Day: 16 December 2015

Consulate in Jaffna not able to receive funds for relief

Karu

Because Centre has not made any appeal for foreign aid India’s Consulate General in Jaffna is not in a position to receive financial assistance directly from the Northern Provincial Council’s Assembly Secretariat, which is mobilising funds for rain-battered Tamil Nadu. This is because the Indian government has not made any appeal for foreign aid in connection with floods in Tamil Nadu, A.Natarajan, Consul General, says. Special case On Monday, Kandiya Sivagnanam, Chairman of the Council, met Mr Natarajan and urged him to relax the Indian authorities’ position as the Northern…

Read More

PTA provisions replicated Dangerous room for arbitrary arrests…

Karu

BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody Lawyers criticize the two Anti-hate Speech Draft Bills presented in Parliament recently which seek to criminalize the instigation of communal violence and disharmony. Chief Government Whip, Minister of Mass Media Gayantha Karunatilake presented two bills titled the ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment)’ and the ‘Penal Code (Amendment)’ which are yet to be taken up for debate. The Bill, seeking to amend the Penal Code, states that “Whoever, by the use of words spoken, written or intended to be read, or by signs, or by visible representation,…

Read More

Political bankruptcy of Joint Opposition

Karu

By Manekshaw Professor G.L. Peiris criticized the manner the present government is dealing with the Tamil diaspora organizations and warned that the government’s attitude towards those organizations would renew the ‘Eelam dream’ of the LTTE locally as well as internationally. The former Minister of External Affairs was addressing a press briefing arranged by the Joint Opposition at the Dr. N.M. Perera Centre last Wednesday. After former Minister of Foreign Affairs tha late A.C.S. Hameed it was Professor G.L. Peiris who closely associated with the LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingam and even…

Read More

We need a political programme that favours justice to all communities, with proper devolution of power.

Karu

“Entire world was thoroughly disappointed” by the untold suffering caused to the civilians by the armed forces.  We now need to give equal treatment to all citizens, regardless of their culture and ethnicity. We must now take steps to introduce Tamil/Sinhalese to the curriculum as a compulsory subject in schools as well. The 19th and 20th century politicians were dreamers and philanthropists driven by honest and sincere desire to help the fellow human beings to improve their lot with dedication and genuineness. Those leaders in order to gain independent status,…

Read More

All nationalities can be resettled in NP – Palihakkara

Karu

5000 acres of land belonging to civilians are occupied by the Army By Niranjala Ariyawansha Governor of the Northern Province H.M.G.S. Palihakkara told Ceylon Today that the Northern Provincial Council has come to an agreement with the government, opening the way for the settlement of families from all nationalities in the Northern Province. This includes Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims who had lived in the North prior to the commencement of the war. Palihakkara said steps will be taken to restore several acres of land which the Army had been using in Valikamam…

Read More

Future of politics in the country and the vision of the government

Karu

Q What is happening  today in the country? The country is heading in the correct direction. New government completes its first year on January 8 next year. Rainbow revolution is not yet  one year and only four months  for the consensus government. But within this short period we have completely derouted from dictatorship rule.  The whole world  now recognises Sri Lanka as a country rapidly changing to a democracy. Samantha Power  who is a cabinet minister of the Obama Government  said President Obama calls Sri Lanka “Good News Country”. Only…

Read More

Beware: Chemical warfare by TNCs – EDITORIAL

Karu

The economics of politics and the politics of economics being connected nationally and internationally, what we see to a large extent in developing countries such as Sri Lanka today is a subtle form of economic neocolonialism with the air power being given by transnational corporations (TNCs). According to most international analysts, the three biggest profit-making TNCs are the sophisticated mafias involved in the multi-billion-dollar arms trade, the agrochemical business and the pharmaceutical trade or Bigpharma. In Sri Lanka the Bigpharma TNCs have not given up their battle, though the new…

Read More

TNA Leader Sampanthan, Chief Minister Wigneswaran and the Crisis of Tamil Political Leadership.

Karu

y D.B.S.Jeyaraj “For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar’s angel.Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar lov’d him!This was the most unkindest cut of all;For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,Quite vanquish’d him: then burst his mighty heart” – William Shakespeare “Julius Caesar”(Act 3 Scene 2) Political tensions prevailing within the Tamil National Alliance(TNA) underwent a dramatic transformation last week. In an unexpected twist , Leader of the opposition and TNA leader , Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, declared in Batticaloa that he was prepared to…

Read More