Give me liberty – or the right seat

Give me liberty – or the right seat

by | Feb 8, 2019 | DailyFT

I am celebrating Sri Lanka’s Independence Day – today. Not because I want to be perverse or contrary. But because well-meaning liberals have told me I can if I want to. And that in a democracy the individual has a choice. There are others who have taken the same...
How and why perceptions count – and corrupt

How and why perceptions count – and corrupt

by | Feb 1, 2019 | DailyFT

SAME OLD THING: Despite the institutional strengthening of anticorruption agencies following the 19th Amendment, consistent failure in implementation has led to very limited progress in arresting and reversing corrupt trends in Sri Lanka. So it’s no surprise that in...
Paranoia in the nanny state

Paranoia in the nanny state

by | Jan 29, 2019 | DailyFT

PARANOID ABOUT CORRUPTION: a week-long anti-drug drive ended yesterday. Civil society would do well to ask how many minnows were netted in the name of political expediency, to prove the care and concern of those who practise realpolitik? Champions of social justice...
Of Dil-scoops, Blake’s 7 and drug busts

Of Dil-scoops, Blake’s 7 and drug busts

by | Jan 25, 2019 | DailyFT

 SIEG HEIL? From an under-siege president desperate to gain a moral mandate to a nation-state whose ‘national-socialism’ ranges from drugs to child sex abuse, Sri Lanka has an image militating against that Lonely Planet rose-tint of the prettiest girl on the...
All the presidents’ mien

All the presidents’ mien

by | Jan 21, 2019 | DailyFT

OUT WITH THE USUAL SUSPECTS: From have-been tyrants to would-be statesmen, the usual suspects are lining up for the Great Game. The introduction into the fray of a former speaker, an erstwhile strongman bureaucrat and his parliamentarian sibling may have thrown a...