Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Aug 22, 2008	Defense and Devolution
Just as it did at the moment of decolonization and independence, the visible post-war moment provides a rare historic opportunity for nation building and the construction of national identity. We missed the first chance, but must not miss the second. In his nationally televised dialogue with...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Aug 17, 2008	Hurry Up and Go Slowly
When we were being initiated to English under the Free Education Scheme, our teacher used to ask us to, “Hurry up and go slowly.” This command made us laugh, for by then we knew enough English to see the seeming paradox. Sixty years later, I do not laugh at the words any more. I...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Aug 12, 2008	Why integration with India is the only long-term way out for Lanka
Lanka: Where to cut the Gordian knot Sometimes the obvious is the most difficult to see; and then when discerned in a flash of blinding light it does indeed seem so obvious. Lanka will never, never ever, settle its national question, or its ethnic conflict if you prefer this terminology,...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Aug 12, 2008	TAMIL NADU, THE INDIAN MODEL AND DEVOLUTION
The devolution debate has been sharpened by the highly interesting and significant results of the public opinion poll recently conducted in Tamil Nadu, with regard to Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue and its internal arrangements. The poll has had the effect of strengthening both pro and...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jul 30, 2008	WINNING THE WAR, WINNING THE PEACE
“The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew, cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down”.    - Barack Obama, Berlin, July 24   We must not settle for a draw in a game we can win and are winning. As we draw...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jul 26, 2008	Some Gruesome Experiences: Memories of July 1983 by DEW Gunasekara, Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration
From my Diary Notes written in Cell No.1, Negombo Remand Prison, (July 31st-Sept 24th 1983)   I had my own gruesome experience of the Black July. It was 29th July at midnight that I received a telephone call from my friend and party comrade AJMO Dr. Indra Kumar of his father’s...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jun 30, 2008	GSP PLUS AND THE NEED FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM: WHAT WE DID AND DID NOT SAY
Rohan Edrisinha and Asanga Welikala    The Political Watch Column of the Sunday Island of 22 June titled Opposition at Sea  included a critique of an article co-authored by us which was published on Groundviews (and in the Sunday Leader) sometime ago, in which we argued that if...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jun 18, 2008	THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NORTH CENTRAL AND SABARAGAMUWA PROVINCIAL COUNCILS: THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
ROHAN EDRISINHA & ASANGA WELIKALA The North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils have been dissolved by Proclamation of the respective Governors effective as of midnight on Monday 9 th May 2008 (see Gazette Extraordinary No. 1553/6 (North Central Province) and No. 1553/7...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  May 21, 2008	THE EASTERN PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS: A BRIEF POST-MORTEM
As the much hard-sold elections to the Eastern Provincial Council came to an unseemly and acrimonious conclusion last week, it was already becoming abundantly clear that its political and constitutional ramifications may well turn out to be anything other than what the government’s...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  May 10, 2008	EU withdrawal of GSP+ to enforce Human Rights
Economic sanctions have been used for foreign policy objectives since the time of Ancient Greece. The idea that economic sanctions might be an alternative to the use of force received attention after the First World War, largely owing to President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy. Since World...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Apr 12, 2008	POWER-SHARING: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The constitutional reform debate in Sri Lanka is in a particularly enervated state as we approach the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, with a government in power that displays that bizarre concoction of procrustean infantilism that so characterised the Jayewardene and Premadasa attitudes to...... [view]