What is the definition of a traitor? A traitor is usually defined as someone who betrays his or her country. But this definition leaves out the question of what, exactly, constitutes betrayal. Recently, the term has been used of journalists and human rights defenders who talk or write about  human rights violations and war crimes in Sri Lanka, especially if they are accused of making these allegations to the international community. It was also used of Sarath Fonseka, because he offered to give evidence to an international war crimes tribunal about the last stages of the war against the LTTE.

The argument is that in attempting to defeat a dreaded terrorist organisation, a government needs to have full freedom of action. Therefore, criticising the …

continue reading

I remember visiting Jaffna in 1997. Local government elections were due. Several leading political figures had been assassinated in the preceding years, some by the LTTE, others by anti-LTTE groups.  In the prevailing climate of fear, the Federal Party had reluctantly submitted nominations for elections for the Jaffna Municipal Council and one or two other local bodies. The LTTE was against the whole exercise, but the anti-LTTE gun carrying groups were contesting the elections. The Federal Party candidates showed great courage in contesting but minimized their risk by avoiding public meetings and house-to-house campaigning.

Many Federal Party supporters faulted the candidates for avoiding public visibility. They asked: how can we vote for those who are reluctant to publicly or privately ask …

continue reading

Intervening in the controversy over the teaching of English ‘our way’, retired Senior DIG Edward Gunawardena wrote a satirical letter to The Island of March 27, 2010, which concluded:

“So Sir, let us appreciate the fact that speaking or writing English “our way” can have entertainment value too. The Queen’s English can be, murdered. But “English our way” … cannot be murdered. There lies the only advantage of learning English that is recommended… ”We know they are who. They don’t know we are who!”

What follows is a comment in English-Our-Way, on Justice-Our-Way.

For you know who
A woman got jailed for she is who
By those who think we should stay we are who
So if you are not you are who
But …

continue reading

I have always had a fascination for Sri Lankan English. In fact, Sri Lankans use English the way the British used Ceylonese in subjugating them to their will.

Now that the good old British have left our shores handing us independence on a silver platter we took English and quite liberally infused it with our own Tamil and Sinhala interpretations.

If Americans substituted lengthy and often awkward British notices such as, “Trespassers will be prosecuted” with “Do not enter”, we went one step further and spun our own interpretations.

Oh how the compilers of OED would wince when they listen to us  using the word `put’ among others. Putting is not for those yuppies on golf courses.

There was my news editor at the …

continue reading

To one Mr. N. Ethirveerasingam, on a comment he made on an article I wrote (The Commissioner of Elections: A close friend’s critique) and appeared in Groundviews, I responded: “Quite recently I read a paper at an international conference held in Colombo which I wish to summarize having read your comment to understand the political hypocrisy in the south. Hope Groundviews will agree to publish it.” This article is the fulfilling of my promise to him.

Since 2002, during the run up to any poll- i.e. Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial or Local Authority – a criticism against the Peace Process of the United National Front (UNF) Government had been that a specified area in the north had been “handed …

continue reading

Ravi Karunanayake is a well known figure in politics, and in 1994 was the youngest member to be appointed from the National List to Parliament. Among other offices, he is the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the United National Party (UNP).

In this interview, Ravi Karunanayake looks at the future of the UNP and answers questions over its leadership, dwindling vote base and inability to win elections. He also answers more general questions over Sri Lanka’s economy and foreign policy.

