Kamalika Pieris In the 19th Amendment, the main blow to the powers of the President came with the Constitutional Council.  The Constitutional Council was first established in 2001 in the 17th Amendment. The idea was imitated by the civil society, led by the Organization of Professional Associations (OPA). The 17 Amendment was certified on 3rd […]

By Rohana R. Wasala The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices. -William Hazlitt Sunday Island columnist Sanjana Hattotuwa (‘What we are today’/June 23, 2019), as if stoned on the drug of racist hatred and prejudice against the majority Sinhalese Buddhists who constitute 70% of the Sri Lankan […]

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය නිවර්තන සදාහරිත වනාන්තර කීපයකටම හිමිකම් කියන්නා වූ ජෛව හා පරිසර පද්ධති විවිධත්වයෙන් පොහොසත් දිස්ත්‍රිකකයක් වේ. වර්තමානය වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වනාන්තර පද්ධතියට විශාල වශයෙන් මානව ක්‍රියාකාරකම් නිසා තර්ජන එල්ල වෙමින් පවතින අතර කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ වනාන්නර පද්ධතිද විශාල වශයෙන් හායනයට ලක් වෙමින් පවතී. මේ නිසා මෙම සංවේදී පරිසර පද්ධති රැක ගැනීමට […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekersa  I flew in to Colombo on Saturday. Sri Lankan air line flight was full  but there were hardly any European guests  flying in to Colombo .It was full of transit passengers.  Easter  Sunday attack ,is the main reason for lack of tourists arriving in Colombo. When we read news items people are […]

Janaka Perera It is erroneous belief that Sri Lanka and most other European colonies were granted Independence by the Atlantic Charter the US and the UK agreed upon in 1941. There was no formal document called Atlantic Charter with signatures of Heads of States as a Treaty. It was only a discussion paper.  The two […]

Janaka Perera Dilrook has said that ‘ Japan was the only country that bombed Sri Lanka” Here is my reply: The Easter Sunday Raid (or Battle of Ceylon) was an air attack by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy against Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, during the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. This attack was part of the Indian Ocean Raid, and […]

Janaka Perera Having read the responses to the article in ‘Lankaweb’ under the caption, ‘Did Japan contribute to Sri Lanka’s Independence,’ I, as the writer who attended the public lecture and subsequent discussion at the Mahaweli Centre Auditorium, Colombo, on June 24, wish to state the following. At the outset the Speaker Senaka Weeraratna said […]

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that he cannot support the death penalty because harming lives is against the policy of the United National Party (UNP). The UNP, as the main party in the government, the Opposition led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are all against […]

by Amal Jayasinghe Courtesy The Island President Maithripala Sirisena is facing fresh legal challenges in his attempt to end a 43-year moratorium on capital punishment and start executing drug convicts, officials said Sunday. Two petitions were filed in the Court of Appeal Friday seeking an order quashing any move by Maithripala Sirisena to resume executions, […]

By Janaka Perera An interesting debate over who brought independence to Sri Lanka, India and the rest of European colonies in Asia took place at the Gamini Dissanayake Auditorium, Mahaweli Centre, Colombo, last Monday (June 24, 2019). An entirely different perspective to the historical narrative sparked off the debate at the Royal Asiatic Society sponsored […]

By Steve A. Morrell Courtesy The Island At the seminar – (L-R): Tamara Kunanayakam, Mayura Gunawansa, President, OPA Eng. Nissanka Perera, Dr. Palitha Kohona, Eng. Saman Warusawithana, President-elect and Eng. Nissanka Senarath, OPA, Secretary, OPA.(Pic by Dharmasena Welipitiya) Asserting that the two contentious agreements with the US were disadvantages to Sri Lanka, a top former […]

Ada Derana

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror The joint opposition yesterday urged the Speaker to table the letter sent by the Attorney General stating his views on the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to inquire into the Easter Sunday attacks. UPFA MP Dinesh Gunawardene who raised this matter said the Speaker should table the […]

Courtesy Adaderana The results of the radiocarbon dating test report carried out by a laboratory in the United States on the bone samples recovered from the mass grave in Mannar are questionable, says Prof. Raj Somadeva of Archaeology at the Postgraduate Institute of the University of Kelaniya. Prof. Somadeva, speaking to BBC Sinhala, said there […]

Courtesy Adaderana State bank makes revelation on Saudi funds received by Batticaloa CampusThe Chairman of Bank of Ceylon (BOC) Senarath Bandara says that the Batticaloa Campus Private Limited has never mentioned to the bank that the Rs 3.5 billion deposited to their BOC savings accounts was received as a foreign loan from a Saudi Arabian […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, June 28 (newsin.asia): Dr. Palitha Kohona, a leading member of the opposition organization Eliya” on Thursday expressed opposition to the proposed Colombo-Trincomalee Economic Corridor (CTEC). Dr.Kohona ,who was Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary during Eelam War IV, objected to the CTEC on two grounds: Firstly, the CTEC cannot be a priority for the economic […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The 19th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed on 28 April 2015 just four months after Yahapalana government came into being. It was passed near unanimously. Only one person voted against, Rear Admiral MP Sarath Weerasekera.  Information on how the 19th Amendment was drafted has now come into the public […]

