EXCLUSIVE: People No Longer Want a Separate State – Varatharaja Perumal
Posted: April 5, 2010 | 5 CommentsBy Anuradha K. Herath
During an “exploratory mission” in the Jaffna Peninsula, controversial Tamil politician and the first chief minister of the north-eastern provincial council Varatharaja Perumal said there is no longer a need for a separate state because that is no longer what the people want.
Being careful not to use the word “eelam,” Perumal said, “Among the Jaffna population, I think people are not asking for it. People are asking for a political solution.” Read more
S.B. Dissanayake: Sri Lanka’s Electoral System Must Change
Posted: December 10, 2009 | 24 Comments
By Ranjit J. Perera
Abolishing the executive presidency will not be enough to ensure stability in Sri Lanka, says S.B. Dissanayake, former national organizer for the United National Party (UNP) and former opposition leader of the Central Provincial Council.
“Even more than the system of the executive presidency, there is a bigger problem in this country and that’s with the parliamentary electoral system,” Dissanayake says. “Both these systems have to work together. If we abolish the executive presidency and continue with the same electoral system, there will never be a stable government in Sri Lanka.” Read more
S.B. Dissanayake: A Century of Suffering for Minorities
Posted: December 10, 2009 | 1 CommentBy Ranjit J. Perera
S.B. Dissanayake, the former national organizer for the United National Party (UNP) and the opposition leader of the Central Provincial Council, held a press conference Dec. 7 and announced that he will relinquish all affiliations with the UNP and rejoin the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to support President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the upcoming election. In an exclusive interview with SLNN the same evening, Dissanayake spoke on a range of issues including minority rights. The audio excerpt of the interview is in Sinhala and its English translation follows. Read more
Interview: General Secretary of the United National Party Tissa Attanayake
Posted: November 14, 2009 | Leave a CommentSLNN: If there is a presidential or parliamentary election, how confident is the UNP to face the elections?
Attanayake: It was the government that issued statements from time to time over the past three or four months. However, according to the Constitution, a parliamentary election has to be held before next April. We are therefore ready for both. The government thought that we would be scared of elections. That is not the case with us. We are ready for both elections. Read more
COLOMBO PAGE: Parasite from the US to counter local ‘Pitimakuna’ in Sri Lanka
Posted: October 29, 2009 | Leave a CommentThe Department of Agriculture of Sabaragamuwa Province has imported a parasite “Acerophagus papayae” of hymenoptera family from the Puerto Rico Institute of APHIS of USDA to counter the ‘Mealy Bug’, locally known as Pitimakuna, which is destroying the papaya cultivations in the Kegalle district, government sources said. Full Story
EPRLF-P Gen. Sec. Sritharan: We are not thinking of a separate state
Posted: September 26, 2009 | 5 CommentsInterview by Ranjit J. Perera and Anuradha K. Herath
The end of Sri Lanka’s long-running conflict in May this year has focused attention on the nearly 300,000 internally displaced persons and their rights. But for some Tamil politicians, it has marked the dawn of a new era of greater democratic space.
Among them is T. Sritharan, general secretary of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Front (Pathmanabha wing) who condemns the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for brutally killing all Tamils opposed to it. In a candid interview with Sri Lanka News Network, he outlined the history and ideology of his party and the direction the country should take to forge ethnic amity in a pluralistic democratic society. The following is an edited version of Sritharan’s comments during the interview. Read more
Edited transcript of Full Interview with Dr. Palitha Kohona
Posted: September 25, 2009 | Leave a CommentInterview with Dr. Palitha Kohona
September 3, 2009, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombo.
Interviewer: Ranjit J Perera
Sri Lanka’s new ambassador at the UN in New York hails from the village of Kohona in the central Matale district. Son of a public official, he left his village home early in life as the family accompanied the father who was transferred to Colombo. Thus began his schooling at one of the prestigious private schools in the country, St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. A time he describes as ‘a very happy period for me’. Having completed his secondary education, he joined the Colombo Law Faculty where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws Degree with Honours. He was immediately recruited by both the Colombo Law Faculty and the Law College in Colombo as an Assistant Lecturer. He was thereafter awarded a scholarship to the Australian National University where he obtained a Masters Degree in Trade Law. Read more