Page 7 - Kumar David News Today

by Kumar David There have been a couple of interesting developments in India, a new star in the Lok Sabha and recent State elections, which I am sure will interest my readers. A meteor detonated in the in any case rumbustious chamber of the Indian Parliament and it has for a change been a woman. State Elections have been a moderate, but only moderate setback for Modi and the BJP but since there is no sign of an alliance that can be cobbled together to form an alternative government, on current ...

Trends In The Indian Electoral Scene Prof. Kuma David There have been a couple of interesting developments in India, a new star in the Lok Sabha and recent State elections, which I am sure will interest to my readers. A meteor detonated in the in any case rumbustious chamber of the Indian Parliament and it has for a change been a woman. State Elections have been a moderate, but only moderate setback for Modi and the BJP but since there is no sign of an alliance that can be cobbled together to f...

Blunders That Changed The World Prof. Kuma David History teaches much and the people of Lanka should learn them well or the threats of dictatorship may overtake us. I will abstain from drawing too many parallels, leaving readers to their judgements. However, I need to say at the outset that it seems the JVP-NPP-Left (excluding the Dead-Left) is gaining ground and there is some interest in AKD’s interventions in Parliament. These entities may be more active than civil society, religious dignit...

Prof. Kumar David The column today is about two separate matters. First, something futuristic but this country can never in a hundred years take a step forward unless there is a mechanism to remove from office outright scoundrels in public life. The second important topic is that right now this nation and its people must make it clear to future investors, global or domestic in the Port City (PC) that intolerable promises, if enacted, will be repealed. Let there be no crocodile tears as in the c...

China’s Linearized Polity Prof. Kuma David Last week I used the adjective linearized to refer to China’s polity and upon reflection came to realise that it carried more substance than I had realised. I am using ‘polity’ to include organisation of the state, structure of constitution and certain socio-political aspects of society and ‘linearized’ to indicate political tractability and homogeneity. In the case of China, for the purposes of this essay, I touch on the CCP, the Chinese e...

I  was  saddened  by  the  events  in  Geneva having thought we were  a  popular  country  and  our  people  well  thought  of internationally.To  think  that  only  11  countries    supported  us in Geneva  was  indeed  a   cause  for  alarm  and  distress. Maybe the  want  us  to  take  a  step  back  and  think of how to make Sri Lanka a  better    place. Reams have been written about  this  resolution by erudite  men  and  women. There  is�...

by Kumar David Sri Lanka’s economic predicament is more parlous than the government admits. Prof WD Lakshman of the Central Bank and other regime supporters and sections of the media conceal this obvious reality. Of course much depends on domestic policies but rather like a drowning man we are reliant on lifesavers and rescuers in the vessels around us to pull us to safety. To put it more directly, at this juncture Sri Lanka’s short and medium term economic future depends on the goodwill of...

Posted on February 18th, 2021 C. Wijeyawikcrema, LL.B., Ph.D. Introduction Lemkin who lost 49 family members to the Holocaust coined the term Genocide in 1943/4. Applying his definition to past events, the first genocide took place in USA when, white man distributed blankets soaked with smallpox germs to native Americans (Red Indians). Perhaps, even before that in 1818 and 1848 genocide took place in the British colony, Ceylon. Genocide is primarily a European-Christian...

  by Kumar David Indications are that the Biden Presidency does not resemble any other post-war American presidency. Though he was Obama’s Vice President, thankfully he is not imitating that failed model. Post-war Democratic presidents (Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Obama) followed a different agenda. FDR however comes to mind when searching for something similar; maybe because the crises now and during the Great Depression were both so daunting. Look at the parlous predicame...

Posted on February 6th, 2021 H. L. D. Mahindapala To understand contemporary national politics and its complex combinations and permutations it is imperative that any student of politics must first get a firm grasp of the two political cultures that divides the North and the South. The gap is much wider than the Palk Straits that separates us from India, thankfully. For instance, the Tamils have never tasted equality, dignity, liberty, justice and peace under any of the...