Features

The proposed 20th Amendment has several major defects. One of its key faults is that its sponsors and framers have chosen a very wrong approach to constitution making. There are several reasons why this approach is wrong. The first is the refusal to learn constructive lessons from the past constitutional reform experiments. The lessons that seem […]

Image courtesy of City News (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena). “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” — Ramsay, Game of Thrones Articles penned on Groundviews recently by Jayadeva Uyangoda, Asanga Welikala and Gehan Gunatilleke as well as elsewhere, by Jayampathy Wickremeratne, flag serious concerns with the 20th Amendment presented to Parliament last week. In this column, I capture the essence […]

The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution Bill (20A) is in the public domain. If I were to describe it in one sentence — 20A seeks to take the country backwards to the 2010-2015 period. The only features introduced by 19A that would survive if 20A is passed in its present form would be the five-year […]

Sri Lanka Brief Update /04 September 2020 The government of Sri Lanka gazetted its proposed 20th amendment to the constitution on 2nd September 2020. It nullifies the major democratic gains achieved including checks and balances (i.e. independent commissions) to the executive presidency through the 19th amendment to the constitution. The 19th amendment established a Constitutional […]

Scarcely having sufficient time to properly settle into his Chair as Sri Lanka’s Parliament opened for business this week, the Speaker faced down two attempts to trespass on the ‘legislative power of the People,’ throwing up intriguing questions in regard to the country’s parliamentary process, or what is left of this. Freedoms of Speech in […]

The ideas on a progressive and pluralist populism raised by Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, have been critiqued by Mark Salter. This is an exchange of ideas that anyone with an interest not only in Sri Lankan politics, but also in the politics of deeply divided places in general, ought to pay attention to. Salter’s article published on 12 August 2020 […]

Himal Kotelawala. ECONOMYNEXT – Political scientist Prof Jayadeva Uyangoda likens Sri Lanka’s powerful ruling party to a house with a very wide roof and no walls to speak of. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), he says, is like a house with only old-style short walls, atop which anyone can sit and enjoy the breeze. […]

12 August 2020 ( PDF document is attached at the end) 1. Elections for Sri Lanka’s 9th Parliament were held on 5 August 2020 and the first sitting day of the 9th parliament is 20th August 2020. From 22 electoral districts, 196 members were elected and 29 members are being appointed from the National list. […]

Image Courtesy fo  IANS. When globalisation was the dominant concept for looking at the world, pandemics were discussed as a global security issue. The objective was to see how pandemics have an impact on global security, and how to prepare for them. Now that one is happening, it is interesting to look at the response. […]

BACKGROUND Sri Lanka is slowly emerging from the lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and heading towards the General Elections that is scheduled to be held on the 2nd August. At this moment, three factors dominate Sri Lanka’s social and political landscape. The first is the militarization of government and governance. The second is […]

During the last few weeks, the media has paid a great deal of attention to fundamental rights cases filed in our Supreme Court. The electronic media, typically expressed half-truths or incorrect information on what these cases were about. Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, opposition parties who should have been concerned with the matter, failed to contradict the […]

The Rule of Law and Democratic Governance. At the Annual National law Conference 2020 organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapakse in the course of his address said “the time has come for all stakeholders including the judiciary, government, legal fraternity, and all other citizens concerned, to work together and […]

In the first few days, as America burned, the world looked on amazed and bewildered, wondering what this would mean for the immediate and long-term future. As the protests settled down and drew larger crowds with an overwhelming number of young people, one began to think of other movements in Hong Kong, in India, with […]

Sri Lanka Brief Fact Sheet: Militarisation and Securitization of Government and Governance in Sri Lanka. June 2020. Here is the list of military appointments made by president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa outside the military establishments. 1. Major General (Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne: -Secretary of Defence (November 2020)i -TRCSL- Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka – The Regulator of […]

The distinguishing feature of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and indeed, at the same time the cause for concern with regard to him, is that he was never elected to any office until he won the presidency. He was a military man first and then the all-powerful bureaucrat as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence – a soldier […]

Sri Lanka Brief Up Date/ 03 June 2020 Rights of the migrant workers in the Middle East during the pandemic 1. The estimated number of overseas Sri Lankan workers is 1.5 million and 1.2 million of these are in the Middle East. The majority of the 1.2 million Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East […]

