Time up for government....

A group of JVP MPs said to a team of UNP parliamentarians at the house that government should be defeated now despite the number of seats the JVP could win in a future election would be less than current number.

The JVP expressed these ideas when several UNP MPs talked about the current political situation and the government agenda with JVP MPs individually.

The JVP MPs said that the cadres were reprimanding the leadership at the countrywide meetings, for defending the government. They further said that the cadres urged the JVP to withdraw the support given to the government and although the number of seats the JVP could win in a future election would be less, the JVP could go to villages and work again if so.

UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said at a press briefing today (05) that UNP MPs had individual talks with JVP MPs this morning in the parliament.

The JVP and the UNP were to defeat the government of the Central Provincial Council yesterday at the voting on the proposal to protest the government for the escalation of cost of living. Eventually, the government MPs also voted for the proposal and passed it unanimously.

Explosives found from Dehiwala & Wellawatta coastal railways

Dehiwala Police today recovered four craters containing seven kilos of C-4 explosives from a place in Fraser Avenue close to the railway line.

A vigilant civilian has seen these boxes and informed the Police. When the Police called the Bomb Squad and searched, 12 boxes that contained 500 grams each of C-4 explosives and 2 more boxes of the kind were recovered, said the Media Center for national Security.

Lee Kwan Yew speaks after a long time...

The mistakes of Sri Lanka and other newly independent 'failed states' made Singapore go in a different direction, its founding prime minister told the International Herald Tribune (IHT) in an interview.

Lee Kwan Yew, now minister mentor, said when Singapore broke off from the Malayan Federation it had a hostile neighbour and population made of Chinese, Malays and immigrants from the Indian subcontinent."The basis of a nation just was not there.

But the advantage we had was that we became independent late," Lee recalled in a wide ranging interview with the IHT published last week." In 1965, we had 20 years of examples of failed states. So, we knew what to avoid - racial conflict, linguistic strife, religious conflict. We saw Ceylon."

"Thereafter, we knew that if we embarked on any of these romantic ideas, to revive a mythical past of greatness and culture, we'd be damned."

Lee was prime minister from 1959 to 1990 when he stepped down.

Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948.Lee said the team that ran Singapore made a deliberate decision to use English as a working language and not focus on Chinese. At the time Singapore had Chinese, Malay and India schools in separate language mediums.

The British has also set up English schools to produce clerks, storekeepers and teachers. "Had we chosen Chinese, which was our majority language, we would have perished, economically and politically," Lee told the IHT.

"Riots - we've seen Sri Lanka, when they switched from English to Sinhalese and disenfranchised the Tamils and so strife ever after.

"We chose - we didn't say it was our national language - we said it was our working language, that everybody learns English whatever language medium school you go to. Which means nobody needs interpretation to read English."

The country's foreign and defence policy was shaped on the realization that it could perhaps only hold out for two weeks against a foreign invasion.

While Sri Lanka is still grappling with issues such as exchange rates, inflation and fuel subsidies, and political ideology Singapore is thinking far ahead, even to issues such as the effect of global warning on a low elevation island nation.

Earlier this month a retired Thai diplomat, Sompong Sucharitkul, said Singapore opposed the entry of Sri Lanka to Asean when it was founded in 1967 because the country was viewed as unstable. In 1967 Sri Lanka was ruled by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake in a shaky coalition with the Federal Party. His attempts to solve the ethnic question failed when proposals to devolve power was withdrawn amidst opposition.

Sompong said a discussion was held on August 06 and two ministers from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) were in an adjacent room.

"I remember one was an economics minister. He waited there anxiously for a signal to join the discussion; but it never came," Sompong told Thailand's The Nation newspaper

(From Daily Mirror)

Aston Martin DB9. So far, We have only seen in in Need for Speed Computer game . Here's a lifetime opportunity

The talk of the town in the political circles now is the purchase of a Rs. 42 million 'Aston Martin DB9' car by the son of a government bigwig.

UNP parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella said at a press briefing that the tax-free value of this brand is Rs. 21 million. The high-speed car cannot be driven on Sri Lankan roads and it is reportedly driven on Galle Face Drive with back up vehicles around 2 AM.

Mr. Kiriella urged the investigative media to reveal who the owner of this car.

James Bond used an 'Aston Martin DB9' in Casino Royal movie. The super son of the bigwig also drives a car of that brand now in late nights. The Sri Lanka agent of the vehicle is Auto Lanka.

This car has been imported to Sri Lanka under the name of Dilshan Fernando, the son of the owner of Christy Lanka Garments.

The photo depicts the Rs. 42 million Aston Martin DB9 parked in the Colombo harbor.