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Maithri-Ranil and the coherence deficit
Season for LampooningThe defeat of the United National Front at the April 2004 Parliamentary Election can be attributed to the fact that the then President, Chandrika Kumaratunga pulling the political...
View ArticleWhy "why", "for whom" and "how" are important in constitutional reform
A Constituent Assembly made solely of Parliamentarians is democratically speaking misshapen, for the simple reason that the parliament is democratically deformed. What was pledged way back in 2004 has...
View ArticleSo, shall we 'outlive the bastards'?
Guard your honour. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards. - Lois McMaster Bujold, authorElections are tense events, more so for those seeking political office than for those...
View ArticleThose who are worthy of salutation and those who are not
It was brought to my notice many months after this was written (first published in April 2010) that an organization referred to in the article below had interpreted it as a 'fatwa'. Representatives of...
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The NPC Resolution is both a threat and an opportunity
Canagasabapathy Visuvalingam Wigneswaran has a lot of opinions. To him, Velupillai Prabhakaran is a hero. He is entitled to that view – after all some people swear by god and some by the devil. C.V....
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Are you a parasite or an oasis in a desert?
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask instead what you can do for your country. Yes, it is a famous quote. US President, John F. Kennedy made this famous statement on citizens’ responsibility...
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May Day and the real "anthima satana" (Final Battle)*
It’s May Day once again and as usual there is an excuse for political parties who know the right labour words but have the wrong (right) labour policies to have a party, a show of force and maybe even...
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Why Barack Obama could not be euphoric about killing Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden was assassinated on May 2, 2010. That's six years ago, almost to the date.US President Barack Obama watched it all. Live. And he made a speech. Six years on, things haven't changed....
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The dimensions of self-condemnation
Pic courtesy Daily NewsThe May Day poster of the United National Party had an interesting caption: කැප කරපු ජනතාවගේ මැයි දින රැලිය (‘Kepakarapu janathavage mai dina raeliya’). Kanishka Goonewardena,...
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A one-sport nation is nothing to brag about
Cricket and nothing else? Last night I went to an amazing place; a gymnasium with all kinds of strange looking gadgets. Now I have been to gymnasiums and have seen exercise machines. I’ve seen...
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There’s life and love to be lost by living and loving
There’s a story that’s been doing the email rounds for quite some time now about a violinist at a Metro Station in Washington DC. He had played, we are told, 6 Bach pieces over a period of about 45...
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The true old school tie
Royalists of a different era, i.e. those who left school in the eighties or before, would know of Kataya. That’s E.C. Gunasekara. Vice Principal. Disciplinarian. Tyrant, to some, yes. A gentlemen...
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If all Brown Sahibs unite would they finally lose their skin-tone?
A man called William married a woman called Kate recently. I was at Phoenix Advertising around that time. The TV was on. My daughters were with me. Some were watching the ceremony and my girls wanted...
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Pyromaniac, thy manuscript will not burn!
It is called ‘biblioclasm’ or ‘libricide’. It is censorship in its most brutal, visible and intimidating form. It is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other material in public,...
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The forgotten files of abduction, assault and assassination
In short all disappearances must be investigated. You cannot point to some ‘arranged-disappearances’ such as those of many LTTE cadres as reason for not initiating inquiries into all disappearances....
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Silence is an eraser that sets fire to libraries
I wrote about libricide or the act of setting fire to libraries, books etc., a term that could be extended to include the notion of censorship and self-censorship as well. I mentioned several libraries...
View ArticleMahinda Rajapaksa and third-term blues
There were cries of horror when Mahinda Rajapaksa was getting ready to bring in legislation to do away with presidential term limits. Some of the objectors and objections were of course coloured by...
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Truth and reconciliation must begin with truth, not myth
This article was published in 'The Nation' on May 18, 2010, one year after the LTTE was militarily defeated. The end of terrorism did not coincide with the end of separatist moves of course. That...
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The 18th of May 2009 and the battle over meaning
Thrishantha Nanayakkara once said ‘All wars have been fought twice; once in the battlefield and once down the alleys of memory’. This is true. The battle today is about remembrance. It’s not just...
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සමාජවාදය කතා නොකළ ප්රතිගාමියා පිලිබඳ කෙටි සටහනක්
"පේරාදෙණිය සරසවියේ නොනවතින හූව". 1986 හෝ 1987 වසරේ පුවත් පතක පළ වූ ලිපියක සිරස්තලයකි ඒ. ලිව්වේ කවුද, පත්තරේ කුමක්ද දැන් මතක නැත. නිමිත්ත මතකයි. 'වල සතියේ'නාට්යයක් නොනවතින හූවක් හේතු කොට ගෙන නතර...
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