politics Archives - Page 44 of 45

7Dec

By AdminNo Comments

Opinion

Sri Lanka: Making Sensical Policies

By Rajan Philips Due apologies for a mouthful of a title! Sri Lankan politics is nothing when it is not mouthful. Better that way than going fistful, to give the latter word a violent meaning. Or, put another way, “Jaw, Jaw is always better than War, War”, as Sir Winston Churchill is said to have quipped during a 1954 White House luncheon. Hosting Britain’s World War II Prime Minister was the American WW II General turned President, Dwight Eisenhower. The Americans now have a president who goes nuclear on twitter. What a turnaround – the greatest communication revolution in human experience is at the service of the worst warped political mind ever and anywhere. On Friday, Trump’s former National Security chief Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to charges of lying about his Russian connection...

7Dec

By AdminNo Comments

Opinion

Ranil’s visit to New Delhi

BY Col R Hariharan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited New Delhi on November 23-24, 2017. During his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speeding up decisions related to India-Sri Lanka joint venture projects in Sri Lanka to solve “problems that have emerged” topped the agenda. The projects discussed included India developing the Trincomalee harbor including the Oil Tank farms project as well as the Indian bid to lease and manage the heavily loss making Mattala airport in Hambantota. In April 2017, India and Sri Lanka had signed the Cooperation in Economic Projects agreement and had set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) to discuss the development of a port, petroleum and other industries in Trincomalee on the...

2Dec

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Editorial

Here we go again – The PM & PR

It is almost getting to be as exciting as watching oil-based paint dry. Time and time again we watch the dear Prime Minister of our land try to highlight how great this government is. It is boring because there really is nothing of any substance that we can honestly say is great about the actions of this government. Apart from grandiose plans that are in the main pipe dreams and ill-thought out and lacks for a principal ingredient: money. However there were some ‘quick wins’. Let us highlight those here and now lest dear PM gets annoyed and speaks within the sanctity of parliament about editorials. Fr starters we must agree that the freedom of speech has been established nay re-established. Editorials that we have carried in the past and will carry in the future are done without a fe...

24Nov

By Admin1 Comment

Editorial

The Royal Kingdom of Sri Lanka

The recently passed Foreign Exchange Act is certainly welcome in terms of removing some archaic rules governing the flow of foreign exchange. In terms of the vision of the UNP-led government towards liberalisation this one aspect is welcome news. However there are serious concerns on at least one aspect. The move of imposing a 1% fee on each inward remittance impacts poorly on a vulnerable section of our people, namely the migrant workers. Migrant workers at great personal cost in terms of family life and values and attendant matters, in 2016 remitted approximately USD 7.4 billion. There are approximately one million migrant workers. Under the new Act all inward remittances will attract no less than 1 % as a tax. Doing the math is relatively easy. USD 7,400 million is approximatel...

Sri Lankan President raises awareness in lack of women representation in politics

15Nov

By Faraz ShauketalyNo Comments

History, LOCAL

Sri Lankan President raises awareness in lack of women representation in politics

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena says the current government is committed to increase female representation in politics and is formulating required laws and enacting them to increase the number of women in local governments. Speaking at a function held Tuesday to launch the program "Eyata Balayak - Ratata Venasak" to raise awareness about women's representation at the Local Government Election, the President said the lack of female representation in politics is a critical concern. "Though the women's representation in the government service is at a proper level it is a critical issue that there is a shortage of their representation in political and constitutional sectors," he said. The President, pointing out the many problems faced by women and how they cope with them, s...

10Nov

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Issues

Petroleum: Another crisis after another

BY Shonel Perera The petroleum crisis in Sri Lanka during the past few days had the country go wild with vehicles filling up the sides of streets and causing much chaos across the country. No one, however, knew the real reason behind the issue that had the country on it’s toes. Sources say that a shipment of Fuel belonging to the Indian Oil Corporation was brought into Sri Lanka on October 15 and that the shipment was supposed to be the next batch of refills for fuel stations across the country. However, the shipment was rejected as it was not of proper, suitable standards for distribution. “a shipment of fuel imported by Lanka IOC, proved to be of substandard quality and was therefore not unloaded” – statement by Arjuna Ranatunga – th...

10Nov

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Editorial

The Designer’s International Budget

Mangala Samaraweera presented his maiden budget but for Sri Lanka it was the 72nd budget ever presented. The analysis was that although Samaraweera had done considerably better than the businessman-politician Ravi Karunanayake. Of course that’s only appearances – we will need to monitor the actual passing of the budget and await any retractions as has happened in the past. Some of the proposals rather beggars belief. That the Minister of Finance, a one time designer and perhaps aware of entrepreneurial spirit and encouragement, has done little for entrepreneurship. In fact some of the proposals hit at the heart of private enterprise. For example in an attempt at protecting the local made for TV production industry the previous Finance Minister had increased a levy on imported programmes...

9Nov

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Uncategorized

Blue-Green Enterprise Budget 2018

The ‘2018 Budget, Blue Green Enterprise Sri Lanka’ got underway in Parliament today with Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera delivering the Budget speech. The Parliament session got underway with the arrival of the Speaker of House Karu Jayasuriya and the placing of the mace. Minister Samaraweera commencing his opening address said the 2018 Budget is focused on sustainable development goals. The Minister said the biggest challenge the government faced after taking over in January 2015 was the country’s economy and the debt burden while ensuring and maintaining peace and reconciliation highlighting equality. The Minister noted another issue the country faced last year was disaster situations as a result of climate change. Minister Samaraweera commended Former Minister of Financ...

Australian Parliament and the Citizenship Saga

9Nov

By AdminNo Comments

Opinion

Australian Parliament and the Citizenship Saga

By T. Rusiripala An issue concerning the eligibility of elected Parliamentarians to continue as Ministers and MPs has arisen due to a revelation that many politicians, including three ministers are dual citizens. This has made them ineligible to hold elected office according to the Australian constitution. Due to the high court giving a ruling disqualifying two ministers, they must go out of the Parliament. The situation has turned even worse due to a potential risk of a legal challenge of the validity of the decisions they have taken in the meanwhile as Ministers. The resulting political turmoil can put the Turnbull coalition Government’s survival at stake as he has only a slender majority ofone seat.Recently conducted opinion polls indicate that the support for Turnbull has hit its l...

3Nov

By Faraz ShauketalyNo Comments

Editorial

Leading by example – We Are All On

Many are the claims that abound on our island nation. Our Prime Minister was to recently claim to be saddened by the unwarranted ‘attacks’ which in his opinion was being carried out by the media for – according to his gospel – unwarranted reasons. This is rich coming from a man who has manoeuvred his continued position as leader of the United National Party (UNP) for well-nigh 23 years. He has from time to time readjusted the rules and most times nominated members loyal to him to the Working Committee of the UNP. So much of manoeuvring that some of his detractors say the only way for change would be in effect after the demise of the incumbent leader. For progress and evolution that is pretty bad news indeed. This theory impinges on the fact that ‘we are all one’. That is to say that con...