𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒍 ( දුක් ගන්නා රාළ )

Sri Lanka Guardian: A Plan for a Campaign of Blackmail and Political Harassment

Religious leaders meet again over Fonseka

Here are some very interesting data for your comparison. As always, Haiti is in the news for all the wrong reasons. One island is shared by two different countries put juxtapose. The eastern side is occupied by Dominican Republic and the western side by Haiti . I have put Sri Lankan Data too there in the chart below for our easy comparison only. Do you know why the Dominican Republic is doing well when Haiti the next door neighbour is doing so badly? The Dominican Republic has a relatively good governance . No Country GDP (Nominal) USD Millions Per Capita Income (USD) Population (Millions) Land Area ( square miles ) 01 Sri Lanka 40,000 1900 20 25,000 02 Dominican Republic 45,000 4900 10 18,000 03 Haiti 6,900 800 10 10,000 I hope you got the message. Sasanka De Silva blogging from Oman.

I was trying to analysis as to why many of us (Sri Lankans) are not willing to embrace changes or look positively for completely overhauling of the present system of governance. On every occasion when the issue of changes was brought up in open forums and in Media as well as in friendly discussions, instead of having a dialogue of substances, many started hurling insults and misquoting many religious texts that neither they properly fathom nor practice or cultural baloney to scuttle the process. Those who behave in such a fashion can be categorized into four main groups, namely, 1. Frogs in the well. 2. Inadequacios’. 3. Feudalists. 4. Fast Track Dreamers. Frogs in the Well. My sympathies are with them because they are unaware that there is a different world exists beyond their hamlets. They are not necessarily peasants. Some of them are neither poor nor illiterate. Someone I know who is dirty rich but has never gone beyond the shores of Sri Lanka was confused and...

Like any other election in Sri Lanka, the presidential election is also getting uglier by the day. However, I am getting confused trying to keep track of the trends and swings, not because it’s getting uglier but because of some of the outlandish claims made by the ruling party. The first one is that if the main opponent comes to power, he will allow the defeated LTTE to rise up again, when everyone in Sri Lanka knows that the President barely made it to the winning line last time, only thanks to the LTTE’s refusal to allow Tamils to cast their votes freely. Rumours flew that the LTTE had acted in that manner to ensure his victory, and to add to that suspicion, a photograph appeared in the media not long ago, showing the grooming scion meeting with a well-known LTTE Diaspora member in one of the western countries that he and his cronies publicly despise. Another rumour now permeating is the way very large sums of money recovered from one of the notorious LTTE leaders now in captivity...

The much awaited presidential election in Sri Lanka is just a few days away but unfortunately we the migrant workers who are one of the highest foreign currency earners for the country’s coffer are left without a voice. All successive previous regimes have plundered most of the remittances, we earned by working in 50 plus Celsius degrees by spending them on many white elephant projects but never even considered giving us a voice, in return for our magnanimous contribution. We do not ask for permits to import luxury cars duty free to the country. Even if we ask it, I do not see there is anything wrong with it because many of the unproductive public sector employees, celebrities, sportsmen and many more (the list is too long to mention here) have already been granted this facility. The universal suffrage is something we Sri Lankans have been enjoying from early 1930s. All what we have been asking is to give the migrant work force also the voice but hitherto it has fallen in to deaf e...

Never in the history of any developing country has there been an opportunity to hand over the helm of the running of the country to a victorious and decorated soldier. In many instances, men in uniforms have taken over running countries, but the process of taking over was not democratic, nor were they victorious and decorated for what they have achieved on the military front. However, such instances can be found in the developed world (France & USA, to name a few). General Sarath Fonseka  has proven his mettle as a soldier serving the Sri Lankan Army for more than 40 years and led the country to victory on the military front over the terrorist group, The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a few months ago. Now he has relinquished his uniforms and the privileges accompanied by the title and has entered the presidential fray to take over the helm of running the country in a democratic way, putting his life in danger once more for the economic salvation of the land. Everybody ag...