Sugath Samarasinghe We know that JVP has submitted a Private Members’ Bill for a 20th Amendment to the Constitution proposing the Executive Presidency to be abolished. Then why have they nominated a candidate for the forthcoming Presidential Elections? That begs for an answer, in my mind. Isn’t there a contradiction? What is their logic here? […]

Sugath Samarasinghe The Tamil Net recently carried a news item to the following effect concerning a statement reported to have made to Tamil net by Mr. Mano Ganesan, our Minister of Reconciliation. The SL Archaeology Department is the evil of all heritage related tensions in the North and East, and thirty-two Sinhala only experts currently […]

Sugath Samarasinghe Being an ignoramus, I was neither for nor against this idea of Judicial Executions. Yet I have been reading most of the stuff that is being written mostly against the idea. I am stuck by the mostly pseudo intellectual arguments that is being written, I am wondering whether there is no other approach […]

Sugath Samrasinghe              Pray why? May I ask? What wrong has Gotabhaya done to the TNA and the Tamil people? It was the  LTTE that terrorized the Tamil people into submission for 30 years ironically claiming to fight for a Tamil cause. Most able and rich Tamils left the country and sought refuge in Western […]

Sugath Samarasinghe  I was distressed to read her comment in her article in The Island of 20th July last Friday. I refer to the following comment by her. Cassandra’s short comment: they joined the armed forces knowing full well this was in line with duty; they had to serve the country, run personal risk and […]

Sugath Samarasinghe  When non-Buddhists and the Intellectual Buddhists who may have hardly stepped into a village temple lately, start quoting Buddha’s Teachings for polemic purposes, ordinary riffraff Buddhists become suspicious of their motives. For, if these ordinary Buddhists had taken the Buddha’s words literally, there would not have been a Buddhist Sri Lanka today. We […]

Sugath Samarasinghe    He has admitted having received it (albeit within the confines of Parliamentary immunity). He is a good boy! But some questions remains to be clarified. How did he qualify to receive such a bonanza, unasked? By this time. the donors had already done the first Bank robbery and the Government had prevented […]

Sugath Samarasinghe I do not understand the strategy of the JO in moving this No Confidence Motion against Ranil Wickramasinghe. What is their ultimate goal, I wonder? Immediately after the victory of Israel after their famous Six Day War where they trounced the braggart UAR in 1967, a journalist asked Israeli General Moshe Dayan, What […]

Sugath Samarasinghe (I sent the attached article as a reply to an article on this subject by a Prof. Fernando, to the Island newspaper. But it was not published) This is an attempt to explain the question raised by Prof. Laksiri Fernando in his article titled Is there a Sangha State behind the state” that […]

Sugath Samarasinghe   This is what Ranil W. is reported to have said at the UNP May Day Rally, according to the front page news of Sunday Island of 7th May. I am amazed. Could a political ‘leader’ be so dishonest in his intent, to mislead his followers? Could one imagine that an emerging economic […]

Sugath Samarasinghe The attached article was sent to ‘The Island’. But they did not carry it. _sugath TO CATCH A THIEF Who brought the Central Bank which was under the Ministry of Finance, under his own Ministry ? Who was it that who brought a man, a non-citizen, from Singapore and made him the Governor […]

By Sugath Samarasinghe I wish to draw attention of the readership to a news item that appeared in ‘The Island’ news paper on 31st October under the title UN calls for commitment  to minority rights” reporting some of the views expressed by UN Rapporteur Izsak Ndiaye who had apparently undertaken a ten days mission to […]

Sugath Samarasinghe I am indeed very much moved by the letter of Concerned Citizens of Sri Lanka, Sentinels, Against Wildlife Crime that appeared in The Island of the 9th instant. I think the problems of elephants spread further than that. Unlike the elephants at the Perahera which are made to walk to Kandy and through […]

Sugath Samarasinghe I learn that the Sri Lanka Tourist Board under the Minister of Tourism and Christian Affairs(a curious combination!) has signed an MOU with the Government of India to create Ramayana Tourist Trail in Sri Lanka. I recall that such an effort came up when the last UNP government was last in office in […]

Sugath Samarasinghe Now that the draft proposal for the formation of the proposed Constitution Assembly is almost agreed upon, I have a question bothering me. I am sure the same may be problematic to others too. This is my problem. At present the President of Sri Lanka who is the repository of executive power is […]

Sugath Samarasinghe  Prince Al Hussein has come and gone after a four days visit. Our big talking duo, who bragged to the BBC, Al Jazeera and the latter to the Indian Media a little earlier, that there would be no Hybrid Courts here eventually cowed down and surrendered to the Prince to say that whatever […]

Sugath Samarasinghe        (Published in ‘The Island’ newspaper on the Opinion Page of 17th Dec, with the last two sentences of the first para to look rather sanitized) Norwegians who negotiated the disastrous CFA between Prabhakaran and Ranil Wickremasinghe in 2002 are back in business. This time on Constitutional reforms according to your news report […]

Sugath Samarasinghe  The 15th year of the last 3 centuries seem to be disastrous to this country. I am particularly comparing what happened to Sri Lanka at the UNHCR this year with that of 1815. In 1815, the independence of Sri Lanka preserved for 2300 years was offered on a platter to the British by […]

By Sugath Samarasinghe We read in the newspapers that a special Police Unit has been established to deal with religious strife matters.This maybe a good political move to meet the recent phenomenon of the rise of religious conflicts in the short term. But the interesting question is under what law will this unit operate? There […]

By Sugath Samarasinghe This is in reference to the article by Tissa Jayatileke in the Mid-Week Review of 26/5, on his “ƒ”¹…”Weak Thoughts’. Tissa had had stated there- in that the Government should emulate the “ƒ”¹…”Dutugemunuƒ”š‚  Model’ as given in the Mahavansa in respecting one’s foes as recommended by Somapala Gunadheera and condemns the Victory […]