KAMALIKA  PIERIS  The Ceasefire Agreement” (CFA) was signed on 22nd February 2002  by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and by Velupillai Prabhakaran on behalf of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Agreement prohibited fighting, on land, air or sea and the Eelam War ground to a […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island The government has directed the Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints Regarding Missing Persons to hand over all its files to proposed Office for Missing Persons, thereby terminating the Commission. Chairman of the Commission retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama yesterday told The Island that he had been to told to […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Official Language Act no 33 of 1956   said that the Sinhala language ‘shall be the one official language of Ceylon.’  The Act was to come into effect on 1st January 1964.  Sinhala had not been used as an official language since the fall of the Udarata kingdom in 1815. Therefore vocabulary, sentence […]

බොරුවෙන් රැවටුණු තවකෙනෙක් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව මේවන විට වැට් බද්ධ 15% දක්වා වැඩි කර ඇත, මේම වැට් බද්ධ වැඩි කිරීමට බලපෑ හේතු කිහිපයකි, මේම හේතු අතුරින් ප්‍රධානතම හේතුව වන රාජ්‍ය සේවක වැටුප් රු 10 000කින් වැඩි කිරීමේ බරපතලකම ඔබට පෙන්වාදිම අපේ බලාපොරොත්තුවයි. මේ අගාධයට රට ඇද දෑමු ප්‍රධානතම හේතුව තමයි රු 10 000කින් රාජ්‍ය සේවක වැටුප් […]

SUSANTHA WIJESINGHE     I see through facets of a Prism, beautiful hearts, few faces of evil, nurturing doctrine of terrorism, at the behest of the sordid devil.   Golden hearts breathe fire in optimism, to scorch the doctrine of fascists, yet dreaming in the sea of realism, a state of malignancy exists.   Evil minds see […]

N. P. Karunadasa SLAS (Retired) Kandy.Courtesy The Island May 30, 2016, 7:53 pm Unlike in developed countries, people who live by the sweat of their brow such as farmers and fishermen in third world countries like Sri Lanka, are vulnerable to merciless exploitation by middlemen. Farmers, especially paddy farmers in our country seem to be caught up […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekera I am writing this snippet in the car being driven  through 1.5 hours of traffic from Battaramulle to Muwal  to our yard Driver joins me cursing three wheeler drivers who have just occupied steering stick  who has no proper driving experience and respect to traffic laws and no knowledge of  using  mirrors […]

By Our Correspondent Guwahati, 31 May: The Assam Press Correspondents’ Union (APCU) organized a media talk and also a health camp for its members on Monday in the city. Nearly hundred rural reporters from different parts of the State joined in the program and took advantages of healthcare consultations. Journalist Nava Thakuria, while attending the […]

ගෙවිඳු කුමාරතුංග අනුප පැස්‌කුවල් රට තීරණාත්මක ජනාධිපතිවරණයක්‌ අභියස පවතිද්දී මෙලෙස ඔබ අමතනුයේ එය අපගේ පරම යුතුකමක්‌ වන බැවිනි. පරපුරෙන් පරපුරට කැපවීම් කර රැකගත් මවුබිම, ඒ බිමේ ගොඩනැඟූ අතිඋදාර සභ්‍යත්වය මුහුණ පා ඇති අනතුර පිළිබඳ ව ඔබ දැනුම්වත් කිරීම කළ යුතුමය. එදා 1983 අවාසනාවන්ත හා කුමන්ත්‍රණකාරී ජූලි සිදුවීම් පාදක කරගනිමින් සමානාත්මතාව, ජාතිවාදයට එරෙහිවීම, සුළු ජාතීන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් […]

 – කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසූරිය  DIVAINA – 18/ 05/ 2016 * වන්නි මෙහෙයුම නතර කිරීමට රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන 170 ක්‌ * විදේශ දේශපාලකයන් 10 ක්‌ ද මෙහෙයුම නතර කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරති. “උත්කෘෂ්ට කාර්යයක්‌ වෙනුවෙන් දිවිපිදූ අපේ ගෞරවනීය මළවුන් සදා අනුස්‌මරණ කළ යුතුයි” – හිටපු ඇමරිකානු ජනාධිපති – ඒබ්‍රහම් ලින්කන් කොටි අපරාධකාරී සමාගම පැරදවීමේ 7 වැනි සමරුව අදයි. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS According to the Mahavamsa, the Buddha visited Sri Lanka thrice.  His second visit was to Nagadipa to settle a quarrel between the two Naga kings, Chulodara and Mahodara, over the possession of a gem-studded throne.  Nagadipa is therefore a part of the ‘solosmastana’, the 16 places of worship to which Buddhists go on […]

Senaka Weeraratna Animals are born free. But almost everywhere they are in chains. Zoos symbolize this phenomenon. Zoos therefore do not deserve to be sustained. It is a legacy of the uncivilized world. It is morally indefensible. It is cruel. It is shameful. It turns Justice on its head. Its future, like human slavery of […]

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්            යළිත් වරක් උතුරේ මහඇමතිවරයා සහ පළාත්සභාව රට බෙදීමේ භයානක උන්මත්තක යෝජනාවලියක් සමාජ කරළියට දමා ඇත. ගංවතුර පීඩාව නිසා විස්සෝපයට පත්දකුණේ ජනතාව උතුරේ මහ ඇමතිවරයා ගේ මීට පෙර ප්‍රකශ  අමතක කළ බවට නිසැකය. නමුත් තුවාළයක් පාරන්නා සේ උතුරේ මහ ඇමතිවරයා නැවතත් සිය බෙදුම්වාදී   වුවමනාවන් සිංහල ජනතාවට යළි මතක් කර […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekera  This seems ridiculous. Whole business community is complaining about lack of labour force for construction ,shipbuilding etc and the Lady Minister goes and signs  somewhat short sighted agreement with Malasia and Israel  to send our blood” of the development to work abroad ! Government top brass should review the labour requirements in […]

By Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada [A shorter version of this article appeared in the Island Newspaper: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=146074 Shelton Gunaratne (SG), an emeritus Professor of communication at  Moorhead, Minnesota, USA   has written in the Saturday Magazine of the Island (28th May, Island)  that  both Prof. Carlo Fonseka (CF), and   Dr. Upul Wijayawardhana (UW) are  wrong in […]

Asaf Federman, Institute of Advance Study & Department of Psychology, Warwick University ————————————————————————————————- Abstract In the past twenty years, new optimism about the relevance of Buddhism to cognitive science has been expressed by a number of established researchers. In this article I ask what are the conceptual roots of this optimism, and which forms of […]

Shenali D Waduge The fundamental reason behind seeking devolution is to enable people of the provinces to be empowered. Having said that we find that in practice no such empowerment has taken place. 70 year plus Northern province Chief Minister lived all his life in Colombo and went to live in the North only after […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS In Eelam War IV, President Mahinda Rajapakse started off like his predecessor, clinging to the Ceasefire agreement. He sent three delegations abroad for discussions with LTTE.  Lalith Weeratunge, Presidential secretary had made a secret visit to the LTTE in March, 2006 and met Poovannan, a senior LTTE member. Then LTTE closed Mavil Aru […]

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි  රටට බලපෑ ආපදාමය තත්වය ක්‍රමයෙන් පහව ගියේය. නමුත් ඊට ගොදුරු වූ ජනතාවට එහි බලපෑම්වලින් මිදී යලි පරණ පුරුදු ජීවිතයට එළඹෙන්නට තව කොපමන කල් ගතවේදැයි කිව නොහැකිය. ආපදාව සිදුවූ සැනින් රටේ බොහෝ ප්‍රදේශවල ජනතාව, භේද බින්නකම් අතැර දමා විපතට පත් වූවන්ගේ පිහිටට පැමිනියහ. මෙතැනදී යම් යම් මතවාද ගැටුනු අයුරු දක්නට නොතිබුනා නොවේ. නමුත් ආහාර […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekera During a recent meeting with the Minister of Ports at a forum organized by the National Chamber of Commerce ,participants inquired about the development activities of Trincomalee,Galle and Hambantota Harbours.where following interesting scenario emerged All the planning and execution of Trincomalee will be handled by   Megapolis under Minister Ranawaka ,Galle will be […]

