Rohan Edrisinha, Senior Lecturer of the University of Colombo and the Head of the Legal Unit CPA, talks in detail about and through three key points, critiques the flaccid proposals submitted recently to the President by the APRC. Also read APRC: The Year of the Rat has begun.
Anudhradapura District, mid October 2007
The huge, busy conurbation of Anudharapura—once a sacred city—has become the major transit centre for military forces en route to and from the current war zones. The ancient archeologically important ruins for which Anudharapura is famous are dwarfed by the sprawling modern developments. An informal economy has grown up in which small traders sell the debris of militarism: single T56 bullets for 15 rupees each. Many young girls have come to the city to sell their favours to the military personnel. Guesthouses built for tourists who rarely come any more are now informal brothels. A trader approaches asking, “What do you want? Bullets? Weapons? Girls?” If you want a bullet, he takes one from his pocket. …
The APRC has behaved as feared. It has delivered for the regime and not for the country. Clearly Professor Vitharana could not hold out – encomiums about his persistence notwithstanding. He obliged his president and produced the Interim Report of the APRC eighteen months after it was convened. The Majority Report and the Vitharana Report are all history – His Excellency demanded and determined and hey presto they produced a mouse, heralding in, in our inimitable way, the Chinese Year of the Rat, no doubt !
Why on earth did the APRC have to sit some sixty four times over eighteen months to recommend that less than the Thirteenth Amendment be implemented in the interim, whilst …
Boralla Junction, Colombo – October 2007
I am waiting for a bus holding a small transparent plastic bag of fruit for my mother. As usual, the buses are sounding their horns, conductors are shouting out the stops on their route, lottery ticket sellers are offering fortunes. In the middle of Boralla Junction there is a Bo tree by a little temple from which a loudspeakers project Pirith chanting. On every corner of the busy crossroads large posters bless our three military forces – air, land and sea — faithfully pursuing their duty until the final victory. Other posters advertise the Superstar competition on Sirasa TV, modelled on American Idol, encouraging us to text in and record our votes for the candidates. …
Deception has two extreme poles at each end of the untruth. One end is witty, subtle, astute and artistic. A magician, for example, perplexes us with pleasant surprise, tickling our innocent perception of truth as something illusive, though the deceptive role involved in the trick is taken for granted by everyone, magician and spectator alike. And, this trick, as long as it is not disproved hangs in suspension as an “untrue truth”. It is this that mesmerizes us and makes us his easy prey.
The mediocre con artist occupies the other pole of deception. A bald man selling some indigenous oil as a sure remedy for falling hair fits this category. His deception works not in his own smartness but in …
Note: Interacting with Willie Senanayake, Lionel Bopage and other moderates in Australia I found them composing a “Handbook of Answers” to typical objections against devolution presented within the Sinhala speech community. This can be an useful exercise. But then one is facing one’s debating opponents on terrain of their choosing. I propose rather to create a different landscape. This is the product.Inevitably it overlaps with SPLIT ASUNDER. I have responded briefly to brief comments under that topic; but this new essay will hopefully spark further commentary. Note, however, that the Vitharana Committee’s proposals will perhaps overwhelm our thinking when they appear soon.
ADDRESSING THE NATIONS OF SRI LANKA
Michael Roberts
14 January 2008
The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has been …
R.M.B. Senanayake
Those who justify the abrogation of the CFA point to the numerous violations of the truce by the LTTE. They point out that it was a dead letter. They are right. But the CFA did not prohibit re-arming by either side and while the Government did so openly the LTTE did so covertly.
Those who believe in a military solution argue rightly that Prabakaran will never agree to anything less than Eelaam or a separate state. They hope to defeat the LTTE and re-conquer the territory which they held at the time of the Ceasefire. The government has already re-conquered the East. The Government hopes to dictate a political solution which it thinks will be accepted by the Tamils. The …
By The Titular Republic
This conflict has no end. The path of injustice taken by this nation heralds war, destruction and suffering. The “blood-shattered landscape” will scream and her children shall become slaves to fear and hatred. Why?
The present government hopes to destroy the LTTE by militarily; with superior numbers, weapons and strategy. Even though it may be militarily feasible to destroy the feared Tigers of Lanka in this fashion, it will not heal this broken nation. Will a person who has identified every Tamil as a possible suicide bomber, who has supported the violation of Tamils fundamental rights, who has come to believe he has nothing in common with any Tamil, who has come to believe that Sri Lanka, from …
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On the loose since 12th May 2007, I spotted this Iranian barge banging against the Galle Fort ramparts just opposite the Fort Dew guest-house, adjacent to the Buddhist Temple, over the weekend. Clearly, the thing keeps shifting with the tide since it’s moved on from where is was spotted last year.
Cerno also has a picture of it here.
In a recent meeting with the President of Sri Lanka, Iran’s minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Dr.Daawood Danesh Jafarji has assured Sri Lanka of its continued support in the development of the island’s economic social and cultural activities.
One wonders if the destruction of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage by Iranian property was …
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