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(The Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised the public sector employees a pay hike of Rs. 2,500 in the run-up to the last presidential election. He was quite desperate for votes at that time. He won comfortably but has not yet honoured his promise, though the State workers voted [...]

(Daily Mirror) Prof. Tissa Vitharana is a gentleman. He took the APRC quite seriously and gave it his best. However that does not make the last Constitution making process any less of a charade, a travesty to quell the tide of international pressure.

Its centrality for the UPFA went for a six [...]

(Daily News) The other day we dwelt in these columns about the directive issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to CEB officials to halt the slide of the CEB which is burdened with huge losses. We also spoke of the need for conservation to minimise these losses. Yesterday in our front [...]

(The Island) The government and the UNF seem to have evinced a keen interest in changing the Constitution. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has extended an invitation to all parties including those representing minority communities to take part in talks on constitution making. The formulation of a new constitution [...]

(Daily Mirror) A normal person in his or her proper senses would not have committed a mass murder the way that young criminal had done in Eppawala. To end the life of four close relatives in the gruesome manner that he has done one certainly has to be at one’s worst. Everyone [...]

(Daily News) Muttiah Muralitharan who has already carved a niche in the cricketing world’s hall of fame as the highest test wicket taker is on the threshold of bidding adieu to the game through which he brought much fame and glory not only to himself but also to his Motherland [...]

(Lakbima) What is it about the current administration that opts for more military installations, but reduces or marginally increases the budgets for health and education? It is true that those who won the war cannot be decommissioned and sent home. Therefore large military encampments are in evidence, in what used to [...]

(Nation) Dengue, the deadly mosquito borne disease is on the rampage once again. The statistics are too grim to merit repeating here, but it suffices to say that over 20,000 cases have been reported countrywide, and the death mounting with nearly 200 for the year already. Almost daily, we [...]

(Sunday Island) There is near unanimity locally on the need for the widespread use of English in Sri Lanka, but what seems to be in dispute is what kind of English needs to be inculcated in particularly the young of the land. Is it ‘Sri Lankan English’ or what [...]

(Sunday Times) There has been a sudden change of approach at the highest levels of Government to the issue of constitutional reforms, something that has been on the backburner for some time and not without its share of controversy. It is a welcome change. The proposed reforms, staggered as they were [...]

(Sunday Observer) The leaders of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the main Opposition – the United National Party (UNP) who had a fruitful round of talks last week, came to a general agreement on the executive presidency, established during the J.R. Jayewardene regime in 1978.

The two major [...]

(Daily News) Kilinochchi which was in the limelight as the heart of LTTE operations and the capital of the self proclaimed Eelam of Velupillai Prabhakaran not long ago is today in the news for quite a different reason. Where there was death, devastation and mindless bloodletting, it is today a changed [...]

(The Island) Even the shadow of a doomed marriage is crooked as a popular local saying goes. The same may be said of the much publicised efforts by the government and the UNF to reach a consensus on changing the Constitution. Adversity, they say, makes strange bedfellows. President [...]

(Daily Mirror) On Thursday the government of Benazir Bhutto’s husband rejected the UN Commission report on Mrs. Bhutto’s death claiming it to be heavily flawed. However Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon went on to say he had faith in the commission members and therefore the verdict was final.

From the look of it is [...]

(The Island) Mosquitoes seem to be a protected species in this country. Else, there could not have been so many of their breeding places untouched by the public, the health authorities and local government institutions. The government, for its part, keeps delaying the importation of the BTI bacteria [...]

(Daily Mirror) The latest issue of the Newsweek has an interesting article about how the down and out Republicans of the US have found an unlikely role model in actor turned Republican President Ronald Reagan.

While the no-nonsense Republicans had earlier found him to be far less serious to be considered iconic, [...]

(Daily News) “Cut back on your losses,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa has enjoined the Ceylon Electricity Board officials at a meeting at Temple Trees on Tuesday adding that the CEB should cease continuing to be a burden on the economy. What the President meant was the Government cannot go on pampering [...]

(The Island) It is only too well known that the present Constitution contains some draconian features. Even its chief architect, the late President J. R. Jayewardene admitted that some of the executive powers vested with the president needed revision. Unfortunately, this realisation dawned on him too late in [...]

(Daily Mirror) President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s move to engage the opposition comes at a time when the leaders of both the government and the opposition desperately crave for each other’s support to save face.

For the government especially for the President formal talks with the opposition is a means of keeping the international [...]

(Daily News) The People’s Alliance, the chief constituent of the UPFA and the main Opposition United National Party have agreed to do away with the executive Presidency and instead create an executive Prime Minister who would be responsible to Parliament. This is a move that would certainly be welcomed by [...]