BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය වෙත පෙත්සම් දෙකක් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇතැයි සිතමු. දෙකෙන්ම ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ අදාළ කාරණයේ ජාතික හෝ මහජනයාට ඇති වැදගත් කම හේතුවෙන් සම්පූර්ණ විනිසුරු මණ්ඩලයකින් විභාග කරන ලෙසයි.  එවිට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීන්දු කල යුත්තේ අදාල කාරණයෙහි වැදගත්කමයි.  එනම් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට මහජන උවමනාව පිලිබඳ යම් අවබෝධයක් තිබිය යුතුයි. එක පෙත්සමක් ගීතා කුමාරසිංහ ගේ ද්විත්ව පුරවැසිභාවය ගැන.  ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ […]

 Malinda Seneviratne  ජනාධිපති තුමාට ප්‍රශ්ණයක් ඇත — තමන්ගේ දේශපාලන අනාගතය මේ මොහොතේ අඳුරු ලෙස පෙනීම.  අගමැති ට ද ප්‍රශ්ණයක් ඇත — මෛත්‍රිපාල ඇතුවත් බැරි නැතුවත් බැරි කාරණය.  දිනෙන් දින මෝරන ජනතා අප්‍රසාදය අනෙක් පාර්ශවයට බැර කරන්න මේ දෙන්න වගේම එයාල ගේ අනුගාමිකයින් ද උත්සහා කරන බවක් පෙනේ.   දේශපාලන කසාදයේ අඬදබර ගේ ඇතුලේ විසඳාගැනීම කෙසේ වෙතත් ගේ ඇතුලට […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE “බය නැති අගමැති” කියල පුරසාරම් දොඩන්න සූදානම් වෙද්දී හිතුවේ නැද්ද මන්ද රිට(ර්)න් එකක් එයි කියල.  ඇත්තට වුනේ හතර අතින් පෝස්ටරය කෝචෝක් කිරීමයි.  ලැජ්ජ නැති, පණ නැති, විලිලජ්ජ නැති, හොරකමට බය නැති, තිරුපති හැරුණු විට අන් හැමෝටම බය නැති, රට බෙදන්න බය නැති, රට විකුණන්න බය නැති යනාදී ලෙස අගමැති ගේ ප්‍රතිරූපය උස්සල […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Mangala Samaraweera, in supporting the report submitted by the Steering Committee on constitutional reform, called for a constitution that ‘will help our nation put its past behind for good and move forward with renewed hope.’  On the face of it, this is a positive statement.   Mangala’s speech also alluded to the Sathara Brahma Viharana or […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Going by the rhetoric and the text pertaining to constitutional reform currently being debated in Parliament, it is all about two things.  1) expunging of the clause supposedly privileging Buddhism, and 2) devolution of power.  Tamil National Alliance MP, M. Sumanthiran, has stated the stand of his party and by and large the […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Those supporters of the Yahapalana Regime whose apologies have diminished to the point they take refuge in what I call the ‘At Least Thesis’ in the now tired game of comparison, have rightfully found some fuel in the recent assertiveness of the Attorney General’s Department.  The reference is of course to the uncompromising […]

By Malinda Seneviratne Courtesy The Daily Mirror In 1988, not too long before the United National Party was to lose the five-sixths Parliamentary majority it enjoyed (and therefore more than the two-thirds required to amend the constitution, barring of course those which required in addition a referendum) courtesy the anti-democratic referendum of 1982 which too was […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Time it was…and what a time it was…it was…a time of innocence…a time of confidences.  Long ago it must be…I have a photograph…preserve your memories… they’re all that’s left you.” That’s Simon and Garfunkel and it’s from their song ‘Bookends’ which speaks of aging and nostalgia.  The nostalgia part is something that we often […]

Malinda Seneviratne Courtesy The Daily Mirror Dr Harsha De Silva, Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development, has come out strong on the subject of corruption. He has observed that the entire country is corrupt. The implication of course is that his government is also corrupt. He has said that he’s ‘sick of it all.’ […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Onella WIranthi Karunanayake has asked a valid question: Why only my father’s name comes up all the time in such a huge government?” The ‘father’ is of course Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of External Affairs.  Karunanayake’s  name has ‘come up,’ to use Onella’s words because of his close friendship with Arjun Aloysius, the man at the […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars…” —  Jack Gilbert Jack Gilbert (1925-2012), celebrated poet from the USA, in a poem titled ‘Tear it down’ was essentially calling for self-criticism, for the recognition and subsequent erasure of bias, and perhaps even reflection on the error (let’s say) of being fixated with […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE There’s a singular vacancy in this country, according to some.  Ranil Amirtthiah of the popular local band ‘Black,’ whenever he speaks and in whatever forum he chooses to do so, is often poetic but sometimes he flushes subtlety down the tube.  He says it straight from the heart, always.  This is clearly evident in a […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Elections are fought over all kinds of issues.  The winners typically secure the rights to interpret mandate.  This election was about A, B, C or D,” they would say and often give their own interpretation of A, B, C and D, amending the same as per prerogatives of the particular political moment.   If you […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE How many times have we heard that there’s no room for any third party in Sri Lankan politics?  ‘Third party’ as in an entity other than the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the United National Party or else coalitions led by one of both.  True, parties with extremely modest strength have on […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Calamity is responded to with horror.  It produces grief and helplessness. It prompts anger and finger-pointing.  The blame game is a constant undercurrent which gradually rises to the surface, often obliterating tragedy, the need to address post-tragedy relief and rehabilitation issues and the ultimate need to ensure there’s no repetition.  There’s blame […]

