Feb 1 (TM) SL’s coal procurement controversy has entered a precarious phase, with CEB still unable to quantify the financial damage from allegedly substandard coal shipments even as approvals have already been secured for emergency power purchases to plug potential electricity shortfalls. With laboratory reports pointing to inconsistent coal quality and reduced generation efficiency at the Lakvijaya Power Plant more..

Feb 1 (Island) The themes of power-sharing, devolution, and federalism, which run through this work, have their origin in issues which are not connected to ethnicity. Indeed, federalism, as a structure of governance suited to SL, was first proposed in an entirely different setting. At its inception, this had to do with the aspirations not of the Tamils, but of the Kandyan Sinhalese. A watershed in the Island’s constitutional development was the Donoughmore Commission which more..

Feb 1 (Island) Past several months have seen some former ministers and ex-state officials being remanded and denied bail ‘to prevent interference with evidence-gathering processes and the intimidation of witnesses. Some of the offences they are charged with were allegedly committed years ago during previous governments. It is while in power that transgressors can cover their tracks by suppressing or eliminating evidence and influencing or intimidating witnesses. more..

Feb 1 (TM) Few political figures in Sri Lanka’s post-independence history have remained as persistently visible or as polarising as Ranil Wickremesinghe. For nearly half a century, he has occupied centre stage – alternately vilified, vindicated, discarded, and recalled. Today, he finds himself once again in the public eye, this time as the subject of criminal proceedings relating to the alleged misuse of State funds during a visit to the UK in 2023, while serving as Executive President. more..

Feb 1 (ST) My dear Uncle Ranil, I am writing to you because you are in the headlines again, appearing in court because of a trip you undertook to England a few years ago. That has resulted in more trips to court now and even a trip to hospital where, at first, we feared the worst after your lawyers told court you were on borrowed time. Nevertheless, even before your most recent court appearance we saw you out and about, visiting the chief priests in Kandy and several other places of worship. more..

Feb 1 (ST) With influential medical unions on trade union action alleging critical shortages of certain drugs, some of them raised concerns as to why the Swastha, an information management system of medicinal drugs, is not available online anymore. Launched in 2023, the comprehensive system was designed to ensure that pharmaceuticals, surgical items, and consumables are readily available to healthcare providers more..

Feb 1 (ST) The coming Wednesday (4) marks the 78th anniversary of SL’s Independence from over 450 years of foreign rule, and yet, the country continues to be confronted with the challenges of modern nation-statehood in all its complexities. While SL regained her Independence, her sovereignty, both internal and external, however, has been compromised in the process of nation-building and aspiring to be a pluralistic, economically and socially advanced democratic state. more..

Feb 1 (SO) The theme of Pope Leo’s message for this year’s World Day of Peace January 1 was Towards an unarmed and disarming peace. The armed conflict ended in 2009, but Sri Lanka is still heavily armed and militarised. The military is running farms, hotels, restaurants, denying ordinary people income generating opportunities. A Defence University, headed by military personnel, runs courses on law, medicine, engineering, management, social sciences and humanity. more..

Feb 1 (TM) That the honeymoon period for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and his JVP-led NPP Govt is now long gone is evident by the continuing crises and controversies faced by them. Criticism towards the President and Govt which was slow last year is seen to be gradually changing with an increase in criticism among the public and a decline in the number of individuals defending them. more..

Feb 1 (CT) Global temperatures in January have been polar opposite – plus 50 Celsius down under in Australia, and minus 45 Celsius up here in North America. Between extremes of many kinds, not just thermal, the world order stands ruptured. That was the succinct message in what was perhaps the most widely circulated and listened to speeches of this century, delivered by Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos, in January. But all is not lost. Who seems to be getting lost in mayhem of his own making more..

Feb 1 (SO) The world is shifting – not only in terms of plate tectonics but also in terms of geopolitics. The US has explicitly staked a claim to the Western Hemisphere, a geopolitical term that alludes to the Americas and the Caribbean under the newly-defined Donroe Doctrine. US Delta Force incursion into Venezuela and the capture of its former Prez Nicolas Maduro is part of this agenda, apart from diverting proceeds from that country’s oil sales to US offshore accounts. more..

Jan 31 (FT) There is a high level of public satisfaction in the response of Governmental and non-Governmental agencies in the aftershock of Cyclone Ditwah, and with Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake in particular, according to a recent survey conducted by Social Scientists’ Association (SSA), Colombo. The objective of the study was to learn citizens’ perceptions of institutional responsiveness following Cyclone more..