It was reported today that an alliance of political parties plan to jointly contest local govt elections in Batticaloa, but a closer look is revealing.
The report http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=2606 stated the following:

“An alliance of Tamil political parties has been formed to contest the upcoming local council elections in Batticaloa, EPDP leader and Minister Douglas Devananda said yesterday adding that a final decision on the party symbol and other details would be decided upon within the next few days.

Minister Devananda said the alliance was formed between the EPDP, TMVP (Pillayan faction), PLOTE and EPRLF (Varathar faction) following an invitation extended by the EPDP and an agreement was reached to that effect at a meeting held in Batticaloa on Saturday. “The alliance was formed …

continue reading

The final results of the rough-and-ready Groundviews poll are now available here.

The wording was taken from CPA’s Peace Confidence Index (PCI) poll, of which the ethnic breakdown for this same question from the latest report in November 2007 shows an interesting and significant divide between the Sinhala and the Tamil, Up-Country Tamil and Muslim communities.

Image taken from PCI November 2007 report

Some of the comments submitted to the “Other” field in the Groundviews poll were:

change the face of politics in this country, and tempt the more conscientious.

The International and the Sri Lankan government have to Listen to the Tamils

Get a dictator who can get the politicians to listen to the peace negotiations

Peace …

continue reading

[Editors note: Because of the length of this submission, readers may wish to use the Print Posts feature to create a fully formatted PDF of this article to read offline or in print. To do so, simply click on the Print Posts button on the right.]
(Facts have been presented as related to me by the people I met in Jaffna without alteration or embellishment. The conversations I had with most of the people I met were in Tamil and have been translated here. Names of people and certain events have been omitted due to safety concerns)
I write these events not as a criticism of any party or person but as an appeal to those concerned, to end the suffering of …

continue reading

In a move to more fully integrate with the burgeoning Facebook community, Groundviews is pleased to announce the launch of the Groundviews Facebook Fan Page.

Several months ago, Groundviews added a link at the end of every article allowing readers to post content directly to their Facebook profiles or send it around to their Facebook contacts. Our Fan Page is the next step in exploring the potential of content from this website, and also from Vikalpa and the Vikalpa YouTube Channel, feeding into debates and discussions within the Facebook community.

The Fan Page features news feeds from all our citizen journalism sites, highlighted videos and other multimedia content, discussion …

continue reading

A few days back, a big poster published by one called Kosgoda Gnanaseeha Thero (B.A. Honors) of Pahingamuwa Gangarama temple could be seen pasted in some places in Kandy area. Its headline was “Solution to the National Question in Sri Lanka- Evict Three Million Aliens”. It was so descriptive that it looked like a whole chapter of a handbook of patriotism than a normal poster. Therefore, only certain sections are quoted here, as would be necessary to understand its basic tenets.

“We urge the UNO to evict three million aliens from Sri Lanka as an effective measure to prevent the conspiracy of exterminating the Sinhala race. The present war, the scarcity of food, obstructing development projects, murdering Sinhala leaders, anti-Buddhist campaigns …

continue reading

It is impossible to prophesise political developments in Sri Lanka with any degree of accuracy. For starters, there is little that is logical about party politics and nothing that is principled. From the pathological condition of politicking for short-term and personal gain to random acts of terrorism and responses that change individual and communal fortunes overnight, Sri Lanka’s incredibly frustrating socio-political developments bedevils easy explanation or projections into the future.

Some aspects of what we will see in 2008 are, however, blatantly obvious from developments the year before. For starters, the UNP will continue its downward spiral into monumental irrelevance. Without any real vision, a significant lack of appeal amongst Southern voters, no meaningful alternatives to the socio-economic policies and …

continue reading

The year 2007 in Sri Lanka began with little hope for a revival of the peace process, and therefore also for constitutional reform, and it ends with similar prospects on either of these issues in 2008. The military conflict has intensified between the government and the LTTE, with either side now seemingly committed to, for the want of a better phrase, a fight unto the death.

For the government, this means an exclusively military policy aimed at the total defeat of the LTTE, including the elimination of its leadership. There is little sign that this policy also involves a political settlement addressing the core political causes of the conflict, entailing fundamental reforms to the constitutional order so as to remove the …

continue reading

A video interview on the present situation in the embattled city of Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka with Ruki Fernando from the Law and Society Trust. Ruki recently wrote to Groundviews on his experiences from a trip to Jaffna (read Jaffna: Tears, blood and terror).

For a Sinhala version of this video, please click here. For more videos, please visit the Vikalpa YouTube Channel.

“In the end anti black, anti female, and all forms of discrimination equivalent to the same thing- anti humanism”
Shirley Chisholm- American Politician, the first African-American to win a seat in the United States Congress

I like to share the daily experience of being a Tamil in Sri Lanka. The Tamils who are living in North and East of the country are subjected to various forms of discrimination. They feel utterly helpless due to fear. The civilians in these areas lead a horrible life beyond our imagination.

Tamils who are living in Colombo for decades are not exempted from discrimination by various walks of life; may it be security forces or fellow workers or neighbours.

Recently I drove to a five star hotel …

continue reading

My article published in Vikalpa, in Sinhala, deals with this government’s deplorable record of securing and strengthening media freedom in Sri Lanka in2007. My immediate response is to the Media Minister’s contestation of the recent PEC report that ranked Sri Lanka as the world’s 3rd most dangerous place for journalists.