He asked me
how it was that I could be
Sinhalese
was it 50%?
if my mother was Sinhalese
and in that case
whether I was 50% burgher
or whether I had one quarter Belgian
blood in my veins

It was a bit tiresome
to explain
to say I think 1/8th means 12 and a half percent
Belgian
and then another 1/4th is Dutch
and two 25 percents on either side
probably
makes me 50% Sinhalese
(but I cannot be sure, I could be 25% Tamil with my Kandyan blood)

And I couldn’t do the
math in my head
because I was jet lagged
and sleep deprived
and I was tempted to say
last time I got sick
they did a FBC sir,
I think there were the normal
percentages
of plasma
and white cells
but I was a bit low on the red cells
you see I don’t eat …

continue reading

“Unarm, Eros; the long day’s task is done” – Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 4.14

The current Sri Lankan political discourse, thin gruel though it is, contains three morsels of content:  democracy, the electoral system and national sovereignty. Some question whether the ‘mere fact of elections’ qualifies Sri Lanka, or any country for that matter, as a democracy.  The second discussion is on the electoral system. The third debate revolves around human rights and international factors, with some emphasising national sovereignty and the others, democratic rights and freedoms.

Let’s take it head-on. How did the Tamil nationalist cause, its military manifestation crushed and its propaganda arm in self exile, make such a comeback in the form of the TNA resurgence? How can it …

continue reading

The Government on Tuesday (March 23rd) announced its decision to deny an entry visa to singer Akon who was scheduled to perform next month in Colombo with co-singers, J-Sean and Kelly. The basis for the denial of Akon’s visa was a music video of the singer, containing a clip of scantily clad models dancing against the back drop of a Buddhist statue. The Government’s decision has been ratified by the Cabinet. The announcement came soon after the MTV/MBC head office was attacked by a group of armed thugs attached to a notorious politician for organizing the event.

Prior to the attack, a group of Buddhist Monks expressed their dismay over bringing down someone like “Akon” who had insulted Lord Buddha and …

continue reading

The Akon rumpus, with all its nutty and freaky sides, did have one thing good about it. It raised the question, “what is media freedom ?” Except for “”Sirasa”” and its group channels, none of the mainstream media, ever bothered to investigate into this Akon show unplugging and expose the lumpen politics, that had a media institute mobbed and stoned once again, under this regime.

The mainstream print media over the past two or three days, reported on producing 16 men in Colombo magistrate courts by police and bailing them out, in relation to this mob attack. They carried excerpts of statements from all who condemned the Akon show and briefly noted the MBC/MTV Colombo office attack was condemned by some. …

continue reading

The other day I was chatting to my dad and told him that sometime in the future I would like to give a Jumma sermon. He shook his head sadly and told me that unfortunately in this country, women cannot give sermons. I asked him why? And he couldn’t really tell me a good reason.

So I am throwing the question out to the rational and reasonable public – Why can’t a woman give a Jumma sermon? I know from my brother and cousin that most of the Jumma sermons are totally irrelevant. Firstly they are given in a language they don’t quite understand – a tip to Imams: try Sinhala or English as a rule please, in Colombo mosques, secondly …

continue reading

We turned out of bed
saddened and furious
when we heard
Taliban detonated
the Bamiyan Buddhas:

What savagery,
to destroy testaments
aged over centuries,
to a now effaced history;
but today let us rejoice,

Akon the singer
has been denied
a visa and a chance
to feed the unruly
and sexual minds

of a sold-out
Sri Lankan crowd,
Christians no doubt,
urbane Muslims
certainly, even some

fallen gautamas,
they can’t be trusted
pogo dancing,
and we don’t want
skin exposed

near Lord Buddha.
Yet, I wish to offer
a disclaimer
along with a refusal
to appear before

a court-martial
or an investigative judge
to testify about
the nature of We
to which I belong.

Could it be that the sight of the Buddha statue was a complete turn-off to those who were utterly aroused by the dancing girls, the ‘sexy chicks’, seen in the music video ‘Sexy Bitch’, by David Gruetta, which featured Akon? If not, can such a scene, which in this particular video lasted for not more than two seconds, truly give rise to the kind of intolerance in a Buddhist; which was shown when stones were hurled at the MBC office? A further question that arises is the following: how many more seconds would it have taken, of that or similar kind of scene, for these people to strap a bomb round their bellies and blow themselves up in …

continue reading

“Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people is surrounded by a world of enemies, one against all, that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man”. Hannah Arendt (The Origins of Totalitarianism, p.293, 1996).

