Gota go home for new all-party Govt. to take SL out of crisis SJB renews call for Gota go home for new all-party Govt. to take SL out of crisis Says every day President stays in power constitutes an extra day of suffering forced on people Opines present President and Govt. has little credibility within local and international community Questions legality as it includes the very people who had made way for this crisis Says urgently needed political and deep economic reforms to resolve crisis can only…

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ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s newly gazetted 22nd amendment to the constitution bill does not curtail the powers of the president nor introduce checks and balances in any meaningful manner, contrary to the demands of the people of Sri Lanka, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) said. In the absence of any genuine attempt to address the inherent problems of governance, this attempt at reform will only worsen the existing political and economic crisis and destroy whatever little remaining faith citizens might have in constitutional governance, the organisation said in a…

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Thursday 30th June, 2022 Some Opposition politicians would have the public believe that the present crisis cannot be resolved unless a general election is held. They insist that they can save the economy and deliver the people from suffering if they are given a popular mandate to govern the country. There is hardly anything Sri Lankan politicians do not capitalise on, and therefore it is not surprising that they are making the most of the crisis. Chairman of the Election Commission (EC) Nimal Punchihewa has told them a home truth.…

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