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Back to White-Vanning days?
Supreme Court under a cloud!Back in the day a new term entered the political lexicon of Sri Lanka: white-vanning. It was about the use of vehicles, typically white vans, to abduct certain characters...
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The politics of courtesy, respect and submission
Sinharatne Bandara (far right) is the kind of public servant this country needsIt is no secret that among the least respect people in Sri Lanka are politicians and police officers. Other state...
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The Malwatte Mahanayaka Thero's 'Trust Sutra'
The Mahanayaka of the Malwatte Chapter, the Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera has made an interesting pronouncement. Referring to the fact that President Maithripala Sirisena...
View ArticleJohn Hector Dhanapala was a man of gentle ways
John Hector Dhanapala never taught me. I knew him first as the father of my classmate and best friend, Rajitha. I knew him also as the brother of a far more commanding teacher, Donald Dhanapala, who...
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My mother in the long ago...
She had been ‘Akka’ to me because everyone called her Akka (or ‘Older Sister) since she was the eldest in the family. Her mother had been ‘Amma’ (‘Mother’) to me because that’s what everyone in the...
View ArticleYahapalanaya subverts judicial review
In 1988, not too long before the United National Party was to lose the five-sixths Parliamentary majority it enjoyed (and therefore more than the two-thirds required to amend the constitution, barring...
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Attorney General in the dock
Another AG carving a career path?Those supporters of the Yahapalana Regime whose apologies have diminished to the point they take refuge in what I call the ‘At Least Thesis’ in the now tired game of...
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ඔබට මතක නෑ, මටද අමතකයි
ශ්රී ලංකාවට මෑත කාලයේ වැළඳුනු බරපතල දේශපාලන ලෙඩක් මේ අමතක වීම. දුමින්ද සිල්වාට මුලින්ම හැදුන මේ ලෙඩේ පස්සේ ජෝන් අමරතුංගට ද ඒ ලෙඩේ ම හදුනා. අමතක වීම විහිළුවක් හැටියට ජනගත වුනේ එහෙමයි. විහිළුවෙන්...
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From Dementia Unlimited to Clarity
Teddy Ameresekere offers a pithy and pertinent elaboration of the meaning of dementia: ‘The former regime has forgotten why they were chased out and the present can’t remember why they were elected.’...
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The lady who keeps the world young
A tribute to Sybil Wettasinghe on her 90th birthdayFifteen years ago, after interviewing this grand old lady who is forever young, I called my wife and said, "parana yaluvek hambuna"(I met an old...
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Bombs in Parliament need to be defused
It's not about bombs being THROWN at Parliament but bombs already INSIDE Parliament Going by the rhetoric and the text pertaining to constitutional reform currently being debated in Parliament, it is...
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The Mangala-Sumanthiran bluff on secularism
Mangala Samaraweera, in supporting the report submitted by the Steering Committee on constitutional reform, called for a constitution that ‘will help our nation put its past behind for good and move...
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Swarna Mallawarachchi: A moving mirror reflecting who we are
"At the beginning of her career she may have been rather tentative in her style of creating character, but with maturity she has developed an intensity and passion which no other actress can equal. She...
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On Shantha K. Herath's poetic 'Lakuna' in Sinhala literature
I was gifted two books last week: 'Hithopadeshaya nokee kavi'(Poetry not found in the Hithopadesha) and 'Digu patu manpeth' (Long and narrow pathways). The first, a maiden collection of verse by...
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Towards a country called ‘cooperatives’
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} ‘It is another disease you do not have in Moscow: hunger,’ Doctor Zhivago is...
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FUELING DISCONTENT: Yahapalana-muddling rises above shortage-distractions
The term ‘devolution’ has an interesting Sinhala translation that makes for word play: බලය බෙදීම (balaya-bedeema, literally ‘dividing power’). Now bedeema in Sinhala can refer to division as well as...
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We lost a prince 11 years ago
He was the uncrowned king of our profession. For breadth of knowledge on a myriad of subjects, keenness of perception, genius in articulation, versatility (he wrote with equal skill in both Sinhala and...
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An anthem for Private Sirisena
No, this is not about President Maithripala Sirisena's private life. This was the editorial I wrote for 'The Nation' (June 11, 2006).Standing ground in the rain during Independence Day Celebrations...
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There are footprints surrendered to dust
Footprints fascinate me. They speak of journeys and personalities. They speak of histories, made and obliterated. A few days ago, on the hot sands just beyond the Muhudu Maha Viharaya where legend has...
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Kitty Ritig: A life laid out on canvas
Former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov once wrote a book titled Chess if my life. Viktor Korchnoi who challenged him twice and lost (in Baguio City, ] 1978 and in Meran, 1981) also wrote a...
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