Just four years have passed since anti-Muslim sentiments sparked riots in Aluthgama. The full fallout from those events was seen only many months later. If one incident could be attributed to the defeat of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the January 2015 Presidential election, it was the mass defection of the Muslim electorate from amongst his supporters following the Althugama riots. In early March this year, it was the turn of the small hill country town of Digana. The effects of this incident will also ...Continued

It all started as road rage. But as it has happened so many times in the recent past, the consequences of that one act will have major implications on the country. Forty one year old H.G Kumarasinghe was a truck driver who fell afoul of a group of men travelling in a Three Wheeler, in Teldeniya in the Kandy area of the Central Province on February 22. An altercation over the truck not giving way to the Three Wheeler allegedly resulted in Kumarasinghe being assaulted ...Continued

The results of the Local Government elections of February 10th have sent shock waves through the political establishment across the island. While the media concentrated on the panic and confused reactions of the political leaders in the South, little attention has been paid to the equally important message sent out by the Tamil voters to their leaders. Some analysts point out that with this result at the local government election the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) can no longer claim to be the ‘The sole representative ...Continued

Will 2018 be the year that sees the death of the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines? Or would the airline, which is burdened by massive debts and crippled by management and trade unions that hold opposing views, be able to make itself a viable enterprise once more? The US$ 740 million debt ridden airline has been struggling to stay airborne these past several years and its future is hanging by the thinnest of threads. In late December, in an attempt to resuscitate the airline, Cabinet approved ...Continued

The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) has filed a case in the Court of Appeal against the Mt. Lavinia Beach Nourishment project (CA/WRT/128/2020). The case filed on June 19th  this year is against the Coast Conservation Department (CCD), the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), the Minister of Environment and the Attorney General regarding “beach pollution and the failed sand filling of the Mount Lavinia beach without following due procedure,’ according to a  media notice on the CEJ’s website. The CEJ ...Continued