Law & Order පසුගියදා පැවති මාධ්‍ය ආයතන ප්‍රධානීන්ගේ මාසික හමුවේදී මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ප්‍රකාශකර ඇති 19 ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සකස් කළේ නීති විශාරදයන්ද එහෙම නැත්නම් දේශපාලන මකබාස්ලද කියා තමන්ට ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇති බවද? යන ප්‍රකාශයෙන් නීතීඥවරයන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු විසින් 1988 ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ (නීතිඥවරයන් සදහා වූ වෘත්තීය පැවැත්ම සහ ආචාර ධර්ම පිළිබද) රීති උල්ලංඝනය කිරීම් සිදුවී ඇති බවත් […]

Courtesy Adaderana

පොදුජන මාධ්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානය ඉදිරි ජනාධිපතිවරණය ඇතුලූ අනෙකුත් මැතිවරණ සදහා සන්ධානයකින් තරග කිරිමට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සහ ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන දේශපාලන පක්ෂ ඇතුලූ සංවිධාන රැුසක් තීරණය කරයි. ජනාධිපතිවරණයට පෙර නව සන්ධානය ලියාපදිංචි කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුලූල් සාකච්ඡුා මේ වන විට ආරම්භ කර තිබේ. ප‍්‍රධාන පෙලේ දේශපාලන පක්ෂ, බහුජන සංවිධාන, සිවිල් සංවිධාන, වෘත්තීයවේදින්, ආගමික සංවිධාන රැුසක් […]

උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ විපක්ෂයේදී පසුගිය බ‍්‍රහස්පතින්දා දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයන් කණ්ඩායමක් හමුවූ අතර, ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මහලේකම් දයාසිරි ජයසේකර මහතා අනුගමනය කරමින් සිටින විරෝධී ආකල්පය එහිදී සාකච්ඡාවට බදුන් විය. ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ සාමාජිකයන් වන සී.බී.රත්නායක සහ කෙහෙළිය රඹුක්වැල්ල යන මහත්වරුන් මෙහි දී දැඩි විවේචනාත්මකව අදහස් දැක්වූහ. බහුතරයක්ගේ අදහස් ද එවැනි විය.  දයාසිරි නැවතත් […]

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today Women’s dress code in Sri Lanka, especially after the Easter Sunday massacre, has become the talk of the town. This was attributed to the carnage carried out by young Islamic Terrorists (Wahhabis) espousing suicide bombers. Being educated and hailing from comfortable families, it remains an unresolved setback […]

By Lucian Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island June 28, 2019, 8:41 pm  Is the Head of State and Government, the Commander-in-Chief of forces one who is mentally suitable to hold such office? Recent statements by President Sirisena have raised major questions about the status of mind of the person, and his commitment to both the process […]

Courtesy Adaderana Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa says he is personally against the implementation of the death penalty. He made this comment addressing the media following a religious event held at Horapawita Sri Vijayasundara Pirivena in Kamburupitiya, Matara today (28). The event, joined by Mahanayake of Ramanna Maha Nikaya Venerable Napane Pemasiri Thero, was […]

Courtesy Adaderana Norway and Germany have expressed deep concern regarding the Sri Lankan President’s decision to resume executions in the country for drug offenders. Norway is deeply concerned that Sri Lanka intends to implement the death penalty, which would put an end to Sri Lanka’s 43-year moratorium on the use of this cruel and irreversible […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Commissioner General of Prisons has given an undertaking to the Appeals Court that the death penalty will not be carried out within the next 7 days. Prisons Commissioner General T.M.J.W. Thennakoon gave this undertaking when he appeared before the court today after being served notice over a writ petition filed against the […]

Noize TV

When a plethora of concerns are emerging all revolving around secretly signed agreements compromising Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and officials are not defending the Nation in view of their divided loyalties, it is the right of every taxpaying citizen to pose questions and demand answers. Everyone enjoying perks of office are doing so because of the […]

නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹු නසී, මග හිටියොත් තෝ නසී! යන්න වෙනුවට ගෙදර ගියත් – මග හිටියත් රට නසී යන්න අදට වඩා ගැලපෙන බව 19 ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් රට සහ රාජ්‍ය ආරක්ෂාව පත්වී ඇති තත්ත්වය විමසා බැලීමේදී පැහැදිලිවන බව පෙන්වා දීම මෙම ලිපියෙන් අපේක්ෂා කරයි. 19 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්මතවීම මෑතකාලීනව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයට ගරු කරන බොහෝ […]