Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror A lawsuit compiled by a team of legal experts with the input of Sir Geoffrey Nice QC would be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday challenging the procedure adopted by the UNHRC itself to pass the resolution on Sri Lanka, the Global Sri Lankan Forum (GSLF) […]

by Chitra Weerarathne Courtesy The Island March 17, 2018, 12:04 pm President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva in objecting to the Bill to Amend the Judicature Act, yesterday told the Supreme Court that the Bill did not refer to the establishment of the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar. The Bill assumed that such a Permanent High Court […]

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island March 16, 2018, 10:10 pm Social Media may well be the new hope of strength of the Yahapalana powers. The big talk today is about the need to control Social Media and curb the use of Hate Speech on the networks of this new media spread. Just as whatever the […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island March 16, 2018, 10:05 pm The colony of political leeches sponging off the public continues to grow rapidly. There has been a twofold increase in the number of local government members. The country needs more professionals and skilled workers to realise its developmental goals, but it is getting burdened with more and […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE The term is attributed to Lynton Crosby, a political strategist who has managed campaigns of right-of-center parties in several countries.  Boris Johnson, who employed Crosby during London mayoral elections explains the term thus: There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The ‘Sinhala only’ story began in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when agitation for ‘swabhasha’ emerged as an anti-imperial or anti-colonial gesture. Sinhala Mahajana Sabha (1919) established a network of local mahajana sabhas in the rural areas. These Mahajana Sabhas conducted their proceedings in Sinhala. The rules and regulations were printed in Sinhala. In […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sinhala had started modernizing in the 19th century, long before ‘Sinhala Only’. Hundreds of Sinhala newspapers were published in the 19th century, not always in good Sinhala, said K.N.O. Dharmadasa. However, this helped the language to modernize. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala and Ratmalane Dhammarama and lay scholars such as W.F .Gunawardhana and Kumaratunga Munidasa […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS It is nonsense to say that Sinhala has not been able to fashion a language in which new knowledge could be written,  said K.N.O. Dharmadasa . Sinhala has modernized very successfully. There is a word for everything. Sinhala today has a vast vocabulary catering to all subjects and a sentence structure that can […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS ‘Sinhala Only’ affected education as well. The British had instituted a two-tier system of education with compulsory vernacular education for the majority and a restricted elite education in English for a small minority. Vernacular education was provided from Grade one to Grade five. Most rural children left school after Grade five. From Grade […]

NIRJ DEVA DL FRSA MEP Conservative MEP for the South East of England Chairman of the Delegation to the Korean Peninsula Vice Chairman of International Development Committee ECR Group Coordinator 14/03/2018 – Strasbourg: Ladies and Gentlemen, we thank you for coming to what I think is a historic press conference. I begin by saluting President´s Trump´s acceptance […]

Derek Gould, studied at The University of Hong Kong Courtesy quora.com Japan’s victories in the Pacific War demolished the myth of white superiority even more so than its victory over the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, because Russia was then in decline while Britain in 1941 was still an world imperial power. Related to […]

 Julian Borger, diplomatic editor The Guardian  David Miliband, foreign secretary during the Sri Lankan civil war, told an official he was spending two-thirds of his time on Sri Lanka. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian The diplomatic campaign by former foreign secretary David Miliband to champion aid and human rights during the Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis last […]

For Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter,  M.B.B. Kirindigoda, Secretary,  Sagarika Wickramasekara, President බහූ පාර්ශ්වික සාමාජිකයන් විසින් මෙහෙයවන ශ්‍රී ලංකා අන්තර්ජාල සමාජය 2018 පෙබරවාරි 13 ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අන්තර්ජාලයේ වෛරී ප්‍රකාශණය, වැරදි තොරතුරු පළකිරීම හා සමාජ සංහිඳියාවට බාධා පැමිණවීම සහ වර්ථමානයේ අන්තර්ජාලය අවහිර කිරීම පිළිබඳව විවිධ අදහස් දැනගැනීමට හා ඉදිරි පියවර හඳුනා ගැනීමට විවෘත සංවාද සභාවක් පැවත්විණී. මෙම […]

උපුටාගැණීම BBC “නොදියුණු සමාජයක පුරවැසියන්ට නව තාක්ෂණය ඔස්සේ භාෂණයේ හා ප්‍රකාශනයේ උපරිම නිදහස ලබාදීමේ හානිය අද අපට අත්විඳින්න සිදුවෙලා තියෙනවා,” යනුවෙන් ස්වදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය වජිර අබේවර්ධන පසුගියදා ගාල්ලේ දී පවසා තිබිණි. අමාත්‍යවරයා ඒ බව සඳහන් කළේ, මහනුවර ඇතුළු ප්‍රදේශවල පැතිර ගිය මුස්ලිම් විරෝධී ප්‍රචණ්ඩ ක්‍රියාවලින් අනතුරුව ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන ලද සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ජාල අවහිර […]

උපුටාගැණීම BBC අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට එරෙහි විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාව ලබන සතියේ ගෙන ඒමට නියමිත බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පවසයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකා විදේශ වාර්තාකරුවන්ගේ සංගමය සමග විශේෂ සාකච්ඡාවකට එක්වෙමින් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒ බව කියා සිටියේය. 2016 වසර අවසානයේ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විදේශ වාර්තාකරුවන්ගේ සංගමය අවසන් වරට මුණගැසුණු අවස්ථාවේදී සඳහන් කළේ 2017 වසරේ ආණ්ඩුව පෙරළා දමන […]