Archive for May, 2010
May 31, 2010 at 9:36 pm · Categories: Advocacy, Colombo, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Polls | by Samanmalee Unanthenna
Nationalism in our post-modern era is an extremely suspect concept. It smacks of homogeneity, patriarchy and insularity; all ideas and concepts that our generation has learned with good reason to suspect. Most difficult of all, it has often been anti-minority. My intention in this article is not to defend nationalism but rather to inquire into the particular characteristics of Sinhala nationalism and to interrogate the relationship of Sri Lankan civil society organisations and movements with it. I would also like put forward some ideas regarding ways of engagement as part of civil society in these times of totalitarianism and government supported racism. By civil society organisations and movements I mean those that purport to …
May 29, 2010 at 6:30 am · Categories: Colombo, Development, Politics and Governance | by Iromi Perera
Every day, we fight several battles – from inflation to traffic to our friendly neighborhood cop. Our battles are many, but our defeat in one particular battle stands out, quite spectacularly. Sign boards saying “Mehi kunu dameema ballanta pamanai” (Only dogs may dump garbage here) are testimony that we did not go down without a fight, that we tried our best.
Whenever I see these signs on people’s walls I’m always intrigued because the garbage issue seems to be problem that never seems to go away, and in true Sri Lankan style, we are always quick to blame the Government or even cite a Western conspiracy. While the blame does partially lie in the hands of the Government, …
May 29, 2010 at 2:16 am · Categories: Colombo, Human Rights, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation, War Crimes | by MCM Iqbal
Louise Arbour of the International Crisis Group is reported to have said during an interview in the BBC that the government violated the laws of war by blurring the line between combatants and civilians, and that its killings of civilians were not accidents. Perhaps in response to this, speaking to the BBC Tamil Service recently, the Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Palitha Kohona is reported to have said that the commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation set up recently by the government is sufficient to investigate the allegations of humanitarian standards and human rights violations during the war.
Let us therefore have a look at some of the commissions of inquiry appointed by the governments in the …
May 29, 2010 at 1:47 am · Categories: Colombo, Diaspora, Identity, International Relations, Peace and Conflict, Post-War | by Tanuja Thurairajah
‘Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign.
But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize.’[1]
Chimamanda Adichie
I was inspired by the above words of Chimamanda Adichie talking about the ¨Danger of a single story’ and I reflected on how true this has been and will be in the case of Sri Lanka and its instrasigient history of political misfortune and human suffering. It’s been a year since the decisive end of the military offensive that had succeeded in re-claiming territorial sovereignity of the Sri Lankan state, but it was a victory that failed in claiming the Tamils as an integral and respected part of it is citizenry.
The recently concluded elections in Sri Lanka which registered a …
May 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm · Categories: Colombo, Diaspora, End of war special edition, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Darini Rajasingham Senanayake
“Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.”
“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza.”Those you see over there,” replied his master, “with their long arms. Some of them …
May 27, 2010 at 10:15 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, End of war special edition, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Dayan Jayatilleka
Interestingly of the four best pieces I have read on the first anniversary of the war, three are by Indian analyst/commentators, of whom two are military professionals: Gen Ashok K. Mehta’s Manekshaw paper No 22 for the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (New Delhi) on ‘How Eelam war 4 was Won’ (which cannot be read by any patriot or anti-fascist without a lump in one’s throat or mist in one’s eyes), the piece by Col R Hariharan in The Hindu and by PK Balachandran in the Indian Express. The fourth is by a youthful security researcher Sergei de Silva Ranasinghe writing in the respected Australian periodical, The Diplomat.
Within Sri Lanka and among Sri Lankans, the debate on the war may …
May 27, 2010 at 10:00 am · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Deborah Philip
The HOPE in Sri Lanka after war was in 2009 Deborah Philip’s first photo-essay to Groundviews anchored to a novel and compelling idea – to photograph people holding up a sign board titled HOPE.
