Month: March 2018

Mahinda Rajapaksa Having Earned The Gratitude Of The Sinhala People By Ending the War and Establishing Peace Must Now Earn the Gratitude of the Tamils and Muslims By Supporting a Political Solution. By Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan The outcome of the local government elections this year has made one fact evident. Whatever may be the reasons attributed it clearly shows the Peoples’ disappointment with the performance of the present government and the parties in power both in the North and in the South. In the North the TNA lost ground because…

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sivagnanam Sridharan said, his party has no inclination to safeguard Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe under any circumstances during the no-faith motion that has been brought against him by the Joint Opposition (JO). The MP charged that though his party had extended support to both the President and the Premier to resolve the burning issues of the Tamil people in the North, both Leaders had acted as if they were oblivious to the concerns of the Tamil people.  MP Sridharan alleged that the Government had thus…

By Maheesha Mudugamuwa The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday said it would, on April 04, vote for the no-confidence motion, moved by the Joint Opposition (JO) against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The SLFP called upon Wickremesinghe to resign as Prime Minister if he wanted to protect the coalition government formed by the SLFP and the UNP. The SLFP would officially announce its decision to vote for the no-faith motion after the party’s Central Committee meeting, scheduled to be held on April 2 with President Maithripala Sirisena presiding, Science, Technology and Research Minister…

The crucial meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe on Thursday night at Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne’s official residence had aimed at ironing out some of the contentious issues that have put the unity Government in crisis.  Daily FT learns that to safeguard the coalition there was frank discussion between the two leaders on a host of issues including next week’s no confidence motion on Prime Minister. Sources said the issue of way forward post-no confidence motion also figured during the discussion in addition to best course…

The number of applications made by Sri Lankans seeking asylum in the UK has been reduced relatively in the recent years, the British Government said. This was revealed according to data presented by Baroness Williams of Trafford who is the Minister of State, Home Department in response to a question asked by Lord Naseby in Parliament on Thursday as to how many Sri Lankans have sought asylum each year since January 2007; and how many were successful. In 2007, some 988 applications had been made and 124 asylum status had…

In February, one-and-a-half years after Parliament passed the legislation to do so, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed commissioners to the Office of Missing Persons (OMP). The OMP was the first pillar of the unity government’s reconciliation agenda. Official estimates put the number of disappeared people in Sri Lanka at around 20,000. Many went missing during the final stages of the war in 2009 and in the subsequent IDP camps, while families in the South also have memories of white vans and kidnappings during the two JVP insurrections. The OMP’s eight commissioners…

The daily routine of Mutthan Theiventhiran, 72, involves first praying at the Kilinochchi Kandaswamy Kovil in the morning where he seeks divine help for the return of his missing son and then joining fellow protesters at a temporary shed near the kovil. This has been his routine for at least a year. Theiventhiran’s forehead bears “Vibhooti,’’ the sacred ash he receives after prayers, reflecting his devotion to the cause of finding out about his son who was injured in the last stages of war in 2009 and admitted to hospital…

Bribing MPs is nothing new in Sri Lanka.  Mahinda bribed the LTTE – Champika Ranawaka – YouTube  Mahinda Rajapaksa Who Stole 83 Million Rupees Of Tsunami Funds … By Shamindra Ferdinando Members of parliament have been offered as much as Rs. 100 mn each to oppose the no-confidence motion (NCM) moved against Prime Minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Joint Opposition (JO) heavyweight MP Dallas Alahapperuma alleges. Matara District MP Alahapperuma said so at a public meeting at Verona, organized by the Sri Lanka Pojujana Peramuna (SLPP) in Italy over…

A large number of family members of the involuntarily disappeared persons staged a protest when President Maithripala Sirisena arrived at St Patrick’s College, Jaffna to declare open the newly built Technology Centre of the school last week. The Old Boys of St Patrick’s College Jaffna who were the students of former Rector Rev. Fr. G. A. Michael Francis Joseph also joined hands with the protestors carrying aloft the portrait of their former Rector who was  among hundreds of people disappeared after surrendering to the Security Forces at the end of…

One serious political question that emerges from Sri Lanka’s current political impasse is the following: why has a reformist democratic regime, with domestic popular support as well as international backing, begun to run out of its political energies, and political options, so early and is facing disintegration half away? In Sri Lanka’s on-going political debate, there are several explanations being offered. Two stand above others. The lack of political will among government leaders, and their shaky commitment to the electoral mandate, is the first. The second is the ruptured nature…

GENEVA, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) ends in Geneva, the US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC), British Tamils Forum (BTF), and Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) would like to thank Deputy High Commissioner Kate Gilmore for emphasizing the importance of return of land for trust in the government’s good faith, the need for an end to impunity, the worrying attacks on ethnic communities, continued reports of torture of Tamils and surveillance, harassment of human rights defenders and the fact that the Office of Missing Persons is…

By DR WICKRAMABAHU With the noise of the no confidence motion against the PM Ranil Wickremesinghe the issue of the powers of the president came under debate again. Comrade Jayampathi of course believes that he has put the final nails on the coffin of this issue. Strangely, things happened recently that made the yahapalana democratic movement to demand that presidency, even with the 19th amendment, is an unwanted burden hence it should be removed with a separate amendment for that purpose. However those who want to continue with presidential system,…

“Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumour; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another’s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration.”  -Gautama Buddha (Kalama Sutta)The Buddha’s Charter of Free Inquiry A group of doctors recently broached the topic and ruled out the existence of such infertility pills anywhere in the world General public doesn’t think…