Gurudawa

"We washed away the blood of the UNP and removed the dung..." These were the words of Gamini Dissanayake, who had once been expelled from the UNP and went on to form the Eagle Party, officially known as the Democratic...

After his release from prison following the 1971 rebellion, Rohana Wijeweera entered the 1982 presidential election with high hopes. He believed both he and the JVP would secure a significant share of the vote. However, the results were disappointing—Wijeweera received...

“Can the Rajapaksas go to Hambantota now and do politics?” This was the question posed by former State Defense Minister Ranjan Wijeratne in Parliament, silencing then-opposition MP Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda, who had been persistently raising concerns about the disappearance of...

Ranil Wickramasinghe, a rigorous critic of Hambanthota Port, became prime minister in 2015 and, to the surprise of countries such as the USA and some Western states, decided to lease the port to China. Ranil was a well-known pro-American leader....

After his victory in the 1988 presidential election, Ranasinghe Premadasa described his mandate as being akin to holding a "two-pronged lantern." By this, he referred to the dual challenges he faced: the conflict in the north and the JVP uprising...

In Sri Lanka, years ending in 5 have often been marked by extraordinary political events.Following independence in 1948, 1955 was the first such year, and it became a turning point in the country's political landscape. Notably, 1955 was the final...

If S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike had not left the UNP to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), politics in Sri Lanka would have remained polarized between two clear camps: the left and the right. However, Bandaranaike's decision to break from the...

It was Ranasinghe Premadasa who introduced mobile phones to Sri Lanka. In those days, the first mobile phone in Sri Lanka was called a brick. Also, Sri Lanka was connected to the internet for the first time during Premadasa's time....

A Speaker and Deputy Speaker were sent home because of fake degrees ‘Only his beard is real. Everything else is fake...’ This is the voice raised by the opposition in Nigeria against former Speaker Salisu Buhari, who was elected to...

The first Sri Lankan election where media freedom emerged as a central slogan was the 1994 general election. While media freedom had been a topic of discussion during the 1965 election—particularly opposing the Bandaranaike government's efforts to nationalize Lake House—it...