As Deborah notes in her first submission,
“Where is the hope?” is a question that the writer encountered quite a few times when she asked people to pose with the HOPE board. The culture of impunity prevalent in post-war Sri Lanka paints a rather depressing picture of a country that has lost the ability to hope. Human rights continue to be violated, there is an upsurge in criminal activity, media freedom is severely restricted and nationalist rhetoric continues to be the …
May 27, 2010 at 8:30 am · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Chaminda WEERAWARDHANA
Prelude: The following is a ‘fragmented reflection’, on present-day Sri Lanka, war’s end and related issues. The objective was to capture the thought process of a citizen ‘thinking’ about these issues as realistically as possible, hence the fragmented nature of the rendering, and the frequent passage from one point to an(unrelated)other.
A war was thus fought. It all started decades ago, when the colonial alcohol was well-absorbed into her, leading to inevitably sheer tipsiness, and the long-lasting ‘hangover’ was just about to begin.
As some said Sinhala should be the national language of independent Ceylon and Buddhism the state religion, some others felt insecure and concerned for their future in the island. Insecurity is a dangerously devastating feeling that’s always better …
May 27, 2010 at 7:52 am · Categories: Colombo, Religion and faith | by Chandra Jayaratne
In a pre-Vesak address the Prime Minister and Minister of Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs made known his priority to lead Buddhists on a path, through awareness, to enhance their commitment to develop a high state of morality and consciousness in society.
Mr. Prime Minister, this initiative should be led by the Buddhist leaders in governance, at its inception by appealing to all in society, to place all resources allocated or reserved for Vesak decorations, lighting up streets and buildings, putting up pandals, celebrations, dansala’s and other similar spends, to be channeled towards helping the disadvantaged and unfortunate citizens who recently suffered from rain water led flooding and physical infrastructure damage, as well as those thousands of brothers and sisters and their …
May 27, 2010 at 6:30 am · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Pushpi Weerakoon
Background
On Tuesday 19th May 2009 – the day after the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, declared victory over the Tamil Tigers, bringing to a close 26 years of conflict. With the routing of the LTTE, and the reclamation of all occupied territory, it was announced that the conflict in Sri Lanka had come to an end.
The cost of this declared victory was immense. At least 90,000 people were estimated to have been killed, the majority of those innocent civilians; hundreds of thousands were internally displaced, and interned, having lost everything they owned; tens of thousands of families were left without an adult who could …
May 26, 2010 at 4:10 pm · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Ruki
About six months after the end of the war, in November 2009, the government of Sri Lanka relaxed restrictions on travel to the Vanni[1] and started to allow some of the displaced people to go back to their villages.
Although the government still maintains some restrictions on travel, I managed to visit these areas many times. My visits including overnight stay in Vanni without beds, attached bathrooms, running water, electricity, helped me to better experience and understand life there after the war. It also increased my admiration for some of my friends, Catholic priests and sisters, who warmly welcomed and hosted me and my friends every time we visited, despite the very basic and difficult life they had opted to …
May 26, 2010 at 1:00 pm · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Ravin
This Government, as it commences to address the many challenges facing post – war Sri Lanka, stands today at a watershed of major, unprecedented and possibly never to be replicated, opportunity. Wherever one is located in the Sri Lankan political firmament that obvious and pre eminent condition would have to be admitted. The sense of overall stability about the new Government pervades all thinking, writing and action, both local and foreign.
How valid is this assumption of political, economic and societal stability that the Government so bountifully enjoys today – the first anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, or of ‘separatist terrorism’, as the government calls it and would like it to be known?
The elements of that apparent stability which …
May 26, 2010 at 6:30 am · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Kalana Senaratne
It was, unfortunately, a necessary war, for terrorism had to be defeated, eliminated. After some thirty long years, on or around the 19th of May 2009, Sri Lanka gained liberation; liberation from the clutches of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), from the clutches of terrorism (May, 2010: The Prime Minister states in Parliament that a new military wing of the LTTE is being formed, is getting ready to raise its ugly head).