Asoka Weerasinghe Ottawa Kindly permit me to answer to Response 9 by Sunil Mahattaya recorded on May 26th, 2016 @ 7:05 AM, to my response to Canada’s Prime Minister willing to assist Sri Lanka address serious violations of International law during the war”.    You said:”stop picking on Canada’s PM in a tirade that seems to […]

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම්. ජයතුංග මුල් වරට මට රතු ඉන්දියානුවෙකු මුණ ගැසෙන්නේ යූක්‍රයීනයේ වෛද්‍ය පීඨයේදීය​. ඔහු පැනමාවෙන් පැමිණි සිසුවෙකි. එහෙත් අනෙකුත් ලතින් ඇමරිකානු සිසු සිසුවියන් මෙන් ඔහුට ස්පාඤ්ඤ සංකලනයක් නොතිබුනු බව මම සිතමි. ඔහු පැනමාවේ ආදි වාසියෙකු විය හැක​. ඔහුගේ මුහුණ දකින විට මට මතක් වූයේ ප්‍රිස්නස් ඔෆ් ද සන් නම් ටින් ටින් පොතේ එන ඉන්කා රජුය​. […]

By Charles.S.Perera After allowing India to build a Hanuman Bridge connecting Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka, and promising to sign the ETCA with India to open the Sri Lanka’s employment opportunities to Indians, Maithripala Sirisena visiting India to meet Indian Prime Minister Modi has promised to give India land in Divurumpola , Nuwara Eliya to […]

by Prof. Suwanda H J Sugunasiri (writing from Canada) Courtesy The Island May 29, 2016, 11:33 am It was with a tinge of nostalgia that I read the Vesak greetings of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. It was 35 years ago, in 1981, that I had the pleasure and privilege of introducing the […]

Anjalika Silva USA.  It takes a special kind of person to care about those who are in distant faraway lands and identify with common ties in good times and bad. Tad impressed anyone that he met as filling that persona of caring beyond boundaries. Tad Fekade first came into contact with us as Sri Lankans during […]

By Rajiva Wijesinha Courtesy Ceylon Today Concerted attacks, however, lay far in the future. In 2009 we were dealing rather with generalizations, and the threat then was not allegations of war crimes, but rather efforts to galvanize international opinion against us and stop the slow but steady progress of the forces in the North. I had […]

By Daya Gamage – Asian Tribune Political Note Washington, D.C. 27 May ( Courtesy Asiantribune.com): The U.S. Department of State’s – highly impartial and non-partisan watchdog – Office of Inspector General found fault on May 25 with Hillary Clinton for the use of a private e-mail server which contained sensitive and classified material during the time […]

Sarath Wijesinghe former Ambassador to UAE and Israel-Solicitor, Attorney-at-law Education Education is a process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values to the other generation. Education is a fundamental Right expected to be enjoyed by every citizen guaranteed in the Sri Lankan Constitution and many parts of the world. Absolute freedom […]

By :  A.A.M.Nizam – MATARA On Wednesday, May 18th, Tiger terrorists across the world marked the 7th year anniversary of the end of the armed conflict, which they claimed saw tens of thousands of Tamils massacred as Sri Lankan state forces drew in. These events have taken place amidst Eunuch Sirisena in gratitude to Tamils […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ranasinghe Premadasa succeeded J.R. Jayewardene as the second President of Sri Lanka, 1989-1993.He was assassinated by the LTTE   on May Day, 1993.  His period of rule was an eventful one. He was  described as a ‘mad president’. (Sunday Island. 27.1.2013p 5) .He unleashed a reign of terror, regarding which the UN and USA […]