Politics

Colombo, Sri Lanka – For Dilshan Jayasanka, the victory of Anura Kumara Dissanayake as Sri Lanka’s first Marxist-leaning president is the beginning of a “radical new path” for the crisis-hit island nation. Just more than two years ago, the 29-year-old former floor manager at a restaurant in Colombo was a regular visitor to Gota Go Gama, the tent city erected by tens of thousands of protesters in the city’s picturesque Galle Face area. The protests in 2022 were aimed at toppling the then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government, which was blamed for Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since its independence from British rule in 1948. After the restaurant he worked at was forced to close due to the financial meltdown, Jayasanka made the tent city h

Sri Lanka has sworn in 55-year-old leftist politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its new president. There was no clear winner after the first round of votes from Saturday’s election had been counted. But Dissanayake, who is commonly known by his initials AKD, emerged victorious after a count of the second-choice votes. His election is something of a watershed. It was the first time since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 that the presidential race was decided by a second round of counting after either of the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50% of the vote. And it was also the only time that voters have elected a candidate who does not belong to the country’s traditional ruling elite. Sri Lanka has long been held in the tight grip of a handful of powerfu

Singapore – Singapore, a nation consistently ranked as among the least corrupt in the world, is gearing up for that rarest of things: a high-profile corruption trial. S Iswaran, a former transport minister best known for his role in helping to bring the Formula One (F1) night race to Singapore, is the first political officeholder in almost four decades to face a corruption investigation. The 62-year-old goes on trial on Tuesday, September 24, on 35 charges of obtaining valuables as a public servant, corruption and obstructing the course of justice. Civil servants and political officeholders are prohibited from accepting gifts valued above 50 Singapore dollars ($38) in the course of their duties. The father of three is accused of accepting more than 400,000 Singapore dollars

India has extended budgetary support to the Maldives government in the form of a rollover of the $50 million Treasury Bill for another year on the Maldivian government's request, the Indian High Commission in the Maldives announced on Thursday. At the request of the Maldivian government, the State Bank of India (SBI) has subscribed the $50 million government Treasury Bills (T-bills) issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Maldives for a period of one more year upon the maturity of the previous subscription on September 19, the Indian High Commission in the Maldives said in a press release. This is the second rollover granted by the Indian government this year, following the first rollover of a $50 million Treasury Bill in May. The press release stated, "Earlier in May 2024, SBI ...