Sri Lanka -current news – by Dr Harold Gunatillake Website:www.doctorharold.com New PM starts talks on Foreign Consortium for Financial Assistance • PM holds preliminary talks with foreign envoys representing India, Japan, United States of America and China • The Indian and Japanese envoys discussed the measures being taken to gather support from other foreign nations to help Sri Lanka’s economy Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has secured the support of key countries in the world such as India, the US, Japan and China. He is expected to get majority support in parliament also, though he is the lone representative of his party, the United National Party, in parliament. Wickremesinghe might not head a truly “national” government composed of all parties inparliament. But he might get the support of enough MPs to have a majority, that is, at least 113 in the House of 225. World’s Interest in Stability ...

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Ideas of Political Reform Mooted in June 2009: Dilute the Asokan Model – by Michael Roberts Source:thuppahis.com Michael Roberts, in the cover story in FRONTLINE, 19 June 2009, where the title reads “Some pillars for Lanka’s future” One can win the War, but lose the Peace. A cliche this may be, but it is also a hoary truism that looms over the post-war scenario in Sri Lanka. The triumphant Sri Lankan government now has to address the human terrain rather than the fields of battle. In facing this challenge, both government and people concerned must attend to another truism: as Sinnappah Arasaratnam pointed out long ago, extremisms have been feeding off each other and undermining political compromise in Sri Lanka over a long period of time. Now, apart from the well-known Sinhala chauvinist forces outside and within the Rajapaksa government, we must attend to the Tamil chauvinist forces in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) ...

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