A call For Trasparency - 09 Feb 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A Call For Transparency 

09 February, 2020

The history of the Sri Lankan economy reveals it’s trade proceedings from the time which the ancient kings began to send trade delegations to foreign countries. Our small island is gifted with several geographical features like bays, Natural harbours, Estuaries and Navigation Rivers. Later, a closed economy was emerged under the regime of Hon. Sirimavo Bandaranayake, the first and the foremost Prime Minister in the world. However, during the time of Hon, J.R.Jayawardane, the first executive president of Sri Lanka, there was an open economic system which came into the operation under the constitution formed on 7^th September 1978. With the expansion of these foreign trade activities, the government tend to protect their domestic industries by imposing taxes and tariffs on imports. On the other hand, other countries also impose taxes and duties on the products that exports to other countries. Based on that concept, FTA’s were emerged between two or more countries, forming bi-lateral and multi- lateral agreements, in order to promote the free trade among the particular countries that are entered into the agreements. Basically, we are producing primary agricultural and industrial goods without adding any value for the goods. Therefore Sri Lanka is considered a simple economic country. Hence, there is a higher possibility to emerge numerous adverse effects from these free trade agreements as we don’t enough power for negotiations. Recently, Sri Lanka entered into a FTA agreement called ETCA with Singapore which possess a massive economy compared with ours. However, our professionals afraid to accept it, because it is believed that ETCA renders adverse effects for their careers. After that, an agreement called MCC was emerged, highlighting some favorable and unfavorable aspects for the socio- economic background in our country. Most significant incident was there were false rumors regarding this deal which has led to make a huge topic in recent presidential election.  The ultimate responsibility of the government is to preserve the transparency of these types of overseas agreements. Therefore the transparency is considered one of the significant dimensions that is required in order to reflect an accurate image to the whole society.

A Timeless Commitment to Journalism - 02 Feb 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A Timeless Commitment to Journalism 

    
19 January, 2020

The origin of Sunday observer dated back to 1834 when Sri Lanka was under the British colonial rule. No one can stand still without allocating any space for the admiration of the enormous service, rendered by the Sunday observer when it completes its 92 years and remain only 8 years to reach  its Diamond jubilee.  Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake-house) owns the credit of the publication of this weekly newspaper including its sisters like Daily News, Silumina, Dinamina and Thinakaran. Its first editor was E.J. Darley, who assumed his duties on 1834, from onward, about 30 editors contributed for the field of journalism through this newspaper until Dinesh Weerawansha, the present editor was appointed in 2019. The birth name of Sunday Observer was Colombo Observer and later changed its name into Ceylon Observer .The present name of the newspaper was established in 1928. No editor could publish an editorial about his own newspaper without mentioning his endless gratitude towards its loyal readers. One of the major milestones of the Sunday Observer was remarked at its silver jubilee, being the first online newspaper in South Asia.  Now it already reached its 92 years and 8 years ahead to go with the emerging digital evolution in the upcoming centuries.   

Ending waste and corruption - 26 Jan 2020 (Sunday Observer)

Ending waste and Corruption

  26 January, 2020

The upcoming five years under the foremost president Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksha will be the most challenging period for corruptions and briberies since he has already taken required steps to minimize corruptions and cut off unnecessary wastes of government sector. As he regularly mentions, government sector must be the supremacy of all other institutions as state servants abide with providing a genuine service for the community. He expect his subordinates to be more transparent than ever before when utilizing public monetary resources.

Is it reasonable to shift government institutions for rented apartments, paying millions of rupees as monthly rent on behalf of their close relatives as previous government did, when it already has a comfortable place for the administrative activities? Can anyone accept these kinds of apparent corruptions? The problem is that the way of utilizing and managing the public resources. They didn’t utilize tax income properly. Therefore it is not a quiet surprise to say that our country has a significant income gap between high-income groups and low-income groups when these allegations are being occurred. The opportunity cost of these extra expenses could be utilized for a fruitful task if they effectively used those scarce resources as the current president proposes to do. Moreover, the former government could have the ability to pay due foreign loans by withdrawing those unnecessary costs. Current president started his first attempt by moving Agricultural ministry back to the Govijana Mandiraya after ending the contract with private entity. His second attempt was to limit monthly salaries of ministry heads up to 100,000 rupees, suspending the extra income they earned during the past government period. Then these saved money can be utilized for rural education where the children of low income families are studying. And also these corrupted money can be shifted to supply purified water for those who are regularly being distressed by unending kidney problems. We are lucky enough if we could live in a society that totally eliminate these deplorable circumstances at least in five years.

