May 2026


UNP Questions President’s Personal Congratulations to Vijay, Citing Diplomatic Protocol

UNP Questions President’s Personal Congratulations to Vijay, Citing Diplomatic Protocol

Sri Lanka’s opposition United National Party (UNP) on Tuesday criticized President Anura Kumara Dissanayake for personally congratulating newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, arguing that the move departed from established diplomatic convention and raised questions about political selectivity. In a statement, the UNP said it was “surprising” that Sri Lanka’s Head of State had publicly extended congratulations to a foreign state-level leader, contending that such formal gestu


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

What Singapore’s Economic Blueprint Means for Sri Lanka — and How to Get There

What Singapore’s Economic Blueprint Means for Sri Lanka — and How to Get There

By Jeevan Thiyagaraja Singapore released its Economic Strategy Review on 13 May 2026 — a 32-recommendation blueprint built around three imperatives: sharpen competitive value, build agility, and embed resilience. At first glance, the two countries appear to occupy entirely different economic universes. Singapore is a mature, high-income city-state with USD 500 billion in GDP and decades of accumulated institutional capital. Sri Lanka is a lower-middle-income island of 22 million people, still e


Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

The Final Hours of Kapila Chandrasena

The Final Hours of Kapila Chandrasena

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Former Sri Lankan cricket captain Aravinda de Silva told a Colombo magistrate on Tuesday that he personally arranged bail guarantors and sent Rs. 500,000 in cash to secure the release of Kapila Chandrasena, the former SriLankan Airlines chief executive found dead at his Kollupitiya residence last week, and that he repeatedly tried to reassure Mr. Chandrasena in the final hours of his life that a fresh arrest warrant was "a small matter" that could be resolved. Mr. de Silva


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Sri Lanka Opposition Takes Judicial Crisis to U.N. After President’s May Day Remarks

Sri Lanka Opposition Takes Judicial Crisis to U.N. After President’s May Day Remarks

A May Day speech in which President Dissanayake told supporters they would be able to applaud a pending court ruling has triggered a formal international complaint — and exposed a constitutional provision that criminalises executive interference in judicial proceedings. COLOMBO — Twenty-four Sri Lankan opposition members of parliament have filed a formal complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, alleging that President


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

India to Fund New Four-Story Medical Complex at Mullaitivu Hospital

India to Fund New Four-Story Medical Complex at Mullaitivu Hospital

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka has begun implementation of a major Indian grant-funded healthcare project in Mullaitivu, where a new four-story medical ward complex will be built at the District General Hospital under a 600 million Sri Lankan rupee assistance package from the Government of India. The project follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha and Sri Lanka’s Acting Health Secretary Dr. W.K. Wickremasinghe during Indian Vice President C.P. Radh


Our Reporter

Our Reporter

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Bars Professor From Academia After University Failed to Act
Prof. W. M. Thilakaratne, former dean of the Faculty of Dental Sciences at the University of Peradeniya, now at the University of Malaya. Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has permanently barred him from any academic post in Sri Lanka after a university inquiry found him guilty of harassing a junior colleague.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Bars Professor From Academia After University Failed to Act

When the governing council of the University of Peradeniya voted in May 2020 to discard the findings of its own formal disciplinary inquiry, which had found a senior professor guilty of cyberstalking, repeated physical touching and sustained emotional abuse of a junior colleague under his academic supervision, it may have assumed the matter was over. Dr. W. A. M. Udari L. Abeyasinghe, the junior colleague at the centre of the complaint and a dentist and lecturer at the same faculty, had already


Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Open Letter to Vijay: Tread Carefully on Sri Lanka

Open Letter to Vijay: Tread Carefully on Sri Lanka

Dear Vijay, Heartiest congratulations on becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu! Now that you start governing one of India’s biggest and economically most developed states, plenty of problems, small and big, will crop up. You already mentioned the state’s fiscal mess after taking the oath of office. Unlike most chief ministers in India, you will be confronted now and then by matters affecting or involving a neighbouring country: Sri Lanka. This is where you need to exercise extreme cautio


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Gajendrakumar Urges Vijay to Declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day

Gajendrakumar Urges Vijay to Declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day

CHENNAI — Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), has formally urged newly sworn-in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to declare May 18 as Mullivaikkal Genocide Remembrance Day through an official resolution in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Mr. Ponnambalam sent the letter following Mr. Vijay's swearing-in on May 10 as Tamil Nadu's ninth chief minister — the first to lead a government formed by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, the party Mr.


Our Reporter

Our Reporter