{"id":129288,"date":"2014-08-22T02:09:59","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T20:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=129288"},"modified":"2014-09-04T21:00:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T15:30:45","slug":"100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over 100 artists, intellectuals and social activists have made a public appeal calling upon the government as well as opposition political parties to make a change in the prevalent governance system.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_129307\" style=\"width: 170px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-129307\" class=\"size-full wp-image-129307\" alt=\"Dharmasiri Bandaranayake\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg 160w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-129307\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dharmasiri Bandaranayake<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Among those who have signed the appeal includes Dr. Dharmasena Pathiraja, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Professor Kumar David, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, Gamini Viyangoda and Prasanna Vithanage. Pointing out the dangers of the direction in which the country is presently heading, they have called for a change in the prevalent system.<\/p>\n<p>The petition has listed out the following points to elaborate on the worrisome state of the country:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite the rapid development, the high interest loans that fund such projects have heavily burdened the public and has incurred detrimental impacts to the economic progress of the country<\/li>\n<li>Problematic state of the inter-racial and inter-religious relations<\/li>\n<li>Although five years have passed since the end of the war, residents of the North and East are still deprived of their fundamental rights and are instead pushed into a heavily militarised society<\/li>\n<li>Rising anti-Muslim sentiments in the country resulting in the tragedy of Aluthgama<\/li>\n<li>Deteriorating state of the public health and education systems<\/li>\n<li>Sorry state of the rule of law in Sri Lanka that has resulted in the country transforming into a state rampant with crimes<\/li>\n<li>Human rights situation falling to new lows<\/li>\n<li>Contortion of the constitution and the governance system of the country<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The concerned artistes and intellectuals have pointed out the present situation is a result of the irregularities in the governance system and the societal structure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a group keen to see a better tomorrow for this country, we request the government, its ally parties as well as the opposition parties to oust the corrupt, irregular and complicated societal structure and governance system and ensure it is transformed into a system that is accepted by the public where the Executive Presidency is replaced by a new democratic governance system\u00a0 that would reinstate the public confidence in the governance structure,\u201d the appeal statement reads.<\/p>\n<p>The statement furthermore stresses that the new governance system should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide equal rights and opportunities to all communities and religions<\/li>\n<li>Guarantee people\u2019s right to information<\/li>\n<li>Reject corruption, inefficiency,oppression and dictatorship<\/li>\n<li>Reprimand exploitation of power<\/li>\n<li>Ensure an equal distribution of centric political power between the central government and its peripheral entities<\/li>\n<li>Uphold the rule of law<\/li>\n<li>Constructive return of the power of the people\u2019s mandate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read the full statement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Final-Public-Appeal-English.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":129307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-21T20:39:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-04T15:30:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/\",\"name\":\"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-21T20:39:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-04T15:30:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg\",\"width\":160,\"height\":160,\"caption\":\"Dharmasiri Bandaranayake\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2014-08-21T20:39:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-04T15:30:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":160,"height":160,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/","name":"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-21T20:39:59+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-04T15:30:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg","width":160,"height":160,"caption":"Dharmasiri Bandaranayake"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/100-artistes-and-intellectuals-urge-political-parties-to-change-the-present-governance-system\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"100 Artistes And Intellectuals Urge Political Parties To Change The Present Governance System"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Dharmasiri.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129288"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129841,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129288\/revisions\/129841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}