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 …
The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) is supposed submit its report to the President on January 23. When the APRC together with the expert committee began its deliberations, many people including myself were optimistic and saw it as a ‘glimmer of hope’. However, glimmer of hope began to fade away with the submission of the SLFP proposals in response to Tissa Vitharana Report (TVR). The essence of the TRV is that Sri Lankan post-colonial state be restructured following the principles of shared and self rule so that it proposes devolution of power and the formation of the second chamber. In that sense, TRV = 2000 Draft + Senate. I personally believed that it provided a basis for discussion with Tamil …
By Under Dog
Let me count the ways:
By Bhumi. Based on field trip from 10th – 14th December 2007.
Introduction
The East is ‘liberated’. It has been so since last June when the government requested it to be celebrated with ‘patriotic joy’. Over 300,000 civilians were displaced in the process and a majority have been ‘resettled’ since then. But a significant minority still remain in the IDP or transit camps with uncertainty hanging over their future. This report, based on short visits and a series of discussions with a number of people in the area – including some of the displaced people themselves – is to communicate some pressing issues and concerns in this process. It aims to highlight aspects of the human rights and …
Opinion of Fathima, 24 and mother of one child from Karambe camp in Puttlam
“I was eight year -old, when we were forced out of Jaffna. I was crying throughout the journey from Jaffna to Puttlam. We came to Puliyankulam, Vavuniya and Puttalam. It took three days for us to reach Puttlam. Initially I was in a camp along with the others. Food and immediate needs were met by various organizations. My other family members bring to my reluctant memory even now. I forgot every sweet memories of my mother town in Jaffna. I don’t know the present situation our house or the surroundings in Jaffna. The unbearable issues is that we lost our culture. I will not go back to …
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Prominent Tamil civil society activist Shanthi Sachithanandan shares some views on Prabakaran’s role in the Tamil National struggle, how to bring about a just and durable solution to Sri Lanka’s violence and the implementation of the 13th Amendment.
For a Sinhala version of the interview, click here and visit the Vikalpa YouTube Channel for more short videos on peace, war, governance and democracy in Sri Lanka.
The field officer was on his usual rounds… visiting camps accommodating internally displaced personnel (IDPs). A young boy trots along and asks him what he is looking for. The field officer states that he had come to look into the welfare of the people and what he could do for him. The boy asked the field officer when this displacement would come to an end which is chaotic and scary. The field officer sat and listened to him……
The playful young boy said….. I am twelve years old and have been a victim of displacement. I am from Muttur and attended T/Ahathiyar Vidyualam in Kanguvelli. The conflict in Muttur displaced me from my original village and had to move into an …
[Editors note: Scholars and serious readers are encouraged to download the Adobe PDF version of this article that includes all annotations and references in the original.]
Sri Lanka today is a fractured polity and has been so for some time. This is a trite saying: everyone knows this. But in order to comprehend the process that brought about this tragic situation, one has to (a) understand the concept “nation,” (b) the power of nationalism, (c) the force of populism fostered by democratic institutions, (c) the deadly combination within the island of a specific demographic mix distributed in space in a peculiar manner and (d) the disastrous impact of a Westminster model of government elected under a scheme favouring candidates first-past-the-post …
By Under Dog
Is anyone else out there in the least bit suspicious about the real origins of the bomb at Fort Railway station that did no damage when the station was mostly empty on a platform that doesn’t get used a hell of a lot? Is the LTTE honestly this bad in planning out attacks against civilians, given their bloody record in the past?
Wonder if it’s similar to the bomb that blew up a phone booth near Regal cinema several minutes after the air force commander was supposed to pass by? Hmmm…or the claymore that went off in a part of the city so heavily guarded that if you piss in any direction you’d hit the foot of either Air …
R.M.B. Senanayake
The attempt to muzzle Dayasiri Jayasekera MP by the UNP leadership is another manifestation of the anti-democratic character of the UNP. Some, who crossed over from the UNP earlier, alleged that their party is run by a small coterie of hacks loyal to the leader. The party leader they said is too powerful and not accountable to the general membership. These seem to be valid criticisms. What is wrong in public criticism of the party if there are no internal mechanisms to reform from within the party. A democratic political party is not some body’s private property but a vital institution of a functioning democracy.
Are our so-called democratic parties really political parties or just caucuses such as existed in …
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