PM delivers lecture at the University of Oxford

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya attended the 2026 OSGA Annual Lecture held at the University of Oxford on May 19, where she delivered a lecture titled “The Politics of Development: Sri Lanka and Beyond.”

The lecture was held at the St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and organized by the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA), the department’s flagship annual event that brings together leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss contemporary global challenges.

Addressing an audience comprising students, academics, and researchers from across the University,  the Prime Minister reflected on the intersections of development, governance, and politics in Sri Lanka while discussing the broader realities faced by countries attempting to achieve meaningful social and economic reform.

During her lecture,  Dr. Harini Amarasuriya emphasized that development cannot be understood only through policies, statistics, and economic models, but must also be viewed through the everyday experiences of people. She highlighted that governance often requires balancing ideals with practical realities, particularly in countries recovering from economic crises, institutional challenges, and long-standing inequalities.

The Prime Minister also spoke extensively on women’s political participation and representation in Sri Lanka, noting the growing involvement of women in grassroots political movements and leadership spaces. She reflected on the efforts taken to create greater political opportunities for women and the continuing challenges faced in transforming deeply rooted social and political structures.

Speaking on economic recovery and social policy, Dr. Amarasuriya highlighted the importance of recognizing both paid and unpaid care work, stressing that the contribution of women to families, communities, and the economy has often remained invisible in traditional economic systems. She noted that sustainable development must ensure economic progress while also protecting dignity, fairness, and social well-being.

The Prime Minister further reflected on the relationship between governments, international development agencies, and local institutions, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that development priorities remain grounded in local realities and accountable to the people they are intended to serve.

Drawing from her experiences as a social anthropologist, activist, academic, and political leader, Dr. Amarasuriya also discussed the challenges of translating activism and public movements into long-term policy reforms and institutional change. She noted that meaningful transformation requires patience, negotiation, and sustained public engagement.

The lecture was followed by an interactive question-and-answer session with the audience, during which discussions focused on governance, institutional independence, political reform, economic recovery, and the challenges of balancing democratic accountability with policy implementation.

Professor Diego Sanchez-Ancochea, Head of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, commended the Prime Minister’s lecture, describing it as an important and timely reflection on the relationship between politics and development, informed by both scholarly insight and practical political experience.

Prime Minister’s Media Division

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Cabinet approves establishment of National Regulatory Reform Council for strengthening regulatory governance in SMEs

The regulatory environment in Sri Lanka plays a decisive role in shaping the growth of the private sector, influencing investment decisions, and improving overall business competitiveness.

Although the fundamental elements of the country’s economy remain strong, it has been observed that the existing regulatory constraints disproportionately affect small and medium-sized enterprises and also adversely impact the attractiveness of Sri Lanka as an investment destination.

Taking those matters into consideration, the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank, has carried out a comprehensive assessment of the regulatory framework in
Sri Lanka, and following extensive discussions held with the relevant stakeholders, the National Regulatory Reform Action Plan and its operational mechanism have been formulated.

The aforementioned Action Plan has presented a number of practical and actionable recommendations, and such recommendations have been prioritized and sequenced across short-term, medium-term, and long-term timeframes. Further, it has been proposed to establish a National Regulatory Reform Council as the central institutional mechanism for the implementation, direction, and supervision of the aforementioned Action Plan.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development to establish the aforementioned Council under the chairmanship of the  President and to designate his Ministry as its Secretariat of that council.

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Defeat of terrorism and triumph of hypocrisy

Tuesday 19th May, 2026

Seventeen years have elapsed since the defeat of LTTE terrorism, which plagued the country for about a quarter century. If not for the successful military campaign that eliminated the LTTE leadership, thousands of lives would have been lost in terror attacks and on the battlefield since 2009, and it would not have been possible to rekindle democracy in the North and the East. Today, children can go to school without fear of being abducted and turned into cannon fodder by the LTTE; political dissent is no longer violently suppressed; people can exercise their franchise freely in the former war zone, and there are no political assassinations. Ironically, those who did not oppose the LTTE’s terror campaign or supported it are now championing democracy and human rights. Among them are prominent Tamil politicians, civil society activists and religious leaders.

Terrorism is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. Hence, the need to eliminate it in all its forms and manifestations. There were numerous attempts to persuade the LTTE to agree to a political solution, but Prabhakaran remained intransigent, and his terror had to be wiped out. There is space for the remaining LTTE members and their sympathisers to take to democratic politics. They ought to learn from the former southern terrorists.