The Media Minister’s self-styled interpretation of journalists / journalism is pitifully blinkered and deliberately narrow. As I note, it is also an essentially inhumane stance as he, by extension, justifies the killings of media workers who do not fall under the Government’s definition of journalists. In this light, it is important to recognise that the Free Media Movement, along with four other leading trade unions and journalists organisations, …

continue reading

4 young artists in Sri Lanka respond, through their art, and are shaped by the zeitgeist of a country in conflict and a society in turmoil. Through their work, audiences enjoy and appreciate a new approach to art, one that reveals reality and questions issues of identity - aspects of a fractured society longing for change.

Film produced by Young Asia Television.

Pradeep Peiris, December 2007

Mahinda Rajapakse has won another decisive battle. At the last Presidential election, the LTTE, for reasons unknown, boycotted the election while the Marxist voices of the JVP waged a heavy pro-Rajapakse campaign. This JVP-LTTE combination turned up trumps for Rajapakse once again during Friday’s “Battle of the Budget”. While the LTTE played the role of the devil to be defeated, the JVP, cabinet ministers and those who voted in favour of the budget the victory hailed it one small step towards vanquishing the LTTE. Therefore, while the LTTE has been a strong factor in the president’s mass appeal, the JVP has always played the role of redeemer – with its constant desire for military solution and it’s …

continue reading

A day or two ago, Time Magazine announced its Person of the Year: Vladimir Putin.

I wonder, if this audience was to make a selection, who the Groundviews Person of the Year would be?

This is how the Time Warner Inc’s publication describes its annual award:

TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership.

The whole concept of a ‘person of the year’ is highly problematic, but it helps make …

continue reading

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

I am not sure how and why Norway got involved in the Sri Lankan conflict. However, I have read in couple of academic articles that peacemaking in internal conflicts is a cornerstone of the foreign policy of the Royal Norwegian Government. It has been involved in several peacemaking exercises in Guatemala, Palestine, Sri Lanka and Sudan, inter alia. However, none seem to have borne fruit in a durable manner, except perhaps Guatemala. It is high time for the Norwegian Government and the people to realise why their efforts to make peace around the world have failed? From the experience of Norway in Sri Lanka this article postulates that the diaspora communities and the so-called Norwegian and Scandinavian experts …

continue reading

I set out to Jaffna last week hoping to report on the situation there. I got back yesterday but am still unable to put down anything on paper as I don’t know where to start. Do I start with the little boy I met who saved his baby brother’s life by scooping his intestines back into his torn belly and holding him till he was given medical attention? Or do I start with the little girl who saw a man on his knees begging for his life before having his brains blown out on the road in the middle of the morning? Or again should I start with the cousin of the Priest who was abducted, tortured and killed for …

continue reading

Tamil residents in Jaffna are reportedly being forced to carry a special document of identification issued by security forces, in addition to the national identity card provided by the Emigration and Immigration Department. In other words, these Tamils have been ignominiously reduced, in the eyes of government authorities, to the status of non-nationals of their own country.

Not only that, in order to get this security clearance, as reported in a weekend newspaper, one is obliged to disclose his/her political affiliations too.

About 20 years ago, the visa application form of the USA in their Paris diplomatic mission contained a rather impolite question like this: “Have you ever been a member of a political party affiliated with Marxism?”

It is possible that the …

continue reading

Shanaka Amarasinghe

Nearly three years have passed since the devastation of Boxing Day 2004. Those three years should have sufficed for grief to transform into resolve, for shock to become measured response and for altruism to become tangible benefit. It is impossible to quantify, despite the diverse and often varied reports available, how much has been done, and by whom. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile considering the societal impact that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), and the good and/or evil that has been precipitated by their presence.

The aftermath of the tsunami saw a global outpouring of shock and dollars. The amount of tourists and expatriates affected in the South Asian region saw the world unite in its reaction to …

continue reading

Mario Gomez reflects on the work of Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekera. Ms Abeysekera was recently honoured by Human Rights Watch with the Human Rights Defender Award for 2007. He was speaking at a ‘Celebration off Human Rights Defenders’ to honour both Ms Abeysekera and Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan of the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) who were recently awarded the Martin Ennals 2007 Award for Human Rights Defenders. The celebration was organised by Inform, the Law & Society Trust and the Rights Now Collective for Democracy on 6th December 2007.

Photo credit: Tim Hetherington, 2007 from HRW website

This afternoon we are gathered to celebrate and pay …

continue reading

The following article, which is a commentary on HLD Mahindapala’s speech given recently at the BMICH, arrived in my inbox earlier today.

It was sent to be by someone who had received it from someone else. Googling the title suggests the commentary was originally produced by a Janaka Perera  and published at the Lanka Herald.

I normally wouldn’t cut and paste such a text - but I feel the commentary below raises some interesting issues, some of which we may be familiar with, but worth revisiting and reconsidering again.

Western baloney on ‘human rights’
Written by Janaka Perera
Saturday, 01 December 2007

In a scathing attack on Western double standards on human rights, veteran Journalist and Editorial Adviser Asian Tribune, H.L.D. Mahindapala last week accused …

continue reading

Few weeks before I went to Jaffna, Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council had visited Jaffna and captured the powerful testimony of one airline passenger saying “the only thing we can do is cry”.

After my own visit to Jaffna, I wonder whether all I, other people in the rest of the country and the world can do is cry with people of Jaffna. Or whether some even care to cry.

I remember that Jehan finished his article saying that people in Jaffna don’t want to be shut off or be forgotten. But my impression was that the government seemed to be intent on just that – shutting off people in Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka and the world.

I had …

continue reading