‘Terrorism’, however, was only one facet of the problem. The moment that ugly facet becomes non-existent, the moment there is an absence of a violent armed conflict, problems which remained unresolved, problems which could not be resolved through the use of force, re-emerge, re-surface. Political developments which …
May 25, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Development, End of war special edition, Human Security, Identity, International Relations, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Sumanasiri Liyanage
My focus in this essay is not what happened in the past but what can be envisioned in the near future particularly with regard to the national question in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan security forces comprehensively defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) one year ago. However, the transformation of peace writ small that was achieved in May 2009 to peace writ large has yet to be achieved and the steps taken in that direction are, in my opinion, inadequate. Although the simultaneous operation of so many variables in complex situations makes predictions almost impossible in social science, it is possible to identify possible future scenarios through the analysis of key drivers that undergird future changes. Here I …
May 25, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Jehan Perera
One year after the end of the war there is optimism in the country, particularly amongst sections of the business community. The government has taken the position that rapid economic development can be a panacea to the problems that afflict the country, including the long festering ethnic one. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hongkong, and more recently Malaysia and China, all point the success of tight political control coupled with the centralisation of power that yielded positive economic dividends. There are predictions that the country’s growth rate can even reach rates of 10 percent like China and India depending on how effective the government is in tackling the economic challenges it faces.
Following the Presidential and General elections held earlier this …
May 25, 2010 at 1:00 pm · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation | by Lalith Gunaratne
The teenage girls singing a Tamil song “Tomorrow is Ours” is interrupted by my wife Samantha and I walking in to the classroom. They giggled coyly as we looked around at them. They were being trained to be Girl Guides and did not seem any different to any of the many young people I have encountered over the years.
One of the leaders, Deepa (fictitious name) walked up to us in curiosity and introduced by the Girl Guide trainer. She had a presence but seemed restless.
Deepa was abducted by the LTTE at age 16 from her Aunt’s home in the Wanni and was trained as a soldier. She had not seen combat as she was found by the Army in a …
May 25, 2010 at 6:30 am · Categories: Colombo, End of war special edition, Human Rights, Human Security, Identity, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation | by Samanmalee Unanthenna
One year ago, the war that had defined our lives for the last 30 years ended. Brutally, callously and mercilessly fought like most wars are, it ended amidst allegations of immense suffering wrought on the people caught in the middle of the final desperate onslaughts. Since then according to the official version, Sri Lankans have nothing but happiness and prosperity to look forward to because the one thing that has hindered our progress as a nation has been finally eliminated. That, as I said, is the official version.
Since May of last year, however, reports that contradict the official version of the story that ended happily ever after have been circulating. It started with the horror of the internment of the …
May 24, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, End of war special edition, Identity, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Concerned Citizen
Great Expectations
The greatest challenge facing Sri Lanka is the quest for a just reconciliation to the ethnic issue through a democratic process coupled with a well planned economic strategy which will promote rapid development and equitably shared prosperity. The nation has stagnated in all respects as a consequence of the thirty year old ethnic conflict and now we need to fast track development. However, the negative trend of governance and increasingly adverse international reaction to it leaves little room for optimism in overcoming the numerous obstacles and challenges faced. Despite this, we need to keep hope alive to fulfill our dreams for a better Sri Lanka.
Loss of International Credibility
Can the victory over the LTTE be considered a genuine triumph? Certainly …
May 24, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, End of war special edition, Human Security, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance | by Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz
INTRODUCTION
On May 17, 2009 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (LTTE), the major Tamil resistant movement, admitted defeat in the war that was waged without any witness and vowed to silence guns against the Sinhala-Buddhist state. In May 18, Sri Lanka security forces announced that the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed by “Sri Lanka’s military in a firefight that signaled the effective end to one of Asia’s longest-running military conflicts.”[i] There was and is a strong perception in the Southern Sri Lanka that Sri Lanka would embrace peace because the LTTE has been militarily defeated. This short article would attempt to discuss some issues surrounding the symbols and also would focus on how ethnic symbols are powerful and …
May 24, 2010 at 1:00 pm · Categories: Colombo, Diaspora, End of war special edition, Identity, International Relations, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Arun Pillai-Essex
One year ago today, the Sri Lankan army brutally and decisively ended its military campaign against the LTTE. The once hoped quiet dissolution of the national question through negotiation, devolution, and constitutional amendments were replaced by the unambiguous nature of the bullet, and the ferocity of the bomb.
From firecrackers, and dancing on the street, to quiet celebration, and outright anger and despair, Sri Lankans the world over represented the full spectrum of emotion as President Rajapaksa declared victory on local television stations. But victory, for whom? For many of the one million strong Tamil Diaspora in Toronto, Sydney, London, Paris, and the various other cities and towns they reside in, the images splashed across the international news websites, and Tamil …
Next entries »
