Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

THE VOTE AND THE VERDICT

“Leader of PLOT and TNA MP D. Dharmalingam …stated that he believes that Ranil Wickremesinghe has handed in a written assurance of several promises. …The promises are said to include agreements on...

PRESIDENCY, PARLIAMENT, JUDICIARY & THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSTITUTION

“…The General [de Gaulle] devised a strong executive presidency in 1958, and introduced direct elections to it four years later, precisely in order to remove power from the...
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO DECIDE (R2D) & THE COURTS

One often sees the opinion expressed in print that all hopes are now reposed in the Supreme Court and that the very survival of liberal democracy or even democracy in general...
TEN THESES ON SRI LANKA’S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: ROOTS, DYNAMICS, DIMENSIONS

The crisis has deep national, social and psychological roots. Our island contains two consciousnesses or two types of consciousness, two competing states of mind. Contrary to...
SRI LANKA’S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: ROOTS, DYNAMICS, DIMENSIONS

The crisis has deep national, social and psychological roots. Our island contains two consciousnesses or two types of consciousness, two competing states of mind. Contrary to...

COMPREHENDING THE CURRENT POLITICAL CRISIS: MYTHS and REALITIES

“Sovereign is he who decides on the exception”—Carl SchmittCan you think of two personalities more contrasting than former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and President Maithripala...
The relative autonomy of the presidency

“Sovereign is he who decides on the exception” — Carl SchmittAt the heart of the current debate is the issue of national and people’s sovereignty, on the one hand, vs. the supremacy of the...
AN OCTOBER REVOLUTION?

As the Buddha and Heraclitus, to name but two of the greatest minds have said millennia ago, the only thing permanent is change. Change is of two sorts. One is gradual, evolutionary, incremental,...
MERVYN DE SILVA, JOURNALISM AND MOSCOW

Mervyn de Silva wrote a brief bio-data on the smaller-sized of the Lanka Guardian notepaper/ letterheads in the last years of his life. It was rearranged into a narrative and appeared on the back...
A journalist par excellence

“Mervyn’s career as a journalist, as a literary critic, as a satirist, as a political commentator, as a broadcaster, both within the country and abroad, is without peer, either before or since and is...