A New Approach to Student Issues - 19 Jan 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A New Approach To Student Issues 

   

                   19 January, 2020

A new approach is being arisen in almost every dimensions of the political

authority in Sri Lanka. It is apparent that our nation is moving in a sophisticated

phase. During last years university students were highly depressed when they

tried to reach high commissions and authorities to mention their university

related issues. They had to confront lots of inconveniences while there protest

campaigns are going on. But this time, government reaction was totally different.

Nobody would expect such kind of amazing invitation to join an evening tea time

discussion with political related persons who used to direct police officers and

armed forces to beat them down. Under the present government, many

education policies are to be implemented regarding higher education. The recent

incident also proves his attitudes towards the development of education system.

By the way it is not the government that first to approach these kind of calm and

conciliatory reactions, but it is the university students as undergraduate or

academic persons. Perhaps our president tries to achieve his vision, beautiful Sri

Lanka by avoiding these awkward and unpleasant circumstances because nobody

likes to see protest and pickets on streets that they are traveling daily.

A Call Through Inquiry - 12 Jan 2020 (Sunday Observer)

A Call Through Inquiry 

12 Jan 2020

The latest gossip land has been dominated by the leaked audio clips of former state Minister Ranjan Ramanayake. Somebody may say that it is illegal to record someone’s telephone conversation and somebody may say that it is not up to us to criticize this call incident.  But it renders some adverse effects grabbing the attention of whole society. The reputation of the police and judiciary was severely affected, that means it reflects the overall image of the previous government (good governance). Ramanayaka’s call incident reveals some worse dimensions of the judiciary of Sri Lanka. A tomfool has already proved that our law, the supreme domain of a country can be bend to meet someone’s suburban political objectives. Moreover, apart from the legal aspect of this call incident, it highly damages the ethical background of the parties who involved in these conversations. It is not our matter to predict one’s ethical background whether it was harmed or not. Somehow these phone conversations revealed a lot of evidence  that proving what kind of harmful activities done by these politicians . According to the Audit General Report 2018, only 20% of the infrastructure remains. That scenario serves as proof that our leaders and policy makers have been corrupted. Sri Lanka's economy is still in a second-class  low-income country in the world, but the island's upper class is still doing shameful things, leading to a more miserable path for Sri Lanka.

A Future Oriented Policy Statement (05 Jan 2020 - Sunday Observer)

A Future Oriented Policy Statement

08 January 2020

The recent presidential election can be considered as the most competent election in the history of politics. The main reason to say so is the ballet paper represents 35 candidates, reporting the highest number of candidates in the history of election in Sri Lanka. Perhaps they may eagerly waiting to do something valuable on behalf of the citizens in Sri Lanka though it sounds sarcasm. 

While two main parties are competed to be the president of Sri Lanka, some alternative options began to be highlighted, pinpointing the weaknesses of both of the previous regimes. Especially the regime under Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha was remarkably highlighted for many allegations such as the murder of Lasantha Wickramathunga, an outstanding character of journalism and Thajudeen, a rugger player who had to give up his life because of the enormous powers of family bandyism. 

Most of the political characters tried to paint a horrible picture of the emerging future under Gotabaya Rajapaksha during the election campaign. The main point of journalists is that they had a peaceful environment during the period of Good Governance to express their thoughts with no boundaries and nobody defeated them. Therefore journalists are still fear to accept Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksha as the 7^th executive president Sri Lanka.

The Challenges (29 Dec 2019 - Sunday Observer)

The Challenges

Sri Lankan Economy 

02 January 2020

Still the dark memories of the last year are haunting in the minds of people: the Easter attack which deprived the lives of over 300 votaries at the altar. Nobody knows until it happens. It is shame to tell that Sri Lanka didn’t have enough security for its children as a country which defeated the most brutal terrorism in the world. The apparent murder of this felony is the leader of the good governance. Nobody can say no. Why? Could people harvest the fruits of the seeds that planted in 2015?

The acts of the past government led for many social and economic instabilities causing several consequences in the lives of people. The tourism industry was severely affected and it is so disgusting even to mention that the biggest robbery in the history of politics is the Treasury bond scam of 2015. The Sri Lankan economy which one of the previous presidents, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha committed to achieve over 6% of economic growth through and unprecedented development is now being stagnated as a result of the procedures of the former government.  But 2020 is the time for awakening. 

The ultimate hope of the majority of Sri Lankans including the people who became the victims of the bomb attack and still alive is the ascension of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksha to the presidency. Moreover, the general election of 2020 will be another turning point in the political movement of Sri Lanka. It allows the citizens of Sri Lanka to elect well-educated persons to be appointed in the parliament.