International Relations of Sri Lanka

      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 an...

           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 agen...

     N othings is more threatening a sovereign nation than another nation implicitly or explicitly recognising a military outfit within its borders. Regarding Sri Lanka, this is exactly what the Switzerland Federal Court ruling did on 3 rd of December and the ruling of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 6 th of December. These rulings systematically try to undermine Gotabaya Rajapaksha’s new administration. There is no guarantee that these ideological and monetary space created by so-called-friendly-nations will not be exploited with weapons in the future. The Sri Lankan administration needs a multi-dimensional strategy to curtail these actions. One undeniable part of it is the urgent need to uplift the livelihood of minority communities within its territory, especially within the North and East. T he Swiss court ruled that 12 individuals acquitted for collecting money in Switzerland for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a EU proscribed terrorist organisat...

T oday, 13 th May, whole country is in turmoil. More than dozen cities where Muslim communities have their properties are burning. They are under Sri Lankan forces now. The material damages done to mosques and Muslim shops are innumerable. Today island wide curfew came into being on 9 PM until 6 AM tomorrow. This is almost daily occurrence now. Sri Lankan forces try to keep Muslim communities safe. S ri Lankan coalition government is in turmoil too. Today’s ground realities are in fact their making. Avoidance of Islamic extremism because of dozens of Muslim politicians in coalition with UNP party and Ranil Wickremesinghe. Their President Maithripala Sirisena from UPFA is only in name. At least Ranil wanted him that way. Constitutional amendments made by this coalition government have already fired back on them too. Constraining Presidential power, Ranil has made Sirisena weak. Since Ranil tolerate Muslim and Tamil politicians, he has the parliament majority, which made Sirisena ...

A ct of terrorism committed in Sri Lankan soil yesterday on Easter Sunday is an act against Christianity, western values and to civilized humanity. After looking at the patterns of global attacks, this wave of attacks indicates an urgent need of a true global strategy and local mechanisms to be put in place to counter Islamic Fundamentalism. With these kind of out-of-blue heinous terrorist acts blurring the distinction of peace and war time, civilized global community shall come to understand that population control of minority groups and constant intelligent gathering and sharing with internal and extern actors are needed. A bout two hours after the first few bombs went off an intelligent dossier leaked was on our whatsapp message. Looking at the letter it is crystal clear dossier is genuine. The unfolding was a coordinated terrorist attacks led by Islamist group called ‘Nations Thawahid Jaman’. The leader seems to be Mohomad Saharan. H owever, some ignorant media outlets ...

W hat is superior, politics of a nation or law of a nation?  Politics is the foundation of a nation. Law is there to help that just foundation intact from injustice. Power, whether it flows from a mandate of people or from a pure dictator, keeps the order. It seems this simple and primitive natural truth is missing out from the spectrum of Nagananda Kodituwakku’s project for state, which he solely based upon only just law, not on prudence.  There is one crucial issue at stake as Kodituwakku explains. Yaha Palana Government, Karu Yajasuriya to be specific, used a fake argument made by Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya to postpone the Provincial Elections in 2017. That Jayantha Jayasuriya did even when there is a Supreme Court determination existed against the 20 th amendment. So, now, does the power of politics allow to circumnavigate a crucial bill like that always? When the power of politics shall bend the law to its own interest. And when it could be justified?...

W hat a sad state of affairs are we living in Sri Lanka?  Nagananda Kodituwakku keep proving our judiciary is conjuring with Executive Branch in crucial constitutional issues. Most members of our legislator are a bunch of spineless. And most of our Director Generals are always waiting a call or a letter from the Secretary to Minister or Minister himself to do even the right thing. Our so called civil society members, since 1948,  like Nirmal Dewasiri or Nalin De Silva believe they have fought hard and still fighting hard to further the interests of our people and nation. However though, the Auditor General of Sri Lanka, Gamini Wijesinghe , says our island is in a deep debt crises, and it is being worsened since seventies. Now the measurable debt amount, he stipulates, is over half of million rupees per person. It is depressingly sad and make reasonable people angry. What is the long term solution? Different administration for another five years? May be give the po...