International Relations of Sri Lanka

P ictures and personal details of pedophiles, rapists and heinous criminals are to be published and publically be available, Sarath Weerasekara, Minister for Public Security and State, stated. He was very clear about the notion of ‘after identifying the criminals. However, judgers are jumping into a bandwagon against the minister on the basis of ‘presumption of innocence’ until proven otherwise before the law. That is as if the minister was not clear about the notion of after identifying.    I f there is such a gray area exists, within a particular case, that of cause it would be a crime to name and shame. However, in most cases, as the minister mentioned, it would be rather evidential that that particular person has committed such crime. It is as if the Supreme Court judges are blind with the legality and procedures of cases; that in some cases naming and shaming could do such public good. We need to praise the initiative of minister and, once proven without reasonable bought, namin

W orldly attention receives from super powers makes Sri Lanka a big power in regional politics and beyond. Unlike in good old days, in modern information age has rendered traditional invaders are a dying bread – except may be regarding Taiwan, few pockets in Eastern Europe and in Africa. So, at the beginning of second quarter, into the twentieth century, we have no doubt that our fifty three times bigger neighbor will not set a foot in that direction regarding her southernmost neighbor due to this out of proportion attention her receives from super powers. With this sort of worldly attention, Sri Lanka needs to think worldly and big and act modestly, asserts Dr. Jayanath Colombage, a former Navy Commander and current Secretary to Foreign Ministry. I t has all being really a curst that Sri Lanka is a small island with small island mentality for all its known history. Legends of King Ravana and real events of King Parakramabahu, whom one went flying and other went sailing to neighboring

    D oes it make sense to you Indians to devolve Gujarat State into thirty different self-administrative provinces? Or Tamil Nadu into eighteen different self-administrative provinces? If it does not make any sense to you, nine provinces in Sri Lanka does not make any sense to us, to majority Sri Lankans, either. Bugger off...    T he whole Indian landmass, except her water-body, is 46 times larger than Sri Lanka (64,630 sq km). For ex, the Gujarat province (196,244 sq km) alone, where the Indian Prime Minister Modi was born into, is more than three times the size of Sri Lanka.      I f Modi insists that we Sri Lankans need nine self-governing provinces to handle our economy, police, land, education, health, agriculture and housing issues in Sri Lanka; Gujarat ought to have about thirty some self-governing provinces. May be Gujarat’s nine percent of Muslim population (9%) will like that nonsense proposal; especially as how things are unfolding for Muslims in India in these days.     

    B roadly speaking, with proposed 20 th amendment to the constitution, or narrowing it down by saying the repeal of item (xiii) of sub-paragraph in article 91 in the constitution, the issue of Basil Rajapaksha’s potential return to Sri Lankan Parliament as a dual citizenship holder is hotly debated. Will he be able to take stately decision without adversely affecting the sovereignty of Sri Lanka? Do we have to inertly question the moral integrity of a decision made by a dual citizenship holder in state affairs? The nature of man is such that motherly and earthly inheritance cannot be cheated upon. Moreover, when the President Gotabaya calls the shots regarding Basil Rajapaksha, we Sri Lankans have to trust his judgment. Regardless this citizenship issue, we have to elect visionary and missionary enough statespersons to navigate us through potential hostile waters of Adam’s and Malacca Straits.      T hese is no doubt that years of residing in a foreign country and eventual oath-s

      E nvironmentalists are at an extreme end with Gotabaya Government and Basil Rajapaksha. They seem come a little bit of short to understand that development cannot be achieved without one form being transformed to another, whether it be a road or a bridge. Finding a middle path is a too much of a compromise to them. The country needs a conceptual change about the utilisation of natural resources, development and developer. H ow could a state build houses, cities, skyscrapers, roads and highways without mining crude oil, sand, gravel and soil? How could a state be self-sufficient, competitive and industrialised with its farming without some deforestations? Cannot the state nurture mud crabs in mangroves without destroying its eco system? Cannot a part of lagoon host an attractive harbour for leisure crafts and be an eco-tourism hotspot at the same time? Will such developments ruin their eco systems completely? Gotabaya Government has to utilise all the resources the island offers

      P reservation of true Sri Lankan Buddhist character is as paramount as securing much-needed-foreign-investments by post-Covid-19 government.  Actors in the jungle of Sri Lankan politics seem to include mainly political parties, regional blocks, religious and ethnic sects, environmentalists and individual politics of each legislators in macro level. From national policy making to road paving in a distant village is understood within these actors’ horizontal and vertical engagements. However, identifying the main actors in Sri Lankan politics are to benefit recognizing national threats, national policy making process and securement of foreign investments in post-Covid-19. Largest minority groups, Tamils, Muslims and Christians and their affiliations to investing nations needed to go through a nuanced assessments. Legislative actions to limit whole population growth and to preserve the true Sri Lankan Buddhist characters within it is paramount in post-LTTE and post-Covid-19 era. The

           S ince the President Gotabaya was elected he and his administration took ever greater measures to stimulate stagnating economy, cutting down taxes and increasing VAT threshold to encourage investments. He welcomed all developed nations to invest in Sri Lanka instead of finger pointing at the biggest investors. However, prevailing world reality of this unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic projects the development of our economy in a blur horizon at its worst, and as an uphill struggle at its best. Chart 1 - Ratio of world merchandise trade growth to world GDP growth, 1990‑2020 % change and ratio Source:    WTO Secretariat for trade and consensus estimates for historical GDP. Projections for GDP based on scenarios simulated with WTO Global Trade Model.                                   T he idea of being self-sufficient is up in the agenda of every country now. A little bit of Government’s encouragements and examples of raw models in the society is going a long wa