Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor


MP = Minimum Payer: How Sri Lanka’s Lawmakers Made Tax Evasion Legal

MP = Minimum Payer: How Sri Lanka’s Lawmakers Made Tax Evasion Legal

A political grenade was lobbed into the tax debate when Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Jagath Withana casually dropped his salary slips on Facebook—only to reveal that Sri Lankan MPs are paying as little as 1% in income tax. While average citizens cough up tax rates three times higher, our honourable lawmakers seem to enjoy a VIP pass through the tax maze. The revelation raised not just eyebrows but also blood pressure across both the public and private sectors. Irritated and clearly not amused, the


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Chettiar’s Head Bears All Sins

Chettiar’s Head Bears All Sins

From a Facebook post by Siva Ramasamy | Translated by JM Amid the ongoing controversy over whether Sara, also known as Pulastini, is alive or dead, MP Mujibur Rahman stated in Parliament that a SIM card was recently obtained in her name. Upon hearing this, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ishara Sewwandi—allegedly the mastermind behind the courtroom assassination of underworld figure Ganemulla Sanjeewa—also ends up with a SIM card in her name. Though I sometimes consider avoiding political commen


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Checkmate in Batumi: Jaffna’s Young Prodigy Takes Bronze on the World Stage
Young prodigy Tharshan Kajishana.

Checkmate in Batumi: Jaffna’s Young Prodigy Takes Bronze on the World Stage

In a remarkable achievement that has electrified Sri Lanka’s chess community, eight-year-old Tharshan Kajishana from Kokuvil Hindu Primary School in Jaffna has secured a bronze medal in the Girls Under-8 category at the FIDE World Cadets Chess Championship 2025, held in Batumi, Georgia. The tournament, hosted from June 22 to July 3 at the luxurious Grand Bellagio Hotel, drew over 300 young chess talents from nearly 40 countries. A Historic Moment for the North Kajishana’s bronze medal was co


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

Why Emphasize ‘Genocide’ Over ‘War Crimes’? Sajanthan Questions Gajendrakumar

Why Emphasize ‘Genocide’ Over ‘War Crimes’? Sajanthan Questions Gajendrakumar

Why does Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam— leader of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) and General Secretary of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress—choose to focus on ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing,’ but not address ‘war crimes’?” asked senior ITAK figure and Sumanthiran’s close confidant, Advocate Kesavan Sajanthan. In a televised debate featuring TNPF’s S. Kajendren and Sajanthan himself, the latter offered one possible explanation. He pointed out that during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

NPP’s Garden Lizard Lesson in Northern Politics

NPP’s Garden Lizard Lesson in Northern Politics

If you're looking for a metaphor to sum up the NPP’s misguided political saga in the North, look no further than the old Tamil saying: "வேலியில் போகும் ஓணானை எடுத்து வேட்டியில் விட்டுட்டு குத்துதே, குடையுதே என்றானாம்" (“They took the garden lizard headed for the fence, tucked it into their veshti, and now complain that it’s biting and scratching.”) That, in essence, is the story of Naveena Ravanan—real name Pon Suthan—a self-styled firebrand Tamil nationalist who briefly honeymooned with the NP


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

"The Quiet Power of Words”: Jaffna Monitor Speaks with Nadia Kandrusevich

"The Quiet Power of Words”: Jaffna Monitor Speaks with Nadia Kandrusevich

Jaffna Monitor speaks to Nadia Kandrusevich-children’s book publisher and co-recipient of the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire-about censorship, courage, and why quiet storytelling can be the loudest form of resistance. The IPA Prix Voltaire honours publishers who have faced pressure, threats, and harassment in the pursuit of free expression. When you learned you had been named a co-recipient, what was your immediate reaction? What does this recognition mean to you personally-and to the wider community


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor

They Tried to Silence a Language - These Publishers Fought Back:Belarus’s Literary Rebellion

They Tried to Silence a Language - These Publishers Fought Back:Belarus’s Literary Rebellion

A Suitcase and a Mission On a brisk Lillehammer evening in June 2025, Dmitri Strotsev stood under the bright lights of the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) stage, speaking in his native Belarusian. Just moments earlier, he had been handed the IPA Prix Voltaire – a prestigious international award for courage in publishing – jointly with fellow Belarusian publisher Nadia Kandrusevich. Accepting the honor, Strotsev recounted the day he fled Belarus: “In March 2022, I left for the West with one small


Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor