by: Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha

The myth about bringing the two main parties together

Over the last year, I have been struck by the number of times I have been told that a political solution to our problems is not possible unless the two main parties get together. This argument is based on the historical record, inasmuch as two serious attempts at compromise, involving Regional Councils in the late fifties and then District Councils in the late sixties, were stymied because of forceful opposition by the main opposition party. Had the opposition in either case agreed to the compromise, it is held, our problems would have been solved.

The Master of the modern love song, whose intricate and intense musical cartography of the relationships between men and women provided the soundtrack of our private lives, has come down like Moses or Zarathustra from the mountain, gaunt, courtly, priestly, yet slightly noir-ish in broad-striped double breasted charcoal suit, tie-less, fedora perched rakishly on his silvering hair as if Bogart had somehow grown old gracefully.

Former cricket captain Hashan Tillakaratne has been appointed Sri Lanka's national cricket team manager for the upcoming test and limited-overs home series against India.The 41-year-old Tillakaratne played in 83 tests and scored 4,545 runs. In 200 one-day internationals Tillakaratne compiled 3,789 runs.

by: Kethesh Loganathan

The period immediately following the elections to the District Development Councils (DDCs) in June 1981 witnessed the further development of Tamil militant organizations - particularly the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). In addition the Eelam Revolutionary Organizers (EROS), whose founder-leaders were based in London, split resulting in the formation of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). All of the above organizations, which were to play a key role in the parallel processes of militarization of the ethnic conflict as well as those of negotiations mediated by the Government of India, had succeeded in establishing areas of influences in Tamil Nadu by the late 70s.

I find Mahinda Gunasekara’s response to my critical retrospective on July ’83 an amazing mixture of the illogical, the irrelevant and the incorrect. He makes much of the Vadukkodai Resolution and the provocative political propaganda of the TULF. This comes from a man who lives in Canada, where Quebecois nationalist politicians have not merely toyed with separatism, but have frequently resorted to referenda to test the waters.

“Irrespective of the party in power the country should first survive to implement its policies, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday (10). President expressing his views on the UNP-JVP joint one day token strikes thanked the state sector workers for not getting into the political trap of the rival political groups who are betraying the country to gain petty political mileage .

At least 4 civilians were killed and 25 others reported wounded when LTTE terrorists opened fire at a passenger bus plying from Monaragala towards Kataragama, at the 49th mile post along the Buttala-Kataragama main road, Friday (July 11), at around 10:15 a.m.

A green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) which was brought to Sri Lanka some five years ago along with a male of the species, has given birth to 20 baby anacondas in the Dehiwala Zoo, officials said.

According to the Director of the Dehiwela National Zoological Gardens, Duminda Jayaratne, the mother anaconda had given birth to 23 baby anacondas Friday and of them 20 had survived.