Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Leader seeks power boost from parliament poll
News, Anusha Ondaatjie & Dan Strumpf, Published on 16/11/2024
» Sri Lanka began counting votes in a parliamentary election that will decide whether the nation's outsider leftist president will be able to fulfill his ambitious pledges to combat corruption and rewrite an unpopular International Monetary Fund loan programme.
Candidates vying to lead economy out of crisis
News, Anusha Ondaatjie, Published on 21/09/2024
» Sri Lanka's upcoming presidential election has become a referendum on a US$3 billion (99.1 billion baht) International Monetary Fund loan programme that has helped to pull the island nation out of its worst economic crisis since independence. The contest pits the incumbent president, who negotiated the bailout, against the country's main opposition leader -- both members of the Sri Lankan political elite -- and a Marxist politician waging a populist campaign. The three have put contrasting views before voters over how to steer the South Asian nation past the crisis.
Ousted leader to leave next week
News, Post Reporters, Published on 19/08/2022
» Ex-Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will reportedly leave Thailand to return to the island nation next week.
Rajapaksa urged not to leave city hotel
News, Wassana Nanuam, Published on 13/08/2022
» Ousted former Sri Lankan president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is staying at a hotel in the heart of Bangkok and police are advising him not to leave for security reasons, a source said yesterday.
Ousted Sri Lankan leader to visit Bangkok from Singapore
News, Bangkok Post, Published on 11/08/2022
» The Thai government will allow Sri Lanka's ousted president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to stay temporarily in Thailand.
The dramatic fall of the House of Rajapaksa
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 14/07/2022
» For much of nearly two decades, the four Rajapaksa brothers and their sons have run Sri Lanka like a family business -- and a disorderly one, at that. With their grand construction projects and spendthrift ways, they saddled Sri Lanka with unsustainable debts, driving the country into its worst economic crisis since independence. Now, the dynasty has fallen.
Sri Lanka needs a currency board
News, R M Manivannan, Published on 09/05/2022
» The war in Ukraine has generated an economic tidal wave, which is crashing over countries near and far. Among the more far-flung is Sri Lanka, where surging food and fuel prices have supercharged a downward spiral that was already underway. Now, the island is being rocked by street protests, and every member of the cabinet -- except Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- has resigned. To save Sri Lanka from economic collapse and socio-political disaster will require radical action.
China's Sri Lankan push for power
News, Mihir Sharma, Published on 31/10/2018
» Most people in the island nation of Sri Lanka and its Asian neighbours were stunned last week when President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe -- and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the populist strongman who had ruled Sri Lanka for a decade before the scrappy alliance between Mr Sirisena and Mr Wickremesinghe forced him out of power in 2015.
China should heed Asia's wise man
News, Pankaj Mishra, Published on 02/10/2018
» Visiting Beijing in August, Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's recently elected prime minister, startled his hosts by boldly warning against a "new version of colonialism". He was referring to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the trillion-dollar infrastructure plan which aims to put the People's Republic at the heart of a global commercial web.
10 ways to maintain Hun Sen's 'barami'
News, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 11/09/2018
» In the past election spin, it was about barami (charisma). When Hun Sen entered politics in the mid-1970s, nobody thought he would have the staying power to last so long. Thirty-three years ago, he was the world's youngest prime minister. Today, he is still around having outlasted every other world leader to rank as longest-reigning prime minister.