Day: 8 August 2015

Sri Lankans often witness many colourful policy statements and populist proposals presented during election times. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also a political leader belonging to the same category, who has given various promises to the people during his political career. However, the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ programme presented by him during his two terms in office must be carefully looked into, in retrospect. The term Mahinda Chinthana first entered in to the Sri Lankan political arena in 2005 with the launch of his inaugural Presidential Election manifesto. The prime intention of…

The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), a leading diaspora group in Canada, said it supports the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the Parliamentary election. Earlier the London based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) had also supported the TNA and had urged Tamils to back the Tamil political party at the polls. CTC, in a statement today, said that it strongly urges Tamils and all citizens of Sri Lanka to exercise their right to vote at the upcoming Parliamentary elections.  “The presidential election of January 8th, 2015 was a turning point in the…

By Dayapala Thiranagama – The current parliamentary election presents a clear division between democratic forces and anti-democratic forces. A victory for democracy would offer a generational chance of resolving some of the fault lines in Sri Lankan society. The Rajapaksa regime won the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) but they used this victory to defeat the legitimate democratic aspirations of the Tamil people. When the Muslim community was attacked the law was not applied and the perpetrators got away scott-free. The war victory was also used…

by Zacki Jabbar Rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, who was found dead in his car over three years back, had been killed by three Presidential Security Division personnel, Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday. Addressing a press conference in Colombo, Minister Senaratne said  investigations had revealed that the talented national ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen, had been murdered  by the  PSD men, on May 17, 2012 though it had been claimed that  he had died when his car crashed into a wayside wall at Kirulapone. It was widely believed that…

There are more than 40 corrupt politicians going through inquiries.  Chandrika does not want to work with the corrupt people in the SLFP.  Believe me they don’t want to have good people in the UPFA. They only want people who are corrupt, who create issues with religion and caste. They throw us out and protect the corrupt people. This is the sad story of the SLFP.  Chandrika Kumaratunga will never support the Sri Lanka Freedom Party as long as there are corrupt and unwanted people in it, said Minister of…

All voters of the country have a great responsibility to elect only suitable persons to the Parliament in forthcoming General Election, says President Maithripala Sirisena. Only most suitable candidates who work for the country and safeguard the respect of the Parliament should be elected to the Parliament at the election, he added. People should do that selection according to their knowledge, intelligence and prior experience of the persons, he further stated. The President made these remarks at a ceremony to launch two books of Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, held today (Aug.…

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s President has ordered a major shake-up in VVIP security with immediate effect following reports that the once elite Presidential Security Division (PSD) was linked to murders during the former regime. The PSD of the police will be withdrawn immediately and replaced by a unit of the highly-trained Special Task Force (STF) which already has a small team of commandos forming the inner ring of security for President Maithripala Sirisena. “The PSD will be completely replaced by the STF,” a government official said asking not to be…

Eknaligoda’s disappearance – Two top Army officers to be grilled Two senior Army officers will be questioned within the next few days in connection with the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, top defence sources told the Daily News yesterday. They would be questioned based on information revealed by two intelligence unit members who remain in custody over the journalist’s disappearance. The two members were previously affiliated with former Minister Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman who was the head of the LTTE military wing. They had joined the Army following Karuna…