This article is inspired by a programme called Justice Everywhere – an exhibition and events with Martin Luther King III, son of US Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. presiding held in Colombo and other parts of Sri Lanka in January 2010.

A young TV journalist asked me whether Martin Luther Kings’ philosophy of non-violence will work in bringing true peace to Sri Lanka ?

I cannot remember how I answered it facing the camera, but I hope I would have said something like this.

Martin Luther King Jr. paid the ultimate price violently driving a non violent campaign to win freedom for African American people who gained their official freedom 100 years earlier.   In my eyes, Martin Luther King Jr. …

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Note from author: For someone who is not in the least interested in politics – and is more often than not bored by it – my reaction to the 2010 Presidential Elections was surprising, even to me. Strangely enough though, I found that a lot of people felt much the same way. We were repulsed by constant news of violence; inescapable hoardings with their proclamations that our politicians loved us; posters that made the city walls disappear beneath them; partisan media stuffing propaganda down our unwilling throats; the promises of candidates that we knew to be false.

Yet, despite all this, we cared – albeit, rather reluctantly and in spite of ourselves. We still wanted to be in the know; we …

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there was a lovely tree in the yard at the back of our house. a lovely sinewy and tall mango tree.             
one day in the morning we were woken to the sound of a thousand parrots in uproar.
they were hawing the tree down. we watched the whatever you call it uproot the tree. the roots we’re pulled out.

the parrots displaced.

we wondered about why they cut the tree down. the parrots found another home.

this morning we woke up to the sound of a humming drill. a shed with an asbestos cover
stood in its place.

my old school had a bicycle shed like that.

A pre-presidential election conversation I had with well-known lawyer and activist Javed Yusuf touched upon a number of issues vital to Sri Lanka over the course of 2010 and well-beyond. Javed Yusuf was Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the mid-90’s, and in this video strongly argues for the abolition of the office of the Executive President. He notes that the myth of the office protecting the rights of minorities has no basis in fact, noting that no Executive President has really helped the minorities to fulfil their aspirations.

Javed also touches upon issues of post-war reconciliation.

A divergent view is expressed …

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Note: Contrary to what you might assume from the title, this is not a general onslaught on the diaspora at large. This is based on two recent incidents that really ‘got my goat,’ in a matter of speaking. Therefore, I’d like any readers who’d fall into the bracket of the ‘diaspora’ to please take the contents of this letter in that context, and not as an attack on anyone who’s ever stepped off the shores of sunny Lanka. Also, I’d like to add that I have absolutely no political affiliation or agenda to achieve by writing this. It was just two pieces of news that really got to me, so I just had to write this. That’s it.

Dear RCD,

I …

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When Weerasena (1) was interdicted
And the sun was on fire
Above the textile factory
Shouting slogans
Screaming hoarsely
Brother Nadesan(2)
At the flaming pickets
I was a Tamil

When Weere(3) got the job back
Riding on the shoulders
“Long live brother Nade(4)….!”
The victorious king
In the victory parade
I was a Tamil

When Siripala(1) was shot
By the squad breaking the strike
Took him in my own hands
And flew to the hospital
I was a Tamil

Both hands punctured
With saline tubes
“Nade, you are my saviour”
Sira(4), you embraced me sobbing
I was a Tamil.

When Kusum(1) was pregnant
And dying on a hospital bed
They never demanded
Sinhalese blood
But just “O” negative
Only I happened to have
I was a Tamil.

“Son, you belong to uncle Nade”
the newborn
Was put in my hands
With tears flowing
Yet, I was a Tamil.

Weere, I hear your slogan
Suppressing the shouting
At the picket line
“Slay the Tamils! …

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[Groundviews was informed that this open letter was penned on 20 January 2010, before the presidential election. Tellingly, efforts to publish it in the traditional print media before the presidential election, we were told, had failed.]

The Official Government News Portal (www.news.lk) carried a news item, datelined 18 January 2010, that vice-chancellors of Sri Lankan universities pledged support to the President, with some of them asking the people of this land to vote him into a second term at the forthcoming elections – this letter is being written on 20 January 2010.

After a President is duly elected to office, the right and proper thing for all citizens to do is to pledge support to him, whatever their political affiliations. Most …

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From the first update after the close of polls at around 10pm on the 25th and then from around 3am on the morning of the 26th, Groundviews gave regular updates on the high drama in Colombo just after the presidential elections via its Twitter account. Because it is very difficult to locate these updates on Twitter over time, we’ve collated key tweets issued during the course of the 26th and 27th related to the elections.

In the course of publishing these updates, we mirrored key news items from the Daily Mirror website whenever we got access to it, because an unsurprisingly high volume of traffic rendered this well read traditional media website inaccessible for most of the 26th. Along …

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It is over. We have a winner, and we have a loser. The margin of victory has many messages. In mature democracies, play leading up to the climax is performed in a slightly different way, and it is customary for the loser to telephone and congratulate the winner on the morning after. We saw none of that here. The night before we saw the rise of a special tribe, whose characteristics were identified by their motto declared the morning after, if you met any of them at breakfast: “I don’t particularly like the guy who won, but I like even less the guy who lost”. That declaration is usually followed by the obligatory joke about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron. …

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There is, at present, much excitement over the question of when re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second (and new) term begins. Various news reports concerning the matter have been published in the print media. It was reported once that the President had informed certain media heads that he would consult the Supreme Court to get an opinion on the matter. Certain other media reports have suggested that the President had informed he would take oaths on the 4 February, 2010.