Executive Summary. This report [by INFORM, Colombo,Sri Lanka] records 95 incidents that had been reported during the 90 days period. The average number of incidents per day reported prior to the covid-19 curfew is slightly higher than the number of incidents reported during the curfew. There were a high number of incidents related to legal, […]

1. President Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament on 2nd March 2020– six months before the due date, amidst the growing danger of COVID-19 pandemic. By this time, the uncertainty relating to the possibility of holding elections during the outbreak had already surfaced. However, the President chose to disregard the looming threat and called an election without […]

My article, ‘Necessity: Doctrine That Destroyed Pakistani Democracy’ published in The Island on 08 May has evoked interest in the subject and I have been asked for my views on its implications for Sri Lanka, including on whether it can be invoked in the present circumstances. For the benefit of readers who have not read […]

Image: Pakistani-military-ditators-Gen.Ayub-Khan-Gen.Yahya-Khan-Gen.Zia-ul-Haq-Gen.Pervez-Musharraf (NewsinAsia) The doctrine of necessity was first expounded in the 13th century by English jurist Bracton, who stated ‘that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity’. Glanville Williams described the defence of necessity as involving ‘a choice of the lesser evil. ‘ The doctrine is recognized in criminal law. For […]

Image: Hijaaz Hizbulla, November 2018 at a protest against President Sirisena’s constitutional coup. On 16 April, I heard that my former classmate Hejaaz Hisbullah had been arrested by the CID. As I learnt more about the questionable circumstances of his arrest, I have been struck by how little these questions seem to matter in various […]

Image: The President could perhaps respond positively to the joint opposition statement offering ‘responsible cooperation’. The threefold crisis The threefold crisis that our country faces— public health, the constitutional, and political—is exacerbating day by day. In the latest development, a number of soldiers of the naval and special task forces of the Welisara and Seeduwa […]

(Image courtesy of www.dw.com) It is no coincidence that the increasingly not-so-insidious growth of Sri Lanka’s anti-democracy virus, first reflected on in these column spaces last month, has kept apace with the exponential rise of coronavirus infected individuals in the last ten days. As transparency diminishes, so does accountability. This is so in relation to […]

Image courtesy of slideplayer.com. Statement on the Arrest and Detention of Attorney-at-law Hejaaz Hizbullah. We are writing with deep concern about aspects of the arrest and detention of attorney-at-law Hejaaz Hizbullah. According to media reports on the habeas corpus application filed by Mr. Hizbullah’s father Naina Hizbullah, Mr. Hizbullah had received a phone call, purportedly, […]

Image (edited) courtesy of www.demdigest.org. The anti-democracy virus infecting law enforcement officials in Sri Lanka today appears to have proceeded belligerently to the point that an attorney-at-law was arrested this week in circumstances so outrageous that it has drawn the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) out of hibernation to express its ‘concern.’ Pointing out […]

Sri Lanka has been under an unofficial health emergency, since mid March 2020. State of emergency if declared it needs to be endorsed by the parliament within a month. As the parliament stands dissolved and parliamentary elections postponed, the government has declared the “Police Curfew” to impose Covid-19 related restrictions. Read as a PDF: SLB […]

Image courtesy of  the Economy Next/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP. By Asanga Welikala and Suren Fernando. When a grave crisis like the coronavirus pandemic occurs, citizens expect the Government to respond swiftly, effectively, and efficiently to protect the public and mitigate the consequences. For this, they also readily recognise that the Government will need greater powers […]

Image courtesy of Amnesty International. On March 26, 2020, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon and released convicted death row prisoner and mass murderer, former Army Staff Sergeant R. M. Sunil Rathnayake. While the country is on lockdown due to COVID-19, the President has seized this opportunity to deal a lethal blow to the […]

WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 16 March 2020 16 March 2020 Good afternoon everyone. In the past week, we have seen a rapid escalation of cases of COVID-19. More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China. We have also seen […]

As of 7th March 2020, the global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has surpassed 100 000. As we mark this sombre moment, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds all countries and communities that the spread of this virus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities. […]