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 …

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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 …

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[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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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, …

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