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SRI LANKA: 22nd Amendment Bill – Fundamentals are wrong

By Basil Fernando The amendment of a constitution is a serious task. However, some may argue that it is not such an important task as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. That is because of the most trivialized manner in which Constitutional Amendments have been brought about in Sri Lanka in the recent years. However, […]

SRI LANKA: Wild Politics and Brutal Policing

By Basil Fernando Police brutality is very much a normal part of the abnormal way of life that exists in Sri Lanka just as attacks by wild elephants have become an usual part of life for people living in remote villages. How that came about has a history of its own and it is the […]

SRI LANKA: Delays In Justice As A Major Cause Of Economic & Political Catastrophe

By Basil Fernando Delays in justice as a key factor that destroyed the economic and political system. Everybody’s talk during the last few months has been about the catastrophic economic crisis in the country and also the crisis of the political system. The link between the two has been well understood by everyone. However, in […]

SRI LANKA: Two big lies told about the 1978 Constitution

By Basil Fernando Two great lies have been propagated about the 1978 Constitution. When a lie is repeated many times by many persons, often such a lie begins to be treated as a conventional truth. The first of these lies is that the 1978 Constitution was created on the model of the French Constitution and […]

SRI LANKA: Parliamentarians’ Inability to Mourn

By Basil Fernando What happened on the 9th of May was a tragedy. It is a tragedy that the entire nation should genuinely mourn. Such genuine mourning has a capacity to generate reflections that could transform the thinking and practices of all those concerned about how to avoid such tragedies in the future. Such genuine […]

SRI LANKA: What HRCSL can do to assist SL fight debt crisis

By Basil Fernando The debt crisis, or what is known better as the US dollar crisis, is what is threatening the stability of Sri Lanka right now. In a very clear message to the nation, given by way of a press interview, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe on 11 May […]

SRI LANKA: MPs Letters – A Revival Of A Very Dangerous Practice Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Share

By Basil Fernando  There are many reports in the media that Government Members of Parliament are sending lists to the Police to arrest persons. This habit has been revived after the events of May 9th and the days that followed. Now the media reports that thousands of arrests have been made and that hundreds are […]

SRI LANKA: People’s Uprising for System Change

By Basil Fernando April and May 2022 will be remembered as the most important months in the post-independence era. During this short period the much hoped for people’s awakening expressed itself powerfully. People who wielded authority failed to see the writing on the wall although the wall was just next to the Presidential Secretariat and […]

SRI LANKA: The changing meanings of system change

By Basil Fernando One of the most popular phrases that is being talked about in Sri Lanka is the need for a system change. Often in media interviews, various people are asked about what they mean by a system change. Varying answers are given by persons depending on their ideologies, perspectives and above all, on […]

SRI LANKA: The absence of the will to do justice

By Basil Fernando Within a few days after the Rambukkana Police shooting, a large body of information has become available to the public about this incident. The attempt by the Government and also a section of the Police to give their own version about the incident has revealed a very routine pattern that exists in […]

SRI LANKA: A simple way out of the constitutional trap

By Basil Fernando Two crises overlap in Sri Lanka. One is the economic crisis which preoccupies everyone at the moment. However, in seeking a solution to the economic crisis, another crisis stands against any real solution. That is the constitutional crisis. However, this aspect has not received very much attention during the discussions which are […]

SRI LANKA: Can Sri Lanka rise from its constitutional limbo?

Can Sri Lanka rise from its constitutional limbo? When Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe accepted to take over as the Head of the Central Bank, in one of his early statements, he said that he would be able to do the expected job if there is no interference from outside. The demand for non-interference is today one […]

SRI LANKA: Suspend PTA immediately – UN Experts tells GOSL

By Basil Fernando  The Sri Lankan delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) suffered a great setback when its promise to amend the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 as amended (PTA) was responded to by the 16 UN special experts calling on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) […]

SRI LANKA: What Is The Greater Wrong – Contempt Of Court Or Illegal Detention?

By Basil Fernando In two occasions, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) held in two separate cases decided by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court related to contempt of court that the punishment imposed by the Court amounted to disproportionate punishment and that such punishment amounted to illegal detention. The UNHRC held that on both […]

SRI LANKA: Making a Constitution for a traumatised nation

By Basil Fernando Sri Lanka, as it faces the worst crises in terms of the economy, the society, culture and the legal and moral norms on which the society exists, is today a highly traumatised nation. All the norms of a civilised society are in the worst crisis that Sri Lanka has experienced in recent […]

SRI LANKA: Participatory Constitution-making – The essentials

By Basil Fernando Today, there is a consensus that Sri Lanka has entered into a period of crisis that is worse than it has ever faced in recent history. It is also agreed among most of the people who are highly knowledgeable in the field of economics and financing that this crisis will last for […]

SRI LANKA: Who should be in the constitutional convention?

The making of a new Constitution through a constitutional convention is now being discussed in the community. This is against the privately-drafted Constitution through a group of lawyers which the Government intends to introduce in early 2022. The difference between such a Constitution and one that is made with the participation of many groups and […]

SRI LANKA: Legal arguments against the proposal to present the draft Constitution

The basic legal argument against the proposal to present the draft Constitution is as follows; The proposal is based on a false premise as it denies the process of the making of the Constitution whereas it must provide everyone and every group of people the right of participation as it is a Constitution of the […]

SRI LANKA: Fake constitutions create irrational societies

By Basil Fernando A fake Constitution alters the rules of logic that are the basic foundations of a good constitution. The change of logic leads to irrationality. The spread of irrationality into public institutions creates rotten systems within such public institutions. Where the public institutions go rotten, every aspect of social life comes into severe […]

SRI LANKA: A Man Borrows Two Papayas To Feed His Starving Children

By Basil Fernando A man of about 50 years, walks to a vegetable shop in Savithripura, Anuradhapura, and in front of a few others who also have come to buy some vegetables, he asked the small shop owner whether he could borrow two raw papaya fruits from the shop owner’s garden, in order to feed […]