What paved the way for the JVP’s re-entry into the democratic process and rise to power was the decimation of its leadership and military wing, which was responsible for many gruesome crimes in the late 1980s. The JVP killed thousands of dissenters and state workers who did not follow its illegal orders, and destroyed state assets worth billions of dollars. Today, a JVP-led government is trying to develop the country.

Attempts are being made in some quarters to revive memories of old battles to reclaim lost ground on the political front. Prominent among those who are doing so are SLPP politicians who were in power when the LTTE was defeated. They are trying to rouse nationalism in a bid to make a comeback. They would not have been in the current predicament if they had not misused the defeat of terrorism for political gain.

What the Rajapaksas and their allies did to the country, after defeating the LTTE, was like saving a damsel in distress and abusing her. They laboured under the misconception that the defeat of terrorism for which they provided political leadership was a special licence for them to do as they pleased. They sought to politicise and monopolise the war victory to accelerate their dynasty-building project and perpetuate their hold on power. The post-war Mahinda Rajapaksa administration became a government of the Rajapaksas by the Rajapaksas for the Rajapaksas, with a member of the ruling family in almost every key position in the state sector. They bulldozed their way through, launching as they did witch-hunts against their rivals. They also resorted to state terror to further their political interests. Blinded by the arrogance of power, they ruined things for themselves and suffered a humiliating electoral defeat in 2015. They succeeded in returning to power four years later, as the public thought they had changed and voted for them, only to be disillusioned again when they mismanaged the economy, indulged in corruption and bankrupted the country.

The Rajapaksas squandered an opportunity that presented itself, after the conclusion of the war, to bring about national reconciliation and defeat the LTTE ideology politically. The entry of war-winning Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka into the presidential fray in 2010 at the behest of the JVP and others, provided the pro-LTTE groups, here and overseas, with a rallying point; they crawled out of the woodwork and backed Fonseka in a bid to see the back of Mahinda Rajapaksa, albeit in vain. They succeeded in 2015, and emerged stronger, after enabling Maithripala Sirisena to secure the presidency. In a dramatic turn of events in 2024, they threw their weight behind the NPP led by the JVP.

An oft-heard lament is that reconciliation continues to elude this country. This sorry state of affairs has come about because reconciliation has become a victim of hypocrisy. Those who claim to champion reconciliation are using it to further their own interests, and those who should have made a serious effort to help achieve it after defeating terrorism did not care to do so and chose to advance their own political agenda.

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Trump's 'most beautiful' assistant shares behind-the-scenes footage from China trip

Donald Trump's advisor Margo Martin, 30, took to social media to share a number of behind-the-scenes clips from the China trip after they returned to the US.

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First drop in new business in three years: The hidden warning in Sri Lanka’s April PMI

Here is the point that carries more weight than the headline PMI figures released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. While much of April’s contraction in manufacturing (42.6) and services (46.7) was dismissed as seasonal — the Sinhala and Tamil New Year holidays, fewer working days, fading festive demand — the rupture in new business flows tells a different, more troubling tale.

April 2026 marked the first month since April 2023 that services sector new business contracted. Not a slowdown. Not a plateau. An outright decline. Nor was it narrow in scope. The deterioration cut across transportation of goods, insurance, wholesale and retail trade, and accommodation, food and beverage service activities.

The Island Financial Review asked an independent analyst for his take. Here is what he said.

“These are not fringe sub-sectors; they are the arteries of Sri Lanka’s domestic economy. Why does this matter beyond the seasonal logic? Because new business is a leading indicator. What falls today in new orders will show up tomorrow in production, employment and stock purchases. April’s drop in new business — the first in three full years — suggests that May’s anticipated recovery may be shallower than hoped, and that a return above the neutral 50 PMI threshold before June is unlikely unless geopolitical tensions ease sharply.”

“Compounding the concern, the decline in new business was not an isolated Sri Lankan phenomenon. It arrived alongside two external shocks: rising energy prices, which hammered transport and personal services, and the ongoing Middle East conflict, which lengthened supplier delivery times and added logistical friction.”

“To be sure, expectations over the next three months remain positive. Firms hope for a stabilisation following the end of the war. But the first decline in new business in three years is a quiet alarm. Seasonal patterns explain April’s production dip. They do not explain why customers stopped placing new orders. For Sri Lanka’s policymakers and business leaders, that is the story to watch in May,” he said.

By Sanath Nanayakkare

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Watch: Two Navy jets appear locked together in horrifying mid-air collision

Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho has been locked down after two Boeing EA-18G Growler jets reportedly collided mid-air and fell from the sky

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Fergie's last chance has gone - as Hollywood gives her a brutal slap round the face

EXCLUSIVE: The former Duchess of York will not enjoy what is waiting for her in America, according to a well-placed Hollywood production executive

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