Malinda Seneviratne  Exactly thirty years ago something happened which altered the course of history in Sri Lanka.  Wrong.  ‘Happened’ is a bad word for it implies an agency-less occurrence.  It’s like saying ‘it rained yesterday,’ which of course is different from ‘there was a flood’ since the latter phenomenon at least in the case of […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE President Maithripala Sirisena was hopeful.  He said the Cabinet reshuffle will provide a new impetus to Sri Lanka’s development.  Prof G.L. Peiris was generous.  He said that it is unfair to blame Ravi Karunanayake for the economic failures and fiscal shortcomings of the government since he operated with clipped wings considering that […]

 BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Whoever is against SAITM should also be opposed to fee-levying institutions such as private nurseries, tuition classes, outfits that offer all kinds of certification and practices such as channeling services.  This is an argument that is widely tossed around by those opposing opposition to SAITM.  The flak that Dr Anuruddha Padeniya of […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE ‘At least there’s freedom now!’  This has been the stock (consolation?) response of those who defend the yahapalana regime whenever it is pointed out that corruption, nepotism, abuse of state resources for political purposes and other wrongdoings have not ceased after the January 8 ‘revolution’.   No more white van abductions, true.  Journalists have […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE May Day (in Sri Lanka) is not about workers.  It’s about show.  This time it was about challenges thrown and accepted, oneupmanship and bragging rights. The regime-thinking was abvious.  They believed the JO could not fill Galle Face Green.  They did.  Although the Joint Opposition (JO), perhaps in the permissible magnanimity of […]

by Malinda Seneviratne Courtesy The Island ‘At least there’s freedom now!’  This has been the stock (consolation?) response of those who defend the yahapalana regime whenever it is pointed out that corruption, nepotism, abuse of state resources for political purposes and other wrongdoings have not ceased after the January 8 ‘revolution’.   No more white van abductions, […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Any conflagration and especially one marked by the clash of arms that lasts over several decades can be defined in multiple ways.  For some, the conflict in Sri Lanka, was a matter between the Sinhalese and Tamils.  They call it ‘Ethnic Conflict’.  Others could say that it was a battle between state […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE The stench from Meethotamulla, metaphorically speaking, is being matched by the stench of political rivals lobbing chunks of political garbage at one another.  The politically dispassionate pointing out that there are countries where such disasters resulted in the resignation of relevant subject ministers or officials, called for the resignation of those responsible.  […]

Malinda Seneviratne  There’s saber-rattling in Washington.  There’s saber-rattling in Moscow.  Tit-for-tat talk.  Rattle-for-rattle. Neither the USA nor Russia is under attack.  Neither country can claim that there is a threat to its security. It’s all about a country that is located almost 11,000km from the USA and about 5,500km from Russia. Syria. It all followed a chemical attack […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE  There was a time when victory over enemies was about bashing heads in, seizing their women and enslaving their children.  It still happens of course.  The cost-effective way is for the powerful to dictate, the weak to submit, hands to be shaken with the key representatives of the respective parties facing the […]

Malinda Seneviratne A highly successful lawyer was once asked why he was not interested in becoming a judge.  He had laughed, ‘I would rather talk a load of rubbish all day than listen to a load of rubbish.’  Judges have to listen.  That’s their job.  And one of the things they have to listen to […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE It has become a tradition for Ranil Wickremesinghe to visit various signature tents at the Royal-Thomian and respond to questions put to him.  It’s all light-hearted.  The questions are often tongue-in-cheek stuff and the responses are calculated to generate some laughter, one feels. It was no different this year.  Two questions stood […]

by Malinda Seneviratne March 18, 2017, 5:53 pm Arjuna Mahendran, the former Governor of the Central Bank, is reported to have transferred out some 500 members of his staff.  The Government is all set to demarcate specific areas for protests.  The Government got some egg on its face with the appointment and removal of judges.  […]

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE  Way back when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was getting slammed left, right and centre by the ‘international (sic) community’, especially at the UNHRC, his detractors were thrilled.  Little did they care that the accusers were tainted in ways that made Sri Lanka look pretty innocent in terms of (alleged) ‘war crimes’.  Rajapaksa was […]

by Malinda Seneviratne March 11, 2017, 7:05 pm Way back when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was getting slammed left, right and centre by the ‘international (sic) community’, especially at the UNHRC, his detractors were thrilled.  Little did they care that the accusers were tainted in ways that made Sri Lanka look pretty innocent in terms of […]