Submissions and debates on 18th Amendment from Centre for Policy Alternatives on Vimeo.
by Centre for Policy Alternatives
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Rajapaksa’s new powers are unnecessary and dangerous, says Economist
Sri Lanka's constitutional amendment
Eighteenth time unlucky
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s new powers are unnecessary and dangerous
Sep 9th 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
A majestic moment for an ever more powerful ruler
Beating the drum
A majestic moment for an ever more powerful ruler
Nov 18th 2010 | COLOMBO AND JAFFNA
Quite the reverse. Earlier plans for more regional power have been scrapped and the government seems to be using the army to help shift more Sinhalese people into Tamil-dominated regions. Tamils are too fearful to resist. Neither they nor outsiders such as the United Nations are able to force a proper inquiry into growing evidence that in the last days of the war the army killed perhaps tens of thousands of Tamil soldiers and civilians. This week the government dismissed video footage of massacres, broadcast by Al Jazeera, as fake.The president’s urbane brother, Basil Rajapaksa, is unabashed in claiming that in Sri Lanka an era of “ruler kings” has begun. Western ideas of transparency, he claims, along with limits on presidential power and accountability, are not relevant to “Asian culture”. Sri Lanka will keep its long-running state of emergency, and reforms to the voting system will make it harder for smaller parties.
As a thunderstorm unleashes an early monsoon downpour, the brother suggests that a ruler’s worth should be judged by a traditional standard. “When the king is good,” he says, “in time the rains come.”Among his many presents, the president should really have received a crown.
A majestic moment for an ever more powerful ruler
