Will the JVP remain the third party that never made...

Columns

Apr 8, 2021

Wijeweera, a medical undergraduate dropout who imbibed more of Communism than Medicine at Moscow’s Lumumba University returned to Sri Lanka with dreams of replacing the ‘Old Left’ comprising of the Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party (CP), personified by the likes of N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Peter Kueneman and S.A. Wickremesinghe. Wijeweera’s first attempt at an insurrection was amateurish. He believed that youth armed with shotguns could wrest control of the country by overrunning dozens of Police stations. Predictably, the ...Continued

Politics is the art of the possible

Columns

Apr 1, 2021

BY KASSAPA

Once more, it is the Easter weekend and two years on from the deadly terrorist attacks that cost more than 250 lives, we are not really any closer to finding who masterminded the tragedy and who was culpable for the incidents. One name keeps coming up repeatedly though: Maithripala Sirisena, the sixth President of Sri Lanka and the Head of State, Head of Government and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces at the time of the attack who was unfortunately not in the country ...Continued

Do the people see SJB as a credible alternative to...

Columns

Mar 25, 2021

This begs the question: Is the SJB the natural successor to the United National Party (UNP) or is it the UNP in everything but name? The answer to the first question is probably ‘yes’ but the answer to the second question is still ‘no, it is not. The more important question though is whether Sri Lankans, having experienced the Presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and a Parliament with a virtual two-thirds majority for the SLPP, see the SJB as an alternative government? The answer to that ...Continued

The Name of the game is “diplomatic idiocy”

Mirror Wall

Mar 18, 2021

BY KASSAPA

  If there is a prize for diplomatic idiocy, Sri Lanka’s conduct leading up to the annual sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva will be a sure winner. The UNHRC has been hounding Sri Lanka ever since the conclusion of the Eelam war a dozen years ago. This is based on an undertaking given by then President Mahinda Rajapaksa to then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he visited the country three days after the end of the war. Sri ...Continued

Will the government “Cherry Pick” the PCoI recommendations?

Columns

Mar 11, 2021

If you thought that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks was the real thing, you got it totally wrong. Sure, it could end up ruining what is left of Maithripala Sirisena’s political life and retirement and, in a worst case scenario, land him in jail. Even if that happened, that wouldn’t alter the course of Sri Lankan politics much, would it? Not now, anyway. Not that the recommendations of the PCoI will be implemented in full. The government will ...Continued

Will it be Hobson’s choice for the Cardinal?

Mirror Wall

Mar 4, 2021

Like God, Presidential Commissions of Inquiry also work in mysterious ways- and it certainly has, with regard to Commission probing the Easter Sunday terror attacks of April 2019 and former President Maithripala Sirisena and the government find themselves in a frightful dilemma as a result. To begin with, there were quite a few committees and commissions looking into the deadly attacks that shattered Sri Lanka’s peace on Easter Sunday in April 2019. The first ‘committee of inquiry’ was appointed by then President Maithripala Sirisena, a ...Continued

Is Mahinda Rajapaksa not primus inter pares or first among...

Columns

Feb 25, 2021

How much does his opinion count in the inner-circle of government when political pygmies such as Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila and even Sudarshani Fernandopulle dare to defy him in public?   If politics is about marketing leaders to the masses, the leading brand and market leader in Sri Lanka is undoubtedly Mahinda Rajapaksa. The two-time President has his faults- of which there are many- but he is still the politician who wields the most clout in Sri Lanka. Why then is he being undermined, particularly ...Continued

Corona; A middle order collapse?

Columns

Feb 11, 2021

By  Kassapa 

Sri Lanka’s response to the Corona virus pandemic can be likened to how its cricket team approaches a game: the openers start with a bang, giving great promise of victory, then there is a dreadful middle-order slump followed by some rear-guard action that gives hope of saving the game but it is too little, too late and we are beaten decisively. That is exactly how our battle against the pandemic is proceeding. When the corona virus first emerged early last year, Sri Lanka rushed to ...Continued

Covid and UNHRC; twin challenges plaguing Sri Lanka

Columns

Jan 28, 2021

By Kassapa

The silence of health authorities while all this is going on is deafening. The government’s favourite lap dog, the GMOA is not even barking, let alone daring to bite. Other medical bodies have taken a vow of silence, or so it seems. So, the pandemic marches on The resolution against Sri Lanka is sponsored and encouraged not by India, China or Russia but by the United States, Britain and other EU countries, the same countries that are in the race for the vaccine, elbowing out ...Continued

Ramanayke’s assertions and public confidence in the judiciary

Columns

Jan 22, 2021

By Kassapa

  Ranjan Ramanayake, actor turned maverick politician and now convict with a four-year prison sentence hanging over him, would have made his uncle, the late Professor Carlo Fonseka, proud. That is not because he insulted the judiciary but because he was man enough to stand by what he said- even when he was led away to prison- and stand up to what he believed was wrong. Carlo Fonseka, when he was threatened by the then terroristic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) after making a stirring oration ...Continued

China-Australia: Estranged Partners

Columns

Jan 22, 2021

~ By Anne-Marie Schleich SYNOPSIS Since April 2020, Australia and China have been embroiled in escalating trade and diplomatic disputes. The relationship between the two countries has deteriorated and is currently at a critical point. Developments on both sides could be right out of a playbook on ‘how to wreck bilateral trade and diplomatic relations’. COMMENTARY THE DIPLOMATIC conflict between Australia and China seems to be worsening since it started in 2018. It began when Australia barred Huawei from providing 5G network services in Australia ...Continued