The UPFA’s continues its political hold on Sinhala nationalism after President Rajapaksa’s convincing victory in the Presidential election and it is likely to be repeated in the General Elections on 8th April. In electoral terms, this has been the most significant electoral victory Sinhala Buddhist nationalism has gained since …

continue reading

Bell Pottinger hired Qorvis Communications as a subcontractor for its work with the government of Sri Lanka, starting December 1, according to a filing with the US Department of Justice. Qorvis is providing media relations and monitoring, crisis communications planning, and stakeholder representation in the US. The budget is approximately $483,000.

Though freely available on the web since January this year, this information to the best of our knowledge has not been prominently featured or robustly questioned in mainstream media to date.

Bell Pottinger is one of the UK’s largest public relations firms, spin doctors par excellence for those who can afford them, including amongst many others, the Government of Iran, members of the government of Saudi Arabia and …

continue reading

Does the UNP and Opposition leader Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe suffer from a compulsion towards electoral suicide or is it a condition of political sado-masochism? Only someone who is politically suicidal or sadistic towards his own party and its supporters could have gone to Jaffna last week, in the throes of a crucial election campaign at the end of which the UNP must deprive the ruling UPFA of a two thirds majority, and made the speech that he did. If the TamilNet report of his speech is untrue he must contradict it immediately and loudly.

Mr Wickremesinghe has a millstone of his own choosing decorating his neck, namely the abiding memory of his policy of appeasement towards the LTTE.  He chooses to …

continue reading

Several Commissions of Inquiry into Disappearances of Persons (COIs) had been appointed by successive  governments  since 1990.  Of these, the writer had been the Secretary to what is known as the Central Zone Commission and the All Island Commission appointed in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Militancy of Sinhala youth in the South and the Tamil youth in the North resulted  in what  the NGOs estimate to be the disappearance of nearly 60,000 youth from various  parts of Sri Lanka. However the Commissions appointed in 1994 received only 27,526 complaints.  Of these  10,136  complaints  were inquired into by the All Island Commission appointed in 1998.  The following comments and observations are made as a corollary to the book that is being …

continue reading

Some months ago, I arrived in Colombo on a trip to London from the Far East with Sri Lankan Airline. When the transit is more than eight hours, they put you in an overnight hotel with basic facilities, but good food, Lion Lager and sea breeze to go as extras. On the drive back from the hotel, the taxi driver starts a conversation: “Sir from India?”

Statistically speaking, his is a good guess. Almost a quarter of humanity being Indian, the average Sri Lankan having no reason to stop in Colombo on transit and no obvious visuals on me that distinguish me as Sri Lankan, it is a good way to get a conversation going.

His wit was at odds with my …

continue reading

[Editor's note: Devanesan Nesiah provides a rejoinder to Tissa Devendra's vehement response to his article 'Rebuilding Sri Lanka' that was published first on Groundviews and then later in the Island.]

The venomous response of Devendra in the Island of 16th March does not merit a reply but I need to set the record straight. As I said in my original entry, “The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals” which is very different to what Devendra seeks to imply. He takes offence over my citing the critical observations of a very distinguished Sinhalese. Rebuilding Sri Lanka requires self-critical acknowledgement of the damage done to the Sri Lankan nation over the decades by the racist policies of Sinhalese, Tamil …

continue reading

The arrest of General Sarath Fonseka marked the beginning of an unfortunate episode in Sri Lanka’s contemporary political history (or should it be ‘political drama’). However much flawed the individual may be (just like many others engaged in domestic politics in Sri Lanka), and however much I opposed his candidature, such flaws are not reasons that justify in any manner the way in which Fonseka is being treated at present. That the law is above everyone is being reminded over and over again; but the law, quite strangely, seems to rise up in a somewhat selective manner, which is deeply disturbing; very simply, if it is about corruption, let the law deal with all those who are tainted with charges …

continue reading