CAN RANIL PULL THROUGH THE PRESENT PANDEMONIUM? – By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Photo Source:bbc.com    Everyone doesn’t Ranil Wickremasinghe’s appointment as Prime Minister. He was the only member of Parliament ( from the national list) when the whole group of UNP candidates lost their parliamentary seats. It took nearly a year to fill the  UNP National list vacancy. In the end, the  UNP recommended Ranil Wickremasinghe’s name. Likewise, everyone blames the Opposition Leader for dilly-dallying the issue by presenting numerous excuses, such as ” the President should leave.”  By the time he agreed to accept the Prime Minister’s position (still under several clauses), the stable was closed and the horse had bolted. Usually, an opposition leader understands the Constitution of a country. For example, there is a shadow cabinet in England, and the opposition leader takes immense responsibility for national issues. He may disagree in Parliament over political issues ...

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Pandikoralalage Sunil Chandra de Silva (An appreciation of a friend in two storylines) – by Rudra de Zoysa Hardly anyone called him Sunil or Chandra or Pandikoralalage at Royal. From the Principal to the peon, we just called him PSC. I was his classmate in Form 5 (well over 65 years ago) and my first story about PSC is dated 1955. I clearly recall every moment because I was sitting next to PSC. We were in the same Latin class and our regular teacher Mr. E.F.C. Pereira (EFC) was absent. Mr. Thevadasan (Theva) was acting for EFC. To test our knowledge and pass away the time Theva asked us to state the gender of some Latin names and objects. Now, for the question and why it was directed at PSC I will never know – probably Theva had some previous issues with PSC. The format is as follows: – Theva names ...

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