Position under the Constitution of 1978

The Constitutional provisions concerning the question of when a re-elected President’s second term begins are quite clear, though illogical.

The relevant provision is Article 31 (3A)(d)(i), which provides that if the President is re-elected, he will hold office …

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“Prabhakaran, a textbook fascist…” - The Economist (‘Victory for the Tiger Slayer’ Jan 28th, 2010)

“Resistance to imperialism does not of course involve only armed force or bands of guerrillas. It is mainly allied with nationalism and with an aroused sense of aggrieved religious, cultural or existential identity.”- Edward Said (‘The Voyage In: Third World Intellectuals and Metropolitan Cultures’)

It is easy to be wise after the event, so I usually try to be wise before it. In a piece originally entitled ‘Crisis 2010: The post election scenario’ published over a month ago, from Dec 20th 2009 through to the 23rd, in the Sunday Lakbima, Transcurrents, Sri Lanka Guardian and Ada Derana, this is how I saw the Presidential election panning …

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On the day after elections, I sat in the afternoon to write this amidst phone calls and text messages inquiring and informing about “strong” rumours on “result rigging” by the Rajapaksa regime. All rumours, spinning wildly in the world of the all knowing urban middle class, who had “access to inside information”, but knew nothing about of how an election is conducted and the results are released.

Their “inside” information, was not the information that was available in the districts outside Colombo, where President Rajapaksa was heavily voted for. In those districts, the Opposition political activists, the UNF, the JVP, the SLMC and the DPF counting agents in counting centres who sat through the night along with thousands of public servants …

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Aachcharya writing from Jaffna

I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to Groundviews (and republished in the Daily Mirror) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was nothing brilliant or extraordinary about what I said at that time, but it was contrary to public perception that was prevalent all over the country and in international media circles. What I suggested was that for the Tamil people to be deciders two conditions have to be fulfilled. I wrote:

“For the Tamils to be the deciders in the election (like they could have been in the last) they have to vote as a whole, to one candidate …

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I hear the crack of a whip, you tell me it’s the sound of peace.

I don’t believe you.

Speak for yourself. Not for me.

I heard them coming. They have no choice.

I saw them cry. They have no choice.

Shame on you. They have no choice.

A picture speaks a thousand words, silence another-

Silence. We have given up. Silenced. We have accepted defeat.

January 28, 2010

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on your land slide victory which, like most Colombo elites, I was stunned by. Your spokesperson Dr R Wijesinghe quite rightly described us as shallow and lacking foresight and the common touch unlike the rural polity who rightly judged your true capability and potential based purely on your good governance and not by manipulation through crafty and cut throat state propaganda. We eagerly look forward to another six or maybe eight? years of glorious Mahinda Chinthanaya. We have full confidence in your wise and just governance which you have so clearly displayed during the past four years. Yes, you narrowly missed a foul coup plotted by your adversary which would have destroyed you and your …

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1. Sarath Fonseka lost. We no longer need to stress ourselves to a level requiring medication worrying about what he might do if he wins. We can stop pretending to like him.
2. Mahinda Rajapaksa can never ever run for President again (unless of course he changes the constitution).
3. Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, almost 75% of people still went out and voted. That’s always a good thing.
4. Almost 2% of the people voted for someone other than Mahinda and Sarath. That’s just awesome. We haven’t seen that in some time.
5. Compared to landslide victories in recent provincial council polls, 57.88% is a significant drop in popularity for the Rajapakse Government. (E.g. from 72.39% to 58.59% in Uva) This trend could hurt …
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Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to congratulate you in advance for your impending victory of the Presidential election in the following days to come. With the SLFP consolidating their power through the provincial council polls in the aftermath of the war, a presidential re-election and another term with you as President seems inevitable.

The potential in Sri Lanka knows no bounds; therefore boundaries must be clearly drawn so that this potential is not exploited by a few for themselves and for their kith and kin. This has undoubtedly taken place in Sri Lanka time and again, with every administration that has governed the country. This needs to be addressed by the authorities and checks need to come into play. For …

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I’ve been tweeting from around 3am this morning on what’s going on in Colombo after the elections, and in particular what is at the time of writing a rather tense situation around the hotel that presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is residing in. Leading English mainstream media websites are crashing under the heavy load of web traffic, so mirrored links to key articles appearing in them about the current situation are also provided.

See all the updates on the Twitter feed of Groundviews.

The presidential campaigns concluded officially a day ago and the “Programme for Protection of Public Property” (4P) calculated and exposed the cost of advertisements by each of the two main presidential candidates. Incumbent president as UPFA candidate had spent LKR 377.9 million says 4P, while the UNF-JVP Common Candidate had spent LKR 80.5 million. The actual cost of running these mega campaigns are, far in excess of these calculated millions on advertisements. Advertising is only a part of the total campaign budgets. The total campaign costs may have been twice or even thrice the advertisement budget. Now, from where did these monies come ?

This is written on the day before January 26th the day of presidential polls that would neither …

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