Category Archives: power sharing

August 30, 2020 · 4:17 am

The Rajapaksa Reshaping of the Sri Lankan Polity

Asanga Welikala and Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne, in Groundviews, 25 August 2020, with this title “The Past and the Present in the (Re)Constitution of the State”  … 

The election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019 marked the beginning of a new era of a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist ascendancy in Sri Lanka. The Covid-19 pandemic provided an early opportunity for the government to establish an authoritarian governing style, helped by Parliament standing dissolved, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to subject the government to the constitution. In the delayed parliamentary election earlier in August, the government and its allies sought and obtained a two-thirds majority mandate.

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August 27, 2020 · 4:49 pm

Pandara Vanniyan ‘crowned’ Today

Dinasena Rathugamage presented  a Photo with this caption in The Island, 27 August 2020: “Last Ruler of theVanni Commemorated “

His account runs thus: “Vavuniya Disgrict secetary SM Saman Bandulasena garalnds the Bandara Vaniyan statue opposite the District Secretatariat on Tuesday to mark the 217 commemoration of Kulasekaram Variamuttu Bandara Vanniyan, also known as Vanni Bandara ,who is considered to be the last ruler of the Vanni befor the Birtish conquered the area. As for the folklore Vanni Bandaa led the Vanni people against the British and was killed in action. Later the Vanni people deified him and he is now consideed one of the regional gods. A large number of politicians, intellectuals and state officials were present on the occasion. “

Kindly supplied by Amila Gamage  … and note a previous ‘incarnation’ in the Tamil Guardian, 2018

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August 27, 2020 · 2:25 pm

Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Prospects Today

Jehan Perera, in The New Age, 20 August 2020, with this title “Opening door to Lanka reconciliation”

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapakse, second from right, and prime minister Mahinda Rajapakse, second from left, along with new cabinet ministers stand for the national anthem during the cabinet swearing-in ceremony at the Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in the ancient hill capital of Kandy on August 12.— Agence France-Presse/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi

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August 17, 2020 · 7:29 pm

National Joint Committee warns Ali Sabry

The National Joint Committee (NJC) wishes to convey its best wishes to his Excellency the President, and his Government elected with an overwhelming majority, in Parliament. We have utmost confidence that the Government would fulfill its pledge to remove numerous constitutional provisions introduced to the Constitution through many amendments that has plagued the structure of this state. It was reported in a lead news report that the Minister of Justice Hon. Ali Sabry is drafting the amendment he intends tabling before Parliament in mid-September, the contents of which we are unaware.

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August 1, 2020 · 5:29 pm

Verite Research Findings: Lanka’s Cabinet and MPs …. Historical Blunders and Issues

Kalani Kumarasinghe, in Daily Mirror, 9 July 2020, where the title is “Change? Let’s start from the Cabinet”

As Sri Lanka heads for parliamentary elections on August 5, the final stage of electoral campaigns are now coming to an end.  A total of 7452 candidates will contest in the 2020 parliamentary election, with 3652 candidates from major political parties and 3800 candidates representing independent groups. With over 16 million eligible voters, this election is set to be a memorable one as the island grapples with a public health crisis.

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July 10, 2020 · 2:07 pm

Achtung! Whiffs of Tiger Militarism and Tamil Federalism in Recent Talk and Action

ONE: Camelia Nathaniel, in Daily News, 9 July 2020, which carries this title “Resurrection of LTTE’s Agenda of Violence”

The LTTE network overseas has been planning a series of attacks in Sri Lanka since the war ended in May 2009. The latest attempt to disrupt peace and stability in Sri Lanka was on July 4, 2020. A former member of the Tamil Tigers Thangarajah Thevathashan was preparing to conduct a bombing to mark the Black Tigers Day. The foreign handlers knew Thangarajah Thevathashan by his LTTE name Gangai Athman alias Kavinjan. He was serving in the LTTE Intelligence wing, notorious for the assassinations of several leaders including the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

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June 6, 2020 · 2:33 am

Decisive Verdict from the Supreme Court

Sugeeswara Senadhira, in Daily News, 5 June 2020, with this title “Executive, Judiciary and Legislature: Precise balance and respect for sanctity”

The essence of the Supreme Court judgement on Tuesday (June 2) was that even though elections could not be held within three months on the day fixed by the Elections Commission and the new Parliament could not be convened as stipulated in the Constitution on the scheduled day, the Presidential Gazette on dissolution of Parliament and the subsequent Gazette on General Elections could not be considered as a void documents.

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April 30, 2020 · 6:34 pm

Pirapāharan the Megalomaniac: Stephen Champion’s Reading from 2007

A Composite Collection

Michael Roberts: An Introductory Note, 30 April 2020

In early April this year 2020 I came across new data – or rather, information which had bypassed me earlier – garnered by DBS Jeyaraj via his exchanges with KP Pathmanāthan[1] in KP’s capacity as the head of the international arm of the LTTE from 31 December 2008.[2] This data confirmed and elaborated on the processes of Western imperialistic intervention in Sri Lanka in 2009 as the LTTE slid to defeat.

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March 31, 2020 · 6:46 am

FOR Sri Lanka: Engaging Lord Naseby and His Journeys in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

Since I had been introduced to the British peer Lord Michael Naseby in the surrounds of the House of Lords in March 2018,[1] I assumed that he had been born into the aristocratic upper layer of British society. Wrong. It required his book Sri Lanka for me to learn that he was from the upper middle class and had contested parliamentary seats from the late-960s on behalf of the Conservative Party in what were Labour strongholds – with his peerage being of 1990s vintage. As vitally, his early career as a marketing executive had seen him working in Pakistan and Bengal in the early 1960s before he was stationed in Sri Lanka as a marketing manager for Reckitt and Colman in the period 1963-64.

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February 25, 2020 · 1:55 am

The Malaysian Power Struggle: Yet Another Chapter

News Item in Sarawak Report, 24 February 2020, with this title “Malaysia’s Meltdown Moment – The INSIDE STORY”

Malaysians have just spent a weekend with heart in mouths thanks to a bunch of desperados who were not prepared to take no for an answer with the announcement on Friday by the ruling coalition that all parties were happy to accept Tun Mahathir as a leader till the end of the year and could leave at his choosing.

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